anxieties, accompany such as are in love, I have sufficiently said: the
next question is, what will be the event of such miseries, what they
foretell. Some are of opinion that this love cannot be cured, Nullis
amor est medicabilis herbis, it accompanies them to the [5559]last,
Idem amor exitio est pecori pecorisque magistro. The same passion
consume both the sheep and the shepherd, and is so continuate, that by
no persuasion almost it may be relieved. [5560]Bid me not love, said
Euryalus, bid the mountains come down into the plains, bid the rivers
run back to their fountains; I can as soon leave to love, as the sun
leave his course;
[5561]Et prius aequoribus pisces, et montibus umbrae,
Et volucres deerunt sylvis, et murmura ventis,
Quam mihi discedent formosae Amaryllidis ignes.
First seas shall want their fish, the mountains shade
Woods singing birds, the wind's murmur shall fade,
Than my fair Amaryllis' love allay'd.
Bid me not love, bid a deaf man hear, a blind man see, a dumb speak,
lame run, counsel can do no good, a sick man cannot relish, no physic
can ease me. Non prosunt domino quae prosunt omnibus artes. As Apollo
confessed, and Jupiter himself could not be cured.
[5562]Omnes humanos curat medicina dolores,
Solus amor morbi non habet artificem.
Physic can soon cure every disease,
[5563]Excepting love that can it not appease.
But whether love may be cured or no, and by what means, shall be
explained in his place; in the meantime, if it take his course, and be
not otherwise eased or amended, it breaks out into outrageous often and
prodigious events. Amor et Liber violenti dii sunt) as [5564]Tatius
observes, et eousque animum incendunt, ut pudoris oblivisci cogant,
love and Bacchus are so violent gods, so furiously rage in our minds,
that they make us forget all honesty, shame, and common civility. For
such men ordinarily, as are thoroughly possessed with this humour,
become insensati et insani, for it is [5565]amor insanus, as the poet
calls it, beside themselves, and as I have proved, no better than
beasts, irrational, stupid, headstrong, void of fear of God or men,
they frequently forswear themselves, spend, steal, commit incests,
rapes, adulteries, murders, depopulate towns, cities, countries, to
satisfy their lust.
[5566]A devil 'tis, and mischief such doth work,
As never yet did Pagan, Jew, or Turk.
The wars of Troy may be a sufficient witness; and as Appian, lib. 5.
hist, saith of Antony and Cleopatra, [5567]Their love brought
themselves and all Egypt into extreme and miserable calamities, the end
of her is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword,
Prov. v. 4, 5. Her feet go down to death, her steps lead on to hell.
She is more bitter than death, (Eccles. vii. 28.) and the sinner shall
be taken by her. [5568]Qui in amore praecipitavit, pejus perit, quam
qui saxo salit. [5569]He that runs headlong from the top of a rock is
not in so bad a case as he that falls into this gulf of love. For
hence, saith [5570] Platina, comes repentance, dotage, they lose
themselves, their wits, and make shipwreck of their fortunes
altogether: madness, to make away themselves and others, violent death.
Prognosticatio est talis, saith Gordonius, [5571]si non succurratur
iis, aut in maniam cadunt, aut moriuntur; the prognostication is, they
will either run mad, or die. For if this passion continue, saith
[5572]Aelian Montaltus, it makes the blood hot, thick, and black; and
if the inflammation get into the brain, with continual meditation and
waking, it so dries it up, that madness follows, or else they make away
themselves, [5573]O Corydon, Corydon, quae te dementia cepit? Now, as
Arnoldus adds, it will speedily work these effects, if it be not
presently helped; [5574]They will pine away, run mad, and die upon a
sudden; Facile incidunt in maniam, saith Valescus, quickly mad, nisi
succurratur, if good order be not taken,
[5575]Ehou triste jugum quisquis amoris habet,
Is prius se norit se periisse perit.
Oh heavy yoke of love, which whoso bears,
Is quite undone, and that at unawares.
So she confessed of herself in the poet,
[5576]———insaniam priusquam quis sentiat,
Vix pili intervallo a furore absum.
I shall be mad before it be perceived,
A hair-breadth off scarce am I, now distracted.
As mad as Orlando for his Angelica, or Hercules for his Hylas,
At ille ruebat quo pedes ducebant, furibundus,
Nam illi saevus Deus jntus jecur laniabat.
He went he car'd not whither, mad he was,
The cruel God so tortured him, alas!
At the sight of Hero I cannot tell how many ran mad,
[5577]Alius vulnus celans insanit pulchritudine puellae.
And whilst he doth conceal his grief,
Madness comes on him like a thief.
Go to Bedlam for examples. It is so well known in every village, how
many have either died for love, or voluntary made away themselves, that
I need not much labour to prove it: [5578]Nec modus aut requies nisi
mors reperitur amoris: death is the common catastrophe to such persons.
[5579]Mori mihi contingat, non enim alia
Liberatio ab aeramnis fuerit ullo paeto istis.
Would I were dead, for nought, God knows,
But death can rid me of these woes.
As soon as Euryalus departed from Senes, Lucretia, his paramour, never
looked up, no jests could exhilarate her sad mind, no joys comfort her
wounded and distressed soul, but a little after she fell sick and died.
But this is a gentle end, a natural death, such persons commonly make
away themselves.
———proprioque in sanguine laetus,
Indignantem animam vacuas elludit in auras;
so did Dido; Sed moriamur ait, sic sic juvat ire per umbras; [5580]
Pyramus and Thisbe, Medea, [5581]Coresus and Callirhoe, [5582]Theagines
the philosopher, and many myriads besides, and so will ever do,
[5583]———et mihi fortis
Est manus, est et amor, dabit hic in vulnera vires.
Whoever heard a story of more woe,
Than that of Juliet and her Romeo?
Read Parthenium in Eroticis, and Plutarch's amatorias narrationes, or
love stories, all tending almost to this purpose. Valleriola, lib. 2.
observ. 7, hath a lamentable narration of a merchant, his patient,
[5584] that raving through impatience of love, had he not been watched,
would every while have offered violence to himself. Amatus Lusitanus,
cent. 3. car. 56, hath such [5585]another story, and Felix Plater, med.
observ. lib. 1. a third of a young [5586]gentleman that studied physic,
and for the love of a doctor's daughter, having no hope to compass his
desire, poisoned himself, [5587]anno 1615. A barber in Frankfort,
because his wench was betrothed to another, cut his own throat.
[5588]At Neoburg, the same year, a young man, because he could not get
her parents' consent, killed his sweetheart, and afterward himself,
desiring this of the magistrate, as he gave up the ghost, that they
might be buried in one grave, Quodque rogis superest una requiescat in
urna, which [5589] Gismunda besought of Tancredus, her father, that she
might be in like sort buried with Guiscardus, her lover, that so their
bodies might lie together in the grave, as their souls wander about
[5590]Campos lugentes in the Elysian fields,—quos durus amor crudeli
tabe peredit, [5591]in a myrtle grove
[5592]———et myrtea circum
Sylva tegit: curae non ipsa in morte relinquunt.
You have not yet heard the worst, they do not offer violence to
themselves in this rage of lust, but unto others, their nearest and
dearest friends. [5593]Catiline killed his only son, misitque ad orci
pallida, lethi obnubila, obsita tenebris loca, for the love of Aurelia
Oristella, quod ejus nuptias vivo filio recusaret. [5594]Laodice, the
sister of Mithridates, poisoned her husband, to give content to a base
fellow whom she loved. [5595]Alexander, to please Thais, a concubine of
his, set Persepolis on fire. [5596]Nereus' wife, a widow, and lady of
Athens, for the love of a Venetian gentleman, betrayed the city; and he
for her sake murdered his wife, the daughter of a nobleman in Venice.
[5597]Constantine Despota made away Catherine, his wife, turned his son
Michael and his other children out of doors, for the love of a base
scrivener's daughter in Thessalonica, with whose beauty he was
enamoured. [5598]Leucophria betrayed the city where she dwelt, for her
sweetheart's sake, that was in the enemies' camp. [5599]Pithidice, the
governor's daughter of Methinia, for the love of Achilles, betrayed the
whole island to him, her father's enemy. [5600]Diognetus did as much in
the city where he dwelt, for the love of Policrita, Medea for the love
of Jason, she taught him how to tame the fire-breathing brass-feeted
bulls, and kill the mighty dragon that kept the golden fleece, and tore
her little brother Absyrtus in pieces, that her father. Aethes might
have something to detain him, while she ran away with her beloved
Jason, &c. Such acts and scenes hath this tragicomedy of love.
MEMB. V.
SUBSECT. 1.—_Cure of Love-Melancholy, by Labour, Diet, Physic, Fasting,
&c._
Although it be controverted by some, whether love-melancholy may be
cured, because it is so irresistible and violent a passion; for as you
know,
[5601]———facilis descensus Averni;
Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras;
Hic labor, hoc opus est.———
It is an easy passage down to hell,
But to come back, once there, you cannot well.
Yet without question, if it be taken in time, it may be helped, and by
many good remedies amended. Avicenna, lib. 3. Fen. cap. 23. et 24. sets
down seven compendious ways how this malady may be eased, altered, and
expelled. Savanarola 9. principal observations, Jason Pratensis
prescribes eight rules besides physic, how this passion may be tamed,
Laurentius 2. main precepts, Arnoldus, Valleriola, Montaltus,
Hildesheim, Langius, and others inform us otherwise, and yet all
tending to, the same purpose. The sum of which I will briefly
epitomise, (for I light my candle from their torches) and enlarge again
upon occasion, as shall seem best to me, and that after mine own
method. The first rule to be observed in this stubborn and unbridled
passion, is exercise and diet. It is an old and well-known, sentence,
Sine Cerere et Saccho friget Venus (love grows cool without bread and
wine). As an [5602]idle sedentary life, liberal feeding, are great
causes of it, so the opposite, labour, slender and sparing diet, with
continual business, are the best and most ordinary means to prevent it.
Otio si tollas, periere Cupidinis artes,
Contemptaeque jacent, et sine luce faces.
Take idleness away, and put to flight
Are Cupid's arts, his torches give no light.
Minerva, Diana, Vesta, and the nine Muses were not enamoured at all,
because they never were idle.
[5603]Frustra blanditae appulistis ad has,
Frustra nequitiae venistis ad has,
Frustra delitiae obsidebitis has,
Frustra has illecebrae, et procacitates,
Et suspiria, et oscula, et susurri,
Et quisquis male sana corda amantum
Blandis ebria fascinat venenis.
In vain are all your flatteries,
In vain are all your knaveries,
Delights, deceits, procacities,
Sighs, kisses, and conspiracies,
And whate'er is done by art,
To bewitch a lover's heart.
'Tis in vain to set upon those that are busy. 'Tis Savanarola's third
rule, Occupari in multis et magnis negotiis, and Avicenna's precept,
cap. 24. [5604]Cedit amor rebus; res, age tutus eris. To be busy still,
and as [5605]Guianerius enjoins, about matters of great moment, if it
may be. [5606]Magninus adds, Never to be idle but at the hours of
sleep.
[5607]———et si
Poscas ante diem librum cum lumine, si non
Intendas animum studiis, et rebus honestis,
Invidia vel amore miser torquebere.———
For if thou dost not ply thy book,
By candlelight to study bent,
Employ'd about some honest thing,
Envy or love shall thee torment.
No better physic than to be always occupied, seriously intent.
[5608]Cur in penates rarius tenues subit,
Haec delicatas eligens pestis domus,
Mediumque sanos vulgus affectuss tenet? &c.
Why dost thou ask, poor folks are often free,
And dainty places still molested be?
Because poor people fare coarsely, work hard, go woolward and bare.
[5609] Non habet unde suum paupertas pascat amorem. [5610]Guianerius
therefore prescribes his patient to go with hair-cloth next his skin,
to go barefooted, and barelegged in cold weather, to whip himself now
and then, as monks do, but above all to fast. Not with sweet wine,
mutton and pottage, as many of those tender-bellies do, howsoever they
put on Lenten faces, and whatsoever they pretend, but from all manner
of meat. Fasting is an all-sufficient remedy of itself; for, as Jason
Pratensis holds, the bodies of such persons that feed liberally, and
live at ease, [5611]are full of bad spirits and devils, devilish
thoughts; no better physic for such parties, than to fast. Hildesheim,
spicel. 2. to this of hunger, adds, [5612]often baths, much exercise
and sweat, but hunger and fasting he prescribes before the rest. And
'tis indeed our Saviour's oracle, This kind of devil is not cast out
but by fasting and prayer, which makes the fathers so immoderate in
commendation of fasting. As hunger, saith [5613] Ambrose, is a friend
of virginity, so is it an enemy to lasciviousness, but fullness
overthrows chastity, and fostereth all manner of provocations. If thine
horse be too lusty, Hierome adviseth thee to take away some of his
provender; by this means those Pauls, Hilaries, Anthonies, and famous
anchorites, subdued the lusts of the flesh; by this means Hilarion made
his ass, as he called his own body, leave kicking, (so [5614]Hierome
relates of him in his life) when the devil tempted him to any such foul
offence. By this means those [5615]Indian Brahmins kept themselves
continent: they lay upon the ground covered with skins, as the
red-shanks do on heather, and dieted themselves sparingly on one dish,
which Guianerius would have all young men put in practice, and if that
will not serve, [5616]Gordonius would have them soundly whipped, or, to
cool their courage, kept in prison, and there fed with bread and water
till they acknowledge their error, and become of another mind. If
imprisonment and hunger will not take them down, according to the
directions of that [5617] Theban Crates, time must wear it out; if time
will not, the last refuge is a halter. But this, you will say, is
comically spoken. Howsoever, fasting, by all means, must be still used;
and as they must refrain from such meats formerly mentioned, which
cause venery, or provoke lust, so they must use an opposite diet.
[5618]Wine must be altogether avoided of the younger sort. So
[5619]Plato prescribes, and would have the magistrates themselves
abstain from it, for example's sake, highly commending the
Carthaginians for their temperance in this kind. And 'twas a good
edict, a commendable thing, so that it were not done for some sinister
respect, as those old Egyptians abstained from wine, because some
fabulous poets had given out, wine sprang first from the blood of the
giants, or out of superstition, as our modern Turks, but for
temperance, it being animae virus et vitiorum fomes, a plague itself,
if immoderately taken. Women of old for that cause, [5620]in hot
countries, were forbid the use of it; as severely punished for drinking
of wine as for adultery; and young folks, as Leonicus hath recorded,
Var. hist. l. 3. cap. 87, 88. out of Athenaeus and others, and is still
practised in Italy, and some other countries of Europe and Asia, as
Claudius Minoes hath well illustrated in his Comment on the 23. Emblem
of Alciat. So choice is to be made of other diet.
Nec minus erucas aptum est vitare salaces,
Et quicquid veneri corpora nostra parat.
Eringos are not good for to be taken,
And all lascivious meats must be forsaken.
Those opposite meats which ought to be used are cucumbers, melons,
purslane, water-lilies, rue, woodbine, ammi, lettuce, which Lemnius so
much commends, lib. 2, cap. 42. and Mizaldus hort. med. to this
purpose; vitex, or agnus castus before the rest, which, saith
[5621]Magninus, hath a wonderful virtue in it. Those Athenian women, in
their solemn feasts called Thesmopheries, were to abstain nine days
from the company of men, during which time, saith Aelian, they laid a
certain herb, named hanea, in their beds, which assuaged those ardent
flames of love, and freed them from the torments of that violent
passion. See more in Porta, Matthiolus, Crescentius lib. 5. &c., and
what every herbalist almost and physician hath written, cap. de
Satyriasi et Priapismo; Rhasis amongst the rest. In some cases again,
if they be much dejected, and brought low in body, and now ready to
despair through anguish, grief, and too sensible a feeling of their
misery, a cup of wine and full diet is not amiss, and as Valescus
adviseth, cum alia honesta venerem saepe exercendo, which Langius
epist. med. lib. 1. epist. 24. approves out of Rhasis (ad assiduationem
coitus invitat] and Guianerius seconds it, cap. 16. tract. 16. as a
[5622] very profitable remedy.
[5623]———tument tibi quum inguina, cum si
Ancilla, aut verna praesto est, tentigine rumpi
Malis? non ego namque, &c.———
[5624]Jason Pratensis subscribes to this counsel of the poet, Excretio
enim aut tollet prorsus aut lenit aegritudinem. As it did the raging
lust of Ahasuerus, [5625]qui ad impatientiam amoris leniendam, per
singulas fere noctes novas puellas devirginavit. And to be drunk too by
fits; but this is mad physic, if it be at all to be permitted. If not,
yet some pleasure is to be allowed, as that which Vives speaks of, lib.
3. de anima., [5626]A lover that hath as it were lost himself through
impotency, impatience, must be called home as a traveller, by music,
feasting, good wine, if need be to drunkenness itself, which many so
much commend for the easing of the mind, all kinds of sports and
merriments, to see fair pictures, hangings, buildings, pleasant fields,
orchards, gardens, groves, ponds, pools, rivers, fishing, fowling,
hawking, hunting, to hear merry tales, and pleasant discourse, reading,
to use exercise till he sweat, that new spirits may succeed, or by some
vehement affection or contrary passion to be diverted till he be fully
weaned from anger, suspicion, cares, fears, &c., and habituated into
another course. Semper tecum sit, (as [5627]Sempronius adviseth Calisto
his lovesick master) qui sermones joculares moveat, conciones
ridiculas, dicteria falsa, suaves historias, fabulas venustas
recenseat, coram ludat, &c., still have a pleasant companion to sing
and tell merry tales, songs and facete histories, sweet discourse, &c.
And as the melody of music, merriment, singing, dancing, doth augment
the passion of some lovers, as [5628] Avicenna notes, so it expelleth
it in others, and doth very much good. These things must be warily
applied, as the parties' symptoms vary, and as they shall stand
variously affected.
If there be any need of physic, that the humours be altered, or any new
matter aggregated, they must be cured as melancholy men. Carolus a
Lorme, amongst other questions discussed for his degree at Montpelier
in France, hath this, An amantes et amantes iisdem remediis curentur?
Whether lovers and madmen be cured by the same remedies? he affirms it;
for love extended is mere madness. Such physic then as is prescribed,
is either inward or outward, as hath been formerly handled in the
precedent partition in the cure of melancholy. Consult with Valleriola
observat. lib. 2. observ. 7. Lod. Mercatus lib. 2. cap. 4. de mulier.
affect. Daniel Sennertus lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 10. [5629]Jacobus
Ferrandus the Frenchman, in his Tract de amore Erotique, Forestus lib.
10. observ. 29 and 30, Jason Pratensis and others for peculiar
receipts. [5630]Amatus Lusitanus cured a young Jew, that was almost mad
for love, with the syrup of hellebore, and such other evacuations and
purges which are usually prescribed to black choler: [5631]Avicenna
confirms as much if need require, and [5632]bloodletting above the
rest, which makes amantes ne sint amentes, lovers to come to
themselves, and keep in their right minds. 'Tis the same which Schola
Salernitana, Jason Pratensis, Hildesheim, &c., prescribe bloodletting
to be used as a principal remedy. Those old Scythians had a trick to
cure all appetite of burning lust, by [5633] letting themselves blood
under the ears, and to make both men and women barren, as Sabellicus in
his Aeneades relates of them. Which Salmuth. Tit. 10. de Herol.
comment. in Pancirol. de nov. report. Mercurialis, var. lec. lib. 3.
cap. 7. out of Hippocrates and Benzo say still is in use amongst the
Indians, a reason of which Langius gives lib. 1. epist. 10.
Huc faciunt medicamenta venerem sopientia, ut camphora pudendis
alligata, et in bracha gestata (quidam ait) membrum flaccidum reddit.
Laboravit hoc morbo virgo nobilis, cui inter caetera praescripsit
medicus, ut laminam plumbeam multis foraminibus pertusam ad dies
viginti portaret in dorso; ad exiccandum vero sperma jussit eam quam
parcissime cibari, et manducare frequentur coriandrum praeparatum, et
semen lactucae, et acetosae, et sic eam a morbo liberavit. Porro
impediunt et remittunt coitum folia salicis trita et epota, et si
frequentius usurpentur ipsa in totum auferunt. Idem praestat Topatius
annulo gestatus, dexterum lupi testiculum attritum, et oleo vel aqua
rosata exhibitum veneris taedium inducere scribit Alexander Benedictus:
lac butyri commestum et semen canabis, et camphora exhibita idem
praestant. Verbena herba gestata libidinem extinguit, pulvisquae ranae
decollatae et exiccatae. Ad extinguendum coitum, ungantur membra
genitalia, et renes et pecten aqua in qua opium Thebaicum sit
dissolutum; libidini maxime contraria camphora est, et coriandrum
siccum frangit coitum, et erectionem virgae impedit; idem efficit
synapium ebibitum. Da verbenam in potu et non erigetur virga sex
diebus; utere mentha sicca cum aceto, genitalia illinita succo
hyoscyami aid cicutae, coitus appelitum sedant, &c. ℞. seminis lactuc.
portulac. coriandri an. ℨj. menthae siccae ℨß. sacchari albiss. ℥iiij.
pulveriscentur omnia subtiliter, et post ea simul misce aqua
neunpharis, f. confec. solida in morsulis. Ex his sumat mane unum quum
surgat. Innumera fere his similia petas ab Hildeshemo loco praedicto,
Mizaldo, Porta, caeterisque.
SUBSECT. II.—_Withstand the beginnings, avoid occasions, change his
place: fair and foul means, contrary passions, with witty inventions:
to bring in another, and discommend the former_.
Other good rules and precepts are enjoined by our physicians, which, if
not alone, yet certainly conjoined, may do much; the first of which is
obstare principiis, to withstand the beginning,[5634]Quisquis in primo
obstitit, Pepulitque amorem tutus ac victor fuit, he that will but
resist at first, may easily be a conqueror at the last. Balthazar
Castilio, l. 4. urgeth this prescript above the rest, [5635]when he
shall chance (saith he) to light upon a woman that hath good behaviour
joined with her excellent person, and shall perceive his eyes with a
kind of greediness to pull unto them this image of beauty, and carry it
to the heart: shall observe himself to be somewhat incensed with this
influence, which moveth within: when he shall discern those subtle
spirits sparkling in her eyes, to administer more fuel to the fire, he
must wisely withstand the beginnings, rouse up reason, stupefied
almost, fortify his heart by all means, and shut up all those passages,
by which it may have entrance. 'Tis a precept which all concur upon,
[5636]Opprime dum nova sunt subiti mala semina morbi,
Dum licet, in primo lumine siste pedem.
Thy quick disease, whilst it is fresh today,
By all means crush, thy feet at first step stay.
Which cannot speedier be done, than if he confess his grief and passion
to some judicious friend [5637](qui tacitus ardet magis uritur, the
more he conceals, the greater is his pain) that by his good advice may
happily ease him on a sudden; and withal to avoid occasions, or any
circumstance that may aggravate his disease, to remove the object by
all means; for who can stand by a fire and not burn?
[5638]Sussilite obsecro et mittite istanc foras,
quae misero mihi amanti ebibit sanguinem.