Lucian brings in Jupiter complaining of Cupid that he could not be quiet for him; and the Moon lamenting that she was so impotently besotted on Endymion, even Venus her self confessing as much, how rudely and in what sort her own son Cupid had used her being his mother, Now drawing her to mount Ida, for the love of that Trojan Anchises, now to Libanus for that Assyrian youths sake. And although she threatned to break his bow and arrowes, to clip his wings, and whipped him besides on the bare buttocks with her pantophle, yet all would not serve, he was too headstrong and unruly.

That monster conquering Hercules was tamed by him:

Quem non mille feræ, quem non Sthenelejus hostis, Nec potuit Juno vincere, vicit amor.

Whom neither beasts nor enemies could tame, Nor Juno’s might subdue, Love quell’d the same.

Your bravest souldiers and most generous spirits are enervated with it, ubi mulieribus blanditiis permittunt se, & inquinantur amplexibus. Apollo that took upon him to cure all diseases, could not help himself of this; and therefore Socrates calls Love a tyrant, and brings him triumphing in a Chariot, whom Petrarch imitates in his triumph of Love, and Fracastorius in an elegant Poem expresseth at large, Cupid riding, Mars and Apollo following his Chariot, Psyche weeping, &c.

In vegetall creatures what soveraignty Love hath, by many pregnant proofs and familiar examples may be proved, especially of palme trees, which are both he and she, and express not a sympathy but a love-passion, and by many observations have been confirmed.

Vivunt in venerem frondes, omnisque vicissim Felix arbor amat, nutant & mutua palmæ Fœdera, populeo suspirat populus ictu, Et Platano Platanus, alnoque assibilat alnus.

Constantine de Agric. lib. 10. cap. 4. gives an instance out of Florentius his Georgicks, of a Palm tree that loved most fervently, and would not be comforted untill such time her Love applied her self unto her; you might see the two trees bend, and of their own accords stretch out their boughs to embrace and kiss each other: They will give manifest signs of mutuall love.

Ammianus Marcellinus lib. 24. reports that they marry one another, and fall in love if they grow in sight, and when the winde brings the smell to them, they are marvellously affected. Philostratus in Imaginibus, observes as much, and Galen lib. 6. de locis affectis cap. 5. they will be sick for love, ready to dye and pine away, which the husbandmen perceiving, saith Constantine, stroke many Palms that grow together, and so stroking again the Palm that is enamoured, they carry kisses from the one to the other:

or tying the leaves and branches of the one to the stem of the other, will make them both flourish and prosper a great deal better: which are enamoured, they can perceive by the bending of boughs, and inclination of their bodies.

If any man think this which I say to be a tale, let him read that story of two palm trees in Italy, the male growing at Brundusium, the female at Otranto (related by Jovianus Pontanus in an excellent Poem, sometimes Tutor to Alphonsus junior, King of Naples, his Secretary of State, and a great Philosopher) ⁱwhich were barren, and so continued a long time, till they came to see one another growing up higher, though many Stadiums asunder.

Pierius in his Hieroglyphicks, and Melchior Guilandinus Memb. 3. tract. de papyro, cites this story of Pontanus for a truth. See more in Salmuth Comment. in Pancirol. de Nova repert. Tit. 1. de novo orbe, Mizaldus Arcanorum lib. 2. and Sands voyages lib. 2. fol. 103. &c.

If such fury be in vegetals, what shall we think of sensible creatures, how much more violent and apparent shall it be in them.

Omne adeo genus in terris hominumque, ferarum, Et genus æquoreum, pecudes, pictæque volucres In furias ignemque ruunt; amor omnibus idem.

All kinde of creatures in the earth, And fishes of the Sea, And painted birds do rage alike; This love bears equal sway.

Hic Deus & terras & maria alta domat.

Common experience and our sense will inform us, how violently brute beasts are carried away with this passion, horses above the rest,

—— furor est insignis equarum.

Cupid in Lucian bids Venus his mother be of good cheer, for he was now familiar with Lions, and oftentimes did get on their backs, hold them by the mane, and ride them about like horses, and they would fawn upon him with their tails.

Bulls, Bears and Boars are so furious in this kinde they kill one another: but especially Cocks, Lions, and Harts, which are so fierce that you may hear them fight half a mile off, saith Turbervile, and many times kill each other, or compell them to abandon the rut, that they may remain masters in their places; and when one hath driven his corrivall away, he raiseth his nose up into the ayr, and looks aloft, as though he gave thanks to nature, which affords him such great delight.

How birds are affected in this kind, appears out of Aristotle, he will have them sing ob futuram venerem, for joy or in hope of their venery which is to come.

Aeriæ primum volucres te Diva, tuumque Significant initum, perculsæ corda tua vi.

Fishes pine away for love and wax lean, if Gomesius authority may be taken, and are rampant too, some of them: Peter Gellius lib. 10. de hist. animal. tells wonders of a Triton in Epirus: There was a well not far from the shore, where the country wenches fetched water, they, Tritons, stupri causâ would set upon them and carry them to the Sea, and there drown them, if they would not yeeld; so love tyrannizeth in dumb creatures.