Meaning & Analysis
A woman's chastity is questionable if she has never been propositioned. True chastity is not the absence of temptation, but the act of successfully resisting it when it is presented.
Insights
Untested Virtue as a Facade
The proverb is a cynical commentary on untested integrity, suggesting that any claimed virtue—such as honesty, loyalty, or courage—is meaningless until it has been challenged and proven through trial.
Appearance vs. Reality
It highlights the difference between the appearance of morality and its actual substance. A person might seem virtuous simply due to a lack of opportunity to be otherwise, which is not the same as making a conscious moral choice.
Skepticism about Human Nature
The proverb serves as a skeptical critique of human nature, implying that most people are not inherently virtuous but are merely constrained by their circumstances. True moral strength, it suggests, is rare.
Historical Gender Bias
The proverb reflects a deep-seated gender bias, prevalent from its classical origins (Ovid's 'Casta est quam nemo rogavit') through the Renaissance, where female chastity was a central measure of worth, often viewed as a passive state to be tested by male action.
Psychology of Untested Virtue
This proverb taps into a cynical psychological truth: it is easy to claim virtue when one has never faced a meaningful opportunity to abandon it. It questions whether morality is an inherent trait or merely a product of circumstance.
The Nature of Moral Proof
Philosophically, the proverb engages with the debate on the nature of good. It argues that true virtue cannot be passive; it must be an active choice demonstrated by overcoming temptation, rather than simply existing in its absence.
Rhetorical Devices
Aphorism
The proverb functions as a sharp, cynical aphorism, presenting a controversial or skeptical viewpoint as a definitive statement of truth.
Irony
A strong undercurrent of irony permeates the proverb, as it dismisses the 'chastity' of the unsolicited woman as meaningless, thereby questioning the very definition of the word in a passive context.
Juxtaposition
The proverb creates a stark juxtaposition between two definitions of chastity: one based on circumstance (being unsolicited) and one based on character (resisting temptation), forcing a re-evaluation of the virtue itself.
Transcription
Quotations
Fair women play: She's chaste whom none will have.
She's chaste whom none will have.
For I am of opinion .. that a woman is of no more worth or virtue, then that which is in her, after she hath bene solicited, and that she alone is strong, who cannot be bowed by the promises, gifts.
Grant I was tempted, Temptation to lust proves not the act—Casta est quam nemo rogavit.
(whom none will have).
And thinke none chast, but her whom none did wooe.
It hath bin still a maxime, she's not chast That hath not bin attempted, but she who hath stood temptation.
Every woman is chast, if she have nobody to sollicit her.
She is chaste, who was never ask'd the Question.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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