Some Reflections Upon Marriage

Mary Astell

• Éditeur: University of Illinois Press
• Année: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780252097911
• Sujet: Historia
• Sous-sujet: Historia del mundo

Published anonymously in 1700, Some Reflections upon Marriage lamented the inequities of the institution of marriage and reasoned against it with both traditional and innovative arguments. Mary Astell's tract, written in response to an infamous divorce case, forcefully argued against the grim but all-too-common prospect of a marriage of necessity to a man in search of power, money, or a trophy wife. Astell proposed education as the solution to women's second-class status, stating that knowledge alone could lead to a partnership based on friendship and respect. "Let us learn to pride ourselves in something more excellent than the invention of a fashion, " she wrote, and her well-reasoned arguments soon won her a wide readership.

SOME

REFLECTIONS

UPON

Marriage,

Occasion’d by the

Duke & Dutchess

OF

Mazarine’s

CASE

;

Which is also consider’d.

LONDON:

Printed for John Nutt near Stationers-

Hall, 1700.

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T

Hese Reflections being made in the Country, where

the Book that occasion’d them came but late to Hand,

the Reader is desir’d to excuse their Unseasonableness as well as other Faults; and to believe that they have no other Design than to Correct some Abuses, which are not the less because Power and Prescription seem to Authorize them. If any is so needlessly curious as to enquire from what Hand they come, they may please to know, that it is not good Manners to ask, since the Title-Page does not tell them: We are all of us sufficiently Vain, and with­out doubt the Celebrated Name of Author, which most are so fond of, had not been avoided but for very good Reasons: To name but one; Who will care to pull upon themselves an Hornet’s Nest? ’Tis a very great Fault to regard rather who it is that Speaks, than what is spoken; and either to submit to Authority, when we should only

A2

yield

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yield to Reason; or if Reason press too hard, to think to ward it off by Personal Objections and Reflections. Bold Truths may pass while the Speaker is Incognito, but are seldom endur’d when he is known; few Minds being strong enough to bear what contradicts their Principles and Practices without recriminating when they can. And tho’ to tell the Truth be the most Friendly Office, yet who­soever is so hardy as to venture at it, shall be counted an Enemy for so doing.

SOME

( 1 )

SOME

REFLECTIONS

UPON

MARRIAGE

,

Occasion’d by the Duke and Dutchess

of

Mazarine’s

CASE

; which is

also consider’d.

C

Uriosity, which is sometimes an occasion of Good, and too frequently of Mischief, by disturbing either our Own, or our Neighbour’s Repose, having put me upon

reading the Duke and Dutchess of Mazarine’s Case; I thought an Afternoon wou’d not be quite thrown away in pursuing some Reflections that it occa­sion’d. The name of Mazarine is considerable e-

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nough

( 2 )

nough to draw the Eyes of the curious, and when one remembers what a noise it had made in Europe, what Pol­itick Schemes have been laid, what vast designs brought about by the Cardinal that bore it; how well his measures were concerted for the Grandeur of that Nation, into which he was transplanted, and that he wanted neither Power nor Inclination to establish his own Family and make it as considerable as any Subjects could possible be, and what Honours and Riches he had heap’d together in order to this, one cannot but enquire how it comes about that he should be so defeated in this last design; and that those to whom he intrusted his Name and Trea­sure, should make a figure so very different from what might have been expected from them. And tho’ one had not Piety enough to make a Religious Reflection, yet Civil Prudence woul’d almost enforce them to say, that Man being in Honour has no Understanding, but is compar’d unto the Beasts that Perish. He blesseth his Soul, and thinks himself a happy Man, imagining his House will endure for ever, and that he has establish’d his Name and Family. But how wise soever he may be in other

respects

( 3 )

respects, in this he acts no better than the Ignorant and Foolish. For as he carries nothing away with him when he dies, so neither will his Pomp and Glory descend as he intended. Generous and Worthy Actions only can secure him from Oblivion, or what is worse, being remembred with Contempt; so little reason have we to envy any Man’s Wealth and Greatness, but much to Emulate his Wisdom and Vertue.

The Dutchess of Mazarine’s Name has spread perhaps as far as her Uncle’s, and one can’t help wishing that so much Wit and Beauty, so much Politeness and Address, had been accompany’d and supported by more valuable and lasting Qualities; one cannot but desire that her Advocate instead of recriminating had clear’d the imputations laid on her, and that she her self, who says enough in her Memoirs, to shew she was unfortunate, had said more to prove her self discreet. They must be highly ill-natur’d who do not pity her ill fortune at the same time that they must blame her Conduct, and regret that such a Treasure should fall into his hands who was not worthy of it, nor knew how to value and improve it; that she who was capable of being a great

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Orna-

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Ornament to her Family and Blessing to the Age she liv’d in, should only serve (to say no worse) as an unhappy Shipwrack to point out the dangers of an ill Education and unequal Marriage.

Monsieur Mazarine is not to be justified, nor Madam his Spouse excus’d. It is no question which is most Crimi­nal, the having no sense, or the abuse of a liberal Portion, nor any hard matter to determine who is most to be pity’d, he whom Nature never qualify’d for great things, who there­fore can’t be very sensible of great Misfortunes; or she, who being capable of every thing, must therefore suffer more and be the more lamented. To be yoak’d for Life to a dis­agreeable Person and Temper; to have Folly and Ignorance tyrannize over Wit and Sense; to be contradicted in every thing one does or says, and bore down not by Reason but Authority; to be denied ones most innocent desires for no other cause, but the Will and Pleasure of an absolute Lord and Master, whose follies a Woman with all her Prudence cannot hide, and whose Commands she cannot but despise at the same time she obeys them, is a misery none can have a just Idea of, but those who have felt it.

These

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These are great Provocations, but nothing can justify the revenging the Injuries we receive from others, upon our selves: The Italian Proverb shews a much better way Vuoi far vendetta del tuo nemico governati bene. If you would be reveng’d of your Enemies, live well. Had Madam Mazarine’s Education made a right improvement of her Wit and Sense, we should not have found her seeking Relief by such imprudent, not to say Scandalous Methods, as the running away in Disguise with a spruce Cavalier, and rambling to so many Courts and Places, nor diverting her self with such Childish, Ridiculous, or Ill-natur’d Amuse­ments, as the greatest part of the Adventures in her Mem­oirs are made up of. True Wit consists not meerly in doing or saying what is out of the way, but in such surprizing things as are fit and becoming the Person from whom they come. That which stirs us up to Laughter most commonly excites our Contempt; to Please, and to make Merry are two very different Talents. But what Remedies can be adminis­tered, what Relief expected, when Devotion, the only true support in Distress, is turn’d into Ridicule? Unhappy is that Grandeur which makes us too great to be good; and

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that

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that Wit which sets us at a distance from true Wisdom. Even Bigotry it self, as contemptible as it is, is preferable to Prophane Wit; for that only requires our Pity, but this deserves our Abhorrence.

A Woman who seeks Consolation under Domestick trou­bles from the Gaieties of a Court, from Gaming and Courtship, from Rambling and odd Adventures, and the Amusements mixt Company affords, may Plaister up the Sore, but will never heal it; nay, which is worse, she makes it Fester beyond a possibility of Cure. She justifies the Injury her Husband has done her, by shewing that whatever other good Qualities she may have, Discretion, one of the Principal, is wanting. She may be Innocent, but she can never prove she is so; all that Charity can do for her when she’s Censur’d is only to be silent; it can make no Apologies for suspicious Actions. An ill Husband may deprive a Wife of the comfort and quiet of her Life; may give her occasion of exercising her Virtue, may try her Patience and Fortitude to the utmost, but that’s all he can do: ’tis her self only can accomplish her Ruin. Had Madam Mazarin’s Reserve been what it ought to be, Monsieur Herard needed not to have warded off so carefully, the nice

Subject

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Subject of the Lady’s Honour, nor her Advocate have strain’d so hard for Colours to excuse such Actions as will hardly bear ’em; but a Man indeed shews the best side of his Wit, tho’ the worst of his Integrity, when he has an ill Cause to manage. Truth is bold and vehement; she depends upon her own strength, and so she be plac’d in a true Light, thinks it not necessary to use Artifice and Address as a Rec­ommendation; but the prejudices of Men have made them necessary: their Imagination gets the better of their Under­standing, and more judge...