meat, or converse with any man; and though she were with child, the season of the yeer very bad, the winde against her, in all haste she would to sea after him. Neither Isabella her Queen mother, the Archbishop, or any other friend could perswade her to the contrary, but she would after him. When she was now come into the Low-countries, and kindly entertained by her husband, she could not contain herself," but in a' rage ran upon a yellow haired wench," with whom she suspected her husband to be nought, "cut off her hair, did beat her black and blew, and so dragged her about." It is an ordinary thing for women in such cases to scrat the faces, slit the noses of such as they suspect; as Henry the second's importune Juno did by Rosamond at Woodstock: for she complains in a moderne Poet, she scarce spake, But flies with eager fury to my face, So fell she on me in outrageous wise, Or if it be so they dare not or cannot execute any such tyrannical injustice, they will miscall, rail and revile, bear them deadly hate and malice, as P Tacitus observes, "The hatred of a jealous woman is inseparable against such as she suspects." "Nulla vis flammæ tumidique venti Quantu cùm conjux viduata tædis Ardet & odit. Windes, weapons, flames make not such hurly burly, So did Agrippina by Lollia, and Calphurnia in the dayes of Claudius. But women are sufficiently curbed in such cases, the rage of men is more eminent, and frequently put in practice. See but with what rigour those jealous husbands tyrannize over their poor wives. In Greece, Spain, Italy, Turkie, Africk, Asia, and generally over all those hot countries, ‡ Mulieres vestræ terra vestra, arate sicut vultis, Mahomet in his Alcoran gives this power to men, your wives are as your land, till them, use them, intreat them fair or foul, as you will your selves. "(§ Mecastor lege durâ vivunt mulieres,) Rabie conceptà, cæsariem abrasit, puellæq; mirabiliter insultans faciem vibicibus fædavite * Daniel. Annal. Itb. 12. Principis mulieris zelotype estin alias mulieres quas suspectas habet, odium inseparabile. + Seneca in Medeao Alcoran cap. Bovis, interprete Ricardo præd. c. 8. Confutationis: Plautus. VOL. II. Gg they they lock them still in their houses, which are so many prisons to them, will suffer no body to come at them, or their wives to be seen abroad, "nec campos liceat lustrare patentes." They must not so much as look out. And if they be great per sons, they have Eunuchs to keep them, as the Grand Seignior among the Turks, the Sophies of Persia, those Tartarian Mogors, and Kings of China. Infantes masculos castrant innumeros ut regi serviant, saith Riccius, "they geld innumerable infants" to this purpose; the King of China "maintains 10000 Eunuchs in his family to keep his wives." The Xeriffes of Barbary keep their Curtezans in such a strict manner, that if any man come but in sight of them he dies for it; and if they chance to see a man, and do not instantly cry out, though from their windows, they must be put to death. The Turks have I know not how many black deformed Eunuchs (for the white serve for other ministeries) to this purpose sent commonly from Egypt, deprived in their childhood of all their privities, and brought up in the Seraglie at Constantinople to keep their wives; which are so penned up they may not confer with any living man, or converse with younger women, have a Cucum. ber or Carret sent into them for their diet, but sliced, for fear, &c. and so live and are left alone to their unchaste thoughts all the dayes of their lives. The vulgar sort of women, if at any time they come abroad, which is very seldome, to visit one another, or to go to their Bathes, are so covered, that no man can see. then, as the matrons were in old Rome, lecticâ aut sellä tectá vectæ, so Dion and Seneca record, Velate tota incedunt, which Alexander ab Alexandro relates of the Parthians, lib. 5. cap. 24. which, with Andreas Tiraquellus his Commentator, I rather think should be understood of Persians. I have not yet said all, they do not onely lock them up, sed & pudendis seras adhibent: hear what Bembus relates lib. 6. of his Venetian History, of those inhabitants that dwell about Quiloa in Africk. Lusitani, inquit, quorundam civitates adierunt, qui natis statim feminis naturum consuunt, quoad urinæ exitus ne impediatur, easque quum adoleverint sic consutas in matrimonium collocant, ut sponsi prima cura sit conglutinatas puelle oras ferro interscindere. In some parts of Greece at this day, like those old Jews, they will not beleeve their wives are honest, nisi pannum menstruatum prima nocte videant: our Countryman Sands, in his peregrination, saith it is severely observed in Zazynthus, or Zante; and Leo Ater in his time at ◄ Expedit. in Sinas. 1. 3. c. 9. t • Decem Eunuchorum millia numerantur in regia familia, qui servant uxores ejus. * Lib. 57. ep. 81. servant in interioribus, ab corum conspectu immunes. 4 • Semotis à viris 'Lib. 1. fol. 7. Fez, Fez, in Africke, non credunt virginem esse nisi videant sangui. neam mappam; sinon, ad parentes pudore rejicitur. Those sheets are publikely shewed by their parents, and kept as a sign of incorrupt virginity. The Jews of old examined their maids ex tenui membrana, called Hymen, which Laurentius in his Anatomy, Columbus lib. 12. cap. 16. Capivaccius lib.4. cap. 11. de uteri affectibus, Vincent. Alsarus Genuensis quæsit. med. cent. 4. Hieronymus Mercurialis consult. Ambros. Pareus, Julius Cæsar Claudinus Respons. 4. as that also de "ruptura venarum ut sanguis fluat, copiously confute; 'tis no sufficient triall, they contend. And yet others again defend it, Gaspar Bartholinus Institut. Anat. lib. 1. cap. 31. Pinæus of Paris, Albertus Magnus de secret. mulier. cap. 9. & 10. &c. and think they speak too much in favour of women. * Ludovicus Boncialus, lib. 2. cap. 2. muliebr. naturalem illam uteri labiorum constrictionem, in qua virginitatem consistere volunt, astringentibus medicinis fieri posse vendicat, & sideflorate sint, astutæ mulieres (inquit) nos fallunt in his. Idem Alsarius Crucius Genuensis üsdem ferè verbis. Idem Avicenna lib. 3. Fen. 20. Tract. 1. cap. 47. + Rhasis Continent. lib. 24. Rodericus à Castro de nat. mul. lib. 1. cap. 3. An old baudy nurse in ‡ Aristænetus, (like that Spanish Cælestina, & que quinque mille virgines fecit mulieres, totidemque mulieres arte sua virgines) when a fair maid of her acquaintance wept and inade her moan to her, how she had been deflowred, and now ready to be married, was afraid it would be perceived, comfortably replyed, Noli vereri filia, &c. "Fear not, daughter, I'le teach thee a trick to help it. Sed hæc extra callem. To what end are all those astrologicall questions, an sit virgo, an sit casta, an sit mulier? and such strange absurd trials in Albertus Magnus, Bap. Porta, Mag. lib. 2. cap. 21. in Wecker. lib. 5. de secret. by Stones, perfumes, to make them pisse, and confess I know not what in their sleep; some jealous brain was the first founder of them. And to what passion may we ascribe those severe laws against jealousie, Num. 5. 14. Adulterers Deut. cap. 22. v. 22. as amongst the Hebrewes, amongst the Egyptians (reade ▾ Bohemus l. I. c. 5. de mor. gen. of the Carthaginians, cap. 6. of Turks, lib. 2. cap. 11.) amongst the Athenians of old, Italians at this day, wherein they are to be severely punished, cut in pieces, burned, vivi-comburio, buried alive, with severall expurgations, &c. are they not as so many symptomes of incredible Diruptiones hymenis sæpe fiunt à propriis digitis vel ab alis instrumentis. Idem Rhasis Arab, cont. * Ita clausæ pharmacis ut non possunt coitum exercere. + Qui & Pharmacum præscribit docetque. Epist. 6. Mercero Inter. Barthius. Ludus illi temeratum pudicitiæ florem mentitis machinis pro integro vendere. Ego docebo te, qui mulier ante nuptias sponso te probes virginem. 1 Qui mulierem violasset, virilia execabant, & mille virgas dabant Gg 2 jealousie? jealousie we may say the same of those Vestall virgins that fetched water in a Sive, as Tatia did in Rome, anno ab. urb. condita. 800. before the Senators; and *Emilia, virgo innocens, that ran over hot irons, as Emma, Edward the Confessor's mother did, the King himself being a spectator, with the like. We read in Nicephorus, that Chunegunda the wife of Henricus Bavarus Emperour, suspected of adultery, insimulata adulterii per ignitos vomeres illæsa transit, trod upon red hot coulters, and had no harm: such another story we finde in Regino lib. 2. In Aventinus and Sigonius of Charles the third and his wife Richarda, An. 887. that was so purged with hot irons. Pausanias saith, that he was once an eye-witness of such a miracle at Diana's temple, a maid without any harm at all walked upon burning coals. Pius secund. in his description of Europe, c. 46. relates as much, that it was commonly practised at Diana's Temple, for women to go barefoot over hot coals, to try their honesties; Plinius, Solinus, and many writers, make mention of * Feronia's Temple, and Dionysius Halicarnasseus, lib. 3. of Memnon's statue, which were used to this purpose. Tatius ib. 6. of Pan his Cave, (much like old St. Wilfride's needle in Yorkshire) wherein they did use to try maids, whether they were honest; when Leucippe went in, suavissimus exaudiri sonus capit. Austin. de cv. Dei lib. 10. c. 16. relates many such examples, all which Lavater de spectr. part. 1. cap. 19. contends to be done by the illusion of Devils; though Thomas quæst. 6. de potentia, &c. ascribe it to good Angels. Some, saith Austin, compell their wives to swear they be honest, as if perjury were a lesser sin than adultery; some consult Oracles, as Pharus that blinde King of Egypt. Others reward, as those old Romanes used to do; If a woman were contented with one man, Corona pudicitiæ donabatur, she had a crown of chastity bestowed on her. When all this will not serve, saith Alexander Gaguinus, cap. 5. descript. Muscovie, the Muscovites, if they suspect their wives, will beat them till they confess, and if that will not avail, like those wilde Irish, be divorced at their pleasures, or else knock them on the heads, as the old a Gaules have done in former ages. Of this tyrannie of Jealousie reade more in Parthenius Erot. cap. 10. Camerarius cap. 53. hor. subcis. & cent. 2. cap. 34. Cælia's Epistles, Tho. Chaloner de repub. Ang. lib. 9. Ariosto lib. 31. stasse 1. Fælix Platerus observat. lib. 1. &c. *Dion. Halic. Viridi gaudens Feronia luco. Virg. • Ismene was so tried by Diana's Well, in which maids did swimme, unchast were drowned, Eustathius lib. 8. Contra mendac. ad confess. 21. cap. Pharus Egypti rex captus oculis per decennium, oraculum consuluit de uxoris pudicitia. Herod. Euterp. + Cæsar. lib. 6. de bello Gall. vitæ necisque in uxores habuerunt potestatem. 1 MEMP. Prognostickes of Jealousie, Despair, Madness, to make away themselves and others. THO HOSE which are jealous, most part, if they be not otherwise relieved, proceed from suspition to hatred, from hatred to frenzie, inadness, injurie, murder and despair.' A plague by whose most damnable effect, In their madness many times, saith Vives, they make away themselves and others. Which induceth Cyprian to call it, Fecundam & multiplicem perniciem, fontem cladium & seminarium delictorum, a fruitful mischief, the seminary of offences, and fountain of murders. Tragical examples are too common in this kind, both new and old, in all ages, as of *Cephalus and Procris, Phærus of Egypt, Tereus, Atreus, and Thyestes. Alexander Phærus was murdered of his wife, ob pellicatús suspitionem, Tully saith. Antoninus Verus was so made away by Lucilla; Demetrius the son of Antigonus, and Nicanor, by their wives. Hercules poisoned by Deianira, Cæcinna murdered by Vespasian, Justina, a Romane Lady, by her husband. Amestris, Xerxes' wife, because she found her husband's cloak in Masista's house, cut off Masista, his wive's paps, and gave them to the dogs, flead her besides, and cut off her ears, lips, tongue, and slit the nose of Artaynta her daughter. Our late writers are full of such outrages. 1 Paulus Æmilius, in his History of France, hath a Tragicall story of Chilpericus the first his death, made away by Ferde Animi dolores & zelotypia si diutius perserverent, dementes reddunt. Acak. comment. in par. art. Galeni. • Ariosto lib. 31. staff. 6. f 3. de anima, c. 3. de zelotyp. transit in rabiem & odium, & sibi & aliis violentas sæpe manus injiciunt. * Higinus cap. 189. Ovid, &c. Phærus Egypti rex de cæcitate oraculum consulens, visum ei rediturum accepit, si oculos abluisset lo io mulieris que aliorum virorum esset expers; uxoris urinam expertus nihil profecit, & aliarum frustra, eas omnes (ea excepta per quam curatus fuit) unum in locum coactas concremavit. Herod. Euterp. ⚫ Offic. Jib. 2. Aurelius Victor. * Herod. lib. 9. in Calhope. Masistæ uxorem excarnificat, mammillas præscindit, easque canibus abjicit, filiæ nares præscidit, labra, guam, &c. Lib. 1. Dum formæ curandæ intenta capillum in sole pectit, à marito per lusum leviter percussa furtim superveniente viga, Risu suborto, mi Landrice dixit, frontem vir fortis petet, &c. Marito conspecto attonita, cum Landrico mox in ejus mortem conspirat, & statim inter venanZum efficit, Gg 3 gunde |