ake jigs, sonnets,
madrigals, in commendation of his mistress. In such cases music is most
pernicious, as a spur to a free horse will make him run himself blind, or
break his wind; _Incitamentum enim amoris musica_, for music enchants, as
Menander holds, it will make such melancholy persons mad, and the sound of
those jigs and hornpipes will not be removed out of the ears a week after.
[3492]Plato for this reason forbids music and wine to all young men,
because they are most part amorous, _ne ignis addatur igni_, lest one fire
increase another. Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a
pleasing melancholy that it causeth; and therefore to such as are
discontent, in woe, fear, sorrow, or dejected, it is a most present remedy:
it expels cares, alters their grieved minds, and easeth in an instant.
Otherwise, saith [3493]Plutarch, _Musica magis dementat quam vinum_; music
makes some men mad as a tiger; like Astolphos' horn in Ariosto; or
Mercury's golden wand in Homer, that made some wake, others sleep, it hath
divers effects: and [3494]Theophrastus right well prophesied, that diseases
were either procured by music, or mitigated.

SUBSECT. IV.--_Mirth and merry company, fair objects, remedies_.

Mirth and merry company may not be separated from music, both concerning
and necessarily required in this business. "Mirth," (saith [3495]Vives)
"purgeth the blood, confirms health, causeth a fresh, pleasing, and fine
colour," prorogues life, whets the wit, makes the body young, lively and
fit for any manner of employment. The merrier the heart the longer the
life; "A merry heart is the life of the flesh," Prov. xiv. 30. "Gladness
prolongs his days," Ecclus. xxx. 22; and this is one of the three
Salernitan doctors, Dr. Merryman, Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, [3496]which cure all
diseases--_Mens hilaris, requies, moderata dieta_. [3497]Gomesius,
_praefat. lib. 3. de sal. gen._ is a great magnifier of honest mirth, by
which (saith he) "we cure many passions of the mind in ourselves, and in
our friends;" which [3498]Galateus assigns for a cause why we love merry
companions: and well they deserve it, being that as [3499]Magninus holds, a
merry companion is better than any music, and as the saying is, _comes
jucundus in via pro vehiculo_, as a wagon to him that is wearied on the
way. _Jucunda confabulatio, sales, joci_, pleasant discourse, jests,
conceits, merry tales, _melliti verborum globuli_, as Petronius, [3500]
Pliny, [3501]Sp