[HE IS TRICKED INTO A SECOND MARRIAGE BY A WOMAN AS BAD AS
HIMSELF.]
ATTEN. But did not Mr. Badman marry again quickly?
WISE. No, not a good while after; and when he was asked the reason
he would make this slighty answer, Who would keep a cow of their
own that can have a quart of milk for a penny? Meaning, who would
be at the charge to have a wife that can have a whore when he
listeth? So villainous, so abominable did he continue after the
death of his wife. Yet at last there as one was too hard for him.
For getting of him to her upon a time, and making of him sufficiently
drunk, she was so cunning as to get a promise of marriage of him,
and so held him to it, and forced him to marry her. And she, as the
saying is, was as good as he at all his vile and ranting tricks.
She had her companions as well as he had his, and she would meet
them too at the tavern and ale-house more commonly than he was aware
of. To be plain, she was a very whore, and had as great resort
came to her, where time and place was appointed, as any of them
all. Ay, and he smelt it too, but could not tell how to help it.
For if he began to talk, she could lay in his dish the whores that
she knew he haunted, and she could fit him also with cursing and
swearing, for she would give him oath for oath, and curse for
curse.
ATTEN. What kind of oaths would she have?
WISE. Why, damn her, and sink her, and the like.
ATTEN. These are provoking things.
WISE. So they are; but God doth not altogether let such things
go unpunished in this life. Something of this I have showed you
already, and will here give you one or two instances more.
There lived, saith one, in the year 1551, in a city of Savoy, a
man who was a monstrous curser and swearer, and though he was
often admonished and blamed for it, yet would he by no means mend
his manners. At length a great plague happening in the city, he
withdrew himself [with his wife and a kinswoman] into a garden,
where being again admonished to give over his wickedness, he
hardened his heart more, swearing, blaspheming God, and giving
himself to the devil. And immediately the devil snatched him up
suddenly, his wife and kinswoman looking on, and carried him quite
away. The magistrates, advertised hereof, went to the place and
examined the women, who justified the truth of it.
Also at Oster, in the duchy of Magalapole, saith Mr. Clark, a
wicked woman used in her cursing to give herself body and soul
to the devil, and being reproved for it, still continued the
same; till, being at a wedding-feast, the devil came in person,
and carried her up into the air, with most horrible outcries and
roarings; and in that sort carried her round about the town, that
the inhabitants were ready to die for fear. And by and by he tore
her in four pieces, leaving her four quarters in four several
highways; and then brought her bowels to the marriage-feast, and
threw them upon the table before the mayor of the town, saying,
Behold these dishes of meat belong to thee, whom the like destruction
waiteth for if thou dost not amend thy wicked life.
ATTEN. Though God forbears to deal thus with all men that thus rend
and tear his name, and that immediate judgments do not overtake
them, yet he makes their lives by other judgments bitter to them,
does he not?
WISE. Yes, yes, and for proof, I need go no farther than to this
Badman and his wife; for their railing, and cursing, and swearing
ended not in words. They would fight and fly at each other, and
that like cats and dogs. But it must be looked upon as the hand
and judgment of God upon him for his villainy; he had an honest
woman before, but she would not serve his turn, and therefore
God took her away, and gave him one as bad as himself. Thus that
measure that he meted to his first wife, this last did mete to
him again. And this is a punishment wherewith sometimes God will
punish wicked men. So said Amos to Amaziah, 'Thy wife shall be a
harlot in the city' (Amos 7:17). With this last wife Mr. Badman
lived a pretty while; but, as I told you before, in a most sad and
hellish manner. And now he would bewail his first wife's death;
not of love that he had to her godliness, for that he could never
abide, but for that she used always to keep home, whereas this
would go abroad; his first wife was also honest, and true to that
relation, but this last was a whore of her body. The first woman
loved to keep things together, but this last would whirl them
about as well as he. The first would be silent when he chid, and
would take it patiently when he abused her; but this would give
him word for word, blow for blow, curse for curse; so that now Mr.
Badman had met with his match. God had a mind to make him see the
baseness of his own life in the wickedness of his wife's. But all
would not do with Mr. Badman, he would be Mr. Badman still. This
judgment did not work any reformation upon him, no, not to God
nor man.
ATTEN. I warrant you that Mr. Badman thought when his wife was
dead, that next time he would match far better.
WISE. What he thought I cannot tell, but he could not hope for
it in this match. For here he knew himself to be catched, he knew
that he was by this woman entangled, and would therefore have
gone back again, but could not. He knew her, I say, to be a whore
before, and therefore could not promise himself a happy life with
her. For he or she that will not be true to their own soul, and
therefore could not expect she should be true to him. But Solomon
says, 'A whore is a deep ditch,' and Mr. Badman found it true.
For when she had caught him in her pit, she would never leave him
till she had got him to promise her marriage; and when she had
taken him so far, she forced him to marry indeed. And after that,
they lived that life that I have told you.
ATTEN. But did not the neighbours take notice of this alteration
that Mr. Badman had made?
WISE. Yes; and many of his neighbours, yea, many of those that
were carnal said, It is a righteous judgment of God upon him for
his abusive carriage and language to his other wife: for they were
all convinced that she was a virtuous woman, and that he, vile
wretch, had killed her, I will not say with, but with the want of
kindness.