She would have another matter mended much rather, which he did not perceive was corrupt: thus he continued at his study late, she at her sport, alibi enim festivus noctes agitabat, hating all schollers for his sake, till at length he began to suspect, and turned a little yellow, as well he might; for it was his own fault;

and if men be jealous in such cases (as oft it falls out) the mends is in their own hands, they must thank themselves. Who will pitie them, saith Neander, or be much offended with such wives, si deceptæ prius viros decipiant, & cornutos reddant, if they deceive those that cozened them first?

A Lawyers wife in Aristænetus, because her husband was negligent in his business, quando lecto danda opera, threatned to cornute him: and did not stick to tell Philinna one of her gossips as much, and that aloud for him to hear: if he follow other mens matters and leave his own, I’le have an Orator shall plead my cause, I care not if he know it.

A fourth eminent cause of jealousie, may be this, when he that is deformed, and as Pindarus of Vulcan, sine gratiis natus, hirsute, ragged, yet vertuously given, will marry some fair nice peece, or light huswife, begins to misdoubt (as well he may) she doth not affect him.

Lis est cum forma magna pudicitiæ, Beautie and honesty have ever been at oddes. Abraham was jealous of his wife because she was fair: so was Vulcan of his Venus, when he made her creeking shooes, saith Philostratus, ne mœcharetur, sandalio scilicet deferente, That he might hear by them when she stirred, which Mars indignè ferre, was not well pleased with.

Good cause had Vulcan to do as he did, for she was no honester then she should be. Your fine faces have commonly this fault, and it is hard to finde, saith Francis Philelphus in an epistle to Saxola his friend, a rich man honest, a proper woman not proud or unchast. Can she be fair and honest too?

Sæpe etenim occuluit pictâ sese Hydra sub herbâ, Sub specie formæ, incauto se sæpe marito Nequam animus vendit,——

He that marries a wife that is snowt fair alone, let him look saith Barbarus for no better successe than Vulcan had with Venus, or Claudius with Messalina.

And ’tis impossible almost in such cases the wife should contain, or the good man not be jealous: for when he is so defective, weak, ill proportioned, unpleasing in those parts which women most affect, and she most absolutely fair and able on the other side, if she be not very vertuously given, how can she love him?

and although she be not fair, yet if he admire her and think her so, in his conceit she is absolute, he holds it impossible for any man living not to dote as he doth, to look on her and not lust, not to covet, and if he be in company with her, not to lay seige to her honestie:

or else out of a deep apprehension of his infirmities, deformities, and other mens good parts, out of his own little worth and desert, he distrusts himself, (for what is jealousie but distrust?) he suspects she cannot affect him, or be not so kinde and loving as she should, she certainly loves some other man better then himself.

Nevisanus lib.4.num.72. Will have barrenness to be a main cause of Jealousie. If her husband cannot play the man, some other shall, they will leave no remedies unassayed, and thereupon the good man growes jealous, I could give an instance, but be it as it is.

I finde this reason given by some men, because they have been formerly naught themselves, they think they may be so served by others, they turned up trumpe, before the Cards were shuffled; they shall have therefore legem talionis, like for like.

Ipse miser docui, quo posset ludere pacto Custodes, eheu nunc premor arte meâ!

Wretch as I was, I taught her bad to be, And now mine own sly tricks are put upon me.

Mala mens, malus animus, as the saying is, ill dispositions cause ill suspitions.

There is none jealous I durst pawne my life, But he that hath defil’d anothers wife, And for that he himself hath gone astray, He straightway thinks his wife will tread that way.

To these two above named causes, or incendiaries of this rage, I may very well annex those circumstances of time, place, persons, by which it ebbes and flowes, the fewell of this furie, as Vives truely observes; and such like accidents or occasions, proceeding from the parties themselves, or others, which much aggravate and intend this suspitious humour.

For many men are so lasciviously given, either out of a depraved nature, or too much liberty, which they do assume unto themselves, by reason of their greatness, in that they are noble men, (for licentia peccandi, & multitudo peccantium are great motives) though their own wives be never so fair, noble, vertuous, honest, wise, able and well given, they must have change.

Qui cum legitimi junguntur fœdere lecti, Virtute egregiis, facieq; domoq; puellis, Scorta tamen, fœdasq; lupas in fornice quærunt, Et per adulterium nova carpere gaudia tentant.

Who being match’d to wives most vertuous, Noble, and fair, fly out lascivious.

Quod licet ingratum est, that which is ordinary, is unpleasant. Nero (saith Tacitus) abhorred Octavia his own wife, a noble vertuous Lady, and loved Acte a base queane in respect. Cerinthus rejected Sulpitia, a noble mans daughter, and courted a poor servant maid.

——tanta est alienâ in messe voluptas,

for that stolne waters be more pleasant: or as Vitellius the Emperour was wont to say, Jucundiores amores, qui cum periculo habentur, like stolne Venison, still the sweetest is that love, which is most difficultly attained: they like better to hunt by stealth in another mans walk, then to have the fairest course that may be at game of their own.

Aspice ut in cœlo modò sol, modò luna ministret, Sic etiam nobis una puella parum est.

As Sun and Moon in Heaven change their course, So they change loves, though often to the worse.

Or that some fair object so forcibly moves them, they cannot contain themselves, be it heard or seen they will be at it. Nessus the Centaure, was by agreement to carry Hercules and his wife over the river Evenus; no sooner had he set Dianira on the other side, but he would have offered violence unto her, leaving Hercules to swim over as he could: and though her husband was a spectator, yet would he not desist till Hercules with a poysoned arrow shot him to death.

Neptune saw by chance that Thessalian Tyro, Eunippius wife, he forthwith in the fury of his lust, counterfeited her husbands habit, and made him cuckold. Tarquin heard Collatine commend his wife, and was so far enraged, that in midst of the night to her he went. Theseus stole Ariadne, vi rapuit that Trœzeniam Anaxa, Antiope, and now being old, Helena a girle not yet ready for an husband.

Great men are most part thus affected all, as an horse they neigh, saith Jeremiah, after their neighbours wives,

——ut visâ pullus adhinnit equâ:

And if they be in company with other women, though in their own wives presence, they must be courting and dallying with them. Juno in Lucian complains of Jupiter that he was still kissing Ganymede before her face, which did not a little offend her: And besides he was a counterfeit Amphitryo, a bull, a swan, a golden shower, and plaid many such bad pranks, too long, too shamefull to relate.

Or that they care little for their own Ladies, and fear no Lawes, they dare freely keep whores at their wives noses. ’Tis too frequent with noble men to be dishonest; Pietas, probitas, fides, privata bona sunt, as he said long since, piety, chastity, and such like vertues are for private men: not to be much looked after in great Courts:

And which Suetonius of the good Princes of his time, they might be all engraven in one ring, we may truely hold of chast potentates of our age. For great personages will familiarly run out in this kinde, and yield occasion of offence.

Montaigne in his essayes, gives instance in Cæsar, Mahomet the Turk, that sacked Constantinople, and Ladislaus King of Naples, that besieged Florence: great men, and great souldiers, are commonly great &c. probatum est, they are good doers. Mars and Venus are equally ballanced in their actions,

Militis in galea nidum fecêre columbæ, Apparet Marti quam sit amica Venus.

A dove within a head-piece made her nest, ’Twixt Mars and Venus see an interest.

Especially if they be bald, for bald men have ever been suspicious (read more in Aristotle Sect.4. prob.19.) as Galba, Otho, Domitian, and remarkable Cæsar amongst the rest. Urbani servate uxores, mœchum calvum adducimus;

besides, this bald Cæsar, saith Curio in Sueton, was omnium mulierum vir; he made love to Eunoe Queen of Mauritania, to Cleopatra, to Posthumia wife to Sergius Sulpitius, to Lollia wife to Gabinius, to Tertulla of Crassus, and to Mutia Pompey’s wife, and I know not how many besides: And well he might, for if all be true that I have read, he had a licence to lye with whom he list.