That chastity of honour which felt a stain like a wound.

That chastity of honour which felt a stain like a wound.

If she seem not chaste to me,
What care I how chaste she be?

If she seem not chaste to me,
What care I how chaste she be?

There's a woman like a dew-drop,
She's so purer than the purest.

There's a woman like a dew-drop,
She's so purer than the purest.

The noble sister of Publicola,
The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle
That's curded by the read more

The noble sister of Publicola,
The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle
That's curded by the frost from purest snow
And hangs on Dian's temple--dear Valeria!

Mine honor's such a ring;
My chastity's the jewel of our house,
Bequeathed down from many ancestors,
read more

Mine honor's such a ring;
My chastity's the jewel of our house,
Bequeathed down from many ancestors,
Which were the greatest obloquy i' th' world
In me to lose.

I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth only in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with read more

I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth only in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with a purpose of perpetually keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice. - But I call that Virginity a virtue which is willing and desirous to yield itself upon honest and lawful terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind.

'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity;
She that has that is clad in complete steel,
And, like a read more

'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity;
She that has that is clad in complete steel,
And, like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen,
May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths,
Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds;
Where, through the sacred rays of chastity,
No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer,
Will dare to soil her virgin purity.

Even from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a secret sympathetic aid.

Even from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a secret sympathetic aid.

When a woman has lost her chastity, she will shrink from no
crime.
[Lat., Neque femina amissa pudicitia read more

When a woman has lost her chastity, she will shrink from no
crime.
[Lat., Neque femina amissa pudicitia alia abneurit.]