pittiful Reliques And in this state able to beget Emulation in all the Vertuous Women of Antiquity she rendred up her Soul not upon the Body of her Husband who was no more but upon his Shadow and Memory ISABELLE de Castille suâ—e le â—enin et le peril de la playe de son Mary desesperé des 〈…〉 par sa â—uerisâ—n que l'Amour est le Maistre de la vie et de la mort 〈…〉 Eleonor of Castile Princess of wales ALL England is dangerously sick upon this Bed with Prince Edward The Fortune of the Publike being wounded to the heart by the wound he brought from the Holy VVar endures the same Convulsions as he feels And the Physitians give them but one day of life if God send not an Angel and a Miracle to cure them Surely it is very strange that the hearts of a whole Nation should be wounded by one blow and that one shaft which hath hurt but one Body should draw Blood from so many Soules But such is the condition and as it were the destiny of good Princes They have a heart and soul in every one of their Subjects Their blood and veines disperse themselves throughout all the parts of their Dominions and their least wounds are followed by publike Symptomes and popular Maladies Prince Edwards wound is one of those The King his Father and all his Subjects lament it and their Tears are the Blood of their Soules which have been wounded by his Body You will believe notwithstanding that in this generall sickness and amidst these common lamentations the Princess his wife is the most sick and most to be lamented There is also a good half of the Prince in her and reciprocally more then a good half of her in the Prince Her love at least is there intire and with her love there is more of her Life and more of her Soul then is left behind Though far remote from the fight yet she was wounded there to death with him Her heart found it self just in the offended part and ever since her soul and life have issued forth by the same wound with her Husbands blood At present hope is returned to her but it is a dolefull hope and such as may come from despair The Physitians have declared to her that the Prince might yet be cured and that to cure him it was necessary to seek out some affectionate and couragious person who would expose himself to take in his Death by sucking the poyson out of his wound Her Love which was present at the Consult of the Physitians perswaded her that this affection could not be expected but from a woman nor this Courage but from a Princes That this fatall wound could not have a more soveraign Salve then her Tongue and that if it were her Husbands destiny to receive a second Life he could owe it to no other then her Spirit and Mouth This inspiration greedily received by her heart drew from thence this bold and vigorous heat and this tincture of hope and joy which you see in her Face There appears in her Countenance something I know not what of fierce and stately which seems to require respect and yet begets affection It is peradventure a certain Ayr of Spain which passed the Seas with her and followed her into England It is perchance a visible expression of her Heroick thoughts and an exteriour sign by which her Soul declares what she newly concluded For whatever this little fierceness may be taken and what name soever they give it it sets a harmless edge upon the sweetness of this Princess It is to her Beauty and Graces a modest and well-becoming boldness It is as it were a reflection of her Heart upon her Face and as a demonstration of the greatness and vigour of her Soul But whether it proceed from the greatness and vigour of her Soul or from the force and greatness of her affection she valueth not death to which she is going to expose her self nor is affrighted at this great train of Terror which the people set before her She considers and hearkens to nothing but her Love which calls her to an action which will equall Spain to ancient Greece and old Italy which will efface the glory of renowned men and women and infuse jealousie into both Sexes which will be the honour of this Age and the admiration of Posterity and will manifest that Charity no less then Faith hath the gift of Cures and the vertue of Miracles Her Imagination was full of these great Objects But her Husband is the main one and approacheth nearest to her heart In her mind she renounceth Reputation and Glory and by an express Oath taken upon the name and picture of the Prince which you see in her hand She dedicates her self to his Cure and obligeth her self to suck in her own Death or to give him Life Let us accompany her to the Execution of this business and place our selves behind this piece of Arras with the Princes servants who observe her in silence and with gestures of astonishment Vertue cannot have too many witnesses in like Enterprizes And this would merit that time past should return and the future advance to convey to her Spectators of all Ages Behold her already upon the Princes Bed and couched upon the wound she hath discovered You would say that her Soul to accomplish the Transport she hath vowed and to pass from the subject she animates to that she loveth flows away by her Eyes with her Tears and drop by drop penetrates the Body of the sick Prince Do not fear that these Tears should inflame his wound or that the Ardour of his Feavour be augmented by them These Tears indeed are very warm and come from a scorching spring but they are gentle and benigne and I believe that not a Tear doth fall which carryeth not with it some part of the Princesses Soul and some drop of her Life distilled therein VVhat do you think of this Love who exhorts her with his very looks and action Doth he not seem to be newly come out of her Heart to declare himself the Author of this great Design and to enjoy it neerer and in an open way He is not one of these Interested and Propriatory Ones that will ingross all to themselves and aym meerly at their own private satisfaction Less also is he one of those Discontented and Contentious Ones who are armed on all sides with teeth and nails who carry not a Flower which is not accompanied with Thornes who make not so much cleer fire as they do noise and smoke You see no Shafts nor Torch about him because he is a Saving and no Tyrannical Love He is come to cure an old wound and not to make new ones And there entreth nothing but a pure Spirit and Light into the Flames which he inkindles He is not of the Country of Romances nor of the Region of Fables His Origen is from Heaven even from the
most Luminous and highest part of Heaven He is next to God the Mediator of holy Marriages and well united Pairs He is the common Spirit of Christian Sympathyes and the Moderator of Chaste Agreements and Vertuous Harmonies Such an Exhorter is most powerful and his Inspirations leave nothing to be acted by Reason However he is not the sole perswader of the Princess Her Husband though fast asleep is no less Perswasive nor Eloquent them he If Prince Edward speaks not with his mouth he speaks by the paleness of his face He speaks from the Ardour of his Feaver and the Palpatation of his heart He speaks from his wound which hath a Voice of Blood and words of Passion In silence the Princess yields attention to this Voice and to these VVords And Answereth them with her Sighs and Tears which are no less Eloquent nor less Passionate And ere long when she shall thrust her Tongue and Mouth into this VVound her Heart will descend upon her Lips to bid the last adieu to the Princes Heart and to transmit into it her last Flame together with her Life But fear nothing in her behalf This Love her Inciter will preserve them both He put a secret Antidote in to her Mouth and gave her Spirit the gift of Healing Her Lips which he purified with a Spiritual and Sacred Fire will Exorcise Death and dispossess it of this Body without taking it into her own And one day Edward Cured and Eleonor Preserved will be reckoned amongst the miracles of Heroick Charity SONNET ON some Exploit Prince Edward Dreaming lyes VVith Death in 's Wound and slumber in his Eyes His Spouse to Cure him is resolv'd to Dy VVith Heart like those of her brave Ancestry Love more then Nature skill'd in Life's repairs Makes him a precious Balsome of her Tears VVhose Soul already heals him in Designe And at his VVound do's with his Soul conjoyne Approach thy Mouth and Heart couragious VVife 'T is that must save thy gallant Edwards life That Heart of thine with true Affection Crown'd Shall make thy Tongue a Plaister for his Wound To Cure thy Prince employ no other Skill The Fire the Blood the Spirits that Distill From thy fair Soul shall from his Body drive Th' empoyson'd VVound and keep thy Prince alive Elogy of Eleonor HEroick Vertue doth not alwaies Kill not imploys Fire and Sword in all she takes in hand All her Exploits are not stained with Blood she knows how to perform them of more then one fashion and colour and acts not everywhere with Noise though in every place with Force There are Obscure victories without witnesses wherein she hath need of no less boldness then in those which are gained in the view of whole Nations and with the noise of Canons and Trumpets The victorie represented in this Picture is one of these Edward Prince of Wales was come back from the Holy Land with a wound he had received from an Impoysoned Arrow The Physitians had allayed all their speculations and practises and all those ways having been unprofitably tryed they declared to him that he could not be cured but by the destruction of some Person who might have the courage to suck in death with the poyson of his wound Being condemned by this Declaration he prepares himself to dye resolving not to preserve life by the death of another nor to make a remedy of an Impoysonment The Princess his Wife Daughter unto the King of Castile conceiving her self condemn'd by the same sentence received it as if love it self had pronounced it to her And seeing her self necessitated to dye either by the death or cure of her Husband She resolved to chuse of these two deaths that which seemed to her the most Honourable and least bitter and which ought of the two moyties of her life to conserve to her self that which was most dear and precious This resolution taken with her love she defers the Execution to the next night And as soon as the Prince was prepared for it by rest she gently discovers his wound and begins to cure it by the purest blood of her soul which she pours into it with her Tears That done she set her mouth to the wound and with her tongue plunged her heart into it By little and little she sucks out the Poyson and so seasonably casts it forth as she drew from thence all that was Mortal without retâ—â—ning any part thereof to her self Whether that this malignant humour were consumed by the subtile and penetrating fire which her heart diffused by her mouth Or whether God who is Life and Charity had laid his Spirit upon her lips she preserved her Husbands life without loosing her own and by one act cured two sick Persons and wrought two Miracles MORAL REFLECTION THere is a large 〈◊〉 in this Picture and an excellent lesson for married Women This couragious Spaniard added to the Romans Greciams and even to those Barbarians who dyed for their husbands will speak Eternally for the constancy and fidelity of their Affections And wil highly prove and in an Heroick fule that the loving portion of the heart is more vigorous and couragious in their Sex then in Ours But she will also prove for their instruction that nothing is impossible to well ordered Charity That her hands have the gift of Cures and that the vertue of Miracles resides on her Lips That she single and unarmed hath more Force then Death with all his swords and poysons and that Barbarous and heathenish Love which knew onely how to dye vainly and with Audacity was but an impatient and desperate Love compared to a Chaste One which knows how to save in dying and to reap benefit even by its Dangers and Losses But this saving and Wonder-working Love ought not to be a busie and Effeminate Love or a Love of Interest and propriety It must be a Philosophick and Couragious Love Extatick and Prodigal Elevated above all that pleaseth and affrights This Torch must be like that represented in the Canticles not a wandring and Volatile fire but a fire ever Equal and Active A fire which consumes all the little threds of Interests all Forraign tyes all Chains and Fetters even those precious Chains which Fortune frames nay those very Fetters which are more worth then Diadems and which fasten Princes on Thrones Some will have it that it consumes even the tyes of the Soul and Body And alleadge that place of the Canticles where the power of Love is equalled with that of Death This point is both important and instructive And because one might be dangerously mistaken therein it is fit to make a Question of it apart MORAL QVESTION Whether it appertains to the Duty and Fidelity of VVomen to expose themselves to Death for their Husbands IF in this point we believe Antiquity Conjugal Love was heretofore very Tyrannical And married Women who subjected themselves to it ought to be well resolved It was not satisfied that they should bear with
of Jasper and Porphire SONNET WHile this Heroick Mede attempts to gain O're weighty Palms be by their poyse is slain His Brow still sweats with Gallans Actions done Still do's the Blood about his Armour run His Hearts late active Flames have lost their Fire And through its reaking Blood in Smoak expire While couch'd among the Dead his Soul pursues The wand'ring Shades of those the sword subdues O hold Panthea hold thy best Relief Rests in the moderation of thy Grief Save thou at least thy Husbands second Heart And let one Death suffice your common Smart In thee he still survives and may again In thee fair Cruel by thy Hand be slain Thâ— inhumane Steel that shall dismiss thy Breath To him must needs procure a second Death ELOGIE OF PANTHEA PANTHEA had a Philosophers Spirit in a Womans Bodie and a knowing and disciplined Soul under a Barbarous Climat There was nothing weak or rustical in her Life All her Actions were full of Courage and Dexteritie Chastity Grace and Modesty excepted nothing appeared in her agreeable to her Sex Having remained a Captive after the Defeat of the Assyrians vanquished by Cyrus she was set apart as the most precious piece of the Spoil and as the choicest fruit of the Victory And in this occasion her Vertue appeared more rare and prizable then her Beauty A noble man of Persia having had the Impudence to attempt upon her Honour Discretion Chastity and Fidelity defended it And the Victory which remained to her evidently shewed that Fortune had not yet overcome her And that though she were an absolute Captive yet she had alwayes a free Heart and a soveraign Soul The Affection she bore to her Husband Abradates was serious and manly she did not consume it in affected Discourses and superfluous Apprehensions She truly loved his Life and Repose but she was jealous of his Reputation and Renown And she would rather have wished him an untimely and glorious Death then a dishonoured and compleat old Age. So far was she from making him lose in her Closet the hours of the Field and from withdrawing him from Gallant Encounters and Honourable Dangers that she sent him thither in a costly Equipage like a Conquerer that she delighted to see in him an adorned and sumptuous Valour which might both dazle and affright which might beget at once both Admiration and Fame He died likewise Victorious in the Gold Armour which she had bought for him with her Pearl and pretious Stones as if she intended thereby either to adorn his Death or to set a Value and Lustre on his Victory Being brought to her covered over with his own Blood and that of his Enemies she received him Couragiously and with a manly Constancy mixt with sorrow and Majesty She forbore not to bewail him but it was done with those modest and decent Tears which do not soften the Heart but beautifie the Face Not being able to make his Soul return into his Body she essayed to substitute her own in the place of it For that end she opened her Bosom by a wide wound and leaning on him as if she were willing to fill his Heart with her Blood and Life she dyed in two Bodies and yeelded up her Soul through her Husbands Wound and and her own MORAL REFLECTION I Put not here a Sword into Womens Hands nor invite them unto Poison a Halter or Precipice Voluntary Death might appear handsom and becoming in this Barbarian it would seem black and hideous in a Christian Woman But Chastity Fidelity and Constancie are in use with all Nations and requisite for All Sects And our Christian Women without darkning or disfiguring themselves may imitate Barbarian Let them learn of her that Conjugal Love is not an effeminate and mincing Passion That it is vigorous and serious That it is capable of great Designes and of Noble and Couragious Thoughts Let them understand that though their Sex be exempted from the Dangers and Functions of War yet their Fortunes and Mindes are not so that they ought to serve with their Goods and Possessions if not with their Persons And that it were a Disgrace for them to spare two or three Pearls and Parcels of rich Cutwork in Occasions wherein Princes are Liberal of their Blood and Kings expose their Crowns and Heads In fine let them know that their chief Ornament consists in their Husbands Glory that they ought to adorn themselves with all that contributes to their Credit and Reputation And that a man without Honour is as great a Deformity to a brave Woman as a Head of Clay to a Statue of Ivorie MORAL QUESTION Concerning the Order which a Gallant Woman ought to observe in Conjugal Love IF good Eyes and a great Light be requisite to love regularly more Courage and Vertue is yet required to it And well ordained Charity what sweetness soever it promiseth is the most powerful and the most rare perfection of a Gallant Woman There are many who tenderly love their Husbands The Heart of a Turtle or the Soul of a Dove without other Philosophie would suffice for this Tendernesse But surely few there are that love them according to measure and in order to their duties few that know how to afford just proportions to their kindnesses and to set every office in its place and in the degree which is proper to it Finally few that can boast with the Spouse in the Canticles of having a regular Love and a well ordered Charity And neverthelesse it is this regular Love and well ordered Charitie which must accomplish the Fortitude of a Woman For according to the saying of S. Augustine these give the Character and Tincture to all other Vertues of what Sex soever they be and by what Names soever they are called Morever this Order to draw the Designe of it in little and to teach it by Epitomie must be taken from the very order of those Objects that are beloved Wherein this proportion is to be exactly observed that every Object be ranked in the esteem and according to the degree of its Merit That the most pretious and important should have the first Cares and be furthest advanced in the Heart that the rest of lesse consequence should remain in the superficies and rest satisfied with the second thoughts and remaining Affections And generally that love should grow intense or remisse rise or fall act or acquiesce according to the different weight according to the several degrees according to the Value of the good which is to be affected and pursued This Rule ought to be in a Gallant Woman what the Rod was to the Angel whom Ezekiel saw measuring the Temple She ought not to Love but with proportion according to the quantity of merit And how vast soever her Heart is she must yet be wary of pouring it out rashly and at random she ought to give nothing of it but by weight and measure Not that I permit her to divide and distribute it to whom
and without staining his hands with her Blood Although I have said that Women will not ascend in Troops to this high degree yet some there are who have arrived to this Pitch and gone thither more innocently and couragiously then Monima she whom I shall immediately produce will finde few equals She cannot be placed in too great a light nor upon too fair a Stage She cannot have too noble Spectators and History will never give her so many applauses and Crowns as she deserves EXAMPLE The Brave Hungarian THe Wound which Hungary received at the taking of Seget was great and dangerous And if God had not reached out his hand and upheld that Kingdom it was ready to perish by this wound The siege was famous by the presence of Solymon the second who began this last Expedition with five hundred thousand men and left the finishing of it to his Reputation and Fortune dying a few dayes before the taking of the place and almost in the sight of Victory It was not the Earl of Serins fault who defended the Town that Solymons Fortune and Reputation died not there with his Person and that Victory did not abandon him in this Action and remain to the Christians The Ladies of Seget did what service they could with their Jewels and Pearls which were converted into Money for the pay of the Garrison they served also there with their persons And by a Zeal much bolder then that of the Carthaginians who gave their hair to make Ropes for Engins of War they employed their Arms to the repairing of the Walls and exposed their Heads to the defence of the breaches and Gates At the last assault given by the Turks the Earl of Serin perceiving that the hour of perishing was at hand resolved to dye most magnificently and in Pomp and to give Lustre and Reputation to his Death He â—ought in an Imbroidered Sute and with a string of Diamonds tyed about his Hat having the keyes of the Town fastned to his Scarse and a hundred Crowns in his Pocket for that Souldier who should send him to Triumph in Heaven The History renders this testimony of his Death that it was a Triumphant and Victorious Death But though it was victorious yet it did not equal the Death of a Ladie of Siget who surpasseth all that is left us of the Memory of Heroick time She was a Woman of quality and one of the fairest but she was none of those languishing Beauties and without Vigour of those Beauties which resemble the stars of the North which have no activity and shine faintly and without heat She was vigorous and bold yet vigorous with sweetnesse and bold with a good Grace and Comlinesse Her Husband who loved her passionately and even to the degree of Jealousie scared nothing but her taking in the taking of Siget The Image of captivated and inchained Hungary nay of flaming and bloody Hungary was to his apprehension a lesse dreadful apparition then the Image of his Captive Wife To rid himself of this Fantome which followed him every where and to secure the Honour and Freedom of his Wife of whom he was more Jealous then of the Honour of Christianity and the Liberty of Europe He resolved to take her out of the World before the Victorious Turk should enter the City which was no longer able to resist and had too good hearts left to yield themselves This so Tragick and soul a resolution was no sooner fixed in his Minde but the slains thereof appeared even in his Eyes and upon his Face His Wife who was discreet and quick-sighted observed them and was touched therewith she pardoned his Jealousie in consideration of his Love And though she was fully prepared for death yet she did not desire a death which might make him a Criminal whom she loved more then her own life She took him aside and made him understand that his bad intention could not be hidden from her She was so dexterous as to draw the confession of it from his own mouth and upon his Confession she strongly and efficatiously represented to him the infamie which would remain to him from so Barbarous an Act and the Scandal which he would give to his Age and leave unto posterity I confesse said she that I owe you all my blood And behold me ready to give it without reserving one drop But have patience till some other come to shed it Do not fullie your hands with it stain neither your memory nor your soul therewith Do not inkindle an eternal fire by it For my part I apprehend far more Life then Death and all the Scimiters of the Turks cause in me far less fear then their most gentle and pretious Chain were it more sweet and pretious then the Diadem of the Sultanesse But permit me to die gloriously and with Reputation Do not dishonour the Repose which you seek Disparage not your good affection My Honour is not so desperate that it cannot be preserved but by a Crime You think to justifie your self by laying the blame upon Love You are much mistaken if you take it for a murderer Do not put the Dagger into its hands Do not solicit it to commit a murder and if you cannot restore it the goods you have received from it leave it at least its Reputation and do not envie its Innocencie An honourable Death is not so hard a thing to find in a Town taken by force There enter enough of them by Gates and Breaches Let us fallie forth together with Swords in our hands to chuse an illustrious and renowned end Let it be by fire or sword let it be short or lasting it imports not It will be sweet to me provided I dye a rival to your Valour and not a Victime to your Jealousie Having said this she caused her self to be compleatly armed and went out with a Sword in her hand and a Buckler upon her arm her Husband followed her armed with the like weapons and encouraged by her words and Example which gave him a second Heart and a new Spirit They went on boldly where fire noise and danger were greatest And as soon as they came to the place where they were to fight between the flaming Fire and the victorious Army They shewed by the wonders which they did that there is no valour like the valour of despairing Love and of Graces armed in defence of their Honour After a long and rude fight they were at last rather overpressed then overcome by a barbarous multitude irritated by their own losses and their resistance And feeling their strength stealing away with their Blood they gave each other their last imbraces and fell upon a heap of dead bodies which had been slain by their Hands They could not die more sweetly then in the fruition of their mutual Fidelity They could not have a more magnificent Tomb then their Arms and Victories Their souls which imbraced each other as well as their Bodies could not be severed by Death
the advantage which the courage of Chaste Women hath above that of Valiant Men let us present here to publick view the Picture of a Warlike and vertuous Chastity EXAMPLE Blanche of Rossy THat Mezentius whose Memory even at this day is exemplarily punished was peradventure but a Fiction of Virgil made to chastise in Effigie at least both Tyrannie and Cruelty and to read a Lesson of Justice and Clemency to Princes Nevertheless this Fiction so notoriously punished and cryed down for so many Ages hath not wanted bad Imitators who have drawn Copies of it so much the more deformed as they more resembled the Original And not to produce others here which belong to other Subjects Accidin was in flesh and bone in minde and action what Mezentius was but in Paper and Figure This Exterminator who was sent about the end of the twelfth Age to chastise insolent and debauchâ—d Italy renewed all the ancient Cruelties and abolishâ—d Punishments And verified all that was strange in Fables all that was seen Tragical and surprising upon Theaters His Cruelty extended so far that to lengthen the punishment and impatience of those wretched men whom he tormented he caused them to be laid upon half putrified bodies to the end the dead might by little and little stifle the living that they might be eaten up by their Worms and become corrupted by their Putrifaction This Cruelty of Accidin was accompanied with a barbarous and brutish Incontinency And albeit tenderness and sweetness be a Natural Ingredient to Voluptuousness His nevertheless was ordinarily Savage stain'd with Blood and like a Fury It appeared such during the whole course of his life and particularly in the Sacking of Bossâ—â—â— which he took by Storm 〈◊〉 Baptista of 〈◊〉 who was either the Governour or Lord of the Place having been slain upon the Wall Blanche of Rossy his Wife who fought compleatly armed by his side after a long resistance and Heroick Endeavors was taken and led in Triumph before the Tyrant as the most rare and precious piece of his Conquest Certainly also she had in her self alone wherewith to merit the enterprise and labours of three just Conquerors And the famous Grecian who was so often stoln away and for whom so many Battels had been fought was but a third part of this Italian Lady Her Beauty was no solitary Beauty and ill attended like the others It was accompanied with all the Vertues which make the Honour of her Sex and even those which Honour ours were not wanting in her She was very Beautiful but far more Chaste and little less Valiant She had Charms and accomplished Graces but those Charms were Innocent and without Affectation those Graces were Continent and Military And generally in all her Attractives there appeared a tincture of Modesty and Spirits mix'd with bashfulness and courage As soon as Accâ—din had viewed her thus gracefully set forth in Armour covered over with a certain dust steeped in sweat which appeared like a Military painting and such as they give to Victory A black and violent flame suddenly seized on his heart And the smoke thereof ascending to his head extinguished all that was found there of light It was neither Affection nor â—steem it was neither Inclination nor true Love Flames of this Nature do not fasten on all sorts of matter And although the Sun doth illuminate Comets as well as the Planets yet it is not from the fire of Planets that he illuminates the Comets The relation which was made him of the Valour and Chastity of Blanche added new fire to his brutish Concupiscence he was likewise by Nature one of these lustful Devils who are less lascivious by an appetite they cannot have then by the inclination they have to defile and corrupt Rapes and all debauchery injurious to Vertue were most pleasing to him And he took a particular delight in spoiling those Flowers which were Consecrated to her At first he constrain'd his Humour and took upon him a flattering and complacent Countenance but this look was a very improper Mask And his rude and forc'd complacences were far from softning the Vertue of Blanche She knew very well that Tygers never grow familiar in good earnest with their Prey and that though they hide their teeth and clawes yet they seldom make much of them without scratching or biting them Afterwards he discovers himself and declares to her his passion with arrogant intreaties and in a stile of Command His intreaties though violent finding not themselves powerful enough he came to armed threats full of death and tortures And his threats with all their weapons proved as weak as his Intreaties There nothing remain'd to try but force And as he prepared himself for it the Chaste and Couragious Blanche slipt out of his hands got into the window and transported by her Vertues and Courage and perchance also by her good Angel she precipitated her self from thence This boldness astonish'd all that were present And even Accidin acknowledg'd himself overcome by the fall of his Captive They that were sent to help her believed her dead She was only in a swound and had one shoulder out of joynt and an arm broken She being come to her self there was neither care not remedies spar'd for her Cure But as she apprehended more her Cure then death the same Remedies which asswaged the pain of her body augmented the grief of her minde and every moment she prayed against the Vertue of Remedies and bewailed the ease which she received by them The Remedies had notwithstanding more Vertue then either her Prayers or Tears They restored her health and the restauration thereof proved the Crysis of her misfortune Accidin no sooner saw her recovered but he presently renewed his pretensions and pursuits He assaulted her Soul in every part where it might be assaulted Having in vain contested against hope he contested against fear And caused far greater Threats to succed larger Offers But this second Assault found not a more prosperous Success then the former His great Menaces and Offers were tendred without effect and there was sound nothing base or weak in this great Soul Perswasion not prevailing with her he used a Tyrannical and Barbarous Violence and not being able to gain upon the Spirit of Blanche he caused her body to be fastened upon a Table which was more detestable to her then a Torturing Wheel This action only sullied the Tyrant who did it The Vertue of the Patient who endured it with so much regret was not defaced by it Her very Name received not any stain thereby Nevertheless being transported with pain and become odious and almost unknown to her self she withdrew to the place in which her Husband Interr'd Where having discovered what remained of his body where having made a short and interrupted yet Couragious and Manly Complaint to his Ghost and where having besought him to come and deliver her soul out of a Prison stain'd by Accidin she cast her self upon these dear and
the ill humours and bad Fortunes of their Husbands but it would have them sick of their Maladies die of their Deaths And as if it had not been sufficient to make them slaves undergo the yoke It made them also Sufferers and Victims and put ordinarily either a rope about their necks or a dagger in their throats The chief thing is that there was a necessity of taking that course to acquire the title of a gallant Woman And such as were able to endure life after the death of their Husbands could not pretend to the acclamations of their present Age nor to the Eternity of History Besides even in these dayes this cruel Custom is used in some parts of the Indie No Widows are seen in those Countries And Families are not prejudiced there by Dowries which issue out of them A Father of a Family being dead the Law of the Country ordains that he be put in an Equipage for the other World And that such things as had been most dear unto him should be burn'd with him The best beloved of his Wives hath this advantage by his last Will and the Right which Custom allows her She dresseth her self more richly and with more care for death then she had done for her Wedding-Feast The whole Kindred in Festival Garments and adorned like her Conducts her Solemnly and in Pomp to the flaming Pile And there she suffers her self to be burnt in Ceremony and with a more Natural and less affected Constancy then did the 〈◊〉 Philosopher who would counterfeit Hercules dying And presented a Spectacle of his death to the Army of Alexander I know indeed that this Superstitious and regular Cruelty of the Indians And that other tumultuary and precipitated Despair of the Romans and Grecians are equally reproved by the Laws of Christianity But I am not ignorant also that conjugal Love hath its Meritorious and Vertuous Deaths And there is some ground to doubt whether such kinde of deaths may happen by way of obligation and concern the Duty of a good Wife To this Question which is not of meer Curiosity but Instructive and Profitable I answer First that desperate and passionate Women who kill themselves to follow their deceased Husbands transgress against conjugal Love and violate the Fidelity they owe them This Proposition draws neer to a Paradox Yet exceeds not its bounds and Truth is there well ballanced One or two Reasons may Justifie it and draw the assent of the most devoted to the Memory of the Pantâ—â—â—â—â— and the Porcia's In the first place it will be granted me that the prime care of Lovers should be to nourish their fire and to keep it still in heat and action To delend it from all that might extinguish it And the least neglects therein are Temptations Doubts are Dispositions to change and commenced Infidelities Now this fire is smother'd in blood and by the violence of desperate Widows It is a great folly to believe that nothing remains after death The earth of Church-yards is too cold to preserve a single spark thereof An such as thunder out so great Oaths that their Ashes will retain everlastingly the heat thereof are highly guilty of Perjury unless they vent them by way of Poesie And if it be an act of Infidelity by tract of time and by piece-meal to suppress ones love from day to day and to deprive it by degrees of nourishment what will it be to smother it violently and on a sudden not to leave it a single spark which may inkindle it I know not how they will take what I have to say in this particular It is true nevertheless and must be spoken in what sense soever it may be taken Conjugal Fidelity is more hainously violated and the dead are far more injured by the delusive Courage of the falsely Constant Women that destroy themselves then by the weakness of those which will open their hearts to new Affections and run to second Marriages These at least preserve the Memory of their Husbands They still retain their Rings on their Fingers They keep their Pictures in their Closets and Hearts And the second fire which â—â—â—â—eth on them is not so incompatible nor so much an enemy to the first that it permits not some sparks thereof and a little heat in the remaining Ashes On the contrary furious and despairing Widows in what manner soever they voluntarily die reserve nothing of their first fire They destroy it even to the Matter to the very Ashes and Harth And their Husbands who might live long and quietly in their hearts perish a second time by the impetuosity of their Despair or by the obstinacy of their Grief Hence I infer a second Reason against the Falsity of impatient and despairing Love It is an opinion generally received and supported both by the Sense and Nature as well as by Speculation and Philosophy That Persons beloved have a particular Being and as it were a second Existency in the Imagination in the Soul and Heart of the Persons that love them They live there intellectually and by their Images And those Images are not dead Figures nor Impostures of a deceiving Art They have Life and Spirit they are true and Natural They possess all the Perfections and Graces of their Originals and have neither the Defects nor stains of Matter Now a Woman who kills her self out of a blinde and precipitious fury or who consumes her self with an obstinate and voluntary Affliction takes from her Husband this second Existency and this intellectual Being and Love by which he surviv'd himself She voluntarily annihilates and violently destroys that which death had left her And if she ought to make a scruple of defacing his Picture with what colour and pretence can she justifie the violence she offereth to an Image which was her second Life and Felicity in this World It is evident thereby that Constancy is not furious and that Fidelity is another thing then Despair That the greatest Love is not that which makes the most haste to poysons and precipices That Wives cannot more Religiously keep the Faith they owe to their Husbands not give them stronger proofs of their Affection then in rendring their Fidelity and Love durable and lasting Then in procuring them in their minde a life full of tranquillity and satisfaction Then in espousing their Memory and making a new Contract with their Images Then in carefully preserving those things which have been dear unto them And if they be good Wives they will not doubt but they were more dear to them then any Worldly treasure Let it not be said that this Philosophy is too remiss and indulgent That it pleads the cause of Nice and Effeminate Dames That it gives credit and authority to self Love This cannot be spoken but rashly and at random And surely as one may kill himself out of self Love and through an excess of tenderness so one may preserve his own life for the Love of another and by a particular
Effort of Courage Seneca affirms that for this much Vertue is required and that the bravest men ought to employ therein the whole vigour of their Souls And this Stoack who was as severe by his own inclination as by the Genius of his Sect who had been inured to the Axioms and opinions of the strongest Philosophy who had so frequent trials of himself against grief and death freely confesseth and in good earnest that he was become a thrifty dispoler of his bad remainders and had spared the dirt and dreggs of his Old Age to the end he might preserve the Spirit and youth of Paulâ—â—s who lived in him To this first Decision Which allows not to Women the use of poyson and Steel and imposeth an absolute necessity on them to survive their husbands I add a second which replaceth them in the freedom even in the Right and Duty of dying for them And the strength of this second Decision is not repugnant to the moderation of the former I say then that albeit the Law which forbids murther and especially all self-murther be express and general Yet in a perilous occasion where the life of a husband should be in danger his wife would be obliged to expose her self for him to this hazard and to give her own life for the preservation of his if there were an occasion of making this exchange I do not ground this obligation upon the right of Common Justice nor on the Duties of Charity in general Common and Universal Charity doth not extend so far I ground it upon the Right and Duties of Conjugal Love which is of greater rigour then the most rigorous justice and imposeth more Obliging and strict Laws then the strictest Charity And to begin with what is more particular and essential We know that the proper effect the specifical Function of Conjugal Love is to reunite two Moyties which the Creation hath severed and to reassemble Man and Woman into one body Moreover we see in all Natural bodies that the less Noble parts expose themselves by instinct to fire and sword in the defence of the Nobler We see that the Arms and Hands stuffen and extend themselves to meet the danger which menaceth the head to receive the blows directed against it To protect it even by their wounds even by their death and torture What our Members do by this instinct which is a more ancient duty then all Laws Law makers which is a blinde Love and a Natural Charity without merit a married Woman ought to do it freely and by election through the duty of this strict and rigorous Charity which Conjugal Love imposeth on her She is but the second part of the body composed by marriage Man to whom the Command belongs is the Head thereof and the Law which from the begining was imposed upon Woman to apply her self to this Head not onely ordains her to take light and Conduct from thence but also wils that to preserve this principle of her Conduct and this source of her light she should lay aside the care of her own safety and repose that she should take upon her self his dangers and wounds and even save him by her death if it will be received in Exchange Besides Love of its own Nature is a general Alienation of the whole Person that loveth It is a Transport without Contract or Hope of a Return by which one gives himself all entire and makes a free Donation of all that he hath and is to the Person he affects Now if this Alienation and Transport may be valid and of force in any kinde of love it is doubtless in Conjugal Love which leaves no right of reserve in Married Persons Which takes from them even the free use of their Bodies and engageth them in a mutual Dependency And this Dependency is yet more strict and indispensible on the Wives part who owes unto her Husband even the hairs of her Head and the very Dreams and Fancies which are within it Whether by Reason the subjection is greater and the Duties more Natural and necessary of the Body towards the Head and of the Accessory toward the Principal then of the Head towards the Body and the Principal towards the Accessory or whether because Wives give themselves with less reserve and love more Sincerely and with more Fidelity then Men This Alienation when it is free and compleat doth not only establish on a Husband a just Title over all the Cares and Affections of his Wife but it also establishes in him a new Right over her Blood and Life And albeit this Right cannot be exacted by Justice yet it may be done by Love which is a far less severe and vexatious Exacter but yet more pressing and more efficatious then Justice Nevertheless this Exacter ought to know that he cannot make use of this Right but in the Extremity of Hope and after the Tryal of all other Remedies An arm of a Man is not cut off to cure him of Rhume and Head-ach And one may say truly that this kinde of Love would play the Tyrant and Executioner and even cut the throat of a Wife to make a Bath for her Husband sick of the Sciatica or the Stone In the third place Love is a true and sensible Transmigration of the Soul or as some define it grounded on the Doctrine of St. Deâ—ys It is an Extasie by which the Soul ceaseth to live in the Body which she animates to live in that which she Loves Upon which it is not necessary to make a Commentary in this place nor to say by way of gloss that the Word to live ought not to be understood of the first and Substantial but of the second and Active Life of this sweet and sensible Life which affords Gust and Delight to the first Every one ought to know that Love is the Original and as it were the Fountain of Joy Pleasure and Satisfaction and of whatsoever hath a share in the sweetness of Life And therefore the sweet life of Lovers cannot subsist but in the place where they love Their minds are sick and languishing every where else All their thoughts which tend not thither are heavy and Terrestrial are Melancholy and burthened with Anxiety Their Musings and their Cares can follow no other Track And of those Souls it may well be said that they are Aliens and Incommodated at home And that their Bodies are to them as bad Innes nay Prisons and Sepulchres Hence it grows that it doth not only belong to the Duty but also to the Interest and Repose of a good Wife to Sacrifice her own life for her Husband and that the gain which may be made thereby is by two thirds greater then the loss Thereby she only hazards the most unquiet and worst part of her two lives She exposeth nothing but her Sorrows and Vexations for the preservation of her Joyes and Pleasures Of the two places where her Soul lives she only forsakes that which is sad and
Time and Matter The Vertue of a Pilot hath its chief action amidst the tumult of turbulent Waves and boysterous Winds amidst the confusion of the melting Heavens and the townng Seas The Vertue of a Physitian and of Drugs express their force upon mutulated members and wounds through which the blood slides away with life By the same reason a Wrastler is as no Wrastler at a Tableâ—â— and a Souldier is as no Souldier at a Ball. The Vertue of them both must be assaulted It requires Resistance and Adversaries it is atchieved by Sweat and Dust with Blood and Wounds It is the same with Moral Vertue nay with Christian Vertue which is of an Order transcending all the rest Her condition is to labour and fight to part with her blood and to receive wounds And if this condition seem troublesome to her she must remember that in the list of this life the Prize and Acclamations of the Combat are not reserved for Spectators for those lazie persons Crowned with Flowers and Perfumes who are content to look on quietly and at their ease They are for those that fight Couragiously who mingle their blood and sweat with the dust of the lists who shew great Hearts and great Souls by great Wounds But Vertue is Innocent And the wounds of the Innocent are more painfull then those of the Culpable Such persons as are wounded and overcome in the Lâ—sts such as endure Rain and Wind in the Trenches such as leave their Arms and Legs upon a Breach or in a pitcht Battle are not Criminals drawn out of a Dungeon or a Gally And after all if Wounds do so much torment this innocent Vertue she may lay down her Arms and depart out of the Lists She may also settle her self if she thinks good near to Voluptuousness paint and adorn her self like her take half of her Nosegayes and Perfumes borrow her Looking glass and Fan. But this once done she must no longer call her self Vertue nor pretend to Glory and her Crowns Besides Vertue never yet appeared effeminate and voluptuous nor painted or perfumed And no person was ever seen to pretend to Glory and run after her Crowns with a head covered over with painting and loaden with Flowers with a Fan in her hand and a Looking glass at her Girdle Afflictions and Adversities are then the proper state of Vertue as War is the proper season of a Souldier as the Lists is the proper place for him who pretends to the Prize And therefore let us no longer say that Innocent and Vertuous Women are unjustly afflicted Let us no longer impute to hazzard and tumult what is according to natural order and placed in a just proportion And let us learn once for all that if Vertue be in her right place when she is in Adversity if she doth her duty when she suffers Ladies who follow her freely and in good earnest cannot complain of their ill Treatment when God obligeth them to the same duty and ordains them to remain in the same state On the contrary he cannot afford them a more important tryall of his Love not more efficaciously testifie that he hath the thoughts of Salvation and the heart of a Father for them Thereby he purifies and frees them from vitious superfluities He deprives them of what adulterates and corrupts He prepares them for Crowns and the Inheritance of a Future Life It is certain that there is no Vertue so pure which hath not some stain There is not any so sound which hath not some part either infected or indisposed And if this be true of Vertue which saved her self in the Desert which put off her shooes and forsook with them the dirt and High ways at the foot of the Mountain What will become of that Vertue which resides at Court and amongst the great Ones which hath been nourished with a dangerous and corrupted Fortune which hath Domestiques as much cryed down as Riches as Scandalous and Debauch'd as Pleasures Is it possible that she should be so sound and have so good Preservatives as the Ayr of the Court cannot corrupt her that she should suffer nothing from the Opinions and Customs of Men that she should not be infected by the Contagion of Fortune that Riches should not puff up her Heart and Head that Pleasures should not beget in her Infirmity or Corruption And if there be no Vertue so Vigorous not Reason so well Fortified which is able to resist so many things which spoil and corrupt I ask of a Lady what usage might be best for her in that state and what choice she would make if God had left it to her self I hardly believe that she would choose to be given over by the Physitian The Election would not be much better then if she should make choice of a Precipice the Dispute would not be about the End but the way to it And if she had rather perish by a Precipice she cannot do it more certainly then by sickness It remains then that she put her self into the hands of the Physitian and relye on him for the ordering of her Maladies and Wounds But she should be very ignorant if she expected to be cured by him with divertisements with leaving her to her ease with making her laugh Do the Maladies of the Body become obedient to such Remedies Do they heal her wounds with Leaves of Roses and the Oyl of 〈◊〉 Do they not proceed against them with Bitterness and Pain with Irons and Fire Nevertheless these Wounds remain only in the Superficies and these Maladies are often caused by a grain of Sand which pains them or by a drop of Humour slipt out of its place And shall we likewise believe that Interiour and Spiritual Maladies that voluntary and inveterate Wounds will be cured with Ragouts and Perfumes that they will pass away at Play or at Table Shall we believe that the Friendly and Domestick Paâ—sions of the Soul that Vices avowed by the Will and habituated in the Heart will flie at the sound of Musick will be chased away by the â—n oak of a Persuming Pan They will need bitter Potions and painful Incisions They will require Remedies of Iron and Fire And these Remedies of Iron and Fire are the Adversities which God Ordains them and which are profitably and successfully applyed to them by Patience It is much better then for Ladies to be Purged and Cured by Adversity how distastful soever her Medicines may be then if by an unfortunate Indulgence they were abandoned to Contagious Prosperity which would compleat their Corruption This so harsh Treatment and painful in appearance will be yet found more wholsom and beneficial if we adde that thereby they are prepared for the Wedding of the Lamb and for the Crowns of the other Life We are not received at this Feast with soul Garments and hands fullied with dâ—t And the fauest Head of the World which should have but one stain will never be Crownd there It is necessary then for
then the Statues and Triumphs of many Emperours but of what esteem soever it be the Infanta deserved it by a better title then Victorius she was not only the Mother of her Armies but even the Preserver of them her charitable acts made them subsist her presence and Piety made them overcome To these imployment of the field we must joyn the inclination and dexterity she had in that innocent war and pastime which is used in Woods without effusion of human blood and without leaving Widows and Orphans She there gave a little more freedom to her modesty and suffered its bounds to be a little more enlarged we know likewise that she there performed all that a most couragious and dexterous person could have done And as if she had delighted in a danger wherein she might be humanly valiant and overcome without doing hurt she was seen to encounter chafed Wilde-boats with a javelin in her hand And to shew in this single sport aâ— serious a valour and as true courage as would have been requisite on a breach or in a set Battel There is a haughty capacity and a swelling Pride There is a savage Courage and a magnanimity which would fain strike a terrour into others This alliance of vices with vertues was not observed in the Infanta she was both modest and capable she was humble and prudent and her magnanimity though high and couragious was yet sweetned by a goodnesse victorious without Arms and conquering without violence which gained her more hearts then all the forces of Spain could overcome This goodness did onely acquire her the love of her Subjects but it gained her Subjects where she had no Jurisdiction It entertained her servants without Pensions or Wages It made her Dominion of a larger extent then her own Country It made her reign of a longer durance then her life Besides it was an universal goodnesse for all uses a goodnesse without delay or resence at all howers and in all proportions a spring of goodnesse which could not be exhausted by any effusion a goodnesse ingenious to do good and to do it seasonably and to the purpose to do it with a good grace and Majesty It is wonderfull that this awful Princess who at her pleasure gives limits to Fortune and Ambition and extinguishes the most enflamed Passions it is wonderfull I say that even death it self could not suspend the inclination she had to do good and the last breach of her life was a spirit of grace and an effusion of good deeds She had received the last Sacraments and her soul strengthned with the bread of the strong and prepared by extream unction expected only the moment of expiring when she remembred that many petitions were remaining in her Cabinet unanswered These were petitions of the afflicted and miserable who were apparently in danger of never coming out of their misery if she drew them not forth before the alteration which her death was ready to produce in affairs she gave order that these petitions should be brought her and causing her head and hand to be raised up she imployed all that remained of her sight and motion to signe them in the best manner she was able Surely she could not die more gloriously nor with a more noble and natural essusion of goodness And this makes me remember the Sun which still enlightens the Earth and doth good to it even when it is in the Eclipse Thereby she supports whole houses which are ready to sall she raiseth up some which were already fallen and this last trembling of her head supported Communities and wrought the preservation of many Families This was the right way of reigning charitably and exercising a most benigne Soveraignty to give pardons and grant favours in the very sight and even in the arms of death This was the true way of dying Royally and after an Heroick manner to rise up out of the bed of death that she might save Families from shipwrack which were readie to perish and to employ the last breath of her life to make the miserable revive to restore them hope goods repose and Fortunes at the very rendring up her soul. Surely those ancient Heroes who took a vanity to die standing and to have their bodies upright and their souls elevated never died so nobly nor in so good a posture And that Prince the delight of Mankinde who reckoned amongst his acquisitions the goods he had bestowed and counted amongst his losses all those which were remaining how thristy a manager soever he were of favours and benefits yet he never arrived to that height as to oblige by his last breath and to do good in the last motion of his Soul There are forced favours and constrained benefits which fall but by drops there are some which carry with them as it were the stings of repulses and â—ll Language and serve onely to distaste those that receive them Nothing of this Nature came from the Infanta Her favours were without delay and often prevented the asking they were all pure and without thorns and her benefits resembled gold which should grow without earth and ordure they were not only of great value and solidity but they had besides much lustre they surprized the heart and dazled the sight This Grace of doing good was the particular character and as it were the proper Beauty and Mark of the Infanta All her actions I say her most serious and vigorous actions were imbued therewith her piety it self had taken a tincture of it and though her vertue were one of the highest and â—reest from ostentation yet she never did any thing fiercely and with shagrin she acted nothing which was not gallant and civill which was not done with reflection and study which relished not of quaintnesâ—e and magnificence Nay it is said that even her seventies did not distaste and that her very rigours were obliging Whereupon it is related that when she was in Spain a certain Knight less wounded in his heart then head having entertained her with some discourses into which there entred fire and adoration the wise Princesse who knew very well that there was something of Eudimien and of the Moon in this man had more pity then anger for him And to free her self dexterously from his importunities procured the King her Father to give him an honourable employment attended with a great Revenue which carried him far enough off from Spain Thereby she satisfied Vertue without exaspirating the Graces and proved at once so rigorous and indulgent to this melancholly person that with one stroke she punished his love and made him a Fortune Above all this goodness of the Infanta appeared admirable in supporting ruined Powers in comforting great wounded Fortunes in conserving the Lustre and Dignity of eclipsed Planets put out of their Houses and Courses To perform the like acts of mercy another sort of charity is required then is practised in Hospitals and the pain of an ulcerated Prince demands other lenitives then the
them her Consent and Promise At the assigned day for the Ceremonie of her Marriage all things being ready for the Sacrifice she took the cup in which poison was steeped And having out of respect poured forth two or three drops thereof upon the Altar of the Goddess she drank part of it and gave the rest to Sinorix The unhappy Creature expecting to taste the first sweets of his Marriage drank there his Death and the punishment of his Crime Camma had the satisfaction to see him die with her And having enjoyed two or three hours of her Revenge and the Glory of her Fidelity she went to carry the News of both to Sinnatus MORAL REFLECTION ALL the Lines of this Picture are instructive and the very shadows of it are luminous and enlighten the understanding We learn from the unfortunate Beauty of Camma that as there be flowers which impoison so there are Riches which render those unhappy who possess them And that very often we are only slung with what glitters about us as well as with what pleaseth and adorns us We are taught likewise by her Courage that in the Combats of Vertue Victory consists in the strength of the Minde and not of the Bodie That the weakest Sex may herein Dispute in point of advantage with the strongest and that a Crown is more for the Heart then for the Arms or for the Head On the other side we learn from the Crime of Sinorix that unchast Love is a dangerous Guest It enters with Nosegayes in its Hand and Garlands on his Head And assoon as it comes into a House and hath there setled it self it exhibits poisons and swords We gather also from his punnishment that Divine Justice though it sets forth late yet it fails not to arrive in due time And that without causing Executioners to come afar off it often makes our Idols become our Tormentors and our sins our punishments MORAL QUESTION Why Conjugal Love is more Faithfull in Women then in Men. I Suppose the Truth of the Thesis and suppose it upon the Report of History which is the Conserver of Truth and the Depository of fair Originals and eminent Examples I have been consulting on it in all Countreyes and Ages and I confess that in every Countrey and Age where I have examined it History hath shewn me Heroick Women by Troops who dyed out of Fidelity and Love to their Husbands But when I required from it Husbands of the like Vertue and Courage scarce could it furnish me with enough to make a number This certainly is wonderful yet most true And such as shall not have Faith enough to believe it upon my word may inform themselves upon the places They will be shewed in Greece the Ashes of Eâ—adâ—e who cast her self into the flaming Pile of her Husband and who by an honest and lawful Love performed that which a furious Heroe and vaunting Philosophers have done either out of brutish despair or ridiculous vanity They will be shewed the Web wherewith Penelope preserved her self for Vlysses the Cup in which Camma drank death and revenge Another Cup wherin Artemisia drank the Ashes of Mansolus They would cause them to see at Rome the Coals which Porcea swallowed the Dagger of Aria and those efficacious words by which she gave Reputation to her Death and Courage to that of Petus The Lancet wherewith Paulina opened her Veins that she might die with Seneca And divers other famous pieces which are in Veneration with the Ancients and which are seen still coloured with Blood and marked with the Fidelity of Women The sight of these pieces is sufficient alone and without other proof to perswade that Women love more constantly and with more Fidelity then Men. But I suppose this Advantage of Womens Fidelity above that of Men who have hitherto lest no Reliques of it And seeking Reasons for it in Natural and Moral Philosophy I finde eight which added to the Memorials of Antiquity will strengthen this Proposition against the malitious Allegations wherewith some use to assault it And which may make it at least an Article of Human Belief First if Philosophy and Experience have Authority enough to be credited therein Affections follow Humours and take their qualities and tincture from the temper which serves them for matter Now it is not doubted but Melancholy is the predominant Humour in a Woman it is not doubted but that her Temper is more moist and her Complexion more tender then ours we ought not then to doubt but that her Affections are more adhering and setled and that she is more strongly united to whatsoever she fastens her self Why should we doubt it since Melancholy hath been hitherto believed to be the matter of Constancie and the most proper Oyle to nourish the fire of Love Since we see that loft things are better linked together then hard ones and that without Humidity no lasting union can be made From thence comes the ancient saying which declares that the affections of Women can endure no Mediocrity and that whatever they desire they desire it obstinately and without intermission Let us adde Instinct to Humour and Necessity to Complexion and what Faith teacheth us concerning the Creation of Woman taken out of the side of Man being supposed Let us alledge for the second Reason that the Instinct of the part to the whole being of necessity and consequently stronger then the Instinct of the whole to the part which is but of congruity It was according to the order of Nature that a Woman should do by an Intelligent and Judicious inclination what all other separated parts perform out of a blinde and insensible Propension And since Man from whom she was taken is necessary for her conservation it appears nothing strange that she adheres more constantly to him and renders him more affection then she receives And besides this surplusage which she gives him is lesse an advance and a work of supererogation then a duty and acknowledgment After this second Reason there follows a third which is grounded upon the Assistance and good Offices which Women receive from Men. This assistance is frequent and more then ordinary and these offices continual and at all hours Those which the Bodie receives from the Head can hardly suffer lesse interruption those which the Moon expects from the Sun can scarce be more necessary to her And therefore if good offices be the tyes of Hearts and the chains of Souls is it not reasonable that Women should love more then they are beloved and be more strongly â—astned then they fasten since in the Domestick Society they servelesse then they are served and are more obliged then they oblige Should they have lesse of good Nature then 〈◊〉 which fastens it self inseparably to the Tree that supports it and never leaves it either in Life or Death Should they love lesse constantly then the Female Palm which never findes comfort never receives verdure nor is ever capable of Renovation after the Death
Prison as at length they were opened to her and obtained leave to see her Husband The apparition of an Angel invironed with fire and covered over with light could scarce have more dazled Gonzales then the arrival of disguised Sanchia had done After the first Embraces and the Tears that were mixt with them which supplyed the place of Words she acquainted him in few words with the occasion of her coming And conjured him to take the garment and liberty she had brought him and to leave her in exchange his Chains and Apparel nay his punishment and Death if it were decreed he should die This exchange being made he went out of Prison with the Garment and Heart of Sanchia And found the two Knights at the Gate who brought him to the place where his servants waited for him The next day the light discovered that charitable Fraud which the night had concealed The King of Leon on the sudden expressed an Anger which seemed never to be allayed without effusion of Blood But reason returning by degrees admiration succeeded his wrath He highly praised a deceipt so well meant and of so great example And having magnificently treated his Sister he sent her back to her husband with ceremonie and pomp and this Pomp served as a Triumph to Conjugal Love and the Fidelity of Women ARTEMISE 〈…〉 Artemisia THERE is nothing here but exceeds the measure of mean Spirits Nothing but transcends the Capacity of shallow Heads The Mausolaeum which you behold is one of the Worlds great Miracles Artemisia who caused it to be built is another far greater Miracle though not so vast nor wearieth so much the sight But both have wherewith to fill with her Renown as well the present as future Times Wherewith to furnish matter for new Fables And to serve in History for a spectacle of magnificence and prodigie to all Nations and Ages They are no common Architects which direct this sumptuous and stately structure Love is the undertaker and hath traced out the designe Magnificence presides in the Execution and all the Arts gathered together work there under her Command and by her Orders Surely it were needful to have a very vast apprehension and Eyes capable of great objects to contemplate at once these pendant Quarries wrought into Pillars And to behold at one View a whole Mountain of Jasper erected into an Obelisk Asia and Africa must be thereby exhausted and impoverished I do beleeve that at present there are left neither Marble in their Bosoms nor pretious Metals in their Veins And you there behold in Frizes Chapters and Ballisters all that the sun was able to produce rich and resplendent in many Ages Not only all the Treasures of the Earth have been exhausted to serve for this Enterprize but whole Colonies of workmen have been consumed therein And all those rich carved Pieces whereof your eyes partake in an instant and without trouble are the Invention and labour of the ablest heads and the most skilfull hands of Greece Leocarez who was the Authour and Father of the most exquisite Gods and of the most eminent Artists of these dayes imployed all his skill in that Statue which he made of one single Agate It hath no other colours then what the Stone brought with it from the Quarry And neverthelesse by a concurrence which exceeded the expectation of the VVorkman Nature so well mingled them and with so much equality and proportion that a Picture were it drawn by the hand of Apelles himself could not better resemble Mausolus Three Lamps framed of three large Rubies make a precious Fire fed with Balm under this Figure There is a fourth which is composed of a more noble matter which sends forth a cleerer and more resplendent flame though it be invisible It is the heart it self of Artemisia which burns alwayes equally and with the same fire and consumes before her Husbands Ghost still present to her eyes I observe that you have a long time fixed your sight particularly upon the face of this Colossus and upon the strange Characters it bears The Characters are Egyptian and Sacred The Subject is the Elogy of Mausolus expressed in figured and mysticall termes The mourning of his Widow and sorrows of his People are not there forgotten But all this as you may see is there onely in Epitome and in a cold and livelesse stile The most Magnificent even the most eloquent and faithfull Epitaph of Mausolus is in the heart of Artemisia Love and Death have grav'd it with their Pencils There is not a word in it which hath not both life and heat which doth not love and sigh which doth not resent and is not resented Is it not that which the Architect meant to expresse by this Love and Death which he hath couched at the Foot of the Obelisk Would you not say that these Characters were but newly ingraven and that they made all Passengers who shall read them to accompany with their sighs and Tears the Sighs of the Arts and the Tears of the Muses the sadnesse of the Metals and the mourning of the Marbles As for those two other Loves which close up the Ballisters they are numbred among those which have contributed their Cares and Labours to this vast Work They hold also the Square and Compass in their Hands And seem thereby willing to give Testimonie against the Errours of the ignorant who perswade themselves that Love can act nothing which is not tumultuous and irregular And that there is nothing but confusion and disorder in all its productions Love nevertheless whatsoever these ignorant persons may say of it is the superintent of Harmonies and Accords and the first inventer of Squares and Measures And I do not doubt but if some one of those people came hither he would presently avow that Love is more regular and better proportioned in this vast building then Philosophie ever was in the Tub of the Cynick Surely also it is wonderful to behold such regular Enormities and such adjusted proportions amidst so great excesse But nothing yet there appears save the first draughts of this proportion and evennesse And one must expect the last form of the whole Bodie to judge of the correspondencie between these enormous and monstruous parts which are the Temerities of Art the Exaggerations of Marble and Jasper And if I may say so the Hyperboles and Amplifications of Architecture We are not the only persons in whom so sumptuous and magnificent a mourning begets astonishment Those that you see at the Foot of the steps though they belong to the Court of Artemisia and are accustomed to the Majestie of her Designe and have their Mindes and Eyes as full of it as ours Some expresse their astonishment by their Gesture and seem to say that this Monument will one day draw all Europe to Asia and be an Heroick Temple where Magnificence and mourning Love and Death Artemisia and Mausolus will be honoured together and receive from Posterity an equal worship
and like Oblations The rest further advanced observe her action and accompany it with their respect and silence The affliction of her Minde seems to have passed even into her Garment which is black and without ornament Her sadnesse nevertheless is Majestical and becoming And upon her face still pale by the Death of her Husband there appears a kinde of pleasing languishment which demands compassion and would beget Love if it were in a subject either lesse elevated or lesse austere Two Turtle Doves which she her self newly sacrificed to the Spirit of Mausolus burn before her with her Hair upon an Altar of Porphirie And mean while the fire which seized on her Heart by degrees consumes the tyes of her Soul and prepares it to go joyn it self with the other Heart which expects it The ashes of Mausolus which she hitherto so charily preserved are moistned with her Tears in the Cup you see in her hand She takes it up to drink them And her moist and sparkling Eyes which partake something of the Sun and Rain seem to say to those that understand them that she nevertook any thing more sweet and pleasing to her tast That the richest works of Art and Nature could not worthily enough conserve so pretious a Pledge That these dear Ashes are due unto the fire of her Heart and that nothing but Artemisia alone could make a fit sepulchre for Mausolus SONNET ARTEMISIA speaks BEhold this Sepulchers proud structure where Glory and Grief do equally appear Where Asia rais'd into one Monument Tyr'd all the Arts and Natures skill outwent Love with his shafts hath wrought the Sculpture fair Love did the Cyment with his Fires prepare And makes in spite of Death my Lover have An endless life in this stupendious Grave But tell me Love what Glory do I gain By these my sumptuous Labours if I daign Marbles to be the Rivals of my Fame And share with them my Souls resplendent Flame Now if the gentle Shade with wandring Feet Among the Dead do stray it will be meet That of its Flame my Soul the Fuel be And that his Ashes live intomb'd in Me. ELOGIE OF ARTEMISIA IT is nothing strange that Artemisia speaks in this Picture She hath lived above three thousand yeers in the Memorie of Man Her Fortune and Dignity nevertheless hath not preserved it for her Whatsoever hath been said of Gold it doth not exempt those from corruption who wear it in their Crowns and the Names of Kings and Queens ought not to be more priviledged then their Persons which die upon Thrones Vertue hath made Artemisia live to this day and would have her remain to her Sex an everlasting Example of a peaceable Magnanimity and of a Widowhood Couragious without Despair and afflicted without Dejection The one Moity of her dyed with Mausolus and she burned with him that part of her Heart in which Joy resided But she reserved the other in which was Fortitude and Courage And if since the fatal Moment which had thus divided her she was never seen to delight in any thing yet no man ever observed the the least weaknesse in her Her modest and strict mourning and her well becoming and Majestical reservednesse suted with a perfect Widow But her bold and Couragious activity in War her dexterous and free Conduct in managing affairs and her constancie in rejecting all sorts of second affections was like a Woman who acted still with the Heart and Spirit of her Husband and who had even espoused his shadow But not being content to have preserved his Courage in her action and his image in her Memory she must needs have also his Ashes upon her Heart And erected his Name and Tomb into a Miracle by a structure in which all the Arts wearied themselves and Nature her self was almost exhausted MORAL REFLECTION ARTEMISIA though a Heathen and a Barbarian is to young Widows a Governesse full of Authority and of great Example She teacheth them that the most invincible and strongest Widowhood is not that which sends forth the loudest cryes and which seeks to express it self by Poisons and Precipices That it is Modesty and Fidelity which make chast Matrons and not Hairs pulld up by the root and torn Cheeks That a sober and lasting Mourning is more decent and exemplar then an unequal affliction which tears it self to day and paints it self to morrow which is furious on the day of a Husbands Buriall and will endure no Discourse but of Poison and Ropes and two Dayes after will have their Haire curled their faces painted and spotted And that a Heathen woman having in one Monument placed all the wealth of a whole Kingdom to raise unto the Name of her Husband an imaginary and fantasticall Eternity It is a very great shame that Christian women should not distribute even for the salvation of their Husbands and the Comfort of their own Souls the Remainder of what they spend upon Play Vanity and Excess And because this Truth is important and of great use I conceived that it would be very beneficial to give it a more solid foundation and to make a Discourse of it apart where it shall have all the proofs and all the light whereof it is capable MORAL QUESTION In what manner a Gallant Woman should mourn and what ought to be the duties of her Widowhood THose Women are very ill instructed in the Morality of their Sex who reduce into Shagrin and sadnesse all the Duties and Vertues of a prudent Widow A serious and constant Love doth not wholly pour it self forth into tears And all the decency of exemplar Fidelity consists not in a black cypress Veil or Gown It is not expressed by shadowed lights and weeping Tapers And it is not discovered by studied looks and by fourty hours of artificiall darkness Philosophy I say even Christian philosophy forbids not tears in like occasions It is impossible that blood should not flow from hearts which are divided and from souls which are severed by force And since man as the Scripture tells us is the head of the woman the wonder would be no lesse if a Wise should lose her Husband without weeping then if a body should not bleed when the head is cut off But she ought not also to perswade her self that her wound must run everlastingly And that it concerns her honour to have alwayes tears in her eyes and complaints in her mouth Sadness Mourning Solitude relate indeed to her duty but make not the most important and indispensable part thereof And yet by a publique Errour which time and custome have authorized this lesse important part is superstitiously observed Women are not content with a regular and discreet sadness they put on an extravagant and fantasticall kind of sorrow And Opinion beginning where Nature ends they sigh for fashions sake and weep artificially after the true mourning hath consumed the reall sighes and when tears in good earnest are exhausted A Prudent and Couragious Widow will give no way
History and because it is curious and practicall The ensuing Question will teach us the speculation and use thereof MORAL QUESTION Whether it appertains to the dutie of a gallant Woman to expose her Life to satisfie the minde of a Jealous Husband IT would be very Inhumane to go about to lay more weight upon the yoak of married Women It lieth heavy enough already upon their necks and hearts And if the most Couragious amongst them had not their comforts they would scarce be able to bear it one hour It is enough that they have been condemned to obedience and subiection without being still subject to Jealousie And that an imaginary and barbarous duty which nature avows not and which is neither according to the universall nor written Law should oblige them to sacrifice themselves as often as it shall please this fantasticall fury Truly not to speak of other burthens The condition of Mothers would be harder and more deplorable then was heretofore the condition of Children who were immolated to fiery and sanguinary Idols And if they owe their bloud and life to the cure of their jealous Husbands there is scarce any so happily married or so discreet that three or four times a week ought not to prepare her self either for a knife rope poison or precipice Extream and expensive Remedies are not for daily Maladies and there is no Malady so popular and common to weak Spirits as Jealousie nor is there any infirmity which doth so easily and at random seiz upon unsetled brains There needs but a piece of Ribbon or a Nosegay but a word which signifieth Nothing but a sigh vented by chance to make a man jealous And being once so made he hath visions and raving sits which exceed the whimsies of frantick people His minde and thoughts will quarrell with all the Figures in a piece of Tapistry and will take them for Rivals that debauch the eyes of his Wife and court her in silence If she presents her self before her looking-glasse he will accuse her very Image of bringing her some message of assignation And in case she commend but an ancient marble Statue or look but fixedly on a Picture it will hinder his sleep He will even mistrust the prayer Books he shall see in her hands And when she shall say her Hours he will beleeve that she reads Love-letters There will be no Domestique upon whom he will not ground some suspition And the most faithfull will in his conceit be taken either for disguised Gallants or confidents maintained at his expence Would it be just to oblige Women to the Warranty of all these extravagancies And would it not be extreamly cruell to demand their bloud to make a Remedy for so fantasticall a Disease There is then no written Law nor any Tradition which ordains them to die for their jealous Husbands But excepting life and conscience they can have nothing so intimate to their Souls nothing so fixed to their Hearts which they ought not to tear from both be it to prevent Jealousie which might grow or to cure that which may be already grown This they owe first to their Conscience and to the Evangelical Precept which ordains them to cut off their Hands and Feet if they be feet of Offence and hands of Scandal I say not that they should cut them off with Saw or Rasor but by an unbloody and moral incision whereby without tearing one single Nail without taking from them one Hair they deprive them of all the functions which may occasion a fall It imports not that these functions be innocent of their own Nature and that besides there be no evil intervening intention to spoil them Persumes are excellent things yet Women to whom Persumes are offensive would not excuse their Husbands indiscretion should they take pleasure to torment them with Essences and Spanish Gloves Let them use as much Justice in the Subject now in question and let them not conceive themselves innocent before God when they obstinately persist in torturing their Husbands with Conversations and Customs which though indifferent and without bad designe cease not to beget strange convulsions of Minde and to cause sometimes their Brains even to turn in their Heads Secondly it concerns the purity of their Reputation that they generously rid themselves of all the habits which make way for suspitions and may leave any shadow of Jealousie It is a strange Domestick It is impossible that it should remain long in a House without causing a great noise and fume Now this noise bears a part in all Tatlings and detractions And the same fume which makes the Husbands Head turn round and fills his mouth with bitternesse slains also the reputation of the Wife If she be not esteemed unfaithful she will at least be accounted disobedient And though of these two blemishes the second be lesse sordid and savoureth not so ill as the first yet it is still a blemish which sullies and when Reputation comes to be once sullied on the one side no great scruple is made to stain it on the other But though Women had no Conscience nor Reputation to preserve yet the very interest of their quiet should be alone prevalent enough to withdraw them from Gossipping Certainly those small delights wherewith they amuse themselves cost them strange anguishes of Minde and are followed with very tart reproaches They bring not a Flower from any suspected Walking-place which becomes not at home a Thorn in their Heart and Head and very often tormenting Devils approach them in Angelical shapes They finde a Domestick Hell under an imbroidered Heaven This implies not that Jealousie doth every where perpetrate murders and that it alwayes imployes poison Sword and halter yet is there no place where it doth not bite and scratch It is never without Teeth and Nails and its Teeth which cause nothing but pain are more to be scared then Ropes and Swords which might give Repose in taking away Life A Gallant Woman will not insist upon these three Reasons where Interest is more prevalent then Honour She will passe to the fourth where Glory is most pure and Vertue is disinterested What others will do through terrour of Conscience or to preserve their quiet and good repute she will do the same upon the sole account of her Husbands affection and out of a Complacencie purely conjugal There is yet more and this is the last degree to which without doubt Women will never ascend in Troops Her Love being Heroick and her Complacencie vigorous and Couragious not only to cure her apprehensive Husband and to remove all the Thorns from his Heart and all cares out of his Head She will rid her self of objects even of the shadow of objects which might nourish these Cares and Thorns She will even destroy her own Beauty if he do but suspect it she will extinguish her Graces if he mistrust them of holding any intelligence with a Forreign Love she will dye couragiously provided she may die innocent
glorious effusion ariseth it is certain that Cicinna is penetrated by it and his soul which fear had imprisoned being now inflamed and attracted by the power of this light expects only the fatall stroke which was to set it at liberty To give this blow Arria presents him a Dagger still warm with her blood and courage Love is the mediator of this commerce and at the same time and by the same inspiration infuseth courage into the mind of Arria and resolution into the spirit of Cicinna Take not this Love for one of those nice ones in whom Poppy causeth the head-ach and who would not adventure to touch a Rose unless it be disarmed It is one of those couragious and magnanimous Loves of those which have produced Heroes and Heroesses of those which know no other Garlands but Helmets no other Posies but Swords of those which take delight in Frost and Rain in Chains and Prisons And I am much mistaken if it be not the very same Love which led Euadne to the flaming pile of her Husband which sparkled the Sword wherewith the true Dido guarded her self from a second Marriage and which lately also cut off the Hair of the Vertuous Hypsicratea put the Helmet on her head and made a Queen become a Foot-soldier in the Army of Mithridates At present this Love playes the Exhorter and Philosopher it speaks to Cicinna of liberty and glory and animates him to follow the Example and Courage of his wife You would say that in guiding his hand to the Dagger which is offered him she assures him that it will cut off the ligaments of his soul without hurting him that it hath been mollified in the bosome of Arria and by the fire of her heart that her blood hath qualified it and take from thence all that it had of malignity and sharpness and that not only so Noble and Honourable a weapon as that but even a Cord presented by the hand of so gallant a woman would be more glorious then many Diadems wrought by the hand of Fortune and presented by those of Messaline Cicinna seems fully perswaded by these reasons and confirms them by his gesture and countenance He is no longer the same fearfull and irresolute man as before He hath still the same head and body but another heart is placed in this body and another spirit in this head He hath no longer any blood in his veins which is not Romane All his thoughts are triumphant and all his sentiments worthy of a Consul and shortly his soul greater then Fortune and stronger then Death will depart victorious over both and re-unite it self to the soul of Arria This Example of constancy and conjugall Fidelity is very precious to Rome at this time and no doubt but the young Arria and Trascus her Husband who are spectators thereof will make good use of it They greedily and studiously collect the circumstances thereof and look upon it as the principal piece of their Patrimony Truly it is wonderfull to behold a wisdom at the age of eighteen to behold maturity and youth in one and the same head To see a woman couragious and constant a woman grave and serious in an age of divertisements and pleasures She conceives her self more rich from the lessons and examples of her mother then from the succession of all the Consuls of her House and three drops of her blood and four syllables of her last words have something in them which is dearer to her then all the Pearls of her Ancestors She likewise stores up these words and layes up about her heart all that she can gather of his blood and of the spirit which is mingled with it Surely this must needs be her good Genius who inspires her so timely to arm her self thereby and she cannot choose but foresee the occasions wherein it will be usefull to her to have conserved the memory of her Mother and fortified her self with her Blood and Courage Traseus was no less solicitous to reap benefit by this illustrious Example The present misfortune of Cicinna is a presage to him of his future mishap and not finding himself so weak as to crouch under the age nor so powerfull as to alter it he clearly sees that the least he can expect is to be ruined by it after the rest He restifies at least by his countenance that he will not fall cowardly nor expect till they push him on and all the rules of Phisiognomy are deceitfull or he will be an Original of his time and his death will have one day a place amongst the Heroick Examples SONNET ARRIA speaks ARria instructs her Husband by her wound That in a gallant Death no smart is found The Noble Blood which from her Bosome flows Of her Chaste Fire the heat and tincture shows Conjoynth with this blood of matchless worth A Fate-subduing Love hath issu'd forth Who thus Cicinna's coldness doth exhort To close thus gallant Scene with like effort Thy Honour now Cicinna is at slake No less then is thy Life then Courage take Beware lest abject fear restrain thy hand And put thy Glory to a shamefull stand Arria thy wound upon her self hath taâ—ne To her own Death she hath annext the pain Of thâ—â—e and by 〈…〉 extreamly rare Hath only leâ—t it's Glory to thy share Elogy of Arria IT is true that the Reign of the fift Caesar was but a perpetual Comedy But the Interludes thereof were bloody and Traâ—â—call And cruelty was almost continually mixed there with the loves of Messalâ—â— and the Impostures of Narâ—issa The Spectators grew at length weary of so ill composed and represented a Scene And some of the least patient and most Couragious amongst them resolved to force the Republike out of the hands of these Stage-Players Nevertheless the Conspirators failing in the success they promised themselves 〈◊〉 who was their Head happened to be killed in 〈◊〉 And his Complices abandoned by reason of his death remained in the power of the Beast whom they had inraged Afterwards 〈◊〉 who was the most ingaged in the Plot was apprehended and brought to Rome The Couragious and Faithful Arria did not deliberate whether she ought to follow him It came not into her thoughts that Adversity was a Divorce she did not believe that bad Fortune ought to be more powerful then Love nor that it could Lawfully dissolve Marriages On the contrary she believed that she was the Wife of Cicinna a Criminal and Prisoner as she had been of Cicinna's a Favourite and Consul and that she ought to have as great a share in his Chains and Punishments as she had in his Fortunes and Glory She accompanied him to the Ship And at the instant of Imbarking seeing her self put back by the Guards You will permit at least saith she that a Senator of an ancient Consulary Race may have some body to wait upon him during so long a Voyage I alone will supply the Places of his Attendants And the Ship will not be
Melancholy And by the ruine of her Prison she secures her Palace And that by the choice of a death which lasts but a moment and is sweetned and purified by Love She avoids a Widow-hood which is to Lovers a long and bitter death A death of the Heart and Minde a death which endures and makes it self felt as long as it lasteth Thereby in fine her Love enjoys the purest and highest satisfaction whereof it is capable Which is to produce it self entire To fill up the whole Extent that lies open to it to pass even to the utmost bounds and to the last Tryals Now so long as it advanceth not so far as death there still remains a great Vacâ—â—â—â— before it And the most important and perswasive point is yet wanting to Tryals Being assured by the Testimony of Holy Writ that Perfect and Consummated Love is only found in such as Sacrifice their Lives for those who are dear unto them Moreover this last and Supream Duty which Conjugal Love imposeth on Wives and which it may also impose on Husbands is not one of those Duties in 〈◊〉 and Speculation whereof no Example is seen but in Romances The Couragious Spanish Princess whose Picture I have newly drawn was not a Fantome of that Country And so many others so well known in true History were not born in the same Places as the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 I leave the Ancient and Forreign Dames to seekers of far-fetched Curiosities The French Lady whom I am to produce is of a Family good and rich enough to be an Honour to her Country and Age And such as treat of Modern Vertues as of the younger bâ—ood will learn at least by this Example that the younger Daughters of France are nothing inferiour to the eldest Daughters of Greece and Rome EXAMPLE Margaret of Foixe Dutchess of Espernon IT is no new thing to hear me Discourse of the bad Intelligence which is between Friendship and Fortune It hath always been believed that Greatness was too much Interessed and Propriatory to love really and that it had a certain Pride and Rigour which left no room for Tenderness and soft Passions It hath been said that Love and Majesty never dwell together That it rather affects a mean and quiet Condition then an elevation exposed to Winds and Tempests And they that have resembled it to a Bird have not made it flie with Eagles nor placed it upon the top of Cedars and the summet of Mountains They have ranked it amongst Bees which are Armed and live like it of the quintiscence of â—owers and of the pure Spirit of the Planets They have lodgd it amongst Rose Trees where there is Fire and Thorns like its own But whatever hath hitherto been believed or said Friendship and Vertue are not equally at variance with all great Fortunes There are Grandeurs very Affectionate and wel-Natured as well as Rude and Intractable And if the Lizard which walks only upon his hands as Solomon saith be so bold as to ascend even to the Palaces of Kings and to dwell with them as their Domestique We must not believe that Love which is Nobly Descended and to whom so excellent wings are given is only born for Cottages There are no Houses shut against it And it shall appear by this Example into what House soever Vertue introduceth it there is no Greatness which gives not place to it nor any Interest which obeys it not The Fortâ—ne of the deceased Duke of Esperâ—on hath been long admir'd throughout all France It was likewise Extraordinary and Wonderful and there was not only colour in the pieces which composed it but also Force and Solidity they were all great and Illustrious In my Judgement nevertheless the decealed Lady his Wife was the greatest and most Illustrious of all those pieces nay the strongest and most solid though it lasted not so long as the rest This great Lady possessed in an eminent degree all the Qualities which may conduce to the glory of a Family and the happiness of a Husband Her Nobility was of the first rank And I know not whether in all Europe there were any Soveraign Title or Crown wherein she had not a share But there is a Nobility which is proud and insolent yet hers was Modest and Civil The Titles of her House did not puff up her Mind And the Crowns of her Allies and Predecessors made her not receive others with scorn To this Nobleness of Blood was added the Nobleness of her Countenance and that Soveraignty of Natural Right and Ancient Descent which begets Majesty in Beautiful Persons but she was not of those fair Ones who erect their Soveraignty into Liberty and Tyranny Hers still remained within the limits of a lowly and exemplar Sobriety Detraction which is so bold in lying and findes out stains in the most Beautiful Planets had not one word to say against her Nevertheless her Vertue was no sullen Vertue she was none of those curst ones who have not a drop of good nature who know onely how to scratch and bite She was naturally milde and cultivated by study and the Graces had so well tempered what might perchance have been over tart in her as she gave content even where she was severe But all these rare qualities do not concern the subject we now treat of my Question is about Conjugal Love and the deceased Dutchess of Espernon hath given an Example thereof which equals the force of ancient Models There are even in these days Illustrious and Remarkable witnesses which speak not of it but in terms of Praise But what ever they say of her Esteem and respects of her Obedience and Cares of her good Offices and Complacences though they speak nothing thereof which is not Great and Exemplar yet it leaves not so high an Idea of this Love as the action of Angouâ—â—â—â— In that General Revolution which happened at Court in the year 1588. The Heads of the Leagâ—t raised all their Engines against the Duke of Espernâ—â— and used both openly and privately all sorts of endeavours to destroy him However he was not shaken so that these Engines did onely assault the favour and good will of his Prince But as soon as Calumny took hold of his Fidelity and that he was accused for holding intelligence with the King of Nâ—varre his good Master who till then had defended his own benefits and interpos'd between his Work and those envious Persons who designed his ruin withdrew his Protection and consented to the Plot which was laid to seiz on him in Angoâ—leme The enemies which he had in the Cabinet Councel entended the Kings consent even to his destruction And Orders were sent from the Court to the Magistrates of Angoâ—leme to bring him alive or dead The execution of this dangerous Plot was defer'd till the tenth of August and that day the Magistrate who was not ignorant how hard a chase he had to follow presented himself with two hundred selected and armed men to seiz
in her hands it was never more universal nor extended to more uses nor to a larger compass Her Profusions did not slide away in unprofitable transitory Pomps They were not like Torrents which are onely for shew and last but a dayâ— They resembled Rivers which are fertile and durable they afforded staâ—e and solid riches and brought happiness to Nations and plenty to Ages And to say nothing of those which remained in Spain where they are still looked upon with astonishment The great Bible of 〈◊〉 which hath been so long the most ample and rich spectacle of learned men the most profitable and stately Ornament of our Libraries is no less the work of Isabella then of Cardinal Ximenes her Councellor This Eminent Princess first advanced this great enterprize and furnished of her own stock to those preparations which were requisite long before the Work was begunne But as there hath never been so bold an Undertaker who hath not had more bold Successors then himself and besides as the same Time which ruins on the one side the works of art doth perfect them on the other so the Bible of 〈◊〉 having raigned near upon threescore year and held the first 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 was deposed of its place by the Royal Bible which 〈◊〉 the second caused to be printed at Antwerp And very newly the Royall happened to be degraded by that which Monsieur Le lay after the labour of thirty years hath published with the generall Applause of all the learned It is true also that this enterprize was not the undertaking of a particular Person and of a mean Fortune It was of a Monarch nay of a sumptuous Monarch and addicted to Noble expences It was of a Soveraign and Magnificent Fortune And if this great Body of seven Languages remains 〈◊〉 to be shewn all intire to Posterity I know not whether the most credulous Posterity will ever believe that a single private Person of this Kingdom assisted onely by his Revenue and Generosity hath affected more then a King of Spain with all his Mountains of Silver and Springs of Gold with all his Mines and Indies But great Souls not great Estates are the things which perform great Actions It was requisite that the Regency of Anne of Austria should have 〈◊〉 advantage above the Raign of Isabella and Philip her Predecessor It was necessary that a moderate Fortune should give Emulation and Instruction to all the great Fortunes of Europe and that Princes and then Ministers should learn from a Private Person to be Christianly Magnificent with the Benediction of God and Men. Isabella was not onely Wise and Couragious Magnanimous Just and Magnificent But her Publick and Active Vertues were accompanied with other Domestick and Peaceable Ones which were not the less vigorous for making the less noise and had not the less merit in being less Regarded I set down her Devotion in this Last which had been remarkable in a Religious Woman her modestie and Civility which savoured nothing of the height of her quality her Patience which might have made a Heroess in a private Fortune Her Court was a School of Piety Purity and Modesty for the Maids of Honour which were Educated near her Person She was an Academy of Spirit and Honour for Cavaliers And from this Academy came that famous Gonzales of 〈◊〉 to whom Spain so liberal in Titles and Elogies gave the name of Great Captain as a reward for driving the Fortune of France out of the Kingdom of Naples Besides her Vertue was not one of those Stage Vertues which act not handsomly but before the World and in the eyes of men It was not one of those Mercenary and Interessed Vertues which serve not but upon good Terms and for great Wages and Pawn It was likewise sincere and acted as soveraignly and with as much order in Private as in the eyes of the Publick It was likewise steddy as well during a storm as in a calm and had not a different Countenance and Heart in Affliction then in Prosperity It hath been known by the report of her Attendants that in all her Child beds the pain of Delivery which is the Natural Torture of their Sex did never force a word of Complaint from her mouth Marvellous was the Moderation which made her suffer with the death of her Son the death of her Name and the Extirpation of her Race And certainly since there is no Tree which doth not bend and complain when a Branch is torn off from it by a Tempest though it be a wilde Tree though the Branch which is taken off be half rotten How much courage were necessary for a Mother not to be cast down by the blow which deprived her of such a Son which tore from her so noble a shoot and of so great hope A shoot which was to have extended it self to new Worlds and a new Nature She was so far from being dejected by this Accident that it â—earce gâ—ve her the least disquiet The gallant Woman prevailed in her minde above the good Mother And the news of this deplorable death being brought her in the Eve of her Daughter Isabella's Marriage with 〈◊〉 King of Portugal she knew so well how to seal up her heart She so handsomly fitted her Countenance to an Action for which so great Preparations were made that not a sigh escaped out of her Heart not a Tear fell from her Eyes which might cloud the Serenity of the Feast Her Constancy appeared no less by bearing with the publick Extravagancies of the Princess 〈◊〉 her Daughter who was sick of the Love of her Husband Philip. His truly was a Lawful Love and had received the Benediction of the Church Not only Bastard Loves are those which appear Monstrous but even Lawfull Ones which are Enormous and Irregular have scarce a better Aspect And the Fires which the Church hath blessed if they be not entertained with Moderation may no less offend the head and dazle with their smoak then the other The Love of Iaâ—â— was one of these Lawful disordered Loves It was one of these honest fires which heat too much and daâ—â— with their smoak And surely she must needs have been much dazled when she resolved to Imbark her self in the most bitter Season of the year and to expose her life her great belly and the hope of so many Kingdoms to the Winter and the Ocean that she might meet with her Husband who was 〈◊〉 into Handerâ— But Fonsâ—â—a Bishop of Burgos and 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Governour of 〈◊〉 having hindred her Imbarking neither Intreaties nor Reasons could prevail to bring her back to her Lodging She remained whole days and nights without Food or Sleep exposed to the Air and all the injuries thereof And assuredly she would have died on the ground if the Quâ—een her Mother had not brought her in all haste a Licence to commit her self to the penâ— of the Sea Nevertheless she escaped the Sea and Tempesluous Season But Jealousie escaped