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382 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
Wishing and enjoying trouble us both alike. The
rigor of a mistris is yrkesome, but ease and facility (to
eay true) much more; forasmuch as discontent and
vexation proceed of the estimation we have of the thing
desired, which sharpen love and set it afire. Whereas
satiety begets distaste: it is a dull, blunt, weary, and
drouzy passion.
Si qua volet regnare diu, contemnat amantem, 1
If any list long to beare away,
Scorne she her lover, ere she play.
contemmte amantes,
Sic hodic veniet, si qua negavit heri, 2
Lovers your lovers scorne, contemne, delude, deride ;
So will shee come to-day, that yesterday denied.
Why did Poppea devise to maske the beauties of her
face, but to endear them to her lovers? Why are
those beauties vailed downe to the heeles, which all
desire to shew, which all wish to see ? Why doe they
cover with so many lets, one over another, those parts
where chiefly consisteth our pleasure and theirs ? And
to what purpose serve those baricadoes and verdugalles
wherewith our women arme their flankes, but to allure
our appetite, and enveagle us to them by putting us
off?
Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri,*
She to the willows runs to hide,
Yet gladly would she first be spide.
Interdum tunica duxit opeHa moram.*
She cover'd with her cote in play,
Did sometime make a short delay.
Whereto serves this mayden-like bashfulnesse, this willfull
quaintnesse, this severe countenance, this seeming
ignorance of those things which they know better than
our selves, that goe about to instruct them, but to increase
a desire and endeare a longing in us to vanquish,
1 OVID. Amor. 1. ii. EL xix. 33.
² PROPERT. 1. ii. El, xiv. 19.
³ VIRO. Buco. Ecl iii. 65.
4 PBOPERT. 1. ii. Eleg. xv. 6.