Если такая ярость есть в растениях, что мы должны думать о чувствующих существах, насколько более насильственной и явной она будет в них!
[4662]Omne adeo genus in terris hominumque ferarum,
Et genus aequoreum, pecudes, pictaeque volucres
In furias ignemque ruunt; amor omnibus idem.
All kind of creatures in the earth,
And fishes of the sea,
And painted birds do rage alike;
This love bears equal sway.
[4663]Hic Deus et terras et maria alta domat.
Common experience and our sense will inform us how violently brute beasts are carried away with this passion, horses above the rest,—furor est insignis equarum. [4664]“Cupid in Lucian bids Venus his mother be of good cheer, for he was now familiar with lions, and oftentimes did get on their backs, hold them by the mane, and ride them about like horses, and they would fawn upon him with their tails.” Bulls, bears, and boars are so furious in this kind they kill one another: but especially cocks, [4665] lions, and harts, which are so fierce that you may hear them fight half a mile off, saith [4666]Turberville, and many times kill each other, or compel them to abandon the rut, that they may remain masters in their places; “and when one hath driven his co-rival away, he raiseth his nose up into the air, and looks aloft, as though he gave thanks to nature,” which affords him such great delight. How birds are affected in this kind, appears out of Aristotle, he will have them to sing ob futuram venerem for joy or in hope of their venery which is to come.
[4667]Aeeriae primum volucres te Diva tuumque
significant initum, perculsae corda tua vi.
“Fishes pine away for love and wax lean,” if [4668]Gomesius's authority may be taken, and are rampant too, some of them: Peter Gellius, lib. 10. de hist, animal. tells wonders of a triton in Epirus: there was a well not far from the shore, where the country wenches fetched water, they, [4669]tritons, stupri causa would set upon them and carry them to the sea, and there drown them, if they would not yield; so love tyranniseth in dumb creatures. Yet this is natural for one beast to dote upon another of the same kind; but what strange fury is that, when a beast shall dote upon a man? Saxo Grammaticus, lib. 10. Dan. hist. hath a story of a bear that loved a woman, kept her in his den a long time and begot a son of her, out of whose loins proceeded many northern kings: this is the original belike of that common tale of Valentine and Orson: Aelian, Pliny, Peter Gillius, are full of such relations. A peacock in Lucadia loved a maid, and when she died, the peacock pined. [4670]“A dolphin loved a boy called Hernias, and when he died, the fish came on land, and so perished.” The like adds Gellius, lib. 10. cap. 22. out of Appion, Aegypt. lib. 15. a dolphin at Puteoli loved a child, would come often to him, let him get on his back, and carry him about, [4671]“and when by sickness the child was taken away, the dolphin died.” [4672]“Every book is full” (saith Busbequius, the emperor's orator with the Grand Signior, not long since, ep. 3. legat. Turc.), “and yields such instances, to believe which I was always afraid lest I should be thought to give credit to fables, until I saw a lynx which I had from Assyria, so affected towards one of my men, that it cannot be denied but that he was in love with him. When my man was present, the beast would use many notable enticements and pleasant motions, and when he was going, hold him back, and look after him when he was gone, very sad in his absence, but most jocund when he returned: and when my man went from me, the beast expressed his love with continual sickness, and after he had pined away some few days, died.” Such another story he hath of a crane of Majorca, that loved a Spaniard, that would walk any way with him, and in his absence seek about for him, make a noise that he might hear her, and knock at his door, [4673]“and when he took his last farewell, famished herself.” Such pretty pranks can love play with birds, fishes, beasts:
([4674]Coelestis aestheris, ponti, terrae claves habet Venus,
Solaque istorum omnium imperium obtinet.)
and if all be certain that is credibly reported, with the spirits of the air, and devils of hell themselves, who are as much enamoured and dote (if I may use that word) as any other creatures whatsoever. For if those stories be true that are written of incubus and succubus, of nymphs, lascivious fauns, satyrs, and those heathen gods which were devils, those lascivious Telchines, of whom the Platonists tell so many fables; or those familiar meetings in our days, and company of witches and devils, there is some probability for it. I know that Biarmannus, Wierus, lib. 1. cap. 19. et 24. and some others stoutly deny it, that the devil hath any carnal copulation with women, that the devil takes no pleasure in such facts, they be mere fantasies, all such relations of incubi, succubi, lies and tales; but Austin, lib. 15. de civit. Dei. doth acknowledge it: Erastus de Lamiis, Jacobus Sprenger and his colleagues, &c. [4675] Zanchius, cap. 16. lib. 4. de oper. Dei. Dandinus, in Arist. de Anima, lib. 2. text. 29. com. 30. Bodin, lib. 2. cap. 7. and Paracelsus, a great champion of this tenet amongst the rest, which give sundry peculiar instances, by many testimonies, proofs, and confessions evince it. Hector Boethius, in his Scottish history, hath three or four such examples, which Cardan confirms out of him, lib. 16. cap. 43. of such as have had familiar company many years with them, and that in the habit of men and women Philostratus in his fourth book de vita Apollonii, hath a memorable instance in this kind, which I may not omit, of one Menippus Lycius, a young man twenty-five years of age, that going between Cenchreas and Corinth, met such a phantasm in the habit of a fair gentlewoman, which taking him by the hand, carried him home to her house in the suburbs of Corinth, and told him she was a Phoenician by birth, and if he would tarry with her, [4676]“he should hear her sing and play, and drink such wine as never any drank, and no man should molest him; but she being fair and lovely would live and die with him, that was fair and lovely to behold.” The young man a philosopher, otherwise staid and discreet, able to moderate his passions, though not this of love, tarried with her awhile to his great content, and at last married her, to whose wedding, amongst other guests, came Apollonius, who, by some probable conjectures, found her out to be a serpent, a lamia, and that all her furniture was like Tantalus's gold described by Homer, no substance, but mere illusions. When she saw herself descried, she wept, and desired Apollonius to be silent, but he would not be moved, and thereupon she, plate, house, and all that was in it, vanished in an instant: [4677]“many thousands took notice of this fact, for it was done in the midst of Greece.” Sabine in his Comment on the tenth of Ovid's Metamorphoses, at the tale of Orpheus, telleth us of a gentleman of Bavaria, that for many months together bewailed the loss of his dear wife; at length the devil in her habit came and comforted him, and told him, because he was so importunate for her, that she would come and live with him again, on that condition he would be new married, never swear and blaspheme as he used formerly to do; for if he did, she should be gone: [4678]“he vowed it, married, and lived with her, she brought him children, and governed his house, but was still pale and sad, and so continued, till one day falling out with him, he fell a swearing; she vanished thereupon, and was never after seen.” [4679]“This I have heard,” saith Sabine, “from persons of good credit, which told me that the Duke of Bavaria did tell it for a certainty to the Duke of Saxony.” One more I will relate out of Florilegus, ad annum 1058, an honest historian of our nation, because he telleth it so confidently, as a thing in those days talked of all over Europe: a young gentleman of Rome, the same day that he was married, after dinner with the bride and his friends went a walking into the fields, and towards evening to the tennis-court to recreate himself; whilst he played, he put his ring upon the finger of Venus statua, which was thereby made in brass; after he had sufficiently played, and now made an end of his sport, he came to fetch his ring, but Venus had bowed her finger in, and he could not get it off. Whereupon loath to make his company tarry at present, there left it, intending to fetch it the next day, or at some more convenient time, went thence to supper, and so to bed. In the night, when he should come to perform those nuptial rites, Venus steps between him and his wife (unseen or felt of her), and told her that she was his wife, that he had betrothed himself unto her by that ring, which he put upon her finger: she troubled him for some following nights. He not knowing how to help himself, made his moan to one Palumbus, a learned magician in those days, who gave him a letter, and bid him at such a time of the night, in such a cross-way, at the town's end, where old Saturn would pass by with his associates in procession, as commonly he did, deliver that script with his own hands to Saturn himself; the young man of a bold spirit, accordingly did it; and when the old fiend had read it, he called Venus to him, who rode before him, and commanded her to deliver his ring, which forthwith she did, and so the gentleman was freed. Many such stories I find in several [4680]authors to confirm this which I have said; as that more notable amongst the rest, of Philinium and Machates in [4681]Phlegon's Tract, de rebus mirabilibus, and though many be against it, yet I, for my part, will subscribe to Lactantius, lib. 14. cap. 15. [4682]“God sent angels to the tuition of men; but whilst they lived amongst us, that mischievous all-commander of the earth, and hot in lust, enticed them by little and little to this vice, and defiled them with the company of women:” and to Anaxagoras, de resurrect. [4683]“Many of those spiritual bodies, overcome by the love of maids, and lust, failed, of whom those were born we call giants.” Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, Sulpicius Severus, Eusebius, etc., to this sense make a twofold fall of angels, one from the beginning of the world, another a little before the deluge, as Moses teacheth us, [4684]openly professing that these genii can beget, and have carnal copulation with women. At Japan in the East Indies, at this present (if we may believe the relation of [4685]travellers), there is an idol called Teuchedy, to whom one of the fairest virgins in the country is monthly brought, and left in a private room, in the fotoqui, or church, where she sits alone to be deflowered. At certain times [4686]the Teuchedy (which is thought to be the devil) appears to her, and knoweth her carnally. Every month a fair virgin is taken in; but what becomes of the old, no man can tell. In that goodly temple of Jupiter Belus in Babylon, there was a fair chapel, [4687]saith Herodotus, an eyewitness of it, in which was splendide stratus lectus et apposita mensa aurea, a brave bed, a table of gold, &c., into which no creature came but one only woman, which their god made choice of, as the Chaldean priests told him, and that their god lay with her himself, as at Thebes in Egypt was the like done of old. So that you see this is no news, the devils themselves, or their juggling priests, have played such pranks in all ages. Many divines stiffly contradict this; but I will conclude with [4688]Lipsius, that since “examples, testimonies, and confessions, of those unhappy women are so manifest on the other side, and many even in this our town of Louvain, that it is likely to be so. [4689]One thing I will add, that I suppose that in no age past, I know not by what destiny of this unhappy time, have there ever appeared or showed themselves so many lecherous devils, satyrs, and genii, as in this of ours, as appears by the daily narrations, and judicial sentences upon record.” Read more of this question in Plutarch, vit. Numae, Austin de civ. Dei. lib. 15. Wierus, lib. 3. de praestig. Daem. Giraldus Cambrensis, itinerar. Camb. lib. 1. Malleus malefic. quaest. 5. part. 1. Jacobus Reussus, lib. 5. cap. 6. fol. 54. Godelman, lib. 2. cap. 4. Erastus, Valesius de sacra philo. cap. 40. John Nider, Fornicar. lib. 5. cap. 9. Stroz. Cicogna. lib. 3. cap. 3. Delrio, Lipsius Bodine, daemonol. lib. 2. cap. 7. Pererius in Gen. lib. 8. in 6. cap. ver. 2. King James, &c.
ПОДРАЗД. II. — Как Любовь тиранит людей. Любовь, или Героическая меланхолия, ее определение, поражаемая часть.
Вы слышали, как этот тиран Любовь свирепствует с дикими зверями и духами; теперь давайте рассмотрим, какие страсти она вызывает среди людей. [4690] Improbe amor quid non mortalia pectora cogis? Как она щекочет сердца смертных людей, Horresco referens — я почти боюсь рассказывать, поражен [4691] и пристыжен, она произвела такие ошеломляющие и чудовищные эффекты, такие гнусные преступления. Любовь действительно (я не могу отрицать) сначала объединила провинции, построила города и путем постоянного воспроизводства создает и сохраняет человечество, распространяет церковь; но если она свирепствует, это уже не любовь, а жгучая похоть, болезнь, безумие, сумасшествие, ад. [4692] Est orcus ille, vis est immedicabilis, est rabies insana; это не добродетельная привычка, а сильное возмущение ума, монстр природы, ума и искусства, как Алексис в [4693] Афинее описывает ее: viriliter audax, muliebriter timidum, furore praeceps, labore infractum, mel felleum, blanda percussio и т. д. Она разрушает королевства, свергает города, селения, семьи, портит, развращает и устраивает резню людей; гром и молния, войны, пожары, чума не причинили такого вреда человечеству, как эта жгучая похоть, эта животная страсть. Пусть Содом и Гоморра, Троя (которую Дарес Фригийский и Диктис Критский подтвердят) и я не знаю, сколько еще городов свидетельствуют — et fuit ante Helenam и т. д., все последующие века подпишутся: Джованна Неаполитанская в Италии, Фредегонда и Брунгильда во Франции, все истории полны этих василисков. Помимо тех ежедневных мономахий, убийств, пролития крови, изнасилований, разгула и чрезмерных расходов, чтобы удовлетворить свои похоти, нищеты, позора, потерь, пыток, наказаний, бесчестия, отвратительных болезней, которые происходят оттуда, хуже, чем калентуры и злокачественные лихорадки, те частые подагры, оспа, артриты, параличи, судороги, ишиас, конвульсии, боли, воспаления и т. д., которые мучают тело, та дикая меланхолия, которая распинает душу в этой жизни и вечно мучает в мире грядущем. Несмотря на то, что они знают эти и многие подобные несчастья, угрозы, пытки, которые наверняка придут на них, награды, увещевания, e contra; все же либо из-за собственной слабости, испорченной природы, либо из-за тирании любви, которая так яростно свирепствует, они позволяют вести себя как вола на убой: (Facilis descensus Averni) они стремглав спускаются к собственной погибели, они будут совершать безумие со зверями, люди, «оставив естественное употребление женщин», как [4694] Павел говорит, «разжигались похотью друг на друга, и мужчина с мужчиной делали срам». Semiramis equo, Pasiphae tauro, Aristo Ephesius asinae se commiscuit, Fulvius equae, alii canibus, capris, etc., unde monstra nascuntur aliquando, Centauri, Sylvani, et ad terrorem hominum prodigiosa spectra: Nec cum brutis, sed ipsis hominibus rem habent, quod peccatum Sodomiae vulgo dicitur; et frequens olim vitium apud Orientalis illos fuit, Graecos nimirum, Italos, Afros, Asianos: [4695] Hercules Hylam habuit, Polycletum, Dionem, Perithoonta, Abderum et Phryga; alii et Euristium ab Hercule amatum tradunt. Socrates pulchrorum Adolescentum causa frequens Gymnasium adibat, flagitiosque spectaculo pascebat oculos, quod et Philebus et Phaedon, Rivales, Charmides et [4696] reliqui Platonis Dialogi, satis superque testatum faciunt: quod vero Alcibiades de eodem Socrate loquatur, lubens conticesco, sed et abhorreo; tantum incitamentum praebet libidini. At hunc perstrinxit Theodoretus lib. de curat. graec. affect. cap. ultimo. Quin et ipse Plato suum demiratur Agathonem, Xenophon, Cliniam, Virgilius Alexin, Anacreon Bathyllum: Quod autem de Nerone, Claudio, caeterorumque portentosa libidine memoriae proditum, mallem a Petronio, Suetonio, caeterisque petatis, quando omnem fidem excedat, quam a me expectetis; sed vetera querimur. [4697] Apud Asianos, Turcas, Italos, nunquam frequentius hoc quam hodierno die vitium; Diana Romanorum Sodomia; officinae horum alicubi apud Turcas,—“qui saxis semina mandant”—arenas arantes; et frequentes querelae, etiam inter ipsos conjuges hac de re, “quae virorum concubitum illicitum calceo in oppositam partem verso magistratui indicant”; nullum apud Italos familiare magis peccatum, qui et post [4698] Lucianum et [4699] Tatium, scriptis voluminibis defendunt. Johannes de la Casa, Beventinus Episcopus, divinum opus vocat, suave scelus, adeoque jactat, se non alia, usum Venere. Nihil usitatius apud monachos, Cardinales, sacrificulos, etiam [4700] furor hic ad mortem, ad insaniam. [4701] Angelus Politianus, ob pueri amorem, violentas sibi inanus injecit. Et horrendum sane dictu, quantum apud nos patrum memoria, scelus detestandum hoc saevierit! Quum enim Anno 1538. “prudentissimus Rex Henricus Octavus cucullatorum coenobia, et sacrificorum collegia, votariorum, per venerabiles legum Doctores Thomam Leum, Richardum Laytonum visitari fecerat, &c., tanto numero reperti sunt apud eos scortatores, cinaedi, ganeones, paedicones, puerarii, paederastae, Sodomitae”, ( [4702] Balei verbis utor) “Ganimedes, &c. ut in unoquoque eorum novam credideris Gomorrham”. Sed vide si lubet eorundem Catalogum apud eundem Balcum; “Puellae” (inquit) “in lectis dormire non poterant ob fratres necromanticos”. Haec si apud votarios, monachos, sanctos scilicet homunciones, quid in foro, quid in aula factum suspiceris? quid apud nobiles, quid inter fornices, quam non foeditatem, quam non spurcitiem? Sileo interim turpes illas, et ne nominandas quidem monachorum [4703] mastrupationes, masturbatores. [4704] Rodericus a Castro vocat, tum et eos qui se invicem ad Venerem excitandam flagris caedunt, Spintrias, Succubas, Ambubeias, et lasciviente lumbo Tribades illas mulierculas, quae se invicem fricant, et praeter Eunuchos etiam ad Venerem explendam, artificiosa illa veretra habent. Immo quod magis mirere, faemina foeminam Constantinopoli non ita pridem deperiit, ausa rem plane incredibilem, mutato cultu mentita virum de nuptiis sermonem init, et brevi nupta est: sed authorem ipsum consule, Busbequium. Omitto [4705] Salanarios illos Egyptiacos, qui cum formosarum cadaveribus concumbunt; et eorum vesanam libidinem, qui etiam idola et imagines depereunt. Nota est fabula Pigmalionis apud [4706] Ovidium; Mundi et Paulini apud Aegesippum belli Jud. lib. 2. cap. 4. Pontius C. Caesaris legatus, referente Plinio, lib. 35. cap. 3. quem suspicor eum esse qui Christum crucifixit, picturis Atalantae et Helenae adeo libidine incensus, ut tollere eas vellet si natura tectorii permisisset, alius statuam bonae Fortunae deperiit (Aelianus, lib. 9. cap. 37.) alius bonae deae, et ne qua pars probro vacet. [4707] “Raptus ad stupra” (quod ait ille) “et ne [4708] os quidem a libidine exceptum.” Heliogabalus, per omnia cava corporis libidinem recepit, Lamprid. vita ejus. [4709] Hostius quidam specula fecit, et ita disposuit, ut quum virum ipse pateretur, aversus omnes admissarii motus in speculo videret, ac deinde falsa magnitudine ipsius membri tanquam vera gauderet, simul virum et foeminam passus, quod dictu foedum et abominandum. Ut veram plane sit, quod apud [4710] Plutarchum Gryllus Ulyssi objecit. “Ad hunc usque diem apud nos neque mas marem, neque foemina foeminam amavit, qualia multa apud vos memorabiles et praeclari viri fecerunt: ut viles missos faciam, Hercules imberbem sectans socium, amicos deseruit, &c. Vestrae libidines intra suos naturae fines coerceri non possunt, quin instar fluvii exundantis atrocem foeditatum, tumultum, confusionemque naturae gignant in re Venerea: nam et capras, porcos, equos inierunt viri et foeminae, insano bestiarum amore exarserunt, imde Minotauri, Centauri, Sylvani, Sphinges”, &c. Sed ne confutando doceam, aut ea foras efferam, quae, non omnes scire convenit (haec enim doctis solummodo, quod causa non absimili [4711] Rodericus, scripta velim) ne levissomis ingentis et depravatis mentibus focdissimi sceleris notitiam, &c., nolo quem diutius hisce sordibus inquinare. Я подхожу наконец к той героической любви, которая свойственна мужчинам и женщинам, является частой причиной меланхолии и заслуживает гораздо больше называться жгучей похотью, чем таким почетным титулом. Существует честная любовь, признаюсь, которая естественна, laqueus occultus captivans corda hominum, ut a mulieribus non possint separari, «тайная сеть, пленяющая сердца людей, чтобы они не могли отделиться от женщин», как [4712] Кристофер Фонсека доказывает, сильное обольщение, обладающее самым притягательным, тайным, адамантовым свойством и мощной силой, и ни один живущий человек не может избежать ее. [4713] Et qui vim non sensit amoris, aut lapis est, aut bellua. Он не человек, а чурбан, сущий камень, aut [4714] Numen, aut Nebuchadnezzar, у него тыква вместо головы, огурец вместо сердца, кто не почувствовал ее силы, и это редкое существо, которое можно встретить, одно в столетие, Qui nunquam visae flagravit amore puellae; [4715] ибо semel insanivimus omnes, безумствуем ли мы, молодые или старые, как [4716] он сказал, и никто не исключен, кроме Минервы и Муз: так Купидон у [4717] Лукиана жалуется своей матери Венере, что среди всех остальных его стрелы не могли пронзить их. Но эта супружеская любовь — обычная страсть, честная, для людей любить на пути к браку; ut materia appetit formam, sic mulier virum. [4718] Вы знаете, что брак честен, благословенное призвание, назначенное самим Богом в Раю; он порождает истинный мир, спокойствие, довольство и счастье, qua nulla est aut fuit unquam sanctior conjunctio, как Дафней у [4719] Плутарха мог хорошо доказать, et quae generi humano immortalitatem parat, когда они живут без ссор, брани, любя, как они должны делать.