Collection No. [#] The Maid of the Mill, by Isaac Bickerstaff
1. Publication details
Author: Bickerstaff, Isaac
Author dates: 1733-1808(?)
Title: The Maid of the Mill
First played: 1765
First published: 1765. for J. Newbery; R Baldwin; T Caslon. 75p.
C18th availability: Available from ECCO (1765)
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO?dd=0&locID=utoronto_main&d1=05371010
00&srchtp=b&SU=All&c=18&d2=1&docNum=CW3313181018&b0=the+maid+of+the
+mill&h2=1&vrsn=1.0&b1=KE&d6=1&ste=10&d4=0.33&stp=Author&dc=tiPG&n=10
&d5=d6
Modern availability: Available from LION (1996)
http://lion.chadwyck.com/toc.do?action=new&divLevel=0&mapping=toc&area=Drama
&id=Z000057699&forward=tocMarc&DurUrl=Yes
2. Genre / subgenre: Comic Opera
3. Trend(s): Nationality; Dialect
Character Types :
4. Brief Synopsis
Prologue: describes how Richardson’s Pamela has been translated and adapted by
European writers.
Act I.
A group of mill-workers sing about the pleasures of rural life. Ralph quarrels with his
father Fairfield, refusing to do any more work that day. He is jealous of his sister Patty
(the Pamela character), who has been brought up like a lady and is not required to work
hard. Patty has returned to her family after Lady Aimworth’s death. Lord Aimworth will
arrive today with Sir Harry Sycamore’s family; rumour has it that he is likely to marry Sir
Harry’s daughter, who has a fortune of thirty thousand pounds. Patty is put out by this
news. Fairfield suggests that Patty marry Giles, who is a good countryman of their own
class. Fairfield and Giles agree on the match, but they wait for Lord Aimworth’s
permission. Giles goes to propose marriage to Patty, but she refuses to open the door to
him. Patty is in love with Lord Aimworth. Sir Harry and his daughter Theodosia converse.
Theodosia is angry at the arranged marriage to Lord Aimworth; she loves Mr. Mervin.
Lady Sycamore enters; she is pleased with the Aimworth’s family’s jewels. Theodosia’s
father will support her in her match to Mr. Mervin, but her mother refuses to let her
marry him. Giles comes to ask Lord Aimworth’s permission to marry Patty. The Lord
suggests that perhaps Patty has been too well educated to marry a farmer. Giles departs
feeling that Lord Aimworth has granted him permission, but this is not clear. Lord
Aimworth is in love with Patty himself, but cannot marry her because she is a miller’s
daughter. Fanny (a gypsy), Ralph and Mr. Mervin enter. Mr. Mervin is upset by
Theodosia’s unexpected rejection of his suit. Ralph has been keeping gypsies in the barn
for a month because he is in love with Fanny, to his father’s anger. Mr. Mervin asks
Ralph to find him a costume so that he can go to Lord Aimworth’s in disguise to see
Theodosia. Giles encourages Patty to go to see Aimworth herself in thanks. Fanny,
Ralph, Giles and Patty sing about the pains and pleasures of love.
Act II.
Lord Aimworth tries to read, but can’t concentrate because he is thinking about Patty.
Patty enters. Lord Aimworth is surprised at her rustic dress, and asks her whether she
really feels as though Giles is her equal. Lord Aimworth is resolved to banish Giles from
his estate out of jealousy, but thinks that Patty is really in love with him, so consents to
the match. Giles enters; Patty tries to end their engagement kindly, but he is so slow on
the uptake that she eventually says “I don’t like you.” Patty and Theodosia attend a dance.
Fanny offers to tell Theodosia’s fortune; she gives her a paper from Mr. Mervin that says
that he is nearby. Mervin appears, to Theodosia’s delight. The gypsies accost Sir Harry
and Lady Sycamore in an attempt to let Mervin speak with Theodosia. The plan fails.
Theodosia will walk to the miller’s with her father and Lord Aimworth; Mervin is to
meet her there and elope with her. Mervin gives Fanny a guinea and tells her that she
shall have twenty such guineas if she does his bidding in the plan to rescue Theodosia.
Fanny tells Ralph that she will reject his proposal of marriage if he continues to make her
wait; she is now rich enough that she doesn’t need him anymore. Ralph vows vengeance
on Mervin for producing this change. Fairfield and Giles discuss Patty’s decision: Giles
has taken it well, and Fairfield regrets not being able to give him half his land. Lord
Aimworth arrives and gives Fairfield a thousand pounds for Patty’s dowry. Fairfield
reveals that Patty is no longer engaged. Aimworth and Patty meet: Aimworth eventually
confesses his love for her, after she admits that his kindness has made her unhappy. Patty
checks his avowal, reminding him that this cannot happen because it would dishonour his
late mother’s memory. Theodosia’s father thinks she has run off with a gypsy, but, safely
returned, she says that he was only showing her the canal for half an hour.
Act III.
Theodosia has gone; news has reached the family that a gentleman has disguised himself
as a gypsy and is intending to elope with her. Fairfield tells Aimworth that the country
folk suspect that his large gift to Patty is a reward for loose behaviour when she lived in
his house. Farmer Giles is especially convinced of this. Aimworth says that because he
has denied Patty a husband, he will get her a less squeamish one from his own household.
Ralph and Fanny fight: she pleads with him to take her back, but he is angry and says he
will turn the gypsies off their land. Theodosia, visiting with Patty, forces Giles to
apologize for slandering her. Mervin and Theodosia meet at the appointed place;
Theodosia disguises herself with clothes Mervin has brought. Fairfield and Giles
approach, and Fairfield recognizes Theodosia. A letter arrives from Lord Aimworth for
Mr. Mervin: Aimworth is aware of their love affair and urges them to return to his home
so that all may be settled in their favour. Giles also goes up to the castle, having heard
that Patty is to marry one of the servants. Lord Aimworth proposes marriage to Patty, to
everyone’s astonishment. The Sycamores and Mervin enter and Aimworth tells them that
he will marry Patty, not Theodosia. Lord Aimworth offers to build a house for Fairfield
and tear down his mill, and to buy Ralph a colonelship. He also offers to let Giles live
rent-free on his land for the next year. Sir Harry consents to Theodosia’s marriage to
Mervin in the final song.
5. Secondary commentary
5a. Gänzl, Kurt. ‘Bickerstaff, Isaac John (b. 1733, d. after 1808)’, Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Dictionary of
National Biograhpy. 23 May 2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2344
The Maid of the Mill (1765, music composed and arranged by Samuel Arnold) was
advertised by Bickerstaff and Beard as a musical version of a very well-known novel: it
was ‘based on Richardson's Pamela’. This was also a major success, and like its
predecessor it went on to be played throughout the English-speaking world for more than
a century following its first production.
5b. Rudolph, Valerie C.‘Isaac John Bickerstaff: September 26, 1733-1808’. Dictionary of
Literary Biography, Volume 89: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Dramatists,
Third Series. Edited by Paula R. Backscheider, University of Rochester. The Gale
Group, 1989. Literature Resource Center. 23 May 2008.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=utoront
o_main&srchtp=athr&ca=3&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=U14382890&n=1
0&docNum=H1200002452&ST=bickerstaff+isaac&bConts=141
The Maid of the Mill is an adaptation of Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela (1740). In
Richardson's work Pamela, a servant girl, is pursued by her employer, Squire B----.
Despite many trials, Pamela preserves her virtue, and Squire B---- finally marries her. In
Bickerstaff's opera, Patty, a miller's daughter (Pamela), has been educated above her
station by the late Lady Aimworth. Lord Aimworth, her son (Squire B----), is in love with
Patty but engaged to marry Theodosia, a fortune. Patty, in turn, is engaged to Farmer
Giles (Parson Williams). Theodosia is in love with Mr. Mervin. The proper lovers are
united at the conclusion, and barriers of social class and parental tyranny are transcended
by humility, good sense, and wit. Theodosia is the most spirited character; Patty the most
passive. Together they show that both action and patience are necessary in the love game.
Farmer Giles, who believes gossip about Patty's relationship to Lord Aimworth, acts
impatiently, and loses both Patty and her father's estate.
5c. Synder, E.D. “The Wild Irish: A Study of Some English Satires against the Irish,
Scots, and Welsh.” Modern Philology 17, 12 (1920): 687.
Another is Isaac Bickerstaff’s The Maid of the Mill, with Ralph speaking Irish brogue
more or less broad according to the mood of the author.
6. Overview of varieties / dialects
Regional/class dialect to begin with; lots of thou (but also you for contrast). The Giles
character who loses everything has concord errors (I has). Ralph, an English miller’s son
and Patty’s brother, occasionally speaks in Irish brogue, perhaps to distinguish him from
his sister as a rude member of the lower class. Patty, the Pamela character, speaks in
Standard English: her education has placed her on a similar intellectual level to
Theodosia, whom she nonetheless addresses as “Madam” because of their continued
difference in social rank.
7. Variety: Ralph’s inconsistent Irish brogue
7a. Sample of dialect
[page 2: Brogue]
Ral.
Ay Feyther, whether or not; there's no fear but you'll find enow for a body to do.
Fairf.
What dost mutter? is't not a strange plague that thou can'st never go about any thing with
a good will; murrain take it what's come o'er the boy? so then thou wilt not set a hand to
what I have desired [25] thee?
Ral.
Why don't you speak to Suster Pat to do something then? I thought when she come home
to us after my old lady's death, she was to have been of some use in the house; but instead
of that, she sits there all day, reading outlandish books, dressed like a fine madumasel,
and the never a word you says to she.
-[page 41: Brogue]
Ral.
Well, but suppose I don't please; I tell you Fan you're a fool, and want to quarrel with
your bread and butter; I have had anger enow from feyther already, upon you're account,
and you want me to come by more; as I said, if you have patience, mayhap things may
fall out, and mayhap not.
-[page 58: closer to Standard English]
Ral.
Well, and now you may go and wait at the fore door, if you like it; but I forewarn you and
your gang, not to keep lurking about our mill any longer, for if you do, I'll send the
constable after you, and have you every mother's skin clapt in the county gaol; you are
such a pack of thieves, one can't hang so much as a rag to dry for you; it was but the other
day that a couple of them came into our kitchen to beg a handful of dirty flour to make
them cakes, and before the wench could turn about, they had whipped off three brass
candlesticks and a potlid.
7b.1 Orthography: “Ay” “feyther”, “enow”, “you’re”, “Suster”; “madumasel”
7b.2 Grammar: “the never a word you says to she”
7b.3 Vocabulary
7c. Nationality: Irish? (Brogue)
7d. Character Profile: brother to Patty (Pamela character)
7g. Consistency of representation: inconsistent
7. Variety: Fairfield and Giles
7a. Sample of dialect
[page 6]
Fairf. Farmer, give us thy hand; nobody doubts thy good will to me and my girl; and you
may take
[Page 7 ]
my word I would rather give her to thee than another; for I am main certain thou wilt
make her a good husband.
Giles. Thanks to your kind opinion, master Fairfield; if such be my hap I hope there will
be no cause of complaint.
Fairf. And I promise thee my daughter will make thee a choice wife.---But there is one
thing to be considered.---Thou know'st, friend Giles, that I, and all belongs to me, have
great obligations to lord Aimworth's family; Patty, in particular, would be one of the most
ungrateful wretches this day breathing, if she was to do the smallest thing contrary to
their consent [25] and approbation.---I need not tell thee what she owes them.
Giles. Nay, nay, 'tis well enough known to all the country, she was the old lady's darling.
7b.1 Orthography
7b.2 Grammar: “Thanks to your kind opinion”; “cause of complaint” (vs. Thanks for,
cause for)
7b.3 Vocabulary: Fairfield inconsistently uses “thee/thou” [“you may take my word I
would rather give her to thee than another”], while Giles uses “you”; “I am main certain”;
“my hap”
7c. Nationality: English
7d. Character Profile: rural folk
7e. Consistency of representation: consistent
7. Variety: Patty and Theodosia (educated women)
7a. Sample of dialect:
[page 32]
Pat.
'Tis a very uncommon declaration to be made by [25] a fine lady, Madam; but certainly,
however the artful delicacies of high life may dazzle and surprise, nature has particular
attractions, even in a cottage, her most
[Page 33 ]
unadorned state; which seldom fails to affect us, tho' we can scarce give a reason for it.
Theo.
But you know, Patty, I was always a distracted admirer of the country; no damsel in
romance was ever fonder of groves and purling streams: had I been born in the days of
Arcadia, with my present propensity, instead of being a fine lady, as you call me, I should
certainly have kept a flock of sheep.
7b.1 Orthography
7b.2 Grammar
7b.3 Vocabulary: elevated tone (romantic language applied to the pastoral)
7c. Nationality: English
7d. Character Profiles: Theodosia is the daughter of a peer (with some lower-class blood
from a few generations before), and Patty is a miller’s daughter who has been educated
by the nobility. They speak to one another with the same quality of language, but Patty
addresses Theodosia as “Madam”, while the latter calls her simply “Patty”.
7e. Consistency of representation: consistent
8. Narrative comments on dialects and varieties
9. Other points of interest:
Note: field 7 is recursive; where several varieties are represented a separate record is
completed for each variety."