PAROLLES: It is not politic in the commonwealth of
nature to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase,
and there was never virgin got till virginity was first lost.
That you were made of is metal to make virgins. Virginity by
being once lost may be ten times found; by being ever kept is
ever lost. 'Tis too cold a companion. Away with't! 'Tis against
the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity is to accuse
your mothers, which is most infallible disobedience. He that
hangs himself is a virgin; virginity murders itself, and should
be buried in highways out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate
offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like
a cheese, consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with
feeding his own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud,
idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the
canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but lose by't. Out with't!
Within ten year it will make itself ten, which is a goodly increase,
and the principal itself not much the worse. Away with't! 'Tis
a commodity will lose the gloss with lying: the longer kept,
the less worth. Off with't while 'tis vendible; answer the time
of request. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out
of fashion, richly suited, but unsuitable, just like the brooch
and the toothpick, which wear not now. Your date is better in
your pie and your porridge than in your cheek; and your virginity,
your old virginity, is like one of our French withered pears:
it looks ill, it eats drily. Marry, 'tis a withered pear; it
was formerly better; marry, yet 'tis a withered pear! Will you
anything with it?
Biographical aspects of the Sonnets - Examines the worth of Shakespeare's
sonnets in piecing together clues as to the nature of his romantic
life.
Doubtful Plays of Shakespeare - Analysis of evidence supporting the
claim of Shakespearean authorship of several questionable Elizabethan
plays.
Greene's Jealousy of Shakespeare - As early as 1592, Shakespeare's dramatic
work had excited the envy and indignation of his contemporaries,
including the accomplished scholar and dramatist, Robert Greene.
Shakespeare Index - An index of articles on to the Elizabethan dramatist.
The Shakespeare-Bacon Theory - Analysis of the theory that the plays
of William Shakespeare were not written by the man whose biography
we are familiar with, but rather under pseudonym by Lord Chancellor
Francis Bacon.
