[Footnote 1: Sir Sampson Legend in Congreve's play, which ends with the
heroine's 'punishing an inhuman father and rewarding a faithful lover.']
[Footnote 2: Ecl. 8.]
[Footnote 3: Of bad Crow bad Egg.]
[Footnote 4: 'Present State of China,' Part 2. Letter to the Cardinal
d'Estrees.]
* * * * *
No. 190. Monday, October 8, 1711. Steele.
'Servitus crescit nova ...'
Hor.
Since I made some Reflections upon the general Negligence used in the
Case of Regard towards Women, or, in other Words, since I talked of
Wenching, I have had Epistles upon that Subject, which I shall, for the
present Entertainment, insert as they lye before me.
Mr. SPECTATOR,
'As your Speculations are not confined to any Part of Humane Life, but
concern the Wicked as well as the Good, I must desire your favourable
Acceptance of what I, a poor stroling Girl about Town, have to say to
you. I was told by a Roman Catholic Gentleman who picked me up last
Week, and who, I hope, is absolved for what passed between us; I say I
was told by such a Person, who endeavoured to convert me to his own
Religion, that in Countries where Popery prevails, besides the
Advantage of licensed Stews, there are large Endowments given for the
Incurabili, I think he called them, such as are past all Remedy, and
are allowed such Maintenance and Support as to keep them without
further Care till they expire. This manner of treating poor Sinners
has, methinks, great Humanity in it; and as you are a Person who
pretend to carry your Reflections upon all Subjects, whatever occur to
you, with Candour, and act above the Sense of what Misinterpretation
you may meet with, I beg the Favour of you to lay before all the World
the unhappy Condition of us poor Vagrants, who are really in a Way of
Labour instead of Idleness. There are Crowds of us whose Manner of
Livelihood has long ceased to be pleasing to us; and who would
willingly lead a new Life, if the Rigour of the Virtuous did not for
ever expel us from coming into the World again. As it now happens, to
the eternal Infamy of the Male Sex, Falshood among you is not
reproachful, but Credulity in Women is infamous.
Give me Leave, Sir, to give you my History. You are to know that I am
a Daughter of a Man of a good Reputation, Tenant to a Man of Quality.
The Heir of this great House took it in his Head to cast a favourable
Eye upon me, and succeeded. I do not pretend to say he promised me
Marriage: I was not a Creature silly enough to be taken by so foolish
a Story: But he ran away with me up to this Town; and introduced me to
a grave Matron, with whom I boarded for a Day or two with great
Gravity, and was not a little pleased with the Change of my Condition,
from that of a Country Life to the finest Company, as I believed, in
the whole World. My humble Servant made me to understand that I should
be always kept in the plentiful Condition I then enjoyed; when after a
very great Fondness towards me, he one Day took his Leave of me for
four or five Days. In the Evening of the same Day my good Landlady
came to me, and observing me very pensive began to comfort me, and
with a Smile told me I must see the World. When I was deaf to all she
could say to divert me, she began to tell me with a very frank Air
that I must be treated as I ought, and not take these squeamish
Humours upon me, for my Friend had left me to the Town; and, as their
Phrase is, she expected I would see Company, or I must be treated like
what I had brought my self to. This put me into a Fit of Crying: And I
immediately, in a true Sense of my Condition, threw myself on the
Floor, deploring my Fate, calling upon all that was good and sacred to
succour me. While I was in all my Agony, I observed a decrepid old
Fellow come into the Room, and looking with a Sense of Pleasure in his
Face at all my Vehemence and Transport. In a Pause of my Distress I
heard him say to the shameless old Woman who stood by me, She is
certainly a new Face, or else she acts it rarely. With that the
Gentlewoman, who was making her Market of me, in all the Turn of my
Person, the Heaves of my Passion, and the suitable Changes of my
Posture, took Occasion to commend my Neck, my Shape, my Eyes, my
Limbs. All this was accompanied with such Speeches as you may have
heard Horse-coursers make in the Sale of Nags, when they are warranted
for their Soundness. You understand by this Time that I was left in a
Brothel, and exposed to the next Bidder that could purchase me of my
Patroness. This is so much the Work of Hell; the Pleasure in the
Possession of us Wenches, abates in proportion to the Degrees we go
beyond the Bounds of Innocence; and no Man is gratified, if there is
nothing left for him to debauch. Well, Sir, my first Man, when I came
upon the Town, was Sir _Jeoffry Foible,_ who was extremely lavish
to me of his Money, and took such a Fancy to me that he would have
carried me off, if my Patroness would have taken any reasonable Terms
for me: But as he was old, his Covetousness was his strongest Passion,
and poor I was soon left exposed to be the common Refuse of all the
Rakes and Debauchees in Town. I cannot tell whether you will do me
Justice or no, till I see whether you print this or not; otherwise, as
I now live with Sal, I could give you a very just Account of who and
who is together in this Town. You perhaps won't believe it; but I know
of one who pretends to be a very good Protestant who lies with a
Roman-Catholick: But more of this hereafter, as you please me. There
do come to our House the greatest Politicians of the Age; and Sal is
more shrewd than any Body thinks: No Body can believe that such wise
Men could go to Bawdy-houses out of idle Purposes; I have heard them
often talk of Augustus Cæsar, who had Intrigues with the Wives of
Senators, not out of Wantonness but Stratagem.
it is a thousand Pities you should be so severely virtuous as I fear
you are; otherwise, after a Visit or two, you would soon understand
that we Women of the Town are not such useless Correspondents as you
may imagine: You have undoubtedly heard that it was a Courtesan who
discovered Cataline's Conspiracy. If you print this I'll tell you
more; and am in the mean time, SIR.
Your most humble Servant, REBECCA NETTLETOP.
Mr. SPECTATOR,
'I am an idle young Woman that would work for my Livelihood, but that
I am kept in such a Manner as I cannot stir out. My Tyrant is an old
jealous Fellow, who allows me nothing to appear in. I have but one
Shooe and one Slipper; no Head-dress, and no upper Petticoat. As you
set up for a Reformer, I desire you would take me out of this wicked
Way, and keep me your self.