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Lucretia
Conway Dalrymple states that women like Lucretia and Charlotte
Corday, women who have been violent or criminal, are more interesting in
paintings than the Madonnas and the Saint Cecilias. Livy tells the story
of Lucretia in book 1 of his History of Rome. Lucretia was a Roman
wife who killed herself after being raped by Sextus Tarquinius.
Conway is using this reference to criminal or violent women to get Clara
to model Jael for him. [KD] |
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Still climbing trees in the Hesperides
One of Hercules' twelve labors was to retrieve a golden apple from
a tree guarded by a dragon and three maidens in the
Garden of the Hesperides. This is alluded to in Shakespeare's Love's
Labour's Lost when Biron says "For valour, is not a Love a Hercules,
Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?" This allusion occurs when Mrs.
Broughton tells Conway Dalrymple that he needs to woo Clara by "climbing
the tree." Conway responds that he has already done his climbing,
referring to the unspoken relationship between the Mrs. Broughton and
himself.
Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology
[KD] |