pourtrayde the picture of the Sauiour of the world with a flower-de-lyce in his hand and so marched to Orleance Her first exploit was fortunately to raise the siege and releeue the towne From thence shee passed to Reames tooke the cittie and caused the Dolphin there to proclaime himselfe king and take vpon him the crowne of France She after tooke Iargueux a strong towne and in it the Earle of Suffolke with many other braue English gentlemen She fought the great battaile of Pathay with good successe in which were taken prisoners the lord Talbâ—â— the skourge and terror of the French nation the lord Seales the lord Hungerfâ—rd with many others both of name and qualitie she tooke in Benueele Mehun Trois and diuers other townes of great import and consequence at length in a camisado or skirmish she was taken prisoner by sir Iohn of Entenburch a Burgonian captaine and sent to Roan The French Cronicles affirme that the morning before she was surprised she tooke the sacrament and comming from Church told to diuerse that were about her that she was betraide her life sold and should shortly after be deliuered vp vnto a violent death For sir Iohn gaue a great sum of money to betray her The English comming to inuest themselues before Mondidier Ioan was aduised to issue out by Elaâ—ie and skirmish with them who was no sooner out but he shut the gates vpon her being taken she was sent to Peter Bishop of Beuoise who condemned her to the fire for a sorceresse which iudgement was accordingly executed vpon her in Roane in the market place Twentie six yeares after Charles the king for a great summe of money procured an annichilation of the first sentence from the Pope in which she was proclaimed a Virago inspired with diuine instinct in memorie of whose vertuous life and vniust death he caused a faire crosse to â—ee erected iust in the place where her bodie was burned I returne againe to the English Fabian and Harding speake of Emma sister to the Norman duke called Richard who for her extraordinarie beautie was called The flower of Normandie she was married to Ethelred king of England By her heroicke spirit and masculine instigation the king sent to all parts of the kingdome secret and strict commissions That vpon a certaine day and hour assigned all those Danes which had vsurped in the land and vsed great crueltie should be slaughtered which at her behest and the kings commaund was accordingly performed which though it after prooued ominous and was the cause of much miserie and mischiefe yet it shewed in her a noble and notable resolution Of queene Margaret the wife of Henrie the sixt her courage resolution and magnanimitie to speake at large would aske a Volume rather than a compendious discourse to which I am strictly tyed And therefore whosoeuer is deâ—irous to be further instructed in the successe of those many battailes fought against the house of Yorke in which she was personally present I referre them to our English Chronicles that are not sparing in commending her more than womanish spirit to euerlasting memorie With her therefore I conclude my female Martiallists And now me thinkes I am come where I would be and that is amongst you aire Fones Of Faire Women IT is reported of a king that for many yeeres had no issue and desirous to haue an heire of his owne bloud and begetting to succeed in the Throne vpon his earnest supplication to the diuine powers he was blessed with a faire sonne both of beautie and hope And now being possest of what he so much desired his second care was to see him so educated that hee might haue as much comfort of him in his growth as hope in his infancie hee therefore sent abroad to find out the most cunning Astrologians to calculate of his natiuitie that if the starres were any way maleuolent to him at his birth he might by instruction and good education as farre as was possible preuent any disaster that the Planets had before threatened A meeting to that purpose being appointed and the Philosophers and learned men from all parts assembled after much consultation it was concluded amongst them That if the infant saw Sunne or Moone at any time within the space of ten yeeres hee should most assuredly be depriued the benefit of sight all his life time after With this their definitiue conclusion the father wondrously perplexed was rather willing to vse any faire meanes of preuention than any way to tempt the crosse influence of the starres Hee therefore caused a Cell or Caue to be cut out of a deepe Rocke and conueying thither all things necessarie for his education hee was kept there in the charge of a learned tutor who well instructed him in the Theorie of all those Arts which best suited his apprehension The time of ten yeeres being expired and the feare of that ominous calculation past ouer the day was appointed when his purpose was to publish his sonne to the world and to shew him the Sunne and Moone of which he had often heard and till then neuer saw entire and to present vnto his view all such creatures of which he had beene told and read but could distinguish none of them but by heare-say They brought before him a Horse a Dogge a Lion with many other beasts of seuerall kindes of which he onely looked but seemed in them to take small pleasure They shewed him Siluer Gold Plate and Iewels in these likewise hee appeared to take small delight or none as not knowing to what purpose they were vsefull yet with a kind of dull discontent he demanded their names and so past them ouer At length the king commanded certaine beautifull virgins gorgeously attyred to be brought into his presence which the Prince no sooner saw but as recollecting his spirits with a kind of alacritie and change of cheare he earnestly demanded What kind of creatures they were how bred how named and to what vse created To whom his tutor ieastingly replyed These be called Deuills of which I oft haue told you and they are the great tempters of mankind Then his father demanded of him To which of all these things he had beheld he stood affected best and to whose societie hee was most enclined who presently answered O Father I onely desire to be attended by these Deuils Such is the attractiue power of beautie which women cannot fully appropriate to themselues since it is eminent in all other creatures Who wonders not at the beautie of the Sunne the glorie of the Moone and the splendor of the starres the brightnesse of the morning and the faire shutting in of the euening Come to the flowers and plants what artificiall colour can be compared to the leaues of the Marigold the Purple of the Violet the curious mixture of the Gillyflower or the whitenesse of the Lilly to which Salomon in all his glorie was not to be equalled You that are prowd of your haire
braue souldier or of such as perished in Cilicia for the Empire and libertie of whole Greece shee onely hauing perdurable monuments raised to her as well in Babilon as in Athens Temples and Altars with sacrifices offered her by the name of Venus Pythonica With other such vpbraidings he complained on him to Alexander of whom Alexis in Licisca likewise speakes as also that after her death hee tooke to his bed the beforenamed Glicera Next her followers Irene That Ptolomaeus that placed garrisons in Ephesus and was the sonne of king Philadelphos had a beautifull mistresse called Irene she when Ptolomaeus was â—ssaulted by â—he Thracians in the cittie of Ephesus and to shun their violence fled into a Chappell consecrated to the goddesse Diana would not in that distresse forsake him but entred the place together and when the souldiers role open the gates vpon them to kil the king she remoued not her hand from the ring of the doore but with her owne blood sprinkled the altar till the souldiers likewise falling vpon her shee expired in the armes of the slaughtered king As noble was that of Danae Philarchus remembers one Sophron of Ephesus to haue had in his delights Danae daughter to Leontius of the Sect of the Epicures a man well seene in the speculations of Philosophie To her trust were all the domesticke affaires of the house committed euen by the consent of his wife Laodice who at length perceiuing his loue to encline to Danae shee purposed at her next best opportunitie to make away with her husband This being found out by Daâ—ae and in great secrecie reuealed to Sophron he gaue at the first no credit to the report yet at her importunacie hee promised within two dayes to consider of the matter and in that time to deliberate what was best to bee done in the preuention of such a mischiefe and in that interim conceales himselfe in the citie by which Laodice finding her purpose to be discouered she accused Danae for his murther and instantly without further processe by the helpe of her friends and seruants hurryed her to the top of a high Pâ—omontorie from thence to throw her headlong who seeing imminent death before her eyes fetching a deepe sigh she thus said I meruaile 〈◊〉 now that the gods haue so small honour done to them in regard of their iniustice since I am thus punisht for sauing the life of my friend and this Laodice is thus honoured that would haue tooke away the life of her husband Agathoclaea WArres hauing beene long continued betwixt Ptolomey of Aegypt and Antiochâ—s of Syria insomuch that Ptolomaeus was by his embassadors rather by feare than necessitie as it were enforced to sollicite a peace notwithstanding Antiochâ—s inuading Aegypt tooke from him many townes and ciâ—ies of consequence which proffer drawing Ptolomey to the field hee gaue him a braue affront and foyle and had he taken the aduantage of the preseâ—t fortune had payd him home with an irrecouerable ouerthrow but Ptolomy wholly deuoted to effeminacie and luxurie onely contented with what hee had recouered of his owne and pursuing no further aduantages made choyse of a dishonorable peace before a iust warre and so concluded all dissention with an vnalterable league And being free from all forraine invasions he began domesticke troubles at home For being giuen ouer to bâ— owne appetite and beâ—orted to his insatiate pleasures he first began with 〈◊〉 both his sister and wife causing her to be slaine that hee might the more freely enioy the societie and fellowship of his most rare and beautifull mistresse Agaâ—hoclea so that the greatnesse of his name and the splendor of his maiestie both set apart he abandoned himselfe solely to whoredomes by night and to banquets and all profusenesse of riot by day And now libertie being growne to law the boldnesse of the strumpet for no better my Author styles her cannot be contayned within the walls of the kings house which the ouer doâ—agâ— of the king the extraordinarie graces and honoâ—s conferred for her sake on her brother Agathocles together with her owne ambitions growing euery day more and more to greater insolence made still more manifest Next there was her old mother called 〈◊〉 a cunning Hagge I may tearme her who by reason of her double issue Agathocles and Agathoclea had a great hand with the king or rather a great power ouer him Therefore not contented with the king alone they possesse the kingdome also They ride abroad in all state to be seene are proud to be by all saluted and with such great traynes to be attended Agathocles as if sowed to the kings elbow was not seene without him but with a nod or word swayed and gouerned the citie The gifts of all militarie honors as the Tribunes Prefects and Captaines all these were appointed by the women neyther was there any in the kingdome that had lesse power than the king himselfe who long sleeping in this dreame of maiestie hauing giuen away all that was essentiall in a king he fell sicke and dyed leauing behind him a child of fiue yeeres old by his afore-murthered wife and sister Laodice But his death was by these fauorites long concealed whilest they had by all couetous rapine snatched what they might out of the kings treasurie by this to strengthen a faction of the most base and desolate subiects that by mony thus ill got and deboisht souldiers thus leuied they might set safe footing in the Empire but it fell out farre otherwise for the kings death and their dissigne was no sooner discouered but in the rude concourse of the multitude the Minion Agathocles was first slaine and the two women the mother and the daughter were in reuenge of murdered Laodice hanged vpon gybets being now made a skorne to euerie man that was before a terror to all the pupillage of the infant and the safetie of the realme to his vse the Romans most noblie after tooke to their protection Cleophis ALexander the Great after many glorious conquests entring into India that hee might contermine his Empire with the Ocean and the vtmost parts of the East and to which glorie that the ornaments of his armie might suit the trappings of his horses and the armour of his souldiers were all studded with siluer and his maine armie of their Targets of siluer as Curtius writes he caused to be called Argyraspides In processe by gentle and pleasurable marches they came to the cittie Nisa the cittisens making no opposition at all trusting to the reuerence due to Liber Pater by whom they say the cittie was first erected and for that cause Alexander caused it to bee spared passing those fruitfull Hills where grapes grow in aboundance naturally and without the helpe of art or hand of man hee thence passed the Dedalian mountaines euen to the prouinces and kingdome of the queene Cleophis who hearing of his victories and fearing his potencie thought rather to affront
vnquam huic feminae comparandus est virorum tanta in eius vita scribuntur cum ad vituperationem tum maxime ad laudem i. No man was euer to be compared with this woman such great things haue beene written of her partly to her disgrace but chiefely to her praise He proceedes further She was the fourth that raigned in Assiria for so it is approued Nimrod was the first being father to Belus and grand-father to Ninus which Ninus was the first that made warre vpon his neighbours and vsurped their dominions in whom began to cease the Golden world whom his widdow Queen succeeded counterfetting the shape of man She was after slaine by her sonne Ninus the second of that name who as Eusebius writes after her death swaid the scepter thirtie and eight yeares One memorable thing is recorded of her by Diodorus Siculus lib. 3. as also by Vitruuius This queene being making her selfe readie in her pallace royall when the one part of her haire was bound vp and the other halfe hung loose vpon her shoulders suddenly newes was brought her That the cittisens of Babylon were reuolted and all or the most of them in mutinie and vprore She presently posted into the citie and what with her presence and persuasion attonde the discord before she had leasure to put her disordered curles in forme reconciled the hearts of that innumerable people to her obedience for which her statue was erected in the cittie being pourtraied halfe readie halfe vnreadie in memorie of that noble and magnanimous aduenture Some thing of the best that was in her though not all you haue heard the worst is to come Iuba apud Pli. relates that she immitated the fashions of men neglecting the habit of her own Sex and in her latter yeares grew to that deboisht effeminacie and forâ—id lust that shee did not onely admit but allure and compell into her goatish embraces many of her souldiers without respect of their degrees or places so they were well featured able and lustie of performance whom when they had wasted their bodies vpon her shee caused to be most cruelly murdered Shee was slaine by her owne sonne because shee most incestuously sought his bed but which of all the rest is most prodigious and abhominable she is reported to haue had companie with a horse on whom shee vnnaturally doted But these things whether related for truth or recorded of malice I am altogether ignorant and therefore leaue it to censure Herodotus Plutarch and others writ that she caused these words to be inscribed vpon her Tombe Quicunque rex pecunijs indiget aperto monumento quod voluerit accipiat that is What king soeuer hath neede of coyne search this moâ—ument and he shall find what he desires This when king Darius had read thinking some Magazin of treasure had beene there included he caused the Tombe-stone to be remooued where he found vpon the other side thereof these words ingrauen Misi rex auarus esses pecuniae insatiabilis mortuorum monumenta non viâ—lasses i. Haddest thou not been an auaritious king and insasiable of Coyne thou wouldest not haue ransacked the graue of the dead Thus as Franciscus Patritius Pontifex saith the excellent Ladie in her death taunted the gripple auarice of the liuing That the monuments of the dead are no way to be violated or defaced Sertorius hath taught vs who hauing subdued the cittie Tigenna scituate in the countrey of Maurusia in which a noble sepulchre was which the inhabitants sayd belonged to Antaus which was the gyant slaine by Hercules when the greatnes of the graue exceeded all beleefe Sertorius caused it to be ruined and there digged vp a bodie as Plutarch witnesseth of seuentie cubits in length which beholding and wondering at hee caused it to be repaired with greater beautie than before least by deminishing that he might haue ruined a great part of his owne honour Some thinke it was the bodie of Tagenna the wife of Antaeus whom Hercules prostituted after the death of her husband of her he begot Siphax who after erected that cittie and in memorie of his mother called it by her name Pasiphae THis Ladie though I cannot fitly introduce her within the number of the incestuous yet for that horrid act which the Poets haue reported of her I shall not impertinently place her next to Semiramis Appollodorus Gramatticus in his booke de Deorum origine as Benedictus Aegius Spoletinus interprets him thus sets downe her historie Ninus king of Creet espoused Pasiphae daughter of the Sunne and Perseis or as Asclepiades calls her Creta the daughter of Aterius she had by him foure sonnes Cretaeus Deucalion Glaucus and Androgeus and as many daughters Hecate Xenodice Ariadne and Phaedra This Minos peaceably to inioy his kingdome had promised to offer such a Bull to Neptune but hauing obtained his desires hee sent that Bull before markt out backe to the heard and caused another of lesse value to bee sacrificed at which Neptune inraged knew not with what greater punishment to afflict him for the breach of his faith than to make his wife most preposterously and against nature to dote on that beast which he had so carefully preserued She therefore confederated with Dedalus a great Artsmaster one that for murder had fled from Athens and with his sonne Icarus there secured himselfe hee deuised by his mischieuous skill a wodden cow hollowed within with such artificiall conuayance that the Queene inclosed had satisfaction of her desires to the glutting of her libidinons appetite Of this congression she conceiued and brought forth a sonne called Asterion or as the most will haue it Minotaurus shaped with a Bulls head and a mans body About this monstrous issue Minos consulted with the Oracle which aduised him to shut him in a Labyrinth and there see him safelie brought vp and kept This Labyrinth the first that euer was was built by Dedalus beeing a house so intricated with windings and turnings this way and that way now forward then backward that it was scarce possible for any that entered therein to finde the direct way backe thus farre Apollodorus But Palephatus in his Fabulous narrations reduceth all these commented circumstances within the compasse of meere impossibilitie and thus deliuers the truth concerning Pasiphae Minos being afflicted with a disease in his secret parts with which he had beene long grieued was at length by Crides who belonged to Pandion cured In the interim of this his defect and weakenesse the queene cast an adulterat eye vpon a faire young man called Taurus whom Seruius saith was the scribe or secretary to the king shee prostituting her selfe to his imbraces when the full time was expired shee produced her issue Which Minos seeing and taking a true supputation of the time comparing the birth with his discontinuance from her bed by reason of his disease apprehended the adulterie notwithstanding hee was vnwilling to kill the bastard because it had a resemblance to the rest of
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
workemanship In Ceres right hand was the image of Victorie most curiouslie forged This Historie with many other is with much nimble and dextrous witte fabulated by Ouid to whose Metamorphesis I referre you In Ceres is figured to vs an exhortation to all men to bee carefull in the manuring and tilling of the Earth since Ceres is taken for the Earth the treasuresse of all riches whatsoeuer and iust is that vsurie and commendable which arriseth from thence for the fertilitie that growes that way is begot by the temperature of the weather and the industrie of mans labours Shee is therefore sayd to wander round about the earth and ouer the spatious Vniuerse because of the obliquitie of the signe-bearing circle and the progresse of the Sunne beneath that by which Sommer is in some parts of the world at all seasons of the yeare and elsewhere when not here Besides from hence this moralitie may bee collected No man vnpunished can despise the gods for miseries are the hand-maides of dishonestie therefore of force a wicked and irreligious man is subiect and incident to fall into many distresses and casualties therefore Pietie towards heauen Wisedome in managing our affaires and Thriftinesse in the disposing of our priuat fortunes are all requisite in an honest religious a parsimonious and well disposed man PROSERPINA THe daughter of Iupiter and Ceres shee was honoured in Cicilie of which Prouince shee was called Cicula of whom Seneca thus speakes Vidisti Siculae regna Proserpinae Hast thou seene the kingdomes of Sicilian Proserpine She is likewise called by Lucan Ennaea of the citie Enna Eloâ—uar immenso terrae sub pondere quae te Cintineant Ennaea dapes Shall I oh Ennaea discouer on what dainties thou feedest Beneath the huge waight of the Massie earth Manie fables of Proserpina haue bin introduc'd for our better instruction by the ancient Poets which is onely to expresse to vs the nature of the seedes and plants for Proserpina by whom is signified the Moone shining to vs one halfe of the moneth and lying the other halfe in the armes of her husband Pluto that is being halfe the yeare in Heauen and the other in Hell sixe moneths beneath the earth and as manie aboue so is it with the vertue of plants whose sappe for sixe moneths space is by reason of the subterren cold forc't and diffused vpward into the boughes and branches againe by the extreamitie of the Winters vpper cold it is compulsiuely driuen backe downeward into the roote beneath the earth for so doth nature impart her power and vertue to all creatures and naturall bodies whatsoeuer that they many obserue a mutualitie if I may tearme it so in their cooperation After the like manner is the day sorted out for our labours and affaires the night for our rest and repose So likewise in explicating the power of Luna or the Moone some call her the daughter of Hiperion or the Sunne because shee being Corpus diaphanes that is a bodie cristaline like reflectiue glasse transferres the light receiued from her father vpon the earth to vs for which cause she is called also the sister of the Sunne by the swiftnesse of her course her proper motions are declared To expresse her nature alwaies appearing to vs greater or lesser is to signifie her strength and multiplicitie of working therefore they alot her a garment of diuers and sundrie colours In attributing to her the double sexes of male and female as some haue commented the reason is in that as shee is woman shee infuseth an humor necessarie and profitable to the nutriment of all creatures in respect of her virile nature shee allowes a moderate and sensible heate much auailable to increase for without this heate in vaine were her opperation which is easily proued in all creatures that are pregnant and bringing foorth therefore shee is called Lucina as the goddesse that brings creatures to light She is likewise operatiue to corruption which is the reason that sicke men and such as are troubled with anie greeuous maladie are most in daunger of death in the criticall daies of the Moone NEMESIS SHee is the goddesse of Reuenge and Wrath and punisher of the proude and vaineglorious She had a Temple in Ramnus a towne in Attica from which shee tooke the name of Rhamnusia Aristotle by the passion of Indignation and affection of Commiseration saith Nemesis is figured and both of these tooke in the better part Indignation when good men are troubled and vexed to see bad men vse good things ill Commiseration to see honest and just men crost with the disasters of the world Plutarch in his booke de capienda ex hostibus vtilitate speaking how ridiculous it is for anie man to reproue another of that vice of which hee is himselfe guiltie or taint anie man for the least deformitie vnto which hee is subiect himselfe brings in Leo Bizantius a crooked back't fellow gybing at him because hee had a weakenesse and an infirmitie falne into his eies to him he thus answered Why dost thou mock me for this mischance by fortune when thou thy selfe carriest Nemesis vpon thy backe by nature Of what power this Nemesis was and how honoured manie Authors as well amongst the Greekes as the Latines haue laboured industriously to make manifest I will insist on few Ausonius from the Greeke interpreted this Epigram Me lapidem quondam Persae advexore trophaeum Vt fierem bello nunc Ego sum Nemesis Ac sicut Graecis victoribus asto trophaeum Punio sic Persas vaniloquos Nemesis The Persians tooke me hence long since From Greece a stone and vow To make me a warres-Trophy stand But Nemesis I am now But as I to the victor Greekes A Trophy now appeare The prating Persians Nemesis I punish with my feare The Historie from which both Epigrams are deriued Pausanias recites much after this manner From Marathon saith he some threescore leagues distant is Rhamnus a citie bordering vpon the Sea iust in the way to Oroxus by which stands the Temple of Nemesis a goddesse who is the ineuitable reuenger of such men as are haughtie proud and contumelious It seemes the barbarous Perseans vnder the name of Nemesis doe comprehend Indignatio for comming towards Marathon and despising the Athenians as not able to interpose their incurâ—ions They tooke a stone of white Marble as if they had alreadie obtained the victorie of which stone Phidias the excellent statuarie made the portraiture of Nemesis A faire crowne vpon her head with forrest harts carued about it and many small Imageries pourtraieng Victorie in her right hand a golden cuppe in which the Aethiopians were figured Some thinke her the daughter of Oceanus some of Iupiter others of Iustice. Ammianus Marcellinus in his booke of the deedes of the Emperour Gallus speakes to this effect These and such like things saith he Adrastia vnder whose name by a double signification we vnderstand Nemesis oft times workes in vs being a certaine sublime law
altogether vnproperlie said to change themselues into the similitudes of so many creatures The daughters of PHORCIS THis Phorcis whom the Latines call Phorcus was the sonne of Terra and Pontus the Earth and the Sea as Hesiod in his Theogonia makes him But Varro will haue him to be the issue of Neptune and the Nymph Thosea He had besides those daughters begot one Ceto the Phorcidae namelie the Gorgons and Thoosa who lay with Neptune and brought forth the Ciclops Poliphemus as Homer witnesseth He is cald also the father of the serpent that kept the Hesperides by Hesiod But I will forbeare the rest to speake something of his daughter Medusa Medusa She for her lust and immoderate appetite to inchastitie incurred the ire of the gods being so impudent as to suffer the imbraces of Neptune in the Temple of Minerua There were diuers of that name one the daughter of Priam another of Sthenelus and Nicippe Pausanias in Corinthiacis calls her the daughter of Phorbus others of a sea monster which I take to be Phorcus before mentioned Minerua for the prophanation of her Temple being grieuouslie incenst thought to punish her in those haires which a little before were so wondrous pleasing to Neptune and turned them into hissing and crawling snakes giuing her this power that whosoeuer gased vpon her face should be in the instant conuerted into stone Isacius is of opinion that that was not the cause of her calamitie but relates it another way That Medusa was of Pisidia and the fairest of all women who glorying in her feature but especiallie the beautie of her haire dared to contend with Pallas which arrogant impudencie the goddesse heinouslie taking her haire in which she so ambitiouslie gloried she changed into filthie and terrible snakes and then gaue her that killing look before mentioned but pittying at length so generall a mischiefe incident to mortall men by that meanes she sent Perseus the sonne of Iupiter and Danae or rather as some will haue it he was imployed by Polydectes king of the Seriphians to cut off her head who hauing before receiued a hooked skeyne called Harpe from Mercury and a shield from Pallas came to the fenne called Tritonides amongst whose inhabitants she exercised her mischiefe and first approaching Pephredo and Aenio two of the Phorcidae and of the Gorgonian sisterhood who were old and wrinckled croanes from their natiuitie they had betwixt them but one eye and one tooth which they did vse by turnes and when they went abroad or when they had no occasion to imploy them layde them vp in a casket for so Ascilus relates He borrowed of them that eye and tooth neither of which he would restore till they had brought him to the nymphes with winged shooes which taking from them and being armed with the Helmet of Pluto the sword of Mercury and the mirrour of Pallas he fled to Tartessus a cittie of Iberiae where the Gorgons then inhabited whose heads crawled with adders whose teeth were like the tuskes of a boare their hands of brasse and their wings of gold and there arriuing found them asleepe and spying her head in Mineruaes glasse in which he still looked it directed him so that at one blow he cut it off out of whose blood Pegasus sprung forth The other two sisters Sthumo and Aeuryale awaking and this seeing with the lowde hissing of these innumerable snakes made a noyse most dreadfull and horrible From whence Pallas first deuised the pipe with many heads The forme and shape of these Phorcidae Hesiod elegantlie describes Crisaor and Pegasus were begot of the blood dropping from Medusaes head as Apollonius Rhodius writes in his building of Alexandria The Gorgons were called Graee as Zetzes explicates in his twenty two historie Menander in his booke de Misterijs numbers Scilla amongst these Gorgons and that they inhabited the Doracian Islands scituate in the Aethiopick sea which some call Gorgades of whom they tooke the names of Gorgones Nimphodorus in his third booke of Histories and Theopompus in his seauenteenth affirme their guirdles to bee of wreathed vipers so likewise Polemo in his booke to Adaeus and Antigonus The occasion of these fictions are next to be inquired after By these Graee the daughters of Sea monsters is apprehended Knowledge and such Wisedome as is attained too by Experience They are said to haue but one eye which they vsed when they went abroad because Prudence is not so altogether necessarie to those that stay within and solely apply themselues to domesticke affaires as to such as looke into the world and search after difficulties Of this Wisedome or these Graee not impertinentlie called the sisters of the Gorgons is meant the pleasures and vaine blandishments of the world with the dangers that appertaine to the life of man from either of which no man without the counsell of Wisedome can acquit himselfe Therefore is Perseus said to ouercome the Gorgons not without the Helmet of Pluto the eye of the Graee the sword of Mercury and the mirror of Pallas all which who shall vse aright shall prooue himselfe to be Perseus the friend and sonne of Iupiter SCILLA and CHARIBDIS A Cusilaus and Appollonius both nominate Scilla to be the daugther of Phorcia and Hecate but Homer that her mothers name was Crataeis Chariclides calls her the issue of Phorbantes and Hecate Stesichorus of Lamia Tymeus tearmes her the daughter of the flood Cratus Pausanias in Atticis and Strabo in lib. 8. agree that this Scilla was the daughter of Nysus King of the Megarenses who surprised with the loue of King Mynos stole from her fathers head that purple locke in which consisted the safetie of his owne life and kingdome The Athenians hauing inuaded his dominion and ceised many of his townes and wasted the greatest part of his countrey by their fierce and bloody incursions they at length besieged him in the cittie Nysaea Some are of opinion that Nisus incensed with the foulenes of that treason caused her to be cast into the sea where she was turned into a sea-monster Pausanias auers that she was neither changed into a bird nor a monster of the sea nor betrayde her father nor was marryed to Nisus as he had before promist her but that hauing surprised Nisaea he caused her to be precipitated into the sea whose body tost too and fro by the waues of the Ocean till it was transported as farre as the Promontorie called Scylaea where her bodie lay so long vpon the continent vnburyed till it was deuoured by the sea-fowles this gaue place to that fable in Ouid Filia purpureum Nisi furata capillum Puppe cadens nauis facta refertur auis 'T is said the daughter hauing stolne her fathers purple Haire Falls from the hin-decke of the ship and thence sores through the Aire Zenodorus saith that she was hanged at the stearne of Minos his ship and so dragged through the waters till she dyed and that Scylla the
who for her elegant feature and extraordinarie beautie and withall because the costlie ornaments with which she vsed to attire herselfe exceeded the precise custome of her Order she was brought within suspition of lust and inchastitie for which being cal'd into question and not able legallie to acquit her selfe she was brought within the compasse of the law and for her supposed offence had both the sentence and execution due to the like delinquents Iustin in his 43 booke commemorates this historie Aeneas after many tedious trauells landing in Italie was by marrieng Lauinia the daughter of King Latinus made partner with him in the Kingdome for which marriage warre was commenst betwixt them two of the one partie and Turnus King of the Rutilians on the other In which combustions Turnus being slaine and Latinus yeelding to Fate Aenaeas both by the right of victorie and succession became Lord of both the Kingdome and poeple erecting a cittie called Lauinium in remembrance of his wife Lauinia In processe he made warre against Mezentias king of the Etruscians whom hauing slaine Ascanius the sonne of Aenaeas succeeded in the principalitie Ascanius leauing Lauinium built the cittie Alba which for three hundred yeares space was the capitall cittie of that Kingdome After many discents the regall honours were conferred vpon Numitor and Amulius These two Princes emulous of each others greatnesse Amulius the younger hauing opprest his brother Numitor surprised also his sole daughter Rhaea who was immediate heire to her fathers honours and regall dignities all which he couetous to ingrosse to himselfe and fearing withall least from her issue might in time descend some one that might punish his insolencies and reuenge her and her fathers iniuries deuised with himselfe how to preuent both and fearing least by putting her to death he might incurre a generall hate amongst the people in whose loue hee was not as yet fullie setled he apprehended as his safest course to shadow her vow of virginitie to be elected into the sacred seruice of Vesta Being thus confin'd into the groaue celebrated to Mars whether begot by Mars himselfe as was then beleeued or otherwise adulterouslie conceiued it is vncertaine but she was deliuered of two sonnes This being knowne to Amulius increased his feares who commanded the infants to be cast foorth and Rhaea to bee loaden with yrons vnder whose seuere sentence expiring she yeelded to Fate The two children ready to perish were miraculouslie nourced by a she wolfe and after found by the shepheard Faustulus were by him brought vp and called Remus and Romulus and so much of Rhaea Tranquillus and Cornelius Tacitus both of them remember one Rubria a Vestall virgin who was forceably deflowred by Nero. Another whose name was Pompilia because by her inchastitie she prophaned the sacred orders of Vesta was buryed aliue the same death for the like offence suffered Cornelia Floronea the Vestall was conuicted of whoredome but she to preuent one death made choice of another For taking to her selfe a braue Roman spirit shee with her owne hands boldlie slew her selfe Posthumia taxed for her two curious habit and gaudinesse in attire as much transcending the custome of that more strict Order was suspected of Lust and accited before the Senate and there arraigned she wittilie and noblie answered to whatsoeuer could be obiected against her so that being found guiltlesse she was absolued by the sentence of the high Priest or Archflammin Sextilia sped not so well as this Posthumia for she being suspected of inchastitie and found culpable suffered according to the law made for the punishment of the like offenders The like suffered Tutia the Vestall for her vnlawfull prostitution Plutarch in Gracchis in the Catalogue of these consecrated virgins numbers Licinia And Pliny relates that when Clodius the Emperour was in opposition with his wife Messalina that sinke of lust and most incontinent of women when their differences could be no wayes decided Messalina sent to Vbidia one of the most reuerent amongst the Vestalls by whose mediation attonement was made betwixt her and the Emperour The vestfall fire vpon a time going out and it being imputed to their inchastitie Aemilia with these words besought the goddesse Oh Vesta thou that art the protectour of this famous cittie Rome as I haue truelie and chastlie almost for thirtie yeares space celebrated thy sacrifices so either at this present crowne my puritie with fame or before this multitude brand my lust with infamy These words were no sooner spoken but casting her mantle vpon the Altar the fire instantlie brake foorth where before there was nothing in place saue cold embers by which prodigie her innocent life was protected Claudia the Vestall was of no lesse remarkeable chastitie who when a barke laden with the sacreds of the goddesse stucke fast in the riuer Tyber and by no human strength could be loosed from the sand she thus openlie protested before the people If quoth she ô goddesse I haue hitherto kept my chastitie vndefiled vouchsafe these may follow me when fastning a cord to the stearne of the ship she without any difficultie drew it along the riuer Tuscia likewise suspected of incontinence by the like wonder gaue testimonie of her innocence who inuocating Vesta in these words If saith she ô mother of the gods I haue offered thy sacrifices with chast and vndefiled hands grant that with this sieue I may take vp water from the riuer Tyber and without shedding the least droppe beare it vnto thy Altar which when she had obtained and accordinglie performed with lowd acclamations of the multitude she was absolued and her austere life euerafter held in reuerence The attributes of Modestie and Temperance are greater ornaments to a woman than gold or iewells and because all perfections cannot be in one woman at one time this Modestie is that which supplyes all things that are wanting It is a dower to her that hath no portion not onelie an ornament to deformitie but in blacknesse it impresses a kind of beautie it illustrates the ignobilitie of birth supplying all those defects wherein fortune hath beene scanting And so much shall suffice for the Vestalls Of the Prophetesses COncerning these Prophetesses I will onely make a briefe catalogue of some few whom the antient writers haue made most eminent We reade of Hyrtia the daughter of Sesostris king of Aegypt most skilfull in diuination who to her father foretold his Amplitude and Monarchy Volatteranus in Georg. writes of one Labissa a diuining woman that was eminent for many predictions in Bohemia whom succeeded her daughter Craco as well in skill as in fame Plutarch in Mario speakes of one Martha whom Marcius most honourablie circumducted in a horse-litter and at her appointment celebrated many sacrifices her the senate with a generall suffrage for her approued skill in augurie rewarded with libertie making her a free woman of the cittie Polyxo is the name of
king Deiotarus and barren and knowing how desiroâ—s her husband was to haue issue from his owne loynes to succeede in the kingdome sollicited him and that with great importance to select some beautifull Ladie whom he best fancied and by her to raise his posteritie which the king ouercome with so vnexpected a curtesie and therefore vnwilling to wrong her bed refusing she of her owne accord out of many captiue virgins chused one who seemed to excell all the rest in feature and modestie and suiting her in all respects like a princesse presented her to the king as a jewell to be receiued from her hand This Virgins name was Electra by whom Deiotarus had faire and fortunate issue to whom Stratonica was a second mother and sawe them educated with as much magnificence and state as if they had beene borne of her bodie and shee giuen them sucke from her owne brests Her example is memorable but since her time by few that I can reade of immitated Valeria and Cloelia TArquinus Superbus being expulsed the kingdome because his sonne Sextus had stuprated the faire Lucretia wife to Collatine to reobtaine his principalitie hee insinuated vnto his aide Porsenna king of the Tuscans These with an infinite armie besieged Rome insomuch that the cittisens were not onely wearied with long warre but opprest with famine therefore knowing Porsenna as well in warre as peace to be a prince eminent both for justice and humanitie they made choise of him to arbitrate and determine all controuersies betwixt Tarquine and them This motion being offered by the Romanes Tarquine refused to stand to any such comprimise not allowing Porsâ—â—â—â— a lawfull iudge in regard of their late league commensed This Porsenâ—â— not well relishing treated with the Romans about a peace conditionally that they should restore backe certaine lands before taken from the Etruscians and of them put him in peaceable possession and till this were performed to send him tenne young men and as many virgins of the noblest families for hostage which was accordinglie done and he dismist his armie These virgins walking by the riuer side which parted the campe and cittie for though he had sent away the greatest part of his armie he had not yet raised his tents two of the chiefe the one Cloelia the other Valeria daughter to the Consull Publicola persuaded the rest and by persuading so farre preuailed that they were all resolued to passe the riuer when stripping themselues naked and holding as well as they conuenientlie could their cloathes aboue their heads they ventured ouer that vnknowne passage full of whirlepooles and where there was no stedfast footing and what by wading and swimming to all mens wonders got safe to shore and presented themselues to their fathers and friends who though they admired their boldnesse and commended their resolutions yet disallowing the Act it selfe as those that in their faith and honour would not be outbid by any they sent them backe to king Porsenna and submitted their rashnesse to be punisht at his pleasure These virgins being presented before him he demanded of them Which she was that first animated and incouraged the rest to so rash and dangerous an enterprise when Cloelia beckning to the rest to keepe silence tooke all the iniurie contempt or whatsoeuer they pleafed to call it vpon her selfe protesting the rest innocent and she of what would be obiected the sole authour Porsenna obseruing and withall admiring her vndanted courage caused presently a horse furnished with rich trappings to be broughtâ— which he gaue to Cloelia in recompence of her magnanimous attempt sending them all in his regall curtesie back to their friends and parentsâ— Vpon this horse giuen to Cloelia by Porsenna some haue grounded that she first past the riuer on horsebacke sounding the way for the rest which others deny onely that the king thought to gratifie her manly courage with the meede of a souldier Her statue on horsebacke is erected in Via sacra This some confer vpon Cloelia others on Valeria Olympias ALexander hauing caused himselfe to be called the sonne of Iupiter writ to his mother in this maneer King Alexander the sonne of Iupiter Hamon to his mother Olimpias sends health to whom with great modestie she thus rescribed Deare sonne as you loue me insteed of doing me honour proclaime not my dishonour neither accuse me before Iuno besides it is a great aspertion you cast vpon nice to make me a strumpet though to Iupiter himselfe A great moderation in a woman who for no swelling title or vaine ostentation could be woon to loose the honour to be called a Loyall and chast wife Troades AMongst those frighted Troians that fled from the fearfull ruins of subuerted Troy some by the violence of outragious tempests were driuen vpon the coasts of Italy where landing at certaine ports neere to the riuer Tygris they made vp into the countrey the better to acquaint themselues with the conditions of those places In which interim the women began to apprehend that they had better farre to take vp an abiding place in any land than againe to commit themselues to the mercilesse furie of the seas Wherefore with one ioynt consent they agreed to make that their fixed habitation seeing all hope of their former losses at Troy were vtterly desperate Hauing thus conspired together with all possible expedition they burnt the shippes in this exploit one Roma is reported to be chiefe which being done they ran to meet their husbands making to their Nauie to quench it fearing their anger for their rash enterprise some of them embracing their husbands others their friends and acquaintance they tempred their amorous kisses with such persuasiue Rhetoricke that soone allayd the angry tempest of their husbands furie From these as some haue writ the custome of kissing at salutations by the Roman women to their kinsmen first tooke Originall The Troianes now tyed by necessitie and likewise finding the inbahitants so louing and curteous they much applauded this deede of the women and dwelt there with the Latines The Phocides AFter an implacable war betwixt the Thessalians and the Phocenses which had long lasted with much slaughter on both sides those of Thessaly bringing their army through the Locrenses inuaded the men of Phocis on all sides making a decree to kill all that were of age and the women and children to beare away captiue Diaphantes the sonne of Bathillius with his two colleagues then gouerning the cittie he persuaded the besieged boldlie and valiantlie to issue out and giue the enemy battaile but with this caution That all their wiues daughters and children euen to one soule should be brought into a place circled and compast in with all manner of dry wood and matter combustible and the dores by which they entered to be shut after them and so guarded and if the day were lost and they perisht in battaile the pile to bee kindled and all their bodies to be burned at once This being not onely proposed
might giue them their answer which granted Returne said she my humble duty and vassaladge to my Lord the King and tell him withall That vnlesse he receiue my faith and renouncing his false Idolls beleeue in the onely true God he can claime no interest at all in me The messenger dispatcht and this short answer returned to the Sophy he leuied an army of forty thousand men and comming into Greece the Emperour and he came vnto a peacefull enterview at which by the mediation of this royall and religious Empresse the Sophy with all his princes and souldiers there present receiued the Christian faith and after the interchange of many Princely and magnificicent gifts returned with his wife into his own countrey Another noble history I thinke not amisse to be here inserted which is recorded by one Willielmus de reg lib. 20. Gunnilda the daughter of Canutus and Emma who being accused of adultery by her husband Henry the Emperour who to iustifie his accusation had prouided a champion in stature a giant and for his presence and potencie much feared she notwithstanding relying vpon God and her owne innocence put her life vpon the valour of a priuat young gentleman of England whoÌ„ she brought with her to the same purpose These Champions adventuring their liues fought a braue and resolute combat but in the end the victory inclined to the Empresse her aduerse champion being vanquished confest his treasons and she was noblie acquit but after by no intreaties or intercessions made by the Emperour or others shee could bee wonne vnto his embraces but abiuring his bed and vowing an austere and sequestred life she retired her selfe into a Monasterie Three royall presidents of three vâ—matchable queenes the first for Magnanimitie the second for Religion and deuotion and the last for Chastitie To these I will yet adde another Willielmus de Regibus in his first booke writes that king Iue betooke his kingdom of the West-Saxons to his cosin Ethelardus and vndertooke a pilgrimage to Rome the occasion of his iournie was this The queene Ethelbnrga had often counselled her husband the king to forsake the pride and riches of the world and to haue a respect to his soules health especially now in the latter dayes of his life but not able to preuaile with him she bethought her selfe of a queint stratagem after they had left their royal pallace where they had but latly feasted in all pompe pleasure and delicacies and remoued into another house she caused him to whose charge the place from whence they departed was committed to take downe all the hangings make foule and and filthy euerie roome and chamber nay in the verie place where the king had but the other day sported with his queene was lodged a sow and pigges with all the loathsomenesse that could be deuised this done according to her commaund she by a wile inticed the king to the place thus strangely disguised The king wondering at this sudden change stood amased to whom she thus spoke I pray you my Lord where be now these rich hangings and curtaines either for state or ornament Where is all the glyttering pompe aâ—d rich array tending to nothing else saue gluttonie and luxurie Alas how suddenly are they all vanished Shall not my Lord this beautie of ours so fade and this fraile flesh euen so fall a way This with other her words to the like purpose tooke such impression in the kings brest that he resigned his kingdome to his Nephew and betooke himselfe to a religous and Monasticke life after his vowed pilgrimage The queene Ethelburga went to the Abbey at Berking in which place her sister had beene before Abbesse and there spent the remainder of her life in deuotion and penitence Polycrita THere arose great warres betweene the Milesians and Naxians kindled by the adultrate practise of the wife of Hypsicreon a Milesian who violating her coniugall vowes by throwing her selfe into the lustfull imbraces of Promedon a Naxian then her guest and fearing the iust anger of her husband and withall the punishment due to her adultrate sinne fled with him into Naxos from whence being againe demanded but denied this priuate wrong turned to a publique ruin for deuouring warre accompained with many calamities preyed vpon both their countries But as this Beacon was first fired by a womans lewdnesse so was it at last extinguished by a womans vertue Diognetus who had the command of those Erythraeans which came in ayde of the Milesians had committed to his custodie a certaine strong hold scituated against the citie Naxos who hauing taken from the Naxians a prize of women and free virgins he was deepely stroke in loue with one Polycrata whom he led with him not as a captiue but as his wife It chanced that the Miletians celebrated a generall festiuall day Polycrita besought Diognetus to make her so far indebted to his fauour as to suffer her to send her brothers part of those iuncates then at the table which willingly he granted she secretly writ vpon the leaden table of the marchpane what shee had proiected withall charging the bearer to intreat her brothers not to let any participate therof saue themselues when they had heard the writing which contained thus much in effect Take hold vpon the opportunitie which occasion thrusts into your hands this night you may seise the Castle for the enemie will lie downe in wine and sleepe in a presumptious securitie They shew it to the chiefe commanders of Naxos who vniting themselues giue the affrighted vnweaponed Miletians a sudden and vnexpected assault and hauing slaughtred many possesse themselues of the castle But by Polycritas intercessiue intreaties surprised Diognetus scapes with life And for this noble exploit of hers the glad citisens running to meete her with shoutes and acclamations euery one bearing in his hand a Garland to receiue her with those wreathes of honor Polycrita was so farre extaside that her sudden ioy vshered a sudden death for as she stood amased at the gate she instantly fell downe exanimated in which gate she was buried and her sepulchre called The tombe of Enuie because it is supposed that Fortune grew so enuious of her merits that thus she robd her of her life that so she might cheat her of her deserued honors And thus much speakes the histories of the Naxians Aristotle affirmes Polycrita was no captiue but onely that Diognetus hauing seene her hee grew so far enamoured of her that to enioy her he proferred her any thing that was in his power to giue She promises to yeeld to his desire if he will grant her the fruition of one boone which when hee had confirmed to her by oath shee demanded Delium to be surrendred vp for the castle was so called Diognetus being so much inchanted with her beautie and moreouer bound by the religion of his vow deliuered vp to her and the cittisens the castle Delium Of Queenes and other Ladies for diuers vertues memorable WEe reade
answered If with one finger thou put out one of mine eyes with these two I will put out both yours This was but wantonnesse betwixt them and appeared better in their action than in my expression and though I speake of a blind King hee lost not his eyes that way Herodotus relates that after the death of Sesostris king of Aegypt his sonne Pherones succeeded in the kingdome who not long after his attaining to the principalitie was depriued of his sight The reason whereof some yeeld to bee this Thinking to passe the riuer Nilus either by inundations or the force of the winds the waters were driuen so farre backe that they were flowed eighteene cubites aboue their woonted compasse at which the king inraged shot an arrow into the riuer as if he would haue wounded the channell Whether the gods tooke this in contempt or the Genius of the riuer was inraged is vncertaine but most sure it is that not long after hee lost all the vse of sight and in that darknesse remained for the space of tenne yeares After which time in great melancholly expired hee receiued this comfort from the Oracle which was then in the cittie Butis That if hee washt his eyes in the vrine of a woman who had beene marryed a full twelue moneth and in that time had in no wayes falsified in her owne desires nor derogated from the honour of her husband he should then assuredlie receiue his sight At which newes beeing much reioyced and presuming both of certaine and sudden cure he first sent for his wife and queene and made proofe of her pure distillation but all in vaine he sent next for all the great Ladies of the Court and one after one washt his eyes in their water but still they smarted the more yet hee saw no whit the better but at length when hee was almost in despaire he happened vpon one pure and chast lady by whose vertue his sight was restored and he plainely cured who after hee had better considered with himselfe caused his wife withall those Ladies sauing she onely by whose temperance and chastitie hee had reobtaind the benefite of the Sunne to bee assembled into one cittieâ— pretending there to feast them honourably for ioy of his late recouerie Who were no sooner assembled at the place called Rubra Gleba apparrelled in all their best iewells and chiefest ornaments but commaunding the cittie gates to be shut vpon them caused the cittie to be set on fire and sacrificed all these adulteresses as in one funerall pile reseruing onely that Lady of whose loyaltie the Oracle had giuen sufficient testimony whom he made the partaker of his bed and kingdome I wish there were not so many in these times whose waters if they were truely cast by the doctors would not rather by their pollution put out the eyes quite than with their cleerenesse and purity minister to them any helpe at all Laodice IVstine in his 37 booke of History speakes of this Laodice the wife and â—ister to Mithridates king of Pontus After whose many victories as hauing ouerthrowne the Scythians and put them to flight those who had before defeated Zopyron a great captaine of Alexanders army which consisted of thirtie thousand of his best souldiours the same that ouercame Cyrus in battaile with an armie of two hundred thousand with those that had affronted and beaten king Philip in many oppositions being fortunately and with great happines stil attended by which he more and more flourisht in power and increased in maiestie In this height of fortune as neuer hauing knowne any disaster hauing bestowed some time in managing the affaires of Pontus and next such places as he occupyed in Macedonia he priuately then retyred himselfe into Asia where he tooke view of the scituation of those defensed citties and this without the iealousie or suspition of any From thence he remooued himselfe into Bythinia proposing in his owne imaginations as if hee were already Lord of all After this long retirement hee came into his owne kingdome where by reason of his absence it was rumoured and giuen out for truth that he was dead At his arriuall he first gaue a louing and friendly visitation to his wife and sister Laodice who had not long before in that vacancie brought him a young sonne But in this great ioy and solemnitie made for his welcome hee was in great danger of poyson for Laodice supposing it seemes Mithridates to be dead as it before had beene reported and therefore safe enough had prostituted her selfe to diuers of her seruants and subiects and now fearing the discouerie of her adulterie shee thought to shaddow a mightie fault with a greater mischiefe and therefore prouided this poysoned draught for his welcome But the king hauing intelligence thereof by one of her handmaides who deceiued her in her trust expiated the treason with the bloods of all the conspirators I reade of another Laodice the wife of Ariarythres the king of Cappadocia who hauing six hopefull sonnes by her husband poysoned fiue of them after she had before giuen him his last infectious draught the youngest was miraculously preserued from the like fate who after her decease for the people punisht her crueltie with death succeeded in the kingdome It is disputed in the greeke Commentaries by what reason or remedy affection once so diuelishly setled in the brest or heart of a woman may bee altered or remooued or by what confection adulterous appetite once lodged and kindled in the bosome may bee extinguished The Magitians haue deliuered it to bee a thing possible so likewise Cadmus Milesius who amongst other monuments of history writ certaine tractates concerning the abolishing of loue for so it is remembred by Suidas iu his collections And therefore I would inuite all women of corrupted breasts to the reading of this briefe discourse following A remarkeable example was that of Faustina a noble and illustrious Lady who though she were the daughter of Antonius Pius the Emperour and wife to Marcus Philosophus notwithstanding her fathers maiestie and her husbands honor was so besotted vpon a Gladiator or common fencer that her affection was almost growne to frensie for which strange disease as strange a remedie was deuised The Emperour perceiuing this distraction still to grow more and more vpon his daughter consulted with the Chaldaeans and Mathematicians in so desperat a case what was best to bee done after long consideration it was concluded amongst them that there was but onely one way left open to her recouerie and that was to cause the fencer to be slaine which done to giue her a full cuppe of his luke-warme blood which hauing drunke off to goe instantlie to bed to her husband This was accordingly done and she cured of her contagious disease That night was as they said begot Antoninus Commodus who after succeeded in the Empire who in his gouernment did so afflict the Commonweale and trouble the Theatre with fensing and prises and
many other bloody butcheries that he much better deserued the name of Gladiator than Emperour This that I haue related Iulius Capitolinus writes to Caesar Dioclesianus Were all our dissolute matrons to be cured by the like Phisicke there would no question be amongst men lesse offendors and among women fewer patients that complained of sicke stomackes Phaedima CAmbises hauing before vnnaturally slaine his brother Smerdis by the hands of his best trusted friend Praxaspes but after the death of the king for the horridnes of the fact the Regicide not daring to auouch the deed to the people least it might preiudice his owne safetie One Smerdis a Magician whose eares Cambises had before caused to be cut off tooke this aduantage to aspire to the kingdome and beeing somewhat like in fauour to the murdered Prince who was by the souldiours generally beleeued to liue it purchast him so many abettors such as were deluded with his impostures that he was generally saluted and crowned Emperour This was done whilest the greatest part of the Nobilitie were absent and none since admitted into the pallace much lesse into the presence least the Magitian might bee vnviserded and the deceit made palpable The greater feares and doubts still inuironing the Princes because Praxaspes not daring to iustifie the murder kept it still lockt in his own breast The Magitian in this interim was not onely possest of all the Kings Pallaces and Treasures but he inioyed all his wiues and concubines amongst which was a beautifull Lady called Phaedima the daughter of Otanes a man of great power amongst the Persians This Lady first of all the rest most indeered to Cambyses and now since to the counterfeit Smerdis Otanes apprehends to bee the first instrument by which to discouer the truth He therefore by a secret messenger sends to his daughter to know by whom she nightly lay whether with Smerdis the sonne of Cyrus or with some other to whom she answered that it was altogether vnknowne to her who was her bedfellow because shee yet had neither seene Smerdis the sonne of Cyrus nor that man whatsoeuer he was into whose imbraces she was commanded He then sent her word that if she her selfe could not come to the sight of him to demaund of Atossa the daughter of Cyrus and brother to Smerdis who doubtlesse could decipher him in euery true lineament To which the daughter returnes him That she was separated both from the societie and sight of Atossa for this man whatsoeuer he is as soone as hee had possest himselfe of the Empire commanded all the women into seuerall lodgings neither could they haue any discourse or intercourse at all together This answer made Otanes the more and more suspitious and desirous with any danger to finde out the truth he aduentured a third message to Phaedima to this purpose It behooues you ô daughter being descended from noble ancestours to vndergoe any hazzard especially at the request of your father when it aimes at the generall good of the common-weale and kingdome if that imposter bee not Smerdis the brother of Cambises as I much feare it becoms him neither to prostitute and defile your body nor to mocke and abuse the whole estate of Persia vnpunished therefore I charge you as you tender my loue your owne honour and the Empires weale that the next night when you are called vnto his bed you watch the time when he is soundliest asleepe and then with your fingers gently feele both the sides of his head if thou perceiuest him to haue both his eares presume then thou lodgest by the side of Smerdis the sonne of Cyrus but if on the contrary thou findest his eares wanting then thou lyest in the bosome of Smerdis that base Magitian To this she replyed by letter Though I truely apprehend the danger should I be taken seeking of such things as hee perhaps knowes wanting which can be no lesse than death yet for your loue and the common good I will vndergoe the perill and with this briefe answer gaue satisfaction to her father But greater content he receiued from her when hauing discouered and layd open whatsoeuer her father suspected she sent him a faithfull relation of euery circumstance These things discouered by Phaedima Otanes makes a coniuration amongst the Princes all vowing the supplantation of this vsurper who in the interim the more to confirme the people in their errour he sent to Praxaspes promising him honours and treasures but to pronounce him once more before the people to bee the true and legitimate heire This charge Praxaspes vndertakes the multitude from all parts of the cittie were by the Magi assembled and he mounted vnto the toppe of an high Turret the better to be heard silence being made and attention prepared Praxaspes begins his oration in which hee remembers all the noble acts of Cyrus with the dignitie of his blood and progenie and passing ouer Cambises to come to speake of his brother Smerdis contrary to the expectation of the Magitian with teares began to commemorate the death of the Prince murdered and made away by his infortunate hand Then told them whom in his stead they had voyced into the Sacred Empire namely a groome and one of low and base descent one that for cousenages and forgeries had lost his eares a Magitian a Coniurer one that had long deluded them with his diuelish sorceries a slaue not worthy at all to liue much lesse to raigne and gouerne so noble a people and as a further confirmation that dying men speake true these words were no sooner ended but he casts himselfe off from the toppe of the Turret and slew himselfe After this the Pallace was assaulted by the Princesse the imposter slaine and all his adherents put to massacre Of the sequel of the history the succession of Darius c. you may further reade in Herodotus But concerning Phaedima onely for whose sake I haue introduced the rest I know not whether I haue indirectly brought her into this catalogue because she was so noble a meanes of so notable a discouerie yet considering she was one of the wiues of Cambises and he being dead so suddenly changing her affection to another and after being inioyed by him of what condition soeuer to betray him all these circumstances considered I giue hir free liberty to bee ranked amongst the rest Begum Queene of Persia. ABdilcherai a braue and valiant Prince of Tartaria taken prisoner by Emirhamze Mirize eldest sonne to the king of Persia in a battaile betwixt the Persians and Tartarians was sent to the king into Casbia where his captiuity in regard of his birth and valour was so easie that hee rather seemed a denison than a forreiner a Prince of the blood than a captiue hee not long soiourned there but he insinuated himselfe into the loue of the Queene Begum wife to the then king of Persia who spent their time together in such publike daliance not able to containe themselues within
alwayes can the purple violet smell Or Lillies bloome in whitenesse that excell The fragrant rose whose beautie we desire The leaues once falne shewes but a naked brire O thou most faire white heires come on apace And wrinckled furrowes which shall plow thy face So likewise Petronius Arbiter in one of his Satyres Quod solum formae decus est cecidere Capillae The onely beautie of her shape her haire Fell from her head her beautie to impaire Summer succeedes the Spring her Autumne chaceth And them sad Winter with his snow disgraceth Deceitfull Nature all these youthfull ioyes Thou gau'st vs first thou art the first destroyes Now the fruits and effects of this fraile beautie especially where a faire face meeteth with a corrupted mind I will next shew you by historie Achab by the persuasion of his faire wife Iesabell was the death of many of the Prophets of the Lord. Dalila was the confusion of Sampson the Strong Strange women brought Salomon the Wise to Idolatrie and to forget God Ioram a king of Israell at the instigation of Athalia committed many horrible outrages Helena's beautie was the occasion of that infinite slaughter betwixt the Greekes and Troians Pelops succeeding in the kingdome of Phrygia made warre vpon Oenomaus the father of Hyppodamia because being surprised with her beautie she was denyde him in marriage Another Hyppodamia the wife of Perithous was the occasion of that great Centauromachia or battaiâ—e betwixt the Centaures and the Lapithes for which Propertius calls her Ischomache of the greeke word Isco which signifieth Habeo and Mache Pugna his words are these Qualis Iscomache Lapithae genus Heroinae Centauris medio grata rapina mero Such as Iscomache that was Of the Lapythaean line She whom the Centaures would haue rapt Amidst their cups of wine Pericles for his loue to Aspasia made warre against the Samians For Chrisaeis the daughter of Chrises Priest to Apollo vitiated by Agamemnon a plague was sent amongst the Greekish host which ceased not till she was returned backe to her father for so writes Tortellius Lauiniaes beautie the daughter of King Latinus and the Queene Amata was cause of the combustion betwixt Turnus and Aeneas so saith Pontanus lib. 4. de Stellis Lysimachus the sonne of Agathocles poysoned his owne sonne Agathocles by whose fortunate hand he had receiued the honour and benefit of many glorious victories at the instigation of his wife Arsinoe the sister of Ptoloâ—teus Vollateran Iphis a youth of exquisite feature strangled himselfe because he was despised by the faire but cruell Anaxarite Archilâ—â—us king of Macedon was slaine by a young man called Crateua because hauing first promised him his faire daughter he after bestowed her vpon another The Poet Archilocus called Iambographus because Lycambes denyde him his daughter in marriage writes against him such bitter Iambicks that hee despaired and hanged himselfe therefore Ouid thus writes Post modo si perges in te mihi liber Iambus Tincta Licambaeo sanguiâ—e tela dabit If thou pursu'st me still my booke Iust vengeance shall implore And in Lambickes weapons yeeld Dipt in Lycambes gore Iustine in his 27 booke relates That Seleneus Callinicus king of Syria for exiling Berenice his steppe-mother sister to Ptolomaeus was by the same Ptolomaeus inuaded and prosecuted by armes Deiphebus after the death of Paris hauing marryed Hellen to which infortunate match her beautie had inuited him was by her treacherie not onely murdered but his body hackt and mangled being almost made one vniuersall wound Tortellius reports of one Euander the nephew of Pallas king of the Arcadians at the persuasion of his mother Nicostrate slew his owne father Orestes the sonne of Agamemum slew Pyrrhus the sonne of Achilles being surprised with the beautie of Hermione daughter to Menalâ—us and Helena Pteleras king of the Thebans was slaine by king Craeon being betrayde by his owne Polydices Cleopatra was the cause of that bloody warre betwixt Ptolomaeus Philopaser and her owne father Alexander king of Syria Idas and Lyncaeus the sons of Aphareus and Arbarne fought a great battaile neere to Sparta about the two faire daughters of Leucippus Phebe and Ilaira against Castor and Pollux both which were slaine in that battaile and perisht not by shipwracke as some write in the pursuite of Paris by sea for the rape of their sister Hellen Liuie lib. 36. writes of Antiochus who warring against Rome was so taken with the beautie of a Chalcidonian damsell that neglecting all warlike discipline to spend his time in dalliance with his wanton hee became a shamefull and dishonourable prey to the enemy Octauia the sister of Augustus being repudiated by Anthony was the occasion of a ciuill and intestine war The Poet Lucretius growing mad for the loue of a faire damsell dranke poyson and so dyed Tullia incited Tarquinius Superbus to kill her owne father Seruius Tullius Martia the strumpet caused Autonius Commodus the Emperour whose Concubine she was to bee slaine by a souldiour with whom shee had many times had lustfull congression Tytus Corrancanus being sent on embassie to Teuca queene of the Illyrians because hee spake to her freelie and boldlie she caused him to be put to death against the lawes of kingdomes and nations Liuius and Florus Vollateranus writes of one Rhodoricus king of the Gothes who because he stuprated the daughter of Iulianus who was Prefect in the Prouince of Tingitana the father of the rauisht virgin brought in the Moores and raised a warre which before it was ended was the death of seauen hundred thousand men Chilpericus the sonne of Clotharius was slaine by the instigation of his wife Fridegunda in his returne from hunting Luchinus a Count of Italy warred vpon Vgolinus Gonzaga because hee had adulterated his faire wife Isabella Vollateran Otratus king of Bohemia accused of sloath and cowardise by his wife Margarita for entering league with Rodulphus Caesar raised warre betwixt them in which her husband was defeated Gandulphus the Martyr for but counselling his wife to a more chast and temperate life was murdered betwixt her and the adulterer Of warres and many other mischiefes of which faire women haue beene the originall Ouid elegantly deliuers in 2 Eleg. thus concluding Vidi ego pro â—iuea pugnantes coniâ—ge tauros Spectatrix animos ipsa innenca dabat For a white heyfer I haue seene bulls sight Both gathering rage and courage from her sight At the building of Rome Romulus to people the cittie and get wiues for his souldiers caused them to rauish the Sabine women and damsells for which warre grew betwixt the two nations Of which Proper lib. 2. Cur exempla petam Gracum Tu criminis auâ—hâ—r Nutribus duro Romule lacte lupae c. What neede I from the Greekes examples aske Thou Romulus by a fell she-wolfe nurst To rape the Sabines
against all Law or Iustice to behold me against reason or modestie naked Gyges at these words was first wonderously amazed but after recollecting himselfe entreated her not to compell him to so hard an exigent as to the choyse of eyther But finding that necessitie that he must be forced to one or the other to kill the king or to be slaine by others he rather made choyse to suruiue and let the other perish and thus answered her Since generous Ladie you vrge me to an enterprise so much opposite to my milder nature and disposition propose some safe course how this may be done Euen sayth she in the selfe-same place where he deuised this mischiefe against himselfe namely his bed-chamber where to thee I was first discouered Therefore prouiding all things necessarie for so determinate a purpose and the night comming on Gyges who knew no euasion but to kill his maister or dye himselfe awaited his best aduantage and hauing notice when Candaules was asleepe followed the queene into her chamber and with a Ponyard by her prouided for the purpose stabbed him to the heart by which hee attayned both the queene and kingdome Of this historie Archilochus Parius makes mention in his Iambicks who liued about the same time affirming That Gyges was by the Oracle of Delphos confirmed in the kingdome after the Faction of the Heraclides had opposed his soueraigntie Rowan and Estrilda ROwan was a maid of wonderfull beautie and pleasantnesse daughter to Hengest a captaine of the Saxons Of this Ladie Vortiger then king grew so enamored that for her sake hee was diuorced from his wife by whom hee had three sonnes for which deed the greatest part of the Brittaines forsooke him therefore hee by the instigation of Rowan still caused more and more Saxons to be sent for vnder pretence to keepe the Land in subiection But the Brittaines considering the dayly repayre of the Saxons came to the King and told him the danger that might ensue entreating him whilest it waâ— yet time and to preuent a future miserie to expell them the Land But all in â—aine for Vortiger was so besotted in the beautie of his faire wife by whose counsaile he was altogether swayed that he would in no wise listen to the counsaile of his subiects Wherefore they with one vnited consent depriued him of his Crowne and dignitie making Vortimerus his eldest sonne king in his stead Who was no sooner crowned but with all expedition he raysed an armie and pursued the Saxons and in foure maine battailes besides conflicts and skirmishes became victorious ouer them The Saxons and their insolencies thus supâ—â—est and the king now gouerning the Land in peace after he had reigned seuâ—â— yeeres was by this Rowan in reuenge of the disgrace done to her king deposed and her countreymen disgraced most trecherously poysoned Locrin the eldest sonne of Brute chased the Hunnes which inuaded the realme of England and so hotely pursued them that many of them with their king were drowned in a riuer which parteth England and Scotland and after the name of the king of the Hunnes who there perished the riuer is to this day called Humbar This king Locrin had to wife â—â—â—â—doline a daughter of Coriâ—eus duke of Cornwall by whom he had a sonne calâ—â—d Madâ—n He kept also a Paramour called the beautifull Ladie Estrilda by whom hee had a daughter called Sabrina Locrine after the death of Corineus of whom he stood in awe diuorsed himselfe from his lawfull wife and tooke to his embraces his faire concubine mooued with this iniurie Guendoline retired herselfe into Cornewall where she gathered a great power fought with her husband slew him in battaile and after caused him to be buried in Troy-nouant That done she caused the faire Estrilda with her daughter Sabrina to be drowned in a riuer that which parts England and Wales which still beares the name of the yong Virgin and is called Seuerne These her dessignes accomplished for so much as Madun her yong sonne was but in his pupillage and not of capacitie or age to gouerne the Land by the common sufferage of all the Brittons she was made Protectoresse and Ladie Regent of the kingdome which to the comfort of the subiects and the weale of the kingdome she discreetly gouerned for the space of fifteene yeares and therefore her memorie might fitly haue beene rancked amongst the most Illustrious women Her sonne comming to age and yeares of discretion shee to him resigned the Scepter The Faire ladie of Norwich ANd now because wee traffique altogether with Historie it shall not bee amisse sometimes to mingle Seria Iocis as shall appeare by this discourse which I haue often heard related A knight both of same and memorie and whose name is still vpon record beeing eminent and of note with Henrie the fift as personally with him in all the warres in France after the king had both conquered and quieted the Land this noble Englishman retyred himselfe into his countrey He had a Ladie that was of such beautie that she attracted the eyes of all beholders with no common admiration in briefe I cannot speake of her feature sufficiently as being farre beyond the compasse of my penne and therefore I put her into the number of my Faire ones This ladie with her husband residing in the cittie of Norwich He after so many troubles and torments purposed a more sequestred life and next the solace he had in the beautie and vertues of his wife to take a course meerely contemplatiue and thought out of the aboundance of his wealth to doe some pious deeds for the good of his soule hee therefore erected in the cittie and neere to the place where his house stood a goodly Church at his owne charge and betwixt them a Religous house that entertained twelue Friers and an Abbot allowing them demeanes competent for so small a brother-hood In this couent there were two Frier Iohn and Frier Richard these were still at continuall enmitie and especiall notice taken of it amongst the rest which by no mediation could be truely reconciled but omitting that it was custome of the knight and his ladie dayly to rise to morning Mattins and she being affable and courteous to all it bred a strange inciuile boldnesse in Frier Iohn for she neuer came through the cloyster but he was still with duckes and cringes attending her which she suspecting nothing simply with modest smiles returned thankes to him againe which grew so palpable in the Frier that as farre as they durst it was whispered in the couent Briefly after these incouragements as he constered them it bred in him that impudencie that he presumed to write a letter to her in which he layde open a great deale of more than necessarie loue This letter with great difficultie came to her hand at which the ladie astonished as not dreaming that such leaudnesse should come from one that professed chastitie and not knowing whether it might be a tricke
him by faire meanes than by foâ—ce by policie than power for knowing her selfe to bee a woman of extraordinarie state and beautie she by her Embassadors sollicited an interuiew which Alexander graunting she appeared before him with such a Queenelike maiestie and her accomplishments of naâ—ure so helpâ— with the ornaments of are for she was adorned with the richest and best shining stones of India thâ—â— her glorie so captiuated the heart of the conquerour that they came to treat of composition shee proposing to him That it were no honour for so magnificent a victor so famous through the world for his conquests oueâ— men to insult vpon the weake spoyles of a woman iâ—ured to no other armes than the armes of a sweet and louing bedfellow yet if for the ransome of her Empire hee would accept of her loue and seruice in that kind shee was there in person at his command his subiect and seruant Her beautie with this submission wrought such impression in the king that it was concluded betwixt them and by both parties agreed That her honour should bee the ransome of her Empire In conclussion they louingly lay together and so ended these threatned hostilities in an amorous peace her bodie he left tainted but her kingdome vntouched She was that night with child by him of a sonne whom after his fathers name she called Alexander hee inherited the kingdome after her but by the Indians from that time forward in regard of her prostitution she was called The kings whore Callipygae SO much were the Grecians giuen to all voluptuousnesse and pleasure that amongst others diuers Chappels and Temples were dedicated to Venus Callipyga the word importing Quasi pulchras habens nates i. She that hath faire buttocks the originall of that superstition as Aegenaeus relates was this A countrey Farmer beeing the father of two beautifull young Virgins these two concluded betwixt themselues which should haue the prioritie in beautie But modestie forbidding them to dispute it with open faces they concluded betweene themselues to come to a place adioyning to the high-way and there to expose their backe-parts naked to all such as passed by and so by the most voices to bee censured Amongst many others a noble young gentleman of the next citie by accident passing that way and somewhat astonished at so vnwonted an obiect enquired the reason thereof and by one of the spectators being presently resolued he as suddenly gaue the Palme to the elder and intimating by that he saw what the rest might proue grew greatly enamoured and returning to his fathers house surprised with melancholly was of his brother demanded the cause hee after some few bashâ—ull denialls still vrged with the others importunacies discouered to him the whole circumstance of the businesse The brother deâ—iâ—ous to be further instructed was by the louer conducted to the place and obiect which made him first grow enamorated whither he was no sooner brought but he grew presently inflamed with the loue of the yonger and gaue his censure on her part These two had an old Senator to their father who much obserued his children of him they demanded these Virgins in marriage but he proposing to them matches more honourable they would no way assent But wonne at length with their importunacies hee sent in their behalfe to the Fâ—â—mer to demand his daughters in marriage An Enterview was granted the parties agreed a marriage concluded and after consummate with satisfaction on all sides From which time euer after the two young marryed wiues were called Callipygae Of these Gerâ—ldas Megapelitanus in his Iambicks to this purpose speakes These two liued in Syracuâ—a who by their marriage hauing attayned to wealth sufficient erected a famous Chappell to Venâ—â— whom they styled Dea Callipygae These diuers other cities of Greece â—â—ter them imitated This Historie Archeâ—aâ—s likewise in his Iambicks records Alogunes Cosmartidenes Andia YOu shall read in the Historie taken out of Ex Ctesiae â—ersicis That Artaxerxes being dead Xerxes his sonne succeeded the legitimate heire by his wife Damaspia who dyed the same day with her husband therefore to be registred amongst the women most mastrious after their deaths the Eunuch Bagorazus caused both their bodyes to be borne into Persia and there to bee intombed amongst their ancestors It is remembred of this Emperour Artaxerxes that he had by seuerall concubines seuenteene bastards amongst these was Secundianus borne of Alogunes hee by treason succeeded Xerxes hauing before slaine his brother this Alogunes was borne in Babylon By another concubine of the same cittie called Cosmartidenes hee had two sonnes Ochus and Arsites this Ochus by supplanting his brother Secundianus raigning some few months succeeded him in the Empire Xerxes had issue likewise by one Andia a Ladie of the same nation Bagapaeus and Parisatis who was the mother of one Cyrus and another Artaxerxes Xerxes the Persian Emperour yet liuing gaue to his second sonne Ochus the Prefect-ship ouer the Hircanians Likewise Parisatis to wife daughter to Xerxes and naturall sister to Ochus This Ochus was after called Dariaeus who in all his counsells and proiects neuer did any thing without the aduise of his sister queene before his aspiring to the Empirie hee had issue by his wife Parisatis two children a daughter called Amistris and a sonne Arsaca who after changed his name to his grandfathers and was called Artaxerxes after his instalment she brought him a sonne called Cyrus after him Artostes and so to the number of thirteene of all which onely the fourth sonne called Oxendras suruiued the rest perished in their minoritie These were concubines of Persia. Iulia. IT is remembred of Augustus Caesar whose daughter this Iulia was that hee established a law which was called Lex Iulia concerning adulterers after what processe persons so offending should be punished being conuicted and found guiltie It happened that a young gentleman of Rome being accused of the same fact with the Emperours daughter Iulia before named Augustus grew into such furie that not able to conteine himselfe he fell vpon the gentleman and gaue him many violent and sound buffets till the supposed offendor cryed out ô Emperour where is your Iustice you haue made a law concerning these matters why am I not then iudged by that At which words it so repented him of his rashnesse that all that day and night he forbore to tast any food At a certaine sword-playing or such like pastime solemnised in the great Roman Theatre Lyuia the mother and Iulia the daughter had turned the eyes of all the multitude vpon them twaine and that by reason of the difference of their habits and their attendants Lyuia being matron-like attired was accompanied with aged Senators and Ladies of approued modestie and grauitie Iulia on the contrarie loosely and wantonly habited had in her traine none but butterflie-pages wild fashion-mongers and fantasticke gallants which obserued by Augustus he the next day admonished her by letters To obserue
himselfe and after his Horse when mounting hee without more trouble came to the end of his Iourney And this sayth shee hee hath told to a hundred and a hundred Gentlemen in mine owne hearing To end this discourse in a word which by examples might be amplified into an infinite one of the guests sitting by said I can tell you a stranger thing than all these being demaunded what hee answered I beleeue all these things related to bee true Plutarch in his booke De educandis liberis sayth Prater haec omnia ad sue faciendi sunt pueri vt vera dicant c. Aboue all things children ought to be accustomed to speake the truth in which consisteth the chiefe sanctimonie but to lye is a most base seruile thing worthie the hate of all men and not to be pardoned in seruants Homer Iliad 1. to shew the difference betwixt Truth and False-hood hath these words Poene mihi est orci portis inuisior ipsis Cuius verba sonâ—â—t aliud quam mente recondit Hee 's to me hatefull as the doores of Hell That when he ill doth meane doth promise well Iuuenal in his third Satyre giues it a more full and ample expression after this manner Quid Romae faciam mentiri nescio librum Si malus est nequeo laudare c. What should I doe at Rome I cannot lye If a bad Booke be layd before me I Nor prayse it nor desire it I haue no skill In the Starres motions neither can nâ—r will I make deepe search into my fathers fate To know when he shall die nor calculate From the Frogges entrailes by inspection neuer Was it my studie how by base endeuour To panderize or close conueyance hide Betwixt th' Adulterer and anothers Bride These practises seeke they that list t' attaine Such as I haue beene I will still remaine This Muse Polyhimnia vnder whom I patronize this seuenth Booke as she is the Mistresse and Ladie of Memorie and consequently of the multiplicitie both of Hymnes and Histories so from her I assume a kind of libertie to continue my varietie of Discourse and from Mendacia come to Sales or Dicteria i. From Lyes to Ieasts or ingenious and wittie answeres For which Athenaeus in his Dypnos lib. 13. remembers these women famous Lamia Gnathena Lais Glicera Hyppo Nico Phrine Thais Leontium and others Yet least women should not be content to equall men onely but to antecede them I will here commemorate some things wittily and facetiously spoken by Princes and others Anton. in Melissa Part. 1. Serm. 56. speakes of an vnskilfull Physician comming to visit an old friend of his or at least an acquaintance saluting him in this manner Sir God bee thanked you haue liued to a faire age and are growne an old man Yes Sir answered he and you Sir haue my health too for I neuer made vse of any Physician Cicero thus playd vpon Vatinius who was but a few dayes Consull A great prodigie sayth he there happened in the yeare of his Consul-ship That there was neither Spring Summer Autumne nor Winter one asking him Why he had neglected to visit the Consull in his honour he answered Hee had purposed it but the night preuented him Hee sported in the like kind vpon Caninius Of him sayth he we haue had a most vigilant Consull who neuer so much as slept in his Consul-ship Lucius Manilius an excellent Painter had drawne wonderous beautiful faces but his children were exceedingly deformed A friend of his supping with him one night taunted him in these words Non similiter fingis pingis as much to say Thou doest not get thine owne children as thou doest paint others No wonder answered hee For I get those faces in the darke but when I paint others I doe them by the light of the Sun The Christian Princes hauing vnited their forces to redeeme the Holy Land from the oppression of the Infidells Santius brother to the king of Spaine was made Generall of the Christian forces a man of great sanctitie and an austere life and withall a noble souldier hee amongst other Princes sitting in Councell with the Pope but not vnderstanding the Roman Tongue in which the businesse was then debated onely hauing his interpreter placed at his feet vpon the sudden after their Decree there was a great acclamation and clamour with flinging vp their caps c. At which Santius demanded of his interpreter What that sudden ioy meant hee told him It was because the Pope and Colledge of Cardinalls had by their publique sufferage created him king of Aegypt for the Saladine then vsurped in the Holy citie Is it so saith he then arise and proclaime the Pope Caliph of Baildacha Thus with a Princely libertie modestly taxing their forwardnesse who as they gaue him a Kingdome without a Countrie he to requite the Popes gratitude gaue him a Bishoprick without a Diocesse Pacuuius Taurus hauing for his former service sued to Augustus Caesar for some great grosse summe of money and the rather to induce the Emperor to bountie told him That it was voyced in the citie and was frequent in euerie mans mouth how hee had alreadie receiued a large donatiue from Caesar to whom hee answered Let them say what they will but doe not thou Pacuuius belleue it To another that was remooued from his commaund and sued for a pention yet insinuating with the Emperour that it was for no couetous intent or any hope of gaine but because it should be thought that for no criminall cause he was put out of his place and dismist his office that hee desired an annuall fee from the Treasurie to whom Augustus replyed Doe thou then report openly that thou hast a pention and if any shall aske me about it I will not denie but that I haue giuen it The same Augustus going into a shop to buy Purple or Skarlet for in those dayes the Emperours were not so curious as some gentlemen are now hee cheapening a piece of Cloth but not liking the colour because it was not bright ynough and the Draper hauing it seemes a darke shop such as are common amongst vs in our dayes faith the Draper to him So please your Maiestie but to hold it vp into the light and you shall see the colour more perfect Gramercie for that saith he so when I purpose to shew my selfe amongst my subiects to shew the true colour of my garments I must likewise be tyed to walke vpon the Tarresses and tops of houses Many other things are remembred of him worthie to be commended to posteritie Philip the father of Alexander the Great had a custome when his armie was in the field to leaue his owne Tent and come into the priuate Halls and Cabbins of his souldiers and obserue how they spent their idle howres The Poet Calliniad then following the campe to whom the king had a particular loue hee stole vpon him one day and found him busily seething a
death of her brother Osiris by the assistance of her sonne who was called Oros slew Typhon and auenged his death Draomitia was a queen of Bohemia she caused Ludimillia much deuoted to religion to bee slaine by her instigation her sonne Boleslaus was the murderer of his brother Wenceslaus Volaterran The nymph Lara was of that loquacitie that raising dissention betwixt Iupiter and Iuno by telling her of his escapes that in reuenge thereof he pluckt out her tongue Talantia Spartana hauing intelligence that her sonne Pedaretes tyrannised ouer the men of Chius writ to him in this or the like language Or gouerne there better or remaine there if thou returnest to me thou art not safe thus admonishing him of better gouernment or menacing him with death Damariana was a woman of Sparta and with her owne hands slew her sonne because shee found him of a timorous condition and would not be drawne to the warres Amastris was the wife of Xerxes and did prosecute the wife of Massissa the President with that inhumane and barbarous crueltie that hauing first slaine her shee caused her breasts to be cut off and cast vnto the dogges dismembring her of her Nose Eares Eyes Lippes and Tongue Rauis Textor Cisenis the daughter of Diogerides king of Thrace was of that sauage inhumanitie that shee tooke pleasure to see liuing men to be dismembred and cut in pieces causing young children to be killed and drest after commanding them to be serued in to their parents and to be by them eaten Solinus Tullia the wife of Tarquinius Superbus she caused her Chariot to be drawne ouer the face of her dead father Seruius Tullius presently before murthered by her husband in the Capitoll Liuie Irene the Empresse was wife to Leo the fourth and caused her owne sonne Constantius Sextus to be first cast in prison and after to haue his eyes digged out because before shee had by him beene expelled the Empire Fuluia was the wife of Marcus Antoninus and how the excellentest of Orators M. Tullius being dead was tyrannized ouer by him many Authors haue commended to posteritie whose sacred hands and head being cut off were nayled vnto that Pulpit where hee had often most learnedly declaimed His head was first brought to Anthonie which he caused to be placed before him vpon a Table and scarce in a whole day could hee satiate his rancorous mallice with so sad and pittifull a spectacle but at length as Appianus Alexandrinus reports he commanded it to be tooke thence And as it is gathered out of the collections of Dion Prusius and Suidas when Fuluia the wife of Antoninus came to the sight of it shee tooke it in her hands and after the breathing of many fearefull maledictions execrations and curses against it spit in the face thereof then taking it into her lappe with a Bodkin or Penner which she wore in her haire for an ornament pricked his tongue which she had caused violently to be forced out of his iawes least there should be any thing wanting that might adde to an vndiscreet womans hate and inhumane crueltie This murther and horride act against so worthie a Senatour hath beene deplored by many as well in Prose as in Verse as Portius Latro Albutius Sylo Caestius Murrhedius and others but none more elegantly than Seuerius Cornelius in these Verses of his which we haue by tradition from Aâ—â—aeus Seneca Oraque magnanimum spirantia pene virorum In rostris iacuere suis c. As they were at large remembred in Crinitus Euridice the wife of Amintas king of Macedonia who had by him three sonnes Alexander Perdicas and Philip father to Alexander the Great as likewise a daughter called Euryones This Euridice not onely polluted the bed of her husband but sought his life to transferre the Principalitie into the hand of the adulterer and least her daughter should discouer either her whoredome or treason she likewise plotted against her life The old man in the middest of these dangers dyed leauing the kingdome to his eldest sonne Alexander she after caused him to be slaine A president of strange and almost vnheard of crueltie in a mother Iustine Histor. lib. 7. Spitamenes a puissant Captaine that had long opposed Alexander the Great in many battailes and conflicts with his competitor Daha so dearely loued his faire wife that he drew her to be a partner with him in his warres and lodged her in his Tent But being put to many affrights and distresses the common casualties belonging to warre shee grew so tyred with Alarums tumults mutinies affrights slaughters and such like that shee dayly importuned him being before onely vsed to feasts banquets and effeminate delicacies to submit him to the Macedonian Conqueror So long and so vrgently she sollicited him to peace both by her children her friends and her selfe in person that being a blunt and plaine souldier traded in combustion and to whom the very thought of submission was more odious than death though hee entirely affected her yet vpon a time hee aduanced his hand to haue strucke her and had done it had not his brother come in by accident and supprest his incensed furie yet he concluded That if euer after she persuaded him to peace or troubled his eares with that base word of submission that Hand which so long had opposed Alexander all Coniugall amitie set apart should be her luddaine and assured ruine The Ladie affrighted with the name of death thought it no safetie to interpose so robustious and setled a constancie especially in a souldier dayly and hourely enured to bloud and massacre therefore considering with her selfe what was best to be done in meditating for her owne safetie she thought it better by yeelding to conquer than by contending against power and aduantage to be ouercome After submission therefore made and a new reconcilement established betwixt them shee inuited him to a banquet in her Tent which was furnished with all the dainties the Campe would yeeld and whatsoeuer rarietie remote places could affoord where she carryed her selfe with all humilitie and obedience At this feast shee caused him to be plyed with Healths and lauish Cups till the Wine hauing got the preheminence of his better sences hee grew drowsie and retyred himselfe to his Pallat. The Tables were then withdrawne and euerie man that was inuited repaired either to his charge in the Armie or to his rest They hauing disposed of themselues and the place now priuate shee had confederated with one of her seruants by whose assistance shee in his depth of sleepe cut off the head of her husband and gaue it to him This done hauing the Word they past through the Watches and Guards and by the breake of day came vnto the Campe of Alexander desiring to haue conference with him about affaires which concerned him neerely The Prince vnderstanding it was a woman commanded shee should be admitted into his Tent which was
the citie with a strong and fearefull siege ingaging the defendants to all dangers and difficulties in so much that Clusia timerous of surprisall and preferring death before captiuitie threw her selfe from the highest part of the wall to destroy her selfe in the open view and face of the enemie but either as the former late mentioned fauoured by the windes or as my Author tels me greatly supported by the hand of Venus or whether the pittious Earth vnwilling to hurt or harme such faire and well featured limbes and therefore with more than accustomed courtesie fauorably receiued her into her lappe I am not certaine but the Ladie to the wonder of all the beholders was taken vp whole and sound without wound or the least-astonishment and from thence conducted to the Tent of the Generall who beecause he made but offer to violate her chastitie the euer nobly minded Romans not onely tooke from him the charge of the armie alleaging that hee that could not gouerne his owne affections was not fit to command others but confined him into the Island Corsica adiacent neere to the continent of Italie Not much lesse strange was that of Perhibaea the daughter of Accathous who when Telamon the sonne of Aeacus and Eudeides came into the cittie of Euboea where shee then soiourned with her father and tooke her at that aduantage that shee was by him devirgined and deflowred his name or person not being knowne by her or any and so priuily escaped and fled away by night Accathous after perceiuing her by assured tokens to bee growne bigge with child and suspecting it to be done by some one of his citisens or subiects hee was thereat so incensed that banishing all pietie or paternall pittie he deliuered her into the hands of one of his captaines commaunding him either to kill her with his sword or cast her into the Sea the souldier vndertakes the imposition of his soueraigne vpon him with many vowes and protestations to performe his pleasure with all strictnesse and seueritie but by the way commiserating her wretched fortune and loth to be the destroyer of such youth and beautie created for better vse comming neere the Sea-shore and spying a ship there at Anchor he sold her to the cheefe marchant for a summe of money returning to the father with an assured relation of his daughters death The marriners presently with this faire purchase hoysed sayle and a faire and gentle gale fauouring them they attained vnto the port of Salamine and there harboured where purposing to make sale of their marchandise they exposed them to the publique view amongst the rest they set a price on the Princesse Perhibaea Telamon who was duke of Salamine and then resiant in the cittie tooke his attendants with him and hearing of this new marchant went downe to the Key to take the first view of his goods and prouide himselfe of such things as he wanted amongst all the faire Perhibaea pleased him best whose face he well knew and still remembred what had past betwixt them hee bargained for her payd downe her price conducted her to his pallace and there acquainted her with the true passage of all his former proceedings Within few moneths shee brought him a sonne which he called Aiax and this was that Aiax Telamon who at the siege of Troy betwixt the two armies combatted with bold Hector in the plaine of Scamander you shall reade this historie in Aretades Guidius in his second booke inscribed Insulis The next that insues hath correspondence with this Lucius Trocius had a beautifull young daughter called Florentia shee was stuprated by the Roman Calphurnius and when the act came to the knowledge of her father deliuered to the trustie executioner to bee cast into the Sea who in the same manner was by him pittied and sold to a marchant his ship beeing then bound for Italie where she being exposed to publique sale was seene knowne and bought by Calphurnius by whom hee had a sonne called Contruscus I proceede to such as haue vnwittingly beene the death of their parents Euenus the sonne of Mars and Steropes by his wife Alcippa the daughter of Oennemanus had a beautifull female issue whom hee called Marpissa who had vowed perpetuall virginitie her Idas the sonne of Aphareus rauished and stole away which her father hearing prosecuted him euen vnto his owne countrey but in vaine for not able to ouertake them and returning without her in greefe of his lost daughter whom he so deerely loued hee threw himselfe into the riuer Lycormus and was there drowned some thinke that by his death the flood lost his name and was euer after called Euenus Dosithae lib. 1. rerum Italicarum Anius king of the Etruscians hauing a rarely featured damosell to his daughter called Salia whose virginitie he had vowed to Diana and therefore admitted no suitors though many great and rich offers were made vnto her at length as shee was sporting abroad amongst other virgins shee was espyed by one Calthetas a hopefull young gentleman and ennobled by his familie who at the first sight of her was so extaside with her beautie that maugre all feare of pursuit or danger hee snatcht her vp in his armes and vsed such meanes that hee got her safe within the walls of Rome Her father following the rauisher but not ouertaking him was strucke into such a deepe sorrow that desparate of all comfort or counsell hee violently cast himselfe into the next Foord that parted Rome and his owne Kingdome which euer since that time still beares the name of Anius Calihetus had by Salia two braue sonnes Latinus and Salinus who were famous in their noble nad flourishing issue insomuch that some of the best and greatest families in Rome were proud from them to deriue their ancestrie This historie is recorded by Aristides Milesius by Alexander and Polihistor lib. tertio Italicorum Of Clamorous Women commonly called Skoulds CNeius Pompeius to make his faction the stronger by his friend Munatius sent to Cato that hee would bee pleased of his two Neeces to contract the one of them to himselfe the other to his sonne by whome Cato sent word backe to Pompeius That though he as a friend tooke gratefully the free profer of his friendship and allyance yet beeing a man hee had euer kept himselfe from beeing intricated in the snares of women but hee protested hee would adhere vnto him in a more firme league of amitie than could be contracted by kindred if hee would studie any thing conducent and profitable for the common-weale but against the publique good hee would neither giue nor take hostages calling his neeces who as some write were his daughters giuen so in matrimonie no better than pledges of much future inconuenience especially in matters of state where the common-weale is distracted and diuided Eras. 5. Apotheg Socrates was wont to say that hee had patiently suffered three torments Grammer Pouertie and a skoulding Wife Xantippe two of