The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-10-28
IDEAL WOMAN OF FICTION.
The Views of MILFORD Blunt The Heroines of Shakespeare
The localized Women of Modern Literature.
For The Messenger.

CnrOnlcle passes IN reSleW the COnlSu-
ton Of Wilfred Blunt, In the Current
Speaker, that our literature is lacking
in the ideal woman, that h Is en-
shrined only in tradition. and
has not come down to Christian times;
that neither in the drama, in poetry
nor in fiction does she hold her place
idealized and he cites different authors
in proof of their inability 20 portray
the ideal woman. The Chronicle thus
quotes Wilfred Blunt:
H declares that with the exception
OF Mallory's fair h%eroines. where char
acters were additionally Celtic, n &C
their sweet. pathetic figures which
come down to us in our ancient bal
lad poetry from half pagan times, the
ideal woman is almost absent from ear
lier literature; that women are every
where roughly handled. even by chau-
Ger. While 'Shakespeare'S stage ladies
have nothing at all in them OF the
ideal.
Coming down TO later times. Mr..
Blunt finds lower degeneracy still III
the woman of SmolIet and Richardson,
while even those of Walter Scott are
by no means ideal, for Scott invariably
lost his presence OF nina Wn6n cOl-
fronted with the problem OF q pretty
wOman's heart. Recent writer's III
his opinion, have done no better; and
with a wall, Mr.. Blunt laments that
the noble. fair woman Of traditional
Omanc IS today an ideal lost to US"
Either Mr.. Blunt is capricious, if no:
perverted, in his taste; either he has
set UP for himself an impossible ideal
wOman or he has read Shakespeare,
n nc nr6 10rn than m Tnndarn nnJrnl
with a lack of discrimination and ca
pacity of analysis. He charges that
D~esdemona, the lovely lady welded
to the Moor" and charming, passion
ate Juliet were borrowed from Banded
10; to which the Chicago Chronicle re-
plies that. even if it be so, Shakes
peare has added TO them such ide1I
grace, such romantic charm, as to rem
der them immortal. while the Italian
originals are known to only the dry
as-dusts' of literature.
But, leaving out these two incOm-
parable creations of Shakespeare. mis-
pages TEEN with surprising types of
the ideal woman. His stage ladies"
are creatures of flesh and blood. who
love n hate, and suffer, and worship
and sin; but, through all, We are daz-
Zled by their radiance, charmed by
their loneliness, enthralled by their
witChery. paying homage to their vir-
tues. Why, Rosalind. in LAS You Like
It." leads us at her own sweet will
through a veritable fairyIand. for all
her boys clothes, footing il. like a
lovely . innocent merry maid as she is,
over the dew drenched grass, under
the entertaining bOughs. down by the
musical, sparkling stream. Why, we
have been all through the Forest of
q Arden; we know the bosky dell whence
y comes the soft. gentle plant Of the
dove, we see Jaques walking on
ahead, melancholy mad" we read the
verses writ on the barks OF the trees;
we are there when they all join hands
and are happy ever after. at this bid
ding of hymen:
Then is there mirth in heaven
When earthly things, mad even.
Atone togther.
Good duke, receive thy daughter;
HSmen from heaven brought her:
Yea brought her hither,
That thou mightest join her hand in his
Whose heart within her bosom is"
What an exquisite i~dealization IS
Miranda,in the Tempest" an angelic
creature sent to earth. like Mercury
new-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill"
a flower storm tossed on a bleak shore,
a fair girl pacing the sands in maiden
meditation fancy free" where the
bowling monster. drunken monster
SdllOdH, STARTS at the waves, alu
crouches to the lash of Prospero's
whip. What gentleness of heart speaks
out in her words to Ferdinand:
81 do not know
One Of my sex; no woman's face re
member
Save. from my glass. my own; mol
have / seen
More than 1 may call men han YOU
my friend,
And my dear father"
Was ought more charming and grace.
full ever penned than the portrafturt
OF Hero, in Much Ado About Moth
ing" the hapless maia done to deatf
supposedly, by slender ones tongues,
and restored to life and Low and th'
rehabilitation of her stainless woman
hood?
Verify there are not a few idea,
women illustrating the genius OF
Shakespeare
The Chicago Chronicle aptly says:
The ideal woman however. may
and does take on new forms from ag,
to age. Shakespeare's romantic ideal
are not those of today, but ours ar,
no less romantic, no less ideal. II
America the real woman may be- II,
better. no faircr than women of ear
lier times or other countries, but il
the hearts and minds of pracIica
SIlET-CdA men she Is luedLlZeu, dAo a.
seen chiefly through the bright color
OF romaticiSm."
This IS very rue, and is eXempiifie
in the best works of poetry and pros
through ~senturieS Brenhilda. tn
Amazonian spouse OF Scott's ''Coun
Robert Of Paris" was the ideal woma!
of the rude warrior who seated hinsel
on the throne of AleXius Comnenus a
C~olstantinople. without saying, ''b,
your leave" Clad in mail, armed witt
battle-aX and spear. striding over tn
field OF conflict. a stalwart helmete
Diana, she was admired and courte
BY the hosts of the crusades, and shon,
at the splendid court of the Greeks.
The first P~lantagenet, Henry II ,
England, to his sorrow, found his idea
woman in Eleanor OF AQ~uintaine, tn
divorced wife OF Louis VII, who mad