O that I were a man (Much Ado About Nothing)

Beatrice, frustrated and determined, laments the societal constraints on women and wishes she could challenge Claudio herself.

O that I were a man for his sake! Or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake! But manhood is melted into courtesies, valour into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too: he is now as valiant as Hercules that only tells a lie and swears it. I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.