Rosanna, in Popular Tales. By Maria Edgeworth, author of Practical Education, Belinda, Castle Rackrent, Irish Bulls, &C. &C.
Author Details
Surname:Edgeworth
First Names:Maria
Gender:Female
Anonymous:No
Publication Details
Publisher:Printed for J. Johson, St. Paul's Church-Yard, by C. Mercier and Co. Northumberland-Court, Strand.
Place:London
Date:1804
Novel Details
Genre:Didactic/moralising; domestic
Setting:Leinster, Ireland
Period:Contemporary
Plot
Note: this is a short story not a novel but has been included because there were not enough suitable novels for 1804.
Farmer Gray, a hard-working and respectable man, together with his industrious family, stand as a contrast to the indolence and idle contentment that typifies their neighbours. By dint of determination, diligence, and hard work, the Gray family move from being humble mud-hut dwellers to comfortable millworkers living in a solidly built house. Although there are those who would thwart their efforts, they triumph over adversity and live happily ever after. The moral of the tale is that hard-earned contentment is more valuable (and godly) than idle satisfaction without ambition.
Farmer Gray, a hard-working and respectable man, together with his industrious family, stand as a contrast to the indolence and idle contentment that typifies their neighbours. By dint of determination, diligence, and hard work, the Gray family move from being humble mud-hut dwellers to comfortable millworkers living in a solidly built house. Although there are those who would thwart their efforts, they triumph over adversity and live happily ever after. The moral of the tale is that hard-earned contentment is more valuable (and godly) than idle satisfaction without ambition.
Overview of the Dialect
Representations of Irish occur through the text. Farmer Gray is unexpectedly nondialectal (but see pp. 196-7 where Edgeworth justifies the use of standard language for this character.
Speaker #1:Simon - 'a sort of a half or a half quarter gentleman' (p. 85)
Individual or Group:Individual
Primary Identity:Soft Simon
Gender:Male
Age:Adult - middle aged
Narrative Voice:3rd person
Role:Significant
Dialect Features:Discourse Marker, Grammar, Idiom, Orthographical Contraction, Orthographical Respelling
Social Role
Social Role Description:'a sort of a half or a half quarter gentleman' (p. 85)
Social Role Category:Yeoman
Speaker's Origin
Place of Origin Description:Lifelong inhabitant of un-named village in Leinster
Place of Origin Category:Leinster, East Ireland, Ireland
Extract #1 dialect features: Discourse Marker, Orthographical Contraction, Orthographical Respelling
A little ragged boy was tugging at the horse's head, with a short bit of hay-rope. "Oh, murder! murder! What will I do for a halter? Sure the horse will be lost, for want of a halter; and where in the wide world will I look for one," cried Simon, without stirring one inch from the spot. "Oh, the blessing of heaven be with you, lads," continued he, turning at the sight of the Grays: "You've brought us a halter. But see! it's just over with the poor beast. All the world put together will not get him out of that place. I must put up with the loss, and be content. He cost me fifteen good guineas, and he could leap better than any horse in the county. Oh, what a pity on him! what a pity! But, take it easy; that's all we have for it! Poor cratur ! Poor cratur !"
(Vol. 2,p. 104) "My shoulders have never been used to hard work, and I don't like it any way. As long as I can eat, drink, sleep, and have a coat to my back, what matter for the rest? Let the world go as it will, I'm content. Shoo! Shoo! The button is off the neck of this great coat of mine, and how will I keep it on? A pin sure will do as well as a button, and better. Mrs. Gray, or Miss Rose, I'll thank you kindly for a pin."
(Vol. 2,p. 87)Extract #3 dialect features: Discourse Marker, Orthographical Contraction, Orthographical Respelling
"Wheuh![sic] Wheugh! Wheugh! Why what a world of bustle and trouble is here! Troth, Jemmy Gray, you're in a bad way sure enough! Poor cratur! Poor cratur!
(Vol. 2,p. 285-86)Speaker #2:Mrs Dougherty - Wife of yeoman
Individual or Group:Individual
Primary Identity:Simon's wife
Gender:Female
Age:Adult - young
Narrative Voice:3rd person
Role:Minor
Dialect Features:Discourse Marker, Grammar, Orthographical Contraction, Vocabulary
Social Role
Social Role Description:Wife of yeoman
Social Role Category:Yeoman
Speaker's Origin
Place of Origin Description:Local to Leinster village of setting (un-named)
Place of Origin Category:Leinster, East Ireland, Ireland
Speakers: All , Mrs Dougherty
"Content, in troth! Is it content to live upon potatoes and salt? I, that am your lawful wife! And you that are an O'Dougherty too, to let your lady be demeaned and looked down upon, as she will be now, even by them that are sprung up from nothing since yesterday. There's Mrs. Gray, over yonder at Rosanna, living on your own land: look at her and look at me! and see what a difference there is!"
(Vol. 2,p. 131)