I suppose the note of contraction above the final A has disappeared and that the inscription was “Obedientiam domino exhibeo.”
This virtue is, of course, a principal one in the monkish systems; represented by Giotto at Assisi as “an angel robed in black, placing the finger of his left hand on his mouth, and passing the yoke over the head of a Franciscan monk kneeling at his feet.”[154]
Obedience holds a less principal place in Spenser. We have seen her above associated with the other peculiar virtues of womanhood.
§ LXXV. Seventh side. Infidelity. A man in a turban, with a small image in his hand, or the image of a child. Of the inscription nothing but “INFIDELITATE * * *” and some fragmentary letters, “ILI, CERO,” remain.
By Giotto Infidelity is most nobly symbolized as a woman helmeted, the helmet having a broad rim which keeps the light from her eyes. She is covered with heavy drapery, stands infirmly as if about to fall, is bound by a cord round her neck to an image which she carries in her hand, and has flames bursting forth at her feet.
In Spenser, Infidelity is the Saracen knight Sans Foy,—
| “Full large of limbe and every joint He was, and cared not for God or man a point.” |
For the part which he sustains in the contest with Godly Fear, or the Red-cross knight, see [Appendix 2], Vol. III.
§ LXXVI. Eighth side. Modesty; bearing a pitcher. (In the Renaissance copy, a vase like a coffee-pot.) Inscribed “MODESTIA