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_On the Cliffs_.] So the feminists have been only embittered by their brothers' praise. As time wears on, writers averse to feminine verse seem to be losing thecourage of their convictions. At the end of the eighteenth century, woman's opponent was not afraid to express himself. Woman writers were sometimes praised, but it was for one quality alone, the chastity of their style. John Hughes [Footnote: See _To the Author of "A Fatal Friendship."_] and Tom Moore [Footnote: See _To Mrs. Henry Tighe_.] both deplored the need of such an element in masculine verse. But Moore could not resist counteracting the effect of his chary praise by a play, _The Blue Stocking_, which burlesques the literary pose in women. He seemed to feel, also, that he had neatly quelled their poetical aspirations when he advertised his aversion to marrying a literary woman. [Footnote: See _The Catalogue_. Another of his poems ridiculing poetesses is _The Squinting Poetess_.] Despite a chivalrous sentimentality, Barry Cornwall took his stand with Moore on the point, exhorting women to choose love rather than a literary career. [Footnote: See _To a Poetess_. More seriously, Landor offered the same discouragement to his young friend with poetical tastes. [Footnote: See _To Write as Your Sweet Mother Does_.] On the whole the prevalent view expressed early in the nineteenth century is the considerate one that while women lack a literary gift, they have, none the less, sweet poetical natures. Bulwer Lytton phrased the old-fashioned distinction between his hero and heroine, In each lay poesy--for woman's heart Nurses the stream, unsought and oft unseen; And if it flow not through the tide of art, Nor win the glittering daylight--you may ween It slumbers, but not ceases, and if checked The egress of rich words, it flows in thought, And in its silent mirror doth reflect Whate'er affection to its banks hath brought. [Footnote: Milton.] Yet the poetess has two of the strongest poets of the romantic period on her side. Wordsworth, in his many allusions to his sister Dorothy, appeared to feel her possibilities equal to his own, and in verses on an anthology, he offered praise of a more general nature to verse written by women. [Footnote: See To Lady Mary Lowther.] And beside the sober judgment of Wordsworth, one may place the unbounded enthusiasm of Shelley, who not only praises extravagantly the verse of an individual, Emilia Viviani, [F
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