The “B” Stands For “Princess”
The following comes from a thread by Dr. Bob Nicholson (aka “The Digital Victorian”) on Twitter, excerpting a series of 1892 newspaper reader responses on the question of how to “manage a husband”. This letter sounds to my modern ear more like a dominatrix’s online marketing copy than a true and real account of three marriages:
I found myself curious about the greater context of Mary Louse B.’s concluding quatrain, so of course I had to look it up. It’s half of a poem:
A Useful Hint
By Aaron Hill (1685—1750)TENDER-HANDED stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.‘Tis the same with common natures,
Use them kindly they rebel;
But be rough as nutmeg graters,
And the rogues obey you well.
Or, as Spanking Blog once described this poem: “Bad horticultural data from Aesop, recycled as unpleasant management advice.”
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