Septuagint
The Septuagint is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures from the original Hebrew. It is estimated that the first five books of the Old Testament, known as the Torah or Pentateuch, were translated in the mid-3rd century BCE and the remaining texts were translated in the 2nd century BCE. Considered the primary Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is quoted a number of times in the New Testament,particularly in the Pauline epistles,by the Apostolic Fathers, by the Greek Church Fathers; the full title in Ancient Greek: Ἡ τῶν Ἑβδομήκοντα μετάφρασις "The Translation of the Seventy", derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas that the Septuagint was translated at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus by 70 Jewish scholars who independently produced identical translations. The miraculous character of the Aristeas legend is indicative of the esteem in which the translation was held in the ancient Jewish diaspora and early Christian circles, it is clear that a Greek translation was in circulation among the Alexandrian Jews who were not fluent in Hebrew, but in Greek.
The evidence of Egyptian papyri from the period have led most scholars to view as probable Aristeas's dating of the translation of the Pentateuch to the third century BCE. Whatever share the Ptolemaic court may have had in the translation, it satisfied a need felt by the Jewish community, among whom a knowledge of Hebrew was waning before the demands of every-day life." While there are other contemporaneous Greek versions of the Old Testament, most did not survive except as fragments. Modern critical editions of the Septuagint are based on the Codices Vaticanus and Alexandrinus; the Septuagint derives its name from the Latin versio septuaginta interpretum, "translation of the seventy interpreters", Greek: ἡ μετάφρασις τῶν ἑβδομήκοντα, hē metáphrasis tōn hebdomḗkonta, "translation of the seventy". However, it was not until the time of Augustine of Hippo that the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures came to be called by the Latin term Septuaginta; the Roman numeral LXX is used as an abbreviation G or G. Seventy-two Jewish scholars were asked by the Greek King of Egypt Ptolemy II Philadelphus to translate the Torah from Biblical Hebrew into Greek, for inclusion in the Library of Alexandria.
This narrative is found in the pseudepigraphic Letter of Aristeas to his brother Philocrates, is repeated by Philo of Alexandria, Josephus and by various sources, including St. Augustine; the story is found in the Tractate Megillah of the Babylonian Talmud: King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were summoned, he entered each one's room and said: "Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher". God put it in the heart of each one to translate identically. Philo of Alexandria, who relied extensively on the Septuagint, says that the number of scholars was chosen by selecting six scholars from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. According to rabbinic tradition, the Septuagint was handed in to Ptolemy on the date of an annual fast and mourning for the Jewish people; the date of the 3rd century BCE is supported by a number of factors, including the Greek being representative of early Koine, citations beginning as early as the 2nd century BCE, early manuscripts datable to the 2nd century.
After the Torah, other books were translated over the next two to three centuries. It is not altogether clear, translated when, or where; the quality and style of the different translators varied from book to book, from the literal to paraphrasing to interpretative. The translation process of the Septuagint itself and from the Septuagint into other versions can be broken down into several distinct stages, during which the social milieu of the translators shifted from Hellenistic Judaism to Early Christianity; the translation of the Septuagint itself began in the 3rd century BCE and was completed by 132 BCE in Alexandria, but in time elsewhere as well. The Septuagint is the basis for the Old Latin, Syriac, Old Armenian, Old Georgian and Coptic versions of the Christian Old Testament; the Septuagint is written in Koine Greek. Some sections of the Septuagint may show Semiticisms, or idioms and phrases based on Semitic languages like Hebrew and Aramaic. Other books, such as Daniel and Proverbs, show Greek influence more strongly.
The Septuagint may elucidate pronunciation of pre-Masoretic Hebrew: many proper nouns are spelled out with Greek vowels in the translation, while contemporary Hebrew texts lacked vowel pointing. However, it is unlikely; as the work of translation progressed, the canon of the Greek Bible expanded. The Hebrew bible called Tanakh, has three divisions: the Torah, the Neviʾim, the Ketuvim; the Septuagint has four: law, history and prophets, with the books of the Apocrypha inserted where appropriate. The Torah has held pre-eminence as the basis of the canon.
Michal
Michal was, according to the first Book of Samuel, a princess of the United Kingdom of Israel. 1 Samuel 14:49 identifies younger daughter as Michal. Michal's story is recorded in the first Book of Samuel, where it is said in 1 Samuel 18:20 and 18:28 that Michal loved David; the narrative does not indicate. After his success in battle against the Philistine giant Goliath, Merab was given in marriage to Adriel. After Merab had married Adriel the Meholathite, Saul invited David to marry Michal. David replied, "I am a poor and esteemed man", meaning that he was unable to provide a bride price. Saul advised him that no bride price was required except for the foreskins of 100 Philistines. David took part in a further battle, killed 200 Philistines, brought their foreskins to Saul as a double bride price. In the biblical narrative, Michal chooses the welfare of David over the wishes of her father; when Saul's messengers search for David in order to kill him, Michal sends them away while pretending he is ill and laid up in bed.
She lets David down through a window and hides teraphim in his bed as a ruse. J. Cheryl Exum points out that although she risked her life in helping him, after he leaves the court, he makes no attempt to contact her. While David was hiding for his life, Saul gave Michal as a wife to Palti, son of Laish, David took several other wives, including Abigail; when David became king of Judah and Ish-bosheth was king of Israel, David demanded her return to him in return for peace between them. Ish-bosheth complied, despite the public protests of Palti. Robert Alter observes that by stressing that he had paid the requested bride price, David makes a legal argument as a political calculation to reinforce his legitimacy as a member of the royal house. Alter notes the contrast between Palti's public grief. After Michal was returned to David, she criticised him for dancing in an undignified manner, as he brought the Ark of the Covenant to the newly captured Jerusalem in a religious procession. For this she is punished, according to Samuel, with not having children till the day she dies Unlike Abigail and Bathsheba, Michal is not described as being beautiful, though Rabbinic tradition holds that she was of "entrancing beauty."Michal is briefly mentioned in 1 Chronicles 15:29.
These events have raised moral issues within Judaism in the context of the prohibition in Deuteronomy 24:1–4. On the one hand, some argue that it is prohibited to re-establish a marriage with a previous spouse who has subsequently remarried. On the other hand, other commentators explain that David had not divorced Michal at this point in time, but rather Saul acted to break their marriage by marrying her off to another without David's consent. On that view, they were not technically divorced as David had not issued a writ of divorcement according to biblical law; some have argued that it is unclear whether Michal died barren and childless, as stated in 2 Samuel 6:23, or had children, as described in most manuscripts of 2 Samuel 21:8, which mention "the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul." The justification for the NIV's textual rendering is found in the completion of the clause, which states "...whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite." That it was Merab who married Adriel is attested without ambiguity.
Gill attempted to resolve the conundrum presented by many Hebrew manuscripts' use of Michal, rather than Merab, by translating 2 Samuel 21:8 as "the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite". Now, Michal's older sister, was the wife of Adriel. According to Gill, these five sons were not born to Michal but were brought up or educated by her after Merab had died. However, the Hebrew word, ילדה, which Gill understands to mean "brought up," everywhere else means "gave birth to." Context struggles to justify Gill's translation. However, for a literalist interpretation, Gill’s translation must stand. In 1707, Georg Christian Lehms published in Hanover the novel Die unglückselige Princessin Michal und der verfolgte David ('The hapless Princess Michal and David pursued', based on the Biblical story. In her poem "Michal", the Israeli poet Ra'hel Bluwstein draws a parallel between the speaker and Michal:"Like you I am sad, O Michal... and like you doomed to love a man whom I despise."
"Michal" was one of several Biblical names embraced by Zionism rarely found in pre-Zionist communities. It is a common female first name in contemporary Israel. Although possessing an identical or identical spelling when using the Latin alphabet, the Czech and Slovak language "Michal" and the Polish language "Michał" are the local forms of "Michael" rather than of "Michal"; this can be compared to French spelling "Michel", a local form of "Michael"
Miriam
Miriam is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, the sister of Moses and Aaron. She first appears in the Book of Exodus; the Torah refers to her as "Miriam the Prophetess" and the Talmud names her as one of the seven major female prophets of Israel. Scripture describes her alongside of Moses and Aaron as delivering the Jews from exile in Egypt: "For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, I sent before you Moses and Miriam". According to the Midrash, just as Moses led the men out of Egypt and taught them Torah, so too Miriam led the women and taught them Torah. Miriam was the daughter of Amram, the leader of the Israelites in ancient Egypt, of Jochebed and the sister of Aaron and Moses; the narrative of Moses' infancy in the Torah describes an unnamed sister of Moses observing him being placed in the Nile. In the biblical narrative of the exodus, Miriam is described as a "prophetess" when she leads the Israelites in the Song of the Sea after Pharoah's army is destroyed at the Sea of Reeds.
The Torah describes Miriam and Aaron as criticizing of Moses’ "Cushite" wife in Numbers 12. Regarding the death of Miriam, the Torah states, "The entire congregation of the children of Israel arrived at the desert of Tzin in the first month, the people settled in Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there"; the Midrash explains the entire story as follows: It became known to Miriam and Aaron that Moses had separated from intimacy with Tzipora. They disapproved of this separation because they considered her to be outstandingly righteous, much as a dark-skinned person stands out among light-skinned people - hence the reference to Tzipora as a “Cushite”; this usage of the word Cushite is non-pejorative and is used in Jewish sources as a term for someone unique and outstanding. In fact, King Saul and the Jewish People are referred to by the term “Cushite”, their complaint, was not about the union between Moses and Tzipora, but about their separation. The only justification they could find for Moses’ celibacy was in order to maintain his prophetic state.
This explains their claim that God spoke not only to Moses but to them, yet they had not separated from their spouses. But God rebuked them by calling them all out “suddenly”, causing Miriam and Aaron a great burning sensation since they lacked immersion in a mikva after marital relations. God thus demonstrated to them Moses’ unique level of prophecy for which he had to be prepared at all times, thereby justifying his separation from Tzipora. Afterwards, “God’s wrath flared against them.” Rabbi Louis Ginzberg wrote the anger of God to them. "... I Myself ordered him to abstain from conjugal life, the word he received was revealed to him and not in dark speeches, he saw the Divine presence from behind when It passed by him. Wherefore were ye not afraid to speak against a man like Moses, who is, moreover, My servant? Your censure is directed to Me, rather than to him, for'the receiver is no better than the thief,' and if Moses is not worthy of his calling, I, his Master, deserve censure." Afterward, Miriam is left with bodily tzara’at, which according to Jewish sources is a divine punishment for slander.
This was. Despite Miriam's intent to help Tzipora, she should have judged Moses favorably and approached Moses on Tzipora's behalf privately. Aaron asks Moses to intercede for Miriam, Moses prays to God to heal her, God concedes after requiring a quarantine of seven days. Both Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, it has been suggested that since according to the Hebrew Bible anyone with tzara’at was tamei, Aaron was spared this punishment in order not to interrupt his duties as High Priest. However, noting the wording of the verse, “God’s wrath flared against them ”, the Talmud appears to conclude that Aaron was smitten with tzara’at but was immediately cured, it has been suggested that Josephus and Irenaeus identify the Cushite woman as Tharbis, “the daughter of the king of the Ethiopians”. However, while Josephus does describe a legend wherein Moses marries this princess during a military campaign he leads in Ethiopia, according to Josephus this marriage occurs while Moses is still a royal prince of Egypt long before he re-discovers his oppressed Jewish brethren.
After which time, upon fleeing as a solitary fugitive from Egypt, the only marriage of Moses that the Torah records is with Tzipora the daughter of Yitro the Midianite. In fact, Josephus himself records Moses’ marriage to Tzipora as separate and subsequent to his earlier marriage to Tharbis. Furthermore, according to the conclusion of the Tharbis legend, Moses fashioned a miraculous ring which caused her to forget her love for him, he returned to Egypt alone; therefore according to Josephus, Moses’ first marriage to Tharbis as military leader of Egypt terminated long before his marriage to Tzipora as fugitive from Egypt, such that the Cushite wife of Moses mentioned in the Torah after the Exodus appears to be Tzipora, as explained above. Richard E. Friedman writes that since Cush is understood to mean “Ethiopia”, it is possible that the “Cushite woman” is not Tzipora, but he adds that since there is a place called Cushan, a region of Midian, Moses’ wife Tzipora has been identified as a Midianite, it is possible that the term “Cushite” relates to Tzipora’s being from Cushan.
However, Friedman’s primary interest is not in the identity of the Cushite woman, but r
American Standard Version
The Revised Version, Standard American Edition of the Bible, more known as the American Standard Version, is a Bible translation into English, completed in 1901, with the publication of the revision of the Old Testament. It was best known by its full name, but soon came to have other names, such as the American Revised Version, the American Standard Revision, the American Standard Revised Bible, the American Standard Edition. By the time its copyright was renewed in 1929, it had come to be known by its present name, the American Standard Version; because of its prominence in seminaries, it was in America sometimes called the "Standard Bible". The American Standard Version, known as The American Revision of 1901, is rooted in the work begun in 1870 to revise the Authorized Version/King James Bible of 1611; this revision project produced the Revised Version. An invitation was extended to American religious leaders for scholars to work on the RV project. In 1871, thirty scholars were chosen by Philip Schaff.
The denominations represented on the American committee were the Baptist, Congregationalist, Dutch Reformed, Methodist, Presbyterian, Protestant Episcopal, Unitarian. These scholars began work in 1872. Three of the editors, the youngest in years, became the editors of the American Standard Revised New Testament: Drs. Dwight and Matthew Riddle. Any suggestion of the American Revision Committee would only be accepted if two-thirds of the British Revisers agreed; this principle was backed up by an agreement that if their suggestions were put into the appendix of the RV, the American Committee would not publish their version for 15 years. The appendix had about three hundred suggestions in it; the Revised Version New Testament was published in 1881, the Old Testament in 1885, the Apocrypha in 1894. Around this time, the British team disbanded. Around this time, unauthorized copied editions of the RV appeared with the suggestions of the American team in the main text; this was possible because while the RV in the UK was the subject of a Crown copyright as a product of the University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge, this protection did not extend to the U.
S. and the text was never separately copyrighted there. In 1898, publishers for Oxford and Cambridge Universities published their own editions of the RV with the American suggestions included. However, these suggestions were reduced in number; some of those Americanized editions by Oxford and Cambridge Universities had the title of "American Revised Version" on the cover of their spines. Some of Thomas Nelson's editions of the American Standard Version Holy Bible included the Apocrypha of the Revised Version; the Revised Version of 1885 and the American Standard Version of 1901 are among the Bible versions authorized to be used in services of the Episcopal Church and the Church of England. In 1901, after the 15-year deferral agreement between the American and British Revisers expired, the Revised Version, Standard American Edition, as the ASV Bible was called at the time, was published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, it was copyrighted in North America to ensure the purity of the ASV text. In 1928, the International Council of Religious Education acquired the copyright from Nelson and renewed it the following year.
The copyright was a reaction to tampering with the text of the Revised Version by some U. S. publishers, as noted above. By the time the ASV's copyright expired for the final time in 1957, interest in this translation had waned in the light of newer and more recent ones, textual corruption hence never became the issue with the ASV that it had with the RV; because the language of the ASV intentionally retained the King James Version's Elizabethan English, was printed with comparatively lower quality materials, because of what some perceived to be its excessive literalism, it never achieved wide popularity, the King James Version would remain the primary translation for most American Protestant Christians until the publication of the Revised Standard Version in 1952. There were two rationales for the ASV. One reason was to obviate any justification for the unauthorized copied editions of the RV, circulating. Another reason was to use more of the suggestions the American team had preferred, since the British team used few of their suggestions in the first place in the version which they had published incorporating some of them.
While many of the suggestions of the American scholars were based on the differences between American and British usage, many others were based on differences in scholarship and what the American revisers felt the best translation to be. There were several changes to the KJV text in the ASV that were not present in the RV; the divine name of the Almighty is rendered Jehovah in 6,823 places of the ASV Old Testament, rather than LORD as it appears in the King James Bible and Revised Version of 1881-85. However, there are notably seven verses in the King James Bible where the divine name appears which are Genesis 22:14, Exodus 6:3, Exodus 17:15, Judges 6:24, Psalms 83:18, Isaiah 12:2 and Isaiah 26:4 plus as it's abbreviated form, once in Psalms 68:4; the English Revised Version renders the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah where it appears in the King James Version, another eight times in Exodus 6:2,6–8, Psalm
Masoretic Text
The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of Tanakh for Rabbinic Judaism. It is not the original text of the Hebrew Bible: Urtext has never been found, it was copied and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 7th and 10th centuries of the Common Era. The oldest extant manuscripts date from around the 9th century; the Aleppo Codex dates from the 10th century. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocalization and accentuation known as the Masorah; the ancient Hebrew word mesorah broadly refers to the whole chain of Jewish tradition, claimed to be unchanged and infallible. Referring to the Masoretic Text, mesorah means the diacritic markings of the text of the Hebrew Scriptures and the concise marginal notes in manuscripts of the Tanakh which note textual details about the precise spelling of words. Modern scholars seeking to understand the history of the Tanakh’s text use a range of sources other than the Masoretic Text.
These include early Greek and Syriac translations, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea Scrolls and quotations from rabbinic manuscripts. Most of these are older than the oldest surviving Masoretic text and contradict it. Which of the three known versions is closest to the original text is not determined.) The Dead Sea Scrolls have shown the Masoretic Text to be nearly identical in consonant text to some texts of the Tanakh dating from 200 but different from others. Although the consonants of the Masoretic Text differ little from the text accepted in the early 2nd century, it has many differences of both greater and lesser significance when compared to the manuscripts of the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, in popular use by Jews in Egypt and the Holy Land. A recent finding of a short Leviticus fragment, recovered from the ancient En-Gedi Scroll, carbon-dated to the 3rd or 4th century AD, is identical with the Masoretic Text; the Masoretic Text was used as the basis for translations of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles such as the King James Version and American Standard Version and for some versions of Catholic Bibles, replacing the Vulgate translation, although the Vulgate had itself been revised in light of the Masoretic text in the 1500s.
The Talmud and Karaite manuscripts state that a standard copy of the Hebrew Bible was kept in the court of the Temple in Jerusalem for the benefit of copyists. This copy is mentioned in the Letter of Aristeas, in the statements of Philo, in Josephus. A Talmudic story referring to an earlier time, relates that three Torah scrolls were found in the Temple court but were at variance with each other; the differences were resolved by majority decision among the three. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, dating from c. 150 BCE-75 CE, shows that in this period there was not the scrupulous uniformity of text, so stressed in centuries. According to Menachem Cohen, the Dead Sea scrolls decided these issues'by showing that there was indeed a Hebrew text-type on which the Septuagint-translation was based and which differed from the received MT'; the scrolls show numerous small variations in orthography, both as against the Masoretic text, between each other. It is evident from the notings of corrections and of variant alternatives that scribes felt free to choose according to their personal taste and discretion between different readings.
However, despite these variations, most of the Qumran fragments can be classified as being closer to the Masoretic text than to any other text group that has survived. According to Lawrence Schiffman, 60% can be classed as being of proto-Masoretic type, a further 20% Qumran style with bases in proto-Masoretic texts, compared to 5% proto-Samaritan type, 5% Septuagintal type, 10% non-aligned. Joseph Fitzmyer noted the following regarding the findings at Qumran Cave 4 in particular: "Such ancient recensional forms of Old Testament books bear witness to an unsuspected textual diversity that once existed. Thus, the differences in the Septuagint are no longer considered the result of a poor or tendentious attempt to translate the Hebrew into the Greek. On the other hand, some of the fragments conforming most to the Masoretic text were found in Cave 4. An emphasis on minute details of words and spellings used among the Pharisees as bases for argumentation, reached its height with the example of Rabbi Akiva.
The idea of a perfect text sanctified in its consonantal base spread throughout the Jewish communities via supportive statements in Halakha and Jewish thought. Few manuscripts are said to have survived
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich, earthy humour and satirical prowess, as the author of the picaresque novel Tom Jones. Additionally, he holds a significant place in the history of law enforcement, having used his authority as a magistrate to found what some have called London's first police force, the Bow Street Runners, his younger sister, Sarah became a successful writer. Fielding was born at Sharpham and educated at Eton College, where he established a lifelong friendship with William Pitt the Elder, his mother died when he was 11. A suit for custody was brought by his grandmother against his charming but irresponsible father, Lt Gen. Edmund Fielding; the settlement placed Henry in his grandmother's care, although he continued to see his father in London. In 1725, Henry tried to abduct Sarah Andrews, while she was on her way to church, he fled to avoid prosecution. In 1728, he travelled to Leiden to study classics and law at the university. However, lack of money obliged him to return to London and he began writing for the theatre.
Some of his work was savagely critical of the government of Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole. The Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737 is said to be a direct response to his activities in writing for the theatre. Although the play that triggered the act was the unproduced, anonymously authored The Golden Rump, Fielding's dramatic satires had set the tone. Once it was passed, political satire on the stage became impossible. Fielding retired from the theatre and resumed his career in law to support his wife Charlotte Craddock and two children by becoming a barrister. Fielding's lack of financial acumen meant he and his family endured periods of poverty, but he was helped by Ralph Allen, a wealthy benefactor, on whom Squire Allworthy in Tom Jones would be based. Allen went on to provide for the education and support of Fielding's children after the writer's death. Fielding never stopped writing political satire and satires of current letters; the Tragedy of Tragedies was, for example. Based on his earlier Tom Thumb, this was another of Fielding's "irregular" plays published under the name of H. Scriblerus Secundus, a pseudonym intended to link himself ideally with the Scriblerus Club of literary satirists founded by Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and John Gay.
He contributed a number of works to journals of the time. From 1734 until 1739 he wrote anonymously for the leading Tory periodical, The Craftsman, against the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. Fielding's patron was the opposition Whig a boyhood friend from Eton. Lyttelton followed his leader Lord Cobham in forming a Whig opposition to Walpole's government called the Cobhamites. In the Craftsman, Fielding voiced the opposition attack on bribery and corruption in British politics. Although writing for the opposition to Walpole, which included Tories as well as Whigs, Fielding was "unshakably a Whig" and praised Whig heroes such as the Duke of Marlborough and Gilbert Burnet. Fielding dedicated his play Don Quixote in England to the opposition Whig leader Lord Chesterfield, it was published on 17 April 1734, the same day writs were issued for the general election. He dedicated his 1735 play The Universal Gallant to Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, a political follower of Chesterfield; the other prominent opposition newspaper, Common Sense, founded by Chesterfield and Lyttelton, was named after a character in Fielding's Pasquin.
Fielding wrote at least two articles it in 1737 and 1738. Fielding continued to air his political views in satirical articles and newspapers in the late 1730s and early 1740s, he became the chief writer for the Whig government of Henry Pelham. Fielding took to novel writing in 1741, angered by Samuel Richardson's success with Pamela, his first success was an anonymous parody of that: Shamela. This follows the model of Tory satirists of notably Swift and Gay. Fielding followed this with Joseph Andrews, an original work dealing with Pamela's brother, Joseph, his purpose, was more than parody, for as announced in the preface, he intended a "kind of writing which I do not remember to have seen hitherto attempted in our language." In what Fielding called a "comic epic poem in prouse," he blended two classical traditions: that of the epic, poetic, that of the drama, but emphasizing the comic rather than the tragic. Another distinction of Joseph Andrews and of the novels to come was the use of everyday reality of character and action as opposed to the fables of the past.
Although begun as a parody, it developed into an accomplished novel in its own right and is considered to mark Fielding's debut as a serious novelist. In 1743, he published a novel in the Miscellanies volume III: The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great, sometimes counted as his first, as he certainly began it before he wrote Shamela and Joseph Andrews, it is a satire of Jonathan Wild, the gang leader and highwayman. He implicitly compares the Whig party in Parliament with a gang of thieves run by Walpole, whose constant desire to be a "Great Man" ought to culminate in the antithesis of greatness: hanging, his anonymous The Female Husband fictionalizes a case in which a female transvestite was tried for duping another woman into marriage. Though a minor piece of Fielding's œuvre, it reflects his preo
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, royal or feudal, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. In Europe, a lady-in-waiting was a noblewoman, but of lower rank than of the woman on whom she attended. Although she may either have been a retainer or may not have received compensation for the service she rendered, a lady-in-waiting was considered more of a courtesan or companion to her mistress than a servant. In other parts of the world outside Europe, the lady-in-waiting referred to as palace woman, was in practice a servant or a slave rather than a high-ranking woman, but still had about the same tasks, functioning as companion and secretary to her mistress. In courts where polygamy was practiced, a court lady was formally available to the monarch for sexual services, she could become his wife or concubine. Lady-in-waiting or court lady is a generic term for women whose relative rank and official functions varied, although such distinctions were often honorary.
A royal woman may or may not be free to select her ladies, when she has such freedom, her choices are heavily influenced by the sovereign, her parents, her husband, or the sovereign's ministers. The development of the office of lady-in-waiting in Europe is connected to that of the development of a royal court. During the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century, Hincmar describes the royal household of Charles the Bald in the De Ordine Palatii from 882, in which he states that court officials took orders from the queen as well as the king. Merovingian queens are assumed to have had their personal servants, in the 9th century it is confirmed that Carolingian queens had an entourage of guards from the nobility as a sign of their dignity, some officials are stated to belong to the queen rather than the king. In the late 12th century, the queens of France are confirmed to have had their own household, noblewomen are mentioned as ladies-in-waiting. During the Middle Ages, the household of a European queen consort was small and the number of employed ladies-in-waiting, rather than wives of noblemen accompanying their husbands to court, was small: in 1286, the queen of France had only five ladies-in-waiting in her employ, it was not until 1316 that her household was separated from that of the royal children.
The role of ladies-in-waiting in Europe changed during the age of the Renaissance, when a new ceremonial court life, where women played a significant part, developed as representation of power in the courts of Italy and spread to Burgundy, from Burgundy to France, to the rest of the courts of Europe. The court of the Duchy of Burgundy was the most elaborate in Europe in the 15th century and became an example to France when the French royal court expanded in the late 15th century and introduced new offices for both men and women to be able to answer to the new renaissance ideal. From small circle of married femmes and unmarried filles, with a humble place in the background during the Middle Ages, the number of French ladies-in-waiting were expanded, divided into an advanced hierarchy with several offices and given an important and public role to play in the new ceremonial court life in early 16th-century France; this example was followed by other courts in Europe, where courts expanded and became more ceremonial during the 16th century, the offices and visibility of women expanded in the early modern age.
During the late 19th century and the early 20th century, most European courts started to reduce their court staff due to new economic and political circumstances which made court representation more questionable. The duties of ladies-in-waiting varied from court to court, but functions discharged by ladies-in-waiting included proficiency in the etiquette and dances prevalent at court. A number of tribes and cultural areas in the African continent, such as the Lobedu people of Southern Africa, had a similar custom on ladies-in-waiting in historic times. Within certain traditional states of the Bini and Yoruba peoples in Nigeria, the queen mothers and high priestesses were considered "ritually male" due to their social eminence. Due to this fact, they were attended on by women who belonged to their harems in much the same way as their male counterparts were served by women who belonged to theirs. Although these women functioned as ladies-in-waiting, were members of powerful families of the local nobility in their own right, were not used for sexual purposes, they were none-the-less referred to as their principals' wives.
In the late Middle Ages, when the court of the emperor no longer moved around the household of the empress, as well as the equivalent household of the German princely consorts, started to develop a less fluid and more strict organisation with set court offices. The court model of the Duchy of Burgundy, as well as the Spanish court model, came to influence the organisation of the Austrian imperial court during the 16th-century, when the Burgundian Netherlands and Austria was united through the Habsburg dynasty. In the early and mid 16th-century, the female courtiers kept by female Habsburgs in the Netherlands and Austria was composed of one hofmesterees or dame d'honneur who served as the principal lady in wa
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 62.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 
Media related to David and Abigail at Wikimedia Commons