TEN CENT POCKET SERIES NO. 77
Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius
What Great Men Have
Said About Women
HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY
GIRARD. KANSAS
SHAKESPEARE.
Where is any author in the world
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
Love's Labour's Lost, A. 4, S. 3.
The idea of her life shall sweetly creep
Into his study of imagination;
And every lovely organ of her life
Shall come apparel'd in more precious habit,
More moving-delicate, and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of his soul.
Much Ado About Nothing, A. 4, S. 1.
Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks,
Shall win my love.
Taming of the Shrew, A. 4, S. 2.
Win her with gifts, if she respect not words;
Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind,
More than quick words, do move a woman's mind.
Two Gentlemen of Verona, A. 3, S. 1.
You, that have so fair parts of woman on you,
Have too a woman's heart: which ever yet
Affected eminence, wealth, sovereignty.
Henry VIII., A. 2, S. 3.
'Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud;
'Tis virtue that doth make them most admired.
Henry VI., Pt. 3, A. 1, S. 4.
From woman's eyes this doctrine I derive;
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world.
Love's Labour's Lost, A. 4, S. 3.
Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low: an excellent thing in woman.
King Lear, A. 5, S. 3.
Have you not heard it said full oft,
A woman's nay doth stand for naught?
The Passionate Pilgrim, Line 14.
Thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise,
And make it halt behind her.
The Tempest, A. 4. S. 1.
Good name in man and woman,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Othello, A. 3, S. 3.
Women are soft, pitiful, and flexible.
Henry VI., Pt. 3, A. 1. S. 4.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And, when she's froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she, but a contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
Taming of the Shrew, A. 5, S. 2.
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.
Antony and Cleopatra, A. 2, S. 2.
She's beautiful, and therefore to be wooed;
She is a woman, therefore to be won.
Henry VI., Pt. 1, A. 5, S. 3.
Say, that she rail; why, then I'll tell her plain
She sings as sweetly as a nightingale;
Say, that she frown; I'll say, she looks as clear
As morning roses newly wash'd with dew;
Say, she be mute, and will not speak a word;
Then I'll commend her volubility,
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence.
Taming of the Shrew, A. 2, S. 1.
Flatter, and praise, commend, extol their graces;
... Say they have angels' faces.
That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man,
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.
Two Gentlemen of Verona, A. 3. S. 1.
Bethink thee on her virtues that Surmount,
And natural graces that extinguish art;
And, which is more, she is not so divine,
So full-replete with choice of all delights,
But, with as humble lowliness of mind,
She is content to be at your command.
Henry VI., Pt. 1, A. 5, S. 5.
Let still the woman take
An elder than herself; so wears she to him,
So sways she level in her husband's heart.
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn.
Than women's are.
Twelfth Night, A. 2, S. 4.
'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white
Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on.
Twelfth Night, A. 1, S. 5.
Fresh tears
Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honey-dew
Upon a gather'd lily almost wither'd.
Titus Andronicus, A. 3, S. 1.
Patience and sorrow strove
Who should express her goodliest. You have seen
Sunshine and rain at once; her smiles and tears
Were like a better day: those happy smilets,
That play'd on her ripe lip, seem'd not to know
What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence,
As pearls from diamonds dropp'd.
King Lear, A. 4, S. 2.
She is mine own;
And I as rich in having such a jewel
As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
Two Gentlemen of Verona, A. 2, S. 4.
A woman impudent and mannish grown
Is not more loath'd than an effeminate man
In time of action.
Troilus and Cressida, A. 3, S. 3.
A woman's face, with Nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou ...
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false woman's fashion:
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth.
Sonnet XX.
No other but a woman's reason;
I think him so, because I think him so.
Two Gentlemen of Verona, A. 1, S. 2.
The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good: the goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace being the soul of your complexion, should keep the body of it ever fair.
Measure for Measure, A. 3, S. 1.
If ladies be but young and fair,
They have the gift to know it.
As You Like It, A. 2, S. 7.
If she do frown, 'tis not in hate of you,
But rather to beget more love in you:
If she do chide, 'tis not to have you gone;
Take no repulse, whatever she doth say;
For "Get you gone," she doth not mean "Away!"
Two Gentlemen of Verona, A. 3, S. 1.
She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: she pin'd in thought,
And, with a green and yellow melancholy,
She saw, like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief.
Twelfth Night, A. 2, S. 4.
She shall be
A pattern to all ... living with her....
Holy and heavenly thoughts shall still counsel her;
She shall be lov'd and fear'd. Her own shall bless her....
... Those about her
From her shall read the perfect ways of honour....
... Yet a virgin,
A most unspotted lily shall she pass
To the ground, and all shall mourn her.
Henry VIII., A. 5, S. 4.
JOHN MILTON.
Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
When I approach
Her loveliness, so absolute she seems
And in herself complete, so well to know
Her own, that what she wills to do or say
Seems wisest, virtuest, discreetest, best.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
Nothing lovelier can be found
In woman than to study household good,
And good works in her husband to promote.
Paradise Lost, Book 9.
For contemplation he and valour form'd;
For softness she and sweet attractive grace;
He for God only, she for God in him.
Paradise Lost, Book 4.
Among daughters of men …
Many are in each region passing fair
As the noon sky; more like to goddesses
Than mortal creatures; graceful and discreet;
… Persuasive …
Such objects have the power to soften and tame
Severest temper.
Paradise Regained, Book 2.
Ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence.
L'Allegro.
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined.
Sonnet.
O fairest of Creation, last and best
Of all God's works, creature in whom excell'd
Whatever can to sight or thought be form'd,
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet!
Paradise Lost, Book 9.
Curiosity, inquisitive, importune
Of secrets, then with like infirmity
To publish them, both common female faults.
Samson Agonistes.
In argument with men, a woman ever
Goes by the worse, whatever be her cause.
Samson Agonistes.
Thus it will befall
Him who to worth in woman overturning
Lets her will rule; restraint she will not brook,
And left to herself, if evil thence ensue,
She first his weak indulgence will accuse.
Paradise Lost, Book 9.
Daughter of God …
I, from the influence of thy looks, receive
Access in every virtue: and in thy sight
More wise, more watchful, stronger, if need were
Of outward strength; while shame, thou looking on.
Shame to be overcome or overreach'd.
Would utmost vigour raise, and raised unite.
Why shouldst not thou like sense within thee feel
When I am present, and thy trial choose
With me, best witness of thy virtue tried?
Paradise Lost, Book 9.
By his countenance he seem'd
Entering on studious thoughts abstruse; which Eve
Perceiving, where she sat retired in sight,
With lowliness majestic from her seat,
And grace that won who saw to wish her stay,
Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flowers,
To visit how they prosper'd, bud and bloom,
Her nursery; they at her coming sprung,
And, touch'd by her fair tendance gladlier grew.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity,
That, when a soul is found sincerely so
A thousand liveried angels lackey her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
And in clear dream and solemn vision
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear;
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants
Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape.
Comus.
A smile that glow'd
Celestial rosy red, love's proper hue.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
She has a hidden strength …
… The strength of Heaven,
It may be termed her own.
'Tis chastity … chastity….
She that has that, is clad in complete steel;
And, like a quiver'd Nymph with arrows keen,
May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths,
… and sandy perilous wilds …
She may pass on with unblench'd majesty
Be it not done in pride, or in presumption.
Comus.
O Woman, in thy native innocence, rely
On what thou hast of virtue: summon all,
For God toward thee hath done His part, do thine.
Paradise Lost, Book 9.
What higher in her society thou find'st
Attractive, human, rational, love still;
In loving thou dost well, in passion not
Wherein true love consists not.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks,
Safest and seemliest by her husband stays,
Who guards her, or with her the worst endures.
Paradise Lost, Book 9.
Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat
Build in her loveliest, and create an awe
About her, as a guard angelic placed.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
Those graceful acts,
Those thousand decencies that daily flow
From all her words and actions mix'd with love
And sweet compliance, which declare unfeign'd
Union of mind, or in us both one soul;
Harmony to behold in wedded pair
More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure,
Sober, steadfast, and demure.
With even step and musing gait;
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy wrapt soul sitting in thine eyes.
Il Penseroso.
Innocence and virgin modesty
Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth,
That would be woo'd, and not unsought be won
Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired
The more desirable.
Paradise Lost, Book 8.
Lady, thy care is fix'd, and zealously attends
To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light.
And hope that reaps not shame.