Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	darkness_n	light_n	light_v	5,748	5	10.2934	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43596	The generall history of vvomen containing the lives of the most holy and prophane, the most famous and infamous in all ages, exactly described not only from poeticall fictions, but from the most ancient, modern, and admired historians, to our times / by T.H., Gent.	Heywood, Thomas, d. 1641.	1657 (1657)	Wing H1784; ESTC R10166	531,736	702

and his false fire spends Diana and Phoebus were therefore said to be the children of Latona because in that the ancient Poets would signifie the beginning of the world so when the matter whereof it was made was a meer confused Masse and without shape because all things were obscure and hid that darknesse is signified in Latona and whereas they make Iupiter their Father it imperts as much as if they should fetch Iupiter out of this darknesse called the Sun and the Moon More plainly the Spirit of the Lord said Let there be light of which light Ap●●llo and Diana the one by day and the other by night are the greatest by this inferring that the generation of the world began first from Light Ceres THE Goddesse of fruits and grain and daughter to Saturn and Ops a Law-giver to the Sicilians therefore by Virgil called Segifera In Eleusis a City of Artica she had divine worship because she there taught plantation and agriculture and of that place had the name of ●lusina she was honoured in the mount Aetna in Aeona and Catana two Cities of Cicily From whence as Claudian ●●lates she had the name of Aetnaea Aennaea and Catanensis the like doth Selius c. Lactantius reports that into these her Temples erected in these Cities it was not lawfull ●o any man to enter The manner of the rights among the Philagenses were that no sacrifices should be slain only the fruits of planted trees Honycombs and new shorn wool were laid upon the Altar and sprinkled with sweet oile and were set a fire burnt and offered these Customes were privately and publickly observed yearly as Pausanias left recorded The Argives sacrifice to this goddesse by the name of Ceres Clithonia upon certain set daies in the Summer after this manner Their sacrificial pomp is attended by the chiefe Magistrats of the City after which company the women and children next followed the boies all in white robes with chaplers about their browes of Hyacinthes interwoven and in the lag end of the same troop were driven a certain number of faire and goodly Oxen but bound in the strict bands and drag'd towards the Temple being thither come one of these beasts with his cords loosed was driven in the rest of the people standing without the gates and looking on who no sooner see him entred but shut the gates upon him within the Temple are four old women Priests with hatches and knives by whom he is slain and one of them hath by lot the office to cut off the head of the sacrifice This done the doors are againe set open and the rest one by one forc'd in and so in order by the same women slain and offered In a book of the scituation of Sicily composed by Cl. Marius Aretius a Patritian and of Syracula Intituled Charographia Siciliae In the City Aenna saith he as Strabo consenting with him were born Ceres and her daughter Libera whom some call Proscrpina From which place she was rapt and therefore is this City to her sacred Neer to this City is a river of an infinite depth whose mouth lieth towards the North from whence it is said Dis or Pluto with his chariot made ascent and hurrying the virgin thence to have penetrated the earth againe not far from Syracusa This is that most ancient Ceres whom not Sicilia only but all other nations whatsoever celebrated Most certain it is that she was Queen of the Sicilians and gave them lawes taught them the use of ●illage and husbandry and that her daughter Libera was transported thither by O●cus or Dis King of the Molossians In her Temple part of which not many years since was standing were two statues of Marble one sacred to her another to Proserpina another of brasse beautifull and faire but wondrous ancient At the entrance into the Church in an open place without were two other faire portraictures one of her another of Triptolemus large and of exquisite workmanship In Ceres right hand was the image of victory most curiously forged This History with many other is with much nimble and dextrous with fabulated by Ovid to whose Metamorphosis I refer you In Ceres is figured to us an exhortation to all men to be carefull in the manuring and ●illing of the earth since Ceres is taken for the Earth the treasuress of all riches whatsoever and just is that usury and commendable which ariseth from thence for the fertility that growes that way is begot by the temperature of the weather and the industry of mans labours She is therefore said to wander round about the earth and over the spacious Universe because of the obliquity of the sign-bearing circle and the progress of the Sun beneath that by which Summer is in some parts of the world at all seasons of the year and elsewhere when not here Besides from hence this morality may be collected No man unpunished can despise the gods for miseries are the hand-maids of dishonesty therefore of force a wicked and irreligions man is subject and incident to fall into many distresses and casualties therefore Piety towards heaven Wisdome in managing our affairs and Thri●●● 〈◊〉 in the disposing of our private fortunes me all requisite in an honest religious a parsimonious and well disposed man Proserpina THE daughter of Iupiter and Ceres she was honoured in Sicily of which Province she was called Sicula of whom Seneca thus speaks V●disti Siculae regna Proserpinae Hast thou seen the Kingdomes of Sicilian Proserpine She is likewise called by Lucan Ennaea of the City Enna Eloquar 〈◊〉 terrae sub pondere quae te Contineant Ennaea dapes Shall I 〈…〉 discover on what dainties thou seedest Beneath the huge waight of the Massie earth Many f●●les of Proserpina have been introduc'd for our better instruction by the ancient Poets which is onely to express to us the nature of the seeds and plants for Proserpina by whom is signified the Moon shining to us one halfe of the month and lying the other halfe in the arms of her husband Pluto that i● being halfe the year in Heaven and the other in Hell six months beneath 〈…〉 and as many above so is it 〈…〉 whose 〈◊〉 for six months space is by 〈…〉 cold forc'd and 〈◊〉 upword 〈…〉 and branches ag●ine by the extremity of the Winters upper cold it is compulsively driven back downward into the ●oot beneath the earth for so doth nature 〈◊〉 her power and vertue to all creatures and naturall b●dies whatsoever that th●● may observe a mutuality if I may tearm it so in their cooperation After the like manner i● the day sorted out for our labours and affairs the ●ight for our rest and repose So likewise in explicating the power of Luna or the Moon some call her the daughter of H●perion or the Sun because she being Corpus diaphanes that is a body christall●n like reflective glass transfers the light received from her father upon the earth to us for which cause

when th' one is fail'd And the other not yet perfect duls the sight No wakefull dog or clamorous cock hath rail'd Vpon the drow●ie Morn early to dight The Suns steeds Here the bird that sav'd of old Romes Capit●l is never heard to scold The brawling Crane nor yet the p●ating Crowe Or tatling Parret to d●sturb the ea●● No bellowing Bull swift Hart●or Asse more slow Is heard to bray we have all silence here Only a murmuring river which doth flow From Lethe with his streams mongst pebbles cleer Luls the dull sense to soft and feathered rest Charming the cares and sorrowes in the brest Before the gate the drowsie Poppy springs With thousand plants and simples without number Not one but to the brain a numnessi brings Inviting all the powers of man to sl●mber Whose milkie juice the Night on her black wings Beares t'wart the earth and scatters Who dares cumber This universall whistnesse where none come But taciturnity and silence dumbe Vpon the door no ratling hammers stroke Is heard without to startle those withn No creeking ●hinge by which oft sleep is broke Than to speak loud there 's held no greater sin Midst a vast room a bed hew'd out of Oke That had of late some ancient rel●que been Fring'd with th●●k●●st and lasie ●obwebs stands Not in an age 〈…〉 with carefull hands Vpon this easie couch with 〈◊〉 hung Of duskie coloured silk you may behold The god of sl●ep in carelesse fashion flung Stretching his drowsie limbs whom n●ne 〈◊〉 so bold To ●og or 〈◊〉 where snortings are heard sung Th' are pincht to softer breath Some dream of gold Of tr●stes some his Court here Morpheus keeps Which no man sooner enters then he sleeps And this description begins to make me drowsie already But lest speaking too much of sleep I may be taxed and so taken napping my selfe I leave the brother fast sleeping to find out the sister who to the worlds end shall ever be waking Death is said to be educated by her mother Night Pausanias puts us in mind that in a Temple amongst the Eleans there was a woman po●t●aied leading two sleepy children that in her right hand White that in her left hand Black both with 〈◊〉 legs and mishapen feet the inscription upon the one Sleep upon the other Death the woman that cher●sht them Night This death of all the powers that are is most impartiall and implacable and because by no praiers nor intercessions she is to be moved therefore there are no Altars nor Temples nor sacrifices celebrated to her honour her impartiality and implacability Orpheus hath signified in one of his hymns Nec prece muneribus nec tu placabilis ullis She is attired in a sable garment spotted with stars The wise men of the former ages extold her with miraculous praises calling her the portand only secure harbor of rest she frees the body from a thousand pains and diseases delivers the subject from the cruelty of the tyrant and makes the begger equall with his Prince She to all good men is acceptable and welcome only dreadfull to the wicked who have a presage and feare of punishments to come Alcidamus writ an excellent book in the praise of Death having a large and copious argument in which he strove to expresse with what an equall sufferance and modest patience she was to be enterteined Of the same argument writes Plutarch in Consolator for life is nothing else but a light len● us by the Creator of all mankind which if it be redemanded of us ought no more grudgingly to be paid back then comming to a friends house to be merry in the morning and having feasted there all the day to return to our home at night or to pay back what we borrow to the owner For there is no injury done to us if God demand that back at our hands which he hath before but lent us Now from the daughter to come back to the mother and know what is allegorically meant by Night These pests and mischiefes before commemorated are therefore said to be her sons and daughters because the ignorance and malice of man which is indeed the night of the mind is the parent and nurse of all calamities incidents to us yet may some of their violences by wisedome be mitigated though not frustrated of their ends namely Age Love Fate Death and the like who though they be in perpetuall motion their speed may be slackned though not staied and their pace slowed though not quire stopt She was called the most Ancient because before the Heavens and the Sunne were created there was no light ext●nt which is said to proceed from the lower parts of the earth in regard that the Sunne compassing the world when he lights the Antipodes with his beams the earth shadowes them from us which shadow is nothing else then Night She is called the mother of all as being before the birth of any thing The word Nox is derived à Nocendo of hurting or harming the reason is as some Physitians hold opinion because the corrupt humors of the night are infectious and dangerous especially to men any way diseased of which there is continuall experience in all such as have either wounds or aches or agues or feavers or the like to all such weaknesses or imperfections the humours of the night are still most hurtfull and obnoxious And so much briefly what morally can be gathered by that which hath been fabulously commented of Night That Sleep could not fasten on the eies of Jupiter it is intended not to be convenient for him that hath the charge and protection of the whole Universe to whose care and foresight the administration and guidance of all things are committed should so much as slumber or wink at all neither doth the divine Nature need any rest to repaire and comfort his troubled spirits when he is not capable of either labour or discommodity And Lethe is called the sister of Somnu● in regard that by our naturall repose we for the time forget all paine anguish or trouble Because he comes to many creatures and at the same time he is said to be winged in regard the humour of the Night encreaseth the vapours of the stomack ascending to the higher parts of the body which after by the frigidity of the braine descend againe lower and more cool by which Sleep is begot he is therefore not unproperly called the son of Night which Night cals me now to rest with the finishing of this second book called Euterpe Explicit Lib. 2. THE THIRD BOOK of Women inscribed THALIA Treating of Illustrious Queens Famous Wives Mothers Daughters c. Containing the Histories of sundry Noble Ladies GOrgias held opinion that Women were not to be honoured according to their form but their fame preferring actuall vertue before superficiall beauty to incourage which in their sex funerall orations were allowed by the Roman Lawes to be celebrated for all such as had been either presidents of

it was called The work of Acecaeus and Helicon Above others most magnified by Ovid. Metamorph. lib. 6. is Arachne Lydia the daughter of Idmones whose mother was born in the smal City Hypepis she having by many degrees exceeded all mortall women and that without difficulty durst compare with Minerva her selfe who for her boldnesse and pertinacy she turned into a Spider Her controversie with Pallas is with great elegancy expressed in Ovid. Alexander of Macedon and Octavius Augustus the one wore a Garment woven by his Mother the other a Mantle by the hands of his Wife These Ladies had sequestred places in some part of their Pallaces and kept their hand-maids and damosels at work of which these two potent and mighty Queens disdained not to be the daily Directoresses and Over-seers Alex. ab Alex. cap. 4. lib. 8. Part of the Wool which Tanaquil spun with her Distaffe Spindle and Slippers were long time reserved as sacred Reliques in the Temple of Ancus Martius as also a Kingly Garment or Imperiall Robe woven quite through with Raies and Flames of Gold wrought with her own hand in which Servius Tullius oft went in state and sa●e in the high Judgement-Seat in the Capitol Varro apud eundem By the Law called Pagana all women were forbidden to spin or draw out any thread in the streets or common high waies because they held it ominous to the prosperity of the Grain sown in the Earth or the Fruits blossomed or growing upon the Trees as the same Author testifies Ausonius speaks af one Sabina not only excellent in this Science but a Poet withall which he left to posterity in one of his Epigrams Sive probas Tyrio textam sub tegmine vestra Seu placet inscripti commoditus tituli c. Which is thus Englished If thou affect'st a purple Robe Woven in the Tyrian stain Or if a Title well inscrib'd By which thy wit may gain Behold her works unpartially And censure on them well Both one Sabina doth professe And doth in both excell And thus I take leave of weaving for Memory now transports me to another Argument Of Women Contentious and Bloody TExtor in his Ossicine remembers us of one Kailla who was of that barbarous and inhumane cruelty that being at dissention with her husband Vazules she having banished all conjugall piety and pitty caused his eies to be digged out of his head spending the remainder of his age in uncomfortable darknesse These subsequent stories of flinty and obdure hearted women though I could willingly have spared them out of this work that the world might almost be induced to beleeve that no such immanities could ever have place in the smooth and soft bosomes of women yet in regard I have promised briefly to run over all Ages Features Affections Conditions and Degrees though they might perhaps have been thought well spared by some yet I make no question but that they might be challenged at my hands by others The rather I present them and with the more confidence unto your view because though their actions to the tender breasted may seem horrid and fearful and therefore the hardlier to purchase credit yet the testimony of the Authors being authentick and approved will not only bear me out as their faithfull remembrancer but in the things themselves fasten an inherent beleefe I proceed therefore Cyrce the Witch slew the King of Sarmatia to whom she was married and usurping the regall throne did much oppresse her subjects of her Sa●●ll●cus writes more at large Clitemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon Arch Duke or Generall of the Grecians at the siege of Tr●y she by the help of Aegistus with whom she adulterated slew her husband of this Virgil speaks lib. 11. Seneca in Ag●memnon and Juvenal in Satyr Danaus the son of 〈◊〉 had fifty 〈◊〉 who were espoused to the fifty son of Aegustus 〈◊〉 made a eonjuration in one night to kill all their husbands which they accordingly did all save the 〈…〉 who spared the li●e of her husband 〈…〉 Hercul Fur. Alexander Phae●cus a Tyrant of 〈◊〉 when he had shewed his wife 〈◊〉 to a 〈…〉 it so impatiently that she cut his throat sleeping Ovid in Ib●n Vol●te●ranus repo●e that Albina daughter to a King of Syria had two and thirty sisters who all in one night slew their husbands who being exil'd their Countrie landed in Brittain and that of this Albina this kingdome first took the name of Albion Laodice was the wife of Antiochus King of Syria who caused himself to be call'd God the poison'd her husband because of his too much familiarity with 〈◊〉 the sister of Ptolomey Fabia slew Fabius Fabricianue that she might the more freely enjoy the company of Petronius Volentanus a young man of extraordinary feature with whom she had often before accompanied Agrippina poisoned her husband Tiberius Claudius the Emperor Lucilla the wife of Antonius Verus Emperor poisoned her husband because she thought him too familiar with Fabia Aa●●o●us Prince of Ferolivium married with the daughter of Joannes Bentivolus of whom being despised and finding her self neglected she hired certain cot-throat Physitians who slew him in his chamber Andreas the son of Carolus King of Pannonia was slain by his wife Joanna Queen of Sicily for no other reason but that he was i●le and held unprofitable to the weal publick Althaea sorrowing that her two brothers Plexippus and Toxeus were slain by her son Meleager she burned that Brand of which the fattall Sisters had made a prediction That his life and health should continue as long as that was preserved Ovid Trist lib. 1. Bocat in General Agave a Theban woman slew her son Penthaeus because he would not honour the feast of the Ba●hinals with the rest of the Menades Virg. in Culice●●●ctha taking arms against Eumolpus and having an answer from the Oracle That he should have a certain victory of the would sacrifice his only daughter to the gods by the persw●sion of his wife Pr●xitha gave her up to slaughter Euripides apud Plutarch Elearchus one of the Kings of Creet at the perswasion of his second wife Phro●●ma commanded is only daughter by the hand of one Themisones to be cast into the river and there drowned Herodot Polidice betraied her father King Pletera to Crocon King of Thebes and caused him to be slain as likewise Ni●us being besieged by Minos by the treason of his daughter lost that purple hair which was the stay of his sovereignty Ovid Metam and Servius Tiphon Aegyptius as Berosus Seneca Diodorus and other relate slew his brother Osiris then reigning in Aegypt and governing justly which done he caused him to be cut in twenty six pieces and to every one of the conspirators gave a part the better to secure him of their fidelities but Isis their sister after she had lamented the death of her brother Osiris by the assistance of her son who was called O●os flew Tiphon and avenged his death Draomitia was a Queen of Bohemia