The young must avoid wine altogether. Plato prescribes this, and would have magistrates themselves abstain as an example, highly praising the Carthaginians for their restraint in this respect. It was a good decree, a commendable practice, provided that it was followed for temperance rather than some mistaken reason: as the ancient Egyptians abstained because poets telling fables had declared that wine first sprang from the Giants’ blood, or from superstition, as our modern Turks do. For wine is “a poison to the soul and fuel for vice,” a plague in itself when taken immoderately.

For this reason women in hot countries were formerly forbidden to drink it and were punished as severely for drinking wine as for adultery. The young were forbidden it too, as Leonicus records in his Various Histories, book 3, chapters 87 and 88, drawing on Athenaeus and others. This is still practised in Italy and some other countries of Europe and Asia, as Claudius Minoes has fully illustrated in his commentary on Alciato’s twenty-third emblem. The rest of the diet must likewise be chosen with care.

It is no less fitting to avoid lust-provoking rocket And whatever prepares our bodies for Venus.

Eryngo is not good to take, And all foods that excite lust must be forsaken.

The foods with the opposite effect, which should be used, are cucumbers, melons, purslane, water lilies, rue, woodbine, ammi and lettuce, which Lemnius greatly praises for this purpose in book 2, chapter 42, as does Mizaldus in his Medical Garden. Above all the others stands vitex, or agnus castus, which Magninus says has a wonderful power.

At their solemn festival called the Thesmophoria, Athenian women had to abstain from men’s company for nine days. During this time, says Aelian, they placed in their beds a certain herb called Hanea, which calmed love’s burning flames and freed them from that violent passion’s torments. See more in Porta, Mattioli, Crescentius, book 5, and the chapters “On Satyriasis and Priapism” written by almost every herbalist and physician, Rhazes among them.

In some cases, however, if they are deeply dejected and physically weakened, and ready to despair through anguish, grief and an excessively keen sense of their misery, a cup of wine and a substantial diet are appropriate. So too, as Valescus advises, is “frequently having intercourse with another respectable woman.” Langius approves this from Rhazes in his Medical Letters, book 1, letter 24—“he recommends frequent intercourse”—and Guianerius supports it in treatise 16, chapter 16, as a very beneficial remedy.

When your groin swells, if a maidservant Or a homeborn slave is at hand, would you rather Burst with desire? I certainly would not, and so forth.

Jason Pratensis endorses this advice from the poet, “for discharge either removes the affliction altogether or eases it,” as it did Ahasuerus’s raging lust, “who, to relieve love’s impatience, deflowered new girls almost every night.” Getting drunk from time to time is also advised; but this is mad medicine, if it is to be allowed at all.

If not, some pleasure must still be allowed, such as Vives describes in book 3 of On the Soul: “A lover who has, as it were, lost himself through lack of self-control and impatience must be brought home like a traveller: by music, feasting, good wine—even, if need be, drunkenness itself, which many so highly commend for relieving the mind; every kind of sport and merriment; looking at fine pictures, tapestries and buildings, pleasant fields, orchards, gardens, groves, ponds, pools and rivers; fishing, bird-catching, falconry and hunting; hearing merry tales and pleasant conversation; reading; exercising until he sweats, so that fresh spirits may take their place;

or diverting him through some powerful emotion or contrary passion, until he is entirely weaned from anger, suspicion, cares, fears and the rest, and accustomed to a different course.” “Always have someone with you,” as Sempronius advises his lovesick master Calisto, “to start amusing conversations, recite ridiculous speeches, invented jests, pleasing histories and charming tales, and play before you.” Always have an agreeable companion to sing, tell merry tales and witty stories, and offer pleasant conversation.

And just as melodious music, merriment, singing and dancing increase some lovers’ passion, as Avicenna observes, so they drive it out in others and do much good. These things must be applied cautiously, according to the patients’ differing symptoms and states of mind.

If medicine is needed because the humours have changed or fresh matter has accumulated, they must be treated as sufferers from melancholy. Among the questions Charles de Lorme discussed for his degree at Montpellier in France was this: “Are lovers and mad people cured by the same remedies?” He affirms that they are, for love carried to excess is sheer madness. The treatment prescribed is therefore either internal or external, as discussed earlier in the preceding partition on the cure of melancholy.

For particular prescriptions, consult Valleriola, Observations, book 2, observation 7; Luis Mercado, On the Diseases of Women, book 2, chapter 4; Daniel Sennert, book 1, part 2, chapter 10; the Frenchman Jacques Ferrand in his treatise On Erotic Love; Forestus, book 10, observations 29 and 30; Jason Pratensis and others. Amatus Lusitanus cured a young Jewish man, almost mad with love, with hellebore syrup and the other evacuations and purges usually prescribed for black bile.

Avicenna likewise approves this if necessary, and especially bloodletting, which ensures that “lovers are not madmen,” bringing them to themselves and keeping them in their right minds. The School of Salerno, Jason Pratensis, Hildesheim and others similarly prescribe bloodletting as a principal remedy.