Many other tricks she used besides this (as she there confesseth) for she would fall out with, and anger him of set purpose, pick quarrels upon no occasion, because she would be reconciled to him again. Amantium iræ amoris redintegratio, as the old saying is, the falling out of lovers is the renewing of love; and according to that of Aristenætus, jucundiores amorum post injurias deliciæ, love is increased by injuries, as the Sun beams are more gracious after a cloud.

And surely this Aphorism is most true; for as Ampelis informs Crisis in the said Lucian, If a lover be not jealous, angry, waspish, apt to fall out, sigh and swear, he is no true lover.

To kiss and coil, hang about her neck, protest, swear and wish, are but ordinary symptomes, incipientis adhuc & crescentis amoris signa; but if he be jealous, angry, apt to mistake, &c. bene speres licet, sweet sister he is thine own; yet if you let him alone, humour him, please him, &c. and that he perceive once he hath you sure, without any corrivall, his love will languish, and he will not care so much for you.

Hitherto (saith he) can I speak out of experience; Demophantus a rich fellow was a suiter of mine, I seem’d to neglect him, and gave better entertainment to Calliades the Painter before his face, principio abiit, verbis me insectatus, at first he went his way all in a chafe, cursing and swearing, but at last he came submitting himself, vowing and protesting that he loved me most dearly, I should have all he had, and that he would kill himself for my sake. Therefore I advise thee (dear sister Crisis) and all maids, not to use your suiters over kindly; insolentes enim sunt hoc cum sentiunt, ’twill make them proud and insolent;

but now and then reject them, estrange thy self, & si me audies semel atque iterum exclude, shut him out of doors once or twice, let him dance attendance; follow my counsell, and by this means you shall make him mad, come off roundly, stand to any conditions, and do whatsoever you will have him.

These are the ordinary practises; yet in the said Lucian, Melissa me thinks, had a trick beyond all this; for when her suiter came coldly on, to stir him up, she writ one of his corrivals names and her own in a paper, —— Melissa amat Hermotimum, Hermotimus Melissam, causing it to be stuck upon a post, for all gazers to behold, and lost it in the way where he used to walk; which when the silly novice perceived, statim ut legit credidit, instantly apprehended it was so, came raving to me, &c. and so when I was in despair of his love, four months after I recovered him again.

Eugenia drew Timocles for her Valentine, and wore his name a long time after in her bosome; Camena singled out Pamphilus to dance, at Mysons wedding (some say) for there she saw him first; Felicianus overtook Cælia by the high way side, offered his service, thence came farther acquaintance, and thence came love. But who can repeat half their devices? What Aratine experienced, what conceited Lucian, or wanton Aristenætus?

They will deny and take, stiffly refuse, and yet earnestly seek the same, repel to make them come with more eagerness, fly from if you follow, but if averse, as a shadow they will follow you again, fugientem sequitur, sequentem fugit; with a regaining retrait, a gentle reluctancy, a smiling threat, a pretty pleasant peevishness, they will put you off, and have a thousand such several enticements. For as he saith,

Non est forma satis, nec quæ vult bella videri, Debet vulgari more placere suis. Dicta, sales, lusus, sermones, gratia, risus, Vincunt naturæ candidioris opus.

’Tis not enough though she be fair of shew, For her to use this vulgar complement: But pretty toys and jests, and sawes and smiles, As far beyond what beauty can attempt.

For this cause belike Philostratus in his Images, makes divers Loves, some yong, some of one age, some of another, some winged, some of one sex, some of another, some with torches, some with golden apples, some with darts, gins, snares, and other engines in their hands, as Propertius hath prettily painted them out, lib. 2. & 29. and which some interpret, divers enticements, or divers affections of Lovers, which if not alone, yet joyntly may batter and overcome the strongest constitutions.

It is reported of Decius, and Valerianus, those two notorious persecutors of the Church, that when they could enforce a yong Christian by no means (as Hierome records) to sacrifice to their Idols, by no torments or promises, they took another course to tempt him: they put him into a fair Garden, and set a yong Curtesan to dally with him, she took him about the neck and kissed him, and that which is not to be named, manibusque attrectare, &c. and all those enticements which might be used, that whom torments could not, Love might batter and beleaguer. But such was his constancy, she could not overcome, and when this last engine would take no place, they left him to his own ways.

At Barclye in Glocester-shire, there was in times past a Nunnery (saith Gualterus Mapes, an old Historiographer, that lived 400 years since) of which there was a noble and a fair Lady Abbess: Godwin, that subtile Earl of Kent travelling that way, (seeking not her but hers) leaves a Nephew of his, a proper young Gallant (as if he had been sick) with her, till he came back again, and gives the young man charge so long to counterfeit, till he had deflowred the Abbess, and as many besides of the Nuns as he could, and leaves him withall rings, jewels, girdles, and such toyes to give them still, when they came to visit him.

The young man willing to undergo such a business, plaid his part so well, that in short space he got up most of their bellies, and when he had done, told his Lord how he had sped; His Lord makes instantly to the Court, tells the King how such a Nunnery was become a bawdy house, procures a visitation, gets them to be turned out, and begs the lands to his own use.