The nature of the woman,—impudence.

Who contradicts me here? Concede me, then,

Whatever friendly fault may interpose

To save the sex from self-abolishment

Is three-parts on the way to virtue's rank!

And, what is taxed here as duplicity,

Feint, wile, and trick,—admitted for the nonce,—

What worse do one and all than interpose,

Hold, as it were, a deprecating hand,

Statuesquely, in the Medicean mode,