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CHAP. LXIII.
Of Prostitution, or the trade of Whoring.
HEre it seems no way unseasonable for us to speak something of the Art of Bawdery, seeing that among the Egyptians, the first institutors of Religion, it was not lawful for any person to be made a Priest that was not first initiated in the ceremonies and my∣steries of Priapus; and for that in our Church it is also a receiv'd Maxime, that there can be no Pope with∣out Testicles, and that Eunuchs and gelt persons are forbidden to be admitted into the Priesthood; and for that we also finde, that wheree're there be the most stately Priories and Abbies, there are always certain Bawdy-houses adjoyning to 'um: and for that the recluse houses of Nuns, and Religious houses, are for the most part but the receptacles of lewd women, whom the Monks themselves do often keep privately in the Habit of Men, for their particular solace. There∣fore I say, it seems very proper to bring in a little dis∣course of the Practice of Bawdery in this place, which many wise Philosophers have thought not onely pro∣fitable, but necessary, in a well-order'd Common∣wealth: For Solon the great Lawgiver of the Atheni∣ans, and adjudg'd for one of the seven Wise Men by the Oracle of Apollo, as Philemon and Menander do both witness, took care for the buying of Wenches for the Young men, the first that dedicated the Tem∣ple of Venus Pandemia at the expence of the Rents of Prostitutes: he also instituted Brothel-houses, esta∣blish'd them by Law, and likewise gave them several priviledges and immunities. In Greece▪ Whores were
Page 188
had in so great esteem, that when the Persian was ex∣pected to make his violent invasion, the Corinthian Curtesans were order'd to make a publick supplication for the safety of Greece in the Temple of Venus. It was also a Custome among the Corinthians, that when they were to make any supplication to Venus, about any great matter, the care of that Affair was always committed to their Curtesans. Many Temples were built by the Curtesans among the Ephesians; and they of Abydos built a most stately Temple in honour of their Prostitutes, having recover'd their lost liberty by the means of a Curtesan. The wise Aristotle also was of opinion, that Curtesans were worthy of Divine honours, when he sacrific'd to Hermia the Harlot, in the same manner as is she had been Ceres Eleusinae. Now the invention of this Art is attributed to Venus, who was therefore translated among the number of the Gods. For she being a woman of little shame, and prostituting her self to all manner of Lust, was the occasion that the women in Cyprus made profit of the use of their bodies: Whence it was a Custome among the Cypriotes, that their Virgins so long before Mar∣riage appointed, might Prostitute themselves for mony to pay their Portion; and for their Future Chastity should make a small Offering to Venus. It was a Cu∣stome likewise among the Babylonians, as Herodotus affirms, That they who had consum'd their Private Estates, might compel their Daughters to Prostitution for their Maintenance. Aspasia the Socratick Curtesan fill'd all Greece with Harlots; for the Love of whom, and for that the Megareans had ravish'd from her cer∣tain of her Young Girls, Aristophanes reports that Pericles undertook the Peloponnesian War. The Em∣peror Heliogabalus did very much advance the Art of Baudery; who, as Lampridius witnesses, would al∣wayes have them prepared in his own House for his
Page 189
Friends and Clyents. He also bestowed great Banquets on them, of Twenty two great Dishes apiece, pro∣viding that between every Dish they might wash and retire, and they were sworn to perform duty. Ma∣ny times he would redeem Harlots from Bawds, and give them their Freedome. And he is said among the rest to have redeem'd a certain Noted and very fair Curtesan for Thirty pounds of Silver. And in one day he is said to have visited the Circus, Theaters, and Amphitheatres, and all the Curtesans through all Parts of the City, and to have distributed to every one a Crown in Gold. Another time he assembled all the Harlots and Curtesans from all Parts of the City into one Publick spacious place, where he made them as it were a Military Oration, calling them Fellow Souldiers, and disputed with them about the Variety of Postures and Pleasures; and after he had made an end of his Harangue, he order'd 'um, as to Souldiers, a Donative of Three Crowns in Gold: moreover, to such Roman Women as would play the Harlot, he not only gran∣ted Immunity but Impunity, and decreed Sallaries to the Harlots out of the Publick Treasury. He also Promulgated several wanton and sportive Decrees of the Senate touching Harlotry, which by the Name of his Mother and Wife, he called Semiramid's Laws: He also invented several sorts of Postures, whereby he might not only exceed the Cyrenian Curtesan call'd Duodecamechanick, for having invented Twelve wayes of Venereal Exercise; but that he might also Excel all the Ancient Tribad's Hostia's, Apbia's, Spinctria's, Gasalvada's, Casarita's, Prostipula's, and all the other famous Artists of their Times. I omit Juda the Jew∣ish Patriarch a Fornicator, and Sampson, one of the Judges of the People of God, who Married two Har∣lots; and Solomon the wisest King of the Jews, who kept whole Troops of Curtesans: Caesar the Dictator,
Page 190
a most strong man, and therefore call'd the man of Women: and Lastly, Sardanapalus Monarch of Baby∣lon, with many other Innumerable and most Potent Patrons of Curtesans. But I cannot pass by Proculeius the Emperour, who has not got a little Fame by In∣dulging to the Venereal Exercise, for that having ta∣ken an Hundred Sarmatian Virgins, he lay with Ten the first Night, and Deflowr'd 'um all in fifteen dayes. Though that were a far greater Labour which the Poets relate of Hercules, that he made Fifty Virgins Women in one Night. Theophrastus a grave Author relates, That there is an Herb of such Vertue in India, that he who Eats of it may be able to lye with a Woman Seventy times. Add to all this, that this Art has receiv'd no small ornament and credit from the Verses of Sappho the Poetess belov'd of Phaon, and from Leontium, with whom Metrodorus kept Com∣pany, most Learned in Philosophy; insomuch, that she wrote against Theophrastus, in defence of Forni∣cation against Wedlock. Among which, we may num∣ber Sempronia, most Elegant both in the Greek and La∣tine Tongues. Nor is L•aena to be pass'd by, kept by Ari∣stogiton; of a most approved Fidelity towards him, who being put upon the Rack, to cause her to betray her friend, suffer'd the torments with an unspeakable si∣lence and constancie. Neither did ••hodope the Cur∣tisan less ennoble this Art, the Preservatrix and Bed-fellow of Aesop that compiled the Fables, who at∣tain'd such a mass of Wealth by prostituting her body, that the built a third Pyramid, reckoned among the Wonders of the world. Next to her Thais is to be remember'd, who trusting in the prerogative of her Beauty, disdain'd the company of any others than Kings and Princes. In the advancement of this Art, Messalina far exceeded all these, who frequenting the publick Brothel-houses, overcame a noble Curtesan,
Page 191
suffering her self to be lain withal twenty five times in twenty four hours, returning wearied, but not sa∣tisfi'd: With whom we may joyn Joane the most Illustrious Queen of Naples of fresher memory, with many other Princely Curtesans and Palatine Harlots, were it safe to name them; yet in this differing from the common sort of Strunipets, that contrary to the Law of Heliogabalus, they acted not in publick Brothel-houses like the Empress Messalina, but in private Chambers. We may adde to these both the Julia's, the Niece and Daughter of Octavianus Augustus, toge∣ther with Populea, and Cleopatra Queen of Egypt; nor can we forget Semiramis and Pasiphae, most anti∣ent Examples of Lasciviousness: Of which the Lust of the one was so burning hot, that she not onely wooed her own Son to her embraces, but also passio∣nately lov'd a Horse even to desire of Copulation. The other, Wife to King Minos, suffer'd her self to be known by a Bull. It is not our business to set forth here a Catalogue of Illustrious Curtesans; yet we must not omit to inform you, that the Beds of Harlots and Adulteresses have brought forth the most Illustri∣ous Heroes in the world; for example, Hercules, A∣lexander, Ishmael, Abimelech, Solomon, Constantine, Clodoveus King of the Franks, Theodorick the Goth, William the Norman, and Raymund of Arragon. So lightly are the Laws of Matrimony set by among great Personages, who at their pleasure divorce, leave, and change their true and lawful Wives; and so often they wed and rewed their Sons and Daughters, that it is hard to say which is the most lawful Marriage. Do we not read how Ladislaus of Poland, having taken Beatrice to Wife, by whose very nod, as it were, he ob∣tain'd the Kingdom of Hungary, at length repudiated her to marry a French Harlot? Do we not finde, how Charles the Eight the French King having divorc'd
Page 192
Margaret the Daughter of Maximilian Caesar, took a∣way his espoused Wife and married her? whom after∣wards Lewis the Twelfth, having put away his own Wife, took afterwards to his Bed; the Bishops and Chief Clergy of the Kingdom assisting him therein, and consenting thereto; who esteem'd and valu'd the ends of obtaining Britany, more than the obser∣vation of the Laws of Marriage. But let us re∣turn to the Discourse of Harlots, whose cunning devices he that will understand, that is to say, by what ways they prostitute their Chastity, with what wan∣ton casts of the Eye, with what nods of the Coun∣tenance, with what gestures of the Body, with what flatteries of Speech, with what obscene Embraces, with what allurements of Habit and artificial Pain∣tings they provoke their Corrupters, together with the rest of their cunning Harlotry Devices, Snares, and Stratagems, let him seek 'um among the Comick Po∣ets. But he that desires to know what Allurements, what affectionate Language, what Kissing, Handling, Rubbing, Resisting; what postures of Lying, what im∣pulse of Action, what reciprocations of Kindness compleat the Venereal Game, let him search into the Volumes of Physitians. Yet there be others that have set forth Treatises of Harlotry, as Antiphanes, Aristo∣phanes, Apollodorus, and Callistratus; in particular, Ce∣phalus the Rhetorician wrote in the praise of Lais the Curtesan, and Alcidamus in honour of Nais. Not have many others both Greeks and Latins been wanting to discover their wanton Amours, as Callimachus, Phi∣letes, Anacreon, Orpheus, Alceon, Pindarus, Sappho, Tibullus, Catullus, Propertius, Virgil, Juvenal, Martial, Cornelius Gallus, and many others, more like Panders than Poets; though all of them were outdone by Ovid in his He∣roick Epistles dedicated to Corinna, which were also outdone by himself in his de Arte Amandi, which he
Page 193
might have better intitled, The Art of Whoring and Pimping: The learning whereof, because it had cor∣rupted Youth with unchast Documents, therefore was the Author deservedly banish'd by the Emperour Octa∣vianus Augustus to the farthest parts of the North, Archilochus also the Lacedaemonian, caus'd all Love-books and Verses to be burnt. Yet now adays this Art is publickly learnt and taught in every School by our unwary Pedagogues, with vain and obscene Commen∣taries upon the Text. Nay, I my self have seen and read under the Title of The Curtesan, publish'd in the Italian Tongue, and printed at Venice, a Dialogue touching the Art of Bawdery, wickedly explaining the Veneries of both Sexes, which with the Author were more fit to be committed to the fire. I omit to rehearse the most detstable vice of Buggery, which the Great A∣ristotle so much approves of, and which Nero solemniz'd with a publick Wedding; at which time St. Paul wri∣ting to the Romans, denounces the anger of the Omni∣potent against them. For on them shall God certainly rain Brimstone, and Coles of fire shall be the portion of their Cup. Against these the Emperour commands the Laws to arm themselves, and with exquisite tor∣ments to inflict capital punishment upon them, the Sword being the Executioner; but now adays they are burnt with Fire. Moses in his Laws ordain'd most severe punishment for this Crime: and Plato extir∣pates it out of his Republick, utterly condemning it in his Laws. The Antient Romans, as Valerius and others witness, inflicted most severe penalties on those that us'd it. Examples whereof were Quintus Fla∣minius, and the Tribune stain by Caelius. But that we may not farther vex the honest Ear, let us return from this monstrous Lust and beastly uncleanness, to our first Subject. For the Love of women is common to all, & there is no person that at one time or other does not
Page 194
feel the Fire thereof; though the women love one way, the men another; young men one way, great pesona∣ges another way; the poor one way, the rich another way: and, which is more miraculous, according to the difference of Nations and Climates. The Italians are of one humour in their Amours, the Spaniards of a∣nother, the French of another, the Germans of another. The same difference of Love appears in the difference of Sex, Age, Dignity, Fortune, and Nation, every one having a different sort of amorous Frenzy. The Love of men is more ardent and impetuous, the love of wo∣men more constant; the love of young men is wanton, the love of aged persons ridiculous; the poor Lover strives to please with Obsequiousness, the rich Lady with Gifts; the vulgar sort with Feasts and Treatments, Noble-men with Interludes and Plays. The ingenious Italian courts his Lady with a dissembled heat, a quaint kinde of Wooing, praising her in Verse, and extol∣ling her above all other women. If he be jealous, he perpetually shuts her up, and keeps her as his Captive; if he despair of enjoying his Mistriss, then he con∣founds her with a thousand Curses, and loads her with Maledictions. The Spaniard is rash, impatient of his heat, mad, and restless, and bemoaning the torments of his Flames, with miserable lamentations worships and adores his Mistriss. If he be cross'd in his Love, he grieves and pines away to death; if he grow jealous, he kills her, or being •atiated, leaves her to prostitute her self. The lascivious French-man trusts in his Obsequi∣ousness, and strives to win his Ladies favour with Songs and merry Discourse. If he grow jealous, he com∣plains of his hard fortune; but if he lose his Love, he reviles her, threatens revenge, and attempts to com∣pass his ends by force. After enjoyment, he neglects her, and marries another. The cold German slowly moves to love; but being once inflam'd, he makes use
Page 195
of art and liberality. If he grow jealous, he shuts his Purse. After enjoyment, the heat is quickly over. The French-man feigns his Love, the German dissembles his Heat: the Spaniard hath a good opinion of himself, and believes himself to be belov'd; but the Italians Love is never without Jealousie. The French-man loves a witty, though unhandsome woman; the Spa∣niard prefers a fair woman before a witty: the Italian loves a fearful bashful woman; the German one that is bold. The French-man, through vehement desire, of a wise man becomes a fool; but the German ha∣ving wasted all his Estate, at length, though late, of a fool becomes a wise man: the Spaniard, for his Mi∣striss sake, will attempt great things; and the Italian, for the enjoyment of his Lady, contemns all thought of danger. Moreover, we see that great men intan∣gled in the Shares of Love and Passion, many times forsake great Actions, and leave most noble Enterpri∣zes behinde their backs, as formerly Mithridates in Pon∣tus, at Capua Hannibal, Caesar in Alexandria, in Greece Demetrius, Antonie in Egypt. Hercules ceas'd from his labours for Iole's sake: Achilles hides himself from the Battel for love of Briseis: Circe stays Vlysses: Clau∣dius▪ dies in Prison for love of a Virgin: Caesar is de∣tain'd by Cleopatra; and the same woman was the ru∣ine of Antonius. We read in Scripture, that for the Fornication of Seth with the Daughters of Cain, that the whole Race of man was drowned in the Flood. The Sichemites and the House of Amor was destroy'd in revenge of Fornication and the whole people of Israel, for committing Fornication with strange wo∣men, were many times overcome in Battel, and carried into Captivity. And for the single Adultery of one person, David the King, what a destruction and waste of people ensu'd! For Fornication and ravishing of women, the Thebans, Phoceans, and Circeans were as∣sail'd
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and quite overthrown; and for the same reason was the Peloponnesian War undertaken, as I said be∣fore, by Pericles; and Troy for the same reason, ten years besieg'd, to the vast detriment of Greece and Asia. For the same reasons, and upon the same score, Tarqui∣nius, Claudius, Dionysius, Hannibal, Ptolomy, Marck Antony, Theodorick the Goth, Rodoaldus the Lombard, Childerick of France, Advinceslaus of Bohemia, and Manphred the Neapolitan, suffered death, and the ruine of their Countries. Meerly for the vitiating of Ju∣lia Cana Daughter of the Governour of Tingitana, by Rodorick the King, the Moors having driven out the Goths, possess'd all Spain. Henry the second, King of England, for abusing the contracted Wife of his Son, Daughter of Philip the French King, had like to have been driven out of his Kingdom by his Son. For be∣ing false to their Beds, those enraged Wives, Clytem∣nestra, Olympia, Laodicea, Beronica, Fregiogunda and Blanch both Queens of France, Joane of Naples, and many other women, slew their Husbands. And this was the reason that Medea, Progne, Ariadne, Althea, Heristilla, changing their maternal Love into Hatred, were every one the cause and plotters of their Sons deaths. And now adays we finde, that many women revenge the Adulteries of their Husbands upon their Children; and of most milde and patient Mothers, have become most cruel Medea's, furious Althea's, and impious Heristilla's.
Of Prostitution, or the trade of Whoring.
HEre it seems no way unseasonable for us to speak something of the Art of Bawdery, seeing that among the Egyptians, the first institutors of Religion, it was not lawful for any person to be made a Priest that was not first initiated in the ceremonies and my∣steries of Priapus; and for that in our Church it is also a receiv'd Maxime, that there can be no Pope with∣out Testicles, and that Eunuchs and gelt persons are forbidden to be admitted into the Priesthood; and for that we also finde, that wheree're there be the most stately Priories and Abbies, there are always certain Bawdy-houses adjoyning to 'um: and for that the recluse houses of Nuns, and Religious houses, are for the most part but the receptacles of lewd women, whom the Monks themselves do often keep privately in the Habit of Men, for their particular solace. There∣fore I say, it seems very proper to bring in a little dis∣course of the Practice of Bawdery in this place, which many wise Philosophers have thought not onely pro∣fitable, but necessary, in a well-order'd Common∣wealth: For Solon the great Lawgiver of the Atheni∣ans, and adjudg'd for one of the seven Wise Men by the Oracle of Apollo, as Philemon and Menander do both witness, took care for the buying of Wenches for the Young men, the first that dedicated the Tem∣ple of Venus Pandemia at the expence of the Rents of Prostitutes: he also instituted Brothel-houses, esta∣blish'd them by Law, and likewise gave them several priviledges and immunities. In Greece▪ Whores were
Page 188
had in so great esteem, that when the Persian was ex∣pected to make his violent invasion, the Corinthian Curtesans were order'd to make a publick supplication for the safety of Greece in the Temple of Venus. It was also a Custome among the Corinthians, that when they were to make any supplication to Venus, about any great matter, the care of that Affair was always committed to their Curtesans. Many Temples were built by the Curtesans among the Ephesians; and they of Abydos built a most stately Temple in honour of their Prostitutes, having recover'd their lost liberty by the means of a Curtesan. The wise Aristotle also was of opinion, that Curtesans were worthy of Divine honours, when he sacrific'd to Hermia the Harlot, in the same manner as is she had been Ceres Eleusinae. Now the invention of this Art is attributed to Venus, who was therefore translated among the number of the Gods. For she being a woman of little shame, and prostituting her self to all manner of Lust, was the occasion that the women in Cyprus made profit of the use of their bodies: Whence it was a Custome among the Cypriotes, that their Virgins so long before Mar∣riage appointed, might Prostitute themselves for mony to pay their Portion; and for their Future Chastity should make a small Offering to Venus. It was a Cu∣stome likewise among the Babylonians, as Herodotus affirms, That they who had consum'd their Private Estates, might compel their Daughters to Prostitution for their Maintenance. Aspasia the Socratick Curtesan fill'd all Greece with Harlots; for the Love of whom, and for that the Megareans had ravish'd from her cer∣tain of her Young Girls, Aristophanes reports that Pericles undertook the Peloponnesian War. The Em∣peror Heliogabalus did very much advance the Art of Baudery; who, as Lampridius witnesses, would al∣wayes have them prepared in his own House for his
Page 189
Friends and Clyents. He also bestowed great Banquets on them, of Twenty two great Dishes apiece, pro∣viding that between every Dish they might wash and retire, and they were sworn to perform duty. Ma∣ny times he would redeem Harlots from Bawds, and give them their Freedome. And he is said among the rest to have redeem'd a certain Noted and very fair Curtesan for Thirty pounds of Silver. And in one day he is said to have visited the Circus, Theaters, and Amphitheatres, and all the Curtesans through all Parts of the City, and to have distributed to every one a Crown in Gold. Another time he assembled all the Harlots and Curtesans from all Parts of the City into one Publick spacious place, where he made them as it were a Military Oration, calling them Fellow Souldiers, and disputed with them about the Variety of Postures and Pleasures; and after he had made an end of his Harangue, he order'd 'um, as to Souldiers, a Donative of Three Crowns in Gold: moreover, to such Roman Women as would play the Harlot, he not only gran∣ted Immunity but Impunity, and decreed Sallaries to the Harlots out of the Publick Treasury. He also Promulgated several wanton and sportive Decrees of the Senate touching Harlotry, which by the Name of his Mother and Wife, he called Semiramid's Laws: He also invented several sorts of Postures, whereby he might not only exceed the Cyrenian Curtesan call'd Duodecamechanick, for having invented Twelve wayes of Venereal Exercise; but that he might also Excel all the Ancient Tribad's Hostia's, Apbia's, Spinctria's, Gasalvada's, Casarita's, Prostipula's, and all the other famous Artists of their Times. I omit Juda the Jew∣ish Patriarch a Fornicator, and Sampson, one of the Judges of the People of God, who Married two Har∣lots; and Solomon the wisest King of the Jews, who kept whole Troops of Curtesans: Caesar the Dictator,
Page 190
a most strong man, and therefore call'd the man of Women: and Lastly, Sardanapalus Monarch of Baby∣lon, with many other Innumerable and most Potent Patrons of Curtesans. But I cannot pass by Proculeius the Emperour, who has not got a little Fame by In∣dulging to the Venereal Exercise, for that having ta∣ken an Hundred Sarmatian Virgins, he lay with Ten the first Night, and Deflowr'd 'um all in fifteen dayes. Though that were a far greater Labour which the Poets relate of Hercules, that he made Fifty Virgins Women in one Night. Theophrastus a grave Author relates, That there is an Herb of such Vertue in India, that he who Eats of it may be able to lye with a Woman Seventy times. Add to all this, that this Art has receiv'd no small ornament and credit from the Verses of Sappho the Poetess belov'd of Phaon, and from Leontium, with whom Metrodorus kept Com∣pany, most Learned in Philosophy; insomuch, that she wrote against Theophrastus, in defence of Forni∣cation against Wedlock. Among which, we may num∣ber Sempronia, most Elegant both in the Greek and La∣tine Tongues. Nor is L•aena to be pass'd by, kept by Ari∣stogiton; of a most approved Fidelity towards him, who being put upon the Rack, to cause her to betray her friend, suffer'd the torments with an unspeakable si∣lence and constancie. Neither did ••hodope the Cur∣tisan less ennoble this Art, the Preservatrix and Bed-fellow of Aesop that compiled the Fables, who at∣tain'd such a mass of Wealth by prostituting her body, that the built a third Pyramid, reckoned among the Wonders of the world. Next to her Thais is to be remember'd, who trusting in the prerogative of her Beauty, disdain'd the company of any others than Kings and Princes. In the advancement of this Art, Messalina far exceeded all these, who frequenting the publick Brothel-houses, overcame a noble Curtesan,
Page 191
suffering her self to be lain withal twenty five times in twenty four hours, returning wearied, but not sa∣tisfi'd: With whom we may joyn Joane the most Illustrious Queen of Naples of fresher memory, with many other Princely Curtesans and Palatine Harlots, were it safe to name them; yet in this differing from the common sort of Strunipets, that contrary to the Law of Heliogabalus, they acted not in publick Brothel-houses like the Empress Messalina, but in private Chambers. We may adde to these both the Julia's, the Niece and Daughter of Octavianus Augustus, toge∣ther with Populea, and Cleopatra Queen of Egypt; nor can we forget Semiramis and Pasiphae, most anti∣ent Examples of Lasciviousness: Of which the Lust of the one was so burning hot, that she not onely wooed her own Son to her embraces, but also passio∣nately lov'd a Horse even to desire of Copulation. The other, Wife to King Minos, suffer'd her self to be known by a Bull. It is not our business to set forth here a Catalogue of Illustrious Curtesans; yet we must not omit to inform you, that the Beds of Harlots and Adulteresses have brought forth the most Illustri∣ous Heroes in the world; for example, Hercules, A∣lexander, Ishmael, Abimelech, Solomon, Constantine, Clodoveus King of the Franks, Theodorick the Goth, William the Norman, and Raymund of Arragon. So lightly are the Laws of Matrimony set by among great Personages, who at their pleasure divorce, leave, and change their true and lawful Wives; and so often they wed and rewed their Sons and Daughters, that it is hard to say which is the most lawful Marriage. Do we not read how Ladislaus of Poland, having taken Beatrice to Wife, by whose very nod, as it were, he ob∣tain'd the Kingdom of Hungary, at length repudiated her to marry a French Harlot? Do we not finde, how Charles the Eight the French King having divorc'd
Page 192
Margaret the Daughter of Maximilian Caesar, took a∣way his espoused Wife and married her? whom after∣wards Lewis the Twelfth, having put away his own Wife, took afterwards to his Bed; the Bishops and Chief Clergy of the Kingdom assisting him therein, and consenting thereto; who esteem'd and valu'd the ends of obtaining Britany, more than the obser∣vation of the Laws of Marriage. But let us re∣turn to the Discourse of Harlots, whose cunning devices he that will understand, that is to say, by what ways they prostitute their Chastity, with what wan∣ton casts of the Eye, with what nods of the Coun∣tenance, with what gestures of the Body, with what flatteries of Speech, with what obscene Embraces, with what allurements of Habit and artificial Pain∣tings they provoke their Corrupters, together with the rest of their cunning Harlotry Devices, Snares, and Stratagems, let him seek 'um among the Comick Po∣ets. But he that desires to know what Allurements, what affectionate Language, what Kissing, Handling, Rubbing, Resisting; what postures of Lying, what im∣pulse of Action, what reciprocations of Kindness compleat the Venereal Game, let him search into the Volumes of Physitians. Yet there be others that have set forth Treatises of Harlotry, as Antiphanes, Aristo∣phanes, Apollodorus, and Callistratus; in particular, Ce∣phalus the Rhetorician wrote in the praise of Lais the Curtesan, and Alcidamus in honour of Nais. Not have many others both Greeks and Latins been wanting to discover their wanton Amours, as Callimachus, Phi∣letes, Anacreon, Orpheus, Alceon, Pindarus, Sappho, Tibullus, Catullus, Propertius, Virgil, Juvenal, Martial, Cornelius Gallus, and many others, more like Panders than Poets; though all of them were outdone by Ovid in his He∣roick Epistles dedicated to Corinna, which were also outdone by himself in his de Arte Amandi, which he
Page 193
might have better intitled, The Art of Whoring and Pimping: The learning whereof, because it had cor∣rupted Youth with unchast Documents, therefore was the Author deservedly banish'd by the Emperour Octa∣vianus Augustus to the farthest parts of the North, Archilochus also the Lacedaemonian, caus'd all Love-books and Verses to be burnt. Yet now adays this Art is publickly learnt and taught in every School by our unwary Pedagogues, with vain and obscene Commen∣taries upon the Text. Nay, I my self have seen and read under the Title of The Curtesan, publish'd in the Italian Tongue, and printed at Venice, a Dialogue touching the Art of Bawdery, wickedly explaining the Veneries of both Sexes, which with the Author were more fit to be committed to the fire. I omit to rehearse the most detstable vice of Buggery, which the Great A∣ristotle so much approves of, and which Nero solemniz'd with a publick Wedding; at which time St. Paul wri∣ting to the Romans, denounces the anger of the Omni∣potent against them. For on them shall God certainly rain Brimstone, and Coles of fire shall be the portion of their Cup. Against these the Emperour commands the Laws to arm themselves, and with exquisite tor∣ments to inflict capital punishment upon them, the Sword being the Executioner; but now adays they are burnt with Fire. Moses in his Laws ordain'd most severe punishment for this Crime: and Plato extir∣pates it out of his Republick, utterly condemning it in his Laws. The Antient Romans, as Valerius and others witness, inflicted most severe penalties on those that us'd it. Examples whereof were Quintus Fla∣minius, and the Tribune stain by Caelius. But that we may not farther vex the honest Ear, let us return from this monstrous Lust and beastly uncleanness, to our first Subject. For the Love of women is common to all, & there is no person that at one time or other does not
Page 194
feel the Fire thereof; though the women love one way, the men another; young men one way, great pesona∣ges another way; the poor one way, the rich another way: and, which is more miraculous, according to the difference of Nations and Climates. The Italians are of one humour in their Amours, the Spaniards of a∣nother, the French of another, the Germans of another. The same difference of Love appears in the difference of Sex, Age, Dignity, Fortune, and Nation, every one having a different sort of amorous Frenzy. The Love of men is more ardent and impetuous, the love of wo∣men more constant; the love of young men is wanton, the love of aged persons ridiculous; the poor Lover strives to please with Obsequiousness, the rich Lady with Gifts; the vulgar sort with Feasts and Treatments, Noble-men with Interludes and Plays. The ingenious Italian courts his Lady with a dissembled heat, a quaint kinde of Wooing, praising her in Verse, and extol∣ling her above all other women. If he be jealous, he perpetually shuts her up, and keeps her as his Captive; if he despair of enjoying his Mistriss, then he con∣founds her with a thousand Curses, and loads her with Maledictions. The Spaniard is rash, impatient of his heat, mad, and restless, and bemoaning the torments of his Flames, with miserable lamentations worships and adores his Mistriss. If he be cross'd in his Love, he grieves and pines away to death; if he grow jealous, he kills her, or being •atiated, leaves her to prostitute her self. The lascivious French-man trusts in his Obsequi∣ousness, and strives to win his Ladies favour with Songs and merry Discourse. If he grow jealous, he com∣plains of his hard fortune; but if he lose his Love, he reviles her, threatens revenge, and attempts to com∣pass his ends by force. After enjoyment, he neglects her, and marries another. The cold German slowly moves to love; but being once inflam'd, he makes use
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of art and liberality. If he grow jealous, he shuts his Purse. After enjoyment, the heat is quickly over. The French-man feigns his Love, the German dissembles his Heat: the Spaniard hath a good opinion of himself, and believes himself to be belov'd; but the Italians Love is never without Jealousie. The French-man loves a witty, though unhandsome woman; the Spa∣niard prefers a fair woman before a witty: the Italian loves a fearful bashful woman; the German one that is bold. The French-man, through vehement desire, of a wise man becomes a fool; but the German ha∣ving wasted all his Estate, at length, though late, of a fool becomes a wise man: the Spaniard, for his Mi∣striss sake, will attempt great things; and the Italian, for the enjoyment of his Lady, contemns all thought of danger. Moreover, we see that great men intan∣gled in the Shares of Love and Passion, many times forsake great Actions, and leave most noble Enterpri∣zes behinde their backs, as formerly Mithridates in Pon∣tus, at Capua Hannibal, Caesar in Alexandria, in Greece Demetrius, Antonie in Egypt. Hercules ceas'd from his labours for Iole's sake: Achilles hides himself from the Battel for love of Briseis: Circe stays Vlysses: Clau∣dius▪ dies in Prison for love of a Virgin: Caesar is de∣tain'd by Cleopatra; and the same woman was the ru∣ine of Antonius. We read in Scripture, that for the Fornication of Seth with the Daughters of Cain, that the whole Race of man was drowned in the Flood. The Sichemites and the House of Amor was destroy'd in revenge of Fornication and the whole people of Israel, for committing Fornication with strange wo∣men, were many times overcome in Battel, and carried into Captivity. And for the single Adultery of one person, David the King, what a destruction and waste of people ensu'd! For Fornication and ravishing of women, the Thebans, Phoceans, and Circeans were as∣sail'd
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and quite overthrown; and for the same reason was the Peloponnesian War undertaken, as I said be∣fore, by Pericles; and Troy for the same reason, ten years besieg'd, to the vast detriment of Greece and Asia. For the same reasons, and upon the same score, Tarqui∣nius, Claudius, Dionysius, Hannibal, Ptolomy, Marck Antony, Theodorick the Goth, Rodoaldus the Lombard, Childerick of France, Advinceslaus of Bohemia, and Manphred the Neapolitan, suffered death, and the ruine of their Countries. Meerly for the vitiating of Ju∣lia Cana Daughter of the Governour of Tingitana, by Rodorick the King, the Moors having driven out the Goths, possess'd all Spain. Henry the second, King of England, for abusing the contracted Wife of his Son, Daughter of Philip the French King, had like to have been driven out of his Kingdom by his Son. For be∣ing false to their Beds, those enraged Wives, Clytem∣nestra, Olympia, Laodicea, Beronica, Fregiogunda and Blanch both Queens of France, Joane of Naples, and many other women, slew their Husbands. And this was the reason that Medea, Progne, Ariadne, Althea, Heristilla, changing their maternal Love into Hatred, were every one the cause and plotters of their Sons deaths. And now adays we finde, that many women revenge the Adulteries of their Husbands upon their Children; and of most milde and patient Mothers, have become most cruel Medea's, furious Althea's, and impious Heristilla's.