Jupiter forgot Modesty when making man and released Modesty after. Modesty agreed so long as carnal love was not present at the same time.
Modesty and carnal love cannot survive together.
L’Estrange version
Man was made in such a hurry (according to the old fable) that Jupiter had forgotten to put modesty into the composition, among his other affections; and finding that there was no way of introducing it afterwards, man by man, he propos’d the turning of it loose among the multitude. Modesty took her self at first to be a little hardly dealt withal, but in the end, came over to agree to’t, upon condition that carnal love might not be suffer’d to come into the same company; for wherever that comes, says she, I’m gone.
Moral
Sensual love knows neither bars nor bounds. We are all naturally impudent; only by custom, and fig-leaves, we hare been taught to disguise the matter, and look demurely; and that’s it which we call modesty.
Gherardo Image from 1480
Perry: 109
