“OF WIVES AND WIVING”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26622, 19 November 1947, Page 3

“OF WIVES AND WIVING”

Of Wives and Wiving. By John Buncle, junr. (Caxton Press). 7s 6d. The New Zealand anthologist who has chosen to adopt as pseudonym the name of that uxorious gentleman whose seven wiv.es were disposed of “ by. the lawful processes of fever and smallpox’’ has compiled this work as “ a Manual of Instruction, Exhortation and Admonition gathered from Older Authors for the Guidance, Delight and Moral Fortification of Contemporary Readers.” It would be dangerous to generalise upon the conclusions reached by so profound and diverse a company as is included in these pages, but it can be said that the concensus of the authors is gravely in favour of matrimony, and insistent that whatever husbands may be, wives should be patient, loving, prudent and virtuous. Dr Johnson finds marriage necessary to a man because he is little able to supply himseif with domestick comforts; Cobbett demands of a wife not chastity, sobriety, industry, frugality, cleanliness, knowledge of domestic affairs, good temper and beauty only, but that she should incorporate prudery also into her make-up; the elder ,Buncle was prepared, having “by accident” lost seven partners, to take with rapture hundreds more to his bosom. There are a few discordant notes: Keats saw “ the generality of women ” as childish creatures; Eaper Weaper, of the nursery rhyme, pushed his wife up the chimney; John Selden draws an unflattering simile between keeping wives and monkeys; but the reader is led to the admirable discovery of these several sages that marriage ifnot only necessary but even desirable. Of the wives' views the anthologist discreetly says nothing—only one woman is. indeed, allowed voice in these pages. Had he continued his researches into the works of Younger Authors the deficiency no doubt would have been amply corrected. This neat little book is to appear also in a London edition. J. M.