dagger into her throat, and tearing her long hair, which flows down
among the leaves of the capital below her knees. One of the finest
figures of the series; inscribed "DESPERACIO MÔS (mortis?) CRUDELIS." In
the Renaissance copy she is totally devoid of expression, and appears,
instead of tearing her hair, to be dividing it into long curls on each
side.
This vice is the proper opposite of Hope. By Giotto she is represented
as a woman hanging herself, a fiend coming for her soul. Spenser's
vision of Despair is well known, it being indeed currently reported that
this part of the Faerie Queen was the first which drew to it the
attention of Sir Philip Sidney.