The Anatomy of Melancholy

Nicholas Sander says of Henry VIII—I do not know how truthfully—“that he saw few beautiful women whom he did not desire, and desired very few whom he did not violate.” He saw very few girls whom he did not desire, and desired fewer whom he did not possess. Nothing is more usual among them; it occupies most of their time.

Sardanapalus, Messalina and Joan of Naples cannot compare with men and women of lower rank. Solomon in ancient times had a thousand concubines; Ahasuerus had his eunuchs and keepers; Nero his Tigellinus, procurers and bawds. The Turks, Muscovites, Mughals, sharifs of Barbary and Persian shahs are in no way inferior to them in our own times.

“A selection is made of all the most beautiful girls throughout the kingdom,” says Giovio, “for the emperor; and those he leaves are taken by the nobles.” They conscript and muster girls as we do soldiers, and choose the rarest beauties their countries can offer. Yet all this cannot keep them from adultery, incest, sodomy, buggery and such monstrous lusts.

We may conclude that, if they are young, fortunate, rich, lavishly fed and idle as well, it is almost impossible for them to live chastely without raging and throwing themselves into those troubles of burning lust.

Idleness has destroyed kings before now, And prosperous cities.

Idleness overthrows everything: “Love reigns in an unoccupied heart”; love tyrannizes over an idle person. “You have love to spare, Antipho.” If you have nothing to do,

You will be miserably tormented by envy or love—

You will be torn to pieces by envy, lust or some passion or other. “By doing nothing, people learn to do wrong.” It is Aristotle’s simile: “As a fuse or touchwood catches fire, so an idle person catches love.”

Why, it is asked, did Aegisthus become an adulterer? And so forth.

Why was Aegisthus a whoremonger? You need not ask the reason. Ismenodora carried off Bacchon: a woman seized a man, as Aurora did Cephalus. No wonder, says Plutarch: “Revelling in her wealth, the woman acts in the manner of men.” She was rich, fortunate and full of high spirits, and acts as men do in such circumstances—as Jupiter did with Europa, and Neptune with Amymone.

The poets therefore did well to make all their shepherds lovers, devoted to songs and flirtations, because they led such idle lives. For love, as Theophrastus defines it, “is a passion of an idle mind”; or, as Seneca describes it, “It is born in youth, nourished by luxury, sustained by holidays and leisure amid fortune’s happy gifts.” Youth begets it, dissipation maintains it, idleness feeds it, and so forth.