Of blessed maids that did make up her train;
    Calliope nor Clio could suffice,
    Nor all the other seven, for th’ enterprise;
    Yet some I will insert may justly claim
    Precedency of others.  Lucrece came
    On her right hand; Penelope was by,
    Those broke his bow, and made his arrows lie
    Split on the ground, and pull’d his plumes away
    From off his wings:  after, Virginia,
    Near her vex’d father, arm’d with wrath and hate. 
    Fury, and iron, and love, he freed the state
    And her from slavery, with a manly blow;
    Next were those barbarous women, who could show
    They judged it better die than suffer wrong
    To their rude chastity; the wise and strong—­
    The chaste Hebraean Judith follow’d these;
    The Greek that saved her honour in the seas;
    With these and other famous souls I see
    Her triumph over him who used to be
    Master of all the world:  among the rest
    The vestal nun I spied, who was so bless’d
    As by a wonder to preserve her fame;
    Next came Hersilia, the Roman dame
    (Or Sabine rather), with her valorous train,
    Who prove all slanders on that sex are vain. 
    Then, ’mongst the foreign ladies, she whose faith
    T’ her husband (not AEneas) caused her death;
    The vulgar ignorant may hold their peace,
    Her safety to her chastity gave place;
    Dido, I mean, whom no vain passion led
    (As fame belies her); last, the virtuous maid
    Retired to Arno, who no rest could find,
    Her friends’ constraining power forced her mind. 
    The Triumph thither went where salt waves wet
    The Baian shore eastward; her foot she set
    There on firm land, and did Avernus leave
    On the one hand, on th’ other Sybil’s cave;
    So to Linternus march’d, the village where
    The noble Africane lies buried; there
    The great news of her triumph did appear
    As glorious to the eye as to the ear
    The fame had been; and the most chaste did show
    Most beautiful; it grieved Love much to go
    Another’s prisoner, exposed to scorn,
    Who to command whole empires seemed born. 
    Thus to the chiefest city all were led,
    Entering the temple which Sulpicia made
    Sacred; it drives all madness from the mind;
    And chastity’s pure temple next we find,
    Which in brave souls doth modest thoughts beget,
    Not by plebeians enter’d, but the great
    Patrician dames; there were the spoils display’d
    Of the fair victress; there her palms she laid,
    And did commit them to the Tuscan youth,
    Whose marring scars bear witness of his truth: 
    With others more, whose names I fully knew,
    (My guide instructed me,) that overthrew
    The power of Love:  ’mongst whom, of all the rest,
    Hippolytus and Joseph were the best.