Importunity and opportunity of time, place, conference, discourse, singing, dancing, musick, amorous tales, objects, kissing, familiarity, tokens, presents, bribes, promises, protestations, tears, &c.

All these allurements hitherto are afar off, and at a distance; I will come nearer to those other degrees of Love, which are conference, kissing, dalliance, discourse, singing, dancing, amorous tales, objects, presents, &c. which as so many Syrens steal away the hearts of men and women. For as Tacius observes, l. 2. It is no sufficient trial of a maids affection by her eys alone, but you must say something that shall be more available, and use such other forcible engins; therefore take her by the hand, wring her fingers hard, and sigh withall; if she accept this in good part, and seem not to be much averse, then call her Mistris, take her about the neck and kiss her, &c.

But this cannot be done except they first get opportunity of living, or coming together, ingress, egress, and regress; letters and commendations may do much, outward gestures and actions: but when they come to live near one another, in the same street, village, or together in an house, love is kindled on a sudden. Many a Serving-man by reason of this opportunity and importunity, inveagles his Masters daughter, many a Gallant loves a Dowdy, many a gentleman runs upon his wives maids, many Ladies dote upon their men, as the Queen in Ariosto did upon the Dwarf, many matches are so made in haste, and they compelled as it were by necessity so to love, which had they been free, come in company of others, seen that variety which many places afford, or compared them to a third, would never have looked one upon another.

Or had not that opportunity of discourse and familiarity been offered, they would have loathed and contemned those, whom for want of better choice and other objects, they are fatally driven on, and by reason of their hot bloud, idle life, full diet, &c. are forced to dote upon them that come next. And many times those which at the first sight cannot fancy or affect each other, but are harsh and ready to disagree, offended with each others carriage, like Benedict and Betteris in the Comedy, and in whom they finde many faults, by this living together in a house, conference, kissing, colling, and such like allurements, begin at last to dote insensibly one upon another.

It was the greatest motive that Potiphars wife had to dote upon Joseph, and Clitiphon upon Leucippe his Unkles daughter, because the plague being at Bizance, it was his fortune for a time to sojourn with her, to sit next her at the table, as he telleth the tale himself in Tatius lib. 2. (which though it be but a fiction, is grounded upon good observation, and doth well express the passions of lovers) he had opportunity to take her by the hand, and after a while to kiss, and handle her paps, &c. which made him almost mad.

Ismenius the Orator makes the like confession in Eustathius lib. 1. when he came first to Sosthenes house, and sate at table with Cratistes his friend, Ismene Sosthenes daughter, waiting on them with her breasts open, arms half bare,

Nuda pedem, discincta sinum, spoliata lacertos,

after the Greek fashion in those times, —— nudos media plus parte lacertos, as Daphne was when she fled from Phœbus (which moved him much) was ever ready to give attendance on him, to fill him drink, her eyes were never off him, rogabundi oculi, those speaking eyes, courting eyes, inchanting eyes; but she was still smiling on him, and when they were risen, that she had gotten a little opportunity, she came and drank to him, and withall trod upon his toes, and would come and go, and when he could not speak for the company, she would wring his hand, and blush when she met him:

and by this means first she overcame him (bibens amorem hauriebam simul) she would kiss the cup and drink to him, and smile, and drink where he drank on that side of the cup, by which mutual compressions, kissings, wringing of hands, treading of feet, &c. Ipsam mihi videbar sorbillare virginem, I sipt and sipt, and sipt so long, till at length I was drunk in love upon a sudden.

Philocharinus in Aristænetus, met a fair maid by chance, a meer stranger to him, he looked back at her, she looked back at him again, and smiled withall.

Ille dies lethi primus, primusque malorum Causa fuit —— &c.

It was the sole cause of his farther acquaintance, & love that undid him.

O nullis tutum credere blanditiis.

This opportunity of time and place, with their circumstances are so forcible motives, that it is unpossible almost for two young folks equall in years to live together, and not be in love, especially in great houses, Princes Courts, where they are idle in summo gradu, fare well, live at ease, and cannot tell otherwise how to spend their time.

Illic Hippolitum pone, Priapus erit.

Achilles was sent by his mother Thetis, to the Iland of Scyros in the Ægæan Sea (where Lycomedes then raigned) in his nonage to be brought up, to avoid that hard destiny of the Oracle (he should be slain at the siege of Troy:) and for that cause was nurtured in Geneseo, amongst the Kings children in a womans habit; but see the event? He comprest Deidamia the Kings fair daughter, and had a fine son, called Pyrrhus by her.

Peter Albelhardus the Philosopher, as he tells the tale himself, being set by Fulbertus her unkle, to teach Helonissa his lovely neice, and to that purpose sojourned in his house, and had committed agnam tenellam famelico lupo, I use his own words, he soon got her good will, plura erant oscula quam sententiæ, and he read more of love then any other Lecture; such prety feats can opportunity plea; primum domo conjuncti, inde animis, &c.

But when as I say, nox, vinum, & adolescentia, youth, wine, and night, shall concur, nox amoris & quietis conscia, ’tis a wonder they be not all plunged over head and ears in love; for youth is benigna in amorem, & prona materies, a very combustible matter, Napthe it self, the fuell of loves fire, and most apt to kindle it. If there be seven servants in an ordinary house, you shall have three couple in some good liking at least, and amongst idle persons how should it be otherwise?

Living at Rome, saith Aratines Lucretia, in the flowre of my fortunes, rich, fair, young, and so well brought up, my conversation, age, beauty, fortune, made all the world admire and love me. Night alone, that one occasion is enough to set all on fire, and they are so cunning in great houses, that they make their best advantage of it: Many a Gentlewoman, that is guilty to her self of her imperfections, paintings, impostures, will not willingly be seen by day, but as Castilio noteth, in the night. Diem ut glis odit, tædarum lucem super omnia mavult, She hates the day like a dor-mouse, and above all things loves torches and candle-light, and if she must come abroad in the day, she covets, as in a Mercers shop, a very obfuscate and obscure light. And good reason she hath for it: Nocte latent mendæ, and many an amorous gull is fetched over by that means.

Gomesius lib. 3. de sale gen. c. 22. gives instance in a Florentine Gentleman, that was so deceived with a wife, she was so radiently set out with rings and jewels, lawns, scarfs, laces, gold, spangles, and gaudy devices, that the young man took her to be a goddess (for he never saw her but by torchlight) but after the wedding solemnities, when as he viewed her the next morning without her tires, and in a clear day, she was so deformed, a lean, yellow, riveld, &c. such a beastly creature in his eyes, that he could not endure to look upon her.

Such matches are frequently made in Italy, where they have no other opportunity to wooe but when they go to Church, or, as in Turkie, see them at a distance, they must enterchange few or no words, till such time they come to be married, and then as Sardus lib. 1. cap. 3. de morb. gent. and Bohemus relate of those old Lacedemonians, the Bride is brought into the chamber, with her hair girt about her, the Bridegroom comes in, and unties the knot, and must not see her at all by day-light, till such time as he is made a father by her.

In those hotter countries these are ordinary practises at this day; but in our Northern parts amongst Germans, Danes, French, and Britaines, the continent of Scandia and the rest, we assume more liberty in such causes; we allow them, as Bohemus saith, to kiss coming and going, & modo absit lascivia, in cauponam ducere, to talk merrily, sport, play, sing, and dance, so that it be modestly done, go to the Ale-house and Tavern together. And ’tis not amiss, though Chrysostome, Cyprian, Hierome, and some other of the Fathers speak bitterly against it: but that is the abuse which is commonly seen at some drunken matches, dissolute meetings, or great unruly feasts.