with the Seminarie and vitall powers of the Sunne makes them as new soules The Tetra that is the number of Foure supplying the bodie for she giues nothing after death who receiues towards generation The Sunne takes nothing from but receiues againe the mind which he giues the Moone both receiues and giues and composeth or makes and diuides when shee makes she is called Lucina when shee deuides Diana So of the three Parcae Atropos is placed about the Sunne as the beginning of this new birth Clotho is carried about the Sunne to collect and mingle Lachesis the last her office is vpon the Earth but these are riddles rather to trouble the braine than profit the vnderstanding Parcae the mother of these three sisters is said to bee the daughter of Necessitie doubtles the Ethick writers held these to bee most powerfull goddesses because all things borne or that had subsistance were thought to bee vnder their iurisdiction and power and therefore they were imagined by some to bee the daughters of Iupiter and Themis because as the Pithagorians taught Ioue gaue to euerie one a bodie and forme suitable to the merits or misdeeds of their former life or else because the diuine Wisedome allotted to euerie soule rewards or punishments as their good deedes or badde deserued the cause of which diuision the antient writers not truely vnderstanding appropriated all to Fate and the Parcae FVRIAE or the EVMEMIDES THose whom the Poets call Furiae Virgill tearmes the daughters of Night and Acheron Therefore Galtreus in his twelfth booke de Alexand. calls them by a fit Epithite Noctiginae Ego si dea sum qua nulla potentior inter Noctigenus si me vestram bene nost is alumnam If I a goddesse be of whom Amongst the night-borne none More potent is it 's well you knew Mee for your nurce alone By the same law Mantuan calls them Achecontiginae as borne of Acheron they are called by Lucan amongst the infernals Canes dogges Stigiasquae Canes in luce superna Destiluana In the vpper light I will forsake the Stigian dogges meaning the sisters Amongst mortalls they are called Furiae because they stirre vp and spur on rage and malice in the hearts of men They are called also Eumenides by an Antiphrasis in a contrarie sence for Eumenis signifieth Benevolens or well wishing therefore Ouid Eumenides tenuere faces de funere raptas Their temples and foreheads in steede of haire are sayd to crawle with snakes and serpents as witnesseth Catullus Statius Mantuanus in Appollon and others By Virgill they are called Dirae Vltricesque sedent in Limine dirae Lactantius in his sixt booke de Vero Culâ—u writes after this manner There be three affections or passions which precipitate men into all violent and facinerous actions therefore Poets calls them Furies Ire which couets reuenge Couetousnesse which desires riches and Lust whose itching appetite is after all vnlawfull pleasure The first of these Furies is called Alecto discouered by Virgill where he tearmes her Luctifica as making strife and contention The second is Tesiphone or Tisiphone the daughter of Acheron whom Ouid thus deliniates Nec mora Tesiphone madefactam sanguine sumit Importuna facem fluidoque cruore madentem Induitur pallam tortoquae incingiter angue Egrediturquae domo luctus comitatur cuntem Et pauor terror trepidoque insaniae vultu Importunate Tesiphone without delay makes speed And snatcheth vp a smoking brand which burning seemes to bleed A garment on her backe she throwes All gore about her wast A gyrdle of a wreathed snake In curl'd knots she makes fast So foorth she goes sad Mourning she Attends her at the gate Vpon her steps grim Terror Feare And troubled Madnesse waite Claudian in his booke of the praises of Stilico calls the third daughter of Acheron and Night Megaera so likewise Mantuan de Calam temporum lib. 2. The sacreds that were made to these were by such as hauing escaped any dangerous desease or pestilent sickenesse had bin spared by the Fates and their sacrifices were onely done with a sad silence The priests were called Hesichidae of a Heroë called Hesicho to whom before the solemnitie a Ramme was still offered as Polemo witnesseth in that worke he writ to Eratosthenes It was held a prophanation saith he for any of the meaner sort of people to haue accesse to these ceremonies onely to these Hesichides whose familie was onely acceptable to these seuere goddesses and in all their oblations had the principall prime place and precedence Their chappell is neere to Cidonium by the Nine ports All such as sacrificed to them were in blacke vestures and they were alwaies celebrated in the night season as it is manifest by Apollonius Indutam obscuram per noctem vestibus atris By night their sable habits they put on To them was slaine and offered a cole-blacke ewe and great with young readie to yeane neither was there any wine vsed in their sacrifices which were called Nephalia Now because no man should haue hope to hide and conceale his owne guilt and wickednes to the three seuere judges of Hell were giuen these three ministers which some cal by the name of Erinnae which signifies the prickes and stings of Conscience the parents of which they were borne importing so much for there is no greater torture or deeper piercing than a mans owne sentence against himselfe And compendiously to shut vp all the antient writers would by these signifie vnto vs That to a good and just man only all things are safe that innocencie and integritie alone make men feareles and constant against all the mutabilities of fortune since the like torments of Mind troubles of Conscience still attend on all such as are impure and dishonest Thus hauing past ouer the goddesses Coelestial Marine and Infernal the goddesses Selectae Terrestrial and others least my discourse might grow too tedious by appearing dull and heauie and besides in regard that my purpose is aimed at many or most of that sexe of what estate and condition soeuer to make my worke more succinct and compendious and to spare you some reading and my selfe more labour I will deliuer you a multiplicitie of histories tales in few namely in a short Epitome giue you the arguments of all the Fables in Ouids Metamorphosis which for your better content I shall expresse to you in verse and with that conclude my first booke called Clio. An abstract of all the Fables in the fifteene bookes of Ouids Metamorphosis as they follow in the Poëm CHaos into foure elements deuided Each one into their seuerall place is guided And for their sundrie creatures Roomth prepare Th' inhabitants of th' Earth Sea Heauens and Aire Of earth and water man is first begot And the foure ages next succeede by lot Gold Siluer next third Brasse the fourth of yron In last of which the Giants seed inuiron The spatious earth and are become the head Of Nations of their spilt blood
but something grounded in yeares and because she spake boldly in the defence of her Faith first with barbarous crueltie they beat out her teeth then without the â—ittie they prepared a huge pile threatning to burne her instantly vnlesse shee would renounce her Christianitie but shee seeming to pause a little as if she meant better to consider of the matter when thy least suspected leapt suddenly into the fire and was there consumed to ashes Ammomarion a holy Virgin after the suffering of many torments vnder the same tyrant gaue vp her life an acceptable sacrifice for the Gospell Mercuria a vertuous Woman and one Dionisia a fruitfull and child-bearing Martyr after they were questioned about their faith and in all arguments boldly opposed the iudges were first rackt and tortured till they were past all sence of feeling that done they caused them to be executed Theodosia was a virgin of Tyrus about the age of eighteene years she comming to visite certaine prisoners at Cesaria who were called to the barre and because they stood stedfastly in the defence of the Gospell prepared themselues to heare the most welcome sentence of death pronounced against them which Theodosia seeing gently saluted them comforted them and persuaded them to continue in their constancie withall humbly desired them to remember her deuoutly in their prayers which she knew would be acceptable to him for whose loue they so freelie offered vp their liues The officers this hearing dragd her before the President who at first despising her youth began to talke with her as to a child but finding her answers modest and weightie began further to argue with her but seeing himselfe vnable to hold argument as being conuinced in all things hee grew into such a malitious rage that he first caused her to be scourged before his face euen till the flesh gaue way to discouer the bones but this not preuailing hee commanded her instantly to be dragged from thence and from an high place to be cast headlong into the sea I will conclude this discourse of Martyrs with one of our owne moderne stories Our english chronicles report that Maximus the Emperour hauing held long warre with one Conon Meridock a resolute and bold Brittaine hauing in many bloody conflicts sped diuersly sometimes the victory inclining to one side and then to another but in conclusion to the losse of both their hostilitie was by mediation at length attoned and a firme peace establisht betwixt them that done Maximus made warre vpon the Galls and inuading a Prouince then called America but since Little Brittaine he wonne it by the sword and after surrendered it to Conon to hold it for euer as of the Kings of great Brittaine This Conon Meridock was a Welch-man and from hence it may bee That all that nation assume to themselues the name of Brittons This eminent captaine being onely furnisht with souldiours for the present warres but wanting women to maintaine future issue to him was sent S. Vrsula with eleauen thousand virgins to bee espoused to Conon and his knights But being met at sea by the the Pagan pyrats because they would neither change their faith nor prostitute themselues to their barbarous and beastly lusts they were all by these inhuman wretches cut to peeces and cast ouer board and therefore in mine opinion not vnworthily reckoned amongst the Martyrs From these I will proceede to others Aristoclaea OF all the deaths that I haue read of this of Aristoclaea me thinkes exceedes example with which howsoeuer her body was tormented her soule could not be greeeued for neuer woman dyed such a louing death Plutarch in his Amatorious narrations hath thus deliuered it Aliartes is a cittie of Boetia in which was borne a virgin so beautified and adorned with all the gifts and perfections of nature as she seemed vnparaleld through Greece her name was Aristoclaea the sole daughter of Theophanes To her there were many sutors but three especially of the noblest families of the cittie Strato Orchomenius and Calisthenes Aliartius Of these Strato being the richest he seemed the most indeâ—red to her in affection for he had first seene her at Lebedaea bathing her selfe in the fountaine Hercyne from whence hauing a basket vpon her arme which she was to vse in the sacrifice to Iupiter he tooke a full view of her in her way to the Temple yet Calisthenes he fed himselfe with the greater hopes because he was of more proximitie and neerer to the virgin in allians betwixt these two Orchomenius stood as a man indifferent Her father Theophanes vpon their importunities doubtfull and not yet hauing determined on which to conferre his daughter as fearing Stratoes potencie who in wealth and nobilitie equalled if not anteceded the best in the cittie he therefore put it off to one Trophonius to be decided but Strato most confident in his owne opinion and strength tooke the power to her disposing from Trophonius and gaue it vp freely into her owne will The damsell in a confluence of all her kindred and friends gathered for that purpose and in the sight of her suitors was publikely demaunded of which of them she made choice who answered of Calisthenes Strato taking this in an irreconcilable disgrace and in the greatnesse of his spirit not able to disgest an iniurie as he tooke it of that nature dissembling his spleene and some two dayes after meeting with Theophanes and Calisthenes hee gaue them a friendly and an vnsuspected salutation desiring still a continuance of their antient loue and friendship that since what many couet one can but enioy he could content himselfe with his owne lot howsoeuer desiring that their amitie might remaine perfect and vnchanged these words came so seemingly from the heart that they with great ioy did not only entertain his loue and voluntarie reconcilement but in all curtesie gaue him a solemne inuitation to the wedding which he as complementally entertained and vpon these tearmes they parted Strato subornes a crew of such as he might best trust and addes them to the number of his seruants these hee ambushes in diuers places selected for his purpose but all to be ready at a watch-word Calisthenes bringing Aristoclaea towards the fountaine called Cissoâ—ssa there to performe the first Sacreds belonging to marriage according to the custome of her auncetors Strato with his faction ariseth and with his owne hands ceiseth vpon the virgin on the other side Calisthenes hee catcheth the fastest hold he can to keepe her Strato and his pull one way Calisthenes and his another thus both contending in the heat of their affection but not regarding her safetie whom they did affect she as it were set vpon the racke of loue pluckt almost to peeces betwixt them both expired Which seeing Calisthenes hee was suddenlie lost neither could any man euer after tell what became of him whether he punisht himselfe by some extraordinarie death or betooke himselfe to voluntarie exile Strato openly before his owne people
Turetranus who in the Delphinaâ— saw a Witch burned aliue whose storie he thus relates She was maidseruant to an honest citisen who comming home vnexpected and calling for her but hearing none to answere searching the roomes he found her lying all along by a fire which she had before made in a priuate chamber which seeing he kickt her with his foot and bid her arise like a lasie huswife as she was and get her about her businesse but seeing her not to mooue he tooke a tough and smart wand and belabored her verie soundly but perceiuing her neither to stirre nor complaine he viewing her better and finding all the parts of her bodie vnsensible tooke fire and put it to such places of her bodie as were most tender but perceiuing her to haue lost all feeling was persuaded she was dead and called in his next neighbours telling them in what case he found her but concealing vnto them the shrewd blowes he had giuen her the neighbors left the house the master and mistresse caused her to be laid out so left her and went to their rest but towards the morning hearing some bodie to stir and groâ—ne in the chamber they found their seruant remooued and laid in her bed at which the good man much amased asked her in the name of God being laâ—e dead how came she so soone recouered to whom she answered Oh master master why haue you beaten me thus the man reporting this amongst his nighbours one amongst the rest said if this be true she is then doubtlesse a Witch and one of these Extasists at which the Master growing suspitious vrged her so strictly that she confessed though her bodie was there present yet her soule was abroad at the assemblie of diuers Witches with many other mischiefes for which she was held worthie of death and iudged At Burdegall in the yere 1571 when there was a decree made in France against the strict prosecution of Witches an old Sorceresse of that place amongst many horrid and fearefull things confessed by her she was conuicted and imprisoned where D. Boletus visited her desiring to be eye-witnesse of some of those things before by her acknowledged to whom the Witch answered That she had not power to do any thing in prison But desirous to be better satisfied concerning such things he commanded her for the present to be released and brought out of the Gaole to another lodging where she in his presence hauing annointed her bodie with a certaine vnguent from the crowne to the heele naked fell into a sodaine apoplex appearing to them as dead depriued of all sence or motion but after fiue houres returning to her selfe as if she awaked out of a dreame she related many things done neere and farre off in that interim of which sending to know the truth they found her to erre in nothing this was confirmed to Bodinus by an Earle of great honour who was then present when this thing was done Olaus Magnus in his historie saith That those things are common in the Northren parts of the world and that the friends of those Extasists diligently keepe and safeguard their bodies whilest their Spirits are abroad either to carrie rings tokens or letters to their friends though neuer so farre off and bring them answers backe againe with infallible tokens of their being there Many I could here produce to the like purpose I will end with S. Augustine lib. de Ciuitate Dei 18. who affirmes the father of Prestantius hath confest himselfe to haue beene transported with such extasies that when his Spirit hath returned to him againe he hath constantly affirmed that he hath beene changed into an horse and in the companie of others carried prouision into the campe when in the meane time his bodie was knowne to lie at home in his chamber breathlesse and without moouing and this hath reference to Liranthropia i. The changing of men into beasts So much spoken of by the antient writers and now so frequent in the Orientall parts of the world Some obserue as Strangerus Danaeus and others that no Witch can weepe or sâ—ed a teare Others as the Germans in some parts that a Witch cannot sinke nor drowne in the water and therefore to trie them being suspected they cast them into moates and riuers They can do nothing in prison neither will they confesse any thing till the Deuill hath quiâ—e forsaken them I meane in his power to helpe them not in his couenant to inioy them They are all penurious and needie neither haue they the least power of the Iudges they haue art to hurt others but none any way to benefit themselues There is not any of them but weares the Deuills marke about her They neuer looke any man or woman stedfastly in the face but their eyes wander of the one side or other but commonly they are deiected downward they answer pertinently to no question demanded them They all desire to see the Iudges before they come to their arraignement being of a confident opinion that if they behold them first the Iudges haue no power to condemne them but if they be first brought to the place all their Sorceries are vaine and of no validitie Others are remembred by D. Adamus Martinus Procurator of Laodâ—num prooued vpon the famous Witch Beibrana whom hee sentenced to the stake But these shall suffice for this present for CALLIOPE now pluckes me by the elbow to remember her Explicit Liber Octauus Inscriptus VRANIA THE NINTH BOOKE Inscribed CALLIOPE Intreating of Women in generall with the Punishments appertaining to the Vitious and Rewards due to the Vertuous WHEN I enter into a true consideration of how many seuerall Affections Dispositions Actions and Passions in Women I haue had occasion to speakeâ— of the Good and Bad Famous and Infamous Vertuous and Dishonest Illustrious and Obscure next of all Ages from the Cradle to the Graue the Swathband to the Winding sheetâ— then of all Estates Degrees and Callings from the Empresse in the Court to the Shepheardesse in the Village when I next ponder with my selfe that all these are gathered to the Earth from whence they came and that wee who are yet breathing doe but hourely tread vpon our Graues lingring and prolonging a few vncertaine minutes and must necessarily follow and that our liues are but a Circular motion or a Circle drawne by a Compasâ— ending where it first began being but as the wheeles of a Clocke wound vp and as we mooue in the passage of our life like the Hand of a Dyall point first to one houre then a second so to a third still shewing our yeeres in our growth that any man may reade what a Clocke it is with vs by our Age but when the Plummets and Weights haue forced our Wheeles so often about till there is no more Lyne left then wee cease both motion noyse and being Next that all know they must die but none the time when they shall die and
the cause of his disturbance That he heard the noyse of Trumpets and charging of Battailes with the groanes of slaughtered and dying men from the place where his mother was interred Therefore he often shifted his houses but all in vaine for this horror still pursued him euen to his miserable and despairing end for so Xiphilinus testates the Abbreuiator of Dion in Nerone The perfidiousnesse of Husbands to their Wiues hath been thus punished By the Law Iâ—lâ—â— all such were condemned as rioted and wasted the Dowries of their wiues The Romans did not onely hold such impious and sacrilegious that prophaned their Temples and despised the Altars of the gods but those also that were rudely robustious and layd violent hands vpon their wiues and children in such a reuerent estimation they held fatherly loue and coniugall pietie Alex. Lib. 4. cap. 8. Almaricus hauing married the sister of the French king and vsing her most contumeliously and basely for no other reason but that she was a faithfull follower of the true Religion and quite renounced Arrianisme was by her brother Chilbertus vexed and tormented with a bloudie and intestine warre Michael Ritius Lib. 1. de Regib Francorum M. Valer. Maximus and Câ—i â—anius Brutâ—s being Censors remoued L. Antonius from the Senate for no other reason but that without the aduice and counsaile of his friends he had repudiated a Virgin to whom hee had beene before contracted Val. Maxim Lib. 2. cap. 4. So Tiberius Caesar discharged an eminent Roman from his Quaestorship for diuorcing his wife the tenth day after he had beene married accounting him meerely void of faith or constancie that in a businesse so weightie and of so great moment in so small a time exprest himselfe variable and inconstant Alex. Lib. 4. cap. 8. Rhodulphus Veromandorum Conies forsooke his wife to marrie the sister of the Queene Petronilla for which he was excommunicated by the Church of Rome and the Bishop Laudunensis Bartholomaeus Nouiâ—comensis and Simon Peter Syluanectensis that were assistants to the Earle Rhodulphus in that vniust Diuorce were all suspended by the Pope Robertus Abbas in Chronicis The reuenge of these libidinous insolencies was most appâ—rant in the Emperour Andronicus who after the death of Emanuel who preceded him caused his sonne the immediate heire to the Empire to be sowed in a Sacke and cast into the Sea And being now securely installed in the Constantinopolitane Principalitie besides a thousand Butcheries Slaughters and other insufferable Cruelties he addicted himselfe to all luxurious intemperance as vitiating Virgins corrupting Matrons contaminating himselfe with shamefull Whoredomes and Adulteriesâ— not sparing the religious Nunneries but forcing the Cloysters rauishing thence whom hee pleased to glut his greedie and insatiate lust and when his owne desires were qualified would deliuer them vp to be stuperated by his groomes and vassales With whose vnbridled appetites and insufferable madnesse the people being vexed and tyred they inuited Isacius to the Empire and besieging the Tyrant tooke him and presented him before the Emperour elected who because he had so maliciously trespassed against euerie man deuised for him a punishment that might giue satisfaction to all hee therefore first caused him to put off his Imperiall Robes and to appeare no other than a priuate man such as he had maliciously offended next caused one of his eyes to be pluckt out the punishment deuised by Lycurgus for Adulterers hee mounted him vpon an Asse with his face towards the tayle which being forced to hold in his hand and putting a Garland of Derision about his temples commanded him to be led through all the streetes of the citie allowing all men and women to speake against him what opprobry they pleased without limitation and doe him all outrages that stretched not to destroy his life Thus was the Tyrant conducted along through an implacable multitude entertained by the way with Clamors Shouts Raylings Curses and all manner of Contempts and Derisions some spitting others casting soyle and durt the women emptying vncleanely Vessels vpon his head insomuch that no disgrace or abiect vsage could be deuised of which he was not then in some kind sensible This done he was carried to the common place of execution and there like a Felon hanged vpon the gallowes Guido Bituricensis And this which was done to him vndoubtedly belongs to all such shamelesse barbarous and brutish women who with brasen impudence hauing abandoned all grace and goodnesse expose themselues to the profession of all impuritie and abhominable dishonestie making their corrupt bodies no better than Sinkes of Sinnes and Spittles of Diseases not onely pleased in their owne ruines without the destruction of others till their Soules be euerie way as leprous as their infected Bodies nay more since the Maladies and Aches of the one is but momentarie and for them the Graue is a Bed of Rest and Death the Surgeon but the other are permanent and endlesse namely those of the Soule of which Hell is the Prison and the Deuill the Tormentor From these greater I now proceed to lesse and though not in that measure yet in some kind punishable Of Loquacitie and Excesse and how they haue beene punished BEcause I desire Women to entertaine nothing either to the preiudice of themselues or others I could ingeniously wish by taking away the cause to remooue the effectâ— and by suppressing the temptation to cut off all occasion that might allure men to offend Two things there are that be great corrupters of Modestie and prouokers to Sinne namely Wanton and vnbridled Discourse and vaine and fantasticke prodigalitie in Attyre I will speake a little of the due reprehension belonging vnto these ere I begin with others If then the tongue be the Orator of the heart and by our words our minds are specially signified how much care ought women to haue what they speake and with what modestie to gouerne the Organ of their thoughts since corrupt words arise from corrupt apprehensions and nothing but what is pure and irreprouable should proceed from a heart that is without staine and blemish Besides too much Loquacitie I could wish you to forbeare with which many of your Sex hath beene vnsparingly branded Many also haue accused you to be so open breasted that you cannot conceale any secret committed vnto your trust I aduise you to be counsailed by Horace Lib. 1. Epistot ad Saeuam Sed tacitus pasci si posset Corvus haberet Plus dapis rixae multo minus inuidiaeque Would the Crow eat in silence and not prate Much better she might seed with much lesse hate It is reported of Theocritus Chius being taken in battaile that in the way as the souldiers conducted him with purpose to present him before the king Antigonus they persuaded him when hee appeared before the eyes of the Conqueror to beare himselfe with all submisse humilitie and no doubt but he should find the Prince royall He rather willing to hasard his life than lose
concerning the diuers opinions of men what this supreame deity should be some held it the vniuerse or the gloabe of the world of which opinion was Origines in his fift booke against Celsus The Stoicks held it to bee the first world the Platonists a second world and diuerse other Sectists of Greece to bee a third world Thales Milesius called God a Mind that fashioned all creatures out of the water that knew no beginning and was not capable of end Anaxmiander he ascribed a deity to the starres and the planets and these coelestiall bodies attributing no honor to that Mind of which Thales dreamed Anaximenes thought it to be the Infinite ayer to which hee attributed the Originall of all causes and deriued the birth of the gods from thence for so Saint Augustine and Cicero affirmes Democritus Abderites as Cicero and Arnobius testifie of him was of opinion that it was a Mind of fire and the soule of the world Plutarch in the life of Nuâ—â— sets downe Pythagoras his opinion concerning this godhead and thus defines it A Minde still trauelling neuer out of motion but disperst and diffus'd through all the parts of the world and things naturall from which all creatures whatsoeuer that are borne take life Lysis and Philolaus call it an vnspeakeable number or a summity of the greatest or smallest number for so Origines faith Archelaus Physicus would haue all things to be created of earth and as Epiphanius testates of him the beginning of all things to proceede from thence Pherecidas taught that the earth was before all other things and therefore to that he appropriated a diuinitie Heraclius Ephesius contested the gods to be made of Fire so Varro writes of him of the same beleefe was Hippasus Metapontinus witnesse Simplicius Anaxagoras Clazomen called his god Homoeomeria that is Likenesse of parts and that a diuine thought was the producter of all things whatsoeuer So Augustine reports of him others that he held an infinite Mind to be the first moouer Prodicus Coeus as Epihanius tels vs plac't his god in the foure Elements likewise in the Sun and the Moone in which two planets there existed a liuing vertue Diogenes Apollonaites deriued his god from the Ayre as the matter from whence all things had their reality as likewise that it did participate of diuine reason without which nothing could be created Cleanthes Assius would haue his god of the Firmament as diuerse other of the Stoicks And as Arnobius witnesseth of him sometimes he called him the Will now the Minde then that part of the ayer which is aboue the fire and sometimes againe the Reason Straton made Nature his summum bonum Antisthenes Atheniensis he taught that there were many popular gods but one onely Architector of the fabricke of the world Chrysippus Silix the Stoicke hee taught that god was a naturall power endued with diuine reason and then againe he called him a Diuine necessity Zeno Citteieus called him a diuine and naturall Law and sometimes the Firmament Zenophanes Colophonius called him Whatsoeuer was infinite in a conioyned mind or one vniuersall and euery thing that as Theophrastus saith of him he imagined to be god Parmenides Eliates called him fantasme or an apprehension of an Imaginarie thing something resembling a crown which the greeks call Stephanos conteining within it a fierie light an orbe or girdle which compasseth and embraceth the heauens adhearing to his fantasie were Cicero and Simplicius Empedocles Agrigentinus he would haue foure natures of which all things should subsist and these he taught to be diuine as also that they had byrth and should see end for so Cicero writes in his book de natura deorum Theodorus and Epiphanius speake of one Theodorus sirnamed Atheos the Atheist He affirmed the gods to be meere toyes and not worthie of diuine honors that would persuade men by their examples to theft periurie and rapine Protagoras Abderita was of opinion That it was not lawfull to inquire concerning the gods whether they were or were not or of what nature and qualitie Xenocrates Chalcedonius made eight gods in the wandering starres the number of fiue in the whole number of the planets one a seauenth in the Sunne an eight in the moone Plato Atheniensis went more diuinely to worke who taught that it is neither the ayre nor reason nor nature but that there is one onely God by whom alone the world was fashioned and made persect and miraculous Zenophon Socraticus held argument That the forme of the true God was not visible and therefore his essence not lawfull to be sought into Ariston the Stoicke affirmed that God might be comprehended within his owne substance Aristotle proposed That one Mind gouerned the whole world and that it was the prime and principall cause of all things Speucippus constituted a naturall liuing power by which all things were gouerned and that he stil'd a deity for so Arnob in his eighth booke reports Alcmaeon Crotoniates did attribute a deitie to the Sunne the Moone and the rest of the Planets in his ignorance as Cicero speakes of him giuing immortality to things meerely mortall Ecphantus Siracusanus as Erigines relates of him imagined the diuinitie to exist in the mind and soule Brachmanae who were the Indian wise men or Sophoi called it the Light but not as the splendour of the Sunne or Ayre but the light of reason by which wise and vnderstanding men might enquire iâ—to the darke and mysticall secrets of nature Lactantius and Cicero say that it was the opinion of the Stoicks for the most part That this instrumentall power was a diuine substance intelligeable and ayerie but wanting forme yet to bee transhapt or made like to whatsoeuer it best pleased it selfe The same Philosophers attributed a god-hood to the starres and all other coelestiall bodies Heraclides Ponticus thought the World and the Minde both diuine and was of opinion that this forme of the deity was mutable reducing the earth and the heauens within the compasse of Godhead Epicurus Atheniensis hee made him gods of Atoms of Moates allowing them bodies differing from men but bearing humaine forme M. Terentius Varro supposed him to be the soule of the world and the world it selfe to be god Cicero defines him thus a certaine pure and free mind seperate from all mortall commixtion euer moouing and all things knowing and Origines adhering to the opinion of Exilneus concludes that the gods are euer during not subiect to corruption and yet altogether without prouidence But least I should grow tedious in the search of so many diuerse opinions which to some may appeare impertinent to the tractate in hand yet not altogether vnnecessary to such who haue not trauelled in the search of these Antiquities I wil come neerer to the matter and to speake of the goddesses as we promist Hesiod hath left to memorie that there are no lesse than thirtie thousand gods within the compasse of the world and euery one haue seuerall predominance ouer men
that obserued absteined from eating flesh contenting themselues with Chesnuttes and Akornes and the fruits of trees One of them called Melissa first found and tasted honie in Pelloponesus with whose tast the Greekes were so pleased that they call all Bees Melissae after her name From hence it came that in the sacreds of Ceres and in all nations the Priests deriued their names from her These nymphes were supposed to haue the charge of hills and mountaines and sometimes of such wild beasts as they pursued in the companie of Diana but the protection of priuate heards or domesticke flockes was not conferd vpon them so religious were the people of old that neither publicke place nor priuate was destitute of some peculiar and diuine power so likewise euery element hearbe roote and tree or whatsoeuer symple was vsefull and medicinable or obnoxious and hurtfull to the life of man Those of the mountaines were Oreades or Orestiades The Driades and Hamadriades THe Dryades had predominance ouer the woods and groaues as Pomona ouer the orchards and gardens The Hamadriades were the genij of euerie particular tree and as Calimachus in a Hymne to Delos witnesseth of them they begin with their first plantation grow with them and consume and perish as they rot and wither their number is not agreed vpon Pausonias in Phocicis calls one of them Tythorera in Arcadicis a second Erato and a third Phigalia Claudianus in laâ—dibus Stiliconis reckons them seauen Charon Lampsacenus produceth one Rhaecus who in the countrey of Assyria hauing a goodlie faire oake whose earth shrinking form the roote and being ready to fall as he was propping and supporting the tree and supplieng the decayed mould about it the nymph or genius of that tree which was to perish with it appeared to him and after thankes for so great a courtesie bid him demand of her whatsoeuer and it should be graunted since by the repayring of that plant she was still to liue He taken with her beautie demanded libertie freelie to imbrace hir to his owne fill and appetite to which she instantlie yeelded Appollonius in his Argonaut tells of the father of one Paraebius who going to cut downe an antient faire oake that had stood many yeares a nymph in like manner appeared to him humblie petitioning that he would spare the tree for her sake since the age of it and her and the liues of both were limited alike which he refusing so enraged the other of her fellowes that many afflictions befell both himselfe and his posteritie Mnesimachus saith that they are called Dryades because in the oakes their liues are included and Hamadriades because they are borne with them and Isacius the interpreter of Appollo because they perish with them I will conclude these with one tale recited by Charon Lampsacenus Archus saith he the sonne of Iupiter and Calisto being chacing in the forrests incountred one of the Hamadriades who told him how neere she was to ruine in regard that the riuer running by had eaten away the earth from the root of such a goodly oake to which she pointed and that by sauing that he should preserue her at her intreatie he turned the streame another way and supplyed the roote with earth for which this nymph whose name was Prospetia granted him her free imbraces of whom he begot Philatus and Aphidantes Whether these relations were true or false is not much to bee disputed on if false they were for no other causes deuised but by the superstition of the people of antient daies who left nothing vnmeditated that might stirre vp men to the adoration of the diuine powers since in euerie thing they demonstrated a deitie If they were spoken as truths I rather beleeue them to bee the meere illusions of diuells and spirits themselues than the genij of plants and trees that made such apparitions Of the Goddesses Infernall IT lies with much conuenience in our way to make discourse of Pluto the third brother of Saturne of the riuer Acheron and the properties thereof Of Styx a flood terrible to the gods themselues and by which they vse to sweare of Cocitus of Caron of Cerberus of the three infernall judges Minos Aeacus and Rhadamant of Tartarus with diuers others out of all which many excellent fables pleasant to reade and profitable to make both morrall and diuine vse of might bee collected but I skip them of purpose since I am inioyned to it by promise for but women onely I haue now to deale with It therefore thus followes Of the Parcae OF Proserpina we haue treated alreadie amongst the supernall goddesses aboue and therefore must necessarily spare her here amongst these below The Parcae or fatall goddesses are three Clotho Lachesis and Atropos Ceselius Vindex he giues them three other names Nona Decima and Morta and cites this verse of Liuius a most antient Poet Quando dies venit quam praesata morta est When the day commeth that Morta hath presaged Some calls them the daughters of Demogorgon others as Cicero of Herebus and Nox Hell and Night by another name they are called Fata the Fates as Seneca Multa ad Fata venere suum dum fata timeant As much to say Many come to their death whilst they feare it They are sayd moreouer to measure the life of man with a spindle and thread which they spinne from their distaffe from which they are called Lanificae by the Poets Lanificas nulli tres exorare puellas Contigit obseruant quem statuere diem The three wol-weauing sisters none can pray To change their time they fix a constant day They are sayd to be inexorable and by no praiers or intreates to be moued to alter the limit of the fixed time or prorogue the life of man one minute after the date bee expired which was proposed at our birthes therefore Seneca Nulli iusso cessare licet Nulli scriptum proferre diem The Poets thus distinguish their offices one begins the life of man and pluckes the towe from the distaffe the second makes the thread and continues it the third cuts it off and so ends it The first is Clotho whom Statius calls Ferrea or hard hearted Seneca Grandaena or extreamely aged Pontanus Improba and Sedula obstinate and yet carefull and dilligent The second Lachesis called by Ouid Dura hard by Marciall Inuida enuious by Claudian Ferrea obdure and rude The third Attropos of whom Statius Hos ferrea neuerat annos Atropos Some number Illithia amongst the Parcae Plutarch speaking of the face that is visible within the Orbe of the Moone sayth some are of opinion that the soules of men are resolued into the Moone as their bodies into the Earth Aliquanto post tempore eas quoque animas in se recepit Luna atquae composuit 1. After some time the Moone receiues into her selfe those soules which she had before framed restoring their mindes before lost for they are all in a dreame like the soule of Endimion and by coadiuting
the field Where his blood dropt a purple Hicinth grew In memorie that Aiax Aiax slew Troy sact by th' Argiues Hecuba the Queene Turnes to a she dogge keeping still her spleene Her sad distaster all the gods lament Aurora sheddes most teares still discontent For Memnons death Aeneas leauing Troy To Anius comes a prince depriu'd all ioy Because his daughters were made house-doues sad That he of them no greater comfort had Thence past he diuers shores and sundrie nations With wonders fil'd and various transformations Till piercing Italy yet free from scar With the bold Turnus he beginnes new war He sends to importune Diomedes ayd By Venulus whose fellowes were all made Light feathered birds th'imbassador deni'd And back returning by a riuers side Spies a wilde Oliue which before had bin A louely sheapheard but now chang'd for sinne Aeneas shippes are in the hauen burn'd But pitied by the gods to sea-nymphes turn'd Ardea to a bird more strange than these Himselfe into a god cal'd Indiges Him other kings succeed and 'mongst the rest Liu'd vnder Proca that faire nymph who best Can skill of Gardens vnto whom resorted The fresh Vertumnus and Pomona courted He in an old wiues shape to her relates The tale of Anaxarites how the fates For her obdurenesse turn'd her into stone Pomona listning and they both alone He to his youthfull shape againe retires And in the Garden quensht his amorous fires In processe vnder Numitor the king Where carst cold waters slid now warme bathes spring Him Romulus succeeding is created The god Quirinus and his wife instated The goddesse Ora ' Him Numa next insues Who of the birth of Croton asking newes He chanc't on pebles who in all mens sight Once being blacke were chang'd to perfect white He likewise heard Pythagoras declame All the transhapes beneath the heauenlie steame Aegaeria next king Numaes death deploring Not comforted at all with thy restoringâ— Hippolitus nor yet to heare thee tell Thy change she wept her selfe into a well Nor is this to be wondred since we see Thy Lance oh Romulus a flourishing tree And Cyppus to weare hornes hauing gone so far We end with Iulius Caesar made a starre Explicit lib. primus Inscripus CLIO THE SECOND BOOKE inscribed EVTERPE Of the Muses the Sybells the Vestalls the Prophetesses the Hesperides the Graces c. THE bodies of all reasonable creatures as Ficinus saith are naturallie pregnant as hauing in them the seedes of issue so likewise is the mind both still procreating and bringing forth as we see at such a time the heire appeares after the teeth breake forth of the gummes at such an age the beard growes vpon the chinne and in time alters and changes colour and still the naturall faculties are in action If then the body be so fertill how much more is the nobler part of man the Soule and the Mind plentifullie furnisht with these seedes that long for production as the instinct of manners of arts of disciplines and such like which are generated in the breast and in their fit and due time haue their seasonable birth For no sooner are we past the cradle but we begin to affect few things good honest or profitable but none at that age acquires after things vnknown It is therefore a consequent that there is borne with vs and bread in vs certain notions of those outward things the forms of which we apprehend and their practise study to imitate This euerie man if he will but obserue may by experience find in himselfe For if we recollect our selues to apprehend any probleme or mysticall doubt which is not within the compasse of our present capacitie after deepe consideration and mature deliberation all the barres and rubbes of our fantasie and sences being remooued we retyre our selues into a more priuate and inward contemplation and then most subtillie reasoning with our selues we shall by degrees perceiue the clowd to vanish and the truth appeare in full glorie and splendour Therefore when we present our selues vnto schoole-masters the braine fashioneth in it selfe many Ideas without rule or example which like a rank and well manur'd field hath in it the seedes and grounds of many fruitfull sciences these if a skilfull man take in hand bring oft times a croppe aboue expectation Thus much Plato exprest in many places but in his Theage most plainelie No man saith he hath of me learnt any thing though from me many a one hath gone the more learned And as Socrates saith Me tâ—m exhortanâ—e tum bono demone suggerente By my exhortations and the good Angels suggestion With this short preparation we come now to the Muses of these innate seeds the glorius and euer-during fruit Hesiod pronounces them to be the daughters of Iupiter Memorie in his Theogonia From hence it seemes the men of Gnydos had a custome to select sixtie graue and vnderstanding men out of the prime of the nobilitie and to commit vnto them the affaires of the Common-wealth and such they called Amnemodes or remembrancers Alcmaeon and some few others call them the daughters of Earth and Heauen Pindarus in one of his Hymnes thus speakes to one of them Incipe vero Coeli filia Aristarcus and Mimnerca if we may beleeue Eustathius determine that the Muses were before Iupiter interpreting the word Musa the knowledge of the soule which is a thing no lesse diuine than the soule it selfe To him Homer assents calling it The celeritie of knowledge Plato in Cratilo deriues it from diligent search and inquisition to whom Pharnutus in his booke intituled Of the nature of the gods subscribes Of the same opinion is Suidas They are therefore saith he deriued from Inquirie being the originalls and causes of all sciences and disciplines others as Cassiodorus because they conteine in them a conueniencie and concordance of arts or to conclude as Diodorus writes They were therefore called Musae because they comprehend the art of modulation or tuning with a consent or agreeing of all other disciplines Diuers authors much differ about their number Varro as Seruius witnesseth of him allowes onelie three Ina which is bred by the motion of the water a second begot by the sprinkling of the ayer a third meerelie arising from the sound of the voyce Augustine speakes of a cittie which Gyraldus names Sicion the primates of which of three seuerall famous worke-men bespake three effigies or images of the Muses to bestow as a gift vpon the Temple of Apollo and which of them could expresse the greatest art and most exquisite workemanship he to be the best payd for his paines It so hapned that their three labours were equallie beautifull and so esteemed in so much that all the nine pieces pleasing generallie they were all bought and dedicated to the Temple To euery of which the Poet Hesiod after gaue a seuerall Embleme or Motto Not saith he because Iupiter had begot nine Muses but that three artificers had forged three apeece and therefore
to Vrania and from Memorie we are drawne vp to Heauen for the best remembrancers as Pliny saith comprehend the whole world or vniuerse in which the heauens are included and all the secrets therein as much as by inuestigation can be attaind to haue the full and perfect knowledge for the most secret and hidden things are contained in the Heauens aboue and therefore such as are expert in them cannot be ignorant of these lesse and more easie to be apprehended below Plutarch of Vrania thus speakes Plato as by their steppes hath trac'd all the gods thinking to find out their faculties by their names By the same reason we place one of the Muses in the Heauens and about coelestiall things which is Vrania for that which is aboue hath no need of diuersitie of gouernment hauing one vniuersall directresse which is Nature where therfore there be many errors excesses transgresses there the eight remaining are to be transmitted and one particular Muse still reserued one to correct this fault and another that Vrania therefore according to Plutarch hath predominance in things coelestiall which by how much they are aboue things terrestriall in excellence they are so much the more difficult Some stretch the influence of the starres to Zoriasta's magicke in which he was popularlie famous nay more his name by that art enobled notwithstanding the annalls testifie that he was subdued and slaine in battell by Ninus Pompey the great was curiouslie addicted to these diuinations yet his potencie fayl'd him and he dyed a wretched death in Aegypt Howbeit by these instances it is not to be inferred as the mysticallest and powerfull part of the Mathematicall desciplines The inuentions of Manilius most indirectlie conferres it vpon Mercury Plato in Epinomide would haue all that contemplate Astrologie to begin in their youth such is the excellencie of the art and the difficultie to attaine vnto it for these be his words Be not ignorant that Astrologie is a most wise secret for it is necessarie that the true Astronomer be not that man according to Hesiod that shall onelie consider the rising and setting of the starres but rather that hath a full inspection into the eight compasses or circumferences and how the seauen are turned by the first and in what order euery starre mooues in his owne spheare or circle in which he shall not find any thing which is not miraculous If therefore the prayse of Astronomy be so great What encomium then is Vrania worthy who first illustrated the art This onelie shal suffice that by her is meant coelestiall Astrologie so cald of the Heauen for as Pharnutus saith The intire vniverse the ancients cald by the name of Heauen So by this meanes Vrania is acknowledged to be frequent in all sciences below and speculations aboue whatsoeuer Her Etimologie importing Sublimia spectantem that is Beholding things sublime and high Of her Ouid thus Incipit Vrania fecere silentia cunctae Et vox audiri nulla nisi illa potest Vrania first began to speake The rest themselues prepar'd To heare with silence for but hers No voyce could then be heard She is then receiued from the Heauen either because all nations and languages beneath the firmament haue some learned amongst them or that such as are furnisht with knowledge she seemes to attract and carry vpwards or to conclude because glorie and wisedome eleuate and erect the mind to the contemplation of things heauenlie Fulgentius saith That some of the Greeke authours haue left written that Linus was the son of Vrania but it is elsewhere found that she was called Vrania of her father Vranus otherwise stil'd Caelum whom his sonne Saturne after dismembred Xenophon in Sympos remembers that Venus was called Vrania speaking also of Pandemius of both their Temples and Altars the sacrifices to Pandemius were called Radiouorgaraera those to Venus Agnotaera Some as Lactantius Placidas call Heleneuae that menacing star Vrania In a word that coelestiall Muse called Astrologia or Vrania intimates nothing else than after mature iudgement to deliberate what to speake what to despise to make election of what is vsefull and profitable and to cast off what is friuolous and impertinent is the adiunct of a mind coelestial and a wisedome inculpable Most true therefore is the sentence of Plato who tells vs that Vrania is she that first attracts the eyes of our mind to sublime things aboue and if it were possible would drawe our selues after CALLIOPE THere are two things in the mind chieflie predominant Knowledge and Disposition which as Plato saith are in continuall and restlesse motion Knowledge which by the Sophists vnder a colour of truth is abused with things false and erroneous and Disposition or Affection which tempted by the popular Poets vnder a bait of delight and pleasure swallowes the hooke of many perturbations and distractions those Orators that are meerelie superficiall and not seene in the grounds of wisedome corrupted with idle and vaine reasons they delude the knowledge and with vnnecessarie curiosities precipitate the affection From Sophists we must altogether beware as pestiferous and infectious from Poets and Orators in some kinds but not in all cases Plato confineth Sophisters euery where and from all places and Poets too but not all such onelie as comment false and scandalous tales of the gods nor these from all places but from the citties onelie that is from the societie of young men and such as are ignorant prone to perturbation and not capable of the allegoricall sence included admitting onely such as speake well of the gods sing diuine Hymnes and brauelie register the acts of noble and illustrious persons Such is the practise that Calliope teacheth her Poets which practise as Ficinus witnesseth is nothing but the rapture of the soule with a transmigration into the maiestie of the Muses This Poesie rouseth vs from the sleepe of the body to the awaking of the mind from the darkenesse of ignorance to the light of knowledge from death to life and from dull obliuion to a contemplation diuine and heauenlie But where the wit failes there is no helpe to be expected from the inuention for it is not within the compasse of mans capacitie to compasse deepe and great matters in a moment for all knowledge is inspired from aboue And since Poetrie comes not by fortune nor can be attained to by art it must consequentlie be a gift from the gods and Muses For when Plato names the god he intends Appollo when the Muses he vnderstands the soules of the spheares for Iupiter is the mind of the deitie who extasies and illuminates Appollo Appollo the Muses the Muses the Poets the Poets inspire their interpreters the interpreters make impression in the Auditours By diuerse Muses diuers soules are enlightned as it is in Tymaeus that sundry soules are attributed to sundry spheares The Muse Calliope is a voyce resulting or rebounding from the sound of the other spheares and of the rest the most excellent
sent after them his horse men who not onely rifled them but stampt their children beneath their horses feete where many of the infants perished and so in confused heaps hurried them backe into the towne bearing the spoile into the Tyrants treasurie These outrages were the least of many which I purposely omit There liued at that time an antient noble man in the cittie called Hellanicus who entred into a combination with the exiles about the suppressing of the Tyrant and by reason of his yeares was neither by him feared nor suspected by the incouragement of this Hellanicus the confined citisens assembled themselues into a citie most conuenient for their deseigne cald Amimona to whom many of their allies and friends copartners in the publique calamitie resorted Aristotemus somwhat affrighted with this new faction repaired to a place of publike assembly whether he had caused all the chiefe matrons to be before called there in a premitated oration stuft with many threats aud menaces protested to inflict vpon them rackes tortures and lingring deaths vnlesse by speedie letters they did not onely persuade but preuaile with their husbands instantly to abandon the place they had fortified To whom Megisto the wife of Tymoleon a Ladie amongst the rest most respected not daigning the tyrant the least honour or so much as rising to doe him reuerence but sitting with a bold and vndaunted courage thus speake Weart thou a true spirited man as nothing lesse appeares in thee thou wouldest not threaten women in this base kind to betray their husbands but wouldest rather haue negotiated with them who haue entire power command ouer vs and that in smoother and more deceitfull language than such by which thou hast hetherto beguiled vs. But if thy cowardise and despairation compell thee to this exigent as thinking by our meanes to complot their ruines thou art in that hope destitute of all comfort let that day neuer be callendred to memorise them among men so void of councell and discretion that by sparing the liues of their wiues and children they should betray the sacred libertie of their countrie for the mischiefe is not so great to loose vs altogether whom they haue alredy wanted so long as the good and profit that must necessarily accrue by redeemimg the citties from thy insolencie and tyrannie These words were no sooner vttered but Aristotemus distracted with rage and furie commanded her young sonne to be sought and brought whom hee purposed to massacre before the mothers face and whil'st his lictors and serieants were inquiring for him amongst others that were then busied about their childish sports she spying him or her own accord called him to her with these words Come hether to me ô my sonne and now in thy childhood before thou hast apprehension or passionate feeling of tyrrannie be freed both from the terror and burden therof for mine own part I had rather see thee innocently dying than basely and ignobly seruing The Tyrant at her last speech more inraged than the former drew out his sword with purpose to haue slaine her when Cylo one of his familiar friends but indeede a cheefe man in the confederacie with Hellanicus staid his hand and by gentle words so tempered his spleene that he departed thence without any act of murder yet purpose of a future reuenge Vpon a day as hee was sporting vpon the bed with his wife vntill dinner was prepared and disposed vpon the table it happened that an Eagle soring aboue the Pallace let fall a great stone vpon the battlements iust ouer the bed where the king then lay and alighting there made such a fearefull and prodigious noyse that it not onely amased the king within but was wonderfull to all that beheld it without The Augurers were sent for to know what omen should succeede they flatter the tyrant and promise nothing but what is good and prosperous Hellanicus the same night in his dreame immagined his sonne appeared to him which sonne was by Aristotemus before murdered with his brother who spoke to him to this effect O father arise is this a time to sleepe when the whole gouernement of the cittie must depend on you to morrow With this dreame incouraged he comforted his adherents all attending the opportunitie of reuenge Aristotemus meane time hearing that Craterus was marched as farre as Olimpius with a great armie leauied for his safetie and supporture grew so bold vpon the rumor of so great a power that without his guard accompanied with Cylo onely he aduentured into the market place whom Hellanicus meeting by chance and almost extasied to see him so weakely attended with both his hands aduanced and with an audable and cleere voice he made this clamour Where be you you good long oppessed countriemen a braue Theatre is this for so noble a contention as our libertie being seated in the middest of our countrie and centre of our cittie This Cylo inuaded the next man to the king and slew him Thrasibulus and Lampides assaulted the tyrant who fled to the temple of Iupiter where they fell vpon him killed him then dragging his bodie into the market place proclaimed their libertie The women issued out of their houses with ioy clamour embracing their husbands fathers and friends with loude and glad acclamations thence in multitudes they made concourse to the pallace The tyrants wife to preuent their furie made fast her doore and in her priuat chamber strangled her selfe Aristotemus had two beautifull yong virgins to his daughters both marriagable these they were about to dragge into the streetes with purpose to destroy them but first to excrutiate them with all disgraces and contumacies Which Megisto seeing with her best oratorie appeased their present furie proposing to them how shamefull a thing it were for a noble and free state to immitate the insolencies of a bloodie and inhumane tyrannie libertie therfore was granted the yong damosells at her intercession to retire themselues into their chambers and to make choise of what death best suited with their present feares Myro the elder sister vnloosing from her wast a silken gyrdle fastened it about her owne necke and with a smiling and cheerefull looke thus comforted the younger My sweete and deere sister I more commiserat thy fate than lament mine owne yet immitate I intreat thee my constancie in death least any abiect thing or vnworthie may be obiected against vs vnagreeable with our blood and qualitie To whom the younger replyed That nothing could appeare more terrible to her than to behold her die therefore besought her by the affinitie of sisterhood to be the first that should make vse of that gyrdle and dying before her to leaue to her an example of resolution and patience Myro to her made answere I neuer denied thee any thing sweete soule in life neither will I oppose thee in this thy last request at thy death and for thy sake will I indure that which is more greeuouous to mee than mine
charge of my labouring quill In his third booke as hauing prepared and armed men against vnarmed women he proposeth to them the like precepts and instruction with all the defensible weapons needfull against the ambushes and inticements of men and thus begins Arma dedi Danais in Amazonas arma supâ—rsunt Quae tibi dem turbae Penthisilaea tuae The Greekes I haue giuen armes to who now stand Ready to incounter the Amasonian band Others within mine armorie remaine For thee Penthisilaea and thy traine Goe equally accoâ—tred to the warre And let such conquour as most fauoured are Of Carine Dione and the Boy that flyes Round'bout the world still hood-winckt of his eyes It were no iustice to arme men in steele 'Gainst naked women bare from head to heele Oh too much oddes there were in combat then And so to conquour a great shame for men And so much of the Amasons I now proceede to other Magnanimous and braue spirited virgins Of warlike Women and those of Masculine vertue I Know not better how to expresse the boldnes of women than by shewing you the feare of men nor can I more plainly illustrat the valor of one sex than by putting you in mind of the cowardise of the other It is well obserued of an Italian who writes himselfe of Lucca concerning the passion of Feare of which there are three sorts commendable the first is naturall feare by which we auoid the iniuries of men preuent the inconuenience of postelent sickenes with such like casualties and arme our selues against want dearth and necessitie The second is ciuile Feare wherein we feare to transgresse the law or incurre penaltie are timorous to doe ill because it is ill when we dare not depraue what 's good or derrogate from our own reputation The third is a more supernatural Feare in which by our loue towards God and our neighbour we feare to offend the higher Maiestie and next that feare the terror of eternall death and damnation by the first we preserue our bodies by the second our honours by the last our soules But those other abiects the feares I purpose heare to exemplifie onely such as proceed from Effeminacie and Cowardise It is read of Pysander of Greece that being aliue he feared least his soule had alreadie forsaken his bodie Likewise of one Artemon who was of that hare-hearted disposition that he mooued not abroad without Targets of brasse borne ouer him like cannopies least any thing should fall from aloft and beate out his braines or if he rid it was in a horse-litter seeled and crosse-bard with gads of steele and plates of yron for which hee was called Peripharetes Sabellicus writes that Cassander so feared Alexander that long time after his death comming to Delphos to behold the goodly statues there errected at the verie sight of his old maisters effigies hee fell into such a timerous feauer that his verie bones daunced in his skinne and longtime it was ere they could constantly settle themselues in their owne places This was that Cassander who had caused Olimpias the mother of Alexander to be so cruelly butchered It is related of St. Valleir duke of Valentinois in Fraunce that being condemned â—o death for not disclosing the treasons of the duke of Burbon iust at the instant when the executioner should haue strooke off his head the king sent him his gratious pardon but all in vaine the feare of the blow before it came had dispatched him of life Hereof hath growne a prouerbe to any man that hath a strong apprehension of feare they will say hee hath La fieure de saint Vallier i. the feauer of Saint Vallier Another thing is recorded of a fellow that was so affraid of the name of Hercules that he hid himselfe in caues and rockes though he knew not of any quarrell betwixt them at length stealing from the obscure cauerne where he had denned himselfe to see if the coast were cleere casting his eye by chance on the one side and espying Hercules who came that way by chance his life blood sinking into his heeles he shooke them a little and died in that feauer I could recite terrors and vaine feares which haue arise from nothing that haue terrified whole citties of Grecians armies of Romans and multitudes of other nations but these particulars shall suffice for my purpose is not too farre to effeminate men nor too much to embolden women since the most valiant man that is is timerous ynough and the modestest woman that is may bee made sufficiently bold But to the purpose in hand Debora a warlike woman was a Prophetesse and iudged Israell by whose counsell and courage they were not onely freed from the inroads and incursions of the neighbour nations but many times returned from the field with rich spoyles and glorious conquests of her you may reade more at large in the Iudges Ianus was an antient king of Italy hee entertained king Saturne when by his sonne Iupiter he was chased out of Creet Because he was a prouident and wise prince the Romans pictured him with two faces and receiued him into the number of their gods they attributed to him the beginning and end of things celberating to his honour the first moneth Ianuarie which tooke the denomination of Ianus from his name one face looked vpon the yeare to come the other looked backe on the yeare past in his right hand hee had a golden key which opened the Temple of Peace in his left a staffe which hee strooke vpon a stone from whence a spring of water seemed to issue out he is thus described by Albricus the Philosopher in his booke de Deorum Imaginibus This Ianus left behind him a beautifull faire daughter whose name was Helerna shee sucded her father in his kingdome which was scituate by the riuer Tiber and was a woman of Masculine spirit and vertue shee raigned ouer men without the counsell or assistance of men she subdued nations by her valour and conquered Princes by her beautie of whom may bee truely spoken as Propertius lib. 2. writes of the queene Penthisilaea Ausaferox ab equo quondam oppugnare sagittis c. Penthisilea from her steede When her high courage rose Durst with her shafts and warlike darts The Darnish fleete oppose No sooner was her beauer vp And golden caske laid by But whom by force she could not take She captiu'd with her eye Camilla and others THis Camilla was queene of the Volscians who euen in her cradle gaue manifest tokens of her future vertue and valour for in her infancie shee was neither swathed in soft cloathing nor wrapt in silken mantle not attended by a tender nurse nor fed with curious dainties or farre fetcht delicats but fostered by her father Metabus with the milke of hinds and wild goates her court was a forrest and her pallace a darke and obscure caue Hauing somewhat outgrowne her infancy she tooke no pleasure in rattles puppets
deliuerers of her people And so much for the Legend But Richardus Diuisiensis sayth That being awed by Earle Godwin and for the feare of hasarding his life and kingdome Edward was compelled by threats and menaces to the marriage of Editha Moreouer Polydore reports That for the hate he bore her father who had not long before most trayterously slaine his brother Alphred hee caused himselfe to be diuorced from her seising her goods and dower to his owne vse and pleasure Ranulphus and one that writes himselfe Anonimos as willing to conceale his name say That shee was disrobed of all her Queene-like honors and confined into the Abbey of Warnwell with only one maid to attend her and so committed to the strict custodie of the Abbesse William of Malmesbury and Marianus Scotus haue left remembred That hee neyther dismissed her his bed nor carnally knew her but whether it was done in hatred to her kindred or purpose of Chastitie they are not able to determine Robert Fabian confesseth as much in his Chronicle Part. 6. cap. 210. Howsoeuer the effects of that abstenious life were not onely preiudiciall but brought lamentable effects vpon this distracted kingdome namely Innouation and Conquest for Edward dying without issue England was inuaded and opprest by the Normans and the people brought to that miserie that happie was that subiect that could say I am no Englishman And in this agree Matthew Paris Capgraue Fabian and Polydore As I hold it not necessarie for marryed folke to tye themselues to this strict kind of abstinence so I hold it not conuenient for any such as haue to themselues and in their soules taken vpon them the strict life of Virginitie to be compelled to an enforced marriage as may appeare by this discourse following recorded by Gulielm Malmsburien Simeon Danelmens Matthew Paris Roger Houeden Capgraue c. Henry the first of that name king of England and crowned in the yeere of Grace 1101 was by the instigation of Anselme once a Monke of Normandie but after by William Rufus constituted Archbishop of Canterburie marryed vnto Maude daughter to Malcolme the Scottish king she hauing taken a Vow and being a profest Nunne in the Abbey of Winchester Much adoe had the King her father the Queene her mother her Confessor Abbesse or the Bishop to alienate her from her setled resolution or persuade her to marriage but being as it were violently compelled thereunto she cursed the Fruit that should succeed from her bodie which after as Polydore affirmes turned to the great misfortune and miserie of her children for afterwards two of her sonnes William and Richard were drowned by Sea Besides her daughter Maude who was afterwards Empresse prooued an vnfortunate Mother and amongst many other things in bringing forth Henry the second who caused Thomas Becket to be slaine it thus happened All forraine warres being past and ciuile combustions pacified in the yeere of our Lord 1120 Henry the first with great ioy and triumph left Normandie and came into England But within few dayes following this great mirth and iollitie turned into a most heauie and fearefull sorrow for William and Richard his two sonnes with Mary his daughter Otwell their Tutor and Guardian Richard Earle of Chester with the Countesse his wife the Kings Neece many Chapleines Chamberlaines Butlers and Seruitors for so they are tearmed in the storie the Archdeacon of Hereford the Princes play-fellowes Sir Geffrey Rydell Sir Robert Maldvyle Sir William Bygot with other Lords Knights Gentlemen great Heires Ladyes and Gentlewomen to the number of an hundred and fortie besides Yeomen and Mariners which were about fiftie all these sauing one man which some say was a Butcher were all drowned together and not any one of their bodyes euer after found Many attribute this great Iudgement to the heauie Curse of Queene Maude others censure of it diuersly Howsoeuer in this King as Polydore sayth ended the Descent and Lyne of the Normans Of this Anselme before spoken of there are diuerse Epistles yet extant to many women in those dayes reputed of great Temperance and Chastitie as To Sister Frodelina Sister Ermengarda Sister Athelytes Sister Eulalia Sister Mabily and Sister Basyle To Maude Abbesse of Cane in Normandie and Maude the Abbesse of Walton here in England Hee writ a Treatife about the same time called Planctus a missae Virginitatis i. A bewayling of lost Virginitie So farre Iohn Bale And so much shall serue for Chast Wiues in this kind being loth to tyre the patience of the Reader Of Women Wantons DIon the Historiographer in Tiberio sayth that Lyuia the wife of Augustus Caesar beholding men naked sayd to the rest about her That to continent women and chast matrons such obiects differed nothing from statues or images for the modest heart with immodest sights ought not to be corrupted The vnchast eye more drawes the poyson of sinne from beautie which is Gods excellent workemanship from which the chast and contrite heart deriues the Creators praise and glorie But my hope is that in exposing vnto your view the histories of these faire Wantons you will looke vpon them should I strip them neuer so naked with the eyes of Lyuia that is to hold them but as beautifull statues or like Appelles his woman not better than a picture of white Marble I haue heard of a man that liuing to the age of threescore and ten had led so austere a life that in all that time he neuer touched the bodie of a woman and had proposed to himselfe to carrie that Virginall vow with him to his graue but at length being visited with sickenesse and hauing a faire estate purchased with his small charge and great husbandrie and therefore willing to draw out the thread of his life to what length he could hee sent to demaund the counsell of the Phisitians who hauing well considered the estate of his bodie all agreed in this that since the phisick of the soule belonged not to them but onely the phisick of the bodie they would freely discharge their duties and indeed told him that this present estate was dangerous and they found but onely one way in art for his cure and recouerie which was in plaine tearmes To vse the companie of a woman and so tooke their leaues and left him to consider of it Loath was the old man to loose his Virginitie which hee had kept so long but more loath to part with his life which he desired to keepe yet longer and hauing meditated with himself from whom he was to depart and what to leaue behind him namely his possessions his money his neighbours friends and kindred and whether hee was to remooue to the cold and comfortlesse graue he resolued with himselfe to prolong the comfort of the first and delay as long he could the feare of the last Therefore hee resolued rather than to be accessorie to the hastening his owne death to take the counsell of the doctors It was therfore so ordered by
writ many learned and elaborate workes in either tongue at length in the yeare of our Lord 1555 in the moneth of October being of the age of twentie nine yeares she dyed in Hedelburgh Saint Hâ—lena may amongst these be here aptly registred for thus Stow Harding Faâ—ian and all our moderne Chroniclers report of her Constantius a great Roman Consull was sent into Brittaine to demaund the tribute due vnto Rome immediately after whose ariuall before he could receiue an answer of his Embassie Coill who was then king dyed therefore the Brittaines the better to establish their peace dealt with the Roman Embassador to take to wiâ—e Helenâ— the daughter of the late deceased king a young Ladie of an attractiue 〈◊〉 adorned with rare gifts and indowments of the Mind 〈◊〉 Learning Vertâ—â— the motion was no sooner made but accepted so that Constantius hauing receiued the Brittish tribute returned with his new bryde to Rome and was after by the Senat constituted chiefe ruler of this kingdome After twentie yeares quiet and peacefull gouernement which was thought her wisedome Constantius dyed and was buried at Yorke in his time was Saint Albon martyred at Verolam since called Saint Albones as Iohn Lidgate Monke of Burie testifies who in English heroicall verse compiled his Historie Constantius sayth hee the younger succeeded his father Constantius as well in the kingdome of England as diuers other Prouinces a noble and valiant Prince whose mother was a woman religious and of great sanctimonie this young Prince was borne in Brittaine and prooued so mightie in exploits of warre that in time hee purchased the name of Magnus and was stiled Constantine the Great a noble protector and defender of the true Christian Faith In the sixt yeare of his raigne he came with a potent armie against Maxentius who with greeous tributes and exactions then vexed and oppressed the Romans and being vpon his march hee saw in a Vision by night the signe of the Crosse shining in the Ayre like fire and an Angell by it thus saying Constantine in hoc signo vinces i. Constantine in this signe thou shalt conquer and ouercome with which beeing greatly comforted be soone after inuaded and defeated the armie of Maxentius who flying from the battaile was wretchedly drowned in the riuer Tiber. In this interim of his glorious victorie Helena the mother of Constantine being on pilgrimage at Ierusalem there found the Crosse on which the Sauiour of the world was crucified with the three nayles with which his hands and feete were pierced Ranulphus amplifies this storie of Helena somewhat largelier after this manner That when Constantine had surprised Maxentius his mother was then in Brittaine and hearing of the successe of so braue a conquest shee sent him a letter with great thankes to heauen to congratulate so faire wished a Fortune but not yet being truely instructed in the Christian Faith she commended him that he had forsaken idolatrie but blamed him that hee worshipped and beleeued in a man that had beene nayled to the Crosse. The Emperour wrote againe to his mother That she should instantly repaire to Rome and bring with her the most learned Iews and wisest Doctors of what faith or beleefe so euer to hold disputation in their presence concerning the Truth of religion Helena brought with her to the number of seuenscore Iewes and others against whom Saint Siluester was only opposed In this controuersie the misbeleeuers were all nonplust put to silence It hapned that a Iewish Cabalist among them spake certain words in the eare of a mad wild Bull that was broke loose and run into the presence where they were then assembled those words were no sooner vttered but the beast sunck down without motion and instantly dyed at which accident the iudges that sat to heare the disputation were all astonished as wondering by what power that was done To whom Siluester then spake What this man hath done is onely by the power of the deuill who can kill but not restore vnto life but it is God onely that can slay and make the same bodie reuiue againe so Lyons and other wilde beasts of the Forrest can wound and destroy but not make whole what is before by them perished then saith hee if hee will that I beleeue with him let him rayse that beast to life in Gods name which hee hath destroyed in the Deuils name But the Iewish Doctor attempted it in vaine when the rest turning to Siluester said If thou by any power in Heauen or Earth canst call backe againe the life of this beast which is now banished from his bodie wee will beleeue with thee in that Deitie by whose power so great a miracle can be done Siluester accepted of their offer and falling deuoutly on his knees made his prayers vnto the Sauiour of the world when presently the beast started vp vpon his feete by which Constantius was confirmed Helena conuerted and all the Iewes and other Pagan Doctors receiued the Christian Faith and were after baptised and after this and vpon the same occasion Helena vndertooke to seeke and find out the Crosse. Ambrose and others say she was an Inne-keepers daughter at Treuerent in France and that the first Constantius trauailing that way married her for her beautie but our Histories of Brittaine affirme her to be the faire chast and wise daughter of king Coil before remembred The perfections of the minde are much aboue the transitorie gifts of Fortune much commendable in women and a Dowrie farre transcending the riches of Gold and Iewels Great Alexander refused the beautifull daughter of Darius who would haue brought with her kingdomes for her Dower and infinite Treasures to boot and made choyse of Barsine who brought nothing to espouse her with saue her feature and that shee was a Scholler and though a Barbarian excellently perfect in the Greeke Tongue who though poore notwithstanding deriued her pedigree from kings And vpon that ground Licurgus instituted a Law That women should haue no Dowers allotted them that men might rather acquire after their Vertues than their Riches and women likewise might the more laboriously imploy themselues in the attaining to the height of the best and noblest Disciplines It is an argument that cannot be too much amplified to encourage Vertue and discourage Vice to persuade both men and women to instruct their Mindes more carefully than they would adorne their Bodies and striue to heape and accumulate the riches of the Soule rather than hunt after Pompe Vaine-glorie and the wretched Wealth of the world the first being euerlastingly permament the last dayly and hourely subiect to corruption and mutabilitie Horace in his first Epistle to Mecaenas sayth Vitius Argentum est Auro virtutibus Aurum Siluer is more base and cheape than Gold and Gold than Vertue To encourage which in either Sex Plautus in Amphit thus sayes Virtus praemium est optimum virtus omnibus Rebus anteit profecto c. Vertue 's the best
reward and before all Iustly to be preferr'd That which we call Libertie Life our Parents Children Wealth Our Countrey Reputation Honor Health By this are kept though by the bad despis'd ,All that is good in Vertue is compris'd Moreouer all that are Noble Vertuous Learned Chast and Pious haue their places allotted them aboue when on the contrarie their soules are buried lower in the locall place of torment than their soules that are hayd to sleepe in the graue At the blessednesse of the good and future glorie assigned vnto them Lucan most elegantly aymed at Lib. 9. de Bello Ciuili where hee thus writes Ac non in Pharia manes iacuere fauilla Nec cinis exiguus tantam compescuit vmbram c. Which I thus English In th' Pharian flames the bright Soule doth not sleepe Nor can so small a Dust and Ashes keepe So great a Spirit it leapes out of the fire And leauing th'halfe-burnt members doth aspire And aymes vp to the place where Ioue resides And with his power and wisdome all things guides For now no ayre his subtile passage barres To where the Axle-tree turnes round the starres And in that vast and emptie place which lyes Betwixt vs and the Moone the visible Skyes Th' halfe-godded Soules inhabite such are nam'd There whom bright fierie Vertue hath inflam'd And were of pious life their hopes are faire Made Citizens and Free-men of the Aire And such redeem'd from all that was infected Are now within th' eternall Orbes collected This somewhat more illustrated by the Tragicke Poet Seneca in Hercule Oeteo thus saying Nunquam Stigias fertur ad vndas Inclita Virtus c. To the darke and Stigian shades Vertue when it seeming fades Is neuer borne Then O you chast And valiant though your yeeres may wast No limit Time to that can giue It Death suruiues then euer liue The cruell Fates can clayme no due Nor the blacke Stigian waues in you But when wasted Age hath spent The vtmost minute Time hath lent Then Glorie takes in charge the Spirit And guides it to the place of Merit Let these serue for an encouragement to Vertue and the attayning vnto all commendable Arts and Disciplines by which the Bodie is honoured and the Soule glorified And thus I take leaue of the Female Students in Theologie and Philosophie and now consequently come to the Poetesses may the Muses be fauourable to me in their relation Of Poetrie Horace sayth Et prodesse solent delectare Poetae In Poets there is both pleasure and profit who are for the most part I meane the best studious for the pleasingest phrase and most moouing eloquence From hence it grew that those of the first age first introduced common ciuilitie and humane moralitie amongst men reducing them from irregular and bruitish conditions into a mutuall and well gouerned societie for by pleasant and delightfull language refined from the vulgar Barbarisme they first drew the eares of the ruder people to attention from attention to instruction and by instruction to practise so that in processe of time by their smooth and gentle persuasions illustrated with facunditie and eloquence they brought them from voluptuousnesse to temperance from the fields into houses from liuing in villages to build walled cities and by degrees from edifying of houses for themselues to erect Temples to the gods by whose adoration it impressed a reuerent feare to offend them and so consequently reduced them from rudenesse to a more formall regularitie They were the first that taught them shame and feare shame to seeme bruitish to humanitie feare to appeare inhumane before a deitie They moderated the ferocitie of their mindes by smooth orations profitable documents and learned writings and the more to insinuate into their dull vnderstanding when prose seemed vnto them lesse delightfull they deuised verse and still as one kind grew stale or common they apprehended new and thus that eloquence that before lay loose and skattered was first contracted within feet and number Then when the vulgar seemed lesse capable of deepe Sophismes tending to moralitie and ciuile gouernement and therfore their grauer doctrines appeared to their eares harsh and vnpleasant they dealt with them as carefull fathers vse to doe with their vntoward children when things profitable will not still them they seeke to please them with toyes so the Poets when wholesome foode would not tast their mouths they deuised sweet meates to realish their pallats finding out merrie and delightfull tales best agreeable with their itching eares comprehending notwithstanding golden truths in leaden fables They after instituted good wholesome laws to incourage the good and deiect the bad to raise the vertuous and well disposed to honor and to punish the euill doer either with pennance or shame then came the industrious man to bee first distinguished from the sloathfull and the thriftie from the prodigall things were no more made common euerie man eate of his owne labour and what he earned he might call his owne Hence first grew Industrie without which no common-weale nor publike state can stand And these and much greater were the first fruits of Poetrie now in this age so much despised the vse whereof was antient the apprehension diuine the practise commendable and the name reuerent There is a sympathie and correspondence betwixt Poetrie and Rhetoricke Appollo is god of the first and Mercurie the Mecenas of the second which the ancient writers the better to signifie vnto vs say That Apollo acquainted Mercurie with the Muses and Mercurie in requitall first inuented the Harpe and gaue it to Apollo being the instrument to which the Muses most delighted to sing as if they more plainely would haue sayd A Poet cannot be excellent vnlesse he be a good Rhetorician nor any Rhetorician attaine to the heigth of eloquence vnlesse he hath first layd his foundation in Poetrie They are two excellencies that cannot well exist one without the other Poetrie is the elder brother and more plaine in his condition Rhetorick the younger but more craftie in his profession hence it comes Poets are so poore and Lawyers so rich for they haue made a younger brother of the elder and possesse all the land Besides as much as Apollo is excellent aboue Mercurie as being God of Light of Musicke of Physicke of Arts c. and the other God of Bargaining Buying Selling of Cousening Theeuing and of Lyes so farre doth the first claime due prioritie aboue the second They may be thus distinguished Poets in that which outwardly appeares fabulous colour and shaddow golden truths to their owne painefull studies and labour and to the pleasure and profit of others But many Orators vnder seeming truths apparrell scandalous fictions aymed onely to their owne benefit to the impouerishing of others and many times stripping them out of a faire inheritance I speake of some not all and I honour the Law because I liue vnder it Poets they were the first teachers and instructers the people held them to bee
least amongst the Magitians as hauing his art or rather diabolicall practise from his father hereditarie confesseth that in all his life time in his great familiaritie and acquaintance amongst them he neuer knew any one that was not in some part mishapen deformed The same Author with whose opinion Wicrius Hippocrates and others assent affirms that all those Demoniacks or Witches after they haue had commerce and congresse with the Deuill haue about them a continuall nastie and odious smell of which by the ancient writers they were called Faetentes by the Vasconians Fetelleres à Faetore i. Of stench insomuch that women who by nature haue a more sweet and refreshing breath than men after their beastly consocietie with Sathan change the propertie of nature and grow horrid putred corrupt and contagious For Sprangerus witnesseth who hath taken the examination of many they haue confessed a thing fearefull to be spoken to haue had carnall copulation with euil and vncleane spirits who no doubt beare the smell of the inâ—isible sulphure about them Now concerning this Magicke what reputation it hath beene in amongst men which in effect is no better than plaine Witchcraft in women we may reade in Nauclerus and Platina That all the Popes inclusiuely from Siluester the second to Gregorie the seuenth were Magicians but Cardinall Benno who obserued all the Bishops that way deuoted numbers but fiue Siluester the second Benedict the ninth Iohn the twentieth and one and twentieth and Gregorie the seuenth Of these Augustinus Onuphrius one of the Popes chamber that from the Vatican and the Liues of the Popes there registred made a diligent collection speakes of two only Siluester the second and Benedict the ninth one of them was after expelled from the Papacie Siluester lying vpon his death bed desired his tongue to be torne out and his hands to be cut off that had sacrifised to the Deuill confessing that he had neuer any inspection into that damnable Art till he was Archbishop of Rhemes These are the best rewards that Sathan bestowes vpon his suppliants and seruants how comes it else so many wretched and penurious Witches some beg their bread some die of hunger others rot in prisons and so many come to the gallowes or the stake It is reported of a gentleman of Mediolanum that hauing his enemie at his mercie held his steeletto to his heart and swore that vnlesse he would instantly abiure his faith and renounce his Sauiour had he a thousand liues he would instantly with as many wounds despoile him of all which the other for feare assenting to and he hauing made him iterate ouer and ouer his vnchristianlike blasphemies in the middle of his horrible abiuration stabd him to the heart vttering these words See I am reuenged of thy soule and bodie at once for as thy bodie is desperate of life so is thy soule of mercie This vncharitable wretch was an apt schollar to the grand Deuill his master who in the like manner deales with all his seruants who after he hath made them renounce their faith blaspheame their maker and do to him all beastly and abhominable adoration such as in their owne confessions shall be hereafter related he not only leaues them abiects from Gods fauour whose diuine maiestie they haue so fearefully blasphemed but deliuers them vp to all afflictions and tribulations of this life and all excruciations and torments in the world to come Horrible and fearefull haue beene the most remarkeable deaths of many of the professors of this diabolicall Art for whom the lawes of man hath spared as a terror to others the hand of heauen hath punished I will onely giue you a tast of some few Abdias Bab. Episcopus lib. 6. Certam Apostol writes That Zaroes and Arphaxad two infamous Magitians amongst the Persians with their exorcismes and incantations deluding the people in the houre when Simon and Iude suffered martyredome were stroke with lightning from heauen and so perisht Lucius Piso in the first booke of his Annals speakes of one Cinops a prince amongst the Magitians who at the prayer of S. Iohn the Euangelist was swallowed vp in a riuer Olaus Magnus lib. 2. cap. 4. de gentib Septentrional tells vs of one Methotis who by his prestigious iuglings had insinuated into the hearts of the people and purchast that opinion and authoritie amongst them that he was called The high and chiefe Priest to the gods who was after torne to peeces by the multitude from whose scattred limbes such a contagion grew that it infected the ayre of which much people perished Hollerus the Magitian was staine Oddo the Dane was besides his skill in Magicke a great pyrat it is written of him Wierius li. 2. ca. 4. that without ship or boat he would make his transmarine passage ouer the Ocean and by his Inchanâ—ments raise stormes to shipwrecke the vessells of his enemies hee was after notwithstanding swallowed in the sea and there most wretchedly perished D. Iohn Faustus borne at Kuneling a Village neere Cracouia was found dead by his bed side his face blasted and turned backward in the Dukedome of Wittenberch at which time the house wherein he died was shaken with a tempest and horrible Earthquake The Earle Matisconensis a practitioner in the same diuellish studie sitting at Dinner amongst many Lords Barons Captaines and others was snatcht from the Boord by Deuils and in the sight and view of all the people three times hurried swiftly round about the citie being heard to cry Succurrite Succurrite i. Helpe Helpe of him Hugo Cluniacensis writes more largely A Priest at Noremberch searching for hidden Treasure in a place where the Deuill had directed him found it guarded by a Spirit in the semblance of a great blacke Dogge in the search of which the Earth fell vpon him and buryed him aliue And this happened in the yeere 1530. Wierius A Magician of Salsburch vndertooke to call all the Serpents together within a mile of the place and bring them into one Pit digged for the purpose in the trayne of which came after the rest a great Serpent supposed to be the Deuill and twining about him cast him in amongst the rest where they together perished The like vntimely deaths wee reade of Appion Grammaticus Iulian Apostata Artephius Robertus Anglicus amongst the Heluetians Petrus Axonensis sirnamed Conciliator Albertus Teutonicus Arnoldus de villa noua Anselmus Parmensis Pycatrix Hispanus Cicchus Ascalus Florentinus and many others Commendable therefore it was in the French king who when one Friscalanus Cenomannus a man excellent in this Science came to shew diuerse prestigious feats and trickes before him for which he expected reward amongst others he caused the Linkes of a Golden Chayne to be taken asunder and remooued them to diuerse remote places of the chamber which came of themselues to one place and were instantly ioyned together as before Which the king seeing and being thereat astonished he commanded him instantly from
not doe any thing out of a Mammons treasure happie be her resurrection as her byrth was hopefull whose name at the Font was a future prediction to her blessednesse aboue Felicitie she is called on Earth Eternall Felicitie may she inioy in Heauen Peter de Loyre a Frenchman in his booke of Specters Sights and Apparitions hath verie well obserued that the Syrens and Muses may bee in some sort compared together for as there are three sorts of Nymphs namely of Ayre Water and Earth so there are of the Muses some that take their being from the continuall moouing and stirring of Waters a second made by the agitation of the Ayre engendring sounds a third from the Earth which is called Voice or distinguishable words spoken to the capacitie of the hearer So of the Syrens Parthenope presented with a womanish amiable and inchanting face importeth the Voice and proceedeth from the Earth as of the three the most materiall and weightie Ligia denoteth Harmonie arrising from the melodious sounds of the Ayre And Leucosia called Albadea or the white goddesse is the Hierogliphick of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea which begetteth the white froth or some of which Venus is said to be ingendred so that by these three the Nymphs the Muses and the Syrens are comprehended the art of Musicke existing of three things Harmonie Rythme and Number Harmonie proceeding from the Ayre Number from the Sea bounded within his compasse yet as wee see in Hexamiter and Pentamiter and other verse ebbing and flowing according to the growth and wane of the Moone To these is added the Voice which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the French Romans Dictier To Harmony are approprited Sounds to Number or Rythme Dances and to the Voice all kind of Verse But to come to my present purpose all these including one generall musicke and Calliope as she participates from euerie one so comprehending all I thinke it not impertinent as in a consort many Instruments make but one melodie so in this booke to recollect my selfe and giue you a tast of many or the most heads discoursed of in the former the better to put you in minde of the penaltie due to the Vicious and the guerdon and reward stored for the Vertuous and that in compendious Historie The Goddesses Nymphs Graces Muses Sybills Vestalls c. I omit as sufficiently spoken of and apply my selfe to things more familiar and necessarie to instruction I begin with the bad because my desire is to end with the best and of Incest first The sister of Leucippus I Insist not of the seueral sorts of Incest neither purpose I to stand vpon the multiplicitie of Historie let this one serue to remember you of the former Leucippus the sonne of Xanthius who deriued his genealogie from Bellerephon he was excellent both in strength and valour aboue all that liued in his dayes not in priuat contentions onely but in forreine combustions he demeaned himselfe with such discretion and courage that hauing subdued the Lycians and awed all the neighbour nations about him hauing no enemie to inuade nor opposite people to lift vp a rebellious hand against him hee retired himselfe into his countrey and laying aside his victorious armes which woon him same and honour abroad hee abandoned himselfe to ease and the priuat pleasures of his fathers house and now wanting other imploiment as idlenesse is the greatest corrupter of vertue he began to intertaine such vnusuall flames and vnaccustomed cogitations as before he had no time to feele or leasure to thinke on for now he cast his incestuous eye vpon his sister His passions much troubled him at the first and all possible meanes he vsed to shake them off but in vaine he liued in the same house with her they dieted at one table had libertie of vnsuspected conference and he hauing nothing else to do had only leasure to meditate on that which was fearefull to apprehend but horrible to enterprise To this purpose Ouid with great elegancie in remed Amor. lib. 1. speaking of Aegistus who in the absence of Agamemnon adulterated his queene Clitemnestra thus writes Queritur Aegistus quare sit factus adulter In promptu causa est desidiosus erat c. Doth any man demand the reason why Aegistus an adulterer was Lo I Can tell Because that he was idle when Others at Troy were fighting and their men Led stoutly on to which place were accited The Gretian Heroes with a force vnited He no imploiment had There was no war In Argos where he liued from Troy so far No strife in law to which being left behind He carefully might haue imploid his mind That which lay plaine before him the man proou'd And least he should do nothing therefore lou'd As Ouid of Aegistus so may I say of Leucippus whom rest and want of action in a stirring braine and bodie wrought this distemperature Ashamed he was to court his sister first because he knew her modest a second impediment was she was elsewhere disposed and contracted to a gentleman of a noble familie besides she was his sister to whom he wisht all good and then to corrupt her honor he could deuise for her no greater ill he considered that to persuade her to her owne vndoing would shew ill in a stranger but much worse in a brother In these distractions what should he doe or what course take the thing he apprehended was preposterous and the meanes to compasse it was most prodigious for he came to his mother told her his disease and besought her of remedie his words as they were vttered with feare so they were heard with trembling for they feauered her all ouer Being in to the knees hee cared not now to wade vp to the chinne and proceeded That if she would not be the meanes for him to compasse his sister notwithstanding all obstacles what soeuer he would by speedie and sudden death rid himselfe out of all his miseries desiring her speedie answer or with his naked poniard in his hand he was as readie for execution as she to deny her assistance I leaue to any mothers consideration but to imagine with what strange ambiguities his words perplexed her and what conuulsions it bred in her bosome euen to the verie stretching of hir heart strings but as she knew his courage to dare so she feared his resolution to act therefore more like a tender hearted mother than a vertuous minded matron rather desiring to haue wicked children than none at all she promised him hope and assured him helpe and after some persuasiue words of comfort left him indifferently satisfied What language the mother vsed to the daughter to inuite her to the pollution of her bodie and destruction of her soule is not in me to conceiue I only come to the point by the mothers mediation the brother is brought to the bed of his sister she is vitiated and his appetite glutted yet not so but that they