The Anatomy of Melancholy

Some flowers in a garden have colour but no scent; others smell sweet but are ugly to look at. One tastes unpleasant like rue, bitter as wormwood, yet is a highly medicinal, strengthening flower, most welcome to the stomach. So it is with men and women: one has good qualities but is ill-proportioned, poor and low-born. She has a fine eye but an ugly hand and foot, “ugly in feet and ugly in hands”; a fine leg, bad teeth, a huge body, and so on.

Examine every part of body and mind; I advise you to inquire into everything. See her angry or cheerful, laughing or weeping, hot or cold, ill or sulky, dressed or undressed, in every kind of clothing, position, gesture and passion, at her meals, and so on; in some of these states you will surely dislike her.

Indeed, let him observe not only her but also how her parents conduct themselves. Whatever deformities, defects or burdens of body or mind they have at a given age, their children will probably suffer from likewise: they will “take after their father” or “take after their mother.” At the same time let him notice her companions “in daily company,” as Quiverra prescribes, and “those with whom she associates”—the people she spends time with.

A person not known by himself is known by his companion.

According to Thucydides, the best woman is generally the one “of whom least is said in public,” the one least talked about abroad. For if she is a well-known reveller, a gadabout, a singer, one who dresses to show off, or a dancer, then beware of her. For what does Theocritus say?

But you merry girls, do not, do not dance! Look, a wicked goat is here, ready to mount you.

Young men will do it when the chance comes,

Fauns and satyrs will certainly play their wild tricks when they enter the presence of such a wanton woman as Baccho’s Elenora. When men perceive any such deviation, indecency, disproportion, deformity or bad character, let them keep dwelling on it; as Haedus advises, drawing on Ovid, “let them note the women’s faults”: mark their faults, vices and errors, and think about their imperfections. This is the most direct way to turn aside and soften love’s furious, headstrong passions, just as a peacock’s feet and dirty comb are said to make him forget his fine feathers and the pride of his tail.

She is lovely, beautiful, good-looking, accomplished, courteous and kind; but if she is not so to me, what do I care how kind she is? I say with Philostratus, “Beautiful to others, haughty towards me”: she is a tyrant to me, so let her go.

Besides these outward blemishes, obvious faults and errors, there are many hidden infirmities: some private, which I will omit, and some more common to the sex—sulky fits, bad qualities and filthy diseases—appropriate to consider in this case:

“Consideration of women’s foulness, especially menstrual foulness, how unclean they are”: Savonarola proposes, in his seventh rule, that this be thoroughly considered; Platina discusses it at length in his Dialogue on Love, as do Ludovicus Bonacialus in book 2, chapter 2 of his work on women, Petrus Haedus, Albertus and almost countless physicians.