was authour of the enterprise or partaker of a treason so wicked Then the king incontinently caused the foure Gentlemen of his chamber 〈◊〉 be rewarded according to the worthinesse of their offense and wer put to death and Acharisto to be repriued in sharpe and cruell prison vntill with tormentes he should be forced to confesse that which he knew to be most certain and true by the euidēce of those that were done to death Euphimia for the imprisonment of Acharisto conceiued incredible sorrow and vneths coulde bée persuaded that he woulde imagine much lesse conspire that 〈◊〉 fact as well for the loue which Acharisto séemed to beare vnto hir as for the greate good will wherewith he was assured that shée bare vnto him and therfore the death of the 〈◊〉 to be no lesse griefe vnto him than the same would be to 〈◊〉 self the king being hir naturall and louyng father Acharisto thoughte on the other side that if he might speake with Euphimia a way woulde be founde eyther for his escape or else for his deliuerie Wherupon Acharisto being in this deliberation founde meanes to talke with the Iailors wife intreated hir to shewe him so much fauor as to procure Euphimia to come vnto him She accordingly broughte to passe that the yong gentlewoman in secret wise came to speake with this traiterous varlet who so sone as he sawe hir sheding from his eyes store of teares pitifully complaining sayde vnto hir I knowe Euphimia that the King your father doth not inclose me in this cruell prisō ne yet afflicteth me with these miserable tormēts for any suspicion hée conceiueth of me for any intended facte but onely for the loue which I beare you and for the like for which I rendre humble thankes that you do beare to me bicause that I am werie of this wretched state knowe that nothing else can 〈◊〉 me from this painful life but onely death I am determined wyth mine owne propre hands to cut the thréede of lyfe wherwith the destinies hitherto haue prolonged the same that this my brething ghost which breatheth forth 〈◊〉 dolefull plaintes maie flée into the Skies to rest it selfe amonges the restfull spirites aboue or wandre into 〈◊〉 pleasant hellish fieldes amongs the shadowes of Creusa Aeneas wife or else with the ghost of complaining Dido But ere I did the same I made myne humble prayer to the maiestie diuine that hée would vouchsafe to shewe me somuch grace as before I dye I might fulfyl my 〈◊〉 eyes with sight of you whose ymage still appereth before those gréedie Gates and 〈◊〉 representeth vnto my myndefull heart Which great desired thing sith God aboue hath graūted I yelde him infinit 〈◊〉 and sith my desteny is such that such must bée the end of loue I doe reioyce that I must dye for your sake which only is the cause that the King your father so laboureth for my death I néede not to molest you with the false euidence giuen against me vp those malicious vilaines that bée alreadie dead which onely hath thus incensed the Kyngs wrath and heauie rage against me whereof I am so frée as woorthily they bée executed for thesame For if it were so then true it is and as lightly you might beleue the I neuer knewe the loue you beare me and you likewise did neuer know what loue I bare to you and therfore you maye thinke that so impossible is the one as I did euer meane thinke or ymagine any harme or perill to your fathers person To bée short I humbly doe besech you to beleue that so faithfully as man is able to loue a womā so haue I loued you that it may please you to bée so myndfull of me in this fading life as I shal be of you in that life to com And in saying so with face all bathed in teares he clyped hir about the myddle and fast imbracing hir said Thus taking my last farewell of you myne onely life and ioye I commende you to the gouernment of the supernall God my selfe to death to be disposed as pleaseth him Euphimia which before was not persuaded the Acharisto was guiltie of that deuised treason now gaue ful beliefe and credite to his wordes and weping with him for company comforted him so wel as she coulde and bidding him to bée of good chere she sayde that she would seke such meanes as for hir sake and loue he should not dye And that before long time did passe she would help him out of prison Acharisto although hée vttered by ruful voice that 〈◊〉 talke for remedie to ridde him selfe from prison yet he didde but 〈◊〉 all that he spake addyng further Alas Euphimia doe not incurre your fathers wrath to please my minde suffer me quietly to take that death which sinister Fortune and cruell fate hath prouided to abridge my daies Euphimia vanquished with inspeakable griefe and burning passion of loue saide Ah Acharisto the onely ioye and comfort of my lyfe doe not perce my heart with such displeasant wordes For what should I doe in this wretched worlde yf you for my sake shold suffre death wherfore put awaie the cruel thought and be content to saue your life that hereafter in ioye myrth you may spend that same Trusting that yf meanes maye be founde for your dispatche from hence we shall liue the rest of our prolonged life together in swete and happie daies For my father is not made of stone of flint nor yet was nourced of Hircan Tigre he is not so malicious but that in tyme to come hée may 〈◊〉 made to know the true discourse of thyne innocent life and hope thou shalt atteyne his fauour more than euer thou 〈◊〉 before the care wherof onely leaue to me and take no thought thy self for I make promise vpon mine assured faith to bring the same to passe Wherefore giue ouer thy conceiued griefe and bende thy selfe to liue so merie a life as euer gentleman did trained vp in court as thou hast bene I am content sayd Acharisto thus to doe the Gods forbid that I should declyne my heart and mynde from thy behest who of thy wonted grace dost seke continuance of my life but rather swete Euphimia than thou shouldest suffre any daunger to performe thy promise I make request for the common loue betwene vs both to leaue me in this present dangerous state Rather wold I lose my life than 〈◊〉 shouldest hazard the least heare of thy heade for my reliefe We shal be both safe ynough answered Euphimia for my deuise proceding from a womans heade hath alreadie drawen the plotte of thy deliuerance and wyth those wordes they both did ende their talke whose trickling teares did rather finishe the same than willing myndes and eyther of them gyuing a kysse vnto the Tower walle wherein Acharisto was faste shutte Euphimia departed turmoiled with a thousand amorous prickes and ceased not but first of all to corrupte and wynne the Iaylers wife whose husband
shall faile in performance of your commaundement for were it the strongest poyson or moste 〈◊〉 venome rather would I thrust it into my body than to consent to fall in the hands of him whome I vtterly 〈◊〉 with a right strong reason then may I for 〈◊〉 my self and offer my body to any kinde of mortal danger to approche and draw neare to him vpon whome wholly dependeth my life al the contentation I haue in this world Go your wayes then my daughter quod the Frier the mighty hand of God keepe you and his surpassing power defend you and confirme that will and good mind of yours for the accomplishment of this worke Iulietta departed from Frier Laurence and returned home to hir fathers palace about xi of the clock where she founde hir mother at the gate attending for hir and in good deuotion demaūded if she continued stil in hir former follies But Iulietta with more gladsome chéere than she was wont to vse not suffering hir mother to aske againe sayde vnto hir Madame I come from S. Frauncis Church where I haue taried longer peraduenture than my duetie requireth how be it not without frute and great rest to my afflicted conscience by reason of the godly persuasions of our ghostly father Frier Laurence vnto whome I haue made a large declaration of my life And chiefly haue communicated vnto him in confession that which hath past betwene my Lord my father and you vpon the mariage of Counte Paris and me But the good man hath reconciled me by his holy woords and commendable exhortations that where I had minde neuer to mary now I am well disposed to obey your pleasure and commaundement Wherefore 〈◊〉 I be séeche you to recouer the fauor good will of my father aske pardon in my behalfe and say vnto him if it please you that by obeying his Fatherly request I am ready to méete the Counte Paris at Villafranco and there in your presence to accept him for my Lord and husband in assurance wherof by your pacience I meane to repair into my closet to make choise of my most pretious iewels that I being richly adorned and decked may 〈◊〉 before him more agréeable to his minde and pleasure The good mother rapte with excéeding great ioy was not able to answer a word but rather made spéede to séeke out hir husband the Lord Antonio vnto whome she reported the good will of hir daughter and how by meanes of Frier Laurence hir minde was chaunged Wherof the good olde man maruellous ioyfull praised God in heart saying wife this is not that first good turne which we haue receiued of that holy man vnto whom euery Citizen of this Common wealth is dearly 〈◊〉 I wold to God that I had redemed xx of his yeres 〈◊〉 the third parte of my goods so grieuous is to me his extreme olde age The self same houre the Lord Antonio went to séeke the Counte Paris whome he thought to persuade to goe to Villafranco But the Counte tolde him againe that the charge would be to great and that better it were to reserue that cost to the mariage day for the better celebration of the same Notwithstāding if it were his pleasure he would himself goe visite Iulietta and so they went together The mother aduertised of his comming caused hir Daughter to make hir self ready and to spare no costly iewels for adorning of hir beautie against the Countes cōming which she bestowed so wel for garnishing of hir personage that before the Counte parted frō the house she had so stolne away his heart as he liued not frō that time forth but vpon meditation of hir beautie and slacked no time for acceleration 〈◊〉 that mariage day ceasing not to be importunate vpon father and mother for the ende and consummation thereof And thus with ioy inoughe passed forth this day and many others vntill the day before the mariage against which time the mother of Iulietta did so well prouide that there wanted nothing to set forth the magnificence and nobilitie of their house Villafranco wherof we haue made mention was a place of pleasure where the lorde Antonio was wont many times to recreate him self a mile or two from Veronna there the dynner was prepared for so muche as the ordinarie solemnitie of necessitie muste be done at Veronna Iulietta perceiuing hir time to approach dissembled the matter so well as shée coulde and when time forced hir to retire to hir chambre hir woman wold haue waited vpon hir and haue lyen in hir chambre as hir custome was But Iulietta sayde vnto hir Good and faithfull mother you know that to morow is my mariage day and for that I would spende the most parte of the night in prayer I pray you for this time to let me alone and to morow in the morning about 〈◊〉 of the clocke come to me againe to helpe me make me redie The good olde woman willing to folow hir mind suffred hir alone and doubted nothing of that whiche she did meane to do Iulietta being within hir chambre hauing an eawer ful of water standing vpon the table filled the viole which the Frier gaue hir and after she had made the mixture she set it by hir bed side went to bed And being layde new thoughts began to assaile hir with a conceipt of grieuous death which broughte hir into such case as she coulde not tell what to doe but playning incessantly sayd Am not I the most vnhappie and desperat creature that euer was borne o◠woman for me there is nothyng lefte in this wretched worlde but mishap miserie and mortall woe my distresse hath brought me to such extremitie as to saue mine honor and consciēce I am forced to deuoure the drinke wherof I know not the vertue but what know I sayd she whether the operation of this pouder will be to soone or to late or not correspondent to the due time and that my faulte being discouered I shall remayne a iesting stocke and fable to the people what know I moreouer if the serpents and other venomous and crauling wormes which commonly frequent the graues and pittes of the earth will hurt me thinkyng that I am dead But how shal I indure the stinche of so many carions and bones of myne auncestors which rest in the graue if by fortune I do awake before Rhomeo Frier Laurence doe come to help me And as she was thus plunged in the déepe contēplation of things she thought that she sawe a certaine vision or fansie of hir cousin Thibault in the very same sort as she sawe him wounded and imbrued with blood and musyng howe that she must be buried quicke amongs so many dead carcases and deadly naked bones hir tender and delicate body began to shake and tremble and hir yelowe lockes to stare for feare in suche wise as frighted with terrour a colde sweate beganne to pierce hir heart and bedew the rest of all hir membres in suche wise as she thought that
before Tel me I beséech you what rewarde and gift what honour and preferment haue I euer bestowed vpon you sithens my first arriuall to this victorious raigne that euer you by due desert did binde me therunto Which if you did then liberall I can not bée termed but a slauishe Prince bounde to do the same by subiects merite High mightie Kings doe rewarde and aduaunce their men hauing respect that their gift or benefite shal excede desert otherwise that preferment can not bée termed liberall The great conquerour Alexander Magnus wanne a great and notable Citie for wealth and spoile For the principalitie and gouernment wherof diuers of his noble men made sute alleaging their painefull seruice and bloudie woundes about the getting of the same But what did that worthie King was he moued with the bloudshead of his Captaines was he stirred with the valiance of his men of warre was he prouoked with their earnest sutes No truely But calling vnto him a poore man whome by chaunce he founde there to him he gaue that riche and wealthie Citie and the gouernement thereof that his magnificence and liberalitie to a person so poore and base might receiue greater fame estimation And to declare that the cōferred benefit did not procede of 〈◊〉 or duetie but of mere liberalitie very curtesie true munificence and noble disposition deriued from princely heart and kingly nature Howbeit I speake not this that a faithfull seruant shoulde be vnrewarded a thyng very requisite but to inferre and proue that rewarde should excell the merite and seruice of the receiuer Now then I say that you going about by large desert and manifold curtesie to binde me to recompence the same you séeke next way to cut of the meane whereby I shoulde be liberall Doe you not sée that through your vnaduised 〈◊〉 I am preuented and letted from mine 〈◊〉 liberalitie wherwith dayly I was wont to reward my kinde louing and loyall seruants to whome if they deserued one talent of gold my maner was to giue them two or thrée If a thousande crownes by the yeare to giue them fiue Do you not know that when they looked for least rewarde or preferment the sooner did I honour and aduaunce them Take héede then from henceforth Ariobarzanes that you liue with suche prouidence and circumspection as you may be knowen to be a seruaunt and I reputed as I am for your soueraigne Lorde and maister All Princes in mine opinion require 〈◊〉 things of their seruants that is to say Fidelitie Loue which being had they care for no more Therfore he that list to contend with me in curtesie shall finde in the end that I make small accompt of 〈◊〉 And he that is my trustie and faithfull seruaunt diligent to execute and doe my commaundements faithfull in my secrete affaires and duetifull in his vocation shall trulie witte and most certainly féele that I am both curteous and liberall Which thou thy selfe shall well perceiue and be forced to confesse that I am the same man in déede for curtesie and liberalitie whom thou indeuorest to surmount Then the king held his peace and Ariobarzanes very reuerently and stoutly made answer in this maner Most Noble and victorious Prince Wel vnderstanding the conceiued griefe of your inuincible minde pleaseth your sacred maiestie to giue me leaue to answer for my selfe not to aggrauate or heape your wrath and displeasure which the Gods forbid but to disclose my humble excuse before your maiestie that the same poized with that equall balance of your rightful mind my former attemptes may neither seme presumptuous ne yet my wel meaning minde well measured with iustice ouerbold or malapert Most humbly then prostrate vpon my knées I say that I neuer went about or else did thinke in minde to excéede or compare with your infinite and incomprehensible bountie but indeuored by all possible meanes to let your grace perceiue and the whole worlde to know that there is nothing in the worlde which I regarde so much or estéeme so deare as your good grace and fauour And mightie Ioua graunte that I doe neuer fall into so great errour to presume for to contende with the greatnesse of your mind which fond desire if my beastly minde should apprehend I might be likened to the man that goeth about to berieue and take away the clerenesse of the Sun or brightnesse of the splendant starres But euer I did thinke it to be my bounden duetie not onely of those fortunes goods which by your princely meanes I do inioy to be a distributer and large giuer but also bounde for the profite and aduauncement of your regal crowne and dignitie and defence of your most noble person of mine owne life and bloude to be both liberall and prodigall And where your maiestie thinketh that I haue laboured to compare in curteous déede or other liberall behauior no déede that euer I did or fact was euer enterprised by me for other respect but for to get continue your more ample fauour and dayly to increase your loue for that it is the seruants part with all his force and might to aspire the grace and fauor of his soueraine lord Howbeit most noble Prince before this time I did neuer beleue nor heard your grace cōfesse that magnanimitie gentlenesse and curtesie wer vertues worthie of blame correction as your maiestie hath very 〈◊〉 done me to vnderstād by words seuere taunting checks vnworthy for practise of such rare and noble vertues But how so euer it be whether life or death shall depende vpon this praiseworthie honorable purpose I mean hereafter to pelde my dutie to my souerain lord then it may please him to terme my déedes courteous or liberall or to think of my behauior what his own princely mind shall déeme iudge The King vpon those words rose vp said Ariobarzanes nowe it is no time to continue in further disputation of this argumēt cōmitting the determination and iudgement hereof to the graue deliberation of my Councell who at conuenient leisure aduisedly shall according to the Persian lawes and customes conclude the same And for this present time I say vnto thée that I I am disposed to accompte the accusation made against thée to be true and confessed by thy selfe In the means time thou shalte repaire into thy countrey and come no more to the Court till I commaunde thée Ariobarzanes receiuing this answere of his soueraigne Lorde departed and to his greate contentation went home into his countrey merie for that he shoulde be absent out of the dayly sight of his ennimies yet not well pleased for that the King had remitted his cause to his Councell Neuerthelesse minded to abide and suffer all fortune he gaue him selfe to the pastime of hunting of Déere running of the wilde Boare and flying of the Hauke This noble Gentleman had 〈◊〉 only daughters of his wife that was deceassed the most beautifull Gentlewomen of the countrey the eldest of which
garmente and Crowne was taken off from his head together with his other apparel The Executioner 〈◊〉 for commaundement to doe his office and lifting vp his sworde to do the facte 〈◊〉 King desired to sée the countenaunce of Ariobarzanes who neuer chaunged colour for all that terrour of death The King séeing the great constancie and inuincible minde of Ariobarzanes spake 〈◊〉 that all men might heare hym these wordes Thou knowest Ariobarzanes that it is not I whych haue wroughte thy condemnation ne yet by 〈◊〉 desyre haue soughte thy bloude to bryng thée to this extremitie but it hath bene thy yll disordred life and the statutes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which haue found thée guiltie and therevpon sentence and death pronounced and execution now redie to be done and the minister redie to aduaunce his arme to play the last acte of this tragedie And yet for that our holy lawes doe giue libertie that I may assoile and deliuer whome I list and them restore to their former state if nowe thou wilt acknowledge thy selfe vanquished and ouer come and accept thy life in gratefull part I will pardon thée and restore thée to thine offices and promotions Ariobarzanes hearing these wordes knéeled downe with his head declined and expecting the blow of the sworde lifted by himselfe and turning his face to the King perceiuing his malice not so sore bente against him as the enuie and malice of his ennimies desired he determined to proue and vse the pitifull liberalitie and fauor of his soueraigne Lorde that his foes by his death might not triumph ne yet attaine the thing for which so long they aspired Wherefore in reuerent wise 〈◊〉 before his maiestie with a 〈◊〉 perfect voice sayd these words Most victorious merciful soueraine Lord in equal worship and honour to the immortall Gods sith of thy abundant grace and mercie it hath pleased thée to graunt me life I do most humbly accept the same which if I wist should be prolonged in thy disgrace and wrath coulde not be pleasaunt vnto me and therfore do 〈◊〉 my self altogether 〈◊〉 ouercome I most humbly then do giue thée 〈◊〉 for preseruation of the same hoping hereafter to employ the vttermost of mine endeuoure for the benefite and honour of thy Crowne and dignitie as readily and without supplication made in my behalfe thou hast 〈◊〉 to restore the same And sith thy 〈◊〉 hath reuiued me thine humble 〈◊〉 I 〈◊〉 thy maiestie to giue me leaue to say my minde trusting thereby to doe thée to vnderstande the effecte and cause of that my former presumption The King made signes that he should rise and boldly speake the summe of his desire When he was vpon his féete silence was proclaimed who then began to speake these wordes Two things there bée most sacred Prince which doubtlesse doe resemble the raging waues of surging seas and the mutabilitie of vnstable windes and yet greate is the follie of an infinite numbre which imploy their whole care and diligence to séeke the same These two things wherof I speake and be so derely beloued of flattering courtiers are the grace and fauour of their soueraine Lord and the luring loue of Amorous dames which two things doe so often beguile the Courtly Gentleman that in the ende they engendre nought else but repentance And to begin with the loue of Ladies they as by common experiēce is proued most commonly do recline to their inferiours It is dayly sene by too much vnhappie proofe that a yong Gentlemā by birth comely and noble otherwise riche vertuous and indued with many goodly gifts shall choose and worship one for his soueraigne Ladie and maistresse and hir shall serue and honour with the same faith and fidelitie due to the immortall Gods and shal not sticke to employ for hir loue and seruice all the possible power and trauell be is able to doe and yet shée in despite of all his humble endeuour shal loue an other voide of all vertue making him possessour of that benefite after which the other séeketh and she not long cōstant in that minde afterwadrs will attend vnto the first suter but in such mouable and 〈◊〉 sort as the wandring starres through their naturall instabilitie be moued to and fro and him in the ende will suffre to fall headlong into the bottomlesse pit of dispaire and he that asketh hir the reason of this varietie she maketh none other answere but that hir pleasure is such and wilful will to dallie with hir suters that seldome times a true and perfit louer can fasten his foote on certaine holde but that his life is tossed vp and downe like the whirling blastes of the inconstant windes In like maner in the Courts of Kings and Princes he which is in fauour with his soueraigne Lord in al mens eyes so great and neare as it séemeth the Prince is disposed to resolue vpon nothing without his aduise coūsell when such fauoured person shall employ his whole care and industrie to maintaine and increase the cōmenced grace of his soueraigne Lorde beholde vpon the sodaine his mind and vaine is changed and an other without desert which neuer carked or laboured to win good will is taken in place cherished as though he had serued him an hundred yeares before and he that was the first minion of the Court in greatest grace and estimation is in a moment despised and out of all regarde An other within fewe days after shall be brought in place of the other twaine very diligent and carefull to serue trained vp in Courtly exercise whose mindefull minde shall bée so caring ouer his lordes affaires as vpon the safegarde and preseruation of his owne propre life But all his labour is employed in vaine and when the aged dayes of his expired life approch for the least displeasure he shall be thrust out without rewarde for former trauell that right aptly the Common Prouerb may be applied The common Courtiers life is like a golden miserie and the faithfull seruant an Asse perpetuall I haue séene my self the right wel learned man to 〈◊〉 in Court for want of meate and a blockish beast voide of vertue for lust and not for merite aduaunced and made a Gentleman But this may chaunce bicause his lorde is not disposed to lerning and vertue little estéeming those that be affected with good sciences for lacke of carefull trayning vp in youthfull days or else for that their mind can not frame with the gentle spirites of them the closets of whose brests be charged and fraught with infinite loades of lerning and haue not ben noscled in trade of Courtes ne yet can vse due courtly spéeche or with vnblushing face can shuffle them selues in presence of their betters or commen with Ladies of dame 〈◊〉 toyes or race of birth not mingled with the noble or gentle Sire For these causes perhaps that vertuous wight can not attain the happe of Fortunes giftes Which person though in Court he be not estéemed in
But the prophet of the Citie whom the Citizens had wel tried and proued to be faithfull and trustie manifested vnto them the great daūger that hong ouer the tyrants head such as the like neuer before The confederats which had conspired with Hellanicus made great spéede to prosecute their enterprise and the nexte night to kill the tyrant The very same night Hellanicus dreamed that he sawe his dead sonne to speake vnto him these woords What meane you father this long time to slepe I am one of your sonnes whom Aristotimus hath slaine know you not that the same day you attempt your enterprise you shal be captaine prince of your coūtrie By this vision Hellanicus confirmed he rose bytimes in the morning and exhorted the conspirators that day to execute the benefit of their Countrie That time Aristotimus was certified how Craterus the tyran of another Citie with a great armie was comming to his aide against the banished people of Elis and that he was arriued at Olympia a Citie betwéene the Mounte Ossa and the mountaine Olympus With which newes Aristotimus being incouraged thought alreadie that he had put to flight and takē the banished persons which made him to aduenture himself abrode without guard or garrison accompanied only with Cilon and one or two of his familiar frends the very same time that the conspiratours were assembled to doe the facte Hellanicus seing the time so cōuenient to deliuer his beloued Countrie by the death of the traiterous Tyrant not attending any signe to be giuen to his companions although the same was concluded vpon the lusty old man lifting vp his handes and eies vnto the heauens with cleare and open voice cried out to his companions and said Whie stay ye O my Citizens and louing country men in the face of your Citie to finishe this good and commendable acte At which woords Cilon was the first which with his brandishing blade killed one of those that waited vpon the Tyrant Thrasibulus thē and Lampidus assayled Aristotimus vpon whose sodaine approch he fled into the Temple of Iupiter where he was murdred with a thousand woundes vpon his body accordingly as he deserued He being thus deseruedly slain his body was drawen vp downe the stréetes and proclamation of libertie sounded vnto the people Where vnto eche wight assembled amongs whome the imprisoned women also brake forth and reioysed with their countrey deliuerers of that egregious enterprise by fires and bankettes outwardly disclosing their excéeding great ioye within and in midde of their mirth the people in great throngs and companies ranne to the Tyrants palace whose wife hearyng the peoples noyse and certified of hir husbands death inclosed hir selfe in a chamber with hir two daughters and knowing how hatefull she was vnto the Citizens with a 〈◊〉 corde vpon a beame she hong hir selfe The chamber dores being broke opē the people viewed the horrible sight of the strangled ladie wherwithall not moued they toke the two trembling daughters of the tyrant and caried them away purposing to rauish violate the same firste to saciate their lust with the spoile of their virginitie and afterwards to kill them those Gentlewomen were very beautifull and mariageable and as they were about to do that shamefull déede Magistona was tolde therof who accompanied with other Matrons sharply rebuked their furie saying that vncomely it were for them which sought to establish a ciuile state to doe such a shamelesse act as tirants rage wold scarce permit Upon that noble matrons authoritie and interception they ceassed from their filthie fact and then the woman tooke the 〈◊〉 oute of the peoples handes and brought them into the chambre where their strangled mother was And vnderstandyng that it was decréed that none of the Tyrants bloud shoulde rest on liue she turned hir face to the two yong Gentlewomen and sayde The chiefest pleasure which I can doe to you resteth in this choise that it shall be lawfull for either of you to choose what kinde of death you list by knife or halter if you will to dispatche your liues from the hedlesse peoples greater furie vpon whose two white and tender bodies if they doe seaze the Gods doe know and we doe feare the crueltie and great abuse which they doe meane to vse I thinke not for despite of you but for the iust reuenge of your most cruell fathers actes for the tyrannous life of whom the Gods do thunder downe the boltes of their displeasure afflicting his nearest bloud and beste beloued wife and children wyth vengeance poured from heauens Upon the sentence of this their fatall ende the elder maiden of the twaine vnlosed a girdle from hir middle and began to tie the same to hang hir selfe exhortyng hir yonger sister to doe the like and in any wise to beware by sparing of hir life to incurre the beastly rage of the monstrous people which cared not to do eche vile and filthie acte vnworthie theyr estate The yonger sister at those wordes layed handes vpon the fastened corde and besought hir right earnestly first of all to suffer hir to die Wherevnto the elder aunswered So long as it was lawfull for me to liue and whiles we led our princely time in our fathers courte both were frée from enimies danger all things betwene vs two were common and indifferente wherefore the Gods forbidth at now the gates of death be opened for vs to enter when with the Ghostes of our dere parents our soules amids the infernall fieldes be predestined to raunge and wander that I shoulde make deniall of thy request Therfore go to good sister mine and shrink not when thou séest the vgly face of hir that must consume vs all But yet déere sister the deadly sight of thée before my selfe will bréede to me the woe and smart of double death When she had so sayd she yelded the coller to hir sister counselled hir to place the same so néere the neck bone as she could that the sooner the halters force might stop hir breath When the vnfearefull yonger sister was dead the trēbling hands of that dredlesse elder maid vntied the girdle from hir neck couering in comly wise hir senslesse corps Then turning hir self to Megistona she hūbly prayed hir not to suffer their two bodies to bée séene naked but so sone as she could to bury them both in one earthly graue referring the frutes of their virginitie to the mould wherof they came When she had spokē those wordes without any staye or feare at all with the selfe same corde the strangled hir self and so finished hir fatall dayes The guiltlesse death of which two tender maids there was none of the citizens of Elis as I suppose so stonie hearted voide of Natures force ne yet so wroth against the tyrant father but did lament as well for the constant stoutnesse and maner of their death as for their maydenlyke behauioure and right honest petitions made to that sobre matrone Megisthona who afterwardes
me but I know full wel 〈◊〉 those intreaties tende vnder the grasse what linking Serpent lieth Shal I then put into his hands mine owne 〈◊〉 But before I so 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 God aboue with his flashing fires 〈◊〉 brands shall thunder me downe into the depthe of Hell The gapyng ground receyue my corps before I yelde to that request the trampling stéedes of sauage kinde do teare my membres in thousand gobbets the desert beastes consume my flesh the 〈◊〉 gripes and 〈◊〉 kites picke out my tongue and eyes before I glutte his 〈◊〉 mind with that demaunde to breake the 〈◊〉 whith by holy othe I haue promised to performe Oh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but what shall I doe then It behoueth to obey in despite of my téeth to doe that which the Romane Emperour commaūdeth Alas by thinking vpon that straight and néedefull lot I die a thousand deathes wherfore of euils to 〈◊〉 the least of twaine and to preserue my plighted faith O swéete Sophonisba thou must die and by meanes of thy beloued féere shalt void the yoke of Romanes thral for so it pleaseth vnmindefull Ioua to appoynt The wretched heauens by cruell fate haue throwen their lot that I of mine owne mischiefe shal be the minister And so O lyfe most dere I shal perform the 〈◊〉 to kepe the faith which last of al before thy face I did confirme By this spech and maner of talke the good Prince bewailed his case excogitating by what meanes hée myght doe to death the thing which aboue all the world he loued best At length it came vnto his minde to send hir a draught of poisoned drinke which deuise he had no sooner inuented but he was driue into a new kinde of fury and kindled with disdaine his 〈◊〉 were on fire with extreme madnesse as though 〈◊〉 had bene before him he 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 in Bedlemwise somtimes 〈◊〉 taunts he checked hir to hir 〈◊〉 somtimes lamented hir vnfortunate state somtimes with pawes displayed he seemed to rampe into hir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then againe into amorous toyes his passions droue him 〈◊〉 When I doe thinke what kinde of man Massinissa was who in déede was a 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 noble king 〈◊〉 who with such Prndence gouerned his new 〈◊〉 recouered kingdoms so constantly perseuered 〈◊〉 of the Romane people I pray to God to 〈◊〉 my friends my selfe also not to enter into so 〈◊〉 and louesonie Labyrinth wherin this noble Prince was tangled and with more 〈◊〉 to gouerne our beloued things But retourning againe to this afflicted gentleman Massinissa He sent vnto his beloued wife and Quéene a potte of 〈◊〉 to rid hir of hir life but yet staying his messanger he cried out these woordes God forbid that I should commit this infamous murder vpon hir whenie I most déerely loue I would rather 〈◊〉 hir into the extreme parts of the vnknowen and sandy coast of Lybia where the Caūtrie is ful of venemous beastes crawling poysoned serpents in which place we shal be safe and sure from the daunger of cruell inexorable Scipio by which meanes he shall neuer see the rare diuine beautie which the Serpents once beholding will mitigate asswage their bitter poyson for whose sake they will not annoy ne yet hurt me hir louing husband companion Wherefore let vs make hast to flée thither to 〈◊〉 the bondage and death prepared for vs. And if so be we be not able to cary with vs golde and siluer yet shal we not want there some relief to maintein our lines for better it is to féede on bread and water then to liue in perpetual thraldome And liuing with thée swéete wife what 〈◊〉 beg gery am not I able to susteine The 〈◊〉 of exile and 〈◊〉 I haue alreadie suffred For being driuen out of iny kingdome many times I haue repaired to obscure dennes and caues where I haue hidden my selfe and lined in the wildernesse among the Sanage beastes But what meane I thus to say of my selfe whome no misaduenture can affray or mislike but thou deare wife which hast ben trained vp and norished amongs the delicacies bankets of the Court 〈◊〉 with traines of many faire noble ladies liuing like a Quene in al kind of plesures delights what shall I doe with thée I know thy heart will not suffer thée to follow me and yet if the same would serue thée frō whence shal I procure present shipping Upon the sea the Roman fleet beares the swinge vpon that land Scipio with his armie occupieth euery coast is generall lord of the field What then shall I most miserable and infortunate caitife do For whilest I am thus making my bitter complaints the night is past away day light approcheth and the bright shining mornyng beginneth to cleare the earth And behold yonder commeth the Generalls messanger for Sophonisba whome I must either deliuer into his handes or else commit hir to present slaughter being assured that she had rather make choise to die than fall into the lappes of the cruell Romanes Whervpon he determined to sende hir the poison and for very sorrow fell downe vpon the grounde like a man halfe deade Afterwards being come againe to him selfe he cursed the earth the aire the syre heauen hell and all the Gods of the same and exclaming in lamentable wise he called vnto him one of his moste faithfull seruaunts who according to the custome of those days always kept poison in store and sayd vnto him Receine this cuppe of golde and deliuer the same with the poison therin to the Quéene Sophonisba nowe abiding within the Citie of Cirta and tell hir that I with greatest good will woulde fain haue kept the mariage knot and the first faith which I plighted vnto hir but the lorde of the fielde in whose power I am hath vtterly forbidden the same I haue assayed all possible meanes to preserue hir my wyfe and Quéene at libertie but he which commaundeth me hath pronounced such hard cruell sentence as I am forced to offende my self and to be the minister of mine owne mischiefe This poyson I send hir with so dolefull message as my poore heart God knoweth doth only 〈◊〉 the smart being the most sorowfull present that euer was offred to any faire Ladie This is the way alone to saue hir from the Romanes handes Pray hir to consider the worthinesse of hir father the dignitie of hir countrey the royall maiestie of the. 〈◊〉 Kings hir husbands and to do as hir minde and will shall fansie best Get thée hence with all possible spede and lose no time in doing this thy message For thou shalt cary the bane and present death of the fairest Ladie that euer Nature framed within hir fairest moulde The seruant with this commaundement 〈◊〉 part and Massinissa like a childe beaten with the rodde wept and cried behind The messanger being come to the Quéene and giuing hir the cuppe with the poison declared his cruell ambassage The Quéene
which secretely they thought was about to escape away giuing them straight charge that by no meanes they shoulde returne without hir When the 〈◊〉 drew neare the shippe Poris bent him self to encourage the mariners to hoyse by saile againe and to make way with their oares into the sea if it were possible to auoide the imminent and present danger to saue the life of him selfe his wife children then he erected his handes vp vnto the heauens to implore the healpe and succor of the Gods which the stoute Gentlewoman Theoxena perceiuing and manifestly séeing the daunger wherein they were callyng to hir mynde hir former determinate vengeance which she ment to do and beholding 〈◊〉 in his prayers she prosecuted hir intente preparing a poysoned drinke in a cuppe and made redie naked swordes All which bringyng forth before the childrens face she spake these words Death alone must bée the reuēge of your siely liues whervnto there be two wayes poison or the sworde Euery of you choose which ye list to haue or of whether of them your heart shall make the frankest choyse The Kings crueltie and pride you must auoyde Wherfore dere children be of good 〈◊〉 raise vp your no ble courage ye the elder aged boyes shew now your selues like men and take the sword into your handes to pierce your tender hearts but if the bloudie smart of that most dreadfull death shal feare and fright your gréene and vnripe age then take the venomed cuppe and gulpe by sundrie draughts this poisoned drinke Be franke and lusty in this your destenied death sith the violence of Fortune by sea doeth let the lengthning of your life I craue this request of choise and let not the same rebound with fearful refuse of this my craued hest Your mother afterwardes shal passe that straight wherof she prayeth hir babes to bée the poastes yée the vaunt currours and shée with your louing 〈◊〉 shall ende and finishe Philips rage bent agaynst vs. When shée had spoken these wordes and 〈◊〉 the enimies at hand this couragious dame the 〈◊〉 of the death egged prouoked these yong 〈◊〉 childrē not yet wel resolued what to do with hir encharmed words in such wise as in the ende some dranke the poison and other strake them selues into the bodie and by hir commaundement were throwen ouer boorde not altogether dead and so she set them at libertie by death whom tenderly she had brought vp Then she imbracing hir husbande the companion of hir death both did voluntarily throw them selues also into the sea And when the Kings espials were come aboorde the ship they found the same abandoned of their praye The crueltie of which fact did so moue the cōmon people to detectation and 〈◊〉 of the king as a generall cursse was pronounced against him his children which heard of the Gods aboue was afterwardes terribly reuenged vpon his stock 〈◊〉 This was the end of good Poris and his stout wise Theoxena who rather than she would fall into the lapse of the Kings furie as hir father Herodicus and hir other husbande did chose violently to die with hir owne handes and to cause hir husbands children and hir owne to berieue them selues of life which although agaynst the louing order of naturall course and therefore that kinde of violence to be abhorred as horrible in it selfe yet a declaration of a stoute minde if otherwise she had ben able to reuenge the same And what coward heart is that that dare not vpon such extremitie whé it séeth the mercilesse ennimie at hand with shining blade redie bent to strike the blowe that without remedie muste ridde the same of breath specially when it séeth the trembling babe naturally begotten by his owne kinde and nature before the face imploryng fathers rescue what 〈◊〉 heart dare not to offer himself by singular fight though one to twētie either by desperate hardinesse to auoide the same or other anoyance aduenture what he can which in Christians is admitted as a comely fight rather than with that Pagane dame to doe the death it selfe But now returne we to describe a facte that passeth all other forced déedes For Theoxena was compelled in a maner thus to do of méere constraint to eschue the greater torments of a tyrants rage and thought it better by chosen death to chaunge hir life than by violent hands of bloudie butchers to bée haled to the slaughter But this Hidrusian dame was wearie of hir life not for that shée feared losse of life but desperate to think of Fortunes 〈◊〉 staye which 〈◊〉 Fortunes darlings would regarde in time they would foresée their slippery hold A Gentlewoman of Hidrusa ¶ A Straunge and maruellous vse which in olde time was obserued in HIDRVSA where it was lawfull with the licence of a Magistrate ordeined for that purpose for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and woman that list to kill them selues The nynth Nouell BAndello amongs the company of his 〈◊〉 telleth this Historie and in his owne person speaketh these woords If I should begin to tell those things which I sawe in the time that I sailed alōgs the leuāt seas very tedious it would be for you to heare and I in reporting could not tell which way to ende bicause I saw and heard things right worthy to be remembred Notwithstanding for satisfaction of diuers that be my frendes I will not sticke to reherse some of them But first of all one straunge custom which in the Romans time was vsed in one of the Ilandes of the sea Aegeum called Hidrusa in these dayes by the trauailers called Cea or Zea and is one of the Ilandes named Ciclades whilome full of populous and goodly Cities as the rumes thereof at this day do declare Ther was in old time in that Iland a very strange lawe and ordinaunce which many hundred yeares was very well and perfectly kepte and obserued The Lawe was that euery person inhabitant within the sayde 〈◊〉 of what sexe and condition so euer béeing thorough age infirmitie or other accidents wearie of their life might choose that kinde of death which liked them best howbeit it was prouided that the partie before the dooing of the same shoulde manifest the cause that moued hym therevnto before the Magistrate elected by the people for that speciall purpose which they ordeyned bycause they sawe that diuers persons had volūtarily killed themselues vpon triflyng occasions and matters of little importance accordyng to whiche lawe very many men and women hardily with so mery chere went to their death as if they had gone to some bankette or mariage It chaunced that Pompeius Magnus that dreadfull Romane vetwene whō and Iulius Caesar were foughte the greatest battailes for superioritie that euer were Pompeius I say sailing by the sea Aegeum arriued at Hidrusa and there goyng a land vnderstode of the inhabitants the maner of that law and how the same day a woman of great worship had obteined licence of the Magistrate to poison hir selfe Pompeius hearing tell hereof
no my faulte was nothing it was parents offense if any were at all For many times we sée the innocent babe afflicted and cruciated for the fathers guilt The Gods do punish the posteritie for some sacrilege or notorious crime cōmitted by progenitors Their maner is not to suffer heynous faultes vnreuēged Their Iustice can not abide such mischief vncorrected for example sake So fareth it by me First my father died afterwardes my mother a widow was driuen to abandon natiue soile and séeke reliefe in forain land And leauing that wherwith we wer possessed in 〈◊〉 keping were forced a simple life to leade among straungers And my mother yeldyng forth hir ghost made me beleue that she had hidden great tresures here And I 〈◊〉 wench thinking to obteine the pray haue wandred in counter 〈◊〉 kinde and fetched many a bitter sigh vntil I came into this place And the thing I hoped for which myght haue bene the meanes and ende of all my care is turned to nothyng A casket transformed into a halter golde and Iewels into a piece of rope Is this the mariage 〈◊〉 thou art like to haue to matche with him whom thou so derely 〈◊〉 Is this the knot that shall conioyne you both in yoke of man and wife Ah wretche and miserable caitife the goodes thy mother laide vp for thée for maintenance of thy rest and 〈◊〉 of thine honour and for the reputation of thy noble house wher of thou camest is nows berieued from thée They that kéeye this noble house and beare their loftie port amid the best haue despoiled thée poore wench of that after which thon didst vainly trauaile But what remedie now Sith thy wicked lot doth thus fall out 〈◊〉 thy cruell fate is loth thou shouldest atteine the thing on which thy mind is bent and sith thy painful life can take no ende make spéede to rid thy selfe from miserie by 〈◊〉 meanes which he hath prepared for thée that hath found thy goods who séeing his good aduenture to be thy bane his happie pray to bée thy spoile hath left in lieu of 〈◊〉 sure a halter that therwith thou 〈◊〉 dispatche thy selfe from all thy griefes and in their vnhappie company to cease thy life that the lothsome lengthning of the same might not increase thy further plaints sorowes 〈◊〉 and affliction And in the place where infortunate 〈◊〉 toke hir beginning there the miserable wretche 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which without hir desired gaine no longer can be maynteined Peraduenture it may come to passe as when thy soule is losed from this mortall charge it shall stalke by him by whom it liueth and by him also whom she thought to ioy in greatest cōtentation that euer mortall woman did And thus plaining and sighing hir ill fortune when she had ended those wordes she tied the 〈◊〉 ter about the beame where sometimes hir treasure lay which being done she put the same about hir necke saying O crooked Ladie Fortune that hast thus 〈◊〉 dealt with thyne humble client Ah dispaire thou 〈◊〉 wretch and companion of those that be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is vnwilling to leaue my haunt vntil thou play the hangman Ah diuel incarnate that goest about to hale pluck the innocent into thy hellishe 〈◊〉 Out vpon thée thou deformed hellish dogge that waitest at the 〈◊〉 gate to lette them in which faine woulde passe an other porte And as she was grinding forth these spitefull wordes redie to remoue the 〈◊〉 to fetche 〈◊〉 swynge the Gods which would not giue consent that the innocent wench should enter that vile and 〈◊〉 death moued the 〈◊〉 of Elisa to passe by the place where she was in workyng on hir self that desperate ende who hearing those 〈◊〉 plaints vttred after such terrible manner opened the chamber doore and saw that myserable sight and ignorant of the occasion moued wyth pitie ranne and 〈◊〉 hir from the facte saying thus vnto hir Ah Philou which was the name that she had giuen to hir self what folie hath bewitched thy mind what phrensie hath incharmed thy braine what harde aduenture hath moued thée in this miserable wise to ende thy life Ah sayd Philene suffer me Elisa to finishe my tormented life giue me libertie to vnburden my selfe from the bande of cares that do assaile me on euery side Lette these hellhoundes that stande here rounde aboute me haue their praye for which they gape Thou moued by compassion art come hither to stay me from the halter but in doyng so thou doest mée greater wrong than doeth dispaire which eggeth me thervnto Suffer I say that mine afflictiōs may take some end sith cruel fortune willeth it to be so or rather vnhappie fate For sowre death is swéeter in my cōceite than bitter life contriued in sharper sause thau gall or wormwood Elisa hearing hir speake these words sayd For so much as thy myshap is such as onely death is the nearest remedie to depriue thy paine what wicked chaūce hath induced thée in this house to finishe those thy miseries What hath prouoked thée to giue suche augurie to this our moste happy and ioyfull familie Forced is the partie sayd Philene so to do when destenie hath so appointed What destenie is that demaūded Elisa Tell me I beséech thée perchaunce thou maist preuent the same by other remedie than that wherabout thou goest No aunswered Philene that is impossible but to satisfie thy request which so instantly thou crauest of me I will tel thée the summe of al my miserie In saying so the teares gushed forth hir eyes hir voice brake out into complaints thus began to say Ah Elisa why should I seke to prolōg my wretched life in this vale of wretchednesse wherin I haue ben so miserably afflicted my mother pitieng mine estate and séeing me voide of frends a fatherlesse child vpon hir death bed disclosed vnto me a tresure which she had hidden vpon this 〈◊〉 wherevnto this halter the best 〈◊〉 of my miserie 〈◊〉 tied and I making 〈◊〉 for the same in place of that treasure founde this halter ordeined 〈◊〉 I suppose by what misfortune I know not for my death and where I thought among 〈◊〉 happy to be the most happie I sée my self amongs al 〈◊〉 women to be the most vnfortunate 〈◊〉 hearing hir say so greatly 〈◊〉 sayd Why then I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a woman and not a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly answered the 〈◊〉 maiden A singuler example of extreme miserie to all sortes of women And why so demaunded Elisa Bicause answered 〈◊〉 that the pestilent planet vnder which I was 〈◊〉 will haue it to be 〈◊〉 and then she tolde hir all that which had 〈◊〉 from the time of hir mothers departure out of Carthage and how she went into Scicilia and recounted 〈◊〉 hir the loue that she bare to a Scicilia Gentleman and howe that he 〈◊〉 hir for hir pouertie refused to be hir husband whervpon to atchieue hir desire as loth to forgoe him was come in maner 〈◊〉 page to 〈◊〉 to
¶ The life and gestes of the most famous Queene Zenobia with the letters of the Emperour 〈◊〉 to the sayd Queene and hir stoute answere therunto The. xv Nouel ZENOBIA Quéene of Palmyres was a right famous gentlewoman as diuerse historiographers largely do report write Who although she was a gētle quéene yet a christian princesse so worthie of imitation as she was for hir vertues 〈◊〉 facts of 〈◊〉 praise She by hir wisdome stoutnesse subdued all the empire of the Orient resisted the inuincible 〈◊〉 And for that it is méete and requisite to alleage and aduouche reasones by weight wordes by measure I will orderly beginne to recite the historie of that most famous Quéene Wherefore I say that about the. 284. Olimpiade no long time after the death of the vnhappie Emperour Decius Valerian was chosen Emperour by the Senat and as Trebellius Pollio his historian doth describe hée was a well learned prince indued with manifolde vertues that for his speciall praise these wordes be recorded If all the world had bene assembled to chose a good Prince they would not haue chosen any other but good Valerian It is also written of hym that in liberalitie hée was noble in words true in talke warie in promise constant to his frendes familiar and to his enimies seuere and which is more to bée estemed he could not forgette seruice nor yet reuenge wrong It came to passe that in the. 〈◊〉 yeare of his raigne there rose such cruell warres in Asia that forced hée was to goe thither in his 〈◊〉 persō to resist Sapor king of the Persians a very valiant man of warre and fortunate in his enterprises which happinesse of his not long time after the arriuall of Valerian into Asia hée manifested and shewed For being betwene them such hot cruell warres in a skyrmish throughe the greate faulte of the Generall which had the conduct of the armie the Emperour Valerian was taken and brought into the puissance of King Sapor his enimie which curssed tyrant so wiekedly vsed that victorie as hée would by no meanes put the Emperour to raunsome towardes whom hée vsed such crueltie that so ofte and so many 〈◊〉 as hée was disposed to gette vp on horsebacke hée vsed the bodie of olde Valerian to serue him for aduantage setting his féete vppon the throate of that aged gentleman In that miserable office and vnhappie captiuitie serued and dyed the good Emperour Valerian not without the greate 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 that knew him and the ruefull compassion of those that fawe him which the Romans considering and that neyther by offre of golde siluer or other meanes they were able to redéeme Valerian they determined to choose for Emperour his 〈◊〉 sonne called Galienus which they did more for respect of the father than for any mynde or corage they knewe 〈◊〉 bée in the sonne Who afterwardes shewed him selfe to bée 〈◊〉 different from the conditions of his father Valerian being in his entreprises a cowarde in his promisses a lyer in correction cruell towardes them that serued him vnthanckfull and which is worse hée gaue hymselfe to his desires and yealded place to sensualitie By meanes wherof in his time the Romaine Empire more than in any other raigne lost most prouinces and 〈◊〉 greatest shame In factes of warre hée was a cowarde and in gouernement of common wealth a verie weake and séeble man Galienus not caring for the state of the Empire became so miserable as the Gouernors of the same gaue ouer their obedience and in the time of his raigne there rose vp thirtie tirantes which vsurped the same Whose names doe followe Cyriades Posthumus that yonger Lollius Victorinus Marius Ingenuus Regillianus Aureolus Macrianus Machianus the yonger Quietus Odenatus Herodes Moenius Ballista Valens Piso Emilianus Staturninus Tetricus 〈◊〉 the yonger Trebelianus 〈◊〉 Timolaus Celsus Titus 〈◊〉 Claudius Aurelius and Quintillus of whom eightene were captens and seruiters vnder the good Emperour Valerian Such delighte had the Romanes in that auncient worlde to haue good Capteins as were able to bée preferred to bée 〈◊〉 Nowe in that tyme the Romanes had for their Captein generall a knight called Odenatus the prince of Palmerines a man truelie of greate vertue and of passing industrie hardinesse in factes of warre This Captain Odenatus maried a woman that descended of the auncient linage of the Ptolomes sometimes kings of 〈◊〉 named Zenobia which if the historians doe not deceiue vs was one of the most famous Women of the worlde She hadde the hearte of Alexander the greate she possessed the riches of Croesus the diligence of Pyrrhus the trauell of Haniball the warie foresight of Marcellus the iustice of Traiane When Zenobia was maried to Odenatus she had by hir other husband a sonne called Herodes by Odenatus she had two other wherof the one was called 〈◊〉 and the other Ptolomeus And when the Emperour Valerian was vanquished and taken Odenatus was not then in the Campe. For as all men thought if he had bene ther they had not receued so great an ouerthrow So sone as good Odenatus was aduertized of that defaict of Valerian in great haste he marched to that Roman Campe that then was in great disorder Which with greate diligence hée reassembled and reduced the same to order and holpen by good Fortune 〈◊〉 dayes after he recouered all that which Valerian had loste making the Persian king to 〈◊〉 by meanes wherof and for that Odenatus had taken charge of the armie hée wanne amonges the Romans great reputation truely not without cause For if in that good time hée had not receiued the 〈◊〉 the name and glorie of the Romans had taken ende in Asia During all this time Galienus liued in his delightes at Millan without care or thought of the common wealth consuming in his wilfull vices the money that was 〈◊〉 for the men of warre Which was the cause that the gouernours of the prouinces and Captens generall seing him to be so vicious and negligent 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 and armies which they had in charge Galienus voide of all obedience sauing of the Italians Lombards the first that rose vp against him were Posthumus in Fraunce Lollianus in Spaine Victorinus in Africa Marius in 〈◊〉 Ingenuus in Germanie Regillianus in Denmark Aureolus in Hungarie Macrianus in Mesopotamia Odenatus in Syria Before Odenatus rose against Valerian Macrianus enioyed Mesopotamia the greatest part of Syria wherof Odenatus hauing intelligence hée marched with his power against him and killed him and discomfited all his armie The death of the Tyran Macrian being knowen and that Galienus was so vicious the armies in Asia assembled and chose Odenatus Emperour which election although the Sonate publicklie durst not agrée vpon yet secretlie they allowed it bycause they receiued dailie newes of the great exploites and dedes of armes done by 〈◊〉 and sawe on the other syde the great cōtinued follies of Galienus Almost thrée yeares and a halfe was
to like effect as she did before therby to draw him frō his cōceiued purpose whervnto the wise King hauing made replie continuing his intended mynde at length in ragyng wordes and stormed mind he sayd vnto Euphimia How much the swéeter is the wine the sharper is the egred sawe thereof I speake this Parable for that thou not knowyng or greatly regarding the gentle disposition of thy fathers nature in the ende mayst so abuse the same as where hitherto he hath bene curteous and benigne he may become through thy disordered déedes ryghte sowre and sharpe and without vtterance of further talke departed Who resting euil content with that fond fixed loue thought that the next way to remedie the same was to tel Acharisto how 〈◊〉 he toke his presumed fault and in what heinous part he conceiued his ingratitude and how for the benefites which liberally hée had bestowed vpon him he had brought and enticed his daughter to loue him that was farre vnagreable hir estate And therfore he called hym before him and with reasons first declared the duetie of a faithfull seruant to his souerain Lord and afterwards he sayd That if the receyued benefits were not able to lette him know what were conuenient and séemely for his degrée but would perseuere in that which he had begonne he would make him féele the iust displeasure of a displeased Prince whereby hée shoulde repent the tyme that euer hée was borne of womans wombe These wordes of the King semed grieuous to Acharisto not to moue him to further anger hée séemed as though that being fearfull of the kinges displeasure hée did not loue his daughter at all but sayd vnto hym that hée deserued not to bée so rebuked for that it lay not in his power to withstande hir loue the same proceding of hir owne good will and libertie And that hée for his part neuer required loue if she did bend hir mynde to loue him 〈◊〉 could not remedie that affection for that the fréewill of such vnbridled appetite rested not in him to reforme Notwithstāding bycause hée vnderstoode his vnwilling mynd 〈◊〉 from that time forth would so indeuor himselfe as hée shoulde well 〈◊〉 that the vnstayde mynde of the yong gentlewoman Euphimia was not incensed by him but voluntarily conceyued of hir selfe You shall doe well sayde the King if the effect procede according to the promise And the more acceptable shall the same bée vnto me for that I desire it shold so come to passe The king liked wel these words although that Acharisto had conceiued within 〈◊〉 plat of his intended minde some other treason For albeit that hée affirmed before the kings owne face that hée would not loue his daughter yet knowing the assured will of the louing gentlewoman hée practised the mariage and like an vnkind wretched man deuised cōuenient tyme to kill him And fully bent to execute that cruell enterprise hée attempted to corrupt the chiefest men about him promising promocions vnto some to some hée assured restitucion of reuenewe which by fathers fault they had lost béefore and to other golden hilles so that hée might attaine by slaughter of the King to 〈◊〉 a kingly state and kingdome Which the sooner he persuaded himselfe to acquire if in secrete silence they coulde put vp that which by generall voice they hadde agréed And although they thought themselues in good assurāce that their enterprise coulde take no yll successe by reason of their sounde and good discourse debated amonges them selues for the accomplishement thereof yet it fortuned that one of the conspiracie as commonly in suche lyke traiterous attemptes it chaunceth béeyng with his beloued ladie and she making mone that little commoditie succéeded of hir loue for hir aduauncement brake out into these woordes Holde thy peace sayde hée for the time will not bée long before thou shalt bée one of the chiefest Ladies of this lande Howe can that be sayde his woman No more adoe quod the Gentleman Cease from further questions and bée merrie for wée shall enioye together a verie honourable and a quiete lyfe When hir Louer was departed the gentlewoman went to an other of hir gossips very iocunde and tolde hir what hir louer had sayd and she then not able to kepe counsell went and told an other In such wise as in the ende it came to the cares of the Kings stewards wife and she imparted the same vnto hir husband who marking those words like a mā of great wisedome experience did verily beléeue that the same touched the daunger of the Kings person And as a faithfull seruant to his lorde and maister diligently harkned to the muttering talke murmured in the court by him which had tolde the same to his beloued ladie knowing that it proceded from Acharisto which was an 〈◊〉 and sedicious varlet and that he with thrée or foure other his familiars kept secrete companie in corners iudged that which he first coniectured to be most certaine and true Wherefore determined to moue the King therof and vpon a day finding him alone he sayde vnto him that the fidelittie and good will wherwith hée serued him and the desire which he had to sée him liue in long and prosperous estate made him to attende to the safegarde of his person to hearken vnto such as shold attempt to daūger the same For which cause marking and espying the doings of certain of his chamber whose common assemblies and priuie whisperings mislyking he feared least they conspiring with Acharisto shoulde worke treason for berieuyng of his life and to the intent their endeuors might be preuented and his safetie foreséene he thought good to reueale the same to his maiestie Then he tolde the King the words that were spoken by the first Gentlewomā to one or two of hir companions and disclosed the presumptions which hée 〈◊〉 séene and perceyued touching the same Amongs the yll conditions of men there is nothing more common than poyson conspiracies and treason of Princes and great lordes and therefore euery little suspicion presumyng such 〈◊〉 is a great demonstration of like mischiefe Which made the Kyng to giue credite to the wordes of his Steward hauing for his long experience knowen him to be faithfull and trustie And sodainly he thought that Acharisto attempted the same that after his death by mariage of Euphimia he might be the inheritour of his kingdome The beliefe wherof and the singular credite which he reposed in his Steward besides other thinges caused him to cōmaunde the captaine of his Guard to apprehend those iiii of whom his Steward told him and Acharisto cōmitting them to seuerall prisons Then be sent his officers to examine them and founde vpon their confessions the accusation of his Stewarde to be true But Acharisto although the whole 〈◊〉 of the treason was confessed by those foure conspirators that were apprehēded and aduouched to his face and for all the tormentes wherewith he was racked and cruciated yet still denied that either he
therfore was there redie to sacrifice his life at his maiesties disposition and pleasure Acharisto by nature coulde tell his tale excedyngly well and the more his tongue stode him in seruice the greater appered his eloquence Whiche so pierced the minde of the King and persuaded the Counsellers and other of the Court as he was demed giltlesse of the treason and the matter was so debated and the King intreated to graūt him pardon as he was accompted most worthie of his fauour Then the Kyng by the aduise of his Counsell was persuaded that by force of hys proclamation his daughter should be giuen to Acharisto in mariage and his Kingdome for a dowrie bicause hée had offered his owne head accordyng to the effecte of the same So the King repenting him self that he had offended Acharisto in the ende agréed to the aduise of his counsel and gaue him his daughter to wife Whereof Euphimia was so ioyful as they bée that atteine the summe of their heartes desire The father liued one whole yeare after this mariage and Euphimia so pleasant a life for a certaine time as was possible for any Gentlewoman Hir father was no sooner dead but the vnkind mā nay rather brute beaste had forgotten all the benefites receyued of his kinde and louing wise and hauing by hir only meanes gotten a Kingdom began to hate hir so straungely as he could not abide hir sight Such is the propertie of cancred obliuion which after it crepeth into ambicious heades neuer hath minde of passed amitie ne regardeth former benefite but like a monster and deadly enimie to humane nature ouerwhelmeth in his bottomlesse gulfe all pietie and kindenesse and determined in the ende for recompence of such great good turnes to despoile hir of hir life Howe thinke you faire Ladies was not thys a faire rewarde for the loue the trauailes and sorrowes susteined for this ingrate and villainous man by that royal ladie to saue his life and to take him to husband Here is manifest probatum that in a vile and seruile minde no vertue no duetie no receiued benefites can be harboured Here is a lesson for yong Gentlewomen to beware how they contemne and despise the graue aduise of their auncient fathers Here they maye sée the damage and hurt that vnaduised youth incurreth when neglecting their parentes holeseme admonitions they giue them selues to the loue of suche as bée 〈◊〉 their estate and calling For what should aile the gentle pucell borne of gentle bloud but to match hir self in like affinitie not to care for currish kind or race of 〈◊〉 Bée there no Gentlemen to be founde of personage and beautie woorthie to ioyne in loue with them Bée they so precious in nature or tēder in education as their like can not be vouchsafed to couple in mariage yoke Compare the glistering golde to drossie durte and such is the difference betwéene gentle and vngentle But perhaps bringing vp may alter nature and custome transforme defect of birth As Licurgus the lawemaker dyd trie betwene the Currish whelpe and the Spaniell kinde both by training vp running to their contraries the Spaniel not vsed to hunte eigre vpon the potage dishe the other nouseled in that pastyme pursuing his game But that Metamorphosis is seldome séene amongs humane sort and therfore I aduise the gentle kind to match them selues in equall lotte and not to trust sir Customes curtesie in choise of féere Returne we then to vnkind Acharisto who now in full possession of his desired praio reuerting to his puddle of carlish will and cancred nature after many thousande wrongs done to this moste noble and gentle Quéene accused hir to be an adulteresse and as one in déede although most innocent she was condemned to the mercilesse fire Philon King of Peloponessus which as we haue said before loued Euphimia as did the balles of his owne eyes vnderstanding the crueltie that this wicked mā vsed towards hir to whom both his life kingdome did belong moued with nobilitie of minde determined to declare to Euphimia the inwarde feruent loue which 〈◊〉 bare hir and to chastise Acharisto for his ingratitude with due correction Wherfore depely debatyng with hym selfe of this aduenture thus hée sayde Nowe is the time Euphimia that Philon shewe what faithful loue he hath euer born vnto thée and that he deliuer thée bothe from the present daunger wherein thou art and from the hands of that vnkynde wretche that is farre vnworthie of such a wife For if thou haddest agréed to thy fathers will and yelded to the pursute of him that loued thée best thou haddest no néede of rescue nowe ne yet bene in perill of the wastful flames of fire which be readie to consume thy nesh and tender corps full tenderly sometymes beloued of thy deare father and of thy louing friend Philon. When he had spoken those wordes he earnestly disposed him selfe vpon that enterprise There was in those days a custome in Corinth that they which were condemned to death were caried iii. miles forth of the Citie and there the sentence pronounced against them wer put to execution Philon hauyng intelligence hereof did put in readinesse a good troupe of horsemen and being secretely imbarked arriued at Corinth and closely the nyght before Euphimia shoulde be brought to the fire harde by the place where the miserable Ladie should be burnt into a wood he conueyed his people and so soone as the Sergeants and officers were approched nere the place with the ladie he issued forth and did set vpon the throng not suffering one of them to remaine aliue to carie newes When he had deliuered Euphimia from that prcsent daunger of hir life the companie dispercled he said to the Quene Now thou mayst sée faire Quéene the diuersitie betwene the disloyaltie and vnkindnesse of Acharisto and the faith and loue of Philon. But for that I meane not to leaue hys ingratitude vnreuenged thou shalte stays here vntill thou heare newes of the due 〈◊〉 whiche I shall giue him Those dire and cruell wordes foretolde of hir husbandes death moued hir honest and Princely hearte which by no meanes coulde be altered from the gentle nature which it had first tasted and receiued And although she had suffred mortall solemne iniurie of hir vnkinde husband for manifolde benefites yet she good Gentlewoman woulde permit no duetie of a trustie and faithfull wife vnperformed Wherfore she besoughte Philon vpon hir knées not to procéede to further reuenge of Acharisto telling him that enough it was for hir to haue escaped that presente perill from which he like a Princely Gentleman had deliuered hir and therfore during hir life was most bounde vnto him Philon greately wondred at the goodnesse of this Ladie howbeit the ingratitude of that 〈◊〉 by no meanes he woulde suffer to bée vnpunished And béeing aduertised that Acharisto remained in his Palace without any suspicion of this aduenture banded neither with Guarde or other assurance committed Euphimia to safe
vertuous for one whome I wold choose to daly with all My desire is not to make hir a Lucrece or some of those auncient Matrones which in elder yeres builded the temple of womans Fortune at Rome The companions of this louer séeing how he was bent promised him what they were able to doe for accomplishment of his will for the which hée thanked thē very heartily offring himself to like duety wher fortune should prepare the proofe of their affection néede of his 〈◊〉 seruice In the meane time conceiuing in his minde some new deuise which so sone as hée desired was not able to be brought to passe knowing that the duke seldōe wold haue him out of his sight begā to muse vpō lies doing him to vnderstand that he had necessary occasion for a certein time to remain be at his coūtry house The duke which loued him who thought that either he had some secrete sicknesse or else some wench which he was lothe to discouer before his cōpaniōs gaue him leaue for a month which so pleased the amorous Gentleman as he 〈◊〉 for ioy was not able to rest one houre before he had 〈◊〉 out his friends and companions to mount on horsbacke to visite hir that had vnder hir power and obeysance the best portion of him which was his heart and his most secrete thought When hée was come to his Countrey house hée began to stalke abrode and daunce a round about the Mill where his beloued did dwell who was not so foolish but by and by suspected wherunto those goings and commings of the Pilgrim tended and for what pray he led his Dogs in lease and caused so many nets cords to be displayed by hunters of all ages and eche sexe who to discouer the Countrey assayde to beate the bushes to take the beast at forme For which cause shée also for 〈◊〉 parte began to flie the snares of such Birders and raunging of the Dogs that vented after hir strayed not 〈◊〉 the house of the good man hir father whereof 〈◊〉 poore louer conceiued greate dispaire not knowing by what meanes he might rouse the praie after which hée hunted ne finde the meanes to do hir to vnderstand his plaints vnmeasured griefe of heart the firme loue and sincere minde wherwith he was so earnestly bent bothe to 〈◊〉 and loue hir aboue all other And that which most of all increased his pain was that of so great a troupe of messages which he had sent with gifts and promisses the better to atchieue his purpose no one was able to take placeor force neuer so little the chastite of that sober modest maide It chaunced one day as the Gentleman walking along a woode side newly felled hard adioyning to his house by which there was a cleare and goodly fountaine shadowed betwéene two thicke lofty Maple trées the Millers daughter went thither for water and as she had set downe hir pailes vpon the fountaines 〈◊〉 hir louer came vnto hir little thinking of such a ioyfull méeting which he well declared by these woords Praysed be God that when I hoped least of this good happe hée hath sent me hither to sée the only substance of my ioy Then tourning his face towards the maiden sayd vnto hir Is it true that thou art héere or do I dreame and so neare to him that most desireth to gratifie thée in any thing wherin it may please thée to commaunde him Wilt thou not haue pitie vpon the paines and griéfs which continually I indure for the extreme loue I beare thée And saying so he would haue imbraced hir But the mayd which cared no more for his flatteries than before she did for his presents and messages seing the same to tend to nothing else but to hir ruine and great dishonor with stout countenance and by hir liuely colour declaring the chast and vertuous motion of hir bloud sayd to this valiant Gentleman How now 〈◊〉 doe you thinke that the vilenesse of mine apparell holdeth hidden lesse vertue than the rich and sumptuous ornaments of the greatest Ladies Doe you suppose that my bringing vp hathe bred in me such grosse bloud as for your only pleasure I should corrupt the perfection of my minde blot the honor which hither to so carefully I haue kept and religiously preserued Be sure that soner death shall separate the soule from my body than willingly I would suffer the ouerthrowe violation of my virginitie It is not the part of a Gentleman as you be thus to espy and subtely pursue vs poore countrey maids to charme vs with your sleights and 〈◊〉 talke It is not the duety of a Gentleman to 〈◊〉 such vaunte currors to discouer and put in peril the honoure of maidens and honest wiues as heretofore you haue done to me It ought to suffice that you receyued shame by repulse of your messāgers and not to come your selfe to be partakers of their shame and confusion And that is it that ought to 〈◊〉 you swéete heart answered he to take pitie vpon my griefe so plainly séeing that vnfainedly I doe loue you and the my loue is so well planted as rather had I suffer death than occasion the 〈◊〉 offense that may displease you Only I beséeche you not to 〈◊〉 your self so cruel vnto him who 〈◊〉 all other hath made you so frank an offer both of him self of all that he hath to commaund The maid not greatly trusting his words feared that he prolōged the time to make 〈◊〉 stay til his seruāts came to steale hir away And therfore without further answer she taking vp hir pailes half running til she came néere the Mil escaped his 〈◊〉 telling hir father no part of that talk betwene them who began already to doubt the treason deuised by the gētle man against the pudicitie of his daughter vnto whom he neuer disclosed his suspition were it that he knew hir to be vertuous inough and constant to resist the luring assaults of loue or considered the imbecillitie of our flesh the malice of the same which daily aspireth to things thervnto defended by lawes limited and prescribed which lawes it ought not to excéede and yet thereof wisheth the abolishment And the goodman also did feare that she did not care for the words that he had sayd vnto hir as alredy resolued in opinion that she wished desired the loue and acquaintance of him whome she hated to death and that vanquished by despite for the litle regard had of hir chastitie she wold not giue ouer hir louer which neyed after none other prouender Who séeing that the maidē 〈◊〉 forsaken him and little estemed his amorous onset outraged for loue and 〈◊〉 with choler bothtogether 〈◊〉 with him self sayd Ah foolish dastard louer what 〈◊〉 thou meane when thou hadst hir so nere thée in a place so commodious and was not able ne durst gainesay thée And what knowest thou if she came to ease thy
be ne more faithful more affectionate or otherwise moued than the rest yet I am contēt for respect of your honor somewhat to beleue you and to accept you for mine owne sith your discretion is such I trust as so Noble a Gentleman as you be will himself declare in those affairs and whē I sée the effect of my hope I can not be so vnkinde but with all honesty shall assay to satisfie that your loue The Counte seing hir alone and receiuing the Ladies language for his aduauntage and that hir countenance by alteration of hir minde did adde a certaine beautie to hir face and perceiuing a desire in hir that hée shold not vse delay or be too squeimish she demaūding naught else but execution tooke the present offred time forgetting all ceremonies and reuerence he embraced hir and kissed hir a hundred thousand times And albeit she made a certain simple and prouoking resistance yet the louer séeing thē to be but preparatiues for the sport of loue he strayed from the bounds of honestie and threw hir vpon a fielde bed within the Chambre where he solaced himselfe with his long desired sute And finding hir worthy to be beloued and she him a curteous gentleman consulted together for continuance of their amitie in such wise as the Lord Ardizzino spake no more but by the mouth of Bianca Maria and did nothing but what she commaunded being so bewrapped with the heauie mantell of beastly Loue as hée still above night and day in the house of his beloued whereby the brute was noised throughout the Citie and the songs of their Loue more common in eche Citizens mouthe than the Stanze or Sonnets of Petrarch played and sained vpon the Gittorne Lute or Harpe of these of Noble house more fine wittie than those vnsauery 〈◊〉 that be tuned and chaunted in the mouthes of the foolish common sort Behold an Earle well serued and dressed by enioying so false a woman which had already falsified the faith betrouthed to hir husbād who was more honest milde and vertuous than she deserued Beholde ye Noble Gentlemen the simplicitie of this good Earle how it was deceiued by a false and filthy strumpet whose stincking life and common vse of body woulde haue withdrawen each simple creature from mixture of their owne with such a Carrion A lesson to learne all youth to refraine the whoorishe lookes and light conditioned Dames a number the more to be pitied shewing forthe them selues to the portsale of euery cheapener that list demaunde the price the grosenesse whereof before considered were worthy to be defied and loathed This Ladie séeing hir Louer noussed in hir lust dandled him with a thousande trumperies and made hym holde the Mule while other enioyed the secrete sporte which earst hée vsed himself This acquaintance was so daungerous to the Counte as she hir self was shamelesse to the Counte of Celant For the one bare the armes of Cornwall and became a second Acteon and the other wickedly led his life lost the chiefest of that he loked for in the seruice of great princes by the treason of an arrant common 〈◊〉 Whiles this Loue continued in all pleasure and like contentation of either parts Fortune that was ready to mounte the stage and shew in sight that hir mobilitie was no more stable than a womans will For vnder such habite and sere Painters and Poets describe hir made Ardizzino suspecte what desire she had of chaunge and within a while after sawe himself so farre misliked of his Ladie as though he had neuer bene acquainted The cause of that recoile was for that the Countesse was not contented with one kinde of fare and whose eyes were more gredie than hir stomake able to digest and aboue all desired chaunge not séeking meanes to finde him that was worthy to be beloued and intertained of so great a Ladie as she estéemed hir selfe to be and as such women of their owne opinion thinke themselues who counterfaicte more grauitie and reputation than they doe whome nature and vertue for their maiestie and holinesse of life make Noble and praise worthie That desire deceiued hir nothing at all for a certaine time after that Ardizzino possessed the forte of this faire Countesse there came to Pauia one Roberto Sanseuerino Earle of Gaiazzo a yong faire and valiant Gentleman whose Countrey lieth on this side the Mountaines and very familiar with the Earle of Massino This vnfaithful Alcina and cruell Medea had no sonet cast hir eye vpon Signor di Gaiazzo but was pierced with his loue in such wise as if forthwith shée had not attained hir desires she would haue run mad bicause that Gentleman bare a certaine stately representation in his face promised such dexteritie in his déedes as sodainly she thought him to be that man that was able to staunch hir filthy thirst And therfore so gentlely as she could gaue ouer hir Ardizzino with whome she vtterly refused to speake and shunned his cōpanie when she saw him and by shutting the gates against him the Noble man was not able to forbeare from throwing forth some words of choler wherby she tooke occasion both to expell him and also to beare him such displeasure as then she cōspired his death as afterwards you shall perceiue This great hatred was the cause that she being fallen in Loue as you haue heard with the Counte of Gaiazzo shewed vnto him all signe of amitie and séeing that hée made no great sute vnto hir she wrote vnto him in this manner The Letter of Bianca Maria to the Counte of Gaiazzo SIr I doubt not by knowing the state of my degrée but that ye be abashed to sée the violēce of my mind when passing the limites of modestie which ought to guard such a Ladie as I am I am forced uncertain of the cause to doe you vnderstand the griefe that doeth torment me which is of such constraint as if of curtesie ye doe not vouchsafe to visite me you shall commit two faultes the one leauing the thing worthy for you to loue and regard and which deserueth not to be cast off the other in causing the death of hir that for Loue of you is bereft of rest And so loue hath very little in me to sease vpon either of heart or libertie but that ease of grief procéedeth from your only grace which is able to vanquishe hir whose victorious hap hath conquered all other and who attēding your resolut answer shall rest vnder the mercifull refuge of hope which deceiuing hir shall sée by that very meanes the wretched end of hir that is all your owne Bianca Maria Countesse of Celant The yong Lorde much maruelled at this message were it for that already hée was in loue with hir and that for loue of his friend Ardizzino wold not be known thereof or for that he feared she would be straught of wits if she were despised he determined to goe vnto hir yet stayed thought it not to be the
vpon the Lute desired him to giue awake vnto his Ladie that then for iealousie was harkening at hir window both the sound of the instrument and the words of hir amorous Knight wher the gētleman soong this song THe death with trenchāt dart doth brede in brest such il As I cannot forget the smart that therby riseth stil. Yet ne erthelesse I am the ill it self in dede That death with daily dolours depe within my breast doth brede I am my mistresse thrall and yet I doe not kno If she beare me good will at all or if she loue or no. My wound is made so large with bitter wo in brest That still my heart prepares a place to lodge a careful guest O Dame that bath my life and death at thy desire Come 〈◊〉 my mind wher facies flames doth burn like Ethna fire For wanting thee my life is death and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And finding fauor in thy sight my dayes are happy heere Then he began to sighe so terribly as if already she had gyuen sentence and definitiue Judgement of his farewel disputed with his felow in such sort with opinion so assured of his contempt as if hée had bene in loue with some one of the infants of Sp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cause he begā again very pitifully to sing these verses THat God that made my soule knowes what I haue felt Who causeth sighes and sorowes oft the sely soule to swelt Doth see my torments now and what I suffer still And vnderstands I tast mo griefs than I can shew by skill He doth consent I wot to my ill hap and woe And hath accorded with the dame that is my pleasant foe To make my boyling brest abound in bitter blisse And so bereue me of my rest when heart his hope shall misse O what are not the songs and sighs that louers haue When night and day with swete desires they draw vnto their graue 〈◊〉 grief by friendship growes where ruth nor 〈◊〉 raines And so like snow against the sunne thei melt away with pains My dayes must finish so my destnie hath it set And as the candle out I goe before hir grace I get Before my sute be heard my seruice throughly knowne I shal be laid in tombe full lowe so colde as Marble stone To thee faire Dame I cry that makes my senses arre And plātest peace 〈◊〉 my brest then makes sodain war Yet at thy pleasure still thou must my sowre make sweete In graunting me the fauor due for faithfull louers meete Which fauor giue me now and to thy Noble minde I doe 〈◊〉 Galley slaue as thou by proofe shall finde And so thou shalt release my heart from cruell bandes And haue his fredome at thy wil that yelds into thy handes So rendring all to thee the Gods may ioyne vs both Within one lawe and league of loue through force of constant troth Then shalt thou mistresse be of life of limme and all My goodes my golde and honour loe shall so be at thy call This gentle order of loue greately pleased the Lady and therefore opened hir gate to let in the 〈◊〉 Lorde who séeyng himself fauoured beyond all hope of his Ladie and cherefully intertained and welcommed wyth greate curtesie stoode so stil astonnied as if he had bene fallen from the cloudes But shée whyche coulde teache hym good maner to make him the minister of hir mischiefe takyng him by the hande made him sitte downe vpon a gréene bedde besydes hir and séeing that he was not yet imboldened for all he was a souldier she she wed hir selfe more hardie than he and first assayled him wyth talke saying Syr I praye you thinke it not strange if at this houre of the night I am bolde to cause you enter my house béeyng of no greate acquaintaunce with you but by hearyng your curteous salutations And we of this countrey be somwhat more at libertie than they in those partes from whence you come Besides it liketh me well as I am able to honor strange gentlemen and to retaine them with right good willing heart sith it pleaseth them to honor me with repaire vnto my house so shall you be welcome stil when you please to knocke at my gate which at all times I will to be opened for you wyth no lesse good will than if ye were my natural brother the same with all the thinges therein it maye please you to dispose as if they were your owne Dom Pictro of Cardonne well satisfied and contented with this vnlooked for kyndnesse thanked hir very curteously humbly praying hir besides to dayne it in good parte if he were so bolde to make request of loue and that it was the onely thyng which hée aboue all other desyred moste so that if shée woulde receyue hym for hir friende and seruaunt shée shoulde vnderstand him to be a Gentleman whiche lyghtly woulde promise nothing excepte the accomplishment did followe she that sawe a greater onset than shée looked for answered hym smilyng with a very good grace Syr I haue knowne very many that haue vouched slipperie promyses and proffered lordly seruices vnto Ladies the effecte wherof if I myght once sée I would not thinke that they coulde vanishe so soone and consume lyke smoake Madame sayde the Scicilian yf I fayle in any thyng whichs you commaunde mée I praye to God neuer to receyue any fauour or grace of those Curtesies whyche I craue If then quod shée you wyll promyse to employe youre selfe aboute a businesse that I haue to doe when I make requeste I wyll also to accepte you for a friende and graunt such secrecie as a faythfull louer can desyre of hys Ladye Dom Pietro whyche woulde haue offered hym selfe in Sacrifice for hir not knowyng hir demaunde toke an othe and promysed hir so lightly as madly afterwardes he did put the same in proofe Beholde the preparatiues of the obsequies of their first loue the guages of a bloodie bedde the one was prodigal of hir honoure the other the tormenter of his reputation and neglected the duetie and honor of his state which the 〈◊〉 wherof he came commaunded hym to kepe Thus all the night he remained with Bianca Maria who made him so wel to like 〈◊〉 good entertainement and imbracementes as he neuer was out of hir companie And the warie Circes fained hir selfe so farre in loue with him and vsed so many toyes gametricks of hir filthie science as he not onely esteemed him selfe the happiest Gentleman of Scicilia but the most fortunate wight of al the world and by biubing of hir wine was so straungely charmed with the pleasures of his faire mistresse as for hir sake he wold haue taken vpon him the whole ouerthrow of Milan so well as 〈◊〉 of Cumes to set the Citie of Rome on fire if Tyberius Gracchus the sedicious woulde haue gyuen hir leaue Such is the maner of wilde and foolish youth as which suffreth it self to be caried beyond the boundes of
reason The same in time past did ouerthrow many realmes and caused the chaunge of diuers Monarchies And truely vnséemely it is for a man to be subdued to the will of a common strumpet And as it is vncomly to submit him selfe to suche one so not requisite to an honest vertuous dame his maried wife Which vnmanly déedes be 〈◊〉 that diuers foolishe women commit such filthy factes with their inspekable trumperies begiling the simple mā and perchance through to much losing the bridle raines to the laufull wife the poore man is straungely deceiued by some adulterous varlet which at the wiues cōmaundement when she séeth oportunitie wil not shrinke to hazarde the honor of them bothe in such wise as they serue for an exāple vpon a cōmon 〈◊〉 to a whole generation 〈◊〉 I will not séeke farre of for examples being satisfied with the follie of the Bastarde of Cardonne to please the crueltie and malice of that infernall furie the Countesse who hauing lulled flatered and be witched with hir louetricks and peraduenture with some charmed drinke hir new pigeon séeing it time to solicite his promise to be 〈◊〉 of those which thought no more of hir conspiracies and traitrous deuises and also when that time was com for punishing of hir whoredome and chastising of the breach of faith made to hir husbande and of hir intended murders and some of them put in execution shée I saye desirous to see the ende of that which in thought shee had deuised vpon a day tooke Dom Pietro aside and secretly began this oration I take God to wytnesse sir that the requeste which I pretende presently to make procedeth of desire rather that the worlde should knowe how iustly I séeke meanes to maintaine myne bonour than for desire of reuenge knowing very well that there is nothing so precious and deare vnto a woman as the preseruation of that inestimable iewel specially in a Ladie of that honorable degrée which I maintain among the best And to the intent I seeme not tedious with prolixitie of wordes or vse other than direct circumstances before him that hath offred iust reuenge for the wrongs I haue receiued Know you sir that for a certain time I continued at Pauie keping a house and traine so honest as the best lords were cōtented with myne ordinarie It chaunced that two honest gentlemen of noble house haūted my palace in like sort and with the same intertainment which as you sée I doe receiue eche Gentleman who beyng well intreated and honoured of me in the ende forgat themselues so farre as without respect of my state and calling without regard of the race and familie wherof they come haue attempted the slaunder of my good name and vtter subuersion of my renoune and sufficient it was not for them thus to deale with me poore Gentlewoman without desert excepte it were for admittyng them to haue accesse vnto my house but also to continue their blasphemies to mine extreme reproche 〈◊〉 shame and how true the same is they that know me can well declare by reason wherof the vulgar people 〈◊〉 and readie to wicked reportes haue 〈◊〉 such opinion of me as for that they sée me braue and fine in apparel and specially through the slaunderous speache of those gallantes doe déene and repute me for a common whoore wherof I craue none other witnesse than your selfe and my conscience And I swear vnto you that sithe I came to Milan it is you alone that hath vanquished and made the triumphe of my chastitie And if you were absent from this Citie I assure you on my faith that I wold not tarie here 〈◊〉 houres These infamous ruffians I say these persecuters and termagants of my good name haue chased me out of all good Cities and made me to be abhorred of all honest companie that wearie I am of my life and lothe to liue any longer except spedie redresse be 〈◊〉 for reuengement of this wrong Wherefore excepte I finde some noble Champion and valiant 〈◊〉 to requite these villains for their spitefull speach blased on me in euery corner of towne and countrey and to paye them theyr rewarde and hire that I may liue at libertie and quiet sorow will either consume me or myne owne hands shal hasten spedy death And in 〈◊〉 those wordes she beganne to wéepe with such abundance of teares streaming downe hir cheekes and necke of Alabaster hewe as the Scicilian which almost had none other God but the Countesse sayd vnto hir And what is he that dare molest and slaunder hir that hath in hir puissaunce so many Souldiers and men of warre I make a vowe to God that yf I knowe the names of those two arrant vilaynes the which haue so defamed my Mystresse name the whole 〈◊〉 shall not saue their lyues whose carrion bodies I wyll hewe into so many gobbetts as they haue membres vpon the same Wherefore Madame sayd he imbracing hir I praye you to grieue youre selfe no more committe your wronges to mée onely tell me the names of those Gallauntes and afterwardes you shall vnderstande what dyfference I make of woorde and déede and if I doe not trymme and dresse them so fynely as hereafter they shall haue no néede of Barber neuer truste me any more Shée as reuiued from death to lyfe kyssed and embraced hym a thousande tymes thankyng hym for hys good will and offeryng hym all that shée hadde In the ende shée tolde hym that hir enimies were the Counties of Massino and 〈◊〉 which but by theyr deaths alone were not able to amende and repaire hir honoure Care not you sayde hée for before that the Sunne shall spreade hys Beames twice xxiiii houres vpon the earthe you shall heare newes and knowe what I am able to doe for the chastisement of those deuyls As he promysed hée fayled not to doe For within a whyle after as Ardizzino was goyng to supper into the Citie he was espyed by hym that had in companie attendaunt vpon hym fyue and twentie men of Armes which wayted for Ardizzino in a lane on the lefte hande of the streate called Merauegli leadyng towards the church of Sainct Iames through which the Counte must néedes passe Who as he was goyng very pleasantly disposed with his brother and v or vi of his men was unmediatly assailed on euery side and not knowing what it meant woulde haue fledde but the wayes and passages were stopped rounde aboute to defende hym selfe it auayled not hauing but their single swords and amidde the troupe of such a bande that were throughly armed which in a moment had murdred and cut in pieces all that companie And although it was late yet the Counte Ardizzino many times named Dom Pietro which caused him to be taken and imprisoned by the Duke of Bourbon that was fled out of Fraunce and then was lieutenaunt for the Emperour Charles the fifth in Milan Whosoeuer was astonned and amazed with that imprisonmēt it is to be thought that the 〈◊〉 was
an hundred thousand deathes did stande about hir haling hir on euery side and plucking hir in pieces féelyng that hir forces diminyshed by litle and litle fearing that through to great debilitie she was not able to do hir enterprise like a furious and insensate womā without further care gulped vp the water within the viol then crossing hir armes vpon hir stomacke she lost at that instant al the powers of hir body and remained in a traunce And when the mornyng light began to thrust his head out of his Orient hir chamber woman which had lockte hir in with the key did open the doore and thinking to awake hir called hir many times and sayde vnto hir Mistresse you sléepe to long the Counte Paris will come to raise you The poore olde woman spake vnto the wall and 〈◊〉 a song vnto the deafe For if all the horrible and tempestuous soundes of the worlde had bene canoned forth oute of the greatest bombardes and sounded through hir delicate eares hir spirits of lyfe were so fast bounde and stopt as she by no meanes coulde awake wherewith the poore olde woman amazed beganne 〈◊〉 shake hir by the armes and handes which she founde so colde as marble stone Then puttyng hande vnto hir mouthe sodainely perceyued that she was deade for she perceyued no breath in hir Wherfore lyke a woman out of hir wyttes shée ranne to tell hir mother who so madde as Tigre bereft of hir faons hyed hir selfe into hir daughters chaumber and in that pitifull state beholdyng hir daughter thinking hir to be deade cried out Ah cruell death which hast ended all my ioye and blisse vse thy laste scourge of thy wrathfull ire against me least by suffering me to lyue the rest of my woful dayes my tormente do increase then she began to fetchsuch straining sighes as hir heart dyd séeme to cleaue in pieces And as hir cries beganne to encrease beholde the father the Counte Paris and a greate troupe of Gentlemen and Ladies which were come to honour the feast hearing no soner tell of that which chaunced were stroke into such sorowfull dumpes as he whiche had behelde their faces wold easily haue iudged that the same had bē a day of ire pitie specially the lord Antonio whose heart was frapped with such surpassing wo as neither teare nor word could issue forth knowing not what to doe streight way sēt to seke that most expert phisitians of the towne who after they had inquired of the life past of Iulietta déemed by common reporte that melancolie was the cause of that sodaine death then their sorowes began to renue a 〈◊〉 And if euer day was lamentable piteous vnhappie and fatall truely it was that wherin Iulietta hir death was published in Verona for shée was so bewailed of great small that by the cōmon plaintes the common wealth séemed to be in daunger not without cause For besides hir natural beautie accompanied with many vertues wherewith nature had enriched hir she was else so humble wise and debonaire as for that humilitie and curtesie she had stollen away the heartes of euery wight and there was none but did lamente hir misfortune And whilest these things were in this lamented state Frier Laurence with diligence dispatched a Frier of his Couent named Frier Anselme whome he trusted as himselfe and deliuered him a letter written with his owne hande commaunding him expressely not to gyue the same to any other but to Rhomeo wherein was conteyned the chaunce which had passed betwene him and Iulietta specially that vertue of the pouder and commaunded him the nexte ensuing night to spéede him self to Verona for that the operation of the pouder that time would take ende that he should cary with him back again to Mantua his 〈◊〉 Iulietta in dissembled apparell vntill Fortune bad otherwise prouided for them The frier made such hast as too late he ariued at Mantua within a while after And bicause the maner of Italie is that the Frier trauailing abroade oughte to take a companion of his couent to doe his affaires within the Citie the Frier went into his couent but bicause he was entred in it was not lawfull for him to come out againe that day for that certain dayes before one religious of that couent as it was sayd did die of the plague Wherefore the magistrates appointed for the healthe and visitation of the sicke commaunded the warden of the house that no Friers shold wander abrode the Citie or talke with any citizen vntill they were licenced by the officers in that behalfe appointed which was the cause of the great mishap which you shal heare hereafter The Frier being in this perplexitie not able to goe forth and not knowing what was cōtained in the letter deferred his iorney for that day Whilest things were in this plight preparation was made at Veronna to doe the obsequies of Iulietta There is a custome also which is common in Italie to place all the beste of one lignage and familie in one Tombe wherby Iulietta was layde in the ordinarie graue of the 〈◊〉 in a Churcheyarde harde by the Churche of the Friers where also the Lorde Thibault was interred And hir obsequies honourably done euery man returned whereunto Pietro the seruant of Rhomeo gaue hys assistance For as we haue before declared his master sente him backe againe from Mantua to Verona to do his father seruice and to aduertise hym of that whiche shoulde chaunce in his absence there who séeing the body of Iulietta inclosed in tombe thinkyng with the rest that she had bene dead in déede incontinently toke poste horse and with diligence rode to Mantua where he founde his maister in his wonted house to whome he sayde with his eyes full of teares Syr there is chaunced vnto you so straunge a matter as if so bée you do not arme your selfe with constancie I am afrayde that I shal be the cruell minister of your death Bée it knowne vnto you syr that yesterday morning my mistresse Iulietta left hir lyfe in this world to seke rest in an other and wyth these eyes I saw hir buried in the Churchyarde of S. Frauncis At the sounde of which heauie message Rhomeo began wofully to 〈◊〉 as though his spirites grieued with the 〈◊〉 of his passion at that instant woulde haue abandoned his bodie But strong Loue whiche woulde not permitte hym to faint vntill the extremitie framed a thoughte in his fantasie that if it were possible for hym to dye besides hir his death shoulde be more glorious and 〈◊〉 as he thought better contented By reason whereof after 〈◊〉 had washed his face for 〈◊〉 to discouer hys sorrow he went out of hys chamber and commaunded hys man to 〈◊〉 behynde hym that hée might walke thorough oute all the corners of the Citie to fynde propre remedie if it were possyble for hys griefe And 〈◊〉 others beholdyng an Apoticaries shoppe of lytle furniture and lesse store of boxes and other thynges requisite
for that science thought that the verie pouertie of the mayster Apothecarye woulde make hym wyllyngly yelde to that whych he pretended to demaunde And after hée hadde taken hym aside secretely he sayd vnto hym Syr if you bée the mayster of the house as I thynke you be beholde here Fiftie Ducates whych I gyue you to the intent you delyuer me some strong and 〈◊〉 poyson that within a quarter of an houre is able to procure death vnto hym that shall vse it The couetous Apothecarie entised by gayne agréed to hys request and saynyng to gyue hym some other medicine before the peoples face he spéedily made ready a strong and cruel poyson afterwardes hée sayd vnto hym softely Syr I 〈◊〉 you more than is needefull for the one halfe in an houres space is able to destroye the strongest manne of the worlde who after he hadde receyued the poyson retourned home where he commaunded his man to depart with diligence to Veronna and that he should make prouision of candels 'a tynder boxe and other instrumentes méete for the openynge of the graue of Iulietta and that aboue all things he shoulde not faile to attende hys commyng besides the Churchyarde of S. Frauncis and vpon paine of life to kéepe his intente in scilence Which Pietro obeyed in order as his master had commaunded hym and made therin such expedition as he arriued in good tyme to Verona taking order for all thinges that were commaunded him 〈◊〉 in the meane whyle beyng solicited wyth mortall thoughtes caused incke and paper to be broughte vnto hym and in fewe wordes put in writing all the 〈◊〉 of his loue the mariage of hym and Iulietta the meane obserued for consummation of the same the helpe that he hadde of Frier Laurence the buying of his poyson and last of all his death Afterwardes hauing finished his heauie tragedie hée closed the letters and sealed the same with his seale and directed the Superscription thereof to hys father and puttyng the letters into his pursse he mounted on horsebacke and vsed suche diligence that he arriued vppon darke night at the Citie of Veronna before the gates were shut where he found his seruant tarying for him there with a Lanterne and instruments beforesayd méete for the openyng of the graue vnto whome hée sayde Pietro helpe mée to open this Tombe and so soone as it is open I commaunde thée vpon payne of thy lyfe not to come néere me nor to stay me from the thyng I purpose to doe Beholde there is a letter which thou shalt present to morow in the morning to my father at hys vprisyng which peraduenture shall please him better than thou thynkest Pietro not able to imagine what was his maisters intent stode somewhat aloofe to beholde his maisters gestes and 〈◊〉 And when 〈◊〉 hadde opened the vaulte Rhomeo descended downe two 〈◊〉 holdyng the candell in his hande and beganne to beholde wyth pitifull eye the body of hir which was the organ of his lyfe and washt the same with the teares of his eyes and kyst it tenderly holding it harde betwene his armes and not able to satisfie him selfe wyth hir 〈◊〉 put his fearefull handes vpon the colde stomacke of Iulietta And after he had touched hir in manye places and not able to féele any certaine 〈◊〉 of lyfe he drewe the poyson out of his boxe and swalowyng downe a greate quantitie of the same cried out O Iulietta of whome the worlde was vnworthie what death is it possible my heart coulde choose out more agreable than that whiche it suffereth hard by thée What graue more glorious than to bée buried in thy tombe What more woorthie or excellente Epitaph can bée vowed for memorie than the mutuall and pitifull sacrifice of our lyues And thinking to renue his sorowe his hearte began to frette thorough the violence of the poyson which by litle and little assayled the same and lookyng aboute hym espyed the bodie of the Lorde Thibault lying nexte vnto Iulietta whyche as yet was not altogether putrified and speakyng to the bodye as though it hadde bene alyue sayde In what place so euer thou arte O cousyn Thibault I moste heartily doe crye thée mercy for the offense whyche I haue done by depriuyng of thy lyfe and if thy ghost 〈◊〉 wyshe and crye oute for vengeaunce vpon mée what greater or more cruell satisfaction canste thou desyre to haue or henceforth hope for than to sée hym which murdered thée to bée empoysoned wyth hys owne handes and buryed by thy syde Then endyng hys talk feling by litle and litle that his life began to faile falling prostrate vpon his knées with féeble voice hée softly said O my Lord God which to redéeme me didst 〈◊〉 from the bosome of thy father tokest humane flesh in the wombe of the virgine I acknowledge and cōfesse that this body of mine is nothing else but earth and dust Then seased vpon with desperate sorow he fell downe vpon the body of Iulietta with such vehemēce as the heart faint and attenuated with too great torment not able to beare so hard a violence was abādoned of all his sense and naturall powers in such fort as the siege of his soule failed him at that instant and his membres stretched forth remained stiffe and colde Frier Laurence which knew the certaine time of the pouders operation maruelled that he had no answere of the letter which he sent to Rhomeo by his fellow Frier Anselme departed from S. Frauncis and with instruments for the purpose determined to open the graue to let in air to Iulietta which was redy to wake and approching that place he espied a light within which made him afraid vntill that Pietro which was hard by had certified him that Rhomeo was within had not ceased there to lament and complaine the space of half an houre And then they two were entred the graue finding Rhomeo without life made such sorow as they can well conceiue which loue their deare friend with like perfection And as they were making their complaints Iulietta rising out of hir traunce and beholding light within the tombe vncertaine whether it were a dreame or fantasie that appeared before hir eyes comming againe to hir selfe knew Frier Laurence vnto whom she sayd Father I pray thée in the name of God 〈◊〉 perfourme thy promise for I am almost deade And then Frier Laurence concealing nothing from hir bicause he feared to be taken through his too long abode in that place faithfully rehearsed vnto hir how he had sent Frier Anselme to Rhomeo at Mantua frō whome as yet he had receiued no answer Notwithstanding he foūd Rhomeo dead in the graue whose body he pointed vnto lying hard by hir praying hir sith it was so paciently to beare that sodaine misfortune that if it pleased hir he wold conuey hir into some monastery of women where she might in time moderate hir sorow and giue rest vnto hir minde Iulietta had no sooner cast eye vpon the dead corpse of
Rhomeo but began to breake the fountaine pipes of gushing teares which ran forth in such aboundance as not able to support the furor of hir grief she breathed without ceasing vpō his mouth and then throwing hir self vpon his body 〈◊〉 it very hard séemed that by force of sighs and sobs she wold haue reuiued and brought him againe to life and after she had kissed and rekissed him a million of times she cried out Ah the swete rest of my cares the only porte of all my pleasures and pastymes hadst thou 〈◊〉 sure a heart to choose thy Churchyarde in this place betwene the armes of thy perfect louer and to ende the course of thy life for my sake in the floure of thy youth whē life to thée shold haue bene most dear delectable how had this tender body power to resist the furious cōbat of death very death it self being here present How could thy fēder delicate youth willingly permit that thou shouldest approch into this filthy infected place where frō henceforth thou shalt be the pasture of worms vnworthy of thée Alas alas by what meanes shall I now renew my plaints which time and long pacience ought to haue buried and clearly quenched Ah I miserable and caitife wretch thinking to finde remedie for my griefs I haue sharpned the knife that hath 〈◊〉 me this cruel blow whereof I receiue the cause of mortall wound Ah happy and fortunate graue which shalt serue in world to come for witnesse of the most perfect aliāce that euer was betwene two most fortunate louers receiue now the last sobbing sighes intertainment of the most cruel of all the cruell subiects of ire death And as she thought to cōtinue hir cōplaints Pietro aduertised Frier Laurence the he heard a noise bisides the citadel wherwith being afraid they 〈◊〉 departed fearing to be taken And then Iulietta seing hir self alone in full libertie toke againe Rhomeo betwene hir armes kissing him with such affection as she semed to be more attainted with loue thā death and drawing out the dagger which Rhomeo ware by his side she pricked hir self with many blowes against the hart saying with feble pitiful voyce Ah death the end of sorow and beginning of felicity thou art most heartily welcome feare not at this time to sharpen thy dart giue no longer delay of life for fear that my sprite trauaile not to finde Rhomeos ghost amonges such numbre of carion corpses And thou my deare Lord and loyall husbande Rhomeo if there rest in thée any knowledge receiue hir whome thou hast so faithfully loued the only cause of thy violent death which frankely offreth vp hir soule that none but thou shalt ioy the loue wherof thou hast made so lawfull conquest And that our soules passing from this light may eternally liue together in the place of euerlasting ioy and when she had ended those words she yelded vp hir gost While these things thus were done the garde watch of the Citie by chāce passed by séeing light wtin the graue suspected straight the they were Necromācers which had opened the 〈◊〉 to abuse the dead bodies for aide of their arte desirous to know what it mēt wēt downe into the vaut where they 〈◊〉 Rhomeo Iulietta with their armes imbracing 〈◊〉 others neck as though there had ben some tokē of life And after they had well viewed them at leisure they knew in what case they were And thē all amazed they sought for the theues which as they thought had done the murder and in the end found the good father Frier Laurence and Pietro the seruaunt of dead Rhomeo which had hid themselues vnder a stall whome they caried to prison and aduertised the Lord of Escala and the Magistrates of Verona of that horrible murder which by and by was published throughout the Citie Then flocked together all the Citezens women children leauing their houses to looke vpon that pitifull sight and to the ende that in presence of the whole Citie the murder should be knowne the Magistrates ordained that the two deade bodies should be erected vpon a stage to the view and sight of the whole world in such sort and maner as they were found within the graue and that Pietro and Frier Laurence should publikely be examined that afterwardes there might be no murmure or other pretended cause of ignorance And this good olde Frier being vpon the scaffold hauing a white beard all wet bathed with teares the iudges cōmaūded to declare vnto them who were the authors of that murder sith at vntimely houre he was apprehended with certaine irons bisides the graue Frier Laurence a rounde and franke man of talke nothing moued with that accusation sayd vnto them with stoute and bolde voyce My masters there is none of you all if you haue respect vnto my forepassed life and to my aged yeres and therewithall haue cōsideration of this heauy spectacle whervnto vnhappy fortune hath presently brought me but doeth greatly maruell of so sodaine mutation change vnlooked for for so much as these thrée score and ten or twelue yeares sithens I came into this world and began to proue the vanities thereof I was neuer suspected touched or found gilty of any crime which was able to make me blush or hide my face although before God I doe confesse my self to be the greatest and most abhominable sinner of al the redéemed flock of Christ. So it is notwithstanding that sith I am prest ready to render mine accompt and that death the graue and wormes do daily summō this wretched corps of mine 〈◊〉 appeare before the iustice seate of God still waighting and 〈◊〉 to be caried to my hoped graue this is the houre I say as you likewise may thinke wherin I am fallen to the greatest damage preiudice of my life and honest port and that which hath ingēdred this sinister opinion of me may peraduēture be these great teares which in abundance trickle downe my face as though the holy scriptures do not witnesse that Iesus Christ moued with humane pitie and compassion did wepe and pour forth teares that many times teares be the faithfull messengers of a mans innocency Or else the most likely euidence and presumption is the suspected houre which as the magistrate doth say doe make me culpable of the murder as though all houres were not indifferently made equall by God their creattor who in his owne person declareth vnto vs the there be twelue houres in the day shewing therby that there is no exception of houres nor of minutes but that one may doe either good or yll at all times indifferently as the partie is guided or forsaken by the sprite of God touching the yrons which were found about me néedefull it is not now to let you vnderstand for what vse Iron was first made and that of it self it is not able to increase in man either good or euill if not by the mischeuous minde
foolyshe mothers are to be accused which suffer their daughters of tender and chyldishe age to bée 〈◊〉 red of theyr seruantes not remembryng 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fleshe is howe prone and redy men be to doe euill and how the seducing spirite waiting still vpon vs is procliue and prone to surprise and catche vs within his snares to thintent he may reioyse in the ruin of soules washed and redéemed with the blood of the son of God This troupe drawyng nere to the caue of Dom Diego Roderico sent one of his men to 〈◊〉 hym of their commyng who in the absence of hys friende 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 wyth hope shortely to sée the onely Ladie of hys hearte accompanyed wyth a merie 〈◊〉 ioyfull traine so soone as he had somewhat 〈◊〉 hys wylde maner of lyfe he also by litle and litle 〈◊〉 a good parte of his lustie and freshe colour and almoste hadde recouered that beautie whiche he hadde when he first became a Citizen of those desertes Now hauing vnderstanded the message sent vnto him by Roderico God knoweth yf wyth that 〈◊〉 tydyngs he felte a motion of bloode such as made all hys membres to leape and daunce whyche rendred hys mynde astoonned for the onely memorie of the thyng that poysed hys mynde vp and downe not able to stande wyth equall balaunce whyche rather hée ought to haue made reioyse than complaine being assured to sée hir of whome hée demaunded onely grace and pardon but for recouerie thereof he durst not repose any certaine Iudgement In the ende hoystyng vp his head like one rysen from a long and sonnd sléepe hée sayde Praise be to God who yet before I dye hath done me that pleasure to suffer me to haue a sight of hir that by causing my martirdome continueth thys disordered lyfe which shall procure in like sort mine vtter ruine and decay Upō the approch wher of I shall goe more ioyful charged with incomparable loue to visite the ghostes beneath dead in the presence of that cruel swete and who tormenting me with ticklish tentation hath made me taste honie sugred with 〈◊〉 gall more dangerouse than the sucke of poison and vnder the vermilion rudde of a new sprouted rose 〈◊〉 blowen forthe hath hidden secrete thornes the prickes whereof hath me so liuely touched as my wounde can not well be cured with any baulme that maye be therevnto applied without enioying of that mine owne happie missehap or without that remedie which almost I féele the same only resting in death that so long and oftenymes I haue desired as the true remedie of my paines and griefe In the meane whyle Dom Roderico whiche tyll that tyme was not known vnto Gineura drewe néere vnto hir by the way as he rode and talked with hir in thys sorte I doubte not Gentlewoman but that you thynke youre selfe not well contented to sée me in this place in such company and for occasion so vnséemely for my degrée and state and moreouer knowing what iniurie I séeme to do vnto you that euer was and am so affectionate and frendly to that whole stock of your race linage am not ignorant that vpon that first brūt you may iudge my cause vniust to cary you away from the handes of your friende to bring you into these 〈◊〉 wylde and solitarie places But yf ye considered the force of that true amitie whiche by vertue sheweth the common bondes of hearts and mindes of men shall measure to what ende this acte is done without to muche staying 〈◊〉 the light apprehension of choler for a beginnyng somwhat troublesom I am assured then that yf you be not wholly depriued of reason I shall not bee altogether blamed nor you quite of faulte And bycanse 〈◊〉 drawe néere vnto the place whether by the helpe of God I meane to conduct you I beseeche you to consyder that the true seruaunt whiche by all seruice and duetie studieth to execute the comaundementes of him that hath 〈◊〉 ouer hym dothe not deserue to bée beaten or driuen away from the house of his master but to be fauoured and cherished and ought to receyue equall recompense for his seruice I speake not this for my selfe my deuotion being 〈◊〉 elsewhere and not to you sauing for that honest affection which I ought to beare to all vertuous and chaste persons The 〈◊〉 whereof I will not denie vnto you in tyme and place where I shal vse such 〈◊〉 towards you as is mete for a maiden of your age and state For the gretnesse of noble men puisant doth most appeare shew forthit self when they vse mildenesse gentlenesse vnto those to whō by reson of their authoritie they might do 〈◊〉 tie malice Now to that end that I do not make you doutful long Al that which I haue done yet do mean to do is for none other purpose but to ease the greuous paines of that most faithful louer that liueth at this day vnder that circle of the Moone It is for the good Knight Dom Diego that loueth you so derely stil worshippeth your noble fame who bicause he wil not shew him self disobedic̄t liueth miserably amōg brute beasts amid the craggy rocks and mountaines and in the déepe solitudes of comfortlesse dales valleis It is to him I say that I doe bring you protesting vnto you by othe Gentlewoman that that misery wherin I saw him little more than vj. wekes past toucheth me so neare the heart as if the Sacrifice of my life sufficed alone without letting you to féele this painefull voyage for the solace of his 〈◊〉 I wold spare it no more than I do mine owne endeuor and honor besides the hazarding of that losse of your good grace and fauoure And albeit I wel perceiue that I do grieue you by causing you to enter this painfull iourney yet I beseche you that that whole displeasure of this 〈◊〉 may be imputed vnto my charge and that it wold please you louingly to deale with him who for your sake vseth such cruell misdemeanor against himselfe Gineura as a woman halfe in despaire for the death of hir friend behaued hir self like a mad woman voide of wit and sense and the simple remembraunce of Dom Diego his name so astonned hir which name she hated far more than the pāgs of death that she staide a long time hir mouth not able to shape one word to speake In the end vanquished with impacience burning with choler and trembling for sorow loked vpon Dom Roderico with an eye no lesse furious than a Tigresse caught within the net and séeth before hir face hir yong Fawnes murdered wringing hir handes and beating hir delicate brest she vsed these or such like words Ah bloudy traitor and no more Knight is it of thée that I ought to looke for so detestable a villanie and treason 〈◊〉 darest thou be so hardie to entreate me for an o ther that hast in mine own presence killed him whose death I wil pursue vpon
thée so long as I shal haue life within this body Is it to thée false théefe and murderer that I ought to render accompte of that which I meant to do who hath appointed thée to be arbitrator or who gaue thée commission to capitulate the articles of my mariage Is it by force then that thou woldest I shold loue that vnfaithful Knight for whome thou hast committed done this acte that so long as thou liuest shall blot and blemish thy renoume and shall be so wel fixed in my minde and the wounds shal cleaue so neare my heart vntill at my pleasure I be reuenged of this wrong No no I assure thée that any force done vnto me shal neuer make me otherwise disposed thā a mortall enimy both to thée which art a Théefe rauisher of an other mans wife also to thy desperate friend Dom Diego which is the cause of this my losse And now not satisfied with the former wrong done vnto me thou goest about to deceiue me vnder the colour of good and pure amitie But sith wicked Fortune hath made me thy prisoner doe with me what thou wilt and yet before I suffer and endure that that traytor Dom Diego doe enioy my virginitie I will offer vp my life to the shadowes and ghosts of my faithful frend and husband whom thou hast so traiterously murdred And therfore if honestly I may or ought entreate mine enimie I pray thée that by doing thy duetie thou suffer vs in peace and giue licence to me this Page and my two pore maidens to departe whether we list God 〈◊〉 quod Roderico that I should doe a trespasse so shamefull as to depriue my dearest friend of his ioy and contentation and by falsifiing my faith be an occasiō of his death and of your losse by leauing you without companie wādring amids this wildernesse And he cōtinued thus his former discourse and talke to reclaime this cruell Damsell to haue pitie vpon hir pore penitent but he gained as much by his talke as if he had gone about to number the sandes alongs the sea coastes of the maine Ocean Thus deuising from one talke to an other they arriued neare the Caue which was the stately house of Dom Diego where Gineura lighted and saw the pore amorous Knight humbly falling downe at hir féete all forworne pale and disfigured wéeping with warme teares he sayde vnto hir Alas my deare Ladie the alone and only mistresse of my heart do you not thinke that my penaunce is long inoughe for the sinne which ignorauntly I haue committed if euer I haue done any fault at all Beholde I beséeche you good Ladie deare what ioy I haue conceiued in your absence what pleasures haue nursed mine hope and what consolation hath entertained my life which truely had it not bene for the continuall remembraunce of your diuine beautie I had of long time abreuiated to shorten the paines which doe renewe in me so many times the pangs of death as oftentimes I thinke vpon the vnkindenesse shewed vnto me by making so little accompte of my fealtie which can nor shall receiue the same in good parte were it so perfect as any assuraunce were able to make it Gineura swelling with sorow and full of feminine rage blushing with fury hir eyes sparckling forth hir cholerike conceiptes vouchsafed not so much as to giue him one woord for answere and bicause she would not looke vpon him she turned hir face on the other side The pore and afflicted louer séeing the great crueltie of his felonious mistresse still knéeling vpon his knées redoubling his armes fetching his sighes with a voyce that semed to be drawne by force from the bottome of his heart sayd vnto hir Sith the sinceritie of 〈◊〉 faith my long seruice 〈◊〉 Gineura cannot persuade you that I haue bene a most obedient faithful very loyal seruaunt towards you as 〈◊〉 any man that hath serued Ladie or 〈◊〉 and that without your fauour grace it is 〈◊〉 possible for me any longer to liue yet I doe very hūbly beséeche you for that all other comfort is denied me if there be any gētlenesse and curtesie in you that I may receiue this onely grace at your hands for the last that euer I hope to craue which is that you being thus greuously offended with me would doe iustice to that vnfortunate man which vpon his knées doeth instantly craue the same Graunt cruell mistresse this my request doe vengeance at your pleasure vpon him which willingly yeldeth him self to death with the effusion of his pore innocent bloud to satisfie you and verily farre more expedient it is for him thus to die by appeasing your wil than to rest on liue to your discontentment or anoyance Alas shall I be so vnfortunate that both life and death should be denied me by one person of the world whom I hope to content and please by any sort or meanes what so euer resting in mine humble obedience Alas Gentlewoman rid me from this torment and dispatch your selfe from the griefe which you haue to sée this vnhappy Knight who would say and estéeme himself to be happy his life being lothsome vnto you if he may content you by death done by your owne hands sith other fauor he cannot expect or hope for The maiden hardned in hir opinion stoode stil immoueable much like vnto a rocke in the midst of the sea 〈◊〉 with a tēpest of billowes and fomie 〈◊〉 in such wise as one word could not be procured frō hir mouth Which vnlucky Dom Diego perceiuing attached with the feare of present death and failing his natural force fell downe to the ground and fainting sayd Ah what a recompense doe I receiue for this so faithfull Loue Roderico beholding that hideous 〈◊〉 whilest the others wēt about to 〈◊〉 Dom Diego repaired to Gineura and full of heauinesse mingled with 〈◊〉 sayde vnto hir By God false 〈◊〉 woman if so be that I do change my minde I will make thée féele the smarte no lesse than thou shewest thy selfe dishonourable to them that doe thée honour Arte thou so carelesse of so great a Lorde as this is that humbleth hymselfe so low to such a strumpet as thou art who without regard either to his renoume or the honour of his house is content to be abandoned from his noble state to become a fugitiue and straunger What crueltie is this for thée to misprise the greatest humilitie that mā can imagin What greater amendes 〈◊〉 thou wish to haue although the 〈◊〉 which thou presupposest had ben true Now if thou be wise change this opinion except thou wouldest haue mée doe into so many pieces thy cruell 〈◊〉 and vnfaithfull heart as once this poore knight did in parts the vnhappie hauke which through thy follie did bréede vnto him this distresse and to thy selfe the name of the most cruell and disloyall woman that euer liued But what greater benefite can happen vnto thée than to sée this Gentleman vtterly to forget
maye bée harbored so straunge furie and vnreasonable rage O God the effecte of the crueltie resting in this woman paintyng it selfe in the imaginatiue force of my minde hath made me feare the like missehappe to come to the cruell state of this disauenturous gentlemā Notwithstanding O thou cruell beast thinke not that thys thy furie shall stay me from doyng thée to death to ryd thée from follie and disdaine this vnfortunate louer from dispaire and trouble verily beleuing that in time it shall be knowne what profite the worlde shal gaine by purging the same of such an infected plague as is an vnkinde and arrogant heart and it shall féele what vtilitie ryseth by thyne ouerthrow And I do hope besydes that in time to come men shal praise this dede of mins who for preseruing the honour of one house haue chosen rather to doe to death two offenders than to leaue one of them aliue to obscure the glorie and brightnesse of the other And therefore sayd he tourning his face to those of his traine Cut the throte of this 〈◊〉 and froward beast doe the like to them that be come with hir shewe no more fauor vnto them all than that curssed strumpet doeth mercy to the life of that miserable Gentleman who dieth there for loue of hir The maiden hearing the cruel sentence of hir death cried out so loude as she could thinking reskue would haue come but the pore wenche was deceiued for the desert knewe none other but those that were abiding in that troupe The Page and the woman seruaunt exclamed vpon Roderico for mercie but he made as though he heard them not and rather made signe to his men to do what he commaunded When Gineura sawe that their deathe was purposed in déede confirmed in opinion rather to die thā to obey she said vnto the executioners My friends I beséeche you let not these innocentes abide the penaunce of that which they neuer committed And you Dom Roderico be 〈◊〉 on me by whome the fault if a womans faith to hir husband may be termed a faulte is done And let these 〈◊〉 depart that be God knoweth innocent of any crime And thou my frend which liuest amongs the shadowes of faithfull louers if thou haue any féeling as in déede thou prouest being in another world beholde that purenesse of mine heart sidelitie of my loue who to kepe the same inuiolable doe offer my self voluntarily to the death which this cruell tyrant prepareth for me And thou hangman the executioner of my ioyes and murderer of the immortall pleasures of my loue sayd she to Roderico glut thy gluttonous desire of bloud make dronke thy minde with murder 〈◊〉 of thy little triūphe which for all thy threats or persuasible words thou 〈◊〉 not get frō the heart of a simple maiden ne cary away the victory for all the battred breach made into the rāpare of hir honoure When she had so sayd a man would haue thought that the memory of death had cooled hir heate but that same serued hir as an assured solace of hir paines Dom Diego come to himself seeing the discourse of that tragedie being now addressed to the last 〈◊〉 end of that life and stage of faire golden locked Gincura making a vertue of necessitie recouered a little corage to saue if it were possible the life of hir that had put his owne in hazard miserably to end Hauing stayed them that held the maidē he repaired to Dom Roderico to whom he spake in this wise I sée wel my good Lord and great friend that the good will you beare me causeth you to vse this honest order for my behalf wherof I doubt if I should liue a whole hundred yeares I shall not be able to satisfie the least of the bondes wherein I am bound the same surpassing all mine abilitie and power Yet for all that deare friend sith you 〈◊〉 the fault of this missehap to arise of my predestinate ill lucke and that man cannot auoide things once ordained I beseech you do me yet this good pleasure for all the benefits that euer I haue receiued to send back again this gentlewoman with hir traine to the place frō whence you toke hir with like assuraūce 〈◊〉 as if she were your sister For I am pleased with your endeuor cōtented with my misfortune assuring you sir besides that the trouble which she endureth doth far more grieue my hart than al that paine which for hir sake I suffer That hir sorowe then may decrease and mine may renue again that she may line in peace and I in warre for hir cruel beautie sake I will wait vpon Clotho the spinner of the threden life of mā vntill shée breake the twisted lace that holdeth the fatal course of my doleful yeares And you Gentlewomā liue in rest as your pore suppliāt wretched Dom Diego shal be citizen of these wild places vaunt you 〈◊〉 that you were that best beloued maiden that euer liued Maruellous truely bée the forces of Loue when they discouer their perfection for by their meanes things otherwise impossible be reduced to such facilitie as a mā woulde iudge that they had neuer bene so harde to obtaine and so painefull to pursue As appeared by thys damsell in whome the wrathe of fortune the pinche of iealosie the intollerable rage of hir friendes losse 〈◊〉 ingendred a contempt of Dom Diego an extreme desire to be reuenged on Dom Roderico and a 〈◊〉 of longer life And now putting of the 〈◊〉 of blinde appetite for the esclarishyng of hir vnderstanding eyes and breaking the Adamant rock planted in the middes of hir breast she beheld in open 〈◊〉 the stedfastnesse pacience and perseueration of hir greate friende For that supplication of the Knight had greater force in Gineura than all his former seruices And full well 〈◊〉 shewed the same when throwing hir selfe vpon that neck of the desperate Gentleman and imbracing hym very louingly she sayd vnto him Ah syr that youre felicitie is the beginning of my great ioy of minde which 〈◊〉 now of swéetenesse in the very same in whome I imagined to be the welspring of bitternesse The diminution of one griefe is and shall bée the increase of 〈◊〉 bonde such as for euer I wil cal my self the most humble slaue of your worshyp lowly beséeching you neuerthelesse to pardon my follies wherewith full fondely I haue abused your pacience Consider a while sir I beseech you the nature and secrecie of loue For those that be blinded in that passion thinke them selues to be perfecte séers and yet be the first that commit most 〈◊〉 faultes I doe not denie any committed wrong trespasse and doe not refuse therfore the honest and gentle correction that you shall appointe mée for expiation of mine offense Ah my noble Ladie aunswered the knight all rapt with pleasure and half way out of his wits for ioy I humbly beséeche you inflicte vpon my pore wretched body no further
was called Angēlica a name of trouth without offense to other due to hir For in very déede in hir were harbored the vertue of curtesy and gentlenesse and was so wel instructed and nobly brought vp as they which loued not the name or race of hir could not forbeare to commend hir and wish that their daughter were hir like In suche wise as one of hir chiefest foes was so sharpely beset with hir vertue and beautie as he lost his quiet sléepe lust to eate drinke His name was Anselmo Salimbene who wold willingly haue made sute to marry hir but the discord past quite mortified his desire so sone as he had deuised the plot within his braine and fansie Notwithstāding it was impossible that the loue so liuely grauen and 〈◊〉 in his minde could easily be defaced For if once in a day he had not séene hir his heart did fele the tormēts of tosting flames and wished that the Hunting of the Bore had neuer decayed a familie so excellent to the intent he might haue matched himself with hir whome none other coulde displace out of his remembraunce which was one of the richest Gentlemen and of greatest power in Siena Now for that he ourst not discouer his amorous grief to any person was the chiefest cause that martired most his heart for the auncient festred malice of those two families he despaired for euer to gather either floure or fruit of that affection presupposing that Angelica would neuer fire hir loue on him for that his Parents were the cause of the defaite ouerthrow of the Montanine house But what There is nothing durable vnder the heauens Both good and euill 〈◊〉 their reuolution in the gouernement of humane affaires The amities and hatreds of Kings and Princes be they so hardned as commonly in a moment he is not 〈◊〉 to be a hearty friend that lately was a 〈◊〉 foe and spired naught else but the ruine of his aduer farie We sée the varietie of humane chaunces and then 〈◊〉 iudge at eye what great simplicitie it is to stay settle certain and infallible iudgemit vpon 〈◊〉 vnstayed doings He that erst gouerned a king made all things to tremble at his word is sodainly throwne downe dieth a shamefull death In like sort another which loketh for his owne vndoing séeth himselfe aduaunced to his estate againe and vengeaunce taken of his enimies Calir Bassa gouerned whilom that great Mahomet that wan the Empire of Constantinople who attempted nothing without the aduise of that Bassa But vpon the sodain he saw himself reiected the next day strangled by commaundement of him which so greatly honored him without iust cause did him to a death so cruell Contrariwise Argon the T artarian entring armes against his vncle Tangodor Caui when he was vpon the point to lose his life for his rebellion and was conueyed into Armenia to be executed there was rescued by certain T artarians the houshold seruaūtes of his dead vncle and afterwards proclaimed king of T artarie about the yere 1285. The example of the Empresse Adaleda is of no lesse credit than the former who being fallen into the hands of Beranger the vsurper of that Empire escaped his fury and cruelty by flight in the end maried to Otho the first saw hir wrong reuenged vpō Beranger and al his race by hir sonne Otho the second I aduouch these histories to proue the mobility of fortune the chaunge of worldly chaunces to the end you may sée that the very same miserie which followed Charles Montanine hoisted him aloft again when he loked for least succor he saw deliueraunce at hād Now to prosecute our history know ye that while Salimbenc by little litle pined for loue of Angelica wherof she was ignorāt carelesse and albeit she curteously rendred health to him when somtime in his amorous fit he beheld hir at a window yet for al that she neuer gessed the thoughts of hir louing enimy During these haps it chaūced that a rich citizen of Siena hauing a ferme adioyning to the lāds of Montanine desirous to encrease his patrimonie annere the same vnto his owne and knowing that the yong gentleman wanted many things moued him to sel his inheritaunce offring him for it in redy mony a M. Ducates Charles which of all the wealth substaunce left him by his auncester had no more remaining but that countrey ferme a Palace in the Citie so the rich Italians of eche city terme their houses and with that litle liued honestly maintained his sister so wel as he could refused flatly to dispossesse himselfe of that porcion which renewed vnto him that happy memory of those that had ben the chief of al the cōmon wealth The couetous wretch seing himself frustrate of his pray conceiued such rancor against Montanine as he purposed by right or wrōg to make him not only to for fait the same but also to lose his life following the wicked desire of tirannous Iesabel that made Naboth to be stoned to death to extorte and wrongfully get his vineyarde About that time for the quarels cōmon discordes raigning throughout Italy that nobilitie were not assured of safety in their countreis but rather the cōmon sort rascall nūber were that chief rulers and gouerners of the cōmon wealth whereby the greatest part of the nobilitie or those of best authoritie being banished the villanous band and grosest kind of common people made a law like to the Athenians in the time of Solon that all persons of what degrée cōditiō so euer they were which practized by himselfe or other meanes the restablishing or reuocation of such as wer banished out of their Citie shold lose forfaite the sum of M. Florens and hauing not wherewith to pay the condempnation their heade should remaine for gage A law no dout very iust and righteous scenting rather of the barbarous cruelty of the Gothes and 〈◊〉 thā of true christians stopping the retire of innocents exiled for particular quarels of Citizens incited one against another and rigorously rewarding mercy and curtesie with execution of cruelty incomparable This citizen then purposed to accuse Montanine for offending against the lawe bicause otherwise he could not purchase his entent and the same was easy inough for him to compasse by reason of his authority and estimation in the Citie for the enditement and plea was no sooner red and giuen but a number of post knightes appeared to depose against the pore gentleman to beare witnesse that he had trespassed the lawes of the Countrey and had sought meanes to introduce the banished with intent to kill the gouerners and to place in state those 〈◊〉 that were the cause of the Italian troubles The miserable gentleman knew not what to do ne how to defend himself There were against him the Moone the. vy starres the state of the Citie the Proctor and Iudge of the court the witnesses that gaue
haue 〈◊〉 to present with too excéeding prodigall liberalitie and I would to God that life might satisfie the same then be sure it should so soone be imployed as the promise made thereof Alas good God I thought that when I 〈◊〉 my brother out of prison the neare distresse of death wherunto vniustly he was throwne I thought I say and firmely did beleue that fortune the enimy of our ioy had vomited al hir poison and being despoiled of hir fury and crabbed nature had brokē the bloudy and venemous arowes wherewith so long time she hath plaged our family and that by resting of hir self she had giuen some rest to the Montanine house of al their troubles misaduētures But I O miserable wight do see féele how far I am deuided from my hope and deceiued of mine opinion sith that furious stepdame appereth before me with a face more fierce thretning then euer she did sharpening hir selfe against my youth in other sorte than euer against any of our race If euer she persecuted our auncesters if she brought them to ruine and decay she now doth purpose wholly to subuert the same and throw vs headlong into that bottomlesse pit of all miserie exterminating for all togither the remnaunt of our consumed house Be it either by losse of thée good brother or the violent death of me which cannot hazard my chastitie for the price of mine vnhappie life Ah good God into what anguishe is my minde exponed how doe I féele the force and violence of frowarde fortune But what speake I of fortune How doth hard lucke insue that is predestinated by the heauens vpon our race Must I at so tender yeres and of so féeble kinde make choise of a thing which woulde put the wisest vpon earth vnto their shifts My heart doth faile me reason wanteth and iudgement hangeth in ballaunce by continuall agitations to sée how I am driuen to the extremitie of two daungerous straits enuironned with fearefull ieoperdies forcibly compelled either to be deuided and separated frō thee my brother whome I loue aboue mine owne life in whom next after God I haue sixed and put my hope and trust hauing none other solace comfort and helpe but thée or else by keping thée am forced to giue vnto another know not howe that precious treasure which being once lost cānot be recouered by any meanes for the garde and conseruation wherof euery woman of good iudgement that loueth vertue ought a thousand times to offer hir self to death if so many wayes she could rather than to blot or soile that inestimable iewell of chastitie wherewith our life is a true life contrariwise she which fondly suffreth hir self to be disseazed and spoiled of the same looseth it without honest title albeit she be a liue yet is she buried in the most obscure caue of death hauing lost the honoure which maketh Maidens marche with head vpright But what goodnesse hath a Ladie gentlewoman maiden or wife wherein she can glory hir honor being in doubt and reputation darkened with infamie Wherto serued the imperiall house of Augustus in those Ladies that were intituled with the Emperours daughters when for their vilany their were vnworthy of the title of chaste and vertuous What profited Faustina the Emperiall crowne vpon hir head hir chastitie through hir abhominable life being rapt and despoiled What wrong hath bene done to many simple women for being buried in the tombe of darke obliuion which for their vertue and pudique life merited eternall praise Ah Charles my brother deare where hast thou bestowed the eye of thy fore séeing minde that without foresight and care of the fame due to the honest dames and chast damosels of our family hauing lost the goods fathers inheritaunce wilt haue me in like sort sorgoe my chastitie which hitherto I haue kept with héedeful diligence Wilt thou dear brother by the price of my virginity that Anselmo shal haue greater victorie ouer vs than he hathe gotten by fight of sword vpon the allied remnaunt of our house Art thou ignorant that the wounds and diseases of the minde be more vehement than those which afflicte the body Ah I vnhappy maiden and what yll lucke is reserued for me what destiny hath kept me till this day to be presented for Venus Sacrifice to satissie a yong mannes lust which coueteth peraduenture but the spoile of my virginitie O happy the Romane maid slain by the proper hands of hir wofull father Virginius that she might not be soiled with infamie by the lecherous embracements of rauenous Appius which desired hir acquaintaunce Alas that my brother doe not so rather I would to God of his owne accord he be the 〈◊〉 minister of my life ready to be violated if God by 〈◊〉 grace take not my cause in hand Alas death why 〈◊〉 thou not throwe against my heart thy most pearcing darte that I may goe waite vpon the shadowes of my thrice happy parents who knowing this my grief wil not be void of passion to help me waile my woful state O God why was not I choaked and strangled so sone as I was taken forth the secrete imbracements of my mothers wombe rather thā to arriue into this mishap that either must I lose the thing I déeme most deare or die with the violence of my proper hands Come death come and cut the vnhappy thréede of my wofull life stoppe the pace of teares with thy trenchant darte that streame outragiously downe my face and close the brething wind of sighs which hinder thée from doing thine office vpon my heart by suffocation of my life and it When she had ended those words hir spéeche did faile and waxing pale and faint sitting vpon bi r stoole she fared as though that very death had sitten in hir place Charles thinking that his sister had bene deade 〈◊〉 with sorow and desirous to liue no longer after hir seing he was the cause of that sowning fell downe dead vpon the ground mouing neither hand nor foote as though the soule had bene departed from the bodie At the noise which Montanine made by reason of his fall Angelica reuiued out of hir sown and seing hir brother in so pitifull plight and supposing he had bene dead for care of his request for being berieued of hir brother was so moued as a little thing wold haue made hir do as 〈◊〉 did when she viewed Pyramus to be slaine But conceiuing hope she threw hir selfe vpon hir brother cursing hir fortune banning the starres of cruelty and hir lauash spéeche and hir self for hir litle loue to hir brother who made no refusal to die to saue his land for relief of hir wher she denyed to yeld hir self to him that loued hir with so goodaffection In the end she applied so many remedies vnto hir brother sometimes casting cold water vpon his face sometimes pinching and rubbing the temples and pulses of his armes his mouth with vineger that she made him to
Prudent personage he dissembled his conceyued griefe expecting occasion for remedie of the same Now the time was come that Laelius and Massnissa wer 〈◊〉 for to the campe But to declare the teares lamentable talke the great 〈◊〉 and sighes vttered betwene this newe maried couple time would want and 〈◊〉 nesse wold ensue to the reader of the same He had skarce lyen with his beloued two or thrée nights but that Laelius to their great grief and sorow claimed hir to be his prisoner Wherfore very sorowful and pensiue he departed and retourned to the Campe. Scipio in honourable wise receiued him and openly before his Captaines and men of warre gaue thanks to Laelius him for their prowesse and notable exploites Afterwards sending for him into his Tent he said vnto him I do suppose my dere frend Massinissa that the vertue and beneuolence you saw in me did first of all prouoke you to transfrete the straites to visite me in Spaine wherin the goodwill of my valiant friend Syllanus did not a little anaile to sollicite and procure amitie betwéene vs both which afterwards induced your constant minde to retire into 〈◊〉 to commit both your self and all your goods into my hands and kéeping But I well pondering the qualitie of that vertue which moued you thervnto you being of 〈◊〉 and I of Europa you a Numidian borne and I a Latine and Romane of diuers customes language differēt thought that the temperance and abstinence from veneriall pleasures which you haue séene to be in me and experience therof well tried and proued for the which I render vnto the immortal Gods most hūble thanks wold or ought to haue moued you to follow mine example being these vertues which aboue al other I doe most esteme and cherish which vertues should haue allured you being a man of great prowesse and discretion to haue imitated and folowed the same For he that well marketh the rare giftes and excellent benefits wherwith dame nature hath 〈◊〉 you would thinke that there should be no lacke of diligence and trauell to subdue and ouercome the carnall appetites of temporal beautie which had it 〈◊〉 applied to the rare giftes of nature planted in you had made you a personage to the posteritie very famous and renoumed Consider wel my present time of youth full of courage youthly lust which contrary to that naturall race I stay and prohibite No delicate beautie no voluptuous delectation no seminine flatterie can intice the same to the perils and daungers wherevnto that héedelesse age is most prone and subiect by which prohibition of amorous passions temperatly raigned and gouerned the tamer and subduer of those passions closing his breast from lasciuious imaginations and stopping his eares from the Syrenes Marmaides of that sexe and kinde getteth greater glory and fame than that which we haue gotten by our victory had against Syphax Hannibal the greatest ennimie that euer we Romanes felt the stoutest gentleman captain without péere through the delites and imbracements of women effeminated is no more that mālike and notable Emperor which he was wont to be The great exploits enterprises which valiantly you haue done in Numidia when I was farre from you your care redinesse 〈◊〉 your strength and valor your expedition and bolde attepts with all the rest of your noble vertues worthy of immortall praise I might could perticulerly recite but to commend and extol them my heart and minde shal never be satisfied by renouaciō wherof I shuld rather giue occasion of blushing than my selfe could be contented to let them sléepe in silence Syphax as you know is taken prisoner by the valiaunce of our men of warre by reason wherof him self his wife his kingdom his campe lands cities and inhabitants and briefly all that which was king Syphax is the pray and spoile to the Romane people and the king and his wife albeit she was no Citizen of Carthage and hir father although no captaine of our ennimies yet we must send them to Rome there to leaue them at the pleasure and disposition of the Romane 〈◊〉 nate and people Doe you not know that Sophonisba with hir toyes flatteries did alienat and withdraw king Syphax from our amitie and friendship and made him to enter force of armes against vs Be you ignoraunt that she ful of rancor and malice against the Romane people endeuored to set al 〈◊〉 against vs now by hir faire inticements hath gained and wonne you not I say our 〈◊〉 but an ennimie so farre as she can with hir cruell inchauntmēts What damage and hurt haue lighted vpō diuers Monarches and Princes through sugred lips and venemous woords I will not spend time to recite With what prouocations and cōiured charmes she hath already bewitched your good nature I wil not now imagine but referre the same to the déepe consideration of your wisdome Wherefore Massinissa as you haue bene a Conquerer ouer great nations and prouinces be now a conquerer ouer your owne mind and appetites the victorie whereof deserueth greater praise than the conquest of the whole world Take héede I say that you blot not your good qualities and conditions with the spots of dishonor and pusillanimitie 〈◊〉 not that fame which hitherto is 〈◊〉 aboue the Region of the glittering starres Let not this vice of Feminine flatterie spoile the deserts of Noble chiualrie vtterly deface those 〈◊〉 with greater ignominie than the cause of that offence is worthie of dispraise Massinissa hearing these egre sharp rebukes not only blushed for shame but bitterly werping said that his poore prisoner and wife was at the commaundemēt of Scipio Noiwithstanding so instantly as teares woulde suffer him to speake he besought hym that if it were possible he would giue him leaue to obserue his faith foolishly assured bicause he had made an othe to Sophonisba that with life she should not be deliuered to the handes of the Romanes And after other talke betwene them Massinissa departed to his pauilion where alone with manifold sighes with most bitter teares and plaintes vttered with such houlings and outcries as they were heard by those which stode about the same he rested al the day bewailing his present state the most part of the night also he spent with like heauinesse and debating in his minde vpon diuers thoughts and deuises more confused and amased than before he could by no meanes take any rest sometimes he thought to flée and passe the straights commonly called the pillers of Hercules from thence to saile to the Fortunate Islandes with his wife then again he thought with hir to escape to Carthage in ayde of that Citie to serue against the Romans somtimes he purposed by sword poison halter or som such means to end his life and finish his dolorous days many times he was at point by prepared knife sworde to pierce his heart yet stayed the same not for feare of death but for preseruatiō of his fame
honor Thus this wretched miserable 〈◊〉 burned consumed with loue tossing and tumbling him selfe vpon his bedde not able to find comfort to ease his paine thus began to say O Sophonisba my deare beloued wife O the life and comforte of my life O the deyntie repast of my ioy and quiet more amiable than the balles of myne vnhappie eyes what shall become of vs Alas out alas I crie that I shall sée no more that incōparable beautie of thine that thy surpassyng comely face those golden lockes those glistering eyes which a thousande times haue darkned and obscured the rayes beames of the Sunne it selfe Alas I say that I can no longer be suffred to heare the plesant harmonie of thy voice whose swéetnesse is able to force Iupiter himselfe to mitigate his rage when with lightning thunderboltes and 〈◊〉 claps in his greatest furie he 〈◊〉 to plague 〈◊〉 earth Ah that it is not lawfull any more for me to throw these vnhappie armes about thy swéet neck whose 〈◊〉 of face entermingled with séemely rudds 〈◊〉 the morning roses which by the swéete nightly dewes do sproute and budde The Gods graunt that I do not long remaine on liue without thy swéete haunt and company which can no longer draw forth this breathing ghoste of mine than can a bodie liue without like breathe in it Graunt O mightie Iupiter that one graue may close vs twaine to liue among the ghostes and shadowes that be alreadie past this worlde for like right louing fittes 〈◊〉 intent of life be ment to mée without thy fellowship delectable presēce And who O good God shal be more blisfull amongs the Elysian fields wandryng amids the spirites and ghostes of departed soules than I if there we two may iette and stalke among the shadowed friths and forrests huge besette with Mirtle trées odoriferous and swéete that there we may at large recount and sing the swéete sower pangs of those oure passed loues without any stay or let at all that there I say we may remembre things alreadie done reioycing for delightes and sighing for the paines There shall no harde hearted Scipio bée founde there shall no marble minded captain rest which haue not had regarde of Loues toyes ne yet haue pitied my bitter pains by hauing no experiece what is the force of Loue. He then with ouer cruell wordes shall not goe about to persuade me to forsake thée or to deliuer thée into the Romanes handes to incurre miserable and 〈◊〉 cruell bondage he shal there neuer checke me for the seruent loue I beare thée we shall there abide without suspition of him or any other they can not separate vs they be not able to diuide our swéetest companie I would the Gods aboue had graunted me the benefite that hée had neuer arriued into Affrica but had still remained in Sicilia in Italie or Spayne But what stand I vpon these termes O I foole and beast what meanes my drousie head to dreme such fansies if he had not passed ouer into Affrica made warre against king Syphax howe shold I haue euer séene my faire Sophonisba whose beautie farre surmounteth eche other wight whose comlinesse is without péere whose grace inspeakeable whose maners rare and incomparable and whose other qualities generally disparcled throughout dame Natures mould by speche of mā can not be described If Scipio had not transfraited the seas to arriue in Affrike soyle howe should I O onely hope and last refuge of my desires haue knowen thée neither should I haue bene thy féere ne yet my wife thou sholdest haue ben but great had ben thy gaine and losse not much neuer sholdest thou haue felt the present painfull state wherin thou art thy life wherof most worthie no doubt thou art shold not haue lien in ballāce poize or rested in doubtful plight which now in choice of enimies thrall thou maist prolong or else in Romanes hands a praie or spoil by captiue state But I beséech the Gods to preuent the choice to be a Romane prisoner And who can thinke that Scipio euer ment to graunt me the life of one goeth about to spoil me of the same Did not he giue me the pardon of one when he sent me to besiege the Citie of Cirta where I found fair Sophonisba which is my life A straūge kind of pardō by giuing me a pardon to dispossesse me of that same Who euer hard tel of such a pardon So much as if he said to me thus Massinissa go take the paine to cause that Citie yeld or ransack the same by force I wil pardon thée thy life not with that only benefit but with Craesus goods wil inrich thée make shée owner of the happy soile of Arrabia when I haue so done rased the walles by mine indeuor wherin mine only life and ioy did rest at my retourne for guerdone of my noble fact in stéede of life he choppeth of my head and for faire promise of golden mountes he strips me naked and makes me a Romane slaue According to which case and state he deales with me For what auailes my life if in grief and sorrowes 〈◊〉 I drown the pleasures of the same Doth not he berieue my life and bréedes my death by diuiding me from my faire Sophonisba Ah Caitife wretch what lucke haue I that neither storm nor whirle winde could send him home to Italian shore or set him packing to Sicile land What ment cruell Scipio when so sone as Syphax was takē he did not streight way dispatche him to Rome to present the glorious sight of the Numidian king to that Romane people If Scipio had not bene here thou Sophonisba frankly hadst bene mine for at Laelius hāds I could haue found some grace But surely if Scipio did once sée Sophonisba reclined his eies to view hir perelesse beautie I doubt not but he wold be moued to haue compassion vpon hir and me and would haue iudged hir worthy not only to be Quéene of Numidia but of all the prouince besides But what do I make this good accompt The common prouerbe saith that he which counteth without his hoste must recken twice and so perhaps may be my lot For what know I if Scipio did wel view hir whether he himselfe would be inamored of hir or not so vtterly depriue me of that Iewel He is a man no doubt as others be and it is impossible me think but that the hardnesse of his heart must bowe to the view of such a noble beautie But beast as I am what mean these woords What follies doe I vaunt by singing to the deafe and teaching of the blinde O wretch wretch nay more than miserable wretch Marke the woords of Scipio he demaundeth Sophonisba as a thing belōging vnto him for which cause he sayeth that she is the pray parte of the Romane spoile But what shall I 〈◊〉 shall I giue hir vnto him He 〈◊〉 haue hir he 〈◊〉 me he exhortes me he prayes