The Anatomy of Melancholy

by Robert Burton

A sickly man a little thing offends,

As brimstone doth a fire decayed renew,

And makes it burn afresh, doth love's dead flames,

If that the former object it review.

[5662]Nam vitare plagas in amoris ne jaciamur

Non ita difficile est, quam captum retibus ipsis

Exire, et validos Veneris perrumpere nodos.

To avoid such nets is no such mastery,

But ta'en escape is all the victory.

But, forasmuch as few men are free, so discreet lovers, or that can contain themselves, and moderate their passions, to curb their senses, as not to see them, not to look lasciviously, not to confer with them, such is the fury of this headstrong passion of raging lust, and their weakness, ferox ille ardor a natura insitus, [5663]as he terms it “such a furious desire nature hath inscribed, such unspeakable delight.”