again those things the easiness of which might make them justly suspected. So did the best writers in their beginnings; they imposed upon themselves care and industry; they did nothing rashly: they obtained first to write well, and then custom made it easy and a habit. By little and little their matter showed itself to them more plentifully; their words answered, their composition followed; and all, as in a well-ordered family, presented itself in the place. So that the sum of all is, ready writing makes not good writing, but good writing brings on ready writing. Yet, when we think we have got the faculty, it is even then good to resist it, as to give a horse a check sometimes with a bit, which doth not so much stop his course as stir his mettle. Again, whither a man's genius is best able to reach, thither it should more and more contend, lift and dilate itself; as men of low stature raise themselves on their toes, and so oft-times get even, if not eminent. Besides, as it is fit for grown and able writers to stand of themselves, and work with their own strength, to trust and endeavour by their own faculties, so it is fit for the beginner and learner to study others and the best. For the mind and memory are more sharply exercised in comprehending another man's things than our own; and such as accustom themselves and are familiar with the best authors shall ever and anon find somewhat of them in themselves, and in the expression of their minds, even when they feel it not, be able to utter something like theirs, which hath an authority above their own. Nay, sometimes it is the reward of a man's study, the praise of quoting another man fitly; and though a man be more prone and able for one kind of writing than another, yet he must exercise all. For as in an instrument, so in style, there must be a harmony in consent of parts. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ROBERT BURTON (1577-1640) FROM THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY PART III. SEC. II. MEM. I. SUBS. I HEROICAL LOVE CAUSING MELANCHOLY. HIS PEDIGREE, POWER, AND EXTENT In the preceding section mention was made, amongst other pleasant objects, of this comeliness and beauty which proceeds from women, that causeth heroical, or love-melancholy, is more eminent above the rest, and properly called love. The part affected in men is the liver, and therefore called heroical, because commonly gallants, noblemen, and the most generous spirits are possessed with it. His power and extent is very large,' and in that twofold division of love, peîv and pâv, those two veneries which Plato and some other make mention of, it is most eminent, and Kar' èέox called Venus, as I have said, or love itself. Which although it be denominated from men, and most evident in them, yet it extends and shows itself in vegetal and sensible creatures, those incorporeal substances (as shall be specified), and hath a large dominion of sovereignty over them. His pedigree is very ancient, derived from the beginning of the world, as Phædrus contends, and his parentage of such antiquity, that no poet could ever find it out. Hesiod makes Terra and Chaos to be Love's parents, before the gods were born: Ante deos omnes primum generavit amorem. [“Before all the gods, he first begat Love."] Some think it is the self-same fire Prometheus fetched from heaven. Plutarch, Amator. libello, will have Love to be the son of Iris and Favonius; but Socrates in that pleasant dialogue of Plato, when it came to his turn to speak of love (of which subject Agatho the rhetorician, magniloquus Agatho, that chanter Agatho, had newly given occasion), in a poetical 6 5 1 strain, telleth this tale: when Venus was born, all the gods were invited to a banquet, and amongst the rest, Porus the god of bounty and wealth; Penia or Poverty came a-begging to the door; Porus well whittled with nectar (for there was no wine in those days) walking in Jupiter's garden, in a bower met with Penia, of whom was born Love; and because he was begotten on Venus's birthday, Venus still attends upon him. The moral of this is in 2 Ficinus. Another tale is there borrowed out of Aristophanes: in the beginning of the world, men had four arms and four feet, but for their pride, because they compared themselves with the gods, were parted into halves, and now peradventure by love they hope to be united again and made one. Otherwise thus, Vulcan met two lovers, and bid them ask what they would and they should have it; but they made answer, O Vulcane faber Deorum, etc., "O Vulcan the gods' great smith, we beseech thee to work us anew in thy furnace, and of two make us one; which he presently did, and ever since true lovers are either all one, or else desire to be united." Many such tales you shall find in Leon Hebræus, Dial. 3, and their moral to them. The reason why Love was still painted young (as Phornutus and others will), " is because young men are most apt to love; soft, fair, and fat, because such folks are soonest taken: naked, because all true affection is simple and open: he smiles, because merry and given to delights; hath a quiver, to show his power none can escape: is blind, because he sees not where he strikes, whom he hits," etc. His power and sover 1 Affluentiæ Deus. 2 Cap. 7. Comment. in Plat. convivium. 3 See more in Valesius, lib. 3, cont. med. et cont. 13. Vives 3, de anima; oramus te ut tuis artibus et caminis nos refingas, et ex duobus unum facias; quod et fecit, et exinde amatores unum sunt et unum esse petunt. 5 See more in Natalis Comes, Imag. Deorum; Philostratus de Imaginibus; Lilius Giraldus Syntag. de diis; Phornutus; etc. 6 Juvenis pingitur quod amore plerumque juvenes capiuntur; sic et mollis, formosus; nudus, quod simplex et apertus hic affectus; ridet, quod oblectamentum præ se ferat, cum pharetra, etc. 7 1 eignty is expressed by the poets, in that he is held to be a god, and a great commanding god, above Jupiter himself; Magnus Dæmon, as Plato calls him; the strongest and merriest of all the gods, according to Alcinous and 2 Athenæus; Amor virorum rex, amor rex et deum, as Euripides, "the god of gods and governor of men;" for we must all do homage to him, keep a holiday for his deity, adore in his temples, worship his image (numen enim hoc non est nudum nomen ["For this god is not an empty name"]), and sacrifice to his altar, that conquers all, and rules all: "3 Mallem cum leone, cervo et apro Eolico, 4 "I had rather contend with bulls, lions, bears, and giants, than with Love;" he is so powerful, enforceth all to pay tribute to him, domineers over all, and can make mad and sober whom he list; insomuch that Cæcilius in Tully's Tusculans, holds him to be no better than a fool or an idiot, that doth not acknowledge Love to be a great god. "5 Cui in manu sit quem esse dementem velit, Quem sapere, quem in morbum injici," etc. 6 That can make sick and cure whom he list. Homer and Stesichorus were both made blind, if you will believe Leon Hebræus, for speaking against his godhead; and though Aristophanes degrade him, and say that he was scornfully rejected from the council of the gods, had his wings clipped besides, that he might come no more amongst them, and to his farther disgrace banished heaven forever, and confined to dwell on earth, yet he is of that power, majesty, omnipotency, and dominion, that no creature can withstand him. "Imperat Cupido etiam diis pro arbitrio, 8 Et ipsum arcere ne armipotens potest Jupiter." He is more than quarter master with the gods: "... Tenet Thetide æquor, umbras aco, cœlum Jove: " 10 1A petty Pope: "claves habet superorum et inferorum," as Orpheus, etc. 2 Lib. 13, cap. 5. Dyphnoso. 8 Plautus. Regnat et in superos jus habet ille deos ["He rules and has power over the high gods."] Ovid. Selden pro. leg. 3, cap. de diis Syris. 6 Dial. 3. A concilio Deorum rejectus et ad majorem ejus ignominiam, etc. 8 Fulmine concitatior. ["Swifter than lightning in the collied sky."] Sophocles. ["Love rules even the gods as he will, and Jove himself cannot restrain him."] 10 ["He divides the empire of the sea with Thetis, — of the Shades, with Eacus, of the Heaven, with Jove."] and hath not so much possession as dominion. Jupiter himself was turned into a satyr, shepherd, a bull, a swan, a golden shower, and what not, for love; that as 'Lucian's Juno right well objected to him, ludus amoris tu es, "thou art Cupid's whirlgig": how did he insult over all the other gods, Mars, Neptune, Pan, Mercury, Bacchus, and the rest! Lucian brings in Jupiter complaining of Cupid that he could not be quiet for him; and the Moon lamenting that she was so impotently besotted on Endymion; even Venus herself confessing as much, how rudely and in what sort her own son Cupid had used her being his mother,3 "now drawing her to Mount Ida, for the love of that Trojan Anchises, now to Libanus for that Assyrian youth's sake. And although she threatened. to break his bow and arrows, to clip his wings, and whipped him besides with her pantophle, yet all would not serve, he was too headstrong and unruly." That monster-conquering Hercules was tamed by him: "Quem non mille feræ, quem non Stheneleius hostis, Nec potuit Juno vincere, vicit amor." "Whom neither beasts nor enemies could tame, Nor Juno's might subdue, Love quelled the same." 5 6 Your bravest soldiers and most generous spirits are enervated with it, ubi mulieribus blanditiis permittunt se et inquinantur amplexibus. Apollo, that took upon him to cure all diseases, could not help himself of this; and therefore 'Socrates calls Love a tyrant, and brings him triumphing in a chariot, whom Petrarch imitates in his triumph of Love, and Fracastorius, in an elegant poem expresseth at large, Cupid riding, Mars and Apollo following his chariot, Psyche weeping, etc. In vegetal creatures what sovereignty love hath, by many pregnant proofs and familiar examples may be proved, especially of palmtrees, which are both he and she, and express not a sympathy but a love-passion, and by many observations have been confirmed. "1 Vivunt in venerem frondes, omnisque vicissim Felix arbor amat, nutant et mutua palmæ Fœdera, populeo suspirat populus ictu, Et platano platanus, alnoque assibilat alnus." Constantine, de Agric. lib. 10. cap. 4., gives an instance out of Florentius his Georgics, of a palm-tree that loved most fervently, 2 and would not be comforted until such time her love applied himself unto her; you might see the two trees bend, and of their own accords stretch out their boughs to embrace and kiss each other: they will give manifest signs of mutual love." Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 24, reports that they marry one another, and fall in love if they grow in sight; and when the wind brings the smell to them they are marvellously affected. Philostratus, in Imaginibus, observes as much, and Galen, lib. 6. de locis affectis, cap. 5. They will be sick for love; ready to die and pine away, which the husbandmen perceiving, saith 3 Constantine, "stroke many palms that grow together, and so stroking again the palm that is enamoured, they carry kisses from the one to the other:" or tying the leaves and branches of the one to the stem of the other, will make them both flourish and prosper a great deal better: "which are enamoured, they can perceive by the bending of boughs, and inclination of their bodies." If any man think this which I say to be a tale, let him read that story of two palm-trees in Italy, the male growing at Brundusium, the female at Otranto (related by Jovianus Pontanus in an excellent poem, sometimes tutor to Alphonsus junior, King of Naples, his secretary of state, and a great philosopher) "which were barren, and so continued a long time," till they came to see one another growing up higher, though many stadiums asunder. Pierius in his Hieroglyphics, and Melchior Guilandinus, Mem. 3. tract. de papyro, cites this story of Pontanus for a truth. See more in Salmuth, Comment. in 2 1 Claudian. descript. vener. aulæ. ["Trees are influenced by love, and every flourishing tree in turn feels the passion: palms nod mutual vows, poplar sighs to poplar, plane to plane, and alder breathes to alder."] Neque prius in iis desiderium cessat dum dejectus consoletur; videre enim est ipsam arborem incurvatam, ultro ramis ab utrisque vicissim ad osculum exporrectis: manifesta dant mutui desiderii signa. Multas palmas contingens quæ simul crescunt, rursusque ad amantem regrediens, eamque manu attingens, quasi osculum mutuo ministrare videtur, et expediti concubitus gratiam facit. * Quam vero ipsa desideret affectu ramorum significat, et ad illam respicit: amantur, etc. Pancirol de Nova repert. Tit. 1 de novo orbe, Mizaldus Arcanorum, lib. 2., Sand's Voyages, lib. 2. fol. 103, etc. If such fury be in vegetals, what shall we think of sensible creatures, how much more violent and apparent shall it be in them! "1 Omne adeo genus in terris hominumque ferarum, Et genus æquoreum, pecudes, pictæque volucres In furias ignemque ruunt; amor omnibus idem." "All kind of creatures in the earth, And painted birds do rage alike; "2 Hic deus et terras et maria alta domat." 4 Common experience and our sense will inform us how violently brute beasts are carried away with this passion, horses above the rest furor est insignis equarum. 3 Cupid in Lucian bids Venus his mother "be of good cheer, for he was now familiar with lions, and oftentimes did get on their backs, hold them by the mane, and ride them about like horses, and they would fawn upon him with their tails." Bulls, bears, and boars are so furious in this kind they kill one another: but especially cocks, lions, and harts, which are so fierce that you may hear them fight half a mile off, saith Turbervile, and many times kill each other, or compel them to abandon the rut, that they may remain masters in their places; "and when one hath driven his corival away, he raiseth his nose up into the air, and looks aloft, as though he gave thanks to nature," which affords him such great delight. How birds are affected in this kind, appears out of Aristotle, he will have them to sing ob futuram venerem, for joy or in hope of their venery which is to come. 7 "Eeriæ primum volucres te Diva, tuumque Significant initum, perculsæ corda tua vi." "Fishes pine away for love and wax lean," if Gomesius's authority may be taken, and are rampant too, some of them: so love tyran 1 Virg., 3 Georg. 2 Propertius: ["This god rules both the lands and the deep seas"]. 3 Dial. deorum. Confide, mater, leonibus ipsis familiaris jam factus sum, et sæpe conscendi eorum terga et apprehendi jubas; equorum more insidens eos agito, et illi mihi caudis adblandiuntur. 4 Leones præ amore furunt, Plin., 1. 8, c. 16, Arist., l. 6, hist. animal. Cap. of his book of hunting. 6 Lucretius. 7 De sale, lib. 1, c. 21. Pisces ob amorem marcescunt, pallescunt, etc. 17, 663 A niseth in dumb creatures. Yet this is natural for one beast to dote upon another of the same kind; but what strange fury is that, when a beast shall dote upon a man? Saxo Grammaticus, lib. 10, Dan. hist., hath a story of a bear that loved a woman, kept her in his den a long time, and begot a son of her, out of whose loins proceeded many northern kings: this is the original belike of that common tale of Valentine and Orson: Ælian, Pliny, Peter Gillius, are full of such relations. peacock in Lucadia loved a maid, and when she died, the peacock pined. "A dolphin loved a boy called Hernias, and when he died the fish came on land, and so perished." The like adds Gillius, lib. 10. cap. 22, out of Appion, Egypt. lib. 15: a dolphin at Puteoli loved a child, would come often to him, let him get on his back, and carry him about, "and when by sickness the child was taken away, the dolphin died.". Every book is full (saith Busbequius, the emperor's orator with the grand signior, not long since, Ep. 3. legat. Turc.) and yields such instances, to believe which I was always afraid, lest I should be thought to give credit to fables, until I saw a lynx which I had from Assyria, so affected towards one of my men, that it cannot be denied but that he was in love with him. When my man was present, the beast would use many notable enticements and pleasant motions, and when he was going, hold him back, and look after him when he was gone, very sad in his absence, but most jocund when he returned: and when my man went from me, the beast expressed his love with continual sickness, and after he had pined away some few days, died." Such another story he hath of a crane of Majorca, that loved a Spaniard, that would walk any way with him, and in his absence seek about for him, make a noise that he might hear her, and knock at his door, "and when he took his last farewell, famished herself." Such pretty pranks can love play with birds, fishes, beasts: 3 " Cœlestis ætheris, ponti, terræ claves habet Venus, Solaque istorum omnium imperium obtinet." 1 Plin., 1. to, c. 5, quumque, aborta tempestate, periisset Hernias, in sicco piscis expiravit. 2 Postquam puer morbo abiit, et ipse delphinus periit. * Pleni sunt libri quibus feræ in homines inflammatæ fuerunt, in quibus ego quidem semper assensum sustinui, veritus ne fabulosa crederem; donec vidi lyncem quem habui ab Assyria sic affectum erga unum de meis hominibus, etc. 4 Desiderium suum testatus post inediam aliquot dierum interiit. Or and, if all be certain that is credibly reported, with the spirits of the air, and devils of hell themselves, who are as much enamoured and dote (if I may use that word) as any other creatures whatsoever. For if those stories be true that are written of incubus and succubus, of nymphs, lascivious fauns, satyrs, and those heathen gods which were devils, those lascivious Telchines, of whom the Platonists tell so many fables; or those familiar meetings in our days, and company of witches and devils, there is some probability for it. I know that Biermannus, Wierus, lib. 3. cap. 19. et 24, and some others stoutly deny it, they be mere fantasies, all such relations of incubi, succubi, lies and tales; but Austin. lib. 15. de civit. Dei, doth acknowledge it: Erastus, de Lamiis, Jacobus Sprenger and his colleagues, etc., Zanchius, cap. 16. lib. 4. de oper. Dei, Dandinus, in Arist. de Anima, lib. 2. text. 29. com. 30, Bodin, lib. 2. cap. 7. and Paracelsus, a great champion of this tenet amongst the rest, which give sundry peculiar instances, by many testimonies, proofs, and confessions evince it. Hector Boethius, in his Scottish history, hath three or four such examples, which Cardan confirms out of him, lib. 16. cap. 43, of such as have had familiar company many years with them, and that in the habit of men and women. Philostratus in his fourth book de vita Apollonii, hath a memorable instance in this kind, which I may not omit, of one Menippus Lycius, a young man twenty-five years of age, that going between Cenchreas and Corinth, met such a phantasm in the habit of a fair gentlewoman, which taking him by the hand carried him home to her house in the suburbs of Corinth, and told him she was a Phoenician by birth, and if he would tarry with her, " he should hear her sing and play, and drink such wine as never any drank, and no man should molest him; but she being fair and lovely would live and die with him that was fair and lovely to behold." The young man, a philosopher, otherwise staid and discreet, able to moderate his passions, though not this of love, tarried with her awhile to his great content, and at pheus hymno Ven.: ["Venus keeps the keys of the air, earth, sea, and she alone possesses the command of all."] Qui hæc in atræ bilis aut Imaginationis vim referre conati sunt, nihil faciunt. [Those who have attempted to ascribe these things to the power of black bile or of imagination, do nothing.] 2 Cantantem audies et vinum bibes, quale antea nunquam bibisti; te rivalis turbabit nullus; pulchra autem pulchro contente vivam, et moriar. |