*What seith [Valerie], [Titus], or [Claudian]?

*What seith [Ierome] ageyns Iovinian?

*How clene maydens, and how trewe wyves,

*How stedfast widwes during al hir lyves,

*Telleth Jerome; and that nat of a fewe,

285

*But, I dar seyn, an hundred on a rewe;

*That hit is pitee for to rede, and routhe,

*The wo that they enduren for hir trouthe.

(B. 334)