The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 64

Nemo hercule quisquam; nam in me dii plane potestatem Suam omnem ostendere;"

"Is't possible (O my countrymen) for any living to be so happy as myself?

No sure it cannot be, for the G.o.ds have shown all their power, all their goodness in me." Yet by and by when this young gallant was crossed in his wench, he laments, and cries, and roars downright: _Occidi_--I am undone,

"Neque virgo est usquam, neque ego, qui e conspectu illam amisi meo, Ubi quaeram, ubi investigem, quem perc.u.n.ter, quam insistam viam?"

The virgin's gone, and I am gone, she's gone, she's gone, and what shall I do? where shall I seek her, where shall I find her, whom shall I ask? what way, what course shall I take? what will become of me--[5317]_vitales auras invitus agebat_, he was weary of his life, sick, mad, and desperate, [5318]_utinam mihi esset aliquid hic, quo nunc me praecipitem darem_. 'Tis not Chaereas' case this alone, but his, and his, and every lover's in the like state. If he hear ill news, have bad success in his suit, she frown upon him, or that his mistress in his presence respect another more (as [5319]Hedus observes) "prefer another suitor, speak more familiarly to him, or use more kindly than himself, if by nod, smile, message, she discloseth herself to another, he is instantly tormented, none so dejected as he is,"

utterly undone, a castaway, [5320]_In quem fortuna omnia odiorum suorum crudelissima tela exonerat_, a dead man, the scorn of fortune, a monster of fortune, worse than nought, the loss of a kingdom had been less.

[5321]Aretine's Lucretia made very good proof of this, as she relates it herself. "For when I made some of my suitors believe I would betake myself to a nunnery, they took on, as if they had lost father and mother, because they were for ever after to want my company." _Omnes labores leves fuere_, all other labour was light: [5322]but this might not be endured. _Tui carendum quod erat_--"for I cannot be without thy company," mournful Amyntas, painful Amyntas, careful Amyntas; better a metropolitan city were sacked, a royal army overcome, an invincible armada sunk, and twenty thousand kings should perish, than her little finger ache, so zealous are they, and so tender of her good. They would all turn friars for my sake, as she follows it, in hope by that means to meet, or see me again, as my confessors, at stool-ball, or at barley-break: And so afterwards when an importunate suitor came, [5323]"If I had bid my maid say that I was not at leisure, not within, busy, could not speak with him, he was instantly astonished, and stood like a pillar of marble; another went swearing, chafing, cursing, foaming." [5324]_Illa sibi vox ipsa Jovis violentior ira, c.u.m tonat_, &c. the voice of a mandrake had been sweeter music: "but he to whom I gave entertainment, was in the Elysian fields, ravished for joy, quite beyond himself." 'Tis the general humour of all lovers, she is their stern, pole-star, and guide. [5325]_Deliciumque animi, deliquiumque sui._ As a tulipant to the sun (which our herbalists calls Narcissus) when it shines, is _Admirandus flos ad radios solis se pandens_, a glorious flower exposing itself; [5326]but when the sun sets, or a tempest comes, it hides itself, pines away, and hath no pleasure left, (which Carolus Gonzaga, duke of Mantua, in a cause not unlike, sometimes used for an impress) do all inamorates to their mistress; she is their sun, their _Primum mobile_, or _anima informans_; this [5327]one hath elegantly expressed by a windmill, still moved by the wind, which otherwise hath no motion of itself. _Sic tua ni spiret gratia, truncus ero._ "He is wholly animated from her breath,"

his soul lives in her body, [5328]_sola claves habet interitus et salutis_, she keeps the keys of his life: his fortune ebbs and flows with her favour, a gracious or bad aspect turns him up or down, _Mens mea lucescit Lucia luce tua_. Howsoever his present state be pleasing or displeasing, 'tis continuate so long as he [5329]loves, he can do nothing, think of nothing but her; desire hath no rest, she is his cynosure, Hesperus and vesper, his morning and evening star, his G.o.ddess, his mistress, his life, his soul, his everything; dreaming, waking, she is always in his mouth; his heart, his eyes, ears, and all his thoughts are full of her. His Laura, his Victorina, his Columbina, Flavia, Flaminia, Caelia, Delia, or Isabella, (call her how you will) she is the sole object of his senses, the substance of his soul, _nidulus animae suae_, he magnifies her above measure, _totus in illa_, full of her, can breathe nothing but her. "I adore Melebaea,"

saith lovesick [5330]Calisto, "I believe in Melebaea, I honour, admire and love my Melebaea;" His soul was soused, imparadised, imprisoned in his lady. When [5331]Thais took her leave of Phaedria,--_mi Phaedria, et nunquid aliud vis_? Sweet heart (she said) will you command me any further service? he readily replied, and gave in this charge,

------"egone quid velim?

Dies noctesque ames me, me desideres, Me somnies, me expectes, me cogites, Me speres, me te oblectes, mec.u.m tota sis, Meus fac postremo animus, quando ego sum tuus."

"Dost ask (my dear) what service I will have?

To love me day and night is all I crave, To dream on me, to expect, to think on me, Depend and hope, still covet me to see, Delight thyself in me, be wholly mine, For know, my love, that I am wholly thine."

But all this needed not, you will say; if she affect once, she will be his, settle her love on him, on him alone,

[5332] ------"illum absens absentem Auditque videtque"------

she can, she must think and dream of nought else but him, continually of him, as did Orpheus on his Eurydice,

"Te dulcis conjux, te solo in littore mec.u.m, Te veniente die, te discedente canebam."

"On thee sweet wife was all my song.

Morn, evening, and all along."

And Dido upon her Aeneas;

------"et quae me insomnia terrent, Multa viri virtus, et plurima currit imago."

"And ever and anon she thinks upon the man That was so fine, so fair, so blithe, so debonair."

c.l.i.tophon, in the first book of Achilles, Tatius, complaineth how that his mistress Leucippe tormented him much more in the night than in the day.

[5333]"For all day long he had some object or other to distract his senses, but in the night all ran upon her. All night long he lay [5334] awake, and could think of nothing else but her, he could not get her out of his mind; towards morning, sleep took a little pity on him, he slumbered awhile, but all his dreams were of her."

[5335] ------"te nocte sub atra Alloquor, amplector, falsaque in imagine somni, Gaudia solicitam palpant evanida mentem."

"In the dark night I speak, embrace, and find That fading joys deceive my careful mind."

The same complaint Euryalus makes to his Lucretia, [5336]"day and night I think of thee, I wish for thee, I talk of thee, call on thee, look for thee, hope for thee, delight myself in thee, day and night I love thee."

[5337] "Nec mihi vespere Surgente decedunt amores, Nec rapidum fugiente solem."

Morning, evening, all is alike with me, I have restless thoughts, [5338]

_Te vigilans oculis, animo te nocte requiro._ Still I think on thee. _Anima non est ubi animat, sed ubi amat_. I live and breathe in thee, I wish for thee.

[5339] "O niveam quae te poterit mihi reddere lucem, O mihi felicem terque quaterque diem."

"O happy day that shall restore thee to my sight." In the meantime he raves on her; her sweet face, eyes, actions, gestures, hands, feet, speech, length, breadth, height, depth, and the rest of her dimensions, are so surveyed, measured, and taken, by that Astrolabe of phantasy, and that so violently sometimes, with such earnestness and eagerness, such continuance, so strong an imagination, that at length he thinks he sees her indeed; he talks with her, he embraceth her, Ixion-like, _pro Junone nubem_, a cloud for Juno, as he said. _Nihil praeter Leucippen cerno, Leucippe mihi perpetuo in oculis, et animo versatur_, I see and meditate of nought but Leucippe. Be she present or absent, all is one;

[5340] "Et quamvis aberat placidae praesentia formae Quem dederat praesens forma, manebat amor."

That impression of her beauty is still fixed in his mind,--[5341]_haerent infixi pectora vultus_; as he that is bitten with a mad dog thinks all he sees dogs--dogs in his meat, dogs in his dish, dogs in his drink: his mistress is in his eyes, ears, heart, in all his senses. Valleriola had a merchant, his patient, in the same predicament; and [5342]Ulricus Molitor, out of Austin, hath a story of one, that through vehemency of his love pa.s.sion, still thought he saw his mistress present with him, she talked with him, _Et commisceri c.u.m ea vigilans videbatur_, still embracing him.

Now if this pa.s.sion of love can produce such effects, if it be pleasantly intended, what bitter torments shall it breed, when it is with fear and continual sorrow, suspicion, care, agony, as commonly it is, still accompanied, what an intolerable [5343]pain must it be?

------"Non tam grandes Gargara culmos, quot demerso Pectore curas longa nexas Usque catena, vel quae penitus Crudelis amor vulnera miscet."

"Mount Gargarus hath not so many stems As lover's breast hath grievous wounds, And linked cares, which love compounds."

When the King of Babylon would have punished a courtier of his, for loving of a young lady of the royal blood, and far above his fortunes, [5344]

Apollonius in presence by all means persuaded to let him alone; "For to love and not enjoy was a most unspeakable torment," no tyrant could invent the like punishment; as a gnat at a candle, in a short s.p.a.ce he would consume himself. For love is a perpetual [5345]_flux, angor animi_, a warfare, _militat omni amans_, a grievous wound is love still, and a lover's heart is Cupid's quiver, a consuming [5346]fire, [5347]_accede ad hunc ignem_, &c. an inextinguishable fire.

[5348] ------"alitur et crescit malum, Et ardet intus, qualis Aetnaeo vapor Exundat antro"------

As Aetna rageth, so doth love, and more than Aetna or any material fire.

[5349] ------"Nam amor saepe Lypareo Vulcano ardentiorem flammam incendere solet."

Vulcan's flames are but smoke to this. For fire, saith [5350]Xenophon, burns them alone that stand near it, or touch it; but this fire of love burneth and scorcheth afar off, and is more hot and vehement than any material fire: [5351]_Ignis in igne furit_, 'tis a fire in a fire, the quintessence of fire. For when Nero burnt Rome, as Calisto urgeth, he fired houses, consumed men's bodies and goods; but this fire devours the soul itself, "and [5352]one soul is worth a hundred thousand bodies." No water can quench this wild fire.

[5353] ------"In pectus coecos absorbuit ignes, Ignes qui nec aqua perimi potuere, nec imbre Diminui, neque graminibus, magicisque susurris."

"A fire he took into his breast, Which water could not quench.

Nor herb, nor art, nor magic spells Could quell, nor any drench."

Except it be tears and sighs, for so they may chance find a little ease.

[5354] "Sic candentia colla, sic patens frons, Sic me blanda tui Neaera ocelli, Sic pares minio genae perurunt, Ut ni me lachrymae rigent perennes, Totus in tenues eam favillas."

"So thy white neck, Neaera, me poor soul Doth scorch, thy cheeks, thy wanton eyes that roll: Were it not for my dropping tears that hinder, I should be quite burnt up forthwith to cinder."

This fire strikes like lightning, which made those old Grecians paint Cupid, in many of their [5355]temples, with Jupiter's thunderbolts in his hands; for it wounds, and cannot be perceived how, whence it came, where it pierced. [5356]_Urimur, et coec.u.m, pectora vulnus habent_, and can hardly be discerned at first.

[5357] ------"Est mollis flamma medullas, Et tacitum insano vivit sub pectore vulnus."

"A gentle wound, an easy fire it was, And sly at first, and secretly did pa.s.s."

But by-and-by it began to rage and burn amain;

[5358] ------"Pectus insanum vapor.

Amorque torret, intus saevus vorat Penitus medullas, atque per venas meat Visceribus ignis mersus, et venis latens, Ut agilis altas flamma percurrit trabes."

"This fiery vapour rageth in the veins, And scorcheth entrails, as when fire burns A house, it nimbly runs along the beams, And at the last the whole it overturns."

Abraham Hoffemannus, _lib. 1. amor conjugal, cap. 2. p. 22._ relates out of Plato, how that Empedocles, the philosopher, was present at the cutting up of one that died for love, [5359]"his heart was combust, his liver smoky, his lungs dried up, insomuch that he verily believed his soul was either sodden or roasted through the vehemency of love's fire." Which belike made a modern writer of amorous emblems express love's fury by a pot hanging over the fire, and Cupid blowing the coals. As the heat consumes the water, [5360]_Sic sua consumit viscera coecus amor_, so doth love dry up his radical moisture. Another compares love to a melting torch, which stood too near the fire.