Marriage Advice, Georgian-Style
Today’s humorous tidbit comes from “The Five Strange Wonders of the World” printed and sold in Bow-Church-Yard, London, between 1750 and 1785. Courtesy of the Lewis Walpole Library.
Five Things a Man don’t like in a Wife
A Woman who will cuckold her Husband
She who carries false Tales from one to another
She who will be drunk before her Husband
She who runs her Husband in Debt without his Knowledge
She who pretends to love her Husband, but loves another better
Five Sorts of Husbands a Woman don’t like
A quarrelsome Husband
A jealous Husband
A drunken Husband
A Spendthrift
One who is running after Whores, when he has a good honest Wife at home
So, as we can see, not much has changed between then and now. LOL!
Surprised the wives didn’t mention that they didn’t want a brutal husband– though perhaps that comes under jealous, quarrelsome, and drunken. One or two men went to the JP to get relief from a domineering wife. One had his wife declared a common scold. Wives could swear out a writ to make the husband keep the peace but most didn’t know they could or didn’t have the resources. There really isn’t much difference between the recommendations of the 18th and 21st centuries, We just fancy it up more. Basic is no adultery.