As said earlier mothers and wives of Restoration comedy were generally absent. However in The Northern Heiress, the widow Lady Greasy is also portrayed as a mother. Like Louisa she is financially independent and not under male control. Lady Greasy is a female humour-butt who bears conventional character traits as well as atypical ones, combining priggish, foppish, masculine, and also coquettish features in her person. Although being portrayed as a rather vulgar tradeswoman, she insists to be called a lady. This is ridiculed by Gamont, who regards her as one of ―the Aldermens Wives, who would be less ridiculous, were they less fond of being call‘d Ladies‖ (16). Lady Greasy thinks highly of herself and the people she associates with: ―Why, here is very good Company, I‘ll assure you. Here‘s me, and my Daughter, and a Gentleman and his Sister; then here‘s a rich Knight came but last Night‖ (12).
As a typical humour-butt, she refers to herself first, which is generally regarded impolite and in bad taste. She foppishly boasts that her ―Husband was a Lord‖ though she has to concede ―nay, one of the best Sort of Lords, he was a Lord-Mayor‖ (25). On several occasions Lady Greasy misuses words which is stereotypical of a humour-butt. For example, she uses the word ―disgenderate‖ (19) instead of degenerate when she torments Bareface with his dashing lavishness and reproaches him speaking ―misdainfully‖ (20), instead of disdainfully, of his parents. Later she warns her daughter‘s suitor Tinsel ―to come no more salivating under our Windows‖ (20) when she actually means serenading. In
another scene, Lady Greasy grumbles, rather unladylike, about her aching back, ―I have got such a Pain in my Huck-bone, that when I once set, I can‘t get up again‖ and explains that she suffers from a ―Certificate‖ (24). When Lady Ample corrects her and tells her that she believes it to be it is Sciatica, her sheepish reply is, ―[n]ay, I know not, it‘s some hard Word; but whatever they call it, I am sure I
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feel it‖ (25) and, as the climax of her crude behaviour, belches. There are some instances in which Lady Greasy conducts herself most unladylike, but in a rather masculine fashion, for example when she confers political matters with the other ―ladies‖ at Lady Ample‘s tea-table, drinking ―hot Ale‖ (24) and ―Brandy‖ (25). Davys wittily uses homely diction and a Yorkshire accent in Lady Greasy, for example when she is giving her opinion of stylish people of quality, ―I know nought they are good for, but to mak Wark, and get one‘s Maids with Barn‖ (19). Together with details of domestic life, such as: ―Tea-Kettle,‖ ―a clear starch‘d Muslin Apron‖ (26), and ―a Rowling Pin‖ (52), Davys supplies ―comic country realism,‖ which she frequently put in her later novels (Nancy Cotton 158).
Lady Greasy is portrayed as a hardworking tradeswoman who is concerned with business and earning money. For instance in line 19 she mentions: ―I would have come sooner, but was forc‘d to stay to see some Tallow weigh‘d; for there‘s no trusting Servants now-a-days‖. Traditionally puritans and other religious zealots were portrayed as industrious workers, and Lady Greasy bears some character traits of such a religious zealot. However here the meaning is not nearly as positive. In one scene Lady Greasy appears as a former coquette, describing her youth to her daughter: ―I remember, when I was young. I kept Men at a Distance, and I had always a power of them at my Heels: For to say the Truth, I was very handsom; oh, I had a Complexion like Strawberries and Cream‖ (22). But not much later she is her prudish old self again, perceiving her daughter‘s marriage as a business enterprise in a manner typical of male blocking figures: ―I shall take Care to provide you a better Husband than he [Captain Tinsel]; one that has an Estate, and can make thee a good Festment, keep thee in fine Cloaths, and a gold Chain‖ (22).
When Lady Greasy finds out about Captain Tinsel‘s love letter, she is outraged and turns into a right shrew, physically punishing her daughter Dolly, as Isabella describes: ―She has pull‘d the poor Toad about the House, and sous‘d her with a Mug of Small Beer that stood on the Dresser, ‗till she looks like a Water-Witch‖ (40). As a rule such behaviour is observed in jealous blocking figures, so here Lady Greasy acts like a female blocking figure, trying her utmost to keep Dolly away from her
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beloved. However, she suffers the fate of most blocking figures, being outwitted by the couple of lovers. Finally, reforms and is reconciled with the couple, even offering Captain Tinsel the chance to work in her business together with her: ―Well, since it is gone so far, I have one Disposal to make, and upon no other Terms will I be reconciled. Let him throw off that tawdry Red Coat, put on an Apron, and I‘le him take into the Business with my self‖ (70). When proud Captain Tinsel dismisses her offer, finding it ―intolerable‖ to ―submit to so servile an Employment‖ (70), she gives in again: ―Come, Dolly, my Lass, don‘t cry any more; since thou are so fond of a red Coat and a Sword, prithee take ‗em; for my Part, I‘le e‘ven throw by the Trade, and try if I can turn a Gentlewoman too‖ (70). Even if her sudden reform is not exactly convincing, Davys‘ warmhearted change in the portrayal of Lady Greasy from a genuine humour-butt, prude, fop, female blocking figure, and man- woman into an affectionate mother, who after all endeavors to make her daughter happy, is
noteworthy. Lady Greasy is probably one of the most multifaceted female humour-butts in Restoration comedy.