Saturday, April 30, 2011

Parallel - Vice Graced by Constancy

First, Shake-Speare:

                        "For even to vice
They [women] are not constant, but are changing still;
One vice, but of a minute old, for one
Not half so old as that".
 Cymbeline 2.4.180-3


"It is virtuous to be constant in any undertaking".
Measure For Measure 3.2.215

Now, Bacon: "Constancy is the foundation on which virtues rest...Even vices derive a grace from constancy."
   De Augmentis

Comment:  The elevation of constancy as the foundation of virtues is a little odd. Odder still is the view, apparently shared by Shake-Speare, that constancy mitigates
vices
. Note too the collocation of "even to vice" / "even vices".

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