by unreasonable creatures but proceed to their goodness The love of Women towards their Husbands of Mothers towards their Children of dutiful Daughters towards their Parents and of Sisters that have been kinde to their Brothers THe women of Wynedi in Germany beare such an expressible love towards their husbands that they repair to their sepulchers and holding their lives tedious without them they offer up their bodies wilingly either to the sword or to the fire The like is observed by the Women amongst the Geats the Catheoreans the Herulians a people which inhabite beyond the River of Danube by those of Thrace and the Indies The wife of Pandorus begged of her Husband that before hee hazarded himself to the extremity of of danger he would first take away her feares by taking away her life with his sword which he denyed and so gave the signal of battel in which he was vanquished and slain his Wife surprised and committed into the hands of one of the chief Captains who pitying her teares and sorrow to which her beauty gave no common lustre made suit unto her to make her his wife she put him off with all possible delays but after perceiving that what he could not compass with her good will he would by force she therefore craved some few hours of deliberation which he granted and being retired she first writ in a Note these words Let none report that the Wife of Pandorus harboured so little love as to outlive him Which Note leaving upon the Table she took a sword hanging in the chamber with which she slew herself Alceste wife to Admetus King of Greece gave herself up to a most willing death for to redeem the health and life of her husband Cleopatra Queen of Egypt suffered her breasts to be poysoned with Asps that she might die for the love of her Antony Admirable was the love of her two Handmaids Neaera and Charmione who would by no perswasion survive their Queen but out of an unmatchable zeale to their Mistresse both fell down by her and breathed their last Phila having heard that her Husband K. Demetrius had been defeated in a battail drank poison and so dyed Camma was not onely famous throughout all Galacia for her beauty but for her vertue she did so love her husband and was so constant unto him that she never went forth nor would suffer any man to see her whilst she was married Evadne at the solemnization of her husbands Funerall burnt her self to mingle her ashes with his The Queen Artimesia out of the great love she bore to her husband and inflamed with unspeakable desire and affection towards him took his bones and ashes and drank the powder thereof thinking no Sepulchre so worthy as her own body and for a perpetuall remembrance of her husband Mausolus King of Caria she caused a sumptuous Tomb of marvellous workmanship to be made of four hundred and eleven foot in circuit and forty foot high invironed about with thirty six Pillars wonderfully well carved it was held to be one of the seven wonders of the world Cecilia Barbadica Veneta lived with so great a faithfulness towards her husband Philippus Vedraminus that shee had never any other object of all her passions then her husband his happiness made her joyfull his fear her grief and on her face and in her actions appeared the good or bad fortune of her husband after his death she could not by any counsell comfort or perswasion bee won to taste the least food whatsoever or give answer to any word that was spoken to her in which silence and consumption she after some few daies of unspeakable sorrow breathed out her last The Princess Panthea having been acquainted that her husband Abradratus had been kill'd in Cyrus Camp she resolved to go her self and finde him out and having found him dead amongst a number of dead men she washed her whole body and face with his blood and striking her heart with a dagger she died embracing her husband The City of Wynbergen a free place in Germany being besieg'd by Caesar who grew so implacable that he resolved to take bloody revenge on the men for having defended their lives and honours so valiantly and thereby almost overthrown the greatest part of his Army The Articles being drawn for the surrender of the Town it was onely lawfull for the Matrons and Virgins by the Emperors Edicts to carry out as much as each one could carry of what they best liked The Wives out of an unexpressible love carried on their backs their Husbands and the Virgins and Damsels their Fathers or Brothers This strook such an impression in the heart of Caesar that of a mortall enemy he became their friend Artia Mater seeing her husband Poetus condemned and willing that hee should expire by his own hand rather then by that of the common Hang-man perswaded him to a Roman resolution but finding him somewhat daunted with the present sight of death she snatcht up a sword with which she stab'd her her self and plucking it from her bosome presented it unto her husband onely with these few and last words Paete non dolet Poetus It hath done me no harm and so fell down and dyed Martial in the first book of his Epigrams saith thus in speaking of this couragious Woman Casta suo gladium cum traderet Aria Paeto Quem dedit visceribus traxerat illa suis Si qua fides vulnus quod feci non dolet inquit Sed quodtu facies hoc mihi Paete dolet When Aria did to Paetus give that steel Which shee before from her own breast had tane Trust me saith she no smart at all I feel My onely wound 's to think upon thy pain Portia a famous and excellent Roman Lady having heard that her most dear and beloved husband was dead her bowels burning with an unexpressable fire of love for her husband and finding no knife to kill her self withall nor cord to hang her self nor Well to drown her selfe she went to the fire and with her own hands she cast down her throat burning coals Triara wife to Lucius Vitellus seeing her husband in a dangerous battail she presented her self in the midst of the slaughter killing on all sides till she had hem'd her self in with dead bodies slain by her own hand so bold and magnanimous a spirit had the conjugall love to her husband imprest in her Admirable was the love of Julia towards her husband the great Pompea who seeing onely the gown of her husband which was brought home bespotted with blood and conceiving thereby that some mischance had happened to her husband she fell into a swound and afterwards the trouble of her soul made such a great emotion in her body that she dyed thereof Paula Romana after her husbands death was so far from being perswaded to a second match that she did never eat nor drink in company of any man Proba Valleria Falconia a Roman Matron and wife to Adelphus
excellent perfections and graces which are extant in the souls and bodies of vertuous Women ought not to be regarded those Bodies I say on which if all the Angels should have spent a thousand years in altering or changing of its form figure or composition nay the least part thereof they would be at last forced to confesse that they are not able to diminish or adde thereunto yet the blinde impiety of some hath led them to that height of presumption as to find fault with many parts of this curious Fabrick But such will at length finde that though the Divine Justice hath leaden feet it hath iron hands though it 's slow in comming yet it striketh those home who do not regard those wonderful works of God which ought to transport us with an ineffable admiration As for those well-disposed sculs who are indued with a naturall good disposition who wrong not themselves by misdeeming of others I wish unto them as to my self that they may build their everlasting Tabernacles on that hill of Sion whose Prince is verity whose Laws are charity and whose limits are eternity c. THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS Of the Wisdom and Learning of some Women Pag. 13 Of Constant and Couragious Women Pag. 48 Of Faire Women Pag. 72 Of the Love of Women Pag. 82 Of chaste Women and Virgins Pag. 115 Of Womens abilities to Govern Pag. 133 Of Pious and Religious Women Pag. 141 ELOGIUM HEROINUM OR The Praise of Worthy WOMEN PHydias a most famous Carver after hee had made Minerva's Shield he engraved his own Pourtraicture so lively and deeply in the same as that it could never be taken out without defacing of the whole work So GOD himself who is an ineffable Power and an infinite Virtue an Understanding which can only be comprehended by it selfe whose Throne is seated amidst the flaming fires a far more excellent Workman then Phydias after he had made the Universall World and adorned the Heavens with Legions of Seraphims Cherubims Thrones Principalities Powers Virtues Dominions Archangels and Angels with the beauty of the Sun the glory of the Moon and the splendor of the Stars which are of an incomprehensible brightnesse and of a wonderfull greatnesse having moreover ordained unto them severall miraculous motions and admirable effects on the four Elements the Fire the Aire the Water and the Earth the which being beautified w th Mountaines Plaines Rivers Woods Rocks Plants Flowers and all sorts of Beasts and in the bowels thereof inclosed Mines of Gold Silver Iron and of severall other Metals and Minerals with a number of admirable precious Stones and having stored the Seas with all kind of Fishes the Aire with an infinite number of Birds He then created Man of the dust of the earth and afterwards in the terrestrial Paradise he made a Woman not of Mans head lest she should presume to over-top him nor of his foot lest she should be vilisied by him but from a rib neare unto his heart that she might be ever dear and entire to him which shewes the alternate love that ought to be betwixt them And the Almighty by his inscrutable goodnesse imprinted in them both his own Image and similitude so lively that no power whatsoever is able to deface it This image and similitude of the Deity is the Soul and the Understanding the which he would never have infused into them unlesse he had first made their Bodies of a substance fit to receive that impression and worthy of so great an ornament as the Understanding is by means whereof we unfold all things and attain to the knowledge of the most difficult matters that the wit of man can produce It hath a jurisdiction every where and it keeps its eminencie as well in the highest powers as in the lesser and inferior parts of the Universe to wit in the Heavens Starres and Planets by their motion which it foresees and prevents in the Empires Monarchies and Kingdomes it commands Occonomie it establisheth the Lawes and makes them to be obeyed In the lowest and inferior Regions and amongst the common people it keeps so good discipline that all things remaine constantly firme in their perfection And it is seated as well in the woman as in the man for Nature hath given unto the one as well as the other a desire of knowledge with an upright stature that they might both lift up their eyes to the contemplation of Nature and bring their minds raised and as it were inflamed with a divine love to such beautiful and glorious things in which the majesty of the eternal Godhead so apparently shines forth And the Woman is capable of as high improvements as the Man is she hath the same prerogative of creation with man For as he is endowed with a free willing immortal soul so is she also and as Man was put into a state of dominion and happinesse so likewise was Woman The soul knows no difference of sex the Woman hath the same desires and appetites as Man she is as well an heir unto the grace of life as he is And finally whatsoever is estated upon Man the Woman will also challenge for that there is no preferring of one sexe before the other but all are one in Christ Jesus as the Scripture clearely declares Although the crazie and vain wits of these times speake much to the disparagement of the whole Sexe imitating the Philosopher Anaxagoras who strove to maintaine that Snow was black but as all men of understanding who have eyes to see find it to be white so it clearly appears that he is an Impostor who endeavours to speak ill of Women since it is manifest that the Vertues the Disciplines the Muses the Devisers and Patrons of all Arts have been comprehended under the Feminine sexe by the names of Virgins and Women that not only the Ethnicks and Moral men but even Christians and Divines in all their books and writings which they leave to posterity still continue them under the same Gender That Sophia which signifies Wisdome is the mother of the three Theological Vertues Faith Hope Charity which are represented as Women That the Seven Liberal Arts are exprest in Womens shapes That the Nine Muses are the Daughters of Jupiter That the Five Senses are exprest under the names of the five Daughters of Apollo That Wisdome is called the Daughter of the Highest as appears in the Book of Wisdome And that the four parts of the World and almost all whatsoever is good is deciphered by the names and in the persons of Women All those who are inclined to vertue will find when they shall have perused this small Treatise which relates some Women who have been rarely accomplished that Women are capable of the highest improvements unto which Man may attaine For if some of the Sex as it appears by the following Heroical actions have been so it argues that the Sexe is capable and may still be so But ere I proceed any further I shal
humbly crave from this most worthy Sex one onely boon That it may not be offended at this my young Eagles flight towards such a source of perfect Rayes during the tenderness of my wings which affords me that pen whereby I endeavour to trace the description of their most perfect lineaments and dimensions Of the Wisdome and Learning of some Women WIsdome is the guide of all other vertues it gives goodnesse to good people pard'neth the wicked makes the poor rich and the rich honorable it 's that wherin our soveraign good and the end of our life consisteth Learning is the knowledge and understanding of Arts and Sciences without it Nature is blind Wisdome and Learning have made these following women famous to all posterity Nicaula Queen of Saba did expose her self to a long and tedious journey from the farthest part of Ethiopia unto Hierusalem there to dispute with Solomon the wisest of all men as it appeares by the Scriptures which therefore give her an immortal praise Mirrhe Queen of the Lydians was so little of body as that she seemed to be a Dwarf but so far excelling in wisdome as that she was called a Gyant she was a wise and prudent woman when she was married and honest being a widow Pythagoras the light of his time and the first that was called a Philosopher was a Scholar unto his own Sister Themistoclea and he learn'd his Philosophy from her the greatnesse of her wisdome appears by a Letter which he sent unto her from Rhodes where he publikely read Philosophy she being then in Samothracia The said Letter translated out of Greek was as followeth Pythagoras your Brother and Disciple to you Themistoclea my dear Sister wisheth health and increase of wisdome I have read from the beginning to the very end the Book which you have sent unto me of Fortune and Misfortune By it I do really see that you are not lesse grave in writing then gracious in teaching the which doth not often befall us who are Men for the Philosopher Aristippus was harsh in speaking and profound in writing Amenides was succinct in writing and eloquent in speaking But you my deare sister have so much applied your self to study to write as that in Sentences you seem to have read all the Philosophers and by the antiquities which you expresse it seems that you have seen all the time past by which you doe make it appear that being a woman you are more then a woman because the nature of women is only to employ themselves to the present and to forget that which is past I have been told that you do imploy your self in writing the wars of our Country I do earnestly pray you and by the immortal gods do conjure you to flatter no body For as you cannot deny dear Sister but that I am the eldest of your three Brothers so I cannot disavow that among all your Disciples I am the least And as being your Disciple I ought to obey you so likewise being your eldest Brother you ought to believe me Therefore I do advise you deare Sister to continue to do your utmost as you have hither to done to be understood and wise in your words discreet and grave in your life and honest in your person and above all true in that which you write For if the body of man be worth little without the soule the mouth without truth is worth much lesse And this was the Letter which Pythagoras sent to his sister Themistoclea by which his profound humility and her great eloquence appeares Policrata daughter to the said Philosopher Pythagoras was not only wise fair and rich but esteemed and honoured for the integrity of her life and more admired for her Eloquence then Pythagoras himself Diotima did so excell in wisdome that Socrates who of all men was called the wise the just the Prince of Philosophers and the Father of Philosophie blushed not to imitate and call her his Tutresse and Instructresse Arreta had attained to that perfection of knowledge in the Greek and Latine tongues as that the common report was that the soul of Socrates was infused into her and when she was heard to speak it seemed that she had writ the doctrine of Socrates rather then learned it she her self instructed her sonne in all the Liberal Arts by whose industry he became a famous Professor he was called Aristippus she also taught and instructed many and wrote several Volumes some whereof were these following The Praises of Socrates The manner how to educate Children The Battails of Athens The unhappines of Women The Husbandry of the Ancients The Wonders of Mount Olympia The Vanities of Youth and the Calamities of Age. She read publikely the Natural Moral Philosophie in the Academies Schools of Athens five and twenty years she composed forty Books she had an hundred and ten Philosophers who were her disciples She died being seventy seven years old and the Athenians for an immortal praise to all posterity caused these following words to be engraven on her sepulchre Here lies Arreta the famous Grecian who was the light of all Greece She had Helen's Beauty Thirma's Honesty Aristippus Pen Socrates Soule and Homer's Tongue Leontium a Grecian Damosel did so excell in wisdome and in Philosophical contemplations as that Cicero relates in his book De natura Deorum that she durst write a worthy Book against that famous Philosopher Theophrastus Alexander the Great refused the beautiful Daughter of Darius with Kingdomes and infinite Treasures to boot and made choice of Barsina only for her great wisdom although she was poor and had no possessions Dominica the wife of the Emperor Valenticus whenas the Goths had threatned the utter subversion of Constantinople she by her wisdome and discretion so mediated with the Enemy as that she procured the safety both of the People and City Athenias the Daughter of a mean man was for her wisdom learning thought worthy by a Christian Emperor to be his wife Priscilla instructed Apollo himselfe that eloquent man Nicostrata wife to King Evander was so learned that the Grecians reported that if her Writings of the Trojan wars had not by envy been flung into the fire the name of Homer the Prince of Poets would have been unknown This famous Woman is by some called Carmentis because of the eloquence which was found in her Verses she helpd to make up the number of the Greek Alphabet and added to the Roman Letters her Prophesies were preserved by the Romans at the end of the Capitol with as much respect and care as they do the Sacrament Hermodica wife to Midas King of Pbrygia was not only celebrated for her rare features and beauty but for her great wisdome The Divine Plato had amongst his Disciples these two famous women to wit Laschenea and Axiothia the one had so profound a Memory and the other so extraordinary an Understanding as that Plato being in his Chaire he often did say when either of these two
chanced to be absent that he would not begin to read and being by the Philosophers his disciples desired thereunto he answered I will not read because Laschenea the Understanding which ought to hear me is not here and for the absence of Axiothia he said that the Memory which ought to preserve him was not yet come The wisdome of these two women is the more to be admired since Plato would not read but in their presence for he did esteem the memory of these two Women alone more then the Philosophie of all the Philosophers besides Cornelia wife unto Scipio Africanus and mother to the Noble family of the Graechi was so excellent in knowledge that she was more famous and honored by the Sciences which she publikely read in Rome then by the conquests which her Children made in Africk She was generally praised by the most learned men for her honesty wisdome and for her reading Philosophie publikely in Rome From her as from a fountain the eloquence of her children flowed Therefore Quintilius thus saith of her We are much bound to the mother Cornelia for the eloquence of the Gracchi whose unparallel'd Learning in her exquisite Epistles she hath bequeathed to posterity Cicero the Father of Latine eloquence whose skill in joining Philosophie with the Art of Rhetorick was excellent doth more highly exalt this famous Cornelia whenas he saith in his Rhetorick That if the name of a Woman had not diminished Cornelia she did deserve to be the chiefest of all the Philosophers because hee never saw such grave Sentences proceed from any mortal creature as were contained in her writings A Statue was erected on her sepulcher on which these words were engraven Here lyeth the most learned Cornelia mother of the Gâ—acchi she was both happy and fortunate in her Disciples whom she instructed though unhappy in her Children Aspasia a Miletian Damsel excelled in all Philosophical contemplations and so fluent a Rhetorician as that Socrates himselfe imitated her in his Facultas Politica Amalasuntha Queen of the Ostrogothes the daughter of Theodoricus King of those Ostrogothes in Italy was not only learned in the Greek and Latine tongues but spake all the barbarous languages that were used in the Eastern Empires exceeding well Eustochium a Romane Matron was excellently practised in the Greek and Latine Dialect as also in the Hebrew character she was in her time called the New prodigie of the world she with Reason overcame St. Hiero me and made him confesse he was overcome by her for that he could not answer the questions which she had propounded Amesia a modest Roman Lady being falsly accused of a great crime and ready to incurre the Pretorial sentence she with a manly yet modest courage stept up amongst the People and with a loud voice and a becoming gesture and facundious suavity she pleaded her own cause so eloquently so effectually and so strongly as that by the publique suffrage she was freed and acquited from all aspersions whatsoever and he who had accused her was himselfe most justly punished Hypparchia the sister of Magocles and wife to Crates Cynicus with one Sophisme did put Theodorus to silence Hortensia the daughter of Quintus Hortensius pleaded her selfe before the Triumvirate when a grievous Fine was imposed on the Romans and when none of the Orators or Lawyers durst so boldly and eloquently that she prevailed so far as that the greatest part of the Fine which was imposed on them was instantly remitted Sosipatra was a woman versed in many kindes of Disciplines and so excelent in all her studies that she was said to have been educated by the Gods themselves Corinna Thebana had such an excellent knowledge in Poesie that in several Contentions she bore away the garland from Pindarus the Prince of the Lyrick poets Sapho's Verses excelled Anacreon's though he was one of the most famous Poets in the world Telesilla was not onely wise chaste fair and couragious but she had attained to that perfection in poetry that she amongst all other women was held in admiration Cornificia sister to the great Poet Cornificius was very learned in the Greek and Latine tongues and so expert in making of Verses that she ex tempore did excel those which her Brother made at leasure though he was the greatest Poet of his time in Rome Phanarite Mother of Athenian Socrates was the first that disputed of Morality and who taught the mystical phylosophie of the Stars and Planets and how it may be made familiar and have correspondence with our humane and terrestrial actions Hyppatia a Woman of Alexandria did so excell in Learning as that she was frequented by many worthy Scholars whil'st she kept a publike School she wrote several Volumes she calculated her self an Ephemerides for many years she also writ a large volume of Astronomy L'Amia Aglius were not inferior in Musick to Arion or Orpheus Timarete the Daughter of Micaon Irene Anistarite Lala Cizizena Martia and many more have attained to as high a perfection in Painting as Apelles Zeucis and Apollidorus themselves ever did What men were ever known to surpass the Muses or the Sybils in Learning The IX Muses were these following Clio Vterpe Thalia Melpomene Terpsichore Erato Polyhimnia Vrania Calliope The XII Sybils were these Sybilla Persica called Samberta Sybilla Lybica Sybilla Delphica Sybilla Cumaea borne at Cimeria at Campania in Italy Sybilla Samia Sybilla Erithraea borne at Babylon Sybilla Cumana she wrote Nine books for three of which Tarquinius superbus gave 300 pieces of gold and caused them to be religiously kept in the Capitol at Rome Sybilla Hellespontiaca borne at Marmisea in the Territory of Troy Sybilla Albunea sirnamed Tiburtina because she was borne at Tiber 15 miles from Rome Sybilla Phrygia Sybilla Epyrotiea Sybilla Coliphonia Lampusia she came out of Greece from Coliphonia a City of Ionia The Books which these Sybils wrote contained manifest Prophesies of the Kingdome of CHRIST his Name his Birth and Death The changes of Kingdomes Foretold Inundations Earthquakes and Warres They also manifested that the whole World would be burnt and wished men to adore that God while they lived here who would punish them so severely hereafter for their contempt These Books were by the Arch-Traytor Silico burnt yet nevertheless some of their Prophesies are yet extant having been extracted out of other writings But as both the Ecclesiasticall and Secular Ancient and Modern Histories abound in examples of divers excellent and famous Ladies So likewise these latter times have not been barren in Learned women who were not a jot inferior to those of former Ages Constantia wife of Alexander Sforza was so laborious in the best Disciples that on the suddain and without any premeditation shee was able to discourse upon any argument either Theological or Philosophical and for her temporal vain in verse shee was much admired in which shee was so elegantly ingenious that shee attracted the ears of many judicious Schollers to bee her daily Auditors
Olympia Fulvia Morata a famous Italian woman was the ornament and glory of our latter times shee had an exquisite knowledge in the Greeke and Latine tongues and shee writ many learned and elaborated works Jane Gray an incomparable Princess whom no Nation nor Age can parallel was very learned in the Hebrew Greek and Latin tongues Christian de Pisa a Gentlewoman of Italy was endowed with such divine graces and shee did so far excell in wisdome that her works have made many learned men ashamed The Kingdoms of France Spain and Portugal do abound with many examples of famous Ladies and Gentlewomen which have excelled most men of this Age in knowledge and humain Sciences Helisian of Crennes a French Lady did so excell in Learning that shee was admired by the wisest men and hath bequeathed unto posteritie several of her excellent works Duema Ligua a Spanish Lady one of the Maids of honour unto Lady Mary sister unto the King of Portugal was wonderfully verst in five sundry Languages viz. the Hebrew Greek Latine Chaldean and Arabian Isabella Rosera a Spanish Lady did so excell in Learning that shee did not onely publickly read but expounded the hard and difficult works of Lescost and unto her Auditory the Cardinals and the wisest men of Rome were Assistants Dona Margarita de Noronha a Lady of Portingal was exceeding well verst in severall Languages shee writ with great eloquence many excellent Discourses and shee had attained to a great perfection in Painting and severall other Arts. Queen Elizabeth of late memory whose wonderful knowledge and Learning was admired by all the Christian Princes that flourished in her time shee was so well verst in the Hebrew Greek Latin Italian Spanish and French languages that shee needed no Interpreter but gave her self answer to all such Ambassadors in their own Language of which those learned Orations in the Latine tongue which shee delivered by her own mouth in the two famous Universities do bear a sufficient record in her behalf Margaret of Vallois Queen of Navarre was endowed with eminent knowledge and Heroical vertues The Princess Elizabeth eldest daughter to the Queen of Bohemia who is justly stiled the Queen of Hearts and the best of Queens whom all degrees honour and all Nations reverence is a Saba for her Wisdome an Harpalice for Magnanimity an Amalasuntha for her Temperance a Cleopatra for her Bounty and a Zenobia for her learning and skill in Languages Anna Maria Schurmans living at Vtrech in Holland is endowed with such a wonderfull knowledge and learning that she is admired by all men There have been likewise many Ladies and Gentlewomen of our Nation whose learning and knowledge may wel be parallel'd with the before-named Let me therefore trespass Gentle and Courteous Reader so much on thy patience as that I may upon so just and good an occasion insert in this place some of their names With what Praises and Statues ought we to dignifie and celebrate the memory of these following excellent Ladies The Countess of Pembrook sister to the unmatchable Sir Philip Sidney The four Daughters of Sir Anthonie Cook The Lady Burleigh The Lady Russel The Lady Bacon Mrs Killegrew And those other Ladies which at present are endowed with learning and generous education whose abilities as they are a proof to the present times so will they remain as examples to posteritie Wherefore if many women do not the like it may bee inferred that it is not out of a defect of wit or judgment but because they will not apply their minds thereunto or that they cannot by reason of other diversions Let it therefore suffice that those who have been called to so great a Function by so speciall an instinct have eminently excell'd I shall not any longer insist on the wisdome and learning of this most worthy Sex but proceed to their Constancie and Courage Of Constant and Couragious Women COnstancie is the ornament the end and confirmation of all vertues Courage contemneth all perils despiseth calamities and conquers death These following famous Women being consident of the immortality of their soules encountred dangers offered up their lives on all occasions and sacrificed themselves as it were on the altar of Glory their life was unto them but an apprentiship to die well and their Sepulcher was as it were their Cradle imitating the Pelican that revives again out of her own blood If I should Courteous Reader relate unto you the constant resolution of all the women Martyrs amongst which there were those who in the midst of the flames and tortures cryed out with a resolute voice Tyrant you lose your time here wee are alwayes at our ease where are those pains where are those torments with the which you did threaten us our Constancie will make you suffer more then wee do by your crueltie make us complain make us yeeld if you can encourage your Sergeants your Executioners for they are faint-hearted edge them to all cruel and bloody courses against us c. Whole volumes would not bee able to containe their names therefore I shall onely relate unto you some of them Felicula was by the command of Flaccus Comes shut up in a Jakes and when by no perswasions nor threats promises or torments shee could bee forced to renounce the Christian faith shee was there stifled to death Apollinia a Virgin of Alexandria for speaking boldly in the defence of her Faith had her teeth plucked all out by the Tormentors and afterwards threatning to burn her instantly unless shee would renounce her Christianity she seeming to pawse a little as if shee meant better to consider of the matter when they least suspected leapt suddenly into the fire and was there consumed to ashes Julia Cathaginensis because she would not bow to Idols and adore the false heathen gods was nailed unto a Cross and so ended her life partly with the smoak which the Executioners made at the foot of the Gallows Flavia Euphronia Theodora Sabina Amonaria and Dionisa all Roman Virgins have been more ready to receive death for to maintain the glory and honor of God then the Tyrants could minister the torments to them Clara a Widow of threescore years of age was in the year 1526. on the 9. of December burnt in Bokemia because she would not deny the faith of the Gospel Martha Porzizia in the next year after suffered the pains of the fire with an invincible constancie Besides many others related in Fox his History of Martyrs O rare wonderful Patience O sufferance worthy of everlasting remembrance O constancie the like whereof cannot be elsewhere found their Crowns are glorie and their praisâ—â— are not to bee expressed by the pen or tongue of man Let their names bee as sacred to us on Earth as their souls live eternally enjoying a heavenly bliss As for their Courage Deborah a Warlike woman was a Prophetess and judged Israel by whose Counsel and Courage they were not onely freed from the incursions of their neighbour
valour and encouragement in presenting herself upon the walls to the violence of their arrows and engines the City was preserved The women of Bellovaca being besieged by Charles the great Duke of Burgundy most resolutely defended the walls tumbling the Assailants down headlong from their scaling-ladders to the everlasting honour of their Sexe and reproach of the Enemy Elphleda sister to King Edward before the Conquest sirnamed the fourth was present in the Battaile which was fought against the Danes at Toten-Hall in Stafford-shire and at the mighty overthrow at Wooddensfield where two Kings were slain two Earls and many thousands of the Danes She not only tamed the Welch-men but chased the Danes This Epitaph hath been left as a memorial over her Tombe Oh Elphlede mighty both in strength and minde The dread of men and Victress of thy kind Nature hath done as much as nature can To make thee maid but goodnesse makes thee man Yet pity thou should'st change ought save thy name Thou art so good a woman and thy fame In that growes greater and more worthy when Thy feminine valour much outshineth men Great Caesar's acts thy noble deeds excell So sleep in peace Virago-maid farewell Queen Margaret Henry the sixth's wife whose courage resolution and magnanimity deserves an immortal praise she was personally in all those Battails which were fought against the House of York nor are the English Chronicles sparing in commending her more then womanish spirit to everlasting memory In times past the Romans honoured even for private and common services their ordinary Souldiers some with Cirick Crowns or Garlands others with Lances headed with Gold Golden Chaines Statues of Ivory others with Triumphs Praises Acclamations Gratulations c. If these things were allowed to men only with what Elogies Enconomiums Crowns Garlands Statues Sepulchers and Monuments shall we then celebrate the memory if it were possible beyond all posterity of these ever to be admired Constant and Couragious Women Of Faire Women BEauty is the Image of the Creator and the Rhetorick of Heaven it delights the eye contents the mind and the more it is seen the more it is admired That of Venus was so extraordinary as that Apelles who was the best of Painters could not with all his art though he had set before him a hundred choice and selected Beauties all naked and had taken from one a charming Eye another an amorous Lip from a third a pleasing smile and a modest blush from a fourth a graceful Nose a fifth a fair Hand and from each of them that special Lineament in which she most excelled represent such an Angelical Face such charming Eyes such amorous coral Lips such snaring Tresses such captivating Hands or such a pure Alabaster Skin as Venus had How should I then by my rude stile dare to expresse that which Apelles could not represent with severall Colours I know I am unable to express the least part of that which represents the wonderfull work of God and though I were able yet would I make a scruple to trace out miracles with ink Nor shall I enlarge on the great influences which the famous Beauties have had in former Ages over men Neither dare I presume to name those of these later times who are admired and adored by all men save such as are wilfully blind lest I should by the alleadging of their power run the same hazard as Antiochus did who was seized with a Feaver meerly by the rehearsal of Stratonica's extraordinary Beauty such divine gemmes did sparkle about her Or as Tyrasius King of Thebes who was struck blinde by his onely beholding of Diana as she was bathing herself For my part I am already not onely amazed but even transported if not lost with wonder by the bare rehearsall of the forementioned famous womens heroick acts And though I could aver how that their Beauty doth ravish beholders that their complexion is clearer then the Skie their Faces borders of Lillies interwoven with Roses how that the lustre of their Eyes surpasses the Diamond their Lips the Coral in redness that their Tresses are like the coloured Hyacinths of Arcadia their Necks as white as Snow their Breast as pure as Allabaster their Arms as ruddy as the Rose and that all their parts are most rare their whole bodies beautified with more then Terrene perfections how that they have more strength then the moistened Torpedoes which do not onely charm the hand but the heart also and that not onely the Lybian Lion loses his strength in beholding their beauty but the Basilisk his senses and though I should adde thereunto that they represent the lively Image of the Creator that they are the miracle of the world and the marvel of marvels after all this what say I more then each man knows and is by all men confest Were not the very feet of Thetis as bright as silver and the ankles of Hebe clearer then Chrystal Are they not admired and beloved even of unreasonable creatures was not a Virgin in Leucadia so beloved of a Peacock as that the enamoured Bird never left her whilst she lived and accompanied her in death for seeing the young Damsell dead she never would receive food from any hand but so pined away and dyed also Doth not Saxo Grammaticus in the tenth book of his Danish History report how that certain young maids of a Village in Switzerland playing and sporting together in the field upon a holy-day suddenly an huge Hee-bear rushed out of the Forrest and shatched up the fairest amongst them and hurried her away to his Den gently and without any harm where he long gazed on her face as if with a kind of admiration he grew so enamoured with her on the sudden that instead of a Murtherer he became a Lover imparting unto her all the prey he got abroad c. Did not an Fagle which was taken in a Neast and carefully brought up by a Virgn in the City of Sesto being come to full growth take her slight every day abroad and all the Fowle she could catch brought it home and laid it in the lap of her Mistres at length this Virgin dying and her body being born unto the Funeral fire the Eagle still attending it was no sooner exposed unto the flames but the Bird likewise by voluntary flight cast her self amidst the kindled pyle and gave her self as a most grateful sacrifice unto her Mistress Hearse Was not the Queen Suabilda so excelling rare in all the Lineaments of her body as that being doomed unto a wretched and miserable death and bound with thongs of Leather to be trod upon by the hoofs of wild horses her beauty struck such an impression even in those unreasonable creatures that they could not bee forced with their rude feet to leave the least character of violence upon limbs so fair and exquisitely shaped Therefore I shall not insist any longer on the specifying of womens Beauty since as it appears they are beloved and admired even