infamy that Time nor Times heire Eternity shal ne're devoure If thou move or hand or voice for ayd thy groome I 'le slay with thee then fling his loathed trunk on thine and sweare I found him fast manacled in thy embraces cease then to bee faire or to bee cruell and returne me the Prince ravish'd from mee by the all commanding beauties that attend thee The sin unknown is unacted nor shall the sowrest vertue mis-read those blushes the liveliest pieces of innocence Accuse not Nature of tyranny she made not so delicate an object to tempt but satisfie the appetite yeeld then or this sword must enter that adamant from whence all pitie is barakado'd She conjur'd with this tyranny of complement with as undistracted words as could bee pump'd from the deepest confusion of thoughts makes her reply Renowned Sir let true pitie as really enter your eares as false is banished mine In Tarquines shape I entertain'd you wrong not the Prince so farre as to prostrate his fame to so inglorious an action hee that hath the eyes of all Rome fix'd on his vertues and must hereafter look like a Prince in Story shall hee have all his glories sullied by the conquest of a woman Shall he bee read King of all the Romans but himselfe wanting this Soveraignty all his honours shall be buried in his infamy Then punish Great Sir the Traitor to your vertue this face teare it to a loathing so shall you appease the lewd rebellion of your bloud and make your victories still ending in your selfe discourse for all posterity But if you are conquer'd by your lust you shall revenge your worth in her dishonour who shall not be unpitied of men or unrevenged of the Gods This said shee wept the rest But he not daunted at that majesty of sorrow that sate inthron'd in cry stall nor at her words that would charme the most inhumane but rather whet then refin'd in passion unloads his lust and with the night posts undiscover'd to Ardea No sooner had the Morne unchain'd the prisoners of the Night and spread his light welcome both to miserable and happie through the vast regions of the Skies that light that was so lovely to her because it came to light her to her end but shee sends to Ardea for Collatine and Brutus her Husband and Uncle Long before the day was fled into the other world they at Collatium did arrive First they saw her face stand in that amazed silence that they could read not heare the full contents of sorrow they in that expected some great cruelty had been us'd upon her which had depriv'd her of the tongue to rell it But this silence was but a pause in her great soule whether shee might stoop to that wretched body as to borrow those organs which commonly conveigh our friends calamities into our eares but lest shee should detaine them too long lock'd up in wonder hasting to her ease shee unbent her soule and gave vent unto her sorrow Fortune said shee hast thou now hit the marke thou hast long aym'd at my poor heart take to thee now thy triumph and leave mee to my injur'd vertue Brutus and Collatine you are come from Ardea to hear the storie that will break my heart ere I am delivered of it should I truly tell you how low I am rammâ—d in miserie If should bee farre too low for you to pitie mee unlesse your love should lead you to dishonour In what Court shall I appeale to justice The grand Gods act and licence what I suffer the houshold Powers are not of power to keep their Lawes inviolate Shall I addresse mee to the King his owne Sonne hath dishonourd mee to him I would appeale would hee revenge his guilt as I mine innocence then would I speak him a true Prince when to advance his justice higher then his sinne he made her way through patricide and treason to her power But hee loves his lust too well to loath his life of him I cannot expect justice who hath injur'd mee nor of you mercie whom I have injur'd I have tainted your bloud with mine owne Tarquin hath conquer'd this body Lucrecia this mind You true Romans Brutus and Collatine in whom my life was truely happy I conjure you by all the tyes of bloud love and religion bee as cruell to Tarquin as hee to Lucrece shee to her selfe who with bold steele carves on her breast the Tragedie that shall stagger the piety or awake the pitie of all posteritie Her life and language had both this period for having tyed their vowes to her revenge her soule too pure for her bodie disclogg'd it selfe of clay and broke the vault of mortalitie So riseth day disrob'd of night so did her soule ascend to immortality It is beyond the art of words to expresse what valiant sorrow what noble rage this cruelty of hers had stamp'd upon these two princely brests Silence at the instant had tongue-tied all language wonder had pent up all teares immensitie of furie had transcended all bounds of passion so much had they to speak they could not speak so great was their sorrow they could not sorrow so were all the powers of the soule knit and contracted into the project of revenge that till they were scattered into their offices passion was not discernable then the object lessened wonder descended to passion passion to expression then discolouring the crimson floud and with their teares washing her body white as her innocence they took it on their shoulders set it in the Forum where Collatine when the Auditory was ripe for his Oratorie bespake the Roman cofluxe Romans and Countrimen this day presents to your wonder a fact of that height of impietie so degenerating from all humanitie that in it hell hath plotted the dishonour of this whole nation this whole age Were not your affection stronger tied to the Oratour then the Oratory I should not hope to perswade you that the breast of man could travell in such a prodigie of exact villany You see a monument of that miserie that vindicates the pitie of Tygers or Tyrants much more of minds ennobled with vertuous actions The Tragedie not long to wrack your expectation I will briefely declare Sextus Tarquinius I know not with what colourable excuses hee painted his designes left Ardea for Rome honour could not bridle his false furie of affection nor the publick interest in the State overpoize his private passion I say hee posted to Rome Rome where the Gods have their Temples the Vertues their Sanctuaries that thou shouldst breed a Monster to prophane thee No sooner had hee entred Rome but hee entred my house where like a Prince a kinsman like the happie messenger of Collatines happinesse oh that vice should bee so bravely disguis'd hee was receiv'd by Lucrecia receiv'd in a bravery of affection too high for the apostate from vertue his face did not discover the false heart that lay in ambush to surprize her honour nor his vertue
griev'd her not that it was gone but returned she thus bespake them You see how vainly you imploy your care to keep a prisoner that will be free you may make mee die with more paine and lesse honour but not to die at all this is beyond your power whilst I wear a hand commanded by a heart that knowes no feare I shall not despaire of death nor shall I long protract a loathed breath in such wretched times that make life but the nursery of sorrowes and seminary of misfortunes Some few dayes she wasted in comforting and condoling with her friends the generall calamities wherein the most vertuous were involv'd under that monster of men Nero then tyrannizing Then she retired into Paetus lodging and there thus spake her last The soule imprison'd in a necessity of being miserable must break through all fence of nature into an honourable end This very precept nature her selfe imprinteth in us shee denyeth not the iron-bound Slave a death to free him from the toylsome Oare doth she deny the Sun-scorch'd Pilgrim his nights sleep no nor the world-beaten man his eternall rest Surely then shee allowes us to shake off her interest when we are sunke below her succour Paetus thy life is not link'd to nature but to fame fall then by thine owne sword and thy spirit wound up in thine honour mounts to the Palaces of the immortall Gods If thou faintest under so brave a resolution or enviest thy selfe the glory of thy end know that ere two dayes expire thou thy selfe expirest but how by whose hands beheaded by a base hangman offered up a tame sacrifice to insated tyranny Awake the Roman in thee shall high Paetus whom when the World unworthy of his Vertue ingratefully flung off claspe broken hopes and fortunes to save himselfe with the shipwrack of his fame shall hee to whom thousand servile necks did bow stoop to the basenesse to beg life while his death is in his hands Cato and Scipio whom this age is more prone to adore then admire held it not honourable to begg life though they might expect more from Caesars Vertue But what canst thou hope for from a Tyrant abjur'd by all the Vertues one that approves nothing in Soveraigntie but Power and that guided by Passion to insatiate revenge Then as if shee had distrusted her Husbands spirit shee drew out the poyniard from his side Paetus said shee how I have not entertain'd life nor death but for thy sake this last act of honour be my witnesse Doe this Paetus then she plung'd the dagger into her heart and having drawne it out shee delivered it to him againe trust my departing breath Paetus said shee not the wound it gives mee but thee afflicts mee There died the noble Arria there did that soule flie to eternity that soule that was too great to owe her liberty to any power but to her owne Paetus blushing to be indebted to a president for his death especially his Wife took to him the dagger that was so lately guilded in his Arria's bloud and with these words hastned to his end Had fortune answered my resolution and crown'd my enterprize with happinesse I had entered Rome envied by the most noble not pitied by the basest I now see how the successe of humane affaires depends not upon valour but uncertain fates and our actions elevated by the height of spirit do but intrench us deeper into misery But though I am bereft of all the advantages of fortune and of honour yet am I Master of a mind unconquered over which nor Tyrannie nor Fate shall triumph Then embracing her dead hee sigh'd and said Pardon blest spirit my too long absence from thee I have borrowed this little leave of life but to admire thy Vertue which being above my wonder I must soare unto that height where it is ascended to search out her true perfection Pardon my soule that she ascends not to thee in an extasie faine would shee but this dagger claimes her liberty that gave thee thine Then he thrust it into his heart and there the dagger acted his last and most faithfull service slew his Master Pro Arria THE first Being tyed the first two into one and formed two different sexes into one body and one soule the bodies by alternate use so proprietated not to one but both the soules so sympathizing in affections and in passions as both became one to both They that keep this mystery inviolable know no outward respects of power to divide them into two If Paetus be unhappy Arria is unfortunate Paetus is doom'd to die and shall Arria live to see him slaine Hath hee outliv'd his hopes and can shee hope to outlive him But why would she die was the feare of the Emperours cruelty mingled in her cause What feares she that feares not death what Emperour is cruell to her that dares die what cruelty is to be parallel'd to that which bereft her of her life It was Paetus slew her Paetus had Arria liv'd Paetus had not slaine himselfe therefore Arria died died because Paetus should die Oh unheard of cruelty oh unparallel'd affection Arria died because Paetus could not live Paetus by death redeem'd himself from what was worse than death from torture Arria redeem'd her honour and her Paetus from torture and dishonour Fortune made her miserable that Vertue might make her happie her faith so firmly tyed her love that death could not undo it with her life Her fortunes were so ingrafted in her Paetus that with his they did bud flourish and wither Her life was fastned to his strings of life with him she liv'd with him she died Contra Arriam THrough what forbidden pathes doth passion hurrie us when once our reason is unseated Arria would die rather then bee led in triumph did death redeem her No death was but fortunes headsman to execute her she had condemn'd The Emperors power extended no faerther then to afflict her withred body not able to endure this weak revenge shee yeelded up her mind a triumph to her fortune and her selfe unto her sorrow If fear did not surprize her then engag'd in Paetus treason she was her own wrack and torture scorning all Executioners but her self Who then condemns her death when it was due to justice But what law exacts of her this justice The Gods forbid her to kill another much more her self being nearer to her selfe than any other Nature by her law claims life as her due debt payable when shee demands it If she died because Paetus should die shee did but invite him to her rage not to her vertue But I think fear the common defect of Nature in women depriv'd her of her life for death appeard so accoutred in the terrours of wrack and hangman that she died for fear of death PAVLINA LVcius Annaeus Seneca the Philosopher and Tutor to Nero the Emperour was Lord of great Revenues to which his vertue not his fortune was his title his mind was richly embroydered
with all the studied ornaments of learning a good part of his life hee exercised in the Court where while the Princes ears were open to Philosophy his heart and hand were both unbent to him his favour and his noblenesse like rivalls striv'd which should with most devotion serve their Soveraigne but when debauchery usurp'd upon the Emperour the Tutor was devanced and disgraced In all these extremities Seneca in himself was so well poiz'd that neither the greatnesse of fortune could bribe him into riot the height of knowledge into pride nor the Courtier into flattery nor did he know any man great enough to make him lesse nor could his mind which Philosophie had plac'd above the World decline with fortune In his old age hee married Pompea Paulina a young faire and nobly descended Roman Lady a Lady of that worth that no Roman but hee that did enjoy her did deserve her Nero having let loose the reines of reason and himselfe to all licenciousnesse so tyranniz'd as if he did perswade himselfe that an Emperour was above the Law and must also bee without it what his will prescrib'd his tyranny did execute and so as if his actions were accountable to no power but his owne Among his chiefe and most remarked cruelties it is not the least hee exprest against his Tutor Seneca to him hee sends his Satellites to denounce his death the fashion of those times was when a person of qualitie was condemn'd to die hee was allowed the liberty to chuse his death and a time proportion'd according to the Emperours rage to dispose of his affaires but if his revenge flowed so high that it would brook no delay then hee enjoyd no time to doe any thing but die if the condemned resisted his decrees then he commonly appointed that by some slave hee should bee barbarously murdered but the nobler Romans held it nearer way to honour with their owne hands to anticipate their fates and in unhappinesse staid not the enforcement of tyranny or nature Seneca with an undaunted looke receiving the sentence of his death called for inke and paper to write his last Will and Testament which the Captaine denying him he turn'd about and then bespake his friends You see my loving friends said hee I cannot gratifie your affections with my fortunes I must therefore leave you my life and my Philosophy to enrich your minds with the invaluable and nere-to-be-depriv'd-of treasure of precept and example I shall desire you by all the tyes of friendship and by the glory you shall purchase by it to endeare my life and death which shall not staine the honour of my life unto your memory then gently reproving them who seem'd too sorrowfull hee said to what other purpose have I furnished you with precepts of Philosophie then to arme your minds against the assaults of Fortune Is Nero's tyrannie unknowne to you What man is Master of his owne life under him that massacred his Brother that us'd upon his Mother that cruelty which never yet knew name Then hee turn'd him to Paulina in whom sorrow had sweld it selfe so high that rather then break out it threatned to break her heart My Deare said hee I am now going to act what I have long taught my houre is come and nothing so welcome to me as my death now I am unloaded of this flesh that clogs my soule I shall with more ease ascend unto eternity to enjoy a condition without a change an happinesse without a period wherefore my dearest Paulina forbeare thy too immoderate passion lest thy grief disgrace my end and thou seem to value my death above mine honour enjoy thy youth but still retaine those seeds of vertue â—herewith thy mind is â—â—chly stored I confesse for thy sake I could bee content to live when I consider that in my breast lives a young Lady to whom my life may bee advantage Paulina's love now raising up her courage and her courage her dejected spirit Think not Seneca said she that like your Physitian I will leave you when the hope of life forsakes you but I will follow like your Wife your fortune This resolve shall tell you how much your life and doctrine hath availed your Paulina When can I die well but then when I cannot live well When I am bereft of thee in whom all my joyes are so wealthily summ'd up that thy losse will make my life my greatest curse then will I die in honour and think it fitter for my fame then linger out my life in sorrow Trust mee my Paulina said Seneca I cannot but admire thy love knowing from what height of vertue it proceeds as I will not envie thee thy death so I wish a glory may await thy end great as the constancie that advanc'd thee to it Then he commanded his Surgeon to cut the veins of both their armes that they might bleed to death but Seneca's veines shrunk up through age and abstinence denyed his bloud a speedy course therefore his thighs were also launced but lest his pains might insinuate too farre into Paulina's torments and a new addition of sorrow meeting with her losse of bloud might make her faint hee sought to mitigate her feares by the discourse of death Why should said he this monster nothing so affright us while we are living wee are dying for life is but a dying being when we are dead wee are after death where then or what is death It is that inconsiderable atome of time that divides the body from the soule what is it then in this afflicts us Not the rarity for all the world that is not gone before will follow us is it the separation and tyed to that the jealousie how we shall bee dealt with upon this hinge I confesse turnes the wickeds fear but the Stoick whom Philosophy hath taught the art of living well death frees from misery and wafts him to the haven of his happinesse For this necessity of death wee are bound to thank the Gods for it redeems from a worse of being eternally miserable The separation as it is naturall so it is the only meanes conducing to our better being The body being the corruptible and ponderous part falls naturally to the earth whence it was first elemented the soul etheriall gaines by this losse for being purg'd from the drosse of weight and of corruption is made heavens richest ore so refin'd that the great Gods image may bee stamp'd upon it and ascends unto the skies from whence it first descended Nor doe I hold this dis-junction to be eternal for when the world by the revolution of times and ages whirls about into her first Chaos then shall they meet again never to bee sundred The soul shal be so purified by the immortall Gods that it shall neither hope nor feare nor grieve that it shall bee freed from all those discording passions and affections that here transport it from it selfe The body so spirited that it shall know no necessity of nourishment and therefore
must sheath thee againe Where In this guiltlesse breast of mine Call up thy too degenerous spirit Of what bravery can it accuse the act Thou murdrest a poor innocent maid Shall posteritie brand mee with that weaknesse Shall it say that not able to stand under the miseries of life I was press'd down by the hard extremity of fortune to despaire to death No my tide of furie flowes into another channell here is a revenge fit for thy spirit fit for thine arme thine honour shall bee proud to riot in his bloud whose bloud would riot in thine honour Thus then I shake off woman and her frailtie thus doe I strangle the monster lust that revels in thy veines and to complete my vengeance send thy sin-surfetted soule into the land of endlesse night where it hath already tane sure footing With that her spirit restlesse in the revenge of words eager of action directed her arme which gave Amalius so fatall a wound that it seem'd her hot-metled fury was bridled with exactest discretion and nothing wanted the attempt but passion Bravest Theutilla sooner shall the Fathers bowels bee silent at the sight of his long unseen Sonne then posterity forget thy name Amalius now miserably groaning now miserably opening his eyes to shut them againe more miserably had little more of life then what could give her life in appeasing the fury of his servants that rushed in to her destruction What means said he is Chaos of confounding noise this unwelcome Traine to the more unwelcome Pomp of death Whither rush yee yee betrayers of innocence yee servants of nothing but my lust Oh may mine infamie find a grave as soone as life and you sooner that the world may want a witnesse of it I conjure you by the relation that ties you to my commands and this last spare her life whose chastitie the Gods are pleas'd to spare Then to make a minute of his life famous hee contemplated on mortality Nature said hee that first digested this All into an exact method of parts preserves it likewise by a constant concordance of the same without the which it would soone resolve into the first nothing onely man ungovern'd man Natures Master-peece revolting from her allegeance deposes her Lieutenant Reason le ts in the Usurper Passion to untune the harmony that preserves the soul. Hence is it that death the privation of being in this disorder seizes the Fort hurries the Governesse captive to an eternall a never redeem'd imprisonment The Sunne the Sea have both their bounds and man his stage from life to death of equall length to all though one runs faster then another The world whirles about continually till it be dissolv'd and mans brain not satisfied in the bare necessaries of life moves in an unbounded motion till stil'd by the period of action the undoer of Nature Death There is but one doore at which wee enter this Labyrinth of life but infinite are the waies wee turne and wind out of it The infant no sooner with much difficulty rak'd out of the wombe punishing the Mothers guilt of his short-liv'd misery enters the Tombe flashing through the world being but a lightning of life Pleasure or businesse wears out the riper mans vitals and forceth out life let Nature block it up never so strongly The aged man because a burden to himselfe sinks under his own weight These are ordinary waies out of this world into the next but to bee hurld out by violence of Fate this is the doom of strictest Justice that makes eternity our curse This is the hard fate my just merit hath encountred to be punish'd by the sex I have so much abus'd This was his last for Nature though shee could not tell him he had liv'd long enough told him hee had been long enough dying There she withdrew her selfe from him and seal'd up his eyes to the eternall sleep of eternall night Pro Theutilla REason is the only and noble difference between the free and servile creature and they whose actions are not moderated and well poyzed by her power deviate from themselves into the slavery of Sense Theutilla if shee could obtaine of her selfe to yeeld to sense why should not Amalius obtaine it If to reason why should shee not kill Amalius or why should she be ravished Her selfe then was Victor of her sense and to conquer reason she conquer'd Amalius Never had her vertue a fairer tryall then when her honour was a martyr stak'd to unlawfull flames never could her honour bee more honourably releived then by her vertue nor both then by this act Though Vertue being within her Honour being above her was not to be really violated without the Theutilla that was below her yet must Amalius be sacrificed as well to deprive her of the interest he might have in her dishonour as to make opinion cleare as her actions It was that mind that stoop'd not to her body that made her of consequence not her beauty the other sullied who but Amalius would value this or one whose sense is so scattered in the admiration of the outward forme that hee discernes not even those deformities of soule which are detected It was necessary for her fame not onely to resolve not to yeeld but to prevent occasions that might prejudice her vertue or her honour But why was Amalius slaine not master of the opportunity hee knew not why was she forc'd thither Because shee would not yeeld because she should bee ravished But haply her handsome prayers had wrought him to an handsome repentance Is beauty the loadstar that attracts hearts of steel to it the Orator that pleads against it selfe Amalius had his eyes been open had not read contradictions in her face nor made so obscure a Comment upon so cleare a Text. Hee had seene her but as hee had seene her her eyes inviting all eyes her lippes all lippes her face Loves banquet where shee ryots in the most luxuriant feast of sense not as shee was the modell of Divine Perfection so innocent shee knew not the meaning of a Mistris Theutilla had she had no other Sword but her innocence might satisfie her selfe in that defence but Conscience is but one witnesse to one and her actions must endure the triall of another touch-stone beside her owne Amalius would easily confront her meanenesse Then allow her this great revenge of little innocence Contra Theutillam A Mind well habited to vertue enjoyes all true content within it self knowing nothing without it to transport it from it selfe Why should she then strain her vertue to a vice in the too nice satisfaction of others unsatisfie her selfe Why should shee to prevent unlawfull love act a more unlawfull revenge Why should shee revenge an unacted injury commit a certain murder to avoid an uncertain rape Had she been absolutely tyed either to die kill or be ravished she had shewed a greater height of spirit in enduring then revenging her dishonour For the passive valour is more laudable then the
her soul hollow as her heart loose as the shingles of an old silenc'd steeple scragged as a disparked pale stood at that distance one could not bite another her tongue so weakly guarded scolds like the alarm of a clock her chin was down'd with a China beard of twenty haires her brest lanke as a quicksand wasted as an hour-glasse at the eleventh use one arme one legge one foot shee doff'd with day and as a resurrection dond with the morrow her bones pithlesse as a Stallion for seven Posterities the slightest feares might now make rattle in her skinne her body wasted to no waste blasted with lust as an Oak with lightning was as familiar with diseases as a Physician to conclude she is odious beyond all comparison one sight of her would make the heat of youth recoile into an infant continence Yet she maintaines two Painters three Apothecaries to maintain this old-old uglinesse as the rare thing shee hath been these fourscore yeares in getting But I have too long like a Sexton convers'd with rottennesse She was Calbia and in that her soule was a wel acquainted with sin as a Confessor shee was Nicocrates Mother and in that name she carried to the faire and vertuous Aretaphila the envy of age the wormwood of a mother-in-law a word that is the originall that signifies all that is ill in the sexe yet for the reliefe of some few particulars read it like Hebrew and it yeelds something that is good This Calbia discovers the poison-plot Then as eagerly as my young Master in the Countrey fastens on the red-Deere-pie tougher then Drakes biskets that went round the world hoary as Methusalem entaild by his Grandsire to the house for ever shee seizes the faire Aretaphila into her tallons more griping then poverty it selfe nails that scratch like the law and are as good a cure for the itch as the Goale for theeves her she brings to the rack there intending after confession with most subtle tortures to let out her life Oh that Love in his Olympiads should bee drown'd in those faire eyes those eyes more eloquent then all Rhetorick that would raise an Anchoret from his grave and turne the Fiend Fury into the Cherubin Pity that those eyes should be of no other use then to vent sorrow to inexorable ears that those white and red roses which no rain but what fell from those heavenly eies could colour or sweeten should wither in their prime those lips that staine the rubies and make the roses blush those lips that command the scarlet-coloured morn into a cloud to hide his shame should kisse a mercilesse and sinew-sundring rack that breath which makes us all Chamaelions should bee wasted into unregarded sighs that those brests eternally chast and white as the Alps those legs columnes of the fairest Parian marble columnes that support this monument of all pens should bee stretch'd into anatomies that her body that would call a soule from heaven into it should bee mangled like one that hath hang'd in chaines these three years that her skin smooth as the face of youth soft as a bed of violets white as the queen of innocence sweet as the bean-blossomes after raine that that skin the casket of that body the karkanet of that soul should be jag'd and torne with that remorselesse pitie we commonly bestow upon a scare-crow After long racking when Calbia saw shee could rack no confession then when more torment would have been a reliefe she was taken down from the rack and her body was pinn'd as an unwelcome courtesie upon her soule Thus noble and pious guilt is twin-brother and carries the same face with innocence so was she spirited that those tortures could scarce trie her patience lesse her truth and though Calbia was not fully possess'd of any course to put her to death yet had shee cruelty enough to doe worse then kill her to make a cause But Aretaphila though her Countries liberty and her owne honour lifted higher then the flatteries of life or feare of death resolv'd in spite of cruelty or fate to live whilst shee had offred Nicocrates and Calbia to her oppress'd Countries rage therefore the second time she was brought to the rack when fearing she should be sacrific'd to Calbia not Calbia to Cyrenaea to calm Nicocrates shee thus bespake him Great Sir when you were pleas'd to lift my humble fortunes up to those glories that willingly engage a womans pride when by kind fate and kinder Nicocrates I was snatch'd from base private arms to the embraces of a Prince were these cheeks dy'd into ingratitude and crueltie to make them lovely can your brest harbour such a thought that this brest which you were pleas'd to think worthy to harbour yours can swell with those two monsters abandon'd by the most infamous of our sexe But since such is my hard fortune I am reduc'd to that misery as to defend mine innocence hear me Nicocrates not that I beg life for I scorne to stoop now I am suspected so low as to take it honourably This potion which the comments of envie interpreted a poyson is a confection not of Cantharides for thy lust but of all those ingredients that may strengthen vertuous love This ture innocence had no designe upon thy life which oh thou all-seeing Skie witnesse I value as much above mine owne as mine honour above mine enemy but fearing lest like a needle betweene two loadstarres the stronger might attract thee and my unworthinesse how happy am I in it since it pleads mine innocence might betray me to a worthyer Love I devis'd this potion to make thy love lasting as mine which else would soon consume fed with such withred fewell as this poore declining face this face that can boast nothing but her sorrow which since deriv'd from you is most welcome to these eyes and is receiv'd as your Embassadour into this heartlesse heart Oh let these tears for ever drown these eyes oh let this sorrow sacrifice this innocent heart in all her glory to the great Nicocrates oh let Aretaphila the Aretaphila that is since she There though no tongue could praise her but her owne the Tyrant impatient such oratory have teares in a faire face to heare more tearing his haire his rage too hastie to be silent hee express'd as much spleen to Calbia as shee to Aretaphila What furies said hee fled from their black region have possest thy blacker soule fir to lend rage to all the horrid haggs of Tartarie to act a deed which oh you Heavens can you behold without raine and thunder your combin'd sorrow rage can you rend the clouds which are but the suck'd up vapours of the earth and not her that takes in all the poysonous sin of hell to fortifie her wickednesse Accurs'd fury curs'd from the cradle to the tombe curs'd above all that ever Heaven and Earth yet curs'd May all the sins of me my Name and House returne into thy venom'd soule till they have
press'd it into the low despaire of nere-below-repenting sinners Then in his fury too great for more words he had rack'd his Mother Calbia had not the vertuous Aretaphila stepp'd in betweene him and his revenge Nicocrates now gladly possest of her innocence endeavours by studied favours to raze out all the injuries imprinted on her body and her soule but shee like an Anvile too much heated by the last blowes to coole suddenly meditates upon another and more safe way for the Tyrants death She had a Daughter every way exactly perfect for she was Daughter to Aretaphila The Tyrant had a brother called Leander you have already all that commends him hee was an haire-braind wild-headed unrein'd young man one whom lust or ambition might flatter into the most desperate attempts Aretaphila wrought so far with the King that a match between her Hero-Daughter and the young Leander was by his consent concluded her shee counsels to insinuate into her Husbands rashnesse and perswade him and oh what will not this pestiferous night-geare doe to besiege his brothers Crown Leander not contented with the Kingdome hee enjoyd in her thought now nothing lesse then to raise himselfe as high as his ambition brib'd his Swiz servant Diapheries who in the first nick of opportunitie murthred Nicocrates Whither do these crowns and scepters the worlds magnalia but indeed the balls of Fortune hurrie thee fond Leander thou hast not kill'd the Tyrant for the Countrey but slaine thy brother for the Crowne Through how many restlesse nights and lesse restlesse thoughts do we encounter these sweet-bitter joyes and as the more we graspe the water into our hands the lesse wee hold so is content the farther from us the more we seeke it in these fading glories of the World which like an ignis fatuus first lights us through wild untrodden pathes unto themselves then through vaste ayrie thoughts they lead us up to that precipice from whence we fall and there they leave us Aretaphila could not appease her revenge till she had pluck'd up the Tyrant by the roots First shee incenc'd the Citizens against Leander the Traitour to his Prince the parricide of his Countrey the fratricide and lastly the muderer of her Husband They with one consent adjudged him to bee sowed up into a sack and cast into the sea Then judgement proceeded to Calbia whom they condemned to the fire and shee was burnt alive Diapheries not worth naming and therefore I think not worth hanging the Storie mentions not his punishment The Cyrenaeans now prostrate their lives and fortunes to the devotion of Aretaphila that was owner of them both they offer her divine honours and beseech her to take further protection of the Countrey But she who to doe her Countrey service could subdue her thoughts to be a Queen can fall from that height to rise above all Crowns into her owne content she shaking off those glorious loades of State retired from all the crowding tumults of the Court into a solitary and truely happy countrey-condition there to spinne out her thread of life at her homely distaffe where we will leave her a veryer wonder then the Phoenix in the Desart the alone Paragon of all peerlesse perfections Her actions so above the criticisme of my purblind judgement I am not able to comprehend much lesse contradict or controvert I am silent lest you should passe that censure upon me for her which Famianus Strada did upon Horace for Plautus that my judgement is judicium sine judicio FINIS THe Heroina hath nothing of woman in her but her sex nothing of sex but her body and that dispos'd to serve not rule her better part It is as Nature left it neglectfull not negligent neat not stretch'd upon the tenter-hookes of quaintnesse of dresse or garbe with Nature it decaies with Mechanick art the ruines are not repaired Her soule is her heaven in which she enjoyes aeternall harmony her conscience is her Sanctuary whither when shee is wounded she flies for refuge Her affections and passions in constant calme neither flow nor ebb with Fortune her hope is not screwd up to ambition nor her fear dejected to despaire Her joy is confin'd to smiles her sorrow to teares Prosperity is the type of what shee shall bee Adversity her rowling yron that smoothes her way to Paradise Outward happinesse she owes not â—o her Starres but her Vertue that rules her Stars If shee bee lash'd by Fortune it is but like a Toppe not to bee set up but kept upright Religion not Pride or weaknesse makes her chast She understands not the common conceit of love nor entertaines that familiarity with man that hee may hope it Flattery the inseparable companion of Love she scorns though she cannot flatter her selfe If Love enter her breast it is in the most noble way directed to the beauty neerest the most perfect beauty If shee marry it is onely to propagate the very act tending thereto shee singles from the thought of sinne Vertue is the reward of her Vertue her soule is not so servile as to be tyed by the hope of happinesse or fear of miserie to bee what she is but is cleerly satisfied for doing well that she doth well Shee is temperate that her soule may still be Soveraigne of her sense Shee entertains pitie as an attribute of the Divinitie not of her sex Shee is wise because vertuous She is valiant for her conscience is ungall'd and can endure the sharpest touch of tongue If shee bee inwrapped in the straight that shee may sinne shee relies upon the highest Providence which forbids her to use a remedie worse then the evill FINIS
shew it selfe as it was the staulking horse to his covert The ceremonies of hospitality finished hee retires to his lodging though not to himselfe now when the brother of death had summon'd to still musick all but foule ravishers theeves and cares with his drawne sword hee leaps from his owne enters Lucrecia's bed her hee ravisheth Shee having possess'd us with a full relation of her mis-fortunes Shee Empresse of a mind unconquer'd of sinne or sorrow with this poniard let out the life Tarquin had made loathed And now O Countrimen awake your Roman vertue flesh your swords and valours upon the revenge of the proud usurper of publick liberty the cruell murderer of private innocence you cannot offer to the Gods a more gratefull sacrifice nor will they ever in requitall forsake that State that forsakes not the defence of vertue Such impression strikes Thunder upon Oakes Earthquakes on Mountaines as Collatine on the Roman hearts Their thoughts were torne and divided from themselves anger boyled into malice the policie of passion both flowed into resolution then like an unpent torrent from some high precipice the multitude violently ran to precipitate him made high for a precipice which in the perpetuall exile of the Tarquins was accomplish'd Pro Lucrecia THE Roman Story big with varietie of wonder writes Lucrecia the female glory shee forcibly abus'd by Tarquin declares her innocence to the world and confirmes it by her death There were two in the act one in the sinne one adulterer and one chast her body conquer'd her mind truely heroicall not stooping to the lure of false pleasure that remained as untainted as unforced Why dyed shee being innocent to bee innocent Why received shee her death from her owne hands haply to prevent it from anothers then had shee subscribed to guilt and not left life without staine For a Roman to outlive honour was dishonourable for her to survive her infamie was to act it Curtius spur'd on by honour did ride into the Gulfe Regulus rather then his faith would prostitute himselfe to the witty cruelty of the Carthaginians To honour did the three hundred Fabii sacrifice their lives Honour chased the Tarquins out of Rome but Lucrece out of life To wipe off all thought of guilt which maligne censure might imprint upon the act she slew her selfe Hee that condemnes her for the murder accuseth her of the adultery life had been her guilt whereas death was her innocence through her life shee made way to her fame to which life and fortune are slaves not to be entertained farther then they tend to her advancement I confesse torne haire and face and eyes bankrupt of teares and her owne vertue was of force to possesse the world shee had been ravished without the witnesse of her death why then died shee Her shame was too great to bee supported by her life nor any thing but her death revenged her and all Rome of the insulting Tarquins Then Lucrece in the hight of glory sacrificed her selfe as well to the State as to her innocence Contra Lucreciam WHy dyed shee if shee were innocent why if an adulteresse is death due to innocence or to adulterie was it that her crime was greater then Tarquins that shee was slain and hee banished The Roman Law puts not to death the adulteresse but what law screwd to tyranny destroyes the innocent The body might be purg'd by the adultery not soule of the adultery by murder This revenge may argue chastitie before and after but not in the nick of the act which yeelding to some secret enticement might staine her thought then loathing her selfe for the act held death a more satisfactory revenge then repentance But it was Tarquins lust staind her no it was Lucrece if Tarquins lust slained her it was not Tarquins but her own The will left free by divine providence is not constraind by humane power If her will was ravished why doe wee extoll her for murder who died for adultery had she slaine Tarquin her act had been no way to be justified but how is this aggravated Lucrece is her chast and innocent self Tarquin her foul ravisher and greatest enemy She then did sacrifice her life to her honour could not her insatiate thirst of glory bee slak'd but by her bloud Was it not unworthy Tarquin to bee her conquerour against her wil and was it not more unworthy Lucrece not to endure the conquerour against her honour Her vertue was more debased by being enslav'd to common praise then her selfe to carnall delight Had shee kept her mind unconquered she had liv'd the mirrour of women but her weaknesse press'd her downe to die in her despaire rather then live after shee was dishonoured DIDO BElus King of Tyre left Pigmalion Dido heires to his Kingdome but the Tyrians as impatient of of a Duarchie as Pigmalion of a Rivall yeelded allegeance solely to him not of years to write man Dido was married to her Uncle Sichaeus Hercules Priest this Sichaeus the sponge of Fortune filled only to be squeesed was slaine by his Nephew and Brother Pigmalion Hee a man of treasure vast enough to betray his life jealous of the security of his greatnesse trusted it to the earth but Fame the most injurious Hyperbole drew it up perhaps greater then it was the many fathomes of earth where it lay ramm'd from the eye not the envie of the Prince Unkind Fortune that deal'st with us as the Persian with their slaves crownest us for a Sacrifice Dido a Dowager by her Brothers tyranny begins to feele a tyranny of sorrow that had not nature resolved to keep perfect as much of her as was hers had made her a Widdow also to her beauty her faire face clouded with discontent but her fairer soule with no more passion then betraid mortality shee betakes her to the male contented of the Tyrian Lords Since Brothers said shee are enemies let us seeke to our enemies for Brothers since pitie is fled humane brests let us seeke it for such a creature there is nature tels mee among salvages Though we cannot expect it from his nature yet his youth might enfeeble him to it but his very infancy is a monster what then will his riper yeares produce but the exile of all humanity What distant respects will hee know that wades through his owne bloud to his ends if an innocent Uncle and Brother be slaine if a Sister be not where is a Subject secure Miserable Strato thou wert a Prince by thy slave to beget a Prince to make slaves of Princes Miserable Tyre now more oppress'd by one Tyrant then before by a thousand slaves Wretched wealth to thee quiet poverty is a Prince thou hast divorced mee from my Sichaeus thou hast made mee the foot-ball of a Tyrant Brother toss'd from his Kingdome into what unhappy shore is not yet knowne unto my thoughts My Lords I speake to minds too noble to be stifled in the narrow confines of fear follow your Princesse whose vertue the
in view of the Byzantium Towers the great Seraglio and his own Pallace may he bee betrayd by his nearest friend to a rock that splits him from thence let him sink into the lowest dungeon of Avernus Pro Cypriana THE Countrey is wasted and spoyled of her riches but honour is shipp'd up a prisoner to Byzantium Is there no refuge no redemption sword and fire can preserve this as well as sword and fire consume the other Policie allowes not captivitie a sword but crueltie allowes her a candle the clearer to see her slavery Ignorance is the happinesse of misery which is not felt before it bee understood Had Cypriana a slavish mind in a slavish body shee had owed her attempt to fortune not to vertue and merited more scorn then praise but Nature that gave her a soule above her sexe studied a discretion proportionable to manage it Had shee well weighed alwaies to redeem her honour with honour she could not better informe or in a more ingenuous way relieve her selfe then to make the embleme of her slavery the instrument of her freedome her justice was wittie to punish the Turke by the same means he had punish'd them Was it their misery or their cruelty to which she owed her life Shee was halde from a glorious death to an ignominious life to an inglorious death Shee was captivated by her owne beauty and felt the greatest tyranny of it her selfe why then also should her greatest offender bee unpunish'd shee did not kill her selfe for feare of the Turke for her brest was arm'd to meet death in any shape of horrour shee had before beheld him unaffrighted in all his ghastly formes Life was below her honour her honour not above her friends which nor life nor death shall divorce from her affection As they had accompanied her to her slavery so it was equall to her libertie Vnworthy is she of life that lives by unworthinesse unworthy is she of an handsome death that seeks it by an ignominious life but shee soared to the height of glory for shee would not goe a voluntary slave to her dishonour when death might releeve her but shee died and in her selfe bequeath'd three wonders to the World a free Slave a vertuous Prostitute and an innocent Murderesse Contra Cyprianam VVHether was the Turk or shee more cruell he slew his enemies and strangers shee her friends kindred and her self Had she life to revenge it with self-murder or were she wronged by another must she therefore be reveng'd on her selfe Was a life freely given bought at too dear a rate or because shee might feel their power must she use her owne What was it that look'd on her more terrible then death or that she look'd on through a multiplying glasse was it slavery that is the common fate of vertue that stands unmov'd by misery unshaken by despair Had the Turk slaine her he had not depriv'd the world of the opinion of her vertue but the very substance is shipwrack'd by her selfe The Turks cruelty was her courtesie for though hee triumph'd over her yet hee gave her the opportunity to triumph over misery and shew that height of spirit that scornes any thing without her should afflict her but shee disdain'd to bee beholding to their courtesie or her owne vertue Was dishonour the thing beyond death or captivity had she asmuch of woman as not to feare a death from her selfe and not asmuch as not to feare a dishonour from another Could shee hate her vertue and her sin could she better revenge her of her vertue then by her dishonour Why should she feare what might befall her in life who was regardlesse what might befall her after death Then was slavery the terrible joyn'd with dishonour her twin sister Had she been transported to a Nunnery where vertue is necessitated had not that been a slavery would not her will break into a thousand sins who broke through life into a false liberty But lesse then death slavery or dishonour onely sense of her dishonour depriv'd her of her sense why should she be affrighted by a shadow when her sense could bee wrong'd by none but her selfe ARETAPHILA ARetaphila a Cyrenaean the last rank'd in these Stories but first in my thoughts which by the order of birth may claim the priviledge to do wonders As some things are lesse curiously perform'd which are ordain'd for common use not for the ornament or wonder of the world so have I like a French Volunteir on a Lute all this while scatter'd slight aires which may perchance surprize an indifferent eye but now like the glasse that twists the Sun-beames to steale fire from heaven I must in writing her so lessen and contract so much of her as may sinke into our narrow faith or narrower reason If our Poets prophanely rake heaven for comparisons for each part of a rotten Mistris that shall nere bee part of it one whom sinne to prevent age hath carcass'd in her cradle to what heights must I ascend to reach a Subject fit for all fancy to work not play upon one that is above all heights Sometimes she is pleas'd to stoop to bee admir'd ador'd not that shee falls lower to rebound higher but that wee are admir'd for admiring her and we her prisoners feast our selves with the fragmentarie offalls of her Fame Thus doe I admire her till I admire my selfe out of breath then shee beckens to my soule the reason I cannot reach but I obey to come whither I will not tell you but now I am return'd a re-transmigrated-mountebank-Pedler I will open to your Opticks that which shall purblind the whole art at your two nostrils you shal snuffe in both the Indies for your pallats because the cleanest feeders are the cleanest meat you shall have the whole sect of Epicures if their opinions stick in your stomacks you shall take all the sumes of Arabia in a Tobacco-pipe to concoct them Here is that will chaine your care to the perpetuall sound of Aretaphila For your touch are you a Midas here is a Diamond set in gold within two dayes it will bee a Rhodian Colosse then will it magnifie to an Escuriall then to a World then to tenne Worlds then to Aretaphila thus Fortune blows dust up to a Lady then to a Countesse then to a Queen thus Gold and Diamonds at length come to be Aretaphila in whose name they have been valued Please you to look into this inward Drawer you shall see all the secrets of nature that have befool'd the grand Clarks of all the World Here shall you see reason for the ebb and flow of Seas and of an Ague that resembles it here shall you see the wrack of your bodies wracks how he is the onely Physician of himselfe The wounded Roman State like a broken Tobacco-pipe was cured by bloud Warre cures the Turkish Lethargie The Aegyptian Dropsie is cured by drinking one month in a year the whole Countrey is drunk The Plague cures Grand-Cairo of