To edit “The Twentith epistle of Horace to his book, modernized by the author of Female conduct, and applied to his own book,” the need for focus and diligence took place. There were several pages with errors and not a single page required a lack of work. Errors ranged from spelling mistakes to wrong punctuation marks. Most of the pages were aligned correctly, but sometimes the lines were close to one another altering the ability to effectively read each line. This was fixed by using Type Wright. Another common change was switching a fancy looking “f” to an “s” (10, 11, 12). This was an easy fix yet quite infuriating when words could potentially be spelt with either an “f” or an “s”. Luckily, overall the pages had little smudges and could were legible in its original state, although fixing the errors will inevitably continue to make the document easier to read. Although the work was relatively easy-going, it is an important task that needed to be done so its content doesn’t get lost through time and technological advances.

While reading the pages for content rather than for clarity and errors, the elements of a conduct book occur. This book does what most conduct books aim to do. Present a good quality and explain the importance and how to lose it. In this conduct book, the speaker states, “Ne’er to the character of Wit pretend. This often loses, seldom gains a friend;”(11). The element desired in this case is the “Wit” and without Wit or rather feigned Wit, it appears the ability to have friends and maintain the relationship is lost. This is similar to other conduct books where Women are told to be chaste in order to be fulfilled by marriage. Women must remain a certain condition if they are to continue relationships such as marriage.   

On page twenty-three, the author iterates, “Go, where your giddy Inclinations lead. / But go forewarn’d, from me this Lesson learn, / ‘When gone from me, you can never return.” He is speaking on the subject of women and diminishing the value of their dreams and goals (inclinations) by describing them as merely giddy wants. To fortify this, the author says that they may never return if they follow their inclinations which now not only devalues the goals of women, but punishes them for following such an inclination. This is relevant to the prior example of women’s supposed need to remain chaste. As women may develop a want to have sex for pleasure rather than duty to a man, there seems to be an inclination in her life. It doesn’t necessarily have to be reduced to giddy, but can still be giddy to her. And by indulging in such sexual nature, women are often shamed by men and society and are never meant to gain a husband because of it. They can never return to the men in society. While this is untrue, conduct books reiterate this concept of shame and chastity and “The Twentith epistle of Horace to his book, modernized by the author of Female conduct, and applied to his own book,” definitely pushes this agenda.

He sells this truth by claiming he is authentic. He promotes his fame and poetic nature heavily throughout. He even refers to himself in third-person as “the Author of Female Conduct.” This builds credit as readers will see that the author of Female Conduct would be the most knowledgable and thus trust much of what he states. While claiming this he also bashes his critics. On page six, he describes his critic’s “Ignorance of the Classic Poets.” So not only does he build up his credibility, he diminishes the credibility of those against him so that readers are less inclined to trust his critics, who may have valid critics to his conduct book. Thus readers are to believe all of his inclinations of how women and men should behave.

Works Cited:

Marriott, T.  “The Twentieth Epistle of Horace to His Book, Modernized by the Author of Female Conduct, and Applied to His Own Book. And Intended as an Answer to the Remarks on His Book, Made by the Writer of the Critical Review, and by the Writer of the Monthly Review.” (35) Published by W. Owen, at Homer’s Head, near Temple-Bar, 1759.