4th Woman. Then the trapt notion may be easily burnt.
Vashti.
Yea?—I think mine would not burn easily.
With fire, with such indignant fire as pride
Yields, when it must destroy itself to feel
The power of the world touch it with humbling flame,—
With such a fire, whose heat you know not of,
Have I assayed this—notion, didst thou say?
And it stood upright, with its shape unquencht,
And lived within the fire.
3rd Woman.
Thou hast it wrong.
4th Woman. Thou hast not understood the cure we meant.
2nd Woman. Stop brabbling, fools; I would hear the Queen's mind.
1st Woman.
I too; I hate a thing I cannot skill;
And thee and all that lives in thee, O Queen,
I would keep friendly to my spirit; yet
I do suspect something amazing in thee.
Vashti.
And if thou seest not how slippery
Is women's place in the world of men, 'tis like
Thou wilt amazedly the vision take,
When I have led thee up my tower of thought.
2nd Woman.
How are we dangerous? Are we not women,
Man's endless need?
Vashti.
Ay, and therein the danger!
Is it not possible he hate the need?
For not as he were a beast it urges him:
He is aware of it, he knows its force,—
The kind of beasts is in their blood alone,
But man is blood and spirit. And in him,
As in all creature, is the word from God,
"Utter thyself in joy."
2nd Woman.
And we his joy.