Andrew Carlan wrote:

>Friends ---With your indulgence, some summer lightness.

Andrew's post had me laughing at Victorian attitudes about such things,
and what Victorian audiences undoubtedly found funny.  But 90 years after
Princess Ida, the lines lost their silliness and, while still humorous,
took on a deadly serious edge, as witness Stephen Sondheim's lyric about
women in "A Little Night Music."

      "Capable, pliable . . .
   Women, women . . .
   Undemanding and reliable,
   Knowing their place.
   Insufferable, yes, but gentle,
   Their weaknesses are incidental.
   A functional but ornamental
   Race.

   Durable, sensible . . .
   Women, women . . .
   Very nearly indispensable,
   Creatures of grace.
   God knows the foolishness about them,
   But if one had to live without them
   The world would surely be a poorer,
   If purer,
   Place."

John Dalmas
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