den, in a desert, make such
an apostrophe to her ass on whom she rode; (for what knew she to the
contrary, but that he was an ass?) _Si me parentibus et proco formoso
reddideris, quas, tibi gratias, quos honores habebo, quos cibos exhibebo_?
[4845]She would comb him, dress him, feed him, and trick him every day
herself, and he should work no more, toil no more, but rest and play, &c.
And besides she would have a dainty picture drawn, in perpetual
remembrance, a virgin riding upon an ass's back with this motto, _Asino
vectore regia virgo fugiens captivitatem_; why said she all this? why did
she make such promises to a dumb beast? but that she perceived the poor ass
to be taken with her beauty, for he did often _obliquo collo pedes puellae
decoros basiare_, kiss her feet as she rode, _et ad delicatulas voculas
tentabat adhinnire_, offer to give consent as much as in him was to her
delicate speeches, and besides he had some feeling, as she conceived of her
misery. And why did Theogine's horse in Heliodorus [4846]curvet, prance,
and go so proudly, _exultans alacriter et superbiens_, &c., but that such
as mine author supposeth, he was in love with his master? _dixisses ipsum
equum pulchrum intelligere pulchram domini fomam_? A fly lighted on [4847]
Malthius' cheek as he lay asleep; but why? Not to hurt him, as a parasite
of his, standing by, well perceived, _non ut pungeret, sed ut oscularetur_,
but certainly to kiss him, as ravished with his divine looks. Inanimate
creatures, I suppose, have a touch of this. When a drop of [4848]Psyche's
candle fell on Cupid's shoulder, I think sure it was to kiss it. When Venus
ran to meet her rose-cheeked Adonis, as an elegant [4849]poet of our's sets
her out,

------"the bushes in the way
Some catch her neck, some kiss her face,
Some twine about her legs to make her stay,
And all did covet her for to embrace."

_Aer ipse amore inficitur_, as Heliodorus holds, the air itself is in love:
for when Hero plaid upon her lute,

[4850] "The wanton air in twenty sweet forms danc't
After her fingers"------

and those lascivious winds stayed Daphne when she fled from Apollo;

[4851] ------"nudabant corpora venti,
Obviaque adversas vibrabant flamina vestes."

Boreas Ventus loved Hyacinthus, and Orithya Ericthons's daughter of Athens:
_vi rapuit_, &c. he took her away by force, as she was playing with other
wenches at Ilissus, and begat Zetes a