vention, which professed the sayd Science …’ London, 1617, 4to. His principal work, however, is ‘The Araignment of lewd, idle, froward, and unconstant Women; or the Vanitie of them, choose you whether. With a commendation of wise, vertuous, and honest Women,’ London (T. Archer), 1615, 4to, and again 1619, 1628, 1634, 1690? ‘to which is added a second part, containing many dialogues … and jovial songs,’ 1702, 8vo; 1707, 12mo; 1733, 12mo; and 1807, reprinted by Smeeton. A Dutch translation by a clergyman named William Christaens was printed at Leyden, 1641, and Amsterdam [1645?]. This coarse and violent attack on the fair sex elicited the following indignant replies: 1. ‘Asylum Veneris, or a Sanctuary for Ladies, justly protecting them, their virtues and sufficiencies, from the foule aspersions and forged imputations of traducing Spirits,’ London, 1616, 12mo. 2. ‘The Worming of a Mad Dogge; or, a Soppe for Cerberus, the Jaylor of Hell. No Confutation, but a sharpe Redargution of the bayter of Women. By Constantia Munda,’ London, 1617, 4to. 3. ‘Ester hath hang'd Haman; or, an answere to a lewde pamphlet, entituled the Arraignment of Women,’ by Ester Sowernam (pseudonym), London [1617], 4to. 4. ‘A Mouzell for Melastomus, the Cynicall Bayter of, and foule mouthed Barker against Evahs sex. By Rachel Speght,’ London, 1617, 4to [see under Speght, Thomas]. 5. ‘Swetnam, the Woman-hater, arraigned by Women. A new Comedie [in four acts and in verse] acted at the Red Bull, by the late Queenes Seruants,’ London, 1620, 4to; privately reprinted in an edition limited to sixty-two copies, Manchester, 1880, 4to, with introduction, notes, and illustrations by the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart, LL.D.
He must be distinguished from his contemporary namesake, Joseph Swetnam, Sweetnam, or Sweetman (1577–1622), a native of Northamptonshire, who entered the Society of Jesus in Portugal in 1606, was sent to the English mission in 1617, but was banished in 1618. He was in Lancashire again in 1621, and becoming penitentiary at Loretto, died there on 4 Nov. 1622. He wrote: 1. ‘The Progress of St. Mary Magdalene into Paradise,’ St. Omer, 1618, 8vo. 2. ‘The Paradise of Pleasure in the Litanies of Loretto,’ St. Omer, 1620, and translated from the Spanish Anthony Molina's treatise ‘On Mental Prayer,’ and Francis Arias's ‘Treatise of Exhortation,’ published in one volume, St. Omer, 1617, 12mo.
[Baker's Biogr. Dram. 1812, iii. 312; Hazlitt's Handbook to Lit. 1867, p. 586; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), pp. 2473, 2556. For the jesuit see De Backer's Bibl. des Ecrivains; Foley's Records; Oliver's Collectanea; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptt.; Winwood's Memorials, iii. 43.]
SWEYN or SVEIN (d. 1014), king of England and Denmark, called Forkbeard, was son of Harold Blaatand, king of Denmark, probably by his queen Gunhild, though it was said that his mother was a Slav, a servant in the house of Palna-Toki, or Tokko, in Fünen. He was baptised in childhood along with his father and Gunhild, in fulfilment of the conditions of peace dictated by the Emperor Otto the Great in 965. The emperor was his godfather, and he received the baptismal name of Otto (Adam of Bremen, ii. c. 3). His life and deeds in the north are involved in much obscurity, and their dates can at best only be matters of inference. He is said to have been brought up by Palna-Toki, the heathen captain of the buccaneer settlement at Jomsburg on the Slavonic coast of the Baltic. He cast aside Christianity and became head of the heathen party among the Danes. He rebelled against his father and made war upon him, and there is some ground for thinking that he at one time expelled him from Denmark (William of Jumièges, iv. cc. 7, 9: though the chronology of the events there recorded does not fit Sweyn's life, the passage proves a tradition, adopted by Sven Aggeson ap. Langebek, i. 52). Harold was finally wounded in a battle with his son, and died at Jomsburg on 1 Nov. 986 (Adam, ii. 25, 26; Saga of Olaf Tryggvisson, c. 38). Sweyn was then accepted as king in Denmark, and persecuted his Christian subjects.
Eric the Victorious invaded Denmark in revenge for the help that Harold had given to his enemies, and after some fighting drove Sweyn out. He is said to have sought help in vain from Olaf Tryggvisson, who was at that time leading a viking's life, and of Ethelred or Æthelred II, the Unready [q. v.], king of England, and to have been received by the king of Scots. He evidently had a large following, and became a sea-rover. In conjunction with Olaf, he invaded England with a powerful fleet in 994. The two allies made an assault on London on 8 Sept. which was repulsed, and they then ravaged the south-east. They entered Hampshire, and were bought off by the English with a tribute of 16,000l. Their fleet lay at Southampton during the winter, the crews being supplied with food and pay by Wessex. Olaf made a lasting peace with Æthelred, received the rite of confirmation, and sailed to Norway in 995, where he was chosen king. Sweyn remained for a time, and that year appears
