| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Against Them Who Lay Unchastity to the Sex of Women | | By William Habington (1605–1654) |
| | | THEY meet but with unwholesome springs, | |
| And summers which infectious are; | |
| They hear but when the mermaid sings, | |
| And only see the falling star, | |
| Who ever dare | 5 |
| Affirm no woman chaste and fair. | |
| |
| Go, cure your fevers; and you’ll say | |
| The dog-days scorch not all the year; | |
| In copper mines no longer stay, | |
| But travel to the west, and there | 10 |
| The right ones see, | |
| And grant all gold’s not alchemy. | |
| |
| What madman, ’cause the glow-worm’s flame | |
| Is cold, swears there’s no warmth in fire? | |
| ’Cause some make forfeit of their name, | 15 |
| And slave themselves to man’s desire, | |
| Shall the sex, free | |
| From guilt, damn’d to the bondage be? | |
| |
| Nor grieve, Castara, though ’t were frail; | |
| Thy virtue then would brighter shine, | 20 |
| When thy example should prevail, | |
| And every woman’s faith be thine. | |
| And were there none, | |
| ’Tis majesty to rule alone. | | | | |
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