The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-11-16

| penetrate into the region OF the super
sensible for illustration.
How ingenious, sweet, innocent, affec-
| tionate is PrOspero's daughter. What
perfect womanliness, untarnished by so
phistication or conventionality-s very
wild flower, coupled with the uncon-
scious inheritance Of culture and gentle
blood! She is so natural that she must
follow the law Of her being and lose her
virgin heart to any man with whom she
may be thrown. 1t was inevitable that
she should love Ferdinand; but might
she not have been in danger even from
the deformed Caliban, whom, in the alb
sence of other male creatures, she might
have idealized into symmetry and kind
illness? Miranda will always be the Do
etc representative of freshness. purity
and romantic love allied to flial duty in
budding womanhOOd.
Isabella is a most devoted sister. who,
to preserve her brother Claudio's life.
would sacrifice anything, everything,
save her own honor. When this is de-
manded of her by Angelo, and when
Claudio basely suggests that her yield
ing herself might, in such a cause,
become a shining virtue, she turns
on him with righteous wrath, and
blights him with her scOrn. Her sense
Of chastity is holy instinct that can
not for one moment be suppressed. She
is, in truth, a thing enskied and sainted.
When ClaudiO's natural manliness,
cowed by the vapor of apprehension.
has revived, her sisterly tenderness re-
turns, with an added horror and detes-
tation of the lustful deputy. And then,
again, discovering that Claudio has been
spared by ruse, she pleads for Angelo.
her would be ruiner, who had been deaf
to her piteous appeals for mercy. Such
changes, such opposites, are common TO
women, especially to those of ardent,
emotional temperament. Isabella is
thorough and most exalted woman, and
womanly to the core. Nothing is truer
of her kind than that she should have
resolved in the first act to enter a nun
merry, and that she should in the fifth
give her hand to Vinceatio. who had in
disguise witnessed her steadfastness
under trial and thereby been captivated
The zeal that women feel for religion
often springs from the suppressed fire of
their man-lOving hearts. The priest or
the lover kindles the flame, abstract or
personal, as circumstance decides, but
in some form tie lover, spiritual or
material. is ever there.
Titania is fairy, though singularly
feminine, and her passion for Bottom is
a sly satire on the witcherv that passion
lays on wOman's eyes. She needs but
precious little change to be delightful
daughter of Earth. Angels and god
desses fit well enough into theology and
mythology, but mortal, mutable. incom-
patible, garterel, furbelowed creatures
alone respond TO the sympathies and
yearnircs Of mankind
Beatrice, with her Keen wit, her ban
ter, her gayety, her unAagginy spirits.
her yelled heart, might be a being Of
todav-a native Of New York as well
as Of centuries past. and of Messina. A
magnificent specimen Of breezy. bound
ing, mettled daughterhood. she IS of the
world worldly, and vet capable Of the
deepest devotion, or the greatest sacri-
fee, should circumstances call for it.
She is, and ever will be, eternallv fresh,
and reveals to Us what ve have glinpses
Of IN the huCyaut. perfectly Eealthful,
tempting, tantaiiziug women that sweep
across our path Ike punCcnt winds, and
set orr brains and hearts 10 the tune Of
whirling faucics. She Is continually
more than a match for Benelick. as she
would be for almost any man she should
encounter. Splendid with al the eIe-
ments of high comedy, she has no peer
in literature, ana scarcely a complete
reflection. except in many real women,
to make up her own.
Desdemon1 Is the symbol and the soul
Of wifely allegiance, whose doom Is fore
Swallowed the moment that she Joins her
fortunes and destiny with the half bar
barOus Moor. A more natural. romantic
and deadly marriage could not have been
concocted under the most baneful in
fuences Of the planet Saturn. The
drama Is more tragic than aught that
-Tschylus, Sophocles and Euripides com .
bined have written or imagined. but still 7
it is instinct with the lie of the ages. IL I
Is a prolonged heartbreak. and once Z
read cannot be forgotten. 1t IS sufii-
Cient 10 arouse passion in statue or a /
mathematician; it Is volcanic outburst, /
TO all of Us. Of dreadful possibilities. .
Tl-C,- Tla-Fsv7r,v,a - 70 I1~
stand jealousy, TO repeat the blasting |
words her fr,nzied husband hurls at her. /
She is too pure TO be prudent. % be the /
wife of any one not philosopher or a |
saint. Her guilt Is well nigh demon /
strable; it is entirely obvious and logical /
that Othelio should kill her Almost (
any man might in his case have done /
the same thing. Nevertheless she was. I
as Emilia saws. the sweetest innocent /
that ever did lift up eve. Such an ex- /
posture of the terrors Of jealousy HIS /
never been made. and Desdemona's char |
acter Is a brief Had Of its woes.
Helena, Perdita, Rosslind, Viola are
different types Of gentle. affectionate, /
womanhOOd. whose minds. I
hopes and highest ambitions are dom /
mated by their soft and sympathetic 4
hearts. II not grandly heroic, IL Il plain 4
that they might be 50 If occasion should /
They are too feminine not f.
10 be equal 70 al duties laid on their
delicate though nervous shoulders Cor !
leila is absolute sincerity and hhal /
Imogen is perhaps the
most delightful, the most aluring Of ali 1
heroines, with so cunning
} mixture Of strength and weakness, Of 1
.rchness and integrity. OF attractive con