ief, and fear," but
among the poor, the miserable, the perverted--among those habitually
exposed to all influences that harden and deprave.

MEDON.

I believe it--nay, I know it; but how should _you_ know it, or anything
of the strange places of refuge which truth and nature have found in the
two extremes of society?

ALDA.

It is no matter what I have seen or known; and for the two extremes of
society, I leave them to the author of Paul Clifford, and that most
exquisite painter of living manners, Mrs. Gore. St. Giles's is no more
_nature_ than St. James's. I wanted character in its essential truth,
not mortified by particular customs, by fashion, by situation. I wished
to illustrate the manner in which the affections would naturally display
themselves in women--whether combined with high intellect, regulated by
reflection, and elevated by imagination, or existing with perverted
dispositions, or purified by the moral sentiments. I found all these in
Shakspeare; his delineations of women, in whom the virtuous and calm
affections predominate, and triumph over shame, fear, pride, resentment,
vanity, jealousy,--are particularly worthy of consideration, and perfect
in their kind, because so quiet in their effect.

MEDON.

Several critics have remarked in general terms on those beautiful
pictures of female friendship, and of the generous affection of women
for each other, which we find in Shakspeare. Other writers, especially
dramatic writers, have found ample food for wit and satiric delineation
in the littleness of feminine spite and rivalry, in the mean spirit of
competition, the petty jealousy of superior charms, the mutual slander
and mistrust, the transient leagues of folly or selfishness miscalled
friendship--the result of an education which makes vanity the ruling
principle, and of a false position in society. Shakspeare, who looked
upon women with the spirit of humanity, wisdom, and deep love, has done
justice to their natural good tendencies and kindly sympathies. In the
friendship of Beatrice and Hero, of Rosalind and Celia; in the
description of the girlish attachment of Helena and Hermia, he has
represented truth and generous affection rising superior to all the
usual sources of female rivalry and jealousy; and with such force and
simplicity, and obvious self-conviction, that he absolutely forces the
same conviction on us.

A