Venus visits Aesculapius to ask him to remove a thorn from her foot. Collotype after Sir E.J. Poynter, ca. 1880.

The subject of the poem is as described in the verses "In time long past..." quoted from Thomas Watson, The Hekatompathia or passionate centurie of love, London: emprinted by John Wolfe for Gabriell Cawood, 1582, chapter XX. Watson summarises it in his introit as follows: "In this passion the author being joyful for a kiss, which he had received of his love, compareth the same unto that kiss, which sometime Venus bestowed upon Aesculapius, for having taken a bramble out of her foot, which pricked her through the hidden spiteful deceit of Diana, by whom it was laid in her way, as Strozza writeth. And he enlargeth his invention upon the French proverbial speech, which importeth thus much in effect, that three things proceed from the mouth which are to be had in high account: breath, speech, and kissing; the first argueth a man's life; the second, his thought; the third and last, his love."