The Womans Labour, an epistle

The Womans Labour, an epistle*

Immortal Bard! thou fav’rite of the Nine!

Enriched by peers, advanced by Caroline!

Deign to look down on one that’s poor and low,

Rememb’ring you yourself was lately so;

Accept these lines; Alas! what can you have

From her, who ever was, and’s still a slave?

No learning ever was bestowed on me;

My life was always spent in drudgery:

And not alone; alas! with grief I find,

It is the portion of poor woman-kind. [10]

Oft have I thought as on my bed I lay,

Eased from the tiresome labours of the day,

Our first extraction from a mass refined,

Could never be for slavery designed;

Till time and custom by degrees destroyed

That happy state our sex at first enjoyed.

When men had used their utmost care and toil,

Their recompence was but a female smile;

When they by arts or arms were rendered great,

They laid their trophies at a woman’s feet; [20]

They, in those days, unto our sex did bring

Their hearts, their all, a free-will offering;

And as from us their being they derive,

They back again should all due homage give.

Jove once descending from the clouds did drop

In showers of gold on lovely Danae’s lap;

The sweet-tongued poets, in those generous days,

Unto our shrine still offered up their lays:

But now, alas! that Golden Age is past,

We are the objects of your scorn at last. [30]

And you, great Duck, upon whose happy brow

The Muses seem to fix their garland now,

In your late poem boldly did declare

Alcides’ labours can’t with yours compare,

And of your annual task have much to say,

Of threshing, reaping, mowing corn and hay;

Boasting your daily toil, and nightly dream,

But can’t conclude your never-dying theme

And let our hapless sex in silence lie

Forgotten, and in dark oblivion die, [40]

But on our abject state you throw your scorn,

And women wrong, your verses to adorn.

You of hay-making speak a word or two,

As if our sex but little work could do:

This makes the honest farmer smiling say,

He’ll seek for women still to make his hay,

For if his back be turned the work they mind

As well as men, as far as he can find.

For my own part, I many a summer’s day

Have spent in throwing, turning, making hay; [50]

But ne’er could see, what you have lately found,

Our wages paid for sitting on the ground.

’Tis true, that when our morning’s work is done,

And all our grass exposed unto the sun,

While that his scorching beams do on it shine,

As well as you we have time to dine:

I hope, that since we freely toil and sweat

To earn our bread, you’ll give us time to eat;

That over, soon we must get up again,

And nimbly turn our hay upon the plain; [60]

Nay, rake and row it in, the case is clear,

Or how should cocks in equal rows appear?

But if you’d have what you have wrote believed,

I find, that you to hear us talk are grieved:

In this, I hope you do not speak your mind,

For none but Turks, that ever I could find,

Have mutes to serve them, or did e’er deny

Their slaves at work, to chat it merrily.

Since you have liberty to speak your mind,

And are to talk, as well as we, inclined, [70]

Why should you thus repine, because that we,

Like you, enjoy that pleasing liberty?

What! would you lord it quite, and take away

The only privilege our sex enjoy?

   When ev’ning does approach, we homeward hie

And our domestic toils incessant ply:

Against your coming home prepare to get

Our work all done, our house in order set;

Bacon and dumpling in the pot we boil,

Our beds we make, our swine we feed the while; [80]

Then wait at door to see you coming home,

And set the table out against you come.

Early next morning we on you attend,

Our children dress and feed, their clothes we mend;

And in the field our daily task renew,

Soon as the rising sun has dried the dew.

   When harvest comes, into the field we go,

And help to reap the wheat as well as you;

Or else we go the ears of corn to glean,

No labour scorning, be it e’er so mean; [90]

But in the work we freely bear a part,

And what we can, perform with all our heart.

To get a living we so willing are,

Our tender babes unto the field we bear,

And wrap them in our clothes to keep them warm,

While round about we gather in the corn;

And often unto them our course do bend,

To keep them safe, that nothing them offend;

Our children that are able bear a share

In gleaning corn, such is our frugal care. [100]

When night comes on, unto our home we go,

Our corn we carry, and our infant too,

Weary indeed! but ’tis not worth our while

Once to complain, or rest at ev’ry stile;

We must make haste, for when we home are come,

We find again our work but just begun;

So many things for our attendance call,

Had we ten hands, we could employ them all.

Our children put to bed, with greatest care

We all things for your coming home prepare: [110]

You sup, and go to bed without delay,

And rest yourselves till the ensuing day;

While we, alas! but little sleep can have,

Because our froward children cry and rave;

Yet, without fail, soon as day-light doth spring,

We in the field again our work begin,

And there, with all our strength, our toil renew,

Till Titan’s golden rays have dried the dew;

Then home we go unto our children dear,

Dress, feed, and bring them to the field with care. [120]

Were this your case, you justly might complain

That day or night you are secure from pain;

Those mighty troubles which perplex your mind

(Thistles before, and females come behind)

Would vanish soon, and quickly disappear,

Were you, like us, encumbered thus with care.

What you would have of us we do not know:

We oft take up the corn that you do mow,

We cut the peas, and always ready are

In every work to take our proper share; [130]

And from the time that harvest doth begin,

Until the corn be cut and carried in,

Our toil and labour’s daily so extreme,

That we have hardly ever time to dream.

The harvest ended, respite none we find;

   The hardest of our toil is still behind;

Hard labour we most cheerfully pursue,

And out, abroad, a-charing often go,

Of which I now will briefly tell in part,

What fully to describe is past my art; [140]

So many hardships daily we go through,

I boldly say, the like you never knew.

   When bright Orion glitters in the skies

In winter nights, then early we must rise;

The weather ne’er so bad, wind, rain, or snow,

Our work appointed, we must rise and go,

While you on easy beds may lie and sleep,

Till light does through your chamber windows peep.

When to the house we come where we should go,

How to get in, alas! we do not know: [150]

The maid quite tired with work the day before,

O’ercome with sleep; we standing at the door

Oppressed with cold, and often call in vain,

E’er to our work we can admittance gain;

But when from wind and weather we get in,

Briskly with courage we our work begin.

Heaps of fine linen we before us view,

Whereon to lay our strength and patience too;

Cambrics and muslins which our ladies wear,

Laces and edgings, costly, fine, and rare, [160]

Which must be washed with utmost skill and care,

With holland shirts, ruffles and fringes too,

Fashions which our fore-fathers never knew.

For several hours here we work and slave,

Before we can one glimpse of day-light have;

We labour hard before the morning’s past,

Because we fear the time runs on too fast.

   At length bright Sol illuminates the skies,

And summons drowsy mortals to arise;

Then comes our mistress without fail, [170]

And in her hand, perhaps, a mug of ale

To cheer our hearts, and also to inform

Herself what work is done that very morn;

Lays her commands upon us, that we mind

Her linen well, nor leave the dirt behind;

Nor this alone, but also to take care

We don’t her cambrics nor her ruffles tear;

And these most strictly does of us require,

To save her soap, and sparing be of fire,

Tells us her charge is great, nay furthermore, [180]

Her clothes are fewer than the time before.

Now we drive on, resolved our strength to try,

And what we can we do most willingly;

Until with heat and work, ’tis often known,

Not only sweat, but blood runs trickling down

Our wrists and fingers; still our work demands

The constant action of our lab’ring hands.

   Now night comes on, from whence you have relief,

But that, alas! does but increase our grief:

With heavy hearts we often view the sun,

Fearing he’ll set before our work be done,

For either in the morning, or at night,

We piece the summer’s day with candle-light.

Though we all day with care our work attend,

Such is our fate, we know not when ’twill end;

When evening’s come, you homeward take your way,

We, till our work is done, are forced to stay;

And after all our toil and labour past,

Six-pence or eight-pence pays us off at last;

For all our pains, no prospect can we see [200]

Attend us, but old age and poverty.

   The washing is not all we have to do:

We often change for work as well as you.

Our mistress of her pewter doth complain,

And ’tis our part to make it clean again.

This work, though very hard and tiresome too,

Is not the worst we hapless females do:

When night comes on, and we quite weary are,

We scarce can count what falls unto our share;

Pots, kettles, sauce-pans, skillets, we may see, [210]

Skimmers, and ladles, and such trumpery,

Brought in to make complete our slavery.

Though early in the morning ’tis begun,

’Tis often very late before we’ve done;

Alas! our labours never know no end,

On brass and iron we our strength must spend;

Our tender hands and fingers scratch and tear;

All this, and more, with patience we must bear.

Coloured with dirt and filth we now appear;

Your threshing sooty peas will not come near. [220]

All the perfections woman once could boast,

Are quite obscured, and altogether lost.

   Once more our mistress sends to let us know

She wants our help, because the beer runs low;

Then in much haste for brewing we prepare,

The vessels clean, and scald with greatest care;

Often at midnight from our bed we rise,

At other times, ev’n that will not suffice;

Our work at ev’ning oft we do begin,

And ere we’ve done, the night comes on again. [230]

Water we pump, the copper we must fill,

Or tend the fire; for if we e’er stand still,

Like you, when threshing, we a watch must keep,

Our wort boils over, if we dare to sleep.

   But to rehearse all labour is in vain,

Of which we very justly might complain:

For us, you see, but little rest is found;

Our toil increases as the year runs round.

While you to Sisyphus yourselves compare,

With Danaus’ daughters we may claim a share: [240]

For while he labours hard against the hill,

Bottomless tubs of water they must fill.

So the industrious bees do hourly strive

To bring their loads of honey to the hive;

Their sordid owners always reap the gains,

And poorly recompense their toil and pains.