Quoting Glazunov1, reply 3What's wrong with "and wise as she was fair to look upon"? That's an oral formulation utilized by storytellers and those who wrote fairy tales in English for over 300 years. I'm not sure I understand.
Based upon what I learned in school, it should be "and as wise as she was fair to look upon". However, English is not my mother-language, so I may be wrong in this case. I'm always open for corrections.
Both are perfectly acceptable. There's a lot of redundancy built into English, where grammatical construction is concerned. You can say the same thing in a number of different ways. Usage defines; and usage covers a lot of physical, temporal, and cultural territory in US English.
