the whole Universe too narrow a compasse to be confined unto and who disposeth of all our wils according to his pleasure be hem'd up in such strait limits as you prescribe will Love be ruled and governed by the will of any but himself he will confesse his fault yet will not insist upon any other argument or reason but his extreme affection and will not argue with you anywhere but before the throne of Love and there he will prostrate himself upon his knees and vow by all eternity ndver to rise so long as he lives unlesse he be ingratiated into his Mistresses favour And such a one is this who sues for an office in fools Paradise but let him take it for my part I le never ride like one for the County-Clerk ship when a new Sheriff is elected nor strive with him for it What saith he would you have me inconstant Oh no not for a world What would you have me mad as he is no better No I will be constant till death startling more at the word inconstancy then at a Devil so that I have often smiled at those who condemn inconstancy and are professed enemies against it considering that they themselves are not able to be as they say nor more constant then those whom they brand with the vice of inconstancy For when they fall in Love do they not fall in love with beauty or something which seems pleasing unto them now when this beauty doth fade as time doubtlesse will make all beauty do are they not then inconstant still loving those faces that are now grown ugly and retain nothing of what they were but only the very name of a face If to love that which is contrary to that which was loved be constancy and if uglinesse be contrary unto beauty then he that did love a fair face and continues loving when it is ugly must be concluded inconstant This consideration makes me think that the way to avoid inconstancy is always to love beauty and when it fades farewel Love finde some other that is faire and still love beauty if you will be loving and accounted constant and not its contrary unlesse you be unconstant to your first Love I know this is point blanck against the opinion of the vulgar but if they gainsay it I cannot help it Likewise saith this Love-simplician did you know what it is to be a fool in such occasions you would confesse that all the wisdom in the world is not comparable to this pleasing folly were you able to comprehend it you would never aske what pleasure and contentment those faithful Lovers whom you phrase melancholy and pensive do receive for you then would know that they are so ravished in the contemplation of the party whom they love and adore as scorning all that is in the whole Universe they do not repent of any thing more then the losse of that time which they spend anywhere else and their souls not being well able to contain the grandure of their contentment they stand astonished at so much treasure and so many felicities which transcends their knowledge But I am so far from thinking them felicities as my opinion of the contrary is much fortified Had I a quill pluck'd from Cupids wing and dip'd in the milke of Venus I could not record all the delight Lovers take in displaying the beauty of their Mistresses with obsequious Hyperboles and things most excellent comparing their eyes to those of night to the Sun and call them spheres of light flaming and strongly enkindling all others they compare her to Aurora or the morning to the Snow Lilly Rose to the whitenesse of the Swan sometimes to the Myrtle sometimes to Gold Rubies Diamonds Crystal sometimes they parallel her with the Heavens the Spring and whatsoever is in any degree excellent and yet they think those but beggerly similitudes and would go higher if they could tell how They suppose their cheek two fair gardens planted with the choisest flowers of Paradise making the Lilly and the Rose as obscure types and shadowes of those delicate tinctures laid on their blooming cheeks by natures pencil They imagine their necks towers of Alabaster their breasts hillocks of snow inlaid with saphires their mouthes musicks temple deckt with rails of pearl their voices the Harmony of the sphears And these they count as faint Metaphors of them to represent whom in their thoughts words are too narrow and freshest colours too dim Oh! how She-lovers fry under the torrid zone of Love hourly in that Elizium quenching and renewing their heats and letting themselves loose to the freedome of uncontrouled embraces Expressing themselves in these or such like Raptures viz. My Dearest unlesse thou be'st frosty spirited unlesse Alecto's cold poison fils thy veins I le melt thee into amorous thoughts and speak charmes to all thy senses and make thee all flame And thus they besiege and seek to storme Loves-fort with whole volly of obediential Oathes and the hollow Granado's of complement crying out to their obstinate Sweet-hearts to tell them for Loves sake if it be not better and more lovely to lie intwin'd in their folding armes freely enjoying their embraces like Lillies imprisoned in goales of snow or Ivory in bands of Alabaster then to sit muffled in furs like a bed-rid Miser They lie open to the touch the warm snow and soft polisht Ivory of their brests which excels in softnesse the ranging clouds the Indian cotton and in sleeknesse the smoothest cut Diamond and these are lures to catch buzzards Thus wounds they give and wounds they take again Nor doth it grieve them slaying to be slain Now to return again to our Loves weather-beaten widgeon he hugs and embraces all his Mistresses friends and followers her picture and what ever she wears he adores as a relique her Dog he makes his constant companion feeding him at his table verifying the proverb Love me love my Dog If he get a Ring a Ribband a shooe-tie her Garter a Bracelet of hair of hers he wears it ut pignus amoris for a favour about his arme in his hat finger or next his heart How many of such like would not let to hazzard their very souls for their Mistresses sake forsake heaven with Venus for the love of an Adonis There is no Man so pusillanimous so very a dastard whom Love would not incense making an heroical spirit For saith Sir Phil. Sydney they imagine that Valour towards Men is an emblem of ability towards Women a good quality signifying a better Nothing drawes a Woman like to it Nothing is more behooveful for that sex for with it they receive protection and in a free way too without any danger Nothing makes a shorter cut to obtaining for a Man of armes is always void of ceremony which is the wall betwixt Pyramus and Thisbe that is Man and Woman for there is no pride in Women but that which rebounds from our own basenesse as Cowards grow valiant upon those that are
I say a mediocrity in Love is the best me thinks I see one of these melancholy Lovers setting a frowning tart Saturnine face upon me Objecting that he that loves not in the highest point of extremity does not love one jot he that can be indifferent and love all alike cannot love one as he ought to do or he that can measure or think any greater then his own is not a Lover worth a rush for to injoyn a mediocrity in Love is to impose an impossibility And then poor soul he shakes his head at me saying Ah you little know what belongs to Love and then having recovered his breath for through the vehemency of anger towards me he had almost lost it he begins to object again saying Those effects which belong to an extreme Love and one that knowes what Sacrifice and Duties belong unto the Altars of Love is so far from calling those effects troubles or follies as you terme them as they think them felicities and perfect contentments Likewise he saith that Love is to die in ones self that he may live in another Never to love any thing but what is pleasing and agreeable to the party loved The will must be transformed into a night toy he cals a Mistresse And can you think saith he that one who Loves thus will ever be troubled with the presence of her whom he loves If you did but know what it is to Love you would never think that he who loves can do any thing to displease If he chance to commit any fault the fault it self pleaseth considering with what intention it was committed The very desire of being amiable has such a vigour in a right Lover as though he be rough to the World in general yet will he be sure smooth and spruce up himself towards her he loves Nay he thinks himself in the Orchard of Adonis or the Elizium fields if he injoy her company he is so taken with delight And these and an hundred such like whimsical Chymâ—raes hot brained Lovers conceive and do affect a vainglorious humor which Lovers use to attribute to themselves and it is to be reputed constant They suffer themselves wholly to be led by sense and are so far from repressing these rebellious inclinations that they give all incouragement unto them leaving the reigns and using all provocations to further them bad by nature worse by art education and a perverse will of their own they follow on wheresoever their unbridled affections will transport them doing all out of self-will casting reason at their heels this stubborn-will of theirs perverts judgement which sees and knows what should and ought to be done and yet will not do it slaves to their lusts and appetite they precipitate and plunge themselves into a Labyrinth of cares blinded with lust For her they do depart even from their reason Bids welcome unto Manacles and Prison In sharpest torments think themselves at ease So they thereby their fair Saint shall please And all without expectance of reward To love her is the honour they regard But if this be Love heaven shield us from it and preserve our eye-sight This love gathereth its heat and redoubleth its force by hope which inflameth with the soft and gentle aire thereof our foolish desires kindleth in our mindes a fire from whence ariseth a thick smoak which blindeth our understanding carryeth with it our thoughts holds them hanging in the clouds and makes us dream waking Although she be all soveraignty As high as heaven and be a Deity Yet still my high-blown hopes will have the glory To enterprise an act beyond all story If you narrowly survey the Palace of this amorous passion the plague and frenzie of the soul you shall finde it to be built all upon hopes The Staires are of ice made in such wise that he who most ascendeth most descendeth the Hals Chambers and Wardrobes are all furnished and hanged with idlenesse dreams desires and inconstancies the Seats and Chaires are made of false contentment It hath affliction torment and fraud for engineers uncertainty fear false opinion and distrust for guard The Court being all composed of heartlesse soft and effeminate men the Counsellors are lying and deceit and the Steward suspicion It is a play-game wherewith Nature busieth our mindes contrarywise when despair is once londged neer us it torments our souls in such a sort with an opinion of never obtaining that we desire that all businesse besides must yeeld unto it And for the love of that which we think never to obtain we lose even the rest of whatsoever we possesse This passion is like unto little children who to be revenged of him who hath taken one of their play games from them cast the rest into the fire It is angry with it self and requireth of its self the punishment of its own folly and seeming felicity and hence it is that many despairing of ever having them whom they affect make themselves away either by strangling or drowning or some such like miserable end or continually deploring their dysasterous condition Plant me where nothing growes but cruelty ' Amongst Lions Bears and other savage Beasts To see if they that mercy will deny Which I in vain implore from humane breasts How justly are those cruel Ladies to be condemned who being rich in beauty scorning art suffer their loyall amorists to die for love of them unpityed They are so nice they scorn all Suitors crucifie their poor enamoratoes and think no body good enough for them as dainty to please as Daphne herself they take a pride to prank up themselves to make young men enamored but 't is a lamentable thing to see a silly soul so profuse of Love as to confer it upon such ingrate and disdainful Women as if one took delight to feed and flatter Owles And on the other side to make neither barrell better herring some young men are so obstinate and as curious in their choise and tyrannically proud insulting deceitful and false hearted Therefore let these go together for love and hanging go by destiny Yet there are some feminine humours so tractable that they are won with a small intreaty according to that of the Comedian Such rape thou act'st upon my soul and with such pleasing violence dost inforce it that when it should resist it tamely yeelds making a kinde of haste to be undone as if the victory were losse and conquest came by overthrow Wounded with Love they yeeld up Natures treasure To be all ransackt at the victors pleasure There are others who are more taken with a soothing observance or handsome congie making then all the fair qualities or good parts can be in a Man or the faithfullest service can be rendered them There are others who lay snares and keep alwayes a kinde of order in the receit of such as they intend to in register in the number of their subjects But at length this Idalian fire kindles in them and then are they unable to suffer
your corroding sore made by loves wounding weapon that excellent remedy that soveraign balme that universal medicine which if seasonably administred will give you comfort when you are most distempered The Recipe is Divine Contemplation for certainly those spirits which are truly raised to the study and knowledge of divine things and do well know the art of celestiall contemplation are elevated above all terrestrial pleasures in as much as eternity is above time and infinite felicities above vanities And not finding any thing on earth worthy our desire and to fix our affections upon let the object of our love and felicities be in the Empyreall heaven And while we are in these divine extasies let our spirits be so strong as they may be conquerors of our bodies so heavenly that they may esteem the chiefest pleasures of the body as this of heroick love but as dung and drosse nay worse if worse may be in comparison of those sublime and celestial pleasures we enjoy in our souls And in such comparison we may rejoyce more in contemning these corporeal delights and being above them then in the fruition of them Therefore in stead of placing our affections on terrene objects let us seek after that fountain and well-spring of all love lovelinesse beauty sweetnesse and excellencies of the Creator which is infinitely more permanent and doth as much transcend all other beauties and excellencies in the world if they were all united in one so that when a soul is possessed with the beauty and love of God it will have the eye of its imagination fixed on him often soaring and mounting up to heaven as its center on the wings of contemplation and a sa vapor exhaled by the Sun often gliding after its love being thereunto attracted by the allurements of his most amiable fair and divine lustre and lovelinesse insomuch as it will be enlightened with glorious Ideas touring apprehensions ardent affections and celestial raptures We will conclude with that Poetical and Divine strain of the Nightingale of France If wanton Lovers so delight to gaze On mortall beauties brittle little blaze That not content with almost dayly sight Of those deer Idols of their appetite Nor with th' Ideas which the Idalian Dart Hath deep imprinted in their yielding heart Much more should those whose souls in sacred love Are rapt with Beauties proto-type above FINIS The Postscript READER I Know I shall come under the lash of a Satyrical dijudication and be boy'd out of countenance for presuming to appear in this Subject which would have become the neat flourishes of a more elegant pen Therefore I will acknowledge that Philomus as one of my most energetical palizadoes who will defend this Enchiridion against the malevolous aspersions of the venemous tongues of detractors that will endevour to derogate its worth by calumny But I have Herculean hopes that some will vindicate me where I cannot answer for my self against the viperous brood of backbiters And as I love not to come within the jawes of such black-mouth'd Plutonian Curs so I desire not to be bandied up and down in the Tennis Court of this World with the Racket of praise for there is a Herb called Lingua pagana I translate it a double tongue the Devill that crafty Gardner hath got a slip of it and hath set it in the heart of the Gâ—athonical Reader for Bilinguis was none of Gods making no it was of the Devils marring he loves to make that double which God made single So there will be some Cloven tongues that will disallow of that in the Writers absence which before did approve of and commend in his presence and if such distastful Criticks shall misinterpret the innocency of my harmlesse meaning I shall but reply and play with their sporting Censures as doth Ben. Johnson in his Play works Their praise or dispraise is to me alike Th' one doth not stroke me nor the other strike I will conclude with one word to Momus who like a cowardly Cur will fawn in a Mans face but bite him by the heels when his turn'd back hath given the farewell or like the Cholerick Horse-rider who being cast from a young Colt not daring to kill the Horse cut the Saddle Think Momus speak do what thou wilt th' art free Thy thoughts thy words thy deeds are nought to me FINIS The Contents Of Love the Original the Universality and the Definition of it pag. 1. THe whole Vniverse tendeth to love and that it was love which caused God to create the World pag. 1. Mans inclination to a seeming good and the cause of Womans creation 2. The sympathy that Minerals and Vegetables have one to another 3. The Definition of amorous love and the several opinions of Theophrastus Montagne Socrates Tully Seneca and others pag. 4 5. The policy of Paris in the disposal of the golden ball to Venus 5. The power of the Planet Venus pag. 6. The Concord betwixt Pallas the Muses and Venus ibid. The Conclusion 7. The Causes of Love pag. 7. THe first cause from God ibid. The second from the influence of the Stars 8 9. Parents and Education 9 10. The example of Themistocles 10. Idlenesse ibid. Luscious fair ibid. Dancing Schooles and Schooles of Musick 11. Quintilians opinion of Nurses ibid. The example of Socrates 12. A Harmony and Consonancy of spirits c. 13. That beauty and goodnesse make us love 14. The great power that beauty hath in procuring Love 16. The particulars of beauty causing Love 1. The Eyes 17. 2. Fair hair 18. 3. The Tongue a gracious Laughter Songs Kissing c. 19. 4. A tall slender body c. ibid. 5. Breasts and paps affected carriages garments guises colons jewels pendants painting c. 19. Apparel 20. 6. Pleasant looks glances c. 21. Good instruction to Ladies 21. 7. A tender and hot heart ibid. 8. Love-letters 23. 9. Words ibid. 10. Eare ibid. Lysidas love to Astrea ibid. Money causing Love in Men 23. Money causing Love in Women 25. What the Poets say are the causes of Love 26. Fonsecas opinion of the cause of Love 27. The Conclusion 29. Of the Power and Effects of Love 31. WHat Plato cals Love ibid. The effects of love in Animals 31 32. Diseases caused by Love 32. Powers and assaults of Love 33. The variousnesse of it ibid. Divers examples of the Effects of Love 35. The many dangers and hazzards Lovers undergoe 37. Loves force is shown in the continuation of a designe 39. The effects of love in Birds c. 40. The effects of love in old persons 41. In Maids ibid. Constancy in Lovers inconstancy 43. How Lovers display the beauty of their Mistresses 43. The effects of love in She-lovers with their ear-charming notes 44. A loves simplician described 47. A description a great many Guls 48. Instructions to Lovers 48 49. Love strengthened by hope c. 51. A description of the Palace of Love 57. The effects of love in Women 53 54 55 56 57. The conclusion 58. Of the Power and Effects of Love in Widows 59 WIdows compared to Heralds Hearse-clothes and how they will belie their age c. ibid. The artificial discourse of Widows ibid. Widow Courters c. 61. The cause why Spaniards will not mary Widows 61. Widows were ordained for younger brothers 62. The Signes of Love 63. CAutions before you judges of signes ibid. What Physognomie is ibid. Various signes of Love are from pag. 64. to 69. Signes of Love in Women 75 76 77. Signes of Love by Chiromancy 77. Signes of Love by Dreams 77 78. Signes of Love by Astrology 79 80. At what Age we begin to be in Love What Complexions do best sympathize What c. 81. WHen it beginneth in men 81 82. When in Women ibid. 83 84 85. What temperatures and complexions do sympathize together and are most prone to receive the impression of this passion 86 87 88 89 90. In what principal part of the Body of Man is the seat of Love 91. WHere Love first entreth 91 92. Of Jealousie in Lovers 93. THe Definition of it 93 94. The Effects Signes and symptomes of it 94. 95 96 97 98 99. How it may be known who will be subject to jealousie by every mans Nativity 101. The Remedies of Love 102. HOw to take away Love caused by the stars 102 103. How to remove it caused by Parents and Education 103 104 105 106. How to extinguish it caused by beauty 106 107. That Love is sooner extinguished in presence then absence 109. How to take away the cause of Money causing Love 113 114. A preservative and soveraign receipt for Women to fortifie themselves against the contagion of this pussion 115 116 117 118 119. How to extinguish Love according to the way of the Arabians 119. And the Parthians 120 121. Several other instructions to divert the patients thoughts 120. Physical cures by letting of bloud change and variety of places and what air is best How to diet him as what simples to use in his broaths What Syrups and Conserves he must take What fruit he may eat c. What Sauces to use with his meats 122 123 124. What the patient must abstain from 124. His Exercise 125. Fortifie the haart ibid. The remedy of Theban Crates ibid. The Conclusion 126 127. FINIS * And that is the cause why women love fish better then flesh for they will have Plaice what ever they pay for it
could but as much as with modesty I dare Let that which I borrow be surveyed and then tell me whether I have made good choise of Ornaments to beautifie and set forth the Work for I make others to relate not after my own fancy but as it best falleth out what I cannot so well expresse either through unskill of language or want of judgement I have purposely concealed the Authors of those I have transplanted into my soil and digested them with my own thereby to bridle the rashness of the hasty knit brown'd censurer I will honour him that shall trace and unfeather me by the only distinction of the force and beauty of my discourse Look how my humours or conceits present themselves so I shuffle them up for these are matters which Juniors may not be ignorant of But not to tire you with a tedious preamble like the Pulpit Cuffers of this age and a long discourse argueth folly and delicate words incur the suspicion of obsequiousness I am determined to use neither of them only intreating your milde and charitable censure of this my rude and hirsute labour untill the next occasion I conclude Your Friend W. G. To his Honoured and Ingenious Friend Mr. W. G. on his Description of the Passion of Love WHen Criticks shall but view the title they Will carp at this great enterprize and say It was too boldly done thus to comprize In this small tract Loves passion and true size To set upon it but the learned will Excuse thy little Book and praise thy quill Thy aime being only to instruct the youth In male and female thou discover'st truth Thy pencil in live colours hath limm'd out Erotick passion from its very root Causes Effects and Signes thou here discovers The jealousies and fears of wanton Lovers Physician-like thou here prescribest cures To ease poor Lovers of their Calentures My worthy friend In either Hemisphere Where ere I goe thy praise I 'le eccho there W. B. ERRATA PAge 8. line 19. dele 1. p. 19. l. 9. r. osculis p. 26. l. 19 r. conducted p. 30. l. 2. r. froward p 33. l. 30 r. magno sua p. 38 l. 10. r. torment p. 40. l. 4. r. can'st p. 42. l. 3. â— to l. 14. r. never p. 44. l. 29. r. vollyes p. 48. l. 33. r. Mistresse p. 51. l. 11. r. fairest p. 55. l. 15. r. sighes p. 64. l 7. r. heart p. 70. l. 26. r. specter p. 85. l. 20. r. prae se ferat cum pharetrâ— A DESCRIPTION OF THE PASSIONS OF LOVE Of Love the Original the Universality and the Definition of it THe nature of the whole Universe according to the primo-geniture tendeth to that which we are now determined to treat o f for it was Love that moved God not only to create the World but also to create it beautiful in every part the name whereof in Greek yieldeth a testimony of Loveliness and Beauty {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Mundus signifying a beautiful and well decked Ornament Therefore seeing God hath created and framed it by Love then indubitably Love is dispersed throughout the whole World and invested into every creature as well Mineral and Vegetable as Animal all obeying the statute of the great Law-giver instituted in primo Adami The which causeth a Sympathie or Love in all things Now to demonstrate this in Man He having by nature imprinted in his soul an affected desire or earnest inclination to that which seemeth good is drawn as it were by necessity to search it out in every thing which he esteemeth fair and good finds nothing so apt to be the center of his Affections and to correspond with his nature her creation solely tending to that as Woman For after God had created Man and placed him in the Garden to dresse it It is not good saith he that Man should be alone I will make him an help meet for him to demonstrate how this help was not only meet but also necessary for Man Moses addeth that amongst all those living creatures he found no help meet for Adam For although all the Beasts and the residue of creatures were given to Man to assist him so that being in the state of innocency wherein he was then he might receive all service and ready obedience from them nevertheless he had not yet an help of his kinde for he could not have the familiarity and society with Beasts nor receive such help from them as he could from a Creature of his own nature Now seeing Man was created for this end he could not continue without generation which could not be unless he were joyned to a Woman which was before his fall a most pure and innocent love But now because of his corruption his affections are irregular and are made extreme there is nothing so greatly exciteth and carryeth away his minde nor cometh more neer to his destruction then this foolish passion endangereth his life To prove which many presidents might be produced Galacea of Mantua declairing oftentimes to a Maid of Pavia whom he courted and made love to that he would suffer a thousand deaths for her sake which she imagining was but spoken coggingly and in jest commanded him to cast himself into the River which he presently performed and was drowned But we shall more fitly alleadge such testimonies of the effects of Love when we discourse more particularly of every Vice that proceedeth from them Yet as well as Man this amity as I have said is ingraffed into every creature this love appetite or universal inclination or complacency given to them at the creation likewise and inciteth them to desire and search out that which is consentaneous to and agreeth and sympathizeth with their own nature so that there is nothing so insensible which hath not in it self this amity innate propending and moving to its proper object as Amber and Straw Iron and Adamant and the Palme-trees of both sexes express not a sympathy only but a love passion according to that of the Poet Vivunt in Venerem frondes omnisque vicissim Foelix arbor amat nutant ad mutua Palmae Foedera Populeo suspirat Populus ictu Et Platano Platanus Alnoque assibilat Alous Which is thus paraphraz'd Leaves sing their loves each complemental tree In Courtship bowes the amorous Palmes we see Confirm their leagues with nods Poplers inchaine Their armes the Plane infettereth the Plane Now the better to illustrate this by example Florentius tels us of a Palme that loved most fervently and would receive if properly it may be so said no consolation until her Love applyed himself to her you might see the two trees bend and of their own accord stretch out their boughes to embrace and kiss each other They saith he marry one another and when the winde brings their odour unto each other they are marvellously affected they will be sick and pine away for love which the husbandman perceiving strokes his hand on those Palmes which grow
therewith When aged they use in vain to make themselves fair by renting their faces with painting though more cause to rent them with their nails out of penitent indignation Thus painting used to reconcile in time widens the breaches in their faces and their flesh tainted at least with the poison thereof like rotten vessels spring the more leaks the more they are repaired And the truth is I would have such as these to joyn themselves with Souldiers for so both may fight under their colours Sixthly Pleasant and well composed looks glances smiles counter-smiles plausible gestures pleasant carriage and behaviour affable complements a comely gate and pace daliances playes revels maskes dancing time place opportunity conference and importunity are materials of which Loves torch is made also no stronger engins then to hear and read of Love toyes fables and discourses so that many by this means become distracted for these exercises do as well open the pores of the heart as the body And truly such heart-traps are laid by cunning beauties in such pretty ambuscadoes that he must be a crafty Fox that can escape them for there is still some peculiar grace in a Woman as of beauty good discourse wit eloquence or honesty which is the primum mobile or first mover and a most forcible loadstone to attract the favours and good will of Mens eyes eares and affections unto them It is a plain ornament becomes a Virgin or virtuous Woman and they get more credit in a wise mans eye and judgement by their plainness and are more comely and fair then they that are set out with their patches bables puffed up and adorned like Jayes in Peacocks feathers Ladies let the example of Lucretia be set before you who stamped a deeper impression of affection in the heart of the virtuous beholder by addressing herself to houswifery and purple spinning then others could ever do with their rare banquets and riotous spending All are not of Aegisthus minde who was taken with a complement of lightness This argued that a youthful heat had rather surprised his amorous heart then any discreet affection preferred him to his choise This love is fading for where virtue is not directrice in our choise our mindes are ever prone to change we finde not what we expected nor digest well what we formerly affected all is out of square because discretion contrived not the building It is a decent and comely habit best becomes Ladies to be wooed in and contents discreet Suitors most to have them won in Conforme then your generous dispositions to a decency of fashion that you may attract to your selves and beget in others motives of affection whose private virtues render you to the imitation and publick to the admiration of all Seventhly a tender and hot heart lucid spirits vegetous and subtle bloud are causes of amorous fires a small beauty makes a great impression in them Eightly Obsequious love-letters to insinuate themselves into their Mistresses favour are great incitements they are the life of Love The pen can furrow a fond females heart And pierce it more then Cupids faigned dart Letters a kinde of Magick virtue have And like strong Philters humane souls inslave Ninthly Words much corrupt the disposition they set an edge or glosse on depraved liberty making that member the vent and spout of their passion and making the hearts of credulous Women melt with their ear-charming Oratory The tenth Love is caused very often by the ear as Achilles Tacitus saith Ea enim hominum intemperantium libido est ut etiam fama ad amandum impellantur audientes aequè afficiantur ac videntes such is that intemperance and passion of some Men that they are as much inamoured by report as if they see them Oft-times the species of Love are received into the fantasie as well by relation as by sight for we see by the eyes of our understanding No face yet seen but shafts that Love lets flie Kils in the ear as well as in the eie Also The pleader burns his books disdains the Law And fals in love with whom his eyes ne'r saw Lycidas declaring to Cleon his Love towards Astrea said Whether she was really fair or no I know not but so it was that so soon as ever I heard the report of her I loved her Some report saith he that Love proceeds from the eyes of the party loved but this cannot be for her eye never looked upon me nor did mine see her so much as to know her again For an illustrious name is a strange course To attract Love and good report hath force We purpose now to treat of Money causing Love That is the general humour of the world and in this Iron age of ours and in that commodity stears our affections the love of riches being most respected for now a Maid must buy her husband with a great dowry if she will have him making Love mercenary and 't is the fashion altogether in use to chuse Wives as Chapmen sell their wares with Quantum dabitis what is the most you will give Witty was that young Gentlewomans answer to an inconsiderate Suitor who having solicited the Father and bargained with him for the affection of his Daughter for so much and covenants of marriage concluded This undiscreet wooer unseasonably imparts his minde to the Daughter who made strange with it saying she never heard of any such matter yea but replyed he I have bargained with your Father and he hath already consented And you may marry him too quoth she for you must hold me excused Covetousness and filthy lucre mars many a good match or some such by-respect Veniunt a dote sagitâ—ae 't is money that makes the Mare to go 't is money and a good dowry lights Hymens torches They care not for beauty education honesty or birth if they hear that she is a rich heir or hath ready cash they are frantick doting upon such a one more then if she were natures master-piece in beauty If she be never so ugly and stinking 't is money makes her kisse sweetly Has she money that 's the first question O how they love her Is she mula auro onusta nay then run Dog run Bear they 'l venture hanging to compasse their desire Auri sacra fames quid non mortalia cogis Pectora What will not this desire of money compell a Man to attempt Is she as old as Saturn deformed vitious blear-eyed though they be like two powdering tubs either running over or full of standing brine and her browes hang ore her eyes like flie flaps though her nose be like a Hunters horn and so bending up that a Man may hang a hat upon it and her cheeks may serve boys for cherry-pits doth her teeth stand like an old park pale if she have any has she a tongue would make a deaf man blesse his imperfections that frees him from the plague of so much noise and such a breath heavens shield us as
whose hands the Book might come neither do I write it to be an instrument ready tun'd for every wanton eye tongue and hand to play upon I forbear lest more hurt then good come thereby For Pliny reporteth that Lucullus a most brave General and Captain of great execution lost his life by a Love-potion Love hath us'd against frail hearts Unlawful weapons shooting poyson'd darts That there is things that have power and virtue to cause Love is not to be doubted for the Soul of the World according to Corn Agrip. by its vertue doth make all things that are naturally generated and artificially made fruitfull by infusing into them Celestial properties for the working of these effects then those things themselves not only administred by potions or any other such like way but also when they being conveniently wrapped up and bound to or hanged about the neck or any other way applyed although by never so small a contact do impresse their virtue upon us For by those applications or contacts the accidents of the body and minde are changed causing them to whom they are administred to love and render them that carry them to be beloved But if these be not done under a sutable and proper Constellation you may as well go about to pick stravvs as effect any thing by them no more but verbum sat sapienti Also there are certain seasons which I will conceal for modesties sake when Women though never so forward at other times may be won in the which moment they have neither will to deny nor wit to mistrust such a time is recorded in History a young Gentleman found to obtain the love of the Dutchesse of Millaine such a time a poor Yeoman elected and in it purchased the love of the fairest Lady in Mantua Sed vulgo prodere grande nefas If I have displeased any fools in concealing such things as are to be concealed I hope the wise will hold me excused whilst I proceed to declare unto them in the next Chapter the Power and Effects of Love Of the Power and Effects of Love THe Reader shall pay nothing but his pains in following me whilest I shew him the great power and various effects of Love and yet I think I may as well go about to number the leaves of trees and sands of the Sea the grasse piles upon the Land and the stars in the firmament as enumerate the different effects and disorders that Love produceth in mortals What poyson may be dissolved which Love mingleth not What weapons can be forged and filed to transfix the sides of innocent creatures which Love hammereth and polisheth not in his shop or what precipices are there which Love prepareth not All the mischiefs and crimes which have in former ages been perpetrated Love hath acted and dayly invented them Plato cals it Magnus Daemon or the great Devill for its vehemency and soveraingty over all other passions For saith one I had rather contend with Tygers Wolves Dragons Lions Buls Bears and Gyants then with Love he is so powerfull Regnat in superos jus habet ille Deus saith Ovid he enforceth all to become tributary to him he domineers over all and can make mad and sober whom he list and strikes with sickness and cures whom he list he is of such power and majesty that no creature can withstand him he is to be seen in creatures void of reason for the Pelican gores her brest to feed her young ones and the Storke is not unkinde to feed her old one in her age We are informed by common experience how violently brute Beasts are carryed away with this passion Lions Buls Dogs and Cocks are so furious in this kinde that they will kill one another but especially Harts are so fierce that they may be heard fight at a great distance Pliny saith Fishes pine away for love and wax lean For saith he a Dolphin so loved a Boy that when he dyed the Fish came on Land and so perished This Love is the most fatall plague amongst all the passions it hath the shiffering and heat of Fevers the ach and striking of the Meagrim the rage of Teeth the stupefaction of the Vertigo the furies of Frenzie the black vapors of the Hypochondry the stupidities of the Lethargie the fits of the Mother and Spleen the faintness of the Ptisick the tremblings and palpitations of the heart It is wils darling the triall of patience passions torture the pleasure of melancholy the sport of madnesse the delight of varieties and the deviser of vanities After all this it is made a God called Cupid to whom Poems Elogies Hymnes Songs and Victimes are offered Empire over the heart is given to it There are many millions of Men in the World who would be most fortunate and flourishing if they knew how to avoid the mischievous power of this passion What a sweet poyson is the beauty and comelinesse of one sex to another which entereth in by the eye and maketh a strange havock I wonder not at all why the Scriptures compare it to a Panther a savage and cruell Beast which with teeth teareth those she hath amazed with the mirour-like spots of her skin and drawn to her by the sweet exhalation of her body Love hath walked on Scepters parched the Lawrels of Victors thrown trouble into States Schismes into Churches corruption among Judges and furies into Arms It assaulteth in company in solitude at windowes at Prison gates at Theaters and in Cabinets at sports in a feast at a Comedy and many times at Church like the simple old woman belull'd with a sleepy zeal had a minde to go to Church purposely to take a nap so many of our dainty ones desire nothing more then to go to the Temple to present to the deluded eye a new dresse and captivating Love-tainted hearts and who can assure us against it When it once gets the master-head of reason and passion prevails there is nothing left but wandering of the soul a Fever a perpetual Frenzie a neglect of operations of affaires of functions sadnesse languor and impatience they think businesse is done when 't is but thought on Amor ordinem nescit Love knows nor keeps no order O the inexpressible variousnesse of this Love in some it is sharp and violent in others dull and impetuous in others toyish and wanton in others turbulent and cloudy in others brutish and unnatural in others mute and shamefaced in others perplexed and captious in others light and transitory in others fast and retentive in others fantastick and inconstant in others weak and foppish in others stupid and astonished in others distempered and in some furious and desperate Magna suo ardent furore pectora It inflameth the bloud it weakens the body it wanneth the colour it holloweth the eyes it totally subverts the minde it hath somewhat of being possessed something of Idolatry for those that are thus Love-stricken make lust the idoll of their souls and the person loved
that are sick of love melancholy are generally lean throughout the whole body facit amor maciem as well by reason of their little eating and drinking as also for their bad digestion by reason that the spirits and natural heat are withdrawn from the stomach to the brain Another will have leannesse to be caused in a Lover by reason of too much intention of the minde pensivenesse and anxietie the Lover loseth the fulnesse of flesh and good liking of his body that before he enjoyed A third will have leannesse caused in Lovers by a direction of vitall heat from the circumference to the Center thereby consuming the vitall spirits drying the body and causing leannesse They are troubled with immoderate watchings wakings and sighings because in Lovers are divers imaginations and fancies that steal into the brain and never suffers them to take any quiet repose whence the brain becomes dry and cold and if by chance they be surprised by any light slumber which is the provision Nature hath made for the repairing of the animal spirits which in them are wasted and much impaired by the violence of their imagination and excessive wakings that slumber is attended on by a thousand phantasmes and fearful dreams so that they awake oft-times more discontented sad pensive and melancholy then before and for the most part they finde themselves more tormented sleeping then waking They are vexed with immoderate sighings by reason that they many times are oblivious of drawing their breath being wholly taken up with the strong imagination that they love either in beholding the beauty of their objects or else in their absence contemplating on their rare perfections and contriving the means how to come to their desires so that recollecting themselves Nature is constrained to draw in as much air at once as before it should have done at two or three times And such a respiration is called a sigh which indeed is nothing else but a double respiration Observe one tranfixed with violent Love whose minde is bewitched brain dislocated and reason eclipsed and you shall finde that all he holdeth all he meditateth on all he speaketh all he dreameth is of the creature he loveth He hath her in his head and heart painted graved carved in the most pleasing formes For her he entereth sometimes into quakings sometimes into faintings another while into fits of fire Ice he soreth in the aire and instantly is drenched in the abysse he attendeth he espieth he fears he hopes he despaires he sighes he blushes he waxeth pale he doteth in the best company he addresses his colloquiums to Woods Groves and Fountains he writeth he blots out he teareth he lives like a spittler estranged from the conversation of Men Repose which charmeth all the eares of the World is not made for him still this fair one still this cruel one tormenteth him Plutarch saith the heart of a Lover was a City in which upon one and the same day were seen sports and banquets battles and funerals You shall see another of Cupids slaves burthen himself with Newes of no value he makes a secret of every thing and gives out those for mysteries to his Mistresse which are proclaimed with a trumpet Another is so extremely open breasted that you need look for no other signe he tels all his thoughts and as if his heart were a Sieve it keeps nothing which it sends not out by the lips He becomes an extreme babler which proceeds from the influence of the heart for Plutarch saith that Love is naturally a great babler chiefly when it chanceth to light upon the commendation of those things that are its objects For that Lovers have a strong desire to induce others to give credence to that whereof themselves are already perswaded which is that they love nothing but what is absolutely perfect both for goodnesse and beauty and they would willingly have these opinions of theirs confirmed also by all other judgements He is importunate and unseasonable in complements he pratles with his friends whilest he hath a fever he tels extravagant tales wherein he makes himself very facetious although at the latter end of the discourse he askes where the conceit to be laughed at lies He is very merry and then within a moment he fals to be very melancholy and extreme sad pensive and dejected then by and by he entertains himself with some merry pleasant conceits and then within a small tract of time the contrary by this weather cock you may perceive in what quarter the winde is This passion makes him very simple next door to sottishnesse and makes him do many extravagancies so that through these fooleries he brings to himself a turbulent life a continual torment a hasty death and his salvation doubtful All of them are restlesse casting their weariâ—d members upon their loathed beds in their solitary Chambers filling the aire with a thousand throbs and interrupted sighes sometimes disturbed with the rivality of others sometimes afflicted and fear those manifold mischances that may befall the person beloved so that the many passions that multiply in the breast of a Lover do bring with them an extenuation and impairing of the complexion and sometimes a strange kinde of alteration in the individual essence from whence doe arise those furies of Love and potent frenzies and insensible astonishments which happen many times to those that love either because they make not reason the forerunner of their sense or because they directed not their loves by the rules of wisdome which teacheth the only means to the attaining of all other virtues They are guided with the blind Lanthorne of sense whilest rambling in the streets they leave reason sleeping with the Constable Never raged Alcides on mount Oeta nor fierce Orlando for his Angelica more then these Vtopian Lovers for their imaginary shadowes You may observe this passion drawn to the life by Virgil in his Dido Aeneid 4. Uritur infelix Dido totaque vagatur Urbe furens c. She was so tormented with the heat of her love that she ran up and down the City as if she had been distracted For Lovers through despair of obtaining their desires through the inflamation of the vitals become nelancholy which is to speak truth a madnesse for all passions that produce strange and unusuall behaviour are called by the general terme of madnesse And of the severall kinds of madnesse caused by Love he that would take the paines might enroll a legion By reason of these perturbations of the minde the bloud becomes adust as in all other violent passions excepting joy according to Galen by which means divers have fallen into strange and desperate diseases growing foolish mad Cynicall and Wolvish The learned Avicen reporteth in his Chapter de amore that from this passion proceeds the Green sicknesse in Women which is sometimes accompanyed with a gentle Fever called by our modern Writers an amorous Fever Suffocations Head-ach Epilepsies and divers other desperate symptomes which for the most
expell such cogitations with pious meditations I could advise Maides as the only remedy for this passion to walk early into the fields and keep themselves continually both head and hand in motion in some good exercise and not alwayes pricking a clout for many times their thought being gone a wool-gathering with Cupid they chance to prick their fingers and Cupid their hearts too if they be not aware This sedentary life is the cause of the disease called the Greensicknesse and it having seized upon their sloath affecting bodies makes them laizie and as quick as Snails in all their operations and then it is more difficult to make them marry then cure the disease St. Cyptian found nothing more powerfull to conquer the temptations of Venus then to turn the otherside of the medall But above all it behoveth us to use the example of an Arabian who presented to himself perpetually over his head an eye which enlightened him an ear which heard him a hand which measured out all his deportments and demeanors and guards of chastity which daily blunt a thousand arrowes shot against the impenetrable hearts of brave and undaunted champions that you may not fall into the fire it is good to avoid the smoke not to trust our selves too much to petty dalliances which under pretext of innocency steal in with the more liberty for to court and dally with beauty as we shall hereafter declare is an enterprise of danger for some I have known who upon their accesse to beauty have been free men but at their return have become slaves We now intend to extinguish the heat and vehemency of Love in the fourth cause which is meer beauty and the particulars of it Be not so sensual as to love only the body and to dote upon an outside but look higher and see something in the person loved of an Angelical nature that is a free and vertuous minde which to an understanding soul appears to be of a divine essence and to which he mingles his soul in love which is if really considered a far more excellent and permament love then that of an externall and fading beauty and consequently much more pleasant Do we not commonly see that in painted pots of Apothecaries are contained the deadliest poyson that the Cypresse tree bears a fair leaf but no fruit That the Estrich carryeth fair feathers but rank flesh How frantick then are those Lovers who are hurried headlong with the gay glistering of a fine face the beauty whereof is parched with the Suns blaze and chapped with a Winters blast which is of so short continuance that it fadeth before we see it flourish of so small profit that it poysoneth those that possesse it of so little value with the wise that they account it a delicate bait with a mortall hook a sweet Panther with a devowring panch a tart poyson in a silver pot But hark one word with you Love Symplicians Let your humane imaginations think and assemble into one subject whatsoever is most beautiful and delicious in nature Do you imagine a Quire of Sirens and do you joyne in consort both the harpe of Orpheus and the voice of Amphion Let Apollo and the Muses be there to bear a part and do you search within the power of nature rifle up her treasure and all the extreme pleasures which it hath produced in the world hitherto to charme our souls and to ravish our spirits what permanency and felicity do you finde in all these They are meer Chimeraes and as a vain Idea a meer shadow of a body of pleasure in comparison of vertues and those divine thoughts and pleasures which may be enjoyed in the contemplation of the Almighty and his infinite beauty glory and love and of the felicity of felicities which he hath prepared for them that love him So that happy are those but too few are they who with wise Ithacus hudwink themselves and stop their eares to those soul-tainting and sin-tempting Sirens What a great example of continency and neglect of beauty was that of Mahomet the great towards the fair Greek Irene whom albeit he entirely loved yet to shew to his Peers a princely command of himself and his affections as he had incensed them before by loving her so he regained their love by slighting her whence the Poet With that he drew his Turkish Cymeter Which he did brandish o're the Damsels head Demanding of such Janizers were there If 't were not pity she sh'd be slaughtered Pity indeed but I perforce must do That which displeaseth me to pleasure you Many such instances ancient and modern Histories afford but I must not insist on each particular lest I should enlarge my self too much and swell that into a volume which I intend but a Pamphlet How many do we finde who having their spirits possessed with other passions one of Ambition another of Avarice another of Revenge another of Envie another transported by the solitude of a Law suite and the turmoile of a family who think very little upon Love how many others are there from whom study affaires charges wherein they strive supereminently to transcend free their mindes from all other thoughts not suffering them to have any complements with Cupid And how many Ladies do we see in the World with countenances ever smiling of humours cheerfull and conversation most pleasing who make love to wits and spirits as Bees to flowers but have with the body no commerce at all The Author of the Theater of Nature holdeth that the Basilisk alone among Serpents cannot be enchanted and I dare really affirm that there are Men who have the like priviledge and have their eyes love proof and their hearts shut up and defended as with a palizado against the piercing darts of Cupid and the fiery assaults of the Idalian flame Democritus made himself blinde voluntarily by stedfastly beholding the Sunbeams to free himself from the charming beauties and inticing opportunities of Women And seriously I think he shut up two gates against Love to open a thousand to his imagination For some affirm that this malady or Love melancholy is cherished by the presence of the party affected and that the contrary to wit absence is the best remedy And this they seem to prove by resembling our passions with Ecchoes but omne simile non est idem every like is not the same thing For say they do you not see the Ecchoes the further you go from them the lesse repercussion there is they diminishing and losing themselves in the aire so the affection which is caused by the reflexion of the countenance which you dayly behold with so much entertainment will quickly vanish by a little absence But may I be so bold as to whisper my opinion in your ear craving leave to insist a little upon this To prove that absence doth more augment then decrease the heat of this passion I will be brief I confesse eyes may conceive and produce a green infant affection but
cut the Cable weigh Anchor spread sails set forward go flie look not for any more letters regard not their pictures no longer preserve favours let all your endevours be to preserve your reason I add one advice which I think very essential which is infinitely to fear a relapse after health and to avoid all objects that may re-inkindle the flame For Love oftentimes resembleth a Snake enchanted cast asleep and smothered which upon the first occasion awaketh and becomes more strong and more outragious then ever You must not only fortifie your bodies against it but also your souls But my discourse like Nilus overflowes it shall return within its banks concluding with this that Terrestriall beauty is like a shadow and therefore we are not to fix the eyes of our understanding upon it but to turn them to that soveraign beauty which is permament and free from all change and passion We will now indevour our selves to remove the cause of Money causing Love which is meer Covetousnesse the root of all evill and to satisfie their own voluptuousnesse having their only delights upon earth who desire not the woman but her riches to make his houses the larger to fill his chests fuller being respectlesse of a virtuous Woman and the supreme good wherein all happinesse consisteth And this he saith is to raise a fortune for his I say seldom thriving posterity studying how he may become an eternal affliction to himself His minde is so fixed on money not on the woman as he findes no time to erect it to heaven He employes so much time in getting and gathering of goods as he reserves no time for doing good He runs on still in desire not of his Mistresse labouring of a disease incurable till death cure him He encreaseth his cares with his substance not his love to his Wife and the more he adds to his estate the more he detracts from his content and love towards her But consider you Money-lovers and seek for a remedy while it is to be had lest you repent your delay when 't is too late How secure was the Rich-man as he thought when he invited his wretched soul to take her rest having much goods laid up for many years but this self-security was the occasion of his succeeding misery for that night was his soul to be taken from him O how terrible will the approach of death seem to you being to be divided from the staffe of your confidence from thence to descend without the least hope of comfort to the land of forgetfulnesse for as the Scorpion hath in her the remedy of her own poyson a receipt for her own infection so the evill and covetous carry alwayes with them the punishment of their own wickednesse the which doth never leave so incessant is the torment of a guilty conscience to wound and afflict the minde both sleeping and waking so as to what place he betakes him he cannot so privily retire but fear and horrour will awake him nor flie so fast though he should take the wings of the morning but fury and vengeance will overtake him Consider this I speak to both sexes and let not money and riches be the sole object of your love but look at that which is far more noble that which is more permanent that summum bonum that chief good which will direct you the way to all felicity Before we proceed any further we will hoping such variety will prove the more pleasant turn our discourse a little in particular to the female sex such whose kinde hearts like wrought Wax are apt to receive any amorous impression Therefore to you loving souls do I recommend these necessary cautions which if carefully observed will preserve you from the causes and consequently the effects of Love and may make you wiser then you thought of and to have a tender care of that which before you had never minde of The best preservative and soveraignest receipt is to fortifie the weaknesse of your sex with strength of resolution for the imagination of Love is strong and works admirable effects on a willing subject Give not power to an insulting Lover to triumph over your weakness or which is worse to work on the opportunity of your lightnesse Ram up those portals which betray you to your enemy and prevent his entry by your vigilancy Keep at home and let neither you nor your thoughts stray abroad lest by gadding you incur Dinah's fate Check your madding and to Love inclining fancy and if it use resistance curbe it with restraint forbear to resort to places of publick meeting till you have drawn up and sealed a Covenant with your eyes to see nothing that they may lawfully covet This will yeeld you more liberty then the whole worlds freedome can afford you Be not too liberall in bestowing your favours nor too familiar in publick converse Presume not too much on the strength of a weak fort Make a contract with your eyes not to wander abroad lest they be catch'd in coming home Treat not of love too freely be not too bold to play with the blinde boy he hath a dangerous aime though he hath no eyes the Cat playes with the Mouse but at last bites off her head the Flie playes with the Candle till at last her light wings are sindged Sport not with him that will hurt you play not with him that would play on you your sports will turn to a bad jeast when you are wounded in earnest If this wanton frenzie hath never surpriz'd you prevent the means and it will never invade you be not such foes to your selves as to purchase your own disquiet If Love issue out in too violent a stream it is to be cooled by a temperate expostulation with fancy or else fix your eyes upon some more attractive object divert the course of that madding passion as Physitians do to their patients who having a violent efflux of bloud in one place cut a vein in another to turn the course of it another way Expostulate with fancy as Brathwaite adviseth in his English Gent. thus How is it with me me thinks it fares with me otherwise then it hath done formerly A strange distemper I finde in my minde and might seem to resemble Love if I knew the nature of it Love can Virgin modesty return that accent and not blush yes why not If the object I affect he worth loving If the party affected have more virtues then money and not more money then virtues And if not what then Is not the Lover ever blinde in affection towards his beloved He who may seem a Thersites to another may be a Paris in mine eye Yea but a little advice would do well Art thou perswaded that this Non-parallel thou thus affectest hath dedicated his service only to thee that his affection is really towards thee that his protests though delivered by his mouth are ingraven in his heart yea his protests have confirmed him mine That hour is tedious