• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

In which for hir pranks so vncouth and suspicious, the lord regent by Peter Chauchon bishop of Beauuois (in whose diocesse she was taken) caused hir life and beléefe, after order of law to be inquired vpon and examined. Wherein found though a virgin, yet first shamefullie reiecting hir sex abominablie in acts and apparell to haue counterfeit mankind, and then all damnablie faithlesse, to be a pernicious instrument to hostilitie and bloudshed in diuelish witchcraft and sorcerie, sentence accordinglie was pronounced against hir. Howbeit vpon humble confession of hir iniquities with a counterfeit contrition pretending a carefull sorow for the same, execution spared and all mollified into this, that from thencefoorth she should cast off hir vnnaturall wearing of mans abilliments, and kéepe hir to garments of hir owne kind, abiure hir pernicious practises of sorcerie and witcherie, and haue life and leasure in perpetuall prison to bewaile hir misdeeds. Which to performe (according to the maner of abiuration) a solemne oth verie gladlie she tooke.

But herein (God helpe vs) she fullie afore possest of the feend, not able to hold hir in anie towardnesse of grace, falling streight waie into hir former abominations (and Polydo. 22, in H. 6. yet seking to eetch out life as long as she might) stake not (though the shift were shamefull) to confesse hir selfe a strumpet, and (vnmaried as she was) to be with child. For triall, the lord regents lenitie gaue hir nine moneths staie, at the end wherof she found herein as false as wicked in the rest, an eight daies after, vpon a further definitiue sentence declared against hir to be relapse and a renouncer of hir oth and repentance, was she therevpon deliuered ouer to secular power, and so executed by consumption of fire in the old market place at Rone, in the selfe same stéed where now saint Michaels church stands, hir ashes afterward without the towne wals shaken into the wind. Now recounting altogither, hir pastorall bringing vp, rude Les grand chron. without any vertuous instruction, hir campestrall conuersation with wicked spirits, whome in hir first salutation to Charles the Dolphin, she vttered to be our Ladie, Les grandes chronic. le & liure. saint Katharine, and saint Annes, that in this behalfe came and gaue hir commandements from God hir maker, as she kept hir fathers lambs in the fields (where saints in warres among christen men were (be we sure) neuer so parciall patrons or partners to maintenance of horrible slaughters, rapines, and bloudshed) hereto hir murtherous mind in killing of Franquet hir owne prisoner, hir two yeares continuance in hir abominations and deadlie mischiefe without anie hir trauell or motion betwéene the princes for peace, hir relapse at last & falling againe into hir abiured iniquities, by hir virginitie (if it were anie) by hir holie words, hir fasting and praiers what they might be, sith satan (after S. Paule) can change himselfe into an angell of light, the d6eplier to deceiue.

THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA – Young’s Translation of Diana

This extract from Book II. of the "Diana" of George de Montemayor was translated by Bartholomew Young in 1598 and was the likely source of Shakespeare’s early play The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

THE SHEPERDESS FELISMENA.

You shall therefore knowe (faire nymphes) that great Vandalia is my native countrie, a province not far hence, where I was borne, in a citie called Soldina, my mother called Delia, my father Andronius, for linage and possessions the chiefest of all that province. It fell out that as my mother was married many yeeres and had no children, (by reason whereof she lived so sad and malecontent that she enjoyed not one merry day) with teares and sighes she daily importuned the heavens, and with a thousand vowes and devout offerings, besought God to grant her the summe of her desire : whose omnipotence it pleased, beholding from his im- periall throne her continuall orisons, to make her barren bodie (the greater part of her age