Margaret of Valois

Moreover, added Margaret, Queen of Navarre, it is improper for a gentleman to leave his home, as is usually done, to go meet those who have come to find him, no matter how important they are.

Margaret, Queen of Navarre, tells of a young prince, who, though she does not name him, is easily enough by his great qualities to be known, who going upon an amorous assignation to lie with an advocate’s wife of Paris, his way thither being through a church, he never passed that holy place going to or returning from his pious exercise, but he always kneeled down to pray.

I do not consider it a miracle, as the Queen of Navarre does in one of the Tales of her Heptameron (which is a very pretty book of its kind), nor for a thing of extreme difficulty, to pass whole nights, where a man has all the convenience and liberty he can desire, with a long-coveted mistress, and yet be true to the pledge first given to satisfy himself with kisses and suchlike endearments, without pressing any further.

And Margaret, Queen of Navarre, like a woman, very far extends the advantage of women, ordaining that it is time, at thirty years old, to convert the title of fair into that of good.