Thetis espousals relates hee was called Piresous as preserued from the fire additur hinc nomen Piresoâ—s She was the sister of Titan and brought foorth Ephire who was after married to Epimetheus and Pleione who as Ouid relates in his booke de Fastis was the wife of Atlas These are likewise numbered amongst the daughters of Oceanus and Thetis Acaste Admete Asia that gaue name to a part of the world till now called Asia Climene Idyia Ephire Eudora Eurinome Ianira Liriope Melobois Metis Plexame Prinino Rhodia Thea Thoe Tiche Xanthe Zeâ—xo Clitie who was beloued of Apollo but being iealous of his affection to Leucothoe she had discouered it to her father Orchamus Apollo therefore left her in griefe of which she vowed an abstinence from all sustenance whatsoeuer onely with fixt eyes still gazing vpon the course of the Sunne which the gods commiserating changed her into an Heliotropian which is called the Suns flower which still inclines to what part soeuer he makes his progresse But whether shee be Tethies or Thetis she is no other than the reputed goddesse of the Sea her name importing that huge masse of water or element as Virgill in his Pollio sayth necessarie to the generation of all creatures whatsoeuer Towards the East shee is called Indica towards the West Atlantica where she diuides Spaine and Mauritania towards the North Pontica and Glaciatis as likewise Rubra and Aethopica for so Strabo relates as also Rhianus in the nauigation of Hanno the Carthagenian Stiphilus in his booke de Thessalia hath bequeathed to memorie That Chiron a wise and skilfull Astrologian to make Peleus the more famous consulted with the daughter of Acloris and Mirmidâ—n and betwixt them published abroad that he by the consent of Iupiter should match with the goddesse Thetis to whose nuptialls all the gods came in great showers and tempests for he had obserued a time when he knew great store of raine would fal and from that the rumor first grew That Peleus had married Thetis But Dailochus and Pherceides report that Peleus hauing purged himselfe of the murder of his brother Phochus murdered Antigone others say that he first tooke Antigone and after her death Thetis that Chiron being an excellent Chyrurgeon was so called for the lightnesse and dexteritie of hand which is an exellent gift in the searching and dressing of wounds in any of that profession Apollodorus saith that Thetis after many windings turnings and transhapes to preseâ—ue her virginitie was at length comprest by Iupiter The Nimphes called Dorides were her ministers and handmaides NEREIDES THey were the daughters of Nereus and Doris he is sayd by Hesiod to be the sonne of Oceanus and Thetis he is stiled a prophet or south-sayer who as Horace tells did predict to Paris all the calamities that were to succeed at Troy Apollonius tells vs that his cheife mansion or place of residence is in the Aegean sea The fame is that Hercules being sent to fetch the golden apples of the Hesperides and not knowing where abouts they grew went to the nymphs that dwell by the bankes of Eridamus to be resolued by them they sent him to demaund of Nereus who thinking to delude him by shifting himselfe into sundrie shapes was notwithstanding held so fast by Hercules that hee was forced to assume his owne forme againe and tell him for so Orpheus in his Argonauticis informes vs. He is sayd to haue a principalitie in the Sea to be delighted in the companie of nymphs and damosells as also to be the beginning and end of waters of whom Orpheus in one of his hymnes thus sings Tu fundamen aquae tu terrae Finis Idem Principium es cunctis Euripides in one of his Tragedies sayth he was educated and nourced by the waters and calls him the father of the Nereides He had daughters by Doris the nymphs Halia Spio Pasitaea and Lygaea Hesiod in his Theogonia reckons of them to the number of fiftie Doris was the sister of Nereus Horace and others describe her with greene haire Theocritus in Thessalijs sayth that the birds called Halciones were to them most gratefull some say that they vse to daunce and reuell in the waters play about the chariot of Triton as nimbly as fishes Homer in his Iliades reckons of that ranke Glauce Thalia Cymodoce Nesea Spio Thoe Halie Cymothoe Actae Melite Agane Amphithoe Iaere Doto Proto Pherusa Dinamione Doris Amphinome Panope Callianira Dexamine Galataea Amathaea Callianassa Climine Ianira Ianassa Mera Orithia Hesiod besides these reckons vp Eucrate Sao Eudore Galene Glauce Pasithaea Erato Eunice Doro Pherusa Nesaee Protomedeae Doris Panope Hyppothoe Hypponoe Cymatolege Cimo Eione Halimeda Glanconome Panto Pautopenia Liagore Euagore Laomedala Polinome Antonoe Lasianassa Euarne Psamathe Menippe Neso Eupompe Themito Pronoe Nemertes Apollodorus Atheniensis adds to these Glaneothoe Nonsithoe Halia Pione Plesrure Calipso Cranto Neomeris Deianeira Polinoe Melie Dione Isaea Dero Eumolpe Ione Ceto Limnoraea and all these are held to be most beautiful it is therfore thus fabled That Cassiope wife to Cepheus king of Aethiopia gloried so much in her beautie that she held herself to be the fairest woman in the world and did not onely compare but preferre herselfe before the nymphs called Nereides for which their indignation was kindled against her and in that high measure that they sent into those seas a Whale of an incredible greatnesse the people consulting with the Oracle how to appease the goddesses and free themselues from the monster answere was returned That it could not bee done but by exposing their onely daughter Andromeda fast bound to a rocke that ouerlooked the sea to bee a prey to the sea Whale but she was thence released by the vertue of Perseus and Cassiope by his meanes as a perpetuall example that all such rashenesse ought to be auoided translated amongst the starres for so much Arataeus hath left to memorie in certaine verses interpreted by Cicero This Nerius is for no other reason said to be the sonne of Oceanus and Tethis than to denote vnto vs the counsell iudgement and cunning in guiding and directing ships by sea and therefore to haue many daughters which are nothing but inuentions new deuises stratagems and changes belonging to nauigation He is therefore said to be a Prophet because in all arts and disciplines there is a kind of knowledge by which we foresee and diuine of things to come for he is held no skilfull nauigator that cannot foretell by the weather the changes of winds and certaine signes of tempests thereby to vse preuention against them before they suddainelie come Hee is also said to change himselfe into many figures to giue vs to vnderstand that it is the part of a knowing and vnderstanding man to arme himselfe against all chances and varietie of things whatsoeuer It is therefore required of such a man to vse prouidence and care in all his affaires and actions and not to accuse the gods if any
say nothing sir for all the time of the feast mine eyes were stedfastle â—ixt vpon you my deare husband for what other mens beauties are it becoms not a married wife to inquire Cornelia the wife of Aemilius Paulus when a great lady of Campania came to her house and opening a rich casket as the custome of women is to be friendly one with another shee shewed her gold rings rich stones and iewels and causing her chests to be opened exposed to her view great varietie of costly and pretious garments which done she intreated Cornelia to doe her the like curtesie and to shew her what iewels and ornaments she had stored to beautifie her selfe which hearing she protracted the time with discourse till her children came from schoole and causing them to be brought before her turned vnto the Lady and thus said These be my iewells my riches and delights nor with any gayer ornaments desire I to be beautified Filij bonae indolis parentum lauta supellex Viz. No domesticke necessaries better grace a house than children wittie and well disposed Many haue bin of that continence they haue imitated the Turtle who hauing once lost her mate will euer mourne but neuer enter into the fellowship of another Therefore Ania Romana a woman of a noble familie hauing buryed her first husband-in her youth when her friends and kindred continuallie layd open the sollitude of widdowhood the comfort of societie and all things that might persuade her to a second marriage she answered It was a motion to which she would by no meanes assent for saith she should I happen vpon a good man such as my first husband was I would not liue in that perpetuall feare I should bee in least I should loose him but if otherwise Why should I hazard my selfe vpon one so badde that am so late punisht with the losse of one so good It is reported of Portia Minor the daughter of Cato That when a woman who had marryed a second husband was for many vertues much commended in her presence Peace saith she That woman can neither bee happy well manner'd nor truely modest that will a second time marry But I hold her in this to be too censorious yet the most antient Romans onelie conferred on her the Crowne of modestie and continence that was contented with one matrimonie as making expression of their vncorrupted sinceritie in their continewed widdowhood Especiallie such were most discommended to make choice of a second husband who had children left them by the first resembling their father To which Virgill in the fourth booke of his Aeneid seemes elegantly to allude Dido thus complaining of the absence of Aenaeas Siqua mihi de te suscepta fuisset Ante fugam soboles c. Had I by thee but any issue had Before thy flight some pretie wanton lad That I might call Aeneas and to play And praâ—e to me to driâ—e these thoughts away And from whose smiling countenance I might gather A true presentment of the absent father I should not then my wretched selfe esteeme So altogether lostâ—â—â— I now seeme Plutarch much commends the widdowhood of Cornelia the illustrious mother of the Gracchi whose care hauing nobly prouided for her children familie after the death of her husband she exprest her selfe euery way so absolute a matron that Tiberius Gracchus of whom we spake before was not ill counselled by the gods by preseruing her life to prostrate his owne for she denied to marry with king Ptolomeus and when he would haue imparted to her a diadem and a scepter she refused to be stiled a queene to keepe the honour of a chast widdow Of the like puritie was Valeria the sister Messalar who being demaunded by her kindred and deerest freinds why her first husband dead she made not choice of a second answered that she found her husband Seruius to liue with her still accounting him aliue to her whom shee had euer in remembrance A singular remarkeable sentence proceeding from a most excellent matron intimating how the sacred vnitie in wedlock ought to be dignified namely with the affections of the mind not the vaine pleasures of the body This was proued in the daughter of Democion the Athenian who being a virgin and hearing that Leosthenes to whom she was contracted was slaine in the Lemnian wars and not willing to suruiue him killed her selfe but before her death thus reasoning with her selfe Though I haue a bodie vntoucht yet if I should fall into the imbraces of another I should but haue deceiued the second because I am still married to the first in my heart Not of their minds was Popilia the daughter of Marcus who to one that wondered what should be the reason why all feminine beasts neuer admitted the act of generation but in their time and when they couet issue and woman at all times desires the companie of man thus answered the reason is onely this Because they are beasts The wife of FVLVIVS THis Fuluius the familiar and indeered friend of Augustus Caesar heard him priuatly complaine of the great solitude that was then in his house since two of his grand-children by his daughter were taken away by death and the onely third that remained was for some calumnies publisht against the Emperour now in exile so that he should bee forced to abandon his owne blood and constitute a sonne in law and a stranger to succeed in the Imperiall purple and therefore he had many motions in himselfe and sometimes a purpose to recall the yong mans banishment and to restore him to his fauour and former grace in the court This Fuluius hearing went home and vpon promise of secresie told it to his wife shee could not containe her selfe but makes what speede she can and tells this good newes to the Empresse Liuia Liuia she speeds to Augustus and briefly expostulates with him about the banishment of her grand-child what reason he had not to restore him to his former honors and why he would preferre a stranger before his own blood with many such like vpbraidings The next morning Fuluius comming as his custome was into the Presence and saluting the Emperour Augustus cast an austere looke vpon him and shaking his head sayd onely thus You haue a close brest Fuluius by this he perceiuing his wife had published abroad what he had told her in secret posts home with what speede hee can and calling his wife before him ô woman sayth he Augustus knowes that I haue reuealed his secret therefore I haue a resolution to liue no longer to whom she replied Neither is that death you threaten to your selfe without merite who hauing liued with me so long and knowne my weakenesse and loquacitie had not the discretion to preuent this danger to which you haue drawne your selfe by tempting my frailetie but since you will needs die it shall be my honour to precead you in death which she had no sooner
would haue left their places and habitatious desolate they therefore demanded of the Oracle a remedie for so great a mischiefe which returnd them this answer That the plague should neuer cease till the young man Menalippus and the faire Cometho were slaine and offered in sacrifice to Dianae Tryclaria and the reason was because hee had strumpeted her in her Temple And notwithstanding their deaths vnlesse euery yeare at the same season a perfectly featured youth and a virgin of exquisite-beautie to expiate their transgression were likewise offered vpon the same altar the plague should still continue which was accordingly done and Menalyppus and the faire Cometho were the first dish that was serued vp to this bloody feast The same author speakes of the daughter of Aristodemus in this manner The Messenians and the Lacedemonians hauing continued a long and tedious warre to the great depopulation of both their nations those of Missene sent to know the euent of the Oracle at Delphos and to which partie the victorie would at length incline Answer is returned That they shall bee conquerors and the Lacedemonians haue the worst but vpon this condition To chuse out of the family of the Aepitidarians a virgin pure and vnblemisht and this damsel to sacrifice to Iupiter This Aristodemus hearing a Prince and one of the noblest of the familie of the Aepitidarians willing to gratifie his countrey chused out his onely daughter for immolation and sacrifice which a noble youth of that nation hearing surprised both with loue and pittie loue in hope to inioy her and pitty as grieuing she should bee so dismembred he thought rather to make shipwracke of her honour than her life since the one might bee by an after-truth restored but the other by no earthly mediation recouered And to this purpose presents himselfe before the altar openly attesting that she was by him with child and therefore not onely an vnlawfull but abhominable offering in the eyes of Iupiter No sooner was this charitable slander pronounced by the young man but the father more inraged at the losse of her honour now than before commiserating her death being full of wrath he vsurpes the office of the priest and with his sword hewes the poore innocent Lady to peeces But not many nights after this bloody execution the Idaea of his daughter bleeding and with all her wounds about her presented it selfe to him in his trouble and distracted sleepe with which being strangely mooued he conueighed himselfe to the tombe where his daughter lay buried and there with the same sword slew himselfe Herodotus in Euterpe speakes of one Pheretrina queene of the Baccaeans a woman of a most inhumane crueltie she was for her tyranny strooke by the hand of heauen her liuing body eaten with wormes and lice and in that languishing misery gaue vp the ghost Propert. in his third book speaks of one Dyrce who much grieued that her husband Lycus was surprised with the loue of one Antiopa caused her to be bound to the horns of a mad bull but her two sonnes Zethus and Amphion comming instantly at the noyse of her lowd acclamation they released her from the present danger and in reuenge of the iniurie offered to their mother fastned Dyrce to the same place who after much affright and many pittifull and deadly wounds expired Consinge was the queene of Bithinia and wife to Nicomedes whose gesture and behauiour appearing too wanton and libidinous in the eyes of her husband hee caused her to be woorried by his owne dogges Plin. lib. 7. Pyrene the daughter to Bebrix was comprest by Hercules in the mountaines that diuide Italy from Spaine she was after torne in pieces by wild beasts they were cald of her Montes Pyreneae i. The Pyrenean mountaines Antipater Tarcenses apud Vollateran speakes of one Gatis a queene of Syria who was cast aliue into a moate amongst fishes and by them deuoured she was likewise called Atergatis Sygambis was the mother of Darius king of Persia as Quintus Curtius in his fourth booke relates she dyed vpon a vowed abstinence for being taken prisoner by Alexander yet nobly vsed by him whether tyred with the continuall labour of her iourney or more afflicted with the disease of the mind it is not certaine but falling betwixt the armes of her two daughters after fiue dayes abstinence from meate drinke and light she expired Semele the mother of Bacchus a Theban Lady and of the royall race of Cadmus perisht by thunder Pliny in his second booke writes of one Martia great with child who was strooke with thunder but the infant in her wombe strooke dead onely shee her selfe not suffering any other hurt or dammage in which place he remembers one Marcus Herennius a Decurion who in a bright cleare day when there appeared in the sky no signe of storme or tempest was slaine by a thunderclappe Pausanius apud Vollateran saith that Helena after the death of her husband Menelaus being banished into Rhodes by Megapenthus and Nicostratus the sonnes of Orestes came for rescue to Polyzo the wife of Pleopolemus who being iealous of too much familiaritie betwixt her and her husband caused her to be strangled in a bath others write of her that growing old and seeing her haires growne gray that face growne wythered whose lustre had beene the death of so many hundered thousands shee caused her glasse to be broken and in despaire strangled herselfe The like Caelius lib. 6. cap. 15. remembers vs of one Acco a proude woman in her youth and growne decrepid through age finding her brow to be furrowed and the fresh colour in her checkes quite decayed grew with the conceit thereof into a strange frenzie some write that she vsed to talke familiarly to her owne image in the Mirhor sometimes smile vpon it then againe menace it promise to it or slatter it as it came into her fancie in the end with meere apprehension that she was growne old and her beautie faded shee fell into a languishing and so died Iocasta the incestuous mother to Aeteocles and Polynices beholding her two sonnes perish by mutuall wounds strooke with the terrour of a deede so facinorous instantly slew her selfe So Bisaltia a mayd dispised by Calphurnius Crassus into whose hands she had betraide the life of her father and freedome of her countrie fell vpon a sword and so perished Zoe the Emperesse with her husband Constantius Monachus both about one time died of the Pestilence Gregorius Turonensis writes of one Austrigilda a famous Queene who died of a disease called Disenteria which is a flux or wringing of the bowells Of the same griefe died Sausones sonne to Chilperick Serena the wife of Dioclesian for verie griefe that so much Martyres blood was spilt by her husbands remorseles tyrannie fell into a feauer and so died Glausinda daughter to the king of the Gothes
and wife to Athanagildus was slaine by Chilperick the sonne of Clotharius at the instigation of his strumpet Fredegunda so saith Volateranus Sextus Aurelius writes that the Emperour Constantius sonne to Constantius and Helena caused his wife Fausta by whose instigation he had slaine his sonne Crispus to die in an hot scalding bath Herodotus speakes of Lysides otherwise called Melissa the wife of Periander who at the suggestion of a strumpet caused her to be slaine which makes Sabellicus amongst others to wonder why for that deede onely he should be numbered amongst the seuen wise men of Greece Marcus Cecilius in his seuen and twentieth booke vpon Pliny accuseth Calphurnius Bestia for poysoning his wiues sleeping Plinie in his fourteenth booke nominates one Egnacius Melentinus who slew his wife for no other cause but that shee had drunke wine and was acquited of the murder by Romulus Auctoclea the daughter of Sinon and wife of Laertes king of Ithaca when by a false messenger she heard her sonne Vlysses was slaine at the siege of Troy suddenly fell downe and died The mother of Antista seeing her daughter forsaken by Pompey the great and Aemilia receiued in her stead ouercome with griefe slew her selfe Perimele a damosell was vitiated by Achelous which her father Hyppodomus tooke in such indignation that from an high promontorie he cast her headlong downe into the Sea Hyppomanes a prince of Athens deprehending his daughter Lymone in adulterie shut her vp in a place with a fierce and cruell horse but left no kind of food for one or the other in so much that the horse opprest with hunger deuoured her hence came that Adage fathered vpon Diogineanus More cruell than Hyppomanes Gregorius Turonensis remembers one Deuteria fearing least her yong daughter now grown ripe and marriageable who might bee deflowred by the king Theodebertus cast her headlong into the riuer that runs by the citie Viridunum where she was drowned Orchamus finding his daughter Leucothoe to be vitiated by Appollo caused her to be buryed aliue Lucilla the daughter of Marcus Antonius and Fausta as Herodian reports was slaine by the hand of her brother Commodus against whom she had before made a coniuration Lychione the daughter of Dedalion because she durst compare hirself with Diana was by the goddesse wounded to death with an arrow at the celebration of whose exequies when her body was to be burnt her father likewise cast himselfe into the fire Hylonome the shee Centaur seeing her husband Cillarius slaine in the battaile betwixt the Centaurs and the Lapithes fell vpon his sword and so expired Anmianus and Marcellus lib. 16. haue left recorded that Mithridates king of Pontus being ouercome in battaile by Pompey committed his daughter Dyraptis to the safe custodie of the Eunuch Menophilus to bee kept in a strong Cittadell called Syntiarium which when Manutius Priscus had straitly besieged and the Eunuch perceiued the defenders of the Castle dismaide and readie to submit themselues and giue vp the fort hee drew out his sword and slew her rather than she should be made a captiue to the Roman Generall Sextus Aurelius writes of the Empresse of Sabina the wife of Adrian who hauing suffered from him many grosse and seruile iniuries gaue her selfe vp to a voluntarie death when shee considered shee had supported so inhumane a tyrant and such a contagious pest to the common weale Pontus de Fortuna speakes of a Virgin amongst the Salattines called Neaera who greeuing that a yong man to whom shee was betrothed had forsaken her and made choice of another caused her vaines to be opened and bled to death Cleopatra after the death of Anthony least shee should bee presented as a captiue to grace the triumphs of Augustus gaue her arme to the byting of an Aspe of which shee died for in that manner was her picture presented in Rome of whom Propertius lib. 3. thus speakes Brachia spectaui sacris admorsa colubris Neaera and Charmione were the two handmaides of Cleopatra These as Plutarch others report of them would by no persuasion suruiue their queen and misteresse who perceiuing as they were gasping betwixt life and death the crowne to be falne from the temples of their dead Ladie raised themselues from the Earth with the small strength they had left and placed it right againe on her fore-head that shee might the better become her death which they had no sooner done but they both instantly fell downe and breathed their last an argument of an vnmatchable zeale to the princesse their Ladie Monima Miletia and Veronica Chia were the wiues of Mithridates who vnderstanding of his tragicall fall and miserable end gaue vp their liues into the hands of the Eunuch Bochides Monima first hanged her selfe but the weight of her bodie breaking the cord she grew somewhat recouered and fell into this acclamation O execrable power of a diadem whose command euen in this small sad seruice I cannot vse which words were no sooner spoke but she offered her throate to the sword of the Eunuch who instantly dispatched her both of life and torment Veronica dranke off a chalice of wine tempered with poyson which dispersing into her vaines and keeping her in a languishing torment her death was likewise hastned by the Eunuch Bochides A strange madnesse possest the Virgins of Milesia these as Aelianus and others haue writ gaue themseues vp to voluntarie deaths many or the most strangling themselues this grew so common amongst them that scarce one day past in which some one or other of them were not found dead in their chambers To remedie which mischiefe the Senators of the citie made a decree That what maide soeuer should after that time lay violent hands vpon her selfe the body so found dead should be stript naked and in publike view dragd through the streetes freely exposed to the eyes of all men The impression of which shame more preuailing than the terrour of death none was euer after knowne to commit the like outrage vpon themselues Phaedra the steppe-mother to Hyppolitus her son in law and wife of Theseus when shee could not corrupt the yong man her son in law to make incestuous the bed of his father despairing hung her selfe yet before her death she writ certain letters in which she accused Hippolitus to his father of incest which after prooued the speedie cause of his death Amongst many strange deaths these of two mothers are not the least remarkable most strange it is that sudden ioy should haue as much power to suffocate the spirits as the power of lightning The rumor of the great slaughter at the Lake of Thrasimenes being published one woman when beyond all hope she met her sonne at the cittie gate safely returned from the generall defeates cast herselfe into his armes where in that extasie of ioy shee instantly expired Another hearing her sonne
c. The same author lib. 2. speakes of one Tiburna Saguntina the wife of one Marhus a braue and bold female warrior Zenobia queene of the Palmyrians after the death of her husband Odenatus tooke vpon her the imperiall regencie and made tributarie the kingdome of Syria neither feared shee to take armes against the Emperour Aurelianus by whom she was ouercome and led in triumph but when it was obiected to Caesar as a dishonour and reproach that he had triumpht ouer a woman he answered It was no disgrace at all being ouer such a woman as excelled most men in Masculine vertue Of whom Pontanus thus speakes Qualis Aethiopum quondam sitientibus aruis In fuluum regina gregem c. As did the Aethiopian queene In the dry fields of old Incounter with the yellow heards whose rough haires shin'd like gold Opposing the sterne Lions paw Alone and without ayde To see whom wrestle men aloofe stood quaking and afraid Such 'tweene two warlike hosts appeares This Amasonian Queene Zenobia with her strong bow arm'd And furnisht with shafts keene Hypsicrataea the wife of Mithridates was still present with him in battaile and left him in no danger cutting her haire short least it should offend her when she put on her beauer Artimesia queene of Caria after the death of her husband was admired through Greece who not onely in a nauall expedition ouercame the inuading Rhodians but pursued them euen vnto their owne coasts and tooke possession of the Island amidst whose ruines she caused her owne glorious statue to be erected of whom Herodotus thus writes I cannot wonder sufficiently at this warlike queene Artimesia who vnforced and vncompeld followed the expedition of Xerxes against Greece out of her owne manly courage and excellencie of spirit She was the daughter of Lydamus her father was of Halicarnassus her mother of Creete shee furnished fiue shippes of her owne charge with Halicarnassaeans Coeans Nisirians and Calidnians in the great sea fight neere Salamine to behold which battaile Xerxes had retired himselfe and stood but as a spectator Iustine lib. 2. saith There was to bee seene in Xerxes womanish feare in Artimesia manly audacitie for shee demeaned herselfe in that battaile to the admiration of all men of whose ships the king taking especiall notice but not knowing to whom they belonged nor in whose management they then were one spake to the king and said Great Lord behold you not how brauely the queene Artimesia beares her selfe this dayâ— the king would not at first beleeue that such resolution could bee in that Sex at length when notwithstanding her braue seruice hee perceiued his nauie beaten and put to flight he sighing thus said All my men this day haue shewed themselues women and there is but one woman amongst them and she onely hath shewed herselfe a man Many of the most illustrious persons dyed that day as also of the Meades amongst whom was the great captaine Aria Begnes the sonne of Darius and brother of Xerxes Cleopatra queene of Aegypt the daughter of Dionisius Auletes after the death of Iulius Caesar hauing taken Antonius in the bewitching snares of her beautie shee was not contented with the kingdomes of Aegypt Syria and Arabia but she was ambitious to soueraignise ouer the Roman Empire in which though she fayled it shewed as inuincible a spirit in the attempt as shee exprest an vnmatched courage in the manner of her voluntary death Cyrus the Persian inuading the Messagets and Scythians of which Tomyris then raigned queene she sent against him her onely sonne Spargapises with a puissant army to beat him back againe beyond the riuer Araxes which he had late with a mightie host traiected But the young man not inured to the stratagems and policies of warre suffered his souldiours in the height of wine and surfets to be inuaded his tents rifled his army defeated and himselfe taken prisoner by Cyrus To whom the queene sent to this purpose Thou hast surprised my sonne by fraud not strength by deceit not warre be now counselled by me Returne me the Prince and with the honour to haue vanguisht the third part of my people vnpunished depart out of my countrey which if thou dost not I vow by the Sunne the Lord and God to which the Messagets giue due adoration that I will quench thy thirst beest thou neuer so much insatiate of blood This message being deliuered to Cyrus he regarded it not but held it as the vaine boast of a franticke woman But Spargapises the sonne of Tomyris being awaked from the drowsinesse of wine and perceiuing into what mischiefe he was falne intreated Cyrus he might be released from his bonds to which the Persian granted who no sooner found his legges vnbound and his hands at libertie but he instantly catcht hold of a weapon with which he slew himselfe The queene hauing intelligence of the death of her sonne and withall that Cyrus gaue no heed to her admonition collected a puissant armie of purpose to giue him battaile who inticed him by a counterfeit flight into certaine straits of her countrey where hauing ambusht her men she fell vpon the Persians and made of them an infinite slaughter to the defeating of their whole host In this strange and bloody execution Cyrus himselfe fell whose body Tomyris caused to be searcht for and being found filled a vessell with blood into which commanding his head to be throwne shee thus insultingly spake Of human blood in thy life thou weart insatiate and now in thy death thou mayst drinke thy fill The fashions of the Messagets are after this manner described by Herodotus Their habit and their food is according to the Scythians they fight as well on horsebacke as on foot being expert in both they are both archers and lanciers in all their weapons armour or caparisons vsing gold and brasse in the heads of their speares their quiuers their daggers and other armour they were brasse but whatsoeuer belongs to the head or to the belt is of the purest gold the breast-plates of their horses and what belongs to their trappings and caparisons are buckled and studded with brasse but that which appertaines to the headstall or raines is of gold of yron and siluer they haue small vse or none as being rare in their countrey but gold and brasse they haue in aboundance Euery man marrieth a wife but not to his owne peculiar vse for they keepe them in common for what the Greeks in this kind remember of the Scythians they do not it is customable onely amongst the Messagets if any man haue an appetite to a woman he onely hangs his quiuer vpon the next bough prostitutes her in publike without taxation or shame There is no limit proposed to terminate their liues when any growes old his neighbours about him make a generall meeting and with great ceremony after the manner of a sacrifice cause him to be slain with
comely that the nether part of my smocke should be â—â—â—ned up and kisse the lippes of my lord at which the duke was much delighted And that night was begot Williaâ— the Bastard whom our Chronicles honour with the name of Conqueror whether at first in memorie of this least or since in disgrace of the Wanton it is not decided But from that Harlotta or Arlotta our prostitutes and common wenches â—re to this day in our vulgar Tongue called Harlots In the yeere of our Lord 1036 Henry the second Emperour of that name was marryed to Guinilde the daughter of Canâ—tus a Dâ—ne and king of England This Empeâ—our had a sister a professed Nunne whom he loued so entirely that oft times he would haue her lye in his owne Pallace and neere to his owne priuie chamber It happened in a cold Winters night a Chaplaine belonging to the Court it seemes to keepe her the warmer and one that had beene before much suspected lay with her and in the morning least both their footings should be seene in the Snow newly fallen that night shee tooke him vp and carryed him out of the Court towards his chamber The Emperour chancing as his custome was to rise iust at the same houre was spectator of this close conueyance and beheld how all the businesse happened Not long after fell a Bishopricke which the Priest expected and a Nunnerie which the Nunne much desired Whereupon the Emperour calling them before him the one after the other Take that Benefice saith he to the Priest but saddle no more the Nunne And you the Abbesse saith hee to his Sister saddle no more the Priest or looke thou neuer more beare Clerke riding vpon thy backe It is said that this serued after for a modest chiding betwixt them and that they were parted vpon these friendly tearmes Of diuerse Wantons belonging to sundry famous men and others ARistophanes Appollodorus Ammonius Antiphanes and Georgia Atheniensis of your Athenian strumpets haue writ at large as also of the like argument Theomander Cyrenaus Eleus Amasides Theophrastus in libro Amatorio Polemon de Tabellis lib. 3. Ouid and infinite others out of whom may be collected many famous wantons in their times Ocymus is the name of a strumpet much beloued of a skilfull Sophist in Corinth Thalatra of Diocles Corianno of Pherecrates Antea of Philillius otherwise called Eunicus Thais and Phannium of Menander Opora of Alexis Clepsydra of Eubulus for so Asclepiades the sonne of Arius reports in his Commentarie vpon Demetrius Phalareus where hee affirmes her proper name to be rather Methica which Antiphanes writes to be the name of a wanton The Poet Timocles speakes of Cina Nannium Plangon Lyca Pithionica Myrhina Chrisis Conallis Ieroclea Lopadium Of these likewise Amphis makes mention Anaxandries in his description of the madnesse of old men amongst others hee reckons vp Lagisca and Theolyte Polemon the Historiographer speakes of one Cottina whose Statue is erected in the citie of Lacedemon not farre from the Temple of Dionisius she is mounted vpon a brasen Bull. Alcibiades was beloued by a woman of Aegida of whom hee was likewise amorous after relinquishing Athens and Lacena of one Meâ—ontide of Abidos and with her sayled through the Hellespont with Axiochâ—s a friend of his and much deuoted to his fellowship for so the Orator Lysias witnesseth of him in an Oration made against him Hee had two other mistresses with whom hee was conuersant Damasandra the mother of Lais Iunior and Theodota by whom hee was preserued when remaining in Melissa a citie of Phrygia Pharnabazus layd traines entrap his life Abrotonax was the mother of Themistocles a strumpet as Amphicrates relates Neanthes Cyzicenus a Greeke Historiographer calls him the sonne of Euterpe The second Philodelphus king of Aegypt had many famous Concubines as Ptolomaeus Eâ—â—rgetes in his Commentaries witnesseth Didima and Bilistiche besides these Agathoclea and Stratonica whose monument was erected in the sea Elâ—sina Myrtium with many others Polybius in his foureteenth booke of Histories remembers one Clino that was his Cup-bearer in whose honor many Statues were erected in Alexandria Mnesides a shee-Musitian of the citie Mnesis and one Pothinae his most delicate houses in which he tooke much delight he was wont to call after the name of two of his Paramours eyther Myrtiae or Pothinae Timothaeus the great Captaine of the Athenians was knowne to be the sonne of a common woman of Threissa which being obiected to him as an aspersion hee answered I am glad to haue beene borne of such a mother that had the wisedome to chuse Conon to bee my father Caristius in his Historicall Commentaries auerres Phileterus who soueraignized in Pergamus and the new Region called Boca to be the sonne of a wanton shee-Minstrell borne in Paphlagonia Aristophon the Orator who in the reigne of king Euclides published a Law That all such as were not borne of ciuile and free women approued for their modestie and temperance should be held as bastards yet hee himselfe is mocked by the Comicke Poet Calliades for being the sonne to the Prostitute Chorides as may appeare in the third booke of his Commentaries Of Lamia the strumpet the king Demetrius had a daughter called Phila Polemon affirmes Lamia to haue been the daughter of Cleonor the Athenian Machon the Comick Poet numbers Leaena amongst this kings mistresses with many others Ptolomaeus the sonne of Agesarchus in his Historie of Philopater speaking of the mistresses of kings bestowes Philinna a Dancer vpon Philip of Macedon by whom he had Aridaeus who succeeded after Alexander Damo was the delight of Antigonus by whom he had Alcyonaeus Mysta and Nisa were the beloued of Seleucus Iunior and Mania most famous for her wit and ingenious discourse of Demetrius Poliorcetes Of her Machon the Poet writes much as also of Gnathaena who with Depithaea were said to be two Lasses much beloued of the Poet Diphilus The citie of Athens was so full of famous strumpets that Aristophanes Byzantius reckon'd vp at one time 135. but Appollodorus more so likewise Gorgias as these Parenum Lampride Euphrosine the daughter of a Fuller of Cloth Megista Agaellis Thaumarium Theoclea otherwise called Corone Lenetocistus Astra Gnathaena with two neeces by her daughter Gnathenum and Siga Synoris sirnamed Lichnus Euclea Grammea Thriallis Chimaera Lampas Glicera Nico sirnamed Capra Hippe Metanira of whom many things worthie obseruation are remembred One Sapho is likewise numbred amongst these loose ones not Sapho the Lyrick Poetresse but another borne of a strumpet Many Roman wantons may here likewise not vnfitly be inserted as some related others beloued and celebrated by them in their Poems as Ipsithilla of Catullus Quintilia of Caluus Licinius Lyde of Calimachus Bathis of Phileta Lycinea and Glicera of Horace Leucadia of Terentius Varro Arecinus Delia Sulpitia Nemesis Neaera all these affected by Tibullus Hostia otherwise called Cinthia by
bearing with her in her wombe a child begot by Salomon Lycasth in Theat Human. vitae Lib. 1. cap. de Femin doctis Adesia a woman of Alexandria a neere kinswoman to the Philosopher Syrianus both for her Chastitie and Learning is commemorated by Suidas Vata Lib. 13. cap. 3. Antrop Nicostrata by some called Carmentis helped to make vp the number of the Greeke Alphabet shee is also said to haue added to our Roman Letters Hermodica was the wife of Midas king of Phrygia shee is not onely celebrated for her rare feature and beautie but for her wisedome shee was the first that euer stamped Money or made Coyne amongst the Cimenses Heraclides Numa was the first that made Money amongst the Romanes of whose name it was called Nummus Isiodor Lib. 16. cap. 17. It is likewise called Pecunia of Pecus which signifies Cattell for the first that was made to passe currant betwixt man and man was made of the skinnes of beasts stamped with an impression It hath beene currant amongst our English Nation part of it may at this day be seene as an antient Monument in the Castle of Douer Saturne made Money of Brasse with inscriptions thereon but Numa was the first that coyned Siluer and caused his name to be engrauen thereon for which it still retaines the name in the Roman Tongue and is called Nummus Aspasia was a Milesian Damosell and the beloued of Pericles shee was abundantly skilled in all Philosophicall studies shee was likewise a fluent Rhetorician Plutarchus in Pericles Socrates imitated her in his Facultas Politica as likewise Diotima whom he blushed not to call his Tutresse and Instructresse Of Lasthenea Mantinea Axiothaea and Phliasia Platoes schollers in Philosophie I haue before giuen a short Character Themiste was the wife of Leonteius Lampsacenus and with her husband was the frequent Auditor of Epicurus of whom Lactantius sayth That saue her none of the ancient Philosophers euer instructed any woman in that studie saue that one Themiste Arete was the wife of Aristippus the Philosopher and attained to that perfection of knowledge that shee instructed her sonne in all the liberall Arts by whose industrie hee grew to be a famous professor Hee was called Aristippus and shee surnamed Cyrenaica Shee followed the opinions of that Aristippus who was father to Socrates Shee after the death of her father erected a Schoole of Philosophie where shee commonly read to a full and frequent Auditorie Genebria was a woman of Verona shee liued in the time of Pius the second Bishop of Rome Her Workes purchased for her a name immortall Shee composed many smooth and eloquent Epistles polished both with high conceits and iudgement shee pronounced with a sharpe and lowd voyce a becomming gesture and a facundious suauitie Agallis Corcyrua was illustrious in the Art of Grammar Caelius ascribes vnto her the first inuention of the play at Ball. Leontium was a Grecian Damosell whom Gallius calls a strumpet shee was so well seene in Philosophicall contemplations that she feared not to write a worthie booke against the much worthie Theophrastus Plin. in Prolog Nat. Histor. Cicero lib. de Natur. Deorum Dâ—mâ— the daughter of Pythagâ—ras imitated the steps of her father as likewise his wife Theâ—no her husband the mother and the daughter both prouing excellent schollers Laerâ— Themistoclea the sister of Pythagoras was so practised a student that in many of his workes as he himselfe confesseth hee hath implored her aduise and iudgement Istrina Queene of Scythia and wife to king Ariâ—ithes instructed her sonne Sythes in the Greeke Tongue as witnesseth Herodotus Plutarch in Pericte saith That Thargelia was a woman whom Philosophie solely illustrated as likewise Hyparchia Greca Laâ—râ—â— Cornelia was the wife of Africanus and mother to the noble Familie of the Gracobi who left behind her certaine Epistles most elaborately learned From her as from a Fountaine flowed the innate eloquence of her children therefore Quintil thus sayth of her Wee are much bound to the Mother or Matron Cornelia for the eloquence of the Gracchi whose vnparaleld learning in her exquisite Epistles she hath bequeathed to posteritie The same Author speaking of the daughters of Laelius and Quint. Hortensius vseth these words The daughters of Laelius is sayd in her phrase to haue refined and excelled the eloquence of her father but the daughter of Q. Hortensius to haue exceâ—ded her Sex in honor So likewise the facundity of the two Lyciniaes flowed hereditarily from their father L. Crassus as the two daughters of Mutia inherited the learning of either parent Fuluia the wife of M. Antonius was not instructed in womanish cares and offices but as Volater lib. 16. Antrop reports of her rather to direct Magistracies and gouerne Empires she was first the wife of Curio Statius Papinius was happie in a wife called Claudia excellent in all manner of learning Amalasuntha Queene of the Ostrogothes the daughter of Theodoricus king of those Ostrogothes in Italie was elaborately practised in the Greeke and Latine Tongues shee spake distinctly all the barbarous Languages that were vsed in the Easterne Empires Fulgosius lib. 8. cap. 7. Zenobia as Volaterran speakes from Pollio was Queene of the Palmirians who after the death of Odenatus gouerned the kingdome of Syria vnder the Roman Empire shee was nominated amongst the thirtie Tyrants and vsurped in the time of Gallenus but after beeing vanquished in battaile by the Emperour Aurelianus was led in triumph through Rome but by the clemencie of that Prince she was granted a free pallace scituate by the riuer of Tyber where shee moderately and temperatly demeaned her selfe shee is reported to be of that chastitie that she neuer entertained her husband in the familiar societie of bed but for issues sake and procreation of children but not from the time that shee found her conception till her deliuerie shee vsed to bee adored after the maiesticke state and reuerence done to the great Sophies of Persia. Beeing called to the hearing of any publique Oration shee still appeared with her head armed and her helmet on in a purple mantle buckled vpon her with rich jems she was of a cleare and shrill voice magnanimous and haughtie in all her vndertakings most expert in the Aegyptian and Greeke Tongues and not without merit numbred amongst the most learned and wisest Queenes Besides diuerse other workes she composed the Orientall and Alexandrian Historie Hermolaus and Timolus her two sonnes in all manner of disciplines shee liberally instructed of whose deaths it is not certaine whether they dyed by the course of nature or by the violent hand of the Emperour Olimpia Fuluia Morata was the ornament and glorie of our latter times the daughter of Fulu Moratus Mantuanus who was tutor in the Arts to Anna Prince of Ferrara shee was the wife of Andreas Gunthlerus a famous Physitian in Germanie shee
whose example Pallas soone puts on A Beldams shape transports her selfe anon To Ariachne who with her compares And hauing after strife wrought sundry chares Pallas transhapes her to a spider leauing Her antient Art to take delight in weauing This mooues not Niobe who late had lost Her children and in diuerse turmoyles tost Is chang'd to stone Now when the people knew This portent they the memorie renew Of the base Lysian rustickes turnd to Frogges And by Diana doom'd to liue in bogges They Marsias likewise can remember still Who ranks his musicke with Apolloes quill But he that 'gainst the gods sought praise to winne In this contention lost both lawd and skinne When all the neighbouring citties came to cheere Distressed Thebes the Athenians absent were And to their sorrowes can no comfort bring Being at home awde by a tyrant king Tereus who the faire Philomel ' deflowring Turnes to a Lapwing in the ayre still towring As Philomel ' into a Nightingale And Progne to a Swallow This sad tale Vnto Pandion told he dyes with griefe In whose sad king dome next succeedes as chiefe Ericteus Orithea the faire His daughter Boreas to his kingdome bare Of her he Calain and Zethus got Amongst the Argonauts these tooke their lot There Iason the whitâ— teeth off serpents sew Of which men arm'd in compleat harnesse grew The waking dragon made to sleepe the Fleece Of gold from Phasis after brought to Greece Medea he beares thence She by her art Makes young old Aeson promising to impart Like good to Peleus to his daughters showing From a decrepit Ram a young lambe growing But slew him by her fraud Transported thence She with Aegeus makes her residence Against whom Minos wars hauing collected Men from all places by his skill directed As some from Paros which long time before Arne betrayd for which she euer wâ—re The shape of Daw. King Aeacus supplyes With Mirmidons that did from pismires rise King Minos Cephalus these forces led Who seeing to adulterat his owne bed Preuailes with Procris whil'st his dogges in chace Of a wild fox both in the selfe same place Are chang'd to stoneâ— Minos Alchathoe woone Nisus and Scilla are in shape foredoone He to a Hawke she to a Larke is shifted And through the aire with their light feather lifted Thence he returnes to Creete all sad and dull Where liu'd the Minotaure halfe Man halfe Bull Him Theseus slew and after doth beguile Faire Ariadne left in Naxos Isle With her god Bacchus enters amorous warres And placeth on her head a crowne of starres Young Icarus with his old father flies And downe into the sea drops from the skies His death whil'st Daedalus laments his sees The Partridge new transformed Now by degrees Theseus winnes fame scarce spoken of before Being cal'd to hunt the Calidonian Boore Which Meleager slew and died by th' hand Of his owne mother in the fatall brand His sisters with loud shreekes his death proclaime Being all chang'd into birds that beare his name He visits Achelous in his way And all these Islands that but th' other day Were Nymphes and Naides which appeared true Since the like transformation Lelex knew In Baucis and Philemon whom he sees Growing before him in the shape of trees Their cottage made a Temple for their sakes The village where they dwelt all standing lakes Achelous addes to these the transformations Of Proteus and of Mestra with the fashions That he himselfe appeared in when he prou'd His strength 'gainst Hercules both deerely lou'd Faire Deianeira who hauing vnderstood Her husbands scapes dipt in the Centaures blood A fatall shirt Alcides doth expire Being after made a starre Lychas her squire Is sixt a sea-rocke whil'st Alcmena hyes To Iole and as they two deuise She tells her of Galantis before made A monstrous Weasill th' other showes the glâ—de In which at that time shee might growing see Her elder sister now growne to a tree To them comes Iolaus in the way Made young by Hebeâ— Ioue himselfe can say And instance Aeacus this to be true From him Miletus fled and thence withdrew Himselfe to Asia from whom descended Caunus and Biblis whose not loue extended To her owne brother as the stories tell And weeping was desolu'd into a well This had appear'd more strange were it not knowne Young Iphis on her marriage day was growne To be a complâ—at man these nuptialls saw Hymen and thence he doth himselfe withdraw To Orpheus spousalls but his bright robes di'd In funerall blacke Euridice the bride Expires vpon her marriage day being stung In th' anckle by a snake when Orpheus sung His various transformations to the Lyre The trees to heare him from all parts desire Amongst whom came the Cypresse and the Vine The one clasp's Cyparissus in her twine The other Atis euerie Thrasian fro That in his death had hand besides them grow And are made trees Bacchus departs from Thrace And because Midas gaue Silenus place With entertainments due to quittance this He guerdons Midas with his golden wish Who after wearied with his rauishing dreames Was made to wash him in Pactolus streames They since that time their golden tincture keepe Still glistring when the Sunne shines on the deepe Pans musicke and Apollos Midas heares And by false sentence gaines him Asses eares Phoebus this done an humane shape puts on And build's Troyes wals to be excel'd by none This cittie great Alcides hauing rac't With Pirams sister he the valor grac't Of Aiax Telamon who in these bralls Was first set foot vpon the Dardan walls Peleus wedds Thetis though against her will For though she by her godhead had the skill To shift in sundrie shapes yet was comprest And Peleus lodg'd vpon her yuorie brest To Ceix he past thence one of his blood Where he part saw and partly vnderstood Dedalion take on him a goshawkes shape And Woolfe made stone that flying thought to scape Soone after this Alcinoe in her bed Dreaming she saw her lord shipwrecks and dead And from the shore his liuelesse bodie floting Both were made birds which some spectators noting Straight call to mind how Aesacus before Was chang'd into a Sea-gull him deplore Priam and all his sonnes as lost and dead Excepting Paris who to Greece was sped And brought thence Hellen him the Greekâ—s pursue At Aulis Gulfe they anchor where in view Of the whole fleet a Dragon they espie Obdur'd to stone To Troy-ward thence they hye Where Cygnus on whose skinne no steele could bite Was by the great Achilles bruis'd in fight And at the instant made a siluer Swan So Coenis once a woman now a man Was after likewise to a bird conuerted This tale'mongst others Nestor had inserted Periclimenes change to her repeates Neptune meane time the other gods intreates About Achilles death being much offended At his late losse he dead Aiax contended With slye Vlysses for his armes and shield Aiax disgrac't expires and in
who for her elegant feature and extraordinarie beautie and withall because the costlie ornaments with which she vsed to attire herselfe exceeded the precise custome of her Order she was brought within suspition of lust and inchastitie for which being cal'd into question and not able legallie to acquit her selfe she was brought within the compasse of the law and for her supposed offence had both the sentence and execution due to the like delinquents Iustin in his 43 booke commemorates this historie Aeneas after many tedious trauells landing in Italie was by marrieng Lauinia the daughter of King Latinus made partner with him in the Kingdome for which marriage warre was commenst betwixt them two of the one partie and Turnus King of the Rutilians on the other In which combustions Turnus being slaine and Latinus yeelding to Fate Aenaeas both by the right of victorie and succession became Lord of both the Kingdome and poeple erecting a cittie called Lauinium in remembrance of his wife Lauinia In processe he made warre against Mezentias king of the Etruscians whom hauing slaine Ascanius the sonne of Aenaeas succeeded in the principalitie Ascanius leauing Lauinium built the cittie Alba which for three hundred yeares space was the capitall cittie of that Kingdome After many discents the regall honours were conferred vpon Numitor and Amulius These two Princes emulous of each others greatnesse Amulius the younger hauing opprest his brother Numitor surprised also his sole daughter Rhaea who was immediate heire to her fathers honours and regall dignities all which he couetous to ingrosse to himselfe and fearing withall least from her issue might in time descend some one that might punish his insolencies and reuenge her and her fathers iniuries deuised with himselfe how to preuent both and fearing least by putting her to death he might incurre a generall hate amongst the people in whose loue hee was not as yet fullie setled he apprehended as his safest course to shadow her vow of virginitie to be elected into the sacred seruice of Vesta Being thus confin'd into the groaue celebrated to Mars whether begot by Mars himselfe as was then beleeued or otherwise adulterouslie conceiued it is vncertaine but she was deliuered of two sonnes This being knowne to Amulius increased his feares who commanded the infants to be cast foorth and Rhaea to bee loaden with yrons vnder whose seuere sentence expiring she yeelded to Fate The two children ready to perish were miraculouslie nourced by a she wolfe and after found by the shepheard Faustulus were by him brought vp and called Remus and Romulus and so much of Rhaea Tranquillus and Cornelius Tacitus both of them remember one Rubria a Vestall virgin who was forceably deflowred by Nero. Another whose name was Pompilia because by her inchastitie she prophaned the sacred orders of Vesta was buryed aliue the same death for the like offence suffered Cornelia Floronea the Vestall was conuicted of whoredome but she to preuent one death made choice of another For taking to her selfe a braue Roman spirit shee with her owne hands boldlie slew her selfe Posthumia taxed for her two curious habit and gaudinesse in attire as much transcending the custome of that more strict Order was suspected of Lust and accited before the Senate and there arraigned she wittilie and noblie answered to whatsoeuer could be obiected against her so that being found guiltlesse she was absolued by the sentence of the high Priest or Archflammin Sextilia sped not so well as this Posthumia for she being suspected of inchastitie and found culpable suffered according to the law made for the punishment of the like offenders The like suffered Tutia the Vestall for her vnlawfull prostitution Plutarch in Gracchis in the Catalogue of these consecrated virgins numbers Licinia And Pliny relates that when Clodius the Emperour was in opposition with his wife Messalina that sinke of lust and most incontinent of women when their differences could be no wayes decided Messalina sent to Vbidia one of the most reuerent amongst the Vestalls by whose mediation attonement was made betwixt her and the Emperour The vestfall fire vpon a time going out and it being imputed to their inchastitie Aemilia with these words besought the goddesse Oh Vesta thou that art the protectour of this famous cittie Rome as I haue truelie and chastlie almost for thirtie yeares space celebrated thy sacrifices so either at this present crowne my puritie with fame or before this multitude brand my lust with infamy These words were no sooner spoken but casting her mantle vpon the Altar the fire instantlie brake foorth where before there was nothing in place saue cold embers by which prodigie her innocent life was protected Claudia the Vestall was of no lesse remarkeable chastitie who when a barke laden with the sacreds of the goddesse stucke fast in the riuer Tyber and by no human strength could be loosed from the sand she thus openlie protested before the people If quoth she ô goddesse I haue hitherto kept my chastitie vndefiled vouchsafe these may follow me when fastning a cord to the stearne of the ship she without any difficultie drew it along the riuer Tuscia likewise suspected of incontinence by the like wonder gaue testimonie of her innocence who inuocating Vesta in these words If saith she ô mother of the gods I haue offered thy sacrifices with chast and vndefiled hands grant that with this sieue I may take vp water from the riuer Tyber and without shedding the least droppe beare it vnto thy Altar which when she had obtained and accordinglie performed with lowd acclamations of the multitude she was absolued and her austere life euerafter held in reuerence The attributes of Modestie and Temperance are greater ornaments to a woman than gold or iewells and because all perfections cannot be in one woman at one time this Modestie is that which supplyes all things that are wanting It is a dower to her that hath no portion not onelie an ornament to deformitie but in blacknesse it impresses a kind of beautie it illustrates the ignobilitie of birth supplying all those defects wherein fortune hath beene scanting And so much shall suffice for the Vestalls Of the Prophetesses COncerning these Prophetesses I will onely make a briefe catalogue of some few whom the antient writers haue made most eminent We reade of Hyrtia the daughter of Sesostris king of Aegypt most skilfull in diuination who to her father foretold his Amplitude and Monarchy Volatteranus in Georg. writes of one Labissa a diuining woman that was eminent for many predictions in Bohemia whom succeeded her daughter Craco as well in skill as in fame Plutarch in Mario speakes of one Martha whom Marcius most honourablie circumducted in a horse-litter and at her appointment celebrated many sacrifices her the senate with a generall suffrage for her approued skill in augurie rewarded with libertie making her a free woman of the cittie Polyxo is the name of
owne death namely to see thee die When accommodating all things for the present execution shee no sooner saw her dead but she gentlely layd her out and with great modestie couered her Then she besought Megisto on her knees to haue a care of them in their deaths that nothing immodest or vncomely might bee done to their bodies which graunted she not only with courage but seeming ioy vnderwent her last fate till she expired nor was there any spectator there present to whom the memorie of the tyrant was neuer so hatefull from whose eyes and hearts this obiect did not extract teares and pittie In Megisto is exprest the Magnanimitie of spirit but in these following I will illustrate Fortitude in action The Turkes busied in the siege of some townes in Catharo Vluzales Carocossa two of no meane place and eminence among them wrought so farre with the great Admirall that he deliuered into their charge the managing of threescore gallies with munition and men in number competent to make incursions into the bordering Islands then vnder the state of Venice These two Turkish captaines land their forces before Curzala a citie that giues name to the countrie with purpose to inuest themselues before it which Antonius Contarinus then gouernour of the cittie vnderstanding like a timerous and fearefull coward taking the aduantage of the night fled with his souldiors thence not leauing the â—owne any way defensible which the cittisens vnderstanding all or the most followed after The towne thus left to the weake guard of some twenty men about fourescore women the Turks giue them a bold and fierce assault when these braue viragoes chusing rather to dye like souldiers than like their husbands runne like cowards some maintaine the Ports others defend the walls and with that noble resolution that what with fire stones scalding water and such like muniments then readiest at hand so opposed the assailants that many of the Turks in that conflict were slaine and all repulst retyring themselues with purpose some rest giuen to the souldiours to salute them with a fresh alarum But fortune was so fauourable to these Amazonian spirits that a mighty tempest from the North so tost and distrest the Turks gallyes that they were forced to abandon the Island with dishonour leauing to the besieged a memory worthy to outliue all posteritie Of Dido Cesara Gumilda and Ethelburga OF Dido queene of Carthage all Authours agree to haue falne by the sword and to haue died by her owne bold and resolute hand but about the cause that mooued her thereto diuerse differ Ausonius is of opinion That her husband Sychaeus being dead shee did it to preserue her viduall chastitie and so free hir selfe from the importunities of Hyarbus king of Getulia of his mind is Marullus and of these Remnius or as some will haue it Priscianus in the Geography of Dionisius writing De scitu orbis i. the Scituation of the world Contrary to these is the Prince of Poets he whom Scalliger cals Poeta noster Pub. Virgilius who ascribes her death to an impatience of griefe conceiued at the vnkind departure of Aeneas which though it carry no great probabilitie of truth yet all the Latin Poets for the most part in honour of the authour haue iustified his opinion as Ouid in his third booke De fastis his Epistles Metamorph. and others workes so likewise Angelus Polytianus in his Manto with diuers others Iustine in his eighteenth booke of Hystor speaking of the first erecting of Carthage saith That where they began to digge with purpose to lay the first foundation they found the head of an Oxe by which it was predicted that the cittie should be futurelie fertill and commodious but withall full of labour and subiect to perpetuall seruitude therefore they made choice of another peece of earth where in turning vp the mould they chanced vpon the head of a horse by which it was presaged their collony should in time grow to be a warlike nation fortunate and victorious In what manner she dyed I referre you to Virgill and will speake a word or two of her sister Anna the daughter of Belus She after the death of her sister forsaking of the cittie of Carthage then inuested with siege by Hyarbus fled to Battus king the Island Melita but making no long soiourne there she put againe to sea and fell vpon the coast of Laurentum where being well knowne by Aeneas she was nobly receiued but not without suspition of too much familiaritie betwixt them in so much that iealousie possessing Lauinia the wife of Aeneas she conceiued an irreconcilable hatred against Anna in so much that fearing her threatned displeasure she cast her selfe headlong into the riuer Numicus and was there drowned for so Ouid reports in his booke de Fastis But touching the illustrious Queene Dido vnder her statue were these verses or the like engrauen in a Greeke character interpreted into Latine by Ausonius and by me in the sacred memorie of so eminent a queene thus englisht I am that Dido looke vpon me well And what my life was let my visage tell 'T is faire and smooth what wrinckle can you find In this plaine Table to expresse a mind So sordid and corrupt Why then so vneuen And blacke a soule should to a face be giuen That promiseth all vertue Virgill where Begott'st thou those ill thoughts that brand me here With lust and incest Neuer I protest Was that Aenaeas whom thou calst the best Of men in Lybia Neuer saw I land One Troian on the Carthaginian strand Because Sychaeus my first husband dead To keepe my sacred vowes to him I fled Th' imbraces of Hyarbus am I made A prostitute to nothing to a shade He came in armes to force me and compell Me a chast widdow to another hell A second marriage 'T is the gods aduise No woman can be chast that marryeth twice To auoide that sinne I slew my selfe ô why Couldst thou ô Maro then comment a lye With lust to brand my memory When heauen knowes To saue mine honour I my life did lose Giue faith to History you that Readers are Before this fabling Poesie since that far Transcends the bounds of truth for Poets can Make the high gods much more corrupt than man So much touching queene Dido and as farre as probabilitie can to acquit her of all incontinence One Paulus an historiographer in his fifth booke remembers vs of Cesara a queene of Persia who hauing some light of the Gospell trauelled as farre as Constantinople in Greece to be further instructed onely attended by a few priuat followers who being satisfied in all the fundamentall points of her faith she with her small traine was christened The Persian Sophy hauing notice thereof sent embassadours to the Emperour to know the reason why he deteined his queene wishing him to returne her safe vpon such easie sommons Cesara being in presence when this embassie was deliuered desired the Emperour that she
but his wife also The manner how she came to be his queene was as followeth Before his time it was not lawfull but punishable amongst the Persians to marry into that proximitie of blood but Cambyses surprised with the loue of his sister and hauing resolued by what meanes soeuer to make her his wife yet to colour his purpose he sent for those honorable persons who were stiled the kings Iudges being selected men for their wisedomes and of great place and qualitie as those that inioy their offices Durante vita vnlesse some capitall crime bee prooued against them besides they are the expounders of the lawes and to their causes all matters of doubt and controuersie are referred These being cōuented the king demanded of them Whether they had any one law amongst so many which licenst a man that had a will so to doe to contract matrimony with his sister to whom the Iudges thus ingeniously answered We haue indeed no law which giues licence for a brother to marry with a sister but we haue found a law oh Soueraigne which warrants the king of Persia to doe whatsoeuer liketh him best Thus they without abrogation of the Persian lawes soothed the kings humour and preserued their owne honours aud liues who had they crost him in the least of his disseignes had all vndoubtedly perisht This hee made the ground for the marriage of the first and not long after hee aduentured vpon the second The younger of these two who attended him into Aegypt he slew whose death as that of her brother Smerdis is doubtfully reported The Graecians write that two whelps one of a Lyon the other of a Dog were brought before Cambises to fight and try maisteries at which fight the young Lady was present but the Lyon hauing victorie ouer the Dog another of the same litter broke his chain and taking his brothers part they two had superioritie ouer the Lyon Cambises at this fight taking great delight shee then sitting next him vpon the sudden fell a weeping this the king obseruing demaunded the occasion of her teares she answered it was at that obiect to see one brother so willing to helpe the other and therefore she wept to remember her brothers death and knew no man then liuing that was ready to reuenge it and for this cause say the Greekes she was doom'd to death by Cambises The Aegyptians report it another way That she sitting with her brother at table out of a sallet dish tooke a lettice and pluckt off leafe by leafe and shewing it to her husband asked him Whether a whole letice or one so despoiled shewed the better who answered a whole one then said shee behold how this lettice now vnleaued looketh euen so hast thou disfigured and made naked the house of king Cyrus With which words he was so incensed that he kickt and spurnd her then being great with child with that violence that she miscarryed in her child-birth and dyed ere she was deliuered and these were the murderous effects of his detestable incest Of Lyuia Horestilla Lollia Paulina Cesonia c. IT is reported the Emperour Caligula that he had not onely illegall and incestuous conuerse with his three naturall sisters but that bee after caused them before his face to be prostituted by his ministers and seruants thereby to bring them within the compasse of the Aemilian Law and conuict them of adultery He vitiated Liuia Horestilla the wife of C. Pisonnius and Lollia Paulina whom he caused to be diuorced from her husband C. Memnius both whose beds within lesse than two yeares he repudiated withall interdicting them the companie and societie of man for euer Caesonia he loued more affectionatly insomuch that to his familiar friends as boasting of her beautie he would often shew her naked To adde vnto his insufferable luxuries he defloured one of the vestall virgins Neither was the Emperour Commodus much behind him in diuelish and brutish effeminacies for he likewise strumpeted his owne sisters and would wittingly and willingy see his mistresses and concubines abused before his face by such of his fauorites as hee most graced hee kept not at anie time lesse than to the number of three hundred for so Lampridius hath left recorded Gordianus iunior who was competitor with his father in the Empire kept two and twentie concubines by each of which he had three or foure children at the least therefore by some called the Priamus of his age but by others in dirision the Priapus The emperour Proculus tooke in battaile a hundred Sarmatian virgins and boasted of himselfe that he had got them all with child in lesse than fifteene dayes this Vopiscus reportes and Sabellicus But a great wonder is that which Iohannes Picus Mirandula relates of Hercules as that hee lay with fiftie daughters of Lycomedes in one night and got them all with child with forty nine boyes onely fayling in the last for that prooued a guirle Iocasta APollodorus Atheniensis in his third booke De deoroum Origine records this history After the death of Amphion king of Thebes Laius succeeded who tooke to wife the daughter of Menocoeas called Iocasta or as others write Epicasta This Laius being warned by the Oracle that if of her he begat a sonne he should prooue a Patricide and be the death of his father notwithstanding forgetting himselfe in the distemperature of wine he lay with her the same night she conceiued and in processe brought forth a male issue whom the king caused to be cast out into the mountaine Cytheron thinking by that meanes to preuent the predicted destinie Polybus the heardsman to the king of Corinth finding this infant bore it home to his wife Periboea who nourced and brought it vp as her owne and causing the swelling of the feet with which the child was then troubled to be cured they grounded his name from that disease and called him Oedipus This infant as he increased in yeares so hee did in all the perfections of nature as well in the accomplishments of the mind as the body insomuch that as well in capacitie and volubilitie of speech as in all actiue and generous exercises he was excellent aboue all of his age his vertues beeing generally enuied by such as could not equall them they thought to disgrace him in something and gaue him the contemptible name of counterfeit and bastard this made him curiously inquisitiue of his supposed mother and she not able in that point to resolue him hee made a iourney to Delphos to consult with the Oracle about the true knowledge of his birth and parents which forewarned him from returning into his countrey because he was destinied not onely to be the deathsman of his father but to adde misery vnto mischiefe he was likewise borne to be incestuous with his mother Which to preuent and still supposing himselfe to be the sonne of Polybus and Peribaea he forbore to returne to Corinth and hyring a charriot tooke the way
towards Phocis It happened that in a strait and narrow passage meeting with his father Laius and Polyphontes his charioter they contended for the way but neither willing to giue place from words they fell to blowes in which contention Polyphontes kild one of the horses that drew the charriot of Oedipus at which inraged he drew his sword and first slew Polyphontes and next Laius who seconded his seruant and thence tooke his ready way towards Thebes Damasistratus king of the Plataeenses finding the body of Laius caused it to be honorably interred In this interim Creon the sonne of Menecoeus in this vacancie whilest there was yet no king inuades Thebes and after much slaughter possesseth himselfe of the kingdome Iuno to vexe them the more sent thither the monster Sphinx borne of Echidna and Tiphon she had the face of a woman the wings of a fowle and the breast feete and tayle of a lyon she hauing learned certaine problemes and Aenigmaes of the muses disposed her selfe in the mountaine Phycaeus The riddle which she proposed to the Thebans was this What creature is that which hath one distinguishable voyce that first walkes vpon foure next two and lastly vpon three feet and the more legges it hath is the lesse able to walke The strict conditions of this monster were these that so often as he demanded the solution of this question till it was punctually resolued he had power to chuse out any of the people where he best liked whom hee presently deuoured but they had this comfort from the Oracle That this Aenigma should be no sooner opened and reconciled with truth but they should bee freed from this misery and the monster himselfe should be destroyed The last that was deuoured was Aemon son to king Creon who fearing least the like sad fate might extend it selfe to the rest of his issue caused proclamation to bee made That whosoeuer could expound this riddle should marry Iocasta the wife of the dead king Laius and be peaceably inuested in the kingdome this no sooner came to the eares of Oedipus but he vndertooke it and resolued it thus This creature saith he is Man who of all other hath onely a distinct voice he is borne foure-footed as in his infancy crawling vpon his feet and hands who growing stronger erects himselfe and walkes vpon two onely but growing decrepit and old he is fitly said to mooue vpon three as vsing the helpe of his staffe This solution was no sooner published but Sphinx cast her selfe headlong from the top of that high Promontory and so perisht and Oedipus by marrying the queene was with a generall suffrage instated in the kingdome He begot of her two sonnes and two daughters Eteocles and Polinices Ismene and Antigone though some write that Oedipus had these children by Eurigenia the daughter of Hiperphantes These former circumstances after some yeares no sooner came to light but Iocasta in despaire strangled her selfe Oedipus hauing torne out his eyes was by the people expulsed Thebes cursing at his departure his children for suffering him to vndergoe that iniurie his daughter Antigone lead him as farre as to Colonus a place in Attica where there is a groue celebrated to the Eumenides and there remâ—ined till he was remooued thence by Theseus and soone after dyed And these are the best fruits that can grow from so abhominable a roote Of the miserable end of his incestuous issue he that would be further satisfied let him reade Sophocles Apollodorus and others Of him Tyresius thus prophesied Neque hic laetabitur Casibus euentis suis nam factus c. No comfort in his fortunes he shall find He now sees cleerely must at length be blind And begge that 's now a rich man who shall stray Through forreine countreyes for his doubtfull way Still groaping with his staffe The brother hee And father of his children both shall be His mothers sonne and husband first strike dead His father and adulterate next his bed Crithaeis SHe was wife to one Phaemius a schoolemaster and mother to Homer prince of the Greek Poets Ephorus of Cuma in a book intituled the Cumaean Negotiation leaues her storie thus related Atelles Maeones and Dius three brothers were borne in Cuma Dius being much indebted was forced to remoue thence into Ascra a village of Boetia and there of his wife Picemeda hee begot Hesiodus Atelles in his owne countrey dying a naturall death committed the pupillage of his daughter Crithaeis to his brother Meones but comming to ripe growth she being by him vitiated and proouing with child both fearing the punishment due to such an offence she was conferred vpon Phaemius to whom she was soone after married and walking one day out of the cittie to bath her selfe in the riuer Miletus shee was by the flood side deliuered of young Homer and of the name thereof called him Melesigines But after loosing his sight hee was called Homer for such of the Cumaeans and Ionians are called Omouroi Aristotle he writes contrarie to Ephorus that what time Neleus the sonne of Codrus was President in Ionia of the Collonie there then newly planted a beautifull Virgin of this nation was forced and deflowred by one of the Genius's which vsed to daunce with the Muses who after remooued to a place called Aegina and meeting with certaine forragers and robbers that made sundrie incursions into the countrie shee was by them surprised and brought to Smyrna who presented her to Meonides a companion to the king of the Lydians hee at the first sight inamoured of her beautie tooke her to wife who after sporting herselfe by the bankes of Miletus brought foorth Homer and instantly expired And since we haue had occasion to speake of his mother let it not seeme altogether impertinent to proceede a little of the sonne who by reason of his being hurried in his childhood from one place to another and ignorant both of his countrey and parents went to the Oracle to be resolued concerning them both as also his future fortunes who returned him this doubtfull answere Faelix miser ad sortem es quia natus vtramque Perquiris patriam matris tibi non patris extat c. Happie and wretched both must be thy fate That of thy Countrey doost desire to heaâ—â— Knowne is thy mothers Cl'ime thy father 's not An Island in the Sea to Creet not neer Nor yet farre off in which thou shalt expire When boyes a riddle shall to thee propose Whose darke Aenigma thou canst not acquire A double Fate thy life hath thou shalt loose Thine eyes yet shall thy loftie Muse ascend And in thy death thou life haue without end In his latter daies he was present at Thebes at their great feast called Saturnalia and from thence comming to Ius and sitting on a stone by the water-port there landed some fishermen whom Homer asked what they had taken but they hauing got nothing that day but for want of other worke onely lousing
feigned teare c. Somewhat to this purpose spake Terentius in his Adelphis Duxi vxorem quam ibi non miseriam vidi c. I made choice of a wife with iudgement sound What miserie haue I not therein found Children are borne they proue my second care They should be comforts that my corsiues are For her and them I studie to prouide And to that purpose all my times's applyde To keepe her pleas'd and raise their poore estate And what 's my meede for all but scorne and hate And so much for Gunnora It seemes the Emperor Valentinianus was neither well read in Iuuenall nor Terrens He when his wife commended vnto him the beautie of the Ladie Iustina tooke her to his bed and for her sake made a law That it should be lawfull for any man to marrie two wiues It is read of Herod the Great that he had nine wiues and was diuorsed from them all only for the loue of Mariamnes neice to Hircanus for whose sake he caused himselfe to bee circumcised and turned to the faith of the Iewes he begot on her Alexander and Aristobulus on Dosides Antipater on Metheta Archelaus on Cleopatra Philip and Herodes Antipas he that was afterward called Tetrarch one of the foure princes Aristobulus that was Herodes sonne begotten on Beronica the daughter of his own Aunt called Saloma he begot the great Agrippa Aristobulus Herod that was strooke by the Angell also on the aforesaid Beronica hee begot two daughters Mariamnes Herodias who was after Philips wife that was Vncle to Aristobulus neuerthelesse whilest Philip was yet aliue Herodias became wife to his brother Herod At length there fell debate betwixt her Mariamnes and Saloma Herods sister Herod by the instigation of Saloma slew Hyrcanus the Priest and after Ionathas the brother of Mariamnes who against the law hee had caused to be consecrated Priest at the age of seuenteene yeares After that he caused Mariamnes to bee put to death with the husband of his sister Saloma pretending that Hyrcanus and Ihonathas had adulterated his sister After these murders Herod grew madde for the loue of Mariamnes who was held to bee the fairest Ladie then liuing innocently put to death He then tooke againe his wife Dosides and her sonne Antipater to fauour sending Alexander and Aristobulus the sons of Mariamnes to Rome to be instructed in the best litterature whom after hee caused to be slaine And these were the fruites of Adulterous and Incestuous marriages Of Women that haue come by strange Deaths THere are many kinds of deaths I will include them all within two heades Violent and Voluntarie the Violent is when either it comes accidentally or when we would liue and cannot the Voluntarie is when we may liue and will not and in this wee may include the blesseddest of all deaths Martyrdome I will begin with the first and because gold is a mettall that all degrees callings trades mysteries and professions of either Sex especially acquire after I will therefore first exemplifie them that haue dyed golden deaths Of the Mistresse of Brennus Of Tarpeia and Acco a Roman Matron OF Midas the rich king and of his golden wish I presume you are not ignorant and therefore in vaine it were to insist vpon his historieâ— my businesse is at this time with women Brennus an Englishman and the yonger brother to Belinus both sonnes of Donwallo was by reason of composition with his brother with whom hee had beene competitor in the kingdome disposed into France and leading an armie of the Galls inuaded forreine countries as Germanie Italie sacking Rome and piercing Greece In so much that his glorie stretched so farre that the French Croniclers would take him quite from vs and called him Rex Gallorum witnesse Plutarch in his seuenteenth Paralel This Brennus spoyling and wasting Asia came to besiege Ephesus where falling in loue with a wanton of that cittie he grew so inward with her that vpon promise of reward shee vowed to deliuer the cittie into his hands the conditions were that he being possest of the Towne should deliuer into her safe custodie as many jewells rings and as much treasure as should counteruaile so great a benefit to which he assented The towne deliuered and he being victor shee attended her reward when Brennus commanded all his souldiers from the first to the last to cast what gold or siluer or iewells they had got in the spoyle of the cittie into her lap which amounted to such an infinite masse that with the weight thereof she was suffocated and prest to death This Clitiphon deliuers in his first booke Rerum Gallicar to answere which Aristides Melesius in Italicis speakes of Tarpeia a noble Virgin or at least nobly descended and one of the keepers of the Capitoll she in the warre betwixt the Sabines and the Romans couenanted with king Tatius then the publike enemie to giue him safe accesse into the mountaine Tarpeia so hee would for a reward but possese her of all the gold and iewells which his souldiers the Sabines had then about them This shee performing they were likewise willing to keepe their promise but withall loathing the couetousnesse of the woman threw so much of the spoyle and treasure vpon her that they buried her in their riches and she expired amiddest a huge Magozin But remarkable aboue these is the old woman Acco or Acca who hauing done an extraordinarie courtesie for the cittie of Romeâ— they knew not better how to requite her than knowing her auaritious disposition to giue her free libertie to goe into the common treasurie and take thence as much gold as she could carrie The wretched woman ouerioyed with this donatiue entered the place to make her packe or burden which was either so little she would not beare or so great she could not carrie and swetting and striuing beneath the burden so expired The like though somthing a more violent death died the Emperour Galba who in his life time being insatiate of gold as being couetous aboue all the Emperours before him they powred moulten gold downe his throat to confirme in him that old Adage Quâ—lis vita finis ita The like was read of the rich Roman Crassus Of such as haue died in child-byrth THough of these be infinites and dayly seene amongst vs yet it is not altogether amisse to speake someting though neuer so little which may haâ—e reference to antiquitie Volaterranus remembers vs of Tulliota the daughter of Marcus Cicero who being first placed with Dolobella and after with Piso Crassipides died in child-bed The like Suetonius puts vs in minde of Iunia Claudilla who was daughter to the most noble Marcus Sillanus and wife to the Emperor Caius Calligula who died after the same manner Higinus in his two hundred threescore and fourth Fable tells this tale In the old time sayth he there were no midwiues at all and for
that cause many women in their modestie rather suffered themselues to perish for want of helpe than that any man should bee seene or knowne to come about them Aboue all the Athenians were most curious that no seruant or woman should learne the art of Chyrurgerie There was a damosell of that cittie that was verie industrious in the search of such mysteries whose name was Agnodice but wanting meanes to attaine vnto that necessarie skill she caused her haire to be shorne and putting on the habit of a yong man got her selfe into the seruice of one Heirophilus a Phisitian and by her industrie and studie hauing attained to the deapth of his skill and the height of her own desires vpon a time hearing where a noble ladie was in child-birth in the middest of her painfull throwes she offered her selfe to her helpe whom the modest Ladie mistaking her Sex would by no persuasion suffer to come neere her till she was forced to strip her selfe before the women and to giue euident signes of her woman-hood After which shee had accesse to many proouing so fortunate that she grew verie famous In so much that being enuied by the colledge of the Phisitians shee was complained on to the Ariopagitae or the nobilitie of the Senat such in whose power it was to censure and determine of all causes and controuersies Agnodice thus conuented they pleaded against her youth and boldnesse accusing her rather a corrupter of their chastities than any way a curer of their infirmities blaming the matrons as counterfeiting weakenesse onely of purpose to haue the companie and familiaritie of a loose and intemperate yong man They prest their accusations so farre that the Iudges were readie to proceede to sentence against herâ— when shee opening her brest before the Senat gaue manifest testimonie that she was no other than a woman at this the Phisitians the more incenst made the fact the more henious in regard that being a woman she durst enter into the search of that knowledge of which their Sex by the law was not capable The cause being once more readie to goe against her the noblest matrons of the cittie assembled themselues before the Senat and plainely told them they were rather enemies than husbands who went about to punish her that of all their Sex had beene most studious for their generall health and safetie Their importancie so farre preuailed after the circumstances were truely considered that the first decree was quite abrogated and free libertie granted to women to imploy themselues in those necessarie offices without the presence of men So that Athens was the first cittie of Greece that freely admitted of Mid-wiues by the meanes of this damosell Agnodice Of Women that suffered Martyrdome ANd of these in briefe Corona was a religious woman who suffered martyrdome vnder the tyrannie of Antonius the Emperour Her death was after this manner she was tyde by the armes and legges betwixt two trees whose stiffe branches were forced and bowed downe for the purpose the bowes being slackned and let loose her bodie was tost into the ayre and so cruelly dissâ—uered limbe from limbe Anatholia a Virgin by the seuere commaund of Faustinianus the President was transpierst with a sword Felicula as Plutarch witnesseth when by no persuasion or threats promises or torments she could be forced to renounce the Christian Faith by the command of Flaccus Comes shee was commanded to be shut vp in a Iakes and there stifled to death Murita had likewise the honour of a Martyr who being banished by Elphedorus a certaine Arrian opprest with cold and hunger most miseraby died Hyrene the Virgin because shee would not abiure her faith and religion was by Sisimmius shot through with an arrow The like death suffered the martyr Christiana vnder Iulian the Apostata Paulina a Roman Virgin and daughter to the Prefect Artemius was with her mother Candida stoned to death by the commaund of the tyrant Dioclesian Agatho virgo Catanensis was strangled in prison by the command of the Consâ—ll Quintianus Theodora a Virgin of Antioch was beheaded by the tyrannie of Dioclesian Iulia Countes of Eulalia suffered the same death vnder the President Diaconus Margaritu a maide and a martyr had her head cut off by Olibrius Zoâ— the wife of Nicostratus was nayled vnto a crosse and so ended her life partly with the torture of the gybbet and partly with the smoke that the executioner made at the foot of the gallowes suffocated Iulia Carthagensis because she would not bow to Idolls and adore the false heathen gods but was a constant professor of the true Christian faith was martyred after the selfe same manner Emerita the sister of Lucius king of England who had the honour to be called the first Christian king of this countrie shee suffered for the Faith by fire Alexandria was the wife of Dacianus the President who being conuerted to the Faith by blessed saint George was therefore by the bloodie murderer her husbands owne hands strangled Maximianus the sonne of Dioclesian with his owne hands likewise slew his naturall sister Artemia because that forsaking all Idolatrie shee prooued a conuertite to the true Christian Faith Flauia Domicilla a noble Ladie of Rome was banished into the Isle Pontia in the fifteenth yeare of the raigne of Domitian for no other reason but that shee constantly professed her selfe to bee a Christian. These two following suffered persecution vnder Antonius Verus in France Blondina who is sayd to wearie her tormentors patiently induring more than they could malitiously inflict in so much that before shee fainted they confessed themselues ouercome she readie still to suffer and beare when they had not blows to giue for as oft as she spake these words I am a Christian neither haue I committed any euill she seemed to the spectators of her martyrdome to bee so refreshed and comforted from aboue that she felt no paine or anguish in the middest of her torture and in that patience she continued without alteration euen to the last gaspe Biblis one that before through her womanish weakenesse had fainted for feare of torments comming to see her with others executed was so strengthened to behold their constancie that as it were awakened out of her former dreame and comparing those temporall punishments which lasted but a moment with the eternall paines of Hell fire gaue vp her selfe freely for the Gospels sake Dionisius in an Epistle to Fabius Bishop of Antioch reckons vp those that suffered martyrdome vnder Decius the Emperour Quinta a faithfull woman was by the Infidels brought into a Temple of their Idolls vnto which because she denied diuine adoration they bound her hand and foot and most inhumanly dragged her along the streets vpon the sharpe stones but when that could not preuaile with her they beat her head and sides and bruised them against Mill-stones that done shee was pitiously scourged and lastly bloodily executed The same Lictors layd hands on Appolonia a Virgin
but something grounded in yeares and because she spake boldly in the defence of her Faith first with barbarous crueltie they beat out her teeth then without the â—ittie they prepared a huge pile threatning to burne her instantly vnlesse shee would renounce her Christianitie but shee seeming to pause a little as if she meant better to consider of the matter when thy least suspected leapt suddenly into the fire and was there consumed to ashes Ammomarion a holy Virgin after the suffering of many torments vnder the same tyrant gaue vp her life an acceptable sacrifice for the Gospell Mercuria a vertuous Woman and one Dionisia a fruitfull and child-bearing Martyr after they were questioned about their faith and in all arguments boldly opposed the iudges were first rackt and tortured till they were past all sence of feeling that done they caused them to be executed Theodosia was a virgin of Tyrus about the age of eighteene years she comming to visite certaine prisoners at Cesaria who were called to the barre and because they stood stedfastly in the defence of the Gospell prepared themselues to heare the most welcome sentence of death pronounced against them which Theodosia seeing gently saluted them comforted them and persuaded them to continue in their constancie withall humbly desired them to remember her deuoutly in their prayers which she knew would be acceptable to him for whose loue they so freelie offered vp their liues The officers this hearing dragd her before the President who at first despising her youth began to talke with her as to a child but finding her answers modest and weightie began further to argue with her but seeing himselfe vnable to hold argument as being conuinced in all things hee grew into such a malitious rage that he first caused her to be scourged before his face euen till the flesh gaue way to discouer the bones but this not preuailing hee commanded her instantly to be dragged from thence and from an high place to be cast headlong into the sea I will conclude this discourse of Martyrs with one of our owne moderne stories Our english chronicles report that Maximus the Emperour hauing held long warre with one Conon Meridock a resolute and bold Brittaine hauing in many bloody conflicts sped diuersly sometimes the victory inclining to one side and then to another but in conclusion to the losse of both their hostilitie was by mediation at length attoned and a firme peace establisht betwixt them that done Maximus made warre vpon the Galls and inuading a Prouince then called America but since Little Brittaine he wonne it by the sword and after surrendered it to Conon to hold it for euer as of the Kings of great Brittaine This Conon Meridock was a Welch-man and from hence it may bee That all that nation assume to themselues the name of Brittons This eminent captaine being onely furnisht with souldiours for the present warres but wanting women to maintaine future issue to him was sent S. Vrsula with eleauen thousand virgins to bee espoused to Conon and his knights But being met at sea by the the Pagan pyrats because they would neither change their faith nor prostitute themselues to their barbarous and beastly lusts they were all by these inhuman wretches cut to peeces and cast ouer board and therefore in mine opinion not vnworthily reckoned amongst the Martyrs From these I will proceede to others Aristoclaea OF all the deaths that I haue read of this of Aristoclaea me thinkes exceedes example with which howsoeuer her body was tormented her soule could not be greeeued for neuer woman dyed such a louing death Plutarch in his Amatorious narrations hath thus deliuered it Aliartes is a cittie of Boetia in which was borne a virgin so beautified and adorned with all the gifts and perfections of nature as she seemed vnparaleld through Greece her name was Aristoclaea the sole daughter of Theophanes To her there were many sutors but three especially of the noblest families of the cittie Strato Orchomenius and Calisthenes Aliartius Of these Strato being the richest he seemed the most indeâ—red to her in affection for he had first seene her at Lebedaea bathing her selfe in the fountaine Hercyne from whence hauing a basket vpon her arme which she was to vse in the sacrifice to Iupiter he tooke a full view of her in her way to the Temple yet Calisthenes he fed himselfe with the greater hopes because he was of more proximitie and neerer to the virgin in allians betwixt these two Orchomenius stood as a man indifferent Her father Theophanes vpon their importunities doubtfull and not yet hauing determined on which to conferre his daughter as fearing Stratoes potencie who in wealth and nobilitie equalled if not anteceded the best in the cittie he therefore put it off to one Trophonius to be decided but Strato most confident in his owne opinion and strength tooke the power to her disposing from Trophonius and gaue it vp freely into her owne will The damsell in a confluence of all her kindred and friends gathered for that purpose and in the sight of her suitors was publikely demaunded of which of them she made choice who answered of Calisthenes Strato taking this in an irreconcilable disgrace and in the greatnesse of his spirit not able to disgest an iniurie as he tooke it of that nature dissembling his spleene and some two dayes after meeting with Theophanes and Calisthenes hee gaue them a friendly and an vnsuspected salutation desiring still a continuance of their antient loue and friendship that since what many couet one can but enioy he could content himselfe with his owne lot howsoeuer desiring that their amitie might remaine perfect and vnchanged these words came so seemingly from the heart that they with great ioy did not only entertain his loue and voluntarie reconcilement but in all curtesie gaue him a solemne inuitation to the wedding which he as complementally entertained and vpon these tearmes they parted Strato subornes a crew of such as he might best trust and addes them to the number of his seruants these hee ambushes in diuers places selected for his purpose but all to be ready at a watch-word Calisthenes bringing Aristoclaea towards the fountaine called Cissoâ—ssa there to performe the first Sacreds belonging to marriage according to the custome of her auncetors Strato with his faction ariseth and with his owne hands ceiseth vpon the virgin on the other side Calisthenes hee catcheth the fastest hold he can to keepe her Strato and his pull one way Calisthenes and his another thus both contending in the heat of their affection but not regarding her safetie whom they did affect she as it were set vpon the racke of loue pluckt almost to peeces betwixt them both expired Which seeing Calisthenes hee was suddenlie lost neither could any man euer after tell what became of him whether he punisht himselfe by some extraordinarie death or betooke himselfe to voluntarie exile Strato openly before his owne people
transpierst himselfe and fell downe dead vpon the body of Aristoclaea Of no such death dyed Democrita whose history next ensueth Alcippus the Lacedemonian had two daughters by his wife Democrita He hauing with great iustice and integritie managed the affaires of the weale publike more for the common good than any peculiar gaine or profit of his own was affronted by an opposite faction which emulated his goodnesse and being brought before the Ephori it was deliuered to them in a scandalous and lying oration how and by what meanes Alcippus intended to abrogate and adnichilate their lawes for which he was confind from Spatta neither could his wife daughters who willingly offered themselues to attend vpon his aduersity be suffered to associate him but they were deteined by the power and command of the publike magistrate Moreouer an edict was made That neyther the wife was capable of inheritance nor the daughter of dower out of their fathers goods notwithstanding they had many sutors of such noble gentlemen as loued them for their fathers virtues It was likewise by the enemy most enuiously suggested to the Senat that the two Ladies might be debard from marriage their reason was that Democrita was heard often to wish and withall to presage that she should see children borne of her daughters who would in time reuenge the wrongs of their grandfather This being granted and shee euery way circumscribed both in her selfe her husband and issue euery way confind she expected a publike solemnitie in which according to the custome the women of the cittie with the virgins houshold seruants and infants had meeting but the matrons and wiues of the nobilitie kept their night-festiuall in a conclaue or parlor by themselues Then she guirt her selfe with a sword and with her two daughters secretlie conueyd her selfe into the Temple attending the time when all the matrons were most busie about the ceremonies and mysteries in the conclaue then hauing made fast the doores and shut vp the passages and heaped together a great quantitie of billets with other things combustible prouided for the purpose but especially all that sweete wood that was ready for the sacrifice of that solemnitie she set all on fire which the men hastening to quench in multitudes she before them all with a constancie vndaunted first slew her daughters and after her selfe making the ruins of this Temple their last funerall fire The Lacedemonians hauing now nothing left of Alcippus against which to rage they caused the bodies of Democrita and her daughters to be cast out of the confines of Sparta For this ingratitude it is said by some that great earth-quake happened which had almost ouerturned the cittie of Lacedemon from Democrita I come to Phillis Demophrâ—â— the sonne of Theseus and Phadra the halfe brother of Hippolitus returning from the warres of Troy towards his countrey by tempests and contrarie winds being driuen vpon the coast of Thrace was gently receiued and affectionately entertained by Phillis daughter to Lycurgus and Crustâ—â—ena then king and queene of that countrey and not onely to the freedome of all generous hospitalitie but to the libertie and accesse vnto her bed He had not long soiourned there but he had certaine tydings of the death of Muestham who after his father Theseus was expulsed Athens had vsurped the principalitie pleased therefore with the newes of innouation and surprised with the ambition of succession he pretending much domesticke businesse with other negotiations pertaining to the publike gouernment after his faith pawned to Phillis that his returne should be within a moneth hee got leaue for his countrey therefore hauing calked and moored his ships making them seruiceable for the sea he set saile towards Athens where arriued he grew altogether vnmindfull of his promised faith or indented returne Foure moneths being past and not hearing from him by word or writing she sent him an Epistle in which she complaines his absence then persuades him to call to mind her more than common curtesies to keepe his faith ingaged to her and their former contract to make good by marriage the least of which if he refused to accomplish her violated honour she would recompence with some cruell and violent death which she accordingly did for knowing her selfe to bee despised and vtterly cast off she in her fathers Pallace hung her selfe From Phillis I proceede to Deiaâ—eira Iâ—piter begat Hercules of Alcmena in the shape of her husband Amphitrio ioyning three nights in one whom Euristius king of Micena at the vrgence of his stepmother Iuno imployd in all hazardous and fearefull aduentures not that thereby he might gaine the greater honour but by such meanes sooner perish but his spirit was so great and his strength to eminent that from foorth all these swallowing dangers he still plunged a victor amongst these difficulties was that combat against Achelous a Flood in Aetolia who transhapt himselfe into sundry figures for the loue of Deianeira daughter to Oeneus and Althaea king and queene of Calidon and sister to Meleager he whom no monsters nor earthly powers could tame by the conquest of Achelous wonne Deianeira for his bride But he whom all tyrants and terrours were subiect to submitted himselfe to effeminacie and the too much dotage vpon women for when Euritus king of Oechalia had denied him his daughter Iöle before promist him the citty taken and the king slaine he tooke her freely into his embraces with whose loue he was so blinded that at her imperious command hee layd by his clubbe and Lions skinne the trophyes of his former victories and which was most vnseemely for so great a conquerour put on a womanish habit and blusht not with a distaffe in his hand to spinne amongst her damsells In briefe what slauerie and seruitude soeuer he had before suffered vnder the tyranny of Omphale queene of Lydia of whom he had begot Lamus he indured from her which Deianeira hearing in a letter she layes open to him all his former noble acts and victories that by comparing them with his present deboishtnesse it the better might incourage him to returne to the first and deterre him from the last But hauing receiued newes of Hercules calamitie by reason of the poisoned shirt sent him by her seruant Lychas dipt in the blood of the Centaure Nessus in which she thought there had beene the vertue to reuoke him from all new loues and establish him in his first for so Nessus had persuaded hir when in her transwaftage ouer the flood Euenus he was slaine by the arrow of Hercules dipt in the poyson of Lerna when she I say heard of the death of her husband and that though vnwillingly it happened by her meanes shee dyed by a voluntarie wound giuen by her owne hand Not such was that which followes The Ionians through all their Prouince being punisht with a most fearfull and horrible pest in so much that it almost swept the cittie and countrey and had it longer continued
and howsoeuer the euent prooue the reward of the victorie is nothing but the dammage arising from the fight manifest Their answer went before which their resolution as suddenlie and swiftlie pursued after for their army and their answer almost arriued together whose celeritie in march and resolution in purpose when Vexores vnderstood he forsooke his tents and all prouision for warre and betooke himselfe to a base and dishonourable flight They pursued him to the Aegyptian fennes but by reason of the marishes and vncertaine ground their further passage was prohibited Retyring thence they ouerranne Asia and subdued it vnder their predominance imposing on the Nations a small tribute rather in acknowledgement of the title than to be gainers by the victory the enemy rather suffering disgrace than oppression fifteene yeares they continued in Asia rather to settle the estate than to extort from the inhabitants From thence they were called by the wickednesse of their wiues from whom they receiued word That vnlesse they instantly repayred home they would seeke issue from the neighbour nations for they would not suffer the posteritie of the antient Scythians to bee in the women extinct Asia was for many yeares tributarie to the Scythians Trogus and Iustine say for a thousand and fiue hundred yeares which ended in Ninus king of Assyria In this interim two princely youthes among the Scythians Plinos and Scolopitus being by the optimates and chiefe of the people expulst from their families drew to their societie a mightie confluence and inuaded Cappadocia planting themselues neere to the riuer Thermedon and being by conquest possest of the Prouince of Themisciria there hauing for many yeares made spoyle of the neighbour nations by the conspiracie of the multitude who were opprest with their insolencies they were betraide and slaine Their wiues by reason of their exile halfe in despaire boldly tooke armes and first retyring themselues and making their owne confines defensible after grew to the resolution to inuade others Besides they disdained to marry with their neighbours calling it rather a seruitude than Wedlock A singular example to all ages Thus they augmented their seigniories and establisht their common-weale without the counsell or assistance of men whose fellowship they began now altogether to despise and to communicate their losse to make the widdowes of equall fortune with the wiues they slew all the men that yet remained amongst them and after reuenged the deaths of their husbands formerlie slaine vpon the bordering people that conspired against them At length by warre hauing setled peace least their posteritie and memory should perish they had mutuall congression with their neighbour nations The men children they slew the female they nourced and brought vp not in sowing and spinning but in hunting and practise off armes and horsemanship and that they better might vse their launces and with the more ease at seauen yeares of age they seared or rather burnt of their right breasts of which they tooke the name of Amasons as much as to say Vnimammae or Vrimammae i. those with one breast or with a burnt breast There were of them two queenes that ioyntly held the soueraigntie Marthesia and Lampedo these diuided their people into two armies and being growne potent both in power and riches they went to warre by turnes the one gouerning at home whilest the other forraged abroad and least there should want honour and authoritie to their successes they proclaimed themselues to be deriued from Mars in so much that hauing subdued the greater part of Aeurope they made incursions into Asia and there subdued many fortresses and castles where hauing built Ephesus with many other citties part of their army they sent home with rich and golden spoyles the rest that remained to maintaine the Empire of Asia were all with the queene Marthesia or as some write Marpesia defeated and slaine In whose place of soueraigntie her daughter Orythia succeeded who besides her singular valour and fortunate successe in warre was no lesse admired for her constant vowe of virginitie which to her death she kept inuiolate The bruite of their glorious and inuincible acts reaching as farre as Greece Hercules with a noble assembly of the most Heroicke youthes furnisht nine ships with purpose to make proofe of their valor two of foure sisters at that time had the principalitie Antiope and Orythia Orythia was then imployde in forreine expeditions Now when Hercules with the young Heroes landed vpon the Amasonian continent the queene Antiope not iealous of the least hostility stood then with many of her ladies vnarmed on the shore who being suddainly assaulted by the Graecians were easily put to rout and they obtained an easie victorie in this conflict many were slaine and diuers taken amongst whom were the two sisters of Antiope Menalippe surprised by Hercules and Hyppolite by Theseus hee subdude her by armes but was captiuated by her beautie who after tooke her to his wife and of her begot Hyppolitus Of her Seneca in Agamemnon thus speakes Vidit Hyppolite ferox pectore emedio rapi Spolium sagittas The bold Hyppolite did see that day Her breast despoyld and her shafts tane away Of Menalippe Virgill thus Threicean sexto spolianit Amazona Baltheo Hauing relation to the golden belt of Thermedon which was numbered the sixt of Hercules his twelue labours He receiued that honour and she her libertie Orythia being then abroad and hearing of these outrages and dishonours done at home that warre had beene commenced against her sister and Theseus prince of Athens borne thence Hyppolite whom she held to be no better than a rauishor impatient of these iniuries shee conuented all her forces and incited them to reuenge inferring that in vaine they bore Empire in Europe and Asia if their dominions lay open to the spoyles and rapines of the Grecians Hauing incouraged and persuaded her owne people to this expedition she next demanded ayd of Sagillus king of the Scythians to him acknowledging herselfe to be descended from that nation showes the necessitie of that warre and the honour of so braue a victorie hoping that for the glorie of the Scythian nation his men would not come behind her women in so iust an enterprise the successe of which was vndoubtedly spoyle for the present and fame for euer Sagillus with these motiues incouraged sent his sonne Penaxagoras with a great armie of horsemen to ayd Orithea in this warre but by reason of a discention that fell in the campe the prince of Scythia withdrew all his auxiliarie forces and with them retired into his countrey by reason of which defect the Amazons were defeated by the Grecians yet many of them after this battaile recouered their countries After this Orythea succeeded Penthisilaea shee that in the ayd of Priam or as some say for the loue of Hector came to the siege of Troy with a thousand Ladies where after many deeds of chiualrie by her performed she was slaine by
the daughters of Thestor Chiâ—ne otherwise called Philonide the daughter of Dedalion Coramis the daughter of Phlegia adulterated by Apollo Nictimine comprest by her father Epopeus The very Index or Catalogue of whose names onely without their histories would aske a Volume For their number I will referre you to Ouid in his first booke de Arte amandi Gargarae quot segetes c. Thicke as ripe eares in the Gargarian fields As many greene boughes as Methimna yeelds Fish Fowle or Starres in Sea Ayre Heauen there bee So many prettie wenches Rome in thee Aenas mother is still lou'd and fear'd In that great citie which her sonne first rear'd If onely in young girles thou do'st reioyce There 's scarce one house but it affoords thee choyse If in new-marryed wiues but walke the street And in one day thou shalt with thousands meet Or if in riper yeeres but looke before Where ere thou go'st thou shalt find Matrons store If then one citie and at one time could affoord such multiplicitie of all ages and degrees how many by that computation may we reckon from the beginning amongst all the nations of the world I doubt not then but this draught of water fetcht from so vast a Fountaine may at least coole the pallate if not quench the thirst of the insatiat Reader Manto ZEbalia a man whose byrth ranked him in the file of nobilitie beeing imployed vpon seruice in the Turkish warres brought with him his most estimated and greatest treasure his deerest spouse stiled Manto But he dying in the crimson bed of honour the sinister hand of warre gaue her into the captiuitie of Bassa Ionuses who beholding with admiration a creature of so diuine a feature was though her conqueror taken captiue by her beautie who hauing put her vertue to the Test found it to paralell if not out-shine her forme Wherefore being couetous to engrosse so rich a bootie to himselfe he tooke her to wife bestowing on her a more honorable respect than on his other wiues and concubines and she likewise endeuored to meet his affection with an answerable obseruance and obedience This feruent and mutuall loue continued long inuiolate betwixt them insomuch that they were no lesse honoured for their eminence of state than remarkable for their coniugall affection but that cursed fiend Iealousie enuying at their admired sympathie straight vsurpes the throne of reason and sits a predominant tyrant in his fantastike braine for he grew so strangely iealous that he thought some one or other to corriuall him but yet knew not whom to taint with any iust suspition nay hee would confesse that he had not catcht the least sparke of loosenesse from her that might thus fire this beacon of distraction in him Briefly his wife as beautifull in minde as feature wearied with his daily peeuish humors and seeing all her studies aymed at his sole content were entertained with neglect and insolent scorne she resolued to leaue him and secretly to flie into her natiue countrey to further which she vnlockes this her secret intent to an Eunuch of the Bassaes giuing him withall certaine letters to deliuer to some friends of hers whom she purposed to vse as agents in the furtherance of her escape but he proouing treacherous in the trust committed to his charge betrayde her to her husband showing her letters as testimonies to his allegations The Bassa at this discouerie swolne big with rage called her before him whom in his disperate furie he immediately stabbed with his dagger thus with the cause of iealousie taking away the effect But this bloodie deed somewhat loosened him in the peoples hearts where he before grew deepely and fast rooted nor did he out-run Vengance for at the last her leaden feet ouertooke him and in this manner Selymus the first at his departure from Caire his souldiers whom he there lefe in garrison made suit vnto his highnes That in consideration of the great labours they had alreadie vndergone together with the many dangers they were hourely in expectation of that their wages might be inlarged which he granted and withall gaue this Bassa Ionuses the charge to see the performance thereof At last the pay-day came but their hopes proouing abortiue the souldiers mutined to coniure downe which spirit of insurrection messengers are dispatched to the Emperour to certifie him of the neglectiue abuse of his royall word and feare of sedition this newes ouertooke him at Larissa in Iudea Selymus inraged at this relation sends for Bassa Ionuses and examines the cause of his neglect in such and so weightie a charge Ionuses somewhat abashed as beeing conscious yet withall high-spirited gaue the Emperour a peremptorie answer at which being mightily incenced hee commanded his head to be cut off which was forthwith done and thus iustice suffered not innocent Manto to die vnreuenged The wife of Agetus the Lacedemonian HErodotus Lib. 6. thus writes of this Ladie the daughter of Alcydes the Spartan first wife of Agetus and after to the king Ariston She of the most deformed infant became the excellentest amongst women Her nurse to whose keeping she was giuen for the parents were asham'd of their Issue went with her euerie day to the Temple of Helena which stands in Therapne neere to the Church of Apollo and kneeling before the Altar besought the goddesse to commiserate the child and free her from her natiue vglinesse and loathsome deformitie Vpon a time returning from the Temple a woman appeared to her of a venerable aspect and desired to see what she carryed so tenderly in her armes the nurse told her it was an infant but such an one as shee was loth to shew and therefore desired to be excused the rather because she was enioyned by the parents not to expose it to the sight of any The more the nurse put her off with euasions the more importunate the strange woman was to behold it At length preuayling shee gently with her hand stroaked the face of the child and kissing it thus said Goe nurse and beare her home to her parents who shall in time become the most beautifull of the Spartan Ladyes From that time forward her deformitie began to fall away and a sweet grace and delightfull comelynesse to grow as well in face as euerie other lineament Comming to marriage estate she was sollicited by many but onely possest by Agetus yet after by the craft of Ariston shee was diuorced from Agetus and conferred vpon him Dion in Augusto speakes of Terentia the wife of Mecaenas to be of that rare feature that she dared to contend with Lyuia the wife of Augustus Caesar who was held to be the most amiable and exquisite Ladie of those dayes Of Terentia the daughter of Cicero I haue thus read Titus the sonne of Milo and Appius the sonne of Clodius were as remarkable for their noble friendship as their fathers notorious for their irreconcilable hatred Titus was for his fathers sake welcome to Cicero but Appius
death immediately another was elected to succeed in his place and being chosen in a booke kept in the treasurie for that onely purpose expressely to write downe his owne name and the names of both his parents with the dayes punctually set downe of the decease of the one and the succession of the other Now in the time that Christ was conuersâ—nt in Iudaea and yet had not shewed himself to the world nor preached the Word openly to the people it happened that one of the Priests of the foresaid number dyed neyther after many voyces and sundrie nominations was any agreed vpon or thought fit to be ascribed into his place At length was propounded IESVS the sonne of the Carpenter Ioâ—eph for so they tearmed him a man though young yet for the sanctitie of his life his behauiour and doctrine aboue all the rest commended This suffrage standing as hauing generall approbation from all it was thought conuenient to send for his mother for his father Ioseph was late dead into the Consistorie onely to know their names and to register them in the aforesaid booke She therefore being called and diligently questioned of her sonne and his father thus answered That indeed she was the mother of IESVS and brought him into the world of which those women are testates that were present at his birth but that he had no father from Earth in which if they desired to be further instructed shee could make it plainely appeare For being a Virgin and then in Galilee the Angell of God sayth shee entred the house where I was and appearing vnto me not sleeping but thus as I am awake he told me That by the Holy-Ghost I should conceiue and bring foorth a sonne and commanded me that I should call his name IESVS Therefore beeing then a Virgin by that Vision I conceiued I brought foorth IESVS and I still remaine a Virgin vnto this day When the Priests heard this they appointed faithfull and trustie Midwiues with all diligence and care to make proofe whether Mary were a Virgin or no they finding the truth most apparant and not to be contradicted deliuered vp to the Priests That shee was a Virgin pure and immaculate Then they sent for those women that were knowne to be at her deliuerie and were witnesses of the Infants comming into the world all which did attest and iustifie That shee was the mother of the same IESVS With these things the Priests amazed and astonished they presently entreated Mary that shee would freely professe vnto them what his Parents were that their names according to custome might be registred amongst the others To whom the blessed Virgin thus answered Certaine I am that I brought him into the world but know no father that he hath from the Earth but by the Angell it was told me That hee was the Sonne of GOD Hee therefore is the Sonne of GOD and me This the Priests vnderstanding they called for the Booke which being layd open before them they caused these words to be inscribed Vpon such a day deceased such a Priest borne of such and such Parents in whose place by the common and vnite suffrage of vs all is elected Priest IESVS the Sonne of the liuing GOD and the Virgin MARY And this Booke Theodosius affirmed by the especiall diligence of the most noble amongst the Iewes and the chiefe Princes was reserued from the great sacke and destruction of the citie and Temple and was transferred into the citie of Tiberias and there kept a long time after Sâ—idas testifies That hee hath heard this discourse from honest men who deliuered it to him word by word as they themselues haue heard it from the mouth of Philippus Argentarius This most blessed and pure Virgin Mary the mother of our Lord and Sauiour was borne of the holy Matron S. Anne in the yeere of the World 3948 and in the yeere before Christ fifteene Of him Claâ—dian thus elegantly writes â—n one of his Epigrams Proles vera Dei â—unctisque antiquior Annis Nâ—â—c geniâ—â—s qui semper er as True Sonne of God older than Time that hast Thy byrth but now yet from beginning wast Author of Light and Light before all other Oh thou that art the parent of thy mother And by thine equall-aged father sent From Heauen vnto this terrhene continent Whose word was made Flesh and constrain'd to dwell In the straight prison of a Virgins cell And in a narrow angle to remaine Whose power no limit can no place conteine Who being borne did'st now begin to see All these great workes created first by thee The worke and workeman of thy selfe not skorning Tâ—obey those wearie houres of Eu'n and Morning Of which th' art Lord and tell each minute ore Made by thy Wisdome for mans vse before And took'st on thee our shape onely to show To vs that God we did till then not know c. Petronilla WHen Peter the Apostle had by his Faith cured all infirmities and diseases and in all places yet he suffered his daughter Petronilla to bee grieuously afflicted with a Feauor and being demanded why hee that had cured others did not helpe her he answered Because hee knew her sickenesse to be most behoofefull for her soules health for the weaker she was in bodie she was so much the stronger in Faith setling her cogitations on the ioyes of Heauen and not the pleasures of the world desiring of God that she might rather die a chast Virgin than to be the wife of the Consull Flaccus by whom she was at that time most earnestly sollicited whose prayer was heard for she dyed of that sicknesse and the Consull was preuented of his purpose who had long insidiated her chastitie Marull lib. 4. cap. 8. The like we reade of Hillarius Pictauiensis Episcopus who hauing long trained vp his daughter Appia in chastitie and sanctitie of life fearing least time might alter her vowes and tempt her with the vaine pleasures of the world hee besought the giuer of all graces that hee might rather with ioy follow her to her graue than with sorrow to her marriage bed which was accordingly granted as the same Author testifies Eustochium the daughter of Paula a noble matron of Rome is celebrated by Saint Hierom for the onely president of Virginall chastitie Tora the virgin was of that chast and austere life that hauing tooke a vow and once entered her profession shee neuer put on her backe any new garment or so much as changed her shooes Maria Aegyptiaca liued the life of an Hermit in the sollitude of an vnfrequented desart some write of her that as often as she was seene to pray shee seemed to be lifted vp from the Earth into the Ayre the heigth of a cubit Columba a Virgin of Perusina is reported to be of that chastitie and abstinence that she neuer tasted any other food than the bare fruits of the Earth from the yeares of her discretion till the houre of her death
what difference and oddes there was in the appearance of two such high and noble persons which hauing read she returned him onely this short answere Well and these people about mee shall be old likewise when I am This Iulia to a noble Senator of stayd grauitie giuing her counsell to frame her selfe after her fathers graue and sober behauiour she presently replyde Though my father doth not remember that he is an Emperour yet I cannot forget that I am an Emperours daughter It is further remembered of her that beginning to haue gray haires with the soonest and before she was old as her maides and gentlewomen were kembing her head the Emperour came in suddenly vpon her and espyde them picking and plucking the white haires vp by the rootes which still stucke vpon their garments the Emperor for that present said nothing but not long after amongst many other discourses taking occasion to speake of old age he demaunded of his daughter Whether she had rather in the processe of a few yeares haue a reuerent white head or to be directly without any haire at all she answered She had rather to haue a white head Why then said he doe thy damosells all they can to make thee cleane bald before thy time Augustus much greeued with her licenciousnesse and seeing it subiect to no reformation he banished her the Court and with her her daughter Iulia his grandchild who tooke something too much after the mother and after that Agrippa whom hee had once adopted his heire but after for his intemperance and bruitish and luxurious riots cast out of his fauor Whensoeuer mention was made of any of these three hee would recite a verse out of Homer which imports thus much What 's now my sorrow would haue beene my pride If I as some might issuelesse haue di'de He vsed not to call any of those three by any other names than Vlcers or rotten Impostumes Cankers and such like for hee vsed much more patiently to take the deaths of his friends than their dishonours Hee further prouided by his last will That whensoeuer either Iulia his daughter or Iulia his grandchild expired their bodies should not rest beneath his monument One thing of her I had almost forgot Vpon a time comming to visite and doe her dutie to her father she perceiued his eyes to be much offended with the gawdinesse of her attire as sauering of immodestie the next day taking occasion to reuisite him she changed her habit into a comely ciuill and matronly garbe and in that sort came to embrace her father Caesar who had the day before suppressed his greefe was not now able to conteine his ioy but broke out into these tearmes ô how much more decent and seemely are these ornaments for the daughter of Augustus to whom shee instantly replyde Indeed this day I apparelled my selfe to please the eyes of a father but my yesterdayes habit was to content the eyes of a husband She when some that knew of her frequent inchastities demanded how it was possible she should bring forth children so like her husband considering her so often prostitution with strangers answered Because I neuer take in passenger till my ship haue her full fraught and lading Macrâ—b lib. 2. cap. 5. Satur. And so much for Iulia. Phileterus speaking of those wantons that liued afore his time and were now dead scoffes them thus Nonne Cercope iam egiâ— annerum â—ria millia c. i. Hath not Cercope alreadie liued three thousand yeares and proceeding and rough haired Diopethiâ— and a second Teleâ—is ten thousand for Theâ—lite none knowes or can remember when she was borne Was not This dead when she should haue prostituted her selfe and come vnder Ionias and Neaera are now dead and rotten so is Philace Of Siphâ—â— Galinas and Corâ—nas I speake not Of Nais I hold my peace because her teeth are now no grinders Sinope and Phanostrate with others are remembred by Demosthenes in his oration against Androtioâ—es Herdicus Grateticus speakes of this Sinope in his Commentaries and sayth That when she grew into yeares she was called Abidus shee was no question a famous strumpet in her youth for Antiphaâ—es speakes of her in many of his Comedies in Arâ—ade in Horlicomâ— in Medicatrice in Piscante in Neottide So likewise Alexis in Cleobulina and Calicrates in Moscione Of Phanostrate Appollodorus writes That shee was a prostitute in Athens and that of her ranke were many others and was called Phâ—herophile of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pediculus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Porta Propter quod pediculos cum staret in limine Porta queritabat Menander in Adulatore hee numbers these wantons Chrisis Coronis Antecyra Ischades and Nanniculum whom hee calls Formosum valde Exceeding faire Quintus Curtius in his tenth booke of the life of Alexander the Great writes That after many honourable Conquests hauing alreadie subiected sundry Nations to his iurisdiction beeing now in India where all his attempts were prosperous and his designes successefull proud of his victories and thinking himselfe to be Fortunes minion insomuch that despising the off-spring from whence hee came hee caused himselfe to be called the Sonne of Iupiter Being puffed vp with these thoughts and swelling in all ambitions hee betooke himselfe to all voluptuous delicacies and of them to the most tempting riots of wine and women insomuch that lulled in all effeminacie he so farre forgot both his high maiestie and that commendable temperance for which he was before all his predecessors renowned that he sent as farre as Athens for a notorious strumpet branded in her life though famous for her beautie called Potonice on whom the king was so much besotted that hee not onely gaue her most princely and magnificent gifts in her life time but after her death caused a Tombe to be erected ouer her bodie on which structure the king bestowed thirtie Talents It were strange if our English Chronicles should not affoord some or other to haue correspondence with these Harlotta or Arlotta THis Historie is recorded by an Historiographer of ancient times who writes himselfe Anonymus or without name by Gulielm Malmesbury Vincentius Ranâ—lphus Fabian Polydore and others As Robert duke of Normandie and father to William the Conqueror rid through the towne of Falois he beheld a beautifull Virgin a Skinners daughter playing and dancing amongst other Virgins with whose feature beeing on the suddaine surprised he so farre preuayled by his secret messages and gifts that shee was priuately conueyed into the dukes chamber and there lodged and put in a bed to await his comming who glad of such a purchase without much circumstance made himselfe readie for the businesse intended The chamber cleared and the place voyded and he readie to accomplish his desires she rent her smocke from the chinne to the footâ— to make the freer way for the Prince and hee demanding the reason of her so doing shee made him this prettie and readâ—â— answere It were neyther fit nor
pittied her grauitie or suspected her innocence did not cause her to be instantly strangled according to the rigor of her sentence At the importunacie of the daughter he gaue her leaue to visit and comfort her mother but narrowly searcht before her entrance into the prison least shee should carrie with her any food or sustenance to her reliefe rather desiring she should perish by famine and dye that way than himselfe to haue any violent hand in her execution The daughter hauing dayly accesse to the mother who now had past ouer more dayes than the keeper thought was possible by nature and wondering in himselfe how she should draw her thred of life out to that length without any meanes to maintaine it hee casting a more curious eye vpon the young woman and watching her might perceiue how shee first drew out one breast and after another with her owne milke relieuing her mothers famine At the noueltie of so strange and rare a spectacle being amazed he carryed newes thereof to the Triumvir he to the Praetor the Praetor he related it to the Consuls they brought it before the Senate who to recompence what was good in the daughter pardoned all that was before thought ill in the mother For what will not loue deuise or whither true zeale not penetrate What more vnheard or vnexpected thing could be apprehended than for a mother to be fed from the breasts of her daughter Who would not imagine this to be against nature but that we see by proofe true naturall pietie transcends all bounds and limits The like of this we may read of in Plinie of another young marryed woman who when her father Cimon was afflicted with the same sentence and subiect to the like durance prolonged his life from her breasts for which she deserues to be equally memorized Our Parents in no dangers or necessities are to be by vs abandoned and that by the example of Aeneas in whose person Virgil thus speakes as to his father Anchises Aeneid 2. Eia age chare pater ceruici imponere nostrae Ipse subibo numeris nec me labor iste grauabit c. Come my deare father and get vp for see No burthen to my shoulders you can bee No weight at all and hap what can betide One danger or one safetie wee 'l abide Sabellic lib. 3. cap. 6. remembers vs of Rusticana a noble Matron of Rome and the daughter of Synnarchus who with his brother Boetius the famous Philosopher being put to death by Theodoricus king of the Gothes Shee after the Tirants miserable end was the cause that all his Statues in Rome were demollished and ruined purposing vtterly if it were possible to extirpe his memorie that was the inhuman murderer of her father for which fact of hers being called in question before king Totila who succeeded him she was so far from excuse or deniall that she approued the deed with all constancie whose noble magnanimitie resolution prooued more auailable to her saftie than any timerous euasion could haue done for he not only dismissed her vnpunished but highly applauded and commended Fulgos. Sabellicus and Egnatius writing of Alboinus king of the Longobards who at his first enterance into Italie hauing subdued and slaine Turismundus whom some call Cunimundus sonne to Cunimundus king of the Gepidanes and after taken his daughter Rosamunda to wife the Historie sayth hee made a bole of her fathers skull in which one night hauing drunke somewhat lauishly he caused it to be filled with wine and sent to Rosamunda then in her chamber with this message Commend me to my Queene and say I command her to drinke with her father The Ladie though shee knew him to be slaine by the Longobards receiuing his death by a common casualtie and chance of war and by this assuring her selfe that he fell by the hand of her husband betwixt filiall dutie and coniugall loue being for a time destracted the bond of affection towards her father preuailed aboue those nuptiall fetters in which she was tyde to her Lord in so much that to reuenge the death of the one she resolued to take away the life of the other to bring which about she deuised this proiect she had obserued one Hemegildus a noble man amongst the Lumbards to bee surprised with the loue of one of her waiting gentlewomen with whom she dealt so far that when her maid had promised to giue this Hemegildus meeting in a priuate and darke chamber she her selfe supplyde the place of her seruant after which congression she caused lightes to be brought in that he might know with whom he had had carnall companie and what certeine preiudice he had therein incurred protesting withall that vnlesse he would ioyne with her in the death of the king shee would accuse him of rape and outrage The Lumbard to preuent his own disaster vndertooke his soueraignes death which was accordingly betwixt them performed The murder done they fled together to Rauenna she preferring the reuenge of a slaughtered father before the life of a husband the title of a Queene State Soueraigntie or any other worldly dignitie whatsoeuer Something is not amisse to be spoken in this place concerning the loue of mothers towards their children which as Plutarch in his Grec Apotheg saith was excellently obserued in Themistocles Prince of the Athenians who was wont to say That hee knew no reason but that his young sonne whom his mother most dotingly affected should haue more power and commaâ—nd than any one man in Greece whatsoeuer and being demanded the reason hee thus answered Athens sayth he commands all Greece I Themistocles haue predominance ouer Athens my wife ouer-swayes me â—nd my sonne ouer-rules his mother Olympias the mother of Alexander caused Iollaes graue to be ript vp who was Butler to her sonne and his bones to be scattered abroad raging against him in death on whom in his life time shee could not be reuenged on for the death of her sonne to whom this Iollas was said to haue ministred poyson Agrippina the mother of Domitius Nero by all meanes and industrie possible labouring to confirme the Empire vnto her sonne enquired of the Chaldaeans and Astrologers Whether by their calculations they could find if he should liue to be created Caesar who returned her this answer That they found indeed by their Art that he should be Emperour but withall that he should be the death of his mother To whom she answered Inter-ficiat modo Imperet i. I care not though he kill me so I may but liue to see him raigne Sab. lib. 3. cap. 4. The same Author tells vs that in the second Punick warre the Romanes being ouerthrowne with infinite slaughter in the battailes fought at Thrasiamenus Cannas many that were reported to be assuredly dead escaping with life after their funeralls had beene lamented returning home vnexpectedly to their mothers such infinite ioy oppressed them at once that as if sinking beneath too
that all her meanes and substance was consumed and wasted by her impious and sacrilegious husband who most vnnaturally deteined her in prison This deuout woman for the Faith and ministring to the Saints was arraigned and condemned to the fire where shee publikely suffered a most glorious Martyrdom of her Volateran makes mention Giliberta Anglica was borne in Maguns or Mens in Germanie where shee was beloued of a young scholler for whose sake and least their priuat and mutuall affection should at length come to the eares of her parents all virginall modestie and womanish feare set aside she put her selfe into a yong mans habit fled from her fathers house and with her deere friend and paramour came into England where as well as to his obseruance and loue shee gaue her selfe to the practise of the Arts and to attaine to the perfection of Learning At length the young man dying finding her selfe entred into some knowledge and desirous to bee further instructed as one hauing a wondrous prompt and acute braine shee still continued her habite and withall her laborious studie as well in the Scriptures as other humane Learnings At length comming to Rome shee read publiquely in the Schooles where shee purchased her selfe a great and frequent Auditorie And besides her singular wisedome shee was much admired and beloued for her seeming sanctitie and austeritie of life and after the death of Leo the fift elected and confirmed in the Papall Dignitie for thus writes Volaterran Sigebertus Platina and others that haue writ the Liues of the Roman Bishops shee is remembred likewise to this purpose by Boccatius in his booke de Claris Mulieribus But Sabellicus Lib. 1. Aeneadis calls her Ioanna Anglica i. Ioane English who in her minoritie dissembled her Sex and so habited trauailed as farre as Athens and there studied with infinite gaine and profite insomuch that comming to Rome few or none could equall her in Disputation or Lectures which begot her such reuerence and authoritie with all men that shee was by a generall Suffrage elected into the Papacie and succeeded Leo the fourth Rauisius in Officina tit 6. Others will not allow that euer any such woman was Pope and excuse it thus There was one Bishop of Rome who was a decrepit and weake old man He by reason of age not being well able to manage his temporall affaires and domesticke businesse receiued into his Pallace as a guide and gouernesse a woman called Ioanna his sister or neere kinswoman this woman tooke vpon her great pride and state and vsurped vpon the infirmitie of her brother insomuch that hauing the command of all things and being auaricious by nature no businesse was dispatched but by her nor any thing concluded without her for which shee was both hated and scorned and therefore vpon her that vsurped the authoritie of the Pope they likewise bestowed his stile and nick-named her Pope Ioane This I haue not read but I haue heard some report it From her I come to Rosuida borne in Germanie and by Nation a Saxon shee liued vnder Lotharius the first and was of a religious place called Gandresenses in the Diocesse of Hildesemensis shee was facundious in the Greeke and Roman Tongues and practised in all good Arts shee composed many Workes not without great commendation from the Readers one especially to her fellow Nunnes and Votaresses exhorting them to Chastitie Vertue and Diuine worship Shee published six Comedies besides a noble Poeme in Hexameter Verse of the Bookes and Heroicke Acts done by the Otho Caesars Shee writ the Liues of holy women but chiefely a Diuine Worke of the pious and chast life of the blessed Virgin in Elegeicke Verse which began thus Vnica spes Mundiem Cranzius Lib. 6. cap. 20. Metrapoleos Fulgos Lib. 8. cap. 3. Elizabetha Abbesse of Schonaugia zealously imitated the practise and studies of this Rosuida which shee professed in the citie of Triers Shee writ many things in the Latine Tongue of which shee was diuinely admonished and inspired from aboue besides many persuasiue Epistles to her Couent of Sisters and others full of great conceit and elegancie A Booke also that was entituled A path to direct vs the way to God besides a Volume of many learned Epistles full of great iudgement and knowledge Fulgos. Lib. 8. cap. 3. and Egnat ibidem Constantia the wife of Alexander Sforza is deseruedly inserted in the Catalogue of women famous and excellent in Learning Shee from her child-hood was so laborious in the best Disciplines that vpon the suddaine and without any premeditation she was able sufficiently to discourse vpon any argument eyther Theologicall or Philosophicall besides shee was frequent in the Workes of S. Hierome S. Ambrose Gregorie Cicero and Lactantius For her extemporall vaine in Verse shee was much admired in which shee was so elegantly ingenious that shee attracted the cares of many iudicious schollers to be her dayly Auditors And this facilitie is reported to be innate and borne with her as proceeding with such smoothnesse and without the least force or affectation Her daughter Baptista succeeded her both in fame and merit beeing accepted and approoued for one equally qualified with her mother Constantia Therefore Politianus in Nâ—tricia doubts not to ranke her amongst the best learned and most illustrious women Baptista Prima the daughter of Galeatinus Malatesta Prince of Pisauria and after the wife of Guido Montefelcrensis Earle of Vrbin made many commendable proofes of her wit and learning for shee held many disputations euen with those that were best practised and grounded in the Arts from whence shee came off with no common applause Shee writ a Volume in Latine which shee titled The Frailetie of mans Life with other prayse-worthie bookes De vera Religione i. Of true Religion Fulgos Lib. 8. cap. 3. Isota Nauarula Veronensis deuoted her life wholly to the studie of all humane knowledge and withall to the contemplation of Diuine Mysteries to which shee added the honour of perpetuall Chastitie Shee writ many eloquent Epistles to Pope Nicolaus Quintus as also to Pius the second being sufficiently seene as well in Theologie as Philosophie Amongst other Workes shee composed a Dialogue in which it was disputed which of the two of our Parents Adam and Eue sinned first or more offended in the beginning Egnat and Fulgos. Lib. 8. cap. 3. Alpiades a Virgin who much desired to be instructed in the true Faith was inspired from aboue with a miraculous knowledge in the Scriptures Rauis in Offic. Of Women excellent in Philosophie and other Learning FRom Theologie I descend to Philosophie Nicaula Queene of Saba trauelled from the farthest part of Aethiopia vp to Hierusalem to prooue the wisedome of Salomon in darke Problemes and hard Questions which when he had resolued and satisfied her by his diuine wisedome inspired into him from aboue she returned into her countrey richer by her gifts more benefited by her knowledge and fruitfull as
writ many learned and elaborate workes in either tongue at length in the yeare of our Lord 1555 in the moneth of October being of the age of twentie nine yeares she dyed in Hedelburgh Saint Hâ—lena may amongst these be here aptly registred for thus Stow Harding Faâ—ian and all our moderne Chroniclers report of her Constantius a great Roman Consull was sent into Brittaine to demaund the tribute due vnto Rome immediately after whose ariuall before he could receiue an answer of his Embassie Coill who was then king dyed therefore the Brittaines the better to establish their peace dealt with the Roman Embassador to take to wiâ—e Helenâ— the daughter of the late deceased king a young Ladie of an attractiue 〈◊〉 adorned with rare gifts and indowments of the Mind 〈◊〉 Learning Vertâ—â— the motion was no sooner made but accepted so that Constantius hauing receiued the Brittish tribute returned with his new bryde to Rome and was after by the Senat constituted chiefe ruler of this kingdome After twentie yeares quiet and peacefull gouernement which was thought her wisedome Constantius dyed and was buried at Yorke in his time was Saint Albon martyred at Verolam since called Saint Albones as Iohn Lidgate Monke of Burie testifies who in English heroicall verse compiled his Historie Constantius sayth hee the younger succeeded his father Constantius as well in the kingdome of England as diuers other Prouinces a noble and valiant Prince whose mother was a woman religious and of great sanctimonie this young Prince was borne in Brittaine and prooued so mightie in exploits of warre that in time hee purchased the name of Magnus and was stiled Constantine the Great a noble protector and defender of the true Christian Faith In the sixt yeare of his raigne he came with a potent armie against Maxentius who with greeous tributes and exactions then vexed and oppressed the Romans and being vpon his march hee saw in a Vision by night the signe of the Crosse shining in the Ayre like fire and an Angell by it thus saying Constantine in hoc signo vinces i. Constantine in this signe thou shalt conquer and ouercome with which beeing greatly comforted be soone after inuaded and defeated the armie of Maxentius who flying from the battaile was wretchedly drowned in the riuer Tiber. In this interim of his glorious victorie Helena the mother of Constantine being on pilgrimage at Ierusalem there found the Crosse on which the Sauiour of the world was crucified with the three nayles with which his hands and feete were pierced Ranulphus amplifies this storie of Helena somewhat largelier after this manner That when Constantine had surprised Maxentius his mother was then in Brittaine and hearing of the successe of so braue a conquest shee sent him a letter with great thankes to heauen to congratulate so faire wished a Fortune but not yet being truely instructed in the Christian Faith she commended him that he had forsaken idolatrie but blamed him that hee worshipped and beleeued in a man that had beene nayled to the Crosse. The Emperour wrote againe to his mother That she should instantly repaire to Rome and bring with her the most learned Iews and wisest Doctors of what faith or beleefe so euer to hold disputation in their presence concerning the Truth of religion Helena brought with her to the number of seuenscore Iewes and others against whom Saint Siluester was only opposed In this controuersie the misbeleeuers were all nonplust put to silence It hapned that a Iewish Cabalist among them spake certain words in the eare of a mad wild Bull that was broke loose and run into the presence where they were then assembled those words were no sooner vttered but the beast sunck down without motion and instantly dyed at which accident the iudges that sat to heare the disputation were all astonished as wondering by what power that was done To whom Siluester then spake What this man hath done is onely by the power of the deuill who can kill but not restore vnto life but it is God onely that can slay and make the same bodie reuiue againe so Lyons and other wilde beasts of the Forrest can wound and destroy but not make whole what is before by them perished then saith hee if hee will that I beleeue with him let him rayse that beast to life in Gods name which hee hath destroyed in the Deuils name But the Iewish Doctor attempted it in vaine when the rest turning to Siluester said If thou by any power in Heauen or Earth canst call backe againe the life of this beast which is now banished from his bodie wee will beleeue with thee in that Deitie by whose power so great a miracle can be done Siluester accepted of their offer and falling deuoutly on his knees made his prayers vnto the Sauiour of the world when presently the beast started vp vpon his feete by which Constantius was confirmed Helena conuerted and all the Iewes and other Pagan Doctors receiued the Christian Faith and were after baptised and after this and vpon the same occasion Helena vndertooke to seeke and find out the Crosse. Ambrose and others say she was an Inne-keepers daughter at Treuerent in France and that the first Constantius trauailing that way married her for her beautie but our Histories of Brittaine affirme her to be the faire chast and wise daughter of king Coil before remembred The perfections of the minde are much aboue the transitorie gifts of Fortune much commendable in women and a Dowrie farre transcending the riches of Gold and Iewels Great Alexander refused the beautifull daughter of Darius who would haue brought with her kingdomes for her Dower and infinite Treasures to boot and made choyse of Barsine who brought nothing to espouse her with saue her feature and that shee was a Scholler and though a Barbarian excellently perfect in the Greeke Tongue who though poore notwithstanding deriued her pedigree from kings And vpon that ground Licurgus instituted a Law That women should haue no Dowers allotted them that men might rather acquire after their Vertues than their Riches and women likewise might the more laboriously imploy themselues in the attaining to the height of the best and noblest Disciplines It is an argument that cannot be too much amplified to encourage Vertue and discourage Vice to persuade both men and women to instruct their Mindes more carefully than they would adorne their Bodies and striue to heape and accumulate the riches of the Soule rather than hunt after Pompe Vaine-glorie and the wretched Wealth of the world the first being euerlastingly permament the last dayly and hourely subiect to corruption and mutabilitie Horace in his first Epistle to Mecaenas sayth Vitius Argentum est Auro virtutibus Aurum Siluer is more base and cheape than Gold and Gold than Vertue To encourage which in either Sex Plautus in Amphit thus sayes Virtus praemium est optimum virtus omnibus Rebus anteit profecto c. Vertue 's the best
altogether vnproperlie said to change themselues into the similitudes of so many creatures The daughters of PHORCIS THis Phorcis whom the Latines call Phorcus was the sonne of Terra and Pontus the Earth and the Sea as Hesiod in his Theogonia makes him But Varro will haue him to be the issue of Neptune and the Nymph Thosea He had besides those daughters begot one Ceto the Phorcidae namelie the Gorgons and Thoosa who lay with Neptune and brought forth the Ciclops Poliphemus as Homer witnesseth He is cald also the father of the serpent that kept the Hesperides by Hesiod But I will forbeare the rest to speake something of his daughter Medusa Medusa She for her lust and immoderate appetite to inchastitie incurred the ire of the gods being so impudent as to suffer the imbraces of Neptune in the Temple of Minerua There were diuers of that name one the daughter of Priam another of Sthenelus and Nicippe Pausanias in Corinthiacis calls her the daughter of Phorbus others of a sea monster which I take to be Phorcus before mentioned Minerua for the prophanation of her Temple being grieuouslie incenst thought to punish her in those haires which a little before were so wondrous pleasing to Neptune and turned them into hissing and crawling snakes giuing her this power that whosoeuer gased vpon her face should be in the instant conuerted into stone Isacius is of opinion that that was not the cause of her calamitie but relates it another way That Medusa was of Pisidia and the fairest of all women who glorying in her feature but especiallie the beautie of her haire dared to contend with Pallas which arrogant impudencie the goddesse heinouslie taking her haire in which she so ambitiouslie gloried she changed into filthie and terrible snakes and then gaue her that killing look before mentioned but pittying at length so generall a mischiefe incident to mortall men by that meanes she sent Perseus the sonne of Iupiter and Danae or rather as some will haue it he was imployed by Polydectes king of the Seriphians to cut off her head who hauing before receiued a hooked skeyne called Harpe from Mercury and a shield from Pallas came to the fenne called Tritonides amongst whose inhabitants she exercised her mischiefe and first approaching Pephredo and Aenio two of the Phorcidae and of the Gorgonian sisterhood who were old and wrinckled croanes from their natiuitie they had betwixt them but one eye and one tooth which they did vse by turnes and when they went abroad or when they had no occasion to imploy them layde them vp in a casket for so Ascilus relates He borrowed of them that eye and tooth neither of which he would restore till they had brought him to the nymphes with winged shooes which taking from them and being armed with the Helmet of Pluto the sword of Mercury and the mirrour of Pallas he fled to Tartessus a cittie of Iberiae where the Gorgons then inhabited whose heads crawled with adders whose teeth were like the tuskes of a boare their hands of brasse and their wings of gold and there arriuing found them asleepe and spying her head in Mineruaes glasse in which he still looked it directed him so that at one blow he cut it off out of whose blood Pegasus sprung forth The other two sisters Sthumo and Aeuryale awaking and this seeing with the lowde hissing of these innumerable snakes made a noyse most dreadfull and horrible From whence Pallas first deuised the pipe with many heads The forme and shape of these Phorcidae Hesiod elegantlie describes Crisaor and Pegasus were begot of the blood dropping from Medusaes head as Apollonius Rhodius writes in his building of Alexandria The Gorgons were called Graee as Zetzes explicates in his twenty two historie Menander in his booke de Misterijs numbers Scilla amongst these Gorgons and that they inhabited the Doracian Islands scituate in the Aethiopick sea which some call Gorgades of whom they tooke the names of Gorgones Nimphodorus in his third booke of Histories and Theopompus in his seauenteenth affirme their guirdles to bee of wreathed vipers so likewise Polemo in his booke to Adaeus and Antigonus The occasion of these fictions are next to be inquired after By these Graee the daughters of Sea monsters is apprehended Knowledge and such Wisedome as is attained too by Experience They are said to haue but one eye which they vsed when they went abroad because Prudence is not so altogether necessarie to those that stay within and solely apply themselues to domesticke affaires as to such as looke into the world and search after difficulties Of this Wisedome or these Graee not impertinentlie called the sisters of the Gorgons is meant the pleasures and vaine blandishments of the world with the dangers that appertaine to the life of man from either of which no man without the counsell of Wisedome can acquit himselfe Therefore is Perseus said to ouercome the Gorgons not without the Helmet of Pluto the eye of the Graee the sword of Mercury and the mirror of Pallas all which who shall vse aright shall prooue himselfe to be Perseus the friend and sonne of Iupiter SCILLA and CHARIBDIS A Cusilaus and Appollonius both nominate Scilla to be the daugther of Phorcia and Hecate but Homer that her mothers name was Crataeis Chariclides calls her the issue of Phorbantes and Hecate Stesichorus of Lamia Tymeus tearmes her the daughter of the flood Cratus Pausanias in Atticis and Strabo in lib. 8. agree that this Scilla was the daughter of Nysus King of the Megarenses who surprised with the loue of King Mynos stole from her fathers head that purple locke in which consisted the safetie of his owne life and kingdome The Athenians hauing inuaded his dominion and ceised many of his townes and wasted the greatest part of his countrey by their fierce and bloody incursions they at length besieged him in the cittie Nysaea Some are of opinion that Nisus incensed with the foulenes of that treason caused her to be cast into the sea where she was turned into a sea-monster Pausanias auers that she was neither changed into a bird nor a monster of the sea nor betrayde her father nor was marryed to Nisus as he had before promist her but that hauing surprised Nisaea he caused her to be precipitated into the sea whose body tost too and fro by the waues of the Ocean till it was transported as farre as the Promontorie called Scylaea where her bodie lay so long vpon the continent vnburyed till it was deuoured by the sea-fowles this gaue place to that fable in Ouid Filia purpureum Nisi furata capillum Puppe cadens nauis facta refertur auis 'T is said the daughter hauing stolne her fathers purple Haire Falls from the hin-decke of the ship and thence sores through the Aire Zenodorus saith that she was hanged at the stearne of Minos his ship and so dragged through the waters till she dyed and that Scylla the
daughter of Phorcus was a damsell of imcomparable beautie and vitiated by Neptune which knowne to Amphitrite she cast such an inuenomous confection into the fountaine where she accustomed to bath her selfe that it cast her into such a madnesse that she drowned her selfe Of his mind is Miro Prianaeus in his first booke Rerum Messanicarum Others imagine that she had mutuall consocietie with Glaucus the sea god which Circe who was before inamoured of him vnderstanding she sprinkled the well wherein she vse to laue her selfe with such venomous iuice that from her wast downewards she was translated into diuers monstrous shapes which as Zenodotus Cyrenaeus saith was the occasion of the fable commented vpon her Isacius thus describes her deformitie She had six heads the one of a canker-worme the other of a dogge a third of a Lyon a fourth of a Gorgon a fift of a whirle-poole or a whale the sixt of a woman Homer in his Odissaees describes her with six heads and twelue feet euery head hauing three order of teeth Virgill in Sileno saith that all ships were wrackt and deuoured by those dugges that grew beneath her nauell Charibdis She was likewise a most deuouring woman who hauing stolne many oxen from Hercules which he before had taken from Gerion was by Iupiter stroke with a thunderbolt and so transformed into that monster of the sea others contest that she was slayne by Hercules and after so transhapt of these diuers are diuerslie opinionated Strabo saith that Homer imagined the vehement flux and reflux of that sea about the concaues of those rockes made so terrible a noyse that therefore the Poets fabulated that in her sides and about her interiour parts were the barkings of dogs continuallie heard Isacius writes that Scilla is a proeminent promontorie ouer against Rhegium in Sicilie hanging ouer the sea vnder which are many huge and massie stones hollowed by the billowes in whose concauities many sea-monsters inhabit and when there is shipping in those parts amongst those rockes and shelues they are either swallowed by Charibdis or Scylla Charibdis being scituate directlie against Messana and Scilla against Rhegium they are therefore said to be women because a far off these promontories appeare as it were in a feminine shape what fleete soeuer by the tides and tempests was forc'd vpon Charibdis were there shipwrackt such as by Charibdis were tost on the rocks of Scilla were there swallowed In which fable is included the nature of Vertue and Vice No man but in the progresse of his life sailes betwixt these two quickfands if he incline to one hand more than the other he is either swallowed by Scilla or deuoured by Charibdis What else doth this signifie but that which Aristotle in his Aethicks illustrates Vertue which is the medium betwixt two extreames both which are to be auoided and the middle wherein is safetie to be imbraced for mans life is nothing else but a continuall nauigation betwixt diuers molestations of one hand and tempting and vnlawfull pleasures on the other both which are comprehended in these Syrtes or places of certaine destruction For Scilla is so called à spoliando or repando of spoyling or grieuing And Charibdis of sucking vp and swallowing betwixt which two dangerous and almost ineuitable gulfes a vertuous and pious man shall in the greatest stormes and tempests neither inclining to the right nor the left securelie and with great safetie attaine vnto his wished harbour Moreouer where Scilla is said to be transhapt into this monster by Circe being so faire and beautifull a creature What is it but to demonstrate vnto vs that all such as digresse from reason and the true institution of good life and manners doe withall put on a bestiall and brutish shape since Circe imports nothing els than a wanton tillation inciting vs to immoderate and vnlawfull lusts and pleasures and so much I guesse was intended by the Poets in these fables of Scilla and Charibdis The Goddesses of the Hills Woods Groues and Trees IT is commemorated by Plato in certaine of his verses that the Hydriades and Hamadriades much delighted in the musick of Pan who was the god of sheapheards and that they vsed to daunce about him the first beginning of the harmony which came from the pipe being inuented by him and made from his loue the nymph Syrinx by Ladon changed into a reed the manner was thus as Ouid manifests Syrinx one of Diana's traine Chacing with her ore the plaine Arm'd alike with shafe and bowe Each from other would you know Which is which cannot be told Saue ones was horne the t'other gold Pan he sees himselfe makes fine In his cap he prickes a pine Now growes carelesse of his heard Sits by brookes to prâ—â—e his beard Meetes her and hath mind to wâ—â— Much be speakes but more would doo Still his profers she denies He pursues and Syrinx flies Past her kness her coat vp flew Pan would faine see something newe By the legge and knee he guest 't seemes the beautie of the rest Wings it adds vnto his pace Now the goale he hath in chase She addes further to his speed Now it is no more than neede Almost caught Alas she cries Some chast god my shape disguise Ladon heares and girtes her round Spies a reede to make sweete sound Such is Syrinx wondering Pan Puts it to his pipe anon Syrinx thou art mine he sayd So of her his first pipe made Isaciuâ— saith that the nymph Eccho was beloued of him and that by her hee had a daughter called Iringes she that to Medea brought the loue potion which she presented to Iason but of Pan and Syrinx Ouid thus speakes Panaquae cam preusam sibi iam Syringa putâ—ret Corpore pro nymphae calamos tennisse palustres Pan flying Syrinx when he thought To haue catcht about the wast Steed of the nymphes faire bodie he The fennie reeds imbrac't Which reedes being shaken by the winde making a kinde of melodie of these he made his first pipe which he called after her name Of the Satyres Silaeni Fauni and Siluani memorable things haue beene recorded but all being masculine they belong not to this historie in hand therefore I purposely omit them and and proceed to our Terrene goddesses and of them briefely OREADES THese because they were bread vpon the Hills and Mountaines were sayd to haue a dominion and diuine gouernement ouer them Strabo calls them the daughters of Phoroneus and Hecataea but Horace in his Iliades will haue them the issue of Iupiter and Oristrade some hold them to be but fiue in number but Virgill numbers them to bee many and companions with Diana in her hunting Quam mille secutae Hinc atque hinc glomerantur Oreades Viz. Such as attend Diana ouer the banks of Eurora and ouer the mountains of Cinthus a thousand of the Oreades in her companie heare and there shining Mâ—asaea Patarentis hath bequeathed to memorie that these were the first