It is an oft-quoted saying of Dr. Johnson that “a man in general
is better pleased when he has a good dinner on the table than
when his wife talks Greek.” Racine had an illiterate wife and
was accustomed to boastfully declare that she could not read any
of his tragedies. Dufresny married his washerwoman. Goethe’s
wife was a woman of mediocre capacity. Heine said of the woman
he loved, “She has never read a line of my writings and does not
even know what a poet is.” Therese Lavasseur, the last flame
of Rousseau, could not tell the time of day. “How many of the
wise and learned,” says Thackeray, “have married their cooks!
Did not Lord Eldon, himself the most prudent of men, make a
runaway match? Were not Achilles and Ajax both in love with
their servant-maids?” Seven hundred people sat up all night to
see the beautiful Duchess of Hamilton get in her carriage, but
would one in a thousand lose a wink of sleep to get a glimpse of
the learned wife of the pundit Yainavalka, who discoursed with
the Indian in Sanskrit on the vexed problems of life?--_The
Interior._
(3481)
=Woman Suffrage=--See RETORT, A.