MEMB. II.
Symptoms of Jealousy, Fear, Sorrow, Suspicion, strange Actions, Gestures, Outrages, Locking up, Oaths, Trials, Laws, &c.
Of all passions, as I have already proved, love is most violent, and of
those bitter potions which this love-melancholy affords, this bastard
jealousy is the greatest, as appears by those prodigious symptoms which it
hath, and that it produceth. For besides fear and sorrow, which is common
to all melancholy, anxiety of mind, suspicion, aggravation, restless
thoughts, paleness, meagreness, neglect of business, and the like, these
men are farther yet misaffected, and in a higher strain. 'Tis a more
vehement passion, a more furious perturbation, a bitter pain, a fire, a
pernicious curiosity, a gall corrupting the honey of our life, madness,
vertigo, plague, hell, they are more than ordinarily disquieted, they lose
bonum pacis, as [6125]Chrysostom observes; and though they be rich, keep
sumptuous tables, be nobly allied, yet miserrimi omnium sunt, they are
most miserable, they are more than ordinarily discontent, more sad, nihil
tristius, more than ordinarily suspicious. Jealousy, saith [6126]Vives,
begets unquietness in the mind, night and day: he hunts after every word
he hears, every whisper, and amplifies it to himself (as all melancholy men
do in other matters) with a most unjust calumny of others, he misinterprets
everything is said or done, most apt to mistake or misconstrue, he pries
into every corner, follows close, observes to a hair. 'Tis proper to
jealousy so to do,
Pale hag, infernal fury, pleasure's smart,
Envy's observer, prying in every part.
Besides those strange gestures of staring, frowning, grinning, rolling of
eyes, menacing, ghastly looks, broken pace, interrupt, precipitate,
half-turns. He will sometimes sigh, weep, sob for anger. Nempe suos imbres
etiam ista tonitrua fundunt,[6127]—swear and belie, slander any man,
curse, threaten, brawl, scold, fight; and sometimes again flatter and speak
fair, ask forgiveness, kiss and coll, condemn his rashness and folly, vow,
protest, and swear he will never do so again; and then eftsoons, impatient
as he is, rave, roar, and lay about him like a madman, thump her sides,
drag her about perchance, drive her out of doors, send her home, he will be
divorced forthwith, she is a whore, &c., and by-and-by with all submission
compliment, entreat her fair, and bring her in again, he loves her dearly,
she is his sweet, most kind and loving wife, he will not change, nor leave
her for a kingdom; so he continues off and on, as the toy takes him, the
object moves him, but most part brawling, fretting, unquiet he is, accusing
and suspecting not strangers only, but brothers and sisters, father and
mother, nearest and dearest friends. He thinks with those Italians,
And through fear conceives unto himself things almost incredible and
impossible to be effected. As a heron when she fishes, still prying on all
sides; or as a cat doth a mouse, his eye is never off hers; he gloats on
him, on her, accurately observing on whom she looks, who looks at her, what
she saith, doth, at dinner, at supper, sitting, walking, at home, abroad,
he is the same, still inquiring, maundering, gazing, listening, affrighted
with every small object; why did she smile, why did she pity him, commend
him? why did she drink twice to such a man? why did she offer to kiss, to
dance? &c., a whore, a whore, an arrant whore. All this he confesseth in
the poet,
[6128]Omnia me terrent, timidus sum, ignosce timori.
Et miser in tunica suspicor esse virum.
Me laedit si multa tibi dabit oscula mater,
Me soror, et cum qua dormit amica simul.
Each thing affrights me, I do fear,
I doubt a man is hid within
The clothes that thou dost wear.
Is it not a man in woman's apparel? is not somebody in that great chest, or
behind the door, or hangings, or in some of those barrels? may not a man
steal in at the window with a ladder of ropes, or come down the chimney,
have a false key, or get in when he is asleep? If a mouse do but stir, or
the wind blow, a casement clatter, that's the villain, there he is: by his
goodwill no man shall see her, salute her, speak with her, she shall not
go forth of his sight, so much as to do her needs. [6129]Non ita bovem
argus, &c. Argus did not so keep his cow, that watchful dragon the golden
fleece, or Cerberus the coming in of hell, as he keeps his wife. If a dear
friend or near kinsman come as guest to his house, to visit him, he will
never let him be out of his own sight and company, lest, peradventure, &c.
If the necessity of his business be such that he must go from home, he doth
either lock her up, or commit her with a deal of injunctions and
protestations to some trusty friends, him and her he sets and bribes to
oversee: one servant is set in his absence to watch another, and all to
observe his wife, and yet all this will not serve, though his business be
very urgent, he will when he is halfway come back in all post haste, rise
from supper, or at midnight, and be gone, and sometimes leave his business
undone, and as a stranger court his own wife in some disguised habit.
Though there be no danger at all, no cause of suspicion, she live in such a
place, where Messalina herself could not be dishonest if she would, yet he
suspects her as much as if she were in a bawdy-house, some prince's court,
or in a common inn, where all comers might have free access. He calls her
on a sudden all to nought, she is a strumpet, a light housewife, a bitch,
an arrant whore. No persuasion, no protestation can divert this passion,
nothing can ease him, secure or give him satisfaction. It is most strange
to report what outrageous acts by men and women have been committed in this
kind, by women especially, that will run after their husbands into all
places and companies, [6130]as Jovianus Pontanus's wife did by him, follow
him whithersoever he went, it matters not, or upon what business, raving
like Juno in the tragedy, miscalling, cursing, swearing, and mistrusting
every one she sees. Gomesius in his third book of the Life and Deeds of
Francis Ximenius, sometime archbishop of Toledo, hath a strange story of
that incredible jealousy of Joan queen of Spain, wife to King Philip,
mother of Ferdinand and Charles the Fifth, emperors; when her husband
Philip, either for that he was tired with his wife's jealousy, or had some
great business, went into the Low Countries: she was so impatient and
melancholy upon his departure, that she would scarce eat her meat, or
converse with any man; and though she were with child, the season of the
year very bad, the wind against her, in all haste she would to sea after
him. Neither Isabella her queen mother, the archbishop, or any other friend
could persuade her to the contrary, but she would after him. When she was
now come into the Low Countries, and kindly entertained by her husband, she
could not contain herself, [6131]but in a rage ran upon a yellow-haired
wench, with whom she suspected her husband to be naught, cut off her
hair, did beat her black and blue, and so dragged her about. It is an
ordinary thing for women in such cases to scratch the faces, slit the noses
of such as they suspect; as Henry the Second's importune Juno did by
Rosamond at Woodstock; for she complains in a [6132]modern poet, she
scarce spake,
But flies with eager fury to my face,
Offering me most unwomanly disgrace.
So fell she on me in outrageous wise,
As could disdain and jealousy devise.
Or if it be so they dare not or cannot execute any such tyrannical
injustice, they will miscall, rail and revile, bear them deadly hate and
malice, as [6133]Tacitus observes, The hatred of a jealous woman is
inseparable against such as she suspects.
[6134]Nulla vis flammae tumidique venti
Tanta, nec teli metuanda torti.
Quanta cum conjux viduata taedis
Winds, weapons, flames make not such hurly burly,
As raving women turn all topsy-turvy.
So did Agrippina by Lollia, and Calphurnia in the days of Claudius. But
women are sufficiently curbed in such cases, the rage of men is more
eminent, and frequently put in practice. See but with what rigour those
jealous husbands tyrannise over their poor wives. In Greece, Spain, Italy,
Turkey, Africa, Asia, and generally over all those hot countries, [6135]
Mulieres vestrae terra vestra, arate sicut vultis. Mahomet in his Alcoran
gives this power to men, your wives are as your land, till them, use them,
entreat them fair or foul, as you will yourselves. [6136]Mecastor lege
dura vivunt mulieres, they lock them still in their houses, which are so
many prisons to them. will suffer nobody to come at them, or their wives to
be seen abroad,—nec campos liceat lustrare patentes. They must not so
much as look out. And if they be great persons, they have eunuchs to keep
them, as the Grand Signior among the Turks, the Sophies of Persia, those
Tartarian Mogors, and Kings of China. Infantes masculos castrant innumeros
ut regi serviant, saith [6137]Riccius, they geld innumerable infants to
this purpose; the King of [6138]China maintains 10,000 eunuchs in his
family to keep his wives. The Xeriffes of Barbary keep their courtesans in
such a strict manner, that if any man come but in sight of them he dies for
it; and if they chance to see a man, and do not instantly cry out, though
from their windows, they must be put to death. The Turks have I know not
how many black, deformed eunuchs (for the white serve for other
ministeries) to this purpose sent commonly from Egypt, deprived in their
childhood of all their privities, and brought up in the seraglio at
Constantinople to keep their wives; which are so penned up they may not
confer with any living man, or converse with younger women, have a cucumber
or carrot sent into them for their diet, but sliced, for fear, &c. and so
live and are left alone to their unchaste thoughts all the days of their
lives. The vulgar sort of women, if at any time they come abroad, which is
very seldom, to visit one another, or to go to their baths, are so covered,
that no man can see them, as the matrons were in old Rome, lectica aut
sella tecta, vectae, so [6139]Dion and Seneca record, Velatae totae
incedunt, which [6140]Alexander ab Alexandro relates of the Parthians,
lib. 5. cap. 24. which, with Andreas Tiraquellus his commentator, I
rather think should be understood of Persians. I have not yet said all,
they do not only lock them up, sed et pudendis seras adhibent: hear what
Bembus relates lib. 6. of his Venetian history, of those inhabitants that
dwell about Quilon in Africa. Lusitani, inquit, quorundum civitates
adierunt: qui natis statim faeminis naturam consuunt, quoad urinae exitus ne
impediatur, easque quum adoleverint sic consutas in matrimonium collocant,
ut sponsi prima cura sit conglutinatas puellae oras ferro interscindere. In
some parts of Greece at this day, like those old Jews, they will not
believe their wives are honest, nisi pannum menstruatum prima nocte
videant: our countryman [6141]Sands, in his peregrination, saith it is
severely observed in Zanzynthus, or Zante; and Leo Afer in his time at Fez,
in Africa, non credunt virginem esse nisi videant sanguineam mappam; si
non, ad parentes pudore rejicitur. Those sheets are publicly shown by
their parents, and kept as a sign of incorrupt virginity. The Jews of old
examined their maids ex tenui membrana, called Hymen, which Laurentius in
his anatomy, Columbus lib. 12. cap. 10. Capivaccius lib. 4. cap.
11. de uteri affectibus, Vincent, Alsarus Genuensis quaesit. med. cent.
4. Hieronymus Mercurialis consult. Ambros. Pareus, Julius Caesar
Claudinus Respons. 4. as that also de [6142]ruptura venarum ut
sauguis fluat, copiously confute; 'tis no sufficient trial they contend.
And yet others again defend it, Gaspar Bartholinus Institut. Anat. lib.
1. cap. 31. Pinaeus of Paris, Albertus Magnus de secret. mulier. cap. 9
& 10. &c. and think they speak too much in favour of women. [6143]
Ludovicus Boncialus lib. 4. cap. 2. muliebr. naturalem illam uteri
labiorum constrictionem, in qua virginitatem consistere volunt,
astringentibus medicinis fieri posse vendicat, et si defloratae sint,
astutae [6144]mulieres (inquit) nos fallunt in his. Idem Alsarius Crucius
Genuensis iisdem fere verbis. Idem Avicenna lib. 3. Fen. 20. Tract. 1,
cap. 47. [6145]Rhasis Continent. lib. 24. Rodericus a Castro de nat.
mul. lib. 1. cap. 3. An old bawdy nurse in [6146]Aristaenetus, (like that
Spanish Caelestina, [6147]quae, quinque mille virgines fecit mulieres,
totidemque mulieres arte sua virgines) when a fair maid of her
acquaintance wept and made her moan to her, how she had been deflowered,
and now ready to be married, was afraid it would be perceived, comfortably
replied, Noli vereri filia, &c. Fear not, daughter, I'll teach thee a
trick to help it. Sed haec extra callem. To what end are all those
astrological questions, an sit virgo, an sit casta, an sit mulier? and
such strange absurd trials in Albertus Magnus, Bap. Porta, Mag. lib. 2.
cap. 21. in Wecker. lib. 5. de secret, by stones, perfumes, to make them
piss, and confess I know not what in their sleep; some jealous brain was
the first founder of them. And to what passion may we ascribe those severe
laws against jealousy, Num. v. 14, Adulterers Deut. cap. 22. v. xxii.
as amongst the Hebrews, amongst the Egyptians (read [6148]Bohemus l. 1.
c. 5. de mor. gen. of the Carthaginians, cap. 6. of Turks, lib. 2. cap.
11.) amongst the Athenians of old, Italians at this day, wherein they are
to be severely punished, cut in pieces, burned, vivi-comburio, buried
alive, with several expurgations, &c. are they not as so many symptoms of
incredible jealousy? we may say the same of those vestal virgins that
fetched water in a sieve, as Tatia did in Rome, anno ab. urb. condita
800. before the senators; and [6149]Aemilia, virgo innocens, that ran
over hot irons, as Emma, Edward the Confessor's mother did, the king
himself being a spectator, with the like. We read in Nicephorus, that
Chunegunda the wife of Henricus Bavarus emperor, suspected of adultery,
insimulata adulterii per ignitos vomeres illaesa transiit, trod upon red
hot coulters, and had no harm: such another story we find in Regino lib.
2. In Aventinus and Sigonius of Charles the Third and his wife Richarda,
an. 887, that was so purged with hot irons. Pausanias saith, that he was
once an eyewitness of such a miracle at Diana's temple, a maid without any
harm at all walked upon burning coals. Pius Secund. in his description of
Europe, c. 46. relates as much, that it was commonly practised at Diana's
temple, for women to go barefoot over hot coals, to try their honesties:
Plinius, Solinus, and many writers, make mention of [6150]Geronia's
temple, and Dionysius Halicarnassus, lib. 3. of Memnon's statue, which
were used to this purpose. Tatius lib. 6. of Pan his cave, (much like old
St. Wilfrid's needle in Yorkshire) wherein they did use to try, maids,
[6151]whether they were honest; when Leucippe went in, suavissimus
exaudiri sonus caepit Austin de civ. Dei lib. 10. c. 16. relates many
such examples, all which Lavater de spectr. part. 1. cap. 19 contends to
be done by the illusion of devils; though Thomas quaest. 6. de polentia,
&c. ascribes it to good angels. Some, saith [6152]Austin, compel their
wives to swear they be honest, as if perjury were a lesser sin than
adultery; [6153]some consult oracles, as Phaerus that blind king of Egypt.
Others reward, as those old Romans used to do; if a woman were contented
with one man, Corona pudicitiae donabatur, she had a crown of chastity
bestowed on her. When all this will not serve, saith Alexander Gaguinus,
cap. 5. descript. Muscoviae, the Muscovites, if they suspect their wives,
will beat them till they confess, and if that will not avail, like those
wild Irish, be divorced at their pleasures, or else knock them on the
heads, as the old [6154]Gauls have done in former ages. Of this tyranny of
jealousy read more in Parthenius Erot. cap. 10. Camerarius cap. 53. hor.
subcis. et cent. 2. cap. 34. Caelia's epistles, Tho. Chaloner de repub.
Aug. lib. 9. Ariosto lib. 31. stasse 1. Felix Platerus observat. lib.
1. &c. |
