Read Homer once, and you can read no more; For all books else appear so mean, so poor, Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read, And Homer will be all the books you need.
O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee To temper man: we had been brutes without you. Angels are painted fair, to look like you: There s in you all that we believe of heaven, Amazing brightness, purity, and truth, Eternal joy, and everlasting love.
What mighty ills have not been done by woman! Who was t betrayed the Capitol?A woman! Who lost Mark Antony the world?A woman! Who was the cause of a long ten years war, And laid at last old Troy in ashes?Woman! Destructive, damnable, deceitful woman!2
Let us embrace, and from this very moment vow an eternal misery together.3
The Orphan. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Note 1. See Shakespeare, page 112. Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes; Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart. Thomas Gray: The Bard, part i. stanza 3. [back]
Note 2. O woman, woman! when to ill thy mind Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend. Alexander Pope: Homers Odyssey, book xi. line 531. [back]