and all men desire her more than gold or silver, or any precious thing:  they will leave father and mother, and venture their lives for her, labour and travel to get, and bring all their gains to women, steal, fight, and spoil for their mistress’s sake.  And no king so strong, but a fair woman is stronger than he is.  All things” (as [4833]he proceeds) “fear to touch the king; yet I saw him and Apame his concubine, the daughter of the famous Bartacus, sitting on the right hand of the king, and she took the crown off his head, and put it on her own, and stroke him with her left hand; yet the king gaped and gazed on her, and when she laughed he laughed, and when she was angry he flattered to be reconciled to her.”  So beauty commands even kings themselves; nay whole armies and kingdoms are captivated together with their kings:  [4834]_Forma vincit armatos, ferrum pulchritudo captivat; vincentur specie, qui non vincentur proelio_.  And ’tis a great matter saith [4835]Xenophon, “and of which all fair persons may worthily brag, that a strong man must labour for his living if he will have aught, a valiant man must fight and endanger himself for it, a wise man speak, show himself, and toil; but a fair and beautiful person doth all with ease, he compasseth his desire without any pains-taking:”  God and men, heaven and earth conspire to honour him; every one pities him above other, if he be in need, [4836]and all the world is willing to do him good. [4837]Chariclea fell into the hand of pirates, but when all the rest were put to the edge of the sword, she alone was preserved for her person. [4838]When Constantinople was sacked by the Turk, Irene escaped, and was so far from being made a captive, that she even captivated the Grand Signior himself.  So did Rosamond insult over King Henry the Second.

[4839]  ------“I was so fair an object;
Whom fortune made my king, my love made subject;
He found by proof the privilege of beauty,
That it had power to countermand all duty.”

It captivates the very gods themselves, Morosiora numina,

[4840]  ------“Deus ipse deorum
Factus ob hanc formam bos, equus imber olor.”

And those mali genii are taken with it, as [4841]I have already proved. Formosam Barbari verentur, et ad spectum pulchrum immanis animus mansuescit. (Heliodor. lib. 5.) The barbarians stand in awe of a fair woman, and at a beautiful aspect a fierce spirit is pacified.  For when as Troy was taken, and the wars ended (as Clemens [4842]Alexandrinus quotes out of Euripides) angry Menelaus with rage and fury armed, came with his sword drawn, to have killed Helen, with his own hands, as being the sole cause of all those wars and miseries:  but when he saw her fair face, as one amazed at her divine beauty, he let his weapon fall, and embraced her besides, he had no power to strike so sweet a creature. Ergo habetantur enses pulchritudine, the edge of a sharp sword (as the saying is) is dulled with a beautiful aspect,