peregrinum, thou art a counterfeit crank, a cheater, he is not touched
with it, pauper ubique jacet, ride on, he takes no notice of it. Put up
a supplication to him in the name of a thousand orphans, a hospital, a
spittle, a prison, as he goes by, they cry out to him for aid, ride on,
surdo narras, he cares not, let them eat stones, devour themselves with
vermin, rot in their own dung, he cares not. Show him a decayed haven,
a bridge, a school, a fortification, etc., or some public work, ride
on; good your worship, your honour, for God's sake, your country's
sake, ride on. But show him a roll wherein his name shall be registered
in golden letters, and commended to all posterity, his arms set up,
with his devices to be seen, then peradventure he will stay and
contribute; or if thou canst thunder upon him, as Papists do, with
satisfactory and meritorious works, or persuade him by this means he
shall save his soul out of hell, and free it from purgatory (if he be
of any religion), then in all likelihood he will listen and stay; or
that he have no children, no near kinsman, heir, he cares for, at
least, or cannot well tell otherwise how or where to bestow his
possessions (for carry them with him he cannot), it may be then he will
build some school or hospital in his life, or be induced to give
liberally to pious uses after his death. For I dare boldly say,
vainglory, that opinion of merit, and this enforced necessity, when
they know not otherwise how to leave, or what better to do with them,
is the main cause of most of our good works. I will not urge this to
derogate from any man's charitable devotion, or bounty in this kind, to
censure any good work; no doubt there be many sanctified, heroical, and
worthy-minded men, that in true zeal, and for virtue's sake (divine
spirits), that out of commiseration and pity extend their liberality,
and as much as in them lies do good to all men, clothe the naked, feed
the hungry, comfort the sick and needy, relieve all, forget and forgive
injuries, as true charity requires; yet most part there is simulatum
quid, a deal of hypocrisy in this kind, much default and defect.
[4614]Cosmo de Medici, that rich citizen of Florence, ingeniously
confessed to a near friend of his, that would know of him why he built
so many public and magnificent palaces, and bestowed so liberally on
scholars, not that he loved learning more than others, but to
[4615]eternise his own name, to be immortal by the benefit of scholars;
for when his friends were dead, walls decayed, and all inscriptions
gone, books would remain to the world's end. The lantern in
[4616]Athens was built by Zenocles, the theatre by Pericles, the famous
port Pyraeum by Musicles, Pallas Palladium by Phidias, the Pantheon by
Callicratidas; but these brave monuments are decayed all, and ruined
long since, their builders' names alone flourish by meditation of
writers. And as [4617]he said of that Marian oak, now cut down and
dead, nullius Agricolae manu vulta stirps tam diuturna, quam quae
poetae, versu seminari potest, no plant can grow so long as that which
is ingenio sata, set and manured by those ever-living wits. [4618]Allon
Backuth, that weeping oak, under which Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died,
and was buried, may not survive the memory of such everlasting
monuments. Vainglory and emulation (as to most men) was the cause
efficient, and to be a trumpeter of his own fame, Cosmo's sole intent
so to do good, that all the world might take notice of it. Such for the
most part is the charity of our times, such our benefactors, Mecaenates
and patrons. Show me amongst so many myriads, a truly devout, a right,
honest, upright, meek, humble, a patient, innocuous, innocent, a
merciful, a loving, a charitable man! [4619]Probus quis nobiscum vivit?
Show me a Caleb or a Joshua! Dic mihi Musa virum—show a virtuous woman,
a constant wife, a good neighbour, a trusty servant, an obedient child,
a true friend, &c. Crows in Africa are not so scant. He that shall
examine this [4620]iron age wherein we live, where love is cold, et jam
terras Astrea reliquit, justice fled with her assistants, virtue
expelled,
[4621]———Justitiae soror,
Incorrupta fides, nudaque veritas,———
all goodness gone, where vice abounds, the devil is loose, and see one
man vilify and insult over his brother, as if he were an innocent, or a
block, oppress, tyrannise, prey upon, torture him, vex, gall, torment
and crucify him, starve him, where is charity? He that shall see men
[4622]swear and forswear, lie and bear false witness, to advantage
themselves, prejudice others, hazard goods, lives, fortunes, credit,
all, to be revenged on their enemies, men so unspeakable in their
lusts, unnatural in malice, such bloody designments, Italian
blaspheming, Spanish renouncing, &c., may well ask where is charity? He
that shall observe so many lawsuits, such endless contentions, such
plotting, undermining, so much money spent with such eagerness and
fury, every man for himself, his own ends, the devil for all: so many
distressed souls, such lamentable complaints, so many factions,
conspiracies, seditions, oppressions, abuses, injuries, such grudging,
repining, discontent, so much emulation, envy, so many brawls,
quarrels, monomachies, &c., may well require what is become of charity?
when we see and read of such cruel wars, tumults, uproars, bloody
battles, so many [4623]men slain, so many cities ruinated, &c. (for
what else is the subject of all our stones almost, but bills, bows, and
guns!) so many murders and massacres, &c., where is charity? Or see men
wholly devote to God, churchmen, professed divines, holy men, [4624]to
make the trumpet of the gospel the trumpet of war, a company of
hell-born Jesuits, and fiery-spirited friars, facem praeferre to all
seditions: as so many firebrands set all the world by the ears (I say
nothing of their contentious and railing books, whole ages spent in
writing one against another, and that with such virulency and
bitterness, Bionaeis sermonibus et sale nigro), and by their bloody
inquisitions, that in thirty years, Bale saith, consumed 39 princes,
148 earls, 235 barons, 14,755 commons; worse than those ten
persecutions, may justly doubt where is charity? Obsecro vos quales hi
demum Christiani! Are these Christians? I beseech you tell me: he that
shall observe and see these things, may say to them as Cato to Caesar,
credo quae de inferis dicuntur falsa existimas, sure I think thou art
of opinion there is neither heaven nor hell. Let them pretend religion,
zeal, make what shows they will, give alms, peace-makers, frequent
sermons, if we may guess at the tree by the fruit, they are no better
than hypocrites, epicures, atheists, with the [4625]fool in their
hearts they say there is no God. 'Tis no marvel then if being so
uncharitable, hard-hearted as we are, we have so frequent and so many
discontents, such melancholy fits, so many bitter pangs, mutual
discords, all in a combustion, often complaints, so common grievances,
general mischiefs, si tantae in terris tragoediae, quibus labefactatur
et misere laceratur humanum genus, so many pestilences, wars, uproars,
losses, deluges, fires, inundations, God's vengeance and all the
plagues of Egypt, come upon us, since we are so currish one towards
another, so respectless of God, and our neighbours, and by our crying
sins pull these miseries upon our own heads. Nay more, 'tis justly to
be feared, which [4626]Josephus once said of his countrymen Jews, if
the Romans had not come when they did to sack their city, surely it had
been swallowed up with some earthquake, deluge, or fired from heaven as
Sodom and Gomorrah: their desperate malice, wickedness and peevishness
was such. 'Tis to be suspected, if we continue these wretched ways, we
may look for the like heavy visitations to come upon us. If we had any
sense or feeling of these things, surely we should not go on as we do,
in such irregular courses, practise all manner of impieties; our whole
carriage would not be so averse from God. If a man would but consider,
when he is in the midst and full career of such prodigious and
uncharitable actions, how displeasing they are in God's sight, how
noxious to himself, as Solomon told Joab, 1 Kings, ii. The Lord shall
bring this blood upon their heads. Prov. i. 27, sudden desolation and
destruction shall come like a whirlwind upon them: affliction, anguish,
the reward of his hand shall be given him, Isa. iii. 11, &c., they
shall fall into the pit they have digged for others, and when they are
scraping, tyrannising, getting, wallowing in their wealth, this night,
O fool, I will take away thy soul, what a severe account they must
make; and how [4627]gracious on the other side a charitable man is in
God's eyes, haurit sibi gratiam. Matt. v. 7, Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy: he that lendeth to the poor, gives to God,
and how it shall be restored to them again; how by their patience and
long-suffering they shall heap coals on their enemies' heads, Rom. xii.
and he that followeth after righteousness and mercy, shall find
righteousness and glory; surely they would check their desires, curb in
their unnatural, inordinate affections, agree amongst themselves,
abstain from doing evil, amend their lives, and learn to do well.
Behold how comely and good a thing it is for brethren to live together
in [4628]union: it is like the precious ointment, &c. How odious to
contend one with the other! [4629] Miseriquid luctatiunculis hisce
volumus? ecce mors supra caput est, et supremum illud tribunal, ubi et
dicta et facta nostra examinanda sunt: Sapiamus! Why do we contend and
vex one another? behold death is over our heads, and we must shortly
give an account of all our uncharitable words and actions: think upon
it: and be wise.
SECT. II. MEMB. I.
SUBSECT. I.—_Heroical love causeth Melancholy. His Pedigree, Power, and
Extent_.
In the preceding section mention was made, amongst other pleasant
objects, of this comeliness and beauty which proceeds from women, that
causeth heroical, or love-melancholy, is more eminent above the rest,
and properly called love. The part affected in men is the liver, and
therefore called heroical, because commonly gallants. Noblemen, and the
most generous spirits are possessed with it. His power and extent is
very large, [4630] and in that twofold division of love, φιλεῖν and
ἐρᾶν [4631]those two veneries which Plato and some other make mention
of it is most eminent, and κατ' ἐξοχὴν called Venus, as I have said, or
love itself. Which although it be denominated from men, and most
evident in them, yet it extends and shows itself in vegetal and
sensible creatures, those incorporeal substances (as shall be
specified), and hath a large dominion of sovereignty over them. His
pedigree is very ancient, derived from the beginning of the world, as
[4632]Phaedrus contends, and his [4633] parentage of such antiquity,
that no poet could ever find it out. Hesiod makes [4634]Terra and Chaos
to be Love's parents, before the Gods were born: Ante deos omnes primum
generavit amorem. Some think it is the self-same fire Prometheus
fetched from heaven. Plutarch amator. libello, will have Love to be the
son of Iris and Favonius; but Socrates in that pleasant dialogue of
Plato, when it came to his turn to speak of love, (of which subject
Agatho the rhetorician, magniloquus Agatho, that chanter Agatho, had
newly given occasion) in a poetical strain, telleth this tale: when
Venus was born, all the gods were invited to a banquet, and amongst the
rest, [4635]Porus the god of bounty and wealth; Penia or Poverty came a
begging to the door; Porus well whittled with nectar (for there was no
wine in those days) walking in Jupiter's garden, in a bower met with
Penia, and in his drink got her with child, of whom was born Love; and
because he was begotten on Venus's birthday, Venus still attends upon
him. The moral of this is in [4636]Ficinus. Another tale is there
borrowed out of Aristophanes: [4637]in the beginning of the world, men
had four arms and four feet, but for their pride, because they compared
themselves with the gods, were parted into halves, and now peradventure
by love they hope to be united again and made one. Otherwise thus,
[4638]Vulcan met two lovers, and bid them ask what they would and they
should have it; but they made answer, O Vulcane faber Deorum, &c. O
Vulcan the gods' great smith, we beseech thee to work us anew in thy
furnace, and of two make us one; which he presently did, and ever since
true lovers are either all one, or else desire to be united. Many such
tales you shall find in Leon Hebreus, dial. 3. and their moral to them.
The reason why Love was still painted young, (as Phornutus [4639]and
others will) [4640]is because young men are most apt to love; soft,
fair, and fat, because such folks are soonest taken: naked, because all
true affection is simple and open: he smiles, because merry and given
to delights: hath a quiver, to show his power, none can escape: is
blind, because he sees not where he strikes, whom he hits, &c. His
power and sovereignty is expressed by the [4641]poets, in that he is
held to be a god, and a great commanding god, above Jupiter himself;
Magnus Daemon, as Plato calls him, the strongest and merriest of all
the gods according to Alcinous and [4642]Athenaeus. Amor virorum rex,
amor rex et deum, as Euripides, the god of gods and governor of men;
for we must all do homage to him, keep a holiday for his deity, adore
in his temples, worship his image, (numen enim hoc non est nudum nomen)
and sacrifice to his altar, that conquers all, and rules all:
[4643]Mallem cum icone, cervo et apro Aeolico,
Cum Anteo et Stymphalicis avibus luctari
Quam cum amore———
I had rather contend with bulls, lions, bears, and giants, than with
Love; he is so powerful, enforceth [4644]all to pay tribute to him,
domineers over all, and can make mad and sober whom he list; insomuch
that Caecilius in Tully's Tusculans, holds him to be no better than a
fool or an idiot, that doth not acknowledge Love to be a great god.
[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.)