[5188] For half so boldly there can non Swear and lye as women can.

[5189]They will crack, counterfeit, and collogue as well as the best, with handkerchiefs, and wrought nightcaps, purses, posies, and such toys: as he justly complained,

[5190] "Cur mittis violas? nempe ut violentius uret; Quid violas violis me violenta tuis?" &c.

"Why dost thou send me violets, my dear? To make me burn more violent, I fear, With violets too violent thou art, To violate and wound my gentle heart."

When nothing else will serve, the last refuge is their tears. Haec scripsi (testor amorem) mixta lachrymis et suspiriis, 'twixt tears and sighs, I write this (I take love to witness), saith [5191]Chelidonia to Philonius. Lumina quae modo fulmina, jam flumina lachrymarum, those burning torches are now turned to floods of tears. Aretine's Lucretia, when her sweetheart came to town, [5192]wept in his bosom, "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.

[5194] ———"animam ne crede puellis, Namque est foeminea tutior unda fide."

Thou thinkest, peradventure, because of her vows, tears, smiles, and protestations, she is solely thine, thou hast her heart, hand, and affection, when as indeed there is no such matter, as the [5195]Spanish bawd said, gaudet illa habere unum in lecto, alterum in porta, tertium qui domi suspiret, she will have one sweetheart in bed, another in the gate, a third sighing at home, a fourth, &c. Every young man she sees and likes hath as much interest, and shall as soon enjoy her as thyself. On the other side, which I have said, men are as false, let them swear, protest, and lie; [5196]Quod vobis dicunt, dixerunt mille puellis. They love some of them those eleven thousand virgins at once, and make them believe, each particular, he is besotted on her, or love one till they see another, and then her alone; like Milo's wife in Apuleius, lib. 2. Si quem conspexerit speciosae formae invenem, venustate ejus sumitur, et in eum animum intorquet. 'Tis their common compliment in that case, they care not what they swear, say or do: One while they slight them, care not for them, rail downright and scoff at them, and then again they will run mad, hang themselves, stab and kill, if they may not enjoy them. Henceforth, therefore,—nulla viro juranti foemina credat, let not maids believe them. These tricks and counterfeit passions are more familiar with women, [5197]finem hic dolori faciet aut vitae dies, miserere amantis, quoth Phaedra to Hippolitus. Joessa, in [5198]Lucian, told Pythias, a young man, to move him the more, that if he would not have her, she was resolved to make away herself. "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.

[5201] "Neve puellarum lachrymis moveare memento, Ut flerent oculos erudiere suos."

"Care not for women's tears, I counsel thee, They teach their eyes as much to weep as see."

And as much pity is to be taken of a woman weeping, as of a goose going barefoot. When Venus lost her son Cupid, she sent a crier about, to bid every one that met him take heed.

[5202] "Si fleatam aspicias, ne mox fallare, caveto; Sin arridebit, magis effuge; et oscula si fors Ferre volet, fugito; sunt oscula noxia, in ipsis Suntque venena labris" &c.

"Take heed of Cupid's tears, if cautious. And of his smiles and kisses I thee tell, If that he offer't, for they be noxious, And very poison in his lips doth dwell."

[5203]A thousand years, as Castilio conceives, "will scarce serve to reckon up those allurements and guiles, that men and women use to deceive one another with."

SUBSECT. V.—Bawds, Philters, Causes.

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,

[5205] ———"trecentis versibus Suas impuritias traloqui nemo potest."

Such occult notes, stenography, polygraphy, Nuntius animatus, or magnetical telling of their minds, which [5206]Cabeus the Jesuit, by the way, counts fabulous and false; cunning conveyances in this kind, that neither Juno's jealousy, nor Danae's custody, nor Argo's vigilancy can keep them safe. 'Tis the last and common refuge to use an assistant, such as that Catanean Philippa was to Joan Queen of Naples, a [5207]bawd's help, an old woman in the business, as [5208]Myrrha did when she doted on Cyniras, and could not compass her desire, the old jade her nurse was ready at a pinch, dic inquit, opemque me sine ferre tibi—et in hac mea (pone timorem) Sedulitas erit apta libi, fear it not, if it be possible to be done, I will effect it: non est mulieri mulier insuperabilis, [5209]Caelestina said, let him or her be never so honest, watched and reserved, 'tis hard but one of these old women will get access: and scarce shall you find, as [5210]Austin observes, in a nunnery a maid alone, "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,

[5212] "Morem hunc meretrices habent, Ad portum mittunt servulos, ancillulas, Si qua peregrina navis in portum aderit, Rogant cujatis sit, quod ei nomen siet, Post illae extemplo sese adplicent."

These white devils have their panders, bawds, and factors in every place to seek about, and bring in customers, to tempt and waylay novices, and silly travellers. And when they have them once within their clutches, as Aegidius Mascrius in his comment upon Valerius Flaccus describes them, [5213]"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,

[5215] "Non audet Stygius Pluto tentare quod audet Effrenis monachus, plenaque fraudis anus;"

"That Stygian Pluto dares not tempt or do, What an old hag or monk will undergo;"

either for himself to satisfy his own lust; for another, if he be hired thereto, or both at once, having such excellent means. For under colour of visitation, auricular confession, comfort and penance, they have free egress and regress, and corrupt, God knows, how many. They can such trades, some of them, practise physic, use exorcisms, &c.

[5216] That whereas was wont to walk and Elf, There now walks the Limiter himself, In every bush and under every tree, There needs no other Incubus but he.

[5217]In the mountains between Dauphine and Savoy, the friars persuaded the good wives to counterfeit themselves possessed, that their husbands might give them free access, and were so familiar in those days with some of them, that, as one [5218]observes, "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,

[5222] "One accent from thy lips the blood more warms, Than all their philters, exorcisms, and charms."

With this alone Lucretia brags [5223]in Aretine, she could do more than all philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, necromancers, witches, and the rest of the crew. As for herbs and philters, I could never skill of them, "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,

[5237] "Unde hic fervor aquis terra erumpentibus uda? Tela olim hic ludens ignea tinxit amor; Et gaudens stridore novo, fervete perennes Inquit, et haec pharetrae sint monumenta meae. Ex illo fervet, rarusque hic mergitur hospes, Cui non titillet pectora blandus amor."

These above-named remedies have happily as much power as that bath of Aix, or Venus' enchanted girdle, in which, saith Natales Comes, "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.

MEMB. III. Symptoms or signs of Love Melancholy, in Body, Mind, good, bad, &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.

"Et qui tenebant signa Phoebeae facis Oculi, nihil gentile nec patrium micant."

"And eyes that once rivalled the locks of Phoebus, lose the patrial and paternal lustre." With groans, griefs, sadness, dullness,

[5241] ———"Nulla jam Cereris subi Cura aut salutis"———

want of appetite, &c. A reason of all this, [5242]Jason Pratensis gives, "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,

[5243] "The mighty Mars did oft for Venus shriek, Privily moistening his horrid cheek With womanish tears,"———

[5244] ———"ignis distillat in undas, Testis erit largus qui rigat ora liquor,"

with many such like passions. When Chariclia was enamoured of Theagines, as [5245]Heliodorus sets her out, "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:

[5247] His sleep, his meat, his drink, in him bereft, That lean he waxeth, and dry as a shaft, His eyes hollow and grisly to behold, His hew pale and ashen to unfold, And solitary he was ever alone, And waking all the night making moan.

Theocritus Edyl. 2. makes a fair maid of Delphos, in love with a young man of Minda, confess as much,

"Ut vidi ut insanii, ut animus mihi male affectiis est, Miserae mihi forma tabescebat, neque amplius pompam Ullum curabam, aut quando domum redieram Novi, sed me ardens quidam morbus consumebat, Decubui in lecto dies decem, et noctes decem, Defluebant capite capilli, ipsaque sola reliqua Ossa et cutis"———

"No sooner seen I had, but mad I was. My beauty fail'd, and I no more did care For any pomp, I knew not where I was, But sick I was, and evil I did fare; I lay upon my bed ten days and nights, A skeleton I was in all men's sights."

All these passions are well expressed by [5248]that heroical poet in the person of Dido:

"At non infelix animi Phaenissa, nec unquam Solvitur in somnos, oculisque ac pectore amores Accipit; ingeminant curae, rursusque resurgens Saevit amor," &c.———

"Unhappy Dido could not sleep at all, But lies awake, and takes no rest: And up she gets again, whilst care and grief, And raging love torment her breast."

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."

"Attenuant juvenum vigilatae corpora noctes, Curaque et immenso qui fit amore dolor."

Many such symptoms there are of the body to discern lovers by,—quis enim bene celet amorem? Can a man, saith Solomon, Prov. vi. 27, carry fire in his bosom and not burn? it will hardly be hid; though they do all they can to hide it, it must out, plus quam mille notis—it may be described, [5253]quoque magis tegitur, tectus magis aestuat ignis. 'Twas Antiphanes the comedian's observation of old, Love and drunkenness cannot be concealed, Celare alia possis, haec praeter duo, vini potum, &c. words, looks, gestures, all will betray them; but two of the most notable signs are observed by the pulse and countenance. When Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, was sick for Stratonice, his mother-in-law, and would not confess his grief, or the cause of his disease, Erasistratus, the physician, found him by his pulse and countenance to be in love with her, [5254]"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.

[5263] ———"totus Parmeno Tremo, horreoque postquam aspexi hanc,"

Phaedria trembled at the sight of Thais, others sweat, blow short, Crura tremunt ac poplites,—are troubled with palpitation of heart upon the like occasion, cor proximum ori, saith [5264]Aristenaetus, their heart is at their mouth, leaps, these burn and freeze, (for love is fire, ice, hot, cold, itch, fever, frenzy, pleurisy, what not) they look pale, red, and commonly blush at their first congress; and sometimes through violent agitation of spirits bleed at nose, or when she is talked of; which very sign [5265]Eustathius makes an argument of Ismene's affection, that when she met her sweetheart by chance, she changed her countenance to a maiden-blush. 'Tis a common thing amongst lovers, as [5266]Arnulphus, that merry-conceited bishop, hath well expressed in a facetious epigram of his,

"Alterno facies sibi dat responsa rubore, Et tener affectum prodit utrique pudor," &c.

"Their faces answer, and by blushing say, How both affected are, they do betray."

But the best conjectures are taken from such symptoms as appear when they are both present; all their speeches, amorous glances, actions, lascivious gestures will betray them; they cannot contain themselves, but that they will be still kissing. [5267]Stratocles, the physician, upon his wedding-day, when he was at dinner, Nihil prius sorbillavit, quam tria basia puellae pangeret, could not eat his meat for kissing the bride, &c. First a word, and then a kiss, then some other compliment, and then a kiss, then an idle question, then a kiss, and when he had pumped his wits dry, can say no more, kissing and colling are never out of season, [5268]Hoc non deficit incipitque semper, 'tis never at an end, [5269]another kiss, and then another, another, and another, &c.—huc ades O Thelayra—Come kiss me Corinna?

[5270] "Centum basia centies, Centum basia millies, Mille basia millies, Et tot millia millies, Quot guttae Siculo mari, Quot sunt sidera coelo,

Istis purpureis genis, Istis turgidulis labris, Ocelisque loquaculis, Figam continuo impetu; O formosa Neaera. (As Catullus to Lesbia.)

Da mihi basia mille, deindi centum, Dein mille altera, da secunda centum, Dein usque altera millia, deinde centum."

[5271] ———"first give a hundred, Then a thousand, then another Hundred, then unto the other Add a thousand, and so more," &c.

Till you equal with the store, all the grass, &c. So Venus did by her Adonis, the moon with Endymion, they are still dallying and culling, as so many doves, Columbatimque labra conserentes labiis, and that with alacrity and courage,

[5272] "Affligunt avide corpus, junguntque salivas Oris, et inspirant prensantes dentibus ora."

[5273]Tam impresso ore ut vix inde labra detrahant, cervice reclinata, "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.

———"dentes illudunt saepe labellis, Atque premunt arete adfigentes oscula"———

They cannot, I say, contain themselves, they will be still not only joining hands, kissing, but embracing, treading on their toes, &c., diving into their bosoms, and that libenter, et cum delectatione, as [5276] Philostratus confesseth to his mistress; and Lamprias in Lucian, Mammillas premens, per sinum clam dextra, &c., feeling their paps, and that scarce honestly sometimes: as the old man in the [5277]Comedy well observed of his son, Non ego te videbam manum huic puellae in sinum insere? Did not I see thee put thy hand into her bosom? go to, with many such love tricks. [5278]Juno in Lucian deorum, tom. 3. dial. 3. complains to Jupiter of Ixion, [5279]"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.

"Alter in alterius jactantes lumina vultus, Quaerebant taciti noster ubi esset amor."

"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,

[5289] "Levesque sub nocte susurri, Composita repetuntur hora."

And when he is gone, he thinks every minute an hour, every hour as long as a day, ten days a whole year, till he see her again. [5290]Tempora si numeres, bene quae numeramus amantes. And if thou be in love, thou wilt say so too, Et longum formosa, vale, farewell sweetheart, vale charissima Argenis, &c. Farewell my dear Argenis, once more farewell, farewell. And though he is to meet her by compact, and that very shortly, perchance tomorrow, yet both to depart, he'll take his leave again, and again, and then come back again, look after, and shake his hand, wave his hat afar off. Now gone, he thinks it long till he see her again, and she him, the clocks are surely set back, the hour's past,

[5291] "Hospita Demophoon tua te Rodopheia Phillis, Ultra promissum tempus abesse queror."

She looks out at window still to see whether he come, [5292]and by report Phillis went nine times to the seaside that day, to see if her Demophoon were approaching, and [5293]Troilus to the city gates, to look for his Cresseid. She is ill at ease, and sick till she see him again, peevish in the meantime; discontent, heavy, sad, and why comes he not? where is he? why breaks he promise? why tarries he so long? sure he is not well; sure he hath some mischance; sure he forgets himself and me; with infinite such. And then, confident again, up she gets, out she looks, listens, and inquires, hearkens, kens; every man afar off is sure he, every stirring in the street, now he is there, that's he, male aurorae, malae soli dicit, deiratque, &c., the longest day that ever was, so she raves, restless and impatient; for Amor non patitur moras, love brooks no delays: the time's quickly gone that's spent in her company, the miles short, the way pleasant; all weather is good whilst he goes to her house, heat or cold; though his teeth chatter in his head, he moves not; wet or dry, 'tis all one; wet to the skin, he feels it not, cares not at least for it, but will easily endure it and much more, because it is done with alacrity, and for his mistress's sweet sake; let the burden be never so heavy, love makes it light. [5294]Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and it was quickly gone because he loved her. None so merry; if he may happily enjoy her company, he is in heaven for a time; and if he may not, dejected in an instant, solitary, silent, he departs weeping, lamenting, sighing, complaining.

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;

[5296] "Et me melle beant suaviora, Et me felle necant amariora."

like a summer fly or sphinx's wings, or a rainbow of all colours,

"Quae ad solis radios conversae aureae erant, Adversus nubes ceruleae, quale jabar iridis,"

fair, foul, and full of variation, though most part irksome and bad. For in a word, the Spanish Inquisition is not comparable to it; "a torment" and [5297]"execution" as 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.

[5299] ———"dolor, querelae, Lamentatio, lachrymae perennes, Languor, anxietas, amaritudo; Aut si triste magis potest quid esse, Hos tu das comites Neaera vitae."

These be the companions of lovers, and the ordinary symptoms, as the poet repeats them.

[5300] "In amore haec insunt vitia, Suspiciones, inimicitiae, audaciae, Bellum, pax rursum," &c.

[5301] "Insomnia, aerumna, error, terror, et fuga, Excogitantia excors immodestia, Petulantia, cupiditas, et malevolentia; Inhaeret etiam aviditas, desidia, injuria, Inopia, contumelia et dispendium," &c.

"In love these vices are; suspicions. Peace, war, and impudence, detractions. Dreams, cares, and errors, terrors and affrights, Immodest pranks, devices, sleights and flights, Heart-burnings, wants, neglects, desire of wrong, Loss continual, expense and hurt among."

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,

———"Marti clypeos atque arma secanti Alma Venus peperit Pallorem, unaque Timorem:"

because fear and love are still linked together. Moreover they are apt to mistake, amplify, too credulous sometimes, too full of hope and confidence, and then again very jealous, unapt to believe or entertain any good news. The comical poet hath prettily painted out this passage amongst the rest in a [5303]dialogue betwixt Mitio and Aeschines, a gentle father and a lovesick son. "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.

"Eripite hanc pestem perniciemque mihi; Quae mihi subrepens imos ut torpor in artus, Expulit ex omni pectore laetitias."

"O take away this plague, this mischief from me, Which, as a numbness over all my body, Expels my joys, and makes my soul so heavy."

Phaedria had a true touch of this, when he cried out,

[5306] "O Thais, utinam esset mihi Pars aequa amoris tecum, ac paritor fieret ut Aut hoc tibi doleret itidem, ut mihi dolet."

"O Thais, would thou hadst of these my pains a part, Or as it doth me now, so it would make thee smart."

So had that young man, when he roared again for discontent,

[5307] "Jactor, crucior, agitor, stimulor, Versor in amoris rota miser, Exanimor, feror, distrahor, deripior, Ubi sum, ibi non sum; ubi non sum, ibi est animus."

"I am vext and toss'd, and rack'd on love's wheel: Where not, I am; but where am, do not feel."

The moon in [5308]Lucian made her moan to Venus, that she was almost dead for love, pereo equidem amore, and after a long tale, she broke off abruptly and wept, [5309]"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?

"Frequenting shady bowers in discontent, To the air his fruitless clamours he will vent."

except at such times that he hath lucida intervalla, pleasant gales, or sudden alterations, as if his mistress smile upon him, give him a good look, a kiss, or that some comfortable message be brought him, his service is accepted, &c.

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.

[5313] "Quis me uno vivit felicior? aut magis hac est Optandum vita dicere quis poterit?"

"Who lives so happy as myself? what bliss In this our life may be compar'd to this?"

He will not change fortune in that case with a prince,

[5314] "Donec gratus eram tibi, Persarum vigui rege beatior."

The Persian kings are not so jovial as he is, O [5315]festus dies hominis, O happy day; so Chaerea exclaims when he came from Pamphila his sweetheart well pleased,

"Nunc est profecto interfici cum perpeti me possem, Ne hoc gaudium contaminet vita aliqua aegritudine."

"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.

[5316] "O populares, ecquis me vivit hodie fortunatior? Nemo hercule quisquam; nam in me dii plane potestatem Suam omnem ostendere;"

"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,

"Neque virgo est usquam, neque ego, qui e conspectu illam amisi meo, Ubi quaeram, ubi investigem, quem percunter, quam insistam viam?"

The virgin's gone, and I am gone, she's gone, she's gone, and what shall I do? where shall I seek her, where shall I find her, whom shall I ask? what way, what course shall I take? what will become of me—[5317]vitales auras invitus agebat, he was weary of his life, sick, mad, and desperate, [5318]utinam mihi esset aliquid hic, quo nunc me praecipitem darem. 'Tis not Chaereas' case this alone, but his, and his, and every lover's in the like state. If he hear ill news, have bad success in his suit, she frown upon him, or that his mistress in his presence respect another more (as [5319]Hedus observes) "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,

———"egone quid velim? Dies noctesque ames me, me desideres, Me somnies, me expectes, me cogites, Me speres, me te oblectes, mecum tota sis, Meus fac postremo animus, quando ego sum tuus."

"Dost ask (my dear) what service I will have? To love me day and night is all I crave, To dream on me, to expect, to think on me, Depend and hope, still covet me to see, Delight thyself in me, be wholly mine, For know, my love, that I am wholly thine."

But all this needed not, you will say; if she affect once, she will be his, settle her love on him, on him alone,

[5332] ———"illum absens absentem Auditque videtque"———

she can, she must think and dream of nought else but him, continually of him, as did Orpheus on his Eurydice,

"Te dulcis conjux, te solo in littore mecum, Te veniente die, te discedente canebam."

"On thee sweet wife was all my song. Morn, evening, and all along."

And Dido upon her Aeneas;

———"et quae me insomnia terrent, Multa viri virtus, et plurima currit imago."

"And ever and anon she thinks upon the man That was so fine, so fair, so blithe, so debonair."

Clitophon, in the first book of Achilles, Tatius, complaineth how that his mistress Leucippe tormented him much more in the night than in the day. [5333]"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."

[5335] ———"te nocte sub atra Alloquor, amplector, falsaque in imagine somni, Gaudia solicitam palpant evanida mentem."

"In the dark night I speak, embrace, and find That fading joys deceive my careful mind."

The same complaint Euryalus makes to his Lucretia, [5336]"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."

[5337] "Nec mihi vespere Surgente decedunt amores, Nec rapidum fugiente solem."

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.

[5339] "O niveam quae te poterit mihi reddere lucem, O mihi felicem terque quaterque diem."

"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;

[5340] "Et quamvis aberat placidae praesentia formae Quem dederat praesens forma, manebat amor."

That impression of her beauty is still fixed in his mind,—[5341]haerent infixi pectora vultus; as he that is bitten with a mad dog thinks all he sees dogs—dogs in his meat, dogs in his dish, dogs in his drink: his mistress is in his eyes, ears, heart, in all his senses. Valleriola had a merchant, his patient, in the same predicament; and [5342]Ulricus Molitor, out of Austin, hath a story of one, that through vehemency of his love passion, still thought he saw his mistress present with him, she talked with him, Et commisceri cum ea vigilans videbatur, still embracing him.

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?

———"Non tam grandes Gargara culmos, quot demerso Pectore curas longa nexas Usque catena, vel quae penitus Crudelis amor vulnera miscet."

"Mount Gargarus hath not so many stems As lover's breast hath grievous wounds, And linked cares, which love compounds."

When the King of Babylon would have punished a courtier of his, for loving of a young lady of the royal blood, and far above his fortunes, [5344] Apollonius in presence by all means persuaded to let him alone; "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.

[5348] ———"alitur et crescit malum, Et ardet intus, qualis Aetnaeo vapor Exundat antro"———

As Aetna rageth, so doth love, and more than Aetna or any material fire.

[5349] ———"Nam amor saepe Lypareo Vulcano ardentiorem flammam incendere solet."

Vulcan's flames are but smoke to this. For fire, saith [5350]Xenophon, burns them alone that stand near it, or touch it; but this fire of love burneth and scorcheth afar off, and is more hot and vehement than any material fire: [5351]Ignis in igne furit, 'tis a fire in a fire, the quintessence of fire. For when Nero burnt Rome, as Calisto urgeth, he fired houses, consumed men's bodies and goods; but this fire devours the soul itself, "and [5352]one soul is worth a hundred thousand bodies." No water can quench this wild fire.

[5353] ———"In pectus coecos absorbuit ignes, Ignes qui nec aqua perimi potuere, nec imbre Diminui, neque graminibus, magicisque susurris."

"A fire he took into his breast, Which water could not quench. Nor herb, nor art, nor magic spells Could quell, nor any drench."

Except it be tears and sighs, for so they may chance find a little ease.

[5354] "Sic candentia colla, sic patens frons, Sic me blanda tui Neaera ocelli, Sic pares minio genae perurunt, Ut ni me lachrymae rigent perennes, Totus in tenues eam favillas."

"So thy white neck, Neaera, me poor soul Doth scorch, thy cheeks, thy wanton eyes that roll: Were it not for my dropping tears that hinder, I should be quite burnt up forthwith to cinder."

This fire strikes like lightning, which made those old Grecians paint Cupid, in many of their [5355]temples, with Jupiter's thunderbolts in his hands; for it wounds, and cannot be perceived how, whence it came, where it pierced. [5356]Urimur, et coecum, pectora vulnus habent, and can hardly be discerned at first.

[5357] ———"Est mollis flamma medullas, Et tacitum insano vivit sub pectore vulnus."

"A gentle wound, an easy fire it was, And sly at first, and secretly did pass."

But by-and-by it began to rage and burn amain;

[5358] ———"Pectus insanum vapor. Amorque torret, intus saevus vorat Penitus medullas, atque per venas meat Visceribus ignis mersus, et venis latens, Ut agilis altas flamma percurrit trabes."

"This fiery vapour rageth in the veins, And scorcheth entrails, as when fire burns A house, it nimbly runs along the beams, And at the last the whole it overturns."

Abraham Hoffemannus, lib. 1. amor conjugal, cap. 2. p. 22. relates out of Plato, how that Empedocles, the philosopher, was present at the cutting up of one that died for love, [5359]"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.

[5361] "Sic quo quis proprior suae puellae est, Hoc stultus proprior suae runinae est."

"The nearer he unto his mistress is, The nearer he unto his ruin is."

So that to say truth, as [5362]Castilio describes it, "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.

[5363] ———"pendent opera interrupta, minaeque Murorum ingentes, aequataque machina coelo."

Lovesick Dido left her work undone, so did [5364]Phaedra,

———"Palladis telae vacant Et inter ipsus pensa labuntur manus."

Faustus, in [5365]Mantuan, took no pleasure in anything he did,

"Nulla quies mihi dulcis erat, nullus labor aegro Pectore, sensus iners, et mens torpore sepulta, Carminis occiderat studium."———

And 'tis the humour of them all, to be careless of their persons and their estates, as the shepherd in [5366]Theocritus, et haec barba inculta est, squalidique capilli, their beards flag, and they have no more care of pranking themselves or of any business, they care not, as they say, which end goes forward.

[5367] "Oblitusque greges, et rura domestica totus [5368] Uritur, et noctes in luctum expendit amaras,

"Forgetting flocks of sheep and country farms, The silly shepherd always mourns and burns."

Lovesick [5369]Chaerea, when he came from Pamphila's house, and had not so good welcome as he did expect, was all amort, Parmeno meets him, quid tristis es? Why art thou so sad man? unde es? whence comest, how doest? but he sadly replies, Ego hercle nescio neque unde eam, neque quorsum eam, ita prorsus oblitus sum mei, I have so forgotten myself, I neither know where I am, nor whence I come, nor whether I will, what I do. P. [5370]"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.

"Non recedam neque quiescam, noctu et interdiu, profecto quam aut ipsam, aut mortem investigavero."

"I'll never rest or cease my suit Till she or death do make me mute."

Parthenis in Aristaenetus [5376]was fully resolved to do as much. "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.

[5382] "Quisquis amat servit, sequitur captivus amantem, Fert domita cervice jugum"———

Samson, David, Solomon, Hercules, Socrates, &c. are justly taxed of indiscretion in this point; the middle sort are between hawk and buzzard; and although they do perceive and acknowledge their own dotage, weakness, fury, yet they cannot withstand it; as well may witness those expostulations and confessions of Dido in Virgil.

[5383] "Incipit effari mediaque in voce resistit."

Phaedra in Seneca.

[5384] "Quod ratio poscit, vincit ac regnat furor, Potensque tota mente dominatur deus."

Myrrha in [5385]. Ovid

"Illa quidem sentit, foedoque repugnat amori, Et secum quo mente feror, quid molior, inquit, Dii precor, et pietas," &c.

"She sees and knows her fault, and doth resist, Against her filthy lust she doth contend. And whither go I, what am I about? And God forbid, yet doth it in the end."

Again,

———"Per vigil igne Carpitur indomito, furiosaque vota retrectat, Et modo desperat, modo vult tentare, pudetque Et cupit, et quid agat, non invenit," &c.

"With raging lust she burns, and now recalls Her vow, and then despairs, and when 'tis past, Her former thoughts she'll prosecute in haste, And what to do she knows not at the last."

She will and will not, abhors: and yet as Medea did, doth it,

———"Trahit invitam nova via, aliudque cupido, Mens aliud suadet; video meliora, proboque, Deteriora sequor."———

"Reason pulls one way, burning lust another, She sees and knows what's good, but she doth neither,"

"O fraus, amorque, et mentis emotae furor, quo me abstulistis?"[5386]

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."

"Rex fueram, sic crista docet, sed sordida vita Immundam e tanto culmine fecit avem."[5389]

"I was a king, my crown my witness is, But by my filthiness am come to this."

Their blindness is all out as great, as manifest as their weakness and dotage, or rather an inseparable companion, an ordinary sign of it, [5390] love is blind, as the saying is, Cupid's blind, and so are all his followers. Quisquis amat ranam, ranam putat esse Dianam. Every lover admires his mistress, though she be very deformed of herself, ill-favoured, wrinkled, pimpled, pale, red, yellow, tanned, tallow-faced, have a swollen juggler's platter face, or a thin, lean, chitty face, have clouds in her face, be crooked, dry, bald, goggle-eyed, blear-eyed, or with staring eyes, she looks like a squissed cat, hold her head still awry, heavy, dull, hollow-eyed, black or yellow about the eyes, or squint-eyed, sparrow-mouthed, Persian hook-nosed, have a sharp fox nose, a red nose, China flat, great nose, nare simo patuloque, a nose like a promontory, gubber-tushed, rotten teeth, black, uneven, brown teeth, beetle browed, a witch's beard, her breath stink all over the room, her nose drop winter and summer, with a Bavarian poke under her chin, a sharp chin, lave eared, with a long crane's neck, which stands awry too, pendulis mammis, "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.

"([5393]Vincit vultus haec Tyndarios, Qui moverunt horrida bellla."

Let Paris himself be judge) renowned Helen comes short, that Rodopheian Phillis, Larissean Coronis, Babylonian Thisbe, Polixena, Laura, Lesbia, &c., your counterfeit ladies were never so fair as she is.

[5394] "Quicquid erit placidi, lepidi, grati, atque faceti, Vivida cunctorum retines Pandora deorum."

"Whate'er is pretty, pleasant, facete, well, Whate'er Pandora had, she doth excel."

[5395]Dicebam Trivioe formam nihil esse Dianoe. Diana was not to be compared to her, nor Juno, nor Minerva, nor any goddess. Thetis' feet were as bright as silver, the ankles of Hebe clearer than crystal, the arms of Aurora as ruddy as the rose, Juno's breasts as white as snow, Minerva wise, Venus fair; but what of this? Dainty come thou to me. She is all in all,

[5396] ———"Caelia ridens Est Venus, incedens Juno, Minerva loquens."

[5397] "Fairest of fair, that fairness doth excel."

Ephemerus in Aristaenetus, so far admireth his mistress' good parts, that he makes proclamation of them, and challengeth all comers in her behalf. [5398]"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.

"No tongue can her perfections tell, In whose each part, all tongues may dwell."

Most of your lovers are of his humour and opinion. She is nulli secunda, a rare creature, a phoenix, the sole commandress of his thoughts, queen of his desires, his only delight: as [5400]Triton now feelingly sings, that lovesick sea-god:

"Candida Leucothoe placet, et placet atra Melaene, Sed Galatea placet longe magis omnibus una."

"Fair Leucothe, black Melene please me well, But Galatea doth by odds the rest excel."

All the gracious elogies, metaphors, hyperbolical comparisons of the best things in the world, the most glorious names; whatsoever, I say, is pleasant, amiable, sweet, grateful, and delicious, are too little for her.

"Phoebo pulchrior et sorore Phoebi."

"His Phoebe is so fair, she is so bright, She dims the sun's lustre, and the moon's light."

Stars, sun, moons, metals, sweet-smelling flowers, odours, perfumes, colours, gold, silver, ivory, pearls, precious stones, snow, painted birds, doves, honey, sugar, spice, cannot express her, [5401]so soft, so tender, so radiant, sweet, so fair is she.—Mollior cuniculi capillo, &c.

[5402] "Lydia bella, puelia candida, Quae bene superas lac, et lilium, Albamque simul rosam et rubicundam, Et expolitum ebur Indicum."

"Fine Lydia, my mistress, white and fair, The milk, the lily do not thee come near; The rose so white, the rose so red to see, And Indian ivory comes short of thee."

Such a description our English Homer makes of a fair lady

[5403] That Emilia that was fairer to seen, Then is lily upon the stalk green: And fresher then May with flowers new, For with the rose colour strove her hue, I no't which was the fairer of the two.

In this very phrase [5404]Polyphemus courts Galatea:

"Candidior folio nivei Galatea ligustri, Floridior prato, longa procerior alno, Splendidior vitro, tenero lascivior haedo, &c. Mollior et cygni plumis, et lacte coacto."

"Whiter Galet than the white withie-wind, Fresher than a field, higher than a tree, Brighter than glass, more wanton than a kid, Softer than swan's down, or ought that may be."

So she admires him again, in that conceited dialogue of Lucian, which John Secundus, an elegant Dutch modern poet, hath translated into verse. When Doris and those other sea nymphs upbraided her with her ugly misshapen lover, Polyphemus; she replies, they speak out of envy and malice,

[5405] "Et plane invidia huc mera vos stimulare videtur. Quod non vos itidem ut me Polyphemus amet;"

Say what they could, he was a proper man. And as Heloise writ to her sweetheart Peter Abelard, Si me Augustus orbis imperator uxorem expeteret, mallem tua esse meretrix quam orbis imperatrix; she had rather be his vassal, his quean, than the world's empress or queen.—non si me Jupiter ipse forte velit,—she would not change her love for Jupiter himself.

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.

"Thou art my Vesta, thou my goddess art, Thy hallowed temple only is my heart."

The fragrancy of a thousand courtesans is in her face: [5408]Nec pulchrae effigies, haec Cypridis aut Stratonices; 'tis not Venus' picture that, nor the Spanish infanta's, as you suppose (good sir), no princess, or king's daughter: no, no, but his divine mistress, forsooth, his dainty Dulcinia, his dear Antiphila, to whose service he is wholly consecrate, whom he alone adores.

[5409] "Cui comparatus indecens erit pavo, Inamabilis sciurus, et frequens Phoenix."

"To whom conferr'd a peacock's indecent, A squirrel's harsh, a phoenix too frequent."

All the graces, veneries, elegancies, pleasures, attend her. He prefers her before a myriad of court ladies.

[5410] "He that commends Phillis or Neraea, Or Amaryllis, or Galatea, Tityrus or Melibea, by your leave, Let him be mute, his love the praises have."

Nay, before all the gods and goddesses themselves. So [5411]Quintus Catullus admired his squint-eyed friend Roscius.

"Pace mihi liceat (Coelestes) dicere vestra, Mortalis visus pulchrior esse Deo."

"By your leave gentle Gods, this I'll say true, There's none of you that have so fair a hue."

All the bombast epithets, pathetical adjuncts, incomparably fair, curiously neat, divine, sweet, dainty, delicious, &c., pretty diminutives, corculum, suaviolum, &c. pleasant names may be invented, bird, mouse, lamb, puss, pigeon, pigsney, kid, honey, love, dove, chicken, &c. he puts on her.

[5412] "Meum mel, mea suavitas, meum cor, Meum suaviolum, mei lepores,"

"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:

"By all kind words and gestures that he might, He calls her his dear heart, his sole beloved, His joyful comfort, and his sweet delight. His mistress, and his goddess, and such names, As loving knights apply to lovely dames."

Every cloth she wears, every fashion pleaseth him above measure; her hand, O quales digitos, quos habet illa manus! pretty foot, pretty coronets, her sweet carriage, sweet voice, tone, O that pretty tone, her divine and lovely looks, her every thing, lovely, sweet, amiable, and pretty, pretty, pretty. Her very name (let it be what it will) is a most pretty, pleasing name; I believe now there is some secret power and virtue in names, every action, sight, habit, gesture; he admires, whether she play, sing, or dance, in what tires soever she goeth, how excellent it was, how well it became her, never the like seen or heard. [5415]Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet. Let her wear what she will, do what she will, say what she will, [5416]Quicquid enim dicit, seu facit, omne decet. He applauds and admires everything she wears, saith or doth,

[5417] "Illam quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia vertit, Composuit furtim subsequiturque decor; Seu solvit crines, fusis decet esse capillis, Seu compsit, comptis est reverenda comis."

"Whate'er she doth, or whither e'er she go, A sweet and pleasing grace attends forsooth; Or loose, or bind her hair, or comb it up, She's to be honoured in what she doth."

[5418]Vestem induitur, formosa est: exuitur, tota forma est, let her be dressed or undressed, all is one, she is excellent still, beautiful, fair, and lovely to behold. Women do as much by men; nay more, far fonder, weaker, and that by many parasangs. "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.

"Be thou the marigold, and I will be the sun, Be thou the friar, and I will be the nun."

I could repeat centuries of such. Now tell me what greater dotage or blindness can there be than this in both sexes? and yet their slavery is more eminent, a greater sign of their folly than the rest.

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.

[5425] "Ipsa comes veniam, neque me salebrosa movebunt Saxa, nec obliquo dente timendus aper."

As Phaedra to Hippolitus. No danger shall affright, for if that be true the poets feign, Love is the son of Mars and Venus; as he hath delights, pleasures, elegances from his mother, so hath he hardness, valour, and boldness from his father. And 'tis true that Bernard hath; Amore nihil mollius, nihil volentius, nothing so boisterous, nothing so tender as love. If once, therefore, enamoured, he will go, run, ride many a mile to meet her, day and night, in a very dark night, endure scorching heat, cold, wait in frost and snow, rain, tempest, till his teeth chatter in his head, those northern winds and showers cannot cool or quench his flame of love. Intempesta nocte non deterretur, he will, take my word, sustain hunger, thirst, Penetrabit omnia, perrumpet omnia, "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,

[5426] "Ignem marisque fluctus, atque turbines Venti paratus est transire,"———

though it rain daggers with their points downward, light or dark, all is one: (Roscida per tenebras Faunus ad antra venit), for her sweet sake he will undertake Hercules's twelve labours, endure, hazard, &c., he feels it not. [5427]"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.

———"Tuus o regina quod optas Explorare labor, mihi jussa capescere fas est."

"O queen it is thy pains to enjoin me still, And I am bound to execute thy will."

And Phaedra to Hippolitus,

"Me vel sororem Hippolite aut famulam voca, Famulamque potius, omne servitium feram."

"O call me sister, call me servant, choose, Or rather servant, I am thine to use."

[5435] "Non me per altas ire si jubeas nives, Pigeat galatis ingredi Pindi jugis, Non si per ignes ire aut infesta agmina Cuncter, paratus [5436]ensibus pectus dare, Te tunc jubere, me decet jussa exequi."

"It shall not grieve me to the snowy hills, Or frozen Pindus' tops forthwith to climb. Or run through fire, or through an army, Say but the word, for I am always thine."

Callicratides in [5437]Lucian breaks out into this passionate speech, "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."

"Haud timet mortem, cupit ire in ipsos ———obvius enses."

"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.

[5444] ———when he felt death, Dusked been his eyes, and faded is his breath But on his lady yet casteth he his eye, His last word was, mercy Emely, His spirit chang'd, and out went there, Whether I cannot tell, ne where.

[5445]When Captain Gobrius by an unlucky accident had received his death's wound, heu me miserum exclamat, miserable man that I am, (instead of other devotions) he cries out, shall I die before I see my sweetheart Rhodanthe? Sic amor mortem, (saith mine author) aut quicquid humanitus accidit, aspernatur, so love triumphs, contemns, insults over death itself. Thirteen proper young men lost their lives for that fair Hippodamias' sake, the daughter of Onomaus, king of Elis: when that hard condition was proposed of death or victory, they made no account of it, but courageously for love died, till Pelops at last won her by a sleight. [5446]As many gallants desperately adventured their dearest blood for Atalanta, the daughter of Schenius, in hope of marriage, all vanquished and overcame, till Hippomenes by a few golden apples happily obtained his suit. Perseus, of old, fought with a sea monster for Andromeda's sake; and our St. George freed the king's daughter of Sabea (the golden legend is mine author) that was exposed to a dragon, by a terrible combat. Our knights errant, and the Sir Lancelots of these days, I hope will adventure as much for ladies' favours, as the Squire of Dames, Knight of the Sun, Sir Bevis of Southampton, or that renowned peer,

[5447] "Orlando, who long time had loved dear Angelica the fair, and for her sake About the world in nations far and near, Did high attempts perform and undertake;"

he is a very dastard, a coward, a block and a beast, that will not do as much, but they will sure, they will; for it is an ordinary thing for these inamoratos of our time to say and do more, to stab their arms, carouse in blood, [5448]or as that Thessalian Thero, that bit off his own thumb, provocans rivalem ad hoc aemulandum, to make his co-rival do as much. 'Tis frequent with them to challenge the field for their lady and mistress' sake, to run a tilt,

[5449] "That either bears (so furiously they meet) The other down under the horses' feet,"

and then up and to it again,

"And with their axes both so sorely pour, That neither plate nor mail sustain'd the stour, But riveld wreak like rotten wood asunder, And fire did flash like lightning after thunder;"

and in her quarrel, to fight so long [5450]"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:

[5455] "Nam si abest quod ames, praesto simulacra tamen sunt Illius, et nomen dulce observatur ad aures."

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,

"And kiss again, and often look thereon, And stay the messenger that would be gone:"

And asked many pretty questions, over and over again, as how he looked, what he did, and what he said? In a word,

[5458] "Vult placere sese amicae, vult mihi, vult pedissequae, Vult famulis, vult etiam ancillis, et catulo meo."

"He strives to please his mistress, and her maid, Her servants, and her dog, and's well apaid."

If he get any remnant of hers, a busk-point, a feather of her fan, a shoe-tie, a lace, a ring, a bracelet of hair,

[5459] "Pignusque direptum lacertis; Aut digito male pertinaci,"

he wears it for a favour on his arm, in his hat, finger, or next his heart. Her picture he adores twice a day, and for two hours together will not look off it; as Laodamia did by Protesilaus, when he went to war, [5460]"'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.

[5462] "O quoties dixi Zephyris properantibus illuc, Felices pulchram visuri Amaryllada venti."

"O happy western winds that blow that way, For you shall see my love's fair face to day."

He will send a message to her by the wind.

[5463] "Vos aurae Alpinae, placidis de montibus aurae, Haec illi portate,"———

[5464]he desires to confer with some of her acquaintance, for his heart is still with her, [5465]to talk of her, admiring and commending her, lamenting, moaning, wishing himself anything for her sake, to have opportunity to see her, O that he might but enjoy her presence! So did Philostratus to his mistress, [5466]"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."

"Ridebunt valles, ridebunt obvia Tempe, In florem viridis protinus ibi humus."

"The fields will laugh, the pleasant valleys burn, And all the grass will into flowers turn."

Omnis Ambrosiam spirabit aura. [5467]"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,