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, 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! I have done, unless you will lay aside these mock airs of gallantry, and listen to me for a moment! Is it fair to bring a secondhand accusation against me, and not attend to my defence? MEDON. Well, I will be serious. ALDA. Do so, and let us talk like reasonable beings. MEDON. Then tell me, (as a reasonable woman you will not be affronted with the question,) do you really expect that any one will read this little book of yours? |