ALDA. I quote from memory, and I am afraid inaccurately, from a poem of Alfred Tenny son's. MEDON. Well, between argument, and sentiment, and logic, and poetry, you are making out a very plausible case. I think with you, that, in the instances you have mentioned (as Lady Macbeth and Richard, Juliet and Othello, and others), the want of comparative power is only an additional excellence; but to go to an opposite extreme of delineation, we must allow that there is not one of Shakspeare's women that, as a dramatic character, can be compared to Falstaff. ALDA. No; because anything like Falstaff in the form of woman-any such compound of wit, sensuality, and selfishness, unchecked by the moral sentiments and the affections, and touched with the same vigorous painting, would be a gross and VOL. I. Ꭰ monstrous caricature. If it could exist in nature we might find it in Shakspeare; but moment's reflection shows us that it would be essentially an impossible combination of faculties in a female. MEDON. It strikes me, however, that his humorous women are feebly drawn, in comparison with some of the female wits of other writers. ALDA. Because his women of wit and humour are not introduced for the sole purpose of saying brilliant things, and displaying the wit of the author; they are as I will show you, real, natural woman, in whom wit is only a particular and occasional modification of intellect. They are all, in the first place, affectionate, thinking beings, and moral agents; and then witty, as if by accident, or as the Duchesse de Chaulnes said of herself, "par la grâce de Dieu." As to humour, it is carried as far as pos sible in Mrs. Quickly; in the termagant Catherine; in Maria, in "Twelfth Night;" in Juliet's nurse; in Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page. What can exceed in humorous naïveté, Mrs. Quickly's upbraiding Falstaff, and her concluding appeal-"Didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings?" Is it not exquisite irresistible? Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page are both "merry wives," but how perfectly discriminated! Mrs. Ford has the most good-nature-Mrs. Page is the cleverer of the two, and has more sharpness in her tongue, more mischief in her mirth. In all these instances I allow that the humour is more or less vulgar; but a humorous woman, whether in high or low life, has always a tinge of vulgarity. MEDON. I should like to see that word vulgar properly defined, and its meaning limitedat present it is the most arbitrary word in the language. ALDA. Yes, like the word romantic, it is a convenient "exploding word," and in its general application signifies nothing more than "see how much finer I am than other people!" but in literature and character I shall adhere to the definition of Madame de Staël, who uses the word vulgar as the reverse of poetical. Vulgarity (as I wish to apply the word) is the negative in all things. In literature, it is the total absence of elevation and depth in the ideas, and of elegance and delicacy in the expression of them. In character, it is the absence of truth, sensibility, and reflection. vulgar in manner, is the result of vulgarity of character; it is grossness, hardness, or affectation. If you would see how Shakspeare has discriminated, not only different degrees, but different kinds of plebeian vulgarity in women, you have only to compare the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet The 1 See Foster's Essay on the application of the word romantic.-Essays, vol. i. with Mrs. Quickly. On the whole, if there are people who, taking the strong and essential distinction of sex into consideration, still maintain that Shakspeare's female characters are not, in truth, in variety, in power, equal to his men, I think I shall prove the contrary. MEDON. I observe that you have divided your illustrations into classes; but shades of character so melt into each other, and the various faculties and powers are so blended and balanced, that all classification must be arbitrary. I am at a loss to conceive where you have drawn the line; here at the head of your first chapter I find "Characters of Intellect"-do you call Portia intellectual, and Hermione and Constance not so? ALDA. I know that Schlegel has said that it is impossible to arrange Shakspeare's characters in classes: yet some classification was |