[4645] "Cui in manu sit quem esse dementem velit, Quem sapere, quam in morbum injici," &c.

That can make sick, and cure whom he list. Homer and Stesichorus were both made blind, if you will believe [4646]Leon Hebreus, for speaking against his godhead: and though Aristophanes degrade him, and say that he was [4647]scornfully rejected from the council of the gods, had his wings clipped besides, that he might come no more amongst them, and to his farther disgrace banished heaven for ever, and confined to dwell on earth, yet he is of that [4648]power, majesty, omnipotency, and dominion, that no creature can withstand him.

[4649] "Imperat Cupido etiam diis pro arbitrio, Et ipsum arcere ne armipotens potest Jupiter."

He is more than quarter-master with the gods,

[4650] ———"Tenet Thetide aequor, umbras Aeaco, coelum Jove:"

and hath not so much possession as dominion. Jupiter himself was turned into a satyr, shepherd, a bull, a swan, a golden shower, and what not, for love; that as [4651]Lucian's Juno right well objected to him, ludus amoris tu es, thou art Cupid's whirligig: how did he insult over all the other gods, Mars, Neptune, Pan, Mercury, Bacchus, and the rest? [4652] Lucian brings in Jupiter complaining of Cupid that he could not be quiet for him; and the moon lamenting that she was so impotently besotted on Endymion, even Venus herself confessing as much, how rudely and in what sort her own son Cupid had used her being his [4653]mother, "now drawing her to Mount Ida, for the love of that Trojan Anchises, now to Libanus for that Assyrian youth's sake. And although she threatened to break his bow and arrows, to clip his wings, [4654]and whipped him besides on the bare buttocks with her pantofle, yet all would not serve, he was too headstrong and unruly." That monster-conquering Hercules was tamed by him:

"Quem non mille ferae, quem non Sthenelejus hostis, Nec potuit Juno vincere, vicit amor."

"Whom neither beasts nor enemies could tame, Nor Juno's might subdue, Love quell'd the same."

Your bravest soldiers and most generous spirits are enervated with it, [4655]ubi mulieribus blanditiis permittunt se, et inquinantur amplexibus. Apollo, that took upon him to cure all diseases, [4656]could not help himself of this; and therefore [4657]Socrates calls Love a tyrant, and brings him triumphing in a chariot, whom Petrarch imitates in his triumph of Love, and Fracastorius, in an elegant poem expresseth at large, Cupid riding, Mars and Apollo following his chariot, Psyche weeping, &c.

In vegetal creatures what sovereignty love hath, by many pregnant proofs and familiar examples may be proved, especially of palm-trees, which are both he and she, and express not a sympathy but a love-passion, and by many observations have been confirmed.

[4658] "Vivunt in venerem frondes, omnisque vicissim Felix arbor amat, nutant et mutua palmae Foedera, populeo suspirat populus ictu, Et platano platanus, alnoque assibilat alnus."

Constantine de Agric. lib. 10. cap. 4. gives an instance out of Florentius his Georgics, of a palm-tree that loved most fervently, [4659] "and would not be comforted until such time her love applied herself unto her; you might see the two trees bend, and of their own accords stretch out their boughs to embrace and kiss each other: they will give manifest signs of mutual love." Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 24, reports that they marry one another, and fall in love if they grow in sight; and when the wind brings the smell to them, they are marvellously affected. Philostratus in Imaginibus, observes as much, and Galen lib. 6. de locis affectis, cap. 5. they will be sick for love; ready to die and pine away, which the husbandmen perceiving, saith [4660]Constantine, "stroke many palms that grow together, and so stroking again the palm that is enamoured, they carry kisses from the one to the other:" or tying the leaves and branches of the one to the stem of the other, will make them both flourish and prosper a great deal better: [4661]"which are enamoured, they can perceive by the bending of boughs, and inclination of their bodies." If any man think this which I say to be a tale, let him read that story of two palm-trees in Italy, the male growing at Brundusium, the female at Otranto (related by Jovianus Pontanus in an excellent poem, sometimes tutor to Alphonsus junior, King of Naples, his secretary of state, and a great philosopher) "which were barren, and so continued a long time," till they came to see one another growing up higher, though many stadiums asunder. Pierius in his Hieroglyphics, and Melchior Guilandinus, Mem. 3. tract. de papyro, cites this story of Pontanus for a truth. See more in Salmuth Comment. in Pancirol. de Nova repert. Tit. 1. de novo orbe Mizaldus Arcanorum lib. 2. Sand's Voyages, lib. 2. fol. 103. &c.

If such fury be in vegetals, what shall we think of sensible creatures, how much more violent and apparent shall it be in them!

[4662] "Omne adeo genus in terris hominumque ferarum, Et genus aequoreum, pecudes, pictaeque volucres In furias ignemque ruunt; amor omnibus idem."

"All kind of creatures in the earth, And fishes of the sea, And painted birds do rage alike; This love bears equal sway."

[4663] "Hic Deus et terras et maria alta domat."

Common experience and our sense will inform us how violently brute beasts are carried away with this passion, horses above the rest,—furor est insignis equarum. [4664]"Cupid in Lucian bids Venus his mother be of good cheer, for he was now familiar with lions, and oftentimes did get on their backs, hold them by the mane, and ride them about like horses, and they would fawn upon him with their tails." Bulls, bears, and boars are so furious in this kind they kill one another: but especially cocks, [4665] lions, and harts, which are so fierce that you may hear them fight half a mile off, saith [4666]Turberville, and many times kill each other, or compel them to abandon the rut, that they may remain masters in their places; "and when one hath driven his co-rival away, he raiseth his nose up into the air, and looks aloft, as though he gave thanks to nature," which affords him such great delight. How birds are affected in this kind, appears out of Aristotle, he will have them to sing ob futuram venerem for joy or in hope of their venery which is to come.

[4667] "Aeeriae primum volucres te Diva tuumque significant initum, perculsae corda tua vi."

"Fishes pine away for love and wax lean," if [4668]Gomesius's authority may be taken, and are rampant too, some of them: Peter Gellius, lib. 10. de hist, animal. tells wonders of a triton in Epirus: there was a well not far from the shore, where the country wenches fetched water, they, [4669]tritons, stupri causa would set upon them and carry them to the sea, and there drown them, if they would not yield; so love tyranniseth in dumb creatures. Yet this is natural for one beast to dote upon another of the same kind; but what strange fury is that, when a beast shall dote upon a man? Saxo Grammaticus, lib. 10. Dan. hist. hath a story of a bear that loved a woman, kept her in his den a long time and begot a son of her, out of whose loins proceeded many northern kings: this is the original belike of that common tale of Valentine and Orson: Aelian, Pliny, Peter Gillius, are full of such relations. A peacock in Lucadia loved a maid, and when she died, the peacock pined. [4670]"A dolphin loved a boy called Hernias, and when he died, the fish came on land, and so perished." The like adds Gellius, lib. 10. cap. 22. out of Appion, Aegypt. lib. 15. a dolphin at Puteoli loved a child, would come often to him, let him get on his back, and carry him about, [4671]"and when by sickness the child was taken away, the dolphin died." [4672]"Every book is full" (saith Busbequius, the emperor's orator with the Grand Signior, not long since, ep. 3. legat. Turc.), "and yields such instances, to believe which I was always afraid lest I should be thought to give credit to fables, until I saw a lynx which I had from Assyria, so affected towards one of my men, that it cannot be denied but that he was in love with him. When my man was present, the beast would use many notable enticements and pleasant motions, and when he was going, hold him back, and look after him when he was gone, very sad in his absence, but most jocund when he returned: and when my man went from me, the beast expressed his love with continual sickness, and after he had pined away some few days, died." Such another story he hath of a crane of Majorca, that loved a Spaniard, that would walk any way with him, and in his absence seek about for him, make a noise that he might hear her, and knock at his door, [4673]"and when he took his last farewell, famished herself." Such pretty pranks can love play with birds, fishes, beasts:

([4674]Coelestis aestheris, ponti, terrae claves habet Venus, Solaque istorum omnium imperium obtinet.)

and if all be certain that is credibly reported, with the spirits of the air, and devils of hell themselves, who are as much enamoured and dote (if I may use that word) as any other creatures whatsoever. For if those stories be true that are written of incubus and succubus, of nymphs, lascivious fauns, satyrs, and those heathen gods which were devils, those lascivious Telchines, of whom the Platonists tell so many fables; or those familiar meetings in our days, and company of witches and devils, there is some probability for it. I know that Biarmannus, Wierus, lib. 1. cap. 19. et 24. and some others stoutly deny it, that the devil hath any carnal copulation with women, that the devil takes no pleasure in such facts, they be mere fantasies, all such relations of incubi, succubi, lies and tales; but Austin, lib. 15. de civit. Dei. doth acknowledge it: Erastus de Lamiis, Jacobus Sprenger and his colleagues, &c. [4675] Zanchius, cap. 16. lib. 4. de oper. Dei. Dandinus, in Arist. de Anima, lib. 2. text. 29. com. 30. Bodin, lib. 2. cap. 7. and Paracelsus, a great champion of this tenet amongst the rest, which give sundry peculiar instances, by many testimonies, proofs, and confessions evince it. Hector Boethius, in his Scottish history, hath three or four such examples, which Cardan confirms out of him, lib. 16. cap. 43. of such as have had familiar company many years with them, and that in the habit of men and women Philostratus in his fourth book de vita Apollonii, hath a memorable instance in this kind, which I may not omit, of one Menippus Lycius, a young man twenty-five years of age, that going between Cenchreas and Corinth, met such a phantasm in the habit of a fair gentlewoman, which taking him by the hand, carried him home to her house in the suburbs of Corinth, and told him she was a Phoenician by birth, and if he would tarry with her, [4676]"he should hear her sing and play, and drink such wine as never any drank, and no man should molest him; but she being fair and lovely would live and die with him, that was fair and lovely to behold." The young man a philosopher, otherwise staid and discreet, able to moderate his passions, though not this of love, tarried with her awhile to his great content, and at last married her, to whose wedding, amongst other guests, came Apollonius, who, by some probable conjectures, found her out to be a serpent, a lamia, and that all her furniture was like Tantalus's gold described by Homer, no substance, but mere illusions. When she saw herself descried, she wept, and desired Apollonius to be silent, but he would not be moved, and thereupon she, plate, house, and all that was in it, vanished in an instant: [4677]"many thousands took notice of this fact, for it was done in the midst of Greece." Sabine in his Comment on the tenth of Ovid's Metamorphoses, at the tale of Orpheus, telleth us of a gentleman of Bavaria, that for many months together bewailed the loss of his dear wife; at length the devil in her habit came and comforted him, and told him, because he was so importunate for her, that she would come and live with him again, on that condition he would be new married, never swear and blaspheme as he used formerly to do; for if he did, she should be gone: [4678]"he vowed it, married, and lived with her, she brought him children, and governed his house, but was still pale and sad, and so continued, till one day falling out with him, he fell a swearing; she vanished thereupon, and was never after seen." [4679]"This I have heard," saith Sabine, "from persons of good credit, which told me that the Duke of Bavaria did tell it for a certainty to the Duke of Saxony." One more I will relate out of Florilegus, ad annum 1058, an honest historian of our nation, because he telleth it so confidently, as a thing in those days talked of all over Europe: a young gentleman of Rome, the same day that he was married, after dinner with the bride and his friends went a walking into the fields, and towards evening to the tennis-court to recreate himself; whilst he played, he put his ring upon the finger of Venus statua, which was thereby made in brass; after he had sufficiently played, and now made an end of his sport, he came to fetch his ring, but Venus had bowed her finger in, and he could not get it off. Whereupon loath to make his company tarry at present, there left it, intending to fetch it the next day, or at some more convenient time, went thence to supper, and so to bed. In the night, when he should come to perform those nuptial rites, Venus steps between him and his wife (unseen or felt of her), and told her that she was his wife, that he had betrothed himself unto her by that ring, which he put upon her finger: she troubled him for some following nights. He not knowing how to help himself, made his moan to one Palumbus, a learned magician in those days, who gave him a letter, and bid him at such a time of the night, in such a cross-way, at the town's end, where old Saturn would pass by with his associates in procession, as commonly he did, deliver that script with his own hands to Saturn himself; the young man of a bold spirit, accordingly did it; and when the old fiend had read it, he called Venus to him, who rode before him, and commanded her to deliver his ring, which forthwith she did, and so the gentleman was freed. Many such stories I find in several [4680]authors to confirm this which I have said; as that more notable amongst the rest, of Philinium and Machates in [4681]Phlegon's Tract, de rebus mirabilibus, and though many be against it, yet I, for my part, will subscribe to Lactantius, lib. 14. cap. 15. [4682]"God sent angels to the tuition of men; but whilst they lived amongst us, that mischievous all-commander of the earth, and hot in lust, enticed them by little and little to this vice, and defiled them with the company of women:" and to Anaxagoras, de resurrect. [4683]"Many of those spiritual bodies, overcome by the love of maids, and lust, failed, of whom those were born we call giants." Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, Sulpicius Severus, Eusebius, etc., to this sense make a twofold fall of angels, one from the beginning of the world, another a little before the deluge, as Moses teacheth us, [4684]openly professing that these genii can beget, and have carnal copulation with women. At Japan in the East Indies, at this present (if we may believe the relation of [4685]travellers), there is an idol called Teuchedy, to whom one of the fairest virgins in the country is monthly brought, and left in a private room, in the fotoqui, or church, where she sits alone to be deflowered. At certain times [4686]the Teuchedy (which is thought to be the devil) appears to her, and knoweth her carnally. Every month a fair virgin is taken in; but what becomes of the old, no man can tell. In that goodly temple of Jupiter Belus in Babylon, there was a fair chapel, [4687]saith Herodotus, an eyewitness of it, in which was splendide stratus lectus et apposita mensa aurea, a brave bed, a table of gold, &c., into which no creature came but one only woman, which their god made choice of, as the Chaldean priests told him, and that their god lay with her himself, as at Thebes in Egypt was the like done of old. So that you see this is no news, the devils themselves, or their juggling priests, have played such pranks in all ages. Many divines stiffly contradict this; but I will conclude with [4688]Lipsius, that since "examples, testimonies, and confessions, of those unhappy women are so manifest on the other side, and many even in this our town of Louvain, that it is likely to be so. [4689]One thing I will add, that I suppose that in no age past, I know not by what destiny of this unhappy time, have there ever appeared or showed themselves so many lecherous devils, satyrs, and genii, as in this of ours, as appears by the daily narrations, and judicial sentences upon record." Read more of this question in Plutarch, vit. Numae, Austin de civ. Dei. lib. 15. Wierus, lib. 3. de praestig. Daem. Giraldus Cambrensis, itinerar. Camb. lib. 1. Malleus malefic. quaest. 5. part. 1. Jacobus Reussus, lib. 5. cap. 6. fol. 54. Godelman, lib. 2. cap. 4. Erastus, Valesius de sacra philo. cap. 40. John Nider, Fornicar. lib. 5. cap. 9. Stroz. Cicogna. lib. 3. cap. 3. Delrio, Lipsius Bodine, daemonol. lib. 2. cap. 7. Pererius in Gen. lib. 8. in 6. cap. ver. 2. King James, &c.

SUBSECT. II.—How Love tyranniseth over men. Love, or Heroical Melancholy, his definition, part affected.

You have heard how this tyrant Love rageth with brute beasts and spirits; now let us consider what passions it causeth amongst men. [4690]Improbe amor quid non mortalia pectora cogis? How it tickles the hearts of mortal men, Horresco referens,—I am almost afraid to relate, amazed, [4691]and ashamed, it hath wrought such stupendous and prodigious effects, such foul offences. Love indeed (I may not deny) first united provinces, built cities, and by a perpetual generation makes and preserves mankind, propagates the church; but if it rage it is no more love, but burning lust, a disease, frenzy, madness, hell. [4692]Est orcus ille, vis est immedicabilis, est rabies insana; 'tis no virtuous habit this, but a vehement perturbation of the mind, a monster of nature, wit, and art, as Alexis in [4693]Athenaeus sets it out, viriliter audax, muliebriter timidium, furore praeceps, labore infractum, mel felleum, blanda percussio, &c. It subverts kingdoms, overthrows cities, towns, families, mars, corrupts, and makes a massacre of men; thunder and lightning, wars, fires, plagues, have not done that mischief to mankind, as this burning lust, this brutish passion. Let Sodom and Gomorrah, Troy, (which Dares Phrygius, and Dictis Cretensis will make good) and I know not how many cities bear record,—et fuit ante Helenam, &c., all succeeding ages will subscribe: Joanna of Naples in Italy, Fredegunde and Brunhalt in France, all histories are full of these basilisks. Besides those daily monomachies, murders, effusion of blood, rapes, riot, and immoderate expense, to satisfy their lusts, beggary, shame, loss, torture, punishment, disgrace, loathsome diseases that proceed from thence, worse than calentures and pestilent fevers, those often gouts, pox, arthritis, palsies, cramps, sciatica, convulsions, aches, combustions, &c., which torment the body, that feral melancholy which crucifies the soul in this life, and everlastingly torments in the world to come.

Notwithstanding they know these and many such miseries, threats, tortures, will surely come upon them, rewards, exhortations, e contra; yet either out of their own weakness, a depraved nature, or love's tyranny, which so furiously rageth, they suffer themselves to be led like an ox to the slaughter: (Facilis descensus Averni) they go down headlong to their own perdition, they will commit folly with beasts, men "leaving the natural use of women," as [4694]Paul saith, "burned in lust one towards another, and man with man wrought filthiness."

Semiramis equo, Pasiphae tauro, Aristo Ephesius asinae se commiscuit, Fulvius equae, alii canibus, capris, &c., unde monstra nascuntur aliquando, Centauri, Sylvani, et ad terrorem hominum prodigiosa spectra: Nec cum brutis, sed ipsis hominibus rem habent, quod peccatum Sodomiae vulgo dicitur; et frequens olim vitium apud Orientalis illos fuit, Graecos nimirum, Italos, Afros, Asianos: [4695]Hercules Hylam habuit, Polycletum, Dionem, Perithoonta, Abderum et Phryga; alii et Euristium ab Hercule amatum tradunt. Socrates pulchrorum Adolescentum causa frequens Gymnasium adibat, flagitiosque spectaculo pascebat oculos, quod et Philebus et Phaedon, Rivales, Charmides et [4696]reliqui Platonis Dialogi, satis superque testatum faciunt: quod vero Alcibiades de eodem Socrate loquatur, lubens conticesco, sed et abhorreo; tantum incitamentum praebet libidini. At hunc perstrinxit Theodoretus lib. de curat. graec. affect. cap. ultimo. Quin et ipse Plato suum demiratur Agathonem, Xenophon, Cliniam, Virgilius Alexin, Anacreon Bathyllum: Quod autem de Nerone, Claudio, caeterorumque portentosa libidine memoriae proditum, mallem a Petronio, Suetonio, caeterisque petatis, quando omnem fidem excedat, quam a me expectetis; sed vetera querimur. [4697]Apud Asianos, Turcas, Italos, nunquam frequentius hoc quam hodierno die vitium; Diana Romanorum Sodomia; officinae horum alicubi apud Turcas,—"qui saxis semina mandant"—arenas arantes; et frequentes querelae, etiam inter ipsos conjuges hac de re, "quae virorum concubitum illicitum calceo in oppositam partem verso magistratui indicant"; nullum apud Italos familiare magis peccatum, qui et post [4698]Lucianum et [4699]Tatium, scriptis voluminibis defendunt. Johannes de la Casa, Beventinus Episcopus, divinum opus vocat, suave scelus, adeoque jactat, se non alia, usum Venere. Nihil usitatius apud monachos, Cardinales, sacrificulos, etiam [4700]furor hic ad mortem, ad insaniam. [4701]Angelus Politianus, ob pueri amorem, violentas sibi inanus injecit. Et horrendum sane dictu, quantum apud nos patrum memoria, scelus detestandum hoc saevierit! Quum enim Anno 1538. "prudentissimus Rex Henricus Octavus cucullatorum coenobia, et sacrificorum collegia, votariorum, per venerabiles legum Doctores Thomam Leum, Richardum Laytonum visitari fecerat, &c., tanto numero reperti sunt apud eos scortatores, cinaedi, ganeones, paedicones, puerarii, paederastae, Sodomitae", ([4702]Balei verbis utor) "Ganimedes, &c. ut in unoquoque eorum novam credideris Gomorrham". Sed vide si lubet eorundem Catalogum apud eundem Balcum; "Puellae" (inquit) "in lectis dormire non poterant ob fratres necromanticos". Haec si apud votarios, monachos, sanctos scilicet homunciones, quid in foro, quid in aula factum suspiceris? quid apud nobiles, quid inter fornices, quam non foeditatem, quam non spurcitiem? Sileo interim turpes illas, et ne nominandas quidem monachorum [4703] mastrupationes, masturbatores. [4704]Rodericus a Castro vocat, tum et eos qui se invicem ad Venerem excitandam flagris caedunt, Spintrias, Succubas, Ambubeias, et lasciviente lumbo Tribades illas mulierculas, quae se invicem fricant, et praeter Eunuchos etiam ad Venerem explendam, artificiosa illa veretra habent. Immo quod magis mirere, faemina foeminam Constantinopoli non ita pridem deperiit, ausa rem plane incredibilem, mutato cultu mentita virum de nuptiis sermonem init, et brevi nupta est: sed authorem ipsum consule, Busbequium. Omitto [4705]Salanarios illos Egyptiacos, qui cum formosarum cadaveribus concumbunt; et eorum vesanam libidinem, qui etiam idola et imagines depereunt. Nota est fabula Pigmalionis apud [4706]Ovidium; Mundi et Paulini apud Aegesippum belli Jud. lib. 2. cap. 4. Pontius C. Caesaris legatus, referente Plinio, lib. 35. cap. 3. quem suspicor eum esse qui Christum crucifixit, picturis Atalantae et Helenae adeo libidine incensus, ut tollere eas vellet si natura tectorii permisisset, alius statuam bonae Fortunae deperiit (Aelianus, lib. 9. cap. 37.) alius bonae deae, et ne qua pars probro vacet. [4707]"Raptus ad stupra" (quod ait ille) "et ne [4708]os quidem a libidine exceptum." Heliogabalus, per omnia cava corporis libidinem recepit, Lamprid. vita ejus. [4709]Hostius quidam specula fecit, et ita disposuit, ut quum virum ipse pateretur, aversus omnes admissarii motus in speculo videret, ac deinde falsa magnitudine ipsius membri tanquam vera gauderet, simul virum et foeminam passus, quod dictu foedum et abominandum. Ut veram plane sit, quod apud [4710]Plutarchum Gryllus Ulyssi objecit. "Ad hunc usque diem apud nos neque mas marem, neque foemina foeminam amavit, qualia multa apud vos memorabiles et praeclari viri fecerunt: ut viles missos faciam, Hercules imberbem sectans socium, amicos deseruit, &c. Vestrae libidines intra suos naturae fines coerceri non possunt, quin instar fluvii exundantis atrocem foeditatum, tumultum, confusionemque naturae gignant in re Venerea: nam et capras, porcos, equos inierunt viri et foeminae, insano bestiarum amore exarserunt, imde Minotauri, Centauri, Sylvani, Sphinges", &c. Sed ne confutando doceam, aut ea foras efferam, quae, non omnes scire convenit (haec enim doctis solummodo, quod causa non absimili [4711]Rodericus, scripta velim) ne levissomis ingentis et depravatis mentibus foedissimi sceleris notitiam, &c., nolo quem diutius hisce sordibus inquinare.

I come at last to that heroical love which is proper to men and women, is a frequent cause of melancholy, and deserves much rather to be called burning lust, than by such an honourable title. There is an honest love, I confess, which is natural, laqueus occultus captivans corda hominum, ut a mulieribus non possint separari, "a secret snare to captivate the hearts of men," as [4712]Christopher Fonseca proves, a strong allurement, of a most attractive, occult, adamantine property, and powerful virtue, and no man living can avoid it. [4713]Et qui vim non sensit amoris, aut lapis est, aut bellua. He is not a man but a block, a very stone, aut [4714]Numen, aut Nebuchadnezzar, he hath a gourd for his head, a pepon for his heart, that hath not felt the power of it, and a rare creature to be found, one in an age, Qui nunquam visae flagravit amore puellae; [4715]for semel insanivimus omnes, dote we either young or old, as [4716]he said, and none are excepted but Minerva and the Muses: so Cupid in [4717]Lucian complains to his mother Venus, that amongst all the rest his arrows could not pierce them. But this nuptial love is a common passion, an honest, for men to love in the way of marriage; ut materia appetit formam, sic mulier virum. [4718]You know marriage is honourable, a blessed calling, appointed by God himself in Paradise; it breeds true peace, tranquillity, content, and happiness, qua nulla est aut fuit unquam sanctior conjunctio, as Daphnaeus in [4719]Plutarch could well prove, et quae generi humano immortalitatem parat, when they live without jarring, scolding, lovingly as they should do.

[4720] "Felices ter et amplius Quos irrupta tenet copula, nec ullis Divulsus querimoniis Suprema citius solvit amor die."

"Thrice happy they, and more than that, Whom bond of love so firmly ties, That without brawls till death them part, 'Tis undissolv'd and never dies."

As Seneca lived with his Paulina, Abraham and Sarah, Orpheus and Eurydice, Arria and Poetus, Artemisia and Mausolus, Rubenius Celer, that would needs have it engraven on his tomb, he had led his life with Ennea, his dear wife, forty-three years eight months, and never fell out. There is no pleasure in this world comparable to it, 'tis summum mortalitatis bonum— [4721]hominum divumque voluptas, Alma Venus—latet enim in muliere aliquid majus potentiusque, omnibus aliis humanis voluptatibus, as [4722]one holds, there's something in a woman beyond all human delight; a magnetic virtue, a charming quality, an occult and powerful motive. The husband rules her as head, but she again commands his heart, he is her servant, she is only joy and content: no happiness is like unto it, no love so great as this of man and wife, no such comfort as [4723]placens uxor, a sweet wife: [4724]Omnis amor magnus, sed aperto in conjuge major. When they love at last as fresh as they did at first, [4725]Charaque charo consenescit conjugi, as Homer brings Paris kissing Helen, after they had been married ten years, protesting withal that he loved her as dear as he did the first hour that he was betrothed. And in their old age, when they make much of one another, saying, as he did to his wife in the poet,

[4726] "Uxor vivamus quod viximus, et moriamur, Servantes nomen sumpsimus in thalamo; Nec ferat ulla dies ut commutemur in aevo, Quin tibi sim juvenis, tuque puella mihi."

"Dear wife, let's live in love, and die together, As hitherto we have in all good will: Let no day change or alter our affections. But let's be young to one another still."

Such should conjugal love be, still the same, and as they are one flesh, so should they be of one mind, as in an aristocratical government, one consent, [4727]Geyron-like, coalescere in unum, have one heart in two bodies, will and nill the same. A good wife, according to Plutarch, should be as a looking-glass to represent her husband's face and passion: if he be pleasant, she should be merry: if he laugh, she should smile: if he look sad, she should participate of his sorrow, and bear a part with him, and so should they continue in mutual love one towards another.

[4728] "Et me ab amore tuo deducet nulla senectus, Sive ego Tythonus, sive ego Nestor ero."

"No age shall part my love from thee, sweet wife, Though I live Nestor or Tithonus' life."

And she again to him, as the [4729]Bride saluted the Bridegroom of old in Rome, Ubi tu Caius, ego semper Caia, be thou still Caius, I'll be Caia.

'Tis a happy state this indeed, when the fountain is blessed (saith Solomon, Prov. v. 17.) "and he rejoiceth with the wife of his youth, and she is to him as the loving hind and pleasant roe, and he delights in her continually." But this love of ours is immoderate, inordinate, and not to be comprehended in any bounds. It will not contain itself within the union of marriage, or apply to one object, but is a wandering, extravagant, a domineering, a boundless, an irrefragable, a destructive passion: sometimes this burning lust rageth after marriage, and then it is properly called jealousy; sometimes before, and then it is called heroical melancholy; it extends sometimes to co-rivals, &c., begets rapes, incests, murders: Marcus Antonius compressit Faustinam sororem, Caracalla Juliam Novercam, Nero Matrem, Caligula sorores, Cyneras Myrrham filiam, &c. But it is confined within no terms of blood, years, sex, or whatsoever else. Some furiously rage before they come to discretion, or age. [4730]Quartilla in Petronius never remembered she was a maid; and the wife of Bath, in Chaucer, cracks,

Since I was twelve years old, believe, Husbands at Kirk-door had I five.

[4731]Aratine Lucretia sold her maidenhead a thousand times before she was twenty-four years old, plus milies vendiderant virginitatem, &c. neque te celabo, non deerant qui ut integram ambirent. Rahab, that harlot, began to be a professed quean at ten years of age, and was but fifteen when she hid the spies, as [4732]Hugh Broughton proves, to whom Serrarius the Jesuit, quaest. 6. in cap. 2. Josue, subscribes. Generally women begin pubescere, as they call it, or catullire, as Julius Pollux cites, lib. 2. cap. 3. onomast out of Aristophanes, [4733]at fourteen years old, then they do offer themselves, and some plainly rage. [4734]Leo Afer saith, that in Africa a man shall scarce find a maid at fourteen years of age, they are so forward, and many amongst us after they come into the teens do not live without husbands, but linger. What pranks in this kind the middle ages have played is not to be recorded. Si mihi sint centum linguae, sint oraque centum, no tongue can sufficiently declare, every story is full of men and women's insatiable lust, Nero's, Heliogabali, Bonosi, &c. [4735] Coelius Amphilenum, sed Quintius Amphelinam depereunt, &c. They neigh after other men's wives (as Jeremia, cap. v. 8. complaineth) like fed horses, or range like town bulls, raptores virginum et viduarum, as many of our great ones do. Solomon's wisdom was extinguished in this fire of lust, Samson's strength enervated, piety in Lot's daughters quite forgot, gravity of priesthood in Eli's sons, reverend old age in the Elders that would violate Susanna, filial duty in Absalom to his stepmother, brotherly love in Ammon. towards his sister. Human, divine laws, precepts, exhortations, fear of God and men, fair, foul means, fame, fortune, shame, disgrace, honour cannot oppose, stave off, or withstand the fury of it, omnia vincit amor, &c. No cord nor cable can so forcibly draw, or hold so fast, as love can do with, a twined thread. The scorching beams under the equinoctial, or extremity of cold within the circle arctic, where the very seas are frozen, cold or torrid zone, cannot avoid or expel this heat, fury, and rage of mortal men.

[4736] "Quo fugis ab demens, nulla est fuga, tu licet usque Ad Tanaim fugias, usque sequetur amor."

Of women's unnatural, [4737]insatiable lust, what country, what village doth not complain? Mother and daughter sometimes dote on the same man, father and son, master and servant, on one woman.

[4738] "—Sed amor, sed ineffrenata libido, Quid castum in terris intentatumque reliquit?"

What breach of vows and oaths, fury, dotage, madness, might I reckon up? Yet this is more tolerable in youth, and such as are still in their hot blood; but for an old fool to dote, to see an old lecher, what more odious, what can be more absurd? and yet what so common? Who so furious?[4739] Amare ea aetate si occiperint, multo insaniunt acrius. Some dote then more than ever they did in their youth. How many decrepit, hoary, harsh, writhen, bursten-bellied, crooked, toothless, bald, blear-eyed, impotent, rotten, old men shall you see flickering still in every place? One gets him a young wife, another a courtesan, and when he can scarce lift his leg over a sill, and hath one foot already in Charon's boat, when he hath the trembling in his joints, the gout in his feet, a perpetual rheum in his head, "a continuate cough," [4740]his sight fails him, thick of hearing, his breath stinks, all his moisture is dried up and gone, may not spit from him, a very child again, that cannot dress himself, or cut his own meat, yet he will be dreaming of, and honing after wenches, what can be more unseemly? Worse it is in women than in men, when she is aetate declivis, diu vidua, mater olim, parum decore matrimonium sequi videtur, an old widow, a mother so long since ([4741]in Pliny's opinion), she doth very unseemly seek to marry, yet whilst she is [4742]so old a crone, a beldam, she can neither see, nor hear, go nor stand, a mere [4743]carcass, a witch, and scarce feel; she caterwauls, and must have a stallion, a champion, she must and will marry again, and betroth herself to some young man, [4744]that hates to look on, but for her goods; abhors the sight of her, to the prejudice of her good name, her own undoing, grief of friends, and ruin of her children.

But to enlarge or illustrate this power and effects of love, is to set a candle in the sun. [4745]It rageth with all sorts and conditions of men, yet is most evident among such as are young and lusty, in the flower of their years, nobly descended, high fed, such as live idly, and at ease; and for that cause (which our divines call burning lust) this [4746]ferinus insanus amor, this mad and beastly passion, as I have said, is named by our physicians heroical love, and a more honourable title put upon it, Amor nobilis, as [4747]Savanarola styles it, because noble men and women make a common practice of it, and are so ordinarily affected with it. Avicenna, lib. 3. Fen, 1. tract. 4. cap. 23. calleth this passion Ilishi, and defines it [4748]"to be a disease or melancholy vexation, or anguish of mind, in which a man continually meditates of the beauty, gesture, manners of his mistress, and troubles himself about it:" desiring, (as Savanarola adds) with all intentions and eagerness of mind, "to compass or enjoy her, [4749]as commonly hunters trouble themselves about their sports, the covetous about their gold and goods, so is he tormented still about his mistress." Arnoldus Villanovanus, in his book of heroical love, defines it, [4750]"a continual cogitation of that which he desires, with a confidence or hope of compassing it;" which definition his commentator cavils at. For continual cogitation is not the genus but a symptom of love; we continually think of that which we hate and abhor, as well as that which we love; and many things we covet and desire, without all hope of attaining. Carolus a Lorme, in his Questions, makes a doubt, An amor sit morbus, whether this heroical love be a disease: Julius Pollux Onomast. lib. 6. cap. 44. determines it. They that are in love are likewise [4751]sick; lascivus, salax, lasciviens, et qui in venerem furit, vere est aegrotus, Arnoldus will have it improperly so called, and a malady rather of the body than mind. Tully, in his Tusculans, defines it a furious disease of the mind. Plato, madness itself. Ficinus, his Commentator, cap. 12. a species of madness, "for many have run mad for women," Esdr. iv. 26. But [4752]Rhasis "a melancholy passion:" and most physicians make it a species or kind of melancholy (as will appear by the symptoms), and treat of it apart; whom I mean to imitate, and to discuss it in all his kinds, to examine his several causes, to show his symptoms, indications, prognostics, effect, that so it may be with more facility cured.

The part affected in the meantime, as [4753]Arnoldus supposeth, "is the former part of the head for want of moisture," which his Commentator rejects. Langius, med. epist. lib. 1. cap. 24. will have this passion seated in the liver, and to keep residence in the heart, [4754]"to proceed first from the eyes so carried by our spirits, and kindled with imagination in the liver and heart;" coget amare jecur, as the saying is. Medium feret per epar, as Cupid in Anacreon. For some such cause belike [4755] Homer feigns Titius' liver (who was enamoured of Latona) to be still gnawed by two vultures day and night in hell, [4756]"for that young men's bowels thus enamoured, are so continually tormented by love." Gordonius, cap. 2. part. 2. [4757]"will have the testicles an immediate subject or cause, the liver an antecedent." Fracastorius agrees in this with Gordonius, inde primitus imaginatio venerea, erectio, &c. titillatissimam partem vocat, ita ut nisi extruso semine gestiens voluptas non cessat, nec assidua veneris recordatio, addit Gnastivinius Comment. 4. Sect. prob. 27. Arist. But [4758]properly it is a passion of the brain, as all other melancholy, by reason of corrupt imagination, and so doth Jason Pratensis, c. 19. de morb. cerebri (who writes copiously of this erotical love), place and reckon it amongst the affections of the brain. [4759]Melancthon de anima confutes those that make the liver a part affected, and Guianerius, Tract. 15. cap. 13 et 17. though many put all the affections in the heart, refers it to the brain. Ficinus, cap. 7. in Convivium Platonis, "will have the blood to be the part affected." Jo. Frietagius, cap. 14. noct. med. supposeth all four affected, heart, liver, brain, blood; but the major part concur upon the brain, [4760]'tis imaginatio laesa; and both imagination and reason are misaffected;, because of his corrupt judgment, and continual meditation of that which he desires, he may truly be said to be melancholy. If it be violent, or his disease inveterate, as I have determined in the precedent partitions, both imagination and reason are misaffected, first one, then the other.

MEMB. II.

SUBSECT. I.—Causes of Heroical Love, Temperature, full Diet, Idleness, Place, Climate, &c.

Of all causes the remotest are stars. [4761]Ficinus cap. 19. saith they are most prone to this burning lust, that have Venus in Leo in their horoscope, when the Moon and Venus be mutually aspected, or such as be of Venus' complexion. [4762]Plutarch interprets astrologically that tale of Mars and Venus, "in whose genitures [Symbol: Mars] and [Symbol: Mars] are in conjunction," they are commonly lascivious, and if women queans; as the good wife of Bath confessed in Chaucer;

I followed aye mine inclination, By virtue of my constellation.

But of all those astrological aphorisms which I have ever read, that of Cardan is most memorable, for which howsoever he is bitterly censured by [4763]Marinus Marcennus, a malapert friar, and some others (which [4764] he himself suspected) yet methinks it is free, downright, plain and ingenious. In his [4765]eighth Geniture, or example, he hath these words of himself, [Symbol: Mars] [Symbol: Mars] and [Symbol: Mercury] in [Symbol: Mercury] dignitatibus assiduam mihi Venereorum cogitationem praestabunt, ita ut nunquam quiescam. Et paulo post, Cogitatio Venereorum me torquet perpetuo, et quam facto implere non licuit, aut fecisse potentem puduit, cogitatione assidua mentitus sum voluptatem. Et alibi, ob [Symbol: Moon-3/4] et [Symbol: Mercury] dominium et radiorum mixtionem, profundum fuit ingenium, sed lascivum, egoque turpi libidini deditus et obscaenus. So far Cardan of himself, quod de se fatetur ideo [4766]ut utilitatem adferat studiosis hujusce disciplinae, and for this he is traduced by Marcennus, when as in effect he saith no more than what Gregory Nazianzen of old, to Chilo his scholar, offerebant se mihi visendae mulieres, quarum praecellenti elegantia et decore spectabili tentabatur meae. integritas pudicitiae. Et quidem flagitium vitavi fornicationis, at munditiae virginalis florem arcana cordis cogitatione foedavi. Sed ad rem. Aptiores ad masculinam venerem sunt quorum genesi Venus est in signo masculino, et in Saturni finibus aut oppositione, &c. Ptolomeus in quadripart. plura de his et specialia habet aphorismata, longo proculdubio usu confirmata, et ab experientia multa perfecta, inquit commentator ejus Cardanus. Tho. Campanella Astrologiae lib. 4. cap. 8. articulis 4 and 5. insaniam amatoriam remonstrantia, multa prae caeteris accumulat aphorismata, quae qui volet, consulat. Chiromantici ex cingulo Veneris plerumque conjecturam faciunt, et monte Veneris, de quorum decretis, Taisnerum, Johan. de Indagine, Goclenium, ceterosque si lubet, inspicias. Physicians divine wholly from the temperature and complexion; phlegmatic persons are seldom taken, according to Ficinus Comment, cap. 9; naturally melancholy less than they, but once taken they are never freed; though many are of opinion flatuous or hypochondriacal melancholy are most subject of all others to this infirmity. Valescus assigns their strong imagination for a cause, Bodine abundance of wind, Gordonius of seed, and spirits, or atomi in the seed, which cause their violent and furious passions. Sanguine thence are soon caught, young folks most apt to love, and by their good wills, saith [4767]Lucian, "would have a bout with every one they see:" the colt's evil is common to all complexions. Theomestus a young and lusty gallant acknowledgeth (in the said author) all this to be verified in him, "I am so amorously given, [4768]you may sooner number the sea-sands, and snow falling from the skies, than my several loves. Cupid had shot all his arrows at me, I am deluded with various desires, one love succeeds another, and that so soon, that before one is ended, I begin with a second; she that is last is still fairest, and she that is present pleaseth me most: as an hydra's head my loves increase, no Iolaus can help me. Mine eyes are so moist a refuge and sanctuary of love, that they draw all beauties to them, and are never satisfied. I am in a doubt what fury of Venus this should be: alas, how have I offended her so to vex me, what Hippolitus am I!" What Telchine is my genius? or is it a natural imperfection, an hereditary passion? Another in [4769]Anacreon confesseth that he had twenty sweethearts in Athens at once, fifteen at Corinth, as many at Thebes, at Lesbos, and at Rhodes, twice as many in Ionia, thrice in Caria, twenty thousand in all: or in a word, [Greek: ei phulla, panta], &c.

"Folia arborum omnium si Nosti referre cuncta, Aut computare arenas In aequore universas, Solum meorum amorum Te fecero logistam?"

"Canst count the leaves in May, Or sands i' th' ocean sea? Then count my loves I pray."

His eyes are like a balance, apt to propend each way, and to be weighed down with every wench's looks, his heart a weathercock, his affection tinder, or naphtha itself, which every fair object, sweet smile, or mistress's favour sets on fire. Guianerius tract 15. cap. 14. refers all this [4770]to "the hot temperature of the testicles," Ferandus a Frenchman in his Erotique Mel. (which [4771]book came first to my hands after the third edition) to certain atomi in the seed, "such as are very spermatic and full of seed." I find the same in Aristot. sect. 4. prob. 17. si non secernatur semen, cessare tentigines non possunt, as Gaustavinius his commentator translates it: for which cause these young men that be strong set, of able bodies, are so subject to it. Hercules de Saxonia hath the same words in effect. But most part I say, such as are aptest to love that are young and lusty, live at ease, stall-fed, free from cares, like cattle in a rank pasture, idle and solitary persons, they must needs hirquitullire, as Guastavinius recites out of Censorinus.

[4772] "Mens erit apta capi tum quum laetissima rerum. Ut seges in pingui luxuriabit humo."

"The mind is apt to lust, and hot or cold, As corn luxuriates in a better mould."

The place itself makes much wherein we live, the clime, air, and discipline if they concur. In our Misnia, saith Galen, near to Pergamus, thou shalt scarce find an adulterer, but many at Rome, by reason of the delights of the seat. It was that plenty of all things, which made [4773]Corinth so infamous of old, and the opportunity of the place to entertain those foreign comers; every day strangers came in, at each gate, from all quarters. In that one temple of Venus a thousand whores did prostitute themselves, as Strabo writes, besides Lais and the rest of better note: all nations resorted thither, as to a school of Venus. Your hot and southern countries are prone to lust, and far more incontinent than those that live in the north, as Bodine discourseth at large, Method, hist. cap. 5. Molles Asiatici, so are Turks, Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, even all that latitude; and in those tracts, such as are more fruitful, plentiful, and delicious, as Valence in Spain, Capua in Italy, domicilium luxus Tully terms it, and (which Hannibal's soldiers can witness) Canopus in Egypt, Sybaris, Phoeacia, Baiae, [4774]Cyprus, Lampsacus. In [4775]Naples the fruit of the soil and pleasant air enervate their bodies, and alter constitutions: insomuch that Florus calls it Certamen Bacchi et Veneris, but [4776]Foliot admires it. In Italy and Spain they have their stews in every great city, as in Rome, Venice, Florence, wherein, some say, dwell ninety thousand inhabitants, of which ten thousand are courtesans; and yet for all this, every gentleman almost hath a peculiar mistress; fornications, adulteries, are nowhere so common: urbs est jam tota lupanar; how should a man live honest amongst so many provocations? now if vigour of youth, greatness, liberty I mean, and that impunity of sin which grandees take unto themselves in this kind shall meet, what a gap must it needs open to all manner of vice, with what fury will it rage? For, as Maximus Tyrius the Platonist observes, libido consequuta quum fuerit materiam improbam et praeruptam licentiam, et effrenatam audaciam, &c., what will not lust effect in such persons? For commonly princes and great men make no scruple at all of such matters, but with that whore in Spartian, quicquid libet licet, they think they may do what they list, profess it publicly, and rather brag with Proculus (that writ to a friend of his in Rome, [4777]what famous exploits he had done in that kind) than any way be abashed at it. [4778]Nicholas Sanders relates of Henry VIII. (I know not how truly) Quod paucas vidit pulchriores quas non concupierit, et paucissimas non concupierit quas non violarit, "He saw very few maids that he did not desire, and desired fewer whom he did not enjoy:" nothing so familiar amongst them, 'tis most of their business: Sardanapalus, Messalina, and Joan of Naples, are not comparable to [4779]meaner men and women; Solomon of old had a thousand concubines; Ahasuerus his eunuchs and keepers; Nero his Tigillinus panders, and bawds; the Turks, [4780] Muscovites, Mogors, Xeriffs of Barbary, and Persian Sophies, are no whit inferior to them in our times. Delectus fit omnium puellarum toto regno forma praestantiorum (saith Jovius) pro imperatore; et quas ille linquit, nobiles habent; they press and muster up wenches as we do soldiers, and have their choice of the rarest beauties their countries can afford, and yet all this cannot keep them from adultery, incest, sodomy, buggery, and such prodigious lusts. We may conclude, that if they be young, fortunate, rich, high-fed, and idle withal, it is almost impossible that they should live honest, not rage, and precipitate themselves into these inconveniences of burning lust.

[4781] "Otium et reges prius et beatas Perdidit urbes."

Idleness overthrows all, Vacuo pectore regnat amor, love tyranniseth in an idle person. Amore abundas Antiphio. If thou hast nothing to do,[4782] Invidia vel amore miser torquebere—Thou shalt be haled in pieces with envy, lust, some passion or other. Homines nihil agendo male agere discunt; 'tis Aristotle's simile, [4783]"as match or touchwood takes fire, so doth an idle person love." Quaeritur Aegistus quare sit factus adulter, &c., why was Aegistus a whoremaster? You need not ask a reason of it. Ismenedora stole Baccho, a woman forced a man, as [4784]Aurora did Cephalus: no marvel, saith [4785]Plutarch, Luxurians opibus more hominum mulier agit: she was rich, fortunate and jolly, and doth but as men do in that case, as Jupiter did by Europa, Neptune by Amymone. The poets therefore did well to feign all shepherds lovers, to give themselves to songs and dalliances, because they lived such idle lives. For love, as [4786]Theophrastus defines it, is otiosi animi affectus, an affection of an idle mind, or as [4787]Seneca describes it, Juventa gignitur, juxu nutritur, feriis alitur, otioque inter laeta fortunae bonae; youth begets it, riot maintains it, idleness nourisheth it, &c. which makes [4788] Gordonius the physician cap. 20. part. 2. call this disease the proper passion of nobility. Now if a weak judgment and a strong apprehension do concur, how, saith Hercules de Saxonia, shall they resist? Savanarola appropriates it almost to [4789]"monks, friars, and religious persons, because they live solitarily, fair daintily, and do nothing:" and well he may, for how should they otherwise choose?

Diet alone is able to cause it: a rare thing to see a young man or a woman that lives idly and fares well, of what condition soever, not to be in love. [4790]Alcibiades was still dallying with wanton young women, immoderate in his expenses, effeminate in his apparel, ever in love, but why? he was over-delicate in his diet, too frequent and excessive in banquets, Ubicunque securitas, ibi libido dominatur; lust and security domineer together, as St. Hierome averreth. All which the wife of Bath in Chaucer freely justifies,

For all to sicker, as cold engendreth hail, A liquorish tongue must have a liquorish tail.

Especially if they shall further it by choice diet, as many times those Sybarites and Phaeaces do, feed liberally, and by their good will eat nothing else but lascivious meats. [4791]Vinum imprimis generosum, legumen, fabas, radices omnium generum bene conditas, et largo pipere aspersas, carduos hortulanos, lactucas, [4792]erucas, rapas, porros, caepas, nucem piceam, amygdalas dulces, electuaria, syrupos, succos, cochleas, conchas, pisces optime praeparatos, aviculas, testiculos animalium, ova, condimenta diversorum generum, molles lectos, pulvinaria, &c. Et quicquid fere medici impotentia rei venereae laboranti praescribunt, hoc quasi diasatyrion habent in delitiis, et his dapes multo delicatiores; mulsum, exquisitas et exoticas fruges, aromata, placentas, expressos succos multis ferculis variatos, ipsumque vinum suavitate vincentes, et quicquid culina, pharmacopaea, aut quaeque fere officina subministrare possit. Et hoc plerumque victu quum se ganeones infarciant, [4793]ut ille ob Chreseida suam, se bulbis et cochleis curavit; etiam ad Venerem se parent, et ad hanc palestram se exerceant, qui fieri possit, ut non misere depereant, [4794]ut non penitus insaniant? Aestuans venter cito despuit in libidinem, Hieronymus ait. [4795]Post prandia, Callyroenda. Quis enim continere se potest? [4796]Luxuriosa res vinum, fomentum libidinis vocat Augustinus, blandum daemonem, Bernardus; lac veneris, Aristophanes. Non Aetna, non Vesuvius tantis ardoribus aestuant, ac juveniles medullae vino plenae, addit [4797]Hieronymus: unde ob optimum vinum Lamsacus olim Priapo sacer: et venerandi Bacchi socia apud [4798] Orpheum Venus audit. Haec si vinum simplex, et per se sumptum praestare possit, nam—[4799]quo me Bacche rapis tui plenum? quam non insaniam, quem non furorem a caeteris expectemus? [4800]Gomesius salem enumerat inter ea quae intempstivam libidinem provocare solent, et salatiores fieri foeminas ob esum salis contendit: Venerem ideo dicunt ab Oceano ortam.

[4801] "Unde tot in Veneta scortorum millia cur stint? In promptu causa est, est Venus orta mari."

Et hinc foeta mater Salacea Oceani conjux, verbumque fortasse salax a sale effluxit. Mala Bacchica tantum olim in amoribus praevaluerunt, ut coronae ex illis statuae Bacchi ponerentur. [4802]Cubebis in vino maceratis utuntur Indi Orientales ad Venerem excitandum, et [4803]Surax radice Africani. Chinae radix eosdem effectus habet, talisque herbae meminit mag. nat. lib. 2. cap. 16. [4804]Baptista Porta ex India allatae, cujus mentionem facit et Theophrastus. Sed infinita his similia apud Rhasin, Matthiolum, Mizaldum, caeterosque medicos occurrunt, quorum ideo mentionem feci, ne quis imperitior in hos scopulas impingat, sed pro virili tanquam syrtes et cautes consulto effugiat.

SUBSECT. II.—Other causes of Love-Melancholy, Sight, Being from the Face, Eyes, other parts, and how it pierceth.

Many such causes may be reckoned up, but they cannot avail, except opportunity be offered of time, place, and those other beautiful objects, or artificial enticements, as kissing, conference, discourse, gestures concur, with such like lascivious provocations. Kornmannus, in his book de linea amoris, makes five degrees of lust, out of [4805]Lucian belike, which he handles in five chapters, Visus, Colloquium, Convictus, Oscula, Tactus. [4806]Sight, of all other, is the first step of this unruly love, though sometime it be prevented by relation or hearing, or rather incensed. For there be those so apt, credulous, and facile to love, that if they hear of a proper man, or woman, they are in love before they see them, and that merely by relation, as Achilles Tatius observes. [4807]"Such is their intemperance and lust, that they are as much maimed by report, as if they saw them. Callisthenes a rich young gentleman of Byzance in Thrace, hearing of [4808]Leucippe, Sostratus' fair daughter, was far in love with her, and, out of fame and common rumour, so much incensed, that he would needs have her to be his wife." And sometimes by reading they are so affected, as he in [4809]Lucian confesseth of himself, "I never read that place of Panthea in Xenophon, but I am as much affected as if I were present with her." Such persons commonly [4810]feign a kind of beauty to themselves; and so did those three gentlewomen in [4811]Balthazar Castilio fall in love with a young man whom they never knew, but only heard him commended: or by reading of a letter; for there is a grace cometh from hearing, [4812] as a moral philosopher informeth us, "as well from sight; and the species of love are received into the fantasy by relation alone:" [4813]ut cupere ab aspectu, sic velle ab auditu, both senses affect. Interdum et absentes amamus, sometimes we love those that are absent, saith Philostratus, and gives instance in his friend Athenodorus, that loved a maid at Corinth whom he never saw; non oculi sed mens videt, we see with the eyes of our understanding.

But the most familiar and usual cause of love is that which comes by sight, which conveys those admirable rays of beauty and pleasing graces to the heart. Plotinus derives love from sight, [Greek: eros] quasi [Greek: horasis]. [4814]Si nescis, oculi sunt in amore duces, "the eyes are the harbingers of love," and the first step of love is sight, as [4815]Lilius Giraldus proves at large, hist. deor. syntag. 13. they as two sluices let in the influences of that divine, powerful, soul-ravishing, and captivating beauty, which, as [4816]one saith, "is sharper than any dart or needle, wounds deeper into the heart; and opens a gap through our eyes to that lovely wound, which pierceth the soul itself" (Ecclus. 18.) Through it love is kindled like a fire. This amazing, confounding, admirable, amiable beauty, [4817]"than which in all nature's treasure (saith Isocrates) there is nothing so majestical and sacred, nothing so divine, lovely, precious," 'tis nature's crown, gold and glory; bonum si non summum, de summis tamen non infrequenter triumphans, whose power hence may be discerned; we contemn and abhor generally such things as are foul and ugly to behold, account them filthy, but love and covet that which is fair. 'Tis [4818] beauty in all things which pleaseth and allureth us, a fair hawk, a fine garment, a goodly building, a fair house, &c. That Persian Xerxes when he destroyed all those temples of the gods in Greece, caused that of Diana, in integrum servari, to be spared alone for that excellent beauty and magnificence of it. Inanimate beauty can so command. 'Tis that which painters, artificers, orators, all aim at, as Eriximachus the physician, in Plato contends, [4819]"It was beauty first that ministered occasion to art, to find out the knowledge of carving, painting, building, to find out models, perspectives, rich furnitures, and so many rare inventions." Whiteness in the lily, red in the rose, purple in the violet, a lustre in all things without life, the clear light of the moon, the bright beams of the sun, splendour of gold, purple, sparkling diamond, the excellent feature of the horse, the majesty of the lion, the colour of birds, peacock's tails, the silver scales of fish, we behold with singular delight and admiration. [4820]"And which is rich in plants, delightful in flowers, wonderful in beasts, but most glorious in men," doth make us affect and earnestly desire it, as when we hear any sweet harmony, an eloquent tongue, see any excellent quality, curious work of man, elaborate art, or aught that is exquisite, there ariseth instantly in us a longing for the same. We love such men, but most part for comeliness of person, we call them gods and goddesses, divine, serene, happy, &c. And of all mortal men they alone ([4821]Calcagninus holds) are free from calumny; qui divitiis, magistratu et gloria florent, injuria lacessimus, we backbite, wrong, hate renowned, rich, and happy men, we repine at their felicity, they are undeserving we think, fortune is a stepmother to us, a parent to them. "We envy" (saith [4822]Isocrates) "wise, just, honest men, except with mutual offices and kindnesses, some good turn or other, they extort this love from us; only fair persons we love at first sight, desire their acquaintance, and adore them as so many gods: we had rather serve them than command others, and account ourselves the more beholding to them, the more service they enjoin us:" though they be otherwise vicious, dishonest, we love them, favour them, and are ready to do them any good office for their [4823]beauty's sake, though they have no other good quality beside. Dic igitur o fomose, adolescens (as that eloquent Phavorinus breaks out in [4824]Stobeus) dic Autiloque, suavius nectare loqueris; dic o Telemache, vehementius Ulysse dicis; dic Alcibiades utcunque ebrius, libentius tibi licet ebrio auscultabimus. "Speak, fair youth, speak Autiloquus, thy words are sweeter than nectar, speak O Telemachus, thou art more powerful than Ulysses, speak Alcibiades though drunk, we will willingly hear thee as thou art." Faults in such are no faults: for when the said Alcibiades had stolen Anytus his gold and silver plate, he was so far from prosecuting so foul a fact (though every man else condemned his impudence and insolency) that he wished it had been more, and much better (he loved him dearly) for his sweet sake. "No worth is eminent in such lovely persons, all imperfections hid;" non enim facile de his quos plurimum diligimus, turpitudinem suspicamur, for hearing, sight, touch, &c., our mind and all our senses are captivated, omnes sensus formosus delectat. Many men have been preferred for their person alone, chosen kings, as amongst the Indians, Persians, Ethiopians of old; the properest man of person the country could afford, was elected their sovereign lord; Gratior est pulchro veniens e corpore virtus, [4825]and so have many other nations thought and done, as [4826]Curtius observes: Ingens enim in corporis majestate veneratio est, "for there is a majestical presence in such men;" and so far was beauty adored amongst them, that no man was thought fit to reign, that was not in all parts complete and supereminent. Agis, king of Lacedaemon, had like to have been deposed, because he married a little wife, they would not have their royal issue degenerate. Who would ever have thought that Adrian' the Fourth, an English monk's bastard (as [4827]Papirius Massovius writes in his life), inops a suis relectus, squalidus et miser, a poor forsaken child, should ever come to be pope of Rome? But why was it? Erat acri ingenio, facundia expedita eleganti corpore, facieque laeta ac hilari, (as he follows it out of [4828]Nubrigensis, for he ploughs with his heifer,) "he was wise, learned, eloquent, of a pleasant, a promising countenance, a goodly, proper man; he had, in a word, a winning look of his own," and that carried it, for that he was especially advanced. So "Saul was a goodly person and a fair." Maximinus elected emperor, &c. Branchus the son of Apollo, whom he begot of Jance, Succron's daughter (saith Lactantius), when he kept King Admetus' herds in Thessaly, now grown a man, was an earnest suitor to his mother to know his father; the nymph denied him, because Apollo had conjured her to the contrary; yet overcome by his importunity at last she sent him to his father; when he came into Apollo's presence, malas Dei reverenter osculatus, he carried himself so well, and was so fair a young man, that Apollo was infinitely taken with the beauty of his person, he could scarce look off him, and said he was worthy of such parents, gave him a crown of gold, the spirit of divination, and in conclusion made him a demigod. O vis superba formae, a goddess beauty is, whom the very gods adore, nam pulchros dii amant; she is Amoris domina, love's harbinger, love's loadstone, a witch, a charm, &c. Beauty is a dower of itself, a sufficient patrimony, an ample commendation, an accurate epistle, as [4829]Lucian, [4830]Apuleius, Tiraquellus, and some others conclude. Imperio digna forma, beauty deserves a kingdom, saith Abulensis, paradox. 2. cap. 110. immortality; and [4831]"more have got this honour and eternity for their beauty, than for all other virtues besides:" and such as are fair, "are worthy to be honoured of God and men." That Idalian Ganymede was therefore fetched by Jupiter into heaven, Hephaestion dear to Alexander, Antinous to Adrian. Plato calls beauty for that cause a privilege of nature, Naturae gaudentis opus, nature's masterpiece, a dumb comment; Theophrastus, a silent fraud; still rhetoric Carneades, that persuades without speech, a kingdom without a guard, because beautiful persons command as so many captains; Socrates, a tyranny, "which tyranniseth over tyrants themselves;" which made Diogenes belike call proper women queens, quod facerent homines quae praeciperent, because men were so obedient to their commands. They will adore, cringe, compliment, and bow to a common wench (if she be fair) as if she were a noble woman, a countess, a queen, or a goddess. Those intemperate young men of Greece erected at Delphos a golden image with infinite cost, to the eternal memory of Phryne the courtesan, as Aelian relates, for she was a most beautiful woman, insomuch, saith [4832]Athenaeus, that Apelles and Praxiteles drew Venus's picture from her. Thus young men will adore and honour beauty; nay kings themselves I say will do it, and voluntarily submit their sovereignty to a lovely woman. "Wine is strong, kings are strong, but a woman strongest," 1 Esd. iv. 10. as Zerobabel proved at large to King Darius, his princes and noblemen. "Kings sit still and command sea and land, &c., all pay tribute to the king; but women make kings pay tribute, and have dominion over them. When they have got gold and silver, they submit all to a beautiful woman, give themselves wholly to her, gape and gaze on her, and all men desire her more than gold or silver, or any precious thing: they will leave father and mother, and venture their lives for her, labour and travel to get, and bring all their gains to women, steal, fight, and spoil for their mistress's sake. And no king so strong, but a fair woman is stronger than he is. All things" (as [4833]he proceeds) "fear to touch the king; yet I saw him and Apame his concubine, the daughter of the famous Bartacus, sitting on the right hand of the king, and she took the crown off his head, and put it on her own, and stroke him with her left hand; yet the king gaped and gazed on her, and when she laughed he laughed, and when she was angry he flattered to be reconciled to her." So beauty commands even kings themselves; nay whole armies and kingdoms are captivated together with their kings: [4834]Forma vincit armatos, ferrum pulchritudo captivat; vincentur specie, qui non vincentur proelio. And 'tis a great matter saith [4835]Xenophon, "and of which all fair persons may worthily brag, that a strong man must labour for his living if he will have aught, a valiant man must fight and endanger himself for it, a wise man speak, show himself, and toil; but a fair and beautiful person doth all with ease, he compasseth his desire without any pains-taking:" God and men, heaven and earth conspire to honour him; every one pities him above other, if he be in need, [4836]and all the world is willing to do him good. [4837]Chariclea fell into the hand of pirates, but when all the rest were put to the edge of the sword, she alone was preserved for her person. [4838]When Constantinople was sacked by the Turk, Irene escaped, and was so far from being made a captive, that she even captivated the Grand Signior himself. So did Rosamond insult over King Henry the Second.

[4839] ———"I was so fair an object; Whom fortune made my king, my love made subject; He found by proof the privilege of beauty, That it had power to countermand all duty."

It captivates the very gods themselves, Morosiora numina,

[4840] ———"Deus ipse deorum Factus ob hanc formam bos, equus imber olor."

And those mali genii are taken with it, as [4841]I have already proved. Formosam Barbari verentur, et ad spectum pulchrum immanis animus mansuescit. (Heliodor. lib. 5.) The barbarians stand in awe of a fair woman, and at a beautiful aspect a fierce spirit is pacified. For when as Troy was taken, and the wars ended (as Clemens [4842]Alexandrinus quotes out of Euripides) angry Menelaus with rage and fury armed, came with his sword drawn, to have killed Helen, with his own hands, as being the sole cause of all those wars and miseries: but when he saw her fair face, as one amazed at her divine beauty, he let his weapon fall, and embraced her besides, he had no power to strike so sweet a creature. Ergo habetantur enses pulchritudine, the edge of a sharp sword (as the saying is) is dulled with a beautiful aspect, and severity itself is overcome. Hiperides the orator, when Phryne his client was accused at Athens for her lewdness, used no other defence in her cause, but tearing her upper garment, disclosed her naked breast to the judges, with which comeliness of her body and amiable gesture they were so moved and astonished, that they did acquit her forthwith, and let her go. O noble piece of justice! mine author exclaims: and who is he that would not rather lose his seat and robes, forfeit his office, than give sentence against the majesty of beauty? Such prerogatives have fair persons, and they alone are free from danger. Parthenopaeus was so lovely and fair, that when he fought in the Theban wars, if his face had been by chance bare, no enemy would offer to strike at or hurt him, such immunities hath beauty. Beasts themselves are moved with it. Sinalda was a woman of such excellent feature, [4843]and a queen, that when she was to be trodden on by wild horses for a punishment, "the wild beasts stood in admiration of her person," (Saxo Grammaticus lib. 8. Dan. hist.) "and would not hurt her." Wherefore did that royal virgin in [4844]Apuleius, when she fled from the thieves' den, in a desert, make such an apostrophe to her ass on whom she rode; (for what knew she to the contrary, but that he was an ass?) Si me parentibus et proco formoso reddideris, quas, tibi gratias, quos honores habebo, quos cibos exhibebo? [4845]She would comb him, dress him, feed him, and trick him every day herself, and he should work no more, toil no more, but rest and play, &c. And besides she would have a dainty picture drawn, in perpetual remembrance, a virgin riding upon an ass's back with this motto, Asino vectore regia virgo fugiens captivitatem; why said she all this? why did she make such promises to a dumb beast? but that she perceived the poor ass to be taken with her beauty, for he did often obliquo collo pedes puellae decoros basiare, kiss her feet as she rode, et ad delicatulas voculas tentabat adhinnire, offer to give consent as much as in him was to her delicate speeches, and besides he had some feeling, as she conceived of her misery. And why did Theogine's horse in Heliodorus [4846]curvet, prance, and go so proudly, exultans alacriter et superbiens, &c., but that such as mine author supposeth, he was in love with his master? dixisses ipsum equum pulchrum intelligere pulchram domini fomam? A fly lighted on [4847] Malthius' cheek as he lay asleep; but why? Not to hurt him, as a parasite of his, standing by, well perceived, non ut pungeret, sed ut oscularetur, but certainly to kiss him, as ravished with his divine looks. Inanimate creatures, I suppose, have a touch of this. When a drop of [4848]Psyche's candle fell on Cupid's shoulder, I think sure it was to kiss it. When Venus ran to meet her rose-cheeked Adonis, as an elegant [4849]poet of our's sets her out,

———"the bushes in the way Some catch her neck, some kiss her face, Some twine about her legs to make her stay, And all did covet her for to embrace."

Aer ipse amore inficitur, as Heliodorus holds, the air itself is in love: for when Hero plaid upon her lute,

[4850] "The wanton air in twenty sweet forms danc't After her fingers"———

and those lascivious winds stayed Daphne when she fled from Apollo;

[4851] ———"nudabant corpora venti, Obviaque adversas vibrabant flamina vestes."

Boreas Ventus loved Hyacinthus, and Orithya Ericthons's daughter of Athens: vi rapuit, &c. he took her away by force, as she was playing with other wenches at Ilissus, and begat Zetes and Galias his two sons of her. That seas and waters are enamoured with this our beauty, is all out as likely as that of the air and winds; for when Leander swam in the Hellespont, Neptune with his trident did beat down the waves, but

"They still mounted up intending to have kiss'd him. And fell in drops like tears because they missed him."

The [4852]river Alpheus was in love with Arethusa, as she tells the tale herself,

[4853] ———"viridesque manu siccata capillos, Fluminis Alphei veteres recitavit amores; Pars ego Nympharum," &c.

When our Thame and Isis meet

[4854] "Oscula mille sonant, connexu brachia pallent, Mutuaque explicitis connectunt colla lacertis."

Inachus and Pineus, and how many loving rivers can I reckon up, whom beauty hath enthralled! I say nothing all this while of idols themselves that have committed idolatry in this kind, of looking-glasses, that have been rapt in love (if you will believe [4855]poets), when their ladies and mistresses looked on to dress them.

"Et si non habeo sensum, tua gratia sensum Exhibet, et calidi sentio amoris onus. Dirigis huc quoties spectantia lumina, flamma Succendunt inopi saucia membra mihi."

"Though I no sense at all of feeling have. Yet your sweet looks do animate and save; And when your speaking eyes do this way turn, Methinks my wounded members live and burn."

I could tell you such another story of a spindle that was fired by a fair lady's [4856]looks, or fingers, some say, I know not well whether, but fired it was by report, and of a cold bath that suddenly smoked, and was very hot when naked Coelia came into it, Miramur quis sit tantus et unde vapor, [4857]&c. But of all the tales in this kind, that is the most memorable of [4858]Death himself, when he should have strucken a sweet young virgin with his dart, he fell in love with the object. Many more such could I relate which are to be believed with a poetical faith. So dumb and dead creatures dote, but men are mad, stupefied many times at the first sight of beauty, amazed, [4859]as that fisherman in Aristaenetus that spied a maid bathing herself by the seaside,

[4860] "Soluta mihi sunt omnia membra— A capite ad calcem. sensusque omnis periit De pectore, tam immensus stupor animam invasit mihi."

And as [4861]Lucian, in his images, confesses of himself, that he was at his mistress's presence void of all sense, immovable, as if he had seen a Gorgon's head: which was no such cruel monster (as [4862]Coelius interprets it, lib. 3. cap. 9.), "but the very quintessence of beauty," some fair creature, as without doubt the poet understood in the first fiction of it, at which the spectators were amazed. [4863]Miseri quibus intentata nites, poor wretches are compelled at the very sight of her ravishing looks to run mad, or make away with themselves.

[4864] "They wait the sentence of her scornful eyes; And whom she favours lives, the other dies."

4865]Heliodorus, lib. 1. brings in Thyamis almost besides himself, when he saw Chariclia first, and not daring to look upon her a second time, "for he thought it impossible for any man living to see her and contain himself." The very fame of beauty will fetch them to it many miles off (such an attractive power this loadstone hath), and they will seem but short, they will undertake any toil or trouble, [4866]long journeys. Penia or Atalanta shall not overgo them, through seas, deserts, mountains, and dangerous places, as they did to gaze on Psyche: "many mortal men came far and near to see that glorious object of her age," Paris for Helena, Corebus to Troja.

———"Illis Trojam qui forte diebus Venerat insano Cassandrae insensus amore."

"who inflamed with a violent passion for Cassandra, happened then to be in Troy." King John of France, once prisoner in England, came to visit his old friends again, crossing the seas; but the truth is, his coming was to see the Countess of Salisbury, the nonpareil of those times, and his dear mistress. That infernal God Pluto came from hell itself, to steal Proserpine; Achilles left all his friends for Polixena's sake, his enemy's daughter; and all the [4867]Graecian gods forsook their heavenly mansions for that fair lady, Philo Dioneus daughter's sake, the paragon of Greece in those days; ea enim venustate fuit, ut eam certatim omnes dii conjugem expeterent: "for she was of such surpassing beauty, that all the gods contended for her love." [4868]Formosa divis imperat puella. "The beautiful maid commands the gods." They will not only come to see, but as a falcon makes a hungry hawk hover about, follow, give attendance and service, spend goods, lives, and all their fortunes to attain;

"Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast, Yet love breaks through, and picks them all at last."

When fair [4869]Hero came abroad, the eyes, hearts, and affections of her spectators were still attendant on her.

[4870] "Et medios inter vultus supereminet omnes, Perque urbem aspiciunt venientem numinis instar."

[4871] "So far above the rest fair Hero shined. And stole away the enchanted gazer's mind."

[4872]When Peter Aretine's Lucretia came first to Rome, and that the fame of her beauty, ad urbanarum deliciarum sectatores venerat, nemo non ad videndam eam, &c. was spread abroad, they came in (as they say) thick and threefold to see her, and hovered about her gates, as they did of old to Lais of Corinth, and Phryne of Thebes, [4873]Ad cujus jacuit Graecia tota fores, "at whose gates lay all Greece." [4874]"Every man sought to get her love, some with gallant and costly apparel, some with an affected pace, some with music, others with rich gifts, pleasant discourse, multitude of followers; others with letters, vows, and promises, to commend themselves, and to be gracious in her eyes." Happy was he that could see her, thrice happy that enjoyed her company. Charmides [4875]in Plato was a proper young man in comeliness of person, "and all good qualities, far exceeding others; whensoever fair Charmides came abroad, they seemed all to be in love with him" (as Critias describes their carriage), "and were troubled at the very sight of him; many came near him, many followed him wheresoever he went," as those [4876]formarum spectatores did Acontius, if at any time he walked abroad: the Athenian lasses stared on Alcibiades; Sappho and the Mitilenean women on Phaon the fair. Such lovely sights do not only please, entice, but ravish and amaze. Cleonimus, a delicate and tender youth, present at a feast which Androcles his uncle made in Piraeo at Athens, when he sacrificed to Mercury, so stupefied the guests, Dineas, Aristippus, Agasthenes, and the rest (as Charidemus in [4877]Lucian relates it), that they could not eat their meat, they sat all supper time gazing, glancing at him, stealing looks, and admiring of his beauty. Many will condemn these men that are so enamoured, for fools; but some again commend them for it; many reject Paris's judgment, and yet Lucian approves of it, admiring Paris for his choice; he would have done as much himself, and by good desert in his mind: beauty is to be preferred [4878]"before wealth or wisdom." [4879]Athenaeus Deipnosophist, lib. 13. cap. 7, holds it not such indignity for the Trojans and Greeks to contend ten years, to spend so much labour, lose so many men's lives for Helen's sake, [4880]for so fair a lady's sake,

"Ob talem uxorem cui praestantissima forma, Nil mortale refert."

That one woman was worth a kingdom, a hundred thousand other women, a world itself. Well might [4881]Sterpsichores be blind for carping at so fair a creature, and a just punishment it was. The same testimony gives Homer of the old men of Troy, that were spectators of that single combat between Paris and Menelaus at the Seian gate, when Helen stood in presence; they said all, the war was worthily prolonged and undertaken [4882]for her sake. The very gods themselves (as Homer and [4883]Isocrates record) fought more for Helen, than they did against the giants. When [4884]Venus lost her son Cupid, she made proclamation by Mercury, that he that could bring tidings of him should have seven kisses; a noble reward some say, and much better than so many golden talents; seven such kisses to many men were more precious than seven cities, or so many provinces. One such a kiss alone would recover a man if he were a dying, [4885]Suaviolum Stygia sic te de valle reducet, &c. Great Alexander married Roxanne, a poor man's child, only for her person. [4886]'Twas well done of Alexander, and heroically done; I admire him for it. Orlando was mad for Angelica, and who doth not condole his mishap? Thisbe died for Pyramus, Dido for Aeneas; who doth not weep, as (before his conversion) [4887]Austin did in commiseration of her estate! she died for him; "methinks" (as he said) "I could die for her."

But this is not the matter in hand; what prerogative this beauty hath, of what power and sovereignty it is, and how far such persons that so much admire, and dote upon it, are to be justified; no man doubts of these matters; the question is, how and by what means beauty produceth this effect? By sight: the eye betrays the soul, and is both active and passive in this business; it wounds and is wounded, is an especial cause and instrument, both in the subject and in the object. [4888]"As tears, it begins in the eyes, descends to the breast;" it conveys these beauteous rays, as I have said, unto the heart. Ut vidi ut perii. [4889]Mars videt hanc, visamque cupit. Schechem saw Dinah the daughter of Leah, and defiled her, Gen. xxxiv. 3. Jacob, Rachel, xxix. 17, "for she was beautiful and fair." David spied Bathsheba afar off, 2 Sam. xi. 2. The Elders, Susanna, [4890]as that Orthomenian Strato saw fair Aristoclea daughter of Theophanes, bathing herself at that Hercyne well in Lebadea, and were captivated in an instant. Viderunt oculi, rapuerunt pectora flammae; Ammon fell sick for Thamar's sake, 2 Sam. xiii. 2. The beauty of Esther was such, that she found favour not only in the sight of Ahasuerus, "but of all those that looked upon her." Gerson, Origen, and some others, contended that Christ himself was the fairest of the sons of men, and Joseph next unto him, speciosus prae filiis hominum, and they will have it literally taken; his very person was such, that he found grace and favour of all those that looked upon him. Joseph was so fair, that, as the ordinary gloss hath it, filiae decurrerent per murum, et ad fenestras, they ran to the top of the walls and to the windows to gaze on him, as we do commonly to see some great personage go by: and so Matthew Paris describes Matilda the Empress going through Cullen. [4891]P. Morales the Jesuit saith as much of the Virgin Mary. Antony no sooner saw Cleopatra, but, saith Appian, lib. 1, he was enamoured of her. [4892]Theseus at the first sight of Helen was so besotted, that he esteemed himself the happiest man in the world if he might enjoy her, and to that purpose kneeled down, and made his pathetical prayers unto the gods. [4893]Charicles, by chance, espying that curious picture of smiling Venus naked in her temple, stood a great while gazing, as one amazed; at length, he brake into that mad passionate speech, "O fortunate god Mars, that wast bound in chains, and made ridiculous for her sake!" He could not contain himself, but kissed her picture, I know not how oft, and heartily desired to be so disgraced as Mars was. And what did he that his betters had not done before him?

[4894] ———"atque aliquis de diis non tristibus optat Sic fieri turpis"———

When Venus came first to heaven, her comeliness was such, that (as mine author saith) [4895]"all the gods came flocking about, and saluted her, each of them went to Jupiter, and desired he might have her to be his wife." When fair [4896]Antilochus came in presence, as a candle in the dark his beauty shined, all men's eyes (as Xenophon describes the manner of it) "were instantly fixed on him, and moved at the sight, insomuch that they could not conceal themselves, but in gesture or looks it was discerned and expressed." Those other senses, hearing, touching, may much penetrate and affect, but none so much, none so forcible as sight. Forma Briseis mediis in armis movit Achillem, Achilles was moved in the midst of a battle by fair Briseis, Ajax by Tecmessa; Judith captivated that great Captain Holofernes: Dalilah, Samson; Rosamund, [4897]Henry the Second; Roxolana, Suleiman the Magnificent, &c.

[4898] "[Greek: nika de kai sidaeron kai pur kalae tis ousa.]"

"A fair woman overcomes fire and sword."

[4899] "Nought under heaven so strongly doth allure The sense of man and all his mind possess, As beauty's loveliest bait, that doth procure Great warriors erst their rigour to suppress, And mighty hands forget their manliness, Driven with the power of an heart-burning eye, And lapt in flowers of a golden tress. That can with melting pleasure mollify Their harden'd hearts inur'd to cruelty."

[4900]Clitiphon ingenuously confesseth, that he no sooner came in Leucippe's presence, but that he did corde tremere, et oculis lascivius intueri; [4901]he was wounded at the first sight, his heart panted, and he could not possibly turn his eyes from her. So doth Calysiris in Heliodorus, lib. 2. Isis Priest, a reverend old man, complain, who by chance at Memphis seeing that Thracian Rodophe, might not hold his eyes off her: [4902]"I will not conceal it, she overcame me with her presence, and quite assaulted my continency which I had kept unto mine old age; I resisted a long time my bodily eyes with the eyes of my understanding; at last I was conquered, and as in a tempest carried headlong." [4903] Xenophiles, a philosopher, railed at women downright for many years together, scorned, hated, scoffed at them; coming at last into Daphnis a fair maid's company (as he condoles his mishap to his friend Demaritis), though free before, Intactus nullis ante cupidinibus, was far in love, and quite overcome upon a sudden. Victus sum fateor a Daphnide, &c. I confess I am taken,

[4904] "Sola haec inflexit sensus, animumque labentem Impulit"———

I could hold out no longer. Such another mishap, but worse, had Stratocles the physician, that blear-eyed old man, muco plenus (so [4905]Prodromus describes him); he was a severe woman's-hater all his life, foeda et contumeliosa semper in faeminas profatus, a bitter persecutor of the whole sex, humanas aspides et viperas appellabat, he forswore them all still, and mocked them wheresoever he came, in such vile terms, ut matrem et sorores odisses, that if thou hadst heard him, thou wouldst have loathed thine own mother and sisters for his word's sake. Yet this old doting fool was taken at last with that celestial and divine look of Myrilla, the daughter of Anticles the gardener, that smirking wench, that he shaved off his bushy beard, painted his face, [4906]curled his hair, wore a laurel crown to cover his bald pate, and for her love besides was ready to run mad. For the very day that he married he was so furious, ut solis occasum minus expectare posset (a terrible, a monstrous long day), he could not stay till it was night, sed omnibus insalutatis in thalamum festinans irrupit, the meat scarce out of his mouth, without any leave taking, he would needs go presently to bed. What young man, therefore, if old men be so intemperate, can secure himself? Who can say I will not be taken with a beautiful object? I can, I will contain. No, saith [4907]Lucian of his mistress, she is so fair, that if thou dost but see her, she will stupefy thee, kill thee straight, and, Medusa like, turn thee to a stone; thou canst not pull thine eyes from her, but, as an adamant doth iron, she will carry thee bound headlong whither she will herself, infect thee like a basilisk. It holds both in men and women. Dido was amazed at Aeneas' presence; Obstupuit primo aspectu Sidonia Dido; and as he feelingly verified out of his experience;

[4908] "Quam ego postquam vidi, non ita amavi ut sani solent Homines, sed eodem pacto ut insani solent."

"I lov'd her not as others soberly, But as a madman rageth, so did I."

So Museus of Leander, nusquam lumen detorquet ab illa; and [4909]Chaucer of Palamon,

He cast his eye upon Emilia, And therewith he blent and cried ha, ha, As though he had been stroke unto the hearta.

If you desire to know more particularly what this beauty is, how it doth Influere, how it doth fascinate (for, as all hold, love is a fascination), thus in brief. [4910]"This comeliness or beauty ariseth from the due proportion of the whole, or from each several part." For an exact delineation of which, I refer you to poets, historiographers, and those amorous writers, to Lucian's Images, and Charidemus, Xenophon's description of Panthea, Petronius Catalectes, Heliodorus Chariclia, Tacius Leucippe, Longus Sophista's Daphnis and Chloe, Theodorus Prodromus his Rhodanthes, Aristaenetus and Philostratus Epistles, Balthazar Castilio, lib. 4. de aulico. Laurentius, cap. 10, de melan. Aeneas Sylvius his Lucretia, and every poet almost, which have most accurately described a perfect beauty, an absolute feature, and that through every member, both in men and women. Each part must concur to the perfection of it; for as Seneca saith, Ep. 33. lib. 4. Non est formosa mulier cujus crus laudatur et brachium, sed illa cujus simul universa facies admirationem singulis partibus dedit; "she is no fair woman, whose arm, thigh, &c. are commended, except the face and all the other parts be correspondent." And the face especially gives a lustre to the rest: the face is it that commonly denominates a fair or foul: arx formae facies, the face is beauty's tower; and though the other parts be deformed, yet a good face carries it (facies non uxor amatur) that alone is most part respected, principally valued, deliciis suis ferox, and of itself able to captivate.

[4911] "Urit te Glycerae nitor, Urit grata protervitas, Et vultus nimium lubricus aspici."

"Glycera's too fair a face was it that set him on fire, too fine to be beheld." When [4912]Chaerea saw the singing wench's sweet looks, he was so taken, that he cried out, O faciem pulchram, deleo omnes dehinc ex animo mulieres, taedet quotidianarum harum formarum! "O fair face, I'll never love any but her, look on any other hereafter but her; I am weary of these ordinary beauties, away with them." The more he sees her, the worse he is,—uritque videndo, as in a burning-glass, the sunbeams are re-collected to a centre, the rays of love are projected from her eyes. It was Aeneas's countenance ravished Queen Dido, Os humerosque Deo similis, he had an angelical face.

[4913] "O sacros vultus Baccho vel Apolline dignos, Quos vir, quos tuto foemina nulla videt!"

———"O sacred looks, befitting majesty, Which never mortal wight could safely see."

Although for the greater part this beauty be most eminent in the face, yet many times those other members yield a most pleasing grace, and are alone sufficient to enamour. A high brow like unto the bright heavens, coeli pulcherrima plaga, Frons ubi vivit honor, frons ubi ludit amor, white and smooth like the polished alabaster, a pair of cheeks of vermilion colour, in which love lodgeth; [4914]Amor qui mollibus genis puellae pernoctas: a coral lip, suaviorum delubrum, in which Basia mille patent, basia mille latent, "A thousand appear, as many are concealed;" gratiarum sedes gratissima; a sweet-smelling flower, from which bees may gather honey, [4915]Mellilegae volucres quid adhuc cava thyma rosasque, &c.

"Omnes ad dominae labra venite meae, Illa rosas spirat," &c.

A white and round neck, that via lactea, dimple in the chin, black eyebrows, Cupidinis arcus, sweet breath, white and even teeth, which some call the salepiece, a fine soft round pap, gives an excellent grace, [4916]Quale decus tumidis Pario de marmore mammis! [4917]and make a pleasant valley lacteum sinum, between two chalky hills, Sororiantes papillulas, et ad pruritum frigidos amatores solo aspectu excitantes. Unde is, [4918]Forma papillarum quam fuit apta premi!—Again Urebant oculos durae stantesque mamillae. A flaxen hair; golden hair was even in great account, for which Virgil commends Dido, Nondum sustulerat flavum Proserpinina crinem, Et crines nodantur in aurum. Apollonius (Argonaut. lib. 4. Jasonis flava coma incendit cor Medeae) will have Jason's golden hair to be the main cause of Medea's dotage on him. Castor and Pollux were both yellow haired. Paris, Menelaus, and most amorous young men, have been such in all ages, molles ac suaves, as Baptista Porta infers, [4919] Physiog. lib. 2. lovely to behold. Homer so commends Helen, makes Patroclus and Achilles both yellow haired: Pulchricoma Venus, and Cupid himself was yellow haired, in aurum coruscante et crispante capillo, like that neat picture of Narcissus in Callistratus; for so [4920]Psyche spied him asleep, Briseis, Polixena, &c. flavicomae omnes,

———"and Hero the fair, Whom young Apollo courted for her hair."

Leland commends Guithera, king Arthur's wife, for a flaxen hair: so Paulus Aemilius sets out Clodeveus, that lovely king of France. [4921]Synesius holds every effeminate fellow or adulterer is fair haired: and Apuleius adds that Venus herself, goddess of love, cannot delight, [4922]"though she come accompanied with the graces, and all Cupid's train to attend upon her, girt with her own girdle, and smell of cinnamon and balm, yet if she be bald or badhaired, she cannot please her Vulcan." Which belike makes our Venetian ladies at this day to counterfeit yellow hair so much, great women to calamistrate and curl it up, vibrantes ad gratiam crines, et tot orbibus in captivitatem flexos, to adorn their heads with spangles, pearls, and made-flowers; and all courtiers to effect a pleasing grace in this kind. In a word, [4923]"the hairs are Cupid's nets, to catch all comers, a brushy wood, in which Cupid builds his nest, and under whose shadow all loves a thousand several ways sport themselves."

A little soft hand, pretty little mouth, small, fine, long fingers, Gratiae quae digitis —'tis that which Apollo did admire in Daphne,—laudat digitosque manusque; a straight and slender body, a small foot, and well-proportioned leg, hath an excellent lustre, [4924]Cui totum incumbit corpus uti fundamento aedes. Clearchus vowed to his friend Amyander in [4925]Aristaenetus, that the most attractive part in his mistress, to make him love and like her first, was her pretty leg and foot: a soft and white skin, &c. have their peculiar graces, [4926]Nebula haud est mollior ac hujus cutis est, aedipol papillam bellulam. Though in men these parts are not so much respected; a grim Saracen sometimes,—nudus membra Pyracmon, a martial hirsute face pleaseth best; a black man is a pearl in a fair woman's eye, and is as acceptable as [4927]lame Vulcan was to Venus; for he being a sweaty fuliginous blacksmith, was dearly beloved of her, when fair Apollo, nimble Mercury were rejected, and the rest of the sweet-faced gods forsaken. Many women (as Petronius [4928]observes) sordibus calent (as many men are more moved with kitchen wenches, and a poor market maid, than all these illustrious court and city dames) will sooner dote upon a slave, a servant, a dirt dauber, a brontes, a cook, a player, if they see his naked legs or arms, thorosaque brachia, [4929]&c., like that huntsman Meleager in Philostratus, though he be all in rags, obscene and dirty, besmeared like a ruddleman, a gipsy, or a chimney-sweeper, than upon a noble gallant, Nireus, Ephestion, Alcibiades, or those embroidered courtiers full of silk and gold. [4930]Justine's wife, a citizen of Rome, fell in love with Pylades a player, and was ready to run mad for him, had not Galen himself helped her by chance. Faustina the empress doted on a fencer.

Not one of a thousand falls in love, but there is some peculiar part or other which pleaseth most, and inflames him above the rest. [4931]A company of young philosophers on a time fell at variance, which part of a woman was most desirable and pleased best? some said the forehead, some the teeth, some the eyes, cheeks, lips, neck, chin, &c., the controversy was referred to Lais of Corinth to decide; but she, smiling, said, they were a company of fools; for suppose they had her where they wished, what would they [4932]first seek? Yet this notwithstanding I do easily grant, neque quis vestrum negaverit opinor, all parts are attractive, but especially [4933]the eyes, [4934]

———"videt igne micantes, Sideribus similes oculos"———

which are love's fowlers; [4935]aucupium amoris, the shoeing horns, "the hooks of love" (as Arandus will) "the guides, touchstone, judges, that in a moment cure mad men, and make sound folks mad, the watchmen of the body; what do they not?" How vex they not? All this is true, and (which Athaeneus lib. 13. dip. cap. 5. and Tatius hold) they are the chief seats of love, and James Lernutius [4936]hath facetely expressed in an elegant ode of his,