“A man’s love is of man’s life, 'tis woman’s whole existence.” Is it saying a man is in love with his own affairs (with no room for a woman in it)??? The second half of the quote is self-explanatory.
FYI: The quote is from “Don Juan”, but I did not hear it in exprssed in its original context.
I think it’s saying that for men love is just one part of their life while for women it is all that matters to them.
Looks that way to me. Love is of a man’s life; it is not entirely a man’s life.
I thought it was “Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart.”
The full stanza makes the meaning unambiguous. It is from stanza 194 from canto 1 and is part of the letter that Donna Julia writes from the convent to which she has been sent after being caught having an affair with Don Juan.
*'Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart,
'Tis woman’s whole existence; man may range
The court, camp, church, the vessel, and the mart;
Sword, gown, gain, glory, offer in exchange
Pride, fame, ambition, to fill up his heart,
And few there are whom these cannot estrange;
Men have all these resources, we but one,
To love again, and be again undone.
*
I like Dorothy Parker’s take on it:
General Review Of The Sex Situation
Woman wants monogamy;
Man delights in novelty.
Love is woman’s moon and sun;
Man has other forms of fun.
Woman lives but in her lord;
Count to ten, and man is bored.
With this the gist and sum of it,
What earthly good can come of it?