Editing Miser (section)

==Accounting for misers==
One attempt to account for miserly behaviour was [[Sigmund Freud]]'s theory of [[anal retentiveness]], attributing the development of miserly behaviour to [[toilet training]] in childhood,<ref>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2m1UQI4QpVsC&pg=PT232 |title=Foundations of psychology |author=Nicky Hayes |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2000|isbn=1861525893 }}</ref> although this explanation is not accepted by modern evidence-based psychology.<ref name=berger>{{cite book |last = Berger |first = Kathleen |title = The Developing Person |publisher = Worth Publishers |year = 2000 |location = New York |pages = 218 |isbn = 1-57259-417-9}}</ref>

In the Christian West the attitude to those whose interest centred on gathering money has been coloured by the teachings of the Church. From its point of view, both the miser and the [[usury|usurer]] were guilty of the cardinal sin of [[Seven deadly sins#Greed|avarice]] and shared behaviours.<ref>Richard Newhauser, The Early History of Greed: The Sin of Avarice in Early Medieval Thought and Literature, Cambridge 2000, [https://dokumen.pub/the-early-history-of-greed-the-sin-of-avarice-in-early-medieval-thought-and-literature.html p.31]</ref> According to the parable of [[the Elm and the Vine]] in the quasi-Biblical [[Shepherd of Hermas]], the rich and the poor should be in a relationship of mutual support. Those with wealth are in need of the prayers of the poor for their salvation and can only earn them by acts of charity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020024.htm|title=Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: THE PASTOR OF HERMAS: Similitude Second. As the Vine is Supported by the Elm, So is the Rich Man Helped by the Prayer of the Poor.|work=sacred-texts.com}}</ref> A typical late example of Christian doctrine on the subject is the Reverend [[Erskine Neale]]'s ''The Riches that Bring No Sorrow'' (1852), a moralising work based on a succession of biographies contrasting philanthropists and misers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/richesthatbring00nealgoog#page/n5/mode/2up|title=The Riches that Bring No Sorrow|work=archive.org|year=1852}}</ref>

Running parallel has been a disposition, inherited from Classical times, to class miserly behaviour as a type of [[Eccentricity (behavior)|eccentricity]]. Accounts of misers were included in such 19th century works as G. H. Wilson's four-volume compendium of short biographies, ''The Eccentric Mirror'' (1807).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/eccentricmirror03wilsgoog#page/n10/mode/2up|title=The Eccentric Mirror:: Reflecting a Faithful and Interesting Delineation of ...|work=archive.org|year=1813}}</ref> Such books were put to comic use by [[Charles Dickens]] in ''[[Our Mutual Friend]]'' (serialised 1864–1865), with its cutting analysis of Victorian capitalism. In the third section of that novel, Mr Boffin decides to cure his ward Bella Wilfer of her obsession with wealth and position by appearing to become a miser. Taking her with him on a round of the bookshops,
{{blockquote|Mr Boffin would say, 'Now, look well all round, my dear, for a Life of a Miser, or any book of that sort; any Lives of odd characters who may have been Misers.'  .... The moment she pointed out any book as being entitled Lives of eccentric personages, Anecdotes of strange characters, Records of remarkable individuals, or anything to that purpose, Mr Boffin's countenance would light up, and he would instantly dart in and buy it.'<ref>Chapter 5 [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/883/883-h/883-h.htm#link2HCH0038 Gutenberg site]</ref>}}

In the following chapter, Mr Boffin brings a coachload of the books to his premises and readers are introduced to a selection of typical titles and to the names of several of the misers treated in them. Among the books appear [[James Caulfield]]'s ''Portraits, Memoirs, and Characters of Remarkable Persons'' (1794–1795);<ref>Various volumes appear in [https://books.google.com/books?id=csZMAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22%5B%5BJames+Caulfield%5D%5D+%22+Characters&pg=PR1 Google Books]</ref> ''Kirby's Wonderful Museum of Remarkable Characters'' (1803);<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jQpekaJh-WIC|title=Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum|work=google.co.uk|year=1803}}</ref>
Henry Wilson's ''Wonderful Characters'' (1821);<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=26wvAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Daniel+Dancer%22|title=Wonderful Characters|work=google.co.uk|last1=Wilson|first1=Henry|year=1821}}</ref> and F. Somner Merryweather's ''Lives and Anecdotes of Misers or The Passion of Avarice displayed in the parsimonious habits, unaccountable lives and remarkable deaths of the most notorious misers of all ages'' (1850).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/livesandanecdot00merrgoog#page/n4/mode/2up|title=Lives and anecdotes of misers|work=archive.org|year=1850}}</ref>

The majority of the misers are 18th century characters, with [[John Elwes (politician)|John Elwes]] and [[Daniel Dancer]] at their head. The first account of Elwes' life was [[Edward Topham]]'s ''The Life of the Late John Elwes: Esquire'' (1790), which was initially published in his paper ''The World''. The popularity of such accounts is attested by the seven editions printed in the book's first year and the many later reprintings under various titles.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MK9bAAAAQAAJ&q=%22john+elwes%22|title=The Life of the Late John Elwes|work=google.co.uk|last1=Topham|first1=Edward|year=1790}}</ref> Biographies of Dancer followed soon after, at first in periodicals such as the ''Edinburgh Magazine''<ref>"Anecdotes of the late Daniel Dancer Esq", [https://books.google.com/books?id=fnAEAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22Daniel+Dancer%22&pg=PA340 1794, pp.399-40]</ref> and the
''[[Sporting Magazine]]'',<ref>"Anecdotes of the Late Daniel Dancer" [https://books.google.com/books?id=RJ0aAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Daniel+Dancer%22 1795]</ref> then in the compendiums ''Biographical Curiosities'' (which also included Elwes)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALFVAAAAcAAJ|title=Biographical Curiosities; or, Various pictures of human nature. Containing ...|work=google.co.uk|year=1797}}</ref> and ''The Strange and Unaccountable Life of Daniel Dancer, Esq. ... with singular anecdotes of the famous Jemmy Taylor, the Southwark usurer'' (1797), which was often to be reissued under various titles.<ref>Roy Bearden-White, ''How the Wind Sits; Or, The History of Henry and Ann Lemoine, Chapbook Writers and Publishers of the Late Eighteenth Century'', Southern Illinois University 2007 [https://books.google.com/books?id=cZyRBNmFHkYC&dq=%22Daniel+Dancer%22&pg=PA55 pp.55-7]</ref>

[[File:Cooper Dancer.jpg|thumb|A pencil drawing of [[Daniel Dancer]] by [[Richard Cooper Jr]], 1790s]]
Jemmy Taylor's name also appears in the list of notable misers that Mr Boffin enumerates. He is coupled with the banker [[Jemmy Wood]] of Gloucester, a more recent miser about whom Dickens later wrote an article in his magazine ''[[All the Year Round]]''.<ref>April 10, 1869 [https://books.google.com/books?id=x_jVAAAAMAAJ&dq=miser+%22Jemmy+Wood%22+Gloucester&pg=PA454 pp.454-6]</ref> Others include John Little (who appears in Merryweather), Reverend Mr Jones of Blewbury (also in Merryweather) and Dick Jarrel, whose surname was really Jarrett and an account of whom appeared in the [[Annual Register]] for 1806.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lOcxAQAAMAAJ&q=Dick+Jarrett+miser&pg=PA387|title=Annual Register|work=google.co.uk|year=1808}}</ref> The many volumes of this publication also figured among Mr Boffin's purchases.

Two more of the misers mentioned made their way into other literary works. [[John Hopkins (died 1732)|John Hopkins]], known as Vulture Hopkins, was the subject of a scornful couplet in the third of [[Alexander Pope]]'s Moral Essays, "Of the Use of Riches":
{{blockquote|<poem>When Hopkins dies, a thousand lights attend	
The wretch who living saved a candle's end.<ref>An account of him was given in ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' for 1788, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xKZJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA510 pp.510-11]</ref></poem>}} 
John Overs, with a slight change to his name, became the subject of a three-act drama by [[Douglas William Jerrold]], ''John Overy or The Miser of Southwark Ferry'' (1828), roughly based on an incident when he feigned death to save expenses and was killed by accident.<ref>''The Dramatic Magazine'' 1, 1829 [https://books.google.com/books?id=oDY5AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22%27John+Overy%22++%22The+dramatic+magazine%22&pg=PA78 pp.78-9]</ref>

Another public source of information about misers, in Scotland at least, was the prose [[broadside (printing)|broadside]]. One example concerns Isobel Frazer or Frizzle, who died in [[Stirling]] on 26 May 1820.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/15938|title=Broadside entitled 'Female Miser'|work=nls.uk}}</ref> Much of the broadside is taken up with detailing the contents of her three rooms, into which she had let no one enter. Not more than £8 in currency was discovered there, but she had bought and hoarded many articles of dress over the years, although rarely wearing them. She had also carefully picked up every pin that fell in her way, till she nearly filled one hundred pincushions. In addition to much other [[bric-a-brac]], there were a great number of buttons, which had been cut off old coats. This makes her sound more like a [[compulsive hoarding|compulsive hoarder]] than the "Female Miser" that she is called in the report. The title was more deserved by Joseph MacWilliam, who was found dead of a fire on 13 June 1826. A servant whose home was a damp [[Edinburgh]] cellar without either bed, chair or table, his colleagues and neighbours claimed to have seen him in the same threadbare clothes for 15 years. After his death, property to the value of more than £3,000 was found in the cellar, some in the form of property deeds, and more in bank receipts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/15466|title=Broadside entitled 'Miser'|work=nls.uk}}</ref>

Later in the 19th century there were small regional publications dealing with single individuals of local interest. Examples of such works include Frances Blair's 32-page ''Memoir of [[Margery Jackson]], the Carlisle miser and misanthrope'' (Carlisle 1847)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/memoirofmargeryj00blai#page/12/mode/2up|title=Memoir of Margery Jackson, the Carlisle miser & misanthrope|work=archive.org|year=1848}}</ref> and in the United States the 46-page ''Lochy Ostrom, the maiden miser of Poughkeepsie; or the love of a long lifetime. An authentic biography of Rachel Ostrom who recently died in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., aged ninety years, apparently very poor, but really wealthy'' (Philadelphia 1870).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924022051514#page/n5/mode/2up|title=Lochy Ostrom, the maiden miser of Poughkeepsie; or, The love of a long lifetime. An authentic biography of Rachel Ostrom who recently died in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., aged ninety years, apparently very poor, but really wealthy ..|work=archive.org|year=1870}}</ref>

One trait of misers arising out of the accounts about them was their readiness to incur legal expenses where money was involved. Daniel Dancer was notorious for spending five shillings in an unsuccessful effort to recover three pence from a shop woman.<ref>''Biographical Curiosities'', (London 1797), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ALFVAAAAcAAJ&q=Upon+this+reply pp.14-15]</ref> He was also involved in a lawsuit with his equally miserly brothers when his sister died [[intestate]], although this time he was more successful.<ref>''Biographical Curiosities'' (London 1797), p.6</ref> In the same century, Margery Jackson was involved in an epic Chancery suit between 1776 and 1791 over a family inheritance.<ref>Frances Blair, ''Memoir of Margery Jackson'', [https://archive.org/stream/memoirofmargeryj00blai#page/12/mode/2up pp.12-14]</ref> The American [[Hetty Green]], who despite being a multimillionaire had also a reputation as a miser, involved herself in a six-year lawsuit to obtain her aunt's fortune, only to have it proved against her that she had forged the will.<ref>''Notable American Women''. (Harvard Univ 1971), [https://books.google.com/books?id=rVLOhGt1BX0C&dq=Hetty+Green++%22lawsuit%22&pg=RA1-PA81 vol.1, p.81]</ref> More modern times yield the Chinese example of an 80-year-old affronted by being called a miser in a poem by his son-in-law. Blaming his hospitalization with [[Parkinson's disease]] three years later on this, he sued his daughter for medical fees and 'spiritual compensation'.<ref>''China Daily'', [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2009-02/13/content_7475806.htm 13 Feb 2009], "Daughter sued by dad over 'miser' poem"</ref>