I shared in my recent review of Mary Dorothy George’s book on satire in the 18th and 19th century the Gillray series on marriage:
What has become illegible due to the scale, is on the chair the book open is Jane Collier’s 1753 An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting, a satirical advice book for husbands, wives, and the general audience on how to live up to humanity’s tendency to torment each other.
How its relevant to the Regency, is it didn’t get its second edition (and then six additional editions) until 1795, and a lot of satirical print artists paid homage to it including Gillray who did one of the era front plates.
The book is modelled on Jonathan Swift’s satire Instructions to Servants, and includes some wild and funny suggestions like never allowing a quiet supper to pass, or using the rain to torment your staff. In one memorable section, it encourages the host and hostess to allow their servants to be rude to guests and to have children for the purpose of being noisy and troublesome, including using greasy fingers, dirty noses, and scissors.
Rather the opposite of the maxims I share in posts like Men and Manners, I think nonetheless we can learn a fair amount of the cultural moreways and folkways simply by understanding the satire in Collier’s hilarious book.
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