[Rarebooks] fa: TRIUMPHS OF FEMALE WIT - Proto-Feminist Verbal Duel of the Sexes - 1683

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th & 18th-Century English works,  
auctions ending Sunday, April 3. More details and images can be found  
at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://shop.ebay.com/arch_in_la/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Cheers,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Triumphs of Female Wit, In Some Pindarick Odes. Or, The Emulation.  
Together with an Answer to an Objector against Female Ingenuity, and  
Capacity of Learning. Also, a Preface to the Masculine Sex, by a Young  
Lady. London: Printed for T. Malthus at the Sun in the Poultry, and J.  
Waltho, at the Black Lyon in Chancery-Lane, against Lincolns-Inn,  
MDCLXXXIII [1683]. FIRST EDITION. Disbound 4to (21 x 16 cm); [6] + 20  
pp. in custom modern portfolio. Wing T2295; ESTC R3634.

A lively and witty dialogue between the sexes on the subject of female  
learning, consisting of three mock-pindaric odes and a preface. In her  
"Preface to the Masculine Sex," the anonymous "young lady" author  
complains of women being "confined to labour all Day in the Kitchen  
Mines of the Family, and at Night to the ungratifying Divertisement of  
an unperforming Husband", and wonders whether "the Excellency of a  
Female Soul could possibly be raised no higher than the management of  
a Needle or the ingenuity of a Pudding." She argues that, furnished  
with a proper education, "on my Conscience we should out-do you in the  
trade of Ingenuity, and soon... set up for accomplish'd Professors of  
Arts and Sciences." She elaborates on her argument in the succeeding  
ode, "The Emulation," which is followed by another ode, "The Answer to  
the Emulation," a counter-argument by "Mr. H" which, in essence, tells  
the Young Lady to get back to the kitchen, challenging a woman's  
ability to learn ("Your Power [is] not equal to your Will"). This, in  
turn, is followed by "A Reply to the Answerer of the Emulation," in  
which the rather more enlightened "Mr. F" rebuts "Mr. H's"  
misogynistic argument: "From whence, Usurping Man, thy boasted Claim /  
To all the Riches of the Brain?", etc.

Lacking the title-page (supplied in facsimile); professional repair to  
first leaf with missing corner supplied in facsimile (slightly skewed  
on the recto in order to ensure legibility on the verso: see image  
below); remnant of older leather binding on spine; untrimmed edges  
lightly bumped and dust-soiled; a few occasional small spots or  
touches of soiling; otherwise complete and very clean and fresh. Now  
housed loose in a handsome custom portfolio of cloth and marbled  
boards with a reproduction of the original title-page on the front  
cover.

An essentially complete and handsomely presented copy of a delightful  
and quite scarce title: ESTC locates only 7 copies in U.S.  
institutions and 3 in the UK.