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