(which book came first to my hands after the third edition) to certain atomi in the seed, such as are very spermatick and full of seed. I finde the same in Aristot. sect. 4. prob. 17. si non secernatur semen, cessare tentigines non possunt, as Guastavinius his commentator translates it, for which cause these young men, that be strong set, of able bodies, are so subject to it. Hercules de Saxoniâ hath the same words in effect. But most part I say, such are aptest to love that are young and lusty, live at ease, staul fed, free from cares, like cattle in a rank pasture; idle and solitary persons, they must needs hirquitullire, as Guastavinius recites out of Censorinus. Mens erit apta capi tum quum lætissima rerum, Ut seges in pingui luxuriabit humo. The minde is apt to lust, and hot or cold, 3 The place it self makes much wherein we live; the clime, air, and discipline if they concur. In our Misnia, saith Galen, neer to Pergamus, thou shalt scarce finde an adulterer, but many at Rome, by reason of the delights of the seat. It was that plenty of all things, which made Corinth so infamous of old, and the opportunity of the place to entertain those forraign commers; every day strangers came in at each gate, from all quarters. In that one temple of Venus, a thousand whores did prostitute themselves, as Strabo writes; besides Lais and the rest of better note: All nations resorted thither, as to a school of Venus. Your hot and southern countries are prone to lust, and far more incontinent, then those that live in the North; as Bodine discourseth at large, Method. hist. cap. 5. Molles Asiatici; so are Turks, Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, even all that latitude and in those tracts, such as are more fruitful, plentiful, and delitious, as Valence in Spain, Capua in Italy; domicilium luxus, Tully terms it; and which Hannibals souldiers can witness: Canopus in Egypt, Sybaris, Phoacia, Baiæ, Cyprus, Lampsacus. In 'Naples the fruits of the soyl and pleasant air enervate their bodies, and alter constitutions: insomuch, that Florus calls it Certamen Bacchi et Veneris, but Folliot admires it. In Italy and Spain, they have their stews in every 4 2 Ovid. de art. 1 Printed at Paris 1624, seven years after my first edition. Gerbelius descript. Græciæ. Rerum omnium affluentia et loci mira opportunitas, nullo non die hospites in portas advertebant. Templo Veneris mille meretrices se prostituebant. 4 Tota Cypri insula deliciis incumbit, et ob id tantum luxuriæ dedita ut sit olim Veneri sacrata. Ortelius, Lampsacus olim Priapo sacer ob vinum generosum, et loci delicias. Idem. Agri Neapolitan. delectatio, ele gantia, amoenitas, vix intra modum humanum consistere videtur; unde, &c. Leand. Alber. in Campaniâ. 6 Lib. de laud. urb. Neap. Disputat. de morbis animi, Reinoldo Interpret. 2 great city, as in Rome, Venice, Florence, wherein some say, dwell ninety thousand inhabitants, of which ten thousand are curtizans; and yet for all this, every gentleman almost hath a peculiar mistris; fornications, adulteries are nowhere so common: urbs est jam tota lupanar; how should a man live honest among so many provocations? now if vigor of youth, greatness (liberty I mean), and that impunity of sin, which grandies take unto themselves in this kinde, shall meet, what a gap must it needs open to all manner of vice; with what fury will it rage? For, as Maximus Tyrius the Platonist observes, libido consequuta quum fuerit materiam improbam, et præruptam licentiam, et effrenatam audaciam, &c. what will not lust effect in such persons? For commonly princes and great men make no scruple at all of such matters; but, with that whore in Spartian, quicquid libet licet; they think they may do what they list, profess it publikely, and rather brag with Proculus (that writ to a friend of his in Rome 'what famous exploits he had done in that kind) then any way be abashed at it. Nicholas Sanders relates of Henry the 8th (I know not how truly) Quod paucas vidit pulchriores quas non concupierit, et paucissimas non concupierit quas non violárit: He saw very few maids that he did not desire; and desired fewer whom he did not enjoy: nothing so familiar amongst them; 'tis most of their business: Sardanapalus, Messalina, and Jone of Naples, are not comparable to 3 meaner men and women; Solomon of old had a thousand concubines; Assuerus his eunuches, and keepers; Nero his Tigillinus, panders, and bawds; the Turks, 'Muscovits, Mogors, Xeriffs of Barbary, and Persian sophies, are no whit inferior to them, in our times. Delectus fit omnium puellarum toto regno formá præstantiorum (saith Jovius) pro imperatore: et quas ille linquit, nobiles habent; They press and muster up wenches as we do souldiers; and have their choice of the rarest beauties their countries can afford; and yet all this cannot keep them from adultery, incest, sodomy, buggery, and such prodigious lusts. We may conclude, that if they be yong, fortunate, rich, high-fed, and idle withall, it is almost impossible they should live honest; not rage, and precipitate themselves into those inconveniences of burning lust. 3 'Otium et reges prius et beatas Lampridius. 2 Vita ejus. Quod decem noctibus centum virgines fecisset mulieres. 3 If they contain themselves, many times, it is not virtutis 5 Catullus amore; non deest voluntas sed facultas. ad Lesbium. 4 In Muscov. Idleness overthrows all, Vacuo pectore regnat amor, love tyrannizeth in an idle person. Amore abundas Antipho. If thou hast nothing to do, 'Invidiâ vel amore miser torquebere Thou shalt be haled in pieces with envy, lust, some passion or other. Homines nihil agendo male agere discunt; 'Tis Aristotles simile, ' as match or touchwood takes fire, so doth an idle person love. 2 Quæritur Ægistus quare sit factus adulter, &c. why was Ægistus a whoremaster? You need not ask a reason of it. Ismenedora stole Baccho, a woman forced a man, as Aurora did Cephalus: No marvel, saith 'Plutarch, Luxurians opibus more hominum mulier agit; She was rich, fortunate and jolly; and doth but as men do in that case, as Jupiter did by Europa, Neptune by Amymone. The poets therefore did well to feign all shepheards lovers, to give themselves to songs and dalliances, because they lived such idle lives. For love, as Theophrastus defines it, is otiosi animi affectus, an affection of an idle minde; or as 'Seneca describes it, Juventá gignitur, luxu nutritur, feriis alitur, otioque interlæta fortune bona; youth begets it, riot maintains it, idleness. nourisheth it, &c. which makes 'Gordonius the physician, cap. 20. part. 2. call this disease, the proper passion of nobility. Now, if a weak judgement and a strong apprehension do concur, how, saith Hercules de Saxoniâ, shall they resist? Savanarola appropriates it almost to monks, friers, and religious persons, because they live solitary, fare daintily, and do nothing and well he may; for how should they otherwise choose? 9 Diet alone is able to cause it: a rare thing to see a yong man or a woman, that lives idly, and fares well, of what condition soever, not to be in love. Alcibiades was still dallying with wanton young women; immoderate in his expences, effeminate in his apparel, ever in love, but why? he was over delicate in his diet; too frequent and excessive in banquets. Ubicunque securitas, ibi libido dominatur; lust and security domi 8 Ar. 1 Hor. 2 Polit. 8. num. 28. Ut naphthe ad ignem, sic amor ad illos qui torpescunt otio. 3 Pausanias Attic. lib. 1. Cephalus egregiæ formæ juvenis ab Aurorâ raptus, quod ejus amore capta esset. 4 In amatorio. 5 E Stobæo ser. 62. 6 Amor otiosæ cura est sollicitudinis. 7 Principes plerumque ob licentiam et affluentiam divitiarum istam passionem solent incurrere. denter appetit qui otiosam vitam agit, et communiter incurrit hæc passio solitarios deliciose viventes, incontinentes, religiosos, &c. Plutarch. vit. ejus. neer together, as St. Hierome averreth. All which the wife of Bath in Chaucer freely justifies. For all to sicker, as cold engendreth hail, A liquorish tongue must have a liquorish tail. 3 1 Especially if they shall further it by choice diet; as many times those Sybarites and Phæaces do, feed liberally, and by their good will, eat nothing else but lascivious meats. Vinum imprimis generosum, legumen, fabas, radices omnium generum bene conditas, et largo pipere aspersas, carduos hortulanos, lactucas, 'erucas, rapas, porros, cæpas, nucem piceam, amygdalas dulces, electuaria, syrupos, succos, cochleas, conchas, pisces optime præparatos, aviculas, testiculos animalium, ova, condimenta diversorum generum, molles lectos, pulvinaria, &c. Et quicquid fere medici impotentiá rei venerea laboranti præscribunt, hoc quasi diasatyrion habent in deliciis, et his dapes multo delicatiores; mulsum, exquisitas et exoticas fruges, aromata, placentas, expressos succos multis ferculis variatos, ipsumque vinum suavitate vincentes, et quicquid culina, pharmacopeia, aut quæque fere officina subministrare possit. Et hoc plerumque victu quum se ganeones infarciant, ut ille ad Chreseida suam, se bulbis et cochleis curavit; etiam ad Venerem se parent, et ad hanc palestram se exerceant, qui fieri possit, ut non misere depereant, ut non penitus insaniant? Estuans venter cito despuit in libidinem, Hieronymus ait. Post prandia, Callyroenda. Quis enim continere se potest? Luxuriosa res vinum, fomentum libidinis vocat Augustinus; blandum damonem, Bernardus; lac veneris, Aristophanes. Non Etna, non Vesuvius tantis ardoribus æstuant, ac juveniles medullæ vino plenæ, addit Hieronymus: unde ob optimum vinum Lampsacus olim Priapo sacer: et venerandi Bacchi socia, apud Orpheum Venus audit. Hæc si vinum simplex, et per se sumptum præstare possit, namquo me, Bacche, rapis tui plenum? quam non insaniam, quem non furorem a cæteris expectemus? 10 Gomesius salem enumerat inter ea quæ intempestivam libidinem provocare solent, et salaciores fieri fœminas ob esum salis contendit: Venerem ideo dicunt ab oceano ortam. 8 7 9 5 1 Vina parant animos Veneri. 2 Sed nihil erucæ faciunt bulbique salaces; Improba nec prosit jam satureia tibi. Ovid. 3 Petronius. Curavi me nox cibis validioribus, &c. 4 Uti ille apud Sckenkium, qui post potionem, uxorem et quatuor ancillas proximo cubiculo cubantes, compressit. 5 Pers. Sat. 3. Siracides. Nox, et amor vinumque nihil moderabile suadent. 9 Hor. 1. 3. Od. 25. 7 Lip. ad Olympiam. sale lib. cap. 21. 8 Hymno. 10 De 1 Unde tot in Veneta scortorum millia cur sunt? 3 Et hinc fœta mater Salacea Oceani conjux, verbumque fortasse salax a sale effluxit. Mala Bacchica tantum olim in amoribus prævaluerunt, ut coronæ ex illis statuæ Bacchi ponerentur. 2 Cubebis in vino maceratis utuntur Indi orientales ad Venerem excitandam, et surax radice Africani. China radix eosdem effectus habet, talisque herbæ meminit mag. nat. lib. 2. cap. 16. Baptista Porta ex Indiá allatæ, cujus mentionem facit et Theophrastus. Sed infinita his similia apud Rhasin, Matthiolam, Mizaldam, cæterosque medicos occurrunt, quorum ideo mentionem feci, ne quis imperitior in hos scopulos impingat, sed pro virili tanquam syrtes et cautes consulto effugiat. SUBSECT. II. Other Causes of Love-Melancholy. Sight, Beauty from the face, eys, other parts; and how it pierceth. MANY such causes may be reckoned up, but they cannot avail, except opportunity be offered of time, place, and those other beautiful objects, or artificial enticement; as kissing, conference, discourse, gestures concur, with such like lascivious provocations. Kornmannus in his book de lined amoris makes five degrees of lust, out of Lucian belike, which he handles in five chapters, 5 Visus, Colloquium, Convictus, Oscula, Tactus. Sight of all other is the first step of this unruly love; though sometimes it be prevented by relation or hearing, or rather incensed. For there be those so apt, credulous and facile to love, that if they heard of a proper man, or woman, they are in love before they see them, and that meerly by relation, as Achilles Tatius observes. Such is their intemperance and lust, that they are as much maimed by report, as if they saw them. listhenes a rich young gentleman of Byzance in Thrace, hearing Ca 1 Kornmannus lib. de virginitate. 2 Garcias ab horto aromatum, lib. 1. cap. 28. 3 Surax radix ad coitum summe facit; si quis comedat, aut infusionem bibat, membrum subito erigitur. Leo Afer, lib. 9. cap. ult. 4 Quæ non solum edentibus sed et genitale tangentibus tantum valet, ut coire summe desiderent; quoties fere velint, possint; alios duodecies profecisse, alios ad 60 vices pervenisse refert. 5 Lucian, Tom. 4. Dial. amorum. 6 Ea enim hominum intemperantium libido est ut etiam famâ ad amandum impellantur, et audientes æque afficiuntur ac videntes. |