her that she is too good for Swift, with the further implication that she should leave him alone (Jaffe 291).
The structure of the poem presents an interlude enacted by two human characters, the two of the title, and this is preceded and followed by a fable of Venus and the Court of Love. The interlude gives a mythical tinge to the story of the older man and the younger woman, for in it Cupid wants to avenge his mother and so decides that Vanessa shall fall in love with the older man who is her teacher. The story actually begins long before this moment, for Venus had selected Vanessa when the latter was first born and had given her all the virtues. The reason for this was
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