rhyming an hour before--why, pray, should not Signorina Capulet have

had a few previous

affaires du coeur

? Depend upon it, she had; for

was she not already past thirteen?

In like manner, I dare say that a deal passed between Desdemona and

Cassio that the honest Moor never knew of; and that Lucrece was

probably very pleasant and agreeable to Tarquin, as a well-bred

hostess should be; and that Helen had that little affair with Theseus

before she ever thought of Paris; and that if Cleopatra died for love