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Broadside entitled 'The Wife's Commandments' |
CommentaryThis satirical broadside begins: '1. I am thy wife, and the sole mistress of thy house; thou shalt not have any other wife but me, whom thou did vow to love and cherish.' Although no publication date is included, a note at the foot of the sheet states that it was published, or supplied, by 'L. Macartney, The Poet's Box, 184 Overgate, Dundee'. This light-hearted broadside and parody of the Ten Commandments is an answer to another sheet entitled, 'The Husband's Commandments', which is also included in the National Library of Scotland's collection. Using biblical language, the author gives ten rib-tickling reasons as to why husbands should unquestioningly obey their wives. The sheet is written from the perspective of a female chauvinist sow, and warns errant husbands that wives, rather than God, are the all-powerful deities that men should really be worshipping. In addition to legislating against her husband forming even platonic friendships with other women, the wife also states that the husband must do all the housework on Sundays, as the wife labours so hard on the other six days. It is not clear what the connection between the different Poet?s Boxes were. They almost certainly sold each other?s sheets. It is known that John Sanderson in Edinburgh often wrote to the Leitches in Glasgow for songs and that later his brother Charles obtained copies of songs from the Dundee Poet?s Box. There was also a Poet?s Box in Belfast from 1846 to 1856 at the address of the printer James Moore, and one at Paisley in the early 1850s, owned by William Anderson. Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.
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Probable date of publication:
1906- shelfmark: RB.m.143(065)
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