Wife. But wiues haue children, what a ioy is this?
Widow. Widows haue children too, but maids haue none.
Maid. No more haue Angels, yet they haue more blisse
Then euer yet to mortall man was knowne.
Wife. The wife is like a faire manurèd[150] field;
Widow. The widow once was such, but now doth rest.
Maid. The maide, like Paradice, vndrest, vntil'd,
Beares crops of natiue vertue in her breast.
Wife. Who would not dye as wife, as Lucrece died?
Widow. Or liue a widdow, as Penelope?
Maid. Or be a maide, and so be stellified,[151]
As all the vertues and the graces be.
Wife. Wiues are warme Climates well inhabited;
But maids are frozen zones where none may dwel.
Maid. But fairest people in the North are bred,
Where Africa breeds Monsters blacke as hell.
Wife. I haue my husbands honour and his place.
Widow. My husbands fortunes all suruiue to me.
Maid. The moone doth borrow light, you borrow grace,
When maids by their owne vertues gracèd be.
White is my colour; and no hew but this
It will receiue, no tincture can it staine.
Wife. My white hath tooke one colour, but it is
My honourable purple dyed in graine.[152]
Widow. But it hath beene my fortune to renue
My colour twice from that it was before.
But now my blacke will take no other hue,
And therefore now I meane to change no more.
Wife. Wiues are faire Apples seru'd in golden dishes.
Widow. Widows good wine, which time makes better much.
Maid. But Maids are grapes desired by many wishes,
But that they grow so high as none can touch.
Wife. I haue a daughter equals you, my girle.
Maid. The daughter doth excell the mother then:
As pearles are better then the mother of pearle
Maids loose their value whē they match with men.
Widow. The man with whō I matcht, his worth was such
As now I scorne a maide should be my peare:[153]
Maid. But I will scorne the man you praise so much,
For maids are matchlesse, and no mate can beare.
Hence is it that the virgine neuer loues,
Because her like she finds not anywhere;
For likenesse euermore affection moues,
Therefore the maide hath neither loue nor peere.