Of such as have carried their dead Children in their Womb for some years

SO unwilling are Parents (for the most part) to survive the funerals of their Children: that some have thought it a very desirable thing to have their dying eyes clos'd by the hands of such as have issued from them. It was the wish of Penelope that the performance of this last Office for her self and her Ulysses, might be reserv'd to their dear Telemachus, according to that of Ovid.

By him let my Eyes closed be,
And may he do the same for thee.

We cannot but pity those unhappy Mothers, whose Children have not only died before them, but within them: in whom the punishment of Mezentius may seem to have been reviv'd in such a coupling of the living and the dead: and who (with a fatal disappointment of their hopes) are sensible their expired Infants have found their untimely Coffins in the midst of their own Bowels. The transcribed Histories of some such disconsolate Creatures you have here underwritten.

1. Catherine the Wife of Michael de Menne, a poor Countrey-man; for twelve years together carried a dead Child, or rather the Skeleton of one in her Womb. A monstrous and miraculous thing, and which yet is manifest to the touch, saith Aegidius de Herthoge. I my self saith he, and many other, both Men and Illustrious Women are witnesses hereof; it is enough to name the excellent Henricus Cornelius Mathisius; who heretofore was domestick Physician to the Emperor Charles the Fifth, he when he had handled the Woman beforesaid both standing and lying, and by touch had easily distinguished all the bones of the dead Infant, in a great amazement cry'd out, nothing is impossible in God and Nature. She conceiv'd of this child in March, Anno 1549. who desires to see this History more at large may have it from Schenckius in the place forecited.

2. In the Town of Sindelsingen, there lives a Woman of thirty years or thereabouts, who six or seven weeks before she expected delivery, by reason of a slip upon the Ice, hit her back against a wall; and from that time never afterwards felt her child she went with to stir. The bigness of her belly was the same; only a little after her fall it did somewhat encrease and after fell again; but she brought not forth her dead child; nor form that time forth was she sensible of the ordinary purgation of Women. She had her fall, Anno 1590. After which notwithstanding she conceived twice or thrice, and was often delivered of living children: But after her delivery; her usual bigness continueth: so that she verily believes the dead child is yet in her Womb.

Or, a General and Complete History of Man

Book 1. Chapter 1.

Of such Infants as have been heard to cry while they are in the Womb of their Mothers.

THAT which Mr Beaumont wrote in his Elegy upon the Lady Rutland may very well be pronounc'd upon every of the Sons and Daughters of Men.

But thou had'st e're thou cam'st to use of tears,
Sorrow laid up against thou cam'st to years.

So true is that of the sacred Oracle: Man is born to trouble. It seems trouble is his proper Inheritance, and that as soon as he enters into Life, he is of Age sufficient to enter upon the troubles of it also. Yet as if this were somewhat with the latest, there are some who seem even to anticipate their birth-right: and as if the World was not wide enough to afford them their full measure of sorrow: they begin their lamentations in the Womb. Or whether it is that provident Nature would have then to practice there in the dark, what they shall afterwards seldome want occasion for so long as they enjoy the light. The Histories of such little Prisoners as have been heard to cry in their close Apartments, take as followeth.

1. A poor Woman in Holland being great with child and near unto the time of her delivery: the child in her Womb (for the space of fifteen days before that of her Travail) was heard almost continually to cry and lament; many worthy persons went daily to hear so great a novelty, and have testified upon their knowledge the unquestionable verity of it.