d in the dark he took her by the hand,
And wrung it hard, and sighed grievously,
And kiss'd her too, and woo'd her as he might,
With pity me, sweetheart, or else I die,
And with such words and gestures as there past,
He won his mistress' favour at the last."

The same proceeding is elegantly described by Apollonius in his
Argonautics, between Jason and Medea, by Eustathius in the ten books of the
loves of Ismenias and Ismene, Achilles Tatius between his Clitophon and
Leucippe, Chaucer's neat poem of Troilus and Cresseide; and in that notable
tale in Petronius of a soldier and a gentlewoman of Ephesus, that was so
famous all over Asia for her chastity, and that mourned for her husband:
the soldier wooed her with such rhetoric as lovers use to do,--_placitone
etiam pugnabis amori_? &c. at last, _frangi pertinaciam passa est_, he got
her good will, not only to satisfy his lust, [5122]but to hang her dead
husband's body on the cross (which he watched instead of the thief's that
was newly stolen away), whilst he wooed her in her cabin. These are tales,
you will say, but they have most significant morals, and do well express
those ordinary proceedings of doting lovers.

Many such allurements there are, nods, jests, winks, smiles, wrestlings,
tokens, favours, symbols, letters, valentines, &c. For which cause belike,
Godfridus _lib. 2. de amor_. would not have women learn to write. Many such
provocations are used when they come in presence, [5123]10 they will and
will not,

"Malo me Galatea petit lasciva puella,
Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri."

"My mistress with an apple woos me,
And hastily to covert goes
To hide herself, but would be seen
With all her heart before, God knows."

Hero so tripped away from Leander as one displeased,

[5124] "Yet as she went full often look'd behind,
And many poor excuses did she find
To linger by the way,"------

but if he chance to overtake her, she is most averse, nice and coy,

"Denegat et pugnat, sed vult super omnia vinci."

"She seems not won, but won she is at length,
In such wars women use but half their strength."

Sometimes they lie open and are most tractable and coming, apt, yielding,
and willing to embrace, to take a green gown, with that shepherdess in
Theocritus, _Edyl. 27._ to let their coats, &c., to play and dally, at such