“In vain our friends from this do us dehort,
        For beauty will be where is most resort.”

If she be honest as Lucretia to Collatinus, Laodamia to Protesilaus, Penelope to her Ulysses, she will so continue her honour, good name, credit, Penelope conjux semper Ulyssis ero; “I shall always be Penelope the wife of Ulysses.”  And as Phocias’ wife in [6196]Plutarch, called her husband “her wealth, treasure, world, joy, delight, orb and sphere,” she will hers.  The vow she made unto her good man; love, virtue, religion, zeal, are better keepers than all those locks, eunuchs, prisons; she will not be moved: 

[6197] “At mihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat,
        Aut pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,
        Pallentes umbras Erebi, noctemque profundam,
        Ante pudor quam te violem, aut tua jura resolvam.”

       “First I desire the earth to swallow me. 
        Before I violate mine honesty,
        Or thunder from above drive me to hell,
        With those pale ghosts, and ugly nights to dwell.”

She is resolved with Dido to be chaste; though her husband be false, she will be true:  and as Octavia writ to her Antony,

[6198] “These walls that here do keep me out of sight,
        Shall keep me all unspotted unto thee,
        And testify that I will do thee right,
        I’ll never stain thine house, though thou shame me.”

Turn her loose to all those Tarquins and Satyrs, she will not be tempted.  In the time of Valence the Emperor, saith [6199]St. Austin, one Archidamus, a Consul of Antioch, offered a hundred pounds of gold to a fair young wife, and besides to set her husband free, who was then sub gravissima custodia, a dark prisoner, pro unius noctis concubitu:  but the chaste matron would not accept of it. [6200]When Ode commended Theana’s fine arm to his fellows, she took him up short, “Sir, ’tis not common:”  she is wholly reserved to her husband. [6201]Bilia had an old man to her spouse, and his breath stunk, so that nobody could abide it abroad; “coming home one day he reprehended his wife, because she did not tell him of it:  she vowed unto him, she had told him, but she thought every man’s breath had been as strong as his.” [6202]Tigranes and Armena his lady were invited to supper by King Cyrus:  when they came home, Tigranes asked his wife, how she liked Cyrus, and what she did especially commend in him? “she swore she did not observe him; when he replied again, what then she did observe, whom she looked on?  She made answer, her husband, that said he would die for her sake.”  Such are the properties and conditions of good women:  and if she be well given, she will so carry herself; if otherwise she be naught, use all the means thou canst, she will be naught, Non deest animus sed corruptor, she hath so many lies, excuses, as a hare hath muses, tricks, panders, bawds, shifts, to deceive, ’tis