WOMAN.
What a strange thing is man! and what a stranger
Is woman! What a whirlwind is her head,
And what a whirlpool full of depth and danger
Is all the rest about her.
Don Juan, Canto IX. LORD BYRON.
O woman! lovely woman! nature made thee
To temper man; we had been brutes without you.
Angels are painted fair, to look like you:
There is in you all that we believe of heaven;
Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,
Eternal joy, and everlasting love.
Venice Preserved, Act i. Sc. 1. T. OTWAY.
Without the smile from partial beauty won,
O, what were man?—a world without a sun.
Pleasures of Hope, Pt. II. T. CAMPBELL.
If the heart of a man is depressed with cares,
The mist is dispelled when a woman appears.
The Beggar's Opera, Act ii. Sc. 1. J. GAY.
In her first passion, woman loves her lover:
In all the others, all she loves is love.
Don Juan, Canto III. LORD BYRON.
Man's love is of man's life a thing apart;
'T is woman's whole existence. Man may range
The court, camp, church, the vessel, and the mart,
Sword, gown, gain, glory, offer in exchange
Pride, fame, ambition, to fill up his heart,
And few there are whom these cannot estrange:
Men have all these resources, we but one,—
To love again, and be again undone.
Don Juan, Canto I. LORD BYRON.
She's beautiful, and therefore to be wooed;
She is a woman, therefore to be won.
King Henry VI., Part I. Act v. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
Alas, the love of women! it is known
To be a lovely and a fearful thing;
For all of theirs upon that die is thrown,
And if 't is lost, life hath no more to bring
To them but mockeries of the past atone,
And their revenge is as the tiger's spring,
Deadly and quick and crushing; yet as real
Torture is theirs—what they inflict they feel.
Don Juan, Canto II. LORD BYRON.
We call it only pretty Fanny's way.
An Elegy to an Old Beauty. T. PARNELL.
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.
As You Like It, Act iii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans,
And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair.
The Princess: Prologue. A. TENNYSON.
If ladies be but young and fair,
They have the gift to know it.
As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7. SHAKESPEARE.
Ladies like variegated tulips show,
'T is to their changes half their charms we owe.
Fine by defect, and delicately weak,
Their happy spots the nice admirer take.
Moral Essays, Pt. II A. POPE.
And when a lady's in the case,
You know all other things give place.
The Hare and Many Friends J. GAY.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty.
Taming of the Shrew, Act v. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
For several virtues
Have I 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.
Tempest, Act iii. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
IAGO.—Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors,
Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens,
Saints in your injuries, devils being offended.
* * * * *
For I am nothing if not critical.
Othello, Act ii. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
Had she been true,
If heaven would make me such another world
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite,
I'd not have sold her for it.
Othello, Act v. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Lightly thou say'st that woman's love is false,
The thought is falser far.
Bertram. C.R. MATURIN.
But woman's grief is like a summer storm,
Short as it violent is.
Basil, Act v. Sc. 3. JOANNA BAILLIE.
When greater perils men environ,
Then women show a front of iron;
And, gentle in their manner, they
Do bold things in a quiet way.
Betty Zane. T.D. ENGLISH.
First, then, a woman will, or won't, depend on 't;
If she will do 't, she will, and there's an end on 't.
But if she won't, since safe and sound your trust is,
Fear is affront, and jealousy injustice.
Epilogue to Zara. A. HILL.
I have no other but a woman's reason;
I think him so because I think him so.
Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
She hugged the offender, and forgave the offence.
Sex to the last.
Cymon and Iphigenia. J. DRYDEN.
Woman may err, woman may give her mind
To evil thoughts, and lose her pure estate;
But, for one woman who affronts her kind
By wicked passions and remorseless hate,
A thousand make amends in age and youth,
By heavenly pity, by sweet sympathy,
By patient kindness, by enduring truth,
By love, supremest in adversity.
Praise of Women. C. MACKAY.
Not she with traitorous kiss her Saviour stung,
Not she denied him with unholy tongue;
She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave,
Last at his cross and earliest at his grave.
Woman, her Character and Influence. E.S. BARRETT.
Earth's noblest thing, a woman perfected.
Irenè. J.R. LOWELL.
Shalt show us how divine a thing
A woman may be made.
To a Young Lady. W. WORDSWORTH.
Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low.—an excellent thing in woman.
King Lear, Act v. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.
Romeo and Juliet, Act iv. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
And yet believe me, good as well as ill,
Woman 's at best a contradiction still.
Moral Essays, Epistle II. A. POPE.
For woman is not undeveloped man
But diverse; could we make her as the man
Sweet love were slain; his dearest bond is this:
Not like to like but like in difference.
The Princess, XII. A. TENNYSON.
Through all the drama—whether damned or not—
Love gilds the scene, and women guide the plot.
The Rivals: Epilogue. R.B. SHERIDAN.