The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 55

So that you see this is no news, the devils themselves, or their juggling priests, have played such pranks in all ages. Many divines stiffly contradict this; but I will conclude with [4688]Lipsius, that since "examples, testimonies, and confessions, of those unhappy women are so manifest on the other side, and many even in this our town of Louvain, that it is likely to be so. [4689]One thing I will add, that I suppose that in no age past, I know not by what destiny of this unhappy time, have there ever appeared or showed themselves so many lecherous devils, satyrs, and genii, as in this of ours, as appears by the daily narrations, and judicial sentences upon record." Read more of this question in Plutarch, _vit.

Numae_, Austin _de civ. Dei. lib. 15._ Wierus, _lib. 3. de praestig. Daem._ Giraldus Cambrensis, _itinerar. Camb. lib. 1._ _Malleus malefic. quaest. 5.

part. 1._ Jacobus Reussus, _lib. 5. cap. 6. fol. 54._ G.o.delman, _lib. 2.

cap. 4._ Erastus, Valesius _de sacra philo. cap. 40._ John Nider, _Fornicar. lib. 5. cap. 9._ Stroz. Cicogna. _lib. 3. cap. 3._ Delrio, Lipsius Bodine, _daemonol. lib. 2. cap. 7._ Pererius _in Gen. lib. 8. in 6.

cap. ver. 2._ King James, &c.

SUBSECT. II.--_How Love tyranniseth over men. Love, or Heroical Melancholy, his definition, part affected_.

You have heard how this tyrant Love rageth with brute beasts and spirits; now let us consider what pa.s.sions it causeth amongst men. [4690]_Improbe amor quid non mortalia pectora cogis_? How it tickles the hearts of mortal men, _Horresco referens_,--I am almost afraid to relate, amazed, [4691]and ashamed, it hath wrought such stupendous and prodigious effects, such foul offences. Love indeed (I may not deny) first united provinces, built cities, and by a perpetual generation makes and preserves mankind, propagates the church; but if it rage it is no more love, but burning l.u.s.t, a disease, frenzy, madness, h.e.l.l. [4692]_Est orcus ille, vis est immedicabilis, est rabies insana_; 'tis no virtuous habit this, but a vehement perturbation of the mind, a monster of nature, wit, and art, as Alexis in [4693]Athenaeus sets it out, _viriliter audax, muliebriter timidium, furore praeceps, labore infractum, mel felleum, blanda percussio_, &c. It subverts kingdoms, overthrows cities, towns, families, mars, corrupts, and makes a ma.s.sacre of men; thunder and lightning, wars, fires, plagues, have not done that mischief to mankind, as this burning l.u.s.t, this brutish pa.s.sion. Let Sodom and Gomorrah, Troy, (which Dares Phrygius, and Dictis Cretensis will make good) and I know not how many cities bear record,--_et fuit ante Helenam_, &c., all succeeding ages will subscribe: Joanna of Naples in Italy, Fredegunde and Brunhalt in France, all histories are full of these basilisks. Besides those daily monomachies, murders, effusion of blood, rapes, riot, and immoderate expense, to satisfy their l.u.s.ts, beggary, shame, loss, torture, punishment, disgrace, loathsome diseases that proceed from thence, worse than calentures and pestilent fevers, those often gouts, pox, arthritis, palsies, cramps, sciatica, convulsions, aches, combustions, &c., which torment the body, that feral melancholy which crucifies the soul in this life, and everlastingly torments in the world to come.

Notwithstanding they know these and many such miseries, threats, tortures, will surely come upon them, rewards, exhortations, _e contra_; yet either out of their own weakness, a depraved nature, or love's tyranny, which so furiously rageth, they suffer themselves to be led like an ox to the slaughter: (_Facilis descensus Averni_) they go down headlong to their own perdition, they will commit folly with beasts, men "leaving the natural use of women," as [4694]Paul saith, "burned in l.u.s.t one towards another, and man with man wrought filthiness."

Semiramis equo, Pasiphae tauro, Aristo Ephesius asinae se commiscuit, Fulvius equae, alii canibus, capris, &c., unde monstra nasc.u.n.tur aliquando, Centauri, Sylvani, et ad terrorem hominum prodigiosa spectra: Nec c.u.m brutis, sed ipsis hominibus rem habent, quod peccatum Sodomiae vulgo dicitur; et frequens olim vitium apud Orientalis illos fuit, Graecos nimirum, Italos, Afros, Asianos: [4695]Hercules Hylam habuit, Polycletum, Dionem, Perithoonta, Abderum et Phryga; alii et Euristium ab Hercule amatum tradunt. Socrates pulchrorum Adolescentum causa frequens Gymnasium adibat, flagitiosque spectaculo pascebat oculos, quod et Philebus et Phaedon, Rivales, Charmides et [4696]reliqui Platonis Dialogi, satis superque testatum faciunt: quod vero Alcibiades de eodem Socrate loquatur, lubens conticesco, sed et abhorreo; tantum incitamentum praebet libidini. At hunc perstrinxit Theodoretus _lib. de curat. graec. affect. cap. ultimo._ Quin et ipse Plato suum demiratur Agathonem, Xenophon, Cliniam, Virgilius Alexin, Anacreon Bathyllum: Quod autem de Nerone, Claudio, caeterorumque portentosa libidine memoriae proditum, mallem a Petronio, Suetonio, caeterisque petatis, quando omnem fidem excedat, quam a me expectetis; sed vetera querimur. [4697]Apud Asianos, Turcas, Italos, nunquam frequentius hoc quam hodierno die vitium; Diana Romanorum Sodomia; officinae horum alicubi apud Turcas,--"qui saxis semina mandant"--arenas arantes; et frequentes querelae, etiam inter ipsos conjuges hac de re, "quae virorum concubitum illicitum calceo in oppositam partem verso magistratui indicant"; nullum apud Italos familiare magis peccatum, qui et post [4698]Lucianum et [4699]Tatium, scriptis voluminibis defendunt. Johannes de la Casa, Beventinus Episcopus, divinum opus vocat, suave scelus, adeoque jactat, se non alia, usum Venere. Nihil usitatius apud monachos, Cardinales, sacrificulos, etiam [4700]furor hic ad mortem, ad insaniam.

[4701]Angelus Politia.n.u.s, ob pueri amorem, violentas sibi ina.n.u.s injecit.

Et horrendum sane dictu, quantum apud nos patrum memoria, scelus detestandum hoc saevierit! Quum enim Anno 1538. "prudentissimus Rex Henricus Octavus cucullatorum coen.o.bia, et sacrificorum collegia, votariorum, per venerabiles legum Doctores Thomam Leum, Richardum Laytonum visitari fecerat, &c., tanto numero reperti sunt apud eos scortatores, cinaedi, ganeones, paedicones, puerarii, paederastae, Sodomitae", ([4702]Balei verbis utor) "Ganimedes, &c. ut in unoquoque eorum novam credideris Gomorrham". Sed vide si lubet eorundem Catalogum apud eundem Balc.u.m; "Puellae" (inquit) "in lectis dormire non poterant ob fratres necromanticos". Haec si apud votarios, monachos, sanctos scilicet homunciones, quid in foro, quid in aula factum suspiceris? quid apud n.o.biles, quid inter fornices, quam non foeditatem, quam non spurcitiem?

Sileo interim turpes illas, et ne nominandas quidem monachorum [4703]

mastrupationes, masturbatores. [4704]Rodericus a Castro vocat, tum et eos qui se invicem ad Venerem excitandam flagris caedunt, Spintrias, Succubas, Ambubeias, et lasciviente lumbo Tribades illas mulierculas, quae se invicem fricant, et praeter Eunuchos etiam ad Venerem explendam, artificiosa illa veretra habent. Immo quod magis mirere, faemina foeminam Constantinopoli non ita pridem deperiit, ausa rem plane incredibilem, mutato cultu ment.i.ta virum de nuptiis sermonem init, et brevi nupta est: sed auth.o.r.em ipsum consule, Busbequium. Omitto [4705]Salanarios illos Egyptiacos, qui c.u.m formosarum cadaveribus conc.u.mbunt; et eorum vesanam libidinem, qui etiam idola et imagines depereunt. Nota est fabula Pigmalionis apud [4706]Ovidium; Mundi et Paulini apud Aegesippum _belli Jud. lib. 2. cap.

4._ Pontius C. Caesaris legatus, referente Plinio, _lib. 35. cap. 3._ quem suspicor eum esse qui Christum crucifixit, picturis Atalantae et Helenae adeo libidine incensus, ut tollere eas vellet si natura tectorii permisisset, alius statuam bonae Fortunae deperiit (Aelia.n.u.s, _lib. 9. cap.

37._) alius bonae deae, et ne qua pars probro vacet. [4707]"Raptus ad stupra" (quod ait ille) "et ne [4708]os quidem a libidine exceptum."

Heliogabalus, per omnia cava corporis libidinem recepit, Lamprid. vita ejus. [4709]Hostius quidam specula fecit, et ita disposuit, ut quum virum ipse pateretur, aversus omnes admissarii motus in speculo videret, ac deinde falsa magnitudine ipsius membri tanquam vera gauderet, simul virum et foeminam pa.s.sus, quod dictu foedum et abominandum. Ut veram plane sit, quod apud [4710]Plutarchum Gryllus Ulyssi objecit. "Ad hunc usque diem apud nos neque mas marem, neque foemina foeminam amavit, qualia multa apud vos memorabiles et praeclari viri fecerunt: ut viles missos faciam, Hercules imberbem sectans socium, amicos deseruit, &c. Vestrae libidines intra suos naturae fines coerceri non possunt, quin instar fluvii exundantis atrocem foeditatum, tumultum, confusionemque naturae gignant in re Venerea: nam et capras, porcos, equos inierunt viri et foeminae, insano bestiarum amore exa.r.s.erunt, imde Minotauri, Centauri, Sylvani, Sphinges", &c. Sed ne confutando doceam, aut ea foras efferam, quae, non omnes scire convenit (haec enim doctis solummodo, quod causa non absimili [4711]Rodericus, scripta velim) ne levissomis ingentis et depravatis mentibus foedissimi sceleris not.i.tiam, &c., nolo quem diutius hisce sordibus inquinare.

I come at last to that heroical love which is proper to men and women, is a frequent cause of melancholy, and deserves much rather to be called burning l.u.s.t, than by such an honourable t.i.tle. There is an honest love, I confess, which is natural, laqueus occultus captivans corda hominum, ut a mulieribus non possint separari, "a secret snare to captivate the hearts of men," as [4712]Christopher Fonseca proves, a strong allurement, of a most attractive, occult, adamantine property, and powerful virtue, and no man living can avoid it. [4713]_Et qui vim non sensit amoris, aut lapis est, aut bellua_. He is not a man but a block, a very stone, _aut [4714]Numen, aut Nebuchadnezzar_, he hath a gourd for his head, a pepon for his heart, that hath not felt the power of it, and a rare creature to be found, one in an age, _Qui nunquam visae flagravit amore puellae_; [4715]for _semel insanivimus omnes_, dote we either young or old, as [4716]he said, and none are excepted but Minerva and the Muses: so Cupid in [4717]Lucian complains to his mother Venus, that amongst all the rest his arrows could not pierce them. But this nuptial love is a common pa.s.sion, an honest, for men to love in the way of marriage; _ut materia appet.i.t formam, sic mulier virum._ [4718]You know marriage is honourable, a blessed calling, appointed by G.o.d himself in Paradise; it breeds true peace, tranquillity, content, and happiness, _qua nulla est aut fuit unquam sanctior conjunctio_, as Daphnaeus in [4719]Plutarch could well prove, _et quae generi humano immortalitatem parat_, when they live without jarring, scolding, lovingly as they should do.

[4720] "Felices ter et amplius Quos irrupta tenet copula, nec ullis Divulsus querimoniis Suprema citius solvit amor die."

"Thrice happy they, and more than that, Whom bond of love so firmly ties, That without brawls till death them part, 'Tis undissolv'd and never dies."

As Seneca lived with his Paulina, Abraham and Sarah, Orpheus and Eurydice, Arria and Poetus, Artemisia and Mausolus, Rubenius Celer, that would needs have it engraven on his tomb, he had led his life with Ennea, his dear wife, forty-three years eight months, and never fell out. There is no pleasure in this world comparable to it, 'tis _summum mortalitatis bonum-- [4721]hominum divumque voluptas, Alma Venus--latet enim in muliere aliquid majus potentiusque, omnibus aliis humanis voluptatibus_, as [4722]one holds, there's something in a woman beyond all human delight; a magnetic virtue, a charming quality, an occult and powerful motive. The husband rules her as head, but she again commands his heart, he is her servant, she is only joy and content: no happiness is like unto it, no love so great as this of man and wife, no such comfort as [4723]_placens uxor_, a sweet wife: [4724]_Omnis amor magnus, sed aperto in conjuge major_. When they love at last as fresh as they did at first, [4725]_Charaque charo consenescit conjugi_, as Homer brings Paris kissing Helen, after they had been married ten years, protesting withal that he loved her as dear as he did the first hour that he was betrothed. And in their old age, when they make much of one another, saying, as he did to his wife in the poet,

[4726] "Uxor vivamus quod viximus, et moriamur, Servantes nomen sumpsimus in thalamo; Nec ferat ulla dies ut commutemur in aevo, Quin tibi sim juvenis, tuque puella mihi."

"Dear wife, let's live in love, and die together, As. .h.i.therto we have in all good will: Let no day change or alter our affections.

But let's be young to one another still."

Such should conjugal love be, still the same, and as they are one flesh, so should they be of one mind, as in an aristocratical government, one consent, [4727]Geyron-like, _coalescere in unum_, have one heart in two bodies, will and nill the same. A good wife, according to Plutarch, should be as a looking-gla.s.s to represent her husband's face and pa.s.sion: if he be pleasant, she should be merry: if he laugh, she should smile: if he look sad, she should partic.i.p.ate of his sorrow, and bear a part with him, and so should they continue in mutual love one towards another.

[4728] "Et me ab amore tuo deducet nulla senectus, Sive ego Tythonus, sive ego Nestor ero."

"No age shall part my love from thee, sweet wife, Though I live Nestor or t.i.thonus' life."

And she again to him, as the [4729]Bride saluted the Bridegroom of old in Rome, _Ubi tu Caius, ego semper Caia_, be thou still Caius, I'll be Caia.

'Tis a happy state this indeed, when the fountain is blessed (saith Solomon, Prov. v. 17.) "and he rejoiceth with the wife of his youth, and she is to him as the loving hind and pleasant roe, and he delights in her continually." But this love of ours is immoderate, inordinate, and not to be comprehended in any bounds. It will not contain itself within the union of marriage, or apply to one object, but is a wandering, extravagant, a domineering, a boundless, an irrefragable, a destructive pa.s.sion: sometimes this burning l.u.s.t rageth after marriage, and then it is properly called jealousy; sometimes before, and then it is called heroical melancholy; it extends sometimes to co-rivals, &c., begets rapes, incests, murders: _Marcus Antonius compressit Faustinam sororem, Caracalla Juliam Novercam, Nero Matrem, Caligula sorores, Cyneras Myrrham filiam_, &c. But it is confined within no terms of blood, years, s.e.x, or whatsoever else. Some furiously rage before they come to discretion, or age. [4730]Quartilla in Petronius never remembered she was a maid; and the wife of Bath, in Chaucer, cracks,

_Since I was twelve years old, believe, Husbands at Kirk-door had I five_.

[4731]Aratine Lucretia sold her maidenhead a thousand times before she was twenty-four years old, _plus milies vendiderant virginitatem, &c. neque te celabo, non deerant qui ut integram ambirent_. Rahab, that harlot, began to be a professed quean at ten years of age, and was but fifteen when she hid the spies, as [4732]Hugh Broughton proves, to whom Serrarius the Jesuit, _quaest. 6. in cap. 2. Josue_, subscribes. Generally women begin _p.u.b.escere_, as they call it, or _catullire_, as Julius Pollux cites, _lib.

2. cap. 3. onomast_ out of Aristophanes, [4733]at fourteen years old, then they do offer themselves, and some plainly rage. [4734]Leo Afer saith, that in Africa a man shall scarce find a maid at fourteen years of age, they are so forward, and many amongst us after they come into the teens do not live without husbands, but linger. What pranks in this kind the middle ages have played is not to be recorded. _Si mihi sint centum linguae, sint oraque centum_, no tongue can sufficiently declare, every story is full of men and women's insatiable l.u.s.t, Nero's, Heliogabali, Bonosi, &c. [4735] _Coelius Amphilenum, sed Quintius Amphelinam depereunt_, &c. They neigh after other men's wives (as Jeremia, _cap. v. 8._ complaineth) like fed horses, or range like town bulls, _raptores virginum et viduarum_, as many of our great ones do. Solomon's wisdom was extinguished in this fire of l.u.s.t, Samson's strength enervated, piety in Lot's daughters quite forgot, gravity of priesthood in Eli's sons, reverend old age in the Elders that would violate Susanna, filial duty in Absalom to his stepmother, brotherly love in Ammon. towards his sister. Human, divine laws, precepts, exhortations, fear of G.o.d and men, fair, foul means, fame, fortune, shame, disgrace, honour cannot oppose, stave off, or withstand the fury of it, _omnia vincit amor_, &c. No cord nor cable can so forcibly draw, or hold so fast, as love can do with, a twined thread. The scorching beams under the equinoctial, or extremity of cold within the circle arctic, where the very seas are frozen, cold or torrid zone, cannot avoid or expel this heat, fury, and rage of mortal men.

[4736] "Quo fugis ab demens, nulla est fuga, tu licet usque Ad Tanaim fugias, usque sequetur amor."

Of women's unnatural, [4737]insatiable l.u.s.t, what country, what village doth not complain? Mother and daughter sometimes dote on the same man, father and son, master and servant, on one woman.

[4738] "--Sed amor, sed ineffrenata libido, Quid castum in terris intentatumque reliquit?"

What breach of vows and oaths, fury, dotage, madness, might I reckon up?

Yet this is more tolerable in youth, and such as are still in their hot blood; but for an old fool to dote, to see an old lecher, what more odious, what can be more absurd? and yet what so common? Who so furious?[4739]

_Amare ea aetate si occiperint, multo insaniunt acrius_. Some dote then more than ever they did in their youth. How many decrepit, h.o.a.ry, harsh, writhen, bursten-bellied, crooked, toothless, bald, blear-eyed, impotent, rotten, old men shall you see flickering still in every place? One gets him a young wife, another a courtesan, and when he can scarce lift his leg over a sill, and hath one foot already in Charon's boat, when he hath the trembling in his joints, the gout in his feet, a perpetual rheum in his head, "a continuate cough," [4740]his sight fails him, thick of hearing, his breath stinks, all his moisture is dried up and gone, may not spit from him, a very child again, that cannot dress himself, or cut his own meat, yet he will be dreaming of, and honing after wenches, what can be more unseemly? Worse it is in women than in men, when she is _aetate declivis, diu vidua, mater olim, parum decore matrimonium sequi videtur_, an old widow, a mother so long since ([4741]in Pliny's opinion), she doth very unseemly seek to marry, yet whilst she is [4742]so old a crone, a beldam, she can neither see, nor hear, go nor stand, a mere [4743]carca.s.s, a witch, and scarce feel; she caterwauls, and must have a stallion, a champion, she must and will marry again, and betroth herself to some young man, [4744]that hates to look on, but for her goods; abhors the sight of her, to the prejudice of her good name, her own undoing, grief of friends, and ruin of her children.

But to enlarge or ill.u.s.trate this power and effects of love, is to set a candle in the sun. [4745]It rageth with all sorts and conditions of men, yet is most evident among such as are young and l.u.s.ty, in the flower of their years, n.o.bly descended, high fed, such as live idly, and at ease; and for that cause (which our divines call burning l.u.s.t) this [4746]_ferinus insa.n.u.s amor_, this mad and beastly pa.s.sion, as I have said, is named by our physicians heroical love, and a more honourable t.i.tle put upon it, _Amor n.o.bilis_, as [4747]Savanarola styles it, because n.o.ble men and women make a common practice of it, and are so ordinarily affected with it.

Avicenna, _lib. 3. Fen, 1. tract. 4. cap. 23._ calleth this pa.s.sion _Ilishi_, and defines it [4748]"to be a disease or melancholy vexation, or anguish of mind, in which a man continually meditates of the beauty, gesture, manners of his mistress, and troubles himself about it:" desiring, (as Savanarola adds) with all intentions and eagerness of mind, "to compa.s.s or enjoy her, [4749]as commonly hunters trouble themselves about their sports, the covetous about their gold and goods, so is he tormented still about his mistress." Arnoldus Villanova.n.u.s, in his book of heroical love, defines it, [4750]"a continual cogitation of that which he desires, with a confidence or hope of compa.s.sing it;" which definition his commentator cavils at. For continual cogitation is not the genus but a symptom of love; we continually think of that which we hate and abhor, as well as that which we love; and many things we covet and desire, without all hope of attaining. Carolus a Lorme, in his Questions, makes a doubt, _An amor sit morbus_, whether this heroical love be a disease: Julius Pollux _Onomast.

lib. 6. cap. 44._ determines it. They that are in love are likewise [4751]sick; _lascivus, salax, lasciviens, et qui in venerem furit, vere est aegrotus_, Arnoldus will have it improperly so called, and a malady rather of the body than mind. Tully, in his _Tusculans_, defines it a furious disease of the mind. Plato, madness itself. Ficinus, his Commentator, _cap.

12._ a species of madness, "for many have run mad for women," Esdr. iv. 26.

But [4752]Rhasis "a melancholy pa.s.sion:" and most physicians make it a species or kind of melancholy (as will appear by the symptoms), and treat of it apart; whom I mean to imitate, and to discuss it in all his kinds, to examine his several causes, to show his symptoms, indications, prognostics, effect, that so it may be with more facility cured.

The part affected in the meantime, as [4753]Arnoldus supposeth, "is the former part of the head for want of moisture," which his Commentator rejects. Langius, _med. epist. lib. 1. cap. 24._ will have this pa.s.sion seated in the liver, and to keep residence in the heart, [4754]"to proceed first from the eyes so carried by our spirits, and kindled with imagination in the liver and heart;" _coget amare jecur_, as the saying is. _Medium feret per epar_, as Cupid in Anacreon. For some such cause belike [4755]

Homer feigns t.i.tius' liver (who was enamoured of Latona) to be still gnawed by two vultures day and night in h.e.l.l, [4756]"for that young men's bowels thus enamoured, are so continually tormented by love." Gordonius, _cap. 2.

part. 2._ [4757]"will have the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es an immediate subject or cause, the liver an antecedent." Fracastorius agrees in this with Gordonius, _inde primitus imaginatio venerea, erectio, &c. t.i.tillatissimam partem vocat, ita ut nisi extruso semine gestiens voluptas non cessat, nec a.s.sidua veneris recordatio, addit Gnastivinius_ _Comment. 4. Sect. prob. 27. Arist._ But [4758]properly it is a pa.s.sion of the brain, as all other melancholy, by reason of corrupt imagination, and so doth Jason Pratensis, _c. 19. de morb. cerebri_ (who writes copiously of this erotical love), place and reckon it amongst the affections of the brain. [4759]Melancthon _de anima_ confutes those that make the liver a part affected, and Guianerius, _Tract.

15. cap. 13 et 17._ though many put all the affections in the heart, refers it to the brain. Ficinus, _cap. 7. in Convivium Platonis_, "will have the blood to be the part affected." Jo. Frietagius, _cap. 14. noct. med._ supposeth all four affected, heart, liver, brain, blood; but the major part concur upon the brain, [4760]'tis _imaginatio laesa_; and both imagination and reason are misaffected;, because of his corrupt judgment, and continual meditation of that which he desires, he may truly be said to be melancholy.

If it be violent, or his disease inveterate, as I have determined in the precedent part.i.tions, both imagination and reason are misaffected, first one, then the other.

MEMB. II.

SUBSECT. I.--_Causes of Heroical Love, Temperature, full Diet, Idleness, Place, Climate, &c._

Of all causes the remotest are stars. [4761]Ficinus _cap. 19._ saith they are most p.r.o.ne to this burning l.u.s.t, that have Venus in Leo in their horoscope, when the Moon and Venus be mutually aspected, or such as be of Venus' complexion. [4762]Plutarch interprets astrologically that tale of Mars and Venus, "in whose genitures [Symbol: Mars] and [Symbol: Mars] are in conjunction," they are commonly lascivious, and if women queans; as the good wife of Bath confessed in Chaucer;

_I followed aye mine inclination, By virtue of my constellation_.

But of all those astrological aphorisms which I have ever read, that of Cardan is most memorable, for which howsoever he is bitterly censured by [4763]Marinus Marcennus, a malapert friar, and some others (which [4764] he himself suspected) yet methinks it is free, downright, plain and ingenious.

In his [4765]eighth _Geniture_, or example, he hath these words of himself, [Symbol: Mars] [Symbol: Mars] and [Symbol: Mercury] in [Symbol: Mercury]

_dignitatibus a.s.siduam mihi Venereorum cogitationem praestabunt, ita ut nunquam quiescam._ Et paulo post, _Cogitatio Venereorum me torquet perpetuo, et quam facto implere non licuit, aut fecisse potentem puduit, cogitatione a.s.sidua ment.i.tus sum voluptatem_. Et alibi, _ob [Symbol: Moon-3/4] et [Symbol: Mercury] dominium et radiorum mixtionem, profundum fuit ingenium, sed lascivum, egoque turpi libidini deditus et obscaenus._ So far Cardan of himself, _quod de se fatetur ideo [4766]ut utilitatem adferat studiosis hujusce disciplinae_, and for this he is traduced by Marcennus, when as in effect he saith no more than what Gregory n.a.z.ianzen of old, to Chilo his scholar, _offerebant se mihi visendae mulieres, quarum praecellenti elegantia et decore spectabili tentabatur meae. integritas pudicitiae. Et quidem flagitium vitavi fornicationis, at munditiae virginalis florem arcana cordis cogitatione foedavi. Sed ad rem._ Aptiores ad masculinam venerem sunt quorum genesi Venus est in signo masculino, et in Saturni finibus aut oppositione, &c. Ptolomeus _in quadripart._ plura de his et specialia habet aphorismata, longo proculdubio usu confirmata, et ab experientia multa perfecta, inquit commentator ejus Carda.n.u.s. Tho.

Campanella _Astrologiae lib. 4. cap. 8. articulis 4 and 5._ insaniam amatoriam remonstrantia, multa prae caeteris acc.u.mulat aphorismata, quae qui volet, consulat. Chiromantici ex cingulo Veneris plerumque conjecturam faciunt, et monte Veneris, de quorum decretis, Taisnerum, Johan. de Indagine, Goclenium, ceterosque si lubet, inspicias. Physicians divine wholly from the temperature and complexion; phlegmatic persons are seldom taken, according to Ficinus _Comment, cap. 9_; naturally melancholy less than they, but once taken they are never freed; though many are of opinion flatuous or hypochondriacal melancholy are most subject of all others to this infirmity. Valescus a.s.signs their strong imagination for a cause, Bodine abundance of wind, Gordonius of seed, and spirits, or atomi in the seed, which cause their violent and furious pa.s.sions. Sanguine thence are soon caught, young folks most apt to love, and by their good wills, saith [4767]Lucian, "would have a bout with every one they see:" the colt's evil is common to all complexions. Theomestus a young and l.u.s.ty gallant acknowledgeth (in the said author) all this to be verified in him, "I am so amorously given, [4768]you may sooner number the sea-sands, and snow falling from the skies, than my several loves. Cupid had shot all his arrows at me, I am deluded with various desires, one love succeeds another, and that so soon, that before one is ended, I begin with a second; she that is last is still fairest, and she that is present pleaseth me most: as an hydra's head my loves increase, no Iolaus can help me. Mine eyes are so moist a refuge and sanctuary of love, that they draw all beauties to them, and are never satisfied. I am in a doubt what fury of Venus this should be: alas, how have I offended her so to vex me, what Hippolitus am I!" What Telchine is my genius? or is it a natural imperfection, an hereditary pa.s.sion? Another in [4769]Anacreon confesseth that he had twenty sweethearts in Athens at once, fifteen at Corinth, as many at Thebes, at Lesbos, and at Rhodes, twice as many in Ionia, thrice in Caria, twenty thousand in all: or in a word, [Greek: ei phulla, panta], &c.

"Folia arborum omnium si Nosti referre cuncta, Aut computare arenas In aequore universas, Solum meorum amorum Te fecero logistam?"

"Canst count the leaves in May, Or sands i' th' ocean sea?

Then count my loves I pray."

His eyes are like a balance, apt to propend each way, and to be weighed down with every wench's looks, his heart a weatherc.o.c.k, his affection tinder, or naphtha itself, which every fair object, sweet smile, or mistress's favour sets on fire. Guianerius _tract 15. cap. 14._ refers all this [4770]to "the hot temperature of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es," Ferandus a Frenchman in his _Erotique Mel._ (which [4771]book came first to my hands after the third edition) to certain atomi in the seed, "such as are very spermatic and full of seed." I find the same in Aristot. _sect. 4. prob. 17._ _si non secernatur s.e.m.e.n, cessare tentigines non possunt_, as Gaustavinius his commentator translates it: for which cause these young men that be strong set, of able bodies, are so subject to it. Hercules de Saxonia hath the same words in effect. But most part I say, such as are aptest to love that are young and l.u.s.ty, live at ease, stall-fed, free from cares, like cattle in a rank pasture, idle and solitary persons, they must needs _hirquitullire_, as Guastavinius recites out of Censorinus.

[4772] "Mens erit apta capi tum quum laetissima rerum.

Ut seges in pingui luxuriabit humo."

"The mind is apt to l.u.s.t, and hot or cold, As corn luxuriates in a better mould."

The place itself makes much wherein we live, the clime, air, and discipline if they concur. In our Misnia, saith Galen, near to Pergamus, thou shalt scarce find an adulterer, but many at Rome, by reason of the delights of the seat. It was that plenty of all things, which made [4773]Corinth so infamous of old, and the opportunity of the place to entertain those foreign comers; every day strangers came in, at each gate, from all quarters. In that one temple of Venus a thousand wh.o.r.es did prost.i.tute themselves, as Strabo writes, besides Lais and the rest of better note: all nations resorted thither, as to a school of Venus. Your hot and southern countries are p.r.o.ne to l.u.s.t, and far more incontinent than those that live in the north, as Bodine discourseth at large, _Method, hist. cap. 5._ _Molles Asiatici_, so are Turks, Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, even all that lat.i.tude; and in those tracts, such as are more fruitful, plentiful, and delicious, as Valence in Spain, Capua in Italy, _domicilium luxus_ Tully terms it, and (which Hannibal's soldiers can witness) Canopus in Egypt, Sybaris, Phoeacia, Baiae, [4774]Cyprus, Lampsacus. In [4775]Naples the fruit of the soil and pleasant air enervate their bodies, and alter const.i.tutions: insomuch that Florus calls it _Certamen Bacchi et Veneris_, but [4776]Foliot admires it. In Italy and Spain they have their stews in every great city, as in Rome, Venice, Florence, wherein, some say, dwell ninety thousand inhabitants, of which ten thousand are courtesans; and yet for all this, every gentleman almost hath a peculiar mistress; fornications, adulteries, are nowhere so common: _urbs est jam tota lupanar_; how should a man live honest amongst so many provocations? now if vigour of youth, greatness, liberty I mean, and that impunity of sin which grandees take unto themselves in this kind shall meet, what a gap must it needs open to all manner of vice, with what fury will it rage? For, as Maximus Tyrius the Platonist observes, _libido consequuta quum fuerit materiam improbam et praeruptam licentiam, et effrenatam audaciam_, &c., what will not l.u.s.t effect in such persons? For commonly princes and great men make no scruple at all of such matters, but with that wh.o.r.e in Spartian, _quicquid libet licet_, they think they may do what they list, profess it publicly, and rather brag with Proculus (that writ to a friend of his in Rome, [4777]what famous exploits he had done in that kind) than any way be abashed at it. [4778]Nicholas Sanders relates of Henry VIII. (I know not how truly) _Quod paucas vidit pulchriores quas non concupierit, et paucissimas non concupierit quas non violarit_, "He saw very few maids that he did not desire, and desired fewer whom he did not enjoy:" nothing so familiar amongst them, 'tis most of their business: Sardanapalus, Messalina, and Joan of Naples, are not comparable to [4779]meaner men and women; Solomon of old had a thousand concubines; Ahasuerus his eunuchs and keepers; Nero his Tigillinus panders, and bawds; the Turks, [4780]

Muscovites, Mogors, Xeriffs of Barbary, and Persian Sophies, are no whit inferior to them in our times. _Delectus fit omnium puellarum toto regno forma praestantiorum_ (saith Jovius) _pro imperatore; et quas ille linquit, n.o.biles habent_; they press and muster up wenches as we do soldiers, and have their choice of the rarest beauties their countries can afford, and yet all this cannot keep them from adultery, incest, sodomy, b.u.g.g.e.ry, and such prodigious l.u.s.ts. We may conclude, that if they be young, fortunate, rich, high-fed, and idle withal, it is almost impossible that they should live honest, not rage, and precipitate themselves into these inconveniences of burning l.u.s.t.