do,) animi dolore in insaniam delapsa est, (Caelius Rhodiginus l. 17, c. 2,) ran mad. [2387]Brotheus, the son of Vulcan, because he was ridiculous for his imperfections, flung himself into the fire.  Lais of Corinth, now grown old, gave up her glass to Venus, for she could hot abide to look upon it. [2388]_Qualis sum nolo, qualis eram nequeo_.  Generally to fair nice pieces, old age and foul linen are two most odious things, a torment of torments, they may not abide the thought of it,

[2389]  ------“o deorum
Quisquis haec audis, utinam inter errem
Nuda leones,”

       “Antequam turpis macies decentes
        Occupet malas, teneraeque succus
        Defluat praedae, speciosa quaerro
                Pascere tigres.”

       “Hear me, some gracious heavenly power,
        Let lions dire this naked corse devour. 
        My cheeks ere hollow wrinkles seize. 
        Ere yet their rosy bloom decays: 
        While youth yet rolls its vital flood,
        Let tigers friendly riot in my blood.”

To be foul, ugly, and deformed, much better be buried alive.  Some are fair but barren, and that galls them.  “Hannah wept sore, did not eat, and was troubled in spirit, and all for her barrenness,” 1 Sam. 1. and Gen. 30.  Rachel said “in the anguish of her soul, give me a child, or I shall die:”  another hath too many:  one was never married, and that’s his hell, another is, and that’s his plague.  Some are troubled in that they are obscure; others by being traduced, slandered, abused, disgraced, vilified, or any way injured:  minime miror eos (as he said) qui insanire occipiunt ex injuria, I marvel not at all if offences make men mad.  Seventeen particular causes of anger and offence Aristotle reckons them up, which for brevity’s sake I must omit.  No tidings troubles one; ill reports, rumours, bad tidings or news, hard hap, ill success, cast in a suit, vain hopes, or hope deferred, another:  expectation, adeo omnibus in rebus molesta semper est expectatio, as [2390]Polybius observes; one is too eminent, another too base born, and that alone tortures him as much as the rest:  one is out of action, company, employment; another overcome and tormented with worldly cares, and onerous business.  But what [2391]tongue can suffice to speak of all?

Many men catch this malady by eating certain meats, herbs, roots, at unawares; as henbane, nightshade, cicuta, mandrakes, &c. [2392]A company of young men at Agrigentum in Sicily, came into a tavern; where after they had freely taken their liquor, whether it were the wine itself, or something mixed with it ’tis not yet known, [2393]but upon a sudden they began to be so troubled in their brains, and their phantasy so crazed, that they thought they were in a ship at sea, and now ready to be cast away by reason of a tempest.  Wherefore to avoid shipwreck and present drowning, they flung all the goods in the