Could someone explain the Elizabethan simile of roses filled with snow?

I have no idea what Thomas Hardy is referring to...

Could someone explain the Elizabethan simile of roses filled with snow?
Roses- often used in Elizabethan England as symbolizing the woman, her womanhood, her viginity, her "ripeness" and her beauty...



Snow- can be purity, but likely is alluding to death, cold, iced...



together, we are looking at an image of a woman who will not get married, much less ever be anything other than a virgin... or who has the personality to make all that should be warm and beautiful, cold and uninviting...



yikes.



Good luck-
Reply:Maya's got part of the answer, but hasn't put it together correctly. A rose is indeed the representation of womanhood, but snow also refers to virginity, so a rose filled with snow would be a women not yet awakened, to use the kind of terminology Hardy does.
Reply:A lot would depend on the context. And why 'Elizabethan' anyway? Hardy was a Victorian.

Agree w Maya - sounds more like 'ice princess' woman.