by Coleridge · Cluster: Greek Mythology · Lust Sexual Desire · Desire
Abstract
A mythological jeu d’esprit: chaste Pallas grants Mrs. Mundy a beard to repel suitors, with the catch that kisses are barred only until she shaves; comic use of Greek myth to mock female vanity and chastity.
Connections
Themes & Concepts: Satire of Society, Lust Sexual Desire, Pride Forms & Genres: Epigram Historical References: Greek Mythology
Testo integrale / Full text
So great the charms of Mrs. Mundy,
That men grew rude, a kiss to gain:
This so provok’d the dame that one day
To Pallas chaste she did complain:
Nor vainly she address’d her prayer,
Nor vainly to that power applied;
The goddess bade a length of hair
In deep recess her muzzle hide:
Still persevere! to love be callous!
For I have your petition heard!
To snatch a kiss were vain (cried Pallas)
Unless you first should shave your beard.
? 1791
First published in Table Talk and Omniana, 1888, p. 392. The lines
were inscribed by Coleridge in Gillman’s copy of the Omniana of 1812.
An apologetic note is attached. J. P. Collier (Old Man’s Diary, 1871,
March 5, 1832, Part I, p. 34) says that Coleridge ‘recited the following
not very good epigram by him on his godmother’s beard; the consequence
of which was that he was struck out of her will’. Most probably the
lines, as inscribed on the margin of Omniana, were written about 1830
or 1831. First collected in Coleridge’s Poems, 1907.