and others infinite besides fourescore whose names are remembred there are others scarce to be numbered for as Zetzes saith in his History Elatos animo enim omnes omnes strenuos Filios amicos dicunt amatos à Neptuno All that are high minded and strong men were esteemed as the sons and friends and beloved of Neptune Amphitrite signifies nothing else but the body and matter of all that moist humour which is earth above below or within the earth and for that cause she is called the wife of Neptune Euripides in Cyclope takes her for the substance of water it self Orpheus cals her Glaâ—cae and Piscosa that is blew and ful of fish being attributes belonging solely to the goddesse of the Sea And by the Dolphins soliciting the love of Neptune to Amphitrite and reconciling them is meant nothing else but to illustrate to us That of all the fishes that belong to the sea he is the swiftest the most active and apprehensive Thetis or Tethies HEsiod cals her the wife of Oceanus who is stiled the father of all the floods creatures and gods because as Orpheus Thales and others are of opinion all things that are bred and born have need of humour without which nothing can be beget or made corruptible Isacius hath left recorded that besides her he had two wives Partenope and Pamphoâ—â—â—e by Parâ—â—nope he had two daughters Asia and Libia by Pampholige Europa and Thracia and besides them three thousand other children for so many Hesiod numbers in his Theogonia This Thetis was the daughter of the earth and heaven and therefore as Oceanus is called the father of the 〈◊〉 so is she is esteemed as the mother of the goddesses 〈◊〉 cals one Thetis the daughter of Chiâ—on the Câ—ntaure and Homer in his hymn to Apollo the child of Nereus which 〈◊〉 confirms as also Euripides in Aphigema and in 〈◊〉 she was the wife of Peleus and of all women living the most beautiâ—â—ll of whom Apollodorus thus speaks They say Iupiter and Neptune contended about her Nuptias but she not willing to incline to Iupiter be-because because she was educated by Juno therefore he in his rage allotted her to be the bride of a mortall man Homer writes that she was angry being a Marine goddesse to be the wife of a man therefore to avoid his embraces she shifted her selfe into sundry shapes and 〈◊〉 but Peleus being advised by Chiron notwithstanding all her transformations as into 〈◊〉 into a Lion and others never to let go his hold till she returned into her own naturall form in which he vitiated her and of her begot Aâ—â—illes the last shape she took upon her was a Sepia which is a fish called a Cuttle whose blood is as black as ink now because this was done in Magnesia a City of Thessaly the place as Zertzes in his history records is called Sepias Pithenaetus and others say that she was not compelled or forced to the marriage of Peleus but that it was solemnized in the mountain Pelius with her full and free consent where all the gods and goddesses saving Discord were present and offered at the wedding for such hath been the custome from antiquity Pluto gave a rich Smaragd Neptune two gallant steeds Xanthus and Ballia Vulcan a knife with an hast richly carved and some one thing and some another By Peleus she had more sons then Achilles which every night she used to hide beneath the fire that what was mortall in them might be consumed by which they all died save Achilles who was preserved by being in the day time annointed with Ambrosia therefore as Amestor in his Epithalamium upon Thetis 〈◊〉 relates he was called Piresous as preserved from the fire additur hinc nâ—men Piresous She was the sister of Titaa and brought forth Ephire who was after married to 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 who as Ovid relates in his book de Fastâ— was the 〈…〉 Atlas These are likewise numbred amongst the daughters of Oceanus and Thetis Acaste Admete Asia that gave name to a part of the world till now called Asia Climâ—ne Idyâ—a Ephire Eudora Eurâ—ome Jamra 〈…〉 Plexame Primno Rhodia Thea Thoe 〈…〉 who was beloved of Apollo but being jealous or his affection to Leucothoë she had discovered it to her father Orchamus Apollo therefore left her in griefe of which she vowed an abstinence from all sustenance whatsoever onlâ— with fixt eies still gazing upon the course of the Sun which the gods commiserating changed her into an Helâ—â—aropiâ—n which is called the Suns flower which still inclines to what part soever he makes his progresse But whether she 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 Virgil in his Pollio saith necessary to the generation of all creatures whatsoever Towards the East she is called Indica towards the West Atlanticaâ— where she divides Spain and Mauritania towards the North Pontica and Glaciatis as likewise Rubra and Aethopica for so Strabo relates as also Rhianus in the navigation of Hanno the Carthaginian Stiphilus in his book de Thessalia hath bequeathed to memory That Chiron a wise and skilfull Astrologian to make Peleus the more famous consulted with the daughter of Acloris and Mirmidon and betwixt them published abroad that he by the consent of Jupiter should match with the goddesse Thetis to whose nuptials all the gods came in great showers and tempests for he had observed a time when he knew great store of raine would fall and from that the rumour first grew That Peleus had married Thetis But Dailochus and Pherecides report that Peleus having purged himself of the murder of his brother Phocus murdered Antigone others say that he first took Antigone and after her death Thetis and that Chiron being an excellent Chirurgeon was so called for the lightnesse and dexterity of hand which is an excellent gift in the searching and dressing of wounds in any of that profession Apollodorus saith that Thetis after many windings and turnings and transhapes to preserve her virginity was at length comprest by Iupiter The Nymphs called Dorides were her Ministers and handmaids Nereides THey were the daughters of Nereus and Doris he is said by Hesiod to be the son of Oceanus and Thetis he is stiled a Prophet or South saier who as Horace tels us did predict to Paris all the calamities that were to succeed at Troy Apollonius tels us that his chiefe mansion or place of residence is in the Aegean sea The same 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 dwel by the banks of Eridamus to be resolved by them they sent him to demand of Nereus who thinking to delude him by shifting himselfe into sundry shapes was notwithstanding held so fast by Hercules that he was forced to assume his own
of the body This was proved in the Daughter of Democion the Athenian who being a virgin and hearing that Leosthenes to whom she was contracted was slain in the Lemnian wars and not willing to survive him killed her selfe but before her death thus reasoning with her self Though I have a body untoucht yet if I should fall into the embraces of another I should but have deceived 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 wondred what should be the reason why all feminine beasts never admitted the act of generation but in their time and when they covet issue and woman at all times desires the company of man thus answered the reason is only this Because they are beasts The wife of Fulvius THis Fulvius the familiar and indeered friend of Augustus Caesar heard him privately complain 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 only third that remained was for some calumnies publisht against the Emperour now in exile so that he should be forced to abandon his own blood and constitute a son in law and a stranger to succeed in the Imperiall purple and therefore he had many motins in himselfe and sometimes a purpose to recall the young mans banishment and to restore him to his favour and former grace in the Court This Fulvius hearing went home and upon promise of secresie told it to his wife she could not contain her selfe but makes what speed she can and tels this good newes to the Empresse Livia Livia she speeds to Augustus and briefly expostulates with him about the banishment of her grand-child and what reason he had not to restore him to his former honors and why he would prefer a stranger before his own blood with many such like upbraidings The next morning Fulvius comming as his custome was into the Presence and saluting the Emperor Augustus cast an austere look upon him and shaking his head said only thus You have a close breast Fulvius by this he perceiving his wife had publisht abroad what he had told her in secret posts home with what speed he can and calling his wife before him O woman saith he Augustus knowes that I have revealed his secret therefore I have a resolution to live no longer to whom she replied Neither is that death you threaten to your selfe without merit who having lived with me so long and known my weaknesse and loquacity had not the discretion to prevent this danger to which you have drawn your selfe by tempting my frailty but since you will needs die it shall be my honour to precede you in death which she had no sooner spoke but snatcht out his sword and with it slew her selfe A noble resolution in an heathen Lady to punish her husbands disgrace and her own oversight with voluntary death and a notable example to all women that shall succeed her to be more chary in keeping their husbands secrets all which I would wish to follow the counsell of the comick Poet Philippides who when King Lysimachus called him unto him and using him with all curtesie spake thus What of the things that are within or without me shall I impart unto thee O Philippides he thus answered Even what thou pleasest O King so thou still reservest to thy selfe thy counsels This puts me in mind of King Seleucus Callinicus who having lost a battell against the Galatians and his whole army being quite subverted and dispersed casting away his Crown and all regall ornaments was forced to flie only attended with two or three servants and wandering along through many deserts and by-paths as fearing to be discovered and growing faint with hunger he came to a certain ruinate cottage where he desired bread and water the master of the house not only afforded him that but whatsoever else the place could yield or the suddennesse of the time provide with a large welcome In the interim of dinner fixing his eys upon Seleucus face he knew him to be the King and not able to contain his own joies nor conceal the Kings dissimulation after dinner the King being ready to take horse and bidding his host farewell he replied again And farewell O King Seleucus who finding himselfe discovered reached him his his hand as to imbrace him beckoning to one of his followers who at the instant at one blow stroke off his head so that as Homer Sic caput estque adhuc cum pulvere mistum These were the fruits of unseasonable babling for this fellow had he kept his tongue till the King had been restored to his former dignities might have received large rewards for his hospitality who suffered an unexpected death for his loquacity Arctaphila ARetaphila Cyrenaea is deservedly numbred amongst the heroick Ladies she lived in the time of Mithridates and was the daughter of Aeglatur and the wife of Phedimus a woman of excellent Vertue exquisit Beauty singular Wisedom and in the managing of the Common-weals business and civill affairs ingeniously expert this Lady the common calamities of her Country made eminent for Nicocaentes the Tyrant having usurped the principality over the Cyrenaeans amongst many other of his humane butcheries slew Menalippus the Priest of Apollo and assumed to himselfe the sacred office and dignity In the number of these noble Citizens he caused Phedimus the wife of Aretaphila to be injuriously put to death and married her against her will who as well distrest with her private discontents as suffering in the publique calamity meditated a remedy for both and by advise of some of her neerest allies attempted to poison the King but the project being discovered was prevented and upon that ground Calbia mother to Nicocrates a woman of an unplacable spirit and prone to any thing wherein there might be blood and slaughter first condemned her to insufferable torture and next to a violent death but the tyrant her son in regard of the extraordinary love he bore unto her being the more relenting and humane of the two was pleased to put her cause first to examination and after to censure In which triall she answered boldly and with great courage in the defence of her own innocence but being by manifest proofs convicted insomuch that her purpose could not be denied she then descended so low as to excuse her selfe alledging that indeed apprehending the greatnesse of his person and that she was in degree no better to him then an bandmaid and fearing lest some other more accomplisht beauty might step betwixt him and her to insinuate into his favour and grace she therfore had prepared an amatorious confection minding only to continue his love not to betray his life and if her womanish weaknesse had in any kind through ignorance transgrest the bounds of Ioialty she submitted her selfe to his â—oiall clemency whose approved judgement she made no
pity as grieving she should be so dismembred he thought rather to make shipwrack of her honour then her life since the one might be by an after-truth restored but the other by no earthly mediation recovered And to this purpose presents himselfe before the Altar openly attesting that she was by him with child and therefore not only an unlawfull but abominable offering in eies 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 then before commiserating her death bâ—ing full of wrath he usurps the office of the Priest and wash his sword hewes the poor 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 troubled and distracted sleep with which being strangely moved he conveied himselfe to the tombe where his daughter lay buried and there with the same sword slew himselfe Herodotus in Euterpe speaks of one Pheretrina Queen of the Bâ—cchaeaus a woman of a most inhuman cruelty she was for her tyranny strook by the hand of heaven her living 〈…〉 up with worms and â—â—ce and in that languishing misery gave up the ghost Propert in his third book speakâ— of one Dyrce who much grieved that her husband Lycus was surprized with the love of one Antiopa caused her to be bound to the horns of a mad bull but her two sons Zâ—â—bus and Amphtoa comming instantly at the noise of her loud acclamation they released her from the present danger and in revenge of the injury offered to their mother fastned Dyrce to the same place who after much affright and many pitifull and deadly wounds expired Consinge was the Queen of Bithinia and wife to Nicomedes whose gesture and behaviour appearing too wanton and libidinous in the eies of her husband he caused to be worried by his own dogs Plin. lib. 7. Pyrene the daughter to Bâ—brâ—x was comprest by Hercules in the mountains that divide Italy from Spaine she was after torn in pieces by wild beasts they were called or her Montes Pyreneae i. The Pyrenean mountains Antipater Tarcenses apud Vollateran speaks of one Gatis a Queen of Syria who was cast alive into a moat amongst fishes and by them devouted she was likewise called Atergatis Sygambis was the mother of Darius King of Persia as Quintus Curtius in his fourth book relates she died upon a vowed abstinence for being taken prisoner by Alexander yet nobly used by him whether tired with the continuall labour of her journie or more afflicted with the disease of the mind it is not certain but falling betwixt the arms of her two daughters after five daies abstinence from meat drink and light she expired Semele the mother of 〈◊〉 a Thebâ—n Lady and of the roial race of Cadmus 〈…〉 thunder Pliny in his second book writes of one Martia great with child who was strook with thunder but the 〈◊〉 in her womb strook dead only she her selfe not suffering any hurt or dammage in which place he remembers one Marcus Herennius a Decurion who in a bright and cleare day when there appeared in the skie no sign of storm or tempest was slain by a thunderclap Pausanias apud Vollâ—teran saith that Helena after the death of her husband Mentlaus being banished into Rhodes by Megapenthus and Nicostratus the sons of Orestes came for rescue to Polyzo the wife of Pleopolemus who being jealous of too much familiarity betwixt her and her husband caused her to be strangled in a bath others write of her that growing old and seeing her hairs grown gray that face grown withered whose lustre had been the death of so many hundred thousands she caused her glasse to be broken and in despair strangled her selfe The like Caelius lib. 6. cap. 15. remembers us of one Acco a proud woman in her youth and grown decrepit through age finding her brow to be furrowed and the fresh colour in her cheeks to be quite decaied grew with the conceit thereof into a strange frenzy some write that she used to talk familiarly to her owne image in the myrrhor sometimes smile upon it then again menace it promise to it or flatter it as it came into her fancy in the end with meer apprehension that she was grown old and her beauty faded she fell into a languishing and so died Jocasta the incestuous mother to Aeteocles and Polynices beholding her two sons perish by mutuall wounds strook with the terror of a deed so facinorous instantly slew her selfe So Bisalâ—ia a maid despised by Calphurnius Crassus into whose hands she had betraied the life of her father and freedome of her Country fell upon a sword and so perished Zoe the Empresse with her husband Constantius Monachus both about one time died of the Pestilence Gregorius Turonensis writes of one Austrigilda a famous Queen who died of a disease called Disenteria which is a flâ—x or wringing of the bowels Of the same griefe died Sausones son to Chilperick Serena the wife of Dioclesian for very griefe that so much Martyrs blood was spilt by her husbands remorselesse tyranny fell into a feaver and so died Glausinda daughter to the King of the Goths and wife to Athanagildus was slain by Chilperick the son of Clotharius at the instigation of the strumpet Fredegunda so saith Volateranus Sextus Aurelius writes that the Emperor Constantius son to Constantius and Helena caused his wife Fausta by whose instigation he had slain his son Crispus to die in a hoâ—scalding bath Herodotus speaks 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 deed only he should be numbred amongst the wise men of Greece 〈◊〉 Cecilius in his seven and twentieth book upon Pliny accuseth Calphurnius Bestia for poisoning his wives sleeping Pliny in his fourteenth book nominates one Egnatius Melentinus who slew his wife for no other cause but that she had drunk wine and was acquitted of the murder by Romulus Auctoclea the daughter of Sinon and wife of Laeâ—â—es King of Ithaca when by a false messenger she heard that her son Vlysses was slain at the siege of Troy suddenly fel down and died The mother of Antista seeing her daughter forsaken by Pompey the Great and Aemâ—lâ—a received in her stead overcoâ—e with griefe slew her selfe Perimela a damosell was vitiated by Achelous which her father Hippodamus took in such indignation that from an high promontory he cast her headlong down into the sea Hyppomanes a Prince of Achens deprehending his daughter Lymone in adultery shut her up in a place with a fierce and cruell horse but left no kind of food for one or the
sea-fight neer Salamine to behold which battel Xerxes had retired himselfe and stood but as a spectator Justine lib. 2. saith There was to be seen in Xerxes womanish feare in Artimesia manly audacity for she demeaned her selfe in that battell 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 bravely the Queen Artimesia bears her selfe this day the King would not at first beleeve that such resolution could be in that Sex 〈…〉 when notwithstanding her brave service he perceiv'd 〈…〉 and put to flight he sighing thus said All my men this day have shewed themselves women and there is but one woman amongst them and she onely hath shewed her selfe a man Many of the most illustrious persons died that day as also of the Meads amongst whom was the great Captain Aria Begnes the sonne of Darius and brother of Xerxes Cleopatra Queen of Aegypt the daughter of Dionysius Auleies after the death of Julius Caesar having taken Antonius in the bewitching 〈◊〉 of her beauty she was not contented with the Kingdomes of Aegypt Syria and Arabia but she was ambiâ—ious to sovereignize over the Roman Empire in which though she failed it shewed as invincible a spirit in 〈◊〉 as she exprest an unmatched 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of her voluntary death 〈◊〉 the Persian invading the Messagers and Scythians of which 〈◊〉 then reigned Queen she sent against him her only son 〈◊〉 with a puissant army to beat him back again beyond the river Araxes which he had 〈◊〉 with a mighty host rejected But the young man not 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 and policies of war suffered his souldiers in 〈…〉 to be invaded his 〈◊〉 rifled his army defeated and himselfe taken prisoner 〈…〉 the Queen sent to this purpose 〈…〉 This message being delivered to 〈◊〉 he regarded 〈…〉 but held it at the vain boast of a 〈◊〉 woman 〈…〉 being awaâ—â—d fromthe drinking 〈◊〉 wine and perceiving 〈…〉 Cyrus that he might be released from his bands to which the Persian granted 〈…〉 sooner found his legs unbound and his hands 〈…〉 cathct hold of a weapon and slew 〈…〉 The Queen having intelligence of the death of the 〈◊〉 of her son and withall that 〈◊〉 gave no heed to her admonition collected a puissant army of purpose to give him battell who inticed him by a counterfeit 〈…〉 straights of her Countery where having 〈…〉 her men she fell upon the Persians and made 〈…〉 the slaughter even to the defeating of their whole 〈…〉 strange and bloody execution Cyrus himselfe fell whose body Tâ—myris caused to be sercht for and being found filled a vessel full of blood into which commanding his head to be thrown she thus insultingly spake Of humane blood in thy life thou wert insatiate and now in thy death thou maist drink thy fill The fashions of the Messagets are after this manner described by Herâ—dotus Their habit and their food is according to the Scythians they â—ight as well on horseback as on foot being expert in both they are both Aâ—chers and Lanciers in al their weapons armor or caparisons using gold and brasse in the heads of their spears their quivers their daggers and other armor they wear brasse but whatsoever belongs to the head or to the breast is of the purest gold the breast places of their horses and what belong to their trappings and caparisons are buckled and studâ—ed with brasse but that which appertains to the head-stal or reins is of gold of iron and silver they have small use or none as being rare in their Country â—ut gold and brasse they have in abundance Every man marrieth a wiâ—e but not to his own peculiar use for they keep them in common for what the Greeks in this kind remember of the Scythians they do not it is customable only amongst the Messagets if any man have an appetite to a woman he only hangs his quiver upon the next bough and prostitutes hee in publike without taxation or shame There is no 〈◊〉 proposed to terminate their lives when any growes old his neighbours about him make a generall meeting and with great ceremony after the manner of a sacrifice cause him 〈◊〉 slain with other cattell in number according to 〈…〉 with whose â—lesh â—oil'd together they make a 〈…〉 him to dye in the most blessed estate 〈…〉 slain and eaten such as die of consumption or disease they eat not but â—ury in the earth accounting all 〈…〉 that suffered not immolation and whose 〈◊〉 was not â—easted with They neither sow nor reap but 〈…〉 their cattell and fish oâ— which the river Araxes yields them plenty they drink milk and honour the Sun and to the gods whom they most â—eare they sacrifice such 〈◊〉 beasts as they hold most fearfull and 〈◊〉 for the customes of the Mâ—ssagets Now lest it might 〈◊〉 almost against nature that amongst so many fighting women there should be no scolding at all let it not be taken amisse if I put you in mind of two or three shrowes by the way and so return again to my former argument Xantippe and Mirho HIeronymo writ a book against Iovinian in which he copiously discourses of the praise of Virginity reckoning a Catalogue of divers famous and renowned in that kind amongst sundry Nations besides the discommodities and inconveniences of scolding and contentious wives and amongst other husbands much troubled in that kind he speaks of Socrates who having two curst queans and both at once for the law of Athens did allow duplicity of wives could endure their scoldings and contumacie with such constancy and patience for having Zantippe and Mirho the daughters of Aristides the house was never without brawling and uprore One Euthidemus comming from the wrastling place and Socrates meeting him by chance compelled him home to supper and being sate at board and in sad and serious discourse Zantippe spake many bitter and railing words of disgrace and contumely against her husband but he nothing moved therewith nor making her the least answer she tipped up the Table and flung down all that was upon it But when Euthidemus being therewith much moved arose to be gone and instantly depart Why what harm is there quoth Socrates did not the same thing chance at your house when I dined with you the last day when a cackling hen cast down such things as were upon the board yet we your guests notwithstanding left not your house unmannerly Another time in the market she snatching his cloak from his back the standers by perswaded him to beat her but he replied so whilst she and I be tugging together you may stand by laughing and cry O wel done Zantippe O well done Socrates Another time she with her much loquacity had made him weary of the house therefore he sate him down upon a bench before the street door but she
approved for their modesty and temperance should be held as bastards yet he himselfe is mocked by the Comick Poet Calliades for being the son to the prostitute Chorides as many appear in the third book of his Commentaries Of Lamia the strumpet the King Dmetrius had a daughter called Phila Polemon affirms Lamia to have been the daughter of Cleonor the Athenian Machon the Comick Poet numbers Leaena amongst this Kings Mistresses with many others Ptolomaeus the son of Agesarchus in his history of Philopater speaking of the Mistresses of Kings bestowes Philinna a Dancer upon 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 Nysa were the beloved 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 Depâ—thaea were said to be two Lasses much beloved of the Poet Diphilus The City of Athens was so full of famous strumpets that Aristophanes Byzantius reckon'd up at one time 135. but Apollodorus more so likewise Gorgias as these Parenum Lampride Euphrosine the daughter of a Fuller of Cloth Megista Agallis Thaumarium Theoclea otherwise called Corone Lenetocistus Astra Gnathena with two necces by her daughter Gnathenum and Siga Synoris sirnamed Lichnus Euclea Grammea Thriallis Chimaera Lampas Glicera Nico sinamed Capra Hippe Metanira of whom many things worthy observation are remembred One Sapho is likewise numbred amongst these loose ones not Sapho the Lyrick Poetresse but another born of a strumpet Many Roman wantons may here likewise not unfitly be inserted as some related others beloved and celebrated by them in their Poems as Ipsithilla of Catullus Quintilia of Calvus Licinius Lyde of Caâ—â—machus Bathis of Phileta Lycinea and Glicera of Horace Leucadia of Terentius Varro Arecinus Delia Sulpitia Sulpitia Nâ—mesis Neaere all these affected by Tibullus Hostia otherwise called Cinthia by Propertius Melenus of Domitius Marsius Martialis Cesennia by Caius Getulicus the Epigrammaâ—st Bissula by Ausonius Gallus Metella of Tycida Epigrammaâ—â—â—ta Câ—theris who was also called Licoris of Cornelius Gallus Pamphilia of Valerius Aedituus Chrisis of Q. Trabaea the Comick Poet Martia of Hortensius Terentia of Marcus Tulluss Cicero Calphurnia of Pliny Prudentilla of Apuleius Neaera of Licinius Imbrex a writer of Comedies Aeme of Septimius Aufilâ—na of Quintius Lesbia whose true name was Claudia of Catullus Argentaria of Lucanus Dâ—lia of Tibullus Beatriae of the Italian Poet Dante Aureta of Petrarche Pandemus a famous Câ—rtisan cited by Coelius and therefore may claim a place in this Catalogue Aegyptia was doted on by Thâ—oâ— Mâ—nulia a prostitute spoke on by Gellius Barine the name of a famous Roman wanton deciphered by Horace Spatale by Martial called Mammosa Chione the name of a common woman expressed by the same Author Licisca not only remembred by him but by Iuvenal in these words Nomen mentila Licisâ—a Coelia is taxed in Martial for one that would for gain prosticute her selfe to all men Hermia was a loose woman so doâ—ed on by Aristotle that he was said to sacrifice unto her and dedicate sundry Hymns to her praise for which being upbraided by Eurimidon and Demophilus he forsook Athens where he had taught the space of thirty years and removed himselfe to Chalcides Martial in one of his Satyrs reproves Philenis who was much beloved of the Greek Philocrates So far have these wantons prevailed even with Princes that some to gratulate them and continue their loves have not spared to rob the Altars of the gods Bromia a shee-minstrel so much delighted Phiallus that he rewarded her with a rich bowl taken out of the Temple which was a gift presented by the Phoceans To one Pharsalia a Thessalian she-dancer Philometus gave the golden Crown of Daphnes the Offering of the Lampsacens This Statue of Daphnes was in Merapontus erected in the peregrination of Aristaeus Proconnensis In this place Pharsalia appearing and strutting in her new honours the Priests surprised with a sudden fury and in the presence of all the people tore her to pieces dismembring her limb from limb and being demanded the reason it was answered It was the just anger of the Nymph for being so despoiled of her Crown Lyda is remembred to have been the mistresse of Antimachus There was likewise another of that name beloved of Laminthius Milesius Clearchas affirms either of these Poets to have been be sotted on that name the one expressing himselfe in Elegies the other in a Lyrick Poem Manno the Minstrel was doted on by Mâ—â—llermus as Leontium by Hermosinax Colophonius both Greek Poets Naâ—crates produceth one Doâ—ica amongst many other fair and beautifull wantons whom Sapho writes to be the sweet heart of her brother Charaxus when as a Merchant he touched Naucrates where she complains That by her her brother was despoiled of all or the greatest part of his goods and fortunes Herodotus though ignorantly cals her Rhodope not knowing that this is diverse from her who erected those famous Obelisks in Delphos of whom Cratinus makes ample mention Of this Dorica Posidippus speaks oâ—ten in his Aethiopia and of her composed this Epigram Dorica te capitis ornarunt Mollia vincla Et late unguentum pallia quae redolent Quae quondam periuâ—undum complexa Charaxum c. Thy hair ti'd in soft knots become thee well Thy robes that distant of sweet odouis smell Fair Dorica do thee no common grace In which thou erst Charaxus didst imbrace Archedica a very beautifull Girle was likewise of this City for as Herhdotus affirms this place much gloried in heâ— faire ones Sapho of Eressus who was enamoured of lovely Phaon was here famous as she her selfe expresseth to her Nymphs in her peregrination through Asia No ignoble wench was Nicarete the Megarensian both for the antiquity of her blood and for her practice in the best disciplines as well to be beloved as admired being a profest hearer of the Philosopher Stilpo To her we may compare Bilistiche the Argive who derived her birth from the ancient Familie of the Atrides for so they relate of her that composed the Grecian Histories Bittiles was the mistresse of the Poet Euripilus Samia was the beloved of Demetrius Phalareus he was used jeastingly and in sport to call her Lampito as Diyllus reports She was also called Charitoblepharus which signifies Gratia Cilium From the beauty of her eie-browes Nicareta was enjoied by Stephanus the Orator and Metanira by Lysias the Sophist Of their familiarity were Antea Aratola Aristoclea Phila Istmias and Neaera who was mistresse to Stratoclides Zenoclides the Poet Hypparchus the Plaier and Phrisoninus Paeaneius the son of Damon and by his sister the nephew to Democharis It is said That by arbitration Stephanus the Orator and one Phrynion enjoied Neaera by turns and severall daies These called her youngest daughter
part of it may at this day be seen as an antient Monument in the Castle of Dover Saturn made Money of Brasse with inscriptions thereon but Numa was the first that coined Silver and caused his name to be engraven thereon for which it still retains the name in the Roman Tongue and is called Nummus Aspasia was a Milesian Damosel and the beloved oâ— Pericles she was abundantly skilled in Philosophicall studies she was likewise a fluent Rhetorician Plutarchus in Pericles Socrates imitated her in his Facultas Politica as likewise Dâ—otima whom he blushed not to call his Tutresse and Instructresse Of Lasthenea Mantinea Axiothaea and Phliasia Plato's scholers in Philosophy I have before given a short Character Themiste was the wife of Leonteius Lampsucenus and with her husband was the frequent Auditor of Epicurus of whom Lactantius saith That save her none of the Ancient Philosophers ever instructed any woman in that study save that one Themiste Arete was the wife of Aristippus the Philosopher and attained to that perfection of knowledge that she instructed her son in all the liberall Arts by whose industry he grew to be a famous professor He was called Aristippus and she surnamed Cyrenaica She followed the opinions of that Aristippus who was father to Socrates She after the death of her father erected a School of Philosophy where she commonly read to a full and frequent Auditory Genebria was a woman of Verona she lived in the time of Pius the second Bishop of Rome Her works purchased for her a name immortal She composed many smooth and eloquent Epistles polished both with high conceits and judgement she pronounced with a sharp and loud voice a becomming gesture and a facundious suavity Agallis Corcyrua was illustrious in the Art of Grammar Caelius ascribes unto her the first invention of the play at Ball. Leontium was a Grecian Damosel whom Gallius cals a strumpet she was so well seen in Philosophicall contemplations that she feared not to write a worthy book against the much worthy Theophrastus Plin. in Prolog Nat. Hist Cicero lib. de Natur. Deorum Dama the daughter of Pythagoras imitated the steps of her father as likewise his wife Theano her husband the mother and the daughter both proving excellent scholars Laert. Themistoclea the sister of Pythagoras was so practised a studient that in many of his works as he himselfe confesseth he hath implored her advice and judgement Istrina Queen of Scythia and wife to King Aripithes instructed her son Sythes in the Greek Tongue as witnesseth Herodotus Plutarch in Pericte saith That Thargelia was a woman whom Philosophy solely illustrated as likewise Hyparchia Greca Laert. Cornelia was the wife of Africanus and mother to the noble family of the Gracchi who left behind her certain Epistles most elaborately learned From her as from a fountain 〈◊〉 the innate eloquence of her children therefore Quintil. thus saith of her We are much bound to the Mother or Matron Cornelis for the eloquence of the Gracchi whose 〈…〉 learning in her exquisite Epistles she hath bequeathed to posterity The same Author speaking of the daughters of Laelius and Quint. Hortensius useth these words The daughters of Laelius is said in her phrase to have refined and excelled the eloquence of her father but the daughter of Q. Hortensius to have exceeded 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 Fulvia 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 govern Empires she was first the wife of Curio Statius Papinius was happy in a wife called Claudia excellent in all manner of learning Amalasuntha Queen of the Ostrogoths the daughter of Theodoricus King of those Ostrogoths in Italy was elaborately practised in the Greek and Latin Tongues she spake distinctly all the barbarous languages that were used in the Eastern Empires Fulgos lib. 8. cap. 7. Zenobia as Volateran speaks from Pollio was Queen of the Palmirians who after the death of Odenatus governed the Kingdome of Syria under the Roman Empire she was nominated amongst the thirty Tyrants and usurped in the time of Gallenus but after being vanquished in battel by the Emperor Aurelianus was led in triumph through Rome but by the clemency of that Prince she was granted a free Pallace scituate by the river of Tyber where she moderately and temperately demeaned her selfe she is reported to be of that chastity that she never enterteined her husband in the familiar society of her bed but for issues sake and procreation of children but not from the time that she found her conception till her delivery she used to be adored after the majestick state and reverence done to the great Sophies of Persia Being called to the hearing of any publick Oration she still appeared with her head armed and her helmet on in a purple mantle buckled upen her with rich jems she was of a clear and shril voice magnanimous and haughty in all her undertakings most expert in the Aegyptian and Greek Tongues and not without merit numbred amongst the most learned and wisest Queens Besides divers other works she composed the Orientall and Alexandrian History Hermolaus and Timolus her two sons in all manner of disciplines she liberally instructed of whose deaths it is not certain whether they died by the course of nature or by the violent hand of the Emperor Olympia Fulvia Morata was the ornament and glory of our later times the daughter of Fulv. Moratus Montuanus who was tutor in the Arts to Anna Pâ—ince of Ferrara she was the wife of Andreas Gunthlerus a famous Physitian in Germany she writ many and elaborate works in either tongue at length in the year of our Lord 1555 in the month of October being of the age of twenty nine years she died of Hedelburgh Saint Helena may amongst these be here aptly registred for thus Stow Harding Fabian and all our modern Chroniclers report of her Constantius a great Roman Consul was sent into Britain to demand the tribute due unto Rome immediately after whose arivall before he could receive an answer of his Embassie Coil who was then King died therefore the Britains the better to establish their peace dealt with the Roman Embassador to take to wife Helena the daughter of the late deceased King a young Lady of an attractive beauty adorned with rare gifts and endowments of the Mind namely Learning and Vertue the motion was no sooner made but accepted so that Constantius having received the Brittish tribute returned with his new Bride to Rome and was after by the Senate constituted chiefe Ruler of this Kingdome After twenty years quiet and peacefull government which was thought her wisedome Constantius died and was buried at York in his time was Sâ— Albon married at Verolam since called St. Albons as John
snakes made a noise most dreadfull and horrible From whence Pallas first devised the pipe with many heads The form and shape of these Phorcidae Hesiod elegantly describes Crisaor and Pegasus were begot of the blood dropping from Medusa's head as Apollonius Rhodius writes in his building of Alexandria The Gorgons were called Graee as Zetzes explicates in his two and twentieth History Mâ—nander in his book de Mysteriis numbers Sâ—ylla amongst these Gorgons and that they inhabited the Doracian Islands scituate in the Aethiopick sea which some call Goâ—gades of whom they took the names of Gorgones Nimphodorus in his third book of Histories and Theopompus in his seventeenth affirm their girdles to be of wreathed vipers so likewise Polemo in his book to Adaeus and Antigonus The occasion of these fictions are next to be inquited 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 have but one ere which they used when they went abroad because Prudence is not so altogether necessary to those that stay within and solely apply themselves to domestick affairs as to such who look into the world and search after difficulties Of this Wisedome or these Graee not impertinently called the sisters of the Gorgons is meant the pleasures and vain blandishments of the world with the dangers that appertaine to the 〈…〉 from either of which no man without the counsell of 〈◊〉 can acquit himselfe Therefore is Perâ—â—us said to overcome the Gorgons not without the 〈◊〉 of Pluto the eie of the Graeâ— the sword of Mercury and the mirror of Pallas all which who shall use aâ—ight shall pâ—ove himself to be Perseus the friend and son of Iupiter Scylla and Charybdis ACusilaus and Apollonius both nominate Scylla to be the daughter of Phâ—â—cia and Hâ—caete but Homer that her mothers name was Crataeis Chariclides cals her the issue of Phoâ—bantes and Hâ—cate Steâ—ichorus of Lamia Tymeus terms her the daughter of the â—â—ood Cratus Pausanias in Atticis and Strabo in l. 8. agree that this Scylla was the daughter of Nysus King of the Megarenses who surprised with the love of King Mâ—nos stole from her fathers head that purple lock in which consisted the safety of his own life and Kingdome The Athenians having invaded his dominion and seised many of his Townes and wasted the greatest part of his country by their fierce and bloody incursions they at length besieged him in the City Nysaea Some are of opinion that â—â—sus incensed with the foulnesse of that treason caused her to bee cast into the sea where shee was turned into a sea-monster Pausanias avers that she was neither changed into a bird nor a monster of the sea nor betrai'd her father nor was married to Nisus as he had before promised her but that having surprised Nysaea he caused her to be precipitated into the sea whose body tost to and fro by the waves of the Ocean till it was transported as far as the Promontory caâ—led Scylaea where her body lay so long upon the continent unburied till it was devoured by the sea-fouls this gave plâ—ce to that fable in Ovid. Filia purpureum Nisi furata capillum Puppe cadens navis facta refertur avis 'T is said the daughter having stoln her fathers purple hair sair Fals from the hin-deck of the ship and thence sores through the Zâ—nodorus saith that she was hanged at the stern of Minos his ship and so dragged through the waters till she died and that Scylla the daughter of Phorcus was a damosel of incomparable beauty and vitiated by Neptune which known to Amphitrite she cast such an invenomous confection into the fountain 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 book Rerum Messanicarum Others imagine that she had mutuall consociety with Glaucus the sea god which Circe who was before inamoured of him understanding she sprinkled the well wherein she used to lave her self with such venomous juice that from her wast downwards she was translated into divers monstrous shapes which as Zenodotus Cyrenaeus saith was the occasion of the Fable commented upon her Isaoius thus describes her deformity She had six heads the one of a canker-worm the other of a dog a third of a Lâ—on a fourth of a Gorgon a fifth of a whirl-poole or a Whale the sixâ— of a woman Homer in his Odysses describes her with six heads and twelve feet every head having three order of teeth Virgil in Sileno saith that all ships were wrackt and devoured by those drugs that grew beneath her navell Charybdis She was likewise a most devouring woman who having stolne many Oxen from Hercules which he before had taken from Geryon was by Jupiter stroke with a thunderbolt and so transformed into that monster of the sea others contest that she was slaine by Hercules and after so transhap'd of these divers are diversly opinionated Strabo saith that Homer imagined the vehement flux and reflux of that sea about the concaves of those rocks made so terrible a noise that therefore the Poets fabulated that in her sides and about her interiour parts were the barkings of dogs continually heard Isacius writes that Scilla is a proeminent promontory over against Rhegium in Sicily hanging over the sea under which are many huge and masâ—ie stones hollowed by the billowes in whose concavities many sea-monsters inhabit and when there is shipping in those parts amongst those rocks and shelves they are either swallowed by Charybdis or Scylla Charybdis being scituate directly against Messina and Scylla against Rhegium they are therefore said to be women because afar off these promontories appeare as it were in a feminine shape what fleet soever by the tides and tempests was forc'd upon Charybdis were there shipwrackt and such as by Charybdis were â—ost on the rocks of Scylla 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 quicksands if he incline to one hand more then the other he is either swallowed by Scylla or devoured by Charybdis What else doth this signifie but that which Aristotle in his Ethicks illustrates Vertue which is the medium betwixt two extreams both which are to be avoided and the middle wherein is safety to imbraced for mans life is nothing else but a continuall navigation betwixt divers molestations of one hand and tempting and unlawfull pleasures on the other both which are comprehended in these Syrtes or places of certaine destruction For Scylla is so called 〈◊〉 spoliandâ— or repando of spoiling or grieving And Charybdis of sucking up and swallowing betwixt which two dangerous and almost inevitable gulfs a vertuous and a pious man shall in the greatest storms and tempests neither inclining to the right nor the lese securely and with great safety attain
Thither Europa comes sweet flowers to cull Her Jove transports to Creete in shape of Bull. Cadmus her brother by Aegenor charg'd To see his sister by some means inlarg'd In his long search a monstrous Dragon slew From whose sown teeth men ready armed grew With these he founded Thebes after laments Actaeons fall born to such strange events Who by Diana to a Hart transform'd Was worried by his hounds Then Cadmus storm'd At his neer Kinsmans death This Juno joies Who in her hate faire Semele destroies The shape of her Nurse Beroe she assumes By whose bad counsell Semele presumes To ask her own death Now some few daies after Jove with his Queen dispos'd to mirth and laughter Dispute of Venus and desire to find Which Sex to pleasure should be most inclin'd Tiresius who before both sexes prov'd Judgeth the cause on Joves side Juno mov'd Deprives him fight to recompence his eies Jove fils him with spirit of Prophesies His augury Narcissus first made good Who ' gainst all womens loves opposed stood ' Mongst whom the faire Nymph Eccho by her sorrow Lost all save voice which she from voice doth borrow He pining with selfe-love was the same hower â—â—â—ing his sorm transhap'd into a flower Pentheus the sage Tâ—resius doth deride Though he before the truth had prophesied 〈◊〉 when god Bacchus writes were celebrated One of his Priests who had before related Of saylers turn'd to fishes he keeps bound Receiving from the Bacchides many a wound This makes the wine gods Orgyes of more fame Alcathoe with her sisters mock the same And at their distaffes many tales they tell First what unto the blacked Moors besell Of Phoebus to Eurinome transverst By which all lets and troubles are disperst That he may freely with Leucothoe lie For which the jealous Clytie seems to die But turns into a Turnsole they relate Hermophraditus next by wondrous fate And Salmacis both in one body mixt This done the sisters in their madnesse fixt Convert to Baâ—â— their spindles change to vines Their webs to leaves made by the god of wines At which whilst Agave rejoic'd her glee Is turn'd to discontent so she may see Ino and Arâ—amas of great renown Run headlong to a rock and thence leape down These being made sea gods whilst the Theban dames Lament their new change and invoke their names Amidst their sorrowes and sad funerall mones Part are made birds and part are turn'd to stones Cadmus with these calamities distrest Leaves Thebes and in Illyria he seeks rest Where with his wife debating ' midst the brakes They soon may see each other turn'd to snakes Alone 〈◊〉 still remains instated Of all that Bacchus and his Oryges hated Perseus his grand-child of faire Danae bred With crooked harp cuts off Gorgones head Whose purple drops as to the earth they fall Turn into Serpents and before him crawl Atlas he changeth into a mountain hie â—nd all those shackles that Andronia 〈◊〉 Are into stones converted many a â—old guest Intends to interrupt his bridall feast Where Phineus Pretus and their furious band Are chang'd â—o Marble and before him stand Pallas till now the noble Perseus guide Leaves him and through the aire doth gently glide To Helicon there doth the goddesse mean To view the famous Well call'd Hippocrene The nine Muse sisters of the Pyrens tell And what to the Pyerides befell How they contending with the Muses were Tran form'd to Pies still chattering every where By whose example Pallas soon puts on A Beldams shape transports her selfe anon To Ariachne who with her compares And having after strife wrought sundry chares Pallas transhapes her to a spider leaving Her antient Art to take delight in weaving This moves not Niobe who late had lost Her children and in divers turmoils tost Is chang'd to stone Now when the people knew This portent they the memory renew Of the base Lysian rusticks turn'd to Frogs And by Diana doom'd to live in bogs They Marsias likewise can remember still Who ranks his musick with Apollo's quill But he that ' gainst the gods sought praise to win In this contention lost both lawd and skin When all the neighbouring Cities came to chere Distressed Thebes the Athenians absent were And to their sorrowes can no comfort bring Being at home aw'd by a tyrant King Tereâ—s who the faire Philomel ' deflowring Turns to a Lapwing in the aire still towring As Philomel ' into a Nightingale And Progne to a Swallow This sad tale Vnto Pandion told he dies with griefe In whose sad Kingdome next succeeds as chiefe Ericteus Orithea the faire His daughter Boreas to his Kingdome bare Of her 〈◊〉 Calâ—in and Zâ—thus got Amongst the Argonauts these took their lot There Jason the white teeth of serpents sew Of which men arm'd in compleat harnesse grew The waking dragon made to sleep the Fleece Of gold from Phasis after brought to Greece Medea he bears thence She by her art Makes young old Aeson promising to impart Like good to Peleâ—s to his daughters showing From a decrepit Ram a young lamb growing But slew him by her fraud Transported thence She with Aegeus makes her residence Against whom Minos wars having collected Men from all places by his skill directed As some from Paros which long time before Arne betrai'd for which she ever wore The shape of Daw. King Aeacus supplies With Mirmidons that did from Pismires rise King Minos Cephalus these forces led Who seeking to adulterate his own bed Prevaiâ—â— with Procris whilst his dogs in chace Of a wild Fox both in the selfe same place Are chang'd â—o sione Minos Alchathoe won Nâ—â—us and Scylla are in shape foredone He to a Hawk she to a Larke is shifted And through the aire with their light feathers listed Thence he returns to Creet all sad and dul Where liv'd the Minotaure halfe Man halfe Bull Him Thâ—seus slew and after doth beguile Faire Ariadne left in Naxos Isle With her god Bacchus enters amorous wars And placeth on her head a Crown of stars Young Icarus with his old father flies And down into the sea drops from the skies His death whil'st Daedalus laments this sees The Patridge new transformed Now by degrees Theseus wins fame scarce spoken of before Being call'd to hunt the Calidoman Boare Which Mealeager slew and died by th' hand Of his own mother in the fatall brand His sisters with loud shreeks his death proclaime Being all chang'd into birds that bear his name He visits Acâ—elous in his way And all these Islands that but th' other day Were Nymphs and Nai'des 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 adds to these the transformations Of Proteus and of Mestra with the fashions That he himselfe appeared in when he prov'd His strength
of women when their differences could be no waies decided Messalina sent to Vbidia one of the most reverent amongst the Vestals by whose mediation attonement was made betwixt her and the Emperor The Vestall fire upon a time going out and it being imputed to their inchastity Aemilia with these words besought the goddesse Oh Vesta thou that art the protectour of this famous City Rome as I have truly and chastly almost for thirty yeares space celebrated thy sacrifices so either at this present crown my purity with fame or before this multitude brand my lust with infamy These words were no sooner spoken but casting her mantle upon the Altar the fire instantly brake forth where before there was nothing in place save cold embers by which prodigie her innocent life was protected Claudia the Vestall was of no lesse remarkable chastity who when a bark laden with the sacreds of the goddesse stuck fast in the river Tyber and by no humane strength could be loosed from the sand she thus openly protested before the people If quoth she O goddesse I have hitherto kept my chastity undefiled vouchsafe thesie may follow me when fasting a cord to the stearn of the ship she without any difficulty drew it along the river Tuscia likewise suspected of incontinence by the like wonder gave testimony of her innocence who invocating Vesta in these words If saith she O mother of the gods I have offered thy sacrifices with chast and undefiled hands grant that with this sieve I may take up water from the river Tyber and without shedding the least drop bear it unto thy altar which when she had obtained and accordingly performed with loud acclamations of the multitude she was absolved and her austere life ever after held in reverence The attributes of Modesty and Temperance are greater ornaments to a woman than gold or jewels and because all perfections cannot be in one woman at one time this Modesty is that which supplies all things that are wanting It is a dower to her that hath no portion not only an ornament to deformity but in blacknesse it impresses a kind of beauty it illustrates the ignobility of birth supplying all those defects wherein fortune hath been scanting And so much shall suffice for the Vestals Of the Prophetesses COncerning these Prophetesses I will onely make a briefe catalogue of some few whom the ancient writers have made most eminent We read of Hyrcia the daughter of Sesostris King of Aegypt most skilfull in divination who to her father foretold his amplitude and Monarchy Volatteranus in Georg. writes of one Labissa a divining woman that was eminent for many predictions in Bohemia whom succeeded her daughter Craco as well in skill as in fame Plutarch in Mario speaks of one Martha whom Marcius most honourably circumducted in a horse-litter and â—t her appointment celebrated many sacrifices her the Senate with a generall suffrage for her approved skill in augury rewarded with liberty making her a free woman of the City Polyxo is the name of one of the Phebaiedes of whom Val. Flaccus in his Argonauts thus writes Tunc etiam vates Phoebo delecta Polyxo Where he cals her a Prophetesse beloved of Phoebus Sâ—sipatra a woman by nation a Lydian and the wife of Aedesius the Sophist was possest with that divining spirit and true conjecture of future things that in their times accordingly hapned that she was said to be educated and instructed by the gods themselves Of the like approbation was Spurina who as Tranquillus testates forewarned Caesar to beware of the Ides of March who in the same day was murdered in the Capitoll of which he bid him beware Martianus Capella speaks of one Symachia and cals her one of the Sybils and often by all authors granted will allow but two namely Herophile Trojana the daughter of Marmensis and Symachia the issue of Hippotensis who was born in Erythraea and prophefied in Cuma Theano and Eucyppa the daughters of one Scedasus sung many oraculous cautions to the people of Sparta yet could they not predict their own disaster for after they were forcibly defloured by the young men of the same City and slain and their bodies cast into a well their father after long search finding them confounded with the sight of so sad a spectacle upon the sight thereof slew himselfe Caelius writes of a woman born in his Countrie called Jacoba out of whose belly unclean spirits made acclamations of future things to come of which one of them called himselfe Cincinnatulus who gave marvellous answers to such as demanded of him but spake as oft falsely as truly Of better knowledge as it seems was Apollonius of Tyana a City in Greece who told one Cylix a man given to all volu ptuousnesse That before three daies were expired he should be slain which accordingly hapned He used to protest that he spake nothing without the counsell of the gods and direction of the spirit that attended him he professed the knowledge of all languages and tongues to have insight into the thoughts of men to discourse any thing punctually that had past and divine as truly of any thing to come he was moreover an exact interpreter of dreams his life is compendiously set down by Vollatterranus Parialla lived in the age of Cleomines and was called the championesse of all the Delphian Prophetesses Now how the Devill should come to the foreknowledge of things to come it shall be held no unnecessary digression briefly to inquire These spirits being of a thin substance by their tenuity subtilty and incredible celerity moreover by the quicknesse of their apprehensions in which they far excell the slownesse and dulnesse of all earthly bodies by the divine permission understand and deliver many things which appear to us miraculous Therefore S. Augustine in book De Spiritu Anima saith That by reason of their antiquity and benefit of the length of time as having continued from the beginning of the world they have gathered to themselves that absolute and unmatchable experience of which man by reason of the brevity of his age is no way capable by which means some of their actions seem the more admirable some things they fashion out of the holy Scriptures themselves as having them all at their fingers ends and oft times predict such things as they themselves have purpose to act by this means tempting and seducing mankind Therefore Plato in Epinomide attributes unto them acutenesse of wit retentive memory and admirable knowledge Clemens in Recog saith That these spirits therefore know more and much more perfectly as not being burdened or dulied with the grosse weight of the body Tertullian in his Apology against the nations thus argues All spirits are winged and therefore are every where in an instant the spatious earth and all the corners thereof are to them but as one place and whatsoever is therein done they can as easily know as suddenly declare by this means they
Tyrants wife to prevent their fury made fast her dore and in her private chamber strangled her selfe Aristotemus had two beautifull young virgins to his daughters both marriageable these they were about to drag into the streets with purpose to destroy them but first to excruciate them with all disgraces and contumacies Which Megisto seeing with her best oratory appeased their present fury proposing to them how shamefull a thing it were for a noble and free state to imitate the insolencies of a bloody and inhumane tyranny liberty therefore was granted the young Damosels at her intercession to retire themselves into their chambers and to make choice of what death best suited with their present fears Myro the elder sister unloosing from her wast a silken girdle fastned it about her own neck and with a smiling and chearfull look thus comforted the younger My sweet and dear sister I more commiserate thy fate then lament mine own yet imitate I intreat thee my constancy in death lest any abject thing or unworthy may be objected against us unagreeable with our blood and quality To whom the younger replied That nothing could appeare more terrible to her then to behold her die therefore besought her by the affinity of sisterhood to be the first that should make use of that girdle and dying before her to leave to her an example of resolution and patience Myro to her made answer I never denied thee any thing sweet soule in life neither will I oppose thee in this thy last request at thy death and for thy sake will I indure that which is more grievous to me then mine own death namely to see thee die When accommodating all things for the present execution she no sooner saw her dead but she gently laid her out and with great modesty covered her Then she besought Megisto on her knees to have a care of them in their deaths that nothing immodest or uncomely might be done to their bodies which granted she not only with courage but seeming joy underwent her fate till she expired nor was there any spectator there present to whom the memory of the tyrant was never so hatefull from whose eies and hearts this object did not extract tears and pity In Megisto is exprest the Magnanimity of spirit but in these following I will illustrate Fortitude in action The Turks busied in the siege of some Towns in Catharo Vluzales and Carocossa two of no mean place and eminence among them wrought so far with the great Admirall that he delivered into their charge the managing of threescore Gallies with munition and men in number competent to make incursions into the bordering Islands then under the State of Venice These two Turkish Captains land their forces before Curzala a City that gives name to the Countrie with purpose invest themselves before it which Antonius Contarinus then Governour of the City understanding like a timeâ—ous and fearfull coward taking the advantage of the night fled with his souldiers thence not leaving the Town any way deâ—ensible which the Citizens understanding all or the most followed after The Town thus left to the weak guard of some twenty men and about fourescore women the Turks give them a bold and fierce assault when these brave viragoes chusing rather to die like souldiers then like their husbands run like cowards some maintaine the Ports others defend the wals and with that noble resolution that what with fire stones scâ—lding water and such like muniments then readiest at hand so opposed the assailants that many of the Turks in that conflict were slain and all repulst retiring themselves with purpose some rest given to the souldiers to salute them with a fresh alarum But fortune was so favourable to these Amazonian spirits that a mighty tempest from the North so cost and distrest the Turks Gallies that they were forced to abandon the Island to dishonour leaving to the besieged a memory worthy to outlive all posterity Of Dido Cesara Gumilda and Ethelburga OF Dido Queen of Carthage all Authors agree to have falne by the sword and to have died by her own bold resolute hand but about the cause that moved her thereto divers differ Ausonius is of opinion That her husband Sychaeus being dead she did it to preserve her viduall chestity and so free her selfe from the importunities of Hyarbus King of Getulia of his mind is Marullus and of these Remnius or as some will have it Priscianus in the Geography of Dionysius writing De scitu orbis i. the Scituation of the world Contrary to these is the Prince of Poets he whom Scaâ—ger cals Poeta noster Pub Virgilius who ascribes her death to an impatience of grief conceived at the unkind departure of Aeneas which though it carry no great probability of truth yet all the Latine Poets for the most part in honour of the author have justified his opinion as Ovid in his third book De fâ—stis his Epistles Metamorph. and others works so likewise Angelus Politianus in his Mâ—nto with divers others Just ne in his eighteenth book of Histor speaking of the first erecting of Carthage saith That where they began to dig with purpose to lay the first foundation they found the head of an Oxe by which it was predicted that the City should be futurely fertill and commodious but withall full of labour and subject to perpetuall servitude therefore they made choice of another peece of earth where in turning up the mould they chanced upon 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 died I refer you to Virgil and will speak a word or two of her sister Anna the daughter of Belus She after the death of her sister forsaking of the City of Carthage then invested with siege by Hyarbus fled to Battus King of the Island Mâ—lita but making no long sojourn there she put again to sea and fell upon the coast of Laurentum where being well known by Aeneas she was nobly received but not without suspition of too much familiarity betwixt them insomuch that jealousie possessing Lavâ—nia the wife of Aenea she conceived an iâ—reconcilable hatâ—ed against Aâ—na insomuch that fearing her threatned displeasure she cast her selfe headlong into the river Numicus and was there drowned for so Ovid reports to his book De fastâ—s But touching the illustrious Queen Didâ— under her statue were these verses or the like engraven in a Greek character interpreted into Latiâ—e by Ausoâ—us and by me in the sacred memory of so eminent a Queen thus Englished I am that Dido look upon me well And what my life was let mâ— viâ—age tell 〈◊〉 farre and smooth what wrinckle can you find In this plain Table to expresse a mind So sordid and corrupt Why then so uneven And black a soule should to a face be given That promiseth all vertue 〈◊〉 where Begott'st thou those all thoughts that
have indeed no Law which gives licence for a brother to marry with a sister but we have found a Law O Soveraigne which warrants the King of Persia to do whatsoever liketh him best Thus they without abrogation of the Persian Laws soothed the Kings humor and preserv'd their own honours and lives who had they crost him in the least of his designs had all undoubtedly perished This he made the ground for the marriage of the first and not long after he adventured upon the second The younger of these two who attended him into Egypt he slew whose death as that of her brother Smerdis is doubtfully reported The Graecians write that two whelps the one of a Lion the other of a Dog were brought before Cambyses to sight and try masteries at which sight the young Lady was present but the Lion having victory over the Dog another of the same â—itter broke his chain and taking his brothers part they two had superiority over the Lyon Cambyses at this sight taking great delight she then sitting next him upon the sudden fell a weeping this the King observing demanded the occasion of her teares she answered it was at that object to see one brother so willing to help the other and therefore she wept to remember her brothers death and knew no man then living that was ready to revenge it and for this cause say the Greeks she was doom'd to death by Cambyses The Egyptians report it another way That she sitting with her brother at table out of a sallet dish took a lettice and pluckt off leafe by leafe and shewing it to her husband asked him Whether a whole lettice or one so despoiled shewed the better who answered a whole one then said she behold how this lettice now unleaved looketh even so hast thou disfigured and made naked the house of King Cyrus With which words he was so incensed that he kicked and spurned her then being great with child with that violence that she miscarried in her child birth and died ere she was delivered and these were the murderous effects of his detestable incest Of Livia Horestilla Lollia Paulina Cesonia c. IT is reported of the Emperour Caligula that he had not onely illegall and incestuous converse with his three naturall sisters but that he after caused them before his face to be prostitued by his ministers and servants thereby to bring them within the compasse of the Aemilian Law and convict them of adultery He vitiated Livia Horestilla the wife of C. Pisonius and Lollia Paulina whom he caused to be divorced from her husband C. Memnius both whose beds within lesse then two years he repudiated withall interdicting the company and society of man for ever Caesonia he loved more affectionately insomuch that to his familiar friends as boasting of her beauty he would often shew her naked To add unto his insufferable luxuries he defloured one of the vestall virgins Neither was the Emperor Commodus much behind him in devilish and brutish effeminacies for he likewise strumpeted his own sisters and would wittingly and willingly see his mistresses and concubines abused before his face by such of his favourites as he most graced he kept not at any time lesse then to the number of three hundred for so Lampridius hath left recorded Gordianus junior who was competitioâ— with his father in the Empire kept two and twenty 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 derision the Priapus The Emperor Proculus took in battell a hundred Sarmatian virgins and boasted of himselfe that he had got them all with child in lesse then fifteen daies this Vopiscus reports and Sabellicus But a great wonder is that which Johannes Picus Mirandula relates of Hercules as that he lâ—y with fifty daughters of Lycomedes in one night and got them all with child with forty nine boies only failing in the last for that proved a girle Jocasta APollodorus Atheniensis in his third book De deorum origine records this history After the death of Amphion King of Thebes Laius succeeded who took to wife the daughter of Menocoeas called Jocasta or as others write Epicasta This Laius being warned by the Oracle that if of her he begat a son he should prove a Parricide and be the death of his father notwithstanding forgetting himselfe in the distemperature of wine he lay with her the same night she conceived and in processe brought forth a male issue whom the King caused to be cast out into the mountain Cytheron thinking by that means â—o prevent the predicted destiny Polybus the herdsman to the King of Corinth finding this infant bore it home to his wife Periboea who nursed and brought it up as her own 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 inâ—ant as he had increased in years so he did in all the perfections of nature as well in the accomplishments of the â—ind as the body insomuch that as well in capacity and volubility of speech as in all active and generous exercises he was excellent above all of his age his vertues being generally envied by such as could nor equall them they thought to disgrace him in something and gave him the contemptible name of counterfeit and bastard this made him curiously inquisitive of his supposed mother and she not able in that point to resolve him he made a journy to Delphos to consult with the Oracle about the true knowledge of his birth and parents which forewarned him from returning into his own Countrie because he was destined not only to be the deaths-man of his father but to add misery unto mischiefe he was likewise born to be incestuous with his mother Which to prevent and still supposing himselfe to be the son of Polybus and Peribaea he forbore to return to Corinth and hiring a Chariot took the way towards Phocis It hapned 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 give place from words they fell to blowes in which contention Polyphontes kill'd one of the horses that drew the Chariot of Oedipus at which inraged he drew his sword and first slew Polyphontes and next Laius who seconded his servant and thence took his ready way towards Thebes Damasistratus King of the Plataeenses finding the body of Laius caused it to be honourably interred In this interim Creon the son of Menecoeus in this vacancy whilst there was yet no King invades Thebes and after much slaughter possesseth himselfe of the Kingdome Juno to vex him the more sent thither the monster Sphinx born of Eâ—hidna and Tiphon she had the face of a woman the wings of a fowle and the breast feet and taile of a Lion she
having learned certaing problems and aenigmas of the muses disposed her selfe in the mountaine Phycaeus The riddle that she proposed to the Thebans was this What creature is that which hath one distinguishable voice that first walkes upon four next two and lastly upon three feet and the more legs it hath is the lesse able to walk The strict conditions of this monster were these that so often as he demanded the solution of this question till it was punctually resolved he had power to chuse out any of the people where he best liked whom he presently devoured but they had this comfort from the Oracle That this Aenigma should be no sooner opened and reconciled with truth but they should be freed from this misery and the monster himselfe should be destroied The last that was devoured was Aemon son to King Creon who fearing lest the like sad fate might extend it selfe to the rest of his issue caused proclamation to be made That whosoever could expound this riddle should marry Jocasta the wife of the dead King Laius and be peaceably invested in the Kingdome this no sooner came to the ears of Oedipus but he undertook it and resolved it thus This creature saith he is man who of all other hath only a distinct voice he is born four footed as in his infancy crawling upon his feet and hands who growing stronger erects himselfe and walkes upon two only but growing decrepit and old he is fitly said to move upon three as using the help of his staffe This solution was no sooner published but Sphinx cast herselfe headlong from the top of that high Promontory and so perished and Oedipus by marrying the Queen was with a generall suffrage instated in the Kingdome He begot of her â—wo sons and two daughters Eâ—eocles and Polâ—nâ—ces Ismâ—ne and Antigone though some write that Oedipus had these children by Rurigenia the daughter of Hyperphantes These former circumstances after some years no sooner came to light but Jocasta in despair strangled her selfe Oedipus having torn out his eies was by the people expulsed Thebes cursing at his departure his children for suffering him to undergo that injury his daughter Antigone lead him as far as to Colonus a place in Attica where there is a grove celebrated to the Eumenides and there remained till he was removed thence by Theseus and soon after died And these are the best fruits that can grow from so abominable a root Of the miserable end of his incestuous issue he that would be further satisfied let him read Sophocles Apollodorus and others Oâ— him Tyresias thus prophesied Neque hic laetabitur Calibus eventis suis nam factus c. No comfort in his fortunes he shall find He now sees clearly must at length be blind And beg that 's now a rich man who shall stray Through forrein Countries for his doubtfull way Still gripping with his staffe The brother he And father of his children both shall be His mothers son and husband first strike dead His father and adulterate next his bed Crithaeis SHE was wife to one Phaemius a schoolmaster and mother to Homer Prince of the Greek Poets Ephorus of Coma in a book intiteled the Cumaean Negotiation leaves her story thus related Atelles Maeones and Dius three brothers were born in Cuma Dius being much indebted was forced to remove thence into Ascra a village of Boeotia and there of his wife Pâ—cemedâ— he begot Hesiodus Atelles in his own Country dying a naturall death committed the pupillage of his daughter Crithaeis to his brother Maeones but comming to ripe growth she being by him vitiated and proving with child both fearing the punishment due to such an offence she was conferred upon Phaemius to whom she was soon after married and walking one day out of the City to bath her selfe in the river Miletus she was by the stood side delivered of young Homer and of the name thereof called him Mâ—lesigines But after losing his sight he was called Homer for such of the Cumaeans and Ionians are called Omouroi Aristotle he writes contrary to Ephorus that what time Neleus the son of Codrus was President in Ionia of the Collony there then newly planted a beautifull Virgin of this Nation was forced and deâ—â—oured by one of the Genius's which used â—o dance with the Muses who after remâ—ved to a place called Aegina and meeting with certain forragers and robbers that made sundry incursions into the Country she was by them surprized and brought to Smyrna who presented her to Meonides a companion to the King of the Lydians he at the first sight inamoured of her beauty took her to wife who after sporting her selfe by the banks of Milâ—rus brought forth Homer and instantly expired And since we had occasion to speak of his mother let it not seem altogether impertinent to proceed a little of the son who by reason of his being hurried in his childhood from one place to another and ignorant both of his Country and parents went to the Oracle to be resolved concerning them both as also his future fortunes who returned him this doubtfull answer Foelâ—x miser ad sortemes quia natus utramque Perquiris patrians matris tibi non patris câ—â—tat c. Happy and wretched both must be thy fate That of thy Country dost desire to heare Known is thy 〈◊〉 clime thy father 's not An Island in the sea to Creet not neer Nor yet far â—ss in which thou shalt expire When 〈◊〉 a riddle shalt to thee propose Whose dark Aenigma thou canst not acquire A double Fate thy life hath thou shalt lose Thine eies yet shall thy lofty Muse ascend And in thy death thou life have without end In his later 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 having got nothing that day but for want of other work only lousing themselves thus merily answered him Non capta afferimus fuerant quae capta relictis We bring with us those that we could not find But all that we could catch we lâ—ft behind Meaning that all such vermine as they could catch they cast away but what they could not take they brought along Which riddle when Homer could not unfold it is said that for very griefe he ended his life This unmatchable Poet whom no man regarded in his life yet when his works were better considered of after his death he had that honour that seven famous Cities contended about the place of his birth every one of them appropriating it unto themselves Pindarus the Poet makes question whether he were of Chius or Smyrna Simonides affirms him to be of Chius Antimachus and Nicander of Colophon Aristotle the Philosopher to be of Ius Ephorus the Historiographer that he was of Cuma Some have been of opinion that he was born in Salamine
Great Agrippa Aristobulus and Herod that was strook by the Angell also on the aforesaid Beronica he begot two daughters Mariamnes and Herodias who was after Philips wife that was Uncle to Aristobulus neverthelesse whilst Philip was yet alive 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 â—lew Hyrcanus the Priest and after Jonathas the brother of Mariamnes who against the law he had caused to be consecrated Priest at the age of seventeen years After that he caused Mariamnes to be put to death with the husband of his sister Saloma pretending that Hyrcanus and Jonathas had adulterated his sister After these murders Herod grew mad for the love of Mariamnes who was held to be the fairest Lady then living and innocently put to death He then took again his wife Dosides and her son Antipater to favour sending Alexander and Aristobulus the sons of Mariamnes to Rome to be instructed in the best literature whom after he caused to be slain And these were the fruits of Adulterous and Incestuous marriages Of women that have come by strange deaths THere are many kinds of deaths I will include them all within two heads Violent and Voluntary the Violent is when either it comes accidentally or when we would live and cannot the Voluntary is when we may live and will not and in this we may include the blessedest or 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 have died 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 vain it were to insist upon his history my businesse is at this time with women Brennus an Englishman and the younger brother to Belinus both sons of Donwallo was by reason of composition with his brother with whom he had been competitor in the Kingdome disposed into France and leading an army of the Gals invaded forrein Countries as Germany Italy sacking Rome and piercing Greece Insomuch that his glory was stretched so far that the French Chroniclers would take him quite from us and called him Rex Gallorum witnesse Plutarch in his seventeenth Parallel This Brennus spoiling and wasting Asia came to besiege Ephesus where falling in love with a wanton of that City he grew so inward with her that upon promise of reward she vowed to deliver the City into his hands the conditions were that he being possessed of the Town should deliver into her â—ate custody as many jewels rings and as much treasure as should countervaile so great a benefit to which he assented The Town delivered and he being victor she attended her reward when Brennus commanded all his souldiers from the first to the last to cast what gold or silver or jewels they had got in the spoil of the City into her lap which amounted to such an infinite masse that with the weight thereof she was suffocated and prest to death This Clitiphon delivers in his first book Rerum Gallicar to answer which Aristides Melesius in Italicis speaks of Tarpeia a Noble Virgin or at least nobly descended and one of the Keepers of the Capitol she in the war betwixt the Sabines and the Romans covenanted with King Tatius then the publick enemy to give him safe accesse into the mountain Tarpeia so he would for a reward but possesse her of all the gold and jewels which his souldiers the Sabins had then about them This she performing they were likewise willing to keep their promise but withall loathing the covetousnesse of the woman threw so much of the spoile and treasure upon her that they buried her in their riches and she expiâ—ed admist a huge Magazin But remarkable above these is the old woman Acco or Acca who having done an extraordinary courtesie for the City of Rome they knew not better how to require her then knowing her a varitious disposition to give her free liberty to go into the common treasury and take thence as much gold as she could carry The wretched woman overjoied with this donative entered the place to make her pack or burden which was either so little she would not beare or so great she could not 〈◊〉 and swetting and striving beneath the burden so expâ—â—ed The like though something a more violent death died the Emperor Galba who in his life time being insatiate oâ— gold as being covetous above all the Emperors before him they poured molten gold down his throat to confirm in him that old Adage Qualis vita finis ita The like was read of the rich Roman Crassus Of such as have died in child-birth THough of these be infinites and daily seen amongst us yet it is nor altogether amisse to speak something though never so little which may have reference to antiquity Volaterranus remembers us 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 us in mind of Junia Claudilla who was daughter to the most noble Marcus Sillanus and wife to the Emperor Caâ—us Caligula who died after the same manner Hâ—ginus in his two hundred threescore and fourth Fable tels this tale In the old time saith he there were no midwives at all and for that cause many women in their modesty rather suffered themselves to perish for want of help then that any man should be seen or known to come about them Above all the Athenians were most curious that no servant or woman should learn the art of Chirurgery There was a damosell of that City that was very industrious in the search of such mysteries whose name was Agnodice but wanting means to attaine unto that necessary skill she caused her head to be shorn and putting on the habit of a young man got her selfe into the service of one Hierophilus a Physitian and by her industry and study having attained to the depth of his skill and the height of her own desires upon a time hearing where a Noble Lady was in child-birth in the middest of her painfull throwes she offered her selfe to her help whom the modest Lady mistaking her Sex would by no perswasion suffer her to come neer her till she was forced to strip her selfe before the women and to give evident signe of her woman-hood After which she had accesse to many proving so fortunate that she grew very famous Insomuch that being envied by the Colledge of the Physitians she was complained on to the Areopagitae or the nobility of the Senate such in whose power it was to censure and determine of all causes and controversies Agnodice thus convented they pleaded against her youth and boldnesse accusing her
rather a corrupter of their chastities then any way a curer of their infirmities blaming the matrons as counterfeiting weaknesse purposely to have the company and familiarity of a loose and intemperate young man They prest their accusations so far that the Judges were ready to proceed to sentence against her when she opening her brest before the Senate gave manifest testimony that she was no other then a woman at this the Physitians being the more incens'd made the fact the more heinous 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 ready again to go against her the noblest matrons of the City assembled themselves before the Senate and plainly told them they were rather enemies then husbands who went about to punish her that of all their Sex had bin the most studious for their generall health and safety Their importancy so far prevailed after the circumstances were truly considered that the first decree was quite abrogated and free liberty granted to women to employ themselves in those necessary offices without the presence of men So that Athens was the first City of Greece that freely admitted or Midwives by the means of this damosell Agnodice Of women that suffered martyrdome ANd of these in briefe Corona was a religious woman who suffered martyrdome under the Tyranny of Antonius the Emperor Her death was after this manner she was tied by the arms and legs betwixt two trees whose stiffe branches were forced and bowed down for the purpose the bowes being shackned and let loose her body was tossed into the aire and so cruelly dissevered limb from limb Anatholia a virgin by the severe command of Faustinianus the President was transpierc'd with a sword Felicula as Plutarch witnesseth when by no perswasion or threats promises or torments she could be forced to renounce the Christian Faith by the command of Flaccus Comes she was commanded to be shut up in a jakes and there stilled to death Murita had likewise the honour of a Martyr who being banished by Elphedorus a certaine Arrian opprest with cold and hunger most miserably died Hyrene the virgin because she would not abjure her faith and religion was by Sisimmius shot through with an arrow The like death suffered the martyr Christiana under Julian the Apostata Paulina a Roman Virgin and daughter to the Prefect Artemius was with her mother Candida stoned to death by the command of the Tyrant Dioclesian Agatho virgo Catanensis was strangled in Prison by the command of the Consul Quintianus Theodora a virgin of Antioch was beheaded by the tyranny of Dioclesian Julia Countesse of Eulalia suffered the same death under the President Diaconus Margarita a maid and a martyr had her head cut off by Olibrius Zoe the wife of Nicostratus was nailed unto a crosse and so ended her life partly with the torture of the gibbet and partly with the smoke that the executioner made at the foot of the gallowes suffocated Julia Carthagensis because she would not bow to idols and adore the falâ—e heathen gods but was a constant professor of the 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 Country she suffered for the Faith by fire Alexandria was the wife of Dacianus the President who being converted to the Faith by blessed Saint George was therefore by the bloody murderer her husbands own hands strangled Maximianus the son of Dioclesian with his own hands likewise slew his naturall sister Artemia because that forsaking all Idolatry she proved a convert to the true Christian Faith Flavia Domicilla a noble Lady of Rome was banished into the Isle Ponâ—ia in the fifteenth yeare of the raign 〈◊〉 Dâ—nâ—tian for no other reason but that she constantly professed her selfe to be a Christian These two following suffered persecution under Antonius Verus in France Blondina who is said to weary her tormentors patiently enduring more then they could malitiously inflict insomuch that before she fainted they confessed themselves overcome she ready still to suffer and beare when they had not blowes to give for as oft as she spake these words I am a Christian neither have I committed any evill she seemed to the spectators of her martyrdome to be so refreshed and comforted from above that she felt no paine or anguish in the middest of her torture and in that patience she continued without alternation even to the last gaâ—â— Biâ—â—is one that before through her womanish weaknesse had faiâ—â—ed for fear oâ— torments comming to see her with others exâ—â—uted was so strengthened to behold their constancy that as it were awakened out of her former dream and comparing those temporall punishments which lasted but a moment with the eternall pains of hell fire gave up her selfe freely for the Gospels sake Dionysius in an Epistle to Fabius Bishop of Antioch reckons up those that suffered martyrdome under Decius the Emperor Quinta a faithfull woman was by the Infidels brought into a Temple of their Idols unto which because she denied divine adoration they bound her hand and foot and most inhumanely dragged her along the streets upon the sharp stones but when that could not prevaile with her they beat her head and sides and bruised them against Milâ—stones that done she was pitiously scourged and lastly bloodily executed The same Lâ—ctors laid hands on Apollonia a Virgin but something grounded in years and because she spake boldly in the defence of her Faith first with barbarous cruelty they beat out her teeth then without the City they prepared a huge pile threatning to burn her instantly unlesse she would renounce her Christianity but she seeming to pause a little as if she meant better to consider of the matter when they least suspected leapt suddenly into the fire and was there consumed to ashes Ammomarion a holy Virgin after the suffering of many torments under the same Tyrant gave up her life an acceptable sacrifice for the Gospell Mercuria a vertuous woman and one Dionysia a fruitfull and child-bearing martyr after they were questioned about their faith and in all arguments boldly opposed the Judges 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 eighteen years she comming to visit certaine prisoners at Cesarea who were called to the bar and because they stood stedfastly in the defence of the Gospell prepared themselves to hear the most welcome sentence of death pronounced against them which Theodosia seeing gently saluted them comforted them and perswaded them to continue in their constancy withall humbly desired them to remember her devoutly in their praiers which she knew would be acceptable to him for whose love they so freely offered up their lives The Officers this hearing dragged
her before the President who at first despising her youth began to talk with her as to a child but finding her answers modest and weighty began further to argue with her but seeing himselfe unable to hold argument as being convinced in all things he grew into such a malitious rage that he first caused her to be scourged before his face even till the flesh gave way to discover the bones but this not prevailing he 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 own modern stories Our English Chroniclers report that Maximus the Emperour having held long war with one Conon Meridock a reâ—olute and bold Brittain having in many bloody conflicts sped diversly sometimes the victory inclining to one side and then to another but in conclusion to the losse of both their hostility was by mediation at length attoned and a firm peace establisht betwixt them that done Maximus made war upon the Gals and invading a Province then called America but since Little Brittain he won it by the sword and after surreendered it to Conon to hold it for ever as of the Kings of Great Brittain This Conon Meridock was a Welch man and from these it may be That all that Nation assume to themselves the name of Brittains This eminent Captain being only furnisht with souldiers for the present warres but wanting women to maintein further issue to him was sent S. Vesula with eleven thousand virgins to be espoâ—to Conon and his Knights But being met at sea by Pagan Pirates because they would neither change their faith nor prostitute themselves to their barbarous and beastly lusts they were all by these inhumane wretches cut to pieces and cast over booâ—d and therefore in mine opinion not unworthily reckoned amongst the Martyrs From these I will proceed to others Aristoclaea OF all the deaths that I have read of this of Aristoclaea methinks exceeds example with which howsoever her body was tormented 〈◊〉 soul could not be grieved for never woman died such a loving death Plutarch in his Amatorious narrations hath thus delivered it Aliartes is a City of Boeotia in which was born a virgin so beautified and adorned with all the gifts and perfections of nature as she seemed unparalleld 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 City Strato Orchomenius and Calisthenes Aliartius Of these Strato being the richest he seemed the most endeared to her in affection for he had first seen her at Lebedaea bathing her selfe in the fountaine Hercyne from whence having a basket upon her arm which she was to use in the sacrifice to Jupiter he took a full view of her in her way to the Temple yet Callisthenes he sed himselfe with the greater hopes because he was of more proximity and virgin in in alliance betwixt these two Orchomenius stood as a man indifferent Her father Theophanes upon their importunities doubtfull and not yet having determined on which to confer his daughter as fearing Strato's potency who in wealth and nobility equalled if not anteceded the best the in the City he therefore put it off to one Trophonius to be decided but Strato most confident in his own opinion and strength took the power of her disposing from Tropâ—onius and gave it up freely into her own will The damosell in a confluence of all her kindred and friends gathered for that purpose and in the sight of heâ— suitors was publickly demanded of which of them she made choice who answered of Callisthenes Strato taking this in an iâ—â—econcilable disgrace and in the greatnesse of his spirit not able to disgest an injury as he took it of that 〈…〉 his spleen and some two daies after meeting with Thâ—ophanes and Callisthenes he gave them a friendly and an unexpected salutation 〈◊〉 still a continuance of their ancient love and friendship that since what many covet one can but enjoy he could content himselfe with his own lot howsoever deâ—â—â—ing that their amity might remain perfect and unchanged these words came so seemingly from the heart that they with great joy did not only enterteine his love and voluntary reconcilement but in all courtesie gave him a solemn invitation to the wedding which he as complementally enterteined 〈◊〉 upon these terms they paâ—ted 〈…〉 a crew 〈◊〉 as he might best trust and add them to the number of his servants these he ambushes in divers places selected for his purpose but all to be ready at a watch-word Callisthenes bringing Aristoclaea towards the 〈◊〉 called 〈◊〉 theâ—e to perform the first sacreds belonging to marriage according to the custome of her ancestors Strato with his faction ariseth and with his own hands selfeth upon the virgin on the other side Callisthenes he catcheth the fastest hold he can to keep her Strato and his pull one way Callishenes and his another thus both contending in the heat of their affection but not regarding her safety whom they did affect she as it were set upon the rack of love plucked almost to peeces betwixt them both expired Which seeing Callisthenes he was suddenly lost neither could any man ever after tell what became of him whether he punished himselfe by some extraordinary death or betook himselfe to voluntary exile Strato openly before his own people transpierc'd himselfe and fell down dead before the body of Aristoclaea Of no such death died Democrita whose history next ensueth Alcippus the Lacedemonion had two daughters by his wife Democrita He having with great justice and integrity mannaged the weal publick more for the common good then any peculiar gain or profit of his own was affronted by an opposite faction which emulated his goodnesse and being brought before the Ephori it was delivered to them in a scandalous and lying oration how and by what means Alcippus intended to abrogate and annihilate their lawes for which he was confind from Sparta neither could his wife and daughters who willingly offered themselves to attend upon his adversity be 〈◊〉 to associate him but they were deteined by the power and command of the Magistrate Moreover an edict was made That neither the wiâ— was capable of inheritance nor the daughter of dower out of their fathers goods notwithstanding they had many 〈◊〉 of such noble Gentlemen as loved them for their father vertues It was likewise by the enemy most enviously suggested to the Senate that the two Ladies might be debarred from 〈…〉 their reason was that Democrita was heard often to wish and withall to presage that she should see children born of her daughters who would in time revenge the wrongs of their grandfather This being granted and she every way circumscribed both in her selfe her husband and issue every way confin'd she expected a publick solemnity in â—hich according to the Custome
wives by reason of their exile halfe in despaire boldly took arms and first retiring themselves and making their own confines defensible after grew to the resolution to invade others Besides they disdained to marry with their neighbours calling it rather a servitude then Wedlock A singular example to all ages Thus they augmented their seigniories and establisht their Common-weal without the counsell or assistance of men whose fellowship they began now altogether to despise and to communicate their losse to make the widdows of equal fortune with the wives they slâ—w all the men that yet remained amongst them and after revenged the deaths of their husbands formerly slain upon the bordering people that conspiâ—ed against them At length by war having setled peace lest their posterity and memory should perish they had had mutuall congression with their neighbour Nations The men children they slew the 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 and brought up not in sowing and spinning but in hunting and practise of arms and horsemanship and that they better might use their lances and with the more ease at seven years of age they scared or rather burnt off their right breasts of which they took the name of Amazons as much as to say Vnimammae or Vrimammae i. those with one breast or with a burnt breast There were of them two Queens that jointly held the soveâ—â—ignty Marthesia and Lampedo these divided their people into two armies and being grown potent both in power and riches they went to warre by turns the one governing at home whilest the other forraged abroad and lest their should want honour and authority to their successes they proclaimed themselves to be derived from Mars insomuch that having subdued the greatest part of Europe they made incursions into Asia and there subdued many fortresses and Castles where having built Ephesus with many other Cities part of their army they sent home with rich and golden spoiles the rest that remaine to maintein the Empire of Asia were all with the Queen Marthesia or as some write Marpesiâ— defeated and slâ—â—n In whose place of soveraignty her daughter Orythâ—â— succeeded who besides her singular 〈◊〉 and fortunate successe in war was no lesse admired for her constant vow of virginity which to her death she kept inviolate The bruit of their glorious and invincible acts â—eaching as far as Greece Herculis with a noble assembly of the most heroick youths furnished nine ships with purpose to make proof of their valor two of foure sisters at that time had the principality Antiope and Orythia Orythians was then emploied in forrein expeditions Now when Hercules with the young Hero's landed upon the Amazonian continent Queen Antiope not jealous of the least hostility stood then with many of her Ladies unarmed on the shore who being suddenly assaulted by the Graecians were easily put to rout and they obteined an easie victory in this conflict many were slain and divers taken amongst whom were the two sisters of Antiope Menalippe surprized by Hercules and Hippolite by Theseus he subdued her by arms but was captivated by her beauty who after took her to his wife and of her begot Hippolitus Of her Sâ—â—eca in Agamemnon thus speaks Vidâ— Hippolite ferox pectore è medio rapi Spoâ—â—um sagittas The bold Hippolite did see that day Her breast despoil'd and her shafts tane away Of Menalippe Virgil thus Threicean sâ—xto spoliavit Amazona Baltheo Having relation to the golden belt of Thermedon which was numberd the sixt of Hercules his twelve labours He received that honour and she her liberty Orythia being then abroad and hearing of these outrages and dishonours done at home that war had been commenced against her sister and Theseus Prince of Athens born thence Hippolite whom she held to be no better then a ravisher impatient of these injuries she convented all her forces and incited them to revenge inferring that in vain they bore Empire in Europe and Asia if their dominions lay open to the spoils and rapines of the Grecians Having encouraged and perswaded her own people to this expedition she next demanded aid of Sagillus King of the Scythians to him acknowledging her selfe to be descended from that nation shewes the necessity of that war and the honour of so brave a victory hoping that for the glory of the Scythian Nation his men would not come behind her women in so just an enterprize the successe of which was undoubtedly spoile for the present and fame for her Sagillus with these motives encouraged sent his son Penaxagoras with a great army of horsemen to aid Orythea in this war but by reason of a dissention that fell in the camp the Prince of Scythia withdrew all his auxiliary fâ—â—ces and with them retired into his Country by reason of which defect the Amazons were defeated by the Grecians yet many of them after this battell recovered their Countries After this Orythea succeeded Penthisilaea she that in the aid of Priam oâ— as some say for the love of Hector came to the siege of Troy with a thousand Ladies where after many deeds of chivalry by her performed she was slain by the hands of Achilles or as the most will have it by Neoptolemus she was the first that ever fought with Poleax or wore a Targer made like an halfe Moon therefore she is by the Poets called Peltigera and Securigera as bearing a Targer or bearing a Poleaxe Therefore Ovid in his Epistle of Phaedra Prima securigeras inter virtute puellas And Virgil in his first book of Aeneid Ducit Amazoâ—â—dum lunatis Agmina peltis Penthâ—silaea â—urens mâ—â—iisque in millibus ardet Penthisilaea mad leads forth Her Amazonian train Arm'd with their moonâ—d shields and fights Mâ—dst thousands on the plain These Amazons endured till the time of Alexander and though Isiodorus Eph. 14. saith that Alexander the Great quite subverted their Nation yet Trogus Justine Q. Curtius and others are of a contrary opinion and affirm that when Alexander sent his Embassadors to demand of them tribute otherwise his purpose was to iâ—vade their territories their Queen Minithra or as some writers term her Thalestris returned him answer after this manner It is great wonder of thy small judgement O King that thou hast a desire to â—â—age war against women if thou being so great a conquerour shouldst be vanquished by us all thy former honours were blemished and thou perpetually branded with shame and infamy but if our gods being angry with 〈◊〉 should deliver us up into thy mercy what addition is it to 〈◊〉 honour to have had the mastery over weak women King Alexander it is said was pleased with this answer gâ—anting them freedome and said Women ought to be couâ—ted with fair woâ—ds and flattery and not with rough steel and hostility After this she sent to the King desiring to have his company as longing to have issue by him to succeed the father in 〈◊〉 and vertue to which he assented Some write she
neighbour we feare to offend the higher Majesty and next that fear the terrour of eternall death and dammation by the first we preâ—evâ— our bodies by the second our honours by the last our soules But those other â—bject fears I purpose â—ere to exemplifie only such as proceed from Effeminacy and Cowardâ—â—â— It is read of Pysander of Greece that being alive he â—eared leâ—t his soul had already forsaken his body Likewise of one Artemon who was of that haâ—â—-hearted disposition 〈◊〉 he moved not abroad without Targers of bâ—asse borne over him like Canopies lest any thing should â—â—ll from aloft and â—eat out his brains or if he rid it was 〈◊〉 horse-litter ceiled and crosse-barâ—'d with gadâ— oâ— steel and plates of iron for which he was called Peripharetes Sâ—bellicus writes that Cassander so feared Alexander that long time after his death comming to Delphos to behold the goodâ—y statues there erected at the very sight of his old masteâ—s eâ—â—igies he fell into such a timorous feâ—ver that his very 〈◊〉 danced in his skin and long time it was â—re they could constantly settle themselves in them own places This was that Cassander who had caused Olympias the mother of Alexander to be so cruelly butchered It is 〈◊〉 of St Valleâ—â— Duke of Valentinois in France that being condemned to death for not disclosing the treasons of the Duke of Burbon just at the instant when the executioner should have strook off his head the King sent him his gracious pardon but all in vain the fear of the blow before it came had dispatched him of life Hereof hath grown a proverb to any man that hath a strong apprehension of feare they will say he hath La fieure de Saint Vallier i. the feaver of Saint Vallier Another thing is recorded of a fellow that was so affraid of the name of Hercules that he hid himselfe in caves and rocks though he knew not of any quarrell betwixt them at length stealing from the obscure cavern where he had denned himselfe to see if the coast were clear casting his eie by chance on the one side and espying Hercules who came that way by chance his life blood sinking into his heels she shook them a little and died in that feaver I could recite terrors and vain fears which have arisen from nothing that have terried whole Cities of Grecians armies of Romans and multitudes of other nations but these particulars shall suffice for my purpose is not too farre to esteminate men nor too much to embolden women since the most valiant man that is is timorous enough and the modestest woman that is may be made sufficiently bold But to the purpose in hand Debora a warlike woman was a Prophetesse and judged Israel by whose counsell and courage they were not only freed from the inroads and incursions of the neighbour nations but many times returned from the field with rich spoiles and glorious conquests of her you may read more at large in the Judges Janus was an ancient King of Italy he enterteined King Saturn when by his son Jupiter he was châ—ced out of Creet Because he was a provident and wise Prince the Romans pictured him with two faces and received him into the number of their gods they attributed to him the beginning and end of things celebrating to his honour the first month January which took the denomination of Janus from his name one face looked upon the year to come the other looked back on the yeare past in his right hand he had a golden key which 〈◊〉 the Temple of Peace in his left a staffe which he strook upon a stone from whence a spring of water seemed to issue out he is thus described by Albricus the Philosopher in his book de Deorum Imaginibus This Janus left behind him a beautiful fair daughter whose name was Helerna she succeeded her father in his Kingdom which was 〈◊〉 by the river Tiber and was a woman of masculine spirit and vertue she reigned over men without the counsell or assistance of men she subdued Nations by her valour and conquered Princes by her beauty of whom may be truly spoken as Propertius lib. 2. writes of the Queen Penthisilaea Ausa ferox ab equo quondam oppugnare sagittis c. Penthisilaea from her steed When her high courage rose Durst with her shaâ—â—s and warlike darts The Darnish fleet oppose No sooner was her beaver up And golden caske laid by But whom by force she could not take She captiv'd with her eie Camilla and others THis Camilla was Queen of the Volscians who even in her craâ—le gave manifest tokens of her future vertue and valour for in her infancy she was neither swathed in soft cloathing nor wrapt in silken mantle not attended by a tender nurse nor â—ed with curious dainties or â—arre fetcht delicates but fostered by her father Meâ—abus with the milk of hinds and wild goats her court was a forrest and her palace a dark and obscure cave Having somewhat outgrown her infancy she took no pleasure in rattles puppets or timbrels in which children for the most part delight neither did she inure her hands to spinning or any such like womanish chares her cloathing was the skins of wild beasts her exercise hunting her practise shooting her arms the bow and quiver her drink the fountain water and her food Venison To this â—bsteâ—â—ous life she vowed the strict vow of chastity At length war being commenc'd betwixt Turnus and Aeâ—eas she adhered to the Ruâ—ilian faction and to those wars brought a regiment of gallant horse which she in person 〈◊〉 Her magnanimity Virgil in the latter end of his 〈◊〉 book thus sets down Hos super 〈◊〉 volsca de gente Camilla Agmea 〈◊〉 equâ—um florentes aere catervas To their supply Camilla came The gallant Volscian Lasse Who bravely did command the horse With troops that shin'd in brasse Of the like condition was Maria Puteolana so called of Peuâ—eolum a City of Campania she was of a warlike condition and an invincible courage and flourisht in the age of Franciis Pitrarch she is described to be most patient of labour and untired with travell moderate in diet but altogether abstinent from wine sparing of words 〈◊〉 boasting but alwaies daring The needle the wheel and the 〈…〉 horse armour the bow the 〈◊〉 and the target above all other delights she embraced she used to walk whole nights without the least sleep and travell whole daies together without rest if necessity at any time compelled her eies to wink or her body to lie down the earth was her bed and her shield her pillow she abandoned the society of women her continuall conversation was with Captains and Commanders which though 〈…〉 a face of boldnesse and as some term it impudency yet his apparant to all men in what a soveraign respect she held her chastity and honour which she maintained without the least blemish unspotted to the end from
pay day came but their hopes proving abortive the souldiers mutined to conjure down which spirit of insurrection messengers are dispatched to the Emperor to certifie him of the neglective abuse of his roiall word and fear of sedition this newes overtook him at Larissea in Judea Selymus inraged at this relation sends for Bassa Jonuses and examines the cause of his neglect in such and so weighty a charge Jonuses somewhat abashed as being conscious yet withall high-spirited gave the Emperour a peremptory answer at which being mightily incensed he commanded his head to be cut off which was forthwith done and thus justice suffered not innocent Manto to die unrevenged The wife of Agetus the Lacedemonian HErodotus l. 6. thus writes of this Lady the daughter of Aleydes the Spartan first wife to Agetus and after to the King Ariston She of the most deformed became the excellentest amongst women Her nurse to whose keeping she was given for the parents were asham'd of their Issue went with her every day to the Temple of Helena which stands in Therapne neer to the Church of Apollo and kneeling before the Altar besought the goddesse to commiserate the child and free her from her native uglinesse and loathsome deformity Upon a time returning from the Temple a woman appeared to her of a venerable aspect and desired to see what she carried so tenderly in her arms the nurse told her it was an infant but such an one as she was loath to shew and therefore desired to be excused the rather because she was enjoined by the parents not to expose it to the sight of any The more the nurse put her off with evasions the more importunate the strange woman was to behold it At length prevailing she gently with her hand stroaked the face of the child and kissing it thus said Go nurse and bear her home to her parents who shall in time become the most beautifull of all the Spartan Ladies From that time forward her deformity began to fall away and a sweet grace and delightfull comelinesse to grow as well in face as every other lineament Comming to marriage estate she was solicited by many but only possest by Agetus yet after by the craft of Ariston she was divorced from Agetus and conferred upon him Dion in Augusto speaks of Terentia the wife of Mecaenas to be of that rare beauty that she dared to contend with Livia the wife of Augustus Caesar who was held to be the most amiable and exquisite Lady of those daies Of Terentia the daughter of Cicero I have thus read Titus the son of Milo and Appius the son 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 much hated in regard of enmity betwixt him and his father Clodius for Cicero was of Milo's faction Titus had long and dearly loved the faire Terentia but understanding that his friend Appius was likewise exceedingly enamoured of her he left his own suit and earnestly sollicited the Lady in his behalfe who was easily perswaded to the motion having long before cast an effectionat eie upon Appius but durst make no expression thereof much fearing the displeasure of her father Titus so well managed the businesse for his friend that he brought him privily into the house of Cicero where the two lovers had mutuall conference her father comming home by accident and finding them together in the heat of his impatience excluded him and lockt her up in safe and close custody Which the poor Lady took so to heart that she fell into an extream feaver and languishing daily her father now when it was too late desired to know what he might doe to minister to her the least comfort she only besought him that before her death she might take her last and loving leave of Appius who was instantly sent for at his sudden comming in she was extasi'd with his sight and expired in his embraces which the noble youth perceiving he drew out a short dagger which he then wore about him and in the presence of her father and his own deer friend slew himselfe A more comicall conclusion hath that which I shall next tel you An old Vicar in the Countrie having a wondrous fair wench to his daughter it hapned that a young scholler that for want of means had left the University was preferred to the serving of a cure some what neer him by which he had opportunity to woo the maid and after had the parents consent to marry her It hapned not long after this young man had a Parsonage bestowed upon him by his patron the father and the son meeting upon a time at a Market Town with divers gentlemen of the Country being at dinner amongst other discourse cavilling about an argument they fell into controversie which should be the Better man many rough words passed insomuch that the Gentlemen were forced to come betwixt them to keep the peace The old man stood upon his gravity and the name of father the young man pleaded That in regard he was a Parson and the other but a Vicar he was the better of the two This raised the uprore afresh which the Gentlemen had much ado to appease at length the young man demanded audience but for a few words in which saith he if I do not convince him and make it plain and palpable before you all that I am the worthier of the two for name place and antiquity I will yield him priority and precedence for ever after The words of Name and Antiquity the old man heard with much impatience at length audience being granted and silence obtain'd Now young knave saith the old Vicar what canst thou say for thy selfe I only desire answered the young man to be resolved in one question propound it saith the other Marry thus saith he When the world was destroied in the generall deluge all save eight persons tell me where were the Vicars then The old man was blank the Gentlemen smiled and the young man carried it so that ever after the old man took place of the father and the faire daughter of the mother I will only remember you of a fair young Gentlewoman a Country woman of mine and so conclude with my Fair ones A Gallant newly come to his lands became a suiter to a proper young Virgin her fathers only child and heire He having had conference with her father conditions on both sides were debated the match concluded and the day of marriage appointed the father and the son in law riding abroad one morning to take the air the ancient Gentleman was mountâ—d on an easie paced Mare which he kept for his own saddle this beast the young Gallant was so enamoured of that he 〈…〉 at any rate though never so unreasonable but 〈…〉 man intreated him to hold 〈◊〉 excused because the beast was 〈…〉 gentle fitting his
remain Whose power no limit can no place contein Who being born did'st now begin to see All these great works created first by thee The work and workman of thy selfe not scorning T' obey those weary hours of Ev'n and Morning Of which th' art Lord and tell each minute o'r Made by thy Wisdome for mans use before And took'st on thee our shape only to show To us that God we did till then not know c. Petronilla VVHen Peter the Apostle had by his faith cured all infirmities and diseases and in all places yet he suffered his daughter Petronilla to be grievously afflicted with a Feaver and being demanded why he that had cured others did not help her he answered Because he knew her sicknesse to be most behoofful for her souls health for the weaker she was in body she was so much the stronger in faith setling her cogitations on the joies of heaven and not the pleasures of the world desiring of God that she might rather die a chast Virgin then to be the wife of the Counsull Flaccus by whom she was at that time most earnestly solicited whose praier was heard for she died of that sicknesse and the Consull was prevented of his purpose who had long insidiated her chastity Marul lib 4 cap. 8. The like we read of Hillarius Pâ—ctaviensis Episcopus who having long trained up his daughter Appâ—a in chastity and sanctity of life fearing lest time might alter her vowes and tempt her with the vain pleasures of the world he besought the giver of all graces that he might rather with joy follow her to her grave then 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 only president of Virginall chastity Tora the virgin was of that chast and austere life that having took a vow and once entred her profession she never put on her back any new garment or so much as changed her shooes Maria Aegyptiaca lived the life of an Hermit in the solitude of an unfrequented desart some write of her that as aften as she was seen to pray she seemed to be lifted up from the Earth into the Aire the height of a cubit Columba a Virgin of Perusina is reported to be of that chastity and abstinence that she never tasted any other food then the bare fruits of the earth from the years of her discretion till the hour of her death Amata was a professed Virgin who in forty yeâ—rs space never set foot over the threshold of that Cloister wherein she had confined her self in which time she never tasted food save bread and roots Sara lived in the time of Theodosius the elder she made a Vow never to lodge beneath any roof but inhabiting the bank of a certain river removed not from that place in threescore years The like is read of Sylvia a Virgin the daughter of Russinus a Prefect or Ruler in Alexandria who betook her selfe to solitude for the space of threescore years in which time she never washt any part of her body save her hands nor reposed her selfe upon any bed save the ground It is reported by Edward Hall John Leisland John Sleyden and others of S. Ebbe Abbesle of Collingham That to preserve her own and her sisters chastities and keep their vowes inviolate because they would seem odible to the Danes who had done many outrages both against Law and Religion and then tyrannized in the Land she cut off her own nose and upper lip and perswaded all the other Nuns to do the 〈◊〉 for whâ—â—h act the Danes burnt the Abby with all the 〈…〉 Fulgos lib. 4. cap. 3. speaks of Ildegunda a Germane Viâ—gin born in Nassau who after many temptations to which she feared her beauty might subject her in the year 1128 she changed her habit got to be entertein'd in a Priory neer unto worms called Scuâ—na beu Hiem in which she lived long by the name of Joseph in singular continence and modesty stil conversing amongst the learnedst and best approved schollers even till the time of her death neither was she then known to be a woman till comming to wash her body her Sex was discovered In the same Monastry and amongst that Covent lived Euphrosyna a Virgin of Alexandria by the name of Smaragdus as also one Marina who called her selfe Marinus both dissembling their Sex Gunzonis daughter to the Duke of Arboa was possessed by an evil spirit but after by the praiers of holy men being recovered she vowed perpetuall Virginity And after being demanded in marriage by Sigebertus King of the French men she was delivered unto him by her father who debating with her concerning his present purpose she humbly desired to be excused by his majesty in regard she had already past a pre contract The King demanding To whom she answered She was a betrothed Spouse to her Redeemer At which the King being startled forbore to compell her any further but suffered her to take upon her a religious life she preferring her Virgin Chastity before the state and title of a Queen And these shall suffice for Religious Virgins I now proceed to others that grounded their vertue on meer morality Baldraca was a Virgin but of mean parentage and of a dejected fortune yet to her never-dying honour and president to all ages to come notwithstanding she was not able to supply her selfe with things needfull and necessary either for sustenance or ornament neither by threats or menaces promises of worldly honours or promotion she could not be tempted to prostitute her selfe to the Emperor Otho Saxo Grammaticus writes of Serytha the daughter of Synaldus King of the Danes to be of that modesty that when the fame of her beauty had attracted a confluence of many suitors to the Court of her father yet she could never be won either to converse with or so much as to look upon any of them Tara was a French Lady of a noble and illustrious family she lived in the time of Heracâ—ius who when her father Hagerticus and her mother Leodegunda would have compell'd her to marry she fell into that excesâ—e of weeping that with the extraordinary flax of â—eares she grew blind soon after Dula was â— Virgin famous for her chastity who chose rather to be slain by the hand of a Souldier then to be despoiled of her Virginity Statyra and Roxana were the sisters of 〈◊〉 King of Pontus who for the space of forty yeers had kept their vow of Virginity inviolate these hearing the sad fate of their brother and fearing to be ravished by the enemy at least to fall into their captivity by taking of poison finished both their daies and sorrowes Plutarch writes of one Roxana drowned in a Well by Statyra It is reported of an
second son Ochus the Prefectship over the Hircanians Likewise Parisatis to wife daughter to Xerxes and naturall sister to Ochus This Ochus was â—â—ter called Dariaeus who in all his counsels and projects â—â—er did any thing without the advice of his sister Queen â—â—fore his aspiring to the Empire he had issue by his wife â—â—risatis two children a daughter called Amistris and a 〈◊〉 Arsaca who after changed his name to his grandfaâ—â—â—rs and was called Artaxerxes after his instalment she â—â—ght him a son called Cyrus after him Artostes and so the â—â—â—ber of thirteen of all which only the fourth son called â—â—â—dras survived the rest perished in minority These 〈◊〉 concubins of Persia Julia. IT is remembred of Augustus Caesar whose daughter this Julia was that he established a Law which was called 〈◊〉 Julia concerning adulteters after what processe persons so offending should be punished being convicted and â—ound guilty It hapned that a young Gentleman of Rome being accused of the same fact with the Emperors daughter Julia before named Augustus grew into such a fuâ—y that not able to come in himselfe he fell upon the Gentleman and gave him many violent and sound buffeâ—s till the supposed offender cried out O Emperor where is your Justice you have made a law concerning these matters why am I not then judged by that At which words it so repented him of his rashnesse that all that day and night he forbore to tast any food At a certain sword-playing of such like pastime solemnized in the great Roman Theater Livia the mother and Julia the daughter had turned the eies of the multitude upon them twain and that by reason of the difference of their habits and their attendants Lyvia being matron-like attired was accompanied with aged Senators and Ladies of approved modesty and gravity Julia on the contrary loosâ—ly and wantonly habited had in her train none but butterflie-pages wild fashion-mongers and fantastick gallants which observed by Augustus he the next day admonished her by letters To observe what difference and ods there was in the appearance of two such high and noble persons which having read she returned him only this short answer Well and these people about me shall be old likewise when I am This Julia to a noble Senator of staâ—ed gravity giving her counsell to frame her selfe after her fathers grave and sober behaviour she presently replied Though my father doth not remember that he is an Emperour yet I cannot forget that I am an Emperours daughter It is further remembred of her that beginning to have gray hairs with the soonest and before she was old as her maids and gentle women were kembing her head the Emperour came in suddenly upon her and espi'd them picking and plucking the white hairs up by the roots which still stuck upon their garments the Emperor for that present said â—â—â—ning 〈◊〉 â—ut long after amongst many other discourseâ— taking occâ—siâ—n to speak of old age he demanded of his daughter Whether she had rather in the processe of a few years have a reverent white head or to be directly without any hair at all she answered She had rather to have a white head Why then said he do thy damosels all they can to make thee clean bald before thy time Augustus much grieved with her licentiousnesse and seeing it subject to no reformation he banished her the Court and with her her daughter Julia his grandchild who took something too much after the mother and after that Agrippa whom he had once adopted his heir but after for his intemperance and brâ—tish and luxurious riots cast out of his favour Whensoever mention was made of any of these three he would recite a verse out of Homer which imports thus much What 's now my sorrow would have been my pride If I as some might issuelesse have di'd He used not to call any of those three by any other names then Ulcers or rotten Imposthumes Cankers and such like for he used much more patiently to take the deaths of his friends then their dishonours He further provided by his last will That whensoever 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 Upon a time comming to visite and do her dutie to her father she perceived his eies to be much offended with the gawdinesse of her attire as savering of immodestâ— the next day taking occasion to revisi him she changed her habit into a comely civill and matronly garb and in that sort came to embrace her father Caesar who had the day before suppressed his griefe was not now able to contein his joy but brok out into these terms O how much more decent and seemly are these ornaments for the daughter of Augustus to whom she instantly replied Indeed this day I apparelled my selfe to please the eies of a father but my yesterdaies habit was to content the eies 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 never take in passenger till my ship have her full fraught and lading Macrob. l 2. cap. 5 Satur. And so much for Iulia. Phileterus speaking of those wantons that lived afore his time and were now dead scoffs them thus Nonne Câ—â—cope jam egit annorum tria millia c. i. Hath not Cercope already lived three thousand years and proceeding and rough haired Diopethâ—â— and a second Telesis ten thousand for Theolite none knowes or can remember when she was born Was not Thais dead when she should have prostituted her selfe and come under Ioâ—nas and Neaera are now dead and rotten so is Philaâ—e Or Siphas Gâ—linas and Coronas I speak 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 Androtiones Herdicus Crateticus speaks of this Sinope in his Commentaries and saith That when she grew into years she was called Abâ—dus she was no question of a famous strumpeâ— in her youth for Antâ—phanes speaks of her in many of his Comedies in Arcade in Horlicomo in Medicatrice in Piscante in Neottide in Neottide So likewise Alexâ—s in Cleobulina and Calicrates in Moscione Of Phanostrate Apollodorus writes That she was a prostitute in Athens and that of her rank were many others and was called Phttherophile of Phther Pediculus and Paele Porta Propter quod pediculos cum staret in limine Portae queritâ—bat Menander in Aâ—â—ulatore he numbers these wantons Christs Coronis Antâ—cyâ—â— Ischades and Nanniculum whom he cals Formâ—suâ—â— vaâ—de Exceeding faiâ— Quintius Curtâ—us in his tenth book of the life of Alexander the Great writes That after many honourable Conquests having already subjected sundry Nations to his jurisdiction being now in India where all his attempts were prosperous and his
write them all at large they cannot exceed that piety of which I have read in women Suetonius and Cicero in an Oration pro Caelio speaking of Claudia one of the Vestall Virgins thus report of her She seeing her father in his triumphant Chariot riding through the streets of Rome and by the Tribunes of the people who envied his glory pluckt and haled from his seat she with a wondrous dexterity and a masculine audacity freed him from the hands of their Tribunes and their Lictors and maugre all their opposition lifted him up into his chariot nor sook him till she saw him in all magnificent pomp received into the Capitol insomuch that it was questioned amongst the Romans which of them merited the greater triumph he for his vertue and valour in the Forum or she for her zeal and piety in the Temple of Vesta nor can it yet be decided which may claim a just prioritie the Father for his victory or the Daughter for her goodnesse Plin. lib. 7. cap. 36. and Solinus speak of another Roman Lady of a noble Family who when her mother was condemned at the judgement-seat by the Praetor and delivered up to one of the Triumviri to be committed to strait prison and there for her offence to be privately executed But the keeper of the Goale commiserating the Matron so sentenced either because he pitied her gravity or suspected her innocence did not cause her to be instantly strangled according to the rigour of her sentence At the importunacy of the daughter he gave her leave to visit and comfort her mother but narrowly searcht before her entrance into the prison lust she should carry with her any food or sustenance to her relifefe rather desiring she should perish by famine and die that way then himselfe to have any violent hand in her execution The daughter having daily accesse to the mother who now had past over more daies then the keeper thought was possibly by nature and wondring in himself how she should draw her thred of life out to that length without any means to maintein it he casting a more curious eie upon the young woman and watching her might perceive how she first drew out one breast and after another with her own milk relieving her mothers famine At the novelty of so strange and rare a spectacle being amazed he carried newes to the Triumvir he to the Praetor the Praetor related it to the Consuls they brought it before the Senat who to recompence what was good in the daughter pardoned all that was before thought ill in the mother For what will not love devise or whither true zeal not penetrate What more unheard or unexpected thing could be apprehended then for a mother to be fed from the breast of her daughter Who would not imagine this to be against nature but that we see by proof true naturall piety transcends all bounds and limits The like of this we may read â—f in Pliry of another young married woman who when her father Cimon was afflicted with the same sentence and subject to the like durance prolonged his life from her breasts for which she deserves equally to be memorised Our parents in no danger or necessities are to be by us abandoned and that by example of Aeneas in whose person Virgil thus speaks as to his father Anchises Aeneid 2. Eia agâ— chare pater cervici imponere nostrae Ipse suâ—â—bo numeris nec me laboriste gravabit c Come my dear father and get up for see No burthen to my shoulders you can be No weight at all and hap what can betide One danger or one safety we 'll abide Sabellâ—â— lib. 3. cap. 6. remembers us of Rusticana a noble Matron of Rome and the daughter of Synnarchus who with his brother Boetius the famous Philosoher being put to death by Theodoricirs King of the Gotâ—s She after the Tirants miserable end was the cause that all his Statues in Rome were demolished and ruined purposing utterly if it were possible to extirp his memory that was the imhumane 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 approved the deed with all constancy whose not le magnanimity and resolution proved more available to her safety then any timorous evasion could have done for he not only dismissed her unpunished but highly applauded and commended Fulgos Sabellicus and Egnâ—tius writing of Alboinuâ— King of the Longobards who at his first entrance into Italy having subdued and slain Tâ—rismundus whom some call Cunimundus son to Cunimundus King of the Gepidanes and after taken his daughter Rosamunda to wife the History faith he made a bole of her fathers scul in which one night having drunk somewhat lavishly he caused it to be filled with wine and sent to Rosamunda then in her chamber with this message Commend me to thy Queen aâ—d â—ay I command her to drink with her father 〈…〉 though she knew him to be slain by the 〈◊〉 gobards receiving his death by a common casualtie and chance of 〈◊〉 by this assuring her selfe that he â—ell by the â—and oâ— her husband betwixt 〈…〉 and conjugall love being for a time distracted the bond of her affectiâ—n towards her father prevailed above those nuptial setters in which she was tied to her Lord insomuch that to revenge the death of the one she resolved to take away the life of the other to bring which about she devised this project she had observed one Hemegâ—ldus a noble man amongst the Lambard to be surprized with the love of one of her waiting Gentlewomen with whom she dealt so far that when her maid had promised to give this Hemegildus meeting in a private and dark chamber she her selfe supplied the place of her servant after 〈◊〉 congression she caused lights to be brought in that he â—iâ—ht know with whom he had had carnall company and what certein prejudice he had the 〈◊〉 incurred protesting 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 he would join with her in the dear 〈…〉 she would accuse him of rape and outrage The Lambâ—â—d to prevent his own disaster undertook his soveraign â—eath which was accordingly betwixt them performed The murder done they sled together to Ravenna she preferring the revenge of a slaughtered father before the life of a husband the title of a Queen State Sovereignty oâ— any other worldly dignity whatsoever Something is not amisse to be spoken in this place concerning the love of mothers to their children which as Plutarch in his 〈…〉 saith was excellently observed in 〈…〉 Prince of the Athenians who was wont to say That he â—new no reason but that this young son whom his mother most datâ—ngly affected should have more power and command thâ—n any one man in Greece whatsoever and being demanded the reason he thus answered Athens saith he commands all Greece I Themistocles have predominance ever Athens my wife over swaies me and my
wondrous prompt and accute brain she stil continued her habit and withal her laborious study as wel in the Scriptures as other humane Learnings At length comming to Rome she read publickly in the Schools where she purchased her selfe a great and frequent Auditory And besides her singular wisedome she was much admited and beloved for her seeming sanctity and austerity of life and after the death of Leo the fifth elected and confirmed in the papall Dignity for thus writes Volaterran Sigebertus Platina and others that have writ the lives of the Roman Bishops she is remembred likewise to this purpose by Boccatius in his book de Claris Mulieribâ—â— But Sabellicus lib. 1. Aneadis cals her Joanna Anglica i. Joan English who in her minority dissembled her Sex and so habited travelled as far as Athens and there studied with infinite gain and profit insomuch that comming to Rome few or none could equall her in Disputation or Lectures which begot her such reverence and authority with all men that she was by a general Suffrage elected into the Papacy and succeeded Leo the fourth Ravisius in Officina tit 6. Others will not allow that ever any such woman was Pope and excuse it thus There was one Bishop of Rome who was a decrepit and weak old man He by reason of age not being well able to manage his temporall affairs and domestick businesse received into his Pallace as a guide and governesse a woman called Joanna his sister or neer kinswoman this woman took upon her great pride and state and usurped upon the infirmity of her pride and state and usurped upon the infirmity of her brother insomuch that having the command of all things and being avaricious by nature no businesse was dispatched but by her nor any thing concluded without her for which she was both hated and scorned and therefore upon her that usurped the authority of the Pope they likewise bestowed his stile and nick-named her Pope Joan. This I have not read but I have heard some report it From her I come to Rosuida born in Germany and by Nation a Saxon she lived under Lotharius the first and was of a religious place called Gandresenses in the Diocesse of Hildesemensis she was facundious in the Greek and Roman Tongues and practised in all good Arts she composed many Works not without great commendation from the Readers one especially to her fellow Nuns and Votaresses exhorting them to Chastity Vertue and Divine worship She published six Comedies besides a noble Poem in Hexameter verse of the Books and Heroick Acts done by the Otho Caesars She writ the Lives of holy women but chiefly a Divine Work of the pious and chast life of the blessed Virgin in Elegick verse which began thus Vnica spes Mundiem Cranzius lib. 6. cap. 20. Metrapoleos Fulgos lib. 8. cap. 3. Elizabeth Abbesse of Schonaugia zealously imitated the practise and studies of this Rosuida which she professed in the City of Triers She writ many things in the Latin Tongue of which she was divinely admonished and inspired from above besides many perswasive Epistles to her Covent of Sisters and others ful of great conceit and elegancy A Book also that was entituled A path to direct us the way to God besides a Volume of many learned Epistles ful of great judgement and knowledge Fulgos lib. 8. cap. 3. and Egnat ibidem Conâ—lantia the wife of Alexander Sforza is deservedly inserted in the Catalogue of women famous and excellent in Learning She from her childhood was so laborious in the best Disciplines that upon the sudden and without premeditation she was able sufficiently to discourse upon any argument either Theological or Philosophical besides she was frequent in the works of St Hierom St Ambrose Gregory Cicero Lactantius For her extemporal vein in Verse she was much admired in which she was so elegantly ingenious that she attracted the ears of many judicious scholers to be her daily Auditors And this facility is reported to be innate and born with her as proceeding with such smoothness and without the least â—orce or affectation Her daughter Baptista succeeded her both in fame and merit beeing accepted and approved for one equally qualified with her mother Constantia Therefore Politianus in Nutricia doubts not to rank her amongst the best learned and most illustrious women Baptista Prima the daughter of Galeatinus Malatesta Prince of Pisauriâ— and after the wife of Guido Monteseltrensis Earl of Urbin made many commendable proofs of her wit and learning for she held many disputations even with those that were best practised and grounded in the Arts from whence she came off with no common applause She writ a Volume in Latin which she titled The frailty of mans Life with other praise-worthy books De vera Religione i. Of true Religion Fulgos lib. 8. cap. 3. Isota Navarula Veronensis devoted her life wholly to the study of all humane knowledge and withall to the contemplation of Divine Mysteries to which she added the honour of perpetuall Chastity She writ many eloquent Epistles to Pope Nicolaus Quintus as also to Piuâ— the second being sufficiently seen as wel in Theology as Philosophy Amongst other Works she composed a Dialogue in which it was disputed which of the two of our parents Adam and Eve sinned first or more offended in the beginning Egnat and Fulgos lib. 8. cap. 3. Alpiadâ—s a Virgin who much â—â—sired to be instructed in the true Faith was inspired fâ—om above 〈◊〉 a miraculous knowledge in the Scriptures 〈…〉 Of Women excellent in Philosophy and other Learning FRom Theology I descend to Philosophy Nicaula Queen of Saba travelled from the farthest part of Aethiopia up to Hierusalem to prove the wisdome of Solomon in dark Problems and hard Questions which when he had resolved and satisfied her by his divine wisdome inspired into him from above she returned into her Country richer by her gifts more benefited by her knowledge and fruitfull as bearing with her in her womb a child begot by Solomon Lycosth in Theat Human. vitae lib. 1. cap. de Femin doctis Adesia a woman of Alexandria a neer kinswoman to the Philosopher Syrianus both for her Chastity and Learning is commemorated by Suidas Vata lib. 13. cap. 3. Antrop Nicâ—strata by some called Carmentis helped to make up the number of the Greek Alphabet she is also said to have added to our Roman Letters Hermodica was the wife of Midas King of Phrygia she is not only celebrated for her rare feature and beauty but for her wisedome she was the first that ever stamped Money or made Coin amongst the Cimenses Heraclides Numa was the first that made mony amongst the Romans of whose name it was called Nummus Isiodor lib. 16. cap. 17. It is likewise called Pecunia of Pecus which signifies Cattel for the first that was made to passe currant betwixt man and man was made of the skins of beasts stamped with an impression It hath been currant amongst our English Nation
hand against him he retired himselfe into his Country and laying aside his victorious arms which won him fame and honour abroad he abandoned himselfe to ease and the private pleasures of his fathers house and now wanting other imploiment as idlenesse is the greatest corrupter of vertue he began to entertein such unusuall flames and unaccustomed cogitations as before he had no time to feel or leisure to think on for now he cast his incestuous eie upon his sister His passions much troubled him at the first and all possible means he used to shake them off but in vain he lived in the same house with her they dieted at one table had liberty of unsuspected conference and he having nothing else to do had only leisure to meditate on that which was fearful to apprehend but horrible to enterprize To this purpose Ovid with great elegancy in remed Amor. lib. 1. speaking of Aegistus who in the absence of Agamemnon adulterated his Queen Clitemnestra thus writes Queritur Aegistus quare sit factus adulter In promptu causa est desidiosâ—â— erat c. Doth any man demand the reason why Aegistus an adulterer was Lo I Can tell Because that he was idle when Others at Troy were sighting and their men Led stoutly on 〈◊〉 to which place were accited The Grecian Heroes with a force united He no imploiment had There was no war In Argos where he lived from Troy so far No strife in Law to which being left behind He carefully might have imploi'd his mind That which lay plain before him the man prov'd And lest he should do nothing therefore lov'd As Ovid of Aegistus so may I say of Leucippus whom rest and want of action in a stirring brain and body wrought this distemperature Ashamed he was to court his sister first because he knew her modest a second impediment was she was elsewhere disposed and contracted to a Gentleman of a Noble family besides she was his sister to whom he wishâ— all good and then to corrupt her honor he could devise for her no greater ill he considered that to perswade her to her own undoing would shew ill in a stranger but worse in a brother In these distractions what should he do or what course take the thing he apprehended was preposterous and the means to compass it was prodigious for he came to his mother told her his disease and besought her of remedy his words as they were uttered with tear so they were heard with trembling for they foavered her all over Being in to the knees he cared not now to wade up to the chin and proceeded That if she would not be the means for him to compasse his sister notwithstanding all obstacles whatsoever he would by speedy and sudden death rid himselfe out of all his miseries desiring her speedy answer or with his naked poniard in his hand he was as ready for execution as she to deny her assistance I leave to any mothers consideration but to imagine with what strange ambiguities his words perplexed her what convulsions it bred in her bosome even to the very stretching of her heart strings but as she knew his courage to dare so she feared his resolution to act therefore more like a tender hearted mother then a vertuous minded matron rather desiring to have wicked children then none at all she promised him hope and assured him help and after some perswasive words of comfort left him indifferently satisfied What language the mother used to the daughter to invite her to the pollution of her body and destruction of her soul is not in me to conceive I only come to the point by the mothers mediation the brother is brought to the bed of his sister she is vitiâ—ted and his appetite glutted yet not so but that they continued their private meetings insomuch that custome bred impudence and suspition certain proof of their incestuous consociety At length it comes to the ear of him that had contracted her with attestation of the truth thereof he though he feared the greatnesse of Leucippus his known valour and popular favour yet his spirit could not brook so unspeakable an injury he acquaints this novell to his father and certain noble friends of his amongst whom it was concluded by all jointly to inform Xanthius of his daughters inchastity but for their own safety knowing the potency of Leucippus to conceal the name of the adulterer They repair to him and inform him of the businesse intreating his secrecy till he be himself eie-witness of his daughters dishonor The father at this newes is inraged but arms himselfe with patience much longing to know that libidinous wretch who had dishonored his family The incestuous meeting was watcht and discovered and word brought to Xanthius that now was the time to apprehend them he cals for lights and attended with her accusers purposes to invade the chamber great noise is made she affrighted rises and before they came to the door opens it slips by thinking to flie and hide her selfe the father supposing her to be the adulterer pursues her and pierceth her through with his sword By this Leucippus starts up and with his sword in his hand hearing her last dying shreek prepares himself for her rescue he is incountred by his father whom in the distraction of the sudden affright he unadvisedly assaulted and slew The mother disturbed with the noise hasts to the place where she heard the tumult was and seeing her husband and daughter slain betwixt the horridness of the sight and apprehension of her own guilt fell down suddenly and expired And these are the lamentable effects of Incest the father to kill his own daughter the son his father and the mother the cause of all ill to die suddenly without the least thought of repentance These things so infortunately hapning Leucippus caused their bodies to be nobly interred when forsaking his fathers house in Thessaly he made an expedition into Creet but being repulst from thence by the inhabitants he made for Ephesia where he took perforce a City in the province of Cretinaea and after inhabited it It is said that Leucophria the daughter of Mandrolita grew enamored of him and betraied the City into his hands who after married her and was ruler thereof This history is remembred by Parthenius de Amatoriis cap. 5. Of incest betwixt the father and the daughter Ovid. lib. Metam speaks of whose verses with what modesty I can I will give you the English of and so end with this argument Accipit obscoeno genitor sua viscera lecto Virgeneosque metus levat Hortaturque timentem c Into his obscene bed the father takes His trembling daughter much of her he makes Who pants beneath him ' bids her not to fear But be of bolder courage and take chear Full of her fathers sins loath to betray The horrid act by night she steals away Fraught that came thither empty for her womb Is now of impious incest made