The Cambridge jests or Wit’s recreation

As seen within the portrayal of Long Meg and her lack of agency in the previous section, 18th century chapbooks are known for their derogatory and sexual objectification of the female body. The Cambridge jests or Wit’s recreation is a particular example of the period’s objectifying views towards women - most jokes are centred on the female body, 

A citizen’s wife being once in a very musing vein, fat, with her legs wide; says her husband, my dear, your cabinet is open. Say you, says she, why do not you lock it then? For none keeps the key but yourself and “ gentleman being a gossiping, he kissed all the ladies but one, at which the company took notice of it, and almost put her out of countenance. The gentleman said, that he would have kissed her, but her nose was so long. You may, says she, kiss my bum, where there is no nose to offend you.

As Ruth Richardson states, chapbooks were mass-produced ‘right into the mid-19th century,’ and this is evidence of these tales being popular reading material. Their popularity encouraged printers and authors to exaggerate or adhere to and reinforce the period’s societal conventions, to attract readers. Many of the jests speak about the embarrassment of cuckolds:

Some neighbours that dwelt in a row in Cambridge on the one side of the way, agreed to be merry with their wives; said one, They of the University say we are all cuckolds on this side except one. On which his wife was in pause. Why so sad, sweetheart? Said he, I am not sad, replied she, but am studying who that one should be that has not cuckolded her husband,” and “A taylor often complained among the Cantabrigians, in his wife’s hearing, that she brought him nothing, upon which she replied, You thieving lousy rogue and cuckold you be, for I have brought you a child every year, with little or none of your help.

The repetitive reference to the term ‘cuckold,’ is a representation of the humiliation men faced when their wives engaged in sexual transgressions. As Hubbard argues, for 18th century men, ‘cuckoldry represented the reversal of spousal roles, and the ultimate masculine…failure.’ Cuckoldry was deemed ‘emasculation incarnate,’ which placed a greater emphasis on male dominance and control over a woman’s body due to the male fear of being ridiculed.

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