Your hand to this?
Camillo.--And justify’t with my life.
Presume upon’t.
Adorio.--On then; you shall o’errule me.”
Women were not let off so easily; happily for them, more was expected from them than from men. Without referring to Caranza, their honour consisted not only in chastity, but in constancy to vows, and resistance to the temptations of wealth; and these attributes were sufficiently rare to make the “Maid of Honour” an exceptional character.[[196]] Massinger, however, assures us that English women, even in those days, asserted a superiority in intellect and character: it is true, they had no opportunity of travelling, and stayed at home; but they learned from their lovers and brothers the customs of those foreign countries which it was then dangerous to traverse.
Most men of rank or fortune, nevertheless, made the “grand tour” before marrying; or left their young betrothed mistresses in their native counties. In the “Guardian,” Calipso says:--
“Why, sir, do gallants travel?
Answer that question; but at their return
With wonder to the hearers to discourse of
The garb and difference in foreign females--