VIRGINIA. Verginia, daughter of the Roman consul Verginius, was the young Roman maiden for whom Appius the judge conceived a violent lust. He commissioned Marcus Claudius his client to claim the girl as his own, while her father was away at the front. Marcus Claudius followed Appius's plan and claimed that the girl, who belonged in his house, had been stolen away by Verginius. Appius ruled that Claudius could keep her as his own until her father arrived the next day. Her fiancé claimed her, but his claim was ignored. Verginia was surrendered to Claudius. Her father Verginius returned posthaste from the front and, leading his daughter to the marketplace, he pleaded with the populace to strengthen his claim to his daughter. Appius appeared and, ignoring Verginius's pleas, awarded Verginia to Claudius. Verginius thereupon stabbed his daughter in the heart, asserting that only thus could he proclaim her freedom (Livy, Ab urbe condita liber III.xliv-lviii; Confessio Amantis VII.5131-5306; RR 5589-5658).
Virginia is Virginius's daughter in The Physician's Tale. She is Nature's masterpiece, PhysT 7-29, over whom Venus and Bacchus have no power, PhysT 58-60. Because he feels passionate lust for her, Apius hires the villain Claudius to swear in his court that Virginia is Claudius's slave, PhysT 121-129. Apius awards Virginia to Claudius, PhysT 144-174, and Virginius pleads for his daughter, PhysT 175-190, but to no avail, PhysT 191-202. Virginius goes home and tells his daughter that he intends to kill her rather than give her to Claudius, PhysT 203-230. Virginia pleads for her life and laments her death as Jeptha's daughter lamented her death, PhysT 238-250. Virginius beheads his daughter and sends her head to Apius, PhysT 251-259. The people cast Apius in prison, where he hangs himself, and they hang Claudius on a tree, but they exile Virginius for slaying his daughter, PhysT 260-276. M.S. Waller suggests that Chaucer may have been influenced by De eruditione filiorum nobilium, by Vincent of Beauvais, and by an abridged version of Aegidius Romanus's De regimen principum, done about 1344. This work may have been brought to England by Constance of Castile, John of Gaunt's second wife. [Apius: Claudius2: Virginius]
Virginia, the English variant of Latin Verginia, the feminine form of the family's clan name, appears once, medially, PhysT 213. The English variant emphasizes the heroine's chastity.