Giotto gives Stultitia a
feather, cap, and club. In early manuscripts he is always eating with
one hand, and striking with the other; in later ones he has a cap and
bells, or cap crested with a cock's head, whence the word "coxcomb."
SECTION LXXVII. _Fourth side_. Destroyed, all but a book, which
identifies it with the "Celestial Chastity" of the Renaissance copy;
there represented as a woman pointing to a book (connecting the convent
life with the pursuit of literature?).
Spenser's Chastity, Britomart, is the most exquisitely wrought of all
his characters; but, as before noticed, she is not the Chastity of the
convent, but of wedded life.
SECTION LXXVIII. _Fifth side_. Only a scroll is left; but, from the
copy, we find it has been Honesty or Truth. Inscribed "HONESTATEM
DILIGO." It is very curious, that among all the Christian systems of the
virtues which we have examined, we should find this one in Venice only.
The Truth of Spenser, Una, is, after Chastity, the most exquisite
character in the "Faerie Queen."
SECTION LXXIX. _Sixth side_. Falsehood. An old woman leaning on a
crutch; and inscribed in the copy, "FALSITAS IN ME SEMPER EST." The
Fidessa of Spenser, the great enemy of Una, or Truth, is far more subtly
conceived, probably not without special reference to the Papal deceits.
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