A petite pallace of Pettie his pleasure, containing many pretie histories

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A PETITE PALLACE OF PETTIE
HIS PLEASURE EDITED BY
PROFESSOR I. GOLLANCZ

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A petite Pallace

0/Tettie his pleafure:

Contapnpng man? pjette !£p(fojie$

by him fetfoorth in comply colours,

'

Qmnetulitpunflum,
jui mifcuft -vtile duld

A PETITE PALLACE OF
PETTIE BIS PLEASURE
CONTAINING MANY
PRETIE HISTORIES BY
HIM SET FORTH IN
COMELY COLOURS AND
MOST DELIGHTFULLY
DISCOURSED. VOL. I.

CHATTO AND WINDUS, PUBLISHERS
LONDON 1908

' ' IT is A WORLD TO SEE HOW ENGLISHMEN DESIRE TO HEAR
FINER SPEECH THAN THE LANGUAGE WILL ALLOW, TO EAT FINER
BREAD THAN is MADE OF WHEAT, TO WEAR FINER CLOTH THAN
is WROUGHT OF WOOL." — Lyly.

' // • r • \X

PREFACE
The Source of Euphuism. — Though "A

Petite Pallace of Pettle his Pleasure" is now first
edited in modern times, the book is well known to
students of literature as the direct precursor of Lyly's
Euphuism. It is generally accepted that Lyly found
in Pettie's less famous work "a complete model of
style, which he followed with hardly any, if any, addi
tion."1 The "Petite Pallace" has been re-discovered
in connexion with the fascinating investigation into
the history of Euphuism, its sources, and character
istics. John Lyly's direct debt has recently been
examined and illustrated by Mr. Warwick Bond, in

1 Warwick Bond : John Lyly, I. 136 ff. On the history
of Euphuism, cp. Landmann, Der Euphuismus : sein Wesen, seine
Quelle, seine Geschichte, 1881 ; C. G. Child, John Lyly and
Euphuisnty 1894, etc. Mr. Bond's Essay is a most noteworthy
•ummary of the whole subject, and as a contribution to the
study of Euphuism goes far beyond the work of his pre
decessors, more particularly in its many references to Pettie's
"Petite Pallace"

x PREFACE

his important edition of Lyly's works (Oxford,
1902). All the characteristics of Euphuism are dis
coverable in Pettie, namely, balance of phrases, anti
theses, rhetorical questions, alliteration (simple and
transverse), syllabic and verbal likeness, puns and
word-play, anecdotes, allusions (historical and mytho
logical), similes (from natural and unnatural philo
sophy), proverbs,1 the subordination of action to
discourse and reflections, " misogynist tirades " (though
both works are dedicated "to the Gentlewomen of
England ").2

All these elements of style Lyly worked up to a
degree far beyond that reached by Pettie ; and this is
especially noteworthy in the matter of similes derived
from beasts and precious stones — the most character
istic trick of the Euphuistic style. Drayton (" Of
Poets and Poesle ") praised Sidney, for that he

"did first reduce

Our tongue from Lillie's writing then in use ;
Talking of Stones, Stars, Plants, of Fishes, Flyes,
Playing with words, and idle similes."

1 A selection of typical proverbs and sayings will be found at
the end of the Preface.

2 These "tirades" were evidently intended to please and
amuse the ladies. Pettie « on women's rights " certainly shows
no rmsogynism, though charming banter ; II. 159. ,'.. «

PREFACE xl

There are but few references in Pettie's " Pallace "
to stones, stars, plants, fishes, and flies, and to
fabulous beasts, though Pettie's 'stone of Scilicia'1
suggested Lyly's * stone of Sicilia,' and Lyly ' pil
fered* from Pettie the simile of the * herb Camo
mile,'2 parodied by Falstaff. There are other
undoubted bits of evidence showing Lyly's debt to
Pettie in this respect ; Lyly took many a hint from
his predecessor, and bettered the example. The
Panther, the Phoenix, the Camelion, are met with in
Pettie, but one seeks in vain for Lyly's monstrosities
— 'the fish Scolopidus,' 'the serpent Porphyrius,'
and other beasts found in or evolved from Pliny's
Natural History, or from Pseudo-Plutarch.3

Since the appearance of Dr. Landmann's study of
Euphuism, it has become a commonplace of English
text-books to point to the Spaniard Guevara as the

1 II. 133 (is. Textual Notes).

2 Cp. I. 36.

3 Pettie's animal-references are to ape, ass, buck, bull,
camelion, cat, caterpillar, chick, cocatrice, cock, colt, coney,
cow, crow, deer, doe, dog, doves, ewe, falcon, fly, fox, gerfalcon,
gerkin, goshawk, greyhound, hare, hawk, horse, hound, humble-
bee, kite, lamb, lanar, lanaret, lark, lions, mare, mastiff, moth,
mouse, musket, ox, panther, partridge, ram, serpents, sheep,
snake, spaniel, sparrow-hawk, spider, stork, swallow, swan,
tassel-gentle, tiger, tossell, wolf, viper.

XI 1

PREFACE

direct model of Lyly's style, and more especially
to Sir Thomas North's translation, from the French,
of Guevara's " Marco Aurello" with the title of
"The Diall of Princes," 1557. True, many of the
devices of Lyly and Pettie may be found in Guevara,
but Pettie (with whom one must deal in the first
instance), so far as style is concerned, probably owed
little to Sir Thomas North or his original, though
both he and Lyly were indebted to " The Diall of
Princes" in respect of subject-matter. Pettie's style
was rather the direct outcome of the effort seen in
many directions at the period of the Revival of
Learning "to hear finer speech than the language
will allow, to eat finer bread than is made of
wheat, to wear finer cloth than is wrought of
wool."

The Sources of * A Petite Pallace.'— Ten

years before the appearance in 1576 of "A Petite.
Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure" there was published the
great storehouse of translated Italian and French
stories, Paynter's " Palace of Pleasure" With this
work Pettie was intimately acquainted ; and though
the title of his book may not have been chosen by
himself, it very happily indicates Pettie's debt to his
greater predecessor. There are allusions throughout

PREFACE xiii

"A Petite Paltace" to Paynter's stories, and especially
to those derived from Boccaccio and Bandello : e. g.
"Titus and Gisippus," "Zilia and Virle," "King
Edward and the Duchess of Salisbury," "The Duchess
of Savoy," "Romeo and Juliet," " Florinda and
Amadour," " Adalesia and Alerane," "Faustina,"
"Blanche Maria," "Angelica."1

Ovid, more particularly the Metamorphoses, perhaps
in Golding's rendering, supplied many references to
be found in Pettie's pages.2

The twelve stories in "A Petite Pallace" tell of
" Synorix and Camma," " Tereus and Progne,"
" Germanicus and Agrippina," " Amphiaraus and
Eriphyle," " Icilius and Virginia," " Admetus and
Alcestis," "Scylla and Minos," " Curiatius and
Horatia," " Cephalus and Procris," "Minos and
Pasiphae," " Pygmalion," and " Saint Alexius." Of

1 Cp. Dr. Emil Koeppel, Studien zur Geschichte der Italienischen
Novelle in der Englischen Litteratur da Sechzehnten Jahrhundcrts,
1892. Dr. Koeppel points out Pettie's debt to Paynter, referring
to the source in each of the instances noted above, and also
indicates Greene's debt to Pettie.

2 The spelling of some proper names, e.g. Ceny, Penthey,
Singer, etc., reminds one of Golding's forms. Occasionally
Pettie's diction recalls Golding. (Cp. Shakespeare's Ovid, being
Arthur Golding's translation of the Metamorphoses ; at the De La
More Press, 1904.)

xiv PREFACE

these twelve, with the exception of the last, all were
well-known classical tales ; and the novelty lay in
Pettie's method of dealing with the subjects, treating
the love-stories in a romantic manner, and suggesting
that though the stories were old, the names were
mere disguises for modern lovers. Accordingly he
takes liberties with his plots ; a good instance has
been noted in the case of the story of Eriphyle1
and her widowhood.

The story of " Synorix and Gamma " 2 is found in
" The Diall of Princes" but it was evidently popular in
Elizabethan times. There was a ballad on the theme
as early as 1569. It is found in Hoby's " Courtyer
of Count Baldessar Castillo" 1561. Dr. Koeppel
is inclined to point to an Italian origin for Pettie's
version, but this is by no means clear. The story is
treated in Pettie's characteristic manner ; he was no
doubt familiar with it from various sources.

From " the Legends of the Saints " Pettie drew
the last story : the story of St. Alexius was wide
spread in England from mediaeval times.

1 Cp. Koeppel.

2 Tennyson used this story for The Cup : he derived it from
Plutarch, De Mulier. Virt. He first read of the story in Lecky's
History of European Morals (cp. Memoir],

PREFACE xv

The author of the book. — Anthony a Wood

has given us an excellent account of George Pettie,
who was uncle to Wood's mother " Maria la Petite."
All we know of the author is based on Wood's
statement : —

" George Pettie a younger son of John le Petite or
Pettie of Tetsworth and Stoke-Talmach in Oxford
shire, esq. was born in that country, and at about
1 6 years of age, anno 1564, was a scholar or student
of Christ Church under Mr. Thomas Barnard canon
thereof, and took one degree in arts as a member of
that house in the latter end of the year 1568. Soon
after he left the university, travelled beyond the seas,
and at length became excellent for his passionate
penning of amorous stories, equal for poetical invention
with his dear friend William Gager, and as much
commended for his neat stile as any of his time. He
hath written a book, entituled, ' A Petite Palace of
Pettie his Pleasure, containing many pretty stories in
comely colours and most delightful discourses,'
written in imitation of a book endited, The Palace of
pleasure beautified, adorned and well furnished with pleasant
histories and excellent novels, etc., written by Will.
Painter, clerk of the ordnance and armory within the
Tower of London. The aforesaid Petite Palace I

xvi PREFACE

have in my study,1 and for the respect I bear to the
name of the author (he having been uncle to my
mother Maria la Petite) I will keep it ; but 'tis so
far now from being excellent or fine, that it is more
fit to be read by a schoolboy, or rustical amoretto,
than by a gent, of mode or language. The said
Pettie translated from French into English (with a
preface of his own put to it) The Civil Conversation
of M. Stephen Guazzo, in 4 books; written originally
in the Italian tongue, which I have also. Three of
the said books were translated by the said Pettie, the
fourth was begun by him, but finished by Bartholomew
Young of the Middle-Temple, gentleman, being the
same Bartholomew, as I think, who lived afterwards
at Ashhurst in Kent, and died there in 1621.

"What other matters G. Pettie hath written, or
translated, I cannot tell, nor do I know any thing
material of him besides, only that he died in the
prime of his years at Plymouth in Devonshire (being
then a captain and a man of note) about the latter
end of July in fifteen hundred eighty and nine, and
was buried, as I have been told, in the great church
there. The lands which he had by his father's gift
in Aston- Rowan t in Kingston in the parish thereof,
1 Still among Wood's books at Oxford.

PREFACE xvii

and at Tetsworth in Oxfordshire, he gave to his
brother Christopher Pettie." l

Guazzo's * Civil Conversation.' — Pettie must
have taken in hand the translation of Guazzo very
soon after he had finished "A Petite Pallace"; under
date November n, 1579, the book is entered in the
Stationers' Registers, and on February 27, 1580-1,
Richard Watkins obtained a licence for the publica
tion. The Preface is dated February 6, 1581, from
Pettie's lodging near St. Paul's, London, and is ad
dressed to the Lady Norrice, wife of Sir Henry
Norricei(Norris), of Rycote : — "You may compare
with Olympias for her Alexander, with Hecuba for
her Hector, with Thetis for her Achilles. And if
you be askt where your jewels are, you may with
Cornelia point to your children, you may point to that
rare iewell which you have continuallie about you,
who both in vertue and beautie excelleth the richest
Diamond, and the most precious pearl that is." 2

1 Athena Oxonienses, by Anthony a Wood, M.A. A new
edition, with additions and a continuation by Philip Bliss,

I. 55*-

2 The 1581 edition is extremely rare. Wood knew only of
the 1586 edition. Hunter (Chorus Vatum, Add. MSS. Z4488)
gives some account of this first edition. The passages quoted
above are from the British Museum copy of 1586.

VOL. I. b 2

xviii PREFACE

A second edition by Thomas East was issued in
1586, and in this edition was added a fourth book
of Guazzo, begun by Pettie, but completed by
Bartholomew Young.

Pettie's translation of Guazzo must have been
widely read : recently an interesting and fairly suc
cessful attempt has been made to place it "among
the books of Shakespeare's library," and to indicate
Shakespeare's debt thereto in many famous passages.1

Pettie's defence of *A Petite Pallace.'—

' The Preface to the Readers ' of " The Civile Con
versation " deserves to be reproduced, or at all events
that part of it which is Pettie's defence of English ;
it bears, in an interesting way, on Pettie's previous
work : —

" Hauing (gentle Readers) by reason of a trifling
worke of mine, (which, by reason of the lightnes of
it, or at least of the keeper of it, flew abroade before
I knew of it) alreadie won such fame, as hee which
fired the Temple of Diana, I thought it stood me
vpon, to purchase to my selfe some better fame by
some better worke, and to counteruaile my former
vanitie, with some formall grauitie. And though I

1 Cp. article by Sir E. Sullivan, Nineteenth Century, 1904.

PREFACE xix

know all fame to be dangerous, for that if it be good,
enuie followeth it, and if it be ill, shame accom-
panieth it : yet, seeing report once spread, cannot be
reuoked, and hauing alreadie past the pikes in a
daungerous conflict, without wound of honour (such
was your curtesie) I doubt not nowe but to escape a
few stragling shot in a light skirmish, without so
much as hearing the discharge of their peeces : for
the men which will assaile mee, are in deede rather
to be counted friendlie foes, than deadlie enimies, as
those who will neither mislike with mee, nor with the
matter which I shall present vnto them, but tender
ing, as it were, my credit, thinke it not conuenient
that such as I am (whose profession should chiefelie
bee armes) should either spend the time in writing of
Bookes, or publish them being written. Those which
mislike studie or learning in Gentlemen, are some
fresh water souldiers, who think that in warre it is
the bodie which onlie must beare the brunt of all,
not knowing that the bodie is ruled by the mind, and
that in all doubtfull and dangerous matters, it is the
mind onelie which is the man : but hauing shewed
else where how necessarie learning is for souldiers, I
adde onelie, that if we in England shall frame our
selues onelie for warre, if wee bee not verie well

xx PREFACE

oiled, we shall hardlie keepe our selues from rusting,
with such long continuance of peace, it hath pleased
God to blesse vs. Those which mislike that a
Gentleman should publish the fruits of his learning,
are some curious Gentlemen, who thinke it most
commendable in a Gentleman, to cloake his art and
skill in euerie thing, and to seeme to doe all things
of his owne mother wit as it were : not considering
how we deserue no praise for that, which God or
nature hath bestowed vpon vs, but onelie for that,
which we purchase by our owne Industrie : and it
you shall chance to enter into reasoning with them,
they will at the second word make protestation that
they are no schollers : wheras notwithstanding they
haue spent all their time in studie.

There are some others yet who will set light by
my labours, because I write in English ; and those
are some nice Trauailours, who retourne home with
such queasie stomacks, that nothing will downe with
them but French, Italian, or Spanish, and though a
worke bee but meanelie written in one of those
tongues, and finelie translated into our Language, yet
they will not sticke farre to preferre the Originall
before the Translation : the cause is partlie, for that
they cannot so soone espie faultes in a forraine

PREFACE xxi

Tongue as in their owne, which maketh them thinke
that to bee currant, which is but course, and partlie
for that straunge thinges doe more delight them,
than that which they are dailie vsed to : but they
consider not the profit which commeth by reading
things in theyr owne Tongue, whereby they shall be
able to conceiue the matter much sooner, and beare
it awaie farre better, than if they reade it in a
straunge Tongue, whereby also they shall be inabled
to speake, to discourse, to write, to indite, properlie,
fitlie, finelie, and wiselie, but the woorst is they
thinke that impossible to be done in our Tongue :
for they count it barren, they count it barbarous,
they count it vnworthie to be accounted of: and,
which is worse, as I my selfe haue heard some of
them, they report abroade, that our Countrie is
barbarous, our manners rude, and our people vnciuile:
and when I haue stood with them in the comparison
betweene other Countries and ours, and pointed with
my finger to many grose abuses, vsed in the places
where we haue bene, when by no reason they haue
bene able to defend them, they haue shronke in
their necke, and tolde me that it was the fashion of
the Countrie : not considering that the manners and
fashions of each Countrie, are the onelie things that

xxii PREFACE

make it counted barbarous or ciuile, good or bad.
But for our Countrie, I am perswaded that those
which know it, and loue it, will report it for the
ciuilest Countrie in the world : and if it be thought
to be otherwise by strangers, the dis-orders of those
trauailers abroade, are the chiefe cause of it. And to
speake but of the lightest, their enuying one another,
their deprauing one another, their flouting one
another, their falling out one with another, their
fighting one with another in the open streete (as
with blushing I haue often beheld in Paris), their
contemning of their Countrie fashion, their Apish
imitation of euerie outlandish Asse in their iestures,
behauiour, and apparell, are the onelie causes that
make strangers count our Countrie and our people
barbarous : for at home it is well knowen that we
Hue in lawes as orderlie, in manners as decentlie, in
apparell as comelie, in diet as delicatelie, in lodging
as curiouslie, in buildings as sumptuously, in all
things as abundantlie, and euerie waie as ciuillie, as
anie Nation vnder Heauen. For the barbarousnesse
of our tongue, I must likewise saie that it is much
the worse for them, and some such curious fellowes as
they are : who if one chance to deriue anie word
from the Latine, which is insolent to their eares (as

PREFACE xxiii

perchance they will take that phrase to be) they
forthwith make a iest at it, and tearme it an Inkhorne
tearme. And though for my part I vse those wordes
as little as anie, yet I know no reason why I should
not vse them, and I finde it a fault in my selfe that I
doe not vse them : for it is in deed the readie waie
to inrich our tongue, and make it copious, and it is
the waie which all tongues haue taken to inrich
themselues. For take the Latine wordes from the
Spanish tongue, and it shall bee as barren as most
part of their Countrie : take them from the Italian,
and you take away in a manner the whole tongue :
take them from the French, and you marre the grace
of it : yea, take from the Latine it selfe the words
deriued from the Greeke, and it shall not be so
flowing and flourishing as it is. Wherfore I meruaile
how our English tongue hath crackt its credit, that it
may not borrow of the Latine as wel as other
tongues, and if it haue broken, it is but of late ; for
it is not vnknowen to all men, how many wordes we
haue fetcht from thence within these few yeeres,
which if they should be all counted inkpot tearmes, I
know not how we should speak anie thing without
blacking our mouths with inke : for what word can
be more plain than this word plalne and yet what

XXIV

PREFACE

can come more neere to the Latine ? What more
manifest than manifest? and yet in a manner
Latine. What more commune than rare, or lesse
rare than commune and yet both of them comming
of the Latine ? But you will saie, long vse hath
made these wordes currant : and why may not vse
doe as much for these wordes which we shall now
deriue ? Why should not we doe as much for the
posteritie, as we haue receiued of the antiquitie ?
and yet if a thing be of it selfe ill, I see not how the
oldnesse of it can make it good, and if it be of it
selfe good, T see not how the newnesse of it can
make it naught : wherevpon I infer, that those
wordes which your selues confesse by vse to be made
good, are good the first time they are vttered, and
therefore not to be iested at, not to be misliked.
But how hardlie so euer you deale with your tongue,
how barbarous so euer you count it, how little so
euer you esteeme it, I durst my selfe vndertake (if I
were furnished with learning otherwise) to write in it
as copiouslie for varietie, as compendiously for breuitie,
as choicely for words, as pithilie for sentences, as
pleasantlie for figures, and euerie waie as eloquentlie,
as anie writer should do in anie vulgar tongue
whatsoeuer. Thus hauing (as I hope) satisfied my

PREFACE xxv

curious enimies, I am to craue the good will of my
curteous friends, desiring you (gentle Reader) to
accept in good part these my labours, which if they
shall like you, I shall count my gaine great, if not,
yet must I needs count my losse but light, in that
the doing of it kept me from idlenesse, a thing so
dangerous to young Gentlemen, that I wish you all,
aboue all things, to auoide it. And so fare you well.
From my lodging neere Paules"

Editions of 'A Petite Pallace.'— Pettie's
"Petite Pallace" was licensed for press to Richard
Watkins on August 6, 1576. The first edition ap
peared soon after. The preliminary matter throws
light on the method of publication, and the title of
the book. R. B., to whom Pettie addressed a prefatory
letter, are possibly the reversed initials of Barnaby
Rich. Hazlitt (in Bibliography of Old English Literature}
enumerates six editions between 1576 and 1613. In
the British Museum are four editions, three undated,
but attributed to 1576, 1586 (?), 1590 (?), and a
fourth edition belonging to the year 1608. The
first-named issue has been used as the basis of the
present edition, and the other texts have been
collated ; in the textual notes they are represented
respectively by the letters A., B., C., D. The

xxvi PREFACE

spelling has been modernized, but not aggressively
so ; and this especially as regards Proper Names,
where some of Pettie's forms have been kept. In the
Index of Proper Names (at the end of Vol. II) the
correct forms in most instances are placed in brackets.
The Reader should refer also to the Textual Notes.1
The wording of the title-pages is the same in each :

"A petite Pallace,
of Pettie his pleasure :
contaynyng many pretie Hysterics
by him set foorth in comely colours,
and most delightfully dis
coursed.

Omne tulit punctum,
qui miscuit vtile dulci."

I. G.

1 The references to Proper Names other than those to be
found in Paynter's Palace (cp. supra) are fairly direct. " Thais "
and "Phaedria" (II. 22), as Mr. McKerrow has kindly pointed
out, are from Terence's Eunuchus (cp. I. i.) ; " Dercyllidas " is from
Plutarch.

SPECIMEN PROVERBS AND SAYINGS,
RACY PHRASES, AND COMPARISONS.

She went away with a flea in her ear, I. 3 1 .

The sea hath fish for every man, I. 33.

There is no smoke but where there is some fire,

1.37-

Fortune ever favoureth the valiant, I. 79.

A hard pennyworth, I. 96.

Put finger in the eye, I. 130.

The virtue of necessity, I. 131.

One swallow makes not summer, I. 138.

Two wits are better than one, I. 147.

It is too late to shut the stable door when the steed
is stolen, I. 176.

Grievous wounds must have smarting plasters, II. 23.

Gorged hawks will stoop to no lure, II. 34.

Many things happen between the cup and the lip,
II. 44.

Man purposeth and God disposeth, II. 44, 128.

That which is bred in the bone, will not out of the

flesh, II. 85.

xxvii

xxviii SPECIMEN PROVERBS AND SAYINGS

The contented mind is the only riches, the only
quietness, the only happiness, II. 87.

Strike while the iron is hot, II. 97.

Set a beggar on horseback and he will never alight,
II. 100.

To make the reckoning without the host, is the way
soon to be overshot in the shot, II. 108.

All is not gold which glisteneth, II. 132.

Out of God's blessing into a warm sun, II. 146.

Nothing venture, nothing have, I. 120.

He which toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith,
II. 127.

For every pint of honey, we shall taste a gallon of
gall, II. 120.

Under most green grass lie most great snakes,

and under enticing baits entangling hooks, II. 3.
Sins oft assayed, are thought to be no sin :
So sin doth soil the soul it sinketh in, I. 8, 166.

We see sleeping that which we wish for waking,
I. 145.

White silver is wrought in black pitch, I. 142.

Every dram of delight has a pound of spite,

and every inch of joy an ell of annoy, I. 141.

One must as well love to live as live to love, I.
'33-

SPECIMEN PROVERBS AND SAYINGS xxix

The parish priest forgetteth that ever he was clerk,
I. 124.

The grass had been cut from under his feet, I. 1 2 1 .

Freshest colours soonest fade,

and ripest fruit are rifest rotten, I. 104.

To promise golden hills, and perform dirty dales, 1. 7 5.

There is no cloth so fine but moths will eat it,

no iron so hard but rust will fret it,

no wood so sound but worms will putrify it,

no metal so coarse but fire will purify it; II. 55.

In fair painted pots poison oft is put,

and in goodly sumptuous sepulchres rotten bones
are rife ;

so fairest words are ever fullest of falsehood, II. 80.

The more hard the fight is, the more haughty is the
conquest,

and the more doubtful the battle, the more doughty
the victory, I. 25.

As a hawk the higher pitch she flieth from the ground
with the more force she stoopeth down upon her prey,
and can the more easily command it,

or as a stroke or blow the higher it is lifted, the
heavier it alights,

so God's vengeance the longer it is deferred the
more it is to be feared, I. 29.

xxx SPECIMEN PROVERBS AND SAYINGS

Like as streams the more ye stop them, the higher
they flow,

and trees the more ye lop them the greater they
grow,

or as spices the more they are beaten the sweeter
scent they send forth,

or as the herb camomile the more it is trodden
down the more it spreadeth abroad,

so virtue and honesty the more it is spited, the
more it sprouteth and springeth, I. 36.

How much weaker (women's) bodies are than men's,
so much the more strength and virtue is contained in
their minds, II. 160.

The greatest clerks are not the wisest men, II. 149.

Fine marble needeth no painting, that is needful
only for ragged walls, II. 163.

Every excess is turned into vice,

there is nothing so good, but by ill-using may be
made naught, II. 138.

The canker commonly breedeth in the fairest rose,
I. 28.

From most sharp thorns, to wit the rose tree, spring
most sweet flowers, I. 120.

As the haughty hawk will not prey on carrion, so
neither will courtly silks practise country flutes, I. 25.

SPECIMEN PROVERBS AND SAYINGS xxxi

There only grafts of grief must needs grow, where
such raw conceit doth set, and such rash consent doth
sow, I. 122.

Though the entry which leadeth to the lodging of
love seem easy, and the porch paradise unto him, yet
shall he find the hall a hell, and the whole house a
hateful prison and a place of bondage, II. 120.

The she-wolf always chooseth that wolf for her
make who is made most lean and foul by following her,
I. 19.

When hope and hap, when health and wealth, are
highest, then woe and wrack, disease and death, are
nighest, II. 44.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I

PACK

SINORIX AND GAMMA . . . II

TEREUS AND PROGNE ... 49

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA . . 71

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE . . . in

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA . . . -136

ADMETUS AND ALCEST . . . 169

TO THE GENTLE
GENTLEWOMEN READERS

GENTLE Readers, whom by my will I would have
only gentlewomen, and therefore to you I direct my
words. May it please you to understand, that the
great desire I have to procure your delight hath
caused me somewhat to transgress the bounds of
faithful friendship : for having with great earnestness
obtained of my very friend Master George Pettie the
copy of certain Histories by himself, upon his own
and certain of his friends' private occasions drawn into
discourses, I saw such witty and pithy pleasantness
contained in them, that I thought I could not any
way do greater pleasure or better service to your
noble sex, than to publish them in print, to your
common profit and pleasure. And though I am sure
hereby to incur his displeasure, for that he willed me
in any wise to keep them secret, yet if it please you
thankfully to accept my good-will, I force the less of
his ill-will. For to speak my fancy without feigning,
I care not to displease twenty men to please one

VOL. I. B

2 A PETITE PALLACE

woman ; for the friendship amongst men is to be
counted but cold kindness, in respect of the fervent
affections between men and women : and our nature
is rather to dote of women, than to love men. And
yet it lieth in your powers so to think of his doings,
and to yield him such courteous consideration for the
same, that he shall have more cause to thank me
than think ill of my faithless dealing towards him.
Which if your courtesies shall perform, you shall
increase my duty towards you, and his good-will
towards me : you shall make me shew my will and
him his skill another time to pleasure you ; you shall
bind both of us to remain ready at your command
ments. For mine own part, I can challenge no part
of praise or thanks for this work, for that I have taken
no pains therein, by adding argument, note, or any
thing, but even have set them forth as they were
sent me ; only I have christened them with the
name of a Pallace of Pleasure. I dare not compare
this work with the former Pallaces of Pleasure,
because comparisons are odious, and because they
contain histories, translated out of grave authors and
learned writers ; and this containeth discourses,
devised by a green youthful capacity, and reported in
a manner extempore, as I myself for divers of them

TO THE GENTLEWOMEN READERS 3

am able to testify. I dare not commend them,
because I am partial; I dare dedicate them to you,
Gentlewomen, because you are courteous. And that
you may the better understand the drift of these
devices, I have caused the letter also which my friend
sent me with this work to be set down to your sight.
Thus commending mine own faithless enterprise,
and my friend's fruitful labour and learning, to your
courteous protection, I wish you all beauty with
bounty, and comeliness with courtesy, from my
lodging in Fleet Street.

Yours readily to command,

R. B.

A PETITE PALLACE

THE LETTER OF G. P. TO R. B.
CONCERNING THIS WORK

FORCED by your earnest importunity, and furthered
by mine own idle opportunity, I have set down in
writing, and according to your request sent unto
you, certain of those tragical trifles, which you have
heard me in sundry companies at sundry times report,
and so near as I could I have written them word for
word as I then told them ; but if any of them seem
better unto you now than they did then, you must
attribute it to my lisping lips, which perchance did
somewhat disgrace the grace of them ; and if any
seem worse now than then, you must impute it to
this, that perchance there was then some Pallas in
place which furthered my invention. For I am in
that point of Ovid his opinion, that, Si cuplat sponte
disertus erlt ; but whether they seem unto you good
or ill, I trust you will take them as a token of good
will, and that is the only commodity I look to reap
by them. I pray you only to use them to your
own private pleasure, and not to impart them to

THE LETTER OF G. P. TO R. B. 5

other, perchance to my prejudice, for that divers dis
courses touch nearly divers of my near friends ; but
the best is, they are so darkly figured forth, that
only they whom they touch, can understand whom
they touch ; yet to avoid all captious constructions,
I pray you in any wise let them be an object only
for your own eyes. If this mislike you in my dis
courses that I make Camma use the example of the
Countess of Salisbury, the Duchess of Savoy, and
such who were of far later years, then the ancient
Camma is with the like in divers other of the
stories : you must consider that my Camma is of
fresher memory than any of them, and I think in
your judgment, of fresher hue than the fairest of
them. Likewise, if you like not of some words and
phrases used contrary to their common custom, you
must think, that seeing we allow of new fashions in
cutting of beards, in long-waisted doublets, in little
short hose, in great caps, in low hats, and almost
in all things, it is as much reason we should allow
of new fashions in phrases and words. But these
faults, or whatsoever else, I care not to excuse unto
you, who are the only cause I committed them, by
your earnest desire to have me set down these trifles
in writing. And as my words hitherto have tended

6 A PETITE PALLACE

to this end, that you should take these trifles well,
so now I am to exhort you that you will use them
well : that with the spider you suck not out poison
out of them, that by some light example you be
not the sooner incited to lightness. For believe me
(I speak it friendly, therefore take it friendly) I think
it more needful to send you a bridle than a spur that
way. And if my example may be a bridle to restrain
you from vanity, do but imitate me hereafter ; or if
my counsel may contain you in continency, do but
follow this advice : if you be free, that you come
not into bond ; if you be bound, ut te redimas
captum quam queas minima : for trust me, the broad
blasphemy of Pygmalion, and the sudden apostacy, or
rather right conversion, of Alexius, have settled me
in this faith, that I think him ter quaterque beatum qui
a consortio mulierum se cohibere potest. You marvel, I
am sure, to hear these words of me, and that I
should so soon turn my tippet and recant, who but
yesterday, as it were, entered into heresy. But
believe me, my B., nunquam nimis cito est ad bonos
mores via. Qui non est hodie, eras minus aptus erit.

Principiis obsta, sero medicina paratur,
Cum mala per longas convaluere moras.

Errare humanum est ; in errore perseverare, belluinum.

THE LETTER OF G. P. TO R. B. 7

Sins oft assayed, are thought to be no sin :
So sin doth soil the soul it sinketh in.

Thus have I sent you in that book some fruits of
my former folly, and in this letter the profession of
my present faith, desiring you to use the one to your
honest pleasure, and to follow the other to your
goodly profit. I mean, God willing, the next spring
to go on pilgrimage with Alexius, and if you were so
devoutly disposed, I should think myself most happy
to have such a companion. From my lodging in
Holborn this 12 of July.

G.P.

Tuus semper, aut suus nunquam.
Omnia in mundo, immunda.

A PETITE PALLACE

THE PRINTER TO ALL READERS
OF THIS BOOK

HAVING sometime in my custody this book in
written hand, which by means of a special friend of
mine was committed unto me, I was by him oftsoons
earnestly solicited to publish the same in print.
Who being such an one whose request I would not
willingly deny, I fell to perusing the work, and
perceived at the first by the Author's letter, that he
was not willing to have it common, as thinking certain
points in it to be too ; wanton to be wrought by that
wit which by this work appeared to be in him,
which as I conjecture, moved him to write to his
friend to keep it private to his own use, as may
appear by his friend's Epistle, and his Letter going
before. Nevertheless, to accomplish the desire of the
one, and not to incur the displeasure of the other,
as also to pleasure you, the friendly Readers hereof,
I have put the same in print, using my discretion in
omitting such matter as in the Author's judgment
might seem offensive, and yet I trust not leaving

THE PRINTER TO ALL READERS 9

imperfections in the discourse, whereof if I have not
gelded too much, I think I have deserved the less
blame. And considering that in matters of pleasure,
the Printer may sooner offend in printing too much,
than in publishing too little, I have applied myself
to the contrary, hoping that how much the less I have
printed, reserving the discourse perfect, so much the
less I shall be blamed for the deed. As for the
Gentleman that wrote this work, and his friend that
procured it to be published, as they are unknown
to me both, so had I conference with neither,
whereby the less I could use their advice in
abridging anything, which may be some cause of
the disgracing of that, which doubtless the Author
had penned with great excellency, and eloquence.
If herein, as I fear, I have offended, I am willing,
being advertised thereof, to be reformed, craving
pardon of him especially, and of all other friendly
Readers, for the oversights whatsoever herein com
mitted : for whose pleasure and profit I have left
undone, and done, whatsoever I have done in their
behalf. I have also of myself added an argument to
every history, that the effect of the discourse may be
the more easily carried away.

Fare ye heartily well.

SINORIX AND CAMMA

OINORIX, chief governor of Sienna in Italy,
j^5glancing his eyes upon the glittering beauty of
Camma, wife to Sinnatus, a gentleman of the same city,
falleth into extreme love with her, and assayeth sundry
ways to win her good-will ; but perceiving his
practises to take no wished effect, and supposing the
husband's life to hinder his love, causeth him to be
murdered by a ruffian. Camma, to the intent she
might be revenged upon the chief conspirator, in
granting him marriage, despatcheth herself in drinking
to him, and him in pledging her, in a draught of
poison, which she had prepared for that purpose.

As amongst all the bonds of benevolence and good
will there is none more honourable, ancient, or honest
than marriage, so in my fancy there is none that doth
more firmly fasten, and inseparably unite us together
than the same estate doth, or wherein the fruits of
true friendship do more plenteously appear. In the

iz A PETITE PALLACE

father is a certain severe love and careful good-will
towards the child ; the child beareth a fearful affection
and awful obedience towards the father ; the master
hath an imperious regard of the servant, the servant
a servile care of the master. The friendship amongst
men is grounded upon no law, and dissolved upon
every light occasion : the good-will of kinsfolk is
commonly cold, as much of custom as of devotion :
but in this stately state of matrimony, there is nothing
fearful, nothing feigned, all things are done faithfully
without doubting, truly without doubting, willingly
without constraint, joyfully without complaint : yea,
there is such a general consent and mutual agreement
between the man and wife, that they both wish and
will, covet and crave one thing. And as a scion
grafted in a strange stalk, their natures being united by
growth they become one, and together bear one fruit :
so the love of the wife planted in the breast of her
husband, their hearts by continuance of love become
one, one sense and one soul serveth them both. And
as the scion severed from the stock withereth away,
if it be not grafted in some other, so a loving wife
separated from the society of her husband, withereth
away in woe, and leadeth a life no less pleasant than
death, as the sequel of this history shall show, where-

SINORIX AND GAMMA 13

in you shall see a marvellous mirror of blessed
matrimony, and a terrible type of beastly tyranny.
In the city Sienna was a married couple, the
husband named Sinnatus, the wife called Camma,
who as they were by estate worshipful, by virtue
honourable, and by goodness gracious, so were they
in riches fortunate, in children fruitful, in friends
flourishing, and in love so loyal each to other, that
they long time led a loving and quiet life together ;
but either fortune envying their prosperity, or the
devil displeased with their virtuous life, or God
disposed to try their truth, and make them patterns
to their posterity, converted this happy life to a
heavy estate, and raised up one Sinorix to raze and
break down the firm foundation of their faithful
building and biding together. For this Sinorix,
glancing his gazing eyes on the blazing beauty of
Camma, received so deep an impression of her per
fection in his heart, that immediately he fixed his
fancy upon her comely corps. And being the chief
ruler of the city, he persuaded himself that there was
none in the city so stout but would stoop to his lure,
nor none so fair but would fain employ themselves to
pleasure him ; but on the other side, the renowned
virtue of Camma came to his mind, which persuaded

1 4 A PETITE PALLACE

an impossibility to his purpose : and floating thus
between hope and despair he entered into these
terms : —

" O miserable wretch that I am, to whom shall I
present my complaints ! Is it the heavenly powers and
gods of love that have deprived me of my senses, and
showed their divine working in me, or is it the
hellish hags and spirits of spite that have bereaved me
of reason, and executed their cruelty on me : is it
love that leadeth me to this lust, or is it hate that
haleth me to this hurt and mischief? No, no; the
gods guide us to goodness ; the furies of hell it is that
force us to filthiness : neither doth it any way deserve
the name of love, which bringeth such torment to my
troubled mind, that all the devils in the world could
not do the like. But see my rashness ; why am I so
blindly bold, beastly to blaspheme against that which
proceeds altogether of nature, which nature hath
imparted to all men, and which I ought to follow
without repining or resisting ? For so long as I follow
nature as my guide I cannot do amiss ; seeing nature
hath taught us to love, why should I not rather prove
her precepts, than reprove that which by nature's lore
is allowed ? And touching torment of mind, or either
inconvenience that it bringeth, is it at all able to

SINORIX AND GAMMA 15

impair the least joy which I shall enjoy in embracing
my Camma ? Is it not meet that he which would reap
should sow, he that would gather fruit should plant
trees, he that would reach the sweet rose should now
and then be scratched with the sharp briars ? I mean
it is meet if I purpose to possess so proper a piece as
Camma is, that I should fly no labour or refuse any
peril in the pursuit thereof." And hereupon he
determined to follow the fury of his fancy, what pangs
or perils soever he incurred thereby. And having
resolved many ways in his mind how he might aspire
to his purpose, at length he resolved upon this, to
institute a sumptuous banquet, whereto he invited
the chief of the city, among whom Sinnatus and his
wife Camma were not forgotten, to wit the only
authors of the feast. Now for the more royal re
ceiving of his guests he met them at the entry into
his palace, and gave them this greeting : —

" Fair ladies, as I am right joyful of your presence,
so am I no less sorrowful for the pains which you have
taken in undertaking so great a journey this dark and
misty evening, for the which I must account myself
so much the more beholden to you by how much
greater your labour was in coming, and by how much
less your cheer shall be able to countervail it now you

1 6 A PETITE PALLACE

are come." And taking Camma by the hand, he said
softly unto her : — " I pity the pains of these gentle
women the less for that you were in their company,
whose piercing eyes as celestial stars or heavenly lamps
might serve for lights in the dark, whose sweet face
might perfume the air from all noisome smells which
might annoy them, and by beholding your lovely
looks and perfect shape they might take such delight,
that the weariness of the way could nothing molest
or grieve them."

Camma, hearing herself so greatly praised of so
great a personage as he was, could not keep the
roseal red out of her alabaster cheeks, and thinking
no such serpentine malice to lie hid under these
merry and sugared words, she gave him this courteous
answer : —

" If, sir, the company had made no better provision
for lights and other things necessary than such as you
speak of, they might soon have slipped into the mire ;
but as I perceive by your words you are disposed to
jest and be merry, so I am content for this once to
be made the instrument thereof, thereby to ease some
part of the pains which you are like to take in
receiving such troublesome guests as we are ; and for
our cheer you need take no thought, for it shall be so

SINORIX AND CAMMA 17

much too good for us, by how much less we have
deserved any at all at your hands."

After this amorous encounter, he caused the com
pany to sit down to the banquet, and so disposed the
matter, that Camma sat right over at the table against
him, whereby he freely fed his eyes on that meat which
converted rather to nourishment of sickness, than to
wholesome humors of health. For as the finest meats
that be, eaten by one in extremity of sickness, resolve
not to pure blood to strengthen the body, but to
waterish humors to feed the fever and disease, so
though her face and looks were fine and sweet, and
brought delight to all the beholders else, yet to him
they brought only torment and trouble of mind ; and
notwithstanding he perceived her beauty to breed his
bane, and her looks to procure the loss of his liberty,
and that as the cocatrice by sight only slayeth, so she
by courteous countenance only killed and wounded
his heart, yet could he not irefrain his eyes from be
holding her, but according to the nature of the sickly
patient, which chiefly desireth that which chiefly is
forbidden him, he so incessantly threw his amorous
glances towards her, that his eyes were altogether
bleared with her beauty ; and she also at the length
began to perceive his loving looks towards her, which
VOL. i. c

1 8 A PETITE PALLACE

made her look pale in token of the little pleasure she
took in his toys, and of the great fear she had lest
some other should mark them, whereby her good
name might come in question. The banquet being
ended, every one prepared themselves to hear a stage
play, which was then ready to be presented. But
Sinorix being able to play but one part, which was
of a poor passionate lover, determined to go forward
with the tragedy already begun between Camma and
him, and seeing her set out of the husband's sight,
placed himself by her, and entered into reasoning
with her, to this purpose : — " If, fair lady, this simple
banquet had been so sweet and pleasant to your
seemly self and the rest as your sight is delightful to
me, I am persuaded you would not have changed
your cheer for nectar and ambrosia, which the poets
feigned to be the food of the gods : but seeing there
was no cause of delight in the one, and the other
containeth that in it which may content the gods
themselves, I shall desire you in good part to accept
the one, and courteously to account me worthy to
enjoy the other. And though I have not heretofore
by dutiful service manifested unto you the loyalty of
my love, yet if my poor heart could signify unto you
the assaults it hath suffered for your sake, I doubt not

SINORIX AND CAMMA 19

but you would confess, that by force of love I had
won you, and were worthy to wear you. For albeit
by human laws your husband only have interest in
you, yet by nature's laws, which being more ancient
ought to be of more authority, he ought to enjoy you
which joyeth most in you, which loveth you best and
endureth most pain for your sake : and for proof of
nature's laws, it may please you to consider the quality
of the she-wolf who always chooseth that wolf for
her make who is made most lean and foul by follow
ing her ; besides that, my title marcheth under the
ensign of justice, which is a virtue giving to everyone
according to his desert, and that the desert of love is
only love again, I know you are not to know ; for all
the goods in the world are not able to requite good
will, the one belonging to the mind, the others inci
dent to the body ; but from the equity of my cause I
appeal to your good grace and favour, and at the bar
of your beauty I humbly hold up my hands, meaning
to be tried by your courtesy and mine own loyalty,
and minding to abide your sentence either of consent
unto life, or of denial unto death." Camma hearing
this discourse, soon looked red for shame, as soon pale
for anger, neither would disdain let her make him
answer, neither would her grief give her leave to hold

20 A PETITE PALLACE

her peace, but standing a while in a maze between
silence and saying, at length she brake off the one and
burst out into the other in this sort : —

" If, sir, your banquet had been no better than this
your talk is pleasant to me, I am persuaded the dishes
would have been taken whole from the table without
touching, but as the one was far better than the
company deserved, so the other for a far worse woman
might more fitly have served ; and if your sweet meat
have such sour sauce, the next time you send for me,
I will make you such answer as was made to Cratorus
the Emperor by Diogenes when he sent for him to
make his abode with him in his court, who answered
he had rather be fed at Athens with salt, than live
with him in all delicacy ; so for my part I promise
you I had rather be fed at home with bread and
water than pay so dearly for dainty dishes. Touching
the pains you have endured for my sake, I take your
words to be as false towards me, as you would make
my faith towards my husband : but admit they were
true, seeing I have not willingly been the cause of
them, I count not myself bound in conscience to
countervail them, only I am sorry they were not
bestowed on some more worthy your estate and less
worthy an honest name than myself, which being the

SINORIX AND GAMMA 21

chief riches I have, I mean most diligently to keep.
The interest which cavillingly you claim in me as it
consisteth of false premises, so though the premises
were true, yet the conclusion which you infer thereof
followeth not necessarily. For were it so that your
love were greater towards me than my husband's —
which you cannot induce me to believe — yet seeing
my husband by order of law hath first taken possession
of me, your title succeeding his, your success and
suit must needs be cold and naught : for as yourself
say of laws, so of titles the first are ever of most
force, and the most ancient of most authority. Your
wolves' example, though it shew your foxy brain,
yet doth it enforce no such proof to your purpose but
that by my former reason it may be repelled, for that
the wolf is free from the proper possession of any :
but therein truly you observe decorum very duly in
using the example of a beast in so beastly a cause,
for like purpose, like proof; like man, like matter.
Your manly marching under the ensign of justice, if
reason be your captain-general to lead you, I doubt
not but soon to turn to a retire ; for if it be good
will which you bear me, I must needs grant you
duly deserve the like again : but when you are able
to prove it good-will to deflower my chastity, to

22 A PETITE PALLACE

bereave me of my good name, to despoil me of mine
honour, to cause me to transgress the bounds of
honesty, to infringe my faith towards my husband, to
violate the sacred rites of matrimony, to pollute the
temple of the Lord, with other innumerable enor
mities, when, I say, you are able to prove these to pro
ceed of good-will, then will I willingly yield consent
to your request. But see the unreasonableness of your
suit ; would you have me, in shewing courtesy towards
you, commit cruelty towards myself? should I, in
extending mercy to you, bring myself to misery ?
should I place you in pleasure, and displace myself of
all joy ? For what joy can a woman enjoy having lost
her chastity, which ought to be the joy, jewel, and
gem of all gentlewomen of my calling and counten
ance ? Your appeal from your own cause to my
courtesy bewrayeth the naughtiness thereof; for if it
be not ill, why stick you not to it ? if it be good,
why appeal you from it ; but seeing you have
constituted me judge in this case, you know it is not
a part of a judge to deal partially, or to respect the
man more than the matter, or to tender more mine
own case than your cause : therefore indifferently this
sentence definitive I give : I condemn you henceforth
to perpetual silence in this suit, and that you never

SINOR1X AND GAMMA 23

hereafter open your mouth herein, being a matter
most unseemly for your honour, and most prejudicial
to my honesty ; and in abiding this sentence, if you
can be content with honest amity, for the courtesy
which I have always found at your hands, and for the
good-will which you pretend to bear me, I promise
you, you shall enjoy the second place in my heart,
and you shall find me friendly in all things, which
either you with reason can ask, or I with honesty
grant."

Sinorix, having heard this angel thus amiably pro
nouncing these words, was so wrapt in admiration of
her wisdom, and ravished in contemplation of her
beauty, that though she had not enjoined him to
silence, yet had he not had a word to say : and lest
his looks might bewray his love, and his countenance
discover his case, he secretly and suddenly withdrew
himself into his chamber, to study what face to set
on the matter. And casting himself upon his bed,
after he had dreamed awhile upon his doting devices,
at length he awaked out of his wavering thoughts,
and recovered the possession of his senses again : by
which time the play was ended, and his guests ready to
depart, whereupon he was driven to come forth of
his chamber to take his leave of them ; and bidding

24 A PETITE PALLACE

his mistress good-night, he gave her such a look, that
his very eyes seemed to plead for pity, so that what
his tongue durst not, his eyes did. His guests being
gone, he disposed himself to rest, but love, which
was then his good master, willed him otherwise
to employ that night, which was in examining par
ticularly every point of her answer. And though
the first part seemed somewhat sharp and rigorous,
and the second contained the confutation of his
cause, yet the third and last part seemed to be
mixed with mettle of more mild matter, which he
repeated to himself a thousand times, and thereupon,
as upon a firm foundation, determined to raise up
his building again which the two former parts of her
answer had utterly ransacked to the ground. But
mistaking the nature of the ground whereon the
foundation was laid, his building, as if it had been
set in sands, soon came to ruin ; for by that promise
of friendship, which she friendly made him, he
sinisterly conceived hope of obtaining that which
she neither with honour could promise, neither with
honesty perform ; and feeding himself with that vain
hope in great bravery, as in a manner assured of the
victory, he wrote unto her to this effect : —

"Albeit, good mistress, you have enjoined my tongue

SINORIX AND GAMMA 25

to silence, yet my hands are at liberty to bewray the
secrets of my heart, and though you have taken my
heart prisoner, yet my head hath free power to plead
for release and relief. Neither would I you should
count me in the number of those cowardly soldiers,
which at the first canon that roareth, give over the
siege of the city they assaulted ; for I have been
always settled in this opinion, that the more hard
the fight is, the more haughty is the conquest, and
the more doubtful the battle, the more doughty the
victory. And as it is not the part of a politic
captain to put himself in peril without hope of prey,
or praise, so, to win the bulwarks of your breast, I
count it a more rich booty than Caesar had in ran
sacking so many cities, and a more rare praise than ever
Alexander had in subduing so many nations. And
though my presumption may seem great in practising
one of so high a calling as your sweet self, yet
seeing in all degrees of friendship equality is chiefly
considered, I trust you will clear me of crime that
way : neither would I you should think my flight
so free to stoop at every state, for as the haughty
hawk will not prey on carrion, so neither will
courtly silks practise country flutes. But because I
know that to be in you which both concerneth my

26 A PETITE PALLACE

calling, and consenteth with my fancy, I have chosen
you for the goddess of my devotions, humbly be
seeching you with pity to hear the prayers, which I
with pain pour forth before you, that it may not be
said your name hath been called on in vain, whereby
you may lose that honour, which others of duty, and
I of devotion do unto you. The benefit which you
bestow on me in granting me the second place in
your heart, as I must acknowledge, though somewhat
unthankfully, so must I crave a greater, though some
what impudently: for seeing my whole heart and body
are yours, methinks a piece of your heart is a poor
piece of amends. Weigh the matter uprightly, con
sider my case courteously, and take compassion on
me speedily. Yours altogether, Don Sinorix de
Sienna."

Camma, having received and read this letter was
assailed diversely, sometime with sorrow in think
ing on the time she first saw him or he her, sometime
with repentance of her former promise made him,
sometime with pity on his part, sometime with piety
on her own : but at length piety vanquished pity, and
caused her to send this rough reply to his letter : —

" The little account you make of me and my good
will, I perceive by the little care you have to satisfy

SINORIX AND CAMMA 27

that which I gave you in charge ; you would ill have
done as the knight Virla did, who at the command
ment of his lady Zilia, forbare the use of his tongue
and remained dumb the term of three years ; but as
you subtly think to discharge yourself of my charge
by writing and not speaking, so by writing I simply
do you to understand, that from henceforth you look
for no more at my hands than at a stranger's, I will
not say an enemy's ; for seeing my promise was but
upon condition, the condition being broken, my
promise is void. And seeing you have played the
pelting merchant venturer, to hazard that good-will
and credit you had with me to get more, the tempest
of my just displeased mind hath driven your suit
against the rough rocks of repulse, and you have made
shipwreck of all : your courageous persisting in your
purpose proveth you rather a desperate sot than a
discreet soldier : for to hop against the hill, and
strike against the stream, hath ever been counted
extreme folly ; your valiant venturing for a prey of
value proceeds rather of covetousness than of courage,
for the valiant soldier seeketh glory, not gain ; but
therein you may be more fitly resembled to the
caterpillar which cleaveth only to good fruit, or to
the moth which most of all eateth the best cloth,

28 A PETITE PALLACE

or to the canker which commonly breedeth in the
fairest rose, or to the wolf which by his will will
kill the fattest sheep. The equality which you
pretend to be between us is altogether unequal, for
both you exceed me in degree, and I excel you in
honesty, so that neither in calling nor quality is there
any equality between us. Whereas you have chosen
me for your goddess, I beseech you suffer me to
remain an earthly creature, and serve you that God
which can bridle your wanton desires, and give you
grace to give your neighbours leave to live honestly
by you, lest you take his name in vain, who will
verily punish your vanity at the length, though for
a time he suffer you to wallow in your wickedness.
For it is the prudent policy of God to suffer the sinful
long time to swim in their sin, to make their sinking
more sorrowful, by their sudden shrinking from
prosperity to adversity ; for adversity is ever most
bitter to him who hath long time lived in prosperity.
Neither must you think that that which is deferred is
taken away, for as yourself or any other that oweth
money, though you defer your creditor for a time, yet
you defraud him not altogether of his due, so though
God take days with you for a time, yet assure yourself
he will pay you truly at length, yea, and perchance

SINORIX AND CAMMA 29

with large usury besides the due debt. For as a
hawk the higher pitch she flieth from the ground
with the more force she stoopeth down upon her
prey and can the more easily command it, or as a
stroke or blow the higher it is lifted the heavier it
alights, so God's vengeance the longer it is deferred
the more it is to be feared ; and this good counsel take
of me as the last benefit which you shall ever receive
at my hands. Yours nothing at all, Constantia
Camma."

Sinorix having seen this rigorous resolution of his
mistress, went another way to work ; he suborned
an old woman of the city, well seen in soliciting
such suits, to go unto her and to present her
from him with many rich jewels, and which he
willed her to tell, he would willingly bestow for one
simple consent of her good-will. The old woman
having done his shameful message without shame, said
of herself in this sort : —

" Surely, Mistress Camma, if the experience which
old years have given me, might crave credit for the
counsel which I shall give you, I would not wish you
to refuse the friendship of such a one as Sinorix is,
who is able to fill your purse with pearls, and fulfill
you with pleasure every day ; neither is it wisdom for

3o A PETITE PALLACE

you to spend your golden years but in golden pleasure,
and not to be tied to one diet which bringeth satiety
and loathsomeness, but to have choice of change which
breedeth appetite and lustiness." The chaste ears of
Camma, not able to endure this coarse discourse, she
cut off her ghostly counsel with these cutting words : —
" Gentlewoman, if you were endued with as many
good conditions as you have lived years, you would
never have undertaken so shameless a message ; and
were it not more for reverence of your years than
respect of your errand, I would make your filthy trade
of life so famous, that you would ever hereafter be
ashamed to show your face in any honest company.
What ! do you think, though money can make you a
bawd, that it can make me a harlot, and though you for
gain fly no filthiness, that I for glory follow no faith
fulness, either towards my spouse and husband, either
towards my Lord and God ? Do you judge me so
covetous of coin, or so prodigal of mine honour, that to
get the one I will lose the other ? Or doth he that sent
you think so abjectly of me, that gain may more pre
vail with me than good-will, money more than a man,
coin more than courtesy, jewels more than gentleness,
pearls more than perils and pains which he hath
endured for my sake ? No, let him understand, if any-

SINORIX AND CAMMA 31

thing could have caused me to swerve from my duty,
love of lucre should not have allured me thereto, but
as I am fully resolved faithfully to keep my vow and
promise made to my husband, so I beseech him not
to bestow any more labour in attempting that which
he shall never attain unto : for before this my resolu
tion shall be reversed, he shall see the dissolution of
my body into dust. But if he will not thus give over
his suit, he will cause me to make those privy to his
dealing who will make him ashamed of it ; and for
your part, you may pack you hence with this your
trash and trumpery to those which measure their
honour by the price of profit, and their glory by the
guerdon of gain."

This honest woman being gone away with a flea
in her ear, Camma began to think of the matter
with advised deliberation, and entered into reasoning
with herself in this sort : —

" What fearful folly is this in me to condemn the
friendship of so great a lord as Sinorix is, whom the
greatest lady in this land would willingly receive for
husband, and yet I rigorously refuse for servant ?
What is that honour whereon I stand so stiffly. Shall
it not rather increase mine honour to have so honour
able a servant ? And what is that chastity which I

32

A PETITE PALLACE

seek so charily to keep. Do not some men say that
women always live chastely enough, so that they live
charily enough ; that is, so that they convey their
matters so covertly that their doings be not commonly
known, for otherwise to incontinency were added
impudence ? Likewise, for a woman to enter into con
versation with a rascal of no reputation, cannot but
be a great blemish to the brightness of her name (for
a foul adulterer is ever worse than the adultery itself).
And it is a great sign she greatly loatheth her hus
band when she liketh one better, which is every way
worse : but to have a friend of reservation whose very
countenance may credit her and her husband, me-
thinks can be no great dishonour to either the one or
the other. What dishonour was it, I pray you, to
Helen when she left her husband Menelaus and went
with Paris to Troy ? Did not the whole glory of
Greece to her great glory go in arms to fetch her
again ? And if she had not been counted a piece of
price, or if by the fact she had defaced her honour, is
it to be thought the Grecians would have continued
ten years in war continually to win her again ? But
to leave honour and chastity, and come to commodity
and safety, what do I know what perils will follow
of this repulse ? Is it likely Sinorix will put up with

SINORIX AND GAMMA 33

this reproach patiently ? may I not justly look to
have his love turned to hate, and that he will either
by tyrannous means seek the subversion of my husband
and his whole household, either by treacherous means
work the overthrow of me and my good name ? For
the first, Edward, a king of England, may serve for an
example, who when the Countess of Salisbury would
not consent to content his incontinent desire, he so
raged against her parents and friends, that the father
was forced to persuade his own daughter to folly, and
the mother as a bawd to prostitute her to the King's
lust, and bring her to his privy chamber. For the
second, the Earl of Sancalier may serve for testimony,
who when the Duchess of Savoy would not yield to
his lascivious lust, wrought such wiles, that she was
condemned for adultery, and judged to suffer most
shameful death by burning. Now to prevent either
of these perils it lieth in my power ; and seeing of
evils the least is to be chosen, I think it better than to
hazard life, living, or good name, to lose that which
shall be no great loss to my husband or myself ; for as
the sun though it shine on us here in Italy, yet it
giveth light likewise to those that are in England and
other places, or as the sea hath fish for every man, or
as one good dish of meat may well suffice two persons

VOL. I. D

34 A PETITE PALL ACE

though very hungry, so is there that in me wherewith
Sinnatus may be satisfied and Sinorix sufficed. And
this encourageth me hereto the rather, for that I see
by experience in most of my neighbours, that those
are ever most made of by their husbands, who that
way deal most falsely with their husbands. Besides
that, how openly soever they deal in these affairs, their
husbands never hear of it ; and though they do hear
of it, yet will they not hearken unto it ; and though
they do in a manner see it, yet will they not believe
it ; and though they do believe it, yet will they love
them the better to have them leave it the sooner.
Again, what know I whether my husband deal falsely
with me and row in some other stream, which if it
be so, I shall but save my soul in paying his debts,
and exercise the virtue of justice in requiting like for
like. And touching corrupting of my children's blood,
I think it made more noble in participating with a
blood more noble than my husband's is. But canst
thou, harlot, call him husband, whom thou meanest so
wickedly to betray ? Am I in my wits to use these
witless words ? Is it my mouth that hath uttered
this blasphemy, or was it the devil within me that
delivered it forth ? No, if I were guilty but in
thought hereto, I would restore the fault with criminal

SINORIX AND GAMMA 35

penance ; yea, if I felt any part in me apt to any
such evil, I would cut it off for fear of infecting the
rest of the body. Good God, whither now is honour
fled, which was ever -wont to be the fairest flower in
my garland ? Whither now is chastity chased, which
hath been always the chiefest stay of my state ? Shall
the sun of my shining light be now eclipsed with an
act so filthy, that the very remembrance thereof is no
less grievous than death ? Why, was Helen for all
her heavenly hue any other accounted than a common
harlot, and was it not only to be revenged on her and
her champion Paris, that the Grecians continued their
siege so long ? And touching the inconveniences I
may incur by this refusal, is any evil worse than dis
honesty ? Is there any thing to be fled more than
offence ? Is not the loss of goods less than of one's
good name ? Is not an honourable death to be pre
ferred before an infamous life ? And touching the
Countess before rehearsed, had she ever married with
the King if she had not continued in her constancy to
the end ? And for the Duchess of Savoy, what hurt
sustained she by that false accusation ? Did it not
make her glory and virtue show more splendently to
the whole world ? Yes, no doubt of it ; for like as
streams the more ye stop them the higher they flow,

36 A PETITE PALL ACE

and trees the more ye lop them the greater they grow,
or as spices the more they are beaten the sweeter
scent they send forth, or as the herb camomile the
more it is trodden down the more it spreadeth
abroad, so virtue and honesty the more it is spited
the more it sprouteth and springeth ; for honour ever
is the reward of virtue, and doth accompany it as
duly as the shadow doth the body. And as the sun,
though it be under a cloud, keepeth still his bright
ness though we see it not, so Virtue though it be
dimmed with devilish devices, yet it keepeth her
strength and power still, though to us it seem utterly
to be extinguished, so that so long as I remain
virtuous and honest, I need not care what man,
malice, or the devil, can devise against me. No, no,
dear children, you shall not by my means be suspected
to be bastards, neither will I make thee, sweet
husband, ashamed to show thy face amongst the best of
them ; and I will let thee understand the villainy which
that viper Sinorix endeavoureth to deal ! And shall I
deal so fondly indeed ? Is not the repulse punishment
enough, unless I bewray his doings to my husband,
and so procure him further displeasure ? Yea, I might
thereby be occasion to set them together by the ears,
whereby it might fall out, as the event of battle is

SINORIX AND GAMMA 37

always doubtful, that my husband might be hurt or
slain, and then the common report would be (as the
people are ever prone to speak the worst) that I being
an ill woman had conspired his confusion and set
Sinorix to slay him. And though no such thing
chanced, as God forbid it should, yet this at least I
should be sure to get by it, that my husband ever
after would be jealous over me, and right careful
would he be to keep that which he saw others so busily
to seek. And such is the malice of men, perchance
he would judge some light behaviour in me to be
the cause that encouraged Sinorix to attempt my
chastity. For men have this common opinion amongst
them, that as there is no smoke but where there is
some fire, so seldom is there any fervent love but
where there hath been some kindness shewed to
kindle one's desire. Moreover, this toy may take
him in the head, that it is a practise between us two
to prevent suspicion and cloak our love, and with the
firm persuasion of my invincible chastity to lull him
asleep in security, and then most to deceive him when
he least suspecteth guile : and if at any time he hear
of it by other, I may stop his mouth with this, that I
myself told him of it, which if I had meant to deal
falsely with him, I would not have done : yea, what

3 8 A PETITE PALLACE

know I whether he will like the better or the worse of
me for breeding such a bees'-nest in his brain : lastly,
I should derogate much from mine own virtue, and
in a manner accuse myself of proneness to fall that
way, as though I were not strong enough to with
stand his assaults without the assistance of my husband.
Yes, God in whom I repose my trust, shall fortify me
against the fury of my foes, and give me grace with
wisdom to escape his wiles, with chariness to eschew
his charms, and with piety to resist his pravity."

Now to return to Sinorix. So soon as that old
Pandarina had related unto him at large the answer
of his mistress, he fell from the place he sat flat upon
the ground, and lay in a trance a great while, and
now those sparks which before love had kindled in
him, were with continual sighs so blown, as it were,
with a pair of bellows, that they break forth into
fiery flames, and that which before was fancy was
now turned to fury : for being come to himself, or
rather being quite past himself, with staring looks,
with pale countenance, with fiery eyes, with gnashing
teeth, with trembling tongue, in rage he roared forth
these words : —

" And shall I thus be frustrate of my desire ? Shall
I with words and works, with prayers and presents,

SINORIX AND CAMMA 39

pursue the good-will of a dainty disdaining dame,
and receive but labour for my love, and grief for my
good-will ? But, ah ! frantic fool, why do I in my
rage, rage against her who is the most fair and
courteous creature under heaven ? No, it is that churl
Sinnatus that soweth the seed of my sorrow, it is his
severity towards her, that causeth her cruelty towards
me ; the fear she hath of him is the cause she dareth
not take compassion on my passions ; and shall he
swim in bliss, and I lie drenched in deep despair ?
shall he be engorged with pleasure, and I pine away
in pain ? No, I will make him feel that once, which
he maketh me feel a thousand times a day." And
hereupon determined with himself by some means or
other to procure the death of Sinnatus, thinking
thereby the sooner to obtain his purpose of his wife.
And calling unto him one of his swearing swash
buckler servants, he laid before him the platform of
his purpose, and told him plainly if he would
speedily despatch Sinnatus out of the way, he would
give him a thousand crowns in his purse to keep him
in another country. His servant, though altogether
past grace, yet for fashion-sake began to advise his
master more wisely, saying : —

" For mine own part it maketh no matter, for

4o A PETITE PALLACE

another country is as good for me as this, and I count
any place my country where I may live well and
wealthily ; but for your part it behoveth you to look
more warily to yourself, for that your love towards
Camma is known to divers of this city ; by reason
whereof, if I should commit any such act, it must
needs be thought that you must needs be accessory
thereto, which will turn, though not to your death,
for that none hath authority above you to execute the
rigour of the laws upon you, yet to your utter shame
and reproach it cannot but convert."

" Tush," saith his master, " the case is light where
counsel can take place : what talkest thou to me of
shame, that am by injurious and spiteful dealing
deprived the use of reason, and dispossessed of my
wits and senses ? Neither am I the first that have
played the like part ; did not David, the chosen
servant of God, being blasted with the beauty of
Bersabe, cause her husband Urias to be set in the
forefront of the battle to be slain, which done he
married his wife ? and why is it not lawful for me to
do the like ? But I know the worst of it ; if thou wilt
not take it upon thee, I will either do it myself, or
get some other that shall."

The man seeing how his master was bent, both to

SINORIX AND GAMMA 41

satisfy his mind, and to gain so good a sum of money,
promised to perform his charge, which with oppor
tunity of time and place he did. And seeing Sinna-
tus on a time — in ill time — passing through a blind
lane of the city, he shrouded himself in a corner, and
as he came by, shot him through with a pistol : which
done he forthwith fled the country. Camma, hearing
of the cruel murder of her husband, and by the cir
cumstances knowing Sinorix to be the author thereof,
tearing her hair, scratching her face, and beating her
body against the ground, so soon as the flood of tears
had flown so long that the fountain was dry, so that
her speech might have passage, which, before, the tears
stopped, she began to cry out in this careful manner : —
" O God, what injustice is this in thee, to suffer the
earth remain polluted with the blood of innocents ?
Didst thou curse Cain for killing his brother Abel,
and wilt thou not crucify Sinorix for slaying Sinnatus ?
Is thy heart now hardened that thou wilt not, or are
thy hands now weakened that thou canst not, preserve
thy servants from the flaws of Satan ? If there be no
safety in innocence, wherein shall we repose ourselves ?
If thou be not our protector, who shall defend us ?
If the wicked vanquish the virtuous, who shall set
forth thy honour and glory, or who will so much as

42 A PETITE PALLACE

once call upon thy name ? But what mean Ir
wretched wight, to exclaim against God as the author
of my evil, whereas it is only I myself that am guilty
of my husband's death ? It is I that pampered up
my beauty to make it glister in the sight of every
gazing eye, in the thriftless thread whereof this tyrant
was so entangled, that to unwind himself thereout he
hath wrought all this mischief. It is I that would not
detect his doings to my husband, whereby he might
have prevented the peril which hung over his head.
And seeing I have been the cause of his death, shall
I, being a murderer, remain alive ? Did Alcyone,
seeing the dead carcase of her husband Ceyx cast on
shore, willingly cast herself into the sea to accompany
his death ? And shall I see my sweet Sinnatus slain,
and not drink of the same cup ? Did true Thisbe
gore her gorgeous body with the same sword where
with princely Pyramus had pricked himself to the
heart ; and are not my hands strong enough to do
the like ? Did Julietta die upon the corpse of her
Romeo, and shall my body remain on earth, Sinnatus
being buried ? No, gentle death ! come with thy
direful dart, and pierce my painful heart, and with
one death rid me of a thousand deaths at once. For
what thought do I think on my Sinnatus, which doth

SINORIX AND CAMMA 43

not procure me double death ? What thing do I see
belonging to him, which is not a treble torment unto
me ? But it is cowardliness to wish for death, and
couragiousness valiantly to take it. Yes, I can and
will bestow my life for my Sinnatus' sweet sake. But,
O God ! shall that tyrant remain alive to triumph in
his treachery and vaunt in his villainy ? Shall I not
see his fatal day before my final end ? It is his blood
that will be a most sweet sacrifice to the ghost of
Sinnatus, not mine ; and then can I end my life
contentedly when I have offered up this acceptable
sacrifice. And until such time as I have opportunity
hereto, I will prolong my doleful days in direful
grief, and only the hope of revengement shall heavily
hold my loathsome life and sorrowful soul together.
For other cause why I should desire life I have not,
for that I am utterly deprived of all joys of life.

" For as the bird that is bruised with some blow
lieth aloof on the leaves, and hears his fellows sing, and
is not able to utter one warbling note out of his
mournful voice, but rather hates the harmony which
other birds do make, so I, my heart being bruised
and broken, sit solitarily alone, and see some hang
about their husband's neck, some closely clepe them
in their arms, some trifle with them, some talk with

44 A PETITE PALLACE

them, all which sight redoubleth my pain to think
myself deprived of those pleasures ; yea, to a wretched
wounded heart that dwells in dole, every pleasant
sight turns to bitter spite : and the only object
which shall ever content my eyes, shall be the
destruction of that tyrant, which hath brought me to
this desolation."

Now Sinorix thinking that time had taken away
her tears and sorrows, and supposing that neither
she, neither any other had suspected him for the
murder of her husband, began to enter into the
lists of lust again, and with a new incountry of
incontinency to set upon her. But she so much
abhorred him, that if she but heard his name it
caused her nature to fail in her, and all her senses
to faint : so that when he saw no possibility to
impell her to impiety, he meant to move her in
the way of marriage, and caused her near kins
folk and friends to solicit his suit unto her, who
partly for fear of his displeasure, partly for that
they knew it would be greatly to her advance
ment, laboured very earnestly in the matter, and
were so importunate upon her that no answer would
satisfy them. Now Camma, seeing she could not
be rid of her friends, and foreseeing that by this

SINORIX AND CAMMA 45

means she might be rid of her enemies, agreed to
take him to husband. And the day of the solemniz
ing of the marriage being come, they went together
to the temple of Diana, where all things according
to custom being consummated, the bride-wife (as
the use was) drank to her husband in drink, as
he thought, but indeed in poison, which she had
provided of purpose : and when she saw he had drunk
up his death, she said unto him : — " Go now, and
instead of thy marriage-bed get thee a grave, for thy
marriage is turned to murder, a punishment most just
for thy outrageous lust and cruel tyranny, for ven
geance asketh vengeance, and blood blood, and they
that sow slaughter shall be sure to reap ruin and
destruction." Now Sinorix hearing these words and
feeling the force of the poison to work within him,
assayed all the remedies he could to cure himself, but
all in vain. Camma also feeling the poison to pre
vail within her, fell upon her knees before the altar
of Diana, uttering these words : —

" O Goddess, thou knowest how, since the death of
my sweet husband, this life hath been most loathsome
and sour unto me, and that only the offering up of
this sacrifice kept me from him, which now in thy
presence I have performed. I think myself to have

46 A PETITE PALLACE

satisfied my duty, and purchased thereby a passport to
pass to the place and paradise where my husband hath
his habitation."

Immediately upon this, so well as she could, she
crawled home to her house, where she was no sooner,
but she had certain tidings brought her that Sinorix
was dead. Wherewith with great joy she cast her
self down upon her bed, and called her little children
about her, and blessing and bussing them said : —

"Alas, pretty imps, who shall now defend you
from your foes, who shall redress your wrongs ? Your
father is gone, your mother is going, and you poor
souls must bide behind to abide the brunt and bitter
blasts of this wretched world. Ah, if the love which
I bare my husband had not been exceeding great,
nature would have caused me to have had some care
of you, and for your sakes to have suffered myself
sometime longer to live ; but now as I have shewed
myself a loving wife, so have I scarce shewed myself
a natural mother. But, alas ! it was reason I should
prefer him before you, who was the author of you,
and who blessed me with you. Well, I see now my
time is come, my tongue begins to fail. Come, dear
children, and take your last conge of your lost mother.
God shield you from shame, God preserve you from

SINORIX AND GAMMA 47

peril, God send you more prosperous fortune than
your poor parents had. And thus farewell my fruit,
farewell my flesh, farewell sweet babes ; and O wel
come my Sinnatus, whom I see in the skies ready to
receive me ! " And so in sorrow and joy she gave up
the ghost.

Now I would wish you, blazing stars, which stand
upon your chastity, to take light at this lot, to take
heed by this harm ; you see the husband slain, the
ruffian fled, the lover poisoned, the wife dead, the
friends comfortless, the children parentless. But it is
naturally incident to women to enter into extremities,
they are either too loving or too loathing, too cour
teous or too coy, too willing or too wilful, too
merciful or too merciless, too forward or too froward,
too friendly or too fiendly ; the mean they always
meanly account of. Otherwise she might with reason
sooner than rigour have repressed his rage. But
howsoever my words run, I would not you should
take them to tend altogether to her dispraise, for as
I must condemn her cruelty, so can I not but com
mend her constancy, and chastity, and think her
worthy to be compared to Lucrece, Penelope, or
what woman soever that ever had any pre-eminence of
praise for her virtue. And I would wish my gallant

48 A PETITE PALLACE

youths which delight to gaze in every garish glass,
and to have an oar stirring in every beautiful boat,
not to row past their reach, not to fix their fancy
upon impossibilities, not to suffer themselves to be
blasted with the beams of beauty, or scorched with
the lightning of loving looks : such love towards the
married is ever without law, such fire is without fear,
such suits are without shame, such cankers, if they be
not at the beginning cured, grow to the confusion of
the whole body. Therefore, Gentlewomen, I leave it
to your judgments to give sentence, whether be more
worthy reprehension, he or she. He had the law of
love on his side, she had the law of men and of
marriage on her part ; love led him, which the gods
themselves cannot resist, chastity guided her, which
the gods themselves have lost ; he killed him whom
he counted his enemy, she killed him whom she knew
her fleshly friend ; she with reason might have pre
vented great mischief ; his wings were too much lined
with lust to fly forth of his folly.

TEREUS AND PROGNE

TEREUS, King of Thrace, enamoured of Progne,
daughter to Pandion, Prince of Athens, ob-
taineth her in marriage, and conveyeth her into his
own country. Progne, desirous to see her sister
Philomela, moveth Tereus to go to Athens, and to
get. licence to bring her into Thrace, who on the
way falling into unlawful liking of her, forceth her to
his pleasure, and cutteth out her tongue, that she
might tell no tales. Progne, having hereof secret
intelligence, in lieu of that foul fact, murdereth his
and her own son, young Itys, and dresseth him in
meats for his father's mouth, which horrible deed
when Tereus would have revenged upon the mother
and aunt, they escape his hands, and are transformed
into birds.

If it were meet for mortal creatures to complain of
their immortal Creator, then truly may we justly
prepare complaint against our maker, for that of all

VOL. I. 49 E

50 A PETITE PALLACE

his creatures he hath made man most miserable.
Herbs, trees, and plants, he hath framed without
sense, whereby they neither feel the force of winter's
blasts, neither the fire of summer's blaze : fowls,
fishes, and beasts, he hath bereaved of a reasonable
soul, whereby they bear the brunt of their bodies
only, and are not molested with the motions of the
mind : but man he hath made subject to infirmities
of the body, to miseries of mind, to all storms of strife
and pangs of pain. And as the cameleon change th
himself into the colour and hue of everything he
doth view, so man is made apt to be transformed into
any misfortune, and to receive any evil that reigneth
upon the face of the earth. Yea, if we consider the
whole course of our life, we begin with cries, and end
with cares : for we are no sooner out of our mother's
womb, but we forthwith cry to signify the sorrow
which will ensue in our succeeding age : in our
infancy our tender bodies are subject to many infirm
ities : in our childhood our weak minds are troubled
with many toys : we are plied sore to silence, which
is of hard digestion to us ; we fear the master's lower
ing lore, which is a continual torment unto us ; but
oh, the sea of sorrow and waves of woe which then
overwhelm us when we once arrive to man's estate !

TEREUS AND PROGNE 51

What vain desires ! What fantastical follies ! What
careless and spareless spending ! What prodigal
pride ! What fiery flames of love ! What hair-
brained heats of hate ! What pensive fear of parents'
displeasure ! What solitariness in single life ! What
mind to marry ! What misery in marriage ! What
charge in children ! What care of their instruction !
What fear of their destruction ! And touching our
own bodies, what often surfeitings ! What perilous
pleurisies ! What fearful fevers ! What danger in war !
What peril in fight ! Yea, what sorrow which this
age is not subject to ! Lastly, in old age we covetously
cark for coin, we toil for trash, we think we never
have enough ; we think all too much that is spent ; we
take little pleasure in anything ; we think the world is
changed, and that it is far worse than it was when we
were young, only because our bodies are changed, and
our vital heat so vanished away, that nothing seemeth
pleasant unto us, though it be the same it was wont
to be, so that we think the alteration to be in the
thing, when it is in ourself. And then not only
our memory faileth, our wits wear weak, and return
to infancy again, but our bodies also are broken with
cares, taken with cramps, shaken with palsies, tor
mented with the stone, lamed with the gout, dried

52 A PETITE PALLACE

with dropsies, our sight weareth dim, our hearing
deaf, our smelling small, our tasting untoothsome, our
feelings feeble, yea, all our senses are almost without
sense ; and yet we are loath to die and leave our
worldly muck ; the fear of approaching death doth
daily daunt us, and at length his deadly darts do
utterly destroy us. And surely the consideration of
this our miserable estate doth so resolve me unto
sorrow, that if your presence did not sprinkle me with
some dew of delight, I should hardly frame my wits
to procure you pleasure by any pleasant history, but
rather continue a dolorous discourse of our calamity.
And yet the history I mean to tell shall not be alto
gether estranged from the argument of my former
discourse, but though it manifest not our manifold
misery, yet shall it at least set forth the gravity of our
felicity. The history is this : —

The flourishing commonwealth of Athens had to
their prince one Pandion, whose estate both fortune
beautified with great wealth, and God blessed with
goodly children, to wit two daughters of excellent
beauty, the eldest named Progne, the youngest Philo
mela. Now fame being a tatling goddess, blazed the
bruit of Progne abroad into divers countries, until at
length the rumour of her renown rung about the ears

TEREUS AND PROGNE 53

of Tereus, king of Thrace, who being a young lusty
gallant, made no great account of the commendation
which were given her, knowing, if he were disposed
to marry, he might make his choice amongst a great
number as good as she was, and more near neigh
bours unto him than Athens was. But destinies so
drave that shortly after this, on a. night in his sleep
he seemed to see her stand apparently before him
(only a strong imagination assuring him that it was
she) which sight sunk so deeply into his heart and
brought him such excessive delight, that he presently
awaked, and missing the party that procured him such
pleasure, his joy was turned to annoy; neither could
he ever after that find any contentation in any thought
or deed, but only in this determination to go have a
true sight of her, whose seeming shadow had so
dazzled his eyes ; and with all speed repaired his
ships, and prepared all things necessary for such a
voyage, and by the help of good wind and will,
shortly arrived there where his heart had already cast
anchor, and sent ambassadors to the King to certify
him of his coming, who received him with royalty fit
for his regal estate. And at the first incountry of the
two princes, Tereus said : —

" My coming unto you, O noble prince, is not as an

54 A PETITE PALLACE

open enemy to invade you, for you see I am unarmed,
neither as a sacred traitor to entrap you, for you know
I am your friend : but that you may not marvel at
my sudden coming, you shall understand it is to
see your daughter the Lady Progne, for you shall
soon perceive I pretend well unto her." Pandion
answered : —

" As, most worthy prince, the cause of your coming
is friendly, so can I not but friendly accept it, and
how much I think myself honoured thereby, so much
I count myself bound unto you."

And after a little parley passed between them of
the estates of their realms and manners of their
countries, Pandion preferred him to the sight of his
daughter, whom after Tereus had saluted with a
courteous conge, he entered into discoursing with in
this sort : —

" If, fair Lady, I should tell the truth of my coming
into this country, I think you would take it but for a
trifling toy ; yea, if I should in words plainly set down
the cause of this my enterprised journey, and the case
which through your means I remain in, I doubt you
would neither believe the cause, neither relieve my
case : for that the strangeness of the one would breed
great incredulity, and for the other the small acquaint-

TEREUS AND PROGNE 55

ance I have with you, and less deserts towards you
can crave small courtesy ; yet if it please you to know,
neither the desire to see this country, neither the
renown of your virtue and beauty brought me hither,,
for though the report thereof be great, yet now I see
I must needs say, that fame hath rather framed your
praise maliciously than reported it truly ; for one good
part reported to be in you, I perceive by your coun
tenance such confluence of good conditions, that I
cannot but count the rumour which run of you
rather sparing speech than right report. But the
cause of my hasty coming and heavy case is this : it
pleased the gods to present your seemly self to my
presence in the same lovely likeness wherein you are
at this present, what time I took such view of your
sweet face, that approaching this day to your father's
palace, before I knew who you were, what you were,
or where you were, as you looked if you remember it,
out at your chamber window, I said to my servants,
" Lo ! yonder stands the peerless paragon, princely
Progne " ; and since that sight in my sleep, I take the
heavens to witness I never enjoyed one quiet sleep, but
continued in contemplation how I might be placed in
possession of that personage which drave me into such
admiration. Now seeing it pleased the gods thus

56 A PETITE PALLACE

miraculously to move me to travel to see you, and
seeing the sight of your sweet face hath fast fettered
my fancy in links of love, these may be humbly to
desire you, neither to resist the motion of the gods,
neither to regret the devotion of my good-will. And
if I have preferred your love before all the ladies of
my own land, if I make you that proffer which many
princes have pressed for, if neither weariness of way,
neither perils of sea could prohibit me from pursuing
your good-will, if I be content to resign my kingdom,
liberty, and all that I have into your hands, I shall
desire you not to condemn my courtesy, but to coun
tervail my pain and to return my good-will with
like love and affection. This request also resteth to
make unto you that you drive me not off with trifling
delays, for neither will the extremity of my perplexity
permit long delay, neither will the estate my kingdom
standeth in suffer me long to be away."

Progne, hearing the earnest suit of this prince, and
seeing nothing in him to be misliked, considering also
what haste his request required, stood not upon the
nice terms of her virginity, but with a reverence of
majesty made him this answer : —

" Most worthy prince ! whatsoever were the cause
of your coming into this country, the King my father

TEREUS AND PROGNE 57

hath to hold himself much beholding to your majesty,
that it would please you to do him the honour to visit
him : but touching the cause you pretend, I doubt
not but your wisdom knoweth that dreams are doubt
ful, and visions are altogether vain, and therefore I
must crave pardon if I hardly believe that upon so
light a cause you would undertake such heavy travail,
and I much muse that in your sleep the gods had no
seemlier sight than myself to present unto you. But
whether before you came hither the gods moved your
mind, or whether being here your own fancy forced
your affection towards me, assure yourself this, if your
love be as loyal as your words seem wonderful in
shewing the original thereof, you shall not find me
either so discourteous as to condemn your good-will,
either so ungrateful as not to requite it, marry as I
may, which is for your hearty good-will to give you
my heart ; for any benefit of my body it is not in me
to bestow on you, for if you do me that injury to
exact anything at my hands lasciviously, honesty will
not allow it, whose bounds I mean not to transgress ;
and if you do me that honour to pursue my good-will
in the way of marriage, perchance my parents will not
permit it, who only have power to place me at their
pleasure. So that as the one half and moiety of me

58 A PETITE PALLACE

is not mine, so the other part, if your good-will be as
great as you pretend, shall be yours." Presently upon
this he preferred his suit to her parents, who were no
less glad of such a son-in-law than he of such a wife :
and so out of hand the marriage with great solemnity
was celebrated. Which done, he joyfully departed
from his sorrowful father-in-law, and in short time
safely landed with his wife in his own land, where
they lived together the space of five years in such joy
as they commonly enjoy, who carry fortunes, as it were,
upon their shoulders, and abound in all things which
they can wish or desire. But see the frailty of our
felicity, mark the misery which mortal men are sub
ject to ! A man would have thought this married
couple, in love so loyal, in estate so high, in all things
so happy, had been placed in perpetuity of prosperity.
But alas ! what estate hath fortune ever made so in
vincible, which vice cannot vanquish ? who hath ever
been established in such felicity, but that wickedness
can work his overthrow ? what love hath ever been so
fast bound, but by lust hath been loosed ? yea, the
most faithful bond of friendship between Titus and
Gysippus, through lust was violated ; the most natural
league of love between Antiochus and his own son,
through lust was broken ; and this most loyal love

TEREUS AND PROGNE 59

between Tereus and Progne through lust was turned
to loathsome hate. For it fortuned that Progne after
they had been married together a while entered into
great desire to see her sister Philomela, and lay very
importunately upon her husband to go to Athens and
request her father Pandion to let her come unto her.
Tereus loved his wife so entirely that he would deny
her nothing, but presently embarked himself and went
to fetch Philomela unto her. And being arrived at
Athens, he made Pandion privy to the cause of his
coming. The old man was assailed with great sorrow
to think he must part from his fair Philomela, the only
stay and comfort of his old years ; but Tereus entreated
so earnestly that he could not deny him easily, and
Philomela was so desirous to see her sister that had so
lovingly sent for her, that she hung about her father's
neck, kissed him, and used all the flatteries she could,
to force him to yield his consent to her departure ;
wherewith he being vanquished, with weeping eyes
in great grief and dolour delivered his daughter to
Tereus, saying : —

" It is not my daughter only I deliver you, but my
own life, for assure yourself, my life cannot last one
minute longer than I shall hear she doth well, and
if her return be not with speed, you shall hear of

60 A PETITE PALLACE

my speedy return to the earth from whence I
came."

Tereus desired him to be of good cheer, promising
to be as careful of her well-doing as if she were his
own sister or child. Whereupon the old man, blessing
his daughter, gave her unto him. But like a simple
man he committed the silly sheep to the ravening
wolf.

Nay, there was never bloody tiger that did so
terribly tear the little lamb, as this tyrant did
furiously fare with fair Philomela. For being in ship
together, he began filthily to fix his fancy upon her,
and casting the fear of God from before his eyes, root
ing the love of his wife out of his heart, contemning
the holy rites of matrimony, and the sacred state of
virginity, he fell to fleshly dalliance with her, and
attempted to win that point of her which she held
more dear and precious than her life, and which
ought to be of curious regard to all women of honest
behaviour. But having no other weapon but weeping
to defend herself, by pitiful exclamations and cries she
kept him from satisfying his insatiable desire. But as
the ravening wolf having seized in his tearing claws
some silly lamb, seeks some den to hide him in, that
nothing hinder him from quietly enjoying his prey, so

TEREUS AND PROGNE 61

he was no sooner arrived on the coasts of his own
country, but that he secretly conveyed her to a grange
of his own, far from any town or city, and there
by force filthily deflowered her. The poor maid
thus pitilessly spoiled, so soon as her grief would give
her leave to speak, spit forth her venom against his
villainy in this sort : —

" Ah, most tyrannous traitor ! hast thou thus be
trayed my father and sister ? Hast thou no other to
work thy wickedness on but me, who was the jewel
of my father and the joy of my sister, and now by
thy means shall be the destruction of the one and
the desolation of the other ? O that my hands had
strength to tear these staring eyes out of thy hateful
head, or that my mouth were able to sound the
trumpet of this thy trumpery, either to the court of
my sister, or country of my father, that they might
take revenge on thy villainy ! O cursed be the womb
from whence thou earnest, and the paps which gave
thee suck ! O cursed be the cause of thy conception,
and the Father that begat thee, who if he never
otherwise in his life offended, yet doth he deserve to
be plunged in the most painful pit of Hell only
for begetting so wicked a son ! "

Tereus, not able to endure this talk, and fearing

62 A PETITE PALLACE

lest her words might bewray his wickedness, made no
more ado but took his knife, and like a bloody but
cher, cut her tongue forth of her head. This done,
he caused her to be locked fast in a chamber, taking
everything from her whereby she might use violence
towards herself, and so went home to the Queen
Progne his wife with this forged tale : —

."I am sorry, sweet wife, it is my chance to be the
messenger of such sour news unto you, but seeing of
force you must hear it, as good I now impart it as
other hereafter report it unto you. And seeing it is
an accident which ordinarily happeneth to morta
wights, I trust of yourself you will give such order
to your sorrow, that you will suffer it to sink no
deeplier into your heart than wisdom would it should :
carrying this in your remembrance that we are born
to die, and that even in our swathe-clouts death may
ask his due." "Alas," saith she, "and is Pandion
departed ? " " No," saith he, " Pandion liveth, but
his life is such that death would more delight him."

"Then farewell, my Philomela," saith she, "thy
death I know is cause of this desolation, and thy
death shall soon abridge my days." " Indeed," saith
he, " so it is ; the gods have had her up into heaven,
as one too good to remain on earth." " Ah, unjust

TEREUS AND PROGNE 63

gods," saith she, "she is too good for them also.
What pity, what piety, what right, what reason is in
them, to deprive her of life now in the prime of her
life, before she have tasted the chief pleasures of life,
or any way deserved the pain of death ? "

" Ah, sweet wife," saith he, " I beseech you by the
love which you bear me, to moderate your martyrdom
and assuage your sorrow, and only in me to repose
your felicity : for I protest by these hands and tears
which I shed to see your sorrow, that I will be to you
instead of a father and a sister : yea, if you had a
thousand fathers and a thousand sisters, all their good
wills together should not surmount mine alone."

These loving words caused her somewhat to cease
from her sorrow, and she began to take the matter
as patiently as her pain would permit her.

But to return to Philomela, who being kept close
prisoner determined to pine herself to death, but
the hope of revenge altered that determination,
and she began to cast in her head how she might
open the injury to her sister, which that tyrant
had offered them both. At length she went this
way to work ; she wrought and embroidered cun
ningly in cloth the whole discourse of her course
and careful case, which being finished, fortune so

64 A PETITE PALLACE

framed that a gentleman riding late in the night
had lost his way, and seeing a light in her chamber
afar off, drew near to the window and called to
Philomela, enquiring the way to the next town ;
whereupon Philomela opened the window, and seeing
him to be a gentleman whom she thought would not
stick to put himself in some peril to redress a lady's
wrong, showed him the cloth which she so cunningly
had wrought, and in the first place thereof was plainly
written, to whom it should be delivered, and from
whom. The gentleman took it at her hands, and
plighted to her his faith, safely and secretly to deliver
it to the queen. See the just judgment of God, who
will suffer no evil done secretly, but it shall be mani
fested openly, as in times past he made the infant
Daniel an instrument to detect the conspiracy of the
two Judas judges, who falsely accused the good lady
Susanna, and other times other ways : but this tyranny
of Tereus was so terrible that the very stones in the
walls would have bewrayed it, if there had been no
other means used. Now Progne having this cloth
conveyed unto her, and fully understanding how
the case stood, notwithstanding her grief were great in
the highest degree, yet (a marvellous thing a woman
could do so) she concealed the matter secretly, hoping

TEREUS AND PROGNE 65

to be revenged more speedily. But yet her husband's
villainy towards her caused her to inveigh against him
in this vehement sort : —

" O devilish deep dissembling of men ! Who
would have thought that he which pretended so
great good-will towards me, would have intended
so great ill against me ? Why if my person could
not please him, could none but my sister satisfy
him ? And if he thought her most meet for his
mischief, yet was it not villainy enough to vanquish
her virginity, but that he must mangle and dis
member her body also ? but what pity is to be
looked for of such panthers which pass not of
piety ? He sheweth his cursed careless kind, he
plainly proves himself to proceed of the progeny of
that traitor Aeneas, who wrought the confusion of the
good Queen Dido, who succoured him in his distress.
It is evident he is engendered of Jason's race, who
disloyally forsook Medea that made him win the
golden fleece ! He is descended of the stock of
Demophoon, who through his faithless dealing forced
Phyllis to hang herself! He seems of the seed of
Theseus, who left Ariadne in the deserts to be
devoured, through whose help he subdued the
monster Minotaur, and escaped out of the intricate

VOL. I. F

66 A PETITE PALLACE

labyrinth ! He cometh of Nero his cruel kind, who
carnally abused his own mother Agrippina, and then
caused her to be slain and ripped open, that he might
see the place wherein he lay being an infant in her
belly ! So that what fruits but filthiness is to be
gathered of such grafts ? What boughs but beastli
ness grow out of such stems ? No ! I will never make
other account but that faith which a man possesseth
is nothing else but forgery ; truth which he pre-
tendeth nothing else but trifling ; love lust ; words
wiles ; deeds deceit ; vows vanities ; faithful promises
faithless practises ; earnest oaths errant arts to deceive ;
sorrows subtleties ; sighs slights ; groans guiles ; cries
crafts ; tears treason : yea, all their doings nothing but
baits to entice us, hooks to entangle us, and engines
utterly to undo us ! O that my mouth could cause
my words to mount above the skies, to make the gods
bend down their eyes to take view of the villainy of
this viper, then no doubt but either the city would
sink wherein he is, or the earth would open and
swallow him up, or that at least some plague should
be thundered down upon him, which might most
painfully punish him ! Or why may not the gods
use me as an instrument to execute their vengeance
on him ? The wife of Dionysius, the tyrant, wrought

TEREUS AND PROGNE 67

the will of the gods on her husband, and miserably
murdered him, and why is it not lawful for me to do
the like ? Yes, I can and will devise such exquisite
punishment for this tyrant, that it shall fear all that
come after from the like filthiness."

Now to further her fury she had this opportunity
offered her : it was the same time of the year that
the sacrifices of Bacchus were to be celebrated, what
time the use was for the women to go about the
country disguised as if they had been mad, whereupon
the Queen took a troop of women with her and gat
to the grange where Philomela was, brake open the
doors and brought her home with her to her palace,
and there they two, the one with signs, and the other
with words, entered into consultation how to be
revenged on the treachery of Tereus : and surely if
a man be disposed to do his enemy a displeasure
indeed, if he follow my counsel, let him follow the
counsel of a woman ; nay, all the devils in hell could
not so have tormented Tereus as they did, so that I
think yourselves will say her fury exceeded his folly,
and her severity in punishing, his cruelty in offending.
For he had by her one only sweet son named Itys.
My tongue is not able to tell, and my heart rends in
twain to think, that a reasonable creature should so

68 A PETITE PALLACE

rage in rigour, that a woman should so want com
passion, that a mother should work such mischief to
her own child. For as I was about to tell you, she
had by her husband one only son, and she his own
mother miserably meant to murder him, thereby to
be revenged on her husband. O ruthless rage, O
merciless mother ! I have read of a woman named
Althea who wrought the death of her own son
Meleager, for that he before had slain two or three of
her brethren ; likewise Agave helped to tear in pieces
her own son Penthey, for that he would not do
honour to the god Bacchus : but for a mother to
murder, to mangle, to make man's meat of her own
child being an innocent, an infant that never did
or thought amiss, who ever heard anything more
monstrous in nature, more beastly in tyranny, or
more bloody in cruelty ? For mark the manner of
this murder : as her sister and she sat in her privy
chamber meditating of this mischief, in came Itys, the
pretty elf being two or three years of age, and seeing
his mother sit sadly, said unto her : " Mam, how dost,
why dost weep ? " and took her about the neck and
kissed her, saying : " I will go call my dad to come
and play with thee " ; but she like a tyrannous tiger
flung him from her saying : "Away imp of impiety !

TEREUS AND PROGNE 69

how like thy father thou art, not only in favour, but
in flattery also : I will make thee make thy dad
sport shortly." The infant rose again, and came
dugling to her saying, " Why do you beat me, Mam ?
I have learned my Christcross to-day, so I have,
and my father saith he will buy me a golden coat,
and then you shall not kiss me, no, you shall not,"
but this trifling dalliance could not turn her devilish-
ness. But (O dreadful deed, and lamentable case)
she took her pretty babe by the hair of the head,
and drew him into a privy corner provided for
the purpose, and first cruelly cut off his harmless
head, then butcherly quartered his comely carcase,
and between her sister and her dressed it in order
of meat, which done, (as the custom was in those
feasts of Bacchus) she sent for the King her husband
to sup with her, and set before him for the first
service his own son. Who after he had fiercely fed
on his own flesh, and filled his belly with his own
bowels, he asked for his little son Itys : the Queen
answered : " Why do you not see him ? I am sure
you feel him." And as he stared about the chamber
to have seen him, out stepped Philomela from behind
a cloth of Arras, and flung the child's head in the
father's face, whereby he knew what banquet he had

70 A PETITE PALLACE

been bid to ; and so soon as his senses were come to
him, which that sour sight had taken away, he drew
his rapier and thought to have offered up the blood of
his wife and her sister for a sacrifice unto his son, but
they fled from him, and as Ovid reporteth were
turned into birds, meaning they were not worthy
human shape or the use of reason, which were such
cruel monsters altogether devoid of ruth and reason.
It were hard here, Gentlewoman, for you to give
sentence, who more offended of the husband or the
wife, seeing the doings of both the one and the other
near in the highest degree of devilishness — such
unbridled lust and beastly cruelty in him, such mon
strous mischief and murder in her ; in him such
treason, in her such treachery ; in him such falseness,
in her such furiousness ; in him such devilish desire,
in her such revengeful ire ; in him such devilish
heat, in her such haggish hate, that I think them
both worthy to be condemned to the most bottomless
pit in hell.

GERMANICUS AND
AGRIPPINA

GERMANICUS, a young gentleman of small
living, of the kin, and in the court of
Octavian, the Emperor, becoming amorous of the
Lady Agrippina, through great suit getteth her to
wife : and through his valiancy winneth to be pro
claimed heir-apparent to the Empire. Whose state
Tiberius, his cousin, envying, despatcheth him privily
with poison, and Agrippina for grief thereof refusing
all bodily sustenance, most miserably famisheth
herself to death.

The astronomers are of this opinion that the planets
have pre-eminence over us, and that the stars stir us
up to all our enterprises, but I am rather settled into
this sentence, that not the planets but our passions
have the chief place in us, and that our own desires,
not the destinies, drive us to all our doings : which
7*

72 A PETITE PALLACE

opinion I may justify by the example of a gentleman
named Germanicus, whose fortune neither the Fates
fixed, neither the planets planted, neither the stars
stirred, neither the destinies drave, neither the skies
caused, but first his own fond fancy framed, and then
his own ambitious desire finished, as by the sequel
of this history you shall see. For this gentleman
Germanicus, frequenting the Court of Octavian, the
Emperor, chanced to fix his eyes on the face of a
noble gentlewoman named Agrippina, the daughter
of M. Agrippa ; and as the mouse mumpeth so long
at the bait, that at length she is taken in trap, so he
bit so long at the bait of her beauty, that at length
he was caught in Cupid's snare. And on a time as
she was at cards in the presence-chamber, this youth
stood staring in her face in a great study, which she
perceiving, to bring him out of his study prayed him
to reach her a bowl of wine which stood upon a
cupboard by, and as he approached therewith to the
place of her presence, his senses were so ravished with
the sight of her sweet face, that he let the bowl fall
forth of his hands : and retiring back with seemly
shamefastness, went for more, and being come there
with she thanked him for his pains saying, " I pray
God that fall of the wine hinder not my winning

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 73

and bring me ill luck, for I know many that cannot
away to have salt, or drink, or any such-like thing,
fall towards them."

"Madam," saith Germanicus, "I have often
heard it disputed in schools that such as the cause
of everything is, such will be the effect ; and seeing
the cause of this chance was good, I doubt not but
the effect will follow accordingly ; and if any evil
do ensue thereof, I trust it will light on my head
through whose negligence it happened." Agrippina
answered, " As I know not the cause, so I fear not
the effect greatly, and indeed as you say hitherunto
you have had the worst of it, for that thereby you
have been put to double pains."

" If that be all," saith he, " rather than it shall
be said any evil to have ensued of this chance, I will
persuade myself that every pain which you shall put
me to, shall be double delights and treble pleasure
unto me." " You must use," saith she then, " great
eloquence to yourself to persuade you to such an
impossibility." "Oh if it please you," saith he,
" there is an orator which of late hath taken up his
dwelling within me, who hath eloquence to persuade
me to a far greater matter than this."

" If," saith she, " he persuade you to things no

74 A PETITE PALLACE

more behoofful for yourself than this, if you follow
my counsel, you shall not give him houseroom long."
" Madam," saith he, " it is an assured sign of a free
and friendly mind to give good counsel, but it is
hard for one in bondage and out of his own pos
session to follow it. For what knoweth your honour
whether he have already taken entire possession of
the house wherein he is, which if it be so, what
wit is able to devise a writ to remove him from
thence ? " " If, sir," saith she, " he entered by order
of law and paid you truly for it, it is reason he
enjoy it ; marry, your folly was great to retain such
a tenant ! but if he intruded himself by force, you
may lawfully extrude him by strength."

" Indeed," saith he, " he entered vi et arrnu forcibly,
but after upon certain parlance passed between us, I
was content he should remain in peaceable possession :
marry ! he hath paid me nothing yet, but he promis-
eth so frankly, that if the performance follow, a
house with beams of beaten gold, and pillars of
precious stones, will not countervail the price of it ;
yea, if I were placed in quiet possession thereof I
would think myself richer, I will not say than the
Emperor, but which is most, than God himself who
possesseth heaven and earth : and as the hope of

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 75

obtaining the effect of that promise heaveth me up
to heaven, so the doubt to be deceived thereof
driveth me down to hell."

" And what joyly fellow," saith she, " is this that
promiseth so frankly ? will he not promise golden
hills and perform dirty dales ? " " Would to God,"
saith he, " your seemly self were so well acquainted
with him as I am, then would I make you judge of
the worthiness of the thing he hath promised, for that
you know the goodness thereof none better ! " The
lady smelling the drift of his devices, and seeing the
end of his talk seemed to tend to love and that
touching her own self, thought not good to draw on
their discourse any longer, but concluded with this
answer : —

" As I am altogether ignorant what your obscure
talk meaneth, so care I not to be acquainted with any
such companion as your landlord is, for so methinks
by you I may more fitly call him, than term him your
tenant," and so departed away into her lodging.
Germanicus likewise, his mistress being gone, gat
him to his chamber to entertain his amorous conceits,
and being alone brake forth into these words : —

" O friendly fortune ! if continually hereafter thou
furiously frown upon me, yet shall I all the days of

76 A PETITE PALLACE

my life count myself bound unto thee for the only
pleasure which this day thou hast done me, in giving
me occasion of talk with her, whose angel's voice
made such heavenly harmony in my heavy heart, that
where before it was plunged in perplexity, it is now
placed in felicity, and where before it was oppressed
with care, it is now refreshed with comfort. Yea,
every lovely look of her is able to cure me if I were
in most deep distress of most dangerous disease ; every
sweet word proceeding from her sugared lips, is of
force to fetch me from death to life. But, alas ! how
true do I try that saying, that every commodity hath
a discommodity annexed unto it ! how doth the re
membrance of this joy, put me in mind of the annoy
which the loss of this delight will procure me !

" Yea, it maketh all my senses shake to think that
some other shall enjoy her more worthy of her than
myself : and yet who in this court, nay in all
Christendom, nay in the whole world, is worthy of
her ? No, if she never have any until she have one
worthy of her every way, she shall never have any.
And shall I then, being but a poor gentleman, seek to
insinuate myself in place so high ? Shall I by my
rude attempt purchase at least the displeasure of her
friends and parents, and perchance hers also, whom to

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 77

displease would be no less displeasant unto me than
death ? Alas ! must love needs be rewarded with hate ?
Must courtesy needs be countervailed with cruelty ?
Must good-will needs be returned with displeasure ?
Is it possible that bounty should not abide where
beauty doth abound, and that courtesy should not
accompany her comeliness ? Yes, I am sure at the
least she will suffer me to love her, though her young
years and high estate will not suffer her to love me ;
and though she will not accept me for husband, yet I
am sure she will not reject me for servant ; and
though she will not receive my service, yet I doubt
not but she will courteously take the tendering
thereof unto her. And touching her parents' dis
pleasure, what care I to procure the ill-will of the
whole world, so I may purchase her good-will !
Yea, if I should spend the most precious blood in
my body in the pursuit of so peerless a piece, I
would count it as well bestowed as if it were shed
in the quarrel of God, my prince, or country. For
she is the goddess whom I will honour with de
votion, she is the country in whose cause and
quarrel I will spend life, living, and all that I have !
Neither is there much cause why her friends should
storm much at the matter, for though my lands

78 A PETITE PALLACE

and revenues are not great, yet am I of the blood
royal, and near kinsman to the emperor, who will
not suffer me to want anything pertaining to my
estate and degree. Why Alerane, a youth like
myself, practised the mighty Emperor Otho his
daughter and darling Adalesia, stole her away and
married her, and do I stick to attempt the like with
one of far meaner estate, though of far more worthi
ness ? And though frowning fortune tossed him for
a while in the tempestuous seas of adversity, yet at
length he arrived at the haven of happy estate, and
was reconciled to the good grace and favour of the
Emperor again. And though at the first my ship be
shaken with angry blasts, yet in time I doubt not but
to be safely landed on the shore, and have my share
of that which the showers of shrewd fortune shall
keep me from. He is not worthy to suck the sweet
who hath not first savoured the sour ! And as the
beauty of a fair woman being placed by a foul
blaze th more brightly, so each joy is made more
pleasant by first tasting some sour sops of sorrow !
Did not the peril which Leander ventured in the
sea, and the pain which he took in swimming, make
his arrival to the haven of his heavenly Hero more
happy and pleasant ? Yes, no doubt of it ! for besides

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 79

the feeling of the present pleasure, the remembrance
of the peril past delighteth. Besides that by how
much more a man hazardeth himself for his mistress*
sake, by so much the more he manifesteth the con
stancy of his love, and meriteth meed at her hands
the more worthily. This saying also is no less tried
than true, that fortune ever favoureth the valiant,
and things the more hard the more haughty, high,
and heavenly : neither is any thing hard to be
accomplished by him which hardily enterpriseth
it!"

With these and suchlike sayings encouraging him
self, he purposed to pursue his purpose, and failed not
daily to attend upon his mistress with all duty and
vigilance, and sought all occasions he could to let her
understand his loyal love and great good-will towards
her ; which she perceiving, disdained not acknowledge
by her amiable and courteous countenance towards
him, wherewith he held himself as well satisfied as if
he had been made monarch of the whole world.
And though he were often determined in words to
present his suit unto her, yet when it came to the
point he should have spoken, fear of offending her
altogether disappointed his purpose, and made him
mute in the matter he minded to utter ; but at length

8o A PETITE PALLACE

perceiving that delay bred danger, for that she had
many other suitors, and feeling by experience, that as
fire the more it is kept down, the more it flameth up,
so love the more he sought to suppress him, the more
fiery forces he expressed within him, he began to set
fear aside, and to force a supply of courage in his
faint heart ; and seeing his mistress sit in the presence
alone, he entered into reasoning with her in this
manner : —

" Madam, for that I see you without company, I
am the bolder to presume to press in place, whereof
though I be altogether unworthy, yet am I altogether
willing to supply it, and if my company may content
you as well as your sight satisfieth me, I doubt not
but you will accept it in good part ; and so much
the less I hope my company shall be cumbersome
to you, for that you are busied about nothing where
to my presence may be prejudicial. And, verily,
when I consider the common course of life which
your sweet self, and other maids of your estate lead,
methinks it is altogether like the spending of your
time at this present, which is, with your leave be it
spoken, idly, unfruitfully without pleasure or profit ;
and if my credit were such with you to crave credit
for that which I shall speak, I would not doubt but

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 81

to persuade you to another trade of life more com
mendable in the world, more honourable amongst all
men, and more acceptable in the sight of God. For
believe me, I pity nothing more than virgins' vain
piety, who think they merit meed for living chastely,
when indeed they deserve blame for spending their
time wastily."

" Sir," saith she, " as your company contenteth me
well enough, so your talk liketh me but a little ; for
though I must confess I sit at this present without
doing anything, yet in my fancy it is better to be
idle, than ill-employed, as yourself are now in repre
hending that state of life, which excelleth all other as
far as the sun doth a star, or light darkness, and
wherein I mean for my part to pass the pilgrimage
of this my short life, if either God dispose me not, or
my friends force me not to the contrary."

"God forbid, Madam," saith he, "you should
continue your time in any such trifling trade of life,
which indeed is to be counted no life at all ; as the
Grecian ladies most truly testify, who (as Homer
reporteth) count their age from the time of their
marriage, not from the day of their birth ; and if they
be demanded how old they be, they begin to reckon
from their marriage and so answer accordingly.

VOL. I. G

82 A PETITE PALLACE

For then only (say they) we begin to live, when we
have a house to govern, and may command over
our children and servants."

" Tush," saith the lady, " this is but the sentence
and proper opinion of one peculiar people, who per
chance by the nature of their country, or otherwise,
are more desirous of husbands than other ; neither is
it any more reason that we should be tied to their
example, than they be bound to follow our Virgin
Vestals or other, who consume the whole course of
their life without contaminating their corps with the
company of men." " Nay rather," saith he, " with
out receiving their perfection from men, according
to the opinion of Aristotle. But, Madam, I did
not produce that example as necessary for all to
follow, but as probable to prove and show, what
course account they made of virginity, which you so
highly esteem of. But to leave particular opinions,
and come to general constitutions and customs, I
mean both natural, human, and divine laws, and
you shall see them all to make against you. And
first, if you consider nature's laws, which in the
doings of creatures without reason are plainly set
down, you shall see no living wight in the uni
versal world, but that so soon as by age they are

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 83

apt thereto, apply themselves to that life whereby
their kind may be conserved and number increased.
Behold the high-flying falcon, which soareth so
high in the air that a man would think she would
stoop to neither lure nor lust, yet she is no
sooner an entermewer, or at the farthest a white
hawk, but that of her own accord she cometh to
the call of the tassel-gentle her make. Likewise the
doe, which flingeth so freely about the woods as
though she made no account of the male, yet she is
no sooner a sores sister, but that she seeks the society
of the buck. Yea, if it would please your seemly self
to enter into the consideration of your own nature,
or if your courtesy would account me worthy to have
the examination of your secret thoughts, I doubt
not but you would confess yourself to flee a fiery
force of that natural inclination which is in other
creatures ; which being so, you must grant to deal
unnatural in resisting that natural motion which
cannot be ill or idle, because nature hath planted it
in you : for God and nature do nothing vainly or
vilely ! And in that some do amiss in rebelling
against nature, their own scrupulous niceness is the
cause, when they will lay on themselves heavier bur
dens than they are able to bear, and refuse to bear

84 A PETITE PALLACE

those burdens which nature hath appointed them to
bear, which are but light."

" What talk you, Sir," saith she, " so much of nature
and of creatures without reason, as though we ought
to follow either the instinct of the one, either the
example of the other ? I have been always taught
that reason is the rule to direct our doings by, and
that we ought to lay before us the actions of animals
endued with reason to follow and imitate. For if
you stick so strictly to the example of reasonless crea
tures, you should use the company of women but
once or twice at the most in the year, as most of
them do with their females, whereto I am sure you
would be loth to be tied."

" Madam," saith he, " a gentlewoman of this city
hath answered this objection already for me." " Why
then," saith she, " will you condemn their doings
in some points, and place them for patterns to be
practised by in other some ? "

" Yea, why not ? " saith he. " Otherwise you might
generally take exception against the example of men,
for that some men in some matters do amiss. The
good ever is to be used, and the ill refused. But to
come to the doings of men which you seem to
desire, doth not every man so soon as his daughter

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 85

is arrived to ripe years, travail to bestow her in
marriage, whereby she may enjoy the fruits of love,
and participate with the pleasures incident to that
estate ? Whereby they plainly shew that the cause
why they begot them with pleasure, and bring them
up with pain, is to have them enter into that trade
of life, wherein not only themselves may live happily
abounding in all pleasure, but also by the fertile fruit
of their body, make their mortal parents immortal :
that when they with age shall be wasted and withered
away, the seed of their seed may begin greenly to
grow and flourishingly to spring, to the great comfort
of both the father and daughter. For what pleasure
the grandfather takes in the sporting pastime of his
proper daughter's pretty children, I think you partly
understand, and what delight the mother takes in
the toys of her little son, you soon shall perfectly per
ceive, if it please you friendly to follow counsel which
I frankly preach unto you ! For do you think if
virginity were of such virtue, that parents would not
rather pain themselves to keep their dear daughters
modest maids, than strain themselves and their sub
stance to join them in Juno's sacred bond ? Yes,
persuade your sweet self if your mother were so per
suaded she would rather lock you up close in her

86 A PETITE PALLACE

closet, than suffer anybody to enjoy the sovereign
sight of your beauty, or once aspire to your speech
whereby you might be persuaded to some other kind
of life. But she, experienced by years, knoweth best
what is best for your behoof, and would you should
follow her example, and make no conscience to lose
that which she herself hath lost, which, except she
had lost, we had lost so rare a jewel as your seemly
self are. With what a loss it had been to myself, I
dare not say, lest you count verity vanity, and truth
trifling and flattery. But to our purpose ! you per
ceive, as I said, your parents pleased with the access
of gentlemen unto you, whereby you may conceive
their mind is you should accept such service as they
proffer, and partake with those pleasures which they
prefer unto you."

"Why, Sir," saith she, "you altogether mistake
the meaning of men in this matter ; for when fathers
tender marriages to their daughters, it is not for any
mind they have to have them married, but only for
fear they should fall to folly other ways ; for knowing
the fickle frailness of youth, and our proclivity to
pravity and wickedness, they provide us marriages
to prevent mischiefs ; and seeing of evils the least
is to be chosen, they count marriage a less evil than
lightness of our life and behaviour."

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 87

" Alas, good Madam," saith he, " why do you so
much profane the holy state of wedlock as to count
it in the number of evils ; whereas the gods them
selves have entered into that state ; whereas Princes
pleasantly pass their time therein ; whereas by it only
mankind is preserved, and amity and love amongst
men conserved, of the worthiness whereof I am not
worthy to open my lips."

" Sir," saith she, " I speak it not of myself, but
according to the opinion of the most wise and learned
philosophers that ever lived ; amongst whom one,
Arminius, so much misliked of marriage, that being
demanded why he would not marry, answered
because there were so many inconveniences incident
to that estate, that the least of them is able to slay a
thousand men."

"Why, Madam," saith he, "you must consider
there is nothing in this mortal life so absolutely good
and perfect but that there be inconveniences as well
as commodities incurred thereby. By that reason
you may take the sun out of the world for that it
parcheth the summer's green, and blasteth away the
beauty of those that blaze their face therein. But to
leave natural and human laws, and come to the divine
precepts proceeding from God's own mouth, doth
not God say * it is not good for man to live alone/

88 A PETITE PALLACE

and therefore made Eve for an helper and comforter ?
Likewise in divers places of Scripture he doth not
only commend marriage to us, saying, * marriage and
the bed undefiled are honourable,' but also com-
mandeth us to it, saying, ' You shall forsake father
and mother and shall follow your wives.' "

" Why, Sir," saith she, " and doth not God say, < it
is good for man not to touch a woman, and if thou be
unmarried remain so ' ? But why allege you not this
text, l it is better to marry than to burn ' ; whereby
is plainly showed that marriage is but a mean to
medicine the burning in concupiscence and lust, and
therefore preferred. But because we be entered into
divine mysteries, I would refer you to a place of
Scripture, where it is reported that in Heaven
virgins chiefly serve God and set forth his glory.
And Mahomet, the great Turk, who was in heaven,
saith he saw there virgins, who if they issued forth of
Heaven, would lighten the whole world with their
brightness, and if they chanced to spit into the sea,
they would make the whole water as sweet as honey ;
but there is no mention of married folk."

" Belike," saith he, " those virgins be like yourself,
and then no marvel though God be delighted with
the sight of them, which perchance is the cause He

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 89

hath them in Heaven to attend upon Him, as first
Hebe, and after Ganymedes, did upon Jupiter. But
generally of women the Scripture saith that by bring
ing forth of children they shall be saved and enjoy a
place in heaven, which must be by marriage, if
honestly. But because I am persuaded that it is only
for argument sake that you disallow marriage, and
that you pretend otherwise in words than you
intend to do in works, I am content to give you the
honour of the field, and thus far to yield my consent
to your opinion, that virginity considered of its own
nature simply without circumstance is better than
matrimony, but because the one is full of peril, the
other full of pleasure, the one full of jeopardy, the
other full of security, the one as rare as the black
swan, the other as common as the black crow, of
good things I think the more common the more
commendable."

" If," saith she, " I have gotten any conquest
hereby, I am to thank my own cause not your
courtesy, who yield when you are able to stand no
longer in defence."

" Nay, Madam, say not so," saith he, " for in that
very yielding to your opinion, I proved marriage
better than virginity for that it is more common :

9o A PETITE PALLACE

neither would I have you turn my silence in this
matter into lack of science and knowledge, or repre
hend me if I spare to enforce further proof in a
matter sufficiently proved already, no more than you
would rebuke a spaniel which ceaseth to hunt when
he seeth the hawk seized on the partridge. But you
may marvel, Madam, what is the cause that maketh
me persuade you thus earnestly to marriage, which
as mine own unworthiness willeth me to hide, so
your incomparable courtesy encourageth me to
disclose, which maketh me think that it is no small
cause which can make you greatly offended with him
who beareth you great good-will, and that what suit
soever I shall prefer unto you, you will either grant it
or forgive it, pardon it or pity it. Therefore, may it
please you to understand, that since not long since I
took large view of your virtue and beauty, my heart
hath been so inflamed with the bright beams
thereof, that nothing is able to quench it, but the
water which floweth from the fountain that first
infected me. And if pity may so much prevail with
you as to accept me, I dare not say for your husband,
but for your slave and servant, assure yourself there
shall no doubt of danger drive me from my duty
towards you, neither shall any lady whatsoever have

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 91

more cause to rejoice in the choice of her servant
than yourself shall ; for that I shall account my life
no longer pleasant unto me than it shall be employed
in your service."

Agrippina, dyeing her lily cheeks with vermilion
red, and casting her eyes on the ground, gave him
this answer : —

" As I am to yield you thanks for your good-will,
so am I not to yield consent to your request, for that
I neither mind to marry, neither think myself worthy
to retain any such servant : but if I were disposed to
receive you any way, I think the best manner mean
enough for your worthiness."

Immediately hereupon there came company unto
them, which made them break off their talk, and
Agrippina being got into her chamber, began to
think on the suit made unto her by Germanicus ;
and by this time Cupid had so cunningly carved and
engraved the idol of his person and behaviour in her
heart, that she thought him worthy of a far more
worthy wife than herself ; and persuading herself by
his words and looks that his love was loyal without
lust, true without trifling, and faithful without feign
ing, she determined to accept it if her parents would
give their consent thereto. Now Germanicus nothing

9 2 A PETITE PALLACE

dismayed with her former denial for that it had a
courteous close, so soon as opportunity served, set on
her again in this sort : —

" Now, Madam, you have considered my case at
leisure, I trust it will stand with your good pleasure
to make me a more comfortable answer."

" I beseech you, Sir," saith she, " to rest satisfied
with my former answer, for other as yet I am not
able to make you."

" Alas, Madam," saith he, " the extremity of my
passion will not suffer long prolonging of compassion ;
wherefore I humbly beseech you presently to pass
your sentence either of bale or bliss, of salvation or
damnation, of life or death. For if the heavens have
conspired my confusion, and that you mean rigorously
to reject my good- will, I mean not long to remain
alive to trouble you with any tedious suit, for I ac
count it as good reason to honour you with the
sacrifice of my death, as I have thought it convenient
to bestow upon you the service of my life."

" Alas, Sir," saith she, " this jesting is nothing joyful
unto me, and I pray you use no more of it, for the
remembrance of that which you speak of in sport,
maketh me feel the force thereof in good earnest : for
a thousand deaths at once can not be so dreadful unto

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 93

me, as once to think I should live to procure the
death of any such as you are."

" If," saith he, " you count my words sport, jest
and dalliance, assure yourself it is sport without
pleasure, jest without joy, and dalliance without
delight, as tract of time shall shortly try for true.
But if you love not to hear of my death, why like
you not to give me life, which you may do only by
the consent of your good-will ? "

"Why, Sir," saith she, "you know my consent
consisteth not in myself but in my parents, to whom
I owe both awe and honour ; therefore it behoveth
you first to seek their consent."

"Why, Madam," saith he, "shall I make more
account of the meaner parts than of the head. You
are the head and chief in this choice, and therefore
let me receive one good word of your good-will, and
then let heaven and earth do their worst. It is not
the coin, countenance, or credit of your parents that
I pursue for to win. With such wealth as your
good-will, I could be content to lead a poor life
all the days of my life, so that you be maintained
according to your will and worthiness."

"Well," saith she, "seeing I am the only mark
you shoot at, assay by all the means you may to get

94 A PETITE PALLACE

my friends' good-will, and if you level anything
straight you shall not miss me."

Germanicus upon this procured the Emperor's
letters to her father in his behalf, who having perused
those letters said he trusted the Emperor would give
him leave to dispose of his own according to his own
pleasure, and that his daughter was too near and dear
unto him to see her cast away upon one, who for
lack of years wanted wisdom to govern her, and for
lack of lands living to maintain her ; and calling his
daughter before him, he began to expostulate with
her in this sort : —

"Daughter, I ever heretofore thought you would
have been a solace and comfort to my old years, and
the prolonger of my life, but now I see you will
increase my hoary hairs, and be the hasten er of my
death. Doth the tender care, the careful charge, and
chargeable cost, which I have ever used in bringing
you up, deserve this at your hands that you should
pass a grant of your good-will in marriage without my
consent ? Is the piety towards your parents, and the
duty of a daughter towards her father, so utterly for
gotten, that you will prefer the love of an unthrift
before my displeasure, and to please him care not to
displease your parents, who travail to bestow you with

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 95

one worthy your estate, and ours ? No ! never think
Germanicus shall enjoy you with my good-will, nor
never take me for your father if you grant him your
good-will ! "

Agrippina hearing this cruel conclusion of her
father, with bashful countenance and trembling
tongue, framed her answer in this form : —

" I beseech you, good father, not to think me so
graceless a child as once to think, much less to do,
anything which may heap your heaviness or hasten
your death, the least of which two, would be more
bitter unto me than death. For if it please you to
understand, I have not granted my good-will to any,
unless your consent be gotten thereto. Neither have
I, as you say, preferred the love of an unthrift before
your displeasure, but as I cannot let that noble gentle
man Germanicus to love me, so can I not, to confess
the truth, but love him, marry, in heart only, for my
body as you gave it me so shall you dispose of it. And
as I faithfully promise you by the love which of duty I
owe you, that I will never have any to husband with
out your good-will, so I humbly beseech you for the
affection which by nature you bear me, that you will
lever force me to any without my good-will. For if,
for the transitory life you have given me, you make

96 A PETITE PALLACE

me pay so dearly as to be linked with one against my
liking, I must needs count it a hard pennyworth, and
well may I wish that I had never been born. I be
seech you, Sir, consider the inconveniences always
incident to those marriages, where there is more
respect of money than of the man, of honours than
of honesty, of goods than of good-will of the parties
each to other ! What strife, what jars, what debate
at bed and at board, at home and abroad, about this,
about that ! never quietness with contentation, never
merry countenance without counterfeiting, never
loving deeds without dissembling ! And whence but
from this rotten root springeth so many dishonest
women, so many ill-living men ? Is it not the loath
ing of never-liked lips that maketh women stray from
their husbands to strangers ? And is it not either the
difference of years, either the diversity of manners, or
disagreement of natures, that maketh the husband
forsake his wife and follow other women ? And
where are any of these differences or inequalities be
tween the married, but where the force of friends, not
liberty of love, linketh them together ? These things
by your wisdom considered, I trust as you restrain me
from one whom I love, so you will not constrain me
to any whom I love not. In so doing, doubt you

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 97

not but you shall find in me modesty meet for a maid,
virtue fit for a virgin, duty meet for a daughter,
obedience fit for a child."

Her father having mildly heard her modest talk,
told her he meant not to force her to any, but
would provide her a husband whom he doubted not
should like her better every way than Germanicus
did, and therefore willed her to put out of her
mind the liking she had conceived of him ; and so
gave her leave to depart. And being in her chamber,
she began to devise all the means she could to root
out of her heart the love she bare Germanicus : and
as soon revoked to her memory his lack of living, his
little countenance and credit, as soon her father's dis
pleasure, and her own preferment, with many other
discommodities arising that way. But nothing pre
vailed ; for as the bird caught in lime, or coney in hay,
or deer in toil, the more they strive the faster they
stick, so the more diligently she laboured to get out
of the Labyrinth of Love, the more doubtfully was
she intricated therein. And as one climbing on high,
his feet failing and he in danger to fall, more firmly
fasteneth his hold than he did before, so love, seeing
himself ready to be dislodged out of her breast, took
such sure hold and fortified himself so strongly within
VOL. i. H

98 A PETITE PALLACE

her, that no force was of force to fetch him from
thence. Which the good gentlewoman perceiving,
thought best for her ease and quiet to yield to the
summons of love to be disposed at his pleasure.
Wherein no doubt she had reason ; for as the swift
running stream if it be not stopped runneth smoothly
away without noise, but if there be any dam or lock
made to stay the course thereof, it rageth and roareth
and swelleth above the banks, so love, if we obey his
law and yield unto his might, dealeth gently with us
and reigneth over us like a loving Lord, but if we
withstand his force and seek to stay the passage of his
power, he rageth over us like a cruel tyrant ; which
this gentlewoman, as I said, perceiving, without any
more resistance determined in her heart to love
Germanicus only and ever.

Now Germanicus, notwithstanding the angry looks
of the father, the frowning face of the mother, and
the strange counterfeit countenance of the daughter,
followed his suit so effectually, used such apt per
suasions to the maid, and in short time insinuated
himself so far into her familiarity, that her parents
lowered not so fast, but she allured as fast, and
thought she received no other contentation in the
whole world but in his company. Which her parents

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 99

perceiving, and besides dreading the Emperor's dis
pleasure, thought as good by their consent to let them
go together, as by severity to keep them asunder,
whom the gods seemed to join together. And so
much the rather they were induced thereto, for that
they saw their daughter so affected to Germanicus,
that the hearing of any other husband was hateful
and hurtful unto her. And hereupon the marriage
was concluded and consummated ; and to this bar
gain, only the fancy of Germanicus forced him.
Now see whither his ambitious desire drave him.
For being in proper possession of his proper wife,
he was not able to maintain her according as his
princely mind desired, for that his own living was
little, and her parents would not part with much,
because she had matched herself not anything to
their mind. Whereupon, in hope of preferment and
advancing his estate, he applied himself diligently to
the Emperor's service, and in short time, with valiant
exploits achieved in war, and great wisdom and dis
cretion shewed in time of peace, he won such credit
with the Emperor, that he held him most dear unto
him, and caused him to be proclaimed heir-apparent to
his crown and empire. With which news Germanicus
congratulated his new-married wife in this sort : —

ioo A PETITE PALLACE

" It is not unknown unto me, dear wife, that for
my sake you have somewhat sustained the ill-will and
displeasure of your friends and parents ; it is not
unknown likewise to you, that for your sake I have
sustained some labour in seeking our preferment, and
getting the Emperor's good-will who only may prefer
us. Now as the one hath made your life less pleasant
than I desire or you deserve, so the other shall
advance our state so high, as yourself can wish, or I
be able to wield, so that the commodities of the one
shall countervail the inconveniences of the other.
For you shall understand, that the Emperor doth not
only for the present time provide for me as if I were
his own child, but also for the time to come hath
proclaimed . me sole heir to his diadem and realm !
Which estate, as I never sought so much as in
thought for myself, knowing me to be altogether
unworthy of it, so I think myself most happy to have
aspired thereto, only for your sake whom I know
worthy of all the honour in the world. For as it
would have been a hell and horror to my heart to
have seen you live in meaner calling than you are
worthy of, so will it be a heavenly mirth to my mind
to see you a prince in state, as well as in stature,
beauty, and virtue ! "

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 101

" Master Germanicus," saith she, " I promise you
by the love which I bear you, for greater bond I
have not to confirm my words by, that it doth me
more good to see you thus pleasantly disposed than
to hear the news which you have imparted unto me,
for the one, I am sure, cannot hurt you, but what
harm the other may procure you, I fear to think,
and faint to say. Alas ! my Germanicus, are you
to know the perils which princely state bringeth,
the falsehood in friends, the treason in nobility, the
rebellion in commonalty, the envy of the weak, the
injury of the strong ? Besides, you see boisterous
winds do most of all shake the highest towers ; the
higher the place is, the sooner and sorer is the fall ;
the tree is ever the weakest towards the top ; in
greatest charge are greatest cares ; in largest seas are
sorest tempests ; envy always shooteth at high marks,
and a kingdom is more easily gotten than kept.
For to get is the gift of fortune, but to keep is the
power of prudence and wisdom, especially where there
be many that catch for it ; yea, and when a man shall
have no faithful friends in saving it. For Ennius
saith flatly, there is no friendly or faithful dealing to
be looked for at any man's hands, in matters pertain
ing to a kingdom ; and Euripides makes it in a

102 A PETITE PALLACE

manner lawful for a kingdom's sake to transgress the
limits of law, nature, and honesty. Which opinions
I may justify by many examples, as of Numitor and
Amulius, etc. who though they were natural brethren,
yet Amulius, being the younger, deposed his elder
brother from the Kingdom of Rome, slew his sons,
and made his daughters Virgin Vestals, that they
might not marry and have issue male to succeed the
crown. Likewise of Romulus and Remus, who being
brethren born at one birth, yet because Remus should
enjoy no part of the kingdom, Romulus found means
to make him away. The like is reported of Eteocles
and Polynices, of Jugurth towards Hiempsal and
Adherbal : all which were brethren, and by nature's
laws most nearly linked together. But of others that
by blood have not been so near, which in cases of
Kingdoms have dealt far worse, the examples are in
strangeness wonderful, in number infinite, and in
success so sorrowful, that it maketh me cold at heart
to consider of it. I spake not this, my Germanicus,
to forespeak you ; you may enjoy the empire quietly,
and so I trust you shall, but I know not what the
matter is, — methinks my mind gives me some mis
chief will ensue thereof. Alas, good husband ! was
it for my sake you sought the empire ? Do you

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 103

think I cannot be content with the estate which
fortune shall assign to you ? Yes ! if it were to
beg my bread from door to door, as Adalesia did
with her Alerane, I could be contented therewith,
so you were not tormented therewith ! It is you,
sweet husband, that are the riches which I seek to
possess ; you are the only honours which I look for ;
you are the only kingdom which I care for ; for so
long as I may enjoy you, come poverty, come mean
estate, come sickness, yea, come death itself, so I
may die between your arms ! Therefore, good
Master Germanicus, if you follow my counsel, resign
your title to the Emperor again to bestow on some
that hath more need of it than, thanks be given
to God, we have. For, for my part I think myself
endued with the greatest riches in the world, to
wit, your person, and mine own contented mind.
And besides the evils before rehearsed incident to
a kingdom, this inconvenience is commonly incurred
thereby, that it altereth the nature of the person
which taketh that name upon him, for honours
change manners, and no doubt the diversity of de
lights which a prince possesseth be but pricks to plea
sure, enticements to folly, and allurements to lust !
Was not Saul, I pray you, in the beginning of his

io4 A PETITE PALLACE

reign a good prince, but after declined to impiety ?
Salomon began his reign godly, but afterwards gave
himself a prey to women ! Caligula, Nero, and
Hannibal began to reign like good princes, but after,
the whole world was troubled with their tyranny ! I
could allege infinite other examples to like purpose,
but these shall suffice ; neither do I allege these for
that I fear the change of your good nature, but to
fear you from the change of your estate ; and yet the
better I know your nature to be, the more cause have
I to fear the alteration thereof. For freshest colours
soonest fade, and ripest fruit are rifest rotten ! But
to leave the lowering lots which light on high estate,
which are more than I am able to rehearse, let this
request take place with you, that seeing for my sake
only you coveted the empire, at my suit only you will
forgo it again."

" Ah, sweet wife," saith he, embracing her in his
arms, " what is it under the Sun which you may not
command me to do without desiring ? But I beseech
you, suffer not the tender care you have of me to
deprive you of the honour due to you ! For to cast
the worst of it, though open enemies, or treacherous
traitors, or rude rebels, shall set me besides my regal
seat, and deprive me of life, yet shall you remain a

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 105

princess, and be matched again with some other more
worthy your estate, and so long I care not what
betide of myself."

" Alas ! Sir," saith she, " I beseech you use no more
of those words, unless you count my great grief your
great good ! Can I live when you are dead ? Shall
I be married again and you made away ? " " In
deed," saith he, " I need not use such extreme doubts
in a matter nothing dangerous ; for the numbers
are infinite of those who have wielded far more
weighty empires than this without hazarding them
selves any way, as the Emperor Octavian hath con
sumed the whole course of his life without peril, and
Alexander being but five and thirty years of age took
upon him the Monarchy of the whole world. Besides,
if I should now refuse the Empire offered me, it
were a sign of a base and ignoble mind, and the
Emperor would think I made no account of his good
will." " Well," saith she, " do as God shall put in
your head ; and of me make this account, that though
you be the meanest man in the city, yet will I
honour you as if you were the Emperor : and though
you make me a Princess, yet will I be as obedient
to you as if I were your handmaid." " Ah, good
wife," saith he, "leave those terms of humility to

io6 A PETITE PALLACE

those that like them, or look for them, for for
my part I have you in such reverent estimation,
that I think the best state that ever I shall be able to
bring you to, will be too base for your worthiness ;
and if it shall please you to rest satisfied with the ser
vice I can do you, to remain content with the calling I
can give you, to return lovingly the good-will which I
will bear you, it is all that ever I will look for at your
hands, and the only felicity I force of in this life."

"God forbid, Master Germanicus," saith she,
" that I should either look for service of you, or
mislike the lot which you shall allow me, or not
restore with interest the good-will which you shall
bear me. Yes ! persuade yourself this ; though you
surmount me in all other things, yet will I not
fail, if it be possible, to exceed you in good- will."
Shortly upon this, the whirling wheel of Fortune
turned their talk to tears, their words to wailing,
their gladness to sadness, their happiness to heavi
ness, yea, their life to death ! For a certain thirst
of the kingdom began to assault one Tiberius, a
gentleman in the Emperor's court, who being of the
blood royal, persuaded himself if Germanicus were
made away with, the Emperor being dead, he should
succeed in the empire. Which greedy desire of the

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 107

kingdom so blinded his understanding, that he passed
not to pervert both human and divine laws for the
accomplishing thereof; no rules of reason, no bond
of friendship, no care of kindred, no fear of laws, no
pricks of conscience, no respect of honesty, no regard
of gods or men, could prohibit him from his pes
tiferous purpose. For if friendship had been of force
with him, why, they were familiar friends ! If kin
dred, why, they were near kinsmen ! If laws, he knew
his deed contrary to all laws ! If conscience, he knew
it terrible ! If honesty, he knew it most wicked ! If
gods or men, he knew it abominable in the sight of
both the one and the other ! But too true it is, desire
of a kingdom careth neither for kith nor kin, friend
nor foe, God nor the devil, as by this traitorous tyrant
may be plainly proved, who by poison procured the
death of this worthy Gentleman, Germanicus, to
the intent to enjoy the kingdom of Rome. Now
Agrippina, seeing her sweet husband so suddenly
dead, was surprised with such sudden sorrow, that
for a long time she could neither speak word, neither
let fall tear ; but at length she cast herself upon the
corpse of her Germanicus, kissing his cold cheeks,
and embracing his breathless body, sighing and
sobbing forth these words : —

io8 A PETITE PALLACE

" Alas ! wretched wight that I am, whose misery
is like to mine, whose grief so great, whose life so
loathsome ? No flowing tears, no griping groans,
no careful cries, no throbbing sighs can sufficiently
set forth my sorrows ! My life, my love, my hope,
my husband, my joy, my Germanicus is miserably
murdered and made away ! Ah ! vain desire of
worldly dignity, ah ! devilish deed of bloody cruelty !
But in vain it is to complain, when my care is
without cure, and none can redress my wrong ! For
gods I know there are none, otherwise I know the
good should not be so made away by the ill : and
men there are none that can medicine my malady,
and raise my Germanicus to life again : so that
nothing resteth for me but by death to be rid of the
most bitter pangs of death. I could prolong my life,
and seek by some means to hasten the death of that
tyrant Tiberius, but, alas ! his death cannot bring
Germanicus to life. No, let him live still on earth,
where I doubt not but he shall ten thousand times in
his time feel the force of death ! For he will be so
tormented with his own example, that, as the poets
report of Suspicion, to be plunged in all the pits
of hell will not be so painful unto him. Well ! the
gods, if there be any, give him as he hath de-

GERMANICUS AND AGRIPPINA 109

served, and give me leave to go to the ghost of my
Germanicus." Hereupon she resolved with herself,
that as her husband ended his life by receiving into
his body that which he should not, so she would end
her days by not receiving that which she should ;
and so defrauding herself of food, distilling herself as
it were into tears, pitifully pined away. And when the
Emperor Octavian caused meat to be thrust in her
throat, she cast it up again saying, sorrow was the
only sustenance, and moan the meat, which she either
could or would take ; and so in short time died.

I shall not need here, Gentlewomen, to exhort
you take the death of your husbands when you shall
be married, and when it shall happen, more patiently,
for that I know your wisdoms to be such that you
will not so wilfully work your own confusions ;
neither do I think you are to know that we must
live by the living, not by the dead, and that there
hath been never any one husband so good, but there
may be others found as good : yea, and though
they be not perfectly so good, yet in respect of
change, which most women delight in, they are
commonly counted better : as yourselves, if you were
once married, perchance would say, or at least think.
But I think this needful to put you in mind, that

no A PETITE PALLACE

by the example of Agrippina you counsel your hus
bands to content themselves with their calling, not
to soar too high, and fly above their feet, and with
foolish Phaeton and youthful Icarus come to con
fusion. It is your parts also to weigh your hus
bands' wealth, and not to deck your heads and
necks with gold when he hath none in his purse,
not to swim in silks when he is drowned in debt,
not to abound in bravery when he is pinched with
poverty. For you know it is your part to take such
part as he doth, whether it be poverty or riches,
woe or wealth, pleasure or pain. But surely, in my
fancy, that man is to be begged for a fool who will
prefer his wife's pleasure before his own wealth, her
vanity before his own ability. And as it is great
incivility and churlishness in a man to deny his
wife anything which is reasonable, so is it great
imbecility and childishness to grant her anything
which is unreasonable, and hereof cometh the utter
undoing of a great number of young gentlemen.
And as it is wise and loving carefulness to provide
well for one's wife, so is it fond and doting
curiousness to seek and provide better for her than
he would do for himself; whereof came the con
fusion of this noble gentleman, Germanicus.

AMPHIARAUS AND
ERIPHILE

/i MPHIARAUS, a Gentleman Argive, sueth for
/"y marriage to Eriphile a widow, either liking
other's possessions better than persons. Infortunio,
burning in fond affection towards the same trull,
seeing Amphiaraus's land preferred before his loyalty,
is at point to destroy himself. Amphiaraus, hiding
himself to escape from the wars, is betrayed by
Eriphile for covetice of reward : and setting foot
within the Theban soil, the earth openeth and
swalloweth him up. Eriphile, oftsoon a widow,
proffereth her love to her old suitor Infortunio, by
whom being repulsed, in choler she consumeth away,
and dieth.

The ancient philosophers are of this mind, that
there is nothing that doth more argue and shew a
base mind, than covetous desire of coin and riches,
and nothing more sign of a noble heart, than not to
desire wealth if one want it, and liberally to bestow

ii2 A PETITE PALLACE

it if he have it. But I am of this mind, that no
thing doth more argue a mad mind, than to desire
goods which never did good, but which have been
always the cause of all our calamities. What a
world of men hath desire of wealth wasted in war !
What huge heaps hath it drowned in the sea ! What
infinite numbers hath it caused physicians to kill !
How many hath it driven divines to send to the
devil ? Of how many murders, thefts, slaughters,
parricides, patricides, treasons, rebellions, perjuries,
forgeries, adulteries, fornications, hath it been the
cause ? As Jupiter himself abused gold and pelf to
abuse Danae that virgin ! But you will say, though
the desire of goods be detestable, yet the possession is
profitable. Whereto I pray you ? To maintain us
in bravery, in gluttony, in venery, in security, in
impunity, in pride, in prodigality ! yea, to bring us
to perdition and destruction, as King Midas wished
that everything which he touched might be gold,
whereby he was starved to death.

Fabricius, an ancient Roman, weighed wealth so
little, that though he had been prince and consul of
Rome three or four times, yet at his death he had not
so much goods as might suffice to bring him honour
ably to his grave, but was fain to be buried at the

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE 113

common charge of the city. But though the im
moderate desire of riches be to be reprehended, yet
must I needs say that moderately to account of them
is not to be misliked, for they are given us by God to
pass the pilgrimage of our life withal, and we may use
them and yet not abuse them, we may make of them,
and yet not make our gods of them. And as by
duly desiring and truly using them, they convert to
our commodity, so by greedy coveting and naughty
consuming them, they turn to our trouble, care, and
confusion ; as partly before hath been showed, and
plainly hereafter by the history following is proved,
which is this : —

In Greece, amongst the people called Argives,
dwelt one Amphiaraus, who being a man of great
possessions and wealth, heard of a widow in the
same country of like living unto himself; her name
was Eriphile, and her nature was such, that she
thought gain sweet, howsoever she got it. It for
tuned this gentleman to come to her house to see
and assay her in the way of marriage, and notwith
standing he had more liking to the living than will
to the woman, yet he laboured his suit as earnestly,
as if he had loved vehemently ; and at convenient
time, commenced his suit in this sort : —

VOL. I. 1

n4 A PETITE PALLACE

" Gentlewoman, I think it not needful to enter into
terms in commendation of marriage, thereby to per
suade you the sooner thereto, for that you know the
dignity thereof, and have already tasted the pleasures
and commodities belonging to the same ; but this
chiefly lieth me upon earnestly to persuade, and
humbly to request at your hands, that when it shall
be your good pleasure to enter into that life again,
you will count me worthy, though altogether un
worthy, to serve you instead of a steward, to order
and dispose your things as your seemly self shall please
to appoint, and to ease you of the trouble of travail
ing in your own affairs, which, I am sure, for that you
have not been accustomed thereto, must needs much
molest you. For it is not meet your young years
should be tied to any trouble or travail, but to pass
your time in pleasure according to your bringing up
and calling, and according to the custom of your
kind, and sex. And that you may not think my suit
to proceed of any desire to your goods, yourself I
think partly know, and by little enquiry may perfectly
understand, that my lands and livings are sufficient to
maintain the port and countenance of a Gentleman of
worship : all which I willingly yield into your hands
to be disposed at your pleasure, if it shall please you

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE 115

to yield your body into my arms to be embraced at
my pleasure ; so that, in accepting my offer, you shall
not only increase your substance, but also have a
gentleman at your commandment, who shall make
more account of you than of all the goods in the
world." His talk ended, Eriphile smiling made him
this smooth answer : —

" Sir, by how much more I know the inconveniences
and infinite troubles mixed with marriage, by so much
less do I like to enter into that estate again. And as
I was once linked with one according to my liking,
so look I not to be placed again with any, in whom
I can take such pleasure. And as by holy oath I
firmly bound my faith unto him, so in this mind I
am in, only my death shall dissolve that bond ; and
the sour remembrance of my sweet husband's death,
shall take away the renewing of all pleasures of life,
and altogether mortify in me the mind to marry any
more. For his love was so exceeding great towards
me, that I fear to find the like at your hands, or any
man's else. For where you profess to be my steward
and servant, I am sure if you were once sure of that
you seek for, you would think yourself good enough
to be my Lord and master, and you would dispose
my goods neither at my pleasure, neither to my profit,

n6 A PETITE PALLACE

but that which is mine should be yours, and yours
your own. And where you pretend to prefer me
before all worldly goods, I take it rather for words of
course than talk of troth ; for as in the fairest rose is
soonest found a canker, so in fairest speech is falsehood
and feigning rifest. For I know the fashion of you
men is by your subtlety to deceive our simplicity, and
by a few filed words to bring us into a fool's paradise.
Yea, you have set it down as a settled sentence amongst
you, that he which knoweth not how to dissemble,
knoweth not how to live. Therefore I yield no other
faith to your words than their feigned falsehood
deserves, nor no other consent to your request, than
the small acquaintance you have with me may justly
crave. But if hereafter in deeds I shall see as plain
proof of perfect good-will, as your words import likeli
hood of earnest love, perchance I shall be as zealous to
cast liking towards you, as now I am jealous to cast
doubts of you."

By this time dinner was served in, whereupon their
talk ceased, and presently after dinner the gentleman
had occasion to depart. Now Eriphile being alone
in her own house, began to discourse upon this
matter by herself, and notwithstanding she had no
great mind to the man, yet she felt in herself a great

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE 117

lust to his lands, and thought herself more than happy
if she might have them safely assured and made over
unto her ; and in this thought, uttered words to this
sense : —

" Why ! what though I cannot find in my heart to
love and like him above all other ! Is it requisite that
every marriage be grounded on love, as though we
see not daily some to marry in respect of riches, some
in respect of honours, some by constraint of friends,
and some upon sundry other considerations : and for
my part I count it sufficient to have married once of
mere love ; and having lost him whom I did love
entirely, I think it not lawful, or at least not possible,
ever to love any again heartily. For true love ever
decayeth, when the party truly beloved dieth. And,
as my heart is hardened to take his death patiently, so
will it not be mollified to suffer the love of any other
to sink therein deeply ; like as the potter's clay
being once hardened in the oven, will not be made
soft again to receive the impression of any other form.
But to speak my fancy freely, I see not how we
women are bound to love our husbands so much ; we
are only commanded to honour and obey them, which
I count sufficient, and more than for my part mean to
perform. Besides, that love consisteth in the heart ;

n8 A PETITE PALLACE

now it is our bodies only that are bound to our
husbands, as by joining of hands before the congrega
tion is plainly showed. But if I determine not to
love him, how can I look for any love at his hands ?
Tush ! that is the least matter amongst a hundred !
So long as I may abound in bravery, ruffle in riches,
and participate with his goods, I care not to com
municate in love with him ; I am too old now to live
by love. And yet wherefore is woman's wit counted
full of wiles, if I be not able so to dissemble the
matter that he may think I love him deeply, though
I hate him deadly. But if it should come to the
worst, that he should perceive my dissembling towards
him, and reward my cold kindness with heat of hate,
why, I know the worst of it !

" So that all things considered, I see not how I can
do better than to accept this gentleman's offer, whose
large lands and revenues are able to supply all other
wants whatsoever. For what disease is so desperate,
which money may not medicine ? What wound so
deadly, which coin cannot cure ? What life so loath
some, which goods cannot make gladsome ? "

Shortly after this, there made repair unto her house
a youth more wilful than wise, named Infortunio,
who having seen her once or twice before, was so

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE

119

bleared with her beauty that it dazzled his sight, and
took away his foresight in all things ; and coming
to her presence, he preferred such lamentable suit,
and ghostly resemblances unto her, that a rigorous
repulse seemed sufficient to procure him a present
death. The gentlewoman seeing the furious assaults
of this fresh-water soldier, knew how to train him to
the field of her falsehood, and to make him march
under the ensign of a merciless mistress and cruel
captain, and sometimes fed him with words of
comfort, to put him in hope, and by and by feared
him with doubts of denial, to drive him into despair.
And as the north-east wind first gathereth up the
clouds, and then by puffs putteth them abroad again,
so she first by lovely looks allured to bring him in,
and then with frowning face lowered to drive him
away, the only end being to sport herself in his
pain, yea, and if she could, of his good-will to make
some gain. The poor gentleman perceiving these hag
gard tricks, and that assoon she would be welcoming
to the lure, and by and by check at it and soar away,
was so amazed thereat that he knew not what to
resolve upon. And as a tree hewn round with axes
ready to fall with a blow or twain, tottereth every
way, being uncertain which way to fall, so his mind

izo A PETITE PALLACE

distracted with doubtful devices, wavered unconstantly,
now bending this way, now blowing that way, willing
to retire his desire, but not able to set his fancy free.
And notwithstanding her perverse dealing pitifully
perplexed and terribly tormented him, yet he per
suaded himself that as from most sharp thorns, to wit
the rose tree, spring most sweet flowers, so from bitter
annoy would come pleasant joy, and of his heavy suit
happy success. " Tush," saith he, " the merchant
often flieth the seas, though not sure to return with
gain ; the soldier often ventureth his body in the
field, though not sure of booty ; the husbandman
still tilleth the ground, though not certain to save
his seed : but yet hope of good hap carrieth all these
to their enterprises ; and why should not the same
hope work the same effect with me ? Yes, nothing
venture nothing have ! I will pursue my purpose
whatsoever come of it ! "

Now the gentlewoman, as I said, ceased not to
bait him continually with courtly banquets, as dis
sembled favour, uncertain hope, courteous conges,
amiable looks, and such like : but he, on the contrary,
as one that meant truly, ceased not to feed her with
fair words, with faithful promises, with earnest oaths,
with many a rich jewel and costly gift, which she

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE 121

willingly received without condition, and wilily
kept without restitution. In this meanwhile, came
the other wooer again to renew his suit afresh, and
seeing this young gentleman, as he thought, in great
favour, began greatly to fear his own part, and thought
the grass had been cut from under his feet ; and as a
cunning pilot seeing the seas rough and the wind
contrary to his course, casteth anchor lest his ship be
driven against the rocks, or into some coast contrary
to his mind, so this gentleman, fearing lest wilful
waves in the gentlewoman should set her fast in the
sands of slipper subtlety, and dash his suit against the
rocks of repulse, hauled in the main sheet of her
mind, and by the anchors of advice so stayed her
course, that no wind which any wilful youth could
blow, could cause her anything to bow or waver : and
by assuring to her a large jointure, he was chosen to
rule her stern, where the other was kept still under
the hatches. Who, all this while that they were
concluding the contract, was in his chamber busily
devising verses in the praise of his mistress : but
hearing of the sorry success of his suit by a handmaid
of the gentlewoman, he was so confounded in himself,
that his invention was clean marred, and his device
utterly dashed : yea, he was so far from writing that

122 A PETITE PALLACE

he had not a word to say, or a thought to think. And
surely in my judgment he reaped the right reward of
his doating desire, for there only grafts of grief must
needs grow, where such raw conceit doth set, and
such rash consent doth sow. For neither was his
love grounded upon virtue, wherewith she was not
endued, neither upon beauty, wherewith she was not
adorned. For neither can cruelty be cloaked under
virtue, neither the treason of untruth covered under
beauty, for the disposition of the mind followeth the
constitution of the body, so that it was his own self-
will and fond fancy that drew him into such depth of
affection, and therefore with grief was fain to gather
the fruits of his folly. And being come to himself he
began to rage in this sort : —

"And is my true love thus triflingly accounted
of? Shall he with his trash more prevail than I
with my truth ? And will she more respect gain
than good-will ? O iniquity of times, O corrup
tion of manners, O wavering of women ! Be these
the fruits of thy fair looks ? Is this the hap of
the hope thou puttest me in ? Is this the delight
of the dalliance thou usedest with me ? Herein truly
thou mayst be fitly resembled to the cat, which play-
eth with the mouse, whom straight she meaneth to

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE 123

slay : or to the panther, who with his gay colours and
sweet smell, allureth other beasts unto him, and being
within his reach, he ravenously devoureth them. But
if I should set thee forth in thy colours, I think the
savage beasts would be loth to be likened unto thee :
for cruelty thou mayst compare with Anaxarete, who
suffered Iphis to hang himself for her sake : for
inconstancy, with Cressid, who forsook her trusty
Troilus : for pride, with Angelica, who contemned
all men : for treason, with Helen, who ran away
with Paris from her husband Menelaus. But what
rashness is this in me to rage and rail against her,
whereas it is love, and the destinies, that have
decreed my destruction ! For marriages are guided
by destiny, and God hath endued women with this
property, to be wedded to their wills. Neither doth
love learn of force the knots to knit, she serves but
those which feel sweet fancies fit : for as streams can
not be made to run against their course, so unwilling
love with tears nor truth cannot be won. So that
this only choice is left for me, either to die desper
ately, or to live loathsomely. And as the bird
enclosed in cage, the cage door being set open, and the
hawk her enemy sitting without watching for her, be
tween death and prison piteously oppressed standeth

124 A PETITE PALLACE

in doubt whether it be better still to remain in
prison, or to go forth to be a prey for the hawk, so
stand I in doubt whether it be better by losing life
to get liberty, or by living to become thrall and
bond, and live in continual torment and vexation of
mind. For love hath taken so deep root in me,
that neither reason can rule, neither wisdom wield
my witched will. But as the biting of a mad dog
rageth and rankleth until it have brought the body
bitten to bane, so the poison of love is so spread
into every part of me that it will undoubtedly bring
me to death and destruction. O cruel Captain
Cupid ! is this the pay thou givest thy soldiers ? O
vain Venus ! is this the victory thou vouchsafest thy
champions ? Wouldst thou have been content thy
darling Adon should rigorously have rejected thee,
when thou wert furiously enflamed with his love ?
But the parish priest forgetteth that ever he was
clerk, and those that be in happiness themselves,
weigh not the heaviness of other. Yea, perchance
thou favour the falsehood of this woman the rather,
for that thou thyself playedst the false harlot with thy
husband Vulcan, the smith, and madest him a forked
tool more than before he had in his shop : but
remember yet how he took thee and the adulterer

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE 125

Mars tardy in your treachery and lechery together
stark naked in an iron net, and then called all the gods
to take view of your vicious conversation, to thy utter
shame and confusion. And so it may fall out that
this, your pupil, may so long delight in deceit, that
she may be taken in the net which she layeth to
entangle other. But what mean I to blaspheme
against the gods who do but punish me justly ! for
loving so lightly, and only mine own careless fault, is
the cause of this cureless fate. Wherefore, O death !
to thee I make earnest request, that thou wilt speedily
send Atropos unto me, to cut insunder the twist of
my troublesome life : and seeing my love doth loath
me, good death, do thou desire me ! I know thou
sentest out process for me even in my swathe-clouts,
and now I beseech thee serve it on me, when I
am most willing and ready to appear before thy
presence." While this forlorn gentleman continued
in these careful contemplations, the marriage was
consummated between the widow and Amphiaraus,
who lived quietly together about a year or two, she
shewing a presential obedience towards him, and he
bearing an ordinary affection towards her : but in
short time it pleased God to give occasion to try the
treachery of the one, and to work the destruction

126 A PETITE PALL ACE

of the other. For it fell so out that Adrastus, King
of the Argives, was upon urgent causes moved
to infer war upon the Thebans, and in mustering
his men he thought Amphiaraus a meet man to
make one of his captains, and wished him to prepare
himself for that voyage ; who being well seen in
astronomy and other secret sciences, knew if he went
to the wars he should not return alive ; for which
cause he covertly hid himself in his own house, making
only his wife privy thereto. Now the king taking
muster of his men, missed Amphiaraus, and knowing
the cause of his absence, was in great rage, saying he
would he had no such cowards in his kingdom, and
promised great rewards to them that could bring tid
ings of him. Eriphile, having intelligence of this rich
reward promised, was marvellously set on fire in the
desire thereof: and notwithstanding she was plenti
fully endued with riches, yet was she in desire as
greedy as if she had been in estate most needy : and
as dropsy patients drink and still be dry, neither is
any liquor able to allay their thirst, yea, the more
they drink the more they desire it, so she continually
heaped in wealth, and yet was never satisfied : yea,
the more she had, the more she desired to have.
And being possessed with this loathsome lust of

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE 127

lucre, she entered into reasoning with herself in this
sort : —

" Who, unless they be out of their wits, will refuse
offered gold ? No ! the savour of gain is sweet of what
thing soever it be gotten ! Why, Tarpeia, a Roman
maid, did betray the tower of Rome for a few brace
lets to the Sabines that laid siege to the city, and
shall not I for great ouches of gold bewray my
husband to the king, who meaneth by his means to
preserve our city ? For if it come to the worst, that
he never come home again, why, I know the worst of
it. Two or three days weeping will wash away all woe
and sorrow, and then shall I be lady of his lands and
livings, and be married again to some that perchance
shall better content me every way than he doth : and
who is so foolish that will not be content to change
for the better ? " And in this good mind gat to the
king, and told him, that preferring the safety of his
person, and the profit of the commonwealth before
her own private pleasure, she was constrained to de
tect her loyal mate unto his royal majesty, which her
deed she humbly desired him to conceal, and not
withstanding the absence of her loving husband would
greatly annoy her, yet the commodity of her country,
which she hoped through her husband's help should

i28 A PETITE PALLACE

be procured, would as greatly joy her. And that she
might safely see her sweet husband again, with a few
feigned tears forcibly wrung forth, she humbly
requested the king that he might be placed in such
part of the battle that he might not be subject to the
shot, and lie open to the army of the adversary. The
king, plainly certified by her of the den wherein
the forenamed was hidden, giving her the promised
reward, went forthwith to unkennel him ; who
hearing of the king's coming, and by what means
he was discovered, fell to raging against his wife,
and other like women for her sake, in this sort : —
" Ah ! fond fool that I was, to repose any trust or
confidence in women, whose sex is subtle, whose kind
is cruel, who are constant only in unconstancy, who
are witty only in wiles, who, as Aristotle saith, are
monsters in nature, altogether imperfect, weak vessels,
ignorant in all things, yea, which we may most
lament, they are naturally endued with baits to
allure men, with poison to infect men, and with
charms to change men from men to beasts, as Circe
did the servants of Ulysses : yea, what man hath ever
been so wise but by woman hath been seduced to
folly ! as Pharo his daughter caused Solomon to
fall to idolatry ! What man hath ever been so

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE 129

godly, but by woman hath been depraved ; as Ber-
sabe drove King David to devilishness ! What man
hath ever been so strong, who by woman hath not
been made to stoop ; as Dalila took away the force
of Sampson by cutting away his hair ! Who hath
ever been so perfect, but by woman hath been drawn
to imperfection ; as Adam by the means of Eve lost
the perfection of Paradise ! Who hath ever been so
faithful, but that women have enforced them to in
fidelity ; as a handmaid made Peter deny his master
Christ ! Who so valiant, but by woman hath been
vanquished ; as Omphale made Hercules serve her,
and spin amongst her maids ; and after by Deianira
was done to death ! Who so learned, but by woman
hath been taught new points of school ; as Tully
by Terentia, Marcus Aurelius by Faustina, and Ovid
by Corinna, were often abused ! with infinite others.
But if the wise, the godly, the strong, the perfect, the
faithful, the valiant, the learned, have been bewitched,
beguiled, and abused by women, is it reason I should
challenge any proper or peculiar fortune to myself,
and not remain content with the lot which is
common to all ? Yes, I am content my rage in
rule to bind, but notwithstanding the comfort by
other men's calamity be miserable, yet it doth me

VOL. I. K

1 30 A PETITE PALLACE

good to think that other have been as sluttishly
served by women as myself ; as Tulla conspired the
death of her own husband Tarquinius, then of her
sister, and lastly married the brother of her own
husband, who before was husband to her own sister :
as the fifty daughters of Danae all but one slew their
husbands the first night of their marriage : as Can-
daules, by the counsel of his wife, was slain by Gyges,
who afterwards married her : as Dionysius, notwith
standing his wary watch and watchful wariness for
the preservation of his life, was by his own wife
Aristomacha miserably made away."

By this time the King was come into his house ;
whereupon he was driven with shame to shew and
present himself to his Majesty, humbly craving pardon
for his offence ; and seeing no remedy, made prepar
ation for the wars, disposing his living so well as the
shortness of time would give him leave, and dispossess
ing his wife of so much as he could possibly. Which
done, amongst the rest he mournfully marched for
ward, but he no sooner set foot in the Theban soil,
but that the earth opened and swallowed him up.
Of which news so soon as his wife was partaker, for
fashion-sake she put finger in the eye, and attired
herself in mourning apparel ; but she quickly cast it

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE 131

off again, and began to cast in her head how she
might be sped of any other husband. And calling to
mind the deep affection wherein Don Infortunio was
drowned towards her, she thought none more fit to
make a fool of than him, and therefore by letters
did him to understand, that considering his former
good-will towards her, she thought herself bound in
conscience to countervail his courtesy by any con
venient mean she might ; and in that before-time she
set so light by his love, the cause was for that before
his coming she had betrothed herself to Amphiaraus,
so that as then she was not able to yield him the
meed of his merit ; but now if his affection were not
altered, and if he were disposed to deal with her by
order of honesty and limits of law, he might be paid
his due debt with double interest. Now the young
gentleman by the aid of absence, by the assistance of
time, by the change of diet, by remembrance of his
repulse, by dregs of disdain, by the virtue of necessity,
and by the help of reason, being fully cured of his
folly, having heard also of the treachery which she
used towards her other husband, rejected her offer,
returning her answer, that being at liberty, he meant
not to come in bonds, and being now set free from
her fraud and falsehood, he would no more be trained

132 A PETITE PALLACE

to her treason. Neither (saith he) doth that hold or
castle merit mercy, which yields rather for want of
fresh supply, than at the suit of the besieger. Neither
is the prisoner to be pitied, who being judge, joyed
only in severity and cruelty. Neither is that client's
cause to be considered, who being a councillor, dealt
in the cases of other without conscience. The
gentlewoman seeing herself thus reproachfully re
pulsed, in very choleric conceits consumed away,
and died.

I am here, Gentlewomen, to admonish you not to
suffer yourselves to be carried away with covetousness.
You see to what miserable end it brought this married
disloyal couple. And as well for your sakes as mine
own I would wish you, who are endued with wealth
sufficient to make a man, as they say, and who are at
your own disposition and choice, not to yield your
selves as a prey to any who hath no need of your
wealth, neither will gratefully accept your goods, but
rather frankly to bequeath yourselves to some poor
younger brother, who may think himself made by
marrying you ; who may thank his wife only for
his wealth ; who may impute his happiness only
to having you ; whom you may bind to you by
benefits ; who will no doubt endeavour to counter-

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE 133

poise your living with his love, and your goods
with his good-will ; who will rather serve you
than seek superiority over you ; who will rather be
your man than your master ; your liege than your
lord ; your subject than your sovereign ; whereby
you shall live as you list, your profits shall pleasure
you, your goods shall do you good. And whatsoever
be your common saying, that you must as well love
to live as live to love, yet surely in my fancy I think
it far better for a married couple to live together
without living, than without love. For what little
living will suffice nature, who knoweth not, but what
loathed lives be where love doth lack. Look but unto
the lives of the parties but now reported unto you.
And if you credit not my report of them, no more
but mark your poor neighbours how quietly and
merrily they pass their time in poverty, assisted only
by the calm of contentment and love ; and then
convert your eyes to the view of many other estates,
and look how unpleasantly and uncontentedly they
spend their days, molested by the storms of strife,
debate, and hate. Which contemplation I hope will
so confirm your judgments, that you will always prefer
love before living ; or at least not so to respect the
one, as to neglect the other. Another thing also the

134 A PETITE PALLACE

death of Eriphile may drive into your minds, that
you rage not like tyrants over those whom your
beauty hath made your bondslaves ; for you must
know that it is more glory to use the victory
moderately, than to get it mightily ; and far more
holds have been won by clemency, than by cruelty.
For when the inhabitants know the captain's courtesy,
they will rather yield to his assured mercy, than
stand to the doubtful event of battle. So, Gentle
women, if you mind to make breach into the hearts
of many, and to win the fort of their faiths unto
you, if you crave to conquer the good-wills, and to
be courted with the service of suitors, you must
with modesty make much of them, with courtesy
countervail their kindness, with gratefulness accept
their good-will, with liberality requite their love,
and with honest plainness answer to their demands.
You must not feed them with falsehood, draw them
on with delay, and torment them with trifling as
Eriphile did her Infortunio, to her own unfortunate
hap, as it luckily afterwards did light. For it is God's
word and will that such measure as is met shall be
measured again, and they that delight to drown
other in dolour, shall not swim long in pleasure
themselves. I know not what effect my words will

AMPHIARAUS AND ERIPHILE 135

take, for that I know not how you courtly dames
account of my cunning, but before mine own face I
am able to assure you this, that the girls of our
parish think that Welsh Sir Richard himself cannot
make a better preach than I can. But it may be,
you will think me over saucy with my lisping lips to
prefer persuasions to them, who are as void of folly
every way as myself of wit any way. Yet considering
how quietly you took the rude railing of Amphiaraus
against you, I need not doubt but that you will take
in good part words which are well meant towards
you, and if not follow them, yet not mislike them,
and rather weigh the will of the speaker, than the
worth of the words.

136 A PETITE PALLACE

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA

ICILIUS, a young gentleman of Rome, falling in
love with Virginia, is refused by her friends
for want of sufficient wealth, but privily contracteth
himself unto her, and departeth unto the wars.
Appius Claudius burning with unchaste lust of the
same maiden, the better to obtain her causeth
Clodius, his client, to claim her for his bond slave,
and giveth wrongful judgment on his side. But
Virginius, her father, at her earnest request, slayeth
her with his own hands to preserve her virginity
from the villainy of Appius, who for that fact is
cast into prison, where desperately he doth himself
to death.

It is a doubt often debated but not yet decided,
whether love descendeth from the heavens, deriveth
of our own nature, proceedeth of the similitude of
manners, cometh of acquaintance and familiarity,
taketh original of our education and bringing up

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 137

together ! Whether it ariseth of beauty or of virtue,
whether it entereth in at the eyes, or first be rooted in
the heart, whether the cause come from the party that
loveth or the party loved, or whether it be in our
power to love or to leave, I leave to other to resolve
upon. For my part, I yield God thanks for it, I
have as yet been so little troubled with love, that I
know not what it is, nor from whence it cometh ;
and when I muse thereon, I am as bad troubled as
Simonides was to think and say what God was.
But if an opinion grounded upon reason without
any proper experience on mine own part may take
place, I think love chiefly to be grounded upon the
similitude of manners showed and signified by famili
arity and abode together. For it is daily seen, that
those parties who at the first encounter and view
rather disliked than loved each other, by continuance
of conversation, and by conferring each other's con
dition and nature together, have fallen into the fire
of most fervent affection. For true love and faithful
friendship is to will and to nill one thing, to have
one object of appetite, and to have like effect of
affection. I know there are infinite instances to be
given to this assertion, for that some have been sur
prised with love only upon a loving look, some upon

138 A PETITE PALL ACE

a courteous word, some upon a single sight, some upon
a vain vision, some upon a doubtful dream, some
upon an uncertain report, and some some other way.
But as one swallow makes not summer, so one
particularity concluded! no generality. And as an
Ethiopian is said generally to be black though his
teeth be white, for that for the most parts of him
he is black, so I think love may be said generally to
proceed of the similitude of manners, for that for
the most part it doth so. And besides infinite other
examples which I can allege for proof hereof, the
history which you shall presently hear shall also
confirm it.

In the renowned city of Rome made his abode
one Icilius, who though he were a gentleman of a
worshipful house, yet by reason that his parents were
yet living, his patrimony was not great, neither his
living more than might suffice to maintain the port of
the place and countenance he carried in the city; by
reason whereof he remained unmarried, as being not
able to maintain a wife according to the estate of
his calling. It was his chance, amongst other youth
ful company, to pass the time for the space of a
sennight in feasting and making merry at the house
of one L. Virginius, a worshipful gentleman of the

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 139

same city, who had to daughter a damsel named
Virginia, who as she was of ripe years, so was she of
ripe judgment and discretion in every point belonging
to a virtuous virgin and modest maid. Her shape,
though it were not precise, yet was it perfect ; her
face, though it were not blazing, yet was it beautiful ;
her corps, though it were not curious, yet was it
comely. And as nature plentifully planted perfection
in her, so God superabundantly bestowed his benefits
upon her ; such gravity in gesture, such modesty in
manners, such courtesy in conversation, such troth
in talk, such wit in reasoning, that Minerva herself
could not have mended her, that it was doubtful
whether men were more rapt into admiration of her
wisdom, or ravished in contemplation of her beauty;
the one containing contentment of the body, the
other solace and delight for the mind. Now Icilius,
being in the company and society of this saint, used
little other behaviour towards her above his common
regard to all the gentlewomen of the troop, but spent
his time in dancing, dicing, carding, and other such
pastimes. And notwithstanding this while he often
felt a certain restraint of liberty in his affections, an
alteration of mind, and, as it were, a civil assault and
discord within himself, yet by reason of his young

140 A PETITE PALLACE

years and small practise in the pangs of love, he could
not conjecture the cause of his sudden passions ; but
this made him most to muse, that when he was in
his most dumps, if she chanced to present herself to
his presence, his heart was presently lightened of
that which lay so heavy in his stomach ; and as when
the sun shineth the clouds vanish away, so when her
beauty blazed in place, the clouds of care were clear
consumed. Likewise, being often desirous to talk
with her, and enjoy the present pleasure of her
pleasant speech, his senses were so ravished with the
sight of her, that he could not utter one word unto
her. Sitting also at the table with her and casting
a gazing glance round about him, his sight was never
satisfied until he had lent her a look, and seemed
only to resolve his fancy upon her face. But not
withstanding all this, he did not thoroughly per
ceive the cause of his sudden trouble of mind, and
thought it as it was a toy lightly taken so would it
be lightly left again, and therefore departed from
her father's house without preferring any suit unto
her, or adding execution to the advantage of the
time and place. But being gone home, and gotten
solitarily to his chamber, good God ! what mountains
of smoke did scalding sighs send forth of his mouth;

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 141

what drops of blood did galding grief make his heart
to bleed ; what floods of tears did flow from his eyes,
what careful complaints did he send unto the skies !
saying, " O heavens, why heap you my heaviness ? O
planets, why plant you my pain ? O destinies, why
decree ye my destruction ? O gods, why deprive
you me of liberty, now my young years challenge
to live most freely ? O fortune, why dost thou mix
my sweet meat with such sour sauce that is more
bitter than gall, and no less pleasant than death unto
me ? Must the little delight which I took in the
company of Virginia, whereof I fully understood not
her to be the cause neither, be countervailed with
such direful despite ? and for the pleasure which her
presence procured me, must her absence purchase me
such displeasure ? Then too true do I find that
every dram of delight hath a pound of spite, and
every inch of joy, an ell of annoy annexed unto it !
Then well may I curse the chance, the cause, and the
company, which caused me to come to that place,
which hath caught me in such bondage ! And may
I term it bondage to live in the service and con
templation of my Virginia ? Is it slavery to be thrall
to virtue ? It is her bounty, not her beauty, that
bindeth me ; it is her courtesy, not her comeliness that

142 A PETITE PALLACE

I care for ; it is her perfection, not her person that
I pass of; it is her conditions, not her colour that I
account of: for beauty bideth not, comeliness con-
tinueth not, personage perisheth, colour fadeth, but
bounty, courtesy, perfection, and conditions re
main for ever. So that if I live in bondage, it is
to virtue ; if I be a slave, I am virtue's slave. But
doth virtue use to torment men thus ! Belike that
is the cause there are so few honest and virtuous !
No ! I ought not to count my trouble a torment,
but the fine gold must be purified in the flaming
fire, and white silver is wrought in black pitch :
glory must be gotten through depth of danger, and
pleasure must be purchased with the price of pain.
And though absence now be some torment to try
me, and though dolour now drown me in the seas
of sorrow, yet doubt I not but shortly to swim in
the floods of felicity, and take land there where my
heart hath already pitched his abode. But oh ! pre
sumptuous fool, whither doth folly force me ? Do
I hope to win her whom my unworthiness willeth
me not so much as to wish for ? Yea, which way
soever I go to work, I am sure to have a cold suit
of it : for if I proffer her my service dishonestly, why
her virtue abhorreth it : if I make love in way of

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 143

marriage, her estate and riches refuseth it. O God !
and shall goods be more accounted of than good
will ? lucre more than love ? Is the counsel of
Themistocles altogether rejected, who willeth men
rather to marry their daughters to a man that wanteth
money, than to money that wanteth a man to use it ?
Is the world so blinded in covetousness to prefer living
before learning, wealth before wit ? Then farewell
true friendship, if it be not grounded upon love ;
then farewell true love, if marriage be not the end
of it ; then farewell true marriage, if money make it !
Then resteth for me only to bewail my evil hap, to
lament my luckless love, and never to attempt that
I am like never to attain unto."

By this time the earth was covered with a dark
mantle, and by reason that the sun was departed out
of our horizon, the light of the stars which the sun
lendeth them, began to appear in the firmament ;
whereupon this poor passionate lover wearied with
woe, disposed himself to rest ; but he whose bane
love hath brewed, neither by night nor by day, neither
in company nor solitary, neither sleeping nor waking,
can take any rest or quiet. For he was no sooner
in a slumber but the goddess of his devotions pre
sently presented herself before him, saying : " Mine

144 A PETITE PALLACE

own, why dost thou thus torment thyself for my
sake, who suffer no little grief to see thy great sorrow ?
Wherefore behold to ask anything at my hands
honestly, and be sure I will grant it willingly, for
I persuade myself the heavens have reserved me for
thee." Icilius hearing, as he hoped, this heavenly
voice, and seeing, as he thought, that saint by his
bedside, with open arms reached to embrace her,
but being awaked, with open eyes he saw he was
deceived : which sudden fall from heaven to hell
took away his breath from him for a while, but
being come to himself he began to cry out in this
careful manner : —

" O God ! is it not sufficient to vex me with vanities
in the daytime, unless thou torment me with visions
also in the night ? Have I not woe enough awake,
but that besides I must have sorrow in sleep ? What
grievous offence have I committed, that deserveth
such grievous punishment ? If this be the reward
of them that love, woe ! woe be to them that hate !
Thou hast commanded us all to love one another, and
if thou thus punish the fulfillers of thy law, what
shall become of the transgressors thereof? But if
thou be disposed to punish me, and displeased with
my deeds, never suffer me hereafter to do anything but

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 145

cast me into such a sleep wherein I was erewhile, and
therein let me continue continually. O happy was
Endymion, who long time enjoyed the like sleep !
O ten times happy are the dead, if death be anything
like this sleep ! But O ! hundred times unhappy am
I, to whom waking is wailful, whereas to all things
else it is joyful ! But was this but a vision which
deluded me ? was it but a dream which I doated
on ? And if it were but a dream, doth it portend
nothing ? and may there be effect in dreams ? Yea,
God wot, commonly the contrary ; or, as Caro
saith, we see sleeping that which we wish for waking.
So that neither in dreaming nor doing, neither in
sleeping nor seeing, neither in thinking nor saying,
find I any cause of comfort, or see any sign of solace.'*
This youth passed his time so long in these and such
like passions, that the careful carriage of his eyes
bewrayed his careful mind, and his pale countenance
his painful case. Which a special friend of his per
ceiving, took such compassion and pity on his painful
state, that he sought all means possible to sift out
the cause of his sorrow, to the intent to seek some
medicine for his malady. And having opportunity
of time and place, he brake with him in this sort : —
" Good friend, if I should shew you what great
VOL. i. L

146 A PETITE PALLACE

sorrow I sustain by your heaviness, you would per
chance judge my words to proceed rather of flattery
and trifling than of truth : but no more but try how
willing I will be to ease your pain, and by that judge
how greatly it grieveth me. But how great soever
my grief be, my wonder is more than great to see you
transformed from the estate of a pleasant gentleman
into such solitary regards, that you seem rather a
Timon of Athens, than a courtier of Italy ; and so
much the more cause I have of marvel, by how much
less I see any apparent cause which should work
any such alteration in you. For if want of worldly
wealth could work your woe, why you want nothing :
if you would eat gold, as they say, you might have
it. If loss of friends molest you, why you have an
infinite number which love you entirely. If you be
disposed to travel to see strange countries, your
parents will be well pleased with your departure. If
you be weary of your single life, your friends will
forthwith provide for your marriage. If any repulse
received of any dainty dame do daunt you, why the
gods themselves have suffered the like : as Daphne, a
silly damsel, refused the god Phoebus : Syrinx, a
simple maid, rejected the god Pan ; with infinite
other. If you have fixed your fancy in place you

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 147

think impossible to possess, why you have reason to
rule your affections, you have wit to compass your
desire, you have friends to further it, you want no
thing to finish it." With this his colour began to
change, and he fetched a deep sigh or two, whereby
his friend perceived he had touched the cause of his
calamity, and sore of his sorrow, praying him very
earnestly to unfold the secrets of his thoughts unto
him, saying, " Two wits are better than one, and that
which you, blinded perchance by love, cannot see,
I, stirred up by desire to do you good, may per
ceive. And for secrecy in your affairs, assure yourself
that never Pythias to his Damon, Pylades to his
Orestes, nor Gysippus to his Titus, was more true,
than I will be to you. And though your learning
and wit to know what is best for your own behalf be
far better than mine, yet the simpleness of my wit
shall be supplied with the sincereness of my will ;
which shall be always so ready pressed to pleasure
you, that if my service may satisfy you, you shall
command me, if my company may content you,
I will never be out of your sight, if I may any
way stand you in any stead, account me your own
only."

Icilius, hearing this friendly discourse, could not

148 A PETITE PALLACE

but say in his heart : — O friend unfeigned, O love
most loyal, O courtesy incomparable. And embracing
fast his friend in his arms, said : —

" If all the miseries in the world did muster in
multitudes about me, yet this thing only is of force
to fence me from their furies, to think I enjoy so
firm a friend as yourself are, and if I may live but
to requite some part of your good-will, it is the
second felicity I look for in this life. But touching
the cause of my perplexity, I must crave pardon if
I make courtesy to disclose it, for that many evils
carry this nature, rather to be concealed with grief,
than revealed in hope of relief. And as a green
wound by taking the air spreadeth further abroad
and is the hardlier healed, so I think my torment
and grief being once discovered, would not be so
easily cured." " If," saith his friend, " the original
of your evil proceed of love, as in my fancy it doth,
then undoubtedly the more it is uncovered the
sooner is it cured ; for as coals of fire covered
close with ashes keep their heat long time, but
lying open soon wax cold and black, so the fiery
flames of love raked up in silence, burn furiously
within a man, but being by discourse disclosed,
they soon convert from flame to fume and smoke.

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 149

Wherefore, good friend, stick not to impart unto
me this matter which doth import you so near,
promising you by the inviolable bond of friendship
to travail so earnestly in your affairs, that what
wanteth in power, you shall find in the pains which
I will take in your cause." " Alas ! sweet friend,"
saith Icilius, " rather than you should think I have
any diffidence or distrust in you, or think you un
worthy of credit in any cause whatsoever, I will
make you privy to the cause of my pain, what pang
or peril soever I incur thereby. Wherefore you
shall understand, that since the time I was at the
house of L. Virginius, as you partly know, the con
ditions of his daughter did so well content me, her
nature agreed so well with mine, her affections were
so framed to my fancy, that I am constrained to
resign my liberty captive unto her, and to make her
person the prison of my heart. And the less hope
I have of obtaining her, the more do I love ; and
the more deeply I do desire her, the more deadly
do I despa* of her ; which is the cause of all my
care, ar ' sum of all my sorrow ; yea, this is it
whi' * hath made me an enemy to myself, a stranger
to my friends, to abandon all good company, to sit
in solitariness, and this is it which, if it be not in

150 A PETITE PALLACE

time provided for, will prevent by death all other
mischiefs." " God forbid ! good friend," saith his
friend, " that so light a cause should so deeply dis
tress you. What, do you think either so super-
stitiously of her, either so abjectly of yourself, that
you deem this matter so impossible to be brought
to pass ? Why, her person is not of such perfection,
but that yours may match it : her friends are not
of such state, but that yours may stand by them ;
her portion is not so great, but your parents are
able to make yours equal unto it. No, doubt not
but your love shall sort to lucky end, and have
such success you seek for ; and I am heartily glad,
that seeing it was your chance to lose your liberty,
it is lodged in such a place, which is rather to be
counted a paradise of pleasure, than a prison of
pain, of whose worthiness I would somewhat say,
but that perchance you will think me partial to the
party; and besides that, I should rather kindle new
coals in you, than quench old flames. But because
I persuade myself I may do somewhat with the party
which putteth you to this pain, doubt not to com
mit this charge to me, and I warrant you I will
discharge it to your contentation." "Ah, dear
friend," saith Icilius, " if I thought you as well able

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 151

to give order to my sorrow and redress my woe, as I
see you willing to comfort my carefulness and keep
me from despair, I should think myself the happiest
wight in the world, and I would account of you as
the preserver of my life, but I cannot tell what
the matter is ; methinks the more fervent is my
fire, the more faint is my fear." "Why," saith
his friend, " you shew yourself too very a coward.
Fortune, you know, favoureth not the fainthearted,
neither are they worthy to win the prey you press
for ; and therefore for shame take a good heart unto
you, and do your endeavour, and let me alone with
the rest. There is no hawk soareth so high, but she
will stoop to some prey, neither any so rammish
and wild, but in time she may be reclaimed and
made to the lure. And if you follow my advice,
I think good you solicit her by letters until such
time you have convenient time to go thither your
self." Which counsel he forthwith put in execution,
and indited a letter to his mistress in this manner : —

"Good Mistress, to set forth in words the fer
vency of my affection, and vehemence of my passion,
I think would be both tedious to you, and I am sure
grievous to myself, for that the remembrance of

152 A PETITE PALLACE

my passions would be as it were a renewing of my
pain ; and though I altogether use silence therein, yet
the loathsome life which I lead, may by report adver
tise you of my luckless love, and my drowsy looks to
all which see them, are signs sufficient of my droop
ing heart. Therefore, may it please you plainly to
understand, that being at Master Virginius your
father's house, I received such contentation in your
company and sight, that since I have been deprived
thereof, I think myself deprived of all the pleasures
of life ; and unless your courtesy surmount my
deserts, and that you vouchsafe to pity my painful
estate, I shall have just cause to say, that at your
father's I received instead of meat misery, for drink
dolour ; yea, I may count my fare fire, and my
cheer very dear, which must cost me no less than
the loss of my liberty at least. But if yet at the
last course, it shall please you to send and serve on
to the table of my troubled mind some confects of
comfort with the fruits of friendship, I shall think
myself to have fared most daintily, whereas other
wise I shall count myself entreated disdainfully.
Look not, good Mistress, to my living, but to my
love ; weigh not my wealth, but my will ; mark not
my money, but my meaning in the way of honest

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 153

and lawful marriage ; and speedily send the mes
senger of present consolation to him, which pineth
away in pain, and is yours only and ever :

ICILIUS."

Virginia having viewed this letter, and liking it
never the worse for his sake that sent it, replied unto
it in this short and sober sort : —

" Sir, because I know in myself no such due desert
any way, to drive you to such deep desire, I am the
hardlier induced to believe your words ; and though
I adhibited full credit unto them, yet perchance as
yet my fancy is not fully framed to like so well of
you as you either desire or deserve ; and though I
could find in my heart to like you above all other,
yet I know not whether my friends will yield their
consent thereto. So that it is in me only to thank
you for your good-will, but not to satisfy your
request. Yours as she may : VIRGINIA."

This letter bringing some comfort to his careful
mind, made him make haste to repair in person to
the place of her presence, where he presented her his
suit with such assured signs of perfect love and
loyalty, that she thought with good conscience she

154 A PETITE PALLACE

could not contemn his good-will. But her parents,
for that he was not able, his father being alive, to
make her such jointure as they enjoined him to,
deferred the consummation of the marriage from time
to time, hoping that time would mortify the affection
of either the one or the other lover. But as the
smith his forge, by casting on cold water, burneth
more fiercely, so their love by these delays increased
more vehemently, which caused them to betroth
themselves each to other. But Icilius, endued with
a courageous mind, perceiving the lack of living to
hinder his happiness, determined to go to the wars,
and by dint of sword to win either coin or credit, or
to lose life and love. And being on point to take his
journey, he gave his Mistress this farewell : —

" If ever woful creature had cause to complain his
careful case, then undoubtedly may I duly press
for the foremost place ! The horse now and then
ceaseth from his travail, the ass from bearing, the
ox from drawing, and so of all other creatures ; but
my poor heart is never at rest, but as the wheel
continually turneth, so my mind continually tosseth,
still devising how I may aspire to the end of my
desires, and be placed in full possession of your
perfect person. And having revolved many ways

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 15$

in my mind, I am now resolved upon this, to go to
the wars, and there to win with prowess and pain,
that which God and fortune have denied me ;
where the remembrance of your seemly self shall
arm me with such courage, that I shall count nothing
dangerous to attempt, or hard to attain. And what
soever worthy feats you shall hear I shall enterprise,
I shall desire you to persuade yourself that they are
done for your sake. And if in my absence it shall
please you to continue constant in good-will towards
me, it is the only shield that shall shadow me in field
and fight. Remember Penelope passed twenty years
in the absence of her Ulysses, and assure yourself
Ulysses never hazarded himself in more perils, than
I will put myself to for your sake."

Virginia, having heard this short and sour discourse,
casting herself into his arms, after she had bedewed
his face with the tears which fell from her eyes,
replied in this sort : —

" Ah, Master Icilius, my tongue is not able to tell
the hurt which my heart sustaineth by the covetous
cruelty of my parents, who in a greedy desire of
goods, go about to stay me from that whereupon my
life doth stay and depend ! And were it not that your
great courtesy and love towards me did somewhat

1 56 A PETITE PALLACE

moderate and mitigate my martyrdom, I should never
be able to bear the unsupportable burden thereof.
But now I understand by you I shall lose your com
pany, which was my only comfort and consolation,
what resteth for me, but notwithstanding I was never
married, yet to continue and lead a woful widow's
loathsome life, and to spend my golden years in
galding grief? I could rehearse unto you, and you
yourself can better tell, the infinite and imminent
perils which always wait on war, but that I doubt
thereby I should rather increase your grief, than alter
your determination. But this request at least, yea, and
perchance the last, let me make unto you ; that in war
you be wary, in battle rather too backward than too
bold, in field rather too flying than too forward, and
if you take no care of yourself, yet make some spare
of me. For persuade yourself this, out of every
wound which your body shall receive, will issue as
well my blood as yours. And for constancy in your
absence, assure yourself Virginia will always be the
vowed vassal of Icilius. And as the laurel or bay-
tree ceaseth not to be green, notwithstanding the
parching summer, and pinching winter, so will I
never cease to be fresh in friendship, and green in
good-will towards you, notwithstanding the sharp

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 157

storms of absence, the distance of place, and differ
ence of time." But here tears stayed the talk of
the one, and time took away any longer abode of
the other, whereupon they were constrained after
a few careful kisses, to give each other a fainting
farewell. Neither is it easy to point forth the pain
wherewith this parting pinched both these poor
lovers ; but surely, in my fancy, of all griefs it is
most griping when friends are forced to part each
from other, when one heart is placed in two places,
when one member is torn as it were from another,
when own's self is separated from himself, or at least
his second self. But their parting was not so painful,
but that shortly after their meeting was as mournful.
For not long after the departure of Icilius, as Virginia
walked abroad somewhat to recreate and solace her
sorrowful self, it was her fortune unfortunately to be
seen by one Appius Claudius, one of the Decemvirs,
who were the chief rulers of the city, who by the furies
of Hell was so set in fire in libidinous lust towards
that virgin, that he sought all the means possible to
win her to his wicked will ; but seeing her so firmly
fortified in virtue, to be by consent vanquished by
villainy, he determined by force to force her to his
filthiness. And as nothing is so impossible which

158 A PETITE PALLACE

frantic fury will not enterprise, nothing so shameful
which unbridled desire will not undertake, nothing
so false which fleshly filthiness will not forge, so to
bring his purpose to pass he coined this device : he
caused one Marcus Clodius, a client of his, to lay
claim to the maid as his bond slave ; who partly for
awe of the tyrant, partly being apt of himself to
undertake any evil, took the matter upon him, and
the next time she took her out of her father's house,
he laid hands upon her, commanding her to follow
him home, to the end Appius might have had his
pleasure of her. But by the pitiful exclamation of
the maid and her nurse, a great multitude of people
began to muster about them, who hearing whose
daughter she was, and that she was betrothed to
Icilius, thought it unseemly that in the absence of her
father and friend, who were both in the wars, she
should be violently carried in bondage, the title being
not discussed by the laws, and thereupon withheld
Marcus Clodius from having her away. Who seeing
his might overmatched by the multitude, told them
he meant not to deal by force, but his mind was, for
the plain proof of his title and interest in her, to
have her before the chief magistrate of the city,
and only judge in civil controversies, who was

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 159

Appius Claudius, the only author of this evil. Being
come before him, he told a solemn tale for the con-
firmatio'n of his right in the maid, saying she was the
daughter of a bondwoman of his, that in her infancy
she was stolen from her mother, conveyed to
Virginius, and from that time brought up at his house
and taken for his natural child, and for proof
hereof he brought in two or three knights of the post
to depose. The friends of the maid, not able to
refell this forged tale, desired of the Judas judge that
the matter might be adjourned until the coming of
her father Virginius ; Appius answered that he thought
it good the matter should hang in suspense until the
return of her supposed father, but it was no reason
but that he who pretended, yea, and had proved
to have such right to her, should have her in his
custody, until the matter were more examined,
and upon his honour he promised she should be
forthcoming to appear at the time of her father's
approach. The people hearing this injurious judg
ment of Appius, rather murmured at it, than durst
make resistance against it, by reason whereof Marcus
Clodius began to draw the maid to be deflowered,
as the tiger in Hyrcane woods haileth the lamb to be
devoured. But God, the righter of all wrongs, and

160 A PETITE PALLACE

protector of all pure virgins, prevented the peril
which hung over her head, and sent home from the
wars to succour her, her uncle Numitorius and her
spouse Icilius, who hearing the heinousness of the
matter, presently pressed to the place where Appius
sat in judgment ; but he commanded his officers to
keep Icilius back, whereupon Icilius inveighed against
him in this sort : —

"Albeit, O Appius, by force you keep me from
keeping mine own out of your hands, yet shall you
not stay my tongue from detecting the villainy which
you endeavour to do. For the truth is, this virgin is
betrothed to me, and my mind is to marry her a
chaste maid, therefore assure yourself if it lie in me to
let, she shall not remain one minute of an hour out
of her father's house. Is it not sufficient for you to
deprive the people of the chief pillars of their liberty,
but that our wives and children also must live in
slavery to your tyranny ? Exercise your cruelty on
our bodies, at least let chastity be in safety ! Ought
princes to give light of life to their people, and will
you make yourself a mirror of mischief to your
posterity ? But if you mind to take her away from
us by force, and from her, her virginity, never think
to do it while I have any breath left in my body, for

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 161

in this just cause and quarrel of my wife, life shall
sooner leave me than loyalty."

Appius, thinking the power of Icilius would pre
vail above his, for that the multitude marvellously
inclined to his side, said he would have another
time to repress the rebellious rage of Icilius, and
touching the maid, for her father's sake he was con
tent to defer the pronouncing of sentence against
her, until the next court-day, that her father might
be present. In the meanwhile, he would entreat
Marcus Clodius to forbear his right, but if her
father came not by the next court-day, he would
defer the execution of justice for no man's pleasure.
Presently upon this he despatched letters to the
captain general of the army, that he should not in
any wise dismiss Virginius, or suffer him to come
home ; but Icilius had sent for him with such speed,
that he had leave to depart before those letters came
to the captain, so it pleased God to prevent the policy
and wicked purpose of Appius. Now Virginius being
come to Rome, went with his daughter to the judg
ment place, and did there lamentably implore the
help of the people, saying : — " While I, with the rest
of the soldiers, have hazarded our lives in the defence
of you and your children, I am in danger to have

VOL. I. M

1 6z A PETITE PALLACE

my own daughter despoiled ; whereas by my help
our city is preserved from enemies, I myself am
brought to such misery, as if it were taken by our
enemies, and utterly razed to the ground. For
what greater villainy can be done to the vanquished,
than to see before their eyes their wives and children
deflowered and defiled ? But, neighbours and friends,
if you suffer me to sustain this injury, assure your
selves your staff standeth next to the door, and look
no longer to be husbands over your wives, and
parents over your children, than it shall please these
tyrants to give you leave. Any evil at the first
entering in of it may easily be avoided, but let one
or two precedents pass patiently without resisting,
and it will run into a custom, and from thence to
a law, and you will never be able after to rid your
hands of it. And if your own safety drive you not
to succour me, yet let my old years, my hoary hairs,
the honest port which I have ever maintained, and
the chaste life of my daughter, move you to put to
your hands to help redress my wrong." By this
time Appius was come to the judgment-place with a
great troop of armed men, and seeing Virginius
there contrary to his expectation, and perceiving
no colour of law could cloud his doings, he set down

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 163

his own will for a law, and said he would defraud
Marcus Clodius no longer of his right, and seeing
the maid was convicted by proof and witness to be
his bondmaid, he gave sentence that he should pre
sently have her away, not suffering her father to
allege anything for her freedom. Virginius, seeing
this extreme dealing of Appius, threateningly shook
his hands at him, saying : — " I have betrothed my
daughter to Icilius, not to thee, O Appius, and I have
brought her up to be an honest married woman,
not thy harlot. What, dost thou think under the
pretence of bondage, to make her bound to thy
beastliness ? " Appius, not regarding his railing,
caused his officers to make the multitude give place
to Marcus Clodius that he might quietly carry away
his bondmaid, by reason whereof Virginia was left
void of help and rescue ; which her father perceiving,
and seeing himself not able to deliver her out of her
enemies' hands, to defer the time, hoping still for help,
he used this policy : he desired Appius he might have
his daughter aside, and between her nurse and her
examine the matter, that if it were found he were
but her feigned father, he might the more willingly
depart with her. Which being by Appius granted,
they three went aside together, where Virginia fell

1 64 A PETITE PALLACE

down upon her knees, and made this ruthless request
unto her father : —

" I perceive, dear father, it is not without great
cause that the philosophers were of this opinion, that
the greatest felicity is never to be born, and the
second soon to die. Now seeing by your means I am
deprived of the first, I beseech you by your means
let me enjoy the second, and to countervail the
luckless and loathsome life which you have given me,
vouchsafe to bestow on me an honourable death.
And as by your fatherly care I have continued a
continent virgin hitherto, so by your furthering aid,
I pray you let me die an honest maid presently, lest
my life hereafter contaminate the commendation of
my life heretofore. And seeing I can be no longer
suffered to live honestly, good father, let me die
honourably ; for an honourable death is always to be
preferred before an infamous life : of evils the least is
to be chosen, and death of body is to be counted a
less evil, than destruction of body and soul. I think
I may by more right crave your help herein, for that
partly by your means I am fallen into this extremity,
for that you would not agree to the consummation
of the marriage between Icilius and me. And how
you can deliver me, but by delivering me to death,

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 165

I see not, for that your power is too weak to wreak
the wrong which is offered me, and your force is
too feeble to fence me from the fury of my foes !
Therefore, seeing he will needs have my body,
sweet father, let him have it dead, that I may not
feel the filthiness which he purposeth to force
me to."

Her father melting into tears at her pitiful suit,
carefully kissing her, commended her courageous
mind, rather confirming her in her constant cour-
ageousness, than dissuading her from her purpose.
By this time the tyrant's train began to flock about
them to have her away, which Virginius seeing,
snatched a butcher's knife from the shambles, and
thrust therewith his daughter to the heart, saying : —

" O Daughter, by this only mean whereby I may
do, I make thee free ! " Icilius seeing his spouse
thus spoilt, spent no time in trifling tears, but by
the help of his father-in-law Virginius prosecuted
the matter so earnestly against Appius that he was
thrown into prison, where for shame of his deed
and dread of deserved punishment, he did himself
desperately to death. You see here, Gentlewomen,
a most lamentable death of a most virtuous virgin,
wherein you may note a noble mind in her to desire

1 66 A PETITE PALLACE

it, a stout courage in her father to do it, and most
outrageous tyranny in Appius to drive them to it :
whereby you may learn that virtue and chastity is to
be preferred before world or wealth, before friend or
father, before love or living, before life or death.
Therefore, if I were either in wit able, or otherwise
worthy, to give you counsel, I would advise you to
avoid the trains of such tyrants, to keep you out of
the sight of such seedsuckers, and to fly from such
senes fornicatores : such ravening wolves in sheep's
clothing are readiest to devour such sweet sheep, such
old dogs ever bite sorest, such gravity for the most
part containeth most incontinency. For if their
lust were not more than outrageous, either their
great discretion would repress it, either their many
years would mortify it, either their own wives
would satisfy it. But use of evil maketh us think it
no abuse, sins oft assayed are thought to be no sin,
and these grayheaded gamesters have the habit of this
mischief so deeply rooted in them, that concupiscence
will fry their flesh, till breath do leave their bodies.

And as I would you should avoid these old youths
in the way of wickedness, so if my wish might wield
your wills, you should neither meddle with them in
the way of marriage. For perfect love can never be

ICILIUS AND VIRGINIA 167

without equality ; there can be no good agreement
of affections, where there is such difference of years.
Can fire and water, can flowers and frost, can warmth
and winter, can mirth and melancholy, agree to
gether ? No, surely Gentlewomen ! but if you will
have it so, I will believe this matter moveth you
nothing. Yet what say you to another point, and
that a most perilous point, when to impotency shall
be added jealousy ? This is a pill of hard digestion,
this is a pill which if it be a little chewed, it will be
so bitter that you will never be able to abide it. For
when such an one shall measure your deeds by his
own desire, and your life present by his own life past,
when he shall think you to be naught, because he
himself hath been naught, good God ! how closely
then will he mew you up ! how carefully will he
look to you ! how loathsomely will he cloy you
with his company ! Then will you wish you un
married ; then will you wish you had married with
a young man ; they will love and not dote ; they will
be zealous and not jealous ; and if your parents in
some curious or covetous respect go about otherwise
to dispose of you, humbly request them you may
choose where you like, and link where you love ; that
you may be married to a man rather than money, to

1 68 A PETITE PALLACE

quiet rather than coin. Dutifully tell them that such
pressiness of parents brought Pyramus and Thisbe to
a woful end, Romeo and Julietta to untimely death,
and brave Virginius miserably to murder his own
daughter Virginia.

ADMETUS AND ALCEST

ADMETUS, son to Atys, King of Lybia, falling
in love with Alcest, daughter to Lycabas,
King of Assur, who recompensed him with semblable
affection, are restrained each from other by their
parents, but being secretly married, wander in wilder
nesses like poor pilgrims. Atys shortly after dieth,
whereof Admetus, being advertised, returneth with
his wife, and is established in the kingdom. The
destinies grant him a double date of life if he can
find one to die for him, which Alcest herself per-
formeth ; for whose death Admetus most wofully
lamenting, she was eftsoons by Proserpina restored to
life, and lover again.

It is a saying no less common than commonly
proved true, that marriages are guided by destiny,
and amongst all the contracts which concern the life
of man, I think they only be not in our own power
or pleasure. Which may plainly appear by this, that
169.

170 A PETITE PALLACE

when the choice of such marriages doth chance unto
us as we ourselves can wish, when they may, by their
parents and friends, countenance us, by their dowry
and portion profit us, by their person and beauty
pleasure us, by their virtue and perfection every way
place us in paradise, yet it is often seen that we set
little by them, neither make any account of such
profitable proffers, but by a contrary course of the
heavens and destinies, are carried, as it were against our
wills, some other way, and caused to settle in affection
there where heaven and earth seem to withstand
our desire, where friends frown on us, where wealth
wants, where there is neither felicity in pursuing,
neither felicity in possessing ; which the history which
you shall hear shall more plainly set forth unto you.
There reigned in the land of Lybia one Atys, who
had to his neighbour, more near than was necessary,
one Lycabas, King of Assur ; which princes, rather
coveting their neighbour's dominions, than contenting
themselves with their own, encroached each one upon
other's right, and continued continual war one
against the other. But at length Atys, whether he
were wearied and wasted with war, or whether he
had occasion to bend his force some other way, or
whether he were disposed to enter into league and

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 171

amity with his neighours, I know not, but he sent
his one son Admetus to Lycabas to parley of a peace.
Now Lycabas, either thinking he had him at some
advantage, either not minding to put up injuries
before received, would accept no conditions of peace,
but by Admetus sent his father flat defiance. So that
the war continued between them in as great rage
as it had done the former time of their reign, but
yet have caused not such hot skirmishes between the
parents, but that love forced as fierce assaults between
the children. For it was so that Lycabas had a
daughter named Alcest, who what time Admetus was
in her father's court to entreat of peace, chanced but
at her chamber window to have a sight of him, and
he at the same time happened to encounter a view
of her. And as small drops of rain engender great
floods, and as of little seeds grow great trees, so of this
little look and sight grew such great love and delight,
that death itself could not dissolve it. For as women
be of delicate and fine metal, and therefore soon
subject to love, so Alcest after this first sight was so
overgone in good-will towards Admetus that she fixed
her only felicity in framing in her fancy the form of
his face, and printing in her heart the perfection of
his person. And as nothing breedeth bane to the

1 72 A PETITE PALLACE

body sooner than trouble of mind, so she persevered
so long in such pensive passions, and careful cogita
tions, that her body was brought so low for lack of
the use of sleep and meat, that she was fain to keep
her bed ; and by reason that she covertly concealed
her grief, it burned so furiously within her, that it
had almost clean consumed her away. Her father,
seeing her in this heavy case, assembled all the learned
physicians he could learn of in the country, who,
having seen her, were all altogether ignorant of her
disease, and were at their wits' end what medicine
to apply to her malady. Some thought it a con
sumption, some a burning fever, some a melancholy
humour, some one thing, some another. And her
father examining her how it held her, and what
disease she thought it to be, she answered that it was
a sickness which it pleased God to send her, and that
it was not in the help of physic to heal her, but her
health was only to be had at God's hands. Now
Admetus, on the other side, having the proffer of
many princes made him in the way of marriage, made
very careless account thereof, and seemed in his mind
to be very angry with those offers : and as the sight
of meat is very loathsome to him whose stomach is
ill, or hath already eaten his fill, so that little sight

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 173

which he had of Alcest had fed his fancy so full, that
to see, or so much as think, of any other woman was
most grievous unto him. And notwithstanding the
griping pain of love caused some grafts of grief to
begin to grow in his heart, yet by reason that he
had the conducting of the army royal under his
father, he was so busily occupied that he had no
great leisure to lodge any loving thoughts within his
breast. But see how the destinies dealt to drive this
bargain through ! There arose a quarrel between
the two armies touching certain points wherein the
law of arms was thought to be broken, to decide
which controversy, Admetus was sent post to Lycabas,
who sitting by his daughter's bedside, had word
brought him that Admetus was come to the court to
impart matters of importance unto him. Now, at this
instant there chanced one of the physicians to hold
Alcest by the arm and to feel her pulses, and where
before they beat very feebly as if she had been ready
to yield to the summons of death, she no sooner
heard that message brought up to her father, but
that her pulses began to beat with great force and
liveliness ; which the physician perceiving, persuaded
himself he had found the cause of her calamity; but
for more assured proof, he whispered the King in

174 A PETITE PALLACE

the ear, desiring him that Admetus might be sent for
thither, and there to make relation of his message
unto him ; which the King caused to be done ac
cordingly. Admetus was no sooner admitted into the
chamber, but her pulses began to beat again with
wonderful swiftness, and so continued all the while
he was in the chamber. Who, seeing his love in such
danger of her life, though he understood not the
cause thereof, yet he cast such a careful countenance
towards her, that she easily perceived he did par
ticipate in pain with her ; which made her cast such
glances of good-will towards him, that he easily
understood it was for his sake she sustained such
sorrow and sickness. But the fears of her father,
who was his mortal foe, and the urgent necessity of
his affairs, forced him to depart without manifesting
unto her the manifold good-will he bare her. And
though his departure were little better than death to
the damsel, yet for that she knew her love to be
encountered with like affection, whereof before she
stood in doubt, she began to drive away the dark
clouds of despair, and to suffer the bright light of
hope to shine upon her. Admetus being gone, the
physician took the King aside, and told him his
daughter's disease was not derived of any distemper-

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 175

ature of the body, but only of the disquietness of the
mind : " And to tell you the truth plainly," saith he,
" it is only the fervent affections she beareth to that
young prince Admetus, your enemy, that forceth this
feebleness and faintness in her." And told the King
by what means he tried the truth thereof. The
King at these words was marvellously disquieted,
persuading himself that it v\as so indeed, and that
Admetus on the other side, bare affection to his
daughter, for that all the time of his talk with him,
he continually turned his eyes towards her bed, and
would oftentimes give his answers nothing pertinent
to the questions which he proposed unto him, as
having his cogitations conversant in other matters.
Upon this the King went to his daughter, and as the
physician first ministreth to his patient bitter pills and
purgations to expel gross and ill humours, and then
applieth lenitives and restoratives to breed and bring
again good blood, so he first used sharp threatening s
unto her to expel the force and fury of her love, and
then used gentle persuasions to restore her to her
former health, and quiet of mind. But neither the
sourness of the one, neither the sweetness of the
other, could prevail, for salves seldom help an over-
long suffered sore ; it is too late to shut the stable

176 A PETITE PALLACE

door when the steed is stolen ; it booteth not to stop
the breach when the town is overflown ; it is too
late to dislodge love out of one's breast, when it hath
infected before every part of the body. For as
swooning mortifieth every member, as pestilence in-
fecteth every part, as poison pierceth every vein, so
love, if it be not in time looked to, will bring both
body and mind to utter confusion. For this virgin
was so vanquished by love, that she neither forced
her father's fair words, neither feared his fierce
threatenings, but told him plainly she would not
deny the love she bare Admetus, neither could cast out
of her mind the liking she had conceived of him :
and therefore humbly craved pardon, if, saith she, it
be an offence to love him honestly, which deserveth
it worthily. But her father in a fury flung from her,
saying, she should never enjoy him with joy, and that
she should never find any more fatherly furtherance at
his hands, than the greatest enemy he had. The
young princess, perceiving her father's good-will thus
alienated from her, reposed her only comfort and
confidence in Admetus, hoping that he would stand
her instead of both a friend, fere, and father. And
with as convenient speed as she could, wrought a
letter to him to this end : —

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 177

" If, most peerless prince, necessity or love had law,
I might be thought perchance to transgress the law
and limits of modesty in first giving the onset,
whereas I ought not easy to have yielded, being
assaulted. But seeing necessity and lack of opportunity,
by reason of the rigour of the wars, perchance causeth
you to conceal that which you would discover, and
vehement love and fervent desire forceth me to dis
cover that which I should conceal, I think it less
offence by this means to supply your want and satisfy
mine own desire, than by standing upon the nice
terms of my maiden's estate, to suffer both of us to
pine away in pain for lack of being privy to each
other's mind and purpose. Therefore you shall
understand the cause of my writing is this. What
time your good hap, I hope, was to be at my father's
court, I did perceive, if desire to have it so did not
deceive me, that your affection was great towards me,
and that you seemed not a little to be pinched with
my pain ; to ease you of which grief I thought it my
duty to certify you, that the certain hope which I
thereby conceived of your love and good-will, did
presently restore me to perfect health ; and further to
let you understand, that the only cause of my sickness
was the first signs which I had of you, and the despair
VOL. i. N

178 A PETITE PALL ACE

that I should never be so fortunate as to obtain you.
Now, as the same hand which did hurt me, did help
me, so if I have any way wounded you, I shall be
ready to make you what plaster it please you to
heal your hurt. And judging the sincerity of your
mind by the clearness of mine own conscience, I
commit myself wholly unto your hands, presuming
thus far of your perfect love towards me, that you
will not any way seek the disparagement of mine
honour, which I hold far more dear than love or life,
but accept me for your lawful and loving spouse,
and that way you only and at any time shall dispose
of me at your pleasure. My father by ill-fortune
hath found out our love, and stormeth greatly thereat,
so that I think his haggard heart is by no means to be
reclaimed. But I think indirect dealing by the
daughter may be used, when the father by rage,
rather than reason, is ruled. Therefore if you think
so good, I will secretly convey myself to what place
you will have me ; but I commit this matter to your
wisdom, and myself to you, remaining yours only and
ever : ALCEST."

Now Admetus ever after his return from the Court
of Lycabas, was driven into such doleful dumps, and

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 179

governed his charge of men with such heavy cheer,
that his father examining him very strictly of the cause
thereof, enforced him to confess his careful case. Which
he no sooner heard, but he forthwith discharged him
of his charge, saying he was fitter to be one of Cupid's
carpet captains, than to march under the manly
ensign of Mars, and that he would have no such
lascivious knights in his army. For, saith he, if
any part of the body be putrified, it must be cut off
for fear of infecting the whole body. And told him
plainly if he went forward with his folly, he would
never take him for his son, neither should he ever
succeed in the kingdom by his consent. The young
prince withdrew himself out of his father's presence,
and got him to his pavilion or tent, where he was no
sooner sadly set down, but he was presented by a
trusty messenger with the letter of Alcest, which so
soon as he had read, he seemed to be rapt into the
third heaven ; but considering on the other side the
difficulty of reaping the fruits of his love, and weigh
ing the peril of his father's displeasure, he was thrown
into the deepest dungeon of hell. And as a boat
borne by the tide against the wind, feeleth double
force, and is compelled to yield both to wind and
wave, so this young prince, being driven by the force

i8o A PETITE PALLACE

of love against the wind and pleasure of his father,
felt double dolour, and was tormented with both.
But at length love gat the victory, and all other doubts
cast aside, he returned his mistress this answer : —

"Who was ever exalted to the highest degree of
happiness, and driven to the deepest extremity of evil
at once but I ? whoever flourished in felicity, and
faded in misery together but I ? who was ever
placed in paradise and plunged in perplexity jointly
but I ? for heaven itself cannot yield me better bliss
than the consent of your good-will and love, most
peerless prince and princely piece, and hell itself
cannot yield me more bitter bale, than to be destitute
of means to enjoy the fruits of your favour, and benefit
of your beauty. If Croesus came and offered me all
his wealth, if Alexander yielded me his empire, if
Juno came from heaven with her kingdoms, Pallas
with her wisdom, or Venus with her Helen, assure
thyself, sweet Mistress, that neither any one of them,
neither all of them together, should be so gratefully
or gladly received of me, as the proffer which your
letters have made me. And canst thou, dear wench,
prefer my love before thine own life, my pleasure
before thy father's displeasure, my contentment before

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 181

thine own commodity, and shall any doubt of danger
drive me from the duty which I ought to do unto
thee ? No, let father fret, let friends frown, let living
be lost, let kingdom be made from me, let hap what
hap will, thou hast promised to be mine, and I pro
test by the heavens to be thine ! What though the
King, your father, be greatly incensed against me, what
care I for any man's friendship, if I have your favour ?
What though the way unto you be long and dan
gerous, what pass I to pass a thousand perils to
pleasure you ? What though mine enemies lie in
wait for me, what weigh I to be hewn in an
hundred pieces in your presence ? Yea, if I had a
thousand lives, I think the losing of them all little
enough to requite the great good- will and courtesy
you have shewed me ! But methinks I hear you say,
the spending or loss of my life is the greatest loss and
evil that possibly can happen unto you, and therefore
I must take heed how I hazard it. Well, I will,
sweet wench, preserve my life only to serve thee,
and the care I have of you, shall cause me to have care
of myself. But touching the convey of our affairs,
I am at my wits' end which way to work, for if
your father chafe at this matter, mine rageth and
stormeth, and watcheth me so narrowly that not so

1 82 A PETITE PALLACE

much as my looks but he looketh to them. But I
will ease him of this labour ere it be long, for this
life I am not able to endure long : yea, I had rather
live with you in most misery, if he may possibly be
miserable that enjoyeth such a jewel as you are, than
here in most happiness, which of me is not to be
had without you. Therefore wayward fortune hath
only left us this way, and if it please you so much to
dishonour yourself, and to do me so much honour,
as meet me the tenth of this month at the chapel
of Diana, standing as you know five leagues from
your father's court, I will there, God willing, meet
you, and a priest with me to marry us ; which done
we will shift ourselves into pilgrims' apparel, and so
disguised endure together such fortune as the fates
shall assign us. And thus till then I bid you
farewell.

" Yours ever, or his own never : ADMETUS."

Now see the valiantness of a virgin, or rather con
sider the force of love which maketh the weak strong,
the witless wise, the simple subtle, yea, and the most
cowards most courageous. For the day prescribed in
the letter of Admetus being come, the young princess
before day attired herself in one of her page's apparel,

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 183

and trudged out of the city as if she had been sent to
the camp on some message. And so fast as her faint
legs, but strengthened by love, could carry her, she
hasted through the desert and wayless woods to this
forlorn chapel, where the god whom she only
honoured was ready to receive her ; who though at
first he knew her not, but thought she had been
Cupid or Mercury fallen from the heavens, yet at
length by her loving looks cast upon him, he knew
who it was, and embracing her fast in his arms said: —
" If Jupiter, sweet wench, should see thee in this
page's apparel, no doubt but he would forego his
Ganymedes, and take thee up into heaven in his stead.
O most sovereign Lady and mistress ! what service
shall I ever be able to do you, which may countervail
this kindness ? What duty can be a due recompense
to this good-will ? If I by any means can quite this
courtesy, I never doubt to be deemed ungrateful
while I live. But accept, good Lady, I beseech you
that which is in me to perform, which is the faith-
fullest heart that ever was vowed to lady: which
when it severeth from you, let all the torments of
Tantalus, Tityus, Sisyphus, and all the rueful rout of
hell, be heaped upon me ! " Alcest hearing him so
earnest said : —

1 84 A PETITE PALLACE

" Few words, most worthy prince, are enough to
win credit to a matter already believed ; for only
upon confidence of your constant and faithful heart
towards me, I have thus inadvisedly adventured mine
honour as you see, desiring you not sinisterly to think
of this my attempt, being boldened thereto by the
great love which I bear towards you, and by the
loyalty which I look for of you towards me." " Ah,"
saith Admetus, " if I should make any ill interpretation
of your virtuous love and sincere affection towards me,
I were the veriest villain on earth ; for I take God to
witness, I take your forward will for such friendly
good-will, that I doubt my deserts will never be able
to answer thereto as I desire." But here he aptly
ended his task upon her mouth, and they entered
into such privy conference, their lips being joined
most closely together, that I cannot report the mean
ing of it unto you ; but if it please one of you to lean
hitherward a little, I will shew you the manner of it.
Now having continued some time therein, they at the
length entered into the temple, where the marriage
according to the sacred rites was solemnly celebrated ;
which done, they entered into a poor cottage, instead
of a princely palace, joining to the temple, where
long they durst not tarry for fear of apprehension by

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 185

posts which pursued them. Therefore putting on
their pilgrims' apparel again, they went hand in hand,
and heart in heart, wailfully and wilfully, wandering
out of their own native country, to avoid their parents*
punishment and displeasure. O, lamentable lots of
love ! which drave two princes from their pleasant
palaces, from their flourishing friends, from their
train of servants, from their sumptuous fare, from
their gorgeous garments, from variety of delights,
from secure quietness, yea, from heavenly happiness,
to wild wilderness, to desert dens, to careful caves,
to hard cheer with haws and hips, to pilgrim's
pelts, to peril of spoiling, to danger of devouring,
to misery of mind, to affliction of body, yea, to
hellish heaviness ! O pitiless parents ! to prefer their
own hate before their children's love ; their own
displeasures before their children's pleasure ; to forget
that themselves were once young and subject to love ;
to measure the fiery flames of youth, by the dead
coals of age ; to govern their children by their own
lust which now is, not which was in times past ; to
seek to alter their natural affection from their children
upon so light a cause, shewing themselves rebels to
nature ; to endeavour to undo the destinies and
disappoint the appointment of the gods, shewing

1 86 A PETITE PALLACE

themselves traitors to the gods. But the one of them,
the father of Admetus, reaped the just reward of
his rigour. For Atys, after the departure of his son,
took the matter very heavily, abandoned all pleasures,
avoided all company, and spent most part of his
time in discoursing with himself in this sorrowful
sort : —

11 If nature, by the divine providence of God, did
not move us to the maintenance of mankind, surely
the charge of children is such a heavy burden that it
would fear men from entering into the holy state of
matrimony. For to omit the inconveniences of their
infancy, which are infinite, when they draw once to
man's estate, what time they should be a stay to our
staggering state, good God ! what troubles do they
torment us with ! What cares do they consume us
with ! What annoys do they afflict our old years
withal ! They say we are renewed and revived, as it
were, in our offspring, but we may say we die daily
in thinking of the desperate deeds of our children.
And as the spider feeleth if her web be pricked but
with the point of a pin, so if our child be touched
but with the least trouble that is, we feel the force of
it to pierce us to the heart. But how well this tender
care is by them considered ! Alas, it maketh my heart

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 187

bleed to think if we look for obedience of them, and
that they should follow our counsel in the convey
of their affairs, why they think we dote, and that
their own wits are far better than ours ; if we warn
them to be wary and thrifty, they think it pro-
ceedeth rather of covetousness than of kindness ; if
we provide them no marriages, it is because we
will depart with no living to them ; if we persuade
them to marriage, it is because we would have
them forsake all good fellowship, and live like
clowns in the country by the plough tail ; if we
persuade them to learning, it is that they might live
by it without our charge ; if we persuade them to
one wife rather than another, it is because the one is
richer than the other ; if we look severely on them,
we love them not ; if we use them familiarly, we
feed them with flattery because we will give them
little. And so of all our loving doings they make
these lewd devices : yea, when we have brought
them up with great care and cost, when we have
travelled all our time by sea and by land, early and
late, in pain and in peril, to heap up treasure for
them, when we have by continual toil shortened our
own lives to lengthen and enlarge their livings and
possessions, yet if we suffer them not to roist and to

1 88 A PETITE PALLACE

riot, to spill and to spoil, to swash and to lash, to lend
and to spend, yea, and to follow the fury of their own
frantic fancies in all things, this forsooth is our recom
pense, they wish an end of our lives to have our
livings. Alas, a lamentable case, why hath not nature
caused love to ascend as well as descend ? Why hath
she endued the Stork with this property to feed his
dam, when she is old, and men with such malice to
wish their parents' death when they are aged ? But I
speak perchance of mine own proper grief, God forbid
it should be a common case ; for my son, ah, why do
I call him son ! hath not only wished my death, but
wrought it ! He knew he was my only delight ; he
knew I could not live he being out of my sight ; he
knew his desperate disobedience would drive me to a
desperate death ! And could he so much dote of a
light damsel, to force so little of his loving father ?
Alas ! a wife is to be preferred before father and
friend ! But had he none to fix his fancy on but the
daughter of my most furious foe ? Alas, love hath
no respect of persons ! Yet was not my good-will and
consent to be craved therein ? Alas, he saw no possi
bility to obtain it. But now, alas, I would grant my
good-will, but now, alas, it is too late ! his fear of
my fury is too great ever to be found, his fault is too

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 189

great ever to look me in the face more, and my
sorrow is too great ever to be salved."

And thereupon got him to bed, and in five days'
space his natural moisture with secret sorrow was
so soaken away, that he could no longer continue
his careful life, but yielded willingly to desired
death ! So it pleased God to provide for the poor
pilgrims, who having passed many a fearful forest
and dangerous desert, were now come to the sea
shore, minding to take ship and travel into unknown
coasts, where they might not by any means be
known. And being on shipboard, they heard the
master of the ship make report that Atys, King of
the Lybians, was dead. Whereupon Admetus desired
to be set on shore again, and dissembling the cause
thereof, pretended some other matter, and got to the
next town, where with the money and jewels he had
about him, he furnished himself and his lady with the
best apparel could be provided in the town, and with
such a train of men as he could there take up ; which
done, he made the greatest expedition he could into
his own country, where he was royally received as
prince, and shortly after joyfully crowned King.
And being quietly settled in the regal seat, he
presently despatched ambassadors to Lycabas, his

190

A PETITE PALLACE

father's foe, and his father-in-law, whose ambassade
contained these two points, the one to entreat a peace
for his people, the other to crave a pardon for his
wife ; who willingly granted both the one and the
other, whereby he now lived in great quiet and
tranquillity. A marvellous mutability of fortune which
in the space of a month could bring him from happy
/ joy to heavy annoy, and then from annoy again to
(^ greater joy than his former joy ! For as the sun
having been long time overwhelmed with dark clouds,
when it hath banished them from about it, seems to
shine more brightly than at any time before, so the
state and condition of this prince having been covered
with the clouds of care, now it was cleared of them,
seemed more pleasant and happy than at any time
before. And, verily, as sharp sauce gives a good taste
to sweet meat, so trouble and adversity makes quiet
and prosperity for more pleasant. For he knoweth
not the pleasure of plenty, who hath not felt the pain
of penury ; he takes no delight in meat, who is never
hungry ; he careth not for ease, who was never
troubled with any disease. But notwithstanding the
happy life of this prince, albeit he had as many king
doms as he coveted, albeit he had such a wife as he
wished for, yea, and enjoyed all things which either

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 191

God could give him, fortune further him to, or
nature bestow upon him : yet to shew that there is
no sun shineth so bright, but that clouds may overcast
it ; no ground so good, but that it bringeth forth weeds
as well as flowers ; no king so surely guarded, but that
the gamesome goddess fortune will at least check him,
if not move him ; no state So plentiful in pleasure, but
that it is mixed with pain ; he had some weeds of woe
which began to grow up amongst his flowers of felicity,
and some chips of sorry chance did alight in the heap
of his happiness. Yea, fortune presented herself once
again upon the stage, and meant to have one fling more
at him. For this prince possessing such a pleasant life,
took great delight in good housekeeping, and gave such
good entertainment to strangers that his fame was far
spread into foreign countries : yea, the rumour thereof
reached to the skies in so much that Apollo, as the poets
report, having occasion to descend from heaven to the
earth, went to see the entertainment of Admetus :
who was so royally received by him, that the god
thought good with some great kindness to requite his
great courtesy. And as Philemon and Baucis, for
their hearty housekeeping, were preserved by the gods
from drowning when all the country and people
besides were overflown, so the god Apollo meant to

1 92 A PETITE PALL ACE

preserve his life, when all his country and people then
living should lie full low in their graves. And of the
destinies of death obtained thus much for him, that
if when the time and term of his natural life drew to
an end, if any could be found who would willingly
die and lose their own life for him, he should begin
the course of his life again, and continue on earth
another age. Now, when the time of his natural life
drew to an end, there was diligent enquiry made
who would be content to abridge their own days, to
prolong their prince's life. And first the question
was put to his friends, who were nearest to themselves ;
then to his kinsfolk, whose love was as much of custom
as of kindness ; then to his subjects, whose affection
was as much for fear as for favour ; then to his
servants, who thought their life as sweet as their
master did his ; then to his children, who thought it
reason that as their father did first enter into this life
so he should first depart out of this life ; so that there
could none be found so frank of their life to set this
prince free from the force of death. Now Alcest,
seeing the death of her dear husband draw near, and
knowing her own life without his life and love would
be but loathsome unto her, of her own accord offered
herself to be sacrificed for her husband's sake, and to

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 193

hasten her own death to prolong his life. O loyal
loving wife, O wight good enough for God himself !
And yet had she a husband good enough for herself ;
for he loved her so entirely that though by losing her
he might have gained life long time, yet would he
not by any means consent to her death, saying,
without her life his life would be more grievous unto
him than a thousand deaths. But she persuaded with
him against herself all that she could, saying, " I would
not, O peerless prince, you should take the matter so
kindly at my hands, as though for your sake only I
offered up my life ; for it is indeed the commodity
of your country and mine own, being under your
dominion, which driveth me hereto, knowing myseli
unable to govern them you being gone. And con
sidering the daily war, the spoilful wastes, the bloody
blasts, the troublesome strife, which your realm is
subject to, I thought you had not loved me so little
as to leave me behind you to bear on my weak back
such a heavy burden as I think Atlas himself could
scarce sustain. Again, considering that death is but
a fleeting from one life into another, and that from a
most miserable life to a most happy life, yea, from bale
to bliss, from care to quiet, from Purgatory to Para
dise, I thought you had not envied me so much, as to

VOL. I. O

i94 A PETITE PALLACE

think me unworthy of it. Do you not know that
Cleobis and Biton had death bestowed on them as the
best gift which God could devise to give them, and do
you think it can do me harm, especially seeing I may
thereby do you good ? " " Alas, sweet wife," saith
Admetus, " this your piety is unprofitable which is
subject to so many perils. But if death be so
good, good wife, let me enjoy it, who am enjoined
to it, and to whom only it will be good, for death
is only good to me whom it is given, not to you
who are not appointed to it. For it is not lawful
for any one to leave this life without special per
mission of the gods. And as in our court it is
lawful for none to have access unto us unless by
us he be sent for, so neither is it lawful for any
one to appear before the heavenly throne, unless
by the gods he be summoned. Neither will death
be so easy to you as to me, whose nature is apt to
yield unto it. For you see fruit which is not ripe
will scarce with strength be torn from the tree, whereas
that which is ripe falleth easily of its own accord.
Therefore, good wife, give me leave to die to whom
it will be only good and easy to die." " Why, sweet
husband," saith she, "the god Apollo allowed any
that would to die for you, otherwise to what purpose

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 195

was that which he obtained of the destinies for
you ? And for the uneasiness of death, nothing can
be uneasy or hard unto a willing heart. But because
your pleasure is so, I am content to continue my
careful life, and with sorrow to survive you." And so
left her husband, and went privily to the altar, and
offered up herself to death to prolong her husband's
life. Which when the King knew, he would presently
have spoiled himself, but his hands had not the power
to do it, for that by the decree of the destinies he
must now of force live another age on earth. Which
when he saw, he filled the court with such pitiful
wailing, such bitter weeping, such hellish howling,
that it pierced the heavens, and moved the gods to
take remorse on his misery. And Proserpina, the
goddess of hell, especially pitying the parting of this
loving couple, for that she herself knew the pain of
parting from friends, being by Dis stolen from her
mother Ceres, put life into his wife again, and with
speed sent her unto him. Who being certified hereof
in his sleep, early in the morning waited for her coming.
Seeing her come afar off, he had much ado to keep his
soul in his body from flying to meet her. Being come, he
received her as joyfully as she came willingly, and so they
lived long time together in most contented happiness.

196 A PETITE PALLACE

This seemeth strange unto you, Gentlewomen,
that a woman should die and then live again, but
the meaning of it is this, that you should die to
yourselves and live to your husbands ; that you
should count their life your life, their death your
destruction ; that you should not care to disease
yourselves to please them ; that you should in all
things frame yourselves to their fancies ; that if you
see them disposed to mirth, you should endeavour to
be pleasant. If they be solemn, you should be sad ;
if they hard, you having ; if they delight in hawks,
that you should love spaniels ; if they hunting,
you hounds ; if they good company, you good house
keeping ; if they be hasty, that you should be patient ;
if they be jealous, that you should lay aside all light
looks ; if they frown, that you fear ; if they smile,
that you laugh ; if they kiss, that you clepe, or at
least give them two for one ; and so that in all
things you should conform yourselves to their con-
tentation : so shall there be one will in two minds,
one heart in two bodies, and two bodies in one flesh.
Methinks I hear my wife wish me such a wife as I
have spoken of ; verily, good wife, you wish your
wealth great wealth, and God make me worthy of
you wife, and your wish ; and if I might have my wish

ADMETUS AND ALCEST 197

I am persuaded you should have your wish. But if I
be so good a husband as Admetus was ; if I forego
father, friends, and living ; if I be content to change
joy for annoy, court for care, pleasure for pilgrimage,
for my wife's sake ; if I had rather die myself than
she should ; if she being dead, with mournful cries
I move the gods to raise her to life again ; I shall
think myself worthy of so good a wife as Alcest
was ! I shall hap to have a wife who with Cleopatra
will sting herself to death with serpents at the death
of her Antonius ; who with Hylonome will slay
herself at the death of her Cyllar ; who with Singer
will vanish away into air for the loss of her Picus ;
and who with Alcest will be content to lose her life
to preserve her Admetus !

END OF VOL. I.

RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,

BREAD STREET HILL, E.G., AND

BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

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