The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza HaywoodWhicher, George Frisbie
General
The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood
Whicher, George Frisbie
Haywood, Eliza Fowler, 1693?-1756
Besides her periodical essays Mrs. Haywood wrote during her declining
years several conduct books, which, beyond showing the adaptability of
her pen to any species of writing, have but small importance. One of
them, though inheriting something from Defoe, owed most to the interest
in the servant girl heroine excited by Richardson's first novel. No
sociologist has yet made a study of the effect of "Pamela" upon the
condition of domestics, but the many excellent maxims on the servant
question uttered by Lord B---- and his lady can hardly have been without
influence upon the persons of the first quality who pored over the
volumes. In popular novels, at any rate, abigails and scullions reigned
supreme. In 1752 the "Monthly Review" remarked of a recent work of
fiction, "The History of Betty Barnes," that it seemed "chiefly
calculated for the amusement of a class of people, to whom the
_Apprentice's Monitor_, or the _Present for a servant maid_ might be
recommended to much better purpose," but the reviewer's censure failed
to quell the demand for romances of the kitchen. Mrs. Haywood, however,
might have approved of his recommendation, since she happened to be the
author of the little manual of household science especially urged upon
the females below stairs.
"A Present for a Servant-Maid. Or, the Sure Means of Gaining Love and
Esteem" was frequently reprinted both in London and Dublin during the
years 1743-4, and as late as 1772 a revision was mentioned in the
"Monthly Review" as a "well-designed and valuable tract."[10] The work
is a compendium of instructions for possible Pamelas, teaching them in
brief how to wash, to market, to dress any sort of meat, to cook, to
pickle, and to preserve their virtue. The maids are cautioned against
such female errors as sluttishness, tale-bearing, staying on errands,
telling family affairs, aping the fashion, and giving saucy answers.
They are forbidden to play with fire or candles, to quarrel with fellow
domestics, to waste victuals or to give them away. A fine example of the
morality of scruples inculcated by the tract is the passage on the duty
of religious observance. A maidservant should not neglect to go to
church at least every other Sunday, and should never spend the time
allowed her for that purpose walking in the fields or drinking tea with
an acquaintance. "Never say you have been at Church unless you have, but
if you have gone out with that Intention, and been diverted from it by
any Accident or Persuasions, confess the Truth, if asked." Girls so
unhappy as to live with people who "have no Devotion themselves" should
entreat permission to go to church, and if it is refused them, rather
leave their place than be deprived of sacred consolation. "If you lose
_one_, that God, for whose sake you have left it, will doubtless provide
another, and perhaps a better for you." Scarcely more edifying are the
considerations of self-interest which should guide a maidservant into
the paths of virtue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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