Note 253 — Chapter I
Reading edition
Necessitatem in uirtutem conuertit. Apparently a proverbial expression. Cp. Quintilian Declam. iv. 10: "Faciamus potius de fine remedium, de necessitate solatium"; Jer. Adv. Rufin. iii. 2: "Habeo gratiam quod facis de necessitate uirtutem"; Ep. 54. 6 (Hilberg): "Arripe, quaeso, occasionem et fac de necessitate uirtutem." Chaucer's "To maken vertu of necessitee" is well known (Knightes Tale, 3042, Squieres Tale, 593, Troilus and Criseyde, iv. 1586).