Madam

“ Oh that Lady Why would teach them that a woman is the most precious thing on earth, and that if she be turned into a beast of burden, Lady Why—and Madam How likewise—will surely avenge the wrongs of their human sister! ”

“ Are you a man of name and family in your own country?” “Of both, madam.” “Are the women handsome there?” “The handsomest in the world, madam; but they are so good, and so excellent in all other respects, that nobody thinks at all of their beauty, nor do they value themselves upon it.” ”

“ Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy;
I did not see your grace:—humbly on my knee
I crave your blessing.
DUCHESS
God bless thee; and put meekness in thy breast,
Love, charity, obedience, and true duty!
GLOSTER
Amen!
[Aside] And make me die a good old man!—
That is the butt end of a mother's blessing;
I marvel that her grace did leave it out. ”

“ Madam How is very stern, though she is always perfectly just; and therefore she makes every living thing fight for its life, and earn its bread, from its birth till its death; and rewards it exactly according to its deserts, and neither more nor less. ”

“ Where is your mistress? Is she safe? And where are the children? I come from Madam —— to help you.' Away runs the maid, 'Madam, madam', says she, screaming as loud as she could yell, 'here is a gentlewoman come from Madam —— to help us,' The poor woman, half out of her wits, with a bundle under her arm, and two little children, comes towards me, 'Madam', says I, 'let me carry the poor children to Madam — ”

“ For in short, Madam, you are perhaps the only person in whom those two characters have ever concurred to the degree they are in you; those who marry mistresses, by whom they are loved, tremble when they marry them, and cannot but fear lest they should observe the same conduct towards others which they observed towards them ”

“ Madam, his wife, is a fair, pleasing young woman, not unused to society, their house being frequented by many of the first people hereabout, as well as by strangers of distinction from other parts of the country. ”

“ But to say the truth, Madam, let a Man love reading never so well, when once he comes to know this Tawn, he finds so many better ways of passing away the Four-and-twenty Hours, that 'twere ten thousand Pities he shou'd consume his time in that. Far example, Madam, my Life; my Life, Madam, is a perpetual Stream of Pleasure, that glides thro' such a Variety of Entertainments, I believe the wisest of our Ancestors never had the least Conception of any of 'em. ”

“ Who are they?"
"Madame," said he, "before you came in sight, I sat desolate and despairing on the ground, and what I said to myself was, 'If what men say is true, there is only one lady who could save me. ”

“ 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he, And, pretty fool, it stinted, and said 'Ay.'
Wife. Enough of this. I pray thee hold thy peace.
Nurse. Yes, madam. Yet I cannot choose but laugh To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.' And yet, I warrant, it bad upon it brow A bump as big as a young cock'rel's stone; A perilous knock; and it cried bitterly. 'Yea,' quoth my husband, 'fall'st upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age; ”

“ Daddy-long-legs shall lay her eggs, at the very same time that she is settling what shall happen hundreds of years hence in a stair millions of miles away. And I really believe that Madam How knows her work so thoroughly, that the grain of sand which sticks now to your shoe, and the weight of Mrs. Daddy-long-legs’ eggs at the bottom of her hole, will have an effect upon suns and stars ages after you and I are dead and gone. Most patient indeed is Madam How. She does not mind the least seeing her own work destroyed; she knows that it must be destroyed. ”

“ “You allowed me, Madam, a few days since, you allowed me to lay claim to your friendship,-to interest myself in your affairs,-to call you by the affectionate title of sister;-and the honour you did me, no man could have been more sensible of; I am ignorant, therefore, how I have been so unfortunate as to forfeit it:-but, at present, all is changed! ”

“ Madam, The hurry and impertinence of receiving and paying visits on account of your marriage, being now over, you are beginning to enter into a course of life, where you will want much advice to divert you from falling into many errors, fopperies, and follies, to which your sex is subject. ”

“ Indeed, Madam How is so patient that some people fancy her stupid, and think that, because she does not fall into a passion every time you steal her sweets, or break her crockery, or disarrange her furniture, therefore she does not care. ”

“ Tis much then your Ladyship shou'd encourage Art or Travel, where Nature has bestow'd the largest Share, but I wonder not a Lady shou'd be so studious to accomplish her self who so fondly permits a Crowd of Followers.
L. Rod. A Lady, Madam, is seldom concern'd at another's Followers, but when she laments the loss of 'em her self, and if the Fops that flutter about me, give you any Disorder, I can easily resign 'em to your Ladyship.
L. Toss. By no means, Madam, that wou'd be to rob your Ladyship's Cozen, there, who is equally entitul'd to your Cast off Lovers, and your old Cloths. ”

“ Bring me a constant woman to her husband,
One that ne'er dream'd a joy beyond his pleasure,
And to that woman, when she has done most,
Yet will I add an honour—a great patience.
WOLSEY. Madam, you wander from the good we aim at.
QUEEN KATHARINE. My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty,
To give up willingly that noble title
Your master wed me to: nothing but death
Shall e'er divorce my dignities.
WOLSEY. Pray hear me.
QUEEN KATHARINE. Would I had never trod this English earth,
Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it!
Ye have angels' faces, but heaven knows your hearts. ”

“ Having spoke these words, she would have gone away; but monsieur de Nemours stopping her, Fear not, madam, said he; you have nothing to apprehend; nobody knows I am here; hear me, madam, hear me, if not out of goodness, yet, at least for your own sake, and to free yourself from the extravagancies which a passion I am no longer master of will infallibly hurry me into. Madam de Cleves now first yielded to the inclination she had for the duke de Nemours, and beholding him with eyes full of softness and charms, But what can you hope for, says she, from the complaisance you desire of me? ”

“ But I advise you as a little boy, and still more when you grow up to be a man, not to get that fancy into your head; for you will find that, however good-natured and patient Madam How is in most matters, her keeping silence and not seeming to see you is no sign that she has forgotten. On the contrary, she bears a grudge (if one may so say, with all respect to her) longer than any one else does; because she will always have her own again. Indeed, I sometimes think that if it were not for Lady Why, her mistress, she might bear some of her grudges for ever and ever. ”

“ For my Part—I own madam—wit loses its respect with me, when I see it in company with malice.—What do you think, Mr. Surface?
SURFACE. Certainly, Madam, to smile at the jest which plants a Thorn on another's Breast is to become a principal in the mischief. ”

“ At Eton College boarding-houses kept by persons other than members of the teaching staff of the school were known as “Dames’ Houses,” though the head might not necessarily be a lady. As a term of address to ladies of all ranks, from the sovereign down, “madam,” shortened to “ma’am,” represents the French madame, my lady.
“Damsel,” a young girl or maiden, now only used as a literary word, is taken from the Old French dameisele, formed from dame, and parallel with the popular dansele or doncele from the medieval Latin domicella or dominicella, diminutive of domina. ”

“ It was the fashion at this time to call a woman ‘Mistress,’ whether married or single. The abbreviation ‘Mrs.’ was discarded, as was also ‘Madam’ borrowed from the French, and the old English style resumed in their stead ”

“ French history shows us more clearly perhaps than any other the stages of diffusion. Just noting that in early days, while madame was the title for a noble lady, mademoiselle was used to the wife of an advocate or physician, and that when, in the sixteenth century, madame descended to the married women of these middle ranks, mademoiselle descended from them to the unmarried women, let us look more especially at the masculine titles sire, seigneur, sieur, and monsieur. ”

“ Maid.—Isn’t that the sky, and aren’t there nine stars? Just count them.
Mistress.—Nine stars on a rug are not nine stars in the heavens.
Maid.—There is so little difference. And when we wish to be convinced, we can be convinced easily. (Steps are heard.)
Scene IV
First Gentleman, Mistress, Maid
First Gentleman.—Madame—! (To Maid.) And you— What does this rug mean?
Maid.— (Silently bows, lays aside rug, tries to depart.)
First Gentleman.—Well? Oh! I observe everything. What does it mean?
Mistress.—Well, speak, Blanche, if the sight of an old rug interests him so much. ”

“ That day, a servant she had, new to the house and the town, came to say to her that a man wished to see her. He wished to speak to Madame. 'What man is it?'—'A man in a blouse. He looks like a laborer.'—'Did he give his name?'—'Yes, Madame.'—'Well! what is his name?'—'Putois.'—'He told you that was his name?'—'Putois, yes, Madame.'—'He is here?'—'Yes, Madame. ”

“ It must be getting to mass and getting to confession, and saying aves and doing penance, it is such a busy little soul of mine; but we are not all alike, and madame's body goes in a more stately way. I am like a comet, she is like the sun steady, steady, round and round, with plenty of sleep and the comfortable darkness. Sometimes madame goes hard; so does the sun in summer-shines, shines, shines like a furnace. ”

“ She acts as Adjutant to Madame, and rivals her mother as deliverer of sustained and rapid recitative. She milks the cows, feeds the pigs, and dragoons her young brothers and sisters. But though she works from morning till night, she has always time for a smiling salutation to all ranks. ”

“ And Lady Why is, I believe, as loving as she is wise; and therefore we must trust that she guides this great war between living things, and takes care that Madam How kills nothing which ought not to die, and takes nothing away without putting something more beautiful and something more useful in its place; and that even if England were, which God forbid, overrun once more with forests and bramble-brakes, that too would be of use somehow, somewhere, somewhen, in the long ages which are to come hereafter. ”

“ I have seen men ere now damage some of Madam How’s property when they were little boys, and be punished by her all their lives long, even though she had mended the broken pieces, or turned them to some other use. Therefore I say to you, beware of Madam How. She will teach you more kindly, patiently, and tenderly than any mother, if you want to learn her trade. But if, instead of learning her trade, you damage her materials and play with her tools, beware lest she has her own again out of you. ”

“ Madame is thin and dark, too, with white cheeks and white hands. In certain lights she looks quite transparent, shining out of her black shawl with an extraordinary effect. When she is not serving she sits on a stool with her face turned, always, to the window. ”

“ What poison did this discourse of the Queen-Dauphin carry in it for madam de Cleves! How could she but know herself to be the person whose name was not known, and how could she help being filled with tenderness and gratitude, when she learned, by a way not in the least liable to suspicion, that the duke, who had already touched her heart, concealed his passion from the whole world, and neglected for her sake the hopes of a crown? It is impossible to express what she felt, or to describe the tumult that was raised in her soul. ”

“ The Madame has a superior faculty for this business, having been born with a Caul on her Face, by virtue of which she can more accurately read the past, present, and future; also enabling her to cure many diseases without using drugs or medicines. The madame advertises nothing but what she can do. ”

“ Madame has the exquisite art of filling her house with attractive people, of harmonizing, of giving satisfaction, of rendering her guests at home with herself, of charming grave men and wise scholars, as well as gay young girls. ”

“ She has the sharpness and sourness of an old maid, and her whole person seems dried up and mummified,—a rare thing with blondes. Not such women as Madame does beautiful music, like that of "Faust",—oh! ”

“ Some people think, again, that Madam How is not only stupid, but ill-tempered and cruel; that she makes earthquakes and storms, and famine and pestilences, in a sort of blind passion, not caring where they go or whom they hurt ”

“ I concealed the greatest part of it from you, for fear of being importunate, or of losing somewhat in your esteem by a behaviour not becoming a husband: in a word, I deserved your affection more than once, and I die without regret, since I have not been able to obtain it, and since I can no longer desire it. Adieu, Madam; you will one day regret a man who loved you with a sincere and virtuous passion ”

“ For the safest way to learn Madam How’s methods is to watch her at work in little corners at commonplace business, which will not astonish or frighten us, nor put huge hasty guesses and dreams into our heads. ”

“ The certainty of his having done so bold and imprudent a thing, gave her some little resentment against him; and the duke observed an air of coldness in her face, which sensibly grieved him. The conversation turned upon indifferent matters; and yet he had the skill all the while to shew so much wit, complaisance, and admiration for madam de Cleves, that part of the coldness she expressed towards him at first, left her in spite of herself. ”