tattling talke of our secrete follies Moreouer I would 〈◊〉 very glad to doe what pleaseth you so the same may be without slaunder For I hadde rather die than any should take vs in our priuities and familier pastimes let vs be contented with the pleasure that the 〈◊〉 of our ioy may graunt and not with suche contentation as shall offend vs by blotting the clerenesse of our 〈◊〉 names Concluding then that time of their new acquaintaunce which was the next day at noone when that Lieutenant did walke into the Citie they ceased their talk for feare of his enteruiew Who vpon his returne doing reuerence vnto his Lord tolde him that he knewe where a wilde Boare did haunt if it pleased him to sée the passetime Whereunto the Lord Nicholas fayned louingly to giue eare although against his will for so much as he thought the same hunting should be a delay for certaine dayes to the enioying pretended and assured of his beloued But she that was so muche or more esprised with the raging and intollerable fire of loue spedily found meanes to satisfie hir louers sute but not in such manner as was desired of either parts wherefore they were constrained to defer the rest vntill an other time This pleasaunt beginning so allured the Lord of Nocera as vnder the pretence of hunting there was no wéeke that passed but he came to 〈◊〉 the warrener of his Lieuetenaunt And this order continuing without 〈◊〉 one little suspition of their loue they gouerned themselues wisely in the pursute thereof And the Lord Nicholas vsed the game and sport of Hunting and an infinite number of other exercises as the running of the King and Tennis not so muche thereby to finde meanes to enioy his Ladie as to auoide occasion of iealosie in hir husband being a very familiar vice in all Italians the cloke wherof is very heauie to beare and the disease troublesome to sustaine But what Like as it is hard to beguile an 〈◊〉 in the accoumpt of his money for his continual watch ouer the same and slumbering slepes vpon the bokes of his reckenings and accompts so difficult it is to deceiue the heart of a iealous man and specially when he is assured of the griefe which his heade hath conceiued Argus was neuer so cléere eyed for all his hundred eyes ouer Iupiters lemman as those louers be whose opinions be yll affected ouer the chastitie of their wiues Moreouer what foole or Asse is he who séeing suche vndiscrete familiaritie of two louers the priuie gestures and demeanors without witnesse their stolne walkes at vntimely houres sometimes their embracemēts to straight and common before seruaunts that wold not doubt of that which most secretely did passe True it is that in England where libertie is so honestly obserued as being alone or secrete conuersation giueth no cause of suspition that same might haue 〈◊〉 borne withall But in Italie where the parents themselues be for the most part suspected if there had ben no fact in déede cōmitted that familiaritie of the Lord Nicholas with his Lieutenantes wife was not suffrable but exceded the bounds of reason for so much as the cōmoditie which they had chosen for pos sessing of their loue albeit the same not suspitious animated them afterwards to frequent their familiarity disport to frākly without discretiō which was that cause that fortune who neuer leaueth that ioyes of mē without giuing therunto some great alarm being enuious of the mutual delights of those 〈◊〉 louers made that husbād to doubt of that which he wold haue dissēbled if honor could so easily be lost wtout reproch as bloud is shed with out peril of life But that mater being so cleare as the fault was euidēt specially in the party which touched him so neare as himself that Lieuetenaūt before he wold enterprise any thing and declare what he thought 〈◊〉 throughly to be resolued of that which he sawe as it were 〈◊〉 in a cloude and by reason of his conceiued opinion he dealt so warely and wisely in those affaires was so subtill an espiall as one day when the louers were at their game and in their most straite and secrete embracements he viewed them coupled with other leash than he would haue wished and colled with straighter bands than reason or honesty did permit He saw without being séene wherin he felt a certaine ease and contentment for being assured of that he doubted purposed to ordeine a sowre refection after their delightsome banket the simple louers ignoraunt by signe or 〈◊〉 that their enterprises were discouered And truely it had bene more tollerable and lesse hurtful for the Lieuetenaunt if euen then he had perpetrated his vengeaunce and punished them for their wickednesse than to vse the crueltie wherwith afterwards he blotted his renoume and foiled his hands by Bedlem rage in the innocent bloud of those that were not priuie to the folie and lesse guiltie of the wrong done vnto him Now the captaine of the Castell for all his dissimulation in couering of his griefe and his fellony and treason intended against his soueraigne Lord which he desired not yet manifestly to appeare was not able any more from that time forthe to speake so louingly vnto him nor with suche respecte and reuerence as he did before which caused his wife thus to say vnto hir louer My Lord I doubt very much least my husbād doth perceiue these our cōmon practizes secrete familiar dealings that he hath some hāmer working in his head by reason of the countenaunce vnchéereful entertainment which he sheweth to your Lordship wherfore mine aduise is that you retire for a certain time to Foligno In the meane space I wil marke 〈◊〉 if that his alteration be conceiued for any matter against vs and wherfore his wōted lokes haue put on this new alteration chaūge All which when I haue by my espial and secrete practise sounded I will spéedily aduertise you to the ende that you may prouide for the safegarde of youre faithfull and louyng seruaunt The yong Lorde who loued the Gentlewoman with all hys hearte was attached with so greate griefe and dryuen into such rage by hearing those wicked newes as euen presentely he woulde haue knowen of his Lieuetenaunt the cause of his diswonted chéere But weyghing the good aduise which his woman had gyuen hym paused vpon the same 〈◊〉 hir to doe what she thought best By reason wherof giuing warning to his seruantes for his departure he caused the Lieutenaunt to be called before him vnto whom he sayd Captain I had thought for certaine dayes to sport and passe my time but hearing tel that the Duke of Camerino commeth to Foligno to debate with vs of matters of importance I am constrained to departe and do pray you in that meane time to haue good regarde vnto our affaires and if any newes 〈◊〉 chaunce to aduertise the same with all expedition Sir sayd the Captain I am sorie
what he was disposed Afterwards placing all his rich Iewels in suretie and sauegard he discoursed vnto his vncle what had chaunced vnto him till that time The Abbot ioyful for his fortune gaue thankes to God Then master Thorello demaūded of his vncle what he was that was betrouthed to hys wife The Abbot tolde him To whome master Thorello sayd Before my returne be knowne I am desirous to sée what countenance my wife wil make at the mariage And therefore albeit that the religious doe not vse to repaire to such feasses yet I pray you for my sake take paine to goe thither The Abbot answered that he wold willingly doe so And so soone as it was day he sent woord to the bridegrome that he and a frend of his wold be at the mariage wherunto the gentleman answered that he was very glad thereof When dinner time was come master Thorello in the habite and apparel wherin he was went with the Lord Abbot to the wedding dinner where euery of them that saw him did maruellously beholde him but no man knew him bicause the Abbot answered them that inquired that he was a Sarazene sent Ambassador from the Souldan to the French king Master Thorello was then placed at a table which was right ouer against his wife whome he beheld with great pleasure and delight and perceiued very wel by hir face that she was not well content with that mariage She likewise beheld him sometimes not for any knowledge she had of him for his great beard and straunge attire the firme credite and generall opinion also that he was dead chiefly hindred that But when master Thorello thought time to proue whether she had any remembrance of him be secretely conueyed into his hand the ring which she gaue him at his departure and called a litle boy that wayted vpon hir and sayd vnto him Goe tell the bride in my behalfe that the custome of my countrey is that when any Straunger as I am here is hydden by any newe maried woman as she is now for a token of his welcome she sendeth vnto him the cup wherein she drinketh full of wine wherof after the stranger hath dronke what pleaseth him he couereth the cup againe and sendeth the same to the bryde who drinketh the rest that remaineth The page did his message vnto the bride who like a wise Gentlewoman well brought vp thinking he had ben some great personage to declare that he was welcome commaunded a standing cup all gilt standing before hir to be washed cleane to be filled full of wine caried to the Gentleman which accordingly was done Master Thorello hauing put into his mouthe the aforesaid ring secretely let fal the same into the cup as he was drinking not perceiued of any mā to the intent that she drinking the latter draught might espy the ring When he had dronke he returned the cup vnto the bride who thankfully receiued the same And for that the manner of his countrey might bée accomplished when the cup was deliuered vnto hir she vncouered the same pledging the rest of the wine beheld the ring without speaking any woord well viewed the same and knowing that it was the very ring which she had giuen to master Thorello when he departed tooke it out And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 marke and looke vpon him whome she supposed to be a straunger already knowing him tried out as though she had bene straught of hir wittes throwing downe the Table before hir this is my Lord and husband this is of trouth Master Thorello and running to the Table where he sate without respect to his apparell of cloth of golde or to any thing that was vpon the table preassing so néere him as she could imbraced him very harde not able to remoue hir hands from about his necke for any thing-that could be sayd or done by the companie that was there vntill Master Thorello required hir to forbeare for that present for so much as shée should haue leysur inough to vse hir further imbracements Then she left him and contented hir selfe for the time but the 〈◊〉 and mariage was wholly troubled and appalled for that sodain chaunce the most part of the guests excéedingly reioysed for the returne of that Noble knight Then the company being intreated to sit still and not to remoue Master Thorello rehearsed in open audience what had chaunced vnto him from the day of his departure vntill that time concluding with a petition to the Bridegrome that had newly espoused his wife that he would not be displeased if he tooke hir againe The newe maried Gentleman albeit it grieued him very sore and thought him selfe to be mocked answered liberally and like a friend that it was in his power to doe with his owne what he thought best The Gentlewoman drawing of the rings and garland which she had receyued of hir new husband did put vpon hir finger the ring which she found within the cup and likewise the Crowne that was sent vnto hir by Saladine And the whole troupe and assemblie leauing the house where they were went home with master Thorello and his wife and there the kin and friends and all the Citizens which haunted the same and regarded it for a myracle were with long feasting and great cheare in great ioy and triumph Master Thorello departing some of his precious Iewels to him that had bene at the cost of the marriage likewise to the Lord Abbot and diuerse others and hauing done Saladine to vnderstād his happy repaire home to his 〈◊〉 recommending him selfe for euer to his commaundement liued with his wife afterwardes many prosperous yeres vsing the vertue of curtesie more than euer he did before Such was the end of the troubles of master Thorello and his welbeloued wife and the recompence of their franke and honest curtesies Anne the Queene of Hungarie ¶ A Gentleman of meane calling and reputation dothe fall in loue with ANNs the Queene of HVNGARIS whom she 〈◊〉 royally and liberally requited The. xxj Nouel FOlowing the preceding argumentes treated in certain of that former Nouels I wil now discourse the princely kindnesse curtesie done to a poore Gentleman by a Ladie of later dayes Anne the Quene of Hungarie whiche Gentleman though beyōd his reach to catch what he aspired fell in loue with that bountiful and vertuous Gentlewoman thinking bylike that she in end would haue abased hir Maiestie to recline to his vain and doting trauaile But she like a Quéene not despising the poore mans loue vouchsafed by familiar spéeche to poure some drops of comfort into his louing minde and once to proue on whome hée fixed his fansie reached him a nosegay and prayed him to bestowe it vpon whome he liked best All which familiar dealings she vsed to kepe the poore pacient from dispaire that so highly had placed him selfe But in end perceiuing his continuance wold not reiect and giue him ouer or with scornes and floutes contemne the amorous gentleman and that
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
the Gentlewoman conceyued singular contentation louing hir dere friend with more entier affection than hir owne soule Mistresse Lucia and mistresse Isotta hearing the dispercled voice of the death of their husbands and vnderstanding the case of mistresse Gismonda by an other woman layde their heades together likewise to deuise meanes for sauing their husbandes liues and entring into theyr barge or Gondola wente to séeke mistresse Gismonda and when they had debated vpon the trouthe of these chaunces concluded with one assente to prouide for the sauegarde and deliuerie of their husbands wherin they shewed them self both wise and honest For what state is more honorable and of greater comforte than the maried life if in déede they that haue yoaked themselues therin be conformable to those delights and cōtentation which the same conduceth Wealth and riches maketh the true vnited couple to reioyce in the 〈◊〉 of Fortune graunted by the sender of the same either of them prouiding for disposing thereof against the decrepite time of olde age and for the bestowing of the same vpon the fruite accriued of their bodies Pouerty in any wise doth not offend them both of them glad to labor and trauaile like one body to sustaine their pore and néedy life either of them comfortably doth minister comfort in the cruel time of aduersitie reudring humble thanks to God for his sharp rod and punishment enflicted vpon thē for their manifolde sinnes committed against his maiestie trauailing by night day by sweating browes to get browne bread drink ful thin to cease the cries and pitifull crauings of their tēder babes wrapt in cradle instant on their mother to fill their hungry mouthes Aduerse fortune maketh not one to forsake the other The louing 〈◊〉 ceaseth not by painful sute to trot and go by night and day in heat calde to relieue the misery of hir husband He likewise spareth not his paine to get and gaine the liuing of them both He abrode and at home according to his called state she at home to saue the lucre of that labor and to do such necessary trauaile incident to the maried kinde He carefull for to get she héedefull for to saue He by 〈◊〉 and Arte she by diligence and housholde toile O the happy state of maried folke O surpassing delites of mariage bed which maketh these 〈◊〉 pore gentlewomen that by honorable policie saued the honor of themselues and honestly of their husbands to make hūble sute for their preseruation who were like to be berieued of their greatest comforts But come we againe to declare the last acte of this Tragedie These maried women after this chaūce befell vpon their husbands imprisonmēt began to be abhorred of their friends and parents for that they were suspected to be dishonest by reason wherof dolefully lamenting their misfortune not withstāding their owne conscience voide of fault did bid thē to be of good chéere and comfort And when the day of execution came they did their friends and parents to vnderstand that their conceiued opinion was vntrue prayed them to forbeare their disdaine and malice till the truth should be throughly manifested assuring thē that in the end their owne innocencie and the guiltlesse crime of their husbands should openly be reuealed to the worlde In the meane time they made request vnto their friends that one of the Lordes called Auogadori might be admitted to vnderstand their case the rest to be referred to thēselues wherein they had no néede either of Proctor or Aduocate This request séemed very straunge to their friends déeming their case to be shameful and abhominable Neuerthelesse diligētly they accomplished their request vnderstanding that the Councel of the Dieci had cōmitted the mater wholy to the Duke they inade a supplication vnto him in that name of yt. iij. Gentlewomen wherin they craued nothing else but their mater might be herd The Duke 〈◊〉 his aduise like to take effect assigned a day when that same shold be heard commaunding them at that time before him the Lords of the Councel all the college of the state to appeare The day being come all that Lords assembled desirous to sée to what issue this matter would grow On the morning the thrée Gentlewomen honestly accompanied with other Dames went to the palace and going along the strete of San Marco diuerse people 〈◊〉 to vtter many railing words against thē Some cried out as we sée by vnstable order the vulgare people in like cases vse to do and doing a certaine curtesie by way of disdaine and mockery Beholde that honest women that without sending their husbāds out of Venice haue placed thē in the castell of Cornetto and yet the arrant whores be not ashamed to shewe them selues abrode as thoughe they had done a thing that were honest and prayse woorthie Other shot forth their boltes and with their prouerbes proceding from their malicious mouthes thwited the poore women at their pleasure Other also seyng mistresse Gismonda in their companie thought that she went to declame againste maister Aloisio Foscari and none of them all hapned on the trouth Arriued at the pallace ascending the marble staires or steps of the same they were brought into the great hall where the Duke appointed the matter to bée heard Thither repaired the friendes and those of nerest kinne to the three Gentlewomen and before the matter did begin the duke caused also the thrée prisoners to be brought thither Thither also came many other Gentlemen with great desire to sée the end of those euents Silence being made the duke turning his face to the womē said vnto them Ye Gentlewomen haue made request by supplication to graunt you publike audiēce according to iustice for that you do alleage that lawe and order doth so require and that euery wel ordred common wealth 〈◊〉 deumeth no subiecte without due answere by order of lawe Beholde therfore that we desirous to do iustice be readie in place to heare what ye can say The two husbands were very angrie and wrathful against their wiues the more their stomackes did 〈◊〉 with choler and disdaine to sée their impudent and shamelesse wiues with 〈◊〉 audacitie to appeare before the maiestie of a counsell so honorable and dreadfull as though they had ben the most honest and 〈◊〉 women of the worlde The. 〈◊〉 honest wiues perceiued the anger and displesure of their husbands and for all that were not afrayde ne yet dismayde but smiling to thē selues and somewhat mouing their heads in decent wise séemed vnto them as though they had mocked them Anselmo more angry and impacient than Girolamo brake out into such furie as had it not ben for the maiestie of the place and the companie of people to haue stayed him would haue killed them and seyng he was not able to hurt them he began to vtter the vilest wordes that he possibly coulde deuise against them Mistresse Isotta hearing hir husband so spitefully to spit forth his poison in the
and wel proportioned and therfore represented some force and great dexteritie and that which made the king the better to fantasie that gentlemā was the report of so many worthy mē which extolled euen to that heanēs the prowesse of that Piedmont knight Wherof he gaue assured testimony in that assault which that king made to deliuer 〈◊〉 the chief Citie defense of all 〈◊〉 in the yeare of our Lord. 1451. wher Philiberto behaued himself so 〈◊〉 as he was that first that moūted vpon that wals by his dexteritie inuincible force made way to the soldiers in the breche wherby a litle while after they entred sacked the enimies driuing thē out of that Citie wherin not long before that is to say 1430. that Duke of Somerset caused loane that Pucelle to be burnt The King aduertised of that seruice of the dūbe Gentleman wold recōpense him according to his desert and bicause he knewe him to be of a good house he made him a Gentlemā of his chābre and gaue him a good pension promising him moreouer to cōtinue his liberality whē he shold sée him prosecute in time to come that towardnesse of seruice which he had so haply begon The dūbe Gentleman thanking the king very hūbly both for that present princely reward for promise in time to come lifted vp his hād to heauē as taking God to witnesse of the faith which inuiolable he promised to kepe vnto his Prince which he did so earnestly as hardely he had promised as well appered in a skirmish betwene that French their auncient enimies the English men on whose side was the valiāt hardy Captain the Lord Talbot who hath eternized his memory in the victories obtained vpon that people which sometimes made Europa Asia to trēble appalled the monstrous warlike Countrey of Affrica In this conflict the Piedmont knight ioyned with the lord Talbot against whō he had so happy successe as vpō that shock 〈◊〉 he ouerthrew both man horse which caused the discōfiture of that English mē who after they had horssed again their captain 〈◊〉 amain leauing the 〈◊〉 bespred with dead bodies and bludshed of their cōpaniōs This victory recouered such 〈◊〉 boldnesse to that Frēch as from that time forth the English mē began with their places and forts to lose also their hearts to defēd themselues The king excedingly wel cōtented with the prowesse valiāce of the dumbe gentlemā gaue him for seruice past the charge of v. C. men of armes indued him with some possessions attending better fortune to make him vnderstand howe much the vertue of valiance ought to be rewarded cherished by Princes that be aided in their necessitie with the diligence of such a vertuous Noble Gentleman In like manner when a Prince hath something good in himself he can do no lesse but cherish that which 〈◊〉 himself by Princely conditions sith that vertue in what so euer place it taketh roote can not choose but produce good frute that vse wherof far surmounts them all which aproche that place where these first séedes were thrown Certaine dayes after the king desirous to reioyee his Knights and Captaines that were in his train and desirous to extinguish quite the wofull time which so 〈◊〉 space helde Fraunce in fearful silence caused 〈◊〉 triumph of Turney to be proclaimed within the City of Roane wherin the Lord of Virle was déemed and estemed one of the best which further did increase in him the good wil of the king in such wise as he determined to procure his health and to make him haue his speache againe For he was very sory that a gentleman so valiāt was not able to expresse his minde which if it might be had in councel would serue the state of common wealth so well as the force and valor of his body had til then serued for defense and recouery of his places And for that purpose he made Proclamation by sound of Trumpet throughout the Coūtreis aswel within his owne kingdome as the regions adioyning vpon the same that who so euer could heale that dumbe Gentleman shold haue ten thousande Frankes for recompense A man might haue then séene thousandes of Physitians assembled in field not to skirmish with the English mē but to combate for reward in recouery of the Pacients speache begon to make such warre against those ten thousand Franks as the King was afraide that the cure of that disease could take no effect and for that cause ordained furthermore that who so euer would take in hande to heale the dumbe and would not kepe promise within a certaine prefixed time shold pay the sayd summe or for default thereof should pledge his head in gage A man might then haue séene those Physicke maisters aswell beyond that Mountaines as in Fraunce it self retire home againe bléeding at the nose cursing with great impiety their Patrones Galen Hypocrates and Auicen and blamed with more than reprochful words the Arte wherwith they fished for honor and richesse This brute was spred so far and babbling Fame had already by mouth of Trumpe published the same throughout the most part of the Prouinces Townes and Cities neare and far off to Fraunce in such wise as a man wold haue thought that the two yong men which once in the time of the Macedonian warres broughte tidings to Vatinius that the King of 〈◊〉 was taken by the Consull Paulus Emilius had bene vagant and wādering abrode to cary newes of the Kings edicte for the healing of the Lord of Virle Which caused that not only the brute of the Proclamation but also the credite and reputation wherin the sayd Lord was with the French King came euen to Montcall and passed from mouth to mouth til at length Zilia the principall cause thereof vnderstoode the newes which reioysed hir very much séeing the firme amitie of the dumbe Lord and the sincere faith of him in a promise vnworthy to be kept for so much as wher 〈◊〉 and feare beare swinge in hearts of men religion of promise specially the place of the giuen fayth giueth ouer his force and reuolteth and is no more boūd but to that which by good will he would obserue Now thought she thought nay rather she assured hir selfe that the Gentleman for all his wrytten letter was so surprised with hir loue and kindled with hir fire in so ample wise as when he was at 〈◊〉 and therfore determined to goe to Paris not for desire she had to see hir pacient and penetenciarie but rather for couetise of the ten thousand Frāks wherof already she thought hir selfe assured making good accompt that the dumbe Gentleman séeing himself discharged by hir of his promise for gratifying of hir wold make no stay to speak to the intent she might beare away both the 〈◊〉 and money which all others had 〈◊〉 till that time Thus you sée that she whome honest amitie and long seruice could little induce to
It chaunced in this time that a knight of 〈◊〉 the vassall of King Mathie for that he was likewise king of that countrey borne of a noble house very valiant and well exercised in armes fel in loue with a passing faire Gentlewoman of like nobilitie and reputed to be the 〈◊〉 of all the countrey and had a brother that was but a poore Gentleman not luckie to the goods of fortune This Boemian knight was also not very rich hauing onely a castle with certaine reuenues 〈◊〉 which wer 〈◊〉 able to yeld vnto him any gret maintenance of liuing Fallyng in loue then with this faire Gentlewoman he demaūded hir in mariage of hir brother with hir had but a very litle dowrie And thys knight not wel forseeing his poore estate broughte his wife home to his house there at more leisure cōsidering that same begā to fele his lack penurie how hardly scant his reuenues wer able to maintein his port He was a very honest gentle person one that delited not by any meanes to burden fine his tenants cōtenting himself with the reuenue whiche his auncesters left him the same amounting to no great yerely rent Whē this gentlemā perceiued that he stode in nede of extraordinarie reliefe after many diuers cōsiderations with himself he purposed to folow the court to serue king Mathie his souerain lord master there by his diligence experience to seke meanes for abilitie to sustain his wife him self But so great feruent was that loue that he bare vnto his lady as he thought it impossible for him to liue one houre 〈◊〉 hir yet iudged it not best to haue hir with him to the court for auoiding of further charges 〈◊〉 to courting ladies whose delite 〈◊〉 plesure resteth in the toys tricks of the same that cānot he wel auoided in poore gētlemē without their names in the Mercers or Drapers Iornals a heauy thing for them to consider if for their disport they like to walk that stretes The daily thinking thervpon brought that poore Gentlemā to great sorow heauinesse The lady that was yong wise discrete marking the maner of hir husband feared that he had some 〈◊〉 of hir Wherfore vpon a day she thus said vnto him Dere husband willingly wold I wish desire a good turne at your hand if I wist I should not displease you Demaund what you will said the knight if I can I wil gladly performe it bicause I doe estéeme your satisfaction as I doe mine owne lyfe Then the Ladie very sobrely prayde hym that he wold open vnto hir the cause of that discontenment whiche he shewed outwardly to haue for that hys mynde and behauiour séemed to be contrary to ordinarie custome contriued day and night in fighes auoidyng the companie of them that were wont specially to delight him The Knight hearing his ladies request paused a while and then sayd vnto hir My welbeloued wyfe for so much as you desire to vnderstand my thoughte and mynde and whereof it commeth that I am so sad and pensife I will tell you All the heauynesse wherwith you sée me to be affected dothe tend to this ende Fayne would I deuise that you and I may in honour lyue together according to our calling For in respect of our parentage our liuelode is very poore the occasion whereof were our parentes who morgaged their lands consumed a great part of their goods that our auncesters left them I daily thinkyng herevpon and conceiuing in my head diuers imaginations can deuise no meanes but one that in my 〈◊〉 séemeth best which is that I go to the Court of our souerain lord Mathie who at this present is inferring warrs vpon the Turk at whose hāds I do not mistrust to receiue good 〈◊〉 being a most liberal prince and one that estemeth al such as be valiant and actiue And I for my parte will so gouerne my selfe by Gods grace that by deserte I will procure suche lyuyng and 〈◊〉 as hereafter we may liue in our olde dayes a quiet life to our great stay and comfort For although Fortune hitherto hath not fauored that state of parētage wherof we be I doubt not with noble courage to win that in despite of Fortunes teeth whiche obstinately hytherto shée hath denied And the more assured am I of thys determination bycause at other tymes I haue serued vnder the Lorde Vaiuoda in Transsyluania against the Turk where many times I haue bene required to serue also in the Courte by that honorable Gentleman the Counte of Cilia But when I dyd consider the beloued companie of you dere wife the swéetest companion that euer wyght didde 〈◊〉 I thought it vnpossible for mée to forbeare your presence whych if I should do I were worthy to sustayne that dishonour which a great number of carelesse Gentlemen doe who followyng their priuate gayne and will abandon their yong and faire wyues neglecting the fyre whyche Nature hath instilled to the delicate bodyes of suche tender creatures Fearing therwithall that so soone as I shoulde depart the lustie yong Barons and Gentlemen of the countrey woulde pursue the gayne of that loue the price wherof I doe esteme aboue the crowne of the greatest emperour in all the worlde and woulde not forgoe for all the riches and precious Iewels in the fertile soilt of Arabie who no doubte woulde 〈◊〉 together in greater heapes than euer dydde the wowers of Penelope wythin the famouse graunge of Ithaca the house of wanderynge Vlisses Whyche pursuite yf they dydde attayne I shoulde for euer hereafter bée ashamed to shew my face before those that be of valour and regarde And this is the whole effect of the scruple 〈◊〉 wife that hindreth me to séeke for our better estate and fortune When he had spoken those woords 〈◊〉 held his peace The Gentlewoman which was wise and stout perceiuing the great loue that hir husbande bare hir when he had stayed himselfe from talke with good and mery countenaunce answered hym in thys wise Sir Vlrico which was the name of the Gentleman I in like manner as you haue done haue deuised and thought vpon the Nobilitie and birth of our auncestors from whose state and port and that without our fault and crime we be farre wide and deuided Notwithstanding I determined to set a good face vpon the matter and to make so much of our painted sheath as I could In déede I confesse my self to be a woman and you men do say that womens hearts be faint I féeble but to be plaine with you the contrary is in me my heart is so stoute and ambitious as paraduenture not méete and consonāt to power and abilitie although we women will finde no lacke if our hearts haue pith and strength inough to beare it out And faine wold I support the state wherin my mother maintained me Now be it for mine owne part to God I yeld the thanks I can so moderate and stay
to point the particulers of this intended iorney this poore deceiued Baron in short time proued a very good Spinner by exercise wherof he felt such solace as not onely the same was a comfortable sporte for his captiue tyme but also for wante of better recreation it séemed so ioyfull as yf he had bene pluming and 〈◊〉 his Hauke or doing other sportes belongyng to the honourable state of a Lorde Whiche his well arriued labour the maiden recompensed with abundance of good and delicate meates And although the Ladie was many tymes required to visite the Baron yet she woulde neuer to that request consent In whiche time the Knight Vlrico ceased not continually to viewe and reuewe the state of his image which appeared still to bée of one well coloured sorte And although thys vse of his was diuers times marked and séene of many yet being earnestly demaunded the cause thereof hée would neuer disclose the same Many coniectures thereof 〈◊〉 made but none coulde attaine the trouthe And who would haue thought that a Knight so wise and prudent had worne within his pursse any inchanted thing And albeit the King and Quéene hadde intelligence of thys frequent practise of the Knight yet they thoughte not mete for any priuate and secret mysterie to demaund the cause One Moneth and a halfe was passed nowe that the Lord Alberto was departed the Court and become a castle knight and cunning spinster which made the Lord Vladislao to muse for that the promise made betwene them was brokē and heard neither by letter or messanger what successe he had receiued After diuers thoughts imagined in his mind he conceiued that his companion had happily enioyed the end of his desired ioy and had gathered the wished frutes of the Lady and drowned in that maine sea of his owne pleasures was ouerwhelmed in the bottome of obliuion wherefore he determined to set forwarde on his iourney to giue onset of his desired fortune who without long delay for execution of his purpose prepared all necessaries for that voyage and mounted on horsebacke with two of his men he iourneyed towards Boeme within few dayes after arriued at the Castle of the faire and most honest Lady And when he was entred the Inne where the Lord Alberto was first lodged he diligently enquired of him and hard tell that he was returned into Hungarie many dayes before wherof much maruelling could not tel what to say or thinke In that end purposing to put in proofe the cause wherefore he was departed out of Hungarie after diligent inquirie of the maners of the Lady he vnderstoode the general voyce that she was without comparisō the most honest wise gentle and comely Ladie within the whole Countrey of Boeme Incontinently the Ladie was aduertised of the arriuall of this Baron and knowing the cause of his cōming she determined to pay him also with that money which she had already coyned for the other The next day the Baron went vnto the Castle knocking at the gate sent in woord how that he was come from the Court of King Mathie to visite and salute the Lady of that Castle and as she did entertain the first Baron in curteous 〈◊〉 and with louing countenaunce euen so she did the seconde who thought thereby that he had attained by that pleasant entertainment the game after which he hunted And discoursing vpon diuers matters the Lady shewed hir self a pleasant and familiar Gentlewoman which made the Baron to thinke that in short time he shold win the price for which he came Notwithstanding at the first brunt he would not by any meanes descend to any particularitie of his purpose but his words ran general which were that hearing tel of the fame of hir beautie good grace and come linesse by hauing occasion to repaire into Boeme to doe certaine his affaires he thought it labor well spent to ride some portion of his iourney though it were besides the way to digresse to doe reuerence vnto hir whome fame aduaunced aboue the skies and thus passing his first visitation he returned againe to his lodging The Ladie when the Baron was gone from hir Castle was rapte into a rage greatly offended that those two Hungarian Lordes so presumptuously had bended them selues like common Théeues to wander and roue the Countreys not onely to robbe and spoile hir of hir honoure but also to bring hir in displeasure of hir husbande and thereby into the daunger and perill of deathe By reason of which rage not without cause conceiued she caused an other Chamber to be made ready next wal to the other Baron that was become suche a Notable spinster And vpon the next returne of the Lord Vladislao she receiued him with no lesse good entertainment than before and when night came caused him to be lodged in hir owne house in the Chamber prepared as before where hée slept not very soundly all that night through the continuall remembraunee of his Ladies beautie Next morning hée perceiued himselfe to be locked fast in a Prison And when hée had made him ready thinking to descend to bidde the Ladie good morrow séeking meanes to vnlocke the doore and perceiuing that he could not he stoode still in a dumpe And as hée was thus standing maruelling the cause of his shutting in so faste the Maiden repaired to the hole of the dore giuing his honor an 〈◊〉 salutation which was that hir Mistresse commaunded hir to giue him to vnderstand that if he had any lust or appetite to his breakefast or minded from thence for the to ease his hunger or conteine life that he should giue him selfe to learne to réele yarne And for that purpose she willed him to looke in such a corner of the Chamber and he shoulde finde certaine spindles of thréede and an instrument to winde his yarne vpon Wherefore quod she apply your self thereunto and lose no time He that had that time beholden the Baron in the face woulde haue thought that hée hadde séene rather a Marble stone than the figure of a man But conuerting hys colde conceiued moode into madde anger he fell into tenne times more displeasure wyth himselfe than is before described by the other Baron But séeing that hys madde béhauioure and beastly vsage was bestowed in vaine the next day he began to réele The Ladie afterwardes when she hadde intelligence of the good and gainefull spinning of the Lorde Alberto and the well disposed and towardly réeling of the Lorde Vladislao greately reioyced for making of suche two Notable woorkemen whose woorkemanship excéeded the laboures of them that hadde béene apprentyzes to the occupation seuen yeares together Suche be the apte and ready wittes of the Souldioures of loue Where in I would wishe all Cupides dearlings to be nousled and applied in their youthly time thē no doubt their passions would appease and rages assuage and would giue ouer their ouer bolde attemptes for which they haue no thank of the chast and honest And to this goodly
nature and vnderstād how I can be requited on them which indeuor to gratifie me in any thing Hauing sayd so and euery man being set down he turned his talke to the reste of the companie in this wise I doubt not my 〈◊〉 noble dames but that ye much muse and maruell to sée me in this house so late and in your companie and am sure that a great desire moueth your minds to know for what purpose that cause and why I haue gathered this assemblie in a time vnlooked for and in place where none of oure race and kynne of long time dyd enter and lesse dyd meane to make hyther their repaire But when you doe consider what vertue and goodnesse resteth in the heartes of those men that shunne and auoyde the 〈◊〉 of mynde to followe the reasonable parte and which proprely is called spirituall you shall therby perceiue that when gentle kynde and noble heart by the great mistresse 〈◊〉 Nature be grifted in the myndes of men they cease not to make appere the effect of their doings sometyme producyng one vertue sometimes another whiche cease not to cause the fruict of suche industrie bothe to blowe and beare In suche wyse as the more those vertuous actes and commendable workes do appeare abroade the greater dyligence is imployed to searche the matter wherein she 〈◊〉 cause to appeare the force of vertue and excellencie conceiuyng singular delighte in that hir good and holie delyuerie whych bringeth forth a fruict worthie of such a stocke And that force of minde and generositie of noble hearte is so firme and sure in operation as althoughe humane things be vnstable and subiecte to chaunge yet they can not be seuered or disparcled And albeit it bée the butte and white whereat Fortune dischargeth all hir dartes and shaftes threatning shooting and assailing the same rounde yet it continueth stable and firme like a rocke and cliffe beaten with the violent furie of waues rising by winde or tempest Wherby it chanceth that riches and dignitie can no more aduaunce the hart of a slaue and villain than pouertie make vile abase the greatnesse of courage in them that be procreated of other stuffe than of common sorte which dayely kéepe the maiestie of their originall and lyue after the instincte of good and noble bloode wherewith their auncesters were made noble and sucked that same vertue oute of the teates of Noursses breastes who in the myddes of troublesome 〈◊〉 of Fortune that doe assayle them and depresse theyr modestie theyr face and countenaunce and theyr factes full well declare their condition and doe to vnderstande that vnder suche a miserie a mynde is hydde whiche deserueth greater guerdon than the eigre taste of calamitie In that dydde glowe and shyne the youth of the Persian and Median Monarch being nurssed amongs the stalles and stables of his grandfather the gentle kynde of the founder of stately Rome suckeled in the shepecoates of Princes shephierds Thus much haue I sayd my good lordes and dames in consideration of the noble courage and gentle mynde of Charles Montanine and of his sister who without preiudice to any other I dare to say is the paragon and mirrour of all chast and curteous maidens well trained vp amongs the whole troupe of those that liue this daye in Siena who beeyng brought to the ende and last point of their ruin as euery of you doth know and their race so sore decayed as there remaineth but the onely name of Montanine notwithstanding they neuer lost the hearte desire ne yet the effect of the curtesie and naturall bountie whiche euer doth accompanie the minde of those that be 〈◊〉 in déede Which is the cause that I am constrayned to accuse oure auncesters of to muche crueltie and of the litle respect which for a controuersie occurred by chāce haue pursued them with such mortal reuenge as without ceassing with all their force they haue assayed to ruinate abolishe and for euer 〈◊〉 that a righte noble and illustre race of the Montanines amongs whō if neuer any goodnesse appeared to the worlde but the honestie gentlenesse curtesie and vertuous maners of these twaine here present the brother and sister yet they ought to be accompted amongs the ranke of the noblest and chiefest of our Citie to the intent in tyme to come it may not be reported that we haue estéemed and cherished riches and drossie mucke more than vertue and modestie But imitating those excellent gouerners of Italie which helde the Romane Empire lette vs rather reuerēce the vertuous poore than praise or prise the riche gyuen to vice and wickednesse And for so much as I do sée you all to be desirous to knowe that cause and argument which maketh me to vse this talke and forceth mée to prayse the 〈◊〉 and goodnesse of the Montanines pleaseth you to stay a litle with pacience and not think the time tedious I meane to declare the same Plainely to confesse vnto you for that it is no crime of death or heinous offense the gifts of nature the beautie and comelinesse of faire Angelica here present haue so captiuate my mind and depriued my hart of libertie as night and day trauailing how I mighte discouer vnto hir my martirdom I did consume in such wise as losing lust of sléepe and meate I feared ere lōg to be either dead of sorrow or 〈◊〉 of my right wittes seing no meanes how I might auoyd the same bicause our two houses and families were at continuall debate and albeit 〈◊〉 were ceased and quarelles forgotten yet there rested as I thought a certaine desire bothe in the one and the other of offense when time and occasion did serue And yet mine affection for al that was not decreased but rather more tormented and my griefe increased hopelesse of helpe which nowe is chaunced to me as you shall heare You doe knowe and so do all men howe within these fewe dayes past the Lorde Montanine here present was accused before the Seniorie for trespasses against the statutes and Edicts of the same and being prisoner hauing not wherwith to satisfie the condemnation the law affirmed that his life shold recompense and supplie default of money I not able to suffer the want of hym which is the brother of the dearest thing I estéeme in the worlde and hauyng not hir in possession nor lyke without him to attaine hir payed that summe and deliuered hym He by what meanes I know not or how he coniectured the beneuolence of my déede thinkyng that it procéeded of the honest 〈◊〉 and affection which I bare to gracious and amiable Angelica well consideryng of my curteste hath ouercome me in prodigalitle he this nyghte came vnto me wyth his sister my mystresse yeldyng hir my slaue and bondwoman leauing hir with me to doe with hir as I wold with any thing I had Beholde my good Lordes and ye noble Ladies and cousins and consider how I may recompense thys benefite and be able to satisfie
house Upon this Anniuersarie day of Artaxerxes coronation when all things were disposed in order the King desirous to accomplishe a certaine conceiued determination cōmaunded one of his faithful chamberlains spéedily to seke out Ariobarzanes which the sayde faithfull chamberlaine did and telling him the kings message sayd My lord Ariobarzanes the King hath willed me to say vnto you that his pleasure is that you in your owne person euen forthwith shall cary your white stéede and Courser the mace of gold and other 〈◊〉 due to the office of Senescall vnto Darius youre mortall enimie and in his maiesties behalfe to say vnto him that the king hath giuen him that office and hath clearely dispossessed you thereof Ariobarzanes hearing those heauie newes was like to die for sorowe and the greater was his griefe bicause it was giuen to his greatest enimie Notwithstanding like a Gentleman of noble stomacke woulde not in open apparance signifie the displeasure which he conceiued within but with merrie cheare and louing countenance sayde vnto the chambrelaine Do my right humble cōmendations vnto the kinges maiestie and say vnto him that like as he is the soueraigne lorde of all this lande and I his faithfull subiect euen so myne office my life landes and goods be 〈◊〉 his disposition and that willingly I will performe his 〈◊〉 When he had spoken those wordes he rendred 〈◊〉 his office to Darius who at dinner serued in the same And when the king was set Ariobarzanes with comely countenaunce sat downe amongs the rest of the Lordes Which sodaine deposition and depriuation did 〈◊〉 lously amaze the whole assemblie euery man secretly speking their minde either in praise or dispraise of that fact The king all the dinner time did marke note the countenance of Ariobarzanes which was pleasant and merie as it was wont to be whereat the king did greately maruell And to attaine to the ende of his purpose hée began with sharpe wordes in presence of the nobilitie to disclose his discontented minde and the grudge which he bare to Ariobarzanes On the other side the king suborned diuers persons diligently to espie what he sayde did Ariobarzanes hearing the kings sharpe wordes of rebuke and stimulated by the persuasion of diuers flatterers which were hired for that purpose after he perceiued that his declared pacience preuailed nothing that his modest talke his long and faithful seruice which he had done vnto the king his losse and hinderance sustained the perill of his life which so many times he had suffered at length banquished with disdaine he brake the Bridle of Pacience and sorted out of the boundes of his wonted nature for that in place of honor he receiued rebuke in stede of reward was depriued of his office begā in a rage to cōplain of that king terming him to be an vnkind prince which amongs the Persians was estéemed a worde of great offence to the maiestie wherefore faine he would haue departed the court and retired home to his coūtrey which he coulde not doe without speciall licence from the king and yet to craue the same at his handes his heart would not serue him Althese murmures and complaintes which secretely he made were tolde the king therfore the king commaunded him one day to be called before him vnto whome he sayde Ariobarzanes youre grudging complaints and enuious quarels which you disparcle behinde my backe throughout my Courte and your continuall rages outragiously pronounced through the verie windowes of my Palace haue 〈◊〉 myne eares whereby I vnderstande that thing which hardly I would haue beleued But yet being a Prince as wel inclined to fauour and quiet hearing of al causes as to credite of light reports would faine know of you the cause of your lamentation and what hath moued you thervnto For you be not ignorant that to murmure at the Persian King or to terme him to be vnkinde is no lesse offence than to blaspheme the Gods immortall bicause by auncient Lawes and Decrées they be honored and worshipped as Gods And among all the penalties conteined in our lawes the vice of Ingratitude is moste bitterly corrected But leauing to speake of the threates and dangers of our lawes I pray you to tell me wherin I haue offended you For albeit that I am a king yet reason persuadeth me not to giue offence to any man which if I shoulde doe and the Gods forbid the same I ought rather to be termed a tyrant than a King Ariobarzanes hearing the King speake so reasonably was abashed but yet with stoute countenaunce he feared not particularly to remembre the wordes which he had spoken of the King and the cause wherefore he spake them Well sayd the King I perceiue that you blushe not at the words ne yet fear to reherse the same vnto my face wherby I doe perceiue and note in you a certaine kinde of stoutenesse which naturally 〈◊〉 from the greatnesse of your minde But yet wisedome would that you shoulde consider the reason and cause why I haue depriued you from your office Doe you not knowe that it appertaineth vnto me in all mine affaires and déedes to be liberall curteous magnificent and bounteous Be not those the vertues that make the fame of a Prince to 〈◊〉 amongs his subiects as the Sunne beames do vpon the circuit of the worlde Who ought to rewarde well doers and recompence eche wight which for any seruice and aduantage haue all the dayes of their life or else in some particuler seruice vsed their painful trauaile or aduentured the perill of their life but I alone béeing your soueraigne Lord and Prince To the vertuous and obedient to the Captaine and Souldier to the politike and wise to the lerned and graue finally to eche well 〈◊〉 wight I know how to vse the noble princely vertues of Curtesie and Liberalitie They bée the comely ensignes of a King They be the onely ornaments of a Prince They bée my particuler vertues And will you Ariobarzanes béeing a valiant souldier a graue counsailer and a politike personage goe aboute to dispossesse me of that which is mine Will you which are my seruant and subiect of whom I make greatest accompt and haue in dearest estimation vpon whome I did bestowe the greatest dignitie within the compasse of my whole Monarchie grate benefite at my hands by abusing those vertues which I aboue other do principally regard You do much abuse the credite which I repose in your greate wisedome For hée in whome I thought to finde moste graue aduise and déemed to bée a receptacle of all good counsell doth seke to take vpon him the personage of his Prince and to vsurpe the kingly state which belongeth only vnto him Shall I be tied by your deserts or bound by curteous dedes or else be forced to rendre recompēce No no so long as this imperiall crown shall rest on royall head no subiecte by any curteous déede of his shall straine vnwilling minde which meant it not
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
was driuen into great admiration and thought it very straunge that a woman which al the days of hir life had liued in greate honour and estimation shold vpon light cause or occasion poison hir self sith it was naturally giuen to eche breathyng wyght to prolong their liuing dayes with the longest thréede that Atropos could draw out of dame Natures webbe Wher vpon he commaunded the sayd matrone to be brought before hym whose death for hir vertue was generally lamented by the whole countrey When the Gentlewomā was before him and had vnderstāding that she was fully resolued and determined to die he began by greate 〈◊〉 to exhort hir that she should not wilfully 〈◊〉 hir selfe away vpon consideration that she was of lusty yeares riche and 〈◊〉 of the whole countrey how greate pitie it were but shée shoulde renue hir minde and giue hir selfe still to liue and remayne til naturall course did ende and finish hir life howbeit his 〈◊〉 and earnest persuasion could not diuert hir from hir intēded purpose But Pompeius 〈◊〉 to haue hir die ceassed not still to 〈◊〉 his former talke with newe reasons and stronger arguments All which she paciently heard with fired 〈◊〉 til at length with clere voice and 〈◊〉 cheare 〈◊〉 answered him in this maner You be greatly deceiued my lord Pompeius if you do beleue that I without very great prouidence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goe about to end my days for I do know and am 〈◊〉 persuaded that eche creature naturally craueth the prolongation and lengthning of life so much abhorreth to die as the desirous to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the poison whiche I haue prepared for consummation of my life Wher vpon I haue diuers times thought considered and discoursed with my selfe and amongs many considerations 〈◊〉 debated in my minde there came into the same the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 change of Fortune whose whir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neuer 〈◊〉 ne yet remaineth 〈◊〉 It 〈◊〉 dayly séene how she doth exalt and aduance some man from the lowest and bottomlesse pitte euen to the 〈◊〉 of the hygh Heauens endowyng hym wyth so much substaunce as he can desire An other that was moste happie honoured in this worlde lyke a God vnto whom no goodes and welfare were wantyng who myghte well haue bene called in his lyfe a thrée tymes happie and blessed wyght sodaynly from his honoure and 〈◊〉 depriued and made a verie poore man and begger Some man also that is bothe riche and lustie accompanied wyth a faire wife and goodlye children lyuyng in greate myrth and ioylitie this wicked Ladie Fortune the deuourer of all oure contentacions depriueth from the inestimable treasure of health causeth the fayre wife to loue an other better than hir husbande and with 〈◊〉 venomous tooth biteth the children that in shorte space myserable deathe catcheth them all within hys dreadfull clouches whereby hée is defrauded of those chyldren whome after his deathe hée purposed to leaue 〈◊〉 his heires But what meane I to consume tyme and words in declaration of fortunes vnsteady staye which is more clere than the beames of the Sunne of whome dayly a thousande thousande examples bée manifest All histories be full of them The myghtie countrey of Graecia doeth render ample witnesse wherein so many excellent men were bredde and brought vp Who desirous with their fynger to touche the highest heauen were in a moment throwen downe And so many famous Cities whiche gouerned numbers of people nowe at this presente day wée sée to bée thrall and obedient to thy Citie of Rome Of these hurtefull and perillous mutations O noble Pompcius thy Romane Citie may bée a 〈◊〉 cleare glasse and Spectacle and a multitude of thy noble Citizens in tyme paste and present may gyue plentyfull witnesse But to come to the cause of this my death I say that fyndyng my selfe to haue lyued these many yeares by what chaunce I can not tell in verie greate prosperitie in all whiche tyme I neuer dyd suffer any one myssehappe but styll from good to better haue passed my time vntil thys daye Nowe fearyng the frownyng of Lady Fortunes face and that shée will repente hir long continued fauoure I feare I saye leaste the same Fortune shoulde chaunge hir stile and begynne in the middest of my pleasaunt life to sprinckle hir poysoned bitternesse and make mée the 〈◊〉 and Quiuer of hir sharpe and noysome arrowes Wherefore I am nowe determined by good aduyse to ridde my self from the captiuitie of hir force from all hir misfortunes and from the noysom and grieuous infirmities which miserably be incident to vs mortall Creatures And beleue me Pompcius that many in theyr aged dayes haue left their life with litle honour who had they ben gone in their youth had died famous for euer Wherefore my Lorde Pompeius that I may not be tedious vnto thée or hinder thyne affaires by long discourse I beséeche thée to gyue me leaue to follow my deliberate disposition that frankely and fréely I may bée 〈◊〉 of all daunger for the longer the life doth growe to the greater discommodities it is subiect When shée had so sayde to the greate admiration and compassion of all those whiche were present with tremblyng handes and fearefull cheare shée quaffed a greate cuppe of poysoned drynke the whyche shée broughte wyth hir for that purpose and within a while after dyed This was the strange vse and order obserued in 〈◊〉 Whiche good counsell of that dame had the noble and valiaunt captaine followed no doubt he would haue ben contented to haue ben brought to order And then he had not lost that bloudie battell atchieued against him by Iulius Cesar at Pharsalia in Egypt Then he had not sustained so many ouerthrowes as he did then had he not ben forsaken of his trendes and in the ende endured a death so miserable And for somuch as for the most part 〈◊〉 therto we haue intreated of many tragical and bloudie rhaunces respiring nowe from those lette vs a little touche some medicinable remedies for loue some lessons for gouernement and obediēce some treaties of amorous dames and hautie 〈◊〉 of Princes Quéenes and other persons to variate the chaungeable diet wherewith dyuers bée affected rellishyng their Stomackes wyth some more pleasant digestions than they haue tasted Faustina the Empresse ¶ The dishonest Loue of 〈◊〉 AVSTINA the Empresse and vvith vvhat remedie the same loue vvas remoued and taken avvay The tenth Nouell TRue and moste holie is the sentence that the ladie gentlewoman or other wighte of Female kinde of what degrée or condition soeuer she bée be she saire fowle or ylfauoured can not be endewed with a more precious Pearle or Jewell than is the 〈◊〉 pure vertue of honesty which is of such valour that it alone without other vertue is able to render hir that 〈◊〉 in hir attire moste famous and excellent Be she more beautifull than Helena be she mightier than the Amazon better learned than Sappho rycher than Flora more louing than Quéene Dido or more noble than
Campania issued of certein Romans knights very famous in facts of armes and of great industrie and gouernement in the common wealth When the father and mother of this Flora deceased she was of the age of xb. yeares indued with great riches and singular beautie and the very orphane of all hir kynne For she had neyther brother left with whom she might soiourne ne yet vncle to gyue hir good councell In such wise that like as this yong maistres Flora had youth riches liberty and beautie euen so ther wanted neither bauds nor Pandores to 〈◊〉 hir to fal and allure hir to follie Flora seing hir selfe beset in this wise she determined to goe into the Affrick warres where she hazarded both hir person and hir honor This dame florished and tryumphed in the tyme of the first Punique warres when the Consul Mamillus was sent to Carthage who dispended more money vpon the loue of Flora than hée did vpon the chase and pursute of his 〈◊〉 This amorous ladie Flora had a writing and tytle fixed vpon hir gate the effect wher of was thys King Prince Dictator Consul Censor high Bishop and Questor may knocke and come in In that writing Flora named neither Emperor nor Caesar bycause those two most noble names were long tyme after created by the Romanes This amorous Flora wold neuer abandon hir person but wyth gentlemen of great house or of great dignitie and riches For she was wont to say that a woman of passing beauty should bée so much estemed as she doth esteme and sette by hir selfe Lais and Flora were of contrary maners conditions For Lais would first bée paide before she yelded the vse of hir bodie but Flora without any semblance of desire eyther of golde or siluer was contented to bée ruled by those with whom she committed the facte Wherof vpon a day being demaunded the question she answered I gyue my body to Princes and noble Barons that they may deale with me like gentlemen For I sweare vnto you by the Goddesse Venus that neuer man gaue me so little but that I had more than I loked for and the double of that which I could demaund This amorous lady Flora was wont many tymes to saye that a wise woman or more aptlie to terme hir a subtill wench ought not to demaund reward of hir louer for the acceptable pleasure which she doth hym but rather for the loue which she beareth him bicause that all things in the world haue a certain price except loue which cannot bée paide or recompenced but with loue All the Ambassadors of the worlde which had accesse into Italie made so great report of the beauty and generositie of Flora as they dyd of the Romane common wealth bycause it semed to bée a monstrous thinge to sée the riches of hir house hir trayue hir beautie the princes great lordes by whom she was required and the presents and giftes that were gyuen vnto hir This amorous Flora had a continuall regard to the noble house wherof she came touching the magnificence and state of hir seruice For albeit that she was but a common woman yet she was serued honored like a great ladie That day wherin she rode about the citie of Rome she gaue occasion to bée spoken of a whole month after one inquiring of an other what gret Roman lords they were that kept hir company Whose men they were that waighted vpon hir And whose liuery they ware What ladies they were that rode in hir traine the brauery of hir apparell hir great beautie port and the wordes spoken by the amorous gentlemen in that troupe were not vnremembred When this maistres Flora wared olde a yong and beautifull gentleman of Corinth demaunded hir to 〈◊〉 to whome she aunswered I know well that thou wilt not marie the thrée score yeares which Flora hath but rather thou 〈◊〉 to haue the twelue hundred thousand Sestercias which she hath in hir house Content thy selfe therfore my frende and get thée home againe to Corinth from whence thou 〈◊〉 For to such as bée of myne age great honor is borne reuerence done for the riches and wealth they haue rather than for mariage There was neuer in the Romane Empire the like amorous woman that Flora was indued with so many graces and quéenelike qualities for she was of noble house of singuler beautie of comly personage discrete in hir affaires and besides all other comly qualities very liberall This maistres Flora spent the most part of hir youth in Africa Almaine and Gallia 〈◊〉 And albeit that she would not suffre any other but great lords to haue possession of hir body yet she applied hir selfe to the spoile of those that were in place and to the praie of those that came from the warrs This amorous Flora died when she was of the age of 〈◊〉 yeares She left for the principall heire of all hir goods and 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 people which was estemed sufficiēt able to make newe the walles of Rome and to 〈◊〉 and redeme the common welth of the same And bicause that she was a Romaine had made the state thereof hir heire the Romanes buylded in hir honor a sumptuous Temple which in memorie of Flora was called 〈◊〉 and euery yeare in the memorie of hir they celebrated hir feast vpon the daye of hir death Suctonuis Tranquillus saieth that the first feaste which the Emperour Galba the second celebrated within Rome was the feast of the amorous Flora vpon which day it was lawfull for men women to doe what kinde of dishonestie they could deuise And she was estemed to be the greater saint which that day shewed hir selfe most dissolute and wanton And bicause that the temple Florianum was dedicated to amorous Flora the Romās had an opinion that all women which vpon the same day repaired to the Temple in whorish apparell should haue the graces and gifts that Flora had These were the sond opinions and maners of the auncient which after their owne making deuises framed Gods and Goddesses and bycause the proued vnshamefast and rich a Temple must bée erected and Sacrifices ordeined for hir whorish triumphes But that noble men and Kings haue bene rapt and transported with the lurements of such notorious strumpets is and hath bene common in all ages And commonly such infamous women bée indewed with greatest giftes and graces the rather to noosell dandle their fauorers in the lappes of their fading pleasures But euery of them a most speciall grace aboue the rest As of a king not long agoe we reade that kept thrée one the holiest another the crastiest the third the 〈◊〉 Two of which properties méete for honest women although the third so incident to that kinde as heat to a liuing bodie Cease we then of this kinde and let vs steppe forth to be acquainted with a ladie a Quéene the Godliest stoutest that is remembred in any aun cient monument or historie Zenobia Queene of Palmyres
master Philippo whō for his good condiciōs experience they had sent vnto him in that ambassage Upon a day the king moued by the lord chācelor caused master Philippo to com before him to whō 〈◊〉 before his maiesty the king said these wordes The testimonie report so honorably made of you by the two 〈◊〉 frō whom you brought vs letters the hope which we haue to find you a faithful profitable seruant and to be correspondent in effect to the tenor of those letters moueth vs to accepte you into the numbre of one of our Secretaries wherein before our presence you shall sweare vnto vs to be faithfull and true Master Philippo that expected for no such dignitie maruelled at the Kings wordes and there by othe ministred vnto him by the lorde Chauncelour was receiued into his seruice exercised that office in singular fauor of the King to the great satisfactiō of al men And after 〈◊〉 King Charles was elected Emperor knowing the experiēce that master Philippo had in the affaires of Italie and specially in Lombardie he cōmitted vnto him al maters touching the state of that region which so happily came to passe to master Philippo as besides the ornaments of vertue wisedom he acquired greate riches and yet he continually serued and worshipped the Quéene as his noble patronesse and worthy mistresse Tell me now ye faire Ladies and gentlewomen What shall we 〈◊〉 of the princely behauiour and noble disposition of this Quene Truly in my iudgement she deserueth that praise and commendation that may be attributed to the moste excellente Ladie of the worlde who neuer gaue ouer hir faithfull seruaunt tyll she had bountifully with hir owne handes and commendation rendred vnto him a most Princely reward And as the sunne in beautie and brightnesse doeth surmounte the other furniture of the 〈◊〉 euen so magnificence and liberalitie in eche Ladie doth excell al other vertues specially in those personages that kéepe the state of Princes But to conclude méete and requisite it is that ye beautifie this most curteous and liberall Quéene with due praises For surely in my iudgement yf all women would conferre theyr heades and wittes together and deuise Hymnes and Sonnets of Liberalitie they can neuer sufficiently be able to celebrate the praise and glorie of this Quéene Alexander de Medices Duke of Florence ¶ The gentle and iust acte of ALEXANDER de MEDICES the first Duke of FLORENCE vpon a Gentleman whome he fauoured who hauing rauished the daughter of a poore Myller caused him to marie hir for the greater honour and celebration wherof he appointed hir a riche and honourable dowrie The. xxij Nouell IF the force of Uertue were not apparant at the sighte of eye it would be demed to be of lesse value than the greatnesse therof deserueth for sūdry causes rising in the myndes of men and that by performing the little which rested for that entier perfectiō of hir whole vnited glorie Now bicause that hir effectes be diuerse and that diuersly they be vsed the examples also of such diuersitie doe variate and make diuerse that affections of men some to folow that qualitie other that part proceding from the whole and perfect body of vertue which hath caused some to winne the price of modestie and temperance in their dedes other ful of magnanimite not familiar to many haue resisted the assaultes of Fortune Many other haue embraced that only honor which is the 〈◊〉 of ech good act wherby they haue well ruled the state of frée cities or guided the armies of mightie Monarchs And such whilom the cities of Rome Athenes Sparta and the ancient monarchs of the Medes the Persians and Assyrians did sée I will omit a good companie of those sage and wise men which haue 〈◊〉 the troubles of Cities the inquietations of Palaces the cries of Iudgement seates the dissimulation and deceiptfull flatteries of Courtes the carefull courtes which the housholder by gouernement of his house and familie doth susteine and féele of purpose more frankly to retire to the studie of sapience which alone is able to make a man happie worthy to be partaker of the diuinitie But aboue al I wil praise him which not subiect to the law liueth neuerthelesse like him that is most thrall thervnto or without respect of bloud or frendship shall exercise Iustice vpon his dearest and beste beloued as in olde tyme Manlius and Torquatus at Rome the people of Athenes towardes one Tinnagoras who beyond the duetie of an Ambassador of a franke citie fell downe on his knées and worshipped the Persian King And in oure time the Marquize of Ferrara by doing to death his owne sonne for adulterie committed with his mother in law And yet Iustice may redounde and sauour of some crueltie which rather turneth to shame than praise as Iohn Maria Visconte Duke of Milan when he caused a couetous priest to be buried quick with the corps of him whom he had refused to put into the grounde without money the historie wherof is hereafter remembred So as mediocritie of punishment ought to be yoked with the rigor of the law for that mitigation of the same And beholde wherfore the great Dictator Iulius Caesar loued better to gain the hart of his enimies with mercie than vanquish bring them to obediēce with massy manacles giues of iron Moreouer in our age Alphonsus of Aragon the true sampler of a iust righteous prince did not he estéeme when he straightly besieged Gaiette the victorie to be more glorious better gotten which is done by cōposition and gentlenesse than the bloody conquest colored with the teares and blood of a poore simple people And truly princes great lordes specially they which newly without succession receiued from their ancestors ariue to the gouernement of some cōmon welth ought continually to haue before their eyes an honest seueritie for the holinesse of the law a graue mildnesse to moderate the rigor of their formen dutie For by that meanes right is mainteined the heart of mā is won so wel as by violēce the state of gouernmēt taketh so good footing as the wind of no seditiō afterwards can remoue the same being foūded vpon a sure stone framed vpon a rock durable for a lōg time Wherof we haue an exāple of fresh memorie of a kind act ful both of wisedom gentle soueritie in a prince of our time who without effusion of bloud punished with rigor enough a trespasse cōmitted and swetely remitted the paine vpon him which merited grieuous nay mortal punishment as at large youshall sée by the discourse that foloweth Alexander de Medices fauored by the Church of Rome and armed with the Papall standard was he that fyrst with great actiuitie and wisedome inueyed the seniorie of Florence immediately vsurpyng the name title and prerogatiues of Duke The same albeit vpon the prime face hée was 〈◊〉 to the people of Florence wroth for losing of their
riueld for age and Sunneburned with heate and continuall Countrey trauaile and that which moued most the standers by was the ruefull looke of the good olde man who casting his lookes héere there beheld eche one with his holow dolorous eyes in such wise as if hée had not spoken any woord hys countenaunce wold haue moued the Lords to haue compassion vpon his misery his teares wer of such force as the Duke which was a wise man and who measured things by reasons guide prouided with wisedome and foreséeing not without timely iudgement wold know the cause which made that man so to make his playnt and notwithstāding assailed with what suspition I know not would not haue him openly to tel his tale but leading the olde man aside he sayd vnto him My friend 〈◊〉 that gréeuous faultes and of great importance ought grieuously and openly to be punished yet it chaunceth oftentimes that hée which in a heate and choler dothe execution for the guilt although that iustly after hée hath disgested his rage at leasure hée repenteth his rigor and ouer sodaine seueritie offense being natural in man may sometime where slander is not euident by milde and mercifull meanes forget the same without infringing or violating the holy and ciuil constitutions of Lawmakers I speake thus much bicause my heart doeth throbbe that some of my house haue done some filthy fault against thée or some of thine Now I would not that they openly should be slaundered and yet lesse pretend I to leaue their faultes vnpunished specially such as by offensiue crime the common peace is molested wherein my desire is that my people doe liue For which purpose God hath constituted Princes Potestates as shepheards and guids of his 〈◊〉 to the end that the 〈◊〉 fury of the vitious might not destroy deuoure and scatter the impotent 〈◊〉 of no valoure if it be forsaken and left forlorne by the mighty armes of Principalities and Monarchies A singuler modesty doubtlesse and an incredible example of clemency in him whome his Citizens thought to be a Tyrant and vniust vsurper of a frée Seigniorie who so priuely and with such familiaritie as the friend could wishe of his companion hearkened to the cause of a poore Countrey man and moreouer his modesty so great as hée would it not to be knowen what fault it was or else that the offenders should publikely be accused offering for all that to be the reuenger of the wrong done vnto the poore and the punisher of the iniurie exercised against the desolate a woork certainly worthy of a true christian Prince which establisheth kingdomes decayed conserueth those that be rendring the Prince to be beloued of God and feared of his Subiects The pore olde man seing the Duke in so good minde and that accordingly hée demaunded to knowe the wrong done vnto him the name of the factor and that also hée had promysed hym his helpe ryghtfull correction due vnto the deserued fault the good olde man I say conceiuing courage recited from point to point the whole discourse of the rape and the violence done vpon his poore vertuous daughter 〈◊〉 claring besides the name and surname of those which accompanied the Gentleman the author of that conspiracy who as we haue already sayd was one that was in greatest fauor with the Duke who not withstanding the loue that he bare to the accused hearing the vnworthinesse of a déede so execrable said As God liueth this is a detestable facte and well deserueth a sharp and cruell punishment Not withstanding 〈◊〉 take good héede that you doe not mistake the same by accusing one for an other for the Gentleman whome thou haste named to be the rauisher of thy daughter is of all men déemed to be very honest and doe well assure thée that if I finde thée a lyer thy heade shall answer for example to eche false accuser and slaunderer in time to come But if the matter be so true as thou hast sayd I promise thée by the faith I beare to God so well to redresse thy wrong as thou shalt haue cause to be throughly satisfied with my iustice To whome the good old man thus answered My Lord the matter is so true as at this day he kéepeth my daughter like a cōmon strumpet in his house And if it please your highnesse to send thither you shall know that I doe vse no false accusation or lying wordes before you my Lord and Prince in presence of whome as before the minister and lieuetenant of God man ought not to speake but truely and religiously Sith it is so sayd the Duke get thée home to thy house where God willing I will be this day at dinner but take hede vpon thy life thou say nothing to any man what so euer it be for the rest let me alone I will prouide according to reason The good man almost so glad for his good exploit as the day before hée was sorowfull for his losse ioyfully went home to his homely house Countrey cabaue which he 〈◊〉 to be made ready so well as hée could attending the comming of his deliuerer succor support and iudge who when he had heard seruice commaūded his horsse to be sadled for sayd he I heare say there is a wilde Boare haunting hereby so wel lodged as is possible to sée we will goe thither to wake him from his sléepe ease and vse that passe time til dinner be redy So departing frō Florence he rode straight vnto that Mil where his dinner was made ready by his seruauntes There he dined very soberly and vsing fewe wordes vnto his companie sate still all pensiue musing vpon that he had to doe For on the one side the grauitie of that 〈◊〉 moued him rigorously to chastise him which had committed the sante with all crueltie and insolencie On the other side the loue which he bare him mollifying his heart made him change his minde and to moderate his sentence The Princes minde thus wandering betwéene loue and rigor one brought him worde that the Dogs had rousde the great est Hart that euer he sawe which newes pleased him very much for by that meanes he sent away the multitude of his Gentlemen to follow that chase retaining with him his most familiar friends and those that were of his priuy and secrete councell whome he would to be witnesses of that which he intended to doe and causing his hoast to come before him he sayd My friend thou must bring vs to the place wherof this morning thou toldest me that I may discharge my promise The Courtiers wōdred at those words ignorant wherunto that same were spoken but the good man whose heart lept for ioy as already féeling some great benefit at hand and honour prepared for the beautifying of his house séeing the Duke on horsse backe ran bisides him in steade of his Lackey with whome the Prince helde much pleasant talke all along the way as they went togither 〈◊〉 they had
wife oweth vnto hir husband that I should desire to suffer the heat which burneth altereth the martired minds of those that subdue them selues 〈◊〉 loue Can such attempt pierce the heart of me to become amorous by forgetting straying from the limittes of honest life But what desire is this I haue a certaine vnacquainted lust yet very well know not what it is that moueth me and to whome I shall vow the spoile thereof I am truely more fonde and foolish than euer Narcislus was for there is neither shadow nor 〈◊〉 vpō which I can well stay my sight nor yet simple Imagination of any worldly man whereupon I can arrest the conceipt of my vnstayed heart and the desires which prouoke my mind Pygmalion loued once a Marble piller and I haue but one desire the coloure wherof is more pale than death There is nothyng which can giue the same so much as one spot of vermilion rud If I do discouer these appetites to any wight perhaps they will mock me for my labor and for all the beautie Noble birth that is in me they wil make no conscience to déeme me for their iesting stock to solace themselues with rehersall of my fond conceits But sith there is no enimie in the field that but simple suspition doth assaile vs we must breake of the same and deface the entier remembrance of the lightnesse of my braine It appertaineth vnto me to shew my self as issued forth of the Noble house of Aragon To me it doeth belong to take héede how I erre or degenerate from the royall bloud wherof I came In this sort that fair widow and yong Princesse fantasied in the nyght vpon the discourse of hir appetites But when the day was come séeing the great multitude of the Neapolitan Lords gentlemen which marched vp downe the Citie eying and beholding their best beloued or vsing talk of mirth with thē whose seruaunts they were al that which she thought vpō in the night vanished so sone as that flame of burned straw or the pouder of the Canon shot purposed for any respect to liue no lōger in that sort but promised the conquest of some friend that was lustie and discréete But the difficultie rested in that she knew not vpon whom to fixe hir loue fearing to be slaundered and also that the light disposition and maner of most part of youth wer to be suspected in such wise as giuing ouer all them whych vauted vpon their Gennets Turkey Palfreis other Coursers along the Citie of Naples she purposed to take repast of other Uenison than of that fond wanton troupe So hir mishap began already to spin the thréede which choked the aire and breath of hir 〈◊〉 life Ye haue heard before that M. Bologna was one of the wisest most perfect gentlemen that the land of Naples that tyme brought forth for his beautie proportion galantnesse valiance good grace without cōparison His fauor was so swéete and pleasant as they which kept him cōpanie had somwhat to do to abstain their affection Who then could blame this faire Princesse if pressed with desire of matche to 〈◊〉 the ticklish instigations of hir wāton flesh and hauing in hir presence a mā so wise she did set hir minde on him or fantasie to mary him wold not that partie for calming of his thirst hunger being set at the table before sundry sorts of delicate viands ease his hunger Me think the person doth greatly forget himself which hauing hādfast vpō occasion suffreth the same to vanish flie away sith it is wel knowne the she being bald behinde hath no place to sease vpon when desire moueth vs to lay hold vpon hir Which was the cause that the Duchesse becam extremely in loue with the master of hir house In such wise as before al men she spared not to praise the great perfectiōs wherwith he was enriched whō she desired to be altogether hirs And so she was 〈◊〉 that it was as possible to sée that night to be void of darknesse as that Duchesse without the presence of hir Bologna or else by talk of words to set forth his praise the continual remēbrance of whome for that she loued him as hir self was hir only minds repast The gentleman that was ful wise had at other times felt the great force of the passion which procedeth frō extreme loue immediatly did mark that coūtenāce of the Duchesse perceiued the same so nere as vnfainedly he knew that very ardētly that Ladie was in loue w e him albeit he saw the inequality differēce betwene thē both she being sorted out of the royal bloud yet knowing loue to haue no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 state or dignity determined to folow his fortune 〈◊〉 serue 〈◊〉 which so louingly shewed hir self to him Then sodainly reprouing his fonde conceit hée sayd vnto himself What follie is that I enterprise to that great preiudice and perill of mine honor and life Dught the wisdom of a Gentleman to straie and wandre through the assaults of an appetite rising of sensuality and that reason giue place to that which doeth participate with brute beastes depriued of all reason by subduing the mynde to the affections of the body No no a vertuous man ought to let shine in him self the force of the generositie of his mynde This is not to liue according to the spirite when pleasure shall make vs forget our duetie and sauegard of our Conscience The reputation of a wise Gentleman resteth not onely to be valiant and skilfull in feates of armes or in seruice of the Noble But nedefull it is for him by discretion to make himselfe prayse worthy and by vanquishing of him self to open the gate to fame whereby he may euerlastingly make himselfe glorious to all posteritie Loue pricketh and prouoketh the spirit to do wel I do confesse but that affection ought to be addressed to some vertuous end tending to mariage for otherwise that vertuous image shall be soyled with the villanie of beastly pleasure Alas said he how easie it is to dispute whē the thing is absent which can bothe force and violently assaile the bulwarks of most constant hearts I full well doe sée the trothe and doe féele the thing that is good and know what behoueth me to follow but when I view that diuine beautie of my Ladie hir graces wisdome behauior and curtesie when I sée hir to cast so louing an eie vpon me that she vseth so great familiaritie that she forgetteth the greatnesse of hir house to abase hir self for my respect how is it possible that I should be so foolish to dispise a duetie so rare and precious and to set light by that which the Noblest would pursue with all reuerence and indeuor Shall I be so much voide of wisedome to suffer the yong Princesse to sée hir self contempned of me to conuert hir loue to teares by setting hir mynde vpon an other to séeke mine ouerthrow
sent for him vp into hir chamber as commonly she did for the affaires and matters of hir house and taking him a side vnto a 〈◊〉 hauing prospect into a garden she knew not how to begin hir talk for the heart being seased the minde troubled and the wittes out of course the tongue failed to doe his office in such wise as of long time she was vnable to 〈◊〉 one onely woord Hée surprised with like affection was more astōned by séeing the alteration of his Ladie So the two Louers stoode still like Images beholding one another without any meuing at all vntil the Ladie the hardiest of them bothe as féeling the most vehement and greatest grief tooke Bologna by the hād and dissembling what she thought vsed this or such like language If any other bisides your self Gentleman should vnderstand the secretes which now I purpose to disclose I doubt what spéeche were necessary to colour my woords But being assured of your discretion and wisdom and with what perfection nature hath indued you and Arte hauing accōplished that in you which nature did begin to work as one bred and brought vp in the royall Court of the second Alphonse of Ferdinando and Federick of Aragon my cousins I wil make no doubt at all to manifest to you the hidden secretes of my heart being well persuaded that when you shall both heare and 〈◊〉 my reasons and tast that light which I bring for the for me easily you may 〈◊〉 that mine 〈◊〉 cannot be other than iust and reasonable But if your conceits shall straye from that which I shal speak déeme not good of that which I determine I shall be forced to thinke say that they which estéeme you wise sage and to be a man of good and ready 〈◊〉 be maruelously deceiued Notwithstāding my heart foretelleth that it is impossible for maister Bologna to wandre so farre from equitie but that by and by he wil enter the lystes discerne the white from black and the wrong from that which is iust and right For so much as hitherto I neuer saw thing done by you which preposterated or peruerted the good iudgement that all the world estéemeth to shine in you the same well manifested declared by your tongue the right iudge of the mind you know and sée how I am a widow through the death of that noble Gentleman of good remembrance the Duke my Lord husband you be not ignoraunt also that I haue liued and gouerned my self in such wise in my widow state as there is no man so hard and seuere of iudgement that can blason reproche of me in that which appertaineth to the honesty reputation of such a Ladie as I am bearing my port so right as my conscience yeldeth no remorse supposing that no man hath where with to bite accuse me Louching the order of the goods of the Duke my sōne I haue vsed them with such diligence and discretion as bisides the dettes which I haue discharged sithens the death of my Lord I haue purchased a goodly Manor in Calabria and haue annexed the same to the Dukedom of his heire and at this day doe not owe one pennie to any creditor that lent mony to the Duke which he toke vp to furnish the charges in the warres which he sustained in the seruice of the Kings our soueraine Lords in the late warres for the kingdome of Naples I haue as I suppose by this meanes stopped the slaunderous mouth and giuen cause vnto my sonne during his life to accōpt himself bound vnto his mother Now hauing till this time liued for other and made my self subiect more than Nature could beare I am entended to chaunge both my life and condition I haue till thys time run trauailed remoued to the Castels Lordships of the Dukedome to Naples and other places being in mind to tary as I am a widow But what new affaires and new councel hath possest my mind I haue trauailed and pained my self inough I haue too long abidden a widowes life I am determined therefore to prouide a husband who by louing me shal honor cherish me according to the loue which I shal bear to him my desert For to loue a man without mariage God defend my heart should euer think shall rather die a hundred thousand deathes thā a desire so wicked shald soile my conscience knowing well that a woman which setteth hir honor to sale is lesse than nothing deserueth not that the cōmon aire shold breathe vpō hir for all the reuerence that men do beare or make them I accuse no person albeit that many noble women haue their forheds marked with the blame of dishonest life being honored of some be neuerthelesse the cōmon fable of the people To the intent then that such mishap happē not to me perceiuing my self vnable stil thus to liue being yong as I am God be thāked neither deformed nor yet painted I had rather be the louing wife of a simple féere than that Concubine of a king or great Prince And what is the mightie Monarche able to wash away the fault of his wife which hath abādoned him cōtrary to that duty honest which the vndefiled bed requireth no les thē Princesses that whilom trespassed with those which wer of baser stuffe than thēselues Messalina w e hir imperial robe could not so wel couer hir faults but that the Historiās do defame hir with that name title of a cōmon woman Faustina the wife of that sage Monarch Marcus Aurelius gained lyke report by rendring hir self to others pleasure bisides hir lawful spouse To mary my self to one that is mine equall it is impossible for so much as there is no Lord in all this Countrey méete for my degrée but is to olde of age that rest being dead in these later warres To mary a husband that yet is but a child is follie extréeme for the inconueniences which daily chaūce therby the euil intreatie that Ladies do receiue whē they come to age their nature waxe cold by reson wherof imbracements be not so fauorable their husbāds glutted with ordinary meat vse to rū in exchāge Wherefore I am resolued without respite or delay to choose some wel qualitied and renoumed Gentleman that hath more vertue than richesse of good Fame and brute to the intēt I may make him my Lord espouse and husband For I cannot imploy my loue vpon treasure which may be taken away where richesse of the minde do faile and shall be better content to sée an honest Gentleman with little reuenue to be praised and cōmended of euery man for his good déedes than a rich carle curssed and detested of all the world Thus much I say and it is the summe of all my secretes wherin I pray your Councell and aduise I know that some wil be offended wyth my choise the Lords my brothers specially the Cardinall will think it straunge and receiue
for the present time they passed that same in words for ratificatiō wherof they wēt to bed togither But that pain in the end was greater than the pleasure and had ben better for them bothe yea and also for the third that they had shewed them selues so wyse in the déede as discrete in keping silence of that which was done For albeit their mariage was secrete and therby politikely gouerned them selues in their stelthes and robberies of loue and that Bologna more oft held the state of the steward of the house by day than of Lord of the same and by night supplied that place yet in the end the thing was perceiued which they desired to be closely kept And as it is impossible to till and culture a fertile ground but that the same must yelde some frute euen so the Duchesse after many pleasures being ripe and plentiful became with child which at the first astonned the maried couple neuerthelesse the same so well was prouided for as the first childbedde was kept secrete and 〈◊〉 did know thereof The childe was nourced in the towne and the father desired to haue him named Federick for remembraunce of the parents of his wife Now fortune which lieth in daily waite and ambushment liketh not that men shold long loiter in pleasure and passe-time being enuious of such prosperity cramped so the legges of our two louers as they must néedes change their game and learne some other practise for so much as the Duchesse being great with childe again and deliuered of a girle the businesse of the same was not so secretely done but that it was discouered And it suffised not that the brute was noised through Naples but that the sound flew further off As eche mā doth know that rumor hath many mouthes who with the multitude of his tongues and Trumps proclaimeth in diuers and sundry places the things which chaunce in al the regions of the earth Euen so that babling foole caried the newes of that second childbed to the eares of the Cardinall of Aragon the Duchesse brother being then at Rome Think what ioy and pleasure the Aragon brothers had by hearing the report of their sisters facte I dare presume to say that albeit they were extremely wroth with this happened 〈◊〉 with that dishonest fame whych that Duchesse had gotten throughout Italie yet farre greater was their sorrow grief for that they did not know what hée was that so courteously was allied to their house and in their loue had increased their ligneage And therfore swelling wyth despite rapt with furie to sée themselues so defamed by one of their bloud they purposed by all meanes whatsoeuer it cost them to know the lucky louer that had so wel tilled the Duchesse their sisters field Thus desirous to remoue that shame from before their eyes and to be reuenged of a wrong so notable they sent espial round about and scoutes to Naples to view and spy the behauior talk of the Duchesse to settle some certaine iudgement of him whych stealingly was become their brother in law The Duchesse Court being in thys trouble shée dyd continually perceiue in hir house hir brothers men to mark hir countenance and to note those that came thither to visite hir to whom she vsed greatest familiaritie bicause it is impossible but that the fire although it be raked vnder the ashes must giue some heat And albeit the two louers vsed eche others companie without shewing any signe of their affectiō yet they purposed to chaūge their estate for a time by yelding truce to their pleasures Yea although Bologna was a wise and prouidēt personage fearing to be surprised vpon the fact or that the Gentlewoman of the Chamber corrupted with Money or forced by feare shold pronoūce any matter to his hinderance or disauantage determined to absent himself from Naples yet not so sodainly but that hee made the Duchesse his faithfull Ladie companion priuie of his intent And as they were secretely in their chāber togither hee vsed these or such like woords Madame albeit the right good intent and vnstained conscience is free from fault yet the iudgement of men hath further relation to that exterior apparance than to vertues force and innocencie it self as ignorant of the secrets of the thought and so in things that be wel done we must of necessitie fall into the sentence of those whom beastly affection rauisheth more than ruled reason You sée the solempne watch and garde which the seruaunts of the Lords your brothers do within your house the suspicion which they haue cōceiued by reason of your secōd childbed by what meanes they labor truely to know how your affaires procéede and things do passe I feare not death where your seruice may be aduaūced but if herein the maiden of your chāber be not secrete if she be corrupted and if she kepe not close that which she ought to do it is not ignorant to you that it is the losse of my life and shall die suspected to be a whoremonger varlet euen I I say shall incurre that perill which am your true and lawfull husband Thys separation chaunceth not by Iustice or desert sith the cause is too righteous for vs but rather your brethrē will procure my death when I shall thinke the same in greatest assurāce If I had to do but with one or two I wold not change the place ne march one step from Naples but be assured that a great band and the same wel armed will set vpon me I pray you madame suffer me to retire for a time for I am assured that when I am absent they will neuer soile their hands or imbrue their sweards in your bloud If I doubted any thing at al of perill touching your owne person I had rather a hundred hundred times die in your companie than liue to sée you no more But out of doubt I am that if the things were discouered they knew you to be begottē with childe by me you should be safe where I shold sustaine the penaunce of that fact committed wtout fault or sinne And therfore I am determined to goe from Naples to order mine affaires and to cause my Reuenue to be brought to the place of mine abode and from thence to Ancona vntil it pleaseth God to mitigate the rage of your brethren and recouer their good wils to consent to our mariage But I meane not to doe or conclude any thing without your aduise And if this intent doe not like you giue me councell Madame what I were best to doe that both in life and death you may knowe your faithfull seruaunt and louing husband is ready to obey and please you This good Ladie hearing hir husbands discourse vncertain what to doe wept bitterly as wel for grief to lose his presence as for that she felt hir self with child the third time The sighes and teares the sobbes and heauie lookes which she threwe forth vpon hir
determination spedily was accomplished one posting towards Rome and the rest galloping to the Countrey and Castels of the Duke These newes reported to the Cardinal his brother it may be considered how grieuously they toke that same for that they were not able to digest thē with 〈◊〉 the yōgest of the brethren yelled forth a thousand cursses despites against the simple sere of womākind Ha said that Prince trāsported with choler driuen in to deadly furie what law is able to punish or restrain the foolish indiscretiō of a womā that yeldeth hir self to hir own desires What shame is able to bridle withdrawe hir from hir minde madnesse Or with what seare is it possible to snaffle thē frō execution of their 〈◊〉 There is no beast be he neuer so wilde but man sometime may tame and bring to his lure and order The force and diligence of man is able to make milde the strong and proud and to ouertake the swiftest beast and foule or otherwise to attaine the highest and déepest thing of the world but this incarnate diuelish beast the woman no force can surmount hir no swiftnesse can approche hir mobilitie no good mind can preuent hir sleights and deceites they séeme to be procreated and borne against all order of nature and to liue without law which gouerneth all other things indued wyth some reason and vnderstanding But what a great abhomination is this that a Gentlewoman of such a house as ours is hath forgotten hir estate and the greatnesse of hir aliance besides the nobilitie of hir deceased husband with the hope of the towarde youth of the Duke hir sonne and our Nephew Ah false and vile bitch I sweare by the almightie God and by his blessed wounds that if I can catch thée and that wicked knaue thy chosen mate I will pipe ye both such a galiarde as ye neuer felt the lyke ioy and mirthe I will make ye daunce such a bloudy bargenet as your whorish heate for euer shall be cooled What abuse haue they committed vnder title of mariage which was so secretely done as their Children do witnesse their filthy embracements but their promise of faith was made in open aire and serueth for a cloke and visarde for their most filthy whoredoine And what if mariage was concluded be we of so little respect as the carion beast would not vouchsafe to 〈◊〉 vs of hir entent Or is Bologna a man worthy to be allied or mingled with the royall bloud of Aragon and Castille No no be hée neuer so good a Gentlemā his race agréeth not with kingly state But I make to God a vewe that neuer will I take one sound and restfull sléepe vntill I haue dispatched that infamous fact from our bloud and that the caitife whoremonger be vsed according to his desert The Cardinall also was on t of quiet grinding his téeth togither chattering forthe Jacke an Apes Pater noster promising no better vsage to their Bologna than his yonger brother did And the better to intrap them both without further sturre for that time they sent to that Lord Gismondo Gonsago the Cardinal of Mantua then Legate for Pope Iulius the second at Ancona at whose hands they enioyed such friendship as Bologna and all his familie were commaūded spedily to auoide the Citie But for al the the Legate was able to do of long time he could not preuaile Bologna had so great intelligēce wtin Ancona Neuerthelesse whiles he differed his departure 〈◊〉 caused the most part of his train his children goods to be conueyed to Siena an auncient Citie of Thoscane which for the state and liberties had long time bene at warres with the Florentines in such wise as the very same day that newes came to Bologna that he shold departe the Citie within xv dayes hée was ready and moūted on horseback to take his flight to Siena which brake for sorrow the hearts of the Aragon brethren séeing that they were deceiued and frustrate of their intent bicause they purposed by the way to apprehend Bologna and to cut him in pieces But what the time of his hard luck was not yet expired and so the marche from Ancona serued not for the Theatre of those two infortunate louers ouerthrow who certain moneths liued in peace in Thoscane The Cardinal night nor day did sléepe and his brother stil did wayt to performe his othe of reuenge And séeing their enimie out of feare they dispatched a post to Alfonso Castruccio the Cardinall of Siena that he might entreat the Lord Borgliese chief of the seignorie there that their sister and Bologna should be banished the Countrey and limits of that Citie which with small sute was brought to passe These two infortunate husbād and wife were chased from al places and so vnlucky as whilom Acasta was or Oedipus after his fathers death and incestuous mariage with his mother vncertain to what Saint to vow themselues and to what place to take their flight In the end they determined to goe to Venice and to take their flight to Ramagua there to imbarke themselues for to retire to the sauegarde of the Citie enuironned with the sea Adriaticum the richest in Europa But the poore soules made their reconing there without their hoste failing half the price of their banket For being vpon the territorie of Forly one of the train a farre off did sée a troupe of horsenien galloping towardes their cōpany which by their countenaunce shewed no signe of peace or amitie at all which made them cōsider that it was some ambush of their enimies The 〈◊〉 Gentleman séeing the onset bending vpon them begā to fear death not for that he cared at all for his mishap and ruine but his heart began to cleaue for heauinesse to sée his wife and litle children ready to be murdered and serue for the passetime of the Aragon brethrens eyes for whose sakes he knew himself already predestinate to die and that for despite of him and to accelerate his death by the ouerthrow of his he was assured that they wold kil his childrē before his face 〈◊〉 But what is there to be done where counsell meanes to escape do faile Ful of teares therfore astonishment fear he expected death so cruel as mā could deuise was alredy determined to suffer the same 〈◊〉 good corage for any thing that the Duchesse could say 〈◊〉 him He might well haue saued himself his eldest sonne by flight being both wel moūted vpon two good Turkey horsses which ran so fast as that quarrel discharged forth of a croshow But he loued too much his wife children and wold kéepe them companie both in life and death In the end the good Ladie sayd vnto him or for all the ioyes pleasures which you can doe me for Gods sake saue your self the little infant next you who can wel indure the galloping of the horse For sure I am that you being out of our cōpanie we shal
cal hir home againe I were a very foole sayd he to kepe in my house so pernicious and fearefull an enimie as that arrant whoore is who one day before I be ware wil cause some of hir russians to cut my throte besides the violation of hir holy mariage bed God defend that such a strumpet by hir presence should any longer profane the house of the lord of Celant who is wel rewarded and punished for the excessiue loue which he bare hir Let hir goe whether she list and lyue a gods name at hir ease I do content my self in knowing what women be able to do without further attempt of fortune other proofe of hir wicked life He added further that the honor of so noble a personage as he was depended not vpon a womans mischief and assure your selfe the whole race of womākind was not spared by the Coūte against whom he then inueyed more through rage 〈◊〉 any reason that time in him he considered not the good and honest sorte of women which deface the villanie of those that giue them selues ouer to their own lusts without regarde of modestie and shame which ought to be familiar as it wer by a certaine natural inclination in all women and maidens But come we again to Bianca Maria holding hir Courte and open house at 〈◊〉 wher she got so holy a 〈◊〉 as mistresse Lais of Corinth somtimes was neuer more comon in Asia than this faire dame almost in euery corner of In 〈◊〉 whose conuersation was such as hir frank libertie familiar demeanor to ech wight wel witnessed 〈◊〉 abhominable life True it was that hir reputation there was very smal and the hired not hir selfe ne yet toke 〈◊〉 by setting hir body to sale but for some resonable gain earnest pain Howbeit she of whom somtimes the famous Greke orator wold not bie repētance for so 〈◊〉 a price was more excessiue in sale of hir marchādise but not more wanton For 〈◊〉 no sooner espied a beautiful gentleman that was youthly wel made but wold presently shew him so good countenance as he had ben a very foole which knewe not after what prouender this Colt did neigh whose shamelesse gesture Messalina the Romane princesse did neuer surmoūt except it were in that she visited haūted cōmon houses this dame vsed hir disports within hir owne house the other also receiued 〈◊〉 Carters Galey slaues porters and this half Greke did hir pastime with 〈◊〉 mē that were braue and lusty But in one thing she well resembled hir which was that 〈◊〉 was sooner werie with trauaile than she satisfied with plesure the 〈◊〉 vse of hir body like vnto a sink that receiueth al 〈◊〉 without disgorgyng any throwne into the same This was the chast life which that good lady led after she had taken flight from hir husband Marke whether the Milanois that was hir first husbande were a grosse headed person or a foole whether he wer not lerned skilful in the science of 〈◊〉 time for him to make redy the rods to make hir know hir duetie therw t to correct hir wāton youth to cut of the lusty twigs proud sciēces that soked that moisture hart of that stock brā ches It chanced whiles she liued at Pauie in this good honorable port the Coūte of 〈◊〉 called Ardizzino Valperga came to the emperors seruice therby made his abode at Pauie with one of his brothers the Coūte being a goodly gentlemā yong trim in apparel giuen to many good qualities had but one onely fault which was that he was lame in one of his legs by reson of a certain aduēture blow receiued in the warres although that same toke away no part of his beauty fine behauior The Coūte I say remaining certain days at Pauie beheld that beauty grace comlinesse of the Coūtesse of 〈◊〉 stayed with such deuotion to viewe gaze vpon hir as many 〈◊〉 he romed vp down the strete wherin she dwelt to find means to speake vnto hir His first talk was but a Boniour and simple salutation such as Gentlemen commōnly vse in company of Ladies and at that first brunte Valperga coulde settle none other iudgemēt vpon that Goddesse but that she was a wise and honest dame and such a one not with standyng as there neded not the Emperors camp to force the place which as he thought was not so well flanked rampired but that a good man of armes might easily winne and the breache so liuely and sautable as any souldier might passe the same He became so familiar with the Lady and talked with hir so secretly as vpon a daye beyng with hir alone hée vsed this kynde of speache Were not I of all men moste blame worthie and of greatest follie to be reproued so long time to be acquainted with a Lady so faire and curteous as you be and not to offre my seruice life and goodes to be disposed as shall like you best I speake not this Madame for any euil and sinister iudgement that I 〈◊〉 of you for that I praise and estéeme you aboue any Gentlewomā that euer I knew til this day but rather for that I am so wonderfully attached with your loue as wrong I shold do vnto your honestie and my loyal seruice towards you if I continued 〈◊〉 and did conceyle that which incessantly would consume my heart with infinite numbre of ardent desires and wast mine intrailes for the extreme 〈◊〉 burning loue I beare you I do require you to put no credite in me if I doe not all that which it shal please you to commaund me Wherfore Madame I humbly beséeche you to accepte me for your owne and to fauor me as such one which with all fidelitie hopeth to passe his time in your companie The Countesse although she knew well inough that the fire was not so liuely kindeled in the stomacke of the Coūte as he went about to make hir beleue and that his wordes were too eloquent and countenance too ioyfull for so earnest a louer as hée séemed to be yet for that he was a valiant Gentleman yong lusty and strongly made minded to retaine him and for a time to stay hir stomake by appeasing hir gluttonous appetite in matters of loue with a morsell so dainty as was this mynion and lusty yong Lord and whē the corage of him began to coole another should enter the listes And therfore she sayd vnto him Although I knowing the vse and maners of men and with what baits they hooke for Ladies if they take not héede hauing proued their malice and little loue determined neuer to loue other thā mine affection ne yet to fauor man except it be by shewing some familiar maner to heare their talk and for pastime to hearken the braue requests of those which say they burne for loue in the mids of some brooke of delites And albeit I think you no better thā other
make hir chafe or force hir into rage he promised the execution of hir cursed will thanking hir for hir aduertisement and that he would prouide for his defense surety And to the intent that she might thinke he went about to performe his promise he tooke his leaue of hir to goe to Milan which he did not to folow the abhominable will of that rauenous mastife but to 〈◊〉 the matter to his companion and direct the same as it deserued Being arriued at Milan the 〈◊〉 Citie of Lombardie he imparted to Gaiazzo from point to point the discourse of the Countesse and the 〈◊〉 she made vnto him whē she had done hir tale O God sayd the Lord Sanseuerino who can beware the traps of such whoores if by thy grace our hands be not forbidden and our hearts and thoughts guided by thy goodnesse Is it possible that the earth can bréede a mōster more pernicious than this most Pestilent beast This is truely the grift of hir fathers vsurie and the stench of all hir predecessors villanies It is impossible of a Bite to make a good Sparhauk or Tercel gentle This 〈◊〉 no doubt is the daughter of a vilain sprōg of the basest race amongs the common people whose mother was more fine than chaste more subtile than sober This mynion hath forsaken hir husband to erect bloudy skaffoldes of murder amid the Nobles of Italy And were it not for the dishonor which I should get to soile my 〈◊〉 in the bloud of a beast so corrupt I wold feare hir with my téethe in a hundreth thousand pieces How many times hath she entreated me before in how many sundrie sorts with ioyned hāds hath she besought me to kill the Lord Ardizzino Ah my companion and right well beloued friend shold you think me to be so traiterous and cowarde a knaue as that I dare not tel to thē to whom I beare displeasure what lieth in my heart By the faith of a Gentleman sayd Ardizzino I would be sory my minde should 〈◊〉 on such a follie but I am come to you that the song might sound no more wtin mine eares It behoueth vs then sith God hath kept vs hitherto to auoid the air of that infection that our braines be not putrified and from henceforth to flie those bloudsuckers the schollers of Venus for the goodnesse profit and honor that youth 〈◊〉 of them And truely great honor wold 〈◊〉 to vs to kill one an other for the only pastime and sottish fansie of that mynion I haue repented me an hundred times when she first moued me of the deuise to kill you that I did not giue hir a hundred Poignaladoes with my dagger to stop the way by that example for al other to attempt such but cheries For I am wel assured that the malice which she beareth you procedeth but of the delay you made for satisfaction of hir murderous desire wherof I thank you and yeld my self in al causes to imploy my life and that I haue to do you pleasure Leaue we of that talke sayd Gaiazzo for I haue done but my duety and that which eache Noble heart ought to euery wight doing wrong to none but proue to helpe and doe good to all Which is the true marke and badge of Nobilitie Touching that malignant strumpet hir own life shal reuenge the wrongs which she hath gone about to 〈◊〉 on vs. In meane while let vs reioyce and thinke the goods and richesse she hath gotten of vs will not cause hir bagges much to strout and swell To be shorte she hath nothing whereby she may greatly laughe vs to scorne except our good entertainment of hir both night and day 〈◊〉 peouoke hir Let other coine the pens henceforth to fill the coafers for of vs so farre as I see she is deceyued Thus the two Lordes passed for the their time and in all companies where they came the greatest part of their talke and communication was of the disordered life of the Countesse of Celant the whole 〈◊〉 rang of the sleights and meanes she vsed to trappe the Noble men and of hir pollicies to be rid of them whē hir thirst was stanched or diet grew lothsome for wāt of chaunge And that which griued hir most an Italian 〈◊〉 blased forth hir prowesse to hir great dishonor whereof the copy I cannot get and some say that Ardizzino was the author For it was composed whē he was dispossessed of pacience And if she coulde haue wreaked hir will on the Knights I beleue in hir rage she would haue made an 〈◊〉 of their bones Of which hir two enimies Ardizzino was the worsie against whom hir displeasure was the greater for that he was the first with whome she entred skirmish Nothing was more frequent in Pauie than villanous 〈◊〉 and playes vpon the filthy behauior of the Countesse which made hir ashamed to 〈◊〉 out of hir gates In the end she purposed to chaunge the aire and place hoping by that alteration to stay the infamous brute slaunder So she came to Milan wher first she was 〈◊〉 with state of honor in honest fame of chast life so long as 〈◊〉 Hermes liued and then was not pursued to staunche the thirst of those that did ordinarily draw at hir fountaine About the time that she departed frō Pauie Dom Pietro de Cardone a Scicilian the bastard brother of that Coūte of Colisano whose lieutenant he was their father slaine at that battail of Bicocca with a band of 〈◊〉 arriued at Milan This Scicilian was about the age of one or two twenty yeres somwhat black of face but well made and sterne of countenāce Whiles the Coūtesse soiorned at Milan this gentleman fell in loue with hir and searched al means he could to make hir his friend to enioy hir Who perceiuing him to be yong a nouice in skirmishes of loue like a Pigeon of the first coate determined to lure him and to serue hir turne in that which she purposed to doe on those against whome she was outragiously 〈◊〉 Now that better to entice this yong Lord vnto hir fātasy and to catch him with hir bait if he passed through the streat and saluted hir sighed after the maner of the 〈◊〉 roming before his Ladie she she wed him an indifferent mery countenance and sodainly restrained that cheere to make him 〈◊〉 the pleasure mingled 〈◊〉 the soure of one desire which he could not tel how to accomplish And the more faint was his hardinesse for that hee was neuer practised in daltance and seruice of Ladie of so great house or calling who thinking that Gētlewoman to be one of the principall of Milan was strangely vered tormented for hir loue in such wise as in that night he could not rest for fantasing and thinking vpon hir and in that day pased vp downe before the doore of hir lodging One euening for his disport he went forth to walk in 〈◊〉 of another gentleman which wel could play
any kynde gentle subiect findeth no resistance to serue for a rāpart to 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of his course by litle litle vndermineth melteth 〈◊〉 that vertues of natural powers in such wise as the sprite yelding to the burden abandoneth that place of life which is verified by the pitifull and infortunate death of two louers that surrendred their last breath in one 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 a Citie of Italy wherin repose yet to this day with great maruel the bones and remnantes of their late louing bodies An history no lesse 〈◊〉 than true If then perticular affection which of good right euery man ought to beare to the place where he was borne doe not deceiue those that trauaile I thinke they will confesse with me that few Cities in Italie can surpasse the said Citie of Verona aswell for the Nauigable riuer called 〈◊〉 which passeth almost through the midst of the same and therby a great trafique into Almaine as also for the prospect towards the fertile Mountains and plesant valeis which do enuiron that same with a great numbre of very clere and liuely fountains that serue for the ease and commodity of the place Omitting bisides many other singularities foure bridges and an infinite numbre of other honorable antiquities daily apparant vnto those that be to curious to view loke vpon them Which places I haue somewhat touched bicause this most true Historie which I purpose hereafter to recite depēdeth therupon the memory wherof to this day is so well knowne at Verona as vnneths their blubbred eyes be yet dry that sawe and behelde that lamentable sight When the Senior Escala was Lord of Verona there were two families in the Citie of farre greater fame than the rest aswell for riches as 〈◊〉 the one called the Montesches and the other the Capellets but like as most commonly there is discord amongs them which be of semblable degrée in honor euen so 〈◊〉 hapned a certaine 〈◊〉 betwene them and for so much as the beginning therof was vnlawful and of 〈◊〉 foundation so likewise in processe of time it kindled to such flame as by diuers and sundry deuises practised on both sides many lost their liues The Lord Bartholomeu of Escala of whome we haue already spoken being Lord of Verona and seing such disorder in his cōmon weale assayed diuers and sundry wayes to recōcile those two houses but all in vaine for their hatred had taken such roote as that same could not be 〈◊〉 by any wise councell or good aduise betwene whome no other thing could be accorded but giuing ouer 〈◊〉 and weapon for the time attending some other season more cōuenient and with better leisure to appease the rest In the time that these things wer adoing one of the familie of Montesches called Rhōmeo of the age of xx or xxi yeres the fairest and best conditioned Gentleman that was amongs the Veronian youth 〈◊〉 in loue with a yong Gentlewoman of Verona in few dayes was so attached with hir comely good behauiour as he abandoned all other affaires and businesse 〈◊〉 serue honor hir And after many letters 〈◊〉 and presents he determined in the end to speake vnto hir to disclose his passions which he did without any other practise But she which was vertuously brought vp knew how to make him so good answer to cutte of his 〈◊〉 affectiōs as he had no lust after that time to return any more and shewed hir self so austere 〈◊〉 sharpe of speach as she vouchsafed not with one loke to beholde him But the more that yong Gentleman 〈◊〉 hir whist and silent the more he was inflamed and 〈◊〉 hée had 〈◊〉 certaine months in that seruice without remedy of his griefe he determined in the end to depart Verona for proofe if by change of that place he might alter his affection and sayd to himself What doe I meane to loue one that is so vnkinde and thus doeth disdaine me I am all hir owne and yet she flieth from me I can no longer liue except hir presence I doe enioy And she hath no contented minde but when she is furthest from me I wil then from henceforth 〈◊〉 my selfe from hir for it may so come to passe by not beholding hir that thys fire in me which taketh increase and nourishment by hir faire eyes by little and little may die and quench But minding to put in proofe what hée thought at one instant hée was reduced to the contrarie who not knowing whereuppon to resolue passed dayes and nights in maruellous plaintes and Lamentacions For Loue 〈◊〉 him so neare and had so well fixed the Gentlewomans beautie within the Bowels of his heart and minde as not able to resist he fainted with 〈◊〉 charge and consumed by little and little as the Snow against the Sunne Whereof his parents and kinred did maruell greatly bewayling his misfortune but aboue all other one of his companions of riper age and counsell than he began sharply to rebuke him For the loue that he bare him was so great as hée felt his Martirdome and was partaker of his passion which caused him by ofte viewing hys friends disquietnesse in amorous pangs to say thus vnto him Rhomeo I maruel much that thou spendest the best time of thine age in 〈◊〉 of a thing from which thou 〈◊〉 thy self despised and 〈◊〉 without respect either to thy prodigall dispense to thine honor to thy teares or to thy miserable life which be able to moue the most constant to pitie Wherefore I pray thée for the Loue of our ancient amitie and for thine health sake that thou wilt learn to be thine owne 〈◊〉 and not to 〈◊〉 thy liberty to any so ingrate as she is for so farre as I can coniecture by things that are passed betwene you either she is in loue with some other or else determined neuer to loue any Thou arte yong rich in goods and fortune and more excellent in beautie than any Gentleman in this Citie thou art well learned and the only sonne of the house 〈◊〉 thou cōmest What grief wold it 〈◊〉 to thy pore old father other thy parents to sée thée so drowned in this dongeon of vice specially at that age wherein thou oughtest rather to put them in some hope of thy vertue Begin then frō henceforth to acknowledge thine error wherein thou hast hitherto liued doe away that amorous vaile or couerture which blindeth thine eyes and letteth thée to folow the right path wherein thine ancestors haue walked or else if thou do 〈◊〉 thy 〈◊〉 so subiect to thine owne will yelde thy heart to 〈◊〉 other place and choose 〈◊〉 Mistresse according to thy worthinesse and henceforth doe not sow thy paines in a soile so 〈◊〉 whereof thou receiuest no frute the time approcheth when all the dames of the Citie shall assemble where thou maist beholde such one as shall make thée 〈◊〉 thy former griefs This yong Gentleman attentiuely hearing all the persuading 〈◊〉 of his frend
began somewhat to moderate that heat 〈◊〉 acknowledge all the exhortations which he had made to be 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 purpose And then determined to put them in proofe and to be present 〈◊〉 at all the feasts and assemblies of the citie without bearing affection more to one woman than to another And continued in this manner of life 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 months 〈◊〉 by that meanes to quench the sparks of auncient 〈◊〉 It chanced then within 〈◊〉 dayes after about the feast of Christmasse when feasts bankets most commonly be vsed and maskes according to the custome frequented And bicause that Anthome Capellet was the chief of that familie and one of the most principal Lords of the Citie he made a banket and for the better solempnization of the same inuited all the noble mē and dames at what time ther was the most partof that youth of Verona The family of the Capellets as we haue declared in that beginning of this History was at variance with the 〈◊〉 which was the cause that none of that family repaired to that banket but onely the yong Gentleman Rhomeo who came in a 〈◊〉 after supper with certain other yong Gentlemen And after they had remained a certaine space with their visards on at length they did put of the same and Rhomeo very shamefast withdrew himself into a corner of the Hall but by reason of the light of the torches which burned very bright he was by by known and loked vpon of the whole company but specially of the Ladies for bisides his natiue beautie wherewith nature had adorned him they maruelled at his audacitie how he durst presume to enter so secretly into that house of those which had litle cause to do him any good Notwithstanding the Capellets 〈◊〉 their malice either for the honor of the company or else for respect of his age did not misuse him either in word or déede By meanes whereof with frée liberty he behelde and viewed the ladies at his pleasure which he did so wel and with grace so good as there was 〈◊〉 but did very well like the presence of his person And after hée had particularly giuen iudgement vpon the excellency of each one according to his affection he saw one gentlewoman amongs the rest of surpassing beautie who although he had neuer séene hir tofore pleased him aboue the rest attributed vnto hir in heart the 〈◊〉 place for all perfection in beautie And feastyng hir incessantly with piteous lookes the loue which he bare to his first Gentlewoman was ouercomen with this new fire which tooke such norishement and vigor in his heart as he was able neuer to quench the same but by death onely as you may vnderstande by one of the strangest discourses that euer any mortal man deuised The yong Rhomeo then féelyng himselfe thus tossed with this new tempest could not tel what coūtenaunce to vse but was so surprised and chaunged with these last flames as he had almost forgotten him selfe in suche wise as he had not audacitie to enquire what shée was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bent hym selfe to féede his eyes wyth hir 〈◊〉 wherewyth he moystened the swéete amorous venom which dyd so empoyson him as hée ended his dayes with a kynde of moste cruell death The Gentlewoman that dydde put Rhomeo 〈◊〉 suche payne was called Iulietta and was the daughter of Capellet the maister of the house where that assemblie was who as hir eyes dydde roll and wander too and fro by chaunce espied Rhomeo whiche vnto hir séemed to be the goodliest Gentleman that euer shée sawe And Loue which lay in wayte neuer vntyl that tyme assailing the tender heart of that yong Gentlewoman touched hir so at the quicke as for any resistance she coulde make was not able to defende hys forces and then began to set at naught the royalties of the feast and felt no pleasure in hir hart but when she had a glimpse by throwing or receiuing some sight or looke of Rhomeo And after they had cōtented eche others troubled hart with millions of amorous lokes whiche oftentymes interchangeably encountred and met together the burning beames gaue sufficient testimonie of loues priuie onsettes Loue hauing made the heartes breach of those two louers as they two sought meanes to speake together Fortune offered them a very 〈◊〉 and apt occasion A certaine lorde of that troupe and company tooke Iulietta by the hande to daunce wherein shée behaued hir selfe so well and with so excellent grace as shée wanne that daye the price of honour from all the maidens of Verona Rhomeo hauyng foreséene the place wherevnto she minded to retire approched the same and so discretely vsed the matter as he found the meanes at hir returne to sit beside hir Iulietta when the daunce was finished returned to the very place where she was set before and was placed betwene Rhomeo 〈◊〉 other Gentlemā called Mercutio which was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentlemā very wel beloued of all men and by 〈◊〉 of his plesāt curteous behauior was in al 〈◊〉 wel intertained Mercutio that was of audacitie amōg maidēs as a lion is among lābes seased inçōtinently vpon the hande of Iulietta whose hands wontedly wer so cold bothe in winter sommer as the mountain yee although the fires heat did warme the same Rhomeo which sat vpon the left side of Iulietta seing that Mercutio held hir by the right hand toke hir by the other that he might not be deceiued of his purpose straining the same a litle he felt himself so prest with that newe fauor as he remained mute not able to answer But she perceiuing by his change of color that the fault proceded of very vehemēt loue desiring to speake vnto him turned hir selfe towards him with 〈◊〉 voice ioyned with virginal shamfastnesse intermedled with a certaine bashfulnesse sayd to him Blessid 〈◊〉 the hour of your nere aproche but minding to procéede in further talke loue had so closed vp hir mouth as she was not able to end hir tale Wherunto the yong gentleman all rauished with ioy and contentation sighing asked hir what was the cause of that right fortunate blessing Iulietta somwhat more emboldned with pitiful loke and smiling countenance said vnto him Syr do not maruell if I do blesse your comming hither bicause sir Mercutio a good time with frosty hand hath wholly frosen mine and you of your curtesie haue warmed the same again Wherunto immediatly Rhomeo replied Madame if the heauēs haue bene so fauorable to employ 〈◊〉 to do you some agreable seruice being repaired 〈◊〉 by chaunce amongs other Gentlemen I estéeme the same well bestowed crauing no greater benefite for satisfaction of all my contentations receiued in this worlde than to serue obey and honor you so long as my life doth last as experience shall yeld more ample proofe when it shall please you to giue further assay Moreouer if you haue receiued any heat by touche of my hand you may be well assured that those flames
that all the lawes of Amitie are deade and vtterly extinguished for so muche as hée in whome I hadde greatest hope and confidence and for whose sake I am become an enimie to my self doth disdaine and contemne me No no Rhomeo thou must fully resolue thy selfe vpon one of these 〈◊〉 points either to sée me incontinently throwen down hedlong from this high window after thée or else to suffer me to accōpanie thée into that coūtrey or place whither Fortune shal guide thée for my heart is so muche transformed into thine that so soone as I shall vnderstande of thy departure presently my lyfe will depart this wofull body the continuance wherof I doe not desire for any other purpose but only to delight my selfe in thy presence and to bée partaker of thy missefortunes And therefore if euer there lodged any pitie in the hearte of Gentleman I beséeche 〈◊〉 Rhomeo with al humilitie that it may now fynd place in thée and that thou wilt vouchsafe to receiue me 〈◊〉 thy seruant and the faithful cōpanion of thy 〈◊〉 And if thou thinke that thou canst not cōueniently receiue me in the estate and habite of a wife who shall let me to chaunge myne apparell Shall I be the first that haue vsed like shiftes to escape the tirannie of parentes Dost thou doubt that my seruice will not bée so good vnto thée as that of Petre thy seruaunt Will my loyaltie and fidelitie be lesse than his My beautie whiche at other tymes thou hast so greately commended is it not estéemed of thée My teares my loue and the auncient pleasures and delights that you haue taken in me shall they be in obliuion Rhomeo séeing 〈◊〉 in these alteratiōs fearing that worsse inconuenience would chaunce tooke hir againe betwéene his armes and kissyng hir amorously sayd Iulietta the onely mistresse of my heart I pray thée in the name of God and for the feruent loue which thou bearest vnto me to 〈◊〉 do away those vaine cogitations except 〈◊〉 meane to séeke hazard the destruction of vs both for if thou perseuer in this determination there is no remedie but we must both perish for so soon as thine 〈◊〉 shal be knowne thy father wil make such ernest pursute after vs that we can not choose but be descried taken and in the ende cruelly punished I as a 〈◊〉 and stealer of thée and thou as a disobedient daughter to hir father and so in stead of pleasant and quiet life our dayes shal be abridged by most shameful death But if thou wilt recline thy self to reason the right rule of humane life and for the time abandon our mutual delights I will take such order in the time of my banishment as within 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 months without any delay I shal be reuoked home againe But if it fall out otherwise as I trust not how so euer it happē I wil come againe vnto thée and with the helpe of my friends wil fetch thée from Verona by strong hand not in counterfeit apparell as a stranger but like my spouse and perpetuall companion In the meane time quiet your self and be sure that nothing else but death shal deuide and put vs asunder The reasons of Rhomeo so much preuailed with Iulietta as she made him this answer My deare friend I will doe nothing contrary to your will and pleasure And to what place so euer you repair my heart shall be your owne in like sorte as you haue giuen yours to be mine In the meane while I pray you not to faile oftentimes to aduertise me by Frier Laurence in what state your affairs be and specially of the place of your abode Thus these two pore louers passed the night togither vntill the day began to appeare which did separate them to their extreame sorow and grief Rhomeo hauing taken leaue of Iulietta went to S. Fraunces and after he hadde aduertised Frier Laurence of his affaires departed from Verona in the habit of a Marchaunt straunger and vsed such expedition as without hurt hée arriued at Mantona accompanied only with Petre his seruaunt whome hée hastely sent backe againe to Verona to serue his Father where he tooke a house and liuing in honorable company assayed certaine months to put away the griefe which so tormented him But during the time of his absence miserable Iulietta could not so cloke hir sorow but that through the euill coloure of hir face hir inwarde passion was discried By reason whereof hir mother who heard hir oftentymes sighing and incessantly complaining coulde not forbeare to say vnto hir Daughter if you continue long after this sorte you will hasten the death of your good Father and me who loue you so dearely as our owne liues wherefore henceforth moderate your heauinesse and endeuor your self to be mery thinke no more vpon the death of your cosin Thibault whome sith it pleasēd God to call away do you thinke to reuoke with teares and to withstand his almighty will But the pore Gentlewoman not able to dissemble hir grief sayd vnto hir Madame long time it is sithens the last teares for Thibault wer poured forth and I beleue that the fountaine is so well soked and dried vp as no more will spring in that place The mother which coulde not tell to what effect those woords were spoken held hir peace for feare she should trouble hir daughter and certaine dayes after séeing hir to continue in heauinesse and continuall griefs assayed by all meanes possible to know aswell of hir as of other the housholde seruaunts the occasion of hir sorow but al in vaine wherwith the pore mother 〈◊〉 beyonde measure purposed to let the Lorde Antonio hir husband to vnderstand the case of hir daughter And vpon a day séeing 〈◊〉 at conuenient leisure she sayd vnto him My Lord if you haue marked the countenāce of our daughter and hir kinde of behauior sithens the death of the Lord Thibault hir cosin you shall perceiue so straunge mutation in hir as it will make you to maruel for she is not only contēted to forgoe meat drinke and sléepe but she spendeth hir time in nothing else but in wéeping lamentation delighting to kepe hir self solitarie within hir chamber where she tormēteth hir self so out ragiously as if we take not héede hir life is to be doubted and not able to know the original of hir paine the more difficult shall be the remedy for albeit that I haue sought meanes by all extremitie yet cannot I learne the cause of hir sicknesse And where I thought in the beginning that it procéeded vpon the death of hir cosin now I doe manifestly perceiue that contrary specially when she hir self did assure me that she had already wept and shed the last teares for him that shée was minded to doe And vncertaine wherupon to resolue I do thinke verily that she mourneth for some despite to sée the most part of hir companions maried she yet vnprouided persuading with hir self it may be that we hir
parents doe not care for hir Wherefore deare husband I heartely beséeche you for our rest and hir quiet that hereafter ye be carefull to prouide for hir some mariage worthy of our state whereunto the Lord Antonio willingly agréed saying vnto hir Wife I haue many times thought vpon that whereof you speake notwithstāding sith as yet she is not attained to the age of 〈◊〉 yeares I thought to prouide a husbād at leisure Neuerthelesse things being come to these termes knowing that virgins chastitie is a dāgerous treasure I wil be mindful of that same to your contentation and she matched in such wise as she shall thinke the time hitherto well delayed In the meane while mark diligently whither she be in loue with any to the end that we haue not so gret regard to goodes or to that nobilitie of that house wherin we meane to 〈◊〉 hir as to that life helth of our daughter who is to me so dere as I 〈◊〉 rather 〈◊〉 a begger wtout lands or goods than to bestow hir vpon one which shal vse intreat hir yll Certain dayes after that the Lord Antonio had bruted the mariage of his Daughter many Gentlemen were suters so wel for that excellencie of hir beautie as for hir great richesse reuenue But aboue all others the aliance of a yong Earle named Paris the Counte of Lodronne liked the Lord Antonio vnto whome liberally he gaue his cōsent told his wife the party vpō whom he did mean to bestow his daughter The mother very ioyful that they had found so honest a Gentlemā for their daughter caused hir secretly to be called before hir doing hir to vnderstand what things had passed betwene hir father the Counte Paris discoursing vnto hir the beauty good grace of that yong Counte that vertues for which he was commended of al men ioyning therunto for conclusion that great richesse fauor which he had in the goods of fortune by means wherof she hir friēds shold liue in eternall honor But Iulietta which had rather to haue bene torne in pieces than to agrée to that mariage answered hir mother with a more thā accustomed stoutnesse Madame I much maruel therwithal am astōned that you being a Lady discréete honorable wil be so liberal ouer your daughter as to cōmit hir to that plesure wil of an other before you do know how hir minde is bent you may do as it pleaseth you but of one thing I do wel assure you that if you bring it to passe it shal be against my will And touching the regarde and estimation of Counte Paris I shall first loose my life before he shall haue power to touch any part of my body which being done it is you that shall be coūted the murderer by deliuering me into the hands of him whome I neither can wil or know which way to loue Wherfore I pray you to suffer me henceforth thus to liue wythout taking any further care of me for so muche as my cruell fortune hath otherwise disposed of me The dolorous mother whiche knewe not what iudgement to fire vpon hir daughters aunswere like a woman confused bisides hir self went to seke the Lorde Antonio vnto whome without conceyling any part of hir daughters talke she did him vnderstand the whole The good olde man offended beyonde measure cōmanded hir incontinētly by force to be brought before him if of hir own good wil she wold not come So soon as she came before hir father hir eyes ful of teares fel downe at his féet which she bathed with the luke warm drops that distilled from hir eyes in great abundance thinking to open hir mouth to crie him mercie the sobbes and sighes many times stopt hir speach that she remained dumbe not able to frame a worde But the old mā nothing moued with his daughters teares sayde vnto hir in great rage Come hither thou vnkynde and disobedient daughter hast thou already forgotten howe many times thou hast heard spoken at the table of the puissance and authoritie our auncient Romane fathers had ouer their children vnto whome it was not onely lawfull to sell guage and otherwise dispose them in 〈◊〉 necessitie at their pleasure but also whiche is more they had absolute power ouer their death lyfe With what yrons with what tormēts with what racks wold those good fathers chasten and correct thée if they were aliue againe to sée that ingratitude misbehauor and disobedience which thou vsest towards thy father who with many prayers and requestes hath prouided one of the greatest lords of this prouince to be thy husbande a gentleman of best renoume and indued with all kinde of vertues of whome thou and I be vnworthie bothe for the notable masse of goodes and substance wherwith he is enriched as also for the honour and generositie of the house whereof hée is discended and yet thou playest the parte of an obstinate and rebellious childe against thy fathers wil I take the omnipotencie of that almightie God to witnesse whiche hath 〈◊〉 to bryng thée forth into this worlde that if vpon Tuesday nexte thou failest to prepare thy selfe to be at my castel of 〈◊〉 where the Coūte Paris purposeth to mete vs and there giue thy consent to that which thy mother I haue agréed vpon I will not onely depriue thée of my worldly goodes but also will make thée espouse and marie a prison so strayght and sharpe as a thousande times thou shalt curse the day and tyme wherin thou wast borne Wherfore frō hence forth take aduisement what thou dost for except the promise be kept which I haue made to the Counte Paris I will make thée féele how great the iust choler of an offended father is against a childe vnkinde And without staying for other answer of his daughter the olde man departed the chamber and 〈◊〉 hir vpon hir knées Iulietta knowing the furie of hir father fearing to incurre his indignation or to 〈◊〉 his further wrath retired for that day into hir chamber and contriued the whole night more in wéeping than sléeping And the next morning faining to goe heare seruice she went forth with the woman of hir chamber to the friers where she caused father Laurence to be called vnto hir and prayed him to heare hir confession And when she was vpon hir knées before him shée began hir confession with teares tellyng him the great mischief that was prepared for hir by the mariage accorded betwéene hir father and the Counte Paris And for conclusion said vnto him Sir for so much as you know that I can not by Gods law be maried twice and that I haue but one God one husbande and one faith I am determined when I am from 〈◊〉 with these two hands which you sée ioyned before you this day to end my sorowful life that my soule may beare witnesse in the heauens and my bloode vpon the earth of my faith and loyaltie preserued Then hauyng ended
hir talke she looked aboute hir and séemed by hir wilde countenaunce as though she had deuised some 〈◊〉 purpose Wherefore Frier Laurence astonned beyond mesure fearing lest she wold haue executed that which she was determined sayd vnto hir Mistresse Iulietta I pray you in the name of God by litle and little to moderate youre conceyued griefe and to content your self whilest you be here vntill I haue prouided what is best for you to do for before you part from hence I wil giue you such consolation and remedie for your afflictiōs as you shall remaine satisfied and contented And resolued vppon this good minde he spéedily wente out of the Churche vnto his chamber where he began to consider of many things his conscience beyng moued to hinder the mariage betwene the Coūte Paris and hir knowing that by his meanes she had espoused an other and callyng to remembrance what a dangerous enterprise he had begonne by committyng hymselfe to the mercie of a symple damosell and that if shée failed to bée wyse and secrete all their doings should be discried he defamed and Rhomeo hir spouse punished Hée then after he had well debated vpon an infinite numbre of deuises was in the ende ouercome wyth pitie and determined rather to hazarde his honour than to suffer the adulterie of Counte Paris with Iulietta And 〈◊〉 determined herevpon opened his closet and takyng a vyoll in hys hande retourned agayne to Iulietta whome hée founde lyke one that was in a traunce waytynge for newes eyther of lyfe or deathe Of whome the good olde father demaunded vppon what day hir mariage was appointed The first day of that appointment quod she is vpon wednesday which is the day ordeined for my 〈◊〉 of mariage accorded betwene my father and Counte Paris but the nuptiall solemnitie is not before the. x. day of September Wel then quod the religious father be of good chéere daughter for our Lord God hath opened a way vnto me both to deliuer you Rhomeo from the prepared thraldom I haue knowne your husband from his cradle and hée hath dayly committed vnto me the greatest secretes of his conscience and I haue so dearely loued him again as if he had ben mine own sonne Wherfore my heart can not abide that any man shold do him wrong in that specially wherin my counsell may stande him in stede And for somuch as you are his wife I ought likewyse to loue you seke meanes to deliuer you frō the martyrdome and anguish wherwith I sée your heart besieged Understande then good daughter of a secrete which I purpose to manifest vnto you and take héede aboue all things that you declare it to no liuing creature for therein consisteth your life and death Ye be not ignorant by the common report of the citizens of this Citie and by the same published of me that I haue trauailed thorough all the Prouinces of the habitable earth wherby during the continuall time of xx yeres I haue sought no rest for my wearied body 〈◊〉 rather haue mani times protruded the same to the mercy of brute beasts in the wildernesse many times also to the mercylesse waues of the seas and to the pitie of cōmon pirates together with a thousande other daungers and shipwracks vpon sea and lande So it is good daughter that all my wandryng voyages haue not bene altogethers vnprofitable For besides the incredible contentation receiued ordinarily in mynde I haue gathered some particular fruit whereof by the grace of God you shall shortly féele some experience I haue proued the secrete properties of stones of plants metals other things hidden within the bowels of the earth wherewith I am able to helpe my selfe against the common law of men when necessitie doth serue specially in things wherein I know mine eternall God to be least offended For as thou knowest I being approched as it were euen to the brimme of my grane that the time draweth neare for yelding of mine accompt before the auditor of all auditors I ought therefore to haue some déepe knowledge and apprehēsion of Gods iudgement more than I had when that heat of inconsidered youth did boyle within my lusty body Know you therefore good daughter that with those graces and fauors which the heauens prodigally haue bestowed vpon me I haue learned and proued of long time the composition of a certaine paaste which I make of diuers soporiferous simples which beaten afterwards to poudre dronke with a quātitie of water within a quarter of an houre after bringeth the receiuer into such a sléepe and burieth so déepely the senses and other sprites of life that the cunningest Phisitian wil iudge the party dead and besides that it hath a more maruellous effect for the person which vseth the same feeleth no kinde of grief and according to the quantitie of the dough the 〈◊〉 remaineth in a swéete slepe but when the operation is perfect done hée returneth into his first estate Now then Iulietta receiue mine instruction and put of all feminine affection by taking vpon you a manly stomake for by the only courage of your minde consisteth the 〈◊〉 or mishap of your affaires Beholde héere I giue you a viole which you shal kéepe as your owne propre heart and the night before your mariage or in the morning before day you shal fil the same vp with water drink so much as is contained therin And then you shall féele a certain kinde of pleasant sléepe which incroching by litle litle all the parts of your body wil constrain thē in such wise as 〈◊〉 they shal remaine and by not doing their accustomed dueties shall loose their natural féelings and you abide in such extasie the space of xl houres at the least without any beating of poulse or other perceptible motion which shall so astōne them that come to sée you as they will iudge you to be dead according to the custome of our Citie you shall be caried to the churchyard hard by our Church where you shall be intombed in the common monument of the 〈◊〉 your ancestors in the meane time we wil send word to the Lord Rhomeo by a speciall messanger of the effect of our deuise who now abideth at Mantua And the night folowing I am sure he will not faile to be héere then he and I togither will open the graue and lift vp your body and after the operatiō of the pouder is past he shall conuey you secretely to Mantua vnknowen to all your Parents and friends Afterwards it may be Time the mother of truthe shall cause concord betwene the offended Citie of Verona and Rhomeo At which time your common cause may be made open to the generall contentation of all your friendes The woords of the good Father ended new ioy surprised the heart of Iulietta who was so attentiue to his talke as she forgate no one poynt of hir 〈◊〉 Then she sayde vnto him Father doubt not at all that my heart
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
impossible it is not in man to determin or rest assured in iudgemēt I wil go vnto him and comfort him so well as I can that peraduenture my promises maye 〈◊〉 some parte of his payne and afterward we wil at leisure better consider vpon that which we shall promise Herevppon they went together to sée the pacient that beganne to looke vp more 〈◊〉 than he was wonted who séeyng the Gentlewoman sayde vnto hir Ah mystresse I woulde to God I had neuer proued youre fidelitie to féele the passing cruell hearte of hir that rather dothe estéeme hir honour to practyse regour and tyrannie vpon me than with gentlenesse to maintaine the life of a poore féeble knight Sir sayde she I can not tell what you meane thus to tormēt your self for I trust to cure you betwene this and to morow and wil do mine endeuor to cause you speake with hir vpon whom wrongfully perchaunce you doe complaine and who dareth not to come vnto you lest some occasion be giuen of suspition to 〈◊〉 speakers which wil make the report more slanderous when they know the cause of your disease Ah sayd the pacient howe ioyfull and pleasant is youre talke I sée wel that you desire my helth and for that purpose would haue me drinke of those liquors which superficially do appeare to be swéete afterwardes to make my life a hundred times more fainte and féeble than now it is Be you there sayde she And I sweare vnto you by my faith not to faile to kéepe my promise to cause you speke alone with mistresse Zilia Alas mystresse sayd the louer I aske no more at your handes that I may heare with myne owne eares the last sentence 〈◊〉 or defiance Well put your trust in me sayd she and take you no thought but for your health For I am assured ere it be long to cause hir to come vnto you and then you shall sée whether I am diligent in those matters I toke in hande and to what effecte myne attemptes do proue Me think already quod he that my sicknesse is not able to stay me from going 〈◊〉 hir that is the cause of my debilitie when it shal 〈◊〉 hir to commaunde me where soeuer it be sith hir only remēbrance will be of no lesse force in me than 〈◊〉 clerenesse of the sun beames is to euaporate the thicknesse of the morning mistes Euen so is she if such be hir chéere to me the 〈◊〉 wherein my day shall take increase or the night whiche eclipseth and obscureth the brādishing brightnesse of my first sunbeames With that the Gentlewoman tooke hir leaue of him who without let of his companion immediately rose vp and she went home attending oportunitie to speke to Zilia whome two or thrée dayes after shée mette at Church and they two beyng alone together in a Chapell sayd vnto hir with fained teares forced from hir eyes and sending forth a cloude of sighes Madame I nothing doubt at al but that last letters which I brought you made you conceiue some yll opinion of me which I do gesse by the frownyng face that euer sithens you haue borne me But when you shall knowe the hurte which it hath done I think you will not be so harde and voyde of pitie but with pacience to hearken that which I will say and moued to pitie the state of a pore Gentleman who by your meanes is in the pangs of death Zilia whiche til then neuer regarded the payne and sicknesse of the pacient began to sorow with such passion not to graunt him further fauour than he had alreadie receiued but to finde some means to ease him of his griefe and then to giue him ouer for euer And therfore she said vnto hir neighbor Mistresse I thought that all these sutes had bene forgotten vntil the other day a Gentlemā prayed me to go sée the Lord of Virle who told me as you do now that he was in great danger But séeing that he wareth worsse and worsse I will be ruled by you beyng well assured of your honestie and vertue and that you wil not aduise me to that which shall be hurtfull to myne honour And when you shall do what you can you shall winne so much as nothing yet shall ease him nothing at all which wrongfully plaineth of my crueltie For I do not purpose to do any priuate facte with him but that which shall be mete for an honest Gentlewoman and such as a faithfull tutor of hir chastitie may graunt to an honest and vertuous gentleman His desire is none other said the gentle woman for he intreateth but your presence to let you wit by word that he is redy to do the thing which you shall cōmand him Alas said 〈◊〉 I know not how I shal be able to do the same for it is impossible to go to him without suspition which the common people wyl lightly conceiue of such light familiar behauiour And rather wold I die than aduēture mine honor hitherto conserued with great seueritie diligēce And sith you say that he is in extremes of deth for your sake I wil not stick to go vnto him that hereafter he may haue no cause to cōplaine of my rudenesse I thank you said the messanger for the good wil you beare me for the help you promise vnto the poore passionate gentleman whome these newes wil bring on foote againe wil do you reuerence for that good turne Sith it is so saide Zilia to morow at noone let him come vnto my house where in a low chamber he shall haue leisure to saye to me hys minde But I purpose by Gods helpe to suffer him no further than that whiche I haue graunted As it shall please you sayd hir neighbour for I craue no more of you but that only fauour which as a messanger of good newes I goe to shew him recommending my selfe in the meane time to your cōmaunde And then she went vnto the pacient whom she found walking vp downe the chamber indifferently lusty of his persone and of colour metely freshe for the tyme he lefte his 〈◊〉 Now when sir Philiberto sawe the messanger he sayd vnto hir And howe nowe mystresse what newes Is Zilia so stubborne as 〈◊〉 was wonte to be 〈◊〉 may sée hir sayde she if to morrowe at noone you haue the hearte and dare goe vnto hir house Is it possible sayde hée imbracynge hir that you haue procured for me that good tourne to delyuer mée from the 〈◊〉 wherein I haue so long tyme bene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trustie and assured friende all the dayes of my life I will remember that pleasure and benefite and by acknowledgyng of the same shall be readie to render lyke when you please to commaunde or else let me be counted the moste vnkynde and vncurteous Gentleman that euer made profession of loue I wyll goe by Gods helpe to sée mystresse Zilia with intent to endure all trouble that Fortune shall send vnto me protesting to vere my self
cōpassion and desire to giue some ease vnto hir most earnest louer yelded hir selfe to couetous gain and gredinesse for to encrease hir richesse O curssed hunger of Money how long wilt thou thus blinde the reason and sprites of men Ah perillous gulfe how many hast thou ouerwhelmed within thy bottōlesse throte whose glory had it not bene for thee had surpassed the clouds and bene equal with the brightnesse of the Sunne where now they be obscured with the thicknesse of thy fogges and palpable darknesse Alas the fruites which thou bringest forth for all thine outwarde apparance conduce no felicitie to them that be thy possessors for the dropsey that is hidden in their mind which maketh them so much the more thirsty as they drinke oft in that thirsty Fountaine is cause of their alteration and most miserable is that insaciable desire the Couetous haue to glut their appetite which can receiue no contentation This only 〈◊〉 somtimes procured the death of the great and rich Romane Crassus who through Gods punishment fell into the hands 〈◊〉 the Persians for violating and sacking the Temple of God that was in Hierusalem Sextimuleus burning with Couetousnesse and gredinesse of money did once cut of the head of his patron and defender Caius 〈◊〉 the Tribune of the people incited by the Tyrant which tormenteth the hearts of the couctous I will not speake of a good number of other examples in people of all kindes and diuers nations to come againe to Zilia Who forgetting hir vertue the first ornament and shining quality of hir honest behauior feared not the wearinesse and trauaile of way to commit hir self to the danger of losse of 〈◊〉 and to yeld to the mercy of one vnto whom she had done so great iniury as hir conscience if she hadde not lost hir right sense ought to haue made hir thinke that hee was not without desire to reuenge that wrōg 〈◊〉 done vnto him specially being in place where she was not knowne and he greatly honoured and esteemed for whose loue that Proclamation and searche of Physicke was made and ordained Ziha then hauing put in order hir affairs at home departed from Montcall and passing the Mountes arriued at Paris at such time as greatest dispaire was had of the dumbe Knights recouery When she was arriued there within fewe dayes after she inquired for them that had the charge to entertaine such as came and would take vpon them the cure of the sayd pacient For sayd she if there be any man in the world through whome the Knight may get his health I hope in God that I am she which shal haue the praise Héereof the Commissaries deputed hereunto were aduertised who caused the faire Physician to come before them and asked hir if it were she that wold take vpon hir to cure this dumbe Gentleman To whome she answeared my masters it hath pleased God to reueale vnto me a certain secrete very proper and meete for the cure of his malady wherewithall if the pacient will I hope to make him speake so well as he did these two yeres past more I suppose sayd one of the Commissaries that you be not ignorant of the 〈◊〉 of the Kings Proclamation I know ful quod she the effect therof therfore do say vnto you that I wil loose my life if I doe not accomplish that which I doe promise vpon condition that I may haue licence to tary with him alone bicause it is of no lesse importance than his health It is no maruell sayde the Commissary considering your beauty which is sufficiēt to frame a new tong in the most 〈◊〉 person that is vnder the heauens And therefore do your indeuor assuring you that you shall doe a great pleasure vnto the King and besides the prayse which you shall acquire gette the good wil of the dumbe gentleman which is the most excellent man of the world and therefore shall be so wel recompensed as you shal haue good cause to be routented with the Kings liberalitie But to the intent you be not deceiued the meaning of the Proclamation is that within xv dayes after you begin the cure you must make him hole or else to satisfie the paines ordained in the same Wherunto she submitted hir self blinded by Auarice and presumptiō thinking that she had like power ouer the Lord of Virle as when she gaue him that sharpe and cruel penance These conditions promised the Commissaries went to aduertise the Knight how a Gentlewoman of Piedmont was of purpose come into Fraunce to helpe him whereof he was maruellously astonned Now he would neuer haue thought that Zilia had borne him so great good wil as by abasing the pride of hir corage would haue come so farre to ease the grief of him whome by such great torments she had so wonderfully persecuted He thought againe that it was the Gentlewoman his neighboure which sometimes had done hir endeuor to helpe him and had prouoked Zilia to absolue him of his faithe and acquite him of his promise Musing vpon the diuersitie of these things not knowing wherupon to settle his iudgement the deputies commaunded that the woman Physitian shold be brought to speake with the patient Which was done and brought in place the Commissaries presently with drew themselues The Lord of Virle seeing his enimie come before him whom sometimes he loued very 〈◊〉 iudged by and by the cause wherefore she came that onely auarice and gredy desire of gaine 〈◊〉 rather procured hir to passe the mountains trauail than due and honest amitie wherwith she was double boūd through his perseuerance and humble seruice wherby hée was estraunged of himselfe as he fared like a shadowe and image of a dead man Wherfore callyng to mynd the rigour of his Ladie hir inciuilitie and fonde commandement so long time to forbidde his speache the loue which once he bare hir with a vehement desire to obey hir sodainly was so cooled and qualified that loue was turned into hatred and will to serue hir into an appetite of reuenge whervpon he determined to vse that present fortune and to playe his parte with hir vpon whom he had so foolishly doted and to pay hir with that mōney wherwith she made hint féele the fruites of vnspeakable crueltie to giue example to fonde and presumptuous dames how they did abuse Gentlemen of such degrée whereof the Knyght was and that by hauing regarde to the merite of such personages they be not so prodigall of themselues as to set their honoure in sale for vile rewarde and filthy mucke which was so constantly conserued and defended by this Gentlewoman against the assaultes of the good grace beautie calour and gentlenesse of that vertuous and honest suter And notwithstanding in these dayes we sée some to resist the amitie of those that loue for an opinion of a certaine vertue which they thinke to be hidden within the corps of excellent beautie who afterwards do set them selues to sale to him that giueth
and Physitian dwelling at Cutiano a Citie of Boeme where plenty of siluer Mines and other mettals is The knight whose Castle was not farre from Cutiano had occasion to repaire vnto that Citie and according to his desire found out Pollacco which was a very olde mā and talking with him of diuers things perceiued him to be of great skill In end he entreated him that for so much as he had done pleasure to many for 〈◊〉 of their loue he wold also instruct him how he might be assured that his wife did kéepe hir self honest all the time of his absence and that by certaine signes he might haue sure knowledge whether she brake hir faith by sending his honesly into Cornwall Such vain trust this Knight reposed in the lying Science of Sorcery which although to many other is found deceitfull yet to him serued for sure euidence of his wiues sidelitie This Pollacco which was a very cunning enchaunter as you haue hard sayd vnto him Sir you demaund a very straūge matter such as where with neuer hitherto I haue bene acquainted ne yet searched the depthe of those hidden secretes a thing not commonly sued for ne yet practised by me For who is able to make assurance of a womans chastitie or tel by signes except he were at the déede doing that she hath done amisse Or who can gaine by proctors wryt to summon or sue a sprituall Court peremptorily to affirme by neuer so good euidence or testimony that a woman hath hazarded hir honesty except he sweare Rem to be in Re which the greatest 〈◊〉 that euer Padua bred neuer sawe by processe duely tried Shall I then warrant you the honesty of such 〈◊〉 cattell prone and ready to lust easy to be vanquished by the suites of earnest pursuers But blame worthy surely I am thus generally to speake for some I know although not many for whose pore honesties I dare aduenture mine owne And yet that number howe small so euer it be is worthy all due reuerence and honoure Notwithstanding bicause you séeme to be an honest Gentleman of that knowledge which I haue I will not be greatly 〈◊〉 A certaine secrete experiment in déede I haue wherwith perchaūce I may satisfie your demaunde And this is it I can by mine Arte in small time by certaine compositions frame a womans Image which you continually in a little boxe may carry about you and so ofte as you list beholde the same If the wife doe not breake hir mariage faith you shall still sée the same so faire and wel coloured as it was at the first making séeme as though it newly came from the painters shop but if perchaūce she meane to abuse hir honesty the same wil waxe pale and in déede committing that filthy facte sodainely the colour wil be black as arayed with cole or other 〈◊〉 the smel wherof wil not be very plesāt but at al times when she is attempted or pursued the colour wil be so yealow as gold This maruellous secrete deuise greatly pleased the Knight verely beleuing the same to be true specially much moued assured by the fame bruted abrode of his science wherof the Citizens of 〈◊〉 told very strange incredible things When the price was paid of this precious iewel he receiued the Image ioyfully returned home to his castle wher tarying certain dayes he determined to repair to that Court of the glorious king Mathie making his wife priuy to his intent Afterwards whē he had disposed his houshold matters in order he cōmitted that gouernment therof to his wife hauing prepared all necessaries for his voyage to the great sorow griefe of his beloued he departed arriued at Alba Regale where that time the King lay with Quéene Beatrix his wife of whom he was ioyfully receiued entertained He had not long continued in the Court but he had obtained won the fauor good will of all men The King which knew him full well very honorably placed him in his court by him accōplished diuers and many waighty affaires which very wisely and trustely he brought to passe according to the kings mind pleasure Afterwards he was made Colonel of a certaine nūber of footemen sent by the king against the Turks to defend a holde which the enimies of God begā to assaile vnder the conduct of Mustapha Basca which cōduct he so wel directed therin stoutly behaued himself as he chased al the Infidels out of those coastes winning therby that name of a most valiant soldier prudent captain Whereby he meruellously gained the fauor grace of the king who ouer and besides his daily intertainement gaue vnto him a Castle and the Reuenue in fée farme for euer Such rewards deserue all valiāt men which for the honor of their Prince countrey do willingly imploy their seruice worthy no dout of great regard cherishing vpō their home returne bicause they hate idlenesse to win glory deuising rather to spēd hole dayes in field than houres in Courte which this worthy Knight deserued who not able to sustaine his pore estate by politik wisdō prowesse of armes endeuored to serue his Lord and countrey wherin surely he made a very good choise Then he deuoutly serued and praised God for that he put into his minde such a Noble enterprise trusting daily to atchieue greater fame and glory but the greater was his ioy and contentation bicause the image of his wife inclosed within a boxe which still he caried about him in his pursie continued freshe of coloure without any alteration It was noysed in the Court that this valiant Knight Vlrico had in Boeme the fairest and goodliest Lady to his wife that liued either in Boeme or Hungarie It chaūced as a certaine company of yong Gentlemen in the Court were together amongs whome was this Knighte that a 〈◊〉 Earon sayd vnto him How is it possible syr 〈◊〉 being a yeare and a half since you departed out of Boeme that you haue no minde to returne to sée your wife who as the common fame reporteth is one of the goodliest women of all the Countrey truely it séemeth to me that you care not for hir which were great pitie if hir beautic be correspondent to hir fame Syr quod Vlrico what hir beautie is I referre vnto the worlde but how so euer you estéeme me to care of hir you shall vnderstande that I doe loue hir and will doe so during my life And the cause why I haue not visited hir of lōg time is no little proofe of the great assurance I haue of hir vertue and honest life The argument of hir vertue I proue for that she is contented that I shold serue my Lord and king and sufficient it is for me to giue hir intelligence of my state and welfare which many times by letters at opportunitie I faile not to doe the proofe of my Faith is euident by reason of my bounden duety to our soueraigne Lord of whome
whereof dissolueth the duetie of eche seruaunt towardes his soueraigne Lord and maister To be short this blinded louer yelding no resistance to loue and the foolish conceit which altereth the iudgementes of the wisest suffred his fansie to roue so farre vnto his appetites as on a day when the Lieuetenaunt was walked abrode into the Castell to viewe the Souldioures and deade payes to pleasure him that sought the meanes of his displeasure he spake to the Gentlewoman his wife in this manner Gentlewoman you being wise and curtuous as eche man knoweth needefull it is not to vse long or Rethorical Orations for so much as you without further supply of talke doe clearely perceiue by my lookes sighes and earnest viewes the loue that I bear you which without comparison nippeth my heart so neare as none can féele the parching paines that the same poore portion of me doeth suffer Wherefore hauing no great leisure to let you further vnderstand my minde it may please you to shewe me so much fauoure as I may be receiued for him who hauing the better right of your good grace may there withall enioy that secrete acquaintaunce which suche a one as I am deserueth of whome ye shall haue better experience if you please to accept him for your owne This mistresse Lieuetenaunt which compted hir selfe happie to be beloued of hir Lord and who tooke great pleasure in that aduenture albeit that she desired to lette him know the good will that she bare vnto him yet dissembled the matter a little by answearing him in this wise Your disease sir is sodaine if in fo little time you haue felt suche excesse of maladie but perchaunce it is your heart that being ouer tender hath lightly receiued the pricke which no doubt will so soone vanishe as it hath made so ready entrie I am very glad Sir that your heart is so merily disposed to daliaunce and can finde some matter to contriue the superfluitie of time the same altering the diuersitie of mannes complexion accordingly as the condition of the hourely planet guideth the nature of euery wight It is altogither otherwise answered hée for being 〈◊〉 hither as a 〈◊〉 and Lord I am become a seruaunt and slaue And briefly to speake my minde if you haue not pitie vpon me the disease which you call sodaine not onely will take increase but procure the death and finall ruine of my heart Ah sir sayde the Gentlewoman your griefe is not so déepely rooted and death so present to succéede as you affirme ne yet so ready to giue ouer the place as you protest but I sée what is the matter you desire to laugh me to scorn and your heart craueth something to solace it selfe which cannot be idle but must imploy the vacant time vpon some pleasant toyes You haue touched the prick answeared the Louer for it is you in déede whereupon my heart doeth ioy and you are the cause of my laughter and passetime for otherwise all my delights were displeasures and you also by denying me to be your seruaunt shall abbreuiate and shorten my liuing dayes who only reioyseth for choise of such a mistresse And how replied she can I be assured of that you say the disloyaltie and infidelitie of man being in these dayes so faste vnited and following one another as the shadowe doeth the bodie wheresoeuer it goeth Only experience sayd he shall make you know what I am and shal teach you whether my heart is any thing different from my woordes and I dare be bolde to say that if you vouchsafe to doe me the pleasure to 〈◊〉 me for your owne you may make your vaunt to haue a Gentleman so faithfull for your friend as I estéeme you to be discrete and as I desire to 〈◊〉 you 〈◊〉 the effect of mine affection by such some honest order as may be deuised Sir sayd she it is wel and 〈◊〉 spoken of you but yet I thinke it straunge for such a Gentleman as you be to debase your honor to so pore a Gentlewoman and to goe about bothe to dishonor me and to put my life in perill God forbid answered the Lord Nicholas that I be cause of any slaūder and rather had I die my selfe than minister one simple occasion wherby your fame should be brought in question Only I do pray you to haue pitie vpon me and by vsing your curtesie to satisfie that which my seruice faithful friendship dothe constraine and binde you for the comfort of him that loueth you better than himself We will talk more thereof hereafter answered the Lieuetenaunts wife and then will I tell you mine aduise and what resolution shall follow the summe of your demaunde How now Gentlewoman sayd he haue you the heart to leaue me voide of hope to make me languish for the prorogation of a thing so doubtfull as the delayes 〈◊〉 which loue deferreth I humbly pray you to tell me wherunto I shall trust to the intent that by punishing my heart for proofe of this enterprise I may 〈◊〉 also mine eyes by reuing frō them the meanes for euer more to sée that which contenteth me best and wherin 〈◊〉 my solace leauing my minde ful of desires and my heart without finall stay vpon that greatest pleasure that euer man 〈◊〉 choose The Gentlewoman would not loose a Noble man so good 〈◊〉 whose presence already pleased hir aboue all other things and who voluntarily had agréed to his request by the only signe of hir gests and lokes sayd vnto him smiling with a very good grace Doe not accuse my heart of lightnesse nor my minde of 〈◊〉 and treason if to please obey you I forget my duetie abuse the promise made vnto my husband for I swear vnto you sir by God that I haue more forced my thought of long time haue constrained mine appetites in dissembling the loue that I bear you thā I haue receiued pleasure by knowing my self to be beloued by one agreable to mine affection For which cause you shall finde me being but a pore Gentlewoman more ready to do your plesure and to be at your commaundemēt than any other that liueth be she of greater port and regard than I am And who to satisfie your request shall one day sacrifice that fidelitie to the iealous fury of hir husband God defend sayd the yong Lord for we shall be so discrete in our doings so 〈◊〉 shal communicate talke togither as impossible it is for any mā to 〈◊〉 the same But if missehap wil haue it so and that some ill lucke doe discouer our dealings I haue shift of wayes to colour the same power to stoppe the mouthes of them that dare presume to clatter and haue to doe with our priuate conference All that I know well inough sir sayd she but it is great simplicitie in such things for a man to trust to his authoritie the forced inhibition whereof shall prouoke more babble than rumor is able to spred for al his
that nowe when our passetime of hunting might yelde some good recreation vnto your honour that you doe thus forsake vs notwithstanding sith it is your good plesure we wil cease the chase of the wilde Bore till your returne In the meane time I will make readie the coardes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the takyng of the same that vpon youre comming nothing want for the furniture of our sport The Lord Nicholas seing his Lieutenant so pleasantly disposed and so litle bent to choler or iealous fantasie was persuaded that some other toy had rather occupied his minde than any suspition betwene his wife and him But the subtill husbande searched other meanes to be 〈◊〉 than by killyng him alone of whom he receyued that dishonour and was more craftie to enterprise and more hardie to execute than the louers were wyse or well aduised to preuente and wythstande his sleightes and pollicies And albeit that the wyfe after the departure of hir friende assayed to drawe from hym the cause of his altered chéere yet coulde shée neuer learne that hir husbande hadde any yll opinion of their loue For so many times as talke was moued of the Lord Nicholas he exalted his praise vp into the heauens and commended him aboue all his 〈◊〉 All whiche he didde to beguile the pollicies of hir whome he sawe to blushe and manye tymes change colour when she heard him spoken of to whom she bare better affection than to hir husband vnto whō in very dede she dyd owe the fayth and integritie of hir bodie Thys was the very toyle which he had laide to intrappe those amorous persons and purposed to ridde the worlde of them by that meanes to remoue from before his eyes the shame of a 〈◊〉 title and to reuenge the iniurie done to hys reputation The Mistresse of the Castell seing that hir husbande as shée thought by no meanes did vnderstande hir 〈◊〉 desired to continue the pleasure whiche either 〈◊〉 them desired and which made the thirde to die of phrenesie wrote to the Lorde Nicholas the letter that foloweth My Lorde the feare I had that my husband should perceyue our loue caused me to intreate you certaine dayes past to discontinue for a time the frequentatiō of your owne house wherby I am not a litle grieued that contrary to my will I am defrauded of your presence which is farre more pleasant vnto me than my husbandes 〈◊〉 who ceaseth not continually to talke of the honest behauiour and commendable qualities that be in you and is sorie for youre departure bicause he feareth that you mislyke youre entertainement which should be sayth he so grieuous and noysome vnto him as death it selfe Wherfore I pray you 〈◊〉 if it be possible and that your affaires do suffer you to come hither to the ende I may inioy youre 〈◊〉 presence and vse the libertie that our good happe hath prepared through the litle iealosie of my husband your Lieutenant who I suppose before it be long will 〈◊〉 you so great is his desire to make you passetime 〈◊〉 hunting within your owne lande and territorie Fayle not then to come I beséech you and we will so well consider the gouernement of our affaires as the best sighted shall not once discrie the least suspicion therof recommending my selfe most humbly after the best maner I can to your good lordship This Letter was deliuered to a lackey to beare to the Lorde Nicholas and not so priuily done but that Lieutenant immediatly espied the deceipt which the sooner was disciphred for so much as he dayely lay in waite to finde the meanes to reuēge the wrong done vnto him of purpose to beate the iron so long as it was hotte to execute his purpose before his wife toke hede and felte the indeuor of his enterprise And bicause that shée had assayed by diuers ways to sound his hart and fele whether he had conceiued displeasure against the Lorde hir louer the daye after wherein she had written to hir friende hée sente one of hys men in poste to the thrée Lordes to require them to come the nexte daye to sée the passetyme of the 〈◊〉 and greatest Wylde Bore that long tyme was bredde in the Forrestes adioynyng vnto Nocera Albeit that the Countreye was fayre for 〈◊〉 and that diuers times many fayre Bores 〈◊〉 bene encountred there But it was not for this that he had framed his errand but to trap in one toyle and snare the thrée brethren whome he determined to sacrifice to the aultar of hys vengeaunce for the expiation of their elder brothers trespasse and for soiling the nuptiall bed of his seruāt He was the wylde Bore whom he meant to strike hée was the praie of his vnsaciable and cruell appetite If the fault had ben generall of all thrée togethers he had had some reason to make them passe the bracke of one equall fortune and to tangle them within one net both to preuent therby as he thought his further hurt and to chastise their leude behauiour For many times as lamentable experience teacheth Noble men for the only respect of their nobilitie make no conscence to doe wrong to the honor of them whose reputation and honestie they oughte so well to regarde as their owne Herein offended the good prince of the Iewes Dauid whē to vse his Bersabe without suspicion he caused innocent Vrias to be slaine in lieu of recompense for hys good seruice and diligent execution of his behests The children of the proude Romane King Tarquinius did herein greatly abuse them selues when they violated that noble Gentlewoman Lucrece whome all histories doe so muche remembre and whose chastitie all famous writers doe commende Upon such as they be vengeance oughte to be doue and not to defile the handes in the bloode of innocentes as the parents and kinsemen of dead Lucrece did at Rome and this Lieutenant at Nocera vpon the brethren of him that hadde sent him into Cornewall without passing ouer the seas But what Anger procéeding of such wrong surmounteth al phrenesie and excedeth all the bounds of reason and mans so deuoide of wits by seing the blot of defamation to light vpon him as he séeketh al 〈◊〉 to hurt and displease him that polluteth his renoume All the race of the Tarquines for like fact were banished Rome for the onely brute whereof the husband of the faire rauished wife was constrained to auoide the place of his natiuitie Paris alone violated the body of Menelaus the Lacedemouian King but for reuenge of the rauished Greeke not onely the glorie and richesse of stately Troy but also the most part of Asia and Europa was ouerturned and defaced if credit may be giuen to the records of the auncient So in this fact of the Lieutenant the Lorde Nicholas alone had polluted his bed but the reuenge of the cruell man extended further and his furie raged so farre as the guiltlesse were in great daunger to beare the penance which shall be well perceiued by the discourse that
that his wife also priuily had sente hir page vnto whom he purposed to giue so good a recōpense as neuer more she shold plant his hornes so high vnder a colour of gētle entertainment of hir ribauld friend They wer scarse resolued vpon this intent but newes were brought him that the next day mornyng the thrée lords accompanied with other nobilitie would come to Nocera to hunt that huge wilde Bore wherof the Lieutenant had made so great auant These news did not gretly please the Captain forsomuch as he feared that his purpose could not cōueniently be brought to passe if the companie were so great But when he considered that the Lords alone should lodge withinthe Fort he was of good chéere againe and stayed vpon his first intent The Triniciens the next day after came very late bicause the Lorde Berardo of Varano Duke of Camerino desired to be one and also the two brethren taried for Conrade who was at a mariage coulde not assist the tragedie that was playd at Nocera to his gret hap and profit To this troupe came to Nocera late and hauing supped in the Citie the Lord Nicholas and the Duke of Camerino wente to bed in the Fort Caesar the brother of Trinicio tarying behind with the traine to lodge in the citie Stay here a while ye gentlemen ye I say that pursue the secrete stelths of loue neuer put any great trust in Fortune whiche seldome kepeth hir promise with you Ye had néede therefore to take good hede lest ye be surprised in the place where priuily you giue the assault and in the act wherin ye desire the assistance of none Sée the barbarous crueltie of a Lieutenant which loued rather to kil his corriuall in his cold blood than otherwise to be reuenged when he saw him a bedde with his wife purposely that the erāple of his furie might be the better knowne and the secret selander more euident from the roote whereof did 〈◊〉 an infinite numbre of murders and mischiefs About midnight then when al things were at rest vnder the dark silence of the night the Lieutenant came to the chamber of the Lorde Nicholas accompanied with the most parte of the watche and hauyng stopte vp the yeoman of his chamber hée so dressed the companion of hys bedde as for the first proofe of hys curtesie he caused hys membres and priuie partes to be cut of saying vnto hym wyth cruell disdayne Thou shalte not henceforth wycked wretche welde thys launce into the rest thereby to batter the honoure of an honester man than thy self Then laūching his stomake with a piercing blade he tare the hart out of his belie saying Is this the traiterous hearte that hath framed the plot and deuised the enterprise of my shame to make thys infamous villaine without life his renoume without praise And not 〈◊〉 with this crueltie he wreakt that like vpon the remnant of his body that somtimes the runagate Medea did vpon hir innocēt brother to saue that lyfe of hir selfe and of hir friend Iason For she cut him into an hundred thousand pieces gyuyng to euery membre of the poore murdred soule hir word of mockerie contempt Was it not sufficient for a tirannous husbande to be reuēged of his shame and to kill the partie which had defamed him withoute vsing so furious Anatomie vpon a dead body and wherin there was no longer féeling But what Ire being without measure anger without bridle or reson it is not to be wondred if in al his actes the Captaine ouerpassed the iuste measure of bengeance Many would thinke the cōmitted murder vpon Nicholas to bée good and iust but the Iustice of an offense ought not so long time be conceyled but rather to make him féele the smart at the verie time the déede is done to the ende that the nipping griefe of pestilent treason wrought against the betrayed partie be not obscured aud hidden by sodaine rage and lacke of reason rising in the mindes first motions and therby also the fauite of the guiltie by his indiscretion couered otherwise there is nothing that can colour such vice For the lawe indifferently doth punish euery 〈◊〉 that without the Magistrates order taketh authoritie to 〈◊〉 hys owne wrong But come wée againe vnto our purpose The Captaine all imbrued 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 entred the chamber of the Duke of 〈◊〉 whome with all she rest of the straungers that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hée lodged without speakyng any woorde in a déepe and obscure pryson 〈◊〉 what reste they tooke that nyght whyche were come to hunt 〈◊〉 Wylde 〈◊〉 For without trauayling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hir vermilion cléere beganne to thewe hir selfe when all the Hunters didde putte them selues in a readynesse and coupled vppe theyr Dogges to marche into the Fielde beholde one of the Captaines cruell ministers wente into the Citie to cause the Lorde 〈◊〉 to come and speake with his brother Nicholas and intreated him not to tarie for that he and the Duke were disposed to shewe him some disport Caesar which neuer suspected the least of these chanced murders desired not to be prayed agayne but made haste to the butcherie lyke a Lambe in the companie of the Wolues them selues that were in readinesse to kill hym He was no sooner in the court of the Castle but seuen or eight varlets apprehended him and his men and caried hym into the chamber bound like a théefe wherin the membres of his miserable brother were cut of dispersed whose corps was pitifully gored and arayed in blood If Caesar were abashed to sée himselfe bound and taken prisoner he was more astoonned when he perceiued a body so dismembred and which as yet he knewe not Alas sayde he what sight is this Is this the Bore which thou hast caused vs to come hither to hūt within our very Fort The Captaine rising vp al imbrued with blood whose face voice promised nothing but murder to the miserable yong gētleman said Sée Caesar the bodie of thine adulterous brother Nicholas that infamous whoore mōger and marke if this be not his head I would to God that Conrade were here also that ye might all thrée be placed at this sumptuous banket which I haue prepared for you I sweare vnto thée then that this shold be the last day of all the Trinicien race and the end of your tirannies and wicked life But sith I cā not get the effect of that which my heart desireth my minde shal take repast in the triumph which Fortune 〈◊〉 ordeined Curssed be the mariage wedding at Treuio that hath hindred me of an occasion so apte and of the meanes to dispatche a matter of such importance as is the ouerthrow of so many tirants Caesar at this sentence stode so still as whilom did the wife of Loth by seing the Citie on fire and consume into ashes by the sight wherof she was cōuerted into
so horrible Depart my friends depart get you home dispose your watch and garde about the Castell that the traiter do not escape and assure your selues that this your loue shal neuer be forgotten you shall haue of me not a tyrant as he 〈◊〉 hath protested but rather suche a Lord and better also than hitherto ye haue me proued If Conrade had not bene pressed with heauinesse he hadde 〈◊〉 goodly songs against the treason of the Lieuetenaunt and would haue accused his brother of indiscretion for trusting him whose wife he had abused and well did know that he espied the same But what The businesse required other things than words extreme follie it is to nippe the dead with taunts or with vaine woords to abuse the absent specially where vltion and reuenge is easie and the meanes manifest to chastise the temeritie of suche and to be acquited of the wrong done vnto him that cannot doe it himself Conrade then toke his way towardes Tuderto where then remained the Lord Braccio and therof was Lord and gouernour and had also vnder his gouernment Perugia and many other Cities of the 〈◊〉 Churche and who with the dignitie of the great Constable of Naples was also Prince of Capua to him the Trinicien brother all be 〈◊〉 with teares and transported with choler grief came to demaund succor for reuenge of the Lieuetenauntes trespasse saying For what assuraunce my Lord can Princes and great Lords hope henceforth when their very seruaunts shall rise and by cōstraining their masters make assay to vsurpe their seigniories wherein they haue no title or interest Is this a reuēge of wrōg in steede of one to kill twaine and yet to wishe for the third to dispatch the world of our race Is this to pursue his ennimy to séeke to catche him in trappe which knoweth nothing of the quarell to make him to suffer the paine My two brethren be dead our cosin germaine the Duke is in prison I am héere comfortlesse all sad pensife before you whome likewise this matter toucheth although not so néere as it doeth me but yet with like dishonor Let vs goe my Lord let vs goe I beséeche you to visite our good hoste that so rudely intreateth his gests which come to visite him and let vs beare him a reward that he may tast of our comming let vs goe before he saue himself that with little trauaile lesse harme to an other the ribauld may be punished who by his example if he longer liue may encrease corage bothe in seruaūts to disobey and in subiects to rebel without conscience against their heads and gouerners It is a case of very great importance and which ought to be folowed with all rigor and cruelty And he ought neuer to be supported cōforted or fauored which shal by any meanes attempt to reuolt or arme himself against his Prince or shall constraine him or hir that is his soueraigne Lord or mistresse Is not a Prince constituted of God to be obeyed loued and cherished of his subiects Is it not in him to make ordaine lawes such as shal be thought néedeful and necessary for common welth Ought not he then to be obeyed of his subiects and vassals Ought they then to teach the head commaund the chiefest member of their body I do remember a tale my Lord recited by Menenius Agrippa that wise and Notable 〈◊〉 who going about to reconcile the commons with the Senate alleaged a fit and conuenable example In time past quod he when the parts of mankinde were at variance and euery member would be a Lord generally conspiring grudging alleaging how by their great trauail paines and carefull ministery they prouided all furniture and maintenaunce for the belly and that he like a sluggishe beast stode stil enioyed such pleasures as were giuen him in this murmure and mutine all they agréed that the hands should not minister the mouth should not féede the tée the shold not make it seruiceable the feete shold not trauaile nor head deuise to get the same and whilest euery of them did forsake their seruice and obedience the belly grew so thin and the 〈◊〉 so weake and feeble as the whole body was brought to extreme decay ruine wherby said Agrippa it appeareth that the seruice due vnto the belly as the chief porcion of man by the other members is most necessary the obeying nurssing of whome doth instill force and vigor into the other parts through which we do liue and be refreshed and the same disgested dispearsed into the vaines and vitall powers ingendreth mature and fine bloud and maintaineth that whole state of the body in comely form and order By which trim comparison applied to 〈◊〉 warre is deflected mollified the stout corage 〈◊〉 of the multitude Euen so agréeing with Agrippa if the members grudge disobey against their chief the state must grow to ruine To be short in certain haps a traiter may be cherished and he that hath falsified his first faith but treason and periury euermore be detested as vices execrable In this déede neither the thing nor yet the doer hath any colour of excuse the trespasse cause for which it is done being considered Suffiseth it sir for so muche as there is neither time nor cause of further discourse what néede we to decide the matter which of it selfe is euident Beholde me here a pore Trinicien brother without brethren ioylesse without a fort at Nocera On the other part consider the Duke of Camerino in great distresse and daūger to passe that strait of death my brethren did Let vs goe I pray you to deliuer the captiue and by reuenging these offenses and murders to settle my Citie in former state fredome which that villaine goeth about to take frō me by encoraging my subiects to reuolt to enter armes therby to expell our house from the title of the same As Conrade spake these words with great grauity 〈◊〉 pronoūcing sundry tokēs of sorow that Constable of Naples wroth beyond measure for these vnplesāt newes ful of grief choler against that traiterous lieuetenāt swore in the hearing of them al that he wold neuer rest one good sléepe vntil that quarell were auēged and had quited that outrage done to the Lord Conrade and that wrong which he felt in him for the imprisonmēt of the Duke of Camerino So he concluded and the souldiers were assembled through out all the parts of the constables lands vpon the end of the wéeke to march against the fort of Nocera the Citizens whereof had layd diligēt 〈◊〉 and watch for the escape of the captain who without bashfulnesse determined with his men to defend that same to 〈◊〉 fortune making himself beleue that his quarel was good and cause iust to withstand them that should haue the heart to come to assaile him The Constable in the meane time sent a Trumpet to Nocera to sommon the
tourne but his greatest fame rose of his clemencie and curtesie In such wise as he shewed hym selfe to be gentle and fauourable euen to them whome he knewe not to loue him otherwise than if he had bene their mortal enimie His successors as Augustus Vespasianus Titus Marcus Aurelius Flauius were worthily noted for clemencie Notwithstandyng I sée not one drawe néere to great courage and gentlenesse ioyned with the singular curtesie of Dom Roderigo Viuario the Spaniarde surnamed Cid towarde Kyng Pietro of Aragon that hyndred his expedition againste the Mores at Grenadoe For hauyng vanquished the 〈◊〉 King and taken hym in battell not only remitted the reuenge of his wrong but also suffered hym to goe without raunsome and toke not from him so much as one forte estéeming it to be a better exploite to winne such a king with curtesie than beare the name of cruell in putting hym to death or seazing vpon his lande But bicause acknowledging of the poore and enriching the small is more cōmendable in a Prince than when he sheweth himselfe gentle to his like I haue collected thys discourse and facte of Kyng Mansor of Marocco whose children by subtile and fained religion Cherif succéeded the sonne of whome at this day inioyeth the kingdoms of Su Marocco and the most part of the 〈◊〉 confinyng vpon Aethiopia This historie was told by an Italian called Nicholoso Baciadonne who vpon this accident was in Affrica and in trafike of marchandise in the land of Oran situated vpon the coast of that South seas and where the Geneuois and Spaniards vse great entercourse bicause the countrey is faire wel peopled and where the inhabitaunts although the soile be barbarous lyue indifferent ciuilly vsing greate curtesie to straungers and largely departyng their goodes to the poore towards whome they be so earnestly bente and louing as for their liberalitie and pitifull alinesse they shame vs Christians They mainteyne a greate numbre of Hospitalls to receyue and intertaine the poore and néedie which they doe more charitably than they that be bounde by the lawe of Iesus Christe to vse charitie towardes their brethren wyth that curtesie and humaine myldnesse These Oraniens delight also to recorde in writing the successe of things that chaunce in their tyme and carefully reserue the same in memorie whiche was the cause that hauyng registred in theyr Chronicles which be in the Arabie letters as the moste parte of the Countreys do vse thys present historie they imparted the same to the Geneuois marchauntes of whome the Italian Author confesseth 〈◊〉 haue receyued the Copie The cause why that Geneuois marchaunt was so diligent to make that enquirie was by reason of a citie of that prouince built through the chaunce of this Historie and which was called in theyr tongue Caesar Elcabir so much to say as A great Palace And bycause I am assured that curteous mynds will delight in déedes of curtesie I haue amongs other the Nouells of Bandello chosen by Francois de Belleforest and my selfe discoursed thys albeit the matter be not of great importance and greater thyngs and more notorious curtesies haue bene done by our owne kings and Princes As of Henry the eyght a Prince of notable memorie in his progresse in to the Northe the xxxiij yeare of his raigne when he disdained not a pore Millers house being stragled from his traine busily pursuing the Hart and there vnknown of the Miller was welcomed with homely chere as his mealy house was able for the time to minister and afterwards for acknowledging his willing minde recompenced him with dainties of the Courte and a Princely rewarde Of Edward the thirde whose Royall nature was not displeased pleasauntly to vse a 〈◊〉 Tanner when deuided from his company he mette him by the way not farre from Tomworth in Staffordshire and by cheapening of his welfare stéede for stedinesse sure and able to cary him so farre as the stable dore grewe to a price and for exchaunge the Tanner craued 〈◊〉 shillings to boote betwene the Kings and his And whē the King satisfied with disport desired to shew himself by sounding his warning blast assembled al his train And to the great amaze of the pore Tanner when he was guarded with that 〈◊〉 he well guerdoned his good pastime and familiare dealing with the order of 〈◊〉 and reasonable reuenue for the maintenaunce of the same The like examples our Chronicles memory and report plentifully doe auouche and witnesse But what this History is the more rare and worthy of noting for respect of the people and Countrey where seldome or neuer curtesie haunteth or findeth harboroughe and where Nature doth bring forth greater store of monsters than things worthy of praise This great King Mansor then was not onely the temporall Lord of the Countrey of Oran and Moracco but also as is saide of Prete Iean Bishop of his law and the Mahomet priest as he is at this day that 〈◊〉 in Feze Sus and Marocco Now this Prince aboue all other pleasure 〈◊〉 the game of Hunting And he so muche delighted in that passetime as sometime he would cause his Tentes in the midde of the desertes to be erected to lie there all night to the ende that the next day he might renewe his game and 〈◊〉 his men of idlenesse and the wilde beastes of rest And this manner of life he vsed still after he had done iustice and hearkened the complaintes for which his subiectes came to disclose thereby their griefes Wherin also he toke so great pleasure as some of our Magistrates doe seke their profite whereof they be so squeymishe as they be desirous to satisfie the place whereunto they be called and render all men their right due vnto them For with their bribery and sacred golden hunger Kings and Princes in these dayes be yll serued the people wronged and the wicked out of feare There is none offense almost how villanous so euer it be but is washed in the water of bribery and clensed in the holly drop wherewith the Poetes faine Iupiter to corrupt the daughter of Acrisius faste closed within the brasen Toure And who is able to resist that which hath subdued the highest powers Now returne we from our wanderings This great King Mansor on a day 〈◊〉 his people to hunt in the not marish fenny Countrey which in elder age was farre off from the Citie of Asela which the Portugalles holde at this present to make the way more frée into the Isles of Molncca of the most parte whereof their King is Lord. As he was attentife in folowing a Bear his passe-time at the best the Elementes began to darke and a great tempest rose such as with the storme violent wind scattred the train far of from the King who not knowing what way to take nor into what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 retire to auiode the tempest the greatest the he felt in all his life would wyth a good wyl haue ben accōpanied as the Troiane 〈◊〉 was