It was in 1880 again that _Punch_ backed the appeal of Girton for funds to carry out the extension scheme and supported the petition of women for university degrees. Here he represents the would-be woman graduate as Vivien endeavouring to win over the recalcitrant academic Merlin:-- In Arts, if once examiners be ours, To take degrees we must have equal powers; The loss of these is as the loss of all. It is the little rift within the lute, That soon will leave the Girton lecturer mute; And, slowly emptying, silence Newnham Hall. The little rift in academic lute, The speck of discontent in hard-earned fruit, That, eating inwards, turns it into gall. It is not worth the keeping; let it go: But shall it? Answer fairly, answer no; And take us all in all or not at all. The decision of Durham University to grant women the B.A. degree in 1881 is cordially applauded, though the welcome is impaired by the facetious heading, "'Ducks' at Durham"; and the liberality of Cambridge in admitting women to the Tripos Examination is contrasted with the churlishness of Oxford. As I write the tables have been turned and Oxford is the paradise of the girl graduate. In his earlier days _Punch_ never wearied of insisting on the importance of cookery, but a set of verses in 1881 marks an altered mood towards the old "woman in the kitchen" cry. Here the suggestion is even made that _men_ would be benefited by a course of lessons in cooking, and there is obvious irony in the concluding lines:-- This is woman's true position-- In the kitchen's inmost nook; And a lady's noblest mission Is to cook. The two moods are subtly combined in Du Maurier's famous and unforgettable picture of the cynical widow advising a wife of two years' standing to "feed the brute." [Illustration: EXPERIENTIA DOCET WIFE OF TWO YEARS' STANDING: "Oh yes! I'm sure he's not so fond of me as at first. He's away so much, neglects me dreadfully, and he's so cross when he comes home. What _shall_ I do?" WIDOW: "Feed the brute!"] [Sidenote: _"Punch's" Misgivings_]