"In the late seventeenth century, the bookseller John Dunton began soliciting anonymous questions for a new broadsheet periodical, The Athenian Mercury, that he hoped would provide entertainment and discussion fodder for patrons of London's many coffeehouses. These questions, dutifully answered by Dunton and his two collaborators, covered a wide range of topics, from the Bible to medicine and law. But shortly after the periodical launched, Dunton began to receive many questions about personal relationships, particularly about courtship, marriage, and sex. In this book, Mary Beth Norton presents a broad selection of these personal inquiries from The Athenian Mercury, a group of questions and answers that constitute the first known personal advice column. Through these entertaining exchanges, organized by theme, contemporary readers gain a unique glimpse into some of the social and romantic conventions and personal preoccupations of the day. The book includes an introduction that provides historical context about the Mercury, as well as about legal and social conventions of the time, and a list of further reading"--
A fascinating collection of questions and answersabout courtship, marriage, love, and sexfrom a seventeenth-century periodical
The Athenian Mercurya one-page, two-sided periodical published in 1690s Londonincluded the worlds first personal advice column. Acclaimed historian and Pulitzer Prizefinalist Mary Beth Nortons I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer is a remarkable collection of questions and answers drawn from this groundbreaking publication.
In these exchanges, anonymous readers look for help with their most intimate romantic problemsabout courting, picking a spouse, getting married, securing or avoiding parental consent, engaging in premarital sex and extramarital affairs, and much more. Spouses ask how to handle contentious marriages and tense relationships with in-laws. Some correspondents seek ways to ease a conscience troubled by romantic and sexual misbehavior. The lonely wonder how to meet a potential partneror how to spark a warmer relationship with someone they already have an eye on. And both men and women inquire about how to extract themselves from relationships turned sour. Many of these concerns will be familiar to readers of todays advice columns. But others are delightfully strange and surprising, reflecting forgotten social and romantic customs and using charmingly unfamiliar language in which, for example, kissing is a luscious diet, a marriage might provide much love and moderate conveniency, and an amorous disposition can lead to trouble.
Delightful and entertaining, I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer provides a unique, intriguing, and revealing picture of what hasand hasntchanged over the past three centuries when it comes to love, sex, and relationships.
