be not prepared against the 〈◊〉 misfortune And if you have afforded a place of retreat to some Soveraign passion to some Capital and commanding vice Remember that you are bound in honour both to betrâ—y it and to keep no faith with it as it is a Sisera to you so ought you to be a Jahel to it and you shall be to it an Heroick and victorious Jahel if you â—ull it asleep with the blood of the Lamb and plane a Nail of the Cross in the Head of it A MORAL QUESTION Whether there was Infidelity in the Act of Jahel THe act of Jahel is not numbred amongst those which instantly gain approbation and which at first sight informs the understanding The colour of it is not so beautifull nor the face of it so taking There appeareth therein much dexterity and courage but there is deâ—â—ipt in this address and this courage hath something of barbarous in it 〈◊〉 the breach of faith seems in that action very evident cabinet and chamber 〈◊〉 cannot fail to fill their Common places therewith and to compose a piece against the infidelity of women But here and every where else we must defie seeming illusions and the false lights of the superficieâ—â— We must beware of fastning our opinions upon the 〈◊〉 of things and of judging by the colour The outside 〈◊〉 deceitful and 〈◊〉 into beliefe And very often colours are more 〈◊〉 and have more Justice about vice then vertue Moreover since the holy Ghost himself hath set forth the praise of Jahel since he hath inspired her with a prophetick mouth and hath even dictated it to one of his writers we need not fear to hazard our esteem upon his approbation not make a scruple to honour the memory of a vertue whereof he hath lest us the 〈◊〉 and picture after his own manner There was then prudence and conduct addresse and courage in this action of Jahel and particularly fidelity which is questioned was herein couragious and magnanimous It was fortified with zeal and consecrated to Religion I know not whether Jahel might owe something to Sisera and the Canaanites who were the enemies of God Tyrants over his people and publick oppressors of the posterity of the Patriarchs But I know very well that she could not engage unto them a second faith against the first which she owed to God against the Law of her forefathers and to the ruine of that holy nation A treaty of this nature had been an Apostaâ—ie of State and Religion and she could not have kept her word without the breach of her saith without betraying her brethren without sinning against God and Moses The Holy Scripture very well observes that there was some kinde of peace between the house of her husband Hebar and the Canaanites But this was not a regular peace and according to usual forms It was but a good interval hardly and dearly purchased by the weakest side It was but 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and pillages which the Canaanites accorded to the house of Hebar in respect of the contributions they drew from them And doubtlesse this Accord on Hebars part was without preâ—udice to the faith he owed to God and his people and this particular repose which he purchased was not a falling off from the common cause It was in all probability of the same nature as particular Treaties are now adayes between common people residing upon Frontiers who 〈◊〉 and sword with money who divert the â—undation and inâ—oad of the Enemie by contributions which they lay upon them this is properly called and without abusing the term so conâ—ure a tempest and charm wilde beasts But these charms and comutations do not binde the Common people who put them in practise They live within the limits of 〈◊〉 and under the duty of joyning as occasion serves with the Troop of their 〈◊〉 of maâ—â—hing against the common enemie of 〈◊〉 the same beasts which they themselves had enchanted The Treatie of Hebar with the Canaanites was in this form It was not a surrender of his right not a dispensation of his duty It was an innocent Charm against 〈◊〉 and sword against Tyrants and oppressors And the waâ— undertaken against them proceeding from the will of God 〈◊〉 by expresse revelation and declared by the Regâ—nâ— Prophetâ—â— as he might list himself without any â—reachers amongst the Troops and â—oyn hiâ— Arms with the common Armâ— for the liberty of the people In Jahel with a good Conscience and meâ—â—t might let her hand to the same work the might be aâ—ding by her 〈◊〉 and forces to break the Chaâ—â— of her brethren she might finish by a particular inspiration the victory which Debora had begun with publick Authority and by the Spirit of Prophesie This particular inspiration supported the common Interest and strengthened natural reason And Jahel exâ—ited on the one side and perswaded on the other exposed for the people both her life and reputation to a hazardouâ— enterprise and which might leave her an ill â—ame Thereby the performed an 〈◊〉 Act of fidelity towards God whom she obeyed towards the â—aw of her Ancesters which she established by the ruine of the opposite Power towards her people whole â—oke she brake and whose chainâ— she rent in pieces towards posterity to which she conserved both Religion and the Sanctuary Freedom and Hope Neverthelese this Act is reckoned amongst those extrâ—ordinary oneâ— which surpaâ—â— received Laws and exceed such measures as are in use It may well 〈◊〉 us admiration and respect but we cannot 〈◊〉 a model of it and draw copies from thence And since Fidelity is an essential part in a Gallant Woman it is proper to produce some exampleâ— whereby vertue all Pure and without the least appearance of stain may serve as well for Imitation as Shew EXAMPLE Joan of Beaufort Queen of Scotland and Catherine Douglas IT is with the History of Scotland as with those frightful pictures wherein nothing is represented but dead and wounded Bodies nothing but fired houses and ruines One cannot ingage himself in it without passing over blood and murthers nay even upon sacred blood and paracide murthers and it is very strange that so little a crown should be divided by so many factions and so often stained with the death of those who have worn it That of James the First was a Tragedy which might passe for an Oriâ—â— either in the time of 〈◊〉 or in the Age of Oedipus But as there is never any Age represented so cruel wherein some person of good life doth not interâ—â—ne who reads not upon the stage lessons of Vertue and corrects the scandal which others give Two women who were present at the death of this good Prince gave an example of Fidelity which cannot be seen now adayes in history without applauding and 〈◊〉 it at least in thought The 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 a Scotchman being possessed with the Ambition of 〈◊〉 which is a bloody Devil and the Instigator of Paracid◠〈◊〉 against his Nephew King
them her Consent and Promise At the assigned day for the Ceremonie of her Marriage all things being ready for the Sacrifice she took the cup in which poison was steeped And having out of respect poured forth two or three drops thereof upon the Altar of the Goddess she drank part of it and gave the rest to Sinorix The unhappy Creature expecting to taste the first sweets of his Marriage drank there his Death and the punishment of his Crime Camma had the satisfaction to see him die with her And having enjoyed two or three hours of her Revenge and the Glory of her Fidelity she went to carry the News of both to Sinnatus MORAL REFLECTION ALL the Lines of this Picture are instructive and the very shadows of it are luminous and enlighten the understanding We learn from the unfortunate Beauty of Camma that as there be flowers which impoison so there are Riches which render those unhappy who possess them And that very often we are only slung with what glitters about us as well as with what pleaseth and adorns us We are taught likewise by her Courage that in the Combats of Vertue Victory consists in the strength of the Minde and not of the Bodie That the weakest Sex may herein Dispute in point of advantage with the strongest and that a Crown is more for the Heart then for the Arms or for the Head On the other side we learn from the Crime of Sinorix that unchast Love is a dangerous Guest It enters with Nosegayes in its Hand and Garlands on his Head And assoon as it comes into a House and hath there setled it self it exhibits poisons and swords We gather also from his punnishment that Divine Justice though it sets forth late yet it fails not to arrive in due time And that without causing Executioners to come afar off it often makes our Idols become our Tormentors and our sins our punishments MORAL QUESTION Why Conjugal Love is more Faithfull in Women then in Men. I Suppose the Truth of the Thesis and suppose it upon the Report of History which is the Conserver of Truth and the Depository of fair Originals and eminent Examples I have been consulting on it in all Countreyes and Ages and I confess that in every Countrey and Age where I have examined it History hath shewn me Heroick Women by Troops who dyed out of Fidelity and Love to their Husbands But when I required from it Husbands of the like Vertue and Courage scarce could it furnish me with enough to make a number This certainly is wonderful yet most true And such as shall not have Faith enough to believe it upon my word may inform themselves upon the places They will be shewed in Greece the Ashes of Eâ—adâ—e who cast her self into the flaming Pile of her Husband and who by an honest and lawful Love performed that which a furious Heroe and vaunting Philosophers have done either out of brutish despair or ridiculous vanity They will be shewed the Web wherewith Penelope preserved her self for Vlysses the Cup in which Camma drank death and revenge Another Cup wherin Artemisia drank the Ashes of Mansolus They would cause them to see at Rome the Coals which Porcea swallowed the Dagger of Aria and those efficacious words by which she gave Reputation to her Death and Courage to that of Petus The Lancet wherewith Paulina opened her Veins that she might die with Seneca And divers other famous pieces which are in Veneration with the Ancients and which are seen still coloured with Blood and marked with the Fidelity of Women The sight of these pieces is sufficient alone and without other proof to perswade that Women love more constantly and with more Fidelity then Men. But I suppose this Advantage of Womens Fidelity above that of Men who have hitherto lest no Reliques of it And seeking Reasons for it in Natural and Moral Philosophy I finde eight which added to the Memorials of Antiquity will strengthen this Proposition against the malitious Allegations wherewith some use to assault it And which may make it at least an Article of Human Belief First if Philosophy and Experience have Authority enough to be credited therein Affections follow Humours and take their qualities and tincture from the temper which serves them for matter Now it is not doubted but Melancholy is the predominant Humour in a Woman it is not doubted but that her Temper is more moist and her Complexion more tender then ours we ought not then to doubt but that her Affections are more adhering and setled and that she is more strongly united to whatsoever she fastens her self Why should we doubt it since Melancholy hath been hitherto believed to be the matter of Constancie and the most proper Oyle to nourish the fire of Love Since we see that loft things are better linked together then hard ones and that without Humidity no lasting union can be made From thence comes the ancient saying which declares that the affections of Women can endure no Mediocrity and that whatever they desire they desire it obstinately and without intermission Let us adde Instinct to Humour and Necessity to Complexion and what Faith teacheth us concerning the Creation of Woman taken out of the side of Man being supposed Let us alledge for the second Reason that the Instinct of the part to the whole being of necessity and consequently stronger then the Instinct of the whole to the part which is but of congruity It was according to the order of Nature that a Woman should do by an Intelligent and Judicious inclination what all other separated parts perform out of a blinde and insensible Propension And since Man from whom she was taken is necessary for her conservation it appears nothing strange that she adheres more constantly to him and renders him more affection then she receives And besides this surplusage which she gives him is lesse an advance and a work of supererogation then a duty and acknowledgment After this second Reason there follows a third which is grounded upon the Assistance and good Offices which Women receive from Men. This assistance is frequent and more then ordinary and these offices continual and at all hours Those which the Bodie receives from the Head can hardly suffer lesse interruption those which the Moon expects from the Sun can scarce be more necessary to her And therefore if good offices be the tyes of Hearts and the chains of Souls is it not reasonable that Women should love more then they are beloved and be more strongly â—astned then they fasten since in the Domestick Society they servelesse then they are served and are more obliged then they oblige Should they have lesse of good Nature then 〈◊〉 which fastens it self inseparably to the Tree that supports it and never leaves it either in Life or Death Should they love lesse constantly then the Female Palm which never findes comfort never receives verdure nor is ever capable of Renovation after the Death
Immolate the jealous Penitent to executed Innocence He wished that he were able at least to tear out his Heart and to rid himself with it of his Crime and Punishment His Eyes besieged by a Death as yet warm and bloody and by two Specters equally frightful finde every where Torment and Reproaches Me thinks this Fury strikes Fear into you Surely she is frightfull And the most Resolute and Heroick Souls even those which deride Death with all its disguises cannot behold her without Trembling if she appears to them Of these Serpents which you see upon her Head some raise sinister Reports and bad Rumors others infuse suspitions and distrusts There are some which steal in by the Eyes of Husbands others which enter by the Ears of VVives The fairest Flowers wither as soon as they are touched by them The best united Hearts are severed if never so little bitten by them and from their mouth doth fall as well the Gall which imbitters the sweetest Humours as the Venom which corrupts the fairest Flowers of Marriage The Torch which she holds in her Hand is no less pernitious then the serpents about her Head All the bad Colours wherewith the most innocent Actions become darkned are compounded of this Coal Her Smoak obscureth the purest and clearest Lights and draws Tears from the fairest Eyes she robs the fairest Faces of their Lustre and Attraction Her Fire seizeth on both Souls and Bodies she causeth Frenzies and Calentures and even in this Life she makes Devils and damned Souls All this teacheth you that this Furie is Jealousie and Enemie of the Graces and the Corruptresse of Love She is come as you see to act her second part and begins to revenge that Murder to which she her self did instigate All the Serpents which are wanting on her Head are about Herods Heart and even tears his Conscience The Bloody sword which she shews him is a dreadfull Looking-glass to his Imagination He beholds there the horror of his Crime he sees there the wounds of his Heart and the stains of his Soul This Apparition indeed is frightful but the incensed Ghost which ariseth from this beautiful Bodie is much more And Herod suffers an other fire and other stings then from the Torch and Snakes of the Furie His wandring and troubled Eyes change their station at every moment They are obsest with these two Spectres which haunt them every where And thinking to repose them upon this dying Beauty wherein heretofore consisted his chief Happinesse he findes there a Tribunal and Scaffold his condemnation and punishment His Yesterdayes Idoll is to day his judge and Executioner This just Blood which still reaks is a devouring fire which fills his distemper'd Imagination and there comes out of it Imprecations and Complaints Outcries of Reproach and Vengeance These cold and tyed up Hands tear his Heart in pieces and this Beautifull Head which caused all his joyes and happy dayes is now the Principal part of his Torment Mean while she hath only changed place the blow which cast her down hath not shaken off her flower her Grace and Beauty are thereby a little faded but not defaced And her open and still â—â—rene eyes seem to expect another Death as if there needed more then one to extinguish them Thus the eclipsed Moon is still fair and the Sun sets daily without losing one single Ray or changing Countenance The mischief is that whereas the Moon recovers her defections and is cured of her Eclipses and the Sun riseth again the next day after his setting there is no renovation of Light or a new day to be expected for Mariamne And this Beautiful Head is fallen in her own Blood never to rise again SONNET MAriamne's dead her Corps is now the seat Of Whiteness only by her Souls Retreat The Royal Blood that tinctur'd it with Red In Crimson streams flowes from her sever'd Head Megaera holds before the Tyrants Eyes The murd'ring Sword He in that Glass espyes The stains wherewith his Heart is cover'd ore And sees his Image purpled with her gore The Vigorous impressions of this sad And â—atal Object render Herod mad Two vindicating Ghosts his Eyes invade With flaming Torch and with a glittring Blade But now his Fury dreads nor Flames nor Swords Her Blood that 's boyling still such Fumes affords As make him feel all Hells tormenting Evils Without the Scorch of Fire or Scourge of Devils ELOGIE OF MARIAMNE MARIAMNE hath appeared too often upon the Theater not to be known in this Picture All things were great in her Birth Beauty Vertue Courage nay bad Fortune She was the Grand-Childe of Patriarchs Prophets Kings and High Priests Her Countenance captivated Herod and inchainâ—d him for a time and her Picture stood in Competition with Cleopatra in the Heart of Anthonie Her Vertue neverthelesse did not consent to this concurrence and being far from thinking on forbidden Acquisitions she never dained to put any constraint upon her self for the preservation of that which she lawfully possessed Her Chastity was so severe and so little indulgent outwardly that there remained within something I know not what of stately and piccant which exasperated Herod and made him return to his own Nature But she was the same to the bitings of this inâ—aged Beast as she had been to his Indeerments She retained her confidence and preserved all her Majesty amidst suborned Accusers confederate and corrupted Judges The Face of the Executioner did not alter at all the serâ—â—ity of her Countenance and her Head was struck off without paling her Brow or displacing her Heart Her Constancie did not begin by her punishment it began by that which is termed her good Fortune Having espoused a jealous Tyrant it was requisite for her to be as couragious in the Palace as in the Prison and Resolution was as needful for her under the Diadem as under the Sword The Blow which struck off her Head was less her Death then the End of her punishment for one Crown it cut off it brake a dozen chains and it was a Redeemer and not an Executioner which delivered her from Herod MORAL REFLECTION HEROD glorious and tormented and Mariamne crowned and unhappy teach us that the greatest Tranquillity is not found in the Highest Regions of the World There are no priviledged Territories nor exempt from Malediction Many sufferers are seen in Prisons and upon Scaffolds but the worst treated Persons remain in Pallaces and upon Thrones These nevertheless cause more Envie then Pitty The People admire what they ought to lament and when there is occasion of drawing the Picture of Happiness they represent her upon a Throne and place a Scepter in her Hand and a Crown upon her Head But the People are ignorant Judges and very unskilful Painters Every day they judge at Random and without knowing the Cause Every day they vent Chimaera's and Caprichio's for well regulated Figures They sufficiently understand of what matter Crowns are made and discern well enough how they
Loves leaving him to bequeath her self to the Romans She carryed away ather going off all the favours she had given him she resumed all her Crowns and Scepters And of so many Marks of Love of so many stately Pledges and glorious Ensignes she left him onely an impoisoned Ring to the end his Despair might possesse at least something that was rich and that a Diamond might procure him a more honourable and glorious Death then a halter could do This pernicious Example spread it self thorowout all Asia and the Infidelity of Fortune was followed with the Revolt of the People But that which will move Pittie even in Treacherous Asia and would do the like in Fortune if she had any sensible part that which will be lamented by deserting and Rebellious People is that Mithridates as jealous of his Wife as despairing of his Affairs resolved to depart out of the World to remain no longer in the power of Fortune and to take a Course that his Wife might first go out of it not to leave her behinde in the Hands of his Enemies This Barbarous Resolution accompanied with a far more Barbarous Command hapned to be brought to the Queen by an Eunuch of her Chamber The Message was delivered solemly and with Ceremonie with mournful looks and a Pomp which resembled some great Funeral Monima on the contrary received it with her Festival Countenance and a Face full of Joy She likewise adorned her self and put on all her Jewels to perform it with the greatest shew and Lustre As if she had taken this Message for a Defiance of Fortune and Mithridates she resolved to brave them both and inform the World that she had rather be with Death then alive with Jealous Mithridates or deceitful Fortune Being informed that her Husband carried in an easie and woundlesse Death an impoisoned Ring she believed that her Diadem might well be as compassionate to her and render her the like office And that after the having deprived her of Liberty it might deprive her also of Life But the Diadem as you see is broken in her hands You will peradventure believe that Majestie opposeth it self thereunto and that it concerned his Honour not to suffer an Ensigne of Dignity and a Sacred and Regal Ornament to become an Instrument of Despair and a Fatal Core You will perchance believe that the Graces are come to the Aid of an Innocent and ill treated Grace and have hindred the Pearls which are particularly dedicated to them from being prophaned by her Death who is the Glory of their Sex and the Pearl of Asia Others will believe and peradvanture with more probability that the Diadem had much of the malice and Spirit of Fortune which wrought it And that it being made to deprive Monima of Liberty it ought rather to break then to bestow it on her However it were the Wise and Couragious Queen looks upon the pieces of it with a Countenance where there is lesse of Despair then Contempt and more of a Philosopher then a Woman This haughty and becoming Action mixed with fiercenesse and modesty hath something I know not what which explains it self more efficaciously then Clamours and Reproaches And a furious Woman who should exclaim with open mouth against Fortune could not do her more Despite nor so highly reproach her Impotencie Surely also the Woman that you see is not a painted Idol a dainty and voluptuous Barbarian and Asian fit onely for the Bed and Table She is a Couragious and knowing Beauty a severe and Stoical Beauty A Beauty which lead Philosophie into a Seraglio which reformed the Riot and Delights of a debauched Court which preserved amongst the Women and Eunuchs of Asia the Constancie and Austeritie of the Sages of Greece Notwithstanding all this she is commanded to die In vain do the Vertues and Graces intercede for her In vain do they appeal from her Husbands barbarous Will They will not procure it to be cancelled whatsoever they alledg to the contrary And you see already the poor Queen laid on her Bed and ready to receive the stroke which was to execute it But consider here on the one side the trouble of a brutish and discomposed Soul And on the other side the calme and serenity of a wise and well instructed Spirit The Eunuch is affrighted with the cruel Obedience which he is going to render unto his Master Of his two hands the guilty one which was to give this unhappy Blow proves weak and feeble scarce able to bear up the Sword The other more innocent is lifted up as if it stood upon its Guard either against some Fantome which threatned it or against the Lightning which issues forth of Monima's Eyes and which fills the Chamber with a sudden and new Light It would be hard to judge whether it be out of Fear or Respect that he turns away his Head whether he be affrighted with the Jealousie of his Master or dazled with the Majestie of his Mistresse whether he apprehends the being unfaithfull to the one or impious and Sacrilegious to the other Monima nevertheless confirms him and presents to him her naked Throat To behold the Serenitie of her Countenance and the sweetnesse of her Eyes you would take her for a Captive who flatters her Deliverer and intreats him speedily to break her Chains Hence it appears who would be most terrified with the Prick of a Thorn and who would be lesse bold in gathering a Rose You are astonished to see so much resolution joyned with so many Graces and so much Constancie in a Countrey of Riot and in an Asian Court Surely also the Graces are seldom accompanied with Resolution Constancie is not the Companion of Riot And the Vertue of Monima is not borne upon this Stately and Sumptuous Bed where you behold her The Jewels which load as much as they adorn her neither setled her Minde nor fortified her Courage Philosophie hath educated and trained her up with her own Hands and good Books have formed her They have been her Instructors in her Fathers House They are her Councellors and Confidents at Court She hath given them all the Hours which others bestowe on their Looking Glasses and Flatterers She hath drawn from them that Constancie and Vigour of Spirit which you behold in her And even at present she caused them to assemble upon this Table to be supported by them in this Combat and to overcome Fortune and Death by their Assistance and in their Sight But what Disposition soever she had to die Couragiously and like a Conqueresse her Despairing VVomen cry out against her Courage and oppose her Victory The boldest amongst them put back the Eunuch with her Hand and Voice She gives him injurious Language and yet tenders supplications to him Anger and Pittie speak both at one by her Mouth and you would say that either willingly or by force she will obtain from him the Death he prepares for her Mistresse The rest melt into Tears and tear
and belonging to her Family she had much Piety of her own and was very vertuous by her own Acquisitions Her Piety nevertheless was not tepide and timerous her Vertues were none of those idle and Antick ones which amuse the most part of Women They were strong and couragious they acted continually and with vigour and this vigour was supported by a Generosity which might make a life Heroick if it had been placed in another Sex and in a Soveraign Condition She needed no less courage to resist the Assault and to acquit her self with honour of so perilous an Attempt which was made upon her She made answer to those that proposed to her an exchange of Laâ—cate and her Loyaltie for her husband That she owed her first and highest affections to her King and Fidelity And that she would not take them off to give them to her husband to whom she owed but second and inferiour ones That she loved him intirely and had great tenderness for him yet loved him in his degree and with order and that there was nothing remiss or weak in her tenderness That she understood better then any body the worth of her Husband That were he to be sold innocently and to be put to a Lawful ransom she would not only alienate her Lands and pawn her Jewels to redeem him but even rent out the labour of her hands and make money of her blood and death if she could compass it by her sweat and pains That nevertheless for this she would never alienate her Fidelity nor engage therein one single point of her Conscience And that if she should make so ill a bargain her husband would be the first breaker of it That he would never be perswaded to depart out of Prison without his honour nay he would never descend from a Scaffold nor ascend unto a Throne without it But should he forget his honour went she on yet I will never be unmindfull of mine I know too well the value of it nor will I ever dispossess my self thereof for any gain or loss which may arise from it I understand very well to what Marriage obligeth me and what I owe to my Family But I was not born a marryed Person as I am born a French-Woman And it shall never be said that to preserve a Family which was but yesterday and peradventure will not be to morrow I have laid open a Fort to Rebellion and contributed to the ruine of my Countrey The Confederates of the League being overcome and repulsed at this first Assault did not yet retire they continued the Battery for the space of seven weeks And every day they gave some new onset upon the Place through the heart of this generous Woman Sometimes they sware to make her Husband suffer all sorts of torments And they made her endure them all in her imagination with terrifying looks and far more frightfull words Sometimes they threatned to render him back to her by piece-meal And these threats were worse then Canon shots or Granadoes but they fell upon a heart which was stronger then the strongest Bulwarks and which would not have yielded either for Canon shot or for all their Granadoes In fine the Confederates of the League despaired of taking Laâ—cate by so well guarded a place and the dolefull and tragick execution which followed their despair clearly shewed that they spake in good earnest and that their threats were reall Monsieur de Barry was strangled in his Chamber by the hand of an Executioner And neither the Cord nor Engine wherewith he was strangled could not draw from his mouth any sign of irresolution nor one single word of weakness In History there are more glorious and famous Deaths then this but a more magnanimous heroick one hath not been seen Remarkable Deaths are not made so by the Grandeur of the Armes which destroy they arise from the greatness of Courage and the force of resolution and there are enough which will not yield before two hundred Piles and a battery of twelve Canon But there are few which render not themselves to the Rope of an Executioner Surely it were to be wished for the good of the State that we might have many Copies of this gallant Man and of this generous Woman If there were but one in every Town of the Kingdom it would be at least impregnable through coveteousness or fear The sending back the body of Monsieur de Barry did in a strange manner incense the Garrison In the first heat of anger and compassion the Soldiers transported by both ran unto the Governors house with a resolution to kill Monsieur de Loupian who was a Gentleman of quality and a particular Confident of the house of â—oyeâ—â—e Monsieur Montâ—â—rancy who kept him Prisoner being advertised of the taking of Monsieur de Barry had given him in charge to his wife that he might be responsible to her for the life of her husband and that by the right of Reprisals he might make satisfaction with his own life if the other miscarryed Doubtless there had been an end of him and all the credit of the League could not have saved him in this tumult if Madam de Barry had not been more generous and humane then is observed in the single order of Nature But she was so after a more pure and sublime manner and there was in her heart another kind of spirit and other principles differing from the spirit of the world and the Maximes of Morality She presented her self before this irritated Troop and spake so efficaciously and with so powerfull and perswasive a grace of Monsieur de Loupians Innocence of the Crime they would commit in making him undergo the penalty of a murther whereof he was not guilty of the punishment God would infallibly inflict upon this offence that she appeased their spirits and removed all spite and rage from their grief Addressing her self afterwards to her Son Heâ—â—dâ—s whom the soldiers had followed she proposed to him the Heroick constancy and the inviolable Fidelity of his Father The Patrimony of Glory which his death had purchased to their Family the stain which the unjustly spilt blood of Monsieur de Loupian would bring upon this still-fresh Glory the repentance which follows precipitated Anger and unlawful Revenges The Protection they ought to expect from him who makes himself to be called the Father of Orphans and the Defender of Widows And by these reasons fortifyed by her example and animated by a spirit of Vertue and Authority she saved this poor Gentleman and sent him back to Monsieur Montâ—â—rancy with a Convoy The History of Spain makes a great deal of noise about the Generosity of Gâ—â—â—an the Good who being summoned by the Moors either to deliver up Terissa which he defended or to be a Spectator of his Sons death who was a Prisoner in their hands would not become a Traitor to remain a Father and chose rather to preserve his Honour then his Race Truly
necessary which hath the assistance of God and the Vertue of the Sacrament which is sustained by Nature and fortified by Grace Can it be either Interessed or Timerous with any Decency can it handsomly express a niceness can it apprehend sorrow and death can it avoid bad Fortune I might also affirm that this Duty is reckoned amongst the comely qualities of a Wife and the honour of a Family and that no baser perspective can be seen in a house then a sick and afflicted Husband and a gossiping and tricked up Wife This defect wounds generally all eyes and there are no Pictures in Italy not Forreign Landschaps there are no Ancient or Modern Figures can rectifie it Honor and decency is not only concerned therein but even contentment and satisfaction And as hands touch tenderly a sick and wounded head and as it is a torment to them if they be hindred from easing its pain and touching its wounds so a good wife who hath a heart truly fixed who is induâ—d and penetrated by the Grace of the Sacrament cannot have a purer satisfaction then to suffer with her husband And should even good Fortune her self tye her hands and feet to detain her by force with her and should hinder her from following her persecuted and unfortunate husband good Fortune would be abhorred by her with all her kindnesses and were her tyes made of Crowns and Diadems they would be unsupportable to her For these reasons Arâ—â—a accompanyed Cicinna to death after she had followed him through rocks and tempests 〈◊〉 dyed couragiously with Sâ—biâ— after she had lived nine years enterred with him Hypsicratea hardned the tenderness of her Sex and condition made the Graces and Beauty warlike that she might accompany Mitâ—ridates pursued by the Romans and Fortune And generally all the faithfull Women in ancient times have performed the famous and exemplar actions which we behold with applause in History EXAMPLE Jane Coeâ—lo the VVife of Anthony Perez Secretary to Philip the Second THe memory of Anthony Perez ought still to be fresh at Court We have seen him there a long time ago in Person And every day we see him there in his Relations and Letters I know not whether the name of his wife be so well known there but I know very well that this is the first time she appears in that place And peradventure she would never have come if I had not brought her thither It is convenient nevertheless that she should come and make her self known there She will there not only contract no bad habits nor will her vertue be altered by it but she will give also good examples to our Ladies and read them Lectures of Fidelity and Constancy She will teach them that Marriage is not a society of Pastimes and Traffick that the Duties thereof do not alter with seasons that its Tyes ought neither to be broken asunder nor loosened by Fortune She will teach them that they ought to be the same to their ruined and unfortunate Husbands as to those that are raised up to honours and in favour that they ought to love them as dearly under a Chain as under a Crown that they ought to bear respect to their ruines even to the pieces of their Shipwracks and to the instruments of their Punishments This wife and Couragious Woman was of the House of Coello who held an Honorable rank amongst the Illustrious Families of Spain But Nobility without Vertue is but the half of a good Woman It is a precious matter to which fair Features and a perfect Figure is wanting Jane Coello was not one of these shapeless and defective Nobles she was none of these rich and rude lumps of these Marbles which are only esteemed for the Name and Antiquity of the Quarry from whence they come All the features of a good Woman were compleated in her as the matter was there pure and precious And her Vertue was properly to her Nobility what an exact and regular Figure is unto a rare piece of Marble By espousing Anthony Perez she thought not only to have married a Secretary and the Favourite of a Prince a Minister of State and a great man in expectation but she believed to have Espoused all that Anthony Perez was and could be And prepared her self to Love him in what condition soever Fortune might place him If all wives entred into Marriage with the same foresight and preparation If in the Ceremony of their Nuptials and when they are to pronounce this word of Engagement and Servitude this great Word which cannot be retracted they did give themselves up in such sort to what is apparently Rich and Glorious that they still reserve themselves for what is poor and infirm to which either may be reduced 〈◊〉 behinde the Favourite and the Grandee they did consider the misfortunes and ruins which might happen to them there would be found more solid pleasure and more true satisfaction less disgusts out of Fancy and less considerable complaints in Marriages Bad Fortune would not disunite so many Couples nor make so many Divorces And Wives equally prepared for the misfortunes and prosperities of their Husbands would not change then hearts towards them upon every blast of wind noâ— would have so many different faces as are seen in the Moon Iane Coello was not subject to this inequality of heart nor to these varieties of looks She doth not alter them with bad times because bad times produced no change in her Husband And knowing that it was Perez whom she had married and not a Favourite and Minister of State she was the same to Perez Criminal and a Prisoner as to Perez the Confident and Secretary of Philip. History indeed speaks of the favour and credit of this Anthony Perez and gives sufficient testimony that his Credit was not a credit acquired at random and by meer chance He served a long time in the place of Secretary of State to Philip the second the ablest Prince of his Age and the most knowing in the Science of Princes He understood all his Policies and lived neer those Springs by which this King governed so many Kingdoms He was acquainted with the secret of that fatal Cabinet-Councel where so many Battels and Sâ—eges were designed where Europe was assaulted on all sides and new Territories invaded And without doubt he was not an unprofitable piece in this Cabinet and his hand very often set a going deâ—terously and with success those Springs which gave motion to so many Engines But as Fortune never makes a gift of her Person though sometimes she lends it And as the Court is not a Heaven in which fixed Stars are seen so Anthony Perez fell in his turn from this high â—levation and passed suddenly and without â—â—dium from favour into disgrace Some have written that the murther of Secretary Escoredo was the cause of his misfortune But those have seen but the outside of Affairs and have taken the Watch for the Spring We ought rather to believe the
all the last night could not sleep by reason of his disquiets and discontents Perez set at Liberty by this Device repaired to Henry the Great who received him with Honour And Iane Coello staied behinde in Spain esteemed by every one for her Courage and Fidelity I am the first that have shewn this Couragious and Faithful Woman to France And I now present her unto the Court to the end our Ladies may learn of her that great Expences and studied Excesses do not form a gallant Woman That so fair a Figure deserves better Lineaments and Colours That the Noblest blood of the World is obscure and wants lustre if Vertue doth not give it That Marriage is a Companion as well for bad Times and rugged Tracks as for fair Dayes and delightful Roads And that the affection of a good Woman should resemble Ivy which sticks close and inseparably to that Tree which it hath once imbraced never leaving it what snow soever falls upon it what wind soever shakes it what tempest soever bears it down PAVLINE 〈…〉 Paulina IS it one of the Graces or an wounded Amazon who dyes there standing and in the posture of a Conqueress She is truly a Grace even a manly and magnanimous Grace No Amazon unless a Philosophick and long Robâ—d Amazon She is the wise and vertuous Paulina who became a Stoick in the house of Seneca and resolves to die in his Company and by his Example You may have heard what common rumour hath published of Neros ingratitude and of the Fatal command of death he sent his Master This second Parricide no less scandalized the Senate and all the People then the first which is yet fresh and whose blood still reales upon the Earth And the impiety of the Tyrant after it had caused Agrippina to be murthered who had been twice his Mother and brought him no less into the Empire then into the world after it had put Seneca to death the Instructer of his youth and the Father of his spirit could not ascend higher if it rise not up against God himself if it fall not on Religion and holy things Though this last stroke fell only upon Seneca yet he is the only person that was not surprized with it and having often beheld the soul of Nero open and even to the bottom he ever indeed believed that figures of Rhetorick and sentences learnt by roat would not be more acknowledged then the Life and Empire he received from his Mother He received likewise that barbarous Order with a Tranquility truly Stoick and worthy the Reputation of his Sect. He did not appeal to the Senate he knew very well that the Senate is now but a Body divested of Power a dismembred Body and still bleeding of the wounds it had received from the Tyrant He did not implore Redress from the Laws they were all at present either banished or dead He was content to obey without noyse or delay and you could not arrive more seasonably to see a Stoick dying according to the forms and principles of his Profession Paulina would also shew that Constancy belonged to her Sex no less then to ours and that VVomen might be Philosophers without having commerce with Lycea and Portica without making Dilemmaes or Sylogismes She believed that being the one half of Seneca she might be couragious by his Courage and dye by the example of his Death as she had been enriched by his Riches and honoured by his Fortune Their Veins hapned to be opened by the same hand and Lancet Their blood and spirits were mixt together in their wounds And that of Seneca entring into the Arm of Paulina with the Lancet penetrated her very heart and seated it self about her soul. You see also that being instructed and fortified by this spirit which serves for a second reason and an accessory Courage she had the fortitude to expect death standing which is the last Act of Soveraign Vertue and the true posture of dying Heroes The blood streamed from her Arm with violence as if her soul pressed it to have the glory of going out the first And to behold the purest and most spirituall parts thereof which spurt up from the Bason into which it fell you would say that it takes a pride in the Nobleness of its Extraction and conceives it self too well descended to be spilt on the ground Paulina calmly and without the least alteration beholds it trickling down And saving that her Colour vanished away by degrees and Paleness succeeded as it doth to the last Rays of a fair day which dyes in a beautiful Cloud no change was to be seen in her Countenance Her Constancy is no savage Constancy It hath a serenity and Grace but it is a pale serenity and an expiring Grace She is more covetous of her Tears and Sighs then of her Blood and Life she prohibited her Eyes and Mouth to shew the least sign of weakness And a Statue of white Marble which should make a Fountain of its artificiall Veins could not have a more peaceable stability nor a more gracefull confidence This example is very rare but it is sad and cannot instruct the mind but by wounding the heart The steam of so Noble Blood draws almost tears from your eyes And it afflicts you that you are not able to save the fair remains of so beauteous a Life Let it no longer torment you The Tyrant advertised of Paulina's generous resolution sends Souldiers to hinder her Death and inforce her to live Not that he takes care of the Vertues or is willing to preserve the Graces which are ready to dye with her He is Nero in all his actions and doth no less mischief when he saves then when he kiâ—s It is because he delights to sever the best united hearts and to divide the fairest Couples It is because he takes pleasure in forcing inclinations and violating sympathies It is because he hath a desire to exercise upon friendships and souls an interiour and spirituall Tyranny It is because after the death of Seneca he will have the heart of Seneca in his power The Balisters of Porphiriâ— upon which you see him leaning is the same as they say on which lately at the noise and light of flaming Rome he sung the firing of Troy He speaks from thence to the Souldiers he sent to Paulina and commands them to make hast Though she had but two steps to make yet they will enforce her to retreat and fasten her again to life by binding up her wounds It were to be wished for the good of Rome that they had done as much to Seneca But if they had Swathes and Remedies to apply to him Nero could wish that they might be impoysoned Swathes and killing Remedies The last year he caused the same Remedies to be applyed to gallant Burrus his other Governour And doubt not but he will shortly send the like to Seneca if 〈◊〉 Soul make not the more haste to expire It is not the good old mans
pittiful Reliques And in this state able to beget Emulation in all the Vertuous Women of Antiquity she rendred up her Soul not upon the Body of her Husband who was no more but upon his Shadow and Memory ISABELLE de Castille suâ—e le â—enin et le peril de la playe de son Mary desesperé des 〈…〉 par sa â—uerisâ—n que l'Amour est le Maistre de la vie et de la mort 〈…〉 Eleonor of Castile Princess of wales ALL England is dangerously sick upon this Bed with Prince Edward The Fortune of the Publike being wounded to the heart by the wound he brought from the Holy VVar endures the same Convulsions as he feels And the Physitians give them but one day of life if God send not an Angel and a Miracle to cure them Surely it is very strange that the hearts of a whole Nation should be wounded by one blow and that one shaft which hath hurt but one Body should draw Blood from so many Soules But such is the condition and as it were the destiny of good Princes They have a heart and soul in every one of their Subjects Their blood and veines disperse themselves throughout all the parts of their Dominions and their least wounds are followed by publike Symptomes and popular Maladies Prince Edwards wound is one of those The King his Father and all his Subjects lament it and their Tears are the Blood of their Soules which have been wounded by his Body You will believe notwithstanding that in this generall sickness and amidst these common lamentations the Princess his wife is the most sick and most to be lamented There is also a good half of the Prince in her and reciprocally more then a good half of her in the Prince Her love at least is there intire and with her love there is more of her Life and more of her Soul then is left behind Though far remote from the fight yet she was wounded there to death with him Her heart found it self just in the offended part and ever since her soul and life have issued forth by the same wound with her Husbands blood At present hope is returned to her but it is a dolefull hope and such as may come from despair The Physitians have declared to her that the Prince might yet be cured and that to cure him it was necessary to seek out some affectionate and couragious person who would expose himself to take in his Death by sucking the poyson out of his wound Her Love which was present at the Consult of the Physitians perswaded her that this affection could not be expected but from a woman nor this Courage but from a Princes That this fatall wound could not have a more soveraign Salve then her Tongue and that if it were her Husbands destiny to receive a second Life he could owe it to no other then her Spirit and Mouth This inspiration greedily received by her heart drew from thence this bold and vigorous heat and this tincture of hope and joy which you see in her Face There appears in her Countenance something I know not what of fierce and stately which seems to require respect and yet begets affection It is peradventure a certain Ayr of Spain which passed the Seas with her and followed her into England It is perchance a visible expression of her Heroick thoughts and an exteriour sign by which her Soul declares what she newly concluded For whatever this little fierceness may be taken and what name soever they give it it sets a harmless edge upon the sweetness of this Princess It is to her Beauty and Graces a modest and well-becoming boldness It is as it were a reflection of her Heart upon her Face and as a demonstration of the greatness and vigour of her Soul But whether it proceed from the greatness and vigour of her Soul or from the force and greatness of her affection she valueth not death to which she is going to expose her self nor is affrighted at this great train of Terror which the people set before her She considers and hearkens to nothing but her Love which calls her to an action which will equall Spain to ancient Greece and old Italy which will efface the glory of renowned men and women and infuse jealousie into both Sexes which will be the honour of this Age and the admiration of Posterity and will manifest that Charity no less then Faith hath the gift of Cures and the vertue of Miracles Her Imagination was full of these great Objects But her Husband is the main one and approacheth nearest to her heart In her mind she renounceth Reputation and Glory and by an express Oath taken upon the name and picture of the Prince which you see in her hand She dedicates her self to his Cure and obligeth her self to suck in her own Death or to give him Life Let us accompany her to the Execution of this business and place our selves behind this piece of Arras with the Princes servants who observe her in silence and with gestures of astonishment Vertue cannot have too many witnesses in like Enterprizes And this would merit that time past should return and the future advance to convey to her Spectators of all Ages Behold her already upon the Princes Bed and couched upon the wound she hath discovered You would say that her Soul to accomplish the Transport she hath vowed and to pass from the subject she animates to that she loveth flows away by her Eyes with her Tears and drop by drop penetrates the Body of the sick Prince Do not fear that these Tears should inflame his wound or that the Ardour of his Feavour be augmented by them These Tears indeed are very warm and come from a scorching spring but they are gentle and benigne and I believe that not a Tear doth fall which carryeth not with it some part of the Princesses Soul and some drop of her Life distilled therein VVhat do you think of this Love who exhorts her with his very looks and action Doth he not seem to be newly come out of her Heart to declare himself the Author of this great Design and to enjoy it neerer and in an open way He is not one of these Interested and Propriatory Ones that will ingross all to themselves and aym meerly at their own private satisfaction Less also is he one of those Discontented and Contentious Ones who are armed on all sides with teeth and nails who carry not a Flower which is not accompanied with Thornes who make not so much cleer fire as they do noise and smoke You see no Shafts nor Torch about him because he is a Saving and no Tyrannical Love He is come to cure an old wound and not to make new ones And there entreth nothing but a pure Spirit and Light into the Flames which he inkindles He is not of the Country of Romances nor of the Region of Fables His Origen is from Heaven even from the
on the Duke at the hour he should go forth to hear Mass. I know not whether one ought to believe what is spoken of his good Fortune but indeed I have heard say That she was more diligent about him then the most diligent of his Guards And that his enemies never laid any sâ—ares to catch him which she did not break asunder that they never prepared a Pitfall for him over which she laid not a Plank However it were it is certain there had been an end of him that day if she had not caused dispatches to arrive to him which busied him very happily all the morning and diverted him from going forth to expose himself to death which was prepared for him The occasion passing over with the morning the Conductors of the Enterprize resolved to begin by the seisure of a rich pawn and to secure the Dukes Person by laying hold on the good Lady his Wife who was at Mass. Mean while one of the Magistrates accompanied with twelve resolute and stout men entered the Castle Their Arms were hid under their Cloaks but their bad Intention being easie to be discovered by their ill looks one of his Guards had some distrust of them and ran to shut the Gate against those that followed to second them the party began hotly to discharge their Pistols before the Dukes Chamber some of his friends overpowred with number were slain in the place but his Domesticks and Guards hasting to the noise and he himself appearing with a Sword in his hand the end of the Pray proved as unhappy for the Assailants as the beginning The Magistrate and one of the boldest amongst his Troop made Payment for the attempt with their persons and the rest who were not resolved to lose so much rendred up their Arms and abandoned the party This first Troop being defeated the Duke was not for all that out of danger He was enforced to defend the two Gates of the Castle against fire and the Peâ—ard and then to repulse those who began to Scale it His greatest danger nevertheless was in the Church where furiously entred an armed and incensed multitude which seized on the Dutchess Her quality and Sex deserved at least some respect but qualities are not distinguished in a Tumult and no Sex is Priviledged against Fury Of two Gentlemen that led her one was killed at her feet and the other being dangerously wounded was in little better condition This Barbarous Act did not affright her the bloud which sprinkled her Gown and Death it self which passed over her wrought no change in her Countenance Her soul was alwaies Erect and Elevated above danger She conserved even the comliness of her gesture and the dignity of her looks even words of Authority and tone of Command and whereas another less Couragious Woman might have submitted to Insolency and have flattered Fury She treated them with Command like a Mistress astonishing Audacity it self by her Constancy They advertise her that she was Arrested for her Husband and that if she had a mind to live and preserve Him she must consider of disposing him to remit his Person and Cittadel into the hands of the Magistrate At this Declaration which was made to her with threats and a dagger at her throat she answered That she would not enter into any Treaty with Murtherers That she knew not how to give ill Counsels nor in what terms a Wise may perswade her Husband to be a Coward that it troubled her she had but one life to expose for the honour and safety of his that she was so far from lending them her prayers and tears against him that she would joyfully shed even the last drop of her bloud if that might add either a moment of new lustre to his reputation or half a days space to his life And therefore let their fury finish on her what it had begun That nothing of weakness should proceed either from her mouth or hands that they too well accorded with her heart and that it would better please her to dye at the Castle Gate for her Husband then to live without him upon a Throne She made large promises she found her self also as well disposed to make good what she promised and her Constancy being put to the Test was found as great and vigorous as her words I learned from an Illustrious Person and who hath narrowly looked into the affairs of that time that she was brought before the Castle and that they might there take the Husband by the fear and danger of the Wife the same Propositions were renewed to her with the same Threats and Violencies The Couragious Woman reduced to this Extremity considered nothing but the danger of her husband and had no fear but of his Affection and Tenderness She was not ignorant that all his weakness lay on that side and that there was no place so strong which would not be hard for him to defend against her tears She also cryed out unto him the better to fortifie this weak part That she came not to perswade him to a dangerous Piety and to betray him by her Intreaties That she came rather to make her Body serve him for a new Barricado against his Enemies That if he loved her truly and had a desire to save her he should love and preserve what was of her in him that on him depended her safety and danger her good and bad Fortune that out of him she could have neither life nor death nothing to hope or fear that he should take heed of trusting Traytors who assaulted his head by his heart who would soften it to his overthrow and raise a Compassion in him to gain his life at a cheaper rate that he should beware of listening to the suggestions of a Timerous and Apprehensive Love that he should rather give ear to that Affection which spake to him by her mouth that it were lost labour to preserve her if he lost himself that it would be of no advantage to his Enemies to destroy her if he were safe that in despight of them and what death soever they should make her suffer she should always live most happy as long as she should live in his remembrance She pronounced these words with so Graceful a Confidence and so Noble and Generous a Tone as it clearly appeared that at this instant her heart ascended to her mouth to express it self by its own Language This eminent Vertue dazel'd the furious Souldiers who environed her and made their Weapons fall out of their hands The Duke was relieved by his frinds who came thither from Xaintes and Caâ—gnae And the Capitulation being concluded between him and the Inhabitants the Dutchess impatient to see him again could not expect till the Castle Gate was cleared but commanded a Ladder whereby to enter at the window Certainly after so Illustrious and Glorious a Victory it had been fit the Gate should have been thrown down before her and that she should have entred the
then the Statues and Triumphs of many Emperours but of what esteem soever it be the Infanta deserved it by a better title then Victorius she was not only the Mother of her Armies but even the Preserver of them her charitable acts made them subsist her presence and Piety made them overcome To these imployment of the field we must joyn the inclination and dexterity she had in that innocent war and pastime which is used in Woods without effusion of human blood and without leaving Widows and Orphans She there gave a little more freedom to her modesty and suffered its bounds to be a little more enlarged we know likewise that she there performed all that a most couragious and dexterous person could have done And as if she had delighted in a danger wherein she might be humanly valiant and overcome without doing hurt she was seen to encounter chafed Wilde-boats with a javelin in her hand And to shew in this single sport aâ— serious a valour and as true courage as would have been requisite on a breach or in a set Battel There is a haughty capacity and a swelling Pride There is a savage Courage and a magnanimity which would fain strike a terrour into others This alliance of vices with vertues was not observed in the Infanta she was both modest and capable she was humble and prudent and her magnanimity though high and couragious was yet sweetned by a goodnesse victorious without Arms and conquering without violence which gained her more hearts then all the forces of Spain could overcome This goodness did onely acquire her the love of her Subjects but it gained her Subjects where she had no Jurisdiction It entertained her servants without Pensions or Wages It made her Dominion of a larger extent then her own Country It made her reign of a longer durance then her life Besides it was an universal goodnesse for all uses a goodnesse without delay or resence at all howers and in all proportions a spring of goodnesse which could not be exhausted by any effusion a goodnesse ingenious to do good and to do it seasonably and to the purpose to do it with a good grace and Majesty It is wonderfull that this awful Princess who at her pleasure gives limits to Fortune and Ambition and extinguishes the most enflamed Passions it is wonderfull I say that even death it self could not suspend the inclination she had to do good and the last breach of her life was a spirit of grace and an effusion of good deeds She had received the last Sacraments and her soul strengthned with the bread of the strong and prepared by extream unction expected only the moment of expiring when she remembred that many petitions were remaining in her Cabinet unanswered These were petitions of the afflicted and miserable who were apparently in danger of never coming out of their misery if she drew them not forth before the alteration which her death was ready to produce in affairs she gave order that these petitions should be brought her and causing her head and hand to be raised up she imployed all that remained of her sight and motion to signe them in the best manner she was able Surely she could not die more gloriously nor with a more noble and natural essusion of goodness And this makes me remember the Sun which still enlightens the Earth and doth good to it even when it is in the Eclipse Thereby she supports whole houses which are ready to sall she raiseth up some which were already fallen and this last trembling of her head supported Communities and wrought the preservation of many Families This was the right way of reigning charitably and exercising a most benigne Soveraignty to give pardons and grant favours in the very sight and even in the arms of death This was the true way of dying Royally and after an Heroick manner to rise up out of the bed of death that she might save Families from shipwrack which were readie to perish and to employ the last breath of her life to make the miserable revive to restore them hope goods repose and Fortunes at the very rendring up her soul. Surely those ancient Heroes who took a vanity to die standing and to have their bodies upright and their souls elevated never died so nobly nor in so good a posture And that Prince the delight of Mankinde who reckoned amongst his acquisitions the goods he had bestowed and counted amongst his losses all those which were remaining how thristy a manager soever he were of favours and benefits yet he never arrived to that height as to oblige by his last breath and to do good in the last motion of his Soul There are forced favours and constrained benefits which fall but by drops there are some which carry with them as it were the stings of repulses and â—ll Language and serve onely to distaste those that receive them Nothing of this Nature came from the Infanta Her favours were without delay and often prevented the asking they were all pure and without thorns and her benefits resembled gold which should grow without earth and ordure they were not only of great value and solidity but they had besides much lustre they surprized the heart and dazled the sight This Grace of doing good was the particular character and as it were the proper Beauty and Mark of the Infanta All her actions I say her most serious and vigorous actions were imbued therewith her piety it self had taken a tincture of it and though her vertue were one of the highest and â—reest from ostentation yet she never did any thing fiercely and with shagrin she acted nothing which was not gallant and civill which was not done with reflection and study which relished not of quaintnesâ—e and magnificence Nay it is said that even her seventies did not distaste and that her very rigours were obliging Whereupon it is related that when she was in Spain a certain Knight less wounded in his heart then head having entertained her with some discourses into which there entred fire and adoration the wise Princesse who knew very well that there was something of Eudimien and of the Moon in this man had more pity then anger for him And to free her self dexterously from his importunities procured the King her Father to give him an honourable employment attended with a great Revenue which carried him far enough off from Spain Thereby she satisfied Vertue without exaspirating the Graces and proved at once so rigorous and indulgent to this melancholly person that with one stroke she punished his love and made him a Fortune Above all this goodness of the Infanta appeared admirable in supporting ruined Powers in comforting great wounded Fortunes in conserving the Lustre and Dignity of eclipsed Planets put out of their Houses and Courses To perform the like acts of mercy another sort of charity is required then is practised in Hospitals and the pain of an ulcerated Prince demands other lenitives then the
be afraid Of him thou hast thy humble Captive made Well may thy Arm his Head and Body part Who with thy â—â—es hast from him torn his Heart THE ELOGIE OF JVDETH IT is not necessary for me to say who Judeth was and what Act she hath done she is sufficiently known to every one For above the space of two thousand yeers she is in all Countreyes and in the sight of all Nations still cutting off the Head of Holofernes and raising the siege of Bethulia This part of her life hath been indeed the most radiant and remarkable but peradventure not the most laborious or Heroick and she more easily defeated Holofernes invironed with a whole Armie then Pleasure and Grief Covetousnesse and Fear then her own Beauty and Youth She was victorious nevertheless in all sorts of conflicts and got the upper hand both of pleasing and terrifying Enemieâ— At the Death of her Husband she overcame Grief by resignation and shewed that with the blood of Patriarchs her Predecessors she had inherited their Faith and Constancie This first Adversary being mastered the overcame also Idlenesse Pleasures and the latter Affections which are the second and most dangerous Enemies of young Widows She not being able to renounce her Youth nor to be rid of her Beauty which were to her like suspected Domesticks and hard to be preserved she kept them continually shut up and likewise â—â—aring lest they should make an escape she weakned them by Prayer Labor â—asting and Hair-cloth She grew warlike by these Domestick and Private Combats and prepared her self all alone and in one single night for this famous Field in which the Fortune of the Assyrians was ruined by the Blow received from the Hand of a victorious Woman and the Head of a vanquished Man Besides in this so magnanimous and perillous an enterprise she was to overcome not only a man whom Love had disarmed and Wine and Sleep had secured but to overcome the power of Gold to which armed Legionâ— submit and strong Forts are rendered she was to overcome the sparklings of pretious stones which wound even souls which are 〈◊〉 to the sharpest point of swords she was to overcome pleasures which is stronger then valour it self and triumpheth every day over the Victorious Besides these pleasing and flattering enemies certain cruel and terrible ones presented themselves which she was likewise obliged to overcome Her Enterprise could not prove successeful to her but by miracle and if it took no effect she was to passe through all the hands of a furious Army she must suffer all the punishments and Deaths which inraged Tyranny can inflict she measured all these punishments and numbred all these Deaths And upon a serious consideration of them all the undertook in their very sight and presence this memorable Action by which with one stroak she shewed her self not onely more couragious and valiant but more intelligent and prudent then all Judea which she preserved and all Assyria which she overcame A MORAL REFLECTION WOmen have not every day Holofernes's to vanquish but every day they have occasion to fight against excess vanity delights and all pleasing and troublesome passions The memory of this Heroick Woman may instruct them in all the enterprises and exercises of this war which though made in shadow and without effusion of blood ceaseth not to be laborious and made with vigour of spirit and stability of courage Let them learn then from this illustrious and glorious Mistresse to discipline their graces and to give to them devotion and zeal To imprison dangerous Beauty and to take from it all the weapons wherewith it might offend Let them learn from her to reform Widowhood and to put themselves under the yoke of God after they are free from that of men Let them learn from her to be loyal to the memory of their deceased Husbands never to divorce themselves from their Names and to place under their ashes all the fire which may be remaining in them as for this celebrious Act by which Judith overcame all Assyria a Tent and struck off with one blow the head of a whole Armie It teacheth men that Heroick Vertue proceeds from the Heart and not the Sex that valour clothed with iron is not alwayes 〈◊〉 and that the weakest and most tender hands may 〈◊〉 the safety of Nations when God directs them A MORAL QUESTION Concerning the Choice which God hath made of Women for the preservation of States reduced to Extremity IT is noted in the Book of Judges and observed there as a wonder and prodigâ—â—â— that meeknesse was once born of force and that nourishment 〈◊〉 from the 〈◊〉 of him that devoutâ— It is a wonder which 〈…〉 of prodigie and which nevertheless hath not been yet observed that 〈◊〉 is a portion of meekness and that the handâ— accused to have been the Authoâ—â— of Death have brought safety and given 〈◊〉 However this second wonder is true and no lesse surprizing then the first not lesse proper to frame a 〈◊〉 Problem and a specious 〈◊〉 The examples thereof are likewise less 〈◊〉 and more known 〈…〉 to be seen of them almost in all the Regions of History And God hath renewed them aâ— often as he hath chosen the handâ— of Women other to establish tottering States or to support their 〈◊〉 The great wonder in this is that God hath almost made this choice 〈…〉 Counsels and Hope and in the last confusion 〈…〉 And in occasions wherein the Arms of the strong were 〈…〉 Heads exhausted he hath raised up Women who 〈…〉 the valiant and 〈◊〉 who have taken away 〈…〉 and the Sword held over the Head of Nations who have chased away from surrendred â—owns Armies already victorious who 〈…〉 and Courage to vanquished King who 〈…〉 and fallen Crown It suffiâ—â—th to believe that such works are not done but by the hand of God and with much of hiâ— spirit and by the Vertue of miracles There are nevertheleâ—â— appearances and Reasons within the reach of out sight which in this particular make good his Providence 〈…〉 Power appears therein more independant and his Wisdâ—m 〈◊〉 infallible and 〈◊〉 There is very often Deâ—eption in 〈◊〉 Thought and mistake 〈…〉 in our Terms We take Force 〈…〉 and that which we call Power ought to be called 〈…〉 and a Weaknesse with a great Train 〈…〉 was to be truly powerful to take Towns and overcome 〈…〉 Canons and other Armâ— but with broken Poâ—â— and 〈…〉 This were to be extraordinarily strong not to throw 〈…〉 with many Engine but to break in 〈…〉 with blowing on the â—ace of it to â—leave a Mountâ—â—n with 〈◊〉 of Snow And the Art as well as the Courage of 〈…〉 might be called Divine who in the sight of a Storm should 〈…〉 with â—ails of 〈◊〉 and with a 〈◊〉 of Paper It â—utes very neer with the manner of Gods acting when in the Tumult of 〈◊〉 and amidst the 〈◊〉 of falling States he 〈◊〉 the Arms of 〈◊〉 and the Heads
the dying victorious and they that strike and kill were the vanquished The Combat is for the God of Abraham and Moses for the Law of the Patriarchs and Prophets On the other side this cause is defended by abandoned and naked Faith and on the other assaulted by Infidelity armed with Engins and punishments The match seems to you to be unequal And you will hardly believe that Infirmity and Tendernesse can be of more Force then Iron and Fire that a Mother weak both in Sex and Age and Children both abandoned and unarmed should vanquish a furious and armed Tyrant and overcome all the Executioners of his Train Nevertheless they subdued them all and there are alreadie on their side as many Victories as Deaths Salomona was present at all these particular Combats All entire that you see her she hath already delivered up six parts of her heart And I believe that she is now come to her last Childe and to her seventh Crown Her face bears as many Victories as Years There is something I know not what of venerable and August in her wrinkles and you would say that even the Law it self is come out of the Propitiatory in humane shape to infuse Zeal into her Followers and to teach them Fidelity and Constancy Certainly Beauty whatsoever is said of it belongs not only to Youth Vertue is graceful in every Age Her flowers are of the latter season as well as her fruits And whether by natural right or by an Immemorial Priviledge she hath ever preserved the advantage of being at once both Beautiful and Ancient and of having charms under gray Hairs and wrinkles You will profess at least that she hath commanding Attractives in this half dried up skin and upon these withered â—heeks And you will be as much inamored of these venerable Ruines and this Heroick and generous Caducity as of adorned Youth and a scandalous Vivacity Besides do not believe that her Constancie is blinde and obstinate it is fortified with Sence and Reason and its solidity is resplendent and penetrated with light as well as that of the Diamond As if she were not furnished enough with that which is intrinsical and diffused from her own Spirit A light more vigorous and pure descends to her from Heaven which infires her Heart and her heart being inflamed with this fire seems ready to issue forth of her Eyes to receive it even in its source By the Charity of this Divine Light she came to know the short and ruinous Carreir of time and the Immense and sollid Extent of Eternity She hath seen the Waste and Defects of Fortune through the Paints and Disguises wherewith she varnishes her self And one Single Ray miraculously extinguished in her apprehension all those Piles of Wood which are set on fire for her self and Children and made her discern afar off in the hands of Abraham and Jacob the Crowns prepared for them Illuminated by these Lights and fortified by this Object she hath already overcome even six Deaths and behold her wrastling with the seventh which assaults her by the youngest and last of her Children There is tendernesse indeed on that side but nothing of weaknesse and this last part of her Heart in being the most innocent and lesse fortified by time shall not be the less invincible The Tyrant thinks to gain upon her by that way but he was not well acquainted with her He perswades himself that at least with this single drop of blood which was left her she would preserve the hope and restauration of her Posterity But the blood of the Macchabees would not endure the least stain for its Conservation and so holy and glorious a Race could not end more honourably then by seven Martyrs She was far from contributing her voice and Carresses to iniquity and from becoming the Temptress of her Son she fortified his Minde and strengthened his Courage she discovered to him her Bosom and Breasts which are reasons so much the more powerful as having the more tendernesse she shews him the Heavens open and the God of Abraham a Spectator of his Conflict with the Patriarchs and Prophets I think also that the spake to him of his Ancestors the Macchabees and made him understand that this great Light is that of their Conquering Souls which are descended to assist his Victory and to finish by his Constancie the Glory and Coronation of their Name the Triumph and Sanctity of their Race The Couragious Youth heareth her with a manly Constancie his Resolution is visible already in his Eyes and gives a Color to his Face His Constancie in Punishments will quickly shew that he is twice born of this Heroick Mother that he is no less the fruit of her Heart then of her Womb and that he hath sucked with his Milk the Spirit and Quintessence of her Vertue and the very blood and Marrow of her Soul Being now assaulted by large Promises and magnificent VVords he only opposeth his silence to this vain Battery and one motion of his Head accompanied with a Gesture of Scorn over turns all those Mountains of Gold which are offered him The Tyrant being irritated thereby bites his very Lips wrath prepares new Fires in his Heart both for the Mother and the Son Some sparkles of them are seen already to issue from his Eyes and smoak out of his Mouth and two great stacks of wood will suddenly be here enkindled with his Breath and the Fire of his VVrath Mean while Salomona rejoyceth at the Courage of her Son she animates him afresh to the Combat and proposeth to him the Example of his Brothers She shews him their souls already crowned who remain at the Gate of Heaven staying only for his to begin their Triumph Those are their Bodies which you see amidst the Executioners and Tortures Of six two of them have been delivered up to the Furnace incompassed with Fire and the four other have been divided between two great Caldrons They live no longer and yet still resist They seem to contest with Insensibility which is to them as it were a second Constancy and a natural Force which their souls have left them at their Departure You would say that they had a mind to make shew of a distinct Virtue from that of their mindes and to possess their labours and merits apart in this common cause You would say that every member hath a Heart peculiar to its self and a particular life to expose Their blood though shed retains still its vigour There issueth thence a smoak which proceeds from the fire of their Zeal nay even their flead skins and their lopped off Feet and Hands retain still something of the Spirit of the Macchabees and seem to seek a second Victory There remain none about them but these two Executioners All the rest are out of the Combat and have lost their Resolution with their Forces The Fires which have been kindled to consume these Holy Victimes are overcome by the Divine Fire which hath left
them nothing but the exteriour to burn Neither do I know whether they respect not the very marks which appear upon these bloody and torn reliques Surely they owe this and more to that Fire superiour to all others And the impression of Charitie ought to be at least in like reverence and no less sacred then the impression of Lightning Heretofore the Flames of the Babylonian Furnace had this discretion either Natural or Divinely inspired They respected the three Jews whom Faith and Charity had consecrated And by a violent breaking out like that of a Lion who should leave his prey and fall upon his Keeper they devoured those Ministers of Impiery who kindled them But nothing but Miracles of Courage and Patience will be wrought here God will permit the Consummation of the Sacrifice and receive all the Smoak of it Salomona her self who hath hitherto fought but in heart and been only tryed against Compassion shall be suddenly tryed against Grief By the same Force wherewith she restrained all her Tears she will pour out all her Blood She will overcome Cruelty as she hath vanquished Nature And after seven Deaths suffered in Minde and by Piece-meal she will endure the last which shall be the Recompence and Coronation of all the rest SONNET IN Natures sight in sight of Heav'n above Brave Salamona combats Grief and Love Which through her seven Sons Breasts with deadly Smart Have made a Rent in her undaunted Heart Nor Blood nor Tears do trickle from her wound All that 's in her is with true Valour Crown'd Her Faith dâ—â—ends that Breach â—midst horrid pains Her Soul much more believes then it sustains What cannot Love improve its force unto What hath not Faith abundant pow'r to do The Love of seven brave Sons dear as her Eyes Makes her endure seven Deaths before she dies Yet Faith does more and by a rare â—ffort Which Love should emulate in its transport Makes her seven times a Martyr ere paâ—e Death Constrains her to forsake her vital Breath ELOGIE OF SALOMONA THe Mother of the Macchabees was peradventure the first Gallant Woman who sought without Arms and overcame by death She was the Daughter of holy Conquerers and the Mother of Martyrs and gave to Judâ—â— a Christian Heroess before Christianity In the common ruine of her Countrey and general Martyrdom of her Nation all sorts of Enginâ— were applyed to withdraw her Children from the Religion of their Parents They were put to defend themselves against objects both of delight and terrour and to overcome a Tyrant armed with favours and punishments The Couragious Mother assisted at all their Combats and contributed her voice her â—eal and spirit to their Victory so far was she from concealing them from Torments and Death that she produced them one after another armed with her Vertue and fortified with her Admonitions she animated them with her faith and warmed them with her tears she gathered together their â—lead skins and their mutâ—lated members as the matter both of their Crowns and of her own and as many deaths as she numbred so many accomplished Victories she counted in her Thoughts Not that she was lesse a Mother then the tender and weeping ones 〈◊〉 Her soul endured Iron and Fire in the bodies of her Children she â—ell in 〈◊〉 with their Members and her Heart melted away through theâ—â— Wounds But she knew the order and quality of her obligation It was her belief that she owed more to God then to her own blood and more to Religion then to her Race And knowing that a 〈◊〉 Death is more happy then a sinner who lives and reigns she chose rather to make a Family of Saints then of Apostates and to be rather a Mother in Heaven then upon Earth MORAL REFLECTION LEt our Ladies learn of this Jew to be Mothers and Christians Let them learn by her Example that Children given to God are not lost That it would be much better to have them innocent in a Grave then vitious on a Throne That a good Death is the best Fortune they can attain to And that it is for the glory of the Macchabees and the good of Children to be saved even before their time even with many pains even by their own blood and through all the Engines of Death and not to be damned after their old Age loaden with sorrows and sins It is a glory to the Earth that Marble stones which come out of its Bosom should become excellent Figures under the Hammer And it is better that a Shute should be cut off when it is yet tender and that it be grafted in the Garden of a Prince then to have it wither upon the Stem and serve only for matter of Fuell MORAL QUESTION Whether Religion be the Principal Vertue of a Gallant Women THere are some Vertues indeed of greater noise and carrying a saâ—er Glose then Religion but none of greater use not more necessary for a Gallant Woman All the rest what 〈◊〉 soever they make and what colour soever they have are without her but Stage-Vertues They resemble those superficial bodies made only for shew which are all Mask and Garment they have neither life nor spirit they are without form and consistence And though they seem to be active and full of motion yet they act to no purpose nor move but by Artificial wheels Even Force and Valour which are not supported by Religion are feeble and impotent At the most they have but a Flash of Choller and a precipitous Brutallity Prudence 〈◊〉 blinde without her â—â—ght And the Graces cannot please if Religion hath not adorned and instructed them There is then no solid and perfect Vertue without Religion and by this common reason 〈◊〉 all the rest should 〈◊〉 Religion ought to be the principal Form and the predominant Quality of a Gallant and sollidly Vertuous Woman But that is effected by a more 〈◊〉 and which reflects particularly upon the Courage which 〈…〉 this place there are 〈◊〉 functions of courage and 〈◊〉 were 〈◊〉 general duties which supportall particular ones and give a solid state and consistence to the whole life By the first it makes us act equally and with a constant and regulated â—â—ennesse by the second it fortifies the Mind against either Fortune and keeps it up what winde soever bloweth between the elevation and the fall By the third it arms the Heart against the corruptions of flesh and blood and preserves it from maternal Passions By the last it secures it against the apprehensions of Death 〈…〉 it victorious over this dreadful thing which is the common 〈◊〉 Bear of mankinde and the terrour of Nature These duties are noble and sublime But force should impertimently strive to use extraordinary violences it could never acquit it self with the aid of Morality alone it hath need of a more powerful assistance to support it of a supernatural and Divine Coadâ—â—â—esse to labour joyntly with it And this Coadjuâ—â—ess can be no other then Religion whose
should have seen these Noble and Generous Tears trickle down they would have taught us that the Eyes of Heroes are not Adamantine Eyes And that the Vulgar are deceived who take great Hearts for Hearts of Brass Cyrus then bewailed Abradates but he did it magnificently and after an Heroick manner His tears were followed by a profusion of Riches which will be presently burned with the Dead And he is newly returned to the Camp to give out Orders for the Funeral Pomp and to make choice of the Victimes which were to be Immolated to the Ghost of his Friend He believes him still in the Field of Battel where he enjoyes his Reputation and numbers the Dead and his own Victories As for these sad Preparatives and Funeral expences they are made for the Consolation of Panthea no less then for the Honour of Abradates But Panthea is no longer in a Condition to Comfort her self with burn'd Purple or Gold consumed to Ashes with the Smoak of a Flaming Pile and the Blood of a Butchered Flock with the large shadow and great Images of a vast Sepulchre Her Grief was too violent to expect such Superficial and VVeak Remedies and to be cured by Ceremonies and Superstitions She had Recourse to a Consolation of less Cost and far more Efficacious She believed that a small Piece of Steel plung'd into her Bosom would be to her Sorrow a more Infallible and Speedy Remedie then Mines of Gold and Quarries of Jasper erected into Pillars and Pyramids over her Husbands Bodie And this Remedie which she conceived the most speedy and Infallible she newly took couragiously and with a boldnesse which merited to be reserved for a lesse Tragical Occasion Behold on her Face the Confidence of her Spirit and the graceful Composure of her Grief Every thing is very Becoming to Beautiful Persons Their Sorrows and Anger 's look handsomly Their Tears adorn them and their very despites Beautifie them And there is nothing even in their Maladies and VVounds which appears not Decent There is not any thing even in their Deaths which seems not pleasing from their Attractives and shines not from the same Lustre which it extinguisheth That of Panthea hath nothing hideous or gastly you would rather take it for a sweet Sleep then for a violent Death The Graces themselves if there be any such as Painters and Poets describe could not sleep more modestly And a Flower which the North Winde hath withered could not more gently bow down its Head nor die more gracefully It is not likewise a Palenesse which you see upon her Brow and Cheeks It is a tincture resembling that dying Brightnesse which appears in a Clear Cloud when the Sun withdraws his Beams from it Trust not her Eyes though they begin to close The Fire Burns still even when it is extinguished And the Sun being in the Ecliâ—se ceaseth not to be dangerous and to offend the sight The like may happen to these dying Eyes The Sparkles which fall from them retain still a kinde of Lightning and He it and I do not doubt but if 〈◊〉 were here and that one of them should enter into his Heart it would in kindle there a second Feaver and send back the Fire into his former VVound VVhilst her Eyes half shut cast forth their last Light and that her Mouth is open to her last â—ords you observe peradventure the passage of her Soul and desire to know whether it will issue out by her Eyes or Mouth Aâ—â—ure your self that through what art soever it passeth it will passe generously and depart victorious and through a fair gate It is credible neverthelesse that it will sally forth by the nearest Gate to the Heart and which she her self newly made with her own Hand A stream of Blood which goes before this great Soul prepares the way And spurting up even upon the Bodie of Abradates enters there through all his VVounds as if it would fill his empty Veins as if it would even penetrate his Heart to reinkindle the extinguished Fire and dispose it by the Spirits which it brings to receive the Soul which was to follow them Her Countenancâ— though languishing expresses joy at this encounter Her life seems to passe in good earnest with her Blood into her Husbands Bodie and her Soul is assured to finde there a second Abode which will prove more happy then the former had been Comforted by this Vain and sweet Imagination she let fall her Head upon the Head of Abradates You would say that she prepares her self to expire upon his Lips And that after the transmitting into him her Blood and Spirits she resolves to place her Sighs and last Breath upon his Mouth Love supports her in this Action But it is an Heroick and Magnanimous Love a Love which instructed her in Vertue and fortified her Courage For Loves if you are yet to learn it are not all Wanton and Voluptuous There are Austere and Chaste Loves there are Valiant and Philosophical ones And amongst them Glory and Vertue have their Confederates and Disciples as well as Vice and Pleasure He that assists Panthea with so much Care is one of these Confederates of Vertue and Disciples of Glory It is he that strengthened her against Temptations and the Courtships of Ariaspes he that inspired her with Chastity and Conjugal Faith he that taught her to apparel her self with the Reputation of her Husband and to Adorn her self with his Victories he that perswaded her rather to love Abradates glorious and dying with a good Name then living and Infamie This manner of loving Gallantly and like a Heroess was indeed according to Abradates own Heart And you see in what Posture he set himself to correspond therewith We have not seen him in the Conflict breaking a Squadron of Egyptians and pursuing the Victory in a Warlike Chariot But we behold the Glorious Colours which he brought thence and received even between the Arms of Victory It seems that his Valour could not die with him At least it appears still heated in his Wounds and stately on his Face The Rich Armour which his Generous Wife had bought him with her Pearl was pierced thorow in divers Places as if a great Soul could not fally forth by one single passage The blood which trickles down from thence is mixed with the blood of his Enemies wherewith he is covered and seems willing still to overcome All things have in him some Mark of Honour and Generosity And even Death it self is bold upon his Brow and resembles Victory In this so glorious and Mournfull Condition his Vertue begot Pittie even in those to whom in the Conflict it had bred Emulation It was Honoured by the Blood of Enemies and by the Tears of his Rivals by the terrour of the one and the affliction of the other And immediately a sumptuous Monument erected over his Bodie and that of Panthea buried in the same Garment will be to each of them as a second Life and an Immortalitie
of Jasper and Porphire SONNET WHile this Heroick Mede attempts to gain O're weighty Palms be by their poyse is slain His Brow still sweats with Gallans Actions done Still do's the Blood about his Armour run His Hearts late active Flames have lost their Fire And through its reaking Blood in Smoak expire While couch'd among the Dead his Soul pursues The wand'ring Shades of those the sword subdues O hold Panthea hold thy best Relief Rests in the moderation of thy Grief Save thou at least thy Husbands second Heart And let one Death suffice your common Smart In thee he still survives and may again In thee fair Cruel by thy Hand be slain Thâ— inhumane Steel that shall dismiss thy Breath To him must needs procure a second Death ELOGIE OF PANTHEA PANTHEA had a Philosophers Spirit in a Womans Bodie and a knowing and disciplined Soul under a Barbarous Climat There was nothing weak or rustical in her Life All her Actions were full of Courage and Dexteritie Chastity Grace and Modesty excepted nothing appeared in her agreeable to her Sex Having remained a Captive after the Defeat of the Assyrians vanquished by Cyrus she was set apart as the most precious piece of the Spoil and as the choicest fruit of the Victory And in this occasion her Vertue appeared more rare and prizable then her Beauty A noble man of Persia having had the Impudence to attempt upon her Honour Discretion Chastity and Fidelity defended it And the Victory which remained to her evidently shewed that Fortune had not yet overcome her And that though she were an absolute Captive yet she had alwayes a free Heart and a soveraign Soul The Affection she bore to her Husband Abradates was serious and manly she did not consume it in affected Discourses and superfluous Apprehensions She truly loved his Life and Repose but she was jealous of his Reputation and Renown And she would rather have wished him an untimely and glorious Death then a dishonoured and compleat old Age. So far was she from making him lose in her Closet the hours of the Field and from withdrawing him from Gallant Encounters and Honourable Dangers that she sent him thither in a costly Equipage like a Conquerer that she delighted to see in him an adorned and sumptuous Valour which might both dazle and affright which might beget at once both Admiration and Fame He died likewise Victorious in the Gold Armour which she had bought for him with her Pearl and pretious Stones as if she intended thereby either to adorn his Death or to set a Value and Lustre on his Victory Being brought to her covered over with his own Blood and that of his Enemies she received him Couragiously and with a manly Constancy mixt with sorrow and Majesty She forbore not to bewail him but it was done with those modest and decent Tears which do not soften the Heart but beautifie the Face Not being able to make his Soul return into his Body she essayed to substitute her own in the place of it For that end she opened her Bosom by a wide wound and leaning on him as if she were willing to fill his Heart with her Blood and Life she dyed in two Bodies and yeelded up her Soul through her Husbands Wound and and her own MORAL REFLECTION I Put not here a Sword into Womens Hands nor invite them unto Poison a Halter or Precipice Voluntary Death might appear handsom and becoming in this Barbarian it would seem black and hideous in a Christian Woman But Chastity Fidelity and Constancie are in use with all Nations and requisite for All Sects And our Christian Women without darkning or disfiguring themselves may imitate Barbarian Let them learn of her that Conjugal Love is not an effeminate and mincing Passion That it is vigorous and serious That it is capable of great Designes and of Noble and Couragious Thoughts Let them understand that though their Sex be exempted from the Dangers and Functions of War yet their Fortunes and Mindes are not so that they ought to serve with their Goods and Possessions if not with their Persons And that it were a Disgrace for them to spare two or three Pearls and Parcels of rich Cutwork in Occasions wherein Princes are Liberal of their Blood and Kings expose their Crowns and Heads In fine let them know that their chief Ornament consists in their Husbands Glory that they ought to adorn themselves with all that contributes to their Credit and Reputation And that a man without Honour is as great a Deformity to a brave Woman as a Head of Clay to a Statue of Ivorie MORAL QUESTION Concerning the Order which a Gallant Woman ought to observe in Conjugal Love IF good Eyes and a great Light be requisite to love regularly more Courage and Vertue is yet required to it And well ordained Charity what sweetness soever it promiseth is the most powerful and the most rare perfection of a Gallant Woman There are many who tenderly love their Husbands The Heart of a Turtle or the Soul of a Dove without other Philosophie would suffice for this Tendernesse But surely few there are that love them according to measure and in order to their duties few that know how to afford just proportions to their kindnesses and to set every office in its place and in the degree which is proper to it Finally few that can boast with the Spouse in the Canticles of having a regular Love and a well ordered Charity And neverthelesse it is this regular Love and well ordered Charitie which must accomplish the Fortitude of a Woman For according to the saying of S. Augustine these give the Character and Tincture to all other Vertues of what Sex soever they be and by what Names soever they are called Morever this Order to draw the Designe of it in little and to teach it by Epitomie must be taken from the very order of those Objects that are beloved Wherein this proportion is to be exactly observed that every Object be ranked in the esteem and according to the degree of its Merit That the most pretious and important should have the first Cares and be furthest advanced in the Heart that the rest of lesse consequence should remain in the superficies and rest satisfied with the second thoughts and remaining Affections And generally that love should grow intense or remisse rise or fall act or acquiesce according to the different weight according to the several degrees according to the Value of the good which is to be affected and pursued This Rule ought to be in a Gallant Woman what the Rod was to the Angel whom Ezekiel saw measuring the Temple She ought not to Love but with proportion according to the quantity of merit And how vast soever her Heart is she must yet be wary of pouring it out rashly and at random she ought to give nothing of it but by weight and measure Not that I permit her to divide and distribute it to whom
she would change her Religion The couragious Princess was not daunted at the Death she saw before her Eyes and as it were upon the Brink of her Lips She was drawn out from thence with an initiated Martyrdom and a compleat Victory And to overcome her self as she had vanquished Gosuinda and Heresie she suppressed the resentment of this injurie and concealed it even from Hermenigildus himself But the Eyes of 〈◊〉 are more spiritual and see farther then others they have something of prophetical in them and the most artificial dissimulation with all its Countenances and Masks could not make them believe it The Prince no sooner beheld her as yet pale with the Combat she had lately sought but he conceived an ill opinion of this Paleness And not knowing whether he should take it for a signe of the past evil or for a presage of evil to come he suffered in a Moment all that Indegundis either had or could yet suffer His Intreaties at last having wrested the Truth out of her Mouth he left the Court with her and retired to Sivil It was there where the Princesse freed from the Importunites and wicked Devices of Gosuinda set upon Herisie in her turn And gained a second victory over her which was evidently the Recompence of the first She was a Soveraign in her Husbands Heart and though this Soveraignty of Love placed her above all the Empires of the Earth yet she had a scruple to reign in that Heart where the Son of God was degraded Having an Heretical Husband she could not believe her self to be entirely Catholick And becoming one self same Flesh and Bodie with an excommnnicated Person she apprehended to be burned or stained with his Anathema she feared left the sound part might draw putrifaction and infection from the corrupted But though she were assured of her own salvation by an expresse Revelation from Heaven yet the eternal Reprobation of her Husband was a frightful Specter which awaked her every Night and caused her to have strange Dreams At every moment she seemed to behold the Sword of the Divine Justice severing two so well united halfs And the exterminating Angels seized upon the one and cast it into Flames On the other side she apprehended that the Conversion of Hermenigildus might prove fatal to both their Lives or at least that it might infire the State She had reason to fear the Furie of an irritated Step-mother and the Hands of an Heretical Father become a Tyrant It seemed to her that it would be more proper to suffer God to work To expect the effect of his Mercie with patience and to enjoy mean-while the Flower of her Youth the Fruits of her marriage and the Offers of Fortune then to lose all this by an indiscreet Pietie and of Supererogation and by an Enterprise exceeding her Forces Faith nevertheless weighed more with her Spirit then human Considerations and the Interest of Eternity prevailed against the Interest of Time She resolved whatever might happen no longer to endure this Divorce of Religion which profaned her Marriage No longer to suffer the Excommunication and Anathema of her Head the Heresie and Reprobation of her Husband Love was the first Doctor that began the Conference with Hermenigildus The Graces who are perswasive without speaking joyned themselves with Love and were of the Party There were neither Texts cited nor Reasons alleadged in this Dispute All the Arguments were Tears and Prayers And Tears and Prayers effected more then all the Divinity converted into Dilemmas and Syllogysms could have done Hermenigildus shaken by this first Conference shewed less opposition at the second which he had with the Bishop of S. Leander And the Light of Truth working more efficaciously and with more Force upon a Subject which the fire of Love had prepared he submitted at last to both This change made a great noise and he himself to give notice of it to all Spain caused Mony to be coyned which was as it were a publike Act of his Faith and an abjuration of Heresie which his Image and Name published thorowout all the Cities After this the Father irritated at the Conversion of his Son and the Son inflamed with his new received Faith came to an open Breach â—nâ—aged Gosuinda and the Furious Hereticks enkindled the Wrath of the Father The Church of Spain being under persecution and the Catholicks ill treated increased the Zeal of the Son Indegundis tryed all sorts of Expedients to bring things to moderation and to reconcile 〈◊〉 to his Father as she had reconciled him to God She seriously and with Tears represented to him the ill example and dangers of this War and made him discern that after a long contention it could lead him but to a decryed and scandalous Victory or to a dismal Defeat followed by a Tragick Death She made him call to Minde the Heroick Maximes of that Faith he had embraced And often repeated to him that according to this Faith Acts of Injustice might less handsomly be committed then suffered and that there was no Sufferes in so bad a Condition who was not of more value then the most happy Criminal of the World But the Fire was already too much â—nkindled And there were too many Hands and Mouths which stirred the Coals on all sides Hermenigildus who foresaw that it would be great and lasting resolved not to cast himself all entire into it and without reserve He believed that if the dearest part of himself were removed the other part which he should expose thereunto would thereby become more Couragious and be better prepared against all the stroaks of Fortune He resolved then to send Indegundis into Africa And Indegundis was not a little troubled to resolve for this passage She was in very great apprehension concerning the Life and Liberty of her Husband but her fear was much greater for his as yet tender Faith and for his initiated Salvation And having conjured him at her departure to make an Accomodation with his Father and to endeavour rather to gain then vanquish him She added with a serious Tone and with a more affirmative Countenance But Hermeninâ—ldus to what side soever the Fortune of War shall encline and what proposition soever shall be tendred you take heed of entring into any Treaty wherein Religion enters not with you If Peace can be purchased with some losse remain a looser in Gods Name to obtain it but let the losse be of your Fortune and not of your Piety Abandon freely to the bad time your Pretentions and Rights your Crown and Succession nay your Head with your Crown and your Life with your Succession but proceed in such sort that you preserve at least your Faith and rest assured that conserved Faith will render you all things with use Hermenigildus promised to remember her good Instructions He himself took the Spirit and Zeal thereof from her Mouth And all that he promised he kept exactly and with Constancy War having bin unfortunate to
Collatin and Lucrecius her good Father They being come with Brutus and Valerius their intimate Friends she with Tears related to them the sad Accident of her violated Chastity and having engaged them by Oath to Revenge it she on a sudden preventing their Excuses and foresight of her Intention struck her self to the Heart with a Dagger which she kept hid under her Gown Behold the last Act of this funestous Tragedy which will perchance have yet more sad sequels and you are come very seasonably to receive the last sights of the first Roman Heroesse She gave her self but one blow and all that were present received it A stream of blood ran from Lucrecia's VVound Streams of Tears flowed from her Husbands and Fathers VVound And of these tvvo sorts of VVounds I know not which is the deepest and most painfull I know not whether the blood comes more from the Center of the heart or whether it slides away with more resentment then the tears However it were Lucrecia appears well satisfied with the stroke she newly gave her self You would say that with her blood there issues forth something I know not what that is luminous and clears the dark clouds which the shame of the last night had left in her eyes and on her brow You would say that her Innocence and purity of heart are seen through her wound and her wound is to her as it were a new mouth which cals upon the eyes and perswades in silence Do you hear what this mouth eloquent without noise and perswasive without words uttereth It protests against the outrages and tiranny of the Tarquins it implores the revenge of Gods and Men and doubtless it will obtain it from them both and obtain it by the voice of her blood which is couragious and bold which is animated with indignation and justice which is full of a Roman spirit and vertue There is nothing seen effeminate or weak in her person nothing which is not either a proof of her innocence or a mark of her courage And though there were no other testimony for her yet her justification is clear and manifest in her looks in the ayr of her face and countenance The tincture of vertue is not there a superficial painting and an addition of art it is there interiour and natural it hath been still entertained by the effusions of her heart and the â—ayes of her soul And now that her soul hath abandoned it and that her heart pours it self out through her wound this fair tincture resists still the colour of death which effaces all the rest you will not believe that I say too much if I aver that it would neither submit to the stain of vice nor to the dye of impudence You may have seen bashfulness elsewhere All honest women have this tincture and the brown should have it as well as the fair You may have also observed modesty elsewhere it is a natural ornament and no costly dress which may be used by rich and poor But perhaps you may have never seen but upon this face a couragious bashfulness and a vigorous and heightned modesty This temper belongs to the ancient Heroesses who armed the Graces and led them forth to the wars Those of Lucrecia though not warlike appear not less bold and her beauty though brought up in the shade and under a veil hath no less vigour or courage Nevertheless this powerfull and couragious beauty begins to decay and these wounded Graces will quickly expire one after another Mean while it is apparent that the loss of their Honour doth more disorder them and is more sensible to them then the loss of life Their shame is still fresh and entire and fear is not yet come upon them Their blushes do not vanish though their spirits steal away with their blood and before they die of their wound they will expire with regret for having complyed with the last nights crime though they then assisted without being seen and by meer constraint Collatin who had the greatest loss by this accident seems the most afflicted He supports Lucrecia who sinks between his arms and he himself would need anothers arms if he were not sustained by wrath which came to the succour of his heart and inflamed his countenance Seised as he was with wrath and grief indignation and pitty he could not express himself but by his eyes and his tears since his voice failed him bid unto Lucrecia the last adieu and confirm to her the good opinion he had of her Innocence To this discourse of tears Lucrecia makes answer with blood and sighs She casts down her eyes upon her wound as if she meant to give a sign to Collatin to behold at least her naked heart through this gaping wound I believe that the last motion of her lips is an oath whereby she assures him that he shall find it free from the stains of her body that he shall meet there with no other image then his own nor any print of a forraign flame and that if there remain still any ashes of it they are the ashes of a lawfull fire which he alone hath inkindled and which is no less pure then the sacred fire of the Vestals Though there be nothing but spirit and breath in this oath yet it is understood by Collatin who makes the like protestation of fidelity for the future But it is only exprest in tears and sighs he hath forgotten all other terms And Lucrecia who yet well understands them accepts the protestation of his eyes and consigns it to her soul which carries it with joy to the other world Brutus who stands by makes a third protestation which is of a different form and will not be accomplished but with fire and sword The countenance you behold in him is not his ordinary meen The language he speaks is new to him and without doubt the Genius of Rome hapening to be present at this action appeared to him and inspired him to the full It is from his light this Romans eyes are ardent and his whole face as flaming fire It is with his spirit he is possessed and they are his words which issue forth of his mouth VVith one hand he holds the bloody Dagger which he but newly drew forth of Lucrecia's wound and seems to offer it as a sacrifice to the Genius that speaks to him the other he lifts to Heaven and accompanying with his voice and fire the voice and smoke of the chaste blood which distils from the fatall Dagger he vows to the Gods and his Country the ruin of the Tarquins and the extirpation of Soveraignty This new fire stayes not with him it passes to Valerius and Lucrecius the Father It dryes up the tears upon their Cheeks and sadness in their hearts and inkindles in place thereof an anger which is yet but a particular and domestick fire and such an one as will soon set Rome and all Italy in an universall flame These two grave Senators confirm by
this Generosity was Heroick And Spain so magnificent in great words and in vast and high expressions hath no words so great nor expressions so vast which can equal it Nevertheless the action of a Woman and a French Woman hath surpassed it And the Loyaltie of Madam de Barry was so much the more Gallant and Generous then that of Guâ—man in as much as a dearer pledge and a more irreparable and sensible loss was to be hazarded thereby The Spaniard consented to the loss of a young Plant which was dear to him and made one part of himself But perchance this young plant was not single This part was served from him And besides others might grow up in its place The French Woman came not off at so cheap a rate she was to undergo the loss of the Stem and of all the Roots She was to suffer the Incision of a part which was inherent in her which stuck to her flesh and bones which was flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone which made up the moâ—ty of her heart and spirit And the chiefest matter is that this so difficult and costly fidelity was exercised in a time of trouble and tumult In a time when Laws were in disorder and Duties in confusion when Rebellion was Canonized by the People and Loyaltie made an Hackny when Soveraignty was Lâ—tigious and brought into Dispute when the oppressed Crown seemed ready to be torn in pieces or to change its Master The Command of Laâ—cate continued to this generous Widow And for the space of seven years she performed the Functions of it with so much courage and with so laborious an Assiduity as she left nothing more to be desired in point of her care and conduct By her presence she gave incouragement to the labours and exercises of the Souldiers She was assisting in their Duties and kept them in an exact Order and under a regular Discipline She Commanded pleasingly and with Dignity and she her self added example and the shew of action to her Commands And whatsoever an active and vigilant Captain Armed with Authority could have done in a Garrison Town this gallant Woman did it generously and with success she did it with comeliness and a pleasing grace The deceased King Henry the Great who esteemed nothing rashly and out of fancy highly prized this Generosity And when some Courtiers affecting the Government of Laâ—cate represented to him that a Place of such importance was not safe in the hands of a Woman He often Answered That he reposed more Trust in this Woman then in the ablest Man of his Kingdom That he knew not any one who could give so gallant an Earnest or so precious a Pledge of their Fidelity as she had done And that above all it concerned the honour of France to have it known that there were Ladies of that Nation not inferiour to Captains Nothing could be added to these few words They spake more then our longest Elogies can do They Crown the Memory of this Generous Woman and are a greater Honour to her then a triumphant Arch and many Statues ARRIE fortifie son Mary contre la Mort et par l'essay et l'exemple de la sienne 〈…〉 qu'on meurt sans douleur quand on meurt auec courage 〈…〉 Arria WEE are come too late and have lost the fairest piece of the most magnanimous action Rome hath ever seen The Actors as you see are few in number but all choice and famous ones And what they doe in private and without noise will be speedily carryed to Theatres and publike Places and wiâ—l receive Applauses from all free and Roman Hands You come not so far off and are not so great a stranger to Rome that you have heard no speech of Arria She is a modern Copy of the ancient Vertue she is a young woman and hath the Features of the old Republike Her Apparell and Speech sutes indeed with this time but her Courage Constancy and Fidelity are of the Sabiâ—s Age. And though she lives under the Reign of Claudius the Simple and in the Court of Messeline the Incontinent yet nothing of this Reign nor of this Court appears in her Manners They are of Lucrecia's Age or of some other far purer Time and less remote from the primitive Vertue Common Fame may have told you all that can be said of this womans Vertue but it could not as yet inform you what you see of her Courage Shâ— returned long since from Dalmatia following in a small Bark the Fortune and Ship of her Husband who was led away Captive You may have heard that he had been one of the Heads of the Scribonian Conspiracy and that he hâ—d liberty to pass which way he pleased to Messalin and Narcissus His wife perceiving him irresolute between Fear and Courage she her self took a couragious resolution that she might fortifie him by her example and teach him how to make choise of a Consular Death and equall to the 〈◊〉 and Triumphs of his Ancestors I could wish that we had been present at the Discourse which she newly had with him VVe might have heard the Images of the Cicinnaâ—s speak we might have seen the memory of Cato and Brutus and the glory of all the Defenders of Liberty laid before him to give him Courage To the force of so many Heroick reasons and of so many magnanimous words she added the force of her Example which is far more Heroick and Magnanimous And the mortall stroke she but even now gave her self set a value upon her Reasons and fortified them by a present Authority and by a Personall and still-fresh Experiment She exhorts him with her eyes and countenance as you see she exhorts him with her hand with which she presents him a Dagger But her most efficacious and pressing Exhortation is that of her wound which is a mouth of good credit and belief a mouth which can only say what it thinks and nothing which it doth not perswade This stream of blood which flows from thence hath her voice and spirit and this spent all warm that it penetrates the heart of Cicinnas dissipates his fears and coldness stayes his trembling fits and fortifies his weakness and raises up there against Death a true Patriciman Vertue of the Age of Liberty and of the spirit of Rome Arria accompanies with the sweetness of her eyes the vigour of this spirit and the shadow of approaching Death was so far from obscuring them that they never cast forth more fire they never diffused so pure and penetrating a light You believe peradventure that this is done by an effusion which is naturall and common to all Torches which draw near their end For my part I believe and believe it with more probability that this surplusage of light issues from the very soul of Arria which shews it self openly by these fair Gates to the soul of Cicinnaâ— and exhorts it to â—ally forth couragiously after her But from what spring sâ—ever this pure and
Speculatives of the I scurial from whom we have learnt by tradition that the death of Escoredo made away by the secret order of King Philip was indeed the pretence for imprisoning Perez But the concurrence of Philip and Perez in the love of the Princess of Floby was the true cause of it Nature had accomplished with extraordinary Care both the minde and body of this Princess but she had formed but one of her eyes whether she disparted to make her a second like to the first whether she would have her reseâ—ble therein the Day which hath but one whether as Perez himself spake it to Henry the Great she apprehended if she had two eyes she might infiâ—e the whole World However it were this Defect did not hinder her from subjecting a Prince who boasted of having two World under his subjection and of reigning as long as the Sun shines And the Malignant Constellation of Anthony Perez designed that his inclination should concur with that of his Master Truly that Concurrence is very perilous and the danger so much the more certain as Fortune appears more favourable and gives there the â—aâ—â—est hopes In all times it hath been preached to Courtiers and in all seasons it will be unprofitably preached to them without amendment There are some arrogant and temeâ—arious Loves which give a bold shock to Crowns and Scepters which take delight in making Honourable and Soveraign Rivals which are like that vain-glorious Youth who would wrastle and run with none but Kings But these arrogant and temerarious Loves are subject to cruel Tragedies And not long since remarkable and sad examples have been seen of them amongst our Neighbors Anthony Perez who was in other things so judicious and prudent did not in this make use of his Judgement nor advised with his Prudence He loved the Princess Floby with Philip And perchance to his misfortune he was better beloved by her then Philip. He had a pleasing and affable Wit he Wrote gallantly both in Prose and Verse He had an excellent gift in composing a Letter he translated well a Sonnet and Stanza His Services favoured not of Authority nor resembled Obligations The Graces and Muses which are attractive and perswasive spake to his Mistress in his behalf And Philip had for himself but a dazling and incommodious greatness and that Majestly which tortures Love and imprisons the Graces This good Fortune if I may stile it so was the ruine of Perez Philip chose rather to part with a good Servant then to endure a Rival more happy then himself And the death of Escoredo happening in this conjuncture he put Perez in a Place where he had leasure to learn that it is a dangerous thing to stand in competition with his Master His Couragious and Faithful Wise did not account her self a Widow by the fall of her Husband she did not believe that his Imprisonment had set her at Liberty The Princess of Floby was no corrosive to her and she did not rejoyce in her minde with Philip for having with one stroke freed her from a Rival and himself from a Competitor These thoughts of Liberty would have become a tatling Dame who might have had a loosned spirit and a Widdowed heart in an engaged Body And an â—â—â—â—tated Jealousie might have been satiated with these bitter imaginations and these desires of Revenge The prudent Wife equally remote from a Gossiping humour as well as Jealousie considered that unhappy and devested Perez was not another Man then Perez in favour and invested with the grace of his Prince That bad Fortune gives no right of retraction nor justifies unfaithful Women And that a heart fastened in good earnest never withdraws from any thornes which grow in the place where it is fixed She represented to her self that her Husbands faults did not dispense with her Duty that a strange and forreign fire had not burnt her Tyes nor consumed the yoke of her Marriage that her Fidelity would appear so much the more Christian and Heroick for being stronger and victorious over a more dangerous Adversary She perswaded her self that the most eminent Generosity of a good Woman and the perfection of her Vertue consisted in preserving her self all entire to her divided Husband and to secure unto him even to the last the donation of her heart though he should every day withdraw his own by piece-meal In accompanying him to what place soever he should be cast by a storm And above all in taking as great a share in his adversities as himself even in those adversities which are the punishment of his faults Fortified by these considerations she made her self a prisoner with Perez and reserved to her self so much liberty as he wanted to solicite their common friends to implore from time to time the goodness of the King to employ by intervals the credit and favour of tears and supplications for the inlargement of her Husband Behold how many Combats she fought how many Victoâ—â—es she gained in this single action She overcame Jealousie which is the most powerful and dangerous enemy of Women She deprived her self of liberty and repose which are natural and inherent Blessings Blessings which are not parted with but by extream violence She subdued Avarice by the continual profusions she was enforced to make to render the Gaolers and Guards plyable in giving them their fill She was stronger then a Prison rigorous and terrible by reason of its incommodity but far more rigorous and terrible in respect of the Princes anger which had banished all pitty from thence which had re-inforced the Gates and redoubled the obscurities thereof which had added a new hardness to the Iron and Walls In fine she was victorious over tortures and death it self exposing her self as she did to both by the boldness she shewed in conveying her Husband out of Prison and in deceiving the expectation and anger of the Prince Truly this boldness was very Ingenious and Witty And Love was not only resolute in this action but a Deceiver in good earnest and without scandal Notwithstanding all this the Couragious Woman would have answered with her head both for the Inventions of her boldness and the deceits of her Love if Philip had consulted with the jealousie he had of his Authority and of his Mistress Anthony Perez seeing all wayes barred up against hope and that not one single Ray of mercy appeared from the Escurial resolved by the advice of his Wife to seek of himself an end to his Miseries without importuning any more unpowerful Intercessors and a deaf Clemency The resolution was that Iane Coello should procure a Womans Garment to be secretly brought and that Perez in the evening might go forth with her disguised in this attire and mingled with the Women of her Train The Plot took effect as they had designed it Iane Coello went forth accompanied with this new Attendant and intreated the Guards with gold in her hand to permit her Husband to take some rest who
fault that his soul is not already at liberty he presseth it with vehemency enough and hath made for it Orifices large enough in all his Veins But Seneca must be long a dying that his lingring death may be a lasting Instruction and a Pattern of a large extent Surely this Seneca is not the man of whom Envy and Detraction hath made so many false Pictures I perceive nothing of weakness or vice wherewith they reproach him And this Death what ever ignorant and traducing spirits say cannot be the Tragedy of a seemingly Vertuous person of a masked Philosopher of a Counterfeit and Sophisticall Doctor His calm and setled Constancy shews outwardly the stability of his mind He seems to confirm with his eyes and brow whatsoever he hath written concerning the contempt of Fortune and Death You would say that he alledges himself for the proof of his Doctrine He Philosophizes by as many mouths as there are wounds And every drop of his blood is a Stoicall Demonstration A proof of his Opinions and a testimony which he renders to the Courage of his Sect. His weeping and mourning friends receive with his last words the last spirit of Philosophy and the pure lights which already his almost loosned and descryed Soul diffuseth The attention they give him is full of respect and hath something I know not what of Religion It would be hard to say whether it be to his voice or blood they are attentive whether it be the dictates of his mouth or those of his wounds which they write In this extremity this severe man who so boldly looks upon Death as if he were seeing a Mask dares not fix his eyes upon Paulina I think that he apprehends lest friendship might soften his spirit and the Husband be found more powerfull in his heart then the Philosopher But â—e not scandalized at this tenderness It is not unseemly in a wise man He may with credit afflict himself for another And the Tears which friendship hath exprest may decently trickle down on his Face SONNET PAULINA speaks PAulina meets Death's Launcet with a Mind No less of Stoick then of Roman Kind A Philosophick Love which charms her Heart Will give the stroke to sweeten all her smart Inhumane Fortune through remorse or hate Runs to rebuke her and repair her Fate But her great Soul resists a forced stay And with her Blood makes haste to slide away You daring Sages who for Truths promote Your high fictitious Dreams and from us Vote Our Noble Passions Learn of this Heroique And Famous Woman to be truly Stoique And know this truth whatever you in vain Have learn'd from your fantastick Founder's Brain That the most Tragick Deaths delightfull grow VVhen Love himself shall give the fatal Blow Elogy of Paulina IF there were great Vices in Nero's Age there were also eminent and very exemplar Vertues The darkest nights have their Planets And in the worst Seasons the Sun hath his good Intervals and fair hours This Monster inrag'd against Reason which made him see his Errours fell upon Seneca who had cleer'd and disciplin'd that faculty in him As if it had proceeded from the Masters fault who polished the Glass and not from his own Deformity that he was hideous He then gave order for his death And this excellent Man who was grown old under another Mistress then this slight fencing Philosophy which is only bold in a School and against Fantosmes was ready to submit to this barbarous Command for proof of his Doctrine and to put in Practice what he had set forth in Propositions and Opinions When it was time to depart he did not so much as turn his head to listen to Fortune who solicited and called him to the Empire He departed out of a house more worth then ten Millions as if he had gone out of a thatchâ—d 〈◊〉 He shewed himself only sensible for Paulina whom he leâ—t young and exposed to the outrages of a bad season and the insolencies of a Tyrant who had caused it He endeavoured to perswade her to live and take comfort in her own Vertue and the Goods he had left her But she remonstrated to him that these indulgent and careful perswasions were not fit to be used to the Wife of Seneca That his Example counselled her better then his Reasons That it taught as well as Philosophy how to die resolutely and with courage Their veins were opened with the same Lancet they mingled their Blood their Spirits and Examples And the soul of Paulina would have followed that of Seneca if it had not been detained at the last step she was to make Nero apprehending lest the death of so illustrious a Lady and of so high a Reputation might compleat the drawing on him a publick hatred sent Souldiers who bound up her veins and used violence to make her live But she retained all that she could of death which was then kept from her And ever after conserved the desire of it in her heart and the paleness of it upon her face MORAL REFLECTION PAulina who is still victorious over death in this Picture informs us that Philosophy hath no Sex that it communicates it self without making any distinction between Garments and Faces That the Graces themselves may become Valiant and Couragious under her Discipline And that Cowardise proceeds from the corruption of the heart and not from the tenderness of the temper nor the dispositions of Fortune It likewise informs us that Vertue must needs be very weak and Christianity superficial in the greatest part of Christian Ladies who perplex themselves about a Necklace and a few Pearls who have their hearts fixed on a lac'd Petticoat who are slaves to a small Fortune which to express it well is but a figure of guilded dirt The least they can expect is to be condemned by this Heathen woman who had a soul dis-ingaged from Riches which may vie with those of Kings who had a free heart even in the arms of a Fortune which was as large as the Empire and which raised jealousie even in the Fortune of the Emperour himself The ensuing Question will manifest whether Paulina could be a Philosopher and a Stoick and whether I had reason to say that Philosophy hath no Sex MORAL QVESTION VVhether VVomen be capable of true Philosophy A Woman hath been heretofore seen playing the Orator in publick places who did with unprofitable and studied Discourses what the Mountebanks now adayes use to do with their Drugs and Antick faces There was also a lewd Woman who affected a brutish and impudent Freedom who braved Fortune and Nature with a Staff and Wallet who was Beggerly and Arrogant and who had under a ragged and tottered Garment a worse Pride then is found under cloth of Gold and Purple Both the one and the other was called Philosophy But both had but the name and a false mask which drew Spectators to them And certainly if no other Philosophy had descended from Heaven then from this
fault deserved punishment her youth at least and her imprudence were worthy of excuse and that God and posterity would shew her favor Constancie Grace and Majesty which had ever accompanied her ascended also upon the Scaffold with her One would have said that all that was seen there could be nothing else but a meer representation of her punishment And that all this Tragical preparation was but a fiction and a meer Ceremony She rendred thanks to the Catholick Divine who had assisted her and comforted her dispairing servants with so well composed a manner and with so vigorous and Noble words so full of Judgement and Courage as it seemed to some that if Philosophy her self had been to dye she could not have dyed more couragiously and with more Dignity She made her self ready for the stroak of the Executioner and to humble her beauty though it were innocent of her Misfortune she made a Wreath or Head-band of her own Hair whereof it seemed Nature had formed her a Diadem They offered to strike off her head with a Sword as if the Sword could have diminished the shame of her punishment and Dignified her Death and the hand of the Executioner But she rejected this unprofitable and superstitious Ceremony And resolved to be Executed with the same Ax which newly came from the Execution of her Husband Whether that she desired to mingle her bloud with his Whether she believed that a more painful death would be a more just Expiation of her faults And that the Iron of the Ax would better purifie her soul then the Iron of the Sword Such was the end of the Reign and Life of Iane Grey who was an Athenian and Roman in England many Ages after the ruin of Athens and Rome She shewed our Predecessors an Image of the ancient Constancy and primitive Vertue And taught us that the Graces may be learned as well as the Muses That Philosophy belongs to both Sexes And that even in our daies under the Purple and upon the Throne she might be as vigorous and couragious as she was heretofore under the Wallet and in the Tub of the Sunck VNE Dame chrestienne et Francoise combat iusques à la mort pour sa chasteté 〈…〉 parcille a celle de Iudith egale la France à la Iudée 〈…〉 Gallant Christian Women The French Iudith HEre we must beware of a bad Calculation by our Fancy and of a mistake in our sight if we believe them in this point we are in the Age of Nabuchodonosor and in Judea And the Tragick Action we behold is the death of Holyfernes and the victory of Judith Nevertheless we are far remote from that time and see indeed another Countrey and other things It is not credible that Holyfernes is returned so many years after his Death It is also less credible that Judea hath removed from Asia into Europe If whole Races and even the Ages themselves do not revive if Cities change not Regions and cross the Seas assure your self there is nothing in this of the Adventure of Bethulia Know then that you are in France and upon the Territories of Gontran King of Burgundy and that this Maid which you see with a naked and bloody sword in her hand is a Native of Champaigne Do not ask me concerning her Birth This well beseeming Anger and this modest and composed Fierceness will confirm you better then my self that she must be of a good Family And though her Phisiognomy may not induce us to believe it her blood must needs be as noble as her countenance As for this man who looseth his blood through two great wounds which will be perchance more beneficiall then they are honourable to him his Domestiques who hasten to his â—yde caâ—l him Duke Amolon I dare not tell you that he is 〈◊〉 a French man there is too much of savageness in his manners and saith And it would be too great a shame for France which is so noble a Mother so Generous so Civilized and to Christian to bring forth Scythians and Tartars and that under so temperate a Climate and so benign Planets there should be found souls of the same temper with those which are born under the Pole But let him be a French man by birth and a Tartar or Scythian by nature it doth not hunder Vertue which playes the principall part in this Action from being French And this second Judith will one day more honour her Country then this second Holyfernes could disgrace it You see the boldness of her Countenance and the Vertue of her Face There is much of Judith in both But there is more then the Look and Face more then the boldness and Vertue of Judith It is no common chaste woman you see It is a Virgin nay a victorious Virgin which newly fought even to the effusion of her blood And by these two features wherein she transcends Judith the French Copy exceeds the Originall lew and the Modern obscures the Ancient Judith After a long and obstinate battle fought against this Tyrant she was carryed away by his people and laid with violence upon his Bed but this was no longer his Bed but a Scaâ—â—old made of Silk and Feathers it was the place ordained for the end of his Tyrannie and for the punishment of his Crimes VVine and Sleep had already closed up his eyes and tyed his hands and there wanted but a Sword and an Executioner to make a great and celebrious example of him His Arms being near at hand the chaste French woman inspired by the same Angel who inspired the chaste Iew took advantage of the Sleep and Sword of her enemy and made of Amolon an Holyfernes The two great wounds which you see in his head were given by that fair and chaste Hand Pain awakened his bound up and benummed Reason and the first drops of his blood extinguished the dishonest fire which the Tears and Prayers of this innocent Maid had enkindled He is no longer the same brutish and furious person as before The wanten flames of his heart and the impure imaginations of his head are all fallyed forth at his wounds Iudgement and Respect are entred in their Room you would say that he awakes with new eyes Those at least retained no longer any thing of that sulphure which was enkindled by the smallest Rayes of Beauty and which was set on fire by every lovely glance which issued from it He seems to endure with torment the sight of his chaste and couragious Enemy He suffers it nevertheless and his confusion mixed with astonishment his shame accompanied with reverence make a silent Declaration upon his face by which he justifies the attempt and acknowledges it for a lawfull Victory He doth consider that the same person is in his power who had newly plunged him in blood and who had heretofore inflamed him who had pierced his heart and newly wounded his head He no longer remembers his Love he resents not his injury His eyes
most Luminous and highest part of Heaven He is next to God the Mediator of holy Marriages and well united Pairs He is the common Spirit of Christian Sympathyes and the Moderator of Chaste Agreements and Vertuous Harmonies Such an Exhorter is most powerful and his Inspirations leave nothing to be acted by Reason However he is not the sole perswader of the Princess Her Husband though fast asleep is no less Perswasive nor Eloquent them he If Prince Edward speaks not with his mouth he speaks by the paleness of his face He speaks from the Ardour of his Feaver and the Palpatation of his heart He speaks from his wound which hath a Voice of Blood and words of Passion In silence the Princess yields attention to this Voice and to these VVords And Answereth them with her Sighs and Tears which are no less Eloquent nor less Passionate And ere long when she shall thrust her Tongue and Mouth into this VVound her Heart will descend upon her Lips to bid the last adieu to the Princes Heart and to transmit into it her last Flame together with her Life But fear nothing in her behalf This Love her Inciter will preserve them both He put a secret Antidote in to her Mouth and gave her Spirit the gift of Healing Her Lips which he purified with a Spiritual and Sacred Fire will Exorcise Death and dispossess it of this Body without taking it into her own And one day Edward Cured and Eleonor Preserved will be reckoned amongst the miracles of Heroick Charity SONNET ON some Exploit Prince Edward Dreaming lyes VVith Death in 's Wound and slumber in his Eyes His Spouse to Cure him is resolv'd to Dy VVith Heart like those of her brave Ancestry Love more then Nature skill'd in Life's repairs Makes him a precious Balsome of her Tears VVhose Soul already heals him in Designe And at his VVound do's with his Soul conjoyne Approach thy Mouth and Heart couragious VVife 'T is that must save thy gallant Edwards life That Heart of thine with true Affection Crown'd Shall make thy Tongue a Plaister for his Wound To Cure thy Prince employ no other Skill The Fire the Blood the Spirits that Distill From thy fair Soul shall from his Body drive Th' empoyson'd VVound and keep thy Prince alive Elogy of Eleonor HEroick Vertue doth not alwaies Kill not imploys Fire and Sword in all she takes in hand All her Exploits are not stained with Blood she knows how to perform them of more then one fashion and colour and acts not everywhere with Noise though in every place with Force There are Obscure victories without witnesses wherein she hath need of no less boldness then in those which are gained in the view of whole Nations and with the noise of Canons and Trumpets The victorie represented in this Picture is one of these Edward Prince of Wales was come back from the Holy Land with a wound he had received from an Impoysoned Arrow The Physitians had allayed all their speculations and practises and all those ways having been unprofitably tryed they declared to him that he could not be cured but by the destruction of some Person who might have the courage to suck in death with the poyson of his wound Being condemned by this Declaration he prepares himself to dye resolving not to preserve life by the death of another nor to make a remedy of an Impoysonment The Princess his Wife Daughter unto the King of Castile conceiving her self condemn'd by the same sentence received it as if love it self had pronounced it to her And seeing her self necessitated to dye either by the death or cure of her Husband She resolved to chuse of these two deaths that which seemed to her the most Honourable and least bitter and which ought of the two moyties of her life to conserve to her self that which was most dear and precious This resolution taken with her love she defers the Execution to the next night And as soon as the Prince was prepared for it by rest she gently discovers his wound and begins to cure it by the purest blood of her soul which she pours into it with her Tears That done she set her mouth to the wound and with her tongue plunged her heart into it By little and little she sucks out the Poyson and so seasonably casts it forth as she drew from thence all that was Mortal without retâ—â—ning any part thereof to her self Whether that this malignant humour were consumed by the subtile and penetrating fire which her heart diffused by her mouth Or whether God who is Life and Charity had laid his Spirit upon her lips she preserved her Husbands life without loosing her own and by one act cured two sick Persons and wrought two Miracles MORAL REFLECTION THere is a large 〈◊〉 in this Picture and an excellent lesson for married Women This couragious Spaniard added to the Romans Greciams and even to those Barbarians who dyed for their husbands will speak Eternally for the constancy and fidelity of their Affections And wil highly prove and in an Heroick fule that the loving portion of the heart is more vigorous and couragious in their Sex then in Ours But she will also prove for their instruction that nothing is impossible to well ordered Charity That her hands have the gift of Cures and that the vertue of Miracles resides on her Lips That she single and unarmed hath more Force then Death with all his swords and poysons and that Barbarous and heathenish Love which knew onely how to dye vainly and with Audacity was but an impatient and desperate Love compared to a Chaste One which knows how to save in dying and to reap benefit even by its Dangers and Losses But this saving and Wonder-working Love ought not to be a busie and Effeminate Love or a Love of Interest and propriety It must be a Philosophick and Couragious Love Extatick and Prodigal Elevated above all that pleaseth and affrights This Torch must be like that represented in the Canticles not a wandring and Volatile fire but a fire ever Equal and Active A fire which consumes all the little threds of Interests all Forraign tyes all Chains and Fetters even those precious Chains which Fortune frames nay those very Fetters which are more worth then Diadems and which fasten Princes on Thrones Some will have it that it consumes even the tyes of the Soul and Body And alleadge that place of the Canticles where the power of Love is equalled with that of Death This point is both important and instructive And because one might be dangerously mistaken therein it is fit to make a Question of it apart MORAL QVESTION Whether it appertains to the Duty and Fidelity of VVomen to expose themselves to Death for their Husbands IF in this point we believe Antiquity Conjugal Love was heretofore very Tyrannical And married Women who subjected themselves to it ought to be well resolved It was not satisfied that they should bear with
the ill humours and bad Fortunes of their Husbands but it would have them sick of their Maladies die of their Deaths And as if it had not been sufficient to make them slaves undergo the yoke It made them also Sufferers and Victims and put ordinarily either a rope about their necks or a dagger in their throats The chief thing is that there was a necessity of taking that course to acquire the title of a gallant Woman And such as were able to endure life after the death of their Husbands could not pretend to the acclamations of their present Age nor to the Eternity of History Besides even in these dayes this cruel Custom is used in some parts of the Indie No Widows are seen in those Countries And Families are not prejudiced there by Dowries which issue out of them A Father of a Family being dead the Law of the Country ordains that he be put in an Equipage for the other World And that such things as had been most dear unto him should be burn'd with him The best beloved of his Wives hath this advantage by his last Will and the Right which Custom allows her She dresseth her self more richly and with more care for death then she had done for her Wedding-Feast The whole Kindred in Festival Garments and adorned like her Conducts her Solemnly and in Pomp to the flaming Pile And there she suffers her self to be burnt in Ceremony and with a more Natural and less affected Constancy then did the 〈◊〉 Philosopher who would counterfeit Hercules dying And presented a Spectacle of his death to the Army of Alexander I know indeed that this Superstitious and regular Cruelty of the Indians And that other tumultuary and precipitated Despair of the Romans and Grecians are equally reproved by the Laws of Christianity But I am not ignorant also that conjugal Love hath its Meritorious and Vertuous Deaths And there is some ground to doubt whether such kinde of deaths may happen by way of obligation and concern the Duty of a good Wife To this Question which is not of meer Curiosity but Instructive and Profitable I answer First that desperate and passionate Women who kill themselves to follow their deceased Husbands transgress against conjugal Love and violate the Fidelity they owe them This Proposition draws neer to a Paradox Yet exceeds not its bounds and Truth is there well ballanced One or two Reasons may Justifie it and draw the assent of the most devoted to the Memory of the Pantâ—â—â—â—â— and the Porcia's In the first place it will be granted me that the prime care of Lovers should be to nourish their fire and to keep it still in heat and action To delend it from all that might extinguish it And the least neglects therein are Temptations Doubts are Dispositions to change and commenced Infidelities Now this fire is smother'd in blood and by the violence of desperate Widows It is a great folly to believe that nothing remains after death The earth of Church-yards is too cold to preserve a single spark thereof An such as thunder out so great Oaths that their Ashes will retain everlastingly the heat thereof are highly guilty of Perjury unless they vent them by way of Poesie And if it be an act of Infidelity by tract of time and by piece-meal to suppress ones love from day to day and to deprive it by degrees of nourishment what will it be to smother it violently and on a sudden not to leave it a single spark which may inkindle it I know not how they will take what I have to say in this particular It is true nevertheless and must be spoken in what sense soever it may be taken Conjugal Fidelity is more hainously violated and the dead are far more injured by the delusive Courage of the falsely Constant Women that destroy themselves then by the weakness of those which will open their hearts to new Affections and run to second Marriages These at least preserve the Memory of their Husbands They still retain their Rings on their Fingers They keep their Pictures in their Closets and Hearts And the second fire which â—â—â—â—eth on them is not so incompatible nor so much an enemy to the first that it permits not some sparks thereof and a little heat in the remaining Ashes On the contrary furious and despairing Widows in what manner soever they voluntarily die reserve nothing of their first fire They destroy it even to the Matter to the very Ashes and Harth And their Husbands who might live long and quietly in their hearts perish a second time by the impetuosity of their Despair or by the obstinacy of their Grief Hence I infer a second Reason against the Falsity of impatient and despairing Love It is an opinion generally received and supported both by the Sense and Nature as well as by Speculation and Philosophy That Persons beloved have a particular Being and as it were a second Existency in the Imagination in the Soul and Heart of the Persons that love them They live there intellectually and by their Images And those Images are not dead Figures nor Impostures of a deceiving Art They have Life and Spirit they are true and Natural They possess all the Perfections and Graces of their Originals and have neither the Defects nor stains of Matter Now a Woman who kills her self out of a blinde and precipitious fury or who consumes her self with an obstinate and voluntary Affliction takes from her Husband this second Existency and this intellectual Being and Love by which he surviv'd himself She voluntarily annihilates and violently destroys that which death had left her And if she ought to make a scruple of defacing his Picture with what colour and pretence can she justifie the violence she offereth to an Image which was her second Life and Felicity in this World It is evident thereby that Constancy is not furious and that Fidelity is another thing then Despair That the greatest Love is not that which makes the most haste to poysons and precipices That Wives cannot more Religiously keep the Faith they owe to their Husbands not give them stronger proofs of their Affection then in rendring their Fidelity and Love durable and lasting Then in procuring them in their minde a life full of tranquillity and satisfaction Then in espousing their Memory and making a new Contract with their Images Then in carefully preserving those things which have been dear unto them And if they be good Wives they will not doubt but they were more dear to them then any Worldly treasure Let it not be said that this Philosophy is too remiss and indulgent That it pleads the cause of Nice and Effeminate Dames That it gives credit and authority to self Love This cannot be spoken but rashly and at random And surely as one may kill himself out of self Love and through an excess of tenderness so one may preserve his own life for the Love of another and by a particular
impetuosity wherewith they passed along retreated disorderly into their Forts conceiving that it would not be safe for them to remain in their Tents Nevertheless the number of those that have no longer any need of Tents or VVorks is great enough And apparently if the landed Troops had given on at the same time upon all sides this dayes work had put an end to the Siege And this so stately Camp which had been for seven moneths the Prison of Orleans would become at present the Sepulchre of a good part of England But so great a work well deserved to be shewn distinctly and at leisure And to the end this imprisoned and despairing City might behold all the Valour of its Deliveress it was necessary that its Prison should not be broken but by track of time and by parcels This happy beginning is a certain presage of a far more fortunate Issue And the Earl of Dunois whom you see under the Gate with Lahire and the other Commanders is gone forth to congratulate with her aforehand Peradventure you may have never seen the face of this young Prince You have never then beheld the greatest Ornament of this Age and the fairest hope of Posterity Take time to observe him well Behold his gracefull carriage and the dignity of his whole Person Behold those Rayes of Majesty which have something I know not what of Royal and are dyed with the Purple of his Blood Behold the Nobleness of Aspect and ayr of a VVarriour which demonstrates his exteriour Courage and his remarkable Valour and acknowledge that he adds much to the name of Orleans and worthily supports the Greatness and Fortune thereof It is hoped that his Vertues will not die with him They will serve for other Ages and under other Reigns And all Predictions are false and Physiognomy is deceitfull or Princes shall be born from him who will be Heroes by Race and Valiant from Father to Son who will be one day the Honour of their Family by rendring Honour to France SONNET The PUCELLE speaks FAtal to England Fortunate to France Of th' one I curb'd the surly Arrogance And with my Lance the tott'ring Throne sustain'd Of th' other Realm whose Freedome I regain'd The smoakie Ordures of the burning Pile Could not my spotless Innocence defile And my opprobrious Death more mischief brought To those that cans'd it then my Arm that fought With Heart which did Heroickly aspire I under verdant Laurels kept entire My Body's flow'r and not unlike the Bee Was rich in Courage and in Chastitie On thâ— English Lions I did boldly press And chac'd them oft a Virgin Conqueress And gallantly defended with my Lance The Flowr-de-Luce which Crowns our Kings of France Elogy of Pucelle HISTORY which causeth it self to be stiled true and exact scatters nothing almost in every place but far fetch'd Falshoods and Fables Magnificently set forth and with Pomp. It only proposeth Pictures exceeding Natural Proportion nothing but Colosseses which seem to be made only to affright the belief of Readers and weary their sight There is nothing here of this Model or Statute All pure and naked Truth without exaggeration and ornament is here more taking then these Fables more magnificent and stately then these Colosseses The Maid of Orleans is not the Work of an Inventive and Deluding Fancy She is not composed of the same Matter with those Valiant Women set forth in Romances and by Poets Her Vertue was Sensible and Substantial She really effected in the Field all that others have done in Picture and in the brain of their Inventors Her Victories have not been like theirs which spake only by black'd Paper and spilt Inke The same Spirit which called from the Sheepfold the Conquerour of Gelia which chose a weak and unarmed Woman to defeat the Assyrians broken into Iudea and to tear its People out of the claws of Holifernes took this Maid from amidst the Flocks and sent her Fortified by his Vertue to raise up ruined France and to free it from the bondage of Strangers who would have dishonoured that Kingdom after they had pillag'd it He infused into her a Prophetick Spirit and a Conquering Heart He made a Debâ—â—â— and Iudith of her And heap'd together in her life all that in the time of Miracles appeared most rare and â—â—â—ustrious It did not suffice him to give her Courage and Conduct He sent her an Angel who laid his hands on her and this Imposition of hands was to her what the Ceremony of Instaulment is to new made Knights He instructed her in all the Exercises of War and taught her more in a moment then 〈◊〉 and Potâ—â—â— had learnt from Occurtences and Fortune The English also stood not before her Their Fortune which conceived it self already Victorious gave way to her Angel and what forcible endeavours soever they used to hinder her entry into Orleans she entred it in despite of them and deprived them of France by taking this City from them After several Fights wherein she was still Victorious she fell into the hands of her Enemies who treated her as a Criminal both in point of Religion and State and made her undergo the punishment of Hereticks and Sorcerers God was pleased thus to permit it to the end she might accomplish all the Duties of a gallant Woman and finish that part of a perfect Heroesse which she had begun That she might overcome by her Patience as she had done by her Valour And that the English might be no less defeated by her Death then by her Victories Besides this barbarous Injustice heightened their sins and drew upon them the wrath of God the Avenger of oppressed Innocence The Spirit of the Maid and her good Angel re-inkindled the War after he death Ever since the English had them on their backs they were vanquished by them in all Battels and beaten off in all Sieges And in fine to preserve themselves from these exterminating Spirits they were inforced to quit all that they 〈◊〉 â—â—vaded MORAL REFLECTION THere is a great difference between the Judgements of God and those of Men And we see few places where this difference is more expresse and better marked out then in the History of the Maid of Orleans God drew her out of a Village to inform us that he makes no distinction either of places or names that he esteems not men for their Coats of Arms and ancient Titles that the blood of a Prince and a Shepherd are of the same colour and matter That a Sheep-hook in his sight is of the same value as a Scepter And that both high and low as well as the Palme and Bush spring from the same Earth He chose her out of a weak Sex because he hath ever loved to overcome Pride by Weakness to throw down Colosseses with grains of Sand to fell Giants with Reeds He would manifest that the weakest and least Warlike hands are able to defend Scepters and support Thrones when he hath blessed them
heart of them both There are some men who have not so much as the first glimmerings of sound judgement You would swear that they had been made out of the Lees and Dregs of Matter You would say that not one single spark of this Coelestiall Fire is entred into their Constitution And their souls are so burthened the rinde which incompasseth them is so obscure and thick as no light can penetrate them with on single Ray of Truth which can give them a beginning of any vertuous heats On the contrary there are some Women who seem to be onely made out of the pure Extraction of rectified matter The superiour portion of their souls is so pure and so lively reflects all the luminous impression it receives the Inferiour hath two so noble fires and moves so regularly and with so measured and just a swiftness that it would not savor of flattery to compare them to those fair Compounds which are formed of the Intelligences and Planets It is not then the difference of Sex which makes any difference in the faculties of a soul and since they have the same perfection both in Man and Woman since both may be imbued with the same light and penetrated by the same fire let us descend freely step by step to the consequence to which this discourse leads us and let us agree that Women may be disposed by this light and fire to the principal Functions of Heroick vertue History is as knowing and perswasive in this point as Philosophy and the Examples she alledges are as just and formal demonstrations as those which are framed according to the Rules of Logick If it be shewed by these Examples that Women are capable of the most vigorous and illustâ—ous Actions it is consequently and of necessity proved by the same Instances that they are also capable of an Heroick Transport of this Enthusiasme without which we cannot pass beyond the bounds which Moral Philosophy hath prescribed to common Vertues Iudith indeed must needs have been transported with this Enthusiasme when she ran the hazard of her Life and Honour when she passed over Walls and Trenches when she cast her self single and unarmed into the midst of more then one hundred thousand Combatants to redeem Iudea out of their hands to take off their Generals Head by one blow of a Sword Susanna must needs have been stimulated by the same Enthusiasme when being sollicited to her Dishonour by Pleasure and Fear she couragiously rejected them both and hastened to her Duty through 〈◊〉 and Death and a whole storm of stones heaped up against her There must needs have been much of this Transport and Enthusiasme in the Mother of the 〈◊〉 when she exposed her self to Hatchets and burning â—â—â—drons when she marched over the skins and bloody limbs of her â—â—ead and dilacerated children when she gave up her heart and entrals her soul and spirit unto seven different Deaths to gain the eight which was worthy the memory of the 〈◊〉 and sutable to the Reputation of her Race But without going so far from our Age and Modern History was there not a Transport in that Maid of Agria who preparing her self to fight upon a breach by which the Turks endeavoured to bring fire and sword into the bosom of her Country when her Mother joyning in the same duty with a great stone upon her head was born away by a Canon shot appeared no waies surprized with this Accident quitted neither her resolution not post Her heart did not so much as tremble at the blood which might have demolished even the strongest wall and with unchanging countenance she took up this stone still warm with the blood and death of her Mother and rolled it upon the heads of the first that entred the breaâ—h Was there not an Enthusiasme in the action which a young Woman of the same Town performed at the same Siege She fought compleatly armed between her husband and mother and when her husband after a long and obstinate fight was killed by her side her mother advising her to withdraw and render him her last duties God defend me replyed she from so unseasonable a piety Now is the time to revenge his death and not to deplore it his â—uneral may be well performed afterwards if we live and if it be ordained for me to dye upon his body mine will be a Tombe glorious enough for him and my blood mixt with his will do him more honour then my tears These couragious words were followed by a far more glorious action She threw away her own sword and took up that of her husbands whether she esteemed it better then her own and most accustomed to overcome or whether she thought it might have retained some remnant of his Valour and dexterity which would fight with her and bring her good fortune And fortified by this imagination she cast her self fiercely and with order upon those enemies that were the farthest advanced She killed tâ—ree with her own hand made the rest give back and that done she retired with her husbands body and the satisfaction to have revenged his death which was to her as just and manly a satisfaction as that which is sought in a spruce and flaunting mourning in a sorrow as Ambitious and Vain as the Excesse Besides this Transport which is a visible and commendable excess of Valour and Constancy there is another kinde of excess which Magnificence seeks in its actions which also appertain to Heroick vertue And we must not forget to affirm by the way that Women have gone as far and raised themselves as high as Men by this second kinde of Excess One cannot speak without vast terms of the Egyptian Pyramides And the abreviated draughts which Antiquity hath left us of them do even tire our sight Nevertheless the highest and most stately of these Pyramides were built by the boldness and Magnificence of Women The Maâ—solâ—um exhausted the skill of all Architects and of all the Sculptors of Greece and left neither Marble not precious stones in Asia and this Monument was the invention and enterprize of a Woman The pendent Gardens of Babylon and those Walls so famous for their matter and structure were the work of a Woman And this self same person who was filled with nothing but vast thoughts and unlimited designs resolving to have her Statue erected in a place where she had gained a battel caused it to be made out of a whole Mountain cut out into a humane Figure and seated upon a Throne And because it would not have been decent to see a Queen alone she commanded the Artist to dispose the outward and superfluous pieces of the Mountain with so much Art as there might be wherewith to make out of them half a dozen of Guards Without dis-interring ruins buried under so many Ages there are in France sumptuous proofs enough of the Heroick Magnificence of Women But being exposed as they are to publick view it is not necessary to
in her hands it was never more universal nor extended to more uses nor to a larger compass Her Profusions did not slide away in unprofitable transitory Pomps They were not like Torrents which are onely for shew and last but a dayâ— They resembled Rivers which are fertile and durable they afforded staâ—e and solid riches and brought happiness to Nations and plenty to Ages And to say nothing of those which remained in Spain where they are still looked upon with astonishment The great Bible of 〈◊〉 which hath been so long the most ample and rich spectacle of learned men the most profitable and stately Ornament of our Libraries is no less the work of Isabella then of Cardinal Ximenes her Councellor This Eminent Princess first advanced this great enterprize and furnished of her own stock to those preparations which were requisite long before the Work was begunne But as there hath never been so bold an Undertaker who hath not had more bold Successors then himself and besides as the same Time which ruins on the one side the works of art doth perfect them on the other so the Bible of 〈◊〉 having raigned near upon threescore year and held the first 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 was deposed of its place by the Royal Bible which 〈◊〉 the second caused to be printed at Antwerp And very newly the Royall happened to be degraded by that which Monsieur Le lay after the labour of thirty years hath published with the generall Applause of all the learned It is true also that this enterprize was not the undertaking of a particular Person and of a mean Fortune It was of a Monarch nay of a sumptuous Monarch and addicted to Noble expences It was of a Soveraign and Magnificent Fortune And if this great Body of seven Languages remains 〈◊〉 to be shewn all intire to Posterity I know not whether the most credulous Posterity will ever believe that a single private Person of this Kingdom assisted onely by his Revenue and Generosity hath affected more then a King of Spain with all his Mountains of Silver and Springs of Gold with all his Mines and Indies But great Souls not great Estates are the things which perform great Actions It was requisite that the Regency of Anne of Austria should have 〈◊〉 advantage above the Raign of Isabella and Philip her Predecessor It was necessary that a moderate Fortune should give Emulation and Instruction to all the great Fortunes of Europe and that Princes and then Ministers should learn from a Private Person to be Christianly Magnificent with the Benediction of God and Men. Isabella was not onely Wise and Couragious Magnanimous Just and Magnificent But her Publick and Active Vertues were accompanied with other Domestick and Peaceable Ones which were not the less vigorous for making the less noise and had not the less merit in being less Regarded I set down her Devotion in this Last which had been remarkable in a Religious Woman her modestie and Civility which savoured nothing of the height of her quality her Patience which might have made a Heroess in a private Fortune Her Court was a School of Piety Purity and Modesty for the Maids of Honour which were Educated near her Person She was an Academy of Spirit and Honour for Cavaliers And from this Academy came that famous Gonzales of 〈◊〉 to whom Spain so liberal in Titles and Elogies gave the name of Great Captain as a reward for driving the Fortune of France out of the Kingdom of Naples Besides her Vertue was not one of those Stage Vertues which act not handsomly but before the World and in the eyes of men It was not one of those Mercenary and Interessed Vertues which serve not but upon good Terms and for great Wages and Pawn It was likewise sincere and acted as soveraignly and with as much order in Private as in the eyes of the Publick It was likewise steddy as well during a storm as in a calm and had not a different Countenance and Heart in Affliction then in Prosperity It hath been known by the report of her Attendants that in all her Child beds the pain of Delivery which is the Natural Torture of their Sex did never force a word of Complaint from her mouth Marvellous was the Moderation which made her suffer with the death of her Son the death of her Name and the Extirpation of her Race And certainly since there is no Tree which doth not bend and complain when a Branch is torn off from it by a Tempest though it be a wilde Tree though the Branch which is taken off be half rotten How much courage were necessary for a Mother not to be cast down by the blow which deprived her of such a Son which tore from her so noble a shoot and of so great hope A shoot which was to have extended it self to new Worlds and a new Nature She was so far from being dejected by this Accident that it â—earce gâ—ve her the least disquiet The gallant Woman prevailed in her minde above the good Mother And the news of this deplorable death being brought her in the Eve of her Daughter Isabella's Marriage with 〈◊〉 King of Portugal she knew so well how to seal up her heart She so handsomly fitted her Countenance to an Action for which so great Preparations were made that not a sigh escaped out of her Heart not a Tear fell from her Eyes which might cloud the Serenity of the Feast Her Constancy appeared no less by bearing with the publick Extravagancies of the Princess 〈◊〉 her Daughter who was sick of the Love of her Husband Philip. His truly was a Lawful Love and had received the Benediction of the Church Not only Bastard Loves are those which appear Monstrous but even Lawfull Ones which are Enormous and Irregular have scarce a better Aspect And the Fires which the Church hath blessed if they be not entertained with Moderation may no less offend the head and dazle with their smoak then the other The Love of Iaâ—â— was one of these Lawful disordered Loves It was one of these honest fires which heat too much and daâ—â— with their smoak And surely she must needs have been much dazled when she resolved to Imbark her self in the most bitter Season of the year and to expose her life her great belly and the hope of so many Kingdoms to the Winter and the Ocean that she might meet with her Husband who was 〈◊〉 into Handerâ— But Fonsâ—â—a Bishop of Burgos and 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Governour of 〈◊〉 having hindred her Imbarking neither Intreaties nor Reasons could prevail to bring her back to her Lodging She remained whole days and nights without Food or Sleep exposed to the Air and all the injuries thereof And assuredly she would have died on the ground if the Quâ—een her Mother had not brought her in all haste a Licence to commit her self to the penâ— of the Sea Nevertheless she escaped the Sea and Tempesluous Season But Jealousie escaped
with her and followed her into Handâ—â—s where she renewed her Wounds and former Maladies of Spain adding a kinde of Tragical Action to her Extravagancy To say no more there was a touch of both in the Treatment used towards one of her Women of whom Philip was eâ—â—moured She tore her Face with Scourges as if she meant to punish the eyes of Philip upon the Face he loved she made her ear to be cut off to the root as if thereby she had cut asunder the tyes which held the Heart of Philip. And the News of this Extravagancy being carried into Spain Isabella needed little less Courage to overcome her Affliction them to vanquish the Moors The last Victories of Isabella were peaceable Conquests and without Tumult Yet if we consider them with eyes cleared from the dust raised by the Tumult If we remember that the same Alexander who had vanquished so many Barbarous Nations was defeated by the death of his Favourite And that this Augustus who had resisted the Forces of the East was ruined by the bad Reputation of his Daughters We shall finde that Isabella alone without Arms overcame more powerfully then Alexander and Augustus have done with all their Armies Concerning her Death it was Magnanimous and answerable to the Courage of Heroes It came to her by a secret Ulcer which the toys and agitation of Riding had caused in the War of 〈◊〉 Her Courage occasion'd this Disease her Modesty entertains it and having resolved never to expose it either to the hands or eyes of Physitians she died at best of her own Vertue and Victory VNE Dame de Chipre meâ— le seu aux Galeres des Turcs chargées du butin de Nicosie et par la 〈…〉 mort 〈◊〉 rue Armée 〈◊〉 et â—enge le sac et la seruitude de sa Patrie 〈…〉 The Victorious Captive BE not astonished to behold ruines flaming upon the water to behold a shipwrack suffered in the very Haven and without a Tempest The Accident is strange and not to be paralleld and I know not whether the Sea which is the Theatre of great Adventures which is the Element of Monsters and Prodigies hath ever brought forth a greater VVonder This Coast is the Eastern part of the Isle of Cyprus The Turks spectators of this devouring Fire belong to the Army which came newly from the Sacking of Nicosea And these flaming Gallies were appointed by Mustapha to bring to Selim the news and testimony of his Victory But Fortune deriding his vanity suppressed this News and detained his Deputies A generous Captive more worthy of a Crown then a Chain not being able to submit to the infamous slavery which was prepared for her in the Seraglio fired the Powder in one of the Gallies and the fire dispersing it self from this Gally to all the rest set the Captive at liberty and revenged the injury done her Country both pillaged and made a slave to Infidels This Resolution required a most Heroick Soul and of the first Order And there needed a daring and inventive Courage without Arms and by one single Act to defeat a whole triumphant Army to take away the fruit and sense of Victory even in the fruition of Conquerours and not to leave so much as a mark or news of their triumph unconsumed It is wonderfull that so high a design and which might have satrated the Souls of four Conquerours could enter into the Heart of a Captive Maid But the wonder is yet greater that from the Soul of this Captive there issued forth such a flame as made the Sea appear all on fire which burned the goods and inhabitants of a taken City which consumed the mourning of an absolute Conquered People and the joy of a whole Victorious Nation If we had arrived but one moment sooner we should have beheld the first light of this flame VVe should have seen it sally forth all pure out of this great Soul which could not be taken with Nâ—â—cosia which remained victorious even amidst ruined Towers and forced VValls which hath preserved liberty amongst so many Chains and Guards But if this flame appear no more we see at least its effects And Posterity will see them also after us VVe behold a City which revengeth the violence of men by the violence of fire which is burnt upon the Sea after it had been pillaged on the Land We behold a vindicative and officious death a death which punisheth Pirates and disinchaineth Captives These flaming Chests were filled with the Treasures of many Races The Parsimony of covetous Men and the Excess of the Magnificent were laid up in these Packs of Merchandise which you see thus smoaking And Captive Nâ—â—cosia in these Gallies with her Daughters was to be unto Scliâ—â— and the Sultanesses a precious Ensign of Mustapha's Victory But there is now nothing remaining saving the Ashes and Smoak of this sad countenance of Rapine And Mustopha looseth with it the marks of his Victory and the Ensigns of his Triumph The Flame devours the Presents which were designed for Sclim and the waves swallow up what was provided to adorn the Sultanesses You would say that these two Elements otherwise so incompatible agree in the division of the prey which is fallen to them The Fire hath for its share all that is light and swims above water and all that is heavy and slides to the bottome belongs to the waves Many Loads of curious and rich stuff equally perished there and make a common smoak Those pieces of Purple and Cloth of Gold are become as black as the Cordages and Sayles And the Ashes of those excellent pieces of Ebony and â—vory are coloured like the consumed Masts and the burnt Oars But neither the burnt Oars nor the consumed Masts nor the bulks of five Gallies all on fire afford not so Tragick a spectacle as the unhappy People who suffer two deaths at once and are drowned at the very instant they are burnt The Fortune of the Victorious is equall to the Fortune of the Vanquished And the self-same flame melted the Chains of the Captives and the Weapons of their Guards Some carryed up into the ayre by the first violence of the Fire had not a taste of their Liberty nor so much as saw the Death which freed them Others less suddenly assaulted cast themselves into the Sea and extinguished their life thinking to extinguish the Fire which had as yet but seised on their Garments Those were not more happy who trusted to severed Planks and floating Oars People are not thus preserved from a shipwrack which the Winds and Rocks have not caused The devouring Fire followed them and what ought to have been a Plank of safety proves to them a floating Pile and brings nothing to Land but their Ashes Certainly it is a lamentable spectacle to behold so strange and new asport of Fortune to behold burning Waves and foaming Flames To behold unhappy wretches who are drowned in Fire and burnt in Water who approach to Death
through two contrary Elements who fall at once into two opposite extreams I perceive that you are troubled about the Couragious Captive who saved her self by this Fire You could wish that it were in your power to finish her deliverance and to pluck her out of the hands of Death as she forced her way out of bondage and shame In vain do your eyes seek her in this confusion of variously shaped and coloured Deaths The fire begins its effects by her and as if it had a mind to fire her all entire it left nothing but her Soul and Reputation which are no longer in a condition to be either inflamed or stained So chaste and generous a Beauty ought not to be disfigured or to dye by parcels and it was not only necessary to preserve the Honour and Purity of her Body but even the Comeliness thereof It was requisite to conserve even the Grace and Dignity of her Countenance and her Death ought to be at least gracefull and glorious Let us speak more justly she must not dye she must only disappear like those Heroes who were carryed away all entire And nothing ought to remain of her but a name of good odour and a most Illustrious Memory At present her Soul discharged of the burthen of Matter and freed from the Chains of Fortune enjoys in repose the fruit of the Tempest which she newly raised and offers to the God of the Christians a Sacrifice of four Turkish Gallies and of more then four hundred Innocent Souls which she redeemed from Slavery and saved from Apostacy All these beautifull Souls glorious by their Liberty and Innocence ascend with the fire and smoak of this great Holocaust Doubt not but in ascending they applaud their Deliveress and look down with joy upon their broken Fetters and the pieces of their burnt Prisons which float upon the waves with the bodies of their Guards Meanwhile Mustapha overcome in his turn beholds from the shore the spoyl of his Victory and Gallies He knew not as yet upon whom to lay the blame And before hand out of despite he bites his lips blasphemes against the Alchoron and his false Prophet The confusion appears barbarous and stained with blood in his eyes And the disorder of his mind augments the fierceness of his Action and the cruelty of his Looks If he were not so far off you might hear the reproaches he vents forth against Heaven for permitting the fire to seize upon his Fortune and suffering the Ensigns of his Valour and the subject of his Triumph to be burnt The Captains and Souldiers which accompany him are in no less disorder nor less furious then himself And their despair is no less to see the treasure of their Souls and the recompence of their blood and wounds thus perishing The People of the neighbouring Towns and the Parents of the Captive VVomen ordained for the Sâ—raglio have very different resentments The People assembled upon the VVall look with astonishment upon the Smoak of then Spoyles and the confusion of the Barbarians Avarice and they that clap their hands seem willing to adde force to the fire which is come to punish them The surprised Fathers and astonished Mothers suffer on the shore all that their Children endure in the fire and upon the waves Tears of joy distill from their eyes for the deliverance of their Daughters Tears also of compassion and sorrow flow from them for their loss And the one mingled with the other make upon their Cheeks an expression answerable to their Courage and Tenderness These Tears nevertheless have not extinguished the sense of Honour Even the Mothers render Thanks for the adventure which they deplore And you would say that on the shore they expect to receive with the Ashes of their Daughters their unstained Memory and their most pure and glorious Souls SONNET Vpon these flaming Piles with billows tost Nicosia saves her self by being lost A brave revenging fire which in the Main Blows up this Fleet consumes her Thraldom 's Chaiâ— The boyling Flaâ—â—s and the inflamed waves Of Slave and Lord become the common graves A world of various treasures and of fair Rich movables are turn'd to smoke and ayr In this 〈◊〉 heat of waves and fires Eudoxia flies to the Celestial Quires And in repose enjoys with just renown The flame that melts her Chains and makes her Crown By nobler Act no Hero ever flew Above the Stars â—o not the gallant Iew Who with an Arm whose vigour much out-vy'd A Pillars strength slew thousands when he dy'd Elogy of the Victorious Captive THis Picture represents a generous Captive who burnt her chain which she could not break and took revenge for the pillaging of her miserable Country by firing the Booty with the Pirats which were carrying it away Within the memory of our Fathers the loss of Cyprus began by the taking of 〈◊〉 And God permitted it to advertise Christian Princes that they ought to stand upon theâ—â— Guards and to mistrust any Peace made with the Common Enemy It is a wild Beast which seems sometimes to be glutted and sometimes to be â—ul'd asleep but is never tamed in good earnest His very Freindships are deceitfull and dangerous And even his Kindnesses leave behind the print of his claws And when all other Pretences fail him his Greediness is his Common Right and the General Wrong of his Neighbours This City which was so rich so ancient and renowned which contained more then Sixty Thousand Inhabitants and no less stately by an immemorial Magnificence became a Prey to Mustapâ—â—â— and his Army And that Greatness which so many Ages and Generations had raised being ruined and cut in peices in one Day satiated with its Spoyl and Blood the Avarice and Cruelty which shared therein After that the fury of the 〈◊〉 was extinguished by the Ruines it had made the Basâ—â— caused the Booty to be brought before him still moist and dropping with the Blood of the Dead and Tears of the Living which were more to be pittyed then the Dead He culled out of these sad Remnants all that was precious He caused all the rare and entire Booties either taken in the Town or in the desolate Country to be put into four great Vessels and sent them to 〈◊〉 as the most glorious and certain Dispatches he could receive of his Victory These unhappy Innocents did imbarque with fears and were with tears carryed from the sight of their Mothers who knew not what Wishes to make for these unfortunate Creatures who ought equally to fear both a Calm and Tempest who could not arrive but to an infamous servitude by a prosperous Wind who could gain nothing but a deplorable Death by Shipwrack The Signal of putting to Sea was given and the Vessels were already under Sayl when the fairest and most couragious of this miserable â—â—oop reflecting on her Liberty her Honor and her captive and â—alf-burnâ— Country left in the Reer and seeing nothing before her but Bondage
Noble Blood and for an effusion of those Spirits which beget Courage At the taking of Constantinople there was found a young Grecian Woman called 〈◊〉 who had triumph'd over the Conquerour and rendred him Her Slave The Basha's disliked this Triumph of a Captive this Servitude Victorious over their Master and complained of it with injurious Terms and mixt with Rallery Mahomet to procure a cessation to these complaints of his Basha's and to evidence to them that he knew as well how to overcome his Passions as to take Towns in the sight of the whole Army at one blow struck off the Head of his Innocent and Unhappy Mistress And this Tragical Execution followed with a barbarous sadness induced him to take an Oath by which he obliged himself to â—ex a guard upon his Heart for the future and to preserve it from a second Bondage This Tragedy and Oath returned into his minde at the sight of this Chaste Vanetian But this Object was more powerful then the fidelity of his Oath and the apprehension of a second Tragedy He valued not the taking of Nygrepâ—â—â— but by the taking of the Maid And though he were passionatly enamoured of Rhâ—â—es and fair Italy yet the Conquest of them both could not have given him more satisfaction To the end he might make a breach into her Heart and become Master of her Soul as he conceived himself to be of her Body he â—aid to her in Magnificent terms which rellished both of a Conquerour and Pretender That it being her lot to Fall with a City which had a minde to be destroyed she could not Fall more happily then into his hands And that Fortune knew no better way to raise her then by this Fall that he desired nothing but her consent to render her the most happy of her Sex and Age and to exalt her to a Seat where she should have all the Sergnory of Venice and all Italy under her Feet That Riches and Glory were at her disposure that he was the Distributer of Scepters and Crowns that God and his Prophet had sent him to rule the Destinies of Kings and the Fortune of Nations that she must bid adieu to the resentment which the loss of her Friends had caused in her that such was the order of the World and the disposition of Affairs as little losses were to usher along great Advantages that she must not expect that Fortune should be more Indulgent then Nature which causeth not Harvest to arrive till after the Seed The Couragious and wise Captive forced her Patience till then But as soon as he came to boast to her of the Magnificence and Pleasures of his Seraglâ—â— of the Glory and Felicity of his Sâ—â—tanesses and when he added That if she were disposed to comply with his Will he would make her the Mistress of his Sâ—â—tanesses and the Queen of his Seraglio I am a Christian replyed she very pertly and a Gentlewoman I know no hope of Regaâ—â—â—y nor fear of Punishments which can perswade me to do any thing contrary to the Promise of my Baptism or against the Dignity of my Vertue To this Profession of Faith and of Honour delivered in so Affirmative terms and with a Tone of Protestation and Authority Mahomet replyed I perceive very wel the cause of all this you are yet astonish'd with your Fall and the Smoak of this Unfortunate City which you still retain in your Eyes hinders you from seeing the Good which is offered you But I hope you will recover this Amazement and that after the Dissipation of this Smoak you will look more cheerfully upon your good Fortune Having said this he retired and left her to his Eunuchs who were commanded to have a great care of her and to dispose her to better Councels They conducted her to a Pavilion where all Iâ—dia seemed to be with all her Gold and Precious Stones having about them so Magnificent proofs of their Masters Power they failed not to use far more Magnificent Exaggerations and to add Immense and Unlimited Promises to so glorious a Spectacle They gave her in little a Model of the Seraglio but this Model in little was greater then the real one It was composed of sumptuous Delusions and glorious Dreams and it cost them nothing to build it with Carved Gold and Fosset Diamonds The most Magnificent Poesie could not describe so much as these Vain people had set forth in Hyperboles and Promises And according to their words if she would consent to the Will of Mahomet she should tread upon Scepters and Crowns she should be possessed with all the Goods of Fortune But all these Painted and Boasted Riches coming out of their mouths were Dissipated by the Winde which formed them and reached not so far as the Ears of the Victorious Caâ—â—â—ve Her minde was fixed on more Transcendent Promises and more Solide and durable Grandeurs And Faith had so deeply imprinted in her imagination the Wedding of the Lamb the Crowns prepared for prudent Virgines and the Eternal Rejection of the Foolish that she saw neither the Pomps of the Seraglio which were shewn her nor the Delights of the Sultanesses wherewith they endeavoured to Enamour her These troublesom people being retired to leave her a little Repose it came into her thoughts that perchance the moment of Liberty was procured for her by her Good Angel to the end by an advanced and Couragious Death she might break her Chain she might Triumph over Mahomet Fortune and rid her self in an instant of those Fears which possessed her and of those Vain Hopes which they laboured to infuse into her The Occasion was fair and the Means Specious Magnificent There was a Table in the Pavilion Composed of Precious Stones and certain great Vessels Enameled with Gold therewere about her Red some Silken strings which might serve for this Execution and offered her a Death as Compleat and Noble as a Dagger Fire Pâ—ecipice or a Cord could have effected She useth up with this thought and viewing those stately pieces of Barbarous Excess as if she deliberated upon the choice of that which was to set her at liberty For what saith she dost thou Captive and Inchained Virginity reserve thy self Dost thou reserve thy self for Martyrdom and dost thou think thy self strong enough to overcome Death accompanied with all its Torments and armed with all its Engines But what if the occasion of Martyrdom be taken from thee What if thou hast no Death to Contest with What if the Tyrant doth only attempt upon thy Honour What if he attaquâ—s with violences which stain without taking away thy life O Captive and Inchaind Virginity With what Weapons wilt thou defend thy self against these Violences Why wilt thou remit thy Liberty to an uncertain Death which perchance will not arrive till thy Honour be lost having so assured and ready so Innocent and pure a Means in thy power This vain shew of Riches is a Snare laid for thee go no farther
those persons who brought her to this violent Death by a precipitated old Age do not he bitter upon her heart nor disturb the Calm of her mind So clean contrary that she hath laid the very remembrance of their Injuries at the foot of the Cross She hath retired her thoughts from all objects which might exasperate them She called them back from all places whence any succour or pitty might arrive to her and hath deposited them all with her Heart and Faith in the wounds of the Soveraign Patient who assisted her during her imprisonment and at present assists and fortifies her against Death by the Image and Vertue of his Passion He encourages her with the Voyce of his Blood speaks to her by as many Mouths as he hath wounds He arms her with his Thorns and Nails He covers her with his Cross which is to her an invincible sacred Shield a Shield which could not be pierced by all the Darts of her bad Fortune nor shal it be by the Ax it self of the Executioner which will chop off her Head Vnder the protection of this Shield and at the sight of this Example she marcheth couragiously to Death And though a Queen and Innocent it seems not harsh to her to pass through the hands of an Executioner having before her eyes a God executed and Innocence Crucified Can you confide so much in your eyes as to expose them to this lamentable spectacle Mine wounded before the stroke flie back not to behold any more of it Yet I must enforce them to see All. The last Rayes of the setting Sun are the fairest And the last drops of blood great Souls pour forth are more sparkling then the rest and have something I know not what of more Vigorous and Noble Surely this Action must needs be extreamly black since endeavours were used to hide it from the light But the obscurities to which they exposed it will not give it a better gloss and doubtless if they were capable of sense they would fear to be stained by it You would say that these Torches do not contribute thereto their light but with regret You would say that in despite they produce nothing but shadow and smoke The Hall is full of Spectators and hung with black Velvet And not so much as the fatal Scaffold but is set forth w th the stately mourning of this barbarous Tragedy to which it served The cruel Ministers of so cruel an Action thought to sweeten Injustice civilize Cruelty they thought to appease violated Majesty and to abuse the Patient by this vain and sumptuous Hypocrisie They ought to know that Pomp and Ostentation do not justifie Crimes that artificial specious Cruelty is no other Fury then naked unpolished Cruelty And that the voice of blood causeth it self to be no less heard upon Velvet Carpets then upon the bare ground I need not shew these cruel Ministers unto you They are discernable enough by the greediness of their eyes thirsting after blood and by the impatience and fierceness of their looks To see the attention they afford this spectacle you would say that every one of them is the Executioner That every one is ready to give the blow with his eyes and that this blow was designed against the Head of the Catholique Church and not against the Queen of Scotland All the other Spectators in whose hearts there remains some tincture of Humanity detest this cruel Example And as many Tears as they shed are as many Voyces and Imprecations against those that both advised and put it in execution But the voice of just blood unjustly spilt will shortly make a greater noise It will be heard by all People and Ages it will be the eternall malediction of that person who so unworthily violates Nature in a Kinswoman Majesty in a Queen Hospitality towards a Refugiate and Adversity it self in an unfortunate Creature consecrated by more then twenty years of misery You see her kneeling before the Executioner but you see not her soul already elevated in the presence of God where by advance it takes possession of the â—hrone prepared for her Her despairing Women are on their knees with her as if her condemnation were theirs and that they were to die by her Death The fatal Ax hath pierced their souls and the blood tricles down by their eyes upon the ground Their sorrows are none of those which disturb and make a noise It deprived them of motion and voice even of the sense of their Sighs and Tears And in the condition they remain I see nothing which resembles them but those â—igures of Marble which seem to weep no less then Fountains The noble and couragious Patient with a serene Countenance beholds this sadness in her VVomen Her Soul elevated above the inferiour portion is no longer subject unto its tempests and showers to its sighs and tears The Clouds of Matter begin to clear up about her and she already casts forth certain Rayes of advanced glory which mingle themselves with those Angels who are come both to guide her and give a beginning to her Triumph The Crown which they brought her is not of the same matter as the other two which are taken from her No Thorns or Reeds enter there There is nothing sharp or brittle nothing which offends or burthens And it is not an Ornament of the same stuff and weaving like our Diadems which serve only to make Slaves glorious and proud Mortals miserable It is a Crown of solid and pure Glory It is independent of Fortune and stronger then Time And the wise Queen who understood the value of it would have given all earthly Crowns to possess but one flower of it Behold with what stedfastness of mind she presents her Head to the Executioner to receive from his hand this glorious Crown But stay do not stain your eyes with the murther of the Innocent God will have an account of the least drops of her blood And wo to the Hands and Hearts wo to the Mouths and Ears wo even to the Eyes in which any stain of it shall be found SONNET SHall we unmov'd behold the Tragick Sight Where Death puts out this fair Scotch Planet's light Shall Honour Justice Law see Vertue bleed In Mary's Death as for some heynous Deed Her Grief 's Heroick th' Ax no Paleness brings Vpon her Blood sprung from so many Kings Her Graces speak when words her Tongue denyes Her modest Pride endears her to 〈◊〉 Eyes To what renown'd Inchanter do we ow This piece of wonder From this Picture grow Joy and Regret while there the gazing sight Do's from a torment entertain Delight Art by a gentle force surmounteth clear The pitch of Nature in this Pourtraict where A Queen that 's Innocent is made sustain An Endless Death without affront or pain Elogy of Mary Stewart I Might have a scruple if into the Elogy I am going to make of Mary Stewart my Pen should insert her Nobility her Beauty her
Pearls which were drowned in Bitternesse and abandoned to Tempests All her dayes were serene and all hours sweet and quiet under the Climate of France and by a Destiny contrary to that of Roses which have prickles onely upon their stalks and must be first gathered to be Honoured she was Happy and Honoured whilst she was a Maid and lived in the House of John Duke of Bourbon her Father The Tempest Bitterness and Tragical Revolution of her Life began from the very Moment of her Marriage with Peter the Cruel King of Castile Certainly also the Allyance was too unequal and the union too ill made between Innocency and Cruelty between a most pure Grace and a Devil composed of Blood and Durt Before Blanch went into Spain the Prince had no longer any Heart to give her Mary of Padilla was become Mistresse of it and whether it were by Conquest or Usurpation she reigned there so absolutely and with so great a Command as all the Authority of the Queen her Mother and all the Favour of Albuquerque her principal Counseller were needful to dispose him to the Consummation of the Marriage The Wedding was not celebrated it was tumultuary precipitated and done in silence without the least Shew or Pomp. It was rather a mournful Act then a Feast of Joy and if this forced Prince brought to it nothing but discontent and aversion the unfortunate Princesse assisted there with the Spirit of a Mourner and the Countenance of a Victime designed to Death They had not been two dayes together but Peter resolved to leave her He could not live content far off from his Heart and his Heart was in the Hands of his Mistresse who laid a charge against him for marrying Blanch and threatned him as a Rebel Subject and a fugitive Slave The Queen his Mother and his Aunt Elenor being advertised of his Designe replaced before his Eyes the wrath of an offended God the ill opinion of his scandalized People and the incensed Arms of France He loosneth himself from all these Chains he overcomes all these Obstacles and rides post where his Love or his wicked Devil called him After some Moneths dedicated to them both he returns to his Wife drawn by the earnest Intreaties of his Mother by the good Offices of Albuquerque by the Counsels and Sollicitations of his Grandeâ—â— But he returned to forsake her two dayes after and to give her by a second Divorce a second Wound more injurious and sensible then the former The noise of it was great and the History also saith that this so violent aversion was wrought on him by a Charm and that a Jewish Magitian corrupted by Mary of Padilla's Brothers fastned this Charm to a 〈◊〉 beset with rich Stones which Blanch had presented to the King But 〈◊〉 if a certain Person said that Love was a Sophister and a Mountebank I may well say that it was a powerful Sorcerer and a great Incaanter It knew how to pervert and corrupt â—ounder Heads and better tempered Hearts then that of this Prince without either Spels or Characters And whatever Men say of the power of Magick It knows no Hearbs more Efficacious nor can compound any Dâ—â—nk more to be feared then the depraved Habits of a Soul abandoned by God and delivered up to a reprobate Sense Whatever it be this Cruel King not only left his Wife a second time never to see her more but even Banished her to a little Place where he converted her Chamber into a Prison and assigned her as many Goalets and Spiâ—s as Guards And his Cruelty passed so far as he was deliberating whether he should appoint Commissioâ—ers to cause her to be put to Death Juridically and according to the forms of Law This barbarous and unjust Treatment of the Fairest and most Vertuous Princess of her Age was a Scandal to all Europe The Pope sent a Legat armed with Excommunications and Anathema's to set at Liberty oppressed Innocence and to punish the Incorrigible and Scandalous King The Princes of Castile and Aragon made a League with the Inhabitants of 〈◊〉 Cordona and other principal Cities and joyned in common their Offices and Arms. France offended with the Calamity of a Princesse of the Blood hastned to side with them Heaven it self took in hand this Cause And the King being a hunting a Spirit appeared to him in the shape of a hideous and frightful Shepherd which threatned him with Divine Vengeance if he recalled not his Wife All this did not mollifie the obdurate heart of this Prince On the contrary being perswaded that the Life of Blanch was the Fatal Fire-brand which nourished all these Fires and that they would be all extinguished with her He caused her to be impoisoned at Medina in Andaloâ—za where by a Couragious and Magnanimous Piety she knew so well how to joyn Devotion to Patience and Incense to Mirrhe as she sanctified her Prison and made it a House of Sacrifice and Prayer I know not whether any Princess was more perfect then this but in all appearance there was never any one lesse happy she was Espoused in Mourning she was a Widow during Marriage and the Wedding day which is 〈◊〉 for all others and makes Flowers to grow even upon the Chains of Slaves darkned her Diadem obscured her Purple and â—ielded her nothing but Smoak and â—horns But God would have her accomplished and pure and it was his good pleasure that Adversity and Constancy should give her the last Hand and that Princesses should learn by this Example that Martyrs may be made as well between Ballisters and under a Cloth of State as upon Scaffolds and Amphitheaters PANTHEE se deffaâ—â— de la vie pour sunire Abradate et 〈◊〉 aussi glorieusement son amour et de sa fidelité 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mort de son courage et de sa victoire 〈…〉 The Gallant Barbarian VVomen Panthea YOU see that it was a remarkable Day which proved Fatal to vanquished Lydia And which was like to prove no lesse to Victorious Persia. The Blood runs still from the Wounds of these two great Rivals And the Earth is covered all over with the pieces of their broken Armies But Lydia was not acquit for a little Blood and some sleight wounds She lost there her best Men and such as remained were put in Chains It is not yet known how Fortune and the Conquerers will despose of Craesus He was newly driven by Force into his Capital Citie And his Riches instead of fighting in his defence and preservation were taken and led Captives with him Persia also did not purchase this Important Victory at a cheap Rate she lost there much of her pure Blood and a great number of useful and precious lives Abradates was the most generally Lamented His Death though Illustrious obscured this fair Field and mingled Mourning with Triumph And even in the fruition of Victory it made victorious Cyrus to sigh and drew tears from his â—â—yes If we had come one moment sooner we