Choosing Lords, Ladies, Kings, Queens, and Valentines, &c. they go by couples, Coridon's Phillis, Nysa and Mopsus, With daynty Dousibel and Sir Tophus. Instead of Odes, Epigrams and Elegies, &c. they have their Thou Hony-suckle of the Hathorne hedge, My Father's horse for provender doth stay. с a Your most grim Stoiks and severe Philosophers will melt away with this passion, and if Atheneus bely them not, Aristippus, Apollidorus, Antiphanes, &c. have made love songs and Commentaries of their Mistress praises, Orators write Epistles, Princes give titles, Honours, what not? Xerxes gave to Themistocles Lampsacus to find him wine, Magnesia for bread, and Myunte for the rest of his diet. The + Persian Kings allotted whole Cities to like use, hac civitas mulieri redimiculum præbeat, hæc in collum, hæc in crines, one whole city served to dress her hair, another her neck, a third her hood. Assuerus would have given Esther half his Empire, and Herod bid Herodias" ask what she would, she should have it." Caligula gave an 100000 sesterces to his Curtisan at first word, to buy her pins, and yet when he was sollicited by the Senate, to bestow something to repair the decayed walls of Rome for the Common-wealth's good, he would give but 6000 sesterces at most. Dionysius, that Sicilian tyrant, rejected all his privy Councellors, and was so besotted on Mirrha his favourite and Mistress, that he would bestow no office, or in the most weightiest business of the kingdome do ought without her especial advice, prefer, depose, send, entertain no man, though worthy and well deserving, but by her S. R. 1600. y Lib. 13. cap. Dipnosophist, sua Margareta Beroaldus, &c. orat. 5. Ver, • Sec Putean. epist. 33. de Hen. Steph. apol. pro Herod. +Tully Gravissimis regni negotiis ni Esth. 5. d Mat. 1. 47. hil sine amasiæ suæ consensu fecit. omnesq; actiones suas scortillo communi cavit, &c. Nich. Bellus discours. 26. de amat, consent; consent; and he again whom she commended, howsoever unfit, unworthy, was as highly approved. Kings and Emperours, instead of Poems, build Cities; Adrian built Antinoa in Ægypt, besides Constellations, Temples, Altars, Statues, Images, &c. in the honour of his Antinous. Alexander bestowed infinite sums, to set out his Hephestion to all eternity. Socrates professeth himself love's servant, ignorant in all arts and sciences, a Doctor alone in love matters, & quum alienarum rerum omnium scientiam diffiteretur, saith Maximus Tyrius, his sectator, hujus negotii professor, &c. and this he spake openly, at home and abroad, at publike feasts, in the Academy, in Pyrao, Lycao, sub Platano, &c. the very blood-hound of beauty, as he is stiled by others. But I conclude there is no end of Love's Symptomes, 'tis a bottomless pit. Love is subject to no dimensions; not to be survayed by any art or engine: and besides, I am of † Hædus' mind, "no man can discourse of love matters, or judge of them aright, that hath not made tryal in his own person," or as Eneas Sylvius 'adds, "hath not a little doted, been mad or love-sick himself. I confess I am but a novice, a Contemplator only, "Nescio quid sit amor nec amo" I have a tincture; for why should I lye, dissemble or excuse it, yet homo sum, &c. not altogether inexpert in this subject, non sum præceptor amandi, and what I say, is meerly reading, ex altorum forsan ineptiis, by mine own observation, and others relation. MEMB. V. SUBSECT. I. Prognosticks of Love Melancholy. HAT Fires, Torments, Cares, Jealousies, Suspitions, WHAT I have sufficiently said: the next question is, what will be the event of such miseries, what they foretell. Some are of opi nion that this love cannot be cured, Nullis amor est medicabilis herbis, it accompanies them to the last, "Idem amor exitio est pecori pecorisque magistro," • Amoris famulus omnem scientiam diffitetur, amandi tamen se scientissimum doctorem agnoscit. *Serm. 8. + Quis horum scribere molestias potest, Lib. 1. de non temnendis amoribus; rectè posse aut judicare qui non in ea Semper moritur, nunquam morand nsi qui & is aliquantum insanit? and is so continuate, that by no perswasion almost it may be relieved." Bid me not love," said Eurialus, "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; "Et prius æquoribus pisces, & montibus umbræ, First Seas shall want their Fish, the mountains shade, 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 Physick can ease ine. "Non prosunt domino quæ prosunt omnibus artes." As Apollo confessed, and Jupiter himself could not be cured. "Omnes humanos curat medicina dolores, Solus amor morbi non habet artificem.” Physick can soon cure every disease, 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 mean time, if it take his course, and be not otherwise eased or amended, it breaks out into outragious often and prodigious events. Amor & Liber violenti dii sunt, as Tatius observes, & 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 throughly possessed with this humor, become insensati & insani, for it is † amor insanus, as the Poet calls it, beside themselves, and as I have proved, no better then beasts, irrational, stupid, head-strong, void of fear of God or men, they frequently forswear themselves, spend, steal, commit incests, rapes, adulteries, murders, depopulate Towns, Cities, Countries, to satisfie their lust. A Divel'tis, and mischief such doth work, Eurial. ep. ad Lucretiam, apud Æneam Silvium; Rogas ut amare deficiam! roga montes ut in planum deveniant, ut fontes flumina repetant; tam possum te non amare ac suum Phoebus relinquere cursum." *Buchanar Syl. < Propert. lib. 2. Eleg. 1. Est orcus illa vis, est immedicabilis, est rabies insana. Lib. 2. + Virg. Egl. 3. R. T. The The wars of Troy may be a sufficient witness; and as Appian lib. 5. hist. saith of Anthony and Cleopatra, "Their Love brought themselves, and all Egypt into extream and miserable calamities," the end of her is as bitter as worm-wood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword." Prov. 5. 4, 5. "Her feet go down to death, her steps lead on to hell. She is more bitter then death, (Eccles. 7. 28.) and the sinner shall be taken by her." «Qui in amore præcipitavit, pejus perit, quàm qui saxo salit.” * 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 Platina, "comes Repentance, Dotage, they loose themselves, their wits, and make shipwrack of their fortunes altogether:" Madness, to make away themselves and others, violent death. Prognosticatio est talis, saith Gordonius, 1 si non succurratur iis, aut in maniam cadunt, aut moriuntur ; the prognostication is, they will either run mad, or dye. "For if this passion continue," saithm Ælian Montaltus," it makes the blood hot, thick, and black; and if the inflammation get into the brain, with continual meditation and waking, it so diies it up, that madness followes, or else they make away theinselves," "O Coridon, Coridon, quæ te dementia cepit?" Now, as Arnoldus adds, it will speedily work these effects, if it be not presently helped; " They will pine away, run mad, and dye upon a sudden;" Facilè incidunt in maniam, saith Valescus, quickly mad, nisi succurratur, if good order be not taken, "Eheu triste jugum quisquis amoris habet, Oh heavy yoke of love, which who so bears, So she confessed of herself in the Poet. Qui quidem amor utrosq; & totam Ægyptum extremis calamitatibus invol vit. Plautus. i Ut corpus pondere, sic animus amore præcipitatur. Austin. 1. 2. de civ. dei. c. 28. Dial. hinc oritur pænitentia desperatio, & non vident ingenium se cum re simul amisisse. Idem Savanarola, & plures alii, &c. Rabidam facturus Orexin. Juven. Hæc passio durans sanguinem torridum & atrabilarium reddit; hic vero ad cerebrum delatus, insaniam parat, vigilia & crebo desiderio exsiccans. Egl. 2. Insani fiunt aut sibi ipsis desperantes mortem afferunt. Languentes eito mortem aut maniam patiuntur. +Calcagninus. Cap. de Heroico Amore. * Virg. "Insaniam "Insaniam priusquam quis sentiat, Vix pili intervallo à furore absum." I shall be mad before it be perceived, An hair breadth off scarce am I, now distracted. As mad as Orlando for his Angelica, or Hercules for his Hylas, "At ille ruebat quò pedes ducebant, furibundus, He went he car'd not whither, mad he was, At the sight of Hero I cannot tell how many ran mad, And whilst he doth conceal his grief, Go to Bedlam for examples. It is so well known in every vil lage, how many have either dyed for love, or voluntarily made away themselves, that I need not much labour to prove it; • Nec modus aut requies nisi mors reperitur amoris: Death is the common Catastrophe to such persons. 66 "Mori mihi contingat, non enim alia Would I were dead, for nought, God knows, As soon as Eurialus departed from Senes, Lucretia his Para- so did Dido; "Sed moriamur ait, sic sic juvat ire per umbras ;" Piramus and Thysbe, Medea, † Coresus and Callyrhoe' Musæus. Lucian Imag. So for Lucian's Mistress, all that saw her, and could not enjoy her, ran mad, or hanged themselves. Ovid. Met. 10. Æneas Silvius. Ad ejus decessum nunquam visa Lucretia ridere, nullis facetiis, jocis, nullo gandio potuit ad lætitiam renovari, mox in ægritudinem incidit, & sic brevi contabuit. * Anacreon. Pausanias Achaicis 1. 7. |