Ne ringas Mariana, meos ne despice canos, De sene nam Juvenem Dia referre potes, &c.

Sweet Marian do not mine age disdain, For thou canst make an old man yong again.

They will be still singing amorous songs and ditties (if yong especially) and cannot abstain though it be when they go to, or should be at Church. We have a pretty story to this purpose in Westmonasteriensis, an old writer of ours (if you will believe it) An. Dom. 1012. at Colewiz in Saxony, on Christmas Eve a company of yong men and maids, whilst the Priest was at Mass in the Church, were singing catches and love songs in the Church-yard, he sent to them to make less noise, but they sung on still; and if you will, you shall have the very song it self.

Equitabat homo per sylvam frondosam, Ducebatque secum Meswinden formosam, Quid stamus, cur non imus?

A fellow rid by the green wood side, And fair Meswinde was his bride, Why stand we so, and do not go?

This they sung, he chaft, till at length impatient as he was, he prayed to S. Magnus, patron of the Church, they might all three sing and dance ’till that time twelve month, and so they did, without meat and drink, wearisomness or giving over, till at years end they ceased singing, and were absolved by Herebertus Archbishop of Colen.

They will in all places be doing thus, yong folks especially, reading love stories, talking of this or that yong man, such a fair maid, singing, telling or hearing lascivious tales, scurril tunes, such objects are their sole delight, their continual meditation, and as Guastavinius adds, Com. in 4. Sect. 27. Prob. Arist. ob seminis abundantiam crebræ cogitationes, veneris frequens recordatio & pruriens voluptas, &c. an earnest longing comes hence, pruriens corpus, pruriens anima, amorous conceits, tickling thoughts, sweet and pleasant hopes; hence it is, they can think, discourse willingly, or speak almost of no other subject.

’Tis their only desire, if it may be done by art, to see their husbands picture in a glass, they’l give any thing to know when they shall be married, how many husbands they shall have, by Cromnyomantia, a kind of Divination with onions laid on the Altar on Christmas Eve, or by fasting on S. Annes Eve or night, to know who shall be their first husband, or by Amphitomantia, by beans in a Cake, &c. to burn the same.

This love is the cause of all good conceits, neatness, exornations, plays, elegancies, delights, pleasant expressions, sweet motions, and gestures, joys, comforts, exultancies, and all the sweetness of our life, qualis jam vita foret, aut quid jucundi sine aureâ Venere? Emoriar cum istâ non amplius mihi cura fuerit, let me live no longer then I may love, saith a mad merry fellow in Mimnermus.

This love is that salt that seasoneth our harsh and dull labours, and gives a pleasant rellish to our other unsavory proceedings, Absit amor, surgunt tenebræ, torpedo, veternum, pestis, &c. All our feasts almost, masques, mummings, banquets, merry meetings, weddings, pleasing songs, fine tunes, Poems, Love-stories, Plays, Comedies, Attelans, Jigs, Fescenines, Elegies, Odes, &c. proceed hence.

Danaus the son of Belus, at his daughters wedding at Argos, instituted the first plays (some say) that ever were heard of. Symbols, Emblems, Impreses, devises, if we shall believe Jovius, Contiles, Paradine, Camillus de Camillis, may be ascribed to it.

Most of our arts and sciences, painting amongst the rest, was first invented, saith Patritius ex amoris beneficio, for loves sake. For when the daughter of  Deburiades the Sycionian, was to take leave of her sweetheart now going to wars, ut desiderio ejus minus tabesceret, to comfort her self in his absence, she took his picture with cole upon a wall, as the candle gave the shadow, which her father admiring perfected afterwards, and it was the first picture by report that ever was made. And long after, Sycion for painting, carving, statuary, musick, and Philosophy was preferred before all the Cities in Greece.

Apollo was the first inventer of Physick, Divination, Oracles; Minerva found out weaving, Vulcan curious iron-work, Mercury letters, but who prompted all this into their heads? Love, Nunquam talia invenissent, nisi talia adamassent, they loved such things, or some party, for whose sake they were undertaken at first.

’Tis true, Vulcan made a most admirable Bruch or neck-lace, which long after, Axion and Temenus, Phegius sons, for the singular worth of it, consecrated to Apollo at Delphos, but Pharyllus the Tyrant stole it away, and presented it to Aristons wife, on whom he miserably doted (Parthenius tels the story out of Phylarchus) but why did Vulcan make this excellent Ouche? to give Hermione Cadmus wife, whom he dearly loved.

All our Tilts and Turnaments, Orders of the Garter, Golden Fleece, &c.

Nobilitas sub amore jacet ———

owe their beginnings to love, and many of our histories. By this means, saith Iovius, they would express their loving minds to their Mistress, and to the beholders.

’Tis the sole subject almost of Poetry, all our invention tends to it, all our songs, whatever those old Anacreons: (And therefore Hesiod makes the Muses and Graces still follow Cupid, and as Plutarch holds, Menander, and the rest of the Poets were Loves Priests,) all our Greek and Latine Epigrammatists, Love writers, Antony Diogenes the most ancient, whose Epitome we find in Photius Bibliotheca, Longus Sophista, Eustathius, Achilles Tatius, Aristænetus, Heliodorus, Plato, Plutarch, Lucian, Parthenius, Theodorus, Prodromus, Ovid, Catullus, Tibullus, &c.

Our new Ariostoes, Boyards, Authors of Arcadia, Urania, Fairy Queen, &c. Marullus, Leotichius, Angerianus, Stroza, Secundus, Capellanus, &c. with the rest of those facete modern Poets, have written in this kind, are but as so many Symptoms of Love. Their whole books are a Synopsis or breviary of Love, the portuous of Love, Legends of Lovers lives and deaths, and of their memorable adventures;

Nay more, quod leguntur, quod laudantur amori debent, as Nevisanus the Lawyer holds, there never was any excellent Poet, that invented good fables, or made laudable verses, which was not in love himself; had he not taken a quill from Cupids wings, he could never have written so amorously as he did.

Cynthia te vatem fecit lascive Properti, Ingenium Galli pulchra Lycoris habet. Fama est arguti Nemesis formosa Tibulli, Lesbia dictavit docte Catulle tibi. Non me Pelignus, nec spernet Mantua vatem, Si qua Corinna mihi, si quis Alexis erit.

Wanton Propertius, and witty Gallus, Subtile Tibullus, and learned Catullus, It was Cynthia, Lesbia, Lychoris, That made you Poets all; and if Alexis, Or Corinna chance my Paramour to be, Virgil and Ovid shall not despise me.

Non me carminibus vincet nec Thraceus Orpheus, Nec Linus.

Petrarchs Laura made him so famous, Astrophels Stella, and Jovianus Pontanus Mistress was the cause of his Roses, Violets, Lillies, Nequitiæ, blanditiæ, joci, decor, Nardus, Ver, Corolla, Thus, Mars, Pallas, Venus, Charis, Crocum, Laurus, Unguentum, Costum, Lachrymæ, Myrrha, Musæ, &c. and the rest of his Poems; why are Italians at this day generally so good Poets and Painters? because every man of any fashion amongst them hath his Mistress.

The very rusticks and hog-rubbers, Menalcas and Coridon, qui fætant de stercore equino, those fulsome knaves, if once they taste of this Love liquor, are inspired in an instant. Instead of those accurate Emblems, curious Impreses, gaudy masques, Tilts, Turnaments, &c. They have their Wakes, Whitson-ales, Shepheards feasts, meetings on holy days, country dances, roundelays, writing their names on trees, true lovers knots, pretty gifts.

With tokens, hearts divided, and half rings, Shepheards in their Loves are as coy as Kings.

Choosing Lords, Ladies, Kings, Queens, and Valentines, &c. they go by couples,

Coridons Phillis, Nysa and Mopsus, With daynty Dousibel and Sir Tophus.

Instead of Odes, Epigrams and Elegies, &c. they have their Ballads, country tunes, O the Broom, the bonny bonny Broom, Ditties and Songs, Bess a Bell she doth excel, —— they must write likewise and indicte all in rime.