valour abroad incurre these yoaked cattle the Horse and weapons of warre are a remembrance unto her There are very few knowne adulteries committed amongst that great and populous Nation for the punishment thereof is very severe and speedy For she that shall be found guilty of such an act her husband causeth her to be shâ—ven and then stript naked and after brings her out of his owne doores in the presence of all his and her neerest kinred then beats her with a battoone through the streets for there is no connivence to be used or pardon to be granted to any woman who hath once violated her wedlocke chastity neither can her youth beauty or riches though all should meet together in one ever purchase her to have the honour of a second husband so odible and detestable is that sinne held amongst them The Assyrians take their daughters with them when they be marriageable to the market and there such as want wives buy them for their money or money-worth The like is in custome with the Babylonians and people of Thrace so did the ancient Grecians purchase their wives either for coine or some other commodity that was vendible The like the Indians in many places observe Iphidanas the son of Antenor according to Homer gave fifty yoâ—ke of Oxen to his father-in-law to enjoy his daughter in marriage In Tapila a great Citie in India situate betwixt the two Rivers of Indus and Hydaspes they entertain no wives into their conjugall embraces which they buy not at some price Strabo in his booke of Geography lib. 15. informes us that in some Countries as Carthage and others there was a custome that if a poore mans daughter by reason of her poverty could not compasse a husband she was brought to a publike faire or market with trumpets and lowd musicke before her and when a great confluence of people was gathered about her first hâ—r backe parts were discovered bare as high as to her shoulders from her heele and then the like before and if upon that view she were found to be well featured and no way defective at the charge of the City she was to be provided of a husband Plato in his sixt booke de Legib. writes lest any man should be deceived in the choice of his Bride and so after repent himselfe when it is too late that it was thought convenient that divers assemblies of young men and maids should be permitted to wrestle and â—rie masteries together having their bodies naked from the neck to the waste as farre as modesty would give leave But St. Ierome against Iovinian condemneth this wanton and lascivious custome and so doth Clemens Alexandrinus pedag lib. 2. cap. 9. and St. Cyprian in his booke De Virgin habit in these words The honour and bashfull shame of the body are both preserved in the modest coverture of the garment And Blandus supra leges interposit cap. 1. writeth that the very feare of shame without the terrour of death or torment is sufficient of it selfe to put off a contract The Namasanes a people of Lybia as Herodoâ—uâ— informes us had a strange custome to cause the Bride the first night of her nuptialls to prostitute her selfe to all her guests and then she was injoined to preserve her chastity for ever after The Anthropophagi the Medes and some part of the Aethiopians after they be once married are admitted free congresse with their mothers and sisters The Arabs make their wives common to all the kinred The Moores Numidians Persians Parthians Garamantes the Turkes and some Jewes take as many wives as they can well maintaine and the ancient Athenians made their wives and daughters common It was once a custome iâ— Scotland that the Lord of the soile might lay just claiâ—e and title to every Virgins maidenhead who was to bee married within his Lordship For by that custome the Tenant held his land which was after quite abolished by King Malcoline who ordained that the new married couple should redeeme her virginitie in which her Landlord pretended interest with a small piece of gold which in many places of the Kingdome is observed even untill this day A young man of Lacedemon being seated in the Theater when a valiant and ancient Captaine a single man and Batchelour but for his valour and famous atchievements much honoured by his Nation came to take his place to be a spectator of the sports and games there presented hee denyed to give him place at which Callidus for so was the Captaine called much offended at the arrogance of his youth gave him course and bitter languagâ— to whom he returned this short answer Thou hast O great Captaine Callidus as yet fathered no child neither accasioned the birth of any who comming unto my age may when I am come unto thine in this place arise to do me a like honour Plato also in his booke of Lawes appointed single men no place of dignity in the common-weale nor suffered any to bee conferred upon them but caused them to bee more charged with fines and amerciaments than any of the other married Citizens Socrates professeth of himselfe to have learnt more morall philosophy from women than naturall of which he made excellent use In marriage there is a domesticke Common-weale in which the Father of the family may expresse wisedome temperance justice pietie and all other vertues by loving his wife instructing his children governing his familie ordering his affaires disposing his goods The Romans in the yeere that Quintus Meâ—ellus was Consull established many famous and worthy Lawes and priviledges to incourage people to marry and especially unto those who had numerous issue and great increase of children for without wedlock all alliance would be extinct all Common-weales in short time decay and all sweet societie be quite abandoned There bee twelve impediments to hinder lawfull marriage or to dis-annull it after it be once consummated which Cardinall Cajâ—tanus comprehends in these foure verses Error conditio votum cognatio crimen Culâ—us disparitas vis ordâ— ligamen honestaâ— Si sis affinis si forte câ—ire nequibis Haec socianda vetant conubia facta â—etractaâ—â— Thus paraphrased Errour condition parentage and vow Adultery the law will not allow Disparitie in divine worship and Violence or force or where we understand In priesthood there 's profanenesse or else where False faiths profest wee likewise must forbeare When there is precontract for honesty Affinitie and disability These twelve from present marriage us disswade Or can retract from wedlock when 't is made I end with this of Socrates Let men obey the Lawes and women their Husbands whose duty is to bee wise in speaking and mild in conversation circumspect in promise and carefull in performance faultlesse in taking and faithfull in giving good counsell patient in adversity and not puft up inâ— prosperitie somewhat indulgent over his wife but most industrious in the education of his children And a good wife according to Theophrastus must bee grave abroad
woman was made of a ribbe a bone taken out of Adams side which is of a much harder temper Now for example take a bushell bagge or a quarter sacke and fill it with dust or with flesh and tumble it or tosse it which way you please no eccho ariseth from thence at all but empty them and fill them with bones and so shake and bowlt them together and you shâ—ll then heare what a ratling they will keepe Of a more gentle disposition than those before remembred was she of whom I now am to speake who instead of a Curtaine Lecture read by her to her husband had a strange one read to her the manner whereof followeth Not farre from Reevilling a Towne under the Imperiall jurisdiction a very faire country wench but very simple withall who was newly married to one of the young rusticks there by some quarter of a yeere after shee had beene married came to a Friar to be confest who casting an adulterous eye upon her and finding her by her simple answer to bee none of the wisest the businesse which she came for being quickly run over he presently fell upon another matter and told her that she was run into a great arrerage with him for not paying him Tithes The woman innocently demanded of him what Tithes were due to him Marry saith hee for every nine nights which thou liest with thy husband the tenth is due to me Truely Sir replied she I pray you to excuse mine ignorance and heaven forefend but whatsoever should bee due unto you from mee should bee fully satisfied At which hee retired her into a sequestred place and there abused her honest simplicitie After which returning backe to her house shee began modestly to chide her husband who would not tell her of those duties and tithes due to the Friar her Confessour and so told him all the whole circumstances before related The man said little knowing the weaknesse of his Wife and loath to have his owne shame to be made publike yet vowing revenge in heart and fearing that being a Churchman upon his complaint the Friar might find some favour with the great ones he bethought himself of a safer course and resolved withall to bee his owne justicer for dissembling the matter and taking no notice at all of any such thing as passed betwixt the Friar and his Wife he made meanes to infinuate into his more familiar acquaintance to which the Friar most willingly assented because under that colour hee might have the freer and lesse suspitious consocietie with his Wife Upon this new acquaintance the rusticke invited him to dinner and defired him to come alone which was a motion that he willingly imbraced The day was appointed and good cheare provided now the good man commanded his Wife to reserve all the water shee made for two dayes together and keepe it in a vessell by it selfe which was accordingly done hee invites two or three of his neighbours whom hee durst best trust The Friar keepeth his appointment the dinner is served in and he set betwixt a couple of them so close that there was no rising from the table without leave the first trenchers were not changed but the good man takes a deepe bowle and drinketh it off to the Friars welcome of wine good and wholsome the Friar vowes to pledge him supernaculum and still casting a leering eye upon the woman which the Host very well observed he whispereth to have the Friars bowle brimmed with his Wives urine which he taking and tasting spit it out and said Now fie what tart and unpleasant wine is this if I should drinke it it would poyson me The good man replied Doth not then this wine tast you well He replied No by no meanes No saith the Host I le assure you it was drawne out of the same vessell from which you received your Tithes and either drinke it off at one carowse or bee assured that it is the lâ—st you shall ever swallow By which the Friar finding his former villany discovered tooke it off at a draught concluding with a sowre sawce his former sweet bargaine and being dismissed thence without any other violence vowed to himselfe never to come under that mans roofe after I have read of a fellow who travelled a great part of the world over with a paire of boots which hee had vowed to part with to no man but such a one as had an absolute power and Empire over his wife he had past through many Countries and offered them to all that he met but no man was either willing or else durst not accept them upon these conditions at length meeting with a stout fellow a Black-smith he asked him if he would receive them upon the covenant aforesaid who answered that he would and weare them in despight of all the women in Europe now the Smith had put on a cleane shirt that morning Upon this answer the Traveller replied Then Friend here take them to thee put them into thy bosome and beare them home The Smith replied Not so I know a tricke worth two of that if I should put them into my bosome and durty my cleane shirt my wife would not be well pleased with that for we should have no quietnesse in the house for all this day Which the other hearing snatched them away from him and said Get thee hence in an evill houre who goest about to cheat me being as all others afraid of thy wives scolding and so left him nor have I heard whether he hath yet delivered them unto any even to this day A Countrey fellow having married a substantiall Farmers daughter found her within a twelve-moneth to prove not only an archscold still thundering in his eares but very lascivious and unchaste of which he had manifest and infallible proofes and therefore hee tooke occasion to complain to his father-in-law both of the morosity and inchastity of his daughter To whom the good man gave this comfort Son I advise you to have patience and be content for a time she is her mothers daughter right for just such an one was she in her youth for I could neither governe her tongue nor but now she is growne old there is not a more quiet and chaste Matron amongst all her neighbours therefore arme your selfe with patience as I did and I make no question but when the daughter shall arrive unto her mothers age your wife will prove as tractable and quiet as mine is now and with this cold comfort dismist him Another Rusticke being married to a very handsome peece grew jealours of a young fellow a Farmers son his neighbour and he had divers times upbraided her with him at length being angry she bid him not to feare any such matter betwixt them and protested she had rather prostitute her selfe to ten Gentlemen than to one such clown as himselfe or him whom he had so often cast in her teeth Another Countrey woman following her husband to his grave not onely wept and
unto many sucessions Paulus Aemilius tells us that Manesteus the Athenian and sonne to Iphicrates that famous Captaine took unto his bed a maid of a forraine Countrey but so low degreed that the historie affords her not so much as a name who though she was poore in estate yet was she rich and aboundantly qualified both in the riches of the body and the mind The son being demanded which of his two parents he affected most his father or his mother he made answer that in his fiâ—iall duty and affection he gave the precedence unto his mother But he that proposed the question knowing the difference in their birthâ— and breeding demanding the reason thereof he gave him this satisfaction True it is saith he that m◠〈◊〉 her hâ—th made me an Ally and Countriman of Thrace but my mother hath made me an Athenian and the son of a noble Captaine Bersane was the daughter of one Arbassus a private souldier in the Camp of Alexander who as Quint. Curtius and Aul. Gelliâ—â— affiâ—me was of sweet grace and amiable aspect that like the Sunne appearing out of a cloud so out of the darknesse of her neglected fortune there shone such a majesticall lustre that he who was then the worlds sole Monarch preferred her before the wife aâ—d beautifull daughters of Darius whom he had late vanquished in so much that it is related of him by the forenamed Authors that after his first familiaritie with her he was never knowne to cast an incontinent looke upon any other nor to have congresse with any third onely his wife Roxana and this Bersane whom he commended to his Queene and made her his â—ole companion It is likewise reported of the famous Rhodope that she was at the first but servant to Iadmonsamius the Philosopher yet by her amiable feature and dexterous carriage she afterwards was advanced to such honour as to be wife unto Psammeticus King of Egypt Lardana from whom the renowned family of the Heraclidae boast their descent was a Damosell of a very low and meane parentage and indeed no better than an hand-maid and servant yet by her rare and unmatchable vertue she after raised her fortunes to the eminence to be a fruitfull seminarie of many noble and renowned Gentlemen for so Herodotus witnâ—sseth of her in his Eutarpe Pysostrates as Phelarchus historifies matcht himselfe with a Virgin of rare beauty but her birth so obscure and ignoble that the storiâ— affordeth it no name yet after she by her wisdome and counsell advâ—nced him from being a Gentleman of private condition to a Monarchall government Of her Clademus in his bookâ— intituled Reddâ—tionum reports that she was for staâ—e a Iuno for wisedome a Pallas for beauty a Venus and worthy to be stiled the daughter of Sacrates It is moreover said of her thaâ— she dealt Scepters and disposed Crowns at her pleasure so great was her power in the place in which she governed I will end with Asputia the daughter of one Hermotinus a man of low condition as Aelianus the approved Histoâ—iographer in his book De varia Historia relates who being snatcht from the armes of her father by a Persian souldier was for the excellency of her feature and beauty by him presented to King Cyrus the son of Darius and Parasatides Her vertuous education unmatchable beauty singular modestie and approved wisedome were the immediate steps to purchase her such favour with the Persian Monarch that he not only made her his Empresse but so tenderly affâ—cted her that notwithstanding his choice of wives and multiplicity of concubines from the first houre that she grew into his knowledge and acquaintance he never embrac'd the company of any other woman And after the death of Cyrus whose funeralls she bewailed with unspeakable sorrow being afterward as highly favoured by Artaxerxes who succeeded him in the Empire who desired to make her a partner in his bed and Throne yet was it with long suit from him and great unwiâ—lingnesse in her before she could be won to participate in either of them And these out of infinite I have collected onely to shew unto you that Virgins howsoever obscurely descended who from their Ancestours could neither boast of wealth or Gentrie yet by their vertues beauty and generous behaviour have not only attained unto matches of most especiall remarke but some also to dignities imperiall Famous unto all ages even to the perpetuitie of memory shall be that great Arch-champion of virginitie Virginius that brave Roman knight whose name was given him in his childhood as a good omen presaging what a defender of chastity he would after prove who because his sole and only daughter Virginiâ— should not fall into thâ— hands of Appius Claudius one of the Decemviri to bâ— vitiated and dishonoured when he perceived by thâ— corruptnesse of the Judge and the perfidiousnesse 〈◊〉 the false evidence that 〈◊〉 was ready to fall and suffeâ— under his cruell mercy 〈◊〉 the open face of the 〈◊〉 at the barre at which her cause was then pleaded â—e â—lew her with his owne hands so vindicate her innoâ—ence desirous rather as Valerius reports of him of â—n innocuous child to be the deaths-man than the father of a defiled daughter of whom Silius Italicus l. 13. Bel. Punico thus speakes Virginia juxta Cerne cruentato vulnus sub pectore servat Behold before thee where Virginia's plac't Her white breast with a griefly wound defac't The bloudie knife doth witnesse the sad stroke Which freed her body from lusts servile yoke Whose modest innocence so farre extends Her fathers act she in her death commends CHAP. IV. Of election or choice before marriage The conveniences and inconveniences belonging unto marriage disputed and compareâ— with the honour and dignity thereof BEfore I come to wedlocke it selfe it is very pertinent that I speak something of choice before marriage Saith one Liber esse non potest cui affectus imperant cupiditates domiâ—nantur he cannot be truely said to have a free choice and election in whom his affections rule and his appetites governe The Queene Artemisia being asked by one of her Nobility what choice should be used in love replied All persons ought to imitate the skilfull Lapidaries who measure not the nature of the gem by the outward hew but the inward vertue We have an old Adage frequent amongst us which for the most part proveth true that choice is soonest deceived in three things namely in Brokers wares Courtiers promises and Womens constancies therefore it is good for all men to looke before they leap for it is generally found Qui non ante cavet iste Passus erit quod sit triste That man deserves of â—orrow double share Who once forwarn'd will after not beware In choosing a wife looke not upon the feature of the body but search into the fancies of her mind and take her not for her outward person but her inward perfection For if thou makest election of beauty it fadeth