Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A67449
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A dialogue concerning women, being a defence of the sex written to Eugenia.
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Walsh, William, 1663-1708.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing W645; ESTC R13108
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44,218
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144
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much better pleas'd by a Gallant but if she were one who valu'd her Chastity so much and her Life so little as they wou'd make us believe 't is somewhat odd that she shou'd rather let Tarquin enjoy her alive than a Slave lye in the Bed with her when she was dead and that she shou'd chuse to commit the Sin rather than bear the Shame But let us forgive 'em all these things I have mention'd and since Le Chambre assures us that there is no Beauty in a Woman but what is a sign of some Vice let us attribute it to Nature's fault not theirs and reckon that the more vicious they are the nearer they come to the perfection of the Sex and indeed not spending much time in their Conversations I will pardon 'em all their Levity Babling Malice and Impertinence and being unmarried shall not be so severe upon their Lusts and Adulteries provided they will stop there Let Helen run away from her Husband with a handsomer man but let her not suffer all Troy to be ruin'd for the keeping her there Let Clytemnestra lye with another man during her Husband's absence but let her not murder him for it when he comes home Let Semiramis make use of all the handsomest Fellows of her Army but let her not put 'em to death for fear they should tell tales and tho' I wou'd forgive her yet her own Sex wou'd never pardon her being the first maker of Eunuchs Let Phaedra and Fausta invite their Husbands Sons to supply their Fathers defects but let 'em not accuse 'em and have 'em put to death for refusing Let Ioan of Naples make use of all the men in her Kingdom but let her not strangle her Husband for his imperfections in a point that he cou'd not help That Cruelty and Barbarity I confess is what provokes me so much against the Sex I can see Tibullus's Mistress jilt him for a Fool who is not half so handsome I can see Ovid waiting all night at his Mistress's Door whilst another man is in her Arms and I can see half a score Impertinent Women plaguing you with non-sensical Stories and be very well diverted all the while but I confess I cannot hear of Medea's cutting her Brother in pieces and strewing his Limbs in the way to stop her pursuing Father without horror and dread nor of her treating her own Children after the same manner to revenge her self upon Iason without a like emotion I know not how other People may bear such things but for my part when I see all the Murders and Barbarities they commit to revenge themselves on their unconstant Lovers to get rid of their Husbands for some one they like better or to prevent the discovery of their Lewdness but my Hair stands on end my Blood shrinks and I am possess'd with an utter detestation of the Sex Go but one Circuit with the Judges here in England observe how many Women are condemn'd for killing their Bastard Children and tell me if you think their Cruelties can be equal'd or whether you think those who commit such Actions fit for your or for any Civil Conversation But I see by your looks you are convinc'd I see you abandon your Cause and I shall cease to expose any farther a Sex of whose Patronage you seem already asham'd Here Misogynes left off and Phylogynes began to answer him But I must beg your pardon Sir said my Friend for my time is come and I must necessarily be gone The Devil you shall said I you wou'd engage me in a pretty Affair I promise a Lady a Defence of her Sex and you will make me send her a Satyr against it Truly my dear Friend said he I design'd to have told you all but 't is later than I thought and I have Business waits for me No Business said I can be so considerable to you as the satisfying a fair Lady is to me therefore sit down and bring me fairly off what you have told me already or you and I shall be Friends no longer After all Madam to tell you the truth tho' there is no great matter in this speech of Misogynes yet I can hardly believe he made it upon a sudden 't is possible tho' they two having discours'd the matter as they told us before might have provided themselves each with Arguments But supposing that I can scarce believe one man wou'd be suffer'd to talk so long without interruption at least I am sure some who we know were none of the Company But 't is possible that he who told me might leave out all that was spoke by others for brevity sake being as you see in haste If you are as apt to be mistaken in your Judgment of Things as of Looks reply'd Philogynes 't is no wonder you shou'd make such strange Conclusions Whatever seriousness you may see in my Face does not I 'll assure you proceed from any distrust of my Cause but an astonishment at what strange Arguments the Invention of man can suggest against the best things that are I say The Invention of man for I am far from believing you in earnest in this point I have too just an opinion of Misogynes to think he does any thing but put on this humour for a tryal of skill and I no more believe you a hater of Women for the Invective you have made against 'em than I believe Erasmus a lover of Folly for the Encomium he has writ upon it If you have therefore any thing more to urge forbear it not upon any suppos'd Conviction you see in my Countenance for notwithstanding that I think you have handled the Subject as fully as any one who has undertaken it yet I 'll assure you I cannot submit to your Arguments and therefore am very ready to hear any thing you have further to urge No says Misogynes I am sensible I have troubled the Company long enough about a trifle and 't is very fit you shou'd have your turn of speaking now Part of the Company was already convinc'd by his Arguments the other part thought he had said as much as the matter wou'd bear and therefore both agreed in desiring Philogynes to speak what he had to say which he did in this manner I confess Sir said he smiling when I saw the Associates you allotted me at first I began to despair of my Cause I own I was asham'd of my Company and resolv'd to pack up Baggage instantly and quit a Trade in which none but Fops and Fools were engag'd but when I saw the Anacreons the Oâ—ids and all the Wits Antient and Modern in the same circumstances I eâ—en took Heart again Courage said I the Business is not so bad as I thought and 〈◊〉 possible his Heart may relent and allow us some better Company than he condemn'd us to at first At least thought I if 't is a Folly to converse with Women 't is some comfort that he owns it to be a Folly
of his disorder as well as he himself which in Odes and Elegies you cannot do You see the Lover there in a fury but what cause he has to be so there is no body to tell you but he who is in it Add to this that a Man often feigns jealousie of his Mistress to hinder her from being so of him and will upbraid her falshood to defend his own That is a thing now I confess Madam which I can hardly believe And it is evident they had not really any such bad Opinion of Women since with all this they did not cease to run after ' em However if you think these general Answers not sufficient let us see what we can say to particulars For the Complaints of Cruelty and Scorn I look upon 'em as things of course and therefore shall say nothing to ' em If Anacreon's Mistress did ask him nothing but money why did he chuse one whose necessities drove her upon it And if other Men have made complaints of the Womens minding wealth more than Love I desire to know whether Women have not as much reason to make the same Complaints of the Men. And for those who talk of their Mistresses inconstancy let us see first whether they were Constant to them For Ovid he does not pretend to put it upon you but complains in one place of his being in Love with two at once and tells you frankly in another that he was in Love with all the Town For Horace Suetonius or who ever it was that writ his Life informs you that he was intemperately given to Women and what wonder then that a Man who try'd so many shou'd find one or two false Tibullus had two Mistresses whom he Celebrates by name and there are some more Elegies that it does not appear whether they are writ to them or others and tho' he tells us the Report was that his Mistress was kind to other men yet the Report gave him so much torment that he desired it should be stifled if therefore you have any friendship for him endeavour to fulfil his desire in that point For Propertius besides his intemperate Love of all Women he tells you his Mistress caught him with two Wenches at the same time and confesses that he rails at the incontinence of Women only because she upbraided him with his Thus whatever qualifications those Great Men had Constancy you see was none and tho' we allow you each of 'em had merit enough for any one Woman yet one Man can hardly have enough for half a score Now if Ruine and Desolation has come to Great Men and States from Women it shew'd they had a good Opinion of the Sex in general that they wou'd suffer for 'em and had they not been sensible the greatest part were good they cou'd never have been impos'd upon by the bad Then as for those Ill Women whom you have mention'd as I suppose you will not undertake to defend all the Actions of Tyrants and Murderers so I do not think my self at all obliged to defend all the Women who have been guilty of some of their Crimes The Dispute is not whether there have been any Ill Women in the world but whether there are not more Good And when I have told you that the same Book that condemns Dalilah cries up Deborah and Iael That if Homer has represented Helen guilty of some faults for you will see that Homer does not represent her Cause so violently bad he tells us of Hecuba and Andromache and a thousand others who were very good ones That if Clytemnestra was false to Agamemnon Penelope was as Famous for her Truth to Vlysses and so put you Example against Example which I forbear to do only because it is so very easie should I I say do but this you cou'd not complain that your Arguments were unanswer'd But truly Sir we might carry the thing much farther we might defend some of those Women you mention'd and excuse the rest For Dalilah I shall say nothing out of respect to the Scripture that represents her as an Ill Woman 't is possible were she alive she might tell you in her own defence that what account you have of her is from her profest Enemies That however taking the thing as they tell it if she did commit a piece of treachery it was against an Enemy of her Country and that it was very hard she should be so much run down for the same thing they have so much admired in Iael and Iudeth as well as every body else did in Marcus Brutus she wou'd perhaps push her defence further and tell you that thô she deliver'd Samson to the Philistins to be kept Prisoner yet she neither drove a Nail through his head nor cut it off But for Helen give me leave to tell you 't is a great dispute amongst the Historians whether she was forc'd away by Paris or went by her own consent several are of the former Opinion and Hoelztzim says plainly he wonders Homer will put such a ridiculous Story upon the world as to make her the occasion of the Trojan War Menelaus it must be confest Madam if the Story be true was a very easie good natur'd Husband who would be at so much pains and charge to fetch back a Wife who run away with another man I do not remember in my own memory to have known above Five or Six Examples like it And Plato speaks as if the belying her were the cause of Homer's blindness as well as of Stesichorus's but that the latter understood the way of expiating his fault better and made his recantation to this effect That there was not a word of truth in the Story of her going to Troy If Clytemnestra was consenting to her Husband's death yet it was Egisthus a man who gave the blow And if Thaâ—s did adviâ—e the burning Persepolis yet it was not less a Person than Alexander the Great who put it in Execution And as for Deianira and Cleopatra whatever fatality arrived to their Lovers from 'em may certainly be very well excused upon the innocence of their Intentions and their punishment of themselves afterwards the one Hanging the other Poisoning her selâ— Iâ— the Capuan Women destroy'd Annibal's Army they destroy'd a Body of Enemies that all the men in Italy could not In like manner for your other Instances we might tell you that Procopius who tells those terrible Stories of Theodora is so very passionate all along and mixes such ridiculous Fables with what he tells that there is no great credit to be given to him This Procopius was a Souldier under Justinian and has writ amongst other things a Secret History of those Times In this he repreâ—ents the Empress Theodora more like a Devil than a Woman he makes her and the Emperour converse frequently with Spirits and makes her put 'em to an Employment that savours more of the Flesh than the Spirit Tho'