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References in classic literature ?
I was sure it could not be far off; but I had put my huswife upon it, you see, without being aware, and so it was quite hid, but I had it in my hand so very lately that I was almost sure it must be on the table.
And for my part, I was all in a fright for fear your sister should ask us for the huswifes she had gave us a day or two before; but, however, nothing was said about them, and I took care to keep mine out of sight.
In this last respect, it figures as the antithesis of decent domesticity, 'very unfit for a good huswife to stirre in, or to busie her selfe about her huswifry in such sort as she should'.
A servant in his house, she seems to Jack "an excellent good huswife" (20), but the consent of her father must be won.
Some studies have interpreted these changes in the household as leading to the emergence of a new phenomenon and have coined terms like huswife or houseband to describe the husband's situation (Lan, 2006).
Receipt books like Hugh Plat's Delightes for Ladies (c.1600), Gervase Markham's The English Huswife (1615), and John Murrell's A Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen (1617) were targeted specifically to amateur women cooks of the urban citizenry, yeomanry, and emergent merchant classes (Wall 24; Wilson 4).