By SHAKESPEAREAN SCHOLARS

Isabella has also the innate dignity which renders her
"queen o'er herself," but she has lived far from the world
and its pomps and pleasures; she is one of a consecrated
sisterhood--a novice of St. Clare; the power to command
obedience and to confer happiness are to her unknown.
Portia is a splendid creature, radiant with confidence, hope,
and joy. She is like the orange-tree, hung at once with
golden fruit and luxuriant flowers, which has expanded-
into bloom and fragrance beneath favoring skies, and has
been nursed into beauty by the sunshine and the dews of
heaven. Isabella is like a stately and graceful cedar, tow-
ering on some alpine cliff, unbowed and unscathed amid
the storm. She gives us the impression of one who has
passed under the ennobling discipline of suffering and self-
denial: a melancholy charm tempers the natural vigor of
her mind: her spirit seems to stand upon an eminence, and
look down upon the world as if already enskyed and sainted;
and yet when brought in contact with that world which she
inwardly despises, she shrinks back with all the timidity
natural to her cloistral education.-- JAMESON, Shake-
speare's Heroines.

But the poet in Shakespeare comes first, and the philos-
opher only second; and the title of the play should rather
be "Isabella." It is better to know the dramas of Shake-
speare by their women than by their philosophy; and of
these women Isabella is the best. You may like them for
several virtues, these women; and by the word "best" I

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