The Vnfortunate Traveller, or The Life Of Jack Wilton

by Thomas Nash

leaning hisouerhanging gloomie eybrowes on the pommell of his vnsheathed sword, heeneuer lookt vp or gaue her a word: but when he perceiued shee expectedhis answere of grace or vtter perdition, he start vp and took hercurrishly by the neck, and askt her how long he should stay for herLadiship.

  Thoutelst me (quoth he) of the plague, and the heauie hand of God, andthy hundred infected breaths in one: I tel thee I haue cast the dice anhundred times for the galleyes in _Spaine_, and yet still mist theill chance. Our order of casting is this, If there bee a generallor captaine new come home from the warres, & hath some foure or fiuehundred crownes ouerplus of the kings in his hand, & his souldiors alpaid, he makes proclamation, that whatsoeuer two resolute men will goeto dice for it, and win the bridle or lose the saddle, to such a placelet them repaire, and it shall be ready for them. Thither go I & findeanother such needie squire resident. The dice runne, I win, he isvndone. I winning haue the crownes, he loosing is carried to thegalleys. This is our custome, which a hundred times and more hath paidmee custome of crownes, when the poore fellowes haue gone to _Gehenna_,had course bread and whipping chere all their life after. Now thinkestthou that I who so oft haue escapd such a number of hellish dangers,only depending on the turning of a few pricks, can be scarebugd withthe plague? what plague canst thou name worse than I haue had? whetherdiseases, imprisonment, pouertie, banishment, I haue past through themall. My owne mother gaue I a box of the eare to, and brake her neck downa pair of stairs, because she would not go in to a gentleman, when I badher: my sister I solde to an olde Leno, to make his best of her: aniekinswoman that I haue, knew I shee were not a whore, my selfe would makeher one: thou art a whore, thou shalt bee a whore in spite of religionor precise ceremonies.

  Therewith he flew vpon her, and threatned her with his sword, but itwas not that he meant to wounde her with. Hee graspt her by the iuoriethroate, and shooke her as a mastiffe would shake a yong beare, swearing& flaring he would teare out her wesand if she refused. Not content withthat sauage constraint, he slipt his sacriligious hand from her lillylawne skinned necke, and inscarfte it in her long siluer lockes, whichwith strugling were vnrould. Backward hee dragd her, euen as a manbackward would plucke a tree downe by the twigs, and then like a traitorthat is drawen to execution on a hurdle, he traileth her vp and downethe chamber by those tender vntwisted braids, and setting his barbarousfoote on her bare snowie breast, bad her yeeld or haue her wind stamptout She crid, stamp, stifle me in my hair, hang me vp by it on a beame,and so let mee die rather than I shoulde go to heauen wyth a beame inmy eie. No (quoth he) nor stampt, nor stifled, nor hanged, nor to heauenshalt thou go til I haue had my wil of thee, thy busie armes in thesesilken fetters Ile infold. Dismissing her haire from his fingers, andpinnioning her elbowes therwithal, she strugled, she wrested, but al wasin vain. So strugling & so resisting, her iewels did sweate, signifiengthere was poison comming towards her. On the hard boords hee threw her,and vsed his knee as an yron ram to beate ope the two leaude gate of herchastitie. Her husbands dead bodie he made a pillow to his abhomination.Coniecture the rest, my words sticke fast in the mire and are cleanetyred, would I had neuer vndertooke this tragicall tale. Whatsoeuer isborne is borne to haue end. Thus endeth my tale, his boorish lust wasglutted, his beastly desire satisfied, what in the house of any worthwas carriageable, he put vp and went his way.

  Let not your sorow die, you that haue read the proeme and narration ofthis elegiacal history. Shew you haue quick wits in sharpe conceit ofcompassion. A woman that hath viewd all her children sacrificed beforeher eies, & after the first was slaine wipt the sword with her apron toprepare it for the clenly murther of the second, and so on forwarde tillcame to the empiercing of the seuenteenth of her loines, will you notgiue her great allowance of anguish. This woman, this matrone, thisforsaken _Heraclide_, hauing buried fourteene children in fiue dayes,whose eyes she howlingly closed, and caught many wrinckles with funerallkisses: besides, hauing her husband within a day after layd forth asa comfortlesse corse, a carrionly blocke, that could neither eate withher, speak with her, nor weepe with her, is she not to be borne withallthough her bodie swells wyth a tympanie of teares, though her speach beas impatient as vnhappy _Hecubaes_, though her head raues and her brainedoates? Deuise with your selues that you see a corse rising fromhis heirce after hee is carried to Church, and such another suppose_Heraclide_ to bee, rising from the couch of enforced adulterie.

  Her eyes were dimme, her cheekes bloudlesse, her breath smelt earthie,her countenance was ghastly. Up she rose after she was deflowred, butloath she arose, as a reprobate soule rising to the day of iudgement.Looking on the tone side as she rose, she spide her husbands bodie lyingvnder her head: Ah then she bewayled as _Cephaius_ when hee had kild_Procris_ vnwittingly, or _Oedipus_ when ignorant he had slaine his ownefather, and knowen his mother incestuously. This was her subdued reasonsdiscourse.

  Haue I liu'd to make my husbands bodie the beere to carry me to hell,had filthie pleasure no other pillowe to leane vpon but his spreadedlimmes? On thy flesh my fault shall bee imprinted at the day ofresurrection. O beauty, the bait ordained to insnare the irreligious:rich men are robd for theyr welth, women are dishonested for being toofaire. No blessing is beautie but a curse: curst bee the time that euerI was begotten: curst be the time that my mother brought me forth totempt. The serpent in paradice did no more, the serpent in paradiceis damned sempiternally: why should not I hold my selfe damned (ifpredestinations opinions be true) that am predestinate to this horribleabuse. The hogge dieth presently if he loseth an eye: with the hoggehaue I wallowed in the myre, I haue lost my eye of honestie, it iscleane pluckt out with a strong hand of vnchastitie: what remaineth butI dye? Die I will, though life be vnwilling: no recompence is therefor mee to redeeme my compelled offence, but with a rigorous compelleddeath. Husband, He be thy wife in heauen: let not thy pure deceasingspirite despise me when we meete, because I am tyrannously polluted.The diuell, the belier of our frayltie, and common accuser of mankinde,cannot accuse me though he would of vnconstrained submitting. If anieguilt be mine, this is my fault, that I did not deforme my face, ere itshuld so impiously allure. Hauing passioned thus a while, she hastelyranne and lookt her selfe in her glasse to see if her sinne were notwritten on her forhead: with looking shee blusht though none lookt vponher but her owne reflected image.

  Then began she againe. _Heu quam difficile est crimen non proderevultu_; How hard is it not to bewray a mans fault by his forhead. Myselfe doo but behold my selfe, and yet I blush: then God beholding me,shall not I bee ten times more ashamed? The Angells shall hisse at mee,the Saints and Martyrs flye from me: yea, God himselfe shall adde tothe diuels damnation, because he suffred such a wicked creature to comebefore him. _Agamemnon_ thou wert an infidell, yet when thou wentst tothe Troian warre, thou leftst a Musitian at home with thy wife, whoby playing the foote _Spondous_ tyll thy returne, might keepe her inchastitie. My husband going to warre with the diuell and his enticementswhen hee surrendred, left no musition with me but mourning andmelancholy: had he left anie, as _Aegistus_ kild _Agamemnons_ musitionere he could be succesfull, so surely would he haue been kild ere this_Aegistus_ surceased. My distressed heart as the Hart when he loosethhis homes is astonied, and sorrowfullie runneth to hide himselfe, so beethou afflicted and distressed, hide thy selfe vnder the Almighties wingsof mercie: sve, plead, intreate, grace is neuer denyed to them thataske. It may be denied, I may be a vessell ordained to dishonor. Theonely repeale we haue from Gods vndefinite chastisement, is to chastiseour selues in this world: and so I will, nought but death bee mypennance, gracious and acceptable may it bee: my hand and my knife shallmanumit me out of the horror of minde I endure. Farewell life that hastlent me nothing but sorrow: farewell sinne sowed flesh, that hast moreweeds than flowers, more woes than ioyes.

  Point pierce, edge enwyden, I patiently affoord thee a sheath: spurrefoorth my soule to mount poast to heauen. Jesu forgiue me, Jesu receiueme.

  So throughly stabd fell she downe, and knockt her head against herhusbands
bodie: wherewith, hee not hauing beene ayred his full foure andtwentie houres, start as out of a dreame: whiles I through a crannie ofmy vpper chamber vnseeled, had beheld all this sad spectacle. Awaking,hee rubd his head too and fro, and wyping his eyes with his hand beganto looke about him. Feeling some thing lye heauie on his breast, heturnd it off, and getting vpon his legges lighted a candle.

  Heere beginneth my purgatorie. For he good man comming into the hallwith the candle, and spying his wife wyth her haire about her earesdefiled and massacred, and his simple _Zanie Capestrano_ run thorough,tooke a halberde in hys hand, and running from chamber to chamber tosearch who in his house was likely to doo it, at length found melying on my bed, the doore lockt to me on the outside, and my rapiervnsheathed on the windowe: wherewith hee straight coniectured it was I.And calling the neighbours harde by, sayd I had caused my selfe to beelockt into my chamber after that sort, sent awaye my curtizane whomeI called my