… or just those who didn’t get hopelessly bored at Sunday school, I’m working on a late 16th-century elegy for a twice-widowed rich London woman, with the following passage, which refers, I assume, to women from the Bible:
So that hir three-fold godly life alludeth
To virgin Ruth, wife Sara, widdow Judith
I’m struggling to make sense of this.
The Bible Ruth that seems to get all the Google hits is a widow, so that is a bit puzzling.
Sara, if the wife of Abraham hardly seems to present an ideal life.
The lead widow Judith is the one who cut off Holofernes’ head, but although she’s a favourite figure for painting she hardly seems like an ideal model.
As ever, TIA!
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