"Mistress may'ress"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thank you very much for your informative response, Joel.
Garson

On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 10:20 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Mistress may'ress"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I don't know why finding a 1670 impression is
> important for understanding what "Mistress
> may'ress" meant.  However, "A Voyage to Ireland
> in Burlesque" will be found in Poems on several
> occasions written by Charles Cotton ... (London:
> Printed for Tho. Bassett ...; Will. Hinsman and
> Tho. Fox..., 1689).  EEBO.  Or also (perhaps) the
> English Poetry database.  And on paper at Harvard.
>
> As for what it meant, isn't the OED sufficient?
>
> "mayoress", 2. The wife of a mayor; (also) a
> woman nominated to fulfil the ceremonial duties
> of a mayor's wife. (The only established use until the late 19th cent.)
>
> "Mistress mayoress" in the second sense above
> surely applies (mutatis mutandis) to the women
> nominated by President François Hollande.
>
> Joel
>
> At 3/4/2014 04:18 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>>The following phrase occurred in the 1670 poem "A Voyage to Ireland in
>>Burlesque" as reprinted in an 1890 note:
>> >> Mistress mayoress
>>
>>Wilson Gray wrote:
>> > She's not a female mayor, but merely the *wife* of the mayor, right? There
>> > was (is?) a problem in Russian with the naming of women in professions
>> > traditionally reserved to men in those cases in which the traditional
>> > feminine form of the word for a person engaged in that profession named the
>> > wife of a man in that profession and did not name a woman in that
>> > profession, e,g,  _doktorsha_ "doctor's wife, 'mistress doctoress'." There
>> > was a note about this problem in the Army Language School textbook, back in
>> > the '50's.
>> >
>> > Maybe Victor will bring me up to date.
>>
>>I was unable to find an early editon of "A Voyage to Ireland in
>>Burlesque". The following 1841 reprint referred to the "may'r" and the
>>"Mistress may'ress". I think that Wilson is correct that "Mistress
>>may'ress" referred to the wife of the mayor.
>>
>>Year: 1841
>>Title: Specimens of the British Poets: With Biographical and Critical
>>Notices, and An Essay on English Poetry
>>Author: Thomas Campbell
>>Publisher: John Murray, London
>>Poem: A Voyage to Ireland in Burlesque
>>Poem Author: Charles Cotton
>>Start Page: 292
>>Quote Page: 295
>>
>>http://books.google.com/books?id=BdwTAAAAIAAJ&q=Two-Shoes#v=snippet&
>>
>>[Begin excerpt]
>>Mistress may'ress complain'd that the pottage was cold;
>>"And all long of your fiddle faddle," quoth she.
>>"Why, what then, Goody Two-Shoes, what if it be!
>>"Hold you, if you can, your tittle-tattle," quoth he.
>>I was glad she was snapp'd thus, and guess'd by th' discourse,
>>The may'r, not the gray mare, was the better horse,
>>And yet for all that, there is reason to fear,
>>She submitted but out of respect to his year:
>>[End excerpt]
>>
>>Garson
>>
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