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Oscula mille sonant, connexu brachia pallent, Mutuaque explicitis connectunt colla lacertis.
Inachus and Pincus, and how many loving rivers can I reckon up, whom beauty hath enthrall’d! I say nothing all this while of Idols themselves that have committed Idolatry in this kind, of looking glasses, that have been rapt in love (if you will believe Poets) when their Ladies and mistresses looked on to dress them.
Et si non habeo sensum, tua gratia sensum Exhibet, & calidi sentio amoris onus. Dirigis huc quoties spectantia lumina, flammæ Succendunt inopi saucia membra mihi.
Though I no sense at all of feeling have, Yet your sweet looks do animate and save; And when your speaking eys do this was turn, Me thinks my wounded members live and burn.
I could tell you such another story of a spindle that was fired by a fair Ladies looks, or fingers, some say, I know not well whether, but fired it was by report, and of a cold bath that suddenly smoaked, and was very hot when naked Cælia came into it,
Miramur quis sit tantus & unde vapor, &c.
But of all the tales in this kind, that is the most memorable of Death himself, when he should have stroken a sweet young Virgin with his dart, he fell in love with the object. Many more such could I relate which are to be believed with a poetical faith.
So dumb and dead creatures dote, but men are mad, stupifyed many times at the first sight of beauty, amazed, as that fisherman in Aristænetus, that spied a maid bathing her self by the Sea side,
Soluta mihi sunt omnia membra —— A capite ad calcem, sensusque omnis periit De pectore, tam immensus stupor animum invasit mihi.
And as Lucian in his images, confesseth of himself, that he was at his mistriss presence void of all sense, immovable, as if he had seen a Gorgons head: which was no such cruel monster, (as Cœlius interprets it, lib. 3. cap. 9.) but the very quintessence of beauty, some fair creature, as without doubt the Poet understood in the first fiction of it, at which the spectators were amazed.
Miseri quibus intentata nites, poor wretches are compelled at the very sight of her ravishing looks to run mad, or make away themselves.
They wait the sentence of her scornful eys; And whom she favours lives, the other dyes.
Heliodorus lib. 1. brings in Thyamis almost besides himself, when he saw Chariclia first, and not daring to look upon her a second time, for he thought it impossible for any man living to see her and contain himself.
The very fame of beauty will fetch them to it many miles off, (such an attractive power this loadstone hath) and they will seem but short, they will undertake any toil or trouble, long journeys. Penia or Atalanta shall not overgo them, through Seas, Desarts, Mountains, and dangerous places, as they did to gaze on Psyche: many mortal men came far and neer to see that glorious object of her age, Paris for Helena, Corebus to Troja,
—— Illis Trojam qui forte diebus Venerat insano Cassandræ incensus amore.
King John of France once prisoner in England, came to visit his old friends again, crossing the seas; but the truth is, his comming was to see the Countess of Salisbury the Non-percil of those times, and his dear mistriss.
That infernal God Plutus came from hell it self, to steal Proserpina; Achilles left all his friends for Polixena’s sake, his enemies daughter; and all the Græcian Gods forsook their heavenly mansions for that fair Lady, Philo Dioneus daughters sake, the Paragon of Greece in those days; eâ enim venustate fuit, ut eam certatim omnes dii conjugem expeterent.
They will not only come to see, but as a Faulkoner makes an hungry hawke hover about, follow, give attendance and service, spend goods, lives, and all their fortunes to attain;
Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast, Yet love breaks through, and picks them all at last.
When fair Hero came abroad, the eys, hearts, and affections of her spectators were still attendant on her.
Et medios inter vultus supereminet omnes, Perque urbem aspiciunt venientem numinis instar.
So far above the rest fair Hero shin’d, And stole away th’inchanted gazers mind.
When Peter Aretine’s Lucretia came first to Rome, and that the fame of her beauty, ad urbanarum deliciarum sectatores venerat, nemo non ad videndam eam, &c. was spread abroad, they came in (as they say) thick and threefold to see her, and hovered about her gates, as they did of old to Lais of Corinth, and Phryne of Thebes.
Ad cujus jacuit Græcia tota fores,
Every man sought to get her love, some with gallant and costly apparel, some with an affected pace, some with musique, others with rich gifts, pleasant discourse, multitude of followers; others with letters, vows, and promises, to commend themselves, and to be gracious in her eys. Happy was he that could see her, thrice happy that enjoyed her company.
Charmides in Plato was a proper young man, in comeliness of person, and all good qualities far exceeding others; whensoever fair Charmides came abroad, they seem’d all to be in love with him (as Critias describes their carriage) and were troubled at the very sight of him; many came neer him, many followed him wheresoever he went,
As those formarum spectatores did Acontius, if at any time he walked abroad: The Athenian Lasses stared on Alcibiades, Sapho and the Mitilean women on Phaon the fair. Such lovely sights do not onely please, entice, but ravish and amaze.
Cleonimus a delicate and tender youth, present at a feast which Androcles his uncle made in Piræo at Athens, when he sacrificed to Mercury, so stupified the guests, Dineas, Aristippus, Agasthenes, and the rest, (as Charidemus in Lucian relates it) that they could not eat their meat, they sate all supper time gazing, glancing at him, stealing looks, and admiring of his beauty.