Immolate the jealous Penitent to executed Innocence He wished that he were able at least to tear out his Heart and to rid himself with it of his Crime and Punishment His Eyes besieged by a Death as yet warm and bloody and by two Specters equally frightful finde every where Torment and Reproaches Me thinks this Fury strikes Fear into you Surely she is frightfull And the most Resolute and Heroick Souls even those which deride Death with all its disguises cannot behold her without Trembling if she appears to them Of these Serpents which you see upon her Head some raise sinister Reports and bad Rumors others infuse suspitions and distrusts There are some which steal in by the Eyes of Husbands others which enter by the Ears of VVives The fairest Flowers wither as soon as they are touched by them The best united Hearts are severed if never so little bitten by them and from their mouth doth fall as well the Gall which imbitters the sweetest Humours as the Venom which corrupts the fairest Flowers of Marriage The Torch which she holds in her Hand is no less pernitious then the serpents about her Head All the bad Colours wherewith the most innocent Actions become darkned are compounded of this Coal Her Smoak obscureth the purest and clearest Lights and draws Tears from the fairest Eyes she robs the fairest Faces of their Lustre and Attraction Her Fire seizeth on both Souls and Bodies she causeth Frenzies and Calentures and even in this Life she makes Devils and damned Souls All this teacheth you that this Furie is Jealousie and Enemie of the Graces and the Corruptresse of Love She is come as you see to act her second part and begins to revenge that Murder to which she her self did instigate All the Serpents which are wanting on her Head are about Herods Heart and even tears his Conscience The Bloody sword which she shews him is a dreadfull Looking-glass to his Imagination He beholds there the horror of his Crime he sees there the wounds of his Heart and the stains of his Soul This Apparition indeed is frightful but the incensed Ghost which ariseth from this beautiful Bodie is much more And Herod suffers an other fire and other stings then from the Torch and Snakes of the Furie His wandring and troubled Eyes change their station at every moment They are obsest with these two Spectres which haunt them every where And thinking to repose them upon this dying Beauty wherein heretofore consisted his chief Happinesse he findes there a Tribunal and Scaffold his condemnation and punishment His Yesterdayes Idoll is to day his judge and Executioner This just Blood which still reaks is a devouring fire which fills his distemper'd Imagination and there comes out of it Imprecations and Complaints Outcries of Reproach and Vengeance These cold and tyed up Hands tear his Heart in pieces and this Beautifull Head which caused all his joyes and happy dayes is now the Principal part of his Torment Mean while she hath only changed place the blow which cast her down hath not shaken off her flower her Grace and Beauty are thereby a little faded but not defaced And her open and still â—â—rene eyes seem to expect another Death as if there needed more then one to extinguish them Thus the eclipsed Moon is still fair and the Sun sets daily without losing one single Ray or changing Countenance The mischief is that whereas the Moon recovers her defections and is cured of her Eclipses and the Sun riseth again the next day after his setting there is no renovation of Light or a new day to be expected for Mariamne And this Beautiful Head is fallen in her own Blood never to rise again SONNET MAriamne's dead her Corps is now the seat Of Whiteness only by her Souls Retreat The Royal Blood that tinctur'd it with Red In Crimson streams flowes from her sever'd Head Megaera holds before the Tyrants Eyes The murd'ring Sword He in that Glass espyes The stains wherewith his Heart is cover'd ore And sees his Image purpled with her gore The Vigorous impressions of this sad And â—atal Object render Herod mad Two vindicating Ghosts his Eyes invade With flaming Torch and with a glittring Blade But now his Fury dreads nor Flames nor Swords Her Blood that 's boyling still such Fumes affords As make him feel all Hells tormenting Evils Without the Scorch of Fire or Scourge of Devils ELOGIE OF MARIAMNE MARIAMNE hath appeared too often upon the Theater not to be known in this Picture All things were great in her Birth Beauty Vertue Courage nay bad Fortune She was the Grand-Childe of Patriarchs Prophets Kings and High Priests Her Countenance captivated Herod and inchainâ—d him for a time and her Picture stood in Competition with Cleopatra in the Heart of Anthonie Her Vertue neverthelesse did not consent to this concurrence and being far from thinking on forbidden Acquisitions she never dained to put any constraint upon her self for the preservation of that which she lawfully possessed Her Chastity was so severe and so little indulgent outwardly that there remained within something I know not what of stately and piccant which exasperated Herod and made him return to his own Nature But she was the same to the bitings of this inâ—aged Beast as she had been to his Indeerments She retained her confidence and preserved all her Majesty amidst suborned Accusers confederate and corrupted Judges The Face of the Executioner did not alter at all the serâ—â—ity of her Countenance and her Head was struck off without paling her Brow or displacing her Heart Her Constancie did not begin by her punishment it began by that which is termed her good Fortune Having espoused a jealous Tyrant it was requisite for her to be as couragious in the Palace as in the Prison and Resolution was as needful for her under the Diadem as under the Sword The Blow which struck off her Head was less her Death then the End of her punishment for one Crown it cut off it brake a dozen chains and it was a Redeemer and not an Executioner which delivered her from Herod MORAL REFLECTION HEROD glorious and tormented and Mariamne crowned and unhappy teach us that the greatest Tranquillity is not found in the Highest Regions of the World There are no priviledged Territories nor exempt from Malediction Many sufferers are seen in Prisons and upon Scaffolds but the worst treated Persons remain in Pallaces and upon Thrones These nevertheless cause more Envie then Pitty The People admire what they ought to lament and when there is occasion of drawing the Picture of Happiness they represent her upon a Throne and place a Scepter in her Hand and a Crown upon her Head But the People are ignorant Judges and very unskilful Painters Every day they judge at Random and without knowing the Cause Every day they vent Chimaera's and Caprichio's for well regulated Figures They sufficiently understand of what matter Crowns are made and discern well enough how they
of Jasper and Porphire SONNET WHile this Heroick Mede attempts to gain O're weighty Palms be by their poyse is slain His Brow still sweats with Gallans Actions done Still do's the Blood about his Armour run His Hearts late active Flames have lost their Fire And through its reaking Blood in Smoak expire While couch'd among the Dead his Soul pursues The wand'ring Shades of those the sword subdues O hold Panthea hold thy best Relief Rests in the moderation of thy Grief Save thou at least thy Husbands second Heart And let one Death suffice your common Smart In thee he still survives and may again In thee fair Cruel by thy Hand be slain Thâ— inhumane Steel that shall dismiss thy Breath To him must needs procure a second Death ELOGIE OF PANTHEA PANTHEA had a Philosophers Spirit in a Womans Bodie and a knowing and disciplined Soul under a Barbarous Climat There was nothing weak or rustical in her Life All her Actions were full of Courage and Dexteritie Chastity Grace and Modesty excepted nothing appeared in her agreeable to her Sex Having remained a Captive after the Defeat of the Assyrians vanquished by Cyrus she was set apart as the most precious piece of the Spoil and as the choicest fruit of the Victory And in this occasion her Vertue appeared more rare and prizable then her Beauty A noble man of Persia having had the Impudence to attempt upon her Honour Discretion Chastity and Fidelity defended it And the Victory which remained to her evidently shewed that Fortune had not yet overcome her And that though she were an absolute Captive yet she had alwayes a free Heart and a soveraign Soul The Affection she bore to her Husband Abradates was serious and manly she did not consume it in affected Discourses and superfluous Apprehensions She truly loved his Life and Repose but she was jealous of his Reputation and Renown And she would rather have wished him an untimely and glorious Death then a dishonoured and compleat old Age. So far was she from making him lose in her Closet the hours of the Field and from withdrawing him from Gallant Encounters and Honourable Dangers that she sent him thither in a costly Equipage like a Conquerer that she delighted to see in him an adorned and sumptuous Valour which might both dazle and affright which might beget at once both Admiration and Fame He died likewise Victorious in the Gold Armour which she had bought for him with her Pearl and pretious Stones as if she intended thereby either to adorn his Death or to set a Value and Lustre on his Victory Being brought to her covered over with his own Blood and that of his Enemies she received him Couragiously and with a manly Constancy mixt with sorrow and Majesty She forbore not to bewail him but it was done with those modest and decent Tears which do not soften the Heart but beautifie the Face Not being able to make his Soul return into his Body she essayed to substitute her own in the place of it For that end she opened her Bosom by a wide wound and leaning on him as if she were willing to fill his Heart with her Blood and Life she dyed in two Bodies and yeelded up her Soul through her Husbands Wound and and her own MORAL REFLECTION I Put not here a Sword into Womens Hands nor invite them unto Poison a Halter or Precipice Voluntary Death might appear handsom and becoming in this Barbarian it would seem black and hideous in a Christian Woman But Chastity Fidelity and Constancie are in use with all Nations and requisite for All Sects And our Christian Women without darkning or disfiguring themselves may imitate Barbarian Let them learn of her that Conjugal Love is not an effeminate and mincing Passion That it is vigorous and serious That it is capable of great Designes and of Noble and Couragious Thoughts Let them understand that though their Sex be exempted from the Dangers and Functions of War yet their Fortunes and Mindes are not so that they ought to serve with their Goods and Possessions if not with their Persons And that it were a Disgrace for them to spare two or three Pearls and Parcels of rich Cutwork in Occasions wherein Princes are Liberal of their Blood and Kings expose their Crowns and Heads In fine let them know that their chief Ornament consists in their Husbands Glory that they ought to adorn themselves with all that contributes to their Credit and Reputation And that a man without Honour is as great a Deformity to a brave Woman as a Head of Clay to a Statue of Ivorie MORAL QUESTION Concerning the Order which a Gallant Woman ought to observe in Conjugal Love IF good Eyes and a great Light be requisite to love regularly more Courage and Vertue is yet required to it And well ordained Charity what sweetness soever it promiseth is the most powerful and the most rare perfection of a Gallant Woman There are many who tenderly love their Husbands The Heart of a Turtle or the Soul of a Dove without other Philosophie would suffice for this Tendernesse But surely few there are that love them according to measure and in order to their duties few that know how to afford just proportions to their kindnesses and to set every office in its place and in the degree which is proper to it Finally few that can boast with the Spouse in the Canticles of having a regular Love and a well ordered Charity And neverthelesse it is this regular Love and well ordered Charitie which must accomplish the Fortitude of a Woman For according to the saying of S. Augustine these give the Character and Tincture to all other Vertues of what Sex soever they be and by what Names soever they are called Morever this Order to draw the Designe of it in little and to teach it by Epitomie must be taken from the very order of those Objects that are beloved Wherein this proportion is to be exactly observed that every Object be ranked in the esteem and according to the degree of its Merit That the most pretious and important should have the first Cares and be furthest advanced in the Heart that the rest of lesse consequence should remain in the superficies and rest satisfied with the second thoughts and remaining Affections And generally that love should grow intense or remisse rise or fall act or acquiesce according to the different weight according to the several degrees according to the Value of the good which is to be affected and pursued This Rule ought to be in a Gallant Woman what the Rod was to the Angel whom Ezekiel saw measuring the Temple She ought not to Love but with proportion according to the quantity of merit And how vast soever her Heart is she must yet be wary of pouring it out rashly and at random she ought to give nothing of it but by weight and measure Not that I permit her to divide and distribute it to whom
Infamy and â—dishonest Prison to which she was carryed by the wind after a thousand Maledictions breathed forth both against Fortune who had unhappily preserved her from the fire and ruines of her House and against her Sex which had rendred her unworthy of an honorable Deathâ— it came into her mind that the Genius of her Coâ—ntry required some action from her which might make more noyse then her Fall had done As this Mayd was wholy taken up with this thought she perceived a Soldier entring into the Magazine of Powder she went in readily after him and having found fire ready at hand assisted by her good Angel as One may believe and inspired by God jealous of the honor of Virgins she took hold of this fire and cast it into a barrel of Powder which was ready to receive it The Effect was sudden At the very Instant the flame disperseth it self with an incredible noyse through the whole Gally and from thence spred it self amongst the other three which drew neer to assist it The Couragious Virgin being first carryed away had not the leisure to be sensible of her Liberty and Victory But doubtless her faâ—â— soul issuing forth of her body stayd at least some time to have the 〈◊〉 of them both And her first Joy was to behold these devouting and statelâ— flames which revenged the sacking of Nicofia upon the Victorious and burnt with the prison and bondage of her Companions the Sâ—ragâ—o and voluptuous present which Muâ—tapâ—a had embarked for Selum MORAL REFLECTION WHat I have said in Verse is true and I can say it also in Prose The strong Hebrew who threw down a Pallace and overwhelmed a whole multitude at his Death did no more then this Mayd If she had not so much strength in her Armes she had peradventure more in her Heart and Mind At least she overcame Love and Pleasure which vanquished Sampson And the Captives death which was no less then hers a bloody Victory without Combat hath manifested in these latter Times that Vertue becomes not decrepid with Years that it is now the very same it was in the Time of Heroes and that the alteration we observe therein proceeds from its Subjects and not from its vigor and strength But this chaste and victorious Mayd speaks cheifly to those that pretend to Chastity and are jealous of the flower and glory of their Sex She teacheth them that perfect Chastity hath her Enthusiasmes and Raptures that she cannot endure to be tyed how rich soever her chains may be that Fortune hath no Mountains of Gold nor Rivers of Silver which she doth not pass over that Ambition cannot build her so elevated a Pallace from which she doth not precipitate her self that Excess and Voluptuousness cannot tye her with so sweet chains which she doth not break that even Death it self cannot present to her Obstacles which she doth not overcome It would be a great Shame to a Woman who should profess Chastity to be fastned to a Trifle if she could not break a silken thred if she dare not oppose her self to a few Thorns And I know not how she would dispose of her Honor if to conserve It she were necessitated to set fire on her house to leap down into a Precipice to expose her self to Swords Wheels Tender Women and such as Love their ease will make answer to this that these Raptures belong not to the Vertue of their Sex And that Chastity is not reduced to so great necessity as Despair must defend it The subsequent Question will shew what weight this Answer carries and whether Christian Philosophy be on her side MORAL QVESTION VVhether an Heroick Transport be necessary to the Perfection of a Womans Chastity THe Question doth suppose a Transport to be Essential to Heroick Vertue And that there is an Enthusiasme which forms Heroes as well as there is one which makes Poets This Transport to define it distinctly and to give an Express and pure Notion of it is an extraordinary Effort by which the Soul is violently carryed to Objects which transcends the common reach of Men. And because our forces be not proportionable to those high Objects and that the best disposed and most able amongst us can hardly advance much further without being born up it hath been always believed that there necessarily entred into these extraordinary Efforts something I know not what Divine which transported Nature and of this I know not what whether it be a Spirit or Divine Fire the word Enthusiasme is composed which the Grecians have expresly formed for these Transports Here nevertheless we must call to minde that Enthusiasmâ— and Transports are divers and of a different Species according to the different Faculties which are Transported and according to the different Objects to which they are Transported If the Rapture comes only from the Intellectual and Imaginary part which is Subalteâ— it tends to luminous and elevated Ideas to Noble and Specious Fantomes and Imaginations It is effected by glorious Visions and by bold and magnificent Expressions And this Enthusiasmâ— is properly That which Ignorant and Prophane Men stile the folly of Poets But if the Rapture be from the whole Person if the Intellectual part carryes away the Appetitive if the Soul Transports the Body and if by a joynt effort they all tend either to the Divine or Soveraign Good or to that eminent Honour which is in this life the last point of consummated Vertue this general Transport being a Transport of Action is the same Enthusiasme which they attribute to Heroes and which Philosophers seek in Heroick Vertue And surely it is absolutely necessary to it whether by reason of the 〈◊〉 and difficulty of its Object whereto we arrive not by ridding way and numbring our steps or by reason of the Thornes and Obstacles whâ—â—h Inviâ—on it And to raise ones self above these Thornes to surmoâ—â—â—â— these Obstacles it were almost requisite to have a winged Heart One ought to have at least a Soul to carry it as swiftly and as high as winâ—â— could do It is not likewise doubted for these reasons but that a 〈◊〉 sport is necessary to Heroick Vertues yet there is much ground to doâ—bt whether Chastity be one of these Vertues whether it be called to the Communication of this Spirit whether it may not advance to its Good but with violence and by 〈◊〉 And â—f we believe at first sight the appearance and common notions thereofâ— we will stand for the Negative First the Spirit of Modesty being 〈…〉 Spirit of Chastity is an Apprehensive and Fearful Spirit a Spirit which â—â—dles and Restrains which Apprehends much noise and 〈◊〉 which shuns the Stage and Spectators which affects Privacy and 〈…〉 Now there is nothing more opposite to this timerous and 〈…〉 Spirit then the Spirit of Transport which is Bold and Attemptingâ— Impâ—â—ient and Active an Enemy to Reservedness and Constraint 〈…〉 of Bounds and yet more uncapable of Chains Moreover all the Masters of
part it is to loosen the soul from abject things and elevate it to God This elevation also being 〈◊〉 well undertaken and made without deviation is able alone to strengthen the minde and sufficeth without other Philosophie for all the duties of courage First all the Actions of life being subjected thereby to the eternal Law and applyed to soveraign Justice and to the essential and primitive Rule receive from thence an equal and constant evennesse and a â—ectitude incapable of deviation or infringement Secondly the soul approaching to God by this elevation and consequently illuminated by his â—â—ght and instructed in the orders established in the World by that Providence which governs it doth not repiningly and with frowardnesse receive that part of events which is assigned her she accomodates herself by degrees to the rules of this vast Family into which she is entred she performs her part of the consort and contributes at least her resignation to the designe of the great Workman and to the general harmonie of his Work Concerning Hazard and Fortune knowing very well that they are but Figures which Errour hath painted and set up and that none but Children and Ideots regard them she equally deâ—ides their favours and their threats And whatsoever happens to her of good or ill she receiveth it with the same satisfaction of Mind and acknowledgeth therein the care and goodness of the Father who sends it her Thirdly the soul is purified by this elevation and disburdens herself of matter And the neerer this elevation approaches her to God the stronger and more vigorous she is the purity also which she receives thereby is more exact and her disingagement more perfect she is thereby lesse capable of material passions and can raise her self to such a degree and unite herself so close and straightly to the first spirit that being made one spirit with him she forgets the allyance and interest of her body and assists indifferently and as a stranger to its sorrows and joyes In fine the Soul brought back by this elevation to the spring of life and led into the entrance of Eternity which is promised her learns to contemn these little Moments which roll within the Circle of time and mark out to every one the space and length of his life And so far is she from apprehending Death or being affrighted at the sight of its terrible Arms that she looks upon it as her Deliverer as that which was to break her Chainâ— and loosen her from the wheel of revolutions and human viâ—issitudes The Synagogue in its declining Age had in Salomona an Example of this Religious Fortitude The Church in her beginning had the like in S. Felicitas who was a Roman Salomona and who of seven Sons which God had given her and by her restored to him made seven Christian Maccabees In these last Ages in which Schismatical Tyrants have succeeded Idolatrous ones and unbridled and furious Heresie hath fought against the Church and Faith There hath been plenty of Heroick Women who have given examples of theâ—â— Fortitude and Religion Behold here one of Note and chosen amongst our Neighbours where we shall see a Woman an Exhortresse not of her Children but of her Father a Martyr A Woman above interest and Nature and equally victorious over Fortune and Death EXAMPLE Margaret Moor the Daughter of Sir Thomas Moor Lord Chancellor of England THere is no Person who hath not heard some Discourse of the Birth of the Schism in England and who knows not the Cruelties which followed that Incestuous and Tragical Love and that fatal Malice which of a Prostitute made a Queen and of an excommunicated Lay-man of a rotten and mutilated Member made a Soveraign Prelate without Unction and Order a Schismatical and Monstrous Head The Lord Chancellour Moor was one of the first and most noble Victims Immolated to Aâ—â—e of Bullen and to the Schism which was born of this unfortunate Marriage King Henry omitted no kinde of Temptation to gain this learned and wise old man who was grown white in the Service of the State and had spent fourty Years to the Honour of his Countrey and Time But all his temptations proved weak and his Offers as well as his Threats returned back to him without effect The Chancellor was stronger then all the Engins which were prepared against him the Prayers and Tears of his afflicted and mourning Kindred were not able to move him The Engins and Rage of an inflamed and furious Tyranny could not alter his resolution He had a Daughter called Margaret who was no lesse the Daughter of his Spirit then of his Body He had formed her with his Tongue and polished her with his Pen He had imprinted in her by degrees and in divers Figures the Flower of his Learning and the Spiritual part of his Soul And he that shall represent to his imagination an exact Graver and jealous of the perfection of his Work who should spend Dayes and Nights about some rare piece of Marble which he designes for one of the Muses or Graces will have a right imagination of the Cares and Assiduity which this good Father had shewn in the instruction of this excellent Daughter His Cares also proved successeful and his Assiduity was very fortunate And if it be a common saying that Books are the Children of their Authors one may well say that this Daughter was the most learned and polished Book which issued from the Minde of Sir Thomas Moor. His Vtopia and other Works which still live are but in one Language and of one matter That other Piece was both Greek and Latine Prose and Verse full of Philosophie and Historie Of all the Family of Sir Thomas Moor there was scarce any but this Woman learned and couragious who went not along with the Time not was pliable to Interest She was singularly beloved of her Father and a few Words of her Mouth accompanied with as many Tears would have battered him more dangerously then all the suborned Ministers of Henry and all the Engins of Schism Neverthelesse these so powerful words and these forcible Tears which might have shaken him were all imployed to confirm him Friendship and Tenderness fortified his â—aith and gave Courage to his Constancie And the Piety of the Daughter added to the Zeal of the Father and finished his Martyrdom Sir Thomas Moor being Prisoner in the Tower of London where he was visited by God alone and had commerce with none but the Muses which suffered with him his Couragious Margaret caused a forged Letter to be spread abroad in which she feignedly seemed willing to gain him to the Kings Will and procured leave by this innocent and charitable deceit both to see and serve him Being received into the Tower she left at the gate with the person she had taken upon her the resentments of Nature and the weaknesse of her Sex and entred with the pure Spirit of Christianity and with a couragious Faith prepared for the Combat
should have seen these Noble and Generous Tears trickle down they would have taught us that the Eyes of Heroes are not Adamantine Eyes And that the Vulgar are deceived who take great Hearts for Hearts of Brass Cyrus then bewailed Abradates but he did it magnificently and after an Heroick manner His tears were followed by a profusion of Riches which will be presently burned with the Dead And he is newly returned to the Camp to give out Orders for the Funeral Pomp and to make choice of the Victimes which were to be Immolated to the Ghost of his Friend He believes him still in the Field of Battel where he enjoyes his Reputation and numbers the Dead and his own Victories As for these sad Preparatives and Funeral expences they are made for the Consolation of Panthea no less then for the Honour of Abradates But Panthea is no longer in a Condition to Comfort her self with burn'd Purple or Gold consumed to Ashes with the Smoak of a Flaming Pile and the Blood of a Butchered Flock with the large shadow and great Images of a vast Sepulchre Her Grief was too violent to expect such Superficial and VVeak Remedies and to be cured by Ceremonies and Superstitions She had Recourse to a Consolation of less Cost and far more Efficacious She believed that a small Piece of Steel plung'd into her Bosom would be to her Sorrow a more Infallible and Speedy Remedie then Mines of Gold and Quarries of Jasper erected into Pillars and Pyramids over her Husbands Bodie And this Remedie which she conceived the most speedy and Infallible she newly took couragiously and with a boldnesse which merited to be reserved for a lesse Tragical Occasion Behold on her Face the Confidence of her Spirit and the graceful Composure of her Grief Every thing is very Becoming to Beautiful Persons Their Sorrows and Anger 's look handsomly Their Tears adorn them and their very despites Beautifie them And there is nothing even in their Maladies and VVounds which appears not Decent There is not any thing even in their Deaths which seems not pleasing from their Attractives and shines not from the same Lustre which it extinguisheth That of Panthea hath nothing hideous or gastly you would rather take it for a sweet Sleep then for a violent Death The Graces themselves if there be any such as Painters and Poets describe could not sleep more modestly And a Flower which the North Winde hath withered could not more gently bow down its Head nor die more gracefully It is not likewise a Palenesse which you see upon her Brow and Cheeks It is a tincture resembling that dying Brightnesse which appears in a Clear Cloud when the Sun withdraws his Beams from it Trust not her Eyes though they begin to close The Fire Burns still even when it is extinguished And the Sun being in the Ecliâ—se ceaseth not to be dangerous and to offend the sight The like may happen to these dying Eyes The Sparkles which fall from them retain still a kinde of Lightning and He it and I do not doubt but if 〈◊〉 were here and that one of them should enter into his Heart it would in kindle there a second Feaver and send back the Fire into his former VVound VVhilst her Eyes half shut cast forth their last Light and that her Mouth is open to her last â—ords you observe peradventure the passage of her Soul and desire to know whether it will issue out by her Eyes or Mouth Aâ—â—ure your self that through what art soever it passeth it will passe generously and depart victorious and through a fair gate It is credible neverthelesse that it will sally forth by the nearest Gate to the Heart and which she her self newly made with her own Hand A stream of Blood which goes before this great Soul prepares the way And spurting up even upon the Bodie of Abradates enters there through all his VVounds as if it would fill his empty Veins as if it would even penetrate his Heart to reinkindle the extinguished Fire and dispose it by the Spirits which it brings to receive the Soul which was to follow them Her Countenancâ— though languishing expresses joy at this encounter Her life seems to passe in good earnest with her Blood into her Husbands Bodie and her Soul is assured to finde there a second Abode which will prove more happy then the former had been Comforted by this Vain and sweet Imagination she let fall her Head upon the Head of Abradates You would say that she prepares her self to expire upon his Lips And that after the transmitting into him her Blood and Spirits she resolves to place her Sighs and last Breath upon his Mouth Love supports her in this Action But it is an Heroick and Magnanimous Love a Love which instructed her in Vertue and fortified her Courage For Loves if you are yet to learn it are not all Wanton and Voluptuous There are Austere and Chaste Loves there are Valiant and Philosophical ones And amongst them Glory and Vertue have their Confederates and Disciples as well as Vice and Pleasure He that assists Panthea with so much Care is one of these Confederates of Vertue and Disciples of Glory It is he that strengthened her against Temptations and the Courtships of Ariaspes he that inspired her with Chastity and Conjugal Faith he that taught her to apparel her self with the Reputation of her Husband and to Adorn her self with his Victories he that perswaded her rather to love Abradates glorious and dying with a good Name then living and Infamie This manner of loving Gallantly and like a Heroess was indeed according to Abradates own Heart And you see in what Posture he set himself to correspond therewith We have not seen him in the Conflict breaking a Squadron of Egyptians and pursuing the Victory in a Warlike Chariot But we behold the Glorious Colours which he brought thence and received even between the Arms of Victory It seems that his Valour could not die with him At least it appears still heated in his Wounds and stately on his Face The Rich Armour which his Generous Wife had bought him with her Pearl was pierced thorow in divers Places as if a great Soul could not fally forth by one single passage The blood which trickles down from thence is mixed with the blood of his Enemies wherewith he is covered and seems willing still to overcome All things have in him some Mark of Honour and Generosity And even Death it self is bold upon his Brow and resembles Victory In this so glorious and Mournfull Condition his Vertue begot Pittie even in those to whom in the Conflict it had bred Emulation It was Honoured by the Blood of Enemies and by the Tears of his Rivals by the terrour of the one and the affliction of the other And immediately a sumptuous Monument erected over his Bodie and that of Panthea buried in the same Garment will be to each of them as a second Life and an Immortalitie
LA GALERIE DES FEMMES FORTES THE GALLERY OF Heroick Women Written in French by PETER LE MOYNE of the Society of JESVS Translated into English by the MARQUESSE OF VVINCHESTER LONDON Printed by R. NORTON for HENRY SEILE over against S. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet M.DC.LII The Translators Address to the Ladies of this Nation LADIES ME Thinks I see your curious Eyes advancing apace to behold this Noveltie this fair Gallery of Heroick Women first erected in France to the Honour and instruction of your Sex and now transported into England upon the same Account These Gallant Heroesses repaired first from all the Regions of History to the Court of France to lay down their Crowns at the Queen Regents Feet This Ceremonie and Duty performed they had a desire to passe the Sea and inform themselves of the condition and state of this Island And finding no Queen here to whom they might render the same obedience they resolved to address themselves to you hoping to finde amongst such noble Company some Ladies who resemble them at least in part of their Vertues if not in all A Voyage of this Nature deserves the best Entertainment And the most sumptuous Feast you can set forth to such illustrious Guests in acknowledgement of the Honour they have done you by this Visit will be the pure oblation of your Hearts inflamed with a desire to follow their Glorious steps and imitate their Exemplar Vertues The conversation of such brave women cannot chuse but be most delightful and instructive to you and some of your hours I assure my self will be well imployed in giving a serious Attention to the Stories of their renowned Actions and in reflecting chiefly on the examples of those Christan Heroesses who beautifie this rich Structure and contribute most to your Imitation Their gallantry is so perfect as you need not doubt but they will gladly suffer your noble Hands to take some Flowers out of their Garlands which if well applyed Crowns may be formed on them and one day placed upon your Heads by some worthy Person of our Countrey who taking notice of your Vertuous Carriages and improved Actions in this land of trial may hereafter erect a new Gallery in which your Statues and Names will remain a Spectacle of Honour and Imitation to Posterity I need say no more having given you sufficient matter of Emulation It is powerful in all great souls and observed to be particularly grafted in your Sex I will not then detain you any longer from entring into this resplendent Gallery but open the Doâ—r to you by this little tribute of Respect rendred to your fair Hands by Your most Humble Servant WINCHESTER The Authors Panegyrical Address to the Queen Regent MADAM THE Heroick Women assembled in this Gallery are come from all parts of History to lay down their Crowns at your Majesties Feet and to congratulate in common the Honour you have rendred to your Sex True it is Madam that all the Eyes of Europe are now fix'd on you And there are no Mouths so little Christian and so much ingaged elsewhere which do not seriously and sincerely applaud you However Madam I may say that the Company I present unto you will bring no confusion to the Feast They are Soveraign and Illustrious Women who have been like your self the choicest objects of their Ages They are Victorious Persons whom Vertue and Glory have Crowned with their own Hands And this must needs be a sweet satisfaction to you that so many Soveraign and Illustrious Women have descended from their Thrones and Theaters to become your Spectators The Sound and Acclamations of so many Heroesies who applaud you with their Hands cannot chuse but be a pleasing harmony to your Ears The chief thing Madam is that these Applauses are no Stage Representations that these Acclamations are no constrained or purchased Flatteries They are serious and legitimate Tributes which the vanquished pay to their Victress And you have vanquished them with so much Grace and Justice the Advantages you have over them are so charming and your emulation hath been so modest as there is not one amongst them who is not thankful and well pleasing with your Victory This Victory Madam so acceptable to the Vanquished is intirely Yours It is not of your Regency It is of your whole Person And though it be Peaceable and free from blood yet it is not inferiour to those tumultuary and bloudy Victories you have gained in the generall distemper of all Europe It is certainely your great glory to have overcome on the Rhein on the two Seas beyond the Alps and the Pyrenean Mountains But your Glory Madam is much greater by having ouercome in Histories and Annals in Heroick Ages and in the Region of great Examples And what noise soever is made by the Arm 's of France the Reputation of your Vertue Victorious over the Artemisias the Radaguna's and Pantbea's is far more illustrious and resplendent then the renown of your Fortune victorious over so many defeated Armies and reduced Fortresses I need not fear that any one will accuse me of flattery or reproach my words with hyperbolicall Excesse Heathen Vertues were never of the force or stature of Christian Vertues and amongst these later yours Madam are the most Vigorous and eminent they are Heroick and Soveraign Your Piety indeed is of another Elevation and Zeal then their affected shews of Devotion who limit to the circle of their Beads who referre all their Meditations to the modesty of their dresse and to a few tears squeezed out by force Your Piety amuseth not its self in making smoak in the house of God and trafficking with him by consuming Tapers and evaporating Perfumes It draws from the bottom of your heart the fire Incense and Victime of the Sacrifices it offers to his Divine Majesty And which is more acceptable to him then all the Gums of Land and Sea which is more pleasing to him then the bloud of slaughtered flocks it presents unto him the Contrition of a Soveraign heart the Humility of a Crowned head and the abasement and adoration of a humiliated and religious Authority This private Worship and these domestique Sacrifices make not her whole imployment she hath other more generall Practises and other Exercises exposed to the eyes of the world These Practises are Instructions which equall the worth of Laws And these Exercises are Examples which command She refers her particular devotions to the edification of the People She Prayes and Meditates for an infinity of Souls And the Propagation of Faith the Defence of the Church the safety of the Kingdom the Peace and Tranquillity of the whole Christian World are the points of her Meditation and the scope of her Prayers Publick persons ought thus to meditate and pray for the Publick Their Devotion should be a devotion of Order and their Zeal a zeal of Discipline They cannot vow any thing better then wholesome Laws and good Examples not any thing more holy then
the most rigid in its Orders It cannot be said Madam that the Law is a leaden Rule in your hands It hath there all the evennesse and solidity it ought to have Nor can it be said to be a Rule of Iron It hath neither the weight nor roughnesse thereof nor breaks the things which will be no more then adjusted But there is no Law so rigorous which may not be sweetned by the Graces with which you Act. And Justice nay the most unflexible and vindicative Justice would alter its inclination and countenance and become milde and munificent in their Company In this I say much Madam and yet this much is but a part of what may be said VVe know the History of the first Domination the VVorld hath seen and consequently know that they were the Graces which tamed the cruelty of the first Men which imposed the yoak upon their necks which made them love bondage and chains However this yoak was yet but rough-drawn These chains were rude and and unpolished And the wonder is that the Graces which imposed them on Men were then but unexpert and half rustick Your Majesties Graces are of a higher Elevation and have another kinde of Force then those other They are such whose commands oblige and which are pleasing to those they binde They are such as alleviate duties and sweeten servitude such as know how to polish the Scepter and temper the over great resplendency of the Crown And Madam I shall not stick to say that lesse efficacious Graces then your own have sweetned Injustice and set a pleasing face upon Tyrannie The Importance is that these your Majesties Graces are not onelie modest and disciplined but Religious and entirely Christian Your Piety hath inspired them with devotion and zeal It hath sanctified them and sanctified your Prudence and Justice And this sanctification of the Graces Madam is not a vain intertainment of the mind nor an amazement of unimployed Reason Force is more necessarie thereto then to the melancholy austerity of retired Vertues Aud it cannot be but the effect of a continuall and obstinate labour of an ever firme and attentive soul to please without intermission to delight with seriousnesse to be still in good humour and of good example to gain hearts without making any unseemly Advances or hazarding one single word of Indiscretion Magnificence which is an other Vertue attending on great Fortunes and great Souls is governed like your Majesties Vertues by this directing and commanding Piety which is the Superintendent of your Life It is no new thing to see Magnificence at Court It is Originary of that Country There it hath its Theatres and Exercises And there is no private Person so well provided with whom it suffers not inconvenience and constraint But to speak truly Madam it is very rare to see at Court a well Ordered and Regular Magnificence purified from Pride and Haughtinesse cured of Ostentation and Excesse disingaged from sense and from the things it manageth And this Orderly Regular Spirituall and unclogged Magnificence hath an other kind of force then Frugality Modesty and Simplicity which are far remote from burthensome and ingaging Objects Soveraignty Madam hath a splendor which sutes with its own Condition It hath lights which belong unto its Dignitie and which you cannot lawfully extinguish The Vertues of your Fortune are of another Order and ought to have other Marks then those of your Person And by a disposal contrary to that of the Ark of Covenant which was only covered with skins and adorned within with Gold and Purple Your Majestie may well reserve Modesty for your Interior and Humility for your Sentiments but it owes Lustre and Pomp to your Dignity It owes a specious and splendid Exteriour to the eyes of the World This mixture of Splendour and Modesty and this alliance of appearing Majesty with a veiled Humility is the last form and consummation of Christian Magnificence And I know not Madam whether in the whole Course of your life there be any part wherein your Vertue is more vigorous or your Spirit acts more gallantly and with greater Force There is mauy times but a constrained and necessitated Moderation nothing but an artificial and ill-looked Poverty in what is stiled the Vertue and Power of private Persons That which is Humility under Sackcloth and is Abstinence in a Cloister would be peradventure Pride and Presumption under Purple Ambition and Avarice in a Palace True Power Madam consists in floating as you do above the abundance of your Condition and the plenitude of your Fortune It consists in conserving the elevation of your Soul and the Freedom of your Heart amidst an Infinity of Objects which sweetly ruine and bind with pleasure It consists in keeping your self in a posture of mind like that of the Cherubius on the Ark who amongst Gold and Pretious-stones in the midst of Purple and Perfumes turn not away their eyes from the Propitiatory In fine it consists in preserving the Purity of Intention and the Rectitude of sight in the most pompous and resplendent Actions and in Imitating the Planet-Râ—uliâ—g Intelligences which look onely upon God and aim at nothing but his Glory in the splendor of their Orbs and amidst the numerous Objects they convey unto us These Vertues Madam which are all Heroick and Royall have conjoyntly wrought upon the Statue erected unto You in the midst of this Gallery Magnificence hath furnished the Matter which is pretious and befitting the Merit and Reputation of the Work The Graces I mean the industrious and skilfull Graces have carved it and given it all the Lectures which a compleat Figure can receive from a perfect Modell Force hath received it from their hands and raised it upon its Basis. Justice hath graved the Inscription and Piety hath been the Overseer and Directresse of the whole Peece These Artists are none of the common Artificers nor their works any of the Vulgar ones Their hands transcend those of the Ancient Sculptors And the Eternity they are to give is a far different eternity from that of the Heroes in Marble and the Gods in Brasse All these Gods and Heroes framed by Men are long since dead and buried We scarce retain their dust some small fragments half consumed by time It belongs only to the Graces and Vertues to work for Eternity Not only Years but even Ages more injurious then Years treat their Works with respect And yet at this day in the Books and Memorialls of Worthy Men there are Ancient Pieces of their Modell which are as neat and entire as if they came but newly out of their hands The Portraitures they have made of your Majesty of what matter soever they be composed will be used with the same respect and esteem they will not be defaced and destroyed they will be entertained and multiplied by Time And Posterity even the least Curious yea the least Cultivated and rudest Nations will desire their Copy VVhiles these honours and this
the Chaste the Faithful the Couragious the Constant the Pious may all enter into it and keep their degrees there under the Title of Heroick VVomen The assembly of these Gallant Women might be greater then I have made it And albeit Solomon was troubled to finde one single Heroick VVoman yet since his Time enough have appeared to Plant here a whole Colonie Of all this great Number I have chosen twenty of the most Renowned all Illustrious amongst them And not to produce them confusedly in disorder I have divided them into four Squadrons The first of Jewish Woman The second of Barbarian VVomen to take the word Barbarian in the same sence as it was understood by the Grecians The third of Roman and the fourth of Christian VVomen I exhibite a Picture of each and the Subject of this Picture is taken from the most resplendent and couragious part of her Life Besides these Pictures are not meerly superficial carry a bare outside like those of Philostrates who was content to express what was visible to copy out the draughts of the Pencil with the strokes of his Pen. They represent chiefly the Interior that secret part which cannot be disclosed or expressed but by Philosophers They discover all the Features Motions of the Heart all the Postures and Colours of the Soul And the Scope of it which is wholly Moral aims more at the Manners then at the satisfaction of the Eye Every Picture is accompanied with a Sonnet which is another piece drawn in little And the Sonnet is seconded by an Historical Elogie where the Life of the Heroess is abbreviated which serves for the Subject of the Picture I adde a Moral Reflection to the Elogie which tends more directly and immediately to the Benefit and Regulation of Manners And there I mark out what is most profitable and instructive in the preceding Example I establish practical Axioms and draw from thence useful consequences I advertise Women of their Duties and obligations and cause them to take in by Grains and Drops the pure spirit of Christian Philosophie and the extraction of her Maximes which they scarce receive but with distaste in Books where it is without seasoning and in grosse In sequence of this Reflection and in order to the Maximes which are given therein I propose a Moral Question in which there is enough to satisfie the Intellectual part and to fortifie the Appetitive And after the having decided it to the advantage of Vertue and to the edification of those Women I desire to instruct I confirm my Decision by a Modern Example which I take either at our own Door or fetch it from our Neighbours to the end being seen neer at Hand it may make the deeper impression and act with more Vigour Besides these Examples are all illustrious and Heroick They contain great and wonderful things And I have chosen them of this form to teach such as run after the Fantomes of Romances that Truth is not only instructive but also more delightful and divertising then falshood and that natural Bodies are more Luminous and Graceful then all the Apparitions and Specters which Magick Art produceth As for the Heathen Women which I bring upon the Stage I place them not there as perfect Models I know very well that their Vertues have been but rough drawn And that wanting the light of Faith they remain imperfect But I know also that such fair rough drawn Vertues are presented there as we may gather from thence wherewith to form excellent pieces And by the same reason that the Son of God alleadged Ninâ—ve against Jerusalem and proposed Tyre to Judea one may alleadge the Heathen and Barbarian against Christian Women one may well propose Pantheas to Catherins and Zenobias to Agathas I particularly declare that I do not pretend to justifie the Death of those who slew themselves with their own Hands what Colour soever the Philosophie of that time gave to their Deaths and with what paint soever the Poets have set them forth If they had the Force and greatnesse of Courage it was enormous and disproportioned it was a greatnesse beyond limit or compasse Nevertheless this doth not hinder that these enormous and great disproportioned Women may have something of imitation One may frame by a Colossus a Figure of a middle and very exact Stature In Moral Philosophie as well as in Logick Errour may be serviceable to Truth And a good consequence may be drawn from a bad Principle Behold what I had to say in order to the designe and structure of this Work I have nothing to adde to what hath been said but these few words with which S. Ambrose concludes the second Book he dedicated to Virgins Since the tasts of men are so different and that there are as many Opinions as Heads If any Neatness and Care appear in some places of my Discourse those places can justly displease no Man If there be any mature and serious ones they will please the Palat of those in whom the Maturity of understanding accompanies the Maturity of Age If any be found flowered and delightful they will not offend such as are in the Age of the Flowers of Grace and Men will grant me that it is no lesse necessary to write for these Persons then for others There remains nothing more for me to say to the Reader He may enter into my Gallery when he pleaseth The Door is open to him DEBORE 〈…〉 THE GALLERY OF HEROICK WOMEN The Gallant Jewes DEBORA THIS Country so delightfull to the eye and so adorn'd with the riches and ornaments of Nature is the western Part of Palestine You cannot choose but know it at first sight by that verdure which makes it enjoy as it were a perpetuall spring And by those tufts of Palms and Cedars which serve as naturall Garlands to crown it These Towns and Cities which appear afar off are not built by the Israelites They have as yet erected in this Country nothing but flying Towns and walking Cities They have only built with Canvas and Cordage All their Houses have been hitherto but field habitations And during the obstinate and continual wars wherein they were imployed their thoughts were more taken up in rendring souldiers warlike and forming Captians then in hiring Masons and making Architects Besides at present the whole Countrey is fild with the rumour of wars and preparrd against the Cananites Ten thousand men selected out of two Tribes are rlready advanced towards Mount Thabor And the men you behold in arms about the great Palm are the most remarkable of the people whom Debora the Prophetesse and Governesse of Israel retained with Barac to instruct them in the discipline of war and excite them to act gallantly You never beheld a Tribunall like that of this Governesse Surely their enters more splendor and pride in the Thrones of Kings but lesse naturall Majesty and true Glory This is not the work of a year nor the master-peece of a
no other Attendance then his own Family Neither did he think to go to a Siege or Battel he beheved that his Voyage was to a Treaty of Marriage and a Marriage is not treated of with Armies and Engins of War No man espouseth a beating Drum or flying Colours As soon as he arrived in Navarre King Garcius a Complice in the Treason of his Sister Theracia received him with outrages and reproaches and without giving him time to recollect himself commits him to Prison and causeth him to be loaden with Chains more harsh and ponderous then those which he came to seek Sanchia advertised of so soul a Treason to which she had contributed innocently and with no ill intent thought her self obliged for the Justification of her promise and for the Honour of her House to assist a Prince who was taken in her Name and by her promise She found out a means to see him in Prison and this sight mollified her Heart and laid it open to Passion which never before found any accesse unto it Pitty which is not bashfull and suspected by no man entred first boldly and without resistance Love stole in fearfully after her and was there received upon the ingagements made by Gonzales and upon the faith which had been given him Sanchia was already sufficiently tied by the promise delegated to the King of Navarre her brother and to her sister the Queen of Leen But she found her self there much faster tied by the chains of Gonzales She renewed to him the promise she had sent him by the ministers of her brothers treachery And having given necessary orders for his liberty she took him out of prison and fled away with him to Castile where she was married to him in great pomp and with the general applause of the people I confesse that there was much of boldnesse in this action and I would not pardon it in a Maid who had followed a wandring fire and played the part of a 〈◊〉 or a Lucipps But if we consider that Sanchia was no longer at her own dispose nor at her brothers that she was promised and betrothed to Gonzales that she had given her faith out of obedience And that she owed more to her betrothed faith then to the treachery of her House her boldnesse will be no reproach to her memory And men will rather give her an honourable ranke amongst the Herâ—â—sses then joyn her with the wandring women of Romances Neverthelesse the King her brother did not take it in that sense As soon as he was advertised of his prisoners and sisters flight he presently raised a powerfull Army and fell into Castile But he fell in under so ill a Planet that he was defeated in the first Battell and by the sport of Fortune which mingles at her pleasure chains and Crowns and placeth them sometimes upon one Head and sometimes upon an other or to speak more Christianly by a just disposure of Divine Providence which would punish Injustice and Treachery the King of Navarre in his turne remained prisoner to his Fugitive and was loaden with the same Chains he had brought for him After some moneths of imprisonment Gonzales moved by the perswasions of his Wife set him at liberty and sent him back with honour to his Kingdom These benefits ought to be ranked amongst those Coals which according to the saying of the Wiseman give new heat to congealed Charity and reenkindle extinguished affection But they stirred up hatred and inkindled a new warre which would have caused great flames and ruines if the wise and couragious Sanchia before one drop of blood was spilt had not mediated between her Husband and Brother and quenched with her tears the fire which had taken on all sides These tears which had vertue enough to extinguish a warre already flaming and to pacifie two Kingdoms in Arms had not enough to sweeten the Animosity of a Woman The Queen of Leen reserved her passion in all the Treaties which were held And in all the Articles which were proposed to her whatsoever her lips and tongue did swear and whatsoever her hand did signe she full sware in her mind and signed in her heart the death of Gonzales The obstinate Princess not content with having laboured unprofitably and at a great expence to dishonour the Name of the King her Brother with having perverted her Faith and falsified her promise took away also the Honour and Reputation of the King her Husband And perswaded him to make of his Word and Faith a second snare for Gonzales The Faith of Kings is sacred Their Promise is holy And it is a prophanation and a kinde of Sacriledge to convert them into Deceits and Treasons and to make them serve for Baits to Circumventions This Prince nevertheless seduced by his Wife consented to the Prophanation of his Word and Faith He convened the States of his Kingdom and sent thither the Earl of Castile The Earl had sight good enough to discern afar off the snare which was laid for him but he had too good a Heart and too confident a Soul to avoid a snare from which he knew not well how to flie but by flying from his Duty and turning his back to his Reputation He stuck fast then to his Reputation and Duty and committed his Life and Liberty to Fortune Fortune nevertheless which is said to be favourable to bold Actions gave him no better entertainment at Leon then he had received at Navarre He found there a second Prison and as strong and heavy chains as the former And found no Sanchia in that place who might break these chains and open the Prison for him But Love which was more just then Fortune and works far other Miracles did not long retard the bringing thither his Deliveress And if she had been Couragious and Faithful during the time of Contract she shewed her self yet more Couragious and Faithful in the state of Marriage Assoon as she had notice of her Husbands Captivity her first thought was to march in the head of twenty thousand men to destroy his Prison with Fire and Sword and to bring him back to Castile through the Ruines and Light of a flaming Province To this first thought which arose from her Courage another succeeded wherein there was more of Prudence and more of Safety for her Husband She fixed upon that though the danger thereof was more evident for her self And she resolved to oppose to a foul and treacherous fraud an innocent and purely charitable deceit She chose amongst the most Faithful servants of the Earl her Husband all those who had most courage and strength and commanded them to follow her without noise and with Arms of more effect then shew This done she began her journey in the habit and Marks of a Pilgrime passeth every where for a Woman of quality who went to perform her Vow made to S. James And being arrived in Leon with two Knights she so craftily and dexterously assaulted the Gates of the
and without staining his hands with her Blood Although I have said that Women will not ascend in Troops to this high degree yet some there are who have arrived to this Pitch and gone thither more innocently and couragiously then Monima she whom I shall immediately produce will finde few equals She cannot be placed in too great a light nor upon too fair a Stage She cannot have too noble Spectators and History will never give her so many applauses and Crowns as she deserves EXAMPLE The Brave Hungarian THe Wound which Hungary received at the taking of Seget was great and dangerous And if God had not reached out his hand and upheld that Kingdom it was ready to perish by this wound The siege was famous by the presence of Solymon the second who began this last Expedition with five hundred thousand men and left the finishing of it to his Reputation and Fortune dying a few dayes before the taking of the place and almost in the sight of Victory It was not the Earl of Serins fault who defended the Town that Solymons Fortune and Reputation died not there with his Person and that Victory did not abandon him in this Action and remain to the Christians The Ladies of Seget did what service they could with their Jewels and Pearls which were converted into Money for the pay of the Garrison they served also there with their persons And by a Zeal much bolder then that of the Carthaginians who gave their hair to make Ropes for Engins of War they employed their Arms to the repairing of the Walls and exposed their Heads to the defence of the breaches and Gates At the last assault given by the Turks the Earl of Serin perceiving that the hour of perishing was at hand resolved to dye most magnificently and in Pomp and to give Lustre and Reputation to his Death He â—ought in an Imbroidered Sute and with a string of Diamonds tyed about his Hat having the keyes of the Town fastned to his Scarse and a hundred Crowns in his Pocket for that Souldier who should send him to Triumph in Heaven The History renders this testimony of his Death that it was a Triumphant and Victorious Death But though it was victorious yet it did not equal the Death of a Ladie of Siget who surpasseth all that is left us of the Memory of Heroick time She was a Woman of quality and one of the fairest but she was none of those languishing Beauties and without Vigour of those Beauties which resemble the stars of the North which have no activity and shine faintly and without heat She was vigorous and bold yet vigorous with sweetnesse and bold with a good Grace and Comlinesse Her Husband who loved her passionately and even to the degree of Jealousie scared nothing but her taking in the taking of Siget The Image of captivated and inchained Hungary nay of flaming and bloody Hungary was to his apprehension a lesse dreadful apparition then the Image of his Captive Wife To rid himself of this Fantome which followed him every where and to secure the Honour and Freedom of his Wife of whom he was more Jealous then of the Honour of Christianity and the Liberty of Europe He resolved to take her out of the World before the Victorious Turk should enter the City which was no longer able to resist and had too good hearts left to yield themselves This so Tragick and soul a resolution was no sooner fixed in his Minde but the slains thereof appeared even in his Eyes and upon his Face His Wife who was discreet and quick-sighted observed them and was touched therewith she pardoned his Jealousie in consideration of his Love And though she was fully prepared for death yet she did not desire a death which might make him a Criminal whom she loved more then her own life She took him aside and made him understand that his bad intention could not be hidden from her She was so dexterous as to draw the confession of it from his own mouth and upon his Confession she strongly and efficatiously represented to him the infamie which would remain to him from so Barbarous an Act and the Scandal which he would give to his Age and leave unto posterity I confesse said she that I owe you all my blood And behold me ready to give it without reserving one drop But have patience till some other come to shed it Do not fullie your hands with it stain neither your memory nor your soul therewith Do not inkindle an eternal fire by it For my part I apprehend far more Life then Death and all the Scimiters of the Turks cause in me far less fear then their most gentle and pretious Chain were it more sweet and pretious then the Diadem of the Sultanesse But permit me to die gloriously and with Reputation Do not dishonour the Repose which you seek Disparage not your good affection My Honour is not so desperate that it cannot be preserved but by a Crime You think to justifie your self by laying the blame upon Love You are much mistaken if you take it for a murderer Do not put the Dagger into its hands Do not solicit it to commit a murder and if you cannot restore it the goods you have received from it leave it at least its Reputation and do not envie its Innocencie An honourable Death is not so hard a thing to find in a Town taken by force There enter enough of them by Gates and Breaches Let us fallie forth together with Swords in our hands to chuse an illustrious and renowned end Let it be by fire or sword let it be short or lasting it imports not It will be sweet to me provided I dye a rival to your Valour and not a Victime to your Jealousie Having said this she caused her self to be compleatly armed and went out with a Sword in her hand and a Buckler upon her arm her Husband followed her armed with the like weapons and encouraged by her words and Example which gave him a second Heart and a new Spirit They went on boldly where fire noise and danger were greatest And as soon as they came to the place where they were to fight between the flaming Fire and the victorious Army They shewed by the wonders which they did that there is no valour like the valour of despairing Love and of Graces armed in defence of their Honour After a long and rude fight they were at last rather overpressed then overcome by a barbarous multitude irritated by their own losses and their resistance And feeling their strength stealing away with their Blood they gave each other their last imbraces and fell upon a heap of dead bodies which had been slain by their Hands They could not die more sweetly then in the fruition of their mutual Fidelity They could not have a more magnificent Tomb then their Arms and Victories Their souls which imbraced each other as well as their Bodies could not be severed by Death
Death found Brutus living and victorious in Porcia Nevertheless with all this Fortitude and Courage she took a resolution to die and you need not doubt but she will execute the resolution she hath taken Nothing of Cowardize ought to be expected from the Daughter of Cato nothing of weakness from the widdow of Brutus She is couragious from her Race and a Philosopher by Alliance and her Death will be as Stoicall as that of her Husband and Father Her kindred and friends being willing to preserve this fair remainder of the ancient Vertue did in vain set guards upon her she made them understand that they might inchain her body but could never fetter her soul That she could pass through a thousand Chains and as many closed Gates and that if her Fathers Vertue was able to free him from the power of Caesar and that of her Husband to preserve himself from the victory of Anthony Hers would not remain captive to their importune charity and troublesome offices In fine whether she had perswaded or prevailed with them you see her out of their hands And how little soever their cares are retarded it is much to be feared they will come too late and not finde her alive A slave who had broken his Chains and freed himself from a long imprisonment could not be more joyfull then you behold her Her joy notwithstanding is modest and severe As her heart never changes place so her face never alters colour and her Death from this very instant will be as quiet and serene as her Contentments were heretofore She represents not to her self the place to which she goeth nor the way she takes She hath nothing but Brutus in her thoughts and before her eyes and provided she go to him it is indifferent to her whither she go by Sword Precipice or Poyson The shortest way is the best in her opinion and the nearest Gate what spectre or terrifying object soever hath the guard of it will be fitter for her purpose then one more free and remote But all wayes appear to her equally barred up and the diligence of her servants removed from about her all that could open any passage unto death She pretends that this charity is a violence offered her she is vexed and angry at it yet this vexation is without trouble and this anger ascends not to her face All her thoughts are busied to deceive these officious Importunes and not to take revenge of them There are no offensive arms which she doth not try upon her self in imagination Her Fancy puts into her mouth and to her throat all it can compound of Poysons or forge into Swords She attempts to strangle her self with the Scarf you see in he hand she tryed in vain to do it with her Neck-lace and one of her Bracelets And nothing remains but to tear off her Hair and work it into a Cord. Surely to commit a murther with such instruments is to inrage Beauty and render the Graces cruel But all means of getting out of prison seems lawfull and honest to a Captive VVith this thought she entred into her Closet she found an opportunity to dye more couragiously and without violating such â—nnocent things She found there a pan of Coaâ—s which little Cupids the Authors of fair Couples and Superintendents of vertuous Amities have prepared for the eaâ—e of her affection I doubt not but she sees them by the light of the fire within her Soul which is mingled with that of their Torches And you may behold them as well as she if your eyes were purified from the vapors which arise from Matter The two least present to her the pan of Coals which they carry upon their heads They render her this last office with smiles and serene countenances You would say that they animate her with their sparkling eyes and with the joy of their looks and that their mouthes half open seem to promise her the acclamations of Fame and the applauses of all Ages A third Cupid greater and stronger then the two other and hanging in the ayre lights with his Torch the Coals which are in the Pan I believe notwithstanding that his Torch what vertue soever it hath contributes less thereunto then his presence And if some one might say that by only touching a Tree with the end of his Finger he couâ—d set a whole Forrest on fire it is apparent that this Cupid might in passing by and with his bare shadow infire Mountains even frozen Mountains and covered over with Snow Do you not observe upon the face of Porcia the pleasing mixture which proceeds from the light of this Torch added to the fire of her eyes and that which her heart spreads upon her Cheeks There truly it is where confusion appears noble and where delight and glory enters Painters and Dyers could invent nothing like this And the concurrence is not so lovely upon a Rose freshly blown when the first rayes of the day newly flaming and still red from its birth adds an artificial Purple to that which is natural to it You have a sight piercing enough to sever the brightness of the fire from the fair dye of blood and to distinguish the lustre which appears outward from that which Courage begets and is reflected from the bottom of the Soul But you are too attentive in contemplating the action of Porcia And her heart is more visible by that then her face VVith one hand she puts a burning Coal into her mouth with the other she takes a second as if she needed many to conclude her life And whether the grief for her loss hath suppressed all other sorrows whether she hath no sence remaining but in her heart where her soul contracts it self about the Image of Brutus you would say that they are Rubies which she handles you would say that they are Leaves of Roses which she swallows But whether it be insensibility or resolution whether it be Love or Philosophy it doth not hinder the fire she had within fortified with an exteriour flame from burning the tyes of her soul. I conceive them already consumed and this generous soul speedily departing out of her fair prison will joyn it self with her likeness which is come to receive it Her Guards affrighted and surprized hasten with tears in their eyes and complaints in their mouthes But their tears will not quench this fire nor will their complaints terrifie Death or chase it away from the place into which it is entred This fire will shine in the eyes of all Nations and Ages and give an eternall lustre to the memory of Porcia This Death will be paralleld with that of Cato and Brutus And this Closet will be as fair a Perspective in History as the City of Vtica and the Philippian Field SONNET PORCIA speaks LEss worthy of regret then envy'd praise I by a Death which Nature did amaze Equal'd a Father's Glory and the Fame Of a dear Husband who their Fates ore-came Their Vertue which I
all the last night could not sleep by reason of his disquiets and discontents Perez set at Liberty by this Device repaired to Henry the Great who received him with Honour And Iane Coello staied behinde in Spain esteemed by every one for her Courage and Fidelity I am the first that have shewn this Couragious and Faithful Woman to France And I now present her unto the Court to the end our Ladies may learn of her that great Expences and studied Excesses do not form a gallant Woman That so fair a Figure deserves better Lineaments and Colours That the Noblest blood of the World is obscure and wants lustre if Vertue doth not give it That Marriage is a Companion as well for bad Times and rugged Tracks as for fair Dayes and delightful Roads And that the affection of a good Woman should resemble Ivy which sticks close and inseparably to that Tree which it hath once imbraced never leaving it what snow soever falls upon it what wind soever shakes it what tempest soever bears it down PAVLINE 〈…〉 Paulina IS it one of the Graces or an wounded Amazon who dyes there standing and in the posture of a Conqueress She is truly a Grace even a manly and magnanimous Grace No Amazon unless a Philosophick and long Robâ—d Amazon She is the wise and vertuous Paulina who became a Stoick in the house of Seneca and resolves to die in his Company and by his Example You may have heard what common rumour hath published of Neros ingratitude and of the Fatal command of death he sent his Master This second Parricide no less scandalized the Senate and all the People then the first which is yet fresh and whose blood still reales upon the Earth And the impiety of the Tyrant after it had caused Agrippina to be murthered who had been twice his Mother and brought him no less into the Empire then into the world after it had put Seneca to death the Instructer of his youth and the Father of his spirit could not ascend higher if it rise not up against God himself if it fall not on Religion and holy things Though this last stroke fell only upon Seneca yet he is the only person that was not surprized with it and having often beheld the soul of Nero open and even to the bottom he ever indeed believed that figures of Rhetorick and sentences learnt by roat would not be more acknowledged then the Life and Empire he received from his Mother He received likewise that barbarous Order with a Tranquility truly Stoick and worthy the Reputation of his Sect. He did not appeal to the Senate he knew very well that the Senate is now but a Body divested of Power a dismembred Body and still bleeding of the wounds it had received from the Tyrant He did not implore Redress from the Laws they were all at present either banished or dead He was content to obey without noyse or delay and you could not arrive more seasonably to see a Stoick dying according to the forms and principles of his Profession Paulina would also shew that Constancy belonged to her Sex no less then to ours and that VVomen might be Philosophers without having commerce with Lycea and Portica without making Dilemmaes or Sylogismes She believed that being the one half of Seneca she might be couragious by his Courage and dye by the example of his Death as she had been enriched by his Riches and honoured by his Fortune Their Veins hapned to be opened by the same hand and Lancet Their blood and spirits were mixt together in their wounds And that of Seneca entring into the Arm of Paulina with the Lancet penetrated her very heart and seated it self about her soul. You see also that being instructed and fortified by this spirit which serves for a second reason and an accessory Courage she had the fortitude to expect death standing which is the last Act of Soveraign Vertue and the true posture of dying Heroes The blood streamed from her Arm with violence as if her soul pressed it to have the glory of going out the first And to behold the purest and most spirituall parts thereof which spurt up from the Bason into which it fell you would say that it takes a pride in the Nobleness of its Extraction and conceives it self too well descended to be spilt on the ground Paulina calmly and without the least alteration beholds it trickling down And saving that her Colour vanished away by degrees and Paleness succeeded as it doth to the last Rays of a fair day which dyes in a beautiful Cloud no change was to be seen in her Countenance Her Constancy is no savage Constancy It hath a serenity and Grace but it is a pale serenity and an expiring Grace She is more covetous of her Tears and Sighs then of her Blood and Life she prohibited her Eyes and Mouth to shew the least sign of weakness And a Statue of white Marble which should make a Fountain of its artificiall Veins could not have a more peaceable stability nor a more gracefull confidence This example is very rare but it is sad and cannot instruct the mind but by wounding the heart The steam of so Noble Blood draws almost tears from your eyes And it afflicts you that you are not able to save the fair remains of so beauteous a Life Let it no longer torment you The Tyrant advertised of Paulina's generous resolution sends Souldiers to hinder her Death and inforce her to live Not that he takes care of the Vertues or is willing to preserve the Graces which are ready to dye with her He is Nero in all his actions and doth no less mischief when he saves then when he kiâ—s It is because he delights to sever the best united hearts and to divide the fairest Couples It is because he takes pleasure in forcing inclinations and violating sympathies It is because he hath a desire to exercise upon friendships and souls an interiour and spirituall Tyranny It is because after the death of Seneca he will have the heart of Seneca in his power The Balisters of Porphiriâ— upon which you see him leaning is the same as they say on which lately at the noise and light of flaming Rome he sung the firing of Troy He speaks from thence to the Souldiers he sent to Paulina and commands them to make hast Though she had but two steps to make yet they will enforce her to retreat and fasten her again to life by binding up her wounds It were to be wished for the good of Rome that they had done as much to Seneca But if they had Swathes and Remedies to apply to him Nero could wish that they might be impoysoned Swathes and killing Remedies The last year he caused the same Remedies to be applyed to gallant Burrus his other Governour And doubt not but he will shortly send the like to Seneca if 〈◊〉 Soul make not the more haste to expire It is not the good old mans
fault deserved punishment her youth at least and her imprudence were worthy of excuse and that God and posterity would shew her favor Constancie Grace and Majesty which had ever accompanied her ascended also upon the Scaffold with her One would have said that all that was seen there could be nothing else but a meer representation of her punishment And that all this Tragical preparation was but a fiction and a meer Ceremony She rendred thanks to the Catholick Divine who had assisted her and comforted her dispairing servants with so well composed a manner and with so vigorous and Noble words so full of Judgement and Courage as it seemed to some that if Philosophy her self had been to dye she could not have dyed more couragiously and with more Dignity She made her self ready for the stroak of the Executioner and to humble her beauty though it were innocent of her Misfortune she made a Wreath or Head-band of her own Hair whereof it seemed Nature had formed her a Diadem They offered to strike off her head with a Sword as if the Sword could have diminished the shame of her punishment and Dignified her Death and the hand of the Executioner But she rejected this unprofitable and superstitious Ceremony And resolved to be Executed with the same Ax which newly came from the Execution of her Husband Whether that she desired to mingle her bloud with his Whether she believed that a more painful death would be a more just Expiation of her faults And that the Iron of the Ax would better purifie her soul then the Iron of the Sword Such was the end of the Reign and Life of Iane Grey who was an Athenian and Roman in England many Ages after the ruin of Athens and Rome She shewed our Predecessors an Image of the ancient Constancy and primitive Vertue And taught us that the Graces may be learned as well as the Muses That Philosophy belongs to both Sexes And that even in our daies under the Purple and upon the Throne she might be as vigorous and couragious as she was heretofore under the Wallet and in the Tub of the Sunck VNE Dame chrestienne et Francoise combat iusques à la mort pour sa chasteté 〈…〉 parcille a celle de Iudith egale la France à la Iudée 〈…〉 Gallant Christian Women The French Iudith HEre we must beware of a bad Calculation by our Fancy and of a mistake in our sight if we believe them in this point we are in the Age of Nabuchodonosor and in Judea And the Tragick Action we behold is the death of Holyfernes and the victory of Judith Nevertheless we are far remote from that time and see indeed another Countrey and other things It is not credible that Holyfernes is returned so many years after his Death It is also less credible that Judea hath removed from Asia into Europe If whole Races and even the Ages themselves do not revive if Cities change not Regions and cross the Seas assure your self there is nothing in this of the Adventure of Bethulia Know then that you are in France and upon the Territories of Gontran King of Burgundy and that this Maid which you see with a naked and bloody sword in her hand is a Native of Champaigne Do not ask me concerning her Birth This well beseeming Anger and this modest and composed Fierceness will confirm you better then my self that she must be of a good Family And though her Phisiognomy may not induce us to believe it her blood must needs be as noble as her countenance As for this man who looseth his blood through two great wounds which will be perchance more beneficiall then they are honourable to him his Domestiques who hasten to his â—yde caâ—l him Duke Amolon I dare not tell you that he is 〈◊〉 a French man there is too much of savageness in his manners and saith And it would be too great a shame for France which is so noble a Mother so Generous so Civilized and to Christian to bring forth Scythians and Tartars and that under so temperate a Climate and so benign Planets there should be found souls of the same temper with those which are born under the Pole But let him be a French man by birth and a Tartar or Scythian by nature it doth not hunder Vertue which playes the principall part in this Action from being French And this second Judith will one day more honour her Country then this second Holyfernes could disgrace it You see the boldness of her Countenance and the Vertue of her Face There is much of Judith in both But there is more then the Look and Face more then the boldness and Vertue of Judith It is no common chaste woman you see It is a Virgin nay a victorious Virgin which newly fought even to the effusion of her blood And by these two features wherein she transcends Judith the French Copy exceeds the Originall lew and the Modern obscures the Ancient Judith After a long and obstinate battle fought against this Tyrant she was carryed away by his people and laid with violence upon his Bed but this was no longer his Bed but a Scaâ—â—old made of Silk and Feathers it was the place ordained for the end of his Tyrannie and for the punishment of his Crimes VVine and Sleep had already closed up his eyes and tyed his hands and there wanted but a Sword and an Executioner to make a great and celebrious example of him His Arms being near at hand the chaste French woman inspired by the same Angel who inspired the chaste Iew took advantage of the Sleep and Sword of her enemy and made of Amolon an Holyfernes The two great wounds which you see in his head were given by that fair and chaste Hand Pain awakened his bound up and benummed Reason and the first drops of his blood extinguished the dishonest fire which the Tears and Prayers of this innocent Maid had enkindled He is no longer the same brutish and furious person as before The wanten flames of his heart and the impure imaginations of his head are all fallyed forth at his wounds Iudgement and Respect are entred in their Room you would say that he awakes with new eyes Those at least retained no longer any thing of that sulphure which was enkindled by the smallest Rayes of Beauty and which was set on fire by every lovely glance which issued from it He seems to endure with torment the sight of his chaste and couragious Enemy He suffers it nevertheless and his confusion mixed with astonishment his shame accompanied with reverence make a silent Declaration upon his face by which he justifies the attempt and acknowledges it for a lawfull Victory He doth consider that the same person is in his power who had newly plunged him in blood and who had heretofore inflamed him who had pierced his heart and newly wounded his head He no longer remembers his Love he resents not his injury His eyes
pittiful Reliques And in this state able to beget Emulation in all the Vertuous Women of Antiquity she rendred up her Soul not upon the Body of her Husband who was no more but upon his Shadow and Memory ISABELLE de Castille suâ—e le â—enin et le peril de la playe de son Mary desesperé des 〈…〉 par sa â—uerisâ—n que l'Amour est le Maistre de la vie et de la mort 〈…〉 Eleonor of Castile Princess of wales ALL England is dangerously sick upon this Bed with Prince Edward The Fortune of the Publike being wounded to the heart by the wound he brought from the Holy VVar endures the same Convulsions as he feels And the Physitians give them but one day of life if God send not an Angel and a Miracle to cure them Surely it is very strange that the hearts of a whole Nation should be wounded by one blow and that one shaft which hath hurt but one Body should draw Blood from so many Soules But such is the condition and as it were the destiny of good Princes They have a heart and soul in every one of their Subjects Their blood and veines disperse themselves throughout all the parts of their Dominions and their least wounds are followed by publike Symptomes and popular Maladies Prince Edwards wound is one of those The King his Father and all his Subjects lament it and their Tears are the Blood of their Soules which have been wounded by his Body You will believe notwithstanding that in this generall sickness and amidst these common lamentations the Princess his wife is the most sick and most to be lamented There is also a good half of the Prince in her and reciprocally more then a good half of her in the Prince Her love at least is there intire and with her love there is more of her Life and more of her Soul then is left behind Though far remote from the fight yet she was wounded there to death with him Her heart found it self just in the offended part and ever since her soul and life have issued forth by the same wound with her Husbands blood At present hope is returned to her but it is a dolefull hope and such as may come from despair The Physitians have declared to her that the Prince might yet be cured and that to cure him it was necessary to seek out some affectionate and couragious person who would expose himself to take in his Death by sucking the poyson out of his wound Her Love which was present at the Consult of the Physitians perswaded her that this affection could not be expected but from a woman nor this Courage but from a Princes That this fatall wound could not have a more soveraign Salve then her Tongue and that if it were her Husbands destiny to receive a second Life he could owe it to no other then her Spirit and Mouth This inspiration greedily received by her heart drew from thence this bold and vigorous heat and this tincture of hope and joy which you see in her Face There appears in her Countenance something I know not what of fierce and stately which seems to require respect and yet begets affection It is peradventure a certain Ayr of Spain which passed the Seas with her and followed her into England It is perchance a visible expression of her Heroick thoughts and an exteriour sign by which her Soul declares what she newly concluded For whatever this little fierceness may be taken and what name soever they give it it sets a harmless edge upon the sweetness of this Princess It is to her Beauty and Graces a modest and well-becoming boldness It is as it were a reflection of her Heart upon her Face and as a demonstration of the greatness and vigour of her Soul But whether it proceed from the greatness and vigour of her Soul or from the force and greatness of her affection she valueth not death to which she is going to expose her self nor is affrighted at this great train of Terror which the people set before her She considers and hearkens to nothing but her Love which calls her to an action which will equall Spain to ancient Greece and old Italy which will efface the glory of renowned men and women and infuse jealousie into both Sexes which will be the honour of this Age and the admiration of Posterity and will manifest that Charity no less then Faith hath the gift of Cures and the vertue of Miracles Her Imagination was full of these great Objects But her Husband is the main one and approacheth nearest to her heart In her mind she renounceth Reputation and Glory and by an express Oath taken upon the name and picture of the Prince which you see in her hand She dedicates her self to his Cure and obligeth her self to suck in her own Death or to give him Life Let us accompany her to the Execution of this business and place our selves behind this piece of Arras with the Princes servants who observe her in silence and with gestures of astonishment Vertue cannot have too many witnesses in like Enterprizes And this would merit that time past should return and the future advance to convey to her Spectators of all Ages Behold her already upon the Princes Bed and couched upon the wound she hath discovered You would say that her Soul to accomplish the Transport she hath vowed and to pass from the subject she animates to that she loveth flows away by her Eyes with her Tears and drop by drop penetrates the Body of the sick Prince Do not fear that these Tears should inflame his wound or that the Ardour of his Feavour be augmented by them These Tears indeed are very warm and come from a scorching spring but they are gentle and benigne and I believe that not a Tear doth fall which carryeth not with it some part of the Princesses Soul and some drop of her Life distilled therein VVhat do you think of this Love who exhorts her with his very looks and action Doth he not seem to be newly come out of her Heart to declare himself the Author of this great Design and to enjoy it neerer and in an open way He is not one of these Interested and Propriatory Ones that will ingross all to themselves and aym meerly at their own private satisfaction Less also is he one of those Discontented and Contentious Ones who are armed on all sides with teeth and nails who carry not a Flower which is not accompanied with Thornes who make not so much cleer fire as they do noise and smoke You see no Shafts nor Torch about him because he is a Saving and no Tyrannical Love He is come to cure an old wound and not to make new ones And there entreth nothing but a pure Spirit and Light into the Flames which he inkindles He is not of the Country of Romances nor of the Region of Fables His Origen is from Heaven even from the
most Luminous and highest part of Heaven He is next to God the Mediator of holy Marriages and well united Pairs He is the common Spirit of Christian Sympathyes and the Moderator of Chaste Agreements and Vertuous Harmonies Such an Exhorter is most powerful and his Inspirations leave nothing to be acted by Reason However he is not the sole perswader of the Princess Her Husband though fast asleep is no less Perswasive nor Eloquent them he If Prince Edward speaks not with his mouth he speaks by the paleness of his face He speaks from the Ardour of his Feaver and the Palpatation of his heart He speaks from his wound which hath a Voice of Blood and words of Passion In silence the Princess yields attention to this Voice and to these VVords And Answereth them with her Sighs and Tears which are no less Eloquent nor less Passionate And ere long when she shall thrust her Tongue and Mouth into this VVound her Heart will descend upon her Lips to bid the last adieu to the Princes Heart and to transmit into it her last Flame together with her Life But fear nothing in her behalf This Love her Inciter will preserve them both He put a secret Antidote in to her Mouth and gave her Spirit the gift of Healing Her Lips which he purified with a Spiritual and Sacred Fire will Exorcise Death and dispossess it of this Body without taking it into her own And one day Edward Cured and Eleonor Preserved will be reckoned amongst the miracles of Heroick Charity SONNET ON some Exploit Prince Edward Dreaming lyes VVith Death in 's Wound and slumber in his Eyes His Spouse to Cure him is resolv'd to Dy VVith Heart like those of her brave Ancestry Love more then Nature skill'd in Life's repairs Makes him a precious Balsome of her Tears VVhose Soul already heals him in Designe And at his VVound do's with his Soul conjoyne Approach thy Mouth and Heart couragious VVife 'T is that must save thy gallant Edwards life That Heart of thine with true Affection Crown'd Shall make thy Tongue a Plaister for his Wound To Cure thy Prince employ no other Skill The Fire the Blood the Spirits that Distill From thy fair Soul shall from his Body drive Th' empoyson'd VVound and keep thy Prince alive Elogy of Eleonor HEroick Vertue doth not alwaies Kill not imploys Fire and Sword in all she takes in hand All her Exploits are not stained with Blood she knows how to perform them of more then one fashion and colour and acts not everywhere with Noise though in every place with Force There are Obscure victories without witnesses wherein she hath need of no less boldness then in those which are gained in the view of whole Nations and with the noise of Canons and Trumpets The victorie represented in this Picture is one of these Edward Prince of Wales was come back from the Holy Land with a wound he had received from an Impoysoned Arrow The Physitians had allayed all their speculations and practises and all those ways having been unprofitably tryed they declared to him that he could not be cured but by the destruction of some Person who might have the courage to suck in death with the poyson of his wound Being condemned by this Declaration he prepares himself to dye resolving not to preserve life by the death of another nor to make a remedy of an Impoysonment The Princess his Wife Daughter unto the King of Castile conceiving her self condemn'd by the same sentence received it as if love it self had pronounced it to her And seeing her self necessitated to dye either by the death or cure of her Husband She resolved to chuse of these two deaths that which seemed to her the most Honourable and least bitter and which ought of the two moyties of her life to conserve to her self that which was most dear and precious This resolution taken with her love she defers the Execution to the next night And as soon as the Prince was prepared for it by rest she gently discovers his wound and begins to cure it by the purest blood of her soul which she pours into it with her Tears That done she set her mouth to the wound and with her tongue plunged her heart into it By little and little she sucks out the Poyson and so seasonably casts it forth as she drew from thence all that was Mortal without retâ—â—ning any part thereof to her self Whether that this malignant humour were consumed by the subtile and penetrating fire which her heart diffused by her mouth Or whether God who is Life and Charity had laid his Spirit upon her lips she preserved her Husbands life without loosing her own and by one act cured two sick Persons and wrought two Miracles MORAL REFLECTION THere is a large 〈◊〉 in this Picture and an excellent lesson for married Women This couragious Spaniard added to the Romans Greciams and even to those Barbarians who dyed for their husbands will speak Eternally for the constancy and fidelity of their Affections And wil highly prove and in an Heroick fule that the loving portion of the heart is more vigorous and couragious in their Sex then in Ours But she will also prove for their instruction that nothing is impossible to well ordered Charity That her hands have the gift of Cures and that the vertue of Miracles resides on her Lips That she single and unarmed hath more Force then Death with all his swords and poysons and that Barbarous and heathenish Love which knew onely how to dye vainly and with Audacity was but an impatient and desperate Love compared to a Chaste One which knows how to save in dying and to reap benefit even by its Dangers and Losses But this saving and Wonder-working Love ought not to be a busie and Effeminate Love or a Love of Interest and propriety It must be a Philosophick and Couragious Love Extatick and Prodigal Elevated above all that pleaseth and affrights This Torch must be like that represented in the Canticles not a wandring and Volatile fire but a fire ever Equal and Active A fire which consumes all the little threds of Interests all Forraign tyes all Chains and Fetters even those precious Chains which Fortune frames nay those very Fetters which are more worth then Diadems and which fasten Princes on Thrones Some will have it that it consumes even the tyes of the Soul and Body And alleadge that place of the Canticles where the power of Love is equalled with that of Death This point is both important and instructive And because one might be dangerously mistaken therein it is fit to make a Question of it apart MORAL QVESTION Whether it appertains to the Duty and Fidelity of VVomen to expose themselves to Death for their Husbands IF in this point we believe Antiquity Conjugal Love was heretofore very Tyrannical And married Women who subjected themselves to it ought to be well resolved It was not satisfied that they should bear with
the ill humours and bad Fortunes of their Husbands but it would have them sick of their Maladies die of their Deaths And as if it had not been sufficient to make them slaves undergo the yoke It made them also Sufferers and Victims and put ordinarily either a rope about their necks or a dagger in their throats The chief thing is that there was a necessity of taking that course to acquire the title of a gallant Woman And such as were able to endure life after the death of their Husbands could not pretend to the acclamations of their present Age nor to the Eternity of History Besides even in these dayes this cruel Custom is used in some parts of the Indie No Widows are seen in those Countries And Families are not prejudiced there by Dowries which issue out of them A Father of a Family being dead the Law of the Country ordains that he be put in an Equipage for the other World And that such things as had been most dear unto him should be burn'd with him The best beloved of his Wives hath this advantage by his last Will and the Right which Custom allows her She dresseth her self more richly and with more care for death then she had done for her Wedding-Feast The whole Kindred in Festival Garments and adorned like her Conducts her Solemnly and in Pomp to the flaming Pile And there she suffers her self to be burnt in Ceremony and with a more Natural and less affected Constancy then did the 〈◊〉 Philosopher who would counterfeit Hercules dying And presented a Spectacle of his death to the Army of Alexander I know indeed that this Superstitious and regular Cruelty of the Indians And that other tumultuary and precipitated Despair of the Romans and Grecians are equally reproved by the Laws of Christianity But I am not ignorant also that conjugal Love hath its Meritorious and Vertuous Deaths And there is some ground to doubt whether such kinde of deaths may happen by way of obligation and concern the Duty of a good Wife To this Question which is not of meer Curiosity but Instructive and Profitable I answer First that desperate and passionate Women who kill themselves to follow their deceased Husbands transgress against conjugal Love and violate the Fidelity they owe them This Proposition draws neer to a Paradox Yet exceeds not its bounds and Truth is there well ballanced One or two Reasons may Justifie it and draw the assent of the most devoted to the Memory of the Pantâ—â—â—â—â— and the Porcia's In the first place it will be granted me that the prime care of Lovers should be to nourish their fire and to keep it still in heat and action To delend it from all that might extinguish it And the least neglects therein are Temptations Doubts are Dispositions to change and commenced Infidelities Now this fire is smother'd in blood and by the violence of desperate Widows It is a great folly to believe that nothing remains after death The earth of Church-yards is too cold to preserve a single spark thereof An such as thunder out so great Oaths that their Ashes will retain everlastingly the heat thereof are highly guilty of Perjury unless they vent them by way of Poesie And if it be an act of Infidelity by tract of time and by piece-meal to suppress ones love from day to day and to deprive it by degrees of nourishment what will it be to smother it violently and on a sudden not to leave it a single spark which may inkindle it I know not how they will take what I have to say in this particular It is true nevertheless and must be spoken in what sense soever it may be taken Conjugal Fidelity is more hainously violated and the dead are far more injured by the delusive Courage of the falsely Constant Women that destroy themselves then by the weakness of those which will open their hearts to new Affections and run to second Marriages These at least preserve the Memory of their Husbands They still retain their Rings on their Fingers They keep their Pictures in their Closets and Hearts And the second fire which â—â—â—â—eth on them is not so incompatible nor so much an enemy to the first that it permits not some sparks thereof and a little heat in the remaining Ashes On the contrary furious and despairing Widows in what manner soever they voluntarily die reserve nothing of their first fire They destroy it even to the Matter to the very Ashes and Harth And their Husbands who might live long and quietly in their hearts perish a second time by the impetuosity of their Despair or by the obstinacy of their Grief Hence I infer a second Reason against the Falsity of impatient and despairing Love It is an opinion generally received and supported both by the Sense and Nature as well as by Speculation and Philosophy That Persons beloved have a particular Being and as it were a second Existency in the Imagination in the Soul and Heart of the Persons that love them They live there intellectually and by their Images And those Images are not dead Figures nor Impostures of a deceiving Art They have Life and Spirit they are true and Natural They possess all the Perfections and Graces of their Originals and have neither the Defects nor stains of Matter Now a Woman who kills her self out of a blinde and precipitious fury or who consumes her self with an obstinate and voluntary Affliction takes from her Husband this second Existency and this intellectual Being and Love by which he surviv'd himself She voluntarily annihilates and violently destroys that which death had left her And if she ought to make a scruple of defacing his Picture with what colour and pretence can she justifie the violence she offereth to an Image which was her second Life and Felicity in this World It is evident thereby that Constancy is not furious and that Fidelity is another thing then Despair That the greatest Love is not that which makes the most haste to poysons and precipices That Wives cannot more Religiously keep the Faith they owe to their Husbands not give them stronger proofs of their Affection then in rendring their Fidelity and Love durable and lasting Then in procuring them in their minde a life full of tranquillity and satisfaction Then in espousing their Memory and making a new Contract with their Images Then in carefully preserving those things which have been dear unto them And if they be good Wives they will not doubt but they were more dear to them then any Worldly treasure Let it not be said that this Philosophy is too remiss and indulgent That it pleads the cause of Nice and Effeminate Dames That it gives credit and authority to self Love This cannot be spoken but rashly and at random And surely as one may kill himself out of self Love and through an excess of tenderness so one may preserve his own life for the Love of another and by a particular
that the safety of States depends upon his Providence and not in the hands of Armies nor on the heads of their Ministers And to teach Conquerours that Victories are gained more by his Favour then by their Forces it was his good pleasure that a Shepherdesse who had never handled but a Sheep-hook should give more then ten times chase to above ten thousand Lances In fine God was pleased that a Maid bred up in a Village should perform all the Functions of Heroick Vertue that she should undergo all the Trials and obtain all the Crowns thereof And thereby he hath taught us that this sublime Vertue is not always found in elevated Fortunes nor still lodged in Palaces That no body is received by her for his own Condition That no body is rejected by reason of his Name or his Countenance that she only considers the heart which hath its Sex apart and Qualities differing from these of the Body And that Women who are more then Women by their Courage can ascend as high and approach as neer to Vertue as Men. This Verity is important and very useful And the ensuing Question which I am going to defend must needs Instruct with Delectation and benefit by way of Divertisement MORAL QVESTION VVhether VVomen may pretend to Heroick Vertue THE Heroes of whom there is so much mention made in History were not of the Gyants Race And their strength reached not so far as to root up Trees and remove Mountains Common people nevertheless who can comprehend no other greatness then that which tires the sight who know no other force then what begets noise and ruines frame Colosseses in their imaginations when we speak to them of those persons who are called Extraordinary And because they hear that men esteem their strength and prize their valour they believe in good earnest that these persons had Arms of Steel and â—egs of Brass and that with their Fists they did beat down the Walls of such Towns as they had a mind to take I think it necessary to reform this imagination of the Vulgar and to reduce it to a more just proportion It is not the heighth of Statute nor the strength of the Body which makes Heroes It is the greatness and elevation of the Soul It is the Courage and Resolution of the minde And there may be very elevated Souls and of the first Magnitude in little Bodies a mind extreamly vigorous may be found in very infirm flesh On that side then there is nothing which can diminish the right of Women or hinder them from pretending to Heroick Vertue And finally to render this right of Women more perspicuous and to support the pretensions of such as shall have the courage to raise themselves to that Pitch It is to be supposed that Heroick Vertue to define it rightly is but an excellent Vertue and elevated above common Vertues This excellency arises to her first from the Dignity and Eminency of her object which is Good considered in the highest elevation it may have Secondly it is derived to her from the perfection of the Faculties by which she acts and these Faculties receive their perfection from a spiritual and penetrating Fire which inlightens and purifies the Intellectual part which warms and transports the Appetitive Thirdly it arrives to her from the Nobleness of her principal functions which are to act vigorously and with resolution and to suffer couragiously and with constancy And because Action how vigorous and resolute soever it be even the most couragious and constant sufferance cannot attain to this eminent and prime Good but by a certain transport of the Soul which the Grecians call Enthusiasme this Transport is the fourth Cause which produceth the Excellency of Heroick Vertue Let us say also to leave nothing unsaid that the most beautifull and excellent form which Heroick Vertue gives to Love and Anger is a fifth Cause which addes to her a fifth degree of Excellency I speak here according to the opinion of the Ancients who believed that Love and Anger were the predominant Passions of Heroes whether because they are of a more subtile and combustible matter and that there enters more interiour fire into their temper then into that of other men Whether because these two Imperious and Soveraign Passions cannot be well purified but by a more Soveraign and Imperious Vertue then themselves nor can receive elsewhere and by an ordinary effort their last perfection and the fair forms whereof they are capable All these conditions contribute to the dignity of Heroick Vertue and raise it to a superiour Order where common Vertues are not admitted This Order nevertheless is seated in a place to which one may approach from all the conditions of life All great Souls are equally summoned to it On what side soever one ascends Women may ascend thither as well as Men. 〈◊〉 the most Eminent and Soveraign gallantry which is the proper object of Heroick Vertue is not out of their sight and cannot be above their Pretensions Nature hath not assigned them an end beneath That There is no bound beyond which they are exempted from cares and abandoned to their own sense There is no space wherein Good may not be to them more Good wherein Duty cealeth to oblige them wherein Vertue looses the rights she hath over them The Careir of Honour is to Them as great as to Us And in this Careir there is not one single place which is not marked out in which it may be permitted them to make a false step to suffer themselves to be overcome to abandon Gallantry to reject a Crown Moreover they are called to perfection as well as we And the Son of God who proclaims to the Saints and Just that they must not grow weary in sanctifying themselves and that they ought every day to adde some new lustre to their Righteousness hath not discharged Women from this labour nor marked them out bounds beyond which they may be unjust and far from Saints Not only then this Eminent and Soveraign Gallantry at which Heroick Vertue aimeth is not out of their reach but is within the limits of their right and enters into their duties And there may be occasions found which will not leave them the freedome of adhering to an inferiour Good Such Encounters and Enemies may come in the way as will excite them even to the last degree of Vertue or cause them to fall into Vice As for what concerns the perfection of the Intellectual and Appetitive portion which is as it were the head and heart of Heroick Vertue It is certain that these faculties are not different where there is diversity of Sex They have everywhere the same matter and are capable of the same forms The lights which descend into mens minds are not purer or of a higher Sphear then those that descend into the Souls of Women And from these equal lights derived from the same spring a like fire and of the same force may be kindled in the
exhibite them in this Place my Designe not being to Write for Strangers or blinde men As for what concerns these two Soveraign and predominant Passions which are the Noblest matter Heroick Vertue can employ the Constancy and Force of Conjugal Love even the Transport and last Perfection thereof will never be brought in Dispute against Women by any man that hath entertained himself but for one quarter of an hour in History They are not less capable of making good use of anger of purifying its fire by a more spiritual fire of guiding it to the supream degree of Honour by an Heroick transport And to conclude this point by a single Example but a remarkable and crowned one you will finde nothing but Blood Sallies and a hasty and precipitate Impetuosity in all that is related of those Heroesses whom we know if compared to what Semiramis did in this kinde A Province which she had newly conquered having chased away her Lieutenants and shaken off its yoke by a publick Revolt The news of it being brought to her at the instant her head was dressing She did not presently Proclaim that Ropes and Gibbets should be prepared as some Princes have done in like occasions But without the least raising of her voice or uttering one tart Word without making shew of my alteration or surprisal she took an oath that they should never finish the dressing of her head till she had chastised these Rebels This Oath taken with a tone of Rallery and with a Majestical and graceful sternness she commanded her Women to lock up her perfumes and jewels sent for her Arms and gave out Orders for the marching of her Troops Took horse with her hair half pin'd up and half discheveld And the not only began but finished the War in this posture And if my memory fail me not it was after the end of the War she caused that vast and stupendious Statue to be erected which I formerly mentioned Let us acknowledge that there was much of Magnaminity and Gallantry in this Transport Let us confess that this half dress'd head was upheld by a great heart That there was not a stronger nor a more capable One And that a Crown could not be found too great or too glorious for it Hitherto I have taken Heroick Vertue by lights purely humane and have scarce spoken of any other then That which hath been known to Philosophers But if the Question be concerning an Heroick Vertue which is Christian and sanctified by Grace which hath been illuminated by the Rayes of Iesus Christ which hath been imbrâ—â— by his blood and penetrated by the Spirits thereof upon Mount Calvery which is called to that Divine and Soveraign Good which is of a degree infinitely raised above all the goods of Nature there can be no doubt but that Women may pretend to it as well as we and that their Pretentions are as Lawful and grounded upon as good Right as ours Iesus Christ hath given his Blood and Spirit in common He cals us in common to the participation of his Croâ—â— and to Mount Calvery And it is particularly noted that when he was there in Person many women but one single man ascended thither after him I am unwilling to say that there was some Presage in this and that it prefigured what was to come I will only say that ever since they have been seen to ascend thither in greater numbers and with greater ardour then we and to throng more about the Cross which is the 〈◊〉 Throne of Heroick Vertue There have been Heroesses then according to all forms and in all the degrees of Heroick Vertue in the degree of Patience in the degree of Magnificence in the degree of Magnanimity in the degree of Courage and Valour And without further inlarging our Reasons the Example I am going to produce will be an universal and abbâ—â—â—â—ated proof thereof EXAMPLE Isabella Queen of Castile THe Design of the Monarchy of Spain is not of Plates time nor according to the Model of his Republick It is Modern and even within the Memory of our Fathers Nevertheless the Author thereof is not known so generally And even at this day men Dispute it as they would do about a half defaced piece of Antiquity Some attribute this â—nterprise to Ferdinand who was a Politick yet Timerous and Sedentary Prince who managed not Affairs but with his Minde and Counsel and acted all by the hands of his Captains and Lieutenants Others on the contrary will have it to be set a foot by Charlâ— the Fift that Fortunate and bold Workman who was as good for the Field as for Councel who put his own hand to the Work together with his Fortune who was both the Conâ—â—â— and Undertaker of his Designes But whatever may be alledged on either side This so vast and enormous Designe to speak the truth 〈◊〉 neither of a Timerous Person nor of a Conquerour It is neither of the Head of Ferdinand nor of the Arm of Charls it springs from the War and Courage of Isabella of Castile This single word serves her for a great abbreviated Elogy It is the abridgement of a long History and the subject of many Volumes And the Heroick Vertue of this great Queen cannot have a more magnificent and ample proof then a Structure which hath the extent of two Hemisphears and comprehends as well Nature already discovered as that which is to be discovered This so great an Enterprise was of a far greater Soul and assisted by all the enâ—â—oent Vertues Such as ingeniously Project such as consult with Prudence such as execute with address and such as act with force laboured therein conjoyntly with her Nothing but Great and Heroick was observed in all the parts of her life All her days were days of labour or preparatives to it And before she arrived to the Age of overcoming by Action she learnt to overcome by Sufferance Divine Providence having made choice of Her to manifest to these last Ages how far a great Vertue assisted by efficacious Grace may Advance deprived her early both of Father and Mother and placed her single and without support in the way of Vertue as soon as she could support her self It was no â—mall advantage to her to have been severed so soon from softning Tendernesses and corrupting Pleasures At least she resembled thereby the Ancient Heroes and to use the terms of that Age There was less of the Milk then Marrow of the â—â—on in her nourishment Her Childhood also was Disciplined and became the sooner Active thereby She was Serious and Discreet Temperate and Severe from the Age of Childish Toyes and Pastimes And when other Maids play with Babbies or are flattered by their Nurses Adversity made her Warlike and taught her to vanquish Fortune This Severe and Disciplined Childhood was followed by a Youth full of Storms and Troubles And God who would not suffer her to have other then grave Satisfactions and solid Contentments permitted that the first