262. ‘- Cara la vita, et dopo lei mi pare’

‘Life is dearest, and next it seems to me

true chaste behaviour in a lovely woman.’

‘Reverse that: there was never anything

dear or lovely without chaste actions :

and she who lives deprived of her honour,

is no lady and no longer living: and if she

seems so, yet her life is harsh, her path

is worse than death, with more bitter pain.

I only wondered at Lucretia in this,

that she must kill herself with a dagger,

that her grief alone was not enough.’

However many philosophers came to speak

of it: all their wisdom would fall to earth:

and we would see hers soar above them.