Woman-Friendships

"We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,Have, with our needles, created both one flower,Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,Both warbling of one song, both in one key,As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds,Had been incorporate, So we grew together,Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,But yet a unison in partition;Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;So with two seeming bodies, but one heart,Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,Due but to one, and crownèd with one crest."

———"if she be a traitor,Why so am I; we still have slept together,Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together;And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans,Still we went coupled and inseparable!"

"Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege,I cannot live out of her company!"