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The Linux Programming Interface 1st Edition Michael
Kerrisk Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Michael Kerrisk
ISBN(s): 9781593272203, 1593272200
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 12.87 MB
Year: 2010
Language: english
The definiTive guide To Linux
and unix sysTem Programming
®
The Linux
The Linux Programming Interface is the definitive guide
to the Linux and UNIX programming interface—the
f
f
Write secure programs
Write multithreaded programs using POSIX threads
Programming
inTerface
interface employed by nearly every application that f Build and use shared libraries
Programming
runs on a Linux or UNIX system. f Perform interprocess communication using pipes,
In this authoritative work, Linux programming message queues, shared memory, and semaphores
expert Michael Kerrisk provides detailed descriptions f Write network applications with the sockets API
of the system calls and library functions that you need
While The Linux Programming Interface covers a wealth
The Linux
inTerface
in order to master the craft of system programming,
of Linux-specific features, including epoll, inotify, and
and accompanies his explanations with clear, complete
A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook
®
the /proc file system, its emphasis on UNIX standards
example programs.
(POSIX.1-2001/SUSv3 and POSIX.1-2008/SUSv4)
You’ll find descriptions of over 500 system calls
makes it equally valuable to programmers working on
and library functions, and more than 200 example pro- Fixed at 2024-06-16 by David from https://man7.org/tlpi/errata/
other UNIX platforms.
grams, 88 tables, and 115 diagrams. You’ll learn how to: index.html
The Linux Programming Interface is the most com- Michael KerrisK
f Read and write files efficiently prehensive single-volume work on the Linux and UNIX
f Use signals, clocks, and timers programming interface, and a book that’s destined to
f Create processes and execute programs become a new classic.
about the author
Michael Kerrisk (http://man7.org/) has been using and programming UNIX systems
for more than 20 years, and has taught many week-long courses on UNIX system
programming. Since 2004, he has maintained the man-pages project, which
produces the manual pages describing the Linux kernel and glibc programming
APIs. He has written or cowritten more than 250 of the manual pages and is actively
involved in the testing and design review of new Linux kernel-userspace interfaces.
Michael lives with his family in Munich, Germany.
covers current uNiX standards (PosiX.1-2001/susv3 and PosiX.1-2008/susv4)
KerrisK
T H E F I N E ST I N G E E K E N T E RTA I N M E N T ™ $ 99.95 ($114.95 CDN ) Shelve In: linux/programming
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ISBN: 978-1-59327-220-3
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PRAISE FOR THE LINUX PROGRAMMING INTERFACE
“If I had to choose a single book to sit next to my machine when writing
software for Linux, this would be it.”
—MARTIN LANDERS, SOFTWARE ENGINEER, GOOGLE
“This book, with its detailed descriptions and examples, contains everything
you need to understand the details and nuances of the low-level programming
APIs in Linux . . . no matter what the level of reader, there will be something
to be learnt from this book.”
—MEL GORMAN, AUTHOR OF Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager
“Michael Kerrisk has not only written a great book about Linux programming
and how it relates to various standards, but has also taken care that bugs he
noticed got fixed and the man pages were (greatly) improved. In all three
ways, he has made Linux programming easier. The in-depth treatment of
topics in The Linux Programming Interface . . . makes it a must-have reference
for both new and experienced Linux programmers.”
—ANDREAS JAEGER, PROGRAM MANAGER, OPENSUSE, NOVELL
“Michael’s inexhaustible determination to get his information right, and to
express it clearly and concisely, has resulted in a strong reference source for
programmers. While this work is targeted at Linux programmers, it will be of
value to any programmer working in the UNIX/POSIX ecosystem.”
—DAVID BUTENHOF, AUTHOR OF Programming with POSIX Threads AND
CONTRIBUTOR TO THE POSIX AND UNIX STANDARDS
“ . . . a very thorough—yet easy to read—explanation of UNIX system and
network programming, with an emphasis on Linux systems. It’s certainly a
book I’d recommend to anybody wanting to get into UNIX programming
(in general) or to experienced UNIX programmers wanting to know ‘what’s
new’ in the popular GNU/Linux system.”
—FERNANDO GONT, NETWORK SECURITY RESEARCHER, IETF PARTICIPANT, AND
RFC AUTHOR
“ . . . encyclopedic in the breadth and depth of its coverage, and textbook-
like in its wealth of worked examples and exercises. Each topic is clearly
and comprehensively covered, from theory to hands-on working code.
Professionals, students, educators, this is the Linux/UNIX reference that
you have been waiting for.”
—ANTHONY ROBINS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, THE
UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO
“I’ve been very impressed by the precision, the quality and the level of detail
Michael Kerrisk put in his book. He is a great expert of Linux system calls
and lets us share his knowledge and understanding of the Linux APIs.”
—CHRISTOPHE BLAESS, AUTHOR OF Programmation système en C sous Linux
“ . . . an essential resource for the serious or professional Linux and UNIX
systems programmer. Michael Kerrisk covers the use of all the key APIs
across both the Linux and UNIX system interfaces with clear descriptions
and tutorial examples and stresses the importance and benefits of following
standards such as the Single UNIX Specification and POSIX 1003.1.”
—ANDREW JOSEY, DIRECTOR, STANDARDS, THE OPEN GROUP, AND CHAIR OF
THE POSIX 1003.1 WORKING GROUP
“What could be better than an encyclopedic reference to the Linux system,
from the standpoint of the system programmer, written by none other than
the maintainer of the man pages himself? The Linux Programming Interface is
comprehensive and detailed. I firmly expect it to become an indispensable
addition to my programming bookshelf.”
—BILL GALLMEISTER, AUTHOR OF POSIX.4 Programmer’s Guide: Programming for
the Real World
“ . . . the most complete and up-to-date book about Linux and UNIX system
programming. If you’re new to Linux system programming, if you’re a UNIX
veteran focused on portability while interested in learning the Linux way,
or if you’re simply looking for an excellent reference about the Linux pro-
gramming interface, then Michael Kerrisk’s book is definitely the companion
you want on your bookshelf.”
—LOÏC DOMAIGNÉ, CHIEF SOFTWARE ARCHITECT (EMBEDDED), CORPULS.COM
San Francisco
THE LINUX PROGRAMMING INTERFACE. Copyright © 2010 by Michael Kerrisk.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior
written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
14 13 12 11 10 123456789
ISBN-10: 1-59327-220-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-220-3
Publisher: William Pollock
Production Editor: Riley Hoffman
Cover Design: Octopod Studios
Front Cover Photo: Rob Suisted
Back Cover Photo: Lynley Cook
Copyeditor: Marilyn Smith
Compositor: Susan Glinert Stevens
Proofreader: Linda Seifert
For technical reviewers, please refer to the author’s acknowledgements
For information on book distributors or translations, please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly:
No Starch Press, Inc.
38 Ringold Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: 415.863.9900; fax: 415.863.9950; [email protected]; www.nostarch.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kerrisk, Michael, 1961-
The Linux programming interface : a Linux and UNIX system programming handbook / by Michael Kerrisk.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-220-3 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59327-220-0 (hardcover)
1. Linux. 2. UNIX (Computer file) 3. Operating systems (Computers) I. Title.
QA76.76.O63K496 2010
005.4'32--dc22
2010001947
No Starch Press and the No Starch Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch Press, Inc. Other product and
company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than use a trademark
symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the
benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
®
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been
taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any
person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the
information contained in it.
This logo applies only to the text stock.
For Cecilia, who lights up my world.
BRIEF CONTENTS
Preface ..................................................................................................................... xxxi
Chapter 1: History and Standards .................................................................................... 1
Chapter 2: Fundamental Concepts ................................................................................. 21
Chapter 3: System Programming Concepts...................................................................... 43
Chapter 4: File I/O: The Universal I/O Model................................................................. 69
Chapter 5: File I/O: Further Details ................................................................................ 89
Chapter 6: Processes .................................................................................................. 113
Chapter 7: Memory Allocation..................................................................................... 139
Chapter 8: Users and Groups ...................................................................................... 153
Chapter 9: Process Credentials .................................................................................... 167
Chapter 10: Time....................................................................................................... 185
Chapter 11: System Limits and Options......................................................................... 211
Chapter 12: System and Process Information ................................................................. 223
Chapter 13: File I/O Buffering..................................................................................... 233
Chapter 14: File Systems ............................................................................................ 251
Chapter 15: File Attributes .......................................................................................... 279
Chapter 16: Extended Attributes .................................................................................. 311
Chapter 17: Access Control Lists .................................................................................. 319
Chapter 18: Directories and Links ................................................................................ 339
Chapter 19: Monitoring File Events .............................................................................. 375
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Wedded she was some years, and to a man
Of fifty and such husbands are in plenty;
And yet, I think, instead of such a one,
’Twere better to have two of five and twenty,
Especially in countries near the sun.
Byron—Don Juan, Canto I., Verse LXII.
It was upon a day, a summer’s day;
Summer’s indeed a very dangerous season,
And so is spring about the end of May;
The sun, no doubt, is the prevailing reason.
Byron—Don Juan, Canto I., Verse CII.
Haidee was nature’s bride, and knew not this;
Haidee was passion’s child, born where the sun
Showers triple light, and scorches even the kiss
Of his gazelle-eyed daughters.
Byron—Don Juan, Canto II., Verse CCII.
The Turks do well to shut—at least sometimes—
The women up—because, in sad reality,
Their chastity in these unhappy climes
Is not a thing of that astringent quality,
Which in the north prevents precocious crimes.
Byron—Don Juan, Canto V., Verse CLVII.
Few short years make wondrous alterations,
Particularly among sun-burnt nations.
Byron—Don Juan, Canto I., Verse LXIX.
Our English maids are long to woo,
And frigid even in possession;
And if their charms be fair to view,
Their lips are slow at love’s confession:
But born beneath a brighter sun,
For love ordain’d the Spanish maid is
And who when fondly, fairly won,—
Enchants you like the girl of Cadiz?
In each her charms the heart must move
Of all who venture to behold her;
Then let not maids less fair reprove
Because her bosom is not colder:
Through many a clime ’tis mine to roam
Where many a soft and melting maid is,
But none abroad and few at home
May match the dark-eyed girl of Cadiz.
Byron—Poems.
What a beautiful comparison Shakespeare has made between the
virgin and flowers.
I would I had some flowers o’ the spring, that might
Become your time of day; and yours, and yours,
That wear upon your virgin branches yet
Your maidenheads growing * * *
* * * * pale primroses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phœbus in his strength,—a malady
Most incident to maids.
Winter’s Tale, Act IV., Sc. III.
Fair Hermia, question your desires,
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father’s choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun;
For aye to be in shady cloister mew’d
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthly happier is the rose distill’d,
Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I., Sc. I.
Fecundation is not overlooked, and Shakespeare shows his
knowledge of the fact that the penis is merely the spout or funnel by
which the semen is conveyed to the uterus, and aptly compares the
womb to a bottle, which in his time gradually tapered toward the
neck. The word tundish is an old Warwickshire name for a funnel.
Duke. Why should he die, sir?
Lucio. Why? For filling a bottle with a tundish.
Measure for Measure, Act III., Sc. II.
Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:
The wren goes to ’t, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight.
Let copulation thrive for Gloster’s bastard son
Was kinder to his father than my daughters
Got ’tween lawful sheets.
King Lear, Act IV., Sc. VI.
Hymen hath brought the bride to bed,
Where, by the loss of maidenhead,
A babe is moulded.
Pericles, Gow to Act III.
Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once,
That make ungrateful man.
King Lear, Act III., Sc. II.
Q. Eliz. But thou didst kill my children.
K. Rich. But in your daughter’s womb I’ll bury them;
Where, in that nest of spicery, they shall breed
Selves of themselves, to your recomforture.
Richard III., Act IV., Sc. IV.
Your brother and his lover have embrac’d:
As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time,
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.
Measure for Measure, Act I., Sc. IV.
Hear, nature, hear; dear goddess hear!
Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful!
Into her womb convey sterility!
Dry up in her the organs of increase;
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honour her! If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen; that it may live,
And be a thwart disnatur’d torment to her!
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth;
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks;
Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt: that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
King Lear, Act I., Sc. IV.
The production of either sex at will agitated the minds of
physiologists to a considerable extent during Shakespeare’s time.
Indeed he seems to have held an ancient theory that the more
vigorous of the parents produced the opposite sex. Dr. Robert, of
Paris, in his paper entitled Megalanthropogenesis, somewhat
followed up this theory and maintained that “the race of men of
genius might be perpetuated by uniting them to better physically
developed women having clever minds,” which, according to his
theory, would, of course, result in nothing but male children.
Bring forth men-children only!
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males.
Macbeth, Act I., Sc. VII.
For men’s sake, the authors of these women;
Or women’s sake, by whom we men are men.
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act IV., Sc. III.
Be advis’d, fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;
One that compos’d your beauties; yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax,
By him imprinted, and within his power
To leave the figure, or disfigure it.
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I., Sc. I.
The child would therefore resemble the parent of opposite sex.
Nurse to Henry VIII:
’Tis a girl * * * as like you
As cherry is to cherry.
Act V., Sc. I.
Paulina pleading to Leontes on the birth of a daughter to his wife
Hermione:
Behold, my lords,
Although the print be little, the whole matter
And copy of the father,—eye, nose, lip;
The trick of ’s frown; his forehead; nay, the valley,
The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek; his smiles;
The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger.
Winter’s Tale, Act II., Sc. III.
It is a very old opinion that the mental state of parents during
coition influenced to a certain extent the mental activity of the
offspring. Bastards were supposed to excel in this respect on
account of the mental excitement during the intercourse from which
they took their origin. Burton held this view in his “Anatomy of
Melancholy,” and, after reading King Lear, we know that Shakespeare
also held it.
Edmund. Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base? base?
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fobs,
Got ’tween sleep and wake.
Act. I., Sc. II.
His allusions to pregnancy are many.
He knows himself my bed he hath defil’d;
And at that time he got his wife with child:
Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick;
So there’s my riddle, One that’s dead is quick.
All’s Well, Act V., Sc. III.
She is gone; she is two month on her way. * *
She’s quick; the child brags in her belly already.
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V., Sc. II.
A mistake of ten weeks is truly a bad one; quickening generally
being experienced four and a half months after impregnation.
I am with child, * * * *
Murder not, then, the fruit within my womb.
Henry VI., Act V., Sc. IV.
She died, but not alone; she held within
A second principle of life, which might
Have dawn’d a fair and sinless child of sin:
But closed its little being without light,
And went down to the grave unborn, wherein
Blossom and bough lie wither’d with one blight.
Byron—Don Juan, Canto IV., Verse LXX.
This blue ey’d hag was hither brought with child.
Tempest, Act I., Sc. II.
If myself might be his judge,
He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.
Measure for Measure, Act I., Sc. IV.
I shall answer that * * * better than you can
the getting up of the negro’s belly; the moor is
with child.
Merchant of Venice, Act III., Sc. V.
I would there were no age between ten, and
three and twenty, or that youth would sleep out
the rest; for there is nothing in the between but
getting wenches with child, wronging the
ancientry, stealing, fighting. * * *
Winter’s Tale, Act III., Sc. III.
He was whipped for getting the shrieve’s
fool with child; a dumb innocent that could not
say him nay.
All’s Well, Act IV., Sc. III.
Let wives with child
Pray that their burthens may not fall this day.
King John, Act III., Sc. I.
Shakespeare knew of the importance of pregnant women, being
particularly careful that nothing should excite them.
I the rather wean me from despair,
For love of Edward’s offspring in my womb:
This is it that makes me bridle passion,
And bear with mildness my misfortune’s cross;
Ay, ay, for this I draw in many a tear,
And stop the rising of blood-sucking sighs,
Lest with my sighs or tears I blast or drown
King Edward’s fruit, true heir to the English crown.
Henry VI—3d, Act IV., Sc. IV.
The longings or desires of pregnant women are very nicely
shown in Measure for Measure:
She came in great with child, and longing for stewed prunes.
Act II., Sc. I.
This mistress Elbow, being as I say, with child, and being
great bellied, and longing, as I said, for prunes. * * *
Measure for Measure, Act II., Sc. I.
From whom my absence was not six months old,
Before herself (almost at fainting under
The pleasing punishment that women bear)
Had made provision for her following me.
Comedy of Errors, Act I., Sc. I.
The queen rounds apace. * * *
* * * She is spread of late
Into a goodly bulk.
Winter’s Tale, Act II., Sc. I.
The queen, your mother, rounds apace: we shall
Present our services to a fine new prince
One of these days.
Winter’s Tale, Act II., Sc. I.
She grew round-wombed, and had a son for her cradle
ere she had a husband for her bed.
King Lear, Act I., Sc. I.
Great-bellied women,
That had not half a week to go, like rams
In the old time of war, would shake the press
And make ’em reel before ’em.
Henry VIII., Act IV., Sc. I.
Parturition is referred to in many instances.
Lucina, O
Divinest patroness, and midwife gentle
To those that cry by night, convey thy deity
Aboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangs
Of my queen’s travails!
Pericles, Act III., Sc. I.
What shall be done with groaning Juliet?
She’s very near her hour.
Measure for Measure, Act II., Sc. II.
Come, let us go, and pray to all the gods
For our beloved mother in her pains.
Titus Andronicus, Act IV., Sc. II.
The lady shrieks, and well-a-near
Doth fall in travail with her fear.
Pericles, Gow to Act III.
She is deliver’d, lords,—she is deliver’d.
I mean, she is brought a-bed.
Titus Andronicus, Act IV., Sc. II.
The queen’s in labour,
They say, in great extremity; and fear’d
She’ll with the labour end.
Henry VIII., Act V., Sc. I.
The queen’s in labour. * * * Her sufferance made
Almost each pang a death.
Henry VIII, Act V., Sc. I.
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab. * * *
Macbeth, Act IV., Sc. I.
You ne’er oppressed me with a mother’s groan
You ne er oppressed me with a mother s groan,
Yet I express to you a mother’s care.
All’s Well, Act I., Sc. I.
History records the fact that the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards
Richard III., was born with teeth, uneven shoulders, one leg shorter
than the other, deformed back, with a clump of hair on it. These
facts Shakespeare never forgot, and continually harps on them.
Thy mother felt more than a mother’s pain,
And yet brought forth less than a mother’s hope;
To wit, an indigest deformed lump,
Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree.
Teeth hadst thou in thy head when thou wast born,
To signify, thou cam’st to bite the world.
Henry VI—3d., Act V., Sc. VI.
I have often heard my mother say
I came into the world with my legs forward:
Had I not reason, think ye, to make haste,
And seek their ruin that usurp’d our right?
The midwife wonder’d and the women cried,
O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!
And so I was, which plainly signified
That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog.
Henry VI—3d., Act V., Sc. VI.
Love forswore me in my mother’s womb:
And, for I should not deal in her soft laws,
She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe
To shrink mine arm up like a wither’d shrub;
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where sits deformity to mock my body;
To shape my legs of an unequal size;
To disproportion me in every part,
Like to a chaos, or an unlick’d bear-whelp
That carries no impression like the dam.
Henry VI—3d, Act III., Sc. II.
The term “unlick’d bear-whelp,” in the last quotation, refers to an
old notion existing before Shakespeare’s time: that the bear brings
forth masses of animated flesh, having no resemblance whatever to
her, and that she then licks this shapeless lump into a cub. There is
a thread of truth running through this idea, as will be seen by the
following extract taken by Dyer from “Arcana Microcosmi,” by
Alexander Ross: “Bears bring forth their young deformed and
misshapen, by reason of the thick membrane in which they are
wrapped, that is covered over with a mucous matter. This, he says,
the dam contracts in the winter-time, by lying in hollow caves
without motion, so that to the eye the cub appears like an unformed
lump. The above mucilage is afterwards licked away by the dam,
and the membrane broken, whereby that which before seemed to be
unformed appears now in its right shape.” Ross holds that this was
well known by the ancients and that they entertained no other idea
in regard to it.
Hence, heap of wrath, foul indigested lump,
As crooked in thy manners as thy shape!
Henry VI—2d, Act V., Sc. I.
I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deform’d, unfinish’d, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable,
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why I, * * * since I cannot prove a lover,
I am determined to prove a villain.
Richard III., Act I., Sc. I.
Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast
That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old;
’Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth.
Richard III., Act II., Sc. IV.
Thou elvish-mark’d, abortive, rooting hog!
Thou that wast seal’d in thy nativity
The slave of nature and the son of hell!
Thou slander of thy mother’s heavy womb!
Thou loathed issue of thy father’s loins!
Richard III., Act I., Sc. III.
Art thou so hasty? I have stay’d for thee,
God knows, in anguish, pain and agony.
* * * A grievous burden was thy birth to me.
Richard III., Act IV., Sc. IV.
From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept
A hell-hound that doth hunt us all to death:
That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes.
Richard III., Act IV., Sc. IV.
A few other quotations referring to labor are here found.
By her he had two children at one birth.
Henry VI—2d, Act IV., Sc. II.
A terrible child-bed hast thou had, my dear;
No light, no fire.
Pericles, Act III., Sc. I.
At sea, in child-bed died she, but brought forth
A maid-child called Marina.
Pericles, Act V., Sc. III.
The child-bed privilege denied, which ’longs
To women of all fashion;—lastly, hurried
Here to this place, i’ the open air, before
I have got strength of limit.
Winter’s Tale, Act III., Sc. II.
Alas! worlds fall—and woman since she fell’d
The world (as, since that history, less polite
Than true, hath been a creed so strictly held)
Has not yet given up the practice quite.
Poor thing of usages! coerced, compell’d,
Victim when wrong, and martyr oft when right,
Condemn’d to child-bed, as men for their sins,
Have shaving too entail’d upon their chins,—
A daily plague, which, in the aggregate,
May average on the whole with parturition.
But as to women who can penetrate
The real sufferings of their she condition?
Man’s very sympathy with their estate
Has much of selfishness and more suspicion.
Their love, their virtue, beauty, education,
But form good housekeepers to breed a nation.
Byron—Don Juan, Canto XIV., Verse XXIII.
They are as children but one step below,
Even of your mettle, of your very blood;
Of all one pain, save for a night of groans
Endur’d of her, for whom you bid like sorrow.
Richard III., Act IV., Sc. IV.
Would I had died a maid,
And never seen thee, never borne thee son,
Seeing thou hast prov’d so unnatural a father!
Hath he deserv’d to lose his birthright thus?
Hadst thou but lov’d him half so well as I,
Or felt that pain which I did for him once,
Or nourish’d him, as I did with my blood.
Henry VI—3d, Act I., Sc. I.
He is your brother, lords; sensibly fed
Of that self-blood that first gave life to you;
And from that womb where you imprison’d were,
He is enfranchised and come to light.
Titus Andronicus, Act IV., Sc. II.
The child was prisoner to the womb, and is
By law and process of great Nature, thence
Freed and enfranchis’d.
Winter’s Tale, Act II., Sc. II.
She said, no shepherd sought her side,
No hunter’s hand her snood untied,
Yet ne’er again to braid her hair
The virgin snood did Alice wear;
Gone was her maiden glee and sport,
Her maiden girdle all too short.
Nor sought she, from that fatal night,
Or holy church or blessed rite,
But lock’d her secret in her breast,
And died in travail unconfess’d.
Scott—Lady of the Lake, Canto III., Verse V.
My princely father then had wars in France;
And by true computation of the time,
Found that the issue was not his begot.
Richard III., Act III., Sc. V.
Worse than a slavish wipe, or birth hour’s blot:
For marks descried in men’s nativity
Are nature’s faults, not their own infamy.
Lucrece.
A few quotations on abortion, and some others that are
intimately related to obstetrics, remain.
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whose ugly and unnatural aspect
May fright the hopeful mother at the view.
Richard III., Act I., Sc. II.
Why should I joy in any abortive birth?
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act I., Sc. I.
Truth is truth: large length of seas and shores
Between my father and my mother lay,—
And I have heard my father speak * * *
That this, my mother’s son, was none of his;
And, if he were, he came into the world
Full fourteen weeks before the course of time.
King John, Act I., Sc. I.
Shakespeare has interwoven some of his family history here, and
made the advent of Philip, the Bastard, correspond exactly to the
untimely birth of his eldest daughter Susanna, who appeared only
five and a half months after his marriage—“full fourteen weeks
before the course of time.” Later on in the play we find the
following:
Your brother is legitimate,
Your father’s wife did after wedlock bear him.
—thus furnishing proof of legitimacy in such cases.
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