Erōtomania or A treatise discoursing of the essence, causes, symptomes, prognosticks, and cure of love, or erotique melancholy. Written by Iames Ferrand Dr. of Physick

CAP. VIII. Of the manner how Love is Generated.

LOve, having first entred at the Eyes, * 1.1 which are the Faithfull spies and in∣telligencers of the soule, steales gently through those sluces, and so passing insen∣sibly through the veines to the Liver, it there presently imprinteth an ardent de∣sire of the Object, which is either really ••ovely, or at least appeares to be so. Now this desire, once enflamed, is the beginn∣ing and mover of all the sedition.

Hinc illae primae Veneris dulcedinis in Cor Stillavit gutta; & successit frigida cura. * 1.2

But distrusting its owne strength, and fearing it is not able to overthrow the Reason; it presently layeth siege to the Heart: of which having once fully possest

it selfe, as being the strongest fort of all it assaults so violently the Reason, and u•• the noble forces of the Braine, that the are suddenly forced to yeeld themselves up to its subjection. So that now, all's ut¦terly lost; Actum est de Homine: the Sen¦ses are all out of order, the Reason is di¦sturbed, the Imagination depraved, the discourses are all impertinent, and the poore Inamorato thinkes of nothing b•• his dearely beloved Mistresse. All the Actions of his Body are in like manne•• quite out of tune, he growes pale withall leane, distracted, has no appetite, his eyes are hollow and quite sunke into his head Then shall ye have him ever and an•• weeping, sobbing, and sighing by him¦selfe, and in perpetuall Anxiety, avoid¦ing all company, and choosing solitari¦nesse; that so he may entertaine his Me¦lancholy thoughts with the greater free¦dome. Now, Feare assaults him on one side; and then presently Despaire encoun¦ters him on the other.

Marsilius Ficinus in his Comment up on * 1.3 Plato's Convivium, and Francisc•• Valleriola a learned Physitian of Arle••••

speaking of a cure wrought by himselfe ••on a rich Merchant that was desperate∣•• in Love, are of opinion, that Love is •• used by way of Fascination: for that, ••y they, the Animall spirits being sent ••th by the Lover to the person beloved, ••d from thence retorted back againe on ••e Lover; by reason of their wonderfull ••btilenesse and thinnesse, they are easily ••ansmitted into the inward parts, and so ••ommunicating themselves to all the ••rts of the body through the veines and ••rteries, they trouble the blood, and so ••use this disease of Love, which, as they ••y, is nothing else but the Perturbation •• the Blood, but chiefly of the Melan∣choly. This Assertion of theirs they prove ••y diverse reasons, and in particular by ••e Instance of Bodies that have been * 1.4 ••urthered, which fall a bleeding a fresh, when the murtherer does but stedfastly ••oke on the Body, and that for the space ••f sixe or seaven howres immediatly af∣ter the Murther committed. So that according to the Opinion of these men, ••ose persons that have faire lovely eyes, though the other parts of the Body be

not answerably beautifull, will easily take those that look earnestly on them, unlesse their Reason overrule their Affe∣ctions. And so on the contrary, be the person never so comely and beautifull, if the eyes be not good, they doe not cause this kind of Passionate Love, but only a simple Friendship, or good likeing in the beholders: as if such Lovely persons, which the Greeks for good reason were wont to call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, did by the beauty of their eyes invite those that be∣held them at a distance, to come nearer and so by this meanes entrap them.

But I would faine know what reasons these Academicks can render of the Loves of Ianfre Rudels, spoken of before of that of Petrarch; and of those Scythian Women, that caused the eyes of those slaves that had beene taken prisoners i•• warre, that liked them, to be plucked out before they tooke them into their hou¦ses.

Holding my selfe then to my first opi¦nion, I affirme that the Liver is the Hearth that holds this Fire, and the se•• of Love; according to the old Disticke.

Cor s••pit, & pulmo loquitur, Fel concitat Iras, Splen ridere facit, cogit Amare Iecur.

The Heart is the seat of Wisdome, the ••ungs of speech, the Gall of Anger, the ••pleene of Laughter, and the Liver of Love: which seems also to be confirmed ••y the Wise-man, where he saith, in his Proverbs Cap 7. That a young man, void ••f understanding goeth after a strange wo∣man, till a dart strike through his Liver. ••nd hereto agrees that fiction of the Poets who faine that Tityus had a vultur ••ontinually feeding on his Liver, as a pu∣nishment inflicted on him by the Gods, for a rape attempted on the Goddesse Latona. For as it is the custome to punish Lyers, Tale-bearers, and the like, by slit∣••ing their Tongues: and to burne Fugi∣••ives in the Leggs: in like manner would Iupiter have that part of his, that had been the Originall cause of that his villa∣••ous designe, to be the Principall also in the Punishment of it. So likewise the Grammarians call those that are void of * 1.5 Love, Evisceratos, without Livers; Faint∣hearted

cowards, Excordes, Heartlesse, and Fooles, Brainelesse.

Vacuum{que} Cerebro Iamdudum caput hoc ventosa Cucurbits quaerit.

Gordonius doth not deny, but that the Li∣ver may be granted to be the seat of Love, and an Antecedent Cause of it: but hee * 1.6 will have the Genitals also to bee joint causes with it.

I may not shut up this Chapter, before I have delivered you the opinion of the Divine Plato, who under the person of * 1.7 Aristophanes tells a story, how that at first there were Three kindes of Men, that is, Male, Female, and a third mixt species of the other two, called for that reason An∣drogynes: of whom there remaines no∣thing now, but the Infamy of their name. Their figure was round, having foure Hands, and as many Feet, with all the o∣ther members in proportion doubled. But conspiring, as the Giants before had done against the Gods, Iupiter caused them to be divided in the midst, as wee use to cut

Egges in two to sowse, or divide them in the midst with haires: and then gave or∣der to Apollo to turne their faces toward that part where the Dissection was made; ••o the end that seeing their shame, they might become the more modest and tem∣perate: and having so done, enjoyned him ••o heale up the wound agen. But after this, each one desiring to recover his other ••alfe, they would runne one after the o∣ther, and embrace, desiring, if it were pos∣sible, to be reunited. But when they found •••• could not be; they presently perished for hunger, because they would not doe any thing the one without the other. And when the one halfe failed, and the other remained behinde; that which was left, sought for some other halfe, whether it were the Female halfe, or the Male: yet thus they came to ruine still. But at length Iupiter being moved to compassion to∣ward them, found out a meanes to help them, by transposing their Genitalls, which till then were behinde, and pla∣cing them, as now they are, before: and so contrived it, that they should engender, the Male and Female together: for before

they conceaved and engendred as Gras∣hoppers doe, by casting their seed on the ground. And so by this meanes was Mu∣tuall Love begotten, as a Reconciler of their Ancient Nature, desiring to maked Two, One, and a Remedy against Humane Frailty; which seemes to be nothing else but a strong Desire to be reunited & made one againe.

And it is not improbable that Aristo∣tle also, and after him, (as Iul. Scaliger * 1.8 thinks) Theophrastus in his second Booke of Plants, and first Chapter, favours this o∣pinion of Plato, where hee saies, that the Male was divided from the Female, to the end he might the better apply him∣selfe to the study of knowledge, & other more noble Actions, then that of Genera∣tion: which thing could not bee done, o∣therwise, then by cutting of the privy Members belonging to the Female Sexe.

It seemes that Plato, in his voyage that * 1.9 he made to Aegypt, sucked this fabulous Opinion out of the misinterpretation of some passages that he had met withall i•• the books of Moses, of which it is thought he had a view: for that Moses in Genesis

seemes to say, that Adam was at first crea∣ted Male and Female; and that afterward, the woman was taken out of his body, that so he might not be alone. From hence the Rabbins, Abraham, Hieremias, and Abraham Aben Esra, would inferre, that Adam was created in two Persons joyned together; the one part being Male, & the other Female; which were afterward se∣parated by the Divine Power. But this Opinion of theirs hath been already so strongly confuted by diverse Learned Men, that have been very skilfull in the Hebrew tongue, that it would bee great Presumption here in me to interpose. See what Ludovicus Regius in his Commen∣taries on Plato's Phoedrus hath collected concerning this point.

But for my own part, I am of opinion, that the Ancient Heathen Divines, as we may call them, such as Plato, of times cou∣ched the hidden Mysteries of their Reli∣gion under Figures, Hieroglyphicks, and Fables. Yet Marsilius Ficinus, following S. Augustine, saies, that, Non omnia quae in figuris finguntur, aliquid significare putan∣••da sunt, &c. We must not beleeve that all

things whatsoever the Heathen feigned have some private Mysticall meaning in them: for many things have been added, only for orders sake, and Cohaerence with those things that have been Significative. Yet without any disparagement to Fici∣nus, or his Interpretation; I must be bold to affirme, that Plato by this fabulous dis∣course would have us understand the Force of Love, which he before had pro∣ved to bee the most Powerfull of all the Gods: who, as a Mediator and Vmpire be∣twixt two that are divided, sets them at one againe, by the tye of Marriage, and by the Conformity of their Wils, which in Lovers are united.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Laurent. c. 10. de Mel.
• * 1.2

  Lucretius.
• * 1.3

  C. 3. 9 & 19. orat, 7.
• * 1.4

  M. Ficin. c. 10.
• * 1.5

  Gal. l. 3. de plac. Hip. & Plat.
• * 1.6

  Part. 2. cap. de Amore.
• * 1.7

  In Sympos.
• * 1.8

  Lib. 2. de gen. anim. c. 1.
• * 1.9

  Euseb. de Praep. E∣vang. c. 7.