Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A14083
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Asylum veneris, or A sanctuary for ladies Iustly protecting them, their virtues, and sufficiencies from the foule aspersions and forged imputations of traducing spirits.
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D. T. (Daniel Tuvill), d. 1660.
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1616
(1616)
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STC 24393; ESTC S118753
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52,443
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161
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peraduenture be and no worse S. Aug. calleth them Muscipulas animae latrones vitae Mouse traps for our soules Picke-purses of our affections But I will here hang vp Fabius his Sheilde to handle a while Marcellus his sword and hauing spoken of their Wisedome come now to treate of their Valour CHAP. 10. Of their Courage and Valour REuenge and cruelty are the Symptomes of a sickly resolution and cannot fasten vpon the Temperature of a minde that is truly valorous But these in Women say their Aduersaries haue like vlcerous Cankers eaten into their very marrow and wrought such a generall corruption in all the powers and faculties of their Soules that there can not any Crisis possibly bee made of their recouerie The world doth not harbour in it a Creature more vindicatiue saith the Poet. Scylla Charybdis Sicula cōtorquens freta Minus est timenda nulla non melior fera est Adeo cruentus stimulat faeminam dolor For instance whereof they alledge Parisatis who hauing apprehended the Carien that had cut the hamstring of Cyrus her younger Sonne caused him for the space of tenne daies to bee continually tortured after that his eyes to be bored out and finally molten mettle to bee poured into his eares till he breathed his last in this miserable torment Shee condemned Mithridates who had wounded him in the temples to that hellish torture of the Troughes in which after hee had pittifully languished 17. daies together with much a doe hee died As for Mefabates who depriued him of head hands hauing wonne him at dice of her sonne Artexerxes she deliuered him to the Executioners commanded them to flay him aliue and afterwards to teare his body in peeces and to hang both his skinne and it on seuerall gibbets The mother of Mahomet II. was so incensed against Moses Bassa who by the command of his Soueraigne had massacred her younger sonne a childe but 18. yeares old that nothing could appease her furie till she had him with hands and feete fast bound deliuered vp vnto her which being obtained shee strooke him first into the brest with a knife then made a hole in his right side and by peece-meale cut out his Liuer and cast it before his eyes to the Dogges to eate These things considered the Satyrist had reason say our Opposites to crie out minor admiratio summis Debetur monstris quoties facit ira nocentem Hunc sexū rabieiecur incendente feruntur Praecipites vt saxa iugis abrupta Nor is it a thing to be much wondered at say they to see those so voide of mercie that are so full of feare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a position out of check The heart that fainteth at the alarmes of an enemy cannot possibly be recouered vnlesse it drinke the Spirit of his blood To minister any other aurum potabile than this vnto it is meere vanitie and will produce but a weak effect This alone is that extracted Quintessence which beyond all Chymicall inuentions must free it from those Paralyticall resolutions and Epileptike convulsions whereinto vpon the very noise of his approach it is alwaies apt to fall The Emperour Maurice in a dreame saw a Souldier called Phocas killing his Wife his children and afterwards himselfe with which Vision being sorely daunted he enquired of his sonne in law Philippicus if there were not such a fellow in the Armie who tould him yes and withal that he was a roaring youth but yet a very Crauen Whereupon the Emperour concluded with a troubled countenance that if he were a Coward he would sure bee cruell And indeede this argument may hold in men in whom want of courage is occasioned either by some diminution ablation or deprauation of the animall and vitall spirits by reason whereof they neuer think themselues secure till their enemies death signe the Quietus est which must set them free from the dangerous pursuit of hazard and molestation but in Women it must faile from the quicknesse of whose apprehension ariseth many times a suddaine fright which vpon a more serious consideration of the obiect doth as suddainly vanish And thus let mee see if the Soule of the wisest the worthiest man be able to resist the first conceits and fantasies that assaile him and starteth not as out of a natural subiection with much palenesse and contraction at the noise of thunder the vnexpected discharge of a Cannon or the suddaine cracke of some great ruine Sure it sufficeth here as in other Passions that his opinion remaine safe sound that the setlednes of his discourse vndergo no alteration or attaint and that he giue not his consent to his affright and sufferance I must confesse yet there be many Vultures Harpies and hellish Furies amongst them in whom as in Media and the like Passions are so predominant that they make not a superficiall impression but penetrate so farre into the seate of Reason as to infect it and corrupt it But if things may be censured with indifferencie our Aduersaries will finde that Crueltie euen in these is not an imperfection of Nature but a defect of breeding Cyrus his Nurse while he was young would now then suckle him with the blood of Beasts and foules that were newly kild which bred such a habit in him that being manlier growne hee neuer returned from the slaughter of his enemies but hee licked his sword Which barbarous and beastly thirst of his was an occasion that Tamiris hauing cut off his head caused it to be cast into a tub of mans blood with this exprobration of his crueltie Satia te sanguine quem sitisti cuiusque infatiabilis semper fuisti Now glut thy selfe inhumane Tyrant with that whereof heretofore thou couldest neuer haue thy fill The Plants of Eden in the state of innocencie were apt it seem'd to riot in their growth the walkes and allies thereof were likewise subiect to be quickly defaced and ouershadowed with weedes and therefore the Lord himselfe tooke care that Man should be put therein to keepe it and to dresse it And indeed it is the propertie of some vigorous and actiue Spirits when they finde a vacation of good imployments to make themselues a Term-time of bad The brightest sword will quickly rust if it be not vsed The fatter the soile the sooner will the fielde be ouergrowne with nettles and briers if it lye long fallow Neglect is vrenda filix innascitur agris Nature if she be not continually lopt and prun'd will suddainly grow debauched It is said of Scylla that he was cupidus voluptatum Much addicted to voluptuousnesse sed gloriae cupidior yet neuer but when businesse of more importance failed him The like is likewise recorded of Demetrius the sonne of Antigonus and diuers others But I am led a little from my leuell It appeareth out of all these premises that to say Women because they be fearefull must of necessitie be cruell is a deceitfull conclusion and that Crueltie because it is
thing for these be their chiefest peices would cause both tumour and inflammation in them were their mindes so light and wauering as some would haue them but we see notwithstanding all these how humble and how debonnaire Rebekah was who did not onely out of meckenesse satisfie the request of Abrahams seruant then a stranger to hir in giuing him water to drinke as he desired but went hir selfe with all alacritie to the Well and drew some likewise for those of his retinue and their Camels Nor did the massie Rings and Bracelets where with he afterwards rewarded this hir kindenesse alter any way the composition of this setled forme It is true that Vashti was degraded from hir dignitie for the rebellious pride and disobedience which she shewed toward hir Lord and Soueraigne but Esther was elected in hir place who with hir Buxome and lowly carriage found fauour in the eyes of hir Assuerus and forgot not in this transcendent of hir honour the miseries and afflictions of hir distressed Countrimen nor was she euer wanting in the performance of that due respect which she did owe vnto hir poore friend Mardoche It is true likewise it may be that the daughter of Nicephorus the Emperour was so neate and so nice that shee neuer washed hir but in dew nor spent hir time in any thing but in painting poudring and perfuming of hir selfe which brought vpon hir in the end so odious and so loathsome a disease that for the stench of hir Body there was not any could endure to come nigh hir all are not yet to be condemned of the like This age as corrupted as Men would make it affordeth many of extraordinary birth and qualitie who hauing shooke hands with Vanitie and tooke an euerlasting Farewell of all worldly Pleasures doe altogether spend their houres in the solitarie contemplation of celestiall things making with all humilitie and singlenesse of Heart the goodnesse of their God the continuall subiect of their Meditation I could here set diuers Precedents on foote to backe and second my discourse but as our owne English Poet saith This al men know ful wel though I would lie In Women is all troth and stedfastnesse For in good faith Ineuer of them see But much worship bounty and gentlenesse Right comming faire and full of meekenesse Good and glad and lowly I you ensure Is this goodly angelike Creature Hauing freed them therefore from this I will now turne my plee to the defence of their Tongue which standeth at the barre of weaker Iudgment accused of prodigious Intemperancie and hath many forged Writs and Processes serued vpon it for the same CHAP. 4. Of their Talke atiuenesse PHidias say their aduersaries that worthy Workman so renowmed through the confines of Peloponnesus for the rarenesse of his skill made an image of Venus treading vpon a Torteise to shew thereby vnto vs that Women should be wedded to their Houses as are the Statues of Saints and Martyrs to the Temples neuer desiring to gossippe it abroad but making Silence alwaies the God of their Deuotion They should neuer speake but either to their Husbands or by their Husbands nor take it ill if like a Trumpeter or one that playeth vpon the Cornet or the Flute by suffering them to be the Organes of their speech they send forth sounds more graue and more delightful then their owne But alas say they these principles are but lightly practised for looke wheresoeuer they come verborum tanta cadit vis Tot pariter pelues tot tintinnabula dic as Pulsari Iam nemo tubas atque aera fatiget Vna labor anti poterit succurrere Lunae And some what sutable to this is that Epitaph of theirs by which the excessiue talk atiuenesse of a Spanish Lady is commended to the knowledge of Posteritie The substance thereof is this Aquiyaze sepultada Lamas que noble Sennora Quên su vida punto ni hora Tuvò la boca cerrada Yes tanto lo que hablò Qne aunque mas no hade hablar Nunca llegarà el callar A donde el hablar llegò And for a more pregnant proofe of these malignant Pasquils Xantippe must be placed vpon the Market-crosse whose Passions like a deafe body because they could not heare the voice of reason themselues that reason might not be altogether vncapable of theirs would be sure to expresse their meaning in the loudest straine So that Socrates when he was demanded how he could endure hir clamours had no other answer wherewith to shadow this hir imperfection then That for the children which she bare him he could as well abide hir prating as he did the cackling of his Hennes for the Egges they laid him A certaine Portugall how truely though I know not is made an Abbettor to them in the like His fellow Senators hauing conuinced a Criminell of some more then ordinarie fault and consulting among themselues what death was best to equall his offence some would haue him hanged in chaines aliue some torne in peeces with wilde-horses others pined to death and some againe cast quicke into his graue Tush said he at length these iudgements are but iestings if you minde to torture him indeede vse no delayes but marrie him And surely say our opposites this man according to that Castilian Adage Hablò de la feria segun lefue en ella spake of the Mart according as he found it They alleadge another who at a monthly Sessions in the Towne whereof himselfe was a Burgesse vpon good deliberation and aduise preferred a petition to the Iudges of the Bench desiring them they would be pleased to grant him libertie to die For he was not able any longer to endure the disdainefull braues and haughtie menaces which his Wife like a triple-mouthed Cerberus did continually thunder out against him which fauour if they would vouchsafe him he made no doubt but to finde a speedie passage vnto Heauen hauing suffered so long a Purgatorie here on earth Another inscription of a Tombe is produced by them composed in manner of a Dialogue the Argument wherof doth shew say they that howsoeuer Death be nothing but a suffocation and extinction of all heate in euery naturall Bodie he cannot yet with that icie coldnes qualifie the cholerike and fiery temper of their Tongues Heus viator Miraculum Vir vxor non litigant Qui simus non dico At ipsa dicam Hic Bebrius ebrius me Bebriam ebriam nominat Heus vxor etiam mortua litigas Hus List Passenger thou shalt a wonder see Here louingly the Man and Wife agree Our names and what we are I will conceale Wif. But goodmā goose I wil our Names reueale This Beber bibber free of Drunkards Hall Me Bebresse bibbresse doth at al times call Hus Now out alds good Wife I prethee hold For shame for beare now thou art dead to scold Iudge here say they whether this wretched Man that caused this to bee writ vpon his graue liued not continually vpon the racke