Poyser, Mrs. Rachel
Title
Poyser, Mrs. Rachel
Description
The sharp-tongued mistress of the Hall Farm; a shrewd, capable woman, with a gift for epigram and a flow of conversation which has many unexpected turns but no end. " Do not suppose, however, that Mrs. Poyser was elderly or shrewish in her appearance; ahe was a good-looking woman, not more than eight-and-thirty, of fair complexion and sandy hair, well-shapen, light-footed: the most conspicuous article in her attire was an ample checkered linen apron, which almost covered her skirt; and nothing could be plainer or less noticeable than her cap and gown, for there was no weakness of which she was less tolerant than feminine vanity, and the preference of ornament to utility. The family likeness between her and her niece Dinah Morris, with the contrast between her keenness and Dinah's seraphic gentleness of expression, might have served a painter as an excellent suggestion for a Martha and Mary. Their eyes were just of the same colour, but a striking test of the difference in their operation was seen in the
demeanour of Trip, the black--andtan terrier, whenever that muchsuspected dog unwarily exposed himself to the freezing arctic ray of Mrs. Poyser's glance. Her tongue was not lees keen than her eye, and, whenever a damsel came within earshot, seemed to take up an unfinished lecture, as a barrel-organ takes up a tune, precisely at the point where it had left off." "She has the spirit of three men, with that pale face of hers; and she says such sharp things, too." "Sharp I yes, her tongue is like a new-set razor. She's quite original in her talk, too; one of those untaught wits that help to stock a country with proverbs. I told you that capital thing I heard her say about Craig--that he was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow. Now that's an Aesop's fable in a sentence." She is a pattern dairywoman and housekeeper, with standards of excellence which none of her much-berated maids, even under the spur of her sharp tongue, ever succeeds in living up to. She keeps her eyes open for her neighbours' foibles and weaknesses, summing them up in keen, though homely, epigrams, and is strict with her husband's niece, Hetty Sorrel, whom she rightly suspects of selfishness and vanity. When the parsimonious Squire Donnithorne tries to impose upon her good-natured husband, Mrs. Poyser "speaks her mind, to the Squire, routing him in a battle of words which delights the whole neighbourhood. In spite of her sharp tongue she is a kindly woman, much attached to her family and fond of her niece Dinah Morris, whose saintliness she appreciates though she does not approve of her Methodism and self-denial. For several of Mrs. Poyser's traits—her kindliness, shrewd common sense, and witty tongue —George Eliot's own mother, Mrs. Robert Evans (Christiana Pearson) was the original. Mr. John W. Cross, in George Eliot's Life, describes Mrs. Robert Evans as a "woman with an unusual amount of force—a shrewd practical person, with a considerable dash of the Mrs. Poyser vein in her." Cross, vol. 1, p. 13. The name Poyser was a real name in the neighbourhood of Ellastone (the "Hayslope" of Adam Bede), and an actual Mrs. Poyser, a farmer's wife, is said to have lived there at the time when George Eliot's father, Robert Evans, was still in Ellastone. A writer in Notes and Queries, whose father had been clerk to William Evans, George Eliot's uncle, states that a Mrs. Poyser was Mr. William Evans' housekeeper, which might explain the use of the name. (See Notes and Queries, Ser. vi, vol. 8, p. 351.)
demeanour of Trip, the black--andtan terrier, whenever that muchsuspected dog unwarily exposed himself to the freezing arctic ray of Mrs. Poyser's glance. Her tongue was not lees keen than her eye, and, whenever a damsel came within earshot, seemed to take up an unfinished lecture, as a barrel-organ takes up a tune, precisely at the point where it had left off." "She has the spirit of three men, with that pale face of hers; and she says such sharp things, too." "Sharp I yes, her tongue is like a new-set razor. She's quite original in her talk, too; one of those untaught wits that help to stock a country with proverbs. I told you that capital thing I heard her say about Craig--that he was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow. Now that's an Aesop's fable in a sentence." She is a pattern dairywoman and housekeeper, with standards of excellence which none of her much-berated maids, even under the spur of her sharp tongue, ever succeeds in living up to. She keeps her eyes open for her neighbours' foibles and weaknesses, summing them up in keen, though homely, epigrams, and is strict with her husband's niece, Hetty Sorrel, whom she rightly suspects of selfishness and vanity. When the parsimonious Squire Donnithorne tries to impose upon her good-natured husband, Mrs. Poyser "speaks her mind, to the Squire, routing him in a battle of words which delights the whole neighbourhood. In spite of her sharp tongue she is a kindly woman, much attached to her family and fond of her niece Dinah Morris, whose saintliness she appreciates though she does not approve of her Methodism and self-denial. For several of Mrs. Poyser's traits—her kindliness, shrewd common sense, and witty tongue —George Eliot's own mother, Mrs. Robert Evans (Christiana Pearson) was the original. Mr. John W. Cross, in George Eliot's Life, describes Mrs. Robert Evans as a "woman with an unusual amount of force—a shrewd practical person, with a considerable dash of the Mrs. Poyser vein in her." Cross, vol. 1, p. 13. The name Poyser was a real name in the neighbourhood of Ellastone (the "Hayslope" of Adam Bede), and an actual Mrs. Poyser, a farmer's wife, is said to have lived there at the time when George Eliot's father, Robert Evans, was still in Ellastone. A writer in Notes and Queries, whose father had been clerk to William Evans, George Eliot's uncle, states that a Mrs. Poyser was Mr. William Evans' housekeeper, which might explain the use of the name. (See Notes and Queries, Ser. vi, vol. 8, p. 351.)
Source
<em>Adam Bede</em>
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