Sustulit, et celeri raptos per inania vento
Imposuit caelo vicinaque sidera fecit.’
Metam. ii. 505 ff.
Latin Verses, x. The idea expressed is that though examples of virginity can only be produced through marriage, yet virginity is nobler than marriage, as the flower of a rose is nobler than the stock from which it springs. Marriage, in fact, replenishes the earth, but virginity heaven: cp. Trait. ii.
6359 ff. Cp. Mirour, 17119 ff., where the saying is attributed to Jerome, who says in fact that precedence was given in the streets to the Vestal Virgins by the highest magistrates, and even by victors riding in the triumphal car (adv. Jovin. ii. 41).
6372 ff. Cp. Mirour, 18301 ff. The anecdote is taken from Valerius Maximus, Mem. iv. 5, but the name in the original is ‘Spurina,’ and he does not thrust out his eyes, but merely destroys the beauty of his face. In the Mirour it is ‘Coupa ses membres.’
6385 ff. ‘So may I prove that, if a man will weigh the virtues, he will find that virginity is to be praised above all others.’ The sentence is disordered for the sake of the rhymes: cp. ii. 709 ff.
6389. The quotation from the Apocalypse is given in the margin of SΔ and in Mirour, 17053 ff. The reference is to Rev. xiv. 4.
6395* ff. Cp. Mirour, 17067 and note.
6398 ff. This also appears in Mirour, 17089 ff., and Traitié, xvi. It may have been taken from the Epistola Valerii ad Rufinum.