Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell, It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound, And maidens call it Love-in-Idleness. Fetch me that flower; the herb I show’d thee once, The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid Will make or man or woman madly dote Upon the next live creature that it sees. Again: I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep, And drop the liquor of it in her eyes, The next thing then she waking looks upon, Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, On meddling monkey, or on busy ape, She shall pursue it with the soul of love. * * * * * Perfumes of all kinds, used on the person, on the genitalia, on clothes, in beds, in foods, were considered arousing stimulants. This procedure was in vogue both among the ancient Greeks and Romans, in the Orient, and during the Middle Ages: and is, of course, far from obsolescent these days. The Greek playwright Aristophanes mentions perfumes in his comedy _Lysistrata_ in connection with sexual enticements. Horace the Roman lyric poet tells of an old lecher ‘scented with nard.’ Ambergris and civet were immensely popular. An ointment, extracted from spikenard, was known as foliatum: another, as nicerotiana. Cinnamon, sweet marjoram, myrrh, were in use. So with aromatic oils. Perfumes, in fact, are regularly mentioned in erotic and sexual situations and contexts. The corpus of the _Arabian Nights_ contains many episodes involving the use and impact of scents. The Biblical _Song of Songs_ too makes apposite reference to the subject: a bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me ... ointment and perfumes rejoice the heart ... perfumes and sweet spices ... beds of aromatic spices ... Ben Jonson, the English dramatist, has Volpone, in the comedy of that name, offer Celia perfumed baths: The milk of unicorns, and panthers’ breath Gathered in bags, and mixed with Cretan wines. Our drink shall be prepared gold and amber. * * * * * Onions in particular have for centuries possessed an aphrodisiac reputation. Onion is recommended for such intentions by the Greek and Roman poets. Ovid and Martial, and the later bucolic poet Columella urgently stress the eating of plenty of onions as both a rejuvenating and an animating agent. The Greek physician Galen also considered onions as having stimulating virtues. In the East, onion seed is pounded, mixed with honey, and taken while one is fasting, in the hope of physiological urgency. Among Arabs, onions boiled with spices, then fried in oil with egg yolks, are, if taken successively on a number of days, considered of high potency.