attaine the goale intended and therefore thus desperatly from the Earth I leape into the Sea direct me ô ye marine goddesses and Ampehitrite first AMPHITRITE IVpiter hauing expelled Saturne from his kingdome by the helpe of his brothers Neptune and Pluto and hauing cast lotts for the tripartite Empire the Heauen fell to Iupiter Hell to Pluto and the Sea with all isles adiacent to Neptune who solicited the loue of Amphitrite but shee not willing to condescend to his amorous purpose hee imployed a Dolphin to negotiate in his behalfe who dealt so well in the businesse that they were not only reconsiled but soone after married For which in the perpetuall memorie of so great and good an office done to him he placed him amongst the starres not farre from Capricorne as Higinus hath left remembred in his Fables and Aratus in his Astronomicks others contend that Venilia was the wife of Neptune but notwithstanding his loue to and marriage with Amphitrite he had many children by other Nimphes Goddesses and wantons Of Lyba he begot Phaenix Betus and Agenor of Cataeno Cataenus of Amimone Nauplius of Pylanes of whom a citie of Lacoonia bears name Auadne Aone froÌ„ whom the prouince of Aonia takes his denominatioÌ„ Phaenix that gaue the name to Phaenicia and Athon of whom the Mountaine is so called as also Pheaces from whence Pheacia now called Corcyrus is deriued Dorus that giues name to the Dorij and of Laides the daughter of Otus Althepus by Astipataea he had Periclimenus and Erginus by Alceone the daughter of Atlas Anathamus Anthas and Hyperetes by whom certaine cities amongst the Trezenians were erected and from them tooke their name Of Arne hee had Boeotus of Alope the daughter of Certion Hippothous of Ceclusa Asopus of Brilles Orion He begot the Tritons one of Celaene the other of Amphitrite of Tyrbo Palaemon and Neleus of Molio Creatus and Eurithus of Crisigone the daughter of Almus Minya of Melantho Delphus of Calirhoe Minius of Venus Erix of Alistra Ogigus of Hippothoe Taphius he had one Cygnus by Caces another by Scamandrodices by Tritogenia the daughter of Aeolus Minyas of the Nimph Midaea Aspledones of Cleodora Pernasus of Mecioâ—tica to whome as Asclepeades relates hee granted a Boone that shee should walke as firmely and stedfastly vpon the water as the land Euripilus and Euphemus Besides these he had another Euphemus that was steers-man in the Argo when all the braue Heroes of Greece made their expedition for the golden fleece As also Amicis Albion Aello Antheus Amphimanus Aethusa Aon Alebius Dercilus Neleus Peleus and Astraeus who ignorantly hauing beene incestious with his sister Alcyppa and the next day their neerenesse of blood and affinitie being knowne to him by a ring hee cast himselfe headlong into a riuer and was drowned which riuer as Leo Bizantius writes was first from him called Astraeus and after Caius of Caicus the sonne of Mercury and Ocirhoe moreouer these were his children Actorion Borgeon Brontes Busyris Certion Crocon Cromos Crysaos Cencreus Chrisogenaea Chius Dorus Euphemus Ircaeus Lelex Lamia the Prophetesse and Sibilla Hallerhoitius Laestrigone Megaraeus Mesapus Ephialtes Nictaeus Melion Nausithous Othus Occipite Poliphemus Piracmon Phorcus Pelasgus Phaeax Pegasus Phocus Onchestus Peratus Siculus Sicanus Steropes Farus Theseus Hiretus and others infinite besides fourescore whose names are remembred there are others scarce to be numbered for as Zetzes sayth in his Historie Elatos animo enim omnes omnes strenuos Filios amicos dicunt amatos à Neptuno All that are high minded and strong men were esteemed as the sonnes and friends and beloued of Neptune Amphitrite signifies nothing else but the bodie and matter of all that moyst humor which is earth aboue belowe or within the earth and for that cause she is called the wife of Neptune Euripides in Ciclope takes her for the substance of water it selfe Orpheus calls her Glauca and Piscosa that is blew and full of fish being attributes belonging solely to the goddesse of the Sea And by the Dolphines soliciting the loue of Neptune to Amphitrite and reconciling them is meant nothing else but to illustrate to vs That of all the fishes that belong to the sea he is the swiftest the most actiue and apprehensiue THETIS or TETHIES HEsiod calls her the wife of Oceanus who is stiled the father of all the floods creatures and gods because as Orpheus Thales and others are of opinion all things that are bred and borne haue need of humor without which nothing can be begot or made corruptible Isacius hath left recorded that besides her hee had two wiues Partenope and Pampholige by Partenope hee had two daughters Asia and Libia by Pampholige Europa and Thracia and besides them three thousand other children for so many Hesiod numbers in his Theogonia This Thetis was the daughter of the earth and heauen and therefore as Oceanus is called the father of the gods so is shee esteemed as the mother of the goddesses Epicharmus calls one Thetis the daughter of Chiron the Centaure and Homer in his hymne to Apollo the child of Nereus which Rhodius confirmes as also Euripides in Iphigenia and in Aulide she was the wife of Peleus and of all women liuing the most beautiful of whom Apollodorus thus speakes They say Iupiter and Neptune contended about her nuptials but she not willing to incline to Iupiter because she was educated by Iuno therefore he in his rage allotted her to be the bride of a mortall man Homer writes that she was angerie being a marine goddesse to bee the wife of a man therefore to auoid his imbraces she shifted her selfe into sundrie shapes and figures but Peleus being aduised by Chiron notwithstanding all her transformations as into fire into a Lion and others neuer to let goe his hold till she returned into her owne naturall forme in which he vitiated her and of her begot Achilles the last shape she tooke vpon her was of a Sepia which is a fish called a Cuttle whose blood is as blacke as ynke now because this was done in Magnesia a citie of Thessaly the place as Zertzes in his historie records is called Sepias Pithenatus and others say that she was not compelled or forced to the mariage of Pelius but that it was solemnised in the mountaine Pelius with her full and free consent where all the gods and goddesses sauing Discord were present and offered at the wedding for such hath been the custome from antiquitie Pluto gaue a rich Smaragd Neptune two gallant steeds Xanthus and Ballia Vulcan a knife with an haft richly carued and some one thing some another By Peleus shee had more sonnes than Achilles which euerie night she vsed to hide beneath the fire that what was mortall in them might bee consumed by which they all died saue Achilles who was preserued by being in the daytime annointed with Ambrosia therfore as Amestor in his Epithalamium vpon
Mistresse of Pisistratus 248 Of Nitâ—tis 249 Of Bersaâ—e 250 Of the wife of Candaules 251 Rowan and Estrilda 252 The faire Lady of Norwich 253 Of Calirrhoe daughter to Boetius 256 Of the wiues of Cabbas and Phaillus c. 257 The daughters of Danaus and the sonnes of Aegyptus 259 Of Manto 260 The wife of Agetas c. 261 A Vicars daughter 262 A faire wittie Wench ibid. Of women deformed 264 The Contents of the sixt Booke inscribed Erato Treating of Chast women and Wantons A Discourse concerning Chastitie and Wantonnesse 267 Of Mary the blessed Virgin 271 Of Petronilla the daughter of S. Peter and other chast Virgins 273 Of chast Wiues and first of Penelope 276 The Historie of a woman of Casa Noua 280 Of Edeltrudis Editha and others 282 Of Wantons 284 Of common Strumpets Concubines and priuate Mistresses 285 Of such as merited the name of Honest Whores 286 Of Lais. 289 Of Glicerium alias Glicera others 293 Of Agathoclea 295 Of Cleophis 296 Callipigae Alogunes Cosmartidenes Audia c. 297 Iulia the daughter of Augustus Caesar. 298 Harlotta the mother to William the Conqueror 300 Of diuers Wantons belonging to sundry famous men Poets and others 301 Of famous Wantons 304 Of Mista and others 308 Of Wantons conuerted 312 The Contents of the seuenth Booke inscribed Polihymnia or Memorie Entreating of the Pietie of Daughters Mothers Sisters and Wiues A Discourse concerning Lyes Ieasts and wittie Sayings 313 Of Pious Daughters 319 The loue of Mothers to their Children 321 Friendship betwixt women 323 The loue of Sisters towards their Brothers 324 Of Matrimonie and Coniugall loue 327 Times forbidden in Marriage 328 Ceremonies before Marriage 329 Of Contracts 330 Of Nuptiall Dowers ibid. Of Nuptiall Gifts or Presents ibid. Of Nuptiall Ornaments Pompe Feasts and Epithalamions c. 332 A description of the Bride comming from her Chamber 333 The Bridegroomes first appearing 334 The Nuptiall Offering ibid. The Nuptiall Song 335 The entrance into their Bedchamber ibid. Sacred Auguries and Nuptiall Expiations 337 The Coniugall Loue of Women to their Husbands 339 Of Bawds 343 Of Age. 345 Of women addicted to Gluttonie or Drunkennesse 346 Of women beloued of diuerse creatures 349 Of women excellent in Painting Weauing c. 350 Of women contentious and bloudie 353 Of women strangely preserued from death and such as haue vnwillingly bin the deaths of their Parents 358 Of Clamorous women commonly called Skoulds 360 Of Tullia and her sister 362 Examples of Patience in women 363 Varietie of discourse concerning women 364 The daughters of Apollo ibid. The Syrens ibid. Women that haue dissembled their shape to good purposes or to bad 365 Women that haue changed their Sex 366 The Contents of the eight Booke inscribed Vrania Entreating of Women euery way Learned Of Poetresses and Witches A Discourse of Astrologie 369 Of famous Astrologians 370 Of women Orators that haue pleaded their owne Causes or others 373 Of women studious in Diuinitie 375 Of women excellent in Philosophie and other Learning 377 A discourse of Poetrie 383 Of women excellent in Poetrie 384 Of Minerua and others 387 Of Sapho 388 Of Cleobule Lindia other Poetesses 394 Of Telesilla Poetria 396 Of Perhilla c. ibid. A discourse of Witches 399 How the Deuill rewards his seruants 400 The wretched ends of sundry Magicians ibid. Seuerall sorts of superstitious Iugling 401 Of Cyrce Medea and other Witches remembred by the Poets 403 Of Witches transported from one place to another by the Deuill 406 Of Witches that haue either changed their owne shapes or transformed others 409 Lycantropia 410 A Piper transformed into an Asse 411 Other miraculous transformations ibid. Of shee Deuils 412 A Witch of Amsterdam 414 A Witch of Geneua 415 Examples of strange kinds of Witchcraft 416 Witches called Extasists 417 Diuerse things to be obserued in Witches 419 The Contents of the ninth Booke inscribed Calliope Entreating of Women in generall with the Punishments of the Vitious and Rewards due to the Vertuous interlaced with sundry Histories A Discourse of Death 419 Of women rauished 421 Of Handmaids Nurses Midwiues and Stepdames 424 The punishment of Incest in the sister of Leucippus 429 The punishment of Adulterie 432 Sisters that haue murthered their Brothers 434 The punishment of Fratricides 435 Of Mothers that haue slaine their Children and Wiues their Husbands ibid. Punishment due to Regicides 436 Punishment of vniust Diuorce 437 Whoredome punished 438 Loquacitie punished 439 Lying punished ibid. Periurie punished 440 Prodigalitie and Excesse punished 441 Witchcraft punished 444 Honor and Reward due to Fortitude 449 Honor and Reward due to Temperance 450 Reward due to Fertilitie or many Children illustrated in diuerse Histories 451 Of Beautie and the Reward thereof 453 A Conuertite rewarded 458 Of Cura or Care 462 Rewards due to women Philosophers Orators or Poetesses 463 FINIS TABVLAE NINE BOOKES OF VARIOVS HISTORIE ONELIE concerning Women Inscribed by the names of the nine Muses The first booke which is CLIO treating of the Goddesses Coelestiall Terrestriall Marine and Infernall BEFORE wee enter into a particular tractate of these Goddesses it shall not bee amisse to speake something of the opinions setled in sundry Nations concerning them Who were their first Adorers and Worshippers the multiplicitie of their gods and what seuerall rights and customes obseruations and Ceremonies they vsed in their Oblations and Sacrifices The Aethiopians are said to bee the most ancient and the first beginners of Diuine adoration as Diodorus is of opinion Imagining in themselues and verely beleeuing some of their gods to bee euerlasting and others to participate of a mortall and corruptible nature The Phoenicians they deliuered admirable and strange things concerning their gods and the first beginning and Creation of things aboue all others hauing in Diuine worship Dagona and Chamas The Atlantides a people of Affrica they are confident that the generation of the gods proceeded from them and the first that raigned amongst them they called Coelum which is heauen The Augitae another nation in the Affricke Continent acknowledged no other deityes than the Ghosts of such noble persons as were deceased to whose sepulchers they vsuallie repayred to demand answers of all such things wherein they doubted The Theologie of the Phrygians was not much different from theirs The Persians neither erected Statues nor Altars they worshipped the Heauen which they called Iupiter the Sunne by the name of Mithra the Moone Venus the Fire the Earth the Winds and the Water Isiodorus saith the Graecians first honoured Cecrops whom they stiled Iupiter and were the first deuisers of Images erecters of Altars and offerers of sacrifice The Iewes as Cornelius Tacitus relates apprehended but one diuine power and that onely they acknowledged The Germans of old as the same author affirmes were of opinion That the gods could not bee comprehended within walles nor haue any humane shape appropriated vnto them measuring their incomprehensible power by the magnitude of the heauens Now
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
told by Viacentius in Speculo lib. 3. cap. 109. and Fulgentius lib. 8. cap. 11. Wee reade in Gulielmus Archbishop of Tyrus whom Sprangerus the great Inquisitor cites to the same purpose An English souldier being in Cyprus was by a Witch transformed into an Asse and when all his mates went on ship-board hee following them as loath to loose their fellowship was by his owne friends and countrey men that gaue him lost beaten backe with clubs and staues They put to Sea without him and he hauing no other owner returned backe to the Witches house that had transhaped him who imployde him in all her drudgeries till at length hee came into the Church when the Bishop was at diuine seruice and fell on his knees before the Altar and began to vse such deuout gestures as could not bee imagined to proceede from a bruit beast this first bred admiration and then suspition The Witch was called before the Iudges examined and conuicted after condemned to the stake hauing before restored him to his former shape after three yeares transformation Answerable to this we reade of Ammonius the Philosopher of the Sect of the Peripate tickes who hath left recorded That an Asse came vsually into his schoole at the time of reading and with great attention listened to his Lecture Merchants haue deliuered that nothing is more frequent in Aegypt than such transhapes in so much that Bellonius in his obseruations printed at Lutesia sayth That hee himselfe in the subburbes of Caire a great citie in Aegypt saw a Commedian that desired conference with the Asse that he himself rode on who wondering what he then intended gaue him libertie of free discourse where they seemed to talke with great familiaritie as hauing bin before acquainted where the Asse by his actions signes seemed to apprehend whatsoeuer was spoken to him when the one protested with the hand vpon his brest the other would strike the ground with his foote and when the man had spoke as if hee had told some ieast the Asse would bray aloude as if hee had laughed heartily at the conceit appearing to him not onely to apprehend and vnderstand whatsoeuer was spoken but to make answere to such questions as were demanded him These things haue been so common that Saint Augustine himselfe as he will not affirme the transformation of Apuleius so he doth not denie it but leaues it as a thing possible to be done by Witch-craft De Ciuitate Dei lib. 18. cap. 18. Of the like opinion is Paulus Aegenita Theophrast Paracethus Pomponalius and Fâ—rnetius the excellentest Physitions of their age Fern. lib. de abditis rerum causis You may reade in the Historie of Saint Clement That Simon Magus transformed Faustinianus into his owne shape insomuch that he was not onely vnknowne to familiar friends but denied and abiured by his own wife children This Simon came likewise to Nero and told him if hee cut off his head hee would within three dayes appeare to him aliue which Nero hauing caused to bee done in a great confluence of people he came to him after according to his promise for which Nero caused a statue to be erected to his honour and inscribed vpon the same Simoni Mago deo i. To Simon Magus the god From which time Nero wholely applyde himselfe to that diuellish Art But Simon as the Historie relates had deceiued the eyes of the Emperour with the multitude and had caused a Goat to be beheaded in his shape The like Apuleius relates of himselfe who when he thought he had slaine three sundrie men with his owne hand found them after three Goats skinnes effacinated by the Witch Pamphila Among these Witches it shall not be amisse to insert a shee-diuell or two Franciscus Picus Mirandulanus in his booke de Praenotione tells of a Priest who was a Witch called Benedictus Berna of the age of fourescore yeares with whom he had conference hee confessed vnto him that for the space of fortie yeares and vpward he had carnall consocietie with a she-Spirit who called her selfe Hermione who continually attended on him but visible to no man saue himselfe He further confest that he had sucked the bloud of many infants with other most horrid and execrable commissions and in this Wierius and Bodin though in many opinions they were Antagonists agree They relate a further historie confirmed by Cardanus de varietat lib. 15. cap. 80. of one Pinnetus who liued to the age of seuentie yeares and vpward and exercised the like congression with a Spirit in a feminine shape who called her selfe Florina and continued their familiaritie and acquaintance for the space of fortie yeares How true or false I know not but I haue heard the like not many yeares since by an English gentleman whose name I am loath to vse who had the like companie of a Spirit who called her selfe Cadua the circumstances I cannot discouer without offence though they be worthie both relation and obseruation Of Witches that haue confest themselues to haue raised tempests in a most serene Skie with other things of no lesse admiration IN the booke of Inquisitors lib. 4. de Malific it is recorded that anno Dom. 1488 in Constantiensis there were terrible tempests prodigious hailâ— and stormes the like not seene before and these within the compasse of foure miles but the aire or temperate heauens beyond that space seemed no way disturbed vpon which the villagers laid hands vpon all such suspected women as were thought to be of that Deuillish practise amongst which were two the one called Anna de Mindele the other Agnes who first obstinately denyed themselues to be so addicted but after being called before the magistrats and strictly examined apart they confest that the one vnknowne to the other went into the fields where either of them made a pit in the earth into which they poured a certaine quantitie of water somewhat before noone and by vttering certaine words not fit to be named and inuoking the name of the Deuill they were no sooner got home to their cottages but those miraculous stormes and tempests happened The same author specifies the confession of another Witch of the same place who seeing all her neighbours and acquaintance inuited to a solemne wedding where after dinner in a faire and â—â—mperate day all the guests disposed themselues into the fields to sport and dance according to the custome she caused her selfe to be transported into the aire by the Deuill in the open day and sight of certaine sheepheards to a certaine hill neere vnto the village where because she had no water readie she notwithstanding digged a pit and for necessitie because it is a ceremonie vsed in all these diabolicall practises she made water which stirring in the same pit and speaking some blasphemous words instantly the aire and skie which was then cleere and vnclouded was filled with stormes haile and tempest which poured with such vehemencie vpon
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
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
Thetis espousals relates hee was called Piresous as preserued from the fire additur hinc nomen Piresoâ—s She was the sister of Titan and brought foorth Ephire who was after married to Epimetheus and Pleione who as Ouid relates in his booke de Fastis was the wife of Atlas These are likewise numbered amongst the daughters of Oceanus and Thetis Acaste Admete Asia that gaue name to a part of the world till now called Asia Climene Idyia Ephire Eudora Eurinome Ianira Liriope Melobois Metis Plexame Prinino Rhodia Thea Thoe Tiche Xanthe Zeâ—xo Clitie who was beloued of Apollo but being iealous of his affection to Leucothoe she had discouered it to her father Orchamus Apollo therefore left her in griefe of which she vowed an abstinence from all sustenance whatsoeuer onely with fixt eyes still gazing vpon the course of the Sunne which the gods commiserating changed her into an Heliotropian which is called the Suns flower which still inclines to what part soeuer he makes his progresse But whether shee be Tethies or Thetis she is no other than the reputed goddesse of the Sea her name importing that huge masse of water or element as Virgill in his Pollio sayth necessarie to the generation of all creatures whatsoeuer Towards the East shee is called Indica towards the West Atlantica where she diuides Spaine and Mauritania towards the North Pontica and Glaciatis as likewise Rubra and Aethopica for so Strabo relates as also Rhianus in the nauigation of Hanno the Carthagenian Stiphilus in his booke de Thessalia hath bequeathed to memorie That Chiron a wise and skilfull Astrologian to make Peleus the more famous consulted with the daughter of Acloris and Mirmidâ—n and betwixt them published abroad that he by the consent of Iupiter should match with the goddesse Thetis to whose nuptialls all the gods came in great showers and tempests for he had obserued a time when he knew great store of raine would fal and from that the rumor first grew That Peleus had married Thetis But Dailochus and Pherceides report that Peleus hauing purged himselfe of the murder of his brother Phochus murdered Antigone others say that he first tooke Antigone and after her death Thetis that Chiron being an excellent Chyrurgeon was so called for the lightnesse and dexteritie of hand which is an exellent gift in the searching and dressing of wounds in any of that profession Apollodorus saith that Thetis after many windings turnings and transhapes to preseâ—ue her virginitie was at length comprest by Iupiter The Nimphes called Dorides were her ministers and handmaides NEREIDES THey were the daughters of Nereus and Doris he is sayd by Hesiod to be the sonne of Oceanus and Thetis he is stiled a prophet or south-sayer who as Horace tells did predict to Paris all the calamities that were to succeed at Troy Apollonius tells vs that his cheife mansion or place of residence is in the Aegean sea The fame is that Hercules being sent to fetch the golden apples of the Hesperides and not knowing where abouts they grew went to the nymphs that dwell by the bankes of Eridamus to be resolued by them they sent him to demaund of Nereus who thinking to delude him by shifting himselfe into sundrie shapes was notwithstanding held so fast by Hercules that hee was forced to assume his owne forme againe and tell him for so Orpheus in his Argonauticis informes vs. He is sayd to haue a principalitie in the Sea to be delighted in the companie of nymphs and damosells as also to be the beginning and end of waters of whom Orpheus in one of his hymnes thus sings Tu fundamen aquae tu terrae Finis Idem Principium es cunctis Euripides in one of his Tragedies sayth he was educated and nourced by the waters and calls him the father of the Nereides He had daughters by Doris the nymphs Halia Spio Pasitaea and Lygaea Hesiod in his Theogonia reckons of them to the number of fiftie Doris was the sister of Nereus Horace and others describe her with greene haire Theocritus in Thessalijs sayth that the birds called Halciones were to them most gratefull some say that they vse to daunce and reuell in the waters play about the chariot of Triton as nimbly as fishes Homer in his Iliades reckons of that ranke Glauce Thalia Cymodoce Nesea Spio Thoe Halie Cymothoe Actae Melite Agane Amphithoe Iaere Doto Proto Pherusa Dinamione Doris Amphinome Panope Callianira Dexamine Galataea Amathaea Callianassa Climine Ianira Ianassa Mera Orithia Hesiod besides these reckons vp Eucrate Sao Eudore Galene Glauce Pasithaea Erato Eunice Doro Pherusa Nesaee Protomedeae Doris Panope Hyppothoe Hypponoe Cymatolege Cimo Eione Halimeda Glanconome Panto Pautopenia Liagore Euagore Laomedala Polinome Antonoe Lasianassa Euarne Psamathe Menippe Neso Eupompe Themito Pronoe Nemertes Apollodorus Atheniensis adds to these Glaneothoe Nonsithoe Halia Pione Plesrure Calipso Cranto Neomeris Deianeira Polinoe Melie Dione Isaea Dero Eumolpe Ione Ceto Limnoraea and all these are held to be most beautiful it is therfore thus fabled That Cassiope wife to Cepheus king of Aethiopia gloried so much in her beautie that she held herself to be the fairest woman in the world and did not onely compare but preferre herselfe before the nymphs called Nereides for which their indignation was kindled against her and in that high measure that they sent into those seas a Whale of an incredible greatnesse the people consulting with the Oracle how to appease the goddesses and free themselues from the monster answere was returned That it could not bee done but by exposing their onely daughter Andromeda fast bound to a rocke that ouerlooked the sea to bee a prey to the sea Whale but she was thence released by the vertue of Perseus and Cassiope by his meanes as a perpetuall example that all such rashenesse ought to be auoided translated amongst the starres for so much Arataeus hath left to memorie in certaine verses interpreted by Cicero This Nerius is for no other reason said to be the sonne of Oceanus and Tethis than to denote vnto vs the counsell iudgement and cunning in guiding and directing ships by sea and therefore to haue many daughters which are nothing but inuentions new deuises stratagems and changes belonging to nauigation He is therefore said to be a Prophet because in all arts and disciplines there is a kind of knowledge by which we foresee and diuine of things to come for he is held no skilfull nauigator that cannot foretell by the weather the changes of winds and certaine signes of tempests thereby to vse preuention against them before they suddainelie come Hee is also said to change himselfe into many figures to giue vs to vnderstand that it is the part of a knowing and vnderstanding man to arme himselfe against all chances and varietie of things whatsoeuer It is therefore required of such a man to vse prouidence and care in all his affaires and actions and not to accuse the gods if any
thing sinisterlie happen vnto him through his owne temeritie and rashnes since with a prudent and well gouerned man their helpe and assistance is alwayes present The daughters of TRITON A Cesander calls Triton the sonne of Neptune Numenius in his booke de piscatoribus deriues him from Oceanus and Tethis Lycaphron in those verses wherein he tells of a cup presented vnto him by Medea calls him the sonne of Nereus The Poets ascribe to him the inuention of the trumpet and that it was first vsed in the Gigomantichia the great battaile betwixt the gods and the gyants for in the midst of the skirmish when the euent of the battaile grew doubtfull Triton blew so shrill a blast that the gyants thinking it had been the voyce of fome dreadfull and vnknowne monster that vndertooke the party of the gods turn'd their backes and fled by which accident they obtained a more suddaine and safe victorie Pausonias calls Tritia the daughter of Triton who was at first one of Mineruaes priests who being comprest by Mars brought foorth Menalippus but that he had more than her I haue not read Ino. She was the daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia who with her sonne Melicerta were entertained into the number of the Sea-gods he by the name of Palaemon she of Leucothea both these are said to haue predominance ouer saylers and power in nauigation That she cast her selfe headlong into the Sea I haue before related in the tractat of Iuno She was a stepmother and so prosecuted the children of Nephetes that she would haue sacrificed one of them to the gods for which as Polizelus saith her husband Athanas did prosecute her with such rage that flying to Gerania a mountaine amongst the Megarenses from a rocke called Maturides she cast her selfe with her son into the sea and of the same opinion is Pausonias some thinke it hapned at the same time that the Nereides were dancing there and that his bodie was transported by the waues to Sisiphus from Exhaenuntia where the Ithnian pastimes were first celebrated to his remembrance They of the cittie Megera affirme her bodie to be cast vpon their shore and by Cleso and Tauropolis the daughters of Cleson tooke vp and buryed She was afterwards called Matuta as Cicero in his Tuscal disputations saith Ino the daughter of Cadmus Is she not called by the Greekes Leucotoe and by vs Latines Matuta And that she is taken for the morning is manifest by Lucretius lib. 5. Pausan in his Messanaicis saith that she was first named Leucotoe in a small village not farre from the cittie Corone and that she had clemencie in the securing and preseruing of ships and pacifying the violent and troubled billowes of the Ocean Palaemon is also called Portunus or the Key-carrier as one that keepes a key of all the ports and hauens to exclude and keepe out all forreine enemies and the sonne of Matuta or the Morning in that time commonly the winds begin to breath and rise with the departing of night and because that from the land they rush vpon the waters they are therefore said to cast themselues head-long into the sea for the morning is the most certaine interpreter either of succeeding winds and tempests or of the countenance of a sereane sky and faire weather Strabo calls Glaucus the sonne of Anthedon a Boeotian but Theophrastus will haue him the issue of Polybus the sonne of Mercury and Euboea Promathidas Heraclaeota deriues him from Phorbus and the nymph Pampaea borne in Anthedon a famous cittie of Boetia Thelytus Methimnaeus in his Bacchik numbers brings his progenie from Nopaeus Epicus in one of his Hymnes from Euanthes the sonne of Neptune and Maedis He is said to haue rauisht Syma the daughter of Iclemis and Doris and to haue transported her into Asia and was after marryed to Hidua the daughter of Sydnus Scioneus one that vsed to diue and fetch things vp from the bottome But of his issue there is nothing left remembred It is commented of him that being a fisherman and hauing taken more fishes that he could carrie vpon his backe with ease and laying downe his burden to rest him by the shoare there grew an hearbe which the dead fishes no sooner touched or tasted but they instantlie recouered life and one by one leapt into the sea hee by tasting the same hearbe to prooue the vertue thereof was forced to leape after them and so was made a Sea-god Others are of opinion that wearied with the tediousnesse of his age he willing lie drowned himselfe The wiues and daughters of PROTEVS ZEtzes in his foure and fortith historie calls Proteus the sonne of Neptune and the nymph Phenica who trauelling from Aegypt into Phlegra there tooke to wife Torone by whom he had three sonnes Toronus Timilus and Telegonus all wicked and bloody minded men who for their crueltie perisht by the hands of Hercules Aeuripides speakes of one Psamethes a second wife by whom he had Theonoe and Theolymenus He had moreouer these daughters Cauera Rhetia and Idothaea This was she that when Menelaus doubted of his returne into his countrey hauing soiourned somewhat long in Aegypt counselled him to apparrell himselfe and his followers in the fresh skinnes of Porposes and counterfeit themselues to sleepe amongst these Sea-cattle and that about the heat of the day at what time Proteus vsed to come out of the deepes vpon the dry land and there take a nappe with his Porposes then to catch fast hold on him sleeping notwithstanding all his changeable shapes and figures not to dismisse him till he had reduc't himselfe to his owne natural forme and then he would predict to him whatsoeuer was to come This counsell giuen by Idothaea Homer excellentlie expresseth in his fourth booke of his Odissaea It is said of him that he could change himselfe sometimes into water and againe to fire to wild beasts birds trees or serpents c. Neither did this mutabilitie of shape belong to him onelie for we reade the like of Thetis and Mestra or Metre the daughter of Ereficthon the Thessalian Periclimenus the sonne of Neleus and Polymela and brother of Nestor obtained the same gift of Neptune of him Euphorion and Hesiod speaks more at large Empusa is remembred by Aristophanes to haue the same facultie and dexteritie in changing her shape so likewise Epicharmus Empusa planta bos fit atque vipera Lapisque musca pulchra illa femina Quicquid cupit vel denique ille conferat Empusa is made a plant an oxe a viper A stone a flye and a faire woman too What she desires that she doth still resemble The Poets in these changing of shapes and turning themselues into so many sundry sorts of creatures importing nothing else but the wisedome of such persons who haue searcht into the hidden mysteries of Philosophy and acquired the natures and properties of water fire hearbes trees and plants beasts birds and serpents in which being perfect they may be and not
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
vpon all those Tragedies which he aym'd to execute vpon mankind he instituted his Enthusiastae and his Pytheâ—â— Oracles which were in vse almost amongst all nations in so much that their superstitions and prophanations had crept in amongst the people of god so that Moyses made a law that all such as repayred to these iugling sorcerists should be stoned to death Amongst these are counted some of the Sibells though not all as hirelings of the diuell for the conseruation and confirmation of his kingdome for out of their bookes the Romans were drawne into many lunacies and frenzies as besides many other it is manifest in Zozimus who recites many of their verses full of tradition and superstitions meerelie vnlawfull though the two Sibells Erythraea and Cumana in heroicke poems prophesied of Christ and sung and declared his prayses which as some coniecture they did by the sight of the prophesies of Esaias and Dauid These oracles lasted to the comming of our Sauiour but then surceast through all the parts of the world There were also a kind of sorcerists which some call Leâ—â—res the word importing the spirits and ghosts of such as perÌ„isht before their times or abortiuelie for from such they fathered their predictions and prophesies Of this kind there were many in Germany as Wyerius relates who were of long continuance and such were called Albae mulieres or the white women which in their moderne tongue implies as much as the white Sybells and this sort of people was ominous to women with child and to infants sucking at their mothers breasts and in their cradles These though in times of old they were most frequent and common when the world attributed too much to the iugling illusions of the deuill yet since the Sauiour of the world and our onelie patron hath supplanted him by the more pure and feruent preaching of the Gospell these mockeries and fallacies by which he cheated the vnlettered multitude of their faith and god of his honour are meerelie adnichilated in so much there is scarce left to posteritie the least memorie of their wicked traditions Of such as these it seems S. Hierom took especiall notice when in an epistle writ to Paula vpon the death of Blesilla he thus speakes Quae causa est vt saepe Dimuli Trimuli vbera lactantes c. i. What is the reason that children of two and three yeares of age and such as sucke at the breast should be corrupted by deuils The Ethnicks custome was to giue names to such according to the diuersitie of their actions there were some called Hecataea as sent from Hecate others by the Italians Tolleâ—ae or Empedusae But this may appeare a digression from our Sybills therefore I thus proceede with them Petrus Crinitus in his twentieth booke De honesta disciplina speaking of the Sybells the Branchi and the Delphick prophetesses alleadges Gallius Firâ—â—anus Hieronimus and other antient writers extracting from their opinions which way and by what means these oracles were imagined to be possest with the spirit of diuination These of that order as Plato and Iamblicus haue learnedlie related either from the gods or spirits say they are inspired with that illumination by which they discerne the fundamentall causes of things and can presage and foresee such euents as shall succeede Iamblic in his booke to Porphirius saith thus The Sybell of Delphos two seuerall wayes conceiues the spirit by which shee prophesies either by a soft breath or else by fire proceeding from the mouth of a certain den or caue before the entrance of which she seates her selfe vpon a three-footed or foure-footed stoole of brasse in which place the diuine power either by whispering in her care or by some other infused blast inspired into her giues her the facilitie of vttering her predictions The Branchae sitting vpon an axeltree held in her hand a wand consecrated to some deitie or other and either washt her selfe in some sacred fountaine or receiued some influence from the vapour of fire and by this means were made repleate with diuine splendour These Branchae deriue themselues from Branchus the sonne of Apollo vpon whom his father bestowed the gift of diuination to which Statius assents so Strabo in these verses makes him a Priest of the Temple of Apollo Phebus from Branchus axeltree His Prophet did inspire Who with a thousand Ambages Hath set the world on fire Colephonius Zenophanes hath denyed that there can be any diuination at all but Democritus hath approoued it of the same argument Chrysippus hath wriâ— two bookes one of Oracles another of Dreames Diogines Babilonius publishe one De diuinatione Antipater two Possidonius fiue Panaetius the scholler of Antipater doubted whether there were any beleefe at all to be giuen to that art or no. Cicero is of opinion that it hath onelie power ouer such things as happen accidentallie or by chance Of diuination there be two sorts one of art as by the entrails of beasts or by casting of lots the other of nature as by dreames and visions in both the coniectures made by vaticinations aime at more than they can accomplish and intend further than they can proceede Further this art is by the Greekes called Mantices that is the knowledge of things to come the first inuenters thereof were the Aegyptians and Chaldaeans by their obseruations of the starres The nations of the Cilici the Pysidauri and the inhabitants of Pamphilia neere vnto these predicted by the singing and flights of birds The Magi among the Persians had many assemblies of purpose onely to augurate and to diuine but all such are condemned of ignorance and want of art who presage meerely by concitation and rapture without the helpe of reason and coniecture Sagire signifies to perceiue acutely or sharpely therefore they are called Sagaces that know much he that is sayd Sagire viz. to know before things come to passe is sayd Presagire that is to presage It is called Diuination when it extends to a higher degree of prediction But when by diuine instinct as in the Sibells the minde is as it were transported and extaside in rapture it is then called Furâ—r or furie Amongst the Ligurians a people of Thrace it was aâ—custome for their Priests before they would demaâ—nd any thing from the Oracle to glut and gorge themselues with superfluous excesse of wine The Clarij contrarie to these in their superstitions vsed to quaffe great quantitie of water The Diuination that was made by water was called Hydromantia That which was made by an Axe or Hatchet was stiled Axinomantia That which was made by a Skin in which water was moued too and fro from whence a soft and gentle voice of presage was heard to breath was called Leâ—â—â—omantia That which did consist of certaine points and markes fixed in the Earth Geomantia That which was gathered from Figures and imaginarie shapes shining in the fire Pyromantia The Diuination by smoke was called Capnomantia That which
foure angles each equally distant eight hundred eightie foot and in heigth twentie fiue A second foure angles euerie one containing by euen spaces seuen hundred thirtie and seuen foot A third comprehended three hundred sixtie three foote betwixt euerie angle A fourth errected by Rhodope the strumpet the mistresse of Aesop by the money which she got by her trade Herodotus speakes of a Pyramis made by Cleopys king of Aegypt of stones fetcht from Arabia whose length was fiue furlongs the breadth ten paces He erected a second more magnificent which was not finisht in twentie yeares vpon which he spent so much treasure that hee was forc't to prostitute his daughter a most beautifull young virgin to supply his owne necessitie Pliny reports that in this structure he impolyed so many workemen that they eate him 1800 talents in onyons and garlicke 2. The tower of Pharos built by Ptolomaeus in that Isle which serued as a lanthorne to direct nauigators by sea in the night he spent vpon it 5300 Talents Sostrata was the Architectour as appeares by the inscription of his name vpon the Cittadell 3. The wals of Babylon were built by Semiramis they were as Hermodorus writes in thicknesse fiftie cubits in heighth two hundred within the compasse of which were an hundred Ports hauing brasen gates that all moou'd vpon hinges they were beautified with three hundred Turrets and Chariots might meete vpon the toppe of them and haue free passage without impediment 4. The Temple of Diana of which I haue spoken before was in length 425 foote in breadth 220 It was beautified with 127 Collumns 5. The tombe of Mausolus built by Artimesia queene of Caria was in height 25 Cubits it was compast with 36 collumns it contained from the South to the North 33 foote the whole compasse contained 1411 That part which lay towards the East was perfected by Scopas that which was towards the North was ended by Briax that towards the Meridian by Tymothaus that which butted vpon the West by Leocares 6. The Colossus of the Sun which bestrid the riuer Rhodes betwixt whose legges shippes without vailing their top sailes came into the harbour was of that vastnesse that a man with his spread armes could not compasse his thumbe euery finger being as bigge as a common statue After it had stood six and fiftie yeares it was emolisht by an earthquake The Souldan of Aegypt hauing inuaded Rhodes with the broken brasse thereof laded thence 900 cammells The chiefe workeman was Chares Lindius the scholler of Licippus 7. The image of Iupiter to which some equall the pallace of Cyrus king of the Meades built by Memnon the stones of which were simmented together with gold But I leaue further to speake of these and proceed to the next Sybill SIBILLA AEGYPTIA SHe was called Agrippa not numbered amongst the tenne but hath place amongst the twelue she prophesied vpon the number of Three and on this manner Sacred's the number Three as Sybells tell Betwixt three brothers the Heauen Sea and Hell Were cast by lot The Earth as all men write In their diuisions is called Tripartite Ioue three waies striking hath his Trisulc Thunder Neptun's allowd his Trident to keepe vnder The mutinous waues Three fatall sisters spinne Our thread of life Three Iudges punish sinne Euen monsters are described so Gerion weares Three heads Grim Cerberus as many beares Sphinx hath three shapes of Bird of Beast of Maid All three in wings in feete in face displaid Chimaera is Triformd the monstrous creature Scilla 's of dogges fish and a womans feature The Erynnaes Harpyes Gorgons three-fold all The Sybells Trifatidicae we call Diuining from the Tripos Orpheus Lyre Sings that 't was made of water earth and fire Three Charites three Fates three Syrens bee Number the Muses they are three times three She 's triple-Hecat's cald Diana stilde Triuia The ground of Musicke was compild But on three Chords at first and still exprest By voice by hand by breath In the Phisicks rest Three principles God World and Creature fram'd Creator Parent Issue these are nam'd In all production Into Three we cast Mans age two legges next three then foure at last Phisitians three things to obserue are sure First to preserue preuent and then to cure Three gouernements are famous in Romes state That of the Tribunes and Triumuirate Three sorts of people they distinguish can The Senat Souldior and the common Man In the taking height of starres w'obserue these Three First Distance then the Forme next Qualitie But which of vs obserues that sacred Tryne Three persons in one Godhead sole diuine That indiuiduall essence who dares scan Which is shall be and ere the world began Was in eternitie When of these Three One of that most inscrutable Trinitie The second person Wisedome shall intombe All maiestie within a Virgins wombe True Man true God still to that blest Trine linckt True light shall shine and false starres be extinct SIBILLA ERYTHRAEA SHe is the twelfth and last borne in Babylon of the Assirian nation and daughter to Berosus a famous Astrologian She writ in Greeke a booke called Vafillogra which some interpret Penalis scriptura which as Eugenius in his Res de Sicilia testates was transferred into Latin She prophesied of all the Greekes that came to the siege of Troy designed the places whence and how long they should continue there In those bookes she speakes of Homer and that he should write of those wars partially according to his affection and not truth In the same volume she prophesied of Christ after this manner The times by the great Oracle assignd When God himselfe in pittie of mankind Shall from the Heau'n descend and be incarnate Entring the world a lambe immaculate And as himselfe in wisedome thinkes it meete Walke in the earth on three and thirtie feet And with six fingers all his subiects then Though a king mightie shall be fishermen In number twelue with these warre shal be tride Against the diuell world and flesh their pride Humilitie shall quell and the sharpe sword With which they fight shal be the sacred Word Establisht vpon Peter which foundation Once layd shall be divulg'd to euerie nation The onely difficultie in this prophesie is Trentra tre piede which signifies thirtie three yeares and Mese dito six fingers intimating the time of six moneths And thus I take leaue of the Sybells Of the Virgins VESTALLS FEnestella in his booke intituled de Sacerdotijs Romanis proposeth Numa Pompilius to bee the first that deuised the forme of this Vestall adoration though the first institution thereof was held to be so antient that Aeneas transferred it from the Troians to the Albans as Virgill witnesseth in these words Vestamque potentem Aeternumque aditis adfert penetratibus ignem To this goddesse Vesta whom some call the Earth others the Mother of the gods Fire perpetuallie burning was consecrated and to this obseruation and coustome certaine virgins pickt out of the
businesses quite neglected many hauing died in the Mine and many readie to perish for want of food by reason the earth lay neglected The women came to make a petitionarie complaint to the wife of Pythes who vnderstanding their greefes with faire language returned them backe somewhat pacified though not altogether satisfied yet putting them in good hope that their griefes should shortly be redressed They thus dismist she sent for all the goldsmiths that were knowne to bee exquisit workemen and sequestring them into a remote place of the house where she had fitted them with forges all things necessarie for the purpose she commanded them to mold and cast all kinde of fruits as Apples Citrons Mellons and such like with whose tast her husband was most delighted and to fashion them all of gold Pythes comming from his Mine with a good stomacke as soone as he had seated himselfe called to eat his Ladie serued him in a golden table but with no meate that could be eaten but euerie dish composed of sollid gold Being at the first delighted with this banquet as pleased that art should so imitate nature after being much delighted with the obiect he demanded meate againe and calling for such a dish and such a dish as his appetite was best inclined to but shee still whatsoeuer was brought to the table caused it to be all of gold he still growing more hungrie and verie angry withall she made him this modest and effectuall answere Oh sir consider with your selfe of these and such like dishes you haue prouided for your selfe and your subiects plentie but of other viands no plentie at all we haue store of artificiall but the vse of naturall things hath vtterly forsaken vs no man tills plowes sowes or manurs the fieldes plantation or hope to reape from the earth is now forgot onely we studie for things vnprofitable and as you see vnnecessarie to please the eye and not the palate the fancie and not the stomacke such indeede as to your subiects bring sorrow but no satisfaction great molestation but no meate at all to suffise the necessities of nature This short but pithy speech tooke such impression in Pythes that though he would not altogether desist from his Mines yet vpon her vrgence he onely peculiarised to himselfe a fift part of the people and the rest were imployed in agriculture and tillage planting and such things most vsefull for mans sustenance This Pythes after many disasters as rich men are sildome without some or other as the death of his children who all came to violent vnexpected deaths by the meanes of Xerxes he fell into a wonderous deepe melancoly for hee hated life and yet was loath to die and like a foolish rich man as this age affoords many griefe still would haue killed him had not the thought of his wealth still recouered him therefore he proposed this farewell betwixt the wearinesse of life and the tediousnesse of death There was in the cittie a great heape of gold by which a riuer softly glyded which was called Pythopolite within the midst of this great magazin he had prouided himselfe a sepulcre and had so turned the channell that the water might come iust to the brinke of the shore where his monument was readie prepared The worke being finished he committed the sole gouernement of the state and empire to his wife with this charge That none should dare to approch his tombe but daily to send him such a quantitie of victualls in a boat by the riuer and when they found the meat vntoucht to forbeare to send any more for they should then imagine him dead And such was the couetous mans end in the middest of his treasure His wife after mannaged the state wth great wisedome and pollicie and to the generall good of the subiect The wife of Nausimines HErodotus reports of one of the sonnes of Craesus that he was borne dumbe and neuer spake word from his birth being in all things els compleat of an able body and a spirit vndanted to supply which defect he vsed all means possible that art or humane skill could deuise but all failing as his last refuge he consulted with the Oracle which returned him this answer Lyde genus rex multorum c. Thou of the Lydian off-spring and the king Of many nations if such be thy care To know this secret and effect that thing Which diuine worke no mortall can or dare Be thus resolu'd His tongue shall accent giue When saue by it thou canst no longer liue Craesus being besieged in Sardis and the cittie taken as first entered by one Mardus Hyreades a PersiaÌ„ that had disguised himself of purpose to murder Crasus in his pallace who insinuating into his presence and now lifting vp his hand to strike the fatall blow the king by reason of his present distresse not apprehending the danger which his son comming in at the instant and espying the strings of his tongue were vnloosed on the sudden and he cryed out Oh man spare the king Craesus and from that time forward his imprisoned voice was euer at libertie More disastrous was that which besell the wife of Naâ—simenes the Athenian who happening by chance vpon the place where she found her sons and daughters mixt together in the horrible action incest shee was suddenly strooke with that horror and extasie that neither able to punish the fact nor reprooue the heinousnesse of the sinne shee was strucke mute and dombâ— Her children punisht their owne offence with voluntarie death and shee was depriued the vse of speech all her life time after Cyane and Medullina DOsithaeus in his booke Rerum sicularum commemorates this historie Cyanippus Syracusanus sacrificing to the gods amongst all others he had neglected the celebrations of Bacchus at which the god incenst and to reuenge himself of the iniurie punished him with drunkennes when at a high feast he found him pleasantlie disposed being otherwise in his owne condition of a knowne abstinence the heate of his wine wrought with such violence vpon him that meeting by accident his owne daughter Cyane in a darke and remote place and ignorant who she was hee forcibly defloured her in which wrestling together she wrong the ring off from his finger hoping by that in time to find out the adulterer This ring she gaue her nurse in keeping not long after a pest raigning in the cittie the Oracle being consulted with returned this answere That vnlesse the incestuous person were sacrificed to the gods that haue the charge of punishing these horrible vices the plague should still continue amongst them The people being as much to seeke as before in regard that the person aymed at was to them altogether vnknowne Cyane truely apprehending the intent of the Oracle tooke her father by the reuerend lockes and dragging him to the temple slew him there before the altar which she intended for the common good but to expiate her owne sinne in killing her father she
Carians who then inhabited the cittie Cryassa either commiserating their distresse or fearing that boldnesse their necessities might inforce them too were pleased to allot them part of their land and suffer them peaceablie to dwell amongst them But finding them in a short space to increase both in wealth and power they consulted amongst themselues by what meanes to destroy them and vtterly extirpe their memorie this stratagem was agreed vpon to be performed at a banquet It happened that one of the Carian damsells cald Caphana a Lady of a noble familie grew much enamoured of this Nimphaeus and loath that the least detriment should happen to her best respected friend especiallie loath to see him perish she opened to him the full purpose of the cittie wishing him to vse all meanes of preuention When therefore the Cryassences came to inuite them to the feast Nimphaeus answered them that it was not the custome of the Graecians to assemble vnto any such feasts without the company of their women which the Carians hearing intreated them likewise to grace the solemnitie with their presence This done Nymphaeus relates the whole circumstance to the Melians his countreymen intreating them to beare him company to the feast all ciuilly habited and without weapons onely that euery woman should weare a sword beneath her kirtle and sit close by her husband About the midst of the banquet when the Carians were ready to giue the watchword the Graecians perceiuing that the instant for the pretended execution drew on all the women opening their garments at once shewed their concealed weapons which their hudbands snatching from their sides assaulted the barbarous Carians and slew them all to one man by which preuention they possest themselues both of the countrey and cittie But relinquishing that they built another which they called the new Cryassa and in which they planted themselues Caphaena was marryed to Nymphaeus hauing honours done to her worthy her noble fidelitie One thing in this historie is worthy especiall admiration namely Secresie to be kept amongst so many women Tyrrhenae THe Tyrrhenians were by the Spartans opprest and cast into prison where they were prouidentlie kept and guarded purposing to question them for their liues The wiues of the captiues this hearing came to the prison doores and with humble prayers and infinite teares besought those that had the charge of them that by their visitation they might administer some small comfort to their husbands which after much importunitie granted they were admitted where suddenlie they caused their husbands to change habits with them which they did and so were let forth in stead of the women they arming themselues against all the spight and furie of the Spartanes The men that had escaped repaired to Taygeta entering league with the Heilotes by which confederacie the Spartans somewhat affrighted by intercessours concluded a peace with them conditionally that taking backe their imprisoned women they should be furnished with ships and coine to seeke new fortunes elswhere they therefore made a brotherhood betwixt them and the Lacedemonians Of which Collony two brothers Pollis and Crataida of the cittie of Lacedemon were made gouernours Part of them made residence in Melo the rest with Pollis sailed into Creete and hauing asked counsell of the Oracle answer was returned them That in the place where they should leaue their goddesse and loose part of their anchor they should find a period of their trauells and vpon that continent make their aboad plant their collony and erect a cittie In processe arriuing in a part of Creete called Cheronesus a place halfe inuironed with water or almost an Island a sudden feare surprised them in so much that hasting to get backe to the nauie they left behind them the image of Diana which they had receiued from their ancestors by Brauron first brought into Lemnos and borne by them a ship-bord in all their nauigation The feare being past ouer and the tumult appeased they weighed anchor to make from shoare but Pollis perceiuing a great part of his anchor missing and left in the rockes hee remembred the Oracle and causing his people to land againe hee made his plantation in that countrey and after many battailes in which he preuailed against the inhabitants he subdued Lictium with diuers other citties of which he had prosperous and peaceable possession Examples of Modestie and Magnanimitie THe Phocenses opprest by the tyrants of Delphos in that commenced warre which was called Bellum sacrum in which the Thebans were ingaged it happened that the Bacchinalls who were women that were vsually drunke in the celebrations of the feasts of Bacchus and were called Thiades extasied in their deuine furor for so they tearmed it in their nightly wandering lost their way and erred so farre that vnwittingly they happened vpon the cittie of Amphissa and wearied as they were cast themselues dispersedly abroad in the market place there to repose themselues till they came to their better sences The Amphissesian matrons fearing least any outrage of offence might be done vnto them by reason there were at that time many forraine souldiers who were in league with the Phocenses themselues in person watched these Bacchides till morning guarding and gyrting them round least any thing vnseemely might be spied amongst them and only with a reuerent silence attended them till they awaked but finding them in their better temper ministered vnto them all such necessaries as the cittie yeelded and sent them though the wiues of their enemies in the charge safe conduct of their owne husbands peaceably home to their owne cities Comparable to their Modestie was the Magnanimitie of Megisto an eminent Ladie of the citie Elis. Aristotemus the tyrant hauing by the power of Antigonus vsurped the Franchises and Liberties of that cittie oppressed the people with infinite calamities amongst which that of Philodemus was not the least who hauing a beautifull daughter called Micca when Lacinus one of the Captaines of Aristotemus in the heate of wine and lust would forceably haue rauished her and the poore innocent Virgin fled for refuge into the armes of her father he there most inhumanly transpierced her mixing the teares of the reuerend old man with the blood of his daughter The horridnes of this nothing moued the tyrant but that if greater could possiblie be deuised he gaue countenance euen to such mischeifes causing many of the prime cittisens to be slaine and to the number of eight hundred banished But fearing in regard of their number hee might be in time by them subuerted he made proclamation That all such women that had a desire to visit their absent husbands should with such gold and treasure as they could conueniently carrie with their children haue peaceable passage from the cittie into Aetolia where many or the most of their exiled friends then soiourned Many of the women incouraged by this edict being to that purpose assembled and with such goods as they had departed the citie he
in the citie shee hyred a messenger to run to him in all hast and counterfeiting a suddaine passion to tell him his house was on fire and many or most of his elaborate Pieces burnt to ashes At which Praxitiles amased and strangely mooued broke forth into this language But is the Picture of Cupid safe and reserued from combustion by which she found that to be his maister-piece and therefore due to her by promise This Phrine neuer vsed the hot Bathes as other of her profession accustomed to doe onely at the Feasts of Ceres and Neptune shee would in the sight of all the Grecians in her loose garment and hayre disheuelled about her shoulders walke downe to the Sea side and there wash her selfe And from her as Athenaus in his Dypnos Lib. 13. cap. 22. affirmes Apelles drew that admirable and vnmatched Peece called Venus Emergeus i. Venus swimming or rising out of the waters Of which Ausonius composed an Epigram with this inscription In venerem Andiomenen Emersam Polagi nuper genitatibus vndis Cipria Apellai Cerne laboris opus Behold faire Cipria from her natiue Brine Flunging Apelles a braue worke of thine Who shaking off her golden curles late drown'd Raynes the salt-sea-drops from her shoulders round Her hayres yet danke 'bout her white wrists she winds Which wreath'd she in her silken hayre-lace binds Pallas and Iuno said this haâ—ing seene We yeeld the Palme to thee faire beauties Queene Praxitiles the Statuarie before spoken of drew from her the Picture of Venus Cnidia and vnder the Table of Loue which was giuen to adorne the Theatre he caused these verses to be inscribed Praxitiles pinxit prius est quem passus amorem Deprompt sit proprio pectore qui Archetipum Loue which himselfe hath suffred and best knew From his owne breast this piece the Painter drew This Picture of Loue some say was placed in Thespia a free towne in Boetia neere Helicon and dedicated to the Muses which others take to be a citie in Magnesia neere Thessalie but her golden Picture made by Praxitiles was hung in Delphos aboue the Marble Statue of Mercurie and betwixt that of Archidamus king of the Lacedemonians and Philip of Amintas hauing this inscription Phrine Epicleis Thespia This when Crates Ciâ—icus beheld he said This Table is dedicated to expresse the intemperance of the Grecians as Alcaetus witnesseth Lib. 20. depositâ—rum in Delphis Apollodorus in Lib. Amicarum speakes of two Phrines the one was called Saperduis the other Clausigelos of Kleo i. Lugeo to mourne and Gelos i. Risus Laughter Herodicus sayth Lib. 6. Obiâ—â—gatorâ—m That she was called by the Orators Seâ—tus because she rifled and despoyled her Clients and the other Thespica This Phrine grew exceeding rich and made offer to begirt Thebes with a new wall so that vpon the chiefe gate they would make this inscription This Alexander the Great demolished which Phrine the Courtesan at her owne charge erected for so writes Calistratus in his booke Amicarum Tiâ—â—cles Coâ—â—â—â—i writ of her infinite riches in his Neâ—ra as likewise Amphis in Noâ—acula Ariâ—â—igiton in an Oration against Phrine affirmes That her proper name was Mâ—esarete Of her Posidippus Comicus writ more at large in Ephesia There was one Timandra daughter to Tyndarus and Laedia the sister of Cliâ—â—innestra but Pliny speakes of a notorious strumpet of that name beloued of Aleibiades the Athenian for whom being dead she erected a famous Sepulcher shee was with her friend Atcis opprest in battaile by Lysander Equall to her in beautie was Campaspe by some called Pancasta a wanton of extraordinarie feature and much affected by the excellent Painter Apelles she was prisoner to Alexander the Great and at his earnest intercession bestowed on him by the Macedonian Conqueror Glicerin or Glicera and others THis Glicera was sirnamed Thespiâ—nsis of the cittie where shee was borne Praâ—iâ—â—les the Painter much doted on her beautie and gaue her a Table in which Cupâ—d was most curiously pouâ—â—â—yde which after her death shee bequeathed as a legacie to the cittie Sâ—â—yrus reports That Stilpâ— beeing at a banquet with her and reproouing her as a great corrupter of the youngmen of Thespis she answered We are ô Sâ—ilpo of one and the same error guiltie alike For it is said of thee That all such as conuerse with thee and participate of thy precepts thou corruptest with thy amatorious and vnprofitable Sophismes small difference then there is to bee traduced by thee a Philosopher or by me a professed Prostitute She was a great fauourite of the Poet Menander Hipperides in an oration against Manlithaus as also Theopompus affirmes That Harpalus after the death of Pythâ—nice sent for Glicera to Athens who comming to Tarsus was receiued into the kings palace whither much confluence was assembled bowing their knees to her and saluting her by the name of Queene neyther would they suffer Harpalus to assume the Diademe till shee were likewise crowned and in Rhossus where his statue was erected in brasse she caused hers to be placed for so Clearchus writes in his historie of Alexander as likewise Catanaeus Clearchus obserues of her that when any faire young lad appeared before her shee vsed to say Then doe boyes appeare most beautifull when they most resemble the lookes and gestures of women She was affected by Pansia Sicionius a famous Painter Harpalus the Macedonian hauing robbed Alexander the Great of much treasure flying to Athens sollicited there Pythonica and by many great gifts woon her to his embraces she dying he profusely lauished many talents vpon her obsequies and as Possidonius in his Histories affirmes not onely with the artificiall skill of many of the best artists and workemen but with organs voyces and all kinds of musicall harmony decorated her funerall Dyoâ—â—rchus writes That whosoeuer shall crauell towards Athens by the sacred way called Elusinis there hee shall behold a goodly temple built in state height and compasse exceeding all others which who so shall considerately peruse hee shall guesse it either to bee the cost of Miltiades Pericles Ciâ—â—â— or of some other Athenian equally with them illustrious and especially of such a one that for merit towards the common weale might commaund a voluntarie contribution from the publike treasurie Theopompus in an epistle to Alexander thus carpes at the intemperance of Harpalus Consider quoth he and inquire of the men of Babylon with what superfluous charge hee hath interred his strumpet Pythonicâ— who was but handmaid to Bachis the she-musitian and Bachis the seruant of Syâ—â—â—e Threissa who from the cittie of Aegina transported her bawdries into Athens shee being not onely of the third rancke and degree of seruants but of baudes for with more than two hundred Talents charge he hath dedicated vnto her two sumptuous monuments to the admiration of all men when it hath not beene knowne the like honour or cost to haue beene bestowed by him or any other in memorie of any
her euen to this day all brothel-houses are called Lupanaria She nursed and brought vp Romulus and Remus Liu. lib. 1. Decad. 1. Plutarch in Vita Romuli Flora the strumpet who was likewise called Laurentia constituted the people of Rome her heire from her came the yearely feasts celebrated called Floralia of her Gellius lib. 6. cap. 7. and Vollat lib. 16. speakes more at large Manilia was a Roman Curtesan whom Hostilius Mancinus called into question because a stone was cast vpon him from one of her galleries Gellius Phebe was a freed woman to Iulia the daughter of Augustus Caesar and a companion with her in all her lusts and brothelries who when she heard that her mistresse was confined by her father fearing some seuere censure from the Emperor slew her selfe to preuent further torture Dion in Augusto The immoderate lust of Caelia Martial lib. 7. thus reprooues Das Cattis das Germanis das Caelia Dacis Nec Cilicum spernis Cappoducumque toros c. To th'Catti Germans and the Dacians thou Caelia giu'st welcome and thou do'st allow The Cappadians and Cilicians bed Besides from Pharo thou art furnished With Memphian whorers from the red sea sailes The swarthie Indian and he brings thee vailes And thou tak'st all neither wilt thou refuse The offer of the circumcised Iewes c. Catullus of his Lesbia thus speakes Nulla potest mulier tantum se dicere amatum Vere quantum a me Lesbia amata mea est No woman truly can report to be So well belou'd as Lesbia thou of me So Quintus Frabaeus Comediographus of his loue Chrysis De improuiso Chrysis vbi me aspexerit Alacris obuiam mihi veniet c. When Chrysis on the sudden me espide She look'd vpon me with a chearefull face Wishing withall that me she might embrace To whom she owes her selfe this I haue tri'de It is a fortune I haue seldome knowne And such as I preferre before mine owne Dion Nicaeus and Xiphilinus in the life of the Emperour Commodus besides the strumpet Martia whom hee tooke to wife remembers one Damostratâ— whom he after bestowed vpon Cleander him whom from a bondman he raised to be of his priuie-chamber Time Paper and Leysure would faile me before example and I desire not to be tedious I haue hitherto shewed you what whoores are I now desire to expresse vnto you what they should bee Marie Magdalen the daughter of Syrus and Eucharia and sister to Lazarus and Martha for some yeares gaue her selfe vp to all voluptuousnesse and pleasure in so much that she had incurred the name of a common strumpet but after when shee cast her selfe prostrat and washed the feet of our Sauiour with her teares and dryde them with the haires of her head and annointing him with costly oyntment in the house of Simon the Leaper her sinnes were forgiuen her We reade likewise of Aphra who was borne in Creet her mothers name was Hylaria a notorious bawde This Aphra with her three seruants Dimna Eugenia and Eutropia for mony prostituted themselues to all men but she her selfe being after conuerted to the Faith by Narcissus bishop of Ierusalem abiured all incontinence and adhering to the Christian religion prooued so constant in the same that for the true Faith she suffered martyrdome Nicaeta and Aquilina were two beautifull strumpets and made gaine of their bodies these were imployed by king Dagnes to tempt and traduce the blessed Saint Christopher and to vpbraide him of false religion but it fell out contrarie to the purpose of the tyrant for those two being by him conuerted to the true Faith and not to bee remooued by menaces or torments were after by the same king both caused to bee slaine Faucula Clauia is remembred by the Historiographer Lyuie who though she was of that wanton and loose behauiour yet highly to be commended for her pietie she to her great charge ministered food and sustenance to many of the distressed Roman souldiers all the time that Hannibal was possessed of Capua Marullus lib. 2. cap. 12. and Sabin lib. 5. cap. 5. speake of Thais an Aegyptian strumpet who by the often admonitions of the Abbot Pannutius repented her of her wicked leaud life and to giue the best satisfaction to the world that she was able shee caused a great fire to bee made and all that wealth which she had gathered by her prostitution she cast therein and caused it to be burned before her face and from a common Brothel-house retyred her selfe to a priuat Monasterie where after three yeares penetentiall sollitude she expired Pelagia Antiochena so called because she was borne in Antioch exceeding in wealth and excelling in beautie was wholy giuen ouer to immoderate luxuries in so much that no woman appeared in publike more gawdily apparrelled or more voluptuouslly minded than her selfe but being drawne by some religiously disposed friend of hers to heare the Sermons of Nonius Bishop of Heliopolis shee acknowledged her error cast off her gay and gawdie attyre bewayled her sinnes and lamented her leaud course of life distributing her wealth amongst the poore and as a farwell to all loosenesse and intemperance builded a poore Cottage in the Mount of Oliues And least any violence in such a sollitude might be done vnto her in the way of preuention shee changed her habite and called her selfe Pelagius proceeding in that sanctitie of life that where before of Pelagia shee was called Pelagus Vitiorum i. A Sea of Vices shee was after stiled Pelagus Virtutum amarissimus Marath aquas in dulces conuertens i. An Ocean of Vertues turning the most bitter Waters of Marath into sweet And thus I conclude with these Wantons wishing all such whose liues haue beene as ill and infamous that their ends might prooue as good and glorious Explicit Liber Sextus Inscriptus ERATO THE SEVENTH BOOKE Inscribed POLYHIMNIA or MEMORIE Intreating of the Pietie of Daughters towards their Parents Women to their Children Sisters to their Brothers Wiues to their Husbands c. THERE is no gift according to Reason bestowed vpon man more sacred more profitable or auayling towards the attayning of the best Arts and Disciplines which include all generall Learning than MEMORIE which may fitly be called the Treasure-house or faithfull Custos of Knowledge and Vnderstanding Therefore with great wisedome did the Poets call her the Mother of the Muses with no lesse elegancie did they place Obliuion below in Hell in regard of their opposition and antipathie Our Memorie as Sabellicus saith is a benefit lent vs from aboue that hath her existence in Nature but her ornament and beautie from Art Alexand. ab Alex. Lib. 2. cap. 19. That the Aegyptians in their Hieroglyphicks when they would figure any man of an excellent memorie they would doe it by a Fox or a Hare with vpright and erected eares But when they would represent one dull and blockish they did it by a
Conger stirring vp the fire skimming the Kettle and doing other such Cooke-like offices for his particular diet the king clapt him vpon the shoulder and said I neuer read ô Poet that Homer when hee was writing his famous Worke called the Iliades could euer find so much spare time as to kindle a fire set on water and skimme a Conger To whom he presently answered Neither remember I O king that I euer read in that Homer the Prince of Poets that Agamemnon in all the time of the tenne yeeres siege of Troy had such vacancie as thou hast now to prie into the Boothes of his souldiers and neglecting the publike affaires to busie himselfe to know how euerie priuate man cookt his owne diet This was a modest passage betwixt him that contended to act noble deedes and him that the king knew could giue them full expression Erasmus lib. 6. Apoth speakes of the Orator Crassus That when one Piso beeing accused by Sylus for some words speaking had incurred a Censure and Crassus being then the Aduocate of Piso found that Sylus his testimonie proceeded meerely from mallice and enuie after the Sentence was past Crassus thus spoke to Sylus It may be saith he this Piso notwithstanding this accusation was mooued or angry when he spake those words who answered as reuerencing his authoritie Sir It may be so It may be too Sylus said he thou didst not at that time rightly vnderstand him who againe answered It was like ynough And it may be said Crassus againe somewhat hastily That Piso neuer spoke those words which thou sayest thou heardest who answered vnaduisedly And it may be so too At which the Auditorie fell into a great laughter Piso was acquit and Sylus punisht by the reuersement of Iudgement It pleased a king of France who had heard a great fame of the learned Scotus to send for him and to seat him at his Table which was a grace not common with expectation it seemes to heare from him some extraordinarie rare discourse answerable to the fame was giuen of him The scholler seeing such rarietie and varietie set before him onely intended that for which he came and eat with a good and sound stomacke Which the king a prettie while obseruing interrupts him thus Domine qua est differentia inter Scotum Sâ—tum i. Sir What is the difference betwixt a Scot and a Sot To whom he without pause replyed Mensa tantum i. The Table onely the king playing vpon his name and hee taxing the kings ignorance A great Earle of this kingdome was sent ouer by Queene Elizabeth to debate concerning State-businesse and ioyned with him in commission one Doctor Dale a worthie and approoued scholler To meet with these from the Spaniard were sent amongst other Commissioners Richardetti that was Secretarie to K. Philip. These meeting about State-affaires question was made In what Language it was most fit to debate them Richardetti standing vp and belike hauing notice that our Embassadour was not well practised in the French Tongue thus said In my opinion it is most fit that this businesse about which wee are met be discoursed in French and my reason is because your Queene writes her selfe Queene of France At which word vp start the Doctor and thus replyed Nay then rather let it be debated in the Hebrew Tongue since your king writes himselfe King of Ierusalem These may appeare digressions I will onely because this is a womans booke end this argument with the answere of a woman remembred by Petrarch Azo the Marquesse of Este was eminent for many extraordinarie blessings both of Nature and Fortune But as these were neuer perfectly enioyed without some difficultie and trouble so it prooued in him for hauing a beautifull Ladie to his wife he grew extreamely suspitious of her faith and loyaltie He hauing by her a young sonne and heire then in the Cradle looking earnestly vpon him hee fetcht a deepe sigh of which shee demaunding the cause he thus said I would God wife this infant were as certainly mine as it is assuredly thine to confirme which to mine owne wishes and desires I would willingly part with the greatest moietie of my meanes and fortunes To whom shee answered Let this be neither griefe to your heart nor trouble to your mind for of this doubt I wil instantly resolue you and taking the infant from the Cradle and holding it in her armes she thus said No man sir I hope makes question but this child is mine to which words he assenting she thus proceeded Then to cleere all former doubts and suspitions Receiue him freely from my hands as my guife and now you may presume he is only and absolutely yours Whether she equiuocated or no I am not certaine only this I am most sured of That she hath left a precedent behind her to all succeeding wiues how their iealous husbands may be best confirmed in their suspected issue I feare I haue bin somewhat to long in the Preamble I will therefore now proceede to the matter And first of Filiall pietie ascending from Daughters to their Parents Of Pious Daughters OF Sonnes that haue beene remarkably gratefull to their Parents for their birth and breeding the Histories are many and the examples infinite as of Coriolanus to his mother celebrated by Tully in Lelio Dionisius Halicarnasseus Plutarch Pliniâ— Gellius Appianus c. as likewise of Lucius Manlius Torqâ—atus of M. Coâ—â—a Caius Flaminius Cimon remembred by Iustine lib. 2. Cleobis and Bithon Amphinomus and Anapus recorded by Herodotus and Solinus the sonne of Croesus c. Yet should I vndertake to write them all at large they cannot exceed that Pietie of which I haue read in women Suetonius and Cicero in an Oration pro Caelio speaking of Claudia one of the Vestall Virgins thus report of her Shee seeing her father in his triumphant Chariot riding through the streets of Rome and by the Tribunes of the people who enuied his glorie pluckt and haled from his seat she with a wondrous dexteritie and a masculine audacitie frâ—ed him from the hands of the Tribunes and their Lictors and maugre all their opposition lifted him vp into his Chariot nor forsooke him till shee saw him in all magnificent pompe receiued into the Capitoll insomuch that it was questioned amongst the Romans which of them merited the greater triumph hee for his vertue and valour in the Forum or shee for her zeale and pietie in the Temple of Vesta nor can it yet be decided which may claime a iust prioritie the Father for his victorie or the daughter for her goodnesse Plinie lib. 7. cap. 36. and Solinus speake of another Roman Ladie of a noble Family who when her mother was condemned at the Iudgement-Seat by the Praetor and deliuered vp to one of the Triumviri to be committed to strait prison and there for her offence to be priuately executed But the keeper of the Gaole commiserating the Matron so sentenced eyther because he
Phaon art my care and my dreames stay Thee fled you dreames that haue made night my day I find thee there though absent many a mile But ô my dreames last but a little while Oft thinke I that thy armes my necke infold As likewise these two are with thine like bold I know thy kisses thy tongue-sport I know Which thou wast wont to take and to bestow More pleas'd sometimes words like to truth I spake And to thy forme my sences are awake What 's more I shame to tell and blush to write Dreaming all done may perfect our delight No sooner Titan dons his golden beames And with them all things sees I curse my Dreames Desarts and Dennes I then seeke as if they Could profit me once guiltie of our play Madly like her whom mad Erictho beares I thither runne my haires falne 'bout mine eares I see the Cauernes with rough Grauell strew'd To me they like Mygdonian Marble shew'd The shades I find that gaue vs oft our rest And friendly Herbage by our burthens prest Thee maister of those Groues and me no place Can shew me therefore they appeare most base I knew the very flowers where wee haue line Our weights haue made their vpright heads decline Where thou hast falne I threw me in that place But first the gratefull flowers drinke from my face The boughes despoyl'd a sadnesse seeme to bring And on their top-most branches no birds sing Onely the Daulian hird her discontents Chaunts out aloud and Itis still laments Itis the bird laments Sapho th' affright Of Loue forsaken so we spend the night There is a perfect cleare and Glasse-like Well Sacred and where some thinkes the gods doe dwell O're which the watrie Lotos spreads her bowes The ground a soft and gentle Turfe allowes Here as I lay to rest me drown'd in teares One of the Nayades before m' appeares And standing thus spake Thou that scortcht do'st lye In flames vnequall to Ambracia flye Hence Phoebus from on high surueyes the Sea Some Actium calls the place some Leucate Deucalion from this Rocke his Pyrha craues First seene and she vndanger'd proues the waues Here Pyrha prostitutes to his desires Deucalion here first quencht his amorous fires The place the same law keepes climbe Leucats crowne And from that high Rocke feare not to leape downe This spoke she vanisht I affrighted rise Whilest my wet cheekes are moistned by mine eyes Thither let 's run Nymphs till that Rocke appeare From Loue distracted we should banish feare Proue how it can much better than you see It hath yet chanc'd it needs must fall to mee And gentle Loue to me thy feathers lend Still to support me as I shall descend Least being dead by my vntimely fall Leucadia for my sake be curst of all Then Phoebus I le bequeath into thine hand My Harpe and by it shall this Distick stand Sapho thy gratefull Poetesse doth assigne This Lyre to thee being hers as well as thine Why do'st thou send me to Actia hence When thou may'st call thy exil'd foole from thence Safer to me than can those waters proue Thou mayest so Phoebus did he Sapho loue Canst thou O harder than the Rocks obdure It should be said Thou didst my death procure Thy Sapho's ruine O how better farre Were it these breasts that now dis-ioyned are Should friendly meet and mutually please Than mine alone be swallow'd in the Seas These are the breasts thou Phaon once didst prayse Which seene they fire did from thy coldnesse rayse O would I were as eloquent as then But sorrow takes all fluence from my Pen So might my braine haue euerie ill withstood But now my passion makes nothing seeme good My Verse is of her first power destitute Silent's my Quill my Harpe with sorrow mute You Lesbian Matrons and you Lesbian young Whose names haue to my Lyre beene oft times sung You for whose loues my fame hath suffred wrong No more in troopes vnto my Musicke throng Phaon hath stole all that you nam'd Diuine I was O wretch about to call him mine Make him returne my Muse shall then retire He dulls my wits or can my braine inspire Can prayers preuaile or such a stubborne mind Be softened or made rougher Shall the wind Disperse my words as meerely spoke in vaine Would the same winds could bring thee backe againe That mocke my sighes and make thy sayles to swell It were a worke that would become thee well If so thou mean'st why do'st thou keepe away From all those vow'd gifts that thy comming stay Why do'st thou with thy absence my breast teare Loose from the Hauen set sayle and doe not steare Shee 's Sea-borne Venus call'd and therefore still Shee makes the waues calme to a louers will The gracious winds shall in thy course preuayle And bring thee safe when thou ar◠vnder sayle Euen Cupid at the Helme shall sit and steare He shall direct which way thy course to beare If so thou please thy Sapho shun'd must be Yet thou shalt find there 's no iust cause in me At least thy cruell answer she now craues To end her fate in the Leucadian waues From that Rocke shee cast her selfe headlong into the Sea and so perished For preposterous and forbidden Luxuries which were imputed vnto her Horace calls her Mascula Sapho yet many are of opinion this to be the same whom Plato tearmes the Wise of her Antipater Sydonius thus writes Dulcia Mnemosine demirans carmina Saphus Quesierit decima Pyeris vnde foret Mnemosine When Sapho's Verse she did admiring reed Demanded whence the tenth Muse did proceed As likewise Ausonius Lesbia Pyerijs Sapho soror addita Musis i. Lesbian Sapho a Sister added to the Pyerian Muses Her Papinius and Horace with many others celebrate Of Cleobule Lindia and other Poetesses SHee was the daughter of Cleobulus Lindius one of the seuen wise men of Greece shee was called also Eumite and Cleobulina in her writing shee imitated her father Shee was eminent for Aenigmaes and Riddles of which this one is redeemed from obliuion and remembred of her Est vnus genitor cui vni sunt pignora bis sex His quoque triginta natae sed dispare forma Hae niuiae aspectu nigris sunt vultibus illae Sunt immortales omnes moriuntur omnes One father hath twelue children great and small They beget thirtie daughters vnlike all Halfe of them white halfe blacke immortall made And yet we see how euerie houre they fade Helpis was wife of the famous Philosopher and Poet Boethius Seuerinus a Roman Patrician shee was by Nation a Sicilian of an elegant wit and capacious inuention Many of her Hymnes to the Apostles are yet extant one began Aurea Luce another Foelix per omnes mundi cardines i. Thou Feast that art happie in being celebrated through all the countries of the world Ranulphus calls her the daughter to the king of Sicilie and the best Writers constantly affirme these
his sight neuer againe to behold his face and after caused him to be arraigned and iudged And these are the Graces Honors and Aduancements Offices and Dignities to which the Deuill exalts his liege people Of these seuerall sorts of Iuglings with which the Deuill deludes his schollers besides such as I haue before spoken of amongst such as predicted of things to come I will nominate some few One thing which is vsed now amongst our cunning Women and Witches is so antient that it was before the age of Lucian or Theocritus it is called Coskinomanteia i. Cribri saltatio i. as wee call it The Syue and the Sheeres and that is not shamed to be publiquely vsed Bodinus himselfe sayth that hee saw in Lutetia a Boy in a Noblemans house and before many honest and iudiciall spectators by speaking of a few French wordsâ— make a Syue turne which way he pleased but the same words vttered by another could not make it to mooue at all Another superstition is with a Knife or a Key If any be suspected of Theft reade but such a Psalme and name the partie accused if the Knife at the speaking of his name mooue or stirre hee is then held guiltie and that practise is called Axinomanteia That which is done by a Ring put ouer a Cruse of Water is called Daktuliomanteia And this is a famous Sorcerie much in vse with the Witches of Italie Ioachimus Cameracensis had a speaking Ring in which was a Familiar or a Deuill that kind is called Vdromanteia as also Dactyliomanteia i. A Ring wherein Spirits are worne Coniectures made from Wells and Fountaines were called Idromanteia these Numa Pompilius was said to be the first inuentor of which Varro otherwise interpretes i. Of a Boy employed by the Magicians to looke vpon Images in the water one of which pronounced distinctly fiftie Verses of the warres of Mithridates before any such rumor was spread or purpose of the like businesse intended Aeromanteia is a superstitious prediction by the ayre but most certaine when the wind is South Another was made from Meale or Chaffe and was called Alphitomanteia or Aleuromanteia remembred by Iamblicus but to what purpose it was hee explaneth not as likewise of Lythomanteia which was practised by Stones Diuination by Lawrell was called Daphnomanteia The praescience which they gathered from the head of an Asse Kephaleomanteia Puromanteia and Kapnomanteia were coniectures from Fire Rabdomanteia was vsed by a Physician of Tholosa in speaking certaine mysticall words in a low and submisse voyce The like vnto that was Zulomanteia with loose chippes of Wood much practised in Illyria But of all these diuellish and detestable practises there is none saith Bodinus more Heathenish irreligious and dangerous than that so commonly in vse now adayes and by Witches continually practised to the iniurie and wrong of new married women it is commonly called Ligare ligulam or to tye knots vpon a point which as it is vsuall so it is not new For Herodot Lib. 2. reports That Amasis king of Aegypt was by the like Exorcisme bound and hindered from hauing any mutuall congresse with his wife Laodice till those ligatorie Spells were after vncharmed Paulus Aemilius in the life of Clotharius the second witnesseth That king Theodoricus was by the like ligaments effascinated by his Concubines from hauing lawfull consocietie with his wife Hermamberga Bodinus reports That he heard from the mouth of Roileus Embassadour generall amongst the Blesenses who affirmed That at the marriage of a young couple iust as they were to receiue the benediction from the Priest a Boy was seene by him tying one of these Magicke knots in the Temple whom thinking to haue deprehended the Boy fled and was not taken Bodinus further addes That in the yeere 1567. he then being Procurator in Patauia the gentlewoman in whose house he soiourned being it seemes a pregnant scholler in this Art related vnto him in the presence of one Iacobus Baunasius That there were fiftie seuerall wayes of tying this knot to hinder copulation either to bind the Husband or the Wife onely that one hating the others infirmitie might the freelyer pollute themselues with Adulteries Shee said moreouer the man was often so charmed the woman seldome and difficultly besides this knot might be tyed for a day for a yeere for the present time or for euer or whilest the same was vnloosed That it might be tyed for one to loue the other and not be againe beloued or to make a mutuall and ardent loue betwixt them but when they came to congression to bite and scratch and teare one another with their teeth and nayles In Tholosia a man and his wife were so bewitched who after three yeeres being vncharmed had a faire and hopefull issue and which is more to be wondered at in that time there appeared vpon some part of their bodies so many tumors or swellings like small knobs of flesh as they should haue had children if that impediment had not happened Some there are that may be charmed before wedlocke and some after but those hardly There are others whom their effascinations can keepe from eiecting their Vrine others to make them that they cannot restraine it at all but of the first diuerse haue perished Shee likewise told him sundrie speeches belonging to these Witcheries the words whereof were neither Hebrew Greeke Latine French Spanish Italian nor indeed deriuing their Etimologie from any knowne Language whatsoeuer Erasmus in his explanation of the Adage Pasetis Semiobulus writes of some Witches that by their Incantations could commaund in any voyd roome Tables on the sudden to bee spread and furnished with meates and iunkets of all varieties to tast the palat and when the guests had sufficiently fed and satisfied euerie man his owne appetite with one word could likewise command all things away as if no such thing had beene others also that when they had bought any commoditie of any man their backes were no sooner turned but the money they layde out would instantly forsake the seller and returne into the purse of the buyer But to begin with the antient Poets by their testimonies it is manifest that the practise of Witches and Witch-craft hath beene so great that by their Charmes and Spells they haue had the power to transhape men into bruit beasts to alter the course of the Planets and Starres haue changed the Seasons making the naturall course of the yeare preposterous further that their exorcismes haue extended to Hearbes Flowers Fruits and Graine to infect men with Diseases and cattell with Murren to delude the Eyes and weaken the Sences bewitch the Limbes binde the Hands gyue the Feete and benumbe the other Members apoplex all the vitall Spirits and raise vp dead bodies from their Sepulchres nay more to call the Moone downe from her Sphere with other most strange things as miraculous to relate as difficult to beleeue of such in his first booke Tibullus speakes Hanc ego
be instructed in that horrible Art he shall not find it more truely and punctually discouered by any of the Latine Poets Gunthrune was a Witch of a strange diuellish condition who by her incantations was the death of many creatures as well beasts as men yet beeing dead there was no wound or marke of death appearing about them Sagana Veia and Folia were professors of the selfesame diuellish Art and are remembred by Tacitus Iuuenal and Horace these were said to haue had hand in the death of the noble child Varus It shall not be amisse to insert amongst these what I haue heard concerning a Witch of Scotland One of that countrie as by report there are too many being for no goodnesse by the Iudges of Assise arraigned conuicted and condemned to be burnt and the next day according to her iudgement brought and tied to the stake the reeds fagots placed round about her and the executioner readie to giue fire for by no persuasion of her ghostly father nor importunitie of the sherifes she could be wrought to confesse any thing she now at the last cast to take her farewell of the world casting her eye a tone side spied her onely sonne and calls to him desiring him verie earnestly as his last dutie to her to bring her any water or the least quantitie of licour be it neuer so small to comfort her for she was extreamely a thirst at which he shaking his head said nothing she stil importuned him in these words Oh my deere sonne helpe me to any drinke be it neuer so little for I am most extreamely drie oh drie drie to whom the young fellow answered by no meanes deere mother will I do you that wrong For the drier you are no doubt you will burne the better Of Witches transported from one place to another by the Deuill THe difference betwixt Witches or to define what Magae are and what Lamiae were but time mispent the rather because it hath beene an argument so much handled in our mother tongue I will onely rehearse vnto you some few particular discourses concerning Witches out of Danaeus Bodinus Wierius Grillaneus Italus and others all agree that some haue made expresse couenant with the deuill by Bond and Indenture sealed and deliuered others by promise and oath onely as likewise that all such haue secret markes about them in some priuate place of their bodies some in the inside of the lip some in the haiâ—e of the eye browes some in the fundament some in the inside of the thigh the hollow of the arme or the priuie parts Albertus Pictus an Aduocate in the Parlement of Paris reported he had seene one in the castle of Theodoricus who had a plaine marke vpon the right shoulder which the next day was taken off by the Deuill Claudius de Fagus the kings procurator affirmed the like of one Ioanna Heruilleria Concerning the transportation of Witches through the aire Paulus Grillandus an Italian Doctor of the law that writ the histories of many Witches saith That a countrie villager not far from Rome vpon a night spying his wife daube her selfe with a certaine vnguent and instantly leape out at the window after her stay from him some three or foure houres had prouided against her returne a good cudgell with which he so soundly entertained her that he forced her to confesse where she had beene but would not grant her free pardon till she had made him promise to bring him to the sight of all these nouelties and vnbeleeueable passages by her related the match was concluded she forewarned him that he must in no wise vse the name of God by the way vnlesse it were in scorne or blasphemie with other such horrible instructions The night came they were both annointed when presently two rough goats appeared at the window vpon which they being mounted were instantly hurried through the aire into a place where were an infinit multitude of people men and women and in the middest one that seemed to be prince and soueraigne of the rest to whom euery of them did obeisance and adoration she bid her husband stand in a remote place till she had likewise done her worship which she accordingly performed This done they all danced together in a circle or ring not as our custome is face to face but backe to backe the rest may be coniectured least if any should be apprehended one might appeach the other After their dance was ended the tables were couered and furnished she calls to her husband to sit downe amongst the rest and bids him welcome he begins to feed but finding the meat to haue no â—elish in regard it was not well seasoned he calls aloud for salt and many times before it came it was brought at length which he seeing before he tasted it he thus said Hor laudato sui Dio per è venuto questo sale i. Now God be thanked that the salt is come these words were no sooner spoken but Men Meat Tables Deuills Witches all were vanished in an instant he was left alone naked almost frosen with cold ignorant in what place or whether to trauel for shelter day came he spies sheepheards and askes them where he is they tell him in the principalitie of Beneuent vnder the iurisdiction of the Pope aboue an hundred miles from Rome He was forced to beg rags to couer him and bread to releeue him being eight daies before he could reach to his cottadge he accuseth his wife she others who were all after deliuered to the fire burnt aliue The liâ—e historie the same author relates of a young damosell inticed by an old Witch to this damnable assemblie in the Duchie of Spoletum in the yeare of grace 1535. The like confession of these assemblies dances and banquets and after all their common carnall societie women with he-Deuills and men with she-spirits was extorted from a Witch of Lochinum another of Lions both suffered by fire and their arraignements confessions iudgements and executions published by Danaeus in the yere 1474. Of these meetings banquets dances and congressions Friscalanus the before named Magitian gaue ample testimonie to Charles the ninth king of France Saluertes the President speakes of a Witch called Beronda who being brought to the stake accused a great ladie of France for being one of that damned societie but she obstinately denying it the Witch thus said Haue you forgot since our last meeting when you were appointed to carrie the Challice of poison Olaus Magnus li. 3. ca. 11. saith that many of these conuenticles are made in the North and are frequent in the mount Atlas as likewise Mel. lib. 3. Solinus lib. 38. cap. 44. and Plinie lib. 5. cap. 1. Infinit are the Histories to this purpose Antonius de Turquemada a Spaniard saith That a Magitian would needs persuade his friend to be a spectator of this wicked assemblie all things being prepared for the purpose in the middest
the guests of the village and vpon them alone that they were pittiously wet and weatherbeaten till they had not any of them a drie thred about them all imagined this to be done by Witchcraft the same woman was accused by the sheepheards who confessing the fact was adiudged vnto the stake In this is to be obserued that the fruits the graine nor vines were blasted though there is a law extant in the twelue tables Qui fruges incantassit poenas dato i. They that shall inchant or blast the fields let them be punished There was another edict which prohibited any man from drawing the fertilitie and haruest of another mans field into his owne ground in these words Ne alienam segètem pellexeris incantando in another place Ne incantanto ne agrum defraudanto which hath reference to the former By the authoritie of these Roman ordinances specified in the twelue tables Turnius was accused by Spurius Albinus because when there was a dearth in the countrie his fields were onely aboundant and plentifull and where other mens cattell died of the roâ— and murren his were faâ— faire and in good plight and liking vpon this accitement he caused his horses his oxâ—n his teemes cattell and seruants all to appeare with him before the Senate and there pleaded that the masters eye made the cattell fat and his care and industrie the seruant thriuing sightly and in good liking protesting he knew no other inchantments and for that answere was acquited by the Senat. Notwithstanding this wee may reade in Sprangerus of Hyppones and Stradlinus two famous Magitians of Germany who confessed that they could at any time steale the third part of the croppe out of anothers field at their pleasure when by the most authenticke iudgements it is aprooued that no Witch or Coniurer was euer knowne to inrich himselfe the value of one mite by his Magick documents The like I could produce out of Pontanâ—s and other Authors with that antient verse borrowed by all the Magitians from Virgill Flectere si nequeam superos acheroeta mouebo If to my prayers the gods will not incline I will sollicit Hell and make that mine In the Scottish-Cronicle it is related of king Duffus to be troubled with a strange disease that he could eate well drinke well and in the constitution of his bodie found no imperfection at all onely he could not sleepe but spent the tedious night in faint and cold sweats insomuch that there was despaire of the kings health and safetie There was at length a rumor published That the Morauians certaine inhabitants of Scotland once great rebells and enemies of the king but since made regular and reconciled to their faithfull obeysance had hyred certaine Witches to destroy king Duffus vpon which report one Douenaldus was made Preâ—â—â—â— to enquire after this businesse and had authoritie to passe into Morauia and if he found any such malefactors to punish them according to their offences he being carefull of the charge imposed on him had such good intelligence and withall vsed such prouidence that hee came iust at the instant when certaine Witches were rosting of a Picture called by the name of the king and basted it with a certaine liquor Douenaldus surprising them in the act examined them who confessed the treason and were condemned to the stake at which instant by all iust computation the king recouered and was restored to his pristine rest and health After the same manner it seemes Meâ—eager was tormented by his mother the Witch Althaea who in the fatall Brand burned him aliue as it is expressed at large by Ouid in his Metamorph. The like effacinations wee haue had practised in our memorie euen vpon the person of Queene Elizabeth A woman of good credit and reputation whom I haue knowne aboue these foure and twentie yeares and is of the same parish where I now liue hath often related vnto me vpon her credit with manie deepe protestations whose words I haue heard confirmed by such as were then passengers with her in the same ship That comming from the Landsgraues Court of Hessen where shee had beene brought a bed to trauaile for England and staying something long for a passage at Amsterdam either her businesse or the wind detaining her there somewhat longer than her purpose 7 an old woman of the towne entreated her to lend her some money of a Ketâ—â—e which she did knowing it to be seruiceable for her to keepe a Charcoale fire in at Sea to comfort her and her child When the wind stood faire and that she with her seruants had bargained for their passage and they were readie to go aboord she sent for this woman to know if shee would redeeme her pawne for shee was now readie to leaue the towne and depart for her countrey The old woman came humbly entreating her she would not beare away her Kettle notwithstanding she had as then no money to repay of that she had borrowed but hoped that she was a good gentlewoman and would proue her good mistresse c. she answered her againe That she had lent her so much mony and hauing a pawne sufficient in her hand finding it necessarie for her purpose she would make the best vse of it she could a shipboord The old woman finding her resolute left her with these words Why then saith shee carrie it away if thou canst Marry and I will crie what I can doe replyed she againe and so they parted The Maister called aboord the wind stood faire the Sea was calme and the weather pleasant but they had not beene many houres at Sea when there arose a suddaine sad and terrible tempest as if the winds and waters had beene at dissention and the distempered ayre at warre with both A mightie storme there arose insomuch that the Maister protested that in his life time he had not seene the like and being in despaire of shipwracke desired both Saylers and passengers to betake themselues to their prayers This word came from them that laboured aboue the Harches to those that were stowed vnder their present feare made them truly apprehend the danger and betake themselues to their deuotions when suddenly one casting vp his eyes espyed an old woman sitting on the top of the maine Mast the Maister saw her and all those that were aboue being at the sight much amased The rumor of this went downe which the gentlewoman hearing who was then sitting with her child in her Cabbin warming it ouer a Charcoale fire made in the Kettle O God sayth she remembring her former words then the old woman is come after me for her Kettle the Maister apprehending the businesse Marrie and then let her haue it saith he and takes the Kettle coales and all and casts them ouer-boord into the Sea This was no sooner done but the Witch dismounts her selfe from the Mast goes aboord the Brasse Kettle and in a moment sailes out of sight the Ayre cleared the
his ieast notwithstanding his bonds and captiuitie thus answered If I cannot be assured of safetie till I be brought before the eyes of your king Antigonus he hauing but one eye for he had lost the other in battaile what then shall become of me At which words Antigonus being enraged caused him instantly to be slaine who had he kept his tongue might haue beene sent home safe and ransomelesse Fulgos. Lib. 8. cap. 1. Plautus in Asinaria thus reprooues your verbositie Nam multum loquaces merito habemur omnes Nec mutam profecto repertam vllam esse Hodie dicunt mulierem illo in seculo Great praters all we women are they say And full of words there 's not amongst vs found Any that can keepe silence but betray Our selues we must and seeke the whole world round If then Loquacitie be so reproueable in your Sex how ill then would Lyes which women tearme Excuses appeare in your mouthes For who will beleeue the chastitie of your Liues that finds no truth in your Lippes It is reported of two Beggars who watching Epiphanius a zealous and charitable man as he came forth of his gates to gaine of him the greater almes the one of them fell prostrate vpon the earth and counterfeited himselfe dead whilest the other seemed pittiously to lament the death of his companion desiring of Epiphanius something towards his buriall The good man wished rest to the bodie diseased and drawing out his Purse gaue bountifully towards his Funerall with these words Take charge of his Corse and cease mourning my sonne for this bodie shall not presently rise againe and so departed who was no sooner gone but the Beggar commending his fellow for so cunningly dissembling iogges him on the elbow and bids him rise that they might be gone but he was iustly punisht for his dissimulation for he was strucke dead by the hand of Heauen which his fellow seeing ran after Epiphanius with all the speed he could make desiring him humbly to rayse his companion againe to life to whom he answered The Iudgements of God once past are vnchangeable therefore what hath happened beare with what patience thou canst Zozomenus Lib. 7. cap. 26. Therefore Plantus in Mercatore thus sayth Mihi scelus videtur me parenti proloqui mendacium i. It appeares a heynous thing to me to lye to my father If Lying be so detestable what may we thinke of Periurie The Indians vsed to sweare by the water Sandaracines a floud so called and who violated that Oath was punished with death or else they were curtailed of their Toes and Fingers In Sardinia was a Water in which if the Periurer washt his eyes hee was instantly strucke blind but the innocent departed thence purer in his fame and more perfect in his sight Alex. Lib. 5. cap. 10. Miraculous are those Ponds in Sicilia called Palici neere to the riner Simethus where Truths and Falsehoods were strangely distinguished The Oathes of men and women being written in Tables and cast in them the Truths swum aboue water and the Lyes sunke downe to the bottome All such as forswore themselues washing in these waters dyed not long after but others returned thence with more validitie and strength The sinne of Periurie was hatefull amongst the Aegyptians and the punishment fearefull All Periurers had their heads cut off as those that had two wayes offended in their pietie towards the gods and in their faith to men Diodor. Sicul. Lib. 2. cap. 2. de rebus antiquis From instructing your Tongues I come next to your Attyres but hauing touched it elsewhere I will onely speake of the iust Taxation luxurious Habite or prodigalitie in Apparrell hath been branded with in all ages and reprooued in all persons especially in such whose garments exceed their estates which argues apparant pride or such as pretend to be meere Fashion-mongers pursuing euery fantasticke and outlandish garbe and such may iustly be reprooued of folly but since they are both so common in our Nation to discouer both too plainely I should but contend against custome and seeking to please few offend many There was a Law amongst the Grecians That all such as vainely spent their patrimonie either in riotous excesse or prodigalitie in attyre as well women as men were not suffered to be buried in the sepulchres of their fathers Alex. Lib. 6. cap. 14. So hatefull was sprucenesse in habite and effeminacie amongst the Macedonians that Philip the father of Alexander depriued a Nobleman of Tarentum of all his Honours and Offices because hee but delighted in warme Bathes thus reproouing him It seemes thou art neither acquainted with the customes nor manners of the Macedonians amongst whom thou hast not once heard of a woman though great with child that euer washt but in cold water I see not how that which is so reprooueable in men can be any way commendable in women What shall we thinke then of those affected pleasures now adayes so much in vse as Riots Reuels Banquets Pride Surfets Vinocitie Voracitie which as in men I meane being vsed in excesse they appeare odious so in young Virgins in whom should be nothing but affected Modestie in married Wiues that ought to be presidents of Chastitie and temperate and graue Matrons that should be the patternes and imitable obiects of sincere Vertue they cannot but shew abhominable The inconuenience of these Excesses Silius Italicus well obserued Lib. 15. de Bello Punici when he thus said Inde aspice late Florentes quondam luxus quas vertitit vrbes Quippe nec Ira Deum tantum nec tela c. Thence looke abroad and see How many flourishing Cities ruin'd bee Famous of old since neither the Gods Rage The hostile Weapon nor the Enemies strage Hath ruin'd Man in that abundant measure As Riot hath mixt with vnlawfull pleasure These are the sinnes that punish themselues who as it is said of Lust carrie their owne whips at their girdles I was bold in some part of this Worke presuming on the goodnesse of your Sex as to say There was no excellent gift in man which was not in some sort paralleld by one woman or other Therefore if any of you haue beene or are still addicted to these enormities I entreat them but to remember what is writ of Themistocles who in his youth was so wholly giuen ouer to all dissolutenesse namely these two excesses Wine and Women that his father banished him his house and his owne mother through griefe strangled her selfe Valer. Max. Lib. 6. cap. 11 But after Miltiades was made Generall and fought that memorable battaile at Marathon in which against infinite oddes hee defeated the Barbarians there was neuer any thing seene or knowne in him which was not modest and comely And being demanded how hee came so suddainely changed Militia inquit c. The thought of Warre saith hee will admit neither slouth in me nor wantonnesse Plutarch in Grecor Apotheg Would you but entertaine into your thoughts as