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Cambridge Library CoLLeCtion
Books of enduring scholarly value

Literary studies
This series provides a high-quality selection of early printings of
literary works, textual editions, anthologies and literary criticism
which are of lasting scholarly interest. Ranging from Old English to
Shakespeare to early twentieth-century work from around the world,
these books offer a valuable resource for scholars in reception history,
textual editing, and literary studies.

Characteristics of Women
Characteristics of Women (1832) by Anna Jameson was the first-
ever attempt by a woman to judge the characteristics of twenty-three
heroines of Shakespeare’s plays. In this book, Jameson, an English
writer, feminist, and art historian, addresses problems of women’s
education and participation in public life while providing insightful
and original readings of Shakespeare’s women. She divides the heroines
into four classes, two of which—Characters of intellect and Characters
of passion and imagination—are discussed in Volume I. Portia,
Isabella, Beatrice, and Rosalind—the characters of intellect—are
sufficiently connected by that common tie and are distinct from Juliet,
Helena, Perdita, Viola, Ophelia, and Miranda, who are categorised as
characters of passion and imagination. Illustrated with fifty attractive
etchings made by the author herself, this eloquent book is a must-have
for Shakespeare collectors, students of feminist theory and gender
roles, and scholars and anyone else with an interest in the Victorian
era.
Cambridge University Press has long been a pioneer in the reissuing
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either for the source material they contain, or as landmarks in the
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Characteristics
of Women
Moral, Poetical, and Historical
Volume 1

Anna Jameson
 C A M B R I D g E U n I V E R SI t y P R E S S

Cambridge new york Melbourne Madrid Cape town Singapore São Paolo Delhi

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, new york

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108000987

© in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2009

This edition first published 1832

This digitally printed version 2009

ISBn 978-1-108-00098-7

This book reproduces the text of the original edition. The content and language reflect
the beliefs, practices and terminology of their time, and have not been updated.
 CHARACTERISTICS

OF

WOMEN,

MORAL, POETICAL, AND HISTORICAL,

tty jf tftg Vignette Strings.

BY MRS. JAMESON,
E DIARY OF AN ENNUYEE
FEMALE SOVEREIGNS," &C.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:
SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET.
1832.
tfjts tittle xotirk
?//^ -
 *.** It has become necessary to state thus publicly
what is known to most of my friends, viz. that the
whole of this little work, with the exception of the his-
torical life of Constance of Bretagne and the character
of Desdemona, was written previous to October 1831,
and sent to the press in March last.
The little vignettes, except those in p. 160, vol. \,
and pp. 209 and 300, vol. 2, are from original sketches.
All the etchings are by the Author, without exception.

A. J.
 CONTENTS.

VOL. I,

INTRODUCTION . . . • *

CHARACTERS OF INTELLECT.

PORTIA . . . . 1

ISABELLA . . . . . . 15

BEATRICE . . . . . 6 1

ROSALIND . , . . 76

CHARACTERS OF PASSION AND IMAGINATION.

JULIKT . . . . . 8 8

HELENA . . . . . 134

PERDITA . . . . . 160

VIOLA , . . . . 173

OPHELIA . . . . . 184

MIRANDA . . . . 2X0
 SUBJECTS OF THE VIGNETTES
CONTAINED IN THE FIRST VOLUME.

1. DEDICATION—A MUSE AND A QUEEN-LILY.

" I/alto intelletto, e'l puro core."

2. A SCENE IN A LIBRARY.

3. FLAUNTING FULL-BLOWN ROSES.

4. HYACINTHE.

5. LOVE AND VANITY.

6. PORTIA'S PALACE ON THE ADRIATIC.

7. PORTIA'S RING.

8. A VENETIAN SERENADE.

9. A CEDAR TOWERING ON A C U F F .

10. P R I D E AND PLAYFULNESS.

11. A SYLPH IN A MOUSE-TRAP.

12. A PERROQUITO.

13. ARDENNES.

14. JUNO'S SWANS.

15. JULIET IN TUE BALCONY.

16. ROSES AND BUITERFULS.

VOL. i. a
 LIST OF ETCHINGS.

17. CUPID—(as Phaeton " lashing the Steeds of Phoebus to the

West.")
18. THE TOMB OF THE CAPULETS.

19. HELEN—(reading her husband's letter, " 'Tis bitter.'*)

20. A FEMALE LOVE AS VICTORY.

21. CuriD AND PSYCHE—(the figures after Cipriani.)

22. THE ESCAPE OF FLORIZEL AND PERDITA.

23. VIOLA—(" My father had a daughter lov'd a man," &c.)

24. CUPID YOKING TWO ITALIAN GREYHOUNDS.

25. OPHELIA AND THE FATES.

26. SIMPLICITY.

27. LOVE TURNED LOG-BEARER.

28. ARIEL (riding on the Crescent-moon.)

 Scene—A Library.

MEDON—ALDA.

ALDA.

You will not listen to me ?

MEDOtf.

I do, with all the deference which befits a gen-

VOL. I.
11 INTRODUCTION.

tleman when a lady holds forth on the virtues of

her own sex.
He is a parricide of his mother's fame,
And with an impious hand murders her fame,
That wrongs the praise of women; that dares write
Libels on saints, or with foul ink requite
The milk they lent us.
Yours was the nobler birth,
For you from man were made—man but of earth—
The son of dust!

ALDA.

What's this ?

MEDON.

" Only a rhyme I learned from one I talked

withal;55 'tis a quotation from some old poet that
has fixed itself in my memory—from Randolph, I
think.

ALDA.

'Tis very justly thought, and very politely

quoted, and my best curtsey is due to him and to
you ;—but now will you listen to me ?
 INTRODUCTION. Ill

MEDON.

With most profound humility.

ALDA.

Nay, then ! I have done, unless you will lay

aside these mock airs of gallantry, and listen to
me for a moment ! Is it fair to bring a second-
hand accusation against me, and not attend
to my defence ?

MEDON.

Well, I will be serious.

ALDA,

Do so, and let us talk like reasonable beings.

MEDON.

Then tell me, (as a reasonable woman you will

not be affronted with the question,) do you really
expect that any one will read this little book of
yours ?
ALDA.

I might answer, that it has been a great source

VOL. i. b
IV INTRODUCTION.

of amusement and interest to me for several

months, and that so far I am content: but no one
writes a book without a hope of finding readers,
and I shall find a few. Accident first made me an
authoress; and not now, nor ever, have I written
to flatter any prevailing fashion of the day for the
sake of profit, though this is done, I know, by
many who have less excuse for thus coining their
brains. This little book was undertaken without
a thought of fame or money: out of the fulness of
my own heart and soul have I written it. In the
pleasure it has given me, in the new and various
views of human nature it has opened to me, in
the beautiful and soothing images it has placed
before me, in the exercise and improvement of
my own faculties, I have already been repaid: if
praise or profit come beside, they come as a sur-
plus. I should be gratified and grateful, but I
have not sought for them, nor worked for them.
Do you believe this ?

MEDON.
I do : in this I cannot suspect you of affecta-
 INTRODUCTION. V

tion, for the profession of disinterestedness is un-

called for, and the contrary would be too far
countenanced by the custom of the day to be
matter of reserve or reproach. But how could
you, (saving the reverence due to a lady-authoress,
and speaking as one reasonable being to another,)
choose such a threadbare subject ?

ALDA.

What do you mean ?

MEDON.

I presume you have written a book to maintain

the superiority of your sex over ours; for so I
j udge by the names at the heads of some of your
chapters; women, fit indeed to inlay heaven with
stars, but, pardon me, very unlike those who at
present walk upon this earth.

ALDA.

Very unlike the fine ladies of your acquaintance,

I grant you; but as to maintaining the supe-
b 2
VI INTRODUCTION.

riority, or speculating on the rights of women—

nonsense ! why should you suspect me of such
folly ?—it is quite out of date. Why should
there be competition or comparison ?

MEDON.

Both are ill-judged and odious; but did you

ever meet with a woman of the world, who did not
abuse most heartily the whole race of man ?

ALDA.

Did you ever talk with a man of the world

who did not speak with levity or contempt of the
whole race of women ?

MEDON.

Perhaps I might answer like Voltaire —

" Helas ! ils pourraient bien avoir raison tous deux."
But do you thence infer that both are good for
nothing ?

ALDA.

Thence I infer that the men of the world and

 INTRODUCTION. VII

the women of the world are neither of them —

good for much.

MEDON.

And you have written a book to make them

better ?

ALDA.

Heaven forbid ! else I were only fit for the

next lunatic asylum. Vanity run mad never con-
ceived such an impossible idea.

MEDON.

Then in few words, what is the subject, and

what the object of your book ?

ALDA.

I have endeavoured to illustrate the various

modifications of which the female character is
susceptible, with their causes and results. My life
has been spent in observing and thinking ; I have
had, as you well know, more opportunities for the
first, more leisure for the last, than have fallen to
Vlll INTRODUCTION.

the lot of most people. What I have seen, felt,

thought, suffered, has led me to form certain opi-
nions. It appears to me that the condition of
women in society, as at present constituted, is
false in itself, and injurious to them,—that the
education of women, as at present conducted, is
founded in mistaken principles, and tends to in-
crease fearfully the sum of misery and error in
both sexes ; but I do not choose presumptuously
to fling these opinions in the face of the world, in
the form of essays on morality, and treatises on
education. I have rather chosen to illustrate
certain positions by examples, and leave my readers
to deduce the moral themselves, and draw their
own inferences.

MEDON.

And why have you not chosen your examples

from real life ? you might easily have done so.
You have not been a mere spectator, or a mere
actor, but a lounger behind the scenes of exist-
ence—have even assisted in preparing the puppets
for the stage; you might have given us an
 INTRODUCTION. IX

epitome of your experience, instead of dreaming

over Shakspeare.

ALDA.

I might so, if I had chosen to become a female

satirist, which I will never be.

MEDON.

You would at least stand a better chance of

being read.

ALDA.

I am not sure of that. The vile taste for satire

and personal gossip will not be eradicated, I suppose,
while the elements of curiosity and malice remain in
human nature: but as a fashion of literature, I think
it is passing away :—at all events it is not my forte.
Long experience of what is called " the world," of
the folly, duplicity, shallowness, selfishness which
meet us at every turn, too soon unsettles our youth-
ful creed. If it only led to the knowledge of good
and evil, it were well; if it only taught us to de-
spise the illusions and retire from the pleasures of
 INTRODUCTION.

the world, it would be better. But it destroys our

belief—it dims our perception of all'abstract truth,
virtue, and happiness ; it turns life into a jest, and
a very dull one too. It makes us indifferent to
beauty, and incredulous of goodness; it teaches us
to consider self as the centre on which all actions
turn, and to which all motives are to be referred.

MEDON.

But this being so, we must either revolve with

these earthly natures, and round the same centre,
or seek a sphere for ourselves, and dwell apart.

ALDA.

I trust it is not necessary to do either. While

we are yet young, and the passions, powers, and
feelings, in their full activity, create to us a world
within, we cannot look fairly on the world without:
—all things then are good. When first we throw
ourselves forth, and meet burrs and briars on every
side, which stick in our very hearts;—and fair tempt-
ing fruits which turn to bitter ashes in the taste,
then we exclaim with impatience, all things are evil.
 INTRODUCTION. XI

But at length comes the calm hour, when they

who look beyond the superficies of things begin
to discern their true bearings ; when the percep-
tion of evil, or sorrow, or sin, brings also the
perception of some opposite good, which awakens
our indulgence, or the knowledge of the cause
which excites our pity. Thus it is with me. I
can smile,—nay, I can laugh still, to see folly,
vanity, absurdity, meanness, exposed by scornful
wit, and depicted by others in fictions light and
brilliant. But these very things, when I encoun-
ter the reality, rather make me sad than merry, and
take away all the inclination, if I had the power,
to hold them up to derision.

MEDON.

Unless by doing so, you might correct them.

ALDA.

Correct them ! Show me that one human being

who has been made essentially better by satire !
O no, no! there is something in human nature
which hardens itself against the lash—something
b5
Xll INTRODUCTION.

in satire which excites only the lowest and worst

of our propensities. That line in Pope—
I must be proud to see
Men not afraid of God, afraid of me !

—has ever filled me with terror and pity, and sends

me to think upon the opposite sentiment in Shak-
speare, on " the mischievous foul sin of chiding sin."
I remember once hearing a poem of Barry Corn-
wall^ (he read it to me,) about a strange winged
creature that, having the lineaments of a man,
yet preyed on a man, and afterwards coming to a
stream to drink, and beholding his own face
therein, and that he had made his prey of a crea-
ture like himself, pined away with repentance.
So should those do, who having made themselves
mischievous mirth out of the sins and sorrows of
others, remembering their own humanity, and
seeing within themselves the same lineaments—
so should they grieve and pine away, self-punished.

MEDON.
'Tis an old allegory? and a sad one—and but
too much to the purpose.
 INTRODUCTION. Xlll

ALDA.

I abhor the spirit of ridicule—I dread it and

I despise it. I abhor it because it is in direct
contradiction to the mild and serious spirit of
Christianity; I fear it, because we find that in
every state of society in which it has prevailed as a
fashion, and has given the tone to the manners and
literature, it marked the moral degradation and
approaching destruction of that society; and I
despise it, because it is the usual resource of the
shallow and the base mind, and, when wielded by
the strongest hand with the purest intentions, an
inefficient means of good. The spirit of satire,
reversing the spirit of mercy which is twice
blessed, seems to me twice accursed ;—evil in those
who indulge it—evil to those who are the objects
of it.
MEDON.

" Peut-etre fallait-il que la punition des im-

prudens et des foibles fut confiee a la malignite,
car la pure vertu n'eut jamais ete assez cruelle."

ALDA.

That is a woman's sentiment.

XIV INTRODUCTION.

MEDON.
True—it was; and I have pleasure in re-
minding you that a female satirist by profession
is yet an anomaly in the history of our literature,
as a female schismatic is yet unknown in the his-
tory of our religion. But to what do you attri-
bute the number of satirical women we meet in
society ?

ALDA.

Not to our nature ; but to a state of society in

which the levelling spirit of persiflage has been
long a fashion, and, above all, to a perverse edu-
cation which fosters it. Women, generally speak-
ing, are by nature too much subjected to suffering
in many forms—have too much of fancy and sen-
sibility, and too much of that faculty which some
philosophers call veneration, to be naturally sa-
tirical. I have known but one woman eminently
gifted in mind and person, who is also distin-
guished for powers of satire as bold as merciless ;
and she is such a compound of all that nature
can give of good, and all that society can teach
of evil—
 INTRODUCTION. XV

MEDON.
That she reminds us of the dragon of old,
which was generated between the sun-beams from
heaven and the slime of earth ?

ALDA.

No such thing. Rather of the powerful and

beautiful fairy Melusina9 who had every talent
and every charm under heaven ; but once in so
many hours, was fated to become a serpent. No,
I return to my first position. It is not by ex-
posing folly and scorning fools, that we make other
people wiser, or ourselves happier. But to soften
the heart by images and examples of the kindly
and generous affections—to show how the human
soul is disciplined and perfected by suffering—to
prove how much of possible good njay exist in
things evil and perverted— how much hope there
is for those who despair—how much comfort for
those whom a heartless world has taught to con-
temn both others and themselves, and so put bar-
riers to the hard, cold, selfish, mocking, and level-
ling spirit of the day O would I could do this !
XVI INTRODUCTION.

MEDON.
On the same principle, I suppose, that they
have changed the treatment of lunatics; and
whereas they used to condemn poor distempered
wretches to straw and darkness, stripes and a strait-
waistcoat, they now send them to sunshine and
green fields, to wander in gardens among birds
and flowers, and soothe them with soft music and
kind flattering speech.

ALDA.

You laugh at me !—perhaps I deserve it.

MEDON.

No, in truth: I am a little amused, but most

honestly attentive, and perhaps wish I could
think more like you. But to proceed: I allow
that with this view of the case, you could not
well have chosen your illustrations from real life.
But why not from history ?

ALDA.

As far as history could guide me I have taken

 INTRODUCTION. XV11

her with me in one or two recent publications,

which all tend to the same object. Nor have I
here lost sight of her; but I have entered on a
land where she alone is not to be trusted, and
may make a pleasant companion but a most falla-
cious guide. To drop metaphor : history informs
us that such things have been done or have oc-
curred; but when we come to inquire ^into mo-
tive and characters, it is the most false and partial
and unsatisfactory authority we can refer to.
Women are illustrious in history, not from what
they have been in themselves, but generally in pro-
portion to the mischief they have done or caused.
Those characters best fitted to my purpose are
precisely those of which history never heard, or
disdains to speak : of those which have been
handed down to us by many different authorities
under different aspects we cannot judge without
prejudice; in others there occur certain chasms
which it is difficult to supply ; and hence incon-
sistencies we have no means of reconciling, though
doubtless they might be reconciled if we knew
the whole, instead of a part.
XV111 INTRODUCTION.

MEDON.

But instance—instance !

ALDA.

Examples crowd upon me: but take the first that

occurs. Do you remember that Duchess de Lon-
gueville, whose beautiful picture we were looking
at yesterday ?—the heroine of the Fronde ?—
think of that woman—bold; intriguing, profligate,
vain, ambitious, factious !—who made men rebels
with a smile,—or if that were not enough,—the
lady was not scrupulous,—apparently without prin-
ciple as without shame, nothing was too much !
And then think of the same woman protecting the
virtuous philosopher Arnauld, when he was de-
nounced and condemned ; and from motives which
her worst enemies could not malign, secreting him
in her house, unknown even to her own servants—
preparing his food herself, watching for his safety,
and at length saving him. Her tenderness, her
patience, her discretion, her disinterested benevo-
lence, not only defied danger, (that were little to
a woman of her temper,) but endured a lengthened
 INTRODUCTION. XIX

trial, all the ennui caused by the necessity of keep-

ing her house, continual self-controul, and the
thousand small daily sacrifices which to a vain,
dissipated, proud, impatient woman, must havebeen
hard to bear. Now, if Shakspeare had drawn the
character of the Duchess de Longueville, he would
have shown us the same individual woman in both
situations;—for the same being, with the same
faculties, and passions, and powers, it surely was :
whereas in history, we see in one case a fury of
discord, a woman without modesty or pity ; and
in the other an angel of benevolence, and a wor-
shipper of goodness ; and nothing to connect the
two extremes in our fancy.

MEDON.

But these are contradictions which we meet on

every page of history, which make us giddy with
doubt or sick with belief; and are the proper
subjects of inquiry for the moralist and the philo-
sopher.

ALDA.

I cannot say that professed moralists and philo-

XX INTRODUCTION.

sophers did much to help me out of the dilemma;

but the riddle which history presented I found solved
in the pages of Shakspeare. There the crooked
appeared straight, the inaccessible, easy, the in-
comprehensible, plain. All I sought, I found there ;
his characters combine history and real life; they
are complete individuals, whose hearts and souls
are laid open before us—all may behold and all
judge for themselves.

MEDON.

But all will not judge alike.

ALDA.

No; and herein lies a part of their wonderful

truth. We hear Shakspeare's men and women
discussed, praised and dispraised, liked, disliked,
as real human beings; and in forming our opi-
nions of them, we are influenced by our own cha-
racters, habits of thought, prejudices, feelings,
impulses, just as we are influenced with regard to
our acquaintances and associates.
 INTRODUCTION. XXI

MEDON.

But we are then as likely to misconceive and

misjudge them.

ALDA.

Yes, if we had only the same imperfect means

of studying them. But we can do with them
what we cannot do with real people: we can un-
fold the whole character before us, stripped of all
pretensions of self-love, all disguises of manner.
We can take leisure to examine, to analyse, to
correct our own impressions, to watch the rise and
progress of various passions—we can hate, love,
approve, condemn, without offence to others, with-
out pain to ourselves.

MEDON.

In this respect they may be compared to those

exquisite anatomical preparations of wax; which
those who could not without disgust and horror
dissect a real specimen, may study, and learn the
mysteries of our frame, and all the internal work-
ings of the wondrous machine of life.
XX11 INTRODUCTION.

ALDA.

And it is the safer and the pleasanter way

—for us, at least. But look—that brilliant
rain-drop trembling there in the sunshine, sug-
gests to me another illustration. Passion, when
we contemplate it through the medium of
imagination, is like a ray of light transmitted
through a prism; we can calmly, and with undaz-
zled eye, study its complicate nature, and analyse
its variety of tints; but passion brought home to
us in its reality, through our own feelings and ex-
perience, is like the same ray transmitted through
a lens,—blinding, burning, consuming where it falls.

MEDON.

Your illustration is the most poetical, I allow ;

but not the most just. But tell me, is the ground
you have taken sufficiently large?—is the founda-
tion you have chosen strong enough to bear the
moral superstructure you raise upon it ? You
know the prevalent idea is, that Shakspeare's
women are inferior to his men. This assertion is
constantly repeated, and has been but tamely
refuted.
 INTRODUCTION. XXlll

ALDA.
Professor Richardson ?—

MEDON.

He is as dry as a stick, and his refutation not

successful even as a piece of logic. Then it is
not sufficient for critics to assert this inferiority
and want of variety ; they first assume the fallacy,
then argue upon it. Cibber accounts for it from
the circumstance that all the female parts in Shaks-
peare's time were acted by boys—there were no
women on the stage; and Mackenzie, who ought
to have known better, says that he was not so
happy in his delineations of love and tenderness,
as of the other passions; because, forsooth, the
majesty of his genius could not stoop to the refine-
ments of delicacy :—Preposterous !

ALDA.

Stay ! before we waste epithets of indignation,

let us consider. If these people mean that Shak-
speare's women are inferior in power to his men, I
grant it at once; for in Shakspeare the male and
XXIV INTRODUCTION.

female characters bear precisely the same relation

to each other that they do in nature and in
society—they are not equal in prominence or in
power -they are subordinate throughout. Rich-
ardson remarks, that " if situation influences the
mind, and if uniformity of conduct be frequently
occasioned by uniformity of condition, there must
be a greater diversity of male than of female
characters,"—which is true; add to this, our limited
sphere of action, consequently of experience,—the
habits of self-control rendering the outward dis-
tinctions of character and passion less striking and
less strong—all this we see in Shakspeare as in
nature: for instance, Juliet is the most impas-
sioned of his female characters, but what are her
passions compared to those which shake the soul
of Othello ?

" Even as the dew-drop on the myrtle-leaf,

To the vex'd sea."

Look at Constance, frantic for the loss of her son

—then look at Lear, maddened by the ingratitude
of his daughters ; why it is the west wind bowing
 INTRODUCTION. XXV

those aspen tops that wave before our window,

compared to the tropic hurricane, when forests
crash and burn, and mountains tremble to their
bases !

MEDON.
True; and Lady Macbeth, with all her soaring
ambition, her vigour of intellect, her subtlety,
her courage, and her cruelty—what is she, com-
pared to Richard I I I ?

ALDA.

I will tell you what she is—she is a woman.

Place Lady Macbeth in comparison with Richard
III., and you see at once the essential distinction
between masculine and feminine ambition—though
both in extreme, and overleaping all restraints of
conscience or mercy. Richard says of himself,
that he has " neither pity, love, nor fear :" Lady
Macbeth is susceptible of all three. You smile !
but that remains to be proved. The reason that
Shakspeare's wicked women have such a singular
hold upon our fancy, is from the consistent preser*
 INTRODUCTION.

vation of the feminine character, which renders

them more terrible, because more credible and in-
telligible—not like those monstrous caricatures we
meet with in history—

MEDON.

In history ?—this is new!

ALDA.

Yes! I repeat, in history, where certain isolated

facts and actions are recorded, without any rela-
tion to causes, or motives, or connecting feelings;
and pictures exhibited, from which the considerate
mind turns in disgust, and the feeling heart has
no relief but in positive, and I may add, reason-
able incredulity. I have lately seen one of Cor-
reggio's finest pictures, in which the three Furies
are represented, not as ghastly deformed hags,
with talons, and torches, and snaky hair, but as
young women, with fine luxuriant forms and
regular features, and a single serpent wreathing
the tresses like a bandeau—but such countenances !
—such a hideous expression of malice, cunning,
 INTRODUCTION. XXVH

and cruelty !—and the effect is beyond conception

appalling. Leonardo da Vinci worked upon the
same grand principle of art in his Medusa—

Where it is less the horror than the grace

Which turns the gazer's spirit into stone—
* * * * * *

'Tis the melodious tints of beauty thrown

Athwart the hue of guilt and glare of pain,
That humanise and harmonise the strain.

And Shakspeare, who vmder stood all truth, worked

out his conceptions on the same principle, having
said hijnself, that " proper deformity shows not
in the fiend so horrid as in woman.11 Hence it is
that whether he portrayed the wickedness founded
in perverted power, as in Lady Macbeth; or
the wickedness founded in weakness, as in
Gertrude, Lady Anne, or Cressida, he is the more
fearfully impressive, because we cannot claim for
ourselves an exemption from the same nature,
before which, in its corrupted state, we tremble
with horror or shrink with disgust.
VOL. i. c
XXV111 INTRODUCTION.

MEDON,

Do you remember that some of the commenta-

tors of Shakspeare have thought it incumbent on
their gallantry to express their utter contempt for
the scene between Richard and Lady Anne, as a
monstrous and incredible libel on your sex ?

ALDA,
They might have spared themselves the trouble.
Lady Anne is just one of those women whom we
see walking in crowds through the drawing-rooms
of the world—the puppets of habit, the fools of
fortune, without any particular inclination for vice,
or any steady principle of virtue ; whose actions are
inspired by vanity, not affection, and regulated by opi-
nion, not by conscience ; who are good while there
is no temptation to be otherwise, and ready victims
of the first soliciting to evil. In the case of Lady
Anne, we are startled by the situation : not three
months a widow, and following to the sepulchre the
remains of a husband and a father, she is met and
wooed and won by the very man who murdered them.
In such a case it required perhaps either Richard
 INTRODUCTION. XXIX

or the arch-fiend himself to tempt her successfully ;

but in a less critical moment, a far less subtle and
audacious seducer would have sufficed. Cressida
is another modification of vanity, weakness, and
falsehood, drawn in stronger colours. The world
contains many Lady Annes and Cressidas, polished
and refined externally, whom chance and vanity
keep right, whom chance and vanity lead wrong,
just as it may happen. When we read in history
of the enormities of certain women, perfect scare-
crows and ogresses, we can safely, like the Phari-
see in Scripture, hug ourselves in our secure virtue,
and thank God that we are not as others are m
—but the wicked women in Shakspeare are por-
trayed with such perfect consistency and truth,
that they leave us no such resource—they frighten
us into reflection—they make us believe and trem-
ble. On the other hand, his amiable women are
touched with such exquisite simplicity—they have
so little external pretension—and are so unlike
the usual heroines of tragedy and romance, that
they delight us more " than all the nonsense of the
beau-ideal!" We are flattered by the perception
c %
XXX INTRODUCTION.

of our own nature in the midst of so many charms

and virtues: not only are they what we could
wish to be, or ought to be, but what we persuade
ourselves we might be, or would be, under a dif-
ferent and a happier state of things, and perhaps,
some time or other, may be. They are not stuck
up, like the cardinal virtues, all in a row, for us to
admire and wonder at—they are not mere poetical
abstractions—nor (as they have been termed) mere
abstractions of the affections,—
But common clay ta'en from the common earth,
Moulded by God, and tempered by the tears
Of angels, to the perfect form of—woman.

MEDON.

Beautiful lines !—Where are they ?

ALDA.

I quote from memory, and I am afraid inac-

curately, from a poem of Alfred Tennyson's.

MEDON.

Well, between argument, and sentiment, and

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68

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354 docile General

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rivers

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286 Female

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TEXT It

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