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]Νικᾶ δε καὶ σίδηρον
Καὶ πῦρ καλὴ τὶς οὖσα.
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,
Amorem ocellis flammeolis herae
Vidi insidentem, credite posteri,
Fratresque circum ludibundos
Cum pharetra volitare et arcu, &c.
I saw Love sitting in my mistress' eyes
Sparkling, believe it all posterity,
And his attendants playing round about
With bow and arrows ready for to fly.
Scaliger calls the eyes, [4937]Cupid's arrows; the tongue, the
lightning of love; the paps, the tents: [4938]Balthazar Castilio, the
causes, the chariots, the lamps of love,
———aemula lumina stellis,
Lumina quae possent sollicitare deos.
Eyes emulating stars in light,
Enticing gods at the first sight;
Love's orators, Petronius.
O blandos oculos, et o facetos,
Et quadam propria nota loquaces
Illic est Venus, et leves amores,
Atque ipsa in medio sedet voluptas.
O sweet and pretty speaking eyes,
Where Venus, love, and pleasure lies.
Love's torches, touch-box, naphtha and matches, [4939]Tibullus.
Illius ex oculis quum vult exurere divos,
Accendit geminas lampades acer amor.
Tart Love when he will set the gods on fire,
Lightens the eyes as torches to desire.
Leander, at the first sight of Hero's eyes, was incensed, saith
Musaeus.
Simul in [4940]oculorum radiis crescebat fax amorum,
Et cor fervebat invecti ignis impetu;
Pulchritudo enim Celebris immaculatae foeminae,
Acutior hominibus est veloci sagitta.
Oculos vero via est, ab oculi ictibus
Vulnus dilabitur, et in praecordia viri manat.
Love's torches 'gan to burn first in her eyes.
And set his heart on fire which never dies:
For the fair beauty of a virgin pure
Is sharper than a dart, and doth inure
A deeper wound, which pierceth to the heart
By the eyes, and causeth such a cruel smart.
[4941]A modern poet brings in Amnon complaining of Thamar,
———et me fascino
Occidit ille risus et formae lepos,
Ille nitor, illa gratia, et verus decor,
Illae aemulantes purpuram, et [4942]rosas genae,
Oculique vinctaeque aureo nodo comae.———
It was thy beauty, 'twas thy pleasing smile,
Thy grace and comeliness did me beguile;
Thy rose-like cheeks, and unto purple fair
Thy lovely eyes and golden knotted hair.
[4943]Philostratus Lemnius cries out on his mistress's basilisk eyes,
ardentes faces, those two burning-glasses, they had so inflamed his
soul, that no water could quench it. What a tyranny (saith he), what a
penetration of bodies is this! thou drawest with violence, and
swallowest me up, as Charybdis doth sailors with thy rocky eyes: he
that falls into this gulf of love, can never get out. Let this be the
corollary then, the strongest beams of beauty are still darted from the
eyes.
[4944]Nam quis lumina tanta, tanta
Posset luminibus suis tueri,
Non statim trepidansque, palpitansque,
Prae desiderii aestuantis aura? &c.
For who such eyes with his can see,
And not forthwith enamour'd be!
And as men catch dotterels by putting out a leg or an arm, with those
mutual glances of the eyes they first inveigle one another.
[4945]Cynthia prima suis miserum me, cepit ocellis. Of all eyes (by the
way) black are most amiable, enticing and fairer, which the poet
observes in commending of his mistress. [4946]Spectandum nigris oculis,
nigroque capillo, which Hesiod admires in his Alemena,
[4947]Cujus a vertice ac nigricantibus oculis,
Tale quiddam spiral ac ab aurea Venere.
From her black eyes, and from her golden face
As if from Venus came a lovely grace.
and [4948]Triton in his Milaene—nigra oculos formosa mihi. [4949]Homer
useth that epithet of ox-eyed, in describing Juno, because a round
black eye is the best, the son of beauty, and farthest from black the
worse: which [4950]Polydore Virgil taxeth in our nation: Angli ut
plurimum caesiis oculis, we have grey eyes for the most part. Baptisma
Porta, Physiognom. lib. 3. puts grey colour upon children, they be
childish eyes, dull and heavy. Many commend on the other side Spanish
ladies, and those [4951]Greek dames at this day, for the blackness of
their eyes, as Porta doth his Neapolitan young wives. Suetonius
describes Julius Caesar to have been nigris vegetisque oculis
micantibus, of a black quick sparkling eye: and although Averroes in
his Colliget will have such persons timorous, yet without question they
are most amorous.
Now last of all, I will show you by what means beauty doth fascinate,
bewitch, as some hold, and work upon the soul of a man by the eye. For
certainly I am of the poet's mind, love doth bewitch and strangely
change us.
[4952]Ludit amor sensus, oculos perstringit, et aufert
Libertatem animi, mira nos fascinat arte.
Credo aliquis daemon subiens praecordia flammam
Concitat, et raptam tollit de cardine mentem.
Love mocks our senses, curbs our liberties,
And doth bewitch us with his art and rings,
I think some devil gets into our entrails,
And kindles coals, and heaves our souls from th'hinges.
Heliodorus lib. 3. proves at large, [4953]that love is witchcraft, it
gets in at our eyes, pores, nostrils, engenders the same qualities and
affections in us, as were in the party whence it came. The manner of
the fascination, as Ficinus 10. cap. com. in Plat. declares it, is
thus: Mortal men are then especially bewitched, when as by often gazing
one on the other, they direct sight to sight, join eye to eye, and so
drink and suck in love between them; for the beginning of this disease
is the eye. And therefore he that hath a clear eye, though he be
otherwise deformed, by often looking upon him, will make one mad, and
tie him fast to him by the eye. Leonard. Varius, lib. 1. cap. 2. de
fascinat. telleth us, that by this interview, [4954]the purer spirits
are infected, the one eye pierceth through the other with his rays,
which he sends forth, and many men have those excellent piercing eyes,
that, which Suetonius relates of Augustus, their brightness is such,
they compel their spectators to look off, and can no more endure them
than the sunbeams. [4955]Barradius, lib. 6. cap. 10. de Harmonia
Evangel. reports as much of our Saviour Christ, and [4956]Peter Morales
of the Virgin Mary, whom Nicephorus describes likewise to have been
yellow-haired, of a wheat colour, but of a most amiable and piercing
eye. The rays, as some think, sent from the eyes, carry certain
spiritual vapours with them, and so infect the other party, and that in
a moment. I know, they that hold visio fit intra mittendo, will make a
doubt of this; but Ficinus proves it from blear-eyes, [4957] That by
sight alone, make others blear-eyed; and it is more than manifest, that
the vapour of the corrupt blood doth get in together with the rays, and
so by the contagion the spectators' eyes are infected. Other arguments
there are of a basilisk, that kills afar off by sight, as that Ephesian
did of whom [4958]Philostratus speaks, of so pernicious an eye, he
poisoned all he looked steadily on: and that other argument, menstruae
faminae, out of Aristotle's Problems, morbosae Capivaccius adds, and
[4959]Septalius the commentator, that contaminate a looking-glass with
beholding it. [4960] So the beams that come from the agent's heart, by
the eyes, infect the spirits about the patients, inwardly wound, and
thence the spirits infect the blood. To this effect she complained in
[4961]Apuleius, Thou art the cause of my grief, thy eyes piercing
through mine eyes to mine inner parts, have set my bowels on fire, and
therefore pity me that am now ready to die for thy sake. Ficinus
illustrates this with a familiar example of that Marrhusian Phaedrus
and Theban Lycias, [4962]Lycias he stares on Phaedrus' face, and
Phaedrus fastens the balls of his eyes upon Lycias, and with those
sparkling rays sends out his spirits. The beams of Phaedrus' eyes are
easily mingled with the beams of Lycias, and spirits are joined to
spirits. This vapour begot in Phaedrus' heart, enters into Lycias'
bowels; and that which is a greater wonder, Phaedrus' blood is in
Lycias' heart, and thence come those ordinary love-speeches, my
sweetheart Phaedrus, and mine own self, my dear bowels. And Phaedrus
again to Lycias, O my light, my joy, my soul, my life. Phaedrus follows
Lycias, because his heart would have his spirits, and Lycias follows
Phaedrus, because he loves the seat of his spirits; both follow; but
Lycias the earnester of the two: the river hath more need of the
fountain, than the fountain of the river; as iron is drawn to that
which is touched with a loadstone, but draws not it again; so Lycias
draws Phaedrus. But how comes it to pass then, that the blind man
loves, that never saw? We read in the Lives of the Fathers, a story of
a child that was brought up in the wilderness, from his infancy, by an
old hermit: now come to man's estate, he saw by chance two comely women
wandering in the woods: he asked the old man what creatures they were,
he told him fairies; after a while talking obiter, the hermit demanded
of him, which was the pleasantest sight that ever he saw in his life?
He readily replied, the two [4963]fairies he spied in the wilderness.
So that, without doubt, there is some secret loadstone in a beautiful
woman, a magnetic power, a natural inbred affection, which moves our
concupiscence, and as he sings,
Methinks I have a mistress yet to come,
And still I seek, I love, I know not whom.
'Tis true indeed of natural and chaste love, but not of this heroical
passion, or rather brutish burning lust of which we treat; we speak of
wandering, wanton, adulterous eyes, which, as [4964]he saith, lie still
in wait as so many soldiers, and when they spy an innocent spectator
fixed on them, shoot him through, and presently bewitch him: especially
when they shall gaze and gloat, as wanton lovers do one upon another,
and with a pleasant eye-conflict participate each other's souls. Hence
you may perceive how easily and how quickly we may be taken in love;
since at the twinkling of an eye, Phaedrus' spirits may so perniciously
infect Lycias' blood. [4965]Neither is it any wonder, if we but
consider how many other diseases closely, and as suddenly are caught by
infection, plague, itch, scabs, flux, &c. The spirits taken in, will
not let him rest that hath received them, but egg him on. [4966]Idque
petit corpus mens unde est saucia amore; and we may manifestly perceive
a strange eduction of spirits, by such as bleed at nose after they be
dead, at the presence of the murderer; but read more of this in
Lemnius, lib. 2. de occult. nat. mir. cap. 7. Valleriola lib. 2.
observ. cap. 7. Valesius controv. Ficinus, Cardan, Libavius de cruentis
cadaveribus, &c.
SUBSECT. III.—_Artificial allurements of Love, Causes and Provocations
to Lust; Gestures, Clothes, Dower, &c._