, magicisque susurris."

"A fire he took into his breast,
Which water could not quench.
Nor herb, nor art, nor magic spells
Could quell, nor any drench."

Except it be tears and sighs, for so they may chance find a little ease.

[5354] "Sic candentia colla, sic patens frons,
Sic me blanda tui Neaera ocelli,
Sic pares minio genae perurunt,
Ut ni me lachrymae rigent perennes,
Totus in tenues eam favillas."

"So thy white neck, Neaera, me poor soul
Doth scorch, thy cheeks, thy wanton eyes that roll:
Were it not for my dropping tears that hinder,
I should be quite burnt up forthwith to cinder."

This fire strikes like lightning, which made those old Grecians paint
Cupid, in many of their [5355]temples, with Jupiter's thunderbolts in his
hands; for it wounds, and cannot be perceived how, whence it came, where it
pierced. [5356]_Urimur, et coecum, pectora vulnus habent_, and can hardly
be discerned at first.

[5357] ------"Est mollis flamma medullas,
Et tacitum insano vivit sub pectore vulnus."

"A gentle wound, an easy fire it was,
And sly at first, and secretly did pass."

But by-and-by it began to rage and burn amain;

[5358] ------"Pectus insanum vapor.
Amorque torret, intus saevus vorat
Penitus medullas, atque per venas meat
Visceribus ignis mersus, et venis latens,
Ut agilis altas flamma percurrit trabes."

"This fiery vapour rageth in the veins,
And scorcheth entrails, as when fire burns
A house, it nimbly runs along the beams,
And at the last the whole it overturns."

Abraham Hoffemannus, _lib. 1. amor conjugal, cap. 2. p. 22._ relates out of
Plato, how that Empedocles, the philosopher, was present at the cutting up
of one that died for love, [5359]"his heart was combust, his liver smoky,
his lungs dried up, insomuch that he verily believed his soul was either
sodden or roasted through the vehemency of love's fire." Which belike made
a modern writer of amorous emblems express love's fury by a pot hanging
over the fire, and Cupid blowing the coals. As the heat consumes the water,
[5360]_Sic sua consumit viscera coecus amor_, so doth love dry up his
radical moisture. Another compares love to a melting torch, which stood too
near the fire.

[5361] "Sic quo quis proprior suae puellae est,
Hoc stultus proprior su