<snip>
... most Edwardian servant establishments were not all that large [...] the
majority of middle-class households had a small retinue so distinctions
between say a lady's maid and a scullery maid would be eroded while the
poem, I feel, doesn't sufficiently establish its fictional setting to
clarify the question. [Dave B]
<snip>
Although distinctions between upstairs and downstairs staff would indeed be
eroded, the most unpleasant tasks (scrubbing pots, for example) would be the
last to go, presumably, and the most intimate and/or pleasant (being
powdered and petted) would probably be the first.
The very presence of a lady's maid may suggest, in other words, that there
were other, 'rougher' servants.
As to Duffy's fictional world, she substitutes *deontic* dependence (in
which the maid's *duties* are predicated on the *requirements* of her
mistress) for *ontological* dependence (whereby the loved one is an object
to the speaking subject). Thus the maid (now herself the speaking subject)
prattles on and the old subject-object relation is, purportedly, severed.
Which is the point of such a setting. Though the result is conservative, as
has been discussed: the maid now has her own objectifying gaze and she is
locked into the social dependency Duffy introduces.
<snip>
The other is an adjective, 'skivie', Scottish but (again!) of obscure
derivation, though the rubric refers us to ON 'skeifr', meaning 'askew'. No
date given as such, but Sir Walter Scott used it. It means 'harebrained,
mentally deranged'. [Roger C]
<snip>
Yes. I'd buy that as a candidate, though I don't know how likely. It also
raises issues about v/b substitutions: [Sc] 'skibby'/'skivvy' = 'left
handed' is related.
BTW, does anyone have an authentic text of early date for *Pharaoh's
Daughter*, said to be by Michael Moran ('Zozimus'), the early 19th C Dublin
street singer of whom Yeats wrote a memoir? Some versions mention a
'skivvy'.
CW
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