Love Potions Through the Ages: A Study of Amatory Devices and MoresWedeck, Harry E.
History
Love Potions Through the Ages: A Study of Amatory Devices and Mores
Wedeck, Harry E.
Aphrodisiacs -- History; Erotic literature
Mammon: Lungs, I will set a period
To all thy labors; thou shalt be the master
Of my seraglio.
Face: Good, sir.
Mammon: But do you hear?
I’ll geld you, Lungs.
Face: Yes, sir.
Mammon: For I do mean
To have a list of wives and concubines
Equal with Solomon, who had the stone
Alike with me; and I will make me a back
with the elixir, that shall be as tough
As Hercules, to encounter fifty a night.—
Thou’rt sure thou saw’st it blood?
Face: Both blood and spirit, sir.
Mammon: I will have all my beds blown up, not stuft;
Down is too hard: and then, mine oval room
Fill’d with such pictures as Tiberius took
From Elephantis, and dull Aretine
But coldly imitated. Then, my glasses
Cut in more subtle angles, to disperse
And multiply the figures, as I walk
Named between my succubae. My mists
I’ll have of perfume, vapor’d ’bout the room,
To lose ourselves in; and my baths, like pits
To fall into; from whence we will come forth,
And roll us dry in gossamer and roses.—
Is it arrived at ruby?—Where I spy
A wealthy citizen, or a rich lawyer,
Have a sublim’d pure wife, unto that fellow
I’ll send a thousand pound to be my cuckold.
Face: And I shall carry it?
Mammon: No, I’ll ha’ no bawds
But fathers and mothers: they will do it best,
Best of all others. And my flatterers
Shall be the pure and gravest of divines,
That I can get for money. My mere fools,
Eloquent burgesses, and then my poets,
Whom I shall entertain still for that subject.
The few that would give out themselves to be
Court and town-stallions, and, each-where, bely
Ladies who are known most innocent, for them,—
Those will I beg, to make me eunuchs of:
And they shall fan me with ten ostrich tails
A-piece, made in a plume to gather wind.
We will be brave, Puff, now we ha’ the med’cine,
My meat shall all come in, in Indian shells,
Dishes of agate set in gold, and studded
with emeralds, sapphires, hyacinths, and rubies.
The tongues of carps, dormies, and camels’ heels,
Boil’d i’ the spirit of sol, and dissolv’d pearl
(Apicius’ diet, ’gainst the epilepsy):
And I will eat these broths with spoons of amber,
Headed with diamond and carbuncle.
My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calver’d salmons,
Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have
The beards of barbel serv’d, instead of salads;
Oil’d mushrooms; and the swelling unctuous paps
Of a fat pregnant sow, newly cut off,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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