Born in 1670, Fyge belonged to the generation after the great English playwright, Aphra Behn (1640-1689). Of Behn, Virginia Woolf wrote that all women should "let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." As such, unlike earlier generations of women, Fyge had a role model of a successful female writer. Her father, an apothecary and physician and her mother, Mary Beecham Fyge (died in 1704), raised her and her five sisters. A feminist from her youth, The Female Advocate was anonymously published in 1686. A second, expanded edition appeared the following year. She was married against her will a short time later to Edward Field, an attorney from whom she probably acquired her knowledge of law. Widowed and left well off and childless after a short time, her later poems talk about the growing love between Fyge and Field and Fyge's grief at Field's death. In 1700 Fyge married her second cousin, the Reverend Thomas Egerton, a widower much older than her who had grown children. The marriage was not a happy one and in 1703 Thomas Egerton sued for divorce on grounds of adultery: Sarah Egerton countersued for divorce on grounds of cruelty. The couple remained married until Thomas Egerton died in 1720. Throughout this period, Fyge continued to write feminist tracts and poetry.

      In The Female Advocate Fyge defends womankind. She reinterprets the creation story, rails against the double standard, gives historical examples of virtuous women, questions why men treat women so badly, and explains that women are a source of pleasure, not sorrow, for men.

      Fyge's main points concerning the creation story, a couple of which are new, follow:

1. Men speak vile blasphemy when they speak ill of Eve.
2. God created the heavens and the earth then populated the earth with all creatures in pairs, except man. Man being alone was insignificant and scant. Only when God created woman was man made complete.
3. Man was made of dull and senseless Earth while woman was made of a much more noble substance.
4. Adam had the commandment not eat of the tree of knowledge while Eve received the commandment only second-hand.
5. Weak Eve was tempted by the strong supernatural serpent while Adam was tempted by a mere mortal, a weak woman at that.
6. Since her heal bruised the serpent's head, why do men scorn women?

"Blasphemous Wretch! How canst thou think or say
Some Curst or Banisht Fiend Usurpt the Sway
When Eve was Form'd? for then's deny'd by you
God's Omnipresence and Omniscience too:
Without which Attributes he could not be
The greatest and supreamist Deity:
Nor can Heav'n sleep, tho' it may mourn to see
Degen'rate man speak such vile blasphemy."

"When from dark Chaos Heav'n the World did make,
And all was glorious it did undertake;
Then were in Eden's Garden freely plac'd
Each thing that's pleasant to the Sight or Taste,
'T was fill'd with Beasts & Birds, Trees hung with Fruit,
That might with Man's Celestial Nature suit:
The World being made thus spacious and compleat,
Then Man was form'd, who seemed nobly Great.
When Heav'n survey'd the Works that it had done,
Saw Male and Female but found Man alone,
A barren Sex, and insignificant,
Then Heav'n made Woman to supply the want, 
And to make perfect what before was scant:
Surely then she a Noble Creature is,
Whom Heav'n thus made to consummate all Bliss.
Tho' Man had Being first, yet methinks She
In Nature should have the Supremacy;
For Man was form'd out of dull senseless Earth,
But woman had a much more Noble Birth:
For when the Dust was purify'd by heaven,
Made into Man, and Life unto it given,
Then the almighty and All-wise God said,
That Woman of that Species should be made;
which was no sooner said, but it was done,
'Cause 'twas not fit for Man to be alone."

"Thus have I prov'd Woman's Creation good,
And not inferior, when right understood,
To that of Man's, for both one Maker had,
Which made all good; then how could Eve be bad?
But then you'll say, tho' she at first was pure,
Yet in that State she did not long endure.
'Tis true; but yet her Fall examine right;
We find most men have banish'd Truth for spight:
Nor is she quite so guilty as some make,
For Adam most did of the Guilt partake;
While he from God's own Mouth had the Command,
But Woman had it at the second hand:
The Devil's Strength weak Woman might deceive,
But Adam only tempted was by Eve:
She had the strongest Tempter, and least Charge;
Man's knowing most, doth make his Sin more large.
But tho' that Woman Man to Sin did lead,
Yet since her Seed hath bruise'd the Serpent's Head:
Why should she thus be made a public scorn,
Of whom the Great Almighty God was born?
Surely to speak one slightling word, must be
A kind of murmuring Impiety:
But yet their greatest Haters still prove such
Who formerly have loved them too much;
And from the Proverb they are not exempt,
Too much Familiarity has bred Contempt.
And as in Adam all Mankind did die,
They make all Base for one's Immodesty;
Nay, make the Name a kind of Magic Spell,
As t'would conjure married Men to Hell."

Reference:

      Moria Ferguson, First Feminists British Women Writers 1578 - 1799, U. of Indiana Press, 1985, my excerpts taken from pages 156-157

Return to Women's History Month 2000 Table of Contents

e-mail sunshine@pinn.net