[5455] “Nam si abest quod ames, praesto simulacra tamen sunt
        Illius, et nomen dulce observatur ad aures.”

The very carrier that comes from him to her is a most welcome guest; and if he bring a letter, she will read it twenty times over, and as [5456] Lucretia did by Euryalus, “kiss the letter a thousand times together, and then read it:”  And [5457]Chelidonia by Philonius, after many sweet kisses, put the letter in her bosom,

       “And kiss again, and often look thereon,
        And stay the messenger that would be gone:” 

And asked many pretty questions, over and over again, as how he looked, what he did, and what he said?  In a word,

[5458] “Vult placere sese amicae, vult mihi, vult pedissequae,
        Vult famulis, vult etiam ancillis, et catulo meo.”

       “He strives to please his mistress, and her maid,
        Her servants, and her dog, and’s well apaid.”

If he get any remnant of hers, a busk-point, a feather of her fan, a shoe-tie, a lace, a ring, a bracelet of hair,

[5459] “Pignusque direptum lacertis;
        Aut digito male pertinaci,”

he wears it for a favour on his arm, in his hat, finger, or next his heart.  Her picture he adores twice a day, and for two hours together will not look off it; as Laodamia did by Protesilaus, when he went to war, [5460]"’sit at home with his picture before her;’ a garter or a bracelet of hers is more precious than any saint’s relic,” he lays it up in his casket, (O blessed relic) and every day will kiss it:  if in her presence, his eye is never off her, and drink he will where she drank, if it be possible, in that very place, &c.  If absent, he will walk in the walk, sit under that tree where she did use to sit, in that bower, in that very seat,—­et foribus miser oscula figit, [5461]many years after sometimes, though she be far distant and dwell many miles off, he loves yet to walk that way still, to have his chamber-window look that way:  to walk by that river’s side, which (though far away) runs by the house where she dwells, he loves the wind blows to that coast.

[5462] “O quoties dixi Zephyris properantibus illuc,
        Felices pulchram visuri Amaryllada venti.”

       “O happy western winds that blow that way,
        For you shall see my love’s fair face to day.”

He will send a message to her by the wind.

[5463] “Vos aurae Alpinae, placidis de montibus aurae,
Haec illi portate,”------

[5464]he desires to confer with some of her acquaintance, for his heart is still with her, [5465]to talk of her, admiring and commending her, lamenting, moaning, wishing himself anything for her sake, to have opportunity to see her, O that he might but enjoy her presence!  So did Philostratus to his mistress, [5466]"O happy ground on which she treads, and happy were I if she would tread upon me.  I think her countenance would make the rivers stand, and when she comes abroad, birds will sing and come about her.”