A most lamentable and tragical history, containing the outrageous and horrible tyranny which a spanish gentlewoman name Violenta executed vpon her lover Didaco, because he espoused another being first betrothed unto her.  
Newly translated into English meter, by T. A. 1576.  
¶ Imprinted at London by John Charlewood for Thomas Butter dwelling in Paules churchyard near to S. Austines gate at the sign of the ship. 1576.   

¶ To the Right worshipful Sir Thomas Gressham Knight, &c. T. A. wysheth Nestors yeares with increase of virtue and prosperity.  
TO discourse of the furious tyranny of the boocherly Medea, in dismembering the innocent infant Absyrtus her own natural brother, and scattering his martyred limbs in the high way where her father should pass, were but a lost labour. Or to unfold the the horrible cruelty of the beastly Progne, in murdering her own child Iphis, and roasting his flesh, to present the same ro her husband Tereus in a Banquet, were but vain taken travail, and time altogether mispended, which might otherwise haue been far better employed. Those are but ethnic examples, far fet, and a wonderful way distant from our climate both by Sea and land: and committed among such barbarous people, that had no knowledge of any God nor yet of any spark of civility. neither shall wee need to travail so far for the matter. Let us but cast our eyes over the sea here into spain, that lieth in the hart of christendom, where God is known and honoured, mutiall amity frequented, and all kind of good order and civility observed, and let us see what hath there happened. Surely, an example so terrible, there it would move any true Christian to tears, yea and make his hair to stand upright, for horror, in thinking of so detestable a fact: which in few words was this: Didaco, a spanish knight, born, and brought up in valemce, fell in love with a poor maiden name, Violenta, of parentage very base, but of parsonage most excellent. And lingering long in frustrate suit( for he sought his purpose by means not correspondent to honesty) not being able to suppress the vehemency of his affections, he married her privily, and lived in great bliss the space of a .xij. month, having recourse in the night time to her house. Howbeit in th'end he began to loathe his former match and acquainting himself with another dame of equal calling   

❧ The tragical history of Didaco, and Violenta.  
WHere Phoebus fiery foaming stéedes,  
Their restless race do end:  
And leaving our Horizon, to  
Th' Antipodes do wende,  
Right there doth lie a famous soil.  
Whose farthest bounds of land:  
Enuirond with the brinishe floods,  
Of Ocean Sea do stand.  
Whose weary warning weltering waves,  
Against the cliffs do roar:  
And tumble forth their rolling streams,  
And surges to the shore.  
And then dividing forth itself,  
In several arms again:  
doth on his swelling tides, the weight  
Of fléeting bark sustain.  
Whereby an hougy heap of wealth.  
And fruits of sundry sorts:  
By entertraffique from a far,  
Are levied to the ports.  
Long intercourse of nations strange.  
Haue so enrichte the same:  
That this from all Europaes bounds,  
Hath born away the famed.  
Our former auncetors haue tearmde,  
The same Hesperia hight:  
But tract of time presound, the name  
Iberia for to writ.  
Both names by great dexterity,  
And iudgement found, again  
Hispania the same at last,  
Was callde, in Englishe spain.  
spain therefore slowyng oft in wealth,  
In buildings fine and brave:  
Of all the nations round about,  
deserves the crown to haue.  
The pleasant planted soil thereof,  
In each respect excels:  
The pompouse island Paphos, where  
The goddesse Venus dwells.  
And gorgeous glistering Guidos eke,  
Whereas her throne doth rest:  
Or faire Ephesus where was kept.  
A solemn yearly feast.  
In chased Dianaes sacred fance,  
Whose building fine and rare:  
Of all the monuments in Gréece,  
The chiefest glory bare.  
All these I say must stoupe, when as  
Recorded is the famed:  
Of worthy spain, and yield they must,  
All honour to the same.  
If Champions stout were requisite,  
For Mars his griessely train:  
A mighty camp of warlike imps,  
Might soon be had in spain.  
In prows like the roman knights,  
Whose force so fierce in field:  
Constrainde the hunger starved Iewes,  
unto their yoke to yield.  
And ranged forth so far in fine,  
That all the world at last:  
Was subject to their servitude,  
When many a broil was past.  
In courage, not inferior,  
unto the trojan knights:  
Whose valiant hartes and noble force,  
Was tried in sundry fyghtes.  
Against the griessely graecian crew,  
Whose engines strong did shake:  
The trojan walls so stoutly, that  
The very ground did quake.  
And so in fine( but having first  
sustained many a foil)  
Did work the final fall thereof,  
In term of ten yeeres toil.  
But yf the worthy trojan knights,  
Had had a spanish band,  
Then surely the stately walls of Troy,  
unto this day should stand.  
And yf that age so practised were.  
And skilled in feats of war:  
The raging Macedonian rout,  
Had never rom'd so far.  
A●aine, if Territories brave,  
Or stately Towers on hye:  
With worthy praise deserve, to be  
Extolled to the sky.  
Then spain in that respect, is not  
Inferior to the rest:  
But for the beauty rare thereof,  
coequal to the best.  
Whose farthest limits with prospectes.  
Of Cities large and strong:  
Are fortified about and fenste,  
With bulwarks great among.  
In beauty like the stately fort,  
Which Dido once did frame:  
When she exiled from her land,  
To mighty Afrike came.  
valemce among the rest, this day  
A city of passing famed:  
Through regions far and near, in spain,  
doth bear a princely name.  
A fortress and a rampiar strong,  
That guardeth all the land:  
A brazen wall for to repulse,  
The force of foreign hand.  
maintained with a lusty troupe,  
Or warlike imps beside:  
Whose valiant acts haue purchaste famed,  
Through regions far and wide.  
Among the rest not long ago,  
There dwelled a worthy knight:  
derived from ancient royal race,  
His name Didaco hight.  
In chivalry to Hector like,  
Like Hercules in might:  
In policy ulysses mate,  
Like Hannibal in fight.  
In martiall prows joining ay,  
himself to Mars assigned:  
So that for courage stout, his peer  
In spain was hard to find.  
He knew the skill by stayed arm,  
The quivering lance to shake:  
To toss the thirling dart a far,  
And make the pike to quake.  
To brandishe brave the blade so bright,  
At barriers to contend:  
The glancing shaft with twanging bow,  
From mark to mark to sand.  
At tylt to try the sturdy strength,  
Of stately steede in field:  
And eke to crase the shivering spear,  
On crest of glistering shield.  
If ever warlike wight had cause,  
In warlike feats to vaunt:  
That knew by settled strength, his foes  
In furious fight to daunt.  
Didaco then, Didaco he,  
Might ioy above the rest:  
Whose acts had purchaste him a name,  
Superior to the best.  
What great delight did he conceive,  
To march in midst of field:  
Protected with a fatal blade,  
And eke a glistering shield.  
Sometime to hour-glass forth his ground,  
His foe for to entrap:  
And then retiring back again,  
To shun the afterclap.  
And mounting eft the prancing steed,  
To gull with dent of spur:  
Whose swiftness was a remedy,  
From dangers to recurre.  
None better knew with skill to guide,  
God Mars his pompous train:  
Or to direct his wings and troops,  
In order in the plain.  
Long practizd had this jovial imp,  
His green and youthful dayes:  
To win the spurs in chivalry,  
And martiall acts of praise.  
enjoying still his liberty,  
Not knowing Venus yoke:  
unexpert in the pangs of love,  
And cursed Cupides stroke.  
He never haunted Venus Court,  
Ne yet her carped troupe:  
Such weaklinges he abhorred, his mind  
To no such thing would stoupe,  
He let that pass to amorous knights,  
Whose servile yeeres were spent:  
In service of dame Venus, while  
Her court they did frequent.  
To lean to Cupids servile lore,  
He counted it a pain;  
The glancing glées of amorous dames,  
Such toys he counted vain.  
Such execise unfit for Mars,  
Or Mars his warlike band:  
To bow to such a shrine, would not  
With Mars his honor stand.  
No, no, God Mars his votaries,  
Delight in Trumpets sound,  
To hear the battering bullet, forth  
From Engine to rebound.  
To toss the iron tipped pike,  
To gird the dart at length:  
To shake the warlike persing lance,  
By slight of settled strength.  
To hour-glass forth his ground, to place  
His troops in battle ray:  
To set his garrisons, sometime  
To march, sometime to stay.  
Long Winter watches to endure,  
To bear the furious force:  
Of nipping cold, to joy in arms,  
And strength of baughtie horse.  
And not to loiter by the fire,  
Like Cupids carpet crew:  
Which homage yield to Venus laws,  
And bid god Mars Adieu.  
And lingering long in louers lore,  
These imps in fine are fain:  
A cold pursuit to render up,  
with travail for their pain.  
No, no, Didaco doth pretend,  
To run another race:  
To honour Mars, and not to sue  
Nor seek for Venus grace.  
Let them that haue abandoned,  
The race that I will run:  
Submit themselves to Venus lure,  
And Mars his practise shun.  
Whose fainting fingers far unfit,  
To handle spear or shield:  
With amorous lines their duty may,  
unto their ladies yield.  
Didaco of that cloister yet,  
will not a brother be:  
That brotherhood I say doth not,  
Accoro with his degree.  
Adien therefore dame Venus thou,  
Adien ye weakelinges all:  
Whose humour sucks the filthy dregs,  
Of Venus poisoned gull.  
cupid Adieu thou eluishe dwarf,  
In spite of this thy bow:  
And piercing darts Didaco he,  
will not thy godhead know,  
Didaco cruel war proclaymes,  
unto thy desperate arte:  
He nought regards the piercing stroke,  
Of this thy poisoned dart.  
Sound out alarum loud, and work  
Didacos chief annoy:  
do what thou canst, Ile make thee grant.  
Thou dealste not with a boy.  
help goddesse Venus, help thy son,  
express part of thy cure:  
Didaco, spite of both, will not  
Be subject to your lure.  
assail me both at once I say,  
show here your heavenly skill:  
Didaco sings, in spite of both,  
Ile be a warrior still.  
The goddesse Venus while she sate,  
In her supernal throne:  
revolving proud Didacos vaunts,  
unto herself alone.  
And pondering, that a mortal wight,  
Her godhead did reject:  
To Cupid she addressed her tate,  
In this, or like effect.  
cupid thy mothers onely care,  
And mean of good success:  
Attend mine hestes incontinent,  
Thereto thyself address.  
And as thou art the son of Mars,  
And mighty in thy kind:  
To show thy force without remorse,  
To please thy mothers mind.  
My grief is thine, not mine alone  
But common to us both:  
A mortal wight with vaunting brags,  
Our power divine doth loath,  
Hast thou not yet, long time or this,  
By trump of blasting famed:  
Heard of a right redouted knight,  
Didoco called by name.  
He he it is that shakes our throne,  
With many a thundering vaunt:  
Howe that our power is not of force,  
His courage for to daunt.  
And shall a mortal wight presume,  
Our godhead to provoke?  
Shal he from Venus scot free scape?  
And shun god Cupides stroke?  
And shall this youngling undertake  
With Venus to contend?  
Shall he presume against our fort  
His battery for to bend?  
Where then shall Venus godhead lie?  
Her art? her power divine?  
Forsooth even prostrate in the dust,  
And void of name in fine.  
Who henceforth will adore my shrine?  
Or Venus godhead know:  
Or shortly on mine altars, who  
Due honour will bestow?  
My ioy and darling dear, why is  
Thy bow vnbent so long?  
Why shall we bear this injury,  
Or tolerate such wrong.  
If this should pass, the brute shal reign,  
By every humane wight:  
That Cupids bow is out of force,  
And wants his wonted might.  
Eclipsed shall our honour be,  
farewell god Cupids name:  
And dame Venus power, none now,  
aclowledge will thy name.  
Bend up I say thy twanging bow,  
And with thy golden dart:  
In open streets whereas he walks,  
go wound Didacos hart,  
first whet thy denting shaft his point,  
Then draw thy stryng so far:  
That so this youth may learn, what is  
With Venus for to war.  
Thou knowest right well his wonted haunt,  
In valemce city bright:  
even in the goldsmiths row doth walk,  
This right renowned knight.  
fair Violenta she it is,  
The instrument must work:  
Theffect of this the late devise,  
which in my breast doth lurk.  
On her enamoured shall he be,  
When first he vewes her face:  
And maugre all his vaunts, shal stoupe,  
To seek and sue for grace.  
So shal dame Venus godhead live,  
Her famed shall not decay:  
The memory of Cupids act,  
Shalbe aduauncte for ay.  
now darling mine, I haue displayed,  
The sum of mine intent:  
Expecting here howe thou the same.  
To execute art bent.  
dear Lady, queen, and mother mine, 
cupid   
Your Cupids only stay:  
Your part it is for to command,  
My duty to obey.  
Behold my bended bow, behold,  
My piercing shafts are prest:  
And me in each respect full bent,  
To execute your heste.  
Long since I viewed his glorious vaunts.  
And yet I still decreed:  
To suffer him his humour fond,  
With folly for to feed.  
He hath not been the first perdieu,  
That spurned at my lore:  
The wound is not past cure, my dart  
Hath launcte as great a sore.  
He never yet was privilege,  
From Cupids heavenly power:  
Ile teach him well enough to come,  
And go at Venus lure.  
I mighty jove enamoured,  
On Ledyes glistering face,  
And caused him, change int' shape of swan:  
His Lady to embrace.  
And then shall he, a humane wight,  
Depriud' of mortal race:  
Presume so much vpon his strength,  
As cupid to deface?  
No, no, Ile sone his courage cool,  
Ile tame this newcome geste.  
That from his scornful lips at last,  
peccavi I will evangelist,  
now lady mother mine adue,  
Your cupid will attend,  
The coming of this Champion stout,  
My golden howe to bend.  
In hope t' achiue this feat so well,  
That all the world may know:  
Howe cupid will not stick, his arte  
In Venus cause to show.  
This said from skies unto the Earth:  
He takes his flight amain.  
And over valemce town his wings  
His naked corps sustain.  
Right soon the shout Didaco comes,  
Frequenting still his guise,  
And veweth al the streets about.  
With glance of rowllyng eyes.  
Thus ranging long at last his eyes,  
On Violenta cast.  
Wherewith blind Cupids poisoned shaft,  
From bow so fiercely brast.  
That glidyng through the air at last,  
It touchte so nere the quick,  
So that thinfected point thereof,  
did in his stomach stick.  
He feeling efte his secret wound,  
As mute he stood agaste.  
And groaning once or twice, in fine,  
Int' this complaint be braste.  
O heaven, o, earth, o jove above,  
What means this sudden stroke?  
Did ever poor Didaco yet  
Thy power divine provoke?  
What sudden marirdome is this?  
What pinching pangs of hell?  
The fates against the freedom, of  
Didaco do rebel.  
Oh what infernal monster thus:  
Doth work Didacos thrall.  
What fury fell of Stigian Lake.  
Hath now conspiro my fall?  
Oh pinching pangs of servitude,  
What just desert did make  
The gods on poor Didacos life,  
such vengeance for to take?  
O goddesse Venus bow thine ears,  
Of mercy to my plaint:  
At lestwyse to these parching flambes,  
Apply thou some restraint.  
power not forth al thy penalties,  
Vpon one simplo wight  
But now whereas I mercy crave,  
do mitigate thy spite:  
What honor shall redound to thee,  
By plaguing thus the ghost:  
Of one poor captive knight( alas)  
In triple torments toste.  
O qualify thy burning rage,  
repress thy boiling ire:  
Destil the drops of mercy, on  
Didacos fervent fire.  
I vow myself thy servant then.  
Thy bondslave and thy thrall:  
With dutiful obedience,  
To come when thou shalt call.  
And sith I haue transgreste thy laws,  
And spurned at thy state:  
Yet mercy grant, repentance due,  
Doth never come to late.  
O cupid thou, whose fatal shaft,  
Hath thirld my wounded hart:  
Some pity to thy prisoner show,  
And mitigate his smart.  
Due homage I will yield to thee,  
Thy power I will confess:  
And praises to thy sacred name,  
With thankful voice express.  
My former vaunts I here recant,  
The palm to thee I render:  
With thy celestial power to strive,  
My force is far to slender.  
revolving thus he throws himself,  
Vpon his pensive bed:  
A thousand heaps of wavering thoughts,  
turmoils his doubtful head.  
Oh Violenta bright, quod he,  
Of beauty passing rare:  
Whose orient hue of face hath trapped,  
My sences all in snare.  
Why did cursed fortune to us both,  
Such hapless hap assign:  
That thy descent, and race, is not  
coequal unto mine?  
What hellish hag did guide the glance,  
Of this my ranging view:  
That th'amorous glée of thee( poor girl)  
My sences should subdue?  
What spiteful constellacion, did  
envy thy luckless fate,  
To spring of line unequal for,  
heroical estate?  
At least to all those gifts so rare,  
wherewith thou art possessed:  
Why did not Nature pity plant,  
Within thy stony breast?  
The rare perfection which she framed,  
In thee by heavenly art:  
willbe eclipsed with the cloud,  
Of this thy savage hart.  
Right sure I am, yea to to sure,  
Thou wilt not once relent:  
unto those thousand seas of tears,  
Which I for thee haue spent.  
Thy heavy hardened ears will not,  
unto my charms incline:  
But suffer poor Didaco still,  
In languor for to pine.  
Thy stomach, sturdy, stony, stern,  
Alas will never bend:  
To poor Didacos flowing tears,  
Whose dolours haue no end.  
O cruel, crabbed, cursed fate,  
O hap of all most hard:  
What desperate doleful destiny,  
Haue you for me prepared?  
What gilded of mine hath wrought such cause  
Didaco to enthrall:  
On her, whose hart as hard is bent,  
As is the brazen wall?  
In nature like the Adamant,  
Whose substance will not yeld:  
Though thousand showers from top of house,  
Were on the same distilled.  
But oh my Violenta why  
Do I thy rigor blame?  
Why vomit I such foul despite,  
Against thy sacred name?  
I never felt thy furious mood,  
I never tried thy spite:  
Ne yet that thou didst loyal love,  
with rigor rude requited.  
Dame nature framing this thy form,  
When she her skill expressed:  
She might as well enfeoff the sparks,  
Of pity in thy breast.  
And so per●ie she did. Why then  
Do I( mad man) accuse:  
Thy sundry virtues with reproach?  
And eke thy name abuse.  
jove grant, there rest not in thine hart,  
Of pity such a want:  
That I may just occasion haue:  
Thy praises to recant.  
Thus beating still his busied brain,  
With many a wavering thought:  
With thousand checks he bannes the fates,  
That this his thraldom wrought.  
again rebuking this his rage,  
With bit of reasons lore:  
Reuokes eftsoone the curses, which  
He thundered out before.  
Fie fond Didaco, fie( quod he)  
Sith jove appoynts it so:  
Thy tears do but renew thy grief,  
And aggravate thy woe.  
Why dost thou spurne against the fates?  
Thy burden thou must bear,  
exclaim no more on Venus, why  
Dost thou her godhead fear.  
Why railste thou thus on Cupids bow?  
Why spurnste thou at his stroke?  
No, no, thy stout untamed neck,  
Must bow unto his yoke.  
Thou hast not been the first, or this  
That tasted of his dart,  
Ne yet shalt be the last perdieu,  
That he shall make to smart.  
As valiant knights, as thou, or this  
Haue bended at his beck:  
And born the weight of Cupids yoke,  
Vpon their tamed neck.  
Where is Hercules that worthy wight,  
That made the world to wonder?  
Who in his Cradle tare the jaws,  
Of Scorpions twain asunder.  
Why, was not he for all his might,  
enthralled in Venus lure:  
And forc'te his Ladies love in fine.  
By tears for to procure?  
Yes sure if credite ought be due,  
To Poets learned lore:  
If that their volumes he perusde,  
As gems of passing store.  
Then this they say, that Hercules,  
His Ladies love to win:  
Was fain in womans habit, on  
A distaff for to spin.  
And all that he had wrought by day  
In turning of his wheel:  
At night he was constraynde, the same,  
Vpon his rock to réele.  
If love of Lidian Omphale,  
Were of such passing might:  
The traunced sences for to daunt,  
Of this renowned Knight.  
As to enjoin such peevish tasks,  
To Mars his chiefest saint:  
What marvel then, I say, if love  
Hath made Didaco faint?  
Didaco thou art not a god,  
Nor sprung of heavenly line:  
But subject to mortality,  
The fates did so assign.  
And was not mighty jove himself,  
Who with his stately beck:  
Could cause the heauens and earth to quake,  
And surging seas could check,  
Why, was not he, I say, a thrall,  
And slave to Venus lure?  
Could his celestial deity,  
His malady recure?  
Could be such sacred influence,  
Into his veins instil:  
His fixed fancy to remove?  
Had jove such heavenly skill?  
No, no, his honor to withdraw,  
That feat far paste his Art:  
His wound to deep was trenched in,  
By bloody Cupidoes dart.  
So far unable to expel,  
his late conceived flamme:  
That every hour did minister,  
A faggot to the same.  
In fine constrained his deity,  
To change into shape of bull:  
Was fain that practise for to prove,  
In hope to win his trull.  
Why then if mighty jove himself,  
Who rules the lofty sky:  
For all his secret god head, yet  
In flames of love did fry.  
Then fond Didaco cease at last,  
'gainst Cupides lore to spurne:  
Who made the mighty jove above.  
In fervent amours burn.  
He was a God and forc'te to yield,  
But thou a mortal man:  
And sprung of humane progeny,  
Wilt kick at cupid than?  
No, no Didaco bend thy wits,  
Some other way to prove:  
Adapt thyself to Venus lore,  
And learn to live by love.  
Renounce thy triple trenching lance,  
Detest thy fatal blade:  
Abandon now thy glistering targe,  
Of gold and amber made.  
Farewell all martiall practices,  
Bid griesely Mars Adieu:  
And all his train: be dubde a knight,  
Of Venus courtly crew.  
resign thy warlike exercise,  
To guide a pompous train:  
Thou taken hast another charge,  
In hand. Such toys are vain.  
Farewell ye imps of chivalry,  
That Mars his bands do rule:  
Didaco taken hath degree,  
Within another school.  
A apprentice now to Cupids trade,  
And lady Venus thrall:  
Fast bound in sacred soleme vow,  
To come when they shall call.  
Ten thousand times ye Spanish knights,  
In prows that excel,  
And all the band of Mars his badge,  
Ten thousand times farewell.  
Well now Didaco frame thyself,  
To take a second view:  
Of that so amorous glée, which first  
Thy sences did subdue.  
With flowing tears from eyes distilled,  
With many a pensive groan:  
With thousand signs of loyalty,  
go make to her thy move.  
unfold those restless agonies,  
express the endless smart:  
Which since th'encounter of her view,  
Haue slain thy poor true heart.  
perchance, she is not of haggards kind,  
Nor hart so hard is bend:  
But thy distylling tears in fine,  
May move her to relend.  
But if thy proffered loyal love,  
with stern replies be fed:  
Then farewell life, and liberty,  
Didaco thou art dead.  
Hap glad, or sad, I mean to prove,  
If that my restless flamme:  
With thousand floods of tears expressed,  
My ladies hart may tame.  
perchance my plaints may mollify,  
Her hard and stony mind:  
And that the planges which I sustain,  
Some sweet remorse may find.  
resolved thus within his mind,  
From bed he rose again:  
And lays his faintie limbs, within  
A sweet perfumed bain.  
And casting on his Spanish scape,  
Directes his trembling place:  
Into goldsmiths row, to haue a view,  
Of Violentas face.  
And often traversing the streets,  
adjoining to her bower:  
To cast a secret glance, sometimes  
His eyes he doth enure.  
Full many a pilgrimage he made.  
His fancy for to feed:  
unto the shrine of this his saint,  
Before he once could speed.  
In fine when many an amorous glance,  
He wrested had in vain:  
unto the temple, where he knew,  
The goddesse did remain.  
In th'end Dame fortune fickle Dame,  
In lieu of former spite:  
prefers this doting amorous imp,  
unto his ladies sight.  
Who took the present offer strait,  
And costing thwart the way:  
With bonnet vayld unto the ground,  
Before his saint doth stay.  
She not forgetting yet the trade,  
And courteous guise of spain:  
Doth with a courtly brave Boniour,  
Salute the knight again.  
Whereat his fond conceits did sink,  
So deep into his brain:  
So that the flaming humour strait,  
Re●yrde into every vain.  
And feeding on a frustrate hope,  
With visage won and pale:  
In this effect unto his dame,  
He frames his trembling tale.  
If that the dames of destiny,  
The twiste in twain had shred:  
By which the vital breath into,  
My panting veins is lead.  
If they I say had fined my fate,  
Before mine eyes did see:  
The form of this thy heavenly face,  
adorned with such a glee.  
Then madam, never had I felt,  
The fevers of such pain:  
Ne had your beauty brewed the bale,  
That I poor man sustain.  
At least wise this strange martyrdom,  
That racks my wounded hart:  
far easier were to tolerate,  
And lesser were my smart,  
Thine orient beauty eke, which first  
My sences did enthrall:  
Might better be dispensed withall,  
For this my fatal fall.  
A fall said I? nay rather down,  
To Limbo lake deiecte:  
If mercy thine be not a mean,  
My state for to erect.  
Thy face hath captivate my wits,  
And traunc'te my sences so:  
That every hour with thousand thoughts  
Doth aggravate my woe.  
And doubtless( dame) except your grace,  
That did my thrall procure:  
Prepare some speedy remedy,  
My fever to recure.  
These hands of mine shall execute,  
The cursed fates beheste:  
With bloody knife to pierce the hart,  
In this turmoiled breast.  
And when this breathles corps of mine,  
Shalbe interred in mould:  
This Epitaph shall there be fixed,  
For all men to behold.  
Stay passenger, a knight within,  
This secret vault doth he:  
Who pining long with restless love,  
At last for love did die.  
Then lady shalt thou noted be,  
And pointed at of all:  
As she whose hardened hart did work.  
The poor Didacoes thrall.  
O harden not thine heavy ears,  
Against the grievous groan:  
Of poor Didaco, whom thy love  
Hath caused to make his mone.  
Recount the restless agonies,  
Record the endless smart:  
And pining passions, that turmoil  
And rack Didacoes hart.  
O think vpon that hell of pains,  
That range within my mind:  
think on my mortal martyrdom,  
That no relief can find.  
stop not thine ears, as doth the asp,  
Against my piteous plaints:  
But hearken to the restless toil,  
That thus my soul atteints.  
And sure I think, if that the sound  
Of these my drery tears:  
With seas of sobbing sighs expressed,  
Might pierce your hardened ears.  
The vehemence therof no doubt,  
Would openly define:  
The furious force of these turmoils,  
Wherein( poor man) I pine.  
Although ten thousand floods of tears,  
Cannot at full express:  
The lingering languor, and the woe  
That doth mine hart oppress.  
This said, with many a secret groan,  
Displaying forth his case:  
The brinishe tears distilling down,  
Embrude his blubbered face.  
That who had seen his tragical looks,  
In gesturing his part:  
Would say his tongue did truly tell,  
The message of his hart.  
She somewhat basht at this discourse,  
Which he poor man expressed:  
With gesture seemly set, in fine  
This short reply addreste.  
My signior Didaco if your youth,  
In martiall practise spent:  
And perfect skill in chivalry,  
Which use to you haue lent.  
Or if your brute iblazd abroad,  
With golden trump of famed:  
Cannot enforce you to repress,  
This brutish raging flamme.  
Why, then with hit of reasons lore,  
restraining your desire:  
endeavour for to quench the sparks,  
Of this turmoiling fire.  
Didaco, once you numbered were,  
The floure of Mars his train:  
And thoroughly tried in all respects,  
That unto war pertain.  
And haue not you full oft or this,  
With golden crested shield:  
And with a fatal slicing blade,  
Marchste foremost in the field.  
You sundry times haue made you foes,  
With terror for to quake:  
And eke the brazen bulwarks strong,  
With engines force to shake.  
And then shall he whom thousand foes,  
Could not subdue in fight:  
Be made a servile slave and thrall,  
To Cupids onely might?  
What shane is this to you, who erst  
In fight haue won such famed:  
Yet now at last to want the force,  
Your own desires to tame?  
But sure not you alone sustain,  
The force of Cupids flamme:  
But I poor girl as well haue felt,  
The fury of the same.  
And yet so far to my desires.  
I never loase the rain:  
But that I know by reasons rule,  
The bridle to restrain.  
And sure Didaco if your suit,  
To honest purpose tend:  
If under cloak of loyal love,  
No treason you pretend.  
Then Violenta vows herself,  
Your seruant for to be:  
Till term of these her dayes shal be,  
Abridgde by fares decree.  
But if to glut your lust, you vile,  
Your purpose to obtain:  
In faith your labour is but lost,  
And all your travail vain.  
And ther fore best it were in time,  
Your fancy to foregoe:  
Least further fostering of the same,  
Do aggravate your woe.  
This said within the doors she flange,  
And so her answer ended:  
With scornful scoffs, and furious face  
As though she were offended.  
He silly soul when this reply,  
So stern, had cut his comb:  
With mind surprised with thousand pangs,  
In fine returneth home.  
And casting down his fainting corps,  
Vpon his restless bed:  
renews the wonted heap of plaints,  
Within his wavering head.  
O poor Didaco, what desert,  
Or worthy guilt of thine:  
Enflamd the furious hellish fates,  
Thy life for to repined?  
What moved their mindes for to direct,  
Thy wanton glancing eye:  
On her who forceth not thy grief,  
Though thousand times thou die?  
O Cupid thou, thou judge vniuste,  
Vniustest judge of all:  
Do thou in equal balance payse,  
The burden of my thrall.  
Thy golden quiver ransack up,  
And with the self same dart:  
wherewith thou first didst pierce my breast,  
Wound Violentas hart.  
O let not poor Didaco pine,  
In restless languor still:  
Whose frustrate plaints, with piteous sounds,  
The vacant-ayre do fill.  
Whose grief succeeds a second grief,  
Whose plaints fresh plaints ensueth:  
Whose racking martyrdom would mo●●,  
A stony rock to ruth.  
Some say that Orpheus with the tune,  
Of silver sounding string,  
caused trees to move and birds to carp,  
And stones to leap and spring.  
The groaning ghosts of Stigian lake,  
Were all istriken mute:  
To hear the soleme ditties sound,  
Recorded on his lute.  
The starving Tantalus that stood,  
The weltering flood within:  
And pines though apple touch his nose,  
And water reach his chin.  
When once be heard this hermony,  
( Though starving still he stood:)  
He forced not the fruit, ne yet  
The water of the flood.  
Thou sweting sisyphus amain,  
Whose strange and endless task:  
Requires an endless time to do,  
And endless toil doth ask.  
Who toilste in tumbling up thy ston,  
unto the top of hill:  
And yet for all thine Art, the same,  
Comes rolling downward still.  
Orpheus his lute did lullaby,  
Thy traunced sences so:  
That thou didst rest vpon thy ston,  
And clean forgotst thy woe.  
You Belides which for to fill,  
The hogsheads take such pain:  
And yet the water that you poure,  
Comes gusshing forth again.  
The silver sound of Orpheus lute:  
Your minds did so enchaunte:  
That you forgot the task which erst.  
Did use your spirites to daunt,  
Irion, thou, whose snaky wheel,  
For ever turneth round:  
The same had not the power to move,  
At Orpheus heavenly sound.  
The ravening vulture eke constraynd,  
His talents to withdraw:  
And forced not with beck to rent,  
Promethus mangled maw.  
The greedy gripe which erst was wont,  
To play his cursed part:  
Doth loathe his pray, and cease to tear.  
poor Titius rented hart.  
But if thou sisyphus shouldst view,  
My restless plaints and moon:  
I think thine hand would cease to role,  
The fatal tumbling ston,  
Thou Tantalus, and all the ghosts,  
That lurk in Stygian lake:  
whereas your hellish howling throats.  
A monstrous noise do make.  
Thou Pluto with thy griesely train.  
And all th'infernal crew:  
Would bend your ears to hear my plaints,  
And eke my dolours rue.  
The martyrdom that mortifyes,  
My musing mazed mind:  
The daily restless agonies,  
Which no relief can find.  
The piercing pangs and endless toils,  
which I poor man sustain:  
Would move an hart of flint, to rue  
The rigor of my pain.  
I fry, I freeze, I burn, I broil,  
I starve, I 〈◇〉 I fume:  
I live and die, I die and live,  
In languor I consume.  
O poor Didaco wretched wight.  
which living, still dost die:  
Whose limbs within the smothering flames,  
Of Aetna sulphur fry.  
O martird man consumd away,  
In storms of triple thrall:  
Thou bearst she shadow of a man,  
And art no man at all.  
But from a man into a ghost,  
The destinies did thee change:  
Full like th'infernal furies which,  
In Plutoes kingdom range.  
Therfore Didaco arm thyself,  
Against the fates decree:  
Sith that thy toil with nought but death,  
Shall counteruayled bee.  
Yet wretched man what dost thou mean,  
Thy travail to resign?  
Thy suit, if well pursued it be,  
May haue success in fine.  
Some say there is no fort so strong,  
Though founded on a rock:  
But that a golden key hath power,  
And force to break the lock.  
Therfore, where love doth want the skill,  
Thy purpose for to reach:  
There hazard once to put in proof,  
If coin can make the breach.  
Thy Lady is not of royal race,  
But of a mean descent:  
Therfore thy golden chains perchance,  
May cause her to relent.  
When this was said, with trembling fiste,  
He frames his loving lines:  
The faithful charge whereof, unto  
His servant be assigns.  
Sir hundred Ducats therewithal,  
To sand he doth not fail:  
To prove, where fervent suit was vain,  
If gold could there prevail.  
The Post, who of this ambassage,  
The full effect had scanned:  
Surrenders up the signed brief,  
To Violentas hand.  
Who having vewde with rolling eye,  
The tenor of the same:  
Could not repress her rage, but forth,  
It burst into a flamme.  
What moves your maisters mind,( quod she)  
Such battery for to bend:  
Against the fort where sure he is,  
The bear foil in th'end.  
And did he think, his wished pray,  
With golden traps to train:  
Where lingering love with restless suit,  
His purpose could not gain.  
go, bid him prove some other dames.  
With this his tangling tale:  
For Violenta hath not set,  
Her chastity to sale.  
The love of other wanton dames,  
Let him with gold procure:  
That are more prove and pliable,  
unto his beastly lure.  
poor Violentas love, is not  
With money to be sold:  
The price of her virginity,  
She measures not with gold,  
And sure the breach thereof, shall not  
With golden siege be wrought:  
Where love with proffered service once,  
Thereto prevailed nought.  
Therfore desire him cease his suit,  
And frustrate travail end:  
For sure he shall not win his will.  
By means he doth pretend.  
This doleful news, the Post unto  
Didaco doth display:  
Recounting all the case at large,  
In chamber where he lay.  
Who when he heard that all his drifts,  
Her love could not attain:  
And how that this uncessant toil,  
And travail was in vain.  
Full fain God wot poor man he would,  
Haue quenched this raging fire:  
But yet he wanted force and strength,  
To bridle his desire.  
O Violenta fair, quod he,  
Why did the fates decree:  
That thou by line all race art born,  
inferior far to me.  
In thee alone( poor girl) doth rest.  
The cause of life of death:  
Thy stony hart will force me yeld,  
This brittle borrowed breath.  
But sith dame reason is exiled,  
And fancy bears the sway:  
That wisdoms rule is not of force,  
Affection to alloy.  
But wit and will with wavering thoughts,  
Do combat in my brain,  
needs must I prove some strange devise,  
My purpose to obtain.  
Didaco, why is thy fond mind,  
With lusting humors lead:  
Why dost thou not with nuptial bands,  
adjoin her to thy bed.  
Forsooth thy reason is because,  
Shee is not of royal line:  
But of base parentage derived,  
unequal far for thine.  
And then shouldst thou conjoin thyself.  
To such a one as shee?  
Fie, no, that match were far unfit,  
And not for thy degree.  
Why fool doth true nobility,  
Consist in blood alone?  
Is there no mean, but noble race,  
To climb to honors throne?  
Yes, foolish man, the virtues rare,  
That harber in her breast:  
Haue power to scale the stéepie mount,  
where honors seat doth rest.  
When nature this her image formd,  
Her gifts she did not scant:  
But to to prodigal the same,  
In this one piece did plaint.  
Why then if natures noble gifts,  
That glister in her face:  
May counterpayse the dignity,  
And famed of royal race.  
Then doubt not, Violenta bright,  
To take unto thy mate:  
Whose virtues match the titles, of  
heroical estate.  
And sure I mean if fates agree,  
even thee poor girl to choose:  
If thou wilt dayne for to accept,  
Didaco to thy spouse.  
And having thus his mind resolved,  
Within his wavering breast:  
On Violenta now a fresh,  
The onset he addressed.  
madam, if Spousall vows be deemed,  
The touchstone for to be:  
Whereby men try the sacred bonds.  
Of perfect amity.  
Then haue you got, if so you please,  
Such one to be your fear:  
Who, then thimperiall crown of spain,  
esteems your love more deere.  
He is not born of base degree,  
Ne yet of rascall race:  
Didaco I even I am he,  
The knight you shall embrace.  
Whom, from his faith no dangers great.  
Nor perils shall remove:  
If that you do him worthy deme,  
For to enjoy your love.  
She ravished with joy, to hear,  
The knight this tale recite:  
Her foltring tongue within her mouth,  
stood mute and speachles quiter.  
At last with shamefast bashfulness,  
She set aside the vail:  
Of silence, and to this effect,  
She framed her sugared tale.  
Didaco you perdieu haue forgde,  
This long discourse of love:  
To undermine my meaning, and  
My constancy to prove.  
But yet assure yourself of this,  
If that your meaning tend:  
unto no worse effect then this,  
That you in words pretend.  
Though Violenta be derived,  
Of parentage but base:  
Yet sure in zeal of loyal love,  
She will not give you place.  
And further hopes, for to behave,  
herself so well in fine:  
That you shall haue no cause to wish,  
Her person to resign.  
Not for the worthiest dame in spain,  
Though she in dignity:  
Do far surmount the baseness, of  
My simplo pedegrée.  
Hereat his motions of delight,  
Beginning to renew:  
Doth with a precious Emerald,  
confirm his plighted vow.  
And printing many an amorous kiss,  
Her orient lips vpon,  
Debateth of the nuptial rites,  
And howe to haue them done.  
whereof they both concluded thus,  
To be a mean most fit:  
That some unknown strange minister  
That sacred knot should knit.  
And that before the twinkling stars,  
were from the heauens fled:  
Or flaming Phoebus should display,  
His glorious glistering head:  
And so resolved, before day light,  
Didaco did her wed:  
Where she by plighted vow was made  
Partaker of his bed.  
And spending all that joyful day,  
In seas of brave delight:  
enjoy alike the benefit,  
Of that long wished night.  
Thus twelve full moneths had passed one,  
devoid of all annoy:  
And no devise was left vnprou'd,  
That might augment their ioy.  
In brief he never was at ease,  
But in his ladies sight:  
And she did never ioy, without  
The presence of her knight:  
Thus every night in covert wise.  
He marcheth to her bower:  
To staunch his greedy lusting thirst,  
And toys to put in ure.  
So long he haunted this recourse,  
unto his idols shrine:  
That Violentas honesty,  
Was doubted of in fine.  
Some demd because that he so soft,  
From home to her retired:  
He used more homely valiance,  
Then honesty required.  
whereby her famed defamed was  
With this surmised blot:  
Which by the oft repairing of  
Didaco, she had got.  
But she whose blameless conscience,  
Was guiltless of the crime:  
refers the trial of her cause,  
To course of further time.  
Although( the bruited false surmise,  
Of people to deface:)  
She prays her spouse to take her home,  
unto his dwelling place.  
But he that know with long delays,  
Her fancy for to feed:  
Protractes the time, and never to  
Her just request agreed:  
And having purchased the whole,  
Possession of her heart:  
He knew the means, her doting mind,  
As pleased him to convert.  
That gathering by her amorous look,  
Her love did still inflame:  
By little he withdrew his mind,  
And zeal more could became.  
And leaving now the guise, which erst,  
He used to frequent:  
Accustometh at sundry times,  
himself for to absent.  
And whensoever he repaired,  
Her company until:  
Was still to glut his greedy lust,  
And never for good will.  
In fine he loathes his former match,  
And pondering in his brain:  
What great reproach, his honor was,  
In danger to sustain.  
If brute should now be blazd abroad,  
That he had tane to mate:  
A girl, whose lineage was so far,  
unfit for his estate.  
To this effect he bends his toil,  
And trauelles all doth frame:  
What way he soonest might prevent,  
The cause of such defame.  
whereon acquainting strait himself,  
with dames of noble race:  
In fine he found one to supply,  
poor Violentas place,  
Of qualities so excellent,  
And beauty passing rare:  
That might with any Spanish dame,  
In each respect compare.  
He taking efte the benefit,  
Of this so happy fate:  
The nuptial rites to consecrate,  
Doth in his mind debate.  
Procuring such triumphant shows,  
And choice of princely sports:  
That all the crew of Spanish knights,  
To view thereof resortes.  
The prancing coursers some bestride,  
with piercing lance in rest:  
The mighty troncheons do rebound,  
Icrasde on helmets crest.  
Some try their skill at bended bows,  
At barriers brave some fight:  
And some with masks of rare devise,  
The lookers on delight.  
The strange confects of dainty cates,  
The choice of pleasant wine:  
The curious course of costly knacks.  
With iunkers passing fine.  
Did make the Spanish knights to muse,  
That bruited was the famed:  
How that no feast in twenty yeares,  
Was judged of such famed.  
The noise whereof the vulgar sort,  
So worthily displays:  
That unto Violentas ears,  
I blazd was the praise.  
Who hearing that Didaco he,  
Had falsified his vows:  
In that, against his oath, he took  
Another dame to spouse.  
With scratching nails shée rent her hair,  
And brave attaire defac'te:  
And in her closet all alone:  
Into this complaint shée braste,  
O wretched girl what fate hath wrought,  
These plunging pangs of thine?  
What star at thy nativity:  
So lucklessely did shine.  
O rage of restless hellish thralles,  
O sting of endless smart:  
O seas of thousand great annoys,  
That rack my wounded hart.  
O cursed fates, why did you not,  
Then execute your spite:  
On this tormented corps of mine,  
When first it came to light.  
O wretched wight then hadst thou been,  
Ten thousand times iblest.  
If thou hadst been interred in maw,  
Of some devouring beast.  
Or if into the surging seas,  
Thou hadst been thrown at once:  
Where monsters fell, with grating jaws,  
Might tyre thy rotten bones.  
Then shouldst thou not haue languished thus,  
In gulfs of triple pain:  
Ne known the fury of such pangs,  
As now thou dost sustain.  
Accursed be that cursed hour,  
wherein thy tender eyes:  
At time of thy nativity,  
beholded the azurd skies.  
O false Didaco periurd wight,  
Did ever my desert:  
give cause to alienate thy vows,  
Once plighted with thy hart.  
O periurd Iason faithless man,  
why hast thou thus deceived:  
The wight that trusted thee so well,  
And all her joys bereui'd.  
Is this thy care of plighted faith?  
Is this thy sacred vow?  
Is this the true performance, which  
Thy promise doth ensue.  
O hapless hap and doleful chance,  
That ever thy tangling tongue:  
Made breach into my virginity,  
which I preserved so long.  
O caylife wretch, and can thine eyes,  
sustain for to behold:  
These raging pangs and martyrdom,  
wherein I am enrold?  
Is this the guerdon of the faith,  
which I haue used alway:  
Now like a beast and reprobate,  
Thus to be cast away?  
Why did not jove consent, my line  
More noble for to bee:  
That I might work a full reuenge,  
Of this thy villainy?  
But sith the heauens haue denied,  
Me( wretched girl) that fate:  
With tooth and nail, Ile toil to shake,  
The ground of thine estate.  
And that my grudging hart may still,  
At thy success rebel:  
With mortal hate Ile prosecute,  
Thine odious ghost to hell.  
Thus thundering out the raging flames,  
That from her stomach spring:  
With howling shrieks and frenzy plaints,  
She makes the house to ring,  
whereat her mother with her maid,  
Hight jamque by name:  
And eke her son, for to appease,  
Her daughters fury came,  
All they with wholesome precepts, toil  
To qualify her rage:  
But all their wit had not the skill,  
Her howling to assuage,  
Whereat her mother with her son,  
Away with tears are gone:  
And leave her pencing forth her plaints,  
To jamque alone.  
The maid with sundry reasons seeks,  
Her mistress to entreat:  
To quench at last the smothering smoke,  
Of that turmoiling heat.  
Deere dame( she said) why doth disdain,  
Thus boil within your breast:  
Or why doth rancour ransack thus,  
Your mind from settled rest,  
Why range you thus in rage, wherein  
Nought else but grief ye find?  
Repr●sse these furious fits and calm,  
This tempest of your mind.  
Know this you haue not first been trapped,  
In mens alluring net:  
Ne shall you be the last perdieu,  
That shalbe tangled yet.  
Did not periurd Demophoon,  
leave Phillis on the strand:  
When secretly by night embark,  
He lanced from the land?  
And Thesus, Aruidue bright,  
Where he such love did find:  
At last in desert Maxos Ile,  
Left her poor girl behind.  
Why then turmoil you thus yourself,  
In floods of endless tears:  
Sith he respecteth nought the pangs,  
That your vexed conscience bears,  
Be sure he forceth nought the griefs,  
And horror that you feel:  
But that which you set next your hart,  
He setteth next his heel,  
Therefore cease of those trickling fears,  
which from your eyes distil:  
And then refer your cause, unto  
The trial of my skill.  
I hope or long so happily,  
My travail to bestow:  
That you vpon his life may take,  
revengement of your woe.  
mean time with patience arm yourself,  
And ease your heavy hart:  
While I mean while do put in proof,  
Some practise of mine Arte.  
Dame Violenta, easde with this,  
Discoursing of her maid.  
sweet jamque( quod she) if thou,  
Can do as thou hast said.  
twelve hundred Crownes of ready coin.  
Ile render to thine hand:  
Whereby thou mayst convey thyself,  
Into some unknown land.  
And never to return again,  
Into thy native soil,  
But leave me to sustain theuent:  
And hazard of the broil.  
Then mistress mine said she, attend  
To that I shall recite:  
Your chiefest charge is this: you must  
A doleful scroll endise.  
containing such infernal pangs,  
And passions of the mind:  
That you by means therof, no rest  
Nor ease at all can find.  
Then next ripp up the poisoned sore,  
Of that so stinging smart:  
Which for th' excessive love of him,  
Hath slain your loyal heart.  
Next adding that he might renew,  
The cause of your delight:  
If he sometimes will take the pains,  
To visit you by night.  
As erst he used for to do,  
When this is done, proceed:  
In such a method as you know,  
May best his fancy feed.  
And when you haue displayed at large,  
The meaning of your will:  
Commit the charge thereof, to be  
Directed by my skill,  
I trow that force of filed phrase,  
His wits shall so enchant:  
That he with free consent, sometime  
To visit you, shall grant.  
And when he in the dead of night,  
His soundest rest doth take:  
We'll set him then in such a trance,  
That he shall never wake.  
O gentle jamque, said shée,  
If thy devise take place:  
Then hast thou sure for ever won,  
poor Violentas grace.  
This said, to frame her feigned lines,  
Her fiste she doth direct:  
The style whereof imported this,  
Or else the like effect.  
Seignieur Didaco, I am persuaded that if you will vouchsafe to peruse the tenor of these my lamentable lines, you will be moved with some remorse and compassion, in contemplation of the true image of my wretched life purtraied& truly described in the same, which through your disloyalty and breach of promise is consumed, and spent with so many riuers of uncessant tears and lamentations, that many times I marueyle with myself that nature, amid so many martirdomes, hath never yet had the force to separate that unity which coupleth my soul unto this turmoiled carcase. Alas howe many thousand times a day haue I called for death, to abridge and interrupt the course of these mine unhappy dayes. And yet she reclineth not unto my cry? Alas howe many Millions of times every day hath my tormented mind been vanquished with the extremity of this intolerable hell of vexations, expecting still the time when I may take mine Ultimum vale of all worldly delights, being now arrived at the uttermost pangs of death. But what is this in comparison of the horror that oppresseth my waueuering mind when time requireth that I should then take some rest. And recreation of my daily traueyles, for if it chance that mine eyes fall a sleep immediately my cogitations are surprised with dreadful and horrible visions representing the perfect figure of her that enjoyeth my place, which of all my other calamities is the sharpeste sword unto my sorrowful soul. But oh me happy gi●le if I were able to dissolve the perfection of mine outrageous love toward thee, grounded vpon the rock of immovable affection, whereby the remembrance of thy disloyalty might be utterly extinguished. And extirped from the secret closet of my ravished mind then should thy treachery no more burden my tormented conscience. But sith my desire is frustrate of effect, come hither I say thou cruel& hard hearted man and with some sign of humanity, mollify the rage of my continu●ll calamities, the view whereof will represent unto thine eyes the lively portraiture of my restless agonies. And if ever spark of pity did warm thy frozen hart, arm thyself with greater cruelty then ever thou was wont to do, and come hither with speed to make her sobbe her last sighs whom thou most traitorously hast deceived. For in doing otherwise thou maiest peradventure to late, bewail thy beastly cruelty, and the untimely death of me poor desolate wretch, and miserable caitiff.  
Violenta.  
This done, the brinish trickling tears of,  
Distilled from her eye:  
writ would she fain, but that the words,  
Within her mouth did die.  
And casting by the instruments,  
That did this Engine frame,  
With seal she signs it up, and to  
Her maid she yeldes the same.  
hold jamque she said and if,  
Thou play thy part so fine:  
As I in forging of these lines,  
At large haue uttered mine.  
I doubt not, but or long we shall.  
Entrap the traitor so:  
That he shall quiter forget the means,  
To work poor maidens thrall.  
Shée having once received the brief,  
With speed doth post away:  
unto the palace where she knew,  
The knight Didaco lay.  
Where having once attaynd unto,  
The speech of him alone:  
In this effect the traitorous bag,  
Her Iudas tale begun,  
Seignieur Didaco: in mysteries,  
Of learning I am mute:  
But sure I am this signed brief,  
Importes some earnest suit.  
For nought but drooping, all this day,  
And grief hath vexed my dame:  
And eke amid a thousand sighs,  
She did this letter frame.  
And sure to say the truth, you seem,  
To offer her great wrong:  
Because that from her house, you do  
Absent yourself so long.  
As for your breach of marriage,  
At that she nought repines:  
And reason to, if that she way,  
The difference of your lines:  
But this one pang above the rest,  
Doth aggravate her woe:  
Because you see her not sometimes,  
As erst you used to do.  
God wot, she sillie soul would think,  
herself of jove most blessed:  
If that some nights she might obtain,  
By your sweet side to rest.  
And by that means, the second place  
Of your love to possess:  
If this she had, then easde she were,  
Of this so great distress.  
And sure sir Knight you may do well,  
Your fancy for to bend:  
In seeing her sometimes, unto  
Her suit to condescend.  
So may you justly vaunt that you,  
As brave a spouse retain:  
And eke as faire a paragon,  
As any lives in spain.  
This said, she renders up the brief,  
unto Didacoes hand:  
Who, when with crystal rolling eye,  
Th'effect thereof had scanned.  
His dampish mind was for a space,  
with wavering fancies lead:  
For love, and hate with motions strange,  
Did combat in his head,  
At last he said: deéere jamque,  
Thy mistress certify:  
That time permits me not as now,  
To frame a new reply.  
But that Ile visit her before,  
The rising of the son:  
To morrow morn, and there discourse,  
The sum of that is donne.  
She glad, with feigned reverence,  
Premisd away doth trot:  
And, till she was within the doors,  
To run she ceaseth not.  
Where to her dame the order of,  
Her toil she doth display:  
And how Didaco would be there,  
The next ensuing day.  
Her mistress hearing this discourse,  
Her sorrows all were gone;  
And hard embracing jamque,  
This wise replied anon.  
sweet wench if thou hast framed the grynne,  
This traitor to beguile:  
Be sure of this, that for my part,  
I haue not slept the while.  
But after sundry thoughts, I haue  
Deuisde this pretty fetch,  
To execute our brochery,  
On this false periurd wretch,  
Thy chiefest charge is this: thou must  
A mighty rope prepare:  
wherewith, when fast he is a sleep,  
We may this traitor snare.  
Next that two monstrous chopping knives,  
Must for this feat be bought:  
Although the price be never so great,  
Yet spare thou not for ought.  
That done let me myself alone:  
Our practise to fulfil:  
Thou mayst refer that knack,  
To trial of my skill.  
I trow that or he pass from hence,  
Ile charm my youth so well:  
That he, who used him in such sort,  
Shall never haue time to dwell.  
The cursed wench, to ready bent,  
To do as she decreed:  
For borrows no time but doth prepare.  
The instruments with speed.  
The time drew on when he poor man,  
To jamque did say:  
That he his former wife would see,  
Before the break of day.  
And so what time the clock stroke four,  
His servant he doth wake:  
Two Spanish Iennets of the best,  
For journey prest to make.  
And mounted on their coursers brave,  
In shade of ugly night:  
even at the turning of the street,  
Didaco doth alight.  
And to his man commits his horse,  
commanding him to ride:  
Into the country, where he should,  
until the morrow abide.  
And then before that Phoebus lamp,  
Displayed her wonted fire:  
To him at Violentas house,  
In hast he should retire:  
mean time his Iennets to bestow,  
Within some secret inn:  
For none might know how he that while,  
Had with his lover been.  
This said he marched with speedy place,  
unto his former wife:  
Preparing syllie soul, his throat,  
unto the hangmans knife.  
And knocking softly at the gate,  
Where jamque did wait:  
She into her mistress closet doth,  
convey Didaco strait.  
The knight, who ere his coming, had  
A fine excuse prepared:  
Doth greet her with a friendly kiss.  
inquiring how she feared.  
Didaco, you in word●( quod she)  
seem careful for my state:  
Although your stomach inwardly.  
Repineth at my fate.  
I trow your guilty conscience,  
Will testify the pain:  
Which I poor girl uncessantly,  
Both day and night sustain.  
The fury of which martyrdom,  
Hath brought my soul so low:  
That still I look when as the breath,  
My carcase will foregoe.  
And yet the letter which I sent,  
I wrote not to this end:  
In hope it would your stony hart,  
To rue mine anguish bend.  
For sure I am you will not cease,  
To work their endless thrall:  
Which to these glozing words of yours,  
To credence give at all.  
whereof I wretched wench, at first  
unwitting of your trade:  
Of this your treacherous villainy,  
To plain a proof haue made.  
He fearing, least her boiling rage,  
Would more and more inflame:  
With often kissing of her cheek,  
This forged reply doth frame.  
madam why doubt you of my faith?  
My match was but pretended:  
For willingly unto the same,  
I never condescended.  
And though I was enforste to take,  
Another to my wife:  
Yet sure or long, Ile cut in twain,  
The fillet of her life.  
And when my practise once hath wrought,  
Her cursed final end:  
The remnant of my vital race,  
with thee( my dear) Ile spend.  
And then in term of further time.  
It plainly shall appear:  
How that Didaco is the knight,  
That holds thy love most dear.  
Thus chanting on the pleasant cords,  
Of this his tangling tongue:  
With filled phrase he seeks to frame,  
Excuse for former wrong.  
Shée loth to loose the benefit,  
Of this so fit a time:  
Doth seem to hold the knight excusde,  
For that pretended crime.  
And with a forced smiling face,  
( But with a Iudas breast.)  
In this effect unto the knight,  
Her answer she addressed.  
Didaco, I am content this once,  
To think your answers just:  
Although your deeds haue given me cause,  
Your sayings to instrust,  
But sure your love so rooted is,  
Within my burning hart:  
That needs the crime must heinous be,  
That may the same avert:  
Therfore I will capitain myself,  
To think your saying true:  
If you to visit me sometimes,  
By night, will plight your vow.  
For if at certain times I might,  
Your company enjoy:  
Than would I think myself iblest,  
And free from all annoy.  
He sillie man, right glad to see,  
Her fury to represte:  
With sacred vow and plighted faith,  
Accorded to her heste.  
Thus while they both no truth at all,  
But deep dissembling ment:  
dark Nox with mantle black approchte,  
And Phoebus race was spent,  
And while the remnant of the night,  
with speedy passage flies:  
At last god Morpheus charms attachte,  
Didacoes drowsy eyes,  
That able scarce to keep a wake,  
His weary drooping head:  
With Violenta croucheth down:  
Within his fatal bed.  
Then jamque rakes up the fire,  
And takes the light away:  
And softly from the bed, she doth  
Didacoes sword convey.  
Next that the cursed traitorous bitch,  
Beneath the bed doth grope:  
( As though she somewhat had to do,)  
And maketh fast the rope:  
And marching to the chamber door,  
To go her way doth fain:  
But having hard the same full fast,  
Returneth in again,  
And so when Somnus deadly charms,  
Had all his veins possessed:  
And thoroughly drenched his heavy limbs,  
In gulf of careless rest.  
Precisely jamque besturres,  
herself in shade of night:  
And into Violentas hands,  
Directs the rope aright.  
Who when shée had with nimble fist,  
bestowed the same full fast:  
The end again cross thwart the bed,  
To jamque shee cast.  
Who foulding it about her arms,  
With bum flat clapped on floor:  
Hoystes up her feet against the bed,  
To pull when he should stir.  
This done, her mistress takes in hand,  
Her fatal carving blade:  
And searching secretly, whereas  
Th'assalt might soonste be made.  
Forthwith his tender throat with knife,  
So fiercely she doth prick:  
That gliding thorough, the point therof  
Did in the pillow stick.  
He syllie soul when first he felt,  
The cursed stroke she struck:  
With frustrate hands poor man he strives,  
Resistance for to make.  
wherewith the deadly snaring rope,  
His wits did so appall:  
That hand or foot to save himself,  
He could not stir at all.  
And feeling efte a second charge,  
His naked throat vpon:  
Both strength to strive, and speech to speak,  
Were quiter bereft and gone.  
Shee like a vile Medea fell,  
Her devilish rage provokes:  
And on his wretched rented corps,  
Redoubleth still her stroke.  
So long with dent of trenching blade,  
His martird limbs she tired:  
till that his senseless corps at last,  
The grudging ghost expired.  
now, jamque my girl, quod shée,  
With speed prepare a light:  
So shall we quickly see if that,  
This fear be wrought aright.  
Where having vewde with fiery looks,  
His breathles corps at full:  
The closed eyes from forth his head,  
With scorching knife doth pull.  
And having thoroughly launc'te the same,  
With many a griesely gashe:  
At last with choler hot enflamd,  
Her venom forth doth flash.  
resign you traitorous lamps, I say,  
The fort you erst possessed:  
Come forth for ay, come forth: for there  
You shall no longer rest.  
Come forth from this your shameless siege,  
Where you so long did bide:  
For now your fount of feigned tears,  
Is clean exhaust and dried.  
Then haling forth his senseless tongue,  
With force of murderous hand:  
When she with many a monstrous slashe,  
The form thereof had scanned.  
O tickling tangling, tongue quod she,  
That vtteredst nought at all:  
But deep deceit in cloak of love,  
And hony mixst with gull.  
How long didst thou turmoil in vain,  
With this thy cannon shot:  
Or that of my virginity,  
Thou hadst the conquest got.  
Whereof deprived by thy means,  
Ile hasten eke to death:  
For having lost that precious gem,  
Nought profits vital breath.  
Then launching in a violent hole,  
Into his swelling breast:  
With tigers nails she rents the hart,  
From where it erst did rest.  
And having carved the same at large.  
With dent of lancing blade:  
With thundering checks against the same,  
Her invective she made.  
O hart more hard then Adamant,  
Whose Anduill did prepare:  
The trapping toils and gauging grynnes,  
Which me poor girl did snare.  
Why could I not thy former thoughts,  
So perfectly descry:  
As thy material substance now,  
I view with perfect eye.  
Then had I not poor wretch( alas)  
In these thy traps been tane:  
Ne had thy ha●tery brewed the bale,  
Of my unhappy bane.  
This said she baths her devilish nails,  
within his blood a fresh:  
And cuts her cursed anatomy,  
Vpon his mangled-fleshe.  
Then he wing all his other partes,  
So long shee wreakes her thirteen:  
That no one place in all his limbs,  
devoid of scars was seen.  
Now Ianique my déere she said,  
This task doth yet remain:  
That we this monstrous mangled beast,  
unto the window train.  
For as by means of his deceit,  
My shane abroad is blown:  
So will I eke that this reuenge.  
Should openly be known.  
This said, they both the martird corps,  
unto the window drew:  
And then with violent hands the same,  
Vpon the pavement threw.  
Now take this gold my girl she said,  
In guerdon of thy pain:  
And speed thee hence into Africa,  
And never come again.  
The maid with tears doth take her leave,  
And purposde so to do:  
Long time before, although her dame,  
Had not aduisde her so.  
Which done this boocher frames herself,  
Some quiet sleep to take:  
Because all night to work her feat,  
Shée took such pains to wake.  
O monstrous hellish hag, that forth  
From Plutoes kingdom broke:  
O hideous hissing Hydra buge,  
That lurks in Lerna lake.  
O bitch for sprung of serpents seed,  
And not of human stock:  
But sosterd up in desert groves,  
Within some hollow rock:  
Where fostered thou waste with milk;  
From ramping tigers dug:  
Which thou amongst the craggy cliffs,  
With savage chaps didst tug.  
The raging senseless Lions broad,  
Within themselves agree:  
Detesting all against their makes,  
injurious for to be.  
But thou derived of human race,  
endowed with reason to:  
Aduenturest vpon such facts,  
As they abhor to do.  
O curtal cursed, of woman kind,  
unworthy of the name:  
But ay for to be baited at,  
With trump of black defame.  
You Ladies all whose weeping eyes,  
This history peruse:  
At rareness of this monstrous fact,  
No marueyle though ye muse.  
But as the splendent blazing lamp,  
Doth never burn so bright:  
As when a darksome shade doth seem,  
For to eclipse his ligh.  
So you, déere dames whose virtuous minds,  
Abandon all such ways:  
By contrary of this foul fact,  
deserve immortal praise.  
But now this charge at last remains,  
To prosecute the act:  
Although my mazed mind abhors,  
So think vpon the fact.  
No sooner had the day appeared,  
And Phoebus shown his head:  
But that this monstrous murder strait,  
Through all the town was spread.  
That great concourse from every where,  
Resorted to the place:  
In mighty companies, to scan,  
The strangeness of the case.  
But yet the sillie martyrs face,  
And limbs were mangled so,  
That though the multitude were great,  
Not one the man did know.  
Some iudgde there had a fray been made,  
And so the party slain:  
Some this, some that, but none of all,  
Could to the truth attain.  
She leaning all this while alone,  
And vewing of the thronge:  
At last with manly courage moved,  
She steps the preafe among.  
My maisters all( quod she) you seem,  
To diversly to scan:  
With judgements contrary, the case  
concern this said man.  
And yet scarce two are of one mind,  
For some say that some this.  
And each man thinks his verdict best,  
But all the mark do miss.  
The meaning of this mystery,  
By me must be revealed:  
Which else( no doubt) in covert wise,  
Long time would lye concealed,  
Therefore your listening ears I say,  
unto my words apply:  
This is the Lord Didaco he,  
That slain on ground doth lie.  
But first because it is requisite,  
His friends the case should know,  
Let them be strait accited, then  
Th'effect of all Ile show.  
Whereon Didacos kinsfolks all,  
Were summoned to the place:  
In presence of the judge, so hear  
The scanning of the ease:  
Which done, this hellish Hydra forth,  
Was lead the streets throughout:  
unto the iudgement hall, which their  
Was pestered with the rout.  
Where with a quiet countenance,  
And conscience void of grudge:  
She frames her loathsome long discourse,  
In hearing of the judge.  
Howe that the knight long fifteen months,  
Had languished still in love:  
And never any rest attaynd,  
His pangs for to remove.  
But lingering long, and not of force,  
His fancy to repress:  
That every day with thousand thoughts,  
Augmented his distress.  
In fine resolved, what way he might,  
His hot consumption cure:  
By sacred solemn nuptial bands,  
He won me to his lure.  
But having falsified at last,  
His former plighted vows:  
He cast me of and choose eftsone,  
Another Dame to spouse.  
Therefore because my famed by him,  
Into the lapse was brought:  
With help of Ianique my maid,  
This due reuenge I wrought.  
Wherefore pronounce your righteous doom,  
Of death vpon my act:  
Or else these hands of mine shall take,  
revengement of the fact.  
This said, she ceasde, with greedy eyes,  
Vpon the iudges bent:  
Who with distilling tears amain,  
The heavy hap lament.  
And after due enquiry made,  
The case so plain did lie:  
That forc'te they were by righteous doom,  
To judge this hag to die.  
From whence she was unto the place,  
Of execution lead:  
Where with the stroke of fatal blade,  
Shee lost her cursed bead.  
And now this doleful Tragedy,  
To end, my muse decreed:  
enough to make a stony hart:  
With brackish tears to bleed.  
lo here you amorous knights a glass,  
Wherein you plain may view,  
The future fate and last event:  
That louers lives ensue,  
Why then enforce you not yourselves.  
Such humors to repress:  
And to prevent by reasons lore,  
The cause of your distress.  
With bridle of discretion seek,  
This fire for to alloy:  
That Phoebe may possess the fort,  
Where Venus bare the sway.  
Consider this, if wisedoms bit,  
You desperately let fall:  
You hazard rashly on the rock,  
Of everlasting thrall.  
Or else if long pursuit, with tears,  
Your remedy procure:  
Yet commonly those wished joys,  
Do never long endure.  
The somme of both is this  
Hay glad or sad, hap weal or woe,  
Hap hoped ioy, or pain:  
Yet both in this one issue end,  
In love nought is but vain,  
FINIS.  ( {quod}) Thomas Achelley.