The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 1: Miscellaneous ProseLamb, Charles
General
The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 1: Miscellaneous Prose
Lamb, Charles
English literature
One cometh to me sighing, complaining. He expected universal remedies in
my Anatomy; so many cures as there are distemperatures among men. I have
not put his affection in my cases. Hear you his case. My fine Sir is a
lover, an _inamorato_, Pyramus, a Romeo; he walks seven years
disconsolate, moping, because he cannot enjoy his miss, _insanus amor_
is his melancholy, the man is mad; _delirat_, he dotes; all this while
his Glycera is rude, spiteful, not to be entreated, churlish, spits at
him, yet exceeding fair, gentle eyes, (which is a beauty,) hair lustrous
and _smiling_, the trope is none of mine, _Æneas Sylvius_ hath _crines
ridentes_--in conclusion she is wedded to his rival, a boore, a
_Corydon_, a rustic, _omnino ignarus, he can scarce construe Corderius_,
yet haughty, fantastic, _opiniatre_. The lover travels, goes into
foreign parts, peregrinates, _amoris ergo_, sees manners, customs, not
English, converses with pilgrims, lying travellers, monks, hermits,
those cattle, pedlars, travelling gentry, _Egyptians_, natural wonders,
unicorns (though _Aldobrandus_ will have them to be figments) satyrs,
semi-viri, apes, monkeys, baboons, curiosities artificial, _pyramides_,
Virgilius his tombe, relicks, bones, which are nothing but ivory as
_Melancthon_ judges, though _Cornutus_ leaneth to think them bones of
dogs, cats, (why not men?) which subtill priests vouch to have been
saints, martyrs, _heu Pietas_! By that time he has ended his course,
_fugit hora_, seven other years are expired, gone by, time is he should
return, he taketh ship for Britaine, much desired of his friends,
_favebant venti, Neptune is curteis_, after some weekes at sea he
landeth, rides post to town, greets his family, kinsmen, _compotores,
those jokers his friends that were wont to tipple with him at
alehouses_; these wonder now to see the change, _quantum mutatus, the
man is quite another thing_, he is disenthralled, manumitted, he wonders
what so bewitched him, he can now both see, hear, smell, handle,
converse with his mistress, single by reason of the death of his rival,
a widow having children, grown willing, prompt, amorous, shewing no such
great dislike to second nuptials, he might have her for asking, no such
thing, his mind is changed, he loathes his former meat, had liever eat
ratsbane, aconite, his humour is to die a bachelour; marke the
conclusion. In this humour of celibate seven other years are consumed
in idleness, sloth, world's pleasures, which fatigate, satiate, induce
wearinesse, vapours, _tædium vitæ_: When upon a day, behold a wonder,
_redit Amor_, the man is as sick as ever, he is commenced lover upon the
old stock, walks with his hand thrust in his bosom for negligence,
moping he leans his head, face yellow, beard flowing and incomposite,
eyes sunken, _anhelus, breath wheezy and asthmatical, by reason of
overmuch sighing_: society he abhors, solitude is but a hell, what shall
he doe? all this while his mistresse is forward, coming, _amantissima,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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