Saint Hierome lib. 2. epist. 16. to Rusticus the Monk, hath an instance of a yong man of Greece, that lived in a Monastery in Ægypt, that by no labour, no continence, no perswasion could be diverted, but at last by this trick he was delivered. The Abbot sets one of his covent to quarrel with him, and with some scandalous reproach or other to defame him before company, and then to come and complain first, the witnesses were likewise suborned for the plaintiffe. The yong man wept, and when all were against him, the Abbot cunningly took his part, least he should be overcome with immoderate grief: but what need many words? By this invention he was cured, and alienated from his pristine love-thoughts.

—— Injuries, slanders, contempts, disgraces,

—— spretæque injuria formæ,

are very forcible means to withdraw mens affections, contumelia affecti amatores amare desinunt, as Lucian saith, Lovers reviled or neglected, contemned or misused, turn Love to hate; redeam? Non si me obsecret, I’le never love thee more. Egone illam, quæ illum, quæ me, quæ non?

So Zephyrus hated Hyacinthus because he scorned him, and preferred his corrival Apollo (Palephætus fab. Nar.) he will not come again though he be invited.

Tell him but how he was scoffed at behind his back, (’tis the councel of Avicenna) that his Love is false, and entertains another, rejects him, cares not for him, or that she is a fool, a nasty quean, a slut, a fixen, a scold, a divel, or which Italians commonly do, that he or she hath some loathsome filthy disease, gout, stone, strangury, falling-sickness, and they are hereditary, not to be avoided, he is subject to a consumption, hath the Pox, that he hath three or four incurable tetters, issues: that she is bald, her breath stinks, she is mad by inheritance, and so are all the kinred, an hair-brain, with many other secret infirmities, which I will not so much as name, belonging to women.

That he is an Hermaphrodite, an Eunuch, imperfect, impotent, a spend-thrift, a gamester, a fool, a gull, a begger, a whoremaster, far in debt, and not able to maintain her, a common drunkard, his mother was a Witch, his father hang’d, that he hath a wolfe in his bosome, a sore leg, he is a leper, hath some incurable disease, that he will surely beat her, he cannot hold his water, that he cries out or walks in the night, will stab his bed-fellow, tell all his secrets in his sleep, and that no body dare lie with him, his house is haunted with spirits, with such fearfull and tragicall things, able to avert and terrifie any man or woman living.

Gordonius cap. 20. part. 2. hunc in modum consulit;

Paretur aliqua vetula turpissima aspectu, cum turpi & vili habitu: & portet subtus gremium pannum menstrualem, & dicat quod amica sua sit ebriosa, & quod mingat in lecto, & quod est epileptica & impudica; & quod in corpore suo sunt excrescentiæ enormes, cum fœtore anhelitus, & aliæ enormitates, quibus vetulæ sunt edoctæ: si nolit his persuaderi, subito extrahat pannum menstrualem, coram facie portando, exclamando, talis est amica tua; & si ex his non demiserit, non est homo, sed diabolus incarnatus.

Idem fere Avicenna cap. 24. de cura Elishi, Lib. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. Narrent res immundas vetulæ, ex quibus abominationem incurrat, & res sordidas, & hoc assiduent.

Idem Arculanus cap. 16. in 9. Rhasis, &c.

Withall as they do discommend the old, for the better affecting a more speedy alteration, they must commend another Paramour, alteram inducere, set him or her to be woed, or woe some other that shall be fairer, of better note, better fortune, birth, parentage, much to be preferred,

Invenies alium si te hic fastidit Alexis,

by this means, which Jason Pratensis wisheth, to turn the stream of affection another way,

Successore novo truditur omnis amor;

or as Valesius adviseth, by subdividing to diminish it, as a great River cut into many channels, runs low at last.

Hortor & ut pariter binas habeatis amicas, &c.

If you suspect to be taken, be sure, saith the Poet, to have two mistresses at once, or go from one to another: as he that goes from a good fire in cold weather is loth to depart from it, though in the next room there be a better, which will refresh him as much; there’s as much difference of hæc as hic ignis; or bring him to some publique shews, plays, meetings, where he may see variety, and he shall likely loath his first choice:

carry him but to the next town, yea peradventure to the next house, and as Paris lost Oenones love by seeing Helena, and Cresseida forsook Troilus by conversing with Diomede, he will dislike his former mistress, and leave her quite behind him, as Theseus left Ariadne fast asleep in the Iland of Dia, to seek her fortune, that was er’st his loving Mistress.

Nunc primum Dorida vetus amator contempsi, as he said, Doris is but a dowdy to this. As he that looks himself in a glass forgets his Physiognomie forthwith, this flattering glass of love will be diminished by remove; after a little absence it will be remitted, the next fair object will likely alter it.

A yong man in Lucian was pittifully in love, he came to the Theater by chance, and by seeing other fair objects there, mentis sanitatem recepit, was fully recovered, and went merrily home, as if he had taken a dram of oblivion.

A mouse (saith an Apologer) was brought up in a chest, there fed with fragments of bread and cheese, thought there could be no better meat, till coming forth at last, and feeding liberally of other variety of viands, loathed his former life: moralize this fable by thy self.

Plato in his seventh book De Legibus, hath a pretty fiction of a City under ground, to which by little holes, some small store of light came; the inhabitants thought there could not be a better place, and at their first coming abroad they might not endure the light, ægerrime solem intueri; but after they were accustomed a little to it, they deplored their fellows misery that lived under ground.

A silly Lover is in like state, none so fair as his Mistress at first, he cares for none but her; yet after a while when he hath compared her with others, he abhors her name, sight and memory. ’Tis generally true; for as he observes, Priorem flammam novus ignis extrudit; & ea multorum natura, ut præsentes maxime ament, One fire drives out another; and such is womens weakness, that they love commonly him that is present.

And so do many men (as he confessed) he loved Amye, till he saw Floriat, and when he saw Cynthia, forgat them both: but fair Phillis was incomparably beyond them all, Cloris surpassed her, and yet when he espied Amarillis, she was his sole Mistress; O divine Amarillis: quam procera, cupressi ad instar, quam elegans, quam decens! &c. how lovely, how tall, how comely she was, (saith Polemius) till he saw another, and then she was the sole subject of his thoughts. In conclusion, her he loves best he saw last.

Triton the Sea-God first loved Leucothoe, till he came in presence of Milæne, she was the commandress of his heart, till he saw Galatea; but (as she complains) he loved another eftsoons, another, and another.

’Tis a thing which by Hieroms report, hath been usually practised. Heathen Philosophers drive out one love with another, as they do a peg, or pin with a pin. Which those seven Persian Princes did to Assuerus, that they might requite the desire of Queen Vashti with the love of others.

Pausanias in Eliacis, saith, that therefore one Cupid was painted to contend with another, and to take the Garland from him, because one love drives out another.

Alterius vires subtrahit alter amor.

and Tully 3. nat. deor. disputing with C. Cotta, makes mention of three several Cupids, all differing in office.

Felix Plater in the first book of his observations, boasts how he cured a widower in Basil, a Patient of his, by this stratagem alone, that doted upon a poor servant his maid, when friends, children, no perswasion could serve to alienate his mind: they motioned him to another honest mans daughter in the Town, whom he loved, and lived with, long after, abhorring the very name and sight of the first.

After the death of Lucretia, Eurialus would admit of no comfort, till the Emperour Sigismond married him to a noble Lady of his Court, and so in short space he was freed.