Man and Wife

Abstract

Man and Wife is one of Collins’ most timely books. Its discussion of the Marriage Laws was of great contemporary interest and the attack on Athleticism elaborates and goes far beyond Arnold’s reservations in Culture and Anarchy. Collins redirects the current debate about roughs and concentrates on the ‘roughs in broadcloth’.

We have become so shamelessly familiar with violence and outrage, that we recognise them as a necessary ingredient in our social system, and class our savages as a representative part of our population, under the newly invented name of “Roughs”. Public attention has been directed by hundreds of other writers to the dirty Rough in Fustian. If the present writer had confirmed himself within those limits, he would have carried all his readers with him. But he is bold enough to direct attention to the washed Rough in broadcloth — and he must stand on his defense with readers who have not noticed this variety, or who, having noticed, prefer to ignore it.¹

Arnold sees a threat to society coming from the Hyde Park rioters.² Collins identifies another source of social dissolution. Polite society is as guilty of disruptive behaviour as are the working classes, and, Collins implies, even more insidious.