By the example of certain Grecian mariners, who, being safely returned
from the war about Troy, leave yet again their old lands and gods,
seeking they know not what, and choosing neither to abide in the fair
Phæacian island, nor to dwell and die with the Sirens, at length end
miserably in a desert country by the sea, is set forth the _Vanity of
Melancholy_. And by the land of Phæacia is to be understood the place
of Art and of fair Pleasures; and by Circe’s Isle, the place of bodily
delights, whereof men, falling aweary, attain to Eld, and to the
darkness of that age. Which thing Master Françoys Rabelais feigned,
under the similitude of the Isle of the Macræones.