424 POPE. 



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

 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 

 upwai'd 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 slie 

 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 a shadow 

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

 This is poetry, though not in verse. The j^lays of the 

 elder dramatists are not without examples of weak and 

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

 Take these vei'ses of Chapman, for example : — 



" Let no mail value at a little price 

 A virtuous woman's counsel : her winged spirit 

 Is featlieieil oftentimes witli noble words 

 And, like her beauty, ravishins; and pure; 

 The weaker body, still the stionger soul. 

 0, 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 endui-e 

 And to enjoy, being one with him, 

 Feeling his ]oyi 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 poverty is exceeding store." 



Pope in the charactei" I liave read was drawing his ideal 

 woman, for he says at tlie end that she shall be his 



