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Today I am working on The Women of Genesis in Contemporary Scholarship with particular references to art and text. So of course I am addressing feminist concerns with particular reference to art from the 1970s-. While researching Potiphar’s wife I came across John Keats’ poem, “On Fame”. Keats calls Fame “Sister-in-law to jealous Potiphar”.
FAME, like a wayward girl, will still be coy
To those who woo her with too slavish knees,
But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy,
And dotes the more upon a heart at ease;
She is a Gipsey, – will not speak to those
Who have not learnt to be content without her;
A Jilt, whose ear was never whisper’d close,
Who thinks they scandal her who talk about her;
A very Gipsey is she, Nilus-born,
Sister-in-law to jealous Potiphar;
Ye love-sick Bards! repay her scorn for scorn;
Ye Artists lovelorn! madmen that ye are!
Make your best bow to her and bid adieu,
Then, if she likes it, she will follow you.
John Keats ‘On Fame’
