5]_Toxica Zelotypo dedit uxor moecha marito_, she is
exasperated, seeks by all means to vindicate herself, and will therefore
offend, because she is unjustly suspected. The best course then is to let
them have their own wills, give them free liberty, without any keeping.

"In vain our friends from this do us dehort,
For beauty will be where is most resort."

If she be honest as Lucretia to Collatinus, Laodamia to Protesilaus,
Penelope to her Ulysses, she will so continue her honour, good name,
credit, _Penelope conjux semper Ulyssis ero_; "I shall always be Penelope
the wife of Ulysses." And as Phocias' wife in [6196]Plutarch, called her
husband "her wealth, treasure, world, joy, delight, orb and sphere," she
will hers. The vow she made unto her good man; love, virtue, religion,
zeal, are better keepers than all those locks, eunuchs, prisons; she will
not be moved:

[6197] "At mihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat,
Aut pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,
Pallentes umbras Erebi, noctemque profundam,
Ante pudor quam te violem, aut tua jura resolvam."

"First I desire the earth to swallow me.
Before I violate mine honesty,
Or thunder from above drive me to hell,
With those pale ghosts, and ugly nights to dwell."

She is resolved with Dido to be chaste; though her husband be false, she
will be true: and as Octavia writ to her Antony,

[6198] "These walls that here do keep me out of sight,
Shall keep me all unspotted unto thee,
And testify that I will do thee right,
I'll never stain thine house, though thou shame me."

Turn her loose to all those Tarquins and Satyrs, she will not be tempted.
In the time of Valence the Emperor, saith [6199]St. Austin, one Archidamus,
a Consul of Antioch, offered a hundred pounds of gold to a fair young wife,
and besides to set her husband free, who was then _sub gravissima
custodia_, a dark prisoner, _pro unius noctis concubitu_: but the chaste
matron would not accept of it. [6200]When Ode commended Theana's fine arm
to his fellows, she took him up short, "Sir, 'tis not common:" she is
wholly reserved to her husband. [6201]Bilia had an old man to her spouse,
and his breath stunk, so that nobody could abide it abroad; "coming home
one day he reprehended his wife, because she did not tell him of it: she
vowed unto him, she had told him, but she thought every man's breath had
been