424 POPE. 



position of poet, in the highest sense. Take two ot 

 Jeremy Taylor's prose sentences about the Countess of 

 Carbery, the lady in Milton's "Comus" : "The religion 

 of this excellent lady was of another constitution : it 

 took root downward in humility, and brought forth fruit 

 upward in the substantial graces of a Christian, in 

 charity and justice, in chastity and modesty, in fair 

 friendships and sweetness of society. . . . And though 

 she had the greatest judgment, and the greatest experi- 

 ence of things and persons I ever yet knew in a person 

 of her youth and sex and circumstances, yet, as if she 

 knew nothing of it, she had the meanest opinion of her- 

 self, and like a fair taper, when she shined to all the 

 room, yet round about her station she had cast n shadow 

 and a cloud, and she shined to everybody but herself." 

 This is poetry, though not in verse. The plays of the 

 elder dramatists are not without examples of weak and 

 vile women, but they are not without noble ones either. 

 Take these verses of Chapman, for example : 



" Let no man value at a little price 

 A virtuous woman's counsel : her winged spirit 

 Is feathered oftentimes with noble words 

 And, like her beauty, ravishing and pure; 

 The weaker body, still the stionger soul. 

 O, what a treasure is a virtuous wife, 

 Discreet and loving. Not one gift on earth 

 Makes a man's life so nighly bound to heaven. 

 She gives him double forces to endure 

 And to enjoy, being one with him, 

 Feeling his joys and griefs with equal sense: 

 If he fetch sighs, she draws her breath as short; 

 If he lament, she melts herself in tears; 

 If he be glad, she triumphs; if he stir\ 

 She moves his way, in all things his sweet ape, 

 Himself divinely varied without change 

 All store without her leaves a man but poor, 

 And with her povertv is exceeding store." 



Pope in the character I have read was drawing his ideal 

 \voman, for he says at the end that she shall be hid 



