Girdle (Florimel’s)

The prize of a grand tournament in which Sir Satyrane and several others took part. It was dropped by Florimel, picked up by Sir Satyrane, and employed by him to bind the monster sent in her pursuit; but it came again into the hands of the knight, who kept it in a golden casket. It was a “gorgeous girdle made by Vulcan for Venus, embossed with pearls and precious stones;” but its chief virtue was

“It gave the virtue of chaste love,

And wifehood true to all that it did bear;

But whosoever contrary doth prove

Might not the same about her middle wear,

But it would loose, or else asunder tear.”

Spenser: Faërie Queene, book iii. canto vii. 31.

⁂ King Arthur’s Drinking Horn, and the Court Mantel in Orlando Furioso, possessed similar virtues.

· ·

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.