Note 78 — Chapter I · (continued 2)
Reading edition
Destouches, in his L'Homme singulier, makes one of his female characters, who loves study, speak in the following pathetic fashion:
"A learned woman ought—so I surmise— Conceal her knowledge, or she'll be unwise. If pedantry a mental blemish be At all times outlawed by society, If 'gainst a pedant all the world inveighs, Shall pass unchecked in woman pedant's ways? I hold it sure, condemned my sex is quite To trifling nothings as its sole birthright; Ridiculous 'tis thought outside its 'sphere'; The learned woman dare not such appear; Nay, she must even cloak her brilliancy So envy leave in peace stupidity; Must keep the level of the common kind, To subjects commonplace devote her mind, And treating these she must be like the rest. Lo, in such garb refinement must be dressed: That knowledge shall not make her seem unwise, She must herself in foolishness disguise." —Act III, Scene 7.