with all the studied ornaments of learning a good part of his life hee exercised in the Court where while the Princes ears were open to Philosophy his heart and hand were both unbent to him his favour and his noblenesse like rivalls striv'd which should with most devotion serve their Soveraigne but when debauchery usurp'd upon the Emperour the Tutor was devanced and disgraced In all these extremities Seneca in himself was so well poiz'd that neither the greatnesse of fortune could bribe him into riot the height of knowledge into pride nor the Courtier into flattery nor did he know any man great enough to make him lesse nor could his mind which Philosophie had plac'd above the World decline with fortune In his old age hee married Pompea Paulina a young faire and nobly descended Roman Lady a Lady of that worth that no Roman but hee that did enjoy her did deserve her Nero having let loose the reines of reason and himselfe to all licenciousnesse so tyranniz'd as if he did perswade himselfe that an Emperour was above the Law and must also bee without it what his will prescrib'd his tyranny did execute and so as if his actions were accountable to no power but his owne Among his chiefe and most remarked cruelties it is not the least hee exprest against his Tutor Seneca to him hee sends his Satellites to denounce his death the fashion of those times was when a person of qualitie was condemn'd to die hee was allowed the liberty to chuse his death and a time proportion'd according to the Emperours rage to dispose of his affaires but if his revenge flowed so high that it would brook no delay then hee enjoyd no time to doe any thing but die if the condemned resisted his decrees then he commonly appointed that by some slave hee should bee barbarously murdered but the nobler Romans held it nearer way to honour with their owne hands to anticipate their fates and in unhappinesse staid not the enforcement of tyranny or nature Seneca with an undaunted looke receiving the sentence of his death called for inke and paper to write his last Will and Testament which the Captaine denying him he turn'd about and then bespake his friends You see my loving friends said hee I cannot gratifie your affections with my fortunes I must therefore leave you my life and my Philosophy to enrich your minds with the invaluable and nere-to-be-depriv'd-of treasure of precept and example I shall desire you by all the tyes of friendship and by the glory you shall purchase by it to endeare my life and death which shall not staine the honour of my life unto your memory then gently reproving them who seem'd too sorrowfull hee said to what other purpose have I furnished you with precepts of Philosophie then to arme your minds against the assaults of Fortune Is Nero's tyrannie unknowne to you What man is Master of his owne life under him that massacred his Brother that us'd upon his Mother that cruelty which never yet knew name Then hee turn'd him to Paulina in whom sorrow had sweld it selfe so high that rather then break out it threatned to break her heart My Deare said hee I am now going to act what I have long taught my houre is come and nothing so welcome to me as my death now I am unloaded of this flesh that clogs my soule I shall with more ease ascend unto eternity to enjoy a condition without a change an happinesse without a period wherefore my dearest Paulina forbeare thy too immoderate passion lest thy grief disgrace my end and thou seem to value my death above mine honour enjoy thy youth but still retaine those seeds of vertue â—herewith thy mind is â—â—chly stored I confesse for thy sake I could bee content to live when I consider that in my breast lives a young Lady to whom my life may bee advantage Paulina's love now raising up her courage and her courage her dejected spirit Think not Seneca said she that like your Physitian I will leave you when the hope of life forsakes you but I will follow like your Wife your fortune This resolve shall tell you how much your life and doctrine hath availed your Paulina When can I die well but then when I cannot live well When I am bereft of thee in whom all my joyes are so wealthily summ'd up that thy losse will make my life my greatest curse then will I die in honour and think it fitter for my fame then linger out my life in sorrow Trust mee my Paulina said Seneca I cannot but admire thy love knowing from what height of vertue it proceeds as I will not envie thee thy death so I wish a glory may await thy end great as the constancie that advanc'd thee to it Then he commanded his Surgeon to cut the veins of both their armes that they might bleed to death but Seneca's veines shrunk up through age and abstinence denyed his bloud a speedy course therefore his thighs were also launced but lest his pains might insinuate too farre into Paulina's torments and a new addition of sorrow meeting with her losse of bloud might make her faint hee sought to mitigate her feares by the discourse of death Why should said he this monster nothing so affright us while we are living wee are dying for life is but a dying being when we are dead wee are after death where then or what is death It is that inconsiderable atome of time that divides the body from the soule what is it then in this afflicts us Not the rarity for all the world that is not gone before will follow us is it the separation and tyed to that the jealousie how we shall bee dealt with upon this hinge I confesse turnes the wickeds fear but the Stoick whom Philosophy hath taught the art of living well death frees from misery and wafts him to the haven of his happinesse For this necessity of death wee are bound to thank the Gods for it redeems from a worse of being eternally miserable The separation as it is naturall so it is the only meanes conducing to our better being The body being the corruptible and ponderous part falls naturally to the earth whence it was first elemented the soul etheriall gaines by this losse for being purg'd from the drosse of weight and of corruption is made heavens richest ore so refin'd that the great Gods image may bee stamp'd upon it and ascends unto the skies from whence it first descended Nor doe I hold this dis-junction to be eternal for when the world by the revolution of times and ages whirls about into her first Chaos then shall they meet again never to bee sundred The soul shal be so purified by the immortall Gods that it shall neither hope nor feare nor grieve that it shall bee freed from all those discording passions and affections that here transport it from it selfe The body so spirited that it shall know no necessity of nourishment and therefore
her soul hollow as her heart loose as the shingles of an old silenc'd steeple scragged as a disparked pale stood at that distance one could not bite another her tongue so weakly guarded scolds like the alarm of a clock her chin was down'd with a China beard of twenty haires her brest lanke as a quicksand wasted as an hour-glasse at the eleventh use one arme one legge one foot shee doff'd with day and as a resurrection dond with the morrow her bones pithlesse as a Stallion for seven Posterities the slightest feares might now make rattle in her skinne her body wasted to no waste blasted with lust as an Oak with lightning was as familiar with diseases as a Physician to conclude she is odious beyond all comparison one sight of her would make the heat of youth recoile into an infant continence Yet she maintaines two Painters three Apothecaries to maintain this old-old uglinesse as the rare thing shee hath been these fourscore yeares in getting But I have too long like a Sexton convers'd with rottennesse She was Calbia and in that her soule was a wel acquainted with sin as a Confessor shee was Nicocrates Mother and in that name she carried to the faire and vertuous Aretaphila the envy of age the wormwood of a mother-in-law a word that is the originall that signifies all that is ill in the sexe yet for the reliefe of some few particulars read it like Hebrew and it yeelds something that is good This Calbia discovers the poison-plot Then as eagerly as my young Master in the Countrey fastens on the red-Deere-pie tougher then Drakes biskets that went round the world hoary as Methusalem entaild by his Grandsire to the house for ever shee seizes the faire Aretaphila into her tallons more griping then poverty it selfe nails that scratch like the law and are as good a cure for the itch as the Goale for theeves her she brings to the rack there intending after confession with most subtle tortures to let out her life Oh that Love in his Olympiads should bee drown'd in those faire eyes those eyes more eloquent then all Rhetorick that would raise an Anchoret from his grave and turne the Fiend Fury into the Cherubin Pity that those eyes should be of no other use then to vent sorrow to inexorable ears that those white and red roses which no rain but what fell from those heavenly eies could colour or sweeten should wither in their prime those lips that staine the rubies and make the roses blush those lips that command the scarlet-coloured morn into a cloud to hide his shame should kisse a mercilesse and sinew-sundring rack that breath which makes us all Chamaelions should bee wasted into unregarded sighs that those brests eternally chast and white as the Alps those legs columnes of the fairest Parian marble columnes that support this monument of all pens should bee stretch'd into anatomies that her body that would call a soule from heaven into it should bee mangled like one that hath hang'd in chaines these three years that her skin smooth as the face of youth soft as a bed of violets white as the queen of innocence sweet as the bean-blossomes after raine that that skin the casket of that body the karkanet of that soul should be jag'd and torne with that remorselesse pitie we commonly bestow upon a scare-crow After long racking when Calbia saw shee could rack no confession then when more torment would have been a reliefe she was taken down from the rack and her body was pinn'd as an unwelcome courtesie upon her soule Thus noble and pious guilt is twin-brother and carries the same face with innocence so was she spirited that those tortures could scarce trie her patience lesse her truth and though Calbia was not fully possess'd of any course to put her to death yet had shee cruelty enough to doe worse then kill her to make a cause But Aretaphila though her Countries liberty and her owne honour lifted higher then the flatteries of life or feare of death resolv'd in spite of cruelty or fate to live whilst shee had offred Nicocrates and Calbia to her oppress'd Countries rage therefore the second time she was brought to the rack when fearing she should be sacrific'd to Calbia not Calbia to Cyrenaea to calm Nicocrates shee thus bespake him Great Sir when you were pleas'd to lift my humble fortunes up to those glories that willingly engage a womans pride when by kind fate and kinder Nicocrates I was snatch'd from base private arms to the embraces of a Prince were these cheeks dy'd into ingratitude and crueltie to make them lovely can your brest harbour such a thought that this brest which you were pleas'd to think worthy to harbour yours can swell with those two monsters abandon'd by the most infamous of our sexe But since such is my hard fortune I am reduc'd to that misery as to defend mine innocence hear me Nicocrates not that I beg life for I scorne to stoop now I am suspected so low as to take it honourably This potion which the comments of envie interpreted a poyson is a confection not of Cantharides for thy lust but of all those ingredients that may strengthen vertuous love This ture innocence had no designe upon thy life which oh thou all-seeing Skie witnesse I value as much above mine owne as mine honour above mine enemy but fearing lest like a needle betweene two loadstarres the stronger might attract thee and my unworthinesse how happy am I in it since it pleads mine innocence might betray me to a worthyer Love I devis'd this potion to make thy love lasting as mine which else would soon consume fed with such withred fewell as this poore declining face this face that can boast nothing but her sorrow which since deriv'd from you is most welcome to these eyes and is receiv'd as your Embassadour into this heartlesse heart Oh let these tears for ever drown these eyes oh let this sorrow sacrifice this innocent heart in all her glory to the great Nicocrates oh let Aretaphila the Aretaphila that is since she There though no tongue could praise her but her owne the Tyrant impatient such oratory have teares in a faire face to heare more tearing his haire his rage too hastie to be silent hee express'd as much spleen to Calbia as shee to Aretaphila What furies said hee fled from their black region have possest thy blacker soule fir to lend rage to all the horrid haggs of Tartarie to act a deed which oh you Heavens can you behold without raine and thunder your combin'd sorrow rage can you rend the clouds which are but the suck'd up vapours of the earth and not her that takes in all the poysonous sin of hell to fortifie her wickednesse Accurs'd fury curs'd from the cradle to the tombe curs'd above all that ever Heaven and Earth yet curs'd May all the sins of me my Name and House returne into thy venom'd soule till they have
press'd it into the low despaire of nere-below-repenting sinners Then in his fury too great for more words he had rack'd his Mother Calbia had not the vertuous Aretaphila stepp'd in betweene him and his revenge Nicocrates now gladly possest of her innocence endeavours by studied favours to raze out all the injuries imprinted on her body and her soule but shee like an Anvile too much heated by the last blowes to coole suddenly meditates upon another and more safe way for the Tyrants death She had a Daughter every way exactly perfect for she was Daughter to Aretaphila The Tyrant had a brother called Leander you have already all that commends him hee was an haire-braind wild-headed unrein'd young man one whom lust or ambition might flatter into the most desperate attempts Aretaphila wrought so far with the King that a match between her Hero-Daughter and the young Leander was by his consent concluded her shee counsels to insinuate into her Husbands rashnesse and perswade him and oh what will not this pestiferous night-geare doe to besiege his brothers Crown Leander not contented with the Kingdome hee enjoyd in her thought now nothing lesse then to raise himselfe as high as his ambition brib'd his Swiz servant Diapheries who in the first nick of opportunitie murthred Nicocrates Whither do these crowns and scepters the worlds magnalia but indeed the balls of Fortune hurrie thee fond Leander thou hast not kill'd the Tyrant for the Countrey but slaine thy brother for the Crowne Through how many restlesse nights and lesse restlesse thoughts do we encounter these sweet-bitter joyes and as the more we graspe the water into our hands the lesse wee hold so is content the farther from us the more we seeke it in these fading glories of the World which like an ignis fatuus first lights us through wild untrodden pathes unto themselves then through vaste ayrie thoughts they lead us up to that precipice from whence we fall and there they leave us Aretaphila could not appease her revenge till she had pluck'd up the Tyrant by the roots First shee incenc'd the Citizens against Leander the Traitour to his Prince the parricide of his Countrey the fratricide and lastly the muderer of her Husband They with one consent adjudged him to bee sowed up into a sack and cast into the sea Then judgement proceeded to Calbia whom they condemned to the fire and shee was burnt alive Diapheries not worth naming and therefore I think not worth hanging the Storie mentions not his punishment The Cyrenaeans now prostrate their lives and fortunes to the devotion of Aretaphila that was owner of them both they offer her divine honours and beseech her to take further protection of the Countrey But she who to doe her Countrey service could subdue her thoughts to be a Queen can fall from that height to rise above all Crowns into her owne content she shaking off those glorious loades of State retired from all the crowding tumults of the Court into a solitary and truely happy countrey-condition there to spinne out her thread of life at her homely distaffe where we will leave her a veryer wonder then the Phoenix in the Desart the alone Paragon of all peerlesse perfections Her actions so above the criticisme of my purblind judgement I am not able to comprehend much lesse contradict or controvert I am silent lest you should passe that censure upon me for her which Famianus Strada did upon Horace for Plautus that my judgement is judicium sine judicio FINIS THe Heroina hath nothing of woman in her but her sex nothing of sex but her body and that dispos'd to serve not rule her better part It is as Nature left it neglectfull not negligent neat not stretch'd upon the tenter-hookes of quaintnesse of dresse or garbe with Nature it decaies with Mechanick art the ruines are not repaired Her soule is her heaven in which she enjoyes aeternall harmony her conscience is her Sanctuary whither when shee is wounded she flies for refuge Her affections and passions in constant calme neither flow nor ebb with Fortune her hope is not screwd up to ambition nor her fear dejected to despaire Her joy is confin'd to smiles her sorrow to teares Prosperity is the type of what shee shall bee Adversity her rowling yron that smoothes her way to Paradise Outward happinesse she owes not â—o her Starres but her Vertue that rules her Stars If shee bee lash'd by Fortune it is but like a Toppe not to bee set up but kept upright Religion not Pride or weaknesse makes her chast She understands not the common conceit of love nor entertaines that familiarity with man that hee may hope it Flattery the inseparable companion of Love she scorns though she cannot flatter her selfe If Love enter her breast it is in the most noble way directed to the beauty neerest the most perfect beauty If shee marry it is onely to propagate the very act tending thereto shee singles from the thought of sinne Vertue is the reward of her Vertue her soule is not so servile as to be tyed by the hope of happinesse or fear of miserie to bee what she is but is cleerly satisfied for doing well that she doth well Shee is temperate that her soule may still be Soveraigne of her sense Shee entertains pitie as an attribute of the Divinitie not of her sex Shee is wise because vertuous She is valiant for her conscience is ungall'd and can endure the sharpest touch of tongue If shee bee inwrapped in the straight that shee may sinne shee relies upon the highest Providence which forbids her to use a remedie worse then the evill FINIS