No More Learning

_1st Woman_.
No wind at all: the air's like one closed room.

_2nd Woman_.
There is no talk like this at the King's feast,
I warrant. Were we not best be merry,
And thank the King so for these wines and sweets?

_Vashti_.
Yes, let us not forget our thankfulness;
For is not, sisters, everything we have
Mere gift?

_2nd Woman_.
My beauty pays for what I get.

_Vashti_.
I would, 'twere not so.

_2nd Woman_.
Queen, I doubt thee not.

_Vashti_.
Pert little fool, where lies thy beauty, then?
Thou hast it not: its place is not thy flesh,
But the delighting loins of men, there only.
Thy beauty! And thou knowest not that man
Hath forged in his furnace of desire our beauty
Into that chain of law which binds our lives--
Man, please thyself, and woman, please thou man.
But thou wilt have thy beauty pence, thou sayest?
And what's thy purchase? Listen, I will tell thee:
Just that thou art not whipt and drudged: the rest,
All that thou hast beyond, is gift.

_2nd Woman_.
Why not?

_Vashti_.
Truly, for thee, why not?

_2nd Woman_.
Wouldst thou, 'twere yours?

_1st Woman_.
Thou shudderest again; what ails thee, Queen?

_Vashti_.
I would have lived in beauty once.