Dryden, Essay upon Satire.
Beth March, the third and gentlest sister in Louisa M. Alcott's novel "Little Women" (1868).
Betsey, the wife in Will Carleton's farm ballad, Betsey and I are Out. In dictating to a lawyer the terms of separation, the farmer reminds himself of the many excellent points of the offending spouse, and how "she and I was happy before we quarrelled so."
And when she dies, I wish that she would be laid by me,
And, lyin' together in silence, perhaps we will agree;
And, if ever we meet in heaven I wouldn't think it queer
If we loved each other better because we quarrelled here.
(1873.)
Betsey Bobbet, the sentimental spinster who wears out the patience of Josiah Allen's wife with poetry and opinions.
"She is fairly activ' to make a runnin' vine of herself.... It seems strange to me that them that preach up the doctrine of woman's only spear don't admire one who carries it out to its full extent."—Marietta Holley, My Opinions and Betsey Bobbet's (1872).