“Let them learne plaine workes of all kind so they take heed of too open seeming. Instead of song and musick let them learn cookery and laundry, and instead of reading Sir Philip Sidney’s ‘Arcadia,’ let them read the grounds of good huswifery. I like not a female poetesse at any hand: let greater personages glory their skill in musicke, the posture of their bodies, their knowledge in languages, the greatnesse and freedome of their spirits, and their arts in arraigning of men’s affections at their flattering faces: this is not the way to breede a private gentleman’s daughter.”[41]
The author of the above remarks suggests that where there were several daughters, one should be left with the mother, and the others drafted off into some other household, such as that of a merchant, or lawyer, or country gentleman, to gain experience and multiply their matrimonial chances.
It is obvious that the custom of sending children away to board in families was still common in the seventeenth century, and that the domestic ideal had not much enlarged. Women are still to study housewifery before all else, and to shun learning as an unprofitable thing. The profession of marriage is the only one proper to women. “Loke to thi doughten,” advises an early English poet--
“And geve hem to spowsynge as soone as thei ben ablee.”
In France the education of girls was much neglected.
“Il est honteux, mais ordinaire de voir des femmes qui ont de l’esprit et de la politesse, ne savoir bien prononcer ce qu’elles lisent; ou elles hesitent, ou elles chantent en lisant: au lieu qu’il faut prononcer d’un ton simple et naturel, mais forme et uni. Elles manquent encore plus grossièrement pour l’ortogrape, ou pour la manière de former ou de lier les lettres en écrivant.”
Fénélon goes on to suggest that girls should learn something of the laws and regulations of their country--
“ce que c’est qu’un contrat, une substitution, un partage des cohéritiers ... ce que c’est biens meubles et immeubles. Si elles se marient toutes leurs principales affaires rouleront la-dessus.”
In every age there is always some one to act the part of _laudator temporis acti_. Sir Matthew Hale, the celebrated Lord Chief Justice, bemoans the degeneracy of his own period. He says--