...perceive by your simp'ring none of you hates them), that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not; and I am sure, as many as have good beards,...

...13-18) The physical level of love is the common one, the one we can all understand, and it dominates the epilogue: 'If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleas'd me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not' (11. 15-17). This is the one...

...new variation on Tlaudite', still seem in character, as does the concentric play on 'boy: girl: boy': If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not. And I am sure, as many as have good beards,...

...not the fashion to see the lady in the epilogue," but only a few lines later says to the audience, "If I were a woman I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me." Elizabethan audiences appear to have accepted this practice easily, and delighted in extended dialogues...

...alone to accept the applause and to underline coherently her role as a boy actor performing a part: If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not. (5.4.214-17) Through the mimetic power of...

...with both men and women in the audience: 'My way is to conjure you, and I'll begin with the women ... If I were a woman I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not' - hardly the demure, gender-fixed behaviour...

...perceive by your simpering none of you hates them — that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not. And I am sure as many as have good beards,...