Eumaeus: Forsooth, playing false is as much a game men indulge in as women, sir.
Vagabond (King Odysseus in disguise): Aye, but it’s the only one where women are always victors.
—Caleb Hollis, Circe’s Chains
. . . Also she must be more circumspect, and more careful not to give occasion for evil being said of her, and conduct herself so that she may not only escape being sullied by guilt but even by the suspicion of it, for a woman has not so many ways of defending herself against false calumnies as a man has . . .
—Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier: The Third Book, Part Four, 1528