800 Years of Women's Letters (14 page)

And please write to my ladyship, thanking her good ladyship for the tender loving-kindness she has shown me, and asking her to continue it. Sir I beseech you to send a servant of yours to my lady and to me, and show by fatherly kindness that I am your child: for I have sent you various messages and letters, and have never had any answer. Because of this, it is believed in the district among those persons who would rather speak ill than good, that you have little feeling for me, an error which you can discredit, if it pleases you to be a good kind father to me.

And please send me a fine hat, and some good cloth to headscarfs.

And I pray to Jesus that he will be pleased to have you in His blessed keeping, and bring you happiness and your heart's desire.

Written at the Hirst, the thirteenth day of May,

By your loving daughter,

Dorothy Plumpton.

ED. C. MORIARTY,
THE VOICE OF THE MIDDLE AGES
(1989)

To the most glorious and mighty King Henry VIII, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and Supreme Head under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland for whose every happiness His Majesty's most humble daughter Elizabeth ever prays, and who she entreats to give her his blessing.

Inasmuch as the immortal mind excels the immortal body so every wise man will deem the works of the mind more highly to be esteemed and worthy of greater honour than any corporal act. As, therefore, your Majesty is of so high an excellence that none or few may be compared with you in royal and gracious attainments such that not only am I bound to you by the law of the land as my lord, by the law of nature as my lord and by divine law as my father, but as [you are] the most gracious of lords and my own matchless and most kind father so I would be bound to your Majesty by all laws and by all sorts of duties and by all means possible.

It seemed most appropriate to me that a work of such piety, a work compiled in English by the pious zeal and great industry of a glorious Queen and for that reason a work sought out by all, and by your Majesty highly esteemed, should be translated into other languages (this work which is its theme is truly worthy of a King and in its compilation worthy of a Queen) and it seemed fitting to me that this task should be undertaken by myself, your daughter and one who should be not only the imitator of your virtues but also heir to them. Whatever in this work is not mine, is worthy of the highest praise, inasmuch as the whole book is so pious in its argument, so skilful in its compilation and so well drawn up in the fittest order. But as to what is mine, if there by any error in it yet it may merit pardon on account of my ignorance, my youth, my short time of study and my goodwill, and if it be undistinguished, even though it merit no praise, yet if it be well received it will powerfully incite me to further efforts so that even as I advance in years so I shall advance also in learning and in the fear of God and so it shall come to pass that I shall worship Him ever more zealously and serve your Majesty ever more dutifully.

Wherefore I do not doubt but that your fatherly goodness and royal foresight will set no lower value on this private labour of my mind than on any other attainment and that you will feel that this holy work which is the more highly to be valued as having been compiled by the Queen your wife, may have its value ever so little enhanced by being translated by your daughter. May the King of Kings, in whose hands lie the hearts of all kings, so guide your mind and protect your life that under your Majesty's rule we may live long in true piety and religion.

From Hertford, the 30th day of December 1545.

MARIA PERRY,
THE WORD OF A PRINCE: A LIFE OF ELIZABETH I
(1990)

In this sensible letter to a prosperous tradesman recommends that girls be taught enough about business to manage their own and their husbands' money, and avoid ‘ruin of soul and body'.

1739

'Tis the misfortune of this nation that the most part of our gentlemen and tradesmen bring up their daughters at a boarding school, where . . . time is, for the most part, employ'd in trifles, whilst the useful and becoming part of her education is wholly neglected, as her being taught to cut out and make up (her own and her family's) linen, and prudent management of household affairs, whereby she might become qualify'd for the government of a family, at her entrance into the married state.

But no sooner does the little creature leave school, furnish'd with all these trifling accomplishments, than the father and mother are for showing her off to get her a husband. This of course spoils the girl; for she now thinks of nothing but dress, receiving and returning visits, tea-drinking, and card-playing, which last is of the most fatal consequence . . . if this manner of life fails of getting her a husband, when young, and her parents are unable to give her a large fortune, she is obliged to live an old maid, and die useless to her generation. On the contrary, if her parents die, and leave her only a small fortune, she can't live upon the interest, and consequently must endeavour to marry for a livelihood; whence she becomes a prey to some designing mercenary fellow, or otherwise she spends her narrow income, and then what must she do for a support? Why she takes to ill courses; which makes so many women kept awhile, and then come upon the town, to the inevitable ruin both of soul and body.

. . . Let all gentlemen who have several daughters, and tradesmen, who can't give about 1000 or 1500 l. a piece to their daughters, and some who are able to give no more than two or three hundred pound . . . take care their daughters be taught the most useful part of needlework, all the arts of economy, writing and book-keeping, with enough of dancing and French to give them a graceful easy freedom both of discourse and behaviour: And when they have acquir'd these necessary accomplishments in some degree of perfection, let them also at the age of fifteen or sixteen be put apprentices to genteel and easy trades, such as linen or woollen drapers, haberdashers of small wares, mercers, glovers, perfumers, grocers, confectioners, retailers of gold and silver lace, buttons, etc.

Why are not these as creditable trades for the daughters of gentlemen as they are for their sons?

. . . If women were train'd up to business from their early years, 'tis highly probable they would in general be more industrious, and get more money than men, and if so, what women of spirit would submit to be a slave, and fling herself away, as many are forc'd to do, merely for a maintenance, because she cannot stoop to be a servant, and can find no reputable business to go into? . . .

As for tradesmen in particular, it would be much happier for them, if their wives and daughters knew how to keep their books, and be serviceable to them in their shops, than to have them walk through with that state and unconcernedness they usually do: They would then better know how to spend their husband's money, so as not to exceed his income . . .

. . . From the delicacy of their make, they are, indeed, unfit for certain laborious employments, which require considerable strength and robustness of body; but in all those where quickness of thought, activeness, dispatch, neatness, address, and a habit of pleasing are capital requisites, they would, I persuade myself, in no wise fall short of the men as are most remarkable for these qualifications.

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE
, VOL. 9, SEPTEMBER 1739

Lady Pennington, writing to her daughters, advocates a serious and sensible programme for women's education, with ‘mornings wholly to improvement'. She realizes both the need for ‘diversions' and sufficient knowledge to manage ‘all domestic affairs'.

1770

It is an excellent method to appropriate the mornings wholly to improvement; – the afternoon may then be allow'd to diversions: – under the last head, I place company, books of the amusing kind, and entertaining productions of the needle, as well as plays, balls, cards, etc., which more commonly go by the name of diversions: . . . One half hour or more, either before or immediately after breakfast, I would have you constantly give to the attentive perusal of some rationally pious author, or to some part of the New Testament.

It is necessary for you to be perfect in the four first rules of Arithmetic – more you can never have occasion for, and the mind should not be burthen'd with needless application.

The management of all domestic affairs is certainly the proper business of woman – and, unfashionably rustic as such an assertion may be thought, it is not beneath the dignity of any lady, however high her rank, to know how to educate her children, to govern her servants . . . Make yourself, therefore, so thoroughly acquainted with the most proper method of conducting a family, and with the necessary expense of every article.

ED. B. HILL,
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY WOMEN
(1984)

Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849) was the eldest daughter of a much-married Irish landlord. She felt responsible for the education of his many younger children and wrote
Practical Education
with him in 1798. She designed enlightened reading schemes and here defends the right of women to education – by argument designed to appeal to men in power:

You apprehend that knowledge must be hurtful to the sex, because it will be the means of their acquiring power. It seems to me impossible that women can acquire the species of direct power which you dread: the manners of society must totally change before women can mingle with men in the busy and public scenes of life. They must become amazons before they can affect this change; they must cease to be women before they can desire it. The happiness of neither sex could be increased by this metamorphosis.

MARIA EDGEWORTH,
LETTERS FOR LITERARY LADIES
(1795)

Thanks to efforts of women such as Millicent Fawcett, Girton and Newnham College were founded, and the Tripos examinations finally opened for women. The student with the highest marks in the Finals Tripos is called Senior Wrangler. In 1890 it was Philippa, Millicent's daughter, who came top. Her affectionate father, old Mr Garrett came over from Aldeburgh with two of his other granddaughters, and one of these sent home to her mother a graphic description of the proceedings:

It was a most exciting scene in the Senate this morning. Christina and I got seats in the gallery, and Grandpapa remained below. The gallery was crowded with girls and a few men, and the floor of the building was thronged by undergraduates as tightly packed as they could be. The lists were read from the gallery and we heard splendidly. All the men's names were read first; the Senior Wrangler was much cheered. There was a good deal of shouting and cheering throughout; at last the man who had been reading shouted ‘Women.' The undergraduates yelled ‘Ladies,' and for some minutes there was a great uproar. A fearfully agitating moment for Philippa it must have been; the examiner, of course, could not attempt to read the names until there was a lull. Again and again he raised his cap, but would not say ‘ladies' instead of ‘women,' and quite right, I think. He signalled with his hands for the men to keep quiet, but he had to wait some time. At last he read Philippa's name, and announced that she was ‘above the Senior Wrangler.' There was a great and prolonged cheering; many of the men turned towards Philippa, who was sitting in the gallery with Miss Clough, and waved their hats. When the examiner went on with the other names, there were cries of ‘Read Miss Fawcett's name again,' but no attention was paid to this. I don't think any other women's names were heard, for the men were making such a tremendous noise. We made our way round to Philippa to congratulate her, and then I went over to Grandpapa. Miss Gladstone was with him. She was, of course, tremendously delighted. A great many people were there to cheer and congratulate Philippa when she came down into the hall.

RAY STRACHEY,
MILLICENT FAWCETT
(1931)

Male writers have frequently declared that men feel greater sexual passion than women. And since Plato they have also claimed to experience greater spiritual love for other men. But the depth of women's responses can no longer be underestimated, as evidenced in these letters; intended for only one other person, they are both revealing and honest.

The letters range from apprehensive to passionate, from heterosexual to lesbian. Women show themselves as taking far greater initiative, and reacting in far more varied ways, than cultural role models usually acknowledged. The strikingly different discourses demonstrate abilities of assessing and judging a wide area of emotion, including lesbian.

The bold love letter from Héloïse to Abelard opens the book. She is worthy of this pre-eminence, with her passionate ‘You alone have the power to make me sad, to bring me happiness or comfort'. Four centuries later Elizabeth I, fully aware of the real power of a husband, skilfully prevaricates, in order not to commit herself – or her country – to a foreigner (see Chapter Eleven).

Women in the French court of Louis XIV seemed to have more social influence in that they ruled over literary discussions in their salons. Yet the King's cousin, ‘La Grande Mademoiselle,' was not allowed to marry the man of her choice, though a duke. I include three letters describing her unhappy, brief love affair because their author, Madame de Sévigné, transforms the account into a work of art. To continue this theme of the interlinking of fiction and reality, I include in Appendix I an extract from the first novel in English:
Love Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister
(1676?). The passionate discourse of the Restoration both echoes and influences the ways in which the literate formed their ideas about sexual feelings. The
actual
letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu before she eloped with her future husband sound remarkably like the outpourings of a fictional heroine. They raise again the intriguing question of how far the concepts of the language we learn in a social context mould our psyche.