She sleeps up in the attic there
Alone, poor maid. ’Tis but a stair
Betwixt us. Oh! my God! the down,
The soft young down of her, the brown,
The brown of her – her eyes, her hair, her hair! Charlotte Mew, The Farmer’s Bride, 1916
But it’s in the vital marriage stakes that Jeeves’ social engineering is most cunning ... Jeeves safeguards Bertie’s bachelorhood as though his own life depended on it. A married Bertie means no job for Jeeves: that is Jeeves’ long game. And for a master strategist no detail is too trivial. Faulks on Fiction: The Snob, BBC 2011
I die the king’s faithful servant, but God’s first. Thomas More
There’s a new game
We like to play you see
A game with added reality
You treat me like a dog
Get me down on my knees
We call it master and servant
We call it master and servant
It’s a lot like life
This play between the sheets
With you on top
And me underneath
Forget all about equality
Let’s play master and servant
Let’s play master and servant. Depeche Mode, Master and Servant
He who is not a good servant will not be a good master. Plato
It is a symbol of Irish art. The cracked looking-glass of a servant. James Joyce
As he grows older he will have to be content with even less; and all the time he holds his employment at the caprice and by favour of his masters, who regard him merely as a piece of mechanism that enables them to accumulate money – a thing which they are justified in casting aside as soon as it becomes unprofitable. And the working-man must not only be an efficient money-making machine, but he must also be the servile subject of his masters. Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
Hungary: I met a woman, Eta, who was proud of keeping three servants and not having to work herself. I asked for her permission to film one of the servants, Marish, who lived in Eta’s house and worked 12 hours a day in a factory. Eta made it clear that I was not to meet Marish without her permission. Later she demanded I pay her money to be allowed in the house. Marish, originally offered refuge in Eta’s house, had become trapped in servitude through coercion, intimidation and violence. Storyville: A Woman Captured, BBC 2018
‘I have to give all my money to Eta. Every single cent. Nothing: she only gives me food and some cigarettes.’ ibid. Marish
A great army of servants who catered to the needs of the British in India. Empires: Queen Victoria’s Empire II: Passage to India, PBS 2001
Some days I see orbs floating about. And when I see these, I know shit’s about to go down. I get dragged out of the scullery by my ankles screaming. Mandy s2e1: Unpleasantness, Mandy’s new job at Brampton Hall, BBC 2022
I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people. Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands. Nelson Mandela, speech Cape Town 11th February 1990