Naught under heaven so strongly doth allure The sense of man and all his minde possess, As beauties loveliest bait, that doth procure Great warriers erst their rigor to suppress, And mighty hands forget their manliness, Driven with the power of an heart-burning eye, And lapt in flowres of a golden tress, That can with melting pleasure mollifie Their heardned hearts inur’d to cruelty.

Clitiphon ingenuously confesseth, that he no sooner came in Leucippes presence, but that he did corde tremere, & oculis lasciviùs intueri; he was wounded at the first sight, his heart panted and he could not possibly turn his eyes from her.

So doth Calysiris in Heliodorus lib. 2. Isis Priest, a reverend old man complain, who by chance at Memphis seeing that Thracian Rodophe, might not hold his eyes off her, I will not conceal it, she overcame me with her presence, and quite assaulted my continency which I had kept unto mine old age; I resisted a long time my bodily eyes with the eyes of my understanding, at last I was conquered, and as in a tempest carried headlong.

Xenophiles a Philosopher, railed at women down right for many years together, scorned, hated, scoffed at them; coming at last into Daphnis a fair maids company, (as he condoles his mishap to his friend Demaritus) though free before,

Intactus nullis ante cupidinibus,

was far in love, and quite overcome upon a sudden. Victus sum fateor à Daphnide, &c. I confess I am taken,

Sola hæc inflexit sensus, animumque labentem Impulit ——

I could hold out no longer.

Such another mishap, but worse, had Stratocles the Physitian, that blear-eyed old man, muco plenus (so Prodromus describes him) he was a severe woman-hater all his life, fæda & contumeliosa semper in fæminas profatus, a bitter persecutor of the whole sexe, humanas aspides & viperas appellabat, he forswore them all still, and mocked them wheresoever he came, in such vile terms, ut matrem & sorores odisses, that if thou hadst heard him, thou would’st have loathed thine own mother and sisters for his words sake.

Yet this old doting fool was taken at last with that celestiall and divine look of Myrilla the daughter of Anticles the Gardner, that smirking wench, that he shaved off his bushie beard, painted his face, curl’d his hair, wore a lawrel crown to cover his bald pate, and for her love besides was ready to run mad.

For the very day that he married, he was so furious, ut solis occasum minus expectare posset, (a terrible, a monstrous long day) he could not stay till it was night, sed omnibus insalutatis in thalamum festinus irrupit, the meat scarce out of his mouth, without any leave taking, he would needs go presently to bed. What young man therefore, if old men be so intemperate, can secure himself? Who can say I will not be taken with a beautiful object? I can, I will contain:

No, saith Lucian, of his mistris, she is so fair, that if thou dost but see her, she will stupifie thee, kill thee straight, and Medusa like turn thee to a stone, thou canst not pull thine eys from her, but as an adamant doth iron, she will carry thee bound headlong whether she will her self, infect thee like a Basilisk. It holds both in men and women. Dido was amazed at Æneas presence; Obstupuit primo aspectu Sidonia Dido; and as he feelingly verified out of his experience;

Quam ego postquam vidi, non ita amavi ut sani solent Homines, sed eodem pacto ut insani solent.

I lov’d her not as others soberly, But as a mad man rageth, so did I.

So Museus of Leander, nusquam lumen detorquet ab illa; and Chaucer of Palamon

He cast his eye upon Emilia, And therewith he blent and cryed ha ha, As though he had been stroke unto the hearta.

If you desire to know more particularly what this Beauty is, how it doth Influere, how it doth fascinate (for all hold, love is a fascination) thus in brief. This comeliness or Beauty ariseth from the due proportion of the whole, or from each several part.

For an exact delineation of which, I refer you to Poets, Historiographers, and those amorous Writers, to Lucians Images, and Charidemus, Xenophons description of Panthea, Petronius Catalectes, Heliodorus Chariclia, Tatius Leucippe, Longus Sophistas Daphnis and Cloe, Theodorus Prodromus his Rhodanthes, Aristænetus and Philostratus Epistles, Balthasar Castilio, lib. 4. de aulico, Laurentius cap. 10. de melan. Æneas Sylvius his Lucretia, and every Poet almost, which have most accurately described a perfect beauty, an absolute feature, and that through every member, both in men and women.

Each part must concur to the perfection of it; for as Seneca saith, Ep. 33. lib. 4. Non est formosa mulier cujus crus laudatur & brachium, sed illa cujus simul universa facies admirationem singulis partibus dedit; she is no fair woman, whose arm, thigh, &c. are commended, except the face and all the other parts be correspondent.

And the face especially gives a lustre to the rest: The face is it that commonly denominates fair or fowl; arx formæ facies, The Face is Beauties Towre; and though the other parts be deformed, yet a good face carries it (facies non uxor amatur) that alone is most part respected, principally valued, delitiis suis ferox, and of it self able to captivate.

Urit te Glyceræ nitor, Urit grata protervitas, Et vultus nimium lubricus aspici;

Glycera’s too fair a face was it that set him on fire, too fine to be beheld. When Chærea saw the singing wenches sweet looks, he was so taken, that he cried out, O faciem pulchram, deleo omnes dehinc ex animo mulieres, tædet quotidianarum harum formarum! O fair face, Ile never love any but her, look on any other hereafter but her, I am weary of these ordinary beauties, away with them.

The more he sees her, the worse he is, —uritque videndo, as in a burning-glass, the Sun beams are recollected to a center, the rayes of love are projected from her eyes. It was Æneas countenance ravished Queen Dido, Os humerosque Deo similis, he had an angelical face.

O sacros vultus Baccho vel Apolline dignos, Quos vir, quos tuto fæmina nulla videt!

——O sacred looks befitting Majesty, Which never mortal wight could safely see!