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A00662 Monophylo, Drawne into English by Geffray Fenton. A philosophicall discourse, and diuision of loue; Monophile. English Pasquier, Etienne, 1529-1615.; Fenton, Geoffrey, Sir, 1539?-1608. 1572 (1572) STC 10797; ESTC S121952 125,100 188

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and matter touching this humaine practice dependes on the witte and pollicie of the man sure seigneur Monophylo I can not make of it other than verye inconuenient albeit my opinion runne directlye against mine owne condicion and sex that onely husbandes should be clogged with this double yoke and burthen I meane both to afforde the paine and contribute with the gaine and that the wyfe should be left to hir delight and pleasure without other care than such as is voluntary vnto hir Let then this little that I haue sayd suffice to prooue a necessitie of dowries in the course of mariages and yet not so necessary as vnder colour of a corrupt nature eyther man nor woman transgressing all order of pollicie doe pretende to violate the lawes of chastitie ordayned in mariages Wherewith Charyclea ended and gaue liberty of spéeche to Monophylo who after his waspishe maner replyed in this sort This language Madame is not inconuenient to your condicion as beeing eyther partiall in the matter or partie to the cause albeit for mine owne part happening not long since into socyetie with Gentlemen of value amongst whome as their grewe question of our present argument and maintayned by the selfe reasons of your defence there was one amongest the rest of no lesse aptnesse in speache then déepe iudgement who vndertooke to impugne both the matter and his voluble opinion which it may like you to suffer me to recyte séeing the occasion requyres it I finde sayth he great reason in your wordes but better could I allow your opinion were it not that loue is aboue all your statutes and polletykes of man hoping you will thus farre consent with me that where nature speaketh loue must kéepe silence specially where shée contendes agaynst him as for example howe can all our positiue lawes enforced to their greatest power dissolue this proximitie of bloud and parentage which we haue one of another so long as we rest vpon earth it may bée you will say that for some fault or offence they will sometime bereaue vs of the right which seemes to belong to vs by the meane of parentage but they cannot cut of consanguinitie by which we are knit togither from our natiuitie Bicause nature onely and not the lawes hath layd that foundation and perfected the worke euenso in a maryage contracted onely vnder a pretence of dowrie you must not thinke that the lawe who admittes such tolleration hath any power at all to wrest the course of our true nature not that I would fashion a Chaos in common wealthes according to mens ymaginations obedience and societie are due to husbands by ciuill bande but the singuler affection to oure peculiar friendes is within the compasse of a naturall dutie wherein I beléeue that the lawes albeit they haue made no publike determination are notwithstanding couertly miscontented with such reciprocall friendships and if in times past as also at this day onely in respect of a naturall appetite inducible to pitie haue excused the execution of vengeance vpon any act of oppression yea though it stretched so farre as murder which of it selfe is punishable by all authoritie and pollicie what ought we to estéeme of loue who being no other then a selfe nature caryeth oftentymes agaynst our willes our affections with constraint to loue diuersly neither doe I thinke that the paine and statute for adulterers the onely remedie for maryages was raysed agaynst such as in a violent affection doe vow their hartes to one mystresse but rather to brydle these ●morous scoffers who as of a set minde to dallie and dissemble lay siege to euery place as they who in a priuie watche or ambushe put the reuenge of their enimyes to execution like as I thinke you shall finde iustified in the common wealth of Athens wherein for a tyme it was suffered to the women not able to conceyue by hir husbande to rayse generation with an other whome she loued with this prouision that the fruite springing of hir shoulde be esteemed the act of hir husband by which in my opinion the common wealth was neuer the more disordered but rather gouerned with more quiet and concorde of mynde and maners bicause that satisfying their ciuill ordinaunces they contented withall those which nature onely without other meane taught them And yet coulde I be better contented the better to incercept all such occasions if cutting of altogither our opinion of dowries we entred this yoke of maryage vnder a simple pretence and motion of affection only for touching where they may be mainteyned made necessarie in respect of a pollitike estate I doe not onely disalowe it but also of the contrary I thinke they are the first originall ground of the greatest part of disquietes that thunder vpon maried men And for your estate pollitike I praye you of what dependes this humaine felowship which we haue named mutuall entertainment if not of a reciprocall friendshippe which we ought to beare one to another the same being defaced by this wicked inuention of dowries For if I chaunce to settle in affection with a mayde of base condition and by a tollerable suggestion of nature procéede with hir in holye maryage shall I not runne into a populer obloquie as proclayming in me an act and example of wilfull folly yea my friends will contest agaynst me my companions concurre in common imputation and my parents eschew me and my choyse with vnnaturall grudge as to haue myngled my discent with a matche of inferiour estate such is the impression and regarde of dowryes where they discerne not that in this I haue found my Paradise and by the other I should haue runne hedlong into hell for as well the one as the other are comprehended vnder the name of maryage But if in a gréedie desire of golde and transitorie drosse I practise a Ladie of equall place and value to my selfe then that blind ignoraunce commendes and congratulates with me as estéeming that for my benefite which in déede conuertes to my extréeme displeasure he may liue now sayth this woondring people without the paine of the worlde as though by my portion of .xv. or .xx. thousand frankes I were able to gouerne the earth where others of déeper insight into the cares of mariage stand aloofe and lament with me that byting with the fishe at a golden bayte I shoulde vnhappily swallowe vp the hooke of continuall torment and bondage oh tyme oh maners to much corrupted wherein money must vsurpe the name of mariage and the coniunction of persons must be called seruitude and bondage All which I still maintaine to mooue originally and wholye by couetousnesse to the which our predecessors opened the gate when they admitted dowryes And yet you marueyle and canuas your woonder with infinit subtill reasons if a ladie forestalling the ordinaunce of your lawes encounter a seconde friend besides hir husbande and he likewyse vse the lyke reuenge to his wyfe For if according to Lycurgus in his common
and yet neyther one of our sayde two louers can impart wyth a straunger without our extreeme displeasure bicause that as the lyfe of two louers dependes mutually one vpon an other the man liuing altogither in the woman and shée likewise reposing onely in him so they could not but communicate both in equall griefe if others besides themselues woulde presse to giue pleasure not onely such as nature kindles in vs but generally to their Ladies as their Lordes And yet they spare it in themselues as in a reciprocall regarde delyting farre rather to féede themselues with a sweete and sugred desire which by this appetite they haue then with a cloyed fulnesse gathering the pleasaunt fruit one of another yea we are so déepely vowed in them and they assured in vs that if it happen in a dreame their ymaginations haue deceyued them as thinking to haue communicated with vs such is our pleasure to thinke that felicitie mooued in them by our occasion and meanes wée tryumphe in no lesse inwarde ioy and gladnesse of minde then if we had béene present to performe and execute our willes For to vse a iudgement in simple truth the pleasure doth not so much mooue vs in our selues as the desire we haue to be the cause of that wherewith our Mistresses may participate seeing as we are borne for them and not for our selues so we liue in them and not in our selues and die in them to be eftsoones reuiued in them lyke as also the benefite which we promise our selues to receyue of them although in it selfe it conteyne singuler greatnesse and merite yet is it not so highly perfite as that which we hope to procure to them and so doubt not at all sir that there is any one in loue who is not extréemely gréeued when his pretended friend or seconde himselfe findes contentment with any other whatsoeuer not that theyr loue as I sayde and still maintaine be grounded vpon such substaunce In déede we desire and thurst after that poynt bicause nature vpon great cause consideration hath taught vs so to do But as we desire it by nature so loue by a more violent reason teacheth vs a modest gouernement what is more to be sayde Although there were no hope to enter that common hauen and that my mystresse had made mée altogither desperate in accustomed expectation yet I stand in the same dutie and regarde of setled loue that was rooted in me before albeit vnder this singuler perswasion and assuraunce in my selfe that there was no default of friendship but rather some greater reason tending to entertaine our loue which induced hir to denie me wherein also if other occasion should leade hir as to be more affected to an other than to me or holding me lesse deare than eyther I haue hoped or she professed yet my loue should not diminish otherwayes then by a Metamorphesis or tragi●all coniunction into pyning griefe which as the Aegle vpon Promotheus should plucke and pynch my heart by péecemeale till with my loue my life were also resolued to ayre bicause I onely des●red to be in place to giue hir the contentment she wished more in contemplation and regard of hir than of my selfe who if my loue did not aspire but to that poynt I woulde neuer rest till I had aduaunced the issue and conquered that happie effect and yet in thrusting for it I desire it not as in desiring it I doe not long for it but as a voluble affection I make it farre inferior to other regardes I repose in hir You may aske me here what is this true loue whose pleasaunt torment so throwes the worlde into passions wherevnto the Philosophers shall aunswere for me who in a déepe insight thinking to attaine to the vnderstanding of nature ymagined loue to be a most excellent forme or plot excéeding generally the consideration of man and therefore did figure vnto vs an Androgina by whome they ment a man composed of the Masculine and Femenine sexe and he standing in his state of perfection swelled in such mortall pryde agaynst the Gods that by that meanes he was afterwardes deuided into two But it is most manifest that this vnitie of the two halfes is not ment by a coniunction of the bodyes but by the communion of the myndes bicause this superficiall forme of bodie which we sée in our selues is not the man of whome we speake but an organe of the man which we couer in our selues like as we note euen from the beginning of the worlde that God hath formed vs to his owne lykenesse as alwayes inuisible and de●ided from all corporall masse vntill the tyme wherein he is to accomplishe his promises If Plato were the first that preferred this opinion of Androgina as I am not resolute that he ment the onely coniunction of myndes so I dare fully assure my selfe that he figured such a myracle to represent vnto vs some heauenly matter in loue wherein it may be disputed of it in such sort as one by whose search and traueyle in Egypt he had commoned with the priestes of the lawe in the hystorie of Moyses touching his Genesis But what néede wée acknowledge this Androgina in the Gréekes and forraine Philosophers who onely as it were by certaine chinkes and creuises beholde the Sunne séeing the true light thereof remaines amongst our selues and whatsoeuer they defined of it was eyther ignorauntly or by stealth which they haue disguised since as not to be seene to borrow any thing of other straunge nations which they call barbarous The true and onely Androgina is that which was presented vnto vs not by a hystorie or ryding tale but by a marueylous effect in the person of Adam when this mightie Archit●uctor of all thinges of a souereigne wisdome reserued onely to himselfe framed of one bodie and one spirite two bodyes and two myndes which prooues this amitie to bée more deuine and heauenly than the common sort can presume Albeit if you will that I declare more at large hauing already in short reuealed this excellent myracle vnder the which is comprehended the Image of true loue what libertie God hath left vs since to loue one another and the cause why we traueyle in affection Assure your selfe seigneur Phylopolo to note no lesse confusion in me then happened to him who vndertaking to dispute vpon the nature of God referred it alwayes from one day to another as a thing incomprehensible to our myndes Oh God what thing is loue may I say it proceedes of a similitude maners or that he takes his beginning of a constellation or influence of the selfe ascendantes vnder the which we are borne No no for then in both the one and other maner it must néedes follow by infallible consequence that no man louing should be deceyued in his loue but be encountred with reciprocall action I meane euery one that loued should be also beloued And to establish loue vpon a selfe education and mutuall nouriture woulde séeme no lesse farre
proued in many lamentable treatyes of mariage where if one part be founde colde or imperfect the bale dissolues at the will of the other which in other respect had not béene suffred neyther by the decrées of our holye Popes nor our good Ciuilian lawyers to whome I referre this argument onely let suffice you that mariages are formed by the consent you speake of but fastned by the actuall copulation of the body and where you seeme to esteeme loue a thing farre to heauenlye to take his grounde in a matter which in your opinion pertakes so déepely with an earthlye or base substaunce sée in what errour you fall and euill doe you acknowledge the great felicitie which is in loue as tending onelye to so happie a ende by the which is procured an immortalitie in our mortall bodies by the propagation of our selues into our likes in which poynt nature resembles the wise and discréete mother who forseing the benifite that in time to come will prooue necessarie for hir childe wherein his slender age makes him ignoraunt by giftes presents swéete and pleasaunt spéeche with other allurements apt to entise his youth she pampreth and draweth him on without that he thinkes of it to direct and tende to the purpose which in hir selfe shée hath layde and ymagined vntill by a long assistaunce of time and ripe confirmation of age this childe is fashioned fitte for the purpose of his mother to both their great contentmentes euen so Nature our wise and foreseeing mother pretending in hir selfe the increase of the worlde doth sowe in vs from our beginning certaine little séedes of loue which we suffer easilie to succeede in vs till they congeale to a ripe and perfite fruite which is not that pleasure which we holde in communitie with other creaturs but rather as I haue sayde seigneur Monophylo to make vs immortall in our mortalitie and as she doth hyde and couer this secret with the vaile of the first pleasure offred in this mutuall communion so aspiring further we knowe at last by a more great and iteratiue pleasure that this ende tended to a higher ende which was to haue children in whom as hauing fulfilled our last purpose naturally we delight with more pleasure than in all the other thinges of the earth which ende is an end interminable and subiect to no ende bycause nature is neuer wearie of hauing children And so do renewe within vs continually the lustes of pleasure and also by the same meane desire which then doth not suggest with such passion bicause that after this pleasant coniunction we stande assured of spéedie remedy which we durst not so much as promise afore wherein as before we flote betwéene hope and feare so now we liue in assuraunce to commaunde that ende wherevnto all our thoughtes tended so that loue remaines alwayes albeit he put on diuers qualities bicause that if at the first he might be called desire garnished with hope now he may be named desire accompanied with assuraunce I saye then that loue I meane that loue which tormentes men is a passion conceyued of an opinion procéeding of a certaine instinct which is printed within vs tending to the corporall coniunction one of another ▪ So that let loue bée an instinct according to your perswasion seigneur Monophylo but yet let him not be without a desire to be reioyned and likewyse lette your desire marche alwayes with the instinct so shall we perhappes satisfie certaine men who by reason of this lust that encountreth here maintaine that loue ought not to be inuested with that name till the acte of pleasaunt vse be performed wherein for my part albeit I make no great profession of tearmes being vnderstanded of you yet methinks such men are not without their seuerall errors for albeit we are not as yet entred into this poynt of corporal vse yet there is an other thing which in our selues we enioye by which wée merite the name of louer to our Ladies and that is a naturall and inwarde impression and opinion of their vertues which as we couer secretly in our mindes so for them we loue them aboue all other women And to speake simply of this instinct loue doth principally depende bicause he seldome aduaune●th himselfe without the societie of this naturall lust which we haue to knitte togyther where oftentimes we lust for this operation of nature in manye women without respect of loue but guided as it were by a certaine brutalitie without any other consideration than to passe and purge our coller But to returne to my matter that loue is a passion I beléeue you doubt not of it as by your owne discourse you haue halfe confessed And touching this communion of the bodies although you are harde to bée satisfied yet I thinke I haue sayde asmuch as is necessaryly requisite in the matter But touching the instinct albeit it cannot well be discouered yet I ymagin there is none of vs which knowes not that naturally we are inclined more to some persons then to others wherein as our naturall iudgementes are diuerse so also doe we perticulerlie bequeth our heartes euery one as nature leades him from whence I may saye doth spring the diuersitie of opinions so as to some it seemes the truth lyeth drowned in the bottome of the pitte bycause euery one of vs hath a iudgement not according to truth but as our instinct moues vs ▪ So that albeit I cannot discouer from whence this instinct proceedes vnlesse it 〈◊〉 of our owne nature bycause we nourishe so many inclinations as we containe numbers of men yet both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reason doe teache mee that it is the onelye keye that openeth the doore to loue And if as it may be many men fall into affection with one woman it is bicause they haue some resemblaunce or affinitie wyth a common influence This diffinition I haue vsed for the time of loue notwistanding I am sure there is an other kinde which séemes to holde of nature and yet procéedes of the instinct we speake of as we see it hapneth ordinarilye that albeit of our selues we are not enclined to sundry personages yet contrarye to our forethoughtes wée feele our selues induced to beare them a certaine affection bicause onely we sée them disposed in good will to vs wherein our vnthankefulnesse woulde iudge agaynst vs if we shoulde not be reciprocall in regards of friendshippe This is a kinde of loue but not of so liuelye condicion as the other séeing to giue him his proper nature hée pertakes more with pittie than with loue for euen as it is familiar to euery one to gréene in the displeasure of an other yea sometimes to haue sorrowe for our enimies when wée see them afflicted and that not in respect of any affection like to the friendeshippe we owe to others to whome our nature doth inuite vs euen so I cannot ascribe to this last loue I speak of other dignity than an ordinarie compassion which wée take of suche whome we
as you say by this beawtie it is likely we shoulde rather encline to the singuler beauty than to the other albeit we prooue often times the contrarie séeing loue to make knowne vnto men his inuincible authoritie will as often pitche his aboade in hir of meane and indifferent beautie as in the other to whome nature séemes to haue giuen a singuler perfection But for a more familyar example I praye you seigneur Glaphyro looke into the choyse of one of your olde companions and my auncient friende and tell me what varietie or shift of witte what shape of personage what notable enamell of complexion or fauour what swéete deliuerie of spéeche yea what fauour of nature aboue hir common regarde to all ordinarie women hath shée for whom as you know our friend labours in no small torment of bodye and minde sometimes in an ydolatrous regarde to hyr he blasphemes openly all other women as not to holde value and comparison with hir in whome if loue be to be measured by that beautie you speake of there is no one sparke or part of suche perfection sometimes againe he sets hir in his minde as an oracle or Goddesse of contemplacion raysing hir euen vnto the highest heauens with hymnes prayses drawing hir excellencies into partes as it were with a pensell leauing no part vntouched with high reuerence deuocion But if eyther you or I should be called to iudge of this Goddesse hir excellencie I feare we would note more folly in hir friend than worthinesse in hir to deserue his affection So that what other thing causeth this fairenesse in hir if not the instinct wée speake of which hath drawne this oure friende to such an extremitie in conceyt that he estéemes his mistresse to be euen beautie hir selfe And so feigneur Glaphyro you sée how we aspire to this fayrenesse and beautie also being no other thing then as we are guided by our naturall inclinations such inclinations by infallible consequence must néedes be the verye motions and causers of loue For to holde as many pretende that the excellency of the eye consistes eyther in gréene or blacke or the talle or meane personage to be estéemed one aboue an other bée notable abuses moouing of the affections which we beare more to one than to an other whome bycause we estéeme so we woulde that euerie one woulde consent with vs in wyll and fancie wherein to giue you my plaine iudgement after long and much confusion in my selfe with no lesse perplexitie to iudge and discerne this difference I swere vnto you I stande in indifferent doubt whether beautie be the moouer of loue or our affections kindle by that which séemes fayre vnto vs But bicause onelye that thing that is fayre doth best please and agrée with vs I must néedes saye that the perfection in loue is the onely meane that makes some thinges appéere more fayre to vs then others as for example there was neuer father who in his owne fancie founde not his owne children fayrest albeit in common iudgement nature had made them imperfect what other thing drawes him to this perswasion of beautie in his children but loue yea that loue wherevnto only nature without other cause doth leade and induce him the like may we consider in our Ladies obseruing alwayes the suggestion of our instinct by the which we both loue our Mystresses and holde them in a value of beautie aboue all others yea farre otherwayes then the father doth by his childe for that when by a long absence not acknowledging himselfe as sonne the affection of the father will decaye and conuert into a common estimation where euen at the first and as often as wée settle our eyes vpon our Ladies wée féele such a translation of affection that it is without our power to resolue what mooues vs to loue them yea though they had in them all degrées of deformitie yet by this instinct their carectes and ymages would settle so suerlye in vs that in despite of vs we should both loue them and estéeme them the perfitest creatures in the worlde heare you séeme sayth Phylopolo to figure vnto vs a loue resting rather in ymagination then in truth yet methinkes it standes with congruent necessitie that there shoulde be something which shoulde be called fayre and the same to consist in the pure truth and not in the opinion of men as you séeme to maintaine I haue in déede maintayned it and still will defende it aunswereth Monophylo so long as I liue Not that I meane to denie you that there is not something which in it selfe ought to be called fayre but if there bée I say it is the onely creator which hath knowledge of it who albeit by his déere grace doe make distribution of some sparkes of it to men yet thinke not seigneur Phylopolo that it is in vs to knowe it we can not but confesse with one voyce that in all thinges there is one truth but what is hée who durst assure himselfe at any time to haue founde it but onely God who séemes to reserue it in himselfe as meaning that that title name should onely remayne to him and to none other and suche hath béene our punishment since the offence of the first man that from thence hithervnto it hath continued as a matter of continuall succession from the father to the sonne For where our nature afore was perfit and not corrupt nor blasted with such whirlewindes as we are now driuen to féele yea being bountie it selfe and standing as it were in a state of most pure innocencye since declining by this delight to corruption kéeping notwithstanding some sparckeling memorie of hir former felicitie there remaines onely an appetite to enter into it againe that is to séeke to aspire and pearce into this bounty and beautie which haue a societie togither and yet of our selues we are neuer hable to attaine therevnto the same perhappes being the cause why certaine notable personages sought in olde time to vsurpe the state of Philosophers and not to beare the name of wisemen professing onely to be zealors and seachers of wisdome which they coulde neuer finde notwithstanding by all their subtill Sillogismoes but speaking generally of that high benifit wherevnto we all pretende they disputed seuerally euery one according to his perticuler fancie So that if you aske me who hath euer possessed it I must aunswere with the deuine that onely he hath pearced into it who acknowledging the incomprehensible estate of God confesseth by an extréeme faith not to be able to reach the knowledge of this high science which lies onelie in the handes of the soueraine eternall For albeit nature hath made vs pertakers of a soule reasonable in it selfe to studie to knowe the truth yet shée hath sprinkled hir with passions which greatly hinder hir heauenly exercises The auncient Platonistes were of opinion that our soule occupied in vs two seates or places whereof the one they bestowed in the braine
hypocrite in hir conuersation and no lesse blame shoulde she haue of the multitude who amid so many pompes would disclaime the vse then an other entangled with innouation would play the Courtier among a companie of seuere Noones bycause if all such newfangled deuises carie a propertie of hate in their beginning yet time and practise gettes them such authoritie that they are as easilie disgested as the other fashions And as those light challenges consist not but in the opinion of men so seigneur Phylopolo seing such fashions make their owne authoritie and by little and little become both tollerable in vse and séemely in conuersation I pray your with the propertie of an vpright iudgement mis●yke not if we practise them by generall and common accorde some vppon a lewde will and others without euill thinking but most part for that vse and custome so require you knowe also how commonly it happeneth in our worldly experience that any thing howe good so euer it be yet if it be wrested to euill may be as easily fashioned thervnto as to good whereof the example is more then lamentable euen in the gospell the which with griefe I speake it we wrest and apply according to our wauering affections And so seigneur pasquyor to cut of this waspishe and wearie discourse I praye you worke vs out of thys encombred laborinth with a freshe onset of your fyrst beginning least with wandering in vnknowne wayes we lose the lynes that should leade vs to our fyrst entry Then Madame quoth I my opinion holdes it impossible that a woman throughly touched with loue notwithstanding all resistaunce at fyrst be not brought at last to reason and made tractable to the will of hir friend wherein notwithstanding I wishe you to holde my iudgement imperfite if the loue be not reciprocall betwéene the two parties as we presume for if it shoulde want on eyther side a thing likely to happen eyther by a preuention of some other or by a disconformitie in the persons there is no lesse impossibilitie to plant affection there then to kyndle a flame where is no fyre a sentence notwithstanding which I will not iustifie to the death seing I haue séene ere now most strong Castels inuincible by imagination brought to submission by time and pollicy such Ladies sayth Phylopolo would I practise with the Engine of Phylip king of Macedonia whose common saying was when he came afore any towne inassaultable by force that if an Asse loaden with Golde could enter he and his armie woulde not be kept out as aduising vs thereby that what friendship or force coulde not mollefie might be made soft by money who gouerning the thinges of the worlde doth also commaunde oure men euen so I beléeue there are fewe women whose vertue are not vanquished by this meane and in whome although loue can worke no power yet money bearing the nature of the Adamant is an instrument to drawe them to the pleasures of men ah seigneur Phylopolo aunswered I how vnnaturall is such pleasure whose price and value being vyle in it selfe the loue also is most abhominable that runnes vnder such hope yea they are to be condemned with the damnable pollicies of such who by magicall brothes and drinkes séeke to force the nature of women as a meane to induce them to loue For loue resting not but in the heart of small value is the vse of the body where wantes the consent of the minde and as what Ladye so euer bequeathes hir bodye to vse vnder a price and pretence of money cannot merite better than with a common strumpet So of the contrarie the honor were greater in hir not onely to withdrawe all affection from such a friende but also to settle in hate agaynst him as to holde hir in such vile estimation that rather money then other merite had power to leade hir affection yea this ought to stande in such high consideration with Ladies as not once to fall into the thought of any noble mynde the same being the cause whye some making a question whether it were better to offer loue to a gentlewoman or a Marchaunts wife maintaine that to the gentlewoman belongs a more propertie to loue as whose fancie is not defiled with vile respect of money nor hir pleasure subiect to other tribute then loue for loue and yet I will not excuse those people of their errors seing that as we sée commonly good high flying Hawkes of all sortes of plumes so I haue heard that the effect of money is no lesse hatefull to many marchauntes wiues then to most gentlewomen on whom in this case may be throwne a more suspition bicause their estate being great and of nature like to birdes desiring costly feathers requires a highe proportion and continuall supply of money where the condition of the other being lesse chargeable hath also lesse néede of reliefe and yet both liues and loues in no lesse felicitie then the gentlewoman and yet for my part I can not iudge eyther sort of those women hauing their affections setled in places worthie of them to owe more delight to welth then desyre to the persons And therfore to a man not being beloued and yet continuing in his purpose to possesse hir whome he pursueth a most proper and fitte waye were in my experience to stande vpon encrease of merites and by his readie seruices to declare the vehement nature of his loue to his mistresse seing that nature teacheth vs to holde reckning of such as be our well willers as also to be desirous of reuenge against those who prepare violence against vs yea euen as God fashioning man of matter more massye indued him with a force which the woman doth want so hauing framed the woman with a nature more tender and subtill hath made hir most familiar with mercy and pittie ah sayth Phylopolo how eyther you abuse your experience or are ignoraunt in the condition of women to whome in all other respectes mercie and pittie are most familier but in this their tirannie excéedes the naturall crueltie of beastes yea such is the violence of their spite that with the Salymander they séeme to haue a felicitie in the torment of their seruauntes whose presence they féede with a flattering hope and in their absence make a skoffe at their honest affection This I speake not without cause as being warranted by the maner of many Ladies who albeit haue their hartes setled in anye one place yet being courted by diuers honest gentlemen and desirous in a common humour to be séene to haue many seruaunts sue to them the same being in their fancie the chiefe testimonie of their bewtie they will not stick to imbrace euerye one with a perticuler affection and that with such cunning as the wisest shall be ledde in a blinde hope of their good willes yea such is the violence of this coossenage in loue that their louers falling from one hope to an other into infinite fancies happen at last into
the reast it bringeth this lothsome inconuenience that the loue of men to women béeing extréeme and a rage aboue all other passions makes vs oftentimes forsake the loue of God and ymagin our God to rest in them as if we shoulde doe worship to Idols whose nature is vnder vaine resemblances to corrupt the deuocion of men a thing so common in example that to a sensible iudgement a slender rehersall may suffice onely I pray you remember many millions af great estates whose lyfe so long as they were gouerned with numbers of Concubines neuer fell into actuall staine or populer obloquie but when they layde themselues vpon the rule of one onely they became so rauished in fancie and affection that by the testimonie of the hystories their confusion prooued not onelye hurtfull to themselues but hatefull to their common wealth and people as what businesse in common experience succéedes most commonly more vnhappily then where the affection is parshiall and the partie led in a singuler councell which may be corrupted eyther in aduise or action We sée also by naturall reason that a thing dispersed and dissipated is neuer so sharpe and cruell as that which is vndeuided And therefore Madam I thinke it not inconuenient to the humour and appetite of man and far better for the suerty of his delight to make a generall estimation of all Ladies then vnder a shadowe of loyaltie drawing after one imperfect scent to mooue his owne skorne to all the worlde Here Monophylo to whome as the cause of loyaltie was more déere than to the Lady so he chalenged afore hir the reuenge of this blasphemie in this sort marke good Ladye I beséech you with what rethorike this Gentleman séekes to cloake a huge vice vnder a high couer which is God Why did he not inferre by the same meane that mariage is not good according to the present obseruation and testimonie of the holy lawes but rather after Mahomets order to giue a libertie of many wiues at one time to th ende that sparing to set our heart vpon one we put not also in hazarde to forget our loue to God Bée your owne iudge seigneur Phylopolo and pronounce sentence against your owne error which in effect resembles the auncient Cinikes who in their fonde imagination of a common welth woulde erect a communitie of women and that in generall vse and degree Which opinion notwithstanding as it well deserued was banished from all frée states well gouerned But why doe I stande vppon strange contemplations séeing our Citie of Christendome doth warne vs sufficiently in this For reade we not on all sides that the coniunction of one man to one woman is onely required yea albeit seconde mariages are tollerated by Gods lawe and mans pollecie yet were they neuer founde so swéete a sacrifice eyther to God or men as the first and that in respect of this corporall communion distributed into manye places God gaue to Adam at his first entrie into this worlde one wife and no more which he drew out of his bones as to aduertise vs of the indissoluble amitie which we ought to beare to our wiues yea he commaundes vs to forsake father and mother to whome notwithstanding all law of nature prouides a souereigne obedience to sticke one to a nother And therefore me thinkes seigneur Phylopolo with great wronge you labour to exempt vs from this extréeme amity of one to one which God himself hath not only recommended but straightly commaunded vnto vs It maye bée you will choake me here with a sinister construction of this text as that it includes mention of mariage and our spéech runnes in a course of simple loue wherein I praye you let me thus far aduise you that where you pretend in your defence against my Lady Charyclea to pauish your opinion vnder some shadowe of vertue there will be founde on hir side a more true and liuely ymage of diuinitie than in all the reasons you can alledge béeing sorie from the bottom of my hart which here I pronounce in the sight and testimonie of God that we m●st be driuen to erect a double kinde of loue as one to consist in mariage and the other without At the first when all mariages were established vnder a mutuall loue according to Gods ordinaunce there was not this distinction amōgst men till by corruption of times maners began to decline when also crept in this difference in loue y same being at the first introduction of dowries when the lawyers incensed vpon a wicked consideration to draw men the rather to this reciprocall coniunction wherevnto nature sufficiently inclined them brought them into their common wealthes and for the same respect reason were inforced to prouide infinite lawes for adulteries bicause that proouing the inconueniencie wherein by indiscression they were falne as to haue taken from mariage part of his accustomed amitie and supplyed it with their hurtfull dowries necessitie driue them the better to entertaine their diseased common wealth to séeke out a newe medecine which was by restraining such as should defile those mariages notwithstanding their owne constitutions had made them alreadye corrupted for a true testimonye whereof you shall finde it iustified in the common wealth of Sparta where the wise lawmaker Licurgus would rayse no lawe agaynst adulterie as not to bringe that vice into the knowledge of his Citizens And what was it that kept it from their knowledge not that they were not mooued with the stinges of nature aswell as other people and nations But rather this excellent and holye ordinaunce By the which that graue lawgiuer and Philosopher shutting all dowries out of his common wealth woulde not that mariages should procéede vpon any other pretence than by an only and har●ie loue So that it is not to be marueyled if such as enter that holy state at this day defiling their affections with couenauntes and condicions of money finde this difference in loue to the great blemishe and often preiudice of their husbandes who not being truelye and equally cuppled sée their wiues for the most part delight in an other to whome it séemes the heauens had predestinate them from the beginning But now seigneur Phylopolo if in mariage which at this daye contractes not but vnder a desire of wealth and goodes there be required another dutie and care of loyaltie suer we are bounde in simple loue yea euen on the behalfe of a maried woman if our affection chaunce to settle or drawe that way wherein if I waded yet further as well the matter it selfe as the innocencye of my meaning are to cléere me of imputation and to maintaine a truth all spéech is tollerable séeing the truth it selfe caryeth such a modest countenaunce that though shée vse silence yet shée satisfieth by ymagination so that if I spare to enforce further proofe I hope you will not turne my modestie to want of matter no more than the hounde that forbeares to hunt when he hath killed
wealth of Sparta euery one bent his deuotion to hir in whome reposed his whole religion we should cutte of all the paynes and traueyles which we sée at thys day reigne amongst worldlings which in common reason woulde prooue farre more conuenient than your commoditie sir which you haue alledged in the administration of a familie you doe nothing in preparing the way to maryages if you doe not associate them vnder a mutuall friendship neyther shall any citie or state be happie vntill with the example of our auncestors we establishe our mariages vnder one hart as by which meane and not otherwayes we shall banishe not onely all the errors of such coniunctions but also euen purge the whole common wealth who tending to a perpetuall moneaccorde and generall quiet shall neuer enioy hir felicitie so long as in place of true friendship she findes secret simulation betwéene man and wyfe which if it be so and that by this maryage copulation your pollecie and whole common welth be brought to the bayte seeing that in the beginning the worlde being deuided but into the vnitie of two persons it multiplyed by little and little into villages and walled townes sure if the foundation of such boundes be corrupted the whole buylding must necessarily fall to ruyne wherein to giue you my fancie in plaine speach I cannot otherwayes thinke then that from this corruption of maryages whiche succéede in no other meaning than for money séeing in all other respectes there is no resemblaunce betwéene the partyes doth come the cause of our ordinarie iarres and disagréements betwéene brothers and sisters who béeing c●mposed of dyuers and different humors contende as it were in contrarie qualityes and dispositions which they borrow seuerally of theyr father and mother I professe not to pretende by this to haue in my handes the reformation of our maners but this me thinkes cannot be inconuenient as well for present order sake as to banishe from vs in tyme this corruption of dowryes that a Ladie béeing in that vnhappie sort maried to haue a friende of reseruation with assuraunce to kéepe to him an indissoluble fayth and loyaltie standing as a good and faythfull example to others not to marrie themselues to goodes but to men according to the consent of loue and destinie here this forlorne Gentleman ceassed his further discourse to the great reioysing of the assistaunts amongest whome as there was none that pretended interest with him so for my part albeit I knowe not whether hée argued at voluntarie pleasure or vsed a plaine meaning yet weighing with the maiestie of the matter the nature of his reasons I coulde not so farre consent with his sayings as not to reserue a libertie to contende with him And where he mainteyned so sharpely that loue passed all ordinaunces of man his error was no lesse in it selfe than hys opinion farre from the purpose of the present question For who is so ignoraunt or leade heauie in iudgement whiche discernes not as it were by his eye that maryage was not ordeyned by man but erected by the eternall deuine pollecie as the onely meane for conse●uation of mankinde so to accomodate a thing so highe to our humaine fra●●tie me thinkes is neyther order in discretion nor consideration in dutie which drawes me Madame on your side not onely in regarde of the societie which you haue wisely alledged but also for other déepe respects as chiefly for that God commaundes that a woman doe not make hir selfe méete for any other then him to whome the ceremonie of the Church ●ath bounde hir yea albeit there were default of loue betwéene hir husbande and hir yet in christian dutie shée is bounde to enforce hir nature to the ende to enioy an eternall peace And yet Madame if this maryage happen to be one of those in whom is such resolute imperfection and contrarietie as loue cannot be brought in I cannot in a necessarie care for hir worldly felicitie but excuse hir and approoue the aduice of this Gentleman to bequeath hirselfe to a constant friende wherein though you note me of corrupt counsayle yet I haue nature to aunswere the cause for me and maryage it selfe if it coulde speake I knowe woulde not accuse me but rather incline on my side as to sée hir nourcechilde vnder a promise of wealth defrauded by a husbande of hir true and pleasaunt inheritaunce which is loue which iustly she may exclaime to bée solde at too vile a price against all reason And if you wil néedes thrust vpō me the defence of this cause in mine owne name without calling other warraunt doe you not sée in common wealthes well ordered séeing you call vppon the ayde of a state well gouerned that many things are suffered for necessitie sake which other wayes being estéemed euill should be also abolished referring you to consider more largely of the rest séeing this text is ticklishe ynough specially for the maryed sort wherein God graunt that as eschuing this goulph and pitte of stryfe euery one may chuse such a wyfe as nature and not money reserues for them so if other wayes their lotte prooue euill and they miscarie let them blame themselues as guiltie to suche destinie With the which Glaphyro who had heard all their discourse wyth a modest ●●lence prepares himselfe to play his part Here doe I finde sayth he to be veryfied in vs the tale of the Poet Horace of thrée men inuited by him to a banquet they all being diuers in taste straunge in appetite and hard to be pleased but most of all the thirde because the first delited in swéete meates the seconde tooke pleasure in sowre sawce and to this were agréeable neither the one nor the other such was the delicatie of his complexion whome in this I may perhaps resemble as séeking to finde a meane betweene the two extremities so thorowly debated betwéene you For as farre as I can gather of your contention as one matter drawes on another from loue simplie as you terme it you are discended to maryage In loue seigneur Monophylo you maintaine a coniunction of one to one without enforcing the dutie by which we are bounde to our mystresses And in loue also you seigneur Phylopolo defende the contrarie to your loue seigneur Monophylo you gyue scope to ouerrunne euen maried women notwithstanding by right of maryage they concerne vs nothing laying all the fault vpon dowryes as deuesting vs of such friendship as in those actes is requisite you would haue mariages procéede vnder the onely title of loue wherein for my part in as much as concernes the first poynt I am not of opinion with you seigneur Monophylo and giue lesse fayth to the sayings of you seigneur Phylopolo not for any desire I haue to impugne eyther of you but béeing mens iudgementes diuers euery man hath also a libertie to thinke at pleasure touching the seconde tending to affection in wedlocke whereof for the dignitie of the matter I intende to speake afore
I enter into that seruitude of loue which you haue set out it séemes seigneur Monophylo y albeit you comprehend in part the mocions of the troubles in maryage yet you builde to muche vppon your grounde of nature For to abolishe altogither the benifite of dowyres as you pretend were no lesse straunge in respect of the maner than preiudiciall as touching the matter because that as we ought not in deede to settle our chiefest stay in them but marry altogither for the conseruation of our selues in our kinde yet we may vse them as an ay●e and ornament for the tyme to come our will in entring into this bond of mutuall coniunction is to giue being to o●r children that are to come But in dowryes as well our children as our selues find both present being and future benifit in this behalfe we may consent with Madame C●aryclea that to vse regarde of loyaltie to a maried women by any other then by hir husband is not lawfull to any degree for albeit those affections as also they of loue seeme to bée in●used into vs by a heauenly influence which willingly would vsurpe a dominion ouer vs yet ought they to be brideled by reason who was giuen vs in a semblance and similitude of him to whome is due the souereigne Empire ouer all the worlde séeing that euen as this vniuersall circuit or compasse is no other thing than a great bodie wherein the rest séeme to holde place of passions bicause that as the affections in vs so also the celestiall passions by their courses and reuolutions do gouerne altogither the bridle of this huge creature which we call the worlde in respect of which proximitie the Romaynes gyuing as well to the stars as to the passions commō names called them indifferently motions And albeit these powers are esteemed to hold a partie gouernmēt of this round wonder yet we sée all remaynes in the hand of him to whom as an vniuersal reason of this huge body is due a general supréeme empire euen thus may we resemble a man who being a little worlde composed in his qualitie as an ymage of the whole notwithstanding he séemed sometimes enclyned to certaine mocions of nature procéedi●g as some holde of the stars vnder which he is borne yet nature hath erected as it were a trone in his braine wherein reason bearing chiefe rule he should in his litle kingdom gouerne ouer this heauenly influence which seemed to drawe him from any vertuous operation in which respect albeit your loue pertycipat neuer so much with nature as you saye yet wée must néedes resolue and ende our actions in the lawe who albeit for some singular cause that mooues you condiscendes not in your iudgement with reason yet the same reason teacheth you to obey it bycause you are so comma●nded by those that haue power to direct you And therfore séeing adulteries are forbidden not onelye in these dayes but also in all auncient memorye we must not suffer to fall into our thoughtes to beare loue to hir whome the lawe hath assigned to another which notwithstanding bycause you giue such a freedome to our naturall inclinacions there restes onelye to finde a guide to leade reason thyther as to méete the defectes falling in mariages by occasion of these straunge loues on which you haue ronne so long a discourse wherein you and I shall not yet agrée bycause that to applye a remedie you woulde haue such coniunctions performed by that reciprocall loue which you call instinct of nature but the auncients in an apter phrase tearme it passion And of the contrarie I thinke suche vehement affections ought not to fall in mariage but onely a simple friendship procéeding of reason For if being ledde in this extréeme loue which you figure and set out here you thinke to take from maried women those inintemperaunces which you pretende to remedie yt were also necessarie that our passions varie not and being caryed in affection to one singuler person that we remayne alwayes firme and constaunt which as we finde notwithstanding m●st ordenarely to fayle so also neyther by paine nor pollycie nor assistaunce of any time shall you be able to roote out of the fancies of eyther the men or women those defaultes which you note and much lesse shall you be able to let that many of frée and disposed myndes I say not voluble and light by continuance of tyme doe not fasten their loue on another aswell as they fixed it on you in the beginning By which meane and reason I coulde haue better alowed if to warrant mariages and entertaine them in this loyall friendship you woulde haue fashioned their beginning not by this loue which you speake of as being to light but by good graue aduise counsell taken at large the better to knowe how to liue loue afore they enter into that indissoluble conuersation For euen as a good man of warre preparing himselfe to an enterprise where he pretendes to make proufe of his prowesse and value afore he buie horses he runnes them traynes them and makes manye tryalles of them refusing the vnlykelye and making choyse of such as he lykes at what pryce so euer he buyeth them euen so in this short race of lyfe which we meane to performe with our wyues in comfort solace and pleasure we must not so much stande vppon contemplation of a wauering loue which possiblye crept into vs in a dreame or at vnwares as with déepe aduise and consideration waigh the maners and conditions of the Ladie with whome we pretende that waye consideringe withall hir parentage and maner of bringing vp from hir youth by which order of choyse we shall easily finde meane to make hir entertaine the thing which she ought to holde in most deare estimation which is hir honor the same being the glorie of hir husbande as in his honor is conteyned the estymation of his wife The man of warre examynes his horse with great consideration albeit he may depart with him at his pleasure But we are negligent to cyfte and search our wyues with precise iudgement with whome we are tyed to an eternall societie and abode vnto death wée reade the mariages in time past dissolued vpon verie slender occasions some renounced their wyues bicause they went amongst companie without their vailes or barefaced some for that they satte at gase without the knowledge of their husbandes and some bycause they went to the common Bathes Which kinde of people as they had good meanes to reléeue themselues of the paines in mariage so they ought not to stande in example with vs who drawing at this day in another course as restrayned of that lybertie both by Gods and mans lawe are bounde to another consideration in the highe interprise of maryage which afterwardes is eyther to reuert to our full felicitie or else resolue to our extréeme torment and mishappe I haue heard often an olde perswasion of the people that who hath a pretence of mariage ought to
leaue you mutually contented my iudgement is that you dwell still in your singuler opinions séeing in eyther of them is a cleare resemblance of a truth like as in cōmon experience and practise of things that which is proper in one place we find oftentymes most inconuenient in an other behalfe and that by the varietie of maners order of such as handle them And therfore séeing there is a diuersity of fancie betwene you let euery one féed on his priuate opinion without séeking to disenherite his companion But for your part seigneur Monophylo if you should be driuen to abandon and exchaunge your lot I meane your Ladie and Mystresse to marye the rychest woman in the worlde I thinke it woulde disgest with you as an vnsauerie ●yll in a sounde stomacke And euen no lesse to you monsieur Glaphyro if you were to chuse a wyfe onely for wealth or altogither for loue so that as I sayde my sentence runnes still to restrayne you of speach and leaue you onely a libertie and contentment in thought recommending vnto you seigneur Glaphyro a newe memorie of your olde promise to procéede in the matter of loue whereof you haue giuen vs as it were a pleasaunt taste and séemes nowe to faint in the chalenge when you haue kindled our desires leading our appetites in imagination as though you would warme vs by a painted fyre only I pray you be not wearie in well doing nor harde to encline to honest requestes séeing there is no lesse vertue in the one then the other conducible to merite of them by whome you are required your request Madame sayth he is no lesse iust in it selfe then meritorious on your owne behalfe and your reasons so necessarie as if I shoulde denie them I should be holden eyther ignoraunt or obstinate and so leaue you vnsatisfied in my dutie and fulfill in my selfe an example of imperfection touching the partes requisite in a Gentleman And yet Madame your request séemed a fléeing authoritie séeing it preuented me in matter but not in meaning yea if I had not a grounded knowledge of you I should iudge you with those delicate creditors who if their day be not kept doe salute vs sodenly with their Sergeants or officers of areast notwithstanding you shall be satisfied as apperteyneth vpon this charge and couenaunt that you receyue my money in payment as it is séeing I will giue you no other then such as I cull out of mine owne coffers And so as farre as I remember the degrées of our beginning seigneur Monophylo allowes loue mutually of one to one and of the contrarie Phylopolo would loue in many places wherein Madam if I giue my fancie eyther simplie or as I haue partly learned of you I craue onely to be defended in my right as well as they two To make such base marchandise of his bodye as to bequeath it to the first according to the desire of seigneur Phylopolo me thinkes is neyther good nor séemely euen so I can lesse condiscend to hold so hard a hande of the bridle with ymagination of such an Idoll of constancie as you seigneur Monophylo require onely I could better alowe a meane as the Lawyers vse in causes of contention I will not denie that the principall poynt in loue and the marke whereat euery one ought to shoote is not loyaltie towardes our mystresse yet considering this great frayltie which nature hath grafted in vs as to be all in all and pertaker more with mortalitie than diuine respectes séeing our mindes be wrapped in the vaile of thys fleshly drosse if pursuing our necessarie occasions and opportunities we chaunce into a long absence from our Mystresse applying the fauor of the tyme to our desires happen to rowe in another streame I cannot make that light scape a déepe offence nor such exchaunge of pleasure only alienation of mind therfore no other fault then eyther may be pardoned or excused séeing that dwelling still in one constant minde and will towardes hir albeit I supplie a certaine suggestion and actuall appetite which nature styrres in me yet with that disordered will I doe not translate my heart to other then to the Ladie and Mystresse of my first thoughtes to whome I beare a constant reuerence as well absent as present wherein as the Sunne kéepes alwayes his clearenesse although somtimes he enter into a clowde euen so may it be of him who sometimes visites a straunge Mystresse to whome he yéeldes no other affection then to serue his present turne To be short séeing friendshippe restes in the heart and not in these small intemperances of nature me thinkes loue cannot be violated by a necessitie forced of an instinct which mooues and kindles by nature And yet will I not establish any libertie vnder the shadow of such necessitie to s●acke the brydle of our pleasures at all tymes and vpon euery motion for so might we runne into a negligent and carelesse regarde of our mystresse albeit there be many faultes which maye be pardoned for once but comming to an vse and custome deserue no small rebuke wherewith Monophylo to cutte of the question of maryage Let vs leaue them sayth he to such as pretende interest in that holy state and returne eft soones to the matter of loue where we pitched our beginning wherin s●igneur Glaphyro you are nothing so prodigall of your selfe as Phylopolo yet perhaps your opinion might find place amongst the common people as holding some simple affinitie with them shadowed with an honest and séemely couer But being here to dispute not according to popular fancie but exactly vpon things I will frankly tell you my iudgement if friendly you applie libertie to my simple meaning not onely skope of frée speache sayth Charyclea but all the authoritie I haue to warraunt and assure your cause wherein if néede be I will become pawne and pledge for you often haue I read sayth Glaphyro that women are sprinckled with many imperfections as vnable to giue aduice in causes of estate and much lesse to be receyued into iudgement in matters of this aduice those be the lawes of men sayth the Lady to whose ignoraunce is giuen a certaine supréeme authoritie least in indifferent reason they were founde eyther lesse able or more imperfect than wée and all to establish an vsurped preregatiue ouer our vertuous obedience wherewith ●ffering to procéede further in the honest defence of their simple sexe Monophylo either vnder the warrant of hir consent or at least presuming of hir condition intercepted hir speach and pursued his purpose of loyaltie in this sort if the highest vertue in loue bée actuall constancie the second felicitie in mine opinion saith he is to haue the thought cleare from all corrupt motions as neyther to aspire by ymagination nor attempt by pollicie howe so euer the season or oportunitie doe fauour for who maketh profession of true loue ought so to brydle hys sturring lustes to all other women
is one poynt sayth Phylopolo which might giue place to the question wherein perhappes I will one day offer you the chalenge as finding it straunge that you will make march vnder one Methode the man and the wyfe albeit for the present I will reserue it to another season onely to discharge my selfe now agaynst seigneur Glaphyro who for the better authoritie of his opinion séekes to make vs vnderstande that loue hath none other residence then in the heart and nothing at all in these naturall intemperaunces which he sayth are nourished in our mindes sure seigneur Glaphyro me thinkes you sake to leade vs in a straunge construction touching the force and vertue of loue seeing ther was neuer louer who loued not to this end which you so far estraung banish from the park of loue what other cause is there of our a●●ction ▪ or what else doth induce vs to loue our Ladyes if not this last felicitie which we pretende to finde in them wherein besides common experience which of it selfe ought to suffice to iudge betweene vs how many examples haue we reade in antiquitie amongst whome we finde no one louer who at length hath not required of his mystresse that poynt which we call the fruite of loue the same in mine opinion being the motion and onely purpose of this extréeme loue nay rather it is euen loue it selfe which is none other thing then a desire to vse and possesse Great surely and gracious is the effect of the eye hande and heares but not of such force as that in them we may finde a full reliefe to the torments we endure but rather with Mars when he possessed frankely his Venus let vs directly séeke out the marke wherevnto loue leades vs And albeit from the eyes and lookes doe flowe no small contentment yet they are but dymme starres in respect of the other light wherein I holde him altogither insensua●e who vnder anye other consideration pretendes to professe loue to Ladies This speach is not indecently vsed seigneur Phylopolo sayth Monophylo neyther improperly applyed to the present matter onely I thanke you that in fauouring partly my opinion you offer me simplie your ayde without the which notwithstanding I thinke Glaphyro vnderstanding my reasons woulde haue condiscended to my saying as being of it selfe sufficiently defensible And albeit I haue nowe to rest in quiet with him for the matter of loyaltie yet me thinkes notwithstanding I acknowledge somewhat vnthankefully the benefite you haue presented to me you and I shall not so easily accorde bicause in my iudgement as you séeme sinisterly to comprehende all the nature of loue so I will not resist that the louer ought not to thurst for the thing which you holde in such estimation But that to loue onely for that respect is eyther true loue or friendship of continuance I maintaine agaynst you and all chalengers hoping you will take it as from him whose nature cannot be disguised from the office of a true louer we see by experience many men who pretending onely that marke and ende in loue after they haue brought their pretence to a matter of effect as men whose natures chaunge in a moment they become no lesse colde in desire than ears●e they laboured in vehement meanes to aduaunce the execution of their fléeting will yea they are euill acquainted with the nature of loue who dispose him onely vnder a contentment to frayle he being in himself so diuine and wonderfull and the pray after which they hunt so passable and of no abode indéede this I will confesse that nature to multiplie this huge and rounde bodie which you sée doth kindle in vs by a secrete wisedome certaine motions or stinges which with good right some haue called brutall as béeing common to vs with other creatures and not onely with them but euen with trées and things not sensible which séeme to bloome and become fruitfull for the encrease of their 〈◊〉 which naturall vehemencie if it had not bene necessarie also in vs this huge plot and workemanship of the earth had soone taken ende This is the cause why intercepting our willes ▪ and guiding our affections by these disordered appetytes which necessitie puttes in vs we beare to the communitie of women certaine sparkes of str●nger good will than to men and they likewise to vs the same happening in ordinarie example séeing there was neuer personage of such deformitie if I may charge him vpon his fayth and conscience who naturally receyues not specially in a conformetie of things more contentment in the companie of women then in the felowship of men For our nature doth euen reioyce in them as séeing hirselfe by an honest and lawfull coniunction of one to another immortalised So that by this meane is founde an affection verie vehement which generally wée beare to all women But not this perticuler friendship of one to one whereof you speake which in my iudgement consistes as a more vyolent cause then that which you alleage wherein I will lay my selfe vpon the relation of certaine noble minded men who albeit doe honour their Ladyes with a setled affection pretending with all pollecie to conquere the extréeme marke and felicitie in loue yet I haue noted them to rest best satisfied with the onely vse of the sight presence and speach of theyr Ladyes and that bicause they feared that being possessed of that inuisible paradise their loue would conuert into some chaūge then much lesse that they estéemed it to be the onely cause of their affection yea it is a common perswasion among the populer sort that hauing woonne that point vpon a gentlewoman loue which the sonne when he is at the highest beginnes to decline and then better is it to hunt the chase then obtayne the pray so that according to the purpose of their reasons the selfe same subiect which as they iudge is the very spring and original of loue is also the whole and onely reuersor of the same séeing their building being pitched vpon a frayle foundation the worke and matter desolues in it selfe the same happening oftentimes to such foolish louers who rest no lesse deceyued in their enterprise than their thought was vayne But nowe seigneur Glaphyro let me aske you this rouing question if two louers not setting their minde vpon this contentment which you meane and yet one of them betray his affection as to become prodigall of his bodie elsewhere doe you thinke this abuse is not a tyring griefe to his mystresse if by chaunce she come to the knowledge of it This I say because that you establishing your loue in the heart estéemes these naturall intemperaunces as you call them not to touche or hurt in any sort such as doe loue wherein for my part suche is my opinion and in it is some conformitie with yours that loue kéepes his true and only abode in the hart not styrring by suche intemperaunces but by a certaine greater cause as ymmediately I meane to prooue
out of the clowdes or by what chaunce are you so aptly light into this company suer Madam and by that fayth which I reserue for the God of loue quod I I finde my selfe no lesse passyoned then you and to tell you the cause and maner of my comming hither though I vse a simple truth yet I feare it woulde carie incredulitie with you onelye hauing to recorde at large my vnquiet thoughtes traueiling in contemplacion to the goddesse of my deuocion to whome you are no straunger I knowe not by what happie wind I was blowne into this pleasant hauē where with no small delight I haue made my mind a register of all your discourses which I did not thinke to interupt without this occasion of Monophylo who contrarie to the opinion of Phylopolo goeth about to proue that loue is not a lust of corporall coniunction which I can not consent vnto him albeit in so doing I shall somewhat transgresse your will your will is not lawe sayth the Ladye and muche lesse of autorite to direct the companie séeing as you haue no prerogatiue in councell so you are not touched in example and so if you can not forbeare partialitie in iudgement at least let modestie gouerne your spéech least either you innouate your purpose or deserue to haue the law of silence layde vpon you for we haue alreadie passed sentence on Monophylos side as also Phylopolo hath alowed his reasōs to whom belongs a déeper interest in the matterthan to you wherevppon Phylopolo after the company had somewhat saluted my sodaine comming protested in his owne behalfe that it should not be long of him that I vndertooke not for hys sake his defence And if saith hée I haue necligently past ouer any discourse of Monophylo it was not for that I did consent with him but onelye vpon a new occasion that I myght charge him with innouacion of matter therfore it may like you good Madam not to alledge my selfe in preiudice of mine owne condicion and muche lesse that necligence make me to loase my case if there be iust cause of fauour I aunswered to be as frée from such meaning as farre from the fact protesting rather to liue in silence all the rest of my lyfe with the contentment of Madam Chariclea then to hazarde hir displeasure by anye libertie of speach by which sute she was content to graunt me audience albeit vpon this charge that there shoulde be no expectacion of reply if perhaps any matter succede to the disaduauntage of seigneur Monophylo whose argumentes séemed more acceptable to hir although they were naked and voyde of reason then all my proofes figured in the subiect I pretended what sence and methode so euer they conteyned whose lawe albeit I allowed as estéeming hir worde aperemptorie warraunt yet Phylopolo after some waspish and reciprocall iarres denied hir to haue any suche soueraignetie ouer that little felowshippe and gaue me an inckling to beginne as in whome hée séemed to repose his protection No rather the defence of loue himselfe sayde I and that against him who vnder a pretence to protect him thought by a certaine art to reuiue him when in déede he hath altogither mortified him wherein notwithstanding I halfe excuse him as imparting the cause with loue who albeit will make himselfe familyar with vs choosing his seate in the verye intralles of our hearts yet he will in no wise that we knowe hym but couering more and more his nature he leaues vs onlye a iudgement according to our perticuler affections for loue being as a Camelion chaunging diuers coulours according to his sundrie obiectes euery one hath his singuler opinion according to the varietie of passions that are in him and yet in this diuersitie I neuer knewe louer who eyther more or lesse aspired not to this last poynt of pleasaunt vse according to the suggestion of the passion which he endured For euen as in all thinges wée pretende to a certaine ende so loue must necessarilie containe a last effect wherein our mindes rest satisfied All men trauell to eate and supplie the necessities of nature the Captaine to winne honour incurres perill of death and the pensionarie fouldiour runnes to the warres to haue part of the spoyle yea there is no sort of operation how light so euer it bée vnlesse it procéede from a mad man wherein is not a hope of gaine and speciall pretence of a resolute ende the which as it procéedes not but of a lust that falles in vs so the more we are tormented in it the more doe we settle our heart vpon it So that it is necessarye there be a certaine ende in loue wherein albeit we féele our selues affected according to the varietie of our passions it is néedefull there be a generall cause by which or for which wée loue But least we be abused by the meane of equalitye procéeding of the proximitie of causes you shall here vnderstande seigneur Monophylo that all the Philosophers maintaine as certainelye is true that in all the thinges of the worlde there be two principall causes efficiens and finalis that they name efficient or originall wherof the thing is and by the other is ment the cause why and in whose fauour the thing is which wordes albeit to some delicate stomackes maye séeme to smell somewhat of the schoole yet they are not impertinent to the present questiō as also necessarie to who soeuer séekes to vnderstande the knowledge of the truth oh thrise and thrise happie is hée who vnderstanding these causes hath the facultie to distinguish the one from the other the same being the want as I gesse which hytherto hath kept you in this fowle errour for to take away this impression from the people that this lust and desire of the fleshe is not the cause why we loue you séeke to prooue it to be a thing accidentall which notwithstanding procéedes assuredlie of the true pure substance of loue The efficient or originall cause by the which we loue a Ladye is in déede the selfe same instinct which you say bréedes in vs as it were by the permission of heauen but the ende and purpose why we loue is to possesse whollye pleasauntlye and absolutely and so euery one of vs doth loue as one daye to possesse at our pleasure and the cause by which we are induced to desire this coniunction more with our mistresse than any other riseth of I know not what which you say is more easie to féele than able to be expressed which we imprint in vs by a certaine opinion we conceaue of it making thereby a péecemeale or confusion of reason with passion This is the cause wherefore our common and generall mother sought to deuide vs from all other creatures who without discretion of that which pleaseth them but pushed forwarde by their first motion tending to the conseruation of their kinde séeke indifferent conuersation with their females not knowing what it is to loue bycause in them doth want
standes it with our louer who oftentimes indiscréetlye yea when hée thinkes to sléepe in most safetie slippes into the charme of the intising eyes of some Ladie who leades him with great delyght into this huge sea of loue where in the ende hée takes a miserable comfort in to late a repentaunce oh happie mariner so long as he sayled vnder a fauorable clymat oh thrise happie louer vntill his sonne disguised his light But oh wretched condicion of both the one and other when a contrarie winde and common destinie castes them vpon the sandes of Charibde and Sylla monstrus women with the Poetes whose custome is to chaunge into forme of beastes all suche as vnhappily rub vpon their shoare when the poore louer finds his pleasure translated into a qualitie of bitternesse and his hope so turned into dispayre that he hath no other refuge then in death and yet in him he hardely findes medicine what thinke you then of the authoritie of loue whose swéete baytes as they are swallowed vp euen by the most wise and subtill that bée so he hath also a second power that hauing once made himselfe Lorde ouer vs hée takes from vs all knowledge both of himselfe and his nature bathing vs as it were in a consuming flame farre lesse quencheable than the continuall fire of the hill of Cycylie yea such is the vertue of this indissoluble knot of perfect loue that it is without power or meane to vs mortified and that which worse is it hapneth in often experience that some man labouring long in an amorous traine with a Ladie and shée perhappes no lesse touched with the mocions and passions of loue than hée yet in a necessarie regarde to hir honour shée is driuen to aunswere his desire with modestie and dare not aduenture to bée thankfull to his demaunde I praye you iudge by your selfe if his purpose pretende altogither to possesse the condicion of this louer and the languishing panges that long sute sturres vp yea what medicine woulde you applye to his disease I would not that for my repulse he shoulde alter the nature of his affection to his Ladye and much lesse be necligent in his meanes of obedience and humilitie But let vs finde out some happie operation or droage by which wée maye helpe to qualifie his passions and yet not discontinue his loue for so shal we make liuely in him the pleasures which by ymagination he shall conceyue of his mistresse and vtterly choake vp those sorrowes which else woulde deuoure him with infinite deathes Your discourse quod I containes matter of to high condicion as to demaunde a thing that is not to be done which is to loue without passion and it is as easie to drawe out of the foure elementes that Quintessence from whence the Philosophers deriue the originall of our soules as to hope to satisfie in anye one respect your present desire which albeit I cannot but estéeme of high merite as procéeding from a minde so well affected to the miserable estate of louers yet in all reason and experience I cannot holde it lesse impossible that loue shoulde be without passion then a man without a soule the Sunne without light fire without heate and water without moysture which thinges as they are so naturall and proper as without them neyther man Sunne fire or water can be in their perticuler euen so if you leade loue in hys true degrée you shall neuer sée him marche without passions as his familiar substitutes and companions In which respect me thinkes it were matter much impertinent to dispute vpon a forme in our mindes which neyther hath bene nor can be onlye let vs applie our spéeche to things not impossible least with the losse of time our exercise also bring forth nothing but vanitie And touching your opinion that a woman making an estate to loue and yet will maintaine hir honoure or at least that which shée estéemes hir honour although in such a case it woulde bée harde that loue should euer bring forth his full and absolute effect yet in suche proofe I wish the example of the amorous Poet might bée remembred that for two thrée or manye repulses hée must not thinke himselfe denied but turning modestie into importunitie solicite his Ladie with encrease of dilligence and meanes who albeit at the first vnder a light feare to make a wounde in hir honour standes doubtfull to bequeth hir selfe to our mercie yet doubt you not but shée trauelleth inwardely in a singuler felicitie and ioye of minde to sée hir selfe sued and required of him whome shée honoureth most and specially in a thing which shée woulde chiefelie desire were it not for that strong bulwarke and rampire of shamefestnesse which notwithstanding is not so defencible but béeing battered it may at the last become vincible by vehemencie of loue to whose power all worldlye forces are but weake herein also reason standes most peremptorie speciallye in the present case that mooueth bicause this honour consistes not but in the opinion of men loue is drawne altogither out of the registers of nature by whom we are induced to it wherein bicause you shall not iudge straungely of my opinion I make you this resemblaunce if our enimies become affable by our humilitie yea if brute beastes voyde of resonable consideration be drawne to a familiar tamenesse by our softe strokings and alluerments I praye you what belonges to him in duetie which holdes vs in déere regard which cherisheth vs who loues vs no lesse then himselfe doe you thinke a woman is not subiect to loue asmuch or more than a man yea euen to aduenture vpon thinges which are expreslye forbidden hir did not Byblys loue hir brother Mirrha hir father and poore Pasiphae was shée not rauished in lust with a Bull And yet I thinke it was neuer harde that a woman what passion of loue so euer possessed hir aduentured to solicite or require but being gouerned with a certaine shamefastnesse woulde not so muche as be required and yet being required woulde make no doubt to consent and therefore I haue hearde it often spoken of people well experienced in those exercises that the best is to bée sparing in requiring but in requiring to vse such an honest boldnesse to s●ack the bridle of their passions that with impudencie they be not possest of the thing which without shamefastnesse they ought not to desire whereof I make iudges my maysters of the spiritualtie and lawyers specially in these affayres wherein the spéeche how couertly so euer it runne is farre more shamefaste and harde to disgest then the effect the same in my opinion being the onelye meane to come to the full of their purpose which being well practised is seldome without his desired fruite séeing with reuerence I speake it the number is verie small and they borne vnder an vnhappie starre whose loue in the ende hath not happelye succéeded Here Phylopolo obseruing his oportunitye to molest women allowing his reasons began in
there are none in whome libertie of spéeche hath lesse power or the wittes furthest enstranged from their due office function then where loue hath a sole soueraignetie and gouernement the same being an argument of opinion to me that the better to aduaunce their glorious excellencie in a subiect excéeding all consideration of manne euerye one of those voluble writers did fashion and choose a woman friende as in whose prayse and memorie they raysed so many excellent monumentes in writing if in such respect onely sayth Phylopolo as you presume these writers heaped suche famous exercises mée-thinkes their wrong was no lesse to the dignitie of their learning then their actions most intollerable in example séeing they might haue chosen many matters of much more worthynesse than to become vaine worshippers of transitorie ydols as though their iudgementes were so base and their wittes so vilely inclined as without the subiect of women they coulde bring foorth no substaunce of learning ah quod I beware of hastie iudgements séeing wée maye easelier slaunder their doings than knowe their pretence For as wée haue reason to thinke that all these great loues which in their young and gréene yeares they disguised in themselues vnder the shadowe of poeie doe promise more waightye exercises as they rise into more ripenesse of age so considering how all thinges haue their time and euery time his proper season it néede not séeme straunge if fashioning their rhymes according to the subiect resembling their present youth they suborned certayne passions and pangues and sawced their volumes with varieties of Venus miseries the better to serue as a looking glasse for all the worlde as for such as professe loue to finde necessarie rules for their instruction to such as hate him to abhorre hym more by their example the same being so much the more conuenient in them as whose age is not prepared for other studies as their indeuour brought foorth a fruite of common commoditie This spéech sayth Glaphyro is impertinent to our present purpose and yet to whosoeuer woulde demaunde a reason of their writinges I thinke the Poetes would aunswere that it was the most highe and excellent theame that coulde be deuised bicause loue hath alwayes caried such soueraine power that the highest elementes that euer were yea euen the auncient Gods themselues haue vouchsafed to be led in triumph vnder his banner And for my part if they trauelled in those exercises as men in experienced in his authoritie and but induced only to reueale the passions which he hiteth in himselfe I estéeme them so muche the more worthy as the matter was haughty and harde I meane to speake so properlye of loue hauing made no proofe of his nature but if they haue béene lymed with the fethers of his winges prooued the burthen of his power it were not amisse no lesse for the furtheraunce of their study then to fauour their health and quiet that they resigne their pretence séeing it brings such daunger in practises wherein they haue this assured and infallyble meane if afore they loase the vse of their senses they perswade no possibilitie to attaine to the end yea albeit there be power to possesse yet let them fixe vppon this as vpon the north starre that the pleasaunt vse being the ende and marke of all their pretence is no other thing then an opinion of pleasure raysed of an affection which is borne more to one woman than an other and lastelye that all women haue affinitie with the humors of their first mother Eue who was not without hir frayle and slyding infirmities I confesse that in this meane or medicine is neyther such facilitye nor constancie as maye be deuised bicause who hath once imprinted an opinion of a woman in his conceyte may aunswere that he makes no value or estimation to vse or possesse but onely bycause of an affection which is extreme towards his mistresse yea if causes be indifferently measured you shall finde no comparison betwéene the pleasure we receyue of a publike woman to whome we beare but a vile and squirilous affection in respect of the delight we féele in our peculiar friend so that the best aduise I can giue to hym that woulde beguile loue is to fashion at the first a desperate impossibility to possesse séeing that to warraunt vs from the passions amongst which loue raignes we haue a double medicine the one if in beléeuing the suggestions of reason purelye and simply wée doe supplant all affections leauing neyther roote nor rynde in vs the other if when passions kindle and preuaile ouer vs we fight against our proper willes maintayning a ciuill warre in our selues vnder the leading of reason accompanied notwithstanding with some contrary passion the first was familiar with Socrares who by a deepe and heauenly Philosophie being armed with a continuall contempt of all thinges obserued such constancy that neyther prosperitie coulde make him swell nor aduersitye cause him to stoupe This remedie séemes so muche the straunger as our soule being composed of reason and passion our passions oftentimes doe carye awaye our reason And therefore we must with diligence resort to the seconde medicine when reason enuironed with passions and not able of hyr selfe to shifte them of takes ayde of a contrarye passion which albeit of it selfe be not good yet enclyning in this hehalfe to reason wyth seruiceable duetie as to hir soueraigne mystrisse can not be called euill bycause affections be not euill but when against the order of nature they séeke to beare rule ouer reason This was the medicine which the Phylosopher Carneadus applyed to our instructions as aduising vs that amydde the froth of our mortall delightes we shoulde remember the myseries of the worlde to the ende that brydeling by that meane our vnbrydeled pleasure we maye temper the one with the other This was the wishe of Phylip of Macedonia who receyuing in one daye newes of the birth of his mightie sonne and report of two victories obteyned to his vse craued that Fortune would mixe his great felicity with some sharpe accident least his fleshe vsed hir propertie the wise Anaxagoras notwithstanding nature stirred him to delight singulerly in the lyfe of his childe yet his extreme ioy was so moderated with a continuall feare of our common frayltie that his death was not grieuous when he remembred he had begot him in the state of mortalitie These two wayes in déede are no lesse commendable for their excellencie then most conuenient to defende men from such sortes of furies And yet touching the first although in other affections it may preuaile by a continuall vse and meditation yet I stande in doubt to assure it anye place in loue for that he is a passion so subtill that we sée him no sooner enter into vs then we haue aduertisement of him yea euen Pallas the Goddesse of wisedome fell one day vpon a sodaine into the nettes of Venus Cupide choyce of place we shall reliefe our griefe
well deserued here Charyclea vsing hir authority tolde Glaphyro that if he intercepted not the quarrell Monophylo was like to giue the Canuesado to Phylopolo and therefore as well to cut of their grudge as satisfie the rest of the societie she wylled him to renue his late discourse touching the remedie of a louer wherevpon Glaphyro whose quiet hearing of their controuersies had brought him to a setled iudgement of their argumentes although he made it harde to iudge in so doubtfull a cause yet he tolde them generally that it were best not to loue at all but to giue spéedie remedie to hym that were alreadie entangled was in the hande of God of whome onely counsell is to be taken But seing sayth he you will néedes haue my medicine applyed to your louer I say as before let him retire with spéede least his miserie be incurable For encountring the cause in the beginning he easely may gouerne the effect neyther néede he any medicine to restore him againe to his nature But if he be so farre spent with passion that his forces are to weake to helpe his desire out of that perill then let him resort to a good and long dyot I meane an absence long and farre from the place of his infection and with the pollecie of Gallen to eschue the place let him flée farre tarie long and not returne till eyther chaunge of ayre haue purged his minde or suffraunce of time seasoned his disease This medicine albeit in the beginning may carie a little tast yet his effect is not least pleasaunt and most soueraigne of all other against the state of this daunger for if the presence of our Ladyes kindle and féede the flame of our torment it can not be but absence as an antidot to purge a poyson brings health or at least mortifieth our passion And albeit to some absence is rather a bellowes to renewe the coales of affection then a sufficient lyquor to quenche them and that absence stayeth the course of all other sorrowes sauing onely the miserie of manye consumed louers whose reprobate state prooues it without force against their condition yea it may be that generally our first dayes griefe of absence maye séeme more intollerable then a whole yeare yet singuler experience makes no generall authoritie nor the miserie of one prooues no communitie of destenie and by reason we finde that there is no loue so violent nor sorrowe so vehement which giue not place to time who estraungeth all things from their present nature onely in this remedie must be obserued a constant and continuall pacience For if for one two thrée or foure Monethes you absent your selfe and then fall into the presence of your Ladye it is as if you should cast séede into a grounde and not giue it conuenient time to rype to the ende you might reape perfite fruite seing in this newe presence are renewed such sparkes of your olde miserie that you are not onely negligent in your late preseruatiue of health But with the nature of hote ymbers sprinckled with droppes of waters you fall into a more violent heate then before All Phisitions feare much the seconde returne of a sickenesse And euen as a sicke man to whom the ayre is forbidden aduenturing afore his time falles into a more daungerous feuer so if your diseased louer be not well confirmed when he encountreth a second presence of his mistris his pollecy of absence wil profite him nothing where if he be well purged and cleared of all passions which time and discresion will bring to passe then with no paine and lesse feare he maye safely encounter hir and yet not indure to much felowship with hir seing to a delicate stomack a surfet comes as soone with to much of a good meate as to eate a very litle of that which is euil So that euen as a little sight is much daungerous if he be not altogither cured of loue so notwithstanding he be thorowly healed yet to much familiar societie can not but bring him great disquiet seing the eyes of our Ladies I knowe not by what arte are farre more hurtfull to vs then the mortal sight of the basilicque by whom we die but of one death onely but with the eyes of our mistris we are striken ten thousande times a daye without power notwithstanding to dye considering that euen the best partes in them are to vs more venemous then the bytings of a poysoned Serpent and where they serue to them for a bewtie and necessarie sence it séemes of the contrarie that nature hath not placed them there but as instrumentes of our common destruction I may resemble the mischiefe in them with the miserie of Promotheus whose lyuer did daylie increase notwithstanding Iupiters Egle prayed daylie vppon it yea it is woorse then Sysiphus whose penaunce is without ceassing to turne and role a stone and more horrible then the monster Hydra So that let him be wise who standeth of himselfe to vanquishe these passions seing his trouble will be no lesse if they be once rooted in him to subdue them then to that valyaunt Hercules against the forces of the monster And therfore let him stande specially vpon his garde that if he haue discontynued the presence of his mystris some long time he renewe not eftsoones hir company but with precise distression least eyther the charme in hir eyes or enchauntment of hir tongue set a newe edge of those sorowes which time had made dull It maye be seigneur pasquier that my aduise caryeth small credite with you and lesse authoritie with Monophylo as both the one and the other being without proofe of such a medicine But as all other things stande in awe of time so doubt not but time also makes loue waxe olde according to the example of a fertill soyle which for want of due tyllage falles at last into sterrilitie euen so loue being not enterteyned of his sinewes nor fedde w●th that which should mainteyne him in his iolytie becomes no lesse colde in his heate then the grounde withrede in fruite Al things haue their time which time is the proper trompe to sounde euery secret and therefore a Ladye cannot take sufficient counsell against the daunger she entreth into when she bequeathes hir bodye to the mercie of a man seing as the worlde sayth the value of a woman consistes in the innocencie of hir honor and hir worthynesse of no longer date then that treasure is kept vndefiled And not onely as you sayde earst seigneur Monophylo for the disguisings of men which is a right good consideration but also in respect of others pretending for a time a better affection to them for that as men like men be fraile and weake in their counsels so their willes are full of variety and the most wisest nowe a dayes not least infected with reuolution or chaunge And seing Madame your chiefe request runnes that we procéede to mortifie loue altogither I coulde not auoyde the name of vnthankfull if I
should spare my counsell to such who perhappes haue nothing to doe with him I meane all honest Ladies whom I warne eftsoones albeit to my great disaduauntage that the thing which they ought most to feare eyther towardes their best beloued or on the behalfe of straungers is not to lose the authoritie which they haue wonne of them For a woman to resemble hir properly is as a tender glasse which in his fragilitie is pure neate and cleane and delightfull to euery one so long as he standes in his integretie But if it be once cracked or broken it falles into the contempt of euery one euen so a woman being corrupte in that which shée ought to kéepe as a precious treasure loaseth with the same the estimation of hir selfe whose glorie afore stoode not in such highe value as nowe to hir griefe hir flower withereth and hir plumes fall euen into contempt with such who earst being euen slaues to hir will stande now in a state of souereintie ouer hir and hirs The hystories discouer at large the auncient diuision of man who from his originall being formed with foure féete as manye handes and two heades was deuyded by the Goddes whereof the one part was made the male and in the other moytie the female founde hir name And I haue redde in many authors worthie of faith that the great God Iupiter hauing applyed to euery of them their proper and perticular qualities amongst other memories worthy to be marked he gaue the charge of virginitie to the mayde and the garde of chastitie to the wyfe to serue them for assured pauises against the assaultes of the worlde Then what paine I praye you is due to hir who is negligent in a charge of such high importaunce it may be you note this phrase inconuenient in me as though I séeme to shake the estate of our common commoditie but howe so euer you attyrs your opinion my indifferencie appeares in this that I warne as well the man as the woman although my spéech brings preiudice to our sex And therefore I wishe you Ladies to season your stomackes wyth other dyet then with the peppered allurementes of loue in whome if there be daunger to the man in respect of his passions peculiar and proper to himselfe he is double perillous to you whose weake nature suffereth their sorrowes as well as your owne smart besides the blemishe of your renowme which as you ought to waighe euen in the ballance of your lyfe so if you lose it you stop the riuer that féedes the fountaine of your estimation if these feares be insufficient to restraine you eschewe in time all intising occasions as both the dissembling lookes and deceytfull eares of such as you ought so necessarilie to feare The honest shamefastnesse of women requireth to embase their eyes and beare their sight lowe as not to desire any thing And if vpon a vaine presumption she raise hir selfe into a selfe hope and promise to conquer loue she shall no lesse sodainely slippe into his snares then lightly she suffered hir selfe to be possessed with that ouerwening opinion The Monkes enclose themselues in their cloysters to conquer the fleshe and the Hermittes leade a solitarie lyfe in Forrestes and groaues howe then can a woman lyue in presumption to brydle hir frailtie standing euen in the middest of worldly delightes she laughes she speakes she hath conuersation with yong men she thinks she is not sought bicause hir selfe doth not desire and yet shée séeth not how she hatcheth vnder the wing of those familiarities hir own destruction farre better were it for hir and more for hir honest profite to eschewe such societie who séeke but to ransake the castle wherein is kept the assuraunce of hir honor and aboue all let hir close hir eares from him who by corrupt giftes settes a stale to intangle hir as the fowler enchauntes the byrde or the Fisher by his worme betrayes the stelie Gudgeon euerye holde enclyning to somonce with long parle séemes willing to consent to hyr spoyle and to admit the power of the enimies neyther séemeth anye thing impossible to him that striues to conquer and lesse easie to the woman to warraunt hir selfe amidde the ambushes of our polletike youth This counsell standes not inconuenient to my estate and lesse exspectation of hyer for my traueyle bicause I lyue bounde in honest duetie to all Ladies whome as I dare assure generally if they learne and followe my principles of increase in honor with perpetuitie of name so the necessitie of my counsell I commende onely to such as haue béene prodigall of their libertie vnlesse they knowe an other lyne to leade them more directly then mine who in this small discourse did not pretende to apply to the contentment of euery one for so my burthen woulde prooue intellerable but onely to discouer a short remedie which I haue alwayes estéemed most proper for the health of a louer which is absence with firme purpose neuer to treade the path of his mistris againe and this remedie is enforced rather by an arte and industrie guyding vs then once procured by our proper nature or motion But euen as you seigneur Monophylo and Pasquier by your seuerall discourses haue earst taught vs not the meanes to loue or by what arte we should moderate our affections in loue but rather haue layde open the subtill maners by which that little théefe seaseth of our heartes when we least thinke to be his subiectes so I will here present you with an other meane not as by counsell howe we ought to escape loue but oftentimes howe without thinking we are constrayned to abandon him it is disdaine I meane an almightie disdaine which hath power to put this loue to mortall vtterance And this albeit be most certaine and iustefyed by many examples yet as seigneur pasquier laying open the partes of loue gaue him diuers natures according to the diuersitie of passions euen so this disdaine takes sundrie effectes according to the qualitie of louers sometimes more and sometimes lesse euen as they are touched wyth vyolence And if you will knowe whereof this disdaine takes his beginning I will not satisfie you with mine owne experience bicause I neuer made proofe of it but by reason I will deriue him from two heads and fountaines The first is and that of no meane importance when after a long sute and seruice to our Ladies with manye reuerent obediences we finde them not onely vnthankfull but also making a scorne of our seruice they translate the merite of our martyrdome to an other and so make our griefe the instrument of their delight which albeit at the fi●st we hardly receiue into iudgement and as it were sée and not sée yet their dealings entring into custome and by little and little vanquishing our partialitie it is most assured that such loue chaungeth habite and takes the qualitie of a hate farre aboue the nature of the former friendship according to the witnesse of Reguier discouered
by Boccace in one of his Nouells oh daungerous disdaine oh spite whose power hath brought manye noble Gentlemen to such extremitie of furie that defyling their hands with the bloud of their Ladies they haue also at one instaunt bene the vnnaturall homicides of themselues For with pasquiers rule there is such a naturall simpathya of humours amongst men that euen as we loue such as like of vs so also our fleshe and mindes rise against them in whome is grudge against vs or ours as the glorious or prowde man louing no other then himselfe the same being the cause as I thinke why the auncient Lawyers allowed in their lawe of nations this desire of reuenge as falling by nature into the mindes of all men and albeit by Gods decrée we are defended to vse reuenge yet our nature holdes hir swéete course to vomite poyson against such as hate vs And therefore no marueyle if a woman hauing once charmed our affections and after by certaine outwarde actes we prooue their disguised nature towardes vs that then we turne course as being instructed by the precedent of their pollecies This is the first kinde of this disdaine whose power is farre more violent then the other which procéedes of a certaine ymagination of the minde or else by a light beliefe of false reportes made of our Ladies and this disdaine albeit is nothing so mortall as the other yet increasing by succession of time his effectes in the ende prooue nothing inferior to the first and therefore in his beginning he is called ielowsie which although in his prime age is nothing else then a renewing of loue yet as he rypeneth by little and little and by degrées riseth to perfection he chaungeth condition and leauing the name of ielowsie vsurpes the nature of disdaine in manye persons I saye not in all bicause for the most part our affection is so great and our weakenesse so generall that oftentimes we are constrayned to disgest it as a weake stomacke indueth a harde medicine and all bicause there remayneth certaine sparkes of the loue we beare to our mistris There be also sundrie other maners of disdaine as that which riseth of a continuall repulse with farre sundrie others which I am content nowe to passe ouer as hauing neuer tasted their condition or nature Here Phylopolo albeit he commended the meanes which Glaphyro preferred to dissolue loue yet sayth he if that charge had happened to me I would not haue doubted to haue applied more necessarie medicines to such an euill and with more ease haue cured the cause and with lesse daunger gouerned the effect he brings in a long absence accompanied with a desire to steale out of this prison of loue and then a light disdaine whose cause commeth manye wayes But in my fancie he is farre from the marke and his reasons nothing incydent to the necessarie pointes of the present purpose Asclepiades an auncient Phisition was not approoued of manye others of that facultie bicause he affirmed in opinion argument that the arte of phisicke or meane to cure pacients might be wholy mainteined without any potions or medicines compownded but leauing all artificiall helpes he referred all men to fiue infallible and most necessarie cures that is temperate exercise moderate vomit reasonable sléepe conuenient walking and a good and long dyot which remedies in déede were not impertinent to suche as were in helth and not infected with disease But to him who labored in a long and hote feuer I sée not in what vse they could serue euen so I can not finde howe this long dyot and absence commended so much by seigneur Glaphyro can worke any necessarie vertue in such who are alreadie striken and touched as it were to the death And touching the disdaine which he alleadgeth bicause his remedie in that is more casuall and by chaunce then otherwaies I will leaue it to worke in louers euen as their nature can brooke and beare And for the meanes I haue promised you I will vse the common methode of most Phisitions as deliuering you a potion or drinke wherein is brued the whole and absolute cure of this our diseased louer Let him then drinke of the flood of Lethes other wayes called the lake of obliuion of which the Ladie Chariclea hath cunninglye brought into our memorie towardes the ende of hir shipwrake And if this meane eyther faile him or he faint in the execution then let him resort to the circle of the moone where perhaps he shall incounter a great part of his senses distraught since he first made inuacion vpon the frontiers of Cupide But if this way be eyther hard to finde or vneasie to holde let him at last practise the counsell of the Phisitions and vse a little Helbora an herbe altogither dedicated to such vaine and sonde miseries For if euer anye sort of people were robbed of their wyttes it is the miserable corporation of louers whose blindnesse is such that the sunne séemes darke to them in the plaine day and in the night they iudge the moone a thicke clowde whereinto to confesse a simple truth it is to be doubted whether that miserie procéede more of their owne indiscression or is deriued of the naturall subtiltie of women who haue such a drawing power ouer the hartes of men this he spake simply to vrge the opinion of Chariclea and Monophylo hir protector that it séemes the Deuill hath incorporate himselfe in them the better to delude men not of base or low condition but euen such as by long vse haue wonne the name of riche wise and worthie Monarkes and kings of the earth oh what partialitie shewe you here sayth Monophylo that to giue season to your vnsauerie wordes you forbeare not euen without occasion to forsake the lymittes of our argument and yet you could not better discouer our common beastlinesse then by the discourse you haue made and so inconueniently applyed seing that by so much are we rude and weake in condicion by howe much we suffer them to subdue vs and their wisedome the more assured and commendable by howe much they can warrant themselues from the wrongs which so castlye they laye vpon vs But yet seigneur Phylopolo it is nothing so nor your opinion so generally true but it may be disprooued by many examples For if some by women haue falne into the bable and rebuke of the worlde yet we haue Medea Phyllis Dido with manye other infortunate Ladies who by the treason of their disloyall Iason Demophon and Eneas are made alas sorowfull groundes of vnworthy obloquie both to their vnhappie cotemporians or time fellowes and also their lamentable posteritie and therefore me thinkes your wrong is without reason which so partially you will laye vpon that sex of whome we depende in comfort commoditie and felicitie and without whome as we coulde haue had no originall being so were it not by them we could haue no present conuersation nor lyfe in déede sayth Phylopolo they are a necessarie euill and therin replyed Monophylo are you no lesse ouerséene then in all the reast and your error more hurtfull But you seigneur Glaphyro notwithstanding the cauell of Phylopolo I wishe not to discontinue your discourse the same being no lesse necessarie to intercept his heresie then most conuenient to confyrme the reast of the felowship But the Ladie considering by the height of the sunne that their longer aboade there might bring offence to the rest of their companie whose custome during this progresse was to obserue good howers for their repaste tolde Monophylo what wrong he practised to himselfe in vrging Glaphyro in a matter as she thought of so small aduauntage to himselfe seing withall sayth she that the time offereth you fauour as thereby to sommon you to resolue our long controuersie wherevnto as I prepared the beginning so am I nowe to intercesse for loue of whome I take more pittie then he vseth compassion to such as implore his mercie And so breaking of so indifferentlye I hope there is neuer one of vs all who restes not satisfied Glaphyro to haue runne ouer so much matter in so fewe wordes we to haue bene edified by his acceptable spéeche you Monophylo to sée so short an issue of all and lastly the reast of the companie not to be offended with our long exercise and aboade here wherevpon they discryed at hand foure yong Gentlemen of the generall trowpe comming to warne them of dinner who being informed of the estate of the arguments passed amongst them all that morning grudged with their fortune to restrayne them from suche honorable felowship albeit if the exercise renewed at after dynner they sued to be admytted and also others more auncient of the bande who being also receyued prepared themselues against the hower of appointment but such was their sodeyne occasion neyther looked for afore it fell nor welcome when it hapned that they were driuen to chaunge hoast where with the oportunitie of a new place they renewed eftesoones the matter of their late appointment whose successe I leaue at large as being sodainely estraunged from their societie by myne owne occasion FINIS Three chiefe men in this dialogue For dowryes Of Mariages for money Imprinted at London by Wylliam Seres dwelling at the West ende of Paules Church at the Signe of the Hedgehogge Anno. 1572.
Monophylo drawne into English by Geffray Fenton A philosophicall discourse and diuision of loue Mon heur viendra Anno. 1572. ❧ TO THE RIGHT vertuous Lady the Lady Hobby Geffraie Fenton desireth encrease of honour according to hir worthynesse SINCE MY LAST translation to your good Ladyshippe I haue disposed some part of my leasure to reueale Monophylo whose argument albeit is not religious and lesse exspectation of graue things in so vnquyet a state of his yet he brings foorth a Phylosophie no lesse morall and naturall then necessarylie tending to assure our frayltie amydde many hidden miseries wherwith we stande enuyroned by Gods necessary prouydence wherin by howe much he offereth helpe to our infirmitie as both by aduise whose reasons are inuincible and priuate experience which toucheth vs in example by so much hee merites authoritie although with some his precepts may seeme suspicious as touching the subiect and my howers improperlye exercised whose condition requireth in common wisedome to practise in matters of more benefite For the first the Philosophers generallie are to aunswere for mee who in their preceptes eyther of glorie of couetousnesse to moue contempt of the worlde or in anye other cause tending to instruct reforme or edifie obserued in their doctrine to decypher the secret nature of thinges the better to prepare their Disciples to the highe knowledge of such matters as they delyuered to them but by speech the same being the proper instrument to perfection in science as Erbes and Symples rightlye compownde are readye Medecynes to remooue the iniurye and disease of the Patient And for my selfe I alleadge the corrupte propertye of the tyme whose nature is intangled with such confusion that in fewe men is founde conformitie of opinion and much lesse to yeelde affection or meritte to the honest indeuours of others on whom eyther by malice or ignoraunce the most sort doe throwe manye nice errours according to their imperfect fancies But as I doubt not but Monophylo is able to bee hys owne Champion as being armed with loyaltie the verye vertue in loue So I stande not nowe to allure the popular fauour whose iudgement wandereth in reuolution and chaunge seing it is to your Ladiship to whome I offer the censure of my traueyle and in whome is no lesse discression to discerne then deepe modestie to pardon or excuse humblie beseeching you to receyue this seconde exercise not as a recompense worthie your last liberalitie but as a simple testimonie to continue the reuerent duetie I owe you vntill I bring foorth my great woorke which I hope will more worthilie resemble your highe vertues and wyth lesse mourmure drawe others to the knowledge of GOD to whome I leaue the successe and your good Ladyshippe to hys holye feare At London the sixt of Aprill 1572. Your Ladiships readily to commaund Geffray Fenton ❧ The first Booke of Monophylo NOt long after the expedition of Germanie when the king to the indifferent shame and confusion of hys enimies raysed the siege of Metz certain Gentlemen of no lesse conformity in nature and consanguinitie than resembling one another in societie and neighbourhoode séeing the warres dissolued and the daunger for that yeare eyther preuented or prouided for drewe into a sette companie to returne to theyr houses with expectation of newe occasions to be eftsoones employed And after they had some little tyme dispensed with the honest and chaste entertainments of their wyues disposing withall their housholde familiar affayres they determined by mutuall méetings to restore their late wearie time in warre with euery honest pleasure which either the present season coulde styrre vp or most conueniently agréed with their state and condition wherein foreséeing the tearme of their delytes to be but short as most assured that the warres would reuiue they erected by common consent a lawe to visite one another mutually and generally vnder this speciall couenaunt that as the husbandes should not go vnaccompanyed of theyr wyues to the ende there shoulde be a common communion of delyte and benefite in that felowship so bicause there were many yong gentlemen happely vnfurnished of wyues the lawe gaue straite charge to euery maryed man and mayster of famuly as to whose lot should happen to receyue and feast the reast to prouide such most honest and best spoken gentlewomen as the place and tyme could any wayes afforde so should there be an equall sort of companie euery one contented and their progresse runne forth in exercise of all honestie and honour hoping by such meanes to recouer the arrerages of that pleasaunt season which fortune had kept from them since the beginning of the warres This was their beginning and entrie into their common wealth of delytes but as they were not all of one conformitie eyther by an inequalitie of yeares or maners so euery one made choyse of his pleasure according to his complexion and nature the elder sort for the most part reasoning in contemplations most conuenient to their age and the yong men contending in the vse and actiuitie of armes togither with all other exercises best consenting to their humors Amongst the rest there were in this companie thrée yong Gentlemen of choyce not onely well prooued in matters of warre but also of déepe iudgement in learning and sciences wherein the most part of theyr yong yeares had bene trayned These thrée of peculiar estimation aboue the reast not to séeme exempted from the thing which most resembled their condition and age protested most of all to make an estate and profession of loue the same notwithstanding as the opinions of men be diuers so euery one in his owne behalfe according to his peculiar affection the one of them was so extreemely passioned with loue as all his thoughts and deuotions tended directly to his Mystresse vpon whom he committed ydolatrie as making hir the onely Idoll of his secrete contemplations him in a speciall respect will I passe vnder a couert name of Monophylo an other not so déepely distressed as he preferring a ciuill and curteous behauiour to the Ladies séemed rather to holde an estate of a Courtyer then to professe singuler loue he shall be disguised for this time vnder the name of Glaphyro but the last and youngest of them all delighting in a liberty of affection without any peculiar choyse or regard I will name for one occasion Phylopolo And these thrée as they were diuers in iudgements so their outwarde effectes reuealed a difference in their inwarde thoughtes and conceytes of minde Glaphyro better stayed than the rest enterneyd the Ladies with honest discourse and exercise hauing as many good partes in him as any Gentleman of the troupe Phylopolo of the contrarie disposed to mirth with varietie of delight and salace tryfled with them with suche a liuelye libertie of speache and affection that it coulde hardylye be iudged whether of the two were best accepted of the Ladyes either Glaphyro in his honestye or Phylopolo with his skoffes and pleasaunt toyes
such was the order of both the one and other accompanyed with an equall grace and argument of delight But Monophylo séemed dyed in another complexion as so setled in sorow and solitarie regardes that by the onely heauie and deade cariage of his eye might be discerned the secret passion and disposition of his hart the same being a singuler pleasure to me and matter of consolation to my present case as to sée him bléeding in the same wound which I iudged afore to bée onelye peculyar in my selfe albeit as then it coulde not be easilye discerned by me For hapning into that place by meane of a gentleman my very friende to gouerne hir who long before had made a stealth and possession of my heart I had not with Monophylo cause of malancholy conceit as hauing afore mine eies the onely mistresse of my felycities who by happie aduenture being one of that companie made me not onely forget all my passions of hir absence but also euen my selfe to whom it séemed hir swéete deliuerye of speache consenting with a gracious moouing and disposition of hir eyes had power to pearce euen millions of heartes yea the deytie it selfe ▪ if by incorporation they had vouchsafed to haue bestowed their eyes vpon my earthly Goddesse this or such like infirmitie did trauell the languishing minde of poore Monophylo and so wrapte him in perplexities that euen the groues and medowes wherein he was withdrawne to recorde his desolate state séemed to impart with his sorowe and yeelde pittie to his cryes and scorching sighes and as loue carieth alwayes an vnquiet condition hating with the nature of an Ague all thinges that stande not in conformitie with his appetite so the more he saw vs encrease in delight and pleasure the more did he resolue into sorowe as dispayring I know not by what destenie of that wherevpon depended the substance and full of his felycitie wherin certainly as it is one chiefe office in our christian duty to vse compassion to th afflicted and such most of all incident to this bonde who néeding comfort haue béene reléeued accordingly so for my part notwithstanding I séemed translated and rapt aboue the thirde heauen ioying in the benefite of the present season and place yet I could not but yéelde trybute to his sorowes wyth such effect of transitorie confusion in my selfe as if I pleasured greatly in the vewe and proofe of my present felicitie my pittie likwise was nothyng inferiour on the behalfe of his tragicall condition so that by how much I trauelled in consideration of his case euen by so much I felt my self drawne to an increase of compassion wishing it were lawfull for me to share and communicate mutually with him as eyther to decke his garlande with some of my flowers and sprinckle him with the deawe of my delight and contentment or else to lay my shoulders vnder his burden and so though I restore him not altogither yet his distresse may be qualified and he rest satisfied of my honest meaning But now all the campanye abyding at the house of a Gentleman one chiefe director of this felowship amongst other discourses there mooued during the first dinner according to the custome of our excercises certaine speaches fashioned to rayse and exalte the inuincible vertue of the King togith●r with the deliuerie of all Iermany without stroke of sworde for the onely feare of him to whome the whole worlde is promised The Auncients folowing their estate of yeares and discression entertayned graue discourses sometimes in matters of a common welth sometimes touching the course and condicion of our life but aboue all they decyphered the nature of this earthly fragilitie wherin when we accompt vs most neare the resolute successe of our businesse it is then we are founde oftentimes by a deuine misterie no lesse farre from it than afore we held vs sure of the ende With these voluntarie speaches was also drawne into argument this Question howe it happeneth and that by many examples of proofe that a Capitaine who in the first race of his lyfe carying as it were fortune vpon his shoulders and happelie preuayling in many attemptes of equall perill and pollecie shoulde in riper age which with long vse ought to assure a more full and perfit experience be in one instant as though Fortune were wearie to fauour him any longer ouerthrowne euen by a young man to whose course and consent of nature should be also a lesse lykelyhoode of proofe and experience in suche affayres here was Alexander estéemed most happie aboue all his felicities for that in the glory and flower of his yeres he gaue ende by one selfe meane to his lyfe and vertues togither and had not as then felt the smarting whippes of fortune who no doubt at length had philed him vpō hir bedrole and prepared asmuch for him as for others of his facultie and place This argument ranne thorowe the whole companie and founde authoritie by many and sundrie reasons as some transferring the guilt of such defaultes not to fortune but to our selues who féeling vs raysed and puffed vp with all felicitye doe oftentimes so far forget our selues as being blinded with so many happie chaunces we become as it were out of breath in our selues without foreseeing how the wit and pollecie of other men lyeth alwaies in waite to aspire to that degrée wherevnto with the forwardenesse of our youth and carefull diligence we labored in pretence to come which reason as some of them iustyfied by manye examples as in the personne and successe of Hanny ball when he gaue himselfe ouer to the delightes of Capua so other passing further layd the whole occasion and cause to nature who in all thinges of this worlde doth encrease according to our proportion by little and little euen vntill the degrée of extremitie and then beginnes to decline and yéelde to infirmities so as it séemes that successiuelye we all play arsiuersie A thing to be veryfied not only in singuler men but also by most huge monarchies wherein is founde the age of infancie virilytie or manhoode and so olde age which leades them to theyr ruyne and fall so that seeing nature is their guide it is not to be noted straunge if men whose busines in their season haue happily succéeded drawing to extréeme age though they grow strong and mightie in councell yet become weake in the fauours and benefites of fortune This was the maner and matter of discourse of these Gentlemen who séemed couertly to prognosticate somwhat of the present tyme albeit with such modesty that without precise diligence and héede the intent of their reasons coulde not be easilye discerned wherein albeit they were not vnderstande of euery one yet were they harde with singuler and setled cares with this libertie that euery one gaue his iudgement a part as best agréed with his peculiar fancie But as they thus continued in varietie of matter falling eftsoones into fresh occasions to entertaine their arguments all that
search the lyfe of his wyfe inciuillye so hir simple innocencie standes alwayes to defende hir from those inconueniences in maryage which all men feare and most men finde vsing rather an vnstayned loyaltie wyth an honest loue vnfayned in them both then such a disordered will as you haue discribed For if in any other respect a man enter this holy estate let him not grieue if by succession of tyme his wyfe chuse A secret friende against whome I wyll not erect such harde ●awes of restraint towardes his mystris as you seigneur Monophylo desire wherewith I fall eftsoones vpon the matter of loyaltie by you preferred albeit afore I enter into the fielde of that argument bycause I wyll not couple so prophane a thing as loue wyth the holy profession of mariage it may please you Madam to vse pacience to heare and modestie in concealing your iudgement But heare Monophylo not content with the matter and lesse lyking the maner of the man as one with whome loue stoode in more deare value then all the other felicities in the worlde you haue seigneur Glaphyro saith he I knowe not by what occasion entangled our discourse wyth speach no lesse impertynent to the matter then somewhat estranged from the generall purpose of the company bycause in my aduyse to hym that woulde marrye I dyd not pretende in my plot of singularitie to bring in question that poynt vnlesse by the waye and as it were at vnwares neyther vnder hope to stande long vpon it nor to helpe my opinion the rather albeit séeing you séeme to settle in it your chalenge shall not offende me and yf you had well waighed the nature of my reasons I thinke you would haue gyuen them a higher merite then those which by your selfe are reuealed the same contayning no lesse distinction in themselues then there is common difference betwéene lyfe and death séeing your mariage is grounded vpon a voluntarie or rather artyficiall consideration and myne marcheth vnder an inclynation of nature which we cannot restraine wherein by how much lesse facilytie the bondes of nature are to be vnknit then those which we sée Arte doth couple and conioyne euen by so much more authoritie do I assure and grounde my mariage aboue yours And I praye you seigneur Glaphyro to auoyde wearie speche how many diuorses iarres and housholde strifes doe you sée happen daylye betwéene the honest and chaste wyfe and hir husbande yea I knowe at this daye a wyse and discréete Lady if there be any equally sprinckled with the fauors of nature and lyberally endued wyth the vertues and qualyties of the minde whose race of youth hath runne vnder an honest and obedient name with hir husbande and possessed betwéene them a number of fayre children yet such is his inequalitie and difference of maners with hir that notwithstanding the continuance of their loue many yeares with ende honest and chast indeuour requisit in the office and part of a wife he cannot be induced to honour hir with the affection of a husbande wherein béeing cyfted in the cause of this disagréement when he can not prooue prostitution or other such cryminall error in maryage he alledgeth onely that as he neuer loued hir with his heart so yet if another man had the lawfull interest of maryage in hir he coulde then drawe his affection thyther is not this man so much the more worthie of rebuke as eyther his wordes be hatefull or his example hurtfull to a common wealth but aboue all his offence is the greater for that vertue with the nature of the Adamant drawes to hir euen people vnknowne But for my woman being such one as I haue figured I will loue hir chastitie and vertue and not hir proper person onelye because my minde cannot applie therevnto I will honor and estéeme in my wife that wisdome which God hath breathed into hir and not such as of it selfe will offende me oftentymes happening into argument of ▪ maryage amongest sundrie men and women I heare not seldome as well the one as the other sort to marueyle of the pleasant and sweete agréement of some maryed men with their wyues for say they if such a man or such a woman had chaunced to my lotte we should haue agréed euen as fire and water So that what other cause knittes this equalitie and concorde betwéene them two who being deuided coulde hardly agrée with others but a loue a conformitie yea a kindly nature betwéene them which could not holde concorde wyth others For if you require a precise perfection of maners in your wyfe wherewith perhappes your selfe is not furnished neuer looke to agrée with hir in conuersation and behauiour other then as the Lion with the Lambe whereof the one is of humble and méeke condition and the other indued with a prowde and hawtie nature And albeit your wife discréetely assay to reforme your inciuilities ▪ and by reuerent obedience séeke to leade you in an honest affection yea thoughe with the vaile of hir modestie she couer your imperfections thinking at last to allure you with th●se honest traynes yet such maryage will prooue imperfect and all hir honest traueile yéeldes but a desperate fruite bicause you stande estraunged from hir in heart our nature neuer chaungeth in vs and with the opinion of the Philosophers who seekes to translate his nature laboureth with the Gyants in tyme past to make warre agaynst the Gods well may we for a time dissemble the suggestion of our thoughts as by an artificiall hypocrasie pretending an other estate than we beare but at length as with Esops Apes that brake the daunce to scamble for Nuts this nature of ours must reuart and take hir place So when loue once imprintes in hir much lesse that the man and wyfe shall iarre or disagrée betwéene themselues but of the contrary they shall bring forth in their lyues and acti●ns ▪ one con●●nt of will yea there shall be that richesse and communitie of maners which you wishe ▪ and the wife of such chaste and reuerent behauiour to hir husbande as their conuersation shal be no lesse frée from reproch than their whole life farre from example of disobedience In which estate were it not better to liue in such sort and pleasure albeit the one be deceyued in his opinion then dwelling in the condition you haue prescribed to be alwayes plunged in paine and passion ▪ This loue doth so dazell and leade our spirites in a iudgement of affection and fauour that we value all things in the best and estéeme nothing inconuenient on the behalfe of them whome we loue where this wisedome which you wishe standes vpon such delicate and precise respectes as she holds nothing acceptable yea though in your wife were euen the very vertues of Iudith or the rare constancie of Penelope wherewith the Ladie noting their vehemencie me thinkes sayth she you leade the companie wrongfully in a cause of doubt albeit the nature of the matter requires it But to
wée stande bereaued of the pleasant philosophie flowing from the swéete breath and speache of our Ladies the more doe we honour their vertues in contemplation and the seldomer we gouerne the actuall motions of their quicke and sparckling eyes the more doe we trauaile in desire to beholde them so that it cannot be that we decline in good will séeing with the nature of fire long kept downe with straw absence reuiueth our affection enforceth our desire and redoubleth our hope which truly vsed is neuer without hys true merite Herein I haue the helpe of Philosophie in which this is one principle that more doe we desire those thinges which we least commaund then such ouer whome we haue a frée gouernement the same perhaps being the cause why many estéeme the Italians most constaunt in their loue and yet in my iudgement not without their errours that way bicause that possessing onely the fauour and vse of the eye without other benefite of speach or secret familiaritie they alwayes continue in loue and increase in desire which is also the very nature and operation of absence not for all this that I mainteine presence to procure any default or diminishing of loue seeing the onely presence of your Ladies sty●res vp such a present contentment that all torment all dolor yea euery sighe and sorowfull vision passed is nothing in respect of the pleasure which hir onely societie brings and the same as an indifferent vertue deuiding it selfe into a mutuall felicitie to you both fashions such a fift heauen in you that you leaue hir not without a vehement desire eftsoones to sée hir as a stomacke whose appetite encreaseth by a restraint of meate This is it which Amadys de Gawle hath figured vnto vs in his .viij. Booke when Nyquea presenting before hir eyes in a looking glasse hir Amadys de Grece was so rapt into present conceytes of ioy that the onely vision in the Glasse defaced all other pleasures with hir but the forme being taken awaye the effect also did vanishe as a shadowe on a wall which is gouerned by the reflection of the Sunne and all hir former ioyes turned into a mountaine of smoke by the onely losse of that dissembled cause The like also happening to Anastarax when he could enioy no more the presence of his Nyquea Did Penelope I pray you for all the importunities of so many Princes corrupt the duetie of hir wiuehoode to hir husband for his long absence of .xx. yeares and she was not induced to this constancie by any feare of hir husband bicause in such a distaunce of place and tyme shée might conceale hir fault no the extremitie of honest and carefull loue to hir husband kept hir in that vertuous course in hys absence And euen as good olde Seneca is woont to say although he knewe is offence woulde be concealed not onely from the worlde but euen from God himselfe yet sayth he would I not sinne for the onely hate I beare to sinne euen so the true louer notwithstanding your voluble fancie although he knowe his offence shall not come to the knowledge of his Ladie a thing of verie harde assurance yet ought he to eschew the inconuenience you spake of in a reuerent regarde to the perfect loue he beares to his Mystresse So that as their presence procures to vs a pleasure and most perfite contentment so absence leades vs in an insatiable desire towardes them the same being a sufficient meane to call vs backe from all other temptations yea this onely desire and constant remembraunce of them being continuall and extréeme will mortyfie in vs all minde and memorie of euerie other thing Like as also such ●orment procéeding of such absence will excéede without comparison all the delites we can ymagin euen in all the other women in the worlde so that if my iudgement might chalenge authoritie I holde that such loue in it selfe is so passioned that by it we forget all other passions and fancies are made as halfe Gods in such sort that in respect of our great fragilitie we are not able to drawe our selues from these intemperaunces whereof you speake although God commaundes vs yet being clothed with this kinde of loue notwithstanding all the pleasures of the worlde m●ster and present afore our eyes we shall not swarue or decline one iote And nowe touching the latter part of your discourse that loue consistes not but in the hart not in these inclinations of nature wherewith necessarily we are touched your opinion is not altogither without the societie of reason wherein as I thinke you might alleage that Apothegma sometimes attributed to Aelyus Verus Emperour of Rome who to couer his wanton and licentious factes sayde it was not lawfull by the honestie of mariage to execute his passions vpon his owne wife and therefore to preserue the honour of wedlocke he allowed himselfe a conuersation with other publike women euen so might you allude as not to contamynate this precious cloake of true loue a lawe or libertie to doe as much on the behalfe of them on whom you had not fixed your heart Albeit you make a further restraint of your selfe as not desiring the execution in such thinges but onely when by a naturall violence you are forced to doe it But I pray you tell me seigneur Glaphyro if you had maryed a wyfe not for any setled affection towardes hir but onely in a gréedie regarde to the greatnesse of hir wealth as we haue sayde before that maryages tooke their beginning and she glosing with you in affection and professe a presentiall obedience to you and secretly prostitutes hir selfe to another would not hir dealing be of hard disgestion with you yea albeit you maye aunswere that it belonges to euery wife dutifully to conforme hirselfe altogither to the pleasure of hir husbande and not to séeke to delite the residue of the world yet would not hir abuse séeme intollerable with you wherein then if you tooke your wife vnder pretence of gaine without anye consideration of loue what would you say if she whom the heauens séeme to haue reserued for you imparted hir bodie with another Oh lamentable destinie oh griefe without comparison oh dealing might you say whose bare remembraunce bringes with it a horrible ymagination of death for my part albeit I make no carefull inquirie in suche things yet in nature and reason I holde it the greatest wounde that can happen to the heart of man so that you must not thinke seigneur Glaphyro that reciprocation is not founde in your Ladie who feeles no small smart of minde as often as you releeue straungers with the almes which she accomptes proper to hir selfe where as be it that she be ignoraunt yet ought you not to pretende worse to hir then you would she should performe agaynst you bycause it is peremptorie in Gods iudgement to rewarde finne with his merite and returne to euery one the same measure wherewith they haue serued others And this
from reason then frée from all conformitie to truth séeing mutuall nouriture kindles a custume and certaine sparkes of priuate familiaritie but neyther one bodie nor one spirite sure seigneur Phylopolo the more I aspire into consideration of this great diuinitie which we speake of the more am I rapt into cōfusion with such ghastly amase that me thinks it were better for me to iudge that loue is not then raysing my thoughtes aboue the reach of nature to séeke to flie into his dwelling to discouer the force wherewith nature hath armed him euen from the beginning of the worlde And euen as who pretendes to comprehende the substaunce and maiestie of this vniuersall maker and creator of vs all discourseth in himselfe his most infinite myracles as thys rounde and firme plot of the earth and the voluble course of the skies aboue so discending from one woonder to an other fyndes at last by the greatnesse of these effectes that the great GOD is not to be discerned by the facultie of mortall iudgement but that he contaynes an essence exceding mans consideration euen so to whome so euer it laye in desire to vnderstande at large what loue is it is needefull he enter into a perticuler contemplation of all his woonderfull effectes and so resolue and ende that it is a thing whose knowledge can not enter into the spirite of man So that séeing loue takes his being neyther of a heauenly influence nor conformitie of conditions nor lastlye of a custome or mutuall conuersation what other thing shall I tearme him to be than a mocion sturring I know not how which is farre more easie to be felt in our hartes then vttered by spéech yea it so knittes and vnites our mindes that being the cause of a perpetuall death yet it reuiues vs in an other making vs forget our proper condicion to remember our selues eftsoones in an other seconde our selues and drawes vs besides by a deuine power with such a strong and indissoluble bonde returning to the first Androgina of our father Adam that he distils two spirites into one bodye by the same miracle brings to passe that two spirits be made one minde in two bodies is not this I praye you a most soueraigne and extréeme miracle wherein to the ende to draw you to a better vnderstanding of my saying and not to thinke it a fable is it not as it were to haue one spirite in two bodies when a man and woman differ not in desire of thinges but appliyng in conformitie of willes and affections the one doth not desire but that which the other doth wish and yet being one minde in two bodies they become in the ende by a singuler metamorphesis exchaunge two spirites in one body bycause my mistresse standing in full possession of my hart I likewise ruling ouer hir affections I can not but esteme my selfe to possesse both mine owne and hirs and she lykewise to gouern them both séeing that like as if I be named Lorde ouer hirs and hir I may rightfully meane my selfe the onely possessor of both our heartes so albeit we séeme both depriued of two mindes and two hartes yet we retaine and possesse both the one and other in our selues And therefore who can saye that the knowledge of loue is hable to happen into our mindes or that wée haue the facultie to discerne the true substaunce and matter of loue This is the cause why the auncient fathers and philosophers amongst the demons which they established the onlye searchers out as they thought of our thoughtes and actions called loue Demon as to aduise vs thereby that it is a thing enforced by a natural instinct as it were by an impression which we kéepe of our auncient ymage without other consideration a thing to be discerned by actuall example séeing that euen as when we encounter vpon a sodaine any of our olde friends whose long absence leades vs in a want of knowledge of him we wauer in iudgement and yet being assured in the ende that it is the same of whome we doubted in the beginning we embrace him with plawsible signes of so happie a méeting euen so reseruing some knowledge of that auncient custom wherin it séemes the heauens if we may vse the phrase of the Philosophers did consent to vs as soone as our eye hath taken holde of hir to whome our nature doth drawe vs we beginne as all amazed to enter into knowledge and albeit not wel assured otherwaies than in féeling some litle spark of the auncient coniunction fortifiyng our selues in our selues by little and little as being then assured to haue founde againe the obiect whervnto the heauens haue vowed vs we delight we congratulate and become familiar with euery pleasure end contentment wherein notwithstanding I doe not holde that after such carectes engraued within vs and that the two louers be tyed togither in one minde by I know not what benefite which they vnderstand not for so hath loue taught me to saye we do not desire after a long vse conuersation togither a coniuntion of the two bodyes one in another the same being that appetite which nature hath infused generallye into vs all and that we finde it better in our Ladies than in anye other woman whatsoeuer in respect of the great sympathya and bound of friendshish which is betwéene hir and vs the same retayning such a force in action of our loue that if after such a valyaunt beginning we chaunce to be called to perticipate in the pleasure much lesse in mine opinion that our loue diminishe or fall into any default but rather that it will take new force and alwaies encrease more and more Where if euen in the beginning we had not trauelled but for that poynt the conquest had béene lothsome and the continuaunce none séeing when the desire had béene satisfied our delight woulde haue vanished as the smoke dissolues when the fire forbeares his action and euery effect mortefieth when the cause is taken awaye so that as I can not alowe that loue if loue it may be called eyther constant or of continuaunce whose onely purpose is to possesse that poynt so also he is weake in opinion whose feare makes him doubt that the greatnesse of hys loue will diminishe by this meane and therefore dare not intreat his mistresse in that respect Loue is then a power lying betwéene the two worse extremities not setting his originall vpon this common lust and yet though long hée doe reiect it at last he doth admit it the same being the cause as I beléeue why all our church lawes in the consomation of a true mariage wherein ought to consist the marke and ende of true friendeship require not but the consent of the parties as though this true loue of mariage ought not to passe but vnder a conformitie of mindes and not by any lust or suggestion of the fleshe Thus ended Monophylo not without a singuler contentment to Chariclea who to witnesse
opinion the chiefe cause that bréedes loue some notwithstanding will not sticke to maintaine that they haue a certayne ymagination and sparke to whome if they haue prooued the condicion of beastes I leaue the matter to their beastlye iudgement séeing it is not for the respect of beastes I speake but for men which loue wherwith Phylopolo dissembling his thought yet haue I learned alwayes sayth he that louers were beastes I know not quod I eyther what sortes of louers you meane or with what formes of beastes you resemble them but well may I vaunt for my selfe by the honour and loue which of long I haue borne and yet with all reuerence do owe to a singuler mistresse of mine of a simple ydyot I am béecome better instructed then if I hadde runne ouer all the preceptes of the Courtyer But not to wander in variety of matter as I holde with you seigneur Monophylo that loue kindles of this naturall instinct so there restes onelye in proofe betwéene you and me and the same to be handled by some sufficient meanes whether the onelye ende of loue consider the sweete vse wherein if I might strengthen my selfe by the common opinion of the worlde you should not onely loase your chalenge but resigne at one instaunt both the fielde and the fight for except your selfe what is he in the worlde that loues not chiefelye for that ende and yet sir not to assure my selfe vpon so fraile a iudgement I praye you tell me if the loue of a man to a woman pretended not but to the minde why shoulde we féele the same to passion vs sometime with a whire winde of ioye and from thence to a storme of sorrowe and then sodainelye become as ouerwhelmed with quailenesse of feare And in the friendeship of man to man we are touched with no such torment sauing that in this last wée holde our selues satisfied to be beloued of them and the same béeing knowne vnto vs we haue alreadie touched the poynt of our pretence but in the last besides the mind we accompany our desires with a hope which leades vs in a promise to bring vs one day to the porte of pleasaunt possession Besides I pray you tell me if this loue were guided onely by a bonde and coniunction of mindes ought wée not by naturall iudgement rather loue him whome God hath fashioned in euerie degrée like to our selues then to folowe the woman whome it séemes he created one degrée inferiour to our selues But we prooue the contrarie in common example and experience seing without comparison wée rather doate of the woman than loue the man yea we sée by this feminine loue that the lawe of true friendeship which was betwene man and man hath béene violated and corrupted wherein I coulde commende vnto you the tragedye of Gysippus and Tytus which Tytus notwistanding the auncient and setled friendship betwéene him and his companion which was such as their séemed to remaine betwéene them a common will in all things yet such was the violent furie of loue towardes the future spowse of his friende that it dissolued that strong and long league betwéene them and notwithstanding the order and helpe of his companion he prepared his owne destruction the same moouing for that he proued in his minde two extremities of contrarie qualitie albeit the one more vehement than the other which was loue whose sharpe stinges so prickt him forwarde that albeit he woulde haue refrayned in fauor of the friendshippe to his déere Gysippus yet he hadde no power to applye other remedye than by his death wherevnto he prepared him selfe A like example doe I finde in Iustine of the sonne of a King who defyling all lawes of men nature was so enchaunted in loue to a stepmother of his that notwithstanding his office of obedience to his father yet coulde he neuer be purged of that euill but eyther by the accomplishment of his desire or that death had applyed a playster to his raging sore what set abroche these vesselles of frensie in these two men for so maye I call them as by whome was violated all right of friendship and nature but that in the friendshippe of man to man is comprehended but a cōformitie of minds and this loue contaynes a sympathia communicating both with the minde and the bodie I meane as touching the bodie this fleshly copulation the onely ende and purpose of our loue for euen as in all other thinges being come to the ende we aspire to we resolue into a contentment and absolute quiet euen so by this onelye meane these two afore named attained to the execucion of their passioned desires and not onely they but all others arriuing in that desired port of pleasaunt vse wherein in place and proofe of our former perplexities in these extreame desires being in this hauen the stormes of our violent passions do eyther absolutely dissolue or partelye qualefie and loue takes in vs a newe forme and habite as our nature is disposed abyding still notwithstanding in his essence of loue this is the cause why the Ethnicks haue figured the same Androgina by you alleaged as when the two parts moyties seperated séeke to reioyne themselues as an auncient poet of that time helde that the sowles were therevpon coopled togither to whose opinion you coulde willinglye haue condiscended were it not you feared to entangle your selfe when you confessed to vs that the Androgina was a desire to vnite and knitte the two moyties being deuided and if you will discende to that which God from the beginning of the worlde propoundes vnto vs whereof you haue thought to make your profite albeit vpon credite is it not prouided in the same that we should be rather two mindes in one bodie and one fleshe then one spirite within two bodies I will not denie that to forme thandrogina both the one and other are requisite but the same is to proue vnto you that if you desire one minde onlie in two bodies you séeke to mak this our Androgina defectiue and imperfit And wherevpon the yssue of your discourse to giue a greater grace to your opinion you séeme to alleage the auctoritie of your lawes as in that they require the onelye consent to establish mariage I say that consent procéeding of this coniunction of mindes not common bréedes and engendreth this loue but the communion of the bodies consomates and makes it perfite for so did our lawes vnderstand who in euery respect maintained the true ende of mariage to bee the multiplying of the worlde and yet I stande in some doubt in what sence they construed this consent you speake of séeing we haue in example that it hath béene suffred to men and women to enter mariage euen in the age of indiscression wherein they séemed not so precise in knowledge so that onelye there were habilitie of cohabitation and therefore it séemed the lawes vnderstoode by this consent a mutuall foreknowledge to this coniuction of the bodies the same being
loue any prorogatiue aboue vs séeing also if I may waigh my reasons with the opinions of the worlde that as by common voyce the woman is estéemed aboue him who offereth court to hir as shée being called mistresse and he seruaunt so it standes him more in duetie not to offende his Ladie to whome he is bounde then she to feare him whome shée maye commaunde lyke as in common reason there is alwayes more libertie alowed in generall respectes to the mayster than a simple licence to him that professeth the state of a seruaunt and yet for my part bicause I will be no partie to that fonde opinion I neyther can nor will perswade that in loue there is or ought to be prorogatiue of power For where the woman is not equallie plunged with the man nor he likewise as déepely touched with affection as the woman how so euer they embrace one another yet such colde banquets can no waye merit the name of loue but rather méere dissimulation sturring I know not by what motion whose continuaunce is not long I can make no reckening of that woman who séeing hir poore friende endure extréeme passions of loue for hir sake will sometimes embrace him to drawe him the rather within hir nettes and then vpon the sodayne will turne the cart against the horse and not vouchsafe one looke of fauour vpon him For my part much lesse that I can commend this order séeing if I were alowed president in that cause as Phylopolo woulde haue earst established me hir crueltie should be punished with a continuaunce of banishment from the societie of all honest Ladies I cannot denie for all this that sometimes we shall not be constrayned to receyue such troubles in loue as it is possible then to entertaine our Ladies or friendes as wée were woont but in that we ought to be ignoraunt and much losse procéede by any artificiall pollicie the soner to giue them a Bée to buze withall but rather by a certaine naturall instinct sturred vp of an extréeme loue vnder the which are comprehended feare and sorrowe Thus much I holde Gentlemen against the opinion of suche as rashly pretende inequalitie in loue which I can neuer admit and much lesse alowe that the woman be called mystresse of the man vnlesse in like sort he bee in déede the peaceable possessor and Lorde of the hart of his Ladie maintaining also by the same contrarie to Phylopolo that it is no more lawfull to the man than to the woman vnder couler of my fonde opinion conceyued amongst men to communicate themselues in manye places Indéede Madam quod I you may well call it opinion but not nature how soeuer the common sort estéeme of it wherein for a better declaration I wish Phylopolo to looke vpon Solon a true folower of nature who by his law●s as one in this companie did earst affirme made lawfull to the wife not hauing meane to conceaue by hir husbande to procure hir generation by other helpes and yet you say it is a natural thing that the woman participate not but with one onelie if I should aleage vnto you the cuntrie of Cipres wherein maydes win their dowries by the sweate of their bodyes woulde you holde our custome to be more founded vpon nature than that yea if I shoulde bring forth Plato in whose common wealth was suffred a communitie of women woulde you not assure your saying vpon worldelye opinion séeing that great Philosopher thought he ruled himselfe altogither by the reasons of nature I lyke not of that lawe sayth the Lady by reason of the confusion of children as being not able to be discerned in this qualitie no more than the request of the good matrones of Rome in the time of Papyrius pretending to haue two husbandes for such sought to muche to satisfie their disordinat lustes yet you sawe sayth Phylopolo with what oportunities these good dames enforced their sute to the Senate and I doubt they woulde not haue béene contented with two husbandes but abusing that libertie woulde at length haue fallen into the vice of all those women which passed through the handes of those two erraunt Knightes Astolphe and Ioconde represented within that excellent Italyan Homer Arioste herein you are disceyued sayth Chariclea for if all those Ladies had béene stricken with suche loue as wée speake of they had neuer fallen and in mine opinion we finde more felicitie in one frinde simplie and truly affected than in a number others whose loues be eyther ordinarye or for necessitie wherein what better example can I aleage that out of the place you speake of for the same Astolphe Ioconde chose in the ende one Ladie to content them both and yet a little quidam who afore had gaged the vessell of loue to them both notwithstanding their precise héede did cutte the grasse from vnder their féete the same bicause loue by this former ambushe had giuen him a first conquest there But as these examples doe not touche me in care so are they also out of the course of my first argument which tenden onelie to this ende that as I woulde not alowe to a woman libertie of communion with euerye one so that I woulde not also haue you to thinke that the same is caused more by a naturall reason wherein you may establish some aduauntage to our preiudice than by a bountie and sinceritie of hart which guiding vs therevnto in time doth so settle in the heartes of most men that if we offer to withstande it they make it a matter of sinister ymputation to vs albeit in déede the act it selfe there is neyther cause of discredite nor reason of such disaduauntage as you pretende but rather it includes matter of honor and commoditie to our honest meanings in déede Madame sayth Glaphyro it can not but giue you a singuler value of honor But for my part I beléeue that lawe was neuer erected but to our great confusion neyther doe I sée anye other cause why a woman should be embrased or counted by so manye honest personages and not attaine to the swéete vse of their pleasaunt attemptes but the tyrannie of this wicked lawe raysed as it séemes in despite both of man and woman bicause the woman fearing the note of dishonour by the worlde dares not performe the last acte of the league but by woonderfull pollicie heare Phylopolo stoode still vpon the iustructions of nature and that we were not directed by mans ordynaunce wherein he layde the examples of beastes amongst whome notwithstanding the long pursute of the male to hys mate yet is shée hardlye brought to obey his will by whome sayth he we maye be taught that the woman ought not to be so familiar that way as the man This is but a voluble fancie sayth Charyclea and rather an error by ignorance then a true iudgement of the propertie of beastes of whom the example of the turtle is against you in whom be he male or be shée female is suffred
no singuler prorogatiue one aboue an other wherewith the Ladye retyred to silence not as wearie with any long spéech but as it séemed bicause Phylopolo in an inreuerent lightnesse intercepted hir further discourse a thing no lesse displeasaunt to the whole felowship then singulerly grieuous to me who wondering at the readie shift of learning in this Lady could not but say in my selfe oh singuler wit not common to women oh déepe iudgement aspyring supernaturally oh modestie worthye of the subiect wherein thou abydest ▪ oh woman no way imperfect by this doest thou make knowne notwithstanding the malicious murmure of the worlde the nobylitie of thy minde by which thou doest not onely enoble all thy sex but also defacest that little worthynesse which remayned to vs And albeit during this whole discourse I ment not to play other part then to discharge the office of a faithfull Secretorie to so honorable a company yet according to my desire to doe good to my power in this oportunitie of matter and place but call all you deare damosels standing in the profession of honor and vertue to beholde as in a glasse the conuersation of my Charyclea whose example I wishe might leade you in no lesse modestie of behauiour then by hir discourses I wishe you drawne to a desire of equall knowledge And yet I doubt not but some will be estéemed euill employed as in respect of the maiestie of hir presence and chaste honor to hir sex to be the first raysers of the spéech and talke vttered in the fauor of loue to whome I aunswere for hir that it is no lesse commendable to séeke out the true propertie of loue wherein nature euen from the begynning of our age hath hid within vs a secret instruction then by a dissembled arte to be guyded and taught by an Orator or Phisition who in tymes past haue bene dryuen out of common wealthes the one for corrupting the bodyes the other for infecting the mindes and manners of men where loue being imprinted in vs by so excellent a mistresse and workewoman hath had alwayes an Empire ouer vs by him the worlde had his being and in him it hath multiplyed and by him euen trées and other insensible things séeme to take their encrease one of an other so that right necessarie and noble is the desire of my Charyclea to séeke out his condition and nature And for myne owne part hauing thus enregistred their reasons I hope that no one man will turne that to a singuler vice in me by which all men receyue a common profite or at least an honest pleasure but me thinkes I heare such as know me not chalenge thys exercise as inconuenient to the state of my profession to whome if they will not satisfie with the honestie of my meaning I aunswere that albeit it be indecent to my facultie yet not impertynent to my yeares who afore their tyme are loath to participate wyth olde age And heare I put my selfe of the beadroll of the happiest crewe in the worlde seing it is the pleasure of the mightie God of loue to chose me for one of his to the ende to instruct and acquaint me with his armes which hereafter wyll be more intollerable to me than if he had called me to his trayne when eyther by age or other néedefull occasions I should be lesse apt to attende him And herein good Ladies you may beleeue me as one to whom vntrue reportes are hatefull that such is the straunge and haggarde nature of loue that if we defie him in our tender yeres he will punishe our olde age with such sharpe passions and plagues of his power that in the common gase and skoffe of the world he will bring vs at last to marche vnder his banner being on the other side of such compassion and iust consideration that if he haue entertayned and nousseled from his youth a good and loyall seruaunt and knowing him to be setled in some state of persite rypenesse according to the maner of olde souldyours whome their common wealth after many good seruices doth make frée from all charges of warre he gyues vs some release and consolation as not to match his tyranny with the iudgement of the people who if they had not prooued him may one daye runne vnder a smarting experience wherein lastly I beséech that God by whome I was first mooued to employe my Pen in these exercises that if anye crabbed Saturnus chaunce to steale a pyll of hys confection that he may finde it of hard digestion and so to my Champions whose most spéeche if I be not deceyued gathered alwayes to this point of loyaltie which Phylopolo would not should be so requisite in the man as in the woman by which occasion Charylea in waspishe termes wished him one daye to fall vppon a wyfe in whome in steade of mercy he should finde a minde equall to this merite I hope Madame sayth Phylopolo your wordes are without meaning of cursse or at least your curse not to carie such enchauntment as you wishe me but in his am I best contented that being at libertie I meane neuer to come in bondes bycause I haue alwaies dwelt in this opinion that as it is a thing impossible to make of a common a perticular so if a woman once corrupt hir bondes of honor with prostitution of hir bodye to one she maye vse the like libertie of fauour to another then to a thirde and so become generall ah sayth Monophylo to whome this iudgement was most hatefull God forbid that in my presence I suffer you so inaduisedly to blaspheme against the truth howe meane you seigneur Phylopolo to make of a common a peculiar the same being the common error of the people who thinke to sacrifice loue by that onely reason as though it were impossible that loyalty could abide in the braine of a woman in which who woulde alledge to you infinite honest Ladyes wherewith the hystories doe infinitely swarme that haue consecrated their honor to one saint I thinke you would eyther holde the authorities false or such women for monstruous yea you woulde estéeme them rare monsters as neuer proouing the vertue of women otherwayes then by the report of the worlde which for the most part is malicious But for suche in whome experience hath planted an vpright iudgement they will rather repose a resolute loyalty in their Ladies than once presume of suspicion of treason And yet your argument is to weake to reuerse true loue séeing yf my hart be alreadie setled in one place there followes not by that reason any duetie of diuision into diuers places But of the contrarie bicause naturally it inclines to one me thinkes the same shoulde be a sufficient bar against all other as hauing imprinted within it this true loue whereof we spake euen nowe yea this degrée of pryoritie as I thinke is the onely cause why we sée at this daye so many poore suffring louers not to atchiue the happie plot
of theyr intentes bycause indiscréetelye they dressed their vowes and offeringes to Ladies who afore were consecrated to other saintes To auoyde this daunger sayth Phylopolo I saye as before a pleasaunt libertie is a precious price and by so much the dearer to me by how much my nature is impacient beyng denied what I demaunde and therefore if I be enforced to make loue I will eyther angle with an enchaunted hooke or at least fishe in that streame which wil giue me no cause of complaint This is your libertie of spéech aunswereth Monophylo by which you reueale your naturall ignoraunce in loue as the fonde man in his owne braine ymagines he maye dispose all the worlde you will not loue you say otherwayes than in an imperiall respect to choose and commaunde I would to God the choyse were in our powers or our discressiō hable to moderate our authoritie defie not that seigneur Phylopolo wherevnto we are drawne by nature and destinie seeing when you accompt you most frée from the motions of loue you shall finde your selfe most forced with his violence and so sharpely persecuted that in dispite of your wanton resistaunce you shall be enioyned to doe smarting penaunce for the blasphemie which now without aduise you maintaine as eyther to like loathsomely to loue desperatelye to choose vnaduisedly to possesse Ielously to liue poorely or to hate extréemelye of all these sayth Phylopolo the greatest plague is to loue and not be encountred séeing in our lyking we haue reason and iudgement afore wée choose wée eyther knowe or enquire in our loue we haue temperaunce to auoyde iealowsye touching our state we stande vpon Gods prouidence and to hate is improper to a man of reason without great cause so that next to desperation in loue a loathsome mate is the seconde infelicitie which I doubt not to auoyde by the helpe of nature who drawes vs all to desire the fayre and leaue the foule But take héede sayth Monophylo least séeking to enter into the rules of Philosophie you stumble not vpon Thequiuox for I neuer as yet hearde of louer who estéemed not his Ladie fayre wherein notwithstanding there is a singularitie in fayrenesse and some ladyes of greater beawtie than others yet we see the sillie heardeman or poore Peasaunt woulde not leaue his preatie Katie for the fayrest Lady in the realme and why bicause in hir hée hath layde vp his heart and shée in his rurall fancie appeares more contenting fayre than all the dainetie dames of the traine And yet perhaps he is no lesse studious in beawtie than you but his minde being fixed in one place by an opinion which he hath conceiued of the partie as of late seigneur Pasquier well approoued albeit in hir doe rest all the inciuilitie and rudenesse of the worlde yet he consters hir and hir qualitie to a singuler wise and séemely behauiour wherein what better example can I prefer then out of Angeliqua figured within Arioste in his booke of Furius shée who had béene beloued courted and pursued by numbers of the best knightes of the world without vsing any mercie vpon them in the ende when she thought hir selfe most frée from passion it was then she felt hir selfe so déepely enclined in affection to a meane souldiour not comparable to the least of the other that euen in hir was forced the office and indeuour of the man which is to require and demaunde here Phylopolo desired him to passe no further in that example least sayth hée you blinde vs all with that which earst you doubted in mée which is Thequiuox For by the nature of your present example the author of Furius sekes to teache vs no other thing then that the naturall inclination of a woman is not with the man to chuse the better but as children addresse themselues alwayes to the worsse as wée sée the shée Woolfe who amongst the whole troupe of Woolues doth commonlye make hir singuler choyse of him in whome appeares least likeyhoode of habilitie to satisfie hir appetite euen so the experience is common in many women who rather then they will yelde to the honest friendeshippe of some worthie man will dissimule to be a Penelope but hauing the place and oportunitie frée from daunger they will not sticke to enter foule conuersation with a foule grome of the stable or some loathsome Skullion of the kitchin so that if as touching the onely regarde of women you iudge with mée in this sorte of this inclination and opinion wherof you speake so muche I am of your side but otherwise not you shall pardon mée sir sayth Monophylo if at so deare a prise you holde your societie in iudgement séeing of an infected ●ier cannot come but a corrupt gaine and where the consent is bought the matter cannot escape dishonest incredulitie but touching your comparison of the Woolfe with the woman you are eyther a sworne enimie to women ●r else ignoraunt in the secret nature of the Woolfe in whome vnder correction aboue all other creatures is directlye discerned a most full and familier instruction to loue and to whose example we ought chiefely to apply the maner and measure of our affection if the same were in our power for suche is the condicion of the she Woolfe that being pursued by many dogge Woolues chooseth out of infinite numbers the most leane and euill fauoured amongst them euen he which first began to follow hir when she entred into hir heate and who by a weary pursute and infinite labours is so mortified for hir that to recompence his deformity procéeding for hir sake shée séemes to receyue him afore all the reast as hauing aboue the reast best deserued whose maner I wishe might stand in example to certaine Dames to whome the martirdome of a poore afflicted louer is a singuler felicitie a thing in my iudgement so abhominable to God and men as I thinke the heauens close their gates the earth vomits curses against such vnnaturall in iniquitie And yet Madam I may wrongfully lay this fault vpō them seeing they haue to alleage the supremacie of Cupido who onely lyes in ambushe to steale our heartes to the ende that leading them in his authoritie he may dispose them at his pleasure For so doth this little Godde entangle himselfe with our doings by whome all Ladies falling into such inconuenience are dispensed withall and the whole guilt layd vpon him who vnwares to vs wretches infectes the best and soundest partes in vs without any libertie of health but such and in whome it pleaseth him to graunt it This is the cause why the auncientes made him an archer without eyes as hauing no respect to the qualities of persons doth oftentimes dazell our sight and blinde our sences that without any consideration we translate our heartes to such as the common people murmuring at our destinie holdes vnworthie of vs who as blinde iudges laye the fault to our owne mocion and cléere this little inuisible théefe by whose traines
our heartes are betrayed and yet seigneur Phylopolo if some fewe mistreses chaunce to fall into that inconuenience God defende that eyther in their example or iudgement shoulde be comprehended a generalitie of women as you séeme to maintaine which if it shoulde be so into this common errour shoulde wee fall to thinke that neuer manne of honour and value was beloued of a woman but suche onelye as deserued the names of villaines then many hundred thousand gentlemē were neuer beloued then men of noble high attempts were neuer estéemed yea then any sort of people in whome nature had planted a value of minde haue bene dissembled withall which is not onelye vnlikelye in common reason but altogither vntrue in familiar common proofe And yet I will not denie that manye valiaunt and noble knightes yea euen the verie Peragons of a kingdome may not sometimes and in some places bestowe their loue in vaine and euen so againe without longe or manye matches receyue a pleasaunt rewarde of their painefull merites the same lot or destinie being altogither gouerned by that little god Cupid who in his quiuer doth cary two sortes of arrowes whereof the one is tipped with golde to molyfie and allure the heartes of his subiectes and the other dipped in leade to harden the heartes of such to whome we pretend most affection by which fiction I finde no other signification then that the one féeleth himselfe in a mocion stricken with desire of a thing which he séeth in the other the same by a certaine secret instinct drawing him vnto him and in the other I can discerne nothing by which he may cleaue to his loue Here you haue preuented mée sayth Glaphyro for that according to my promisse I had prepared freshe charge for you as to reuerse your opinion that loue is not kindled but by a certayne thing which you coulde not well expresse wherein I hadde thought to haue contended with you bythe authoritie of certaine olde Philosophers who holde that loue dependes not but vppon a certaine desire of beautie wherewith he directed his spéech and countenaunce to me as to whome as he sayde this cause did most duely appertaine séeing as in my difinicion of loue he charged me to haue giuen that nature so hauing set forth a large and generall purtraict of him it belonged to me also to dissipher at full his seuerall qualities But I tolde hym this season of after dinner was due onely to him wishing him to remember the felicitie that fortune had purchased for him as to haue conquered the fauour of hir who standes as iudge ouer our exercises in whome happie Monophylo quod I you néede doubt no fauour to heare nor delaye in iudgement séeing I feare she will entangle his estate of a iudge with the office of an aduocate to defende you God forgiue you seigneur Pasquire sayth Charyclea the goodnesse of any cause is a iudgement in it selfe so that you nede not bée ielouse of my inclination to Monophylo whome I take to be of that merite as I can not thinke my selfe deceyued if I beare him fauour ah good Madam aunswereth Monophylo that the effect of this friendeshippe which you pretende to beare mée might be reserued for mine absence séeing I doubt not so to moderate the present season and ooportunitie as if you finde want of dutie in action you shall not fayle of readie good will which onelie is in my power to performe which if it bée not so much as I ought and you looke for at least I hope you wil satisfie in my good meaning But to drawe Glaphyro out of suspence séeing seigneur Pasquire séemes to feare the touche I am content to aunswere him in the poynt of beautie whereof he thinkes loue to take his beginning and not that instinct which you haue preferred albeit afore wée wade further I praye you let vs haue your fancie howe and in what sort you vnderstande this beautie I am consent sayth Glaphyro and to leade you to a more subtill and true sense of it you haue to note that beautie lyeth not altogither in the bodie but hath also hir residence in the partes of the minde the one is called beautie simplie and the other good behauiour which consistes not onely in good maners and outward fashions of conuersation but also hath a speciall perticipation wyth vertue euen as the beautie of the bodie restes not altogither in the lineamentes and feature of the face but also in a good composition and vniuersall proporcion of all the other parts of the bodie And thus beautie being vnderstanded as it is by this short and true signification my opinion is that the verie first daye wherein we are betrayed by loue we féele a certaine sparke of this beautye which is in our Ladies a thing which afterwardes by succession of time setles so in vs that with our ignoraunt confusion to all other respectes we come euen to loase the knowledge of our selues wherin as there is diuersitie of beauties so also euerie one enclining according to his perticuler fancie some delightes in the properties of the minde other takes pleasure in the personage to some the state and maiestie of the countinaunce are a singuler felicitie and to other the facilitie and promptnesse of spéeche is the onely cause to kindle affection but aboue all the eye hath a supreme power about the which the little Cupid flies and fléetes in ten thousande sortes and shapes By this I perswade we delight not in foule things neither can any be allured to loue hir in whome is a want of all these qualities so that as an imperfect and counterfeit woman cannot set hir selfe forth with cause to be beloued so I thinke she is exempted from all fortune and fauour of any to honour hir as a mistresse in loue this is the poynt in which I taried for you saith Monophylo séeing by your talke you séeme to establishe certaine kindes of beautie a thing notwithstanding not to bée done in déede I cannot but consent with you that euerie one pretendes to the fayrest but in case of loue to holde that one thing ought to be fairer then an other is a manifest errour séeing euery woman ingenerall findes a friend to endure losse passiōs for hir sake than may happen to any special louer on the behalfe of some singuler Ladie more fayre and perfit than shée and if your opinion should chalenge place of a law we might say that onely shée is honoured with seruauntes in loue to whome is alotted by nature a singularitie in one of these proportions you speake of and the more she is indued with them the more doth shée make hir selfe to merite in the fancie of men although we se the contrary in euery successe of time wherin let vs make an example by two Gentlewomen whereof the one by cōmon iudgement is thought to be singularly fayre to the other is giuen a comendation of meane or indifferent beauty if wée be inticed
which is reason and the other they say possesseth the inferior partes which they name lust or desire wherein albeit that which occupieth the partes more noble ought to assist the other as being most wise and forséeing yet such is our share and part with this massie earth being tickled by their flattering and deceitfull passions communicating with them hir secrets and as it were conspiring secretly against hir submittes hir selfe oftentimes to their mercie to hir great confusion For example who ought to haue bene more deuested of all humaine passion than our originall father Adam being in his innocencie séeing our mortall nature was as then in his most great perfection and yet was not he rather ouer ruled by concupiscence then guided by reason when in an ambicious humour he rebelled against the will of God But if we distende more familiarly by what other effect I praye you are we deuided from beastes but by this reason onelie which notwithstanding we sée so abused in thousandes of men that they séeme to pertake more with beasts than with humanity wherin what better testimonie can we produce than the doinges of wisemen and such as are inraged replenished with furie in whome notwithstanding that lust or desire neuer fayled which kepes residence in vs all which makes me think that when this mightie generall architector began to fashion man he framed him deuided as it were halfe diuine halfe brutish so that as he would not make him altogither ignorant in things passed nor directly to foresée chaunces to come so he intercepted him to flie with the winges of his minde to the consideration concerning only himselfe which is the knowledge of the truth but séemes contented only with our faith and credulitie And so in the matter of beautie wée néede not much to meruaile if our iudgement wauer séeing it hapneth in all other humaine actions which I thinke procéedes by the great prouidence of God yea euen in the matter of our present question bycause such women as of certayne are estéemed fowle séeme sufficiently fayre to others as not to be wholy abandoned being as necessarie for the encrease of the worlde as those that stande in a greater estimation of beautie And yet we must thinke that although in this opinion loue makes himselfe common with all other thinges of the worlde yet he containes a certaine nature in himselfe by which he is made altogither heauenly For except this generall league of pollicie which procéedes of the vnitie of our heartes whereof I will not now speake I haue alwaies learned of suche as imagined the heauenlie felicitie that the contentment that most wée founde in this supernall region is a perpetuall contemplation of this deuine essence which makes vs forget our selues wherein albeit I ought not to applie so high a similitude to the subiect we speake of yet if we be suffred to imprint in our heartes an ymage of that diuinitie I may well say that the impression we haue of the formes and figures of our Ladies doth so rauishe vs in them that by them we doe not onely holde all the ioyes of the worlde as transitorie but also they take from vs the knowledge of the very cause why we loue as being rapt in woonder in them euen as by a dilligent beholding the sunne we loase the naturall light of our owne eyes I consent to all you saye sayth Glaphyro confessing withall that as by the imbecilitie of our sences it is not lawfull for vs to flie or aspire to this truth so I beléeue also that it is the onelye cause of the diuersitie of lawes altogither contrarie in diuers places And yet you cannot denie to me that in the question of beautie there be not thinges which by common consent of the worlde are not allowed most fayre as who in a selfe obstinate fancie will giue vnto the crooked and wrinckled a more singularity in beautie then those whome nature hath created vpright and perfite hath in mine opinion no lesse mayme in his sight then imperfection of reason and iudgement I speake not of monsters sayth Monophylo but of thinges common and indifferent for séeing nature hath created vs all vpright I will not entangle our question with suche sort of people as you speake of affirming that in what proportion so euer we are framed if we procure to our selues no other defect of members then according to Gods generall distribution we are a substaunce sufficient ynough to be beloued Bicause all other accidents happening appeare not to vs eyther fayre or foule but according to the diuersitie of our humours which leade vs to that opinion yea we perswade often times a thing to séeme fayre in some season which in an other appeares foule and loathsome So that seigneur Glaphyro if this generalitie vary according to the diuersitie of tymes let vs not thinke straunge if our mindes in the same respect differ perticulerly wherin touching women on whome your late spéech did runne I can hardelye beléeue that in this varietie of opinions they finde not some friende in affection albeit not so commonly as others bicause they are further estraunged from our common nature herein you are both deceyued sayth Phylopolo for nature neuer created thing so rare but for admiration And albeit in regarde of their bodies suche women are not so generally delitefull to vs yet they haue alwayes a helpe of the minde to satisfie that default for God was neuer so niggardly bent to any but if he raysed an imperfite bodye he supplied it with some inwarde excellencie of minde as in the nature of insensible thinges we haue an example of the Vine who albeit seemes most crooked and counterfeyt of all other sortes of woode yet he contaynes euen in his succéeding effectes the spirite and minde of vs men This is somewhat to purpose for you sayth the Ladie and albeit you had vsed no other spéeche at all yet by these last wordes you shoulde haue bene dispensed with all touching all your blasphemies wherein all this afternoone you haue taken your voluntarie pleasure beséehing you all my Gentlemen and déere friendes to suffer this last spéeche of Phylopolo to cloase vp our long question of loue wherein Monophylo séemes to chalenge a singuler triumph who least he should ouer wéene in himselfe I thinke it is not impertinent so to moderate the state of his prosperitie as by our meane hée hoyse not sayle aboue our power to embase it by discresion wherein I holde opinion with an auncient Capitaine of Athens who being asked if he tooke not pleasure to learne the art of memorie no rather sayth he I delight in the art of forgetfulnesse bicause in his iudgement hée preserued well all thinges in his minde which being learned he forgat not But aboue all if a thing once engraued in vs cannot be defaced without great paine loue only once rooted in our heartes is most hardly yea impossible drawne from vs by any humaine art or pollysie and
whose delight they sette aworke their wittes so I beséeche you lette it bée lawefull for mée to name you the starre by whose aspect I am ledde to euerie well doing protesting for my part to holde suche a guide in no lesse value and honour then in times past the Muses vpon whome the Poetes bestowed suche solemne and deuoute inuocacions you onely Madam are the Goddesse whome I inuocate yea the element wherein I liue and the oracle of all my plottes and purposes wherein I dare pretende no other benifite of you then that which euen your selfe is able to promise in me wherein albeit all my workes and trauelles are directlye disposed to you yet I dare not presume to present you at this time with the exercise of this morning nor yet the discourses chiefly raysed to our confusion neyther had I aduentured to spread them abroade were it not that as the daye before was employed in such felicitie of minde as I desired so also I imagined such successe and sequelle to our present procéedings that albeit it import some sinister aduauntage to vs yet it maye bring such fruite to some other the assistantes and parties that if they grudged in the matter of the former exercises this may be applied as a recompence and supplye of their supposed iniurie if an iniurie it may be called A thing so iust and true as was the discourse of our Monophylo altogither in the fauour of loue and therefore in this treatise there is reserued for them some satisfaction but no contentment at all to mée who standes not onely to disalowe Chariclea for whose respect these spéeches were first procured and also Glaphyro by whome they are pronounced but also I mourmour euen against my selfe as to haue vsed my pen in a subiect so hatefull to all equitie and reason wherin in common truth I confesse my selfe more imputable then all the rest séeing that as to Chariclea is iust cause of pardon as séeking by a naturall zeale to knowledge common to all your other Ladies to comprehende all thinges from good to better so Glaphyro is tollerable bycause hée argued according to the suggestion of his thought But for mine owne part I protest if any thing be handled against the maiestie of that little God whose slaue I am it is altogither contrarie to my opinion of him as being for this time setled in a certaine hypocrisie the better to fulfill the plot of my determination wherein as I maye resemble those good and auncient instructors who leading vs by their diuine exhortacions to the contempt of honour prepare to themselues a readie pathwaye to an immortall glorie So seeking to mortifie in others by the speache and discourse of our foure Champions the true rootes of loue I shall kindle the sparkes more and more in my selfe and with the Salymander bathe my limmes in the flames of hote affection aduertising you notwithstanding Madam that albeit they conspired not onely the ouerthrow of loue but also to reuerse me altogither yet suche is Gods ordinaunce that there is infirmitie in their pretence and their wicked will without force as professing if you looke into their dooinges rather wordes of threates than matter of effect so that I dare promise in my selfe that loue hath the least cause to be offended Assuring you for ende that according to my delight in the discourses of Monophylo I dare eftsones giue him the honour of this dayes exercise with this last request to you Madam to set downe in memorie his reasons with some of mine as a rose amongst a number of thornes And so without further report of their seuerall circumstaunces let vs leaue them readie to pursue the poynt of their purpose which was to fall into a seconde societie the next morning in the place which earst had yéelded them such conuenient fauour where according to the houre of appoyntment the whole felowship béeing assembled Phylopolo vsed his accustomed libertie and began to make court to the Ladie Chariclea not with spéeches of cyuill and honest regarde as is the vse of all men professing the state of honour but offred to touche hir indecentlye yea euen to laye his hande vpon the place which standes in curious charge to al women of careful behauiour when the Ladie more misliking his rashnesse then fearing hir owne weakenesse gaue him this modest cheke if seigneur Phylopolo you aduenture to offer mée this wrong in respect of my familier conuersation in this solitarie place vnder the handes of you foure young Gentlemen I hope to finde defence in the vertue of your fayth and assuraunce in the promise of seigneur Glaphyro vnder whose protection I begā this enterprise yesterday which if I eftsoons put in practise this morning methinkes I merite not imputation but rather that my disposition bée more fauoured and my honestie better assured by you vpon whose safeconduct I repose euen the estate of mine honour Here ought to be no cause of doubt Madam sayth Glaphyro where is no pretence of euill dealing and the fayth of a Gentleman is the best warraunt hée can giue to assure his behauiour wherein as we protest innocencye in thought and act so our hope is you will not defile your discression with anye corrupt iudgement as to note vs inciuill in that wherein if wée séemed insufficient in duetie yet not vnreadie in good will as farre as belongs to the office of Gentlemen only your opinion to enter societie with vs shall not lose hir expectation which I beséech you let leade you in suche iudgement of our behauiour as notwithstanding the wanton libertie of Phylopolo you maye vse vs in our meaning of honour towardes you wherein it maye please you eftsoons to settle vnder the fayth and promise of those to whome nothing is more déere then to doe you duetie and seruice I accept your condicions sayth the Ladie and beléeue your promise albeit I coulde not otherwaies saye of Phylopolo then I both finde and proue which I entreated him to forbeare least he kindled occasion of complaint and to holde him lesse welcome to all honest companie ah Madam saith Phylopolo how you chalenge my libertie in spéeche whervnto custome hath giuen a grace and name of modestie to others though you make me guiltie in rude behauiour And if the exercise of yesterdaye was wholye consecrated to the commemoration of loue what newe offence can be enforced if you I dresse a sacrifice to him by a reciprocall pleasure one of an other by which shoulde be made perfect the dedication of this place which last wordes he pronounced with suche lyfe in countenaunce as they séemed plawsible to the whole companie except the Ladye who dissembling hir opinion of his meaning tolde him shée had no other sacrifice to make with him then that as the daye before they studied to erect and set vp the tabernacle of loue so now they woulde labour to commit him to formentes and vtter ruine For so sayth shée shall wée
for their sakes wée desire to sée them great as then to become the staye and comfort of our old age wherein wee employe no small diligence wée feare their venterous youth as not to fall into daunger of body or infection of minde by lewde conuersation and for that cause we prouide tutors to moderate their rashnesse suche is our torment and care of minde for them that wée euen féele the displeasures they suffer and endure a share in their woes and miseries yea if wée waighe in euen ballaunce the gréeues distending with such as we bring into this worlde with the pleasures wée receyue by them we shall hardelie iudge the difference and yet such is the vehement nature of our affection as it makes vs forget the sorrow and trouble whereof they are the cause it is impossible that in matters by which wée receyue extreame contentment that sometimes also they turne vs not to heauie gréeues and annoyes what one thing in the worlde doth more necessarilye delight vs then the fier and yet by it wée sée stately cities and pallaces reuersed and consumed who denies water to be most conuenient for the necessitye of man and yet it is the element in which much people perish and great treasure is deuoured So that notwithstanding the perillous accidentes happening by these two elementes yet to hinder or take awaye their vse were to driue nature from hir course and confuse the thinges of the worlde euen so is it of loue whose profession you wish vs to leaue for certaine light inconueniences accompanying him by circumstaunce and nothing considering the soueraigne benifits which secretly lie shrowded and hidde within him wherein to offer you familiaritie of experience why wishe you not in like sort that wée were not borne at all séeing that as béeing once entred into this worlde our conuersation runnes vnder infinite and intollerable miseries euen so our destinie caries this condicion that the higher we are raysed into degrées of felicitie the redilier we encline to reuolution and féele with more gréefe the pinching stinges of displeasure which Madame me thinkes might drawe you to a fauourable consideration of loue by whome if sometimes wée are lifted into actes of high and perfit pleasure it is not out of reason if at other seasons he leade vs in effectes of more harde and straunge nature séeing that if at one time the pleasure should be litle euen so at an other season the displeasure coulde not but be lesse for so hath God vnited and paysed the one with the other as to bridle our presumption in vaunting to be happy on all sides and therefore he doth drawe ouer our calme of pleasure and felicitie a darcke clowde of gréefe calamitie and yet our voluble pleasure is farre more great without comparison in the respect of our present controuersie then the inwarde gréeues which wée féele for where the lamentable teares the strayned sighes the broken sorowes which oftentimes wée poure out in loue are not enforced by other occasion or meane then as perticipating of our mortalitie subiect to all infirmitie and miserie the pleasures on the other side which like swéete honye distilles by his suggestion laye vs in resemblaunce with Aungelles as though in that contemplacion we imparted with the heauenly powers and to vse a direct truth loue would establish vs as it were in a perfite felicitie vpō earth were not that his pleasaunt mocions be sometimes mingled with certaine light disquietes Wherein maye be discouered a great prouidence of God who to laye afore vs our humanitie hath tempered our delightes with pilles of sorowe and prouided our riuer of transitorie ioye to runne in a streame of anguishe and gréefe not that those small accurrauntes should challenge such authoritie and force as for them it shoulde bée néedefull to deuest our selues of so great beatitude But it behooues amid such distresses to prooue the heart of a true and loyall louer euen as golde is tryed in the furnace séeing that to whome so euer liuing continually nourished in pleasures suche as eyther he woulde haue or can wish for without proofe of displeasure or gréefe it is a hard experience to haue a true taste of the swéete fruite which the gardaine of such delightes doth yéelde yea it standes not with incongruent necessitie to make his taste and iudgement more perfite to entangle his pleasures with some easie and light annoyes like as to giue a good season to meate is required not onely sugar and swéete thinges but also some sharpe spices of qualitie to be hardelye disgested which applyed and tempered with other drugges doe giue a good and perfite taste to that which otherwayes woulde carrie no season at all Ah seigneur Monophylo sayth the Ladie suche is your force in spéeche and reasons to perswade that I could euen settle in your opinion were it not that for you alone ouer whome a voluntarie force holdes the heauie yoake of loue there may be founde thousandes and ten thousandes who bitterlye doe washe their mouthes in curses and complaintes against the daye and hower wherein they tooke first footing in that miserable pryson yea such is eyther theyr naturall blindenesse or prouidence of destinie that albeit they beholde their owne spoyle and ruine yet the missery of their thrall estate holdes so strayght a hande vpon them that neyther force nor pollicie can delyuer them euen like vnto the Déere entangled in nettes who the more he striues the faster contendes he against his deliuerie Why hath nature then sayth Phylopolo who valued louers with brute beastes indued man with a soule of reason as to deuide him from beastlye creatures if he loasing the custome of reason enter willingly into a place which afterwardes without hys great confusion he cannot eschewe the same resembling the condicion of the sillie birde albeit more excusable to whom onelie belonges to complaine of nature as taking from hir all knowledge to resist the swéete charme of the fowler by whome if shée escape death shée is suer at least of captiuity where man drawing to himselfe hys selfe destruction without other power of remedy then to late a repentaunce wherein I praye you is he to be deuided from other creatures but only in the outward eface vnder the which hée couereth his great beastelinesse What syr aunswereth Charyclea who here though good to cut of his ielouse spéech wished him not to presume so far of his owne felicitie séeing he had neyther pollicie nor speciall prerogatiue aboue others to auoyde the misterie if the mischiefe fell vpon him For sayth shée euen as the experience is common that many Marinors vndertaking a long voyage commit themselues to the sea vnder a showe of fayre weather smiling at the first vpon them albeit their hope being turned to heauinesse they stande at last so déepe in the daunger of the tempest that notwithstanding their indeuours they are enforced to abandon their shippe to the mercie of the waues without meane of remedie euen so
and release the bondes of our first sorrowes it may be this pollicie is nothing pleasaunt to Monophylo whose reasons yesterdaye conteyned matter of ymputation against such as were defyled in thought onely against their Ladies but for my part much lesse that I fynde cause of offence therin seing of the contrarie and yet I am not farre estraunged from your opinion I holde it the onely and readie meane to loue well and perfitely For if this loue as you say deriue from a heauenly power can you haue a better meane to knowe hir whome destenie and prouidence haue prouided for you then chaunging from one to another to fall at last vppon hir in whome your senses doe settle and your affections rest satisfied Thys is a perswasion amongst the Genetliake Phylosophers that to knowe the estate of our prouidence and followe our influence is required chaunge of habites names and diuers countries and their to pitche our staye where we encounter our best contentment and not to be obstinately bent to one place wherein if we looke to thriue we must reuerse the reuolution of the heauens who séeme to encline vs an other way And therefore seigneur Monophylo it were an error in all men of highe courage so to encomber his minde with peculier subiection that he had rather moue hys owne spoyle in the daylie pursute of a woman not predestinate to him then to searche his choyce seuerallye elsewhere whose fauours he shal obteyne at the first bicause both lot and destenie will incline to his affection This discourse of Phylopolo enuironed with miseries as to couer the opinion which he vnderstood better by effect then by spéech setting al the company on a pleasant laughter was sodainely answered by the Lady who vnder a smooth anger told him he néeded not adde an othe to make hir beléeue him muche lesse that himselfe was without experience of his owne remedie in whome shée doubted not there was fulfilled a more perfite warraunt and witnesse than in any of the companie which he denied assuring hir that he neuer embased hymselfe so much as to become the seruaunt of one mystresse onely estéeming it an act of great vnthankefulnesse to all the rest of that sex for the respect of one onelye to abandon the loue of infinite others to whome perhappes is more desert and dutie of obedience then to hir in whose regarde wée entangle our credit and consume our goods and tyme all of the contrarie aunswered I for singuler loue or affection simply and pefectly settle to one onely bréedes in vs a readie behauiour of generall curtesie to the rest where otherwayes in séeking to content all wée hazarde the displeasure of all for there is no other motion or originall cause of curtesie but of loue according to the testimonie of all the Romants and histories treating of suche affayres where you shall finde the most perfect and loyall louers to bée they that most exercise curtesie towardes all others induced onely by a reuerent respect to their onely mystresse howe many men doe we sée impotent in forme of mettall leade heauy of mind sluggishly inclined of maners loathsomely disposed in whome neyther learning si●nce vse custome nor example of wise conuersation can worke any honest alurement to honour yet loue whose entisements are proper spurres to ciuilitie hath so transnatured him as if hée were cast in a newe forme by which meane he becomes no lesse ciuill in life and maners then before he excelled in dumpish and lyther disposition the same agréeing with the common spéech and perswacion of the people that to fashion a yong man is necessarie to shrowde hym vnder the winges of some Lady of whome he is amorous as a sufficient meane to drawe him to honour and ciuilitie for suche is our common fault that being cladde with the mistie coulours of Philastie and selfe loue to our selues wée cannot enter into our owne errours whereof as our Ladies do giue vs often knowledge so their warninges become come commonly speciall instruments of our spéedie chaūge making their sleight corrections of farre more authoritye with vs than if wée had bene warned by any seuere preacher in a pulpet And albeit loue being once as déepely setled in the woman as in the man it is not vnlikelye that shée maye be no lesse blinded in the manners of hir friende then himselfe and that with the follye of parents towards their children for friendship sake she passe ouer necligentlye his imperfections yet the desire we haue to please the eye and iudgement of our Ladies is alwayes a quicke and cleare lantorne to leade vs to that behauiour of honor which we ymagine woulde satisfie them And euen as a good Captaine prepared to assault a towne reaposeth not altogither in his people who notwithstanding are his chiefest staye and strength but necessarilye applieth the cannon other engines of warre euen so runneth the condicion of the true louer who pretending to batter the heart of his Ladie doth not onely prepare loue to vanquish and possesse hir which is the principall of all but leades hir in many exercises of ciuilitie and honour as worthie pollecies to prefere his enterbose the same being the perswation of that auncient Poet in his art of loue who instructing him whome he would haue to faine loue giues also straight charge to him that loues indéede to vse his aduise without other art but such as he learneth of loue onely who may serue vs sufficiently as a Maske or Visor to play such a part These matters sayth Phylopolo are no lesse straunge to me in spéeche then their sence of harde vnderstanding wherein if I shoulde wade déeper I should but heape confusion and rather speake by heart then by the booke as being altogither inexperienced that waye But bycause I gouerne not my selfe in these matters so much by the booke as by mine owne contemplation and my fancie is not without singuler pleasure I praye you tell me what other signe or marke of curtesie can you discerne in these madde louers then a most solitarie and continuall care a distraughting of the witte a distemper of the body and lastly a generall contempt of all other thinges except hir to whome his thoughtes are addressed according to the late instruction of Monophylo So that seigneur pasquier you can hardly establishe honestie in your louer who you sée holdes the worlde in contempt and all thinges therein in hate yea they are eyther so rauished in passion or restrayned from reason that with the contempt of the worlde I haue séene them beare suche hate euen to themselues that their Ladies haue loathed their condicion and béene ashamed of their follye and being sometimes rebuked by them for such franticke behauiour what was the excuse of these poore fooles but that hauing no power of themselues their onely felicitie depended vpon the presence of their Ladies Suerly such haggard Pigions woulde hardlye be made tame and much lesse that their capacities stretched to
learne any honest or ciuill behauiour but rather as beastes voyde of naturall iudgement they lyue without courage or countenaunce for if in the presence of their Ladie any other hindred their accesse or were impediments to haue spéeche with them oh howe wylde are they in countenaunce howe vnquiet in minde yea their whole estate so restlesse as if they were tormented with some hurtfull spirite and if they fall into the absence of their mistris you shall neuer sée them settle in any companie or place of what value or worthinesse soeuer it be but as vacabondes without warrant or people fearing the fall of the firmament they ru●ne here and there as though they had no other place to hide them in but in the eyes of their Ladies But if eyther the power of loue to whome they durst offer no disobedience or the authoritie of their Ladies in whome they lyued drewe them to a certainetie of ab●ade with what other exercise did they furnishe the place and time then eyther to beholde the Moone prune their stomack with fretting iealous sighes or at least sitte like saint Leonarde resolued into wearie silence and so mouing their owne scorne they blased themselues in their proper coulours wherein seing I am slipt thus farre into the discourse and state of this matter I can not but commende the short counsell of seigneur Pasquier that to conforme yong men to honest ciuilitie is necessarie they make loue neyther am I against Glaphyro aduising men of armes to doe the lyke to prepare them the better to actions of vertue and honor And for myne owne part I sée no reason to restraine any degrée whether he be a rounde cap or a long gowne seing that albeit studie is their principall profession yet the exercise of curtesie can not be inconuenient to them if neyther they turne their swéete time into spoyle nor their senses into subiection of the rage and follie of that imperious aungell Cupide by these obseruations they maye easily attaine to the ciuilitie requisite in all Gentlemen and by this meane are they apte to bée acceptable not onelie to Ladies but also to all other people of any qualyty and to exchaunge discretion for fancye or to runne so headlong in the humour of their will that they loase not onely the due knowledge of others but euen be blinde in themselues as we reade of Salomon Hercules with many others of excellent wittes so long as they stoode frée from this passion but being once embrued with it their state declyned their condicion chaunged their fortune reuersed and lastely themselues so generallye transformed that except the shape they retained no resemblance of men if these had bene men acording to their name or their wisedome exercised in due worthy sorte they had rather gouerned loue then become thralles to his power they might better haue dissembled with him then so vilely incline to him so might they haue eschued the populer obloquie raysed to their confusion But what such accidents are the true fruits of loue to who so euer treades that desperate laborinth it is an ordinary destinye of a wise man to take the habite of a foole of a carefull manne to become negligent of a valyaunt manne to be so weake as to stande in awe of a worde of his mystresse of a prouident man to loase all pollecye of a yonge man to become withered of a well spoken to stutte from a good shape to be cladde with deformities of a frée man to bée miserablye bounde of a pacient man to become a murmurer or else to beare the burthen of an Asse of a religious man to be an ydolater of a riche man honoured to be made poore and skorned of a liberall man inclyned to charitie a disdainer of the honest necessitye of others of a quiet man according to christianitie a minister of reuenge in the filthye cause of his minion and lastely euen to loase the knowledge of hymselfe God and the worlde whereof the contrarie hée who by wisedome can auoyde the rage of passion and applye himselfe to the honest meanes requisite to allure the heartes of Ladies shall haue a thousande aduauntages aboue the other ouerwhelmed with the burthen of loue as first by his wisedome he shall not suffer himselfe to be ouer ruled with passions his care shall not be turned into necligence his courage into cowardnesse his youth into age his swéete spéech into stammering his libertie into thraldome his pacience into murmour his fayth into hypocrisie his wealth into want his deuotiō into deuillishnesse his sufferance into reuenge nor lastely he shall be neyther blinde in himselfe ignorant of God nor vnthankefull to the worlde he shall bring no staine to his sex as being a man to suffer himselfe to be conquered by the fragilitie of a woman whome God hath not created but as an inferior companion to the man and much lesse shall runne into the babble of people eyther for himselfe or his mistris which the louer perplexed or enuyroned with passions can not eschewe although he thinke he walketh in the clowdes as for example so soone as he entreth into spéeche of his mystris howe easily maye we sée the coales of affection kindle in his face as both by chaunge of coulour and also partialitie of spéeche stryuing alwaies to raise hir worthynesse the same beyng one cause I suppose why the Poets figured loue all naked bicause he doth so easely discouer himselfe to all where of the contrarie he that vnder an artificiall pollecie wyth indifferent familiar behauior can rather pretend then make loue speakes not wythout modesty of hir whom aboue the rest he meaneth to court yea if necessity so require he is so curious ouer all causes of suspition that Argus himselfe can not descrie in what respect he traueyleth And who doubtes that a woman to whome hir honor ought to be more deare then all the values of the worlde estéemeth not better of such one then eyther of a blabbe to whose tongue silence is a paine or a fantasite fléeter who with himselfe forgettes also the estimation of hys mystris wherein if these reasons suffice you not to prooue the passioned louer to be lesse acceptable to his Ladye then he that but dallyeth or dissembleth in loue let vs I pray you consider the proper nature of a woman I speake not generally whether shée applyeth more frankely to the will of him with whome shée standes in secret and deare value or to him of whome shée is most made of for my part I holde with common experience that he is best welcome that best can gouerne hir with swéete and pleasant deuise in whome is most showe of thankfulnesse who best can make court to hir who soonest can finde hir humour and wisely féede it in whome lastly is a most readye facilitie of tryfling flatteries with such other outwarde varieties of delight for touching the inwarde respect women for the most part holde little or no care of
it albeit they may pretende a desire of loyaltie which notwithstanding they estéeme but as a superficiall ceremonie No the more shée séeth you plunged in passions for hir the lesse carefull is shée of your contentment where if shée finde you growe colde in loue it is then that shée entereth into the heate of hir affection being of nature like to a disease whose cure comes by a contrary medicine So that seing women euen by their owne confession stande in condicion contrarie to our willes and that by custome they take pleasure to entertaine the true louer with blaunched signes were it not farre better with the losse of libertie to eschewe also the scorne And truely I can not althoughe to our proper shame but accuse here the common weakenesse of men as to encline so easely to the will of women whose custome of dissembling dealing deserueth a counterchange of lyke qualitie And herein I wishe my example might induce others to vse the friears hypocrisie and with the women themselues to preferre manye sortes of curte●ies which being applyed in their apt season and accompanied wyth such showe of loyaltie that they thinke all is done in their fauour may happily encline them as we best wishe them it is harde for a woman to restraine hir affection from him who is ciuill in behauiour secret in fact modest in spéech wise in all chaunces and professing to loue that which his Ladye liketh with a disposition to conceale not onely all thinges of generall importance but also to be circumspect euen in the small fauors which he receiues of his mystris These thinges are easie to be done of him whome I haue figured vnto you and of harde compasse to the other by whose proper beastlinesse he moues his owne scorne in the worlde as to hunt after the fancie of a woman whose felicitie is his griefe for that he séekes so much to please hir yea seing him alreadie bleared shée enforceth hir pollecie to make him more blinde choaking him with sugred wordes with the subtiltie of Silla or Circes which I beséeche you Madame note not as euill in me seing custome hath made my opinion more then naturall and if in vttering my fancie I bring offence to your presence and maiestie of this place I lay my selfe vppon your authoritie whose propertie is eyther to excuse or pardon This discourse séemed waspishe to one of the companye who feeling a newe playster applied to his olde wounde coulde not but clawe though he rather smarted then ytched assuring him that spake it that were not the friendship he bare him and reuerence he reserued to the companie he would tell him that eyther he had long disguised his nature or for the present was become a corrupter of the common welth as to bring in such magicall hypocrisie that no woman was so honest as to defende hir selfe from his pepered pollecies But I pray you Sir sayth he take héede you fall not into the fortune of him who lost the lybertie of his countrie for that he fashioned such a subtill louer as you séeme to desire Admitte that shoulde happen sayth Charyclea yet woulde I make my selfe partie to his cause not that I allowe his opinion in the generalitie of women although I can suffer his counsell to be exercised against such who haue a malicious glorie to bob those poore soules whose follie is rather to be punished then their condition pittied And in déede the world so swarmes with numbers of that sort of women that I am halfe perswaded to beléeue his report although it tende to our great disaduauntage for nowe we haue besides our apron Ladies of the Citie many popingay pratlers elsewhere who as they take it for a marueilous vaunt and bragge of their bewtie to haue many sutors so their propertie is with the Iuggeler that hath for euery company chaunge of Legerdemeane sometime to interteyne one with spéeche to court an other with lookes to be familiar with the thirde by signes to lure the fourth by a false traine of cloaked honestie féeding them all with one vnsauerie hope and him shée makes hir Asse that beares hir most affection So that I stande not nowe to marueyle if many made wise with your counsell seigneur Phylopolo séeke to disguise with women seing in themselues is bredde the example neyther is the reuenge vniust if with the precedent of their owne deceites they encounter the like pollecies and hauing satisfied the subtill desires of men they slip forthwith into the slaunder of the worlde yea Madame aunswereth Monophylo the onely protector of women and many there be who wrongfully backbite women boasting oftentimes to haue the possession of their whole bodye which they had neuer so much credite as to touche with their little finger and that for a reuenge of an honest and chaste repulse an other sort there are also who to winne the name of iolie Gentlemen will not sticke to say they haue and doe gouerne hir of whome they neuer receyued worde of light qualitie And therefore I wishe all women of this straight regarde that afore they depart with the thing which they can not call againe they consider with two mindes and beholde with thrée or foure eyes For the first woman being seduced by hastie credulitie was the cause why our auncient father was deceyued and at this day men are not without their reuenge and much lesse vnfurnished of meanes to exercise it as turning it to their great glorie to disguise their behauiour and all to deceyue a simple and innocent woman with present imagination that as soone as they haue fashioned a woman in their minde she is due to them as it were by obligation and therefore they take small aduise to commit their fancie to execution But if shée for the more suretie of hir honor will not condiscend to their importunities then they eyther giue hir the name of fine mistris dainty or else to be so subtellie simple that she had rather chuse a little quidam of meane value then admit into fauour a gentleman of so lustie estate as he wéeneth in himselfe Oh seigneur Phylopolo what heresie is in these opinions what blasphemie in their doings seing that as to the man is alowed a simple power to assaile so the lawe hath left to the woman an honest libertie to defende and as the man hath onely a tong to require so nature hath lent the woman two eares to heare to the ende that if he make it lawfull to sue shée hath no authoritie to denie But if you will haue it so that the woman with the trée that inclines to euerie winde abandon hir selfe to euerie request what prerogatiue I pray you allowe you to such as are the first in date what preheminence deserue they who by a perfection in loue and long and loyall pursute haue wonne the possession both of the bodye and minde of their mistris coulde it stande eyther with reason or honestie to dispossesse them of the thing so
miserable passions eyther incurable in déede or at least of painfull remedie and yet seigneur pasquyer if you thinke that for all these extremities such women are drawne to anye pittie you are deceyued in their propertie and the truth not knowne to you seing with the Vipor the more they sée you tormented for them the heauyer martyrdome will they heape vpon you and yet neuer dismisse you but with hope to returne so that where destenie or rather our naturall folly brings vpon vs this miserie let counsell bée applyed afore such passions take déepe continuaunce seing loue with the propertie of the Mariegolde who being growne by the sunne discloseth as the sunne ascendes into degrées of heate so our thoughts and cares doe more and more increase if at the fyrst we resist not loue the originall mouer of our disquiet And euen as a materiall fyre if it be not quenched in the beginning vseth his propertie to encrease in such daungerous flames that euen riuers of waters can not commaunde it notwithstanding in the beginning it might be put out without difficultie euen so if this naturall motion be not restrained in the beginning our suffraunce will turne to our smarte and our selues rest miserably subiect to his authoritie And albeit by small coldes and slender frostes we hope to deface him as by ieolousies and other inconueniences in his behauiour yet in the ende we shall prooue alas to late those flattering defences to bréede with water sprinckled vpon hote coales but a renuing of the fyre and flame of our loue And bycause you shall not thinke my counsell to concerne onely such as finde not a reciprocall loue in their Ladyes I wish my aduise might warne all other in whome is pretence to enter vnder the yoke of loue bicause that if once they swalow downe his trayterous baytes it shall be alway impossible to discerne truely the loyall mistris from hir that hath no fayth and that as well by a blindenesse in their owne passions as that they shall sée most women disguise themselues in so manye sortes that they shall finde it harde to discerne euen their colours So that I holde mainteyne him to be most wise who notwithstanding he thinke to receyue some rewarde and hyer of his Ladye estraungeth himselfe euen in the beginning and not suffer his minde to enter into captiuitie wherein albeit this pleasaunt vse of hir bodye be of such swéete sauor as it may take from you all tast of my councell yet besides the many lamentable passions in loue wisely reuealed by the Ladye Chariclea make you no reckoning of a vaine losse of your time a contynuall traueyle of your body an infinit care of minde a deuouring charge and consuming of your substaunce and lastely that to followe altogither the allurementes of loue you must fall from all other exercises of vertue and honest facultie I accompt him happie who possesseth in loue I holde him wise that moderates that vaine felicitie But I estéeme him most happie and wise in whom though loue bréede a fancie yet he forsake him afore he enter into his furie And as certaine auncient Philosophers helde him most happie that neuer was borne giuing a seconde felicity to him that was formed impotent or deformed so I laye him amongst the number of the happiest who eschewing al occasions forbeareth also the practise of loue and I will ymitate the other who although he haue dipped his finger in that vnsauory broth yet fearing to be altogither scalded draweth backe to his honour and profitte And yet he that dare aduenture vnder the vayle of such hope as louers pretende I could better allow the gentleman to practise that trade then such who professe the modest attire of the longe gowne not that I will derogate more the one than the other estéeming them both of one degrée euerye one in his qualitie onlye me thinke the estate of the Gentleman which is to follow armes is more tollerable in loue then our frockemen whose profession lyeth chiefelye in studie altogither vnfitte for loue neyther can the gentlemen so farre transgresse from any worthye enterprise as the other séeing in him loue is oftentimes one speciall cause of courage to attempt great thinges for the onelye seruice and remembraunce of his Ladye in whose respect he laboreth in many worthy exercises altogither concerning armes who séeme to take their originall mocion or at least their greatest encrease in the opinion of our Ladyes in whose fauour we arme our selues for the iustes torneyes and other actes of high actiuitie so that it séemes almost necessarie that suche sortes of youth be sprinckled with the dew of loue the better to prepare them to armes the same in mine opinion being the cause why the Poetes aunciently painted out Mars and Venus vsing their pleasures togither which hath bene eft represented vnto vs by all the Romants eyther spanish or french to such kinde of people then I will not much defende the practise of loue if they list but touching the others I hold it as inconuenient for their trade for the Merchaunt to confuse his traffike of forrayne wares with the studye of Phisicke All of the contrarie sayth Phylopolo For from what other cause procéede the effectes of so many excellent wittes both of auncient memorie and present experience yea shyning amongst the other monumentes of the worlde as the Moone amid the starres but that they were kindled and set on fire by this brande of loue whose drawing violence as an adamant or loadestone first entised the pen of Petrarche Sauazar and Beuibo and in our tyme and countrie was the original bellowes which gaue the first wind to the amorous exercises of Consart Bellay Th art whose singuler perfection in their seueral phrase methode of stile hath drawne vnto them a name of ymortalitie translated as it were the gift and disposition of poestye from ytaly the late mother nurse of that facultie to our countrey of fraunce a chiefe mainteyner now of that auncient and commendable exercise And amongst all this socyetie of most excellent wittes what other meane hath raysed them to the tip or hygh ripenesse of perfection but onely loue who without them albeit may séeme to haue bene nothing so by these prooues the candle of their estimation had quenched if loue had not ministred matter and gyuen them value So that I must ●aye to your charge eyther malice or parcialitie if you take from men of studie the practise of loue it were a doubtfull opinion sayth Monophylo to holde that those kinde of men had sypped on the cup of loue seing if we may measure the dispositions of others by our proper fancyes I thinke it woulde proue harde that a man entangled in his snares coulde at pleasure discouer the state of so high a conceyte as the writinges of the Poetes séeme to disclose by figure for as it is a true experience that they onely commaunde their sences most whose affections bée fréeest so