CHAP. I. That it is needfull to teach the Cure of Love.

IT may seem at the first view a vaine and idle enter­prise to goe about to pre­scribe remedies for the cure of Love: Which all, both Poets, Philosophers, and ancient Divines, [Page 2] have ever acknowledged to be the origi­nall and cause of all good: ( [...], Arist. Met. 1. c. 4. saies the Philosopher: Love is the cause of all good: as contrarywise hatred, of all evill. It is the Modell of Iustice, Temperance, Plat. conv. Fortitude, and Prudence: the first inven­tor of Physick, Poetry, Musick, and all Plutar. Symp. Liberall Arts; the most noble, most pow­erfull, & most Ancient of all those Gods, the superstitious Heathen framed to themselves out of their own braine. Should I indeed speake any thing against this Love; I might justly be thought wor­thy the same punishment the Poet Stefi­chorus suffered, for speaking ill of the beauteous Helen: who was therefore pu­nished with blindnesse, till he had recan­ted his error. Besides, that in writing a­gainst this love, I should doe injury to the Art of Physick, which I professe: seeing that Plato, under the person of Eryxima­chus Plat. conv. the Physitian, saies, that Physick is nothing else, but [...]. The know­ledge of those things, that respect the de­sires and affections of the Body, as con­cerning [Page 3] Evacuation and Repletion. So that he that in this case can distinguish be­twixt honest and dishonest love, is to be [...]ccounted the skilfullest Physitian.

But we are to observe with Pausani­ [...]s, Plotin. de Amo. that as there are two Veneres: the one Heavenly, called Ʋrania, the daughter of Coelum, brought forth without a Mother: the other the daughter of Iupiter and Di­ [...]ne, Cic. l. 3. de nat. deor. Fulgent. mythol. commonly called Pandemia, or Vul­gar: so likewise are there two Amores, Sonnes of these two Godesses; the one Divine, and the other common and vul­gar. Of these two kindes of Love, the Supernaturalists and Divines discourse of the essence and properties of the former: and the Physitian of the later. Which a­gaine is either honest or dishonest: they teach the means of preserving the former, during the tearme of Marriage; and pre­scribe remedies for the cure, and preven­tion of the Later; with the fury whereof Ignoble and degenerate spirits are for the most part violently carried away.

The Greekes feigne that Apollo had two sonnes, Aesculapius and Plato: this, for to cure the maladies of the mind, [Page 4] Aesculapius for those of the Body. Now love being a mixt disease, both of the bo­dy and the mind; I shall furnish my selfe with precepts out of Plato, and with me dicines from Aesculapius, in the cure of Love Melancholy, being such as I have gathered out of Hippocrates, the Prince of Physitians: Intending to handle Love no otherwise, then as it is a passion, or vio­lent perturbation of the Mind, Dishonest, and Refractory to Reason.

But my chiefest purpose is, to prescribe some remedies for the prevention of this disease of Love, which those men for the most part are subject unto, that have not the power to governe their desires, and subject them to Reasons Lawes: seeing that this unchast Love proves oftentimes the Author of the greatest Mischiefes that are in the world, as they are reckoned up by Plautus.

Which hath given occasion to a late French Poet to feigne, that on a day, Ve­nus left whipping of her sonne Cupid, and afterward bound him to a Myrtle tree. Intimating by this Poeticall fiction, that Pleasure many times punisheth Lovers with scourges, signified by his purple wings, which, according to Guitton d' Arezzo, are the Hieroglyphicks of griefe, and cruell torment. And Petrarch, in his 4. cap. del Triomfo d' Amore, feignes him to be lodged in a palace of Hopes; which makes all persons, of what condi­tion, or sexe soever, desire to be enter­tained there: But the more they labour to ascend, the lower still they fall, because the staires that lead up to this palace are of [Page 6] a very slippery substance. The three first steps are, the immodest cast of the eyes, su­perfluity of words, & the violence of the hands: the upper chambers are adorned with Idlenesse, dreames, vaine desires, and inconstancy: the chimney of the great hall, is the breast of the Lover; that of the chamber is his heart; and his liver, that of the Kitchen. The seats of those that come thither, and are entertained there, are false contents, on which they are no sooner setled, but they break under them. Which to repaire, they presently send for their engineeres, envy, torment, and deceit. Suspence, and feare, are the surest guardians of this palace, the gates whereof are shut up at night by false opi­nion, and Distrust stands sentinell, &c. Which Apollonius Thyaneus having well Philostr. l. 1. cap. 23. considered, being one day sollicited by the King of Babylon to invent some strange kind of punishment for an Eunuch that had been taken in the very Act with one of the Kings Concubines, made him this answere, that he should suffer him still to live, and pursue his own unchast desires: then which there could not a [Page 7] greater punishment be found. For the beginnings of Lust are Feares; Ruine at­tends it in the midst of its course; and Re­pentance concludes it: As you shall see more cleerely, when I shall have discove­red unto you the ordinary Symptomes of [...]ove Melancholy.

CHAP. II. The Symptomes of Love Melancholy.

THe diverse and violent perturbati­ons which afflict the mind of a Pas­sionate Lover, are the causes of greater mischiefes, then any other passion of the mind whatsoever. For although we read [...]n Authors of good note of some that have Arist. Eth. l. 1. c. 21. [...]ied with excessive joy, as Polycrita Naxensis, Diagoras Rhodius, Chilo the Gal. 2. de Sympt. caus c. 4. Lacedaemonian, Sophocles, and Dionysius the Sicilian Tyrant: Others perhaps of Val. max. l. 9. c. 12. extreame sorrow, as P. Rutilius, M. Le­pidus, and Ely the High-Priest: others of Plin. l. 7. c. 36. [Page 8] shame, as it is storied of Homer, that it kil led him, because he was not able to resolve the Fishermans riddle: And Macrina, the wife of Torquatus, through an earnest desire she had to see a one-eyed Aegyptian that was to passe by her doore, her husband being abroad; at which time Modesty permitted not women so much as to looke out at a window, or to be seen at their doores, du­ring the time of their husbands absence. Yet notwithstanding, all these Passions in some cases, and to some men prove often­times of good use, and very needfull: and for this cause are reckoned by Physitians among the sixe Non-naturall things. For, Anger, although sometimes it come with­in a degree of Madnesse, Ira Furor brevis est, yet may it doe much good upon those that are of an idle, heavy, drowsy, dull, cold, pale constitution. So likewise Feare is a kind of Physick to Fooles, Rash, Fran­tick, Madmen: Sadnesse to those that are of a Malapert, jeering humour: and Shame, to those that are Impudent, brazen-faced, and such as have lost their colour. But love seems not to be of any use at all, but is like [Page 9] that kind of Passion which Avicen, as An­ [...]geas Alphagus reports him, calls Hea, in is Arabique tongue, which consists for he most part of many contrary motions, as by and sadnes, feare, and despaire, friend­ship and hatred, &c.

Yet I grant that love is the ground and Principall cause of all our Affections, and the Abstract of all the Passions and per­turbations of the mind. For when we de­sire to enjoy what we affect, whether it be really good, or but so in appearance; this we call covetousnesse, and Concupis­cence. And being not able to compasse our desires, this we call Griefe, and De­spaire: [Page 10] when we enjoy the thing we de­sire, Love then takes upon it the name of Pleasure & Delight. When we think we are able to effect our desires, 'tis then Hope: and fearing to loose it, either who­ly, or in part only; this we call Iealousie.

By reason of these perturbations of the mind, the bloud becomes adust, earthy, and Melancholy, as in all other violent passions, except joy, according to Galen: Cap. 86. art, med. by which meanes diverse have fallen into strange and desperate diseases, growing Melancholy, Foolish, Mad, Cynicall, Wol­vish: as the learned Avicen reports, in his cap. de Amore. Aretaeus the Physitian Lib. 1. Chr. Morb. makes mention of a young Inamorato in his time, that was so besotted with this Fury, that he could not be cured by any meanes. Lucretius the famous Poet, by this meanes lost the use of his judgement: Iphis grew mad for Anaxaretes: a young Girald. l. 9. de Poet. Hist. Athenian did the like, for the love of a Marble statue: which had also happened not long since to a rich Merchant of Arles, had he not been cured of his Frensy by the learned Valleriola, as himselfe tells the story in his Observations, Sapho the [Page 11] Poetesse was so desperately enamoured [...]f Phaon, that she desperately cast her selfe headlong from off the Leucadian [...]ock into the sea; as both Strabo and Suy­das relate the story. For woemen are farre more subject to this passion, and more cru­elly tormented with it, then men are. For from hence proceeds the Green sick­nesse, (which is sometimes joyned with a gentle Fever, and is then by our modern writers called an Amorous Fever:) heart­beating, swelling of the face, want of ap­petite, greife, sighing, causeles teares, insa­ [...]iable hunger, extreame thirst, sownings, oppressions, suffocations, continuall watchings, Headach, Melancholy, Epilep­sy, Ragings, Furor uterinus, Satyriasis; and diverse other desperate Symptomes, Langius. Mercat. which for the most part admit neither cure, nor mitigation, by any other reme­dies, but what Hippocrates prescribes for the cure of Love-Melancholy, toward the end of his booke de his quae spect. ad Virgin. and in his booke de Genit.

This hath given occasion to some to thinke, that Love was a kind of poyson ingendred within the body, and taken in [Page 12] at the eyes: or else caused by those Medi­caments, which they call Philters, reckoned by the Lawyer among the several kinds of poysons, l. 4. ff. ad l. Corn. de Sic & venef. The which deprave the judgement, and corrupt the bloud; so that the party affected becomes of a pale and loathsome colour: as Theocritus sayes.

Hippocrates seemes to attribute to passi­onate love the power of transforming L. 6. Epid. sect, 8. women into men; where he sayes, that in the citty Abdera, Phaethusa, being strick­en with the love of Pytheus, and not be­ing able to enjoy him for a long time; by reason of his absence; she became a Man, [...], and grew hairy all over her bo­dy, had a mans voyce, and a long beard on her chin. The same he affirms in the Apho­risme following to have befallen to Na­mysia, wife to one Gorgippus: and addes [Page 13] withall, that it was impossible for her to [...] recovered to her former womanhood [...]aine, [...]. I dare not beleive is to be a change of sexe, but of habit [...]ly, and complexion. For according to Physiog. c. 4. & l. 4. Hist. Ani. cap. 11. [...]e same Authour, and Aristotle, the Male of the more full, massy and solid consti­tution of body: on the other side the fe­ [...]le is not so strong and nervous, but [...]ore moyst, soft, and of the more delicate complexion. Notwithstanding Galen, [...]chsius, Foesius, and many other Physiti­ [...]s, and Interpreters of Hippocrates, (who, Macrobius saies, never yet deceived [...]y,) sticke to the bare letter: so that in [...]eir opinions we may beleive the fabu­ [...]as stories of Iphis, Caeneus, and whatever Plin. l. 7. c. 4. Auson. [...]riters have reported of Cossitius, Cassi­ [...], and many young women that at the Epig. 72. [...]ne of Puberty have been metamorpho­ [...] Agel. l. 9. c. 4. Volat. into men, at Smyrna, Argos, Naples, [...]ch, Vitry, Conimbria, Salernes, and in [...]er places, as you may read at large the writings of Fulgosus, Amatus [...]sitanus, Pareus, Pineus, and Schenkius his Observat. cap. 25.

The Peripateticks conceive not this [Page 14] Transmutation of sexes to be so strange matter, relying on the authority of the Coryphaeus Aristotle, who in many place [...] Lib. 1. de gener. c. 20. & lib. 2. c. 3. saies, that a woman is an imperfect ma [...] [...], differing in nothing from a man, but only in the Genitalls Lib. 1. de sem. l. 14. de usu part. which according to Galen, are restrained and kept within meerely through defect of naturall heat. But nature hath not done this, through any errour or Impotency whatsoever these grosse Philosophers af­firme to the contrary; but for the propaga­tion of the species.

It may very easily then be, according to this doctrine of Aristotle, and of Galen that a woman, being enflamed with the violence of love, may put forth those her genitall parts, which are no other, then those of a man reversed, or turned inward as the same Doctour affirmes: whom not withstanding all our Modern Anatomists doe unanimously contradict: as you may see at large in the Anatomicall Quaestion Lib. 7. q. 8. Lib. 2. c. 10. of Andreas Laurentius.

The learned Ludovicus Mercatus, an Rodericus à Castro, are so perplexed [...] & 11. de virg. & vid. morb. the explication of those places of Hippo­crates, [Page 15] that one while they are fain to say, at these women were troubled with [...]e Procidence of the Matrix, which in appearance represented the Genitalls [...]pper to the Male: Another while they [...]irme for certaine, that in those women, [...]at part which Manard calls Queue; [...]lbucasis, Tentiginem; Moschio & Mer­ [...]tus, Symptoma turpitudinis; Aretaeus, [...]ympham; Fallopius, Clitorida; Colum­ [...]s, Amorem & dulcedinem Veneris; Avi­ [...], Albatram, i. e. virgam; was so great, [...]at it resembled a mans yard. Which [...]th also befallen diverse other women, [...]ho unhappily abusing that part, were [...]r this reason called by the Latines, Fri­ [...]trices; by the Greekes, [...]; and by [...]e French, Ribauldes: in which number Suydas, and Muretus place the learned [...]apho. And in the end, Mercatus very [...]arnedly concludes, that he intends not [...] hinder any man from beleeving these [...]ange Metamorphoses and transmutati­ [...]s of sexe to be reall: considering the [...]equent examples alleadged by Histori­ [...]s, and by the above cited Physitian.

CHAP. III. Of the name of Lovo, and Love. Melancholy.

ALL Diseases, according to Galen L. 2. meth. med. doe take their Denomination, either from the part affected, as the Pleurisy, an Peripneumony, or Inflammation of the Lunges; or from the Symptomes, as the Fever; or from both these together, as the Headach; or from the resemblance i [...] beares to some other thing, as the Cancer or lastly from the efficient cause, as Love Melancholy: which some Physitians cal [...] [...], that is to say, Love-madnes, o [...] amorous Folly. For certainly it may very properly bee said of all those that are i [...] love, as Demodocus in Aristotle once did o [...] the Milesians: That if they be not fooles Eth. l. 6. c. 8 they doe at lest as fooles doe. w ^ch is intim [...] ted to us by the Poet Euripides, where ( [...] the same Philosopher affirmes) he deriv [...] Rhet, 2. c. 3. [Page 17] the name of Ʋenus from Folly: [...] For, Amare & sapere vix [...]iis conceditur. It is not granted to the [...]ods themselves, at once to be in Love, [...]d to be wise.

And here by the way we may observe, [...]hat the ancient Physitians oftimes con­ [...]und Trallian. l. 3. c 7. these two tearmes of Madnesse and Melancholy, as differing only in degrees: Altim. l. 1. me th. c. 8 which difference changeth not at all the [...]ecies; as we shall hereafter see more dearely.

Avicen, with the whole family of the [...]rabians, calls this disease in his own an­ [...]age, Alhasch, and Iliscus: Arnaldus de villa nova, Gordonius, and their contem­praries call it by the name of Heroicall Melancholy: whether it is, because the [...]ncient Heroes, or Demi-gods were of­ten taken with this passion, as the faba­ [...]us Poets report: or else happily for that [...]eat personages are more inclinable to [...]is maladie, then the common sort of [...]eople: or else lastly, because that Love [...]es as it were domineer, and exercise a [...]nde of tyranny over those that are sub­ [...]ct to his power.

[Page 18] Love is called by the Greeks [...], with Rhodig. l. 12. c. 37. o, when it signifies generally the desire of any thing, (although Pindarus uses it sometimes for Cupid:) and with [...], when it is to signifie the true Love we treat of. Some say that when it is written with, it signifies Lust, and with o, honest and chast Love. How ever it be, [...], or [...], i [...] is derived by the Etymologists [...], by changing [...], into [...] or else [...], the name of his father Mars: [...] perhaps [...], that is to say, strength or force. For Love is the most powerfull of all the Gods, as Agatho proves it a large in Plato's Conviv: and Lucian tell us, that Love, being as yet but in his cra­dle, overcame Pan, that is, Nature, [...] wrastling. Vnlesse you will rather have i [...] come from [...], which in Hesiods lan­guage signifies, to dedicate, or consecrate Because that he that is deeply in love, de­votes and consecrates all his desires, will and actions, to the pleasure of his beloved Mistresse.

Plotinus will have it to bee derived Ennead. 5. l. 5. c. 6. from [...] to see: because that [...]. Liking is caused by seeing. So Then critus.

[...]t seemes, saith Aristotle in his Ethic. 9. [...]ap. 5. that all kinde of Love & Friendship Eth. l. 9. c. 5. &. 12. [...]s derived from the pleasure that is taken [...] at the eyes. Whence the Poet Proper­ [...]ius calls them, the Conductors, & guides [...]n Love.

They are the passages indeed, by which Love enters into our Heads, and so seazeth [...]n the braine, the Cittadell of Pallas: and [...]re the conduicts by which it is con­veighed into our hearts, and most secret [...]arts: as it is learnedly and copiously pro­ [...]ed by Marsilius Ficinus, and Fran. Ʋal­leriola, in his Medicin. observat. Which they seeme to have borrowed from the [...]ncient Poet Musaeus, who in his excel­lent Poëm of the Love of Hero and Lean­ [...]er, speakes thus.

The excellent beauty, saith he, of a wo­man, that is without all contradiction per­fectly faire, wounds the heart more swift­ly, then the swiftest flying arrow, and through the eyes is conveighed into the most inward parts, and there festers into a cruell wound, and hard to be cured. Pa­rallel to this, js that which Plutarque hath, l. 5. Symp. Q. 7. where hee saies, that whiles he that is in love, is strongly fixt i [...] beholding & contemplating on the beau­ty and perfection of his Mistresse: her eie [...] in the meane time doe reciprocally cast forth their amorous beames, to enflame [...] charme the heart of her Lover. Whence Hesiod calls those that have faire lovely eyes, [...]: and Pindarus, [...]: by a Metaphore borrowed from the Greek word [...], signifying the Vigen. in Philo. young tender sprigs or branches of vines For as these alwaies embrace the next neighbouring bough, twining about it with many various circles: in like man­ner the eyes of a beautifull woman apply [Page 21] their beames, and endeavour to entangle the hearts of those that earnestly behold [...]er.

Plato in Cratylo will have Love to be [...]alled [...], because it flowes, as it were, through the eyes, into the heart: & [...]so [...], from [...], Fluo. Although some others maintaine that it is called [...], [...]uasi [...]. Mansuetus, that is, Milde or Gentle. It is also sometimes called [...], which is thus differenced from [...], that [...] signifies the desire of a thing that is [...]sent, [...] of that which is presēt only.

Our Grammarians derive it from [...], to crave, or aske: because that Lovers [...]e suppliants, and alwaies sueing to their distresses for favour. But in my opinion, his carnall and dishonest Love is called by a more proper name by Plato, [...], [...]uffocatio, Strangulatio: seeing that this love stifles, and choakes up that other [...]e and honest love, And the Aeolians all it yet by a more proper name, [...], a [...]heefe or Robber; because that it vio­lently seazeth on, and rifleth the hearts of [...]overs, depriving them both of liberty & [...]udgement.

Others call it [...]. Tangendi enim Cupido, non amoris pars est, sed potius petulantiae species, & ser­vilis C. 9. orat. 2 hominis perturbatio; saith Marsilius Ficinus: The desire of exercising the act [...] of Venery, is no part of Love, but rather a kinde of wantonnesse, and a passion that only men of a meane and servile nature are subject unto. Sometimes also the names of [...], and [...], are at­tributed unto this unchast Love; but it is [...], and very improperly.

The Hebrewes, as one saith, call it Ho­haba: the Chaldees, Hebeda: the Italians Equicola. Amore; which is interpreted by Guitton d' Arezzo, and Io. Iacob. Calander, a cru­ell death, as being compounded of A, and More. The Latines call it properly Amor [...] the French Amour; and sometimes, but improperly, it is stiled Dilection, Friend­ship, and Goodwill.

CAP. IV. Of Melancholy, and its severall kinds.

MElancholy is defined by Galen to Gal. de loc. aff. c. 7. be a Dotage without a Fever, ac­companied with Feare, and Sadnesse. For which cause the Greeks used the word [...], to expresse a mans being out of his wits and senses. And in this sense it [...] taken by Aristophanes in his Plutus: [...], by Heaven the Man's mad: and [...], in the Attick Di­ [...]ect signifies, to be a Foole, saies the [...]choliast upon that place. Now that which we call Dotage, or Madnesse, the Greeks call by a more proper expression, [...], which is then said to be tru­ [...] called so, when as any one of the most [...]oble faculties of the Soule, as the Imagi­nation, or Iudgement, is depraved: which [...]ay plainly be observed in all Melancho­ly [Page 24] persons, seeing they frame to them­selves a thousand Fantasticall Chimaera's, and Objects which neither have, nor even shall have any being in Nature.

Feare, and Sorrow are inseparable At­tendants on this miserable Passion, which deprives the Soule, though in it selfe im­mortall, of all the use and exercise of it powers and faculties. Now all Physitian [...] in a manner, with one vote agree, that a [...] the shadow followes the Body, so every Symptome followes some disease. And if so, wee may then lay it down for a mo [...] certaine Position and ground, that all Me­lancholy attends some disease of a nature like it selfe; which, as they say, is the col [...] and dry Intemperature of the Braine which by consequence must therefore ne­cessarily be the part affected, and the se [...] of the Disease; as being, according to A [...] ­retaeus, [...], the seat of Sensation not that the Braine is any whit ill affected in the figure or structure of it, seeing the [...] is no appearance neither of any unnaturall Extuberancy, neither are the ventricles [...] the Braine oppressed or surcharged with any ill affected Humour; as in the Epilep [...], [Page 25] or Apoplexy: But in the very substance [...]nd temperature of it, which is exceed­ingly dried and refrigerated: which may [...]e easily collected out of Hippocrates lib. Sect. 8. Aph. 54. [...] de morb. Epidem. where he saith, that [...]hose that have the Falling sicknesse, have their fits of Melācholy intended or remit­ted, in like measure as the melancholy humor gets possession either of the ven­tricles, or else of the substance of the Braine: [...]. If this hu­mour, saith he, worke upon the mind, that [...]s to say, the Temperature, by which the Noblest Actions of the soule are perfor­med; it causeth Melancholy: but if it spreade it selfe through the ventricles, and hollow passages of the braine, it then causeth the Epilepsy, or falling sick­nesse.

And here we are to take notice, that there are three kinds of Melancholy: the first is engendred of Black Choler, colle­cted together in the braine. The second [...]s produced, when as this humor is diffu­sed through the veines generally over all the body: And the last is Flatuous, or Hy­pocondriacall [Page 26] Melancholy; so called so that the substance of this disease is seate in the Hypocondries, which comprehend the Liver, Spleen, Mesentery, Guts, the veine of the Matrix, and other adjoyning parts; all which may be the seat of Hypo­condriacall Melancholy; and not the O [...] ­fice of the Stomack only, which was the opinion of the Ancient Physitian Diocles and which hath been since very learnedl [...] maintained by Io. Bapt. Sylvaticus, Controv. 34.

So that we may very justly reduce thi [...] disease of Love Melancholy to this la [...] species, seeing that the parts affected in i [...] are principally the Liver, and the pa [...] adjoyning, from whence those black F [...] liginous vapours doe arise, which ascend­ing up to the braine, doe hinder and per­vert the principall faculties thereof: as shall more fully shew in the ensueing chapter.

CAP. V. The Definition of Love Melancholy.

[...] Very true Definition, according to the Lib. 2. post. analyt. c. 10. doctrine of the Philosopher, must con­ [...] ex Genere & Differentiâ: But because [...] many times want the true Differen­ [...], it is lawfull for us to substitute the [...]pperties; which are not the same in all [...]ences. Whence the Naturalist defines otherwise then the Supernaturalist: the [...]ysitian otherwise then the Lawyer; [...]d the Orator will give it a different de­ [...]ition from that of the Poet. The truth this will appeare, by comparing their [...]verall definitions of Love together. For [...]st, the Peripateticks say, that, it is, an Argument and signe of good will, by appa­ [...]nt favour: the Stoicks will have it to [...], a Desire caused by some beautifull ob­ [...]ct: the Academicks determine, that [...]ove, is a Desire to enjoy that which is [Page 28] Lovely, and to make of two, one. Avicen saith, that it is a Passion of the mind introduced by the senses, for the satisfaction [...] our desires. Theophrastus demonstrates i [...] to be a Desire of the Soule, that easily an very speedily gets entrance, but retire [...] back againe very slowly. Plutarch, Marsilius Ficinus, Franc. Valleriola, wi [...] many other learned Authors, will have Love to be, a Motion of the blood, getting strength by little and little, through t [...] hope of pleasure, and almost a kind of Fascination, or Inchantment. Tully though it to be a Wishing well to the person we love Seneca, a great strength of the understanding, and a Heat that moved gently up a [...] downe in the spirits. Galen saies one while that it is a Desire; another while, Iudgement of a beautifull object. But s [...] my owne part I shall rather be of that pinion of Galen's, where he saies, that such things as these, definitions are altogether Lib. 4. de Placit. Hip. & Plat. superfluous and uselesse, becau [...] that every one of himselfe conceav [...] Lib. 4. de diff. puls. what love is, better, then the subtil [...] Logician can explaine it unto him by essentiall definition; which cannot inde [...] [Page 29] w [...] be given in such cases as these: and [...]y that pretend to effect it are to be ac­ [...]nted nothing but meere empty Sophi­ [...].

You shall meet with many other De­ [...]ions of Love among our Physitians, [...]ch in some sort expresse the nature of Maladie: as in Arnaldus de villa nova, donius, Christophorus à Vega, Mer­ [...]s, Rodericus à Castro, Haly Abbas, [...]aravius, Avicen, and Paul. Aegineta, [...]ch I shall not trouble you withall [...]e, but shall set downe a definition of [...]e owne, which shall be taken from cause of it: for as much as those defi­ons, (in such things as have their es­ [...]e [...], or depending on their [...]ses,) that are given by the Efficient [...]e, are the best; and are as proper to [...]idents, as an Essentiall definition is to [...]tances. For seeing that all Substances [...]ist of Matter and Forme, and that the [...]e is in the subject without any In­ [...]ediate relation: the Forme must of [...]essity be the Essence of the Substance: [...]reas contrariwise in an Accident, the [...]e is in the subject by meanes of the [Page 30] efficient cause. As for example, the E­clipse of the Moone is in the Moone, reason of the interposition of the globe the Earth, when as this planet, being the full is in opposition with the Sun [...] and is situate either in, or neare the he or taile of the Dragon. So that if the E­clipse of the Moone be to be defined, [...] efficient cause must necessarily be brou [...] into the definition. Besides, in the De [...] ­nition of a substance, the Genus is in st [...] of the matter, and the Difference i [...] place of the Forme, which is that t [...] gives the essence to the cause But in Accident it is quite contrary: for the the Genus is the forme, and the Diff­rence is made up of the matter, with [...] efficient cause. For seeing that the Ac [...] ­dent is inhaerent and fixed in the subject it must hence necessarily follow, tha [...] Accidents are to be distinguished by th [...] subjects. Which is acknowledged [...] Hippocrates in his book de Flatib. wh [...] he saith that diseases differ, according the parties affected differ from each ther. Now seeing that the essence of Accident dependeth on the effect [Page 31] He; it must necessarily follow, that this [...]se must be in the place of the last dif­frence.

These grounds being thus laid, we [...]ceed to our definition, and say, that [...]e, or this Eroticall Passion is a kind of [...]tage, proceeding from an Irregular de­ [...] of enjoying a lovely obiect; and is atten­ [...] on by Feare and sadnesse.

[...]es est solliciti plena timoris Amor.

[...]annot be denied, but that those that Gal. de cogn. & cur. anim. morb. [...] in Love have their imagination depra­ [...], and their judgement corrupted: the [...]gement I meane, which followes Ele­ [...]n, but not alwaies that which goes [...]ore it. For we see, that a Lover cannot [...]e a right judgement of the thing he [...]es, and which is the object of his affe­ [...]ons: and for this cause Love is alwaies [...]nted blind. But above all, their ima­ [...]ation is depraved, as may appeare by [...] stories of Menippus, who was enamou­ [...] of a Lamia, or Fiend; Machates of a [...]otrum that appeared in the shape of [...]ilinion; and Alkidias of a marble sta­ [...]. Philost. Aelian. Phlegon.

But what need we search so farre a­broad [Page 32] for examples, since we may sufficiently furnish our selves with instances this kind, out of each daies experience For doe we not oftimes see young sprin [...] Gallants enamoured with some old, cro [...] ked, deformed Hecuba, with a furroughed forehead, long hairy eye-browe bleare eyes, long hanging eares, a sadd nose, thick blabber lipps, black stinking teeth with a long terrible chin hang [...] downe to her girdle: which yet they w [...] sweare is a second Helen, whose bea [...] shines most resplendently in those love wrinkles; that her forehead resembl [...] the spangled Arch of Heaven, white a [...] smooth as Alabaster: her eye-browes a [...] of Ivory, under which are placed two bright shining starres, darting forth wi [...] an unparalleld sweetnesse a thousand [...] morous raies, which are as so many He [...] venly influences, whereon depends the life and happinesse. Her neck is smoo [...] as marble; her nose streight and even, [...] viding her lovely cheeks, which like [...] pleasant gardens, are variously inter [...] with Lillies and Roses: her teeth are t [...] rowes of Orientall pearle, pure and ev­er [Page 33] breath more sweet then Amber, or Arabian spices.

[...] she have her neck all bedawbed with [...]eruse and paint; her breast spotted like a [...]eopard; with paps swollen, and hang­ing downe like a paire of Bagpipes; with two great blew-bottles, instead of nip­les, on the top of them: yet will these [...]ottish fooles fancy out of these deformi­ [...]es, a Breast of Snow, a Necke white as [...]ilke, a Bosome enriched with Pinkes and Violets, with two delicate Apples of [...]labaster, rising gently, and falling againe [...]y such degrees, as seeme to imitate the [...]obing and flowing of the sea: out of the [...]ps whereof doe sprowt forth two curi­ous Carnation Buds. In breife, they will [...]ot sticke impudently to sweare, that this [...]d deformed witch is enriched with all [Page 34] these 36 Conditions that Plato requires in an Absolute Beauty. And it is great wonder but they will praise her very ex­crements, and perhaps, which is farre worse, eat them too; as L. Vitellius did the Suet. in Vit. spittle of a servant wench on whom he doted, having first tempered it with hony; as Suetonius reports of him.

This franticke humour that possesses our doting Lovers with these vaine Ima­ginations, is excellently described by Lu­cretius, in his Lib. 4.

Plutarch also sayes that this imperfe­ction De Audit. is common to all that are passionate­ly in Love. [...]. He that is in love, sayes he, calls his Mistresse, if she be white, the child of the Gods: but if blacke, she is then Manly, and of a strong constitution: if flat-nosed; she is gentle and courteous: if Hawke nosed, she seems then to be of a Kingly race: or lastly if she be pale and freckled, it serves his turne if he find any part about her that may deserve his praise, or at least to him seeme so to doe: and he then sticks as close to her, as the Ivy, Osier, or tender Vine­branch, that embraceth and twines about the next bough it meets withall: and will be so strangely besotted with this his foo­lish passion, that you shall have much adoe to know him to be the same man he was.

For which cause, the Ancient Poets Higin. c. 184. Hom. odys. 1. shadowing truth under the veile of Fa­bles, feigned, that Theophanes his Cour­tiers were all transformed into Wolves: as Ʋlisses companions were by Circe into Swine.

Galen, and all his Sectaries affirme, that Feare, and Sadnesse are the true Chara­cters, Lib. 6. de Sympt. caus. & l. 3. de loc. aff. and inseparable Accidents of Me­lancholy, and are caused by the blacknesse of this humour. And they are of opinion, that by reason of the Animall spirits being sullied by those blacke vapours that arise from the Melancholy blood, all objects present themselves to the Imagination in a terrible and fearefull shape. For as we see that the darknesse of the night works ordinarily some kind of feare and affright in fooles and children: in like manner are those persons that are Melancholy, in a continuall feare, as if they had a perpetuall night and darknesse in their braine. Which Lib. 5. Col. c. ult. opinion of theirs the subtile Averroës [Page 37] could not relish: but jeering Galen for it, [...]e drawes many absurd consequences [...]om it: and imputes the feares and sad­nesse, that Melancholy people are posses­ [...]ed withall, either to the Nature and pro­per Temperament of the Humour: or else [...]o the Coldnesse of the constitution of the [...]arties affected, which must consequently [...]roduce effects contrary to those of Heat. Now Heat, we know, makes men hardy, [...]rong, and lively in all their Actions: whereas on the other side, Cold renders them fearefull, heavy, and dull. And hence [...]t is, that we find Eunuches, old men, and women, to bee more fearefull then any other; the manners and affections of the mind following still the Temperature of the body: according to Galens opinion.

Yet I thinke, with the learned An­dreas Tract. de Mel. cap. 5. Laurentius, that it were no hard matter to reconcile these two great Do­ctors, that seem to stand at such a distance [...]n their opinions: and this to be done, only by joyning these two causes together, which they have delivered distinctly and apart: and saying, that the Temperature of the Humour should be the Principall and [Page 38] Primary cause, which yet must also be se­conded by the black Tincture cast upon the spirits by the Melancholy vapour: which being very cold, not only refrige­rates the braine, but also the heart, which is the seat of that couragious faculty which they call Irascible, and abates the heat of it: whence presently followes Feare. The same Humour, being also blacke, makes the Animall spirits grosse, darke, and full of fumes; which should be cleare, pure, subtile and lightsome. Now the Spirits be­ing the cheife and principall Organ of the soule, if they be both cold and blacke to­gether, they must necessarily hinder it's noblest faculties, and especially the fancy, alwaies representing unto it black species, and strange Phantasmes: which also may be perceived plainly by the eyes, not­withstanding their residence is within the braine: as Laurentius proves it by the in­stance of those that are now ready to be taken with a suddaine violent Eruption of blood at the Nose.

Now concerning desire, which is the efficient cause of Love-Melancholy, I shall here relate you a pleasant story out of [Page 39] Plato in his Conviv: where he brings in Diotimus discoursing to Socrates the manner how love was begotten, which was thus. On a time, on Venus birth day, the Gods met all together at a great Feast; and among the rest came Porus, the God of plenty, and sonne of Counsell. When supper was done, there comes to the floore Penia, poverty, begging for some of the reliques of their feast. Now Porus being well warm'd with Nectar, went forth into Jupiters Garden; where being overtaken with a deep sleep, Penia comes and lyes downe by him; and by this devise was got with child by him, and so brought forth Love: who still retaining the condi­tion of his Mother, is alwaies poore, leane, sordid, goes bare-foot, wandring about the world without any dwelling, without covering, sleeping in Porches, and in the streets: But taking also after his Father, he oftimes brings to passe great and worthy matters, is manly, couragious, eager, cau­telous, alwaies contriving some strange stratagems, crafty, ingenious, a great Phi­losopher, Inchanter, Sorcerer, & a subtile Sophister. To omit the diverse waies of [Page 40] Allegorizing this Fable, reckoned up by Plutarch, Marsilius Ficinus, Plotinus, Picus Mirandula, and many other of the Academicks: my opinion is, that by Penia, or Poverty is represented unto us the Lo­ver: [...], saith Aristotle, [...]. Probl. l. 7. Sect. 3. Love, saies he, is a kind of desire; and desire, a kind of want or poverty. Porus is the person that is worthy to be beloved, yet cares not to be so: who notwithstanding in sleeping, when as the eyes of his soule are brought asleep by the Poppy seed of Inconsideration and carelesnesse, without any regard of the Imperfections of his Love, he satisfies his pleasures.

CAP. VI. The Externall Causes of Love-Melancholy.

I Shall not spend much time in recko­ning up the many severall opinions of [Page 41] the ancient Poets, Philosophers, and Phy­ [...]tians, concerning the cause of this Mala­ [...]y; in that the greatest part of them are rai­ [...]d from false Principles and meere Chi­ [...]era's. Such was the opinion of Epicurus, who, as Plutarch relates, affirmed, that here were certaine species that flowed In Eror. from the loved Object, which moved and caused a kinde of Titillation over the whole body, sliding and passing gently in the seed, by a certaine disposition of A­ [...]omes; and so were the cause of love. Pla­to thought it was engendred by an Enthu­siasme, or Divine Rapture. But I shall ra­ther conclude, with Galen, that the Effici­ent cause of this Malady, is, whatsoever Lib. de diff. morb. can cause Love & Melancholy. This Effi­cient L. Therap. L. de caus. Procat. cause is of two kinds, either Inter­nall; or Externall, Evident, Manifest, and Procatarcticke; which the same Author sometimes calls [...], the apparant true Cause.

The evident causes of Love, according to the doctrine of the Morall Philosophers, & Platonists, are five; to wit, the five Sen­ses: which the Poets understood by their fiction of the five golden shafts of Cupid. [Page 42] The first is the sight: [...]. Saies the Philosopher: No ma [...] was ever in love, with one he never saw.

So that when we read in Philostratus that Paris and Helen were the first that ever were in love without having seen one a­nother, we are to understand that this love was extraordinary, and out of some speci­all grace granted them by the Immortall Gods, for some secret ends of theirs.

Juvenall speakes of a blind man in Love, as of a prodigy: yet we read in Marius E­quicola of a certaine great Lord named L. 5. de A­mor. c. 3. Ianfre Rudels, that was in love with the Countesse of Tripoly before hee had ever seen her, only at the report of those that came from those parts unto Bourdelois: and he was so extreamely enamoured of her, that he could not forbeare, but pre­sently [Page 43] puts forth to sea, with a purpose to [...]e Tripoly, and prove whether or no [...]ame had not beene too prodigall in the [...]raise of this Ladies perfections. But his [...]oyage was so unfortunate, that hee fell [...]ck before he could arrive at his journeys and; which the Lady hearing of, she came [...] person to visit and comfort him. Some [...]talian writers report that Petrarch, was extreamely in love with his Laura, before ever he saw her: and that from this occasion the Italians ever since call this find of love, Amore Petrarchevole.

To these objections we answer, with­out laying false witnesse to the charge of these Historians, that one swallow makes no summer: And that all those Accidents which are Rare and singular, acknowledge Fortune for their Authour: whereas on the contrary, [...]. Those things that are produ­ced after one generall and constant course, Arist. Prob. 3. Sect. 15. owne Nature, not Chance, for their Ori­ginall.

Touching the sense of hearing, we must reckon up all those provocations that at­tend the reading of lascivious and disho­nest [Page 44] bookes, and which discourse of seed, Generation, and many secret diseases, con­cerning the Impotency of men, and Bar­rennesse of women: which Physitians are wont to discourse of in tearmes, though grosse enough, yet very necessary. For it is impossible, as Celsus observes, to follow Lib. 6. de Re. Med. c. 18. the precepts of this our Art, and withall preserve the modesty of language: what­soever Manard l. 7. ep. med. ep. 2. any Impertinent Aristarchus, or censorious Criticks alleadge to the contra­ry. The Fabulous Love-stories of the Po­ets, or lascivious songs and sonnets are much more effectuall in this case, and carry more danger in them.

And those flattering Love-letters wherewith Lovers are wont to insinuate themselves into their Mistresses favour, are no lesse dangerous.

Neither is this given as a priviledge to Arist. Hist. anim. c. 9. men only: for Nature hath instructed even the very Birds also to make use of these Allurements: who, when they de­sire [Page 45] to stirre Affection in their Mates, [...]e observed to chant it more pleasantly and melodiously then otherwise they are [...]ont to doe. The Partridge by this [...]eanes growes more Amorous, and con­ [...]ives only by the harmony of her Mates [...]oyce; if we may beleive what Aristotle [...]eports of them. The Greeks were used [...]o flatter their sweet-hearts with these, and such like tearmes; [...]: the Latines had [...]hese: Lux mea, Hirundo mea, Puta mea, Putilla mea &c.

Their Mistresses were used to be called by their servants and Lovers, Putae & Pu­tillae, (as the Commentator on Plautus ob­serves) from that part which distinguish­eth the sexes: from whence perhaps the word Putain is descended, which is a name the French give those women that are too free of that part: The women would likewise call their Lovers, Putis and Salaputia: & the French use the word [Page 46] Potons in the same sense; a word tha [...] seems to be derived from [...]: which words, according to Diosco­rides, Diosc. c. 247. l. 4. Aristoph. in neb. Aristophanes, and Suydas, signify Preputium, or the foreskin. Others, as we may observe out of the same Plautus would use these words, Meum Cor, Mi [...] Colostra, Meus Molliculus Caseus, &c.

To these other allurements and provo­cations to Love, caused by the hearing, we might adde Musicke. For, as Boethius af­firmes, the Phrygian Mood had such a [...] power to ravish the spirits, that a young man that had his wench kept from him by another, his rivall, by hearing this Mood plaied, was so transported with Fu­ry, that in all hast he would needs have set fire on the house where she was, had he not beene restrained by the wisdome of Pythagoras, who commanded the Musiti­an to change the Mood; and so by playing the Doricke, he restored him to his former sober temper againe. Yet sometimes, I confesse, the performance is so bad; that what with the harshnesse of the singers voyce, and also the ungracefullnesse of his singing, the Musicke proves rather a [Page 47] Remedy against Love. Pallas, as the Poets [...]ell, would needs one day beare a part in a Higin. c. 165. [...]onsort of wind-Instruments in the pre­ [...]ence of Venus and Iuno: but putting the [...]nstrument to her mouth to wind it, she made such an ill-favoured Trumpeters [...]ce, that Iuno and Venus fell a laughing at [...]er: in so much that Pallas, in a great chafe [...]oke her pipe, and threw it against the [...]round.

I shall omit in this place to speake of [...]e diverse Amorous formes of salutati­ [...]ns, prayers, and complaints that Lovers [...]se to their Mistresses, set downe at large [...]y Aenaeas Sylvius, Iacobus Caviceus, Bo­ [...]acius, Trithemius Abbas in his Stenogra­my, and others. Vigenerius upon Philostra­ [...]s reports, that the Ancients were wont [...] use a certaine perfume, composed of [...]ignum Aloës, red Roses, Muske, and [...]d Corall, tempered together with the [...]aines of a Sparrow, and the bloud of a [...]ung Pigeon. Which is not altogether [...]nlikely, considering that our Physitians be now prescribe the use of Muske, Ci­ [...]t, Amber, powder of Violets, Cypresse, [...]eet waters, and the like Odoriferous [Page 48] drugs, for those that are of a cold constitu­tion, and are either Impotent, or Barren. And that which is reported by Iustin, and Plutarch, of Alexander the Great, that he was very much beloved of the Ladies, b [...] reason of the sweet smells that he had about him, makes much for the confirmation of what we have already said.

But the most powerfull and effectual cause of all, and therefore the most dangerous, is, the use of hot, provocative, Flatu [...] lent and Melancholy Meats: of which [...] shall speake more hereafter.

And yet it is to be feared, that famil [...]rity and dayly conversation is of much more force then any of those things wee have already named. Consuetudo conci [...] nat Amorem: sayes the Poet: Familiarity and frequent conversation winnes Affection.

This is that undid the faire Deidamia, [...]aughter to Lycomedes, King of the Isle [...]cyros, whom Achilles got with child, be­ing entertained in her fathers house under the habit of a Virgin: and also the beau­ [...]eous Helen. For from this familiarity, [...]rowing by continually conversing to­gether, they come at length to Revel­ [...]ngs, Dauncings, Maskings, and other such [...]ke sports and pastimes, which are very dangerous for those that are inclinable to Love. As the Pike, saith Bapt. Mantua­ [...]us, is the proper weapon of the Macedo­ [...]ian, the Launce of the Amazons, the [...]avelin of the Romans, and the Arrow of [...]he Persian: so Mirth and Sports are the proper Armes of Cupid; especially that [...]inde of Laughing which is called by the Greeks [...], which, ac­cording to Ʋigenerius, signifies a Quaile, or, as Aristotle will have it, a Feildfare. Pausan. in Attic. Cicer. de nat. Deor. And for this cause Venus is called by the Poets, [...], as if we should say, Love- [...]aughter: [...], to Laugh, or Smile: Although Hesiods Scholiast will [Page 50] have it derived from [...], that is, [...], the Privy Members of Sa­turne, whence the Poets fetch Ʋenus De­scent: as also Plato affirmes, in Phaedro. And her sonne Cupid also was drawne by the Painter Praxiteles with a smiling countenance.

Kisses are yet much more dangerous then Smiles, as the Poet Moschus assures us: and Anthol. l. 1 which is also confirmed by Socrates, in Plato.

They carry poyson along with them.

It is true indeed that in some countries, as in France, the use of kissing is not so fre­quent, as it is in Italy, Spaine, & England: where they have a custome, alwaies to kisse at their first salutation. But this cu­stome is conceaved by Michaell Mon­taigne, Lib. 3. c. 4. [Page 51] to be somewhat injurious to La­dies; in that they are hereby bound in ci­vility to afford their Lip to every silken coxcombe, that has but a Page at his heels, how ill soever they like him.

And here by the way wee are to ob­serve, Lib. 1. de caus. Proc. with Galen, that these externall causes have no power at all, but upon un­worthy and Ignoble spirits, and such as are in a great disposition to evill: And for this cause, some Physitians will not have them called the Causes, but the Oc­casions only of this disease: to which not­withstanding it is not safe for any man voluntarily to expose himselfe. For hee that wilfully runnes upon a danger, shall fall in the same.

We will then reduce them all metho­dically into six heads; to wit, Aire, Meats, Exercise, or Rest; Waking or Sleeping: Excretion, or Retention; and the Passi­ons of the Minde.

Concerning the First, Hippocrates saies, that those that inhabit the more Nor­therne Countries, as the Scythians, and Lib. de aë­re loc. & aq. Sarmatians, are very litle subject to this disease of Love: and if so, the contrary [Page 52] consequence then must necessarily hold good, concerning those that are exposed to a hotter Aire, as are the Aegyptians, Arabians, Moores, and Spaniards: & this Avic. l. 3. fen. 20. tr. 1 c. 25. is confirmed by daily experience. Hesiod affirmes that women are more prone to wantonnesse in summer, and men in win­ter: Rhaz. 24. cont. and proves this his opinion, by the same reasons that are alleaged by Aristo­tle in his Problems, for confirmation of the same assertion. To which I will adde this generall position out of Hippocrates, in his book de Aer. loc. & aq. where hee saith, that [...]. The Inward & Prin­cipall parts of the Body doe change their complexion and Temperature, as the Sea­sons alter: whence hee concludes, that Astronomy is very necessary for all those that professe Physick. But Aristotle goes farther yet, where he saith, that [...]: sect. 14. Prob. 1. the goodnesse of the Temperature, which still depends much upon the Aire, conduceth much to the clearenesse of the understanding. Which gave occasion to Galen to write [Page 53] that Book of his, where hee labours to prove, that the Manners of the Minde, follow the Temperature of the Body: In which, as also in his other writings he im­piously disputeth, at least erroneously, con­cerning the Soule: as also many other hea­then Philosophers besides him have done.

The Astrologers, for the most part, are not content to allow, with the Physitians, that these effects are produced oftimes, and indirectly, by the manifest Qualities of the Aire, caused by the Influence of the Coelestiall bodies: but are bold to attribute this power to the Planets also: saying, that the Soule holds its judgement of Sa­turne; Actions, of Iupiter; of Mars, Cou­rage and Magnanimity, Senses, of the Sun; Life, of the Moone; and lastly of Ʋenus who is Hot, moderately moist, and of Be­nevolent Influence, Love.

I will not here stand to dispute whe­ther or no the Stars have any power at all to work by their Influence either on our Minde, or Body: I shall handle this Que­stion hereafter more at large. I shall only in this place let you know, that it is the o­pinion of the Iudiciary Astrologers, that [Page 54] the Starres have power to work both on the Body, and the Minde, indirect â motio­ne, & contingenter: non directè & necessa­riò: that is, Indirectly, and by chance; not directly and necessarily. Iudicia quippe Astrologorum sunt media inter necessarium Lib. 8. con­tra Gentes c. 86. & contingens: as Aquinas, speaking of Pto­lomy, hath resolved it: The judgement that Astrologers give, is of a middle na­ture betwixt Necessity and Possibility. Otherwise it would utterly exclude the Freedome of the will, which the Pagans themselves never denied, (in this point more moderate then some of our times:) who, though they had no other guide, then the dimme light of Nature, have yet con­fessed, that, Sapiens dominabitur Astris: 'Twas in the power of a wise man, to dis­pose his Fate.

And for this cause I reckon these Coe­lestiall Influences among the Externall Causes, which are not at any time the Ne­cessary causes of a disease, but only when they are strongly united, and meet with a Gal. 1. de Proc. c. 1. l. [...]ntrod. in Puls. & l. de Teb. Body disposed for the receaving of their vertue. The same is our opinion concer­ning the manifest qualities of the Aire: [Page 55] otherwise all Aegyptians, Italians, Spani­ards, and Africans should of necessity bee [...]ascivious; which Countries have yet brought forth very worthy and famous men, that have farre surpassed for chastity, both the Scythians, Moscovites, and Polo­nians.

Now if the Aire have such great power [...]over our bodies, Meats and Drinks must needs have more. And these are of two sorts; that is, either Hot, Flatuous, & very Nutritive; or else such as ingender Me­lancholy Humours: as we may gather out of Galen, towards the end of his last book de Loc. Aff. as we shall shew more at large in the Chapter, of the Prevention of Love: to the end, that those that desire to keep [Page 56] themselves free from this folly, or rather Madnesse, may refraine from the use of them.

Among the Externall and manifest cau­ses of Melancholy, Idlenesse may be ac­counted one of the chiefest: for as much as when a melancholy man is idle, he is at leasure to entertain his own sad Thoughts the better; and so by this meanes growes more Melancholy still. For it is certaine, that all the Actions of the Minde, as Pen­sivenesse, and too much Thinking, doe dry up the Blood, and make it Melancholy. Besides this, Idlenesse is commonly the Mother of unchast Love, which for the most part takes its beginning and Birth a­mong those that are Idle, and have litle else to doe, but spend their time in pain­ting, crisping, and curling themselves, and courting their Looking-glasses: and can­not endure to thinke of any manner of la­bour or serious Imployment: as sings the Comick Poet Menander.

[Page 57] Besides this, they employ their time in [...]ancings, wanton and dissolute Plaies & sevels,

[...]ch as will tickle their spleen: and in di­ [...]erse other such like pleasures, of which [...]r effeminate Love-sick Gallants are for [...]e most part the ingenious Artists and Devisers.

We read in Theocritus, Philostratus, Aristophanes, and Ʋirgil, that a certaine [...]ay with Apples was in great request a­mong the Ancients.

Which play was used to be presented [...]ow and then by Lovers to their Mistres­ [...]es: as appeares by that place of the Lyrick Poët.

And Lucian in his Toxaris reports, that Chariclea, desirous to win the love of her [Page 58] Dinias, would use to send him wither [...] Posies, and Apples halfe eaten. Others [...] sed Figs, in stead of Apples: Because that the Figtree, as Plutarque observes, is the Embleme of a Woman: whose barke and leaves are rough and bitter; but the fr [...] thereof so pleasant and delightfull, that hath alwaies been used as the Hieroglyphick of Sweetnesse. Pierius.

Moreover, as to sleep overmuch, especially on a soft bed, makes folkes the mo [...] inclined to Lust: so on the other side, immoderate waking dries the Braine, and causes Melancholy. So that we may conclude with the learned Hippocrates in hi [...] Aphorismes: that Somnus, & Vigilia, [...] tra (que) si modum excesserint, malum: Th [...] excessive use either of sleep, or waking, i [...] hurtfull. So likewise to sleep upon one Avic. l. 3. fen. 20. tr. 1. c. 25. back by the generall consent of all Physitians, is a great provocation to venery and for this cause must be reckoned among the Manifest causes of Love-Melancholy.

Galen, about the end of his books, D [...] Lib. 6. c. 6. Loc. Affect. proves by many Reasons an Examples, that the want of convenien [...] [Page 59] Evacuation of the seed is a great cause of [...]elancholy, especially in such persons as [...]e at ease, and feed high: except by fre­ [...]ent and violent Exercise, or Labour, [...]ey consume the superfluity of Blood, [...]hich otherwise would be converted in­ [...] Seed Equidem novi quosdam (saies he) [...]ibus hujusmodi erat natura, qui prae pu­ [...]e, a libidinis usu abhorrentes, torpidi, [...]ri (que) facti sunt: nonnulli etiam, Melan­ [...]licorum instar, praeter modum moesti ac [...]midi; cibi etiam tum cupiditate, tum co­ [...]one vitiatâ. Quidam uxoris mortem [...]gens, & à concubitu, quo anteà creberri­ [...]e fuerat usus, abstinens, cibi cupiditatem [...]isit, at (que) ne exiguum quidem cibum con­qu repotuit. Ʋbi verò seipsum cogendo, [...]s cibi ingerebat, protinus ad vomitum [...]citabatur: Moestus etiam apparebat, non [...]ùm has ob causas, sed etiam, ut Melan­ [...]olici solent, citra manifestam occasionem. have knowne some, saith he, that being [...]turally so modest, as that they were a­ [...]amed to exercise the Act of Venery, [...]ive by this meanes become dull, and [...]eavy: and some, extreame fearefull too, [...]d sad, as Melancholy men are wont to [Page 60] be; having neither any appetite to mea [...] nor concocting what they have eaten. And I knew one, saith he, that having buried his wife whom he dearely loved and for griefe abstaining from those pleasures which he had often enjoyed wit [...] her while she lived; quite lost his stomacke to his meat, and could not digest any thing at all: Or if by chance he forced himselfe to eate against his stomacke, he presenthe vomited it up againe: and was witha [...] very sad, and that without any manife [...] cause, as Melancholy men are wont to be And a little lower in the same Chapter he tells a story of one that fell into the Priapisme, for the same cause, and fo [...] want of useing exercise, or sufficient labour, for the spending of the Abundanc [...] of blood. The same he affirmes also t [...] happen usually to Women: as likewise is confirmed by Hippocrates, in his body De Morb. Mul. of which we shall speak more hereafter in the chapter of Vterin [...] Fury.

And yet Galen himselfe in the afore cited book, imputes the like effects t [...] the immoderate evacuation of the seed [Page 61] Qui protinus Iuventute primâ immodicè [...] permittunt Libidini: id etiam evenit, borum locorum vasa amplius patentia, [...]orem ad se sanguinis copiam alliciant, coëundi cupiditas magis increscat. [...]ose that in their first puberty give themselves to the immoderate use of ve­ry, in them, those vessels that serve for [...]eneration grow larger, and attract the [...]eater store of blood unto them: so that this meanes the desire of copulation [...]owes the stronger.

Among the Passions of the mind, Ioy [...]ay perhaps make them more inclinable Love: but Feare and Sadnesse makes [...]em the more Melancholy. Si metus & Aph. 23. l. 6. Maestitia perseveraverint, Melancholia [...] saith Hippocrates: if their Feare and [...]dnesse continue on them, it turnes at [...]ngth to Melancholy. For these two [...]ssions doe extreamely coole and dry up [...]e whole body, but especially the Heart, [...]enching and destroying the naturall [...]eat, and vitall spirits, and withall cause Gal. de Praecog. ex puls. & l. 4. de caus. puls. [...]cessive waking, spoile digestion, thick­ [...] the blood, and make it Melancholy: [...]d for this cause, as I conceive, Diotimus [Page 62] in Plato's Phaedrus calls it [...] squallidus.

But the Poets maintaine that G [...] and Fortune are the most powerfull ca [...] ­ses of Love: understanding by Fortune, I conceive, those incounters and oppor­tunities, that a man shall often me withall; and which every wise m [...] ought to avoid; unlesse they meane to taken in the snare.

Me fortuna aliquid semper amare del Which gave occasion to the Achaeans, Propert. Pausanias reports, at Aegira to pla [...] Love, and Fortune, in one and the sam [...] Temple. And for gold, we read that D [...] ­naë was won to Iupiters love: and At [...] ­lanta suffered her selfe to be overcome by Hippomanes, for love of the gold Apples he cast in her way as she ranne.

CHAP. VII. The Internall causes of Love Melancholy.

VVE have already sufficiently proved, out of Galen, that these [...]ternall causes cannot produce their ef­ [...]cts, but only when they meet with such [...]eake spirited persons, as are not able to [...]ist the assaults of Cupid. For so the [...]rned Sapho confessed the tendernesse [...]her heart to be the only cause of her A­ [...]orous fires.

[...]he disposition of the Body, among other [Page 64] internall causes, comes in the first plac [...] to be considered: for through the natural defect hereof, we see that young boye under the age of fourteen, and wenche [...] under twelve, or thereabout, as also de [...] ­crepit old folkes, Eunuches, and all those that are of a Cold Constitution, are in n [...] Cap. 88. art med. danger of this disease. This disposition o [...] the Body is called by Galen, causa Ante­cedens, sive Jnterior; The Antecedent, o [...] Internall cause, and consists in the hu­mours, Spirits and Excrements of the Bo­dy: all which causes Hippocrates compre­hends Valler. Med. obs. 7. l. 2. under the name, [...] Concurring causes.

The Abundance of Blood, of a goo [...] temperature, and full of spirits, caused by the continuall Influence of the Heart; by reason that it is the Materiall cause o [...] seed, is likewise a True Antecedent cause [...] of Love, as it is a passion of the Mind. But the Melancholy Humour, which is hot and dry, by reason of the Adustion o [...] Choler, of the blood, or of the Natural Melancholy, is the Principall cause o [...] Love-Melancholy, or Madnesse. And fr [...] Probl. 31. sect. 4. this reason Aristotle in his Problem [Page 65] saies, that those that are Melancholy are [...]ost subject to this malady: [...]. Which conclusion of [...]is would be most Absurd, if so be he meant here those that are Melancholy by [...]eason of the aboundance of their naturall Melancholy; which of it selfe is extreame cold and dry, and by consequence cleane [...]epugnant to the heat required in this di­ [...]ease. Otherwise, Old men, who abound chiefly with this Humor, should oftner all in Love, then young; and his unruly Desires, increase with his yeares; whom notwithstanding we finde on the contra­ry side to be so averse from Love, that at [...]he very name of it,

[...]t turnes his stomack, and he is ready to [...]omit up, as it were, the memory of all [...]is younger follies.

But those that are Melancholy, by rea­son of the Adustion of Humours, as are all those that are troubled with Hypocon­driacall Melancholy, in which number [Page 66] we have already placed our Amorist [...] these are Hot and Dry, and apt to have ingendred within them a certain kind o [...] Flatulent vapour, that tickles them ex­treamely, and by consequent, makes then beyond measure lascivious as Galen in hi [...] Part. 2. Com. 12. Commentaries on the sixt book of Hippocrates Epidemicks affirmes. Besides, those that are Melancholy by reason of the Adu [...] stion of pure Blood, have their Imagination for the most part very strong: by th [...] force of which a man oftentimes is incontinent, and by Fancying the Pleasure t [...] himselfe enjoyes it really: as Aristotle Probl. 7. sect. 29. also observes in his Problems. Which must not be understood of those that an affected with cold and dry Melancholy for those are heavy, stupid, and dull: as i [...] proved learnedly and copiously by I [...] Bapt. Sylvaticus, in his first controversy.

CAP. VIII. Of the manner how Love is Generated.

LOve, having first entred at the Eyes, Laurent. c. 10. de Mel. which are the Faithfull spies and in­telligencers of the soule, steales gently through those sluces, and so passing insen­sibly through the veines to the Liver, it there presently imprinteth an ardent de­sire of the Object, which is either really [...]ovely, or at least appeares to be so. Now this desire, once enflamed, is the beginn­ing and mover of all the sedition.

But distrusting its owne strength, and fearing it is not able to overthrow the Reason; it presently layeth siege to the Heart: of which having once fully possest [Page 68] it selfe, as being the strongest fort of all it assaults so violently the Reason, and u [...] the noble forces of the Braine, that the are suddenly forced to yeeld themselves up to its subjection. So that now, all's utterly lost; Actum est de Homine: the Senses are all out of order, the Reason is disturbed, the Imagination depraved, the discourses are all impertinent, and the poore Inamorato thinkes of nothing b [...] his dearely beloved Mistresse. All the Actions of his Body are in like manne [...] quite out of tune, he growes pale withall leane, distracted, has no appetite, his eyes are hollow and quite sunke into his head Then shall ye have him ever and an [...] weeping, sobbing, and sighing by himselfe, and in perpetuall Anxiety, avoiding all company, and choosing solitarinesse; that so he may entertaine his Melancholy thoughts with the greater freedome. Now, Feare assaults him on one side; and then presently Despaire encounters him on the other.

Marsilius Ficinus in his Comment up on C. 3. 9 & 19. orat, 7. Plato's Convivium, and Francisc [...] Valleriola a learned Physitian of Arle [...] [Page 69] speaking of a cure wrought by himselfe [...]on a rich Merchant that was desperate­ [...] in Love, are of opinion, that Love is [...] used by way of Fascination: for that, [...]y they, the Animall spirits being sent [...]th by the Lover to the person beloved, [...]d from thence retorted back againe on [...]e Lover; by reason of their wonderfull [...]btilenesse and thinnesse, they are easily [...]ansmitted into the inward parts, and so [...]ommunicating themselves to all the [...]rts of the body through the veines and [...]rteries, they trouble the blood, and so [...]use this disease of Love, which, as they [...]y, is nothing else but the Perturbation [...] the Blood, but chiefly of the Melan­choly. This Assertion of theirs they prove [...]y diverse reasons, and in particular by [...]e Instance of Bodies that have been M. Ficin. c. 10. [...]urthered, which fall a bleeding a fresh, when the murtherer does but stedfastly [...]oke on the Body, and that for the space [...]f sixe or seaven howres immediatly af­ter the Murther committed. So that according to the Opinion of these men, [...]ose persons that have faire lovely eyes, though the other parts of the Body be [Page 70] not answerably beautifull, will easily take those that look earnestly on them, unlesse their Reason overrule their Affe­ctions. And so on the contrary, be the person never so comely and beautifull, if the eyes be not good, they doe not cause this kind of Passionate Love, but only a simple Friendship, or good likeing in the beholders: as if such Lovely persons, which the Greeks for good reason were wont to call [...], did by the beauty of their eyes invite those that be­held them at a distance, to come nearer and so by this meanes entrap them.

But I would faine know what reasons these Academicks can render of the Loves of Ianfre Rudels, spoken of before of that of Petrarch; and of those Scythian Women, that caused the eyes of those slaves that had beene taken prisoners i [...] warre, that liked them, to be plucked out before they tooke them into their houses.

Holding my selfe then to my first opinion, I affirme that the Liver is the Hearth that holds this Fire, and the se [...] of Love; according to the old Disticke.

The Heart is the seat of Wisdome, the [...]ungs of speech, the Gall of Anger, the [...]pleene of Laughter, and the Liver of Love: which seems also to be confirmed [...]y the Wise-man, where he saith, in his Proverbs Cap 7. That a young man, void [...]f understanding goeth after a strange wo­man, till a dart strike through his Liver. [...]nd hereto agrees that fiction of the Poets who faine that Tityus had a vultur [...]ontinually feeding on his Liver, as a pu­nishment inflicted on him by the Gods, for a rape attempted on the Goddesse Latona. For as it is the custome to punish Lyers, Tale-bearers, and the like, by slit­ [...]ing their Tongues: and to burne Fugi­ [...]ives in the Leggs: in like manner would Iupiter have that part of his, that had been the Originall cause of that his villa­ [...]ous designe, to be the Principall also in the Punishment of it. So likewise the Grammarians call those that are void of Gal. l. 3. de plac. Hip. & Plat. Love, Evisceratos, without Livers; Faint­hearted [Page 72] cowards, Excordes, Heartlesse, and Fooles, Brainelesse.

Gordonius doth not deny, but that the Li­ver may be granted to be the seat of Love, and an Antecedent Cause of it: but hee Part. 2. cap. de Amore. will have the Genitals also to bee joint causes with it.

I may not shut up this Chapter, before I have delivered you the opinion of the Divine Plato, who under the person of In Sympos. Aristophanes tells a story, how that at first there were Three kindes of Men, that is, Male, Female, and a third mixt species of the other two, called for that reason An­drogynes: of whom there remaines no­thing now, but the Infamy of their name. Their figure was round, having foure Hands, and as many Feet, with all the o­ther members in proportion doubled. But conspiring, as the Giants before had done against the Gods, Iupiter caused them to be divided in the midst, as wee use to cut [Page 73] Egges in two to sowse, or divide them in the midst with haires: and then gave or­der to Apollo to turne their faces toward that part where the Dissection was made; [...]o the end that seeing their shame, they might become the more modest and tem­perate: and having so done, enjoyned him [...]o heale up the wound agen. But after this, each one desiring to recover his other [...]alfe, they would runne one after the o­ther, and embrace, desiring, if it were pos­sible, to be reunited. But when they found [...] could not be; they presently perished for hunger, because they would not doe any thing the one without the other. And when the one halfe failed, and the other remained behinde; that which was left, sought for some other halfe, whether it were the Female halfe, or the Male: yet thus they came to ruine still. But at length Iupiter being moved to compassion to­ward them, found out a meanes to help them, by transposing their Genitalls, which till then were behinde, and pla­cing them, as now they are, before: and so contrived it, that they should engender, the Male and Female together: for before [Page 74] they conceaved and engendred as Gras­hoppers doe, by casting their seed on the ground. And so by this meanes was Mu­tuall Love begotten, as a Reconciler of their Ancient Nature, desiring to maked Two, One, and a Remedy against Humane Frailty; which seemes to be nothing else but a strong Desire to be reunited & made one againe.

And it is not improbable that Aristo­tle also, and after him, (as Iul. Scaliger Lib. 2. de gen. anim. c. 1. thinks) Theophrastus in his second Booke of Plants, and first Chapter, favours this o­pinion of Plato, where hee saies, that the Male was divided from the Female, to the end he might the better apply him­selfe to the study of knowledge, & other more noble Actions, then that of Genera­tion: which thing could not bee done, o­therwise, then by cutting of the privy Members belonging to the Female Sexe.

It seemes that Plato, in his voyage that Euseb. de Praep. E­vang. c. 7. he made to Aegypt, sucked this fabulous Opinion out of the misinterpretation of some passages that he had met withall i [...] the books of Moses, of which it is thought he had a view: for that Moses in Genesis [Page 75] seemes to say, that Adam was at first crea­ted Male and Female; and that afterward, the woman was taken out of his body, that so he might not be alone. From hence the Rabbins, Abraham, Hieremias, and Abraham Aben Esra, would inferre, that Adam was created in two Persons joyned together; the one part being Male, & the other Female; which were afterward se­parated by the Divine Power. But this Opinion of theirs hath been already so strongly confuted by diverse Learned Men, that have been very skilfull in the Hebrew tongue, that it would bee great Presumption here in me to interpose. See what Ludovicus Regius in his Commen­taries on Plato's Phoedrus hath collected concerning this point.

But for my own part, I am of opinion, that the Ancient Heathen Divines, as we may call them, such as Plato, of times cou­ched the hidden Mysteries of their Reli­gion under Figures, Hieroglyphicks, and Fables. Yet Marsilius Ficinus, following S. Augustine, saies, that, Non omnia quae in figuris finguntur, aliquid significare putan­ [...]da sunt, &c. We must not beleeve that all [Page 76] things whatsoever the Heathen feigned have some private Mysticall meaning in them: for many things have been added, only for orders sake, and Cohaerence with those things that have been Significative. Yet without any disparagement to Fici­nus, or his Interpretation; I must be bold to affirme, that Plato by this fabulous dis­course would have us understand the Force of Love, which he before had pro­ved to bee the most Powerfull of all the Gods: who, as a Mediator and Vmpire be­twixt two that are divided, sets them at one againe, by the tye of Marriage, and by the Conformity of their Wils, which in Lovers are united.

CAP. IX. Whether in Love-Melancholy, the Heart, be the seat of the Dis­ease, or the Braine.

IF you aske those that are in Love, what part they are most afflicted in, they wil [...]l answer uno ore, their Heart: so that we may conclude with Aristotle, that the Lib. 3. de Part. anim. c. 4. Heart is the true seat of Passionate Love. Which we may also confirme by the Au­thority of Hippocrates, in his book de Virg. Morb. where he saies that young Wen­ [...]hes are oppressed with Feare, Sadnesse, Griefe, and Dotage, because that the su­perfluity of Blood, that ought to be excer­ [...]ed by certaine channels and convaiances [...]ppointed by nature for that purpose; but [...]annot, by reason of the obstructions of [...]he same, and is therefore retained in the wombe; where increasing, for want of its [Page 78] due course of evacuation, it returnes ba [...] upon the Heart and Diaphragme: a [...] from hence is called Feare, Sadnesse, an [...] oftentimes Madnesse: which are Symptomes as necessarily attending Melancholy, as the Shadow doth the Body. Besides it is most certaine, that Feare & Sadnesse without any Evident or Apparent cause are the certaine Symptomes of Melancholy. Now these two Passions are in like manner the true signes of a cold Heart: a [...] it may easily be proved, both out of Galen, and Aristotle: And therefore those persons that are of a Fearefull nature, an [...] L. de plac. cap. 4. &c. 30. art. med Lib. 2. de part. anim. c. 4. commonly called [...], Excordes, Hear [...] lesse. And every man may out of his own particular experience finde, that the Hea [...] as it were contracts it selfe, during the time of Feare, and Sadnesse: but in Ioy, [...] Hope, it seemes to dilate and enlarge [...] selfe. This also seemes to be the opinion of Avicen, who affirmes, Fen. lib. 3. tract 4. cap. 18. that in Melancholy constitutions, the Heart communicates its temperature to the Braine, by the Vapours and Humours that it sendeth up unto it, a [...] by the Sympathy of the Organs.

[Page 79] Marfilius Ficinus, and Franciscus Val­leriola in the books before cited, make two kinds of Dotage, the first of which [...]ey call Desipiscentia, in Greek [...] and the other, Folly: the one of these [...]ising from the defect of the Braine, and [...]e other of the Heart. The Braine is the [...]use of Folly, when it is surcharged ei­ther with Adust Choler, Blood, or Melan­choly: But when these Humours are re­mained in the Heart, they then cause [...]riefe, and Distraction, but not Folly: un­ [...]sse the Braine also doe chance to suffer [...]ith the Heart by Sympathy. And these [...]earned Authors are of opinion, that Pas­ [...]onate Lovers are possest with Folly, which is caused by the defect of the [...]eart; & this Ʋalleriola labours to prove [...]y many reasons.

On the other side, Guido Cavalcanti in [...]e of his Canzonets, commented on by Oine Corbo, an Italian Physitian, proves, [...]at the Braine is the seat of Love, as well [...]s of Memory; for that in it resideth the [...]mpression of the Object Loved: whence also it is that Lovers, above all things, de­ [...]ire to have the person they Love alwaies [...]n Memory.

[Page 80] But our Physitians conclude more rightly, first, that Feare is the Perturbati­on or distemperature of the Minde, caused by the Apprehension of some evill, either Reall, or Apparant only: as Aristotle al­so affirmes, Rhetor. lib. 2. cap. 2. Secondly, that Sadnesse is nothing else but a long continued Inveterate Feare, as Galen is o [...] opinion. Thirdly, that Feare, and Sadnesse are the Pathognomicall signes of all kinds Lib. 4. de caus. puls. of Melancholy, necessarily attending this disease we now treat of, as we have alrea­dy demonstrated. And lastly, that seeing that Feare and Sadnesse are the Effects of an Imagination that is depraved, and the Characters of Love Melancholy; we may safely conclude, that it is caused, and hath its seat in the Braine, as well as the Ima­gination.

But I shall rather hold with Mercuri­alis in this point, whose opinion is, that Lib. 1. met. c. 10. the Part Affected is sometimes taken for the seat of the Disease it selfe; and sometimes also for the seat of the Cause of the Disease. In the first Acception we maintaine, that in Love Melancholy the Braine is the part Affected: and the Heart, the [Page 81] seat of the Cause only of the Disease; as in [...]ove, both the Liver, and the Genitals are [...]ynt causes of it: as Gordonius in his [...]hapter de Amore maintaines.

And now to answer those Objections before alleadged out of Hippocrates, and Galen, we say, first, that it is questionable, [...]hether that book which is intituled, [...]e his quae ad Ʋirgin spect. be his, or no: [...]d secondly, that if this be granted, that [...]ext only proves that the Heart may bee [...]e seat of the Cause only of Feare, Sad­nesse, and Dotage. And lastly wee answer Galen, that there are two kindes of [...]eare; Naturall, and Accidentall: the first [...] these accompanies a Man from his [...]irth, and is caused by the ill temperature of the Heart: and of this kinde of Feare is Galen to be understood in that place. The [...]ther kind, which is not Naturall, ariseth [...]om the Defect of the Braine, when as [...]e Imagination is depraved; as we may [...]ainly collect out of Hippocrates, in his [...]ook de morbo sacro, where hee confutes [...]he opinion of those men that think that the Heart is the seat of Wisdome, Care, and Sadnesse: Notwithstanding that the [Page 82] Braine shares indeed in this Malady, b [...] Communicatiō, not only from the Heart but also from the Stomacke, especially i [...] Gal. l. de de m. 3. & l. de plac. c. 8. young persons: as Nemesius proves in h [...] book, de natura Hominis, cap. 20.

CHAP. X. Whether Love-Melancholy be an Hereditary Disease, or no.

ARistotle is of opinion, that hee that not like his Parents, is in some sort Monster; [...]. For in such Cases Nature seemes to have come short of he end, and hath begun to degenerate; and that sometimes of necessity, as in the bringing forth of women, for the Propagation of the species; and sometimes also through some Defect in the Matter; o [...] lastly by reason of some Externall Causes, amongst which, the Genethliacall Astrologers place the Influence of the Starre [...] L. de aëre, loc. & a (que) [Page 83] and Hippocrates, [...], the change of the Sea­ [...]ns, and Nature of the Climat. But the [...]rabian Physitians attribute the greatest [...]ower in these matters to the Imaginati­on, Avicen. l. 9 anim. and indeavour to prove their Asserti­on by many forcible Arguments, and also [...]y particular instances, borrowed out of Valles. l. 4. cont. med. & Pli. c. 6. [...]liny lib. 7. cap. 12. Franciscus Ʋallesius, [...]lbertus, and diverse other authentique authors.

This similitude and resemblance that required in Children, consists in three [...]ings, that is, either in the species, Sexe, or [...]ccidents. The first of these depends on the Specificall Difference, & the Forma­tive Il. à Veg. c. 49. art. Med. facultie; the second on the Complex­ion & Temperature of the Seed, the Men­ [...]ruall Blood, and the Matrix, according to Iernel. c. 12 l. 7. Phys. Galen: and the last beares a Proportion to be difference of the Formative faculty, [...]ot Specificall, as the First, but Individu­all; which residing in the Seed, and being [...]estrained by the Matter which hath the [...]mpression fixt on it, receaves from it the Vertue to produce Individuals, semblable [...] Properties, Qualities, and other Acci­dents [Page 84] to the Individuall from which they spring. Now these Corporeall Qualities which are derived from the Parents to the Children, are such onely as are in the parts Informed in such sort, as that they have already contracted a Habitude. So that those Properties and Qualities that depend of the Superior Faculties, and which are more noble then the Forma­tive; as the Sensitive, Imaginative, & Ra­tionall; cannot possibly bee Hereditary: Otherwise a Learned Physitian should ne­cessarily beget a Sonne as learned in his Faculty as himselfe, without any study a [...] all. Neither yet are those Diseases Here­ditary, which are not Habituall, as Fevers, Pleurisies, Catarrhes, and those Intempe­ratures which are not confirmed: But those only are Hereditary, that are Habi­tuall in the Parents, and by continuance of time confirmed; whether they bee in the whole Body, or onely in the Principall parts of the same. And for this cause wee may observe, that Cholerick Men bege [...] Cholerick Children; and weake infirms men, beget the like Children. So contra­riwise,

Men of courage, and of strong bodies, be­set stout and valiant Children; & so those [...]hat have their Generative parts of a hot and dry Temperature, beget Children of [...]e same constitution, and consequently, Galen saies, inclined to Lust. And there­fore Art. Med. c. 46. when Helen had no other meanes to excuse her Adulterous practises, she made [...]se of this, and cries out,

Notwithstanding Fernelius, in his first [...]ook de Pathol. cap. 1. affirmes, that Chil­dren doe not inherit those Diseases onely that are [...], in Habit, but some other also: for that we often finde Children to be subject to Agues, Pleurisies, Catarrhes, [Page 86] and the like, because their Mothers had the same Diseases, when they travailed with them.

So that hence we may conclude, that those Children that are begotten of such Parents as have been so besotted with Love, as that they have at length become Melancholy withall, are in danger of inhe­riting the same disease; unlesse peradven­ture the Seed of one of the Parents corre­cted this fault in the other: or else it bee prevented by good Education, and Disci­pline. And it is also probable that those that are Inclined to Love, through the Intem­perature either of the whole Body, or else of the Principall parts; and not by the depravation of the Imaginative facultie, as the greatest part of Lovers are, will beget Children subject to the same Dis­case.

CAP. XI. The Different kindes of Love-Melancholy,

I Shall not here reckon up all the seve­rall M. Equic. l. 3. Loves, Cupids, or Veneres, mentio­ned by Authors: Hee that desires to see them, may have recourse to Pausanias, in Eliac. and Boeot. Plutarch in Erotic. Tully de Nat. Deor, and other prophane Au­thors. But my purpose in this place is, to shew you the different kindes of Passio­nate Love, or Erotique Melancholy, wherein sometimes the Imagination on­ly is depraved, and sometimes both the Iudgement and Discourse, together with the Imagination.

Galen, speaking of this Disease, in di­verse Lib. 3. de loc. affect. c. 7. places of his workes, saith, that the Dotage of Melancholy persons differeth, according as the Imagination is diversly [Page 88] affected; the which proceeds from the different Complexion of Bodies: for which reason, Aristotle in his Problems, and Anacreon in his Odes, compares them to drunken folkes. There are some so blinded with their unruly desires, that they can love Hecuba as well as Helen, Thersites as Achilles. Others are so besot­ted with this Passion, that they place their love on Inanimate and senselesse things: as those of whom Aelian, and Philostra­tus Lib. 6. c. 17. make mention, who were so desperat­ly enamoured of a Marble Statue, that they died with the vere griefe they con­ceived, for that the Senate of Athens re­fused to sell them those Idols, they so much adored. Xerxes is reported to have been enamoured of a Tree: Alkidias the Rhodian of a Statue of Cupid of Praxite­les workmanship: Charicles of the Statue of Ʋenus: Narcissus and Eutelides of their own Pictures. Notwithstanding Aristo­tle Lib. 8. Eth c. 12. & lib. 2. mag. mor. c. 11. in his Morals saies, that that Love which is borne to Inanimate Things, can­not properly be called Love, because a a man cannot reciprocally be beloved by them agen: and because one cannot desire [Page 89] in them that Good, wherein consists the Essence of Love.

And here omitting to speake of the fil­thy brutish loves of Myrrha, Valeria, Tus­culanaria, Canace, Aristonymus, Fulvius, Tellus, Pasiphaë, Phaedra, Phillis, and o­thers, of whom, as it is reported by Plu­tarch, Ovid, Aelian, and others, both Po­ëts and Historians, some have basely lu­sted after their Fathers; Others, their Mothers, and Brothers; and some have do­ted even upon Beasts: I shall onely disco­ver to you the severall Symptomes that distinguish Love-Melancholy into diverse kinds or species. For we may observe, that Love is sometimes attended on by Iealou­sy, and sometimes it is free from it: some Love is Furious, and sometimes againe it is milde and Temperate. In like manner doth the diversity of Regions and Climes much conduce to the distinguishing of the severall kindes of Love. And there­fore Hip. l. de aëre loc. & aq. it is observed, that the Easterne Peo­ple pursue their desires, without either Moderation, or Discretion; yet in a kinde of base servile way. Those that inhabit the more Southerne parts, love with Im­patience, [Page 90] Rage, and Fury: those that inha­bit the Westerne Countries are very in­dustrious in their Love: and the Northern are very slowly moved or touched with Love.

The wily Italian in courting his Mis­tresse, cunningly dissembles his Love, and Equic. l. 4. de amor. c. 7. insinuates himselfe into her Favour by Pleasant Discourses, Sonnets, and Verses, composed in her Praise: and if hee be so happy as to enjoy her, he is presently jea­lous of her, and like a Prisoner, keeps her up under Lock and Key: but if he faile in his suit, hee then begins to hate her, as much, as before he loved her; and will not stick to doe her any mischiefe that lies in his power.

The eager and Impatient Spaniard, be­ing once enflamed with these Desires, runnes headlong on in his Love, & with­out Intermission followes his suit; and with most pitifull Lamentations Com­plaining of the Fire that consumes him, Invocates and adores his Mistresse. But when at length by any the most unlawful meanes he hath compassed his Desires; he either growes jealous of her, and so per­haps [Page 91] cuts her throat; or else basely pro­stitutes her for mony: But if hee cannot effect his purpose, he is then ready to run mad, or kill himselfe.

The Effeminate Frenchman endea­vours to win his Mistresses affection by faire honest meanes, entertaining her with Songs, and Pleasant Discourses. If hee chance to be jealous of her, hee tortures himselfe extreamely, and weeps and la­ments his own unhappinesse: But if shee chance to put a trick upon him, and de­ceave him at last; he then begins to brave it, and casts opprobrious and injurious termes upon her, and sometimes too falls to downe-right violence. And if he have once compassed his Desires, and enjoyed her, he presently neglects her, and begins to look after a new one.

The German is of a Disposition quite contrary to that of the Spaniard: for hee comes on in his Love by degrees, & takes fire by litle and litle: And when hee is once Inflamed, he proceeds with Art and Iudgement, and endeavours to winne his Mistresses favour by Gifts. If hee be once jealous of her, he with-drawes his Libe­rality: [Page 92] if she deceave him, he makes litle stirre about it; and if he speeds in his suit, his love growes as soone cold againe.

The French is given to flatter, and counterfeit Love: the German hides it: the Spaniard is apt to perswade himselfe that his Mistresse loves him: and the Itali­an is continually tormented with Iealou­sie.

The French affects one that is witty & pleasant, though she be not very faire: The Spaniard cares not how dull or hea­vy she is, so she be faire: the Italian would have her Modest and Fearefull: and the German, likes one that is somewhat har­dy.

So likewise in the pursuit of their Loves, the Frenchman, of a Wise-man, be­comes a Foole: the German, after his slow onset, having been held longin su­spence, of a Foole, becomes a Wise-man: the Spaniard hazards all for the enjoying of his Desires: and the Italian despises all danger whatsoever.

In Breife, the most certaine Differences of Love, are taken from the variety of the Complexions of those that are affected [Page 93] with this Malady. If a Sanguine man love Ficin in con. Plat. c. 9. orat. 7. one of the same complexion, this Love proves happy and full of delight. But if two Cholerick Persons meet together, this is rather a slavery, then true Love, it Valler. obs. 7. l. 2. [...]s so subject to Outrages and Anger, not­withstanding the neerenesse of their Cō ­plexions. There is lesse danger in the Love that happens betwixt a Cholerick per­son and a Sanguine: for these will bee sometimes in, and sometimes out. The Love that fals out betwixt a Melancholy and a Sanguine person, may bee happy e­nough, for here the sweetnesse of the San­guine Disposition will easily correct the untowardlinesse of the Melancholy. But if this later chance to joyne with the Cholerick, it oft proves rather a Plague, then Love; and the end of it for the most part is Despaire: as it fell out to Lucrece, Dido, Phillis, and others above mentio­ned.

CAP. XII. Whether that Disease in Women, called by Physitians, Furor Vterinus, be a Species of Love-Melan­choly, or no.

I Have observed among those Writen that Discourse of the Diseases properly belonging to Women, five severall kinds of Diseases, very like each other, all pro­ceeding from this one Malady of Love; & they are these. [...], Furor Ma­tricis; [...], Pudendorum pruritus; [...], sive Cauda, Symptoma tur­pitudinis; Satyriasis; & Furor Ʋterinus. Now although it would not be much Im­pertinent to speak of them all in severall: yet to avoid Tediousnesse, I shall only han­dle the two later kinds; which differ only in Degree. For, as Moschion saies, in his booke de Morb. Mulier. cap. 128. Mulie­rum Satyriasis (which yet Aretaeus de­nies,) [Page 95] Est, [...]. i. e. Partium Pudendarum pruritus, cum [...]lolore, ab insatiabili veneris desiderio pro­veniente: quod indicant, manus proprias in [...]asdem partes impellendo; seposito omni pu­ [...]ore & erubescentiâ. Quod fieri non potest, [...]ine summo Cerebri Offendiculo: quoniam [...]uicun (que) sensibus perfectis, & cerebro bene [...]omposito fruitur, ab huiusmodi Impudicis Actionibus abhorret, secundum Philoso­ [...]hum, Rhet. l. 2. c. 6. & Eth. l. 4. c. 15. [...]. Si verò Cerebrum patitur in Sa­ [...]yriasi Foeminarum; quomodo differt à Fu­ [...]ore Ʋterino? qui est Desipiscentia Furi­ [...]sa, proveniens ab extremo Ardore Matri­ [...]is, sive Intemperaturâ calidâ, cerebro, reli [...]uis (que) corporis partibus per spinam dorsi Act. tetrab. 4. ser. 4. c. 82. communicatâ, vel per acres Humores emis­sos àsemine corrupto, circa Matricem pu­ [...]rescente. Ʋnde huiusmodi Mulieres gar­riunt indesinenter, & nihil aliud vel lo­ [...]uuntur, vel audire cupiunt, quàm Res Ve­nereas. Sentiunt autem magnum Pruri­tum in Pudendis suis, tamen abs (que) dolore: [Page 96] Vnde malum hoc à Satyriasi differt; fortas­sis propter Laesionem Principalium Cerebri Facultatum. Hippocrates enim dicit: Do­lentes aliquâ parte Corporis, si dolorem non sentiant, his Mens aegrotat. Et quoni­am Aph. 6. l. 2. talia accidentia proveniunt ex Abun­dantiâ Seminis Acris & Flatulenti; inve­nitur tantùm in Ʋirginibus teneris, Viduis, aut Mulierculis Galidae Temperaturae, & quae deliciis omnibus & voluptatibus Inho­nestis indulgent, lautè vivunt, Convivia frequentant, nec quicquam aliud nisi Cupi­dinum suarum satisfactionem meditantur.

You may see more, concerning the Na­ture of this Disease, in Hippocrates, in his Tract, De his quae ad Ʋirgin. spect, where he saies, that young Girles, when they now begin to be ready for Marriage, are apt to fall into a kinde of Melancholy, or Madnesse, wherewith they are no sooner taken, but presently [...]: Ob acutam quidem In­flammationem insanit; ob Putredinem, cla­mat; [Page 97] ob caliginem, terretur, & timet; ob oppressionem verò quae circa Cor est suffoca­ [...]ionem sibi parant; ob sanguinis autem vi­ [...]ium, Animus Anxietudine & Jmpo­ [...]entiâ conflictatur, & malum contrahit. For the cure of which Disease he pre­scribes speedy Marriage: otherwise it is to be feared, that through Madnesse and Im­patience, they will make away them­selves, either by drowning or hanging; [...]alsely perswading themselves, that by these Remedies, [...], being very sure ones, and as they conceive, the best they [...]an finde; they shall set a period to their miseries. Which makes me thinke, that those Milesian wenches, that hanged themselves by troopes, as Plutarch re­ports Lib. de virt. Mul. the story, untill such time as there was an Edict made, that all those that thus made away with themselves, their [...]odies should be cast out naked into the [...]treets, and exposed to the view of all [...]ommers; were sicke of this Disease: for [...]s much as that neither by faire perswasi­ons, nor yet by threats could they be [...]ept from being their owne Murtherers. [Page 98] The same is my Opinion also of those women at Lions in France, that threw themselves into Welles, thinking by this meanes to quench the heat of their burn­ing desires: as of old at Athens in a great plague, those that were infected, seeking some meanes or other to mitigate the Torment they endured, cast themselues into Rivers, and Privies: as both Thucy­dides, and Lueretius have recorded.

So that we may very safely conclude, that these two Diseases, which we may with the Poët Euripides, call by a gene­rall name, [...], may as well be rec­koned among the kindes of Love Melan­choly, as the Satyriasis in men; notwith­standing that one of them beares the name of Fury, or Madnesse: seeing that both Hippocrates and Galen doe often use the word Mania, for Melancholy, and so on the contrary: as we have before observed; and as may be collected also out of Avi­cen, Lib. 3. fen. 1. tr. 4. c. 18. in his Chapter of Melancholy, where he saies that, Cum Melancholia componi­tur cum rixâ, saltu, contentione seu pugna; mutatur ejus nomen, dicitur (que) Mania. When Melancholy is attended on with [Page 99] Chiding, Brawling, Quarrelling, and Mercat. c. de Mania. Fighting; it then changeth its name, and [...]s called Madnesse. Of which our Mo­ [...]erne Writers make Five kinds: that is [...]o say, Furor, Rabies, Hydorolcos, seu Ly­ [...]aon; Melancholia, & Amor. By the last of which, we may understand Satyriasis, [...]r Furor Ʋterinus: The Symptomes and Cure whereof I shall set downe hereafter when I shall come to speake of the cure of Love Melancholy: referring you for the [...]est to Mercatus, Lib. 2. cap. 10. Rodericus Castro, lib. 2. cap. 10. Iohn Liebault, lib. [...]. cap. 33. & Mercurialis, de Morb. Mul. [...]b. 4. cap. 9. & 10.

CAP. XIII. Whether or no a Physitian may by his Art finde out Love, without confession of the Patient.

THe Enemies of the Noble science t [...] Physicke, which Democritus truly Epist. ad Hippoc. calls the sister and companion of Prudence, doe peremptorily affirme, that it is not within the power of the Physitians skill, to discover whether any one in Love, or no, without the parties own confession: notwithstanding that the contrary is proved not only by Authors of very Avic. l. 3. fen. 1. Aët. tetrab. 4. c. de Amore. good note, but even by daily experience. The first Authority I shall produce for confirmation hereof, shall be out o [...] Soranus Ephesius, who in the life of Hippocrates reports of him, how he by A [...] discovered the Love of King Perdice who was enamoured of Phile, one of h [...] [Page 101] Fathers Concubines, and by reason hereof was growne Hecticall. The like is re­orded of Erasistratus the Physitian, who Plut. in Demet. val. Max. l. 15. c. 7. [...]n like manner discovered the unlawfull [...]esires of Antiochus, sonne to King Seleu­ [...]hus, who was desperately gone in love [...]oward Stratonica his Mother in Law: and by the same Physitian was at length perfectly cured of his malady.

Neither is it necessary, that he should [...]e a Physitian, that must make this disco­very: for we know that Jonadab found Lib. 2. Reg. c. 13. out the love of Amnon to his sister Tha­ [...]ar: and Canace's Love was first discove­red by her old nurse.

Galen, in that book of his, which he [...]ntitles, Quomodò morbum simulantes sint Deprehendendi, boasts how that himselfe had found out the Love of a fellow that was servant to a Knight in Rome, that had purposely made his knees to swell, by rubbing them with the juyce of Thapsia, that so he might not be able to wait on [Page 102] his Master into the Field, but might stay at home, and by this meanes have the fit­ter opportunity to enjoy his Mistresse. And in his book de Praecog. he relates the manner, how he discovered the Love of Iustus his wife, who was enamoured of one Pylades: and that, meerely by feeling her pulse very hard, and observing with­all her countenance, as he named him to her.

Anacreon the Poet makes great boasts of his owne skill in this particular, in his last Ode, after this manner.

in english thus.

For as soone as ever Cupid hath kindled this fire within their Hearts, they are con­strained presently to lay open their Breasts, and cry out for helpe. The heate of these flames oftimes discovers it selfe in the Cheekes, where it presents the be­holders eye with as many various colours, as the Rainebow weares.

And for this cause Diotimus in Plato's Conviv, saies, that Love inherits this from his mother Penia, to be alwaies [...], naked, and without a covering. And for this cause the Poets also alwaies feigne him to be naked, because, as Erasmus in his Adagies observes, Love cannot be co­vered. For, not the eyes alone, but even the tongue also, and the cheekes them­selves by their Blushes will necessarily discover it. Yet notwithstanding all these manifest signes of Love, together with their frequent sighings, continuall com­plaints, Importunate praises of their Mi­stresses, and the like: the Lover still be­leeves his desires are so closely carried, as that the quickest apprehension cannot dis­cover them: whereas indeed they lye o­pen, and exposed to every eye.

I shall willingly grant, that it is not so easy a matter to discover the Love of one that is but lightly touched with it. But if the party be but so farre entred in­to [Page 105] it, as that Melancholy, or Love-Mad­nesse now begins to seize on him: I dare undertake to finde out such a ones disease, [...]s easily, as any other violent Passion of [...]he Mind what ever: so that I may but have liberty to observe the Actions and Gestures of the Party Affected; and that, [...]y those Rules I have observed to have been delivered by Galen, concerning this Particular.

The meanes and order of Proceeding [...]n this Discovery, I shall hereafter deli­ver unto you: by which you shall be able to finde out this Malady, not only where [...]t is already setled, but also where there is but a bare Inclination unto it only in the Constitution. And herein I shall be for­ced to crave assistance from all faculties, and sometimes too, as Galen saies, we must be content to helpe our selves with bare conjectures: as he him selfe was once faine to doe, when he discovered the de­ceit of a Knight in Rome, that feigned himselfe to be troubled with the colicke, that so he might avoid being present at a generall Assembly of the Citizens. Not­withstanding, as he there observes, this [Page 104] [...] [Page 105] [...] [Page 106] discovery was not properly of Medicinall Cognition; but rather belonged to the power of Reason and Common Sense: which, although it be common to all, yet is it exact and Ripe in a very few. And therefore he concludes, that where this naturall faculty is sound, and joyned in commission, as it were, with Medicinall experience, that man shall be able to make any the like discoveries as these.

CHAP. XIV. Signes Diagnosticke of Love. Melancholy.

AS this Disease findes its first passage into the inward parts of the Body Avic. l. 3. fen. 1. t [...]. 4. c. 23. through the eyes: so doe they give the first assured and undoubted tokens of the same: For as soone as ever this Malady hath seazed on the Patient, it causeth a certaine kind of modest cast of the eyes, which the Latines expressed by the [Page 107] tearme of Emissitii Oculi; and the Greeks call it [...], or [...]. And therefore our Moderne Anatomists call that Muscle, which is the Instrument by which this Love-looke is caused, Mus­culus Amorosus. Laurent.

But if the party be over farre gone Gordon. c. de Amor. part. 2. with this disease, the eyes begin then to grow hollow, and dry, (unlesse perhaps some unkindnesse, or deniall from their Mistresse, or else her Absence moisten Merc. l. 1. Meth, med, c. 17. them with a teare or two:) and you shall observe them to stand, as if they were ei­ther in some deepe contemplation, or else were earnestly fixt in beholding some­thing or other that much delighted them.

And if the Lovers eyes be thus discom­posed, and out of order; how much more thinke you is his heart? For you shall see him now very jocund and laughing; and presently within a moment he falls a weeping, and is extreame sad: then by and by againe he entertaines himselfe with some pleasant merry conceipts, or other; and within a short space againe is altogether as sad, pensive, and dejected as before.

[Page 108] This Passion you may observe drawne our to the life by Virgill, in his Dido, Aeneid. 4.

She was so tormented with the heate of her Love, that she ranne up and downe the Citty, as if she had been distracted.

These Perturbations proceed from the Diversity of those objects they fancy to themselves: and in like manner as these are either sad or joyfull, so they them­selves either blush, or waxe pale at the apprehension; as the Poet observes.

To this we may adde their excessive talk­ing, [Page 110] which proceeds from the fulnesse of their Heart. For Love, saies Plutarch, is naturally a great Babler, especially when Symp. l. 2. qu. 5. it chanceth to light upon the commenda­tion of those things that are its objects. For that Lovers have a strong desire to enduce all others to the beliefe of that, whereof themselves are already perswa­ded: which is, that they love nothing, but what is absolutely perfect, both for Goodnesse, Beauty and Profit: and they would willingly have these opinions of theirs confirmed also by all other mens judgements. This is that which moved Candaules to bring Gyges into his bed-chamber, and there to let him have a perfect view of the naked Beauties of his Wife. Vnlesse you will rather say, that the Reason that those that are in Love, talke so much, is, to exercise their Perswasive Faculty, that so by this means they may render themselves the more worthy of their Mistresses Love.

[...]nd for this cause the Heathen of old Paus. Eliac, Plutar. tr. de praecep. matrim. [...]ere wont to place the Image of Venus, betwixt the Images of Mercury and Pi­ [...]o; the one being the God of Eloquence, [...]e other the Goddesse of Perswasion. Which gave occasion to Lucian to feigne, at Mercury, as soone as ever he was [...]t newly borne, overcame at wrastling [...]e God Cupid, who before had trium­ [...]ed over all the other Gods, both Coele­ [...]all and Infernall.

By the signes we have already set owne, and by his languishing counte­nance did Ionadab discover that Amnon, [...]ing Davids sonne, was enamoured of me Princesse, or great personage. For [...]hose that are in Love, saith Cydippe in O­ [...]id, have alwaies a kind of languishing countenance, and that too without any Apparant cause. So likewise by those a­bove named Symptomes, joyned toge­ther with the palenesse of the Colour, & [Page 112] feeblenesse of the knees, was a step mo­ther mentioned by Apuleius, discoverd to be in love with her sonne in Law: P [...] ­lor deformis, Marcentes oculi, lassagenu [...] quies turbida, & spiritus cruciatus t [...]rd tate vehementior: which Apuleius could not learn any thing of Avicen, be­fore whose time he lived above 800 yeares. But this Chronologicall errour the Render may be pleas'd to passe by: since it cannot ar­gue any want of judge­ment in the Author, but meere incogitancy only. A­puleius seems to have learne of Avicen, or some other o [...] the Ancient Physitians.

There is besides, no order or equality at all in their Gesture, Motions, or Acti­ons: and they are perpetual­ly sighing, and complaining without any cause. Sapho could not sit a Arnal. de Vil. no. c. de amo. her distaffe: Paris could not sleepe: Ca­nace grew pale, leane, and froward, and C. à veg. l. 3. meth. med. c. 17. was still complaining without any evi­dent cause; and by these signes her nur [...] found that she was in Love.

[Page 113] In like manner did Erasistratus discover Plut. in De­met. Val. Max. l. 5. c. 7. [...]he Love of Antiochus, to his Step-mo­ther: for so soon as ever she but entred in­to the Chamber, his colour changed, his [...]eech was stopped, his lookes were smi­ [...]ing, and pleasant, or else, (as Vigenerius [...]ith) very stedfastly bent upon their Ob­ject: his face burned, and hee was all in a weat, his Pulse beat very disorderly, and [...]stly his heart failed him: he grew pale, amazed, astonished often: with other such [...]ke Symptomes, which (as Sapho af­firmes) are wont to appeare in Melancho­ly Lovers. [...]: as Plutarch hath it, in the [...]fe of Demetrius. Yet we finde these ver­ [...]es of that Learned and Amorous Poëtesse [...]apho cited thus, in Dionysius Longinus. De subl. gen. dic.

[Page 114] Which are translated into Latine both by Ovid, Statius, and also by Catullus in that manner.

By which Verses we may conclude, that this Damsell was as skilfull, and as well Orib. l. 8. Synop. c. 9. de Amo. experienced in this Art, as any either of our Greek, Arabian, or Latine Physitians, P. Aegin. l. 3. c. 17. de Amor. for as much as there is not nay mention made of any Symptome or certaine signe of this Disease, by them, which she seems Haly ab. 9. Theor. c. 7 Alsarau. l. pract. sect. 2. c. 17. not acquainted with.

Galen, Erasistratus, and all our Modern Physitians, adde to these, the unequall and confused beating of the Pulse: And Galen boasts, that by these Signes joyned toge­ther, he discovered the miserable doating of Iustus his wife upon Pylades. I had [Page 115] found, (saies he, Lib. de Cogn. & Cur. morb. Anim. and cap. 6. de Praecogn. ad Posthem.) That she had neither Fever, nor any other Corporall Disease; so that I presently conjectured that shee was in Love. And [...]hen, because that at the naming of Pyla­des, her colour changed, her Pulse beat un­equally, and with diverse motions, as it [...]ses to doe, when a Man resolves on any treat matter of Consequence; I conclu­ded that she was in Love with Pylades. From which words of Galen, there is a [...]ice Question raysed by our Moderne Physitians, whether or no there is a cer­taine distinct kinde of Pulse by which Love is discovered, besides that Inequali­ty, which Galen elsewhere calls, [...], and Plutarch, [...]: which you may read at large discussed by Fran­ [...]iscus Vallesius L. 3. cont. Phil. & med. c. 14. Christ. à Vega. c. de Amor. Vallesius, who, with Avicen, and the more Learned sort of Physitians, main­ [...]aines the Negative: and that, because that Rationall Love is an Affection of the Braine, as likewise Irrationall and disho­nest Love is of the Liver; but neither of them of the Heart, (as wee have already demonstrated) which suffers no whit at [Page 116] all in Love, but only by Sympathy.

Yet I deny not, but that by the Pulse it is possible to know a Passionate Lover, by reason of the stirring of the Spirits: for which cause, Avicen saies, that if one Lib. 3. fen. 1. tr. 4. c. 23 would know the name of such a ones Mi­stresse, he must feele his Pulse, and at the same instant name the Party whom hee suspects to be the cause of his Malady, & take some occasion or other to commend her Beauty, sweetnesse of Behaviour, Pa­rentage, Attire, or Qualities of Mind: for at the same time, Pulsus diversificabitur in varietate magnâ, & fiet similis Interse­cto; you shall perceave, saith he, a strange alteration in the Motion of the Pulse, and it will be very unequall, and often inter­rupted. Which is the opinion of Galen al­so, in the afore cited places; and of Paulus Aegineta ind his 3. booke, and 37. Chapter. Lib. 2. art. med. sect. 3 c. 6.

Christophorus à Ʋega addes to these Signes here set downe, another, which in my opinion seemes to bee of litle or no moment: and that is, that those that are in Love, will not eat Grapes; because that this kinde of fruit filleth the Stomack and Belly with Winde, and this Infla­tion [Page 117] oppressing the Midriffe, and hinde­ring the motion of the Heart, disturbeth Respiration, and suffers them not to sigh at their pleasure.

By the greater part of these Signes, when I first began to practise in this Facul­ty at Agen, the place of my birth, in the yeare 1604. I discovered the foolish doa­tings of a young Schollar of that City, who was desperatly gone in Love, and made his complaint unto mee, that not­withstanding all the Medicines that had been prescribed him by the Physitians of that place, and a certaine Paracelsian Mountebanke that he had met withall, he could neither enjoy his sleep, nor take de­light in any thing in the world; but was so full of discontent, that he was faine to retire from Tolose to Agen, hoping by this change of Aire to finde some mitiga­tion of his griefe: where as, contrary to his Expectation, he found himselfe in a farre worse state then before. When I conside­red his relation, and withall saw him to be a young Man, and affected with these Griefes and Discontents without any Cause, whom but a litle before I had [Page 118] knowne Ioviall and merry: and percea­ved withall his Countenance to be grown pale, yellowish, and of a sad decaied co­lour; his eyes hollow; and all the rest of Body in reasonable good plight: I began to suspect it was some Passion of the Minde that thus tormented him: & then considering his Age, and his Complexion, which was sanguine, and his Profession; I certainely concluded that his Disease was Love. And as I was urgent upon him to let me knowe the Externall cause of his Malady, there comes by chance a hand­some servant-maid of the House about some businesse or other into the Roome where we were, and was the meanes of discovering the true ground of his Dis­ease. For she coming in at the instant as I was feeling his Pulse, I perceaved it sud­denly vary its motion, and beat very un­equally; he presently grew pale, and Blu­shed againe in a moment, and could hard­ly speake. At the last seeing himselfe as it were taken tardy, he plainely confest the true Cause of this his distemper; but withall refused to admit of any other Cure but from her that had given him his [Page 119] Wound: and therefore intreated mee to desire the Mother of the Damsell to give [...]er consent that hee might marry her; presuming that his Father, notwithstan­ding she was no fit match for him, would not deny him that Contentment, on which his Life and safety depended; of­tentimes repeating that Verse out of Pro­pertius.

But this Marriage could not bee effected: the young Man in the meane time grows worse and worse in a desperate manner, till at length a Fever seazes on him, toge­ther with a violent spitting of Blood. This amazes him; and seeing no other meanes of safety, he is at length perswaded to fol­low my Directions: and so by such Phy­sick as I prescribed him, he was at length perfectly cured of his Malady.

A like story to this may you read in Obser. 7. l. 2. Valleriola, of a Cure wrought by himselfe upon a Merchant of Arles, who had con­tinued [Page 120] for the space of six Moneths distra­cted with Love: and had he not been pre­vented by the care of his Parents, hee had killed himselfe.

But what need we trouble our selves to seek so farre for Examples of this kind, seeing that there is hardly a Disease more frequent in our Eyes then this of Love, if we are able but to distinguish betwixt it, and the other kindes of Melancholy; as Madnesse, and the Suffocation of the Ma­trix: with which Diseases, this of Love hath great Affinity.

CAP. XV. The Cause of Palenesse in Lovers.

THE Palenesse of the Colour, is a thing so Proper to those that are deeply in Love, that Diogenes, one day meeting a young Man that looked very pale, guessed him to be either a very En­vious person, or else that he was in Love: [Page 121] according to that of the Poet.

It is the proper Colour & Badge of Love. But by the way it is to be noted, that we must not understand by this word Pale, a simple Decoloration, or whitenesse of Probl. 4. sect. 38. the Skin, which, as the Philosopher saies, is, as it were, a kinde of Putrefaction of the skin: [...] But rather a mixt Colour of White, & Yellow; or of White, Yellow, & Green: which Hippocrates calls [...], Plutarch, and Lucre­tius, [...]; and all Greeke Writers, [...], or [...]. For these words doe not signify a bare Green; but also a pale Colour, and such a one, as appeares to be in Corne, when as Immoderate Heat, and a Southerne wind hath ripened it too soone: as we may easily collect from that Con. 3. in 6. Epid. place of Galen, where, speaking of the A­sians, he saies, that, [...]. [Page 122] When they see any looke pale, they presently aske, what's the reason they looke so [...], Greene; making no difference at all betwixt these two words, [...], pale; and [...], greene. Now, (saies the same Author,) this pale colour is such, as we see in Fire, & Ocre, or Orpiment: and is caused in the body by the Permixtion of yellow choler with the thin waterish parts of the Blood. Which opinion of his is also confirmed by Phavorinus, who will have this word [...] to be derived from [...], by ad­ding [...] after [...], and translating [...].

Whence we perceave how grossely Ruellius is mistaken, on the 78. chapter of Dioscorides, where he very confidently denies, that we have the true Myrrhe, because it is not Green: supposing that [...] signifies only greene, and not yellowish; or rather such a colour, as ap­pears to be in Hearbes that are dried, in Lib. de in­tern. aff. Aret. l. 1. de caus. & sign. morb. Chrom. c. 13. Lentils, and in the dried pills of Pome­granats: And therefore Hippocrates often­times calls such pale folkes, [...], and [...]: and Aretaeus, [...]: and the Comedian, Oculos Her­beos.

[Page 123] The Poëts also acknowledged this Co­ [...]our to be proper to Lovers, and not the Ovid. Met. 4. white, when that they feign'd, that Cly­ [...]ia, De diff. Resp. dying for the love of the Sun, was tur­ned into an hearbe of a pale and blood­ [...]esse colour, which the greekes call [...]: which colour is for the most part the signe of a distempered Liver, accord­ing to Galen: [...], which being caused by reason of the great abundance of yellow Choler, mixt with the crude Humors, and dispersed all over the body, it infecteth with its colour the skinne, which according to our Physitians, is To­ [...]tius Corporis Emunctorium. Whence it is, that by the ill colour of the skinne is knowne the badnesse of the Humours, that putrify within the Body. [...], Hip. I. de Hum. [...]; saith Hippocrates; The colour of the Humours, unlesse they retire into the most inward parts of the Body, appeares evi­dently in the skinne: but chiefely in the Face, because that the skinne of that part is more thin and fine, then of any other part; and therefore the more apt to re­ceive [Page 124] the tincture of the Putrified Hu­mours. But if by chance any small portion of Melancholy be mixed with the Cho­lericke Humour, the party then becomes of a kind of tawny colour, or a darke green: which colour Plutarch and Aretae­us expresse very aptly by the word, [...].

CAP. XVI. What manner of eyes Melancholy Lovers have.

THere is no part of the whole Body whatsoever that sooner discovers the Indisposition of the Body then the Eyes; according to the doctrine of Hippocrates: [...]: looke in Lib. 6. E­pid. sect. 4. Aph. 26. what state the eyes are, in the same is the rest of the Body. A manifest experience whereof we have in our Lovers, who ac­cording as Avicen, P. Aegineta, Oribasi­us, Haly Abbas, and Alsaravius, observe, [Page 125] have their eyes hollow, and sunke into their head, dry, and without teares; yet alwaies twinkling with a kind of smiling [...]ooke. This hollownesse of the eyes, which Alexander Aphrodisaeus calls [...], and Rufus Ephesius [...], proceeds, as Stephanus Athen. saith, from Gorreus. Merc. in Progn. Hippocr. Foesius in Hipp. the Imbecility of the naturall Heat, and the Dissipation of the spirits, which doe abound in the eyes: or else by the malig­nity and ill temper of the Humours: or lastly by a consumption.

Yet we may observe great contrarie­ty of opinion among these Authors: For Avicen, Oribasius, and Alsaravius af­firme, that those that are sick of Love-Melancholy, are leane generally through­out the whole Body, as well by reason they eate and drinke very little, as also for that their Digestion is very bad, by reason that the spirits and Naturall Heat are withdrawne from the stomacke, to the Braine. And yet these above named Au­thors say, that, Oculi soli non concidunt; it is not the eyes alone, that suffer in this di­sease: whereas P. Aegineta maintaines the quite contrary opinion, saying, that [Page 126] caeteris partibus corporis illaesis, nullâ (que) ca­lamitate collabentibus, soli illi Amatoribut concidunt: All the other parts of the Body continuing in a good and perfect state of Health, the Eyes only in Love-Melan­choly are ill affected.

Christophorus à Vega, willing to excuse Lib. 3. de Art. med. c. de Amor. Aegineta, saies that he understands by Collapsus, in this place, segnem motum & Desidentiam, a kind of dull heavy motion of the eyes. But I conceive this expositi­on to be somewhat forced: for as much as the same Author assents, with all the o­ther above mentioned, that those persons that are in Love, have a continuall motion or winking with their eye-lids, semper conniventes: which motion Hippocrates in his Epidemicks calls, [...]. And Galen also seems to mee to favour this opinion of Oribasius and Avicen, when he saies in his second booke de Crisibus, that Hol­low Eyes and a Pale colour are the evi­dent and true signes of those that are op­pressed with sadnesse, and other like pas­sions.

But these Authors in my opinion, may be reconciled, by saying, that Avicen and [Page 127] Oribasius speake more consonantly both to Reason and Experience, if they be un­derstood of Passionate Love, which is now already growne to a degree of Madnesse. For so the Divine Plato also in his Feast affirmes, that Love is, of his owne Na­ture, and also by the Hereditary Imperfe­ction of his Mother Penia, alwaies Hard, Dry, Leane, and loathsome, [...]: because that by reason of too much [...]ntention of the mind, pensivenesse and Anxiety, the Lover looseth the fulnesse of flesh and good likeing of his Body, that [...]he before enjoyed. Which, when Aegi­ [...]eta denies, he is to be understood not of those that are farre gone in this Disease, but only newly entred into it. This ex­plication for the reconciling of the con­trariety of these Doctors opinions, if it displease any man, I shall expect a better from him.

CAP. XVII. Whether Teares be Symptomes of Love, or no.

HIppocrates in his Epidemicks makes Aph. 17. Sect. 1. 1. 6. Teares to be of two sorts, Voluntary and Involuntary. The last of which kinds is caused by reason of the weakenesse of the Retentive Facultie in the Braine, which hath been debilitated either by some Disease, or by the great Abundance of moisture, contracted within the Head: or else because the expulsive Faculty of the Braine is provoked by the sharpnesse of the Humours in the Braine, or by the vapours that are exhaled from the inferi­or parts; as it is often seen in those that are sick of an Ague: or lastly by reason of some particular distemper of the eyes, as Exul­ceration, Fistula, Opthalmy, Running of the eyes, or the like, as also by Smoake, [Page 129] Dust, or other like externall causes.

As concerning voluntary Teares, it was the Opinion of Empedocles long since, that when any one was surcharged with any strong passion of the Mind, the Blood was troubled, and from thence fol­lowed Teares, in like manner as whey comes from Milke. Alexander Aphrodi­saeus is of opinion, that the Melancholy Humour having shut up and encompassed the Heart; the Humidity endeavours to shew it selfe, where it findes the freest passage.

But we say, that the materiall cause of Teares, is the same with that of Spittle; which is, the Abundance of serosity re­maining in the Braine, after the third con­coction: by reason whereof old men, wo­men, and young children, are more in­clined to weeping, then any other.

Now this moysture flowes from the eyes, either by reason of the compression of the Braine, during the time of sadnesse: or else by the Dilatation of it; as we often see it comes to passe in those that are char­ged with some suddaine great joy, or else [...]augh extreamely. For as much then as [Page 130] Lovers are subject to all these passions, Avic. Ar­nald. of Ioy, Laughter and Sadnesse: it is evi­dent that they are not Involuntary Teares that fall from Lovers eyes, which, as we have already shewed, are generally dry and void of Teares, but only the Volun­tary, as when they either doubt, or else despaire of their Mistresses favour. And hence it is that we shall observe Poëts so often representing unto us Lovers weep­ing and lamenting: Because that Love is also delighted in Teares, according to the Poet.

Yet will I not therefore presently con­clude, that this signe is Pathognomicall, nor scarcely Certaine; especially in wo­men, who as the Poet saies,

Have the command of their Teares, and can weepe, when, and how they please.

CHAP. XVIII. The causes of Waking, and Sighes in Lovers.

THe causes of those continuall wak­ings Arnald. c. de Amor. Gordon. de Am. which oppresse Lovers, making them more Melancholy, sad, leane, and Dry,

Are, the diverse Imaginations and Fan­cies that steale into the Braine, and never suffer them to take any quiet repose: whence the Braine becomes Dry and Cold; Besides that from the naturall Me­lancholy, which is naturally Cold, and as dry as dust, there cannot be exhaled any sweet and gentle vapours, which by their moisture should loosen the nerves, and discharging them of their office, may so [Page 132] cause withall a cessation of all sense and motion.

And if by chance they be surprised by any light slumber, which is the provision Nature hath made for the repairing of the Animall 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 fearefull dreames; so that they awake oftimes more discontented, sad, pensive, melancholy, and fearefull, then before; and for the most part they find themselves more tormented sleeping, then waking.

Sighing is caused in Melancholy Lo­vers, by reason that they many times for­get to draw their breath, being wholy ta­ken up with the strong Imaginations that they have, either in beholding the beauty of their Loves, or else, in their Absence, contemplating on their rare perfections, and contriving the meanes how to com­passe their Desires. So that at length re­collecting themselves, Nature is constrai­ned to draw as much Aire at once, as be­fore it should have done at two or three [Page 133] times. And such a Respiration is called, a Sigh; which is indeed nothing else, but, a doubled Respiration.

CAP. XIX. During what age men and women are subject to this disease of Love-Melancholy.

NOtwithstanding that Democritus, as Epist. ad Demag. Hippocrates hath reported him, saies, that all Mankind from their very birth are subject not only to Diseases in gene­rall, but even to this of love also in parti­cular: [...]. Yet can it not be denied, but that some disea­ses are more appropriate to certaine ages, and seasons, then others are, as the same Authour affirmes, Aphor. 19. lib. 3. And in his Praedict. Coac. he definitively sets downe the limits of time, wherein a man is subject to all kind of diseases, to be, be­twixt the age of fourteen yeares, and forty [Page 134] two: [...]. It re­maines therefore that we examine, whe­ther or no, a man is not subject to this ma­lady of Love, without the compasse of these yeares.

Love being, as Plato saies, a strong de­sire of generation: of necessity, so long as a man is able to performe the Act of Generation, so long he is also subject to Love, and (if he restraine not his desires within the bounds of Reason,) to Love. Melancholy also. Now some Authours affirme, that a man is able to engender at nine, or ten yeares of age: and they goe about to confirme this their Assertion, by the examples of King Solomon, and Achaz, who had children, when they were but ten, or eleaven yeares old, at the most: which S. Gregory, S. Hierome, and Alber­tus Rosarius affirme that themselves have knowne by experience in some others. And, (which seemes a thing incredible,) Pliny reports, that among the Indians, the Plin. l. 7. c. 2 Mandri and Calingi have children at five, or six yeares of age.

But on the contrary, some againe there [Page 135] are, that would deprive men of this pow­er, so long as they are under the age of Caes. 6 de Bel. Gal. twenty: and for this cause the Germans forbid carnall copulation to young folke, before they have attained unto the age of twenty yeares.

But the most received opinion is, that men and women are subject to this di­sease of Love-Melancholy, as soone as e­ver they are entred into those yeares, in which they begin Pubescere, to come to their Puberty: which appeares in men chiefly by their voice, which at that time growes greater and harsh withall, and in women it may be knowne by observing their breasts, which about this time begin to swell and grow bigger, and that for the most part, about the age of twelve, or Fourteene: And this is now the generall Rule, by which their Puberty is knowne, Jndagatione corporis inhonestâ cessante; Lib. 1. In­stit. tit, 22. l. vult. C. quando tut. esse desin. by the Constitutions of the Emperour Justinian.

And as concerning those Instances of K. Solomon, and Achaz, above mentio­ned, we answer, that though perhaps it be granted that they are true; yet are they [Page 136] very rare, and scarcely to be paralleld: and that such persons being for the most part, very short-lived, (for Solomon lived not above fifty yeares:) it seemes in a manner necessary, that their Puberty should be earlier in them, then in other men: it be­ing the Iustice of Nature, that those Crea­tures that must soone meet their Period, should as suddenly arrive to their Perfe­ction and Maturity: as we may observe in women, who, according to Aristotle, [...], as they are ripe sooner then men, so doe they commonly faile before them.

Now as youth, or Puberty opens the way to Love; so in like manner doth old age shut it up. Which Solon finding in himselfe, be gave the Gods great thankes for sending him so great a blessing as old age was; wherein he enjoyed more con­tentment and pleasure, by being freed from his former youthfull Amorous heats, then he felt discommodity or trouble in Pol. l. 4. c. 16. & l. 5. de Hist. Anim. c. 14, & l. 7. c. 6. his old age.

Aristotle saies, that it is about the age of threescore and ten, that old men begin to be out of Cupids reach, and bid Defi­ance [Page 137] to Venus. And therefore the Empe­rour Tiberius thought those men worthy to be punished that at these yeares were not able to governe their desires, but suffered themselves to bee overcome by this youthfull Passion of Love: and to this purpose enacted the Law called Papia Poppaea, for the restraining of this Abuse. And to this the Poet Gallus seemes to al­lude, when he thus breakes out into an Exclamation.

How miserable is the condition of Mankind, when as their very plea­sures are numbred out unto them by their Punishments?

But Avenzoar confutes Aristotles opi­nion Lib. 2. tr. 3. c. 1. by many forcible Arguments; which for brevity's sake I shall omit: only ad­ding in confirmation hereof, the examples of King Masinissa, who got a child when Plin. l. 7. c, 14. he was fourescore yeare old: and Cato the Censor, who did the like at threescore and fifteene. Our Historians goe yet far­ther, and report for certaine, that Ʋladis­laus, [Page 138] King of Polonia, had two sonnes, when he was fourescore and twelve, or thereabout. And Felix Platerus in his Medic. Observat. saies, that his Father had a Daughter at fourescore: and his Fa­thers great Grand-father had a sonne af­ter he was a hundred yeares old.

I grant that in the greatest part of old men, after they are once threescore, all their desires, (excepting that of Cove­tousnesse,) are [...], as Plutarch expres­seth it, Toothlesse: yet will we not ex­empt them wholly from this disease of Love. For besides those examples already alleadged; we read, that Theseus was a­bove threescore yeares old, when he was so enamoured of the beauteous Helen, that he ravished her. And we are taught by daily experience, that the Emperour Claudius, who succeeded in the Empire the next but one to Tiberius, not without very just cause abrogated the Poppaean Law.

CHAP. XX. The Signes whereby we may knowe those that are inclined to Love-Melancholy.

ARistotle in his Ethicks, and Tully in his Tusculan Questions, distinguish betwixt [...], the Lover, and [...], the Amorist: as we distinguish betwixt Ebri­ [...]us, one that is Drunke, and Ebriosus, a Drunkard. Because that a Lover, is one that is indeed falne in Love; but an Amo­rist, is one that is inclined to this Folly, ei­ther by his Naturall Constitution & Tem­per of Body; or else by reason of his Edu­cation, Discipline, Custome, or the Like.

The Diagnostick signes of the Lover we have already delivered in the prece­dent Chapters; It remaines now that we set downe those by which the Amorist is to be knowne: seeing our Intention is, to prescribe as well the meanes to prevent [Page 140] this Malady, as the Remedies to cure it.

In the First place then we are to consi­der Hip. l. de steril. & l. 4. de morb. nat. Gal. l. 1. ad Glan. c. 1. the constitution and Habit of the whole Body, when so ever wee desire to know, to what Diseases any one is subject. For by this meanes Helen knew that Pa­ris was fitter for Cupids service, then for Mars.

In the second place, the Temperature of the Principall, and secret parts is to be considered; of which I shall speake more hereafter, in the Chapter of Physiognoms [Page 141] only in this place giving you to under­stand, that a hot and dry Temperature, or [...]se such a one as is only hot; is the most [...]nclined to Love. We must also observe the parties Complexion: for we see that [...]ose that are of a sanguine Complexion, [...]re generally very Amorous: Not that I would have a man alwaies weare a sad, towning, austere Countenance.

For under such a one there oft­times lies hid the strongest Inclination to lasciviousnesse.

[...]n the next place we shall doe well to consider the age: for commonly the youn­ger Arist. l. 7. de Hist. anim. c. 1. & l. 5. de gen. anim. c. 7. Alex. Aphrod. l. 1. Probl. 123. Cael. l. 15. c. 24. Al [...]. Botton. c. 15. de morb. mul. people are more subject to this di­ [...]case, then the elder: especially while they have a harshnesse in their voyce, which the Greeks call [...]; the Latins, Hircire: And in wenches, when their Brests begin to burgeon, which the greeks all [...], the latin Fratrare, Sororiare, Catullire: At which time, Aristotle warns all Fathers to have a strict eye over their Daughters, and not to suffer them to con­verse [Page 142] with young men, especially such a [...] are given much to Courtship: Because that at this time they have an extreame raging desire over all their Body.

But old men on the contrary side, are as much averse from venery, unlesse they be naturally very leacherous. For Enripi­des saies, that Venus is displeased with old men: And for this cause the Heathens, (at Plutarch reports) accounted those Mar­riages that were celebrated in the moneth of May, Disasterous, and ominous; as some superstitious Christians also doe at this day: because that Venus hated this moneth, as being consecrated to the honour of old age.

Lacydes, King of the Argians, was knowne to be in love, by his over curious trimming and curling of his haire: as was Pompey the great also, by the nice scratch­ing of his head with one finger.

Our Ladies have the same opinion of [...]ose men that are very hairy, that Aristo­ [...]e hath; [...]. Hairines, saith [...], is a signe of the abundance of Excre­ments: And for this reason, those men that [...]e hairy, are fuller of seed, & therefore Jo. Bapt. Porta. [...]re addicted to Venery, then those that [...]e smooth. As it is also observed in the are, who being extreame hairy, as having [...]ly among all other living creatures, [...]ire also on the ball of his feet, is withall counted one of the most lustfull crea­tures Polemon. that is.

On the contrary a woman cannot en­ [...]re a man that hath but little Beard; not [...] much, for that they are commonly cold [...]d impotent, as that, so much resembling [...]unuches, they are for the most part in­ [...]ined to basenesse, cruelty, and deceitful­nesse. Such a one, as Plato reports, was Melitus Pitheus, that was Socrates his [...]lse accuser, and in regard of that very [Page 144] thing excepted against by Socrates.

But this is then found most true, when they are leane withall, and have thin, ho [...] Iow, shriveled Cheekes. For, as the Phy­siognomists say, these markes denote Adamant. Porta. man to be of a filthy, lustfull disposition and that by reason of the Imaginative Fa­culty being depraved: but withall, Envi­ous, Crafty, and consequently a knave; ac­cording to the doctrine of the Philoso­pher, [...]. in Physiog­ni.

Their Extraction and Descent and things also very considerable; as well fo [...] that children may have the same Tempe­rature both of the Principall parts, as also of those that serve for Generation, that their Parents have: as also by reason of ba [...] discipline, & ill example. We might also Aul Gelli­us. l. 12. Noct. Attic. c. 2. adde to these, the milk of the nurse, which as Phavorinus affirmes, is of very great force, either in correcting, or corrupting as well the manners of the mind, as the Constitution of the Body: for as much as those alwaies follow the Temperature o [...] the Body. And of this opinion the Po [...] also seemes to be, where he brings Dido, reproaching Aeneas with his Edu­cation, [Page 145] and thus upbraiding him with his cruelty.

Michael Scotus, discoursing on this point, reports that he had seen a child that had been nursed up by a sow; who when he was now grown to some bignes, would eat immoderately, as Hogs doe; and de­lighted very much to tumble and wallow up and downe in durty places. And he te [...]s a story of another, that had been brought up by a shee-goat, who in his going skip­ped after the manner of Goats, and would ever be pilling and eating the barke of Trees.

[Page 146] Hippocrates, Ptolomy, and Vegetius, af­firme that the Aire, Climat, and place of Veget. l. 1. c. 2. their Birth are of very great consideration in this particular: Et Plaga Caeli, non so­lùm ad robur Corporis, sed etiam Animo­rum facit, saith Vegetius: The Climat con­duceth much, not only to the strength and perfect Temperature of the Body, but of the mind also, and its faculties. And in­deed we see commonly that the Germans are great Drinkers, the Spaniards proud, the English deceitfull, the French uncon­stant, the Athenians witty, the Thracians dull, the Sarmatians Chast but the Neopo­litans, Asians, Africans, and Aegyptians, very lascivious and addicted to Venery. And Ovid makes the Thracians also beare them company, when he speakes thus of Tereus.

[Page 147] But these signes are very uncertaine, and meerely conjecturall: For, as Apuleius saies, Apud socordissimos Scythas Ana­charsis sapiens natus est: & apud Athenien­ses, Melecides fatuus: The wise Anachar­sis was descended from the dull heavy Scythian: and Athens brought forth Me­lecides, a Foole.

But what shall we say to that story of a litle blind Dog in Italy in the time of the Emperour Iustinian, who, as Nice­phorus Niceph. l. 17. c. 32. reports it, was able by certaine signes to give notice of such persons as were any way touched with unchast de­sires? Or the Bird Porphyrion, mentioned by Dupreau, in Anno 563, that would make as though she would strangle her selfe, if she but perceived an Amorous or an adulterous person within her Masters house? Or to the Water of Triall, used by the ancient Hebrewes, for to prove whe­ther P. Belon. a married woman had been dishonest or no: Of which water an unchast woman had no sooner tasted, but she began pre­sently to be very dry; whereas on the contrary, if the suspicion were unjust, she thereby recovered a more perfect state of [Page 148] health then before. And lastly to another Fountaine, the vertue whereof was such, Fulgos. l. 8. Ebor. tit. de absol. reor. that if any unchast woman touched it, the water would burne her flesh; but did no hurt at all to those women that were chast. Which Gangolphe, wife to a certaine Burgonian, supposing to be fabulous, for the satisfaction of her Husband, who had but just cause to be jealous, would needs one day thrust her arme into the Fountain: but she presently drew it forth againe, all scorched and burnt? What shall we say (I say) to all these, but only that God hath given to many things such hidden qualities, as that the most learned Philoso­pher can render no sound evident reason of them. Nature rerum vis at (que) Majestas in omnibus momentis fide caret: saith Pliny: Plin. l. 7. c. 1. In all things of strange and miraculous production, the power and Majesty of Nature transcends all beliefe.

It is much more easy to shew a reason Lemni. de occul. nat. mir. c. 30. of the discovering of unchast persons by the stones in their Rings, or other Iewels: which are thought to change their colour, and become obscure, darke, and pale, by reason of those vapours, that arise from the unchast lustfull bodies of those that weare them: an experience whereof I my selfe have seen in the Eranos, or Tur­quois stone. Prol. Cen­til. prop. 51.

The Genethliacall Astrologers have other signes, more subtle, though perhaps not much more certaine; which they take Iul. Firm. [Page 150] from the Horoscope. They say, that if one be borne when Mars and Venus are in conjunction, he will undoubtedly be in­clined to Love and Erotique Melancholy; but perhaps much to his owne dammage. For if the Sunne rise, under the Conjun­ction of these two Planets, he will not be

Aristotle, in his Politicks, will have the Pol. l. 2. c. 9. meaning of this to be, that Martialists, and men of warre, are easily taken Prisoners by Cupid: [...]: All these kind of men (saith he,) are very prone to Venery. And the Physitians say, that the Astrologers, by Venus, understand Phlegme, or rather Blood; and by Mars, Choler: For Mars is hot and dry; and Venus moist: which two Complexions, being met together, Ficin. c. 9. orat. 7. in conv. Plat. Franc. Val­ler. Observ. 7. l. 2. Equi. c. 2. l. 4. de­nat. Amor. doe make the persons enclined to mutuall Love. The same judgement doe they give of him that is borne, when Venus is in Leo; or when the Moon, and Venus doe mutu­ally aspect each other: or else when Iupi­ter [Page 151] is in a Trine, or Sextile aspect with the Sunne, or Mercury; especially if it happen on the second, or fifteenth day of the Moon

But there is no great heed to be taken, what these men say, who are for the most part (in the opinion of S. Augustin) meere S. Aug. confel. l. 7. c. 6 & l. 2. de Doctr. christ. c. 21 Cheaters and Impostors: as you may see proved at large by Ioan. Picus Mirandu­la, in his 12 bookes that he hath written against Iudiciary Astrologers, being mo­ved thereto, because that one of them, named Bulanus, had cast his Nativity, and Cardan. Aph. 63. Segm. 1. Aph. Astro. told him that he should live but 34 yeares: which indeed afterwards fell out accordingly. In which bookes of his, he seemes to have comprehended all that can be said against these Fumi venditores: and he hath also been seconded by his Nephew Franciscus Io: Picus, in his Iul. Syren. l. de Fato. Miran. l. 22. 23. 24. M. Medina. l. de rect. in Deum side. c. l. Vultur. l 3. de art. Mil. c. 1. bookes, De Praenot. and many other Mo­derne writers.

Neverthelesse, seeing that Galen, the Prince of Rationall Physitians, Lib. 3. de Dieb. Decret. cap. 5. & 6. seemes to attri­bute great vertue to the Influences of the Planets over sublunary bodies, and di­vides [Page 152] them, as the Astrologers doe, into Influences Benigne, & Maligne. And be­cause that many endeavour to prove, that no man can be a good Physitian, without the knowledge of Genethliacall Astrolo­gy, which, they say, is grounded on ex­perience, as Physicke is; and hath its A­phorismes, as certaine, as any our Faculty hath: And on the other side againe, there are some that over-superstitiously abhorre the very name of an Astrologer; account­ing them to be meere Magitians and Con­jurers: I thinke it fit so farre to justify this Art, as to shew the certainty and profit of it, which I shall doe in the en­sueing Chapter, and withall shall shew, what use it hath in Physicke: since that Hippocrates saies, that Physick and Astro­nomy are sisters, and Both daughters of one and the same Father, Apollo.

CHAP. XXI. Whether or no, by Astrology, a Man may know such as are inclined to Love-Melancholy.

AStrology, as it is defined by some Philosophers, is a Part of Naturall Arist. 1. Phys. c. 2. Fonsec. 2. Met. c. 3. q. 3. Philosophy, discoursing of the Starres and their motion and Influences: and was found out at first by one Actinus, who Pol. Virg. de Invent. l. 17. c. 17. S. Aug. l. 18. de Civ. Dei. for this cause was surnamed, Solis Filius: or else, as some others will have it, by Mercury; or his Grandfather Atlas, who, for this reason, is fained by the Poets to beare up the Heavens with his shoulders. Servius, on the sixth of Virgils Eclogues, Plin. l. 1. c. 15. & 16. Diod. Si­cul. l. 4. attributes the glory of this Invention to Promerheus; Pliny, to the Phoenicians; or else to Iupiter Belus: and Diodorus Sicu­lus, to the Aegyptians; who were first in­structed in this science, by the Patriarch Abraham, (as Iosephus in his Iewish An­tiquities [Page 154] affirmes:) who, by considering the glory and beauty of the Heavens, [...] richly adorned and bespangled with so in numerable a company of starres, was stir­red up to the Contemplation also of the Divine power and goodnesse and Provi­dence: as afterwards, in imitation of him diverse other Philosophers also have been. For Astrology, saith Plato in Ti­maeo, & in Legib. recalls the minds of men Procl [...]in Cic. de nat. Deor. from Impiety and Atheisme, unto Religi­on, and the knowledge of one true God, the First Mover, and Principle of all things. And for this cause, Astrology i [...] called by diverse Authors Naturall Theo­logy: and Ptolomy affirmes it to be the Clau. Prae­fat. in Io. de Sacrob. way and Path that leadeth to the know­ledge of one God.

It is commonly divided into Astrono­my, Pet. de Al­liac. in conc. The­ol. & A­stron. or Theoreticall Astrology; and Iudi­ciary, Prognosticall, Conjecturall Astrolo­gy, or Practicall Astronomy: which is a­gaine of Three Sorts. The first is that which foretells the changes and vicissi­tudes of things; as Raine, Floods, Winds, Faire-weather, Drouth, Pestilence, health, death, peace, warre & the like. The [Page 155] second delivers the Method and order of [...]oceeding in erecting Figures, and cast­ [...]g Nativities; and is therefore called, Ge­ [...]thliacall. The third and last teacheth [...]w to make choice of times to begin [...]ildings, Iourneys, Suits of Law, &c. [...]hich is too superstitiously observed and [...]ught by diverse Physitians; as namely, [...]. Aponensis, Paracelsus, Arnaldus de [...]illa nova, Dariot, and others. Notwith­standing Hippocrates, and Galen, with di­ [...]erse L. de aet. loc. & aq. Gal. l. 3. de dieb. decret Delrio l. 4. c. 3. q. 1. disq. mag. other learned men, both Philoso­phers and Physitians, confound Iudiciary, [...]r conjecturall Astrology, with Astrono­my: for that the Predictions are grounded [...]n the Course, Motion, Conjunctions, Oppositions, and Diverse Aspects of the starres; all which Astronomy teacheth.

Now Manard, and many other lear­ned Lib. 2. E­pist. 1. & l. 15. ep. 5. Phys. l. 8. & l. 2. de gen. & cor. & 1. de Caelo. Physitians and Astrologers main­taine, (according to the doctrine of Ari­stotle) that the starres worke not upon [...]ublunary Bodies, but only by their Heat and Motion. Caelum, (saies he,) in haec in­feriora agit, mediante Lumine, & Motu. And they say, that whatever Hippocrates, Plato, or Avicen have said, concerning A­strology, [Page 156] must be understood as spoken o [...] Astronomy: in like manner as Cels [...] takes the Heaven, for the Aire, in imita­tion of the Poets: And Avicen, by the Cae­lestiall powers, understands, Certam & Praefinitam Qualitatum primarum Men­suram, & Coelestium syderum accessu & recessu progenitam; A certain Proportion and measure of the Primary Qualities, produced by the Motion of the starres, which he calls, Occult; because that we cannot have any perfect knowledge of it, no more, then of the manner how the Elements are mixed in the constitution of sublunary Bodies; as Averroes saith.

Iohn Taxil, a French writer, being ve­ry much offended with a certaine scrupu­lous Bigot, that had taxed him of errour and impiety in his Cometology; hath put forth a learned tract of Astronomy, which he dedicates to M ^sieua du Vair: where he proves out of Thomas Aquinas. that as a Physitian can judge of the Goodnesse of Aquin. l. 3. cont. gent. c. 54. 84. & 86. the understanding, by the Complexion and Temperature of the Braine, as by the Immediate cause: In like manner may an Astrologer, by meanes of the Caelestiall [Page 157] motions, as by the Remote cause, judge [...] the Disposition. And thence he con­cludes, that Astrologers oftimes hit right [...] their Predictions concerning the Man­ [...]rs of men; yet still without imposing a­ [...] necessity on Future events, which [...]ay diverse waies be hindred. And this the opinion also of M. Delrio, who af­firmes in his Disquis. Mag. Lib. 6. cap. 3. [...]1. that, Astrologiae illa species non est su­ [...]rstitiosa, si tantum profitetur opinionem, [...]u suspitionem oppositi. v. g. suspitio est [...]unc puerum fore talem; inclinabitur ad [...]ec; Horoscopus illi talia portendit &c. Li­ [...]t enim nobis metuere, aut suspicari simi­ [...]a, ne (que) ullum peccatum in hac Observati­ [...]is cautione versatur; quae est Portio quae­am Prudentiae, & ideò secundum se Bona. This kind of Astrology is not superstitious, [...] it only pretend an opinion or suspition [...]f such and such Accidents, as may befall a man. As for example; if it be only propo­ [...]ed thus: that there is a suspition, that a Child will be thus, or thus; or he shall be [...]nclined to these things; or the starres por­ [...]end, that such things shall befall him; &c. [...]or in these cases, we may lawfully feare, [Page 158] or suspect, that such may fall out, an [...] therefore it can be no sinne at all, if we study to prevent them: it being a gre [...] point of wisdome to be cautelous; an [...] therefore in it selfe good. Cardinall To let repeats almost the same words, in h [...] Lib. 4. Instruct. Sacerd. cap. 15. For it can not be concluded from hence, that Astro­logers doe impugne the freedome of the Will: seeing that the Pagans themselves never thought, that the starres did Inforc [...] our will; but rather, that a wise man ha [...] power to rule the Starres.

But the Astrologers say, that the starre [...] Ptol. Cent. l. 1. quadr. c. 3. may move our will, Jndirectâ motione, is est, remotè, & ex accidente: eam inclinan­do interventu Organorum corporis, & po­tentiarum ei inhaerentium. That is to say Indirectly, and by Accident; working upon it by the mediation of the Organ and faculties of the Body. Astra non co­gunt, (saith Iunctinus, in spec. Astrol.) The starres have no coactive power over us.

Hac distinctione manifestum est, quan­tum errârint Neoterici, nescientes distin­guere hoc nomen Astrologiae. Omnes enim S. Scripturae Autoritates, & omnes feri [Page 159] leges adversantur opinioni Stoicae, & Pris­anistae; Can. non licet 26. q. 5. gios. in verb. propt. seget. & non huic Astrologiae, a S. Theo­gis decantatae, & quam S. Canones con­ssere.

We conclude then, with Rodericus à Medi. apel. l. c. c. 2. astro, that Iudiciary Astrology is of two [...]rts, Naturall, and Artificiall, or Imagi­ [...]ry: and these two differ from each other [...] three things. In the first place, the Na­turall or Physicall Astrology, observes the [...]aturall Influences and Impressions of [...]e Starres; such as may be proved by [...]nse, and Naturall demonstration: But [...]e Artificiall forgeth certaine influences [...]f Constellations and Imaginary Aste­ [...]smes, which they call Occult Proper­ [...]es; because they cannot be proved, nei­ther by Demonstration, nor experience: [...]s when they say, that those that are [...]orn under Venus will be Amorous, when [...]hey come to ripenesse of yeares; under Mars, Cholericke, under Mercury, Elo­ [...]ent; under Luna Fooles; under Capri­ [...]orne, Kings: &c.

In the second place, Naturall Astrolo­gy beleeves, that the Vertues and influen­ces of the starres have no power to work [Page 160] on our minds, but only by Accident, and Indirectly, and that by reason of the Sympathy that is betwixt it, and the Body which is also the reason why the Manner of the mind doe follow the Temperature of the Body.

Lastly Physicall, or Naturall Astrology Sueton. in Caes. Ner. & Domit. Val. Max. l. 8. c. 11. Volat. l. 13. undertakes not to foretell certainly and precisely Particular events, as doth the Imaginary: by which Iulius Caesar had foretold him, that he should not outli [...] the Ides of March: Aeschilus the Poet that he should dye by a blow on his head Plin. l. 10. c. 3. Nero, that he should be Emperour; bu [...] that he should also be the bloody murtherer Tacit. an. l. 14. of his owne Mother Agrippina: tha [...] Ascletarion should be torne in pieces and eaten by dogs: that Galba, Ʋitelli [...] and Tiberius should be Emperours.

All which are Events, that depend either on Fortune; that is to say, on no certaine Determinate cause; or else on ou [...] owne wills, over which the Starres have no more power, then they have over the understanding, on which the will depend. But, which is worse then this, the [...] Iudiciary Astrologers attribute to tha [...] [Page 161] Starres the power of working miracles, and a thousand such like superstitious fol­ [...]ies. And sometimes also, under the pre­ [...]ext of Iudiciary Astrology, they impiously meddle with the black Art: which caused Pope Sixtus Quintus to thunder out his Excommunication against Iudiciary A­strology, and all those that professed any such Mathematicall Arts.

Keeping my selfe therefore to the Do­ctrine of Catholique Church, to the cen­sure whereof I submit all my writings; (notwithstanding that Cardan confidently Aphor. 27. segm. 5. Aph. Astr. [...]ffirmes, that it is easier to know by Iudi­ciary Astrology, the Passions and Affecti­ons of men, then to foretell winds, raine, and haile: because that the houre of a childs nativity may more certainely be knowne, then that of the gathering toge­ther of so many vapours, and their [...], or evaporation:) my opinion is, that by judiciary Astrology it cannot beē knowne, whether or no such a one is sub­ject to such and such Passions, and there­fore not to love, or Erotique Melancholy. For, as Ptolomy saies, Soli Divino Numinc Centil. prop. 1. [...]fflati, praedicunt Futura Particularia: [Page 162] [...] [Page 163] [...] [Page 162] None can foretell Particular events, but those only that have this gift by Divine Inspiration. For otherwise, why might not these Wizards, as well foresee the un­lawfull dealing and fowle play of their owne wives and Daughters: which yet they are as ignorant of, as the simplest and most unlettered man that is. For which S. Thomas More wittily jeeres them in an Epigram of his.

[Page 163] And for answer to all those instances be­fore alleadged, for the certainty of Astro­logicall Predictions, we say, with the Po­et Euripides, that these kind of Fellowes In Iphigen. are furnished with lies at all times, and very seldome tell the truth; being, as the Epigrammatist stiles them, the Sonnes of [...]mpudence and Rashnesse, and nursed up by Folly.

CHAP. XXII. Whether, or no, by Physiognomy, and Chi­romanyc, a man may know one to be Jnclined to Love.

GAlen, relying upon the Authority of Lib. de cub. aegror. Hippocrates, affirmes, that those men that take upon them to professe the Art of Physicke, without the perfect know­ledge of Physiognomy, are as it were in [Page 164] perpetuall darknesse, and commit many grosse Absurdities & Errors: For as much as Physiognomy is a part of Semioticall Medicine, which the Naturalists divided into Metoposcopy, Chiromancy, and Par­ticular Physiognomy. Now of all these kinds, the first is the most certaine, be­cause that the Face is, as it were, the E­pitome, Index, and picture of the soule, representing by its diverse Characters and extract of all the Titles of its Noblenesse: And is therefore placed in the Frontispice of this Fabricke of our body, to the end it may be knowne, that there she keeps her Court, and chiefest Residence. Animi est omnis actio: & Imago Animi vultus est. The Soule is the Original cause and Prin­ciple of all our motions and actions: and the Face is the Image of the soule. Indices Lib. 3. de orat. oculi, saith Tully, quos Natura dedit, ut Equo, & Leoni set as, caudam, Aures, ad motus declarandos. And therefore Alexan­ander Aphrodisaeus calls the eyes, [...], the looking-glasses of the soule. It seemes, saith Plotinus, that whatsoever is Faire and Beautifull, is al­so Good; for both these the Greeks ex­presse [Page 165] by one and the same name, [...]: as if, saith he, the externall beauty of the Body, depended on the Internall Forme. And therefore the Ancient Greeks, con­sidering this, accounted only those men that were of a Beautifull and comely A­spect, to be worthy of the Crowne and Scepter.

And they prove this their opinion by the Examples of Priamus, Achilles, Saul, Cyrus, Darius, Alexander, Augustus, Hecuba, Andromache, Esther, and many others, in whom the Beauty and Perfecti­on of the Soule, was attended on by that also of the Body: because that the beauty of the Body depends on the goodnesse of the Constitution and Temperature, ac­cording to Galen. Now it is agreed on, on Lib. 1. de San. tuend. all sides in our Schooles, that a good and commendable complexion, is of times the cause of the Laudable Actions of the Bo­dy; and consequently of those also of the Mind. Multaenim in Corpore existunt, quae acuant mentem: multa quae obtundant. [Page 166] Saith Tully Tuscul. 1. There are many things in the Body that conduce much to the sharpening of the Mind and under­standing: and there be also many things that dull it. And therefore Hippocrates in his Epidemicks lib. 6. Sect. 5. is of opi­nion, that it imports much to Wise­dome, to be Leane: [...]. For those that are over-fat, Exhort. ad Bon disc. Lib. 1. de san. tuend. L. 4. de Plac. saies Galen, have their soule as it were buried in a heape of durt; and therefore such men are commonly heavy, and dull as a brute beast. Homer also speaking of Thersites, that notorious Buffoon, whom Achilles slew with a boxe on the eare, de­scribes him to be ill-favoured, of a ridicu­lous dwarfe-like stature, with a sharpe litle head, ( [...]) intimating unto us, that such men are generally Mischievous, En­vious, Impudent, and vaine-glorious fel­lowes. So Salust also notes Catiline for his Deformity, and Basenesse of Conditi­ons: and the ill-favoured lookes of Iuli­an the Apostate, was an Evident Argu­ment of his Accursed Life.

On the contrary, we see commonly Epidem. l. 2. sect. 5. 1. that, as Hippocrates observes, those that [Page 167] drawle out their words, and stammer in their speech; [...], are of a good Nature. And agen, those that have little, dry, hollow eyes, with a long, thin wrinkled visage, are lewd, crafty, slaun­derous, Aristot. Polem. Porta. envious, covetous, treacherous, sacrilegious rascally fellowes: Especially, if they are wont to looke very stedfastly on any thing, and use to bite their lips when they are thinking of their businesse: But above all, if they have but little beard.

He that has but litle beard on his face, and lesse colour; there cannot possibly bee found a worse complexion then his. And such a one is that Villaine Melitus Pithe­us, the false accuser of Socrates, described to be in Plato. In Eutyph.

Yet notwithstanding all that I have said, I would not have any man presently conclude from these signes, on any mans complexion, as if they were alwaies ne­cessarily [Page 168] true For Alcibiades, who was the most beautiful & comeliest young mā in his time, was notwithstanding a very vitious and envious person. And on the contrary the wise Socrates, notwithstan­ding that he had a very ill favoured coun­tenance, and was also bald-headed, hairy all over his body, and flat-nosed; yet was he pronounced by the Oracle of Apollo, to be the Patterne of Fortitude, Prudence and Temperance; notwithstanding that he was often sought unto, and tempted by women: as Tully reports it of him, in his booke De Fato. Cùm Socrates videret ux­ores in se jurgantes, & ille eas deridebat; quòd propter se, foedissimum hominem, simis narribus, recalvà fronte, pilosis humeris re­pandis cruribus, discreparent. Not but that he was Naturally inclined to Lust; as Zo­pyrus, that famous Physiognomist judged of him, and as himselfe ingenuously con­sessed: but that by Morall Philosophy he had corrected the bad Inclinations of his owne nature.

Now all Physiognomy is grounded, as Physiog c. 1. & 4. Aristotle saies, on the Sympathy that is betwixt the Body and the Mind. [...]. [Page 169] The Habit of the mind being altered, causeth an altera­tion also in the Body: and so the contra­ry. For, as the same Authour elsewhere concludes, if the manners of the mind did not all depend on the Temperature of the Body; in vaine should the Physitian attempt, with all his Medicines and Helleborismes, the cure of those that are sicke of Love, or any the like Passions. Not that I would have you thinke, that these Physiognomicall signes doe alwaies necessarily discover the Passions and Af­fections of the mind, but only for the most part, and Probably.

Besides, all Physiognomists affirme, that we ought not peremptorily to conclude any thing, from the disposition or Tem­perature of any one part alone: but wee must compare diverse signes together, & so give judgement accordingly: yet still with this Proviso, that we extend not the Iurisdiction of this Science any farther, then to those Passions that are Naturall to Men, as Anger, Lust, &c. and not to such [Page 170] things as are of Free Election, as to be an Astrologer, Physitian, Lawyer, or the like.

We conclude then, that a man may know by Physiognomy, not onely those that are actually possest with this Malady of Love, or Erotique Melancholy; but also those that are Inclined, or subject unto it. For if I see a man that is Hot, Hairy, high-coloured, with a black thick curled head of haire, great veines, & a big voice: I dare be bold to say, that that man hath a hot and dry Liver, and his Generative parts are also of the same Temper; & that Gal. in Mi­crot. Arist. 3. de gen. c. 1. & Probl. 2. sect. 4. & 26. Sect. 10. Sueton. consequently he is inclined to lustfull de­sires: But I shall be bold to affirme it more confidently, if he be also Bald withall, as was Socrates, Galba, Ʋitellius, Otho, Do­mitian, and Iulius Caesar; (of whom it was once spoken thus by one at Rome. Vrbani, servate uxores; nam Moechum calvum adducimus: Citizens, looke well to your Wiues; for we have brought with Arist. c. 6. Physiogn. Probl. 19. sect 4. Cap. ult. l. 2. meth. Med. us a Bald Whoremaster.) Or else, if hee have litle Eares, a great Nose, thick weak thighes, over-hanging Eye-browes, or is flat-nosed; as Socrates was. Valescus de Tarenta, the most famous Physitian of his [Page 171] Age, observes the chapping of the Lips in Women to be a signe of their Inclination to this Malady: for that it denotes the In­temperate Heat of the Matrix, Quae appe­tit (to use his own words) semen, tanquam Lib. 2. de occult. Nat Mir. c. 26. Terra rorem. And Levinus Lemnius af­firmes the same of those persons that are Lame, and Cripples: which is the Opini­on also of Athenaeus, and Theocritus his Scholiast, who affirmes this to be the rea­son, which moved the Amazons to make their Children Cripples: Notwithstan­ding Lib. de Ar­tic. Hippocrates, an Author of greater credit then either of these, gives us other more probable reasons for it.

Aristotle in his Lib. 2. de Gener. Ani­mal. cap. 7. will have the Eyes also to bee very considerable in these Predictions: [...]: because, saith he, the Eye is the most Spermaticall part about the Head. And indeed the Wiseman knew an Adulterous Woman by her eyes better, and with more assurance, then any man can by the Hand: which cannot, as Averroës faith, denote the Disposition of Lib. 2. col. c. 4. & 6. the Body more particularly, then any o­ther [Page 172] of the Members, and consequently neither our Affections nor Passions, any o­therwise then by the beating of the Arte­ries in the Wrist; or else perhaps by the figure of the Hand: according to which, some wil undertake to guesse at the Tem­perature of the Liver: Among which is Avicen, and Rhasis, who by the greatnesse of the Fingers, pretend to give a guesse at Fen. 2. l. 1. doct. 3. c. 1. & Fen. 14 l. 3. tr. 1. that of the Liver, and endeavour to con­firme this their conjecture both by rea­sons, and Experience. For the Veines, be­ing derived from the Liver, as from their Principium Radicationis & Dispensatio­nis; (for as Hippocrates lib. de Alimen. af­firmes, [...], The Liver is the Root, from whence all the Veines doe spring:) and being united, and meeting together in the Hand; they are the cause of that Mutuall and Reciprocall sympa­thy that there is betwixt these two parts. And so by consequent, the Temperature of the Liver will appeare more evidently in the Hand, then in many other of the parts of the Body. Besides, the greatnesse Th a Vega cap. 8. Art. Med. of the Fingers is an Argument of the grea­ter Quantity of Matter, which is commu­nicated [Page 173] by the Liver to the extreame parts of the Body, and also of the greatnesse of the Liver it selfe. Now those that have a great Liver, are for the most part given to Gluttony; and Gluttons, we know are generally addicted to Venery and Lasci­viousnesse.

But this Art of Chiromancy, hath been C. illud. 26 q. 2. Tol. Sacerd. in­str. c. 15. l. 4 so strangely infected with Superstition, Deceit, Cheating, and (if I durst say so) with Magick also; that the Canonists, and of late yeares, Pope Sixtus Quintus, have beene constrained utterly to condemne it. So that now, no man professeth publikely this Cheating Art, but Theeues, Rogues, and beggerly Rascals; which are now e­very where knowne by the name of Bo­hemians, Egyptians, and Caramaras; and first came into these parts of Europe, about the yeare 1417 as G. Dupreau, Albertus Krant. l. 11 P. Virg. l 7. de invent, re [...]. Krantz, and Polydor Ʋirgil report.

CAP. XXIII. Whether or no, by Magick a Man may know any one to be in Love.

THere have not been wanting some, that out of those words of Plato, in Convivio, where hee saies, that Love is, [...], a great Magician and Inchanter, have beene bold impious­ly to maintaine, that this disease of Love can neither be found out, nor cured, with­out the use of Magick. But this opinion of theirs I shall hereafter in a more conve­nient place examin, only telling you here; that as there are some Stomacks of so ill a Complexion, as that they corrupt the best Meats, in stead of digesting them: so are there some men of so malicious and viru­lent a disposition, as that they will not stick to deprave and corrupt the meaning [Page 175] of the writings of the most Authentique Authors.

It is true indeed, that there are two findes of Magick: the one Naturall, and the other Artificiall. By the former of these we understand, an Exact and Per­fect knowledge of the Secrets of Nature; which makes us able to Prognosticate and [...]retell Future Events, by the knowledge of things Past, and Present. And this is that Magick which is stiled by Hippocrates, [...]n Prognost. & Epidem. the Sister of Medicine; as being both of them Daugh­ters of one Father, Apollo. [...].

But the Artificiall, whether it be Ope, [...]ative, or Divinative, is most abominable, and utterly forbidden by all Lawes, both Divine and Humane.

Professors of this Impious Art were of old, Numa Pompilius, Zoroaster, Pytha­goras, Hostanus Procones, Democritus, the Aegyptian Priests, the Persian Magi, and the French Druides: and at this present time, as they say, the Jewish Rabbins. This Accursed Art comprehends within it a [Page 176] Thousand other kinds, reckoned up by the Canonists, Cap. Illud. 26. q 2 seq. & Cap. Igitur, & seq, q, 3. and also by Giraldus Franciscus Ʋenetus, Polydor Ʋirgil, Vec­kerus, Delrio, and Others.

We have also sometimes among out silly Wenches some, that out of a foolish curiosity they have, must needs be putting in practise some of these Feats that they have receaved by Tradition from their Mother perhaps, or Nurse; & so, not thin­king forsooth to doe any harme, as they hope, they Paganize it to their own Dam­nation. For it is most certaine that Bota­nomancy, which is done by the noise or crackling that Kneeholme, Box, or Bay­leaves make, when they are crushed be­twixt ones hands, or cast into the Fire, was of old in use among the Pagans, who were wont to bruise Poppy flowres betwixt their hands, by this meanes thinking to know their Loves: And for this cause The­ocritus cals this hearb [...], quasi [...], as if we should say, Tel-love.

Oionoscopy is a kind of Divination that is performed by the observing of certaine Birds, as Magpies, Crowes, Ravens, Spar­rowes, [Page 177] Owles, and all those other kindes of Birds which they call, Oscines. To which kinde of Divination wee may also referre those Auguria, so much in use a­mong the Ancient Heathens: and in fine conclude with the Poet Pacuvius con­cerning these Bird-masters, who saies thus of them.

Those men, saith he, that peepe into the Entrals of Beasts, and understand more thence, then from their own Insides; I think they are to be heard onely, rather then hearkened to.

Theocritus in his Idyllia, makes menti­on of the Art of Coscinomancy, which is to be done with a Sive, or Search made of Haire: and some others of Cleromancy, [...]y the chance or hazard of Fortune, which they call Prenestine. Others speake also of another kinde of Divination, by the o­pening [Page 178] of a Booke at all adventures: and this was called the Valentinian Chance, and by some Sortes Virgilianae: of which the Emperour Adrian was wont to make very much use. I shall omit to speak here of Astragalomancy, that was done with Huckle bones; Ceromancy, and all other such like fooleries: and conclude, that no man ought to have recourse unto the Pro­fessors of them, either for the finding out, or curing of this Malady, but rather to a skilfull and discreet Physitian.

CAP. XXIV. Whether or no by Oniromancy, or the In­terpretation of Dreames, one may knowe those that are in Love.

MAcrobius upon Tullies somnum Scipionis, and Hugo de S. Ʋictore, make five kindes of Dreames: but S. Gre­gory in his Morals, lib. 8. cap. 16. & lib. 4. [Page 179] Dial. cap. 4. will have them to be sixe. Tertullian restraines them to Three sorts; and Hippocrates acknowledges but Two; and those are, either Divine, or Naturall. Now if we should comprehend the Ani­mall, under the Naturall; and the Diaboli­call, under the Divine; it were an easie matter to reconcile the differences of these Authors severall Opinions. Not­withstanding Aristotle, and Petronius will not acknowledge the Divine at all.

The reasons that he brings to prove, that no Dreames are Divine, are in my Opini­on of no validity at all, if a Man but exa­mine them throughly: However, his au­thority is of lesse moment and force, then that of Moses; which is also seconded both by Hippocrates, and Homer; who af­firmes, that

that is, as Ronsard translates it into French.

Those Dreames we call Diabolicall, that are caused by Evill Spirits: such as was that of the Emperour Tiberius, who, by the meanes of a knavish Magician, was made to Dreame, that he must give Him such a certaine summe of Money: But the [Page 181] Emperour, by chance comming to the knowledge of this Cheaters plot, instead of the money, bestowed a halter upon him for his paines.

The Pagans were wont to expect these Dreames, lying all night upon skinnes, spread on the Ground, either in the Tem­ple of Aesculapius, or else in that of Ca­stor and Pollux, as appeares out of Virgil. Aeneid lib. 7.

But the Women, when they were woun­ded [Page 182] with Cupids dart, would choose ra­ther to goe to the Goddesse Bona, then to Aesculapius; if it were Naturall Love, & not that Preposterous Lust, that Nature abhorres: unto which many of them oft­times basely yeelded up themselves, ne­ver thinking of God at all; who for this abominable sin of theirs, would never re­member them, but for their Punishment. And if perchance they had had some con­fused Dreame or other; then presently would they have recourse to some chea­ting Wizards for the Interpretation of it; which these subtle Rascals would be sure should be such a one as should please their good Dreaming Dame.

Naturall Dreames are such as are caused by the Disposition and Temper of the Body. For in sleepe, the soule doth, as it were, retire into the most Inmost and Se­cretest part of her Palace: where being free from all disturbance, she the more ea­sily [Page 183] apprehends the Disposition and State of the Body, and enjoyes all things that the can desire, whether Possible things, or impossible, as though they were present, and in her power.

The consideration of these Dreames, is, by the generall consent of all writers, ve­ry necessary in Physick, for the knowledge of the Humour that doth predominate, & to finde out the disposition of the Body. For commonly those that are full of Hu­mours, dreame that they carry some great burthen upon their back: whereas on the contrary those, that are free from all Re­pletion, dreame that they are either run­ning a Race, or leaping, or perhaps Flying in the Aire. The Cholericke Dreame of Quarrelling, and Fighting; the Melancho­ly of Funerals, Darknesse, and Mourning. The Phlegmaticke and Rheumaticke dreame that they are fallen into Rivers, Wels, Raine and Snow: Those that are Hungry dreame of good cheere, & Feasts; and the Amorist of his Wenches, Sports, Plaies and Masques.

And here by the way you are to take notice, that in Dreames all things seeme [Page 184] greater, and either more pleasing or dis­pleasing, then indeed they are: the reasons whereof, he that desires to see, may have recourse to Thomas à Vega upon Galen.

The Animall Dreames proceed from those things that a man hath either done, seen, or thought upon in the day time, as Herodotus saith: [...]: the Fancy in Sleep is most taken up with those things that the Minde hath been busied with in the day. The Good, saith Aristotle have good Dreames: be­cause that when they were awake, they had good Thoughts in their Minde. Such were the Dreames of the Primitive Chri­stians; because they continually medica­ted, saies Philo Iudaeus, on the Power and Providence of God. The Lawyer pleads in his sleep: The Souldier Fights: The Marriner cuts over the surging Seas; and the Hunter returnes home loaded with his Game. According to that in the Poet.

And if by chance our dreames be not conformable to our actions and thoughts in the day time, it is an argument of some distemper among the humours. So that it seemes to be very possible for a man to know, whether one be in Love, or no, by his Naturall and Animall dreames, if so be the party will but truly relate them at his waking; and that without any regard had at all either to the Starres, or any other such Fopperies, as are to be found in Iuli­anus Cervus, Artemidorus, Arnaldus Villanovanus, and other such like Authors as these, who have infected the science of Physicke with a thousand toyes and fooleries.

CAP. XXV. Whether or no, Iealousy be a Diagnosticke signe of Love-Melancholy.

ALexander Piccolomineus in his E­thicks, Lib. 10. cap. 7. Labours to prove, that true Love must be free, and void of all Iealousy: Because that he that pursues any thing with a vertuous desire, is glad to find any companions in his pur­suit; for this may not only further him in the attaining of it, but may also serve for an argument of the worth of the Object of his desires. For it is Weaknesse only that is afraid of an Incounter, as being conscious of it's owne insufficiency and want of power to resist.

But Plutarch is of the contrary opini­on, and saies, that as Vertue is not Praise­worthy, nor produceth any laudable ef­fects, unlesse it elevate the heart, and raise in it an earnest desire and Emulation, to be [Page 187] like good men, and to be accomplished with all those Indowments that are re­quisite for the attainement of the height of perfection: so Love, if it have not a tin­ [...]ure of jealousy, is neither Active, nor Ef­ficacious. This was it that encreased the [...]ove of Achilles to his captive Briseis; of Menelaus to Helen; and of Orestes to Her­eione.

[Page 188] I for my part am of Simonides his opinion whose saying it was, that as every Lapwing has a tuft upon his head, so must every true Lover have a touch of jealousie and that from hence it will necessarily follow, that Phaulius, that voluntary Cuc­kold, that plaid the Pandar for King Philip, with his owne wife, did not love her with any true love. Nor that infamous Galba in Rome, who having one night invited Mecoenas to come and sup with him, and perceiving him, as they sate a [...] the table, to cast amourous glances on his wife, when supper was ended, he tooke occasion to counterfeit himselfe asleepe to the end that Mecoenas might have the more liberty to court his wife to his de­sires. Meane while there comes a servant of his into the roome, who finding his Master, as he thought, asleep, went toward the table, thinking to steale a cup of wine that stood there: which his Master Galba Perceiving, and not willing to loose his wine, he hindred his servants purpose with a sudden exclamation; and cries our unto him, Non omnibus dormio, I doe not sleep for every body; but only for Mecoe­nas.

[Page 189] Both of these were of the same Nature that the Hee-goat is of: which only, a­long all living creatures is observed by [...]e Naturalists never to be jealous of his [...]ate: (notwithstanding that the story of [...]rathis, who was killed by a Hee-goat, [...]ems to prove the contrary.) Of which condition, the women of Tartaria are re­ [...]orted to be at this day; as of old, the La­ [...]daemonian, Cyprian, Rhodian, and Assy­ [...]an were.

But as Iealousy insinuates it selfe into the Mind under the title and pretence of [...]ood will: so when it hath once gotten [...]ossession of it, it presently begins to play [...]he Tyrant, and torments it extreamely; and makes the Lover looke with a pale, [...]eane, and amazed kind of visage, and sometimes casts him headlong into De­spaire: as it did Lepidus, and a thousand more. And then the same causes that ser­ved at the first to build Love upon, serve afterward to raise as deadly a hatred: as namely the Vertues, Beauty, Worth, Re­putation of the party beloved. So that if it were possible for a man to make his choice, from which of all the evills in the [Page 190] world be free; he could not, in my opinion, make a fitter choice, then of this mischievous Iealousy. Because that in all others, the paine endures no longer the the cause: but Iealousy springs indifferently from that which is, and from that which is not, nor perhaps never shall be. O the Ingenuity of this Passion! which hath the power, out of an Imaginary evill, to draw a true, and reall torment. Thus the famous Painter Parrhasius was wont to put his owne servants to torture, that by seeing them, he might be the better able t [...] expresse to the life the Paines and Horri [...] sufferings of Prometheus.

Why are we so ambitious of our Miseries, as to run to meet them, and make them prevent Imagination? We see that many have lost their Mistresses, only for suspecting their Chastity: as we often see those persons that are troubled with Hy­pochondriacall Melancholy, to fall sicke, with the very feare of being so.

So that we may conclude, that Iealousy of times causes us to be overtaken by that which we desire most of all to avoyde: and therefore a witty fellow once said, [Page 191] that Iealousy, and Cuckoldry, had their feast kept both on a day. And indeed this seemes to be confirmed also by many ex­amples; as namely, that of Danaë, who so long as she enjoyed her liberty, continued Chast: but she was no sooner imprisoned in the brazen Tower by her jealous Fa­ther, but presently she was lost. For, as the old Comicke Poet saith,

There is no doore so close, nor closet so secret, where a Cat, and a Wencher will not find entrance.

CAP. XXVI. The Prognosticks of Love, and Erotique Melancholy.

MAny have been of opinion that this disease was altogether incurable; and that it was wholy Supernaturall, and inflicted upon men as a punishment, or revenge for some evill committed by them, from a kind of litle Daemon of the same name; to whom the Pagans attribu­ted the command of Love; as they also did of Feavers, to the Goddesse Febris; the Night Mare to Hecate, or the Demy-Gods; the Terrors and affrights in the Night, to Pan: the Falling sicknesse, to Hercules: so likewise making Cupid the God of Love; Venus, of Lust; Mercury, of Theeve­ry; and Mars of Choler and Anger: that so by this meanes they might find the juster excuse of those outrages, which, when they were transported with their Passi­ons, [Page 193] they did commit. Quasi de Caelo tibi sit Inevitabilis causa peccandi; & Venus hoc fecerit, aut Saturnus, aut Mars: sci­licet ut homo sine culpâ sit; culpandus au­tem Caeli ac Syderum Creator & Ordina­tor. As if, (saith Augustine) the heavens had imposed an inevitable necessity upon men of doing ill: and that the cause of this, or that ill action was either Venus, or Sa­turne, or Mars: that so man, forsooth, should still be innocent; and all the blame be cast on God, the great Creator and dis­poser of the Heavens and Starres.

It is the custome of ignorant fooles, saith Hippocrates, presently to say, that a disease, and the causes of it are Divine, when they doe but find some new extra­ordinary matter in it. So that by this rule we must conclude, that all new diseases, as the Coqueluchoe, a disease that the French not many yeares since were infe­sted with, the sweating sicknesse, small Pockes, and the like, should be Divine, and therefore held incurable, because perhaps they cannot be cured by the idle Prescriptions of Empericks, Mounte­banks, and coosening Impostors, nor by [Page 194] the charmes and juglings of Magicians and Sorcerers.

Besides, seeing that all manner of per­sons are not equally subject to this di­sease, as, for example, Eunuches, children, and decrepit old folke: and that Love, as we have already shewed, springs from the eyes, growes stronger by daily con­versation and familiarity, kissing and em­bracings and other amorous passages; and is raised to the height of rage by the use of certaine Animals, Plants, and Minerals; but is quite extinguished by other reme­dies that are endued with the contrary qualities: There is no shew of probability that this Malady should be supernaturall and Divine, rather then any other. For in all diseases in generall Hippocrates ac­knowledgeth that there is [...]: some­thing Divine.

We conclude then, with Galen, that neither Love, nor the Falling-sicknesse, are Divine diseases. [...]

[Page 195] Some others have conceived Love to be incurable, because that for the most part, he that is sicke of this disease, does not desire to be cured of it.

For he still feedes himselfe with his owne vaine hopes of being able to find a cure, without the help of Physicke; and beares it out with a good face, pretending that it is nothing, but a meere flea-biting.

His owne credulity still makes him hope; and this hope keeps him alive, in [Page 196] expectation still of the accomplishment of his desires: which when he hath once attained unto, he then conceives himselfe to have reached the highest degree of happinesse; and perswades himselfe that these his joyes and pleasures shall never faile: till at the last, his owne experience convincing him, leaves him more misera­ble then before.

This Hope, blowing with it's gentle gales the fond desires of Lovers, kindles in their minds a fire, full of thicke smoake, which darkens their understanding; and carrying away with it their thoughts, casts a mist over them, takes away their judgement, subverts their reason, and makes them, as it were, dreame waking. As long as these hopes last, they will ne­ver relinquish their desires. And here ye shall have one, that doubts not, (how un­handsome soever he be) to mollify the Adamantine heart of his Mistresse, by the force of his beauty and comely shape: ano­ther, by his faire carriage and winning behaviour: a third presumes upon his greatnesse of birth, and the Nobility of his Progenitors: a fourth hopes to winne [Page 197] her by his witty and eloquent discourse: however if all these faile, there is great hope that at length she may be moved to compassion by sighes and pittifull com­plaints: which is indeed the Lovers last refuge.

I shall therefore easily grant to the Se­ctaries of this opinion, concerning the in­curablenesse of this disease, that it is no small taske to cure a sicke man of a disease, that he is unwilling to part with: conside­ring that the cure of any disease depends as much upon the Patient, as on the Physi­tian. For as Hippocrates saith: [...]: for the curing of a di­sease, it is required of the Patient also, as well as of the Physitian, that he make what resistance he can against it, and by no meanes yield to it in the least degree. But yet is it not a thing utterly impossi­ble to work such a cure as this: for there may be meanes found out of times to bring the Patient to desire and seeke out for cure of his Malady: as we shall shew you hereafter, in the 32. Chapter of this Tract.

Lastly, some learned Authours have [Page 198] said, that this disease was incurable, not so much through the fault of the Patient, as the insufficiency and defect of the A­gent; which is, the remedies that are ap­plied in this case. This made the Despair­ing Oenone, more skilfull farre in love, then Physicke, cry out in this manner.

And even Apollo himselfe, the Author and first Inventor of Physick, is jeered by the Poet, for not knowing any remedy for the cure of this disease of Love; when he brings him in thus complaining, that he was not able to releive himselfe with all his skill.

[Page 199] But those men that maintaine this opi­nion, doe not only offer great injury to the faculty of Physick, which, as Democritus saies, is the sister and companion of wis­dome: but seem also foolishly to accuse the Almighty Creator, who, being the Prototype of all goodnesse, (as Galen saith) hath not denied us any thing, that is ne­cessary for us. So that if God hath given us any remedies for this disease; it cannot possibly be imagined, but that they should have beene discovered in the space of sixe or seven thousand yeares, either by reason, or experience; which are the only meanes by which Physitians have found out cures for all diseases.

Neither is it to any purpose to fly to this refuge, and say, that Love is a disease of the mind; & that therefore the cure there­of is to be left to Moralists, and Divines: considering that the wise Apollonius Thyaneus refused to undertake the cure of a great Cilician Nobleman, that was despe­rately gone with this disease, & could not be moved, neither by his large promises, nor threats. For all the Ancient Physitians have handled the cure of this disease, not [Page 200] simply as Physitians, but as Philosophers also, which is an inseparable quality from a good Physitian: as Galen, following the doctrine of Hippocrates, hath proved at large, in an entire Tract concerning this particular.

And if the mind bee afflicted at all in Love; it is by reason of the mutuall Sympa­thy that there is betwixt it, and the body: as Aristotle proves plainly in his Physiog­nomy, and in many other places, which I shall not here trouble you withall; only concluding with that of Democritus, who affirmes that the diseases of the body doe infatuate and dull the mind, and draw the understanding also to Sympathize with it: [...]. Cleomenes, the sonne of Anaxandrides, being sicke; his friends reproved him, and told him, that they observed in him other strange hu­mours and fancies, then they were wont to doe: To whom he made this reply; that they ought not to blame him for this: For neither saith he; am I the same man, now I am sicke, that I was before: being then changed from what I was, no marvaile, if [Page 201] my humours and fancies be changed also. If an Apoplexy can lay asleepe, and, as it were, quite put out the eye of our under­standing: then questionlesse Melancholy, and Love will cast a mist at least before it; and so by this meanes there will hardly be found one houre in our whole life, when our judgement will bee found in due or­der, our body being subject to so many mutations, and incompassed with such va­riety of actions, that it is a great chance if it meet not at all times with some one or other, that will draw it out of the way; although perhaps a man cannot at all times take notice of it, without being obnoxious to a Perpetuity of Passion.

These considerations moved the same Philosopher to wish, that all men were skilfull in Physick: that so by rectifying the state of their Body, they might also preserve their mind in perfect health. Which is confirmed also by Galen in his Praecog. where he boasts, that he had cu­red many of their Bodily diseases, only by appeasing the Perturbations of their Mind, and that, both by naturall remedies, and also subtle conceits and devises, in­termixt [Page 200] [...] [Page 201] [...] [Page 200] [...] [Page 201] [...] [Page 202] with learned and apposite dis­courses, which are the only remedies for a distempered mind.

Whence we may draw this consequence, that those that banish all kind of good Language and discourse from the Art of Physick, are carried away wholly with malice, and their owne fond opinion. And therefore the Poet was much to be blamed, when he abuses it with the title of a Mute, dumbe Science.

Vnlesse perhaps some body will under­take to excuse Virgill here, and say, that he calls it, a Mute Faculty, because that, as Hippocrates saies, a Physitian must not be a Prating, Babling fellow; for, as the old Comoedian saies.

[Page 203] Such a Physitian is the worst disease of the Two.

We conclude then, that Loue is not in­curable, though it be indeed somewhat hard to be cured: and therefore the Poëts were wont to attribute unto it, the feet of a Gryphon; to intimate unto us, that Love enters swiftly, but retires very slowly,

A man may fall in Love, when he plea­ses; but he cannot so easily get out a­gaine.

And yet this Malady is so much the more hard to be cured, if it be accompani­ed with those Symptomes mentioned in the second Chapter; but especially that of Iealousy.

He that is Iealous least he loose his Love, Machaon's art cannot his griefe remove.

[Page 204] For then the Heart and Braine doe both suffer by the sympathy of the Liver, and secret parts. Now Hippocrates saies, that [...]. Those diseases that arise from the strongest parts of the Body, are alwaies the most grievous.

The Astrologers say, that there is re­quired a great deale both of Time, care, and diligence, for the cure of those per­sons, that are first taken with this disease, under the Influence of Saturne; especially if at that time he were either Retrograde, or in Conjunction with Mars, or in Op­position with the Sun. But if Venus were found in the House of Saturne, or was in a Trine, or Sextile Aspect with the Moon, when the party was first seazed on by this disease: there is great danger then that he will be long afflicted with it. This is the Astrologers opinion: and to this I will adde mine owne; which is, that if Old men chance to fall into this disease, they are more grievously tormented with it, then young men are: according to that of Menander.

For as Hippocrates in his Aphorismes affirmes: Those Diseases that are not a­greable to the Nature, Complexion, and Age of the party affected, are the most dangerous of all other. And such is Love, in old men: which is one of those things, Solomon could not endure. And confor­mable hereto is that of the Comoedian, where he saies, that

It was very good and profitable for a young man to be in Love, but a great fault in an old man to be so. And as Pindarus, speaking of the unjust desires of covetous men, saies, that [...]: men are wont with the greater eagernesse, and with a kind of Madnesse to desire those things that they cannot compasse: the same hath Hippocrates pro­nounced of old doting men that are in Love.

And Avicen saies, that if this disease [Page 206] come once to be Habituall, it is then alto­gether uncurable, and makes the parties affected Hecticall, Sottish, and Foolish; and sometimes also they are so bad, that they grow wolfe-mad, or perhaps turne to be their owne murtherers: as I have al­ready shewed by diverse examples.

CAP. XXVII. Of the Incubi, and Succubi.

SOme Divines have been of opinion, that Irregular and Melancholy Love, extends its power and Iurisdiction, as farre as to the very Angells, and Divels also: and that this is the reason, why the women are commanded by S. Paul to have their heads covered in the Church. But, by this word Angell, some others will have the Ministers of the Church to be understood; who in their Sanctity of Life should be like unto the Angels: or else perhaps the Apostle meant, by An­gels, [Page 207] all good Christians, who by the In­tegrity of their life, and purity of Consci­ence, doe differ as much from the com­mon prophaner sort of men, as Angels doe from men. But those that hold the other opinion, urge for themselves that passage in Genesis, where Moses saies, that, the sonnes of God, seeing the daughters of Men, that they were faire, they fell in love with them. In the explication of which place, Iosephus, Clemens Alexan­drinus, Justin Martyr, and others, by the Sonnes of God, understand the Angels. Notwithstanding R. Abraham Aben Ezra interprets this place of Vertuous Men, or else the sonnes of Righteous Seth: and by the Daughters of Men, he will have the daughters of wicked Cain to be meant. Rabbi Kimchi thinks that, by the Sonnes of God, men of great sta­ture were meant: and that, according to the Idiotisme and usuall manner of speak­ing among the Hebrews, who are wont to call those men that are very tall, the Mountaines of God. And this interpre­tation of his seems also to be confirmed by that which followes; where it is said, that to [Page 208] of these mariages that were made be­twixt the Sonnes of God and the Daugh­ters of men, were brought forth Giants.

For mine owne part, I shall be ready; as in this, so in all other places of Scrip­ture, to submit my selfe to the determina­tion of Divines. But I shall hardly even assent to that ridiculous conceit of the Rabbins, who are of Opinion, that the Incubi and Succubi are sprung from the seed of Adam, during the space of those 135. years; that he abstained from the knowledge of his wife, after the Mur­ther of the just Abel, committed by his accursed brother Cain. A more incredible thing yet then this is, if I mistake not, is that which is commonly reported by Hi­storians, of women that have been gotten with Child by Divells, and Jncubi: and of such copulations, they say, were begot­ten, Hercules, Romulus, Servius Tullus, Merlin, and many others. I grant it possi­ble, that the Divell may delude the sen­ses and Fancy of such lewd women, and cause their belly to swell, as if they had had carnall copulation really with a Man: and perhaps in their travaile make them [Page 209] seeme to be delivered of a dead Child. Iacobus Rucssius relates a story of one Magdalen, that lived in the Citty of Con­stance, who having given way to a Divell or Incubus, that haunted her, by the per­swasion of her Confessor, was at the time of her travaile delivered of a thousand Trumperies, as pieces of broken glasses, Nailes, pieces of wood, haire, pitch, tow, stones, bones, and such like stuffe, but with extreame paine. And sometimes also the Divell assumes a dead body, and by this meanes enticeth wicked minded persons to couple with him. Vincentius reports a story to this purpose, of a certaine young man, who one evening going out to a ri­ver, to swimme and wash himselfe, as he was in the water, he caught a woman by the haire of the head: whom presently he carried home along with him to his house, without speaking a word; and af­terward had a sonne by her. But the wo­man never speaking one word all this while, made the young man very much wonder at the strangenesse of it: and desi­rous to try if he could make her breake of this her long silence, which made both [Page 210] himselfe, and all his kindred very much suspect the condition and strange produ­ction of this monstrous Child, he made her beleeve one day that he would kill her sonne; at which she spake some few words, but instantly vanisht out of his sight. Iacobus Ruessius tells a story of a Butcher, that was in the like manner se­duced by a Succubus: not much unlike that of Machates and Philinion, related by Aelian, Phlegon, Loyer, and Le sieur de l' Ancre. If any desire to see more con­cerning this particular, he may have re­course to Ruessius, in his discourse of Me­lancholy: where he plainely proves that of S ^t Chrysostome to be true, that Quos­cun (que) Diabolus superat, per Melancholi­am superat. Whom so ever the Divell o­vercomes, he overcomes by Melancholy. And therefore the Physitians for very good reason call Melancholy, the Divell Bath.

Yet is it most certaine, that some wo­men have verily thought that they have been forced by the Divell, or some Witch or other; when as in truth they were only troubled with the Night­mare, [Page 211] a disease which the Latines call In­cubus, the Greekes [...], Jnsilire: and by some, [...]. The­mison cals it [...], to suffocate, or strangle: the Arabians call it, Alchabum, Algiathum, or Alneidalan, as Avicen saith.

This Disease takes them commonly in their first sleepe, when as the thick grosse vapors which are carried up to the Braine, stop the Nerves that serve for speech and Respiration: by which meanes the parties thus troubled, think they have a heavy burthen lying upon them, or else some Divell, or Witch, that would attempt a breach upon their Chastity. And there­fore Hippocrates saies, that Maides that are marriageable, and Widdowes, when they are troubled with Love-Melancho­ly, thinke that they see the Divell, [...]: for he doth not say, that they doe see such things.

And although that this disease is cau­sed [...], by the abun­dance of vapours arising from Repletion and Inconcoction, and accending up into [Page 212] the Braine: yet Physitians call it not by the name of the Night-mare, or Incubus, unlesse the Imagination also be hurt withall, in like manner as in Melancholy, which disease it often presageth; or else the Falling sicknesse.

I could adde here, that I my selfe have seene, in the towne of Castelnadaruy in Lauraguex, two young women, that maintained confidently for a certaine truth, that either the Divell, or some witch or other, lay with them every night, as their husbands lay by their sides: Both which by the helpe of God I cured, and they now acknowledge the weak­nesse of their Fancy, and their owne Fol­ly.

CHAP. XXVIII. Whether the Love of Women be stronger, and more dangerous then that of Men.

IT is most certaine, that, as Galen saies, a Hot complexion, or such a one that is Hot and Dry, is much more prone to dis­honest and irregular Love, then any other Complexiō, or Temperature whatsoever: from whence we may also inferre, that the Loves of these Complexions, must ne­cessarily be also the most violent, and so by Consequence, that Men must be oftner, and more grievously tormented with this Malady, then Women, who are of a Tem­perature both lesse Hot, and lesse Dry: For as much as Nature had never brought forth a Woman, but only for want of Heat; and therfore Aristotle calls them the Defect, and Imperfection of Nature: [...] [Page 214] [...]. The Female seemes only to be the Is­sue of Natures Impotence.

But Chrysippus the Philosopher, as Ga­len reports him, neglecting these weake reasons, affirmes the contrary: and saies, that Love is a Motion of the Minde, that is irrefragable, & opposeth it selfe against the power and rule of Reason: which is also approved both by Aristotle, and also all the Schoole of Physick.

Whence we may conclude, that with­out all doubt a Woman is in her Loves more Passionate, and more furious in her follies, then a man is: [...]: saies Hippocrates, lib. de his quae ad Ʋirg. spect. Women are Naturally of meaner Spirits and lesse cou­rage, then Men; neither is their reason so strong as theirs: and therefore are they lesse able to make resistance against so strong a Passion, as Galen saies. And hereto agrees that of the faire Hero, in her Epistle to her deare Leander.

This opinion is confirmed also by daily experience, which affords us Examples great store of Women, that are ready to run Mad for Love; but seldome any Men, whom we never see brought to that Ex­tremity: unlesse they be some effeminate weake spirited fellowes, that have been alwaies broughtup in Lascivious courses, and in Ladies Laps. And this is confirmed by the Poet also.

This Assertion may also bee proved by a strong Naturall reason, which may be col­lected out of Aristotle, lib. 3, de Part. A­nimal. cap. 4. & lib. 1. de Gener. cap. 4. [Page 216] where he saies, that Nature hath given streight Entrals, or Guts, without any tur­nings, or windings at all, to all gluttonous and ravenous Creatures; as Birds of prey, and the Wolfe: but on the contrary, shee hath variously and artificially interwoven the Bowels of those that it was expedient should bee sober and temperate; as Men. Whence we collect, that, Quoniam eadem Natura (quae [...],) in foeminis va­sa spermatica, propiora, & juxta cornuae Matricis posuit: contrà verò in maribus e­adem è longinquo, extra ventrem reiecit; ne facultates Animae principales, Imaginatio, Memoria, & Iudicium, per Pudendorum Sympathiam & vicinitatem perturbaren­tur, ( [...]. Quae propinqua, & communia sunt Affectionibus, ea, prima, & maximè vitiantur:) Foeminas hunc Amo­rem Brutum magis violentum habere. Nec immeritò: Consentaneum enim videtur, Naturam, aliquâ superadditâ voluptate, dolores illos, quos in puerperiis patitur iste sexus, compensare.

[Page 217] So that although perhaps Men appeare outwardly to be the more prone to Lust of [...]he two: yet must we not therefore pre­sently conclude women to be utterly free from the same desires, although they cun­ningly dissemble them as much as possibly they can. And therefore they may, not un­ [...]tly, be compared unto an Alembick, that [...]ands quietly upon its frame, without any [...]ew of Fire at all under it: but if you but [...]ift it up, and look under it; and could but [...]s easily see into the hearts of these Wo­men; you shall there discover an equall Heat in both.

CAP. XXIX. Of the Prevention of Love, and Erotique Melancholy.

FOR the Prevention of any Disease, it is necessary, saith Galen, in the first place, to remove the Disposition of the [Page 218] Body, which is nothing else but the Internall cause of the Disease: and which cannot be rooted out, except the Externall cause, that nourishes and preserves it, bee first taken away. He then that undertakes the Cure, or Prevention of Love-Melancholy, must first, saith Hippocrates, have a perfect knowledge of the nature of this Disease, that so he may [...], apply such remedies, as shall bee proper both for the Disease, Nature, and Age of the Patient, and also agree with the Seasons, and Times of the yeare. O­therwise he does but strike at the disease, Andabatarum more, Hoodwink'd.

And because that Love findes its pas­sage through the Eye, and so seazeth on the Braine: If he intend to cashiere it ut­terly, he must take heed, that no tempting Objects present themselves unto it: least happily it fall out here, as it did hereto­fore to Menelaus, who (as Galen relates it) when that Troy was now taken, and he had fully resolved with his own hands to punish his Wives Adulteries: he no soo­ner saw her, but that presently hee let his [Page 219] Sword fall out of his hand, and ran to her [...]d threw himselfe into her Embraces. [...]nd so by the power of her Beauty his [...]ary was suddenly changed into as Passi­ [...]nate a Love. Thus Galen: But the Scho­ [...]st upon Stesichorus reports the story o­therwise, and saies, that it was not Mene­ [...]us himselfe, but the Souldiers that hee [...]nt to stone Helen. However it were, we [...]e commonly, that the Falling out of Lo­ [...]rs, kindles anew their Love.

And as a Candle, that is almost out, reco­vers its full light againe, if it be but held downward a litle while: in like manner Love, that is almost extinguished, if it bee [...]nclined and bent never so litle to its Ob­ject, it takes fire afresh.

Although a Lover rage, & chafe; even now One faire word from his Mistris smooths his brow.

[Page 220] And if the party, that is the cause of h [...] Disease, be very beautifull: the Preservatives that are used must then be the stronger. For it is in this case, as in the cleaving of Wood: and the Beauty of the Party be loved, as the Axe the Wood, seemes i [...] like manner, as it were, to cleave asunder the Lovers Heart; and the Sighes are a [...] the Noise that followes the Cleaven stroke. But, as by doubling the force of the blowes, although the Wood is at length cleft, yet by Reaction the Axe also hat [...] his edge turned, and is spilt: In like manner faire Ladies, after that they have perhaps with the force of their Beauty made an entrance into the Hearts of their Lovers, oftimes goe off with a crack in their Honour.

Some Authors, of no meane note, con­sidering the admirable Effects that Beau­ty worketh, have beene of Opinion, that there was a certaine Transmission of Spi­rits from the body of the person beloved into that of the Lover: which did by this meanes produce a Reciprocall and Mutu­all Love. And for this cause the Roman Ladies of old were wont to weare about [Page 221] their Neckes a kinde of Wanton Figure, which they called Fascinum. And per­haps in Imitation of them, the Spanish Ladies doe at this day weare a piece of Corall, or Ieat, made in the forme of a Hand closed together with the Thumbe [...]hrust out betwixt the Forefinger and the Middlefinger, which they call Higo per no ser oiadas. The Greekes call all such toies [...]s these, [...]: and they were wont to make use of them, to the end they might be secured from the malice of En­vious Persons.

The Arabians, speaking of the Cure of Love, doe advise us to take Occasion to discourse of the party that is the cause of this disease, in the hearing of the Patient; and to reckon up all her Imperfections & [...]vices, making them more, & greater then they are; and to set forth her vertues also in the colours and shape of Vices.

Or else, saies Avicen, let the Physitian give this in charge to some Old woman who will be a great deale fitter to disparage and extenuate the good qualities of his Mistresse: alwaies provided, that the Patient himselfe be not Naturally a baminded Lascivious person: for this wi [...] then enflame his desires the more. For every one Naturally loves their Like. But if she be very faire, and that it cannot b [...] denied, without the suspicion of apparant malice: then must they endeavour to lessen her worth, by comparing her with those he himselfe knowes to be fairer.

And they must labour by probable Arguments to prove unto him, that that which he judgeth to be comely and handsome i [...] her, is, in the judgement of those that are more quicksighted, both foule, and deformed. As for example, if she have a handsome nose, of a reasonable size, and some [Page 223] what sharp: let them tell him then she is Scold, Luxurious, Wanton, and a meere [...]imbe of the Divell; and that, according to the judgement of Aristotle. And then commend unto him the litle Nose, with Catullus; or the Hawkes-nose, with the Persians; or the great Nose, with Alber­ [...]us, for an Argument of a good nature. So likewise, if she have a gray sparkling Eye; say then, that she is a foole, lustfull, incon­stant, and prowd: and then commend as much on the other side, with Hestod, Ho­mer, Pindarus, Iuvenall, and Catullus, those that have black Eyes; taking the same course in the rest of her good parts. For the Conditions that are required by the Naturalists in an Absolute Beauty, are so many; as that there cannot be found in the whole world a person so accompli­shed with all the necessary circumstances of Beauty, but that each part will afford sufficient matter for a Criticall Eye to finde fault with. Which Zeuxis, the fa­mous Painter, knowing right well, and be­ing desired by the Crotonians to represent unto them the beauty of Helen; he would not undertake it, unlesse they would suf­fer [Page 224] him first to see all the fairest women i [...] the Country naked, that so he might tal [...] from each of them, that which he judge [...] to be most excellent.

Besides, this Iudgement of Beauty, differs according to the variety of Fancie in the beholders. Ovid would have on faire, and litle: Hector made choice of on that was browne, and of a bigger size; for so was Andromache.

The Italian desire to have her thick, well set, and plumpe: the German preferre [...] one that is strong: the Spaniard loves a wench that is leane; and the French, one that is soft, delicate, and tender: but the Indians, a black one. Hippocrates, and af­ter him, Celsus, commend a tall stature, in young people: but dispraise it in old.

And for this cause the Ancient Poets fained, that Beauty was the daughter of Iris and Admiration: because that as the Sun, reflecting upon a watry Cloud, de­ceaves our Eyes, making us beleeve we see diverse various colours, which are not [Page 225] there, but only in Appearance: In like manner is Beauty, nothing else, but a false flash of Raies, which dazle our eyes, when it appeares from among the cloudes of so great variety of Allurements. Whence we may conclude, that the rarest and most excellent Beauties that are, are not such indeed, as they seeme to be; but onely ap­peare to be so, through the sole defect of the beholders, and through the weaknesse of their Eyes; who commonly judge that woman to be Beautifull, which is of a white complexion, and soft and tender: cleane contrary to the judgement of Ga­len, who saies, that those are the signes of a False and Counterfeit Beauty; and that true and Native Beauty consists in the just composure, and Symmetry of the Parts of the Body, a due proportion of flesh, & the goodnesse of the Colour. Now he that de­sires to know whether a body be Propor­tionable, or no, he must, according to our Anatomists, lay him all along, and cause him to extend his armes and legs equally as farre as he is able: and then taking the Navill for the Center, and measuring him round about, that part that either goes be­yond [Page 226] the Circumference of this circle, o [...] else reacheth it not, is to bee accounted Improportionable. Vitruvius saies, that the length of the face from the end of the chinne, to the top of the forehead, is the tenth part of a mans height. If the Bo­dy be will set, and strong; it is seven times as long as the Head; & eight or nine times as long, if the body be slender and delicate. The eye-browes joyned together, make up the circle of both the eyes: and so is there a certaine proportion in all the rest of the parts of the Body: as you may read in Equicola, and le sieur de Ʋeyries, in his Genealogy of Love.

Yet notwithstanding, the Indians love those that have thicke lips: the Peruvians judge those the most beautifull that have great rolling eyes; and the Mexicans those that have litle fore-heads.

If you cannot perswade the Lover, and make him confesse, that his Mistresse wants these Conditions, that are required to an Absolute Beauty: then must you en­deavour to deprive her of that Moving beauty, which is called, a Good Grace; and consists in the due Composure of the [Page 227] Members and parts of the whole Body: or else of the beauty of the Mind; without which, according to Plato, Plutarch, and Galen, that of the body is nothing worth. And then you may prove to him both by examples, and Authority of good writers, that for the most part, those women that are faire, are also as Common: as likewise those that are unhandsome and deformed, are altogether as troublesome, and not to be endured: according to that of the Co­micke Poet.

If a man, saith he, marry an ugly defor­med woman; she must needs be quickly loathsome unto him: and he cannot take any delight either to be in her Company, or so much as to come into his own house. But if he get himselfe a handsome wife; his neigbours commonly will have as much to doe with her, as himselfe. So that [Page 228] Marriage seemes to bring along with it unavoideably one of these great inconve­niences.

Beauty, and chastity seldome meet in one person. For beauty is as it were a kind of prey, that hath continually a thou­sand in chase of it. And it is as a silent Let­ter Commendatory also of itselfe,

Which seduceth, and over-reacheth the judgement of the beholder, leaving a strong impression behind it. But it is with­all as a Letter written upon the Sand, soon defaced.

But for as much as, in the opinion of all Physitians, that have written of the cure of this Malady, it is necessary to represent [Page 229] unto the party affected, the foulenes of his errour, and the greatnes of the offence, if he persist obstinately therein: I would have this great charge left to Divines, who are farre fitter to performe it, then Physitians are.

Yet it so fals out oftimes, that these ad­monitions doe not worke any good at all upon them, but rather incense them, and make them the more headstrong and ob­stinate in their follies: according to that of the Poet Euripides, as he is cited by Galen.

But Plautus goes farther yet, and saies that,

Love is litle better then meere Mad­nesse: for they that are possest with it, are so humorsome, and Inconstant in their de­sires, that they know not themselves, what they would have: what they are per­swaded to, that they cannot endure to heare of: and what they are disswaded from, that they make choice of. What is denied them, that they earnestly desire: and when 'tis offered them, then they re­fuse it. &c. And the reason of this distem­perature in the Mind of a Lover, is, saith Aristotle, because that he is wholy gover­ned by his Passions, which stop and hinder all passage to his reason, which only is able to set him againe in the right way to Ver­tue, from which he is now gone astray. [...]. He that lives, saith he, according to his Passiōs, wil never hearken to any man that shall reprove him, or dis­swade him from it: neither indeed if he [Page 231] should hearken to it, would he be able to understand it. So Tibullus sware many times, and promised his friend, that he would never look upon his Mistresse agen: yet for all that he could not forbeare.

The breaking of their oathes in these matters, they make no account of at all; presuming perhaps upon that false Opini­on that the Heathens held, concerning perjury in Lovers, which they believed the Gods easily pardoned in them, as be­ing in that state, like litle foolish children, without the use either of Iudgement or Reason.

We must then, as P. Aegineta, and Avicen advise us, watch for a fit oportuni­ty to give them some gentle admoniti­ons. For in time, saith Galen, Passions may weare away: but not alwaies, whensoever [Page 232] a man pleaseth. For it is here, saith Chry­sippus, just as it is with those that runne in plaine ground, who can stop themselves in the midst of their course whensoever they please, because that the weight of their own bodies drives them on no far­ther. But if they take their course downe some Precipice or steep hill; they cannot then stop themselves from falling, when they please, the weight of their owne bo­dies still forcing them on farther. So in like manner, when as Reason is the cause of the motions of the mind; it is an easy matter to rule and order them as we list: But when either Lust, or Anger, (Passions which are very intractable and unruly, and may therefore be fitly resembled to the heavinesse of the body falling downe a Precipice,) joyne their forces together; they cannot so easily be check't on the suddaine, and at pleasure, but must bee gently dealt withall, and corrected by degrees.

We must then watch our opportunity for to fit our selyes with this, and all other remedies. For opportunity is the very soule and perfection of Physique. [...] [Page 233] [...].

We must also endeavour, if possibly we can, to convert his Love either into late, or Iealousy, by perswading him that his Mistresse doth not love him so well, [...]s she makes him beleive she does; and that all her entermaintments, favours, kis­ses, dalliances and embraces, are only Baites, and Enticements, to keep him in continuall slavery: otherwise, she would more easily and willingly yeild to satisfy his desires: for that true Love is, to wish all good to the party beloved that may cause either his contentment or profit, and not their owne only; and so likewise to be greived and troubled at the evills and af­flictions of the person they love, more then for their owne.

And if the party affected with this Malady, be a woman, we may then adde to this, the Dissembling of men, (which is as frequently found in men, as Inconstan­cy is in women;) together with the dan­ger they incurre of suffering shipwracke in their honour. And therefore Phidias the Painter, intending to intimate as much unto this sexe, was wont to paint their [Page 234] Goddesse Venus, with her foot upon a Tortoise: not so much to denote their false hood; as some have conceived; as to warr them to have a care of their Honour. For the Shee-Tortoise in receiving the Male [...] dares not turne her selfe upon her backe, because the Male having enjoyed his pleasure, would leave her thus, a prey for the Eagle, by reason that she is not able to recover her Naturall posture agen; thus preferring her life and safety, before her pleasure. In like manner ought women to take notice of the danger wherein Men commonly leave them, when they have once enjoyed them: exposing them, not only to the Eagle, which is the Divell; but also to the Crowes, which are the slande­rers, and such as will be prowd to be the Trumpeters of their Infamy and disho­nour.

And it is reported by Historians, that the Milesian wenches were by this means cured of their Love-Madnesse. For the Se­nate having forbidden them to murther themselves, and threatning them, that if they did, their naked bodies should be ex­posed to the open view of all men: they [Page 235] changed their Minds, and by this meanes were deterred from running mad up and owne the streets, or being their owne Executioners.

I should likewise advise men in this [...]ase, to represent unto themselves the [...]range disasters and misfortunes that have befallen to most wise, most valiant, and most worthy men, that have bin besotted with these follies of Love. Sin hoc parùm [...]uerit; ipsarum deinde Foeminarum imperfe­ctiones, at (que) immundiciem secum mediten­tur.

It is reported of Hypatia, the daughter of Theon the Geometrician, that she was so learned, and well accomplished in all points, that she farre surpassed, both for vertue and learning, all those of Alexan­dria; where she also publickly professed Philosophy, in the time of Honorius and Arcadius the Emperours. It so fortuned, that a scholler of hers was so surprized with the beauty both of her body, & mind, [Page 236] that he grew almost mad for love. But a [...] one day this young Inamorato was very earnest in his suit to this faire Damosell, & importuning her to cure him of his disease by satisfying his desires: she (being, as i [...] seemes, not ignorant of the Precepts o [...] Physicke in this case,) Panno menstruos [...] indidem prolato; ecce, inquit, adolescentule quod tantopere adamas, ubi nil nisi Immun­dicies habetur. Which the young man had no sooner seen, but his heat was presently allayed, and himselfe cured of his Love-Melancholy.

Gordonius attributes so great power & efficacy to this kind of Remedy, or rather Physicall stratagem; that he conceives that he that cannot be cured of his Malady by this, is to be given over for desperate, and Incurable: And, to use his owne words, si ex his amare non dimiserit; sanè non est homo sed est Diabolus Incarnatus. Fatuitas igitur sua secum sit in perditione. If this cure him not, (faith he) then he is cer­tainly no man, but a Divell Incarnate: and therefore the Divell take him and his fol­ly too. Yet by Gordons leave; although the French have so great an opinion of his au­thority, [Page 237] that they have a Proverbe, Que le Medecin qui vasans Gordon, vasans ba­ [...]on; the Physitian that goes without Gor­ [...]n, goes without his staffe: yet I cannot [...]sent unto him in this. And therefore will [...]ve now search out for some other more [...]re remedies, which we shall derive [...]om the three Fountaines of Physicke, [...]amely Dieticall, Chirurgicall, and Phar­maceuticall.

CAP. XXX. Order of Diet, for the prevention of Love-Melancholy.

IT is the advise of Mercurialis, that for the cure, or prevention of this disease, the party affected make choice of a cold and moistayre to live in. And he wonders very much, that Moschion, an ancient Greeke Physitian, should prescribe in this case, that the chamber of the sicke person should be indifferent hot and light. But [Page 238] for my owne particular, I should rather choose to follow the Advise of Avice who in the Prevention of this Malad [...] prescribes a Hot Ayre for Men, & for women, a Cold. And, as Rhasis also is of opinion, I would not suffer them to wear cloathes that are lined with Furres, E [...] mine, or Velvet; by reason that they he [...] the blood too much; as doe also all Odoriferous persumes, as Muske, Civet, Ambe [...] Gallia Moschata, Alipta Moschata, and the like. All these things I would banish both from the Chamber, and Cloathes o [...] the Patient: and instead thereof substitue Camphire, which by reason of it's col [...] quality, very much tempereth the heat of the blood.

He must also drinke water, and no wind upon any tearmes: because that wine inflames the blood, and makes men the more prone to lust; as Aristotle saies: [...]. And therefore the Po­ets feigne, that Priapus was the sonne of Bacchus. And the ancient Law makers did [Page 239] ordaine, by the lawes of twelve Tables, the same punishment for a woman that [...]runke wine, as for an Adulteresse.

Yet Gordon allowes the Lover to drink wine, and that too, not in a very small quantity, nor yet so much as will make him drunke: notwithstanding Ovid saies the contrary.

Wine, saith he, taken moderately, raiseth the spirits, and provokes a desire of Ʋenery: but if it be drunke in great abundance, it then workes the contrary effect and takes away all such thoughts. And he proves it by the instance of fire, which i [...] increased, and growes into a great flame [...] if you blow it gently: whereas, on the o­ther side, a rough boisterous blast quite ex­tinguisheth it. And therefore hee con­cludes, that either of the Extreams, either to forbeare utterly, or else to drinke it in excesse, is very safe: but the Meane carries all the danger in it.

I could be content to give a Poet free leave to maintaine so licentious a Position as this is: But that a Platonick Philosopher, Marsilius Ficinus by name, should advise, for the cure of this Malady, to be Drunke now and then, that so there may be new blood and spirits bred, for to supply the defects of the blood and spirits that are Infected by this disease of Love; and so by this meanes to cure one vice by a grea­ter, [Page 241] seems to me to be a doctrine not on­ly Impious, but also very dangerous too. But for confutation of Ficinus, I shall on­ly put the reader in mind of the example of Lots incest, and the cause thereof.

We advise then, that the Patient drink water, insteed of wine, that so by litle and litle [...]; as Hippocrates saies, the ha­bit and disposition of the body may be al­tered by degrees to a contrary state. Or else, which will be much better, let them accustome themselves to fast often, and feed on bread and water. For, as the Poet Achaus saies,

Love takes not up his lodging in an Empty belly. But contrarily, [...]: Ʋenus delights in Fulnesse and va­riety of dainties. Especially if the party affected be in good plight, and high fed, and of a sanguine, or Cholerick complex­ion. For in this case, all his meats must be but very litle nutritive; but rather Re­frigerative [Page 242] and of a cooling quality. And therefore ye must give him in his broaths, and salads, Purslane, Sorrell, Endive, Suc­cory, and Lettuce, which is so soveraigne a Remedy against this Malady, that Venus, desiring to forget all her unchast desires, buried her deare Adonis, under a bed of Lettuce. Some Physitians preferre the Seed before the Leafe. Or else we may use conserves of red Roses, or Province Roses; which are said to be very effectuall in these cases. The same vertue doe they also attribute to Mints: not so much be­cause they coole, as Aristotle, Pliny, Mag­nimus, Arnaldus de Villa Nova, and di­verse others have thought, being moved thereto, because that perhaps they had observed out of Hippocrates, that Mints doe take away all Venereall desires: but rather for that they disperse and consume the seed, if a man use to eate it often: as the same Hippocrates, lib. 2. de Diaeta af­firmes: [...]. Which makes me suspect, that that place of Ari­stotle is corrupted, and that in stead of [...] which signifies to coole, it should [Page 243] be read, [...], that is, to consume by dissolving, or melting. But the Poets doe fabulously referre this vertue, that is found to be in Mints, to a certaine Nymph forsooth, called Mentha, daugh­ter to Cocytus, one of the Infernall Rivers, and beloved of Pluto: who comming to the knowledge that Pluto was fallen in Love with Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, the Goddesse of Plants and Corne; shee made her boasts, that shee her selfe farre surpassed Proserpine for beauty, and withall threatned to raise rebellion a­gainst Pluto, if he offered to bring her into his Subterranean Dominions. But Ceres, being informed hereof, she obtai­ned of Iupiter, that this Nymph should be transformed into an Hearbe of that name, with this Curse also upon her, that she should ever be accounted an Enemy to Loves Mysteries.

Yet Avicen holds the contrary opini­on to that of Hippocrates and Aristotle, affirming that it is of a nature contrary to the Prevention and Cure of Love: which is also the opinion of Paulus Aegineta, Aetius, Dioscorides, and many others. [Page 244] But these contrarieties of opinion in these learned Authors, may, as I conceive, be easily reconciled, if we say, that accord­ing to the doctrine of Hippocrates and A­ristotle, Mints are contrary to the motions of Love, when it is caused by Humid Repletion: for in this case, dry meats and Medicines are very hurtfull, as we may collect out of Avicen, cap. 28. & 29. Lib. 3. Fen. 20. tr. 1. But if the complexion of the party affected be Hot, and full of Serosi­ties, and sharpe and salt Humours, Mints are then very hurtfull, according to the o­pinion of Aegineta, Aëtius, and Avicen.

They must also oftentimes use to eate Grapes, Melons, Cherries, Plummes, Ap­ples, Peares, and such like fruit. The Epigrammatist greatly commends, among the rest, the Stock-dove, or rather the Woodquest, and Ringdove.

I would also have them eate the coursest [Page 245] browne bread, or bread made of Rie, Bar­ley, Millet, or Spelt, (which Querceta­nus, in his Treasure of Health, mistakes for a kind of Wheat without any beard; because that Spelt corne is called Zea ge­nerally by all our Herbalists:) which is but a hungry kind of graine, that yeelds somewhat more nourishment then Bar­ley, and a great deale lesse then Wheat. They must also sometimes use to take Hempe-seed, or Agnus Castus, (both which seeds Galen reckons among Ali­ments) Rue, Cummin, or Corianderseed: and let them have in their sauces Vine­ger, juyce of Lemons, Orenges, Sorrell, Verdejuyce, and the like. But they must be sure to take heed of all manner of Aro­maticall things, and all fried or salt meats: because that Salt, by reason of its Heat and Acrimony, provokes to lust those that use to eate it in any great quantity. And for this cause the Aegyptian Priests were wont to abstaine from all manner of Salt meats, having found by experience, that salt things doe cause a kind of Itching or Tickling in those parts that serve for Ge­neration. And therefore the Rhodians, as [Page 244] [...] [Page 245] [...] [Page 246] Athenaeus hath observed, called the Feasts of Cupid, [...]: as the Poets also, with Plato, have surnamed Ʋenus, [...], which is as much as to say, Borne of Salt, or of the Sea: intimating unto us, by this Poeticall fiction, the generative vertue of Salt, which is indeed very great. And this is the reason that Fishes are more fruitfull, and multiply faster, then any o­ther living creatures whatsoever. And we see that vessells of salt commonly produce great store of Mice: the Female conceaving without a Male, meerely by licking of the salt: if we may believe A­ristotle. In like manner we see that Sheap­heards usually give salt to their sheepe & goats; and Huntsmen likewise to their doggs; by giving them flesh powdered a long time in pickle: for to raise and awa­ken in them their Generative Faculty, when it is in a manner quite dulled and dead in them. Which makes me apt to thinke, that this word Salacitas, which signifies an earnest desire and appetite to Carnall Copulation, is derived from Sal, signifying Salt; and sometimes also Beau­ty, or Gracefulnesse according to that of the Poet.

Our Patient must abstaine also from all meats that are very Nutritive, Hot, Fla­tulent, and Melancholy: as soft Egges, Partridges, Pigeons, Sparrowes, Quailes, Hare; and especially greene Geese, by reason of some certaine secret properties that are attributed unto them by Mag­nimus and Arnaldus de Villa nova: which I would have to be understood of the Li­ver only, which is indeed very nourish­ing: and which the Romans, as Athenaeus saith, made more account of, then of all the other parts of the flesh: it being most certaine, that the flesh of a Goose is very hard of digestion, and abounds in Excre­ments, all save only the wings, as Galen affirmes in his lib. 3. de Alimentis.

He must also take heed that he doe not use to eate often Pine-nuts, Pistachoes, small Nuts, Cives, Artichokes, Cole­worts, Rapes, Carrots, Parsnips, green Ginger, Eringoes, Satyrion, Onions, Wa­ternuts, Rocket, &c.

Oysters also, Chestnuts, Ciche pease, (which Pliny for this reason calls, vene­rea) and all such like meats.

The Alterative Medicines, that are of the like quality, are farre more dangerous then Meats are: as the seed of the Roman, or Red Nettle, Ash-keys, the leaves of Wood-bine, the true Scinkes (which, ac­cording to Rondeletius, are Land Croco­diles,) Diasatyrion, Triphera Saracenica, Diazinziber, and such like powders and Opiates, as you may finde them reckond up by Avicen, Nicholas Monardes, Sc­rapion, Mesue, Andernacus, Arnaldus, Matthaeus Gradeus, Rhasis, and other Au­thenticke Authors.

Now as the use of any of these Medica­ments above specified is very dangerous; So doe I conceive that Idlenesse is much more. And therefore we shall doe very well to take care that our Patient be al­waies in some serious Imployment or o­ther, [Page 249] according to his quality and condi­tion:

Whether it be in Warlike Actions, or Hunting, Study, or Husbandry. And there­fore the Poets feigne, that Cupid could never prevaile against Ʋesta, Pallas, or Diana, notwithstanding that he had tri­umphed over all the rest, both Gods and Goddesses: Intimating by this fiction, that those that place their delight, and are al­waies imployed either in the study of Learning, Hunting, or Husbandry, are not subject to the power of Love. And therefore let him be sure in the first place to avoide Idlenesse, as being both the Cause and Fuell too of Loves flames.

And as concerning the Exercise they must use, Mercurialis would have it to be Moderate. But I, for my part, should rather with Galen, and Marsilius Ficinus prescribe it somewhat violent, ad sudore [...] us (que) till they sweat againe: alwaies provided that the disease be not alread growne to Madnesse. And of all kind o [...] Exercise, I approve most of Hunting (whereby Hippolytus is said to have preserved his chastity,) and Riding; although that at the first indeed it seemes rather to provoke the body to venery, as the Philosopher also observes in his Problems. [Page 251] Sect. 4. Neverthelesse the frequent use of [...], is very effectuall in this case; as Hippo­crates also assures us: [...]: Those people that are great Riders, are [...]he least apt for Venery. And this he [...]roves by the example of the Scythians, whom he affirmes, by reason of their con­tinuall and immoderate use of Horseman­ [...]hip, to be [...] the most Impotent, and Eunuch-like men in the world.

Yet are there some kinds of Exercise and Recreations, altogether as dangerous; [...]s, the reading of Lascivious books, Mu­ [...]icke, playing upon the Violl, Lute, or a­ny other instruments. But the most dan­gerous of all, are Plaies, Revels, Masques, and Dancing: for that these exercises doe [...]s well open the pores of the Heart, as of the body. So that if any Serpent in the meane time chance to whisper into his care any Lascivious, wanton, or idle dis­course; or if any Basiliske chance to cast forth some unchast looks, and effeminate glances: the heart is very easily surprised, and impoysoned therewith; especially [Page 252] if it have ever before been wounded with Cupids darts. And what the Naturalist report of the nature of the Leopard, ma [...] not unfitly be applied to Love. For as the beast, by reason of his sweet savour drawes all other kinds of beasts after him but especially the Apes, (yet these, of a the rest he is not able to catch, because they suddenly take the top of some tre [...] or other:) he therefore endeavours to cr [...] cumvent them by craft; and therefore he lies downe upon the ground, and covering himselfe all over with boughes, he counterfeits himselfe to be dead, and that so cunningly, that the Apes beleeve him to be so indeed. Which they no soone [...] perceave, but that presently they leap [...] downe from the Trees, and fall to dancing and frisking round about him very joy fully: till at length the Leopard, finding them now to have sufficiently wearied themselves with their sporting about him, suddenly leaps out among them, and seases upon as many of them as he ca [...] well tell what to doe withall, and so devoures them. In like manner doth this little Divell, Love, daily at the first with [Page 253] those he intends to ruine, inviting them with some slight pleasure or other, as [...]ncing, revels, plaies, or the like: from [...]ese he leads them on perhaps to a high­ [...] degree of content, which they shall [...]de in ordinary conversation and famili­ [...]ity with their Loves: from this they [...]roceed to Passionate Love; and this per­haps at length brings them to the injoy­ment of their desires. But when that he [...]th got them once within his power, he [...]en seazes on them with all violence, [...]orrupting their principall and most no­ [...]e faculties, perverting their Iudge­ment, and depraving their Imagination: and thus under the Appearance of secure delights, he involves them in a thousand [...]all Miseries. For the Pleasure that Lo­ [...]ers enjoy, may very fitly be compared to that kind of Hony, which they call Mel Heracleoticum: which, by reason of the [...]ast of Aconitum that is in it, is more plea­sant then any other ordinary Hony, at the [...]rst tast: but when it comes to the point of digestion, it causeth a giddinesse in the Head, and a dimnenesse in the eyes, and [...]t the last leaves a very bitter tast in the mouth:

[Page 254] They must also carefully avoid all manner of lascivious discourse, dalliance, a [...] Kissing: which, notwithstanding that o [...] Ladies, with Theocritus, account to [...] Vaine, and of no force in this case; ( [...]:) yet doe they carry great dang [...] in them. And therefore they may be lik [...] ­ned to those Egyptian Theeves, w [...] were wont to be called [...], that is [...] say, Kissers: because that under the fai [...] pretence of saluting and kissing tho [...] they met upon the way, they would so upon them, and rob them.

But the greatest danger of all is, in the Contrectation & touching of their hand [...] breasts, and other more secret part [...] which the Greeks expresse very properly by the word [...], which signifie to handle, or feele Birds in the Market, t [...] try whether they be fat, or no: intimating unto us hereby, that those women tha [...] will suffer themselves to be handled i [...] this manner, are either to be bought, o [...] borrowed.

Now for a Preservative against this e­vill, Avicen, and Paulus Aegineta advise that the Party affected should be stricke [...] [Page 255] with some sad disaster, and great affright­ [...]ent; or else that he be imployed in some [...]eighty affaires, or be accused of some Capitall Crime or other. But I should ra­ther desire, that some learned Divine [...]hould inculcate into him the feare of Death and Hell; and so by this meanes [...]irre him up to devotion and frequency [...] prayer. For Prayer and Fasting are most [...]overaigne Preservatives against this Love Divell. And I would have him frequent [...]he company of Religious people: that so [...]y continuall Conversation with them, he may participate also of their good quali­ties: In like manner as a Vine, (according [...]s the Naturalists report,) being planted [...]ere an Olive tree, brings forth a more [...]t and unctious kinde of fruit, then other­wise it would doe.

Some Physitians counsell to take them and shut them up in Prison, (if so be they [...]e young, and of able bodies,) and there give them correction. But, in my opinion, Gordonius is too severe and cruell, when he saies, that he would have them whip­ [...]ed, and well beaten, donec totus incipiat Foetere, till they stinke agen. But the An­cients, [Page 256] taking a more wise course then this when they would prevent this Disease in young Effeminate Inamorato's, were wont to fasten a Ring or buckle on th [...] fore-skin of their yard: as Celsus reports And hereto Martial also seemes to allud [...] in that place, where he saies:

They must also take heed of sleeping o [...] their backs, for feare of overheating th [...] Reines: and they must not gird themselves in too streightly; for this causeth▪ Dilatation of the Veines. Neither must they lye on downe-beds, or feather-beds but rather on such as are stuffed with straw, or Willow leaves, Rue, Roses, Ne­nufar, Poppy, or Agnus Castus; on which strawed upon the ground, the Athenian Women were wont to lye in the time of the celebration of their Thesmophoria [...] which was a Feast consecrated to the Honour of Ceres.

Avicen, in his Chapter de Amore, Gor­donius, Arnaldus de Ʋilla Nova, and many [Page 257] other moderne Physitians, are of opi­nion, that the best way to preserve one, that is but newly fallen in Love, from this disease of Erotique Melancholy, is, to en­deavour by all meanes possible to divert his thoughts from his Former Mistresse, by making him fall in Love with another: whom when he once beginnes to be affe­cted with; they must then make him hate this, and fall in love with a third: follow­ing this course with him still, till at length he begins of his own accord to bee weary of being in Love. For as Aristotle saies, he that hath many Friends, hath never a one: in like manner doe I say, that he that is in Love with many women at once, will ne­ver run mad for any of them. And this, Gordonius confesseth that he learnt of the wanton Poët Ovid, whose advise this is.

For the Minde being thus divided, the de­sires are the lesse violent; and so one love takes away the force of the other.

But this opinion of theirs, (under cor­rection of so learned men) I cannot ap­prove of: considering that it is to bee fea­red, that either we shall not be able to re­move his Love at our pleasure: (which Avicen also seems to grant, when he saies that if we cannot bring it to passe our selves, we must employ some old woman about the effecting of it:) or if wee doe take him off from his first Love, and com­mend a second to him, he may happily fix there too firmely, and be as much perple­xed with this, as with the first Love. Be­sides, I my selfe have known diverse per­sons, who by this meanes have gotten so ill a Habit, as they could not choose but fall in love with all women Indifferent­ly, that would but seeme to entertaine their Love: and as often as they came in [Page 259] company where women were, their be­haviour was so ridiculous, that a man would have taken them to bee arrant Fooles, notwithstanding all their other Actions were very discreet, and such as might become the wisest Men. For all Passions, that are of any long continuance, doe imprint ill Habits in the Mind; which by length of time growing stronger, are very hard to be removed, and are apt to be stirred up at every the least occasiō. An ex­perience of this you may have in cowards, who oftimes are afraid even of those that come for their rescue and protection: and in Cholerick men, who many times fall out with their friends. So likewise those Men, that are prone to unchast Love, can­not content themselves with the Love of any one, but apply themselves to all in­differently. For Custome, which is, as it were, another Nature, being once growne up into a Habit, hath a wonderfull power in disposing the minde to that which is fa­miliar unto it. And as a stumbling horse is apt to trip at every stone that lies in his way; So he that hath contracted such an Amorous Disposition, is in love with eve­ry [Page 260] one he sees. And when he is once thus affected, he doth not then what he would, but what his Passion prompts him to: lust as a bowle, when it is once set a going, ne­cessarily turnes round, and cannot stay it selfe, by reason of it's circular figure, so apt to Motion. Dum servitur Libidini, facta est Consuetudo: & dum Consuetudini non resistitur, facta est Necessitas: saith S. Au­gustine; while a Man indulgeth his owne Iustfull desires, it growes at length into a Custome: and this Custome meeting no resistance, becomes at last a kind of Neces­sity.

CAP. XXXI. Chirurgicall Remedies for the Prevention of Love, and Erotique Melancholy.

FOr as much as the seed is the joynt, Immediate cause of this Disease, as Galen proves at large by diverse both Ar­guments and Examples, toward the end [Page 261] of his lib. 6. de loc. Affect. and seeing that the seed is nothing else but Blood, made White by the Naturall Heat, and an Ex­crement of the third Digestion, which provokes Nature either by its quantity, or quality to evacuate it; which other­wise would corrupt within the body, and so by sending up divers noysome vapours to the Braine by the Back-bone, & other passages, would disturbe and hinder the operation of its cheifest Faculties: It seemes to bee very necessary in the first place to take away the superfluity of Blood, by opening the Liver Veine in the right arme. And if the party be of a good Constitution, Sanguine, and well in flesh, you may take the greater quantity from him; because that their strength will bee able to beare the losse of the greater store of Blood. And you may reiterate it, two or three times in a yeare, so long as there is any danger of this Disease remaining: especially if you finde that this course would have been good to have been ta­ken with the Patientat the first. After the Liver Veine hath been opened, I would advise to take some quantity of Blood, ac­cordingly [Page 262] as the Age and strength of the Patient would beare it, from the Hamme Veine: especially if the party be troubled with the Satyriasis, and the Physitian find himselfe able enough to doe this. Or in stead of this, I would open the Saphena, or Ankle Veine: or else apply Cou­ping glasses upon his thigh neere to the privy parts, having first made sufficient Scarification. But he must not come to these particular Evacuations, unlesse the Veine in the Arme were first opened: which in case of the Satyriasis, or Vte­rine Fury, I would have to bee done the first day. For otherwise this would bee a meanes rather to attract and draw down more Blood to those parts, which are both the cause and seat of the disease, then to draw it away. Some use Cauterismes on the Legs: but I doe not approve of this course, but rather take it to be vaine, and of litle or no force at all. The Scythians, as Herodotus reports, were wont to cut the Veines behind their Eares, and so by this meanes made them [...] Impotent, and weake: and having brought downe themselves to this base [Page 263] dejected state, they took upon them the habit of Women, and spun with them too: as Hippocrates relates: for as the same Author affirmes, lib. de Aëre, Loc. & Aqu. the cutting of those Veines or Arteries that joyne close to the Eares, makes the persons so cut, Impotent, and unapt for Generation. Notwithstanding Vesalius, and some other Anatomists will have this defect to proceed rather from the cutting of the Nerves of the Sixth Conjugation, which passing along by the eares, are terminated in the Genitals, and Spermaticall Vessels.

This remedy being so easie, might also seeme very usefull for all those that have taken upon them the Vow of Perpetuall Chastity: but that there seemes to bee some danger in it of hurting the Memory and Iudgement: as may be collected out of Avicen, and is confirmed also by the ex­ample of the Scythians before mentio­ned; who, by this Chirurgicall experi­ment made upon themselves, became starke Fooles and Idiots.

CHAP. XXXII. Medicinall Remedies for the Prevention of Love, or Erotique Melancholy.

THE first Medicinall remedy shall be a Clyster, composed of cooling and moystening Ingredients: among which it will doe well to mixe Hemp seed, Agnus Castus, and the like. And the next day after, you shall give him a sufficient quan­tity of Cassia, Catholicon, Diaprum, or Tryphera Persica, with a litle Agnus Ca­stus: or else a very gentle Purge: for wee must not in this case use any violent Pur­gation, or which would make the body o­ver Laxative: as both Avicen, and Aëtius are of opinion, who to this purpose pre­scribes the Decoction of Betes, Mallows, or the hearbe Mercury. For all violent Medicaments doe heat the Humours, and inrage the Blood, driving downe the Ex­crements toward the Inferiour parts, and [Page 265] Spermaticall Vessels. And for this reason Arnaldus de Villa Nova, cap. de Regim. Cast. Ʋivent. preferres Vomits, in this case, before Purging.

Then let the party take every morning a litle milke, or else some broath, or Iulip that may refresh the blood: using also some Medicinall drinke, which is of a contrary nature to the generation of seed: especial­ly if the party be of a moyst complexion: for, for such persons, these kinde of Medi­cines are very good, as Avicen saith.

This Medicine I commonly use.

[...] Rad. Buglos. borag. & cichor. ana [...] 5. fol. Endiv. acetos. portul. lupul. & la­ctuc. ana m. j. sem. 4. frigid. major. & minor. ana [...]. j. semin. viticis & papav. albi ana [...] ij. passul. Corinth. flor. Nenufar. & viol. ana p. j. decoq. ad lib. j. in colat. dissol. sirup. de pomis redolent. viol. & Nenufar. ana [...] j. & misce, fiat Iulep. clarif. & aromat. [...]. j. santal. albi pro tribus, aut 4. dosibus matu­tinis.

Sometimes also I adde hereto some few graines of Camphire: or else I tem­per it with water of Lettice, Purslane, or water-Lillies: and so give it him to drinke [Page 266] for some certaine Mornings: especially the party affected be of a Hot and Chole­rick constitution. For, as Dioscorides saith these hearbs are very powerfull and efficacious for the Prevention and cure of this Malady.

The Athenian Priests were wont to take Hemlocke for this purpose: notwith­standing that it was the Ordinary poyson that the Areopagites used to put Malefa­ctors to death withall: as we may observe out of Plato. And S. Basil, (who is re­ported to have been as well an excellent Physitian, as a Divine,) affirmes that hee had seen women, that have quite extin­guished all their unchast Heats, meerely by drinking of hemlock. But we must take heed that we use not any Diureticall Me­dicines, & that for the reason before allea­dged concerning Purgation. Besides, all such Medicaments are commonly Hot and Dry, except they be qualified with a litle quantity of milke and water, which may temper their Heat. For Mercurialis affirmes, that hee hath cured women of this Love-Madnesse, by these remedies only. Or else let them use this.

[Page 267] [...] Lent. palust. p. 5. sem. lact. port. & [...]apau. albi, ana [...]. j. rosar. & nenuf. anae [...] 5. coquant in aqua, & cum q. s. sacchari [...]at sirup. quo utatur singulis diebus. Some [...]ake and boyle in their broaths a litle Mo­ [...]ell, and Hemlocke; but I am not of their Opinion.

And if there be any danger of Ventosi­ty, as there may very well be in such per­sons as are of a Melancholy constitution: then you shall use Decoctions, Iulips, or Oyntments, and the like; rather then cool­ing Simples.

After that he hath taken these drinkes, it would not be amisse, to purge him, with those Medicines above set downe; or else with Rhubarbe, & sirupe of Roses, or with the sirupe of Succory, compounded with Rhubarbe.

But methinkes it is a very Ridiculous conceit of Arnaldus Ʋillanovanus, where he saies, that there is no better way in the world to secure a man from this Disease, then to carry about him a knife, with a haft made of the wood of Agnus Castus.

It is also very good to bath the privy members in Vineger, the juyce of Morell, [Page 268] Plantaine, Hipwort, House leeke, or the like liquors: especially if the party doe no marry. But for my part I conceive, that a [...] there is lesse danger in bathing ones self in cold water, so perhaps there might n [...] lesse benefit issue there from: considering that those wenches of Lions were heretofore cured of this disease, only by leaping into the river Sosne, as we have before related. This bathing, which must bee done with cold water in the summer, and i [...] luke-warme in winter, you may reiterat [...] oftentimes, alwaies anoynting the reine [...] of the backe, and the Groyne, with Galen. Refrigerating Oyntment, or Mesues Ro [...] ­satum, or Camphoratum. To which you may also adde the juyce of those cooling Hearbes before mentioned. Yet must there be great heed taken, as Aegineta saith, least while we are so carefull of cooling the Privy parts and loynes, the reines doe not suffer too much by it. There is also great danger of stopping the course of their monethly Tearmes in Women and Vir­gins; if so bee that these Stupefactive and cooling Medicaments bee used too fre­quently. And therefore, least that avoyd­ing [Page 269] one inconvenience, we fall into a grea­ter, we must take heed of giving women [...]ay inward Medicines, that have Vinegar [...] thē: [...]: saih Hippocrates: It [...]ffends the Matrix and secret Parts, cause­ing great paine and gripings in them. And Avenzoar gives the reasons hereof, unto whom I must referre the Reader for more particular satisfaction herein.

Aetius, besides the annointing of the [...]eynes, Loynes, and the parts adjoining, adviseth to bath the forehead and Tem­ples also with Oxyrhodeum; especially if there be any danger of Madnesse, Vterine Fury, or Erotique Melancholy.

If it should seeme to bee somewhat dangerous for the patient to have these Oyntments, Cere-cloathes, or cooling Fomentations aplied unto him: you shall doe well then to gird him about with a thin plate of lead; to which both Galen, Avicen, Aegineta, Andreas Laurentius, and all our moderne Physitians attribute great vertue in this case. But they must take heed that hee weare it not too long, for feare it may offend the Reines. Besides all these Remedies already set downe, [Page 270] Arnaldus de Villa-Nova addes yet another, the use whereof he commends to a [...] that desire to live chast, and especiall Friers, and other Religious persons: which is, to goe Barefoot.

There are yet some other Remedies that concerne particularly the cure of the disease in Women, who are the most of a [...] subject unto it. And these are commonly Clysters, composed of very cold Hearbes mixt with a certain quantity of Camphir [...] Castorium, or Rue. Or else they may us [...] Vterine Clysters, such as this.

[...] Lent. excortic. p. ij. flor. salic. & rosar. ana. p. i. fol. olivae m. i. fiat decoct ad lib. i. in qua dissol. trochisc. de Cam [...] phor. [...]. i. misce, fiat Clyster: injiciatur i [...] sinum pudoris.

Or else this other, out of Aëtius.

[...] Nitri & Cardamomi ana [...]. i. cum ceratis excipito: fiat pessus, quem pudendis subdito. Vel certam quantitatem Diacordi [...] cum solani sucoo mixtam in sinum Ʋeneri [...] indito.

There are also diverse other Remedies and Prescriptions, in case of this disease, which have been left us by women, that [Page 271] have had some proportion of skill in Phy­ [...]cke: such as was Cleopatra, sister to Ar­ [...]oë, who in her Prologue to her booke desires to be called, The Queen of Physiti­ans. Her advise to her daughter Theodota [...], that if the disease be already growne to Madnesse, or Vterine Fury, that then she [...]hould intra portulam Ʋeneris radiculam [...]mmittere panno involutam: dicit (que) (mirum dictu) super pannum hunc exinde repeti­um Ʋermiculos quosdam inveniri.

And here I would desire the Reader to take notice by the way, that my desire [...]s to speake as modestly as possibly I can: [...]et must I withall observe the Precepts and Tearmes of Physicke, which cannot so well stand oftentimes with the Civili­ty and modesty of Language. Amo Ʋere­ [...]undiam; (saith Tully,) sed magis amo li­bertatem loquendi. I love Modesty: but yet I love the Liberty of Speech more. And yet am I not one of Zeno's sect, cui placuit suo quam (que) rem nomine appellare; who would have every thing called by its own name: and maintained, that nothing was Obscene, nor unfit for the chastest eares to heare. And indeed it may seeme to bee [Page 272] something a disputable businesse, whether or no the names are obscene and disho­nest, when as the Parts themselves that are signified by them, are not so, but are Natu­rall, usefull, and necessary: and of which also we oftentimes make publicke disse­ctions and demonstrations, and discourse openly of their substance, number, figure situation, connexion, Actions, and use.

Perrot, a French Physitian, adviseth to take Camphire, and distill it a douzen times: assuring us that this remedy excel all other in vertue, and efficacy. And Arnaldus de villa nova, saies, that if a man take the right stone of a Wolfe, and put i [...] under the right stone of the party affected he will in a short space forget all his un­chast desires. But this is not the only tri­fling devise, that is to bee found in that booke of his, de Ʋenenis. But if this should be true, which yet I am very apt to sus­pect, we must attribute this effect to some certaine Occult quality: to which wee must also referre the vertue which both he, and diverse other Physitians doe im­pute to the Carbuncle, Saphire, Emerauld, and Iaspir stones, for the preserving a main [Page 273] from Love-Melancholy, if he weare any of these precious stones on the Ring-fin­ger of his left hand.

CAP. XXXIII. The cure of Erotique Melancholy, and Love. Madnesse.

DIogenes going one day to the Oracle at Delphos, to aske counsell, what was the most soveraigne and speediest Re­medy for the cure of his sonne, that was growne mad for Love: received this an­swere, that he must enjoy Her, that was the cause of his Madnesse. The same coun­sell did Ionadab give to Amnon, who doa­ted on his sister Thamar; Hippocrates, to King Perdicca's sonne: and Erasistratus, to Antiochus, King Seleucus his sonne. This opinion is also set downe in expresse tearmes by Hippocrates, about the end of his booke De his quae ad Virgin. spect. thus: [...] [Page 274] [...]. My advise is, saith he, that all young wen­ches, when once they begin to bee taken with this disease, should presently bee married out of hand. The same is the opi­nion of Galen also, toward the end of those excellent bookes of his, which he compo­sed in his old age, de Locis Affect, as also of Avicen, Haly Abbas, Gordonius, Ar­naldus, Ʋalescus de Tarenta, Pereda, Lu­cretius, Ficinus, Ovid, and many others.

But the enjoyment of their Desires doth not cure this disease alone; but even the very power, or Liberty to enjoy them, doth oftimes worke the same ef­fect: according to that of the Poet.

And sometimes also a bare dreame doth the like: as may appeare by that story of a certaine young Aegyptian, that was ex­treamely in love with one Theognis, rela­ted by Plutarch. This young Inamorato prevailed so farre with this wench, that at the last she consented to satisfy his de­sires, [Page 275] upon condition that hee would give her a certaine summe of Money: which he very readily condescended unto. It for­tuned in the meane time, that as this lusty youth one night lay asleep in his bed, hee dream't that he embrac'd in his armes his beloved Theognis: and his Fancy was so strong upon him, that hee conceived himselfe to enjoy her really, in the height of Amorous dalliance: and was indeed by this meanes cured of his Malady. Which the Damsell coming to have notice of, she demands her salary of him: and upon his refusall to pay it, she sues him in the court of Iustice, alleadging for the reason of this her proceeding, that she had performed the conditions on her part required, in that she had cured him of his disease. Which when the Iudge heard, he com­manded the young man, that hee should bring into the Court the summe of mony agreed upon betwixt them, and there powre it out into a Bason: and withall decreed, that as the Aegyptian had con­tented himselfe with a bare Imaginary Pleasure, conceived in the enjoyment of Her body: in like manner should she bee [Page 276] satisfyed with the sound and colour of his gold. This sentence of the Iudge was ap­proved of by all, save only the Damsell: who objected against it, that the dreame had quenched the Aegyptians desire: but on the contrary, the sound and colour of the gold had encreased Hers the more; and that therefore this sentence was un­just.

And here before wee either approve, or reject this Remedy, we must distinguish this enjoyment into two kindes, either Lawfull, or Vnlawfull. Now there is no Physitian, that ever denyed to his Patient, for the cure of his Love-Madnesse, the en­joyment of the person he loved, so it were in marriage lawfully concluded on of all sides: considering that, as the Poet saies.

The wounds of Love, are cured only by that hand that made them.

[Page 277] Avicen, in his chapter de Amore, saies, that this is the only, and last remedy that we must have recourse unto. Ampliùs cùm non invenitur cura, nisi regimen coniunctio­nis inter eas, secundùm modum permissionis fidei & legis, fiat. Et nos quidem iam vidi­mus, cuireddita est salus, & virtus, & rediit ad carnem suam, cùm iam pervenisset ad arefactionem, & pertransissetipsam, & telle­rasset Aegritudines pravas, antiquas, & febres longas, propter debilitatem virtutis, factam propter nimietatem Ilisci. And he professes that himselfe hath seen some, that have been recovered by this meanes, when as through the extreamity of this Love-Melancholy, they have been grown leane and dry, and have had scarce any flesh left on their backes, and through weaknesse and faintnesse have beene brought into cruell Inveterate diseases, & Feavers of long continuance. But in case that Marriage cannot be accomplished be­twixt the parties, by reason of any Impe­diments on either part: I dare not bee so impious as to prescribe for the cure of our Patient, as Avicen, and Haly Abbas doe, Emptionem puellarum, & plurimum con­cubitum [Page 278] ipsarum: & earum renovationem, & delectationem cum ipsis. And yet I doe not marvaile at all, that these Mahometans should embrace this so wicked an opini­on: considering that their Alcoran per­mits them to have as many wives, and Concubines, as they are able to maintaine: as wee are assured by the relation of all those that have written of the customes, and manners of the Turkes, and other Ma­hometans. Neither yet doe I wonder at Ovid, and Lucretius among the Poets, who made a vertue of Luxury, and Incon­tinency. But this opinion is most vile, and execrable in the mouth of Christians, that would seeme to maintaine it: such as were Arnaldus de villa Nova, Magnimus, Va­lescus de Tarenta, Pereda, Marsilius Fici­nus, and some others. But I leave this que­stion to be disputed by Divines, whe­ther or no Fornication bee lawfull: and whether wee may doe Ill, that Good may come of it: And shall only for mine owne part believe, as the Morall Philoso­phers teach us, that Vice is never cured by Vice, but by Vertue, as by it's contrary: [...]: For Con­traries [Page 279] are cured by Contraries; as I shall be able to prove unto you out of Aristotle: and shall shew you withall, that those per­sons that take this lewd course to cure themselves of this Malady; instead of be­ing cured, they rather grow farre worse, and much more inclined to Lust, and all unchast desires. [...]. For by this meanes, saith he, the passages of the body are open­ed & made more capacious, & the sperma­ticall vessels are enlarged: and withall, the Remembrance of those sweet pleasures they have formerly enioyed, begets in them a strong desire to act them over a­gaine. This doctrine Aristotle seemes to have derived from Hippocrates, who dis­courseth of this point, almost in the very same tearms; [...]. For, saith he, if a man doe exercise the Acts of Venery very frequent­ly; his Veines by this meanes grow larger; and so attracting the greater store of seed, he is a great deale the more prone to Ʋe­nery. [Page 280] Galen also is of the same opinion; and proves it by that excellent and true Max­ime of the divine Plato in Theaeteto; where he saies, that Jgnavia quidem exsolvit: pro­prii autem officii exercitatio, robur anget. Idlenesse, and want of exercise, destroyes the strength: but labour, and often using of a mans strength, increases it. And this hee confirmes also by the instance of Womens breasts, which breed the greater quantity of milke in them, the oftner they are suck­ed. But on the contrary side, saith he, Can­tatoribus, & Athletis, qui iam inde ab ini­tio nullam vitae partem Ʋeneris illecebris contaminaverunt, nullam admittentes Ʋe­nereorum cogitationem, vel Imaginationem; iis Pudenda exilia, & rugosa, veluti seni­bus, sieri consueverunt, nulla (que) libidine ten­tantur. Which place, I hold to be very wel worhty the consideration of all those that have taken upon thē the vow of Chastity. Besides, if the contrary opinion of those Authours above named were true: it must needs then follow, that those persons that are married, should never feele the force of any of these unchast Heats of Lust: not­withstanding experience proves the con­trary. [Page 281] And this hath moved even some of the Ancient Fathers to confesse, that it was a harder matter for a man to preserve his Chastity, then his Virginity.

CAP. XXXIV. Remedies for the Cure of Love-Melan­choly in Married persons.

IT is often seen, that Married persons, whether they have been joyned toge­ther by their own good liking and choice, and without any constraint on either side; or else perhaps against the consent of the one or the other; doe at length conceave a secret hate against one another, which occasioneth betwixt them such discord, malice, and neglect, that they cannot en­dure the company of one another: but presently yeeld up themselves to the em­braces of some new Loves, whom they entertaine with all fervency and strength of desire, notwithstanding the unlawfull­nesse [Page 282] of this their fowle and lewd manner of living. The cause of this, is diverse for it is sometimes either the Dissimil [...] tude of Manners; or else a secret Antipa [...] thy in their dispositions: sometimes also some Imperfection either of body of mind in one of the parties. Sometimes it is caused by some Charme, or Inchantment; or else perhaps a Iealousy, or con­ceit that they have, that their Love is not requited with mutuall Love againe. And sometimes also it is caused through the want of that Pleasure that Nature hath in great measure bestowed on the Genitall parts in the Act of Copulation, by the means of those Nerves which are placed in them, and the Serous sharpe pricking Humour that is reserved within certaine Kernels in the neck of the bladder.

For the cure of this Naturall defect, I shall desire you to have recourse to Mari­nello de Vigo, Avicen, and others, & espe­cially Liebault in his first book of the di­seases of Women, and 35 chapter: where he sets downe the meanes that must be u­sed, for the reconcilement and bringing together againe of new married persons, [Page 283] that hate and fly the company of each o­ther. And here by the way you are to take notice, that as there are some Men that are Cold and Impotent: so are there likewise some Women too, that feele no motions of the flesh at all. Platerus in his Observations makes mention of two in this kind, who were for this reason al­waies Barren. Of this constitution was Amasis, King of Egypt; as Herodotus re­ports: and Theodoricus, King of France, is reported by Paulus Aemilius to have been Impotent toward his Wife, but not toward his Concubines. The same is re­corded also in the Annals of Aragon, and by Dupreau, in the yeare 1196. of Peter the Second, King of Aragon: which the Quen being advertised of, she went one night, and lay in one of the Kings concu­bines beds, and was got with child that night, and afterward delivered of Iames, who was afterwards King: and so by this meanes and subtle device of the Queenes, the King was brought to see his errour, and ever after abstained from his unchast Loves.

Homer faignes that Iuno, for to re­straine [Page 284] her Husband Iupiter from falling any more in Love with Latona, Jo, Calisto, and other his Concubines, borrowed Ʋenus Girdle,

Wherein were wrought all the desires, graces, perswasions, baites, and allure­ments required to the confirmation of love betwixt man and wife.

If either of the parties have any defect in their person, which may seeme to have been the cause of the others neglect; they must then endeavour to repaire it by all convenient remedies. Or if this be im­possible to be done; they must then strive to recompence this defect of body, by the beauty of their mind.

Maximus Tyrius reports, of Achilles, that he seemed so beautifull to all those that [Page 285] beheld him, not so much for his long gol­den Haire; for Euphorbus had a fairer [...]ead of Haire then he: but because that [...]is personall Beauty was adorned with that of his Mind. The learned Sapho makes her selfe praise worthy in this re­spect, when as in her Epistle to her belo­ [...]ed Phao, shee boasts, that what Nature [...]ad denied her in beauty, she her selfe [...]ad repaired that defect by the Indow­ments and graces of her Mind.

They must also endeavour to make them­selves conformable to each other in their wills, manners of life, and conditions: ac­cording to that advice of the Poet.

And if there be any secret Antipathy be­twixt them, they must yet still pretend some shew of love the one to the other: for it may so come to passe, that this feig­ned Love may in time convert to true re­all Love. It is reported of one Caelius in Rome, that, to avoid the Attendance on some great person in the Emperours Court, counterfeited himselfe to be grie­vously troubled with the Gout, applying all those ordinary remedies that are pre­scribed for the cure of this disease: Till at length Fortune did him the favour to send him the Gout in earnest. Of whom Mar­tiall hath this witty Epigram.

Appian also makes mention of another, who in a jeering way counterfeiting blindnesse in another, within a short space became blind himselfe. Love must be an­swered with Love againe. Monstrabo ti­bi Amatorium sine Medicamento, sine ulli­us Veneficae carmine. Si vis amari, ama. saies Seneca. I will shew thee a way how to procure love, without either Philter, or Charme: If thou wouldst be Loved, doe thou first love. Themistius, and Porphyri­us have a pleasant fiction to this purpose, which is this. As one day Ʋenus, having perceaved that her sonne Cupid did not thrive at all, went to consult with the Goddesse Themis concerning the reason of it; she receaved this answere: that Cu­pid could not recover a perfect state, and strength of body, unlesse he had a Brother, which must be called Anteros, or Reci­procall Love, for the mutuall assistance of each other. Anteros was no sooner borne, [Page 288] but presently Cupid began to grow, and spread forth his wings; and so long as An­teros was in presence, he appeared both greater, and much more beautifull: but in his Absence he seemed alwaies to dimi­nish, and abate both in strength and beau­ty. So that by this fiction is intimated of how great force and vertue, honest Em­braces, kind words, and courteous enter­tainements are, for the continuance and encreasing of mutuall Love. And for this cause the Ancients, as Plutarch reports, were wont to give the Bride a Quince to eate, on the wedding day.

It often comes to passe, saies this old Poet, that a woman, by her applying her selfe to the humours and conditions of her Husband, and by her neatnesse, and come­ly attiring of her selfe, tempers the roughnesse and harshnesse of his disposi­tion; and so by this meanes they enjoy [Page 289] each other very peaceably and Lovingly.

Philostratus reports, that the eating of Hares flesh, was accounted of great ver­tue among the Romans, for the main­taining of Mutuall Love and amity be­twixt married persons, and to divert their minds from thinking on any strange loves. And this custome was grounded perhaps on a certaine opinion, that, as Pli­ny saies, they had, that the flesh of a Hare makes those that eate it comely, and of a gratious aspect. And hereto Martiall seemes to allude, when he writes to Gel­lia thus.

Gellia, when ere thou send'st to me a Hare, Thou bidst me eate it, and I shall be faire Seven daies. If this be true, as thou dost say:

Thou never eatst a Hare, good Gellia.

[Page 290] Aristotle commends for this use the fis [...] called Remora, by the Latines; and by the Greekes [...]: and saies that they were wont to use it in their Philters. [...]: which place of Aristotle is thus translated by Pliny: Echineis, Amatoriis beneficiis infamis, Iu­diciorum, & litium mora. Which opinion of the Ancients seems to me in all proba­bility to have been grounded on a certain fable that they have, how that such a Fish [...] should stop the ship of Perianders Embas­sadors, whom he had sent to geld all the Males that were left of the bloud Royall: as if Nature her selfe held it an unworthy Act, that man should be despoyld of those parts, that were given him for the preser­vation of the whole kind.

The same vertue is attributed also, by some other Naturalists, to that kind of Co­rall, which is for this reason called Chari­toblepharon; and also to the Hearbe Cata­nance: and by Philostratus, to an Oyle that drops from certaine trees, growing on the banke of the river Hyphasis in In­dia; wherewith all the Indians are wont to annoynt themselves on their Marriage day.

[Page 291] But for mine owne part, I am more in­clined to be of the Poet Menanders opi­nion, who thinkes that the strongest tye, for the retaining of Man and Wife in Mu­tuall amity and concord is to have Chil­dren. [...]. Because that, Children, as the Philosopher saith, are Commune Quid, a Benefit that both parties have equall share in: and are therefore the fittest Mediators, and Vm­pires betwixt Man and Wife. Now it is the property of a Mediator to reconcile, and reunite both parties: as Aristotle saith. [...]. Now if you desire to know what means are to be used for the cure of Impotency in Men, and Barrennesse in Women: I desire you to have recourse unto a treatise I have formerly written of the same sub­ject.

The Romane Ladies made great ac­count of the hearbe Hippoglossum, or Horse-tongue, which they called Bonifa­cia, and attributed great vertue unto it for the reconcilement and reuniting of mar­ried persons. Albertus Magnus, & Lem­nius attribute the like vertue to a certaine [Page 292] stone, which, they say, is found in the belly of a Capon, that was not gelded un­till he was foure years old: which stone, they say, is of an exceeding bright colour, and as transparant as Christall, and about the bignesse of a Beane. Now he that means to prove the vertue of it, must take and wrap it up in a piece of skinne or bladder, and so weare it about him. Pliny affirmes that Eringo roots are of great force in this case. But I for my part am of the Poets opinion, who saies that

It is an idle and vaine thing, to goe a­bout to procure Love by Hearbs, or Charmes, or the like foolish devises: for true Love is caused only by beauty, and the vertuous dispositions of the Mind.

Yet sometimes I confesse, it is brought to passe by the use of Charmes & Witch­craft, that Married persons fall off from the Love they formerly bare to each o­ther: and so by this meanes are forced to entertaine new desires, and yeeld up [Page 293] themselves to embrace the Love of stran­gers. These Charmes are commonly cal­led in Latine, Nodi, sive Ligamina Ama­toria: of which many of our Moderne Physitians have written, and particularly Arnaldus de Ʋilla Nova, in his Tract de Ligaturis Physicis. And it is the opinion also of many both Divines and Physitians that it is probable, that the Divell, who is the Author of all Mischiefe, hath power to quench lawfull Loves, and to kindle new and unlawfull desires in men: as first, by making the Husband Impotent to­wards his owne wife, by the application of some naturall things that may have that vertue; which he can at his pleasure remove againe, when the same man comes to meddle with any other woman. Secondly, by raising dissentions, and Iea­lousies betwixt them. Thirdly by causing some loathsome disease or other, in either of the Parties: as it is reported of Medea, who by the power of her Charmes is said to have made all the Lemnian women to have stinking breaths, in so much that their Husbands could not endure to come neare them. Fourthly, by troubling their [Page 294] Imagination, and making either the Hus­band, or the wife seeme mishapen and deformed to the others eye; and all other both Men and Women to appeare faire and beautifull. Or lastly, by working some secret Antipathy betwixt them. For it is reported by Egnatius, that one Ʋalasca, a Bohemian wench, by her charmes cau­sed the Women of Bohemia to kill all the men in that place where she was, all in one night. Or else the Divell may doe this, by working some strange Alteration in the Temperature of the Genitall parts either of the Man, or of the Woman: for by this meanes some men have become Impotent, and unapt for Copulation: and on the contrary, some Women have been as salt as Bitches: as Saxo Grammaticus reports.

But we must take heed that we doe not Ignorantly impute these effects to Magicke, Charmes, or Sorcery, when as indeed they are produced by Naturall causes: As did of old the Scythians, who, having made themselves Impotent, by cutting the veines, Arteries, or Nerves that joyne close to the Eares, notwith­standing [Page 295] thought that it was a punish­ment inflicted upon them, by the God­desse Ʋenus Ʋrania, in revenge of the in­jury their Ancestors had done unto her, in pulling downe and rifling a Temple that was dedicated to her Honour in As­calon, a famous Citty of Palestina.

We must also be sure that the Wo­man be not [...], want­ing the naturall passage destin'd for the use of Copulation; as was Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi: And in this case, the passage must be opend with an instru­ment, according to the directions of Al­bucasis, Aetius, Ioan: Wierus, Pareus, & other Authentique Authors: Which thing I my selfe also once caused to be done in the City of Castelnaudary to two young maides of the same place. Not­withstanding this defect is incident both to Widowes, and to Married women al­so, if their Husbands chance to be a long time absent from them: as Iean Liebault affirmes that himselfe hath knowne it happen to two women that were neigh­bours of his. And I am much inclined to suspect, that Namysia, & Phaethusa, two [Page 296] women whom Hippocrates reports to have been Metamorphosed into Men, were only troubled with this disease: which is indeed more rarely, and seldo­mer seen in Women, then the other con­trary disease to this is, which many times proves the Occasion of quenching Loves desires in Married persons. But I shall not here set downe the manner of curing these two opposite diseases: but shall ra­ther referre you to Avicen, Aetius, Ae­gineta, and all moderne writers that have spoken any thing of Barrennesse, or of the Diseases of Women.

Arnaldus de Ʋilla Nova, in his tract that he hath writren concerning the Re­medies that must be used against the Di­vell, and his sorceries, counsels us to cause the party affected to carry about him a quill of Quicksilver, or else a piece of Corall, the hearbe Motherwort, or Squills. Ioannes de Ʋigo adviseth to besprinkle the house of the party that is enchanted or bewitched, with the blood of a black dog. Some other will have him eate the flesh of a Magpy, or Wood-pecker: or else to annoynt the body of the Inchanted per­son [Page 297] with the gall of a Raven, tempered with the powder of Hartwort.

But my opinion shall ever be, that In­chantments and Sorceries, are to be cured rather by Prayer and Fasting, and not by Physicall or Naturall remedies.

CHAP. XXXV. Of Philters, and Poëticall Cures of Love.

BEfore we descend to the cure of Love-Melancholy, it is necessary that we examine, whether, or no, this disease may be caused by Philters, and in like manner also cured by Poeticall remedies, or any other thing that is of a Nature con­trary to these Philters. Those that endea­vour to maintaine the power of Philters, or Love potions, alleadge for them­selves, that if it be in the power of a Sor­cerer or Magician to cause Hate; they may then as easily produce the contrary [Page 298] Passion, which is, Love; and that, by the use of certaine Characters, Charmes, Poy­sons, Meats, or Medicines, which may stirre up the Humours, heate the blood, or by some other meanes provoke them to Lust. And this their Assertion they labour to prove out of that place of the Prophet Nahum, where there is a woe pronoun­ced against the bloody City &c. ‘Be­cause of the multitude of the Whoredoms of the well favoured Harlot the Mistresse of Witchcrafts, that selleth Nations through her Whoredoms, and Families through her witchcrafts.’ Where by Witchcrafts, they say, is meant Philters, which they used to make, by burning the stones of Olives: as may be collected out of the book of Baruch. And this is the reason, as they conceave, that Plato, in Convivio, saies, that Love is [...], a great Magitian and a Sorce­rer.

The Heathen of old time attributed so great power and vertue, to these Philters, and Love Potions; as that they belee­ved it to be impossible, but that whosoe­ver dranke them, should forthwith yeeld [Page 299] themselves up to the pleasure of those that gave it them.

Plutarch in his discourse of Marriage seemes very confidently to beleeve, that there is such a Vertue in Philters: but yet he absolutely rejects them, & holds them very dangerous to be used. And he proves it by the example of Poysoned Baites, that men use sometimes to fish withall. For as these poysoned Baites doe indeed sud­denly, and very certainly catch all those Fishes, that doe but tast of them: yet are the Fishes to taken the more dan­gerous and unfit to be eaten. In like man­ner fares it with those women that use Love Potions, Charmes, and Sorceries, to inveagle those they doat on: for, notwith­standing that by this meanes they are in­deed certaine to enjoy them, yet it is but in a kinde of Forced and Inraged manner, without any true cōtentment at all. Circe, [Page 300] saith he, was both of this Sexe, & Nature yet receaved she but small content from those that she had by her Philters & Ma­gicall Spells transformed into Beasts. On the other side, she doated on Vlisses, who knew well enough how to love with dis­cretion, notwithstanding all her power­full Charmes.

You shall meet with diverse of these kindes of fooleries, in Tibullus, Properti­us, Horace, Theocritus, and in Ʋirgil also; who hath this that followes.

Apuleius in the third book of his Meta­morphosis, relates a pretty passage that be­fell his Hostesse Pamphile: who sending Fotis her Waiting-maid for some of the haire of a certaine young fellow, whom she was desperatly in love withall; inten­ding to try an experiment of her skill in Sorcery upon him, to force him to her will: the Maid, as it seemes, missing of her [Page 301] purpose, and not daring to returne home to her Mistresse empty-handed, espies by chance where some were shaving the haire of certaine bladders that they had made of Goat-skinnes for to swimme withall. And so taking with her some of this Haire, she returnes home, and concea­ling the truth of the businesse, delivers it to her Mistresse for the true Haire she sent her for. At length when Pamphile had fi­nished all her Magicall Ceremonies, and now began every minute to expect her Lovers approach: on a suddaine, cleane contrary to her expectation, there comes leaping into her Chamber those Bladders of Goat-skinnes before mentioned, of whose haire Fotis had brought to her Mi­stresle, which came very readily to satisfy her desires, in obedience to the power of her Spells.

Ioubertus, and Liebault report, that the women in many places, when they are newly delivered of a daughter, desire the women that are present, to save the Na­vill string of the Child: hoping by this meanes to gaine them store of Suitors, when they are once ripe for Marriage. For [Page 302] they very confidently beleeve, that if a li [...] tle quantity of the Navill string, being fir [...] dried and made into a powder, be give [...] to a young man in his drinke; hee cannot choose but instantly fall in love with the Wench that gives it. The ground of this custome, or rather Popular Errour, you may read in the above-named Physitians.

And the Sorceresse Medea thought that Venus made the same use of the Bird called by the Greekes [...], which, as No­el le Conte in his Mythologies, and Vige­nerius upon Philostratus conceave, is the same that the Latines call Motacilla, in English a Wagtaile; which is accounted of great power to cause Love: and there­fore Pindarus calls it, [...], a Ra­ging, or Mad Bird. But in my opinion, these Authors are very much deceaved in this: for the Bird [...] is described by Ari­stotle, to have two Clawes on each foot before, and as many behind; quite contra­ry to the nature of all other Birds whatso­ever. This Bird is called by P. Bellonius, Turcot, or Tercot: and by the Latines, Torquilla, a Wryneck, or Hickway: Gaza, and Pacius translate it, Turbo. But the [Page 303] Wagtaile is called in Greeke, [...], i. e. Culicilega avis.

These Philters, for the most part, were mixt with some poysonous Ingredients; which many times caused the death of the party that took them. Such were those that were given to Lucullus, and to Le­ander, sonne in law to Aretaphile; of whom Plutarch makes mention: and to Lucretius, as Eusebius reports: to Frideri­cus, Duke of Bavaria, and King of the Ro­mans; as it is related by Cuspinian. To which we may adde that, for which Tem­nia, an Athenian Matrone, was justly con­demned to death by the Athenians, who notwithstanding had a litle before (as A­ristotle relates it) pardoned another wo­man, who was convicted of the same crime; the Areopagites thinking the greife, that she must needs conceave, for having been the murtheresse of her own deare Husband, to be a punishment more cruell then Death it selfe: which is the punishment assigned for this fact by the Civill Law, l. etiam. ff. ad l. Corn. de sic. & Ʋenef.

I might here adde that which was given [Page 304] to Lancelot, King of Naples, by one of his owne Physitians, that owed him a spite, for having basely forced his daughter: of which, both the King, and the Innocent Damsell also died, in a most cruell & mi­serable manner: as you may read the sto­ry at large in Nauclerus, M. Montaigne, & G. Dupreau, in the yeare 1440.

Those Philters which did not kill those that tooke them; did notwithstanding ut­terly destroy their Iudgement. And of this last kinde was that which Ciree gave to Vlisses Souldiers: and that which Coeso­nia gave to the Emperour Caligula her Husband: according to the Satyrist.

This Philter, here spoken of by Iuvenai, was a certaine piece of flesh that is found growing on the forehead of a Colt newly foaled, and is about the bignesse of a Fig, being of a black colour, and almost round: [Page 305] as both Pliny and Aristotle affirme. Not­withstanding Aristotle in another place gives the same name to a certaine liquor, that drops from a Mare when shee takes Horse, being somewhat like unto the Seed of the Mare, but more liquid and thin. [...]: And some, saith he, call this liquor, Hippomanes: but some others will have that to be the true Hip­pomanes, which growes on the Colts fore­head. Tibullus the Poet seemes to bee of the other opinion, where he saies:

Notwithstanding Aloysius Anguillara, Cratenas, Dodoneus, and Veckerus, are of opinion, that Theocritus, by Hippomanes, meanes the Hearbe Stramonia, called by the Arabians, Nux Methel: and by the French, Pomme de Peru: in English, the Thorne-apple. And Rodericus à Castro will have it to be a certaine litle plant growing in Arcadie, called in French, Faug ere.

[Page 306] Porphyrius in his booke de Sacrificiis, notwithstanding that he was himselfe a Notorious Magician, as S. Augustine wit­nesseth of him, lib. 10. de Civit. Dei, cap. 9. confesses the Divell to be the Author, as of these Philters, so of all other deceits, cousenage, and lies. And therefore I dare not assent unto Iosephus, and some others after him, who are bold to affirme, that Moses, when hee had brought the chil­dren of Israel out of the Land of Egypt, & the peoples desires were still toward the place from whence they came, composed by his great learning and Art, certaine Rings, that had the power to cause forget­fulnesse of Love, in the parties that wore them.

However, we deny not but that there may be Medicines, Meats, and Poysons, of a power provoking to Lust: of which kinde you shall meet with diverse Cata­logues in Avicen, Aëtius, Aegineta, Ori­basius, and all our Moderne Physitians, that have treated of Sterility, and Impotency, both in Women and Men. But wee abso­lutely deny that there is any such power in any of them, as to make Iohn love Jone, [Page 307] rather then Iulian: much lesse to make a­ny one besotted with Love.

No hearbs, nor powerfull Spells can Love constraine:

Medea here tries all her Charmes in vain. For if they could; she then had Iasons will Control'd: Vlisses had been Circe's still.

Thus she, that boasted she could with her Charmes transforme Men into diverse formes and shapes, had no power at all o­ver Vlisses.

The true and most powerfull Philters cō ­sist in the beauty, comely grace, and cour­teous [Page 308] behaviour of a Man or Woman: all which the Greeks expressed by a generall Name, [...]: & these work the more powerfully, where they meet in those persons, betwixt whom there is a mutuall Sympathy: especially if they live an easie and dainty life.

Of this opinion also was Olympia, wife to King Philip of Macedon, and mother to Alexander the Great: of whom it is sto­ried, that when one told her that a certain Damsell about the Court, had by the force of some Charmes or Enchantments that she had used, caused her husband the King to fall in love with her: she no soo­ner saw the beauty of the Damsell, but that presently she cries out; Ʋaleant Ca­lumniae: tu in te Philtta habes. Away with these false and slanderous accusations; I must acquit thee of them; Thy Beauty is all the Philters thou usest.

The Pagans were wont to preserve themselves against the power of these Philters, by certaine remedies of the same stampe, which they call Homericall. Not, because this Poet was the first Founder and Inventor of them, as some have thought: But they were rather called by this name, because that, as they conceived, they deserved all Admiration and praise, as did all the Actions and workes of this Divine Poet: who, as it is reported of him, by repeating certaine words over sicke persons, cured diverse diseases: and in like manner by saying certaine verses over one [Page 310] that was troubled with an issue of blood, instantly stopt it: as it is also reported of the sonnes of Autolycus, who stopped Ʋ ­lisses blood, when he had received a great wound in his thigh on the Mountaint Parnassus, only by some Charme or spell they used.

These Poeticall, or Homericall Reme­dies, consisted in certaine Charmes, Cha­racters, Amulets, or such like Periapses, which no Christian Physitian ought to use: notwithstanding that the common people doe to this day too superstitiously believe, and put in practise many of these Paganish devises.

In conclusion then we affirme, that the most powerfull and soveraigne remedy against Philters, are Prayers, reading of good bookes, and other serious exercises.

CAP. XXXVI. Empericall Remedies for the Cure of Love, and Erotique Melancholy.

THe Ancient Greeks in this case, had in great account the Copaean Lake, wherein Agamemnon is reported by Plu­tarch to have bathed himselfe, when hee desired to quit the Love of the faire Chry­seis. Dexicreon is said to have cured the Samian women of this disease, by some certaine Ceremonies, and Expiatory Sa­crifices that he used. Others were wont to repaire to the Sepulchers of Rhadina, Le­ontina, or Jole, and there offer up their de­votions. But the most famous, and certaine Remedy of all, was the Leucadian Rocke, from the top whereof distracted Lovers would throw themselves downe head­long into the sea. The first that ever ad­ventured [Page 312] to make experiment of it, is said to be Sapho.

And this she did, because she could not obtaine the Love of hard-hearted Phao, as she complaines her selfe: and this pro­voked her to this desperate Attempt.

But those Antiquaries, that have en­quired more diligently into the truth hereof, affirme, that the first that ever took this Leape, was one Phocas; or, as some ra­ther thinke, one Cephalus, who was ena­moured of Pterela. Sapho, in Ovid, attri­butes the glory of this discovery to Deu­calion, who was extreamely transported with the Love of Pyrrha, whom after­wards he married.

[Page 313] The faire Calyce also, so highly com­mended by the Poet Stesichorus for her beauty, was so miserably enamoured of Evanthlus, that seeing her selfe refused by him, she adventured to runne that des­perate course that Sapho had done before her.

But the harshnesse and unpleasantnesse of this Remedy, gave occasion to some o­thers to substitute instead thereof Cupids fountaine in Cyzicus, the vertue whereof, as Mutianus reports, was such, as that it would utterly extinguish and allay the heats of doating Lovers. Of the like ver­tue also was the river Selemnus, spoken of by Pausanias; who notwithstanding seems to give litle or no credit at all unto it. For if this were so, saith he, [...]: the water of this river would be far more pre­tious then gold. Notwithstanding for my owne part, I find no such great Absurdity, or Improbability in the story of this Ri­ver. For it is most certaine, that a Bath of cold water is a very soveraigne Remedy for the cure of the Vterine Fury, which is a Species of Love-Melancholy; and also of [Page 314] the Dropsy: especially if the water be any whit Minerall, as it is probable the waters of those fountaines were. And this seems also to be very much confirmed by Mer­curialis, who assures us that he hath cured diverse women of this disease of Love, meerely by making them drinke a good quantity of cold water, and bathing them in the like.

The Doricke Musicke is also reported to have been of so great force in appeasing and composing the perturbations of the Mind, as Galen saith, as that Agamemnon, the Generall of the Grecian forces in the Expedition against Troy, left no other Guardian of his Wives Chastity in his ab­sence, save only a Musitian, that was ex­cellently well skilled in the Doricke Tone; who by the power of his Harmony restrained Clytemnestra from all unchast and Illicite Loves, so long as he lived. But the Adulterous Aegistus, perceiving that so long as the Musitian lived, it was im­possible for him to compasse his designes; he caused him to be murdered, and by this meanes at length obtained the love of the faire Clytemnestra, Boëthius tels a story of [Page 315] Pythagoras, how that meeting a company of mad Youngsters, who being well hea­ted with wine, were going about to offer violence to some that detained a sweet­heart of theirs from them, threatning to set the house afire about their eares: Py­thagoras presently caused the Musitian that played to them to change the Tone: and so by a heavy, grave, Spondaicall Mu­sicke, hee presently appeased their fury, and made them give over their violence and insolent attempt.

Ovid makes mention of a certaine Oblivious, or Lethaean Love, to whom the ancient Romans dedicated a Temple, and built it on the the top of the Mountaine Eryx, neare unto which stood the Temple of Venus. And to this forgetfull God would all those, that desired to deliver themselves from their Amorous follies, tender their devotions.

[Page 316] Instead of this Deity, the Greekes ac­knowledged and offered sacrifice to Ʋe­nus, surnamed Apostraphia: which I con­ceive to bee the same with the Celestiall Venus, or Ʋrania: whom the Scythians also anciently worshipped at Ascalon, after that by cutting the veines or Arteries behind their Eares they had made them­selves weake and Impotent, as is before delivered.

Terpsicles, as Athenaeus reports him, prescribes for the cure of Love, a Mullet, that hath been suffocated in a vessell of wine: And Pliny for the same purpose commends Chrysocolla, which the Arabi­ans call Baurach: or else the drinking of wine that a Lizard hath been choaked in. The Ancients made great account also of the waxe of a mans left eare; and of Pige­ons dung, steeped in oyle: as also of the Vrine of a Hee-goat, mixed with a quan­tity of Indian Spikenard. Iohannes de Vi­go, who was Surgeon to Pope Iulius the Second, counsells the party affected to take the Excrement of the person he is in love with, and burne it: affirming very confidently, that this is a most singular and [Page 317] certaine remedy; if the Patient doe but smell it. But such Receits as these, come out of the shops of such kind of Physitians, as Aristophanes calls [...]. Some other there are, that in this case will have a wenches haire cut of; just as Farri­ers use to doe with Mares, who cut of their Manes, when they desire to take horse.

In a word, there is not a Naturalist, that hath not invented some strange Medicine or other, for the cure of this disease. Al­bertus Magnus, and Cardan, commend the Emerauld, Ruby, and Saphire in this case: some others as highly extoll the ver­tue of the Diamond: and a third sort pre­ferre the Topaz, and the Amethist. Pica­trice commends the juyce of the Myrtle tree, the braine of Swallowes; and also the blood of the party beloved. Which expe­riment we find in story that Marcus Au­relius the Emperour proved upon his wife Faustina, who doated extreamely on a certaine Gladiator in Rome. To quench which unchast desires of her, the Empe­rour was advised by the Chaldaeans, to cause the said Gladiator to bee murdered secretly, that his wife might not know it, [Page 318] and that some of his blood should bee gi­ven her to drink, the next night that him­selfe intended to lye with her: which was performed accordingly, but with this bad successe. For that night was begotten An­tonius Commodus, one of the most bloody and cruell Tyrants, that ever Rome brought forth: and such a one he was be­sides, as spent his time wholly among Fencers, and such like companions, and was farre more like the Sword-player that was kill'd, then his owne father, the good Emperour Marcus Aurelius, who, as Ausonius saies of him,

Was never injurious to his Countrey in any thing, but only that he begot this Sonne.

Deianira, being Iealous that Hercules made too much of Iole, was perswaded by the deceitfull Centaure. Nessus, that she might utterly extinguish all his unlawfull desires towards her, or any other, if she would but follow his advise; which was, to send him a shirt, that had been dipped [Page 319] inoyle, and the blood of the Centaure. But the Event miserably deceived her expectation: for instead of curing him of his Love-follies, it made him dye a most cruell death, and full of rage and Tor­ment.

CAP. XXXVII. Methodicall Remedies, for the cure of Love, and Erotique Melancholy. And first of Order of Diet.

MArsilius Ficinus upon Plato's Con­vivium, and Franciscus Ʋalleriola, affirme, that seeing that all diseases are cu­red by their Contraries; according to that true and common Axiom, [...]. Jllaqueationis autem con­trarium est solutio; Loosing, is the Con­trary to Ensnaring, or Binding: it hence ne­cessarily followes, that Love must be cu­red by Solution, or Looseing. And of this Solution they make two kinds; the one [Page 320] Naturall, and the other Artificiall: the lat­ter of these depending chiefly on Evacua­tion, as we shall shew in the Chapters en­sueing: the other on the admonitions of pious, vertuous, and learned men; as also the change of Ayre, Abstinence, Labour, Cares, Feares, and Sadnesse. Which Re­medies notwithstanding I account more fit and proper for the Prevention of this disease, then for the Cure of it: considering that it is farre easier to destroy Love, when as it is yet but in the Bud, then after it is ripened into a disease. According to the advise of the Poet.

The Regiment then, or Order of Diet in the cure of Love-Melancholy, differs not at all from that, that is to be observed in the Prevention of it: save only that it ought to be somewhat more Humecta­tive, and lesse Refrigerative: Not forget­ting in the meane time those meats that by some certaine Occult Properties they have in them, are found to be very good for those that are sick of this disease: as, the Turtle-dove, the heart of a Wolfe, young Owles taken and boyled in the juyce of Marioram; the flesh of Rats, and the like. And if the party be fallen away in his body, and is now growne very thin, and dry: you must then prescribe him the same order of Diet, according to Avicen, as you doe to those that are Hecticall.

Besides this, it is agreed upon by all, both Divines, Philosophers, Physitians, Oratours, and Poets, that it is very good in this case that the party change the Ayre and place of his Abode: and that, not so much because it is a very wholesome [Page 322] course so to doe, in all Chronicall, and long continued diseases, as Hippocrates in Epidem: affirmes; [...]: but rather, be­cause that this change and variety of Place doth awaken the spirits of the Melancho­ly Lover, diverting also his thoughts, and depriving him of the sight, and ordinary conversation that he formerly had with the Object of his Love, and cause of his disease. Adducendus, saith Tully in his 4. Tuscul. ad alia studia, curas, sollicitudines, negotia: Loci deni (que) mutatione, tanquam agri convalescentes, curandus.

Nothwithstanding, as this Change of Ayre, and Place, hath no power of it selfe to cure Folly; or to make him wise, that desires not to be so: ( [...] said one of the seaven Graecian Sages: Change of Place neither takes away Fol­ly, nor teaches a man wisdome.) So nei­ther doth it profit a Passionate Lover any more, as Plato saies, then the shifting of his Bed doth a man that lies sicke of a Fea­ver. And the reason is, because that the Lover is alwaies longing for the presence [Page 323] of his Mistresse, and contemplating on her vertues, and Perfection, which seeme, by this her absence, to be the more encreased. For, as the Poet saith,

It is naturall to the minds of men, still the more eagerly to pursue those things that are denyed them, and to desire the more earnestly that which they cannot compasse. To what purpose should a Lover runne away, saies an old Poet, seeing that Cupid has winges, and can quickly over­take a Runnagate, though he make never so great hast to avoyd him.

These two wings, saith P. Haedus in Anther. signify the double Hope that a Lover hath, of being loved, and of being able to compasse the enjoyment of that he loves: which is indeed the Principall Ob­stacle that hinders the cure of this Malady.

[Page 324] But this change of place is a very sure remedy for the prevention of this disease; and also not altogether Vnprofitable, for one that is actually in Love, if so be that he hath fully resolved to endeavour to quit his desires. And this we may see confirm­ed by the example of Ʋlisses: and also of Aeneas, whom the Queen of Carthage loved, and made so much of. Otherwise this course proves very dangerous, and hurtfull for Melancholy Lovers.

That this remedy therefore may prove the more effectuall, it behoves the party affected, that first he discharge himselfe of all his desires, before he quit his countrey; as Diogenes once answered a Love-sicke Gallant: That so at his returne he may make his Mistresse the same answeare, that the young man did, of whom S. Au­gustine speakes: who returning home after a long pilgrimage, and meeting with an old sweet heart of his, who wondred very [Page 325] much at his strangenesse, and that he tooke no more notice of her: which made her suspect that happily he might, by reason of his long absence, forget her: she there­fore to prove the truth of it, told him who she was, in these words; Ego sum ego: I am the same you left me. But he retur­ned her this peremptory reply; At ego non sum ego: Though you are the same still, I am not.

As this Change of the Aire, and Place, is no very powerfull Remedy against this disease: so neither is Solitarinesse; as we may perceave by the examples of Phillis, Eccho, Pan, and many others, spoken of by the Poets. And I confesse my selfe to be of Aegineta's opinion, who very confi­dently affirmes, that many ignorant Phy­sitians have undone their Love-sick Pati­ents, by enjoyning them Abstinence and Solitarinesse: (Hos igitur maestos, & pervi­giles, cùm quidam dispositionem non satis [Page 326] pernoscent, illotos in silenti solitudine, te­nui (que) victus ratione colliquefacerent: ex quibus Cordatiores, deprehenso Amante, in lavacra & commessatum, & gestationes, & spectacula, & modulationes, fabulas (que) animum abducunt:) where as, saith he, a wise and understanding Physitian would rather cause them to cheere up them­selves, and seeke to divert their thoughts from Love, by carrying them to Musicke, Plaies, Sights, Feasts, and the like. And the reason is, because that these kind of people, in their Lonelinesse thinke of no­thing else but their Loves, having their hearts filled with longing desires, their mouths breathing forth nought but sighes and complaints, and their eyes, for the most part, ore-flowing with Teares: all which increase their flames the more: as the Poet saies.

Lot, we know, was transported with unchast and Incestuous desires, so soone as ever he had retired into a solitary place with his daughters: who notwithstand­ing before had alwaies lived chast, in the midst of the Infamous and wicked Sodo­mites. Our Poets also have filled their writings with the stories of the Loves of Faunes, Satyrs, Cyclopes, Nymphes, and Hamadryades. But on the contrary side, Company, and Frequency of conversati­on, and commerce with people, diverts the mind of a doating Lover, and cheares him up, and makes him see his Error.

Franciscus Ʋalleriola, in his Observa­tions, saies, that he found by experience, in the cure of that rich Merchant of Ar­les, that Solitarinesse doth very litle good in this case, but is rather very Hurtfull and dangerous. And therefore he took all the care he could, that he should be conti­nually visited by his kinsfolke and ac­quaintance. And I am of opinion, that the danger is so much the greater, if the di­sease proceed from black Choler, or Me­lancholy: [Page 328] for then it is to be feared, that if he be left alone, he will either make a­way with himselfe, as diverse in this case have done; or else he will runne mad: as Avicen advertiseth, about the end of his Chapter de Amant. Notwithstanding I doe greatly approve of Solitarinesse, for the Prevention of this disease: provided alwaies, that we joyne with it Fasting, Watching and Prayer: as many Religious and holy men have done, who have reti­red into Caves and Deserts, for this very purpose.

To Solitarinesse many have joyned Hunting: for by this meanes Diana was able to repell all Cupids darts; and Hippo­lytus neglected the unchast embraces of his shamelesse step-mother. For Hunting seems to be very usefull in this case, not only because it diverts the Louers mind from entertaining its owne unbridled Passions: But also because that it excites and quickens the Appetite of the poore decaied Melancholico; and by wearinesse, provokes in him a kind of pleasant Re­freshing Drowsinesse, and disposition to sleepe, which gives him not leasure to [Page 329] dreame of his owne fond desires. And yet Hunting did the more enflame the Love of Queen Dido, as it hath also done in ma­ny other of the Nymphs.

Those that delight not in hunting, may use in stead thereof diverse other exerci­ses either of the Body, or of the Mind, ( [...]:) which are indeed the surest and most wholsome remedies for this disease, by the common accord of all our Doctors: for as much as these divert all Amorous thoughts, blot out all remembrance of past pleasures, consume the superfluous blood, and refresh the spirits of the sick party, restoring him to his former state of body, if his disease have any whit impai­red it.

The exercises I would especially com­mend, should be Walking, discoursing, honest pastimes, Banqueting, Musicke, and such exercises of Recreation: from which I would banish all young Men, if so be the party thus affected be a Maid, or Wi­dow: and so on the contrary, if it be a Man, you must by no means admit the compa­ny of Women: (although I confesse, Val­leriola [Page 330] is of the contrary opinion.)

And yet Avicen affirmes, that it is of­ten seen, that these Remedies prove ve­ry hurtfull to many. And therefore the Clinicall Physitian must be sure to deale very warily, and discreetly in this case.

The Poet Menander addes to these, Hunger, and Poverty: assuring us, that Love never seizes on Poore Men, nor Beggers.

And the Poet Ovid gives us the reason of it also, in those verses of his.

Poverty hath not wherewithall to main­taine Loves flames.

Rondeletius, in Method. Mercatus, and many other of our Moderne Physitians, [Page 331] prescribe Fasting, and Abstinence to Me­lancholy Lovers: as likewise doe also all Gynaecian writers, to Women that are troubled with the Vterine Fury, which disease we have already proved to be a species of Love-Melancholy. But herein they all contradict the opinion of P. Ae­gineta, and Oribasius, who reprehend those Physitians, that prescribe Abstinence in these Cases. The words of these Au­thors I shall here represent unto you, as I finde them translated out of the Originall into Latine. Eos, qui ex Amore curis af­fecti, vigiliis (que) torti essent, cùm nonnulli id minùs intelligerent, balnei, cibi (que) abstinen­tiâ, & tenui victu consumpserunt. In qui­bus, cùm nos Amorem in causâ esse depre­henderemus; eorum animos, ab Amore, ad Balnea, ad Compotationes, ad gestationes, ad Iudos, & ad fabulas adduximus. And indeed Phaedra, who was in love with Hippolytus, found little help in Hunger; as she her selfe confesseth in Euripides. And although the Proverbe say, that Sine Cerere, & Libero, friget Venus: yet doe our Poets assure us, that Neptune himselfe, together with all the whole Rabble of [Page 332] Gods, and Goddesses of the Sea, Rivers, and Fountaines, have been often woun­ded with Cupids darts: Neither could our own forefathers escape his fury, even in those times when they fed on nothing but Chestnuts and Acornes.

To reconcile therefore these different opinions, we say, that if the Love-sicke person be so farre gone with Melancholy, as that he is now become leane, dry, and his body very much impayred; Fasting and Abstinence is then very dangerous for him: And we must give him good meats, and such as may moysten and strengthen his body againe. But if he be yet in good plight, and hath his flesh about him, and is full of blood: Abstinence in this case must needs be very good, ad Seminis, utpote causae primariae Amoris, consumptionem: that so the superfluity of seed, which is in­deed the Primary Cause of this disease, may be consumed. So that hence we may conclude, that this Remedy is more pro­per [Page 333] and necessary for the Prevention, then for the Cure of Love-Melancholy.

Galen in his lib. 4. de Plaecit. Hip. & Plat. acknowledging Time to be a sove­raigne Remedy of all our Passions, pre­scribes it for the Cure of Love-Melan­choly also: which workes its effects chiefly, by employing the Imagination, with various occurrents and diversities of Actions, and so at length dismisseth, and rooteth out this first foolish impression of Love, how deepe so ever it were. And Clemens Alexandrinus also, alleadging Crates Thebanus for his Author, saies, that it is the last remedy of Love, except Death. [...]. This Author, saith he, (speaking of Crates Thebanus) said well in another place, that the best remedy for to extin­guish the violent flames of Lust, is Hun­ger: or if this faile, we must then see what Time may bring to passe: but if neither of these succeed, the last refuge must be a Halter. For so will I have that passage in Clemens to be read and interpreted: see­ing [Page 334] that this clause, ( [...].) which is omitted in Clemens Alexandri­nus, is found not withstanding both in Di­ogenes Lacrtius, in his life, and also in the Anthology. The verses are these.

Which the learned Alciat hath thus translated into Latine:

Many in this case use to whip and cud­gell them; thinking by torturing the flesh and externall parts, to extinguish their inward flames. And of this opinion is Gordonius, who would have them whip­ped ad putorem us (que), till they stinke againe cap. 15. de Amore. But the Curtesan, of whom Seneca speaks, that put her sweet­heart into a Heat, by beating him; would have found an effect cleane contrary to [Page 335] her expectation, had she but lived: and not without some reason. For it is very certaine, that by cudgelling and beating the Back and Loynes, the blood is heated, and Flatuosities stirred up; which filling the Fistular Nerve, may erect it, & cause that disease which Physitians call Priapis­mus. And indeed the wench that was in Love with Cornelius Gallus, the more cruelly shee was beaten by her Father for it, the more eager and violent was her Love: as the Poet himselfe confesseth.

[Page 336] This Remedy then, in my opinion, should rather be Prophylacticall, for Prevention of the disease, then Therapeuticall, for the Cure of it, when it is now setled.

And now seeing that neither any of these Remedies here mentioned, nor thoseother, reckoned up in the 21. Chap­ter of this booke, are found sufficient for the cure of this disease of Love Melan­choly; we shall now in the last place have recourse to Chirurgicall, and Pharmacou­ticall Remedies.

CAP. XXXVIII. Chirurgicall Remedies for Love-Melancholy.

IF the Patient be in good plight of body, fat and corpulent, the first thing wee doe, we must let him bleed, in the Hepa­tica in the right arme, such a proportio­nable quantity of blood, as shal be thought convenient both for his disease, complex­ion; [Page 337] and strength of body; as wee have al­ready shewed in the Chapter of Preven­tion of Love-Melancholy, Because that, as the Schoole of Salernes hath it,

Phlebotomy makes those that are sad, Mer­ry: appeaseth those that are Angry: and keepes Lovers from running Mad.

But if the disease bee growne to that ripenesse, as that the party affected hath his Iudgement and Fancy perverted, I would then advise to open the Median, or Common veine, (which Rhasis, & Al­mansor call, Ʋena Matrix, seu Cardiaca; as Valleriola also counselleth: alwaies observing this rule, that if the blood runne black, grosse, and very thick, we may then take away a good quantity of it: but if it be of a good colour, thin, and cleare; wee must then presently stop the Veine; accor­ding to the prescriptions of Galen, Avi­cen, and their Sectaries.

After this generall Evacuation of blood hath been performed, for the correcting [Page 338] of the Intemperature of the Liver, & the spending of some part of the Melancholy blood: I come next of all to the opening of the Saphena, or Ankle Veine, especially in Women, who in this disease are com­monly troubled also with the Suffocation of the Matrix, or the Vterine Fury: be­cause that by this meanes there will bee the greater and more easy Revulsion of the Humours. For it is Hippocrates his ad­vise, [...]: Revellen­da ea sunt, quae, quò non oportet, vergunt. Besides, those parts that are situate be­low the Kidneyes, have greater Affinity, ( [...]) & Correspondence with the Veines of the Hamme, or Ankle, then they have with those of the Arme.

Some Physitians will have some blood to be taken from the Veines in the Fore­head, either with an Instrument, or else with Horseleeches. But I should rather preferre the opening of the Salvatella in the left Arme: which I have found by ex­perience to have beene very good for the Cure of any disease, proceeding from Me­lancholy.

Or else I would provoke the Fluxe of [Page 339] the Haemorrhoids, as being a very sure re­medy, and very necessary also in the cure of all Hypochondriacall Melancholy: be­cause that by this Fluxe, the Spleen, and Mesentery discharge themselves of all grosse, and earthy Humours, that cause ob­structions in those parts. And this course is commended unto us both by Hippocra­tes in his Aphorismes, and Epidemicks, & also by Galen, in his Tract de Mania, and in his Comment upon the 25. Aphorisme of Hippocrates, lib. 4. the words whereof are these: [...]. The opening of the Hae­morrhoids is the surest remedy both for the Cure, and the Prevention of any Me­lancholy disease.

The Varices have almost the same ver­tue, that the Haemoroids have, if they chance to happen in this disease of Love-Melancholy; by reason that the Melancho­ly Flatuosities are conveighed away from the Privy parts, where they would other­wise provoke a desire to Venery; and are derived to the Veines in the Thighs, and other Varicall Veines: according to the [Page 340] opinion both of Aristotle, and all our Mo­derne Physitians.

But I must needs confesse, for my own part, that I have found the Ʋarices to bee of very litle, or no force at all in this case. And therefore I should rather substitute instead thereof, as Arnaldus also adviseth, Couping-glasses, applyed on the Legs, or Thighs, with sufficient scarification: or else apply to the same parts, one, or two Potentiall Cauteries. But if the Clitoris, by reason of its length, be the cause of this Furious Desire, as it very often happens so to be, it must then be taken shorter, accor­ding to the manner prescribed by Mos­chio, and Albucasis: unto whom I must referre you, because I desire to avoid Te­diousnesse.

And in case these Remedies availe not, and the disease still growes stronger, in so much that it may be feared, that without some speedy redresse, the Patient will grow Wolfe-mad: you must then open the Arme Veines, and let them bleed, till the party is ready to fall downe for faint­nesse, and losse of blood: and you must also apply an Actuall Cautery, if the party can [Page 341] endure it: otherwise you must be content with a Potentiall Cautery applyed to the Forehead; as both Aegineta, Oribafius, Avicen, and other Authors of good note informe us, in their severall Tracts de Ly­canthropia, Lycaone, Lycano, Alchatrab, and Alcutubut, into which disease this of Love-Melancholy doth many times dege­nerate: as Avicen affirmes, in his Chapter de Ilisco, sive de Amore.

CHAP. XXXIX. Pharmaceuticall Remedies for the cure of Love, or Erotique Melancholy.

AS the Scurfe & Itch cannot well be cured, unlesse the Blood be first puri­fied, and the salt, Nitrous Humours, which are immixed with the masse of the blood, be purged by convenient Medicines, or­derly administred; and not rashly and in­considerately, but gently, and, as wee are [Page 342] wont to say, per Epicrasin, purging out the bad Humours by degrees, and supplying good Humours instead of them: ( [...]: saith Hip­pocrates. All suddaine and violent Evacu­ation, Repletion, Heating, or Cooling of the Body, or any the like violent Motion in the body whatsoever, is very dange­rous. For Nature abhorres whatsoever is too much; but is pleased with a Mediocri­ty in all things. (Which Aphorisme, al­though it seeme to be pronounced of all diseases in generall; yet is it proved more particularly to be true, in the Scab, and Itch, which alwaies are observed to grow worse, by the rash and unadvised applica­tion of Oyntments and Purges.) So like­wise must wee take the same course and order of proceeding in the cure of Love-Melancholy, or Erotique Madnesse; which disease requires a great deale of time for the curing of it, as well for those reasons before alleaged in the 21. Chapter, as also, because that the Humour Peccant is the [Page 343] more head-strong and Intractable, by rea­son of its extreame Drinesse: [...]: that which is Dry, is very hard to bee removed or wrought upon.

And that this disease is not suddenly cured, but requires some good space of time for the effecting of it, Hippocrates also assures us, in his booke de Natura Ho­minis. [...]. For Melancholy, saith hee, being the most Viscous and clammie Hu­mour that is in the body, is therefore the hardest to be purged forth, & requireth the lōgest time to be removed. Which seems also to be confirmed by the cure that Val­leriola wrought upon the Merchant of Arles, which he could not perfect, un­der the space of six, or seven Moneths.

But for our more orderly and Metho­dicall proceeding in the cure of this dis­ease, we will divide it into two Principall parts; namely the Humectation, or moyst­ning of the Body, or of the Peccant Hu­mour: and the Evacuation, and purging of the same: according as we are instructed [Page 344] by Avicen also in this case. Canon curati­onis Melancholiae est, ut pervenias ad ulti­mum in Humectatione: & cum hoc, non sis diminutus in Evacuatione Cholerae Nigrae.

Now this Humectation must be per­formed by Meats, Alterative Medicines, Baths, & Topicall Plaisters. And the Pur­gation is to be done with all convenient speed, but very gently, and with intermis­sion; for feare of over-heating the Hu­mour. And yet the Humour is many times so stubborne, as that gentle and easie Me­dicines worke not at all upon it. And therefore it was not unfitly compared, by one, to a troublesome Garrison of Souldi­ers, that are billetted in some poore town or other, where they may live as they please themselves, no man daring to con­trowle them. For though they entreat them never so kindly, yet shall they very hardly be rid of them, without much a­doe: But if they give them the least di­stast, they will then stay there the longer; if it be but to vexe and torment them the more.

We shall doe well then to begin our Purgation with a gentle Clyster, for to [Page 345] evacuate the Excrements of the first Re­gion of the Body: and we must compose it of some mollifying and Refreshing De­coction, adding thereto some Catholicon, Diaprum. Simp. or the like. The next day we may give our patient a convenient quantity of Cassia, with a litle Sena Orient, well prepared: or else a dramme of Con­fect. Hamech, or Diasenna: or, if he please, he may take a gentler purge, of Catholi­con, Tryphera Pers. and Syrup. Rosar. to which you may adde a quantity of Rhu­barbe, and Agaric.

After this Minorative, it will then be time to fall to the preparing of the Humour by Iuleps, or Decoctions: as for example.

[...]. Buglos. & Borag. cum radic. Ci­chor. Endiv. Acetos. Pimpinellae, & caeterach. ana m. j. summit. lupul. fumar. Beton. ana m. ss. polypod. querni. [...] ss. passull. mund. & Co­rinth. ana [...] iij. Prunor. dulc. par. iij. se­min. melon. Cucurb. & eucumer. mundat. ana [...] i. ss. semin. Agn. casti & anisi ana [...] i. flor. trium Cordial. Thymi & Epi­thymi ana p. i. fiat omnium decoctio lib. ij. Colaturae adde sucor. borrag. lupuli & poenor. redolent. depurat. ana [...] iij. iterùm [Page 346] leniter bulliant, addendo sacchari electi lib­ss. fiat Iulep. clarif. & aromat. pulver. lae­tific. Rhazis, aut laetitiae Galen. vel Dia­marg. frigidi [...]. j. & ss. pro quin (que) aut sex dosibus.

And if you thinke it needfull, you may reiterate it for two or three daies: because that this Melancholy Humour, by reason of it's cold, dry, thick, earthy quality, as be­ing a Humour very stubborne and rebelli­ous to Nature, hath need of great prepara­tion: wherein the Physitian must employ himselfe for many daies together, that so at length it may bee the more easily wrought upon, and evacuated by the De­jectory Medicines; which I doe in this case preferre before Vomits, being encou­raged so to doe, by the Authority of Hip­pocrates, who saith that [...]: Melancholy persons doe purge more freely and copiously by siege: (notwithstanding Arnaldus de Villa Nova holds the contrary:) But in case the Pati­ent feele any Crudities in his stomack, or any kind of bitter tast in his mouth; I should then prescribe him a Vomit: be­cause that this is a signe, that the meat he [Page 347] hath eaten is corrupted in his stomack: as both Avicen, and Rhasis affirme in the a­bove-named places.

Now therefore after that the Humour hath been thus prepared, we shall begin then to purge it, (especially if there be any signe of perfect Digestion in the V­rine,) with this Dejectory Purge.

[...] Prunor. dulc. par. iij. passul. Corinth. & flor Cordial. ana p. j. Tamarind. recent. & select. Drach. ij. fol. senae Orient. mun­dat. Drach. iij. anisi, Agni Casti, & Ci­nam. interioris, ana Drach. ss. Epith. p. ss. fiat decoctio ad [...]. iiij. in quibus colatis dis­sol. express. [...] iiij. Rhabarb. per noctem, in sero caprillo infusi, cum sex granis santali rubri, Confection. Hamech Drach. ij. Sy­rup. rosati solut. [...]. j. & ss. fiat potio: detur manè cum regimine artis.

And on the morrow you shall give him a litle quantity of Conserves of Roses, flowre of Borrage, or of the root of Bug­losse.

If you intend to give him a Vomit, then take an ounce of Radish roots, a dram of Agaricke, and a dram and a halfe of Asarum: then boyle all these together [Page 348] in barley water, and taking ten ounces of this Decoction, mixe with it two ounces of Mel Scyllitic. or Syrup of Vinegar, and give it him to drink luke-warme. If you should adde hereto flowre of Broome, the Vomit would work so much the better. But take heed of medling with Hellebor, or Antimony: because that such kind of Vomitories are very dangerous.

The Paracelsians doe use to give their Patients in this case a kind of gentle Vo­mit, with sixe or seaven graines of sal vi­triol. which the party must take either in wine, or broath: or else Vomitivum Panta­gogum, and the like: as you may see in Ru­landus Quercetanus, and other writers of that sect.

After this Purgation, you shall then give your Patient some respit for some few daies, without giving him any Physick at all: and then afterward you shall doe well to reiterate your Alterative Medicines of the Humour Peccant, [...]: saith Hippocrates: For the bad Humour must be purged out by degrees, and with inter­mission; that so there may be also in the [Page 349] meane while good Humours engendred, and substituted in their place: Alwaies ob­serving the rule that the learned Rondelet in his cap. de Amant. hath set downe; where he warneth all Physitians, that they admit not into the number of their Alterative Medicaments of the Melan­choly Humour, any such as may encrease or generate seed, ( [...], as Nonnus calls it:) such as are Eringo roots, Satyrion, and diverse others of the like quality. For this would be a meanes of adding more strength to the disease, and so render it the more incurable.

And if the Patient be unwilling to take that other before set downe; he may then take Diasena: or else this Magistrall Syrup here following, once or twice a moneth.

[...] Rad. Buglos. utrius (que), aspar. capar. scorzon. ana Vnc. j. endiu. Cichor. buglos. borrag, acetos. lupuli, fumar. caeterach. ana m. j. absynthii Pōt. menthae & melissae, anam. ss. glycyrrh. & passul. Corinth. aqua tepida lotar. ana Drach. vj. semin. Citri, Cardui benedict. lactuc. papau. albi, & agni casti, ana Drach. ij. flor. trium Cardiac. thymi & Epithym. anap. j. polyp. querni, & fol. senae [Page 350] Orient. mundat. ana Vnc. iiij. agaric. recent trochisc. Vnc. ss. caryophil. Drach. ss. storum Nymphaeae & anthos ana p. ss. fiat decocti [...] ad lib. ij. in quibus dissol. express. Vnc. ss. Rhabar. in parte dosis, cum pauco Cinamo­mo infusi, & sacchari albi q. s. misce, fia [...] syrupus perfectè coctus, & aromat. Drach. ij. puluer. laetitiae Galen. de quo capiat aeger Vnc. ij. bis in Hebdomade, cumjusculo pul [...] li, vel aqua cardiaca.

Franciscus Valleriola added to his Ma­gistrall syrup that he used in the cure of the Merchant of Arles, a dram of Hellebor; but in this point, for my part, I dare not follow him. Notwitstanding Hippocrates himselfe very frequently used Hellebor in such diseases as this; as appeares plainly out of his works. And by the use of this Herbe, Melampus also is reported to have cured the Love-sick Daughter of King Praetus: whence Veratrum, or Hellebor is called ever since, Melampodium.

Neither yet dare I adventure to fol­low the learned Avicen, who in this di­sease prescribes the use of Great Ivy. But if those medicines before set downe be not of strength sufficient for the evacuate­ing [Page 351] of this rebellious Humour: I would then rather give him three or fowre grains or more, if need be, of Antimony well pre­pared: which is the advice also of all our Moderne Physitians.

Some other of the Paracelsians use Turpethum Minerale, and Ladanum Mer­curiale; which are not much different.

Neither doe I much dislike that pow­der, of which Haly Abbas makes so great brags, and saies of it thus. Posito, quòd aliae Medicinae non valeant; ista valet, nutu Dei, misericordis: & est Medicina coronata, quae securissime teneatur, ut Intellectus Hu­manus, quasi deperditus, cum hâc Medici­nâ restauretur. This Medicine is of so ap­proved vertue, as that when all other faile, this alone, by Gods assistance, will certainly effect the cure of this disease, even to the restoring againe of the under­standing, if perchance by the violence of the disease it hath been decaied: and it may very safely be taken, and without any danger at all.

[...] Epithym. Vnc. ss. lapidis lazuli, (aut securiùs, cum Mercato, Armeni,) & aga­ric. ana Drach. ij. scammon. Drach. j. cary­oph. [Page 352] No. X. fiat pulvis, de quo aeger capiat semel in hebdomade [...] ij. aut [...] ij. ss. cum syrupo rosato solut. aut conserv. rosar. & viol.

If your Patient be unwilling to purge so often with liquid medicines, although they be a great deale the more fit to purge Me­lancholy Humours, then the solid are: for to satisfy his desire, you may give himsome such Laxative Electuary, as this following.

[...] Succi Mercur. depurati Vnc. ij. in quibus infunde 24. horas fol. senae mund. Vnc. ij. expressio decoquatur cum s. q. sac­chari in formam electuarij. Posteà adde pulpae Cassiae recenter è cannâ extractae Vnc. ij. Epyth. Vnc. ff. caryoph. conquass. Drach. ij. misce, fiat opiata, de qua capiat semel, aut bis in mense Vnc. j. & ss.

But in the meane time we must not forget to comfort the Heart, Liver, and Braine of our Patient, with some such Cordiall as this.

[...] Conserv. rosar. Vnc. j. conserv. flor. nenuf. & borrag. ana Drach. vj. carnis Ci­tri, & lactucae saccharoo conditae, ana Vnc. ss. myrobal. emblic. saccharo condit. num ij. confect. Alkermes Drach. ij. pulvoris la­tit. [Page 353] Galen. Drach. j. Margar. Orient. [...] iiij. rasurae eboris Scrup. ij. misce cum syrupo, de pomis fiat opiata, de qua capiat ad quan­titatem unius castaneae, superhausto tantillo vino albo, aqua buglossi multùm diluto, alternis diebus, horis circiter duabus anto cibum.

Or else this.

R. Terebinth. Venetae aqua lactucae lotae Vnc. ss. semin. dauci, agnicasti, & Cinnam. ana gr. viij. agar. rec trochis. Drach. j. fiat bolus purgando semini idoneus, ex Hollerio, Mercato, &c.

Dioscorides prescribes for this purpose the Powder of Aphrodilles, and the seed of Coltes foot, given in drinke. Porphyrius, as Stobaeus reports, and Pliny, commend Willow blossoms given in cold water to drinke.

I should here also commend the use of these Losenges, or some other of the like vertue.

[Page 354] R. Semin. agnicasti, portul. & ruta, ana Scrup. ss. semin. lactucae & papau. albi, ana Scrup. ij. granor. Canabis gr. viij. cornu cervi usti, coralli & anther. ana gr. vj: se­min. melon. Drach. iij sacchar. aqua rosar. & borrag. dissoluti, q. s. misce, fiant tabella, vel Lozengae ponder. Drach. j. capiat unam ad horam somni, vel manè, longè ante cibum.

And it would not bee amisse to give him sometimes fowre graines of Bezar, steeped in water of Scorzonera, or of Let­tice; which hearbe, by reason of it's singu­lar vertue in this case, the Pythagoreans called [...]: as Athenaeus reports.

After we have thus done, we shall then come in the next place to our exter­nall Medicines: among which, Bathes of fresh water are the first & chiefest: For as much as both P. Aegineta, and Oribasius, in their severall Tracts of Love, make their boasts, that they cured diverse of this disease of Love-Melancholy, meerely by Bathes of fresh water. And this is confir­med also by Avicen, whose advise is the same: Fac ipsos balneari, secundùm condi­tionem Humectationis notam: & also by all the Ancient Physitians. And we shall doe [Page 355] well to adde hereto some other Simples that are of approved vertue against this di­sease, in manner following.

R. Althaeae, cum toto, maluae, lactuc. bor­rag. Nympheae, cucurb. fumar. lupul. lapathi acut. ana m. 4. summit. salic. & pampinor. vitis, ana m. ij slor. nenuf. viol. borrag. rosar. calend. ana p. iiij. semin. viticis & Cannab. ana Vnc. ij. capit. vervec. num. ij. fiat deco­ctio in aqua fluviatili. pro balneo iiij. die­rum, in quo sedeat horâ unâ circitèr.

Some are of opinion, that it is very good, that in the meane while the Patient is ba­thing, there should be some by, to enter­tain him with merry Iests, & pleasant dis­course, & Musick, & whatsoever else may be thought fit to provoke him to Mirth.

Aetius adviseth to apply an Oxyrrho­dinum to his head, for to repell the vapors that ascend up to his head from the sper­maticall vessels in men; and in women, from the Matrix, who may also in this case make use of a suppository, made of Diaco­dion, tempered with a litle Vinegar, and the juyce of Sorrell: or else a litle quantity of Nitre, and Cardamomum; or else a Nas­call, or Pessary, composed of Castoreum [Page 356] mixed with Rue: to which Avicen addes the rootes of Lillies and Nenufar. Or else you may make use of this Vterine Clyster, prescribed by Lodovicus Mercatus.

R. Lactis caprilli, vel bubuli Vnc. iiij. aquae marinae Vnc. ij. mellis Vnc. j. misce, fiat Clyster, iniiciatur in sinum pudoris.

But I should rather preferre this other here following.

R. Lentium p. ij. fol. & flor. salicis ana m. j. fiat decoctio ad lib. j. in qua dissol. tro­chisc. albor. Rhazis, & trochisc. de Camphora ana Drach. j. misce, fiat Clyster, infundatur in delta muliebre.

Eros addes to these, Opium. Pliny, in his Naturall History, and Rondeletius in his 12. booke de Piscibus, cap. 19. will have the secret Parts to be rubbed all over with the gall of a Cramp-fish, which is of a mar­veilous Narcoticke, or Stupefactive ver­tue: or else a Pessary made of the root of Nymphaea Heraclea.

Briefly, you may find a thousand such like medicines as these, in the writings of Physitians that have spoken of the cure of this disease; with which I shall not here trouble you. Only thus much for the pre­sent [Page 357] I shall advertise you of, that Nicolaus Monardus, a Physitian of Sevill, and Clu­sius, speaking of Medicaments that have been lately found out in the Western parts of the world, doe highly magnify, for a so­veraigne remedy, and Antidote against Vnchast Love, and Philters, the Powder of a certaine Hearbe called Contra-Yer­va, brought not long since from Charcys, a Province of Peru, being in shape like Corne-flag, and having leaves like Fig­tree leaves. Which relation of theirs if it be true, we may say of this Plant, as Pau­sanias did of the fountaine Selemnus, that it would be more worth then all the gold in the world. The like Iudgement doe we give of the stone called by the Greekes Selenites, or Aphroselenum, spoken of by Dioscorides: as also of the Amiantus, a cer­taine stone found in Cyprus, which Pliny calls, Linum vivum; Strabo, Carystium; Zoroaster, Bostrychitem; Solinus, Carba­sum; some others, Corsoidem, Spoliam, & Spartospoliam; and the vulgar call it, though improperly, Stone-Allum: where­of in old time they were wont to make Table-cloathes, that would be made [Page 358] white only in the fire, and yet never burne.

Mercurialis, in his 4. book de Morbis Mulier. affirmes, that himselfe hath cured diverse both Maids, and married Women of the Vterine Fury, or Love-Madnesse, by the use of cold Minerall waters; such as are those waters in Italy, which they call, The waters of Ʋirgins, or de Ʋilla. But this seemes to me a thing incredible, considering that (as we have already pro­ved,) it is most certaine, that the cure of Love Melancholy, as of all other diseases proceeding from this Humour, consists principally in the Humectation & moyste­ning of the Humour: as Galen also af­firmes. Now all those Authors that have written of Minerall Waters, doe general­ly agree, that they are of a Desiccative, or Drying Nature, and therefore seeme to be directly contrary to the cure of Love-Melancholy. Yet thus much we may say, in the behalfe of Mercurialis, that Mine­rall waters, notwithstanding their Dry­nesse, are wholsome in Melancholy disea­ses, in regard they doe very much coole the Liver, which is the seat of this disease, [Page 359] opening all Obstructiōs of the Hypochon­dries; and also comfort the stomack, and purge the blood, excerning all the Serosi­ties and waterish parts of it by Vrine and Stoole: as Iohannes Baptista Sylvaticus proves at large. Neither yet are all Dry­ing Medicaments to be rejected in the cure of Melancholy diseases: seeing that Alexander Trallianus, P. Aegineta, Ori­basius, Avicen, and Rhasis, prescribe Epi­thymum, Hiera, and Hartwort in these diseases; and Aetius Vineger also: which notwithstanding, Hippocrates saies, doth both settle, and increase the Melancholy Humour, [...]

The Physitians of France and Germany, doe attribute the same vertue to the wa­ters of the Spa. And those of Encausse in Gascony, notwithstanding they be of a na­ture Hot and Dry, are not altogether un­proper for the cure of Melancholy disea­ses, which proceed from the Hypochon­dries: as I my selfe have found by expe­rience.

Heurnius in his Pract. appoints this Decoction here following, to be used in­stead [Page 360] of these Waters above named, in case they cannot be had.

R. Aquae font. q. s. capit. ariet. num. iij. pedes vervecis num. iiij. contusis capitibus & pedibus, adde rosar. rubr. fol. lauri, ana m. iij. portul. recent. m. v. solani, sempervivi, ana. m. ij misce, fiat decoctio, eâ (que) tepente bis die utatur aeger horis duabus ante cibum.

You must take the same course also, in the curing of the Symptomes that accom­pany this disease, reckoned up in the se­cond Chapter, for which I must referre you to the prescriptions of those Physiti­ans that have written hereof: especially Galen, Avicen, and Aëtius. I will onely here set down the remedies that are most proper for the cure of two of them, and those indeed the most dangerous: which are, Continuall Watching, and Extreame Leannesse.

For the First of these we usually give Syrup of Poppy, Almonds, Poppy seed, and Lettice in Broath. Sometimes I use to pre­scribe in this case foure or five graines of this Opiate, which we may call Nepen­thes, or Ladanum.

R. Confect. Alkermes Vnc. j. specierum [Page 361] Diambrae, & laetitiae Galen. ana Drach. iij. Croci albigensis, & opii, ana Vnc. ss. mi­xta macerentur in aqua vitae, extrahatur tinctur a, posted fiat consumptio evaporatio­ne ad consistent. Opiatae. vel R. Specierum Diambrae unc. ij. infundantur per 12. dies in vino distill. ut latum digitum superemineat, & adde opii drach. vj. mumiae drach. ss. suc­ci hioscyami unc. j. Corallirubri, & Caro­bes ana scrup. ij. Crociscrup. j. Moschi Ori­ent. gr. 16. ambrae gr. 12. affuso rursus spi­ritu vini, ut superemineat latum digitum, digeratur post fornacem per mensem, quoti­die agitando. dosis Scrup. ss. aut. gr. viij. pro aegri constitutione.

You shall finde many such Receits as these, in Rulandus, Quercetanus, Penot, & diverse other Chymists; which you must put in practise with very great Circum­spection and Care, and that too, onely in case of Extreame Necessity: as you must also doe in the application of Diacodion, and Requies Nicolai.

But for my own part, I should rather cause the party to smell to a Nosegay of Violets, Roses, Gilliflowers; or Marjoram steeped in Vineger, wherein hath beene [Page 362] steeped also a graine of Camphire, and Opium Or else let him use this Pomander

[...] Semin. Hioscyami & cicutae, ana drach. j. cortic. rad. mandrag scrup. iiij. O­pii scrup. j. misce cum oleo mandragorae & succo aizoi maioris, addendo Moschi gr. j. fiat Pomum.

Others apply, though with bad successe, Horseleeches behinde the Eares, & when they take them away, they presently clap to the place a graine of Opium.

And for the recovering of our Patients flesh again, we must appoint him to drink Asses, or Goats milke, putting a litle Sugar into it; and this he must doe for the space of a moneth, or thereabout. Or else he may use this Marchpane here follow­ing.

[...] Amigdal. dulc. excortic. & lot. primò aquâ tepidâ posteà aquâ rosar. lib. j quatu. or semin. frigid. maior. mundat. & lotor ana drach. vj. semin. papau albirec. & mundati unc. iiij. sacchari albi lib. ij. fiat pasta, & cum aquâ rosar. Martius panis, de quo ca­piat aeger certam quantitatem ante som­num.

This Marchpane is very good to pro­cure [Page 363] sleep, and it refresheth and nourish­eth the body withall. But yet this other following is the more Nutritive.

R. Pulpae capi lib. j. aqua rosar. q s. sac­chari unc. iij. cinnam. sub finem decoct. addi­ti [...]. ij. coquant & fingantur frustra dura.

To conclude, besides all the Medicines here specified, I shall wish all Melancho­ly, or Mad Lovers, that Soveraigne Reme­dy, that Hippoerates wished to Democri­tus; [...]: The Perfection of Wisdome, which is the most easie, and Effectuall Re­medy of all; and the true Moly that Mer­cury, the God of Wisdome, in Homer, gave the wise Ʋlisses, as a Soveraigne An­tidote, against all the Baits and Entice­ments, by which the Infamous Sorceresse Circe endeavoured to bring the Minde of that Noble Cap­taine in subjection to Her unchast desires.