ationibus meis minime defuturos_. [4452]

And thus much I have thought good to say by way of preface, lest any man
(which [4453]Godefridus feared in his book) should blame in me lightness,
wantonness, rashness, in speaking of love's causes, enticements, symptoms,
remedies, lawful and unlawful loves, and lust itself, [4454]I speak it only
to tax and deter others from it, not to teach, but to show the vanities and
fopperies of this heroical or Herculean love, [4455]and to apply remedies
unto it. I will treat of this with like liberty as of the rest.

[4456] "Sed dicam vobis, vos porro dicite multis
Millibus, et facite haec charta loquatur anus."

Condemn me not good reader then, or censure me hardly, if some part of this
treatise to thy thinking as yet be too light; but consider better of it;
_Omnia munda mundis_, [4457]a naked man to a modest woman is no otherwise
than a picture, as Augusta Livia truly said, and [4458]_mala mens, malus
animus_, 'tis as 'tis taken. If in thy censure it be too light, I advise
thee as Lipsius did his reader for some places of Plautus, _istos quasi
Sirenum scopulos praetervehare_, if they like thee not, let them pass; or
oppose that which is good to that which is bad, and reject not therefore
all. For to invert that verse of Martial, and with Hierom Wolfius to apply
it to my present purpose, _sunt mala, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt bona
plura_; some is good, some bad, some is indifferent. I say further with him
yet, I have inserted ([4459]_levicula quaedam et ridicula ascribere non sum
gravatus, circumforanea quaedam e theatris, e plateis, etiam e popinis_)
some things more homely, light, or comical, _litans gratiis_, &c. which I
would request every man to interpret to the best, and as Julius Caesar
Scaliger besought Cardan (_si quid urbaniuscule lusum a nobis, per deos
immortales te oro Hieronyme Cardane ne me male capias_). I beseech thee,
good reader, not to mistake me, or misconstrue what is here written; _Per
Musas et Charites, et omnia Poetarum numina, benigne lector, oro te ne me
male capias_. 'Tis a comical subject; in sober sadness I crave pardon of
what is amiss, and desire thee to suspend thy judgment, wink at small
faults, or to be silent at least; but if thou likest, speak well of it, and
wish me good success. _Extremum hunc Arethusa mihi concede laborem_.[4460]

I am resolved howsoever, _velis, nolis, audacter stadium intrare_, in the
Olympics, with those Aeliensian wr