Julia, in "Two Gentlemen of Verona," iv. 4, hangs jealously over the
picture of Sylvia, her unconscious rival:--
"And yet the painter flatter'd her a little,
Unless I flatter with myself too much.
Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow:
If that be all the difference in his love,
I'll get me such a color'd periwig.
Her eyes are gray as glass; and so are mine:
Ay, but her forehead's low, and mine's as high."
All the light-complexioned women may be classed as blondes, whether the
pure red and white that strive for ascendency be pacified by golden
hair, or whether a more even tint of the cheek find its correspondence
in hair of chestnut hue. There are also women of high vitality,
with gifts never too forthputting because blended into a harmonious
disposition, who contribute still a fresh tone to this chromatic scale;
for their heads wear the crisp aureole of another shade that seems to
invite you, as William Blake, the painter, invited his city friend,
to a "thatched roof of rusted gold." Beneath these roofs we can take
shelter, fearing no catastrophe, unless the rich and winning manners
bring one on. In Bellini's portrait of Cassandra Fedeli,[21] the famous
improvisatrice, whom the Venetians crowned early in the sixteenth
century, this gracious style of woman is preserved.
There is a kind of brunette whose eyes are black as the sloe-berry,
with the pupil and the iris melted together: they are couched
underneath sombre hedges of eyebrows, and silently keep a good
look-out. "The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman:" so can the
princesses of the same color be ladies, but their style may ambush
wickedness enough to task the most adventurous resources of a criminal
lawyer. You will notice, however, that their scheming minds are endowed
with little sprightliness. Intrigue does not put forth a sparkling
surface that is swept by the light thrills of various moods that blow:
the social prattle lacks the tone of charming simplicity and ease. The
face is subject to lowering weather when one of these women meditates
a poisoning: there is one clinch of the teeth as the limbs collect
to make a fatal spring, one glance askant at the person whom she is
diplomatically entertaining with arrangements for his ruin. They cannot
so readily nurse a fell purpose with a melting air of maternity which
transpires in every line of the face and limbs, as the victim is held
cosingly to the fatal breast. He is clutched a little too menacingly,
and has time for a suspicion concerning the nutriment he is about to
draw.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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