{"id":540,"date":"2021-12-03T07:11:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T07:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.illinoisstate.edu\/euphemism\/17-1\/?page_id=540"},"modified":"2021-12-03T07:12:18","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T07:12:18","slug":"thomas-carlyles-maid-on-accidentally-burning-his-french-manuscript","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/thomas-carlyles-maid-on-accidentally-burning-his-french-manuscript\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Carlyle’s Maid: On Accidentally Burning His French Manuscript\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
Vern Fein\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Carlyle\u2019s maid at her first job<\/span>
\nfar from the rutty hut of childhood.\u202f<\/span>
\n\u201cMum, I\u2019m peacock proud.\u201d<\/span>
\nMum\u2019s eyes flashed the color of new coins.\u202f<\/span>
\n\u201cDo your best is all.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a room bigger than her whole life<\/span>
\nthis maid, anxious to please,<\/span>
\nstared into the roaring fire.\u202f<\/span>
\nDreaming through every article in the room:<\/span>
\nthe gilded clock,\u202f<\/span>
\na portrait of the brocaded matriarch,\u202f<\/span>
\nold painted vases with new flowers,<\/span>
\nfancy teapots of every design,<\/span>
\na wall of books, beautiful<\/span>
\ndark arms circling the room.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot have, but I can touch,<\/span>
\ntouch and clean and straighten and re-set<\/span>
\nand move and move back\u00a0<\/span>
\nand preen these pretty things.<\/span>
\nO,\u00a0a mess of papers.<\/span>
\nThat cannot be!<\/span>
\nInto the fire with thee.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDear Thomas, I never knew you.<\/span>
\nYou wrote about a revolution of the poor.\u202f<\/span>
\nThen sacked your maid.<\/span>
\nAt least you did not<\/span>
\nchop off her head!\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vern Fein\u00a0 Carlyle\u2019s maid at her first job far from the rutty hut of childhood.\u202f \u201cMum, I\u2019m peacock proud.\u201d Mum\u2019s eyes flashed the color of new coins.\u202f \u201cDo your best is all.\u201d\u00a0 In a room bigger than her whole life this maid, anxious to please, stared into the roaring fire.\u202f Dreaming through every article in… <\/p>\n

Read more Thomas Carlyle’s Maid: On Accidentally Burning His French Manuscript\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-540","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/540\/revisions\/541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/17-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}