Robert Gould

Robert Gould (1660? – 1708/1709) was a significant voice in Restoration poetry in England.

He was born in the lower classes and orphaned when he was thirteen. It is possible that he had a sister, but her name and fate are unknown. Gould entered into domestic service. His first employer is unknown, but hints in his poetry indicate that it was a lady and that his job was as a footman. By the age of twenty, however, he had entered the employ of Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset. Dorset was known for his libertine lifestyle and his patronage of the arts, and Gould possibly learned to read and write and was afforded books to read while in Dorset's employ. He appears to have moved to the pantry side of domestic service.

Gould began his poetic career with a number of odes to peers, and his odes to ladies are particularly stylized and idealistic. In the seventeenth century, a writer of an ode could expect remuneration, either in the form of a gift or, at the least, a higher fee from the bookseller in anticipation of sales to the flattered subject's supporters and family. Gould did sell his odes, but he appears to have made very little by them. In 1683, however, Gould changed employers and made a name for himself as an author by writing Love Given O'er: Or a Satyr on the Inconstancy of Woman. The poem was at least partially an imitation of Juvenal, but it pursued its theme of misogyny with a fury and detail even Juvenal would not have dared.

It featured nearly pornographic detail. For example, Gould complains of the lust of women thus,

"And now, if so much to the World’s reveal’d,
Reflect on the vast store that lies conceal’d.
How, oft, into their Closets they retire,
Where flaming Dil– does inflame desire,
And gentle Lap-d--s feed the am’rous fire.
How curst is Man! when Brutes his Rivals prove,
Ev’n in the sacred business of his Love!
Unless Religion pious thoughts instil
Shew me the Woman that would not be ill,
If she, conveniently, cou’d have her will?" (lines 114-123)

These lines are less scathing than the repetition of the anecdote of the Ephesian lady (from Juvenal) who would meet her lovers at her husband's tomb, the statement that women envy the greatness of Eve's sin, and that a prostitute is far better than a wife, since she only damns the soul, while a wife will damn the soul and destroy all happiness. The poem is a merging of many tropes that were well established attacks on womankind before Gould, and the poem is programmatic in that it takes up the pride, then inconstancy, then lust of women (exactly as its title dictates). However, there is a remarkable amount of invention and specificity in each section, and those topoi he adapts from Classical and other poetry are always given a Restoration application. The particular vehemence in these scourges, along with the relentless pacing of the critique, make the poem stand out in its age and as an epitome of misogyny.

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