By half-word or by countenance;
her wit, "without malice, and ever set upon gladnesse;" and her goodness, which the Poet, with a nice discrimination of female virtue, distinguishes from mere ignorance of evil—for though in all her actions was perfect innocence, he adds,
I say not that she had no knowing
What harm was; for, else, she
Had known no good—so thinketh me;
are all beautifully and happily set forth, and are charms so appropriate to woman, as woman, that no change of fashion or lapse of ages can alter their effect. Time
"Can draw no lines there with his antique pen."
But afterwards follows a trait peculiarly characteristic of the women of that chivalrous period. She was not, says Chaucer, one of those ladies who send their lovers off
To Walachie,
To Prussia, and to Tartary,
To Alexandria, ne Turkie;
and on other bootless errands, by way of displaying their power.
She used no such knacks small.
That is, she was superior to such frivolous tricks.