Or that some fair object so forcibly moves them, they cannot contain themselves, be it heard or seen they will be at it. * Nessus the Centaure was by agreement to carry Hercules and his wife over the river Evenus; no sooner had he set Dianira on the other side, but he would have offered violence unto her, leaving Hercules to swim over as he could: and though her husband was a spectator, yet would he not desist till Hercules with a poysoned arrow shot him to death. + Neptune saw by chance that Thessalian Tyro, Eunippius' wife, he forthwith, in the fury of his lust, counterfeited her husband's habit, and made him cuckold. Tarquin heard Collatine commend his wife, and was so far enraged, that in midst of the night to her he went. Theseus stole Ariadne, vi rapuit that Trazenian Anaxa, Antiope, and now being old, Helena a girle not yet ready for an husband. Great men are most part thus affected all, as an horse they neigh, saith " Jeremiah, after their neighbour's wives,

-" ut visa pullus adhinnit equa :"

And if they be in company with other women, though in their own wives' presence, they must be courting and dallying with them. Juno in Lucian complains of Jupiter that he was still kissing Ganymede before her face, which did not a little offend her: And besides he was a counterfeit Amphitryo, a bull, a swan, a golden shower, and plaid many such bad pranks, too long, too shameful to relate.

Or that they care little for their own Ladies, and fear no Lawes, they dare freely keep whores at their wives' noses. 'Tis too frequent with noble men to be dishonest; Pietas, probitas, fides, privata bona sunt, as he said long since, piety, chastity, and such like vertues are for private men: not to be much looked after in great Courts: And which Suetonius of the good Princes of his time, they might be all engraven in one ring, we may truely hold of chast potentates of our age. For great personages will familiarly run out in this kind, and yield occasion of offence. Montaigne, in his essayes, gives instance in Cæsar, Mahomet the Turk, that sacked Constantinople, and Ladislaus King of Naples that besieged Florence: great men, and great souldiers, are commonly great, &c. probatum est, they are good doers. Mars and Venus are equally ballanced in their actions,

Militis in galea nidum fecêre columbæ,
Apparet Marti quam sit amica Venus.

*Ovid lib. 9. Met. Pausanias Strabo, quum crevit imbribus hyemalibus. Dianeiram suscipit, Herculem nando sequi jubet. + Lucian tom. 4.

tarch.

Cap. 5. 8. • Seneca.

Lib. 2. cap. 23.
Ff 4

+ PluPetronius Catal A dove

"A dove within a head-piece made her nest,
'Twixt Mars and Venus see an interest."

Especially if they be bald, for bald men have ever been suspi tious (read more in Aristotle Sect. 4. prob. 19.) as Galba, Otho, Domitian, and remarkable Cæsar amongst the rest, *Urbani servate uxores, machum calvum adducimus; besides, this bald Cæsar, saith Curio in Sueton, was omnium mulierum vir; he made love to Eunoe, Queen of Mauritania, to Cleopatra, to Posthumia wife to Sergius Sulpitius, to Lollia wife to Gabinius, to Tertulla of Crassus, to Mutia Pompey's wife, and I know not how many besides : And well he might, for if all be true that I have read, he had a licence to lye with whom he list. Inter alios honores Cesari decretos (as Sueton, cap. 52. de Julio, and Dion lib. 44. relate) jus illi datum, cum quibuscunque fœminis se jungendi. Every private history will yield such variety of instances: Otherwise good, wise, discreet men, vertuous and valiant, but too faulty in this. Priamus had fifty sons, but seventeen alone lawfully begotten. Philippus bonus left fourteen bastards. Laurence Medices, a good Prince and a wise, but, saith Machiavel, prodigiously lascivious. None so valiant as Castruccius Castrucanus, but as the said Author hath it, none so incontinent as he was. And 'tis not only predominant in Grandies this fault: but if you will take a great man's testimony, 'tis familiar with every base souldier in France, (and elsewhere I think) "This vice († saith mine Author) is so common with us in France, that he is of no accompt, a meer coward, not worthy the name of a souldier, that is not a notorious whoremaster." In Italy he is not a gentleman, that besides his wife hath not a Courtesan and a mistress. 'Tis no marvel then, if poor women in such cases be jealous, when they shall see themselves manifestly neglected, contemned, loathed, unkindly used: their disloyal husbands to entertain others in their rooms, and many times to court Ladies to their faces other mens' wives to wear their jewels: how shall a poor woman in such a case moderate her passion?

"Quis tibi nunc Dido cernenti talia sensus ?”

How on the other side shall a poor man contain himself from this feral malady, when he shall see so manifest signes of his wive's inconstancy? when as Milo's wife she dotes upon every yong man she sees, or as Martial's Sota,

Lib. 8. Flor. hist. Dux omnium * Vita Castruccii.

optimus & sapientissimus, sed in re venerea prodigiosus. Idem uxores maritis abalienavit.

+Seselius lib. 2. de Repub. Gallorum.

Ita nunc apud infimos obtinuit hoc vitium, ut nullius fere pretii sit, & ignavus miles qui non in scortatione maxime excellat, & adulterio.

Epig. 9. lib. 4.

Virg. Æn. 4.

"deserto sequitur Clitum marito."

Though her husband be proper and tall, fair and lovely to behold, able to give contentment to any one woman, yet she will taste of the forbidden fruit: Juvenal's Iberina to an hair, she is as well pleased with one eye as one man. If a yong gallant come by chance into her presence, a Fastidious Brisk, that can wear his cloaths well in fashion, with a lock, gingling spur, a feather, that can cringe, and withal complement, court a Gentlewoman, she raves upon him, "O what a lovely proper man he was," another Hector, an Alexander, a goodly man, a demi-god, how sweetly he carried himself, with how comely a grace, sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic ora ferebat, how neatly he did wear his cloaths!

« * Quam sese ore ferens, quam forti pectore & armis,"

how bravely did he discourse, ride, sing and dance, &c. and then she begins to loath her husband, repugnans osculatur, to hate him and his filthy beard, his goatish complexion, as Doris said of Polyphemus, + totus qui saniem, totus ut hircus olet, he is a rammy fulsome fellow, a goblin faced fellow, he smels, he stinks,

"Et cæpas simul alliumque ructat"

si quando ad thalamum, &c. how like a dizard, a fool, an asse he looks, how like a clown he behaves himself! she will not come neer him by her good will, but wholly rejects him, as Venus did her fuliginous Vulcan, at last,

"Nec Deus hunc mensâ, Dea nec dignata cubili est.”

So did Lucretia a Lady of Senæ, after she had but seen Eurialus, in Eurialum tota ferebatur, domum reversa, &c. she would not hold her eys off him in his presence,

§ tantum egregio decus enitet ore,"

and in his absence could think of none but him, odit virum, she loathed her husband forthwith, might not abide him.

"Et conjugalis negligens tori, viro
Præsente, acerbo nauseat fastidio."

All against the Laws of Matrimony,
She did abhor her husband's Phisnomy,

and sought all opportunity to see her sweet heart again. Now when the good man shall observe his wife so lightly given, "to

be so free and familiar with every gallant, her immodesty and wantonness," (as Camerarius notes) it must needs yield matter of suspition to him, when she still pranks up her self beyond her means and fortunes, makes impertinent journeys, unnecessary visitations, staics out so long, with such and such companions, so frequently goes to plays, masks, feasts, and all publique meetings, shall use such immodest gestures, free speeches, and withal shew some distast of her own husband; how can he chuse, though he were another Socrates, but be suspitious, and instantly jealous?

"

"* Socraticas tandem faciet transcendere metas ;"

More especially when he shall take notice of their more secret and sly tricks, which to cornute their husbands they commonly use, (dum ludis, ludos hæc te facit) they pretend love, honour, chastity, and seem to respect them before all men living, Saints in shew, so cunningly can they dissemble, they will not so much as look upon another man, in his presence, so chaste, so religious, and so devout, they cannot endure the name or sight of a quean, an harlot, out upon her? and in their outward carriage are most loving and officious, will kiss their husband, and hang about his neck, (dear husband, sweet husband) and with a composed countenance, salute him, especially when he comes home, or if he go from home, weep, sigh, lament, and take upon them to be sick and swoune, (like Jocundo's wife in Ariosto, when her husband was to depart) and yet arrant, &c. they care not for him,

Aye me, the thought (quoth she) makes me so fraid,
That scarce the breath abideth in my brest ;

Peace my sweet love and wife, Jocundo said,

And weeps as fast, and comforts her his best, &c.

All this might not asswage the woman's pain,
Needs must I die before you come again,

Nor how to keep my life I can devise,

The doleful days and nights I shall sustain,

From meat my mouth, from sleep will keep mine eys, &c.

That very night that went before the morrow,

That he had pointed surely to depart,

Jocundo's wife was sick, and swoun'd for sorrow

Amid his arms, so heavy was her heart.

And yet for all these counterfeit tears and protestations, Jocundo coming back in all haste for a Jewel he had forgot,

Cont. 2. ca. 38 Oper. subcis. mulieris liberius & familiarius communicantis cum omnibus licentia & immodestia, sinistri sermonis & suspitionis materiam viro præbet. "Voces liberæ, oculorum colloquia, contractationes parum verecundæ, motus immodici, &c. Heinsius. is not prejudicial to honest women.

*Chaloner.

Lib. 28. sc. 13.

What is here said,

His

His chaste and yoke-fellow he found

Yok't with a knave, all honesty neglected,
The adulterer sleeping very sound,

Yet by his face was easily detected:

A beggar's brat bred by him from his cradle,
And now was riding on his master's saddle.

Thus can they cunningly counterfeit, as y Platina describes their customes, "kiss their husbands whom they had rather see hanging on a Gallowes, and swear they love him dearer then their own lives, whose soul they would not ransome for their little dog's ;"

"similis si permutatio detur,

Morte viri cupiunt animam servare catellæ. Many of them seem to be precise and holy forsooth, and will go to such a Church, to hear such a good man by all means, an excellent man, when 'tis for no other intent, (as he follows it) then "to see and to be seen, to observe what fashions are in use, to meet some Pander, Bawd, Monk, Frier, or to entise some good fellow." For they perswade themselves, as a Nevisanus shews, "That it is neither sin nor shame to lye with a Lord or a parish Priest, if he be a proper man; b and though she kneele often, and pray devoutly, 'tis (saith Platina) not for her husband's welfare, or children's good, or any friend, but for her sweet-heart's return, her Pander's health." If her husband would have her go, she fains her self sick, Et simulat subitò condoluisse caput: her head akes, and she cannot stir: but if 'her Paramour ask as much, she is for him in all seasons, at all hours of the night. In the Kingdome of Malabar, and about Goa in the East-Indies, the women are so subtile, that with a certain drink they give them to drive away cares as they say, "they will make them sleep for twenty foure houres, or so intoxicate them, that they can remember naught of that they saw done, or heard, and by washing of their feet, restore them again, and so make their husbands cuckolds to their faces." Some are ill disposed at all times, to all persons they like, others more wary to some few, at such and such seasons, as Au

C

Dial. amor. Pendet fallax & blanda circa oscula mariti, quem in cruce, si fieri posset, deosculari velit : Illius vitam chariorem esse sua jurejurando affirmat: quem certe nom redimeret animâ catelli si posset. • Adeunt templum ut rem divinam audiant, ut ipsæ simulant, sed vel ut Monachum fratrem, vel adulterum lingua, oculis, ad libidinem provocent. * Lib. 4. num. 81. Ipse sibi persuadent, quod adulterium cum Principe vel cum Præsule, non est pudor, nec pec. catum. Deum rogat, non pro salute mariti, filii, cognati vota suscipit, sed pro reditu mæchi si abest, pro valetudine lenonis si ægrotet. < Tibullus. 4 Gortardus Arthus descrip. Indie Orient. Linchoften. Garcias ab Horto hist. lib.

2. cap. 24. Daturam herbam vocat & describit, Tam proclives sunt ad venerem mulieres ut viros inebrient per 24 horas, liquore quodam, ut nihil videant, recor. dentur, at dormiant, & post lotionem pedum, ad se restituunt, &c.

gusta

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