Love and love melancholy, Memb. 1 Sect. 1.
There will not be wanting, I presume, one or other that will much
discommend some part of this treatise of love-melancholy, and object (which
[4414]Erasmus in his preface to Sir Thomas More suspects of his) that it
is too light for a divine, too comical a subject to speak of love symptoms,
too fantastical, and fit alone for a wanton poet, a feeling young lovesick
gallant, an effeminate courtier, or some such idle person.
And 'tis true
they say: for by the naughtiness of men it is so come to pass, as [4415]
Caussinus observes, ut castis auribus vox amoris suspecta sit, et invisa,
the very name of love is odious to chaster ears; and therefore some again,
out of an affected gravity, will dislike all for the name's sake before
they read a word; dissembling with him in [4416]Petronius, and seem to be
angry that their ears are violated with such obscene speeches, that so they
may be admired for grave philosophers and staid carriage. They cannot abide
to hear talk of love toys, or amorous discourses, vultu, gestu, oculis in
their outward actions averse, and yet in their cogitations they are all out
as bad, if not worse than others.
If I have spent my time ill to write, let not them be so idle as to read.But I am persuaded it is not so ill spent, I ought not to excuse or repent myself of this subject; on which many grave and worthy men have written whole volumes, Plato, Plutarch, Plotinus, Maximus, Tyrius, Alcinous, Avicenna, Leon Hebreus in three large dialogues, Xenophon sympos. Theophrastus, if we may believe Athenaeus, lib. 13. cap. 9. Picus Mirandula, Marius, Aequicola, both in Italian, Kornmannus de linea Amoris, lib. 3. Petrus Godefridus hath handled in three books, P. Haedus, and which almost every physician, as Arnoldus, Villanovanus, Valleriola observat. med. lib. 2. observ. 7. Aelian Montaltus and Laurentius in their treatises of melancholy, Jason Pratensis de morb. cap. Valescus de Taranta, Gordonius, Hercules de Saxonia, Savanarola, Langius, &c., have treated of apart, and in their works. I excuse myself, therefore, with Peter Godefridus, Valleriola, Ficinus, and in [4420]Langius' words. Cadmus Milesius writ fourteen books of love,
and why should I be ashamed to write an epistle in favour of young men, of this subject?A company of stern readers dislike the second of the Aeneids, and Virgil's gravity, for inserting such amorous passions in an heroical subject; but [4421]Servius, his commentator, justly vindicates the poet's worth, wisdom, and discretion in doing as he did. Castalio would not have young men read the [4422] Canticles, because to his thinking it was too light and amorous a tract, a ballad of ballads, as our old English translation hath it. He might as well forbid the reading of Genesis, because of the loves of Jacob and Rachael, the stories of Sichem and Dinah, Judah and Thamar; reject the Book of Numbers, for the fornications of the people of Israel with the Moabites; that of Judges for Samson and Dalilah's embracings; that of the Kings, for David and Bersheba's adulteries, the incest of Ammon and Thamar, Solomon's concubines, &c. The stories of Esther, Judith, Susanna, and many such. Dicearchus, and some other, carp at Plato's majesty, that he would vouchsafe to indite such love toys: amongst the rest, for that dalliance with Agatho,
For my part, saith [4423]Maximus Tyrius, a great Platonist himself, me
non tantum admiratio habet, sed eliam stupor, I do not only admire, but
stand amazed to read, that Plato and Socrates both should expel Homer from
their city, because he writ of such light and wanton subjects, Quod
Junonem cum Jove in Ida concumbentes inducit, ab immortali nube contectos,
Vulcan's net. Mars and Venus' fopperies before all the gods, because Apollo
fled, when he was persecuted by Achilles, the [4424]gods were wounded and
ran whining away, as Mars that roared louder than Stentor, and covered nine
acres of ground with his fall; Vulcan was a summer's day falling down from
heaven, and in Lemnos Isle brake his leg, &c., with such ridiculous
passages; when, as both Socrates and Plato, by his testimony, writ lighter
themselves: quid enim tam distat (as he follows it) quam amans a
temperante, formarum admirator a demente, what can be more absurd than for
grave philosophers to treat of such fooleries, to admire Autiloquus,
Alcibiades, for their beauties as they did, to run after, to gaze, to dote
on fair Phaedrus, delicate Agatho, young Lysis, fine Charmides, haeccine
Philosophum decent? Doth this become grave philosophers? Thus peradventure
Callias, Thrasimachus, Polus, Aristophanes, or some of his adversaries and
emulators might object; but neither they nor [4425]Anytus and Melitus his
bitter enemies, that condemned him for teaching Critias to tyrannise, his
impiety for swearing by dogs and plain trees, for his juggling sophistry,
&c., never so much as upbraided him with impure love, writing or speaking
of that subject; and therefore without question, as he concludes, both
Socrates and Plato in this are justly to be excused. But suppose they had
been a little overseen, should divine Plato be defamed? no, rather as he
said of Cato's drunkenness, if Cato were drunk, it should be no vice at all
to be drunk. They reprove Plato then, but without cause (as [4426]Ficinus
pleads) for all love is honest and good, and they are worthy to be loved
that speak well of love.
Being to speak of this admirable affection of
love (saith [4427]Valleriola) there lies open a vast and philosophical
field to my discourse, by which many lovers become mad; let me leave my
more serious meditations, wander in these philosophical fields, and look
into those pleasant groves of the Muses, where with unspeakable variety of
flowers, we may make garlands to ourselves, not to adorn us only, but with
their pleasant smell and juice to nourish our souls, and fill our minds
desirous of knowledge,
&c. After a harsh and unpleasing discourse of
melancholy, which hath hitherto molested your patience, and tired the
author, give him leave with [4428]Godefridus the lawyer, and Laurentius
(cap. 5.) to recreate himself in this kind after his laborious studies,
since so many grave divines and worthy men have without offence to
manners, to help themselves and others, voluntarily written of it.
Heliodorus, a bishop, penned a love story of Theagines and Chariclea, and
when some Catos of his time reprehended him for it, chose rather, saith
[4429]Nicephorus, to leave his bishopric than his book. Aeneas Sylvius, an
ancient divine, and past forty years of age, (as [4430]he confesseth
himself, after Pope Pius Secundus) indited that wanton history of Euryalus
and Lucretia. And how many superintendents of learning could I reckon up
that have written of light fantastical subjects? Beroaldus, Erasmus,
Alpheratius, twenty-four times printed in Spanish, &c. Give me leave then
to refresh my muse a little, and my weary readers, to expatiate in this
delightsome field, hoc deliciarum campo, as Fonseca terms it, to [4431]
season a surly discourse with a more pleasing aspersion of love matters:
Edulcare vitam convenit, as the poet invites us, curas nugis, &c., 'tis
good to sweeten our life with some pleasing toys to relish it, and as Pliny
tells us, magna pars studiosorum amaenitates quaerimus, most of our
students love such pleasant [4432]subjects. Though Macrobius teach us
otherwise, [4433]that those old sages banished all such light tracts from
their studies, to nurse's cradles, to please only the ear;
yet out of
Apuleius I will oppose as honourable patrons, Solon, Plato, [4434]
Xenophon, Adrian, &c. that as highly approve of these treatises. On the
other side methinks they are not to be disliked, they are not so unfit. I
will not peremptorily say as one did [4435]tam suavia dicam facinora, ut
male sit ei qui talibus non delectetur, I will tell you such pretty
stories, that foul befall him that is not pleased with them; Neque dicam
ea quae vobis usui sit audivisse, et voluptati meminisse, with that
confidence, as Beroaldus doth his enarrations on Propertius. I will not
expert or hope for that approbation, which Lipsius gives to his Epictetus;
pluris facio quum relego; semper ut novum, et quum repetivi, repetendum,
the more I read, the more shall I covet to read. I will not press you with
my pamphlets, or beg attention, but if you like them you may. Pliny holds
it expedient, and most fit, severitatem jucunditate etiam in scriptis
condire, to season our works with some pleasant discourse; Synesius
approves it, licet in ludicris ludere, the [4436]poet admires it, Omne
tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci; and there be those, without
question, that are more willing to read such toys, than [4437]I am to
write: Let me not live,
saith Aretine's Antonia, If I had not rather
hear thy discourse, [4438]than see a play?
No doubt but there be more of
her mind, ever have been, ever will be, as [4439]Hierome bears me witness.
A far greater part had rather read Apuleius than Plato: Tully himself
confesseth he could not understand Plato's Timaeus, and therefore cared less
for it: but every schoolboy hath that famous testament of Grunnius
Corocotta Porcellus at his fingers' ends. The comical poet,
he was in his life a philosopher(as Ausonius apologiseth for him),
in his epigrams a lover, in his precepts most severe; in his epistle to Caerellia, a wanton.Annianus, Sulpicius, Evemus, Menander, and many old poets besides, did in scriptis prurire, write Fescennines, Atellans, and lascivious songs; laetam materiam; yet they had in moribus censuram, et severitatem, they were chaste, severe, and upright livers.
Incensed(as he said)
with the love of finding love, we have sought it, and found it.More yet, I have augmented and added something to this light treatise (if light) which was not in the former editions, I am not ashamed to confess it, with a good [4450]author, quod extendi et locupletari hoc subjectum plerique postulabant, et eorum importunitate victus, animum utcunque renitentem eo adegi, ut jam sexta vice calamum in manum sumerem, scriptionique longe et a studiis et professione mea alienae, me accingerem, horas aliquas a seriis meis occupationibus interim suffuratus, easque veluti ludo cuidam ac recreationi destinans; etsi non ignorarem novos fortasse detractores novis hisce interpolationibus meis minime defuturos. [4452]
And thus much I have thought good to say by way of preface, lest any man (which [4453]Godefridus feared in his book) should blame in me lightness, wantonness, rashness, in speaking of love's causes, enticements, symptoms, remedies, lawful and unlawful loves, and lust itself, [4454]I speak it only to tax and deter others from it, not to teach, but to show the vanities and fopperies of this heroical or Herculean love,[4455]and to apply remedies unto it. I will treat of this with like liberty as of the rest.
I am resolved howsoever, velis, nolis, audacter stadium intrare, in the Olympics, with those Aeliensian wrestlers in Philostratus, boldly to show myself in this common stage, and in this tragicomedy of love, to act several parts, some satirically, some comically, some in a mixed tone, as the subject I have in hand gives occasion, and present scene shall require, or offer itself.
Love's limits are ample and great, and a spacious walk it hath, beset with
thorns,
and for that cause, which [4461]Scaliger reprehends in Cardan, not
lightly to be passed over.
Lest I incur the same censure, 1 will examine
all the kinds of love, his nature, beginning, difference, objects, how it
is honest or dishonest, a virtue or vice, a natural passion, or a disease,
his power and effects, how far it extends: of which, although something has
been said in the first partition, in those sections of perturbations ([4462]
for love and hatred are the first and most common passions, from which all
the rest arise, and are attendant,
as Picolomineus holds, or as Nich.
Caussinus, the primum mobile of all other affections, which carry them
all about them) I will now more copiously dilate, through all his parts and
several branches, that so it may better appear what love is, and how it
varies with the objects, how in defect, or (which is most ordinary and
common) immoderate, and in excess, causeth melancholy.
Love universally taken, is defined to be a desire, as a word of more ample
signification: and though Leon Hebreus, the most copious writer of this
subject, in his third dialogue make no difference, yet in his first he
distinguisheth them again, and defines love by desire. [4463]Love is a
voluntary affection, and desire to enjoy that which is good. [4464]Desire
wisheth, love enjoys; the end of the one is the beginning of the other;
that which we love is present; that which we desire is absent.
[4465]It is
worth the labour,
saith Plotinus, to consider well of love, whether it be
a god or a devil, or passion of the mind, or partly god, partly devil,
partly passion.
He concludes love to participate of all three, to arise
from desire of that which is beautiful and fair, and defines it to be an
action of the mind desiring that which is good.
[4466]Plato calls it the
great devil, for its vehemency, and sovereignty over all other passions,
and defines it an appetite, [4467]by which we desire some good to be
present.
Ficinus in his comment adds the word fair to this definition.
Love is a desire of enjoying that which is good and fair. Austin dilates
this common definition, and will have love to be a delectation of the
heart, [4468]for something which we seek to win, or joy to have, coveting
by desire, resting in joy.
[4469]Scaliger exerc. 301. taxeth these
former definitions, and will not have love to be defined by desire or
appetite; for when we enjoy the things we desire, there remains no more
appetite:
as he defines it, Love is an affection by which we are either
united to the thing we love, or perpetuate our union;
which agrees in part
with Leon Hebreus.
Now this love varies as its object varies, which is always good, amiable,
fair, gracious, and pleasant. [4470]All things desire that which is
good,
as we are taught in the Ethics, or at least that which to them seems
to be good; quid enim vis mali (as Austin well infers) dic mihi? puto
nihil in omnibus actionibus; thou wilt wish no harm, I suppose, no ill in
all thine actions, thoughts or desires, nihil mali vis; [4471]thou wilt
not have bad corn, bad soil, a naughty tree, but all good; a good servant,
a good horse, a good son, a good friend, a good neighbour, a good wife.
From this goodness comes beauty; from beauty, grace, and comeliness, which
result as so many rays from their good parts, make us to love, and so to
covet it: for were it not pleasing and gracious in our eyes, we should not
seek. [4472]No man loves
(saith Aristotle 9. mor. cap. 5.) but he that
was first delighted with comeliness and beauty.
As this fair object
varies, so doth our love; for as Proclus holds, Omne pulchrum amabile,
every fair thing is amiable, and what we love is fair and gracious in our
eyes, or at least we do so apprehend and still esteem of it. [4473]
Amiableness is the object of love, the scope and end is to obtain it, for
whose sake we love, and which our mind covets to enjoy.
And it seems to us
especially fair and good; for good, fair, and unity, cannot be separated.
Beauty shines, Plato saith, and by reason of its splendour and shining
causeth admiration; and the fairer the object is, the more eagerly it is
sought. For as the same Plato defines it, [4474]Beauty is a lively,
shining or glittering brightness, resulting from effused good, by ideas,
seeds, reasons, shadows, stirring up our minds, that by this good they may
be united and made one.
Others will have beauty to be the perfection of the
whole composition, [4475]caused out of the congruous symmetry, measure,
order and manner of parts, and that comeliness which proceeds from this
beauty is called grace, and from thence all fair things are gracious.
For
grace and beauty are so wonderfully annexed, [4476]so sweetly and gently
win our souls, and strongly allure, that they confound our judgment and
cannot be distinguished. Beauty and grace are like those beams and shinings
that come from the glorious and divine sun,
which are diverse, as they
proceed from the diverse objects, to please and affect our several senses.
[4477]As the species of beauty are taken at our eyes, ears, or conceived
in our inner soul,
as Plato disputes at large in his Dialogue de pulchro,
Phaedro, Hyppias, and after many sophistical errors confuted, concludes
that beauty is a grace in all things, delighting the eyes, ears, and soul
itself; so that, as Valesius infers hence, whatsoever pleaseth our ears,
eyes, and soul, must needs be beautiful, fair, and delightsome to us.
[4478]And nothing can more please our ears than music, or pacify our
minds.
Fair houses, pictures, orchards, gardens, fields, a fair hawk, a
fair horse is most acceptable unto us; whatsoever pleaseth our eyes and
ears, we call beautiful and fair; [4479]Pleasure belongeth to the rest of
the senses, but grace and beauty to these two alone.
As the objects vary
and are diverse, so they diversely affect our eyes, ears, and soul itself.
Which gives occasion to some to make so many several kinds of love as there
be objects. One beauty ariseth from God, of which and divine love S.
Dionysius, [4480]with many fathers and neoterics, have written just
volumes, De amore Dei, as they term it, many paraenetical discourses;
another from his creatures; there is a beauty of the body, a beauty of the
soul, a beauty from virtue, formam martyrum, Austin calls it, quam
videmus oculis animi, which we see with the eyes of our mind; which
beauty, as Tully saith, if we could discern with these corporeal eyes,
admirabili sui amores excitaret, would cause admirable affections, and
ravish our souls. This other beauty which ariseth from those extreme parts,
and graces which proceed from gestures, speeches, several motions, and
proportions of creatures, men and women (especially from women, which made
those old poets put the three graces still in Venus' company, as attending
on her, and holding up her train) are infinite almost, and vary their names
with their objects, as love of money, covetousness, love of beauty, lust,
immoderate desire of any pleasure, concupiscence, friendship, love,
goodwill, &c. and is either virtue or vice, honest, dishonest, in excess,
defect, as shall be showed in his place. Heroical love, religious love, &c.
which may be reduced to a twofold division, according to the principal
parts which are affected, the brain and liver. Amor et amicitia, which
Scaliger exercitat. 301. Valesius and Melancthon warrant out of Plato
Φιλεῖν and ἐρᾶν from that speech of Pausanias belike,
that makes two Veneres and two loves. [4481]One Venus is ancient without
a mother, and descended from heaven, whom we call celestial; the younger,
begotten of Jupiter and Dione, whom commonly we call Venus.
Ficinus, in
his comment upon this place, cap. 8. following Plato, calls these two
loves, two devils, [4482]or good and bad angels according to us, which are
still hovering about our souls. [4483]The one rears to heaven, the other
depresseth us to hell; the one good, which stirs us up to the contemplation
of that divine beauty for whose sake we perform justice and all godly
offices, study philosophy, &c.; the other base, and though bad yet to be
respected; for indeed both are good in their own natures: procreation of
children is as necessary as that finding out of truth, but therefore called
bad, because it is abused, and withdraws our souls from the speculation of
that other to viler objects,
so far Ficinus. S. Austin, lib. 15. de civ.
Dei et sup. Psal. lxiv., hath delivered as much in effect. [4484]Every
creature is good, and may be loved well or ill:
and [4485]Two cities
make two loves, Jerusalem and Babylon, the love of God the one, the love of
the world the other; of these two cities we all are citizens, as by
examination of ourselves we may soon find, and of which.
The one love is
the root of all mischief, the other of all good. So, in his 15. cap. lib.
de amor. Ecclesiae, he will have those four cardinal virtues to be nought
else but love rightly composed; in his 15. book de civ. Dei, cap. 22. he
calls virtue the order of love, whom Thomas following 1. part. 2. quaest.
55. art. 1. and quaest. 56. 3. quaest. 62. art. 2. confirms as much, and
amplifies in many words. [4486]Lucian, to the same purpose, hath a
division of his own, One love was born in the sea, which is as various and
raging in young men's breasts as the sea itself, and causeth burning lust:
the other is that golden chain which was let down from heaven, and with a
divine fury ravisheth our souls, made to the image of God, and stirs us up
to comprehend the innate and incorruptible beauty to which we were once
created.
Beroaldus hath expressed all this in an epigram of his:
This twofold division of love, Origen likewise follows, in his Comment on
the Canticles, one from God, the other from the devil, as he holds
(understanding it in the worse sense) which many others repeat and imitate.
Both which (to omit all subdivisions) in excess or defect, as they are
abused, or degenerate, cause melancholy in a particular kind, as shall be
shown in his place. Austin, in another Tract, makes a threefold division of
this love, which we may use well or ill: [4487]God, our neighbour, and
the world: God above us, our neighbour next us, the world beneath us. In
the course of our desires, God hath three things, the world one, our
neighbour two. Our desire to God, is either from God, with God, or to God,
and ordinarily so runs. From God, when it receives from him, whence, and
for which it should love him: with God, when it contradicts his will in
nothing: to God, when it seeks to him, and rests itself in him. Our love to
our neighbour may proceed from him, and run with him, not to him: from him,
as when we rejoice of his good safety, and well doing: with him, when we
desire to have him a fellow and companion of our journey in the way of the
Lord: not in him, because there is no aid, hope, or confidence in man. From
the world our love comes, when we begin to admire the Creator in his works,
and glorify God in his creatures: with the world it should run, if,
according to the mutability of all temporalities, it should be dejected in
adversity, or over elevated in prosperity: to the world, if it would settle
itself in its vain delights and studies.
Many such partitions of love I
could repeat, and subdivisions, but least (which Scaliger objects to
Cardan, Exercitat. 501.) [4488]I confound filthy burning lust with pure
and divine love,
I will follow that accurate division of Leon Hebreus,
dial. 2. betwixt Sophia and Philo, where he speaks of natural, sensible,
and rational love, and handleth each apart. Natural love or hatred, is that
sympathy or antipathy which is to be seen in animate and inanimate
creatures, in the four elements, metals, stones, gravia tendunt deorsum,
as a stone to his centre, fire upward, and rivers to the sea. The sun,
moon, and stars go still around, [4489]Amantes naturae, debita exercere,
for love of perfection. This love is manifest, I say, in inanimate
creatures. How comes a loadstone to draw iron to it? jet chaff? the ground
to covet showers, but for love? No creature, S. Hierom concludes, is to be
found, quod non aliquid amat, no stock, no stone, that hath not some
feeling of love, 'Tis more eminent in plants, herbs, and is especially
observed in vegetables; as between the vine and elm a great sympathy,
between the vine and the cabbage, between the vine and the olive, [4490]
Virgo fugit Bromium, between the vine and bays a great antipathy, the
vine loves not the bay, [4491]nor his smell, and will kill him, if he
grow near him;
the bur and the lentil cannot endure one another, the olive
[4492]and the myrtle embrace each other, in roots and branches if they
grow near. Read more of this in Picolomineus grad. 7. cap. 1.
Crescentius lib. 5. de agric. Baptista Porta de mag. lib. 1. cap. de
plant. dodio et element. sym. Fracastorius de sym. et antip. of the love
and hatred of planets, consult with every astrologer. Leon Hebreus gives
many fabulous reasons, and moraliseth them withal.
Sensible love is that of brute beasts, of which the same Leon Hebreus dial. 2. assigns these causes. First for the pleasure they take in the act of generation, male and female love one another. Secondly, for the preservation of the species, and desire of young brood. Thirdly, for the mutual agreement, as being of the same kind: Sus sui, canis cani, bos bovi, et asinus asino pulcherrimus videtur, as Epicharmus held, and according to that adage of Diogenianus, Adsidet usque graculus apud graculum, they much delight in one another's company, [4493]Formicae grata est formica, cicada cicadae, and birds of a feather will gather together. Fourthly, for custom, use, and familiarity, as if a dog be trained up with a lion and a bear, contrary to their natures, they will love each other. Hawks, dogs, horses, love their masters and keepers: many stories I could relate in this kind, but see Gillius de hist. anim. lib. 3. cap. 14. those two Epistles of Lipsius, of dogs and horses, Agellius, &c. Fifthly, for bringing up, as if a bitch bring up a kid, a hen ducklings, a hedge-sparrow a cuckoo, &c.
The third kind is Amor cognitionis, as Leon calls it, rational love, Intellectivus amor, and is proper to men, on which I must insist. This appears in God, angels, men. God is love itself, the fountain of love, the disciple of love, as Plato styles him; the servant of peace, the God of love and peace; have peace with all men and God is with you.
By this love(saith Gerson)
we purchase heaven,and buy the kingdom of God. This [4496]love is either in the Trinity itself (for the Holy Ghost is the love of the Father and the Son, &c. John iii. 35, and v. 20, and xiv. 31), or towards us his creatures, as in making the world. Amor mundum fecit, love built cities, mundi anima, invented arts, sciences, and all [4497]good things, incites us to virtue and humanity, combines and quickens; keeps peace on earth, quietness by sea, mirth in the winds and elements, expels all fear, anger, and rusticity; Circulus a bono in bonum, a round circle still from good to good; for love is the beginner and end of all our actions, the efficient and instrumental cause, as our poets in their symbols, impresses, [4498]emblems of rings, squares, &c., shadow unto us,
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son for it,John iii. 16.
Behold what love the Father hath showed on us, that we should be called the sons of God,1 John iii. 1. Or by His sweet Providence, in protecting of it; either all in general, or His saints elect and church in particular, whom He keeps as the apple of His eye, whom He loves freely, as Hosea xiv. 5. speaks, and dearly respects, [4500]Charior est ipsis homo quam sibi. Not that we are fair, nor for any merit or grace of ours, for we are most vile and base; but out of His incomparable love and goodness, out of His Divine Nature. And this is that Homer's golden chain, which reacheth down from heaven to earth, by which every creature is annexed, and depends on his Creator. He made all, saith [4501]Moses,
and it was good;He loves it as good.
The love of angels and living souls is mutual amongst themselves, towards us militant in the church, and all such as love God; as the sunbeams irradiate the earth from those celestial thrones, they by their well wishes reflect on us, [4502]in salute hominum promovenda alacres, et constantes administri, there is joy in heaven for every sinner that repenteth; they pray for us, are solicitous for our good, [4503]Casti genii.
Valesius, lib. 3. contr. 13, defines this love which is in men, to be
[4505]an affection of both powers, appetite and reason.
The rational
resides in the brain, the other in the liver (as before hath been said out
of Plato and others); the heart is diversely affected of both, and carried
a thousand ways by consent. The sensitive faculty most part overrules
reason, the soul is carried hoodwinked, and the understanding captive like
a beast. [4506]The heart is variously inclined, sometimes they are merry,
sometimes sad, and from love arise hope and fear, jealousy, fury,
desperation.
Now this love of men is diverse, and varies, as the object
varies, by which they are enticed, as virtue, wisdom, eloquence, profit,
wealth, money, fame, honour, or comeliness of person, &c. Leon Hubreus, in
his first dialogue, reduceth them all to these three, utile, jucundum,
honestum, profitable, pleasant, honest; (out of Aristotle belike
8. moral.) of which he discourseth at large, and whatsoever is beautiful and
fair, is referred to them, or any way to be desired. [4507]To profitable
is ascribed health, wealth, honour, &c., which is rather ambition, desire,
covetousness, than love:
friends, children, love of women, [4508]all
delightful and pleasant objects, are referred to the second. The love of
honest things consists in virtue and wisdom, and is preferred before that
which is profitable and pleasant: intellectual, about that which is honest.
[4509]St. Austin calls profitable, worldly; pleasant, carnal; honest,
spiritual. [4510]Of and from all three, result charity, friendship, and
true love, which respects God and our neighbour.
Of each of these I will
briefly dilate, and show in what sort they cause melancholy.
Amongst all these fair enticing objects, which procure love, and bewitch the soul of man, there is none so moving, so forcible as profit; and that which carrieth with it a show of commodity. Health indeed is a precious thing, to recover and preserve which we will undergo any misery, drink bitter potions, freely give our goods: restore a man to his health, his purse lies open to thee, bountiful he is, thankful and beholding to thee; but give him wealth and honour, give him gold, or what shall be for his advantage and preferment, and thou shalt command his affections, oblige him eternally to thee, heart, hand, life, and all is at thy service, thou art his dear and loving friend, good and gracious lord and master, his Mecaenas; he is thy slave, thy vassal, most devote, affectioned, and bound in all duty: tell him good tidings in this kind, there spoke an angel, a blessed hour that brings in gain, he is thy creature, and thou his creator, he hugs and admires thee; he is thine for ever. No loadstone so attractive as that of profit, none so fair an object as this of gold; [4511]nothing wins a man sooner than a good turn, bounty and liberality command body and soul:
Gold of all other is a most delicious object; a sweet light, a goodly lustre it hath; gratius aurum quam solem intuemur, saith Austin, and we had rather see it than the sun. Sweet and pleasant in getting, in keeping; it seasons all our labours, intolerable pains we take for it, base employments, endure bitter flouts and taunts, long journeys, heavy burdens, all are made light and easy by this hope of gain: At mihi plaudo ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca. The sight of gold refresheth our spirits, and ravisheth our hearts, as that Babylonian garment and [4512] golden wedge did Achan in the camp, the very sight and hearing sets on fire his soul with desire of it. It will make a man run to the antipodes, or tarry at home and turn parasite, lie, flatter, prostitute himself, swear and bear false witness; he will venture his body, kill a king, murder his father, and damn his soul to come at it. Formosior auri massa, as [4513] he well observed, the mass of gold is fairer than all your Grecian pictures, that Apelles, Phidias, or any doting painter could ever make: we are enamoured with it,
This is the great goddess we adore and worship; this is the sole object of our desire.If we have it, as we think, we are made for ever, thrice happy, princes, lords, &c. If we lose it, we are dull, heavy, dejected, discontent, miserable, desperate, and mad. Our estate and bene esse ebbs and flows with our commodity; and as we are endowed or enriched, so are we beloved and esteemed: it lasts no longer than our wealth; when that is gone, and the object removed, farewell friendship: as long as bounty, good cheer, and rewards were to be hoped, friends enough; they were tied to thee by the teeth, and would follow thee as crows do a carcass: but when thy goods are gone and spent, the lamp of their love is out, and thou shalt be contemned, scorned, hated, injured. [4516]Lucian's Timon, when he lived in prosperity, was the sole spectacle of Greece, only admired; who but Timon? Everybody loved, honoured, applauded him, each man offered him his service, and sought to be kin to him; but when his gold was spent, his fair possessions gone, farewell Timon: none so ugly, none so deformed, so odious an object as Timon, no man so ridiculous on a sudden, they gave him a penny to buy a rope, no man would know him.
'Tis the general humour of the world, commodity steers our affections
throughout, we love those that are fortunate and rich, that thrive, or by
whom we may receive mutual kindness, hope for like courtesies, get any
good, gain, or profit; hate those, and abhor on the other side, which are
poor and miserable, or by whom we may sustain loss or inconvenience. And
even those that were now familiar and dear unto us, our loving and long
friends, neighbours, kinsmen, allies, with whom we have conversed, and
lived as so many Geryons for some years past, striving still to give one
another all good content and entertainment, with mutual invitations,
feastings, disports, offices, for whom we would ride, run, spend ourselves,
and of whom we have so freely and honourably spoken, to whom we have given
all those turgent titles, and magnificent eulogiums, most excellent and
most noble, worthy, wise, grave, learned, valiant, &c., and magnified
beyond measure: if any controversy arise between us, some trespass, injury,
abuse, some part of our goods be detained, a piece of land come to be
litigious, if they cross us in our suit, or touch the string of our
commodity, we detest and depress them upon a sudden: neither affinity,
consanguinity, or old acquaintance can contain us, but [4517]rupto jecore
exierit Caprificus. A golden apple sets altogether by the ears, as if a
marrowbone or honeycomb were flung amongst bears: father and son, brother
and sister, kinsmen are at odds: and look what malice, deadly hatred can
invent, that shall be done, Terrible, dirum, pestilens, atrox, ferum,
mutual injuries, desire of revenge, and how to hurt them, him and his, are
all our studies. If our pleasures be interrupt, we can tolerate it: our
bodies hurt, we can put it up and be reconciled: but touch our commodities,
we are most impatient: fair becomes foul, the graces are turned to harpies,
friendly salutations to bitter imprecations, mutual feastings to plotting
villainies, minings and counterminings; good words to satires and
invectives, we revile e contra, nought but his imperfections are in our
eyes, he is a base knave, a devil, a monster, a caterpillar, a viper, a
hog-rubber, &c. Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne;[4518] the scene
is altered on a sudden, love is turned to hate, mirth to melancholy: so
furiously are we most part bent, our affections fixed upon this object of
commodity, and upon money, the desire of which in excess is covetousness:
ambition tyranniseth over our souls, as [4519]I have shown, and in defect
crucifies as much, as if a man by negligence, ill husbandry, improvidence,
prodigality, waste and consume his goods and fortunes, beggary follows, and
melancholy, he becomes an abject, [4520]odious and worse than an infidel,
in not providing for his family.
Pleasant objects are infinite, whether they be such as have life, or be
without life; inanimate are countries, provinces, towers, towns, cities, as
he said, [4521]Pulcherrimam insulam videmus, etiam cum non videmus we
see a fair island by description, when we see it not. The [4522]sun never
saw a fairer city, Thessala Tempe, orchards, gardens, pleasant walks,
groves, fountains, &c. The heaven itself is said to be [4523]fair or foul:
fair buildings, [4524]fair pictures, all artificial, elaborate and curious
works, clothes, give an admirable lustre: we admire, and gaze upon them,
ut pueri Junonis avem, as children do on a peacock: a fair dog, a fair
horse and hawk, &c. [4525]Thessalus amat equum pullinum, buculum
Aegyptius, Lacedaemonius Catulum, &c., such things we love, are most
gracious in our sight, acceptable unto us, and whatsoever else may cause
this passion, if it be superfluous or immoderately loved, as Guianerius
observes. These things in themselves are pleasing and good, singular
ornaments, necessary, comely, and fit to be had; but when we fix an
immoderate eye, and dote on them over much, this pleasure may turn to pain,
bring much sorrow and discontent unto us, work our final overthrow, and
cause melancholy in the end. Many are carried away with those bewitching
sports of gaming, hawking, hunting, and such vain pleasures, as [4526]I
have said: some with immoderate desire of fame, to be crowned in the
Olympics, knighted in the field, &c., and by these means ruinate
themselves. The lascivious dotes on his fair mistress, the glutton on his
dishes, which are infinitely varied to please the palate, the epicure on
his several pleasures, the superstitious on his idol, and fats himself with
future joys, as Turks feed themselves with an imaginary persuasion of a
sensual paradise: so several pleasant objects diversely affect diverse men.
But the fairest objects and enticings proceed from men themselves, which
most frequently captivate, allure, and make them dote beyond all measure
upon one another, and that for many respects: first, as some suppose, by
that secret force of stars, (quod me tibi temperat astrum?) They do
singularly dote on such a man, hate such again, and can give no reason for
it. [4527]Non amo te Sabidi, &c. Alexander admired Ephestion, Adrian
Antinous, Nero Sporus, &c. The physicians refer this to their temperament,
astrologers to trine and sextile aspects, or opposite of their several
ascendants, lords of their genitures, love and hatred of planets; [4528]
Cicogna, to concord and discord of spirits; but most to outward graces. A
merry companion is welcome and acceptable to all men, and therefore, saith
[4529]Gomesius, princes and great men entertain jesters and players
commonly in their courts. But [4530]Pares cum paribus facillime
congregantur, 'tis that [4531]similitude of manners, which ties most men
in an inseparable link, as if they be addicted to the same studies or
disports, they delight in one another's companies, birds of a feather will
gather together:
if they be of divers inclinations, or opposite in
manners, they can seldom agree. Secondly, [4532]affability, custom, and
familiarity, may convert nature many times, though they be different in
manners, as if they be countrymen, fellow-students, colleagues, or have
been fellow-soldiers, [4533]brethren in affliction, ([4534]acerba
calamitatum societas, diversi etiam ingenii homines conjungit) affinity,
or some such accidental occasion, though they cannot agree amongst
themselves, they will stick together like burrs, and bold against a third;
so after some discontinuance, or death, enmity ceaseth; or in a foreign
place:
a mother cannot forget her child:Solomon so found out the true owner; love of parents may not be concealed, 'tis natural, descends, and they that are inhuman in this kind, are unworthy of that air they breathe, and of the four elements; yet many unnatural examples we have in this rank, of hard-hearted parents, disobedient children, of [4540]disagreeing brothers, nothing so common. The love of kinsmen is grown cold, [4541]
many kinsmen(as the saying is)
few friends;if thine estate be good, and thou able, par pari referre, to requite their kindness, there will be mutual correspondence, otherwise thou art a burden, most odious to them above all others. The last object that ties man and man, is comeliness of person, and beauty alone, as men love women with a wanton eye: which κατ' ἐξοχὴν is termed heroical, or love-melancholy. Other loves (saith Picolomineus) are so called with some contraction, as the love of wine, gold, &c., but this of women is predominant in a higher strain, whose part affected is the liver, and this love deserves a longer explication, and shall be dilated apart in the next section.
Beauty is the common object of all love, [4542]as jet draws a straw, so
doth beauty love:
virtue and honesty are great motives, and give as fair a
lustre as the rest, especially if they be sincere and right, not fucate,
but proceeding from true form, and an incorrupt judgment; those two Venus'
twins, Eros and Anteros, are then most firm and fast. For many times
otherwise men are deceived by their flattering gnathos, dissembling
camelions, outsides, hypocrites that make a show of great love, learning,
pretend honesty, virtue, zeal, modesty, with affected looks and counterfeit
gestures: feigned protestations often steal away the hearts and favours of
men, and deceive them, specie virtutis et umbra, when as revera and
indeed, there is no worth or honesty at all in them, no truth, but mere
hypocrisy, subtlety, knavery, and the like. As true friends they are, as he
that Caelius Secundus met by the highway side; and hard it is in this
temporising age to distinguish such companions, or to find them out. Such
gnathos as these for the most part belong to great men, and by this glozing
flattery, affability, and such like philters, so dive and insinuate into
their favours, that they are taken for men of excellent worth, wisdom,
learning, demigods, and so screw themselves into dignities, honours,
offices; but these men cause harsh confusion often, and as many times stirs
as Rehoboam's counsellors in a commonwealth, overthrew themselves and
others. Tandlerus and some authors make a doubt, whether love and hatred
may be compelled by philters or characters; Cardan and Marbodius, by
precious stones and amulets; astrologers by election of times, &c. as
[4543]I shall elsewhere discuss. The true object of this honest love is
virtue, wisdom, honesty, [4544]real worth, Interna forma, and this love
cannot deceive or be compelled, ut ameris amabilis esto, love itself is
the most potent philtrum, virtue and wisdom, gratia gratum faciens, the
sole and only grace, not counterfeit, but open, honest, simple, naked,
[4545]descending from heaven,
as our apostle hath it, an infused habit
from God, which hath given several gifts, as wit, learning, tongues, for
which they shall be amiable and gracious, Eph. iv. 11. as to Saul stature and
a goodly presence, 1 Sam. ix. 1. Joseph found favour in Pharaoh's court,
Gen. xxxix, for [4546]his person; and Daniel with the princes of the
eunuchs, Dan. xix. 19. Christ was gracious with God and men, Luke ii. 52.
There is still some peculiar grace, as of good discourse, eloquence, wit,
honesty, which is the primum mobile, first mover, and a most forcible
loadstone to draw the favours and good wills of men's eyes, ears, and
affections unto them. When Jesus spake, they were all astonished at his
answers,
(Luke ii. 47.) and wondered at his gracious words which proceeded
from his mouth.
An orator steals away the hearts of men, and as another
Orpheus, quo vult, unde vult, he pulls them to him by speech alone: a
sweet voice causeth admiration; and he that can utter himself in good
words, in our ordinary phrase, is called a proper man, a divine spirit. For
which cause belike, our old poets, Senatus populusque poetarum, made
Mercury the gentleman-usher to the Graces, captain of eloquence, and those
charities to be Jupiter's and Eurymone's daughters, descended from above.
Though they be otherwise deformed, crooked, ugly to behold, those good
parts of the mind denominate them fair. Plato commends the beauty of
Socrates; yet who was more grim of countenance, stern and ghastly to look
upon? So are and have been many great philosophers, as [4547]Gregory
Nazianzen observes, deformed most part in that which is to be seen with
the eyes, but most elegant in that which is not to be seen.
Saepe sub
attrita latitat sapientia veste. Aesop, Democritus, Aristotle, Politianus,
Melancthon, Gesner, &c. withered old men, Sileni Alcibiadis, very harsh
and impolite to the eye; but who were so terse, polite, eloquent, generally
learned, temperate and modest? No man then living was so fair as
Alcibiades, so lovely quo ad superficiem, to the eye, as [4548]Boethius
observes, but he had Corpus turpissimum interne, a most deformed soul;
honesty, virtue, fair conditions, are great enticers to such as are well
given, and much avail to get the favour and goodwill of men. Abdolominus
in Curtius, a poor man, (but which mine author notes, [4549]the cause of
this poverty was his honesty
) for his modesty and continency from a
private person (for they found him digging in his garden) was saluted king,
and preferred before all the magnificoes of his time, injecta ei vestis
purpura auroque distincta, a purple embroidered garment was put upon him,
[4550]and they bade him wash himself, and, as he was worthy, take upon him
the style and spirit of a king,
continue his continency and the rest of
his good parts. Titus Pomponius Atticus, that noble citizen of Rome, was so
fair conditioned, of so sweet a carriage, that he was generally beloved of
all good men, of Caesar, Pompey, Antony, Tully, of divers sects, &c.
multas haereditates ([4551]Cornelius Nepos writes) sola bonitate
consequutus. Operae, pretium audire, &c. It is worthy of your attention,
Livy cries, [4552]you that scorn all but riches, and give no esteem to
virtue, except they be wealthy withal, Q. Cincinnatus had but four acres,
and by the consent of the senate was chosen dictator of Rome.
Of such
account were Cato, Fabricius, Aristides, Antonius, Probus, for their
eminent worth: so Caesar, Trajan, Alexander, admired for valour, [4553]
Haephestion loved Alexander, but Parmenio the king: Titus deliciae humani
generis, and which Aurelius Victor hath of Vespasian, the darling of his
time, as [4554]Edgar Etheling was in England, for his [4555]excellent
virtues: their memory is yet fresh, sweet, and we love them many ages
after, though they be dead: Suavem memoriam sui reliquit, saith Lipsius
of his friend, living and dead they are all one. [4556]I have ever loved
as thou knowest
(so Tully wrote to Dolabella) Marcus Brutus for his great
wit, singular honesty, constancy, sweet conditions; and believe it
[4557]
there is nothing so amiable and fair as virtue.
I [4558]do mightily love
Calvisinus,
(so Pliny writes to Sossius) a most industrious, eloquent,
upright man, which is all in all with me:
the affection came from his good
parts. And as St. Austin comments on the 84th Psalm, [4559]there is a
peculiar beauty of justice, and inward beauty, which we see with the eyes
of our hearts, love, and are enamoured with, as in martyrs, though their
bodies be torn in pieces with wild beasts, yet this beauty shines, and we
love their virtues.
The [4560]stoics are of opinion that a wise man is
only fair; and Cato in Tully 3 de Finibus contends the same, that the
lineaments of the mind are far fairer than those of the body, incomparably
beyond them: wisdom and valour according to [4561]Xenophon, especially
deserve the name of beauty, and denominate one fair, et incomparabiliter
pulchrior est (as Austin holds) veritas Christianorum quam Helena
Graecorum. Wine is strong, the king is strong, women are strong, but
truth overcometh all things,
Esd. i. 3, 10, 11, 12. Blessed is the man
that findeth wisdom, and getteth understanding, for the merchandise thereof
is better than silver, and the gain thereof better than gold: it is more
precious than pearls, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be
compared to her,
Prov. ii. 13, 14, 15, a wise, true, just, upright, and
good man, I say it again, is only fair: [4562]it is reported of Magdalene
Queen of France, and wife to Lewis 11th, a Scottish woman by birth, that
walking forth in an evening with her ladies, she spied M. Alanus, one of
the king's chaplains, a silly, old, [4563]hard-favoured man fast asleep in
a bower, and kissed him sweetly; when the young ladies laughed at her for
it, she replied, that it was not his person that she did embrace and
reverence, but, with a platonic love, the divine beauty of [4564]his soul.
Thus in all ages virtue hath been adored, admired, a singular lustre hath
proceeded from it: and the more virtuous he is, the more gracious, the more
admired. No man so much followed upon earth as Christ himself: and as the
Psalmist saith, xlv. 2, He was fairer than the sons of men.
Chrysostom
Hom. 8 in Mat. Bernard Ser. 1. de omnibus sanctis; Austin,
Cassiodore, Hier. in 9 Mat. interpret it of the [4565]beauty of his
person; there was a divine majesty in his looks, it shined like lightning
and drew all men to it: but Basil, Cyril, lib. 6. super. 55. Esay.
Theodoret, Arnobius, &c. of the beauty of his divinity, justice, grace,
eloquence, &c. Thomas in Psal. xliv. of both; and so doth Baradius and
Peter Morales, lib de pulchritud. Jesu et Mariae, adding as much of Joseph
and the Virgin Mary,—haec alias forma praecesserit omnes, [4566]according
to that prediction of Sibylla Cumea. Be they present or absent, near us, or
afar off, this beauty shines, and will attract men many miles to come and
visit it. Plato and Pythagoras left their country, to see those wise
Egyptian priests: Apollonius travelled into Ethiopia, Persia, to consult
with the Magi, Brachmanni, gymnosophists. The Queen of Sheba came to visit
Solomon; and many,
saith [4567]Hierom, went out of Spain and remote
places a thousand miles, to behold that eloquent Livy:
[4568]Multi Romam
non ut urbem pulcherrimam, aut urbis et orbis dominum Octavianum, sed ut
hunc unum inviserent audirentque, a Gadibus profecti sunt. No beauty
leaves such an impression, strikes so deep [4569], or links the souls of
men closer than virtue.
no painter, no graver, no carver can express virtue's lustre, or those admirable rays that come from it, those enchanting rays that enamour posterity, those everlasting rays that continue to the world's end.Many, saith Phavorinus, that loved and admired Alcibiades in his youth, knew not, cared not for Alcibiades a man, nunc intuentes quaerebant Alcibiadem; but the beauty of Socrates is still the same; [4571]virtue's lustre never fades, is ever fresh and green, semper viva to all succeeding ages, and a most attractive loadstone, to draw and combine such as are present. For that reason belike, Homer feigns the three Graces to be linked and tied hand in hand, because the hearts of men are so firmly united with such graces. [4572]
O sweet bands (Seneca exclaims), which so happily combine, that those which are bound by them love their binders, desiring withal much more harder to be bound,and as so many Geryons to be united into one. For the nature of true friendship is to combine, to be like affected, of one mind,
He did express his friends in colours, in wax, in brass, in ivory, marble, gold, and silver(as Pliny reports of a citizen in Rome),
and in a great auditory not long since recited a just volume of his life.In another place, [4579]speaking of an epigram which Martial had composed in praise of him, [4580]
He gave me as much as he might, and would have done more if he could: though what can a man give more than honour, glory, and eternity?But that which he wrote peradventure will not continue, yet he wrote it to continue. 'Tis all the recompense a poor scholar can make his well-deserving patron, Mecaenas, friend, to mention him in his works, to dedicate a book to his name, to write his life, &c., as all our poets, orators, historiographers have ever done, and the greatest revenge such men take of their adversaries, to persecute them with satires, invectives, &c., and 'tis both ways of great moment, as [4581] Plato gives us to understand. Paulus Jovius, in the fourth book of the life and deeds of Pope Leo Decimus, his noble patron, concludes in these words, [4582]
Because I cannot honour him as other rich men do, with like endeavour, affection, and piety, I have undertaken to write his life; since my fortunes will not give me leave to make a more sumptuous monument, I will perform those rites to his sacred ashes, which a small, perhaps, but a liberal wit can afford.But I rove. Where this true love is wanting, there can be no firm peace, friendship from teeth outward, counterfeit, or for some by-respects, so long dissembled, till they have satisfied their own ends, which, upon every small occasion, breaks out into enmity, open war, defiance, heart-burnings, whispering, calumnies, contentions, and all manner of bitter melancholy discontents. And those men which have no other object of their love, than greatness, wealth, authority, &c., are rather feared than beloved; nec amant quemquam, nec amantur ab ullo: and howsoever borne with for a time, yet for their tyranny and oppression, griping, covetousness, currish hardness, folly, intemperance, imprudence, and such like vices, they are generally odious, abhorred of all, both God and men.
wife and children, friends, neighbours, all the world forsakes them, would feign be rid of them,and are compelled many times to lay violent hands on them, or else God's judgments overtake them: instead of graces, come furies. So when fair [4583]Abigail, a woman of singular wisdom, was acceptable to David, Nabal was churlish and evil-conditioned; and therefore [4584]Mordecai was received, when Haman was executed, Haman the favourite,
that had his seat above the other princes, to whom all the king's servants that stood in the gates, bowed their knees and reverenced.Though they flourished many times, such hypocrites, such temporising foxes, and blear the world's eyes by flattery, bribery, dissembling their natures, or other men's weakness, that cannot so apprehend their tricks, yet in the end they will be discerned, and precipitated in a moment:
surely,saith David,
thou hast set them in slippery places,Psal. xxxvii. 5. as so many Sejani, they will come down to the Gemonian scales; and as Eusebius in [4585] Ammianus, that was in such authority, ad jubendum Imperatorem, be cast down headlong on a sudden. Or put case they escape, and rest unmasked to their lives' end, yet after their death their memory stinks as a snuff of a candle put out, and those that durst not so much as mutter against them in their lives, will prosecute their name with satires, libels, and bitter imprecations, they shall male audire in all succeeding ages, and be odious to the world's end.
Besides this love that comes from profit, pleasant, honest (for one good
turn asks another in equity), that which proceeds from the law of nature,
or from discipline and philosophy, there is yet another love compounded of
all these three, which is charity, and includes piety, dilection,
benevolence, friendship, even all those virtuous habits; for love is the
circle equant of all other affections, of which Aristotle dilates at large
in his Ethics, and is commanded by God, which no man can well perform, but
he that is a Christian, and a true regenerate man; this is,[4586]To love
God above all, and our neighbour as ourself;
for this love is lychnus
accendens et accensus, a communicating light, apt to illuminate itself as
well as others. All other objects are fair, and very beautiful, I confess;
kindred, alliance, friendship, the love that we owe to our country, nature,
wealth, pleasure, honour, and such moral respects, &c., of which read
[4587]copious Aristotle in his morals; a man is beloved of a man, in that
he is a man; but all these are far more eminent and great, when they shall
proceed from a sanctified spirit, that hath a true touch of religion, and a
reference to God. Nature binds all creatures to love their young ones; a
hen to preserve her brood will run upon a lion, a hind will fight with a
bull, a sow with a bear, a silly sheep with a fox. So the same nature
urgeth a man to love his parents, ([4588]dii me pater omnes oderint, ni
te magis quam oculos amem meos!) and this love cannot be dissolved, as
Tully holds, [4589]without detestable offence:
but much more God's
commandment, which enjoins a filial love, and an obedience in this kind.
[4590]The love of brethren is great, and like an arch of stones, where if
one be displaced, all comes down,
no love so forcible and strong, honest,
to the combination of which, nature, fortune, virtue, happily concur; yet
this love comes short of it. [4591]Dulce et decorum pro patria mori,
[4592]it cannot be expressed, what a deal of charity that one name of
country contains. Amor laudis et patriae pro stipendio est; the Decii did
se devovere, Horatii, Curii, Scaevola, Regulus, Codrus, sacrifice
themselves for their country's peace and good.
As the sun is in the firmament, so is friendship in the world,a most divine and heavenly band. As nuptial love makes, this perfects mankind, and is to be preferred (if you will stand to the judgment of [4597]Cornelius Nepos) before affinity or consanguinity; plus in amiciticia valet similitudo morum, quam affinitas, &c., the cords of love bind faster than any other wreath whatsoever. Take this away, and take all pleasure, joy, comfort, happiness, and true content out of the world; 'tis the greatest tie, the surest indenture, strongest band, and, as our modern Maro decides it, is much to be preferred before the rest.
[4599]A faithful friend is better than [4600]gold, a medicine of misery,
[4601]an only possession; yet this love of friends, nuptial, heroical,
profitable, pleasant, honest, all three loves put together, are little
worth, if they proceed not from a true Christian illuminated soul, if it be
not done in ordine ad Deum for God's sake. Though I had the gift of
prophecy, spake with tongues of men and angels, though I feed the poor with
all my goods, give my body to be burned, and have not this love, it
profiteth me nothing,
1 Cor. xiii. 1, 3. 'tis splendidum peccatum,
without charity. This is an all-apprehending love, a deifying love, a
refined, pure, divine love, the quintessence of all love, the true
philosopher's stone, Non potest enim, as [4602]Austin infers, veraciter
amicus esse hominis, nisi fuerit ipsius primitus veritatis, He is no true
friend that loves not God's truth. And therefore this is true love indeed,
the cause of all good to mortal men, that reconciles all creatures, and
glues them together in perpetual amity and firm league; and can no more
abide bitterness, hate, malice, than fair and foul weather, light and
darkness, sterility and plenty may be together; as the sun in the firmament
(I say), so is love in the world; and for this cause 'tis love without an
addition, love κατ' ἐξοχὴν, love of God, and love of men. [4603]The love of God
begets the love of man; and by this love of our neighbour, the love of God
is nourished and increased.
By this happy union of love, [4604]all
well-governed families and cities are combined, the heavens annexed, and
divine souls complicated, the world itself composed, and all that is in it
conjoined in God, and reduced to one.
[4605]This love causeth true and
absolute virtues, the life, spirit, and root of every virtuous action, it
finisheth prosperity, easeth adversity, corrects all natural encumbrances,
inconveniences, sustained by faith and hope, which with this our love make
an indissoluble twist, a Gordian knot, an equilateral triangle, and yet the
greatest of them is love,
1 Cor. xiii. 13, [4606]which inflames our
souls with a divine heat, and being so inflamed, purged, and so purgeth,
elevates to God, makes an atonement, and reconciles us unto him.
[4607]
That other love infects the soul of man, this cleanseth; that depresses,
this rears; that causeth cares and troubles, this quietness of mind; this
informs, that deforms our life; that leads to repentance, this to heaven.
For if once we be truly linked and touched with this charity, we shall love
God above all, our neighbour as ourself, as we are enjoined, Mark xii. 31.
Matt. xix. 19. perform those duties and exercises, even all the operations
of a good Christian.
This love suffereth long, it is bountiful, envieth not, boasteth not
itself, is not puffed up, it deceiveth not, it seeketh not his own things,
is not provoked to anger, it thinketh not evil, it rejoiceth not in
iniquity, but in truth. It suffereth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things,
1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5, 6, 7; it covereth all trespasses,
Prov, x. 12; a multitude of sins,
1 Pet. 4, as our Saviour told the woman
in the Gospel, that washed his feet, many sins were forgiven her, for she
loved much,
Luke vii. 47; it will defend the fatherless and the widow,
Isa. i. 17; will seek no revenge, or be mindful of wrong,
Levit. xix. 18;
will bring home his brother's ox if he go astray, as it is commanded,
Deut. xxii. 1; will resist evil, give to him that asketh, and not turn
from him that borroweth, bless them that curse him, love his enemy,
Matt.
v; bear his brother's burthen,
Gal. vi. 7. He that so loves will be
hospitable, and distribute to the necessities of the saints; he will, if it
be possible, have peace with all men, feed his enemy if he be hungry, if
he be athirst give him drink;
he will perform those seven works of mercy,
he will make himself equal to them of the lower sort, rejoice with them
that rejoice, weep with them that weep,
Rom. xii; he will speak truth to
his neighbour, be courteous and tender-hearted, forgiving others for
Christ's sake, as God forgave him,
Eph. iv. 32; he will be like minded,
Phil. ii. 2. Of one judgment; be humble, meek, long-suffering,
Colos.
iii. Forbear, forget and forgive,
xii. 13. 23. and what he doth shall be
heartily done to God, and not to men. Be pitiful and courteous,
1 Pet.
iii. Seek peace and follow it.
He will love his brother, not in word and
tongue, but in deed and truth, John iii. 18. and he that loves God, Christ
will love him that is begotten of him,
John v. 1, &c. Thus should we
willingly do, if we had a true touch of this charity, of this divine love,
if we could perform this which we are enjoined, forget and forgive, and
compose ourselves to those Christian laws of love.
Angelical souls, how blessed, how happy should we be, so loving, how might we triumph over the devil, and have another heaven upon earth!
But this we cannot do; and which is the cause of all our woes, miseries,
discontent, melancholy, [4609]want of this charity. We do invicem
angariare, contemn, consult, vex, torture, molest, and hold one another's
noses to the grindstone hard, provoke, rail, scoff, calumniate, challenge,
hate, abuse (hard-hearted, implacable, malicious, peevish, inexorable as we
are), to satisfy our lust or private spleen, for [4610]toys, trifles, and
impertinent occasions, spend ourselves, goods, friends, fortunes, to be
revenged on our adversary, to ruin him and his. 'Tis all our study,
practice, and business how to plot mischief, mine, countermine, defend and
offend, ward ourselves, injure others, hurt all; as if we were born to do
mischief, and that with such eagerness and bitterness, with such rancour,
malice, rage, and fury, we prosecute our intended designs, that neither
affinity or consanguinity, love or fear of God or men can contain us: no
satisfaction, no composition will be accepted, no offices will serve, no
submission; though he shall upon his knees, as Sarpedon did to Glaucus in
Homer, acknowledging his error, yield himself with tears in his eyes, beg
his pardon, we will not relent, forgive, or forget, till we have confounded
him and his, made dice of his bones,
as they say, see him rot in prison,
banish his friends, followers, et omne invisum genus, rooted him out and
all his posterity. Monsters of men as we are, dogs, wolves, [4611]tigers,
fiends, incarnate devils, we do not only contend, oppress, and tyrannise
ourselves, but as so many firebrands, we set on, and animate others: our
whole life is a perpetual combat, a conflict, a set battle, a snarling fit.
Eris dea is settled in our tents, [4612]Omnia de lite, opposing wit to
wit, wealth to wealth, strength to strength, fortunes to fortunes, friends
to friends, as at a sea-fight, we turn our broadsides, or two millstones
with continual attrition, we fire ourselves, or break another's backs, and
both are ruined and consumed in the end. Miserable wretches, to fat and
enrich ourselves, we care not how we get it, Quocunque modo rem; how many
thousands we undo, whom we oppress, by whose ruin and downfall we arise,
whom we injure, fatherless children, widows, common societies, to satisfy
our own private lust. Though we have myriads, abundance of wealth and
treasure, (pitiless, merciless, remorseless, and uncharitable in the
highest degree), and our poor brother in need, sickness, in great
extremity, and now ready to be starved for want of food, we had rather, as
the fox told the ape, his tail should sweep the ground still, than cover
his buttocks; rather spend it idly, consume it with dogs, hawks, hounds,
unnecessary buildings, in riotous apparel, ingurgitate, or let it be lost,
than he should have part of it; [4613]rather take from him that little
which he hath, than relieve him.
Like the dog in the manger, we neither use it ourselves, let others make use of or enjoy it; part with nothing while we live: for want of disposing our household, and setting things in order, set all the world together by the ears after our death. Poor Lazarus lies howling at his gates for a few crumbs, he only seeks chippings, offals; let him roar and howl, famish, and eat his own flesh, he respects him not. A poor decayed kinsman of his sets upon him by the way in all his jollity, and runs begging bareheaded by him, conjuring by those former bonds of friendship, alliance, consanguinity, &c., uncle, cousin, brother, father,
Show some pity for Christ's sake, pity a sick man, an old man,&c., he cares not, ride on: pretend sickness, inevitable loss of limbs, goods, plead suretyship, or shipwreck, fires, common calamities, show thy wants and imperfections,
but to [4615]eternise his own name, to be immortal by the benefit of scholars; for when his friends were dead, walls decayed, and all inscriptions gone, books would remain to the world's end.The lantern in [4616]Athens was built by Zenocles, the theatre by Pericles, the famous port Pyraeum by Musicles, Pallas Palladium by Phidias, the Pantheon by Callicratidas; but these brave monuments are decayed all, and ruined long since, their builders' names alone flourish by meditation of writers. And as [4617]he said of that Marian oak, now cut down and dead, nullius Agricolae manu vulta stirps tam diuturna, quam quae poetae, versu seminari potest, no plant can grow so long as that which is ingenio sata, set and manured by those ever-living wits. [4618]Allon Backuth, that weeping oak, under which Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died, and was buried, may not survive the memory of such everlasting monuments. Vainglory and emulation (as to most men) was the cause efficient, and to be a trumpeter of his own fame, Cosmo's sole intent so to do good, that all the world might take notice of it. Such for the most part is the charity of our times, such our benefactors, Mecaenates and patrons. Show me amongst so many myriads, a truly devout, a right, honest, upright, meek, humble, a patient, innocuous, innocent, a merciful, a loving, a charitable man! [4619]Probus quis nobiscum vivit? Show me a Caleb or a Joshua! Dic mihi Musa virum—show a virtuous woman, a constant wife, a good neighbour, a trusty servant, an obedient child, a true friend, &c. Crows in Africa are not so scant. He that shall examine this [4620]iron age wherein we live, where love is cold, et jam terras Astrea reliquit, justice fled with her assistants, virtue expelled,
to make the trumpet of the gospel the trumpet of war,a company of hell-born Jesuits, and fiery-spirited friars, facem praeferre to all seditions: as so many firebrands set all the world by the ears (I say nothing of their contentious and railing books, whole ages spent in writing one against another, and that with such virulency and bitterness, Bionaeis sermonibus et sale nigro), and by their bloody inquisitions, that in thirty years, Bale saith, consumed 39 princes, 148 earls, 235 barons, 14,755 commons; worse than those ten persecutions, may justly doubt where is charity? Obsecro vos quales hi demum Christiani! Are these Christians? I beseech you tell me: he that shall observe and see these things, may say to them as Cato to Caesar, credo quae de inferis dicuntur falsa existimas,
sure I think thou art of opinion there is neither heaven nor hell.Let them pretend religion, zeal, make what shows they will, give alms, peace-makers, frequent sermons, if we may guess at the tree by the fruit, they are no better than hypocrites, epicures, atheists, with the [4625]
fool in their hearts they say there is no God.'Tis no marvel then if being so uncharitable, hard-hearted as we are, we have so frequent and so many discontents, such melancholy fits, so many bitter pangs, mutual discords, all in a combustion, often complaints, so common grievances, general mischiefs, si tantae in terris tragoediae, quibus labefactatur et misere laceratur humanum genus, so many pestilences, wars, uproars, losses, deluges, fires, inundations, God's vengeance and all the plagues of Egypt, come upon us, since we are so currish one towards another, so respectless of God, and our neighbours, and by our crying sins pull these miseries upon our own heads. Nay more, 'tis justly to be feared, which [4626]Josephus once said of his countrymen Jews,
if the Romans had not come when they did to sack their city, surely it had been swallowed up with some earthquake, deluge, or fired from heaven as Sodom and Gomorrah: their desperate malice, wickedness and peevishness was such.'Tis to be suspected, if we continue these wretched ways, we may look for the like heavy visitations to come upon us. If we had any sense or feeling of these things, surely we should not go on as we do, in such irregular courses, practise all manner of impieties; our whole carriage would not be so averse from God. If a man would but consider, when he is in the midst and full career of such prodigious and uncharitable actions, how displeasing they are in God's sight, how noxious to himself, as Solomon told Joab, 1 Kings, ii.
The Lord shall bring this blood upon their heads.Prov. i. 27,
sudden desolation and destruction shall come like a whirlwind upon them: affliction, anguish, the reward of his hand shall be given him,Isa. iii. 11, &c.,
they shall fall into the pit they have digged for others,and when they are scraping, tyrannising, getting, wallowing in their wealth,
this night, O fool, I will take away thy soul,what a severe account they must make; and how [4627]gracious on the other side a charitable man is in God's eyes, haurit sibi gratiam. Matt. v. 7,
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy: he that lendeth to the poor, gives to God,and how it shall be restored to them again;
how by their patience and long-suffering they shall heap coals on their enemies' heads,Rom. xii.
and he that followeth after righteousness and mercy, shall find righteousness and glory;surely they would check their desires, curb in their unnatural, inordinate affections, agree amongst themselves, abstain from doing evil, amend their lives, and learn to do well.
Behold how comely and good a thing it is for brethren to live together in [4628]union: it is like the precious ointment, &c. How odious to contend one with the other![4629] Miseriquid luctatiunculis hisce volumus? ecce mors supra caput est, et supremum illud tribunal, ubi et dicta et facta nostra examinanda sunt: Sapiamus!
Why do we contend and vex one another? behold death is over our heads, and we must shortly give an account of all our uncharitable words and actions: think upon it: and be wise.
In the preceding section mention was made, amongst other pleasant objects,
of this comeliness and beauty which proceeds from women, that causeth
heroical, or love-melancholy, is more eminent above the rest, and properly
called love. The part affected in men is the liver, and therefore called
heroical, because commonly gallants. Noblemen, and the most generous
spirits are possessed with it. His power and extent is very large, [4630]
and in that twofold division of love, φιλεῖν and ἐρᾶν
[4631]those two veneries which Plato and some other make mention of it is
most eminent, and κατ' ἐξοχὴν called Venus, as I have said, or
love itself. Which although it be denominated from men, and most evident in
them, yet it extends and shows itself in vegetal and sensible creatures,
those incorporeal substances (as shall be specified), and hath a large
dominion of sovereignty over them. His pedigree is very ancient, derived
from the beginning of the world, as [4632]Phaedrus contends, and his [4633]
parentage of such antiquity, that no poet could ever find it out. Hesiod
makes [4634]Terra and Chaos to be Love's parents, before the Gods were
born: Ante deos omnes primum generavit amorem. Some think it is the
self-same fire Prometheus fetched from heaven. Plutarch amator. libello,
will have Love to be the son of Iris and Favonius; but Socrates in that
pleasant dialogue of Plato, when it came to his turn to speak of love, (of
which subject Agatho the rhetorician, magniloquus Agatho, that chanter
Agatho, had newly given occasion) in a poetical strain, telleth this tale:
when Venus was born, all the gods were invited to a banquet, and amongst
the rest, [4635]Porus the god of bounty and wealth; Penia or Poverty came
a begging to the door; Porus well whittled with nectar (for there was no
wine in those days) walking in Jupiter's garden, in a bower met with Penia,
and in his drink got her with child, of whom was born Love; and because he
was begotten on Venus's birthday, Venus still attends upon him. The moral
of this is in [4636]Ficinus. Another tale is there borrowed out of
Aristophanes: [4637]in the beginning of the world, men had four arms and
four feet, but for their pride, because they compared themselves with the
gods, were parted into halves, and now peradventure by love they hope to be
united again and made one. Otherwise thus, [4638]Vulcan met two lovers,
and bid them ask what they would and they should have it; but they made
answer, O Vulcane faber Deorum, &c. O Vulcan the gods' great smith, we
beseech thee to work us anew in thy furnace, and of two make us one; which
he presently did, and ever since true lovers are either all one, or else
desire to be united.
Many such tales you shall find in Leon Hebreus,
dial. 3. and their moral to them. The reason why Love was still painted
young, (as Phornutus [4639]and others will) [4640]is because young men
are most apt to love; soft, fair, and fat, because such folks are soonest
taken: naked, because all true affection is simple and open: he smiles,
because merry and given to delights: hath a quiver, to show his power, none
can escape: is blind, because he sees not where he strikes, whom he hits,
&c.
His power and sovereignty is expressed by the [4641]poets, in that he
is held to be a god, and a great commanding god, above Jupiter himself;
Magnus Daemon, as Plato calls him, the strongest and merriest of all the
gods according to Alcinous and [4642]Athenaeus. Amor virorum rex, amor rex
et deum, as Euripides, the god of gods and governor of men; for we must
all do homage to him, keep a holiday for his deity, adore in his temples,
worship his image, (numen enim hoc non est nudum nomen) and sacrifice to
his altar, that conquers all, and rules all:
I had rather contend with bulls, lions, bears, and giants, than with Love;he is so powerful, enforceth [4644]all to pay tribute to him, domineers over all, and can make mad and sober whom he list; insomuch that Caecilius in Tully's Tusculans, holds him to be no better than a fool or an idiot, that doth not acknowledge Love to be a great god.
now drawing her to Mount Ida, for the love of that Trojan Anchises, now to Libanus for that Assyrian youth's sake. And although she threatened to break his bow and arrows, to clip his wings, [4654]and whipped him besides on the bare buttocks with her pantofle, yet all would not serve, he was too headstrong and unruly.That monster-conquering Hercules was tamed by him:
In vegetal creatures what sovereignty love hath, by many pregnant proofs and familiar examples may be proved, especially of palm-trees, which are both he and she, and express not a sympathy but a love-passion, and by many observations have been confirmed.
and would not be comforted until such time her love applied herself unto her; you might see the two trees bend, and of their own accords stretch out their boughs to embrace and kiss each other: they will give manifest signs of mutual love.Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 24, reports that they marry one another, and fall in love if they grow in sight; and when the wind brings the smell to them, they are marvellously affected. Philostratus in Imaginibus, observes as much, and Galen lib. 6. de locis affectis, cap. 5. they will be sick for love; ready to die and pine away, which the husbandmen perceiving, saith [4660]Constantine,
stroke many palms that grow together, and so stroking again the palm that is enamoured, they carry kisses from the one to the other:or tying the leaves and branches of the one to the stem of the other, will make them both flourish and prosper a great deal better: [4661]
which are enamoured, they can perceive by the bending of boughs, and inclination of their bodies.If any man think this which I say to be a tale, let him read that story of two palm-trees in Italy, the male growing at Brundusium, the female at Otranto (related by Jovianus Pontanus in an excellent poem, sometimes tutor to Alphonsus junior, King of Naples, his secretary of state, and a great philosopher)
which were barren, and so continued a long time,till they came to see one another growing up higher, though many stadiums asunder. Pierius in his Hieroglyphics, and Melchior Guilandinus, Mem. 3. tract. de papyro, cites this story of Pontanus for a truth. See more in Salmuth Comment. in Pancirol. de Nova repert. Tit. 1. de novo orbe Mizaldus Arcanorum lib. 2. Sand's Voyages, lib. 2. fol. 103. &c.
If such fury be in vegetals, what shall we think of sensible creatures, how much more violent and apparent shall it be in them!
Cupid in Lucian bids Venus his mother be of good cheer, for he was now familiar with lions, and oftentimes did get on their backs, hold them by the mane, and ride them about like horses, and they would fawn upon him with their tails.Bulls, bears, and boars are so furious in this kind they kill one another: but especially cocks, [4665] lions, and harts, which are so fierce that you may hear them fight half a mile off, saith [4666]Turberville, and many times kill each other, or compel them to abandon the rut, that they may remain masters in their places;
and when one hath driven his co-rival away, he raiseth his nose up into the air, and looks aloft, as though he gave thanks to nature,which affords him such great delight. How birds are affected in this kind, appears out of Aristotle, he will have them to sing ob futuram venerem for joy or in hope of their venery which is to come.
Fishes pine away for love and wax lean,if [4668]Gomesius's authority may be taken, and are rampant too, some of them: Peter Gellius, lib. 10. de hist, animal. tells wonders of a triton in Epirus: there was a well not far from the shore, where the country wenches fetched water, they, [4669]tritons, stupri causa would set upon them and carry them to the sea, and there drown them, if they would not yield; so love tyranniseth in dumb creatures. Yet this is natural for one beast to dote upon another of the same kind; but what strange fury is that, when a beast shall dote upon a man? Saxo Grammaticus, lib. 10. Dan. hist. hath a story of a bear that loved a woman, kept her in his den a long time and begot a son of her, out of whose loins proceeded many northern kings: this is the original belike of that common tale of Valentine and Orson: Aelian, Pliny, Peter Gillius, are full of such relations. A peacock in Lucadia loved a maid, and when she died, the peacock pined. [4670]
A dolphin loved a boy called Hernias, and when he died, the fish came on land, and so perished.The like adds Gellius, lib. 10. cap. 22. out of Appion, Aegypt. lib. 15. a dolphin at Puteoli loved a child, would come often to him, let him get on his back, and carry him about, [4671]
and when by sickness the child was taken away, the dolphin died.[4672]
Every book is full(saith Busbequius, the emperor's orator with the Grand Signior, not long since, ep. 3. legat. Turc.),
and yields such instances, to believe which I was always afraid lest I should be thought to give credit to fables, until I saw a lynx which I had from Assyria, so affected towards one of my men, that it cannot be denied but that he was in love with him. When my man was present, the beast would use many notable enticements and pleasant motions, and when he was going, hold him back, and look after him when he was gone, very sad in his absence, but most jocund when he returned: and when my man went from me, the beast expressed his love with continual sickness, and after he had pined away some few days, died.Such another story he hath of a crane of Majorca, that loved a Spaniard, that would walk any way with him, and in his absence seek about for him, make a noise that he might hear her, and knock at his door, [4673]
and when he took his last farewell, famished herself.Such pretty pranks can love play with birds, fishes, beasts:
he should hear her sing and play, and drink such wine as never any drank, and no man should molest him; but she being fair and lovely would live and die with him, that was fair and lovely to behold.The young man a philosopher, otherwise staid and discreet, able to moderate his passions, though not this of love, tarried with her awhile to his great content, and at last married her, to whose wedding, amongst other guests, came Apollonius, who, by some probable conjectures, found her out to be a serpent, a lamia, and that all her furniture was like Tantalus's gold described by Homer, no substance, but mere illusions. When she saw herself descried, she wept, and desired Apollonius to be silent, but he would not be moved, and thereupon she, plate, house, and all that was in it, vanished in an instant: [4677]
many thousands took notice of this fact, for it was done in the midst of Greece.Sabine in his Comment on the tenth of Ovid's Metamorphoses, at the tale of Orpheus, telleth us of a gentleman of Bavaria, that for many months together bewailed the loss of his dear wife; at length the devil in her habit came and comforted him, and told him, because he was so importunate for her, that she would come and live with him again, on that condition he would be new married, never swear and blaspheme as he used formerly to do; for if he did, she should be gone: [4678]
he vowed it, married, and lived with her, she brought him children, and governed his house, but was still pale and sad, and so continued, till one day falling out with him, he fell a swearing; she vanished thereupon, and was never after seen.[4679]
This I have heard,saith Sabine,
from persons of good credit, which told me that the Duke of Bavaria did tell it for a certainty to the Duke of Saxony.One more I will relate out of Florilegus, ad annum 1058, an honest historian of our nation, because he telleth it so confidently, as a thing in those days talked of all over Europe: a young gentleman of Rome, the same day that he was married, after dinner with the bride and his friends went a walking into the fields, and towards evening to the tennis-court to recreate himself; whilst he played, he put his ring upon the finger of Venus statua, which was thereby made in brass; after he had sufficiently played, and now made an end of his sport, he came to fetch his ring, but Venus had bowed her finger in, and he could not get it off. Whereupon loath to make his company tarry at present, there left it, intending to fetch it the next day, or at some more convenient time, went thence to supper, and so to bed. In the night, when he should come to perform those nuptial rites, Venus steps between him and his wife (unseen or felt of her), and told her that she was his wife, that he had betrothed himself unto her by that ring, which he put upon her finger: she troubled him for some following nights. He not knowing how to help himself, made his moan to one Palumbus, a learned magician in those days, who gave him a letter, and bid him at such a time of the night, in such a cross-way, at the town's end, where old Saturn would pass by with his associates in procession, as commonly he did, deliver that script with his own hands to Saturn himself; the young man of a bold spirit, accordingly did it; and when the old fiend had read it, he called Venus to him, who rode before him, and commanded her to deliver his ring, which forthwith she did, and so the gentleman was freed. Many such stories I find in several [4680]authors to confirm this which I have said; as that more notable amongst the rest, of Philinium and Machates in [4681]Phlegon's Tract, de rebus mirabilibus, and though many be against it, yet I, for my part, will subscribe to Lactantius, lib. 14. cap. 15. [4682]
God sent angels to the tuition of men; but whilst they lived amongst us, that mischievous all-commander of the earth, and hot in lust, enticed them by little and little to this vice, and defiled them with the company of women:and to Anaxagoras, de resurrect. [4683]
Many of those spiritual bodies, overcome by the love of maids, and lust, failed, of whom those were born we call giants.Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, Sulpicius Severus, Eusebius, etc., to this sense make a twofold fall of angels, one from the beginning of the world, another a little before the deluge, as Moses teacheth us, [4684]openly professing that these genii can beget, and have carnal copulation with women. At Japan in the East Indies, at this present (if we may believe the relation of [4685]travellers), there is an idol called Teuchedy, to whom one of the fairest virgins in the country is monthly brought, and left in a private room, in the fotoqui, or church, where she sits alone to be deflowered. At certain times [4686]the Teuchedy (which is thought to be the devil) appears to her, and knoweth her carnally. Every month a fair virgin is taken in; but what becomes of the old, no man can tell. In that goodly temple of Jupiter Belus in Babylon, there was a fair chapel, [4687]saith Herodotus, an eyewitness of it, in which was splendide stratus lectus et apposita mensa aurea, a brave bed, a table of gold, &c., into which no creature came but one only woman, which their god made choice of, as the Chaldean priests told him, and that their god lay with her himself, as at Thebes in Egypt was the like done of old. So that you see this is no news, the devils themselves, or their juggling priests, have played such pranks in all ages. Many divines stiffly contradict this; but I will conclude with [4688]Lipsius, that since
examples, testimonies, and confessions, of those unhappy women are so manifest on the other side, and many even in this our town of Louvain, that it is likely to be so. [4689]One thing I will add, that I suppose that in no age past, I know not by what destiny of this unhappy time, have there ever appeared or showed themselves so many lecherous devils, satyrs, and genii, as in this of ours, as appears by the daily narrations, and judicial sentences upon record.Read more of this question in Plutarch, vit. Numae, Austin de civ. Dei. lib. 15. Wierus, lib. 3. de praestig. Daem. Giraldus Cambrensis, itinerar. Camb. lib. 1. Malleus malefic. quaest. 5. part. 1. Jacobus Reussus, lib. 5. cap. 6. fol. 54. Godelman, lib. 2. cap. 4. Erastus, Valesius de sacra philo. cap. 40. John Nider, Fornicar. lib. 5. cap. 9. Stroz. Cicogna. lib. 3. cap. 3. Delrio, Lipsius Bodine, daemonol. lib. 2. cap. 7. Pererius in Gen. lib. 8. in 6. cap. ver. 2. King James, &c.
You have heard how this tyrant Love rageth with brute beasts and spirits; now let us consider what passions it causeth amongst men. [4690]Improbe amor quid non mortalia pectora cogis? How it tickles the hearts of mortal men, Horresco referens,—I am almost afraid to relate, amazed, [4691]and ashamed, it hath wrought such stupendous and prodigious effects, such foul offences. Love indeed (I may not deny) first united provinces, built cities, and by a perpetual generation makes and preserves mankind, propagates the church; but if it rage it is no more love, but burning lust, a disease, frenzy, madness, hell. [4692]Est orcus ille, vis est immedicabilis, est rabies insana; 'tis no virtuous habit this, but a vehement perturbation of the mind, a monster of nature, wit, and art, as Alexis in [4693]Athenaeus sets it out, viriliter audax, muliebriter timidium, furore praeceps, labore infractum, mel felleum, blanda percussio, &c. It subverts kingdoms, overthrows cities, towns, families, mars, corrupts, and makes a massacre of men; thunder and lightning, wars, fires, plagues, have not done that mischief to mankind, as this burning lust, this brutish passion. Let Sodom and Gomorrah, Troy, (which Dares Phrygius, and Dictis Cretensis will make good) and I know not how many cities bear record,—et fuit ante Helenam, &c., all succeeding ages will subscribe: Joanna of Naples in Italy, Fredegunde and Brunhalt in France, all histories are full of these basilisks. Besides those daily monomachies, murders, effusion of blood, rapes, riot, and immoderate expense, to satisfy their lusts, beggary, shame, loss, torture, punishment, disgrace, loathsome diseases that proceed from thence, worse than calentures and pestilent fevers, those often gouts, pox, arthritis, palsies, cramps, sciatica, convulsions, aches, combustions, &c., which torment the body, that feral melancholy which crucifies the soul in this life, and everlastingly torments in the world to come.
Notwithstanding they know these and many such miseries, threats, tortures,
will surely come upon them, rewards, exhortations, e contra; yet either
out of their own weakness, a depraved nature, or love's tyranny, which so
furiously rageth, they suffer themselves to be led like an ox to the
slaughter: (Facilis descensus Averni) they go down headlong to their own
perdition, they will commit folly with beasts, men leaving the natural use
of women,
as [4694]Paul saith, burned in lust one towards another, and
man with man wrought filthiness.
Semiramis equo, Pasiphae tauro, Aristo Ephesius asinae se commiscuit,
Fulvius equae, alii canibus, capris, &c., unde monstra nascuntur aliquando,
Centauri, Sylvani, et ad terrorem hominum prodigiosa spectra: Nec cum
brutis, sed ipsis hominibus rem habent, quod peccatum Sodomiae vulgo
dicitur; et frequens olim vitium apud Orientalis illos fuit, Graecos
nimirum, Italos, Afros, Asianos: [4695]Hercules Hylam habuit,
Polycletum, Dionem, Perithoonta, Abderum et Phryga; alii et Euristium
ab Hercule amatum tradunt. Socrates pulchrorum Adolescentum causa
frequens Gymnasium adibat, flagitiosque spectaculo pascebat oculos, quod
et Philebus et Phaedon, Rivales, Charmides et [4696]reliqui Platonis
Dialogi, satis superque testatum faciunt: quod vero Alcibiades de eodem
Socrate loquatur, lubens conticesco, sed et abhorreo; tantum incitamentum
praebet libidini. At hunc perstrinxit Theodoretus lib. de curat. graec.
affect. cap. ultimo. Quin et ipse Plato suum demiratur Agathonem,
Xenophon, Cliniam, Virgilius Alexin, Anacreon Bathyllum: Quod autem de
Nerone, Claudio, caeterorumque portentosa libidine memoriae proditum, mallem
a Petronio, Suetonio, caeterisque petatis, quando omnem fidem excedat,
quam a me expectetis; sed vetera querimur. [4697]Apud Asianos, Turcas,
Italos, nunquam frequentius hoc quam hodierno die vitium; Diana
Romanorum Sodomia; officinae horum alicubi apud Turcas,—qui saxis
semina mandant
—arenas arantes; et frequentes querelae, etiam inter ipsos
conjuges hac de re, quae virorum concubitum illicitum calceo in oppositam
partem verso magistratui indicant
; nullum apud Italos familiare magis
peccatum, qui et post [4698]Lucianum et [4699]Tatium, scriptis
voluminibis defendunt. Johannes de la Casa, Beventinus Episcopus, divinum
opus vocat, suave scelus, adeoque jactat, se non alia, usum Venere. Nihil
usitatius apud monachos, Cardinales, sacrificulos, etiam [4700]furor hic
ad mortem, ad insaniam. [4701]Angelus Politianus, ob pueri amorem,
violentas sibi inanus injecit. Et horrendum sane dictu, quantum apud nos
patrum memoria, scelus detestandum hoc saevierit! Quum enim Anno 1538.
prudentissimus Rex Henricus Octavus cucullatorum coenobia, et sacrificorum
collegia, votariorum, per venerabiles legum Doctores Thomam Leum, Richardum
Laytonum visitari fecerat, &c., tanto numero reperti sunt apud eos
scortatores, cinaedi, ganeones, paedicones, puerarii, paederastae, Sodomitae
,
([4702]Balei verbis utor) Ganimedes, &c. ut in unoquoque eorum novam
credideris Gomorrham
. Sed vide si lubet eorundem Catalogum apud eundem
Balcum; Puellae
(inquit) in lectis dormire non poterant ob fratres
necromanticos
. Haec si apud votarios, monachos, sanctos scilicet
homunciones, quid in foro, quid in aula factum suspiceris? quid apud
nobiles, quid inter fornices, quam non foeditatem, quam non spurcitiem?
Sileo interim turpes illas, et ne nominandas quidem monachorum [4703]
mastrupationes, masturbatores. [4704]Rodericus a Castro vocat, tum et
eos qui se invicem ad Venerem excitandam flagris caedunt, Spintrias,
Succubas, Ambubeias, et lasciviente lumbo Tribades illas mulierculas, quae
se invicem fricant, et praeter Eunuchos etiam ad Venerem explendam,
artificiosa illa veretra habent. Immo quod magis mirere, faemina foeminam
Constantinopoli non ita pridem deperiit, ausa rem plane incredibilem,
mutato cultu mentita virum de nuptiis sermonem init, et brevi nupta est:
sed authorem ipsum consule, Busbequium. Omitto [4705]Salanarios illos
Egyptiacos, qui cum formosarum cadaveribus concumbunt; et eorum vesanam
libidinem, qui etiam idola et imagines depereunt. Nota est fabula
Pigmalionis apud [4706]Ovidium; Mundi et Paulini apud Aegesippum belli
Jud. lib. 2. cap. 4. Pontius C. Caesaris legatus, referente Plinio,
lib. 35. cap. 3. quem suspicor eum esse qui Christum crucifixit,
picturis Atalantae et Helenae adeo libidine incensus, ut tollere eas
vellet si natura tectorii permisisset, alius statuam bonae Fortunae
deperiit (Aelianus, lib. 9. cap. 37.) alius bonae deae, et ne qua pars
probro vacet. [4707]Raptus ad stupra
(quod ait ille) et ne [4708]os
quidem a libidine exceptum.
Heliogabalus, per omnia cava corporis
libidinem recepit, Lamprid. vita ejus. [4709]Hostius quidam specula
fecit, et ita disposuit, ut quum virum ipse pateretur, aversus omnes
admissarii motus in speculo videret, ac deinde falsa magnitudine ipsius
membri tanquam vera gauderet, simul virum et foeminam passus, quod dictu
foedum et abominandum. Ut veram plane sit, quod apud [4710]Plutarchum
Gryllus Ulyssi objecit. Ad hunc usque diem apud nos neque mas marem,
neque foemina foeminam amavit, qualia multa apud vos memorabiles et
praeclari viri fecerunt: ut viles missos faciam, Hercules imberbem sectans
socium, amicos deseruit, &c. Vestrae libidines intra suos naturae fines
coerceri non possunt, quin instar fluvii exundantis atrocem foeditatum,
tumultum, confusionemque naturae gignant in re Venerea: nam et capras,
porcos, equos inierunt viri et foeminae, insano bestiarum amore exarserunt,
imde Minotauri, Centauri, Sylvani, Sphinges
, &c. Sed ne confutando doceam,
aut ea foras efferam, quae, non omnes scire convenit (haec enim doctis
solummodo, quod causa non absimili [4711]Rodericus, scripta velim) ne
levissomis ingentis et depravatis mentibus focdissimi sceleris notitiam,
&c., nolo quem diutius hisce sordibus inquinare.
I come at last to that heroical love which is proper to men and women, is a
frequent cause of melancholy, and deserves much rather to be called burning
lust, than by such an honourable title. There is an honest love, I confess,
which is natural, laqueus occultus captivans corda hominum, ut a mulieribus
non possint separari, a secret snare to captivate the hearts of men,
as
[4712]Christopher Fonseca proves, a strong allurement, of a most
attractive, occult, adamantine property, and powerful virtue, and no man
living can avoid it. [4713]Et qui vim non sensit amoris, aut lapis est,
aut bellua. He is not a man but a block, a very stone, aut [4714]Numen,
aut Nebuchadnezzar, he hath a gourd for his head, a pepon for his heart,
that hath not felt the power of it, and a rare creature to be found, one in
an age, Qui nunquam visae flagravit amore puellae; [4715]for semel
insanivimus omnes, dote we either young or old, as [4716]he said, and
none are excepted but Minerva and the Muses: so Cupid in [4717]Lucian
complains to his mother Venus, that amongst all the rest his arrows could
not pierce them. But this nuptial love is a common passion, an honest, for
men to love in the way of marriage; ut materia appetit formam, sic mulier
virum. [4718]You know marriage is honourable, a blessed calling,
appointed by God himself in Paradise; it breeds true peace, tranquillity,
content, and happiness, qua nulla est aut fuit unquam sanctior
conjunctio, as Daphnaeus in [4719]Plutarch could well prove, et quae
generi humano immortalitatem parat, when they live without jarring,
scolding, lovingly as they should do.
As Seneca lived with his Paulina, Abraham and Sarah, Orpheus and Eurydice, Arria and Poetus, Artemisia and Mausolus, Rubenius Celer, that would needs have it engraven on his tomb, he had led his life with Ennea, his dear wife, forty-three years eight months, and never fell out. There is no pleasure in this world comparable to it, 'tis summum mortalitatis bonum— [4721]hominum divumque voluptas, Alma Venus—latet enim in muliere aliquid majus potentiusque, omnibus aliis humanis voluptatibus, as [4722]one holds, there's something in a woman beyond all human delight; a magnetic virtue, a charming quality, an occult and powerful motive. The husband rules her as head, but she again commands his heart, he is her servant, she is only joy and content: no happiness is like unto it, no love so great as this of man and wife, no such comfort as [4723]placens uxor, a sweet wife: [4724]Omnis amor magnus, sed aperto in conjuge major. When they love at last as fresh as they did at first, [4725]Charaque charo consenescit conjugi, as Homer brings Paris kissing Helen, after they had been married ten years, protesting withal that he loved her as dear as he did the first hour that he was betrothed. And in their old age, when they make much of one another, saying, as he did to his wife in the poet,
'Tis a happy state this indeed, when the fountain is blessed (saith
Solomon, Prov. v. 17.) and he rejoiceth with the wife of his youth, and
she is to him as the loving hind and pleasant roe, and he delights in her
continually.
But this love of ours is immoderate, inordinate, and not to
be comprehended in any bounds. It will not contain itself within the union
of marriage, or apply to one object, but is a wandering, extravagant, a
domineering, a boundless, an irrefragable, a destructive passion: sometimes
this burning lust rageth after marriage, and then it is properly called
jealousy; sometimes before, and then it is called heroical melancholy; it
extends sometimes to co-rivals, &c., begets rapes, incests, murders:
Marcus Antonius compressit Faustinam sororem, Caracalla Juliam Novercam,
Nero Matrem, Caligula sorores, Cyneras Myrrham filiam, &c. But it is
confined within no terms of blood, years, sex, or whatsoever else. Some
furiously rage before they come to discretion, or age. [4730]Quartilla in
Petronius never remembered she was a maid; and the wife of Bath, in
Chaucer, cracks,
Of women's unnatural, [4737]insatiable lust, what country, what village doth not complain? Mother and daughter sometimes dote on the same man, father and son, master and servant, on one woman.
a continuate cough,[4740]his sight fails him, thick of hearing, his breath stinks, all his moisture is dried up and gone, may not spit from him, a very child again, that cannot dress himself, or cut his own meat, yet he will be dreaming of, and honing after wenches, what can be more unseemly? Worse it is in women than in men, when she is aetate declivis, diu vidua, mater olim, parum decore matrimonium sequi videtur, an old widow, a mother so long since ([4741]in Pliny's opinion), she doth very unseemly seek to marry, yet whilst she is [4742]so old a crone, a beldam, she can neither see, nor hear, go nor stand, a mere [4743]carcass, a witch, and scarce feel; she caterwauls, and must have a stallion, a champion, she must and will marry again, and betroth herself to some young man, [4744]that hates to look on, but for her goods; abhors the sight of her, to the prejudice of her good name, her own undoing, grief of friends, and ruin of her children.
But to enlarge or illustrate this power and effects of love, is to set a
candle in the sun. [4745]It rageth with all sorts and conditions of men,
yet is most evident among such as are young and lusty, in the flower of
their years, nobly descended, high fed, such as live idly, and at ease; and
for that cause (which our divines call burning lust) this [4746]ferinus
insanus amor, this mad and beastly passion, as I have said, is named by
our physicians heroical love, and a more honourable title put upon it,
Amor nobilis, as [4747]Savanarola styles it, because noble men and women
make a common practice of it, and are so ordinarily affected with it.
Avicenna, lib. 3. Fen, 1. tract. 4. cap. 23. calleth this passion
Ilishi, and defines it [4748]to be a disease or melancholy vexation, or
anguish of mind, in which a man continually meditates of the beauty,
gesture, manners of his mistress, and troubles himself about it:
desiring,
(as Savanarola adds) with all intentions and eagerness of mind, to compass
or enjoy her, [4749]as commonly hunters trouble themselves about their
sports, the covetous about their gold and goods, so is he tormented still
about his mistress.
Arnoldus Villanovanus, in his book of heroical love,
defines it, [4750]a continual cogitation of that which he desires, with a
confidence or hope of compassing it;
which definition his commentator
cavils at. For continual cogitation is not the genus but a symptom of
love; we continually think of that which we hate and abhor, as well as that
which we love; and many things we covet and desire, without all hope of
attaining. Carolus a Lorme, in his Questions, makes a doubt, An amor sit
morbus, whether this heroical love be a disease: Julius Pollux Onomast.
lib. 6. cap. 44. determines it. They that are in love are likewise
[4751]sick; lascivus, salax, lasciviens, et qui in venerem furit, vere
est aegrotus, Arnoldus will have it improperly so called, and a malady
rather of the body than mind. Tully, in his Tusculans, defines it a
furious disease of the mind. Plato, madness itself. Ficinus, his
Commentator, cap. 12. a species of madness, for many have run mad for
women,
Esdr. iv. 26. But [4752]Rhasis a melancholy passion:
and most
physicians make it a species or kind of melancholy (as will appear by the
symptoms), and treat of it apart; whom I mean to imitate, and to discuss it
in all his kinds, to examine his several causes, to show his symptoms,
indications, prognostics, effect, that so it may be with more facility
cured.
The part affected in the meantime, as [4753]Arnoldus supposeth, is the
former part of the head for want of moisture,
which his Commentator
rejects. Langius, med. epist. lib. 1. cap. 24. will have this passion
seated in the liver, and to keep residence in the heart, [4754]to proceed
first from the eyes so carried by our spirits, and kindled with imagination
in the liver and heart;
coget amare jecur, as the saying is. Medium
feret per epar, as Cupid in Anacreon. For some such cause belike [4755]
Homer feigns Titius' liver (who was enamoured of Latona) to be still gnawed
by two vultures day and night in hell, [4756]for that young men's bowels
thus enamoured, are so continually tormented by love.
Gordonius, cap. 2.
part. 2. [4757]will have the testicles an immediate subject or cause,
the liver an antecedent.
Fracastorius agrees in this with Gordonius, inde
primitus imaginatio venerea, erectio, &c. titillatissimam partem vocat, ita
ut nisi extruso semine gestiens voluptas non cessat, nec assidua veneris
recordatio, addit Gnastivinius Comment. 4. Sect. prob. 27. Arist. But
[4758]properly it is a passion of the brain, as all other melancholy, by
reason of corrupt imagination, and so doth Jason Pratensis, c. 19. de
morb. cerebri (who writes copiously of this erotical love), place and
reckon it amongst the affections of the brain. [4759]Melancthon de anima
confutes those that make the liver a part affected, and Guianerius, Tract.
15. cap. 13 et 17. though many put all the affections in the heart, refers
it to the brain. Ficinus, cap. 7. in Convivium Platonis, will have the
blood to be the part affected.
Jo. Frietagius, cap. 14. noct. med.
supposeth all four affected, heart, liver, brain, blood; but the major part
concur upon the brain, [4760]'tis imaginatio laesa; and both imagination
and reason are misaffected;, because of his corrupt judgment, and continual
meditation of that which he desires, he may truly be said to be melancholy.
If it be violent, or his disease inveterate, as I have determined in the
precedent partitions, both imagination and reason are misaffected, first
one, then the other.
Of all causes the remotest are stars. [4761]Ficinus cap. 19. saith they
are most prone to this burning lust, that have Venus in Leo in their
horoscope, when the Moon and Venus be mutually aspected, or such as be of
Venus' complexion. [4762]Plutarch interprets astrologically that tale of
Mars and Venus, in whose genitures ♂ and ♂ are in conjunction,
they are commonly lascivious, and if women queans; as the good wife of
Bath confessed in Chaucer;
would have a bout with every one they see:the colt's evil is common to all complexions. Theomestus a young and lusty gallant acknowledgeth (in the said author) all this to be verified in him,
I am so amorously given, [4768]you may sooner number the sea-sands, and snow falling from the skies, than my several loves. Cupid had shot all his arrows at me, I am deluded with various desires, one love succeeds another, and that so soon, that before one is ended, I begin with a second; she that is last is still fairest, and she that is present pleaseth me most: as an hydra's head my loves increase, no Iolaus can help me. Mine eyes are so moist a refuge and sanctuary of love, that they draw all beauties to them, and are never satisfied. I am in a doubt what fury of Venus this should be: alas, how have I offended her so to vex me, what Hippolitus am I!What Telchine is my genius? or is it a natural imperfection, an hereditary passion? Another in [4769]Anacreon confesseth that he had twenty sweethearts in Athens at once, fifteen at Corinth, as many at Thebes, at Lesbos, and at Rhodes, twice as many in Ionia, thrice in Caria, twenty thousand in all: or in a word, ἐί φύλλα, πάντα, &c.
His eyes are like a balance, apt to propend each way, and to be weighed
down with every wench's looks, his heart a weathercock, his affection
tinder, or naphtha itself, which every fair object, sweet smile, or
mistress's favour sets on fire. Guianerius tract 15. cap. 14. refers all
this [4770]to the hot temperature of the testicles,
Ferandus a Frenchman
in his Erotique Mel. (which [4771]book came first to my hands after the
third edition) to certain atomi in the seed, such as are very spermatic
and full of seed.
I find the same in Aristot. sect. 4. prob. 17. si non
secernatur semen, cessare tentigines non possunt, as Gaustavinius his
commentator translates it: for which cause these young men that be strong
set, of able bodies, are so subject to it. Hercules de Saxonia hath the
same words in effect. But most part I say, such as are aptest to love that
are young and lusty, live at ease, stall-fed, free from cares, like cattle
in a rank pasture, idle and solitary persons, they must needs
hirquitullire, as Guastavinius recites out of Censorinus.
He saw very few maids that he did not desire, and desired fewer whom he did not enjoy:nothing so familiar amongst them, 'tis most of their business: Sardanapalus, Messalina, and Joan of Naples, are not comparable to [4779]meaner men and women; Solomon of old had a thousand concubines; Ahasuerus his eunuchs and keepers; Nero his Tigillinus panders, and bawds; the Turks, [4780] Muscovites, Mogors, Xeriffs of Barbary, and Persian Sophies, are no whit inferior to them in our times. Delectus fit omnium puellarum toto regno forma praestantiorum (saith Jovius) pro imperatore; et quas ille linquit, nobiles habent; they press and muster up wenches as we do soldiers, and have their choice of the rarest beauties their countries can afford, and yet all this cannot keep them from adultery, incest, sodomy, buggery, and such prodigious lusts. We may conclude, that if they be young, fortunate, rich, high-fed, and idle withal, it is almost impossible that they should live honest, not rage, and precipitate themselves into these inconveniences of burning lust.
Idleness overthrows all, Vacuo pectore regnat amor, love tyranniseth in
an idle person. Amore abundas Antiphio. If thou hast nothing to do,[4782]
Invidia vel amore miser torquebere—Thou shalt be haled in pieces with
envy, lust, some passion or other. Homines nihil agendo male agere
discunt; 'tis Aristotle's simile, [4783]as match or touchwood takes fire,
so doth an idle person love.
Quaeritur Aegistus quare sit factus
adulter, &c., why was Aegistus a whoremaster? You need not ask a reason
of it. Ismenedora stole Baccho, a woman forced a man, as [4784]Aurora did
Cephalus: no marvel, saith [4785]Plutarch, Luxurians opibus more hominum
mulier agit: she was rich, fortunate and jolly, and doth but as men do in
that case, as Jupiter did by Europa, Neptune by Amymone. The poets
therefore did well to feign all shepherds lovers, to give themselves to
songs and dalliances, because they lived such idle lives. For love, as
[4786]Theophrastus defines it, is otiosi animi affectus, an affection of
an idle mind, or as [4787]Seneca describes it, Juventa gignitur, juxu
nutritur, feriis alitur, otioque inter laeta fortunae bonae; youth begets
it, riot maintains it, idleness nourisheth it, &c. which makes [4788]
Gordonius the physician cap. 20. part. 2. call this disease the proper
passion of nobility. Now if a weak judgment and a strong apprehension do
concur, how, saith Hercules de Saxonia, shall they resist? Savanarola
appropriates it almost to [4789]monks, friars, and religious persons,
because they live solitarily, fair daintily, and do nothing:
and well he
may, for how should they otherwise choose?
Diet alone is able to cause it: a rare thing to see a young man or a woman that lives idly and fares well, of what condition soever, not to be in love. [4790]Alcibiades was still dallying with wanton young women, immoderate in his expenses, effeminate in his apparel, ever in love, but why? he was over-delicate in his diet, too frequent and excessive in banquets, Ubicunque securitas, ibi libido dominatur; lust and security domineer together, as St. Hierome averreth. All which the wife of Bath in Chaucer freely justifies,
Many such causes may be reckoned up, but they cannot avail, except
opportunity be offered of time, place, and those other beautiful objects,
or artificial enticements, as kissing, conference, discourse, gestures
concur, with such like lascivious provocations. Kornmannus, in his book de
linea amoris, makes five degrees of lust, out of [4805]Lucian belike,
which he handles in five chapters, Visus, Colloquium, Convictus, Oscula,
Tactus. [4806]Sight, of all other, is the first step of this unruly love,
though sometime it be prevented by relation or hearing, or rather incensed.
For there be those so apt, credulous, and facile to love, that if they hear
of a proper man, or woman, they are in love before they see them, and that
merely by relation, as Achilles Tatius observes. [4807]Such is their
intemperance and lust, that they are as much maimed by report, as if they
saw them. Callisthenes a rich young gentleman of Byzance in Thrace, hearing
of [4808]Leucippe, Sostratus' fair daughter, was far in love with her,
and, out of fame and common rumour, so much incensed, that he would needs
have her to be his wife.
And sometimes by reading they are so affected, as
he in [4809]Lucian confesseth of himself, I never read that place of
Panthea in Xenophon, but I am as much affected as if I were present with
her.
Such persons commonly [4810]feign a kind of beauty to themselves;
and so did those three gentlewomen in [4811]Balthazar Castilio fall in
love with a young man whom they never knew, but only heard him commended:
or by reading of a letter; for there is a grace cometh from hearing, [4812]
as a moral philosopher informeth us, as well from sight; and the species
of love are received into the fantasy by relation alone:
[4813]ut cupere
ab aspectu, sic velle ab auditu, both senses affect. Interdum et absentes
amamus, sometimes we love those that are absent, saith Philostratus, and
gives instance in his friend Athenodorus, that loved a maid at Corinth whom
he never saw; non oculi sed mens videt, we see with the eyes of our
understanding.
But the most familiar and usual cause of love is that which comes by sight,
which conveys those admirable rays of beauty and pleasing graces to the
heart. Plotinus derives love from sight, ἔρος quasi
ὅρασις. [4814]Si nescis, oculi sunt in amore duces, the eyes are the
harbingers of love,
and the first step of love is sight, as [4815]Lilius
Giraldus proves at large, hist. deor. syntag. 13. they as two sluices let
in the influences of that divine, powerful, soul-ravishing, and captivating
beauty, which, as [4816]one saith, is sharper than any dart or needle,
wounds deeper into the heart; and opens a gap through our eyes to that
lovely wound, which pierceth the soul itself
(Ecclus. 18.) Through it love
is kindled like a fire. This amazing, confounding, admirable, amiable
beauty, [4817]than which in all nature's treasure (saith Isocrates) there
is nothing so majestical and sacred, nothing so divine, lovely, precious,
'tis nature's crown, gold and glory; bonum si non summum, de summis tamen
non infrequenter triumphans, whose power hence may be discerned; we
contemn and abhor generally such things as are foul and ugly to behold,
account them filthy, but love and covet that which is fair. 'Tis [4818]
beauty in all things which pleaseth and allureth us, a fair hawk, a fine
garment, a goodly building, a fair house, &c. That Persian Xerxes when he
destroyed all those temples of the gods in Greece, caused that of Diana,
in integrum servari, to be spared alone for that excellent beauty and
magnificence of it. Inanimate beauty can so command. 'Tis that which
painters, artificers, orators, all aim at, as Eriximachus the physician, in
Plato contends, [4819]It was beauty first that ministered occasion to
art, to find out the knowledge of carving, painting, building, to find out
models, perspectives, rich furnitures, and so many rare inventions.
Whiteness in the lily, red in the rose, purple in the violet, a lustre in
all things without life, the clear light of the moon, the bright beams of
the sun, splendour of gold, purple, sparkling diamond, the excellent
feature of the horse, the majesty of the lion, the colour of birds,
peacock's tails, the silver scales of fish, we behold with singular delight
and admiration. [4820]And which is rich in plants, delightful in flowers,
wonderful in beasts, but most glorious in men,
doth make us affect and
earnestly desire it, as when we hear any sweet harmony, an eloquent tongue,
see any excellent quality, curious work of man, elaborate art, or aught
that is exquisite, there ariseth instantly in us a longing for the same. We
love such men, but most part for comeliness of person, we call them gods
and goddesses, divine, serene, happy, &c. And of all mortal men they alone
([4821]Calcagninus holds) are free from calumny; qui divitiis, magistratu
et gloria florent, injuria lacessimus, we backbite, wrong, hate renowned,
rich, and happy men, we repine at their felicity, they are undeserving we
think, fortune is a stepmother to us, a parent to them. We envy
(saith
[4822]Isocrates) wise, just, honest men, except with mutual offices and
kindnesses, some good turn or other, they extort this love from us; only
fair persons we love at first sight, desire their acquaintance, and adore
them as so many gods: we had rather serve them than command others, and
account ourselves the more beholding to them, the more service they enjoin
us:
though they be otherwise vicious, dishonest, we love them, favour them,
and are ready to do them any good office for their [4823]beauty's sake,
though they have no other good quality beside. Dic igitur o fomose,
adolescens (as that eloquent Phavorinus breaks out in [4824]Stobeus) dic
Autiloque, suavius nectare loqueris; dic o Telemache, vehementius Ulysse
dicis; dic Alcibiades utcunque ebrius, libentius tibi licet ebrio
auscultabimus. Speak, fair youth, speak Autiloquus, thy words are sweeter
than nectar, speak O Telemachus, thou art more powerful than Ulysses, speak
Alcibiades though drunk, we will willingly hear thee as thou art.
Faults
in such are no faults: for when the said Alcibiades had stolen Anytus his
gold and silver plate, he was so far from prosecuting so foul a fact
(though every man else condemned his impudence and insolency) that he
wished it had been more, and much better (he loved him dearly) for his
sweet sake. No worth is eminent in such lovely persons, all imperfections
hid;
non enim facile de his quos plurimum diligimus, turpitudinem
suspicamur, for hearing, sight, touch, &c., our mind and all our senses
are captivated, omnes sensus formosus delectat. Many men have been
preferred for their person alone, chosen kings, as amongst the Indians,
Persians, Ethiopians of old; the properest man of person the country could
afford, was elected their sovereign lord; Gratior est pulchro veniens e
corpore virtus, [4825]and so have many other nations thought and done, as
[4826]Curtius observes: Ingens enim in corporis majestate veneratio est,
for there is a majestical presence in such men;
and so far was beauty
adored amongst them, that no man was thought fit to reign, that was not in
all parts complete and supereminent. Agis, king of Lacedaemon, had like to
have been deposed, because he married a little wife, they would not have
their royal issue degenerate. Who would ever have thought that Adrian' the
Fourth, an English monk's bastard (as [4827]Papirius Massovius writes in
his life), inops a suis relectus, squalidus et miser, a poor forsaken
child, should ever come to be pope of Rome? But why was it? Erat acri
ingenio, facundia expedita eleganti corpore, facieque laeta ac hilari, (as
he follows it out of [4828]Nubrigensis, for he ploughs with his heifer,)
he was wise, learned, eloquent, of a pleasant, a promising countenance, a
goodly, proper man; he had, in a word, a winning look of his own,
and that
carried it, for that he was especially advanced. So Saul was a goodly
person and a fair.
Maximinus elected emperor, &c. Branchus the son of
Apollo, whom he begot of Jance, Succron's daughter (saith Lactantius), when
he kept King Admetus' herds in Thessaly, now grown a man, was an earnest
suitor to his mother to know his father; the nymph denied him, because
Apollo had conjured her to the contrary; yet overcome by his importunity at
last she sent him to his father; when he came into Apollo's presence,
malas Dei reverenter osculatus, he carried himself so well, and was so
fair a young man, that Apollo was infinitely taken with the beauty of his
person, he could scarce look off him, and said he was worthy of such
parents, gave him a crown of gold, the spirit of divination, and in
conclusion made him a demigod. O vis superba formae, a goddess beauty is,
whom the very gods adore, nam pulchros dii amant; she is Amoris domina,
love's harbinger, love's loadstone, a witch, a charm, &c. Beauty is a dower
of itself, a sufficient patrimony, an ample commendation, an accurate
epistle, as [4829]Lucian, [4830]Apuleius, Tiraquellus, and some others
conclude. Imperio digna forma, beauty deserves a kingdom, saith
Abulensis, paradox. 2. cap. 110. immortality; and [4831]more have got
this honour and eternity for their beauty, than for all other virtues
besides:
and such as are fair, are worthy to be honoured of God and men.
That Idalian Ganymede was therefore fetched by Jupiter into heaven,
Hephaestion dear to Alexander, Antinous to Adrian. Plato calls beauty for
that cause a privilege of nature, Naturae gaudentis opus, nature's
masterpiece, a dumb comment; Theophrastus, a silent fraud; still rhetoric
Carneades, that persuades without speech, a kingdom without a guard,
because beautiful persons command as so many captains; Socrates, a tyranny,
which tyranniseth over tyrants themselves;
which made Diogenes belike call
proper women queens, quod facerent homines quae praeciperent, because men
were so obedient to their commands. They will adore, cringe, compliment,
and bow to a common wench (if she be fair) as if she were a noble woman, a
countess, a queen, or a goddess. Those intemperate young men of Greece
erected at Delphos a golden image with infinite cost, to the eternal memory
of Phryne the courtesan, as Aelian relates, for she was a most beautiful
woman, insomuch, saith [4832]Athenaeus, that Apelles and Praxiteles drew
Venus's picture from her. Thus young men will adore and honour beauty; nay
kings themselves I say will do it, and voluntarily submit their sovereignty
to a lovely woman. Wine is strong, kings are strong, but a woman
strongest,
1 Esd. iv. 10. as Zerobabel proved at large to King Darius, his
princes and noblemen. Kings sit still and command sea and land, &c., all
pay tribute to the king; but women make kings pay tribute, and have
dominion over them. When they have got gold and silver, they submit all to
a beautiful woman, give themselves wholly to her, gape and gaze on her, and
all men desire her more than gold or silver, or any precious thing: they
will leave father and mother, and venture their lives for her, labour and
travel to get, and bring all their gains to women, steal, fight, and spoil
for their mistress's sake. And no king so strong, but a fair woman is
stronger than he is. All things
(as [4833]he proceeds) fear to touch the
king; yet I saw him and Apame his concubine, the daughter of the famous
Bartacus, sitting on the right hand of the king, and she took the crown off
his head, and put it on her own, and stroke him with her left hand; yet the
king gaped and gazed on her, and when she laughed he laughed, and when she
was angry he flattered to be reconciled to her.
So beauty commands even
kings themselves; nay whole armies and kingdoms are captivated together
with their kings: [4834]Forma vincit armatos, ferrum pulchritudo
captivat; vincentur specie, qui non vincentur proelio. And 'tis a great
matter saith [4835]Xenophon, and of which all fair persons may worthily
brag, that a strong man must labour for his living if he will have aught, a
valiant man must fight and endanger himself for it, a wise man speak, show
himself, and toil; but a fair and beautiful person doth all with ease, he
compasseth his desire without any pains-taking:
God and men, heaven and
earth conspire to honour him; every one pities him above other, if he be in
need, [4836]and all the world is willing to do him good. [4837]Chariclea
fell into the hand of pirates, but when all the rest were put to the edge
of the sword, she alone was preserved for her person. [4838]When
Constantinople was sacked by the Turk, Irene escaped, and was so far from
being made a captive, that she even captivated the Grand Signior himself.
So did Rosamond insult over King Henry the Second.
the wild beasts stood in admiration of her person,(Saxo Grammaticus lib. 8. Dan. hist.)
and would not hurt her.Wherefore did that royal virgin in [4844]Apuleius, when she fled from the thieves' den, in a desert, make such an apostrophe to her ass on whom she rode; (for what knew she to the contrary, but that he was an ass?) Si me parentibus et proco formoso reddideris, quas, tibi gratias, quos honores habebo, quos cibos exhibebo? [4845]She would comb him, dress him, feed him, and trick him every day herself, and he should work no more, toil no more, but rest and play, &c. And besides she would have a dainty picture drawn, in perpetual remembrance, a virgin riding upon an ass's back with this motto, Asino vectore regia virgo fugiens captivitatem; why said she all this? why did she make such promises to a dumb beast? but that she perceived the poor ass to be taken with her beauty, for he did often obliquo collo pedes puellae decoros basiare, kiss her feet as she rode, et ad delicatulas voculas tentabat adhinnire, offer to give consent as much as in him was to her delicate speeches, and besides he had some feeling, as she conceived of her misery. And why did Theogine's horse in Heliodorus [4846]curvet, prance, and go so proudly, exultans alacriter et superbiens, &c., but that such as mine author supposeth, he was in love with his master? dixisses ipsum equum pulchrum intelligere pulchram domini fomam? A fly lighted on [4847] Malthius' cheek as he lay asleep; but why? Not to hurt him, as a parasite of his, standing by, well perceived, non ut pungeret, sed ut oscularetur, but certainly to kiss him, as ravished with his divine looks. Inanimate creatures, I suppose, have a touch of this. When a drop of [4848]Psyche's candle fell on Cupid's shoulder, I think sure it was to kiss it. When Venus ran to meet her rose-cheeked Adonis, as an elegant [4849]poet of our's sets her out,
but the very quintessence of beauty,some fair creature, as without doubt the poet understood in the first fiction of it, at which the spectators were amazed. [4863]Miseri quibus intentata nites, poor wretches are compelled at the very sight of her ravishing looks to run mad, or make away with themselves.
for he thought it impossible for any man living to see her and contain himself.The very fame of beauty will fetch them to it many miles off (such an attractive power this loadstone hath), and they will seem but short, they will undertake any toil or trouble, [4866]long journeys. Penia or Atalanta shall not overgo them, through seas, deserts, mountains, and dangerous places, as they did to gaze on Psyche:
many mortal men came far and near to see that glorious object of her age,Paris for Helena, Corebus to Troja.
who inflamed with a violent passion for Cassandra, happened then to be in Troy.King John of France, once prisoner in England, came to visit his old friends again, crossing the seas; but the truth is, his coming was to see the Countess of Salisbury, the nonpareil of those times, and his dear mistress. That infernal God Pluto came from hell itself, to steal Proserpine; Achilles left all his friends for Polixena's sake, his enemy's daughter; and all the [4867]Graecian gods forsook their heavenly mansions for that fair lady, Philo Dioneus daughter's sake, the paragon of Greece in those days; ea enim venustate fuit, ut eam certatim omnes dii conjugem expeterent:
for she was of such surpassing beauty, that all the gods contended for her love.[4868]Formosa divis imperat puella.
The beautiful maid commands the gods.They will not only come to see, but as a falcon makes a hungry hawk hover about, follow, give attendance and service, spend goods, lives, and all their fortunes to attain;
at whose gates lay all Greece.[4874]
Every man sought to get her love, some with gallant and costly apparel, some with an affected pace, some with music, others with rich gifts, pleasant discourse, multitude of followers; others with letters, vows, and promises, to commend themselves, and to be gracious in her eyes.Happy was he that could see her, thrice happy that enjoyed her company. Charmides [4875]in Plato was a proper young man in comeliness of person,
and all good qualities, far exceeding others; whensoever fair Charmides came abroad, they seemed all to be in love with him(as Critias describes their carriage),
and were troubled at the very sight of him; many came near him, many followed him wheresoever he went,as those [4876]formarum spectatores did Acontius, if at any time he walked abroad: the Athenian lasses stared on Alcibiades; Sappho and the Mitilenean women on Phaon the fair. Such lovely sights do not only please, entice, but ravish and amaze. Cleonimus, a delicate and tender youth, present at a feast which Androcles his uncle made in Piraeo at Athens, when he sacrificed to Mercury, so stupefied the guests, Dineas, Aristippus, Agasthenes, and the rest (as Charidemus in [4877]Lucian relates it), that they could not eat their meat, they sat all supper time gazing, glancing at him, stealing looks, and admiring of his beauty. Many will condemn these men that are so enamoured, for fools; but some again commend them for it; many reject Paris's judgment, and yet Lucian approves of it, admiring Paris for his choice; he would have done as much himself, and by good desert in his mind: beauty is to be preferred [4878]
before wealth or wisdom.[4879]Athenaeus Deipnosophist, lib. 13. cap. 7, holds it not such indignity for the Trojans and Greeks to contend ten years, to spend so much labour, lose so many men's lives for Helen's sake, [4880]for so fair a lady's sake,
methinks(as he said)
I could die for her.
But this is not the matter in hand; what prerogative this beauty hath, of
what power and sovereignty it is, and how far such persons that so much
admire, and dote upon it, are to be justified; no man doubts of these
matters; the question is, how and by what means beauty produceth this
effect? By sight: the eye betrays the soul, and is both active and passive
in this business; it wounds and is wounded, is an especial cause and
instrument, both in the subject and in the object. [4888]As tears, it
begins in the eyes, descends to the breast;
it conveys these beauteous
rays, as I have said, unto the heart. Ut vidi ut perii. [4889]Mars
videt hanc, visamque cupit. Schechem saw Dinah the daughter of Leah, and
defiled her, Gen. xxxiv. 3. Jacob, Rachel, xxix. 17, for she was beautiful
and fair.
David spied Bathsheba afar off, 2 Sam. xi. 2. The Elders,
Susanna, [4890]as that Orthomenian Strato saw fair Aristoclea daughter of
Theophanes, bathing herself at that Hercyne well in Lebadea, and were
captivated in an instant. Viderunt oculi, rapuerunt pectora flammae; Ammon
fell sick for Thamar's sake, 2 Sam. xiii. 2. The beauty of Esther was such,
that she found favour not only in the sight of Ahasuerus, but of all those
that looked upon her.
Gerson, Origen, and some others, contended that
Christ himself was the fairest of the sons of men, and Joseph next unto
him, speciosus prae filiis hominum, and they will have it literally taken;
his very person was such, that he found grace and favour of all those that
looked upon him. Joseph was so fair, that, as the ordinary gloss hath it,
filiae decurrerent per murum, et ad fenestras, they ran to the top of the
walls and to the windows to gaze on him, as we do commonly to see some
great personage go by: and so Matthew Paris describes Matilda the Empress
going through Cullen. [4891]P. Morales the Jesuit saith as much of the
Virgin Mary. Antony no sooner saw Cleopatra, but, saith Appian, lib. 1,
he was enamoured of her. [4892]Theseus at the first sight of Helen was so
besotted, that he esteemed himself the happiest man in the world if he
might enjoy her, and to that purpose kneeled down, and made his pathetical
prayers unto the gods. [4893]Charicles, by chance, espying that curious
picture of smiling Venus naked in her temple, stood a great while gazing,
as one amazed; at length, he brake into that mad passionate speech, O
fortunate god Mars, that wast bound in chains, and made ridiculous for her
sake!
He could not contain himself, but kissed her picture, I know not how
oft, and heartily desired to be so disgraced as Mars was. And what did he
that his betters had not done before him?
all the gods came flocking about, and saluted her, each of them went to Jupiter, and desired he might have her to be his wife.When fair [4896]Antilochus came in presence, as a candle in the dark his beauty shined, all men's eyes (as Xenophon describes the manner of it)
were instantly fixed on him, and moved at the sight, insomuch that they could not conceal themselves, but in gesture or looks it was discerned and expressed.Those other senses, hearing, touching, may much penetrate and affect, but none so much, none so forcible as sight. Forma Briseis mediis in armis movit Achillem, Achilles was moved in the midst of a battle by fair Briseis, Ajax by Tecmessa; Judith captivated that great Captain Holofernes: Dalilah, Samson; Rosamund, [4897]Henry the Second; Roxolana, Suleiman the Magnificent, &c.
A fair woman overcomes fire and sword.
I will not conceal it, she overcame me with her presence, and quite assaulted my continency which I had kept unto mine old age; I resisted a long time my bodily eyes with the eyes of my understanding; at last I was conquered, and as in a tempest carried headlong.[4903] Xenophiles, a philosopher, railed at women downright for many years together, scorned, hated, scoffed at them; coming at last into Daphnis a fair maid's company (as he condoles his mishap to his friend Demaritis), though free before, Intactus nullis ante cupidinibus, was far in love, and quite overcome upon a sudden. Victus sum fateor a Daphnide, &c. I confess I am taken,
If you desire to know more particularly what this beauty is, how it doth
Influere, how it doth fascinate (for, as all hold, love is a
fascination), thus in brief. [4910]This comeliness or beauty ariseth from
the due proportion of the whole, or from each several part.
For an exact
delineation of which, I refer you to poets, historiographers, and those
amorous writers, to Lucian's Images, and Charidemus, Xenophon's description
of Panthea, Petronius Catalectes, Heliodorus Chariclia, Tacius Leucippe,
Longus Sophista's Daphnis and Chloe, Theodorus Prodromus his Rhodanthes,
Aristaenetus and Philostratus Epistles, Balthazar Castilio, lib. 4. de
aulico. Laurentius, cap. 10, de melan. Aeneas Sylvius his Lucretia, and
every poet almost, which have most accurately described a perfect beauty,
an absolute feature, and that through every member, both in men and women.
Each part must concur to the perfection of it; for as Seneca saith, Ep.
33. lib. 4. Non est formosa mulier cujus crus laudatur et brachium, sed
illa cujus simul universa facies admirationem singulis partibus dedit;
she is no fair woman, whose arm, thigh, &c. are commended, except the face
and all the other parts be correspondent.
And the face especially gives a
lustre to the rest: the face is it that commonly denominates a fair or
foul: arx formae facies, the face is beauty's tower; and though the other
parts be deformed, yet a good face carries it (facies non uxor amatur)
that alone is most part respected, principally valued, deliciis suis
ferox, and of itself able to captivate.
Glycera's too fair a face was it that set him on fire, too fine to be beheld.When [4912]Chaerea saw the singing wench's sweet looks, he was so taken, that he cried out, O faciem pulchram, deleo omnes dehinc ex animo mulieres, taedet quotidianarum harum formarum!
O fair face, I'll never love any but her, look on any other hereafter but her; I am weary of these ordinary beauties, away with them.The more he sees her, the worse he is,—uritque videndo, as in a burning-glass, the sunbeams are re-collected to a centre, the rays of love are projected from her eyes. It was Aeneas's countenance ravished Queen Dido, Os humerosque Deo similis, he had an angelical face.
A thousand appear, as many are concealed;gratiarum sedes gratissima; a sweet-smelling flower, from which bees may gather honey, [4915]Mellilegae volucres quid adhuc cava thyma rosasque, &c.
though she come accompanied with the graces, and all Cupid's train to attend upon her, girt with her own girdle, and smell of cinnamon and balm, yet if she be bald or badhaired, she cannot please her Vulcan.Which belike makes our Venetian ladies at this day to counterfeit yellow hair so much, great women to calamistrate and curl it up, vibrantes ad gratiam crines, et tot orbibus in captivitatem flexos, to adorn their heads with spangles, pearls, and made-flowers; and all courtiers to effect a pleasing grace in this kind. In a word, [4923]
the hairs are Cupid's nets, to catch all comers, a brushy wood, in which Cupid builds his nest, and under whose shadow all loves a thousand several ways sport themselves.
A little soft hand, pretty little mouth, small, fine, long fingers, Gratiae quae digitis —'tis that which Apollo did admire in Daphne,—laudat digitosque manusque; a straight and slender body, a small foot, and well-proportioned leg, hath an excellent lustre, [4924]Cui totum incumbit corpus uti fundamento aedes. Clearchus vowed to his friend Amyander in [4925]Aristaenetus, that the most attractive part in his mistress, to make him love and like her first, was her pretty leg and foot: a soft and white skin, &c. have their peculiar graces, [4926]Nebula haud est mollior ac hujus cutis est, aedipol papillam bellulam. Though in men these parts are not so much respected; a grim Saracen sometimes,—nudus membra Pyracmon, a martial hirsute face pleaseth best; a black man is a pearl in a fair woman's eye, and is as acceptable as [4927]lame Vulcan was to Venus; for he being a sweaty fuliginous blacksmith, was dearly beloved of her, when fair Apollo, nimble Mercury were rejected, and the rest of the sweet-faced gods forsaken. Many women (as Petronius [4928]observes) sordibus calent (as many men are more moved with kitchen wenches, and a poor market maid, than all these illustrious court and city dames) will sooner dote upon a slave, a servant, a dirt dauber, a brontes, a cook, a player, if they see his naked legs or arms, thorosaque brachia, [4929]&c., like that huntsman Meleager in Philostratus, though he be all in rags, obscene and dirty, besmeared like a ruddleman, a gipsy, or a chimney-sweeper, than upon a noble gallant, Nireus, Ephestion, Alcibiades, or those embroidered courtiers full of silk and gold. [4930]Justine's wife, a citizen of Rome, fell in love with Pylades a player, and was ready to run mad for him, had not Galen himself helped her by chance. Faustina the empress doted on a fencer.
Not one of a thousand falls in love, but there is some peculiar part or other which pleaseth most, and inflames him above the rest. [4931]A company of young philosophers on a time fell at variance, which part of a woman was most desirable and pleased best? some said the forehead, some the teeth, some the eyes, cheeks, lips, neck, chin, &c., the controversy was referred to Lais of Corinth to decide; but she, smiling, said, they were a company of fools; for suppose they had her where they wished, what would they [4932]first seek? Yet this notwithstanding I do easily grant, neque quis vestrum negaverit opinor, all parts are attractive, but especially [4933]the eyes, [4934]
the hooks of love(as Arandus will)
the guides, touchstone, judges, that in a moment cure mad men, and make sound folks mad, the watchmen of the body; what do they not?How vex they not? All this is true, and (which Athaeneus lib. 13. dip. cap. 5. and Tatius hold) they are the chief seats of love, and James Lernutius [4936]hath facetely expressed in an elegant ode of his,
Cupid's arrows; the tongue, the lightning of love; the paps, the tents:[4938]Balthazar Castilio, the causes, the chariots, the lamps of love,
What a tyranny(saith he),
what a penetration of bodies is this! thou drawest with violence, and swallowest me up, as Charybdis doth sailors with thy rocky eyes: he that falls into this gulf of love, can never get out.Let this be the corollary then, the strongest beams of beauty are still darted from the eyes.
Now last of all, I will show you by what means beauty doth fascinate, bewitch, as some hold, and work upon the soul of a man by the eye. For certainly I am of the poet's mind, love doth bewitch and strangely change us.
it gets in at our eyes, pores, nostrils, engenders the same qualities and affections in us, as were in the party whence it came.The manner of the fascination, as Ficinus 10. cap. com. in Plat. declares it, is thus:
Mortal men are then especially bewitched, when as by often gazing one on the other, they direct sight to sight, join eye to eye, and so drink and suck in love between them; for the beginning of this disease is the eye. And therefore he that hath a clear eye, though he be otherwise deformed, by often looking upon him, will make one mad, and tie him fast to him by the eye.Leonard. Varius, lib. 1. cap. 2. de fascinat. telleth us, that by this interview, [4954]
the purer spirits are infected,the one eye pierceth through the other with his rays, which he sends forth, and many men have those excellent piercing eyes, that, which Suetonius relates of Augustus, their brightness is such, they compel their spectators to look off, and can no more endure them than the sunbeams. [4955]Barradius, lib. 6. cap. 10. de Harmonia Evangel. reports as much of our Saviour Christ, and [4956]Peter Morales of the Virgin Mary, whom Nicephorus describes likewise to have been yellow-haired, of a wheat colour, but of a most amiable and piercing eye. The rays, as some think, sent from the eyes, carry certain spiritual vapours with them, and so infect the other party, and that in a moment. I know, they that hold visio fit intra mittendo, will make a doubt of this; but Ficinus proves it from blear-eyes, [4957]
That by sight alone, make others blear-eyed; and it is more than manifest, that the vapour of the corrupt blood doth get in together with the rays, and so by the contagion the spectators' eyes are infected.Other arguments there are of a basilisk, that kills afar off by sight, as that Ephesian did of whom [4958]Philostratus speaks, of so pernicious an eye, he poisoned all he looked steadily on: and that other argument, menstruae faminae, out of Aristotle's Problems, morbosae Capivaccius adds, and [4959]Septalius the commentator, that contaminate a looking-glass with beholding it. [4960]
So the beams that come from the agent's heart, by the eyes, infect the spirits about the patients, inwardly wound, and thence the spirits infect the blood.To this effect she complained in [4961]Apuleius,
Thou art the cause of my grief, thy eyes piercing through mine eyes to mine inner parts, have set my bowels on fire, and therefore pity me that am now ready to die for thy sake.Ficinus illustrates this with a familiar example of that Marrhusian Phaedrus and Theban Lycias, [4962]
Lycias he stares on Phaedrus' face, and Phaedrus fastens the balls of his eyes upon Lycias, and with those sparkling rays sends out his spirits. The beams of Phaedrus' eyes are easily mingled with the beams of Lycias, and spirits are joined to spirits. This vapour begot in Phaedrus' heart, enters into Lycias' bowels; and that which is a greater wonder, Phaedrus' blood is in Lycias' heart, and thence come those ordinary love-speeches, my sweetheart Phaedrus, and mine own self, my dear bowels. And Phaedrus again to Lycias, O my light, my joy, my soul, my life. Phaedrus follows Lycias, because his heart would have his spirits, and Lycias follows Phaedrus, because he loves the seat of his spirits; both follow; but Lycias the earnester of the two: the river hath more need of the fountain, than the fountain of the river; as iron is drawn to that which is touched with a loadstone, but draws not it again; so Lycias draws Phaedrus.But how comes it to pass then, that the blind man loves, that never saw? We read in the Lives of the Fathers, a story of a child that was brought up in the wilderness, from his infancy, by an old hermit: now come to man's estate, he saw by chance two comely women wandering in the woods: he asked the old man what creatures they were, he told him fairies; after a while talking obiter, the hermit demanded of him, which was the pleasantest sight that ever he saw in his life? He readily replied, the two [4963]fairies he spied in the wilderness. So that, without doubt, there is some secret loadstone in a beautiful woman, a magnetic power, a natural inbred affection, which moves our concupiscence, and as he sings,
lie still in wait as so many soldiers, and when they spy an innocent spectator fixed on them, shoot him through, and presently bewitch him: especially when they shall gaze and gloat, as wanton lovers do one upon another, and with a pleasant eye-conflict participate each other's souls.Hence you may perceive how easily and how quickly we may be taken in love; since at the twinkling of an eye, Phaedrus' spirits may so perniciously infect Lycias' blood. [4965]
Neither is it any wonder, if we but consider how many other diseases closely, and as suddenly are caught by infection, plague, itch, scabs, flux,&c. The spirits taken in, will not let him rest that hath received them, but egg him on. [4966]Idque petit corpus mens unde est saucia amore; and we may manifestly perceive a strange eduction of spirits, by such as bleed at nose after they be dead, at the presence of the murderer; but read more of this in Lemnius, lib. 2. de occult. nat. mir. cap. 7. Valleriola lib. 2. observ. cap. 7. Valesius controv. Ficinus, Cardan, Libavius de cruentis cadaveribus, &c.
Natural beauty is a stronger loadstone of itself, as you have heard, a great temptation, and pierceth to the very heart; [4967]forma verecundae, nocuit mihi visa puellae; but much more when those artificial enticements and provocations of gestures, clothes, jewels, pigments, exornations, shall be annexed unto it; those other circumstances, opportunity of time and place shall concur, which of themselves alone were all sufficient, each one in particular to produce this effect. It is a question much controverted by some wise men, forma debeat plus arti an naturae? Whether natural or artificial objects be more powerful? but not decided: for my part I am of opinion, that though beauty itself be a great motive, and give an excellent lustre in sordibus, in beggary, as a jewel on a dunghill will shine and cast his rays, it cannot be suppressed, which Heliodorus feigns of Chariclia, though she were in beggar's weeds: yet as it is used, artificial is of more force, and much to be preferred.
Many will think that our so long commerce with naked women, must needs be a great provocation to lust;but he concludes otherwise, that their nakedness did much less entice them to lasciviousness, than our women's clothes.
And I dare boldly affirm(saith he)
that those glittering attires, counterfeit colours, headgears, curled hairs, plaited coats, cloaks, gowns, costly stomachers, guarded and loose garments, and all those other accoutrements, wherewith our countrywomen counterfeit a beauty, and so curiously set out themselves, cause more inconvenience in this kind, than that barbarian homeliness, although they be no whit inferior unto them in beauty. I could evince the truth of this by many other arguments, but I appeal(saith he)
to my companions at that present, which were all of the same mind.His countryman, Montague, in his essays, is of the same opinion, and so are many others; out of whose assertions thus much in brief we may conclude, that beauty is more beholden to art than nature, and stronger provocations proceed from outward ornaments, than such as nature hath provided. It is true that those fair sparkling eyes, white neck, coral lips, turgent paps, rose-coloured cheeks, &c., of themselves are potent enticers; but when a comely, artificial, well-composed look, pleasing gesture, an affected carriage shall be added, it must needs be far more forcible than it was, when those curious needleworks, variety of colours, purest dyes, jewels, spangles, pendants, lawn, lace, tiffanies, fair and fine linen, embroideries, calamistrations, ointments, etc. shall be added, they will make the veriest dowdy otherwise, a goddess, when nature shall be furthered by art. For it is not the eye of itself that enticeth to lust, but an
adulterous eye,as Peter terms it, 2. ii. 14. a wanton, a rolling, lascivious eye: a wandering eye, which Isaiah taxeth, iii. 16. Christ himself, and the Virgin Mary, had most beautiful eyes, as amiable eyes as any persons, saith [4970]Baradius, that ever lived, but withal so modest, so chaste, that whosoever looked on them was freed from that passion of burning lust, if we may believe [4971]Gerson and [4972]Bonaventure: there was no such antidote against it, as the Virgin Mary's face; 'tis not the eye, but carriage of it, as they use it, that causeth such effects. When Pallas, Juno, Venus, were to win Paris' favour for the golden apple, as it is elegantly described in that pleasant interlude of [4973]Apuleius, Juno came with majesty upon the stage, Minerva gravity, but Venus dulce subridens, constitit amaene; et gratissimae, Graticae deam propitiantes, &c. came in smiling with her gracious graces and exquisite music, as if she had danced, et nonnunquam saltare solis oculis, and which was the main matter of all, she danced with her rolling eyes: they were the brokers and harbingers of her suite. So she makes her brags in a modern poet,
that if she had but looked upon any one almost(saith Calisiris)
she would have bewitched him, and he could not possibly escape it.For as [4977]Salvianus observes,
the eyes are the windows of our souls, by which as so many channels, all dishonest concupiscence gets into our hearts.They reveal our thoughts, and as they say, frons animi index, but the eye of the countenance, [4978]Quid procacibus intuere ocellis? &c. I may say the same of smiling, gait, nakedness of parts, plausible gestures, &c. To laugh is the proper passion of a man, an ordinary thing to smile; but those counterfeit, composed, affected, artificial and reciprocal, those counter-smiles are the dumb shows and prognostics of greater matters, which they most part use, to inveigle and deceive; though many fond lovers again are so frequently mistaken, and led into a fool's paradise. For if they see but a fair maid laugh, or show a pleasant countenance, use some gracious words or gestures, they apply it all to themselves, as done in their favour; sure she loves them, she is willing, coming, &c.
She makes thine heart leap with [4981]a pleasing gentle smile of hers.
I love Lalage as much for smiling, as for discoursing,delectata illa risit tam blandum, as he said in Petronius of his mistress, being well pleased, she gave so sweet a smile. It won Ismenias, as he [4983] confesseth, Ismene subrisit amatorium, Ismene smiled so lovingly the second time I saw her, that I could not choose but admire her: and Galla's sweet smile quite overcame [4984]Faustus the shepherd, Me aspiciens moils blande subrisit ocellis. All other gestures of the body will enforce as much. Daphnis in [4985]Lucian was a poor tattered wench when I knew her first, said Corbile, pannosa et Zacera, but now she is a stately piece indeed, hath her maids to attend her, brave attires, money in her purse, &c., and will you know how this came to pass?
by setting out herself after the best fashion, by her pleasant carriage, affability, sweet smiling upon all,&c. Many women dote upon a man for his compliment only, and good behaviour, they are won in an instant; too credulous to believe that every light wanton suitor, who sees or makes love to them, is instantly enamoured, he certainly dotes on, admires them, will surely marry, when as he means nothing less, 'tis his ordinary carriage in all such companies. So both delude each other by such outward shows; and amongst the rest, an upright, a comely grace, courtesies, gentle salutations, cringes, a mincing gait, a decent and an affected pace, are most powerful enticers, and which the prophet Isaiah, a courtier himself, and a great observer, objected to the daughters of Zion, iii. 16.
they minced as they went, and made a tinkling with their feet.To say the truth, what can they not effect by such means?
and so when they pull up their petticoats, and outward garments,as usually they do to show their fine stockings, and those of purest silken dye, gold fringes, laces, embroiderings, (it shall go hard but when they go to church, or to any other place, all shall be seen) 'tis but a springe to catch woodcocks; and as [4988]Chrysostom telleth them downright,
though they say nothing with their mouths, they speak in their gait, they speak with their eyes, they speak in the carriage of their bodies.And what shall we say otherwise of that baring of their necks, shoulders, naked breasts, arms and wrists, to what end are they but only to tempt men to lust!
David so espied Bathsheba, the elders Susanna: [4993]Apelles was enamoured with Campaspe, when he was to paint her naked. Tiberius in Suet. cap. 42. supped with Sestius Gallus an old lecher, libidinoso sene, ea lege ut nudae puellae administrarent; some say as much of Nero, and Pontus Huter of Carolus Pugnax. Amongst the Babylonians, it was the custom of some lascivious queans to dance frisking in that fashion, saith Curtius lib. 5. and Sardus de mor. gent. lib. 1. writes of others to that effect. The [4994]Tuscans at some set banquets had naked women to attend upon them, which Leonicus de Varia hist. lib. 3. cap. 96. confirms of such other bawdy nations. Nero would have filthy pictures still hanging in his chamber, which is too commonly used in our times, and Heliogabalus, etiam coram agentes, ut ad venerem incitarent: So things may be abused. A servant maid in Aristaenetus spied her master and mistress through the key-hole [4995]merrily disposed; upon the sight she fell in love with her master. [4996]Antoninus Caracalla observed his mother-in-law with her breasts amorously laid open, he was so much moved, that he said, Ah si liceret, O that I might; which she by chance overhearing, replied as impudently, [4997]Quicquid libet licet, thou mayst do what thou wilt: and upon that temptation he married her: this object was not in cause, not the thing itself, but that unseemly, indecent carriage of it.
When you have all done, veniunt a veste sagittae the greatest provocations of lust are from our apparel; God makes, they say, man shapes, and there is no motive like unto it;
To what end are those crisped, false hairs, painted faces,as [5001]the satirist observes,
such a composed gait, not a step awry?Why are they like so many Sybarites, or Nero's Poppaea, Ahasuerus' concubines, so costly, so long a dressing, as Caesar was marshalling his army, or a hawk in pruning? [5002]Dum moliuntur, dum comuntur annus est: a [5003]gardener takes not so much delight and pains in his garden, a horseman to dress his horse, scour his armour, a mariner about his ship, a merchant his shop and shop-book, as they do about their faces, and all those other parts: such setting up with corks, straightening with whalebones; why is it, but as a day-net catcheth larks, to make young men stoop unto them? Philocharus, a gallant in Aristenaetus, advised his friend Poliaenus to take heed of such enticements, [5004]
for it was the sweet sound and motion of his mistress's spangles and bracelets, the smell of her ointments, that captivated him first,Illa fuit mentis prima ruina meae. Quid sibi vult pixidum turba, saith [5005]Lucian,
to what use are pins, pots, glasses, ointments, irons, combs, bodkins, setting-sticks? why bestow they all their patrimonies and husbands' yearly revenues on such fooleries?[5006]bina patrimonia singulis auribus;
why use they dragons, wasps, snakes, for chains, enamelled jewels on their necks, ears?dignum potius foret ferro manus istas religari, atque utinam monilia vere dracones essent; they had more need some of them be tied in bedlam with iron chains, have a whip for a fan, and hair-cloths next to their skins, and instead of wrought smocks, have their cheeks stigmatised with a hot iron: I say, some of our Jezebels, instead of painting, if they were well served. But why is all this labour, all this cost, preparation, riding, running, far-fetched, and dear bought stuff? [5007]
Because forsooth they would be fair and fine, and where nature, is defective, supply it by art.[5008]Sanguine quae vero non rubet, arte rubet, (Ovid); and to that purpose they anoint and paint their faces, to make Helen of Hecuba—parvamque exortamque puellam—Europen.[5009]To this intent they crush in their feet and bodies, hurt and crucify themselves, sometimes in lax-clothes, a hundred yards I think in a gown, a sleeve; and sometimes again so close, ut nudos exprimant artus. [5010]Now long tails and trains, and then short, up, down, high, low, thick, thin, &c.; now little or no bands, then as big as cart wheels; now loose bodies, then great farthingales and close girt, &c. Why is all this, but with the whore in the Proverbs, to intoxicate some or other? oculorum decipulam,[5011]one therefore calls it, et indicem libidinis, the trap of lust, and sure token, as an ivy-bush is to a tavern.
Why do they keep in so long together, a whole winter sometimes, and will not be seen but by torch or candlelight, and come abroad with all the preparation may be, when they have no business, but only to show themselves? Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae.
They make those holy temples, consecrated to godly martyrs and religious uses, the shops of impudence, dens of whores and thieves, and little better than brothel houses.When we shall see these things daily done, their husbands bankrupts, if not cornutos, their wives light housewives, daughters dishonest; and hear of such dissolute acts, as daily we do, how should we think otherwise? what is their end, but to deceive and inveigle young men? As tow takes fire, such enticing objects produce their effect, how can it be altered? When Venus stood before Anchises (as [5018]Homer feigns in one of his hymns) in her costly robes, he was instantly taken,
with diverse presents, and enticing ornaments, Asiatic allurements, with such wonderful joy and festivity, they did so inveigle the Romans, that no man could contain himself, all was turned to delight and pleasure. The women transformed themselves to Bacchus shapes, the men-children to Satyrs and Pans; but Antony himself was quite besotted with Cleopatra's sweet speeches, philters, beauty, pleasing tires: for when she sailed along the river Cydnus, with such incredible pomp in a gilded ship, herself dressed like Venus, her maids like the Graces, her pages like so many Cupids, Antony was amazed, and rapt beyond himself.Heliodorus, lib. 1. brings in Dameneta, stepmother to Cnemon,
whom she [5022]saw in his scarves, rings, robes, and coronet, quite mad for the love of him.It was Judith's pantofles that ravished the eyes of Holofernes. And [5023]Cardan is not ashamed to confess, that seeing his wife the first time all in white, he did admire and instantly love her. If these outward ornaments were not of such force, why doth [5024]Naomi give Ruth counsel how to please Boaz? and [5025]Judith, seeking to captivate Holofernes, washed and anointed herself with sweet ointments, dressed her hair, and put on costly attires. The riot in this kind hath been excessive in times past; no man almost came abroad, but curled and anointed,
one spent as much as two funerals at once, and with perfumed hairs,
[5027]et rosa canos odorati capillos Assyriaque nardo. What strange
thing doth [5028]Sueton. relate in this matter of Caligula's riot? And
Pliny, lib. 12. & 13. Read more in Dioscorides, Ulmus, Arnoldus,
Randoletius de fuco et decoratione; for it is now an art, as it was of
old, (so [5029]Seneca records) officinae, sunt adores coquentium. Women
are bad and men worse, no difference at all between their and our times;
[5030]good manners
(as Seneca complains) are extinct with wantonness, in
tricking up themselves men go beyond women, they wear harlots' colours, and
do not walk, but jet and dance,
hic mulier, haec vir, more like players,
butterflies, baboons, apes, antics, than men. So ridiculous, moreover, we
are in our attires, and for cost so excessive, that as Hierome said of old,
Uno filio villarum insunt pretia, uno lino decies sestertium inseritur;
'tis an ordinary thing to put a thousand oaks and a hundred oxen into a
suit of apparel, to wear a whole manor on his back. What with shoe-ties,
hangers, points, caps and feathers, scarves, bands, curls, &c., in a short
space their whole patrimonies are consumed. Heliogabalus is taxed by
Lampridius, and admired in his age for wearing jewels in his shoes, a
common thing in our times, not for emperors and princes, but almost for
serving men and tailors; all the flowers, stars, constellations, gold and
precious stones do condescend to set out their shoes. To repress the luxury
of those Roman matrons, there was [5031]Lex Valeria and Oppia, and a Cato
to contradict; but no laws will serve to repress the pride and insolency of
our days, the prodigious riot in this kind. Lucullus's wardrobe is put down
by our ordinary citizens; and a cobbler's wife in Venice, a courtesan in
Florence, is no whit inferior to a queen, if our geographers say true: and
why is all this? Why do they glory in their jewels
(as [5032]he saith) or
exult and triumph in the beauty of clothes? why is all this cost? to incite
men the sooner to burning lust.
They pretend decency and ornament; but let
them take heed, that while they set out their bodies they do not damn their
souls; 'tis [5033]Bernard's counsel: shine in jewels, stink in
conditions; have purple robes, and a torn conscience.
Let them take heed
of Isaiah's prophecy, that their slippers and attires be not taken from
them, sweet balls, bracelets, earrings, veils, wimples, crisping-pins,
glasses, fine linen, hoods, lawns, and sweet savours, they become not bald,
burned, and stink upon a sudden. And let maids beware, as [5034]Cyprian
adviseth, that while they wander too loosely abroad, they lose not their
virginities:
and like Egyptian temples, seem fair without, but prove
rotten carcases within. How much better were it for them to follow that
good counsel of Tertullian? [5035]To have their eyes painted with
chastity, the Word of God inserted into their ears, Christ's yoke tied to
the hair, to subject themselves to their husbands. If they would do so,
they should be comely enough, clothe themselves with the silk of sanctity,
damask of devotion, purple of piety and chastity, and so painted, they
shall have God himself to be a suitor: let whores and queans prank up
themselves, [5036]let them paint their faces with minion and ceruse, they
are but fuels of lust, and signs of a corrupt soul: if ye be good, honest,
virtuous, and religious matrons, let sobriety, modesty and chastity be your
honour, and God himself your love and desire.
Mulier recte olet, ubi
nihil olet, then a woman smells best, when she hath no perfume at all; no
crown, chain, or jewel (Guivarra adds) is such an ornament to a virgin, or
virtuous woman, quam virgini pudor, as chastity is: more credit in a wise
man's eye and judgment they get by their plainness, and seem fairer than
they that are set out with baubles, as a butcher's meat is with pricks,
puffed up, and adorned like so many jays with variety of colours. It is
reported of Cornelia, that virtuous Roman lady, great Scipio's daughter,
Titus Sempronius' wife, and the mother of the Gracchi, that being by chance
in company with a companion, a strange gentlewoman (some light housewife
belike, that was dressed like a May lady, and, as most of our gentlewomen
are, was [5037]more solicitous of her head-tire than of her health, that
spent her time between a comb and a glass, and had rather be fair than
honest
(as Cato said), and have the commonwealth turned topsy-turvy than her
tires marred;
and she did nought but brag of her fine robes and jewels,
and provoked the Roman matron to show hers: Cornelia kept her in talk till
her children came from school, and these, said she, are my jewels, and so
deluded and put off a proud, vain, fantastical, housewife. How much better
were it for our matrons to do as she did, to go civilly and decently,
[5038]Honestae mulieris instar quae utitur auro pro eo quod est, ad ea
tantum quibus opus est, to use gold as it is gold, and for that use it
serves, and when they need it, than to consume it in riot, beggar their
husbands, prostitute themselves, inveigle others, and peradventure damn
their own souls? How much more would it be for their honour and credit?
Thus doing, as Hierom said of Blesilla, [5039]Furius did not so triumph
over the Gauls, Papyrius of the Samnites, Scipio of Numantia, as she did by
her temperance;
pulla semper veste, &c., they should insult and domineer
over lust, folly, vainglory, all such inordinate, furious and unruly
passions.
But I am over tedious, I confess, and whilst I stand gaping after fine clothes, there is another great allurement, (in the world's eye at least) which had like to have stolen out of sight, and that is money, veniunt a dote sagittae, money makes the match; [5040]Μονὸν ἄργυρον βλέπουσιν: 'tis like sauce to their meat, cum carne condimentum, a good dowry with a wife. Many men if they do hear but of a great portion, a rich heir, are more mad than if they had all the beauteous ornaments, and those good parts art and nature can afford, they [5041]care not for honesty, bringing up, birth, beauty, person, but for money.
If he be rich, he is the man,a fine man, and a proper man, she will go to Jacaktres or Tidore with him; Galesimus de monte aureo. Sir Giles Goosecap, Sir Amorous La-Fool, shall have her. And as Philemasium in [5046] Aristaenetus told Emmusus, absque argento omnia vana, hang him that hath no money,
'tis to no purpose to talk of marriage without means,[5047] trouble me not with such motions; let others do as they will,
I'll be sure to have one shall maintain me fine and brave.Most are of her mind, [5048] De moribus ultima fiet questio, for his conditions, she shall inquire after them another time, or when all is done, the match made, and everybody gone home. [5049]Lucian's Lycia was a proper young maid, and had many fine gentlemen to her suitors; Ethecles, a senator's son, Melissus, a merchant, &c.; but she forsook them all for one Passius, a base, hirsute, bald-pated knave; but why was it?
His father lately died and left him sole heir of his goods and lands.This is not amongst your dust-worms alone, poor snakes that will prostitute their souls for money, but with this bait you may catch our most potent, puissant, and illustrious princes. That proud upstart domineering Bishop of Ely, in the time of Richard the First, viceroy in his absence, as [5050]Nubergensis relates it, to fortify himself, and maintain his greatness, propinquarum suarum connubiis, plurimos sibi potentes et nobiles devincire curavit, married his poor kinswomen (which came forth of Normandy by droves) to the chiefest nobles of the land, and they were glad to accept of such matches, fair or foul, for themselves, their sons, nephews, &c. Et quis tam praeclaram aflinitatem sub spe magnae promotionis non optaret? Who would not have done as much for money and preferment? as mine author [5051]adds. Vortiger, King of Britain, married Rowena the daughter of Hengist the Saxon prince, his mortal enemy; but wherefore? she had Kent for her dowry. Iagello the great Duke of Lithuania, 1386, was mightily enamoured on Hedenga, insomuch that he turned Christian from a Pagan, and was baptised himself by the name of Uladislaus, and all his subjects for her sake: but why was it? she was daughter and heir of Poland, and his desire was to have both kingdoms incorporated into one. Charles the Great was an earnest suitor to Irene the Empress, but, saith [5052]Zonarus, ob regnum, to annex the empire of the East to that of the West. Yet what is the event of all such matches, that are so made for money, goods, by deceit, or for burning lust, quos foeda libido conjunxit, what follows? they are almost mad at first, but 'tis a mere flash; as chaff and straw soon fired, burn vehemently for a while, yet out in a moment; so are all such matches made by those allurements of burning lust; where there is no respect of honesty, parentage, virtue, religion, education, and the like, they are extinguished in an instant, and instead of love comes hate; for joy, repentance and desperation itself. Franciscus Barbarus in his first book de re uxoria, c. 5, hath a story of one Philip of Padua that fell in love with a common whore, and was now ready to run mad for her; his father having no more sons let him enjoy her; [5053]
but after a few days, the young man began to loath, could not so much as endure the sight of her, and from one madness fell into another.Such event commonly have all these lovers; and he that so marries, or for such respects, let them look for no better success than Menelaus had with Helen, Vulcan with Venus, Theseus with Phaedra, Minos with Pasiphae, and Claudius with Messalina; shame, sorrow, misery, melancholy, discontent.
All these allurements hitherto are afar off, and at a distance; I will come
nearer to those other degrees of love, which are conference, kissing,
dalliance, discourse, singing, dancing, amorous tales, objects, presents,
&c., which as so many sirens steal away the hearts of men and women. For,
as Tacitus observes, l. 2, [5054]It is no sufficient trial of a maid's
affection by her eyes alone, but you must say something that shall be more
available, and use such other forcible engines; therefore take her by the
hand, wring her fingers hard, and sigh withal; if she accept this in good
part, and seem not to be much averse, then call her mistress, take her
about the neck and kiss her, &c.
But this cannot be done except they first
get opportunity of living, or coming together, ingress, egress, and
regress; letters and commendations may do much, outward gestures and
actions: but when they come to live near one another, in the same street,
village, or together in a house, love is kindled on a sudden. Many a
serving-man by reason of this opportunity and importunity inveigles his
master's daughter, many a gallant loves a dowdy, many a gentleman runs upon
his wife's maids; many ladies dote upon their men, as the queen in Ariosto
did upon the dwarf, many matches are so made in haste, and they are
compelled as it were by [5055]necessity so to love, which had they been
free, come in company of others, seen that variety which many places
afford, or compared them to a third, would never have looked one upon
another. Or had not that opportunity of discourse and familiarity been
offered, they would have loathed and contemned those whom, for want of
better choice and other objects, they are fatally driven on, and by reason
of their hot blood, idle life, full diet, &c., are forced to dote upon them
that come next. And many times those which at the first sight cannot fancy
or affect each other, but are harsh and ready to disagree, offended with
each other's carriage, like Benedict and Beatrice in the [5056]comedy, and
in whom they find many faults, by this living together in a house,
conference, kissing, colling, and such like allurements, begin at last to
dote insensibly one upon another.
It was the greatest motive that Potiphar's wife had to dote upon Joseph,
and [5057]Clitiphon upon Leucippe his uncle's daughter, because the plague
being at Bizance, it was his fortune for a time to sojourn with her, to sit
next her at the table, as he tells the tale himself in Tatius, lib. 2.
(which, though it be but a fiction, is grounded upon good observation, and
doth well express the passions of lovers), he had opportunity to take her
by the hand, and after a while to kiss, and handle her paps, &c., [5058]
which made him almost mad. Ismenias the orator makes the like confession in
Eustathius, lib. 1, when he came first to Sosthene's house, and sat at
table with Cratistes his friend, Ismene, Sosthene's daughter, waiting on
them with her breasts open, arms half bare,
[5059]Nuda pedem, discincta
sinum, spoliata lacertos; after the Greek fashion in those times,—[5060]
nudos media plus parte lacertos, as Daphne was when she fled from
Phoebus (which moved him much), was ever ready to give attendance on him,
to fill him drink, her eyes were never off him, rogabundi oculi, those
speaking eyes, courting eyes, enchanting eyes; but she was still smiling on
him, and when they were risen, that she had got a little opportunity,
[5061]she came and drank to him, and withal trod upon his toes, and would
come and go, and when she could not speak for the company, she would wring
his hand,
and blush when she met him: and by this means first she overcame
him (bibens amorem hauriebam simul), she would kiss the cup and drink to
him, and smile, and drink where he drank on that side of the cup,
by
which mutual compressions, kissings, wringing of hands, treading of feet,
&c. Ipsam mihi videbar sorbillare virginem, I sipped and sipped so long,
till at length I was drunk in love upon a sudden. Philocharinus, in [5062]
Aristaenetus, met a fair maid by chance, a mere stranger to him, he looked
back at her, she looked back at him again, and smiled withal.
This opportunity of time and place, with their circumstances, are so
forcible motives, that it is impossible almost for two young folks equal in
years to live together, and not be in love, especially in great houses,
princes' courts, where they are idle in summo gradu, fare well, live at
ease, and cannot tell otherwise how to spend their time. [5065]Illic
Hippolitum pone, Priapus erit. Achilles was sent by his mother Thetis to
the island of Scyros in the Aegean sea (where Lycomedes then reigned) in his
nonage to be brought up; to avoid that hard destiny of the oracle (he
should be slain at the siege of Troy): and for that cause was nurtured in
Genesco, amongst the king's children in a woman's habit; but see the event:
he compressed Deidamia, the king's fair daughter, and had a fine son,
called Pyrrhus by her. Peter Abelard the philosopher, as he tells the tale
himself, being set by Fulbertus her uncle to teach Heloise his lovely
niece, and to that purpose sojourned in his house, and had committed agnam
tenellam famelico lupo, I use his own words, he soon got her good will,
plura erant oscula quam sententiae and he read more of love than any other
lecture; such pretty feats can opportunity plea; primum domo conjuncti,
inde animis, &c. But when as I say, nox, vinum, et adolescentia, youth,
wine, and night, shall concur, nox amoris et quietis conscia, 'tis a
wonder they be not all plunged over head and ears in love; for youth is
benigna in amorem, et prona materies, a very combustible matter, naphtha
itself, the fuel of love's fire, and most apt to kindle it. If there be
seven servants in an ordinary house, you shall have three couple in some
good liking at least, and amongst idle persons how should it be otherwise?
Living at [5066]Rome,
saith Aretine's Lucretia, in the flower of my
fortunes, rich, fair, young, and so well brought up, my conversation, age,
beauty, fortune, made all the world admire and love me.
Night alone, that
one occasion, is enough to set all on fire, and they are so cunning in
great houses, that they make their best advantage of it: Many a
gentlewoman, that is guilty to herself of her imperfections, paintings,
impostures, will not willingly be seen by day, but as [5067]Castilio
noteth, in the night, Diem ut glis odit, taedarum lucem super omnia
mavult, she hateth the day like a dormouse, and above all things loves
torches and candlelight, and if she must come abroad in the day, she
covets, as [5068]in a mercer's shop, a very obfuscate and obscure sight.
And good reason she hath for it: Nocte latent mendae, and many an amorous
gull is fetched over by that means. Gomesius lib. 3. de sale gen. c.
22. gives instance in a Florentine gentleman, that was so deceived with a
wife, she was so radiantly set out with rings and jewels, lawns, scarves,
laces, gold, spangles, and gaudy devices, that the young man took her to be
a goddess (for he never saw her but by torchlight); but after the wedding
solemnities, when as he viewed her the next morning without her tires, and
in a clear day, she was so deformed, a lean, yellow, shrivelled, &c., such
a beastly creature in his eyes, that he could not endure to look upon her.
Such matches are frequently made in Italy, where they have no other
opportunity to woo but when they go to church, or, as [5069]in Turkey, see
them at a distance, they must interchange few or no words, till such time
they come to be married, and then as Sardus lib. 1. cap. 3. de morb.
gent. and [5070]Bohemus relate of those old Lacedaemonians, the bride is
brought into the chamber, with her hair girt about her, the bridegroom
comes in and unties the knot, and must not see her at all by daylight, till
such time as he is made a father by her.
In those hotter countries these
are ordinary practices at this day; but in our northern parts, amongst
Germans, Danes, French, and Britons, the continent of Scandia and the rest,
we assume more liberty in such cases; we allow them, as Bohemus saith, to
kiss coming and going, et modo absit lascivia, in cauponem ducere, to
talk merrily, sport, play, sing, and dance so that it be modestly done, go
to the alehouse and tavern together. And 'tis not amiss, though [5071]
Chrysostom, Cyprian, Hierome, and some other of the fathers speak bitterly
against it: but that is the abuse which is commonly seen at some drunken
matches, dissolute meetings, or great unruly feasts. [5072]A young,
pickedevanted, trim-bearded fellow,
saith Hierome, will come with a company
of compliments, and hold you up by the arm as you go, and wringing your
fingers, will so be enticed, or entice: one drinks to you, another
embraceth, a third kisseth, and all this while the fiddler plays or sings a
lascivious song; a fourth singles you out to dance, [5073]one speaks by
beck and signs, and that which he dares not say, signifies by passions;
amongst so many and so great provocations of pleasure, lust conquers the
most hard and crabbed minds, and scarce can a man live honest amongst
feastings, and sports, or at such great meetings.
For as he goes on,
[5074]she walks along and with the ruffling of her clothes, makes men
look at her, her shoes creak, her paps tied up, her waist pulled in to make
her look small, she is straight girded, her hairs hang loose about her
ears, her upper garment sometimes falls, and sometimes tarries to show her
naked shoulders, and as if she would not be seen, she covers that in all
haste, which voluntarily she showed.
And not at feasts, plays, pageants,
and such assemblies, [5075]but as Chrysostom objects, these tricks are put
in practice at service time in churches, and at the communion itself.
If
such dumb shows, signs, and more obscure significations of love can so
move, what shall they do that have full liberty to sing, dance, kiss, coll,
to use all manner of discourse and dalliance! What shall he do that is
beleaguered of all sides?
O good God, when Lais speaks, how sweet it is!Philocolus exclaims in Aristenaetus, to hear a fair young gentlewoman play upon the virginals, lute, viol, and sing to it, which as Gellius observes, lib. 1. cap. 11. are lascivientium delicicae, the chief delight of lovers, must needs be a great enticement. Parthenis was so taken. [5080]Mi vox ista avida haurit ab aure animam: O sister Harpedona (she laments) I am undone, [5081]
how sweetly he sings, I'll speak a bold word, he is the properest man that ever I saw in my life: O how sweetly he sings, I die for his sake, O that he would love me again!If thou didst but hear her sing, saith [5082]Lucian,
thou wouldst forget father and mother, forsake all thy friends, and follow her.Helena is highly commended by [5083]Theocritus the poet for her sweet voice and music; none could play so well as she, and Daphnis in the same Edyllion,
he heard her play by chance upon the lute, and sing a pretty song to it in commendations of a rose,out of old Anacreon belike;
and that ravished his heart.It was Jason's discourse as much as his beauty, or any other of his good parts, which delighted Medea so much.
as bulls' horns are bound with ropes, so are men's hearts with pleasant words.
Her words burn as fire,Eccles. ix. 10. Roxalana bewitched Suleiman the Magnificent, and Shore's wife by this engine overcame Edward the Fourth, [5087]Omnibus una omnes surripuit Veneres. The wife of Bath in Chaucer confesseth all this out of her experience.
[5088]Peter Aretine's Lucretia telleth as much and more of herself, I
counterfeited honesty, as if I had been virgo virginissima, more than a
vestal virgin, I looked like a wife, I was so demure and chaste, I did add
such gestures, tunes, speeches, signs and motions upon all occasions, that
my spectators and auditors were stupefied, enchanted, fastened all to their
places, like so many stocks and stones.
Many silly gentlewomen are fetched
over in like sort, by a company of gulls and swaggering companions, that
frequently belie noblemen's favours, rhyming Coribantiasmi, Thrasonean
Rhadomantes or Bombomachides, that have nothing in them but a few player's
ends and compliments, vain braggadocians, impudent intruders, that can
discourse at table of knights and lords' combats, like [5089]Lucian's
Leonitiscus, of other men's travels, brave adventures, and such common
trivial news, ride, dance, sing old ballad tunes, and wear their clothes in
fashion, with a good grace; a fine sweet gentleman, a proper man, who could
not love him! She will have him though all her friends say no, though she
beg with him. Some again are incensed by reading amorous toys, Amadis de
Gaul, Palmerin de Oliva, the Knight of the Sun, &c., or hearing such tales
of [5090]lovers, descriptions of their persons, lascivious discourses,
such as Astyanassa, Helen's waiting-woman, by the report of Suidas, writ of
old, de variis concubitus modis, and after her Philenis and Elephantine;
or those light tracts of[5091]Aristides Milesius (mentioned by Plutarch)
and found by the Persians in Crassus' army amongst the spoils, Aretine's
dialogues, with ditties, love songs, &c., must needs set them on fire, with
such like pictures, as those of Aretine, or wanton objects of what kind
soever; no stronger engine than to hear or read of love toys, fables and
discourses
([5092]one saith) and many by this means are quite mad.
At
Abdera in Thrace (Andromeda one of Euripides' tragedies being played) the
spectators were so much moved with the object, and those pathetical love
speeches of Perseus, amongst the rest, O Cupid, Prince of Gods and men,
&c. that every man almost a good while after spake pure iambics, and raved
still on Perseus' speech, O Cupid, Prince of Gods and men.
As carmen,
boys and apprentices, when a new song is published with us, go singing that
new tune still in the streets, they continually acted that tragical part of
Perseus, and in every man's mouth was O Cupid,
in every street, O
Cupid,
in every house almost, O Cupid, Prince of Gods and men,
pronouncing still like stage-players, O Cupid;
they were so possessed all
with that rapture, and thought of that pathetical love speech, they could
not a long time after forget, or drive it out of their minds, but O Cupid,
Prince of Gods and men,
was ever in their mouths. This belike made
Aristotle, Polit. lib. 7. cap. 18. forbid young men to see comedies, or
to hear amorous tales.
let not young folks meddle at all with such matters.And this made the Romans, as [5094]Vitruvius relates, put Venus' temple in the suburbs, extra murum, ne adolescentes venereis insuescant, to avoid all occasions and objects. For what will not such an object do? Ismenias, as he walked in Sosthene's garden, being now in love, when he saw so many [5095]lascivious pictures, Thetis' marriage, and I know not what, was almost beside himself. And to say truth, with a lascivious object who is not moved, to see others dally, kiss, dance? And much more when he shall come to be an actor himself.
To kiss and be kissed, which, amongst other lascivious provocations, is as
a burden in a song, and a most forcible battery, as infectious, [5096]
Xenophon thinks, as the poison of a spider; a great allurement, a fire
itself, prooemium aut anticoenium, the prologue of burning lust (as
Apuleius adds), lust itself, [5097]Venus quinta parte sui nectaris imbuit,
a strong assault, that conquers captains, and those all commanding forces,
([5098]Domasque ferro sed domaris osculo). [5099]Aretine's Lucretia,
when she would in kindness overcome a suitor of hers, and have her desire
of him, took him about the neck, and kissed him again and again,
and to
that, which she could not otherwise effect, she made him so speedily and
willingly condescend. And 'tis a continual assault,—[5100]hoc non
deficit incipitque semper, always fresh, and ready to [5101]begin as at
first, basium nullo fine terminatur, sed semper recens est, and hath a
fiery touch with it.
They breathe out their souls and spirits together with their kisses,saith [5108]Balthazar Castilio,
change hearts and spirits, and mingle affections as they do kisses, and it is rather a connection of the mind than of the body.And although these kisses be delightsome and pleasant, Ambrosial kisses, [5109]Suaviolum dulci dulcius Ambrosia, such as [5110] Ganymede gave Jupiter, Nectare suavius, sweeter than [5111]nectar, balsam, honey, [5112]Oscula merum amorem stillantia, love-dropping kisses; for
That which I aim at, is to show you the progress of this burning lust; to epitomise therefore all this which I have hitherto said, with a familiar example out of that elegant Musaeus, observe but with me those amorous proceedings of Leander and Hero: they began first to look one on another with a lascivious look,
Many such allurements there are, nods, jests, winks, smiles, wrestlings, tokens, favours, symbols, letters, valentines, &c. For which cause belike, Godfridus lib. 2. de amor. would not have women learn to write. Many such provocations are used when they come in presence, [5123]10 they will and will not,
Though I was by nature and art most beautiful and fair, yet by these tricks I seemed to be far more amiable than I was, for that which men earnestly seek and cannot attain, draws on their affection with a most furious desire. I had a suitor loved me dearly(said she),
and the [5126]more he gave me, the more eagerly he wooed me, the more I seemed to neglect, to scorn him, and which I commonly gave others, I would not let him see me, converse with me, no, not have a kiss.To gull him the more, and fetch him over (for him only I aimed at) I personated mine own servant to bring in a present from a Spanish count, whilst he was in my company, as if he had been the count's servant, which he did excellently well perform: [5127]Comes de monte Turco,
my lord and master hath sent your ladyship a small present, and part of his hunting, a piece of venison, a pheasant, a few partridges, &c. (all which she bought with her own money), commends his love and service to you, desiring you to accept of it in good part, and he means very shortly to come and see you.Withal she showed him rings, gloves, scarves, coronets which others had sent her, when there was no such matter, but only to circumvent him. [5128]By these means (as she concludes)
I made the poor gentleman so mad, that he was ready to spend himself, and venture his dearest blood for my sake.Philinna, in [5129]Lucian, practised all this long before, as it shall appear unto you by her discourse; for when Diphilus her sweetheart came to see her (as his daily custom was) she frowned upon him, would not vouchsafe him her company, but kissed Lamprius his co-rival, at the same time [5130]before his face: but why was it? To make him (as she telleth her mother that chid her for it) more jealous; to whet his love, to come with a greater appetite, and to know that her favour was not so easy to be had. Many other tricks she used besides this (as she there confesseth), for she would fall out with, and anger him of set purpose, pick quarrels upon no occasion, because she would be reconciled to him again. Amantium irae amoris redintegratio, as the old saying is, the falling out of lovers is the renewing of love; and according to that of Aristenaetis, jucundiores amorum post injurias deliciae, love is increased by injuries, as the sunbeams are more gracious after a cloud. And surely this aphorism is most true; for as Ampelis informs Crisis in the said Lucian, [5131]
If a lover be not jealous, angry, waspish, apt to fall out, sigh and swear, he is no true lover.To kiss and coll, hang about her neck, protest, swear and wish, are but ordinary symptoms, incipientis adhuc et crescentis amoris signa; but if he be jealous, angry, apt to mistake, &c., bene speres licet, sweet sister he is thine own; yet if you let him alone, humour him, please him, &c., and that he perceive once he hath you sure, without any co-rival, his love will languish, and he will not care so much for you. Hitherto (saith she) can I speak out of experience; Demophantus a rich fellow was a suitor of mine, I seemed to neglect him, and gave better entertainment to Calliades the painter before his face, principio abiit, verbis me insectatus, at first he went away all in a chafe, cursing and swearing, but at last he came submitting himself, vowing and protesting he loved me most dearly, I should have all he had, and that he would kill himself for my sake. Therefore I advise thee (dear sister Crisis) and all maids, not to use your suitors over kindly; insolentes enim sunt hoc cum sentiunt, 'twill make them proud and insolent; but now and then reject them, estrange thyself, et si me audies semel atque iterum exclude, shut him out of doors once or twice, let him dance attendance; follow my counsel, and by this means [5132]you shall make him mad, come off roundly, stand to any conditions, and do whatsoever you will have him. These are the ordinary practices; yet in the said Lucian, Melissa methinks had a trick beyond all this; for when her suitor came coldly on, to stir him up, she writ one of his co-rival's names and her own in a paper, Melissa amat Hermotimum, Hermotimus Mellissam, causing it to be stuck upon a post, for all gazers to behold, and lost it in the way where he used to walk; which when the silly novice perceived, statim ut legit credidit, instantly apprehended it was so, came raving to me, &c. [5133]
and so when I was in despair of his love, four months after I recovered him again.Eugenia drew Timocles for her valentine, and wore his name a long time after in her bosom: Camaena singled out Pamphilus to dance, at Myson's wedding (some say), for there she saw him first; Felicianus overtook Caelia by the highway side, offered his service, thence came further acquaintance, and thence came love. But who can repeat half their devices? What Aretine experienced, what conceited Lucian, or wanton Aristenaetus? They will deny and take, stiffly refuse, and yet earnestly seek the same, repel to make them come with more eagerness, fly from if you follow, but if averse, as a shadow they will follow you again, fugientem sequitur, sequentem fugit; with a regaining retreat, a gentle reluctancy, a smiling threat, a pretty pleasant peevishness they will put you off, and have a thousand such several enticements. For as he saith,
some young, some of one age, some of another, some winged, some of one sex, some of another, some with torches, some with golden apples, some with darts, gins, snares, and other engines in their hands,as Propertius hath prettily painted them out, lib. 2. et 29. and which some interpret, diverse enticements, or diverse affections of lovers, which if not alone, yet jointly may batter and overcome the strongest constitutions.
It is reported of Decius, and Valerianus, those two notorious persecutors
of the church, that when they could enforce a young Christian by no means
(as [5136]Hierome records) to sacrifice to their idols, by no torments or
promises, they took another course to tempt him: they put him into a fair
garden, and set a young courtesan to dally with him, [5137]took him about
the neck and kissed him, and that which is not to be named,
manibusque
attrectare, &c., and all those enticements which might be used, that whom
torments could not, love might batter and beleaguer. But such was his
constancy, she could not overcome, and when this last engine would take no
place, they left him to his own ways. At [5138]Berkley in Gloucestershire,
there was in times past a nunnery (saith Gualterus Mapes, an old
historiographer, that lived 400 years since), of which there was a noble
and a fair lady abbess: Godwin, that subtile Earl of Kent, travelling that
way, (seeking not her but hers) leaves a nephew of his, a proper young
gallant (as if he had been sick) with her, till he came back again, and
gives the young man charge so long to counterfeit, till he had deflowered
the abbess, and as many besides of the nuns as he could, and leaves him
withal rings, jewels, girdles, and such toys to give them still, when they
came to visit him. The young man, willing to undergo such a business,
played his part so well, that in short space he got up most of their
bellies, and when he had done, told his lord how he had sped: [5139]his
lord made instantly to the court, tells the king how such a nunnery was
become a bawdy-house, procures a visitation, gets them to be turned out,
and begs the lands to his own use.
This story I do therefore repeat, that
you may see of what force these enticements are, if they be opportunely
used, and how hard it is even for the most averse and sanctified souls to
resist such allurements. John Major in the life of John the monk, that
lived in the days of Theodosius, commends the hermit to have been a man of
singular continency, and of a most austere life; but one night by chance
the devil came to his cell in the habit of a young market wench that had
lost her way, and desired for God's sake some lodging with him. [5140]The
old man let her in, and after some common conference of her mishap, she
began to inveigle him with lascivious talk and jests, to play with his
beard, to kiss him, and do worse, till at last she overcame him. As he went
to address himself to that business, she vanished on a sudden, and the
devils in the air laughed him to scorn.
Whether this be a true story, or a
tale, I will not much contend, it serves to illustrate this which I have
said.
Yet were it so, that these of which I have hitherto spoken, and such like
enticing baits, be not sufficient, there be many others, which will of
themselves intend this passion of burning lust, amongst which, dancing is
none of the least; and it is an engine of such force, I may not omit it.
Incitamentum libidinis, Petrarch calls it, the spur of lust. A [5141]
circle of which the devil himself is the centre. [5142]Many women that use
it, have come dishonest home, most indifferent, none better.
[5143]
Another terms it the companion of all filthy delights and enticements,
and 'tis not easily told what inconveniences come by it, what scurrile talk,
obscene actions,
and many times such monstrous gestures, such lascivious
motions, such wanton tunes, meretricious kisses, homely embracings.
the king was not a spectator only, but a principal actor himself.A thing nevertheless frequently used, and part of a gentlewoman's bringing up, to sing, dance, and play on the lute, or some such instrument, before she can say her paternoster, or ten commandments. 'Tis the next way their parents think to get them husbands, they are compelled to learn, and by that means, [5146]Incoestos amores de tenero meditantur ungue; 'tis a great allurement as it is often used, and many are undone by it. Thais, in Lucian, inveigled Lamprias in a dance, Herodias so far pleased Herod, that she made him swear to give her what she would ask, John Baptist's head in a platter. [5147]Robert, Duke of Normandy, riding by Falais, spied Arlette, a fair maid, as she danced on a green, and was so much enamoured with the object, that [5148]she must needs lie with her that night. Owen Tudor won Queen Catherine's affection in. a dance, falling by chance with his head in her lap. Who cannot parallel these stories out of his experience? Speusippas a noble gallant in [5149]that Greek Aristenaetus, seeing Panareta a fair young gentlewoman dancing by accident, was so far in love with her, that for a long time after he could think of nothing but Panareta: he came raving home full of Panareta:
Who would not admire her, who would not love her, that should but see her dance as I did? O admirable, O divine Panareta! I have seen old and new Rome, many fair cities, many proper women, but never any like to Panareta, they are dross, dowdies all to Panareta! O how she danced, how she tripped, how she turned, with what a grace! happy is that man that shall enjoy her. O most incomparable, only, Panareta!When Xenophon, in Symposio, or Banquet, had discoursed of love, and used all the engines that might be devised, to move Socrates, amongst the rest, to stir him the more, he shuts up all with a pleasant interlude or dance of Dionysius and Ariadne. [5150]
First Ariadne dressed like a bride came in and took her place; by and by Dionysius entered, dancing to the music. The spectators did all admire the young man's carriage; and Ariadne herself was so much affected with the sight, that she could scarce sit. After a while Dionysius beholding Ariadne, and incensed with love, bowing to her knees, embraced her first, and kissed her with a grace; she embraced him again, and kissed him with like affection, &c., as the dance required; but they that stood by, and saw this, did much applaud and commend them both for it. And when Dionysius rose up, he raised her up with him, and many pretty gestures, embraces, kisses, and love compliments passed between them: which when they saw fair Bacchus and beautiful Ariadne so sweetly and so unfeignedly kissing each other, so really embracing, they swore they loved indeed, and were so inflamed with the object, that they began to rouse up themselves, as if they would have flown. At the last when they saw them still, so willingly embracing, and now ready to go to the bride-chamber, they were so ravished, with it, that they that were unmarried, swore they would forthwith marry, and those that were married called instantly for their horses, and galloped home to their wives.What greater motive can there be than this burning lust? what so violent an oppugner? Not without good cause therefore so many general councils condemn it, so many fathers abhor it, so many grave men speak against it;
Use not the company of a woman,saith Siracides, 8. 4.
that is a singer, or a dancer; neither hear, lest thou be taken in her craftiness.In circo non tam cernitur quam discitur libido. [5151]Haedus holds, lust in theatres is not seen, but learned. Gregory Nazianzen that eloquent divine, ([5152]as he relates the story himself,) when a noble friend of his solemnly invited him with other bishops, to his daughter Olympia's wedding, refused to come: [5153]
For it is absurd to see an old gouty bishop sit amongst dancers;he held it unfit to be a spectator, much less an actor. Nemo saltat sobrius, Tully writes, he is not a sober man that danceth; for some such reason (belike) Domitian forbade the Roman senators to dance, and for that fact removed many of them from the senate. But these, you will say, are lascivious and Pagan dances, 'tis the abuse that causeth such inconvenience, and I do not well therefore to condemn, speak against, or
innocently to accuse the best and pleasantest thing (so [5154]Lucian calls it) that belongs to mortal men.You misinterpret, I condemn it not; I hold it notwithstanding an honest disport, a lawful recreation, if it be opportune, moderately and soberly used: I am of Plutarch's mind, [5155]
that which respects pleasure alone, honest recreation, or bodily exercise, ought not to be rejected and contemned:I subscribe to [5156]Lucian,
'tis an elegant thing, which cheereth up the mind, exerciseth the body, delights the spectators, which teacheth many comely gestures, equally affecting the ears, eyes, and soul itself.Sallust discommends singing and dancing in Sempronia, not that she did sing or dance, but that she did it in excess, 'tis the abuse of it; and Gregory's refusal doth not simply condemn it, but in some folks. Many will not allow men and women to dance together, because it is a provocation to lust: they may as well, with Lycurgus and Mahomet, cut down all vines, forbid the drinking of wine, for that it makes some men drunk.
There is a time to mourn, a time to dance,Eccles. iii. 4. Let them take their pleasures then, and as [5159] he said of old,
young men and maids flourishing in their age, fair and lovely to behold, well attired, and of comely carriage, dancing a Greek galliard, and as their dance required, kept their time, now turning, now tracing, now apart now altogether, now a courtesy then a caper,&c., and it was a pleasant sight to see those pretty knots, and swimming figures. The sun and moon (some say) dance about the earth, the three upper planets about the sun as their centre, now stationary, now direct, now retrograde, now in apogee, then in perigee, now swift then slow, occidental, oriental, they turn round, jump and trace, ♂ and ☿ about the sun with those thirty-three Maculae or Bourbonian planet, circa Solem saltantes Cytharedum, saith Fromundus. Four Medicean stars dance about Jupiter, two Austrian about Saturn, &c., and all (belike) to the music of the spheres. Our greatest counsellors, and staid senators, at some times dance, as David before the ark, 2 Sam. vi. 14. Miriam, Exod. xv. 20. Judith, xv. 13. (though the devil hence perhaps hath brought in those bawdy bacchanals), and well may they do it. The greatest soldiers, as [5160] Quintilianus, [5161]Aemilius Probus, [5162]Coelius Rhodiginus, have proved at large, still use it in Greece, Rome, and the most worthy senators, cantare, saltare. Lucian, Macrobius, Libanus, Plutarch, Julius, Pollux, Athenaeus, have written just tracts in commendation of it. In this our age it is in much request in those countries, as in all civil commonwealths, as Alexander ab Alexandro, lib. 4. cap. 10. et lib. 2. cap. 25. hath proved at large, [5163]amongst the barbarians themselves none so precious; all the world allows it.
that young folks might meet, be acquainted, see one another, and be seen;nay more, he would have them dance naked; and scoffs at them that laugh at it. But Eusebius praepar. Evangel. lib. 1. cap. 11. and Theodoret lib. 9. curat. graec. affect. worthily lash him for it; and well they might: for as one saith, [5166]
the very sight of naked parts causeth enormous, exceeding concupiscences, and stirs up both men and women to burning lust.There is a mean in all things: this is my censure in brief; dancing is a pleasant recreation of body and mind, if sober and modest (such as our Christian dances are); if tempestively used, a furious motive to burning lust; if as by Pagans heretofore, unchastely abused. But I proceed.
If these allurements do not take place, for [5167]Simierus, that great master of dalliance, shall not behave himself better, the more effectually to move others, and satisfy their lust, they will swear and lie, promise, protest, forge, counterfeit, brag, bribe, flatter and dissemble of all sides. 'Twas Lucretia's counsel in Aretine, Si vis amica frui, promitte, finge, jura, perjura, jacta, simula, mentire; and they put it well in practice, as Apollo to Daphne,
I have a thousand sheep, good store of cattle, and they are all at her command,
house, land, goods, are at her service,as he is himself. Dinomachus, a senator's son in [5172]Lucian, in love with a wench inferior to him in birth and fortunes, the sooner to accomplish his desire, wept unto her, and swore he loved her with all his heart, and her alone, and that as soon as ever his father died (a very rich man and almost decrepit) he would make her his wife. The maid by chance made her mother acquainted with the business, who being an old fox, well experienced in such matters, told her daughter, now ready to yield to his desire, that he meant nothing less, for dost thou think he will ever care for thee, being a poor wench, [5173]that may have his choice of all the beauties in the city, one noble by birth, with so many talents, as young, better qualified, and fairer than thyself? daughter believe him not: the maid was abashed, and so the matter broke off. When Jupiter wooed Juno first (Lilius Giraldus relates it out of an old comment on Theocritus) the better to effect his suit, he turned himself into a cuckoo, and spying her one day walking alone, separated from the other goddesses, caused a tempest suddenly to arise, for fear of which she fled to shelter; Jupiter to avoid the storm likewise flew into her lap, in virginis Junonis gremium devolavit, whom Juno for pity covered in her [5174]apron. But he turned himself forthwith into his own shape, began to embrace and offer violence unto her, sed illa matris metu abnuebat, but she by no means would yield, donec pollicitus connubium obtinuit, till he vowed and swore to marry her, and then she gave consent. This fact was done at Thornax hill, which ever after was called Cuckoo hill, and in perpetual remembrance there was a temple erected to Telia Juno in the same place. So powerful are fair promises, vows, oaths and protestations. It is an ordinary thing too in this case to belie their age, which widows usually do, that mean to marry again, and bachelors too sometimes,
that he might be persuaded those tears were shed for joy of his return.Quartilla in Petronius, when nought would move, fell a weeping, and as Balthazar Castilio paints them out, [5193]
To these crocodile's tears they will add sobs, fiery sighs, and sorrowful countenance, pale colour, leanness, and if you do but stir abroad, these fiends are ready to meet you at every turn, with such a sluttish neglected habit, dejected look, as if they were now ready to die for your sake; and how, saith he, shall a young novice thus beset, escape?But believe them not.
There is a Nemesis, and it cannot choose but grieve and trouble thee, to hear that I have either strangled or drowned myself for thy sake.Nothing so common to this sex as oaths, vows, and protestations, and as I have already said, tears, which they have at command; for they can so weep, that one would think their very hearts were dissolved within them, and would come out in tears; their eyes are like rocks, which still drop water, diariae lachrymae et sudoris in modum lurgeri promptae, saith [5199] Aristaenetus, they wipe away their tears like sweat, weep with one eye, laugh with the other; or as children [5200]weep and cry, they can both together.
will scarce serve to reckon up those allurements and guiles, that men and women use to deceive one another with.
When all other engines fail, that they can proceed no farther of themselves, their last refuge is to fly to bawds, panders, magical philters, and receipts; rather than fail, to the devil himself. Flectere si nequeunt superos, Acheronta movebunt. And by those indirect means many a man is overcome, and precipitated into this malady, if he take not good heed. For these bawds, first, they are everywhere so common, and so many, that, as he said of old [5204]Croton, omnes hic aut captantur, aut captant, either inveigle or be inveigled, we may say of most of our cities, there be so many professed, cunning bawds in them. Besides, bawdry is become an art, or a liberal science, as Lucian calls it; and there be such tricks and subtleties, so many nurses, old women, panders, letter carriers, beggars, physicians, friars, confessors, employed about it, that nullus tradere stilus sufficiat, one saith,
if she cannot have egress, before her window you shall have an old woman, or some prating gossip, tell her some tales of this clerk, and that monk, describing or commending some young gentleman or other unto her.
As I was walking in the street(saith a good fellow in Petronius)
to see the town served one evening, [5211]I spied an old woman in a corner selling of cabbages and roots(as our hucksters do plums, apples, and such like fruits);
mother(quoth he)
can you tell where I can dwell? she, being well pleased with my foolish urbanity, replied, and why, sir, should I not tell? With that she rose up and went before me. I took her for a wise woman, and by-and-by she led me into a by-lane, and told me there I should dwell. I replied again, I knew not the house; but I perceived, on a sudden, by the naked queans, that I was now come into a bawdy-house, and then too late I began to curse the treachery of this old jade.Such tricks you shall have in many places, and amongst the rest it is ordinary in Venice, and in the island of Zante, for a man to be bawd to his own wife. No sooner shall you land or come on shore, but, as the Comical Poet hath it,
with promises and pleasant discourse, with gifts, tokens, and taking their opportunities, they lay nets which Lucretia cannot avoid, and baits that Hippolitus himself would swallow; they make such strong assaults and batteries, that the goddess of virginity cannot withstand them: give gifts and bribes to move Penelope, and with threats able to terrify Susanna. How many Proserpinas, with those catchpoles, doth Pluto take? These are the sleepy rods with which their souls touched descend to hell; this the glue or lime with which the wings of the mind once taken cannot fly away; the devil's ministers to allure, entice,&c. Many young men and maids, without all question, are inveigled by these Eumenides and their associates. But these are trivial and well known. The most sly, dangerous, and cunning bawds, are your knavish physicians, empirics, mass-priests, monks, [5214] Jesuits, and friars. Though it be against Hippocrates' oath, some of them will give a dram, promise to restore maidenheads, and do it without danger, make an abortion if need be, keep down their paps, hinder conception, procure lust, make them able with Satyrions, and now and then step in themselves. No monastery so close, house so private, or prison so well kept, but these honest men are admitted to censure and ask questions, to feel their pulse beat at their bedside, and all under pretence of giving physic. Now as for monks, confessors, and friars, as he said,
wenches could not sleep in their beds for necromantic friars:and the good abbess in Boccaccio may in some sort witness, that rising betimes, mistook and put on the friar's breeches instead of her veil or hat. You have heard the story, I presume, of [5219] Paulina, a chaste matron in Aegesippus, whom one of Isis's priests did prostitute to Mundus, a young knight, and made her believe it was their god Anubis. Many such pranks are played by our Jesuits, sometimes in their own habits, sometimes in others, like soldiers, courtiers, citizens, scholars, gallants, and women themselves. Proteus-like, in all forms and disguises, that go abroad in the night, to inescate and beguile young women, or to have their pleasure of other men's wives; and, if we may believe [5220] some relations, they have wardrobes of several suits in the colleges for that purpose. Howsoever in public they pretend much zeal, seem to be very holy men, and bitterly preach against adultery, fornication, there are no verier bawds or whoremasters in a country; [5221]
whose soul they should gain to God, they sacrifice to the devil.But I spare these men for the present.
The last battering engines are philters, amulets, spells, charms, images, and such unlawful means: if they cannot prevail of themselves by the help of bawds, panders, and their adherents, they will fly for succour to the devil himself. I know there be those that deny the devil can do any such thing (Crato epist. 2. lib. med.), and many divines, there is no other fascination than that which comes by the eyes, of which I have formerly spoken, and if you desire to be better informed, read Camerarius, oper subcis. cent. 2. c. 5. It was given out of old, that a Thessalian wench had bewitched King Philip to dote upon her, and by philters enforced his love; but when Olympia, the Queen, saw the maid of an excellent beauty, well brought up, and qualified—these, quoth she, were the philters which inveigled King Philip; those the true charms, as Henry to Rosamond,
The sole philter that ever I used was kissing and embracing, by which alone I made men rave like beasts stupefied, and compelled them to worship me like an idol.In our times it is a common thing, saith Erastus, in his book de Lamiis, for witches to take upon them the making of these philters, [5224]
to force men and women to love and hate whom they will, to cause tempests, diseases,&c., by charms, spells, characters, knots.—[5225]hic Thessala vendit Philtra. St. Hierome proves that they can do it (as in Hilarius' life, epist. lib. 3); he hath a story of a young man, that with a philter made a maid mad for the love of him, which maid was after cured by Hilarion. Such instances I find in John Nider, Formicar. lib. 5. cap. 5. Plutarch records of Lucullus that he died of a philter; and that Cleopatra used philters to inveigle Antony, amongst other allurements. Eusebius reports as much of Lucretia the poet. Panormitan, lib. 4. de gest. Aphonsi, hath a story of one Stephan, a Neapolitan knight, that by a philter was forced to run mad for love. But of all others, that which [5226]Petrarch, epist. famil. lib. 1. ep. 5, relates of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) is most memorable. He foolishly doted upon a woman of mean favour and condition, many years together, wholly delighting in her company, to the great grief and indignation of his friends and followers. When she was dead, he did embrace her corpse, as Apollo did the bay-tree for his Daphne, and caused her coffin (richly embalmed and decked with jewels) to be carried about with him, over which he still lamented. At last a venerable bishop, that followed his court, prayed earnestly to God (commiserating his lord and master's case) to know the true cause of this mad passion, and whence it proceeded; it was revealed to him, in fine,
that the cause of the emperor's mad love lay under the dead woman's tongue.The bishop went hastily to the carcass, and took a small ring thence; upon the removal the emperor abhorred the corpse, and, instead [5227]of it, fell as furiously in love with the bishop, he would not suffer him to be out of his presence; which when the bishop perceived, he flung the ring into the midst of a great lake, where the king then was. From that hour the emperor neglected all his other houses, dwelt at [5228]Ache, built a fair house in the midst of the marsh, to his infinite expense, and a [5229]temple by it, where after he was buried, and in which city all his posterity ever since use to be crowned. Marcus the heretic is accused by Irenaeus, to have inveigled a young maid by this means; and some writers speak hardly of the Lady Katharine Cobham, that by the same art she circumvented Humphrey Duke of Gloucester to be her husband. Sycinius Aemilianus summoned [5230]Apuleius to come before Cneius Maximus, proconsul of Africa, that he being a poor fellow,
had bewitched by philters Pudentilla, an ancient rich matron, to love him,and, being worth so many thousand sesterces, to be his wife. Agrippa, lib. 1. cap. 48. occult. philos. attributes much in this kind to philters, amulets, images: and Salmutz com. in Pancirol. Tit. 10. de Horol. Leo Afer, lib. 3, saith, 'tis an ordinary practice at Fez in Africa, Praestigiatores ibi plures, qui cogunt amores et concubitus: as skilful all out as that hyperborean magician, of whom Cleodemus, in [5231] Lucian, tells so many fine feats performed in this kind. But Erastus, Wierus, and others are against it; they grant indeed such things may be done, but (as Wierus discourseth, lib. 3. de Lamiis. cap. 37.) not by charms, incantations, philters, but the devil himself; lib. 5. cap. 2. he contends as much; so doth Freitagius, noc. med. cap. 74. Andreas Cisalpinus, cap. 5; and so much Sigismundus Scheretzius, cap. 9. de hirco nocturno, proves at large. [5232]
Unchaste women by the help of these witches, the devil's kitchen maids, have their loves brought to them in the night, and carried back again by a phantasm flying in the air in the likeness of a goat. I have heard(saith he)
divers confess, that they have been so carried on a goat's back to their sweethearts, many miles in a night.Others are of opinion that these feats, which most suppose to be done by charms and philters, are merely effected by natural causes, as by man's blood chemically prepared, which much avails, saith Ernestus Burgravius, in Lucerna vitae et mortis Indice, ad amorem conciliandum et odium, (so huntsmen make their dogs love them, and farmers their pullen,) 'tis an excellent philter, as he holds, sed vulgo prodere grande nefas, but not fit to be made common: and so be Mala insana, mandrake roots, mandrake [5233]apples, precious stones, dead men's clothes, candles, mala Bacchica, panis porcinus, Hyppomanes, a certain hair in a [5234]wolf's tail, &c., of which Rhasis, Dioscorides, Porta, Wecker, Rubeus, Mizaldus, Albertus, treat: a swallow's heart, dust of a dove's heart, multum valent linguae viperarum, cerebella asinorum, tela equina, palliola quibus infantes obvoluti nascuntur, funis strangulati hominis, lapis de nido Aquilae, &c. See more in Sckenkius observat. medicinal, lib. 4. &c., which are as forcible and of as much virtue as that fountain Salmacis in [5235] Vitruvius, Ovid, Strabo, that made all such mad for love that drank of it, or that hot bath at [5236]Aix in Germany, wherein Cupid once dipped his arrows, which ever since hath a peculiar virtue to make them lovers all that wash in it. But hear the poet's own description of it,
Love toys and dalliance, pleasantness, sweetness, persuasions, subtleties, gentle speeches, and all witchcraft to enforce love, was contained.Read more of these in Agrippa de occult. Philos. lib. 1. cap. 50. et 45. Malleus malefic. part. 1. quaest. 7. Delrio tom. 2. quest. 3. lib. 3. Wierus, Pomponatis, cap. 8. de incantat. Ficinus, lib. 13. Theol. Plat. Calcagninus, &c.
Symptoms are either of body or mind; of body, paleness, leanness, dryness,
&c. [5238]Pallidus omnis amans, color hic est aptus amanti, as the poet
describes lovers: fecit amor maciem, love causeth leanness. [5239]
Avicenna de Ilishi, c. 33. makes hollow eyes, dryness, symptoms of this
disease, to go smiling to themselves, or acting as if they saw or heard
some delectable object.
Valleriola, lib. 3. observat. cap. 7.
Laurentius, cap. 10. Aelianus Montaltus de Her. amore. Langius,
epist. 24. lib. 1. epist. med. deliver as much, corpus exangue
pallet, corpus gracile, oculi cavi, lean, pale,—ut nudis qui pressit
calcibus anguem, as one who trod with naked foot upon a snake,
hollow-eyed, their eyes are hidden in their heads,—[5240]Tenerque nitidi
corposis cecidit decor, they pine away, and look ill with waking, cares,
sighs.
And eyes that once rivalled the locks of Phoebus, lose the patrial and paternal lustre.With groans, griefs, sadness, dullness,
because of the distraction of the spirits the liver doth not perform his part, nor turns the aliment into blood as it ought, and for that cause the members are weak for want of sustenance, they are lean and pine, as the herbs of my garden do this month of May, for want of rain.The green sickness therefore often happeneth to young women, a cachexia or an evil habit to men, besides their ordinary sighs, complaints, and lamentations, which are too frequent. As drops from a still,—ut occluso stillat ab igne liquor, doth Cupid's fire provoke tears from a true lover's eyes,
she was half distracted, and spake she knew not what, sighed to herself, lay much awake, and was lean upon a sudden:and when she was besotted on her son-in-law, [5246]pallor deformis, marcentes oculi, &c., she had ugly paleness, hollow eyes, restless thoughts, short wind, &c. Euryalus, in an epistle sent to Lucretia, his mistress, complains amongst other grievances, tu mihi et somni et cibi usum abstulisti, thou hast taken my stomach and my sleep from me. So he describes it aright:
Accius Sanazarius Egloga 2. de Galatea, in the same manner feigns his
Lychoris [5249]tormenting herself for want of sleep, sighing, sobbing, and
lamenting; and Eustathius in his Ismenias much troubled, and [5250]
panting at heart, at the sight of his mistress,
he could not sleep, his
bed was thorns. [5251]All make leanness, want of appetite, want of sleep
ordinary symptoms, and by that means they are brought often so low, so much
altered and changed, that as [5252]he jested in the comedy, one scarce
know them to be the same men.
because that when she came in presence, or was named, his pulse varied, and he blushed besides.In this very sort was the love of Callices, the son of Polycles, discovered by Panacaeas the physician, as you may read the story at large in [5255]Aristenaetus. By the same signs Galen brags that he found out Justa, Boethius the consul's wife, to dote on Pylades the player, because at his name still she both altered pulse and countenance, as [5256] Polyarchus did at the name of Argenis. Franciscus Valesius, l. 3. controv. 13. med. contr. denies there is any such pulsus amatorius, or that love may be so discerned; but Avicenna confirms this of Galen out of his experience, lib. 3. Fen. 1. and Gordonius, cap. 20. [5257]
Their pulse, he saith, is ordinate and swift, if she go by whom he loves,Langius, epist. 24. lib. 1. med. epist. Neviscanus, lib. 4. numer. 66. syl. nuptialis, Valescus de Taranta, Guianerius, Tract. 15. Valleriola sets down this for a symptom, [5258]
Difference of pulse, neglect of business, want of sleep, often sighs, blushings, when there is any speech of their mistress, are manifest signs.But amongst the rest, Josephus Struthis, that Polonian, in the fifth book, cap. 17. of his Doctrine of Pulses, holds that this and all other passions of the mind may be discovered by the pulse. [5259]
And if you will know, saith he, whether the men suspected be such or such, touch their arteries,&c. And in his fourth book, fourteenth chapter, he speaks of this particular pulse, [5260]
Love makes an unequal pulse,&c., he gives instance of a gentlewoman, [5261]a patient of his, whom by this means he found to be much enamoured, and with whom: he named many persons, but at the last when his name came whom he suspected, [5262]
her pulse began to vary and to beat swifter, and so by often feeling her pulse, he perceived what the matter was.Apollonius Argonaut. lib. 4. poetically setting down the meeting of Jason and Medea, makes them both to blush at one another's sight, and at the first they were not able to speak.
as Lamprias in Lucian kissed Thais, Philippus her [5274]Aristaenetus,amore lymphato tam uriose adhaesit, ut vix labra solvere esset, totumque os mihi contrivit; [5275]Aretine's Lucretia, by a suitor of hers was so saluted, and 'tis their ordinary fashion.
he looked so attentively on her, and sometimes would sigh and weep in her company, and when I drank by chance, and gave Ganymede the cup, he would desire to drink still in the very cup that I drank of, and in the same place where I drank, and would kiss the cup, and then look steadily on me, and sometimes sigh, and then again smile.If it be so they cannot come near to dally, have not that opportunity, familiarity, or acquaintance to confer and talk together; yet if they be in presence, their eye will betray them: Ubi amor ibi oculus, as the common saying is,
where I look I like, and where I like I love;but they will lose themselves in her looks.
They cannot look off whom they love,they will impregnare eam, ipsis oculis, deflower her with their eyes, be still gazing, staring, stealing faces, smiling, glancing at her, as [5280]Apollo on Leucothoe, the moon on her [5281]Endymion, when she stood still in Caria, and at Latmos caused her chariot to be stayed. They must all stand and admire, or if she go by, look after her as long as they can see her, she is animae auriga, as Anacreon calls her, they cannot go by her door or window, but, as an adamant, she draws their eyes to it; though she be not there present, they must needs glance that way, and look back to it. Aristenaetus of [5282] Exithemus, Lucian, in his Imagim. of himself, and Tatius of Clitophon, say as much, Ille oculos de Leucippe [5283]nunquam dejiciebat, and many lovers confess when they came in their mistress' presence, they could not hold off their eyes, but looked wistfully and steadily on her, inconnivo aspectu, with much eagerness and greediness, as if they would look through, or should never have enough sight of her. Fixis ardens obtutibus haeret; so she will do by him, drink to him with her eyes, nay, drink him up, devour him, swallow him, as Martial's Mamurra is remembered to have done: Inspexit molles pueros, oculisque comedit, &c. There is a pleasant story to this purpose in Navigat. Vertom. lib. 3. cap. 5. The sultan of Sana's wife in Arabia, because Vertomannus was fair and white, could not look off him, from sunrising to sunsetting; she could not desist; she made him one day come into her chamber, et geminae, horae spatio intuebatur, non a me anquam aciem oculorum avertebat, me observans veluti Cupidinem quendam, for two hours' space she still gazed on him. A young man in [5284]Lucian fell in love with Venus' picture; he came every morning to her temple, and there continued all day long [5285]from sunrising to sunset, unwilling to go home at night, sitting over against the goddess's picture, he did continually look upon her, and mutter to himself I know not what. If so be they cannot see them whom they love, they will still be walking and waiting about their mistress's doors, taking all opportunity to see them, as in [5286]Longus Sophista, Daphnis and Chloe, two lovers, were still hovering at one another's gates, he sought all occasions to be in her company, to hunt in summer, and catch birds in the frost about her father's house in the winter, that she might see him, and he her. [5287]
A king's palace was not so diligently attended,saith Aretine's Lucretia,
as my house was when I lay in Rome; the porch and street was ever full of some, walking or riding, on set purpose to see me; their eye was still upon my window; as they passed by, they could not choose but look back to my house when they were past, and sometimes hem or cough, or take some impertinent occasion to speak aloud, that I might look out and observe them.'Tis so in other places, 'tis common to every lover, 'tis all his felicity to be with her, to talk with her; he is never well but in her company, and will walk [5288]
seven or eight times a day through the street where she dwells, and make sleeveless errands to see her;plotting still where, when, and how to visit her,
But the symptoms of the mind in lovers are almost infinite, and so diverse, that no art can comprehend them; though they be merry sometimes, and rapt beyond themselves for joy: yet most part, love is a plague, a torture, a hell, a bitter sweet passion at last; [5295]Amor melle et felle est faecundissimus, gustum dat dulcem et amarum. 'Tis suavis amaricies, dolentia delectabilis, hilare tormentum;
a tormentand [5297]
executionas it is, as he calls it in the poet, an unquenchable fire, and what not? [5298]From it, saith Austin, arise
biting cares, perturbations, passions, sorrows, fears, suspicions, discontents, contentions, discords, wars, treacheries, enmities, flattery, cozening, riot, impudence, cruelty, knavery,&c.
Every poet is full of such catalogues of love symptoms; but fear and sorrow may justly challenge the chief place. Though Hercules de Saxonia, cap. 3. Tract. de melanch. will exclude fear from love melancholy, yet I am otherwise persuaded. [5302]Res est solliciti plena timoris amor. 'Tis full of fear, anxiety, doubt, care, peevishness, suspicion; it turns a man into a woman, which made Hesiod belike put Fear and Paleness Venus' daughters,
Be of good cheer, my son, thou shalt have her to wife. Ae. Ah father, do you mock me now? M. I mock thee, why? Ae. That which I so earnestly desire, I more suspect and fear. M. Get you home, and send for her to be your wife. Ae. What now a wife, now father,&c. These doubts, anxieties, suspicions, are the least part of their torments; they break many times from passions to actions, speak fair, and flatter, now most obsequious and willing, by and by they are averse, wrangle, fight, swear, quarrel, laugh, weep: and he that doth not so by fits, [5304]Lucian holds, is not thoroughly touched with this loadstone of love. So their actions and passions are intermixed, but of all other passions, sorrow hath the greatest share; [5305]love to many is bitterness itself; rem amaram Plato calls it, a bitter potion, an agony, a plague.
O Venus, thou knowest my poor heart.Charmides, in [5310]Lucian, was so impatient, that he sobbed and sighed, and tore his hair, and said he would hang himself.
I am undone, O sister Tryphena, I cannot endure these love pangs; what shall I do?Vos O dii Averrunci solvite me his curis, O ye gods, free me from these cares and miseries, out of the anguish of his soul, [5311]Theocles prays. Shall I say, most part of a lover's life is full of agony, anxiety, fear, and grief, complaints, sighs, suspicions, and cares, (heigh-ho, my heart is woe) full of silence and irksome solitariness?
He is then too confident and rapt beyond himself, as if he had heard the nightingale in the spring before the cuckoo, or as [5312]Calisto was at Malebaeas' presence, Quis unquam hac mortali vita, tam gloriosum corpus vidit? humanitatem transcendere videor., &c. who ever saw so glorious a sight, what man ever enjoyed such delight? More content cannot be given of the gods, wished, had or hoped of any mortal man. There is no happiness in the world comparable to his, no content, no joy to this, no life to love, he is in paradise.
He could find in his heart to be killed instantly, lest if he live longer, some sorrow or sickness should contaminate his joys.A little after, he was so merrily set upon the same occasion, that he could not contain himself.
Is't possible (O my countrymen) for any living to be so happy as myself? No sure it cannot be, for the gods have shown all their power, all their goodness in me.Yet by and by when this young gallant was crossed in his wench, he laments, and cries, and roars downright: Occidi—I am undone,
prefer another suitor, speak more familiarly to him, or use more kindly than himself, if by nod, smile, message, she discloseth herself to another, he is instantly tormented, none so dejected as he is,utterly undone, a castaway, [5320]In quem fortuna omnia odiorum suorum crudelissima tela exonerat, a dead man, the scorn of fortune, a monster of fortune, worse than nought, the loss of a kingdom had been less. [5321]Aretine's Lucretia made very good proof of this, as she relates it herself.
For when I made some of my suitors believe I would betake myself to a nunnery, they took on, as if they had lost father and mother, because they were for ever after to want my company.Omnes labores leves fuere, all other labour was light: [5322]but this might not be endured. Tui carendum quod erat—
for I cannot be without thy company,mournful Amyntas, painful Amyntas, careful Amyntas; better a metropolitan city were sacked, a royal army overcome, an invincible armada sunk, and twenty thousand kings should perish, than her little finger ache, so zealous are they, and so tender of her good. They would all turn friars for my sake, as she follows it, in hope by that means to meet, or see me again, as my confessors, at stool-ball, or at barley-break: And so afterwards when an importunate suitor came, [5323]
If I had bid my maid say that I was not at leisure, not within, busy, could not speak with him, he was instantly astonished, and stood like a pillar of marble; another went swearing, chafing, cursing, foaming.[5324]Illa sibi vox ipsa Jovis violentior ira, cum tonat, &c. the voice of a mandrake had been sweeter music:
but he to whom I gave entertainment, was in the Elysian fields, ravished for joy, quite beyond himself.'Tis the general humour of all lovers, she is their stern, pole-star, and guide. [5325]Deliciumque animi, deliquiumque sui. As a tulipant to the sun (which our herbalists calls Narcissus) when it shines, is Admirandus flos ad radios solis se pandens, a glorious flower exposing itself; [5326]but when the sun sets, or a tempest comes, it hides itself, pines away, and hath no pleasure left, (which Carolus Gonzaga, duke of Mantua, in a cause not unlike, sometimes used for an impress) do all inamorates to their mistress; she is their sun, their Primum mobile, or anima informans; this [5327]one hath elegantly expressed by a windmill, still moved by the wind, which otherwise hath no motion of itself. Sic tua ni spiret gratia, truncus ero.
He is wholly animated from her breath,his soul lives in her body, [5328]sola claves habet interitus et salutis, she keeps the keys of his life: his fortune ebbs and flows with her favour, a gracious or bad aspect turns him up or down, Mens mea lucescit Lucia luce tua. Howsoever his present state be pleasing or displeasing, 'tis continuate so long as he [5329]loves, he can do nothing, think of nothing but her; desire hath no rest, she is his cynosure, Hesperus and vesper, his morning and evening star, his goddess, his mistress, his life, his soul, his everything; dreaming, waking, she is always in his mouth; his heart, his eyes, ears, and all his thoughts are full of her. His Laura, his Victorina, his Columbina, Flavia, Flaminia, Caelia, Delia, or Isabella, (call her how you will) she is the sole object of his senses, the substance of his soul, nidulus animae suae, he magnifies her above measure, totus in illa, full of her, can breathe nothing but her.
I adore Melebaea,saith lovesick [5330]Calisto,
I believe in Melebaea, I honour, admire and love my Melebaea;His soul was soused, imparadised, imprisoned in his lady. When [5331]Thais took her leave of Phaedria,—mi Phaedria, et nunquid aliud vis? Sweet heart (she said) will you command me any further service? he readily replied, and gave in this charge,
For all day long he had some object or other to distract his senses, but in the night all ran upon her. All night long he lay [5334] awake, and could think of nothing else but her, he could not get her out of his mind; towards morning, sleep took a little pity on him, he slumbered awhile, but all his dreams were of her.
day and night I think of thee, I wish for thee, I talk of thee, call on thee, look for thee, hope for thee, delight myself in thee, day and night I love thee.
Morning, evening, all is alike with me, I have restless thoughts, [5338] Te vigilans oculis, animo te nocte requiro. Still I think on thee. Anima non est ubi animat, sed ubi amat. I live and breathe in thee, I wish for thee.
O happy day that shall restore thee to my sight.In the meantime he raves on her; her sweet face, eyes, actions, gestures, hands, feet, speech, length, breadth, height, depth, and the rest of her dimensions, are so surveyed, measured, and taken, by that Astrolabe of phantasy, and that so violently sometimes, with such earnestness and eagerness, such continuance, so strong an imagination, that at length he thinks he sees her indeed; he talks with her, he embraceth her, Ixion-like, pro Junone nubem, a cloud for Juno, as he said. Nihil praeter Leucippen cerno, Leucippe mihi perpetuo in oculis, et animo versatur, I see and meditate of nought but Leucippe. Be she present or absent, all is one;
Now if this passion of love can produce such effects, if it be pleasantly intended, what bitter torments shall it breed, when it is with fear and continual sorrow, suspicion, care, agony, as commonly it is, still accompanied, what an intolerable [5343]pain must it be?
For to love and not enjoy was a most unspeakable torment,no tyrant could invent the like punishment; as a gnat at a candle, in a short space he would consume himself. For love is a perpetual [5345]flux, angor animi, a warfare, militat omni amans, a grievous wound is love still, and a lover's heart is Cupid's quiver, a consuming [5346]fire, [5347]accede ad hunc ignem, &c. an inextinguishable fire. As Aetna rageth, so doth love, and more than Aetna or any material fire.
and [5352]one soul is worth a hundred thousand bodies.No water can quench this wild fire.
his heart was combust, his liver smoky, his lungs dried up, insomuch that he verily believed his soul was either sodden or roasted through the vehemency of love's fire.Which belike made a modern writer of amorous emblems express love's fury by a pot hanging over the fire, and Cupid blowing the coals. As the heat consumes the water, [5360]Sic sua consumit viscera coecus amor, so doth love dry up his radical moisture. Another compares love to a melting torch, which stood too near the fire.
The beginning, middle, end of love is nought else but sorrow, vexation, agony, torment, irksomeness, wearisomeness; so that to be squalid, ugly, miserable, solitary, discontent, dejected, to wish for death, to complain, rave, and to be peevish, are the certain signs and ordinary actions of a lovesick person.This continual pain and torture makes them forget themselves, if they be far gone with it, in doubt, despair of obtaining, or eagerly bent, to neglect all ordinary business.
How so?Ch.
I am in love.Prudens sciens. [5371]—vivus vidensque pereo, nec quid agam scio. [5372]
He that erst had his thoughts free(as Philostratus Lemnius, in an epistle of his, describes this fiery passion),
and spent his time like a hard student, in those delightsome philosophical precepts; he that with the sun and moon wandered all over the world, with stars themselves ranged about, and left no secret or small mystery in nature unsearched, since he was enamoured can do nothing now but think and meditate of love matters, day and night composeth himself how to please his mistress; all his study, endeavour, is to approve himself to his mistress, to win his mistress' favour, to compass his desire, to be counted her servant.When Peter Abelard, that great scholar of his age, Cui soli patuit scibile quicquid erat,[5373](
whose faculties were equal to any difficulty in learning,) was now in love with Heloise, he had no mind to visit or frequent schools and scholars any more, Taediosum mihi valde fuit (as he [5374]confesseth) ad scholas procedere, vel in iis morari, all his mind was on his new mistress.
Now to this end and purpose, if there be any hope of obtaining his suit, to prosecute his cause, he will spend himself, goods, fortunes for her, and though he lose and alienate all his friends, be threatened, be cast off, and disinherited; for as the poet saith, Amori quis legem det?[5375] though he be utterly undone by it, disgraced, go a begging, yet for her sweet sake, to enjoy her, he will willingly beg, hazard all he hath, goods, lands, shame, scandal, fame, and life itself.
I may have better matches, I confess, but farewell shame, farewell honour, farewell honesty, farewell friends and fortunes, &c. O, Harpedona, keep my counsel, I will leave all for his sweet sake, I will have him, say no more, contra gentes, I am resolved, I will have him.Gobrias[5377], the captain, when, he had espied Rhodanthe, the fair captive maid, fell upon his knees before Mystilus, the general, with tears, vows, and all the rhetoric he could, by the scars he had formerly received, the good service he had done, or whatsoever else was dear unto him, besought his governor he might have the captive virgin to be his wife, virtutis suae spolium, as a reward of his worth and service; and, moreover, he would forgive him the money which was owing, and all reckonings besides due unto him,
I ask no more, no part of booty, no portion, but Rhodanthe to be my wife.And when as he could not compass her by fair means, he fell to treachery, force and villainy, and set his life at stake at last to accomplish his desire. 'Tis a common humour this, a general passion of all lovers to be so affected, and which Aemilia told Aratine, a courtier in Castilio's discourse,
surely Aratine, if thou werst not so indeed, thou didst not love; ingenuously confess, for if thou hadst been thoroughly enamoured, thou wouldst have desired nothing more than to please thy mistress. For that is the law of love, to will and nill the same.[5378]Tantum velle et nolle, velit nolit quod amica?[5379]
Undoubtedly this may be pronounced of them all, they are very slaves, drudges for the time, madmen, fools, dizzards, atrabilarii[5380], beside themselves, and as blind as beetles. Their dotage [5381]is most eminent, Amore simul et sapere ipsi Jovi non datur, as Seneca holds, Jupiter himself cannot love and be wise both together; the very best of them, if once they be overtaken with this passion, the most staid, discreet, grave, generous and wise, otherwise able to govern themselves, in this commit many absurdities, many indecorums, unbefitting their gravity and persons.
The major part of lovers are carried headlong like so many brute beasts,
reason counsels one way, thy friends, fortunes, shame, disgrace, danger,
and an ocean of cares that will certainly follow; yet this furious lust
precipitates, counterpoiseth, weighs down on the other; though it be their
utter undoing, perpetual infamy, loss, yet they will do it, and become at
last insensati, void of sense; degenerate into dogs, hogs, asses, brutes;
as Jupiter into a bull, Apuleius an ass, Lycaon a wolf, Tereus a
lapwing,[5387]Calisto a bear, Elpenor and Grillus info swine by Circe. For
what else may we think those ingenious poets to have shadowed in their
witty fictions and poems but that a man once given over to his lust (as
[5388]Fulgentius interprets that of Apuleius, Alciat of Tereus) is no
better than a beast.
her dugs like two double jugs,or else no dugs, in that other extreme, bloody fallen fingers, she have filthy, long unpared nails, scabbed hands or wrists, a tanned skin, a rotten carcass, crooked back, she stoops, is lame, splay-footed,
as slender in the middle as a cow in the waist,gouty legs, her ankles hang over her shoes, her feet stink, she breed lice, a mere changeling, a very monster, an oaf imperfect, her whole complexion savours, a harsh voice, incondite gesture, vile gait, a vast virago, or an ugly tit, a slug, a fat fustilugs, a truss, a long lean rawbone, a skeleton, a sneaker (si qua latent meliora puta), and to thy judgment looks like a merd in a lantern, whom thou couldst not fancy for a world, but hatest, loathest, and wouldst have spit in her face, or blow thy nose in her bosom, remedium amoris to another man, a dowdy, a slut, a scold, a nasty, rank, rammy, filthy, beastly quean, dishonest peradventure, obscene, base, beggarly, rude, foolish, untaught, peevish, Irus' daughter, Thersites' sister, Grobians' scholar, if he love her once, he admires her for all this, he takes no notice of any such errors, or imperfections of body or mind, [5391]Ipsa haec—delectant, veluti Balbinum Polypus Agnae,; he had rather have her than any woman in the world. If he were a king, she alone should be his queen, his empress. O that he had but the wealth and treasure of both the Indies to endow her with, a carrack of diamonds, a chain of pearl, a cascanet of jewels, (a pair of calfskin gloves of four-pence a pair were fitter), or some such toy, to send her for a token, she should have it with all his heart; he would spend myriads of crowns for her sake. Venus herself, Panthea, Cleopatra, Tarquin's Tanaquil, Herod's Mariamne, or [5392]Mary of Burgundy, if she were alive, would not match her.
Whoever saw the beauties of the east, or of the west, let them come from all quarters, all, and tell truth, if ever they saw such an excellent feature as this is.A good fellow in Petronius cries out, no tongue can [5399]tell his lady's fine feature, or express it, quicquid dixeris minus erit, &c.
To thy thinking she is a most loathsome creature; and as when a country fellow discommended once that exquisite picture of Helen, made by Zeuxis, [5406]for he saw no such beauty in it; Nichomachus a lovesick spectator replied, Sume tibi meos oculos et deam existimabis, take mine eyes, and thou wilt think she is a goddess, dote on her forthwith, count all her vices virtues; her imperfections infirmities, absolute and perfect: if she be flat-nosed, she is lovely; if hook-nosed, kingly; if dwarfish and little, pretty; if tall, proper and man-like, our brave British Boadicea; if crooked, wise; if monstrous, comely; her defects are no defects at all, she hath no deformities. Immo nec ipsum amicae stercus foetet, though she be nasty, fulsome, as Sostratus' bitch, or Parmeno's sow; thou hadst as live have a snake in thy bosom, a toad in thy dish, and callest her witch, devil, hag, with all the filthy names thou canst invent; he admires her on the other side, she is his idol, lady, mistress, [5407]venerilla, queen, the quintessence of beauty, an angel, a star, a goddess.
my life, my light, my jewel, my glory,[5413]Margareta speciosa, cujus respectu omnia mundi pretiosa sordent, my sweet Margaret, my sole delight and darling. And as [5414]Rhodomant courted Isabella:
Come to me my dear Lycias,(saith Musaeus in [5419]Aristaenetus)
come quickly sweetheart, all other men are satyrs, mere clowns, blockheads to thee, nobody to thee.Thy looks, words, gestures, actions, &c.,
are incomparably beyond all others.Venus was never so much besotted on her Adonis, Phaedra so delighted in Hippolitus, Ariadne in Theseus, Thisbe in her Pyramus, as she is enamoured on her Mopsus.
They are commonly slaves, captives, voluntary servants, Amator amicae
mancipium, as [5420]Castilio terms him, his mistress' servant, her
drudge, prisoner, bondman, what not? He composeth himself wholly to her
affections to please her, and, as Aemelia said, makes himself her lackey.
All his cares, actions, all his thoughts, are subordinate to her will and
commandment:
her most devote, obsequious, affectionate servant and vassal.
For love
(as [5421]Cyrus in Xenophon well observed) is a mere tyranny,
worse than any disease, and they that are troubled with it desire to be
free and cannot, but are harder bound than if they were in iron chains.
What greater captivity or slavery can there be (as [5422]Tully
expostulates) than to be in love? Is he a free man over whom a woman
domineers, to whom she prescribes laws, commands, forbids what she will
herself; that dares deny nothing she demands; she asks, he gives; she
calls, he comes; she threatens, he fears; Nequissimum hunc servum puto, I
account this man a very drudge.
And as he follows it, [5423]Is this no
small servitude for an enamourite to be every hour combing his head,
stiffening his beard, perfuming his hair, washing his face with sweet
water, painting, curling, and not to come abroad but sprucely crowned,
decked, and apparelled?
Yet these are but toys in respect, to go to the
barber, baths, theatres, &c., he must attend upon her wherever she goes,
run along the streets by her doors and windows to see her, take all
opportunities, sleeveless errands, disguise, counterfeit shapes, and as
many forms as Jupiter himself ever took; and come every day to her house
(as he will surely do if he be truly enamoured) and offer her service, and
follow her up and down from room to room, as Lucretia's suitors did, he
cannot contain himself but he will do it, he must and will be where she is,
sit next her, still talking with her. [5424]If I did but let my glove
fall by chance,
(as the said Aretine's Lucretia brags,) I had one of my
suitors, nay two or three at once ready to stoop and take it up, and kiss
it, and with a low conge deliver it unto me; if I would walk, another was
ready to sustain me by the arm. A third to provide fruits, pears, plums,
cherries, or whatsoever I would eat or drink.
All this and much more he
doth in her presence, and when he comes home, as Troilus to his Cressida,
'tis all his meditation to recount with himself his actions, words,
gestures, what entertainment he had, how kindly she used him in such a
place, how she smiled, how she graced him, and that infinitely pleased him;
and then he breaks out, O sweet Areusa, O my dearest Antiphila, O most
divine looks, O lovely graces, and thereupon instantly he makes an epigram,
or a sonnet to five or seven tunes, in her commendation, or else he
ruminates how she rejected his service, denied him a kiss, disgraced him,
&c., and that as effectually torments him. And these are his exercises
between comb and glass, madrigals, elegies, &c., these his cogitations till
he see her again. But all this is easy and gentle, and the least part of
his labour and bondage, no hunter will take such pains for his game, fowler
for his sport, or soldier to sack a city, as he will for his mistress'
favour.
love will find out a way,through thick and thin he will to her, Expeditissimi montes videntur omnes tranabiles, he will swim through an ocean, ride post over the Alps, Apennines, or Pyrenean hills,
What shall I say,saith Haedus,
of their great dangers they undergo, single combats they undertake, how they will venture their lives, creep in at windows, gutters, climb over walls to come to their sweethearts,(anointing the doors and hinges with oil, because they should not creak, tread soft, swim, wade, watch, &c.),
and if they be surprised, leap out at windows, cast themselves headlong down, bruising or breaking their legs or arms, and sometimes loosing life itself,as Calisto did for his lovely Melibaea. Hear some of their own confessions, protestations, complaints, proffers, expostulations, wishes, brutish attempts, labours in this kind. Hercules served Omphale, put on an apron, took a distaff and spun; Thraso the soldier was so submissive to Thais, that he was resolved to do whatever she enjoined. [5428]Ego me Thaidi dedam; et faciam quod jubet, I am at her service. Philostratus in an epistle to his mistress, [5429]
I am ready to die sweetheart if it be thy will; allay his thirst whom thy star hath scorched and undone, the fountains and rivers deny no man drink that comes; the fountain doth not say thou shalt not drink, nor the apple thou shalt not eat, nor the fair meadow walk not in me, but thou alone wilt not let me come near thee, or see thee, contemned and despised I die for grief.Polienus, when his mistress Circe did but frown upon him in Petronius, drew his sword, and bade her [5430]kill, stab, or whip him to death, he would strip himself naked, and not resist. Another will take a journey to Japan, Longae navigationis molestis non curans: a third (if she say it) will not speak a word for a twelvemonth's space, her command shall be most inviolably kept: a fourth will take Hercules's club from him, and with that centurion in the Spanish [5431]Caelestina, will kill ten men for his mistress Areusa, for a word of her mouth he will cut bucklers in two like pippins, and flap down men like flies, Elige quo mortis genere illum occidi cupis? [5432]Galeatus of Mantua did a little more: for when he was almost mad for love of a fair maid in the city, she, to try him belike what he would do for her sake, bade him in jest leap into the river Po if he loved her; he forthwith did leap headlong off the bridge and was drowned. Another at Ficinum in like passion, when his mistress by chance (thinking no harm I dare swear) bade him go hang, the next night at her doors hanged himself. [5433]
Money(saith Xenophon)
is a very acceptable and welcome guest, yet I had rather give it my dear Clinia than take it of others, I had rather serve him than command others, I had rather be his drudge than take my ease, undergo any danger for his sake than live in security. For I had rather see Clinia than all the world besides, and had rather want the sight of all other things than him alone; I am angry with the night and sleep that I may not see him, and thank the light and sun because they show me my Clinia; I will run into the fire for his sake, and if you did but see him, I know that you likewise would run with me.So Philostratus to his mistress, [5434]
Command me what you will, I will do it; bid me go to sea, I am gone in an instant, take so many stripes, I am ready, run through the fire, and lay down my life and soul at thy feet, 'tis done.So did. Aeolus to Juno.
O God of Heaven, grant me this life for ever to sit over against my mistress, and to hear her sweet voice, to go in and out with her, to have every other business common with her; I would labour when she labours; sail when she sails; he that hates her should hate me; and if a tyrant kill her, he should kill me; if she should die, I would not live, and one grave should hold us both.[5438]Finiet illa meos moriens morientis amores. Abrocomus in [5439]Aristaenetus makes the like petition for his Delphia, —[5440]Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam lubens.
I desire to live with thee, and I am ready to die with thee.'Tis the same strain which Theagines used to his Chariclea,
so that I may but enjoy thy love, let me die presently:Leander to his Hero, when he besought the sea waves to let him go quietly to his love, and kill him coming back. [5441]Parcite dum propero, mergite dum redeo.
Spare me whilst I go, drown me as I return.'Tis the common humour of them all, to contemn death, to wish for death, to confront death in this case, Quippe queis nec fera, nec ignis, neque praecipitium, nec fretum, nec ensis, neque laqueus gravia videntur;
'Tis their desire(saith Tyrius)
to die.
He does not fear death, he desireth such upon the very swords.Though a thousand dragons or devils keep the gates, Cerberus himself, Scyron and Procrastes lay in wait, and the way as dangerous, as inaccessible as hell, through fiery flames and over burning coulters, he will adventure for all this. And as [5442]Peter Abelard lost his testicles for his Heloise, he will I say not venture an incision, but life itself. For how many gallants offered to lose their lives for a night's lodging with Cleopatra in those days! and in the hour or moment of death, 'tis their sole comfort to remember their dear mistress, as [5443]Zerbino slain in France, and Brandimart in Barbary; as Arcite did his Emily.
till their headpiece, bucklers be all broken, and swords hacked like so many saws,for they must not see her abused in any sort, 'tis blasphemy to speak against her, a dishonour without all good respect to name her. 'Tis common with these creatures, to drink [5451]healths upon their bare knees, though it were a mile to the bottom, no matter of what mixture, off it comes. If she bid them they will go barefoot to Jerusalem, to the great Cham's court, [5452] to the East Indies, to fetch her a bird to wear in her hat: and with Drake and Candish sail round about the world for her sweet sake, adversis ventis, serve twice seven years, as Jacob did for Rachel; do as much as [5453]Gesmunda, the daughter of Tancredus, prince of Salerna, did for Guisardus, her true love, eat his heart when he died; or as Artemisia drank her husband's bones beaten to powder, and so bury him in herself, and endure more torments than Theseus or Paris. Et his colitur Venus magis quam thure, et victimis, with such sacrifices as these (as [5454] Aristaenetus holds) Venus is well pleased. Generally they undertake any pain, any labour, any toil, for their mistress' sake, love and admire a servant, not to her alone, but to all her friends and followers, they hug and embrace them for her sake; her dog, picture, and everything she wears, they adore it as a relic. If any man come from her, they feast him, reward him, will not be out of his company, do him all offices, still remembering, still talking of her:
The very carrier that comes from him to her is a most welcome guest; and if
he bring a letter, she will read it twenty times over, and as [5456]
Lucretia did by Euryalus, kiss the letter a thousand times together, and
then read it:
And [5457]Chelidonia by Philonius, after many sweet kisses,
put the letter in her bosom,
'sit at home with his picture before her;' a garter or a bracelet of hers is more precious than any saint's relic,he lays it up in his casket, (O blessed relic) and every day will kiss it: if in her presence, his eye is never off her, and drink he will where she drank, if it be possible, in that very place, &c. If absent, he will walk in the walk, sit under that tree where she did use to sit, in that bower, in that very seat,—et foribus miser oscula figit, [5461]many years after sometimes, though she be far distant and dwell many miles off, he loves yet to walk that way still, to have his chamber-window look that way: to walk by that river's side, which (though far away) runs by the house where she dwells, he loves the wind blows to that coast.
O happy ground on which she treads, and happy were I if she would tread upon me. I think her countenance would make the rivers stand, and when she comes abroad, birds will sing and come about her.
When she is in the meadow, she is fairer than any flower, for that lasts but for a day, the river is pleasing, but it vanisheth on a sudden, but thy flower doth not fade, thy stream is greater than the sea. If I look upon the heaven, methinks I see the sun fallen down to shine below, and thee to shine in his place, whom I desire. If I look upon the night, methinks I see two more glorious stars, Hesperus and thyself.A little after he thus courts his mistress, [5468]
If thou goest forth of the city, the protecting gods that keep the town will run after to gaze upon thee: if thou sail upon the seas, as so many small boats, they will follow thee: what river would not run into the sea?Another, he sighs and sobs, swears he hath Cor scissum, a heart bruised to powder, dissolved and melted within him, or quite gone from him, to his mistress' bosom belike, he is in an oven, a salamander in the fire, so scorched with love's heat; he wisheth himself a saddle for her to sit on, a posy for her to smell to, and it would not grieve him to be hanged, if he might be strangled in her garters: he would willingly die tomorrow, so that she might kill him with her own hands. [5469]Ovid would be a flea, a gnat, a ring, Catullus a sparrow,
happy are his bedfellows;and as she said of Cyprus, [5476]Beata quae illi uxor futura esset, blessed is that woman that shall be his wife, nay, thrice happy she that shall enjoy him but a night. [5477]Una nox Jovis sceptro aequiparanda, such a night's lodging is worth Jupiter's sceptre.
O what a blissful night would it be, how soft, how sweet a bed!She will adventure all her estate for such a night, for a nectarean, a balsam kiss alone. The sultan of Sana's wife in Arabia, when she had seen Vertomannus, that comely traveller, lamented to herself in this manner, [5480]
O God, thou hast made this man whiter than the sun, but me, mine husband, and all my children black; I would to God he were my husband, or that I had such a son;she fell a weeping, and so impatient for love at last, that (as Potiphar's wife did by Joseph) she would have had him gone in with her, she sent away Gazella, Tegeia, Galzerana, her waiting-maids, loaded him with fair promises and gifts, and wooed him with all the rhetoric she could,— extremum hoc miserae da munus amanti,
grant this last request to a wretched lover.But when he gave not consent, she would have gone with him, and left all, to be his page, his servant, or his lackey, Certa sequi charum corpus ut umbra solet, so that she might enjoy him, threatening moreover to kill herself, &c. Men will do as much and more for women, spend goods, lands, lives, fortunes; kings will leave their crowns, as King John for Matilda the nun at Dunmow.
Yet for all this, amongst so many irksome, absurd, troublesome symptoms,
inconveniences, fantastical fits and passions which are usually incident
to such persons, there be some good and graceful qualities in lovers, which
this affection causeth. As it makes wise men fools, so many times it makes
fools become wise; [5486]it makes base fellows become generous, cowards
courageous,
as Cardan notes out of Plutarch; covetous, liberal and
magnificent; clowns, civil; cruel, gentle; wicked, profane persons, to
become religious; slovens, neat; churls, merciful; and dumb dogs, eloquent;
your lazy drones, quick and nimble.
Feras mentes domat cupido, that
fierce, cruel and rude Cyclops Polyphemus sighed, and shed many a salt tear
for Galatea's sake. No passion causeth greater alterations, or more
vehement of joy or discontent. Plutarch. Sympos. lib. 5. quaest. 1, [5487]
saith, that the soul of a man in love is full of perfumes and sweet
odours, and all manner of pleasing tones and tunes, insomuch that it is
hard to say (as he adds) whether love do mortal men more harm than good.
It adds spirits and makes them, otherwise soft and silly, generous and
courageous, [5488]Audacem faciebat amor. Ariadne's love made Theseus so
adventurous, and Medea's beauty Jason so victorious; expectorat amor
timorem. [5489]Plato is of opinion that the love of Venus made Mars so
valorous. A young man will be much abashed to commit any foul offence that
shall come to the hearing or sight of his mistress.
As [5490]he that
desired of his enemy now dying, to lay him with his face upward, ne
amasius videret eum a tergo vulneratum, lest his sweetheart should say he
was a coward. And if it were [5491]possible to have an army consist of
lovers, such as love, or are beloved, they would be extraordinary valiant
and wise in their government, modesty would detain them from doing amiss,
emulation incite them to do that which is good and honest, and a few of
them would overcome a great company of others.
There is no man so
pusillanimous, so very a dastard, whom love would not incense, make of a
divine temper, and an heroical spirit. As he said in like case, [5492]
Tota ruat caeli moles, non terreor, &c. Nothing can terrify, nothing can
dismay them. But as Sir Blandimor and Paridel, those two brave fairy
knights, fought for the love of fair Florimel in presence—
I doubt not, therefore, but if a man had such an army of lovers(as Castilio supposeth)
he might soon conquer all the world, except by chance he met with such another army of inamoratos to oppose it.[5497]For so perhaps they might fight as that fatal dog and fatal hare in the heavens, course one another round, and never make an end. Castilio thinks Ferdinand King of Spain would never have conquered Granada, had not Queen Isabel and her ladies been present at the siege: [5498]
It cannot be expressed what courage the Spanish knights took, when the ladies were present, a few Spaniards overcame a multitude of Moors.They will undergo any danger whatsoever, as Sir Walter Manny in Edward the Third's time, stuck full of ladies' favours, fought like a dragon. For soli amantes, as [5499]Plato holds, pro amicis mori appetunt, only lovers will die for their friends, and in their mistress' quarrel. And for that cause he would have women follow the camp, to be spectators and encouragers of noble actions: upon such an occasion, the [5500]Squire of Dames himself, Sir Lancelot or Sir Tristram, Caesar, or Alexander, shall not be more resolute or go beyond them.
Not courage only doth love add, but as I said, subtlety, wit, and many
pretty devices, [5501]Namque dolos inspirat amor, fraudesque ministrat,
[5502]Jupiter in love with Leda, and not knowing how to compass his
desire, turned himself into a swan, and got Venus to pursue him in the
likeness of an eagle; which she doing, for shelter, he fled to Leda's lap,
et in ejus gremio se collocavit, Leda embraced him, and so fell fast
asleep, sed dormientem Jupiter compressit, by which means Jupiter had his
will. Infinite such tricks love can devise, such fine feats in abundance,
with wisdom and wariness, [5503]quis fallere possit amantem. All manner
of civility, decency, compliment and good behaviour, plus solis et
leporis, polite graces and merry conceits. Boccaccio hath a pleasant tale
to this purpose, which he borrowed from the Greeks, and which Beroaldus
hath turned into Latin, Bebelius in verse, of Cymon and Iphigenia. This
Cymon was a fool, a proper man of person, and the governor of Cyprus' son.
but a very ass, insomuch that his father being ashamed of him, sent him to
a farmhouse he had in the country, to be brought up. Where by chance, as
his manner was, walking alone, he espied a gallant young gentlewoman, named
Iphigenia, a burgomaster's daughter of Cyprus, with her maid, by a brook
side in a little thicket, fast asleep in her smock, where she had newly
bathed herself: When [5504]Cymon saw her, he stood leaning on his staff,
gaping on her immovable, and in amaze;
at last he fell so far in love
with the glorious object, that he began to rouse himself up, to bethink
what he was, would needs follow her to the city, and for her sake began to
be civil, to learn to sing and dance, to play on instruments, and got all
those gentlemanlike qualities and compliments in a short space, which his
friends were most glad of. In brief, he became, from an idiot and a clown,
to be one of the most complete gentlemen in Cyprus, did many valorous
exploits, and all for the love of mistress Iphigenia. In a word, I may say
thus much of them all, let them be never so clownish, rude and horrid,
Grobians and sluts, if once they be in love they will be most neat and
spruce; for, [5505]Omnibus rebus, et nitidis nitoribus antevenit amor,
they will follow the fashion, begin to trick up, and to have a good opinion
of themselves, venustatem enim mater Venus; a ship is not so long a
rigging as a young gentlewoman a trimming up herself against her sweetheart
comes. A painter's shop, a flowery meadow, no so gracious aspect in
nature's storehouse as a young maid, nubilis puella, a Novitsa or
Venetian bride, that looks for a husband, or a young man that is her
suitor; composed looks, composed gait, clothes, gestures, actions, all
composed; all the graces, elegances in the world are in her face. Their
best robes, ribands, chains, jewels, lawns, linens, laces, spangles, must
come on, [5506]praeter quam res patitur student elegantiae, they are
beyond all measure coy, nice, and too curious on a sudden; 'tis all their
study, all their business, how to wear their clothes neat, to be polite and
terse, and to set out themselves. No sooner doth a young man see his
sweetheart coming, but he smugs up himself, pulls up his cloak now fallen
about his shoulders, ties his garters, points, sets his band, cuffs, slicks
his hair, twires his beard, &c. When Mercury was to come before his
mistress,
Salmacis would not be seen of Hermaphroditus, till she had spruced up herself first,
Venus had so ordered the matter, that when her son [5509]Aeneas was to appear before Queen Dido, he was
'Tis the common humour of all suitors to trick up themselves, to be
prodigal in apparel, pure lotus, neat, combed, and curled, with powdered
hair, comptus et calimistratus, with a long love-lock, a flower in his
ear, perfumed gloves, rings, scarves, feathers, points, &c. as if he were a
prince's Ganymede, with everyday new suits, as the fashion varies; going as
if he trod upon eggs, as Heinsius writ to Primierus, [5512]if once he be
besotten on a wench, he must like awake at nights, renounce his book, sigh
and lament, now and then weep for his hard hap, and mark above all things
what hats, bands, doublets, breeches, are in fashion, how to cut his beard,
and wear his locks, to turn up his mustachios, and curl his head, prune his
pickedevant, or if he wear it abroad, that the east side be correspondent
to the west;
he may be scoffed at otherwise, as Julian that apostate
emperor was for wearing a long hirsute goatish beard, fit to make ropes
with, as in his Mysopogone, or that apologetical oration he made at Antioch
to excuse himself, he doth ironically confess, it hindered his kissing,
nam non licuit inde pura puris, eoque suavioribus labra labris adjungere,
but he did not much esteem it, as it seems by the sequel, de accipiendis
dandisve osculis non laboro, yet (to follow mine author) it may much
concern a young lover, he must be more respectful in this behalf, he must
be in league with an excellent tailor, barber,
have neat shoe-ties, points, garters, speak in print, walk in print, eat and drink in print, and that which is all in all, he must be mad in print.
Amongst other good qualities an amorous fellow is endowed with, he must
learn to sing and dance, play upon some instrument or other, as without all
doubt he will, if he be truly touched with this loadstone of love. For as
[5514]Erasmus hath it, Musicam docet amor et Poesia, love will make them
musicians, and to compose ditties, madrigals, elegies, love sonnets, and
sing them to several pretty tunes, to get all good qualities may be had.
[5515]Jupiter perceived Mercury to be in love with Philologia, because he
learned languages, polite speech, (for Suadela herself was Venus' daughter,
as some write) arts and sciences, quo virgini placeret, all to ingratiate
himself, and please his mistress. 'Tis their chiefest study to sing, dance;
and without question, so many gentlemen and gentlewomen would not be so
well qualified in this kind, if love did not incite them. [5516]Who,
saith Castilio, would learn to play, or give his mind to music, learn to
dance, or make so many rhymes, love-songs, as most do, but for women's
sake, because they hope by that means to purchase their good wills, and win
their favour?
We see this daily verified in our young women and wives,
they that being maids took so much pains to sing, play, and dance, with
such cost and charge to their parents, to get those graceful qualities, now
being married will scarce touch an instrument, they care not for it.
Constantine agricult. lib. 11. cap. 18, makes Cupid himself to be a great
dancer; by the same token as he was capering amongst the gods, [5517]he
flung down a bowl of nectar, which distilling upon the white rose, ever
since made it red:
and Calistratus, by the help of Dedalus, about Cupid's
statue [5518]made a many of young wenches still a dancing, to signify
belike that Cupid was much affected with it, as without all doubt he was.
For at his and Psyche's wedding, the gods being present to grace the feast,
Ganymede filled nectar in abundance (as [5519]Apuleius describes it),
Vulcan was the cook, the Hours made all fine with roses and flowers, Apollo
played on the harp, the Muses sang to it, sed suavi Musicae super ingressa
Venus saltavit, but his mother Venus danced to his and their sweet
content. Witty [5520]Lucian in that pathetical love passage, or pleasant
description of Jupiter's stealing of Europa, and swimming from Phoenicia to
Crete, makes the sea calm, the winds hush, Neptune and Amphitrite riding in
their chariot to break the waves before them, the tritons dancing round
about, with every one a torch, the sea-nymphs half naked, keeping time on
dolphins' backs, and singing Hymeneus, Cupid nimbly tripping on the top of
the waters, and Venus herself coming after in a shell, strewing roses and
flowers on their heads. Praxiteles, in all his pictures of love, feigns
Cupid ever smiling, and looking upon dancers; and in St. Mark's in Rome
(whose work I know not), one of the most delicious pieces, is a many of
[5521]satyrs dancing about a wench asleep. So that dancing still is as it
were a necessary appendix to love matters. Young lasses are never better
pleased than when as upon a holiday, after evensong, they may meet their
sweethearts, and dance about a maypole, or in a town-green under a shady
elm. Nothing so familiar in. [5522]France, as for citizens' wives and
maids to dance a round in the streets, and often too, for want of better
instruments, to make good music of their own voices, and dance after it.
Yea many times this love will make old men and women that have more toes
than teeth, dance,—John, come kiss me now,
mask and mum; for Comus and
Hymen love masks, and all such merriments above measure, will allow men to
put on women's apparel in some cases, and promiscuously to dance, young and
old, rich and poor, generous and base, of all sorts. Paulus Jovius taxeth
Augustine Niphus the philosopher, [5523]for that being an old man, and a
public professor, a father of many children, he was so mad for the love of
a young maid (that which many of his friends were ashamed to see), an old
gouty fellow, yet would dance after fiddlers.
Many laughed him to scorn
for it, but this omnipotent love would have it so.
Love(as he holds)
will make a silent man speak, a modest man most officious; dull, quick; slow, nimble; and that which is most to be admired, a hard, base, untractable churl, as fire doth iron in a smith's forge, free, facile, gentle, and easy to be entreated.Nay, 'twill make him prodigal in the other extreme, and give a [5527]hundred sesterces for a night's lodging, as they did of old to Lais of Corinth, or [5528] ducenta drachmarum millia pro unica nocte, as Mundus to Paulina, spend all his fortunes (as too many do in like case) to obtain his suit. For which cause many compare love to wine, which makes men jovial and merry, frolic and sad, whine, sing, dance, and what not.
But above all the other symptoms of lovers, this is not lightly to be
overpassed, that likely of what condition soever, if once they be in love,
they turn to their ability, rhymers, ballad makers, and poets. For as
Plutarch saith, [5529]They will be witnesses and trumpeters of their
paramours' good parts, bedecking them with verses and commendatory songs,
as we do statues with gold, that they may be remembered and admired of
all.
Ancient men will dote in this kind sometimes as well as the rest; the
heat of love will thaw their frozen affections, dissolve the ice of age,
and so far enable them, though they be sixty years of age above the girdle,
to be scarce thirty beneath. Jovianus Pontanus makes an old fool rhyme, and
turn poetaster to please his mistress.