Vates Ancirrae and as most will haue it this was Cassandra the daughter of King Priamus and Hecuba their femall issue are thus numbred Creâ—sa Cassandra Ilione Laodice Lycaste Medesicastis Polixena Climene Aristomache Xenodice Deimone Metioche Pisis Cleodice and Medusa Amongst which she onelie attained to the spirit of Prophesie and predicted of the destruction of Troy but her Augurie was neuer credited Appollodorus as also Higinus giues this reason Appollo inflamed with her beautie promist if she would prostitute herselfe to his pleasure he would inspire her with the spirit of Diuination which he accordinglie performed but she failing in her promise to him he in reuenge of that iniurie caused that her Prophesies howsoeuer true should neuer haue credit which makes her in her diuination thus complaine The world to Troy I fitlie may compare Erected first by Neptune and the Sonne These two the aptest Heirogliphicks are For water and for fire The buildings donne Laoâ—edon their right the gods denyes For which by water Troy was first destroid So was the world for mans false periuries In the great Deluge where but eight inioyd The benefit of life Troy happy were If it by water could forewarned be So were the worldâ— but oh too much I feare In their like fatall ruin they agree Troy must be burnt to ashes woe the while My mother in her wombe conceiu'd a brand To giue it flame he that shall many a mile Trauell by water to bring fire to land Lust is the fuell Lust and other sinnes Are the combustible stuffe will bring to nought The worlds great fabricke since from them begins All desolation first to mankind brought The world like Troy must burne they both before Suffered by water so they must by fire We Prophesie these things what can we more But after our predictions none inquire Vnlesse in scorne This doth Cassandra greeue To speake all truth when none will truth beleeue The better to illustrate this Oracle know that Laomedon about to build the walls of Troy borrowed much coine of the Priests of Neptune and Phoebus to accomplish the worke vpon promise of due payment when the walls were finished But breaking his faith and denying restitution of those summes lent the gods inraged at his periurie Neptune brought vp his waues so high that he in a deluge vtterly destroied the citie whilst Apollo by the scorching of his beames made the vpper countries barren For the burning of Troy it happened after the ten yeares siege elaboratly described by Virgill in his Aeneidos when Aenaeas discourses the whole desolation of the citie to Dido in which he speakes of the prince Chorebus to bee much inamoured of Cassandra who rescued her when shee was dragd by the haire from Apollo's altar and was slaine in the attempt The death of Cassandra is thus reported by Hyginus in Fabulus When the spoiles and prisoners of Troy were diuided amongst the Princes of Greece Cassandra fell by lot to the archduke and generall Agamemnon with whom he safely arriued in Mycene of which place he was king and gouernour But Clitemnestra the daughter of Tindarus sister to Hellen and wife to Agamemnon being before their landing possest by Oeaces or as some call him Cethus the brother of Palamides that Cassandra was the prostitute of Agamemnon and had supplanted her from his loue which lie he had forged to be reuenged of the Generall for his brothers death before Troy Clitemnestra therefore surprised with iealosie complotted with Aegistus the sonne of Thiestas to murder them both the first night they lodged in the Pallace which was accordingly performed but Electra the daughter of Agamemnon stole thence her brother Orestes then but an infant who else had perished with his father and conueyed him to be safe kept to one Sihophius of Phocis who had before bin married to Astichaea the sister of Agamemnon he brought him vp to manhood till Orestes found fit oportunitie to reuenge himselfe on the two Regicides his mother and Aegistus SIBILLA EVROPAEA SHe is said to be Incertae patriae as no man knowing from what perticular region to deriue her and therefore is knowne by no perticular name nor by the antient Historiographers numbred amongst the ten only amongst the twelue she hath place as may appeare by this her Prophesie When the great King of all the world shall haue No place on Earth by which he can be knowne When he that comes all mortall men to saue Shall find his owne life by the world orethrowne When the most just iniustice shall depraue And the great judge be judged by his owne Death when to death a death by death hath giuen Then shall be op't the long shut gates of Heauen SIBILLA TIBVRLINA IT seemes she deriues her selfe from the riuer Tiber she is otherwise called Albunaea of the cittie Alba which was erected before Rome as also Italica and by some Alburnea It is reported that the Romans going about to deifie Augustus Caesar demaunded aduise of this Sybill who after three daies fast standing before the altar where the Emperour himselfe was then present after many hidden words miraculously spoke concerning Christ vpon the sudden Heauen opened and Caesar saw a beautifull Virgin standing before the Altar who held in her armes as louely an infant at this apparition Caesar afrighted fell on his face at which instant was heard a voice as from Heauen saying This is the altar of the Sonne of God In which place was after built a Temple dedicated to the Virgin Marie and called Ara Caeli i. The altar of Heauen This Policronicon affirmes and for the truth thereof citeth saint Augustine lib. 18. cap 24. There is little more remembered of her life sauing that in her bookes she prophesied of the comming of the Sauiour of the world much after this manner Seuen wonders of the world haue bin proclaimed But yet a greater than these are not named The Egyptians high Pyramides who seem'd To meet the starres a worke once much esteem'd The Tower of Pharos The miraculous wall That Babylon begyrt The fourth wee call Diana's Church in Ephesus Fame sings ' Thad fix and thirtie Pillers built by kings As many Next to these Mausolus Tombe Than which the Earth supporteth on her wombe No brauer structure Next to these there was The huge Colossus that was cast in Brasse Of height incredible whom you may espye Holding a lampe fiftie seauen cubits hye Bestriding an huge riuer The seuenth wonder Was of great Ioue that strikes with trisulck thunder His Statue caru'd in Yuorie and contriu'd By Phideas the best workeman then suruiu'd What at these trifles stands the world amaz'd And hath on them with admiration gaz'd Then wonder when the troubled world t' appease He shall descend who made them that made these Of these Wonders briefly to make her diuination the more plaine Of these Pyramides there were diuerse of which the greatest tooke vp eight acres of ground parted into
with great bribes and rewards corrupts Somnus that hee would amongst the rest charme the eyes of Iupiter which hee attempting and the other perceiuing the inraged god feeling Sleepe to steale vpon him vnawares cast him headlong from heauen into the sea where hee had doubtlesse for euer perisht had not Night snacht vp her sonne and in her darknesse hid him from the wrath of Iupiter But had he beeene destroyed Sleepe had bin exiled the Earth and so all creatures depriued of their quotidian rest From hence likewise may be collected how wretched those sleeping gods are when Iupiter the onely wise and potent is euer awake to see prouide foresee and gouerne by his infinite prouidence both men and creatures The citie of Sleep Lucianâ—â— in his second booke Verarum Historiarum though fabulously yet hath facundiously described This cittie sayth he is scituate in â— most spatious and silent plaine yet round incompast with tall and spreading trees amongst whose leaues the wind onely whispers but neuer robustiously blowes There Poppy growes aboundantly Mandragora and all such plants hearbes and simples as haue the innate vertue to procure and prouoke sleepe There are multitudes of Battes which flie continually this way and that and betwixt one tree and another great store of Night-rauens Owles and Screechowles no bird that is ashamed of day but is here frequently to be found But neither the crowing Cocke the chattering Pie the quacking Duck the gagling Goose nor any other fowle either of song or clamor can thither haue accesse Fast by this citie glydes a riuer with a slow silent pace making a murmure but no noyse rather to rocke and lull asleepe than to waken the water is thicke and soft like oyle the floods name is Lethe whom others call Nictyporus it flowes from two fountaine heads both hid and obscured in places to no man knowne the one is called Pannychius the other Negretas This citie hath two ports or gates one of home composed with miraculous workemanship in which as in a table are expressed all such true dreames as exercise the fantasies of men in their depth of rest The other is made of the most purest and most white yuorie in which are carued all sorts of dreames but these as it were artificially shaddowed by the pensell but none fully drawne and exprest to the life Within this cities walls is a magnificent and spatious structure called the Temple of Nighâ— which with all superstitious ceremonies is religiously honored there is a second instituted to the goddesse Apales and a third to Alethia in both which there are Oracles The sole inhabitants of this place are an infinite companie but not a cittisen in shape or fauour one like another some are leane lancke and little with crooked legges and hutch-backes rather like monsters than men others are comely well featured tall and proper with cheerefull faces and promising lookes some are of a froward and terrible aspect as if they threatned mischiefe and disaster others portly gallant and regally habited and whosoeuer shall enter the gates of this cittie some domesticke dreame or other continually will encounter him and giue him a familiar and friendly salute in the shape of some one of these formerly rehearsed relating to him some sad things some pleasant things to minister content or distast somtimes they whisper truthes but that sildome for the greatest part of that multitude are lying and deceitfull because for the most part they speake one thing and intend another and thus far Lucianus of the house of Sleepe I had once occasion to write my selfe in this manner Neare to the darke Cimerians lies a caue Beneath the foote of a declining hill Deepe in the earthes warme intrailes like a graue Where charming Silence makes all husht and still Hither did neuer piercing Sunne beame craue Admittance nor the voice of hunter shrill Fieres through the crannies of this concaue deepe Where stands the dull and leaden house of Sleepe Here the thicke vapoures from the earth exhaild Mystâ— all the place about a doubtfull light 〈◊〉 twixt night and day when 〈◊〉 is faild And the other not yet perfect dulls the sight No wâ—â—efull doggâ— oâ— clamorous cooke hath raild Vpon the drowsie Morne earely to dight The Sunnes steedes Here the bird that faâ—'d of old Romes Capitoll is neuer heard to scould The brawlling Crane nor yet the prating Crowe Or tatling Parret to desturbe the eare No bestowing Bull swift Hart or Asse more flow Is heard to bray wee haue all silence here Only a murmuring riuer which doth flow From Lethe with his streames 'mongst peables cleere Lulls the dull sence to soft and feathered rest Charming the cares and sorrowes in the brest Before the gate the drowsie Poppie springs With thousand plants and simples without number Not one but to the braine a numnesse brings Inâ—iting all the powers of man to slumber Whose milkie iuice the Night on her blacke wings Beares t'wart the earth and scatters Who dares cumber This vniuersall whistnesse where none come But Taciturnitie and Silence dâ—mbe Vpon the doore no ratling hammers stroke Is heard without to startle those within No creeking hinge by which soft sleepe is broke Than to speake loude ther 's held no greater sinne Midst a vast roome a bed Hewd out of Oke That had of late some antient relique bin Fring'd with thick dust and lasie cobwebs stands Not in an age once stird with carefull hands Vpon this easie couch with curtaines hung Of duskie coloured silke you may behould The god of Sleepe in carelesse fashion flung Stretching his drousie limbes whom now 's so bold To iogge or stirre where snortings are heard sung They are pincht to softer breath Some dreame of gold Of Trifles some his court here Morpheus keepes Which no man sooner enters than be sleepes And this description begins to make me drowsie alreadie But least speaking too much of sleepe I may be taxed and so taken napping my selfe I leaue the brother fast sleeping to find out the sister who to the worlds end shall euer be waking Death is sayd to be educated by her mother Night Pausanias puts vs in mind that in a Temple amongst the Elaeans there was a woman pourtraied leading two sleepy children that in her right hand White that in her left hand Blacke both with crooked legges and mishapen feet the inscription vpon the one was Sleepe vpon the other Death the woman that cherisht them Night This Death of all the powers that are is most impartiall and implacable and because by no prayers nor intercessions shee is to bee mooued therefore there are no altars nor temples nor sacrifices celebrated to her honourâ— her impartialitie and implacabilitie Orpheus hath signified in one of his hymnes Nec prece muneribus nec tu placabilis vllis She is attyred in a sable garment spotted with starres The wise men of the former ages extold her with miraculous praises calling her the port and onely secure harbor or rest
dayes affected it for seldome doth Adulterie but goe hand in hand with Murther From the Sinne I come to the Punishment Amongst the Israelites it was first punished with Finâ—s as may be collected from the historie of Thamar who being with child by Iudas hee threatened her to the stake and had accordingly performed it had shee not shewed by manifest tokens that he himselfe was the author of her vnlawfull issue Genes 38. The Aegyptians condemned the Adulterer so deprehended to a thousand Scourges the Adulteresse to haue her Nose cut off to the greater terror of the like Delinquents Diodor. Sicul. Lib. 2. cap. 2. Coel. Lib. 21. cap. 25. By Solons Lawes a man was permitted to kill them both in the act that so found them Rauis In Iudaea they were stoned to death Plat. Lib. 9. de Legibus punisheth Adulterie with death The Locrenses by tradition from Zaluces put out the Adulterers eyes The Cumaei prostituted the Adulteresse to all men till shee died by the same sinne shee had committed Alex. ab Alex. Lib. 4. cap. 1. It was a custome amongst the antient Germans for the husband to cut off his wiues haire so apprehended to turne her out of doores naked and scourge her from Village to Village One bringing word to Diogenes That a fellow called Dydimones was taken in the Act Hee is worthie then saith hee to be hanged by his owne name for Didymi in the Greeke Tongue are Testiculi in English the Testicles or immodest parts By them therefore from whence he deriued his name and by which he had offended he would haue had him to suffer Laert. Lib. 6. Hyettus the Argiue slew one Molurus with his wife apprehending them in their vnlawfull congression Coelius Iulius Caesar repudiated his wife for no other reason but because P. Clodius was found in his house in womans Apparrell And being vrged to proceed against her hee absolutely denyed it alledging That hee had nothing whereof to accuse her but being further demanded Why then hee abandoned her societie hee answered That it was behoofefull for the wife of Caesar not onely to be cleare from the sinne it selfe but from the least suspition of crime Fulgos Lib. 6. cap. 1. Augustus banished his owne Daughter and Neece so accused into the Island called Pandateria after into Rhegium commanding at his death That their bodies being dead should not be brought neere vnto his Sepulchre To omit many Nicolaus the first Pope of that name excommunicated king Lotharius brother to Lewis the second Emperour because hee diuorced his wife Therberga and in her roome instated Gualdrada and made her Queene Besides he degraded Regnaldus Archbishop of Treuers and Gunthramus Archbishop of Collen from their Episcopall dignities for giuing their approbation to that adulterate Marriage And so much for the punishment I will conclude with the counsaile of Horace Lib. 1. Satyr 2. Desine Matronas sectarier vnde laboris Plus haurire mali est quam ex re decerpere fructum est Cease Matrons to pursue for of such paine Thou to thy selfe more mischiefe reap'st than gaine Sisters that haue murdred their Brothers AFter the vntimely death of Aydere his brother Ismael succeeded him in the Persian Empire who arriuing at Casbin was of his sister receiued with ioy and of the people with loude acclamations and beeing now possessed of the Imperiall dignitie the better as hee thought to secure himselfe hauing power answerable to his will after the barbarous custome of the Turkish tyrannie he first caused his eight younger brothers to be beheaded stretching his bloodie malice to all or the most part of his owne affinitie not suffering any to liue that had beene neere or deere to his deseased brother so that the â—â—ttie Casbin seemed to swimme in blood and ecchoed with nothing but lamentations and mournings His crueltie bred in the people both feare and hate both which were much more increased when they vnderstood hee had a purpose to alter their forme of religion who with great adoration honour their prophet Aly into the Turkish superstition his infinite and almost incredible butcheries concerne not my proiect in hand I therefore leaue them and returne to his sister whose name was Periaconcona who when this Tyrant was in the middest of his securities and the sister as hee imagined in her sisterly loue and affection vpon a night when he was in all dissolute voluptuousnesse sporting amidst his concubines she into whose trust and charge he had especially committed the safetie of his person hauing confederated with Calilchan Emirchan Pyrymahomet and Churchi Bassa the most eminent men in the Empire admitted them into the Seraglio in womans attyre by whom with her assistant hand in the middest of his luxuries hee was strangled an act though happily beneficiall to the common good yet ill becomming a sister vnlesse such an one as striued to paralel him in his vnnaturall cruelties Turkish Histor. Equall with this was that of Quendreda who after the death of Ranulphus king of Mercia his young sonne Kenelme a child of seuen yeares of age raigning in his stead whose royall estate and dignitie beeing enuied by his sister shee conspired with one Heskbertus by whose treacherous practise the king was inticed into a thick forrest there murdered and priuatly buried his bodie long missed and not found and the conspirators not so much as suspected But after as Willielm de regib li. 1. and de Pontificibus lib. 4. relates a Doue brought in her bill a scroule written in English golden letters and layde it vpon the Altar of Saint Peter which being read by an Englishman contained these words by which the place where the bodie lay was discouered At Clent in Cowbach Kenelme Keneborne lyeth vnder Thorne heaued by weaued that is in plainer English At Clent in Cowbach vnder a thorne Kenelme lyeth headlesse slaine by treason Some say it was found by a light which streamed vp into the Ayre from the place where his bodie lay couered His hearse being after borne towards his sepulchre to be a second time interred with solemne Dyrges sung by the Churchmen Quendreda sitting then in a window with a Psalter in her hand to see the funerall solemnely passe by whether in skorne of the person derision of the ceremonie or both is not certaine but she began to sing the Psalme of Te Deum laudamus backeward when instantly both her eyes dropped out of her head with a great flux of blood which stained her booke and it was after kept as a sacred relique in memorie of the diuine iudgement What need I trouble you with citing antiquities how this sinne ought to be punished on earth when we see how hatefull it is in the eyes of Heauen besides to insult vpon the bodies of the dead is monstrous and euen in things sencelesse to be punished Ausonius remembers vs of one Achillas who finding a dead mans skull in a place where three sundrie wayes
Vlisses sage And chast Penelope gaine much applause Especiallie from Agamemnons ghost Who had to him a fate much contrarie Yet whom in life he had respected most Meane time Vlisses that much long'd to see His fatherâ— old Laertes freelie tells His fortunes dangers trauells miserie Both forreine and domesticke what strange spells Witchcrafts and ship-wracks had so long detein'd him From his graue Father and his constant Queene And to what dyrefull exegents constrein'd him In what strange coasts and climats he had beene By this the Fathers of the Sutors dead Grieuing their Sonnes should so vntimely fall Take counsell and 'gainst th'Ithacan make head These he opposes and repells them all But gathering new supplyes by Ioues command Pallas from heauen descends t' attone these iarres To free all forraine forces from the land And by her wisedome compromise these warres By his decrees and her owne wisedome guided Armes are surceast all difference is decided Pallas hath beene often inuocated by the Poets but amongst infinite I will onelie instance one and that for the elegancie Homer in his long peregrination through Greece and other countries sometimes by sea and sometimes by land and by the reason of his blindnesse groaping his way hee happened to passe by a place where Potters were at worke and setting such things as they had newlie moulded into their furnace who finding by his harpe for he seldome trauelled without it being one of the best meanes he had to get his liuing that hee had some skill in Musicke intreated him that hee would play them a fit of Myrth and sing them a fine song which if hee would doe they would giue him so manie small pots and necessary drinking cups for his labour vayles that belonged to their trade The conditions were accepted and he presentlie to his harpe sung this extemperoll dittie called Caminus or Fornax Oh Potters if you 'l giue to me that hyre Which you haue promis'd thus to you I 'le sing Descend ô Pallas and their braines inspire And to their trade thy best assistance bring That their soft chalices may harden well And their moist cups of clay waxe browne and dry This being done they may with profit sell And customers from all parts come to buy Not to the market onelie but euen here Where they be forg'd and burnt so shall it be When I am pleas'd and you haue sold them deere Profit to you and couenant with me But if you mocke me and my meede deny All hydeous mischiefes to this furnace throng May those grosse plagues that thicken in the sky Meete at this forge to witnesse this my wrong Hither rush Smaragus and with him bring Asbetes and Sabactes quench their fire Oh Pallas 'bout their roomes their models fling On Ouen shoppe and furnace vent thine Ire Else let Omodomas with too much heat Cracke all their vessels and their art confound Pash all their workes to mammocks I intreat Pull furnace forge harth house and all to ground That they may bruise together in their fall Whilst all the Potters quake with such a ruine As when huge masts are split and cracks withall The warring winds the sea-mans wracke pursuing In such a tempest let the chimneyes shatter And the vast frame within his basses sinke Whilst 'bout their eares the tyles and rafters clatter That all their pipkins steanes and pots for drinke And other vses may be crasht to powder And so conuert againe into that myre Whence they were forg'd Or if a horror lowder May be deuis'd here vent thy worst of Ire Else let that Witch that calls Apollo father Who can from hell the blackest furies call All her infectious drugs and poysons gather And sprinkle them on worke-men worke and all Let Chiron to this forge his Centaurs bring All that suruiued the battell 'gainst Ioues sonne That they these pots against the walles may ding And all their labour into ruine runne Till what they see be nothing and these heare Spectators of this wracke may howle and yell And their great losse lament with many a teare Whilst I may laugh alooofe and say 't was well And to conclude That he that next aspires But to come neere the furnace where they stand May be the fuell to these raging fires And be consum'd to ashes out of hand So may the rest that shall escape this danger Be warn'd by these how to deride a stranger That the former writers might demonstrate vnto vs That humane actions are not altogether so gouerned by the force coelestiall but that there is some place left open for mans prudence and wisedome and besides to deliuer vnto vs how acceptable the knowledge of good things is to him who is the giuer of all graces they therefore left this expression to posteritie that Wisedome was the daughter of Iupiter and borne without a mother since God is onelie wise and men not so but meerelie in a similitude or shadow Therefore to manifest the power of Wisedome they feigned her to come into the world armed because the wise man respects not the iniuries of Fortune nor puts his trust in any worldlie felicitie further than by counsell and patience to subdue the one and moderate the other still placing his hopes in that fountaine from whence she first proceeded Next because the feare of the Lord is the beginning of Wisedome shee is said to haue coâ—batted Giants the sonnes of the earth such as in that great Gigomantichia would haue pluckt Iupiter out of his throane by which are intended the presumptions of nature and the insolencies of men who all seruice and adoration to the diuine powers neglected are not affraide to make insurrection against heauen it selfe I may therefore conclude that all humane wisedome different against the diuine will is vaine and contemptible since the good man is onelie wise and in the grace and fauour of his maker DIANA SHe is the daughter of Iupiter and Latona the goddesse of Virginitie and Chastitie In the heauen shee is called Luna the Moone in the Earth Diana in Hell or amongst the Infernalls Proserpina of which three-fold power she is called Triformis and Triula The places sacred to her were as Valerius Flaccus affirms Parthenius a flood of Paphlagonia She with her brother Apollo was borne in Cinthus a mountaine hanging ouer Delos of whom Statius saith they are both called Cinthij In Ephesus a cittie of Ionia or Lydia she had a magnificent Temple numbered amongst the seauen wonders of the world In Bauron a cittie of Attica she was likewise honoured And as Lucan testates in Taurus a mountaine in Sicilie and as Virgil in Delos Notior vt canibus non iam sit Delia nostris Not Delia to our dogges is better knowne Horace reports her to haue two mountaines in Italie dedicated to her deitie Auentinus and Algidus In her sacrifices a Hart was still offered at her Altar and dogges or hounds as Ouid writes Exta canum Triuia vidi mactare Sabaeos Et quicunque
of some High power effectuall in the opinions of men and plac't or hauing residence about the Lunarie circle who suppresseth the loftie neckes of the proude and from the lowest of despaire erects the minds of the humble For when the wise and vnderstanding men would illustrate to vs nothing to be more acceptable to heauen or more commodious to the life of man than a moderation of the mind as well in prosperitie as aduersitie they deuised many fables to exhort men nobly to indure the miseries and afflictions of this life with constant sufferance and resolued patience And because many had by such examples yeelded their submisse shoulders to the burden of disasters but in prosperitie and in the superabundance both of Wealth and Honour knew not how well to behaue themselues they therefore introduc't Nemesis the daughter of Iustice a most graue and seuere goddesse to see punishment inflicted vpon such that in the excesse of their felicitie and height of their authoritie prooue ouer other men Tyrants and therefore intollerable LATONA SHe was honoured in Delos as there being deliuered of Apollo and Diana to illustrat whose historie the better I will giue you a taste out of Lucians dialogues the interloquutors are Iuno and Latona You haue brought to Iupiter two beautifull children saith Iuno To whom she replyde We cannot all we can not all indeede be the mothers of such sweete babes as Vulcan Iuno replyes Though he be lame as falling from the vpper region downe to the earth by the negligence of his father yet is he profitable and vsefull both to gods and men for Iupiter he prouides thunders for men armour and weapons when on the contrarie thy daughter Diana imployes her selfe onelie in hunting and vnnecessarie pastime an extrauagant huntresse neuer satiate with the blood of innocent beasts Thy beautifull sonne pretending to know all things to bee an exquisite Archer a cunning Musitian a Poet a Physitian and a Prophet and not of these alone the professour but the Patron To this purpose hath he set vp Temples and Oracles here in Delphos there in Claros and Didimus by his dilemmaes and oblique answers to questions demanded such as which way soeuer they be taken must necessarilie fall out true deluding and mocking all such as come rather to bee resolued of their doubts and feares or to know things future by these illusions raising an infinite gaine and riches to himselfe to the losse and discommoditie of others his foreknowledge meerelie consisting of legerdemaine and iugling Nor is it concealed from the wise how in his predictions he dictates false things as often as true For could he exactlie and punctuallie presage all things to come why did he not foresee the death of his Minion and know before that he was to perish by his owne hand why did he not predict that his â—oue Daphne so faire hair'd and beautifull should flie and shunne him as a monster hated and scorned these with infinite others consideredâ— I see no reason thou shouldst thinke thy selfe more happie in thy children than the most vnfortunate Niobe To whom Latona replyed I well perceiue great goddesse wherein this many killing and much gadding daughter and this lying and false prophesieing son of mine offends you namely that they are still in your eie glorious numbered amongst the gods and of them esteemed the most beautifull yet can you not denie but that he is most skilfull in the Voice and the Harpe exceeding whatsoeuer can be vpon the earth and equalling if not preceading that of the Spheres in heauen I cannot chuse but smile sayth Iuno Is it possible his skill in musicke should beget the least admiration when poore Marsias had the Muses not bin partiall but judg'd indifferently of his side had gain'd of him prioritie but he alas by their vniust sentence lost not only his honor in being best but being vanquished hee most tyranously had his skinne stead off for his ambition and this your faire Daughter and Virgin is of such absolute feature and beautie that being espied naked by Acteon bathing her selfe in the fountaine shee transform'd him into a Hart and caused him by his owne dogges to bee torne in peeces least the young man should suruiue to blabbe her deformities Besides I see no reason why to women in labour and trauell in child-birth shee should shew herselfe so carefull and common a mid-wife euerie where and to all if shee were as shee still pretends to be a Virgin With her Latona thus concluded You are therefore of this haughtie and arrogant spirit because you are the sister and wife of Iupiter and raigne with him together which makes you to vs your inferiours so contumelious and harsh but I feare I shall see you shortly againe weeping when your husband leauing the heau'ns for the earth in the shape of a Bull an Eagle a Golden shower or such like shall pursue his adulterate pleasures Ouid in his sixt booke Metamor and his third fable sayth That Niobe the daughter of Tantalus borne in Sypile a citie of Lidia hauing by Amphion sixe braue sonnes and as many daughters though shee were forewarned by the daughter of Tyresias to bee present with the Thebans at their sacrifice to Latona and her children yet shee contemptuously denied it preferring her selfe in power and maiestie before the goddesse and her owne beautifull issue before the others at which contempt the goddesse much inraged complained to Appollo and Diana in whose reuenge he slew all the young men and shee the virgins with griefe whereof Amphion slew himselfe and Niobe burst her heart with sorrow Latona is by interpretation Chaos it was beleeued that all naturall bodies seedes of things mixt and confused lay buried in darknesse Some take Latona for the earth and therefore Iuno did oppose the birth of the Sunne and Moone by reason of the frequent fogges and damps arising by which the sight of these two glorious planets are shadowed and kept from our eyes for when by the thickenesse and tenebrositie of the clowdes the Sunne is weakned and made of lesse force oft times there proceeds a pestilent aire with many pests and diseases preiudiciall both to sensible creatures and to plants but when the Sunne resumes his vertue and vigor then by the purifying of the aire all these infections are dispersed and scattered vnlesse they haue proceeded so farre as to contagion And so much for Latona FORTVNA ANtium a citie of the Latines bordering vpon the Sea had Fortune in great reuerence to whom they erected a magnificent Temple Wherefore Horace thus speakes Oh Diuae gratum quae regis Antium So Rhamnus or Rhamnis a towne in Attica where Nemesis and Fortune were held in equall reuerence and from hence rather called Ramnusia In Praeneste a citie of Italy Sortes and Fortuna were held in like adoration of which they were called Praenestine Petrus Crinitus in his first booke of honest discipline and the sixt chapter concerning this goddesse rehearseth these verses
Argus the sonne of Aristor whose hundered eyes Mercurie by the commaundement of Iupiter hauing charmed asleepe he cut off his head and so slewe him In these destractions she past the Ionian sea which from her beares the name though Theopompus and Archidamus rather are of opinion that that Sea tooke his denomination from Ionius an eminent man of Illyria from thence she came to Haemus and transwafted thence to a gulfe of Thracia which by her was called Bosphorus There were two Bosphori the one called Cimnerius the other Thracius so much Prometheus speakes in his Escilus she past thence into Scythia and traiecting many seas that deuide and run by Europe and Asia came at length into Aegypt and by the bankes of Nilus reassumed her humane shape and this hapned neere the cittie Iaxe so called of Io after which she brought forth Epaphus as Strabo writes in a cauerne or denne in Eubaea by the Aegean sea shore which place is to this day called Aula Bouis That she past all these Seas in the shape of a Cow the meaning is that the ship wherein she sayled had the image of a Cow carued vpon the sterne and therefore was so called By Argus with so many eyes was intended Argus a wise and prouident king of the Argiues whom Mercury hauing slaine released her from his seruitude After all her transmarine nauigations being the most beautifull of her time she was espoused to Apis king of the Aegyptians and by reason she taught them in that countrey the profitable vsurie arising from agriculture was esteemed by them a goddesse whose statue her son Aepaphus after he had builded Memphis the great cittie caused to be erected Some more ingeniouslie and diuinelie withall say that Isca by which name the first woman and wife of Adam was called imports no more than Isis whom the Aegyptians honored as the great and most antient goddesse and mother of mankinde for the Latines and Greekes corrupt the pronuntiation and aetimologie of the word speaking Isis for Issa or Isca Therefore as Isca is the wife of our great grandfather Adam so by the auncient tradition of the Aegyptians Isis was the wife of Offidis whom the Latines call Osirides transferring the Aegyptian Euphony to their owne Idioma or proper forme of speech Ate. Ate whom some call Laesio is the goddesse of Discord or Contention and by Homer termed the daughter of Iupiter Ate prisca proles quae le serit omnes Mortales Ate the ancient offspring that hath hurt and harmed all Mankinde He calls her a certaine woman that to all men hath been obnoxious and perilous alluding no doubt to the parent of vs all Eue that first transgressed and by some reliques of truth with which he was inlightned for he sayth Filia prima Iouis quaeque omnes perdidit Ate Perniciosa As much to say Pernitious Ate the eldest daughter of Iupiter who hath lost vs all In another fable hee alludes to the same purpose where he sayth Iupiter notwithstanding he was the most wise of all mortalls yet was in daies of old tempted and deceiued by his wife Iuno And this Homer hath plainly deliuered that the beginning of euill came first from a woman and by her the wisest of men was beguiled Hesiod in his booke of Weekes and Daies is of the same opinion and writes to the same purpose but in another kind of fable from the old tradition For saith he From Pandora a woman of all creatures the fairest and first created by the gods all mischiefes whatsoeuer were disperst through the face of the whole earth And though Palephatus in his fabulous narrations and Pleiades Fulgentius in his Mythologicis otherwise interpret Pandora yet Hesiodus is still constant in the same opinion as may appeare in these verses Namque prius vixere Homines verum absque labore Absque malis morboque grani tristique senecta At mulier rapto de poclo tegmine sparsit Omne mali genus morbos curasque molestas Which I thus interpret Man liu'd at first from tedious labours free Not knowing ill or grieuous maladie Nor weake and sad old age till woman mad Snatcht from the pot the couer which it had Sprinkling thereby on mankind euery ill Trouble disease and care which haunts vs still Therefore the same authour in his Theogonia as Cyrillus testifies in his third booke against Iulian and in the beginning of the booke calls women Pulchrum malum The faire euill Pandora Of her thus brieflie the better to illustrat the former Hesiod tells vs that Promaetheus vpon a time offered two oxen to Iupiter and hauing separated the flesh of either from the bones in one of the skinnes including all the flesh without bones in the other all the bones without any part of the flesh and artificiallie making them vp againe bad Iupiter make choice of these which he would haue imployed in his sacrifices who chused that with the bones and taking it in great rage to be thus deluded he to be reuenged tooke away all fire from the earth thereby to inflict the greater punishment vpon mankind But Prometheus by the assistance of Minerua ascended heauen and with a dryed cane or reed kindled at the chariot of the sunne vnknowne to Iupiter brought fire downe againe vpon the earth which Horace expresseth in these words Audax Iapeti Genus Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit The bold issue of Iapetus By his bad fraud brought fire againe among the Nations This when Iupiter vnderstood he instantlie commanded Vulcan to fashion a woman out of clay who being the most subtle and best furnisht with all kind of arts so indued by the gods was therefore called Pandora Pausonias tearmes her the first created of that sex she was by Iupiter sent to Prometheus with all the mischiefes that are included in a boxe which he denying she gaue it to Epimetheus who taking off the couer or lid and perceiuing all these euills and disasters to rush out at once he scarce had time to shut it againe and keepe in Hope which was lowest and in the bottome The purpose of the Poets in this as I can guesse is that since Pandora signifies all arts all sciences all gifts it imports thus much for our better vnderstanding That there is no mischiefe or euill happens to man which proceedes not from a voluptuous life which hath all the arts to her ministers and seruants for from them kings were first instituted and raised to their honoures by them were plots stratagems supplantations and dangerous innouations attempted with them grew emulation and enuie discord and contention thefts spoiles warres slaughters with all the troubles cares vexations and inconueniences belonging and heriditarie to mankinde Of the Marine Goddesses IN these as in the former I will studie to auoid all prolixitie because I am yet but at the start of the race and measure in my thoughts the tediousnesse of the way I am to run before I can
Of which Pindarus and Virgill are manifest witnesses Inter Delphinus Arion Which Arion Plutarch in his Conuiuium thus elegantlie describes Quod mare nonnomit quis nescit Ariona tell us Carmine currentes ille tenebat aquas Sepe sequens Agnam c. Which I thus english What sea what earth doth not Arion know Whose verse could make the waters ebbe or flow His voyce hath cald the woolfe backe from pursuite Of the mild lambe and made his howlings mute Oft at his voyce the sillie lambe hath staid Whilst on his life the fierce wolfe might haue praid Oft in one shade the hare and hound hath lyne Both listning to a musicke so diuine The Lionesse and Ewe together are Attentiue both but neither fierce nor iarre The prating crow to Pallas owle is ny And quarrels not the doue the hawke sits by Oft Cinthia hath he set thine heart on fire And made thee sweare his was thy brothers Lyre All the Sicilian cities are at ones And Italy is rapt with thy Lyrick tones Bound homewards good Arion shipping takes With all the store his art or musicke makes He feard to see the wind and waters rise But there more comfort than a shipbord lyes Behold the captaine with his sword in hand With all that guiltie crew at his command Inguirt him round he well nigh dead with feare Intreates them their rude violence to forbeare Or if so madlie they his death desire He first may take some comfort of his Lyre They grant him leaue and smile at his delay He takes his chaplet of the still-greene Bay A chaplet which euen Phoebus might haue tryde Then don's a roabe in Tyrian purple dyde And as the swanne that dying sweetlie sings So he betakes him to his voyce and strings And from th'inuiron of these marine knaues Downe suddenlie he slips into the waues The crooked Dolphin takes him on her backe To saue Arion from the present wracke She swimmes he sits and playes vpon his Lyre And payes with musicke the swift Dolphins hyre But to leaue to speake of vnreasonable creatures In man there is a peculiar reason aboue the rest by which his mind is made pliant and tractable to this modulation for it insinuates into his bosome soonest For none is of so rude and rough hewne a disposition that yeelds not an attention to melodie and is not captiuated and surprised with the rauishing sounds of Melpomene In the monuments of antient writers there are obserued fiue seuerall sorts of songs the first Suphronistiche such were the songes that were vsed to bee relisht in the eares of Clitemnestra and all such singers are called Sophronistai according to the Greekes the second were Encomiastice Laudatory in which the prayses of the most excellent men were celebrated and such were soong by Achittas the third Drinetiche or Cantus Lugubris the mournefull song the fourth Orchematiche or Saltatoria the dauncing dyttie the fifth Pianiche such as is in Homers Isliads and is called Poâ—ean or Poâ—an such were Hymnes to Apollo not only in a plague time that the Pest should cease but for the cessation of warre or any other present mischeife then immediat whatsoeuer Melpomene is likewise the chiefe and hath the prime precedencie in the Tragedie as Virgill in the verse before remembred Melpomene tragico c. Therefore it was the custome in all the Tragedyes of old to annexe to the end of euerie act a Chorus with some sad and mournfull song and the neerer they grew to the catastrophe or conclusion the songs were set to the more passionate tunes and soong with the more sorrowfull accent expressing an augmentation of griefe both in countenance and gesture Some of the great Authors conferre vpon her the inuention of Rhetorick of which opinion was Pharnutus who doth etimologise Melpomene from Molpe which signifies the Sweetenesse of the voice for one of the chiefest ornaments in an Orator is first Action then a constancie in Voyce Motion Gesture beseeming and comly Most certaine it is that all these things commented of Melpomene either concerning the deriuation of her name or her inuention of arts meete in this one center to which so many lines ayme to signifie to vs a well spoken learned and eloguent man from whose lipps issue all foecunditie and sweetenes And that he may attaine to this elegancie which so much graceth an Orator behooues him take counsell of M. Cicero that is to ioyne Wisdome with his Eloquence and substance and matter to his pronuntiation and phrase by which practise he may proue to the Common-wealth a most necessarie and profitable member Lastly Fulgentius teacheth that by this Muse is meant a maid giuen to meditation as first Clio begets a will secondly Euterpe a desire to prosecute that which the will is bent vnto thirdly Thalia to be delighted in that which wee haue acquired fourthly Melpomene to meditate vpon that in which we are delighted And so much for meditation or the fourth of the Muses TERPSICHORE IN the fift place succeedes Terpsichore whose name is deriued à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delecto and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tripudium that is delighting in dauncing This Muse hath no lesse reference to Musick than Melpomene her elder sister the one gouerns the voice and hath predominance ouer songs the other ouer dauncing and measures They are by the great writers much commended who therefore make the Muse the inuentresse of them being the daughter of Iupiter the originall of dauncing they deriue from the high heauens from the order of the starres and planets from their motion their going forward and returne backeward which euen at the first creation began in an harmonaicall measure of the coelestiall bodies Of Daunces there be sundrie kindes some tooke name from the song and such was called Emmeleia that was held to be Tragicall a second was called Cordax Comica or a countrie daunce of such Arriamnus in his Indian commentaries remembers vs some bestow the inuention of such vpon the Satires others affirme that Bacchus by his Orgyan leapings or daunces brought the Tyrhenians the Indians and Lidians all warlike nations to his subiection Therefore those that were called Siccinastae they conferre on him or some of his fellowes and adherents though the Sicinni were the people of Creete amongst whom that kind of measure was most celebrated In what estimation these were of old may be easily imagined when no sacrifice was offered at Delos but daunces were the chiefe in all their superstitious ceremonies The Brachmani a people of India morning and euening in their adoration of the Sunne frequently vse them Amongst the Aechiopians the Thratians the Aegyptians the Scythians their sacreds are not solemnised without them as first instituted by Orpheus and Musaeus Some daunc't in the honour of Mars The Lacedemonians had them in continuall practise so likewise the Thessalians in so much that the most wise Socrates after hee was growne in yeares practised to daunce and not only gaue such
to Vrania and from Memorie we are drawne vp to Heauen for the best remembrancers as Pliny saith comprehend the whole world or vniuerse in which the heauens are included and all the secrets therein as much as by inuestigation can be attaind to haue the full and perfect knowledge for the most secret and hidden things are contained in the Heauens aboue and therefore such as are expert in them cannot be ignorant of these lesse and more easie to be apprehended below Plutarch of Vrania thus speakes Plato as by their steppes hath trac'd all the gods thinking to find out their faculties by their names By the same reason we place one of the Muses in the Heauens and about coelestiall things which is Vrania for that which is aboue hath no need of diuersitie of gouernment hauing one vniuersall directresse which is Nature where therfore there be many errors excesses transgresses there the eight remaining are to be transmitted and one particular Muse still reserued one to correct this fault and another that Vrania therefore according to Plutarch hath predominance in things coelestiall which by how much they are aboue things terrestriall in excellence they are so much the more difficult Some stretch the influence of the starres to Zoriasta's magicke in which he was popularlie famous nay more his name by that art enobled notwithstanding the annalls testifie that he was subdued and slaine in battell by Ninus Pompey the great was curiouslie addicted to these diuinations yet his potencie fayl'd him and he dyed a wretched death in Aegypt Howbeit by these instances it is not to be inferred as the mysticallest and powerfull part of the Mathematicall desciplines The inuentions of Manilius most indirectlie conferres it vpon Mercury Plato in Epinomide would haue all that contemplate Astrologie to begin in their youth such is the excellencie of the art and the difficultie to attaine vnto it for these be his words Be not ignorant that Astrologie is a most wise secret for it is necessarie that the true Astronomer be not that man according to Hesiod that shall onelie consider the rising and setting of the starres but rather that hath a full inspection into the eight compasses or circumferences and how the seauen are turned by the first and in what order euery starre mooues in his owne spheare or circle in which he shall not find any thing which is not miraculous If therefore the prayse of Astronomy be so great What encomium then is Vrania worthy who first illustrated the art This onelie shal suffice that by her is meant coelestiall Astrologie so cald of the Heauen for as Pharnutus saith The intire vniverse the ancients cald by the name of Heauen So by this meanes Vrania is acknowledged to be frequent in all sciences below and speculations aboue whatsoeuer Her Etimologie importing Sublimia spectantem that is Beholding things sublime and high Of her Ouid thus Incipit Vrania fecere silentia cunctae Et vox audiri nulla nisi illa potest Vrania first began to speake The rest themselues prepar'd To heare with silence for but hers No voyce could then be heard She is then receiued from the Heauen either because all nations and languages beneath the firmament haue some learned amongst them or that such as are furnisht with knowledge she seemes to attract and carry vpwards or to conclude because glorie and wisedome eleuate and erect the mind to the contemplation of things heauenlie Fulgentius saith That some of the Greeke authours haue left written that Linus was the son of Vrania but it is elsewhere found that she was called Vrania of her father Vranus otherwise stil'd Caelum whom his sonne Saturne after dismembred Xenophon in Sympos remembers that Venus was called Vrania speaking also of Pandemius of both their Temples and Altars the sacrifices to Pandemius were called Radiouorgaraera those to Venus Agnotaera Some as Lactantius Placidas call Heleneuae that menacing star Vrania In a word that coelestiall Muse called Astrologia or Vrania intimates nothing else than after mature iudgement to deliberate what to speake what to despise to make election of what is vsefull and profitable and to cast off what is friuolous and impertinent is the adiunct of a mind coelestial and a wisedome inculpable Most true therefore is the sentence of Plato who tells vs that Vrania is she that first attracts the eyes of our mind to sublime things aboue and if it were possible would drawe our selues after CALLIOPE THere are two things in the mind chieflie predominant Knowledge and Disposition which as Plato saith are in continuall and restlesse motion Knowledge which by the Sophists vnder a colour of truth is abused with things false and erroneous and Disposition or Affection which tempted by the popular Poets vnder a bait of delight and pleasure swallowes the hooke of many perturbations and distractions those Orators that are meerelie superficiall and not seene in the grounds of wisedome corrupted with idle and vaine reasons they delude the knowledge and with vnnecessarie curiosities precipitate the affection From Sophists we must altogether beware as pestiferous and infectious from Poets and Orators in some kinds but not in all cases Plato confineth Sophisters euery where and from all places and Poets too but not all such onelie as comment false and scandalous tales of the gods nor these from all places but from the citties onelie that is from the societie of young men and such as are ignorant prone to perturbation and not capable of the allegoricall sence included admitting onely such as speake well of the gods sing diuine Hymnes and brauelie register the acts of noble and illustrious persons Such is the practise that Calliope teacheth her Poets which practise as Ficinus witnesseth is nothing but the rapture of the soule with a transmigration into the maiestie of the Muses This Poesie rouseth vs from the sleepe of the body to the awaking of the mind from the darkenesse of ignorance to the light of knowledge from death to life and from dull obliuion to a contemplation diuine and heauenlie But where the wit failes there is no helpe to be expected from the inuention for it is not within the compasse of mans capacitie to compasse deepe and great matters in a moment for all knowledge is inspired from aboue And since Poetrie comes not by fortune nor can be attained to by art it must consequentlie be a gift from the gods and Muses For when Plato names the god he intends Appollo when the Muses he vnderstands the soules of the spheares for Iupiter is the mind of the deitie who extasies and illuminates Appollo Appollo the Muses the Muses the Poets the Poets inspire their interpreters the interpreters make impression in the Auditours By diuerse Muses diuers soules are enlightned as it is in Tymaeus that sundry soules are attributed to sundry spheares The Muse Calliope is a voyce resulting or rebounding from the sound of the other spheares and of the rest the most excellent
who is not onely a friend of Poets but the companion of Kings as Hesiod saith Calliopeque haec excellentissima est omnium Haec enim reges venerandos comitatur Hee makes her the mother of Orpheus and to inspire him as Vrania did the Poet Musaeus Clio Homerus Polyhimnia Pyndarus Erato Sapho Melpomene Thamyras Terpsichore Hesiodus Thalia Virgilius Euterpe Pub. Ouidius Thus the nine Muses who haue reference and hold correspondence with the nine coelestiall sounds make one harmonie and consent by inspiring nine illustrious Poets Amongst them Calliope is held to be the most antient Antient likewise is Poesie whose inuention is giuen to Calliope as to the Championesse that defends the standard of the Muses Besides Orpheus some say she had two other sons Ialmus and Hymenaeus of whom we spake before Hymenaeus was beloued of Thamiras who was the first Poetiser of vnchast venerie She is also said to haue a sonne called Cymothon by Oeagrus some also make the Syres the daughters of Calliope others of Melpomene Venus because Orpheus the sonne of Calliope discouered Adonis whom she had deliuered to Proserpina to be six moneths concealed gaue him to be lacerated and torne in pieces by the Thracian women But now to search what was chieflie aymd at by the Poets in this Muse Calliope It appeares that by her they apprehended the sweetnesse and modulation of song as taking her denomination à bona voce of a good and tunable cleere voice therefore she is called Vox deae clamantis The voyce of the calling goddesse from which they gaue her the dominion ouer the persuasiue art of Rhetoricke and Poetrie The generall tractat of the Muses ayming onelie at this That the first thing requisite is to haue a will to knowledge and learning the second to be delighted in that will the third to be constant in that wee delight the fourth to attaine to that in which wee are constant the fift to commemorate that which we haue attained the sixt to make similitude and compare what we haue commemorated the seauenth to iudge of those likes which we haue made and compared the eighth to make elections of such things as thou hast iudged the last eloquentlie to speake and facundiouslie to delate of that thing of which before thou hast made election So much Fulgentius And those no doubt that haue long and much exercised themselues in these disciplines and haue beene the deuout adorers of the Muses the daughters of Iupiter and practised themselues as well in the gentler sciences as the hidden mysteries of Philosophie shall not onelie by their endeauours attaine to the perfection of fame and glorie but purchase to themselues incredible ioy pleasure content and delectation A word or two of the Muses in generall and so conclude with them They are held to be the soules of the Spheares Vrania of the starrie Heauen and of that spheare which is called Aplanes Polyhimnia of Saturne Terpsichore of Iupiter Clio of Mars Melpomene of the Sonne Erato of Venus Euterpe of Mercury Thalia of Luna These eight Muses are referred to the eight Tones of the spheares from all which Calliope not till now named amongst them ariseth and is begot these being neere to the body that is first mooued which is said to be next to the seat of the supreame deitie are said by Hesidus to daunce about the Altar of Iupiter But because diuerse and sundry are the studies of these Muses therefore by their influence the minds of mortall men are inspired with sundry and diuerse delectations which as the Pythagorians thinke descend downe vpon them from these spheares Those ouer whom the Moone hath predominance participate of the nature of Thalia and are therefore delighted with comick lasciuiousnesse and wantonnesse Those whom the spheare of Saturne gouernes or Polyhimnia being of a drie and cold temperature they are wondrous retentiue in the remembrance of things long past For the dispositions of the mind and constitutions of the body haue a consonance to the nature of that planet vnder which they were borne therefore some are delighted with one study some another according to the aspects of the planet For example if Mercury be in a good and pleasing aspect he begets eloquence facunditie and elegancie of speech besides skill and knowledge in many things but especiallie in the Mathematicks the same being in coniunction with Iupiter they are bred Philosophers and Diuines beeing ioyn'd with Mars in his happy aspect it makes men skilfull Physitians and fortunate but in his bad aspect such as prooue vnskilfull vnluckie and sometimes theeues and robbers which commonlie happens when he is scorcht with the planet of the Sunne Being in coniunction with Venus thence proceedes Musitians and Poets ioyn'd with Luna warie merchants and diligent and thriftie husbands with Saturne it infuseth men with prediction and prophesie But let this little serue to illustrate the rest so from the Muses we come to the Sybells Of the SYBELLS ISiodorus saith that the word Sybilla is a name of place and office and not of person It is deriued of Syos which signifies Deus God and Beele as much as to say Thought So that Sybell comprehends a woman that had gods thought For as a man that prophesieth is called a Prophet so a predicting woman is called a Sybill Of their number the antient writers much differ Aelianus in his booke De varia Historia thus speakes There were foure Sybells Erithraea Samia Aegyptia and Sardinia Others to these adde six more to make the number tenne amongst which are numbred Cymaea and Iudaea with the three Bachides one of Greece a second of Athens a third of Arcadia It seemes he had forgot to reckon the tenth Aretine in his booke De aquila volante agrees with Isiodorus In the Etimologye of the word Tanto sâ—na quanto a dire mente dâ—uina He likewise numbers tenne the first saith he was of Persia the second of Libia the third was named Delphita being borne in the Island of Delphos and neere to the Temple of Apollo who prophesied of the warres of Troy the fourth was called Omeria and was of Italy the fift Erythraea and borne in Babylon she composed a booke which in the Greeke tongue was intituled Vasillogra the sixt was called Sanâ—a or rather Samia as borne in the Isle Samos the seauenth Cumana of the cittie Cuma whose sepulchre as Isiodorus writes is in Sicilie she brought certaine bookes to Tarquinius Priscus which spake of the Roman succession and what should futurelie betide them prescribing them the Ceremonies to be vsed in their sacrifices the eight Ellespontiaca who likewise prophecied of the warres of Troy the ninth Phrigia the tenth and last Alburnea who prophecied many things concerning the Sauiour of the world And so farre Aretine The opinion of Iohannes Wyerius in his booke De prastigijs Demonum is to this purpose That the diuell in the theaâ—re of this world might put a face of honestie
foure angles each equally distant eight hundred eightie foot and in heigth twentie fiue A second foure angles euerie one containing by euen spaces seuen hundred thirtie and seuen foot A third comprehended three hundred sixtie three foote betwixt euerie angle A fourth errected by Rhodope the strumpet the mistresse of Aesop by the money which she got by her trade Herodotus speakes of a Pyramis made by Cleopys king of Aegypt of stones fetcht from Arabia whose length was fiue furlongs the breadth ten paces He erected a second more magnificent which was not finisht in twentie yeares vpon which he spent so much treasure that hee was forc't to prostitute his daughter a most beautifull young virgin to supply his owne necessitie Pliny reports that in this structure he impolyed so many workemen that they eate him 1800 talents in onyons and garlicke 2. The tower of Pharos built by Ptolomaeus in that Isle which serued as a lanthorne to direct nauigators by sea in the night he spent vpon it 5300 Talents Sostrata was the Architectour as appeares by the inscription of his name vpon the Cittadell 3. The wals of Babylon were built by Semiramis they were as Hermodorus writes in thicknesse fiftie cubits in heighth two hundred within the compasse of which were an hundred Ports hauing brasen gates that all moou'd vpon hinges they were beautified with three hundred Turrets and Chariots might meete vpon the toppe of them and haue free passage without impediment 4. The Temple of Diana of which I haue spoken before was in length 425 foote in breadth 220 It was beautified with 127 Collumns 5. The tombe of Mausolus built by Artimesia queene of Caria was in height 25 Cubits it was compast with 36 collumns it contained from the South to the North 33 foote the whole compasse contained 1411 That part which lay towards the East was perfected by Scopas that which was towards the North was ended by Briax that towards the Meridian by Tymothaus that which butted vpon the West by Leocares 6. The Colossus of the Sun which bestrid the riuer Rhodes betwixt whose legges shippes without vailing their top sailes came into the harbour was of that vastnesse that a man with his spread armes could not compasse his thumbe euery finger being as bigge as a common statue After it had stood six and fiftie yeares it was emolisht by an earthquake The Souldan of Aegypt hauing inuaded Rhodes with the broken brasse thereof laded thence 900 cammells The chiefe workeman was Chares Lindius the scholler of Licippus 7. The image of Iupiter to which some equall the pallace of Cyrus king of the Meades built by Memnon the stones of which were simmented together with gold But I leaue further to speake of these and proceed to the next Sybill SIBILLA AEGYPTIA SHe was called Agrippa not numbered amongst the tenne but hath place amongst the twelue she prophesied vpon the number of Three and on this manner Sacred's the number Three as Sybells tell Betwixt three brothers the Heauen Sea and Hell Were cast by lot The Earth as all men write In their diuisions is called Tripartite Ioue three waies striking hath his Trisulc Thunder Neptun's allowd his Trident to keepe vnder The mutinous waues Three fatall sisters spinne Our thread of life Three Iudges punish sinne Euen monsters are described so Gerion weares Three heads Grim Cerberus as many beares Sphinx hath three shapes of Bird of Beast of Maid All three in wings in feete in face displaid Chimaera is Triformd the monstrous creature Scilla 's of dogges fish and a womans feature The Erynnaes Harpyes Gorgons three-fold all The Sybells Trifatidicae we call Diuining from the Tripos Orpheus Lyre Sings that 't was made of water earth and fire Three Charites three Fates three Syrens bee Number the Muses they are three times three She 's triple-Hecat's cald Diana stilde Triuia The ground of Musicke was compild But on three Chords at first and still exprest By voice by hand by breath In the Phisicks rest Three principles God World and Creature fram'd Creator Parent Issue these are nam'd In all production Into Three we cast Mans age two legges next three then foure at last Phisitians three things to obserue are sure First to preserue preuent and then to cure Three gouernements are famous in Romes state That of the Tribunes and Triumuirate Three sorts of people they distinguish can The Senat Souldior and the common Man In the taking height of starres w'obserue these Three First Distance then the Forme next Qualitie But which of vs obserues that sacred Tryne Three persons in one Godhead sole diuine That indiuiduall essence who dares scan Which is shall be and ere the world began Was in eternitie When of these Three One of that most inscrutable Trinitie The second person Wisedome shall intombe All maiestie within a Virgins wombe True Man true God still to that blest Trine linckt True light shall shine and false starres be extinct SIBILLA ERYTHRAEA SHe is the twelfth and last borne in Babylon of the Assirian nation and daughter to Berosus a famous Astrologian She writ in Greeke a booke called Vafillogra which some interpret Penalis scriptura which as Eugenius in his Res de Sicilia testates was transferred into Latin She prophesied of all the Greekes that came to the siege of Troy designed the places whence and how long they should continue there In those bookes she speakes of Homer and that he should write of those wars partially according to his affection and not truth In the same volume she prophesied of Christ after this manner The times by the great Oracle assignd When God himselfe in pittie of mankind Shall from the Heau'n descend and be incarnate Entring the world a lambe immaculate And as himselfe in wisedome thinkes it meete Walke in the earth on three and thirtie feet And with six fingers all his subiects then Though a king mightie shall be fishermen In number twelue with these warre shal be tride Against the diuell world and flesh their pride Humilitie shall quell and the sharpe sword With which they fight shal be the sacred Word Establisht vpon Peter which foundation Once layd shall be divulg'd to euerie nation The onely difficultie in this prophesie is Trentra tre piede which signifies thirtie three yeares and Mese dito six fingers intimating the time of six moneths And thus I take leaue of the Sybells Of the Virgins VESTALLS FEnestella in his booke intituled de Sacerdotijs Romanis proposeth Numa Pompilius to bee the first that deuised the forme of this Vestall adoration though the first institution thereof was held to be so antient that Aeneas transferred it from the Troians to the Albans as Virgill witnesseth in these words Vestamque potentem Aeternumque aditis adfert penetratibus ignem To this goddesse Vesta whom some call the Earth others the Mother of the gods Fire perpetuallie burning was consecrated and to this obseruation and coustome certaine virgins pickt out of the
noblest families were chosen as directors and chiefe ouerseers of that Order by whose negligence if by chance at any time that sacred Fire was extinguished thier iudgement was to bee beaten to death with strokes by the hand of the chiefe Priest or Flamin Valerius Maximus reports that the same judgement was executed vpon the same negligence by P. Licinius Crassus then in the high Priesthood All such as were found guiltie of incest were condemned to bee buried aliue nor was it lawfull as Labeo Antistius writes for any vnder six yeares or aboue ten to be admitted into that seruice besides she must not be the onely child of her father and mother neither must shee haue a lisping or stammering tongue bee deafe of her eares nor marked with any blemish about her bodie neither such an one whose parents one or both haue liued in seruitude or haue bin conuersant in any base offices neither such a one whose sister hath beene elected into the Priesthood all these are excused from the seruice of Vesta neither she whoâ—e father is a Flamin a South-sayer or one of the Decemuirie in the sacrifices or of the Septemuirate in the banquets There is likewise a dispensation with the daughters of kings and priests as vncapable of this ministerie neither can that mans child be admitted that hath not a knowne house and an abiding place in Italie for so Capito atteius writes so likewise the children of all such are restrained as haue the number of Three or more By the edict of the Praetor that no Virgin Vestall or Dialis which belongs to the sacrifices of Iupiter shall be compelled to any thing these be the words of the Praetor by the mouth of the crier Through all my iurisdiction I wil not vrge or force an oath from the Vestall Virgins nor from the Flamin Dialis in the chusing of the Vestall these things were obserued There is a caution by the law called Lex Pâ—pia That by the approbation of the chiefe Priest and by his special appointment twenty virgins were selected out of the people but this ordinance with many other were abrogated and abolisht by Time in so much that it was sufficient if any of free parents and honestlie descended petitioned or made meanes to the high Priest she might without more difficultie enter her oath and be admitted into the sacred order being receiued by him as one snatcht and taken violently from the hands of her enemies The words he vsed were these This vestall Priest whom I enter into this holy office according to the institution of the best law I receiue by the name of Amata to make her intercessions for the Nobilitie and people of Rome It was a custom to admit them all by the name of Amata because she that was first chosen by king Numa was so called and with these ceremonies shee was as it were hurried to the Temple of Vesta In Labeons commentaries it is thus found recorded The Vestall virgin is incapable to be made heire of any man or woman that dies intestate her goods likewise after her death returne to the common treasurie Pomponius Latus in his booke de Sacerdotijs agrees with Fenestella That Aeneas first brought the Vestal fire from Troy into Italy and Lauinium being built he there erected a Temple to her honour After this Ascanius consecrated another in a part of the hill Alba beneath which or at the foote thereof was a thick groue in which Mars vitiated Illia the mother of Romulus These Ministers of Vesta were tied to an oath of perpetuall virginitie for it was a custome amongst the Latines to make choice of the most noble and chast virgins After many yeres Romulus deuised all the chast ceremonies belonging to that Order and as Varro declares to vs created three score Priests to those publique seruises selected by their Tribes and Families but of the most noble vnblemisht stocks amongst the Romans The temple of Vesta is built round and is scituat betwixt the Capitoll and the Pallace in this is kept the perpetuall Fire for the Etimologie of Vesta is nothing else but purus ignis i. pure Fire Some are of opinion that in that Temple are kept the remenbrances of many both sacred and secret monuments some strange and vnknowne euen to the Priests and Virgins Some speake of two toonnes of no great quantitie the one continually shut the other open emptie some of the Virgins haue reported that the Palladium that fell from Heauen and was receiued into Troy is there still to be seene The first Virgins appointed by Numa were foure Gegania Berenia Camilla Tarpeia two others were added by Seruius Tullius Their vowes of virginitie were vnalterable for thirtie yeares In the first ten yeares they were to learne the ceremonies and to be as ministers and handmaides in the rest she was to gouerne and instruct others and the thirtie yeares expired she had libertie if she pleased to marrie If any of these Vestalls had wantonly offended she was to bee chastised by the Priest but such as were found incestuous were punished after this manner Being first bound she was laid vpon a beere like a coarse alreadie deceased and so carried through the midde Forum to the port or gate called Collina for there betwixt two walls is the graue of the vnchast Vestalls still apparant there is a caue hollowed vnder the earth the descent is with a ladder by the mouth which is of no great widenesse in this vault is a bed readie prepared a light burning with bread milke and oyle these things being all made readie for the purpose the delinquent is set downe her bands loosed and her head couered the high Priest whispering certaine secret things in her eare the other priests turning their faces from her which is no sooner done but shee is let downe into the cauerne earth throwne vpon her the graue filled and shee stifled aliue and that day on which this execution is done there is a generall silence and sadnesse through the whole cittie OPPIA SHe was one of the Vestall virgins who being taken in whordome and the fact manifestlie prooued she was conuented conuicted and had her doome to bee buryed aliue Vpon whom Strozzafilius inscribed this Epitaph Vestalis virgo laesi damnata pudoris Contegor hoc viuens Oppia sub tumulo I Oppia once a Vestall that For sinne my iudgement haue Condemn'd for lust am liuing shut And couered in this graue Claudia There were two of that name as Liuy in his 22 booke reports who were addicted to the ceremonies of Vesta Fonteia was the sister of Marc. Fonteius who being a Prefect or gouernour amongst the Galls was accused before the Senat of iniustice and misgouernment as transgressing the lawes and edicts of the Romans Marcia was a Vestall virgin and one that attended vpon the sacred ceremonies she was condemned of incest and as Oppia was before her buried aliue Minutia also a minister of Vestaes sacrifices
how manie husbands they should hauc and young men what wiues and how manie children legittimate or bastards with such like ridiculous and illusiue coniectures but besides this Art she professed the knowledge of things lost and to returne any stolne goods to the true owner growing by this so popular that she grew not onely in fame but in wealth and of great opinion amongst the vulger It happened that in a certaine house a siluer spoone being lost and some of the familie aboue the rest suspected about the felonie two of the seruants knowing themselues innocent to cleere themselues and finde out the priuate thiefe made a stocke betwixt them of ten groats for that was her fee and verie early in the morning repaired to this cunning womans house because they would be sure both to take her within and find her at leasure They happened to come iust at the time when she her selfe opening the street doore the first thing she cast her eye vpon was that some beastly fellow or other had egregiously playd the slouen iust before the threashold of her doore at which being exceedingly mooued she in her anger thus said Did I but know or could I find out what rascall hath done this I would bee reuenged on him though it cost me twentie nobles One of the seruing men somewhat wiser than his fellow hearing this pluckt him by the elbow thus whispers to him Thou hearest her talke of twentie nobles but by my consent we will euen backe againe and saue our ten groats The other demanding the reason Marrie saith he she that cannot tell who hath done that abuse at her doore I will neuer beleeue that she can tell vs the partie that hath stolne the spoone I would wish that all would take caution from this seruant The HESPERIDES THey were the daughters of Hesperus the brother of Atlas or as some thinke of Atlas himselfe of which number is Eubulus Chaeretraâ—es deriues them from Phorcus and Cetus Their names were Aegle Arethâ—sa and Hesperthusa These kept certaine pleasant and delectable gardens not farre from Lyxâ—s a towne of Mâ—â—ricania in the farthest part of Aethiopia towards the West where all the countrie was scorched with the heat of the Sunne and the place almost inhabitable for the multitude of serpents These Gardens were not farre distant from Meroe and the redde Sea where liued the Serpent that kept the golden Apples whom Hercules after slew The keeper of this Dragon was called Ladon the sonne of Typhon and Echidna whom Apollonius takes to be the Dragon himselfe these Virgins inhabited the remotest parts of the Earth the same where Atlas is said to support the Heauens as Dionisius signifies to vs in his booke de Situ orbis Sustinet hic Atlas Caelum sic fata iubebunt Vltimus Hesperidum locus est in margine terrae Hic Capite manibus fert vasti pondera mundi Here Atlas doth support the Heauen for so The Fates command th' Hesperid's giue it name In the Earth's vtmost margent he we know Beares with his head and hands the worlds vast frame The fame is the mountaine Atlas hath round incompast or hedged in this Orchard or Garden because Themis had prophesied to him That in processe of time the sonne of Iupiter should breake through his pale and beare away his golden apples which after proued true in Hercules These Apples Agretus in rebus Libicis explaineth them to be sheep and because kept by a rude and churlish sheap-heard were sayd to be guarded by a Dragon But Pherecides where he commemorates the nuptialls of Iuno affirmes that the earth next to the sea in the furthest West brings apples of the colour of gold whose opinion Lucan follows With three of these apples was Atlanta the daughter of Scocneus vanquisht which Venus gaue to Hippomines when shee was proposed the reward to the victor and death to him that was ouercome but more plainely to reduce these fables to historie It is probable that there were two brothers famous and renowned in these prouinces Hespereus and Atlas that were possest of sheepe beautifull and faire whose fleeces were yellow and of the colour of gold Hesperus hauing a daughter called Hesperia conferd her on his brother Atlas of this Hesperia the region was called Hesperitis By her Atlas had six daughters and therfore they had a double denomination from him Atlaintides from her Hesperides Their beauties being rumord far off it came to the eares of Busiris who desirous of so rich a prey sent certaine pirats and robbers with a strict commaund by some stratageme or else by force to steale them thence and so to transport them within the compasse of his dominions These Damosells sporting themselues in the garden were by these spies outliers surprised and borne thence which hapned iust about the time that Hercules combatted Antaeus these Virgins being shipt away the pirats went on shore to repose themselues with their prey vpon the beach of which Hercules hauing notice who had heard before of the rape he sallied vpon them and slew them all to one man returning the Virgins safe to their father for which he receiued not only a present of those sheepe the reward of so great a benefit but many other curtesies amongst other things he instructed him in Astronomie and to distinguish of the stars which knowledge Hercules first bringing into Greece he was therefore sayd to ease Atlas and in his stead to support heauen vpon his shoulders So the Hesperides are called the daughters of Hesperus which signifies the Euening And they are sayd to haue gardens in the Occident which bringeth foorth golen Apples by reason the colour of the starres are like gold and their orbes round as apples neither rise they but in the West because instantly after the setting of the Sunne the Starres appeare which by reason of his splendor are concealed and obscured all the day time the Dragon some thinke it to be the signe-bearig Circle others a riuer that by many windings and serpentlike indents incompast the Orchard And so much for the explanation of the Hesperides PLEIADES or HYADES OVid in his first booke de Fastis leaues remembred how Atlas tooke to wife Pleione the daughter of Oceanus and Thetis by whom hee receiued seuen daughters these when Orion with their mother had for the space of fiue yeares together prosecuted onely to vitiate and deflower them they all iointly petitioned to the gods That they might bee rescued from all violence whose prayers Iupiter hearing and withall commiserating their distresse hee changed the seuen sisters into seuen starres whose names Aratus in Astronomicis thus recites Septemillae esse feruntur Quamuis sint oculis hominum sex obuia signa Alcione Meropeque Electraque diua Celaeno Taigete Sterope preclaro Lumine Maia Seuen starres th' are held to bee Though wee with our weake eyes but six can see Celaeno Electra Alcyone Merope Clerre-sighted Maia Taygete Sterope All these starres are plac't
her brother Astraeas the sonne of Hyperion and Thia she brought forth Argestre Zephyrus Boreas and Notus with a daughter called Iadama She was marryed to Tythonus the sonne of Laomedon and brother to King Priam but by diuers mothers Priam being the sonne of Leucippe Tython of Strimo or as others inuert it of Rhaeo daughter to the flood Scamander It is commemorated by the Poets that this Aurora begged for her husband Tython Immortalitie which was granted her by the gods But forgetting in her petition to insert that withall he should not grow old in processe he grew to that extremitie of decrepit age that liuing to be twice a child he was swath'd and cradled Tython had two sonnes by Aurora Memnon and Aemathaeon of whom she tooke the name Aemathia Pausonias calls Memnon the king of Aethiopia and from thence or rather as some more approoued will haue it from Susis a cittie in Persia he came to the warres of Troy for he before that expedition had subdued and subiugated all the nations neere or adiacent to the riuer Choaspes Strabo relates that in the cittie of Abidus not far from Ptolomais in Aegypt he had a magnificent pallace all built of stone than which the Easterne world affoorded not a more miraculous structure in which there was a labyrinth of the same stone and erected by the selfe-same worke-master which was called after his name Memnonium He died in a single Monomachia valiantlie by the hand of Achilles in a battaile fought betwixt the Greekes and the Troians In the place where he was slaine a fountaine presentlie issued which yearelie as that day flowed nothing but blood which Calaber commemorates his sepulcher was in Paltus in Syriaâ— neere to the riuer Bada for so saith the Poet Symonides Some haue held argument that Aurora made suit to Iupiter that when Memnons body was committed to the funerall fire he would transhape him into a bird which accordinglie happened as his Metamorph. most liuelie expresseth it in these words Memnonis orba mei venio qui fortia frustra c. Depriu'd of my sweete Memnon who in vaine Tooke Armes for his deere vnkle and now slaine By great Achilles in his prime of yeares For so you gods would haue it Loe appeares Before thy throane oh Ioue thou chiefe and rector Of all the gods their patron and protector A weeping mother begging to assure Honors to him by which my wounds to cure To this great Ioue assents The funerall fire Is kindled the bright sparks towards heau'n aspire And like so many starres they make repayre Through the thicke smoake which clouds and dulls the ayre Darkning the cleere day as when damps and fogges Exhal'd from riuers or from marish bogges Before the sunne hath power In such a myst Vp flye the obscur'd sparkes till they subsist Aboue all in one body which assumes First shape then face next collour from the fumes Thus from that Pyle the Metnnian bird first springs Fire gaue it life and lightnesse lent it wings It is said that many of these birds which still beare the name were seene to arise from his ashes which diuiding themselues into diuers squadrons fought so long amongst themselues till they fell dead into the fire sacrificing their owne liues to his obitts But Theocritus in his Epitaph vpon Bion speakes of none but Memnon onely who himselfe was changed into a bird and was seene to flye about and soare ouer his owne funerall fires Lucian in Philopseudo speakes of a prodigie or rather a miracle which was most frequent where his statue was erected in the Temple of Serapis no sooner did the rising sunne begin to shine vpon his monument and seem'd to touch it but his statue yeelded a most sweet and melodious sound but when he tooke his leaue to rest himselfe in the West as if it mourned the Sunnes departure it breathed an harmony so sadlie passionate that oft times it drew teares from the hearers which was thus interpreted That he still reioyced at his mothers approach and presence but lamented her departure and absence Cornelius Tacitus and Sâ—idas both report the same as likewise Zetzes Chil. histor 64. But to returne to his mother Aurora she was still held to be the sweetest the most delightfull and welcome of all to the nymphs and goddesses not to man onelie but to all other creatures beasts and plants Orpheus in one of his hymnes affirmes no lesse By thee ô goddesse mankind is made glad Thy gracious presence cheares such as be sad Since Memnons death in teares thou risest still And from thine eyes thick shewers of dew-drops spill Through all the spatious earth which to thy grace The mornings sunne still kisses from thy face By thee his glorious pallace is much graced By thee the pitchy night to Laethe chaced All sleepie mankind to their sport thou wakest And sleepie slumbers from their eyelids shakest Thy beautie to behold or heare thy voyce Serpents and men beasts birds and all reioyce The very Marine Frye thy presence craues And to behold thee dance vpon the waues And these things are the most remarkeable which haue beene fabulouslie obserued of Aurora who is therefore supposed to be the daughter of Hyperion and Thia because by the diuine bountie Light proceedeth from the Sunne to illumine the earth and all the inhabitants thereof for there is no benefit eyther of pleasure or profit that can accrue to vs which flowes not from their immediate grace and goodnes She is said to haue a ruddy colour because she appeares as if she came blushing from the pallace of the Sunne And for that cause they describe her with roseat fingers a high complexion a golden seat and red steedes to draw her charriot to answer and correspond to the liuerie which the Sunne giues his being all of the like colour For the swiftnesse of her motion she is allowed a charriot and such as conferre white steedes vpon her deriue not their hew from the gray vapours that arise from the earth but rather from the cleere and perspicuous splendour of the light it selfe Those that of this fable would make a historie say that Tythonus marryed a wife out of the Easterne countries by whom he had the fore-named children and after liued to that age that he grew not onelie decrepit and bed-rid of his limbs but doating and childish of his braine From hence ariseth the fable That Aurora was inamoured of him by reason of the temperature of those Orientall climates to be possest of which pleasant places she purchast for him Immortalitie And where some fable that he was turned to a grashopper it signifies nothing els but the loquacitie of age ambitiouslie groaning in the often repetition of things past glorying in times of old and despising those latter in respect of them such a one did Homer personate in Nestor The marke at which all these arrowes are aim'd in this fable is to persuade men by wisedome patientlie to vndergoe all
early to attend the king who was that day to bee entertained by the earle his father in law All things were noblie prouided and Edgar royally receiued and set to dinner some write that Ethelâ—old had caused a kitchin maid to put on his wiues habit and sit at the kings Table but I find no such matter remembered in my Author the truth is the king about the middest of dinner cald for the Earle Orgarus and demanded of him whether he had a wife or no if he had why he might not haue her companie knowing it was a generall obseruation in England that without the wiues entertainement there could be no true and heartie welcome The earle replied that at that time he was an vnhappie widdower he then demaunded whether he had any children to continue his posteritie to which he answered heauen had onely blest him with one daughter a plaine damosell yet the sole hope of his future memorie The king was then importunate to see her and commanded her to be instantly brought vnto his presence which put Ethelwold into a strange agonie yet still hoping she had done as hee had late inioyned her when shee contrarie to his expectation came in apparelled like a bride in rich and costly vestures her golden haire fairely kembed and part hanging downe in artificiall curles her head stoocke with jewells and about her neck a chaine of diamonds which gaue a wonderous addition to that beautie which naked of it selfe without any ornament was not to bee paraleld a contrarie effect it wrought in the king and her husband To Edgar she seemed some goddesse at least a miracle in nature to Ethelwold in regard of his feare a furie or what worse hee could compare her to O fraile woman in this one vanitie to appeare beautifull in the eyes of a king thou hast committed two heinous and grieuous sinnes Adulterie and Murder for accordingly it so fell out Edgar was as much surprised with her loue as incensed with hate against her lord both which for the present he dissembled neither smiling on the one nor frowning on the other In the afternoone the king would needes hunt the stagge in the forrest of Werwelly since called Hoore-wood In the chace by the appointment of Edgar Earle Ethelwold was strooke through the bodie with an arrow and so slaine the king after made Elfritha his bride and queene The Earle had a base sonne then present at the death of his father of whom the king asked how hee liked that manner of hunting to whom he answered Royall sir what seemeth good to you shal be to me no way offensiue from that time forward he was euer gratious with the king And Elfritha thinking to make attonement with heauen for the murder of her husband or rather as Ranulphus saith for causing Edward to whom she was step-mother to be slaine that her owne sonne Egelredus might raigne builded an Abbie for Nunnes at Worwell where she was after buried Gunnora IN the time that Agapitus was Pope Lewis king of Fraunce the sonne of Charles caused William Longa Spata the second duke of Normandie to bee treacherously slaine this William was sonne to Rollo The Lords of Normandie with this murder much insenced watched their aduantage and surprised the king in Rhothemage where they committed him to safe custodie till he had promised and sworne to yeeld vp Normandie to Richard sonne and immediate heire to William the late murdered duke and moreouer in what place soeuer the king and the yong duke should haue meeting to conferre that Richard should weare his sword but king Lewis neither to haue sword nor knife about him This Richard being yong was called Richard the Old he had besides another attribute giuen him which was Richard without Feare because he was neuer known to be dismayde at any thing but a third aboue these was that he pretended to be wonderous religious He was duke two and fiftie yeares and tooke a Ladie to his bed from Denmarke whose name was Gunnora by whom he had fiue sonnes and two daughters the eldest of which was married to Etheldredus king of England her name was Emma and shee was called the flower of Normandie Concerning this bold yet religious duke it is reported by Marianus lib. 2. Henricus Ranulphus and others that besides many other testimonies of his sanctitie this one made him most eminent A Monke of Andoenus in Rothomage a town in Normandie going one night to meete with his sweet heart his way lay ouer a bridge and vnder that bridge was a deepe foord or riuer it so happened that mistaking his footing hee fell into the water and there was drowned He was no sooner dead but there came to carrie away his soule an Angell and a Fiend these two contended about it the one would haue it so would the other great was the controuersie betwixt them at length they concluded to put the case to duke Richard both to stand to his arbitrement much pleading there was on both sides at length the duke gaue sentence That the soule should be restored againe to the bodie be placed againe vpon that bridge from whence he had falne and if then he would offer to goe from thence to his sweet heart the diuell should take him but if otherwise he because he was a Church-man should be still in the Angels protection This was done and the Monke left his way to the woman and fled to the church as to a sanctuarie whether the duke went the next day and found the Monkes clothes still wet and told the Abbot euerie circumstance as it fell out therefore the Monke was shriuen did penance was absolued and reconciled This I haue read which I persuade no man to beleeue This duke liued with the faire Gunnora long time dishonestly and without marriage had by her those children aforesaid but at length by the persuasion of the nobilitie and intercession of the cleargie he tooke her to wife The first night after the marriage when the duke came to her bed she turned her backe towards him which she had neuer done till that time at which hee maruelling demaunded of her the reason why she did so To whom she answered before I was your strumpet and therfore as a seruant was tide to doe your pleasure in althings but now I am your wife and made part of your selfe therefore henceforth I claime with you an equall soueraigntie and will doe what mee list bearing my selfe now like a princesse not like a prostitute This I am easily induced to beleeue for how soone do honoures change manners Iuuenall in his sixt Satire speaking of marriage thus sayth Semper habet lites aeternaque iurgia lectus c. The marriage bed is sildome without strife And mutuall chidinges hee that takes a wife Bargaines for mightie trouble and small rest Sleepe growes a stranger then whilest in her brest She lodgeth Passion Selfe-will Anger Feare And from her eyes drops many a
complotted by her husband to make triall of her chastitie howsoeuer least her honour should be any way called in question shee thought it her best and safest course to show the letter to her husband of which he had no sooner tooke a view but he began to repent him of his former charitie in regard of their so great ingratitude But there yet wants reuenge for so great a wrong the knight concealing his rage causes an answere of this letter to be drawne to which he commanded her to set to her hand the contents to this effect That she was greatly compassionate of his loue that such a night her husband being to ride towards London hee should be admitted lodged and entertained according to his owne desires This letter was sealed closely sent receiued by the Frier with ioye vnspeakable against the night he prouides him cleane linnen a perfumed nightcap and other necessaries he keepes his time obserues the place is closely admitted and by herselfe without witnesse and so conueighed into a close chamber Which hee was no sooner entered but in comes the knight with his man and in great furie without giuing him the least time either to call for helpe to the house or to heauen strangled the poore Frier and left him dead vpon the ground The deede was no sooner done and his rage somewhat appeased but he began to enter into consideration of the foulenesse of the fact and heinousnesse of the murder withall the strict penaltie of the law due for such an offence which would be no lesse than forfeiture of life and estate and now hee beginnes better to ponder with himselfe how to preuent the last which may giue him further leasure to repent the first After diuerse and sundrie proiects cast betwixt him and his man it came into his minde by some meanes or other to haue his bodie conueyed backe into the Monasterie which being diuided from his house onely with a bricke-wall might be done without any great difficultie this was no sooner motioned but instantly his man remembers him of a ladder in the backyeard fit for the purpose briefly they both lay hand to the bodie and the man with the Frier on his backe mounts the ladder and sits with him astride vpon the wall then drawing vp the ladder to the contrarie side descends with him downe into the Monasterie where spying the house of office hee set him vpon the same as vpright as he could there leaues him and conueyes himselfe againe ouer the wall but for hast forgetting the ladder and so deliuers to his master how and where hee and bestowed the Frier at which being better comforted they betooke themselues both to their rest All this being concealed as well from the Ladie as the rest of the houshold who were in their depth of sleepe It happened at the same instant that Frier Richard being much troubled with a loosnesse in his bodie had occasion to rise in the night and beeing somewhat hastily and vnhandsomely taken makes what speede he can to the house of office but by the light of the Moone discerning some one before him whilest he could and was able hee conteined himselfe but finding there was no remedie he first called and then intreated to come away but hearing no bodie answere he imagined it to be done on purpose the rather because approaching the place somewhat neerer he might plainely perceiue it was Frier Iohn his old aduersarie who the louder he called seemed the lesse to listen loath hee was to play the slouen in the yard the rather because the whole couent had taken notice of a cold he had late got and how it then wrought with him therefore thinking this counterfeit deaâ—â—enesse to be done of purpose and spight to make him ashamed of himselfe he snatcht vp a Brick-bat to be reuenged and hitting his aduersarie full vpon the breast downe tumbles Fryer Iohn without life or motion which hee seeing thought at first to rayse him vp but after many proofes finding him to be stone dead verily beleeues that hee had slaine him What shall hee now doe The gates are fast locked and flye he cannot but as suddaine extremities impresse in men as suddaine shifts so hee espying the Ladder presently apprehends what had beene whispered of Fryer Iohns loue to the knights ladie and lifting him vpon his shoulders by the helpe of the same Ladder carryes him into the porch of the knights hall and there sets him and so closely conueyes himselfe backe into the Monasterie the same way hee came not so much as suspected of any In the interim whilest this was done the knight being perplexed and troubled in conscience could by no meanes sleepe but calls vp his man and bids him goe listen about the walls of the Monasterie if he can heare any noyse or vprore about the murther Foorth goes hee from his maisters chamber and hauing past the length of the hall purposing to goe through the yard findes Fryer Iohn sitting vpright in the porch hee starting at the sight runnes backe affrighted and almost distracted and scarce able to speake brings this newes to his maister who no lesse astonished could not beleeue it to be so but rather his mans fantasie till himselfe went downe and became eye-witnesse of the strange obiect Then wonderously despayring he intimates within himselfe that murther is one of the crying sinnes and such a one as cannot be concealed yet recollecting his spirits he purposeth to make tryall of a desperat aduenture and put the discouerie thereof to accident hee remembers an old stallion that had beene a horse of seruice then in his stable one of those he had vsed in the French warres and withall a rustie Armor hanging in his Armorie he commands both instantly to be brought with strong new cords a case of rustie Pistolls and a Launce The horse is sadled and caparrison'd the Armor put vpon the Fryer and hee fast bound in the seat the Launce tyed to his wrist and the lower end put into the rest his head-peece clasped on and his Beauer vp the skirts of his grey gowne serue for Bases and thus accoutred like a knight compleately armed Cap a pe they purpose to turne him out of the gates hee and his horse without any Page or Esquire to trie a new aduenture Whilest these things were thus in fitting Fryer Richard in the Monasterie no lesse perplext in conscience than the knight about the murther casting all doubts and still dreading the strictnesse of the Law summons all his wits about him to preuent the worst at length sets vp his rest that it is his best and safest way to flye he remembers withall that there was belonging to the Fryerie a Mare imployed to carry corne to and fro from the mill which was some halfe a mile from the Monasterie being somewhat fat and therefore misdoubting his owne footmanship hee thinkes it the safer course to trust to foure legges than to two hee therefore calls vp the Baker
the daughters of Thestor Chiâ—ne otherwise called Philonide the daughter of Dedalion Coramis the daughter of Phlegia adulterated by Apollo Nictimine comprest by her father Epopeus The very Index or Catalogue of whose names onely without their histories would aske a Volume For their number I will referre you to Ouid in his first booke de Arte amandi Gargarae quot segetes c. Thicke as ripe eares in the Gargarian fields As many greene boughes as Methimna yeelds Fish Fowle or Starres in Sea Ayre Heauen there bee So many prettie wenches Rome in thee Aenas mother is still lou'd and fear'd In that great citie which her sonne first rear'd If onely in young girles thou do'st reioyce There 's scarce one house but it affoords thee choyse If in new-marryed wiues but walke the street And in one day thou shalt with thousands meet Or if in riper yeeres but looke before Where ere thou go'st thou shalt find Matrons store If then one citie and at one time could affoord such multiplicitie of all ages and degrees how many by that computation may we reckon from the beginning amongst all the nations of the world I doubt not then but this draught of water fetcht from so vast a Fountaine may at least coole the pallate if not quench the thirst of the insatiat Reader Manto ZEbalia a man whose byrth ranked him in the file of nobilitie beeing imployed vpon seruice in the Turkish warres brought with him his most estimated and greatest treasure his deerest spouse stiled Manto But he dying in the crimson bed of honour the sinister hand of warre gaue her into the captiuitie of Bassa Ionuses who beholding with admiration a creature of so diuine a feature was though her conqueror taken captiue by her beautie who hauing put her vertue to the Test found it to paralell if not out-shine her forme Wherefore being couetous to engrosse so rich a bootie to himselfe he tooke her to wife bestowing on her a more honorable respect than on his other wiues and concubines and she likewise endeuored to meet his affection with an answerable obseruance and obedience This feruent and mutuall loue continued long inuiolate betwixt them insomuch that they were no lesse honoured for their eminence of state than remarkable for their coniugall affection but that cursed fiend Iealousie enuying at their admired sympathie straight vsurpes the throne of reason and sits a predominant tyrant in his fantastike braine for he grew so strangely iealous that he thought some one or other to corriuall him but yet knew not whom to taint with any iust suspition nay hee would confesse that he had not catcht the least sparke of loosenesse from her that might thus fire this beacon of distraction in him Briefly his wife as beautifull in minde as feature wearied with his daily peeuish humors and seeing all her studies aymed at his sole content were entertained with neglect and insolent scorne she resolued to leaue him and secretly to flie into her natiue countrey to further which she vnlockes this her secret intent to an Eunuch of the Bassaes giuing him withall certaine letters to deliuer to some friends of hers whom she purposed to vse as agents in the furtherance of her escape but he proouing treacherous in the trust committed to his charge betrayde her to her husband showing her letters as testimonies to his allegations The Bassa at this discouerie swolne big with rage called her before him whom in his disperate furie he immediately stabbed with his dagger thus with the cause of iealousie taking away the effect But this bloodie deed somewhat loosened him in the peoples hearts where he before grew deepely and fast rooted nor did he out-run Vengance for at the last her leaden feet ouertooke him and in this manner Selymus the first at his departure from Caire his souldiers whom he there lefe in garrison made suit vnto his highnes That in consideration of the great labours they had alreadie vndergone together with the many dangers they were hourely in expectation of that their wages might be inlarged which he granted and withall gaue this Bassa Ionuses the charge to see the performance thereof At last the pay-day came but their hopes proouing abortiue the souldiers mutined to coniure downe which spirit of insurrection messengers are dispatched to the Emperour to certifie him of the neglectiue abuse of his royall word and feare of sedition this newes ouertooke him at Larissa in Iudea Selymus inraged at this relation sends for Bassa Ionuses and examines the cause of his neglect in such and so weightie a charge Ionuses somewhat abashed as beeing conscious yet withall high-spirited gaue the Emperour a peremptorie answer at which being mightily incenced hee commanded his head to be cut off which was forthwith done and thus iustice suffered not innocent Manto to die vnreuenged The wife of Agetus the Lacedemonian HErodotus Lib. 6. thus writes of this Ladie the daughter of Alcydes the Spartan first wife of Agetus and after to the king Ariston She of the most deformed infant became the excellentest amongst women Her nurse to whose keeping she was giuen for the parents were asham'd of their Issue went with her euerie day to the Temple of Helena which stands in Therapne neere to the Church of Apollo and kneeling before the Altar besought the goddesse to commiserate the child and free her from her natiue vglinesse and loathsome deformitie Vpon a time returning from the Temple a woman appeared to her of a venerable aspect and desired to see what she carryed so tenderly in her armes the nurse told her it was an infant but such an one as shee was loth to shew and therefore desired to be excused the rather because she was enioyned by the parents not to expose it to the sight of any The more the nurse put her off with euasions the more importunate the strange woman was to behold it At length preuayling shee gently with her hand stroaked the face of the child and kissing it thus said Goe nurse and beare her home to her parents who shall in time become the most beautifull of the Spartan Ladyes From that time forward her deformitie began to fall away and a sweet grace and delightfull comelynesse to grow as well in face as euerie other lineament Comming to marriage estate she was sollicited by many but onely possest by Agetus yet after by the craft of Ariston shee was diuorced from Agetus and conferred vpon him Dion in Augusto speakes of Terentia the wife of Mecaenas to be of that rare feature that she dared to contend with Lyuia the wife of Augustus Caesar who was held to be the most amiable and exquisite Ladie of those dayes Of Terentia the daughter of Cicero I haue thus read Titus the sonne of Milo and Appius the sonne of Clodius were as remarkable for their noble friendship as their fathers notorious for their irreconcilable hatred Titus was for his fathers sake welcome to Cicero but Appius
He that is idle and would businesse haue Let him of these two things himselfe prouide A Woman and a Ship no two things crane More care or cost to suite the one for pride Th' other for tackles they are both like fire For still the more they haue they more desire And this I speake by proofe from morne to noone Their labour and their trauells haue none end To wash to râ—b to wipe and when that 's done To striue whore nothing is amâ—sse to mend To polish and expolish painâ— and staine Vnguents to daube and then wipe out againe c. Now what generall censures these fantasticke garbes and meere importunities incurre if any demaund I answere What lesse than weakenesse of the braine or loosenesse of life This iest following though it be old yet me thinkes it is pittie it should dye vnremembered A gentleman meeting in the streets with a braue gallant wench and richly accommodated seeing her walke with her brests bare almost downe to the middle laying his hand vpon them demaunded of her in her eare whether that flesh were to bee sold who skornefully answered No to whom he modestly replyed Then let me aduise you to shut vp your shop-windowes I will end this monitorie counsell with an Epigram out of Ausonius which beares title of two sisters of vnlike conditions Delia nos miramur est mirabile qoud tam Dissimiles estis c. Wee wonder Delia and it strange appeares Thou and thy sister haue such censure past Though knowne a whore the habit 's chast she woares Thou saue thy habit nothing whorish hast Though than chast life she hath chast habit sought Her Manners her thy Habit makes thee nought In memorie of Virgin chastitie I will cite you one historie out of Marullus lib. 4. cap. 8. The monument of Aegiptae the daughter of Edgar king of England a professed Virgin in her life time beeing opened after shee had many yeares lyen in the graue all her bodie was turned into dust sauing her wombe and bowells and they were as fresh and faire without any corruption as at the first day of her interment Those that stood by wondering at the obiect one Clerke amongst the rest broke foorth into these tearmes Wonder not to see the rest of the bodie to taste of putrifaction and the wombe still sound and perfect which neuer was contaminated with the least stayne or blemish of lust Of her Bishop Danstan thus speakes Worthie is her remembrance to be honoured vpon Earth whose chast life is celebrated amongst the Saints in Heauen O great reward due to Virgin chastitie by which such felicitie is attayned that their soules are not onely glorified in Heauen but their bodies are not subiect to corruption on earth But because the Theame I am next to speake of is of Virgins giue me leaue to begin with the best that euer was since the beginning for Beautie Chastitie and Sanctitie nor shall it be amisse to speake a word or two concerning her Genealogie MARY the Mother of CHRIST was the daughter of Ioachim of the Tribe of Iuda her mothers name was Anna the daughter of Isachar of the Tribe of Leui. Here as S. Hierome obserues is to be noted That Anna and Emeria were two sisters of Emeria came Elizabeth the mother of Iohn Baptist also Anna was first marryed to Ioachim and had by him Mary the mother of Christ and was after espoused to Cleophas by whom she had Mary Cleophe who was marryed to Alphaeus From them two came Iames the lesse surnamed Alphaeus Symon Canâ—â—â—aus Iudas Thaddaus and Ioseph otherwise called Barsabas Eusebius in his Ecclesiasticall Historie Lib. 2. cap. 2. sayth That Iames the lesse was called the Brother of our Lord because hee was the brother of Ioseph the husband of Mary but his opinion is not altogether authenticall Also Anna was espoused to Salome and had by him Mary Salome after marryed to Zebedeus and had by him Iâ—mes the greater and Iohn the Euangelist Ioseph the husband of Mary was the brother of Cleophas It is also obserued That in the one and fortieth yeere of the reigne of Augustus Caesar in the seuenth moneth which is September in the eleuenth day of the Moone which is the foure and twentieth day of the moneth on a Thursday Iohn Baptist was conceiued and two hundred threescore and fifteene dayes after on a Fryday was borne So that he was the fore-runner of Christ both in his Conception his Birth his Baptisme his Preaching and his Death A woman goeth with child two hundred threescore and sixteene dayes for so long by computation was Christ in the wombe of the blessed Virgin though all women goe not so long with child as S. Augustine obserues Lib. 4. de Ciuitate Dei cap. 5. So that Christ was longer in the wombe by a day and more than S. Iohn Baptist. Iohn also was borne when the dayes began to shorten and wane and Christ when the dayes began to waxe long Concerning these Antiquities I conclude with a sentence of S. Augustines Against Reason sayth hee no sober man will dispute against the Scripture no Christian man contest and against the Church no religious man oppose And so I proceed to the Historie Of MARY the Blessed Virgin LEt it not be held vnnecessarie or appeare out of course amongst these Virgins to insert a historie memorable for the â—arenesse thereof to all posteritie Iohannes Wyerius in his booke intituled de Prestigijs demonum hath collected it out of Suidas In the time that Iâ—stinianuâ— was Emperour there was a prince amongst the Iewes whose name was Theodosius He hauing great acquaintance and familiaritie with one Philippâ—s a Christian a bancker or one that dealt in the exchange of money for hee was called Philippus Argentarius this Philip did often sollicite and exhort him to leaue his Iudaisme and be a conuertite and turne to the Christian religion to whom he aunswered Indeed he must ingeniosly confesse he made no question but that Iesus whom the Christians adored was the same Messias of whom the holie Prophets foretold yet he could not bee persuaded to relinquish the honours and profits that he had amongst his owne nation and giue himselfe vp to a name which they knew not or at least would not acknowledge yet that he beleeued so of Christ he was not onely persuaded by the Oracles of the holie Prophets but he found it approoued by a certaine mysterie namely a writing most charily still kept amongst the Iewes in a place most safe and secret where their choise records with the especiallest care and trust are reserued which was of this nature It was a custome amongst the Iewish nation at what time the holie Temple was yet standing in Ierusalem to haue continually the number of twentie two chiefe and selected Priests iust so many as there bee letters in the Hebrew language or bookes of the old Testamenâ— and so often as any one of these was taken away by
writ many learned and elaborate workes in either tongue at length in the yeare of our Lord 1555 in the moneth of October being of the age of twentie nine yeares she dyed in Hedelburgh Saint Hâ—lena may amongst these be here aptly registred for thus Stow Harding Faâ—ian and all our moderne Chroniclers report of her Constantius a great Roman Consull was sent into Brittaine to demaund the tribute due vnto Rome immediately after whose ariuall before he could receiue an answer of his Embassie Coill who was then king dyed therefore the Brittaines the better to establish their peace dealt with the Roman Embassador to take to wiâ—e Helenâ— the daughter of the late deceased king a young Ladie of an attractiue 〈◊〉 adorned with rare gifts and indowments of the Mind 〈◊〉 Learning Vertâ—â— the motion was no sooner made but accepted so that Constantius hauing receiued the Brittish tribute returned with his new bryde to Rome and was after by the Senat constituted chiefe ruler of this kingdome After twentie yeares quiet and peacefull gouernement which was thought her wisedome Constantius dyed and was buried at Yorke in his time was Saint Albon martyred at Verolam since called Saint Albones as Iohn Lidgate Monke of Burie testifies who in English heroicall verse compiled his Historie Constantius sayth hee the younger succeeded his father Constantius as well in the kingdome of England as diuers other Prouinces a noble and valiant Prince whose mother was a woman religious and of great sanctimonie this young Prince was borne in Brittaine and prooued so mightie in exploits of warre that in time hee purchased the name of Magnus and was stiled Constantine the Great a noble protector and defender of the true Christian Faith In the sixt yeare of his raigne he came with a potent armie against Maxentius who with greeous tributes and exactions then vexed and oppressed the Romans and being vpon his march hee saw in a Vision by night the signe of the Crosse shining in the Ayre like fire and an Angell by it thus saying Constantine in hoc signo vinces i. Constantine in this signe thou shalt conquer and ouercome with which beeing greatly comforted be soone after inuaded and defeated the armie of Maxentius who flying from the battaile was wretchedly drowned in the riuer Tiber. In this interim of his glorious victorie Helena the mother of Constantine being on pilgrimage at Ierusalem there found the Crosse on which the Sauiour of the world was crucified with the three nayles with which his hands and feete were pierced Ranulphus amplifies this storie of Helena somewhat largelier after this manner That when Constantine had surprised Maxentius his mother was then in Brittaine and hearing of the successe of so braue a conquest shee sent him a letter with great thankes to heauen to congratulate so faire wished a Fortune but not yet being truely instructed in the Christian Faith she commended him that he had forsaken idolatrie but blamed him that hee worshipped and beleeued in a man that had beene nayled to the Crosse. The Emperour wrote againe to his mother That she should instantly repaire to Rome and bring with her the most learned Iews and wisest Doctors of what faith or beleefe so euer to hold disputation in their presence concerning the Truth of religion Helena brought with her to the number of seuenscore Iewes and others against whom Saint Siluester was only opposed In this controuersie the misbeleeuers were all nonplust put to silence It hapned that a Iewish Cabalist among them spake certain words in the eare of a mad wild Bull that was broke loose and run into the presence where they were then assembled those words were no sooner vttered but the beast sunck down without motion and instantly dyed at which accident the iudges that sat to heare the disputation were all astonished as wondering by what power that was done To whom Siluester then spake What this man hath done is onely by the power of the deuill who can kill but not restore vnto life but it is God onely that can slay and make the same bodie reuiue againe so Lyons and other wilde beasts of the Forrest can wound and destroy but not make whole what is before by them perished then saith hee if hee will that I beleeue with him let him rayse that beast to life in Gods name which hee hath destroyed in the Deuils name But the Iewish Doctor attempted it in vaine when the rest turning to Siluester said If thou by any power in Heauen or Earth canst call backe againe the life of this beast which is now banished from his bodie wee will beleeue with thee in that Deitie by whose power so great a miracle can be done Siluester accepted of their offer and falling deuoutly on his knees made his prayers vnto the Sauiour of the world when presently the beast started vp vpon his feete by which Constantius was confirmed Helena conuerted and all the Iewes and other Pagan Doctors receiued the Christian Faith and were after baptised and after this and vpon the same occasion Helena vndertooke to seeke and find out the Crosse. Ambrose and others say she was an Inne-keepers daughter at Treuerent in France and that the first Constantius trauailing that way married her for her beautie but our Histories of Brittaine affirme her to be the faire chast and wise daughter of king Coil before remembred The perfections of the minde are much aboue the transitorie gifts of Fortune much commendable in women and a Dowrie farre transcending the riches of Gold and Iewels Great Alexander refused the beautifull daughter of Darius who would haue brought with her kingdomes for her Dower and infinite Treasures to boot and made choyse of Barsine who brought nothing to espouse her with saue her feature and that shee was a Scholler and though a Barbarian excellently perfect in the Greeke Tongue who though poore notwithstanding deriued her pedigree from kings And vpon that ground Licurgus instituted a Law That women should haue no Dowers allotted them that men might rather acquire after their Vertues than their Riches and women likewise might the more laboriously imploy themselues in the attaining to the height of the best and noblest Disciplines It is an argument that cannot be too much amplified to encourage Vertue and discourage Vice to persuade both men and women to instruct their Mindes more carefully than they would adorne their Bodies and striue to heape and accumulate the riches of the Soule rather than hunt after Pompe Vaine-glorie and the wretched Wealth of the world the first being euerlastingly permament the last dayly and hourely subiect to corruption and mutabilitie Horace in his first Epistle to Mecaenas sayth Vitius Argentum est Auro virtutibus Aurum Siluer is more base and cheape than Gold and Gold than Vertue To encourage which in either Sex Plautus in Amphit thus sayes Virtus praemium est optimum virtus omnibus Rebus anteit profecto c. Vertue 's the best
when a certaine rich Ladie of Ionia came to Lacena and with great boasting and pride shewed her her pretious iewells and rich garments shee pointed to her foure faire children whom shee had liberally and vertuously educated and sayd These are treasures onely in which modest and discreet women ought to glorie Plutarch in Apotheg Luconic Eumele the wife to Basilius Helenopontamos of Pontabus as Nazianzenus testifies had by him fiue sonnes of which three at one time were learned bishops and stour champions for the Gospell namely Gregorius Nissenus Basilius Magnus Caesariensis and Petrus Sebasta then I blame nor Epaminondas who in all his noble exployts and prosperous successes in warre was often heard to say That nothing was so pleasing and delightfull to him as that both his parents were yet aliue to participate with him in his honours hee in the great battaile called Lenctricum had a glorious victorie ouer the Lacedemonians Plutarch in Grec Apotheg So Basilius Magnus Bishop of Cesaria gloried of nothing so much with dayly thankes to God as that hee was borne of Christian parents namely Helenopoâ—tanus his father and schoole maister and Enmele Capadoce his mother and that hee was nourced by Macrina who had beene a zealous and frequent auditor of Gregory Naeocae Soriensis his grandfather in that bloodie persecution vnder the Emperour Maximinus with his kinsmen and familie retyred himselfe into a Caue in a moate where with bread onely hee miraculously fed himselfe and the rest for the space of seuen yeares and after for the Faith of the Gospell suffered a blessed and glorious Martyrdom Licosck in Theat Human. Vitae Saint Hierom commends Paula the religious Roman matron for her nobilitie of byrth as being begot by Rogatas a Gretian who deriued himselfe from Agamemnon king of Mecene and royall Generall of those famous expeditious against Troy and borne of Blesilla Romana of the antient familie of the Scipioes and the Gracchi and was married vnto Toxilius illustrous in his blood as claiming his descent from Aeneas and the Iulian pedegree but nobility of byrth not being our owne but our ancestors it is not my purpose to insist of it any further It followes that I should speake something of such as haue beene the restorers of antient and decayde Families euen when they were at the last gaspe and readie to perish and be as it were swept from the face of the Earth Vital is Michael duke of Venice returning with his weather-beaten Nauie out of Greece where almost for the space of two yeares together without cessation he had opposed Prince Emanuel Constantinopolitanus beeing so exhausted that scarce Commanders Marreners or any nauall protection sufficiently accommodated was left to bring backe his fleete whether by a pestilentiall mortallitie or that Prince Manuell had poysoned the Springs and Fountaines where the Venetian souldiers furnished themselues with fresh water is not certaine but most sure it is besides many other disasters and discommodities that which hee held to be the greatest was that there was not any of male issue of the Iustinian Familie left aliue but all of them in that infortunate expedition perished to one man not any of that noble stocke suruiuing by whom the memorie thereof might bee restored to posteritie This the Duke Michaell often pondering with himselfe in great sadnesse and sorrow at length he bethought him of one Nicholaus a young man who had deuoted himselfe to a sequestred and religious life and was of the order of the Benedictan Fryers he had besides one onely daughter whose name was Anna her he had a great desire to conferre vpon Nicholaus so he could any way admit a dispensation from Alexander then Pope therefore to that purpose hee earnestly petitioned him and made great friends to sollicite him in that behalfe who willing to repaire the ruines of so noble a familie now altogether spent and wasted gaue approbation touching the marriage which was accordingly publikely and with great pompe solemnised These two now the onely hopes of that future posteritie had faire and fortunate issue males and females who were no sooner growne to any perfection and disposed of to liberall and vertuous education but which is remarkable in two so yong they conferd together to this purpose that since Heauen had blessed them with that for which marriage was ordained and the purpose for which the dispensation was granted namely issue and to reuiue a dying familie that they would with an vnanimous consent againe enter into religious vowes and orders This motion was betwixt them resolued and hauing nobly disposed of their children hee tooke vpon him holy orders and retyred himselfe to the monasterie of Saint Nicholas his wife Anna erected a Nunnerie not far from Torcellus which shee made sacred to Saint Adrian how great and almost miraculous was their abstinence and Pietie that abandoning all worldly pleasures and delights when they flowed about them in all aboundance euen then vowed themselues to solitude and heauenly meditations in which profession they both in a faire and full age deseased Egnat lib. 4. cap. 3. and Marullus in Vita Vitalis Not much different from this is that which wee reade of Pharon Meliensis a noble Prelat who with his wife after some yeares of affectionate consocietie passed betwixt them made by a vnited consent a strict vow of future chastitie shee betooke her selfe to a Nunnerie hee to a Monasterie but after seuen sollitarie winters passed hee was still troubled in his thoughts for often calling to remembrance the beautie of his wife he repented himselfe of his former vow and often sollicited her for a priuat meeting which shee still denying and he more and more importuning at length shee yeelded to giue him visitation but the prudent and chast Ladie had her face couered her eyes deiected and presented herselfe in a base and sordid garment where with her intreaties mixt with teares she so farre preuailed with him that without breach of their promise made to Heauen they tooke their lasting leaue he still remaining in his Couent and shee repairing to her Cloyster Marul lib. 4. cap. 7. Volateran writes of Petrus Vrseolus duke of Venice who after he had one sonne by his wife by their vnanimous consent they vowed perpetuall abstinence from all venerall actions So likewise Aloysius de Caballis a noble Venecian with his wife a Ladie deriued from the blood of the Patritians these two agreed together neuer to haue carnall congression but onely for issue sake neither would they suffer any motion temptation or any word looke or gesture that might tend to the least prouocation in so much that if we may beleeue report the verie linnen which they wore next them was so interwoauen and disposed about them that when they lay together with great difficultie one might touch the others naked bodie Egnat lib. 4. cap. 3. Now what meede these deserue I am not able to iudge I leaue it to his wisedome who is the
the chances and changes incident to vs both in time and nature since death by the bountie of the gods is granted to man as a rest and cessation from all calamities and troubles For when Aurora had beg'd immortalitie for Tython he feeling the infirmities and defects of age became himself a suppliant to the gods That they would be to him so gracious as to giue him leaue to sleepe with his fathers accounting it much better and happier to dye once and be at rest than to bee continuallie afflicted with the troubles and difficulties of a wearie and despised life NOX or the Night AFter morning past the Sunne gone about and the day spent comes Night neither was she in meane honour amongst the antient Poets who taught her to be the first and long before all other nymphs or goddesses as possessing all places and all things hauing in her owne dispose and gouernment that deformed and vnshapen matter called Chaos ouer which she raigned Emperesse before the gods themselues had any existence or being notwithstanding some contend to make her the daughter of this Chaos as Hesiod and others Inde Chao est Erebus Nox tenebros a creati From Chaos Erebus and the Night tenebrous Were both created And because so borne she was called The most antient the reason is approoued For before the masse was opened the matter of which to make things distinguished and the world it selfe created there could nothing be which might be properlie called Night therefore Aratus in Astronomac stiles her Nox antiqua and Orpheus in one of his hymnes The mother of gods and men as both hauing their birth from her She is drawne in a charriot with starres waiting vpon her wheeles and vshering her as Theocritus left recorded Salueteque Noctis Sydera quae Canthis tacite praecurritis alta Hayle all you starres so bright Softlie forerunning the round wheeles of Night She is habited in sable garments for so all writers agree her head bound vp in a blacke vayle whom the starres attend behind her charriot as well as before for so Euripides in Ione testates Inuita nigris vestibus currum in silit Nox Astra sunt deum secuta protinus Night in blacke vesture mounts into her carre Behind the starres attend her but not farre Virgill giues her two horses to her charriot therefore Appollonius in this third book describing the Night comming saith Nox iniecit equis iuga The night vpon her horses cast her yoake But this maner of the nights progresse is later than in the time of Homer for in his dayes she was allowed neither charriot nor horses they onelie deciphered her with wings like Cupid or Victorie Some introduce her at the departure of the day to rise out of the sea as Virgill in his Aeneids Vertitur interea Coelum ruit Oceano Nox Inuoluens vmbramagna Terramque polumque The Heauen meane time is turn'd the Night Leapes from the sea in hast In darke and pitchy cloudes the Earth And Poles inuoluing fast Her whom Virgill brings from the sea Euripedes inuocates as comming from Erebus in these words Verenda Verenda Nox ex Erebo veni Oh reuerent reuerent Night ascend from Erebus Orpheus relates that she sends day to the regions below and againe chaseth her thence in her owne person bringing them darknesse Quae Lucem pellis sub terr as rarsus ipsa Tartara nigra petis Below the earth thou driuest Light And then againe thou bring'st them Night In all her sacrifices a cocke was still kild and offered as a creature much opposed against silence for so Theagines hath left recorded Night had many children Euripides in his Hercules Furens calls one of hir daughters Rabies her name importing outragious Madnesse a second daughter of hers was called Rixa which is Brawling and Scolding a third Inuidia or Enuy for so saith Hesiod in his workes and dayes but in his Theogonia he makes mention of others whom he calls her sonnes in these verses Nox peperit Fatumque malum parcamque nigrantem Et mortem somnum diuersaque somnis natos Hos perperit nulli deanox connicta marito Night euill Fate brought forth blacke Parca bred With Death and Sleepe and diuers Dreames beside Of all these Sonnes she was deliuered And yet the goddesse neuer husband tride Cicero in his third booke De natura Deorum hauing numbred all the children of Night deriues them also from their father Erebuâ— as may appeare in these words Quod si ita est c. If it be so saith hee those that are the Parents of heauen should likewise be reckoned in the number of the gods Aether and Dies i. Ayre and Day with their brothers and sisters by the antient Geneologists thus nominated Amor Dolus Metus Labor Invidentia Fatum Senectus Mors Tenebrae Miseria Querela Gratia Fraus Pertinatia Parcae Hesperides Somnia that is Loue Deceite Feare Labour Enuie Fate ould Age Death Darknesse Miserie Complaint Fauour Frawde the Parcae and the Hesperides All which are by some imagined to be the children of Nox and Erebus I will only speake a little of two of these as they now lie in my way and that verie briefly too and because it may perchance be late before I haue doone with them I will conclude with Night Death and Sleepe are brother and sister and both the children of Night Aristo calls Somnus a seuere exacter from mankind who as it were violently snatcheth away the halfe part of our age to bestow on Sleepe and therfore by Orpheus he is called the brother of Lâ—the which insinuates Forgetfulnesse which he most elegantlie expresseth in his hymne to Sleepe So miâ—e beatorum rex rex summe virorum Quem fugiunt curia c. Sleepe of the blest man King and King of men Whom cares still flie and rest imbraceth then Of mischiefes the sole solace and best friend To giue them due repose and comfort lend Who putting on the shape of Death doest giue Onely by that all creatures meanes to liue Sleepe thou hast but two sisters and these are Death and Obliuion both which shorten care Ouid in his Metamorphos for his so many benefits conferred vpon Mortalls placeth him in the catalogue of the gods The house of Sleepe the same Poet hath ingeniously described vpon whom hee conferres a thousand children or rather a number not to be numbered nominating onely three Morpheus Icelus and Phantasus for sleepe if it be moderately vsed is of all mortall things the sweetest best and most profitable to whom all creatures whatsoeuer are subiect therefore not improperly by Orpheus tearmed the king of men and gods Homer in his Illiades makes an elegant expression to show how wretched their conditions are aboue other men that are in high and eminent place and office and haue predominance ouer the greatest affaires which hee thus introduceth by making all both gods and men asleepe at once sauing Iupiter which Iuno seeing shee