WOMEN IN HISTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 83, 10 April 1939, Page 9

WOMEN IN HISTORY

HERITAGE OF NATIONS

TREMENDOUS INFLUENCE

OLD AND RARE BOOKS

Some idea of the tremendous influence which women have exerted upon world affairs may be gathered by a visit to the current exhibition at the Alexander Turnbull Library, where, by means of old and rare books, many of them the only copies in New Zealand, the lives of many famous women through the centuries are illuminated for the modern visitor.

Since the days of Cleopatra certain women have captured the public imagination, so that beautiful, dramatic, or tragic details of their lives become part of the heritage of nations; and it is intriguing to see, by means of contemporary portraits, what they really looked like. Cleopatra herself, for instance, was no languorous beauty, according to the bust which survives, but a powerful, inflexible woman of great force of character, with a Roman nose. Probably this is extremely accurate, for sculpture does not allow of those pretty evasions of truth so commonly practised by oil painters, and which makes us doubt the authenticity of sixteenth and seventeenth century portraits.

THE REAL ELIZABETH?

What did Queen Elizabeth really look like? Red-haired, striding and spitting, masculine in voice, intensely vain, magnificently dressed—this engima is presented by court artists as staring calmly from the canvas, clad in such extraordinary trappings that she is more a decorative pattern than a vigorous personality. And Mary Queen of Scots, whose beauty and unhappy fate have inspired dozens of writers, including Schiller, to wonderful verse?

Regarding these careful portraits, and then turning to the modern photographs of Queen Mary and the Duchess of Windsor, one is tempted to wonder just how much romance these people will have for the readers and historians of the future, when nothing will be left to the imagination. Because it is the very lack of any positive indication and the impossibility of complete understanding which makes these women a continued fascination to us today.

THE EARLY WRITERS

Naturally enough, in an exhibition devoted to outstanding women, the 'writers share with Royalty the greatest importance, for it was in writing that many cultured 'and ambitious girls were forced to find expression in an age when any public career was denied them. The visitor can see the early works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, when at fourteen years of age she dedicated her first volume of verse to her father; there is the first edition of Fanny Burney's '•Camilla," which made her an object of intense interest, and discussion in the social circles of Samuel Johnson's time, since she was that rarity, a professional writer.

From the sixteenth century, when Queen Margaret of Navarre wrote her very popular Heptameron, through the days of Charlotte Bronte, whose "Jane Eyre" has remained a best seller for over eighty years, the fantastic Ouida and sentimental Frances Hodgson Burnett, to Alice Meynell and the sensitive and exquisite work of Katherine Mansfield, women writers have been firm favourites with all classes of readers. Even when their work is unmarked by deep originality, and is perhaps undisciplined by comparison with masculine authors, they have a deep understanding and sympathy which cannot fail to move the reader.

FAVOURITES OF THE STAGE.

While the work of the writers, because of its enduring nature, comes readily to mind, perhaps as many outstanding women have graced the stage as have seized plume or pen, though of their beauty and talent in the most cases only legends remain. In the exhibition can be seen old books relating to Nell Gwyn, Mrs. Jordan, Sarah Siddons, and Peg Woffington, the darlings of the eighteenth century; and representing the nineteenth, the beloved Ellen Terry, Sarah Bernhardt, whose golden voice enchanted Europe, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and Marie Tempest.

Then there are the heroines, first among whom is Joan of Arc. No authentic portrait of the Maid remains, but there is a stained glass representation painted soon after her death which, crude as it is, probably gives a better idea of what she seemed than any other portrayal. Beside her is placed Florence Nightingale, who was no self-sacrificing, angelic ministering angel, but a relentless, strong-willed improver of the social order of her time, and Nurse Cavell, whose death provoked a tremendous surge of feeling through the Allied nations in 1916.

Women in art are not remarkable, with a few exceptions such as Madame Virgee Lebrun and Rosa Bonheur, but examples of the work of Laura Knight, Kate Greenaway, and the sculptress Malvina Hoffman are included as typical in an exhibition which for human interest and historical association is well worth visiting.