Jane Gomeldon - The Medley

Her first book, The Medley, was published for the benefit of the Lying-in Hospital—a charity for poor women. A number of prominent people subscribed to the book and it raised some £53. The work is written as a series of satirical essays, peopled by characters who are gently ridiculed by the author: they have names such as Lord and Lady Magnesia, Miss Clairvoyan and Lady Elizabeth Bizzare. As well as highlighting the pomposities and hypocrisies of the age, the book also tackles issues sometimes considered taboo, including female education, cross-dressing and female adultery.

The essays are written in the first person, from the point of view of a fictional male narrator. Gomeldon writes:

"I am Son to a Man, more rich than willing to part with his Money—and of a lady whose high Birth and genteel Accomplishments, inclined her much to lay out what Money she could..."

The narrator goes on to describe his (fictional) father:

"...not one of the Children resembled himself, and it was continually remarked, that one Child was like one Gentleman, another Child like another Gentleman: As for myself, I was reckoned like a whole Regiment; and what was very singular, this very Regiment had been quartered in our Neighbourood the Year I was born."

A recurring theme is the need for men to improve themselves to be fit companions for women. For example, in the first essay, Gomeldon writes:

"...Ladies at present value themselves upon more than merely knowing domestic life;—they exclude not themselves from any thing! and when one sees them thus accomplished, 'tis an additional spur to write for the gentlemen, to render them fit to be their companions!"