the mother of her husbande lorde for the churche is also a mother and a virgyne Nor there is nothynge that our lorde delyteth more in / than virgines nor wherein angelles more gladly abyde / and playe with / and talke with For they be virgins also them selfe / theyr lorde whiche wolde haue a virgine vnto his mother / and a virgine to his moste dere disciple / and the churche his spouse a virgine And also he maryeth vnto hym selfe other virgins / and gothe vnto mariages with virgins And whither so euer he goethe / that lambe without spotte / whiche made vs clene with his blode / an hundred and .xl. thousande virgins folowe hym Hit is writen in the canticles Our syster is a lytell one / and hath no breastes Whether that be the sayenge of Christe or angels to the soule / in whom standeth the very virginite pleasant vnto god Al glorie of the kynges daughter is inward sayth Dauid in the psalme There is that golden clothynge / there is the garment set and powdred with so many vertuous and precious stones Be nat proude mayde that thou arte holle of body / if thou be broken in mynde nor bycause no mā hath touched thy bodye / if many men haue persed thy mynde What auayleth hit / thy body to be clene / whan thou bearest thy mȳde and thy thought infected with a foule and an horrible blotte O thou mayde / thy mȳde is wyddred by burnyng with mānes heate nor thou fretest nat with holy loue but hast dryed vp all the good fatnes of the pleasures of paradise Therfore art thou the foly she mayde / and haste no oyle and whyle thou rounnest to the sellar / art shutte forthe and as our lorde in the gospell thretneth / whan thou commest agayne / and knockest / thou shalte be answered Who art thou I knowe the nat Thou shalte say than knowest thou nat this body closed and vntouched of men our lorde shall say agayne I se nat the body I se the soule open vnto men / and vnto deuylles worse than men / and often knocked at Thou art proude mayde / bycause thy bealy hath no cause to swelle whā thy mynde is swollen / nat with mānes sede / but with deuylles For here howe well thy spouse lyketh the / thou knowest nat thy selfe O mooste goodly of all women come forthe and folowe the steppes of thy flockes / and fede thy kyddes by the tentes of the herde men Thou knowest nat howe all only virginite is good / thou art nat my spouse come forthe / and go after the steppes of those flockes / whom thou hast norysshed in thy mȳde And syth thou dost nat fede my kyddes / fede thȳ owne Thou loueste nat me so moche / that am onely the hyghest and the beste herde man Tarye nere the tentes of the herdmen / whom thou folowest For if thou folowedest me / only one herdman shulde be knowen vnto the / and nat many For he wyl haue all to be playne and euen Thy wombe swelleth nat / nor there is no cause whye nor lette nat thy mynde than swelle nor let there be no cause why I praye the / vnderstande thyne owne goodnesse mayde / thy pryce canne nat be estemedde / if thou ioyne a chast mynde vnto thy chaste bodye / if thou shutte vp bothe bodye and mynde / and seale them with those seales that none can open / but he that hath the keye of Dauid / that is thy spouse whiche resteth so in the / as in a temple most clene and goodlye Thynkeste thou this any small thynge / that thou mayste receyue onely by purenes that thynge / whiche can nat be comprehended in this holle worlde Howe glad is a woman / if she beare in her wombe a chylde / whiche shall be a kynge But thou bearest a kynge all redy nat onely in thy wombe / but also in thy mynde whiche is more goodly / yea and that suche a kynge / in whose garment this tytle of dignite is wryten Kynge of all kynges / and lorde of all lordes of whom prophetes haue prophycied and his reigne is the reigne of all worldes whose reygne the angel tolde shuld haue none ende Let vs nowe lyfte vp our selfe aboue the common people and let vs dispute this mooste goodly matter with saynt Augustyne but yet so that thou mayst perceyue vs / and doubtles thou shalte perceyue vs better than we shall our selfe For we speake of thy goodnes / whiche thou art nat ignorant of and we shewe the that thyng / that thou haste within the. The holy virgin our lady cōceyued fyrst in her mynde our lorde Christ / and after in her body And it was a more honorable / noble / and excellent thyng to cōceyue in mȳde than in body Wherfore thou arte pertener of the more excellent cōception O happy art thou / that art maruelously mother vnto an excellent maruailous childe Our lorde in the gospell / whan the womā sayd Blessed be the wombe that bare the / and the brestes that thou suckedest he answered / Naye / But blessed by they that here the worde of god / and kepe it And whan the Iewes tolde hym that his mother and bretherne taryed hym without / he asked them Who is my mother and my bretherne And poyntyng his hande towarde his disciples Those be sayde he / my bretherne mother / and who so els obeyeth the cōmandement of my father Wherfore virgins and all holy soules / engendre Christe spiritually Howe be it corporally only one virgin dyd beare god mā whiche is spouse and also father vnto all other virgins O thou mayde / thynkest thou this but a small thing that thou art bothe mother / spouse / and daughter to that god / in whom nothynge can be / but hit be thyn and thou mayst with good ryght challenge for thyn For bothe thou gettest and art gottē and maryed vnto hym If thou woldest haue a fayre spouse / hit is sayde by hym Thou art beautyfull aboue the children of mā / grace is diffused in thy lyppes If thou woldest haue a ryche husbande / thou mayst here sayd of hym Honour and riches is in his house If thou woldest haue a gētylmā / he is goddis son̄e / and rekeneth fourtene kynges in his petegrewe / and his generations can nat be expressed and the aūciāte of his stocke is before the makyng of the worlde / tyme euerlastyng If thou woldest haue a myghty husbande / hit is sayde by hym he is wise in herte / and mighty in strength And in the .xliiij. psalme Gyrde the with thy sworde vpon thy thygh most myghtyly If thou woldest haue a good one / thou shalte here nothyng oftener of hym / than that he is the best If thou woldest haue one of great possessions / thou redest of hym / that all thinges be subiecte vnder his fete And in an other psalme / that all thynges do homage vnto hym And that
kyng of Gothia and many other women moo / whiche haue broughte theyr husbandes to good order and vertue Of children and the charge and care about them The .xi. Chap. Fyrst of all if thou beare no children / take it with a pacient a coÌ„teÌ„t mynde in maner reioyse / that thou lackest that incredible payne busynes There is no place here to declare / what mysery she must suffre / whyle she is great what dolore and perell / whan she laboreth More ouer / what werynes care she hath in the nourisshyng and bryngyng vp of them / leste they shulde waxeyll / or any mysfortune by chaunce them what coÌ„tinual feare she hath / whyther they go what they do / lest they do or take any harme Verily I canne nat expresse the cause of this great desyre / that women haue to beare children Woldest thou be a mother Wherto That thou mayst replenysshe the worlde as who say / the worlde coude nat be filled / excepte thou brynge forthe a lytell beaste or two orelles that god coulde nat reyse chyldren vnto Abraham of these same stones Be neuer carefull in the house of god / howe hit shall be fylled he wyll prouide well inough for his house / that it shall nat be emptie But parauenture thou feareste the rebuke of bareÌ„nes Thou arte a Christen woman Therfore vnderstande / that nowe this sayenge is past / Cursed be that woman in Israell that is barenne Thou lyueste nowe vnder a lawe / where in thou seeste virginyte preferred aboue maryage and herest the sayeng of thy lorde wo be vnto women / that be great and beare chyldreÌ„ and blessed be they / that be baren blessed be the wombes that beare nat / and the breast is that gyue nat souke Howe canst thou tell / whether god wyll haue the to be one of those happy and blessed womeÌ„ Howe moche more shamfully dyd the woman of Flaunders / whiche had be maried almost fyfty yere / and neuer had childe / and after that her husbaÌ„de was deed / maryed vnto another man / layeng only for her cause / to proue whether the faute was in her selfe or in her husbande / that she had no chyldren Wherfore she was worthy to beare a chylde with great payne and werynes and in her laboure to be delyuered of her chylde and her lyfe both / with extreme tourment Howe be it I can nat tell / whether she had any other cause to marye agayne / at the least wyse she layde that / whiche semed moste honest in the cares of the folisshe people ParaueÌ„ture thou woldest fayne se children comen of thyne owne body shall they be of any other fassyon trowest thou / than other chyldren be and thou haste chyldren of the cite / and also all other ChristeÌ„ chyldren / whom thou mayst beare motherly affection vnto And thynke that they be all thyn For so the lawe of mankynde doth exorte the / and our faithe commauÌ„deth Wher to haue you so great a delyre of chyldren you women For if the cares and sorowes / that chyldren cause vnto theyr mothers / were paynted you in a table / there is none of you so gredy of children / but she wolde be as sore aferde of them as of deth and she that hath any / wolde hate them lyke cruell wylde beast is / or venymous serpentes What ioye / or what pleasure can be in children Whyles they be yonge / there is nothing but tediousnes and whan they be elder / perpetuall feare / what wayes they wyl take if they be il / euerlastyng sorowe and if they be good / there is ê‘petuall care / lest they shulde dye / or some harme bechaunce them and lest they shulde go away / or be chanÌ„ged What nede me to brynge in Ortauia / syster vnto Augustus / for an example I wolde there were nat so many examples / as there be / of suche as haue be made of welthy fortunate mothers myserable / and pyned away / and died for sorowe More ouer / if thou haue many / than haste thou greatter care / where the vnthriftynes of one shall wype away all the ioye that thou hast of the reste And this I meane by the sonnes Nowe to speake of the doughters / what a tourment of care is hit to kepe them And in maryeng them / what payne shall she haue besyde this / the fewe fathers and mothers seeth good chyldren of theyr owne For very goodnes whiche is neuer without wysedome / cometh nat but in discreate age Plato calleth hym happy / that may attayne in his last age vnto wysedome and good lyfe But whan the children be of that age / fathers and mothers be tourned to douste O vnkynde woman / that doste nat reknowledge howe great a benyfite thou haste had of god / that either neuer dyd beare children / orels loste them before the tyme of sorowe Wherfore Euripides sayd full well She that lacketh children Is happy of that mysfortune Therfore thou that bearest nat / put nat the faute of thy barennes in thy husbande for the faute is parauenture in thy selfe whiche arte comdempned to be baren / either by nature or by the wyll of god And greattest philosophers agre in this opinyon / that women beare no children more longe of them selfe than of theyr husbandes For nature neuer broughte forthe but very fewe baren men / and many women And that vpon great consyderation / bicause there is more losse in the barennes of the man / than of the woman For there cometh more increase in generation by the man / than by the woman Wherfore woman / if the barennes be in the / thou dotest vngraciously in vayne for ther shall neuer man get the with chylde And so thou conceiuest many vngratious dedes in thy mynde but thou shalte neuer conceyue any frute in thy wombe And many tymes by the ryghtous prouision of god / vnknowen vnto vs / there commeth none issue in mariage For lyke as hit is the gyfre of god / that good children be hade / so is it his gyfte / that any children be had at all Therfore to seke any other remedy than by prayer / is nat only super fluous / but also a cursed dede Therfore aske childreÌ„ of god / that good childreÌ„ For if thou haue an ill chylde / hit were better beare a snake / or a wolfe Therfore aske thou a chylde as Anna / wyfe vnto Helcane / dyd aske Whiche by prayer / wepyÌ„g / and holy lyuyng optayned a sonne / a prophet and iuge of Israell / called Samuell lyke as the other Anne / wyfe vnto Ioachim / whiche trustyng holly in god / bare Mary the quene of the worlde / vnto maÌ„nes saluatioÌ„ Also Elisabeth / wyfe vnto zacharie / whiche had ben baren / brought forth saint IohnÌ„ / the messynger of our lorde Whiche gatte many a childe vnto Christ aboue the whiche saynt Iohan there was neuer man borne of woman
Our lorde gaue Isaac the image of Christe / the begynner of .ij. great nations of people / vnto Sara in her olde age whiche was nat discontent with her barrennes / in that tyme / whan barrennes was rekened a great shame The angell of our lorde shewed vnto the wyfe of Manna / a good and a chast womā / that Sampson shulde be borne of her / the iudge and delyuerer of Israell Suche children do they optayne / that so aske For they that be conceyued of synne and wickednes / can be naught elles / but vngratiousnes The wordes of the angell vnto Sampsons mother be these Thou art baren and without children howe be it thou shalte conceyue beare a sonne Therfore se thou drynke neyther wyne nor ale / nor eate any vnpure thȳg For thou shalte conceyue and beare a sonne / whose heed no razec shall touche for he shal be blessed of god from his babes age / from the wombe of his mother and shall begynne to delyuer Israell out of the hādes of the philystyns These wordes put me in remembraunce nowe / to gyue women with chylde warnyng / that so longe as they be great / they neither eate so moche to take surfet of / nor drynke to be drounke with For many chyldren haue afterwardes vsed the same thynges / that theyr mothers delited in / whā they were with chylde with them Nowe for to declare / what diligence oughte to be gyuen to chyldren in the bryngynge vp of them / were to longe to be comprehended in this boke / if I shulde teache euery thȳg at large Wherof many counnyng men / both of olde tyme late / haue writē moche in bokes made purposely for the same matter I wyll touche a fewe thȳges / the methȳke pertayne vnto the duetie of a wyse house wyfe Fyrste of all / let the mother reken her childrē to be all her treasure There came vpon a tyme a great ryche woman vnto Rome / out of the countrey of Campanya / whiche was hosted and lodged with the noble womā Cornelia / wyfe of Gracchus ther this ryche woman shewed out her great treasure vnto Cornelia / abundaunde of syluer and golde / ryche raymentes / and precious stones Whiche whan Cornelia had preysed / than desired this woman of Campany / that she wolde do so moche agayne / as shewe her treasure Cornelia answered / that she wolde do so at nyght Nowe were her children gone to schole / and were nat yet comen home So at nyght / whā the chyldren were comē home / she shewed them vnto this womā / and sayd these be my chiefe treasure Another tyme a certayne woman of Ionia / made great boste and shewe of glorious clothes / of great price and goodly worke / Cornelia sayd this woman maketh great bost of her clothes / but my foure sonnes indued with all kynde of vertue / be vnto me in steade of precious clothes / with costly worke / and all treasure Therfore in kepyng of this treasure / and increasyng it / there is no labour to be refused Loue shall make all labour lyght and easye Wherfore she shall nourisshe them with her owne mylke and obey the cōmaundement of nature / whiche gyuyng .ij. breastis with mylke / vnto euery woman delyuered of childe / semeth to crye and byd euery woman / that hath borne childe / to kepe childe as other lyuynge creatures do Also that wyse and lyberall mother of all thyng / Nature hath tourned all that blode / whiche wente vnto the nourisshement of the childe / whyle hit was in the mothers wombe / after that the chylde is borne / she sendeth hit vppe vnto the breastis / tourned into whyte mylke / to nourisshe the childe with all neither forsaketh the tēder babe / after that it is borne / but nourissheth hit with the same fode / where of she hath made hit But I haue spoken inough of this matter in the boke afore After wardes / if the mother can skyll of lernyng / let her teache her litle children her selfe / that they maye haue all one / bothe for theyr mother / theyr nouryse / and theyr teacher And that they may loue her also the more / and lerne with better corage / and more spede / by the meanes of the loue / that theyr teacher hath towarde them As for her daughters / she shall besyde the lernyng of the boke / instructe them also with womennes craftes as to handle wolle flexe / to spynne / to weaue / to sowe / to rule and ouer se an house Neyther a vertuous mother ought to refuse lernynge on the boke / but nowe and than studye and rede holy and wyse mēnes bokes and though she do it nat for her owne sake / at the least wyse for her childrē / that she may teache them / and make them good As Euridice / whan she was of great age / sette her selfe vnto lernynge / and study of philosophy / onely to th entent / that she myght teache her children and so she did For the babe fyrste hereth her mother / and fyrste begynneth to enforme her speche after hers For that age can do nothyng it selfe / but coūterfet and folowe other and is counnyng in this thing only She taketh her fyrst conditions and information of mynde / by suche as she hereth / or seeth by her mother Therfore it lyeth more in the mother / thā meu wene / to make the conditions of the children For she maye make them whether she wyll / very good / or very badde Nowe howe she shall make them good / I wyll gyue a fewe shorte rules Let her gyue her diligence / at least wise by cause of her children / that she vse no rude and blounte speche / lest that maner of spekyng take suche route in the tender myndes of the children / and so growe increase together with theyr age / that they can nat forget it Children wyll lerne no speche better / nor more plaȳly expresse / thā they will their mothers For they wyll counterfete both the vertue and the vice / if any be in it Iames / the kyng of Aragone / after that he had wonne my countre Valence / out of the handes of the Agarenes / whiche inhabited the citie that tyme / he droue out the people / and commaunded men of Aragon / and womē of Ilerda to go dwell in hit So the children that came of them bothe / with all theyr posterite / kepte theyr mothers language whiche we speke there vnto this daye For the space of more than .ij. hundred and .l. yere Tyberius Gracchus / Gayus Gracchus / were coūted the most eloquent mē of Rome / and they lerned it of their mother Cornelia / whose epistols were red in the olde worlde / full of pure eloquence Istrina the quene of Scythia / wyfe vnto kyng Aripithis / taught her son Syles the greke tonge Also Plato commandeth / that nurces
were a shame rebuke to please but sad men / chaste maydes / vertuous wyues / wyse wydowes / and fynallye all that are true christen people / nat onely in name but also in dede and with their hertes / wyll stande on our partie / whiche knowe and agree all in this / that nothynge can be more mylde and gentyll thā the preceptes of our fayth From the whiche Christe graūt vs neuer to declyne our mynde and pourpose one heares brede I haue put in remembrāce of theyr duete the good and holye women but sleyghtly / other nowe and than I take vp sharpely bycause I sawe that only techyng auayleth but a lytel / vnto those that strugle with the leader / and muste be drawen Therfore haue I spoken sometyme the more playnly that they myght se the filthynes of theyr condicions / as hit were paynted in a table / to thintēt that they shulde be ashamed / and at last leaue theyr shamefull dedes And also that good womē shuld be gladder to se them selfe out of those vices / and labour more to be furder from them / to entre in to the abitacle of vertue For I had leauer as saint Hieronyme counsayleth / auēture my shamefastnes a lytell whyle / than ieoperde my matter so yet that I wolde nat fall in to any vnclenlynes whiche were the greattest shame that can be / for hym that shulde be a maister of chastite wherfore often tymes the reder must vnderstāde more in sētence thā I speke in wordes And this worke most excellent and gratious quene / I offre vnto you in lyke maner as if a peynter wolde bringe vnto you your owne visage and image / mooste counnyngly peynted For like as in that purtrature you might se your bodilye simylitude so in these bokes shall you se the resemblaūce of your mynde goodnes bycause that you haue bene bothe mayde / wyfe / and wydowe / and wyfe agayne as I praye god you maye longe contynue and so you haue handled your selfe in all thordre and course of your lyfe that what so euer you dyd myght be an example vnto other to lyue after But you had leauer the vertues to be preysed than your selfe howe be hit no man canne preyse the vertues of women / but he must nedes cōprehende you in the same preyse howe be it your mynde ought to be obeyed Therfore you shall vnderstande / that many lyke vnto you be preysed here / by name expressely but your selfe spoken of continually / though you be nat named For vertues can neuer be preysed / but they muste nedes be preysed with all / that be excellent in them / thoughe theyr name be nat spoken of Also your dereste daughter Mary shall rede these instructions of myne / and folowe in lyuyng / whiche she muste nedes do if she ordre her selfe after thexāple that she hath at home with her of your vertue and wysedome Nor there is no doubt / but she wyll do after them / and excepte she alone of all other / dysapoynt and begyle euerye mannes opinion / she muste nedes be bothe very good and holy / that is comme of you and noble kyng Henry the viij suche a couple of mates that your honour vertue passe all craftes of preysynge Therfore all other women shall haue an example of your lyfe and dedes and by these bokes that I haue dedicated vnto your name / theys shall haue rules and preceptes to lyue by and so shall they be bounden vnto your goodnes / bothe for that / whiche it selfe hath done in gyuyng example and that hit hath ben thoccasion of my wrytyng And so I pray god gyue your good grace longe well to fare At Bruges the yere of our lorde M.D. and .xxiij. the v. day of Aprile The fyrste boke of the instruction of a Christen woman Of the bryngyng vp of the mayde Whā she is a babe The fyrste chaptre FAbius Quintilian in his boke where he doth instructe teache an oratour / wylleth his begynnyng and entrance to be taken from the cradell / and no time to be slacked vnapplied to warde th ende and purpose of the faculte entended Nowe moche more dylygence ought to be gyuen in a Christen virgine / that we may bothe enfourme her encreace and ordre it and her instruction and entrynge / and that by and by from the mylke whiche I wolde / if hit were possible / shulde be the mothers And the same counsaile gyueth Plutarche and Phauorine / and many other of the wysest and greattest philosophers For by that meanes the loue shall be the more betwene the mother and the daughter / whan none of the mothers name shall be taken from her and put vnto any other For nurces be wonte also to be called mothers And the mother maye more truely reken her daughter her owne / whom she hath nat onely borne in her wombe and brought in to the worlde / but also hath caried styll in her armes of a babe / vnto whom she hath gyuen tete / whom she hath nourisshed with her owne blod / whose slepes she hath cherisshed in her lappe / and hath cherfully accepted and kyssed the fyrst laughes / and fyrst hath ioyfully herde the stameryng of hit / couerynge to speke / and hath holden harde to her brest / prayenge hit good lucke and fortune These thynges shall cause and ingendre suche reuerent inwarde loue in the daughter toward the mother agayne / that she shall be far more loued set by of her doughter / bycause of the loue that she hath so abundantly conceyued towarde her in grene and tender age Who can nowe expresse / what charite these thynges encreace amonge folke / whan wylde beastes that haue no knowlege nor parceiuyng what loue meaneth / yet loue theyr noryshers and bryngers vp / nor shon the daungers of dethe to defende and saue them More ouer I wot nat howe / but so hit is / that we sowke out of our mothers teate to gether with the mylke nat only loue but also condicions and dispositions And that is the cause sayth the philosopher Phauorine / that maketh men to maruayle why they se many children / commen of chaste and good women / nothynge lyke theyr parentes / neither in mynde nor body nor the comen sayeng come vp of nought / whiche is nat vnknowen nat vnto children They that haue bene nurced with sowes milke haue rolled in the myer For that cause the wise mā Chrysippus bad chose the wyseste and beste nurces Whiche precepte I my selfe wyll ensue and coūsaile the mothers / that may nat norisshe their children with their owne mylke / to do likewyse Neyther I wyl so great diligēce to be gyuē in sekyng a nurce for a boy as for a maide Quintilian thought it sufficiēt to cōmaunde that the nurces shulde nat be foule and rude spoken / by cause the wayes and maner of speakyng taken in youth / wolde be harde to gette away As for
suche a noble mayster and Catharine of Alexandria / doughter vnto Costus / whiche ouer came in disputatiōs the greattest most exercised philosophers There was one of the same name Catharine Senēsis a woūdrous coūnynge mayde whiche hath lefte behynde her exāples of her witte in the whiche doth appere the purenes of her moste holy mynde Nor we nede nat to enuy the pagās for theyr poetis whiche haue in one house foure maydes all poetis / the doughters of Philippe And in saynt Hieronymes tyme all holye women were very wel lerned Wolde god that nowe a dayes / many olde mē were able to be cōpared vnto them in counnynge Saynt Hieronyme wryteth vnto Paula / Leta / Eustachiū / Fabiola / Marcella / Furia / Demetrias / Salma / and Hierontia Saynt Ambrose vnto other Saynt Augustyne vnto other and all maruelous wytted / well lerned / and holy Valeria Proba / whiche loued her husbande singularly well / made the lyfe of our lorde Christe out of Virgils verses Wryters of cronicles saye / that Theodosia / doughter vnto Theodosius the yonger / was as noble by her lernyng and vertue / as by her Empire the makynges that be taken out of Homer named centones be called hers I haue red epistoles counnyng workes of Hildegarde / a mayde of Almayne There hath bene sene in our tyme that foure daughters of quene Isabell / of whō I spake a lytell before / that were well lerned all It is tolde me with great preyse and maruayle in many places of this coūtre / that dame Ioanne / the wyfe of kynge Philippe / mother vnto Carolus / that nowe is / was wont to make answere in latyn / and that without any studie / vnto the orations that were made after the custome in townes / vnto newe princes And lyke wyse the Englisshemen say by their quene / sister vnto the said dame Ioanne The same sayth euery body by the other .ij. sisters / whiche be deed in Portugale The whiche .iiij. systers there were no quenes by anye mannes remembraunce more chast of bodye thanne they none of better name / none better loued of theyr subiectes / nor more fauored nor better loued theyr husbandes none that more lawelye dyd obeye them / nor that kepte bothe them and all theyrs better without spotte of vilanye there were none that more hated fylthynes wātonnes none that euer dyd more perfetly fulfyll all the pōytes of a good womā Nowe if a mā may be suffered amonge quenes to speke of more meane folkes / I wolde rekē amōge this sorte the daughters of S. T. M. Kn. M. E. and C. and with them theyr kyns womā M. G whom theyr father nat content only to haue them good and very chast / wolde also they shulde be wel lerned supposyng that by that meane they shulde be more truely and surely chaste Wherin neyther that great wyse man is disceyued / nor none other that are of the same opinion For the studye of lernyng is suche a thyng / the it occupieth ones mynde holly / and lyfteth it vp vnto the knowlege of moste goodly matters and plucketh it from the remembraunce of suche thynges as be foule And if any suche thought come in to theyr mynde / eyther the mynde / well fortified with the preceptes of good lyuynge / auoydeth them awaye / orels hit gyueth none hede vnto those thynges / that be vyle and foule whan it hath other moost goodly and pure pleasure / where with hit is delyted And therfore I suppose that Pallas the goddes of wysedome coūnynge / and all the Muses / were feyned in olde tyme to be virgins And the mynde / set vpon lernynge and wysedome / shall nat only abhorre from foule lust / that is to saye / the moste white thynge from soute / and the most pure from spottes But also they shall leaue all suche lyght and tryflynge pleasures / wherin the lyght fantasies of maydes haue delyte / as songes daunces / and suche other wanton peuysshe playes A woman sayth Plutarche / gyuen vnto lernyng / wyll neuer delyte in daunsynge But here parauenture a man wolde aske / what lernynge a woman shulde be set vnto / and what shall she studie I haue tolde you / The study of wysedome the whiche dothe enstruct their maners / and enfurme theyr lyuyng / and teacheth them the waye of good and holye lyfe As for eloquence I haue no great care / nor a woman nedeth it nat but she nedeth goodnes wysedome Nor it is no shame for a woman to holde her peace but it is shame for her and abomynable to lacke discretion / and to lyue ill Nor I wyll nat here condēpne eloquēce / whiche bothe Quintilian / saynt Hieronyme folowȳg hym say / was preysed in Cornelia the mother of Gracchus / in Hortentia the daughter of Hortentius If there may be founde any holy and well lerned woman / I had leauer haue her to teache them if there be none / let vs chose some man either well aged / orels very good and vertuous / whiche hath a wyfe / and that ryghte fayre ynough / whom he loueth well and so shall he nat desyre other For these thynges oughte to be seen vnto / for as moche as chastite in bryngynge vp a woman requireth the most diligence / and in a maner all together Whan she shal be taught to rede / let those bokes be taken in hande / that may teche good maners And whan she shall lerne to wryte / let nat her example be voyde verses / nor wanton or tryflynge songes but some sad sentence / prudēt and chaste / taken out of holy scripture / or the sayenges of philosophers whiche by often wrytyng she maye fasten better in her memory And in lernyng / as I poynt none ende to the man / no more I do to the woman sauyng it is mete that the man haue knowlege of many dyuerse thynges / that may both profite hym selfe and the cōmon welthe / bothe with the vse and increasynge of lernynge But I wolde the woman shulde be all together in that parte of philosophy / that taketh vpon hit to enfourme / and teache and amende the conditiōs Finally set her lerne for her selfe alone her yonge childrē or her sisters in our lorde For it neither becometh a womā to rule a schole / nor to lyue amōge men / or speke abrode shake of her demurenes honestie / eyther all to gether orels a great parte whiche if she be good / it were better to be at home within / and vnknowē to other folkes And in company to holde her tonge demurely And let fewe se her / and none at all here her Thapostle Paule the vessel of election / enfurmyng teachyng the churche of the Corinthis with holy preceptes / saythe Let your women holde theyr tonges in congregations nor they be nat allowed to speake but to be subiecte as the lawe biddeth If they
bretherne that thought their syster had ben a maydeÌ„ / whan they same her great with chylde / they dissembled theyr anger so longe as she was with chylde but as soone as she was delyuered of her chylde they throuste swordes into her bealye / and slewe her / the myddewyfe lokynge on In the same parte of Spayne / whan I was a chylde / thre maydens with a longe towell / strangled a maydeÌ„ that was one of theyr companyons / whan they toke her in the abominable dede Histories be full of exaÌ„ples / and dayly ye se neither hit is maruaile that these be done of fathers and frendes / and that the affection of loue and charite is tourned so sodaynely in to hate whan the women taken with the abomynable cruell loue / all loue caste quite out of theyr harte / hate theyr fathers and mothers / bretherne and children nat only theyr frendes and aquayntance And this I wolde nat that onely maydens shulde thynke spoken vnto them / but also maryed womeÌ„ and wydowes / fynally all women Nowe let the woman turne to her selfe consydre her owne vngratiousnes / she shall feare abhorre her selfe nor take reste day nor nyght but euer vexed with the scourge of her owne conscience / and bourned as hotte fyre brondes shall neuer loke stedfastlye vpon any body / but she shall be in feare / leste they knowe some what of her lewednes that than no body shall speake softely / but she shall thynke they speake of her vnthryftynes She shall neuer here talkyng of noughty women / but she shall thynke hit spoken bicause of her Nor she shall neuer here name of corruptyon spoken by any other / but she shall thynke hit mente by her / or of her selfe Nor no body shall stoure priuely in the house / but she shal feare / lest her vngratiousnes be opened / and that she shall be punysshed streyght What realme woldest thou bye with suche perpetual vexation Whiche many a man supposeth to be none other payne in hell The same payne haue wycked men / but women farre sorer / bycause theyr offences be rekened fouler / they be more timorus of nature And doutles / if hit be well consydred / women be worthy these punisshmentes / and moche worse / that kepe nat theyr honestie diligently For as for a maÌ„ nedeth many thynges / as wysedome / eloquence / knowlege of thynges / with remembraunce / some crafte to lyue bye / Iustice / Leberalite / lustye stomake / and other thynges moo / that were to longe to reherce And though some of these do lacke / hit is nat to be disliked / so that many of them be had / but in a womaÌ„ no maÌ„ wyll loke for eloqueÌ„ce / great witte / or prudence / or crafte to lyue by / or ordryng of the commen weale / or iustice / or liberalite Finally no man will loke for any other thing of a woman / but her honestye the whiche onely / if hit be lacked / is lyke as in a maÌ„ / if he lacke al that he shulde haue For in a womaÌ„ the honestie is in stede of all Hit is an euyll keper / that can nat kepe one thyng well / commytted to her kepyng / and put in truste to her with moche commendation of wordes and specially whiche no maÌ„ wil take from her agaynst her wyll / nor touche hit / excepte she be wyllynge her selfe The whiche thyng onely / if a woman remembre / hit shall cause her to take better hede / to be a more ware keper of her goodnes whiche alone / thoughe all other thynges be neuer so well in saftye / so loste / all other thynges perysshe to gether there with What can be safe to a womaÌ„ saith Lucrecia / whan her honestie is gone And yet had she a chast mynde in a corrupt body Therfore as Quintilian saythe / she thrist a sworde in to her body / and auenged the coÌ„pulsyon / that the pure mynde myght be seperated froÌ„ the defyled body / as shortly as coude be But I saye nat this bycause other shulde folowe the dede / but the mynde By cause she that hath ones lost her honestie / shulde thynke there is nothynge lefte Take from a woman her beautie / take from her kynrede / ryches / comelynes / eloquence / sharpenes of wytte / counnynge in her crafte / gyue her chastite / and thou haste gyuen her all thynges And on that other syde / gyue her all these thynges / and calle her a noughtye packe / with that one worde thou haste taken all from her and hast lefte her bare and foule There be also other thyÌ„ges / both in the body and minde / that helpe a woman vnto the kepynge of her honestie wherof I wyll speake nowe Of the ordryng of the body in a virgin The .viij. Chaptre THough hit were nat for this pourpose to speke of the body / nat withstaÌ„dyng for as moche as some thynges that be in the mynde come of the reason and complection of the bodye Therfore must we speke some thyng of the ordryng of the body of a virgin Fyrst of all me thyÌ„ke that it is to be tolde theyr father mother / as Aristotel dothe bydde in his historie of beastes / that is that they kepe theyr doughters / speciallye whan they begynne to growe from chyldes state / and holde them from mennes company For that tyme they be gyuen vnto most lust of the body Also the maydens shulde kepe them selfe / both at all other / and at the tyme specially / from either herynge or seyng / or yet thinkyng any foule thing / whiche thing she shall labour to do Neuer the lesse at other tymes two / vnto the tyme that they be maryed / moche fastynge shall be good / whiche dothe nat feble the bodye / but brydell hit / and presse hit downe / and quenche the heate of youthe For these be only the very and holye fastes Let theyr meate be meane and easy to gette / neither hotte of hitselfe / nor spised with spices / nor delycate And they oughte to remembre / that our fyrste mother for meate was cast out of paradise And many yonge womeÌ„ that had ben vsed to delycate meates / whan they had nat them at home / haue gone forth froÌ„ home ieoê‘ded their honestie Let their drinke be the drynke prepared of nature / that is clene water Valerius Maximus sayth / that wyne was vnknowen vnto women of Rome in olde tyme / leste they shulde fall in any shame For bycause it was wonte to be the nexte waye from Bacchus the father of intemperance vnto Venus vnlefull But if theyr stomake will nat beare water / gyue them some ale / or bere / or small wyne / as shall be sufficient to digest theyr meate / and nat enflame theyr bodies Nor that is nat only good for theyr maners and rankenes of the bodye / wantonnes / to kepe them
vnder / but also shall kepe better theyr helthe I haue redde in an epistole of saint Hieronyme vnto Furia in this maner Phisitians and suche as wryte the natures of meÌ„nes bodies / and specially Galene in the boke of Helthe saythe / that the bodyes of chyldren and yonge men / and those that be in lustie age / bothe men and women / be very hotte of naturall heate and that all meates that encrease heate / be verye noysome for them and that it is good for them to vse all colde thyng in meates and drynkes As in contrary wyse vnto olde men / and suche as be full of fleme and colde / hotte meates and olde wyne be best Wherfore our sauiour sayth Take you hede to your selfe that your hertes be nat ouer commen with surfet and dronkennes / and the cares of this lyfe And the apostle saythe wyne / in whom is lecherye Neither hit is wonder that he that made the vessell dyd perceyue this by the vessell / that he made Where Terence / whose intente was to discribe and shewe the conditions of the worlde / sayd thus without meate and drynke corage waxeth colde Therfore fyrste if theyr stomake be stronge inough / take water in thy wyne or drynke / vntyll thy maydes yeres be past and suche water as is mooste colde And if thou mayste nat for feblenes / myngle it as Timotheus dyd / with a lytell wyne for thy stomacke and wekenes Than in meate eschewe all hote thyng I speke nat onely of flesshe / where of the vessel of election saint Paule speketh this senteÌ„ce / sayeng Hit is good to eate no flesshe nor drinke no wyne but also of pulse / all those that be full of wynde heuye shulde be eschewed And a lytell before what nedeth hit vs for to boste our chastite / whiche without hit haue all besyde that apperteyneth / as abstineÌ„ce small fare / it can nat brynge proffe of hit selfe The apostle werieth his body / and subdueth hit vnto the coÌ„mandement of the mynde / lest he shulde nat kepe that hym selfe / which he byddeth other to do Than howe can a yoÌ„ge woman / that hath a body hotte with meate be sure of her selfe Nor I coÌ„deÌ„pne nat with these wordes meates that god hath ordeyned to vse with surrendryng of thankes But I take from yonge men / and maydens the kendlyng of lust For neither the burnynge Etna / nor the countre of Vulcane / nor Veseuus / nor yet OlyÌ„pus boyleth with suche heate as the bodies of yoÌ„ge folkes enflamed with wyne delycate meates / done All this haue I brought in of saynt Hieronyme / that you myght knowe what thynges that maister of chastite dyd teache whiche writyÌ„g vnto Saluina / had leauer ieoparde the helth of the body thaÌ„ the soule / sayeng Hit is better that the stomake ake / than the mynde / and to rule the body than to do hit seruyce / stagger in goyng than in chastite The most holy man Gregorius Nazanzenus / that was saynt Hieronymis maister / wolde that his mayde shuld alay her hunger with bred / quenche her thyrst with water Hilarius the heremite / whan he lyued in wyldernes with small foode / scantly preseruyng the lyfe / and yet felte hym selfe dyuers tymes pryckedde with the bodily luste / he weried his body with fastynge / sayeng I shall tame the concupiscence / to make the thynke vpon thy meate / and nat vpon thy pleasure And this say the disciples of Christ / the felowes of saynt Paule / beyng gyueÌ„ vnto sobre and chaste religion As who knewe / that the noryshementes of holy men sente by the grace of god / were but symple and small to coÌ„tent nature / without any pleasures Helise norisshed hym selfe and the chyldren of the prophetes with wylde herbes / he byddeth / make swete the bytter meate with flower / and nat with suger And he coÌ„manded the soudiours in Samaria / of whom he had put out the eies / to be fedde with bredde and water IohnÌ„ the Baptist / that was chosen the shewer of Christe and the lyght to come / was fed in deserte with grashops and wyld hony Habacuch caryed the meate of the reapers vnto Daniell in Babylon / whiche was brede baken vnder the asshes / and a cuppe of water was sente vnto Helie from heuen to refreshe hym with and yet might god haue sente from heuen partryges / and phesauntes / and capons / and marche payns / as well as breade but holy folkes nede norishemeÌ„t to holde the soule in the body / and nat to drowne hit with What say philosophers / the maisters of worldly wisedome / al speke of meate that is easy to gette / to kepe the mynde sobre and the body chaste Socrates the father of Philosophie dyd get by sobre dyet / that he was neuer infected with any sore or ieoê‘dous sicknes Also Cornelius Tacitus wryteth / that Senec the philosopher in all his ryches fedde hym selfe with frute water therfore his body was brought so lowe / that whaÌ„ his veynes were opened / there wolde almost no blode reÌ„ne out Howe trow you that Xenocrates lyued / whiche whan his scholers had layde hym a goodly queen in his bedde / and was moche ê“uoked of her vnto luste / yet he was nat moued Plato in his lawes forbyddeth yonge men wyne Cicero in his officis wolde haue all the lyuing and arraye of the bodye / to be taken to the helthe and strength / and nat for pleasure And he sayth also / if we wolde coÌ„sydre what excellence and dignite is in the nature of man / we shulde vnderstaÌ„de / howe great shame hit is to waste hit awaye riottouslye / and to leade the lyfe delycately deliciously and howe honest it is to lyue chastely / sobrely / sadly / measurably This sayth Cicero Also Duidius / gyuynge remedy of loue / byddeth them that shall lyue chastely also to lyue temperately / and eschew suche meate as moueth the body to luste / and wynes specially / and to brynge suche to the table as refrayne the luste of the bodye Whan I speake of hotte meates / I wold be vnderstande in suche exercises also / that heate the body / and of oyntmentes / spices / talkyng and also syght of men For all these be hurtfull vnto the chastite for they fire the mynde with fylthy and ieoperdous heate Nor let nat your bed be very softe / but clene the whiche thyng also is to be regarded in clothes / that they be nat ouer delicate / but without fylthe and without spotte and lyghtly the mynde reioyseth in the clenlynes of the body And agayne / a deynty and a delycate mynde deliteth in sylkes and costely clothes and what so euer is nat suche / hit counteth harde and greuous Gregorius Nazanzenus forbyddeth maydes to weare golde and perle What a foly is it / to wene that these wordes of our sauiour Christe Ecce qui
cryme of adulterye with silence / and nat with wordes Nowe let vs here saint Ambrose The holy womā Susā helde her peace / and ouer came her enemies for she desended nat her selfe with resonynge of wordes / nor with speche of any atturney / but the holy woman her selfe holdyng her tonge / her chastite spake for her Also in the boke of virgins he saythe on this wyse I had leauer a mayde shulde loue to lytle talke than to moche For if women be commaunded to holde theyr peace of holy matters in the churche / and aske theyr husbandes at home / what shuld maydes do / suppose you / that while / in whom shamefastnes garnysheth theyr age / and stylnes cōmendeth theyr shamefastnes Nor she shall nat onely amonge men behaue her selfe so / but also amonge women / moderate and litel speche shall becōme her / and nat shrylle / nor presumptuous / or signe of a mans stomacke / nor ioyned with othes whiche thynge whan hit is vncomely in men / hit must nedes be in women abomynable nor vse her voyce to be feate and nyce / nor set her countenance to cruelte and frownynge / nor ouer sad and sorowfull / or disdaynyshly / nor dyuersely / nor full of plesance / or ouer cherefull / or vnstable / or wandryng / or dissolute / shewyng tokens of a mynde there vnto accordyng Some be so shutle mynded / that amonge theyr companyons they babble out all at large / both theyr owne matters and other folkes / nor haue no regarde what they say / but what so euer cometh on theyr tounges ende and therof cometh a fārasye to lye whan they lacke trouth and hereof ryseth the fable by them / that of one rauyn made an hundred / and of one man slayne / a thousande / and of a meane dogge / one more thā an Elyphant of ynde in so moche that nowe no man can fynde wordes to reprehende that inordinate shamfull thyng with al accordyngly Euery body taketh the matter with myrth and sporte / who so can tell a thynge the moste shamfull / some babble bycause they thynke theyr selfe they can no good / without they talke / or elles that they be nat halfe frendely without they pratle out all secretes they can vnto other / though hit be ryght ieoperdous Wherfore many wyse men toke occasion of that / to gyue preceptes / that men shulde neuer commytte theyr counsaile vnto women / neither to his syster / his mother / nor his wyfe / but this is but a vice of some / and nat of the holle kynde as hath appered by example of dyuerse / as that woman of Pythagoras schole and secte / that byt of her owne tonge and spytte out in the face of the tyrant / that dyd turment her / leste she shulde be cōpelled of necessite to telle that she wolde nat I lette passe here the women of Mylete / whiche kepte theyr husbandes counsaile at Massyle many a day / so longe as was necessarye Tacitus writeth / that Epicaris bycause she was of counsayle of the treason that Piso wente about / was commaunded to be haled with turmētes / to cause her for to shewe The fyrst day she was attasted with beatynge and fyre / and that the more greuously / bycause the turmētours were angrye / that a woman shulde set them at so lyghte yet for all that she was nat ones moued / nor wolde nat confesse that she knewe any thynge The nexte daye she was broughte vnto the same paynes agayne / and was caryed vp in a chayre / bicause her bones were so haled in sunder / that she coude nat stande / and there she toke a towell / that was tyed about her breast / and fastened hit to the toppe of the chayre in maner of a snare / and putte in her necke / and there hanged by hit with all the weight of her body / and wronge out that lytle lyfe that she had We rede in the histories of the Athenienses / that the concubyne of Aristogiton / whiche banysshed Pisistrotes children / called Leena by name / whan she was haled vpon tourments / to shewe where her louer was / she suffred al thing styll and paciently If that harlottes and noughty women dyd thus / what shulde we suppose good women wolde do Let nat the mayde be ouer busye in a nother bodies house / neither riffle vp and serche euerye corner nor desyre to haue or knowe more than folkes wyll shewe of theyr owne good wyll Nor lette her nat skolde and chyde forthe abrode / neither for small matters / nor thoughe hit were for great possessiōs hit is better to abyde the losse of her goodes / than of her good name / honestie / and her shamfastnes / whiche thynges she ought to haue moste in price As for feastis / great dyners / and bankettes / I wote nat what preceptes to gyue christen folkes concernynge them / in the custome the nowe is worse thā amōge pagans in so moche that he shal be rekened madde / that wyll nat suffre hym selfe to be taken and drawen with thuse of the worlde / but wyl withstāde suche multitude of people hym selfe alone / or els with verye fewe moo Therfore let the woman gyue an eare vnto the pagane Ouide / bycause she wyll nat regard a christēmās wordes For he in geuȳg those vnthrifty rules of louyng / speketh of these cōmen resortynges vnto playes feastis in this maner They come to se / and eke for to be sene / Full moche chastite quayled there hath bene Iuuenall the poet / in his boke called Satyrs sayth / that no wyues / that lyst content and please sad and honeste men / wyll be founde or sene at comen playes / daunsynges / or other great resorte of people Ouid sayth / that feastis and bankettes be the instrumentes and armour of Venus and Cupide And to say good sothe / what garde of chastite can there be / where the mayde is desyred with so many eies / wher so many faces loketh vpō her / and agayne she vpon so many She muste nedes fyre some / and her selfe also be fyred agayne / and she be nat a stone More ouer there is layde great nourysshement vnto that heate / by the reason of meate and drynke of the feaste / and talkyng / towchynge / gropyng / and pluckyng / and many other wanton poyntes / wher vnto that vnbriddled Bacchus gyueth libertie and boldnes What mynde can be pure and holle amonge all this geare / and nat spotted with any thought of luste The folysshe people weneth a yonge woman doth no synne / excepte she lye with a mā in dede Than thou that arte christened by the gospell of Christe / howe doeste thou here or rede the wordes of Christe in the gospell / where he sayth Thou shalte gyue a coūte in the day of iudgement for euery idell worde that thou spekest Nowe than amonge yōge men and yonge womē
/ in resortynges drynkynges / howe many wordes fly to and fro / nat only idle / but also ieoperdous And also where he saythe Who so loketh vpon an other mannes wyfe / and desyreth to haue her / he hath cōmitted adultery all redy with her in his harte suppose you nat / that this was ment as well by the woman / beholdynge a man And to be briefe / thou arte nat christened / nor spyrituall / but a pagane and carnall / if thou dost nat beleue that thou hast a sprynge of vngratiousnes with in the And that hit forceth nat / what the mynde be / but the bodye I dare be bolde to saye / that fewe yonge womē / after they begyn to waxe towarde womās state / come from feastis / and bākettes / and resorte of men with safe myndes But some be taken with eloquence / some with delyueraunce of body / some with one propretie / and some with other whiche a yonge woman shall fynde in a great multitude of men / set lyke nettes And hit is an harde thynge to scape vncaught with those thynges / wher vnto she is some thyng inclined all redy Howe moche were hit better nat to loue this ieoperdy / than to perisshe in hit / as the wyse man sayth Verely my mȳde is / and I trowe Christis too / that maydes shulde be kepte at home / and nat go abrode / excepte hit be to here masse / and that well couered / leste they either gyue or take occasyon of snarynge A christen mayde oughte to haue nothynge a do with weddyng feastis / bankettes / and resortynges of men Fynally / what myn opinion is / concernyng yonge womē / you may knowe by that / the I wolde nat haue yōge boyes brought vnto feastis / both bicause hit hurteth the strength and the helthe of the chylde / in his tyme of growynge and bycause that feastis be the sprynges of great and manye vyces / be they neuer so sobre and moderate A chylde shall se there many vncomely thynges / and lerne moche noughtynes / euen amonge aged mē / though they be right wyfe Wher to shulde I saye amonge women and men / where after theyr myndes be inflamed bothe inwarde outwardly vnto foule luste / be they neuer so well kepte vnder / yet will they shewe them selfe foule and outragiously nor wyll be brydled in / nor obey theyr gouernour What than wyll they do / if they be prouoked forwardes than in dede there wyll be neither rule nor measure / nor any respecte of honestie Of daunsynge The .xiii. Chap. NOWe let vs speake of that thynge / whyche some maydes do nothynge more gladly / and be taught also with great diligence / of bothe father and mother / that is to daunce counnyngly I wyll make no mention here of the olde vse of wrastlyng / whiche both Plato and many of the stoicke philosophers sayd was holsome for honeste mennes sonnes and Cicero and Quintilian called necessarye for an oratour Whiche was nothynge but a certayne informynge of gesture / and mouynge of the body / to set and moue all in comly ordre / whiche crafte nowe / as many other be / is clene out of vse I wyll intreat of this daunsyng / that nowe a dayes is moche vsed / whiche many of the Grekes preysed / as they dyd many moo thynges / some solysshe / and some also fylthy whiche the sage people of Rome refused nor we rede nat that euer any of those sad matrōes vsed daūsyng / Salust writeth / that one Sempronia dyd bothe synge and daunce more counnyngly / thā was necessary for a good woman Also Cicero / defendyng Muren agaynst Cato / whiche had layde vnto his charge / that he had vsed daūsynge in Asia / where he was gouernour for a season / whiche dede was so disalowable / that he durste nat defende hit for well done / but styffely denyed / sayenge more ouer / that neuer sobre man daunsed / excepte he were madde neither beyng alone / neither at an honest and measurable banket Feastynges out of tyme / and pleasant sportis / and delicate pastime brynge euer daūsyng in the laste ende So that daūsynge muste nedes be the extreme of all vicis But we nowe in christiane Countreis haue scholes of daūsynge / howe be hit that is no wondre / seynge also we haue houses of baudry / so moche the pagās were better and more sadde than we be nor they neuer knewe this newe fasshion of daunsynge of ours / so vnreasonable / and fulle of shakynge and braggyng / and vnclenly handlynges / gropynges / and kyssyngis and a very kēdlyng of leachery Wherto serueth all that bassynge / as hit were pydgyns the byrdes of Venus In olde tyme kyssyng was nat vsed / but amonge kyns folke nowe is hit a cōmon thynge in Englande and France If they do hit bycause of Baptisme / that they may seme all as bretherne and systerne / I preyse the intent / if other wyse / I se nat where vnto hit perteyneth to vse so moche kyssynge / as thoughe that loue and charite coude none other way stande betwene men and women Without this were their pourpose / to stere vp their bodily lustis in suche colde coūtreis Verily me thynketh hit is a foule and a rude maner But nowe to speke of daunsynge what good doth all that daunsynge of yonge women / holden vp on mennes armes / that they maye hoppe the hygher What meaneth that shakyng vnto mydnyght / neuer wery / whiche if they were desyred to go but to the nexte churche / they were nat able / excepte they were caryed on horse backe or in a charette Who wolde nat thynke them out of their wyttis I remembre / that I harde vpon a tyme say / that there were certayne men brought out of a farre coūtrey in to our partis of the worlde / whiche whan they sawe women daunce / they rounne away wonderslye afrayde / cryenge out / that they thoughte the women were taken with an vnked kynde of francy And to say good soth / who wolde nat reken women frantycke / whan they daunce / if he had neuer sene women daunce before And it is a worlde to se howe demurely sadlye some syt / beholding them that daūce / with what gesture / pase / and mouynge of the bodye / and with what sobre footynge / some of them daunce Wherin also a man may spye a great parte of their foly that go about to handle suche a folisshe thynge so sadly neyther se them selfe haue a matter in hande with out any wysedome / neyther any thynge worthe / but as Cicero saythe a companion of vicis What holy woman dyd we euer rede of / that was a daūser Or what woman nowe adayes / that is sad wyse / wyll be knowen to skyll of daūsynge / wyll nat refuse it if she be desyred to daunce For they knowe wel inough / it is a
folisshe thyng / or els they wolde do hit of theyr owne courage But they wyll nat be gladde to come where daunsynge is For what chastite of bodye and mynde can be there / where they shall se so many meÌ„nes bodies / haue theyr myndes entysed by the wyndowes of theyr eies / and by the meanes of the moste subtyll artificer the deuyll There is also a certayne sayeng of an holy man / that he had leauer plowe and dygge vpon the holy day / than daunce Saynt Ambrose wryteth vnto his syster / sayeng in this wyse Myrthe ought to be in a clere coÌ„science and a good mynde / and nat in spysed bankettes / and weddynge feastis full of mynstrelsye For there shamfastnes is ill defeÌ„ded / and vnleful abusion susspected where the laste ende of pleasure is daunsyng from whiche I desyre all virgins of god to kepe them selfe For no man as a certayne wyse maÌ„ of the pagaÌ„s saith dauÌ„seth / if he be sobre / excepte he be madde Nowe than / if that either dronkeÌ„nes or madnes be rekened to be the cause of daunsynge / amonge the pagans / what than shulde we counte to be coÌ„mauÌ„ded in the holy scripture where we rede that Sayncte Iohan the Baptiste / the messanger of Christe was put to deth at the pleasure of a daunsynge wenche By the whiche thynge we maye take example / that this vnlaufull pastime of dauÌ„synge hath bene cause of more hurte / than the fransy of robbers and murtherers This deedly feaste was prepared with a kyngly largesse and excesse / and watche layde whan coÌ„pany was at the most / and than the doughter / whiche was hydde vp afore in secrete / brought forthe to daunce before the people What coulde the doughter lerne more of her mother / whiche was an harlotte / but to lease her honestie For nothyng inclyneth folke more to bodily luste / than by vncomly mouyng gesture / to shewe the operation of these parties / whiche either Nature hath hid secretly / or good maner and nourture hath couered or to play castis with her eies / or shake the necke / or swynge her heare Wherfore they muste nedes fall in to offence agaynst the maieste of god For what honestie canne be kepte there / where daunsynge is So than the kyng delyted with that pastyme / bad her aske what so euer she wolde This is saynt Ambrose sayeng Of louynge The .xiiii. Chaptre LOue is bredde by reason of company and communycation with men for amonge pleasures / feastis / laughynge / daunsyng / and volupties / is the kyngedome of Venus and Cupide And with these thynges folkes myndes be entysed and snared / and specially the womens / on whom pleasure hath forest dominion O myserable yonge woman / carefull mayste thou be / if thou departe out of that companye entangled all redy / howe moche better had it ben for the to haue bydden at home / and rather to haue brokeÌ„ a legge of thy body / than a legge of thy mynde Howe be it yet I wyll go aboute to fynde a remedye to saue the from takynge / if thou be vntaken and if thou be taken / that thou mayste skape out agayne I wyll let passe here / that hath be sayde by philosopers / and all holy and wyse men agaynst Cupydes loue nor I wyll nat reherse the wrytynge of those / whiche seme to haue preysed loue pourposely But they / whom I spake of here afore / what araylynge do they make of loue / callynge hym tyran / myscheuous / cruell / harde / vnkynde / foule / vngratious / cursed / wicked / causer of moste vnhappynes Saynt Hieronyme sayth of loue iÌ„ this maner / After thopinion of Aristotel Plutarche Loue of the beautie is a forgettyng of reason / and the nexte thynge vnto fransy / a foule vice / and an vnmanerly for an holle mynde / it troubleth all the wyttis / hit breaketh and abateth hygh and noble stomackes / and draweth them downe from the studye and thynkyng of high and excellent thynges / vnto lowe and vile and causeth them to be full of gronyng / coÌ„playnyng / to be angry / hasty / foole-hardy / strayte in rulynge / full of vile and seruile staterynge / vnmete for euery thynge / and at the laste vnmete for the loue hit selfe For whan they burne so wtout measure in desyre to optayne theyr purpose / they lose the moste parte of theyr tyme / in suspeciousnes / mournyng / wepyng / waylynge / syghynge / and complaynynge where with they make them selfe hated / and in coÌ„clusyon hate their owne selfe Thus saythe saynt Hieronyme Who can now expresse with wordes / how moche ê‘iury / what disceytes / what murther / what slawghter / what distruction of cites / of countres / and nations / this loue hath caused What nedeth me to reherse here the distructioÌ„ of Troy made for Helayne or to tell what great multitude of people was ther slayne or of the great warre betwene the LacedemoÌ„iaÌ„s MeceniaÌ„s / for the maydeÌ„s takeÌ„ away or the holle empire of the LacedemoniaÌ„s brought in decay by EpaminuÌ„das the capitayne of Thebes / at Leuctras in Boece / whiche toke vengeance vpon them as Plutarche maketh meÌ„tion for the doughters of Scedasus rauysshed by the yonge men of LecedemoÌ„ bycause the rulers of the cite regarded nat his complaynt Kynge Rodeticke of Spayne lost his couÌ„trey / whan hit was most flowrishyng / for detylynge Cana the doughter of Iulian therle / and lefte hit to be ouer ronne and spoyled of the Agarens Adam also for the loue of Eue / loste caste away mankynde Virgil crieth out sayeng What myschiefe dothe nat golde cause Naye but what myschiefe doth nat loue cause It coÌ„pelled Dauid the moste gentyll kynge to cast innocent Vri in to manifest ieoperdye / that he mought haue Barsabe at his libertie Solomon the moste wyse kynge was so doted with loue / that he felle to idolatrye Sampson loste his strength therby Medea was compelled to all to cutte her brother / and slee her owne children and Catiline to sle his owne sonne for the loue of Oristill / that he myght ryd his house for her Many yonge women haue hated both father and mother / and all their kynne bicause they haue letted them of their loue Many haue poysoned theyr owne mothers / that they myght runne away with theyr louers This inordinate cruell affection if one myght se it with the bodyly eies / he wolde be as ferde as though a wylde beaste were brought sodaynly vpon hym / wolde ruÌ„ne away for drede as farre as euer he myght Wherfore it thou be nat enfected all redye with the venome of this serpeÌ„t / call ofte vnto remeÌ„brance this lytell verse Loue may be taken vp at ones pleasure / but nat layde away Therfore hit is in thy power to loue or leaue before thou falle in to hit But after thou be ones in / than art
that be good and caste your selfe in to perpetuall care For if thou be maryed to a fayre one / he wyll be proude of his person And if thou marye to a rythe one / his substance maketh hym stately And if thou be maried to one of great byrthe / his kynred exalteth his stomacke Nowe / if thou marye vnto one for his fayrenes / whiche hathe neyther reason / nor vertue / nor any droppe of wytte / as it is ofte proued by experience / as the wyse man of Grece sayd by these goodly Innes / where be foule hostesses by lyke reason thou myght marye an ymage or a paynted table Canst thou fynde in thy harte to be a foles wyfe / for his goodes Thanne mightest thou as well desyre to be maried to an ymage of golde Woldest thou be maried vnto a getylman borne / whiche is of fylthye and nought ye lyuynge / for his blode as well than thou myghteste those the ymage of Scipio or Cesar And in very dede it were better to be maried vnto an ymage / or a picture / or to a paynted table / than to be maryed to a vicious / or a folysshe / or a brayneles man Wherfore I may better compare them vnto asses / or swyne / lyons / or wolfes / than to mad mē And in tyme passed / I thought it had bene but a fable / that men telle / howe Palyphat the quene of Candy / dyd lye with a bulle and other as vngratious dedes as that whiche I haue harde say / other women haue done but nowe me thynketh them all lykely inough to be true / whan I se women can fynde in theyr hartes / to tomble and lye with vicious and fylthy mē / and dronkerdes / and braulers / and dawysshe / brayneles / cruell murderars For what difference is betwene them and asses / swyne / bores / bulles / or beares What madnes is it to haue delyte in suche men / and to flee and eschewe wyse men / as Plutarke the philosopher sayth / flee honeste men and good men / as warely as they wolde flee from venomous bestis Wherfore it was well and aptly spoken / that a countrey man of myne sayde / that the nature of women was in chosynge mē / lyke vnto the female wolues whiche amonge a great sorte of males / take the fouleste and worste fauored but men neuer caste any fauoure to a woman / but for some good propretie / either of substāce / person / or witte And women many tymes loue some men / bycause there is nothynge in them worthye to be beloued ▪ wherby they declare the more playnly / that they go without reason whiche thynge I say by some that haue nothynge a do with theyr reason / but all gyuen and applied vnto their bodye Agaynst whom I haue spoken sharpely / bicause they dote / and fonde good yonge men / and brynge them to fylthynes and foly / whan they wolde fayne please the women / and se they can nat / excepte they go wyde from all conditions perteynynge vnto men For lyke as childrē / whiche be gyuē all vnto sporte and playe / neither haue discretion for lacke of age to comprehende any depe matter / haue onely in pryce and regarde those / that can hādle theyr sportes and pastymes the moste aptly so women set all vpon pleasures / and volupties / wantonnes / and foly / thynke no man wyse / but those that can well conuey suche matters and what so euer perteyneth to wytte sadnes / they counte foly So their discretion is blynded so sore / that they loue / estyme and set by foles / and coūte them for great wyse men abhorre them / that be wyse in dede / hate dispyse / and lothe them / and take them for foles in lyke maner as folkes that be sicke of a great agewe / wene that swete meate is bytter and as sowes haue more delice in myre and durte than in swete flowres What hope shall we haue of them / that haue so feble discretion and so corrupted For maydes that desyre and wysshe for suche husbande 's / in whom be the externall gyftes of fortune / whiche the people calle good / nor haue no respecte vnto thyn warde goodnes / they be worthy to fele perpetuall sorowe / and to be punysshed for theyr errour / so longe as they lyue bicause they dispise that / that is the more noble and excellent in dede / in cōparison of that / whiche is more vyle lesse worth O folysshe mayde / whiche haddest leauer haue cōtynuall sorowe in golde and sylke / than haue pleasure in wollen cloth whiche had leauer be hated beaten in rayment of purple and ryche colour / thā beloued and set by in a course garment of meane colour If thou haddest leauer haue that other / take that thou haste chosen / nor be nat discontent with that / whiche thou hast wyrtyngly takē with thyn owne hādes More ouer / we haue harde tell of some so folisshe husbandes / that they haue kylled theyr wyues / as Iustina a mayde of Rome / borne of noble blode / whom her father mother maried vnto a yonge mā of great possessions / but of smale discretion and witte whiche whā he sawe his wyues whyte necke / as she was stowpyng to vnlose her shone / fell streight in to a suspection and ielosye ouer her / bycause of her beautie with a sworde cutte her necke in sunder of whom was made this epitaphie folowynge My cruell husbande to deth hath de done And with a sworde my necke in sunde cutte As I was stowpynge to vntye my shoone And to pulle out my praty fote And that besyde the bedde / where I was layde With hym nat long before O harde cruell mȳde In that same place / where as he had hadde My mayden heed / to shewe hym so vnkynde Yet I neuer offended / wherfore I ought to dye All myghty god to recorde I take And loo nowe here-slayne I lye Thus pleased fortune myne ende to make But fathers all example take by me Iustina / as warely as you can If ye loue your doughter tenderly That you ne marye her to a folisshe man Fathers and mothers whiche marye theyr children vnto good and vertuous mates / do nat onely prouyde well for them / but also for them selfe For they get them suche sonnes daughters in lawe / that shall be socoure and ayde vnto them in theyr olde age And if they be noughtys vngratious / they prouide them of enemyes Nowe of the sonne in lawe / we haue an example in the gospell For saint Peters mother in lawe / whā she lay sicke of great ague / was made holle of our lorde / at thin-stance of her son in lawe Suche it was to haue so good a sonne in lawe / that Christ disdayned nat to take vnto his disciple And of the doughter in lawe / we rede an
example in the boke of Ruth That whaÌ„ Noemy came home into Iury / her owne couÌ„tre / out of the lande of Moab / her husbaÌ„de her soÌ„nes beyÌ„g deed / brought with her .ii. soÌ„nes wyues / of whom the one called Orpha by name / returned / agayne to her owne countrey frendes / but Ruth kepte styl with her mother in lawe / both coÌ„forted her with wordes / and nourisshed kepte her with her labour in so moche that Noemy founde in Ruth / both the loue of a doughter / and dyligent seruyse of a sonne Noemy had ben a wydowe and deserte in dede / if she had hadde no better a doughter in lawe / than Orpha was but in as moche as she had Ruth / she was nat all destitute of chyldren / neyther had no cause to name her selfe Mara / that is to saye bytter / as her mynde was to be named Also after that Ruth had borne the prophet Esai by her seconde husbande called Booz / women dyd make as great semblaunce of gladnes vnto Noemye / as though she had had of her owne doughter or her owne sonne / nat onely one neuew / but as though she had hadde seuen sonnes her selfe For they sayd to her in this maner Ther is one borne nowe of thy doughter in lawe / whiche shall loue the and be better vnto the / thaÌ„ though thou haddest seuen sonnes Nowe afore I make an ende of this boke / I wyll answere vnto a madde and a fraÌ„ticke opinion / whiche bothe maydens and wyues haue / and all the common people in generall / that thynke it is expedyent for maydes / that are come to lawfull age of maryage / to be sene ofte abrode amonge people / goodly and pykedly arayed / and to kepe company and communication with men / to be eloquent in speche / and counnynge in daunsyng and syngyng / yea to loue hym afore hande / whom they entende to mary for so they say / they shall the more lyghtly mete with a bargayne A maÌ„ might make aÌ„swere to all this at ones / but I will examyne it from poynt to poynt / to coÌ„tent nat only the myndes of wyse men / but also of them that be rude and ignorant What wyse man / I pray you / wolde euer counsaile this thynge / knowyng / that yll is nat to be done / that good may come therof and specially where the ill is euident inough / and the good neyther certayne nor customed to folowe commenly vpon the dede Wherfore if the mayde can get no mariage / except she infecte her mynde / and leoperde her honesty on this facion / hit were better neuer to mary orels to mary only Christe / than to mary fyrste vnto the deuyll / that she maye be maryed to a maÌ„ afterwarde Nowe .ii. thinges there be / the mooste precious that a woman canne brynge with her to a man honesty of body / good fame nor there is no man so folysshe and madde / neither so set vpoÌ„ beautie and couetyse of goodes / neither so vngratious and so vnthrifty of lyuyng / but he wyll be content with any wyfe / hauynge these two whiche if she lacke / howe can he be content Than wolde I wytte / whether mayde is the more lykely to be of good fame and behauour / whether she that bydeth most at home / or she that walketh moche abrode At home there is none occasyon of euyll / and forthe abrode euery place is fulle And of her that taryeth at home / no man maketh question or argument But of her that walketh moche about / euery man wyll say his opinion wher amonge so dyuers sentenses a mayde shall soone catche a blotte whiche wyll sticke in no place more soner than on a mayde / neither worse to gette out Or whiche of them two do men set more by and whether wil they thyÌ„ke of most honest demeaner / her that they se either neuer / or but seelde / or her / whom they mete in euery corner Verily I thinke they wyll nat beleue / that she kepeth her honestie very well / that walketh so ofte forth And as for prouydynge of her maryage / I thynke hit shulde be more profitable for her / to be harde telle of / than seen For a mayde that is ofte in syght / shall chaÌ„ce either to say or do / that may displease hym that shuld haue her or some of them that be of his couÌ„saile or that he gyueth credence and truste vnto Wherby many tymes maryages be broken / euen in the poynt of makyng And where as they speke of clothynge / wherwith to make her gaye / if she be maried but for that / she muste nedes be hated / whan â—he is without them For she muste nedes some tymes lay away that wede / be with her husbande at home in meane araye For commonlye / as we greatly lyke them / in whom we fynde any speciall goodnes / that we loked nat for / lykewyse we hate them as sore / that disapoynt our hope of any good bountie For if thou seme pyked and propre vnto thy spouse / and arte nat so in dede / after that he hath takeÌ„ some great hope of thy beautie / he must nedes hate the / whaÌ„ he seeth hym selfe dispoyted More ouer I coude name bothe in this countrey in myÌ„ owne / dyuerse maydes / whiche coude neuer get mariage / bicause that men were abasshed of theyr costely apparell What say they this woman wolde spende vp all her maryage good in one gowne / or one broche Therto by ouer richely aparelled / maydes be rekened lyght And as for those that kepe moche companye with men / what man is there / that wyll nat suspecte yll by them Or what husbande shall she fynde so patient / that wyl be coÌ„tent to haue his wyfe to company styll and coÌ„mon with men or wolde nat rather haue suche one / as wolde more gladlye company with her husbande alone / than with a great multitude of meÌ„ Where one shall teÌ„pte her mynde with eloquence / an other with comlynes of person / some with beautie / some with lyberalyte / and some with noblenes For as for maydes to be eloquent of speche / that is to say great bablers / is a token of a lyght mynde and shrewde conditions In so moche that he that shall marye her / shall thynke he hath a serpent no wyfe Foâ— yoÌ„ge men will prayse her vnto her face / that is faâ—â— of talke / and a ioyly dauncer / and full of mery conceptes / and playe / and pleasant / and call her well manered / and wel brought vp / al to haue her at theyr pleasure / but none to mary her and all beleue that they may quickely opteyne theyr purpose of suche one but neuer a one wylbe gladde to haue suche one to his wyfe / that he seeth is so applyenge vnto euery mannes wyll they
but for the fylthy pleasure of lechery and elles either hateth enuieth other But they that wolde kepe the nature of thynges holle and pure / neyther corrupte them with wronge vnderstandyng / shulde reken / that wedlocke is a bande couplyng of loue / benyuolence / frendshippe / and charite / cōprehendynge with in hit all names of goodnes / swetnes / and amyte Therfore let the mayde neither catche / and disceyue by subtylte hym / that shulde be her inseparable felowe / nor pull drawe by playne violence but take and be taken by honeste / symple / playne / and good maner / that neyther of them complayne with both their harmes or say / they were disceyued or compelled Here endeth the fyrst boke of the instruction of a Christen woman The seconde boke of the instruction of a Christen Woman Of Wedlocke The fyrst Chaptre THis is no place here to reson either the laudes or dispreyses of wedlocke Nor the olde questiōs are to be touched as / Is it for a wyse man to wedde a wyfe Nor the questions of our christen men / concernynge wedlocke / single lyfe / and virginite / and other / that saynt Augustine / and other doctours of our christen faith haue disputed I knowe / there haue bene some that haue sore rebuked wedlocke and that nat only heretickes / as the Manicheis / that vtterly commanded to absteyne from maryage whose errours be clene damned and banished but also pagans / whiche haue gyuen iugemēt of the holle kynde of women / vpon certayne euyll ouer moche folowyng the common gyse / whiche vpon the knowlege of a fewe / deme the holle natiō So the Carthaginences were defamed as false of promyse So the Cilicians as theuis and robbers the Romayns as couetous / the Grekes as inconstant and variable The honeste wyues ought to hate and blame the noughty wyues as a shame and sklander vnto all the kynde And truly no mā durst euer so farre dispreise woman kynde but he muste nedes confesse / that a good woman is the beste treasure / and mooste luckye and prosperous thynge that can be And as Xenophon saythe / she is the greattest cause of mānes felicite There is nothynge more swete than a good wyfe / sayth the wyse man Theognis lykewyse Xystus in his sentenses callethe her mannes ioye Eurypides the poet / whiche was sharpely vexed with .ij. noughty wyues / stuffed his tragidies with rebukes and raylynge on women / he was named in a greke worde / the hater of women yet neuer the lesse he douted nat to affyrme / that no pleasure was lyke theyrs / that had good wyues And Hesyodus the poet / a very enemy of women / sayth that as nothynge is more infortunate than a mā / that chaūceth on an euyll wyfe so lyke wyse no greatter felicite and welthe any man maye haue / than hath he / that hath a good wyfe Kyng Solomon / whithe was bysyde hym selfe for women / and of the moste wyse made the moste vnwyse / often tymes as cursynge his wyckedde dedes / he fyersly rebuketh women But so yet that he sheweth playnly by whom he mente For in his prouerbes he wryteth / that an vnwyse woman and full of boldenes shall lacke breadde And as a tre is cōsumed of the tymber worme / so he saythe is a man of an euyll wyfe But loke in the same boke / howe goodlye gaye is the preyse of a good woman of whom he sayth thus Noble is her husbande in the gates whan he sytteth with the auncient fathers of the erth Fortitude and beautie shal be the rayment of an holy woman / and she shall laugh in the laste day She hath opened her mouth vnto wisedome / and the lawe of mekenes is in her tonge / her children haue rysen vp and called her the most blessed and her husbande hath commended her Many women haue gethered ryches but thou haste passed them all These many other good wordes hath the wyse kynge spoken whiche are approued and alowed of euery wyse man with one assent Nowe I force nat for those disputations or more lyke sermons that sharpe wytted men haue made of wedlocke For doutles allerned men byd wed whiche thynge they dyd them selfe The .vij. wyse men of Grece were maried fyrst / and after that Pythagoras / Socrates / Aristotel / and Theophrast / bothe the Catons / Cicero / and Senec bicause they wel perceyued that nothynge was more after nature / than the couplyng of man and woman Wherby man kynde beynge in sundrye persons mortall / is made in all to gether euer lastynge and wherby a man yeldeth agayne vnto his successours / that whiche he taketh of his predecessours and as hit were rendreth a benifite vnto nature Aristotel in his morall bokes exorteth wyse men vnto maryage / nat onely to th entent to haue childrē / but also bicause of company For that is the principal and greattest vnite that can be For thus goth the matter in dede Of that consyderation and vniuarsall frēdship / wher with all folkes are knytte to gether as bretherne descēded of god one father of all thȳges where with nature her selfe / that in all men is the same / byndeth vs to gether with a certayne charite / more nere is that frendship / whiche is amonge folkes of one faith and it is plucked more narowe by mannes ordynaunce and lawe ciuyle For citizens fauoure more one an other / than they do foreyns and of cytyzens our speciall frendes are most dere to vs of them we loue best our owne kyns folke and of kyns folke nothynge is more nere than the wyfe whom the fyrst father of mākynde / as sone as he sawe her / sayde by by / that it was a bone of his bones / flesshe of his flesshe And whan there was yet neyther fathers nor mothers / he gaue a lawe / as in the name of nature / sayeng in this wyse For her sake a mā shall leaue bothe father mother / and abyde with his wyfe Who than can denye but that wedlocke is a thing most holy Whiche god ordeyned in paradise / whā mankynde was yet pure and clene / with no spotte defyled He chose hit in his mother he alowed hit with his presence and wolde do his fyrst myracle at the solemnyte of maryage / and there shewe an euydent token of his godheed / vnto the entent he myght declare / that he was comen to saue them / that were bothe lost by folkes so coupled / borne by folkes so coupled But I wryte nat here of the preyses of wedlocke / wher vpon often tymes most eloquente men haue made longe sermons For I do onely instruct vertuous women What a Woman ought to haue in mynde whan she maryeth The .ij. Chaptre wHat tyme a woman maryeth / she shulde calle to remembraunce the begynnynge of wedlocke / and busily consyder in her mynde and thought the lawes of
anothers Howe frayle / and vnto howe many ieoperdies indangered / howe fletynge / and howe vnstable a thyng is beautie / whā one agewe / one wart / or one heare maye of the mooste goodly make the moste lothsome And in men no body desyreth suche grace of fayrnes but they thynke in a woman very comely and yet shalte thou rede in the wyse kynges sayeng fauour is a disceitfull thyng / and beautie is vayne But the woman that dredeth god / she shal be preysed Fynally / seynge that ye be one fleshe / or rather one person bothe thou and thy husbande / than can he neuer be foule that hath a fayre wyfe And if thou wylte nat suppose neither the wyfe nor the husbāde to be fayre / vertue alone is both beautie noblenes I wyll let passe here / howe folisshe a thynge hit is / that they call noblenes Whose opiniō and estimation standeth in the comen voyce of people / whiche is maister of all errours But be thou neuer so noble / if thou marye to one vnnoble / thou arte made vnnobler than he nor the wyfe can nat be more noble than her husbande For that thynge canne nat be alowed in no kynde of beastis The chyldren haue the name of the father thorowe all the worlde / as of the better and than if thou be very noble / either muste he be made very noble / or thou vnnoble And in the Ciuile lawe the women haue theyr dignite of theyr husbandes / and nat of theyr fathers / in so moche that those that were commyn of mooste noble father / if they maryed vnto one of lowe degree / they were nat called noble And that appered well in the noble women of Rome / whiche droue out of the chapell of chastite / that was ordayned for noble women / one Virginia / commen of noble parētes / bicause she was maryed vnto a mā of lowe byrth therfore they sayde she was none of them / but of the comen rate of people neither she denyed that / nor was ashamed to be taken for one of the lowe people / nor dispised the commen people in comparison of the noblys / nor abashed to be called Virginia Volūnius wyfe Also Cornelia / doughter vnto Scipio / whan she was maryed vnto an house / whiche was in dede great and famous / and honorable Howe be it / nothynge able to be compared with her fathers / beyng her selfe of the best bloode in Rome / and one the mooste chefe of that bloode / doughter of Scipio whiche was the conquerour of Affrike / the prince of the Senate / and all the people of Rome / and also of all the worlde most excellent / though she hadde to her mother Emylia / comen of the blode of the Emylians / the most honorable and famous / bothe in Rome / and all the worlde yet she hauynge so great honour bothe of fathers syde and of mothers / had leauer euer be called Cornelia Gracchi / by her husbādes name / thā Cornelia Scipionis Wherfore some were discontent / whiche for honour vsed to cal her Cornelia Scipionis / by her fathers name Thesia / sister vnto the elder Dionisius the tyrant of Syracuse / was maried to one Philoxenus / whiche whā he had gone about to do a displeasure vnto Dionisius / and whan he was spyed was constrayned to fie out of Sycille / this Thesia his wyfe was sēt for by the kynge her brother / and rebuked of hym / bycause she dyd nat discouer her husbandes flyghte vnto hym Whye sayde she / wenest thou that I were so vile and abiecte / that if I hadde knowen of his goynge / I wolde nat a gone with all and folowed hym / and bene rather the wyfe of Philoxenus the out lawe in any place in the worlde / than kynge Dionisius syster here at home in my countrey And all the Siracusyans hadde in great reuerence this gaye and vertuous mynde of hers And whā the tyrās were banyshed / they bothe worshipped her in her lyfe / and honoured after her deth Mary the wyfe of Maximilian the emperour / whiche had by her father of inheritance all Flanders and Pycatdye / and the people set nought by the symple and softe disposition of Maximilian / and sewed for all theyr matters vnto Mary his wyfe / yet wolde she neuer determyne nothȳg without her husbādes aduise / whose will she rekened euer for a lawe / though she myght well inough haue ruled and ordened all as she lyst / with his good wyll whiche vsed to suffer of his mylde stomacke any thing that she lyst / vnto his good and prudēt wyfe / that in her owne goodes So Mary by obeynge her husbande / and regardyng hym so well / brought hym in to great auctorite / and made the people more obediēt vnto them both / as though their powers were increased and ayded either by other And these dueties be in the mynde Nowe must we brydell the tonge / whiche if the mynde be well brydeled it shall rule it well inough For the cause why many women be catle of tonge is bicause they can nat rule their mȳdes For ire occupieth them holle / and plucketh out of scaam / nor suffreth any pte of them to rule it selfe and therfore haue they neyther measure nor reasō in their chydyng and scolding For they be put besyde all reason and discretion / whan the fyre hath catched all to gether and made his owne whiche soone increaseth in softe tymber and apte for fyre Wherof commeth ragyng / bothe of stomacke and tonge without measure Whiche I haue ofte wōdred on and that in very good and honest women / in whom sauyng this one vice / there lacketh neither chastite nor goodnes manyfolde great vertues Yet haue I myssed in them moderation and temperaunce of ire language in so moche that I haue ben ashamed of it / though none of it hath pertayned to me / but bene amōge those that haue bene very strangers to me / at least if one Christen body ought to be a stranger vnto an other Therefore as it is a harde vertue for a woman to temper her tonge / so verily hit is the moste goodly vertue that can be longe to any Whiche thynge she shall easly do / if she abyde in her owne power / nor suffer her selfe to be caried away with her owne fātasies / as it were with stormes of wether And this lette her ofte call to mynde specially / and purpose while she is safe in her owne power / that if she chaunce to falle at wordes with her husbande / she rebuke nat nor dispreyse either his kynne / or person / or cōditiōs / or his lyfe / whiche thing she woteth shulde greue his stomacke For if he be angred / with suche a thynge / he wyll bothe be worse to reconsyle / and after that he is agreed agayne / yet as ofte as that worde commeth vnto his remembraunce
thyne offryng there / and go be agreed fyrst with thy brother / and after offer that vnto god / that thou intendest For thou callest for peace of god in vayne / as longe as thy frende is nat pleased with the / but moche more / if thy husbande be nat What so euer is spoken in the chaÌ„bre the holy bed of wedlocke / let her take good hede to kepe more secreate and counsaile / than the sacrifice of Ceres in Elewce was kepte / or misteries of any other god or goddes For what madnes is hit to bable out suche thynges / as ought to be kepte so secrete The wyse people of Athens / whan they hadde warre with Phylyp kynge of Macedony / and had taken letters of his / sente vnto his wyfe Olempias / they wolde nat suffre them to be opened and red / bycause they rekened the secretes of wedlocke to be / as they be in dede / holy / and to be kepte in priuite / nor to be conuenyent to commyne them abrode / or to be knowen of other folkes / than of the wyfe and her husbande And therfore they sent the letters vntouched vnto Macedone vnto the quene Wherfore they were worthy to haue theyr wyues both to kepe faith and couÌ„saile with them Nowe if they dyd that vnto theyr enemye armed agaynst them / howe moche more is it for the to do it vnto thy husbande Porcia wyfe vnto Brutus proued her owne pacience with a wouÌ„de / whether she coude kepe counsayle of great matters or nat And whaÌ„ she sawe she coude hyde the wounde and kepe secrete / thaÌ„ was she so bolde as to aske of her husbande what he studied so carefully vpon And whan he had tolde her howe they purposed to flee Cesar / she kepte her as wel as any that was of the same counsayle Neither the wyfe ought onely to loue her husbande her selfe / but also to se that she make nat other folkes to hate hym / or bryÌ„g hym iÌ„ to any ieê‘dy by causyng hym to be eÌ„uyed through her meanes Nor let nat her vse her husbande to be her page / and reueÌ„ge all iniures done vnto her / excepte hit be the parell of chastite / whiche is the most precious thynge that a woman can haue If any body haue spoken wordes of displeasure or dishonesty vnto her / or done a thyÌ„g that may seme to greue her tender mynde / let her nat ronne streight to her husbande and kendel his stomacke with fyrye wordes / suche as angre is wonte to cause A good woman shall take all suche thynges paciently / and shall reken her selfe safe and sure inough / as longe as her chastite is holle and vntouched whiche if it be poluted / there is nothynge to be rekened pure She shall vse in chamber nat onely chast behauour / but also shamfastnes And let her remembre that she is a wyfe / in whom Plutarche wolde haue both great loue and great demurenes coupled and ioyned to gether They saye that the quenes of Perse were woÌ„te to kepe priuate and sober feastis with theyr husbaÌ„des / but as for in waÌ„ton baÌ„kettes cam none but syngers / mynstrelles / and concubynes / wedlocke was had in suche reuerence For as the noble prince was wonte to say / a wyfe was a name of dignite and nat of bodily lust so the husbande is a name of couplyng and affinite / as I haue declared Nor the husbaÌ„des ought nat to gyue them selfe vnto ouer moche pleasure / nor to delyte in any companye but theyr wyues / but our purpose is nat here to teache the husbandes Howe be it / it is nat conuenient for them to be maisters of wantoÌ„nes and lechery vnto theyr wyues And let them euer remembre this sayenge of Xystus the philosopher He is an adulterar with his wyfe / who so is ouer excedyng and ouer hote a louer And let him obey the apostle Paule / sayeng vnto husbaÌ„des / that they shulde haue their wyfe as vessels of generation in holynes / and nat in vnlefull concupiscence or immoderate / as the pagaÌ„s do / that knowe nat god The spouse in the canticles calleth his spouse syster / to th entent to make his loue more measurable but we wyll returne agayne vnto women Let them nat defoyle the holy and honeste bed of wedlocke with fylthy and lecherous actis The chast wyfe of Spartane / whaÌ„ she was asked if she vsed to go vnto her husbaÌ„de / nay perde sayde she / but he vnto me For the chast woman neuer prouoked the lust of her husbande / nor vsed the bodylye pleasure / but for her husbandes pleasure Trebellius Pollio wrytethe / that zenobia the quene of Palmyra / a very well lerned and a wyse woman / was of so great chastite / that she wolde nat lye with her husbande / without she had proued before / whether she were with chylde or no. For whan she had lyen with hym she wolde tarye her tyme / to se whether she had conceyued and if she had nat / than was she content to suffre her husbandes wyll agayne Who wolde thynke / that this woman had any luste or pleasure in her body This was a woman worthy to be had in honour and reuerence / whiche had no more pleasure in her naturall partes / thaÌ„ in her fote or her fyÌ„ger She had bene worthy to haue borne childreÌ„ with outen mannes company / whiche neuer desyred it / but only for children or els to haue brought them forthe without payne / whiche gate them without pleasure But one of our christen women called Ethelffryda / a quene of EnglaÌ„de / dyd a greatt acte / whiche after she had borne one childe / neuer laye more with her husbande And yet one Edelthrudis / a quene of the same countrey / passed her whiche had had .ij. husbandes / and made them bothe to kepe perpetuall chastite There were also other couples / that lyued to gether without carnall dealyng / as Henricus Bauarus / the prince of Rome / and Sinegunda his wyfe Iulianus the martyr / and Basilia his wyfe and in the cyte of Alexander ChrysaÌ„thus / and Daria his wyfe and Amos with his wyfe For these holy folkes vnderstode well inough / that thyng whiche is writeÌ„ of wyse men / that the bodely pleasure is vnworthy this excelleÌ„t nature of ours / whiche we haue of the soule And therfore euery bodye dispiseth it the more / and casteth it away / the more that he hath of that excellentnes of the soule / the nigher that he is to god and other heuenly myndes neyther wyll vse this pleasure often / except it be suche as haue but beastly / vile / and abiecte myndes / and hath taken moche of vile nature / and veray lytle of that high celestyall nature You wyues / whanne you put of your smokkes / put vpon chamefastnes / and kepe alway both day and night both in coÌ„pany of other men
more goodly and costly / than it appereth that she trymmeth nat her selfe so moche for her husbādes eies as other mennes whiche is no poynt of an honest woman What shulde a woman do with golde or syluer / that is a Christen woman / and also whose husbande delyteth nat there in Thou woman / wylte thou nat apply thy selfe vnto Christis arayment at thy husbandes byddynges whiche oughtest / if he wolde haue it so / to weare the deuylles habyte Saynt Ambrose speaketh of payntynge in this maner Here of sayth he / cometh those inflamynges of vices / to paynte theyr faces with coloures / lest men shulde myslyke them and with the adultery of theyr face they go about adultery of theyr bodye What a madnes is hit to chaunge the naturall Ymage / and take a picture / and whiles they feare theyr husbandes iugement to vtter theyr owne For she gyueth fyrst iugement of her selfe / that wolde be other wyse thā she was borne and so while she gothe aboute to be lyked of other / fyrst of all she dislyketh her selfe Saynt Ambrose in these wordes sheweth what his minde is / if the husbande haue nat speciallye commaunded his wyfe to do so Neyther anye wyse man wyll commaunde it But if he do cōmaūde / or if she knowe that hit be his wyll / than for his mynde and pleasure let her do this But than shall she say as saint Hester sayde / whan she was apparelled and tyred with all the deuylles pompe Thou knoweste good lorde said she my necessite / that I abhore this fygne of pride and of myne honoure vpon my hed on the dayes of my pompe / and I course hit as a cloute defyled with blode / neither vse to weare hit on suche dayes as I maye be at rest Therfore if a woman be at her lybertie to weare what apparell she lyste / lette her remembre that there is no cause greatly desyred wherefore she ought to desyre to be proudely and goodly apparelled / seyng she is maried and hath catched all redy that / whiche other saythe they / hunte for with suche nettes Saynt Eypryan the martyr byddeth maryed womē take hede / that they do nat flater and excuse their owne fantasyes / and lykynges in themselfe with theyr husbandes / lest whan they lay theyr husbandes for theyr excuse / they take them for fellowes and accessaries of their vice I haue shewed myne opinion afore alredy / as concernyng apparell nowe hit is beste to gyue an eare vnto saynt Peter and Paule / whiche bad a christē wyfe weare symple araymēt / be more goodly in holynes of lyuynge / than golde or precious stones And indede an honest woman hath other more goodly atyremētes / whiche as the wise man Xistus sayth / standeth in chast demeanoure and honest bryngyng vp of her children / as Cornelia Gracchus wyfe was wonte to say and also in her husbandes honour / or worship The wyfe of Philo the wyfe man / whan she wente forth vpon a tyme without a goldē garlāde on her hed / and other noble womē dyd weare / one asked her why she had none she āswered agayne / the husbandes honore and vertue is ornament inough vnto the wyfe Who dyd nat more regarde the wyfe of Cato / whiche was no very riche man / than all the wyues of a great meany of Publicānes / whiche flowed in goodes ▪ Also hit was more honore for Xantippe to be wyfe vnto poure Socrates / than either vnto Scopa / or any other ryche man in those dayes Democrates sayth / that the ornament of a woman is small apparell and lytle spech / and she is the mooste honorable that hath the best husbande nat withstandyng / as I wold haue a myfe to vse no precious apparell lykewyse no more do I alowe fylthy and slobery arayment Also some thyng must be done for the tyme / place / and common custome / but nat excedyng / but rather moche lesse than they receiue Aristotle in his bokes of house kepȳg wolde haue a womā to vse lesse raymēt apparel thā the lawes customes of the cite do apoynt For she ought to cōsyder sayth he that neither goodly clothyng / nor excellent beautie / nor abundance of golde / shall cause a woman so great worship / as shall sobernes in all thyng / and studye to lyue chast and honestly Therfore ought she rather to regarde reason / vertue / and holynes / than vayne iugementes and erronious customes / whiche haue ben brought vp by some vngratious folkes / and accepted and confermed by the corrupte and folishe fantasyes of the comon people Wherfore some good and vertuous wyues oughte with one asset to resiste and go agaynst suche customes / and by sklender and symple aparell do them selfe that is couenient / and shewe example vnto other what way they ought to take and hit shulde be a greatt preyse for them to put away an yl custome / than folowe it Nor there is no dispayre / but some may brȳge downe that agayne / which was brought vp by some For the cōcent and agrement of good women shulde preuayle as moche in goodnes / as the concent of yll women hath preualed in noughtynes if they wolde ones begynne to stryue to gether / who shulde passe other in honesty / measure and chastite / and reken it a worship to get the victory in these thynges / and nat in the bostyng of riches whiche thynge doth sone induce lyght myndes in to great enuie / and stryfe / but fewe doth enuie that ā other shulde be more vertuous thā she / or more pacient / or lowe her husbande better / but many do enuie / if another shulde haue more apparell / chayne 's / broches / ouches / or rynges / than she O proude and folysshe beastis / euen created vnto vanite and pompe / here vpon ryseth stryfe and procedeth for the with suche feruent myndes / as Cato sayth very wysely in the story of Liuius / that the ryche women wolde haue that / whiche none other shulde be able to come by And on the other syde / the poure women / lest they shulde be dispised nought set by / by that meanes they streyne them selfe aboue theyr power And so whan they be ashamed of that / that they shulde nat / and nothyng ashamed of that / they shulde be / they robbe both their husbandes and their children / to clothe them selfe with / and leaue hungre and pouerte at home / that they may go forth them selfe ladē with sylke and golde Wherfore they compell theyr husbandes vnto shamfull craftes to get by / and myscheuous dedes / with theyr whynyng gronyng / leste theyr kynse women / alyance / or theyr neighboure shulde seme rycher or more gloriously apparelled than they And yet al these outragious and intollerable thynges moughte be suffered / if they dyd nat sell away their chastite to get ther by that theyr husbande
's either wyll nat gyue them / orels for lacke can nat gyue Some remedye shulde be founde for these euilles / either by the concente and agrement of rychemennes wynes / whiche with theyr example shulde reuoke other agayne vnto better mynde orels some lawe wolde be made / suche as that lawe was in Rome called Oppius lawe / to â—ryÌ„â—â—e and measure womens costelynes These Christen preachers / shulde folowe the example of the pagane Pythagoras / or rather passe hym in suche a goodly stryfe / of whom the cronicler Iusty ne wryteth in this maner Pythagoras taught women chastite and obedyence vnto their husbaÌ„des / and often dyd tell them / that the mother of vertues was sobre diet harde fare he brought to passe with continuall disputyng and preachyng vnto them / that the wyues layde awaye golden and garnisshed clothes / and other ornamentes of theyr state / and refused them as instrumentes of ryote and superfluyte For he affyrmed that the true garnysshyng and ornamentes of wyues was chastite / and nat clothynge Of walkyng abrode The .ix. Chap. HIt is becommyng for maried women to go lesse abrode thaÌ„ maides / bycause they haue that whiche the maides shulde seme to seke Therfore lette them caste all theyr mynde to kepe well hym that they haue gotten / study to please hym onely The maker of the lawes of the Lacedemonians bad that the wyues / whan they went for the abrode / shulde couer their faces / bycause it was nat conuenient for them / either to loke on other men / or to be loked vpon of other menne / seynge they haue at home alredye / whom all onely they ought to loke vpon / and beloked vpoÌ„ withall Whiche custome the people of Perse lande / and all thest quarter of the worlde / with most parte of the grekes did vse But I wold nat they shuld wrape theyr hed / as nowe adayes the custome is to do in many couÌ„tres of Europe / that is to go vnknoweÌ„ / and vnsene of other folkes / but them selfe bothe to se and to knowe other In the whiche doynge / I wondre nat so moche of the womans delyte / delite quod he Nay I wolde say the thicke shamlesnes vnder that thyne couer / as I do theyr husbandes folysshenes / that do nat se howe great an occasyon of viciousnes it is They wyll do no harme I wis say they well / I wold they had neuer done And though they wolde do none / yet it is nat good to open suche a wyndowe of libertie Therfore let the womens faces be bare of clothes / but closed and couered with shamfastnes For that coueryÌ„g was nat so moche ordened to couer the woman / that no man shulde se her / as it was / that she shulde se no man Fauna wyfe vnto Faunus / kynge of Thaborigines / lyued many yeres / and yet dyd neuer man se her / but Faunus hym selfe Therfore after her dethe / she was worshipped for a goddes / and named the good goddes / and her sacrifice was so kepte / that no man mought laufully come to hit / neither any ymage of male beast be ther / while it was a doyng Nor I say nat this bycause I wold haue women contynually shette vp and kepte in / but bicause I wold haue them go seldome abrode / and belytle amonge men / whiche thing they shall best content their husbandes withall what pleasure thynke you hit was vnto kynge Tygranes / whiche whan he had byd Cirus kynge of Perse vnto a banket / and after the banket was done / moche coiÌ„casion there was of the comely person fayrnes of Cirus / thaÌ„ Tygranes asked his wyfe / what she thought by Cyrus Verily sayd she / I can nat tell for so god loue me / all the baÌ„ket while / I neuer loked at any man / but you A vertuous wyfe wyll neyther gladlye here other men / nor of them / nor dispute of any maÌ„nes person For what hath she a do with other mennes fayrnes / whiche ought to counte all in lyke fayre and foule / sauyng her husbande Let her thynke hym fayrer than any other / more proper than any other lyke as the mother dothe her only childe In the Canticles of the Byble / the spouse thynketh his spouse fayrest of all women and agayne / she thynketh hym the fayrest of all meÌ„ Lyke wise Duellius had a great fauour vnto his wyues symplicite / I wyll tell hit in saynt Hieronymes wordes Duellius sayth he / whiche had the fyrste tryumphe at Rome for bat / tayle on the see / maryed a goodly maide called Bilia / whiche was so vertuous and chaste / that she was example vnto all other in that same worlde whan it was nat only a vice / but also a wonder to se a woman nought So vpon a tyme this Duellius / whaÌ„ he was aged and weake and tremblyng / chaunsed to fall out and chide with another man / in whiche wordes that other man rebuked hym of his stynkyng brethe so he wente home displeased there with / and ther blamed his wyfe / bicause she neuer had tolde hym / that he might a fouÌ„de some remedy for hit I wolde haue tolde you sayde she / but that I wente euery mannes brethe had smelled so This noble and chaste woman was to be praysed for bothe whether she dyd nat knowe the faute of her husbande / or suffred it patiently / and bicause her husbaÌ„de dyd soner lerne his faute and hurte of his body by his ennemyes ill wordes thaÌ„ his wyues lothyng The same thynges men say / chauÌ„sed vnto Hiero kynge of Stracuse But those women can nat say so / that kysse many men afore they haue husbandes / and many whaÌ„ they haue husbaÌ„des what demurenes I wolde haue kepte abrode / it may be perceyued well inough / by that whiche I wolde haue kepte at home in her chamber / with her husbande by nyght wherto shulde I speke of that rude and vncumly maner / whiche is vsed in many countres / that men and their wyues shall wasshe both to gether in one bane This custome is nat ones to be named for hit is rather beastlye than mete for any reasonable folkes I wolde haue a woman to here but fewe wordes / namely where men talke / and speake lesse And if she thynke she shall here or se any vnclenlye thynge / coÌ„uey her selfe away quickly Kyng Hiero / whom I spake of here before / condeÌ„pned the poet Epicharmus in a great some of money / bycause he had rehersed an vnclenly matter in the quenes presence Augustus Cesar gaue a commaundement / that no woman shulde come and se wrastelers / bycause they were wonte to wrastell naked Nor it was no woÌ„der that he dyd so For this Cesar was he that made the lawes of chastite and adultery Therfore I wolde nat haue a woman to speke / excepte it be a thynge that shulde do hurte to be kepte in
Neither here / or at least wyse gyue no hede vnto suche matters / as ptayne nat to thēcreasyng of vertue The poet Iuuenall rebuketh suche women as be wyse / what the people of Seres and Thrace do and what sturrynge is all the worlde ouer Also Cato in his oration / that he made of womē / wolde an honest wyfe shulde be ignorant / what lawes be made or anulled in her countrey / or what is done amonge men of lawe in the courte And here vpō rose this comen sayenge of the Grekes womens workes ought to be webbes of cloche / and nat eloquent orations And Aristotle sayth / it is lesse rebuke for a man to be busye to knowe what is done in his kytchyn / than for the woman what is done without her house Therfore he byddeth / that she shall neither speke nor here at all of any matters of the realme Seneke writeth / that his aunt for sixtene yere to gether / while her husbande was presidēt in Egypt / was neuer sene forth of her house / nor neuer resceyued into her house any of that coūtrey nor neuer asked any thyng of her husbāde / nor suffered any thynge to be asked of her selfe Therfore sayth he / that same countrey / whiche is very bablyng / and wyly to fynde faute with theyr rulers / in the whiche many a mā hath ruled with out faute / howe be it nat without an yll name / yet they gaue reuerēce vnto her / as a special example of holynes / kept in al their raylyng wordes / whiche is harde for hym to do / that hath a pleasure in ieoperdus conseytes And yet vnto this day they wyshe for suche a nother as she though they haue no hope to get her It had ben a great thyng / if the coūtrey had lyked her but .xvj. dayes / but it was a greatter thyng / that they knewe her nat These be Senekes wordes For that holy and wyse womā vnderstode well inough / that ofte accompanyeng with men shulde hynder some of her good name as hit doth no good to fyne clothe to be handled of many Ther be some womē that beare them selfe high of other folkes honore / as of theyr husbādes brother / kynsmā / and some of a frēde / with whom they haue very small acquantance What a foly is this to handle thy selfe so / that a nother shall be made good and worthy honoure / for his owne vertue / and thou made nought and vnworthy honoure / with a nother bodies vertue And many there be / that so abuse theyr kynsmennes power / that they make both them selfe / and them that haue the power hated by the meanes as the wyfe of the brother of Vitellius the emperour / whiche toke more vpon her / bicause of her brother in lawes principalite / thā themperours wyfe her selfe dyd The hedy domination of the sisters of Hiero Kyng of Siracuse / moued the people vnto insurrection where with bothe the kynge and all his children were distroyed There was also in our dayes a certayne noble man / that had a wonderous proude wyfe / and hit chaunsed hym to be tourned out of all his goodes and possessions at ones / whom euery man thought was well serued / bycause the womā vsed her selfe so proude and arrogantlye vpon her husbandes power Therfore you women that wyll medle with comon matters of realmes and cites / and wene to gouerne people and nations with the braydes of your stomackes / you go about to hurle downe townes afore you you light vpō an harde rocke where vpon though you brouse and shake countres very sore / yet they scape you perysshe For you knowe neyther measure nor order and yet whiche is the worst poynt of all / you wene you knowe veray well / and wyll be ruled in nothynge after them that be experte But you attempte to drawe all thynge after your fantasye without discretion Wene you it was for nothynge / that wyse men for bad you rule and gouernance of coūtreis and that saynt Paule byddeth you shall nat speke in congregatyon and gatherynge of people All this same meaneth / that you shall nat medle with matters of realmes or cities / your owne house is a cite great inoughe for you as for forthe abrode / neither knowe you / nor be you knowen Thucydides wolde nat that a good womā shulde be as moche as praysed with the comen voyce and moche lesse dispraysed But he wolde she shulde be clerely vnknowen / neither the comon fame to make any mētiō of her It is no great sygne of honesty for a womā to be moche knowen / talked / and sōge of and to be marked by some speciall name in many mennes mouthes as to be called fayre / or coclede yed / skwynt / browne / halte / fatte / pale or leane For these thynges in a good woman oughte to be vnknowen abrode / as we haue shewed in the boke afore Nat withstandyng ther be some that must nedes be a brode / for theyr lyuynge / as those that by sell whiche / if it were possible / I wolde nat that women shulde be put to those busynesses and if it muste nedes be so / let olde women do them / or maryed women that be paste myddle age But if yonge women must nedes do this / let them be curteise without flatterynge wordes / and shamfaste without presumsion / and rather take losse in theyr marchaundise / than in theyr honestye I say this bycause of some / whiche do entyse byers to them with excedyng flatteryng wordes But Plautus saithe / it is no poynt mete for an honest wyfe / but for a harlotte / to flatter other men whose dissaytes with in a whyle whan men knowe them / they escheme as warelye as the meremaydes songe Shamfastnes shall gette a great deale more gaynes / whom the byer shall coniecture bothe by the face and conditions / wyll neither lye nor disceyue them A ryche marchaunte hath pleasure in pleasant wordes and merye conceytes But yet fewe wyll gyue money for them and whan it cometh to the marchaundise in ernest / no man wyll beleue suche wanton speche But howe so euer these matters be / let a woman euer haue this in mynde and remembrance / that the only treasure of a woman is honestye with shamefastnes Nowe seynge I wolde haue an honeste wyfe thus ordred at home / you maye easily perceyue / howe I do alowe / that she shulde go to warre and hādle armour / whiche I wolde nat she shulde ones name And wolde to god all christen men wolde lay them away Nowe that wydowe Iudith is vanisshed away / whiche was but a shadowe and signyfication of thynges to come / and with her contynence and holynes cut of the hed of Holopherne / that is to say the deuyll Nowe Delbōra / that iudged Israel / gyueth place vnto the gospell of Christe howe be it she dyd nat helpe the
shall nat vse to tell vnto children vayne and tryflyng fables This same thynge is to be charged vnto the mothers tonge For by the reason of suche bryngyng vp some / after they be come to sadder age / haue suche childysshe and tender stomackes ▪ that they can nat abyde to here any thyng of wisedome or sadnes / but delyte all together in bokes of peuysshe fables / whiche neither be true / nor lykelye Therfore mothers shall haue redy at hande pleasant histories and honest tales / of the comendatiō of vertue / and rebukynges of vice And lette the childe here those fyrst and whan it can nat yet tell what is good and what is badde / it shall begynne to loue vertue and hate vice and so growe vp and waxe with those opinyons and shall go about to be lyke vnto them / whom he hath harde his mother cōmende vnlyke vnto those / who she hath dispraysed The mother shall reherse vnto them the laudes of vertue / and the disprayse of vice / and repete oftē tymes / to dryue them in to the childrēs remembraunce I wolde she shulde haue some holy sayenges and preceptes of lyuynge commenly in vse / whiche harde dyuers tymes / shall at the laste abyde in the childrens remēbraunce / though they gyue no hede vnto them For children rounne vnto theyr mother / and aske her aduise in all thyng they inquite euery thyng of her what some euer she answereth / they beleue and regarde and take hit euen for the gospell O mothers what an occasion be you vnto your children / to make them whether you wyll / good or badde Than shulde ryght and good opinions / and the pure fayth of Christe be enfunded in to theyr myndes / to dispise riches / power / honour / pompe / nobilite / and beautie / and to reken them for vayne and folisshe thynges but iustice / deuotion / boldenes / cōtynence / counnyng / mekenes mercye / and charite with mankynde / to reken these thynges goodly / and worthy to be regarded and vsed and to coūte them the true sure goodes Neither to haue in honour suche men / in whom those thynges be / that we spake of before / but in whom these be What someuer shall be spoken of any man / or done wisely / wyttyly / or honestly / let her prayse it vnto them And what someuer any mā hath done leudely / subtylly / falsely / shamfully / wickedlye / vngratiously / rebuke that sore Whan she enbraseth her chylde and kysseth it / and wyll pray hit some good lucke / let her nat pray of this fassion God make the rycher than euer was Cresus / or Crassus god make the more honourable / than euer was Pompeus or Cesar god make the more fortunate thā euer was Augustus But let her praye on this fassion Christe gyue the grace to be good and continent / and to dispise fortune of the worlde / to be vertuous / and folowe his steppis to do after saynt Paule / and make the more iuste thā euer was Cato / holyer than Socrates or Senecke / more counnyng than Plato or Aristotle / or more eloquent thanne Demosthenes or Tullius These let her reken for great thinges / and to be desyred These let her seke and wisshe for / that wolde pray for good thinges Let the mother neuer laugh at any worde or dede of the chylde / done leudelye / shamfully / noughtely / wantonly / or piercely / nor kysse it therfore For childrē wyll lyghtly vse them selfe vnto suche thȳges / as they se be pleasant and delectable / vnto theyr father and mother nor will nat loue them / after they be comen to mannes or womās estate Therfore the mother shall correcte the chylde for suche doynge and let it knowe / that it neither doth well / nor she is nat cōtēt ther with And agayne on the other syde / let her enbrace and kysse it / whan so euer it doth any thynge that is a sygne of goodnes The stoicke philosophers saye / that ther be certayne fyeres or sedes / whether you wyll call them / bredde by nature in vs / of the same iustice / in the whiche that fyrst father of mākynde was made by almyghty god that littell fyer / if it myght increase in vs / it wolde brynge vs vp vnto the perfection of vertue / and blessed lyuyuge But it is drowned with corrupte opinions and iugemētes And whan it begynneth to lyghte and flame vp a littell / it doth nat onely lacke nourisshement / but also is quēched with cōtrary blastis of wynde Fathers and mothers / nources / scholemaysters / kyns folkes / frendes / acquayntance / and the commen people / whiche is a mayster of great errour / all these do that they can to plucke vp those sedes / of vertue by the routes / and to ouer whelme that littell fyre / as sone as it begynneth to appere But all they regarde ryches moche / and gyue honoure vnto nobilite / and reuerēce vnto honour / and seke for power / and prayse beautie / worshyp pompe / and folowe pleasures But they trede pouertie vnder fete / and mocke symple mȳdes They suspecte deuotion / and hate counnynge and all kynde of vertue they call folly And whā someuer they pray for any thyng / they wysshe for those that I spake of before But if any body ones name these other thynges / they abhorre them as vnluckye sygnes And therfore these lye vnder fete / and be dispysed Neither any man applieth hymselfe vnto them but those other thynges be in regarde and price and all men rounneth vnto them For whereof I praye you commeth this / that we haue so many leude felowes and fooles / and so fewe good wyse men Whan that the good nature of mankynde is more inclined of it owne selfe vnto vertue / than vnto vice Therfore a good wyfe shall withstande these corrupted opinions / with other better / and more mete for Christen folkes and shall nourisshe vp in her children that lyttell fyre / that I spake of before and water those sedes with the droppes of good teachynge / that the fyre maye ryse vp vnto great lyght / and the sedes vnto moche and good corne Let her nat breake the strēgth both of theyr bodies / theyr wittes / and vertue / with wantō and daynty bryngyng vp I haue sene very fewe men come to great profe of either lernyng / witte / or vertue / that had be dayntly brought vp Neither the bodies can come vnto their due strēgth / whā they be febled with delicate kepynge And so whan mothers wene they saue their childrē / they lese them and whan they go about to kepe them in helthe strength / they folysshly mynysshe both their helth and theyr lyfe Let them loue theyr chyldren well / as conuenyent is and spare nat For who wolde eyther anull or dispreyse the lawe of nature Or what a crueltie
is hit / nat to loue them that thou hast borne But yet let them hyde their loue / lest the children take boldenes there vpō / to do what they lyste Nor lette nat loue stoppe her to punisshe her children for theyr vices / and to strength their bodies and wittes with sadde bryngynge vp For you mothers be the cause of mooste parte of ylnes amonge folkes wherby you maye se / howe moche your children are beholdyng vnto you / whiche induce noughty opinions in to them with your foly For you haue the bryngyng vp of them and you alowe theyr vnthriftynes And whan they be goynge vnto high vertue / and abhorre the ryches of the worlde / and the pompe of the deuyll you with your wepynge / and sharpe rebukynge / call them backe agayne in to the deuylles snares bycause you had leauer se them ryche thā good Agrippyna / mother vnto themperour Nero / whan she had asked south sayers of her sonne / whether he shuld be emperoure / yea sayde they / but he shall kyll his mother let hym kyll her sayd she / so that he maye be emperour And so he both was emperour kylled her But whan it came to the poynt / Agrippyna wolde nat gladly haue bene kylled / and repented that her son had th empyre Fynally you / through your cherishyng wil neither let them take laboure to lerne vertue and haue a pleasure to fyll them full of vices with delicatenes Therfore many of you wepe and wayle for I speke nat of all and be well punysshed and worthyly in this lyfe / for your madnes Whan you be sory to se your chyldren suche as your selfe haue made them Nor you be loued of them agayne / whan they perceyue them selfe vnloued of all other for your loue There is a certayne tale of a yonge mā / whiche whā he was led to be put to deth / desyred to speke with his mother and whan she came / layde his mouthe to her eare / and bote it of And whan the people that were by rebuked hym callȳg hym nat only a these / but also cursed / for so entreatynge his mother / he answered agayne This is the rewarde for her bryn gynge vp For if she / sayd he / had corrected me for stealing my felowes boke out of the schole / whiche was my fyrst thefte thā had I nat proceded vnto these mischeuous dedes But she cherysshed me / kyssed me for my doyng Nowe where to shulde I reherse the madnes of those mothers / that loue better those children / that be foule / croked / leude / dullardes / sluggardes / droūkerdes / vnruely / and folisshe / than those / that be fayre / vpryght / counnyng / quicke witted / inuentyue / sober / treatable / quiet and wyse Whether is this an errour of folkes myndes / or a punysshement of god / deserued for their syns / to make them to loue suche thȳges / as be worthy no loue Dūme beastis cherysshe euer the fayrest of their whelpes / or byrdes / lightly hit is a sygne of good proffe in them / whan the dāmes make moche of them Also hūters knowe that that shal be the best dogge / whiche the damme is most busye about / and for whom she careth the most / and carieth fyrst in to her lytter But in mākynde that is the moste vile and the least worthe / that the mother loueth most tenderly If you will beloued in dede of your children / and specially in that age / whan they knowe what is true and holy loue / thā make them nat to loue you ouer moche / whan they knowe nat yet what loue is but sette more by a spised cake / a hunnye combe / or a pece of sugare / than by bothe father and mother No mother loued her childe better thā myne dyd me neither any chylde dyd euer lesse perceyue hym selfe loued of his mother than I. She neuer lyghtely laughed vpon me she neuer cokered me and yet whā I had ben .iii. or .iiij. dayes out of her house / that she wyst nat where / she was almost sore sicke And whan I was comen home / I coulde nat perceyue that euer she longed for me Therfore was ther no body / that I more fled / or was more lothe to come nyghe / than my mother / whan I was a childe But after I came to yonge mānes estate / there was no body / whom I delited more to haue in syghte Whose memorye nowe I haue in reuerence / as afte as she cometh to my remēbraūce / I enbrace her with in my mynde and thoughte / whan I can nat with my body I had a frende at Paris / a very well lerned man Whiche amonge other great benefites of god / rekened this for one that his mother was deade / that sherysshed hym so wonderously Whiche sayd he if she had lyued / I had neuer come to Paris to lerne But had syt styll at home all my lyfe / amōge dicyng / drabbes / delycates / and pleasures / as I begounne Howe coude this man loue his mother / that was so glad of her dethe But a wyse mother shall nat wysshe for pleasures vnto her childe / but vertue Nor for ryches / but for counnyng / and good fame And rather for an honest dethe / than for an vncomly lyfe The women of Lacedemon / had leauer their sonnes shulde dye honestelye for the defence of they ▪ coūtrey / than fle to saue theyr lyues And we rede in histories / that many of them haue kylled with theyr owne hādes / theyr sonnes / that were cowardes and dastardes / pronouncyng these wordes This was neuer my sonne / Nor borne in Lacedemone Sophia whiche had .iij. goodly daughters / named them with .iij. names of vertue / hope / faith / and charite / and was very glad to se them all dye for the honour of Christe / buried them her owne selfe / nat farre from Rome / in the tyme of Hadryan themperour Let nat the mothers be so diligēt in teachynge theyr children craftes to gette good by / as to make them vertuous Neither shall bydde them take exāple of suche as haue gathered moche goodes in shorte space but rather of suche as haue comen vnto great vertue and goodnes The people of Megara is dispreysed / and nat without a cause / for teachyng theyr children nygardshyppe and couetyse and in stede of honest children / made them sparynge bonde men Wherfore they caused suche thynges / as wese chaunseth nowe adayes / that with byddyng them so ofte / seke for good / get good / increase theyr good / and gether good by all meanes / they caused their children to do myschiefe vngratious dedes The whiche faute is a great parte in the fathers and mothers / whiche be coūsaylours / causers / and setters vpon / and as good reason was / whan the children coulde fynde none other wayes to come by ryches /
they robbed their fathers and mothers And if they sawe that all was so well and closely layde vp / that they coulde nat come by it / than begoūne they to hate theyr fathers and mothers / and wysshe for theyr dethes / and seke meanes to rydde them away And hit is playnly knowen / that many haue poysoned theyr fathers mothers / bycause they thought to lōge / to tarry tyll they dyed for age Often tymes they rebuke theyr fathers and mothers of theyr owne vices / as though they had lerned them by theyr example or neglygence For the vnthrifty yonge man / whiche had an vnthrifty father / sayd of this fassyon I wyll impute myne vnthriftynes vnto my father For I was nat brought vp with sadde meanour / neither vnder the lawe of a well ordered house / whiche moughte haue instructed my maners better / plucked me from those vices / that myne age was inclyned to But whan that fyrste age of children ought to be holden vnder / kepte in by sad orderyng / lest it fall vnto vice / through ouer mothe libertie / from whiche it will be harde to plucke them agayne and as the wyse man counsayleth / neuer haue the rodde of the boyes backe specially the daughters shulde be handled without any cherysshyng For cherysshyng marreth the sonnes / but hit vtterly distroyeth the daughters And mē be made worse with ouer moche libertie / but the women be made vngratious For they be so set vpon pleasures and fantasyes / that excepte they be well brydled and kepte vnder / they rounne on heed in to a thousāde myscheffes Nowe howe the daughters oughte to be brought vp / I haue shewed in the boke afore Therfore the mother shall rede hit / bothe bycause there be many thynges pertaynynge vnto maryed women / and bycause hit is the mothers dutie / to se that the doughters do that we teache there And whan the mothers haue prouided as well as they cā by wordes / that no foule / vncomely / or vnclenly thynge / or ieoperdous / or vngratious abyde in the childes mynde / than shall they prouide moste of all / both by example and dedes / that the childe se nothynge / whiche can nat he counterfeted folowed without shame For as I sayd before / that age is euen almost lyke an ape / and doth nothynge of it selfe / but all by counterfetynge of other And though the fathers and mothers by their auctorite and loue / and also commaundement / put the ill examples of other folkes out of the chyldrens myndes / yet they can nat rebuke that they do them selfe or though they wold rebuke it / yet wyll nat children be so moche moued with that / that they here / as with that / that they se Wherfore the poet Iuuenall saythe full well / that thexamples of fathers mothers / may do more / than a great deale of warnyng and teachyng / of a great sorte of maisters for they shal do them more hurte by thexample of one ill dede / thā they haue done them good by moche holy counsaylyng And therfore the afore sayd poet counsayleth wyfely in the .xiiii. Satyre on this maner Let nothynge / that is fylthy to speake or se / Come nere those dores / wherin chyldren be Awaye with songes of baudes / wenches lyghte / And skoffyng iauels / that walken all nyght Thou shuldest gyue children great reuerence / If thou go about any inconuenyence Nor set at lyght a childes yeres and age But whan thou fallest in to outrage Yet for thy lyttell childe whiche is in syght Refrayne that foule acte with all thy myght Celius Plinius dispreiseth Numydia Ouadratilla / bycause she kepte and sherisshed players and testers / more than was conuement for a noble woman Nat with standynge he cōmendeth the elde womās wisedome in this poynt / bicause she wolde nat suffre her Neuewe Quadratus / to loke vpon her players / neither with in her house / nor in the comon playeng place And whā someuer she wold here them / or was about to take her pastyme in playenge at the cheseis / she vsed to commaūde her neuewe to go his waye and studye his boke The same afore sayde Plinius / gyueth great thankes by a letter vnto Hyspula / his wyues aūte / bycause she had brought vp and instructed his wyfe with good lernynge / whiche neuer sawe any thynge in her auntes house / but honest and vertuous and no doubte / moche more diligence ought to be gyuē about the doughters / that nothynge blotte theyr demucenes / thastite / or sadnes / bycause these thȳges be required more perfite in a woman than a man And the females in all kyndes of beastis be folowe example moste wittily / and euer more redely and more peiferely the vices / whiche thyng the male doth also Wherfore she wyll lightly do that / whiche she seeth her mother do / or any other woman that she seeth regarded of folkes Neither she can refrayne her selfe / if she haue their example for auctorite Wherfore in suche countres / where the noble and gentyll women be badde / there be but fewe of the lowe degre and comunaltie good And than they that be brought vp of yll women / be nat lyghtly any other them selfe Howe be it the daughter resembleth nat so moche her mother / as her the hath brought norisshed her vp Wherfore many bastardes / whiche haue be brought vp with their graunmothers on the fathers syde / beynge vertuous womē / haue gone out of theyr mothers kȳde / and felowed the lyfe and holines of their granmothers / that nourisshed them Cato thelder / banysshed Gaius Manlius out of the senate house / bycause he kyssed his owne wyfe / his doughter beynge by For that ignorant age vnderstādeth nat / Wherfore euery thyng is done / but it wyll represēt the same actis / lyke as a glasse representeth the fassions of bodies / set afore it / but nat in the same condition Whiche thynge the most wyse and holy man Eleazar vnderstandyng / whan he was commaunded by that statute of kyng Antiochus / to eate swynes flesshe / and refused it / and was counsailed by pagannes that were his frendes / at least wyse to make countenance / as though he dyd eate hit / that he myght vnder that coloure escape / as though he had obeyed the kynges wyll / he made answere that he had leauer dye / than do any thynge that myght gyue yll example to yonge folkes / spake vnto them in these wordes For it is nat cōuenient nor becommyng for myne age / to vse any symulation / that yonge men may suspecte Eleazer / whiche nowe is paste ixxx yet is and tenne of age / is turned vnto the lyfe of alyantes and infidels and so they by the meanes of my symulation / and for a litell space of this corruptible lyfe / shall be disceyued and by that meanes shall I get a shame
and course vnto myn olde age For though I scape the punysshement of men / at this present tyme yet shall I nat scape the handes of almighty god / neither quicke nor deade Wherfore I will do as is be comyng for myne age / dye boldly / and leaue an example of noble stomacke vnto yonge men / whan I shall take an honest dethe with a redy and bolde minde / for the most holy and vertuous lawes As sone as this was sayd / he was streight caried vnto executiō / and they that ledde hym / whiche were more fauorable to hym before / were than displeased / for the wordes that he hadde spoken / whiche they thought that he had sayd of p̄sumtion / but whā he was nygh beaten to deathe / he tried out said Lorde thou that haste holye knowlege / thou knowest playnly / that whan I might haue bene deliuered from deth / yet I suffre harde paynes of my body I suffre them gladly with all myn harte / for dreade of the. And so he departed awaye / leauynge a memoriall of his dethe / for an example of vertue and boldenes / nat onely vnto yonge men / but vnto all his nation Therfore the sōnes shulde be enformed and taught with examble of theyr father Neither ther ought any thyng to be shewed vnto them / that maye be tourned lyghtely vnto vice / lest they tourne it more lyghtely / both by the reason of theyr owne ignorance / and by the reason of mannes nature / whiche is inclyned vnto the wors Our lorde punysshed Hely / the iudge and bisshop of Israell / nat bycause he gaue any yll example vnto his sonnes Ophin and Phinees / but bycause he dyd nat punysshe his yll and vngratious sonnes Therfore he perysshed with a fall out of his chayre / and the heritage of his benifice was gyuen awaye vnto another kynred Nowe howe moche more greuous vengeaunce wyll he take vpon suche fathers / as teache theyr children either by counsayle / or by theyr example / to lyue vngratiously and seynge that the punysshement of the sonnes whiche were adulterars / redounded vnto the father / bycause he dyd nat prohibet them / as moche as lay in hym What shall he do to suche fathers / that excite and moue theyr children vnto lechery / pleasures / vngratious acces / either with wordes / orels with dedes And on the other syde / of the woman that accustonies her children vnto vertue / the maister of the pagannes saynt Paule / speaketh in this maner The woman hath gone out of the waye by transgressyon / howe be hit she shall be saued by bryngynge for the of children / if she continewe in faithe / charite / and holynes with chastite Of twyse maryed women / and of stepmothers The .xij. Chap. SVche as marye agayne / after the dethe of theyr fyrste husbandes / besyde all that we haue write here before / muste be warned this thynge / to take hede / lest they displease theyr husbandes / whiche they haue / with ouer moche rehersyng of theyr fyrst husbandes The conditiō of the worlde is suche / that euer folkes reken thynges past better than thynges that be present the cause why is / bicause no felicite is so great / but it hath moche displeasure and bytternes myngled with it whiche so longe as it is p̄sent / greueth vs fore but whā it is ones gone / it leaueth no great felynge of it selfe behynde it and for that cause we seme the lesse troubled with sorowes paste / thā with sorowes present Also age rounneth on a pace / whiche may euery day wors than other suffre displeasure / is more feble to sustayne casualties chaunsynge More ouer the remembraunce of the fourther and more lustye age / and as it were a comparyson of hit with the more paynfull age / causeth great werynes of the present state / and longynge for that whiche is past But Solomon wolde nat haue suche thoughtes to come in to the mynde of a wise man / for to reken the yeres past better than the yeres present Neither a wyse woman oughte to counte or reken her husbande / whiche is deade / better thā hym / whiche she hath on lyue For they be ofte disceyued in this poynte / bycause / if any thyng dislyke them in theyr husbāde / whom they haue / than call they to remembraunce only suche poyntes as pleased them in theyr fyrst husbādes And that thyng they do the more spiteously / if theyr present husbande discontent their mynde in those thynges / wherin their fyrst husbandes dyd them pleasure / than without all consyderation of other thynges / they compare theyr husbādes together onely in that and there vpon ryseth payne / whynynge / and troublous wordes / agayne theyr husbandes And whyles they bewayle complayne the mys of theyr deade husbande / they kepe nother As for stepmothers they haue an yll name / as malicious towarde theyr husbādes chyldrē of the whiche thyng there be many examples in memorye Therfore women muste be warned ofte to rule their owne braydes and fantasyes of mynde for there of cometh the fountayne and begynnyng of all both ill and good And if thou suffce thy braydes to rule the / they wyll brynge vpon the a great noumber of troubles / and myseryres / which afterwardes thou shalte nat lyghtely shake of But if thou rule them / thanne shalte thou lyue holly and fortunatly And that thynge thou shalte optayne / if thou wylte study diligently / whyles thy mynde is at rest and quietnes / howe thou mayste behaue thy selfe / whan causes of motion and trouble come vpō the. Therfore stepmothers be nat rough and vnreasonable / sauynge suche / whose passions and braydes of mynde playeth the tyrātes ouer them and they do nat rule theyr braydes / but folowe serue them For she that is ledde with discretion / reason / and cōsyderation / shall rekē her selfe her husbāde all one And therfore she shall coūte both his childrē hers comen to them both For if that frendship make all thing comen amonge frendes / in so moche that many haue loued and fauoredde theyr frēdes children as theyr owne / howe moche more abundantly and perfetly ought wedlocke to cause the same / whiche is the hyghest degre / nat only of all frendshippes / but also of all bloode and kynred Moreouer / she ought to haue compassyō of theyr tender and weake age / in remembraunce of her owne For if she haue children / she shall loue others to remembrynge that the chaunce of the worlde is in difference / and that her chyldren shal fynde suche fauoure of other folkes / whether she dye or lyue / as she hath shewed to other folkes children And in dede a good woman wyll be vnto her husbandes chyldren that / whiche she maye here them cal her so oftē / that is mother For what woman is so farre out of all humanyte
and gētilnes / that wyll nat be moued and mytygated with this worde / mother / of whom so euer hit is sayde And specially of chyldren / whiche can nat flatter / but speke so euē with theyr stomacke / lyke as they wolde theyr owne mother / of whom they were borne Howe swete is the name of frendship Howe many displeasures and hateredes doth it put awaye Thame / howe moche more effectuall oughte the name of mother to be / whiche is full of incredible charite Thou most irefull woman / dost thou nat mollyfye / whan thou herest thy selfe named mother Thou arte more ragious than any wylde beaste / if that name wyllnat sturre the. For there is no beaste so ragious and cruelle / but if another yonge of hit owne kynde faune vpon hit / hit wyll be by and by mylde vnto hit And thy husbandes children can nat make the gentyll and mylde with swete wordes Thou arte called mother / and shewest thy selfe an enemye Thou many tymes gatherest hate without cause / and vseste vpon that weake and immcent age And whan it were conuenyent / that all Christen mē shulde be as bretherne to the in beniuolēce and charite / thou hatest those / that be conioyned vnto the in house and blode / and that be bretherne vnto thy chyldren Hit is maruayle / that the soule of their mother doth nat pursue the / vexe and trouble the. Do you vnderstāde / you stepmothers that be suche / that your vnruely ire and hate commeth but of the dreames of your owne folly For why do nat stepfathers hate theyr wyues childrē in lyke maner For there is no stepfather / but heloueth his wyues saie as wel as his owne I haue redde of many stepfathers / that hath gyuen the inheritance of realmes vnto their wyues sonnes / euen as they had bene their owne / as Augustus sefte th empyre of Rome vnto Tyberius / and Claudius vnto Nero ▪ And yet had Augustus childrens childrē childre of them agaye and Claudins had a sonne Whiche thynge they dyd nat for lacke of knowlege / that they were nat theyr owne sonnes / but bycause they perceyued in reason and consideration / that there was no cause of hate betwene stepfathers and steppesonnes / excepte theyr owne condition dyd cause it For what offence hathe stepsonnes made vnto theyr stepfathers / excepte they haue offended them bycause they were nat theyr owne sonnes As for that thynge lay in goddes handes / and nat in mannes power Yea but some wolde say / the stepfathers do nat play and trifle with theyr stepsōnes / as theyr mothers wolde To make answere there vnto / by that argument theyr naturall fathers do nat loue them But wherto shulde I say any thyng of the stepfathers loue / whan there be some mothers so mad / that they wene theyr husbandes loue nat theyr owne naturall children / bycause they do nat trifle and fole with them all the daye and all the nyghte styll / as them selfe doth Man can nat dote as the woman can For that same stronge stomake of mā can holde and couer loue well inough / and ruleth it / and dothe nat obey hit But you stepmothers / why do nat you euer kysse / combe / and pyke your stepchildren / as you do your owne ther is so great darkenes of mysty fātasies ī your mȳdes / that what so euer you loue / you thȳke euery body shulde loue that same / that no man loueth that inough and what so euer you hate / you thinke is worthy to be hated of euery man / and that euery body loueth that to moche And some there be / whiche whā they hate theyr stepsonnes deadly / yet they swere they loue them whiche be madde / and if they beleue / that any man wyll beleue them And yet they be more madde / if they wene to disceyue god Doest thou loke after / that Christe shulde here the / whā thou callest hym father / whan thou wrythyest awaye from the steppe chyldren / callynge the mother Saynt Johan thappostle dothe nat beleue that any suche doth loue the inuisible god / that hateth his brother / whom he loketh vpon Howe she shall behaue her selfe with her kynsfolkes and alyaunce The .xiii. Chap. THe great lerned man Nigidius Figulus sayth / the deryuation and signification of syster is as though I wolde saye / seperate and goynge asyde / bycause she is seperate goeth in to another house and kynred Whiche thyng seyng it is so / that womā that is maried shall begynne to be more seruyseable vnto her alyaunce / than to her kyns folkes / and so hit is conuenient for many causes Forst / bicause she is as it were skyfted and planted in to that kyn / vnto whiche she shall beare children / and the whiche she shall multtylye with her temynge Secondly / bycause she hath the benyuolēce and loue of her owne kynsfolkes alredy Therfore she must seke for the loue of her alyaunce after wardes Thyrdlye / that her chyldren maye haue the more loue of their fathers kynted / whan they shall be holpen nat only with the beniuolence of theyr father / but also of theyr mother And in shorte conclusion / hit shall be cause of many pleasures / if thou be loued of thyne alyaunce / many displeasures if thou be hated And this was the thynge that those men loked after / whiche skyfted manage out of kynred in to other folkes / that loue and frendshyp amonge peaple myght spreade the broder Therfore it is conuenient / diligētly to get the loue of thyne alyaunce / or if thou haue it all redy / to kepe holde it Hit is saide / that mothers in lawes beare a stepmothers hate vnto theyr doughters in lawes And agayne / doughters in lawes beare no great loue and charite towarde their mothers in lawe Therfore Terence after the comon custome and opinyon of people / sayth All mother in lawes hate their doughter in lawes And these was a mery woman / whiche whan she sawe her mother in lawes image made in sugare / she sayd / hit was bytter Plutarche / and saynt Hieronyme takynge of his auctorite / where he writeth agaȳst Iouinian / telleth / that it was an olde custome in Lepers / a cite of Affcyke / that a newe maryed wyfe / on the nexte daye after her maryage / shulde come vnto her mother in lawe / and pray her to lende her a porte and she shulde say she had none to thenrēt that the yonge wyfe myght knowe / by and by after her maryage / the stepmotherly hate of her mother in lawe / and be lesse greued afterwardes / if any thyng bechanced that she wolde nat But whā I consyder the cause of this enemyte / me thynke both theyr enuies very folysshe For the man standeth as hit were in the myddes betwene his mother and his wyfe and so either of them hateth other / as an expulser of her selfe
The mother is discontent / that all her sonnes loue shulde be tourned vnto her doughter in lawe and the wyfe can nat suffce any to beloued / but her selfe And there of ryfeth hate / enuye / and braulyng / as it were be twene two dogges / if a man stryke and sherysshe the one the other beynge bye Pythagoras scholers in olde tyme / and those that were of his secte / dyd nat reken frendship mynysshed / the mo that come vnto it but to be the more encreased and streÌ„gthed so the mother ought nat to thynke her selfe a mother euer the lesse / if her sonne marye a wyfe nor the wyfe ought to counte her selfe a wyfe the lesse / if she haue a mother in lawe but rather either of them ought to reconsile the man vnto the other / if any discorde chaunce betwene them Thou folishe mother in lawe / woldest thou nat haue thy sonne to loue his wyfe / whiche is a companyon frende inseparable Coudeste thou haue suffered nat to haue bene loued of thyne owne husbande What greatter mysery canst thou wisshe vnto thy sonne / than for to dwell with his wyfe with displeasure And thou folysshe doughter in lawe / woldeste nat thou haue thy husbande to loue his mother doest nat thou loue thy mother Thou shalt be loued of thy husbande as his felowe and dere mate and thy husbaÌ„de shal loue his mother / as vnto whom he is dounde / for his lyfe his norisshyng / and his bryngyng vp and therfore he oweth great loue kyndnes The daughter in lawe / knowynge that her husbaÌ„de and she is all one / shall reken her husbandes mother her owne / and shall loue her and reuerence her no lesse than her naturall mother / but be more seruiseable vnto her / that she maye bynde her the more to loue her She shall nat be displeased / if her husbande loue his mother / but rather and she be a good and a vertuous womaÌ„ / if she se hym nat behaue hym selfe vnto his mother accordynge lyke / she shall exhorte hym and desyre hym to behaue hym selfe as a son ought vnto his mother There is no mother in lawe so out of reason / but she wyll be the better content / if she knowe her doughter in lawe chaste / louyng to her husbaÌ„de Agrippina / nece vnto Augustus theÌ„perour by his doughter Iulia / whiche was maried vnto Germanicus / neuew vnto Liuia theÌ„presse / by her sonne Drusus / she was hated of Liuia / both as a doughter iÌ„ lawe / and as a stepdoughter / was of her owne nature bothe sharpe shrewed inough but she was so chaste of body / and so louyng vnto her husbande / that with those two vertues she altered the fyerce mynde of her mother in lawe Liuia / and tourned hit to good The doughters in lawe ought to nourisshe and sustayne theyr mothers in lawe in theyr necessite / none other wyse / thanne if they were theyr owne mothers Ruth / a Moabite borne / lefte her countre and all her kynne / for her mother in lawe / bycause she wolde nat leaue the olde myserable woman in sorowe and heuynes Therfore she bothe comforted her with wordes / nourisshed and founde her with her laboure / and in all conditioÌ„s fulfylled the roume of a doughter neither that same great charite of Ruth lacked rewarde For by the counsayle and helpe of her mother in lawe she gate Booz vnto her husbande / a great ryche man / and bare Isai the prophet / and was graundemother to kynge Dauid / of whose stocke our lorde Christe was borne Howe she shall lyue with her sonne or her doughter maryed / and howe with her sonnne in lawe and doughter in lawe The .xiiij. Chap. AS it is conuenient for the wyfe to apply her selfe vnto her husbandes discretion and wyll in all other thynges so whan any of her children shall be maryed / that both Aristotle in the seconde boke of house kepyng / teacheth / and reason byddeth / that the holle auctorite ouer the childreÌ„ shulde be gyuen to the fathers So by the lawes of Rome / chyldren were nat vnder the mothers rule / but the fathers and that so longe as he lyued / though they were maried / and of great age / excepte they were at theyr owne lybertie Nowe howe great power ought fathers to haue ouer theyr owne children / whaÌ„ god wolde the Ioseph shulde haue some auctorite ouer Christe Changell of our lorde / what tyme he shewed vnto Iosephe in his dreame / that that / whiche was in the wombe of Mary / was nat conceyued by mannes generation / but by the power and worke of the holy goost She shall sayd he / beare a sonne / thou shalte call his name Iesus He sayd nat / she shall beare the a sonne / as thuse is to say to the owne fathers For women beare children vnto theyr husbaÌ„des and yet he sayd / thou shalt call hym Wherby he signyfied the power and auctorite of hym / whiche was his father apparent / whan he hadde said vnto the virgin / His name shal be called Iesus A wyse woman shall nat pursue her doughter in lawe / nor wene that she wynneth loue with hatyng her / neyther of her nor of her sonne If she loue her / gyue her good couÌ„sayle / and teache her And if she do afore her suche thynges / as maye be example vnto her doughter in lawe / both of chastite and so bernes And if she make no discorde betwene the maried couples / but if any chaunce betwene them by reason of other / auoyde it / and reconsyle them agayne with all her myght Fynally / if she beare a motherly affectioÌ„ towarde her doughter in lawe / she shall lyghtely brynge to passe / that bothe her sonne shall be more bounde vnto her / and shall optayne great loue and reuerence of her doughter in lawe For howe moche more shall he loue her / of whom he hath ben borne / by whom he hath his wyfe / both more chaste and more sober / and better agreynge with hym / wherby he shall be bounde vnto her nat only for that benyfite / that she is his mother / but also bicause she hath be the instructrice of his wyfe / and causer of a great parte of his felicite And the doughter in lawe on her partie shall beare none other minde vnto her mother in lawe / than if she were her owne mother / by whom she hath â—othe gotten more knowlege / and is made better / hath her husbaÌ„de more pleasant louyÌ„g vnto her And in a sharpe a rygorous mother in lawe all thyng chauÌ„seth coÌ„trary As for that daughtÌ„ that is maryed / the mother shall nat desyre to haue so moche her owne / as whaÌ„ she was a mayde / but remeÌ„bre / that than she is skyfted in to another house kynred / to eÌ„crease that stocke but she may
qualitees of the ayer or erthe / where they dwell But the nature of the countrey is cause of no vicis For than the coūtrey ought to be punysshed / and nat the offensours We take no vice of the heuen / or ayer / but of our owne maners For vnder euery skye is both good lyuynge and yll Nor there is no countrey so wretched in the worlde / that it ne hath some good people there in nor none so good / but hit hath some naught I haue sayd here afore / that I haue sene some / nothyng moued with the deth of their husbandes Lyke wyse / I haue sene some / that wold with a ryght good wyll haue quitte their husbandes lyfes with theyr owne Wherfore ther is no reson / why they shulde lay theyr fautes in the condicion of the Region For in the countrey / that is called Getica / the ayer is colde / and yet say the Pomponius Mela / that the very womē lacke no stomake to dye on the bodyes of theyr husbādes / and haue a speciall desyre to be buryed with them And bycause chat the custome is there to mary many women vnto one mā / there is great stryuyng amōge them / whiche shall haue the prayse there in / of them that shall gyue the iudgement The victory is gyuen to the most vertuous and hit is a great pleasure to them that may optayne hit Lyke wyse great lerned men wryte / that women vse to do in Ynde Also in olde tyme the women of Almayne / from whens the Flandryns toke theyr originall fyrste begynnyng / maried neuer but of maydes and so made an ende of all hope and desyre of mariage at ones For they toke one husbāde as one body and soule / and neuer desyred / nor thought of maryage after hym as though they loued the matrimony it selfe / and nat the husbādes Wherby nowe thou mayst se / that vertues and maners be chaunged with abundance / ryches / and pleasures and the euyll fyre of ryches quencheth the good fyre of charite All the lawe of Christe soundeth noue other thyng / but charite / loue / and heate For our lorde sayth I am comen to cast fyre in to the erthe / go about nothyng so moche as to make it to bourne But whanne we couple the ryche deuyll to poure Christe / and vnto sobre vertue / reuell and dronkenes / vnto chast sadnes desolute and wanton pleasures / pagante and hethennes vnto Christianite / and the deuyll to god than god disdaynyng suche felowship taketh his gyftes from vs / and leaueth vs the gyftes of the deuyll Nat withstandyng / it may so chaunce / that there be in womēs myndes suche constauncy and stedfastnes / that they maye comforte them selfe and though they be ouercome opressed / may by wysedome yet recouer agayne That wolde I greatly preyse in a man / but in suche a frayle kynde / hit is no good token to haue so passynge great wysedome I haue harde of great wyse men / that haue taken very heuyly the dethe of but lyght frendes / and wepte for them habundantly Solon / whiche made the lawes of the people of Athens / one of the .vij. wyse men / commaūded his owne buryall to be kepte with wepȳg and waylynge / that his frendes myght shewe / howe moche they loued hym Also after that Lucrecia was slayne in Rome / whan Iunius Brutus / whiche was reuengeor of her dethe and rape / done by the kynges sonne / had dryuen the kynges out of Rome / and warre was made agaynst the kynge In the fyrst settynge together / this Brutus was kylde / and the wyues of the cite mourned a twelue moneth the deth of hym / that had be the defender of their chastite And yet mourned they / but an other womans husbande / and bicause he defended an other womās chastite Tha howe moche more oughtest thou to mourne the deth of hym / that is the defender of thyne owne chastite / sauer and keper of thy body / father and tutour of thy children / welthe of thy house / householde / and thy goodes / yea and more to / thy gouernour lorde And thou woldest wepe in dede / if thou shuldest nat departe rycher from hym / than thou camest to hym But nowe the ioye of money / taketh away all the grefe of thy sorowe Thou woldest wepe for his dethe / if thou haddest loued hym / whan he was on lyue But nowe thou art nat sorye for his departynge / whom thou settest nothyng by / whā thou haddest hym Also many be glad / that theyr husbādes begone / as who were ryd out of yocke and bondage and they reioyse that they be out of domynion and bonde / and haue recoueredde theyr lybertie but they be of a folysshe opinion For the shyppe is nat at liberte / that lacketh a gouernour / but rather destitute neither a chylde that lacketh his tutoure / but rather wandrynge without order and reason Nor a woman / whan her husbande is gone For thā she is in dede as she is called a wydowe / that is to say / desarte and desolate Than is she in dede tost at aluētures / as a shyp / lackynke a maister and is caried without discression and cōsyderatiō / as a childe whan his ouer seer is out of the waye Here parauenture some wolde say / He was suche an husbāde / that better were to be without hym / thā to haue hym But so wolde neuer good womā say / nor yll kepe it in For if he were of the beloued as the lawes of god do commaunde / he shulde be / that is to say / as he were thy selfe thou wolde be as sorye that he shulde dye / as thy selfe Vnto an il woman / excepte her husbande let her haue her Itberte to all vices / that her mynde lyeth to / he is in tollerable But vnto a good woman / no husbande can be so yll / that she ne had leauer haue his lyfe than his dethe But what shulde I speake moche of this matter I haue shewed inough in the boke a fore / that she is neither worthy the name of a good woman nor wyfe / that can nat loue her husbande with all her harte / as her selfe O circumspecte nature / or rather god / the mooste wyse mayster of all good maners There is no kynde of vertue / but he hath created some lyuyng thyng / that vseth it / for to reprehende reproue those that dispice that vertue as bees by theyr crafte reproue the leudnes of them / that can nothyng do And the faithfulnes of dogges damneth the vntrustynes of fals people shepe condemne fraudes and gyles with their symplenes stockedoues and turtuls gyue exāple of true faithfull loue / in mariage For those byrdes / as Aristole sayth / lyue content with one male nor take none other The turtle doue / whanne her male is deade / neither drynketh lyquore /
Christe her spouse wyll lyghtly helpe her that wyll lyue vertuouslye And if we do any thyng well / we ought to thanke hym therfore and if we do ill / it is to be referred to our selfe And as a man hath all his ioye in his wyfe / if she be good / in like wyse no man can beleue howe pleasant and amiable she is to Christ / that playeth the wydowe in dede / that is to say / the whiche beyng desolate in this lyfe / hath all her hope and truste / and all her ioye and delyte in Christe And suche saynt Paule commaundeth to the bysshoppes to haue in regarde for by theyr prayer the churche optayneth many thynges of Christe For suche a one deserued to se Christe fyrste in the temple / and to prophesie of hym to them that were preseÌ„t Suche a wydowe is praysed by the mouthe of god / is commended to vs in this commaundement in the C.xxx psalme / where our lorde sayth I shal blesse this wydowe And in the prophet Esai Thou shalte nat hurte a wydowe / or a childe that is vnder age For if thou hurte them / they shall crye to me / and I shall here theyr cryenge / and shal be displeased / and strycke the with my sworde / your wynes shal be wydowes / and your childreÌ„ fatherles Howe they shall vse themselfe at home The .v. Chaptre NAt withstandynge that holy men wolde wydowes shulde be ofte in the churche / and styll in prayer / yet they dyd nat vtterly forbyd them worldly busynes For saynt Paule saith of wydowes / wrytynge vnto Tymothe If any widowe haue chidren / or childreÌ„s children / let her fyrst lerne to handle her owne house vertuously / do for her progenitours agayne Let the wydowe teache this / let the childreÌ„ lerne this / that is to behaue them selfe lowly louyngly to theyr fathers and mothers / graundfathers graundmothers For we se hit chaunseth ofte tymes / that they that be broughte vp with a wydowe / by the meanes of her ouer moche sufferaunce and cherysshynge / be stobborne inobedient to them / whom they shuld obeye in so moche that in some countreis / and inespeciall in myne / hit is vsed in a comon prouerbe / to call them wydowes kocneis / that be ill brought vp children / and that be selfe wylde and vnthryfty yonge men Therfore I wolde counsayle a yonge womaÌ„ / beyng a wydowe / to put the bryngyng vp of her children vnto some good sad man For she is so blynded with the loue of them / that she thynketh she dealeth hardly with them / whan she maketh of them most Howe be it some hath be great wyse women / and hath brought vp theyr children both very well wysely As Cornelia / that brought vp Gracchus her son Veturia / whiche brought vp Martius Coriliane in so moche / that what noble acte so euer he dyd in the coÌ„mon welthe / either at home or from home / he was euer incited with this thyng / that he myght do so / that it myght be alowable to his mother / that had brought hym vp But howe children shulde be brought vp I haue taught in the boke afore Therfore let the wydowe loke there / whatsoeuer maketh for this purpose And as for theyr householde / the appostle aforesaid / wrytethe of hit If any wydowe do nat se to her owne frendes specially / she denyeth her fayth / and is worse than an infidell Yet lest she be to homely / to put her selfe in presse / in company of her seruauÌ„tes / namely if she be yoÌ„ge / let her here what saynt Hieronyme sayth / writyng vnto Saluina Chastite sayth he / in women is a brytyll thyng / and lyke a goodly flower wyddereth and dryeth with a lytell wether / and a small blaste and namely if the age be apte to vice / and the aucthorite of the husbande lacking / whose spirite is the defender of the wyfe What shulde a wydowe do amonge a great noumbre of men seruauntes / whiche I wolde nat she shulde set at nought / as bondmen / but abasshe and regarde as meÌ„ Howe be it / if she haue a great house / that requireth moche mannes seruice / let her make some wel aged man ruler / that is sadde and discrete / and of good conditions / whose honestie shal be his maistres worship For I haue knowen many that haue shutte vp theyr dores / and haue nat comen abrode / and yet haue had an yll name with theyr owne seruauÌ„tes / whom ouer gorgious aê‘ell of the seruaÌ„t hath caused to be suspected / orels the welfare good lykyng of his bodye / or age apte for pleasure / or pride / or high myÌ„de / by the reasoÌ„ that he knewe he was loued of his maystres whiche loue / though hit be well hyd / yet many tymes hit appereth / whan he dispiseth his felowes / as they were his bondmen These be the wordes of saynt Hieronyme vnto the whiche I adde this more ouer / That beste is for a wydowe to mynysshe her householde / in especial of meÌ„ / and to take vnto her some well aged woman / wyse and vertuous / with whom she may leade her lyfe and aske counsayle of her in suche matters as pertayne to women And if she be aged her selfe / let her take to her some olde man / that is some kynsman of hers / or of her alyaunce / whom she may trust vnto And fynally / let her euer vse the counsaile of that man / that she knoweth hath good wytte / and wolde her profet / and is trusty The olde Romayns wolde / that the women shulde euer be vnder the rule of theyr fathers / and bretherne / and husbandes / kynsmeÌ„ Let her dwelle rather with her mother in lawe / or her husbandes alyaunce and kynsfolkes / thanne with her owne / both for the remembraunce of her husbande / for whose sake hit may appere / that she loueth better his kyn his blode / than her owne And in as moche as she is traÌ„slated in to that kynred / vnto the whiche she hath borne children / or at the least wyse shulde haue done More ouer / the discipline of chastite is rekened more strayte amonge alyance / thaÌ„ kynsfolkes bicause there is lesse cherisshyng and libertie But a vertuous womaÌ„ wyll nat be so moche moued with all these thynges / as with the remembraunce and loue of her husbaÌ„de For so Antonia / doughter vnto Marcus Antonius the iudge / wyfe vnto Drusus / ledde all her lyfe with her mother in lawe Lyke wyse Liuia lefte her house and her countrey to dwell with her mother iÌ„lawe Noemy Excepte ther be with her mother in lawe some nyce and wanton yonge men / that maye cause a blotte in her good name / or put her chastite in ieoperdye or excepte the womeÌ„ that be her alyans / be nat of all the beste fame for
owne So a good womaÌ„ shall nat bryng with her to the courte argumeÌ„tes of pleaders in the lawe / but the auctorite of recorde And she that is bablyng / and busye / troublous / muste nedes wereye men / and make them to lothe her / and hyndreth her of the socour that I spake of And this I haue sayde by good iudges and aduocates / or at the least suche as she knoweth nat to be yll For some be so nyce and wanton / that they will sell theyr counsayle and iugementes for theyr vnthrifty pleasure of their body Vpon whom doutles the common good order and maner wolde take punysshement / sauyng that the lawes / as the wyse man sayd / be lyke the coppe webbes / that take all littell beastis / and let the great alone But a good wydowe / if she knowe the they be suche / as she may well inough by theyr name that they haue of the people / she shall eschewe them fle / nat only with the losse of her goodes / but also ieoê‘die of her selfe / if nede were And the same I wolde she shulde do by all that be wanton and vicious Nowe of runnyng about to other mennes houses / saynt Paule hath a precepte / that those wydowes ought to be abiecte / as mysfamous / that rounne ydell from house to house and nat only idell / but also be babblars ful of wordes / where as is nat coÌ„uenient For there be some / whiche whan they thinke their selfe they haue done all theyr owne busynes / than without shame they medle with other folkes busines / gyue counsaile / as though they were great sages / and exhorte and gyue preceptes / rebuke correcte / pyke fautes / and be wondrous quicke of syght from home / and at home blynde inough Of seconde mariages The .vij. Chaptre NOr to condeÌ„ne and reproue vtterly seconde mariages / it were a poynt of heresye Howe be it that better is to absteyne thaÌ„ marye agayne / is nat only counsayled by Christyane purenes / that is to saye by diuine wysedome / but also by pagans / that is to say / by worldly wisedome Cornelius Tacitus / as I haue rehersed / sayth / the women of Almayne were nat wonte to marie but of maydes and thoughe they were wydowes in theyr youthe / yet wolde they nat marye agayne / and specially the noble women Valeria / syster vn to Messala / and Portia the yoÌ„ger doughter of Cato / whan there was praysed vnto her / for her good nes / a woman that had betwyse maried / Portia answered / An happy a chast dame wolde neuer marye oftener than ones Cornelia / the mother of Caius Titus Gracchus / whan she was moued with great ê“mises by Ptolome the kyng of Egypt / to marye agayne / she refused / had leauer be called Cornelia Gracchus wyfe / than the quene of Egipte Also seconde mariagis were rebuked in playes enterludes / and verses of poetes in this maner Ofte maryeng can nat be without occasioÌ„ of repreheÌ„sioÌ„ And a womaÌ„ that marieth many / can nat please many Nat wtstaÌ„dyng wydowes lay many causes / wherfore they say they must marie agayÌ„e of whom saint Hieronyme speketh in this maner / writyÌ„g vnto the holy womaÌ„ Furia YoÌ„ge widowes / of whom there hath many gone bacwarde after the deuyl / after that they haue had theyr pleasure by maryeng in Christe / be woÌ„te to say / My goodes spilleÌ„ dayly / the heritage of myn auncetry perissheth / my seruauÌ„tes speke stubbournely pÌ„sumtuously / my mayde wyl nat do my coÌ„mauÌ„dement / who shal go before me forthe Who shall answere for my house reÌ„te Who shall teache my yoÌ„ge soÌ„nes Who shall bryng vp my yoÌ„ge doughters And so they laye that for a cause to marye fore / whiche shulde rather let them froÌ„ it For she bryÌ„geth vpon her childreÌ„ an enemie / nat a norisher nat a father / but a tyraÌ„ne And she inflamed with vicious lust / forgetteth her owne woÌ„be she that late afore sat mournyÌ„g amoÌ„ge her children / that ê‘ceiue nat their owne losse harmes / nowe is pyked vp a newe wyfe Wher to layest thou the cause in thyne enherytaÌ„ce / pride of thy seruauÌ„tes coÌ„fesse thyn owne viciousnes For none of you taketh a husbaÌ„de but to the intent that she wyll lye with hym / nor excepte her lust pricke her What a ragiousnes is it / to set thy chastite commoÌ„ lyke an harlotte / that thou mayst gether riches And for a vile / a thyÌ„g that shall sone passe away / to fyle thy chastite / that is a thyÌ„g most precious euerlastyÌ„g If thou haue childreÌ„ alredy / what nedest thou to marie If thou haue none / why dost thou nat feare the bareÌ„nes / that thou hast proued afore aueÌ„terest vpoÌ„ aÌ„ vncertayne thyÌ„g / forgost thyn honestie chastite / that thou wast sure of Nowe thou hast writyÌ„g of spousage made the / that within shorte whyle after / thou may be coÌ„pelled to write a testament The husbande shall feyne hym selfe sicke / shal do on lyue in good helthe / that he wolde haue to do whaÌ„ thou shalt die And if it chauÌ„ce that thou haue children by thy seconde husbaÌ„de / thaÌ„ ryseth strife debate at home with iÌ„ thy house Thou shalte nat be at libertie to loue thyne owne childreÌ„ equally / neither to loke indiffereÌ„tly vpoÌ„ them / that thou haste borne thou shalt reache them meat secretly he wil eÌ„uie hym that is deed / excepte thou hate thyn owne childreÌ„ / thou shalt seme to loue their father yet And if he haue childreÌ„ by a nother wyfe / thaÌ„ shall players gesters rayle and gest vpoÌ„ the / as a cruel stepdame If thy stepson be sicke / or his heed ake / thou shalte be diffamed for a witche if thou gyue hym nat meate / thou shalt be accused of cruelte if thou gyue any / thou shalt be called a poysoner What I pray that / hath seconde mariages so pleasaÌ„t / that caÌ„ be able to recoÌ„peÌ„ce these euylles Thus saith saynt Hieronyme As for the preyse of coÌ„tyneÌ„ce chastite / couÌ„sailyng from secoÌ„de mariages / what caÌ„ I be able to say after the eloqueÌ„t fositayne of saint Hieronyme / or that swete dilicates of saynt Ambrose speche Therfore who so desyreth to knowe any thyng of those matters / let hym loke it of them For it longeth nat to my purpose / to recite al theyr sayenges here For I do nat iÌ„teÌ„de to write exortatioÌ„s vnto any kyÌ„de of lyuyng / but to gyue rules / howe they may lyue Neuer the lesse / I wolde couÌ„saile a good woman to coÌ„tinue in holy wydowhed / namely if she haue childreÌ„ which thyng is the inteÌ„t frute of matrimonye But she dout / lest she can nat auoyde the prickes of nature with that life / let her gyue an eare vnto saint Paule thayo stel / writyÌ„g vnto the Corinthies iÌ„ this wife I say to vnmaried women and wydowes / it were good for them / if they kepte them selfe as I am but yet if they caÌ„ nat suffre / let them marie For it is best to marie thaÌ„ bourne And the same apostle writeth vnto Timothe thus Put away yoÌ„ge wydowes / for whan they haue abused them selfe at large / than wolde they mary to Christ / are coÌ„deÌ„ned bicause they haue refused theyr fyrste ê“myse / walke idle from house to house / neither oÌ„ly idle / but tryflyÌ„g bablyng / pratyÌ„g talkyng / suche thynges as be coÌ„meth nat Therfore I wold that the yoÌ„ger shuld marie / bryÌ„g forth childreÌ„ / rule their house / gyue their enmy none occasioÌ„ to say il by them For ther be some / which streight after their coÌ„uersion haue folowed Satanas Yet let them beware / that they do it nat by by aft their husbaÌ„des death For that is a tokeÌ„ that they loued nat them for whose deê‘ting they haue so sone lefte sorowyng / mournyng / al desire of them And if they must ê“uide ought for theyr house or children / let them se to hit before the busynes of maryage and dominioÌ„ of a newe husbaÌ„de And lette them get suche husbandes as be accordynge for wydowes to be maryed vnto / nor yonge men / wanton / hote / and full of playe / ignorante / and riotous / that can neither rule theyr house / nor theyr wyfe / ne theyr selfe neither but take an husbande some thyng past mydle age / sober / sad / and of good wyt / experte with great vse of the worlde whiche with his wisedome may kepe al the house in good ordre whiche by his discretioÌ„ may so temper and gouerne all thyng / that there maye be alwaye at home sober myrthe and obedience / without frowardnes / and the house holde kepte in theyr labour and ductye / without payne / and all thyng clere and holle And lette them were and knowe / that these contentes hym / whose pleasure onely they shall all more esteme / thanne the holle countreys besyde Here endeth the boke called thinstruction of a Christen woman / whiche who so shall rede / shall haue moche / both knowlege / pleasure / and frute by it Imprinted at London in Fletestrete / in the house of Thomas Berthelet nere to the Cundite / at the sygne of Lucrece Cum priuilegio a rege indulto
they rekened theyr husbandes farre aboue al those vnto them Wherfore their names were had in great honour Also Tauria deserued no lesse commendation / whiche whā her husbāde was outlawed / hydde hym vp betwene the silyng and the roffe of her chambre / no moo of counsayle but one mayde and her selfe and so saued his lyfe with her owne great ieoperdy Also Sulpitia wyfe vnto Lentulus / whā her mother Tullia watched her diligētly leste she shulde folowe her husbande / that was banyshed / she gotte vpon her poure rayment / and so with .ij. mayde seruauntes / and as many men / stale away and came to her husbande nor refused to banyshe her owne selfe for his sake / that her husbande myght se in his outlawry her faythfulnes towarde hym And there haue bene very many / that hadde leauer be in ieoperdye them selfe / than theyr husbandes shulde The wyfe of Fernando Gonzalis therle of Castile / whan the kynge of the Legion of Germany / whiche is a cite in the parte of Spayne called Astury / hadde her husbande in prison / she came vnto her husbande / as it were to visite hym / and there counsayled her husbande to change raymēt with her / and steale his way / and leaue her in the ieoperdye that shulde falle and so he dyd Wherfore the kynge wondryng vpon that great loue of hers towarde her husbande / prayed god to sende hym and his chyldren suche wyues / and so let her go agayne to her husbande There was also an other of the same kynredde / whiche was maried vnto a certayne kynge of Englande / that what tyme her husbande in warre agaynste the Syryans / had catched a great wounde in his arme with a venomed swerde / and so came home in to his owne countre / nor coude neuer be healed / excepte that venome and matter were sucked out The kynge seynge that who so euer shulde do that dede / were in ieoperdy of their life / wolde suffre no man to take it vpon hym Wherfore in the nyghte whan he was a slepe / his wyfe losed the bandes of the wounde / fyrst her husbande nat perceyuynge / and after warde dissemblyng / and so by lytell and lytel sucked and spitted out the poyson / and prepared the wounde curable and redy to the phisition Wherfore I am very sory / that I haue nat the name of that noble woman / whiche were worthye to be commended with mooste eloquent prayses Howe be it / it is nat vnspoken of / for it is redde in the actes of Spayne / whiche Rodericus the bisshope of Tolet dyd write From whense I shall ones translate with honorable mention of her Lyke wyse vpon a season men of Tyrthena came a great meny out of their ile vnto Lacedemō / whom that Lacedemonyans suspected to go about some subtilte / and ther vpon set them in holde / and iudged them to dye Wherfore theyr wyues gate lycence of the kepers for to go in vnto them / as it were to visete and comforte them / and there changed rayment with them / and so they in the womens rayment / and their faces couered / as the custome of the coūtre was / escaped awaye / and lefte their wyues behynde them whom afterwardes with their children to gether they recouered agayne / and put all the Lacedemonyans in feare / as Plutarke wryteth More ouer Admetus the kynge of Thessaly / hauynge a dysease raynynge vpon hym / whiche coulde neuer be healed / without the dethe of an other body / coude fynde none / that wolde gladly die for his sake / but his wyfe Alcest Also many there hath bene / whiche after theyr husbandes dethe / wolde in no wyfe abyde on lyue Laodamia / after she had harde tell that her husbāde Prothesilaus was slayne at Troy of Hector / she kylde her selfe And Paulina / wyfe of Senec / wolde fayne haue died with her husbande / and had her vaynes cut / as he had / but she was letted by Nero and holden agaynst her wyll / tyll her armys were bounde / and her blode stopped nor she lyued nat many yeres after And whyle she was alyue / was so pale and so leane with sorowe / that she was a wōder to euery man to loke vpon and in all the state of her body shewedde manifest tokens of the kynde loue that she hadde to her husbande The doughter of Demotion / the chiefe mā of Areopagites / a yōge mayde / whā she harde tell of the deth of her spouse Leosthenes / she slewe her selfe affyrmȳg / that all though she was vntouched / yet bycause she was maryed vnto hym in mynde / she shulde be adulteter / if she maryed vnto any other afterwardes Olde wryters of stories tell / that Halcione wolde nat abyde on lyue after the dethe of her husbande Ceyx And therfore she lepte downe in to the see The fables of poetes / whiche were made to instructe out lyuȳges / adde more vnto the tale / that they were chaunged in to byrdes called Alciones and so well beloued of the goddes Thetis / that whan so euer these byrdes buylde / there is great caulmenes in the see / and fayre wether in the ayre that chaunseth yerely at certayne tymes Wherfore for those dayes he called in laten Halcionii / that is as you wolde say / the Halcyon byrdes dayes and that gyfte they say / the goddis gaue for the great loue of that woman towarde her husbāde Euadna / whan she kepte the funerall of her husbande / she lepte in to the fyre and folowed her husbande Cecinna Petus had a wyfe called Arria / this Cecinna / whan he had rysen in batayle with Scribonian agaynst Claudius themperour / and was brought to Rome / Arria desyred the sodiours to let her wayte vpon her husbande as a seruaunt whiche thynge whan they wolde nat suffre / she hyred a fysshers boote / folowed the great shippe And within a fewe dayes after the deth of her husbande / kylled her selfe at Rome and yet had she a doughter on lyue maried vnto Thrasea / the most noble and wysest man in his tyme. Portia doughter of Cato / wyfe vnto Marcus Brutus / whā her husbande was slayne / she sought for her owne dethe and whan weapōs were taken from her / she thruste hote coles in her mouthe / and choked her selfe Panthia / wyfe of kynge Susius kepte her faith vnto her husbande / beyng in captiuite / and spended out all her goodis for his lyfe And whan he was slayne in batayle / she dyed voluntarily after hym The doughter of Iulius Cesar / whiche was maryed vnto Pompey the great / whan one brought vpon a tyme home out of the feelde a cote of her husbādes be bloded / she suspectȳg that her husbande had be wounded / fell to the grounde in swonynge / and almoste deed with the whiche aflyghte of her mynde / she fell to labour of chylde a
fore her tyme / and so dyed Also Cornelia / the laste wyfe of the same Pompei / sayde Hit was shame for a woman / that coude nat dye with only sorowe whan her husbande was slayne Arthemisia / the quene of Lyde / dyd drynke the asshes of her husbāde / after his deth / bicause for very loue she wold haue her owne bodye to be her husbandes graue These great thynges haue I rehersed / that women that be nowe a dayes may be ashamed / whithe wyll nat endeuour them selfe to perfourme other more easye thynges Wherfore theyr cruelte and wickednes is more intollerable / that can fȳde in theyr hartes to se theyr husbandes lye in trowble / damage / and worldly shame / and all the sorowe that canne be for a small money / whan they haue inoughe in stoore to rydde them out of dangere O harte more harder than any beast / that canste suffre thy blode / thy body / and thyne owne selfe on thy husbandes parte / to be so vexed Doutles the lawes that suffre that iniquite / haue more regard of money than feith or consciēce But this maner hath bene lefte vs of the pagans / with many other / whiche abyde more surely in vs / than the lawe of Christe doth alowe whiche commaundeth vs to lay forth both clothyng / metall / and what treasure so ouer we haue in store / nat only the wyfe for her husbande / but also one christen man for another / be he neuer so vnknowen Wherfore lette the woman vnderstande / that if she wyll nat spēde all her substance to saue her husbande from neuer so lytell harmes / she is nat worthy to beare the name / neither of a good / nor christen woman / nor ones to be called a wyfe Neither I wold that she shulde loue her husbāde / as one loueth his frende / or his brother / that is to say / I will that she shall gyue hym great worshyp reuerēce / great obediēce / seruyce also whiche thynge nat only thexāple of the olde worlde teacheth vs / but also all lawes / both spiritual tēporal / and Nature her selfe cryeth and cōmaūdeth / that the woman shal be subiecte obedyent to the man And in all kyndes of beastis the femals obey the malles wayten vpō them / fawne vpon them / and suffre them selfe to be corrected of them whiche thynge Nature sheweth must be / and is conuenient to be done Whiche as Aristotel in his boke of beastis sheweth / hath gyuen lesse strength and power vnto the femalles of all kyndes of beastis / than to the males / and more softe flesshe / and tender heare More ouer / these partes / whiche nature hath gyuen for weapons of defence vnto beastis / as tethe / hornes / spores / and suche other / the most parte of females lacke / whiche theyr males haue / as hartes and bores And if any females haue any of these / yet be they more stronger in the males / as hornes of bullis be more stronger than of kyne In all the whiche thinges Nature sheweth / that the males dutie is to succour and defēde / and the femals to folowe and to wayte vpon the male / and to crepe vnder his ayde / and obeye hym / that she may lyue the better But let vs leaue the examples of beastis / whiche make vs ashamed of our selfe without we passe them ī vertue / and lette vs ascende vp vnto mannes reason Nowe than / what woman wyll be so presumptuous and so haute / to disobey her husbandes byddynge / if she consyder that he is vnto her in steede of father and mother and all her kynne / and that she oweth vnto hym / all the loue and charite that were due to them all A ragious and a folisshe woman doth nat consyder this / the whiche is disobedyent vnto her husbande Excepte parauenture she wolde say / she oweth none obedience / neither to father nor to mother / nor to none of her kynne For if she obey them / she must nedes obey her husbād in whom by al rightes / by all customes / by all statutes and lawes / by all preceptes and commaundementes / both naturall / worldely / and heuenly / she oughte to acompte all thyng to be The womā is nat rekened the more worshipful amonge men / that presumeth to haue mastrye aboue her husbande but the more folisshe / and the more worthy to be mocked Yea and more ouer than that cursed and vnhappy the whiche tourneth backewarde the lawes of nature / lyke as thoughe a sodioure wolde rule his capitayne / or the moone wold stāde aboue the sonne / or the arme aboue the heed For in wedlocke the man resembleth the reason / and the woman the body Nowe reason ought to rule and the body to obey / if a man wyl lyue Also saint Paule sayth The heed of the woman is the mā Here nowe I entre in to the diuyne commaundemētes / whiche in stomackes of reasonable people / oughte of reason to beare more rule and valewe / than lawes / more than all mannes reasons / and more than the voyce of nature her selfe God the maker of this holle worlde / in the begynnynge whan the worlde was yet but rude and newe / gyuynge lawes vnto mākynde / he gaue this charge vnto the woman Thou shalte be vnder thyn husbandes rule / and he shall haue dominion ouer the. The Apostle Paule / teacher of the Christen wysedome / that is for to say / of the heuenly wisedome / wolde nat haue the woman to rule the man / but commaundeth her in many places to be subiecte Peter also / the prince of the apostles / commaundethe in this wyse Lette all women be subiecte to theyr husbandes / as holy women / trustynge in our lorde Sara was obediēt vnto Abraham / and called hym her lorde Saynt Hieronyme wryteth vnto Celantia in this wyse Let the auctorite and rule be reserued vnto thyn husbande and be thou an example to all thyne house / what soueraynetie they owen vnto hym Do thou proue hym to be lorde by thyn obediēce / and make hym great with thyne humilite For the more honour thou gyuest vnto hym / the more honourable thou shalt be thy selfe For as the Apostle saythe / the heed of a womā is the mā Nowe the holle body can no where haue more honour / than of the heed / this saith saint Hieronyme But folysshe women do nat se / howe sore they dishoneste them selfe / that take the soueraynte of theyr husbandes of whom all theyr honoure muste come And so in sekynge for honour / they lose it For if the husbande lacke honour / the wyfe must nedes go without it Neither kynred / ryches / nor welthe can a vayle her For who wyll gyue any honour to that man / whom he seeth mastred by a woman And agayne / if thy husbāde be honorable / be