Which does mend nature, change it rather; but
The art itself is nature.
Perdita. So it is.
Polixenes. Then make your garden rich in gilly-flowers,
And do not call them bastards.
Perdita. I’ll not put
The dibble in earth, to set one slip of them,’ etc.
Here the lady gives up the argument, but keeps her opinion. We had forgot one charming instance to our purpose, which is the character of Helen in All’s Well that Ends Well; and this also puts us in mind that Shakespear probably borrowed his female characters from the Italian novelists, and not from English women.
MISS O’NEILL’S WIDOW CHEERLY
| The Examiner.] | [January 12, 1817. |