uperstructure you raise upon it? You know the prevalent idea is, that
Shakspeare's women are inferior to his men. This assertion is constantly
repeated, and has been but tamely refuted.

ALDA.

Professor Richardson?--

MEDON.

He is as dry as a stick, and his refutation not successful even as a
piece of logic. Then it is not sufficient for critics to assert this
inferiority and want of variety: they first assume the fallacy, then
argue upon it. Cibber accounts for it from the circumstance that all the
female parts in Shakspeare's time were acted by boys--there were no
women on the stage; and Mackenzie, who ought to have known better, says
that he was not so happy in his delineations of love and tenderness, as
of the other passions; because, forsooth, the majesty of his genius
could not stoop to the refinements of delicacy;--preposterous!

ALDA.

Stay! before we waste epithets of indignation, let us consider. If these
people mean that Shakspeare's women are inferior in power to his men, I
grant it at once; for in Shakspeare the male and female characters bear
precisely the same relation to each other that they do in nature and in
society--they are not equal in prominence or in power--they are
subordinate throughout. Richardson remarks, that "if situation
influences the mind, and if uniformity of conduct be frequently
occasioned by uniformity of condition, there _must_ be a greater
diversity of male than of female characters,"--which is true; add to
this our limited sphere of action, consequently of experience,--the
habits of self-control rendering the outward distinctions of character
and passion less striking and less strong--all this we see in Shakspeare
as in nature: for instance, Juliet is the most impassioned of the female
characters, but what are _her_ passions compared to those which shake
the soul of Othello?

"Even as the dew-drop on the myrtle-leaf
To the vex'd sea."

Look at Constance, frantic for the loss of her son--then look at Lear,
maddened by the ingratitude of his daughters: why it is the west wind
bowing those aspen tops that wave before our window, compared to the
tropic hurricane, when forests crash and burn, and mountains tremble to
their bases!

MEDON.

True; and Lady Macbeth, with all her soaring ambition, her vigor of
intellect, her subtlety, her courage, and her cruelty--what is she,
compared to