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Th' inferior Priestess, at her altar's side, / Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride. / Unnumber'd treasures ope at once, and here / The various off'rings of the world appear; / From each she nicely culls with curious toil, / And decks the Goddess with the glitt'ring spoil.
This quotation from Canto 1 describes Belinda’s toilette, or beauty routine, with all the solemnity of a warrior preparing to don armor in an epic poem. The inferior Priestess mentioned is Belinda’s maidservant assisting her. The ridiculously high language and description of the routine as a kind of sacred ritual implicitly mocks the time and effort spent on beauty. Belinda is going to Court to play cards, not war. The excess of tools and potions, drawn from throughout the British Empire, portrays this ritual as unnecessarily opulent, even wasteful.
Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride, / Might hide her faults, if Belles had faults to hide: / If to her share some female errors fall, / Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.
This quotation comes from Canto 2, as the narrator describes Belinda’s demeanor at Court. Here the narrator sardonically notes the tendency for society to forgive the faults of beautiful women because of their beauty. This comment questions why beauty causes people to ignore or gloss over women’s shortcomings. Additionally, the narrator implicitly calls the idealized feminine manner of grace and sweetness a façade by suggesting that they could hide any flaw. According to the narrator, women can get away with bad behavior because they are shallowly pleasing.
Hail, wayward Queen! / Who rule the sex to fifty from fifteen: / Parent of vapours and of female wit, / Who give th' hysteric, or poetic fit….
Umbriel makes this greeting to the Goddess of the Cave of Spleen in Canto 4, as he goes on a mission to make Belinda even more upset and unforgiving. Spleen here refers to the Medieval concept of human behavior being determined by the four humors, in which one’s spleen was thought to control melancholy. Here, Umbriel ties being spleenful to female behavior, implying that women are inherently emotional, even hysterically so. As the Cave of Spleen is full of irrational creatures, the misogynistic implication is that women are as well.
A wond'rous Bag with both her hands she binds, / Like that where once Ulysses held the winds; / There she collects the force of female lungs, / Sighs, sobs, and passions, and the war of tongues.
This quotation comes from Canto 4, when the Goddess of the Cave of Spleen bestows Umbriel with tools to enhance Belinda’s distress. The bag of sobs is explicitly compared to the bag of winds Aeolus gives Odysseus (Ulysses) in the Odyssey, which he uses to help him in his journey. Both function to take something natural, such as the wind or tears, and place them under human control. Here the bag of sobs buoys Belinda’s tears, encouraging her to histrionics. The feminine nature of the sobs once again portrays women’s emotions as irrational or even manipulative.
Was it for this you took such constant care / The bodkin, comb, and essence to prepare? / For this your locks in paper durance bound, / For this with tort'ring irons wreath'd around?
Belinda’s friend Thalestris says these words to Belinda in Canto 4, which only makes Belinda more upset. In this moment, she reminds Belinda of how much painstaking effort she puts into her hair, making its loss even more upsetting. Notably, Thalestris appeals to Belinda’s pride and vanity before bringing up the question of her honor and reputation. This order of importance once again highlights how shallow the poem portrays women to be.
