tle put upon it,
_Amor nobilis_, as [4747]Savanarola styles it, because noble men and women
make a common practice of it, and are so ordinarily affected with it.
Avicenna, _lib. 3. Fen, 1. tract. 4. cap. 23._ calleth this passion
_Ilishi_, and defines it [4748]"to be a disease or melancholy vexation, or
anguish of mind, in which a man continually meditates of the beauty,
gesture, manners of his mistress, and troubles himself about it:" desiring,
(as Savanarola adds) with all intentions and eagerness of mind, "to compass
or enjoy her, [4749]as commonly hunters trouble themselves about their
sports, the covetous about their gold and goods, so is he tormented still
about his mistress." Arnoldus Villanovanus, in his book of heroical love,
defines it, [4750]"a continual cogitation of that which he desires, with a
confidence or hope of compassing it;" which definition his commentator
cavils at. For continual cogitation is not the genus but a symptom of love;
we continually think of that which we hate and abhor, as well as that which
we love; and many things we covet and desire, without all hope of
attaining. Carolus a Lorme, in his Questions, makes a doubt, _An amor sit
morbus_, whether this heroical love be a disease: Julius Pollux _Onomast.
lib. 6. cap. 44._ determines it. They that are in love are likewise
[4751]sick; _lascivus, salax, lasciviens, et qui in venerem furit, vere est
aegrotus_, Arnoldus will have it improperly so called, and a malady rather
of the body than mind. Tully, in his _Tusculans_, defines it a furious
disease of the mind. Plato, madness itself. Ficinus, his Commentator, _cap.
12._ a species of madness, "for many have run mad for women," Esdr. iv. 26.
But [4752]Rhasis "a melancholy passion:" and most physicians make it a
species or kind of melancholy (as will appear by the symptoms), and treat
of it apart; whom I mean to imitate, and to discuss it in all his kinds, to
examine his several causes, to show his symptoms, indications, prognostics,
effect, that so it may be with more facility cured.

The part affected in the meantime, as [4753]Arnoldus supposeth, "is the
former part of the head for want of moisture," which his Commentator
rejects. Langius, _med. epist. lib. 1. cap. 24._ will have this passion
seated in the liver, and to keep residence in the heart, [4754]"to proceed
first from the eyes so carried by our spirits, and kindled with imagination
in the liver and heart;" _coget amare jecur_, as the