Merchant's daughter

“ It seemed as though the beautiful Maria would never be married at this rate, and the merchant began to repent him of his promise to his dead wife.
At last came a suitor richer and handsomer than any of the others. He said he was a prince, and he brought with him a long train of attendants, and gifts of great magnificence. The merchant took such a fancy to him that he felt that this was the man whom he would choose out of all the world for his daughter to marry. ”

“ THERE was once a merchant that had three daughters, and he loved them better than himself. Now it happened that he had to go a long journey to buy some goods, and when he was just starting he said to them, "What shall I bring you back, my dears?" And the eldest daughter asked to have a necklace; and the second daughter wished to have a gold chain; but the youngest daughter said, "Bring back yourself, Papa, and that is what I want the most." "Nonsense, child," said her father, "you must say something that I may remember to bring back for you. "So," she said, "then bring me back a rose, father." ”

“ Now the merchant's wife aforesaid, who was the nurse of the king's daughter, was watching him from a window, unknown of him, and when she saw him writing and reciting, she knew that some rare tale attached to him; so she went in to him and said, "Peace be with thee, O afflicted wight, who acquaintest not leach with thy plight! Verily, thou exposest thy life to grievous blight. I conjure thee by the virtue of Him who hath afflicted thee and with the constraint of love-liking hath stricken thee, that thou acquaint me with thine affair and disclose to me the truth of thy secret ”

“ Wherefore I knew that God the Most High had allotted unto her none other than thyself, and I choose rather to marry thee to her in my lifetime than that thou shouldst marry her after my death.'
When the poor man heard the merchant's story, he became desirous of marrying his daughter. So he took her to wife and was vouchsafed of her exceeding love. Nor," added the vizier, "is this story more extraordinary than that of the rich man and his wasteful heir." ”

“ Merchant Prince. "There is nothing like the grandeur of trade; and yet we tradesmen are not proud. See! I offer to marry you."
Slangy daughter. "I love you wildly! (Aside.) I do hope he won't rumple my hair."
Merchant Prince. "Come to my arrums! The majesty of trade is so infinitely above any thing else"—and so forth.
Enter Managing Wife. "Take her, noble Merchant, and be happy (Aside.) This settles the affair of the mortgage." (To Daughter) "Come, darling, we'll go and tell your father." (They go.)
Enter Unpleasant Neighbor. ”

“ She is the daughter of a London merchant—a remarkably honourable man—who has been ruined by these bad times; and though brought up in luxury, and with the expectation of large fortune, she has conformed to her circumstances in the most cheerful manner, and supports, it seems, with the fruits of her talents and industry, two little sisters at school. ”

“ The young merchant was to be married to a very beautiful young lady, the daughter of a wise counsellor. When the time came for their wedding the groom wished to give his bride a golden carriage and six milk-white horses; but the old book-keeper shook his head, and said that they could already see the bottom of the chest, and there were no more floors from which it could be again filled. On hearing this the young man called his friends together, and said to them that as he was in need of money he was obliged to ask them help him. ”

“ A certain wealthy merchant had a fair daughter, who was as the full moon, and when she attained the age of fifteen, her father betook himself to an old man and spreading him a carpet in his sitting-chamber, gave him to eat and caroused with him. ”

“ A rich merchant had an only daughter whom he was willing to part with for a consideration—that she should be called my lady. As the lady was anxious for a title, and the gentleman was equally anxious to finger her cash, there was little reason for delay. ”

“ She was a merchant s only daughter,
⁠Heir unto fifteen hundred a year;
A young man who courted her call’d her his jewel,
⁠The son of a gentleman who lived near.
Many long years the fair maid he admir’d,
⁠When they were infants in love they agreed:
And when at age this young couple arriv’d,
⁠Cupid an arrow between them display’d.
Their tender hearts were linked together—
⁠But when her parents the same they did hear,
They to their charming young beautiful daughter
⁠Acted a part that was hard and severe. ”

“ Few people are able to marry exactly as they would like now-a-days, daughter; there is always something. The Merchant is well off and if your father and I knew that you were well provided for, it would take a great stone off our hearts. ”

“ More than one young lady has tried her utmost skill—’
‘But has the man no heart?’
‘So decidedly one that it must have a decided choice,’ cried the merchant, ‘before it can consent to own itself the property of another. He likes the society of ladies; but he does not prefer one to another. ”

“ This sale of daughters is even the most widely spread form of primitive marriage, or of what it is convenient to call so. In societies of some degree of civilisation, where exchange-values exist, as domestic animals, stores of provisions, or slaves, the sale of a daughter is argued and debated like any other transaction, and the merchandise is delivered for the price agreed on. ”

“ It was quite usual for a married woman to carry on a separate business from her husband as sole merchant, but it was still more customary for her to share in his enterprise, and only after his death for the whole burden to fall upon her shoulders. ”

“ Many a woman in such circumstances covenants with the tradespeople to charge as merchandise what is really cash, and sells laces and ribbons to her friends a little below cost. When a girl is approached with a plea to have [Pg 213] her purchases charged to her friend's account, and to pay her friend rather than the merchant, is it not sufficient to postpone possible matrimony at least six months? Adversity has no terrors for a woman; she will gladly share misfortune with the man she loves, but simple selfishness is a very different proposition. ”

“ THE KING’S SON AND THE MERCHANT’S WIFE. A certain merchant, who was addicted to jealousy, had a wife that was a model of beauty and loveliness; and of the excess of his fear and jealousy of her, he would not abide with her in any town, but built her a pavilion without the city, apart from all other buildings. ”

“ I made a call at your wife's, having the garment with me; and I don't know whether it remained in your house, or in another place.' Now when the merchant heard this from the old woman, he said: 'God knows that both I and my wife have had great annoyance on account of this cloak.' And he gave it to the man and to the old woman; and the merchant went and became reconciled to his wife, and gave her presents; but it was with difficulty that she suffered herself to be reconciled to him. And now, my sovereign lord, realise that there is no end to the baseness of women. ”

“ The parents of the repudiated wife do not complain at p. 187having their daughter back; she resumes her place in the family till another husband presents himself, in which case, they even rejoice over the profit they make by thus selling the same merchandise twice over. ”

“ In the mad hurry for place, power, and wealth, men relentlessly sell their daughters in the matrimonial market, and ambitious mothers scheme and intrigue for their own aggrandizement at sacrifice of their daughter's happiness more often than the public ever dream. ”

“ Knowing the capacity of their wives to get in their estates and carry on their trades after their deaths; whereas if a merchant in England arrive at any considerable estate, he commonly withdraws his estate from trade, before he comes near the confines of old age, reckoning that if God should call him out of the world while the main of his estate is engaged abroad in trade, he must lose one third of it, through the inexperience and inaptness of his wife to such affairs, and so it usually falls out.”—Discourse of Trade, p. ”

“ Going to the house of the girl they casually broach the subject and if her parents are favorable, a day is set to discuss the details. This meeting is attended by the friends and relatives of both families, and two head-men or datu must also be present to represent the contracting parties. The price the girl should bring varies according to the wealth of the interested parties and the accomplishments of the bride. Whatever the sum paid, the father of the girl must make a return present equal to one-half the value of the marriage gift "so that he does not sell his daughter like a slave." ”

“ Sir, I have a daughter, who is considered passably good-looking by certain appreciative individuals. Since the unfortunate demise of my lamented wife, the profits of the mercantile establishment of which I am proprietor have largely increased, and as REBECCA is my only child, there is a considerable prospect of her bringing to the man who espouses her, a comfortable dowry, and probably a share in my business. ”

“ I met some grand women at Bloomington, one who has been a successful merchant in the dry-goods business. She has not only supported her self and a family of children, but cleared $5,000 in five years. Another lady is a furniture dealer; when her husband died she went on with the business, and although he was so much embarrassed that every one advised her to close up and save what she could, she has paid all the debts, saved a handsome sum of money, and been every way more successful than her husband before her. A lady is the head of an establishment where music and pianos are sold. ”

“ She then told them all that had happened to her since she had been parted from them and their poor father, the king; after which she explained that although the merchant was a good man and very wealthy yet she did not like him well enough to become his wife, and proposed a plan for her getting rid of him. "My device," said she, "is to pretend to the merchant that you attempted my honour. I shall affect to be very angry and not give him any peace until he goes to the king and complains against you. Then will the king send for you in great wrath and inquire into this matter. ”

“ She would become a little candy merchant. She felt sure she could find purchasers enough, if her merchandise only looked clean and good. It was a great deal better than begging, and she thought her mother would consent to her making and selling the candy. What a glorious idea! If she could only make money enough to support her mother and herself, how happy she should be! ”

“ If the father of the young girl is a Brahmin, and if he is rich and liberal, he will frequently bear all the expenses of the marriage of his daughter. To give a daughter in marriage and to sell her, are about the same thing. Almost every parent makes his daughter an article of traffic, refusing to give her up until the sum of money for which he consented to let her go, is paid. Men of distinction generally lay out this money for jewels, which they present to their daughters on their wedding-day. ”

“ The merchant, on his return home, joyfully greeted his wife, from whom he had been separated so long; but the sight of his lovely boy, whom he had already promised to the evil spirit, made his heart bleed within him. The unhappy merchant often wept in secret, hiding his bitter tears even from his wife. ”

“ As to the wives and daughters of the merchants and principal tradesmen, they endeavour to imitate the Court ladies in their dress, and follow much the same diversions; and it is not uncommon to see a nobleman match with a citizen’s daughter, by which she gains a title, and he discharges the incumbrances on his estate with her fortune. Merchants’ sons are sometimes initiated into the same business their fathers follow; but if they find an estate gotten to their hands, many of them choose rather to become country gentlemen. ”

“ I said, My daughter shall be the envy of those who knew me when I was poor; she shall marry riches, and grow into fashion and into power from the force of her father's and her husband's money. She shall be called the rich squatter's daughter, and her children shall be educated to rule the State. ”

“ The good merchant was much pleased with his new lady, and they so loved each other, and their wills, desires, and thoughts so agreed, that it was as though they had but a single heart between them. They could not be content until they were living together, so one night the wench packed up all her belongings and went to the merchant’s house, thus abandoning her old lover, her landlord and his wife, and a number of other good people to whose care she had been recommended. ”

“ If the good merchant had taken pride and pleasure in his merchandise during the time that he was amassing a fortune, he felt still more when he saw himself certain of being married, and that to a wife by whom he could have fine children. ”

“ BLO. My lady gentlewoman is even here in her privity-walk. Madam, here's the merchant's wife was here yesterday would speak with ye. O, I was somewhat bold to bring her in.
Enter LADY FAUCONBRIDGE, disguised as a merchant's wife.
ROB. Well, leave us, sir; y'are welcome, gentlewoman.
BLO. These women have no liberality in the world in them; I never let in man to my lady, but I am rewarded.
ROB. Please ye to walk, sir! wherefore mumble ye? ”

“ The existence of such symbols is not surprising in "communities of which the family bond is the alpha and omega." [359] The ceremony of capture, finally, may be due to the resistance of the father and other male friends of the bride. A woman has an economic value, "not only as a wife but also as a daughter; and all through, from the lowest to the highest stages of social progress, we find a tacit or avowed claim to her service [120] by her father." Her service is an object of purchase ”