It is very easy to be
deceived by first impressions and to be seduced by the superficial appearance
of people you meet. Cleopatra no doubt had a dazzling smile, a majestic manner
and a pert bottom but her heart was of ice and Betrayal was her middle name.
Luckless, straight-forward Antony became enmeshed in her perfumed web and paid
with his life. May he be a salutary lesson to us all!
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| Ancient image of Cleopatra |
We men love all women, of course, for their gossamer delights, but sometimes we tire of the endless chatter, the obsessive shopping and the relentless egotism and long for serious conversation and civilised companionship. The trouble is that intellectual ladies often come at a heavy price in terms of outward appearance and Nature’s ill-favour. Clever George Eliot (“a horse-faced blue-stocking” in Henry James’ ungallant phrase), Virginia Woolf’s long face and hooded eyes would frighten the children while plain-Jane Austen graces our useful £10 note and is given a thin-lipped smile, artistic licence I suspect, flattering that grimly accomplished novelist.
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| Jane Austen on a £10 note |
Yet how often have we
thrilled to the grace and acute insights of clever women – their wide-ranging
interests, their instinctive understanding of the minds of others and their
driven industriousness. They enrich so much of our lives and they are agreeably
thick on the ground – the dumb air-head is happily in a distinct minority.
In recent days one of my
favourite TV women has been in the eye of a controversy. I refer to Mary Beard,
Professor of Classics at Cambridge University. Now in truth Mary usually looks
like she has been pulled through a hedge backwards but her programmes on
Ancient Art and on the history of the Roman Republic and early Empire have been
unmissable. Mary wears her erudition lightly and shares her enthusiasms with a
popular audience, including me. She tweeted some mild remarks in sympathy with
currently demonised Oxfam’s problems in Haiti and was rewarded with a tsunami
of violent abuse, accusing her of racism (for not supporting a black nation)
and for betraying feminism (by not unreservedly supporting Haitian women). I
will not join the controversy as racism and feminism are not really my forte. I
nonetheless think she has been unjustly vilified, but that is the sad old world
we inhabit.
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| Besieged Mary Beard |
After all my sardonic
remarks about the talents of the Ladies, I have to turn my attention to the
Men. The great majority are far from being oil-paintings and although they
bloom in their 20s, the ubiquitous beer-belly soon swells into prominence,
followed by a profusion of chins and then an argumentative and grumpy attitude
to the outside world. The career is never quite right, the cares of family
crush them and the pension is never enough. In their world, it is always winter
and never bright summer. They make difficult companions and it is not entirely
surprising that many wives/partners prefer dogs.
As regards physical
beauty their reigns tend to be very short. I suppose recent idols have been
George Cluny (his resemblance to me often noticed!) and David Beckham – better
if he does not speak and hides his tattoos. But men fall apart more quickly
than women; the hair disappears and the face wrinkles with only rare recourse
to the plastic surgeon, the cosmetic arts and the radical make-over.
Just as with the Ladies,
clever men eventually take pride of place. We care little for Kipling’s
whiskers or Churchill’s podginess when their works entertain or move us so much.
Many of our best loved men enjoyed eccentric outward appearance. Just off the
bat I can cite young fogey John Betjeman, machine-gun conversationalist Lord
David Cecil or debunker Lytton Strachey, all of whom added much to the gaiety
of the nation.
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| John Betjeman |
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| Lord David Cecil |
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| Lytton Strachey |
I can only encourage all
to look beyond the externals and enjoy such depths as can be found, ignoring
the superficial and the ephemeral. Here endeth the lesson!
SMD
21.02.18
Text Copyright © Sidney
Donald 2018
