AN ESSAY IN DEFENCE OF THE FEMALE SEX E-Book

Judith Drake

• Herausgeber: Musaicum Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 163

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Judith Drake's 'An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex' is a groundbreaking work of feminist literature that challenges the traditional views on women's roles in society. Written in the early 18th century, this book presents a compelling argument for the intellectual and moral equality of women, drawing on historical examples and philosophical reasoning. Drake's writing style is persuasive and eloquent, making this text both engaging and thought-provoking for readers interested in gender studies and women's rights movements of the time. This book stands out as a passionate defense of women's capabilities and autonomy in a society that often viewed them as inferior. Judith Drake's personal experiences as a woman in a male-dominated world undoubtedly influenced her decision to write this powerful and influential essay. Her advocacy for gender equality and social justice is evident throughout the text, reflecting her commitment to challenging the status quo and advocating for change. In conclusion, 'An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex' is a must-read for those seeking to understand the historical roots of gender inequality and the ongoing struggle for women's rights.

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Judith Drake

AN ESSAY IN DEFENCE OF THE FEMALE SEX

A feminist literature classic

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AN ESSAY In Defence of the FEMALE SEX.

In which are inserted the CHARACTERS

OF

A Pedant,A Vertuoso,A Squire,A Poetaster,A Beau,A City-Critick, &c.

In a Letter to a Lady.

Written by a Lady.

The Third Edition with Additions.

Since each is fond of his own ugly Face; Why shou’d you when we hold it break the Glass?

Prol. to Sir F. Flutter

Table of Contents

To Her Royal Highness the Princess Anne of Denmark.PREFACE.To the Most Ingenious Mrs. — or her admirable Defence of Her Sex.To Madam — on the Occasion of her Essay, in Defence of her Sex.The Lady’s Answer.Section 1“The Question I shall at present handle is, whether the time an ingenious Gentleman spends in the Company of Women, may justly be said to be misemploy’d, or not.”Section 2“Our Company is generally by our Adversaries represented as unprofitable and irksome to Men of Sense, and by some of the more vehement Sticklers against us, as Criminal.”Section 3“It remains then for us to enquire, whether the Bounty of Nature be wholly neglected, or stifled by us, or so far as to make us unworthy the Company of Men? Or whether our Education (as bad as it is) be not sufficient to make us a useful, nay, a necessary part of Society for the greatest part of Mankind.”Section 4“Let us look into the manner of our Education, and see wherein it falls short of the Mens, and how the defects of it may be, and are generally supply’d.”Section 5“To begin with Vanity, it is a Failing the greatest Part of Mankind are tinctured with, more or less.”Section 6“Impertinence is a humour of busying ourselves about things trivial, and of no Moment in themselves, or unseasonably in things of no concern to us, or wherein we are able to do nothing to any Purpose.”Section 7“Amongst the rest Dissimulation is none of the least Blemishes, which they endeavour to fix upon us.”Section 8“Envy is the Parent of Calumny, and the Daughter of Jealousie.”Section 9“We stand yet charg’d with Levity, and Inconstancy, two Failings so nearly related, and so generally United, that it is hard to treat of ’em apart; we will therefore consider ’em briefly together.”Section 10“These are the most considerable Imperfections, or at least those, which with most Colour of Reason are charg’d upon us, as general Defects; and I hope, Madam, I have fairly shown, that the other Sex are both by Interest and Inclination more expos’d, and more Subject to ’em than we, Pride, Lust, Cruelty, and many more, are by the Declaimers against us thrown into the Scale to make weight and bear us down, but with such manifest Injustice, that without giving myself any further trouble, I dare appeal to any reasonable Man, and leave him to decide the Difference.”CONTENTS.

To Her Royal Highness the Princess Anne of Denmark.

Table of Contents

MADAM,

IF in adventuring to lay this little Piece at your Highnesses Feet, and humbly to beg your Royal Protection of it, I have presum’d too far, be pleas’d to impute it to your own most gracious Goodness, the knowledge of which encourag’d me. Our Sex are by Nature tender of their own Off-spring, and may be allow’d to have more fondness for those of the Brain, then any other; because they are so few, and meet with so many Enemies at their first appearance in the World. I hope therefore to find pardon, if like an indulgent Parent, I have endeavour’d to advance my first Born, by entering it very early into your Highnesses Service.

I have not presum’d to approach your Highness out of any Confidence in the merits of this Essay, but of the Cause which it pleads, wherein the Honour of the whole Sex seem’d to exact of me no less a Patronage than that of the Best, as well as Greatest among ’em, whom they are all ambitious to see at their head. I have only endeavour’d to reduce the Sexes to a Level, and by Arguments to raise Ours to an Equallity at most with the Men: But your Highness by illustrious Example daily convinces the World of our Superiority, and we see with wonder, Vertues in you, Madam, greater than your Birth. In this I am peculiarly happy, that I am exempted from the common Task of other Dedicators, who lie under an Obligation of publishing to the World those Excellencies of their Patrons, which perhaps appear no where but in their Epistles. In me it were as great folly, to pretend to make known the Illustrious Quallities of your Highness, as it wou’d be to go about to demonstrate by Argument, that the Sun shin’d, to a Crowd that are warm’d by the Influence of it.

I had attempted the Character of a consummate Woman, could I, tho’ but faintly have shaddow’d the inimitable Graces of your Highness; but the impossibillity of that Task forc’d me to desist. It were easy here to lanch into those glorious particulars, which affirmed of any other than your Royal Highness, would have been extravagance of Flattery; but to you Injustice, and in me the highest presumption, to attempt with my feeble Hand those perfections, which the ablest must fall infinitely short of. The lustre of your Royal Vertues, Madam, like the Sun, gives us warmth and light, and while at a modest distance we admire it, improves our sight, which too bold a view confounds, yet the meanest and most ignorant see those Glories, which the most exquisite Artist can never express. The World therefore will rather justify than condemn my conduct, if I do not wrong so bright an Original with a dark obscure Copy.

Madam, Tho’ the world may condemn my performance, it must applaud my choice in this Address, and own that had I known as well how to Argue, as to Instance, I must infallibly have Triumph’d over all Opposition. It may be easie to evade, or baffle the force of my Arguments, but it is impossible without the utmost Stupidity and Injustice, to deny the manifest Advantages of those Illustrious Graces, which raise your Highness so far above theirs as well as your own Sex. In this I have imitated the conduct of prudent Generals, who, when they doubt the sufficiency of their strength, retire to some strong Fort, and rest secure under the Protection of it.

There is yet another Reason, Madam, which tho’ the least justifiable, was nevertheless most prevalent with me to devote this Essay to your Highness. My Ambition to shew the profound Respects I have always had for your Highness, would not suffer me to let slip any occasion of expressing it, even tho’ I blush for the meanes of it. Thus I find my self reduc’d by my Zeal, to the condition of poor Tenants, who must expose their Poverty, to shew their Affection to their Lord in a worthless Present. I am sensible of the rashness of my Ambition in aspiring to the Patronage of Your Highness, and the need I have of an Apology; but were I able to make one as I ought, I should have taken care to have had less occasion for it. Yet I doubt not from Your Goodness that Indulgence, which I cannot expect from Your Justice, nor but that you will (like Heaven, whose more immediate Images Princes are) accept my unprofitable Service, for the sincerity with which it is tender’d. If my unfeign’d Submission may procure pardon for my Presumption, that Your Happiness may equal Your illustrious Vertues, and Your Royal Person be as far out of the reach of Fortune, as your Fame and Honour of Detraction, shall ever be the prayers of

Madam,Your Royal Highness’smost Humble, mostObedient, and mostDevouted Servant

PREFACE

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PRefaces to most Books, are like Prolocutors to Puppet-Shows, they come first to tell you what Figures are to be presented, and what Tricks they are to play. According therefore to ancient and laudable Custom, I have thought fit to let you know by way of Preface, or Advertisement, (call it which you please) that here are many fine Figures within to be seen, as well worth your curiosity, as any in Smithfield at Bartholomew Tide. I will not deny, Reader, but that you may have seen some of ’em there already; to those that have, I have little more to say, than that if they have a mind to see them again in Effigie, they may do it here. What is it you wou’d have? Here are St. George’s, Batemans, John Dories, Punchinello’s, and the Creation of the World, or what’s as good; here’s the German Artist too, or one that can shew more Tricks than he: If all this will not invite you, y’are grown more squeamish of late, Gentlemen, than you us’d to be, and the poor Bookseller will make but an indifferent Market of you. Well, let the worst come to the worst, ’tis but shifting the scene to Smithfield, and making an Interest in half a dozen Vizor-Masks to be sure of your Company: But he, good Man, is desirous to please you at first hand, and therefore has put a fine Picture in the front to invite yon in, so like some of you (as he protests) that you ought never look in a Glass again, if it offends you. For my part, I declare, he has acted clear against my Opinion in this case, and so he has been told; for many a poor Man has lost the showing of his Monster, by gratifying the curiosity of the gaping Crowd with too exact a picture without doors. Besides, there’s an unlucky Rogue of a left-handed Barber, that looks like an ill Omen in the beginning. He was told too, that if he wou’d please most of you, he ought to take example by your Glasses, and flatter you. Yet he continued obstinate and unmoveable to all these weighty Reasons, and is so fondly bent for his Picture, that he resolv’d against all advice to have it. Nay, and he wou’d have Rhimes underneath it too, which, he says, weigh more with you, than all the Reason in the world. I thought fit to let you know this, that the Bookseller might not lose the credit of his Fancy, if it takes with you, as he is perswaded it will. For you must know, I am a great lover of strict Justice, and therefore would by no means Rob, or Defraud him of the Glory of his Invention, or by any sinister way sullie, or diminish the Honour, or Reputation of his Parts and Ingenuity. For the same reason likewise I must acquaint you, that the Rhimes are none of mine neither; and now my Hand is in, I don’t much care if I tell you, that I am not very good at that ingenious Recreation, called Crambo, from which some rise to be very considerable Rhimers. This now is more than I was oblig’d to tell you, and therefore I hope no body will deny, but that I deal ingenuosly at least with you.

This one would think were Preface sufficient; but there are some Men so impertinently curious, that they must needs have a Reason for every thing, that is done in the World, tho’ it were in their favour (for which perhaps it were hard to give a good one) when it were their Interest to be satisfied, and thankful without further enquiry. To comply therefore in some measure with the humour of these People, if any one think fit to peruse this Book, I must tell ’em very freely, that I was so far from aiming to oblige, or disoblige ’em by it, that it was never intended for their View. It was occasion’d by a private Conversation, between some Gentlemen and Ladies, and written at the request, and for the Diversion of one Lady more particularly, by whom with my consent it was communicated to two or three more of both Sexes, my Friends likewise.

By them I was with abundance of Complements importun’d to make it publick; now tho’ I do with good reason attribute much more, of what was said to me upon this Occasion, to their good Breeding and Friendship, than to their real Opinions of my Performance; yet I have so much satisfaction in their Sincerity and Friendship, as to be confident they would not suffer, much less perswade me to expose to the world any thing, of which they doubted so far, as to think it would not be tollerably acceptable. Nor have I less assurance of their Judgment and Skill in things of this nature, beside that I have been inform’d by some of ’em, that it has been seen, and favourably receiv’d by some Gentlemen, whom the world thinks no incompetent Judges. After all this Encouragement, I suppose, I shall not be thought vain, if, as I pretend not to the applause, so I fear not the contempt of the world: Yet I presume not so far upon the Merits of what I have written, as to make my Name publick with it. I have elsewhere held, that Vanity was almost the universal mover of all our Actions, and consequently of mine, as well as of others; yet it is not strong enough in me, to induce me to bring my Name upon the publick stage of the World.

There are many Reasons, that oblige me to this cautious, reserv’d way of procedure; tho’ I might otherwise be very ambitious of appearing in the defence of my Sex, cou’d I perswade my self, that I was able to write any thing sutable to the dignity of the Subject, which I am not vain enough to think. This indeed is one Reason because I am sensible it might have been much better defended by abler Pens, such as many among our own Sex are; though I believe scarce thus much wou’d have been expected from me, by those that know me. There is likewise another Reason, which was yet more prevalent with me, and with those few Friends whom I consulted about it, which is this; There are a sort of Men, that upon all occasions think themselves more concern’d; and more thought of than they are, and that, like Men that are deaf, or have any other notorious Defect, can see no body whisper, or laugh, but they think ’tis at themselves. These Men are apt to think, that every ridiculous description they meet with, was intended more particularly for some one or other of them; as indeed it is hard to paint any thing compleat in their several Kinds, without hitting many of their particular Features, even without drawing from them. The knowledge of this, with the consideration of the tenderness of Reputation in our Sex, (which as our delicatest Fruits and finest Flowers are most obnoxious to the injuries of Weather, is submitted to every infectious Blast of malicious Breath) made me very cautious, how I expos’d mine to such poisonous Vapours. I was not ignorant, how liberal some Men are of their Scandal, whenever provok’d, especially by a Woman; and how ready the same Men are to be so, tho’ upon never so mistaken Grounds. This made me resolve to keep ’em in Ignorance of my Name, and if they have a mind to find me out, let ’em catch me (if they can) as Children at Blind-mans Buff do one another, Hoodwinkt; and I am of Opinion I have room enough to put ’em out of Breath before they come near me.

The Event has in Effect prov’d my suspicious Prophetick; for there are (as I am inform’d) already some, so forward to interest themselves against me, that they take Characters upon themselves, before they see ’em; and, for fear they should want some Body to throw their Dirt at, with equal Ignorance and Injustice, Father this Piece upon the Gentleman, who was so kind as to take care of the Publication of it, only to excuse me from appearing. This made me once resolve to oppose my Innocence to their Clamour, and perfix my Name, which I thought I was bound to do in Justice to him. In this Resolution I had persisted, had not the same Gentleman generously perswaded, and over-rul’d me to the contrary, representing how weak a defence Innocence is against Calumny, how open the Ears of the Wold are, and how greedily they suck in any thing to the prejudice of a Woman; and that (to use his own Expression) the scandal of such Men, was like Dirt thrown by Children, and Fools at random, and without Provocation, it would dawb filthily at first, though it were easily washt off again: Adding, that he desird me not to be under any concern for him; for he valued the Malice of such men, as little, as their Friendship, the one was as feeble as t’other false.

I suppose I need make no Apology to my own Sex for the meaness of this defence; the bare intention of serving ’em will I hope be accepted, and of Men, the Candid and Ingenuous I am sure will not quarrel with me for any thing in this little Book; since there is nothing in it, which was not drawn from the strictest Reason I was Mistress of, and the best Observations I was able to make, except a start or two only concerning the Salique Law, and the Amazons, which, if they divert not the Reader, can’t offend him.

I shall not trouble the Reader with any account of the Method I have observ’d, he will easily discover that in reading the Piece it self. I shall only take notice to him of one thing, which with a little attention to what he reads he will readily find to be true, that is, that the Characters were not written out of any Wanton Humour, or Malicious Design to characterize any Particular Persons, but to illustrate what I have said upon the several Heads, under which they are rang’d, and represent not single Men, that play the Fool seriously in the World. If any Individual seem to be more peculiarly markt, it is because he is perhaps more notorious to the World, by some one or more Articles of the General Character here given. I am sure that there is no Man, who is but moderately Acquainted with the World, especially this Town, but may find half a Dozen, or more Originals for every Picture. After all, if any Man have so little Wit, as to appropriate any of these Characters to himself, He takes a liberty I have hitherto never given him, but shall do it now in the Words of a Great Man, If any Fool finds the Cap fit him, let him put it on.