Abigail's self-styling as a handmaid led to Abigail being a traditional term for a waiting-woman, for example as the waiting gentlewoman in Beaumont and Fletcher's The Scornful Lady, published in 1616.
The act of Abigail identifying herself as a handmaid resulted in her being referred to as a traditional term for a waiting woman, like the "waiting gentlewoman" found in Beaumont and Fletcher's play "The Scornful Lady," published in 1616.