August 2008 - Posts - MSNBC Firstread

19 Aug 2008 at 5:07pm  THE SHORT LIST: NBC/NJ?s Mike Memoli asked Sen. Joe Biden where he?d be Saturday, and he pointed to his Delaware driveway and said ?Here.? He later told reporters, ?I?m not the guy.? Is the stock of Sen. Joe Lieberman on the rise ? GOP ...
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The Weedpatch Gazette - Tehechapi News

15 Aug 2008 at 7:06pm  Real Name: Samuel Heath Member Since: February 03, 2007 Last Signed In: August 15, 2008 Profile Views: 4640 Blog Views: 52439 My having been an avid reader of the funny papers for as long as I can remember, beginning with the Bakersfield Californian ...
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Extra! UIdaho Student Found Shot to Death - Spokane Spokesman-Review

13 Aug 2008 at 9:15am  A 21-year-old University of Idaho senior was found shot to death early today in his Moscow apartment. David Robert Boss, a history major and Boise native, was found dead by a roommate about 2 a.m., Moscow police officials said. Boss? roommate ...
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Hip-Hop Rumors: Ozone Replies To Critics! Lady Drama an... - allhiphop.com

12 Aug 2008 at 7:53pm  I am not sure if BET is looking for new hosts on ?106 & Park,? but I heard a rumor that might have been confusing things. From what I heard, BET is looking to do another Hip-Hop show. I did hear that they had open casting calls for that as well ...
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January 2005 - December 2005 - Enter Stage Right

26 Jul 2008 at 4:17pm  Churchill on democracy revisited : Winston Churchill has long had the reputation as one of democracy's fiercest defenders. Jorn K. Baltzersen believes it's an undeserved reputation for the man who died forty years ago today The law's greatest ...
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C'era una volta il West 1968 by Sergio Leone stars Henry Fonda Charles Brons...

21 Jul 2008 at 5:14pm  C'era una volta il West 1968 by Sergio Leone stars Henry Fonda Charles Bronson Jason Robards

Unknown length - Jul 21, 2008

Once Upon a Time in the West (Italian title: C'era una volta il West) is a 1968 epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone. The film stars Henry Fonda unusually cast as the villain Frank, Charles Bronson as his nemesis "Harmonica", Jason Robards as the generally benign bandit Cheyenne & Claudia Cardinale as a newlyowidowed homesteader with a past as a prostitute, Jill. The screenplay was written by Leone & Sergio Donati, from a story devised by Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, & Dario Argento. The widescreen cinematography was by Tonino Delli Colli, & Ennio Morricone provided the film score. In Europe, the film was a substantial box office success, playing for multiple years in some cities. However, it was greeted with a mostly negative critical response upon its 1969 theatrical release in the United States & was a financial flop. The film is now generally acknowledged as a classic & one of the best western films ever made. It is the first part of a loose trilogy of epic, elegiac films followed by 1971's A Fistful of Dynamite (known alternatively as Once Upon a Time... The Revolution or Duck, You Sucker) & 1984's Once Upon a Time in America.Three men appear at an isolated train station in Arizona. A chalkboard shows that the train from Flagstone will be two hours late, a time the three hitmen spend either dozing or involved in casual compulsive pastimes (i.e. one of them chasing a noisy fly until managing to trap it in the barrel of his sixoshooter, pressed against a wall). Finally a train stops & leaves behind a cowboy playing a harmonica (Charles Bronson). He asks for a man named Frank, whom he has arranged to meet. Frank himself has not come, sending three of his men in his place. One of the men admits that it "looks like we're shy one horse," since there are only three horses for four men. Bronson replies, "You brought two too many." A showdown ensues. Bronson shoots his wouldobe killers but is wounded in the process. On the remote McBain farm, "Sweetwater," Brett McBain (Frank Wolff) & his family are preparing a feast for the arrival of his new wife, Jill (Claudia Cardinale). But they are shot & killed by Frank (Henry Fonda) & his gang, who leave part of a leather duster like those worn by the gang of the generally benign bandit Cheyenne in order to pin the blame on him. Jill arrives in Flagstone by train from New Orleans & takes a carriage to the McBain farm. Along the way, the driver stops at a roadside establishment, & Jill follows him inside. Cheyenne (Jason Robards) enters after a noisy shootout (heard but not seen) with his prison escort. The man with the harmonica is also there, & Cheyenne calls him simply "Harmonica." Cheyenne helps himself to Harmonica's gun to force another patron to shoot apart the chain between his shackled wrists. His men arrive late, & he tells them, "You're right on time ... to bury my escort." Taking note of the dusters Cheyenne's men are wearing, Harmonica tells of his own shootout earlier: "I saw three of these dusters a short time ago; they were waitin' for a train. Inside the dusters there were three men. ... Inside the men there were three bullets." Cheyenne says that's a crazy story, because no one but his own men would have the guts to wear such dusters around those parts, & his own men would not get killed. Charles Bronson as Harmonica Charles Bronson as Harmonica As Jill nears the McBain farm, she sees a group of people standing outside. She is heartbroken to see her dead husband & his children. The crowd came expecting to be wedding guests, but Jill tells them she married McBain a month ago in New Orleansoit was to be a surprise. The funeral is just ending when the fake evidence Frank planted is found, & the men form a posse to hunt down Cheyenne. Jill stays at the farm & searches the house for anything of value, as McBain told her he was rich. She finds only some miniature buildings, including a model train station. The next morning, Cheyenne & his gang arrive. The posse chased him all night until he eluded them in the desert. He has come to see the scene of his alleged crime. He asks for coffee, & Jill reluctantly complies. He helps make the fire for the coffee, & she sees he's not as ruthless as people say. After his departure, Harmonica appears with what at first seem to be threatening gestures toward Jill. But he only tears the lace from her dress. At the well outside, he protects her from two of Frank's men who have been sent to kill her. He dispatches them with ease, & Cheyenne, observing from a distance, sees that Harmonica not only plays but is also an excellent shooter. Frank is taken to task by railroad tycoon Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), for whom he works as a hired gun. Morton wanted Frank to scare the McBains, not kill them. Crippled & slowly dying of Osteomyelitis (bone tuberculosis), Morton only rarely leaves his plush private rail car. Frank has been with him since he started building his railroad in sight of the Atlantic, & Morton hopes to reach the Pacific before he dies. Frank has ambitions to become a businessman himselfomaybe even take control of Morton's empireobut Morton tells him: "You'll never succeed in becoming like me. ... There are many things you'll never understand. ... There are many kinds of weapons, & the only one that can stop (a gun) is (money)." Jill comes to town to speak to the laundry proprietor, Wobbles. She wants him to arrange a meeting with Frank. Harmonica follows Wobbles to Morton's train & sneaks aboard but is soon discovered. Frank demands to know who he is, but Harmonica gives only names of men Frank has murdered. Frank kills Wobbles & has his men tie up Harmonica. He leaves to capture Jill himself, while three of his men stay behind to guard Harmonica. Cheyenne has also sneaked aboardohe kills Frank's men but spares Morton. He & Harmonica team up to go rescue Jill. Claudia Cardinale as Jill McBain. Claudia Cardinale as Jill McBain. At the farm, supplies sufficient to construct eight buildings have arrived. Harmonica tells Cheyenne that McBain knew the railroad would have to come past Sweetwater to access its remote source of water. McBain bought the materials needed to turn his farm into a small town, & he procured the rights to operate the depot himself, fulfilling his dream. He paid for the supplies with cash, so they now belong to Jill. The contract (which Harmonica has seen) specifies the station must be built by the time the tracks get there, & Cheyenne puts his men to work building it. That night, the sadistic Frank has his way with the captured Jill, while also insulting her over her past. (He has learned via telegraph that she was a prostitute in New Orleans before marrying McBain.) She gives herself to him to escape certain execution. He tells her, "I might be a little sorry killin' you," & asks, "Is there anything in the world you wouldn't do to save your skin?" She answers, "Nothing, Frank." He considers marrying her to get the land but knows he wouldn't be any good as a husband: "Too bad. We'll have to think of another solutionosimpler, quicker." In the large saloon in Flagstone, Brett McBain's property is to be sold at auction. Jill is present, & the sheriff (Keenan Wynn) presides. Frank has a plan to buy the McBain farm cheap: his men bid $500 & intimidate anyone else who tries to bid. But Harmonica & Cheyenne have a plan of their own. Harmonica bids $5,000 & "delivers" the wanted outlaw Cheyenne for a reward in that amount to win the auction. The sheriff puts Cheyenne on the train to the new prison at Yuma, but two of Cheyenne's men also board. Back in the saloon, Jill congratulates Harmonica on getting himself a good deal, but he says he doesn't invest in land. Frank arrives & Jill goes upstairs to take a bath. Frank asks again who he is, but Harmonica gives only more names of Frank's victims. Frank says, "You paid $5,000 for somethin' belongs to me" (he had the auction rigged, after all). He offers Harmonica $5,001, which he lays out in cash, & tries to intimidate him: "You got yourself in somethin's bigger'n you are. You got a chance to get out easy, you better take it." In response, Harmonica plops the lone silver dollar into his own empty glass to pay for his drink. The farm is Jill's. Morton has had it with Frank's butcher tactics, & he sees his dream of reaching the Pacific slipping away. Stopped away from town on his train, he asks to join a poker game with four of Frank's men who are now guarding him. Instead of cards he deals large sums of money to buy their loyalty. One rides into town to inform the others, & they lie in wait for Frank when he exits the saloon. Mysteriously, Harmonica keeps the gunmen from killing Frank & lets him get away. This angers Jill, who wishes Frank dead, but Harmonica explains that not letting them kill him isn't the same thing as saving him. Frank arrives at Morton's train to find a scene of carnage from a big shootout between his & Cheyenne's gangs. Morton is wounded & dying. Frank is about to finish him off but changes his mind. Morton tries to crawl to a mud puddle, the sound of the Pacific surf crashing in his mind, & dies. The film ends, in true Sergio Leone style, with an extended shootout scene between Harmonica (Charles Bronson) & Frank (Henry Fonda). The film ends, in true Sergio Leone style, with an extended shootout scene between Harmonica (Charles Bronson) & Frank (Henry Fonda). The trackolaying crews have arrived at Sweetwater, & workers are completing the station & building the town. Harmonica waits for Frank at the gate to Jill's house, but Cheyenne arrives first & goes inside to have more coffee with her. He washes up & shaves a bit, & he advises Jill to take water to the workers & let them enjoy the sight of a beautiful woman. He tells her that men like him & Harmonica are not right for her. People like that have something inside, he says, "something to do with death." Frank finally arrives at the gate & says, "I know that now you'll tell me what you're after." Harmonica replies, "Only at the point of dyin'," & they get themselves positioned for their duel. Harmonica's motive for revenge is revealed in a flashback. Long ago, Frank hanged Harmonica's older brother. Harmonica, then a boy, was forced to stand under his brother, who stood on the boy's shoulders with his neck in a noose. Both had their hands bound behind their backs. His brother would hang when the boy collapsed. Frank told him to "keep your lovin' brother happy" & put a harmonica in his mouth. His brother died, & it left him scarred & thirsty for vengeance. Now he faces Frank in their final showdown. Harmonica makes his move; the men draw & fire. Frank loses. As he's dying Frank asks again, "Who are you?" In answer, Harmonica pulls the old, battered harmonica from the lanyard around his neck & puts it in Frank's mouth. It brings back Frank's memory of the hanging, & he nods weakly in recognition before dying. Harmonica comes into the house to get his gear. Jill asks if he will return to Sweetwater someday, & he responds with a doubtful "Someday." Cheyenne leaves too. As the two men ride off, Cheyenne stops, gets off his horse & drops to the ground. Harmonica goes back to him & learns he was shot in the gut by Morton himself, "Mr. ChoooChoo." Cheyenne asks Harmonica not to look at him while he's dying, & Harmonica looks away until he hears him fall over dead. Harmonica takes the body away, draped over Cheyenne's horse. The work train arrives on the newly laid tracks, & Jill takes jugs of water out to the rail workers. With the arrival of the train the time of the West frontier, of gunslingers & villains is over; Harmonica, perhaps the last of his kind, fades away, while a new chapter in the history of the United States comes whistling in. Cast Henry Fonda as Frank Henry Fonda as Frank Actor Role Henry Fonda Frank Claudia Cardinale Jill McBain Jason Robards Cheyenne Charles Bronson Harmonica Gabriele Ferzetti Morton Paolo Stoppa Sam Woody Strode Stony Jack Elam Snaky Keenan Wynn Sheriff Frank Wolff Brett McBain Lionel Stander Barman Henry Fonda did not accept Leone's first offer to play Frank, so Leone flew to New York to convince him, telling him: "Picture this: the camera shows a gunman from the waist down pulling his gun & shooting a running child. The camera tilts up to the gunman's face and...it's Henry Fonda." After meeting with Leone, Fonda called his friend Eli Wallach, who advised him to do the film, as "You will have the time of your life." When he accepted the role, Fonda ordered brown contacts to darken his naturally blue eyes. Fonda felt having dark eyes would blend well with his character's evil & also help the audience to accept this "new" Fonda as the bad guy. Leone immediately told him to remove them from his eyes upon viewing; Leone felt that Fonda's blue eyes best reflectled the cold, icy nature of the killer. Fonda later went on to claim that his as Frank was his personal favourite. Sergio Leone originally offered the role of Harmonica to Clint Eastwoodowhen he turned it down, Charles Bronson was hired. James Coburn was also approached for Harmonica but demanded too much money. Actor Al Mulock (featured in the opening train sequence as well as in Leone's The Good, the Bad & the Ugly) committed suicide during shooting of the film by leaping from his hotel room in full costume. Frank Wolff, the actor who plays McBain, also committed suicide in a Rome hotel in 1971. Production Origins Jason Robards as Cheyenne Jason Robards as Cheyenne After making his stunning American civil war epic The Good, the Bad & the Ugly, Leone had intended to retire from making Westerns, believing he had said all he wanted to say. He had come across the novel The Hoods by "Harry Grey" (a pseudonym), an autobiographical book based on the author's own experiences as a Jewish hood during Prohibition, & planned to adapt it into a film (this would eventually, seventeen years later, become his final film, Once Upon A Time In America). However, Leone was offered only Westerns by the Hollywood studios. United Artists (who had produced the Dollars Trilogy) offered him the opportunity to make a film starring Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas & Rock Hudson, but Leone refused. However, when Paramount offered Leone a generous budget along with access to Henry Fonda, his favorite actor whom he had wanted to work with for virtually all of his career, Leone accepted this offer. Leone commissioned thenofilm critics (and future directors) Bernardo Bertolucci & Dario Argento to help him develop the film in late 1966. The men spent much of the following year watching & discussing numerous classic Westerns such as High Noon, The Iron Horse, The Comancheros, & The Searchers at Leone's house, & constructed a story made up almost entirely of "references" to American Westerns (see below). (see Frayling) Ever since The Good, the Bad & the Ugly, which originally ran for three hours, Leone's films were usually cut (often quite dramatically) for box office release. Leone was very conscious of the length of Once Upon a Time in the West during filming & later commissioned Sergio Donati, who had worked on several of Leone's other films, to help him refine the screenplay, largely to curb the length of the film towards the end of production. Many of the film's most memorable lines of dialogue came from Donati, or from the film's English dialogue director, expatriate American actor Mickey Knox. Style With Once Upon a Time in the West, Leone chose a different path to styling the film, & this can be distinguished from his earlier westerns. Whereas the "Dollars" films were quirky & upotempo, a celebratory yet tongueoinocheek parody of the icons of the wild west, Once upon a Time in the West is much slower in pace & sombre in theme. Leone's distinctive style, which is very different from, but very much influenced by, Akira Kurosawa's Sanshiro Sugata, is still present but has been modified for the beginning of Leone's second, the soocalled "Once Upon a Time", trilogy. The characters in this film are also beginning to change markedly over their predecessors in the "Dollars" westerns. They are not quite as defined and, unusually for Leone characters up to this point, they begin to change (or at least attempt to) over the course of the story. This signals the start of the second phase of Leone's style, which would be further developed in A Fistful of Dynamite & Once Upon a Time in America. Themes & motifs A major motif of the film is the railroad; its advent heralds the arrival of civilization & culture, marking the death of the mythic Old West. This captures in miniature the dyingooff of the old cultural heroes in the wake of the modern world, where it is the ordinary man who is important. The West was seen by Leone as the last environment of the oldostyle hero, & one can understand the film as a nostalgic examination & exploration of the past. Running parallel to this is Leone's sadness at the demise of the mythical Wild West as told by cinema, & the film is his way of laying to rest the old Hollywoodostyle western heroes & legends, as the film's title suggests. The climactic duel between Harmonica (Bronson) & Frank (Fonda) brings these messages into focus. Harmonica often acts as the thematic voice of the film & has been waiting for Frank (who has been trying to become a businessman throughout the story) to show his irrepressible true colors as a figure of the "ancient race" & engage him in a fated gun duel. Another major theme is water. The transformation of the central character Jill (Cardinale) all takes place due to the water on her land, & there are several scenes involving water being drunk or served. A well & its water have a central role in the plot as the fuel that nourishes the New West, & the Pacific Ocean plays prominently in Morton's motivational dream to build a transoAmerican railroad. Pacing The film features long, slow scenes in which there is very little dialogue & little happens, broken by brief & sudden violence. Leone was far more interested in the rituals preceding violence than in the violence itself. The tone of the film is consistent with the arid semiodesert in which the story unfolds, & imbues it with a feeling of realism that contrasts with the elaborately choreographed gunplay. Music Main article: Once Upon A Time In The West (Soundtrack) The music was written by composer Ennio Morricone, Leone's regular collaborator, who wrote the score under Leone's direction before filming began. As in The Good, the Bad & the Ugly, the stirring music contributes to the film's mythic or operatic grandeur and, like the music for The Good the Bad & the Ugly, is considered one of Morricone's greatest compositions. The film features leitmotifs that relate to each of the main characters (each with their own unique theme music) as well as to the spirit of the American West. It was Leone's desire to have the music available & played during filming. Acclaim Though not as popular as the "Dollars trilogy" which preceded it, Once Upon A Time in the West is still a very highly acclaimed film & together with The Good, the Bad & the Ugly & Once Upon A Time In America. West has also gained an ardent cult following around the world, particularly among cineastes & film makers. Once Upon A Time in the West can now be found on numerous film polls. It can usually be found in the top 20 of the IMDB's top 250 & is also listed as one of the best all time films by Time Magazine. It is also highly acclaimed by modern critics. Acclaimed film critic Kim Newman claimed it was the best Western ever made, as did film historian Christopher Frayling. On a cinematographic & narrative point of view the moves is well beyond anything directed by Leone until then. The "dollar" movies were meant to be merely entertaining, in this one Leone tries to make statements about men & women, their role in life & their relation to History. Christopher Frayling's books, Spaghetti Westerns (1984) lists boxooffice grosses, & Sergio Leone: Something To Do With Death (2000) has an evaluation of the film's critical / popular reception & legacy. Releases American release The film was a huge hit in Europe & quickly developed a cult following. (In France it was titled "Il Etait Une Fois dans l'Ouest".) In the US, however, it had a rather poor opening reception, gaining largely negative or indifferent reviews in its complete form (165 minutes). Paramount edited the film to about 145 minutes for the wide release, but the film tanked at the box office. The following scenes were cut for the American release: The entire scene at Lionel Stander's trading post. Cheyenne (Robards) was not introduced in the American release until his arrival at the McBain ranch later in the film. (Interestingly, Stander remained in the credits, even though he did not appear in this version at all). The scene in which Morton & Frank discuss what to do with Jill at the Navajo Cliffs. This scene was important because it established the growing rift between Morton & Frank - a key reason why Morton decides later on in the film to have Frank killed. Morton's death scene was edited considerably. Cheyenne's death scene was completely excised. 1984 reorelease The English language version was restored to approximately 165 minutes for a reorelease in 1984, & for its video release the following year. This version has gained a large cult following in America. Extended versions A slightly longer, 168 minute version exists in Italy which features several scenes augmented with additional material, though no complete scenes are present that are missing. The longest known cut is 171 minutes long & is only unofficially available as a bootleg copy on various file sharing platforms. German language release The Germanolanguage release has been titled Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod (play me the song of death). The line "Keep your lovin' brother happy" during the lynch scene is overdubbed with the title line. This stresses Harmonica's story & his reason for revenge. Since the original line is the only hint on Harmonica's brother, many German viewers of the movie believe that the lynched man is Harmonica's father. There are some other additions to the original text as well, most notably a line Frank says to Mortono"Pacific Ocean, hm?"oas Morton is dying in a mud puddle. DVD release Once Upon a Time in the West 2oDisc Special Edition. Once Upon a Time in the West 2oDisc Special Edition. After years of public requests, Paramount Pictures released a 2oDisc "Special Collector's Edition" of Once Upon a Time in the West on November 18, 2003. With a running time of 165ominutes, this edition is the color 2.35:1 aspect ratio version in anamorphic wideoscreen, closed captioned & Dolby. The commentary includes commentary from film experts & historians such as John Carpenter, John Milius, Alex Cox, film historian & Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling, Dr. Sheldon Hall, as well as actors Claudia Cardinale & Gabriele Ferzetti, & director Bernardo Bertolucci, a coowriter of the film. The second disc has special features, including three recent documentaries on several aspects of the film: An Opera Of Violence The Wages Of Sin Something To Do With Death There is a Railroads: Revolutionizing the West featurette, location & production galleries, cast profiles, as well as the original trailer. Movie references Leone's intent was to take the stock conventions of the American Westerns of John Ford, Howard Hawks & others, & rework them in an ironic fashion, essentially reversing their intended meaning in their original sources to create a darker connotation. The most obvious example of this is the casting of veteran movie good guy Henry Fonda as the villainous Frank, but there are also many other, more subtle reversals throughout the film. According to film critic & historian Christopher Frayling, the film quotes from as many as 30 classic American Westerns. (See this discussion, which lists many references confirmed by Frayling, Leone & others, as well as speculative ones.) Some of the major films used as references for the movie include: High Noon. The opening sequence is similar to the opening High Noon, in which three bad guys (Lee Van Cleef, Sheb Wooley & Robert J. Wilke) wait at a station for the arrival of their gang leader (also named Frank, played by Ian MacDonald) on the noon train. In the opening of Once Upon a Time in the West, three bad guys (Jack Elam, who appeared in a small part in High Noon, Woody Strode, & Al Mulock) wait at a station. However, the period of waiting is depicted in a lengthy eightominute sequence, the train arrives several hours after noon, & its passenger is the film's hero (Charles Bronson) rather than its villain. The scene is famous for its use of natural sounds: a squeaky windmill, knuckles cracking, & Jack Elam's character trying to shoo off a fly. According to rumor, Leone offered the parts of the three bad guys to The Good, the Bad & the Ugly stars Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef & Eli Wallach. 3:10 to Yuma. This cult Western by Delmer Daves may have had considerable influence on the film. The most obvious reference is a brief exchange between Keenan Wynn's Sheriff & Cheyenne, in which they discuss sending the latter to Yuma prison. In addition, as in West the main villain is played by an actor (Glenn Ford) who normally played good guys. The film also features diegetic music (Ford at one point whistles the film's theme song just as Harmonica provides music in West). And the scene in which Van Heflin's character escorts Ford to the railroad station while avoiding an ambush by his gang may have inspired the ambush of Frank by his own men in Leone's film. The Comancheros. The name McBain & the name of the town Sweetwater come from this movie. Johnny Guitar. The character of Jill McBain is supposedly based on Joan Crawford's character Vienna, & Harmonica may be influenced by Sterling Hayden's title character. Some of the basic plot (settlers vs. the railroad) may be recycled from this film. (Frayling) The Iron Horse. West may contain several subtle references to this film, including a low angle shot of a shrieking train rushing towards the screen in the opening scene, & the shot of the train pulling into the Sweetwater station at the end of the film. (Frayling) Shane. The massacre scene in West features young Timmy McBain hunting with his father, just as Joey hunts with his father in Shane. The funeral of the McBains is borrowed almost shotoforoshot from Shane. (Frayling) The Searchers. Leone admitted that during the massacre of the McBain family, the rustling bushes, the stopping of the cicada chirps, & the fluttering pheasants to suggest a menace approaching the farmhouse, were all taken from The Searchers. The ending of the film - where Western nomads Harmonica & Cheyenne are forced to move on rather than join modern society - also echoes the famous ending of Ford's film. (Frayling) Warlock. At the end of this film, Henry Fonda's character wears clothing very similar to his costume throughout West. In addition, Warlock features a discussion about mothers between Fonda & Dorothy Malone that is similar to those between Cheyenne & Jill in West. Finally, Warlock contains a sequence in which Fonda's character kicks a crippled man off his crutches, as he does to Mr. Morton in West. The Magnificent Seven. In this film, Charles Bronson's character whittles a piece of wood. In West, he does the same, although in a different context. Winchester '73. It has been claimed that the scenes in West at the trading post are based on those in Winchester '73, but the resemblance is slight. (Frayling) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The dusters (long coats) worn by Frank & his men in the opening massacre resemble those worn by Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) & his henchmen when they are introduced in this film. In addition, the auction scene in West was intended to recall the election scene in Liberty Valance (Frayling). The Last Sunset. The final duel between Frank & Harmonica is shot almost identically to the duel between Kirk Douglas & Rock Hudson in this film. (Frayling) Duel in the Sun. The character of Morton, the crippled railroad baron in West, was based on the character played by Lionel Barrymore in this film. (Frayling) Sergeant Rutledge (with Woody Strode as the title character). In this John Ford Western, there is a scene in which Constance Towers' character falls asleep in a chair with a rifle in her lap, looking out for hostile Apache, just as Jill McBain does in Leone's film. My Darling Clementine. A deleted scene in West featured Frank getting a shave with perfume in a barber's shop, much like Fonda's Wyatt Earp in this film. There are other, smaller references, to various nonoWesterns, most notably Luchino Visconti's The Leopard. Contrary to popular belief, the name of the town "Sweetwater" was not taken from The Wind, Victor Sjöström's silent epic. Bernardo Bertolucci has stated that he looked at a map of the southwestern United States, found the name of the town in Arizona, & decided to incorporate it into the film. However, a "Sweetwater" - along with a character named McBain - also appeared in a John Wayne Western, The Comancheros, which Leone admired. (Frayling)
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www.moldytoaster.com

27 Jun 2008 at 11:35pm  www.moldytoaster.com

0 sec - Jun 28, 2008

tly quean, dishonest peradventure, obscene, base, beggarly, rude, foolish, untaught, peevish, Irus' daughter, Thersites' sister, Grobians' scholar, if he love her once, he admires her for all this, he takes no notice of any such errors, or imperfections of body or mind, [5391]_Ipsa haec--delectant, veluti Balbinum Polypus Agnae_,; he had rather have her than any woman in the world. If he were a king, she alone should be his queen, his empress. O that he had but the wealth and treasure of both the Indies to endow her with, a carrack of diamonds, a chain of pearl, a cascanet of jewels, (a pair of calfskin gloves of four-pence a pair were fitter), or some such toy, to send her for a token, she should have it with all his heart; he would spend myriads of crowns for her sake. Venus herself, Panthea, Cleopatra, Tarquin's Tanaquil, Herod's Mariamne, or [5392]Mary of Burgundy, if she were alive, would not match her. "([5393]Vincit vultus haec Tyndarios, Qui moverunt horrida bellla." Let Paris himself be judge) renowned Helen comes short, that Rodopheian Phillis, Larissean Coronis, Babylonian Thisbe, Polixena, Laura, Lesbia, &c., your counterfeit ladies were never so fair as she is. [5394] "Quicquid erit placidi, lepidi, grati, atque faceti, Vivida cunctorum retines Pandora deorum." "Whate'er is pretty, pleasant, facete, well, Whate'er Pandora had, she doth excel." [5395]_Dicebam Trivioe formam nihil esse Dianoe_. Diana was not to be compared to her, nor Juno, nor Minerva, nor any goddess. Thetis' feet were as bright as silver, the ankles of Hebe clearer than crystal, the arms of Aurora as ruddy as the rose, Juno's breasts as white as snow, Minerva wise, Venus fair; but what of this? Dainty come thou to me. She is all in all, [5396] ------"Caelia ridens Est Venus, incedens Juno, Minerva loquens." [5397] "Fairest of fair, that fairness doth excel." Ephemerus in Aristaenetus, so far admireth his mistress' good parts, that he makes proclamation of them, and challengeth all comers in her behalf. [5398]"Whoever saw the beauties of the east, or of the west, let them come from all quarters, all, and tell truth, if ever they saw such an excellent feature as this is." A good fellow in Petronius cries out, no tongue can [5399]tell his lady's fine feature, or express it, _quicquid dixeris minus erit_, &c. "No tongue can her perfections tell, In whose each part, all tongues may dwell." Most of your lovers are of his humour and opinion. She is _nulli secunda_, a rare creature, a phoenix, the sole commandress of his thoughts, queen of his desires, his only delight: as [5400]Triton now feelingly sings, that lovesick sea-god: "Candida Leucothoe placet, et placet atra Melaene, Sed Galatea placet longe magis omnibus una." "Fair Leucothe, black Melene please me well, But Galatea doth by odds the rest excel." All the gracious elogies, metaphors, hyperbolical comparisons of the best things in the world, the most glorious names; whatsoever, I say, is pleasant, amiable, sweet, grateful, and delicious, are too little for her. "Phoebo pulchrior et sorore Phoebi." "His Phoebe is so fair, she is so bright, She dims the sun's lustre, and the moon's light." Stars, sun, moons, metals, sweet-smelling flowers, odours, perfumes, colours, gold, silver, ivory, pearls, precious stones, snow, painted birds, doves, honey, sugar, spice, cannot express her, [5401]so soft, so tender, so radiant, sweet, so fair is she.--_Mollior cuniculi capillo_, &c. [5402] "Lydia bella, puelia candida, Quae bene superas lac, et lilium, Albamque simul rosam et rubicundam, Et expolitum ebur Indicum." "Fine Lydia, my mistress, white and fair, The milk, the lily do not thee come near; The rose so white, the rose so red to see, And Indian ivory comes short of thee." Such a description our English Homer makes of a fair lady [5403] _That Emilia that was fairer to seen, Then is lily upon the stalk green: And fresher then May with flowers new, For with the rose colour strove her hue, I no't which was the fairer of the two_. In this very phrase [5404]Polyphemus courts Galatea: "Candidior folio nivei Galatea ligustri, Floridior prato, longa procerior alno, Splendidior vitro, tenero lascivior haedo, &c. Mollior et cygni plumis, et lacte coacto." "Whiter Galet than the white withie-wind, Fresher than a field, higher than a tree, Brighter than glass, more wanton than a kid, Softer than swan's down, or ought that may be." So she admires him again, in that conceited dialogue of Lucian, which John Secundus, an elegant Dutch modern poet, hath translated into verse. When Doris and those other sea nymphs upbraided her with her ugly misshapen lover, Polyphemus; she replies, they speak out of envy and malice, [5405] "Et plane invidia huc mera vos stimulare videtur. Quod non vos itidem ut me Polyphemus amet;" Say what they could, he was a proper man. And as Heloise writ to her sweetheart Peter Abelard, _Si me Augustus orbis imperator uxorem expeteret, mallem tua esse meretrix quam orbis imperatrix_; she had rather be his vassal, his quean, than the world's empress or queen.--_non si me Jupiter ipse forte velit_,--she would not change her love for Jupiter himself. To thy thinking she is a most loathsome creature; and as when a country fellow discommended once that exquisite picture of Helen, made by Zeuxis, [5406]for he saw no such beauty in it; Nichomachus a lovesick spectator replied, _Sume tibi meos oculos et deam existimabis_, take mine eyes, and thou wilt think she is a goddess, dote on her forthwith, count all her vices virtues; her imperfections infirmities, absolute and perfect: if she be flat-nosed, she is lovely; if hook-nosed, kingly; if dwarfish and little, pretty; if tall, proper and man-like, our brave British Boadicea; if crooked, wise; if monstrous, comely; her defects are no defects at all, she hath no deformities. _Immo nec ipsum amicae stercus foetet_, though she be nasty, fulsome, as Sostratus' bitch, or Parmeno's sow; thou hadst as live have a snake in thy bosom, a toad in thy dish, and callest her witch, devil, hag, with all the filthy names thou canst invent; he admires her on the other side, she is his idol, lady, mistress, [5407]venerilla, queen, the quintessence of beauty, an angel, a star, a goddess. "Thou art my Vesta, thou my goddess art, Thy hallowed temple only is my heart." The fragrancy of a thousand courtesans is in her face: [5408]_Nec pulchrae effigies, haec Cypridis aut Stratonices_; 'tis not Venus' picture that, nor the Spanish infanta's, as you suppose (good sir), no princess, or king's daughter: no, no, but his divine mistress, forsooth, his dainty Dulcinia, his dear Antiphila, to whose service he is wholly consecrate, whom he alone adores. [5409] "Cui comparatus indecens erit pavo, Inamabilis sciurus, et frequens Phoenix." "To whom conferr'd a peacock's indecent, A squirrel's harsh, a phoenix too frequent." All the graces, veneries, elegancies, pleasures, attend her. He prefers her before a myriad of court ladies. [5410] "He that commends Phillis or Neraea, Or Amaryllis, or Galatea, Tityrus or Melibea, by your leave, Let him be mute, his love the praises have." Nay, before all the gods and goddesses themselves. So [5411]Quintus Catullus admired his squint-eyed friend Roscius. "Pace mihi liceat (Coelestes) dicere vestra, Mortalis visus pulchrior esse Deo." "By your leave gentle Gods, this I'll say true, There's none of you that have so fair a hue." All the bombast epithets, pathetical adjuncts, incomparably fair, curiously neat, divine, sweet, dainty, delicious, &c., pretty diminutives, _corculum, suaviolum_, &c. pleasant names may be invented, bird, mouse, lamb, puss, pigeon, pigsney, kid, honey, love, dove, chicken, &c. he puts on her. [5412] "Meum mel, mea suavitas, meum cor, Meum suaviolum, mei lepores," "my life, my light, my jewel, my glory," [5413]_Margareta speciosa, cujus respectu omnia mundi pretiosa sordent_, my sweet Margaret, my sole delight and darling. And as [5414]Rhodomant courted Isabella: "By all kind words and gestures that he might, He calls her his dear heart, his sole beloved, His joyful comfort, and his sweet delight. His mistress, and his goddess, and such names, As loving knights apply to lovely dames." Every cloth she wears, every fashion pleaseth him above measure; her hand, _O quales digitos, quos habet illa manus!_ pretty foot, pretty coronets, her sweet carriage, sweet voice, tone, O that pretty tone, her divine and lovely looks, her every thing, lovely, sweet, amiable, and pretty, pretty, pretty. Her very name (let it be what it will) is a most pretty, pleasing name; I believe now there is some secret power and virtue in names, every action, sight, habit, gesture; he admires, whether she play, sing, or dance, in what tires soever she goeth, how excellent it was, how well it became her, never the like seen or heard. [5415]_Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet._ Let her wear what she will, do what she will, say what she will, [5416]_Quicquid enim dicit, seu facit, omne decet_. He applauds and admires everything she wears, saith or doth, [5417] "Illam quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia vertit, Composuit furtim subsequiturque decor; Seu solvit crines, fusis decet esse capillis, Seu compsit, comptis est reverenda comis." "Whate'er she doth, or whither e'er she go, A sweet and pleasing grace attends forsooth; Or loose, or bind her hair, or comb it up, She's to be honoured in what she doth." [5418]_Vestem induitur, formosa est: exuitur, tota forma est_, let her be dressed or undressed, all is one, she is excellent still, beautiful, fair, and lovely to behold. Women do as much by men; nay more, far fonder, weaker, and that by many parasangs. "Come to me my dear Lycias," (saith Musaeus in [5419]Aristaenetus) "come quickly sweetheart, all other men are satyrs, mere clowns, blockheads to thee, nobody to thee." Thy looks, words, gestures, actions, &c., "are incomparably beyond all others." Venus was never so much besotted on her Adonis, Phaedra so delighted in Hippolitus, Ariadne in Theseus, Thisbe in her Pyramus, as she is enamoured on her Mopsus. "Be thou the marigold, and I will be the sun, Be thou the friar, and I will be the nun." I could repeat centuries of such. Now tell me what greater dotage or blindness can there be than this in both sexes? and yet their slavery is more eminent, a greater sign of their folly than the rest. They are commonly slaves, captives, voluntary servants, _Amator amicae mancipium_, as [5420]Castilio terms him, his mistress' servant, her drudge, prisoner, bondman, what not? "He composeth himself wholly to her affections to please her, and, as Aemelia said, makes himself her lackey. All his cares, actions, all his thoughts, are subordinate to her will and commandment:" her most devote, obsequious, affectionate servant and vassal. "For love" (as [5421]Cyrus in Xenophon well observed) "is a mere tyranny, worse than any disease, and they that are troubled with it desire to be free and cannot, but are harder bound than if they were in iron chains." What greater captivity or slavery can there be (as [5422]Tully expostulates) than to be in love? "Is he a free man over whom a woman domineers, to whom she prescribes laws, commands, forbids what she will herself; that dares deny nothing she demands; she asks, he gives; she calls, he comes; she threatens, he fears; _Nequissimum hunc servum puto_, I account this man a very drudge." And as he follows it, [5423]"Is this no small servitude for an enamourite to be every hour combing his head, stiffening his beard, perfuming his hair, washing his face with sweet water, painting, curling, and not to come abroad but sprucely crowned, decked, and apparelled?" Yet these are but toys in respect, to go to the barber, baths, theatres, &c., he must attend upon her wherever she goes, run along the streets by her doors and windows to see her, take all opportunities, sleeveless errands, disguise, counterfeit shapes, and as many forms as Jupiter himself ever took; and come every day to her house (as he will surely do if he be truly enamoured) and offer her service, and follow her up and down from room to room, as Lucretia's suitors did, he cannot contain himself but he will do it, he must and will be where she is, sit next her, still talking with her. [5424]"If I did but let my glove fall by chance," (as the said Aretine's Lucretia brags,) "I had one of my suitors, nay two or three at once ready to stoop and take it up, and kiss it, and with a low conge deliver it unto me; if I would walk, another was ready to sustain me by the arm. A third to provide fruits, pears, plums, cherries, or whatsoever I would eat or drink." All this and much more he doth in her presence, and when he comes home, as Troilus to his Cressida, 'tis all his meditation to recount with himself his actions, words, gestures, what entertainment he had, how kindly she used him in such a place, how she smiled, how she graced him, and that infinitely pleased him; and then he breaks out, O sweet Areusa, O my dearest Antiphila, O most divine looks, O lovely graces, and thereupon instantly he makes an epigram, or a sonnet to five or seven tunes, in her commendation, or else he ruminates how she rejected his service, denied him a kiss, disgraced him, &c., and that as effectually torments him. And these are his exercises between comb and glass, madrigals, elegies, &c., these his cogitations till he see her again. But all this is easy and gentle, and the least part of his labour and bondage, no hunter will take such pains for his game, fowler for his sport, or soldier to sack a city, as he will for his mistress' favour. [5425] "Ipsa comes veniam, neque me salebrosa movebunt Saxa, nec obliquo dente timendus aper." As Phaedra to Hippolitus. No danger shall affright, for if that be true the poets feign, Love is the son of Mars and Venus; as he hath delights, pleasures, elegances from his mother, so hath he hardness, valour, and boldness from his father. And 'tis true that Bernard hath; _Amore nihil mollius, nihil volentius_, nothing so boisterous, nothing so tender as love. If once, therefore, enamoured, he will go, run, ride many a mile to meet her, day and night, in a very dark night, endure scorching heat, cold, wait in frost and snow, rain, tempest, till his teeth chatter in his head, those northern winds and showers cannot cool or quench his flame of love. _Intempesta nocte non deterretur_, he will, take my word, sustain hunger, thirst, _Penetrabit omnia, perrumpet omnia_, "love will find out a way," through thick and thin he will to her, _Expeditissimi montes videntur omnes tranabiles_, he will swim through an ocean, ride post over the Alps, Apennines, or Pyrenean hills, [5426] "Ignem marisque fluctus, atque turbines Venti paratus est transire,"------ though it rain daggers with their points downward, light or dark, all is one: (_Roscida per tenebras Faunus ad antra venit_), for her sweet sake he will undertake Hercules's twelve labours, endure, hazard, &c., he feels it not. [5427]"What shall I say," saith Haedus, "of their great dangers they undergo, single combats they undertake, how they will venture their lives, creep in at windows, gutters, climb over walls to come to their sweethearts," (anointing the doors and hinges with oil, because they should not creak, tread soft, swim, wade, watch, &c.), "and if they be surprised, leap out at windows, cast themselves headlong down, bruising or breaking their legs or arms, and sometimes loosing life itself," as Calisto did for his lovely Melibaea. Hear some of their own confessions, protestations, complaints, proffers, expostulations, wishes, brutish attempts, labours in this kind. Hercules served Omphale, put on an apron, took a distaff and spun; Thraso the soldier was so submissive to Thais, that he was resolved to do whatever she enjoined. [5428]_Ego me Thaidi dedam; et faciam quod jubet_, I am at her service. Philostratus in an epistle to his mistress, [5429]"I am ready to die sweetheart if it be thy will; allay his thirst whom thy star hath scorched and undone, the fountains and rivers deny no man drink that comes; the fountain doth not say thou shalt not drink, nor the apple thou shalt not eat, nor the fair meadow walk not in me, but thou alone wilt not let me come near thee, or see thee, contemned and despised I die for grief." Polienus, when his mistress Circe did but frown upon him in Petronius, drew his sword, and bade her [5430]kill, stab, or whip him to death, he would strip himself naked, and not resist. Another will take a journey to Japan, _Longae navigationis molestis non curans_: a third (if she say it) will not speak a word for a twelvemonth's space, her command shall be most inviolably kept: a fourth will take Hercules's club from him, and with that centurion in the Spanish [5431]Caelestina, will kill ten men for his mistress Areusa, for a word of her mouth he will cut bucklers in two like pippins, and flap down men like flies, _Elige quo mortis genere illum occidi cupis_? [5432]Galeatus of Mantua did a little more: for when he was almost mad for love of a fair maid in the city, she, to try him belike what he would do for her sake, bade him in jest leap into the river Po if he loved her; he forthwith did leap headlong off the bridge and was drowned. Another at Ficinum in like passion, when his mistress by chance (thinking no harm I dare swear) bade him go hang, the next night at her doors hanged himself. [5433]"Money" (saith Xenophon) "is a very acceptable and welcome guest, yet I had rather give it my dear Clinia than take it of others, I had rather serve him than command others, I had rather be his drudge than take my ease, undergo any danger for his sake than live in security. For I had rather see Clinia than all the world besides, and had rather want the sight of all other things than him alone; I am angry with the night and sleep that I may not see him, and thank the light and sun because they show me my Clinia; I will run into the fire for his sake, and if you did but see him, I know that you likewise would run with me." So Philostratus to his mistress, [5434]"Command me what you will, I will do it; bid me go to sea, I am gone in an instant, take so many stripes, I am ready, run through the fire, and lay down my life and soul at thy feet, 'tis done." So did. Aeolus to Juno. ------"Tuus o regina quod optas Explorare labor, mihi jussa capescere fas est." "O queen it is thy pains to enjoin me still, And I am bound to execute thy will." And Phaedra to Hippolitus, "Me vel sororem Hippolite aut famulam voca, Famulamque potius, omne servitium feram." "O call me sister, call me servant, choose, Or rather servant, I am thine to use." [5435] "Non me per altas ire si jubeas nives, Pigeat galatis ingredi Pindi jugis, Non si per ignes ire aut infesta agmina Cuncter, paratus [5436]ensibus pectus dare, Te tunc jubere, me decet jussa exequi." "It shall not grieve me to the snowy hills, Or frozen Pindus' tops forthwith to climb. Or run through fire, or through an army, Say but the word, for I am always thine." Callicratides in [5437]Lucian breaks out into this passionate speech, "O God of Heaven, grant me this life for ever to sit over against my mistress, and to hear her sweet voice, to go in and out with her, to have every other business common with her; I would labour when she labours; sail when she sails; he that hates her should hate me; and if a tyrant kill her, he should kill me; if she should die, I would not live, and one grave should hold us both." [5438]_Finiet illa meos moriens morientis amores_. Abrocomus in [5439]Aristaenetus makes the like petition for his Delphia, --[5440]_Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam lubens_. "I desire to live with thee, and I am ready to die with thee." 'Tis the same strain which Theagines used to his Chariclea, "so that I may but enjoy thy love, let me die presently:" Leander to his Hero, when he besought the sea waves to let him go quietly to his love, and kill him coming back. [5441]_Parcite dum propero, mergite dum redeo_. "Spare me whilst I go, drown me as I return." 'Tis the common humour of them all, to contemn death, to wish for death, to confront death in this case, _Quippe queis nec fera, nec ignis, neque praecipitium, nec fretum, nec ensis, neque laqueus gravia videntur_; "'Tis their desire" (saith Tyrius) "to die." "Haud timet mortem, cupit ire in ipsos ------obvius enses." "He does not fear death, he desireth such upon the very swords." Though a thousand dragons or devils keep the gates, Cerberus himself, Scyron and Procrastes lay in wait, and the way as dangerous, as inaccessible as hell, through fiery flames and over burning coulters, he will adventure for all this. And as [5442]Peter Abelard lost his testicles for his Heloise, he will I say not venture an incision, but life itself. For how many gallants offered to lose their lives for a night's lodging with Cleopatra in those days! and in the hour or moment of death, 'tis their sole comfort to remember their dear mistress, as [5443]Zerbino slain in France, and Brandimart in Barbary; as Arcite did his Emily. [5444] ------_when he felt death, Dusked been his eyes, and faded is his breath But on his lady yet casteth he his eye, His last word was, mercy Emely, His spirit chang'd, and out went there, Whether I cannot tell, ne where_. [5445]When Captain Gobrius by an unlucky accident had received his death's wound, _heu me miserum exclamat_, miserable man that I am, (instead of other devotions) he cries out, shall I die before I see my sweetheart Rhodanthe? _Sic amor mortem_, (saith mine author) _aut quicquid humanitus accidit, aspernatur_, so love triumphs, contemns, insults over death itself. Thirteen proper young men lost their lives for that fair Hippodamias' sake, the daughter of Onomaus, king of Elis: when that hard condition was proposed of death or victory, they made no account of it, but courageously for love died, till Pelops at last won her by a sleight. [5446]As many gallants desperately adventured their dearest blood for Atalanta, the daughter of Schenius, in hope of marriage, all vanquished and overcame, till Hippomenes by a few golden apples happily obtained his suit. Perseus, of old, fought with a sea monster for Andromeda's sake; and our St. George freed the king's daughter of Sabea (the golden legend is mine author) that was exposed to a dragon, by a terrible combat. Our knights errant, and the Sir Lancelots of these days, I hope will adventure as much for ladies' favours, as the Squire of Dames, Knight of the Sun, Sir Bevis of Southampton, or that renowned peer, [5447] "Orlando, who long time had loved dear Angelica the fair, and for her sake About the world in nations far and near, Did high attempts perform and undertake;" he is a very dastard, a coward, a block and a beast, that will not do as much, but they will sure, they will; for it is an ordinary thing for these inamoratos of our time to say and do more, to stab their arms, carouse in blood, [5448]or as that Thessalian Thero, that bit off his own thumb, _provocans rivalem ad hoc aemulandum_, to make his co-rival do as much. 'Tis frequent with them to challenge the field for their lady and mistress' sake, to run a tilt, [5449] "That either bears (so furiously they meet) The other down under the horses' feet," and then up and to it again, "And with their axes both so sorely pour, That neither plate nor mail sustain'd the stour, But riveld wreak like rotten wood asunder, And fire did flash like lightning after thunder;" and in her quarrel, to fight so long [5450]"till their headpiece, bucklers be all broken, and swords hacked like so many saws," for they must not see her abused in any sort, 'tis blasphemy to speak against her, a dishonour without all good respect to name her. 'Tis common with these creatures, to drink [5451]healths upon their bare knees, though it were a mile to the bottom, no matter of what mixture, off it comes. If she bid them they will go barefoot to Jerusalem, to the great Cham's court, [5452] to the East Indies, to fetch her a bird to wear in her hat: and with Drake and Candish sail round about the world for her sweet sake, _adversis ventis_, serve twice seven years, as Jacob did for Rachel; do as much as [5453]Gesmunda, the daughter of Tancredus, prince of Salerna, did for Guisardus, her true love, eat his heart when he died; or as Artemisia drank her husband's bones beaten to powder, and so bury him in herself, and endure more torments than Theseus or Paris. _Et his colitur Venus magis quam thure, et victimis_, with such sacrifices as these (as [5454] Aristaenetus holds) Venus is well pleased. Generally they undertake any pain, any labour, any toil, for their mistress' sake, love and admire a servant, not to her alone, but to all her friends and followers, they hug and embrace them for her sake; her dog, picture, and everything she wears, they adore it as a relic. If any man come from her, they feast him, reward him, will not be out of his company, do him all offices, still remembering, still talking of her: [5455] "Nam si abest quod ames, praesto simulacra tamen sunt Illius, et nomen dulce observatur ad aures." The very carrier that comes from him to her is a most welcome guest; and if he bring a letter, she will read it twenty times over, and as [5456] Lucretia did by Euryalus, "kiss the letter a thousand times together, and then read it:" And [5457]Chelidonia by Philonius, after many sweet kisses, put the letter in her bosom, "And kiss again, and often look thereon, And stay the messenger that would be gone:" And asked many pretty questions, over and over again, as how he looked, what he did, and what he said? In a word, [5458] "Vult placere sese amicae, vult mihi, vult pedissequae, Vult famulis, vult etiam ancillis, et catulo meo." "He strives to please his mistress, and her maid, Her servants, and her dog, and's well apaid." If he get any remnant of hers, a busk-point, a feather of her fan, a shoe-tie, a lace, a ring, a bracelet of hair, [5459] "Pignusque direptum lacertis; Aut digito male pertinaci," he wears it for a favour on his arm, in his hat, finger, or next his heart. Her picture he adores twice a day, and for two hours together will not look off it; as Laodamia did by Protesilaus, when he went to war, [5460]"'sit at home with his picture before her;' a garter or a bracelet of hers is more precious than any saint's relic," he lays it up in his casket, (O blessed relic) and every day will kiss it: if in her presence, his eye is never off her, and drink he will where she drank, if it be possible, in that very place, &c. If absent, he will walk in the walk, sit under that tree where she did use to sit, in that bower, in that very seat,--_et foribus miser oscula figit_, [5461]many years after sometimes, though she be far distant and dwell many miles off, he loves yet to walk that way still, to have his chamber-window look that way: to walk by that river's side, which (though far away) runs by the house where she dwells, he loves the wind blows to that coast. [5462] "O quoties dixi Zephyris properantibus illuc, Felices pulchram visuri Amaryllada venti." "O happy western winds that blow that way, For you shall see my love's fair face to day." He will send a message to her by the wind. [5463] "Vos aurae Alpinae, placidis de montibus aurae, Haec illi portate,"------ [5464]he desires to confer with some of her acquaintance, for his heart is still with her, [5465]to talk of her, admiring and commending her, lamenting, moaning, wishing himself anything for her sake, to have opportunity to see her, O that he might but enjoy her presence! So did Philostratus to his mistress, [5466]"O happy ground on which she treads, and happy were I if she would tread upon me. I think her countenance would make the rivers stand, and when she comes abroad, birds will sing and come about her." "Ridebunt valles, ridebunt obvia Tempe, In florem viridis protinus ibi humus." "The fields will laugh, the pleasant valleys burn, And all the grass will into flowers turn." _Omnis Ambrosiam spirabit aura_. [5467]"When she is in the meadow, she is fairer than any flower, for that lasts but for a day, the river is pleasing, but it vanisheth on a sudden, but thy flower doth not fade, thy stream is greater than the sea. If I look upon the heaven, methinks I see the sun fallen down to shine below, and thee to shine in his place, whom I desire. If I look upon the night, methinks I see two more glorious stars, Hesperus and thyself." A little after he thus courts his mistress, [5468] "If thou goest forth of the city, the protecting gods that keep the town will run after to gaze upon thee: if thou sail upon the seas, as so many small boats, they will follow thee: what river would not run into the sea?" Another, he sighs and sobs, swears he hath _Cor scissum_, a heart bruised to powder, dissolved and melted within him, or quite gone from him, to his mistress' bosom belike, he is in an oven, a salamander in the fire, so scorched with love's heat; he wisheth himself a saddle for her to sit on, a posy for her to smell to, and it would not grieve him to be hanged, if he might be strangled in her garters: he would willingly die tomorrow, so that she might kill him with her own hands. [5469]Ovid would be a flea, a gnat, a ring, Catullus a sparrow, [5470] "O si tecum ludere sicut ipsa possem, Et tristes animi levare curas." [5471]Anacreon, a glass, a gown, a chain, anything, "Sed speculum ego ipse fiam, Ut me tuum usque cernas, Et vestis ipse fiam, Ut me tuum usque gestes. Mutari et opto in undam, Lavem tuos ut artus, Nardus puella fiam, Ut ego teipsum inungam, Sim fascia in papillis, Tuo et monile collo. Fiamque calceus, me Saltem ut pede usque calces." [5472] "But I a looking-glass would be, Still to be look'd upon by thee, Or I, my love, would be thy gown, By thee to be worn up and down; Or a pure well full to the brims, That I might wash thy purer limbs: Or, I'd be precious balm to 'noint, With choicest care each choicest joint; Or, if I might, I would be fain About thy neck thy happy chain, Or would it were my blessed hap To be the lawn o'er thy fair pap. Or would I were thy shoe, to be Daily trod upon by thee." O thrice happy man that shall enjoy her: as they that saw Hero in Museus, and [5473]Salmacis to Hermaphroditus, [5474] ------"Felices mater, &c. felix nutrix.-- Sed longe cunctis, longeque beatior ille, Quem fructu sponsi et socii dignabere lecti." The same passion made her break out in the comedy, [5475]_Nae illae fortunatae, sunt quae cum illo cubant_, "happy are his bedfellows;" and as she said of Cyprus, [5476]_Beata quae illi uxor futura esset_, blessed is that woman that shall be his wife, nay, thrice happy she that shall enjoy him but a night. [5477]_Una nox Jovis sceptro aequiparanda_, such a night's lodging is worth Jupiter's sceptre. [5478] "Qualis nox erit illa, dii, deaeque, Quam mollis thorus?" "O what a blissful night would it be, how soft, how sweet a bed!" She will adventure all her estate for such a night, for a nectarean, a balsam kiss alone. [5479] "Qui te videt beatus est, Beatior qui te audiet, Qui te potitur est Deus." The sultan of Sana's wife in Arabia, when she had seen Vertomannus, that comely traveller, lamented to herself in this manner, [5480]"O God, thou hast made this man whiter than the sun, but me, mine husband, and all my children black; I would to God he were my husband, or that I had such a son;" she fell a weeping, and so impatient for love at last, that (as Potiphar's wife did by Joseph) she would have had him gone in with her, she sent away Gazella, Tegeia, Galzerana, her waiting-maids, loaded him with fair promises and gifts, and wooed him with all the rhetoric she could,-- _extremum hoc miserae da munus amanti_, "grant this last request to a wretched lover." But when he gave not consent, she would have gone with him, and left all, to be his page, his servant, or his lackey, _Certa sequi charum corpus ut umbra solet_, so that she might enjoy him, threatening moreover to kill herself, &c. Men will do as much and more for women, spend goods, lands, lives, fortunes; kings will leave their crowns, as King John for Matilda the nun at Dunmow. [5481] "But kings in this yet privileg'd may be, I'll be a monk so I may live with thee." The very Gods will endure any shame (_atque aliquis de diis non tristibus inquit_, &c.) be a spectacle as Mars and Venus were, to all the rest; so did Lucian's Mercury wish, and peradventure so dost thou. They will adventure their lives with alacrity --[5482]_pro qua non metuam mori_--nay more, _pro qua non metuam bis mori_, I will die twice, nay, twenty times for her. If she die, there's no remedy, they must die with her, they cannot help it. A lover in Calcagninus, wrote this on his darling's tomb, "Quincia obiit, sed non Quincia sola obiit, Quincia obiit, sed cum Quincia et ipse obii; Risus obit, obit gratia, lusus obit. Nec mea nunc anima in pectore, at in tumulo est." "Quincia my dear is dead, but not alone, For I am dead, and with her I am gone: Sweet smiles, mirth, graces, all with her do rest, And my soul too, for 'tis not in my breast." How many doting lovers upon the like occasion might say the same? But these are toys in respect, they will hazard their very souls for their mistress' sake. "Atque aliquis interjuvenes miratus est, et verbum dixit, Non ego in caelo cuperem Deus esse, Nostram uxorem habens domi Hero." "One said, to heaven would I not desire at all to go, If that at mine own house I had such a fine wife as Hero." Venus forsook heaven for Adonis' sake,--[5483]_caelo praefertur Adonis_. Old Janivere, in Chaucer, thought when he had his fair May he should never go to heaven, he should live so merrily here on earth; had I such a mistress, he protests, [5484] "Caelum diis ego non suum inviderem, Sed sortem mihi dii meam inviderent." "I would not envy their prosperity, The gods should envy my felicity." Another as earnestly desires to behold his sweetheart he will adventure and leave all this, and more than this to see her alone. [5485] "Omnia quae patior mala si pensare velit fors, Una aliqua nobis prosperitate, dii Hoc precor, ut faciant, faciant me cernere coram, Cor mihi captivum quae tenet hocce, deam." "If all my mischiefs were recompensed And God would give we what I requested, I would my mistress' presence only seek, Which doth mine heart in prison captive keep." But who can reckon upon the dotage, madness, servitude and blindness, the foolish phantasms and vanities of lovers, their torments, wishes, idle attempts? Yet for all this, amongst so many irksome, absurd, troublesome symptoms, inconveniences, fantastical fits and passions which are usually incident to such persons, there be some good and graceful qualities in lovers, which this affection causeth. "As it makes wise men fools, so many times it makes fools become wise; [5486]it makes base fellows become generous, cowards courageous," as Cardan notes out of Plutarch; "covetous, liberal and magnificent; clowns, civil; cruel, gentle; wicked, profane persons, to become religious; slovens, neat; churls, merciful; and dumb dogs, eloquent; your lazy drones, quick and nimble." _Feras mentes domat cupido_, that fierce, cruel and rude Cyclops Polyphemus sighed, and shed many a salt tear for Galatea's sake. No passion causeth greater alterations, or more vehement of joy or discontent. Plutarch. _Sympos. lib. 5. quaest. 1_, [5487] saith, "that the soul of a man in love is full of perfumes and sweet odours, and all manner of pleasing tones and tunes, insomuch that it is hard to say (as he adds) whether love do mortal men more harm than good." It adds spirits and makes them, otherwise soft and silly, generous and courageous, [5488]_Audacem faciebat amor_. Ariadne's love made Theseus so adventurous, and Medea's beauty Jason so victorious; _expectorat amor timorem_. [5489]Plato is of opinion that the love of Venus made Mars so valorous. "A young man will be much abashed to commit any foul offence that shall come to the hearing or sight of his mistress." As [5490]he that desired of his enemy now dying, to lay him with his face upward, _ne amasius videret eum a tergo vulneratum_, lest his sweetheart should say he was a coward. "And if it were [5491]possible to have an army consist of lovers, such as love, or are beloved, they would be extraordinary valiant and wise in their government, modesty would detain them from doing amiss, emulation incite them to do that which is good and honest, and a few of them would overcome a great company of others." There is no man so pusillanimous, so very a dastard, whom love would not incense, make of a divine temper, and an heroical spirit. As he said in like case, [5492] _Tota ruat caeli moles, non terreor_, &c. Nothing can terrify, nothing can dismay them. But as Sir Blandimor and Paridel, those two brave fairy knights, fought for the love of fair Florimel in presence-- [5493] "And drawing both their swords with rage anew, Like two mad mastives each other slew, And shields did share, and males did rash, and helms did hew; So furiously each other did assail, As if their souls at once they would have rent, Out of their breasts, that streams of blood did trail Adown as if their springs of life were spent, That all the ground with purple blood was sprent, And all their armour stain'd with bloody gore, Yet scarcely once to breath would they relent. So mortal was their malice and so sore, That both resolved (than yield) to die before." Every base swain in love will dare to do as much for his dear mistress' sake. He will fight and fetch, [5494]Argivum Clypeum, that famous buckler of Argos, to do her service, adventure at all, undertake any enterprise. And as Serranus the Spaniard, then Governor of Sluys, made answer to Marquess Spinola, if the enemy brought 50,000 devils against him he would keep it. The nine worthies, Oliver and Rowland, and forty dozen of peers are all in him, he is all mettle, armour of proof, more than a man, and in this case improved beyond himself. For as [5495]Agatho contends, a true lover is wise, just, temperate, and valiant. [5496]"I doubt not, therefore, but if a man had such an army of lovers" (as Castilio supposeth) "he might soon conquer all the world, except by chance he met with such another army of inamoratos to oppose it." [5497]For so perhaps they might fight as that fatal dog and fatal hare in the heavens, course one another round, and never make an end. Castilio thinks Ferdinand King of Spain would never have conquered Granada, had not Queen Isabel and her ladies been present at the siege: [5498]"It cannot be expressed what courage the Spanish knights took, when the ladies were present, a few Spaniards overcame a multitude of Moors." They will undergo any danger whatsoever, as Sir Walter Manny in Edward the Third's time, stuck full of ladies' favours, fought like a dragon. For _soli amantes_, as [5499]Plato holds, _pro amicis mori appetunt_, only lovers will die for their friends, and in their mistress' quarrel. And for that cause he would have women follow the camp, to be spectators and encouragers of noble actions: upon such an occasion, the [5500]Squire of Dames himself, Sir Lancelot or Sir Tristram, Caesar, or Alexander, shall not be more resolute or go beyond them. Not courage only doth love add, but as I said, subtlety, wit, and many pretty devices, [5501]_Namque dolos inspirat amor, fraudesque ministrat_, [5502]Jupiter in love with Leda, and not knowing how to compass his desire, turned himself into a swan, and got Venus to pursue him in the likeness of an eagle; which she doing, for shelter, he fled to Leda's lap, _et in ejus gremio se collocavit_, Leda embraced him, and so fell fast asleep, _sed dormientem Jupiter compressit_, by which means Jupiter had his will. Infinite such tricks love can devise, such fine feats in abundance, with wisdom and wariness, [5503]_quis fallere possit amantem_. All manner of civility, decency, compliment and good behaviour, _plus solis et leporis_, polite graces and merry conceits. Boccaccio hath a pleasant tale to this purpose, which he borrowed from the Greeks, and which Beroaldus hath turned into Latin, Bebelius in verse, of Cymon and Iphigenia. This Cymon was a fool, a proper man of person, and the governor of Cyprus' son. but a very ass, insomuch that his father being ashamed of him, sent him to a farmhouse he had in the country, to be brought up. Where by chance, as his manner was, walking alone, he espied a gallant young gentlewoman, named Iphigenia, a burgomaster's daughter of Cyprus, with her maid, by a brook side in a little thicket, fast asleep in her smock, where she had newly bathed herself: "When [5504]Cymon saw her, he stood leaning on his staff, gaping on her immovable, and in amaze;" at last he fell so far in love with the glorious object, that he began to rouse himself up, to bethink what he was, would needs follow her to the city, and for her sake began to be civil, to learn to sing and dance, to play on instruments, and got all those gentlemanlike qualities and compliments in a short space, which his friends were most glad of. In brief, he became, from an idiot and a clown, to be one of the most complete gentlemen in Cyprus, did many valorous exploits, and all for the love of mistress Iphigenia. In a word, I may say thus much of them all, let them be never so clownish, rude and horrid, Grobians and sluts, if once they be in love they will be most neat and spruce; for, [5505]_Omnibus rebus, et nitidis nitoribus antevenit amor_, they will follow the fashion, begin to trick up, and to have a good opinion of themselves, _venustatem enim mater Venus_; a ship is not so long a rigging as a young gentlewoman a trimming up herself against her sweetheart comes. A painter's shop, a flowery meadow, no so gracious aspect in nature's storehouse as a young maid, _nubilis puella_, a Novitsa or Venetian bride, that looks for a husband, or a young man that is her suitor; composed looks, composed gait, clothes, gestures, actions, all composed; all the graces, elegances in the world are in her face. Their best robes, ribands, chains, jewels, lawns, linens, laces, spangles, must come on, [5506]_praeter quam res patitur student elegantiae_, they are beyond all measure coy, nice, and too curious on a sudden; 'tis all their study, all their business, how to wear their clothes neat, to be polite and terse, and to set out themselves. No sooner doth a young man see his sweetheart coming, but he smugs up himself, pulls up his cloak now fallen about his shoulders, ties his garters, points, sets his band, cuffs, slicks his hair, twires his beard, &c. When Mercury was to come before his mistress, [5507] ------"Chlamydemque ut pendeat apte Collocat, ut limbus totumque appareat aurum." "He put his cloak in order, that the lace. And hem, and gold-work, all might have his grace." Salmacis would not be seen of Hermaphroditus, till she had spruced up herself first, [5508] "Nec tamen ante adiit, etsi properabat adire, Quam se composuit, quam circumspexit amictus, Et finxit vultum, et meruit formosa videri." "Nor did she come, although 'twas her desire, Till she compos'd herself, and trimm'd her tire, And set her looks to make him to admire." Venus had so ordered the matter, that when her son [5509]Aeneas was to appear before Queen Dido, he was "Os humerosque deo similis (namque ipsa decoram Caesariem nato genetrix, lumenque juventae Purpureum et laetos oculis afflarat honores.") like a god, for she was the tire-woman herself, to set him out with all natural and artificial impostures. As mother Mammea did her son Heliogabalus, new chosen emperor, when he was to be seen of the people first. When the hirsute cyclopical Polyphemus courted Galatea; [5510] "Jamque tibi formae, jamque est tibi cura placendi, Jam rigidos pectis rastris Polypheme capillos, Jam libet hirsutam tibi falce recidere barbam, Et spectare feros in aqua et componere vultus." "And then he did begin to prank himself, To plait and comb his head, and beard to shave, And look his face i' th' water as a glass, And to compose himself for to be brave." He was upon a sudden now spruce and keen, as a new ground hatchet. He now began to have a good opinion of his own features and good parts, now to be a gallant. "Jam Galatea veni, nec munera despice nostra, Certe ego me novi, liquidaque in imagine vidi Nuper aquae, placuitque mihi mea forma videnti." "Come now, my Galatea, scorn me not, Nor my poor presents; for but yesterday I saw myself i' th' water, and methought Full fair I was, then scorn me not I say." [5511] "Non sum adeo informis, nuper me in littore vidi, Cum placidum ventis staret mare"------ 'Tis the common humour of all suitors to trick up themselves, to be prodigal in apparel, _pure lotus_, neat, combed, and curled, with powdered hair, _comptus et calimistratus_, with a long love-lock, a flower in his ear, perfumed gloves, rings, scarves, feathers, points, &c. as if he were a prince's Ganymede, with everyday new suits, as the fashion varies; going as if he trod upon eggs, as Heinsius writ to Primierus, [5512]"if once he be besotten on a wench, he must like awake at nights, renounce his book, sigh and lament, now and then weep for his hard hap, and mark above all things what hats, bands, doublets, breeches, are in fashion, how to cut his beard, and wear his locks, to turn up his mustachios, and curl his head, prune his pickedevant, or if he wear it abroad, that the east side be correspondent to the west;" he may be scoffed at otherwise, as Julian that apostate emperor was for wearing a long hirsute goatish beard, fit to make ropes with, as in his Mysopogone, or that apologetical oration he made at Antioch to excuse himself, he doth ironically confess, it hindered his kissing, _nam non licuit inde pura puris, eoque suavioribus labra labris adjungere_, but he did not much esteem it, as it seems by the sequel, _de accipiendis dandisve osculis non laboro_, yet (to follow mine author) it may much concern a young lover, he must be more respectful in this behalf, "he must be in league with an excellent tailor, barber," [5513] "Tonsorem pucrum sed arte talem, Qualis nec Thalamis fuit Neronis;" "have neat shoe-ties, points, garters, speak in print, walk in print, eat and drink in print, and that which is all in all, he must be mad in print." Amongst other good qualities an amorous fellow is endowed with, he must learn to sing and dance, play upon some instrument or other, as without all doubt he will, if he be truly touched with this loadstone of love. For as [5514]Erasmus hath it, _Musicam docet amor et Poesia_, love will make them musicians, and to compose ditties, madrigals, elegies, love sonnets, and sing them to several pretty tunes, to get all good qualities may be had. [5515]Jupiter perceived Mercury to be in love with Philologia, because he learned languages, polite speech, (for Suadela herself was Venus' daughter, as some write) arts and sciences, _quo virgini placeret_, all to ingratiate himself, and please his mistress. 'Tis their chiefest study to sing, dance; and without question, so many gentlemen and gentlewomen would not be so well qualified in this kind, if love did not incite them. [5516]"Who," saith Castilio, "would learn to play, or give his mind to music, learn to dance, or make so many rhymes, love-songs, as most do, but for women's sake, because they hope by that means to purchase their good wills, and win their favour?" We see this daily verified in our young women and wives, they that being maids took so much pains to sing, play, and dance, with such cost and charge to their parents, to get those graceful qualities, now being married will scarce touch an instrument, they care not for it. Constantine _agricult. lib. 11. cap. 18_, makes Cupid himself to be a great dancer; by the same token as he was capering amongst the gods, [5517]"he flung down a bowl of nectar, which distilling upon the white rose, ever since made it red:" and Calistratus, by the help of Dedalus, about Cupid's statue [5518]made a many of young wenches still a dancing, to signify belike that Cupid was much affected with it, as without all doubt he was. For at his and Psyche's wedding, the gods being present to grace the feast, Ganymede filled nectar in abundance (as [5519]Apuleius describes it), Vulcan was the cook, the Hours made all fine with roses and flowers, Apollo played on the harp, the Muses sang to it, _sed suavi Musicae super ingressa Venus saltavit_, but his mother Venus danced to his and their sweet content. Witty [5520]Lucian in that pathetical love passage, or pleasant description of Jupiter's stealing of Europa, and swimming from Phoenicia to Crete, makes the sea calm, the winds hush, Neptune and Amphitrite riding in their chariot to break the waves before them, the tritons dancing round about, with every one a torch, the sea-nymphs half naked, keeping time on dolphins' backs, and singing Hymeneus, Cupid nimbly tripping on the top of the waters, and Venus herself coming after in a shell, strewing roses and flowers on their heads. Praxiteles, in all his pictures of love, feigns Cupid ever smiling, and looking upon dancers; and in St. Mark's in Rome (whose work I know not), one of the most delicious pieces, is a many of [5521]satyrs dancing about a wench asleep. So that dancing still is as it were a necessary appendix to love matters. Young lasses are never better pleased than when as upon a holiday, after evensong, they may meet their sweethearts, and dance about a maypole, or in a town-green under a shady elm. Nothing so familiar in. [5522]France, as for citizens' wives and maids to dance a round in the streets, and often too, for want of better instruments, to make good music of their own voices, and dance after it. Yea many times this love will make old men and women that have more toes than teeth, dance,--"John, come kiss me now," mask and mum; for Comus and Hymen love masks, and all such merriments above measure, will allow men to put on women's apparel in some cases, and promiscuously to dance, young and old, rich and poor, generous and base, of all sorts. Paulus Jovius taxeth Augustine Niphus the philosopher, [5523]"for that being an old man, and a public professor, a father of many children, he was so mad for the love of a young maid (that which many of his friends were ashamed to see), an old gouty fellow, yet would dance after fiddlers." Many laughed him to scorn for it, but this omnipotent love would have it so. [5524] "Hyacinthino bacillo Properans amor, me adegit Violenter ad sequendum." "Love hasty with his purple staff did make Me follow and the dance to undertake." And 'tis no news this, no indecorum; for why? a good reason may be given of it. Cupid and death met both in an inn; and being merrily disposed, they did exchange some arrows from either quiver; ever since young men die, and oftentimes old men dote--[5525]_Sic moritur Juvenis, sic moribundus amat_. And who can then withstand it? If once we be in love, young or old, though our teeth shake in our heads, like virginal jacks, or stand parallel asunder like the arches of a bridge, there is no remedy, we must dance trenchmore for a need, over tables, chairs, and stools, &c. And princum prancum is a fine dance. Plutarch, _Sympos. 1. quaest. 5._ doth in some sort excuse it, and telleth us moreover in what sense, _Musicam docet amor, licet prius fuerit rudis_, how love makes them that had no skill before learn to sing and dance; he concludes, 'tis only that power and prerogative love hath over us. [5526]"Love" (as he holds) "will make a silent man speak, a modest man most officious; dull, quick; slow, nimble; and that which is most to be admired, a hard, base, untractable churl, as fire doth iron in a smith's forge, free, facile, gentle, and easy to be entreated." Nay, 'twill make him prodigal in the other extreme, and give a [5527]hundred sesterces for a night's lodging, as they did of old to Lais of Corinth, or [5528] _ducenta drachmarum millia pro unica nocte_, as Mundus to Paulina, spend all his fortunes (as too many do in like case) to obtain his suit. For which cause many compare love to wine, which makes men jovial and merry, frolic and sad, whine, sing, dance, and what not. But above all the other symptoms of lovers, this is not lightly to be overpassed, that likely of what condition soever, if once they be in love, they turn to their ability, rhymers, ballad makers, and poets. For as Plutarch saith, [5529]"They will be witnesses and trumpeters of their paramours' good parts, bedecking them with verses and commendatory songs, as we do statues with gold, that they may be remembered and admired of all." Ancient men will dote in this kind sometimes as well as the rest; the heat of love will thaw their frozen affections, dissolve the ice of age, and so far enable them, though they be sixty years of age above the girdle, to be scarce thirty beneath. Jovianus Pontanus makes an old fool rhyme, and turn poetaster to please his mistress. [5530] "Ne ringas Mariana, meos me dispice canos, De sene nam juvenem dia referre potes," &c. "Sweet Marian do not mine age disdain, For thou canst make an old man young again." They will be still singing amorous songs and ditties (if young especially), and cannot abstain though it be when they go to, or should be at church. We have a pre
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