Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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8 THE AUGUSTA SEMIXARY ANNUAL. of a few lines of poetry, we have this year learned about nineteen hundred lines. The favorite poets are Milton, Dry- den, Gray, Burns, Wordsworth and Shelley; Wordsworth perhaps should head the list. Those who receive the certifi- cates of the English Literature department at the end of the tw o years work feel that they have earned the honor. That we all may succeed is the hope of the class of ' 91. Emma Baldwin. Cliau.cer ' s Study of Women. IV Tore satire, more sarcasm, irony and fun have - - been lavished in all ages upon the one theme. Wo- man, than upon any other. Probably no one of our poets has made a more careful and more accurate study of this subject than Dan. Chaucer. Are not his eyes twinkling as he is describing the two women pilgrims ? When, along with the courtesy, dainti- ness and tenderness of heart of Madame Eglantine, he tells of her singing Entuned in her nose full seemly, of her French, After the school of Stratford Alte Bowe, For French of Paris was to her unknowe, and of the floods of tears at sight of a bleeding or dead mouse, or an ill-treated lap dog; and then when he tells of the hosen, hat, spurs, the travels and the husbands of the good wif of byside Bath. Not in the Prologue onl} does Chaucer ridicule wo- men, but pilgrim after pilgrim has his joke at the expense of the sex. Even the verraj perfight gentil knight can- not refrain from observing that, Womnien as to speken in commune, Thay folwen all the favour ot fortune;

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THE AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. 7 enjoy the wit and wisdom of the Spectator. The essay sub- jects at this time were to test our individual work. The Lovable Traits of Sir Roger de Coverley; The Moral Influ- ence of Addison; Addison ' s Wit; Addison ' s Successes; Ad- dison ' s Times as Shown in His Works, and Addison ' s Cato. Then we read Macaulay and Thackeray with ever increas- ing delight; Macaulay ' s great third chapter giving us a pic- ture of the State of Kngland at this time, and his Essays we read, when there might be any on the subjects we were study- ing. Some of us were able to read Hairy Esmojid and The Virghiians — as supplementary to the English Humorists in pictures o f the Age. It would require more space than I am allowed in this article to mention all the writers we studied carefully, and the essays we read; the w ork was varied by studying the lives, reviews, and works themselves of our authors, and an occasional essay showed how we had been working. We loved Scott dearly, and grew vexed with Carlyle, in true school girl fashion, because he said Scott was not a great man. But we forgave Carlyle a great deal when we read his sympathetic essay on Burns. But this is not our course, it is a mere suggestion of what we have done. The Victorian Age we have studied in McCarthy ' s History of Our Ozvn Times, enlarging on the writers of special note. The course of collateral reading we have been pursuing is very full, comprising some of the writings of all the authors we have studied; our favorite books of reference have been Carlyle, Lowell, Macaulay, Mrs. Oliphant, Shaw, Welsh, Ward and Taine; w hile the others we have used would swell the list to a formidable array. Each student at the end of the session has a pile of neat note books, numbered and indexed awaiting the review of Miss Wright ' s critical eye. While studying Shakespeare, we read a play a week, out of class — and then each one wrote impromptu compositions on a subject given from the play read. While studying the English Drama we read Addison s Cato, Marloioe ' s Dr. Faustus and Edward H . ; also the plays of Sheridan and Goldsmith. A unique feature in our course is the memorizing daily

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THE AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANKUAL. 9 the Nonnes Priest makes his hit at them when he makes Chaunticleer say : For also, sikcr as ' In principio Mulier est honiinis confusio, ' Madame the sentence of this Latyn is Woumian is mannes joy and al his blis; the Man of Law makes his in apostrophizing Satan : • ' Thyn instrument so (weylawey the while !) Makestovv of wommen whan thou woltbegile; the Clerk laments that there are no patient Griseldas now, for, says he, If that they were put to such assayes. The gold of hem hath now so badde alayes With bras, that thogh the coyne be faire at eye It wold rather braste atwo than plye; the Squire tells of Canace ' s going early to rest, for she was fill mesurable as wommen be, and Hire liste not appalled for to be, Nor on the mor ve un fest liche for to see; and the Franklyn says, Women of kjnde desiren libertee, And not to be contreyned as a thral. The Merchant and Harry Bailey both stand as witnesses that we wedded men live in sorwe and care, and seem to take a ' sorrowful pleasure in comparing notes. But no one lays open to view the weaknesses of the sex more than does the Wife of Bath herself. There is scarcely one weak point left untouched in her story of the knight ' s search for what women loven moste. Some, he finds, love riches, some honour, some jolynessee, some riche array, some to be widows, some to be wed, some to be angry and do just as they please, some to be flattered and praised, but when be- fore the court he announced that, ' Wommen desiren to have sovereynetie. As wel over hir housband as hir love, In all the court ne was ther wif ne maj ' de, Ne wydow that contraried that he sayde. The good wife herself acknowledges that, A man shal wynne us best with flaterye. And v-itli attendance and with besynessee, Ben we y limed (caught) both moore and lesse ;