Lady Politic Would-Be: No, fear not that. I doubt we shall not get Some English saffron, half a dram would serve; Your sixteen cloves, a little musk, dried mints; Bugloss and barley-meal— * * * * * In Ben Jonson’s _Volpone_ Nano the Dwarf sings some verses, in Act 2, scene 2, extolling an elixir that has remarkable medicinal and amatory properties: You that would last long, list to my song, Make no more coil, but buy of this oil. Would you be ever fair and young? Stout of teeth, and strong of tongue? Tart of palate? quick of ear? Sharp of sight? of nostril clear? Moist of hand? and light of foot? Or, I will come nearer to ’t, Would you live free from all diseases? Do the act your mistress pleases, Yet fright all aches from your bones? Here’s a med’cine for the nones. * * * * * An amatory appeal is made in a scene from _Bussy D’Ambois_, a drama by the English playwright George Chapman (c. 1559–c. 1634). Monsieur, brother of King Henry III of France, addresses the Countess Tamyra: Monsieur: And wherefore do you this? To please your husband? ’Tis gross and fulsome: if your husband’s pleasure Be all your object, and you aim at honor In living close to him, get you from Court; You may have him at home; these common put-offs For common women serve: “My honor! Husband!” Dames maritorious ne’er were meritorious. Speak plain, and say, “I do not like you, sir, Y’are an ill-favor’d fellow in my eye;” And I am answer’d. Tamyra: Then, I pray, be answer’d: For in good faith, my lord, I do not like you In that sort you like. * * * * * The love charm in the form of a spell was a belief current in the Elizabethan age. In the drama _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, by Robert Greene, Bacon, conceived as a thaumaturgist, declares: Thou com’st in post from merry Fressingfield, Fast-fancied to the Keeper’s bonny lass. Fast-fancied is an Elizabethan expression meaning bound by love. * * * * * The Elizabethan Fair, and all such traditional occasions for barter, commercial interchange, and public gossip were also and always an opportunity for amorous interludes. This is the view expressed in _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, by Robert Greene (c. 1560–1592). Margaret, the fair maid of Fressingfield, enters: