and revenues of these countries, are augmented thereby and prosper; and, forasmuch as there are made, from time to time, many good orders concerning the catching, salting, and beneficial uttering of the said herrings, to the end to preserve and maintain the said chief trade, in the United Provinces; which trade, by divers encounters, of some that seek their own gain, is envied, in respect of the great good it bringeth to the united countries: And we are informed, that a new device is put in practice, to the prejudice of the trade, to transport out of the united countries, into other countries, stavcs for herringbarrels made here, and half herring-barrels, put into other barrels, and nets, to cross the good orders and policy here intended to them of these countries, for the catching, salting, and selling the herrings, dressed in other countries, after the order of these countries, whereby this chief trade should be decayed here, and the inhabitants of these countries damnified, if that we make no provision in time against such practices; therefore we, after mature judgment and deliberation, have forbidden and interdicted, and by these presents do forbid and interdict, all, and every one, as well home-born and inhabitants, as strangers frequenting these parts, to take up any herring-barrels, or half ones prepared, or any kind of nets, in any ship, town, or haven, of the United Provinces, to be sent into other countries, or places, upon pain of confiscation of the same, and the ship also wherein they shall be found, besides the penalty of two-hundred of Netherlandish silver royals, for the first time; and for the second time, above confiscation of ships and goods, four-hundred of the said royals of silver; and for the third time, above confiscation of ship and goods, and six-hundred of the said royals of silver, corporal punishment: All which confiscations, and penalties, shall be distributed, one third part to the profit of the plaintiff, one third part to the poor, and one third part to the officers, where the said confiscation shall be demanded: and not only they shall incur this penalty, which after shall be taken in the deed, but they also, that within one year after the deed shall be convicted; and that none may pretend ignorance, and that this order may be in all places duly observed, and the offenders punished according to justice, we will and require, our dear and well-beloved estates, governors, deputies of the council, and the estates of the respective provinces of Guelderland, and the county of Satfill in Holland, West-Friezland, Zealand, Utrecht, Friezland, Merizel, the town of Groyning, and the circumjacent places, and to all justices and officers, that they cause to be published in all places, and proclaimed, where the usual proclamation and publication is made; we do charge also the chancellors, and provincial council, and the council of the admiralty, the advocatistical, and the procurators general, and all other officers, judges, and justices of these United Provinces, and to all general colonies, admirals, and vice-admirals, captains, officers, and commanders, to perform, and cause to be performed, this order and commandment; and to proceed, and cause to be proceeded, against the offenders, without grace, favour, dissimulation, or composition: Because we have found it necessary, for the good and benefit of the said United Provinces. Dated in Hague, this 19th of July,

A DISCOURSE OF

MARRIAGE AND WIVING,

AND OF THE

Greatest Mystery therein contained :

HOW TO CHUSE A GOOD WIFE FROM A BAD.

An Argument of the dearest use, but the deepest cunning, that man may err in; which is, to cut by a thread, between the greatest good or evil in the world. Pertinent to both sexes, and conditions, as well those already gone before, as shortly to enter this honest society.

Amare & sapere vix Diis conceditur.

By Alex. Niccholes, Batchelor in the Art he never yet put in Practice.

He that stands by, and doth the Game survey,
Sees more oftimes, than those that at it play.

London, printed by N. O. for Leonard Becket, In the Inner-Temple, 1615.
Quarto, containing sixty-one Pages, including the Dedication and Preface.

To the virtuous young gentleman, aud his worthily respected friend, Mr. Thomas Edgworth, under Treasurer of Windsor, Health and Content in his own Person, and in the happy Fruition of his virtuous Wife.

SIR, your felicity, the highest top of enjoyment in this kind, is become the aim, that the practick art, in this school of direction, levelleth at you being already instated (with envy and admiration) in that bliss, which others may thus toil after in most beseeming circumstances (by many degrees) to come short of: When I enter this course of life (as, for aught I know, I may one day marry) be it my highest ambition, with all my directions, to have one to be a near imitator of her so many religious and moral virtues, for whose happy continuance my best wishes shall be spent, that she may long continue yours, to make you a father of happy and undoubted children; sons for the earth, and saints for heaven; multiplying upon your head all the comforts in that covenant: And for this treatise, which, by your direction, comes forth to direct others to that model of happiness,

wherein you stand eminent, may it have that success, with all, that it hath had approbation with you, and as kind entertainment with the world, as those best creatures, the subject thereof, in their perfection deserve; which are the seed and seminary thereof, and which (by this means) have maintained that lasting, and yet un-ended, war against those two arch and unwearied adversaries of mankind, Time and Death, the wasters thereof, and consumers of all sublunary things; which began their siege against the first man that lived, and have ever since held on without league, or imparlance, for the space of these five-thousand five hundred years, and upwards, and which shall go on and continue the siege, to the end thereof, and consummation of all things: Wherein, if it shall be so happy (beyond expectation) the pain thereof hath been well undertaken, and your encouragement, fortunately seconded, which howsoever I leave it to the adventure, and you to your heart's best wishes.

By him that intirely is dedicated yours,

ALEX. NICCHOLES.

To the Youth and Batchelary of England, hot Bloods at high Revels, which forethought of this action, and all others, that hereafter intend this adventure.

SINCE that the meanest blessing, in man's life,
Is not the dowry of a virtuous wife;
No other wise then is the adverse cross,
To him that bears it, the most easy loss.
Therefore to you, whose weary bonds yet keep,
Severing the arms wherein you long to sleep;
That have, before-hand many a tedious hour,
Wish'd that approaching minute in your pow'r,
Which when arriv'd, most slowly brought to pass,
Cancels but parchment to inroll in brass:
What not so short a term of years shall end,
Unless one shew himself the kinder friend;
Wherein, lest your too forward haste should stray.
Here is before-hand chalked out a way:
(As conscience craveth, for so long connexion
Should not be enter'd in without direction.)
Which who so walks into the true intent,
Shall not commit that action to repent.
The ignorant by this have sharper eyes,
More deeper insight to these mysteries;
And, were their understanding dark or blind,
To pass this labyrinth 'tis here refin'd:
Here are the characters insculp'd and read,
That make a happy or a loathed bed.

What woman is, on whom all these depend,
Her Use, Creation, Excellence, and End.
In making choice how much to be confin'd,
To Beauty, Riches, Parentage, or Kind;
What are the chief disturbers of this state,
That soonest point a man that sorest fate.
Here are the rocks discover'd to the eye,
That he that would not shipwreck may sail by.
And these the rather being aforehand laid,
Unbalanc'd pleasures to each youth and maid,
That, when experience shall their sweetness tell,
Instead of heaven they purchase not a hell.

And that the joy their forward youth hath sought,
Uncrossly match'd, may come more near their thought.
But
you whose lusts, this limit shall not tie,

For more enlargement to variety,

That will not any your own proper call,
The better interested to commerce with all :
As, when your lord and lady down are laid,
Behind the door to woo the chamber-maid;
Or amongst neighbours, where you lead your lives,
To be the more familiar with their wives;
Or any place where-e'er you do espy
A pretty morsel pleasing to your eye,
To seize it more suspectless, being known,
Than he that hath at home a wife of's own :
Well, take that blessing, but withal this curse,
To walk on weak legs, with an empty purse.

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

THE CONTENTS.

OF the first Institution and Author of Marriage.

Of the Excellency of Marriage, with the Consequence and Use. Worldly Choice what it is, or how, for the most Part, Men chuse their wives.

How to chuse a good Wife from a bad.

What Years are most convenient for Marriage.

That Conveniency and Fitness, in Choice, is more to be preferred than either Beauty, Riches, or other Additions of either Mind, or Fortune.

What is the chief Moth and Canker, that especially undermineth and fretteth the Marriage-Bed.

VIII. Advice for Choice, and whether it be best to marry a Widow, or

IX.

X.

a Maid.

Since the End of Marriage is Issue, whether it be lawful for old
Couples to marry, that are past Hope of Children.
The Difference between Lust and Love.

XI.

The best Way to continue a Woman chaste.

XII. The Pattern of a bad Husband, and a good Wife, instanced in two Letters.

XIII. An Admonition to Husbands and Wives, for Unity and Concord.

XIV. Certain Precepts to be observed in Wiving and Marriage, as also Resolutions to Chastity.

XV.

Discontents in all Ages, Sexes, States, Conditions.

If by this level thou a good wife hit,

Thank God, that e'er this book was bought, or writ.

CHAP. I.

Of the first Institution and Author of Marriage.

IT is not good for man to be alone * (saith the alone and absolute goodness of all goodness itself) Faciamus ergo adjutorem ei: Let us therefore make him a helper meet for him: So the creation of the woman was to be a helper to the man, not a hinderer; a companion for his comfort, not a vexation to his sorrow, for Consortium estSolatium, i. e. Company is comfortable, though never so small, and Adam took no little joy in this, his single companion, being thereby free from that solitude and silence, which his loneness would else have been subject to, had there been no other end, nor use in her more, than this her bare presence and society alone: But, besides all this, the earth is large and must be peopled, and, therefore, they are now the crown of his workmanship, the last, and best, and perfectest piece of his handy-work, divided into genders, as the rest of his creatures are, Male and Female, fit and enabled, Procreare sibi similem, i. e. to bring forth their like, to accomplish his will, who thus blessed their fruitfulness in the bud: Increase, and multiply, and replenish the earth. Well might St. Paul say, observing this, Marriage is honourable amongst all men, and the bed undefiled; since God himself was the author and institutor thereof, even in paradise; who gave the woman to the man, before, in his sleep, Adam lost a rib; but, now being awake, reperit costam, he hath his rib again, with interest and increase, branched into many veins, and ribs, and bones, and arteries of wonderful use, and admirable quality. So the creation of woman as it was for man, so it was out of man; Adam was made of the slime of the earth, and, were it not to make woman proud, I would tell her, she was of that better substance, of that well husbanded workmanship, and refined matter, refined and purified by the touch of his hands, in moulding to so excellent a proportion as man; of a bone taken out of his side (which that side ever wanteth since, as anatomists observe) to

"Gen. ii. 18.