Chapter Flora to Florimel of F by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Florimels Girdle, a girdle which gave to those who wore it “the virtue of chaste love and wifehood true;” if any woman not chaste or faithful put it on, it immediately “loosed or tore asunder.” It was once the cestus of Venus; but when that queen of beauty wantoned with Mars, it fell off and was left on the “Acidalian mount.”—Spenser: Faërie Queene, iv. 2 (1596).

One day, sir Cambel, sir Triamond, sir Paridel, sir Blandamour, and sir Ferramont agreed to give Florimel’s girdle to the most beautiful lady; when the previous question was moved, “Who was the most beautiful?” Of course, each knight, as in duty bound, adjudged his own lady to be the paragon of women, till the witch’s image of snow and wax, made to represent Florimel, was produced, when all agreed that it was without peer, and so the girdle was handed to “the false Florimel.” On trying it on, however, it would in no wise fit her; and when by dint of pains it was at length fastened, it instantly loosened and fell to the ground. It would fit Amoret exactly, and of course Florimel, but not the witch’s thing of snow and wax.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, iv. 5 (1596).

Morgan la Fée sent king Arthur a horn, out of which no lady could drink “who was not to herself or to her husband true.” Ariosto’s enchanted cup possessed a similar spell.

A boy showed king Arthur a mantle which no wife not leal could wear. If any unchaste wife or maiden put it on, it would either go to shreds or refuse to drape her decorously.

At Ephesus was a grotto containing a statue of Diana. If a chaste wife or maiden entered, a reed there (presented by Pan) gave forth most melodious sounds; but if the unfaithful or unchaste entered, its sounds were harsh and discordant.

Alasnam’s mirror remained unsullied when it reflected the unsullied; but became dull when the unchaste stood before it. (See Caradoc, p. 177.)