Author: Barnes, Esther (dates uncertain; fl. 1796 )
Title: The Disengaged Fair. Written the Tenth of September, 1796
Date: [1796]
Descriptive Essay
Published in 1796, Esther Barnes’ poetry collection, The Disengaged Fair, is comprised of four poems, varying in length and subject matter. Barnes is not a confident author, often writing of the “horrible” critics and her lack of writing experience, but her wittiness and intellect are easily recognizable throughout the entire piece, particularly in her main poem, “The Disengaged Fair,” which is a long “romantic” tale spanning 23 pages. She writes with an early feminist perspective, utilizing sarcasm, allusions, rhyme, and personification to drive her collection.
The main poem, “The Disengaged Fair,” was written in response to a published letter written by a middle-aged, widowed man searching for a ‘fair’ woman near his age to forgo her single life and retire into companionship with him. He asks that women write him a letter, paying for their own postage (by the way), describing themselves. In other words, he’s having women compete for him. After five days, Esther finished crafting her lengthy response.
Barnes seizes the opportunity to express her frustration not only with this vain and presumptuous man, A.B., but indeed with all men. The man behind the initial published letter requests that only ‘fair’ (that is, physically attractive) women respond/apply. Barnes’ turns her angry frustration with his specific request for only ‘fair women’ respondents to address her poem to all women, and most specifically to the ‘disengaged maids’ and un-‘fair’ women. Barnes’early feminist ideals are extremely evident in this first poem in the sarcasm and direct insults she directs toward men in general:
I must inform you, I should not much have chus’d
To have heard th’sad Sentence, oh! you are refus’d.
So as this sad Sentence may fall to my Lot,
I still will be happy in my own little Cot; (7).
Rather than allowing A.B. the power to choose from women applicants for his favor, Barnes refuses him in advance, demonstrating in the process that women are not mere disposable tools he can tease and manipulate. She further states that she will still be quite happy without him in her life. This is a classic feminist stance: women do not need men for happiness. Soon after her declaration, she directly insults the author of the published letter, A. B.:
He must be no miser, for that’s what I hate,
A beggar I never would turn from my gate (8).
In a note that A. B. included at the bottom of his published letter, he not very subtly explains that the women must pay the postage when mailing him letters: “Letters (Post-paid) to A.B. will meet immediate Attention; or a personal Interview given in three or four Days from the Time appointed” (6). Barnes recognizes this for the miserly instruction it is, since although this is his search, his decision not to pay the postage shows the quality of a miser. Barnes makes clear that this quality is undesirable for a husband or male companion, indicating in the process that women also have desires of their own in choosing a spouse; women’s’ voices are important, too: they “matter.” However, as Barnes makes clear she fully understands, upon entering marriage women’s opinions were often not considered:
I think I’ve been told that when ladies are wives,
They ought to be silent the rest of their lives;
And then, whatever these ladies may think,
At their husbands’ follies they ever must wink;
And I’ve heard that whatever mistakes they may make,
It’s much better for wives no notice to take; (14).
The blatant, unfair truth evident in these lines publicly calls on society to intervene. Barnes explains that married women are typically expected to keep their opinions to themselves, or to understand that their thoughts are not important. Also, as she explains, they are expected to ignore their husbands’ mistakes, such as infidelity. To combat these unacceptable, unjust societal expectations, Barnes suggests that women join together to form a “grand amazon band” that works to bring men to social justice (13).
Now for the use of our amazon band,
By all the good wives we’re determin’d to stand:
No honor, no power, no distinction, respect,
In doing our duty, we none would neglect. (14).
Barnes deliberately named the band or army of women ‘amazon.’ The name alludes to the mythical warrior women called Amazons who fought, hunted, and used bows and arrows just like the men. These women bravely fought the ancient Greeks despite their gender (“Amazon Warriors Did Indeed Fight and Die Like Men”). Naming her desired army of women “amazon” shows her desire for strong, independent women to fight for the equality and justice they deserve. Barnes incorporates another allusion when she asserts that the amazons will be approved and appreciated by King George III but that his son, George, Prince of Wales and future King George IV, will have issues with their militant self-assertion. Amazons work to seek out, identify, and publicly address men who fail to act honorably and lovingly to their wives, according to Barnes, and she faults the Price of Wales for his notorious and conspicuous failures in these matters:
We’d teach him to marry and keep an old w–––e.
Besides, we have heard that the Princess is griev’d
So we are determin’d to see her reliev’d.
Was it not for some vile bad wicked harlot,
Why they would both be as happy as George and his Charlotte (15).
George III was married to his wife, Charlotte, for fifty years, and they produced fifteen children; they were widely seen as a happily married couple (“George III Biography”). In fact, upon discovering that his brother had committed adultery, George III pushed Parliament to pass the Royal Marriages Act, making “it illegal for a member of the royal family to marry without permission of the monarch” (“George III Biography”). However, George III’s son, the Prince of Wales, notorious for his multitude of mistresses, was known as a ladies man who would vow his love, then abandon his temporary favorites when he grew uninterested (“George IV: The Royal Joke?”). The Prince flaunted conventional morality and ruined the sexual respectability and family values that King George III implemented (“George IV: The Royal Joke?”). Barnes regards George III as a good, faithful husband and a man of virtue who loved and was loved by God (18-19). Conversely, Barnes explains that his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, would be unlikely to find God until the amazons whipped him into shape (16).
Barnes consistently emphasizes the importance of virtue, religion and reason through personification. She speaks of each as if they are women:
Virtue, fair virtue such power has got.
Only she can make happy a palace or cot (20).
Her exemplary amazon women, she explains, must live virtuous lives or they will lose their power and legitimacy (20). Without virtue, they will never earn the treatment they desire, nor will they be led to God. Barnes writes,
And I hope in our England she will ever reside.
However on earth she may be neglected,
In the high court above we’re sure she’s respected (20).
Barnes recognizes that while women may never earn the equality and justice they deserve during her lifetime on Earth, they must nevertheless act with virtue to ensure that eternal reward in heaven. To further explore the topic of female disengaged maids, Barnes wishes the poet Homer had written on the subject, or that he might return to do justice to it in Georgian England. She discusses how each of the Classical gods might react and influence the situation for the better. Barnes describes her wish that the Classical gods, Homer and the eighteenth-century British painter William Hogarth might join together to a noble convention. In such a company, Cupid will match the amazon band to appropriate men and make them fall in love. She envisions very particular matches, such as sickly women matched with doctors, so they will be nursed to health (27). Barnes’ wildly imaginary and idealistic story, told in her poetic response to A.B., displays her strong desire for improved treatment of women. If all could actually happen as she so clearly wished, she evidently believed, the world would be a much better and more virtuous place.
. . .
Barnes’ second poem in the collection is titled “On the New Burying-Ground, (Soon to be Consecrated)”. This poem is comprised of four, four-lined stanzas, rhymed aabb. That poem is followed by “Another Thought, By The Same, At The Same Time,” that adopts the subject and rhyme scheme of the second poem. Religion is a heavy theme in both pieces. Barnes reminds men that they will all die; yet, they should still praise and remember God. In “On the New Burying-Ground,” Barnes thanks a man who donated more land to the cemetery so more people might have a beautiful resting place. In “Another Thought By The Same, At The Same Time,” she lectures different types of men (partiers, misers, overly ambitious men, handsome men, and kings) on aspects of their deaths. As in the first poem of the collection, Barnes again advances her feminist attitude, reminding men that they are not invincible; death is inevitable, and they will not take their public qualities and worldly possessions to the grave with them.
The final poem in the collection is “An Acrostic, Made by the Author, on her Nephew, Ten Years of Age, Who has Lost His Father.” The acrostic’s initial line letters read, vertically, “Robert Morrant,” probably the name of that ten-year-old nephew. Here Barnes advises her nephew, too, on how to live a virtuous life with reason and religion, free of folly and vice.. Barnes wants this young boy to be aware of his place in the world so that he will not become like so many of the other men during this time:
Remove thee from folly, from vice, and from sin,
To wisdom incline, if fair laurels you’d win.
May the maxims of truth ever reign in thy breast,
Overcome all thy follies, and lead thee to rest (32).
Unlike her approach in the earlier three poems, Barnes here employs a motherly tone, although her feminist ideals remain evident in what she writes.
. . .
Esther Barnes’ collection, The Disengaged Fair, reads beautifully, the rhyme so masterfully crafted that it is sometimes unnoticeable, even when she uses contractions to make the rhyme work. Barnes’s poetry displays the author’s intelligence, wittiness and historical knowledge, all of which add depth to her works while offering her readers a pleasant, often humorous reading experience that invites and encourages strong women.
Sources
“Amazon Warriors Did Indeed Fight and Die Like Men.” National Geographic, 28 Oct. 2014, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141029-amazons-scythians-hunger-games-herodotus-ice-princess-tattoo-cannabis/.
“George III Biography.” Biography, 20 July 2015, https://www.biography.com/people/king-george-iii.
“George III.” History, https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/george-iii.
“George IV: The Royal Joke?.” BBC, 17 Feb. 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/george_fourth_01.shtml.
Prepared by Maci Burke, University of Nebraska, April 2018.
© Maci Burke, 2018.