'LACTILLA TENDS HER FAV'RITE COW': DOrncATED ANIMALS AND WOMEN IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH LABOURING-CLASS WOMEN'S POETRY ANNE MILNE, B.A., M. A. Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University (c) Copyright by Anne Miine, September 1999 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 ofCanada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 WeUington Street 395. rue WeUington Ottawa ON KlA ON4 OttawaON KlAON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence dowing the exclusive permettant a la National Libraq of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distn'bute or seli reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othenvise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. 'LACTILLA TENDS HER FAV'IUTE COW' DûCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (1999) MCMASTER UNIVERSITY ( English) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: ' Lactiila Tends her Fav'rite Cow' : Domesticated Animals and Women in Eighteenth-Century British Labouring-Class Women's Poetry AUTHOR: Anne Milne, B. A., M. A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Dr- Peter Walmsley NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 25 1 Abstract This dissertation examines issues of gender, class and species in the work of five eighteenth-century British labouring-class women poets, Mary Coilier (1690-1762), Mary Leapor (1722-1746), Elizabeth Hands (f2. l789), Ann Cromartie Yearsley ( 175 2-1806) and Janet Little (1759-1813). Using ecocriticisrn, which posits Links between literature and the physicai world, and ecological feminist theories, which emphasize the interdependence of women and nature as a feminist issue, the author interrogates the meanings of "nature" in the eighteenth century as they are represented in labouring-class women's poetry and in other relevant eighteenth-century texts such as Le Comte de Buffon's EJistoire aturelle (1749-1804), Mary Astell's Some Reflections on Marri= ( liOO), Bernard Mandeville's Fable of the Bees ( 17 14) and Thomas Topham's Treatise on Ca- (1787). Fashioning new critical readings of Iabouring-class women's poetry which focus on nature at the intersection of gender, class and species rather than merely the scene of the narrative or the mirror of the protagonist's mind, the author exposes the ideological functions underlying particular conceptualizations of nature. For eighteenth-century labouring-class women poets, a poignant and potent example is the popular idea of the "natural Genius" as an uneducated "rustic" who composes poeny "spontaneously". Chapter one begins by defiing "domestication" -- of women in the family, animais, domestic servants and labouring-class women poets iii - in the context of Mary Leapor's poem "Man the Monarch" (1746). La chapter two, the relationship between a labouring-class woman poet and a mad heifer is read through the ecological feminist concept of "interlocking oppressions". in chapter three, the author explores the changing nature of farm labour as the division-of-labour is naturalized within the quintessential emblem of industry -- the beehive. Chapters four and five both focus on the forced ar-ciality of the domesticated pet as "essential" to the nature of a burgeoning consumer culture. The dissertation ends with a consideration of the relationship between literary criticism and environmental politics in the context of the twentieth-century environmental crisis. Ac knowledgements 1 would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Peter Walmsley, for his generous support. The advice and support of Sylvia Bowerbank and Richard Morton has also been invaluable. My family, especially Peter Karuna and Iris Karuna, have helped me as well. Table of Contents Introduction ............. ......,.... ............................................................ 1-27. Ideologies of Domestication in Mary Leapor's "Man the Monarch" ( 1746).....-.. ...., ....... ......--..... 28-58. Labouring-Class Women, Animais and Time in mzabeth Handsr "Written, origiaally extempore, on seeing a Mad Heifer run through the Village Where the Author Lives" ( 17 8 9).......................................................... 5 9-9 8. Gender, Class and the Beehive: Mary CoUerrs "The Woman's ïabour" (1739)as Nature Poem. ................ ..... ..... 99-17. The Silence of the Lamb: Rapture and Release in Ann Yearsley's "Written on a Visit" (1787)................ ..,. ......................................... 138-172, Dogs, Language and "my friend Jenny Little" in Janet Little's "From Snipe, a Favourite Dog to his Master" (1791)..................................................................... 173-209. Conclusion.............. ,,. ....................................................... .........2 10-215. Works Cited .................................. .. ..................................2 16-228. 'Lactilla Tends Her Fav'rite Cow': Domesticated Animals and Wornen in Eighteenth- Century British Labouring-Class Women's Poetry Can we, like shepherd's, tell a merry tale? The voice is lost, drown'd by the noisy flail? Stephen Duck The Thresher's iabour (1736) Introduction Mycias, behold this bird! see how she tires - Breaks her soft plumes, and springs against the wires! A clown more rude than gracious brought her here To pine in silence, and to die in snare. Her haunt she well remembers: ev'ry morn Fier sweet note warbled from the blowing thorn That hangs o'er yon cool wave; responses clear Her sisters gave, and sprang through upper air. Ann Yearsley "The Captive Linnet" (1796) These lines, from Ann Yearsley's poem "The Captive Tjnnet" printed in her third book of poeoy, The Rural (1796),describe the plight of a caged bird who, removed from ber natural environment, can neither cornrnunicate with her sister birds "who sit and cal1 her near her fav'rite spray" (11) or fulfiil the "Delicious toil" ( 17) of caring for her Young. Rather than accept her enuapment, in an assertion of negative agency "she droops" (59), rejects her captor's offer of food and "dies resign'd" (59-GO), a device Yearsley frames as Christian "VICTORY for the SOUL" (72). I offer Yearsley's captive linnet as an emblem of my project, which brings together animals and women in the work of five labouring-class women poets -- Mary Collier ( 1690-l762), Mary Leapor ( 1722-46). Elizabeth Hands (fl. 1789), Ann Cromartie Yearsley ( 1752- 1806) and Janet Little ( 1759-1813). A fairly direct symbolic relationship can be traced, for example, between the captive linnet and the situation i~hefuil text of "The Captive Linnet" as weil as other poems discussed in this dissertation are printed in the Appendix. of the eighteenth-century natural genius circumscribed by a patron, often physically and rnentaliy isolated from the natural landscape so important to her "naturai" poetry. Though these poets express a sophisticated awareness of their position as "natural Geniuses" within the political and social hierarchy, they are often frustrated in their literary endeavors as they struggle to claim their places as poets. The anxiety of authorship they express in poems such as Mary Collier's "An Epistolary Answer to an Exciseman, Who doubted her being the Author of the Washenvoman's Labour" (1762),Elizabeth Hands "A Poem, On the Supposition of an Advertisement appearing in a Morning Paper, of the Publication of a Volume of Poems, by a Servant Maid" (1789),Mary Leapor's "Upon her Play being retumed to her, stained with Claret" (1751) and Janet Little's "Given to a Lady Who Asked me to Write a Poem" (1792) suggests a constant concern with th& status as poets. Another intersection between Yearsley's poem and my project is the linnet's gender. The linnet's close relationship to her sister birds and her role as a mother mirrors the connection 1 make in my project in ecological feminist critical terms between women and animals in eighteenth-century labouring-class women's poetry. Especiaiiy worth noting from this feminist perspective is Yearsley's emphasis on the silencing of the linnet's "sweet note" (6) as a consequence of her capture. Voice as a sign of the linnet's presence, as self-expression, is denied. 1 look at places within this body of poetry where the voices of labouring-class women and animals are heard. In chapter five, for example, 1 consider the voice of the talking or writing dog in Janet Little's poem "From Snipe, A Favorite Dog to His Master" (1791). I examine the relationship between the "1" of the dog-speaker of the poem and the "1" of the labouring-class wornan poet. Through their respective cultural contexts they defy attempts by dominant discourses CO "unvoice" them. In some other poems the "unvoicing" appears to have already occurred. Ann Yearsley's "Written on A Visit" ( 1787) features a spotless larnb who blissfully "forgets to bleat". Mary Collier champions a strangely quiet, albeit useful, beehive in "The Woman's Labour" (1739) to counter Stephen Duckrs reading of labouring women as chattering sparrow pests in "The Thresher's Labour" (