Today at scientific literature in Europe and the USA, feminist research plays a huge role regarding the role and significance of women in world culture, both in the past and present. From this angle, various periods of cultural history are examined, including the Renaissance. Dozens and hundreds of articles, monographs, and collective studies are devoted to the issue of the position of women in the Renaissance.
Many authors note the plight of a woman if she did not belong to high society and, nevertheless, strived for independence. For example, having arrived in London, she could not become an actress ( female roles young men played in the theater), she could not write plays - English society was suspicious of a woman with a pen in her hands. Only one opportunity awaited her - to become a prostitute, like Mole Flanders, who was described by Daniel Defoe.
There are, however, other opinions about Shakespeare’s attitude towards women, focusing on the English playwright’s constant sympathy for his intellectual heroines. Some even speak of Shakespeare as a man who, if not a feminist, clearly and energetically sympathized with him. This raises the question: was Shakespeare a feminist or was he not? There is a lot of debate on this topic in feminist literature and, obviously, this issue should be looked into.
Shakespeare lived in an era when England was experiencing economic and political growth, and when the country felt the need for change and reform. The humanistic ideology, which was reflected in the writings of Thomas More, urgently demanded reform female education, a radical change in attitudes towards women, establishing her, if not political, then intellectual equality with men.
Julia Dasinber, author of the interesting study Shakespeare on the Nature of Women, writes: “The aristocratic women of the English court confirmed More's view that women were the intellectual equals of men. Wife Henry VIII, Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, and later Lady Catherine Parr were widely known for their learning. This line could be continued by many, from Lady Margaret Beamont to Margaret Poper and Elizabeth Cook. English aristocrats of the 16th century were keen on emancipation and in this area they could well compete with educated women Italian Renaissance, like Vittoria Colonna. They fought passionately for equality and often won their fight. Shakespeare knew this well and the high intellectualism of his court women - Beatrice, Rosalind or Helen in the play "All's Well That Ends Well" - is based on realities English life» .
Humanists opposed the medieval attitude towards women, based on the biblical tradition. According to biblical tradition, God gave Adam good wife, but as punishment for her sins, she had to obey her husband unquestioningly. All this sanctioned the tyranny of man over woman, against which the humanists rebelled. The humanist Agrippa argued in his treatise “On the Glory of Women” that Holy Scripture cannot serve as the basis for the tyranny of a man over a woman. “Neither husband nor wife, but a new being must exist. Differences between the sexes appear only in the body. God has given one soul for men and women." Vives writes a special essay in which he instructs a man on how to create a good and happy marriage based on the spiritual equality of husband and wife. Erasmus of Rotterdam also wrote extensively about the equality of women with men, objecting to the medieval idea of women's innate sinfulness. Believe me,” he said, “a bad wife does not come from chance, but from a bad husband.” The husband must tame not his wife, but his own shortcomings.
The education of women becomes a special topic for Italian humanists. The famous historian and writer Leonardo Bruni Aretino addresses his treatise “On Scientific and literary studies» Battista Malatesta, one of the educated women of that time. In fact, this treatise represents a program for women's education based on humanistic ideas. In it, Aretino contrasts the old medieval education with the new educational system, based on a woman’s extensive study of philosophy, history, literature, oratory. I do not believe, writes Aretino, that a woman should be content with sacred books, and I will lead her to secular knowledge. Universal knowledge, familiarity with ancient authors - Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Virgil, Euripides - knowledge of languages and the ability to speak gracefully and competently Aretino believes required quality educated woman.
The German humanist John Butzbach writes a letter “On famous artists"(1505), addressed to the nun-artist Gertrude. In it he tries to describe the work of famous women artists Ancient Greece and Rome as an example to follow modern women. Butzbach expresses the opinion that in the past women made no less contribution to the art of painting and sculpture than men.
The Italian Renaissance is an era of individualism, creating conditions for the emergence of a strong and vibrant personality among both men and women. During this era, women such as Isabella de Este, Joan of Aragon, Vittoria Colonna, Isotta Nogarola, and Veronica Gambara became widely known. Many of them were excellent musicians, poetesses, and amazed others with their knowledge in the field of philosophy and history.
In England, humanistic ideology was closely intertwined with Puritanism. Puritanism also sought to reform marriage and attitudes towards women in general. Calvin and Luther developed the Puritan idea of the purity of marriage. Puritan literature XVI century is full of debates about the role of women in the family. The Puritans protested against forced marriage, against marriage for money, against adultery, against wife beating. But at the same time, Puritan feminism was limited. Puritans saw in a wife only a good partner, a good companion. But they objected to women's too free behavior in society. In London, many women wore men's clothing and even weapons, which caused outrage in the church. Puritanism was also against the theater, in particular because there men and women exchange clothes during the action of the play.
In Shakespeare's time, there was also a tradition of courtly treatment of women, based on glorifying her as a deity, and not on recognizing her as a real earthly being, who is characterized by weaknesses, illnesses, the birth of children, etc. This tradition of “idolizing” a woman, turning her into an idol, an idol, received unexpected support from the Neoplatonic attitude to love, which glorified spiritual love as opposed to physical love. This idea of Neoplatonic love was brought from France by Henrietta Maria, who admired spiritual love as a victory over the flesh.
These were the main ideological motives in relation to women - the old Christian tradition, puritanism, humanism. It is extremely interesting which of these motives are reflected - positive or negative - in Shakespeare's work.
It is obvious that Shakespeare completely lacks the doctrinaire Christian attitude towards woman as an inferior being subject to the tyranny of man. Meanwhile, these ideas are still widespread among Shakespeare's early contemporaries. For example, in Thomas Middleton's comedy "Mad World, Gentlemen!" we find a view of woman as an accomplice of the devil and the source of all sin.
O women! It's worth taking them into your arms,
How we are already in the devil's arms:
They've been hooking up with each other for a long time,
And it became difficult to distinguish between them.
Well, how should we live? Cry and groan!
One religion remains - lust.
The ardor of the soul was replaced by alcove ardor,
The face is a mask, constancy is fashion,
And your own hair in a chignon. (IV, 3)
Another play by Shakespeare’s younger contemporary, John Webster, with the very expressive title “Litigation to all suits, or When a woman is tried, the devil himself is no brother” contains an angry denunciation of women:
You women have united within yourself
All the horror of hell, the malice of the basilisk,
The insidiousness of love spells.
Nature knows no greater abomination.
No, with a woman, the most vile of this creature
Only a woman can compare
She, like a tornado, sweeps away everything in nature,
What's in her way!
John Donne expressed a much more realistic view of women. He said: “To make goddesses out of them is undivine, to turn them into accomplices of the devil is a devilish idea, to see them as mistresses is unmanly, to make them servants is ignoble. Obviously, we need to treat them the way the Lord created them, and this will be both manly and according to divine instructions.”
In contrast medieval idea, in Shakespeare, a woman appears as a person capable of putting a man to shame in the field of education or intellectual training. In Shakespeare we constantly encounter a satirical attitude towards the medieval understanding of women. Shakespeare ridicules and exaggerates the biblical ideal of marriage, two people united in one flesh. In Measure for Measure, Pompey, being recruited as a soldier, is asked if he can cut off a man's head. Pompey’s answer is very symptomatic: “If he is a bachelor, then I can; if he is married, then he is the head of his wife, and I can never cut off a woman’s head” (II, 2, 118). Hamlet, saying goodbye to Claudius before leaving for England, says to him: “Farewell, dear mother.” "Is yours loving father", - Claudius corrects him. To which Hamlet, parodying the biblical covenant, remarks: “Father and mother are husband and wife; husband and wife are one flesh, therefore my mother” (“Hamlet”, IV, 3). And in the comedy “The End is the Crown of the Deal,” the jester turns this same idea into a comic paradox: “My wife is my flesh and blood. Whoever pleases my wife pleases my flesh and blood; whoever pleases my blood and flesh loves my flesh and blood; whoever loves my flesh and blood is my friend; therefore, whoever hugs my wife is my friend” (I, 2).
Shakespeare questions the traditional idea medieval philosophy about the innate sinfulness of women. In the tragedy “Othello,” he seems to respond to Erasmus’s idea that the reason for a woman’s sinfulness is a bad husband. Emilia, Iago's wife and Desdemona's servant, says:
It seems to me that in the fall
Husbands are to blame. So they are not diligent,
Or spent on others,
Or they are unreasonably jealous,
Either they constrain your will, or they beat you,
Or they manage the dowry.
We are not sheep, we can pay back.
Let it be known to husbands that wives
The same device as them
And they feel and see exactly the same.
What is sour or sweet for a man,
It’s both sour and sweet for a woman.
When he exchanges us for others,
What motivates him? Pursuit of the forbidden?
Apparently. Thirst for change?
Yes, that too. Or weak will?
Of course yes. Don't we have
Needs forbidden or new?
And are we stronger in will than they are?
So let them not reproach us with our evil.
In our sins, we take their example from them. (IV, 3)
In Hamlet, Shakespeare demonstrates two types of education - men and women. When Polonius talks about his son living in Paris, he is ready to justify his violent pranks, fights and even drunkenness and debauchery with the “outbursts of a hot mind” characteristic of young man. But he absolutely forbids Ophelia to rely on her experience and surrounds her with a system of authoritarian prohibitions. Hamlet does not offer Ophelia anything new compared to what her father offers when he tells her: “Go to a monastery.” As a result, Ophelia plunges into the abyss of male authoritarian ethics, she drowns in it even before she drowns in the river. Shakespeare does not directly condemn this system of female education, but convincingly shows us its natural tragic end.
In Shakespeare, Ophelia is a sacrificial figure. She is a victim of her obedience to her father, on the one hand, and a victim of Hamlet’s rather harsh attitude towards her, who is carried away by his struggle with the deception, surveillance and lies surrounding him, and therefore does not allow his feelings for Ophelia to develop. But how much tenderness, sympathy, respect there is in his attitude towards Ophelia. Without this, the image of Ophelia could lose its poetry, sacrifice and turn into banal, wordless mediocrity.
Throughout his plays, Shakespeare appears as an opponent of the old, medieval tyranny of man over woman and as a supporter of the new, humanistic view of the role of women both in society and in family life.
At the same time, he is an opponent of Puritanism, which in the time of Shakespeare also proclaimed the idea of reforms in relation to the family and education of women and preached the ideal of purity of marriage. In Shakespeare we constantly encounter a satirical attitude towards the ideals of Puritanism. Shakespeare looks like a real Falstaff in relation to the idealized world of virtues that the Puritans proclaimed. Thus, in the comedy “The End of the Matter is the Crown,” the Puritan ideal of the purity of marriage and virginity, as its indispensable guarantor, are ridiculed. Through the lips of Parole, he proclaims that maintaining virginity means going against nature.
“The wisdom of nature is not in preserving virginity. On the contrary, the loss of virginity increases its wealth: after all, not a single new virgin can be born without virginity being lost for the sake of it. What you are made of is material for making maidens. Having lost your virginity once, you can acquire a dozen virgins: but if you cheat, you will be left with beans. What's the use of virginity? To hell with her! (I, 1)
Thus, Shakespeare is quite radical in his views on the place and role of women in the family and society. True, one may imagine that this is somewhat contradicted by Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew,” in which, as we know, the action ends with the victory of Petruchio over Katarina, who tames his wife’s obstinate temper. The play ends with a speech by Katharina, who recognizes the natural weakness of women and calls on them to submit to their husbands.
This play usually puzzles some researchers. Is there a rejection of humanistic ideology in favor of the old, medieval idea about the role and significance of women? For example, Shakespeare translator A. Smirnov comes to this conclusion in his commentary on this play. “Shakespeare, despite his genius and progressive criticism of contemporary society, was still a son of his time, who could not even think of the complete everyday and legal emancipation of women. The bourgeoisie did not know such equality. The appearance of such equality existed in some circles of the advanced nobility, but there it was of an epicurean nature and served to increase the price of selfish pleasure to the point of establishing complete freedom of adultery and refined immorality. The prototype of Shakespeare's morality in this play of his - as, indeed, in all others - could rather serve as folk morality peasant family", recognizing the internal (moral and practical) equality of husband and wife, but nevertheless, in the sense of a directing and guiding principle, giving primacy to the husband."
Today one cannot read without a smile about Shakespeare’s struggle “against the predatory, anarchic immoralism of the era of primitive accumulation of capital.” The naive Marxism that A. Smirnov demonstrates in this passage about Shakespeare is not very convincing. Shakespeare is a proponent of the spiritual equality of men and women, but he does not propose any social forms- legal or property - for this equality. It seems to us that in “The Taming of the Shrew” Shakespeare does not at all lose his sympathetic attitude towards women and does not at all suggest that husbands engage in taming their wives, which the Puritans proposed to do. It appears that Shakespeare wrote his comedy The Taming of the Shrew as a parody of Puritan marriage and the Puritan idea of the taming of the shrew, which was so widely discussed in his time. In the end, Petruchio achieves his goal, he turns Katarina into an obedient and flexible wife who submits to her husband’s authority in everything, but her obedience is a weapon against himself, which gives the wife much greater strength and independence than family squabble. In the end, both of them, Petruchio and Katarina, appear in Shakespeare as rivals and partners quite worthy of each other. And Katarina’s final speech does not at all call on women to passive humility and reverence for their husbands, but suggests using weapons other than outright fights and quarrels against men.
All of Shakespeare's plays are imbued with the spirit of democracy, the idea of equality between people - between men and women, just as in them there is fundamental equality between the prince and the gravedigger, the jester and the courtier, the nurse and the queen. This spirit of equality permeates everything Shakespeare writes and says about women.
One of his main ideas is the idea that a man and a woman love equally and therefore there should be equality in love. In Twelfth Night, the Duke preaches medieval ideas about marriage. In particular, he says that a wife should be younger than her husband solely in order to learn submissiveness and adapt to his habits:
After all, a woman should be younger
His wife: then she follows her husband's customs
submitting,
Will be able to take over his soul.
Although we often extol ourselves,
But in love we are more capricious, more frivolous,
We get tired and cool down faster than women. (II, 4)
On the other hand, the Duke doubts a woman's ability to love constantly and deeply. He proclaims the ideal of neoplatonic love, opposed to carnal, earthly love.
A woman's breasts cannot bear the beating
A passion as powerful as mine.
No, there is too little room in a woman’s heart:
It cannot hold love.
Alas! Their feeling is simply a hunger for the flesh.
They just have to satisfy it -
And satiation immediately sets in.
My passion is like the sea
And just as insatiable. No, my boy,
A woman can't love me
How I love Olivia.
(Ibid.)
This entire long monologue does not convince Viola, who listens to the Duke dressed in men's clothing, which makes their dialogue even more confidential. She secretly loves the Duke, which allows her to say:
I know
How much a woman loves. She
In love she is no less faithful than a man.
(Ibid.)
At the same time, she, convinced that the Duke, despite his neoplatonic praises of love, loves no one but himself, speaks, not without bitterness, about the difference between male and female love:
After all, we men
Although we squander promises,
But we, repeating about passion again and again,
Generous with vows, stingy with love.
(II, 4)
At the same time, Shakespeare deeply penetrates into the nature of female love, where modesty and sensuality, a sense of fear and the desire for self-giving struggle. The struggle of these feelings is so beautifully conveyed by Juliet, who, while waiting for a date with Romeo, turns to the night, trying to hide the confusion of her feelings:
Love and night live by the instinct of the blind.
Great-grandmother in black, prim night,
Come and teach me some fun
In which the loser turns into a profit,
And the stake is the integrity of two creatures.
Hide how your blood burns with shame and fear,
Until suddenly she gets bolder
And he won’t understand how pure everything is in love.
Come, night!
(“Romeo and Juliet”, III, 2)
In Shakespeare we find a clear division between the masculine and the feminine, between what is considered “femininity” and “masculinity.” It seems that any modern supporter of gender studies can find in his works a wealth of interesting materials related to the peculiarities of female and male behavior.
First of all, Shakespeare talks about femininity in the most literal and everyday sense, associated with the physical weakness of a woman, her connection with motherhood. Therefore, Lady Macbeth, when she plots murder, thinks first of all about renouncing her sex.
Come to me, O spirits of death! Change
Gender for me. Me from head to toe
Give me a drink of villainy. my blood
Thicken. Close the entrance for pity,
So that the voice of repentance nature
My resolve was not shaken.
Falling to my nipples, not milk,
And suck the bile out of them greedily,
Invisible demons of murder...
("Macbeth", I, 5)
Shakespearean men are afraid of looking feminine. The belligerent Hotspur in Henry IV defies his wife's questioning, telling her:
I will part with you now, my friend Ket.
I know you're smart, but you're not smarter
Percy's wife: you are strong in spirit,
But still you are a woman...
("Henry IV", I, 3)
But it is precisely this everyday ethics, which asserts that a man is a man and a woman is a woman, that causes the rebellion of many of Shakespeare’s heroines, who are not content with the role destined for them to be their husband’s servant. Portia, the wife of Brutus, demands that her husband let her in on his plans:
Tell me, Brutus: perhaps by law
Is a wife forbidden to know her husband's secrets?
Perhaps, my husband, I am part of you,
But with the limitation that I can
Sharing with you only meals and a bed
And chat occasionally? But really
Only on the outskirts of your pleasures
Should I live? Or Portia for Brutus
Became a concubine, not a wife?
("Julius Caesar", II, 1)
Shakespeare portrays women striving, if not for equality with men, then for liberation from the dictates of men in family life. Andriana in The Comedy of Errors, addressing her sister Luciana, poses a fundamental question about the freedom of men and women: “But why should it be freer than us?” Luciana responds by citing the traditional, purely dogmatic view of marriage:
It's not good when we are too free
That's dangerous; look at the whole world:
There is no will in the earth, in the water and in the sky.
After all, female fish, winged birds, animals -
Everything is subordinate to male husbands.
Men are masters of the world:
Both land and water are submissive to them.
They are endowed with mind, soul,
Which, after all, none of the creatures have.
Their right is to control everything in the family,
And a wife's duty is to always obey. (II, 1)
But it is obvious that such an answer does not satisfy Andriana. If a husband is a bridle on a woman’s path to freedom, then such a marriage does not suit her, because, in her words, “only donkeys are happy with their bridle.” Andriana is a real rebel, she demands equality with a man, otherwise she is ready to give up marriage.
Shakespeare is an opponent of the deification of women, this outdated ritual of courtly love. In his plays she appears in a real, life setting. Unlike the Neoplatonists, he does not proclaim some kind of cult ideal woman, but talks about her age, illnesses, depicts her in a real environment, physical world, in search of love, in the fight for their independence.
Shakespeare sympathizes with his educated women, who have humor, do not mince words and are able to put any man to shame in verbal duels. It is interesting that in his plays women show sympathy for the world of professional jesters and jokers, as Celia does in relation to Touchstone, Viola does in relation to Festus, Cordelia does in relation to the jester in King Lear. His world of women is bright, joyful, playful, unlike the serious and preoccupied world of men. And Shakespeare's educated women, just like his favorite jesters and wits, confront this serious world, demonstrating their wit as if from the outside.
As we said, Shakespeare's attitude towards women is sympathetic. Perhaps this sympathy is nowhere more evident than in Hamlet and Othello. We have already spoken about Ophelia, the tragic victim of purely male squabbles at the Danish court. Another female image The one Shakespeare treats with particular sympathy is Desdemona. She is the victim of two intersecting male aspirations - the treachery of the villain Iago and the jealousy of her husband.
Perhaps nowhere in Shakespeare's plays does a man appear in such a degraded form as in Othello. Until recently, a brilliant commander, whom Venice regards so highly and before whose military authority all the doges bow, because of some petty slander against his wife turns into a pitiful animal, deprived of all possible human qualities and dreaming of only one thing - her death and blood. In Othello's fevered imagination, Desdemona is not only a woman who betrayed her duty as a wife with Cassio, but also a participant in some unimaginable orgies in a castle that turned into a brothel.
Desdemona.
Tell me, what is my sin? What have I done?
Othello.
Are you as white as a white leaf for that reason?
To write in ink: “harlot”?
Tell me what your sin is, street creature,
Tell me, scum, what have you done?
With shame I will heat my cheeks like a furnace,
When I answer. It's sickening to say.
("Othello", IV, 2)
There are a huge number of interpretations of Othello, but most of them refer not to Desdemona, but to Othello. Many authors focus on his pathological jealousy, others on his pathological gullibility. The English poet W. H. Auden, in his excellent article on Othello (“The Jester in the Deck”), says that the basis of the tragedy lies not so much in Othello’s love for Desdemona, but in the racial problems regarding him, a dark-skinned military commander, To Venetian Republic, and not just to Desdemona itself.
It seems that Auden is too prejudiced towards Desdemona when he says: “Everyone pities Desdemona, but I just can’t love her. Her intention to marry Othello - after all, in fact, she proposed to him - looks like a schoolgirl's romantic infatuation, and not like the feeling of an adult: Othello's extraordinary life, full amazing adventures, captivated her imagination, but what kind of person he was is not so important for us.”
However, few people are interested in the reasons for the tragedy of Desdemona herself. And they consist in the complete lack of personal freedom for women. As Desdemona herself says, whose father puts her before a choice - to follow him or go to Othello, she cannot reserve the right to be close to both her father and her husband, but must, as under feudal law, move from one to the other. Desdemona herself says this:
Father, in such a circle my duty is twofold.
You gave me life and education.
Both life and education tell me,
It is my duty as a daughter to obey you.
But here's my husband. Like my mother once
I changed my duty to you, so from now on I will
I am obedient to the Moor, my husband.
("Othello", I, 3)
The husband has the right to completely control her life and destiny, and she dies regardless of whether he is a jealous person or a trusting person. In both cases, she has no chance to prove her innocence. In fact, as Shakespeare shows, she has no right to be listened to.
Now let's return to the question that we posed at the very beginning: was Shakespeare a feminist or was he not? It seems to us that Shakespeare was not a supporter of feminism, even in the sense of the word in which feminism existed at the court of Elizabeth. Modern feminists often criticize Shakespeare for not being a sufficient champion of women. Indeed, Shakespeare never pretended to be a champion of women's rights. He sympathized with women, his best heroines are not inferior to men, they are educated, witty, have freedom of mind and know how to stand up for themselves in difficult times life situations. But Shakespeare never claimed to be a reformer of family and marriage. He offered no prescriptions or reforms. The basis of his views on the family, as well as on the state as a whole, was the idea of the unity of the micro- and macrocosmos, ensuring harmony and order in society. Shakespeare cannot be considered a feminist and modern sense this word mainly because it never separated the world of men and the world of women. One cannot but agree with the opinion of the author of the book “Shakespeare and the Nature of Women” we have already cited, who writes: “Shakespeare considered men and women equal in a world that recognized their inequality. He didn't share human nature into male or female, although he discovered in each man or woman a huge number of commonalities with similar opposing impulses. To speak of Shakespeare's women is to speak of his men, because he refused to share their world physically, intellectually or spiritually." Auden W. X. Reading. Letter. Essay on literature. M., 1998. P. 213.
I LAUGHANDRAISE!
ABOUT women, your name is treachery! (translated by B. Pasternak)
Mortality, you are called a woman! (translated by M. Lozinsky)
Insignificance, woman, is your name! (translated by A. Kroneberg)
O women! your name is nothingness! (translated by N. Polevoy)
***
It's good to get married, but there's a lot of frustration.
I won’t say a word about women’s outfits.
He who is nice always wears a nice dress;
Though It’s true that the wallet is no problem.
The most intolerable advice is
Stubborn words and controversial answers.
A man recently showed us an example,
Whom Doom befell the wife in the water.
When he came to the shore, he saw his neighbor there:
Did he see, he asked, a sign of the drowned woman?
A neighbor advised us to go down the bank:
That the rapids should carry her there.
But he answered: “I, brother, confess
That she lived with me for centuries in spite of:
It’s true now I have no doubt about it,
That, having drowned, she swam against the river.”
M. V. Lomonosov.
1747
***
FOOL
Once upon a time there lived a fool. He prayed seriously
(However, like you and me).
Rags, bones and a tuft of hair -
All this was called an empty woman,
But the fool called her the Queen of Roses
(However, like you and me).
Oh, the years that have gone to nothing, that have gone,
The work of our heads and hands -
I don't understand a damn thing here.
What the fool squandered it, he couldn’t count it all
(However, like you and me) -
Future, faith, money and honor.
But the lady could eat twice
A a fool - that's why he is a fool
(However, like you and me).
Oh, the labors that are gone, their fruits that are gone.
And dreams that will not come again -
She ate everything, not wanting to know
(And now we know - she didn’t know how to know),
I don't understand a damn thing here.
When the lady resigned him
(However, like you and me),
God knows! She did everything she could!
But the fool didn't put a gun to his temple.
He's alive. Although life is not nice to him.
(However, as for you and me.)
This time it was not shame that saved him, not shame,
Not reproaches that burn -
He just found out that she didn't know
What she didn't know and what she knows
I couldn't do a damn thing here.
R. Kipling
Translation by K. M. Simonov
***
Baba is delusional, but who believes her!
Baba and demon - they have the same weight.
Baba can outwit the devil.
Baba cries - she amuses her temper.
The woman is with the cart, it’s easier for the mare.
The woman flies from the stove, seventy-seven times she changes her mind.
Baba jumps both backwards and forwards e around, and things go on as usual.
Baba is like a pot: no matter what you pour in, everything boils.
Baba is like a bag: whatever you put in, she carries.
Baba’s path is from the stove to the threshold.
If you let a woman down, you’ll be a woman yourself.
Baba can at least have a stake on his head.
Indian age - forty years; at forty-five - baba berry again.
A woman’s mind is a woman’s yoke: it’s crooked, it’s notched, and it’s on both ends.
A woman's tongue is a damn broom.
The women scold so much that their scarves fall off their heads.
Women in the hut - flies out.
There is no post for the woman's tail.
Women's minds ruin the house s .
Babya You can't beat a lie even on a pig.
Where there is a woman, there is a market; where there are two, there is a market.
Where the devil can't ( or: the devil can't handle it), he'll send a woman there.
A chicken is not a bird, a warrant officer is not an officer, a woman is not a person.
You can’t pound a crafty woman in a mortar.
Don't sing like a rooster for a hen, don't be a woman's man.
Let the woman go to heaven, she will lead the cow with her.
The woman was angry at the bargaining, but the bargaining didn’t even know about it.
Three women are a bazaar, and seven are a fair.
The woman has long hair, but a short mind.
The woman has seven Fridays a week.
Russian proverbs
***
ABOUTWOMEN
Since the creation of the world, a woman has been considered a harmful and malignant creature. She is at such a low level of physical, moral and mental development that anyone, even a scoundrel deprived of all rights and a lip-slapper who blows his nose in other people’s handkerchiefs, considers himself entitled to judge her and mock at her shortcomings.
Its anatomical structure is below any criticism. When some respectable father of a family sees an image of a woman “au naturel,” he always frowns in disgust and spits to the side. Having such images in plain sight, and not on the table or in your pocket, is considered bad manners. The man is much more beautiful than a woman. No matter how wiry, hairy and acne-prone he is, no matter how red his nose and narrow forehead, he always looks condescendingly at female beauty and marries only after a strict choice. There is no Quasimodo who would not be deeply convinced that only a beautiful woman can be his mate.
One retired lieutenant, who robbed his mother-in-law and sported women's ankle boots, assured that if a person descended from a monkey, then first a woman descended from this animal, and then a man. Titular councilor Slyunkin, from whom his wife kept vodka, often said: “The most malicious insect in the world is the female sex.”
A woman's mind is no good. Her hair is long, but her mind is short; for men it’s the other way around. You can’t talk to a woman about politics, or about the state of the exchange rate, or about the Chinsheviks. At a time when the high school student IIIclass is already solving world problems, and college registrars are studying the book “30,000 foreign words,” smart and mature women talk only about fashion and the military.
The woman's logic is proverbial. When some court councilor, anathema or department watchman Dorotheus starts talking about Bismarck or the benefits of science, it is a pleasure to listen to them: it is pleasant and touching; when someone’s spouse, for lack of other topics, begins to talk about children or her husband’s drunkenness, then what spouse will refrain from exclaiming: “I rammed the taranta!” Well, yes, and logic, Lord, forgive me, a sinner!”
A woman is incapable of studying science. This is already clear from the fact that they don’t start things up for her. educational institutions. Men, even idiots and cretins, can not only study science, but even occupy departments, but a woman is a nonentity by her name! She does not compose textbooks for sale, does not read abstracts and long academic speeches, does not go on academic trips at public expense, and does not dispose of foreign dissertations. Terribly underdeveloped! She doesn't have any creative talents. Not only the great and brilliant, but even the vulgar and blackmailing are written by men, but she is given by nature only the ability to wrap pies in the creations of men and make curling papers out of them.
She is vicious and immoral. From her comes the beginning of all evil. One old book says: “ Muilerestmalleus, perquemdiabolusmollitetmalleatuniversummundun” (“A woman is a hammer with which the devil softens and hammers the whole world” - lat.). When the devil wants to do some dirty trick or mischief, he always tries to act through women. Remember that Belle Helen broke out Trojan War, Messalina has seduced more than one good boy from the path of truth... Gogol says that officials take bribes only because their wives push them to do so. This is absolutely true. They drink, lose at screw, and officials spend only their salaries on Amalia... The property of entrepreneurs, government contractors and secretaries of warm institutions is always registered in the name of the wife.
The woman is extremely dissolute. Every rich lady is surrounded by dozens of young men eager to become her gigolo. Poor young people!
A woman does not bring any benefit to the fatherland. She doesn't go to war, doesn't copy papers, doesn't build railways, and locking a decanter of vodka away from her husband helps reduce excise taxes.
In short, she is crafty, talkative, vain, deceitful, hypocritical, selfish, mediocre, frivolous, evil... There is only one thing that is attractive about her, namely that she gives birth to such sweet, graceful and terribly smart souls as men... For this virtue we will forgive her all her sins. Let us all be generous to her, even the cocottes in jackets and those gentlemen who are hit in the face with candlesticks in clubs.
A. P. Chekhov
***
FEMALETOAST
- Gentlemen! After a foreign toast, it is not difficult to move on to strange toasts, but I will protect myself from this danger and proclaim - women's toast!
I regret that when I came here for lunch, I did not take a Krupp cannon with me to salute in honor of the women. According to Shakespeare, a woman is nothing, but in my opinion she is everything! (...) Without her, the world would be the same as a violinist without a violin, a sight without a pistol, and a valve without a clarinet. (...) For us personally, no advance payment can replace a woman. Tell me, poets, who inspired you and poured fire into your cold veins when you returned from rendez- vous, sat down at the table and wrote poems, which were partly returned to you from the editorial offices, and partly, due to lack of material, they were published, having undergone significant reduction? And you, prose humorists, wouldn’t you agree that your stories would lose nine-tenths of their ludicrousness if there were no woman in them? Aren't the best jokes the ones whose salt is hidden in long trains and bustles? To you, artists, no need to remind that many of you are sitting here only because you know how to portray women. Having learned to draw a woman with her chaos of bodices, frills, tunics, scallops, experiencing with a pencil all the whims of her foolish fashion, you have gone through such a hard school, after which you can depict some kind of “Walpurgis Night” or “The Last Day of Pompeii” - just a piece of cake! Gentlemen, who relieves our pockets of the burden, who loves us, nags, forgives, robs us? Who delights and poisons our existence? (...) Who graces our meal today with their presence? Oh! A little later, and leaving here, we will be weak, defenseless... Shaky, we will sit in cabs and, nodding off, forgetting the addresses of our apartments, we will go wandering in the darkness. And who, what bright star will meet us at the final destination of our journey? Still the same woman! Urrrraaah!
A. P. Chekhov
***
A woman can be a man’s friend only in the following order: first a friend, then a lover, and then a friend. (A.P. Chekhov, “Uncle Vanya”)
***
One lady told me that if a man begins to talk to her about insignificant subjects, as if adapting to the weakness of a woman’s concept, then in her eyes he immediately exposes his ignorance of women. In fact, isn’t it funny to consider women, who so often amaze us with the speed of their understanding and the subtlety of feeling and reason, to be inferior creatures in comparison with us? This is especially strange in Russia, where Catherine reigned IIand where women are generally more enlightened, read more, follow the European course of things more than we, the proud ones, God knows why? (A.S. Pushkin)
***
...women are the same everywhere. Nature, having endowed them with a subtle mind and the most irritable sensitivity, almost denied them a sense of grace. Poetry glides through their ears without reaching the soul; they are insensitive to its harmony; notice how they sing fashionable romances, how they distort the most natural verses, upset the measure, destroy rhyme. Listen to their literary judgments, and you will be surprised at the crookedness and even crudeness of their concept... Exceptions are rare. (A.S. Pushkin)
***
In some Asian nations, men every day, rising from sleep, thank God for not creating them as women.
Mohammed challenges the ladies about the existence of the soul.
In France, a land renowned for its courtesy, grammar solemnly proclaimed the masculine gender the noblest.
The poet submitted his tragedy for consideration famous critic. The manuscript contained a verse: I am a man and have walked the paths of error...
The critic emphasized the verse, doubting whether a woman can be called a human being. This is reminiscent of the well-known decision: a woman is not a person, a chicken is not a bird, an ensign is not an officer.
Even people who present themselves as the most zealous admirers of the fair sex do not assume in women an intelligence equal to ours, and adapting to the weakness of their concept, they publish learned books for ladies, as if for children, etc. (A.S. Pushkin, “ Little things")
_____
HOWGODCREATEDWOMAN
So, God took a few rays of the sun, the thoughtful sadness of the moon, the trembling of a deer, the gentle gaze of a chamois, the beauty of a swan, the sedateness of a peacock, the fragrance of a rose, the voice of a nightingale, the slenderness of a reed, the meekness of a dove, the sweetness of honey, the tenderness of down, the lightness of air, the freshness of water... God mixed it all together. But so as not to turn out cloying, God added the fickleness of the wind, the cunning of the fox, the poison of the snake, the greed of the shark, the cowardice of the hare, the cruelty of the tiger, the tearfulness of the clouds, the talkativeness of the magpie and all the horrors of poetry. From this mixture came a beautiful woman. God breathed a soul into her, gave her to the man and said: “Take care of her - there will be no repetition!”
_____
Women don't love each other. Let us imagine two women bound by the bonds of close friendship; Let’s even assume that they don’t say anything bad about each other behind their backs - they’re so friendly. You meet them; if you lean towards one, then her friend is overcome by rage; and not because she is in love with you, but simply because she wants preference to be given to her. This is how women are: they are too envious and therefore incapable of friendship. (A.–R. Lesage)
***
Women usually hide their willingness to give in, even if they are secretly eager; act out fear or indignation and yield only after persistent requests, assurances, oaths and false promises. (S. Zweig)
***
A man's word of honor always serves as a railing for a woman to cling to before falling. (S. Zweig)
***
Wisdom willingly visits women when beauty flees them. (S. Zweig)
***
Bernard Shaw once said that all women are corrupt. The Queen of England, having learned about this, when meeting with Shaw, asked: “Is it true, sir, that you said this?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Shaw answered calmly.
- And how much do I cost? - the queen burst out.
“Ten thousand pounds sterling,” Shaw immediately determined.
- What, so cheap?! – the queen was surprised.
“You see, you’re already bargaining,” the playwright smiled.
***
The only thing better than a beautiful woman is a beautiful and modest woman. (Pythagoras)
***
ABOUT women! I can confess
That you are much more cunning than us!
I. I. Dmitriev, “ Fashionable wife”
***
The less intelligence a woman has, the more cunning and accurate she is. (V. Konetsky)
***
There are numerous ways to cure love, but only one of them works for sure - marriage! (J. A. Masson)
***
One third of women want to lose weight, one wants to gain weight, and the rest have not yet weighed themselves. (P. Weber)
***
God created women only to tame men. (Voltaire)
***
When a woman gives away the key to her heart, it rarely happens that she does not change the lock. (Saint-Beuve)
***
It is necessary that a woman can choose: with a man whom women love, she will not be calm; with a man whom women do not love, she will not be happy. (A. France)
***
Nowadays, a beard is the only thing in which a woman cannot surpass a man. (J. Steinbeck)
***
If a woman is not inclined to witchcraft, she has no need to engage in cooking. (Colette)
***
The most difficult task in a girl’s life is to prove to a man in love with her that his intentions are serious. (Helen Rowland)
***
A woman never notices what is done for her, but she perfectly sees what was not done for her. (J. Courtelin)
(Starting with J. A. Masson - translation by C. Valéry)
***
When a woman whispers to a man that he is the most beautiful, the kindest, the smartest, she is not so much telling him this as she is instilling it in herself. (K. Melikhan)
***
To reset excess weight, sometimes it’s enough to wash off the makeup. (K. Melikhan)
***
A woman is offended by a man in two cases: when he sees only a woman in her and when he does not see a woman in her. (K. Melikhan)
***
Beautiful women can be very stupid in old age only because they were very beautiful in their youth. (V. O. Klyuchevsky)
***
At school, men learn only four operations of arithmetic, and women learn five! (Jaime Parish)
***
Excess intelligence in a woman harms beauty and charm. (Author unknown)
***
Beautiful women are much more successful than smart women. The fact is that there are few blind men, but many are stupid. (Author unknown)
***
If women are staring at you, do not flatter yourself: it is unknown from whom they are turning away. (Author unknown)
***
Take care of women - inexhaustible source men's labor! (A. Ratner)
***
To find the zest in a woman, she is often taken apart to her bones. (A. Ratner)
***
The stupidest woman can push around a smart man, but you have to be
really smart to deal with a fool. (R. Kipling)
***
Tell a woman she is beautiful and the devil will tell her ten times.
(Talleyrand)
***
Wives usually feel sorry, but for other people's husbands. (S. Maugham)
***
Gustav Flaubert was asked which women he preferred - smart or stupid. To this the author of “Madame Bovary” replied: “Because they are aware of their stupidity, and because they are unaware of their intelligence.”
_____
WISHWOMAN
Run around in the kitchen and sing merrily!
Love, smile, be a faithful wife!
Always be healthy, beautiful, slim!
(Nobody needs a sick wife.)
Always have time to go to the store or to the market!
Know how to get scarce goods!
Go to concerts, read newspapers -
Don't lag behind your husband in development!
He lay down to rest - take care of the kids,
So that they don’t disturb dad’s sleep.
Be an affectionate, kind, beloved wife,
An attentive, gentle and sweet friend!
Go to work calmly in the morning,
Children on the way to kindergarten take me away.
Do your work properly,
That’s why you have equal rights with a man!
________
IFWOULDIWASWOMAN
– If I were a woman, I would behave completely differently than if
would I was the woman. I would be smart, charming, young, cheerful and happy. I would have a lot of fans, but when they met me, I would be confused and silent. This is no joke. I would fall in love with you and become my wife.
It’s terrible how I manage to wake up in the morning washed and combed? And why at any time of the day am I wearing a dress, skirt, jacket and white teeth? Where did I learn how to renovate an apartment?
And how patient I am with him, that is, with me. It makes me crazy and speechless. That's what it takes to be so lucky. What is he like for me, God. I live for him, I help him in everything and work at the factory specifically so as not to sit at home. But when you need it, I'm there. During the day, in the evening, in the morning. Always when needed. And always, when not needed, I am not there. Where I am, I don’t know myself, but I’m not nearby.
How I process these stupid sausages and station schnitzels into such a slender figure, I don’t know myself.
I also type on a typewriter and dance in one chic ensemble. So I for the most part in Paris and Madrid.
I’m calling from Madrid and asking you to water the flowers on time. There the music stops, and someone answers - okay. And two months later I drag my suitcase in - turn it on, honey, this is some new video, you know, I’m not good at this. Yes, I almost forgot - here are the keys, this is a new Peugeot for you and a new coat for your mother.
Then I go back to the factory or rehearsal so that I can be present and absent at the same time.
Yes, I also sew and edit the text. I am his storage, response and erasing device. Yes, I almost forgot, I’m happy with him. Ugh, Lord, how could I forget! He won't forgive me. There will be a scandal again. Oh God, how I forgot... Now that's enough for a week. He won’t leave until I swear with all the tears that I am happy. No, he's really very good. Well, first of all, smart. Secondly, he is neat, thirdly, he is witty, fair to others and, in general, to me.
-Are you back already?..
– Yes, Mishenka (that’s my name). Today in our editorial office we have a small meeting of editors leading each other. We agreed without wives. One got sick, the rest don’t want to let him down. Urgent issue - they require a newspaper for May 1st by April 10th. A new initiative, and we all vyingly agreed, and it may happen, and this is absolutely certain, that I will come to spend the night in the morning. Don't be angry.
- What are you, what are you! I thought you liked it when I was awake and waiting for you, but you like it when I was asleep and waiting for you. I will worry, but not make a scandal, but congratulate you on your return to native home, where we are waiting for you and your arrivals. Me and these children. We are where you left us. Come back and find us. I am your creation. A model of dependent independence, silent wisdom, enormous physical strength, preserving femininity.
William Shakespeare - English poet and playwright, often considered the greatest English-language writer and one of the best playwrights in the world. Often called the national poet of England. The extant works, including some written jointly with other authors, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 4 poems and 3 epitaphs. Shakespeare's plays have been translated into all major languages and are performed more often than the works of other playwrights.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: daughter Suzanne and twins Hamnet and Judith. Shakespeare's career began between 1585 and 1592, when he moved to London. He soon became a successful actor, playwright, and co-owner of a theater company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. Around 1613, at the age of 48, he returned to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few have survived historical evidence about the life of Shakespeare, and theories about his life are created on the basis of official documents and testimonies of contemporaries, therefore, questions regarding his appearance and religious views, and there is also a point of view that the works attributed to him were created by someone else; it is popular in culture, although rejected by the vast majority of Shakespeare scholars.
Most of Shakespeare's works were written between 1589 and 1613. His early plays are mainly comedies and chronicles, in which Shakespeare excelled considerably. Then a period of tragedies began in his work, including the works “Hamlet”, “King Lear”, “Othello” and “Macbeth”, which are considered among the best in history. English language. At the end of his career, Shakespeare wrote several tragicomedies and also collaborated with other writers.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published during his lifetime. In 1623, two of Shakespeare's friends, John Heming and Henry Condell, published the First Folio, a collection of all but two of Shakespeare's plays currently included in the canon. Later, several more plays were attributed to Shakespeare by various researchers with varying degrees of evidence.
Already during his lifetime, Shakespeare received praise for his works, but he truly became popular only in the 19th century. In particular, the Romantics and Victorians worshiped Shakespeare so much that Bernard Shaw called it "bardolatry." Shakespeare's works remain popular today and are constantly being studied and reinterpreted to suit political and cultural conditions.
