In early classical times, physical and moral competence had a simple and direct relationship. The relationship was closer than that of comparable concepts, than the Platonic ladder connecting physical and spiritual beauty, but resembled Spenser's conception of the Platonic physical-spiritual beauty equation as expressed in his Hymne of Beautie: faire soules, which haue / The most resemblance of that heauenly light, / Frame to themselues most beautifull and braue / Their fleshly bowre. In a similar way, a man who was truly noble and courageous was expected to have physical strength to implement his convictions. This union of physical and moral competence was essentially the classical virtus. To reverse the equation, a man could be physically strong without moral stature, but he was never as strong as a moral man. Almost a return to the simple classical equation between physical and moral competence occurred in the judicial combats and private duels of the Renaissance. God was not so deeply involved in the purpose of the quarrels as He was during the Middle Ages, although He still was concerned with the out. come.1 No longer able to rely on the strong support of God as conceived during the Middle Ages, the concept of the relationship between physical and moral competence was buttressed by a heavier leaning on individual honor.2 In The Duello, or Single Combat John Selden maintains that a formal idea of honor similar to that in the duels governed the private quarrels of the Greeks and Romans (p. 7). He thus illustrates the return to classicism in the physicalmoral competence relationship.3 Richard 11, Henry IV, Part Two, and Henry V are especially interesting from the point of view of the relationship of the physical-moral competence principle to old age. In the Renaissance-classical equation, age obviously presents a problem. A hero's physical competence can only match his moral competence while he is young. When he is old, he is a different man, no longer truly a possessor of heroic virtus.4 In Corneille's Le Cid (i637), the classi-