How we cite our quotes: (Canto.Line)
Quote #4
If to her share some Female Errors fall,
Look on her Face, and you'll forget 'em all. (II.17–18)
Back to Belinda's superficial niceness on the boat again. Really? If you're a pretty woman you can get away with anything? And all of those things our mothers used to tell us, about it being the inside that counts instead of the outside—not true?
Quote #5
Hail wayward Queen!
Who rule the Sex to Fifty from Fifteen,
Parent of Vapors and of Female Wit,
Who give th' Hysteric or Poetic Fit, (IV.57–60)
Umbriel the Gnome is here addressing the Queen of Spleen, who's lying on her bed in a dark room feeling sorry for herself. He's complimenting her on how well she inflicts other women with spleen issues, like fainting, or writing bad poetry. Yup. Spleen. The women's disease. And what's this about hysteria and poetry being roughly equivalent?
Quote #6
But since, alas! frail Beauty must decay,
Curl'd or uncurl'd, since Locks will turn to grey,
Since paint'd, or not paint'd, all shall fade,
And she who scorns a Man, must die a Maid;
What then remains, but well our Pow'r to use,
And keep good Humour still whate'er we lose? (V.25–30)
We're at the moral of Clarissa's speech in Canto V, where she tells Belinda to stop sniveling about her lost lock of hair, suck it up, and deal with the humiliation by smiling about it. Eventually that pretty curly lock of hair would have gone gray anyway, right? This seems like good advice. But it also seems like a cop-out. We're still undecided as to which. And remember, this was the age before plastic surgery …