the good wives to counterfeit themselves possessed, that their husbands
might give them free access, and were so familiar in those days with
some of them, that, as one[5218]observes, wenches could not sleep in
their beds for necromantic friars: and the good abbess in Boccaccio may
in some sort witness, that rising betimes, mistook and put on the
friar's breeches instead of her veil or hat. You have heard the story,
I presume, of [5219] Paulina, a chaste matron in Aegesippus, whom one
of Isis's priests did prostitute to Mundus, a young knight, and made
her believe it was their god Anubis. Many such pranks are played by our
Jesuits, sometimes in their own habits, sometimes in others, like
soldiers, courtiers, citizens, scholars, gallants, and women
themselves. Proteus-like, in all forms and disguises, that go abroad in
the night, to inescate and beguile young women, or to have their
pleasure of other men's wives; and, if we may believe [5220] some
relations, they have wardrobes of several suits in the colleges for
that purpose. Howsoever in public they pretend much zeal, seem to be
very holy men, and bitterly preach against adultery, fornication, there
are no verier bawds or whoremasters in a country; [5221]whose soul they
should gain to God, they sacrifice to the devil. But I spare these men
for the present.
The last battering engines are philters, amulets, spells, charms,
images, and such unlawful means: if they cannot prevail of themselves
by the help of bawds, panders, and their adherents, they will fly for
succour to the devil himself. I know there be those that deny the devil
can do any such thing (Crato epist. 2. lib. med.), and many divines,
there is no other fascination than that which comes by the eyes, of
which I have formerly spoken, and if you desire to be better informed,
read Camerarius, oper subcis. cent. 2. c. 5. It was given out of old,
that a Thessalian wench had bewitched King Philip to dote upon her, and
by philters enforced his love; but when Olympia, the Queen, saw the
maid of an excellent beauty, well brought up, and qualified—these,
quoth she, were the philters which inveigled King Philip; those the
true charms, as Henry to Rosamond,
[5222]One accent from thy lips the blood more warms,
Than all their philters, exorcisms, and charms.
With this alone Lucretia brags [5223]in Aretine, she could do more than
all philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, necromancers, witches, and
the rest of the crew. As for herbs and philters, I could never skill of
them, The sole philter that ever I used was kissing and embracing, by
which alone I made men rave like beasts stupefied, and compelled them
to worship me like an idol. In our times it is a common thing, saith
Erastus, in his book de Lamiis, for witches to take upon them the
making of these philters, [5224]to force men and women to love and hate
whom they will, to cause tempests, diseases, &c., by charms, spells,
characters, knots.—[5225]hic Thessala vendit Philtra. St. Hierome
proves that they can do it (as in Hilarius' life, epist. lib. 3); he
hath a story of a young man, that with a philter made a maid mad for
the love of him, which maid was after cured by Hilarion. Such instances
I find in John Nider, Formicar. lib. 5. cap. 5. Plutarch records of
Lucullus that he died of a philter; and that Cleopatra used philters to
inveigle Antony, amongst other allurements. Eusebius reports as much of
Lucretia the poet. Panormitan, lib. 4. de gest. Aphonsi, hath a story
of one Stephan, a Neapolitan knight, that by a philter was forced to
run mad for love. But of all others, that which [5226]Petrarch, epist.
famil. lib. 1. ep. 5, relates of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) is
most memorable. He foolishly doted upon a woman of mean favour and
condition, many years together, wholly delighting in her company, to
the great grief and indignation of his friends and followers. When she
was dead, he did embrace her corpse, as Apollo did the bay-tree for his
Daphne, and caused her coffin (richly embalmed and decked with jewels)
to be carried about with him, over which he still lamented. At last a
venerable bishop, that followed his court, prayed earnestly to God
(commiserating his lord and master's case) to know the true cause of
this mad passion, and whence it proceeded; it was revealed to him, in
fine, that the cause of the emperor's mad love lay under the dead
woman's tongue. The bishop went hastily to the carcass, and took a
small ring thence; upon the removal the emperor abhorred the corpse,
and, instead [5227]of it, fell as furiously in love with the bishop, he
would not suffer him to be out of his presence; which when the bishop
perceived, he flung the ring into the midst of a great lake, where the
king then was. From that hour the emperor neglected all his other
houses, dwelt at [5228]Ache, built a fair house in the midst of the
marsh, to his infinite expense, and a [5229]temple by it, where after
he was buried, and in which city all his posterity ever since use to be
crowned. Marcus the heretic is accused by Irenaeus, to have inveigled a
young maid by this means; and some writers speak hardly of the Lady
Katharine Cobham, that by the same art she circumvented Humphrey Duke
of Gloucester to be her husband. Sycinius Aemilianus summoned
[5230]Apuleius to come before Cneius Maximus, proconsul of Africa, that
he being a poor fellow, had bewitched by philters Pudentilla, an
ancient rich matron, to love him, and, being worth so many thousand
sesterces, to be his wife. Agrippa, lib. 1. cap. 48. occult. philos.
attributes much in this kind to philters, amulets, images: and Salmutz
com. in Pancirol. Tit. 10. de Horol. Leo Afer, lib. 3, saith, 'tis an
ordinary practice at Fez in Africa, Praestigiatores ibi plures, qui
cogunt amores et concubitus: as skilful all out as that hyperborean
magician, of whom Cleodemus, in [5231] Lucian, tells so many fine feats
performed in this kind. But Erastus, Wierus, and others are against it;
they grant indeed such things may be done, but (as Wierus discourseth,
lib. 3. de Lamiis. cap. 37.) not by charms, incantations, philters, but
the devil himself; lib. 5. cap. 2. he contends as much; so doth
Freitagius, noc. med. cap. 74. Andreas Cisalpinus, cap. 5; and so much
Sigismundus Scheretzius, cap. 9. de hirco nocturno, proves at large.
[5232]Unchaste women by the help of these witches, the devil's kitchen
maids, have their loves brought to them in the night, and carried back
again by a phantasm flying in the air in the likeness of a goat. I have
heard (saith he) divers confess, that they have been so carried on a
goat's back to their sweethearts, many miles in a night. Others are of
opinion that these feats, which most suppose to be done by charms and
philters, are merely effected by natural causes, as by man's blood
chemically prepared, which much avails, saith Ernestus Burgravius, in
Lucerna vitae et mortis Indice, ad amorem conciliandum et odium, (so
huntsmen make their dogs love them, and farmers their pullen,) 'tis an
excellent philter, as he holds, sed vulgo prodere grande nefas, but not
fit to be made common: and so be Mala insana, mandrake roots, mandrake
[5233]apples, precious stones, dead men's clothes, candles, mala
Bacchica, panis porcinus, Hyppomanes, a certain hair in a [5234]wolf's
tail, &c., of which Rhasis, Dioscorides, Porta, Wecker, Rubeus,
Mizaldus, Albertus, treat: a swallow's heart, dust of a dove's heart,
multum valent linguae viperarum, cerebella asinorum, tela equina,
palliola quibus infantes obvoluti nascuntur, funis strangulati hominis,
lapis de nido Aquilae, &c. See more in Sckenkius observat. medicinal,
lib. 4. &c., which are as forcible and of as much virtue as that
fountain Salmacis in [5235] Vitruvius, Ovid, Strabo, that made all such
mad for love that drank of it, or that hot bath at [5236]Aix in
Germany, wherein Cupid once dipped his arrows, which ever since hath a
peculiar virtue to make them lovers all that wash in it. But hear the
poet's own description of it,
[5237]Unde hic fervor aquis terra erumpentibus uda?
Tela olim hic ludens ignea tinxit amor;
Et gaudens stridore novo, fervete perennes
Inquit, et haec pharetrae sint monumenta meae.
Ex illo fervet, rarusque hic mergitur hospes,
Cui non titillet pectora blandus amor.
These above-named remedies have happily as much power as that bath of
Aix, or Venus' enchanted girdle, in which, saith Natales Comes, Love
toys and dalliance, pleasantness, sweetness, persuasions, subtleties,
gentle speeches, and all witchcraft to enforce love, was contained.
Read more of these in Agrippa de occult. Philos. lib. 1. cap. 50. et
45. Malleus malefic. part. 1. quaest. 7. Delrio tom. 2. quest. 3. lib.
3. Wierus, Pomponatis, cap. 8. de incantat. Ficinus, lib. 13. Theol.
Plat. Calcagninus, &c.
MEMB. III.
_Symptoms or signs of Love Melancholy, in Body, Mind, good, bad, &c._
Symptoms are either of body or mind; of body, paleness, leanness,
dryness, &c. [5238]Pallidus omnis amans, color hic est aptus amanti, as
the poet describes lovers: fecit amor maciem, love causeth leanness.
[5239] Avicenna de Ilishi, c. 33. makes hollow eyes, dryness, symptoms
of this disease, to go smiling to themselves, or acting as if they saw
or heard some delectable object. Valleriola, lib. 3. observat. cap. 7.
Laurentius, cap. 10. Aelianus Montaltus de Her. amore. Langius, epist.
24. lib. 1. epist. med. deliver as much, corpus exangue pallet, corpus
gracile, oculi cavi, lean, pale,—ut nudis qui pressit calcibus anguem,
as one who trod with naked foot upon a snake, hollow-eyed, their eyes
are hidden in their heads,—[5240]Tenerque nitidi corposis cecidit
decor, they pine away, and look ill with waking, cares, sighs.
Et qui tenebant signa Phoebeae facis
Oculi, nihil gentile nec patrium micant.
And eyes that once rivalled the locks of Phoebus, lose the patrial and
paternal lustre. With groans, griefs, sadness, dullness,
[5241]———Nulla jam Cereris subi
Cura aut salutis———
want of appetite, &c. A reason of all this, [5242]Jason Pratensis
gives, because of the distraction of the spirits the liver doth not
perform his part, nor turns the aliment into blood as it ought, and for
that cause the members are weak for want of sustenance, they are lean
and pine, as the herbs of my garden do this month of May, for want of
rain. The green sickness therefore often happeneth to young women, a
cachexia or an evil habit to men, besides their ordinary sighs,
complaints, and lamentations, which are too frequent. As drops from a
still,—ut occluso stillat ab igne liquor, doth Cupid's fire provoke
tears from a true lover's eyes,
[5243]The mighty Mars did oft for Venus shriek,
Privily moistening his horrid cheek
With womanish tears,———
[5244]———ignis distillat in undas,
Testis erit largus qui rigat ora liquor,
with many such like passions. When Chariclia was enamoured of
Theagines, as [5245]Heliodorus sets her out, she was half distracted,
and spake she knew not what, sighed to herself, lay much awake, and was
lean upon a sudden: and when she was besotted on her son-in-law,
[5246]pallor deformis, marcentes oculi, &c., she had ugly paleness,
hollow eyes, restless thoughts, short wind, &c. Euryalus, in an epistle
sent to Lucretia, his mistress, complains amongst other grievances, tu
mihi et somni et cibi usum abstulisti, thou hast taken my stomach and
my sleep from me. So he describes it aright:
[5247]His sleep, his meat, his drink, in him bereft,
That lean he waxeth, and dry as a shaft,
His eyes hollow and grisly to behold,
His hew pale and ashen to unfold,
And solitary he was ever alone,
And waking all the night making moan.
Theocritus Edyl. 2. makes a fair maid of Delphos, in love with a young
man of Minda, confess as much,
Ut vidi ut insanii, ut animus mihi male affectiis est,
Miserae mihi forma tabescebat, neque amplius pompam
Ullum curabam, aut quando domum redieram
Novi, sed me ardens quidam morbus consumebat,
Decubui in lecto dies decem, et noctes decem,
Defluebant capite capilli, ipsaque sola reliqua
Ossa et cutis———
No sooner seen I had, but mad I was.
My beauty fail'd, and I no more did care
For any pomp, I knew not where I was,
But sick I was, and evil I did fare;
I lay upon my bed ten days and nights,
A skeleton I was in all men's sights.
All these passions are well expressed by [5248]that heroical poet in
the person of Dido:
At non infelix animi Phaenissa, nec unquam
Solvitur in somnos, oculisque ac pectore amores
Accipit; ingeminant curae, rursusque resurgens
Saevit amor, &c.———
Unhappy Dido could not sleep at all,
But lies awake, and takes no rest:
And up she gets again, whilst care and grief,
And raging love torment her breast.
Accius Sanazarius Egloga 2. de Galatea, in the same manner feigns his
Lychoris [5249]tormenting herself for want of sleep, sighing, sobbing,
and lamenting; and Eustathius in his Ismenias much troubled, and [5250]
panting at heart, at the sight of his mistress, he could not sleep, his
bed was thorns. [5251]All make leanness, want of appetite, want of
sleep ordinary symptoms, and by that means they are brought often so
low, so much altered and changed, that as [5252]he jested in the
comedy, one scarce know them to be the same men.
Attenuant juvenum vigilatae corpora noctes,
Curaque et immenso qui fit amore dolor.
Many such symptoms there are of the body to discern lovers by,—quis
enim bene celet amorem? Can a man, saith Solomon, Prov. vi. 27, carry
fire in his bosom and not burn? it will hardly be hid; though they do
all they can to hide it, it must out, plus quam mille notis—it may be
described, [5253]quoque magis tegitur, tectus magis aestuat ignis.
'Twas Antiphanes the comedian's observation of old, Love and
drunkenness cannot be concealed, Celare alia possis, haec praeter duo,
vini potum, &c. words, looks, gestures, all will betray them; but two
of the most notable signs are observed by the pulse and countenance.
When Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, was sick for Stratonice, his
mother-in-law, and would not confess his grief, or the cause of his
disease, Erasistratus, the physician, found him by his pulse and
countenance to be in love with her, [5254]because that when she came in
presence, or was named, his pulse varied, and he blushed besides. In
this very sort was the love of Callices, the son of Polycles,
discovered by Panacaeas the physician, as you may read the story at
large in [5255]Aristenaetus. By the same signs Galen brags that he
found out Justa, Boethius the consul's wife, to dote on Pylades the
player, because at his name still she both altered pulse and
countenance, as [5256] Polyarchus did at the name of Argenis.
Franciscus Valesius, l. 3. controv. 13. med. contr. denies there is any
such pulsus amatorius, or that love may be so discerned; but Avicenna
confirms this of Galen out of his experience, lib. 3. Fen. 1. and
Gordonius, cap. 20. [5257]Their pulse, he saith, is ordinate and swift,
if she go by whom he loves, Langius, epist. 24. lib. 1. med. epist.
Neviscanus, lib. 4. numer. 66. syl. nuptialis, Valescus de Taranta,
Guianerius, Tract. 15. Valleriola sets down this for a symptom,
[5258]Difference of pulse, neglect of business, want of sleep, often
sighs, blushings, when there is any speech of their mistress, are
manifest signs. But amongst the rest, Josephus Struthis, that Polonian,
in the fifth book, cap. 17. of his Doctrine of Pulses, holds that this
and all other passions of the mind may be discovered by the pulse.
[5259]And if you will know, saith he, whether the men suspected be such
or such, touch their arteries, &c. And in his fourth book, fourteenth
chapter, he speaks of this particular pulse, [5260] Love makes an
unequal pulse, &c., he gives instance of a gentlewoman, [5261]a patient
of his, whom by this means he found to be much enamoured, and with
whom: he named many persons, but at the last when his name came whom he
suspected, [5262]her pulse began to vary and to beat swifter, and so by
often feeling her pulse, he perceived what the matter was. Apollonius
Argonaut. lib. 4. poetically setting down the meeting of Jason and
Medea, makes them both to blush at one another's sight, and at the
first they were not able to speak.
[5263]———totus Parmeno
Tremo, horreoque postquam aspexi hanc,
Phaedria trembled at the sight of Thais, others sweat, blow short,
Crura tremunt ac poplites,—are troubled with palpitation of heart upon
the like occasion, cor proximum ori, saith [5264]Aristenaetus, their
heart is at their mouth, leaps, these burn and freeze, (for love is
fire, ice, hot, cold, itch, fever, frenzy, pleurisy, what not) they
look pale, red, and commonly blush at their first congress; and
sometimes through violent agitation of spirits bleed at nose, or when
she is talked of; which very sign [5265]Eustathius makes an argument of
Ismene's affection, that when she met her sweetheart by chance, she
changed her countenance to a maiden-blush. 'Tis a common thing amongst
lovers, as [5266]Arnulphus, that merry-conceited bishop, hath well
expressed in a facetious epigram of his,
Alterno facies sibi dat responsa rubore,
Et tener affectum prodit utrique pudor, &c.
Their faces answer, and by blushing say,
How both affected are, they do betray.
But the best conjectures are taken from such symptoms as appear when
they are both present; all their speeches, amorous glances, actions,
lascivious gestures will betray them; they cannot contain themselves,
but that they will be still kissing. [5267]Stratocles, the physician,
upon his wedding-day, when he was at dinner, Nihil prius sorbillavit,
quam tria basia puellae pangeret, could not eat his meat for kissing
the bride, &c. First a word, and then a kiss, then some other
compliment, and then a kiss, then an idle question, then a kiss, and
when he had pumped his wits dry, can say no more, kissing and colling
are never out of season, [5268]Hoc non deficit incipitque semper, 'tis
never at an end, [5269]another kiss, and then another, another, and
another, &c.—huc ades O Thelayra—Come kiss me Corinna?
[5270]Centum basia centies,
Centum basia millies,
Mille basia millies,
Et tot millia millies,
Quot guttae Siculo mari,
Quot sunt sidera coelo,
Istis purpureis genis,
Istis turgidulis labris,
Ocelisque loquaculis,
Figam continuo impetu;
O formosa Neaera. (As Catullus to Lesbia.)
Da mihi basia mille, deindi centum,
Dein mille altera, da secunda centum,
Dein usque altera millia, deinde centum.
[5271]———first give a hundred,
Then a thousand, then another
Hundred, then unto the other
Add a thousand, and so more, &c.
Till you equal with the store, all the grass, &c. So Venus did by her
Adonis, the moon with Endymion, they are still dallying and culling, as
so many doves, Columbatimque labra conserentes labiis, and that with
alacrity and courage,
[5272]Affligunt avide corpus, junguntque salivas
Oris, et inspirant prensantes dentibus ora.
[5273]Tam impresso ore ut vix inde labra detrahant, cervice reclinata,
as Lamprias in Lucian kissed Thais, Philippus her [5274]Aristaenetus,
amore lymphato tam uriose adhaesit, ut vix labra solvere esset,
totumque os mihi contrivit; [5275]Aretine's Lucretia, by a suitor of
hers was so saluted, and 'tis their ordinary fashion.
———dentes illudunt saepe labellis,
Atque premunt arete adfigentes oscula———
They cannot, I say, contain themselves, they will be still not only
joining hands, kissing, but embracing, treading on their toes, &c.,
diving into their bosoms, and that libenter, et cum delectatione, as
[5276] Philostratus confesseth to his mistress; and Lamprias in Lucian,
Mammillas premens, per sinum clam dextra, &c., feeling their paps, and
that scarce honestly sometimes: as the old man in the [5277]Comedy well
observed of his son, Non ego te videbam manum huic puellae in sinum
insere? Did not I see thee put thy hand into her bosom? go to, with
many such love tricks. [5278]Juno in Lucian deorum, tom. 3. dial. 3.
complains to Jupiter of Ixion, [5279]he looked so attentively on her,
and sometimes would sigh and weep in her company, and when I drank by
chance, and gave Ganymede the cup, he would desire to drink still in
the very cup that I drank of, and in the same place where I drank, and
would kiss the cup, and then look steadily on me, and sometimes sigh,
and then again smile. If it be so they cannot come near to dally, have
not that opportunity, familiarity, or acquaintance to confer and talk
together; yet if they be in presence, their eye will betray them: Ubi
amor ibi oculus, as the common saying is, where I look I like, and
where I like I love; but they will lose themselves in her looks.
Alter in alterius jactantes lumina vultus,
Quaerebant taciti noster ubi esset amor.
They cannot look off whom they love, they will impregnare eam, ipsis
oculis, deflower her with their eyes, be still gazing, staring,
stealing faces, smiling, glancing at her, as [5280]Apollo on Leucothoe,
the moon on her [5281]Endymion, when she stood still in Caria, and at
Latmos caused her chariot to be stayed. They must all stand and admire,
or if she go by, look after her as long as they can see her, she is
animae auriga, as Anacreon calls her, they cannot go by her door or
window, but, as an adamant, she draws their eyes to it; though she be
not there present, they must needs glance that way, and look back to
it. Aristenaetus of [5282] Exithemus, Lucian, in his Imagim. of
himself, and Tatius of Clitophon, say as much, Ille oculos de Leucippe
[5283]nunquam dejiciebat, and many lovers confess when they came in
their mistress' presence, they could not hold off their eyes, but
looked wistfully and steadily on her, inconnivo aspectu, with much
eagerness and greediness, as if they would look through, or should
never have enough sight of her. Fixis ardens obtutibus haeret; so she
will do by him, drink to him with her eyes, nay, drink him up, devour
him, swallow him, as Martial's Mamurra is remembered to have done:
Inspexit molles pueros, oculisque comedit, &c. There is a pleasant
story to this purpose in Navigat. Vertom. lib. 3. cap. 5. The sultan of
Sana's wife in Arabia, because Vertomannus was fair and white, could
not look off him, from sunrising to sunsetting; she could not desist;
she made him one day come into her chamber, et geminae, horae spatio
intuebatur, non a me anquam aciem oculorum avertebat, me observans
veluti Cupidinem quendam, for two hours' space she still gazed on him.
A young man in [5284]Lucian fell in love with Venus' picture; he came
every morning to her temple, and there continued all day long
[5285]from sunrising to sunset, unwilling to go home at night, sitting
over against the goddess's picture, he did continually look upon her,
and mutter to himself I know not what. If so be they cannot see them
whom they love, they will still be walking and waiting about their
mistress's doors, taking all opportunity to see them, as in
[5286]Longus Sophista, Daphnis and Chloe, two lovers, were still
hovering at one another's gates, he sought all occasions to be in her
company, to hunt in summer, and catch birds in the frost about her
father's house in the winter, that she might see him, and he her.
[5287]A king's palace was not so diligently attended, saith Aretine's
Lucretia, as my house was when I lay in Rome; the porch and street was
ever full of some, walking or riding, on set purpose to see me; their
eye was still upon my window; as they passed by, they could not choose
but look back to my house when they were past, and sometimes hem or
cough, or take some impertinent occasion to speak aloud, that I might
look out and observe them. 'Tis so in other places, 'tis common to
every lover, 'tis all his felicity to be with her, to talk with her; he
is never well but in her company, and will walk [5288] seven or eight
times a day through the street where she dwells, and make sleeveless
errands to see her; plotting still where, when, and how to visit her,
[5289]Levesque sub nocte susurri,
Composita repetuntur hora.
And when he is gone, he thinks every minute an hour, every hour as long
as a day, ten days a whole year, till he see her again. [5290]Tempora
si numeres, bene quae numeramus amantes. And if thou be in love, thou
wilt say so too, Et longum formosa, vale, farewell sweetheart, vale
charissima Argenis, &c. Farewell my dear Argenis, once more farewell,
farewell. And though he is to meet her by compact, and that very
shortly, perchance tomorrow, yet both to depart, he'll take his leave
again, and again, and then come back again, look after, and shake his
hand, wave his hat afar off. Now gone, he thinks it long till he see
her again, and she him, the clocks are surely set back, the hour's
past,
[5291]Hospita Demophoon tua te Rodopheia Phillis,
Ultra promissum tempus abesse queror.