The Anatomy of Melancholy

And if it were “possible to have an army composed of lovers—those who love or are loved—they would be exceptionally brave and wise in governing themselves. A sense of shame would keep them from doing wrong; rivalry would urge them to do what is good and honourable; and a few of them would overcome a great host of others.”

There is no man so faint-hearted, so utter a coward, whom love would not kindle, endow with a godlike nature and a heroic spirit. As the poet said in a similar case, “Let the whole mass of heaven collapse: I am not afraid,” and so forth. Nothing can terrify or dismay them. They fight as Sir Blandimor and Paridel, those two brave Faerie knights, fought for love of fair Florimel in her presence—

And both drew their swords in renewed fury; Like two mad mastiffs, each struck to kill the other; They sliced shields, tore mail and hacked helmets. So furiously they attacked each other, As if at once to tear the souls Out of their breasts, that streams of blood poured Down, as though the fountains of their life were drained; All the ground was spattered with purple blood, And all their armour stained with bloody gore. Yet scarcely once would they pause to breathe: So deadly was their hatred, and so fierce, That both resolved to die before they yielded.

Every humble rustic in love will dare as much for his dear mistress’s sake. He will fight to fetch “the Argive shield,” that famous buckler of Argos, to serve her; risk everything and undertake any enterprise. Like Serrano, the Spaniard then governor of Sluys, who answered the Marquis Spinola that even if the enemy brought fifty thousand devils against him, he would hold it.

The Nine Worthies, Oliver and Roland, and forty dozen peers are all combined in him. He is all courage, armour tested and proven, more than a man; in this condition he surpasses himself. For, as Agathon argues, a true lover is wise, just, temperate and brave.

“I do not doubt, therefore, that if a man had such an army of lovers,” as Castiglione supposes, “he could soon conquer the whole world, unless by chance he encountered another such army of enamoured people to oppose it.” For then, perhaps, they might fight like that fated Dog and fated Hare in the heavens, chasing round after one another without ever reaching an end.

Castiglione thinks Ferdinand, King of Spain, would never have conquered Granada if Queen Isabella and her ladies had not been present at the siege. “It is impossible to express what courage the Spanish knights gained from the ladies’ presence: a few Spaniards overcame a multitude of Moors.”