Virtue is arbitrary, nor admits debate:
To doubt is treason in her rigid court;
But if ye parley with the foe
you’re lost.
Lillo.—Arden of Feversham, Act III.
Thou shall not depart with impunity, nor shalt thou return to Caneus; and by experience shalt thou learn what one slighted, What on in love, what a woman, can do.
Riley’s Ovid, Meta. Book XIV. Page 497.
Where is the man who has the power and skill
To stem the torrent of a woman’s will?
For if she will, she
will, you may depend on’t,
And if she won’t, she won’t, and there’s an end on’t.
Anonymous.—3 Notes and Queries, 285, said to be on a Pillar in the Dungeon Field, Canterbury.
WOMAN.—Heav’n has no rage like love to hatred turn’d,
Nor hell a fury, like a woman scorn’d.
Congreve.—Mourning Bride, Act III. Scene 8.
A woman mov’d is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And, while it is
so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it.
Such duty as the subject owes the
prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband.
Shakespeare.—Taming of the Shrew, Act V. Scene 2. (Kate telling the Women their duty to their Husbands.)
He is a fool, who thinks by force or skill
To turn the current of a woman’s will.
Tuke.—The Adventures of Five Hours, Act V. Scene 3.
And first, a woman will or won’t—depend on’t:
If she will do’t, she will:—and there’s an end on’t.
Aaron Hill.—Epilogue to Zara.
The man that lays his hand upon a woman,
Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch
Whom ’twere gross
flattery to name a coward.
Tobin.—The Honey Moon, Act II. Scene 1.
How sweetly sounds the voice of a good woman!
It is so seldom heard, that, when it speaks,
It ravishes
all senses.
Massinger.—The Old Law, Act IV. Scene 2.
She looks as clear as morning roses newly wash’d with dew.
Shakespeare.—Taming of the Shrew, Act II. Scene 1. (Petruchio, just preceding his first interview with Kate.)
Three things a wise man will not trust,
The wind, the sunshine of an April day,
And woman’s plighted
faith.
Southey.—Madoc, Stanza 23.
Be that you are,
That is, a woman; if you be more, you’re none.
Shakespeare.—Measure for Measure, Act II. Scene 4. (Angelo to Isabel.)