In Our Time cover image

The Muses

In Our Time

CHAPTER

The Muse as Mistress

I think once you start sort of trying to be a cardboard cutout, you had it. There's nothing pure and gentle about Shelley or Byron. Would Plato admit that they were counted as an exit by the muse? The other thing we didn't discuss at all was the notion of the embodiment of the muse. But what I do find interesting about that is that now the muse is regarded as this passive figure. Whereas for the 18th century, the blue-stocking group, say, the muse and sappho as the tenth muse were icons of female capability.

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