If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.

Praise her but for this her without-door form-- Which on my faith deserves high speech--and straight The shrug, the hum or ha, these pretty brands That calumny doth use--O, I am out, That mercy does, for calumny will sear Virtue itself--these shrugs, these hums and ha's, When you have said she's goodly, come between Ere you can say she's honest.

No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?

Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.

Like Theon (i.e., a calumniating disposition). [Lat., Dens Theonia.]

A nickname a man may chance to wear out; but a system of calumnity, pursued by a faction, may descend even to posterity. This principal has taken full effect on this state favorite.