Can any of your correspondents inform me if any of these relics are still in existence, and, if so, where?
A.D.M.
Lines on "Woman's Will."—Many of your readers will have heard quoted the following stanza, or something like it:—
"The man's a fool who strives by force or skill
To stem the torrent of a woman's will;
For if she will, she will you may depend on't,
And if she won't, she won't, and there's an end on't."
I have heard these lines confidently attributed to Shakspeare, Byron, &c. by persons unable to verify the quotation, when challenged so to do. I can point out where the first two lines may be found with some variation. In The Adventures of Five Hours, a comedy translated from the Spanish of Calderon, by Samuel Tuke, and printed in the 12th volume of Dodsley's Old Plays (edit. 1827), in the 5th act (p. 113.), the lines run thus:—
"He is a fool, who thinks by force or skill
To turn the current of a woman's will."