Даниэль Дефо - Roxana

What ails the Slut to talk so? said I , Honest! how can it be honest? Why, I’ll tell you, Madam, says Amy , I sounded [55] sounded : understood. it as soon as I heard him speak, and it is very true too; he calls you Widow, and such, indeed, you are; for as my Master has left you so many Years, he is dead to be sure; at least, he is dead to you; he is no Husband, you are, and ought to be free to marry who you will; and his Wife being gone from him, and refuses to lye with him, then he is a single Man again, as much as ever; and tho’ you cannot bring the Laws of the Land to join you together, yet one refusing to do the Office of a Wife, and the other of a Husband, you may certainly take one another fairly. [56] you may certainly take one another fairly : Neither wilful desertion nor adultery was an adequate ground for divorce. Moreover, Canon 107 of the 1604 canons of the Church of England forbids remarriage after separation or divorce, even of the innocent party. Many Puritan (and some Anglican) divines, however, argued that the innocent party ought to be allowed to sue for divorce and to remarry (as was briefly the case when the Cromwellian Marriage Act of 1653 was in force), and there is evidence that among the Puritans private (i.e., extra-legal) divorce existed and that remarriage took place. In the debate that follows Roxana accurately represents Defoe’s own conservative attitude to divorce and remarriage. See Conjugal Lewdness (1727), pp. 118–19, and cf. Moll Flanders (Penguin Books, 1978), pp. 171–3.

Nay, Amy, says I , if I cou’d take him fairly, you may be sure I’d take him above all the Men in the World; it turn’d the very Heart within me, when I heard him say he lov’d me; how cou’d it do otherwise? when you know what a Condition I was in before; despis’d, and trampled on by all the World; I cou’d have took him in my Arms, and kiss’d him as freely as he did me, if it had not been for Shame.

Ay, and all the rest too, says Amy , at the first Word; I don’t see how you can think of denying him any thing; has he not brought you out of the Devil’s Clutches; brought you out of the blackest Misery that ever poor Lady was reduc’d to? Can a Woman deny such a Man any thing?

Nay, I don’t know what to do, Amy , says I; I hope he won’t desire any thing of that Kind of me, I hope he won’t attempt it; if he does, I know not what to say to him.

Not ask you, says Amy , depend upon it, he will ask you, and you will grant it too; I’m sure my Mistress is no Fool; come, pray Madam, let me go air you a clean Shift; don’t let him find you in foul Linnen the Wedding-Night.

But that I know you to be a very honest Girl, Amy, says I , you wou’d make me abhor you; why, you argue for the Devil, as if you were one of his Privy-Counsellors.

It’s no matter for that, Madam, I say nothing but what I think; you own you love this Gentleman, and he has given you sufficient Testimony of his Affection to you; your Conditions are alike unhappy, and he is of Opinion that he may take another Woman, his first Wife having broke her Honour, and living from him, and that, tho’ the Laws of the Land will not allow him to marry formally, yet, that he may take another Woman into his Arms, provided he keeps true to the other Woman as a Wife; nay he says it is usual to do so, and allow’d by the Custom of the Place, in several Countries abroad; [57] in several Countries abroad : In continental Protestant countries divorce laws were more liberal than in England. and, I must own, I’m of the same Mind, else ’tis in the Power of a Whore, after she has jilted and abandon’d her Husband, to confine him from the Pleasure as well as Convenience of a Woman all Days of his Life, which wou’d be very unreasonable; and as times go, not tollerable to all People; and the like on your side, Madam.

Had I now had my Sences about me, and had my Reason not been overcome by the powerful Attraction of so kind, so beneficent a Friend; had I consulted Conscience and Virtue, I shou’d have repell’d this Amy , however faithful and honest to me in other things, as a Viper, and Engine [58] Engine : snare or trap; the means by which the devil operates. of the Devil; I ought to have remembred that neither he or I, either by the Laws of God or Man, cou’d come together, upon any other Terms than that of notorious Adultery: The ignorant Jade’s Argument, That he had brought me out of the Hands of the Devil, by which she meant the Devil of Poverty and Distress, shou’d have been a powerful Motive to me, not to plunge myself into the Jaws of Hell, and into the Power of the real Devil, in Recompence for that Deliverance; I shou’d have look’d upon all the Good this Man had done for me, to have been the particular Work of the Goodness of Heaven; and that Goodness shou’d have mov’d me to a Return of Duty and humble Obedience; I shou’d have receiv’d the Mercy thankfully, and apply’d it soberly, to the Praise and Honour of my Maker; whereas by this wicked Course, all the Bounty and Kindness of this Gentleman, became a Snare to me, was a meer Bait to the Devil’s Hook; I receiv’d his Kindness at the dear Expence of Body and Soul, mortgaging Faith, Religion, Conscience, and Modesty, for (as I may call it) a Morsel of Bread; or, if you will, ruin’d my Soul from a Principle of Gratitude, and gave myself up to the Devil, to shew myself grateful to my Benefactor: I must do the Gentleman that Justice, as to say, I verily believe that he did nothing but what he thought was Lawful; and I must do that Justice upon myself, as to say, I did what my own Conscience convinc’d me at the very Time I did it, was horribly unlawful, scandalous, and abominable.

But Poverty was my Snare; dreadful Poverty! the Misery I had been in, was great, such as wou’d make the Heart tremble at the Apprehensions of its Return; and I might appeal to any that has had any Experience of the World, whether one so entirely destitute as I was, of all manner of all Helps, or Friends, either to support me, or to assist me to support myself, could withstand the Proposal; not that I plead this as a Justification of my Conduct, but that it may move the Pity, even of those that abhor the Crime.

Besides this, I was young, handsome, and with all the Mortifications I had met with, was vain, and that not a little; and as it was a new thing, so it was a pleasant thing, to be courted, caress’d, embrac’d, and high Professions of Affection made to me by a Man so agreeable, and so able to do me good.

Add to this, that if I had ventur’d to disoblige this Gentleman, I had no Friend in the World to have Recourse to; I had no Prospect, no, not of a Bit of Bread; I had nothing before me, but to fall back into the same Misery that I had been in before.

Amy had but too much Rhetorick in this Cause; she represented all those Things in their proper Colours; she argued them all with her utmost Skill, and at last, the Merry Jade, when she came to Dress me, Look ye, Madam, said she , if you won’t consent, tell him you’ll do as Rachael did to Jacob [59] as Rachel did to Jacob : Genesis 30:1–8. when she could have no Children, put her Maid to Bed to him; tell him you cannot comply with him, but there’s Amy , he may ask her the Question, she has promis’d me she won’t deny you.

And wou’d you have me say so, Amy? said I .

No, Madam, but I wou’d really have you do so, besides you are undone if you do not; and if my doing it wou’d save you from being undone, as I said before, he shall if he will; if he asks me, I won’t deny him, not I; Hang me if I do, says Amy .

Well, I know not what to do, says I , to Amy .