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Read Ebook: Novelas ejemplares by Cervantes Saavedra Miguel De
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Ebook has 1097 lines and 70483 words, and 22 pages
Page INTRODUCTION 8
CHARACTERS OF INTELLECT. Portia 53 Isabella 83 Beatrice 99 Rosalind 110
CHARACTERS OF PASSION AND IMAGINATION. Juliet 119 Helena 153 Perdita 172 Viola 181 Ophelia 187 Miranda 207
CHARACTERS OF THE AFFECTIONS. Hermione 219 Desdemona 240 Imogen 259 Cordelia 280
HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. Cleopatra 302 Octavia 341 Volumnia 345 Constance of Bretagne 357 Elinor of Guienne 387 Blanche of Castile 389 Margaret of Anjou 396 Katharine of Arragon 407 Lady Macbeth 437
CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN.
INTRODUCTION.
ALDA.
You will not listen to me?
MEDON.
I do, with all the deference which befits a gentleman when a lady holds forth on the virtues of her own sex.
He is a parricide of his mother's name, 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;" '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 courtesy is due to him and to you:--but now will you listen to me?
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, 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 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 surplus. 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 affectation, for the profession of disinterestedness is uncalled 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 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 judge 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 superiority, 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 men?
ALDA.
Did you ever talk with a man of the world, who did not speak with levity or contempt of the whole human race of women?
MEDON.
Perhaps I might answer like Voltaire--"H?las 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 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 conceived such an impossible idea.
MEDON.
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