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PEACOCK 59
Peacock's attitude towards women affords
an example of the liberality of his views and
of his isolation. It shocked Victorian sentimentalists,
and would probably infuriate the
more austere feminists of to-day. His heroines,
like all his characters, are roughly and ex-
travagantly sketched ; what makes them
peculiar is that they are sometimes almost
alive. Stupidity, ignorance, and incompe-
tence, craven submissiveness or insipid resignation,
he did not commend in women : on the
contrary, intellect, wit, gaiety, spirit, and
even a first in the Classical Tripos seemed or
would have seemed desirable and ladylike
attributes to the creator of Anthelia Melincourt
and Morgana Gryll. What was called
" womanliness " in the forties displeased him ;
but he liked women to be feminine, and knew
that distinguished women have ever been
distinguished
as women.
The truth is, Peacock had standards tested
by which the current ideas of almost any age
would be found wanting. Without being a
profound thinker, he was one of those people
who " bother about ends " to the extent of
being unwilling to approve
of means unless
they are satisfied that the end in view is good
or at least that there is some end in view.
With a self-complacent age, in which every
one was shouting "Forward!" and no one