What greater captivity or slavery can there be (as Tully expostulates) then to bee in love? Is he a free man over whom a woman domineers, to whom she prescribes Lawes, commands, forbids what she will her self? That dares deny nothing she demands; she asks, he gives; she calls, he comes; she threatens, he fears; Nequissimum hunc servum puto, I account this man a very drudge.

And as he follows it, Is this no small servitude for an enamorite to be every hour combing his head, stiffning his beard, perfuming his hair, washing his face with sweet waters, painting, curling, and not to come abroad but sprucely crowned, decked and apparelled?

Yet these are but toyes in respect to go to the Barber, Baths, Theatres, &c. he must attend upon her where ever she goes, run along the streets by her doors and windows to see her, take all opportunities, sleeveless errands, disguise, counterfeit shapes, and as many forms as Jupiter himself ever took; and come every day to her house (as he will surely do if he be truly enamoured) and offer her service, and follow her up and down from room to room, as Lucretia’s suiters did, he cannot contain himself but he will do it, he must and will be where she is, sit next her, still talking with her.

If I did but let my glove fall by chance, (as the said Aretines Lucretia brags) I had one of my suiters, nay two or three at once ready to stoop and take it up, and kiss it, and with a low congy deliver it unto me: If I would walk, another was ready to sustain me by the arm. A third to provide fruits, Pears, Plums, Cherries, or whatsoever I would eat or drink.

All this and much more he doth in her presence, and when he comes home, as Troilus on his Cresseid, ’tis all his meditation to recount with himself his actions, words, gestures, what entertainment he had, how kindly she used him in such a place, how she smiled, how she graced him, and that infinitely pleased him; then he breaks out, O sweet Areusa, O my dearest Antiphila, O most divine looks, O lovely graces, and thereupon instantly he makes an Epigram, or a Sonet to five or seven tunes, in her commendation, or else he ruminates how she rejected his service, denied him a kiss, disgraced him, &c. and that as effectually torments him. And these are his exercises betwixt comb and glass, Madrigals, Elegies, &c. these his cogitations till he see her again.

But all this is easie and gentle, and the least part of his labour and bondage, no hunter will take such pains for his Game, Fowler for his sport, or Souldier to sack a City, as he will for his Mistress favour.

Ipsa comes veniam, neque me salebrosa movebunt Saxa, nec obliquo dente timendus aper.

As Phædra to Hippolitus. No danger shall affright; for if that be true the Poets fain, Love is the son of Mars and Venus; as he hath delights, pleasures, elegancies from his mother, so hath he hardness, valour and boldness from his father. And ’tis true that Bernard hath; Amore nihil mollius, nihil violentius, nothing so boisterous, nothing so tender as love.

If once therefore enamoured, he will go, run, ride many a mile to meet her, day and night, in a very dark night, endure scorching heat, cold, wait in frost and snow, rain, tempests, till his teeth chatter in his head, those Northern winds and showrs cannot cool or quench his flames of love. Intempestâ nocte non deterretur, he will, take my word, he will sustain hunger, thirst, Penetrabit omnia, perrumpet omnia, love will find out a way, through thick and thin he will to her; Expeditissimi montes videntur amnes tranabiles, he will swim through an Ocean, ride post over the Alpes, Apenine, or Pirenean hills,

Ignem marisque fluctus, atque turbines Venti paratus est transire, ——

though it rain daggers with their points downward, light or dark, all is one: (Roscida per tenebras Faunus ad antra venit) for her sweet sake he will undertake Hercules twelve labours, endure, hazard, &c. he feels it not.

What shall I say (saith Hædus) of their great dangers they undergo, single combats they undertake, how they will venture their lives, creep in at windows, gutters, climb over walls to come to their sweet-hearts, (anointing the doors and hinges with oyl, because they should not creak, tread soft, swim, wade, watch, &c.) and if they be surprised, leap out at windows, cast themselves headlong down, bruising or breaking their legs or arms, and sometimes losing life it self; as Calisto did for his lovely Melibea.

Hear some of their own confessions, protestations, complaints, proffers, expostulations, wishes, brutish attempts, labours in this kind. Hercules served Omphale, put on an aprone, took a distaff and spun; Thraso the souldier was so submisse to Thais, that he was resolved to do whatsoever she enjoyned. Ego me Thaidi dedam, & faciam quod jubet, I am at her service.

Philostratus in an Epistle to his Mistress, I am ready to dye Sweet-heart if it be thy will; allay his thirst whom thy star hath scorched and undone, the fountains and rivers deny no man drink that comes; the fountain doth not say thou shalt not drink, nor the apple thou shalt not eat, nor the fair meadow walk not in me, but thou alone wilt not let me come near thee, or see thee, contemned and despised I dye for grief.

Polienus when his Mistress Circe did but frown upon him in Petronius, drew his sword, and bad her kill, stab, or whip him to death, he would strip himself naked, and not resist. Another wil tak a journey to Iapan, Longæ navigationis molestias non curans: A third (if she say it) will not speak a word for a twelvemonths space, her command shall be most inviolably kept: A fourth, will take Hercules club from him, and with that Centurion in the Spanish Cœlestina, will kill ten men for his Mistress Areusa, for a word of her mouth, he will cut bucklers in two like pippins, and snap down men like flies, Elige quo mortis genere illum occidi cupis?