[5357]  ------“Est mollis flamma medullas,
Et tacitum insano vivit sub pectore vulnus.”

       “A gentle wound, an easy fire it was,
        And sly at first, and secretly did pass.”

But by-and-by it began to rage and burn amain;

[5358]  ------“Pectus insanum vapor. 
Amorque torret, intus saevus vorat
Penitus medullas, atque per venas meat
Visceribus ignis mersus, et venis latens,
Ut agilis altas flamma percurrit trabes.”

       “This fiery vapour rageth in the veins,
        And scorcheth entrails, as when fire burns
        A house, it nimbly runs along the beams,
        And at the last the whole it overturns.”

Abraham Hoffemannus, lib. 1. amor conjugal, cap. 2. p. 22. relates out of Plato, how that Empedocles, the philosopher, was present at the cutting up of one that died for love, [5359]"his heart was combust, his liver smoky, his lungs dried up, insomuch that he verily believed his soul was either sodden or roasted through the vehemency of love’s fire.”  Which belike made a modern writer of amorous emblems express love’s fury by a pot hanging over the fire, and Cupid blowing the coals.  As the heat consumes the water, [5360]_Sic sua consumit viscera coecus amor_, so doth love dry up his radical moisture.  Another compares love to a melting torch, which stood too near the fire.

[5361] “Sic quo quis proprior suae puellae est,
        Hoc stultus proprior suae runinae est.”

       “The nearer he unto his mistress is,
        The nearer he unto his ruin is.”

So that to say truth, as [5362]Castilio describes it, “The beginning, middle, end of love is nought else but sorrow, vexation, agony, torment, irksomeness, wearisomeness; so that to be squalid, ugly, miserable, solitary, discontent, dejected, to wish for death, to complain, rave, and to be peevish, are the certain signs and ordinary actions of a lovesick person.”  This continual pain and torture makes them forget themselves, if they be far gone with it, in doubt, despair of obtaining, or eagerly bent, to neglect all ordinary business.

[5363]  ------“pendent opera interrupta, minaeque
Murorum ingentes, aequataque machina coelo.”

Lovesick Dido left her work undone, so did [5364]Phaedra,

------“Palladis telae vacant
Et inter ipsus pensa labuntur manus.”

Faustus, in [5365]Mantuan, took no pleasure in anything he did,

       “Nulla quies mihi dulcis erat, nullus labor aegro
        Pectore, sensus iners, et mens torpore sepulta,
        Carminis occiderat studium.”------

And ’tis the humour of them all, to be careless of their persons and their estates, as the shepherd in [5366]Theocritus, et haec barba inculta est, squalidique capilli, their beards flag, and they have no more care of pranking themselves or of any business, they care not, as they say, which end goes forward.