Mala mens, malus animus, as the saying is, ill dispositions cause ill suspicions.

[6073] “There is none jealous, I durst pawn my life,
        But he that hath defiled another’s wife,
        And for that he himself hath gone astray,
        He straightway thinks his wife will tread that way.”

To these two above-named causes, or incendiaries of this rage, I may very well annex those circumstances of time, place, persons, by which it ebbs and flows, the fuel of this fury, as [6074]Vives truly observes; and such like accidents or occasions, proceeding from the parties themselves, or others, which much aggravate and intend this suspicious humour.  For many men are so lasciviously given, either out of a depraved nature, or too much liberty, which they do assume unto themselves, by reason of their greatness, in that they are noble men, (for licentiae peccandi, et multitudo peccantium are great motives) though their own wives be never so fair, noble, virtuous, honest, wise, able, and well given, they must have change.

[6075] “Qui cum legitimi junguntur foedere lecti,
        Virtute egregiis, facieque domoque puellis,
        Scorta tamen, foedasque lupas in fornice quaerunt,
        Et per adulterium nova carpere gaudia tentant.”

       “Who being match’d to wives most virtuous,
        Noble, and fair, fly out lascivious.”

Quod licet ingratum est, that which is ordinary, is unpleasant.  Nero (saith Tacitus) abhorred Octavia his own wife, a noble virtuous lady, and loved Acte, a base quean in respect. [6076]Cerinthus rejected Sulpitia, a nobleman’s daughter, and courted a poor servant maid.—­tanta est aliena in messe voluptas, for that [6077]"stolen waters be more pleasant:”  or as Vitellius the emperor was wont to say, Jucundiores amores, qui cum periculo habentur, like stolen venison, still the sweetest is that love which is most difficultly attained:  they like better to hunt by stealth in another man’s walk, than to have the fairest course that may be at game of their own.

[6078] “Aspice ut in coelo modo sol, modo luna ministret,
        Sic etiam nobis una pella parum est.”

       “As sun and moon in heaven change their course,
        So they change loves, though often to the worse.”

Or that some fair object so forcibly moves them, they cannot contain themselves, be it heard or seen they will be at it. [6079]Nessus, the centaur, was by agreement to carry Hercules and his wife over the river Evenus; no sooner had he set Dejanira on the other side, but he would have offered violence unto her, leaving Hercules to swim over as he could:  and though her husband was a spectator, yet would he not desist till Hercules, with a poisoned arrow, shot him to death. [6080]Neptune saw by chance that Thessalian Tyro, Eunippius’ wife, he forthwith, in the fury of his lust, counterfeited her husband’s habit, and made him cuckold.