MARRIAGE. 85 



Jure his neighbourhood, when after a very few days he 

 saw from the road a girl standing at the captain's window 

 dressed in white a girl perfectly resembling her of whom 

 he recently had dreamed 1 . What was the girl to him ? 

 he reasoned. How can I marry a girl who is poor, when 

 I myself am poor ? How can I bear to be crushed under 

 the weight of her brothers, sisters, and relations, when I 

 barely know how to support my own existence ? Abduc- 

 tion or seduction are not to be thought of (they were un- 

 happily thoughts only too ready to arise in men who ad- 

 mired women three centuries ago), because her father is a 

 captain who would bear no wrong, and lives next door to 

 me, handy for vengeance. O miserable man, what can 

 I do? 



It is most probable that Cardan did connect Lucia Ban- 

 darini, the damsel whom he first saw dressed in white, 

 with some dream of a white-robed girl that he regarded 

 as an omen, for he was deeply imbued with all the super- 

 stitions that had credit in his age. The dream and the 

 desire for marriage were both most likely begotten of his 

 newly-acquired sense of power. He became eager to 



1 De Vit. Prop. p. 97. " Verum dicebam, quid mihi cum hac puella? 

 Si uxorem ducere voluero pauper nihil habentem et fratrum ac sororum 

 multitudine oppressam, perii, cum vix vel sic sumptum sustinere 

 queam ; si tentem abducere, aut occulte earn opprimere, cum ipse sit 

 oppidanus, non deerunt exploratores, Tribunus Militum non injuriam 

 patietur, et in utroque casu quid mihi agendum erit? O miser . . ." 



