10 The Rice Institute Pamphlet
Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle,
Nay, followed him, till he melted from
The smallness of a gnat to air, and then
Have turn’d mine eye and wept.43
This needle-work was considered quite basic in the prepara-
tion of young women for their later duties; in considering
a girl’s education, for example, Richard Mulcaster writes:
“I medle not with nedles, nor yet with housewiferie, though
I think it, and know it, to be a principall commendation in
a woman: to be able to gouerne and direct her household, to
Iooke to her house and famdie, to prouide and keepe neces-
saries, . .. to know the force of her kitchen, for sickness and
health, in her selfe and her charge: by cause I deale onely
with such things as be incident to their learning.”14 In Lyly’s
play, further, Campaspe reminds herself that a needle will
better become her fingers than a lute.'3 Robert Burton even
believes that these practical matters are much more impor-
tant for women than are studies: “Now for women, instead of
laborious studies, they have curious needle-works, cut-works,
spinning, bone-lace, and many pretty devices of their own
making, to adorn their houses, cushions, carpets, chairs,
stools, . . . confections, conserves, distillations, &c.”4e Mar-
garet Hoby illustrates the housewifery of an Elizabethan
lady as she writes in her diary that she and her maids dye
wool, wind yam, and make wax candles, sweetmeats, ginger
bread, and preserves; on long winter evenings they spin and
embroider while one of their number reads from books of
devotion.47 Imogen, we learn besides, is not only an adept at
cooking, but also at making food look appetizing at the
table; her brother Guiderius says of her, while she is in dis-
guise as a page,
But his neat cookery! he cut our roots
In characters,