And Shakespeare uses female as a noun:
Quote:
He, sir, that must marry this woman. Therefore, you
clown, abandon- which is in the vulgar leave--the society--which
in the boorish is company--of this female--which in the common is
woman- which together is: abandon the society of this female; or,
clown, thou perishest; or, to thy better understanding, diest;
or, to wit, I kill thee, make thee away, translate thy life into
death, thy liberty into bondage. I will deal in poison with thee,
or in bastinado, or in steel; I will bandy with thee in faction;
will o'er-run thee with policy; I will kill thee a hundred and
fifty ways; therefore tremble and depart.
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Touchstone, in
As You Like It, V, I.
Ferdinand, in
Love's Labour Lost, reads this passage,
Quote:
'with a child of our grandmother Eve, a
female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a
woman. Him I, as my ever-esteemed duty pricks me on,
have sent to thee, to receive the meed of
punishment, by thy sweet grace's officer, Anthony
Dull; a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and
estimation.'
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[I,1]