- What love is and whence it is so-called.
- What are the effects of love?
- Between whom love can exist.
- In what way love is won, kept, made to increase, to wane or to end.
- The way to know if love is returned, and what one of the lovers should do when the other proves faithless.
[2] But lest perchance you are troubled by the obscurity of this discourse, I shall give you the argument:—
From all antiquity there are four different degrees of love:
The first consists in giving hope.
The second in the offer of a kiss.
The third in the enjoyment of the most intimate caresses.
The fourth in the surrender of body and soul.