improbam et praeruptam licentiam, et effrenatam audaciam, &c., what will not lust effect in such persons?  For commonly princes and great men make no scruple at all of such matters, but with that whore in Spartian, quicquid libet licet, they think they may do what they list, profess it publicly, and rather brag with Proculus (that writ to a friend of his in Rome, [4777]what famous exploits he had done in that kind) than any way be abashed at it. [4778]Nicholas Sanders relates of Henry VIII. (I know not how truly) Quod paucas vidit pulchriores quas non concupierit, et paucissimas non concupierit quas non violarit, “He saw very few maids that he did not desire, and desired fewer whom he did not enjoy:”  nothing so familiar amongst them, ’tis most of their business:  Sardanapalus, Messalina, and Joan of Naples, are not comparable to [4779]meaner men and women; Solomon of old had a thousand concubines; Ahasuerus his eunuchs and keepers; Nero his Tigillinus panders, and bawds; the Turks, [4780] Muscovites, Mogors, Xeriffs of Barbary, and Persian Sophies, are no whit inferior to them in our times. Delectus fit omnium puellarum toto regno forma praestantiorum (saith Jovius) pro imperatore; et quas ille linquit, nobiles habent; they press and muster up wenches as we do soldiers, and have their choice of the rarest beauties their countries can afford, and yet all this cannot keep them from adultery, incest, sodomy, buggery, and such prodigious lusts.  We may conclude, that if they be young, fortunate, rich, high-fed, and idle withal, it is almost impossible that they should live honest, not rage, and precipitate themselves into these inconveniences of burning lust.

[4781] “Otium et reges prius et beatas
                Perdidit urbes.”

Idleness overthrows all, Vacuo pectore regnat amor, love tyranniseth in an idle person. Amore abundas Antiphio.  If thou hast nothing to do,[4782] Invidia vel amore miser torquebere—­Thou shalt be haled in pieces with envy, lust, some passion or other. Homines nihil agendo male agere discunt; ’tis Aristotle’s simile, [4783]"as match or touchwood takes fire, so doth an idle person love.” Quaeritur Aegistus quare sit factus adulter, &c., why was Aegistus a whoremaster?  You need not ask a reason of it.  Ismenedora stole Baccho, a woman forced a man, as [4784]Aurora did Cephalus:  no marvel, saith [4785]Plutarch, Luxurians opibus more hominum mulier agit:  she was rich, fortunate and jolly, and doth but as men do in that case, as Jupiter did by Europa, Neptune by Amymone.  The poets therefore did well to feign all shepherds lovers, to give themselves to songs and dalliances, because they lived such idle lives.  For love, as [4786]Theophrastus defines it, is otiosi animi affectus, an affection of an idle mind, or as [4787]Seneca describes it, Juventa gignitur, juxu nutritur, feriis alitur, otioque inter laeta fortunae bonae; youth begets