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The Masque of Queens.

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                Masques. 345


T H E

M  A  S  Q  U  E

O F
Q   u   E   E   N   S,

Celebrated from the House of FAME:

B Y   T H E

Q U E E N  of Great Britain, with her  L A D I E S.
At W H I T E H A L L,  Feb. 2. 1609.



I

T encreasing, now, to the third time of my
 being us'd in these Services to her Maje-
 sties
personal Presentations, with the Ladies
 whom she pleaseth to honour; it was my
first and special regard, to see that the nobi-
lity of the Invention should be answerable to
the dignity of their Persons. For which reason
I chose the Argument to be, A celebration of
honourable and true Fame, bred out of Virtue:
ob-
serving that Rule (a) of the best Artist, to suffer
no object of delight to pass without his mixture
of Profit and Example. And because her Ma-
jesty
(best knowing, that a principal part of
life, in these Spectacles, lay in their variety)
had commanded me to think on some Dance,
or Shew, that might precede hers, and have
the place of a foil or false Masque: I was care-
ful to decline, not only from others, but mine
own Steps in that kind, since the (b) last Year,
I had an Anti-masque of Boys: and therefore
now, devis'd, that twelve Women, in the habit
of Hags, or Witches, sustaining the Persons of
Ignorance, Suspicion, Credulity, &c. the Opposites
to good Fame, should fill that part; not as a
Masque, but a Spectacle of strangeness, produ-
cing multiplicity of Gesture, and not unaptly
sorting with the current, and whole fall of
the Device.
   His Majesty, then, being set, and the whole
Company in full expectation, the part of the
Scene which first presented it self, was an ugly
Hell: which flaming beneath, smoked unto the
top of the Roof. And in respect all evils are,
Morally, said to come from Hell; as also from
that observation of Torrentius upon Horace his
Canidia, (c) quæ tot instructa venenis, ex Orci
faucibus profecta videri possit:
These Witches,
with a kind of hollow and infernal Musick,
came forth from thence. First one, then two,
and three, and more, till their number increased










(a) Hor. in
Art. Poe-
tic.








(b) In the
Masque at
my L.
Haddings
Wedding.
















(c) Vide
Lævin.
Tor. Com-
ment. in
Hor. Epod.
lib. Ode.
5.


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to eleven; all differently attyr'd: some with
Rats on their Head; some on their Shoulders;
others with Ointment Pots at their Girdles;
all with Spindles, Timbrels, Rattles, or other
veneficall Instruments, making a confused noise,
with strange Gestures. The Device of their
Attire was Master Jones his, with the Inven-
tion, and Architecture of the whole Scene, and
Machine. Only, I prescrib'd them their Proper-
ties
of Vipers, Snakes, Bones, Herbs, Roots, and   
other Ensigns of their Magick, out of the Au-
thority of ancient and late Writers, wherein the
Faults are mine, if there be any found; and for
that cause I confest them.
   These eleven Witches beginning to dance
(which is an usual (d) Ceremony at their Con-
vents,
or Meetings, where sometimes also
they are vizarded, and masqu'd) on the sudden,
one of them missed their Chief, and interrupted
the rest with this Speech.
















(d) See the
King's
Majesties

Book
(our Sove-
reign
) of
Dæmono-
logy, Bodin. Remig. Delrio. Mal. Malefi.
And a world of others in the
general: But let us follow particulars.


S
Isters, stay, we want our (e) Dame;
 Call upon her by her Name,
And the Charm we use to say;
That she quickly (f) anoint, and come away.      

(e) A-
mongst
our vulgar
Witches,
the ho-
nour of Dame (for so I translate it) is given with a kind of preemi-
nence to some special one at their meetings: which Delrio insinuates,
Disquis. Mag. lib. 2. quest. 9. quoting that of Apuleius lib. de Asin. au-
reo. de quadam caupona, Regina Sagarum.
And adds, ut scias etiam
tum quasdam ab iis hoc titulo honoratas.
Which title M. Philippo
Ludwigus Elich. Dæmonomagiæ, quest.
10. doth also remember. (f) When
they are to be transported from place to place, they use to anoint
themselves, and sometimes the things they ride on. Beside Apul.
testimony, see these later, Remig. Dæmonolatriæ lib. 1. cap. 14. Delrio,
Disquis. Mag. l.
2. quæst. 16. Bodin. Dæmonoman. l. 2. c. 4. Barthol. de
Spina. quæst. de Strigib. Philippo. Ludwigus Elich. quæst.
10. Paracel-
sus in magn.
& occul. Philosophia, teacheth the confection. Unguen-
tum ex carne recens natorum infantium, in pulmenti forma coctum,
&
cum herbis somniferis, quales sunt Papaver, Solanum, Cienta,
&c. And
Ioa. Bapti. Porto. lib. 2. Mag. Natur. cap. 16.

Y y                           1  CHARM.        




346 Masques.                    


1  C H A R M.

D
Ame, Dame, the Watch is set:
 Quickly come, we all are met.
(a) From the Lakes, and from the Fens,
From the Rocks, and from the Dens,
From the Woods, and from the Caves,
From the Church-yards, from the Graves,              
From the Dungeon, from the Tree
That they die on, here are we.

   Comes she not yet?
   Strike another heat.





(a) These
places, in
their own
nature
dire and
dismal are
reckon'd
up, as the
fittest
from
whence
such Persons should come: and were notably observed by that ex-
cellent Lucan, in the Description of his Erictho. lib. 6. to which we
may add this Corollary out of Agrip. de occult. Philosop. l. 1. c. 48.
Saturno correspondent loca quævis fœtida, tenebrosa, subterranea, reli-
giosa
& funesta, ut cœmiteria, busta, & hominibus deserta habitacula, &
vetustate caduca, loca obscura,
& horrenda, & solitaria antra, cavernæ
putei: Præterea piscinæ, stagna, paludes,
& ejusmodi. And in lib. 3.
c. 42. speaking of the like, and in lib. 4. about the end, Aptissima
sunt loca plurimum experientia visionum, nocturnarumque incursionum
& consimilium phantasmatum, ut cœmiteria, & in quibus fieri solent
executiones criminalis judicii, in quibus recentibus annis publicæ strages
factæ sunt, vel ubi occisorum cadavera, necdum expiata, nec ritè sepulta,
recentioribus annis subhumata sunt.


2  C H A R M.

T
He Weather is fair, the Wind is good,
 Up Dame, o'your (b) Horse of Wood:
Or else, tuck up your gray Frock,
And saddle your (c) Goat, or your green (d) Cock,
And make his Bridle a bottom of Thrid,
To rowl up how many Miles you have rid.
Quickly come away;
For we, all, stay.

   Nor yet? Nay, then,
   We'll try her agen.



(b) Delrio
Disq.Mag.
lib.
2. quæ.
6. has a
Story out
of Trie-
zius
of
this Horse
of Wood:
but that
which our
Witches
call so, is
sometimes a Broom-staff, sometimes a Reed, sometimes a Distaff.
See Remig. Dæmonol. lib. 1. cap. 14. Bodin. l. 2. cap. 4. &c. (c) The
Goat is the Devil himself, upon whom they ride often to their Solem-
nities, as appears by their Confessions in Rem. and Bodin. ibid. His
Majesty also remembers the Story of the Devils appearance to those
of Calicut, in that form, Dæmonol. lib. 2. cap. 3. (d) Of the green
Cock, we have no other ground (to confess ingenuously) than a vul-
gar Fable of a Witch, that with a Cock of that colour, and a bottom
of blue Thred, would transport her self through the Air; and so esca-
ped (at the time of her being brought to execution) from the hand
of Justice. It was a Tale when I went to School, and somewhat there
is like it, in Mar. Delr. Disqui. Mag. lib. 2. quæst. 6. of one Zuti, a
Bohemian, that, among other his dexterities, aliquoties equis rheda-
riis vectum, gallis gallinaceis ad Epirrhedium suum allegatis, subseque-
batur.


3  C H A R M.

T
He Owl is abroad, the Bat, and the Toad,              
   And so is the Cat-a-mountain,
The Ant, and the Mole sit both in a hole,
   And Frog peeps out o'the Fountain;
The Dogs, they do bay, and the Timbrels play,
   The (e) Spindle is now a turning;
The Moon it is red, and the Stars are fled,
   But all the Sky is a burning:








(e) All this
is but a
Periphra-
sis
of the
Night, in their charm, and their applying themselves to it with their
Instruments, whereof the Spindle in Antiquity was the chief: and be-
side the testimony of Theocrisus, in Pharmaceutria (who only used it
in amorous affairs) was of special act to the troubling of the Moon.
To which Martial alludes, lib. 9. ep. 30. Quæ nunc Thessalico Lunam
deducere rhombo,
&c. And lib. 12. ep. 57. Cum secta Colcho Luna vapulat
rhombo.


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The (f) Ditch is made, and our Nails the Spade,
With Pictures full, of Wax, and of Wooll;
Their Lives I stick, with Needles quick;
There lacks but the Blood, to make up the Flood.
         Quickly Dame, then, bring your part in,
         Spur, spur, upon little (g) Martin,
         Merrily, merrily, make him fail,
         A Worm in his Mouth, and a Thorn in's Tail,   
         Fire above, and Fire below,
         With a Whip i'your Hand, to make him go.

            O, now she's come!
            Let all be dumb.
(f) This
Rite also
of making
a Ditch
with their
Nails, is
frequent
with our
Witches;
whereof
see Bodin.
Remig.
Delr. Mal-
leus, Mal.
Godelman,
l.
2. de La-
miis,
as
also the antiquity of it most lively exprest by Hor. Satyr. 8. lib. 1.
where he mentions the Pictures, and the Blood of a black Lamb.
All which are yet in use with our modern Witchcraft. Scalpere terram
(speaking of Canidia, and Sagana) Unguibus, & pullam divellere
mordicus agnam Cœperunt: Cruor fossam confusus, ut inde Maneis eli-
cerent animas responsa daturas. Lanea
& effigies erat, altera cerea, &c.
And then, by and by, Serpentes atque videres Infernas errare caneis,
Lunamque rubentem, Ne foret his testis, post magna latere sepulchra.

Of this Ditch, Homer makes mention in Cerces Speech to Ulysses.
Odyss.
K. about the end. Boqron oruxai, &c. And Ovid. Metam. lib. 7.
in Medeas magick, Haud procul egesta scrobibus tellure duabus Sa-
cra facit cultrosque in gutture velleris atri Conjicit,
& patulas per-
fundit sanguine fossas.
And of the waxen Images, in Hypsipiles Epistle
to Jason, where he expresseth that mischief also of the Needles. De-
vovet absentes, simulacraque cerea fingit. Et miserum tenues in jecur ur-
get acus. Bodin. Dæmon. lib.
2. cap. 8. hath (beside the known Story
of King Duffe out of Hector Boetius) much of the Witches later pra-
ctice in that kind, and reports a Relation of a French Embassadors,
out of England, of certain Pictures of Wax found in a Dunghill, near
Islington, of our late Queens, which Rumor, I my self (being then
very young) can yet remember to have been current. (g) Their
little Martin is he that calls them to their Conventicles, which is
done in a humane Voice, but coming forth, they find him in a shape
of a great buck Goat, upon whom they ride to their Meetings, Delr.
Disq. Mag. quæst.
16. lib. 2. And Bod. Dæmon. lib. 2. cap. 4. have both
the same Relation from Paulus Grillandus, of a Witch. Adveniente
nocte
& hora evocabatur voce quadam velut humana ab ipso Dæmone,
quem non vocant Dæmonem, sed Magisterulum, aliæ Magistrum Mar-
tinettum sive Martinellum. Quæ sic evocata, mox sumebat pyxidem
unctionis,
& liniebat corpus suum in quibusdam partibus & membris,
quo linito exibat ex domo,
& inveniebat Magisterulum suum in forma
hirci illam expectantem apud ostium, super quo mulier equitabat,
&
applicare solebat fortiter manus ad crineis, & statim hircus ille adscen-
debat per aerem,
& brevissimo tempore deferebat ipsam, &c.


   At this, the (h) Dame enter'd to them, Naked-
arm'd, bare-footed, her Frock tuck'd, her hair knotted,
and folded with Vipers; in her Hand a Torch made
of a dead Man's Arm, lighted; girded with a Snake.
To whom they all did Reverence, and she spake, utter-
ing, by way of Question, the End wherefore they came:  
which if it had been done either before, or otherwise,
had not been so natural. For, to have made them-
selves, their own Decypherers, and each one to have
told upon their entrance,
what they were, and whe-
ther they would, had been a most pitious Hearing,
and utterly unworthy any quality of a
Poem: wherein
a
Writer should always trust somewhat to the capa-
city of the
Spectator, especially, at these Specta-
cles; where Men, beside inquiring Eyes, are understood
to bring quick Ears, and not those sluggish ones of
Porters and Mechanicks, that must be bored
through, at every
Act, with Narrations.


(h) This
Dame I
make to
bear the
Person of
Ate, or
Mischief
(for so I
interpret
it) out of
Homer's
Descrip-
tion of
her, Il. i.should be 'A'
where he
makes her
swift to
hurt Man-
kind,
strong,
and sound
of her
Feet; and
Iliad. T. walking upon Mens Heads; in both Places using one
and the same Phrase to signifie her Power, Blaptous anqrwpouV,
Lædens homines. I present her bare-footed, and her Frock tuck'd,
to make her seem more expedite, by Horace his authority. Sat. 8.
lib. 1. Succinctam vadere palla Canidiam pedibus nudis, passoque capillo.
But for her Hair, I rather respect another Place of his, Epod. lib.
Ode.
5. where she appears Canidia brevibus implicata viperis Crineis,
& incomptum caput. And that of Lucan, lib. 6. speaking of Erectho's
attire. Discolor, & vario Furialis cultus amictu Induitur, vultusq; ape-
ritur crine remoto, Et coma vipereis substringitur horrida sertis.
For
her Torch, see Remig. lib. 2. cap. 3.


D A M E.




                Masques. 347




D A M E.  H A G S.

W
Ell done, my Hags. And, come we fraught with spight,

To overthrow the glory of this night?
Holds our great purpose?  Hag. Yes.  Dam. But want's there none

Of our just number?  Hag. Call us one by one,

And then our Dame shall see.  Dam. (a) First, then, advance

My drowsie Servant, stupid Ignorance,
Known by thy scaly Vesture; and bring on
Thy fearful Sister, wild Suspicion,
Whose Eyes do never sleep; Let her knit Hands

With quick Credulity, that next her stands,
Who hath but one Ear, and that always ope;

Two-faced Falsehood follow in the Rope;
And lead on Murmur, with the Cheeks deep hung;

She Malice, whetting of her forked Tongue;
And Malice, Impudence, whose Forehead's lost;

Let Impudence lead Slander on, to boast
Her oblique Look; and to her subtle Side,
Thou, black-mouth'd Execration, stand apply'd;

Draw to thee Bitterness, whose Pores sweat Gall;

She flame-ey'd Rage; Rage, Mischief.  Hag. Here we are all.

   Dam. (b) Joyn now our Hearts, we faithful Opposites

To Fame, and Glory. Let not these bright Nights

Of honor blaze, thus to offend our Eyes;
Shew our selves truly Envious, and let rise
Our wonted Rages: Do what may beseem
Such Names, and Natures; Vertue else will deem
Our Powers decreas'd, and think us banish'd Earth,

No less than Heaven. All her antique Birth,
As Justice, Faith, she will restore; and, bold
Upon our sloth, retrieve her Age of gold.
We must not let our native Manners, thus,
Corrupt with Ease. Ill lives not, but in us.
I hate to see these Fruits of a soft Peace,
And curse the Piety gives it such Increase.









(a) In the
chaining
of these
Vices, I
make, as
if one link
produced
another,
and the
Dame
were born
out of
them all,
so as they
might say
to her.
Sola tenes
scelerum
quicquid
possedimus
omnes.

Nor will
it appear
much vio-
lenced, if
their Se-
ries
be
consider-
ed, when
the oppo-
sition to
all Virtue
begins out
of Igno-
rance.

That Igno-
rance
be-
gets Suspi-
cion
(for
knowledg
is ever
open, and
charita-
ble.) That
Suspicion,
Crudelity.
Credulity
as it is a
Vice: for
being a
Virtue,
and free,
it is oppo-
site to it:
but such as are jealous of themselves, do easily credit any thing of
others whom they hate. Out of this Credulity springs Falshood, which
begets Murmur: and that of Murmur presently grows Malice, which
begets Impudence: and that Impudence, Slander: that Slander, Execra-
tion: Execration, Bitterness: Bitterness, Fury:
and Fury, Mischief.
Now, for the personal Presentation of them, the authority in Poetry
is universal. But in the absolute Claudian, there is a particular and
eminent Place, where the Poet not only produceth such Persons, but
almost to a like purpose, in Ruf. lib. 1. where Alecto, envious of the
Times, infernas ad limina tetra sorores, Concilium deforme vocat, glo-
merantur in unum Innumeræ pestes Erebi, quascunque sinistro Nox ge-
nuit fortis: nutrix Discordia belli, Imperiosa Fames, leto vicina Sene-
ctus, Impatiensque sui Morbus, Livorque secundis Anxius
& scisse mœ-
rens velamine Luctus, Et Timor,
& cæco præceps Audacia vultu: with
many others, fit to disturb the World, as ours the Night. (b) Here
again, by way of irritation, I make the Dame pursue the purpose of
their coming, and discover their Natures more largely: which had
been nothing, if not done as doing another thing, but Moratio circa
vilem patulumq; orbem.
Than which, the Poet cannot know a greater
Vice; he being that kind of Artificer, to whose work is required so
much exactness, as indifferency is not tolerable.


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Let us disturb it then, (c) and blast the Light;
Mix Hell with Heaven, and make Nature fight
Within her self; loose the whole henge of Things;
And cause the ends run back, into their Springs.
   Hag. What our Dame bids us do,
We are ready for.   Dam. Then fall too.
(d) But first relate me, what you have sought,
Where you have been, and what you have brought.    

(c) These
Powers of
troubling
Nature,
frequently
ascrib'd to
Witches,
and chal-
leng'd by
themselves
whereever
they are
induc'd, by Homer, Ovid, Tibullus, Pet. Arbiter, Seneca, Lucan, Clau-
dian.
to whose authorities I shall refer more anon. For the present,
hear Socrat. in Apul. de Asin. aureo, l. 1. describing Meroe the Witch.
Saga, & Divinipotens cœlum deponere, terram suspendere, fontes du-
rare, monteis diluere, Manes sublimare, Deos infimare, Sydera extin-
guere, Tartarum ipsum illuminare:
and l. 2. Byrrhena to Lucius, of
Pamphile. Maga primi nominis, & omnis carminis sepulcralis Magistra
creditur, quæ surculis
& lapillis, & id genus frivolis inhalatis omnem
istam lucem mundi syderalis, imis Tartari,
& in vetustum chaos mer-
git:
as also this later of Remigius, in his most elegant Arguments,
before his Dæmonolatria. Quà possintpossit evertere funditus orbem, Et Ma-
neis superis miscere, hæc unica cura est.
And Lucan. Quarum, quic-
quid non creditur, ars est.
(d) This is also solemn in their Witchcraft,
to be examined, either by the Devil, or their Dame, at their Meetings,
of what mischief they have done; and what they can confer to a
future hurt. See M. Philippo Ludwigus Elich. Dæmonomagiæ, lib.
quæst.
10. But Remigius, in the very form lib. 1. Dæmonolat. c. 22.
Quemadmodum solent Heri in villicis procuratoribus, cum eorum rationes
expendunt, segnitiem negligentiamque durius castigare; Ita Dæmon,
in suis comitiis, quod tempus examinandis cujusque rebus atque actio-
nibus ipse constituit, eos pessimè habere consuevit, qui nihil afferunt
quo se nequiores ac flagitiis cumulatiores doceant. Nec cuiquam adeo
impune est, si à superiore conventu nullo se scelere novo obstrinxerit;
sed semper oportet, qui gratus esse volet, in alium, novum aliquod fa-
cinus fecisse:
and this doth exceedingly solicite them all, at such
times, lest they should come unprepared. But we apply this exami-
nation of ours to the particular use; whereby, also, we take occa-
sion, not only to express the things (as Vapours, Liquors, Herbs,
Bones, Flesh, Blood, Fat, and such like, which are call'd Media ma-
gica
) but the Rites of gathering them, and from what places, recon-
ciling (as near as we can) the practice of Antiquity to the Neoterick,
and making it familiar with our popular Witchcraft.


H A G S.

1.

I
 Have been, all Day, looking after
  A Raven, feeding upon a Quarter;
And, soon, as she turn'd her Beak to the South,   
I snatch'd this Morsel out of her Mouth.




1. For the
gathering
pieces of
dead Flesh,
Cornel. A-
grip. de oc-
cult. Philosoph. lib.
3. cap. 42. and lib. 4. cap. ult. observes, that the
use was to call up Ghosts and Spirits, with a Fumigation made of that
(and Bones of Carkasses) which I make my Witch, here, not to cut
her self, but to watch the Raven, as Lucan's Erichtho. lib. 6. Et quod-
cunque jacet nuda tellure cadaver, Ante feras volucresque sedet: nec car-
pere membra Vult ferro manibusque suis, morsusque luporum Expectat
siccis raptura à faucibus artus.
As if that piece were sweeter which
the Wolf had bitten, or the Raven had pick'd, and more effectuous:
and to do it, at her turning to the South, as with the prediction of a
Storm. Which, though they be but minutes in Ceremony, being ob-
serv'd, make the act more dark and full of horror.


2.

I
 Have been gathering Wolves Hairs,
  The mad Dogs foam, and the Adders Ears;           
The spurgings of a dead-man's Eyes,
And all since the Evening Star did rise.


2. Spuma
canum,
Lupi cri-
nes, nodus
Hyenæ,
oculi dra-
conum, Serpentis membrana, Aspidis aures,
are all mentioned by the An-
cients,
in Witchcraft. And Lucan particularly, lib. 6. Huc quicquid
fœtu genuit Natur aNatura sinistro Miscetur, non spuma canum, quibus unda ti-
mori est, Viscera non Lyncis, non duræ nodus Hyenæ Defuit,
&c. And
Ovid. Metamorph. lib. 7. reckons up others. But for the purging of
the Eyes, let us return to Lucan, in the same Book, which Piece (as
all the rest) is written with an admirable height. Ast ubi servantur
saxis, quibus intimus humor Ducitur,
& tracta durescunt tabe medullæ
Corpora, tunc omineis avidè desævit in artus, Immersitq; manus oculis,
gaudetque gelatos Effodisse orbeis,
& sicca pallida rodit Excrementa
manu.
a bit difficult to make out, but should be 'manus'

Y y 2                                 3. I last                               




348 Masques.                    


3.

I
 Last Night, lay all alone
  O'the Ground, to hear the Mandrake grone;
And pluckt him up, though he grew full low;
And, as I had done, the Cock did crow.
          


3. Pliny
writing of
the Man-
drake, Nat.
Hist. l.
25.
c. 13. and
of the digging it up, hath this Ceremony, Cavent effossuri contrarium
ventum,
& tribus circulis antè gladio circumscribunt, postea fodiunt ad
Occasum spectantes.
But we have later tradition, that the forcing of
it up is so fatally dangerous, as the grone kills, and therefore they
do it with Dogs, which I think but borrowed from Josephus his Re-
port of the Root Baæras, lib. 7. de Bel. Judaic. Howsoever, it being
so principal an ingredient in their Magick, it was fit she should boast
to be the Plucker up of it her self. And, that the Cock did crow, al-
ludes to prime circumstance in their work: For they all confess, that
nothing is so cross, or balefull to them, in their Nights, as that the
Cock should crow before they have done. Which makes, that their
little Masters, or Martinets, of whom I have mentioned before, use
this form, in dismissing their Conventions. Eja, facessite properè hinc
omnes, nam jam galli canere incipiunt.
Which I interpret to be, be-
cause that Bird is the Messenger of light, and so, contrary to their
acts of darkness. See Remig. Dæmonolat. lib. 1. cap. 4. where he
quotes that of Apollonius, de umbra Achillis, Philostr. lib. 4. cap. 5.
And Euseb. Cæsariens. in confutat. contra Hierocl. 4. de Gallicinio.


4.

A
Nd I ha'been choosing out this Scull,
  From Charnel Houses, that were full;
From private Grots, and publick Pits,
And frighted a Sexton out of his Wits.
                  



4. I have
touched
at this be-
fore, in my
Note up-
on the first, or the use of gathering Flesh, Bones, and Sculls: to which
I now bring that piece of Apuleius, lib. 3. de Asino aureo, of Pamphile. Pri-
usque apparatu solito instruxit feralem officinam, omne genus aromatis,
& ignorabiliter laminis literatis, & infœlicium navium durantibus
clavis defletorum, sepultorum etiam, cadaverum expositis multis admo-
dum membris, hic nares,
& digiti, illic carnosi clavi pendentium, alibi
trucidatorum servatus cruor,
& extorta dentibus ferarum trunca cal-
varia:
And, for such places, Lucan makes his Witch to inhabit them,
lib. 6. Desertaque busta Incolit, & tumulos expulsis obtinet umbris.


5.
u

Nder a Cradle I did creep,
  By Day; and, when the Child was a sleep,
At Night, I suck'd the Breath; and rose,
And pluck'd the nodding Nurse by the Nose.
       


5. For this
Rite, see
Barthol. de
Spina.
Quæst de
Strigibus,
cap.
8. Mal. Malefica. Tom. 2. where he disputes at large the transfor-
mation of Witches to Cats, and their sucking, both their Spirits, and
the blood, calling them Striges, which Godelman. lib. de Lamiis, would
have à stridore, & avibus fœdissimis ejusdem nominis, which I the ra-
ther incline to, out of Ovid's authority, Fast. lib. 6. where the Poet
ascribes, to those Birds, the same almost that these do to the Witches,
Nocte volant, puerosque petunt nutricis egenteis, Et vitiant cunis corpora
rapta suis: Carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris, Et plenum poto
sanguine guttur habent.


6.

I
 Had a Dagger: what did I with that?
  Kill'd an Infant, to have his fat.
A Piper it got, at a Church-ale,
I bad him, again blow Wind i'th' Tail.
                      



6. Their
killing of
Infants is
common,
both for
confection of their Oyntment (whereto one ingredient, is the fat boiled,
as I have shewed before out of Paracelsus and Porta) as also out of a lust
to do murder. Sprenger in Mal. Malefic. reports, that a Witch, a Mid-
wife in the Diocese of Basil, confessed to have killed above Forty In-
fants (ever as they were new born with pricking them in the Brain
with a Needle) which she had offered to the Devil. See the Story of
the three Witches in Rem. Dæmonola. lib. cap. 3. about the end of the
Chapter. And M. Philippo Ludwigus Elich. Quæst. 8. And, that it is
no new Rite, read the practice of Canidia, Epod. Horat. lib. Ode. 5. and
Lucan. lib. 6. whose admirable Verses I can never be weary to tran-
scribe. Nec cessant à cædemanus, si sanguine vivo Est opus, erumpat
jugulo qui primus aperto. Nec refugit cædes, vivum si sacra cruorem
Extaque funereæ poscunt trepidantia mensæ. Vulnere si ventris, non
qua Natura vocabat Extrahitur partus calidis ponendus in aris; Et quo-
ties sævis opus est, & fortibus umbris Ipsa facit Maneis. Hominum mors
omnis in usu est.


[column break]

7.

A
 Murderer, yonder, was hung in Chains,
  The Sun and the Wind had shrunk his Veins;   

I bit off a Sinew; I clipp'd his Hair,
I brought off his Rags, that danc'd i'th' Air.


7. The
abuse of
dead Bo-
dies in
their
Witch-
craft, both
Porphyrio and Psellus are grave Authors of. The one lib. de sacrif.
de vero cultu.
The other lib. de. Dæmo. which Apuleius toucheth too,
lib. 2. de Asin. aureo. But Remigius, who deals with later Persons,
and out of their own Mouths, Dæmonol. lib. 2. cap. 3. affirms, Hæc
& nostræ ætatis maleficis hominibus moris est facere, præsertim si cujus
supplicio affecti cadaver exemplo datum est, & in crucem sublatum.
Nam non solum inde sortilegiis suis materiam mutuantur: Sed & ab
ipsis carnificinæ instrumentis, reste, vinculis, palo, ferramentis. Siquidem
iis vulgi etiam opinione inesse ad incantationes magicas vim quandam
& potestatem.
And to this place, I dare not, out of religion to the
divine Lucan, but bring his Verses from the same Book. Laqueum,
nodosque nocenteis Ore suo rupit, pendentia corpora carpsit, Abrasitque
cruces, percussaque viscera nimbis Vulsit, & incoctas admisso sole medul-
las. Insertum manibus chalybem nigramque per artus Stillantis tabi sa-
niem, virusque coactum Sustulit, & nervo morsus retinente pependit.


8.

T
He Scrich-owls Eggs, and the Feathers black,
  The Blood of the Frog, and the Bone in his back,  

I have been getting; and made of his Skin
A purset, to keep Sir Cranion in.


8. These
are Cani-
dia
's Fur-
niture, in
Hora. E-
pod. lib.
Ode.
5. Et
uncta turpis ova ranæ sanguine, Plumamque nocturnæ strigis.
And part
of Medea's Confection, in Ovid. Metamorph. lib. 7. Strigis infames, ip-
sis cum carnibus, alas.
That of the Skin (to make a Purse for her
Fly) was meant ridiculous, to mock the keeping of their Familiars.


9.

A
Nd I ha'been plucking (Plants among)            
  Hemlock, Henbane, Adders-tongue,
Night-shade, Moon-wort, Libbards-bane;
And twise, by the Dogs, was like to be tane.


9. Cicuta,
Hyoscya-
mus, O-
phioglosson,
Solanum
Martagon,
Doronicum, Aconitum,
are the common venefical Ingredients remem-
bred by Paracelsus, Porta, Agrippa, and others; which I make her to
have gather'd, as about a Castle, Church, or some vast Building
(kept by Dogs) among Ruins, and wild Heaps.


10.

I
, From the Jaws of a Gardiner's Bitch,
  Did snatch these Bones, and then leap'd the Ditch;  

Yet went I back to the House again,
Kill'd the black Cat, and here's the Brain.


10. Ossa
ab ore rap-
ta jejunæ
canis, Ho-
race
gives
Canidia, in
the place
before quoted. Which jejunæ, I rather change to Gard'ners, as
imagining such Persons to keep Mastiffs for the defence of their
Grounds, whither this Hag might go also for Simples: where, meet-
ing with the Bones, and not content with them, she would yet do a
domestick hurt, in getting the Cat's Brains: which is another spe-
cial Ingredient; and of so much more efficacy, by how much blacker
the Cat is, if you will credit Agri. de suffitibus.


11.

I
 Went to the Toad breeds under the Wall,
  I charm'd him out, and he came at my call;
I scratch'd out the Eyes of the Owl before,
I tore the Bat's Wing; what would you have more?  



11. These
also, both
by the
confessions
of Wit-
ches, and
testimony
of Writers, are of principal use in their Witchcraft. the Toad men-
tion'd in Virg. Geo. lib. 1. Inventusq; canis Bufo. Which by Pliny is cal-
led Rubeta, Nat. Hist. l. 32. c. 5. and there celebrated for the force in
Magick. Juvenal toucheth at it twice, within my memory, Satyr. 1.
& 6. And of the Owl's eyes, see Corn. Agri. de occult. Philos. l. 1. c. 15.
As of the Bat's Blood, and Wings there: and in the 25. Chap. with
Bapt. Porta. l. 2. c. 26.

12. DAME.   




                Masques. 349



12.

D A M E.

Y
Es, I have brought (to help our vows)
  Horned Poppy, Cypress boughs,
The Fig-tree wild, that grows on Tombs,
And Juice, that from the Larch-tree comes,
The Basilick's Blood, and the Viper's Skin:
And, now, our Orgies let's begin.
                  




12. After
all their
boasted la-
bours, and
plenty of
Materials
(as they
imagine)
I make the Dame not only to add more, but stranger, and out of their
means to get (except the first Papaver cornutum, which I have
touch'd at in the Confection) as Sepulchris caprificos erutas, & cu-
pressos funebreis,
as Horace calls them, where he arms Canidia, Epod.
lib. Ode.
5. Then Agaricum Laricis, of which, see Porta. lib. 2. de Nat.
Magi.
against Pliny. And Basilisci, quem & Saturni sanguinem vo-
cant venefici, tantasque vires habere ferunt. Cor. Agrip. de occult. Phi-
los. l.
1. c. 42. With the Viper, remembred by Lucan. lib. 6. and the
Skins of Serpents. Innataque rubris Æquoribus custos pretiosæ vipera
conchæ, Aut viventis adhuc Lybicæ membrana cerastæ.
And Ovid, lib.
7. Nec defuit illis Squamea Ciniphei tenuis membrana chelidri.


   Here, the Dame put her self in the midst of them, and began
her following Invocation; wherein she took occasion, to boast
all the power attributed to Witches by the
Ancients; of which,
every
Poet (or the most) do give some: Homer to Circe, in
the
Oddyss. Theocritus to Simatha, in Pharmaceutria; Vir-
gil to Alphesibœs, in his. Ovid to Dipsas, in Amor. to
Medea and Circe, in Metamorph. Tibullus to Saga; Ho-
race to Canidia, Sagana, Veia, Folia; Seneca to Medea,
and the Nurse, in Herc. OEte. Petr. Arbiter; to his Saga, in
Frag. and Claudian to Megæra, lib. 1. in Rufinum; who
takes the habit of a Witch, as these do, and supplies that
Histo-
rical Part in the Poem, beside her moral Person of a Fury;
confirming the same drift, in ours.

Y
Ou (a) Fiends and Furies (if yet any be
  Worse than our selves) you that have quak'd to see

These (b) Knots untied; and shrunk, when we have charm'd.

You, that (to arm us) have your selves disarm'd,

And to our Powers, resign'd your Whips & Brands
When we went forth, the scourge of Men and Lands.

You that have seen me ride, when Hecate
Durst not take Chariot; when the boistrous Sea,
Without a breath of Wind, hath knockt the Sky;
And that hath thundred, Jove not knowing why:
When we have set the Elements at wars,
Made Midnight see the Sun, and Day the Stars;
When the wing'd Lightning, in the course, hath staid;

And swiftest Rivers have run back, afraid,
To see the Corn remove, the groves to range,
Whole Places alter, and the Seasons change,
When the pale Moon, at the first Voice down fell
Poyson'd, and durst not stay the second Spell.
You, that have oft been conscious of these Sights;

And thou (c) three-formed Star, that, on these Nights

Art only powerful, to whose triple Name
Thus we incline, once, twice, and thrice the same;
If now with Rites prophane, and foul enough,
We do invoke thee; darken all this Roof,
(a) These
Invoca-
tions are
solemn
with
them,
whereof
we may
see the
Forms, in
Ovid. Me-
tam. lib.
7.
in Sen.
Trag.Med.

in Luc. lib.
6. which
of all is
the bol-
dest and
most hor-
rid: be-
ginning,
Eumeni-
des, Stygi-
umque ne-
fas pœnæ-
que nocen-
tum,
&c.
(b) The
untying
of their
knots is,
when
they are
going to
some
fatal
business:
as Sagana is presented by Horace. Expedita, per totam domum Spar-
gens Avernaleis aquas, Horret capillis ut marinus asperis Echinus, aut
currens Aper.
(c) Hecate, who is called Trivia, and Triformis, of whom
Virgil. Æneid. lib. 4. Tergeminamque Hecatem, tria virginis ora Dia-
næ.
She was believ'd to govern in witchcraft; and is remembred in
all their Invocations: See Theoc. in Pharmaceut. cair Ekata das-
plhti
, & Medea in Senec. Meis vocata sacris noctium sidus veni, Pessi-
mos induta vultus: Fronte non una minax.
And Ericht. in Luc. Perse-
phone, nostræque Hecatis pars ultima,
&c.


[column break]

With present Fogs. Exhale Earths rot'nest Vapors.
And strike a Blindness through these blazing Tapers.  

Come, let a murmuring Charm resound,
The whilst we (d) bury all, i'th' Ground.
But first, see every (e) Foot be bare;
And every Knee.   Hag. Yes, Dame, they are.





(d) This
Rite of
burying
their Ma-
terials, is often confest in Remig. and describ'd amply in Hor. Sat. 8.
lib. Utque Lupi barbam variæ cum dente colubræ Abdiderint furtim
terris,
&c. (e) The Ceremony also, of baring their feet, is expressed
by Ovid. Metamorph. lib. 7. as of their hair. Egreditur tectis vestes
induta recinctas, Nuda pedem, nudos humeris infusa capillos.
And Ho-
rac. ibid. Pedibus nudis passoque capillo.
And Senec. in Tragœd. Med.
Tibi more Gentis, vinculo solvens comam Secreta nudo nemora lustravi
pede.

4  C H A R M.

D
Eep, (f) O deep, we lay thee to sleep;
 We leave thee Drink by, if thou chance to be dry;  

Both Milk and Blood, the Dew, and the Flood.
We breathe in thy Bed, at the foot and the head;
We cover thee warm, that thou take no harm:
And when thou dost wake,
Dame Earth shall quake,
And the Houses shake,
And her Belly shall ake,
As her Back were brake,
Such a Birth to make,
As is the blue Drake:
Whose form thou shalt take.



(f) Here
they
speak,
as if
they
were
creating
some new
feature,
which the
Devil per-
swades
them to
be able to
do, often,
by the
pronoun-
cing of words, and pouring out of liquors, on the earth. Hear what
Agrippa says, De occul. Phil. lib. 4. near the end. In evocationibus um-
brarum fumig amus cum sanguine recenti, cum ossibus mortuorum & car-
ne, cum ovis, lacte, melle, oleo, & similibus, quæ aptum medium tribuunt
animabus, ad sumenda corpora;
and a little before. Namque ani-
mæ cognitis mediis, per quæ quondam corporibus suis conjungebantur,
per similes vapores, liquores, nidoresque facile alliciuntur.
Which
Doctrine he had from Apuleius, without all doubt, or question, who
in lib. 3. de Asin. aureo, publisheth the same. Tunc decantatis spiranti-
bus fibris litat vario latice; nunc rore fontano, nunc lacte vaccino,
nunc melle montano, libat & muliâ. Sic illos capillos in mutuos nexus
obditos, atque nodatos, cum multis odoribus dat vivis carbonibus adolen-
dos. Tunc protinus inexpugnabili Magicæ Disciplinæ potestate, & cæca
numinum coactorum violentia, illa corpora quorum fumabant stridentes
capilli, spiritum mutuantur humanum & sentiunt, & audiunt, & am-
bulant. Et qua nidor suarum ducebat exuviarum veniunt.
All which
are meer Arts of Satan, when either himself will delude them with a
false form, or troubling a dead body, makes them imagine these va-
nities the means: as in the ridiculous circumstances that follow, he
doth daily.

D A M E.

N
Ever a Star yet shot?
 Where be the Ashes?   Hag. Here i'th' Pot.         
Dam. (g) Cast them up; and the Flint-stone
Over the left Shoulder-bone:
Into the West,comma should be replaced with a period   Hag. It will be best.





(b)should be '(g)' This
throwing
of ashes,
and sand,
with the flint-stone, cross sticks, and burying of Sage, &c. are all
us'd (and believ'd by them) to the raising of storm, and tempest.
See Remig. lib. 1. Dæmon. cap. 25. Nider. Formicari. cap. 4. Bodin.
Dæmon. lib.
2. cap. 8. And hear Codelman. lib. 2. cap. 6. Nam quan-
do Dæmoni grandines ciendi potestatem facit Deus, tum Maleficas in-
struit, ut quandoque silices post tergum in occidentem versus projiciant,
aliquando ut arenam aquæ torrentis, in aërem conjiciant, plerumque
scopas in aquam intingant, cœlumque versus spargant, vel fossulâ factâ
& io io'io io' should be replaced with 'lotio' infuso, vel aquâ digitum moveant: subinde in ollà parcorum pilos
bulliant, nonnunquam trabes vel ligna in ripa transversè collocent, &
alia id genus deliramenta efficiant.
And when they see the success,
they are more confirm'd, as if the Event followed their working. The
like illusion is of their phantasie, in failing in egg-shells, creeping tho-
row augur-holes, and such like, so vulgar in their Confessions.


5  C H A R M.

T
He Sticks are a-cross, there can be no loss,
 The Sage is rotten, the Sulphur is gotten
Up to the Sky, that was i'th' ground.
Follow it then, with our Rattles, round;






Under         




350 Masques.                    


Under the Bramble, over the Brier,
A little more heat will set it on Fire:
Put it in mind, to do it kind,
Flow Water and blow Wind.
Rouncy is over, Robble is under,
A flash of Light, and a clap of Thunder,
A storm of Rain, another of Hail.
We all must home, i'the Egg-shell sail;
The Mast is made of a great Pin,
The takle of Cobweb, the sail as thin,
And if we go through and not fall in —

D A M E.

(a)
S
Tay. All our Charms do nothing win               
 Upon the Night; our labour dies!
Our Magick-feature will not rise;
Nor yet the storm! We must repeat
More direful voices far, and beat
The ground with Vipers, till it sweat.
      















(a) This
stop, or
interrup-
tion shew-
ed the
better, by
causing
that gene-
ral silence, which made all the following Noises, enforced in the next
Charm, more direful, first imitating that of Lucan. Miratur Erich-
tho Has fatis licuisse moras; irataque morti Verberat immotum vivo
serpente cadaver,
and then their barking, howling, hissing, and con-
fusion of noise expressed by the same Author, in the same person. Tunc
vox Lethæos cunctis pollentior herbis Excantare deos, confodit murmura
primùm. Dissona & humanæ multùm discordia linguæ. Latratus ha-
bet illa canum, gemitusque, luporum, Quod trepidus bubo quod strix
nocturna queruntur, Quod strident ululantque feræ, quod sibilat anguis.
Exprimit & planctus illisæ cautibus undæ, Sylvarumque sonum, fractæ-
que tonitrua nubis. Tot rerum vox una fuit.
See Remig. too, Dæmo-
nolat. lib.
1. cap. 19.


6  C H A R M.

B
Ark Dogs, Wolves howl,
 Seas roar, Woods roul,
Clouds crack, all be black,
But the light our Charms do make.


D A M E.

N
O T yet? my Rage begins to swell;
 Darkness, Devils, Night, and Hell,
Do not thus delay my Spell.
I call you once, and I call you twice;
I beat you again, if you stay my thrice:
Thorough these Cranies where I peep,
I'le (b) let in the light to see your sleep.
And all the Secrets of your sway
Shall lie as open to the Day,
As unto me. Still are you deaf?
Reach me a Bough, (c) that ne're bare leaf,
To strike the Air; and (d) Aconite,
To hurl upon this glaring light;
A (e) rusty Knife, to wound mine Arm;
And, as it drops, I'le speak a Charm,
Shall cleave the ground, as low as lies
Old shrunk-up Chaos, and let rise,
Once more, his dark, and reeking head,
To strike the World, and Nature dead,
Until my Magick birth be bred.
              


















(b) This
is one of
their
common
menaces,
when
their Ma-
gick
re-
ceives the
least stop.
Hear E-
richtho
a-
gain, ibid.
tibi pessi-
me mundi
Arbiter
immittam
ruptis Titana cavernis, Et subito feriere die.
And a little before to
Proserpina. Eloquar immenso terræ sub pondere quæ te contineant En-
næa dapes,
&c. (c) That withered straight, as it shot out, which is
called Ramus feralis by some, and tristis, by Senec. Trag. Med. (d) A
deadly poysonous herb, feigned by Ovid. Metam. lib. 7. to spring out
of Cerberus's foam. Pliny gives it another beginning of name. Nat.
Hist. lib.
27. cap. 3. Nascitur in nudis cautibus, quas aconas vocant,
& inde aconitum dixere, nullo juxtâ ne pulvere quidem nutriente.
How-
soever the juice of it is like that liquor which the Devil gives Witches
to sprinkle abroad, and do hurt, in the opinion of all the Magick
Masters.
(e) A rusty Knife I rather give her, than any other, as fit-
test for such a devilish Ceremony, which Seneca might mean by sacro
cultro
in the Tragedy, where he arms Medea, to the like Rite, (for any
thing I know) Tibi nudato pectore Mœnas, sacro feriam Brachia cul-
tro: Manet noster sanguis ad aras.


[column break]


7  C H A R M.                  

B
Lack go in, and blacker come out;
 At thy going down, we give thee a shout.           
(f) Hoo!
At thy rising again, thou shalt have two,
And if thou dost what we would have thee do,
Thou shalt have three, thou shalt have four,
Thou shalt have ten, thou shalt have a score.
Hoo. Har. Har. Hoo!




(f) These
shouts and
clamors, as
also the
voice Har.
Har.
are
very par-
ticular
with
them, by the testimony of Bodin Remig. Delrio. and M. Phil. Ludwi-
gus, Elich.
who out of them reports it, thus. Tota turba colluviesque
pessima fescenninos in honorem Dæmonum cantat obscœnissimos: Hæc
canit
Har. Har. Illa, Diabolo, Diabole, salta huc, salta illuc; Altera,
lude hic, lude illic; Alia, Sabaath, Sabaath,
&c. Imò clamoribus, sibi-
lis, ululatibus, popysmis furit, ac debacchatur: pulveribus, vel venenis ac-
ceptis quæ hominibus pecudibusque spargant.


8  C H A R M.                  

A
 Cloud of Pitch, a Spur, and a Switch,
To haste him away, and a Whirlwind play,
Before, and after, which thunder for laughter,
And storms for joy, of the roaring Boy;
His head of a Drake, his tail of a Snake.

9  C H A R M.                  

A
Bout, about, and about,
 Till the Mist arise, and the Lights flie out,           
The Images neither be seen, nor felt;
The Woollen burn, and the Waxen melt;
Sprinkle your Liquors upon the ground,
And into the Air; around, around.
Around, around,
Around, around,
(g) Till a Musick sound,
And the pasevariant spelling of 'pace' be found,
To which we may dance,
And our Charms advance.










(g) Nor do
they want
musick,
and in
strange
manner given them by the Devil, if we credit their Confessions in Re-
mig. Dæm. lib.
1. cap. 19. Such as the Syrbenæan Quires were, which
Athenæus remembers out of Clearchus, Deipnos. lib. 15. where every
one sung what he would, without hearkning to his Fellow; like the
noise of divers Oars, falling in the water. But be patient of Remigius
Relation. Miris modis illîc miscentur, ac turbantur omnia, nec ullâ ora-
tione satis exprimi queat, quàm strepant sonis inconditis, absurdis, ac
discrepantibus. Canit hic Dæmon ad tibiam, vel veriùs ad contum, aut
baculum aliquod, quod fortè humi repertum, buccam ceu tibiam admo-
vet. Ille pro lyra equi calvariam pulsat, ac digitis concrepat. Alius
fuste vel clavâ graviore quercum tundit unde exauditur sonus, ac boatus
veluti tympanorum vehementiùs pulsatorum. Intercinunt rancidè, &
composito ad litui morem clangore Dæmones, ipsumque cœlum fragosa
aridaque voce feriunt.


A
T which, with a strange, and sudden Musick
they fell into a
(h) magical Dance, full of
preposterous change, and gesticulation, but most apply-
ing to their
Property; who at their meetings, do all
things contrary to the custom of Men, dancing back
to back, and hip to hip, their hands joined, and ma-
king their circles backward, to the left hand, with
strange
phantastick motions of their heads, and bo-
dies. All which were excellently imitated by the ma-
ker of the
Dance, M. Hierome Herne, whose right
it is here to be named.




(h) The
manner
also of
their dan-
cing is
confest in
Bodin lib.
2. cap. 4.
And Re-
mig. lib.
1.
cap. 17.
and 18.
The sum
of which M. Phil. Lud. Elich. relates thus, in his Dæmonom. Quæst. 10.
Tripudiis interdum intersunt facie liberâ & apertâ, interdum abductâ
larvâ, linteo, cortice, reticulo, peplo, vel alio velamine, aut farrinario
excerniculo involutâ.
And a little after. Omnia fiunt ritu absurdis-
simo, & ab omni consuetudine hominum alienissimo, dorsis invicem obver-
sis, & in orbem junctis manibus, saltando circumeunt, perinde sua jactan-
tes capita, ut qui œstro agitantur. Remigius
adds out of the Confes-
sion of Sybilla Morelia, Gyrum sempor in lævam progredi. Which Pliny
observes in the Priests of Cybile. Nat. Hist. lib. 28. cap. 2. and to be
done with great Religion. Bodin adds, that they use brooms in their
hands, with which we armed our Witches; and here we leave them.

In   




                Masques. 351


I
N the heat of their Dance, on the sudden, was heard a
 sound of loud Musick, as if many Instruments had made one
blast; with which not only the
Haggs themselves, but the Hell,
into which they ran, quite vanished, and the whole face of the
Scene altered, scarce suffering the memory of such a thing: But
in the place of it, appeared a glorious, and magnificent Building,
figuring the
House of Fame, in the top of which, were disco-
vered the twelve
Masquers, sitting upon a Throne triumphal,
erected in form of a
Pyramid, and circled with all store of
light. From whom a Person, by this time descended, in the fur-
niture of
Perseus, and expressing heroique, and masculine Ver-
tue, began to speak.

HEROICK VERTUE.

S
O should, at Fame's loud sound, and Vertue's sight,
 All dark, and envious Witchcraft flie the light.
I (a) did not borrow Hermes Wings, nor ask
His crooked Sword, nor put on Pluto's Cask,




(a) The
Ancients
express'd
a brave and masculine Vertue in three Figures (of Hercules, Perseus,
and Bellerophon.) Of which we chuse that of Perseus, armed as we
have described him, out of Hesiod. Scuto Herc. See Apollodor. the
Grammarian, lib. 2. de Perseo.


                      Nor on mine arm, advanc'd wise Pallas shield,
(By which, my Face avers'd, in open field
I flew the Gorgon) for an empty Name:
When Virtue cut off Terror, he gate Fame.
And, if when Fame was gotten, Terror dy'de,
What black Erynnis, or more hellish pride,
Durst arm these Haggs, now she is grown, and great,

To think they could her glories once defeat?
I was her Parent, and I am her strength.
Heroique Virtue sinks not under length
Of years, or ages; but is still the same,
While he preserves, as when he got good Fame.
My Daughter, then, whose glorious house you see
Built of all sounding brass, whose Columns be
Men-making Poets, and those well-made Men,
Whose strife it was, to have the happiest Pen
Renown them to an after-life, and not
With pride, to scorn the Muse, and die forgot;
She, that enquireth into all the World,
And hath, about her vaulted Palace, hoorl'd
All Rumors and Reports, or true, or vain,
What utmost Lands, or deepest Seas contain;
(But only hangs great actions, on her file)
She, to this lesser World, and greatest Isle,
To night sounds Honour, which she would have seen

In yond' bright Bevie, each of them a Queen.
Eleven of them are of times, long gone.
Penthesilea, the brave Amazon,
Swift-foot Camilla, Queen of Volscia,
Victorious Thomyris of Scythia,
Chaste Artemisia, the Carian Dame,
And fair-hair'd Beronice, Ægypt's fame,
Hypsicratea, glory of Asia,
Candace,
pride of Æthiopia,
The Britain honour, Voadicea,
The vertuous Palmyrene, Zenobia,
The wise, and warlike Goth, Amalasunta,
And bold Valasca, of Bohemia;
These, in their lives, as fortunes, crownd the choice
Of Woman-kind, and 'gainst all opposite voice
Made good to time, had, after death, the clame
To live eterniz'd in the house of Fame.
Where hourly hearing (as, what there is old?)
The glories of Bel-anna so well told,
Queen of the Ocean; How, that she alone
Possest all vertues, for which one by one
They were so fam'd; And wanting then a head
To form that sweet, and gracious Pyramede

[column break]

Wherein they sit, it being the sov'raign place
Of all that Palace, and reserv'd to grace
The worthiest Queen: These, without envy' on her,
In life, desir'd that honour to confer,
Which, with their death, no other should enjoy.
She this embracing with a vertuous joy,
Far from self-love, as humbling all her worth,
To him that gave it, hath again brought forth
Their names to memory; and means, this night,
To make them once more visible to light:
And to that light, from whence her truth of spirit
Confesseth all the lustre of her merit.
To you, most Royal, and most Happy King,
Of whom, Fame's house, in every part, doth ring
For every vertue; but can give no increase:
Not, though her loudest Trumpet blaze your peace.
To you, that cherish every great example
Contracted in your self; and being so ample
A field of honour, cannot but embrace
A Spectacle, so full of love, and grace
Unto your Court: where every Princely Dame
Contends to be as bounteous of her fame
To others, as her life was good to her.
For, by their lives, they only did confer
Good on themselves; but, by their fame, to yours,
And every Age, the benefit endures.

   Here, the Throne wherein they sate, being Machina versati-
lis, suddenly chang'd; and in the place of it appear'd Fama
bona, as she is describ'd (in Iconolog. di Cæsare Ripa) at-
tir'd in white, with white wings, having a collar of gold about
her neck, and a heart hanging at it: which
Orus Apollo, in his
Hierogl. interprets the note of a good Fame. In her right hand,



'(b)' omittedÆneid.       
she bore a trumpet, in her left an olive branch: And
for her state, it was, as
(b) Virgil describes her, at
the full, her feet on the ground, and her head in the
clouds. She, after the Musick had done, which waited on the
turning of the
Machine, call'd from thence, to Vertue, and
spake this following Speech.

F A M E.

V
Ertue, my Father, and my Honour; thou
 That mad'st me good, as great; and dar'st avow
No Fame, for thine, but what is perfect: Aid,
To night, the triumphs of thy white-wing'd Maid.
Do those renowned Queens all utmost Rites
Their states can ask. This is a night of nights.
In mine own Chariots let them, crowned, ride;
And mine own Birds, and Beasts in geers apply'd
To draw them forth. Unto the first Carr tye
Far-sighted Eagles, to note Fame's sharp eye.
Unto the second, Griffons, that design
Swiftness and strength, two other gifts of mine.
Unto the last, our Lyons, that imply
The top of graces, State, and Majesty.
And let those Hags be led as Captives, bound
Before their wheels, whil'st I my Trumpet sound.

A
T which, the loud Musick sounded, as before; to give
 the Masquers time of descending. And here, we
cannot but take the opportunity, to make some more par-
ticular description of their Scene, as also of the Persons
they presented; which, though they were disposed rather
by Chance, than Election, yet it is my part to justifie them
all: And then, the Lady that will own her Presentation,
may.
   To follow, therefore, the Rule of Chronology, which I
have observ'd in my Verse, the most upward in time was
Penthesilea. She was Queen of the Amazons, and succeeded
Ortera, or (as some will) Orithya; she liv'd, and was
present, at the War of Troy on their part, against the Greeks,
and (as Justin gives her testimony) Inter fortissimos viros,
magna ejus virtutis documenta extitere.
She is nowhere na-
med,          




352 Masques.                    


med, but with the Preface of Honour, and Vertue; and

(a) Hist.       
lib.
2.


(b) Lib. 3.
Eleg. 10.






(c) Æneid.
lib.
7.


is always advanced in the head of the wor-
thiest Women. (a) Diodorus Siculus makes her
the daughter of Mars. She was honour'd in
her death to have it the act of Achilles. Of which
(b) Propertius sings this triumph to her beauty.

Aurea cui postquam nudavit cassida frontem,
   Vicit victorem candida forma virum.

   Next, follows Camilla, Queen of the Volscians,
celebrated by (c) Virgil, than whose Verses no-
thing can be imagin'd more exquisite, or more
honouring the person they describe. They are
these, where he reckons up those, that came on Turnus his
part, against Æneas.

Hos super advenit Volsca de gente Camilla,
Agmen agens equitum, & florenteis ære catervas,
Bellatrix. Non illa colo, calathisve Minervæ
Fœmineas assueta manus, sed prælia virgo
Dura pati, cursuque pedum prævertere ventos.
Illa vel intactæ segetis per summa volaret
Gramina, nec teneras cursu læsisset aristas:
Vel mare per medium, fluctu suspensa tumenti,
Ferret iter, celereis nec tingeret æquore plantas.










   And afterward tells her Attire, and Arms, with the admi-
ration, that the Spectators had of her. All which if the
Poet created out of himself, without Nature, he did but
shew, how much so divine a Soul could exceed her.
   The third liv'd in the age of Cyrus, the great Persian
Monarch;
and made him leave to live. Thomyris, Queen
of the Scythians, or Massagets. A Heroine of a most invin-
cible, and unbroken fortitude. Who, when Cyrus had in-
vaded her, and taking her only Son (rather by Treachery
than War, as she objected) had slain him; not touch'd
with the grief of so great a loss, in the juster comfort she
took of a great revenge, pursued not only the occasion,
and honour of conquering so potent an Enemy, with
whom fell two hundred thousand Soldiers: but (what was
right memorable in her Victory) left not a Messenger


(d) In Clo.   
(e) Epit.
lib.
1.


surviving, of his side to report the Massacre.
She is remembred both by (d) Herodotus and
(e) Justin, to the great renown, and glory of
her kind: with this Elogy. Quod potentissimo Per-
sarum Monarchæ bello congressa est, ipsumque & vita
castris spoliavit, ad juste ulciscendam filii ejus indignissimam
mortem.

   The fourth was honour'd to life in time of Xerxes, and

(f) In
Polymn.   


present at his great Expedition into Greece; Ar-
temisia,
the Queen of Caria: whose vertue (f)
Herodotus, not without some wonder, records.
That, a Woman, a Queen, without a Husband,
her Son a ward, and she administring the Government, oc-
casion'd by no necessity, but a meer excellence of spirit,
should embark her self for such a War; and there, so to

(g) Herod.   
In Urania.


(h) Val.
Max. lib.
4. cap. 6.
and A.
Gel. lib.
10.
cap. 18.


behave her, as Xerxes beholding her fight, should
say: (g) Viri quidem extiterunt mihi fœminæ, fœmi-
næ autem viri.
She is no less renowned for her
Chastity, and love to her Husband, Mausolus, (h)
whose bones (after he was dead) she preserv'd
in ashes, and drunk in Wine, making her self his
Tomb; and yet, built to his memory, a Monu-
ment,
deserving a place among the Seven Won-
ders of the World,
which could not be done by
less than a wonder of Women.
   The fifth was the fair-hair'd Daughter of Ptolomæus
Philadelphus,
by the elder Arsinoe; who, married to her
Brother Ptolomæus, surnamed Evergetes, was after Queen of
Egypt. I find her written both Beronice, and Berenice. This
Lady, upon an Expedition of her new-wedded Lord into
Assyria, vowed to Venus, if he return'd safe, and Conque-
ror, the offering of her hair; which Vow of hers (exacted

[column break]

by the success) she afterward perform'd. But, her Father
missing it, and therewith displeas'd, Conon, a Mathematician,
who was then in houshold with Ptolomy, and knew well to
flatter him, persuaded the King that it was ta'ne up to Hea-
ven, and made a Constellation; shewing him those seven
Stars, ad caudam Leonis, which are since called Coma Beroni-
ces.
Which Story, then presently celebrated by Callima-
chus,
in a most elegant Poem, Catullus more elegantly con-

(i) Astro-
nom. lib.
2.         
in Leo.





(k) Catul.
de Coma
Beronic.
verted; wherein they call her the Magnanimous,
even from a Virgin:
alluding (as (i) Hyginus
says) to a Rescue she made of her Father in his
flight, and restoring the courage and honour of
his Army, even to a Victory. Their words
are,

(k) Cognoram à parva virgine magnanimam.


   The sixth, that famous Wife of Mithridates, and Queen of
Pontus, Hypsicratea, no less an Example of Vertue than the
rest; who so loved her Husband, as she was assistant to

(l) Lib. 4.            
cap. 6. de
Amor con-
jug.
him in all labours, and hazard of the War, in a
masculine habit. For which cause (as (l) Va-
lerius Maximus
observes) she departed with a
chief ornament of her beauty. Tonsis enim ca-
pillis, equo se & armis assuefecit, quo facilius labo-
ribus & periculis ejus interesset.
And, afterward, in his flight
from Pompey, accompanied his misfortune, with a mind,
and body equally unwearied. She is solemnly registred,
by that grave Author, as a notable President of Marriage-
Loyalty,
and Love: Vertues, that might raise a mean Per-
son to equality with a Queen; but a Queen to the State, and
honour of a Deity.
   The seventh, that Renown of Ethiopia, Candace: from
whose excellency, the succeeding Queens of that Nation
were ambitious to be called so. A Woman of a most
haughty spirit against Enemies, and a singular affection

(m) Hist.            
Rom. l.
54.
(n(brackets reversed Nat.
Hist. lib.
6.
cap. 29.

to her Subjects. I find her celebrated by
(m) Dion, and (n) Pliny, invading Egypt in the
time of Augustus; who, though she were enforc'd
to a Peace by his Lieutenant Petronius, doth not
the less worthily hold her place here; when,
everywhere, this Elogy remains of her Fame:
That she was Maximi animi mulier, tantique in suos meriti, ut
omnes deinceps. Æthiopum Reginæ ejus nomine fuerint appel-
latæ.
She govern'd in Meroe.
   The eighth, our own honour, Voadicea, or Boodicea; By
some Bunduica, and Bunduca: Queen of the Iceni. A people,
that inhabited that part of our Island, which was called
East-Anglia, and comprehended Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge,
and Huntington-shires. Since she was born here at home,
we will first honour her with a home-born testi-
(o) Ru-
ines of               
time.
mony; from the grave and diligent (o) Spen-
cer.



——— Bunduca Britoness.

Bunduca, that victorious Conqueress,
That lifting up her brave Heroique thought
'Bove Womans weakness, with the
Romans fought;
Fought, and in Field against them thrice prevail'd,
&c.

   To which, see her Orations in Story, made by
(p) Annal.         
lib.
14.
(q) Epit.
Joan. Xi-
philon. in
Ner.

(p) Tacitus, and (q) Dion: wherein is expressed
all magnitude of a spirit, breathing to the liber-
ty and redemption of her Country. The later
of whom, doth honest her beside, with a parti-
cular description. Bunduica, Britannica fœmina,
orta stripe Regia, quæ non solum eis cum magna dig-
nitate præfuit, sed etiam bellum omne administravit; cujus ani-
mina, forma honestissima, vultu severo,
&c. All which doth
weigh the more to her true praise, in coming from the
mouths     




                Masques. 353


mouths of Romans, and Enemies. She liv'd in the time of
Nero.
   The ninth, in time, but equal in Fame, and (the cause
of it) vertue, was the chaste Zenobia Queen of the Palmy-
renes,
who, after the death of her husband Odenatus, had
the Name to be reckoned among the XXX. that usurped
the Roman Empire from Galienus. She continued a long and
brave War, against several Chiefs; and was at length tri-
umphed on by Aurelian: but, ea specie, ut nihil pompabilius
P. Rom. videretur.
Her Chastity was such, Ut ne virum suum
quidem sciret, nisi tentatis conceptionibus.
She liv'd in a most
royal manner, and was adored to the custom of the Per-
sians.
When she made Orations to her Soldiers, she had al-

(a) In tri-   
gin. Ty-
rann.



ways her Cask on. A Woman of a most divine
spirit, and incredible beauty. In (a) Trebellius
Pollio,
read the most notable description of a
Queen, and her; that can be utter'd, with the
dignity of an Historian.
   The tenth, succeeding, was that learned, and Heroique
Amalasunta, Queen
of the Ostrogoths, Daughter to Theodo-
rick,
that obtained the Principality of Ravenna, and almost
all Italy. She drave the Burgundians and Almaines out of
Liguria, and appear'd in her Government rather an Ex-
ample,
than a Second. She was the most eloquent of
her Age, and cunning in all Languages, of any Nation

(b) M. An-
ton. Cocci.   
Sabel.
(out
of Cassiod)
Ennead. 7.
lib. 2.

that had Commerce with the Roman Empire.
(b) It is recorded of her, that, Sine veneratione
eam viderit nemo, pro miraculo fuerit ipsam audire
loquentem. Tantaque illi in decernendo gravitas, ut
criminis convicti, cum plecterentur, nihil sibi acerbum
pati viderentur.

   The eleventh, was that brave Bohemian Queen,
Valasca,
who for her Courage, had the Surname of Bold:
That to redeem her self and her Sex, from the Tyranny of
Men, which they liv'd in, under Primislaus, on a night, and
at an hour appointed, led on the Women to the slaughter
of their barbarous Husbands and Lords. And possessing
themselves of their Horses, Arms, Treasure, and places of
strength, not only ruled the rest, but lived many years af-

(c) In Geo-
graph. l.
2.   
(d) Forcia.
Quæst.


ter, with the liberty, and fortitude of Amazons.
Celebrated by (c) Raphael Volateranus, and in an
elegant Tract of an Italians (d) in Latin, who
names himself Philalethes, Polytopiensis civis)right parenthesis ')' should be replaced with a comma inter
præstantissimas fœminas.

   The twelv'th, and worthy Soveraign of all, I make Bel-
anna,
Royal Queen of the Ocean; of whose dignity and
person, the whole Scope of the Invention doth speak
throughout: which, to offer you again here, might but
prove offence to that sacred modesty, which hears any testi-
mony of others iterated, with more delight, than her own
praise. She being plac'd above the need of such Cere-
mony, and safe in her princely vertue, against the good, or
ill, of any Witness. The Name of Bel-anna I devis'd, to
honour hers proper by; as adding to it, the Attribute of
Fair: And is kept by me, in all my Poems, wherein I men-
tion her Majesty, with any shadow, or figure. Of which,
some may come forth with a longer Destiny, than this Age,
commonly, gives to the best Births, if but help'd to light by
her gracious, and ripening favour.
   But, here, I discern a possible Objection, arising against
me; to which I must turn: As, How I can bring Persons of
so different
Ages, to appear properly together? Or, why (which
is more unnatural) with
Virgil's Mezentius, I join the living
with the dead?
I answer to both these, at once. Nothing is
more proper; Nothing more natural. For these all live;
and together, in their Fame: and so I present them. Besides,
if I would fly to the all-daring power of Poetry, where
could I not take Sanctuary? or in whose Poem? For other
Objections, let the looks and noses of Judges hover thick;
so they bring the brains: or if they do not, I care not.
When I suffer'd it to go abroad, I departed with my right:
And now, so secure an Interpreter I am of my chance, that
neither praise, nor dispraise shall affect me.
   There rests, only, that we give the Description (we pro-

[column break]

mis'd) of the Scene, which was the House of Fame. The
Structure, and Ornament of which (as is profest before)
was entirely Master Jones his Invention, and Design. First,
for the lower Columns, he chose the Statues of the most
excellent Poets, as Homer, Virgil, Lucan, &c. as being the
substantial Supporters of Fame. For the upper, Achilles,
Æneas, Cæsar,
and those great Heroes, which these Poets had
celebrated. All which stood, as in massy gold. Between
the Pillars, underneath, were figured Land-Battels, Sea-
Fights, Triumphs, Loves, Sacrifices,
and all magnificent Sub-
jects of Honour: in brass, and heighten'd with silver. In
which, he profest to follow that noble description, made
by Chaucer, of the place. Above were sited the Masquers,
over whose heads he devis'd two eminent figures of Ho-
nour,
and Vertue, for the Arch. The Freezes, both below,
and above, were fill'd with several colour'd lights, like
Emeralds, Rubies, Saphyres, Carbuncles, &c. the reflex of
which, with other lights, placed in the Concave, upon the
Masquers habits, was full of glory. These habits had in
them the excellency of all device, and riches; and were
worthily varied by his Invention, to the Nations, whereof
they were Queens. Nor are these, alone, his due; but
divers other accessions to the strangeness, and beauty of
the Spectacle: as the Hell, the going about of the Chariots,
the binding the Witches, the turning Machine, with the pre-
sentation of Fame. All which I willingly acknowledge for
him: since it is a Vertue, planted in good Natures, that
what respects they wish to obtain fruitfully from others,
they will give ingenuously themselves.
   By this time, imagin the Masquers descended; and again
mounted into three triumphant Chariots, ready to come
forth. The first four were drawn with Eagles, (whereof I
gave the reason, as of the rest in Fame's Speech) their four
Torch-bearers, attending on the Chariot sides, and four of
the Hags, bound before them. Then followed the second,
drawn by Griffons, with their Torch-bearers, and four
other Hags. Then the last, which was drawn by Lyons,
and more eminent; (wherein her Majesty was) and had
six Torch-bearers more, (peculiar to her) with the like
number of Hags. After which, a full triumphant Musick,
singing this Song, while they rode, in State, about the
Stage.

S O N G.

H
Elp, help all Tongues, to celebrate this Wonder:
 The voice of Fame should be as loud as Thunder.
        Her House is all of Eccho made,
            Where never dies the sound;
        And, as her Brows the Clouds invade,
            Her Feet do strike the Ground.
Sing then good Fame, that's out of Vertue born:
For, who doth Fame neglect, doth Vertue scorn.

   Here they lighted from their Chariots, and danc'd forth
their first Dance; then a second, immediately following it:
both right curious, and full of subtile and excellent chan-
ges, and seem'd perform'd with no less spirits, than of those
they personated. The first was to the Cornets, the second
to the Violins. After which, they took out the Men, and
danc'd the measures; entertaining the time, almost to the
space of an hour, with singular variety: when, to give
them rest, from the Musique which attended the Chariots, by
that most excellent Tenor voice, and exact Singer (her Ma-
jesties Servant, Master Jo. Allin) this Ditty was sung.

S O N G.

W
Hen all the Ages of the Earth
 Were crown'd, but in this famous Birth;
And that, when they would boast their store
Of worthy Queens, they knew no more:
How happier is that Age, can give
A Queen, in whom all they do live.
Z z                             After              




354 Masques.                    


   After it, succeeded their third Dance; than which, a
more numerous composition could not be seen: Graphi-
cally
disposed into Letters, and honouring the name of the
most sweet and ingenious Prince, C H A R L E S, Duke of
York. Wherein, beside that principal grace of perspi-
cuity, the motions were so even and apt, and their expres-
sion so just; as if Mathematicians had lost Proportion, they
might there have found it. The Author was Master Tho.
Giles.
After this, they danc'd Galliards, and Corranto's.
And then their last Dance, no less elegant (in the place)
than the rest, with which they took their Chariots again,
and triumphing about the Stage, had their return to the
House of Fame celebrated with this last Song; whose Notes
(as the former) were the work, and honour of my ex-
cellent Friend, Alfonso Ferrabosco.

S O N G.

W
H O, Vertue, can thy power forget,
 That sees these live, and triumph yet?

[column break]

Th' Assyrian Pomp, the Persian Pride,
Greeks Glory, and the Romans di'de:
      And who yet imitate
Their Noises, tarry the same Fate.
      Force greatness all the glorious ways
      You can, it soon decays;
      But so good Fame shall never:
Her Triumphs, as their Causes, are for ever.

   To conclude which, I know no worthier way of
Epilogue, than the Celebration of who were the Celebra-
ters.


The QUEENS MAJESTY.  |   |   The Co. of MONTGOMERY.
The Co. of ARUNDEL.  |   |   The Vicou. of CRANBORNE.
The Co. of DERBY.  |   |   The La. ELIZA. GUILFORD.
The Co. of HUNTINGTON.  |   |   The La. ANNE WINTER.
The Co. of BEDFORD.  |   |   The La. WINDSORE.
The Co. of ESSEX.  |   |   The La. ANNE CLIFFORD.

















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