“Love, as a rule, affects men otherwise,
And lovers rarely love to criticize…
If she has any blemish, fault, or shame,
They will redeem it by a pleasing name.
The pale-faced lady’s lily-white, perforce;
The swarthy one’s a sweet brunette, of course;
The spindly lady has a slender grace;
The fat one has a most majestic pace;
The plain one, with her dress in disarray,
They classify as beaute negligee…
The mean one’s witty, and the dull one’s kind;
The chatterbox has liveliness and verve;
The mute one has a virtuous reserve.
So lovers manage, in their passion’s cause,
To love their ladies even for their flaws.”
- Moliere’s The Misanthrope (Act II, lines 265-66, 269-76, 280-84)