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 ♂ and ♂ 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, ♂ ♂ and ☿ in ☿ 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 ☾ et ☿ 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, ἐί φύλλα, πάντα, &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_.