Casta beltà, valore e cortesia,
Quanta mai vide il tempo, o diede il cielo.
Ti sian secondi i fati, e il vento e l'onde
Rendanti onore, e l'aria tua natia
Abbia sempre temprato il caldo e il gelo!"
Nor did younger and gayer poets want younger and gayer beauties to inspire them than the two noble widows; for Vittoria's household comprised six or eight nobly-born girls who were being trained under her eye, and whom her conscientiousness prevented from turning over to the sole superintendence of the Mother of the maids.
"You might take more interest than you do, Giulia," said she, "in the education of your damsels. It would do them good, and you, too."
"Ah, nothing could be more tiresome to me," said Giulia. "I am most happy to leave them to Donna Caterina!"
"I doubt, however," said Vittoria, "whether we have even the right to keep fellow-creatures about us, of like affections and passions with ourselves, without providing some legitimate outlet for them, or supplying them with sufficient motives for their restraint."
"My girls seldom go into passions," said Giulia; "and I should think it impertinent to inquire into their affections."