Quisquis amat servit, sequitur captivus amantem, Fert domitâ cervice jugum ——

Sampson, David, Solomon, Hercules, Socrates, &c. are justly taxed of indiscretion in this point; the middle sort are betwixt hawk and buzzard; and although they do perceive and acknowledge their own dotage, weaknesse, fury, yet they cannot withstand it; as well may witnesse those expostulations, and confessions of Dido in Virgil.

Incipit effari mediaque in voce resistit.

Phædra in Seneca,

Quod ratio possit, vincit ac regnat furor, Potensque totâ mente dominatur deus.

Myrrha in Ovid.

Illa quidem sentit, fœdoque repugnat amori, Et secum quo mente feror, quid molior, inquit, Dii precor, & pietas, &c.

She sees and knows her fault, and doth resist, Against her filthy lust she doth contend, And whether go I, what am I about? And God forbid, yet doth it in the end.

Again,

—— Pervigili igne Carpitur indomito, furiosaque vota retractat, Et modo desperat, modo vult tentare, pudetque Et cupit, & quid agat, non invenit, &c.

With raging lust she burns, and now recals Her vow, and then despairs, and when ’tis past, Her former thoughts she’l prosecute in hast, And what to do she knows not at the last.

She will and will not, abhors; and yet as Medæa did, doth it,

—— Trahit invitam nova vis, aliudque cupido, Mens aliud suadet; video meliora, proboque, Deteriora sequor.

Reason pulls one way, burning lust another, She sees and knows what’s good, but she doth neither.

O fraus, amorque, & mentis emotæ furor, Quo me abstulistis?

The major part of Lovers are carried headlong like so many brute beasts, reason counsells one way, thy friends, fortunes, shame, disgrace, danger, and an ocean of cares that will certainly follow; yet this furious lust, præcipitates, counterpoiseth, weighs down on the other; though it be their utter undoing, perpetuall infamy, loss, yet they will do it, and become at last insensati void of sense; degenerate into dogs, hogs, asses, brutes; as Jupiter into a Bull, Apuleius an Asse, Lycaon a wolf, Tereus a Lap-wing, Calisto a Bear, Elpenor and Grillus into Swine by Circe.

For what else may we think those ingenious Poets to have shadowed in their witty fictions and poems, but that a man once given over to his lust (as Fulgentius interprets that of Apuleius, Alciat of Tereus) is no better then a beast.

Rex fueram, sic crista docet, sed sordida vita Immundam e tanto culmine fecit avem.

I was a King, my Crown a witnesse is, But by my filthinesse am come to this.

Their blindnesse is all out as great, as manifest as their weaknesse and dotage, or rather an inseparable companion, an ordinary sign of it. Love is blind, as the saying is, Cupid’s blind, and so are all his followers.

Quisquis amat ranam, ranam putat esse Dianam.

Every Lover admires his Mistress, though she be very deformed of her self, ill-favored, wrinkled, pimpled, pale, red, yellow, tand, tallow-faced, have a swoln Juglers platter face; or a thin, lean, chitty face; have clouds in her face, be crooked, dry, bald, goggle-eyed, blear-ey’d or with staring eys, she looks like a squis’d cat, hold her head still awry, heavy, dull, hollow-eyed, black or yellow about the eyes; or squint-eyed, sparrow-mouthed, Persean hook-nosed, have a sharp Fox nose, a red nose, China flat, great nose, nare simo patuloque, a nose like a promontory, gubber-tushed, rotten teeth, black, uneven, brown teeth, beetle-browed, a Witches beard, her breath stink all over the room, her nose drop winter and summer,

with a Bavarian poke under her chin, a sharp chin, lave eared, with a long cranes neck, which stands awry too, pendulis mammis, her dugs like two double jugs, or else no dugs, in that other extream, bloody-faln-fingers, she have filthy long unpared nailes, scabbed hands or wrists, a tand skin, a rotten carkass, crooked back, she stoops, is lame, splea-footed, as slender in the middle as a cow in the wast, gowty legs, her ankles hang over her shooes, her feet stink, she breed lice, a meer changeling, a very monster, an aufe imperfect, her whole complexion savours,

an harsh voyce, incondite gesture, vile gate, a vast virago, or an ugly tit, a slug, a fat fustilugs, a trusse, a long lean rawbone, a skeleton, a sneaker (si qua latent meliora puta) and to thy judgement looks like a mard in a lanthorn, whom thou couldst not fancy for a world, but hatest, loathest, and wouldst have spit in her face, or blow thy nose in her bosome, remedium amoris to another man, a dowdy, a slut, a scold, a nasty, rank, rammy, filthy, beastly quean, dishonest peradventure, obscene, base, beggerly, rude, foolish, untaught, peevish, Irus’ daughter, Thirsite sister, Grobians scholler; if he love her once, he admires her for all this, he takes no notice of any such errours, or imperfections of body or mind.

Ipsa hæc —— delectant, veluti Balbinum Polypus Agnæ,

he had rather have her then any woman in the world. If he were a King, she alone should be his Queen, his Empresse. O that he had but the wealth and treasure of both the Indies to endow her with, a carrack of Diamonds, a chain of Pearl, a carcanet of Jewels (a pair of calf-skin gloves of four pence a pair were fitter) or some such toy, to send her for a token, she should have it with all his heart; he would spend myriads of crowns for her sake. Venus her self, Panthea, Cleopatra, Tarquins Tanaquil, Herods Mariamne, or Mary of Burgundy if she were alive, would not match her.

Vincet vultus hæc Tyndarios, Qui moverunt horrida bella.

Let Paris himself be judge; renowned Helena comes short; that Rodopeian Phillis, Larissæan Coronis, Babylonian Thysbe, Polixena, Laura, Lesbia, &c. your counterfeit Ladies were never so fair as she is.

Quicquid erit placidi, lepidi, grati, atque faceti, Vivida cunctorum retines Pandora deorum,

What e’re is pretty, pleasant, facete, well, What e’re Pandora had, she doth excell.

Dicebam Triviæ formam nihil esse Dianæ.

Diana was not to be compar’d to her, nor Juno, nor Minerva, nor any Goddess. Thetis feet were as bright as silver, the ancles of Hebe clearer then Chrystall, the arms of Aurora as ruddy as the Rose, Juno’s brests as white as snow, Minerva wise, Venus fair; but what of this? dainty come thou to me. She is all in all,

—— Cælia ridens Est Venus, incedens Iuno, Minerva loquens.

Fairest of fair, that fairnesse doth excell.

Ephemerus in Aristænetus, so far admires his Mistress good parts, that he makes proclamation of them, and challengeth all comers in her behalf. Who ever saw the beauties of the East, or of the West, let them come from all quarters, all, and tell truth, if ever they saw such an excellent feature as this is. A good fellow in Petronius cryes out, no tongue can tell his Ladies fine feature, or expresse it. quicquid dixeris minus erit, &c.

No tongue can her perfections tell, In whose each part, all tongues may dwell.

Most of your Lovers are of his humour and opinion. She is nulli secunda, a rare creature, a Phœnix, the sole commandress of his thoughts, Queen of his desires, his only delight: as Triton now feelingly sings, that Love-sick Sea-God.

Candida Leucothe placet, & placet atra Melæne, Sed Galatea placet longe magis omnibus una.

Fair Leucothe, black Melæne please me well, But Galatea doth by ods the rest excell.

All the gracious Elogies, Metaphors, Hyperbolicall comparisons of the best things in the world, the most glorious names; whatsoever, I say, is pleasant, amiable, sweet, gratefull, and delicious, are too little for her.