The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-08-16
LUNATIC LOVERS.
Historic Instances That Prove That All
LOvesick People Are Insane.

lost Paradise on earth for himself and
for posterity by yielding to Ewes tempt
ing offer of slice of apple. HolO-
fornes lost his head-in two senses-by
accepting the caresses of Judith. An
tony was a lunatic to have sacrificed
everything to his love of the charming
Cleopatra. Paris, son of Priam. ought
to have been put in a strait-jaclxet for
having tempered with the matrimonial
preserves of Menelaus-the result of
which pOaching on his part caused the
the splitting of oceans of human blood.
as well as the destruction of Troy.
Petrarch spent his crazy life penning
sonnets to the eyebrows of a portly
married woman, the mother of a large
family, while he utterly neglected his
legitimate wife, and would not permit
his daughter to live under his roof,
Dante in his maudlin love of Beatrice
says: 80 powerful was the spell of
her presence that | had to avoid her
From thinking of this most gracious
creature, | became so weak and lean
that it was irksome for my friends to
look at MEL He was compelled to hide
his skeleton frame in shame and confu-
sion-a spectacle for ridicule and deri-
sion. Is not this proof evidence that
even the brightest and strongest gen
-f1ses degenerate into silly, addle-
headed monomaniacs under the infiu-
ence of this fatal passion? When
Beatrice for the first time denied him
her smile, he says that he became pos
sessed with such grief that, parting
himself from others, he went into a
lonely place to battle the ground with
the bitterest tears
Love found its readiest victims in the
knights and troubadOurs of the middle
ages Ulrich Won Lichtenstein. a medi-
aeval German cavalier, loved a married
woman with all the intensity of a luna
tic. He used to drink with gusto the
water in which she had laved her dainty
hands. He had a portion of his under
lip cut off because his mistress told him
that it was so irregular in construc-
ton that it did not invite her kissas."
He used to roam over hills and valleys
in quest of other knights whom he chal-
lenged to duels. if they dared to doubt
that his Dulcinea was the fairest of the
fair. On one occasion he amputated
one of his fingers and presented it to
his patrOneSs, as preOf of the torture
he could endure for her sweet sake. At
her command he event among the lepers
and drank with them from the same
bowl, in order to test his devotion to
his lady-love. All this time Ulrichs
wife pined alone in her chateau in the
forest. waiting anXiously for her dear
lord, who, when he arrived on the
scene, looked SO utterly tired and dilap-
idated that she had to put him to bed
and nurse him for several months. at
the expiration of which time he would
sally forth once more to do doughty
deeds for another mans wife! Ulrich
was very good type of the lunatic
lover.
Hadlaub tells us of Teuton mime
singer or troubadour who fell so help
lessly in love with little girl that.
when she used to bite him, he became
"blissfully ecstatic' with all his senses
like burning GOALS" Her bite, he naive
ly confesses, was SO tender and so
womanly that used to be sorry the
feeling of it passed away so soon.'
Pierre Vidal, another troubadour. was
so infatuated with his lady love, whose
name was "Loba' '-wolf-that he had
himself sewed up in VOLTS hide and
used to scamper over the hills daily so
disguised, in order to please his dar-
ling. One day, however, the shepherds
dogs chasad the unfortunate poet. and
selling various portions of the hide in
their jaws they bore off a slice of his
flesh to boot, whereupOn the troubadour
abandoned his wolfish mask, to the
great disgust of his mistress. who re-
nounced him for his arrant cowardice.
Even the sacrifice of a pound of her
lovers flesh in her service would not
satisfy this cruel and willful lady.
The lover like the lunatic, loves soil
tude. One of the medical attendants
at a Boston lunatic asylum assures me
that when his patients are let in the
garden for recreation they never form
in groups. Each walks alone. moping
and brooding over one particular idea
The particular idea of the lover is the
only and everlasting She. Does She
love him? Does She not? He recalls
to mind every word She uttered, every
attitude She assumed in their last con-
versation. He twists and distorts Her
most ignificantremarks to such an eX-
tent that he fears she may prefer an
other to him. His diseased mind be-
comes madly morbid at the idea of
Her being caressed by another than
himself. jealousy takes possession of
his soul, and he swears that if She
play him false he will repeat trrgic
incidents of 'Othello'' without com
junction.
As to bewitching woman, there is no
folly that she Will not sometimes com
NIT in order to win the man of her
choice. History also records that she
can be wooed and won by methods that
at first blush appear to be the most i'm
probable means toward triumph over
her heart. There are instances given
in quaint old annals where women are
captivated more surely by brutal force
than by merely gallant attentions of
their suitors For instance, English his
torical records introduce us to the fair
Mathilde, daughter of Count Baldwin.
Prince of Flanders, who refused to
marry William the Conquerer because
he was bastard. William, piqued by