Characteristics of Women: Moral, Poetical, and Historical

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CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN

MORAL, POETICAL, AND HISTORICAL

BY

MRS. JAMESON

_From the last London Edition_

[Illustration]

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press,
Cambridge 1889




PREFACE

TO THE NEW EDITION.


In preparing for the press a new edition of this little work, the author
has endeavored to render it more worthy of the approbation and kindly
feeling with which it has been received; she cannot better express her
sense of both than by justifying, as far as it is in her power, the
cordial and flattering tone of all the public criticisms. It is to the
great name of SHAKSPEARE, that bond of sympathy among all who speak his
language, and to the subject of the work, not to its own merits, that
she attributes the success it has met with,--success the more
delightful, because, in truth, it was from the very first, so entirely
unlooked for, as to be a matter of surprise as well as of pleasure and
gratitude.

In this edition there are many corrections, and some additions which the
author hopes may be deemed improvements. She has been induced to insert
several quotations at length, which were formerly only referred to, from
observing that however familiar they may be to the mind of the reader,
they are always recognized with pleasure--like dear domestic faces; and
if the memory fail at the moment to recall the lines or the sentiment to
which the attention is directly required, few like to interrupt the
course of thought, or undertake a journey from the sofa or garden-seat
to the library, to hunt out the volume, the play, the passage, for
themselves.

When the first edition was sent to press, the author contemplated
writing the life of Mrs. Siddons, with a reference to her art; and
deferred the complete development of the character of Lady Macbeth, till
she should be able to illustrate it by the impersonation and commentary
of that grand and gifted actress; but the task having fallen into other
hands, the analysis of the character has been almost entirely rewritten,
as at first conceived, or rather restored to its original form.

This little work, as it now stands, forms only part of a plan which the
author hopes, if life be granted her, to accomplish;--at all events,
life, while it is spared, shall be devoted to its fulfilment.




CONTENTS.


                                              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.


_Scene--A Library._

                    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!