a fellow out of Seneca, that was so besotted on his wife, he could not endure a moment out of her company, he wore her scarfe when he went abroad next his heart, and would never drink but in that cup she began first. We have many such fondlings that are their wives packhorses and slaves, (nam grave malum uxor superans virum suum, as the Comical Poet hath it, there's no greater misery to a man than to let his wife domineer) to carry her muffe, dog, and fan, let her wear the breeches, lay out, spend and do what she will, go and come whither, when she will, they give consent. Here take my muffe, and do you hear good man; -"poscit pallam, redimicula, inaures; many brave and worthy men have trespassed in this kinde, multos foràs claros domestica hæc destruxit infamia, and many noble Senators and souldiers (as † Pliny notes) have lost their honour, in being urorii, so sottishly overruled by their wives; and therefore Čato in Plutarch made a bitter jest on his fellow Citizens, the Romanes, "we govern all the world abroad, and our wives at home rule us." These offend in one extream; But too hard and too severe, are far more offensive on the other. As just a cause may be long absence of either party, when they must of necessity be much from home, as Lawyers, Physitians, Marriners, by their professions; or other. wise make frivolous, impertinent journeyes, tarry long abroad to no purpose, lie out, and are gadding still, upon small occasions, it must needs yeeld matter of suspition, when they use their wives unkindly in the mean time, and never tarry at home, it cannot use but ingender some such conceit. " Uxor si cessas amare te cogitat Aut tete amari, aut potare, aut animo obsequi, If thou be absent long, thy wife then thinks, Hippocrates the Physitian had a smack of this disease; for when he was to go from home as far as Abdera, and some Exiturus fascia uxoris pectus alligabat, nec momento præsentia ejus carere poterat, potumque non hauriebat nisi prægustatum labris ejus. * Chaloner. Panegyn Trajano. 4 Ter. Adelph. Act. 1. sce. 1. 1 other t other remote cities of Greece, he writ to his friend Dionysius (if at least those Epistles be his) "to oversee his wife in his absence, (as Apollo set a Raven to watch his Coronis) although she lived in his house with her father and mother, whom he knew would have a care of her; yet that would not satisfie his jealousie, he would have his speciall friend Dionysius to dwell in his house with her all the time of his peregrination, and to observe her behaviour, how she carried her self in he, husband's absence, and that she did not lust after other men. For a woman had need to have an overseer to keep her honest; they are bad by nature, and lightly given all, and if they be not curbed in time, as an unproyned tree, they will be full of wild branches, and degenerate of a sudden." Especially in their husbands' absence: though one Lucretia were trusty, and one Penelope, yet Clytemnestra made Agamemnon cuckold; and no question there be too many of her conditions. If their husbands tarry too long abroad upon unnecessary business, well they may suspect: or if they run one way, their wives at home will flie out another, Quid pro quo. Or if present, and give them not that content which they ought, Primum ingrate, mox invisa noctes quæ per somnum transiguntur, they cannot endure to lie alone, or to fast long. * Peter Godefridus in his second book of love, and sixt chapter, hath a story out of S. Anthonie's life, of a Gentleman, who, by that good man's advise, would not meddle with his wife in the passion week, but for his pains she set a pair of horns on his head. Such another he hath out of Abstemius, one perswaded a new married man," to forbear the three first nights, and he should all his life time after be fortunate in cattle," but his impatient wife would not tarry so long: well he might speed in cattle, but not in children. Such a tale hath Heinsius of an impotent and slack scholler, a meer student, and a friend of his, that seeing by chance a fine damsel sing and dance, would needs marry her, the match was soon made, for he was young and rich, genis gratus, corpore glabellus, arte multiscius, &fortuná opulentus, like that Apollo in Apuleius. The first Fab. Calvo. Ravennate interprete. • Dum rediero domum meam habi. tabis, & licet cum parentibus habitet hac mea peregrinatione; eam tamen & ejus mores observabis uti absentia viri sui probe degat, nec alios v.ros cogitet aut quærat. Fœmina semper custode eget qui se pudicam contineat; suapte enim natura nequitias insitas habet, quas nisi indies comprimat, ut arbores stolones emittunt, &c. "Heinsius. * Uxor cujusdam nobilis quum debitum maritale sacro passionis hebdomada non obtineret, alterum adiit. y Ne tribus prioribus noctibus rem haberet cum ea, ut esset in pecoribus fortunatus, ab uxore moræ impatiente, &c. - Totam noctem bene & pudicè nemini molestus dormiendo transegit; mane autem quum nullius conscius facinoris sibi esset, & inertiæ puderet, audisse se dicebat cum dolore calculi solere eam conflictari. Duo præcepta juris unâ nocte expressit, neminem læserat & honeste vixerat, sed an suum cuique reddidisset, quæri poterat. Mutlus opinor & Trebatius hoc negassent. lib. 1. Ff 2 night, night, having liberally taken his liquor (as in that countrey they do) my fine scholler was so fusled, that he no sooner was laid in bed, but he fell fast asleep, never waked till morning, and then much abashed, purpureis formosa rosis cum Aurora ruberet, when the fair morn with purple hue gan shine, he made an excuse, I know not what, out of Hippocrates Cous, &c. and for that time it went currant; but when as afterward he did not play the man as he should do, she fell in league with a good fellow, and whil'st he sate up late at his study about those Criticismes, mending some hard places in Festus or Pollux, came cold to bed, and would tell her still what he had done, she did not much regard what he said, &c. "a She would have another matter mended much rather, which he did not perceive was corrupt:" thus he continued at his study late, she at her sport, alibi enim festivas noctes agitabat, hating all schollers for his sake, till at length he began to suspect, and turned a little yellow, as well he might; for it was his own fault; and if men be jealous in such cases (as oft it falls out) the mends is in their own hands, they must thank themselves. Who will pitie them, saith Neander, or be much offended with such wives, si deceptæ prius viros decipiant, & cornutos reddant, if they deceive those that cozened them first? A Lawyer's wife in Aristænetus, because her husband was negligent in his business, quando lecto danda opera, threatened to cornute him: and did not stick to tell Philinna one of her gossips as much, and that aloud for him to hear: "If he follow other men's matters and leave his own, Ile have an Orator shall plead my cause," I care not if he know it. A fourth eminent cause of jealousie may be this, when he that is deformed, and as Pindarus of Vulcan, sine gratiis natus, hirsute, ragged, yet vertuously given, will marry some fair nice peece, or light huswife, begins to misdoubt (as well he may) she doth not affect him. < Lis est cum formá magna pudicitiæ, Beautie and honesty have ever been at oddes. Abraham was jealous of his wife because she was fair: so was Vulcan of his Venus, when he made her creeking shooes, saith + Philostratus, ne macharetur, sandalio scilicet deferente, That he might hear by them when she stirred, which Mars indignè ferre, was not well pleased with. Good cause had Vulcan to do as he did, for she was no honester then she should be. Your fine faces have commonly this fault, and it is hard to • Alterius loci emendationem serio optabat, quem corruptum esse ille non invenit. Such another tale is in Neander de Jocoseriis his first tale. * Lib. 2. Ep. 3. Si pergit alienis negotiis operam dare sui negligens, erit alius mihi orator qui rem meam agat. • Ovid. rara est concordia formæ atque pudicitiæ. + Epist. Quod strideret ejus calceamentum. 4 finde, finde, saith Francis Philelphus in an epistle to Saxola his friend, a rich man honest, a proper woman not proud or unchast. "Can she be fair and honest too?" « * Sape etenim occuluit picta sese Hydra sub herba, He that marries a wife that is snowt fair alone, let him look saith Barbarus for no better successe than Vulcan had with Venus, or Claudius with Messalina. And 'tis impossible almost in such cases the wife should contain, or the good man not be jealous: for when he is so defective, weak, ill proportioned, unpleasing in those parts which women most affect, and she most absolutely fair and able on the other side, if she be not very vertuously given, how can she love him? and although she be not fair, yet if he admire her and think her so, in his conceit she is absolute, he holds it unpossible for any man living not to dote as he doth, to look on her and not lust, not to covet, and if he be in company with her, not to lay seige to her honestie: or else out of a deep apprehension of his infirmities, deformities, and other men's good parts, out of his own little worth and desert, he distrusts himself, (for what is jealousie but distrust?) he suspects she cannot affect him, or be not so kinde and loving as she should, she certainly loves some other man better then himself. • Nevisanus lib. 4. num. 72. will have barrenness to be a main cause of Jealousie. If her husband cannot play the man, some other shall, they will leave no remedies unassayed, and thereupon the good inan growes jealous, I could give an instance, but be it as it is. I finde this reason given by some men, because they have been formerly naught themselves, they think they may be so served by others, they turned up trumpe before the Cards were shuffled; they shall have therefore legem talionis, like for like. "'Ipse miser docui, quo posset ludere pacto Wrecth as I was, I taught her bad to be, And now mine own sly tricks are put upon me. Mala mens, malus animus, as the saying is, ill dispositions cause ill suspitions. De re uxoria lib. 1. cap. 5. • Cum steriles sunt, ex * Hor. epist. 15. mutatione viri se putant eoncipere. Ff 3 • There There is none jealous I durst pawne my life, And for that he himself hath gone astray, He straightway thinks his wife will tread that way. To these two above named causes, or incendiaries of this rage, I may very well annex those circumstances of time, place, persons, by which it ebbes and flowes, the fewell of this furie, as Vives truely observes; and such like accidents or occasions, proceeding from the parties themselves, or others, which much aggravate and intend this suspitious humour. For many men are so lasciviously given, either out of a depraved nature, or too much liberty, which they do assume unto themselves, by reason of their greatness, in that they are noble men, (for licentia peccandi, & multitudo peccantium are great motives) though their own wives be never so fair, noble, vertuous, ho nest, wise, able, and well given, they must have change. "Qui cum legitimi junguntur fœdere lecti, Who being match'd to wives most vertuous, Quod licet ingratum est, that which is ordinary, is unpleasant. Nero (saith Tacitus) abhorred Octavia his own wife, a noble vertuous Lady, and loved Acte a base queane in respect. +Cerinthus rejected Sulpitia, a noble man's daughter, and courted a poor servant maid. -"tanta est alienâ in messe voluptas," for that "stolne waters be more pleasant:" or as Vitellius the Emperour was wont to say, Jucundiores amores, qui cum periculo habentur, like stolne Venison, still the sweetest is that love which is most difficultly attained: they like better to hunt by stealth in another man's walk, then to have the fairest course that may be at game of their own. "Aspice ut in cœlo modò sol, modò luna ministret, As Sun and Moon in Heaven change their course, Wither's Sat. 3. de Anima. Crescit ac decrescit zelotypia cum personis, locis, temporibus, negotiis, 1 Propert, eleg. 2. i Marullus. + Tibullus Epig. * Prov. 9. 17. Or |