Elizabeth of Hungary, Saint, 1207-1231 -- Drama; Tragedies (Drama)
'Nor certainly was there less faith in the husband who did not
oppose such and so great a wife, but rather favoured her, and
tempered her fervour with over-kind prudence. Affected, therefore,
by the sweetness of this modest love, and mutual society, they could
not bear to be separated for any length of time or distance. The
lady, therefore, frequently followed her husband through rough
roads, and no small distances, and severe wind and weather, led
rather by emotions of sincerity than of carnality: _for the chaste
presence of a modest husband offered no obstacle to that devout
spouse in the way of praying, watching, or otherwise doing good_.'
Then follows the story of her nurse waking Lewis instead of her, and
Lewis's easy good-nature about this, as about every other event of
life. 'And so, after these unwearied watchings, it often happened
that, praying for an excessive length of time, she fell asleep on a
mat beside her husband's bed, and being reproved for it by her
maidens, answered: "Though I cannot always pray, yet I can do
violence to my own flesh by tearing myself in the meantime from my
couch."'
'Fugiebat oblectamenta carnalia, et ideo stratum molliorem, et viri
contubernium secretissimum, quantum licuit, declinavit. Quem
quamvis praecordialis amoris affectu deligeret, querulabatur tamen
dolens, quod virginalis decorem floris non meruit conservare.
Castigabat etiam plagis multis, et lacerabat diris verberibus carnem
puella innocens et pudica.
'In principio quidem diebus quadragesimae, sextisque feriis aliis
occultas solebat accipere disciplinas, laetam coram hominibus se
ostentrans. Post vero convalescens et proficiens in gratia, deserto
dilecti thoro surgens, fecit se in secreto cubiculo per ancillarum
manus graviter saepissime verberari, ad lectumque mariti reversa
hilarem se exhibuit et jocundam.
'Vere felices conjuges, in quorum consortio tanta munditia, in
colloquio pudicitia reperta est. In quibus amor Christi
concupiscentiam extinxit, devotio refrenavit petulantiam, fervor
spiritus excussit somnolentiam, oratio tutavit conscientiam,
charitas benefaciendi facultatem tribuit et laetitiam!'
P. 58. 'In every scruple.' Cf. Lib. III. section 9, how Lewis
'consented that Elizabeth his wife should make a vow of obedience
and continence at the will of the said Conrad, salva jure
matrimonii.'
P. 59. 'The open street.' Cf. Lib. II. section 11. 'On the
Rogation days, when certain persons doing contrary to the decrees of
the saints are decorated with precious and luxurious garments, the
Princess, dressed in serge and barefooted, used to follow most
devoutly the Procession of the Cross and the relics of the Saints,
and place herself always at sermon among the poorest women; knowing
(says Dietrich) that seeds cast into the valleys spring up into the
richest crop of corn.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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