of eyes, menacing, ghastly looks, broken pace, interrupt, precipitate,
half-turns. He will sometimes sigh, weep, sob for anger. Nempe suos
imbres etiam ista tonitrua fundunt,[6127]—swear and belie, slander any
man, curse, threaten, brawl, scold, fight; and sometimes again flatter
and speak fair, ask forgiveness, kiss and coll, condemn his rashness
and folly, vow, protest, and swear he will never do so again; and then
eftsoons, impatient as he is, rave, roar, and lay about him like a
madman, thump her sides, drag her about perchance, drive her out of
doors, send her home, he will be divorced forthwith, she is a whore,
&c., and by-and-by with all submission compliment, entreat her fair,
and bring her in again, he loves her dearly, she is his sweet, most
kind and loving wife, he will not change, nor leave her for a kingdom;
so he continues off and on, as the toy takes him, the object moves him,
but most part brawling, fretting, unquiet he is, accusing and
suspecting not strangers only, but brothers and sisters, father and
mother, nearest and dearest friends. He thinks with those Italians,
Chi non tocca parentado,
Tocca mai e rado.
And through fear conceives unto himself things almost incredible and
impossible to be effected. As a heron when she fishes, still prying on
all sides; or as a cat doth a mouse, his eye is never off hers; he
gloats on him, on her, accurately observing on whom she looks, who
looks at her, what she saith, doth, at dinner, at supper, sitting,
walking, at home, abroad, he is the same, still inquiring, maundering,
gazing, listening, affrighted with every small object; why did she
smile, why did she pity him, commend him? why did she drink twice to
such a man? why did she offer to kiss, to dance? &c., a whore, a whore,
an arrant whore. All this he confesseth in the poet,
[6128]Omnia me terrent, timidus sum, ignosce timori.
Et miser in tunica suspicor esse virum.
Me laedit si multa tibi dabit oscula mater,
Me soror, et cum qua dormit amica simul.
Each thing affrights me, I do fear,
Ah pardon me my fear,
I doubt a man is hid within
The clothes that thou dost wear.
Is it not a man in woman's apparel? is not somebody in that great
chest, or behind the door, or hangings, or in some of those barrels?
may not a man steal in at the window with a ladder of ropes, or come
down the chimney, have a false key, or get in when he is asleep? If a
mouse do but stir, or the wind blow, a casement clatter, that's the
villain, there he is: by his goodwill no man shall see her, salute her,
speak with her, she shall not go forth of his sight, so much as to do
her needs. [6129]Non ita bovem argus, &c. Argus did not so keep his
cow, that watchful dragon the golden fleece, or Cerberus the coming in
of hell, as he keeps his wife. If a dear friend or near kinsman come as
guest to his house, to visit him, he will never let him be out of his
own sight and company, lest, peradventure, &c. If the necessity of his
business be such that he must go from home, he doth either lock her up,
or commit her with a deal of injunctions and protestations to some
trusty friends, him and her he sets and bribes to oversee: one servant
is set in his absence to watch another, and all to observe his wife,
and yet all this will not serve, though his business be very urgent, he
will when he is halfway come back in all post haste, rise from supper,
or at midnight, and be gone, and sometimes leave his business undone,
and as a stranger court his own wife in some disguised habit. Though
there be no danger at all, no cause of suspicion, she live in such a
place, where Messalina herself could not be dishonest if she would, yet
he suspects her as much as if she were in a bawdy-house, some prince's
court, or in a common inn, where all comers might have free access. He
calls her on a sudden all to nought, she is a strumpet, a light
housewife, a bitch, an arrant whore. No persuasion, no protestation can
divert this passion, nothing can ease him, secure or give him
satisfaction. It is most strange to report what outrageous acts by men
and women have been committed in this kind, by women especially, that
will run after their husbands into all places and companies, [6130]as
Jovianus Pontanus's wife did by him, follow him whithersoever he went,
it matters not, or upon what business, raving like Juno in the tragedy,
miscalling, cursing, swearing, and mistrusting every one she sees.
Gomesius in his third book of the Life and Deeds of Francis Ximenius,
sometime archbishop of Toledo, hath a strange story of that incredible
jealousy of Joan queen of Spain, wife to King Philip, mother of
Ferdinand and Charles the Fifth, emperors; when her husband Philip,
either for that he was tired with his wife's jealousy, or had some
great business, went into the Low Countries: she was so impatient and
melancholy upon his departure, that she would scarce eat her meat, or
converse with any man; and though she were with child, the season of
the year very bad, the wind against her, in all haste she would to sea
after him. Neither Isabella her queen mother, the archbishop, or any
other friend could persuade her to the contrary, but she would after
him. When she was now come into the Low Countries, and kindly
entertained by her husband, she could not contain herself, [6131]but in
a rage ran upon a yellow-haired wench, with whom she suspected her
husband to be naught, cut off her hair, did beat her black and blue,
and so dragged her about. It is an ordinary thing for women in such
cases to scratch the faces, slit the noses of such as they suspect; as
Henry the Second's importune Juno did by Rosamond at Woodstock; for she
complains in a [6132]modern poet, she scarce spake,
But flies with eager fury to my face,
Offering me most unwomanly disgrace.
Look how a tigress, &c.
So fell she on me in outrageous wise,
As could disdain and jealousy devise.
Or if it be so they dare not or cannot execute any such tyrannical
injustice, they will miscall, rail and revile, bear them deadly hate
and malice, as [6133]Tacitus observes, The hatred of a jealous woman is
inseparable against such as she suspects.
[6134]Nulla vis flammae tumidique venti
Tanta, nec teli metuanda torti.
Quanta cum conjux viduata taedis
Ardet et odit.
Winds, weapons, flames make not such hurly burly,
As raving women turn all topsy-turvy.
So did Agrippina by Lollia, and Calphurnia in the days of Claudius. But
women are sufficiently curbed in such cases, the rage of men is more
eminent, and frequently put in practice. See but with what rigour those
jealous husbands tyrannise over their poor wives. In Greece, Spain,
Italy, Turkey, Africa, Asia, and generally over all those hot
countries, [6135] Mulieres vestrae terra vestra, arate sicut vultis.
Mahomet in his Alcoran gives this power to men, your wives are as your
land, till them, use them, entreat them fair or foul, as you will
yourselves. [6136]Mecastor lege dura vivunt mulieres, they lock them
still in their houses, which are so many prisons to them. will suffer
nobody to come at them, or their wives to be seen abroad,—nec campos
liceat lustrare patentes. They must not so much as look out. And if
they be great persons, they have eunuchs to keep them, as the Grand
Signior among the Turks, the Sophies of Persia, those Tartarian Mogors,
and Kings of China. Infantes masculos castrant innumeros ut regi
serviant, saith [6137]Riccius, they geld innumerable infants to this
purpose; the King of [6138]China maintains 10,000 eunuchs in his family
to keep his wives. The Xeriffes of Barbary keep their courtesans in
such a strict manner, that if any man come but in sight of them he dies
for it; and if they chance to see a man, and do not instantly cry out,
though from their windows, they must be put to death. The Turks have I
know not how many black, deformed eunuchs (for the white serve for
other ministeries) to this purpose sent commonly from Egypt, deprived
in their childhood of all their privities, and brought up in the
seraglio at Constantinople to keep their wives; which are so penned up
they may not confer with any living man, or converse with younger
women, have a cucumber or carrot sent into them for their diet, but
sliced, for fear, &c. and so live and are left alone to their unchaste
thoughts all the days of their lives. The vulgar sort of women, if at
any time they come abroad, which is very seldom, to visit one another,
or to go to their baths, are so covered, that no man can see them, as
the matrons were in old Rome, lectica aut sella tecta, vectae, so
[6139]Dion and Seneca record, Velatae totae incedunt, which
[6140]Alexander ab Alexandro relates of the Parthians, lib. 5. cap. 24.
which, with Andreas Tiraquellus his commentator, I rather think should
be understood of Persians. I have not yet said all, they do not only
lock them up, sed et pudendis seras adhibent: hear what Bembus relates
lib. 6. of his Venetian history, of those inhabitants that dwell about
Quilon in Africa. Lusitani, inquit, quorundum civitates adierunt: qui
natis statim faeminis naturam consuunt, quoad urinae exitus ne
impediatur, easque quum adoleverint sic consutas in matrimonium
collocant, ut sponsi prima cura sit conglutinatas puellae oras ferro
interscindere. In some parts of Greece at this day, like those old
Jews, they will not believe their wives are honest, nisi pannum
menstruatum prima nocte videant: our countryman [6141]Sands, in his
peregrination, saith it is severely observed in Zanzynthus, or Zante;
and Leo Afer in his time at Fez, in Africa, non credunt virginem esse
nisi videant sanguineam mappam; si non, ad parentes pudore rejicitur.
Those sheets are publicly shown by their parents, and kept as a sign of
incorrupt virginity. The Jews of old examined their maids ex tenui
membrana, called Hymen, which Laurentius in his anatomy, Columbus lib.
12. cap. 10. Capivaccius lib. 4. cap. 11. de uteri affectibus, Vincent,
Alsarus Genuensis quaesit. med. cent. 4. Hieronymus Mercurialis
consult. Ambros. Pareus, Julius Caesar Claudinus Respons. 4. as that
also de [6142]ruptura venarum ut sauguis fluat, copiously confute; 'tis
no sufficient trial they contend. And yet others again defend it,
Gaspar Bartholinus Institut. Anat. lib. 1. cap. 31. Pinaeus of Paris,
Albertus Magnus de secret. mulier. cap. 9 & 10. &c. and think they
speak too much in favour of women. [6143] Ludovicus Boncialus lib. 4.
cap. 2. muliebr. naturalem illam uteri labiorum constrictionem, in qua
virginitatem consistere volunt, astringentibus medicinis fieri posse
vendicat, et si defloratae sint, astutae [6144]mulieres (inquit) nos
fallunt in his. Idem Alsarius Crucius Genuensis iisdem fere verbis.
Idem Avicenna lib. 3. Fen. 20. Tract. 1, cap. 47. [6145]Rhasis
Continent. lib. 24. Rodericus a Castro de nat. mul. lib. 1. cap. 3. An
old bawdy nurse in [6146]Aristaenetus, (like that Spanish Caelestina,
[6147]quae, quinque mille virgines fecit mulieres, totidemque mulieres
arte sua virgines) when a fair maid of her acquaintance wept and made
her moan to her, how she had been deflowered, and now ready to be
married, was afraid it would be perceived, comfortably replied, Noli
vereri filia, &c. Fear not, daughter, I'll teach thee a trick to help
it. Sed haec extra callem. To what end are all those astrological
questions, an sit virgo, an sit casta, an sit mulier? and such strange
absurd trials in Albertus Magnus, Bap. Porta, Mag. lib. 2. cap. 21. in
Wecker. lib. 5. de secret, by stones, perfumes, to make them piss, and
confess I know not what in their sleep; some jealous brain was the
first founder of them. And to what passion may we ascribe those severe
laws against jealousy, Num. v. 14, Adulterers Deut. cap. 22. v. xxii.
as amongst the Hebrews, amongst the Egyptians (read [6148]Bohemus l. 1.
c. 5. de mor. gen. of the Carthaginians, cap. 6. of Turks, lib. 2. cap.
11.) amongst the Athenians of old, Italians at this day, wherein they
are to be severely punished, cut in pieces, burned, vivi-comburio,
buried alive, with several expurgations, &c. are they not as so many
symptoms of incredible jealousy? we may say the same of those vestal
virgins that fetched water in a sieve, as Tatia did in Rome, _anno ab.
urb. condita 800._ before the senators; and [6149]Aemilia, virgo
innocens, that ran over hot irons, as Emma, Edward the Confessor's
mother did, the king himself being a spectator, with the like. We read
in Nicephorus, that Chunegunda the wife of Henricus Bavarus emperor,
suspected of adultery, insimulata adulterii per ignitos vomeres illaesa
transiit, trod upon red hot coulters, and had no harm: such another
story we find in Regino lib. 2. In Aventinus and Sigonius of Charles
the Third and his wife Richarda, _an._ 887, that was so purged with hot
irons. Pausanias saith, that he was once an eyewitness of such a
miracle at Diana's temple, a maid without any harm at all walked upon
burning coals. Pius Secund. in his description of Europe, c. 46.
relates as much, that it was commonly practised at Diana's temple, for
women to go barefoot over hot coals, to try their honesties: Plinius,
Solinus, and many writers, make mention of [6150]Geronia's temple, and
Dionysius Halicarnassus, lib. 3. of Memnon's statue, which were used to
this purpose. Tatius lib. 6. of Pan his cave, (much like old St.
Wilfrid's needle in Yorkshire) wherein they did use to try, maids,
[6151]whether they were honest; when Leucippe went in, suavissimus
exaudiri sonus caepit Austin de civ. Dei lib. 10. c. 16. relates many
such examples, all which Lavater de spectr. part. 1. cap. 19 contends
to be done by the illusion of devils; though Thomas quaest. 6. de
polentia, &c. ascribes it to good angels. Some, saith [6152]Austin,
compel their wives to swear they be honest, as if perjury were a lesser
sin than adultery; [6153]some consult oracles, as Phaerus that blind
king of Egypt. Others reward, as those old Romans used to do; if a
woman were contented with one man, Corona pudicitiae donabatur, she had
a crown of chastity bestowed on her. When all this will not serve,
saith Alexander Gaguinus, cap. 5. descript. Muscoviae, the Muscovites,
if they suspect their wives, will beat them till they confess, and if
that will not avail, like those wild Irish, be divorced at their
pleasures, or else knock them on the heads, as the old [6154]Gauls have
done in former ages. Of this tyranny of jealousy read more in
Parthenius Erot. cap. 10. Camerarius cap. 53. hor. subcis. et cent. 2.
cap. 34. Caelia's epistles, Tho. Chaloner de repub. Aug. lib. 9.
Ariosto lib. 31. stasse 1. Felix Platerus observat. lib. 1. &c.
MEMB. III.
_Prognostics of Jealousy. Despair, Madness, to make away themselves and
others_.
Those which are jealous, most part, if they be not otherwise relieved,
[6155]proceed from suspicion to hatred, from hatred to frenzy, madness,
injury, murder and despair.
[6156]A plague by whose most damnable effect.
Divers in deep despair to die have sought,
By which a man to madness near is brought,
As well with causeless as with just suspect.
In their madness many times, saith [6157]Vives, they make away
themselves and others. Which induceth Cyprian to call it, Foecundam et
multiplicem perniciem, fontem cladium et seminarium delictorum, a
fruitful mischief, the seminary of offences, and fountain of murders.
Tragical examples are too common in this kind, both new and old, in all
ages, as of [6158] Cephalus and Procris, [6159]Phaereus of Egypt,
Tereus, Atreus, and Thyestes. [6160]Alexander Phaereus was murdered of
his wife, ob pellicatus suspitionem, Tully saith. Antoninus Verus was
so made away by Lucilla; Demetrius the son of Antigonus, and Nicanor,
by their wives. Hercules poisoned by Dejanira, [6161]Caecinna murdered
by Vespasian, Justina, a Roman lady, by her husband. [6162]Amestris,
Xerxes' wife, because she found her husband's cloak in Masista's house,
cut off Masista, his wife's paps, and gave them to the dogs, flayed her
besides, and cut off her ears, lips, tongue, and slit the nose of
Artaynta her daughter. Our late writers are full of such outrages.
[6163]Paulus Aemilius, in his history of France, hath a tragical story
of Chilpericus the First his death, made away by Ferdegunde his queen.
In a jealous humour he came from hunting, and stole behind his wife, as
she was dressing and combing her head in the sun, gave her a familiar
touch with his wand, which she mistaking for her lover, said, Ah
Landre, a good knight should strike before, and not behind: but when
she saw herself betrayed by his presence, she instantly took order to
make him away. Hierome Osorius, in his eleventh book of the deeds of
Emanuel King of Portugal, to this effect hath a tragical narration of
one Ferdinandus Chalderia, that wounded Gotherinus, a noble countryman
of his, at Goa in the East Indies, [6164]and cut off one of his legs,
for that he looked as he thought too familiarly upon his wife, which
was afterwards a cause of many quarrels, and much bloodshed. Guianerius
cap. 36. de aegritud. matr. speaks of a silly jealous fellow, that
seeing his child new-born included in a caul, thought sure a
[6165]Franciscan that used to come to his house, was the father of it,
it was so like the friar's cowl, and thereupon threatened the friar to
kill him: Fulgosus of a woman in Narbonne, that cut off her husband's
privities in the night, because she thought he played false with her.
The story of Jonuses Bassa, and fair Manto his wife, is well known to
such as have read the Turkish history; and that of Joan of Spain, of
which I treated in my former section. Her jealousy, saith Gomesius, was
the cause of both their deaths: King Philip died for grief a little
after, as [6166]Martian his physician gave it out, and she for her part
after a melancholy discontented life, misspent in lurking-holes and
corners, made an end of her miseries. Felix Plater, in the first book
of his observations, hath many such instances, of a physician of his
acquaintance, [6167]that was first mad through jealousy, and afterwards
desperate: of a merchant [6168]that killed his wife in the same humour,
and after precipitated himself: of a doctor of law that cut off his
man's nose: of a painter's wife in Basil, anno 1600, that was mother of
nine children and had been twenty-seven years married, yet afterwards
jealous, and so impatient that she became desperate, and would neither
eat nor drink in her own house, for fear her husband should poison her.
'Tis a common sign this; for when once the humours are stirred, and the
imagination misaffected, it will vary itself in divers forms; and many
such absurd symptoms will accompany, even madness itself. Skenkius
observat. lib. 4. cap. de Uter. hath an example of a jealous woman that
by this means had many fits of the mother: and in his first book of
some that through jealousy ran mad: of a baker that gelded himself to
try his wife's honesty, &c. Such examples are too common.
MEMB. IV.
SUBSECT I.—_Cure of Jealousy; by avoiding occasions, not to be idle: of
good counsel; to contemn it, not to watch or lock them up: to dissemble
it, &c._
As of all other melancholy, some doubt whether this malady may be cured
or no, they think 'tis like the [6169]gout, or Switzers, whom we
commonly call Walloons, those hired soldiers, if once they take
possession of a castle, they can never be got out.
Qui timet ut sua sit, ne quis sibi subtrahat illam,
Ille Machaonia vix ope salvus est.
[6170]This is the cruel wound against whose smart,
No liquor's force prevails, or any plaister,
No skill of stars, no depth of magic art,
Devised by that great clerk Zoroaster,
A wound that so infects the soul and heart,
As all our sense and reason it doth master;
A wound whose pang and torment is so durable,
As it may rightly called be incurable.