ORDELLA.
With all but heaven.
(Thierry and Theodoret, acte IV.)
[94]:
This lady
Walks discontented, with her watery eyes
Bent on the earth. The unfrequented woods
Are her delights; and when she sees a bank
Stuck full of flowers, she with a sigh will tell
Her servants what a pretty place it were
To bury lovers in; and make her maids
Pluck 'em, and strew her over like a corpse.
She carries with her an infectious grief,
That strikes all her beholders; she will sing
The mournful'st things that ever ear hath heard,
And sigh, and sing again; and when the rest
Of our young ladies, in their wanton blood,
Tell mirthful tales in course, that fill the room
With laughter, she will, with so sad a look,
Bring forth a story of the silent death
Of some forsaken virgin, which her grief
Will put in such a phrase, that, ere she end,
She'll send them weeping, one by one, away.
(The Maid's tragedy, acte I.)
[95]:
Avant d'abandonner mon âme à mes douleurs,
Il me faut essayer la force de mes pleurs;
En qualité de fille ou de femme, j'espère
Qu'ils vaincront un époux ou fléchiront un père:
Que si sur l'un ou l'autre ils manquent de pouvoir,
Je ne prendrai conseil que de mon désespoir.
Apprends-moi cependant ce qu'ils ont fait au temple.
Impossible de rencontrer une femme plus raisonnable et plus raisonneuse. De même Éliante, Henriette, dans Molière.
[96]: