Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-29
WIDOWS IN LITERATURE
Efforts Made to Portray the Many Inter-
esting Phases
The Real and tho Imitation Article
From the Earliest Times Down
to the Present.

terbury Tales" the wife OF Bath showed
herself q widow half q dozen times over,
| who knew all about the widow business.
having become SO expert at the trade that
| she spotted one future husband at the
| funeral Of his predecessor, and at once laid
| her plans for his speedy capture. AS the
literature OF the English language flows
on down the stream of time it is literally
| landmarked here and there with widows.
| Midway the side Is the Ielict of Aminidab
Wilmer. who fell at Edgehill and left her
| ECO. She was a heroine in her way. She
must have been. or Sir Hudibras could not
| by any possibility have fallen In love with
| her, and that he did so is tribute alike to
| his piety and his common sense. OF course,
| the f2OO had nothing to do with it. Hudi-
bras despised money when she was con-
cerned, but that decent sum would not
have been thrown away had it come with
| a beauty so charming as she is represented
| by the gull-tipped pen of the poet Butler.
NOR should the widow of Sir Roger de
| Coverly be forgotten, obdurate though she
was. She was an exception among wild
oWs, aid Addison who had much expert
eIce with at least one widow, the one he
married, no doubt endeavored to make Sir
Roger name as nearly as possible the OPP
posite OF the shrewd countess who in his
case, did most of the counting, married
MIN ofthand, almost in spite of himself,
and then would not let him go to the tav-
n
| dow so that she could see that ne did not
spend the time In talking to any woman
other than her own sweet jealous SELF
Thackerny's Widows.
That Thackeray had no particular love for
the genus widow is apparent to any one
| who reads the inimitable stories that SEEM
| ed to now 50 easily from his pen, but which
were really wrought out with the most
painstaklng care. 1t Is said of one military
critic who could never see anything ex-
traordinary In the successes of great gen.
erals that he must at some time have rar-
| rowly missed being great general himself
On the same principle 1t Is not difficult to
Deileye that, Judging from the sarc as n
Thackeray expends on the widows. he must
at some time have been duped by a widow
or so nearly so that he remembered the in
cident with a resentment that finally
broadened 50 as to include the whole wild
ow tribe. Thackeray's widows, and he has
dozens OF them, are always tricky. They
always proceed on the hypothesis that
Providence intends to provide them with
another husband. as compensation for the
one he took away, and so they do all they
can to put themselves in sympathy with
the divine plans. A Thackeray widow
chertsheS the notion that the position of
husband to her is like that of a captain of
q ship. to be filled by promotion as soon
as vacancy occurs. A Thackeray widow
| Is ready to marry anybody that fate pro-
vides, and to do all she can to promote
more unique, and at the same time widow
ish, than the control exercised over Henry
Esmond, who loves the daughter, and yet
Is persuaded, In spite of himself, to become
her father 10y marrying her widowed moth
err? 1t Is not often that widow is 80
badly In want of husband as to take one
from her own daughter, but there are such
widows, and nobody knew the fact better
than Thackeray.
Another Widow Painter.
Dickens was another artist of widowhood
who could touch up to perfection the pc
culiar characteristics of the species. To do
him justice, however, the most charming
bits of nature were in connection with
three or four characters. none of them bad.
There was Peggotty, who. as the widow of
the dull but amiable Barkis, is even more
attractive than when her buttons came
Off while huggng the juvenile David. Peg
gotty was honest and sincere. She made
old Barkis good wife in spite of his
''nearnesS," and after he had left the box
under his bed, with it's store of guineas
and gone into the nearest churchyard. she
showed no disposition to seek a successor
Neither did Mrs. Grummdge 1t is true.
that her inclination to bemoan the virtues
or the departed 'old UNI somewhat de-
tracted from her society manners but
even when an opportunity was offered of
setting sail a second time on the sea of
mfrimony she did not embrace it. but
Instead. according to the veracious narra-
ative OF Mr.. Peggotty, ups with a bucket"
and gives the ships cook an intimation not
to be misunderstood that, while his In
tentlons might be perfectly honorable,
they were certainly far from being appre-
ciated. 1t would have been a good thing
for Mrs Coppertield II she had had the dis
position and the bucket of Mrs. Grummidge
when Mr.. Murdstone came calling but the
poor little thing was so quiet so helpless
so dependent so clngtng, that she would
probably have married any one who came
along and asked her. There are some
q SON, % hAt
Will stick to anything they happen to fail
on. and Mrs. Copperfield was one of that
kind. If Dora had outlived David she
would have been a second, but Dickens
knew we'll enough that one widow of that
variety is enough for any story. and SO
Dora died in time.
Imitation Widows.
Two ladies, both at the time unmarried,
have given the world literary pictures of
widows, and each made a most grotesuue
failure. One was Amelia Rives, in the
Quick or the Dead" who tried to paint a
widow and achieved a result similar to
what is sometimes seen on the stage when
a young girl tries to play the part of an
old woman. She may put on a white wig
and walk with very respectable hobble,
but beneath the white hairs are seen the
bright eyes and smooth skin of youth. So,
with Amelia Rives' widow, who swings in
the top of a tree; she is only the imitation
article, ana could no more deceive the pub
lie than q stage bald-head could deceive q
fly. The other fraudulent widow is in Miss
Evans '.Vashti." At first a grass widow,
she becomes a real widow without know
ing 1t. She Is an entirely spurious product.
Even a grass widow of the present day,
when deserted by her lawful spouse, would
rise and say to herself: Enough of
things enough" and when an eligible man
came along on still hunt for a wife.
would HE to the nearest court and procure
a divorce on the ground Of failure to sup
port. If she had scruples on this score,
she might alter her plan of action and en-
p!oy a detective to look up her recreant
spouse and see whether he were really
alive or dead, but she would never allow
such q prize as DR.. Gray to slip through
her fingers, not she!
The creation of Owen Meredith, or. rath
err the creation that Owen Meredith stole
from George Sand, Is another striking ex-
ample Of a widow as she exists In the i'm
agination Of poet