by Thomas Nash
late and ripening early. The peach treeat the first planting was frutefull and wholesome, wheras now til it betransplanted, it is poysonous and hatefull. Yong plants for their saphad balme, for their yeolow gumme glistering amber. The euening deawdnot water on flowers, but honnie. Such a golden age, such a good age,such an honest age was set foorth in this banquetting house.
O _Rome_, if thou hast in thee such soule-exalting obiects: what athing is heauen in comparison of thee, of which _Mercators_ globe is aperfecter modell than thou art? Yet this I must say to the shame of vsProtestants, if good workes may merit heauen, they doo them, we talke ofthem. Whether superstition or no makes the vnprofitable seruants,that let pulpets decide: but there, you shall haue the brauest Ladies ingownes of beaten gold, washing pilgrimes and poore souldiours feeteand dooing nothing they and their wayting mayds all the yeare long, butmaking shirts and bandes for them against they come by in distresse.Their hospitalls are more like noblemens houses than otherwise: sorichly furnished, cleane kept, and hot perfumed, that a souldiour wouldthinke it a sufficient recompence for his trauell and his wounds, tohaue such a heauenly retyring place. For the Pope and his pontificalibusI will not deale with, onely I will dilate vnto you what hapned whiles Iwas in _Rome_.
So it fell out, that it being a vehement hot summer when I was asoiourner there, there entred such a hotspurd plague as hath not beenheard of: why it was but a word and a blow, Lord haue mercie vpon vs,and he was gone. Within three quarters of a yere in that one citie theredyed of it a hundred thousand: Looke in _Lanquets_ Chronicle and youshall finde it. To smell of a nosegay, that was poysond: and turne yournose to a house, that had the plague, it was all one. The clouds likea number of cormorants, that keepe their corne till it stinke and ismustie, kept in their stinking exhalations, till they had almost stifledall _Romes_ inhabitants. Phisitions, greedines of golde made themgreedie of their destinie. They would come to visite those, with whoseinfirmities their arte had no affinitie: and euen as a man with a feeshould bee hyred to hang himselfe, so would they quietly goe home anddye presently after they had been with their patients. All day and allnight long carremen did nothing but goe vp and downe the streetes withtheir carts and crye, Haue you anie dead to burie, haue you anie deadto burie: and had manie times out of one house their whole loading: onegraue was the sepulcher of seuenscore, one bed was the altar whereonwhole families were offered.
The wals were hoard and furd with the moist scorching steam of theirdesolation. Euen as before a gun is shot off, a stinking smoake funnelsout, and prepares the waie for him, so before anie gaue vp the ghost,death araied in a stinking smoke stopt his nostrils, and cramd it selfefull into his mouth, that closed vp his fellowes eyes, to giue himwarning to prepare for his funeral. Some dide sitting at their meate,others as they were asking counsell of the phisition for their friendes.I saw at the house where I was hosted, a maide bring her master warmebroth for to comfort him, and she sinke downe dead her self ere he hadhalfe eate it vp.
During this time of visitation, there was a Spaniard, one _Esdras_ ofGranado, a notable Bandetto, authorized by ye pope, because he assistedhim in some murthers. This villain colleagued with one _Bartol_ adesperate Italian, practised to breake into those rich mens houses inthe night where the plague had most rained, and if there were none butthe mistres and maid left aliue, to rauish them both, and bring awaieall the wealth they could fasten on. In a hundred chief citizens houseswhere the hand of God had bin, they put this outrage in vse. Thogh thewomen so rauished cride out, none durst come nere them, for feare ofcatching their deaths by them, & some thought they cried out onely withthe tyrannie of the maladie. Amongst the rest the house where I lay heinuaded, where all being snatcht vp by the sicknesse but the good wifeof the house, a noble and chast matrone called _Heraclide_ and her_Zanie_, and I & my curtizan, he knocking at the dore late in the night,ranne in to the matrone, & left me and my loue to the mercie of hiscompanion. Who finding me in bed (as the time requird) ranne at me fullwith his rapier, thinking I would resist him, but as good lucke wasI escapt him & betooke me to my pistoll in the window vncharged. Hefearing it had bene charged, threatned to run her through if I onceoffered but to aime at him, Foorth ye chamber he dragd her, holding hisrapier at hir hart, whilest I stil crid out, Saue her, kil me, & Ileransome her with a thousand duckets: but lust preuailed, no praierswould be heard. Into my chamber I was lockt, and watchmen charged (as hemade semblance when there was none there) to knocke me downe with theirhalberdes, if I stirde but a foote downe the staires. So threw I myselfe pensiue againe on my pallat, and dard all the deuils in hell now Iwas alone to come and fight with me one after another in defence of thatdetestable rape. I beat my head against the wals and cald them bauds,because they wold see such a wrong committed, and not fall vpon him.To returne to _Heraclide_ below, whom the vgliest of all bloud suckers_Esdras of Granado_ had vnder shrift. First he assayled her with roughmeanes, and slew her _Zanie_ at her foote, that stept before her inrescue. Then when al armed resist was put to flight, he assaied her withhonie speech, & promised her more iewells and giftes than hee was ableto pilfer in an hundred yeres after. He discourst vnto her how he wascountenanced and borne out by the pope, and how many execrable murtherswith impunitie he had executed on them that displeasde him. This is theeight score house (quoth he) that hath done homage vnto me, and here Iwill preuaile, or I will bee torne in pieces. Ah quoth _Heraclide_ (witha hart renting sigh) art thou ordaind to be a worse plague to me than yeplague it selfe? Haue I escapt the hands of God to fal into the hands ofman? Heare me _Iehouah_, & be merciful in ending my miserie. Dispatchme incontinent dissolute homicide deaths vsurper. Here lies my husbandstone colde on the dewie floore. If thou beest of more power than God,to strike me speedily, strike home, strike deep, send me to heauenwith my husband. Aie me, it is the spoyl of my honor thou seekest in mysoules troubled departure, thou art some deuill sent to tempt me. Auoidefrom me sathan, my soule is my sauiours, to him I haue bequeathed it,from him can no man take it. Jesu, Jesu spare mee vndefiled for thyspouse, Jesu, Jesu neuer faile those that put their trust in thee. Withthat she fell in a sowne, and her eies in their closing seemed to spauneforth in their outward sharpe corners new created seed pearle, which theworld before neuer set eie on. Soone he rigorously reuiued her, & toldeher yt he had a charter aboue scripture, she must yeld, she should yeld,see who durst remoue her out of his hands. Twixt life and death thus shefaintly replied. How thinkest thou, is there a power aboue thy power,if there be, he is here present in punishment, and on thee will takepresent punishment if thou persistest in thy enterprise. In the tyme ofsecuritie euerie man sinneth, but when death substitutes one frend hisspecial bayly to arrest another by infection, and dispearseth his quiuerinto ten thousand hands at once, who is it but lookes about him? A manthat hath an vneuitable huge stone hanging only by a haire ouer hishead, which he lookes euerie Pater noster while to fall and pash him inpeeces, will not he be submissiuely sorrowfull for his transgressions,refraine himselfe from the least thought of folly, and purifie hisspirit with contrition and penitence? Gods hand like a huge stone hangsvneuitably ouer thy head: what is the plague, but death playing theprouost marshall, to execute all those that wil not be called homeby anie other meanes. This my deare knights body is a quiuer of hisarrowes, which alreadie are shot into thee inuisible. Euen as the age ofgoates is knowen by the knots on their homes, so think the anger of Godapparently visioned or showne vnto thee in the knitting of my browes.A hundred haue I buried out of my house, at all whose departures I hauebeen present: a hundreds infection is mixed with my breath, loe, nowI breath vpon thee, a hundred deaths come vpon thee. Repent betimes,imagine there is a hell though not a heauen: that hell thy conscience isthroughly acquainted with, if thou hast murdred halfe so manie, as thouvnblushingly braggest. As _Mocenas_ in the latter end of his dayeswas seuen yeres without sleepe, so these seuen weekes haue I tookno slumber, my eyes haue kept continuall watch against the diuell myenemie: death I deemed my frend (frends flie from vs in aduersitie),death, the diue
ll & al the ministring spirits of temptation are watchingabout thee to intrap thy soule by my abuse to eternall damnation. It isthy soule only thou maist saue by sauing mine honor.
Death will haue thy bodie infallibly for breaking into my house, that hehad selected for his priuate habitation. If thou euer camst of a woman,or hop'st to be sau'd by the seed of a woman, spare a woman. Dearesoppressed with dogs, when they cannot take soyle, runne to men forsuccor: to whom should women in their disconsolate and desperate estaterun, but to men like the Deare for succour and sanctuarie. If thou beea man thou wilt succour me, but if thou be a dog & a brute beast, thouwilt spoile me, defile me & teare me: either renounce Gods image, orrenounce the wicked minde that thou bearest.
These words might haue moou'd a compound hart of yron and adamant, butin his hart they obtained no impression: for he sitting in his chaireof state against the doore all the while that she pleaded,
