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which are Loves Fowlers; aucupium amoris, the shooing hornes, the hooks of Love (as Arandus will) the guides, touchstone, Judges, that in a moment cure mad men, and make sound folks mad, the watchmen of the body; what do they not? How vex they not? All this is true, and (which Athenæus lib. 13. dip. cap. 5. and Tatius hold) they are the chief seats of Love, and as James Lernutius hath faceteely expressed in an elegant Ode of his,
Amorem ocellis flammeolis heræ Vidi insidentem, credite posteri, Fratresque circum ludibundos Cum pharetra volitare & arcu, &c.
I saw Love sitting in my Mistris eyes Sparkling, believe it all posterity, And his attendants playing round about With bow and arrows ready for to fly.
Scaliger calls the eyes, Cupids arrows; the tongue, the lightning of Love; the paps, the tents: Balthasar Castilio, the causes, the chariots, the lamps of Love,
——æmula lumina stellis, Lumina quæ possent sollicitare Deos.
Eys emulating stars in light, Entizing gods at the first sight;
O blandos oculos, & o facetos, Et quâdam propriâ notâ loquaces Illic est Venus, & leves amores, Atque ipsa in medio sedet voluptas.
O sweet and pretty speaking eys, Where Venus love and pleasure lies!
Loves Torches, Touch-box, Napthe and Matches, Tibullus.
Illius ex oculis quum vult exurere divos, Accendit geminas lampades acer amor.
Tart love when he will set the gods on fire, Lightens the eys as Torches to desire.
Leander at the first sight of Hero’s eys, was incensed, saith Musæus.
Simul in oculorum radiis crescebat fax amorum, Et cor fervebat invecti ignis impetu; Pulchritudo enim celebris immaculatæ fæminæ, Acutior hominibus est veloci sagittâ. Oculus verò via est, ab oculi ictibus Vulnus dilabitur, & in præcordia viri manat.
Loves torches gan to burn first in her eyes, And set his heart on fire, which never dies: For the fair beauty of a Virgin pure, Is sharper then a dart, and doth inure A deeper wound, which pierceth to the heart By the eyes, and causeth such a cruel smart.
A modern Poet brings in Amnon complaining of Thamar,
——& me fascino Occidit ille risus & formæ lepos, Ille nitor, illa gratia, & verus decor, Illæ æmulantes purpuram, & rosas genæ, Oculique vinctæque aureo nodo comæ.——
It was thy beauty, ’twas thy pleasing smile, Thy grace and comeliness did me beguil, Thy rose-like cheeks, and unto purple fair Thy lovely eyes and golden knotted hair.
Philostratus Lemnius cries out on his Mistris Basilisk eyes, ardentes faces, those two burning glasses, they had so inflamed his soul, that no water could quench it. What a tyranny, (saith he) what a penetration of bodies is this! thou drawest with violence, and swallowest me up, as Charybdis doth Saylers with thy rocky eyes; he that falls into this gulf of Love, can never get out. Let this be the Corallary then, the strongest beames of beauty, are still darted from the eyes.
Nam quis lumina tanta, tanta, Posset luminibus suis tueri, Non statim trepidansque palpitansque, Præ desiderii æstuantis aurâ? &c.
For who such eyes with his can see And not forthwith enamour’d be!
And as men catch dotrels, by putting out a leg or an arm, with those mutual glances of the eyes they first inveagle one another.
Cynthia prima suis miserum me cepit ocellis.
Of all eyes (by the way) black are most amiable, enticing and, fairer, which the Poet observes in commending of his Mistriss.
Spectandum nigris oculis, nigroque capillo.
which Hesiod admires in his Alcmena,
Cujus à vertice ac nigricantibus oculis, Tale quiddam spirat ac ab aureâ Venere.
From her black eyes, and from her golden face, As if from Venus came a lovely grace.
and Triton in his Milæne —— nigra oculos formosa mihi. Homer useth that Epithete of Oxe-eyed, in describing Juno, because a round black eye is the best, the Son of beauty, and farthest from black the worse:
Which Polydore Virgil taxeth in our Nation; Angli ut plurimum cæsiis oculis, we have gray eyes for the most part. Baptista Porta Physiognom. lib. 3. puts gray colour upon children, they be childish eyes, dull and heavy.
Many commend on the other side Spanish Ladies, and those Greek Dames at this day, for the blackness of their eys, as Porta doth his Neopolitan young wives. Sueton describes Julius Cæsar to have been nigris vegetisque oculis micantibus, of a black quick sparkling eye: and although Averroes in his Colliget will have such persons timerous, yet without question they are most amorous.
Now last of all, I will shew you by what means beauty doth fascinate, bewitch, as some hold, and work upon the soul of a man by the eye. For certainly I am of the Poets mind, Love doth bewitch and strangely change us.
Ludit amor sensus, oculos perstringit, & aufert Libertatem animi, mirâ nos fascinat arte. Credo aliquis dæmon subiens præcordia flammam Concitat, & raptam tollit de cardine mentem.
Love mocks our senses, curbs our liberties, And doth bewitch us with his Art and rings, I think some Divel gets into our entrals, And kindles coals, and heaves our souls frm th’hinges.