The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 62

Jesuits, and friars. Though it be against Hippocrates' oath, some of them will give a dram, promise to restore maidenheads, and do it without danger, make an abortion if need be, keep down their paps, hinder conception, procure l.u.s.t, make them able with Satyrions, and now and then step in themselves. No monastery so close, house so private, or prison so well kept, but these honest men are admitted to censure and ask questions, to feel their pulse beat at their bedside, and all under pretence of giving physic. Now as for monks, confessors, and friars, as he said,

[5215] "Non audet Stygius Pluto tentare quod audet Effrenis monachus, plenaque fraudis a.n.u.s;"

"That Stygian Pluto dares not tempt or do, What an old hag or monk will undergo;"

either for himself to satisfy his own l.u.s.t; for another, if he be hired thereto, or both at once, having such excellent means. For under colour of visitation, auricular confession, comfort and penance, they have free egress and regress, and corrupt, G.o.d knows, how many. They can such trades, some of them, practise physic, use exorcisms, &c.

[5216] _That whereas was wont to walk and Elf, There now walks the Limiter himself, In every bush and under every tree, There needs no other Incubus but he_.

[5217]In the mountains between Dauphine and Savoy, the friars persuaded 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 prost.i.tute to Mundus, a young knight, and made her believe it was their G.o.d 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 wh.o.r.emasters in a country; [5221]"whose soul they should gain to G.o.d, 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 G.o.d (commiserating his lord and master's case) to know the true cause of this mad pa.s.sion, 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 carca.s.s, 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 circ.u.mvented Humphrey Duke of Gloucester to be her husband. Sycinius Aemilia.n.u.s 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. t.i.t. 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 nasc.u.n.tur, 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 t.i.tillet 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._ Aelia.n.u.s 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 l.u.s.tre." With groans, griefs, sadness, dullness,

[5241] ------"Nulla jam Cereris subi Cura aut salutis"------

want of appet.i.te, &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 pa.s.sions. 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 pa.s.sions 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 appet.i.te, 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._ Nevisca.n.u.s, _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 pa.s.sions 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.