WHAT IS THE CHARACTER OF YOUR LADY-LOVE?
Look at her, whoe'er
Thou be that kindlest with a Poet's soul
Intensely——from imagination take
The treasure; what mine eyes behold see thou,
Even though the Atlantic Ocean roll between.
Wordsworth.
The idea of her life shall sweetly creep
Into his study of imagination;
And every lovely organ of her life,
Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit,
More moving, delicate, and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of his soul.
Much Ado About Nothing.
WHAT IS THE CHARACTER OF YOUR LADY-LOVE?
Her body's matchless form
Is better'd by the pureness of her mind.
Massinger.
2. She's made of those rare elements that now and then appear,
As if removed by accident into a lesser sphere,
Forever reaching up and on to life's sublimer things,
As if they had been used to track the universe with wings.
Willis.
3. This reasoning maid, above her sex's dread,
Has dared to read, and dares to say she read.
Crabbe.
4. Her smile so soft, her heart so kind,
Her voice for pity's tones so fit,
All speak her woman;—but her mind
Lifts her where bards and sages sit.
Dr. Brown.
5. A perfect woman, nobly plann'd,
To warn, to comfort, and command,
And yet a spirit still, and bright
With something of an angel light.
Wordsworth.
6. One whose life is like a star,
Without toil or rest to mar
Its divinest harmony,
Its God-given serenity.
James Aldrich.
7. She is wise, if I can judge of her,
And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true,
And true she is, as she hath proved herself.
Merchant of Venice.
8. Right from the hand of God her spirit came
Unstain'd, and she hath ne'er forgotten whence
It came, nor wander'd far from thence,
But laboreth to keep her still the same,
Near to her place of birth, that she may not
Soil her white raiment with an earthly spot.
J. R. Lowell.
9. With her mien she enamors the brave,
With her wit she engages the free,
With her modesty pleases the grave;
She is every way pleasing to thee.
Shenstone.
10. I would my horse had the speed of her tongue.
Much Ado About Nothing.
11. As through the hedge-row shade the violet steals,
And the sweet air its modest leaf reveals,
Her softer charms, but by their influence known,
Surprise all hearts, and mould them to her own.
Rogers.
12. Full many a lady
You have eyed with best regard, and many a time,
The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage
Brought your too diligent ear; for several virtues
You have liked several women; never any
With so full soul, but some defect in her
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed,
And put it to the foil: But she, O she,
So perfect and so peerless, is created
Of every creature's best!
Tempest.
13. She is all simplicity,
A creature soft and mild;
Though on the eve of womanhood,
In heart a very child.
Mrs. Welby.
14. Who does not understand and love her,
With feeling thus o'erfraught?
Though silent as the sky above her,
Like that, she kindles thought.
Dr. Gilman.
15. Sacred and sweet is all I see in her.
Taming of the Shrew.
16. She is
Happy in all endowments, which a poet
Could fancy in his mistress; being herself
A school of goodness, where chaste maids may learn,
By the example of her life and pureness,
To be, as she is, excellent.
Massinger.
17. She steps like some glad creature of the air,
As if she read her fate and knew it fair;
In truth, for fate at all she hath no care.
Yet hath she tears as well as gladness;
A butterfly in pain
Will make her weep for very sadness,
But straight she'll smile again.
A. M. Wells.
18. A maiden never bold
Of spirit, so still and quiet, that her motion
Blush'd at itself.
Othello.
19. She saith not once nay when thou sayest yea;
"Do this," saith he. "All ready, sir," saith she.
Chaucer.
20. Every thought and feeling throw
Their shadows o'er her face,
And so are every thought and feeling join'd,
'Twere hard to answer whether heart or mind
Of either were the native place.
Washington Allston.
21. She speaks,
Yet she says nothing!
Romeo and Juliet.
22. She will weep for nothing, like Diana in the fountain, when thou art disposed to be merry; and will laugh like a hyena, when thou art disposed to sleep.
As You Like It.
23. Though on pleasure she is bent,
She has a frugal mind.
Goldsmith.
24. Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn; happier than this,
She is not bred so dull but she can learn:
Happiest of all is, that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours to be directed.
Merchant of Venice.
25. Mind is her best gift, and poetry her world;
And she will see strange beauty in a flower,
As by a subtle vision.
Willis.
26. A being of sudden smiles and tears,
Passionate visions, quick light and shade.
Hemans.
27. Little she speaks, but dear attentions
From her will ceaseless rise;
She checks our wants with kind preventions,
And lulls the children's cries.
Dr. Gilman.
28. Oh when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd!
She was a vixen when she went to school,
And though she be but little, she is fierce.
Midsummer Night's Dream.
29. Graceful and useful all she does,
Blessing and blest where'er she goes.
Cowper.
30. She has an earnest intellect, a perfect thirst of mind,
A heart by elevated thoughts and poetry refined.
Willis.
31. A timid grace sits trembling in her eye,
Speaking most plain the thoughts which do possess
Her gentle sprite,—peace, and meek quietness,
And innocent love, and maiden purity.
Charles Lamb.
32. She hath more hair than wit,
More faults than hairs,
And more wealth than faults.
Two Gentlemen of Verona.
33. Her soul is more than half divine,
Where, through some shades of earthly feeling,
Religion's soften'd glories shine,
Like light through summer foliage stealing.
Moore.
34. She will turn from a love-breathing seraph away,
If he come not apparell'd in purple and gold.
Mrs. Osgood.
35. She sways her house, commands her followers,
Takes and gives back affairs and their despatch,
With a most smooth, discreet, and stable bearing.
Twelfth Night.
36. Spring hath no blossom fairer than her form,
Winter no snow-wreath purer than her mind.
The dew-drop trembling to the summer sun
Is like her smile; bright, transient, heaven-refined.
Mrs. Pierson.
37. She is a lady of confirmed honor, of an unmatchable spirit, and determinate in all virtuous resolutions; not hasty to anticipate an affront, nor slow to feel where just provocation is given.
Charles Lamb.
38. Her outward charms are less
Than her winning gentleness;
With maiden purity of heart,
Which, without the aid of art,
Does in coldest hearts inspire
Love.
James Aldrich.
39. She dwells among us like a star,
That from its bower of bliss
Looks down, yet gathers not a stain
From aught it sees in this.
Mrs. Welby.
40. She in pleasant purpose doth abound,
And greatly joyeth merry tales to feign.
Spenser.
41. Early and late, at her soul's gate,
Sits Chastity in warder wise;
No thought unchallenged, small or great,
Goes thence into her eyes;
Nor may a low, unworthy thought
Beyond that virgin warder win,
Nor one, whose password is not "ought,"
May go without, or enter in.
J. R. Lowell.
42. A light, busy foot astir
In her small housewifery, the blithest bee
That ever wrought in hive.
Mitford.
43. Practised to lisp and hang the head aside,
Faint into airs, and languish into pride.
Pope.
44. She is ever fair, and never proud,
Hath tongue at will, and yet is never loud.
Othello.
45. I call her richly blest,
In the calm meekness of her woman's breast,
Where that sweet depth of still contentment lies;
And for her household love, which clings
Unto all ancient and familiar things,
Weaving from each some link for home's dear charities.
Hemans.
46. She's peevish, sullen, froward,
Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty.
Two Gentlemen of Verona.
47. No simplest duty is forgot;
Life hath no dim and lowly spot
That doth not in her sunshine share.
J. R. Lowell.
48. Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Misprizing what they look on;—and her wit
Values itself so highly, that to her
All matter else seems weak.
Much Ado About Nothing.
49. With despatchful looks
She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent,
What choice to choose for delicacy best,
What order so contrived as not to mix
Tastes not well join'd, inelegant, but bring
Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change.
Milton.
50. None so gay as she;
Up hill and down, morning, and noon, and night,
Singing or talking; singing to herself
When none give ear.
Rogers—Italy.
51. The green
And growing leaves of seventeen
Are round her;—and half hid, half seen,
A violet flower;
Nursed by the virtues she hath been
From childhood's hour.
Halleck.
52. Blest with temper whose unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day:
Spleen, vapors, or small-pox, above them all,
And mistress of herself though china fall.
Pope—Characters of Women.
53. Seldom she speaks, but she will listen
With all the signs of soul;
Her cheek will change, her eye will glisten,
As waves of feeling roll.
Dr. Gilman.
54. She bears a purse; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty.
Merry Wives of Windsor.
55. You are as rich in having such a jewel,
As twenty seas, if all their sands were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
Two Gentlemen of Verona.
56. Oh, she is a golden girl,
But a man—a man should woo her!
They who seek her shrink aback,
When they should like storms pursue her.
Barry Cornwall.
57. She is soft as the dew-drops that fall
From the lip of the sweet-scented pea;
Perhaps when she smiled upon all,
Thou hast thought that she smiled upon thee.
Mackenzie—Man of Feeling.
58. She is the cause of six matches being broken off, and three sons disinherited.
Sheridan.
59. All her strain
Is of domestic gladness, fire-side bliss,
And household rule; nor thought loose, light, or vain,
Stains her pure vision of meek happiness.
Allan Cunningham.
60. She loves, but 'tis not you she loves,
Not you on whom she ponders,
When in some dream of tenderness
Her truant fancy wanders.
The forms that flit her vision through,
Are like the shapes of old,
Where tales of Prince and Paladin
On tapestry are told.
Man may not hope her heart to win,
Be his of common mould.
C. F. Hoffman.