The Virgins A.B.C.
OR,
An Alhpabet of Vertuous Admonitions, for a Chast, Modest,
and well-governed Maid.
The Tune is, The young-Mans A.B.C.
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ALL you faithful Virgins,
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to this song give ear,
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And learn these Lessons,
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which are taught you here:
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An Alphabet of Vertues,
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are here set,
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Being learnd
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will make a Maid compleat
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BEar not a scornful mind,
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although you are
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Beautious as Hellen,
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or like Venus fair:
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It ill becomes a
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forehead smooth and white,
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To threaten anger
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in a Lovers sight.
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CHuse thou a modest
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carriage, and still be
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Courteous and not too coy,
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in company:
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Their natures changing,
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and too much unkind,
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Who hath a comely face
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and scornful mind.
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DIsdainful never seem,
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nor yet too much
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Dote on your faces beauty,
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slighting such
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As sue for Love,
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least creeping age come on
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And then to late,
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your folly you bemoan.
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EXchange no love,
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but always constant be,
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Esteem true Love,
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a perfect treasury:
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For where true love
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and beauty doth unite,
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It yields both parties
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both their hearts delight.
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FEign no affection,
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but where vows are past,
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Fix there your heart,
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there let your love be plact
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For if by fegned wiles,
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loves knot be tyd,
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It breeds dissention,
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twixt the Groom & Bride.
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GRow not too proud,
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though smiling fortune do
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Great store of wealth, and
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her best gifts bestow:
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For pride the Proverb says,
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must have a fall,
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And so must Maidens,
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widdows, wives, and all.
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HAst not too much for
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marriage, nor the thing,
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Which doth not pleasure,
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but doth sorrow bring:
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For hasty lovers
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often do destroy,
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Their sweets of Love,
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ere they their hopes injoy.
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IF you do chuse a man
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whom you affect,
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Injure him not,
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with any disrespect:
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But wary be, and
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ere loves knot you tye,
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Prove first your own,
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and then his constancy.
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Knowledge is gained by
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experience, and by this,
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Thou mayst arrive
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unto the height of bliss;
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First try, then trust,
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the which when you have provd
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You both may love
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and be as well belovd.
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LOok ere you leap,
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the proverb still doth say,
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Let not smooth tongues
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your love to Lust betray:
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In fairest Grass
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a Snake is often found,
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And smoothest tongues,
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with falshood much abound
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MOan not too much,
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nor be thou always sad,
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Mirth sometimes may
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become a vertuous Maid:
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Yet use not too much
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laughter, lest you be
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Slighted and scornd,
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for your immodesty.
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NOr use uncivil talk,
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or gesture light,
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Nor in unseemly
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wantonness delight:
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But keep chast behavour,
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that you may
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Have good report,
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in every kind of way.
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OFfend not with a foul
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and slandrous tongue,
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Of them that do not
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think thee any wrong;
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But speak thou well of all,
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and always do
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With others as you would
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have them to do with you.
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PAint not your beauty
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when it is decayd,
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Prize not that for,
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a jewel that will fade,
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And when youve done,
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the best will fade away,
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And through red Cheeks,
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a wrinkled brow display.
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QUench in thy self
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all lusts inflaming fires,
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Which may provoke thee
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to such unchast desires:
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For though a while such
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pleasure please thy mind,
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Yet sorrow, want,
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and beggary comes behind.
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REmember next,
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how like a fading flower,
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The earths best treasures
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vanish in an hour:
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And now the best of things
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you can enjoy,
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The Sithe of time shall cut,
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and death destroy.
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SEek therefore richer
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gifts then he can give,
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So shalt thou in a stare
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most surely live:
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For though fair beauty,
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deck thy outward part,
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Yet inward vertue
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best adorns thy heart.
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TRy that rich jem, which
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when thou hast attaind,
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Thou hast a vertuous Maids
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chief beauty gaind:
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And if fair vertue
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do thy courses steer,
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Like Joves fair daughter,
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thou shalt bright appear.
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VAin beautys but a triflle,
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that a while
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Dame nature lends thee,
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with a flattering smile:
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Which lovers gaze at,
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and with greedy hands,
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Each one would crop its
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blossoms as it stands.
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WHilst in its fullest ripeness
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it is grown,
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When tis decyd,
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their loves are with it gone
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Let then this he thy care,
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and chiefest strife,
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To live a vertuous Maid,
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and honest Wife-
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XAntippe like the wife
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of Socrates,
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Affect thou not
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thy husband to displease:
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Nor with a railing tongue,
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persue his will,
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And in humility,
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obey him still.
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YEild not to others, when
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you once are wed,
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The pleasures of
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your lawful husbands bed:
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For if you you guilty be
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of such a fact,
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Thou shalt not escape,
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unpunisht for that act.
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ZEalous be thou in all
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these vertues, prove
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Both constant, chast, and
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loyal to your love:
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And if these Lessons
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well you learn, for thee,
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Tis truly stild
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The Virgins A, B, C.
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