Hair o’ the head, burnt clouts, chalk, merds, and clay,

Powder of bones, scalings of iron, glass,

And worlds of other strange ingredients,

Would burst a man to name?


A number of herbs, some of which were reputed to produce amatory benefits, are mentioned in Ben Jonson’s Volpone:

Lady Politic Would-Be: Alas, good soul! the passion of the heart.

Seed-Pearl were good now, boil’d with syrup of apples,

Tincture of gold, and coral, citron-pills,

Your elecampane root, myrobalances—