"
It would appear that servants had in his day many of the faults which
characterise some of them at present. In "Everybody's Business is
Nobody's Business" we have an amusing picture of the over-dressed maid
of the period.
"The apparel," he says, "of our women-servants should be next regulated,
that we may know the mistress from the maid. I remember I was once put
very much to the blush, being at a friend's house, and by him required
to salute the ladies. I kissed the chamber-jade into the bargain, for
she was as well dressed as the best. But I was soon undeceived by a
general titter, which gave me the utmost confusion; nor can I believe
myself the only person who has made such a mistake."
Again "I have been at places where the maid has been so dizzied with
idle compliments that she has mistook one thing for another, and not
regarded her mistress in the least, but put on all the flirting airs
imaginable. This behaviour is nowhere so much complained of as in
taverns, coffee houses, and places of public resort, where there are
handsome barkeepers, &c. These creatures being puffed up with the
fulsome flattery of a set of flies, which are continually buzzing about
them, carry themselves with the utmost insolence imaginable--insomuch
that you must speak to them with the utmost deference, or you are sure
to be affronted.
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