Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	city_n	great_a	siege_n	1,089	5	8.9397	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A06341	The prouerbes of the noble and woorthy souldier Sir Iames Lopez de Mendoza Marques of Santillana with the paraphrase of D. Peter Diaz of Toledo: wherin is contained whatsoeuer is necessarie to the leading of an honest and vertuous life. Translated out of Spanishe by Barnabe Googe.; Proverbios. English	Santillana, Iñigo López de Mendoza, marqués de, 1398-1458.; Googe, Barnabe, 1540-1594.; Pedro, de Toledo, Bishop of Málaga, d. 1499.	1579 (1579)	STC 16809; ESTC S108829	87,267	250

in And therefore the Prouerbe saieth that the woman is not vnprofitable nor vnperfect Neither ought we to thinke that because some women haue been to blame therefore they are all to be condemned For as the nurse sayth to Hippolytus as Seneca in his fourth Tragedie sheweth where Hippolitus saith that if there had neuer been other euill woman but Medea the wife of Aegeus her onely villanies were sufficient to cause all other women to be abhorred Wherto the nurse answereth that it were greatly against reason that the offence of one or two should be the blame of all the rest And therefore sayeth the Prouerbe that notwithstanding the faultes of a fewe the vertues of women haue been highly commended and set out with the pen. 47. For setting here aside that sweete and blessed worthie rose That ouer all the rest doth shine and farre beyonde them goes The daughter of the thundring God and spouse vnto the hiest The light and lampe of women all who bare our sauiour Christ 48. Manie Ladies of renowne and beautifull there bee That are both chast and vertuous and famous for degree Amongst the blessed holy saintes full many a one we find That in this cōpasse may be brought for liues that brightly shinde 49. What should I of Saint Katheren that blessed martyr tell Among the rest of Virgins all a flowre of preecious smell Well worthy of remembrance is her beawty and her youth And eke no lesse deserueth praise her knowledge in the trueth The Marques SAint Katherin was a virgin and a holy Martyr and among the whole company of Saintes of speciall commendation touching whose life and death beeing a thing so commonly knowne I refer the Reader to the booke called The Flower of Saints 50. We finde that Hester wanted neither beawtie great nor grace Whose noble minde was ioyned with the fauour of her face Of Iudith likewise doe we reade the bewtie great to bee And how she vertuously behaude her selfe in eche degree The Paraphrase of the Marques HEster the Queene was the wife of King Assuerus of whom it shall not bee needefull to speake much considering that in the Paraphrase to the prouerbe of Assuerus in the beginning of the Booke there hath been enough saide It is sufficient to knowe that she was a holy woman and a deuout seruaunte of God as appeared by her vertuous life and by the earnest Prayers that shee made vnto God in the case of Hamon and Mardocheus Iudith as her Booke testifieth which is one of the 24 bookes of the Bible was reputed among the Iewes for a woman of singular wisdom and of great honestie in life who slewe the great Holofernes that being sent by the King Nabuchodonosor with a great and puisant Campe had besieged the Citie of Ierusalem as her Booke at large declareth where it also appeareth by what great policicie after shee had slaine him shee conueyed his hed passing thorowe the watch of the Camp to the aforesaid Citie This only fact renowmed Prince strake such a feare and terrour to the harts of the enemies as they speedily and without order to their great losse brake vppe their siege So as shee is greatly commended in the Scripture for her beautie and for her noble and valiant stomacke 51. The famous worthy women that among the heathen warre No reason that of good reporte among the rest we barre For why their valure and renoume was woundrous in their dayes And therefore not to be depriude of due deserued praise 52. In Athens and in Thebes too wer Ladyes great of fame The Troians Sabynes Greeks Arge had many a worthy dame The Laurentines the Amasons may triumph for the same And Rome of vertuous women can remember many a name 53. No fairer creatures coulde be seene then Vagnes and Diana Daphnes Dido Anna and the vertuous Lucretia Nor vnrembred let wee passe Virginia the same Whose passing chastitie procurde her euerlasting fame The Paraphrase VAgnes as Statius in his Booke of the Warres betwixt the Thebanes and the Argians reporteth was the cheefe among the Argian Ladies that went altogether to King Creon with humble petition for the deliuery of the dead bodyes of their husbandes and kinsemen that were slaine at the battaile of Thebes fighting against Ethiocles the Sonne of Oedippus and nephew to King Layus who was of the linage and stock of Cadmus Who hauing receiued a flat denyal went altogither to Theseus that then was Duke of Athens declaring vnto him with great exclamation the great crueltie and extremitie that was showed vnto them Theseus who was then newly come from the warres of the Amasons as Iohn Boccace the poet of Florence in his Booke of Theseus at large discribeth vowed that before he entred the Citie he would go out of hand with his whole forces against Creon requiring him yet before by his Embassadours to graunt vnto the poore Ladyes this their so iust and reasonable request which when he disdainfully refused to doe hee made warres vpon him and slew him wherby the gentlemen of Argos by the industrie and diligence of the vertuous Vagnes came in the ende to bee honourably buryed At the ende of this battaile wherin Creon was slaine by the handes of Theseus beginneth the story of Arcyt and Palemon the seruants and great louers of Emilia the sister of Hypolitus which because of the tediousnes and that the matter maketh nothing to our purpose I heere passe ouer Diana was counted the goddesse of Chastitie a Lady that set all her delight vpon the feeld in the chase and hunting of wilde beastes Lucretia and other the famous Ladies of Rome are sufficiently mencioned as wel by Lyuy and Valerius in their storyes as by Saint August a man of more credit in his Boke Of the Citie of God and Iohn Boccace in the fall of Princes and commendation of woorthy women where it is shewed how she beeing the wife of Collatinus was violently forced by Sextus Tarquinius wherevpon with a knife or a swoord shee slewe her selfe saying I free my selfe from the faulte but not from punishement which I heere but briefely touch because I haue writen thereof before in the story of Sextus Tarquinius Daphnis was daughter to Peneus a Virgin dedicated to Diana the Lady of Chastitie who as Ouid writeth beeing greatly desired of Phebus and not consenting nor able to withstande the force of her furious louer commending her selfe to all the gods but specially to Diana whom shee serued was as the Poets faine transformed into the Laurell a tree of continuall greenenesse sweete of sauour and of a delectable shadowe The morall whereof beeing declared by diuers Authors as Fryer Thomas of Capua in his Moralls vpon the Metamorphosis Iohn Boccace in his Genealogie of the heathen gods and Maister Iohn the Englishman commenting vppon the same Booke I heere leaue to declare as a thing to long to entreate off It may suffice that shee was counted among the heathen for a mayden of singular beawtie Anna was

mother to the Virgin Mary and wife to Ioachim a woman of great sanctitie and vertuousnesse of life An other of the same name was sister to Queene Dido a woman of great commendation among the heathen both of them as wel she of the Hebrues as the Heathen were worthy to be had in continual memory Dido as appeareth by her true story was the daughter of King Belus sister to Pigmalion wife of Sichaeus who after the death of her husband made a vowe neuer to marry againe forsooke the countrie where her husband was murdered by the meanes of her traiterous brother Pigmalion comming into Affrica founded the stately Citie of Carthage Where while shee purposed to liue a sole and a chaste life beeing required in marriage by the King Hiarbas and vtterly refusing she was by the saide Hiarbas strongly besieged and brought to so hard a poynt that seeing no other way to escape and to preserue her chastitie chosing rather to die then to liue thus violated threw her self into a great flame of fire so ended her daies This story although Virgill doe otherwise declare yet is he not considering the liberty of a Poet greatly to be blamed Virginea with what earnestnesse she was required by Appius Claudius to consēt to his dishonest and vnlawfull lust is sufficiently declared by Liuie in his second Decade and likewise by Iohn Boccace in his Booke Of the fall of Princes where it is at large declared with howe great constancy the chaste mayden preserued her virginitie 54. Prefer a life with libertie aboue all other things A vertue great it is and worthy of the paines it bringes A shamefull great reproch it is without it for to flye An honourable thing it is for such a good to dye The Paraphrase THe auncient Philosophers were of opinion that all the Vertues were to be reduced into the number of foure which they named Cardinall or principall vertues whereof they accounted to bee chiefe Fortitude or manhood which as Aristotle in the thirde of his Ethicks testifieth is so much the more excellent and praiseworthy as the subiect and matter wherwith it dealet his dreadful and difficult for manhood hath for his obiect or contrary Death which is as Aristotle saith the last of all dreadfull and terrible thinges beside the great dangers and sharp and cruell aduentures So as by reason of the difficultie or hardnesse of the obiect there are but few that happen to attaine to this vertue And as it is written in the Ciuil lawe those that lose their liues for the libertie of their countrey are counted to liue for euer for muche better is it for a man to dye freely in fight for the libertie of his Countrie then escaping to liue with a shamefull and cowardly flight And as the Prouerb heere saith and they be the very words in effect of Aristotle in the 3. of the Ethicks The death that is honourable is to be preferred before a dishonourable life which the Marques doth plainly set foorth by examples following 55. Oh what a death had Cato dyed if it had lawfull beene And had not by the iust decrees of God beene made a sinne No lesse doe I the worthy fact of Mucius heere commend That Lyuie in his story hath so eloquently pende The Paraphrase AFter that Pompey was ouerthrowen by Caesar at the battail of Pharsalia had retired him selfe to Lesbos where his wife Cornelia lay passing from thence to Aegypt was slaine by the hands of Photinus and Achillas at the cōmaundement of king Ptolomei who was at that time his seruant Cato who saw that the side of Pompey went in such sort to wrack as was not by any meanes to be recouered fled vnto the citie of Vtica where fearing by some misaduenture to fall into the handes of Caesar his mortall enemie he presently dispatthed him selfe Mucius Sceuola was a man of great courage among the Romanes who when Porsenna the King had with a great power besieged the Citie determined with a noble minde to raise the siege and to bring his matter to better effect went secretly alone out of the Citie with full intent to kill the Kinge and happening to spye in the Campe a Secretary of the Kings appareled in Princely roabes supposing that it was the King thrust him thorowe the body with his swoorde wherevpon beeing presently taken by the Guarde and such as stoode by hee was shackeled and brought before the King who demaunding of him what foolishe presumption had brought him to this misery he aunswered that not onely hee but diverse others to the number of an hundred more had professed by solemne othe for the deliuerance of the Citie to doe their vttermost indeuour in killing of the king Whervpon Porsenna giuing credite to the words of Mucius Sceuola presently raysed his siege commaunding that Sceuola should foorthwith be burned who when hee was brought vnto the fire thrusting out his hand with a valiant courage into the flame there held it til such time as the whitenes of the bones the flesh beeing scorched away appeared and when he was asked what made him to vse such crueltie to his owne fleshe he aunswered that since his hand had failed of his vertuous purpose it was good reason that it should suffer such punishment for so greate an offence 56. For sonne if thou do much esteeme thy selfe and seekst to liue Thou neuer shalt receiue the crowne that mightie Mars doth giue But if thou doost abandon all faint hart and foolish feare Thou shalt not want the honour nor the state thou seekest to beare The Paraphrase ACcording to the true opinion of both the Astronomers and the Catholike diuines we are not in such sort constrained by the starres to doe any thing as we bee thereby depriued of our owne will to doe of necessitie that which they foreshowe but by inclining vs to doe certaine actions they moue al our bodyly forces to do such things as they signifie Which doth not so farre inforce vs but that as Ptolomy saith in his Centiloquium A wise and a vertuous man may rule reigne ouer the starres That is though the starres doe stirre and moue a man to doe euill yet the partie him selfe hath sufficient power if he will to doe wel But the olde people beeing ignorant of this vertue and seeing the Planet Mars did mooue men to be venterers and souldiers held opinion that he was the onely god of battailes and that hee aduaunced and rewarded all such as were valiant and venterous which olde maner of speaking is here by the Marques at this time followed And most certaine it is that such as make much of them selues doe shunne as much as they may the comming into any perill or daunger Of which sort of people Seneca in his first tragidie speaketh where he saith That great yeeres and gray heares happeneth to faintharted and such as loue to sleepe in a whole skin For such manner of persons will be sure to

profit and good turnes his Citizens could not away with nowe were they the case beeing altered driuen to dreade as their mortall enemy and besieger of their towne And beeing thus by the siege sore distressed which is alwayes more grieuous to great and populous Cities then to small townes they were constrayned to send vnto Coriolanus moste humbly requiring him to leaue his siege and to departe from the Citie and whereas their Embassadors beeing the chiefe and principall men of the Citie and of the Capitoll with colde entertainment were neither heard nor answered they continued their sute and with humble submission sent out their priestes and clergie beeing araied in their deuoutest vestures but as the other were returned so were these sent back with very harde speeches and euel entertainment whervpon the whole Citie bewayling their miserable case and crying out for the cruel aunswere that iustly deserued they had receued Venturia the mother of this Coriolanus staudeth vp and taking with her Volumnia hee sonnes wife with her and her Children she goeth directly to the Campe of the Volscians whom when Coriolanus a farre of perceiueth hauing in his company a galant company of Gentlemen he commeth foorth to meete her though not a little disquieted because his minde gaue him that their comming was onely to mooue him for the raysing of his siege and as soone as he came neere vnto them alighting from his horse hee came towardes his mother to embrace her But shee putting him a little backe from her with her hand with a heauie countenaunce saide vnto him these woordes Before thou commest neare mee and before I receiue thine embracinges let mee vnderstande whether I bee come vnto my sonne or to my enemie or whether I shall enter into thy tent as a mother or as a sorrowfull captiue Alas to what extremitie is my wretched Age come to see thee firste bannished and expulsed thy Cittie and nowe a cruell enemie and spoyler of thy Countrie that nourished thee howe couldest thou come into these partes with so deadely and reuengefull a minde howe couldest thou enter into these territories and not let fall thy furious displeasure and threatnings Howe happened it that at the sight of Rome thou saydest not vnto thy selfe Loe heare within these walles is enclosed my natiue soyle my patrimonie my mother my wife and my children Vnhappie woman that I am who am well assured that if I had neuer borne thee Rome had neuer by thee been besieged And if I had neuer beene deliuered of a sonne I had happily dyed both free and at home in mine owne countrie I speake not these woordes because I am not able to suffer anie thing that shall be more reprochfull to thee nor for the griefe of myne owne captiuitie whose miserie can not be long by reason of my age but onely for these that be heere present thy miserable wife poore distressed infants When Ventruria had thus ended her sorowfull complaint Coriolanus imbracing her with teares in his eyes said these wordes Mine owne sweete Mother my rage and fury is conquered appeased and is turned at your request from this mine vnnatural vnthankful countrie wherwith he presently discamped brake vp his siege Wherevpon Valerius in the same Chapter sayeth That the hart that was full of wrath reuenge for the iniurie that he had sustained and was now in assured hope of present victory vpon the onely sight of his mother and vpon his vertuous compassion chaunged his intent of bloody warres into a sweete and healthfull peace Long were it to write how greatly vertuous children haue alwayes beene gouerned by duetie and reuerence to their parents Touching Nero of whom mention is made in this prouerb where hee sayeth The beastly lust of that same monster vile c. Howe lothsome and horrible the lecheryes of this shamefull tyrant was and what and howe greate his disobedience was to his owne natural mother is to bee seene in the story of his life where who so liste may reade it And therefore I meane to stand no longer vpon this prouerb but to conclud affirming that reuerence ought of bounden deutie to bee giuen to the Parents for which the Lorde hath promised in the fourth of his Commaundements a long and blessed life vpon the earth I could heere bring in if I were disposed a great number of testimonies as wel from the Philosophers as from the holy Patriarches and Prophets But because the olde saying is The tedious tale offends the eare and briefest words wee gladiest heare And therefore let this that I haue saide suffise the Reader which I take to be inough for the vnderstanding of the Prouerbe 92. And heere we may not ouerslip the wicked Absolon But call to minde his froward hart and fond presumption For neuer haue we seene nor shall that he that is vnkinde Doth any grace with GOD aboue or any fauour finde The Paraphrase ABsalon was the sonne of Dauid a man of passing beautie and singular proportion who found the meanes by certaine of his seruants to murder his brother Amon for the deflouring of Thamar his sister turning her dishonestly out of his house For which murder Dauid was greatly offended howbeit vppon fatherly compassion and at the humble sute and request of Ioab who was a speciall friende to Absalon he pardoned him But Absalon whether it were because he found not the like countenaunce at his fathers hande as he was woonte to doe or that hee was set on by some wicked seruauntes and leude Councellers or whether it was the motion of his owne euill disposed minde he presently withdrue himselfe as if he wont with his fathers fauour from Hierusalem and came to Hebron and with the sounde of the Trumpet calling togither the people of Israel without any regarde of his duetie to his father he made him selfe King with presumption to depose him and to set vy him selfe to that intent he allured vnto him a great number of the tribes of Israel and entred into open armes against his father But God who could neuer away with the disobedience of the childe to his father turned all his deuises force and power to his owne confusion for at the ioyning of the battailes the fight being fierce there was slaine to the number of twentie thousand and Absalon him selfe galloping vp and downe and passing thorowe a thick wood was hanged by the heare of the head vpon the bough of an Oke his Moyle running from vnder him and beeing found so hanging was slaine by Ioab and certaine of his seruants wherby the good father obtained the victory of his disobedient sonne where it plainely appeared that God him selfe abhorring his rebellious fact fought against him as is more largely declared in the seconde Booke of the Kinges which I haue heere but briefely touched to shewe that the disobedience to the father is greatly displeasing of God. The thirtienth Chapter of Age. 93. Let not olde age thee discontent since that it is