Women" group of poems made its title inappropriate. The graceful
presence and love-lit eyes of the many women of the shorter
love-poems were withdrawn, and Artemis, Andrea del Sarto's wife, the
Prior's niece--"Saint Lucy, I would say," as Fra Lippo
explains--and, perhaps, the inspirer of Rudel's chivalry, too, the
shadowy yet learned and queenly Lady of Tripoli, alone were left to
represent the "women" of the title. As for minor inexactitudes,
what does it matter that the advantage gained by nicely selecting
the poems properly belonging together, both in conception and
artistic modelling, was won at the cost of making the reference
inaccurate, in the opening lines of "One Word More," to "my fifty
men and women, naming me the fifty poems finished"?--Or that the
mention of Roland in line 138 is no longer in place with Karshish,
Cleon, Lippo, and Andrea, now that the fantastic story of Childe
Roland's desperate loyalty is given closer companionship among the
varied experiences narrated in the "Dramatic Romances"? While as
for the mention of the Norbert of "In a Balcony"--which was
originally included as but one item along with the other contents of
"Men and Women"--that miniature drama, although it stands by itself
now, is still near enough at hand in the revised order to account
for the allusion. These are all trifles--mere sins against literal
accuracy. But the discrepancy in the title occasioned by the absence
of women is of more importance. It is of especial interest, in
calling attention to the fact that the creator of Pompilia,
Balaustion, and the heroine of the "Inn Album"--all central figures,
whence radiate the life and spiritual energy of the work they
ennoble--had, at this period, created no typical figures of women in
any degree corresponding to those of his men.

CHARLOTTE PORTER