Sylvius hath crines ridentes—in
conclusion she is wedded to his rival, a boore, a
Corydon, a rustic, omnino ignarus, he can
scarce construe Corderius, yet haughty, fantastic,
opiniatre. The lover travels, goes into
foreign parts, peregrinates, amoris ergo, sees
manners, customs, not English, converses with pilgrims,
lying travellers, monks, hermits, those cattle, pedlars,
travelling gentry, Egyptians, natural wonders,
unicorns (though Aldobrandus will have them
to be figments), satyrs, semi-viri, apes, monkeys,
baboons, curiosities artificial, pyramides,
Virgilius his tombe, relicks, bones, which are nothing
but ivory as Melancthon judges, though Cornutus
leaneth to think them bones of dogs, cats, (why not
men?) which subtill priests vouch to have been saints,
martyrs, heu Pietas! By that time he has ended
his course, fugit hora, seven other years are
expired, gone by, time is he should return, he taketh
ship for Britaine, much desired of his friends, favebant
venti, Neptune is curteis, after some weekes at
sea he landeth, rides post to town, greets his family,
kinsmen, compotores, those jokers his friends that
were wont to tipple with him at alehouses; these
wonder now to see the change, quantum mutatus,
the man is quite another thing, he is disenthralled,
manumitted, he wonders what so bewitched him, he can
now both see, hear, smell, handle, converse with his
mistress, single by reason of the death of his rival,
a widow having children, grown willing, prompt, amorous,
showing no such great dislike to second nuptials,
he might have her for asking, no such thing, his mind
is changed, he loathes his former meat, had liever
eat ratsbane, aconite, his humour is to die a bachelour;
marke the conclusion. In this humour of celibate
seven other years are consumed in idleness, sloth,
world’s pleasures, which fatigate, satiate, induce
wearinesse, vapours, taedium vitae: When upon
a day, behold a wonder, redit Amor, the man
is as sick as ever, he is commenced lover upon the
old stock, walks with his hand thrust in his bosom
for negligence, moping he leans his head, face yellow,
beard flowing and incomposite, eyes sunken, anhelus,
breath wheezy and asthmatical, by reason of over-much
sighing: society he abhors, solitude is but a hell,
what shall he doe? all this while his mistresse is
forward, coming, amantissima, ready to jump at
once into his mouth, her he hateth, feels disgust
when she is but mentioned, thinks her ugly, old, a
painted Jesabeel, Alecto, Megara, and Tisiphone all
at once, a Corinthian Lais, a strumpet, only not handsome;
that which he affecteth so much, that which drives
him mad, distracted, phrenetic, beside himself, is
no beauty which lives, nothing in rerum natura
(so he might entertain a hope of a cure), but something
which is not, can never be, a certain fantastic
opinion or notional image of his mistresse,
that which she was, and that which hee thought
her to be, in former times, how beautiful! torments
him, frets him, follows him, makes him that he wishes
to die.