a. and sb. [ad. L. vestālis, f. Vesta VESTA. So Sp. and Pg. vestal, It. and F. vestale.]
A. adj. 1. Vestal virgin, one of the priestesses (originally four, subsequently six in number) who had charge of the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta at Rome.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), IV. 473. Cornelia, the most noble of virgynes vestalle,… was put in to therthe on lyve.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, II. xix. (S.T.S.), I. 202. Þai condampnit Oppia þe virgine vestal for hir Incest.
1600. Holland, Livy, I. xx. 14. Numa … instituted also a Nunnerie as it were, of religious vestall virgines. Ibid., XXVIII. xi. 676. The Vestall virgin who had the charge that night … was … throughly skourged.
1692. trans. Sallust, 20. Cataline had … Debauch’d a Lady of Noble Extraction, and a Vestal Virgin.
1710. W. King, Heathen Gods & Heroes, ix. (1722), 26. The Vestal Virgin Claudia, whose … freedom of Behaviour had made her Modesty suspected.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1851), II. 882/2. What is there in Rome so sacred and venerable as the vestal virgins who keep the perpetual fire?
1865. Lecky, Ration. (1878), I. 23. The miracles which clustered so thickly around the vestal virgins.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xlix. In defiance of every law … he had recently seized Rubria, one of the Vestal Virgins.
2. Of fire, etc.: Of or pertaining to Vesta.
1599. Broughton’s Lett., xii. 40. They counted it vnlawfull to refresh the Vestall fire.
1627. Drayton, Sheph. Sirena, 53. My coate with light should shine, Purer then the Vestall fire.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 553. She sprinkl’d thrice, with Wine, the Vestal Fire.
1782. V. Knox, Ess., cxiv. (1819), II. 287. Those institutions … have still kept the light burning like the vestal fire.
1792. S. Rogers, Pleas. Mem., Poems (1839), 4. Oblivion steals upon her vestal-lamp.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxiv. (1856), 301. Three stoves and a cooking-galley, four Argand and three bear-fat lamps, burn with the constancy of a vestal shrine.
fig. 1752. Young, Brothers, I. i. Thou in whose eye, so modest, and so bright, Love ever wakes, and keeps a vestal fire.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, Ded. xi. Through thine eyes, even in thy soul I see A lamp of vestal fire burning internally.
1853. Chr. Remembrancer, Jan., 70. Then it was that the Jeromes and the Eustochiums retired … from a world whose light seemed on the eve of extinction, to nurse the vestal fire which was never to be really put out.
3. Resembling a priestess of Vesta in respect of chastity; chaste, pure, virgin.
1595. Locrine, V. iv. 54. Beleeue me, Locrine, but the girle is wise, And well would seeme to make a vestall Nunne.
1705. Pope, Jan. & May, 202. Demure and chaste as any vestal Nun.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XV. ix. Jones had no reason to imagine the lady to have been of the vestal kind.
1821. Shelley, Epipsych., 390. The day is come, and thou wilt fly with me. To whatsoe’er of dull mortality Is mine, remain a vestal sister still.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, xviii. Mrs. Hannah, the vestal gentlewoman of my Lady Lillycraft, has had long walks and talks with Phœbe.
transf. 1806. Moore, Dream Antiq., i. Upon the bank awhile I stood, And saw the vestal planet weep Her tears of light on Ariel’s flood.
1818. Keats, Endym., I. 874. Oft have I brought thee flowers, on their stalks set Like vestal primroses.
4. Pertaining to, characteristic of, a vestal virgin or virgins; marked by chastity or purity.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. ii. 8. Her Vestal liuery is but sicke and greene.
1594. Drayton, Min. Poems (1907), 4. Since holy Vestall lawes haue been neglected.
1612. Two Noble K., V. i. 156. This is my last Of vestall office; I am bride habited, But mayden harted.
1729. T. Cooke, Tales, etc., 18. Young Men, and Virgins,… Attend a Song fit for a vestal Ear.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, III. 68. O dear and blessed peace! Why dost thou shroud thy vestal purity In penury and dungeons?
1825. Scott, Betrothed, xvii. Necessarily introducing many male guests within those vestal precincts.
1847. Tennyson, Princ., II. 204. Love-whispers may not breathe Within this vestal limit.
B. sb. 1. A vestal virgin.
1579–80. North, Plutarch’s Lives, Numa (1612), 68. He also hath the keeping of the holy virgines which they call Vestales. Ibid., 69. [He] taketh out … the condemned Vestall, muffled vp close.
1616. Bullokar, Eng. Exp., s.v., These Vestals were first instituted by Numa Pompilius, or as some write, by Romulus.
1671. Phillips (ed. 3), s.v. Vesta, Certain Virgins called Vestalls, who were to take care of the Vestal fire.
1722. J. Richardson, Acc. Statues, etc., Italy, etc., 135. The Head of the young Vestal was the most engaging thing I had seen in Italy.
1740. J. Dupré, Conform. Anc. & Mod. Cerem., 47. The Chief of the Vestals was called Maxima.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), II. 265. A … face formed exactly like the Venus of Medicis, or the sleeping vestal.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 286/1. The habits which the vestals had acquired during their priesthood.
1869. Lecky, Europ. Mor., I. iii. 433, note. The vestal Urbinia was buried alive on account of a plague.
fig. and transf. 1594. Drayton, Min. Poems (1907), 4. Here Chastity that Vestall most diuine, Attends that Lampe with eye which neuer sleepeth.
1767. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, IX. xvii. I keep neither man or boy,… or any thing that can eat or drink, except a thin, poor piece of a Vestal (to keep my fire in).
1828. Hawthorne, Fanshawe, iv. A flame … which Hugh was so far a vestal as to supply with its necessary fuel at all seasons of the year.
2. A virgin; a chaste woman; a nun.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 158. A certaine aime he tooke At a faire Vestall, throned by the West.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 80. A grosse-pencild Painter, who … vnder colour of drawing of pictures, drawes more to his shady Pauilion, then depart thence pure Vestals.
1608. Shaks., Per., IV. v. 7. Shall’s go hear the vestals sing?
1717. Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, 207. How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 554. The stain Appears a spot upon a vestal’s robe, The worse for what it soils.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, x. She was the most hospitable and jovial of old vestals, and had been a beauty in her day.
1879. Gladstone, Glean., II. i. 10. He states that he never knew souls more polluted than those of some of the professed vestals of the Church.
Hence Vestalship, the state or condition of being a vestal or virgin.
1829. Ladies’ Museum, XXIX. 196. I perceive you have not followed mine [advice], by exchanging your vestalship for the pall of Melpomene.
1893. F. Thompson, Poems, 42. A mouth too red for the moon to buss it, But her cheek unvow its vestalship.
