his mistress's presence void of all sense, immovable, as if he had seen a
Gorgon's head: which was no such cruel monster (as [4862]Coelius interprets
it, _lib. 3. cap. 9._), "but the very quintessence of beauty," some fair
creature, as without doubt the poet understood in the first fiction of it,
at which the spectators were amazed. [4863]_Miseri quibus intentata nites_,
poor wretches are compelled at the very sight of her ravishing looks to run
mad, or make away with themselves.

[4864] "They wait the sentence of her scornful eyes;
And whom she favours lives, the other dies."

4865]Heliodorus, _lib. 1._ brings in Thyamis almost besides himself, when
he saw Chariclia first, and not daring to look upon her a second time, "for
he thought it impossible for any man living to see her and contain
himself." The very fame of beauty will fetch them to it many miles off
(such an attractive power this loadstone hath), and they will seem but
short, they will undertake any toil or trouble, [4866]long journeys. Penia
or Atalanta shall not overgo them, through seas, deserts, mountains, and
dangerous places, as they did to gaze on Psyche: "many mortal men came far
and near to see that glorious object of her age," Paris for Helena, Corebus
to Troja.

------"Illis Trojam qui forte diebus
Venerat insano Cassandrae insensus amore."

"who inflamed with a violent passion for Cassandra, happened then to be in
Troy." King John of France, once prisoner in England, came to visit his old
friends again, crossing the seas; but the truth is, his coming was to see
the Countess of Salisbury, the nonpareil of those times, and his dear
mistress. That infernal God Pluto came from hell itself, to steal
Proserpine; Achilles left all his friends for Polixena's sake, his enemy's
daughter; and all the [4867]Graecian gods forsook their heavenly mansions
for that fair lady, Philo Dioneus daughter's sake, the paragon of Greece in
those days; _ea enim venustate fuit, ut eam certatim omnes dii conjugem
expeterent_: "for she was of such surpassing beauty, that all the gods
contended for her love." [4868]_Formosa divis imperat puella_. "The
beautiful maid commands the gods." They will not only come to see, but as a
falcon makes a hungry hawk hover about, follow, give attendance and
service, spend goods, lives, and all their fortunes to attain;

"Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast,
Yet love breaks through, and picks th