SHREWISH WOMEN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 82, 21 November 1874, Page 10

SHREWISH WOMEN.

A. S. IfiAAShas gathered together, as examples of warning, some notable instances of shrewish women, thus :

Perhaps ose of the earliest shrews was the wife of Eabbi Jose. The story is forcibly told in the ' Talmud.' It seems that Jose, a rabbi of fair attainments and character, had the happiness of being married to a woman who was as perverse after marriage as she was gracious beforehand. One day, the story runs, the rich and learned Eliezer, the son of Asarya, paid a visit to Jose. Jose received his guest with great pleasure, and feeling himself highly honored in the company of one so •wise Mid wealthy, entreated Eliezer to stay to dinner. He consented, unconscious of his friend's connubial blessedness The wife delighted to Tax her husband, turned her back upon his friend, and by sundry •lips of the tongue and gestures, gave the unfortunate Jose to understand how little she cared for him or his learned companion. Jose good-naturedly took no notice of her churlish conduct, but merely asked her what she had for dinner. " Nothing, nothing," replied the termagant in a shrill voice, "nothing but a few vegetables." This Hebrew Xantippe had, however, prepared Borne very fine chickens for herielf, which she afterwards ate with, the greatest relish, leaving Jose and lcliezer to ponder over their scanty -vegetables and the eayin<» of Solomon, " It is better to dwell in a corner of a roof than with a quarrelsome woman in a roomy house.''

Milton had a most vixenish wife. Ifc might have added to his comfort to have been deaf instead of blind. To flatter his wife, Buckingham once called her a rose. •' lam no judge of colors," replied the poet, " and it may be so, for" — he added with a sigh—" I feel the thorns daily." The "judicious" Hooker fared no less badly in his selection of a better half and experience with her. The picture of his domestic relations, as drawn by Whipple, though truthful, is by no means flattering Whipple attempts to excuse, in a measure, the temper of Mrs Hcoker, on the ground that Hooker married her to be nurse, and, " there being

no possibility of equality between them, she in spiritual self-defence, established in the household the despotism of caprice and the tyranny of the tongue." His snarling wife used to frequently bid him rock the cradle, and so annoy hid friends on a visit that they rarely came to sea him again, except when they knew that Mrs Hooker, with her " spiritual sarcasm," was not at home. To Cranmer, repining that his wife should not prove more " comfortable," Booker replied : " My dear George, if saintß have usually a double share In the miseries of this life, I, that am none, ought not to repine at what my wise Creator hath appointed for me, but labor as I do daily — to submit mine to His will, and possees my soul in patience and peace."

The famous Dr Parr had a wife who used to quarrel with her husband for expending so much money for his books while he allowed his library-chairs to be sadly out of repair. One day, meeting him in. the library, she exclaimed : " Mr Parr, we should hare new chairs for the library ; they are in a very sad way." " I cannot afford it, Mrs Parr," quickly replied the doctor. " Not afford it ! " returned the lady, " when you can give ten" guineas for a musty book which you never open ! " "I tell you, I cannot afford it," vociferated the doctor, growing angry with his wife's obstinacy. "Not afford it?" slowly said the lady, " when your rents are coming in bo fast (pointing to fast widening gaps in her husband's garment's), "when you are in as much,, need of repair as the chairs ! " Dr. Parr, who had expected a sceet^w, quietly collapsed at his wife's masterly stroke of humour, and imme-' diately sent for the upholsterer and tailor, completely vanquished by his wife's sharpness. Although James Ferguson, the celebrated astronomer, in his auto-r biography does not once allude to his wife's conduct, it has been well ~ ascertained that her temper was not the most congenial. One aneodote illustrating the fact has come down to us. It appears that one evening in London while he was delivering a lecture on astronomy, his wife entered the lecture-room in a passion, and maliciously knocked down several pieces of the apparatus. Ferguson calmly surveyed the catastrophe, and turning to the audience quietly said, " Ladies and gentlemen, I have the misfortune to be married to this woman."

Even great artists have not been free from the sharp action of shrews. The wife of Albert Durer compelled that renowned painter to toil to gratify her own miserly disposition, and when, in disgust at her wretched treatment, he ran off, she allured him back to his deathbed. Disraeli the elder relates of Berghem, that his wife would constantly keep him busy, and she contrived an odd experiment to detect his indolence. He worked in a room above her own ; ever and anon she cheered him by thumping a long stick against the ceiling, while the meek, obedient Berghem answered by stamping his foot on the floor, and clenching his fist, too, perhaps, to satisfy his wife that he was not napping, but that he still lived !

Moliere was extremely unfortunate in his wife. ~ Captivated by the grace and vivaoity of the aeress, Bejart, he married her, but only to find after marriage her grace became converted into giddiness, and her vivacity into coquetry. Her vanity and artifices often drove him to despair. She had no pity, to use his own words, for his sorrows, and ensnared by the desire of general admiration, laughed at his anxieties.