%ISOlat1; %ISOlat2; %ISOnum; %ISOpub; ]> AN / ANSWER / TO THE / MANTUAN, / OR, / False Character, lately wrote against / WOMANKIND / Muliere bona omnia comprehenduntur. University of California - Santa Barbara The Early Modern Center Director Patricia Fumerton 1679-1679 Early Modern Center, University of California Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 06/19/2014 34101

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Patricia Fumerton Early Modern Center - English Department University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93105 United States of America EMail: pfumer@english.ucsb.edu

R29593 A Vertuous Woman, O ye Gods! who dare / Presume to speak or write her Character? Information in this section of the Source Description refers to the original ballad manuscript. 1: 1237 AN / ANSWER / TO THE / MANTUAN, / OR, / False Character, lately wrote against / WOMANKIND / Muliere bona omnia comprehenduntur. AN ANSWER TO THE MANTUAN, OR, False Character, lately wrote against WOMANKIND Muliere bonâ omnia comprehenduntur. AN ANSWER TO THE MANTUAN, OR, False Character, lately wrote against WOMANKIND Muliere bona omnia comprehenduntur. 1679-1679

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 Early Modern Center Ballad Project Keyword Taxonomy advice affliction/ health alcohol Americas animals/ nature Bible/ biblical figures buildings/ architecture catastrophe children class clothing/ appearance country/ nation crime death economics/ commerce entertainments family Featured folklore gender holidays/ seasons infidelity labor/ craft law London love maritime marriage military/ war monstrosity mythology/ Classical news nobility/ court politics/ government procreation punishment race/ ethnicity religious concepts religious figures religious groups royalty rural life servitude sex/ sexuality supernatural/ magic travel trickery/ deceit urban life vice violence virtue vulgar humor youth/ age Library of Congress Subject Heading Taxonomy 6/19/2014 Santa Barbara, California, United States of America clothing/ appearance gender virtue Ballads, English 17th century Broadsides, England 17th century 6/19/2014 6:12:34 PM XBallad Cortes, Phillip Created XML Version of Ballad 6/19/2014 6:12:34 PM Transcription Supervisor Meyer, Shannon Transcription of ballad manuscript 6/19/2014 6:12:34 PM Double-Key Comparison and Merging Meyer, Shannon Transcription of ballad manuscript 6/19/2014 6:12:34 PM Transcriptionist Two McCants, Kristen Transcription of ballad manuscript 6/19/2014 6:12:34 PM Transcriptionist One Keller Scotch, Grace Transcription of ballad manuscript 4/22/2014 Checker Sarah Rice Edited Ballad Catalogue Record 11/28/2012 Bibliographer William Hildalgo Initial Ballad Catalogue Record Created 10/29/2013 Checker Shannon Meyer Edited Ballad Catalogue Record
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A Vertuous Woman, O ye Gods! who dare Presume to speak or write her Character? Or what Pot-Poet dare attempt to vex By cursed Libels this so glorious Sex? A Sex that was by Heavns Decrees designd To be (and is) the best of Human kind. For Woman has a vertue thats sublime, Above the Battery of Fate or Time. And in this Sex there certain Rays are found, Which not one Grace can make, but all compound. In wit, modesty, and vertuous deeds, This most Divine Celestial Sex exceeds. A beauty also, not to Art in Debt, Rather agreeable, Divine, than great. An Eye likewise, wherein at once do meet The beams of truest kindness, and of wit. The fairest Tulips, and the Rose oth Bush, To draw the Tincture from her Lip and Blush. An undissembled modest Innocence, Apt not to give, nor yet to take offence. A Face thats modest, charming, and serene, A sober, vertuous, and yet lively meen. As many Diamonds together lye, And dart one lustre to amaze the Eye; So Woman is that bright Etherial Ray, Which many Stars doth in one Light display: For in her Face she captives modesty, Which is completed in Divinity. Her very glances set all Hearts on Fire, And check them if they should too much aspire.
If she but smile, no Painter ere would take Another object, when hed Mercy make. And Heavn such splendor hath to her allowd, That no damnd Mantuan can her Beauty cloud. That if she frown, none would but phancy then Justice descended there to punish Men. Nay, her common looks, Im ashamd to call One single Grace, they are composd of all: And if we Mortals could the Doctrine reach, Her very Eyes and looks do Language teach. Her Souls the Image of the Deity, That still preserves in Native purity: Which Men can neither threatn nor allure, Nor by their devlish Characters obscure. The Innocence that in her Heart doth dwell, Angels themselves can only parallel. Such constancy of modest witty Law Guides all her Actions, that all Men may draw From her own Soul the noblest precedent, Of the most safe, wise, vertuous Government. Oh! I must think the rest, for who can write, Or into words confine whats infinite? For striving to describe quite to the end Of her, that all the World doth comprehend, Is a most wild Ambition; so for me To draw her Picture, is flat Lunacy. But yet by whats here writ, the World may see I am the first drew Truth to Poetry.
FINIS. LONDON, Printed in the Year 1679.