A warning to young women as they consider marriage prospects: "The Wiles of Men are infinite; and tho' a Woman be never so much upon the Watch, yet it's not impossible but she may be surpriz'd"
[Feminist Satire] A Lady of Shropshire.
Love & Avarice; or, the Fatal Effects of Preferring Wealth to Beauty. Exemplified in the History of a Young Gentleman of Fortune and Two Ladies, to both of whom he was married; to the first for Love and to the other for her Money...
London: T. Ward at the Old Bailey, 1748. First Edition. Contemporary calf rebacked with the original spine and morocco label laid down. Measuring 175 x 105mm and collating complete: vi, 7-245, [1]. Boards generally rubbed and front joint cracked but holding. Armorial bookplate of Robert Offley Crewe (1858-1945) tp front pastedown, indicating his inheritance of his father Richard Monckton-Miles' (1809-1885) significant library. Offsetting to pastedowns and small, persistant wormhole to lower margin of textblock not touching any print; loss to lower corner of title without loss to text. Front endpaper a bit loose near the top margin. Light scattered foxing throughout. A feminist satire on the catch 22 scenarios presented to both women and men under patriarchal norms, OCLC locates one US copy of the present text and five in the UK (with Print Probability locating only one, this at the British Library). The present copy is the only example in the modern auction record, having appeared in 2022, and it remains the only copy in trade.
Unidentified by either the Orlando Project or the Women's Print History Project, the anonymous Lady of Shropshire presents her readers with a two novellas giving women-centered perspectives on the dangerous and ridiculous contradictions that shape the heteronormative marriage market under patriarchy. As her title suggests, young men are urged to weigh the physical and monetary assets of potential wives; meanwhile, women are positioned as objects in the value proposition rather than as subjects and potential partners. The failure of men -- or even of women themselves -- to acknowledge this can be disastrous on numerous levels. In her preface, the author addresses women specifically on this front: "To the young Ladies, who are single, and whose Hearts, as well as their Fortunes, are yet in theor own Possession, the following Sheets are peculiarly devoted. The happiness or misery of the future part of their Lives depends frequently on the first Step they make in the Dance of Love...The Wiles of Men are infinite; and tho' a Woman be never so much upon the Watch, yet it's not impossible but she may be surpriz'd...Too much Credulity in the Woman on the one side, and too much Avarice and Subtlety in the man on the other, gave Birth to those terrible Misfortunes, Troubles, and Anxieties that are the subject of this History." In this sense, Love & Avarice is a warning wrapped up in an appealing novel format to warn young women entering the marriage market against the popular romances that invite them to trust men too easily.
The opening narrative, Love & Avarice, depicts young, educated, and wealthy Clodio and his abuse of two women, Melissa and Leonora. Clodio enters the story with all the confidence of a privileged man, and with all the certainty he was taught to have about women's use value. Simultaneously he weds Melissa, for the pleasure of her body and her beauty, and Leonora, for the social capital and security of her name and family wealth. Across the board, every person involved falls into misery. Melissa suffers in the secret of her marriage, in the increasing knowledge that Clodio had groomed her from her early teens into accepting their sexual arrangement, and in her isolation. Leonora becomes increasingly aware that her husband does not listen to her or care about her, and refuses to hold back her criticisms about his character. As the women's unhappiness grows louder, Clodio's enemies gain access to his secrets to bring about his public downfall.
The second novella, Virtue Triumphant and the Footman Hang'd, focuses on the footman Tom's attempted deception of the Lady Emilia into marriage under false pretences. Having spent his career as the pander to the Lord Forage, assisting Forage in luring young women to his home and seducing them, Tom decides to adapt these tricks to trap a young woman of beauty and means into a marriage with him. Recognizing that he has none of the markers of a suitable partner, he draws on the plots of novels to present himself to her as a gentleman, Charles Chamont, who has been living in disguise in her house to gauge her virtue before proposing marriage. A sensible girl, Emilia weighs the likelihood of truth versus deception in the situation and decides to do the intelligent thing: contact powerful men with knowledge of Tom to confirm his identity. Unfortunately for her, the cabal had already been informed of the plan; and based on the confirmations and recommendations of Forage and his friends, she enters a clandestine marriage, becomes pregnant by the footman, is promptly abandoned, and is then cast out by her father. Emilia's happy future is ultimately secured by a three-fold deus ex machina with lessons for readers: first, Tom the footman is hung for highway robbery, second, her child is stillborn and public evidence of her shame has vanished, and third, she finds the love of a good man Portius, to whom she discloses her whole history and with whom she finds acceptance.
Across the novellas, the author reminds female readers that good men do exist but that more often, they are bad men in disguise. Women must guard themselves with intelligence, curiosity, and trusted networks of their own to whom they can appeal for information and support. Patriarchy will never protect their interests, and the punishments the author presents rarely unfold in real life.
ESTC T114127.