Jonathan Swift's Directions to
Servants in General;
and in Particular to the Butler, Cook, Footman, Coachman,
Dairy-Maid,
Chamber-Maid, House Steward, Land Steward, Nurse, Laundress, House-Keeper, Tutoress, or Governess
Unknown Author
1746
Yale University
Beinecke Rare Books Library Call Number: Ik.SW55745c
"When your Master or Lady calls a servant by name, if that servant be not in the way, none of you are to answer; for then there will be no end of your drudgery: and masters themselves allow, that if a servant comes when he is called, it is sufficient" (a2).
"Since those who dine at the same table are supposed to be friends, let them all drink out of the same glass, without washing; which will save you much pains, as well as the hazard of breaking them" (12).
"If anyone calls for a small- beer towards the end of dinner, do not give yourself the pains of going down to the cellar, but gather the droppings and salvers, into one; but turn your back to the company, for fear of being observed" (13).
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Reflections Upon Marriage
By Mary Astell
1706
Yale University Beinecke Rare Book Library call
number: 1981.251
"A woman who seeks consolation under domestic troubles from the gaieties of court, from gaming ad the amusements of mixt company affords, from rambling and odd adventures, may plaister up the sore [of a broken marriage], but will never heal it; nay, which is worse, she makes it fester beyond a possibility of cure" (5).
"What an ill figure does a woman make with all the charms of her beauty and sprightliness of her wit, with all her good humor and insinuating address; tho she be the best oeconomist in the world, the most entertaining conversationalist; if she remit her guard, abate in the severity of her caution and strictness of her virtue, and neglect those methods which are necessary to keep her not only from a crime, but from the very suspicion of one" (6).
"He who marries himself to a fortune only, must expect no other satisfaction than that can bring him, but let him not say that marriage, but that his own covetous or prodigal temper, has made him unhappy" (12).
"The husband's vices may become an occasion of the wife's values, and his neglect do her more real good than his kindness could" (17).
"Let us then treat the ladies as civilly as may be, but let us not do it by flattering them, but by endeavoring to make them such as may truly deserve our hearty esteem and kindness" (26).
"The husband is too wise to be advised, too good to be reformed, she must follow all his paces, and tread in all his unreasonable steps, or there is no peace, no quiet for her, she must obey with the greatest exactness, 'tis in vain to expect any manner of compliance on his side" (28).
"It is a woman's hard fate to meet with a disagreeable temper and all others, the haughty, imperious, and self-conceited are the most so, she is as unhappy as anything in this world can make her. For when a wife's temper does not please, if she makes her husband uneasy, he can find entertainments abroad, he has a hundred ways of relieving himself, but neither prudence nor duty will allow a woman to fly out, her business and entertainment are at home" (30).
"He who dotes on a face, he who makes money his idol, he who- is charmed with vain and empty wit, gives no such evidence, either of wisdom or goodness, what a woman of any tolerable sense should care to venture herself to his conduct" (31).
"Indeed, your fine young gentleman's actions are now a days such, that did not custom and the dignity of his sex give weight and authority to them, a woman that thinks twice might bless herself, and say, is this the lord and master to who I am to promise to love, honor, and obedience" (31)?
"If man's authority be justly established, the more sense a woman has, the more reason she will find to submit to it" (58).
"According to the rate that young women are educated, according to the way their time is spent, they are destined to folly and impertinence, to say no worse, and which is yet more inhuman, they are blamed for that ill- conduct they are not suffered to avoid, and reproached for those faults they are in a manner forced into" (61).
"But, alas! What poor woman is ever taught that she should have a higher design than to get a husband" (62).
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Female Conduct:
Being an Essay on the Art
of Pleasing
Thomas Marriott
1766
Yale University Beinecke
Library call number:
1972.820
"This nation would abound with many examples of female excellence, if our women were educated in a more proper manner; the chief aim of their modern education is to adorn the body, not the understanding, to polish their behavior, and teach them to hold up their head, but not furnish it with sense or improve the heart with virtuous principles. They generally receive the first and last finishing strokes of their education from their dancing master; from hence it is, we see so many pictures of still life, with insipid mien, and uninformed features" (xxii).
"From this irrational method of education, the female sex imbibe such an early passion for public assemblies, and cards; and are so enamored with them, that they conceive a strong aversion to domestic life" (xxiii-xxiv).
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Lectures
on Female Education and
Manners
by John Burton
1793
available at Yale University
Beinecke Rare
Books Library
"The duty of children to parents may be considered as the primary social obligation by which you are bound" (62).
"It is in the power of the female sex to inspire young men with maxims of Honor, Virtue, and even Patriotism; or to corrupt their manners by emffeminant pleasures" (73).
"The domestic situation of your sex enables you to perform the office of instruction" (93).
"The ladies cannot be seen in a more respectable light, than when they are employed in the offices of domestic life" (94).
"There is no employment more honorable, and at the same time, more important, than that of instructing the rising generation" (95).
"The pallid countenances, which the present race of girls so generally exhibit, are marks of great debility, arising without doubt, from the want of that wholesome exercise, which was formerly more in use, ad which the fashionable manners of the times have superseded for a life more sedentary and unprofitable" (100).
"To be always quarreling with Domestics, is a certain sign of a fretful, peevish, or irascible disposition" (117).
"Natural beauty will ever be more esteemed that artificial" (147).
"A modest dress has been embroidered as the shield of virtue. It is an indication of a mind that is haste and delicate. It discovers good sense, propriety, and sentiment" (148).
"You should read books of divinity, morality, history, and philosophy" (189).
"They imagine that to make conquests of the men, should be the first object of their attention. To this end they dress, visit, and appear continually in public; without considering that those whom they will find there, are not, in general, men of the strictest honor, and most regular life. They are chiefly men of pleasure, who study to render themselves agreeable to your sex, by the graces of their external behavior" (198).
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