for that in nature and conditions there is sutche difference beetwéene vs But repentaunce now commeth to late this only resteth to bee foreséene that vnto the greate greife which mine owne conceite procureth me her abuse adde not infamy and dishonour And if the heauens haue assigned mee sutch heauy fate as due to my doatinge desyre yet this at least let mée take heede that with the losse of her owne honour shee procure not the losse of my lyfe And herevpon appointed certaine of his assured friends to haue the custody and kéeping of the queene who seeinge her selfe thus disloyally without cause abridged of her liberty béegan to curse the time that euer shée came to bee quéene wishing shee had continued in meaner callinge with fruition of liberty rather then to sit in chayre of dignity with suspicion of dishonesty What pleasure sayth shee doth my princely estate procure mee whiche must liue as a prisoner Who wil honour mee for queen which am suspected for a queane and harlot How shall I dare to shew my face in the Courte when the kinge doubteth of my dealinge towardes him My lookes haue not bene so light my curtesie hath not bene so common my glaunces haue not bene so garish wherby hee shoulde enter into this sinister suspicion of mee But loue they say is light of beeleefe and ielousy is grounded vpon loue Auant fond foolish loue God send my husbande rather to hate me then to beare mée any such loue which bereueth him of rest and mee of renowme which breaketh the bond of faythfull freindship and intire amity betwéen vs which causeth him to doubt mee and mee to dread him which maketh both our liues so lothsome that I wishe death to dispatch ether the one of vs or the other But this froward fate I must ascribe only to mine owne fault and fraud towardes Verecundus who hath now iust cause to triumph that I my selfe am fallen into the pit I digged for him Wel I must retire to patience perforce and hange in hope of some good hap to redresse my woe and misery But you shall vnderstand Gentlewomen this was not all her punnishment nay this was but a trifle in respecte of that which after followed a matter in haynousnesse so horrible in desire so detestable and in lust so lothsome that it is no lesse strange to bée tolde then hard to bée beléeued so that I thinke my wordes will rather carry wonder then credite with you For whether it were gods plague for y husbands ielousy or for her iolity pride and subtelty I know not but thus it pleased him to suffer the diuell to deale with her Beeing by her husbandes commaundement in his absence kept from company her cheife solace was to walke in a pleasaunt groue ioyned to her palaice where vsed to feed a heard of beasts amongest which was a goodly white bull I dare not say shee fell in loue with the bull least I should driue you rather to laughinge at my story then listninge to it but surely so it was Yea shee was not only in loue with the beast and went euery morninge and with her owne hands brake downe boughes for him to brouse vpon but which was more shee was ielous ouer him for what cow in all the herd shee saw hee liked best shee caused to bée had from the heard and killed as she pretended for sacrifice but in deed for fatisfiyng her ielous minde And as the beast was opening shee would take the inwardes in her hand saying now goe thy way and please my loue if thou canst And taking delight a while in this daliance at length her lust grew to sutch outrage that shee felt in her selfe an impossibility to continue her cursed life without the carnall company of the bull And notwithstandinge shee assayed the assistaunce of reason the pollicy of perswations the helpe of herbes and the meane of medicines to mortyfy her beastly desire to the beast yet nothinge would preuayle yea beeinge often in minde to make her selfe away her hart would not suffer her hands to doe it not that death feared her but that desyre forced her first to fulfil her filthy lust But GentlewomeÌ„ because you shal not enter into colorick conceites against me for publishing in this presence a hystorie whiche seemeth so mutch to sounde to the shame of your sexe I meane not to iustifie the truth of it but rather will proue it false by the opinioÌ„ of one Seruius who writeth that Pasiphae indéede played false with one Taurus which signifieth a Bul secretary to her husband in the house of Dedalus and after being delyuered had two sonnes the one lyke Minos the other lyke Taurus and therevpon the Poets faigned the fable aforesaide but whether béeing a woman shee vsed the carnall company of a beast or whether lyke a lewde wife shee gaue her husbande the badge of a beast her offence was sutch that I cannot though gladly I woulde excuse it Yet must I néedes say that in my fancy her husbande deserued some blame for no doubt his suspicion without cause caused her in sutche sorte to transgresse marriage lawes For seeing her honestie doubted of and her good name as good as losâ—e shee thought as good to bee naught for somewhat as to bee thought naught for nothing And surely the experience is to common y suspicion and slaunder maketh many to bee that which they neuer ment to bee But some are of this foolish opinion that it is simple and sottishe folly for a woman to deale truly with him whiche dealeth ielously and cruelly with her some againe lewdly thinke y if a woman cannot coÌ„ceiue by her husband y she may lawfully enter into coÌ„uer sation with some other some wickedly wéene that if the husbande bee not able to satisfie the insatiable desyre of his wife that to auoyde concupiscence shee may communicate with some other but surely Gentlewomen I am setled in this opinion that no suspicion or ielousie ought to cause a woman to transgresse the boundes of honesty that rhastitie is the only Iewell which women ought to bee chary of that women hauinge lost their chastitie are like broken glasses which are good for nothing that they make shipwrack of all if the cabels of constancie be once crakt the anchors of honestie slipt y it is better for theÌ„ to be fooles then false to be simple then subtil to be doues then diuels to be abused then abuse y it is better for theÌ„ to be barren then beastly to bée without fruite then faith children then chastitie that concupisence is only to desire other besides their husbandes that they which burne in sutch desire shall burne in hell fire y no adultresse shall inherite the kingdome of heauen that all women ought to bee like y matronesse of Rome which knew y sauour of no mans breath but of her husbandes like the wife of Fuluius Torquatus who died with longinge rather then shée would goe forth of her chaumber in
wee thinke wee neuer haue inough wee thinke all to mutch that is spent wee take litle pleasure in any thing wee thinke the world is changed and that it is far worse then it was when wee were younge only bicause our bodies are changed and our vitall heat so vanished away that nothing seemeth pleasaunt vnto vs though it bee the same it was woont to bee so that wee thinke the alteration to bee in the thing when it is in our selfe And then not onely our memory fayleth our wits waxe weake and returne to infancy againe but our bodies also are broken with cares taken with crampes shaken with paulseies tormented with the stone lamed with the goute dried with dropsies our sight waxeth dim our hearing deafe our smelling smal our tasting vntoothsome our feelinge feable yea all our sences are almost without sence yet we are loth to die leaue our worldly mucke the feare of approching death doeth dayly daunt vs and at length his deadly dartes doe vtterly distroy vs And surely the consideration of this our miserable estate doth so resolue mee into sorrow that if your presence did not sprinkle mee with some deawe of delight I should hardly frame my wittes to procure you pleasure by any pleasant history but rather continew a dolorous discourse of our calamity And yet the history I meane to tell shall not bee altogether estraunged from the argument of my former discourse but though it manifest not our manyfolde misery yet shall it at least set foorth the frailty of our felicity The history is this The flowrishynge common wealth of Athens had to their prince one Pandion whose estate bothe fortune beutified with great wealthe and God blessed with goodly children to wit two daughters of excellent beutie the eldest named Progne the youngest Philomela Now fame béeyng a tatlyng Goddesse blazed the brute of Progne abreade into diuers countries vntill at length the rumour of her renoâ—me ronge about the eares of Tereus kynge of Thrace who béeynge a younge lustie gallant made no great account of the commendations whiche were giuen her knowyng if hée were disposed to marrie hée might make his choyce amongst a great number as good as shée was and more nere neighbours vnto him then Athens was But destinies so draue that shortly after this on a night in his sleape hée séemed to sée her stand apparently before him only a stronge imagination assurynge him that it was shee which sight sunke so deeply into his heart and brought him sutch excessiue delight that hee presently awaked and missyng the partie that procured him such pleasure his ioy was tournd to anoy neither coulde hee euer after that finde any contentation in any thought or deed but only in this determination to goe haue a true sight of her whose seemyng shadow had so dazeled his eyes and with all speed repayred his shippes and prepared al thyngs necessary for sutch a voyage and by the help of good wynde and will shortly arriued there where his hart had already cast anker and sent ambassadours to the kyng to certifie him of his commynge who receyued him with royaltie fit for his regall estate And at the first incountry of the two princes Tereus sayde My commyng vnto you O noble prynce is not as an open enemie to inuade you for you see I am vnarmed neither as a secret traytour to intrap you for you know I am your freend but that you may not meruayle at my sodayne cummyng you shall vnderstand it is to sée your daughter the Lady Progne for you shall soone perceyue I pretende well vnto her Pandian answered As most worthy prince the cause of your comming is friendly so can I not but friendly accept it and how much I thinke my selfe honoured therby so mutch I count my selfe bound vnto you And after a litle parlee passed betweene them of the estates of their realmes and manners of their countreies Pandion preferred him to the sight of his daughter whom after Tereus had saluted with a curteous conge hee entred into discoursing with in this sort If faire Lady I should tell the truth of my comming into this country I thinke you would take it but for a trifling toy yea if I should in woords plainly set downe y cause of this my interprised iourney and the case which through your meanes I remaine in I doubt you would neither beleeue the cause neither reléeue my case for y the straungnesse of the one would bréed great incredulity for the other the small acquaintance I haue with you lesse deserts towards you can craue smal curtesy yet if it please you to know neither the desire to see this country neither the renoume of your vertue beauty brought me hither for though the report therof be great yet now I se I must néedes say y fame hath rather framed your praise maliciously then reported it truly for one good part reported to bée in you I perceiue by your countenance such confluence of good conditions that I can not but counte the rumor which run of you rather sparing speeche then right reporte But the cause of my hasty comminge and heauy case is this it pleased the goddes to presente your seemely selfe to my presence in the same louely likenesse wherin you are at this present what time I tooke sutch veiwe of your sweete face that approchinge this daye to your fathers palaice béefore I knew who you were what you were or where you were as you looked if you remeÌ„ber it out at your chamber window I said to my seruaÌ„ts loe yonder standes the péereles peragon princely Progne and since y sight in my sléepe I take the heauens to witnesse I neuer inioyed one quiet sleepe but continued in coÌ„templation how I might be placed in possession of that personage which draue me into sutch admiration Now seinge it pleased the gods thus miraculously to moue mée to traueile to see you and seeing the sight of your sweete face hath fast fettred my fancy in links of loue these may bee humbly to desire you neither to resist the motion of the goddes neither to reiecte the deuotion of my good wil. And if I haue preferred your loue before all the Ladies of my owne land if I make you that profer which many princes haue pressed for if neither wearines of way neither perils of sea could prohibite mee from pursuing your good will if I bee content to resigne my kingdome liberty and all that I haue into your handes I shall desire you not to coÌ„temne my curtesy but to counteruaile my paine and to returne my goodwill with like loue and affection This request also resteth to make vnto you that you driue mee not of with trifeling delayes for neither will the extremity of my perplexity permit longe delay neyther will the estate my kingdome standeth in suffer mee longe to bee away Progne hearing the ernest sute of this prince and seeinge nothing in him to be misliked considering also what
this without hazarding them selues any way as the Emperour Octauian hath consumed the whole course of his life without perill and Alexander béeyng but fiue and thirtie yéeres of age tooke vpon him the Monarchy of the whole world Besides if I should now refuse the Empire offred me it were a signe of a base and ignoble minde and the Emperour woulde thinke I made no account of his good will. Well saith shee do as God shall put in your head of mee make this account that though you bee the meanest man in the citie yet will I honour you as if you were the Emperour and though you make mée a Princesse yet will I bée as obedient to you as if I were your hyred hand mayde Ah good wife saith hée leaue those termes of humilitie to those y like them or looke for them for for my part I haue you in sutch reuerent estimation y I thinke the best state which euer I shal be able to bryng you to wil be to base for your worthinesse and if it shall please you to rest satisfied with the seruice I can do you to remaine content with the callyng I can giue you to returne louingly the good will which I will beare you ▪ it is all that euer I will looke for at your hands and the only felicitie I force of in this life God forbid maister Germanicus saith shée that I should either looke for seruice of you or mislyke the lot whiche you shall alow mée or not restore with interest the good will which you shall beare mée Yes perswade your selfe this though you surmount mée in all other thynges yet wil I not fayle if it bée possible to excéede you in good wil. Shortly vpon this the whirlyng whéele of Fortune turned theyr talke to teares their woordes to waylyng their gladnesse to sadnesse their happinesse to heauinesse yea their life to death For a certayne thirst of the kingdom began to assaulte one Tiberius a Gentleman in the Emperours court who beeyng of the bloud royall perswaded her selfe if Germanicus were made away the Emperour béeyng dead hee should succeed in the Empire Whiche greedie desire of the kyngdom so blinded his vnderstandyng that hee passed not to peruert both humaine and deuine lawes for the accomplishyng therof no rules of reason no bonde of freendship no care of kynred no feare of lawes no prickes of conscience no respect of honestie no regard of gods or men could prohibite him from his pestiferous purpose For if freendship had been of force with him why they were familier friendes If kinred why they were nere kinsmen If lawes hee knew his deede contrarie to all lawes If conscience hée knew it terrible If honestie hee knew it most wicked If goddes or men hée knew it abhominable in the sight of bothe the one and the other But too true it is desire of a kyngdome careth neither for kith nor kin friend nor foe God nor the diuel as by this trayterous Tyrant may bee playnly prooued who by poyson procured the death of this worthy Gentleman Germanicus to the intent to inioye the kyngdome of Rome Now Agrippina séeyng her sweet husband so sodainly dead was surprised with sutch sodain sorrow y for a long time she could neither speake woord neither let fal teare but at length she cast her self vpon the corps of her Germanicus kissyng his colde cheekes and imbracing his breathlesse bodie sighyng sobbyng foorth these woords Alas wretched wight that I am whose misery is like to mine whose griefe so great whose life so lothsome no flowing teares no griping groanes no carefull cries no throbbing sighes can sufficiently set forth my sorrowes My life my loue my hope my husband my ioy my Germanicus is miserably murthered and made away Ah vaine desire of wordly dignity ah diuelish deede of blouddy cruelty But in vaine it is to complaine when my care is without cure and none can redresse my wronge For goddes I know there are none otherwise I knowe the good should not bee so made away by the ill and men there are none that can medicine my malady and rayse my Germanicus to life againe so that nothing resteth for mee but by death to bée rid of the moste bitter panges of death I could prolong my life and seeke by some meanes to hasten the death of that tirant Tiberius but alas his death can not bring Germanicus to life no let him liue stil on earth where I doubt not but hee shall ten thousande times in his time feele the force of death For hee wilbée so tormented with his owne example that as the poets report of Suspicion to bee plonged in all the pits of hell will not bee so painfull vnto him Well the gods if there bee any giue him as he hath deserued and giue me leaue to goe to the ghost of my Germanicus Here vpon shee resolued with her selfe that as her husbande indeed his life by receiuing into his body that which hee should not so shee would end her daies by not receiuinge that which shée should and so defrauding her selfe of foode distillinge her selfe as it were into teares pitifully pined away And when the Emperour Octauian caused meate to bee thrust in her throate shee cast it vp againe saying sorowe was the onely sustinance and moane the meate which shee either could or would take and so in short time died I shall not neede here gentlewoman to exhort you to take the death of your husbandes when you shal be married and when it shall happen more paciently for that I knowe your wisdomes to bee sutch that you will not so wilfully worke your own confusions neither doo I think you are to know that wee must liue by the liuinge not by the dead and that there hath bene neuer any one husband so good but there may bee others found as good yea and though they bee not perfectly so good yet in respecte of chaung which most women delight in they are commonly counted better as your selues if you were once married perchaunce would saye or at leaste thinke But I thinke this needefull to put you in minde that by the example of Agrippina you counsayle your husbandes to content themselues with their callinge not to soare to highe and stie aboue their seate and with foolishe Phaeton and youthfull Icarus come to confusion It is your partes also to way your husbandes wealth and not to decke your heades and neckes with golde when hee hath none in his purse not to swimme in silkes when hee is drowned in debt not to abound in brauery when hee is pinched with pouerty For you knowe it is your parte to take sutch part as hee doth whither it bee pouerty or ritches woe or wealth pleasure or paine But surely in my fancy that man is to bee begged for a foole who will prefer his wiues pleasure before his owne and her profite her will before his owne wealth her vanity before his owne ability And as it is great inciuilyty
her husbandes absence to sée a wilde Aegiption with one eye in his forehead whom shee longed to see that women ought to spin with Penelope to spill with Camma to kill with Lucrece to bee slaundred with Susanna with Sauoy and with others to indure any torment rather then to lose one iote of their chastity and honesty Pigmalions friende and his Image PIGMALION a Gentleman of Piemount continuing the space of certaine yeares in honest affection and vertuous loue with PENTHEA wife to Luciano a noble gentleman of the same country is at length by her reiected in respect of a base stranger Pigmalion abandoning the company of all women and giuinge himselfe to the arte of Caruing burneth in loue with an Image whiche himselfe had fashioned whom at his earnest sute Venus transformeth into a faire Mayde and hee taketh her to Wife TO make the reckoning without the host is the way soone to bee â–ª ouershot in the shot to resolue certenly vpon incertenty is the way neuer to be in any certenty to looke for constancy of those y lyke of inconstancy or to determine of those things which are not in our powers to perfourme is nothing els but to bee deceiued of our expectation and to be driuen to alter our determination as the History whiche you shall heare shal yéelde example of both the one and the other In the country of Piemount had his beeinge one Pigmalion a gentleman discended of noble birth indued with perfection of person perfectly pourtraied forth with y lineameÌ„ts of learning so that it was dooubtful whether he were more indebted to fortune for his birth to nature for his beauty or to his parentes for his learninge But as beautie birth ritches and the rest must néedes geue place to learninge so no doubt but his parentes deserued the preheminence of prayse For the other are but dim starres where learninge giueth light And as when the sunne shineth the light of the stars is not séene so where learning appeareth all other giftes are nothing to be accounted of Besides that beeside his learning he was indued with a great dexteritie in all thinges in so mutch as nothing came amisse vnto him whiche was méete for a Gentleman in feates of armes no man more couragious in exercises of the body none more actiue in game or play none more politike amongst the auncient who more graue amongst the youthfull who more merrie so that there was no time no person no place wherto hee aptly applyed not him self By reson wherof he was acceptable to all good companies wel was he that might entertaine him in his hous But most of al he frequeÌ„ted y â—hous of one Luciano a noble Gentleman of the same countri in continuaunce of time grew so farre in familiaritie with his wife that he reposed his onely pleasure in her presence Yea shee had made sutch a stealth of his harts that neither Father nor Mother Sister nor Brother nor all the friends he had in the country beside could keepe him one wéeke together out of her compani Yea this faithful loue hée bare her séemed in a manner to extinguish all naturall loue towards his allies and kinsfolke Who beeinge as they were wont desirous of his company at hauking hunting and sutche like pastimes coulde not by any erauing or importunity obtayne it but being ignorant of the cause they thought it had proceded of this that his minde vpon some occasion had been alienated from them which caused them on the contrarie somewhat to withdrawe their goodwils from him But hee forced litle thereof he cared not whom hee displeased so he might worke her contentation shee was the starre by whose aspect he did direct his doynges she was the hauen wherein he sought to harborough shée was the heauen whyther he coueted to come shee was the saint to whom hée did lend sutch deuotion that hee could finde in his heart to bend no liking to any other whatsoeuer In so mutch y hauing the profer of many ritch maryages hee alway refused them as hauing his hart so replenished with the loue of her y there was no roomth for the loue of any other to remayn within him Now shee on the other side whose name was Penthea béeinge a curteous courtly wenche gaue him sutch freindly entertaynment and vsed him so well in all respectes that her husband excepted shee séemed to holde him most dere vnto her of any wight in the whole world Shée neuer made feast but hée must bee her guest shee neuer rode iourney but he must be her companion shee neuer daunced but hee must direct her shee neuer dised but hee must bee her partner shee in a manner dyd nothing wherin hee did not something Her Husbande all this while beeinge fully assured of her vertue and very well perswaded of the honesty of the Gentleman susspected no euill beetweene them but lyked very well of their loue and familiarity together neither in deede had hee any cause to the contrary For Pigmalion knew her to bee indued with sutch constant vertue that he thought it impossible to allure her to any folly and besides that his loue was so exceedinge great towardes her that hee would not by any meanes bee the cause to make her commit any thinge which might make her lesse worthy of loue then shee was And if at any time as the fleshe is frayle the vehemency of his affection forced him to perswade her to folly he did it so faintly that it might plainly bee perceiued hee was not willing to ouercome For hee deepely doubted that if by the force of her loue towardes him or of his perswasions towardes her shee should haue yeelded the forte of her fayth and chastity in to his handes his loue towards her with the sun beinge at the highest would haue declined and decreased which would haue bene the greatest greife to him in the world No hee liued with sutch delight in the contemplation of her chastity and vertue that hee was voyde not only of Libidinous lust towardes her but also towardes all other women whatsoeuer Yea hee receiued more pleasure of her by imagination then of any other woman by y acte of generation So that betweene these friends was no cause of suspicion no cause of iarre no cause of ielousie but they liued together the space of three or foure yeares in most heauenly hauen of most happie lyfe The floud of their felicity flowed from the fountaine of most faithful friendship the building of their bidinge together was raised on the rock of vertu so y it was to be thought no seas of subtiltie or floudes of fickelnesse coulde haue vndermined it But what perpetuitie is to bee looked for in mortall pretences What constancy is to bée hoped for in kytes of Cressids kinde may one gather Grapes of thornes Suger of Thistels or constancy of women Nay if a man sift the whole sexe thorowly hée shall finde their wordes to bee but winde their fayth forgery