The Learned Lady in England_ 1650-1760 Myra Reynolds 1421 downloads.pdf

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Learned Lady in
England, 1650-1760
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: The Learned Lady in England, 1650-1760

Author: Myra Reynolds

Release date: September 3, 2015 [eBook #49867]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49867

Credits: Produced by Clarity, John Campbell, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEARNED
LADY IN ENGLAND, 1650-1760 ***

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful
comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
Repeated headings were removed to avoid redundancy for the reader.
More detail can be found at the end of the book.

Vassar Semi-Centennial Series
ELIZABETHAN TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ITALIAN. By Mary Augusta
Scott, Ph.D. (A.B. Vassar, 1876), Professor of English Literature in Smith
College.
SOCIAL STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. By Laura J. Wylie, Ph.D. (A.B.
Vassar, 1877), Professor of English in Vassar College.
THE LEARNED LADY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. By Myra Reynolds,
Ph.D. (A.B. Vassar, 1880), Professor of English Literature in Chicago University.
[In preparation.]
THE CUSTOM OF DRAMATIC ENTERTAINMENT IN SHAKESPEARE'S
PLAYS. By Orie J. Hatcher, Ph.D. (A.B. Vassar, 1888), Formerly Associate
Professor of Comparative Literature in Bryn Mawr College. [In preparation.]
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF VARIABLE STARS. By Caroline E.
Furness, Ph.D. (A.B. Vassar, 1891), Professor of Astronomy in Vassar College.
MOVEMENT AND MENTAL IMAGERY. By Margaret Floy Washburn, Ph.D.
(A.B. Vassar, 1891), Professor of Psychology in Vassar College.
BRISSOT DE WARVILLE: A STUDY IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION. By Eloise Ellery, Ph.D. (A.B. Vassar, 1897), Associate
Professor of History in Vassar College.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Boston and New York

THE LEARNED LADY IN
ENGLAND

1650-1760

LADY JANE GREY
From an engraving in Edmund Lodge's Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain
London, 1823, Vol. II

Vassar Semi-Centennial Series

THE LEARNED LADY
IN ENGLAND
1650-1760

BY

MYRA REYNOLDS
Professor of English Literature in the University of Chicago

WITH PORTRAITS

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1920

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY MYRA REYNOLDS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PUBLISHED IN HONOR OF THE

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE

FOUNDING OF VASSAR COLLEGE
1865-1915

TO

E. E. L.

CONTENTS
I. Learned Ladies in England before 1650 1
1. Prefatory Statement 1
2. Period of Henry VIII and Elizabeth 4
3. Period from 1603 to 1650 23
4. Schools for Girls before 1660 37
II. Learned Ladies in England from 1650 to 1760 46
1. An Introductory Group in the Years 1650-1675 46
2. The Century following the Restoration 81
Actresses 81
Artists 84
Authors 88
Writers on Practical Subjects 89
Writers on Religion and Theology 92
Writers on Practical Beneficence 118
Dramatic Writers 127
General Learning and Literary Work 137
III. Education 258
1. Boarding-Schools for Girls 258
2. Charity Schools 268
3. Higher Education 271
Miscellaneous Books on Women in Social and
IV. 316
Intellectual Life
V. Satiric Representations of the Learned Lady in Comedy 372
Summary 420
Bibliography 457
Index 477

ILLUSTRATIONS
Lady Jane Grey Frontispiece
The Family of Sir Thomas More 10
Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke 22
Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and
32
Montgomery
Mary Ward 38
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle
46
From Horace Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle
From The Lives of William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, and of his 52
Wife, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle
Mrs. Katherine Philips 56
Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson and her Son 70
Lady Fanshawe 74
Mrs. Anne Killigrew 86
Mrs. Aphra Behn 130
Elizabeth Elstob 170
The Supposed Editors of The Female Spectator, by Mrs.
216
Eliza Haywood
Miss Elizabeth Carter 256
Mrs. Bathsua Makin 276

THE LEARNED LADY IN ENGLAND

CHAPTER I
LEARNED LADIES IN ENGLAND BEFORE 1650
1. Prefatory Statement

The theme to which this volume is specifically limited is the position and
achievements of learned women in England in the period between 1650 and
1760. But before entering upon this detailed study it seems desirable to give
a preliminary sketch of the work of learned women in England before 1650.
In such a sketch it is, indeed, a temptation to go farther back along the path
of history than a single volume would allow. It is difficult, for instance, to
avoid some account of the women of genius notable in the great days of
Greece and Rome.[1] More fascinating still would be a close study of the
learned nuns of the Middle Ages.[2] St. Radegunde, Abbess of Poitiers, a
poet of considerable distinction; St. Hilda, who governed her double
monastery at Whitby so successfully as to put it "in the forefront of
intellectual agencies in Great Britain"; the group of learned nuns who
corresponded with St. Boniface, chief among them being St. Lioba, who
made of her convent at Bischopsheim, Germany, "the most important
educational center in that part of Europe"; Hroswitha of Gandersheim,
whose seven dramas "caused the tragic muse to emerge once more from the
midnight gloom of the Middle Ages";[3] St. Hildegard, "the most
voluminous woman writer of the Middle Ages"; St. Herrad, author of an
encyclopædic work entitled Hortus Deliciarum, or Garden of Delight—
these are but a few of the women whose lives and works offer a field for
profitable and interesting investigation.
Emily James Putnam, in her acute study, The Lady, says of this convent
life:
No institution of Europe has ever won for the lady the freedom and development that she
enjoyed in the convent in the early days. The modern colleges for women only feebly
reproduce it, since the college for women has arisen when colleges in general are under a
cloud. The lady-abbess, on the other hand, was part of the two great social forces of her
time, feudalism and the Church. Great spiritual rewards and great worldly prizes were alike
within her grasp. She was treated as an equal by men of her time as is witnessed by letters
we still have from popes and emperors to abbesses. She had the stimulus of competition
with men in executive capacity, in scholarship, and in artistic production, since her work
was freely set before the general public: but she was relieved by the circumstances of her
environment from the ceaseless competition in common life of woman with woman for the

favor of the individual man. In the cloister of the great days, as on a small scale in the
college for women to-day, women were judged by each other as men are everywhere
judged by each other, for sterling qualities of head and heart and character.[4]

From mediæval poems and romances also come glimpses, tantalizingly
brief and casual, to be sure, yet glimpses indicative of a tendency to count
learning as one of the possible charms of a heroine.[5] The delightful lady in
Cursor Mundi, who was described as "learnyd, ware and wise," was also
said to be "of much price lovéd." A later maid, likewise of "grete prys,"
could vie with a modern college girl in the variety and extent of her
knowledge:
Wyse sche was and curtes of mowthe,
All the vii arse sche cowthe.
She had maystures at hur honde,
The wysest men of that londe,
And taght hur astronomye,
Arsmetryck and gemetrye.
That mayde was of grete prys
For sche was bothe warre and wyse.[6]

In Floris and Blanchefleur, Floris refused to study unless Blanchefleur
was taught with him, and she prospered so at her books that her lore was a
wonder to all. When she and Floris had been in school five years together,
they knew Latin and could write well on parchment. When Floris went to
visit his aunt she set him to learn many things, as other children did, "bot
maydons and grome."[7] The wife of Sir Bevis of Hamtoun was taught
"fysik and sirgerie" by great masters from Bologna.[8] Melior, the fair
mistress of Partonope of Blois, since she was the only heir to the kingdom,
was sent to school that she might get great wisdom. She says, "A hundred
mastres I had and mo," and adds that God graciously inclined her to
learning so that she came to know "the seven sciences" perfectly. She was
also trained in herbs and "phisike," in "Divinite and Nygromancy."[9]
Thaise, in Apollonius of Tyre, combined the "wisdom of a clerk" with

every lusti werk,
Which to a gentlewoman longeth.

She was wel kept, sche was wel loked
Sche was wel tawht, sche was wel boked
So wel sche spedde hir in hire yowthe
That sche of every wisdom cowthe.[10]

Medea, in Lydgate's Troy Book, had so passionate a desire for knowledge
that she became in all the "artis called liberal" as expert and knowing as the
best. She was powerful in logic, astronomy, and necromancy.[11]
But the highly prized ladies of romance, the abbesses with all their pomp
and influence, the women poets, philosophers, and orators of Greece and
Rome, all lose interest when compared with the story of the learned women
in Italy during the Renascence. When we come to the actual flowering time
of their genius the list is so long as to make selection difficult. "Never in
history," says Mozans, "had they greater freedom of action in things of the
mind; never were they, except probably in the case of the English and
German abbesses of the Middle Ages, treated with more marked deference
and consideration or fairness; never were their efforts more highly
appreciated or more generously rewarded.... Everywhere the intellectual
arena was open to them on the same terms as to men. Incapacity and not sex
was the only bar to entrance."[12] When the great Cardinal Bembo said,
"Little girls should learn Latin; it completes their charm," he was expressing
the attitude of the best Italian scholars towards learning for women.
Intellectual attainments were not only counted appropriate for women, but
they were recognized as a distinct added attraction. Every city of
importance had women whose renown was a source of civic pride. Women
not only studied under tutors, but they apparently attended classes in the
great universities, and even occupied important chairs in the most
distinguished faculties.[13]
The outcome of a general investigation along the lines indicated would
doubtless go to prove that in all civilized nations, in all ages of their
progress, there have been individual women who by force of native
endowment and through some favorable conjunction of circumstances, have
risen into prominence in realms not ordinarily open to the women of their
time, and that there have been various interesting epochs when women have
responded in fairly large numbers to some exceptional intellectual stimulus.
2. Period of Henry VIII and Elizabeth

The first woman author in the English language is probably Juliana
Barnes (or Berners), whose delight in hunting, hawking, and fishing, along
with a surprising amount of technical knowledge on these subjects, led her
to write, in 1481, a book for "the gentill men and honest persones" whose

tastes coincided with hers. But this lady was prioress of Sopewell Nunnery
and comes under the list of learned nuns.[14] Genuine interest in books on
the part of women in secular life in England received one of its earliest
manifestations in the will of the Duchess of Buckingham who left to her
daughter-in-law, Margaret, the Countess of Richmond,[15] "a book of
English, being a legend of Saints; a book of French, called Lucun; another
book of French, of the Epistles and Gospels; and a Primmer with clasps of
silver gilt, covered with purple velvet." This legacy was an important
recognition of the literary tastes of the Countess of Richmond who had,
says Ballard, "a fine library stored with Latin, French and English books,
not collected for ornament, or to make a figure (as is frequently the case)
but for use." The Countess knew French and had some knowledge of Latin.
She also entered the field of authorship, publishing before 1509 The
mirroure of golde for the sinfull soule, "translated at Parice out of Laten into
Frenshe ... and now of late translated out of Frenshe into Englishe by the
right excellent Princess Margaret." This right noble Margaret was likewise a
patroness of literature and a guardian of learning. She established
lectureships in divinity, maintained scholarships for poor students, founded
two colleges, and in other ways manifested her interest in the progress of
education.
The Countess of Richmond as a lover of books, as a translator of
religious works, and particularly as an intelligent and ardent patron of
learning, foreshadowed feminine activities of a later day. But the learned
lady as a recognized factor in social life had no real place in England till the
time of Henry VIII. Renascence ideas concerning the education of women
came into England from Spain through Catherine, the first wife of Henry
VIII. She was in England from 1501 to 1531. Under the influence of her
mother, Queen Isabella,[16] she had been given remarkable educational
advantages. Queen Isabella was interested in all that pertained to learning.
She was a collector of books and contributed important accessions to
Spanish libraries. She knew several modern languages and had a "critically
accurate" knowledge of Latin. Learning for women was encouraged at her
court. The queen had herself a lady teacher, Beatrix Galindo, who was
professor of rhetoric at the University of Salamanca, and who was called,
for her knowledge of the Latin language, La Latina. Other learned ladies of
Spain were doubtless known at the court, as Francisca de Lebrixa who often

took the place of her father, professor of history in the University of Alcala;
or Doña Maria Pacheco de Mendoza and her sister, who are mentioned by
Mr. Foster as the parallels of Sir Thomas More's daughters in England.[17]
In this eager, ambitious, intellectual atmosphere the daughters of Isabella
were brought up. She gave them personal instruction, and secured for them
foreign teachers of eminence. Erasmus said that Catherine had been happily
reared on letters from her infancy, that she loved literature, and that she was
egregie docta. In the English court Queen Catherine's influence was all on
the side of learning. Mr. Watson says that all the treatises on the education
of women that appeared in England between 1523 and 1538 were under the
spell of Catherine.[18] In the education of her own daughter, the Princess
Mary, she kept to the traditions of the Spanish court and secured the most
learned tutors for the young girl. Dr. Lynacre wrote for the child Princess a
Rudiments of Grammar. His successor was Juan Luis Vives, who came to
England in 1523 on the invitation of Henry VIII. Whether Vives actually
taught the Princess or not, he wrote, in 1523, as director of her studies, two
Latin treatises, both dedicated to Queen Catherine. The first of these, De
Institutione Fæminæ Christiannæ, was translated into English by Richard
Hyrde before 1528 (though not printed till 1540) under the title, The
Instruction of a Christian Woman. Hyrde dedicated his translation to
Catherine because of her gracious zeal "to the virtuous education of the
womankind of this realm." Vives's second treatise, De Ratione Studii, an
account of the studies appropriate for a young girl, appeared in 1524, and
many editions are listed. Still another treatise is by subject-matter and
chronology closely connected with the two essays by Vives. In 1524 there
appeared a translation by Margaret Roper of Erasmus's Treatise on the
Lord's Prayer. The Introduction was by Mr. Hyrde, and its importance is
indicated by Mr. Watson when he calls it "the first reasoned claim of the
Renascence period, written in English, for the higher education of women."
These treatises by Vives and Hyrde have much in common and they express
the most advanced contemporary ideas on woman's education. That the
place of woman is in the home is emphatically stated. Housewifery is
imperative. Vives has a charming passage on the handling of wool and flax,
"two crafts yet left of that old innocent world," crafts of which no woman,
be she princess or queen, may be rightly ignorant.[19] Almost equal in quaint
interest is his defense of the kitchen: "Nor let nobody loathe the name of the
kitchen: namely, being a thing very necessary, without the which neither

sick folks can amend nor whole folks live." The lady should also be
mistress of a closet of medicaments which she must be able to administer
with skill. Occupations that involve any sort of publicity are counted
inappropriate for women, hence Vives gives "no license to a woman to be a
teacher."[20] The essential feminine virtues are piety and modesty.
Obedience to parents and to husbands is enjoined. This obedience, if born
of inner concord, might be a voluntary and ideal thing. The mother of Vives
is given as an example of the true wifely attitude: "My mother Blanche
when she had been fifteen years married unto my father, I could never see
her strive with my father. There were two sayings that she had ever in her
mouth as proverbs. When she would say she believed well anything, then
she used to say, even as though Luis Vives had spoken it. When she would
say that she would [wished] anything, she used to say, even as though Luis
Vives would it."[21] In all these points Vives and Hyrde were quite in accord
with their age. The new element in their creed was that learning could make
women more attractive, companionable, and efficient in these home
relationships.[22] Hyrde considers the man that "had leaver have his wife a
fool than a wise woman" as "worse than twice frantic." Maids must be
good, says Vives, but learning will fortify them and make them more truly
good. In fact, according to Vives and Hyrde, there are no bounds to be set to
the learning of women except those involved in the one general prescription
that all their studies must tend to the development of character. Romances,
for instance, are forbidden because they give false ideals, while ethical and
religious books are strongly commended.[23]
The Princess Mary was too young to know the significance of the essays
in her behalf, but she profited by the training accorded her. When she was
but nine she was addressed by commissioners from Holland in the Latin
tongue and responded in the same language "with as much assurance and
facility as if she had been twelve years of age."[24] Her parents were proud
of her achievements and planned to have her learn modern languages. Later
in life, at the solicitation of Queen Catherine Parr, she translated Erasmus's
Paraphrase on the Gospel of St. John, and her work was highly praised.
The example set at court was followed in many noble families. There is
in the realm of education no single picture more entertaining and attractive
than that of Sir Thomas More and his daughters. Our knowledge of this
family comes from various sources, the chief of which are a description

written by Erasmus in a letter to John Faber, and the letters written by Sir
Thomas to the tutors and to his daughters, especially to his daughter
Margaret.[25] Sir Thomas could not see why learning was not as suitable for
girls as for boys. In a letter to Gunnel he wrote:
Neither is there anie difference in harvest time, whether it was man or woman, that
sowed first the corne: for both of them beare name of a reasonable creature equally, whose
nature reason only doth distinguish from bruite beastes, and therefore I do not see why
learning in like manner may not equally agree with both sexes; for by it, reason is
cultivated, and (as a fielde) sowed with wholesome precepts, it bringeth excellent fruit. But
if the soyle of woman's braine be of its own nature bad, and apter to beare fearne then
corne (by which saying manie doe terrifye women from learning) I am of opinion therefore
that a woman's witt is the more diligently by good instructions and learning to be manured,
to the ende, the defect of nature may be redressed by industrie.[26]

In describing the ideal wife he said: "May she be learned, if possible, or at
least capable of being made so,"[27] and he gave the same training to
Margaret and her sisters as to his son John. The fame of these daughters
went far. Symon Grinæus, in dedicating his Plato to John, speaks of the
young man's sisters as those "whom a divine heat of the spirit, to the
admiration and a new example of this our age, hath driven into the sea of
learning so far, and so happily, that they see no learning to be above their
reach, no disputation of philosophy above their capacity."[28] Margaret, the
daughter "most like her father both in favour and wit," and "a rare woman
for learning, sanctity, and secrecy,"[29] was especially the source of his
pride. His delight in her overflows in his charming response to a letter from
her asking for money: "You aske monye, deare Megg, too shamefully and
fearefully of your father, who is both desirous to giue it you, and your letter
hath deserued it, which I could find in my heart to recompence, not as
Alexander did by Cherilus, giuing him for every verse a Philipine of golde;
but if my abilities were answerable to my will, I would bestowe two
Crownes of pure golde for euery sillable thereof."[30] He found her Latin
letters written in so pure a style that "Momus, his censure though never so
teastie," could find no fault in them. Sir Thomas took occasion to show
these letters and other compositions by Margaret to the Bishop of Exeter
and to Reginald Pole, both good judges of any literary performance; and
Margaret's attainments seemed to both "as a miracle." Of Mr. Pole's
amazement Sir Thomas wrote:
I could scarce make him believe, but that you had some help from your maister, until I
told him seriously that you had not only never a maister in your house, but also never

another man, that needed not your help rather in writing anie thing, than you needed his. In
the mean time I thought with myself how true I found that now, which once I remember I
spoke unto you in jeaste, when I pittied your hard happe, that men that read your writings
would suspect you to have had help from some other man therein; which would derrogate
somewhat from the praises due to your workes; seeing that you of all others deserve least
to have such a suspition had of you, for that you never could abide to be decked with the
plumes of other birds.[31]

But sweet Meg is praised because she studies for love of learning, not for
fame, and contents herself with her husband and father as a sufficient
audience. When Margaret married the best wish her father could make was
that her children should be most like to herself, "except only in sex," yet he
adds that a daughter who could imitate her mother's learning and virtues
would be of more worth than "three boys."[32]

THE FAMILY OF SIR THOMAS MORE
Hans Holbein pinxit. W. Parsons sculp. 1815
From an engraving in Effigies Poeticae, London, 1824, Vol. II

Margaret had three sons and two daughters and she took the same care of
their education as had been taken of hers. Dr. John Morwen, a noted Greek
scholar, was preceptor in Greek and Latin to her daughter Mary. Other
tutors were Dr. Cole and Dr. Christopherson, also famous for Greek. Mary
seems to have followed in her mother's footsteps so far as attention to
learned pursuits is concerned, but without her mother's ability and charm.
Her Latin orations were, however, so much admired that her tutor, Dr.
Morwen, translated them into English. Sir Thomas More's other daughters,
Elizabeth Dancy (b. 1509) and Cecilia Heron (b. 1510), and Margaret, a
talented kinswoman who married her tutor, Dr. John Clement, in 1531, were
given the same educational advantages as Margaret. A characteristic eulogy
of the three sisters was by Mr. John Leland, its Latin being thus Englished
in Ballard's Memoirs:
Forbear too much t' extoll, great Rome, from hence,
Thy fam'd Hortensius' Daughter's Eloquence;
These boasted names are now eclips'd by Three
More learned Nymphs, Great More's fair Progeny;
Who over-pas'd the Spinster's mean Employ;
The purest Latin Authors were their Joy;
They loved in Rome's political Style to write,
And with the choicest Eloquence indite,
Nor were they conversant alone in these,
They turn'd o'er Homer and Demosthenes;
From Aristotle's Store of Learning too
The mystic Art of Reasoning well they drew.
Then blush you Men if you neglect to trace
These Heights of Learning which the Female grace.[33]

Erasmus and Sir Thomas More were close friends and it was through this
friendship that Erasmus was converted to the idea of advanced studies for
women. In his The Abbot and the Learned Woman, Magdalia defends
learning against the Abbot Antronius. The monk uses the well-worn
argument that woman's place is in the home, that it is her business to
conduct the affairs of the family and to instruct the children. Magdalia does
not contest this position, but urges that so weighty a business needs all
possible wisdom and that through books she gains wisdom. In a sharp
attack on the ignorance of the monks she says: "In Spain and Italy there are
not a few women belonging to the noblest families who are a match for any
man. In England there are the Mores; in Germany the Pirckheimers and the
Blaurers. And if you don't take care, it will soon come to this, that we shall
preside in the schools of divinity, preach in the churches, and take

possession of your mitres.... If you go on as you are doing it is more likely
that the geese will begin to preach than that such dumb shepherds as you
will be any longer endured."[34] Antronius is reduced to the weak argument
that popular opinion does not favor Latin for women, and Magdalia closes
the discussion with the classic defense of new ideas: "Why do you tell me
of popular opinion, which is the worst example in the world to be followed?
What have I to do with custom, that is the mistress of all evil practices? We
ought to accustom ourselves to the best things, and by that means that
which was uncustomary would become habitual, and that which was
unpleasant would become pleasant, and that which seemed unbecoming
would look graceful."[35]
The daughters of Sir Thomas More were not the only girls trained in the
best learning of the day. Another important family where particular stress
was laid on the education of the daughters was that of Sir Anthony Coke,
one of the tutors of King Edward VI.[36] Mildred, the eldest daughter (1526-
1589), who married Lord Burleigh, was celebrated for her knowledge of
Latin and Greek. Two other daughters, Elizabeth, Lady Russel (b. cir.
1529), and Katharine, Mrs. Killigrew (b. cir. 1530), had fine natural abilities
and a learned education, and were distinguished both socially and
intellectually. But the most noted of the sisters was Anne (b. cir. 1527), who
married Sir Nicholas Bacon, and became the mother of two remarkable
sons, Anthony Bacon, and Francis Viscount St. Albans, the great Lord
Bacon. She was said to be "exquisitely skilled in the Greek, Latin, and
Italian tongues." In 1550 she translated twenty-five sermons from the
Italian. In later life she did a much more important piece of translation.
Bishop Jewel had written in Latin An Apology for the Church of England.
The book had made so great a stir that an English translation seemed
desirable and Lady Bacon undertook the task. She sent her translation to the
Archbishop and to the author, with a letter written in Greek, that they might
correct any errors, but they found it so accurate that they changed not the
least word. In 1564 the Archbishop had the book published without
consulting Lady Bacon because he said he knew her modesty would be
abashed by any such publicity. He praised her clear translation saying that
she "had done honour to her sex and to the degree of ladies." Lady Bacon
was associated with her father in his duties as tutor to Edward VI. She also
conducted the early education of her sons and they owed much to her wise

care and great ability. Sir Anthony Coke believed that women should be
educated on the same lines as men, and that they were quite as capable of
acquiring knowledge, and his own daughters brilliantly sustained this
theory.
A third distinguished family in which the daughters were liberally
educated was that of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. Three of them,
Anne, Margaret, and Jane, were joint authors of A Century of Distichs upon
the Death of Queen Margaret of Navarre, printed in 1550 and later
translated into Greek, French, and Italian.[37] Henry Fitz Allan, Earl of
Arundel, had both his daughters well trained in the classics and they had the
advantage of the notable library he had collected. The eldest, Lady Joanna
Lumley[38] (d. 1576), translated four of the Orations of Isocrates from
Greek into Latin, and the Iphigenia of Euripides from Greek into English.
Most of her writings were dedicated to her father. Her manuscripts were
preserved in his library and so passed into royal possession in the time of
James I. Another learned lady was Mary, Countess of Arundel.[39] She
translated from Greek and Latin and collected a book of similes from Plato,
Aristotle, Seneca, and other classic authors. She, too, dedicated her works
to her father, Sir Thomas Arundel. Sir Thomas Parr, "following the example
of Sir Thomas More and other great men," bestowed on his daughter
Catherine[40] a learned education, as "the most valuable addition he could
make to her other charms." She was interested in all matters pertaining to
learning, and successfully used her influence with the King in behalf of the
universities. She wrote a letter in Latin to the Princess Mary to induce her to
translate Erasmus's Paraphrase of St. John, and wrote many psalms,
prayers, and meditations, beside Queene Katherine Parre's lamentation of a
sinner, published in 1548. Jane, Countess of Westmoreland, was placed by
her father, the Earl of Surrey, under the tuition of Mr. Fox, the
Martyrologist, who reported her skill in Latin and Greek as such "that she
might well stand in competition with the greatest men of that age."[41]
Most interesting and most pathetic of all the young women known for
learning in Tudor times was Lady Jane Grey.[42] Ascham, in a well-known
passage in The Scholemaster (1570), describes an interview he had with her
at Bradgate where she was pursuing her studies under John Aylmer, her
tutor. This was in 1550 when Lady Jane was but thirteen.

Before I went into Germanie, I came to Brodegate in Le(i)cestershire, to take my leaue
of that noble Ladie Iane Grey, to whom I was exeding moch beholdinge. Hir parentes, the
Duke and Duches, with all the houshold, Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, were huntinge in
the Parke; I founde her, in her Chamber, readinge Phædon Platonis in Greeke, and that
with as moch delite, as som ientlemen wold read a merie tale in Bocase. After salutation,
and dewtie done, with som other taulke, I asked her, whie she wold leese soch pastime in
the Parke! smiling she answered me; I wisse, all their sporte in the Parke is but a shoadoe
to that pleasure, that I find in Plato: Alas good folke, they neuer felt what trewe pleasure
ment. And howe came you Madame, quoth I, to this deepe knowledge of pleasure, and
what did chieflie allure you vnto it: seinge, not many women, but verie fewe men haue
attained thereunto. I will tell you, quoth she, and to tell you a troth, which perchance ye
will meruell at. One of the greatest benefites, that euer God gaue me, is, that he sent me so
sharpe and seuere Parentes, and so ientle a scholemaster. For when I am in the presence of
either father or mother, whether I speake, kepe silence, sit, stand, or go, eate, drinke, be
merie, or sad, be sowyng, plaiyng, dauncing, or doing anie thing els, I most do it, as it
were, in soch weight, mesure, and number, euen so perfitelie, as God made the world, or
else I am so sharplie taunted, so cruellie threatened, yea presentlie some tymes with
pinches, nippes, and bobbes, and other waies, which I will not name, for the honor I bear
them, so without measure mis-ordered, that I think my selfe in hell, till tyme cum, that I
must go to M. Elmer, who teacheth me so ientlie, so pleasantlie, with soch faire
allurements to learning, that I thinke all the tyme nothing, whiles I am with him. And when
I am called from him, I fall on weeping because, what soeuer I do els, but learning, is ful of
grief, trouble, feare, and whole misliking unto me: And thus my booke, hath bene so moch
my pleasure, and bringeth dayly to me more pleasure and more, that in respect of it, all
other pleasures, in vere deede be but trifles and troubles vnto me. I remember this talke
gladly, bothe bicause it is so worthy of memorie, and bicause also, it was the last talke that
euer I had, and the last tyme, that euer I saw that noble and worthie Ladie.

Mr. Elmer said she understood perfectly both kinds of philosophy, and
could express herself very properly at least in the Latin and Greek tongues.
Sir Thomas Chaloner said that she was "well versed in Hebrew, Chaldee,
Arabic, French and Italian," that she "played well on instrumental music,
writ a curious hand, and was excellent at her Needle." Ballard quotes a
contemporaneous opinion that she was superior to King Edward VI in
learning and in the languages. "If her fortunes [says he] had been as good as
her bringing up, joyned with fineness of wit: undoubtedly she might have
seemed comparable not only to the house of the Vespasians, Sempronians,
and mother of the Gracchies; yea, to any other women besides that
deserveth high praise for their singular learning; but also to the university
men, which have taken many degrees of the Schools."
So far as accessible records go it was only in royal or noble families that
a learned education was counted suitable for women. It is rare indeed to
come upon an account like that of Elizabeth Lucar (1510-1537), the
daughter of a Mr. Paul Withypoll, and the wife of a merchant-tailor, Mr.

Lucar. In her accomplishments she seems to have vied with the best ladies
in the land. She was excellent in music, being able to play on the viol, the
lute, and the virginal, and she could sing in various tongues.
She wrought all Needle-works that Women exercise,
With Pen, Frame, or Stoole, all Pictures artificial,
Curious Knots, or Trailes, what fancy could devise,
Beasts, Birds, or Flowers, even as things natural.

She wrote "three manner hands," was especially cunning in accounts and
"Algorism" (Arithmetic), and she could speak, write, and read Latin,
Spanish, and Italian, and she "won the garland" in English.[43] Our
knowledge of Elizabeth Withypoll's rare attainments comes by chance from
the information on her monument. Probably there were other highly
educated women in the wealthy middle classes but their learned tastes were
not counted worthy of any definite record.
In addition to the many instances of girls trained in the best learning of
their times during the first half of the sixteenth century, we have striking
contemporary testimony as to the prevalence of the custom, and the high
esteem in which such learning was held. Richard Mulcaster (1530-1611),
first head-master of a school founded by the Merchant Taylors' Company in
1561, in discussing principles of education, expressed advanced ideas
concerning the ability and training of girls.[44] He declared himself "for
them toothe and naile." He says that their "natural towardnesse" is such that
they should be well brought up, and he summarizes the elements of this
training. A young gentlewoman is thoroughly educated, he says, if she can
"reade plainly, and distinctly, write faire and swiftly, sing cleare and
sweetly, play wel and finely, understand and speak the learned languages,
and the tongues also which the time most embraseth with some logicall
helpe to chop, and some rhetoricke to brave." And he asks whether it is
likely that the children of a woman so trained will be "eare a whit the worse
brought up" for this learning. The places wherein girls may study may be at
home with tutors or they may go forth to the elementary school. And the
teacher may be either a man or a woman. Mulcaster was himself in favor of
sending girls to the public grammar schools, and even to the universities,
but he said it was "a thing not used" in his country, there was no "president"
therefor. But he is enthusiastic about the attainments of women. In
languages, he says, "they compare favourably with our kinde in the best
degree." Some of them are so excellently trained and so rarely qualified that

they could be preferred to "the best Romaine or Greekish paragones be they
never so much praised: to the Germaine or French gentlewymen by late
writers so wel liked: to the Italian ladies who dare write themselves and
deserve fame for so doing."
Nicholas Udall, in 1548, in a Preface to Princess Mary's translation of the
Paraphrase of the Gospel of St. John by Erasmus, comments on the great
number of noble women at that time in England given not only to human
sciences and strange tongues, but
also so throughly expert in the Holy Scriptures that they were able to compare with the best
writers as well in enditeing and penning of Godly and fruitful treatises to the instruction
and edifying of realmes in the knowledge of God, as also in translating good books out of
Latin or Greek into English.... It was now no news in England to see young damsels in
noble houses and in the courts of princes, instead of cards and other instruments of idle
trifling, to have continually in their hands either psalms, homilies, or other devout
meditations ... and as familiarly both to read or reason thereof in Greek, Latin, French or
Italian, as in English. It was now a common thing to see young virgins so trained in the
study of good letters, that they willingly set all other vain pastimes at naught for learning
sake. It was now no news at all, to see Queens and ladies of most high estate and progeny,
instead of courtly dalliance, to embrace virtuous exercises of reading and writing, and with
most earnest study both early and late, to apply themselves to the acquiring of knowledge.
[45]

Puttenham, in his Arte of English Poesie (1589), indicates the prevalence
of women poets in the sixteenth century when he says:
Darke word or doubtfull speach are not so narrowly to be looked vpon in a large poeme,
nor specially in the pretie Poesies and deuises of Ladies and Gentlewomen-makers, whom
we would not haue too precise Poets least with their shrewd wits, when they were maried
they might become a little too fantasticall wiues.[46]

One of the influential foreign books of the first half of the sixteenth
century was Baldasar Castiglione's Il Cortegiano, written in 1514,
published in 1528, and translated into English in 1561 by Thomas Hoby.
The book is a conversation supposed to take place in the drawing-room of
the Duchess of Urbino, with the Duchess, her friend Emilia Pia, Pietro
Bembo, Bernardo Bibbiena, Giuliano de Medici, and others, among the
speakers. In the chapter on the attributes of the perfect Court Lady, Count
Gaspar Pallavicino says, "Since you have given women letters and
continence and magnanimity and temperance I only marvel that you would
not have them govern cities, make laws, and lead armies, and let the men
stay at home to cook or spin."[47] Giuliano de Medici replies, laughing,
"Perhaps even that would not be amiss." There follows a discussion of

woman as essentially imperfect, an accident or mistake of nature, and
consequently of less dignity than men and not capable of those virtues to
which men attain. But the Magnifico held the doctrine that physical
weakness does not constitute inferiority, and that mentally women are equal
to men: "All the things that men can understand the same can women
understand too; and where the intellect of the one penetrates there also can
that of the other penetrate."
It is but natural that the praise of learning for women should extend
through the reign of Elizabeth. The Queen herself was an admirable
linguist. She spoke and wrote Latin with ease; she was a student of Plato,
Aristotle, and Xenophon; and she made translations into English from
French and Italian, even translating from Latin into Greek. According to
Ascham she read more Greek every day than some Prebendaries read Latin
in a week, and bestowed more regular hours on learning than six of the best
given gentlemen in the court. It was also in accordance with the ideals of
the age that the Queen should wish to shine as a poetess. Dyce, in his
Specimens of British Poetesses, says that except for the speech of the
Chorus in the Hercules Acteus of Seneca (printed in Park's edition of
Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors) he gives, and for the first time in
collected form, all the poems by this "Flower of Troynovant." It is all
occasional verse, such as a sonnet on that lovely "daughter of debate," Mary
Queen of Scots, a Rebus, an Epitaph, and a few other stanzas. One little
poem beginning
I grieve but dare not show my discontent,

with much that is conventional in expression, seems yet to have a genuine
note of personal feeling. Taken as a whole the brief sum of the Queen's
verse indicates no poetic aptitude. It merely goes to show that verse writing
was counted an agreeable accomplishment, and one to be cultivated by a
queen.
Probably the most highly gifted woman during Elizabeth's reign was Jane
Weston (1582-1612).[48] And she was of high repute. When Evelyn went to
dine with Lord Cornbury at Clarendon House (December 20, 1668) to see
the new house "now bravely furnished, especially with the pictures of most
of our ancient and modern wits, poets, philosophers, famous and learned
Englishmen," he greatly commended his lordship's collection, but suggested

additional names of the learned. Among these new names were Lady Jane
Grey and Elizabeth Jane Weston. In Numismata Evelyn praised Jane
Weston's Latin poem on typography. Farnaby "ranked her with Sir Thomas
More and the best Latin poets of the day." She was reputed to speak and
write English, Greek, German, Latin, Italian and Czech. John Philips
praised her in his Theatrum Poetarum. "Weston's fair daughter," "the tenth
muse," "the fourth grace," received, indeed, very high contemporary
English recognition, and even more extravagant praise came from foreign
critics. Her collected works were published in 1602 by Georg Martin von
Baldhoven at his own cost. At the end of the book there was a list of learned
women beginning with Deborah and ending with Elizabeth Weston.
The only woman before 1603 in Aubrey's Lives, besides the Countess of
Pembroke, was Elizabeth Danvers. His notes on her are: "A great politician;
great witt and spirit, but revengefull. Knew how to manage her estate as
well as any man; understood jewells as well as any jeweller." He calls her
"an Italian," probably because she understood that language, and he says
"she had prodigious parts for a woman." Her learning was certainly
unusual, for "she had Chaucer at her fingers' ends." The only date given for
her is 1568, the year in which her son, Sir Charles Danvers, was born.[49]
To show that Scotland was not unrepresented, mention may be made of
Elizabeth Melville, supposed to be identical with Elizabeth Colville, Lady
Colville of Culross. In 1599 Alexander Hume dedicated to her his Hymns,
or Sacred Songs, and he says of her: "I know ye delite in poesie yourselfe;
and as I vnfainedly confes, excelles any of your sexe in that art, that ever I
heard within this nation. I have seene your compositions so copious, so
pregnant, so spirituall, that I doubt not but it is the gift of God in you."[50]
The one poem by which she is known, Ane Godlie Dreame compylit in
Scottish Meter by M. M. (Mistress Melville) Gentlewoman in Culross, at the
request of her freindes, was published in 1603. It appeared again in a
volume of Various Poetry in 1644, and in David Laing's Early Metrical
Tales in 1826. Dyce gives a few stanzas in his Specimens. The poem is a
Bunyan-like narrative in which the horrors of hell are painted with a
vigorous brush. In fact hell is made so distinct that even the mitigating and
finally saving presence of Christ as guide can hardly soften the pictures of
"puir damnit saullis ... frying wonder fast in flaming fire."[51]

The one lady of Elizabethan days whose fame justly exceeds that of any
of her predecessors is Mary Sidney (1561-1621),[52] sister of Sir Philip
Sidney. At sixteen she married Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and the
twenty-four years of her married life were passed at his estate, Wilton
House, in Wiltshire. Her brother Philip was often at Wilton and her more
important literary accomplishments are closely bound up with his work. It
was at Wilton that he wrote The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia which he
dedicated to his "dear ladie and sister." The brother and sister translated
together the whole book of Psalms into English verse. Psalms 44-150 are
attributed to Lady Pembroke. In 1592 she published two translations from
the French, Du Plessis Mournay's Le Excellent Discours de la Vie et de la
Mort; and Robert Garnier's Marc Antonie, a tragedy. Before 1600 she had
also translated The Triumph of Death from the Italian. In 1593 she brought
out her brother's Arcadia on which she had done most careful editorial
work. She had also a taste for science. Aubrey, in his Brief Lives, says of
her: "She was a great chymist, and spent yearly a great deale in that study.
[53]
She kept for her laborator in the house Adrian Gilbert (vulgarly called
Dr. Gilbert), half brother to Sir Walter Ralegh, who was a great chymist in
those dayes.... She also gave an honourable pension to Dr. Thomas
Mouffett, who hath writ a booke De insectis. Also one ... Boston, a good
chymist ... who did undoe himself by studying the philosopher's stone."
But while Lady Pembroke takes undoubtedly a high rank as translator
and editor, her fame does not rest chiefly on this work. When Nicholas
Breton compared her to the Duchess of Urbino he brought forward her
essential claim to distinction, which is that she understood, valued, and
befriended the literati of her day. Aubrey says: "In her time Wilton House
was like a College, there were so many learned and ingeniose persons. She
was the greatest patronesse of witt and learning of any lady in her time."
The most extravagant eulogies were addressed to her from girlhood to old
age. No such chorus of praise had been accorded any other woman except
the queen. But it must be noted that this adulation is mainly for Lady
Pembroke as the patroness of letters. Only incidentally are her own
scholastic attainments commended. It was as a lover of wit and learning, as
a dispenser of favors, that Lady Pembroke, the typical great lady of
Elizabethan days, expressed her interest in learning, rather than as herself a

scholar; and it was as an intelligent and open-handed patroness that she
received highest recognition.
Wotton, about a century later, gives the following summary of the
learning of this period: "It was so very modish, that the fair Sex seemed to
believe that Greek and Latin added to their Charms: and Plato and Aristotle
untranslated, were frequent ornaments of their Closets. One would think by
the Effects, that it was a proper Way of Educating of them, since there are
no Accounts in History of so many truly great Women in any one age, as are
to be found between the years 15 and 1600."[54]

MARY SIDNEY, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE
From an engraving in Horace Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, London, 1806

Though Wotton counts the century as one period, a closer study of dates
shows that most of the learned women of the century belong in the first half
of it, or at least obtained their education in the first half of it. The woman
most noted for classical attainments during Elizabeth's reign was Lady
Bacon. Her sisters also were of considerable importance intellectually, and
they lived well into the reign of Elizabeth. But their education and their
establishment as women of exceptional learning belong before the coming
of Elizabeth to the throne.
Miss Weston's learning is unquestioned, but it can hardly be credited to
England. She lived much abroad, her works were published in Holland, and
the praise accorded her in England was but an echo of the eulogies uttered
by foreign critics. In spite of Queen Elizabeth and Lady Mary Sidney, and
Lady Bacon and Jane Weston, it becomes apparent by a study of dates and
names that there were in Elizabeth's reign fewer eulogies of liberal
education for girls and fewer records of women distinguished by learning
than in the preceding period. In point of fact, when we speak of the
sixteenth century as a century of learned women, the emphasis should be on
the first sixty years of the century.
3. Period from 1603 to 1650

With the death of Elizabeth we come practically to the end of the favor
accorded learned women. The changed tone of public opinion may be fairly
indicated by a few scattered utterances from contemporary poems and
essays.
Sir Thomas Overbury, in his Characters (1614), describes "A Good
Woman" as one "whose husband's welfare is the business of her actions."
Her chief virtue is that "Shee is Hee." In A Wife he says that "Books are a
part of Man's Prerogative." He praises a "passive understanding" in women
and deprecates learning since
What it finds malleable it maketh frail
And doth not add more ballast, but more sail.

Powell, in Tom of All Trades (1631), is emphatic in his plea for the domestic
as against the learned lady: "Let them learne plaine workes of all kinds, so
they take heed of too open seaming. Instead of Song and Musicke, let them
learn Cookerie and Laundrie. And instead of reading in Sir Philip Sidney's
Arcadia, let them reade the grounds of good huswifery. I like not a female

Poetresse at any hand."[55] William Habington, in Castara (1634), a series
of poems in honor of Lucy Herbert, his wife, gave a comprehensive
description of the ideal wife's attitude towards her husband: "Shee is
inquisitive onely of new wayes to please him, and her wit sayles by no other
compass then that of his direction. Shee lookes upon him as Conjurers upon
the Circle, beyond which there is nothing but Death and Hell; and in him
shee beleeves Paradice circumscrib'd. His vertues are her wonder and
imitation; and his errors, her credulitie thinkes no more frailtie, then makes
him descend to the title of Man."[56] Richard Brathwait, in The English
Gentleman, comments with apparent approval on the ancient seclusion of
women. He says, "The Ægyptians, by an especiall decree (as Plutarch
reports) injoined their Women to weare no shooes, because they should
abide at home. The Grecians accustomed to burne, before the doore of the
new married, the axletree of that coach, wherein she was brought to her
husbands house, letting her understand that she was ever after to dwell
there."[57]
Sir Ralph Verney said of his own daughter: "Pegg is very backward.... I
doubt not but she will be schollar enough for a Woeman." With regard to
little Nancy Denton he wrote: "Let not your girl learn Latin nor short hand:
The difficulty of the first may keep her from that vice, for soe I must esteem
it in a woeman; but the easinesse of the other may be a prejudice to her; for
the pride of taking sermon noates hath made multitudes of women
unfortunate." Miss Nancy was quite in advance of her godfather in her
conception of the studies appropriate for her. She wrote to him: "I know you
and my coussenes wil out rech me in french, but i am a goeng whaar i hop i
shal out rech you in ebri grek and laten." Sir Ralph answered: "I did not
think you had been guilty of soe much learning as I see you are; and yet it
seems you rest unsatisfied or else you would not threaten Lattin, Greeke,
and Hebrew too. Good sweet harte bee not soe covitous; beleeve me a Bible
(with ye Common prayer) and a good plaine cattichisme in your mother
tongue being well read and practised, is well worth all the rest and much
more sutable to your sex; I know your Father thinks thise false doctrine, but
be confident your husband will bee of my oppinion. In French you can not
be too cunning for that language affords many admirable books fit for you
as Romances, Plays, Poetry, Stories of illustrious (not learned) Woemen,

receipts for preserving, makinge creames and all sorts of cookeryes, ordring
your gardens and in Breif, all manner of good housewifery."[58]
The general opinion was quite in accord with Luther when he said:
"Women should remain at home, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up
children";[59] or, at the best, with Milton's "He for God only, she for God in
him."[60]
Mr. Baldwyn, it is true, in 1619, in his New Help to Discourse, praises
England as the place where women had the greatest prerogatives. In
England, he says, women "are not kept so severely submiss" as in France,
nor so jealously guarded as in Italy. "England is termed by foreigners the
Paradise of Women as it is by some accounted the Hell of horses and the
Purgatory of Servants. And it is a common byword among the Italians that
if there were a bridge built over the narrow seas all women in Europe would
run into England."[61] But this favorable opinion must be discounted as
being a retrospective estimate based mainly on the attitude towards women
in the sixteenth century; and further, as being an Englishman's attempt to
exalt English as against continental customs.
Of more curious interest is the ingenious attempt of the Bishop of
London to interpret the account of the creation of Eve from Adam's rib as
an intention on the part of the Creator to teach the equality of woman with
man. The Bishop says: "The species of this bone is exprest to be costa, a
rib, a bone of the side, not of the head: a woman is not domina, the ruler;
nor of any anterior part; she is not prælata, preferred before the man; nor a
bone of the foote; she is not serva, a handmaid; nor of any hinder part; she
is not post-posita, set behind the man; but a bone of the side, of a middle
and indifferent part, to show that she is socia, a companion to her husband.
For qui jungunter lateribus, socii sunt, they that walke side to side, cheeke
to cheeke, walke as companions."[62]
One book definitely in honor of the ladies came out rather late in the
period. This was Charles Gerbier's Elogium Heroinum. The Ladies'
Vindication: or, The Praise of Worthy Women. The threefold dedication to
the Princess of Bohemia, "whose marvellous wisdom and profound
knowledge in Arts, Sciences, and Languages, is admired by all men," to the
Countess Dowager of Claire, "a Patroness of the Muses, a general Lover of
the Languages, and Knowledge"; and to the "Vertuous Accomplisht Lady

Anne Hudson," is justified by the three principles in natural philosophy, the
three theological virtues, and the three graces. "Woman," says Mr. Gerbier,
"is capable of as high improvement as man," an assertion which he
proceeds to establish by the following arguments: "Does not Sophia signify
wisdom? Are not Faith, Hope and Charity represented as Women? Are not
the Seven Liberal Arts exprest in Women's Shapes? Are not the Nine Muses
Daughters of Jupiter? Is not Wisdom called the Daughter of the Highest?"
His list of worthy women begins with the Queen of Sheba who disputed
with Solomon, goes enthusiastically through the famous dames of Greece
and Rome, including the Muses and the Sibyls, and touches upon later
learned women such as "Christine de Pisan, Margaret of Vallois, Lady Jane
Grey, the Countess of Pembroke, the daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke," and
a few other outstanding personages of Tudor times. Praise so heterogeneous
and uncritical was perhaps of little value, but such as it is, it stands alone in
England in the period between Elizabeth and Charles II as a defense of
learned women. And no defense or protest comes from the pen of a woman.
It should, however, be noted that in European countries women were
more vitally concerned in their own destinies. Between 1600 and 1641 there
appeared at least three significant books by women dealing with the
intellectual emancipation of their sex. The earliest of these came from Italy
in 1608 with a second edition in 1621. It was written by a young Venetian
widow, Lucrecia Marinelli (1571-1653), and was entitled Della notabilità e
della eccellenza delle donne e dei difetti degli uomini. A second and better
known book was by Marie de Jars, the fille d'alliance of Montaigne, usually
known as Mlle. de Gournay.[63] Her book, entitled L'Egalité des Hommes et
des Femmes, appeared in 1604 when "the Pride of Gournay," "the French
Siren," as she was called, had become well known in the cultivated circles
of Paris through her definitive edition of Montaigne's works in 1595. Mlle.
de Gournay's thesis as to the dignity and capacity of women is established
by divine authority and by citations from the church fathers and ancient
philosophers. She follows up these expressions of opinion by a thorough
résumé from sacred and profane history of the women who have worthily
held high places. M. Feugère[64] voices what must be the opinion of any
modern reader when he says that L'Egalité would be plus piquant without
the pedantic form in which it is cast, without les citations fréquentes et les
raisonnements scholastiques qui le surchargent. But however cumbersome

we may find her method, it apparently suited her public, for the book was
enthusiastically received.
The third and by far the most important book on the position and
desirable training of women was by Anna van Schurman of Utrecht. The
extremes to which Mlle. de Gournay carried her doctrines were distasteful
to Anna van Schurman, yet many of her ideas were doubtless based on the
work of her French predecessor, la mère du féminisme moderne. Anna van
Schurman's book was translated into English and had a direct influence on
the progress of English educational ideals for women. It is taken up in detail
later in this discussion.
The low estimate of learning, in the first half of the seventeenth century,
as an appropriate pursuit for women, had as its natural outcome a great
decrease in the number of women who devoted themselves to any form of
scholarship. The names that remain to us from this period as in any way
connected with literature or learning form a singularly inchoate list,
interesting, for the most part, because of the oddities it represents rather
than because of any solid achievements. Of considerable importance are
several ladies in the early years of the Stuarts who followed in the footsteps
of Lady Pembroke as patronesses of learning. The first of these was Lady
Bedford, who held her "graceful and brilliant little court" at Twickenham
Park between 1608 and 1618. Daniel, Drayton, Donne, and Jonson were
among those who celebrated her munificence. Though Lady Bedford wrote
verses she had no pronounced literary pursuits of her own. Her
"considerable and varied learning" went preferably along antiquarian and
horticultural lines. She collected medals and pictures, and she designed a
garden highly praised by Sir William Temple. She is of importance chiefly
because, in an age when learning lived only as it found patrons, she was
magnificent in her hospitality to the poets.[65] Lady Mary Wroth was a niece
of Lady Pembroke and carried on the traditional family attitude towards
poets. Jonson's Alchemist (1610) was dedicated to her, and Chapman's Iliad
(1614) had a prefatory sonnet addressed to her. She wrote The Countess of
Montgomerie's Urania (1621), in four books, a work modeled on her
uncle's Arcadia. A third patroness was Elizabeth Spencer, wife of Sir
George Carey. She was a kinswoman of Edmund Spenser and he
commemorated her for "the excellent favors" she had granted him.

One of the most notable young women of the time of James I was
Elizabeth Jocelyn (1596-1622). She was brought up by her grandfather,
William Chaderton, Bishop of Lincoln. He was a friend of Sir Anthony
Coke and Lord Burleigh and naturally shared their ideas as to education.
The quick wit and remarkable memory of this little granddaughter greatly
pleased him and he took the utmost pains with her education, training her
carefully in "languages, history, and some arts," but principally in "studies
of piety." She died nine days after the birth of her first child to whom she
left The Mother's Legacie to her Unborne Childe. The third edition came
out in 1625, an incorrect impression in 1684, and a reprint of the 1625
edition in 1852.[66] The little book contains a letter to her husband in which
she indicates her wishes in case the child should be a girl:
I desire her bringing up to bee learning the Bible, as my sisters doe, good housewifery,
writing and good workes: other learning a woman needs not; though I admire it in those
whom God hath blest with discretion, yet I desired not so much in my owne, having seene
that sometimes women have greater portions of learning than wisdome, which is of no
better use to them than a main saile to a flye-boat, which runs under water. But where
learning and wisdom meet in a vertuous disposed woman, she is the fittest closet of all
goodnesse. She is, indeed, I should but shame myself, if I should goe about to praise her
more. But, my dear, though she have all this in her, she will hardly make a poore man's
wife: Yet I leave it to thy will. If thou desirest a learned daughter, I pray God give her a
wise and religious heart, that she may use it to his glory, thy comfort, and her owne
salvation.

Nearly all of the book is given up to cautions and plans for a boy's
education. And for boy or girl there is great emphasis on religion, on
attending services, reading the Bible, and keeping up habits of daily
devotion. Of the prayers definitely recommended, one for morning is one
hundred and eighty lines, and one suitable for all times is three hundred and
fifty-nine lines. In the brief portion addressed directly to the girl, "Devout
Anna, Just Elizabeth, Religious Ester, and Chaste Susanna" are held up as
exemplars. Self-effacement seems the chief duty enjoined on the girl: "If
thou beest a Daughter, remember thou art a Maid, and such ought thy
modesty to bee, that thou shouldst scarce speak, but when thou answerest."
The book was deservedly popular because it was so genuine in its forecast
of sorrow, so pathetically eager in plans and hopes for her husband and
child. No other work so personal and human in its appeal comes to light in
this period.

There are during the first half of the century a few books by women on
practical subjects. They could hardly take rank as learned productions, but
they are significant as early attempts on the part of women to put into some
sort of readable form, and to print for the instruction of other women, the
wisdom garnered through years of experience. One of these books appeared
in 1628 and was entitled The Countess of Lincoln's Nurserie.[67] The
Countess was the mother of seven sons and nine daughters and wrote this
little treatise particularly for the guidance of her daughter-in-law Bridget. It
is described as "a well-wrote piece full of fine arguments, and capable of
convincing anyone that is capable of conviction, of the necessity and
advantages of mothers nursing their children." A second book transmitted
information of another sort. Before 1651 Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent
(1581-1651), the granddaughter of Bess of Hardwick, wrote or compiled A
Choice Manuall, or Rare and Select Receipts in Physick and Chyrurgery. A
second part, entitled A True Gentlewoman's Delight Wherein is contained
all manner of Cookery, reached its nineteenth edition in 1687. The Legacie,
the Nurserie, the Choice Manuall, were the direct outcome of interests
considered appropriate for women, and such publicity as they involved
would not be challenged.
Letter-writing is also a realm ascribed without question to women, and
when chance has rescued from oblivion any group of their letters, social
history has been thereby enriched. The earliest Englishwoman, any large
number of whose letters have been preserved and published, is Lady
Brilliana Harley (1600-43) who wrote to her son Edward while he was at
Oxford in the years 1638-40. She was a woman of pronounced religious and
political opinions, observant, domestic, and with a ready pen for
picturesque detail, and her letters are of more interest than most of the
contemporary published work.[68]
A few women have more directly to do with learning than those already
mentioned. Occasionally in some great family Tudor traditions were
maintained. Margaret, Countess of Cumberland (1560-1616), for instance,
held to the idea that maidens of noble houses must be nobly educated, and
she induced the poet Daniel to live at Skipton Castle as tutor to Anne, her
nine-year-old daughter. Bishop Rainbow, who knew the family well, gives
the following account of Anne:

She could discourse with virtuoso's, travellers, scholars, merchants, divines, statesmen,
and with good housewives in any kind: insomuch that a prime and elegant wit, Dr. Donne,
well seen in all human learning ... is reported to have said of this lady, in her younger years
to this effect; that she knew well how to discourse of all things from predestination to slea-
silk. Meaning that although she was skilful in her housewifery, and such things in which
women are conversant, yet her penetrating wit soared up to pry into the highest mysteries,
looking at the highest example of female wisdom. Although she knew Wool and Flax, fine
Linen and Silk, things appertaining to the spindle and the distaff: yet she could open her
mouth with wisdom.... If she had sought fame rather than wisdom, possibly she might have
been ranked among those wise and learned of her sex, of whom Pythagoras or Plutarch, or
any of the ancients have made such honourable mention.[69]

A portrait of Anne at thirteen represents the books supposedly read by her
under her tutor, Mr. Daniel, and her governess, Mrs. Ann Taylor, whose
heads appear in the picture. The books are "Eusebius, St. Augustine, Sir
Philip Sidney's Arcadia, Godfrey of Boulogne, The French Academy,
Cambden, Ortelius, and Agrippa on the Vanity of Occult Sciences."[70]

ANNE CLIFFORD, COUNTESS OF DORSET, PEMBROKE AND
MONTGOMERY
From an engraving in Pennant's Tour in Scotland, 1790, Part II

At nineteen Anne married the Earl of Dorset. Her second marriage, in
middle life, was to Philip Herbert, Fourth Earl of Pembroke and
Montgomery. In alliance with these noble houses she was extremely
unhappy. In her Journal she says: "The marble pillars of Knowle in Kent
and Wilton in Wiltshire, were to me often times but the gay arbor of
anguish. A wise man, that knew the insides of my fortune, would often say,
that I lived in both these my lords' great families as the river Roan runs
through the lake of Geneva, without mingling its streams with the lake; for I
gave myself up to retiredness as much as I could and made good books and
virtuous thoughts my companions."[71] A portrait, belonging to this period
of middle life, indicates as the books then most favored, "the Bible, Charron
on Wisdom and pious treatises." Lady Pembroke's pursuit of abstract and
theological learning was, however, largely the outcome of her repressed and
unhappy life. On her second widowhood, in 1650, she forsook learning and
gave free reign to her "master-passion for bricks and mortar." But most of
this energetic work, during which she rebuilt or restored her six castles and
several churches, belongs after the Restoration. As a woman of affairs Lady
Pembroke made a remarkable impression on her age. Bishop Rainbow, who
says she had "a clear soul shining through a vivid body," emphasizes also
"her great understanding and judgment." Pennant, in his Tour, said that she
was regarded as "the most eminent character of her times, for intellectual
accomplishments, for spirit, magnificence, and benevolence."
Another lady who carried over into this period the liberal training of
Tudor days was Elizabeth Tanfield (1585-1639), who, at the age of fifteen,
married Henry Carey, later Viscount Falkland. Our knowledge of her very
interesting life and character is derived mainly from a Life written by one of
her daughters. She was a lover of books from her childhood and learned
languages—French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Transylvanian—practically
without a teacher. Her daughter said of her:
When she was but four or five years old they put her to learn French, which she did
about five weeks, and not profiting at all gave it over; after, of herself, without a teacher,
whilst she was a child she learned French, Spanish and Italian; ... she learned Latin in the
same manner.... Hebrew she likewise, about the same time, learned with very little
teaching.... She then learned also of a Transylvanian his language, but never finding any
use of it forgot it entirely. She read so incessantly at night that her mother forbade the
servants to give her candles. But she bought candles at half a crown apiece of the servants
and at twelve was £100 in their debt, a debt which she paid on her wedding day.

Her work as an author began early, for her first play was written about the
time of her marriage. It was dedicated to her husband. A second play, The
Tragedy of Mariam the Faire Queene of Jewry, was written when she was
eighteen or nineteen, though not printed till 1613.[72] She was early
recognized as one of the most intellectual women of her time. In 1612 she
was one of the three "Glories of Women" to whom John Davies dedicated
his Muses Sacrifice. Later, in 1633, the publisher of Marston's Works
dedicated them "To the Right Honourable the Lady Elizabeth Carey,
Viscountess Falkland," because she was so "well acquainted with the
Muses." That Lady Falkland's appetite for learning never abated is apparent
from her daughter's testimony:
She had read very exceedingly much: poetry of all kinds ancient and modern in several
languages, all that ever she could meet; history very universally, especially all ancient
Greek and Roman histories; all chronicles whatsoever of her own country, and the French
histories very thoroughly: of most other countries something, though not so universally, of
the ecclesiastical very much, most especially concerning its chief pastors. Of books
treating of moral virtue or wisdom (such as Seneca, Plutarch's Morals, and natural
knowledge, as Pliny, and of late ones, such as French, Mountaine, and English, Bacon) she
had read very many when she was young. Of the fathers and controversial writers on both
sides a great deal even of Luther and Calvin.[73]

Lady Falkland was converted to Catholicism in 1605 and she devoted all
her learning to the service of the Church. She translated Cardinal Perron's
Works and wrote lives of the saints in verse.
Lady Falkland's son Lucius married Letice Morrison, another "undue
lover of books," who abridged herself of sleep that the hours of reading
might be prolonged. This daughter-in-law of Lady Falkland was not only
eager for learning, but she had independent views along social lines. One of
her schemes was the foundation of houses "for the education of young
gentlewomen and the retirement of widows with the belief that through
such houses learning and religion might flourish more than heretofore in her
own sex." Her early death in the time of the Civil War frustrated her plans,
but they have an especial interest as forecasting the ideas set forth by Mary
Astell later in the century.[74]
Anna Hume, the daughter of David Hume, was carefully educated by her
father at Godscroft, a property to which he retired that he might be
unmolested in his devotion to literature. Anna joined in his pursuits with
eagerness and intelligence, and after his death she did much to complete his

work. In 1644 she superintended the publication of his History of the House
and Race of Douglas and Angus. She translated Latin poems, and in 1644
she also published The Triumph of Love, Chastity and Death, translated
from Petrarch. Drummond of Hawthornden speaks highly of her learning
and of her "rare and pregnant wit."
Esther Kello (1571-1624) is often spoken of as one of the notable women
of the Stuart period. Her works were counted worthy gifts for kings, and are
preserved in royal libraries. Calligraphy was one of the fine arts in the
seventeenth century. To write many different hands, to make flourishes, to
decorate margins, to illuminate titles and capital letters, to make elaborate
head or tail pieces to chapters, and to write the alphabets of many
languages, were the elements of this art. No other accomplishment was so
often advertised.[75] It was in this art that Esther Kello excelled. Les
Proverbes de Salomon (1599), written in forty hands, and with all possible
ornamental detail, was one of her most famous books. It was preserved in
"Bodley's Library." In exactness, fineness, and beauty her books are said to
rival the old illuminated manuscripts.[76]
There was published in 1630 a twelve-page tract entitled A Chain of
Pearl, or a Memorial of the Peerless Graces and heroic Virtues of Queen
Elizabeth, of glorious memory, composed by the noble lady, Diana
Primrose. The Pearls of the Chain are Religion, Chastity, Prudence,
Temperance, Clemency, Justice, Fortitude, Science, Patience, and Bounty. A
preliminary address to the author by one Dorothy Berry greets Diana as "the
Prime-rose of the Muses nine." The Pearls are in the style of exaggerated
compliment always associated with the name of Queen Elizabeth, but they
could not have been inspired by any interested motives, for Elizabeth had
been dead nearly a generation when they came from the press. Save the date
of publication I have no facts about either Diana Primrose or Dorothy
Berry. Perhaps their youth was spent during the "blest and happy years"
when the Heroine they praised was on the throne.
She, she it was that gave us golden days,
And did the English name to heaven raise.

If so, and if they wrote when trouble was brewing between the King and the
people, we can well understand the ardor of Diana Primrose's eulogy of the
days when the Prince and People agreed "in sacred concord and sweet
sympathy."

A very curious book is by Mary Fage. It is entitled Fame's Roule and
appeared in 1637.[77] It is a collection of the most ingenious anagrams and
acrostics on the names of four hundred and twenty persons of the "hopeful
posterity" of Charles I. John Weymes, for instance, is anagrammed into
"Show men joy" and John Hollis into "Oh! on my hills." The amplification
of the anagram is mainly compliment with now and then a trace of
exhortation. This was an age when playing with words gave undoubted
pleasure, but four hundred and twenty anagrams on royal names would
seem an undue tax on even the most agile manipulator of the alphabet.
Katherine Chidley wrote and spoke on questions of Church and State. In
1641 she published a quarto volume entitled The Justification of the
Independent Churches of Christ, in which she maintained that the
congregations of the Saints should receive "no direction in worship from
any other than Christ their head and lawgiver." She is described as "a most
violent independent who talked with so much bitterness and with so
clamorous a tongue as to vanquish opposing divines, and who wrote as
furiously in behalf of her cause as if she were the Amazonian Queen in
defence of the Trojans."
A literary oddity of the Cromwell period, a fertile writer whose half-mad
and often unintelligible prophetic writings yet came true often enough to
secure her a troublesome reputation as a "Cunning Woman," was Lady
Eleanor Davies, the wife of Sir John Davies of Hereford. She was twice
married and both husbands had burned her manuscripts, but finally, in 1651,
there was printed a pamphlet, The Restitution of Prophecy; that Buried
Talent to be revived. By the Lady Eleanor.[78] The Lady Eleanor was as
devoted to anagrams as was Mary Fage. The change of Eleanor Davies into
"Reveal O Daniel" was her mystic authorization as a prophet, until some
wit shattered her anagram by producing "Never so mad a lady."
4. Schools for Girls before 1660

Of schools for girls during the period before 1660 we get but vague hints.
John Whitgift, who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1583, protested
against having schools for "maiden children" within the precincts of the
church. And he added in a note, "Especially seeing they may have
instruction by women in the town."[79] In the statutes of Harrow School,
made in 1590, there is a statement to the effect that "no girls shall be

received or taught," hence the subject had at least been under discussion.[80]
Love's Labour's Lost seems to indicate that Holofernes taught girls as well
as boys,[81] and Helena comments on the "school-days' friendship" between
her and Hermia.[82] But these references belong to late Elizabethan times
and are too indefinite to serve as evidence.
The best-known schools for girls in the first half of the seventeenth
century were apparently religious in origin. One of these is the "Institute"
founded by Mary Ward (1585-1645).[83] She was a brilliant and beautiful
young Catholic who made it the aim of her life to influence young women
to an acceptance of the Catholic faith. This she endeavored to accomplish
through educational agencies. It was her plan to have an organization of
uncloistered nuns who should not wear habits, who should be free to come
and go, and who should adapt themselves in manner and dress to their
surroundings in such ways as might be most advisable in the pursuance of
their spiritual aims. Conditions in England made it useless to attempt such a
school or community there. So the first establishment of the Institute was at
St. Omer. This was in 1609. Five gentlewomen crossed the sea at that time
with Mary Ward. The one she loved and trusted most was Winifred
Wigmore, a descendant of the Throgmortons of Warwickshire, and so well
educated that she spoke five languages fluently. She had a keen intellect,
was wise, sympathetic, courageous, and very devout. Mary Poyntz, "gifted
with all that can be most highly esteemed in person, birth or fortune," the
youngest of the group, was scarcely sixteen when she cast her lot in
permanently with Mary Ward. Of Jane Browne, Catharine Smith, and
Susanna Rookwood fewer details are given. Later on Miss Ward was joined
by Barbara Babthorpe, "highly educated and very well read ... with a
striking gift of eloquence," and by her own sister Barbara Ward. Each of
these ladies had a companion, so it was quite a household that assembled at
St. Omer, and they entered at once upon the life they had planned. They
practiced rigid self-denial, living on one meal a day and sleeping on straw
beds, and submitting themselves to other austerities. Their time was given
over to good works, especially to education. They established a school for
French and English girls, receiving the English girls as boarders. In 1612
Miss Ward said that they had already received two nieces of the Earl of
Shrewsbury, and another young lady from the family of the Earl of
Southampton, and that many Catholic nobles were planning to send their

daughters to be brought up in the Faith and good manners, by the ladies of
St. Omer.

MARY WARD
From an engraving in The Life of Mary Ward, by Mary Elizabeth Chambers of the Institute of the
Blessed Virgin

The Institute finally received the sanction of the pope and was successful
in various countries. But Miss Ward's efforts to establish it in England in
1638 met with so much hostility that she was obliged to carry on her work
secretly and by subterfuge, changing the location of her little band of
followers from time to time as suspicion centered upon them. The Institute
was finally broken up by the Puritans in 1642. Little is known of the actual
work of the school. The members of the Institute were always so anxious
and harried that there could have been no really systematic instruction
except in the articles of faith. There are in the Convent of the Institute at
Augsburg fifty large oil paintings dating from the seventeenth century, and
representing events in its history. In these pictures Mary Ward's life is seen
to be one of dramatic interest from her childhood to her death. And her
personality is one of compelling charm. She was a heroine and a pioneer, an
executive of first-rate ability, an extremely acute woman of business, and
yet without loss of the graces and amenities of human intercourse. The St.
Omer school shows genius. Within the limits of her church she was
promulgating ideas the full fruition of which would not come for many
years. She believed that sound mental training would establish women in
their faith, and that women, if given opportunity and education, would
prove to have powers not generally ascribed to them. To establish a school
on this basis was an enterprise bolder, more original, and more hazardous
than was the opening of the first colleges for women in America.
Another religious school was that known as Little Gidding,[84] founded
by Nicholas Ferrar (1592-1637). The life of Ferrar is one of great interest.
He was a man of wide experience. He had known academic life at
Cambridge, he had traveled in Holland, Germany, Italy, and Spain, he had
conducted extensive business enterprises in connection with the Virginia
Company, and had taken an important place in political life as a member of
Parliament. But while still under forty he turned definitely to a life of
religious sequestration. He and his mother bought the Manor of Little
Gidding in Huntingdonshire in 1624 and there they set up the new
establishment. He was joined by his brother John with his wife and three
children, and by Mrs. Collet, his favorite sister, with her husband and
sixteen children. To the children of these two families were added such
children of the neighboring gentry as cared to come. In this household the
girls were carefully educated. They had one master in Music, one in
Arithmetic and Writing, one in English and Latin. They formed themselves

into a little society called "The Academy" which had regular meetings for
discussion of topics set for them. They took fanciful names, and had many
quaint and elaborate little formalities. The topics discussed by "Patient" and
"Cheerful" and "Moderator" and "Visitor," and even by little four-year-old
"Humble," were nearly always religious or ethical, and the purpose of the
discussions was always moral improvement. So strong was the religious
element, so rigid were the forms of fasting, feasting, and worshiping, that
the school came under suspicion as a Protestant nunnery. In 1641 it was
attacked in a pamphlet entitled The Armenian Nunnery, or a Brief
Description and Relation of the newly erected Monasticall Place called the
Armenian Nunnery at Little Gidding.
The school at Little Gidding has had its fame as a religious organization
perpetuated in Mr. Shorthouse's John Inglesant, but it is even more famous
in the annals of fine book-binding. It was the belief of Nicholas Ferrar that
every one should be taught some hand-work, and he determined upon book-
binding as a part of the regular school work at Little Gidding. Dr. Jebb says
that "a Cambridge book-binder's daughter that bound rarely" was procured
as an instructor. She came, he says, either from the University printers
themselves or from some Cambridge bindery which they patronized where
she herself had been trained. She brought some of her own stamps with her,
and some of her own ideas as to how they should be arranged.
Even this activity was the handmaid of religion, and was, indeed,
probably undertaken primarily in order to preserve the concordances of the
four gospels so carefully worked out by Nicholas Ferrar. The girls learned
to do all the mechanical parts with extreme nicety, joining the many tiny
slips and putting in the illustrative engravings with great deftness. The name
of the binder is not usually given in the book, but there is one exception. A
book bound by the youngest of the workers bears the inscription:
Thanks be to God.
Done at Little Gidding. Anno Domino 1640
by Virginia Ferrar, an. 12.[85]

The curious little "histories" composed by "The Academy" were written out
in three manuscript volumes and bound. They have been lately acquired by
the British Museum. "The volumes measure 13½ x 9 inches and are bound
in black morocco, with a small double gold line running along the edge,
finished with a little ornamental spray at each corner." The Concordances

were more sumptuous. The Bibliographica gives full-page colored
illustrations of these fine bindings and says of them:
The beautiful effect which Mary Collet, who seems to have done much of the binding
herself, was able to produce by different arrangements of the stamps I have described
shows that she was undoubtedly a lady of much taste and originality ... and it may fairly be
considered that the velvet-bound volumes, of great size, gorgeous in color and rich in
decoration, which were eventually produced under her supervision, must take the highest
rank among amateur decorative book-bindings.
Unequalled in size, original in design, and rich in execution, these volumes must be seen
to be appreciated; then indeed the expressions which Charles I used concerning them,
which sound extravagant, can be well understood. Although much faded, and sometimes
re-backed and the sides relaid, with the silken ties all gone, enough of their old
magnificence still remains to make us feel that we should indeed be proud that English
binders could have produced such works.[86]

Aside from these religious schools, which were very small, there were
undoubtedly some fashionable boarding-schools, such as Mrs. Salmon's
school in Hackney where Katherine Fowler went.[87] Another fully
organized private school at Hackney was that kept by Mrs. Perwick in 1643,
where as many as eight hundred girls had been educated.[88] The existence
of a school for girls in Richmond is shown by a curious document found
among a large number of miscellaneous papers in Warwickshire. It is
entitled "Account for Peggy's Disbursements since her going to schoole at
Richmond, being in Sept. 1646":
s. d.
Payd for a louehood 2. 6
For carriing the truncke to Queenhive 0. 8
For carriing it to Hammersmith 1. 0
Payd for two pair of shoes 4. 0
Payd for a singing booke 1. 0
Given to Mrsis Jervoises mayd 1. 0
Payed for a hairlace and a pair of showstrings 1. 0
For an inckhorne 0. 4
For faggots. 2s.8d.; and cleaving of wood, 12d. 3. 8
For 9li of soape 2s. 4d.; and starch 4d. 2. 8
For hooks and a bolte for the doore 0. 9
For sugar and licorich 1. 4
For silke and thread 0. 6

For 3li of soape, 11d.; and starch 4d.; and carrying letters
1. 9
6d.
For 3li of soape, 12d.; and starch 4d. 1. 4
For sugar, licorich and coultsfoot 1. 6
For a necklace, 12d.; for a m. of pins, 12d. 2. 0
For a pair of cands (candles?) 6d.; for muckadine 4d.; for
1. 0
wormsend (worsted), 2d.
For shostrings, 6d.; for going on errands, 6d. 1. 0
For 3li of soape, 12d.; for starch 4d.; thread and silk 4d. 1. 8
For a bason, 4d.; for carrying letters, 6d.; for tape 4d. 1. 2
For soape, 12d.; for starch, 4d.; for going on errands, 6d. 1. 10
For a pair of pattins, 16d.; for three pair of shoes, 6s. 7. 4
For callico to line her stockins, 2d.; for showstrings 4d. 0. 6
For 3li of soape, 12d.; for a pint of white wine 4d. 1. 4
For ale, 3d.; for 1/2li of sugar, 8d. 0. 11
For a m. of pins, 12d.; for a corle and one pair of half-
1. 8
handed gloves, 8d.
Given to the writing mr. 2. 6
For silke, 12d.; for silver for the tooth-pick case, 4d. 1. 4
For a sampler, 12d.; for thread, needles, paper, pins, and
3. 6
parchment, 30d.
For a pair of shoes, 2s. 2d.; for ribbon, 3d. 2. 5
For soape, 12d.; for starch, 4d.; for carriing a letter, 4d. 1. 8
To the waterman bringing the (box?) to Richmond 1. 0
For shoestrings, 6d.; for purge, 18d. 2. 0
For bringing the box from Richmond 1. 0
For a coach from Fleetestreete 1. 0
For wood to this time 15. 10
———
Totall of disbursements to this 15th day of Aprill, 1647 is £3. 18. 5 [89]
Peggy's clothing and her board and tuition must have been paid for by her
father. The accurate little list represents only her personal and incidental
expenses. The writing-master's fee, the purchase of an inkhorn, a singing-
book, and materials for a sampler are the only suggestions that Peggy was

being educated. But several of the items are indicative of general school
conditions. For instance, if a girl had a fire she evidently had to pay extra
for it, Peggy's largest single item being for wood, "cleaving of wood," and
"faggotts." The next largest sum goes for "soape" and starch. Peggy
apparently did her own laundry, or at least bought the materials used; and
she bought them in amounts suggestive of disproportionate emphasis on
clean linen. In clothing the most surprising purchase is of six pairs of shoes
and one pair of "pattins" in six months. It is a pity we have not the letters
for the carrying of which Peggy paid ten pence. They might serve to throw
light on her expense account.
In May, 1649, Evelyn records in his Diary, "Went to Putney by water, in
the barge with divers ladies, to see the schools, or Colleges, of the young
gentlewomen." These Putney schools may have been under the charge of
Mrs. Makin. In that case they were the forerunners of the more advanced
school she established at Tottenham High Cross in 1673.
One interesting point occurs in the foundation of a school for boys by
Balthasar Gerbier in 1648. This school was an academy wherein the sons of
noble families could be taught classics, mathematics, drawing, painting,
carving, music, behavior, etc. The novel element in the school is Gerbier's
advertisement December 21, 1649, in which he says that ladies are to be
admitted to his lectures.[90]
If girls were educated at all during the period from 1603 to 1660 it must
have been, in the main, at home under parents and tutors. But even of such
education the records are meager. Little Gidding was practically a home
school, but it stands as an isolated attempt. The few little pictures of more
secular home education that have been by chance preserved to us indicate
no very valuable training. Mrs. Alice Thornton (1626-1707), Lady Anne,
daughter of the Earl of Strafford, and Lady Arabella Wentworth, were
brought up in Ireland and were given "the best education that Kingdome
could afford." They were taught to write and speak French; singing,
dancing, playing on the lute and theorboe, and such other accomplishments
as "working silkes, gummework, sweetmeats, and other sutable huswifery"
such as was necessary for girls of their social position.[91]
We get some further light from autobiographical sketches by the Duchess
of Newcastle,[92] Lady Fanshawe,[93] and Mrs. Hutchinson,[94] women

whose mature work belongs in the Restoration period or not many years
before it, but whose childhood and early youth belong in the period under
consideration, and serve in a measure to illustrate its methods. The
educational advantages afforded these young daughters of the best families
were like those of an eighteenth-century finishing-school, and were far
removed from the stern mental discipline in the school of Sir Thomas More.

CHAPTER II
LEARNED LADIES IN ENGLAND FROM 1650 TO 1760
1. An Introductory Group in the Years 1650-1675

The brief running summaries in the preceding chapter have perhaps
served to bring into prominence two sharply contrasted periods. The first
half of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth seem even
more than a hundred years apart in tone and temper. We turn from the eager
intellectual life of many women in the Tudor period, from their full and rich
opportunities, and we find that in the time of the earlier Stuarts there were
very few women who took any pride in learning, that there was little or no
provision at home or in schools for any but the most desultory sort of
education for girls, and that there were practically no formulated ideals or
theories of intellectual advancement for women. But at the close of this
barren half-century we come upon what may be considered the real
beginnings of the modern work of women. This era of development may be
appropriately introduced by the presentation of several women who, while
in no sense cohering into a group, are yet alike in that their home education
belongs in the reign of Charles I, that later they had the stern training
incident on Civil War conditions, and that their published work belongs
before 1675.

The most talked-of learned lady of the Restoration
period was the Duchess of Newcastle.[95] She was Margaret Lucas, the
Duchess of
brought up by her mother, who was left a widow with a Newcastle (1624-
great fortune and a family of eight children when 1674)
Margaret was an infant. The Duchess in her
Autobiography describes a family life conducted with splendor and luxury.
She comments on the elaborate attendance, the rich and costly garments, the
many pleasures, secured for the children by the industrious care and tender
love of their mother. It was a bright, gay, free, affectionate home life. But
we get only slight indications of any educational advantages. "As for tutors,
although we had for all sorts of vertues, as singing, dancing, playing on
musick, reading, writing, working, and the like, yet we were not kept
strictly thereto, they were rather for formality than benefit, for my Mother

cared not so much for our dancing and fidling, singing and prating of
severall languages, as that we should be bred virtuously, modestly, civilly,
honourably and on honest principles." None of these opportunities met
Margaret's needs. She says she had a natural stupidity in learning foreign
tongues, cared little for music, disliked needlework, found cards and games
tiresome, and dancing frivolous. Apparently the freedom of the family life
left her at liberty to follow her real interests which were in the main
intellectual. Here she had the sympathetic aid of her brother, Lord Lucas.
The precocious development of her mind is shown by the fact that at twelve
she had written a book on a philosophical subject.

MARGARET CAVENDISH, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE
From an engraving in Horace Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, London, 1806

At eighteen she was appointed maid of honor to Queen Henrietta Maria
and accompanied her to France. There, at twenty, she became the second
wife of the Duke of Newcastle, a nobleman thirty-two years older than
herself, but who was, she says, "the onely Person I ever was in love with."
She was with him during the trying years of his absence from England and
it was during this difficult and tedious period that literature became her
resource. Her publications began with Philosophical Fancies in 1653 and
closed with Grounds of Natural Philosophy in 1668, during which period
she wrote nearly twelve folio volumes. The portions of her work concerning
which she felt the greatest measure of self-congratulation were her studies
in natural philosophy. Her Philosophical Fancies of 1653 was expanded in
1655, and in 1663 received its final form as Philosophical and Physical
Opinions. Of all her books this was "her best beloved and favourite." But
the quality on which she chiefly prides herself is the very one that nullifies
her work. Originality is her great boast, an originality so pronounced as to
refuse to base its deductions on the writings of previous thinkers. Her
husband substantiates her claim. He says that all her philosophical fancies
are spun out of her own brain, and that, if she does not use the technical
terms of philosophers, it is because her language is her own too. She has
scorned to talk with any "profest scholar" to learn his phraseology. "She did
never impe her high-flying Phancies, with any old broken Fethers out of
any university."[96] She says herself that she could never "afford board-
room to other people's ideas lest the legitimate offspring of her own brain
should be crowded out."[97] In Part IV, "On the Motion of the Bodie," we
find that the Duchess has never studied anatomy, but this apparent
disqualification does not prove inhibitory. In An Epistle to the Reader she
explains the situation:
I am to be pardoned, if I have not the names and tearms that the Anatomists have or use;
or if I have mistaken some parts in the body, or misplaced any: for truly I never read of
Anatomie, nor never saw any man opened, much less dissected, which for my better
understanding I would have done; but I found that neither the caurage of nature, nor the
modesty of my sex would permit me. Werefore it would be a great chance, even to a
wonder I should not erre in some; but I have seen the intrals of beasts, but never as they are
placed in their bodies, but as they are cut out to be drest ... which intrals I have heard are
much like mans, especially a hogs, so that I know man hath a brain, a heart, a stomach,

liver, lights, spleen, and the like; yet these I never viewed with a curious and searching eye,
but as they have laien in some vessels; and as for bones, nerves, muscels, veines and the
like, I know not how they are placed in the body, but as I have gathered several times from
several relations, or discourses: here a bit and there a crum of knowledge, which my
natural reason hath put together.[98]

From any modern standpoint of scientific excellence the inaccuracy and
amazing self-confidence of these studies render them worse than futile. But
it was not ignorance that was charged against the Duchess by her critics.
The experimental method was having its triumphs, but doubtless a good
deal of the scientific writing of the first half of the century was marked by a
dogmatic tone and an uncertainty as to facts, so the Duchess was not
attacked on that score. The common report that irritated the Duke of
Newcastle to a spirited defense of his wife was that she could not have
written these books, for "no lady could understand so many hard words."
The Duke takes up various kinds of hard words such as terms of divinity,
philosophy, astronomy, and geometry, and shows that natural wit, common
sense, and some observation could compass most of them. He gives the
following account of the way he and the Duchess acquired a medical
vocabulary: "But would you know the great Mystery of these Physical
terms, I am almost ashamed to tell you; not that we have been ever sickly,
but by melancholy often supposed ourselves to have such diseases as we
had not, and learned Physitians were too wise to put us out of that humour,
and so these terms cost us much more than they are worth, and I hope there
is nobody so malicious as to envie us our bargain."[99] At the end of his
Preface the Duke comes to what he considers the real cause of the
aspersions on his Lady's books: "But here's the crime, a Lady writes them,
and to intrench so much on the male prerogative, is not to be forgiven." The
Duchess, in her Address to the Two Universities, recurs to this idea. She
hopes her book may be received
for the good incouragement of our sex, lest in time we should grow irrational as idiots, by
the dejectednesse of our spirits, through the carelesse neglects, and despisements of the
masculine sex to the effeminate, thinking it impossible we should have either learning or
understanding, wit or judgement, as if we had not rational souls as well as men, and we out
of a custom of dejectedness think so too, which makes us quit all industry towards
profitable knowledge ... so as we are become like worms that only live in the dull earth of
ignorance, winding ourselves sometimes out, by the help of some refreshing rain of good
educations which seldom is given us; for we are kept like birds in cages to hop up and
down in our houses ... we are shut out of all power, and Authority by reason we are never
imployed either in civil nor marshall affaires, our counsels are despised, and laught at, the

best of our actions are troden down with scorn, by the over-weaning conceit men have of
themselves and through a despisement of us.[100]

But she presents her book with some confidence to the universities as
places where are to be found right judgment and respectful civility. And at
any rate she would rather "lie intombed under the dust of an University"
than be "worshipped by the Vulgar as a Deity."
One of the Duchess's most curious books is Orations of Divers Sorts
accommodated to Divers Places. Among the "orations" is a "collection of
speeches for a convivial meeting of country gentlemen in a market town,
ending with 'a speech of a quarter-drunk gentleman,' and 'a speech of a half-
drunk gentleman.' Another little collection headed 'Female Orations' reports
the speeches delivered at a meeting of women on the great question of
combining together to make themselves 'as free, happy, and famous as
men.'"[101]
When the Duke and Duchess returned to England after the Restoration
they lived for the most part at one of their country estates, but they made
occasional visits to London. It was then that the Duchess's beauty, wealth,
eccentric dress and manners, and literary and scientific pretensions made
her a conspicuous and, to some, a ridiculous figure. Sir Walter Scott, in
Peveril of the Peak,[102] makes Charles II say of the Duchess, "Her Grace is
an entire raree-show in her own person—a universal masquerade—indeed a
sort of private Bedlam hospital"; and this sums up the attitude that found
expression in the phrase, "Mad Madge of Newcastle." In 1653 Dorothy
Osborne wrote to Sir William Temple: "Let me ask you if you have seen a
book of poems newly come out, made by my Lady Newcastle? For God's
sake if you meet with it send it to me; they say 't is ten times more
extravagant than her dress. Sure, the poor woman is a little distracted, she
could never be so ridiculous as to venture at writing books, and in verse
too." A little later she wrote: "You need not send me Lady Newcastle's book
at all, for I have seen it, and am satisfied that there are many soberer people
in Bedlam."[103] Mrs. Evelyn called on the Duchess in 1667 and wrote to
Mr. Bohun:
I was surprised to find so much extravagancy and vanity in any person not confined
within four walls. Her habit particular, fantastical, not unbecoming a good shape, which
truly she may boast of. Her face discovers the facility of her sex, in being yet persuaded it
deserves the esteem years forbid, by the infinite care she takes to place her curls and
patches. Her mein surpasses the imagination of poets, or the descriptions of a romance

heroine's greatness: her gracious bows, seasonable nods, courteous stretching out of her
hands, twinkling of her eyes, and various gestures of approbation, show what may be
expected from her discourse, which is as airy, empty, whimsical and rambling as her books,
aiming at science difficulties, high notions, terminating commonly in nonsense, oaths, and
obscenity.[104]

On May 30, 1667, the Duchess made a formal visit to the Royal Society,
and Pepys says she was all admiration at the fine experiments they showed
her, but he did not hear her say anything that was worth hearing. There had
been much objection to admitting her to the rooms of the Society, some of
the members fearing that the town would be "full of ballads of it," but the
visit seems to have passed off mildly and with the respectful observance to
which she was accustomed.

MARGARET CAVENDISH, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE
From an engraving in The Lives of William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, and of his wife Margaret,
Duchess of Newcastle, edited by Mark Antony Lower, London, 1872

In spite of the stream of private criticism already indicated, the almost
unmixed adulation of which the Duchess was the subject is indicated by the
Letters and Poems, in Honour of the incomparable Princess Margaret,
Dutchess of Newcastle, published in 1676, two years after her death. In her
lifetime, too, the praise was equally extravagant. Resounding Latin titles,
such as Illustrissima Heroina, Excellentissima Dux, Eminentissima
Princeps, came to her from high sources. The Rector Magnificus of the
University of Leyden called her not only Princeps fæminini sexus, but
Princeps terrarum. And the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge in a
complimentary address said that the great women of old could not contend
with her for the palm of learning, but rather would they, with bent knee,
adore this solam Margaretam Consumatissimam Principem. Even so sane a
man as Evelyn wrote her a most flattering letter when she sent him her
works in 1674. Beginning with Zenobia he assembled the great women of
ancient times, the learned ladies of more modern days in France, Spain,
Italy, and Holland, and concluded with
Mary de Gournay, & the famous Anna M. Schurman: and of our owne country, Queene
Elizabeth, Queene Jane, the Lady Weston, Mrs. Philips our late Orinda, the daughters of Sr
Tho: More; the Queene Christina of Sweden, & Elizabeth, daughter of a queen also to
whom the renowned Des Cartes dedicated his learned worke, & the profound researches of
his extraordinary talent. But all these, I say, sum'd together, possesse but that divided,
which yr Grace retaines in one; so as Lucretia Marinella, who writ a book (in 1601) dell'
Excellenzia delle Donne, con difetti è mancamenti de gli huomini, had no neede to have
assembled so many instances and arguments to adorne the work, had she lived to be
witnesse of Margarite, Dutchess of Newcastle, to have read her writings, & to have heard
her discourse of the science she comprehended.[105]

Praise could hardly go further.
The best modern judgment discards the encomiums, but yet gives the
Duchess a fairly high place. Sir Egerton Brydges, the editor of her
Autobiography, says:
That the Duchess was deficient in a cultivated judgment; that her knowledge was more
multifarious than exact; and that her powers of fancy and sentiment were more active than
her powers of reasoning, I will admit; but that her productions, mingled as they are with

great absurdities, are wanting either in talent or in virtue, or even genius, I cannot concede.
[106]

The Duchess was buried in Westminster Abbey with this inscription on
her monument:
Here lies the loyal Duke of Newcastle and his Duchess, his second wife, by whom he
had no issue. Her name was Margaret Lucas, youngest sister to Lord Lucas of Colchester, a
noble family, for all the brothers were valliant, and all the sisters virtuous. This Duchess
was a wise, witty, and learned Lady, which her many books do well testify; She was a most
virtuous, and loving, and careful wife, and was with her Lord all the time of his banishment
and miseries; and when they came home never parted with him in his solitary retirements.

The two books by the Duchess that one would not willingly let die are
her Life of her husband and her Autobiography. These are of permanent
value as pictures of the life of a great, rich family like that of her girlhood
home, and the straitened life in exile, with the later affluent and splendid
life of a noble high in royal favor such as was the Duke of Newcastle. All
the personal portions of both books are told with an air of genuineness, a
naïveté, that make delightful reading. The Duchess summed up her life as
that of a woman "honourably born, carefully bred, and nobly married to a
wise man," and it was out of these happy domestic relations that her best
work came.

Contemporary with the Duchess of Newcastle was
Katherine Fowler, better known as Mrs. Katherine Mrs. Katherine
Philips, and better still as the "Matchless Orinda." She Philips (1631-1664)
was the daughter of John Fowler, "an eminent merchant in Bucklersbury,"
and Katherine Oxenbridge. Aubrey gives a quaint account of her precocious
childhood as it was described to him by "her cosen Blacket who lived with
her from her swadling cloutes till eight, and taught her to read." Aubrey
says: "When a child she was mighty apt to learn, and ... she had read the
Bible through before she was full four yeares old; she could have sayed I
know not how many places of Scripture and Chapters. She was a frequent
hearer of sermons; had an excellent memory and could have brought away a
sermon in her memory."[107]
Her further education was carried on at Hackney at the school of "Mris
Salmon, a famous schoolmistress, Presbyterian.... Loved poetrey at schoole,
and made verses there. She takes after her grandmother Oxenbridge ... who

was an acquaintance of Mr. Francis Quarles, being much inclined to poetrie
herself." As a child Katherine evidently was as ardent a Presbyterian as her
school-mistress and her Oxenbridge ancestors. "She was very religiously
devoted when she was young; prayed by herself an hower together, and
tooke sermons verbatim when she was but ten yeares old.... She was when a
child much against the bishops, prayd to God to take them to him, but
afterwards was reconciled to them. Prayed aloud, as the hypocritical fashion
then was, and was overheared."
At sixteen she married Mr. James Philips, Esquire, of Cardigan Priory,
Wales. Her published work includes numerous brief poems, most of them of
a personal nature, two plays translated from the French, and several letters
to Sir Charles Cotterell. This is rather scanty productivity to serve as a basis
for the great vogue Mrs. Philips certainly had, nor to the modern reader
does the quality of the work sufficiently account for the enthusiasm it
excited. Yet we have abundant testimony that the last ten years of her life
were made brilliant by praise from the most authoritative sources. Sir
Charles Cotterell, her intimate friend and the editor of her Works, said of
her: "We might well have call'd her the English Sappho, she of all the Poets
of former Ages, being for her Verses and her Virtues both, the most highly
valued; but she has call'd herself Orinda, a name that deserves to be added
to the Muses, and to live with honour as long as they. Were our language as
generally known to the world, as the Greek and Latin were anciently, or as
the French is now, her Verses could not be confined within the limits of our
Islands, but would spread themselves as far as the Continent has
Inhabitants, or as the Seas have any Shore." Something must be allowed
here for the enthusiasm of a friend and an editor, but other estimates were
almost as extreme. The Earl of Orrery had thought that the high praise of
her poems at court must be exaggerated, but when he came to know her and
her writings the court eulogies were to him but "Imperfect Trophies," and
he exclaimed, "If there be Helicon, in Wales it is." Henry Lawes and Dr.
Coleman, the best composers of the day, set some of her poems to music.
Cowley in two poems to her praised her for her spirit "so rich, so noble, and
so high," her "inward Virtue," her "well-knit Sence," and for her poems in
which were united all the excellences of both sexes. When her translation of
Pompey appeared in the Smock-Alley Theater, Dublin, the Earl of
Roscommon wrote the Prologue and Sir Edward Dering the Epilogue, and
the success of the play was assured by the enthusiastic support of the

aristocracy of Dublin. In 1659 Jeremy Taylor dedicated to her his Discourse
of the nature, offices and measures of friendship. Though she does not
exactly fulfill the prophecy of Mr. Thomas Rowe, that "Orinda should be an
ever-glorious name to ages yet to come," yet her fame was by no means
confined to her own brief day. We hear echoes of it far down in the
eighteenth century. The highest praise that could be given to any woman
poet was to bracket her with Orinda.
By the nineteenth century her vogue was almost extinct, but chance
appreciation came from an unexpected quarter. Keats wrote to Reynolds in
September, 1817:[108]
The world, and especially our England, has, within the last thirty years, been vexed and
teased by a set of Devils, whom I Detest so much that I almost hunger after an Acherontic
promotion to a Torturer, purposely for their accomodation. These devils are a set of
women, who having taken a snack or Luncheon of Literary scraps, set themselves up for
towers of Babel in languages, Sapphos in Poetry, Euclids in Geometry, and everything in
nothing. Among such the name of Montague has been preëminent. The thing has made a
very uncomfortable impression on me. I had longed for some real feminine Modesty in
these things, and was therefore gladdened in the extreme on opening the other day, one of
Bailey's Books—a book of poetry written by one beautiful Mrs. Philips, a friend of Jeremy
Taylor's and called "The Matchless Orinda"—you must have heard of her, and most likely
read her Poetry—I wish you have not, that I may have the pleasure of treating you with a
few stanzas.

Whereupon he quotes the ten stanzas written by Orinda on parting with
her friend "Rosania," a poem of genuine feeling and quaintly charming in
expression. "In other of her poems," says Keats, "there is a most delicate
fancy of the Fletcher kind—which we will con over together."

MRS. KATHERINE PHILIPS
"From an original Picture in the Collection of her Grace the Dutchess of Dorset."
Drawn by J. Thurston. Engraved by W. Finden. From an engraving in Effigies Poeticae. London,
1824

Thus the magic of Orinda's name reasserts itself, and she is again praised
as a lady of "delicate fancy," "feminine modesty," and unmatched in
friendship. A reintroduction to a general public was given by Mr. Gosse's
delightful essay in Seventeenth Century Studies (1885). And in 1904 a
selection from her poems was published with an acute "Appreciation."
In her own day Orinda was not only prized as a poet, but she was
considered the highest example, the prophet and expounder, of true
friendship. Much of her verse was called forth by her Society of Friendship.
The chief members of this circle were "Antenor" (Mr. Philips), "Lucasia"
(Miss Anne Owen), "Rosania" (Miss Mary Aubrey), "Regina" (Mrs. John
Collier), "Palæmon" (Jeremy Taylor), "Silvander" (Sir Edward Dering),
"Policrite" (Lady Margaret Cavendish), "Celimena" (Miss E. Boyl),
"Cassandra" (Mrs. C. P., her dear sister), and "Critander" (Mr. J. B.).
"Ardelia," "Phillis," and "Pastora" remain unidentified. There were
doubtless others in the circle, but these we know because they all received
poetical tributes from Orinda. There were over thirty-five private
individuals intimately addressed in her poems.
It is undoubtedly the personal character of her poems that secured her so
wide and favorable an audience while her writings were still in manuscript
and known only as they passed from hand to hand. Each person addressed
was the center of a new circle of readers. But the intimacy of the poems is
one reason for the actual agony Orinda suffered when an unauthorized
edition of her poems appeared in 1662. "Their Names expos'd in this
Impression without their leave" was the burden of her grief. And she was
likewise injured in her modesty. The publication seemed to put her in the
position of a woman bold and masculine enough to send her writings into
the world. A thousand pounds, she says, would not have bought her consent.
To Sir Charles Cotterell she wrote:
To me (Sir) who never writ any line in my life with any intention to have it printed....
This is a most cruel accident, and hath made so proportionate an impression upon me, that
really it hath cost me a sharp fit of sickness since I heard it.

If the garbled version makes a true version a necessary reparation of the
misfortune she will yield, "but with the same reluctancy as I would cut off a
Limb to save my Life."
I am so far from expecting applause for anything I scribble, that I can hardly expect
pardon; and sometimes I think that employment so far above my reach, and unfit for my
Sex, that I am going to resolve against it for ever; and could I have recovered those fugitive
Papers that have escaped my hands, I had long since made a sacrifice of them all. The truth
is, I have an incorrigible inclination to that folly of riming, and intending the effects of that
humour, only for my own amusement in a retir'd life; I did not so much resist it as a wiser
woman would have done.[109]

She had been planning a visit to London, but she wrote in despair to
Dorothy Osborne (then Mrs. Temple):
I must never show my face there or among any reasonable people again, for some
dishonest person hath got some collection of my Poems as I heare, and hath deliver'd them
to a Printer who I heare is just upon putting them out and this hath soe extreamly disturbed
me, both to have my private folly so unhandsomely exposed and ye belief that I believe the
most part of ye world are apt enough to believe yt I connived at this ugly accident that I
have been on ye rack ever since I heard it, though I have written to Col. Jeffries who first
sent me word of it to get ye Printer punished, the book called in, and me someway publicly
vindicated yet I shall need all my friends to be my champions to ye criticall and mallicious
that I am soe innocent of this pittiful design of a knave to get a groat that I never was more
vexed at anything and yt I utterly disclaim whatever he hath so unhandsomely expos'd. I
know you have goodness and generosity enough to doe me right in your company and to
give me your opinion too how I may best get this impression supressed and myself
vindicated and therefore I will not beg your pardon for troubling you with this impertinent
story.[110]

Her pride of authorship would, however, almost certainly have triumphed
over her modesty if she could have lived to see the sumptuous volume with
its bravery of eulogistic verse in which Sir Charles Cotterell enshrined her
work. Her letters to him, under the title Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus,
were published in 1705 and add distinctly to her fame.
On the whole, Orinda becomes a personage to us and an agreeable one.
There is a note of sincerity through even her most unrestrained poems; the
ardor of her affections is unmistakable; her loyalty to the King, to her
friends, to her ideas, is genuine. She does not labor compliments. Her praise
pours forth from the abundance of her feeling. Perhaps one reason for her
ready popularity was that she aroused no antagonisms. Though a literary
woman there was nothing about her that was masculine, strident, or
assertive. Her outlook on life was gracious and tolerant. She loved
simplicity and retirement and was never dazzled by wealth or titles.

At any rate, there is one interesting and significant fact about her and that
is her success. It was a kind of success new in English literary history. A
woman without any commanding advantages of birth or fortune, only
moderately good-looking, without any compelling fascination, unstimulated
by parental or tutorial ambitions, with but the scantiest schooling, married
to an ordinary, rather dull man; a virtuous, sane, orderly, thrifty woman,
excellent in business, housewifely, with no eccentricities, simply follows
her feelings in friendship and the bent of her mind towards authorship, and
attains in a few years a position notably high.

Two interesting young women who belong
chronologically to this group are not exactly learned Mary North (d.
1662)
ladies, but they had intellectual piquancy and alertness.
One of them, Mary North, was the eldest of the fourteen children of Dudley,
the fourth Lord North. The mother of this large family was evidently a
remarkable woman. Her son Roger says of her: "The Government of us was
In generall severe, but tender; our mother maintained her authority, and yet
condiscended to Entertain us. She was learned (for a lady) and Eloquent.
Had much Knoledg of History and readyness of witt to express herself, in
the part of Reproof, wherein she was fluent and pungent.... But without
occasion given to the Contrary, she was debonair, familiar, and very liberall
of hir discourse to entertain all." This combination of the pungent and the
debonair made an effective family discipline, for it was said that there was
not a son or daughter whose abilities were not of a very high order, and that
the daughters were hardly less cultured than their brothers. And of this
group Mary was, says Roger, "by far the most brilliant—a woman of real
genius." A charming picture is given of the ladies of the North family,
gathered together according to the custom of the time for endless tasks of
tapestry and embroidery, listening entranced to Mary who recited romances
for hours together, giving not only the story, but the conversations, the
substance of letters, and the general reflections. She had "a superiour wit, a
prodigious memory, and was most agreeable." "She instituted a sort of order
of the wits of her time and acquaintance, whereof the symbol was a sun
with a circle touching the rays, and upon that in blue ground were wrote
αὐτάρκης in proper Greek characters, which her father suggested. Divers of
these were made in silver and enamel, but in embroidery plenty, which were

dispersed to those wittified ladies who were willing to come into their
order; and for a while they were formally worn, until the foundress fell
under the government of another, and then it was left off."[111] Mary North
was married to Sir William Spring of Pakenham and died in 1662 in her
twenty-fourth year. Her feminine "Order of Intellect," her quaint badge, "the
symbol of a community of taste and interest in literature, science, and art,"
[112]
offer an attractive and hopeful prospect. It was an inconspicuous little
organization, springing up gayly and spontaneously, and its scope of
learning may not have gone beyond the French romances the gifted young
leader knew by heart, but it was at any rate an association of young women
with some pronounced literary aspirations and tastes, and as such it stands
out alone, a charming picture set in the framework of the anxious years
before the Restoration.

When Dorothy Osborne had been Lady Temple some
years her husband wrote from London a "sweet scrip full Dorothy Osborne,
of reproaches" at the businesslike tone and brevity of her Lady Temple
(1627-1694)
letters. She answered with a touch of her old sauciness:
"Pray what did you expect I should have writ, tell me that I may know how
to please you next time. But now I remember me you would have such
letters as I used to write before we were marryed, there are a great many
such in your cabinet yt I can send you if you please, but none in my head I
can assure you."[113]
The love letters thus preserved in Sir William Temple's cabinet have had
a narrow escape from oblivion. They were found among the Temple papers
when Mr. Courtenay was preparing his elaborate Life of Sir William Temple,
and forty-two extracts from the letters were put by Mr. Courtenay
apologetically in an appendix. He could not be sure that they would not
seem trivial in comparison to matters of state. This book was published in
1836. Macaulay reviewed it in the Edinburgh Review for October, 1838,
and took occasion to give a vivid sketch of Dorothy and her lover.
Macaulay's article led Mr. Edward Abbot Parry to read Courtenay's extracts
from the letters and to weave them together into a kind of story, which was
published in April, 1886, in The English Illustrated Magazine. This
magazine fell into the hands of Mrs. S. R. Longe who had had access to the
original letters and had copied them with minute accuracy. These letters

were offered to Mr. Parry for publication and were accordingly brought out,
though with omissions, in 1888.[114] In 1903 the letters were published in
full. Thus, after escaping the vicissitudes of nearly two and a half centuries,
these letters became a delight accessible to all.[115]
When Dorothy was twenty-one she went with her brother to France. At
the Isle of Wight they were joined by young Mr. William Temple who
promptly fell in love with Dorothy because of the spirited way she met a
difficult situation. Her brother had written on the window pane at the inn
some phrases objectionable to the Puritans, and the whole party was
arrested. Then Dorothy, relying upon the general chivalrous attitude
towards women, took the blame upon herself, and they were set free. The
courtship thus begun was destined to last seven years. There were few
meetings and the correspondence was carried on with all possible secrecy,
for both the Osbornes and the Temples had other plans for the young
people. It was a difficult seven years for Dorothy. The Osbornes lived at
Chicksands Priory in Bedfordshire, a lonely and not very interesting region.
Dorothy's mother died in 1650. After a long illness, during which she was
his constant attendant, her father died in 1654. During these years her
brother was the only one of the family with her in the strange old house.
And from him came her chief trial, for it was the effort of his life to see her
well married. Young men, middle-aged men, old men, aspired to be
Mistress Dorothy's "servants." The ancient Priory saw a train of lovers sent
away unsatisfied. Dorothy gave all sorts of reasons for her fastidious and
critical attitude towards her suitors—all reasons but the real one. Mr.
Temple had no assured income, Dorothy but a small dowry, and no families
in their rank of life could be expected to sanction so imprudent a choice. In
the meantime silence and faithfulness was the only resource of the
impecunious lovers. It was a hard fate, but not without compensations for
later generations, for if they had married happily on coming out of France
there would have been no bundle of letters in the old cabinet at Sheen.
There are various indications that Dorothy had numerous correspondents.
That they did not save her letters is our great loss, for we can imagine few
more delightful ways of being inducted into the life of the times than
through the letters of Mistress Dorothy. The "Matchless Orinda" was one of
her correspondents, but only one letter arising out of this friendship has
been preserved. It may justly be quoted entire because it serves to unite the

two most interesting women of the time, and because it shows how Mrs.
Philips, in the plentitude of her fame, with Dublin dramatic triumphs fresh
upon her, with the aristocracy of London adding leaves to her laurel crown,
courted the quiet Mrs. Temple living the most retired and domestic of lives
at Sheen. This letter has the further pathetic interest of being one of the last
Orinda wrote, for when she reached London on this visit she had so longed
for she fell a victim to that most dreaded scourge, the small-pox:
Deare Madam,—You treat me in your letters so much to my advantage and above my
merit that I am almost affray'd to tell you how exceedingly I am pleased with them lesst
you should attribute yt contentment to ye delight I take in being praised whereas I am
extreamely deceived if that be ye ground of it, though I confess it is not free from vanity. I
can not choose but be proud of being owned by soe valuable a person as you are, and one
whom all my inclinations carry me to honour and love at a very great rate, and you will
find by the trouble I last gave you of this kind how impossible it will be for you to be rid of
an importunity which you have much encourag'd and how much your late silence alarm'd
one yt is soe much concern'd for ye honour you doe her in allowing her to hope you will
frequently let her know she hath some room in ye particular favour, I hope you have
pardon'd me that complaint and allow'd a little jealousy to that great passion I have for you
and that I shall with some more assurance come to thank you for this last favour of 12th
instant, and must beg you to believe that if my convent were in Cataya and I a recluse by
vow to it, yet I should never attain mortification enough to be able willingly to deny myself
the great entertainment of your correspondance, which seems to remove me out of a
solitary religious house on ye mountains and place me in the most advantageous prospect
upon both court and town and give me right to a better place than of either, and that madam
is your friendship, which is so great a present, that there is but one way to make it more
valuable and yt is by making it less ceremonious and by using me with a freedom that may
give me more access into your heart and this beg from you with a great earnestness, and
will promise you that whatsoever liberties of that kind you allow me, yt I will never so
much abase that goodness as to press mine own advantages further than you shall permit or
lessen any of the respect I ow you, by the less formal approaches I desire to make to you
who though I esteem above most of the world yet I love yet more.[116]

Orinda was a letter-writer of no mean ability herself, but she wrote with
something of a professional tone, and possibly with an eye to numerous
readers. It was only Dorothy that could make town and court live again.
Macaulay's philippics against "the dignity of history" and his eulogy of the
social value of such letters as Dorothy's must find approval from every one
who tries to revivify a forgotten era. Dorothy was an acute observer. If the
novel of domestic life had been in existence in her day she would have
found the natural place for her clever and slightly caustic pen. The
successive suitors and various dull visitors at Chicksands could have had
little suspicion of the merry and facile wit that was serving up their oddities
for the amusement of her lover. Furthermore, Dorothy was an inveterate

reader, and a reader with mental reactions, an independent judgment, and a
skill in witty comment. The general tone of the letters is a delightful
mixture of humor, tenderness, and coquetry. No writing of the time was
more unaffectedly human. And there were counsels of prudence and of
good sense, bits of worldly wisdom and penetrating knowledge of human
foibles. And with it all was the charm of style. When Mr. Temple wishes to
know how she spends her day she outlines the slow-moving hours and
closes with this delicate picture of evening:
The heat of the day is spent in reading or working, and about six or seven o'clock I walk
out into a common that lies hard by the house, where a great many young wenches keep
sheep and cows, and sit in the shade singing of ballads. I go to them and compare their
voices and beauties to some ancient shepherdesses that I have read of, and find a vast
difference there: but, trust me, I think these are as innocent as those could be. I talk to them
and find they want nothing to make them the happiest people in the world but the
knowledge that they are so. Most commonly when we are in the midst of our discourse,
one looks about her, and spies her cows going into the corn, and then away they all run as
if they had wings to their heels. I, that am not so nimble, stay behind; and when I see them
driving home their cattle, I think 't is time for me to return too. When I have supped, I go
into the garden, and so to the side of a small river that runs by it, when I sit down and wish
you were with me (you had best say this is not kind neither). In earnest, 't is a pleasant
place, and would be much more so to me if I had your company. I sit there sometimes till I
am lost with thinking; and were it not for some cruel thoughts of the crossness of our
fortunes that will not let me sleep there, I should forget that there were such a thing to be
done as going to bed.[117]

Dorothy's easy, natural tone was quite in accord with her theory of letter-
writing. She writes to Mr. Temple:
All letters, methinks, should be free and easy as one's discourse, not studied like an
oration, nor made up of hard words like a charm. 'T is an admirable thing to see how some
people will labour to find terms that will obscure a plain sense, like a gentleman I knew
who would never say "the weather grew cold," but that "winter begins to salute us." I have
no patience for such coxcombs, and cannot blame an old uncle of mine who threw the
standish at his man's head because he writ a letter for him, where instead of saying (as his
master bid him) that "he had the gout in his hand" he said "that the gout would not permit
him to put pen to paper." The fellow thought he had mended it mightily, and that putting
pen to paper was much better than plain writing!

How in 1652-54 did Dorothy escape the grand style? She was steeped in
romances and she read Jeremy Taylor with delight. But there are no
preciosities, no attempted elaborateness or ornamentation or splendor in her
style. She might have written after the moderns had won their victory so
direct and straightforward is her speech. But the infinite charm of her letters
belongs to no age. It is the expression of a personality.

We cannot leave Dorothy Osborne's letters without feeling defrauded that
there are so few of them. After their marriage in 1655 the Temples lived
five years in Ireland. Sir William's importance in state affairs led to a later
residence in Brussels and at The Hague. After 1681 they lived in retirement
at Moor Park and Swift and Stella were of their household. What
opportunities for letters if Dorothy had only been as indefatigable as Lady
Mary Wortley Montagu! But except for a few personal notes from Sheen in
1665-67, Dorothy fades from our sight. Did accumulated sorrows sap her
energy and dim her joyous courage? She had nine children. Seven of them
died in infancy. Her daughter died of small-pox. Her son committed suicide
because of fancied inability to perform a diplomatic mission. It is said that
at some time during the years 1689-94 Queen Mary and Dorothy kept up a
continuous correspondence. If such letters were written there is now no
trace of them. The latest published letter from Dorothy is in 1689 in
response to some expression of condolence for the death of her son. It is
difficult to recognize in this subdued and dignified, almost cold and stately
lady, the sparkling and mischievous Dorothy of the earlier letters.

Just about contemporary with Mrs. Philips and the
Duchess of Newcastle was a remarkable woman of quite Lady Pakington (d.
another type. This was Lady Pakington, the daughter of 1679)
Lord Coventry. If, as was long supposed, she wrote the series of books of
which The Whole Duty of Man was one, that fact would place her very high
in the ranks of seventeenth-century authors. With the consensus of expert
opinion now against the ascription of these books to her, she yet holds an
important place among learned women.[118] Dr. George Hickes, whose
deanery was near Westwood, the home of Sir John Pakington, and who was
intimate with the family, in the Preface to his Thesaurus which was
inscribed to Sir John, gives a "character" of Lady Pakington in which he
says she was trained in her youth by "the excellently learned Sir Norton
Knatchbull," and that later in life she was mistress of all the learning, good
judgment, sound thinking, and piety necessary to have been the author of
the famous Whole Duty of Man. He says that noted divines declared her as
learned in the history of pagan and Christian systems of thought as were
they themselves; and that she knew concerning the antiquities of her own
county "almost as much as the greatest proficients in that kind of

knowledge." Especially did Dr. Hickes comment on her "talent for speaking
correctly, pertinently, clearly, and gracefully," and on "her evenness of style
and consistent manner of writing." No woman of the period came nearer
being the tutelary deity of a coterie than did Lady Pakington. Her loyalty to
the Church of England and to the Stuart cause made of her beautiful home
at Westwood during the Protectorate a natural resort for royalist divines. Dr.
Hammond, Bishop Fell, Bishop Morley, Bishop Pearson, Bishop
Henchman, Bishop Gunning, were among those whose friendship and
esteem she had acquired by her "great virtues and eminent attainments in
knowledge." Before the Restoration she held a kind of Church of England
salon, and though most of the men who frequented it were given benefices
by Charles II and so scattered through England, Lady Pakington, by letter
and occasional personal intercourse, kept up the friendships of the earlier
days, through the nineteen years that she lived after the Restoration. And
even if she did not write The Whole Duty of Man (1657) and the series that
followed it, these books arose from the discussions held at Westwood.

The Countess of Warwick is best known from her
Diary, her Autobiography, and the sermon preached at Mary Boyle, the
Countess of
her funeral by Dr. Anthony Walker, rector of Fyfield in Warwick (1624-
Essex. The Diary was kept from July, 1666, till 1678. 1678)
The part from 1666 to 1672 was published in 1847 by
the Religious Tract Society with a memoir. The remainder is among the
manuscripts in the British Museum.[119] Her Autobiography, under the title,
Some Specialties in the Life of M. Warwicke, was published by the Percy
Society in 1848.[120] Dr. Walker's sermon, entitled The Virtuous Woman
found, her loss bewailed, and character exemplified, etc., was published in
1678 and 1687.[121]
Mary Boyle was married to Mr. Rich, afterwards Earl of Warwick, when
she was but fifteen. Her life before that time she thus describes: "I was
married into my husband's family, as vain, as idle, and as inconsiderate a
person as possible, minding nothing but curious dressing and fond and rich
clothes, and spending my precious time in nothing else but reading
romances, and in reading and seeing plays, and in going to court, and Hide
Park and Spring Garden; and I was so fond of the court, that I had taken a
secret resolution that if my father died, and I was mistress of myself, I

would become a courtier."[122] But by the time she was twenty-one a
complete change was manifest. She became exceedingly devout. There is
no more romance reading. The books on her chosen list are "St. Bernard,
George Herbert, Jeremy Taylor, Baxter, Samuel Rutherford Clarke, the
Confessions of St. Augustine, John Janeway's Dying, Foxe's Book of
Martyrs, Cayley's Glimpses of Eternity."[123] Her writing was all religious
in tone. Rules for a Holy Life, Occasional Meditations, and Pious
Reflections were among the topics she found most congenial. The
Specialties in the Life of M. Warwicke shows the intensity of her struggle
after spiritual perfection and her genuine aloofness from the gay and
splendid scenes in which her rank compelled her to bear a part. The most
ordinary occurrences, such as "lighting many candles at once," or "drawing
the window-curtains to prevent the sun's putting out the fire," suggested
pious reflections. At a glorious banquet at Whitehall "the trumpets sounding
in the midst of all that great show" put mortifying thoughts into her mind
and made her consider "what if the trump of God should now sound?" In a
meditation entitled "Upon looking out of my window at Chelsea, upon the
Thames," her delight in the sweet river when it is calm and serene, and her
dislike of it—so that she shut her window and ceased to look—when it was
rough, is moralized into the charm of calm and patient people as against
those of turbulent passions.[124]
Lady Warwick's writings exhibit none of the joyous or fervent aspects of
religion. In the midst of domestic trials, surrounded by an alien life, she was
steadily tutoring her own heart, subduing her sins, following a high ideal.
Dr. Walker in his sermon gives an example of seventeenth-century pulpit
oratory in his effort adequately to praise this great lady, as conspicuous for
goodness as for her rank and wealth: "An hundred mouths, and a thousand
tongues though they all flowed with nectar, would be too few to praise her."
"Oh," he exclaims, "for a Chrysostom's mouth, for an angel's tongue, to
describe this terrestrial seraphine; or a ray of light condensed into a pencil,
and made tactile, to give you this glorious child of light in viva effigie."

That Lucy Hutchinson had written a life of her
husband was known by many people and there were Lucy Apsley, Mrs.
Hutchinson
frequent requests in the eighteenth century that so (1620-?)
valuable a historical document should be made

accessible to the public. Mrs. Catherine Macaulay was one of those urgent
in this matter, but without avail.[125] It was not till the manuscript came into
the possession of the Reverend Julius Hutchinson that it was published.
After the first edition in 1806 three editions appeared in four years. Some
other writings besides the Memoirs were found among the papers of Mrs.
Hutchinson. Of these the precious Autobiography was but a fragment. It not
only closed abruptly, but leaves had been torn out. But from what remains
we get one of the few accounts of the home education of girls in the first
half of the seventeenth century. Her father and mother, extremely glad to
welcome a girl after three sons, "applied all their cares and spared no cost"
in her education. She describes this education as follows:
By the time I was four years old I read English perfectly, and having a great memory, I
was carried to sermons; and while I was very young could remember and repeat them
exactly, and being caressed, the love of praise tickled me, and made me attend more
heedfully. When I was about seven years of age, I remember I had at one time eight tutors
in several qualities, languages, music, dancing, writing and needle-work; but my genius
was quite averse from all but my book, and that I was so eager of, that my mother, thinking
it prejudiced my health, would moderate me in it; yet this rather animated me than kept me
back, and every moment I could steal from my play I would employ in any book I could
find, when my own were locked up from me. After dinner and supper I still had an hour
allowed me to play, and then I would steal into some hole or other to read. My father
would have me learn Latin, and I was so apt that I outstripped my brothers who were at
school, although my father's chaplain, that was my tutor was a pitiful dull fellow. My
brothers, who had a great deal of wit, had some emulation at the progress I made in my
learning, which very well pleased my father; though my mother would have been
contented if I had not so wholly addicted myself to that as to neglect my other qualities. As
for music and dancing, I profited very little in them, and would never practise my lute or
harpsichords but when my masters were with me; and for my needle I absolutely hated it.
Play among other children I despised, and when I was forced to entertain such as came to
visit me, I tired them with more grave instructions than their mothers, and plucked all their
babies to pieces, and kept the children in such awe, that they were glad when I entertained
myself with elder company; to whom I was very acceptable, and living in the house with
many persons that had a great deal of wit, and very profitable serious discourses being
frequent at my father's table and in my mother's drawing-room, I was very attentive to all,
and gathered up things that I would utter again, to great admiration of many that took my
memory and imitation for wit. It pleased God that, through the good instructions of my
mother, and the sermons she carried me to, I was convinced that the knowledge of God was
the most excellent study, and accordingly applied myself to it, and to practise as I was
taught. I used to exhort my mother's maids much, and to turn their idle discourses to good
subjects: but I thought, when I had done this on the Lord's day, and every day performed
my due tasks of reading and praying, that then I was free to anything that was not sin.[126]

MRS. LUCY HUTCHINSON AND HER SON
From an engraving in Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, 1808

Elsewhere she notes other elements of her education. She says that as
soon as she was weaned, a Frenchwoman was taken to be her dry-nurse and
she was taught to speak French and English together. At the siege of
Nottingham Castle Mrs. Hutchinson is represented as acting the part of a
surgeon. This knowledge may doubtless be referred to instructions by her
mother. Sir Allen Apsley, Lucy's father, was lieutenant of the Tower of
London during her youth, and Mrs. Apsley was very generous and humane
to the prisoners. Her daughter says of her:
What my father allowed her she spent not in vanities, although she had what was rich
and requisite upon occasions, but she laid most of it out in pious and charitable uses. Sir
Walter Raleigh and Mr. Ruthin being prisoners in the Tower, and addicting themselves to
chemistry, she suffered them to make rare experiments at her cost, partly to comfort and
divert the poor prisoners, and partly to gain the knowledge of their experiments, and the
medicines to help such poor people as were not able to seek physicians. By these means
she acquired a great deal of skill, which was very profitable to many all her life.[127]

The love story of Lucy Apsley and Colonel Hutchinson is curiously
interwoven with her learning. When Lucy was sixteen her mother took her
into Wiltshire in pursuance of a contemplated marriage contract and left a
younger sister at a house where she was "tabled for the practice of her lute."
Mr. Hutchinson, "tabled" at the same house, was attracted by the vivacious
child, and frequently accompanied her when she went over to her mother's
house. On one of these occasions he saw some Latin books and was much
interested to find that they belonged to Lucy. Then he heard that this Lucy
was "reserved and studious," then that she composed songs above "the
ordinary reach of a she-wit," then that she had "sense above the rest," but
that she "shunned the converse of men as a plague." Strangely enough,
these accounts, or some magic, or the hand of Providence, plunged Mr.
Hutchinson into the despairs and ardors of love even before he had seen the
lady. On her return, the proposed marriage contract not having been
completed, he daily frequented her mother's house, and for six weeks "in
the sweet season of the spring" they had opportunity for converse with each
other. During this period some envious ladies endeavored to break the
friendship by telling him that Lucy neglected her dress and all womanish
ornaments, giving herself up wholly to study and writing. But since his love

had owed its inception to a sight of her Latin books, and had been
stimulated by hearing her poetry, these insinuations did not interfere with
what his wife calls "a more handsome management of love than the best
romances describe."[128]
Somewhat later Lucy Hutchinson's love of learning led her to at least a
slight knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. That she kept up her Latin is shown
by the fact that she translated part of the Æneid. In her early married life
she found scholastic means to mitigate the monotony of the needlework she
loathed. Out of a "youthful curiosity to understand things she had heard so
much of at second-hand" she translated six books of Lucretius into verse,
accomplishing this task, she says, "in a room where my children practised
the several qualities they were taught with their tutors, and I numbered the
syllables of my translation by the threads of the canvas I wrought in, and set
them down with a pen and ink that stood by me."
There was not, however, in Mrs. Hutchinson's life much opportunity for
scenes so domestic as this. She was married to Mr. Hutchinson in 1638. By
1642 her husband was definitely committed to the side of the Puritans, and
the rest of their life till his death in 1664 was one of anxiety, conflict, and
baffled high endeavor. But it was also a life of achievement and excitement,
and constantly sweetened and stimulated by extraordinary affection
between husband and wife. When at his death she retired to the family
home at Owthorpe the days must have looked very blank and empty to the
heroine of Nottingham Castle. Not even the care of her eight children could
keep her mind from dwelling on the past. The message her husband sent her
from his death-bed in the prison, "Let her, as she is above other women,
show herself, on this occasion, a good Christian, and above other women,"
[129]
helped her to restrain extreme signs of grief, but her heart and mind
were with him. And the mechanic exercise that dulled her grief was the
writing of his Life. She had kept a rough sort of diary and this was the basis
for the longer work. The writing was done between 1664 and 1671 when
Mrs. Hutchinson herself died. The work was addressed "To my Children"
and its purpose was to make them know the character and deeds of their
father. But the narrative goes much farther than that. It is a minute account
of the persons and events of that portion of the Civil War especially
connected with Nottingham. She writes as an eye-witness and a participant.
She wields a pen vigorous, racy, and unafraid. She had a genius for

picturesque characterization, and her scornful descriptions of cowards and
traitors are veiled by no feminine softness of phrase. When describing such
treacherous members of the Parliament Party as Charles White and
Chadwick and his wife her vocabulary of abuse is unstinted. But she is
equally fluent in her account of heroes such as Colonel Thornhagh. The
intrigues, the factions, the cross-currents, within the Puritan Party are as
minutely analyzed and laid open as is the general contest between King and
Parliament. Furthermore, the book is readable from beginning to end. It
moves with the rapidity of a novel of adventure. Mr. A. H. Upham[130] has
analyzed Mrs. Hutchinson's work to show that it was probably suggested by
the Duchess of Newcastle's Life of her husband, and that, further, the
general plan and even the choice of detail were guided by the Duchess's
Memoir. The Life of the Duke of Newcastle, though not published till 1667,
was written in 1665, and since the two families were neighbors, and knew
each other well, it might easily be that Mrs. Hutchinson was acquainted
with the work of the Duchess in manuscript. This ingenious theory is
maintained by citations of passages showing numerous similarities. But the
fact remains that Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoir moves forward as from the
force of an original impulse, nobly religious, shrewd, caustic, affectionate,
and naïve. It was, in subject-matter and style, a notable achievement, and
while succeeding in the amplest measure in its purpose of exalting Colonel
Hutchinson's memory, quite as deservedly gives to Mrs. Hutchinson her
own unsought and higher pinnacle of fame.

A few years before her death Lady Fanshawe wrote
for her son a narrative of her life. Of her own education Ann Harrison, Lady
Fanshawe (1625-
she says: "Now it is necessary to say something of my 1680)
mother's education of me, which was with all the
advantages that time afforded, both for working all sorts of fine works with
my needle, and learning French, singing, (the) lute, the virginals, and
dancing; and, notwithstanding I learned as well as most did, yet I was wild
to that degree that the hours of my beloved recreation took up too much of
my time; for I loved riding in the first place, and running, and all active
pastimes; and in fine I was what we graver people call a hoyting girl. But to
be just to myself I never did mischief to myself or other people, nor one
immodest action or word in my life; but skipping and activity was my

delight. But upon my mother's death and as an offering to her memory I
flung away those little childishnesses that formerly possessed me and by my
father's command took upon me the charge of his house and family, which I
so ordered by my excellent mother's example as found acceptance in his
sight."[131] At her mother's death Ann was "fifteen years and three months"
old, and the household she took charge of was one "of plenty and
hospitality," her father having a very great estate. In 1644 she married Sir
Richard Fanshawe to whom she was passionately devoted during the
twenty-six troubled years of their life together. She says: "Glory be to God,
we never had but one mind throughout our lives, our souls were wrapped up
in each other, our aims and designs one, and our resentments one. We so
studied one the other that we knew each other's mind by our looks;
whatever was real happiness God gave it me in him."[132]

LADY FANSHAWE
From an engraving in Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, London, 1830

When Lady Fanshawe wrote her Memoirs, her son Richard, her youngest
child, was about ten or twelve years old. Her purpose apparently was to

recount all the facts of the eventful family career. The narrative, except for
an occasional outburst, was uncolored by emotion. One series of events
recorded is the births and deaths of children. In a period of twenty years
Lady Fanshawe had fourteen children and she records the deaths of nine of
them. This would seem to be suffering and sorrow enough for one life. But
we get an added conception of the family vicissitudes when we discover
that no two of the fourteen children were born in the same house, and no
two of the nine who died were buried in the same churchyard. Madrid,
Lisbon, Paris, Yorkshire, Kent, Hertfordshire, Oxford, were places of sad
memory to the bereaved mother. Yet, except in the cases of "little Nan" and
the first Richard, there is simply a recital of facts and dates. Lady Fanshawe
was but fifty-five when she died, but she had gone through so much that a
re-living of past emotions as well as a recalling of facts would have made
the writing of the Memoirs an impossibility. As a narrative of the externals
of life the story has singular interest. It abounds in striking contrasts.
Money stringency, mishaps by land and sea, sicknesses, imprisonments,
deaths, mingle strangely with official splendors, royal gifts, rich
furnishings, gorgeous apparel. It is personal in tone, with as little historical
detail as was consistent with carrying the narrative forward. And for that
reason it is of importance to-day as a closer record of life than historians of
the Civil War or of the reign of Charles II are likely to give.

The most interesting personality in this early group is
the beautiful Mrs.[133] Margaret Blagge. She is the Margaret Blagge,
Mrs. Godolphin
supreme example of a developed religious sense in the (1652-1678)
court of Charles II. She was not driven to a life of
devotion through a grief-enshrouded heart. Religion was to her joy and
ecstasy. John Evelyn recorded in his Diary a determination to consecrate the
worthy life of Margaret Blagge to posterity, and when he died in 1706 he
left a list of "things I would write out fair and reform if I had leisure,"
among them being the Life of Mrs. Godolphin. This manuscript was first
published in 1847. It records a life of singular charm and interest. Yet the
facts of Margaret Blagge's life are meager enough. She was born in 1652;
was early in France with the Countess of Guildford; when scarcely twelve
became maid of honor to the Duchess of York; and then on the death of the
Duchess in 1671 entered into the same service with Queen Catherine; in

1674, after a nine-year courtship, married Sidney Godolphin; and in 1678
died in child-birth. It is her inner life that counts, and that life would have
left small record had not the beautiful young maid of honor chosen the wise
and religious John Evelyn as her friendly counselor in her difficult attempt
to maintain a life of purity and piety in the most dissolute court of Europe.
Evelyn recounts the success of her devout life in these words: "Arethusa
pass'd through all those turbulent waters without soe much as the least
staine or tincture in her Chrystall; with her Piety grew up her Witt, which
was soe sparkling, accompanyed with a Judgment and Eloquence so
exterordinary, a Beauty and Ayre soe charmeing and lovely, in a word, an
Address soe universally takeing, that, after a few years, the Court never saw
or had seen such a Constellation of perfections amongst all their splendid
Circles."[134] But though she was regarded as "a little miracle" at court, her
heart was never there. To no young woman of the time were the pomp and
glory of the world more alluringly open, but she turned instinctively from
all such joys. She counted her beauty a snare and would never "trick and
dress herself vpp ... to be fine and ador'd." Lovers crowded about her, but
she avoided the vain converse of gallants. Evelyn records her particular gift
for mimicry, recitation, acting, but such talents she held in abeyance. At
sixteen she acted in a court play, probably Dryden's Indian Emperor, with
great success, but her growingly devout spirit came to abhor such
recreations, so that when she was summoned by royal request to act in
Crowne's Calisto, in 1674, even though the play was to be given all by
ladies, and those the most illustrious in the land, it was a matter of almost
tragic grief to her that her duty forbade a refusal. "To be herselfe an
Actoresse ... cost her not only great reluctancy but many teares."[135]
Though she was decked with jewels worth £20,000, though she "trode the
Stage with a surprizeing and admirable Aire," and though the whole theater
was extolling her, she felt no transport, but, when an interval came, "retired
into a Corner, reading a book of devotion." Not even the fact that she played
the part of "Diana, the Goddess of Chastity," consoled her.
She had one real calling and that was to a religious life. As a child of
seven, in France with the Countess of Guildford, though often "tempted by
that By-Gott proselitesse to goe to Masse and be a papist,"[136] she yet could
maintain her own faith. Because of her spiritual precocity she was
"admitted to the holy Sacrament when she was hardly Eleaven years of

age." Though she disliked Catholicism, she praised nunneries, and would
have chosen a retired life of devotion and good works, had not her love for
Mr. Godolphin and the urgent advice of Mr. Evelyn restrained her. Nearly
all her writing and reading were along religious lines. Mr. Evelyn says on
this point:
She has houres alsoe for reading historye and diversions of that nature; butt allwayes
such as were choice, profitable and instructive, and she had devoured an incredible deale of
that solid knowledge, and could accompt of it to admiration; soe as I have even beene
astonished to find such an heape of excellent things and material observations collected
and written with her owne hand, many of which (since her being with God) came to myne;
for, besides a world of admirable prayers and pieces of flagrant devotion, meditations, and
discourses on various subjects (which she compos'd), there was hardly a booke she read
that she had not common placed, as it were, or taken some remarkable note of; add this to
the Diary of her owne life, actions, resolutions, and other circumstances, of which I shall
give some specimen. She had contracted the intire historye of the Scriptures, and the most
illustrious examples, sentences, and precepts, digested under opposite and proper heads;
and collected togeather the result of every Article of the Apostles' Creed, out of Bishop
Pearson's excellent Treatise. I have allready spoken of her Sermon Notes: butt to give a just
Account of her Letters, they are so many and in so excellent naturall and easy a style, that,
as for their number, one would believe she did nothing else butt write, soe, for their weight
and ingenuity, that she ought to doe nothing else; and soe easyly did her Invention flow,
that I have seen her write a very long letter without once takeing off her pen (butt to dip it),
and that with exterordinary Judgment.[137]

Her Diary is a delightfully spontaneous document. Here is one
Resolution:
June the 2d.
I will nere play this halfe year butt att 3 penny omber, and then with one att halves. I
will not I doe not vow, but I will not doe it;—what, loose mony att Cards, yet not give (to)
the poore! 'T is robbing God, misspending tyme, and missimploying my Talent: three great
Sinns. Three pounds would have kept three people from starveing a month: well, I will not
play.[138]

Equally genuine and charming, but in more decorous and solemn fashion, is
the letter in which she consecrated John Evelyn her friend. Indeed, the
whole quaint and formal episode of the establishment of this remarkable
friendship, seems incredibly pure and lovely when thought of as occurring
in the court of which Grammont's Memoirs is a fair record. Evelyn wrote "a
little master-piece of biography," partly because of his intimate knowledge
of Mrs. Godolphin's spiritual experience and his personal affection for her,
but also, in part, because his imagination was inevitably stimulated by the
vision of a life so crystal clear in an environment so murky.

The versatility and intellectual energy of the Duchess of Newcastle, the
quick wit and instinct for style in Dorothy Osborne's letters, the grave and
sincere religious feeling coupled with considerable theological learning on
the part of women in influential positions like Margaret Blagge, Lady
Pakington, and Lady Warwick, the vivid social and political pictures in the
biographies by Mrs. Hutchinson and Lady Fanshawe, the gay playing with
belles lettres in Mary North's little society, and especially the extraordinary
vogue of Mrs. Philips, are sufficient indications, as we look back over the
period, that a new spirit was awake. It reads now almost as if there were a
general and brilliant opening of literary pursuits to women. But it is also
significant to recall that Mrs. Philips and the Duchess of Newcastle were
the only two women whose ability or learned tastes were known at the time
beyond their own small private circle. In reality the work was sporadic,
secluded, uninfluential. And the fame even of the Duchess of Newcastle and
Mrs. Philips is hardly established before 1660. It is with the Restoration that
the more varied and public activities begin.
2. The Century following the Restoration

The period to be here presented in detail is the century following the
Restoration. During this period the work of women spreads out in new
directions. Not only is there a greater variety in the kinds of writing, but
other forms of self-expression are entered upon. In this more complicated
era the strictly chronological method becomes confusing. It seems more
desirable to take up the work under different species, keeping to
chronological development within each species.
Two kinds of new work by women, acting and painting, demand brief
preliminary notice. Though possibly not within the category of learned
occupations they must yet be recognized as of great importance in the new
life opening before women.
Actresses

Charles II had in France been familiar with the custom of having women
on the stage, and when he issued his two patents to Davenant and Killigrew
he inserted the famous clause, "We do permit and give leave from this time
to come that all women's parts be acted by women." Mrs. Coleman had
taken the part of Ianthe in Davenant's Siege of Rhodes in 1656, but this was
not a regular play. It was more of the nature of an opera or spectacle. The

first woman to act on the public stage in England was probably the actress
who played Desdemona, December 8, 1660. "J. Jordan" wrote a prologue to
introduce her as "the first woman that came to act on the stage," but he did
not give her name.[139]
The theatrical novelty initiated by this unknown actress was far-reaching
in its effects. Through the ensuing years a constantly increasing number of
women followed the lure of the stage. No other opportunity open to the
ambition of women met with so eager a response, or could number so many
aspirants, or could register success so unqualified. Yet as we read of these
early English actresses we hardly think of acting as a profession or of them
as artists. They were in no sense students of the parts they played. Beauty,
youth, high spirits, a certain native endowment of wit or boldness, ability to
sing a song or dance a jig, seemed to meet all the demands of audiences too
much delighted with the mere fact of seeing women on the stage to be over-
critical of their technique or interpretation. Moreover, the runs of plays were
short, three days being about the average, so there was hardly time to work
up finished productions. The stage tenure of most of the actresses was also
brief, hardly more than a prelude to the social and domestic irregularities of
their later lives. Cunningham names Mrs. Betterton as the only actress of
Charles II's day who was not mistress to some man at court. "Frailties," as
they were euphemistically called, became so normally associated with
actresses that Anne Bracegirdle excited incredulous surprise by her reputed
purity of life, and she was presented by the noblemen of her day with a
purse of eight hundred guineas in recognition of her virtue.[140] The
immorality of these early actresses, girls of no rigorous professional
training and no professional standards, is quite intelligible. In appearing
before the public at all they broke so many conventions, defied the feminine
ideal so completely, that a few steps further in pursuit of flattery and
luxurious living hardly seemed to count. As actresses they were at once
under a moral stigma anyhow, so far as the soberer part of the community
was concerned, and they naturally followed the path of least resistance and
accepted the morality of the court of the merry monarch, a court where
virtue with her "lean and scare-crow face" seldom intruded. The unfortunate
outcome of the turpitude of the Restoration actresses is that they built up in
the public mind a prejudice against actresses as a class, a prejudice which
affected later even such women as Mrs. Betterton, Mrs. Bracegirdle, Mrs.

Cibber, or Mrs. Siddons. But it must not be forgotten that they served the
cause of women by opening the way to a new and important profession, a
profession in which women have no handicaps. The stage has been
represented by more women of genius, and has given to women more
unstinted recognition in fame and money, than have any of the other forms
of public activity into which women have so far been admitted, except,
possibly, in late years, administrative work in social service.
It is unnecessary, in this study, to carry the account of the actresses into
further detail, or further down the century. The history of the part women
took on the seventeenth and eighteenth century stage would make a volume
of itself. And since it was many years before acting was connected with any
critical or intellectual conception of the plays represented, it may suffice
here to leave this portion of the new work of women with the mere
announcement of its inception.
Artists

To acting we may add another new realm, that of painting. The earliest
woman portrait-painter on record in England is Anne Carlisle, who died
about 1680. In 1658 Sir William Sanderson, in his Graphice, commenting
on the artists then in England, said, "And in Oyl Colours we have a
vertuous example in that worthy Artist, Mrs. Carlisle." In the notes left by
Vertue to Walpole was a statement that he had seen in about 1730 the
portrait Mrs. Carlisle had painted of herself. Her chief work was in copying
the paintings of Italian masters, or, according to a fashion of the times,
reproducing them in miniature. It is said that Charles I admired her work so
warmly that he presented to her and Van Dyck ultramarine to the value of
five hundred pounds.[141]
Of more distinguished ability was Mary Beale (1637-1697),[142] who is
said to have studied either with Sir Peter Lely or Robert Walker. At least she
watched Lely paint and thereby gained some of his technique. She worked
in oils, water-colors, and crayons. Through Sir Peter Lely she was given
access to some of the best works of Van Dyck and in copying these gained a
training somewhat similar to that given most artists by sojourns in Italy or
Holland. There are in the English National Portrait Gallery portraits by her
of Charles II and Abraham Cowley. At Knole is her portrait of John Milton;
at Woburn Abbey, one of the Duke of Monmouth; Archbishop Tillotson,

Henry, Duke of Norfolk, Dr. Sydenham, Dr. Croone, Bishop Wilkins, are
among those who sat to her. No other English portrait-painter of the period
had so distinguished a clientèle or is represented by so many canvases in
English galleries. Her success may be measured, in part, by her financial
returns. In a pocket-book kept by her husband in 1672 is this entry:
"Received this year, for pictures done by my dearest heart, 202l. 5s." The
receipts for 1674 were 216l. 5s.; and for 1677, 429l. She was still painting
important portraits in 1691, for we find in the Term Catalogue for
Michaelmas of that year the announcement of "The true Effigies of his
Grace, John, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Engraven by Rob. White on a
large sheet of Paper, from the Original lately painted by Mrs. Mary Beale."
According to the manuscript of Mr. Oldys, Mrs. Beale was also
celebrated for her poetry. He styles her, "that masculine poet, as well as
Painter, the incomparable Mrs. Beale." Dr. Woodford included in his
translations of the Psalms several versions by Mrs. Beale whom he
eulogizes as "an absolutely compleat Gentlewoman," and to whom he wrote
several poems under the name "Beliza."[143]
Anne Killigrew (1660-1685), a maid of honor to Mary of Modena, died
at twenty-five, but she had already attained considerable repute as a portrait
painter. There is a tradition that she studied with Sir Peter Lely. If so she
must have taken these lessons before she was twenty, for Lely left England
in 1680. Dryden says that her portrait of James II expressed "not only his
outward part, but drew forth the very image of his heart," and that she was
equally successful in depicting the bright beauty and peerless majesty of
Mary of Modena. Her portrait of herself was engraved by Becket and
prefaces the volume of her poems issued the year after her death. Other
paintings were religious in subject, as in her portrayal of incidents in the life
of John the Baptist; or mythological, as in her representation of Diana's
nymphs. Of far more possible significance is her landscape work. During
1660-1685 Robert Streater is the only English landscape-painter of whom
we have record. Charles II brought over a number of Italian and Flemish
artists who painted English landscapes in the style of Ruysdael, Poussin, or
Salvator Rosa, and their work would be the pictures chiefly known at court.
It is not improbable that Miss Killigrew's landscapes were copies or
imitations of these foreign artists. Dryden says she painted ruins of Greece
and Rome, and forest glades in which were nymphs and shaggy satyrs.

Such pictures must have been copies. But Dryden also enumerates sylvan
scenes of herds and flocks; clear, shallow little brooks; deep rivers
reflecting as in a mirror the trees on their banks. Such pictures are truly
English in tone and whatever their intrinsic value such a choice of subjects
would put her with Robert Streater at the very inception of English
landscape art. And though the scanty records concerning her painting do not
substantiate Dryden's description of her landscapes, it could hardly be
supposed that he would have been so explicit in a poem written for the
family and immediately after her death had there not been some pictures at
least moderately correspondent to his lines.[144]
Other seventeenth-century names of less importance show an aspiration
in art somewhat above that countenanced by the boarding-schools. Mrs.
Pepys and Miss Margaret Pen may serve to indicate the sort of work being
done in amateurish fashion in various homes. Both ladies were "learning to
limn" with one Mr. Browne. Pepys was tremendously interested in his
wife's progress. In the midst of terrifying accounts of the plague and the fire
there come in 1665 and 1666 frequent notes on her pictures. Once after a
week's absence on exhausting work he records, "To my wife, and having
viewed her last piece of drawing since I saw her which is seven or eight
days, which pleases me beyond anything in the world, to bed with great
content, but weary." The next day, on being importuned to buy her a pearl
necklace, he promises it, but only "if she pleases me in her painting." On
one occasion he called on Lady Pen and says of the visit, "Talking with
Mrs. Pegg Pen, and looking at her pictures, and commended them; but,
Lord! so far short of my wife's as no comparison." A month later is the note,
"I took my Lady Pen home, and her daughter Pegg and, after dinner I made
my wife show them her pictures, which did mad Pegg Pen, who learnes of
the same man." In September, 1665, Pepys had just seen his wife's picture
of our Saviour and thought it so pretty that he boasted of it to Evelyn, at
which Evelyn paid him in kind by telling him that "the beautiful Mrs.
Middleton is rare (in painting) and his own wife do brave things."[145]

MRS. ANNE KILLIGREW
From a painting by herself engraved by T. Chambars

The Evelyn family seems to have been instinctively artistic. In Mr.
Thoresby's account of a visit to Evelyn, he said he was shown "many
drawings and paintings of his own and his lady's doing; one especially of
enamel was surprisingly fine, and this ingenious lady told me how she
wrought it." Both Mr. Evelyn and his son Draper were proud of Mary's
work in painting. Sixteen years after her death Mr. Thoresby wrote: "He
afterwards carried me in his coach to his son Draper's at the Temple, and
showed me many curious pieces of his ingenious daughter's performances,
both very small in miniature, and as large as the life in oil colours, equal it
is thought to the greatest masters of the age. He gave me a specimen of
some prospects he took in Italy, and etched upon the copper by his own
hand."
At the end of the century is Sarah Curtis (d. 1743) who was married in
1701 to Bishop Hoadly. Before her marriage she had been a pupil of Mary
Beale, and she is now represented in the National Portrait Gallery by three
canvases, portraits of Burnet, Winston, and Hoadly. Mrs. Rowe's paintings
were likewise highly prized by discriminating friends. Of greater interest is
Mrs. Delany (1700-1788). She copied at least seventy-two pictures by old
masters and painted many portraits. Her work is not represented in public
galleries, but many of her pictures are still preserved in private collections.
Susan Penelope Gibson was a successful miniature painter. Elizabeth Creed
was also an artist of at least local repute. She did sacred subjects as altar-
pieces for neighboring churches and she painted numerous portraits. She
also gave free lessons to the girls living near her. Her daughter Elizabeth,
who inherited her artistic tastes, is said to have ornamented a hall in a Tudor
mansion near Oundle.
Short and insignificant as this list appears, it yet assumes real importance
when we realize not only that these were the earliest English women to
enter this field, but that the list shows up surprisingly well when compared
with a similar list of the native English painters among the men of the
period. Charles I was a great lover of art and he summoned many artists,
some of the first rank, to England, and he bought pictures with a far-sighted
munificence, and Charles II was ambitious of following along the same
distinguished path. But a list of the pictures painted in England before 1700
shows hardly an English name. Hence the presence of any successful
women artists is doubly significant.

The amateurish quality of the painting may be in part explained by the
fact that in but one case, that of Mary Beale, was there any impetus or
training such as are necessarily associated with work adopted as a
profession. The painting was an accomplishment, a pleasant occupation for
leisure hours, a resource, rather than a life purpose ardently pursued. The
only external reward for the many hours at the easel was the praise of a
small circle of friends. The real incentive was an inner demand for some
form of self-expression, and the mere number of pictures painted, quite
apart from the question of their excellence, is indicative of the eagerness
with which women welcomed any sort of opportunity for the free play of
their own individuality.
Authors

It was not, however, acting or painting that occupied most of the women
whose natures craved something out of the ordinary routine. Writing was a
much more natural and feasible resource. Acting implied a public, and even
painting, especially portrait-painting, was likely to be semi-public. But
writing could be carried on in retirement and the results submitted only to
the partial criticism of a home or social circle. It did not bring women
before a carping public or necessarily into competition with men, for even if
plays were produced and books published, the name of the writer could be
veiled, as it usually was, under a decent anonymity. Hence women who
respected the obvious conventions could yet indulge themselves in
authorship.

WRITERS ON PRACTICAL SUBJECTS

When women entered upon writing as a career, it might be thought that
they would at first take up subjects familiar to them, but such was not the
case. For instance, most of the books for children, before the venture of the
Newberys about the middle of the eighteenth century, were by men.[146] It
was James Janeway whose maxim, "A child is never too little to go to Hell,"
resulted in works so popular as A Looking Glass for Children and A Token
for Children (1676); John Bunyan's A Book for Boys and Girls, or Country
Rimes for Children; being Divine Poems on the Creed, Commonwealth and
Several other Subjects (1690); Mr. Mason's A Little Catechism with little
Verses and little sayings, for little children (1693). The Divine and Moral
Songs for Children, by Isaac Watts in 1720, carried on the religious

instruction. There were also various accounts of the "Life and Saintly
Death" of children of tender years, which were published with the avowed
purpose of influencing other children of like tender years, but none of these
are by women. The first women I have come upon who wrote professedly
for children are Sarah Fielding and Mrs. Collyer in 1749.[147]
In a somewhat less degree the same condition exists in relation to
medicine, especially in the realms most definitely in the hands of women.
Mrs. Pilkington tells us that her father was the first man midwife in
England, but nearly all the books on midwifery were written by men. Two
women, however, appear in print, in a discussion of their professional work.
Mrs. Jane Sharp's book is entitled The Midwives' Book, or the whole Art of
midwifery discovered, directing Child-bearing Women how to behave
themselves in their Conception, Breeding, Bearing, and Nursing, of
Children. In Six Books. By Mrs. Jane Sharp, Practitioner in the Art of
Midwifery above thirty years.[148]
Mrs. Elizabeth Cellier, a second writer on midwifery, is known perhaps
chiefly because she was supposed to have some connection with the Meal
Tub Plot. After her acquittal from treason charges she wrote a pamphlet
called Malice Defeated, in which she courageously expressed her adherence
to an unpopular cause in the words, "I do not yet so much fear the smell of
Newgate as to be frighted for telling the truth; nor is death so great a terror
to me, but that I am still ready to seal the same with my blood."[149] She
must have been a woman of substance as well as courage, for she was fined
a thousand pounds because of certain passages in this pamphlet. She was
also condemned to stand in the pillory three times, a punishment which,
according to Lady Russell, she bore with intrepidity and nonchalance,
protecting her head from missiles by means of a battledore which she held
up with one hand, while with the other she gathered up and put into her
pocket all the stones that fell within her reach.
In her profession of midwifery Mrs. Cellier was of high repute, but her
interests were not circumscribed by her own practice. One of her schemes
was the establishment of a "Colledg of Midwives" where the best possible
training should be given. Though her pamphlet, entitled A Scheme for the
Foundation of a Royal Hospital and raising a revenue of 5000 l or 6000 l a
year by and for the Maintenance of a Corporation of Skilful Midwives, did

not result in the establishment of her proposed college, the idea and the
formulation of the plan do credit to her foresight and intelligence, and
sound quite in line with modern forms of woman's civic enterprise.
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries could show a long list of
interesting and elaborately worked-out books on housewifery in general and
cooking in particular, but it seldom happens that one of these books is by a
woman. It is, to be sure, not impossible that more of the material was
furnished by women than is apparent on the surface. Very many of the
books on housekeeping matters were anonymous and were probably mere
publishers' compilations from unacknowledged sources, and in such cases
the actual material may have come from various housewives. But during the
century I have come upon but three women who published under their own
names the results of their experiences as cooks. The earliest of these was
Mrs. Hannah Woolley. She was born about 1623. Her mother and elder
sisters are said to have been "very well skilled in physick and chirurgery"
and they taught her in her youth. She was twice married, the first time to a
schoolmaster named Woolley, and then to a Mr. Francis Challinor. She is
known usually as Mrs. Woolley. One of her books, The Queen-like Closet,
or A rich Cabinet stored with all manner of rare Receipts for preserving,
Candying, and Cookery. Very pleasant and beneficial to all ingenuous
persons of the Female Sex, reached its eleventh edition by 1696. Mrs.
Woolley had been governess in two noble families and had acquired
definite ideas as to polite behavior. This knowledge also she committed to
the printed page. On manners, but especially on household management,
she wrote as an authority and received due recognition.
Another book, by a woman whose initials I have not been able to expand
into a name, is the following: The Cook's New Years Gift, Cookery refined,
or The Lady, Gentlewoman and Servant-maid's Companion: containing the
Art of dressing all sorts of Flesh, Fish, and Fowl, various ways, after the
newest Mode; with their proper seasonings, sauces, Garnishes, serving up
and carving, etc. By Mrs. A. M. a long practiser of this curious Art. (Term
Catalogues, Mich. 1697. Mich. 1700.)
The work of Mrs. Woolley in the seventeenth century found its most
worthy counterpart in the eighteenth century in Hannah Glasse's The Art of
Cookery Made Plain and Easy, which far exceeds any Thing of the kind
ever yet Published.... By a Lady. London. Printed for the Author; and sold

at Mrs. Ashburn's, a China-Shop, the Corner of Fleet Ditch, 1747. The
book was issued with about two hundred subscribers. A fourth edition in
octavo came out in 1751, a ninth edition in 1759, and many later editions.
In her Preface Mrs. Glasse said, "If I have not wrote in the high polite Stile
I hope I shall be forgiven, for my Intention is to instruct the lower Sort,
therefore treat them in their own Way. For Example: when I bid them lard a
Fowl, if I should bid them lard with large Lardoons, they would not know
what I want: But when I say they must lard with small Pieces of Bacon,
they know what I mean." The new element in her book was this attempt to
write out receipts that were simple enough to come into general use.

WRITERS ON RELIGION AND THEOLOGY

The Term Catalogues for 1670-1713 show how great was the
preponderance during those years of books on "Divinity." That women
should share in this prevailing interest is but natural, for religion came
within the accepted canon of the truly feminine. And there are evidences of
an even greater amount of devotional writing by women than might be
expected. The period 1650 to 1750, and especially the first half of that
period, could show a long list of women noted for lives of piety and good
works.[150] The loose living characteristic of the court apparently had its
reaction towards exceptional spiritual rigor on the part of many ladies of
rank. And of these devout ladies no small number found in the composition
of religious verse or prose the intellectual and emotional outlet denied them
in other ways. Almost none of this writing was meant for a public. The
reams of meditations, prayers, and reflections left in manuscript were
merely a private resource, and often kept secret even from the author's
family. Such writings were in their nature fugitive, and it would only now
and then happen that some relative or friend would collect and order the
papers and see them through the press. We accordingly get scattered hints
through funeral sermons and casual notices of an amount of devotional
writing greatly in excess of that published. But to tabulate even all the
published material would be wearisome and to no good end. A few
illustrative examples showing the chief characteristics may suffice.

One of the best examples of the persistent and prodigious industry shown
by some of these ladies is the work of Lady Elizabeth Brooke. She began at

thirty to make notes on sermons, to copy extracts from
commentaries, and occasionally to write out some Lady Elizabeth
personal opinions, and she kept at this sedative Brooke 1683)
(1601-

occupation till her death fifty-two years later. It is
painful to reflect on such a mass of undigested material, but the significant
fact remains that she preferred such reading and writing to the ordinary
interests of her sex. Some of her "Observations and Rules for Practice"
were published as an appendix to the sermon preached at her funeral.
Selections from her writings were published as late as 1828 in The Lady's
Monitor.

Anne Murray, Lady Halkett, was even more
industrious. Her father, who was tutor of Charles I and Anne Murray, Lady
Halkett (1622-
Provost of Eton, died when she was a child, but her 1699)
mother, who was governess to the Princess Elizabeth,
gave her "a complete education." Of her early life she says: "My mother
spared no expense in educating all her children in the most suitable way to
improve them ... and paid masters for teaching my sister and mee to write,
speak French, play on the lute and virginalls, and dance, and kept a
gentlewoman to teach us all kinds of needlework, which shows I was not
brought up in an idle life." After several complicated and long drawn-out
love affairs—fully described in her Autobiography—Anne married Sir
James Halkett in 1656. As the years passed her interests finally centered on
two subjects, divinity and medicine. In "physick and surgery" she gained
great repute. She was consulted in difficult cases from the remotest parts of
the kingdom and her fame spread even to Holland. It was quaintly said of
her: "She was ever employed either in doing or reaping good: in the
summer season she vyed with the bee or ant, in gathering herbs, flowers,
worms, snails, etc., for the still or limbeck, for the mortar or boyling pan,
etc., and was ordinarily then in a dress fitted for her still-house; making
preparations of extracted waters, spirits, ointments, conserves, salves,
powders, etc., which she ministered every Wednesday to a multitude of
poor infirm persons, besides what she dayly sent abroad to persons of all
ranks who consulted her in their maladies."[151] But it was religious themes
only that employed her pen. The catalogue of her writings includes twenty-
one volumes, or a total of about eight thousand pages of manuscript, some

in quarto, some in folio size, and all bound. Some of these books were
printed at Edinburgh in 1701. The title of one book of three hundred and
fifteen pages will indicate the general character of her writing: Select
Meditations and Prayers upon the First Week, with Observations on each
Days Creation, and Considerations on the Seven Capital Vices to be
opposed, and their opposite Virtues to be studied and practised.
Vices to be subdued Virtues to be learned
Pride Sunday Humility
Covetousness Monday Contentation
Lust Tuesday Chastity
Envy Wednesday Charity
Gluttony Thursday Temperance
Anger Friday Patience
Sloth Saturday Diligence
All but nine of these books were written during Lady Halkett's twenty-
eight years of widowhood when she had much leisure, but under any
circumstances the task was a great one, and becomes the more amazing
when we reflect upon it as really only a private recreation. To write so much
with no urgency of fame or money shows some very strong inner demand
for expression and a very facile pen.

Another type of religious book goes back for its
inspiration to Elizabeth Jocelyn's famous Legacie. One "Legacies"
of Lady Halkett's books was The Mother's Will to an
Unborn Child, written in 1656 before the birth of her daughter Elizabeth.
Books of advice from parents to children to be read after the death of the
parents were not uncommon. Elizabeth Sadler (1623-1690), the wife of the
Reverend Anthony Walker, was an exceedingly devout woman whose
literary instinct and a prevision of death led her to write a large book in
octavo for the instruction of her two daughters. Two other books will
sufficiently illustrate the type: The Experiences of God's gracious dealing
with Mrs. Elizabeth White, late wife of Mr. Tho. White of Caldecot in the
County of Bucks; as they were written under her own hand, and found in
her Closet after her decease: she dying in child-bed, December 5th, 1669;
[152]
The Legacie of a Dying Mother to her mourning children; being the

Experiences of Mistress Susanna Bell, who died March 13, 1672. With an
Epistle Dedicatory by Thomas Brookes, Minister of the Gospel.

Lady Russell is an example of a woman who
definitely set out to be religious, and whose writings Rachel Wriothesley,
Lady Russell
contain an analysis of her methods. The circumstances (1636-1723)
of her life give everything pertaining to her a particular
interest. The execution of Lord Russell for treason in 1683 left her broken
by the shock. She had, though without avail, set in motion every possible
agency to avert his fate, and she had devoted herself absolutely to him till
his tragic death. Then, after a period of the deepest despondency, she
entered again upon the duties that lay before her. She conducted the
education and arranged the marriages of her three children. She showed
herself an excellent business woman in the management of her estate. And
she steadily interested herself in securing benefices and other offices for
persons of whom her husband would have approved. Her Letters as
published contain a few during the first years of her happy married life;
many written concerning the "judicial murder" of Lord Russell; and very
many concerning family affairs and the candidates for whom she was
seeking favor. As letters they are uninteresting. The subject-matter is
generally too local and temporary to hold the attention of the modern
reader, and the style is dry and hard. Even the records of her bitter grief and
of her struggle to attain a mood of Christian resignation are less affecting
than might be expected. A kind of apathy seemed to settle down over her
spirit. She was too deeply hurt to find in words any balm for her sorrows.
She answered condolences when she must, but briefly, and with no
lightening of the gloom that encompassed her. Of all her letters the longest
and most valuable as a personal revelation is one written to her children
July 21, 1691, "a day of sad remembrances," for it was the anniversary of
her husband's execution eight years before. In 1691, Rachel, the oldest
child, was twenty years old, and Wriothesley, the youngest, was eleven. The
five or six pages in which Lady Russell recounts, probably especially for
the benefit of Rachel, her method of personal spiritual watch-care, has great
value as a religious document, for she was not alone in her way of seeking
salvation, in her heart-searchings, in her dependence on the external means
of grace, in her sedulous striving after perfection. It was the devout habit of

devout people of the time, but perhaps carried to a meticulous excess by
Lady Russell. She says that she was always provided with a little piece of
paper on which she wrote her faults and temptations as they occurred
during the day. At night a careful review of this record contributed to a
better watch and ward.
And then [she continued], upon Friday morning when I have prayed my usual daily
prayers (which have bin most constantly for many years those in taler's holy living) before
I pray that of intercession pa: 35. I stop ... and look upon my dayly notes for that weeke, I
recollect my fautes; consider what care I have taken to correct or forsake them—but alas
when we do best we shall find enof to be humbled for—therefore I chuse some prayer of
confesion most times that in taler's holy living page 302. When I have done it, I make my
resolutions to do better for ye time to come, and especialy to watch myselfe where i ame
most apt to fal, naming in what I ame so—then I pray some prayer for grace to keep these
promises of better obedience—as in pa: 31—for grace to spend our time wel, on page 271,
for the grace of faith, hope & charity. Then I pray the dayly prayer of intercession that I left
of at in pa:35—after this I praise God ... for all the blessings vouchsafed to me both
spiritual & temporal—as that I was born of Christian parents, not suffered to be strangled
in the womb, that I was baptized, and sence, educated in Christian Religion. I blesse thee
for al checks of Conscience I have had especially those I have profited by.... And then I goe
on, I bless thee for our creation, preservation &c.—close with ye lords prayer.

After this service she went over her faults of the week, making a summary
of them. A similar abridgment for the month was entered in a book kept for
that purpose, the incriminating little pieces of paper were torn up, and a new
record entered upon. She found that a frequent re-reading of the book
"saved much time in looking back" and contributed to humility. Evidently
Lady Russell was as orderly in religion as she was in her business affairs.
She finds her definite tabulations "hugely more satisfying to her mind, than
a more carelesse loose way of living is, and no settled method." The letter
closes with the admonition, "Be devout & reguler in your dutys to God—
heaven wil be secure, and pleasures innocent."[153] Lady Russell's letters
reveal a devout, difficult, over-burdened life, so much concerned with the
means of grace as never to have any happy consciousness of grace itself.

Elizabeth Burnet (1661-1712), daughter of Sir
Richard Blake, married at seventeen into a Catholic Elizabeth Blake,
Mrs. Burnet (1661-
family. Her husband, Robert Berkeley, was a ward of 1712)
Bishop Fell, through whom the marriage was brought
about. The firmness and tact necessary to maintain her own views as a
Protestant and hold her husband to that faith, and yet not antagonize the

family, could hardly be expected of so young a girl. But Bishop Fell had
judged her character well and she met all the demands of so delicate a
situation. She took advantage of many leisure hours in the country to
investigate fully the questions at issue between the Catholics and the
Protestants. She did not know the learned tongues, but she studied the
Scriptures, read commentaries, and conversed with clergymen. When she
became a widow in 1693, at thirty-two, she employed her time in two
characteristic ways. In the administration of her husband's charitable
schemes she found congenial activity. And she gave way to her natural
instinct for writing. In 1700 she became the wife of Bishop Burnet. His
approval of her literary work and his request that it be published led to the
production of her Method of Devotion. It was so popular that she revised
and enlarged it and brought out a second edition. And it was republished in
1713 after her death. The book contained "Rules for holy and devout
Living," "Prayers on Several Occasions," "Advices and Devotions on the
Holy Sacrament." Mrs. Trotter said of her in 1701, "She has an
extraordinary clear and solid judgment, the truest goodness and prudence,
and the most charming affability in her behaviour; in short, I have met with
no such perfection in any of my sex."

Elizabeth Bury was another young woman whose
bright, acquisitive mind resented conventional inactivity Elizabeth Bury
(1644-1720)
and put out tentacles in all directions for knowledge.
Philology, philosophy, history, heraldry, geography, mathematics, were
among her interests. She contended that souls were of no sex and that
women were often "disposed to an accurate search into things curious and
profitable, as well as others." She studied anatomy and medicine until she
had gained "a surprizing knowledge of the human body, and of the Materia
Medica," so that she could state the symptoms of the most difficult and
intricate cases in the physician's own terms. She learned French that she
might talk with French refugees to whom she was a benefactress. Her
correspondence and conversation were both highly prized. But all these
interests must be counted merely as diversions. "Her constant favourite and
darling study was divinity." The Bible, Mr. Henry's Annotations, a few
works on practical divinity, and a competent number of Hebrew books
made up her working library. Hebrew because of its scriptural importance

was the subject on which she concentrated her attention and she was
reputed to have a critical knowledge of its idioms and peculiarities. It was
said that she could even quote the original in common conversation if the
elucidation of some text were in question. As the years passed, books and
writing, "morning hours with God," and many arduous charitable duties so
fully occupied her that she found mere social life an unrewarded tax. Of
ordinary conversation she said that though one might strike fire "it always
fell on wet tinder." The mass of manuscripts found after her death reflected
the variety of her interests, but the majority were on topics such as
Meditations on the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures, The unreasonableness of
Fretting against God, and similar subjects. She kept also a voluminous
Diary, an abridgment of which was published by her husband in Bristol in
1721. Mr. Watts's Elegy indicates something of the reverence with which
Mrs. Bury was regarded by her contemporaries; and a woman of her
personal charm, executive ability, alert responsiveness to the calls of
charity, along with her quick mind, and multifarious, if not always
profound, learning would take an even higher place in any organized
community to-day.

Women also entered the less feminine fields of
controversy. Susanna Hopton is an interesting example. Susanna Hopton
(1627-1709)
In her youth she had become a Catholic, but under the
influence of her husband she entered upon a thorough study of the points at
issue between the Catholics and the Protestants. Dr. Hickes says of her:
"She made herself as perfect in the controversie, as English writers could
make her, who managed the controversie on both sides. I have (says he)
above twenty popish authors, which she left me, and some of them with
marginal notes in her own hand. She was well versed in Bishop Moreton's,
Archbishop Laud's and Mr. Chillingworth's works, and Ranchin's Review of
the Council of Trent, etc."[154] As a result of this reading she drew up a long
and learned letter to Father Tuberville, showing him why she had renounced
the Church of Rome. This letter was published by Dr. Hickes immediately
after her death in his volume of Controversial Letters in 1710. Mr. William
said that she was an excellent casuist and divine, and could encounter and
confute all enemies of the church. "Her discourse and stile upon serious
matters was strong, eloquent and nervous; upon pleasant subjects, witty and

facetious: and when it required an edge was sharp as a razor." Daily
Devotions, Meditations on the Six Days Of Creation, and Meditations on
the Life of Christ were her other works. As a wife, a neighbor, and a friend
she seems to have been in high esteem, but her life had the church as its
center.

Damaris Cudworth and Mary Astell, two of the most
gifted women of the period, became involved in the Damaris Cudworth,
Lady Masham
theological discussion between John Norris and John (1658-1708)
Locke. Miss Cudworth knew both disputants well. As a
young woman she had corresponded with Norris on the subject of "Platonic
Love," and in 1689 he had dedicated to her his Reflections upon the
Conduct of Human Life, with reference to the study of learning and
knowledge. But it was Locke who had a permanent influence on her
opinions. While she was still in Cambridge with her father, Ralph
Cudworth, Locke taught her divinity and philosophy. After her marriage to
Sir Francis Masham in 1685, Locke was a frequent visitor at their home,
and from 1691 till his death in 1704 he lived permanently with them. Her
polemical articles were doubtless written under his inspiration. In 1694 the
correspondence between Mary Astell and John Norris was published, under
the title, Letters concerning the Love of God. Two years later Lady Masham
answered their arguments in her Discourse concerning the Love of God,[155]
which was attributed to Locke and answered by Norris. In 1700 Lady
Masham published Occasional Thoughts in reference to a virtuous
Christian Life, which is her closing word in the controversy.
Damaris Cudworth was a woman of remarkable intellect. Her father was
delighted with the early manifestations of her power and he took pride in
securing for her the best possible education. The curious epitaph on her
tomb praises her learning, judgment, candor, penetration, and love of truth,
and credits her with being a devoted and intelligent mother. It sums up her
character in the statement, that "to the Softness and Elegancy of her own
Sex" she added "several of the noblest Accomplishments and Qualities of
the other," and that "she possessed these advantages in a degree unusual to
either." The conventional eulogy on a tomb is always open to suspicion, but
in this case the vague generalities of the epitaph fall below the truth. Locke,
in a letter to Phillipp van Limborch, said of her: "The Lady herself is so

well versed in theological and philosophical studies and of such an original
mind that you will not find many men to whom she is not superior in wealth
of knowledge and ability to profit by it. Her judgment is excellent, and I
know few who can bring such clearness of thought to bear upon the most
abstruse subjects, or such capacity for searching through and solving the
difficulties. I do not say of most women, but even of most learned men."
[156]

Lady Masham was also recognized as one of the early champions for
woman's education, for when Mary Astell's Serious Proposal appeared
anonymously in 1694 it was by some attributed to Lady Masham. She took
the subject up definitely in her Occasional Thoughts. After commenting on
the lack of knowledge of science, law, history, politics, morals, and religion,
of most English gentlemen, Lady Masham continued:
Thus wretchedly destitute of all that Knowledge which they ought to have, are, generally
speaking, our English gentlemen, and being so, what wonder can it be, if they like not that
women should have knowledge; for this is a quality that will give some sort of superiority
even to those who care not to have it?... But such men as these would assuredly find their
account much better therein, if tenderness of that prerogative would teach them a more
legitimate way of maintaining it, than such a one as is a very great impediment or
discouragement at the least, to others in the doing what God requires of them. For it is an
undesirable truth that a lady who is able to give an account of her faith, and to defend her
religion against the attacks of the cavilling wits of the age, or the abuses of the obtruders of
vain opinions: that is capable of instructing her children in the reasonableness of the
christian religion, and of laying in them the foundations of a solid virtue: that a lady, I say,
no more knowing than this does demand, can hardly escape being called learned by the
men of our days, and in consequence thereof, becoming a subject of ridicule to one part of
them, and of aversion to the other; with but a few exceptions of some virtuous and rational
persons. And is not the incurring of general dislike one of the strongest discouragements
we can have to any thing?[157]

There was published soon after Lady Gethin's death,
from loose papers left by her, a work entitled Reliquiæ Grace Norton, Lady
Gethin (1676-1696)
Gethinianæ. Congreve's poem, entitled Verses to the
Memory of Lady Grace Gethin, occasioned by reading her Book, speaks in
high praise of her. He says the book shows all that study or time could
teach.

But to what height must his amazement rise,
When, having read the work, he turns his eyes
Again to view the foremost opening page,
And there the beauty, sex, and tender age,
Of her beholds, in whose pure mind arose
Th' ethereal source, from whence the current flows.

Lady Gethin was counted a marvel of wisdom, but when we read her
Apothegms and Essays and Witty Sayings we are more impressed by her
accurate memory of Bacon and other earlier essayists than by any profound
knowledge of life on her own part.

Mrs. Eleanor James[158] was a writer on religious and
political topics. No complete list of her works has ever Mrs. Eleanor James
(fl. 1685-1715)
been compiled. She gained publicity for her religious
views by numerous single printed sheets between 1685 and 1715. John
Dunton described her husband as being well known because he was an
excellent printer, and "something the better known for being the husband of
that she-state-politician, Mrs. Eleanor James." She is said to have
constituted herself a sort of "adviser to reigning sovereigns" from Charles II
to George I, whom she visited in turn for counsel and admonition. Her chief
published works are on religious controversy. Her Vindication of the Church
of England (1687) created considerable antagonism. In answer to a satirical
Address of thanks to Mrs. James on behalf of the Church of England she
wrote Mrs. James's Defence. A lady also appeared in the lists against her in
a book entitled Elizabeth Rowe's Short Answer to Eleanor James's Long
Preamble or Vindication of the new Test. Mrs. James's Apology (1694) and
her Reasons humbly presented to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal (1715)
complete the list of her more important publications.

Mrs. Newcome's Enquiry into the Evidences of the
Christian Religion was published in 1728. Mr. Bowyer Mrs. Newcome (fl.
1728)
says that she was by every one accounted a most
excellent and worthy woman, and that her learning was attested by more
than one volume. Mr. Grey mentioned her in his Hudibras as "the very
learned lady" who gave him the note about Penguins in Book I. Nichols
quotes a Mr. "T. F." who says that she had great fame for learning, but adds
cautiously: "All that I know of that matter is, that as often as I have been in

company with her, and when things were thrown out designedly to tempt
her to speak, and discover herself, as the armour produced to Achilles, it
never took effect. So that I can not speak of her learning from my own
knowledge; but if she was not that, she was something better, a very good
woman."[159]

The most distinguished woman in the field of
polemics in the first half of the eighteenth century was Catherine Trotter,
Mrs. Cockburn
Catherine Trotter, better known as Mrs. Cockburn. The (1679-1749)
contemporary recognition accorded Mrs. Cockburn is to-
day the most surprising fact about her. Her father was a Scotchman, a
commander in the royal navy, and highly thought of by Charles II, but his
death at sea in 1683, and many ensuing disastrous business complications,
left the family in serious financial difficulties. Mrs. Trotter was, however,
nearly related to the Duke of Lauderdale and the Earl of Perth, a fact which
secured her social recognition no matter how narrow her circumstances.
Catherine, her youngest child, began writing poetry at a very early age. She
also early showed unusual mental alertness, for "she both learned to write
and made herself mistress of the French language, by her own application
and diligence, without any instructor." In Latin and Logic she had some
guidance. Logic was so interesting to her that while still young she drew up
an abstract of its principles, for her own use.
Catherine's first extant poem was a thanksgiving in heroic verse for the
recovery of Mr. Bevil Higgons from small-pox. She was then fourteen, but
the labored lines have a kind of heavy maturity prophetic of her later verse.
In her seventeenth year she entered fully upon her literary career. For
thirteen years she devoted herself to study and writing, and if applause from
high authorities could justify her serious preoccupation with things of the
mind, such justification was hers in full measure. Before she was seventeen
her tragedy, Agnes de Castro, was acted at Drury Lane. It was by the advice
of the Earl of Dorset and Middlesex that she had allowed "this little off-
spring of her early muse"[160] to try its fortune in the world, and such
success as it had must be attributed largely to the protection of influential
patrons. But with or without patrons, whatever Miss Trotter did was sure to
win praise. When she wrote a eulogistic poem to Congreve on his Mourning
Bride, in 1697, he expressed himself as heartily vexed that her lines came

too late for publication with his play, and said of her poetical
commendation, "It is the first thing, that ever happened to me, upon which I
should make it my choice to be vain."
In 1698 there appeared, at the new theater in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Miss
Trotter's second tragedy entitled The Fatal Friendship. Mr. Betterton, Mr.
Verbruggen, Mr. Thurmond, Mrs. Barry, and Mrs. Bracegirdle, took the
chief parts. The play ran several nights and was seen occasionally on the
stage until far down in the eighteenth century. Its immediate success was
great and the praise that poured in upon the nineteen-year-old author must
have been bewilderingly sweet. Mr. Higgons evened up the score for the
small-pox poem by some verses which declared her direct descent from
Sappho. Mr. Harman said that she maintained the true empire of the stage
along with Congreve, Granville, and a few others "well read in honour's
school." From "an unknown hand" came a poem addressed to "my much
esteemed Friend." This author writes of his consuming anxiety at the
beginning of the play, and of the joy that gushed forth as he observed its
success. The impression from his poem is that he had known the play
intimately before its appearance. According to "the elegant pen of Mr. John
Hughes" Miss Trotter's "virgin voice offends no virgin ear," her chaste
thoughts and clean expressions set her nobly apart as a reformer of the
stage, and she is a successful champion of her sex, since her genius has
destroyed the "Salique law of wit" established by men. So pleased was Mr.
Farquhar with The Fatal Friendship that he sent his first comedy Love and
a Bottle, which had "been scandalously aspersed for affronting the ladies,"
"to stand its tryal before one of the fairest of the sex, and the best judge."
And he adds his thanks for the "favour and honour" she showed him by
appearing on his third night. He concludes his letter with a double
compliment: "But humbly to confess the greatest motive, my passions were
wrought so high by representation of Fatal Friendship, and since raised so
high by a sight of the beautiful author, that I gladly catched this opportunity
of owning myself your most faithful and humble servant." Mrs. Manly also
gave a generous tribute to her young fellow-aspirant for stage honors:
Orinda and the Fair Astrea gone
Not one was found to fill the Vacant Throne;
Aspiring Man had quite regain'd the Sway,
Again had Taught us humbly to Obey;
Till you (Nature's third start, in favour of our Kind)
With stronger Arms, their Empire have disjoyn'd, etc.

Dela Manley
After The Fatal Friendship Miss Trotter's work for the stage need not be
particularly dwelt upon. She had a comedy brought out at Drury Lane in
1701. A new tragedy in the same year at Drury Lane, and a tragedy at the
Haymarket in 1706, complete the list. Some occasional poems appeared
during this period. In 1700 she was one of the nine ladies who wrote on the
death of Dryden, under the title The Nine Muses; or Poems written by as
many ladies on the death of the late famous John Dryden, Esq. In 1704 she
entered the lists with Mr. Addison and Mr. John Philips in celebrating the
victory of Blenheim, but she did not venture to publish her poem till the
manuscript had been submitted to the Duke of Marlborough. When the duke
and the duchess and the lord treasurer Godolphin declared themselves
"greatly pleased" she sent her lines to the press.
Besides her dramatic and poetical work Miss Trotter wrote in prose on
critical and theological subjects. An interesting disquisition on "the poets of
the last age" appeared in the dedication of her The Unhappy Penitent in
1701. Of Shakespeare, Dryden, Lee, and Otway she speaks with
independent judgment and considerable discrimination. But none of the
works so far listed are those on which her fame rested. It was not in poetry,
drama, or literary criticism that she found satisfaction. Religion and
philosophy were her true field. Locke's Essay concerning Human
Understanding was published in 1690, and among the antagonistic
criticisms it called forth were three series of Remarks published
anonymously in 1697 and 1699. Young as she was Miss Trotter pursued the
controversy with the keenest interest and in 1701 she drew up a Defence of
The Essay of Human Understanding. Mr. George Burnet of Kemney, then in
Holland, and Mrs. Burnet, the wife of Bishop Burnet, were entrusted with
the secret of her Defence, and both advised anonymous publication,
agreeing with her that her youth and sex would, if known, count against a
work of that nature. Her Defence appeared in print in 1702. Mrs. Burnet on
finding that the Bishop, Mr. John Norris, and Mr. Locke himself, were
highly pleased with it, could keep the secret no longer.[161] Mr. Locke sent
Miss Trotter a present of books and a letter in which he expressed his
gratitude for "an opportunity to own you for my protectress, which is the
greatest honour my Essay could have procured me. Give me leave therefore
to assure you, that as the rest of the world take notice of the strength and

clearness of your reasoning, so I can not but be extremely sensible, that it
was employed in my behalf."[162]
A second pamphlet was entitled A discourse concerning a guide in
Controversies and grew out of her own spiritual conflicts. Although of a
Protestant family she had become a Catholic early in life, but had gradually
found herself less and less in harmony with that church till 1707 when, in
this Discourse, she announced her return to the Church of England.
The polemical years between 1701 and 1707 had been diversified by
several love affairs. Mr. George Burnet of Kemney, Mr. Fenn who was an
eloquent young clergyman,[163] Mr. Cockburn, "and some others," are
indicated in her letters. Miss Trotter's letters to two of these lovers, Mr.
Fenn and Mr. Burnet, are nearly as polemical as her Defence and Discourse.
She uses all her old Art of Logic to reason her lovers into friends. She had,
in fact, no particular respect for the passion of love as a factor in human
life. She apologized for having given it so important a place in her plays,
for it was "not noble enough to fill a whole tragedy."[164] When Mr. Burnet
professed "the most passionate ardour of mind and soul" for her,[165] she
responded with a eulogy of "just and beneficent friendship." "It is only that
niggard passion, which is distinguish'd by the name of love, that excludes
all but one object from having a part in it, and is not satisfied without
monopolizing the affections of the heart."[166] She offered Mr. Burnet "due
gratitude" and she surely owed him some return for the pains he took to
spread the fame of her works. He wrote so highly of her to the Princess
Sophia that the royal lady wrote in answer: "Je suis charmée du portrait
avantageux, que vous me faites de la nouvelle Sappho Ecossoise, qui
semble meriter les eloges, que vous luy donnez."[167]
Miss Trotter's letters to Mr. Cockburn, whom she married in 1708, are
also full of argument and business. If she had a deep affection for him she
certainly never allowed herself to speak out. She says that their chief aim in
marriage was to assist each other in performing those duties that flow from
the love of God.[168] Of the ensuing twenty years she wrote in 1738 as
follows: "Being married in 1708, I bid adieu to the muses, and so wholly
gave myself up to the cares of a family, and the education of my children,
that I scarce knew there was any such thing as books, plays, or poems
stirring in Great Britain."[169] It was an attack on Mr. Locke that again drew

her into public controversy. Dr. Winch Holdsworth published in 1720 a
sermon on Mr. Locke's "false reasonings" against the resurrection of the
same body. The sermon came to her hands some years later and she
published in 1726-27 A Letter to Dr. Holdsworth. In 1727 he published A
Defence of the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the same Body. Her answer,
A Vindication of Mr. Locke's Christian Principles, remained in manuscript
till the publication of her works in 1751. She also wrote in 1739 Remarks
upon some Writers in the Controversy concerning the Foundation of Moral
Duty and Moral Obligation which was published in 1743 in The History of
the Works of the Learned. In 1747 she entered upon a confutation of Dr.
Rutherforth's Essay on the Nature and Obligations of Virtue. Her Remarks
on this Essay was published by Mr. Warburton with a laudatory Preface in
which he spoke of her "fine genius," "clearness of expression, strength of
reason, precision of logic, and attachment to truth."
From 1731 to 1748 there is a series of letters between Mrs. Cockburn and
Anne Hepburn (afterwards Mrs. Arbuthnot), her niece. It is almost entirely
a literary and religious correspondence and shows that Miss Hepburn's
interests were on almost as high a plane as her aunt's. A list of the books
they exchanged and commented on would include most of the important
new works in England during the first half of the century. The most
interesting literary taste revealed is Mrs. Cockburn's partiality for Pope. In
1738 she wrote him a long letter in which she said, "Your Epistle to Dr.
Arbuthnot, and Essay on Man, gave me some idea of your morals. But
when I read your private letters, where, as you express it, you throw
yourself out upon paper, I thought I saw your heart open and undisguised. I
was charmed with the sincere, ingenuous, unsuspecting friend, the
unwilling enemy, the benevolent mind, extending to all parties, all religions,
all mankind; the filial piety, the tender concern for a mother's approaching
death, at an age, when most men would have considered theirs only as a
useless burden. In short, I saw so many amiable qualities opening on every
different occasion, that I began as much to admire the valuable man as the
great genius." She chides him gently for thinking too lightly of his genius,
for while he is measuring syllables and coupling rhymes to such excellent
moral ends, she is ready to assure him of a final "Well done, thou good and
faithful servant." It is a pity this epistle was never sent. It would doubtless
have been almost as surprising to the wicked wasp of Twickenham as to the
crowd of enemies for whose benefit he was preparing the New Dunciad.

Mr. Birch, who edited Mrs. Cockburn's Works in 1751, said of her:

Posterity at least will be solicitious to know, to whom they will owe the most
demonstrative and perspicuous reasonings, upon subjects of eternal importance; and her
own sex is entitled to the fullest information about one, who has done such honour to them,
and raised our ideas of their intellectual power, by an example of the greatest extent of
understanding and correctness of judgment. Antiquity, indeed, boasted of its female
philosophers, whose merits have been drawn forth in an elaborate treatise of Menage.
[Historia Mulierum Philosophorum, 8vo. Lyons, 1690.] But our own age and country may
without injustice or vanity oppose to those illustrious ladies the defender of Locke and
Clarke; who, with a genius equal to the most eminent of them, had the superior advantage
of cultivating it in the only effectual method of improvement, the study of a real
philosophy, and a theology worthy human nature, and its all perfect author.

Mrs. Cockburn had a strong, clear, acute mind. The impression she made
on the best thinkers in her generation is due to this fact, and, further, to the
fact that she used her mentality on topics then counted vital. She was
didactic, she was morally irreproachable, she was unassuming. That her
editor's confident prediction of her fame has been discredited by time, that
she is in reality hardly so much as a name to-day, is due partly to the
oblivion that has overtaken her subjects, but also, and even more justly, to
the dead level of her excellence. She has no wit, no fancy, no imagination,
no sprightliness of thought, no humor. Mary Astell and "Sophia" were
occasionally roused to picturesque indignation. But not so with Mrs.
Cockburn. She is as cold, as orderly, as unstimulating as a formula.

Among dissenters there is less literary record. We find
more among the Quakers than elsewhere, yet even there Mrs. Margaret Fell
(1614-1702)
not so much as might be expected from the fact of their
recognition of the equality of the sexes. It was stated in their creed: "As we
dare not encourage any ministry but that which we believe to spring from
the influence of the Holy Spirit, so neither dare we attempt to restrain this
ministry to persons of any condition in life, or to the male sex alone; but as
male and female are one in Christ, we hold it proper that such of the female
sex as we believe to be endued with a right qualification for the ministry
should exercise their gifts for the general edification of the Church."[170] As
a rule, however, the Quaker women were too busy on their preaching tours
to have much time for authorship. Margaret Fell is their chief representative
writer.[171] Her activities began before the Restoration. As the wife of Judge
Fell of Swarthmore Hall she was of distinct social importance, and she
showed unusual ability in the conduct of the household affairs incident on

her husband's wealth and large landed properties. She was always
exceedingly devout and Swarthmore Hall was traditionally recognized as
the home of "lecturing ministers." Among these itinerant speakers, in 1652,
was George Fox. His brief sojourn at Swarthmore was epoch-making, for
when Judge Fell returned from a distant visit he was met as he crossed
Ulverston Sands by a solemn conclave of gentlemen on horseback whose
purpose it was to announce that his wife and most of his household had
become Quakers. On investigation he became himself at least sufficiently
sympathetic with the new views not to interfere with his wife's convictions.
For half a century she was identified with Quaker interests. The great
dining-room at Swarthmore was for many years the regular meeting-place
of the Friends. In 1669, eleven years after the death of Judge Fell, Margaret
married George Fox, and till his death in 1691 she gave her time, her
thought, her money, to a defense of persecuted Quakers. Three of her
daughters became preachers. She traveled from jail to jail, from house to
house, to comfort the imprisoned and their families, and from meeting to
meeting to preach the word. As the "nursing mother" of the church she had
an immense correspondence. The petitions to the king and to powerful
noblemen were often composed and personally presented by her. The
importance attached to her advice and opinions is indicated by the hundreds
of letters still extant addressed to her by the preachers who gathered about
George Fox. During her most active years the practical conduct of church
affairs occupied her to the exclusion of other work. But earlier, especially
during 1665-1668, she made use of the enforced leisure consequent on
various imprisonments to write in defense of Quaker principles. Of the ten
tracts thus produced one of the most interesting was on the vexed question
of the right of women to preach and was entitled Women's Speaking
Justified, Proved and Allowed of by the Scriptures.

Another important lady who, after long study in other
religions came finally into the Quaker faith, was Anne Anne Finch, Lady
Finch, a daughter of Sir Henry Finch. In 1651 she Conway (d. 1679)
married Lord Conway and was established as mistress of Ragley Castle in
Warwickshire. As a young woman she had been attracted by the teachings
of Henry More, the Cambridge Platonist. After she became Lady Conway
he spent much time at Ragley where he wrote several of his books. During

his various absences Mr. More and Lady Conway corresponded regularly
on theological subjects. The questions in her letters sufficiently indicate the
metaphysical perplexities that absorbed her thoughts. She knew the learned
tongues and read eagerly the works of "Plato, Plotinus, Philo Judæus, and
the Kabbala Denudata." She was a theosophist and a mystic. The esoteric,
the mysterious, the miraculous, captured her imagination. "Under her
inspiration Ragley became the home of religious marvels." One chapter of
John Inglesant, the novel in which Mr. Shorthouse so sympathetically
described Little Gidding, is said to be based on the life at Ragley. Lady
Conway suffered from headaches so severe and persistent as to defy the
best skill of London and Paris. Under the influence of Mr. More, who said
there might be "a sanative and healing contagion as well as a morbid and
venemous," she summoned to Ragley the famous Valentine Greatrakes, "the
Stroker," but the magic of his hands failed in her case. Her headaches made
of her life one long disease, but never conquered her intellectual eagerness
and hardly abated her learned pursuits.
When she finally joined the Quakers it was against the advice of Mr.
More, but she was one, he said, "who never submitted all her judgment to
any one." Her friendship with Robert Barclay and William Penn followed
her acceptance of the new doctrines. While Lady Conway was undoubtedly
one of the most distinguished converts to the Quaker faith, her invalidism
and then her death in 1679 interfered with any such active service as that of
Margaret Fell. The two women were, moreover, temperamentally unlike.
Margaret Fell, a descendant of Anne Askew, had the blood of the martyrs in
her veins. A "cause" could capture her mind and heart. She was energetic,
an organizer and administrator. Lady Conway, on the other hand, beyond
almost any woman of her time, lived in things of the mind.
Of Lady Conway's numerous works only one has been printed. In 1690
there appeared at Amsterdam a collection of philosophical treatises written
in Latin. The first one of the series was a translation of "a work by a certain
English countess, learned beyond her sex." Leibnitz, on the authority of Van
Helmont, attributed this to Lady Conway. This treatise was re-translated
into English in 1692.[172]

Mrs. Jane Lead[173] was a mystic and the founder of a
sect. She was the daughter of Schildknap Ward, of a Jane Ward, Mrs.
Lead (1623-1704)
good Norfolk family, and it is said that there were no
external influences to account for her unusual experiences. As a child in the
midst of the Christmas gayeties at her father's house, she heard a miraculous
voice that summoned her to a religious life. She became a widow while still
young and thereafter followed without hindrance, in the completest
seclusion, in London, her recognized vocation. She studied mystical works
and had nightly prophetic visions which she recorded in her spiritual diary.
Between 1681 and 1702 she published fifteen volumes and another one
appeared immediately after her death. In 1693 Mr. Francis Lee, a young
Oxford man and a medical student at Leyden, visited her, gave allegiance to
her doctrines, and devoted himself to her service. Mr. Lee and Mrs. Lead
became the center of an important theosophical organization called The
Philadelphian Society, which existed till 1702. Mrs. Lead died in 1704 "in
the 81st year of her age and the 65th of her vocation to the inward life." Mr.
Lee wrote to the Countess Kniphausen and others in France and Germany a
letter entitled The Last Hours of Jane Lead by an Eye and Ear Witness. Five
years before her death Mrs. Lead's spiritual diary was published under the
title, A Fountain of Gardens, watered by the Rivers of Divine pleasure, and
springing up in all the variety of spiritual plants, blown up by the pure
Breath into Paradise. To which is prefixed, A Poem, introductory to the
Philadelphia Age, called Solomon's Porch, or The Beautiful gate to
Wisdom's Temple.

One of the most notable women of the early
eighteenth century was Susannah Wesley, the mother of Susannah Annesley,
Mrs. Wesley (1670-
John and Charles Wesley. She came of a fine old 1742)
Nottinghamshire family, and her father, Dr. Annesley, a
man of power and influence, "the St. Paul of the Nonconformists," secured
for his children an education suitable to their birth. At twenty-one
Susannah, a beautiful and gifted young woman, married Samuel Wesley and
entered upon her career as wife of a rector of humble position and small
means.
It is said that large families either submerge the individual, or result in
characters of exceptionally fine discipline. From this test Susannah emerged

triumphant. She was the twenty-fifth child of her father, and in the first
twenty-one years of her married life she had nineteen children. So, as child
and parent, she was always in close touch with many varied personalities,
an experience the conditions of which demanded both firmness and
flexibility.
Her married life seemed made up of difficulties. Most of it was passed in
a remote rectory, at Epworth, in the Lincolnshire fens, among the crudest
and most boorish people.[174] Not even the strictest economy could hold the
outgo within the meager limits of the rector's stipend. There were fevers,
small-pox, and other diseases to combat, and five of the children died
young. There were also disasters through fire and flood and through the
hostility of malicious parishioners, but Mrs. Wesley held herself steadfast to
her ideals. Her spirit was never daunted. In the most unpromising
environment, under the most adverse conditions, she created a family life
remarkable for its order, serenity, good breeding, and aspiration. Even as a
child the quality of her mind and character had been apparent. It is reported
that at thirteen, having heard at home much discussion of the points at issue
between the Nonconformists and the Church of England, she had reviewed
the questions for herself and had decided in favor of the Church.
Throughout her married life she showed the same independence and self-
reliance. Mr. and Mrs. Wesley were always very happy together, but she
was in no sense the ideal submissive wife of the eighteenth century. She
wrote to her son John when he was in Oxford, "'T is a misfortune almost
peculiar to our family that your father and I seldom think alike."[175] She
considered King William a usurper and consistently refused to say Amen to
the rector's prayers for the new monarch. Mr. Wesley celebrated the victory
of Blenheim in a poem, but Mrs. Wesley disapproved of the war and she
wrote: "Since I am not satisfied of the lawfulness of the war, I cannot beg a
blessing on our arms till I can have the opinion of one wiser and a more
competent judge than myself in this point; namely, whether a private person
that had no hand in the beginning of the war but did always disapprove of it
may, notwithstanding, implore God's blessing on it, and pray for the good
success of those arms which were taken up, I think unlawfully." And she
declined to join in the worship on the day appointed for prayers for the
success of English troops.[176]

Mrs. Wesley had a natural genius for teaching and she became the
school-mistress of her family. Her methods were uniform and rigorous. At
five each child was given in one day, during two sessions of three hours
each, such effective tutoring in the alphabet that by night he knew it and
could begin reading the Book of Genesis the next day. The various studies
counted necessary followed in due order. Each child was kept closely to the
task in hand and the progress made was surprising. Mrs. Wesley said, "It is
almost incredible what a child may be taught in a quarter of a year by a
vigorous application if it have but tolerable capacity and good health." The
virtues inculcated were prompt obedience, quiet manners, correct speech,
and courtesy. The religious training of the children received especial
emphasis. Mrs. Wesley wrote out for them a clear series of explanatory
comments on the Catechism and the Creed, she trained them to take part in
family devotions, and once a week she met each child for an hour of private
religious conversation and instruction. So precious were these hours to the
children that when John was a Fellow in Oxford, he wrote urging his
mother to devote her thought and prayer to him during the Thursday
evening hour that had been his.
Mrs. Wesley's devout ministrations to her own family, during her
husband's absence, became known to some of the neighbors who desired to
join her circle. The numbers increased so rapidly that on the first Sunday of
February, 1712, more than two hundred were present and many went away
for want of room. The curate objected to these meetings and Mr. Wesley
wrote in deprecation of them. Mrs. Wesley, too, was seriously in doubt
whether one of her sex could find Scripture authority for thus breaking the
bread of life to the people. But the manifest needs of the poor parishioners
and their eagerness for the gospel prevailed over all doubts and the
meetings continued.
The power of Mrs. Wesley in her own home and immediate
neighborhood was, through her son John, felt throughout England. Mr.
Winchester says truly:
John Wesley was the son of his mother. From her he inherited his logical cast of mind,
his executive capacity, his inflexibility of will, his union of independence of judgment with
respect for authority, his deep religious temper. And all the characteristics were developed
and fixed by his early training. His precision and order, his gift of organization and mastery
of details, his notions of education, even some specific rules and customs of his religious
societies, can be traced to his mother's discipline. It is often said that Methodism began in

the University of Oxford: with more truth it might be said that it began in Susannah
Wesley's nursery.[177]

The religious writers so far mentioned only partially represent the great
amount of similar literary activity. In many homes where rank or wealth
made social diversions an alluring possibility there was carried on by wives
and daughters not only a life of austere piety and great practical
benevolence, but a life also of intellectual ambitions and instincts. The fact
that many of the questions which these ladies discussed are now dead issues
cannot obscure the more significant fact that on questions then counted vital
they wrote always with energy, often with logical acumen, and sometimes
with effectiveness. The home and social life that emerges from scattered
hints and records in these religious writings is as remote from that portrayed
in contemporary court memoirs or diaries as is the general tone of Paradise
Lost or Pilgrim's Progress, and is worth dwelling upon as illustrative of that
body of almost unrecognized solid morality that gave to Jeremy Collier a
background of public approval when he attacked the immorality of the
stage, and through the stage, the immorality of the stage-going people.

WRITERS ON PRACTICAL BENEFICENCE

The piety that finds genuine expression in the writings of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries had almost as frequent expression in the practical
necessities of daily life. On the great ladies of the land was laid the
responsibility for the physical well-being, the education, and the happiness
of those beneath them in birth and wealth. Responsibilities now provided
for by multifarious overworked organizations then devolved upon
individuals. And many women in the distribution of their money and leisure
showed so much insight and practical ability as to become ruling influences
in their communities. The fame of some of these women spread through the
nation. The combination which they showed of munificent giving, on the
one hand, and of rigid self-discipline, on the other, exalted them almost into
saints. The two ladies who most fully illustrate the type are Mrs. Bovey and
Lady Elizabeth Hastings. Their learning was chiefly in the realm of
theology.

Mrs. Bovey,[178] the daughter of a London merchant, was a great heiress
and a great beauty and was consequently much sought after. At fifteen she

married William Bovey, Esq., Lord of the Manor of
Flaxley, Gloucestershire. After seven years of Catherine Riches,
unhappiness she was left a childless widow with a large Mrs. Bovey (1670-
1726)
fortune at her command. She refused to marry again, but
entered into a close friendship with Mrs. Mary Pope. The two ladies lived
together in retirement for thirty-two years, making it the purpose of their
lives to manage Mrs. Bovey's fortune and estate and to dispose of most of
the income in wisely regulated charities. Mrs. Bovey was the subject of
much praise from all kinds of people. Mrs. Manley gives the following
vivid picture of her:
She is one of those lofty, black and lasting beauties that strike with Reverence, and yet
Delight; there is no Feature in her Face, nor any thing in her Person, her Air and Manner,
that could be exchanged for any others, and she not prove a Loser: Then as to her Mind and
Conduct, her Judgment, her Sense, her Stedfastness, her Reading, her Wit and
Conversation, they are admirable; so much above what is most lovely in the sex, shut but
your Eyes, (and allow for the Musick of her Voice) your Mind would be charmed, as
thinking yourself conversing with the most knowing, most refined of ours; free from all
Levity and Superficialness, her Sense is sold [solid?] and perspicuous. Lovely Porcia is so
polite, so neat, so perfect an economist, that in taking in all the greater Beauties of Life, she
does not disdain to stoop to the most inferiour; in short, she knows all that a Man can
know, without despising what, as a woman, she should not be ignorant of.

In 1714 Steele dedicated the second volume of his Ladies' Library to her.
With his genius for giving delightful compliments, he says: "Thus with the
charms of your own sex, and knowledge not inferior to the more learned of
ours, a closet, a bower, or some scene of rural nature, has constantly robbed
the world of a ladies appearance, who never was beheld but with gladness
to her visitants, nor ever admired but with pain to herself."
Dr. Hickes, in the Preface to his Linguarum Septentrionalium Thesaurus
(1702), eulogized this præstantissima & honestissima matrona as the
Angliæ nostræ Hypatia Christiana. She had received no formal education,
yet by frequent converse with some of the most learned men of the day and
by intense application to study she gained a great share of knowledge. She
was interested in educational matters, and she gave with particular pleasure
to organizations for the training of poor children. At her death Mrs. Pope,
her executor, was instructed to pay large sums to such charitable schemes as
the gray-coat school, the blue-coat school, the charity school of Christ's
Church Parish in Southwark, and a college to be founded in the Island of
Bermuda.

Mrs. Bovey's attractive personality may be further emphasized by the
persistence of the rumor identifying her with "the perverse widow" whose
charms and whose coldness destroyed the peace of Sir Roger de Coverley's
heart. Her beauty, her wealth, her learning, her kindness of heart, her
general beneficence, and, finally, her inaccessibility, made her admired,
loved, and longed for, till she was idealized into something quite above
human nature's daily food.
Catherine Riches's father belonged to the wealthy merchant class of
London. It would be interesting if we could know the kind of home life and
training given to this young city heiress. Was it the unhappy disciplinary
years of her married life that turned her so decisively from the pomps and
pleasures apparently awaiting one so young and beautiful and rich?

Lady Elizabeth Hastings was the daughter of
Theophilus, seventh earl of Huntingdon, by his first Lady Elizabeth
Hastings (1688-
wife, through whom, in 1704, she came into a fortune 1739)
and the possession of Ledstone Park, an estate near
Pontefract, Yorkshire. From twenty-two to her death at fifty-seven Lady
Elizabeth lived almost continuously at Ledstone. Of these thirty-five years
not a striking event is recorded. Her days were "bound each to each by
natural piety" and her tranquil life developed along an uninterrupted course
of charity and devotion.
To live in Yorkshire, in the eighteenth century, was to be buried. Social
and intellectual life were alike without sustenance. Yet from this remote
home Lady Elizabeth's fame traveled to London and she became the subject
of remarkable eulogies. Number 42 of The Tatler, written possibly by
Congreve, appeared in 1709 when the "divine Aspasia" had been but five
years at Ledstone. She must have gone there with well-formed ideas of life,
for with no vacillations, no period of experimentation, she seems to have
entered immediately on that career of religious contemplation and good
works which had, in five years, given her the reputation of being a "female
philosopher" of the most exalted type. The Tatler paper says that she put
into practice the schemes and plans the ancient sages had thought beautiful
but inimitable. Steele, in The Tatler, number 49, gave perfect expression to

the reverent admiration with which Lady Elizabeth had come to be
regarded:
Aspasia must therefore be allowed to be the first of the beauteous Order of Love, whose
unaffected freedom, and conscious innocence, give her the attendance of the graces in all
her actions. The awful distance which we bear towards her in all our thoughts of her, are
certain instances of her being the truest object of love of any of her sex. In this
accomplished lady, love is the constant effect, because it is never the design. Yet, though
her mien carries much more invitation than command, to behold her is an immediate check
to loose behaviour; and to love her is a liberal education.

A somewhat closer view of the life of the Lady Elizabeth comes from
casual notes by Thoresby who, in his travels about the northern counties
between 1711 and 1724, frequently spent a few days at Ledstone. From the
unconnected details scattered through his letters and diaries there emerges a
fairly clear picture of a great house exactly ordered on the basis of the
religious life. Private prayers, family devotions in which all the servants
were included, at several stated hours each day, preparation for church
festivals, frequent assemblages for the reading of sermons and holy books,
refreshing conferences on mooted points of doctrine, friendly communion
on the present and future joys of the Christian, filled the days to the
exclusion of worldly interests. No mother superior could have felt a
responsibility more definite or have exerted a power more minutely
organized for the promotion of the spiritual welfare of those under her
charge.
Lady Hastings was also engaged in schemes of wider application. She
became as noted for her benefactions as for the saintliness of her recluse
life. "Human learning as the handmaid of religion" was the basis on which
her gifts were made. She therefore became definitely associated with the
new schemes springing up in England for the education of poor boys and
girls. In one of Thoresby's visits they walked across the fields to see the
new school she was building and endowing for the absolute maintenance
and education of fourteen poor girls. The Victoria History of the County of
Yorkshire records "Lady Hastings's Schools" at Thorp Arch, Ledsham,
Collingham, and Wick. The formal deeds conveying these schools to
trustees are dated in 1738, probably because at that time she knew she could
not recover from the cancerous affection of which she died the following
year. But some of these schools had been established and supported by her
much earlier. The account given of the Ledsham school is typical of the
others: "These schools are part of the general charity founded by Lady

Elizabeth Hastings by deed 14 December, 1738. In a charity school for boys
20 scholars were to be taught and one youth between the ages of 17 and 23
as a charity school-master. The girls' school was for 20 scholars, who were
to be clothed partly out of the proceeds of their spinning. The boys' school
is now public and elementary, while the girls' school gives a free education
in elementary subjects and household duties. The expenses of this school
amount to about £400 a year, and this is wholly derived from the
endowment." Lady Elizabeth also left a large bequest to Queen's College,
Oxford, for poor scholars from schools in Yorkshire, Westmoreland, and
Cumberland.[179] Berkeley's missionary project found in her one of its most
generous supporters, and her name headed many a list of charities for
educational and religious purposes.
So well known did she become that in 1735 a remarkable tribute to her
was planned and partly executed. An anonymous donor offered to The
Gentleman's Magazine a series of prizes for the four best poems entitled
The Christian Hero. The chief prize was to be a "Gold Medal (intrinsic
value about Ten Pounds) which shall have the Head of the Rt. Hon. the
Lady Elizabeth Hastings on one Side, and that of James Oglethorpe Esq.
on the other, with this Motto, England may Challenge the World, 1736."
[180]
This announcement was in December, 1735. In the January number for
1736 the editor expressed his great concern at having given offense to a
Lady, whose name even they did not venture to mention again, by the
publication of the proposed Gold Medal prize without her consent.[181] In
February the donor humbly asked her Ladyship's pardon for the uneasiness
he had so undesignedly caused her, saying that he had not the honor to
know her personally, but had been animated solely by the feeling of respect
and deference due to the eminence of her character.[182]
When Lady Hastings died, in 1739, The Gentleman's Magazine published
a memorial notice said to be by Dr. Johnson. In heavy, analytic fashion it
sums up her reputation for sanctity and benevolence, and closes with the
statement that "scarce any age has afforded a greater Blessing to many, or a
brighter Pattern to all."[183] The year after her death, Law, the noted author
of The Serious Call, cited Lady Hastings as a sufficient refutation of the
charge that saintliness was not a natural product of the English Church. In
1741 Wilford's stately folio contained a laudatory account of Lady Hastings,
and in 1742 Mr. Barnard published An Historical Character, relating to the

holy and exemplary Life of the Right Honourable Lady Elizabeth Hastings.
To which are added, 1. One of the Codicils of her last Will, setting forth her
Devise of Lands to the Provost and Scholars of Queen's College in Oxford,
for the interest of 18 Northern Schools. 2. Some Observations therefrom. 3.
A Schedule of her other perpetual Charities, with the Principal Rules for
their Administration.
Few of the people who praised Lady Hastings knew her personally. Even
more strongly than in the case of Mrs. Bovey there seems to have grown up
in the public mind a kind of idealized picture of her. She was a saint set
apart from the world, not only by a voluntary isolation, but by virtue of her
beauty, beneficence, and nobility. She was enshrined. The reverence,
affection, and praise accorded her have a definite note of Platonism. She
becomes an embodiment of the highest charm and excellence, and the
actual "Lady Betty" seems lost in the process.
What were the diversions at Ledstone? Lady Elizabeth's four younger
half-sisters, Anne, Frances, Catherine, and Margaret, usually lived with her.
After the death of Lady Elizabeth, Margaret, who had become a convert to
Methodism, married one of the leaders in that new communion and it was
through her influence that Selina, the wife of Theophilus, the brother of
these young ladies, was likewise converted to Methodism. The five sisters
were apparently a unit in their predisposition to a religious life. But they
were too young and too free not to have had some other elements in their
life. Had they any such relief as the book-binding at Little Gidding? Our
knowledge of the life at Ledstone is tantalizingly incomplete because every
one who wrote about Lady Elizabeth took at once an exalted tone, and
generalized his picture into abstractions.

Closely connected with Lady Hastings and the life at
Ledstone is another leader in the religious world, the Lady Huntingdon
(1707-91)
famous Lady Huntingdon, the wife of Lady Hastings's
brother Theophilus. Margaret Hastings had accepted the doctrines of the
Methodists and through her influence Lady Huntingdon allied herself with
the same obscure body. Lady Huntingdon was from childhood introspective
and religious. As the daughter of Earl Ferrars and the wife of the Earl of
Huntingdon, a brilliant social career was almost inevitable. But in the midst

of the splendid scenes in which she took a vivacious and apparently happy
part she was spiritually aloof. She was always resisting the encroachments
of the world, and striving by self-denial, a rigid course of devotional
exercises, and systematic beneficences, to secure inward peace. But she
never came into a free and joyous religious consciousness till she accepted
the new doctrines taught by the group of Oxford men known as Methodists.
[184]
In 1739 she sent for John and Charles Wesley to visit her and she
became a fearless advocate of their views. After her husband's death in 1746
she devoted her time, her great wealth, and her influence to the cause of
Methodism. With several clergymen, her two daughters, her sisters, Anne
and Frances, and a few friends, she made a sort of home missionary tour
from Bath through Wales for the purpose of studying the needs of the poor
in the matter of religious education. In 1748-49 she opened her fine
mansion in Park Street, London, for Methodist preaching services. The
most distinguished men and women of the time attended these services, but
not always as reverent listeners. The whole scheme was met with varying
degrees of ridicule. Coventry wrote a description of the meetings at Park
Lane, it is supposed, in his account of "Lady Harridan" and her assembly:
It was a sisterhood of the godly, met together to bewail the vanities of human life, and
congratulate one another on their breaking from the enchantments of a sinful world.
The causes which had converted them to Methodism, were as various as the characters
of the converts. Some, the ill success of their charms had driven to despair; others, a
consciousness of too great success had touched with repentance.... But the greater part, like
the noble president, were women fatigued and worn out in the vanities of life, the
superannuated jades of pleasure, who, being grown sick of themselves, and weary of the
world, were now fled to Methodism, as the newest sort of folly that had lately been
invented.[185]

One particularly offensive element in Methodism to people who set store
by birth and breeding was its leveling effect. Social position counted for
little in the face of the all-important classification into saints and sinners.
The Duchess of Buckingham wrote in violent protest: "The doctrines of
these preachers are most repulsive, and strongly tinctured with impertinence
and disrespect towards their superiors, in perpetually endeavoring to level
all ranks and do away with all distinctions. It is monstrous to be told that
you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl upon the
earth. This is highly offensive and insulting, and I cannot but wonder that
your ladyship should relish any sentiments so much at variance with high
rank and good breeding."[186]

The fruition of Lady Huntingdon's remarkable work belongs later in the
century, but its inception is between 1739 and 1760 and is of great
importance.

DRAMATIC WRITERS

In July, 1867, there was dispersed at Sotheby's rooms the library of the
Reverend A. J. Stainforth. "The collection was formed entirely of works of
British and American poetesses and female dramatic writers. The books
were arranged in over three thousand lots, and the catalogue extends to 166
pages." That Mr. Stainforth spared neither money nor diligence in securing
the books for this collection is evident from a single illustration, namely, his
search for so obscure a book as Eliza's Babes. "When Mr. Stainforth was
forming his collection of Female Poets without regard to cost, he failed to
procure a copy of Eliza's Babes, although the hue and cry was circulated far
and near."[187] I have not had access to this catalogue and I do not know
how many items the "three thousand lots" contain, nor how many individual
names are catalogued. If the arrangement is chronological it would
doubtless serve to indicate the very rapid spread of female authors after
about 1750. Yet even the century from 1650 to 1750 is not without its large
contribution. In the preceding sections of this study there has been some
indication of the mass of devotional and polemical writing by women.
Among poets, playwrights, essayists, novelists, and letter-writers we shall
find not only an even greater volume of production, but work of higher
intrinsic value.

The Duchess of Newcastle wrote numerous plays.
Twenty-one were published in 1662, and in 1668 five The Duchess of
Newcastle (cir.
more appeared. They are described as hardly more than 1625-1673)
allegorical dialogues arranged in successive scenes, but
without plot, and showing no power of dramatic portrayal. The Duchess
herself is evidently the original of several of the characters. In her plays as
in her scientific studies the particular boast of the Duchess is that whatever
she writes is spun out of her own fancy:

But noble readers, do not think my plays
Are such as have been writ in former days;
As Johnson, Shakespear, Beaumont, Fletcher writ,
Mine want their learning, reading, language, wit.
The Latin phrases, I could never tell,
But Johnson could, which made him write so well.
Greek, Latin poets I could never read,
Not their historians, but our English Speed:
I could not steal their wit, nor plots out-take;
All my plays plots, my own poor brain did make.
From Plutarch's story, I ne'er took a plot,
Nor from romances, nor from Don Quixote.[188]

It goes without saying that these plays were not suited for stage
presentation, and, in point of fact, very few of them were ever put into
rehearsal. One of the plays that did appear drew a great crowd, but the
motive was curiosity to see the Duchess rather than any interest in the play.
Pepys, who went to hear this play March 30, 1667, wrote concerning it, and
its author:
The whole story of this lady is a romance and all she does is romantic. Her footmen in
velvet coats, and herself in antique dress, as they say; and was the other day at her own
play, "The Humorous Lovers"; the most ridiculous thing that ever was wrote, but she and
her Lord mightily pleased with it: and she at the end, made her respects to the players, and
did give them thanks. There is as much expectation of her coming to Court, that so people
may come to see her, as if it were the Queen of Sheba.

The only important dramatic work by a woman during
the second half of the seventeenth century was by Mrs. Aphra Amis, Mrs.
Behn (1640-1689)
Behn. She was born at Wye, in Kent.[189] While she was
still very young the Amis family went to Surinam, West Indies, where
Aphra's girlhood was spent. At about twenty-three[190] she returned to
England and soon thereafter married Mr. Behn, a London merchant of
Dutch parentage. At his death, before 1666, she was left nearly penniless.
For a short time she was in Holland as a secret political agent for the
English court. But her services received scant official recognition and the
pay was so meager and uncertain that she returned to England and began to
look about for other means of support. The new passion for the theater was
not yet exhausted and she turned instinctively to play-writing as her most
hopeful resource. During the years 1670-1689 her literary output extended
into many other fields and shows continuous work at high pressure. Not
only was she one of the chief assets of the Duke's Theater as a playwright,

but she also translated French verse and prose; she wrote numerous
occasional poems; she edited miscellanies; and she wrote novels. Her
comedies had a most flattering contemporary vogue and some of them
maintained their popularity well into the next century. She satisfied the taste
of the day for rapid, bustling plots, with many and varied characters, and
her intrigues were cleverly manipulated, while she surpassed most of her
contemporaries in vivacious, easy, rapid dialogue. She is never dull or
insipid. Her plays show that she had a vigorous mind, an overflow of
spirits, a reckless mental energy. There is apparent a sense of power
conscious of itself and careless of precedents or restrictions. In defiance of
Ben Jonson, Dryden, and Shadwell she spoke contemptuously of "the musty
unities." The material for her plays she took wherever she found it, from
preceding plays, from romances, from real life, used it, made it over, and
often so improved it that she could justifiably laugh at charges of
plagiarism. One charge she could not evade and that had to do with the
immorality of her writings. Dryden, Shadwell, Wycherley, and Etherege,
and the audiences who applauded their plays, seemed to find the vis comica
in an open indecency of character, situation, and conversation that is to-day
almost unbelievable. And of Mrs. Behn it must be admitted that she vied
with the most corrupt. She said, in extenuation, as Dryden also said in
answer to Jeremy Collier's strictures, that she wrote to please. She did not
consider comedy "a reforming or converting agent," it was meant to be "an
entertainment." Her emphasis on the vicious elements of the life about her
was a clear case of supply and demand, but it had an unhappy personal
result. There early gathered about her name a hostile tradition based on the
fact that she was not only a woman writer, but an eminently successful
woman writer, and on the further fact that, being a woman, she had not the
modest reserve for which the chaste Orinda was idolized, but presented
debaucheries in the bold and open manner characteristic of contemporary
male playwrights. This hostile tradition, crystallized by Pope in a witty
couplet,[191] became a commonplace of adverse criticism, and Astræa's
undeniable talents have sunk into oblivion. A general revival of Mrs. Behn's
comedies would be impossible, undesirable, but by the student of social and
political history in the Restoration period they cannot be ignored.

MRS. APHRA BEHN
From a picture by Mary Beale in the collection of his Grace the Duke of Buckingham.

Drawn by T. Uwins. Engraved by J. Fittler, A.R.A. From an engraving in Effigies Poeticae, London,
1824, Vol. II

Mrs. Behn's novels are now as little known as her plays, but in her own
day were very popular. Oroonoko, the first and by far the best, was based on
her life in Surinam. At a time when French heroic romances, with their
high-flown adventures, unreal characters, and stilted dialogue, were the
only works of fiction, Mrs. Behn's short, simple, vigorous, and affecting
story of real life comes with a startling sense of novelty.[192] The vivid
portrayal of the cruelties incident to the slave trade, though probably written
without didactic intent, gives the story a modern humanitarian note not
unprophetic of Uncle Tom's Cabin. And the description of the Indian Prince
as the ideal natural man, his innate virtues in their pristine purity unvitiated
by civilization, foreshadows the theories of Rousseau. The descriptions of
nature, however exaggerated, are vivid and attractive, and show a delight in
scenic detail not found again in fiction before Mrs. Collyer in 1730. Thus in
four ways, choice of real life as a theme, interest in scenery, emphasis on
the natural man, and on humanitarianism, Mrs. Behn's little story links itself
with the novel of the future rather than with the romances of the past. In the
plays Mrs. Behn showed exceptional ability in a realm in which women
have seldom excelled. In her novels she marked out a path where women
have gained marked literary success.
In one other way she is an important, outstanding figure. She was the first
woman in England who made authorship a profession, the first one who
definitely set out to earn her living by her pen. It is unfortunate that the first
literary lady to achieve "economic independence" should likewise be the
first whose writings were notably immoral. But it is a law of human nature
that an unaccustomed freedom seldom contents itself in its early exercise of
power with destroying merely the unjust bonds by which it has been
confined. Freedom is likely to begin by being license. And when Aphra
Behn so far defied convention as to compete with men as a playwright on
the public stage, when she openly criticized her contemporaries and boasted
that her comedies did not fall below most that she read, she had so set
herself apart in an unfeminine realm that prudishness and decency fell
together. Psychologically the actress and the writer of comedies seem to
have gone through similar experiences.

Mrs. Behn had no feminine contemporary rivals, but
later in the century a number of women attempted to Plays between 1696
write for the stage. In Genest's record for Drury Lane and 1706
and Lincoln's Inn Fields seven plays by six women are listed in 1696. In the
ensuing ten years at least eighteen more plays by women appeared. This
exceptional activity did not pass without satiric comment. In 1697 "W.
M.'s" Female Wits,[193] with its attack on Miss Trotter, Mrs. Manley, and
Mrs. Pix, was acted six times without intermission, a run showing
exceptional popularity. In 1702 the hostility of the wits towards women
playwrights was again voiced in Gildon's The Two Stages.[194] Genest says
that about this time "prejudice against females rose so high that Mrs.
Centlivre in Stolen Heiress and Mrs. Pix in Conquest of Spain spoke of their
plays as if by men."[195] The authors of these twenty-five plays were Miss
Trotter, Mrs. Pix, Mrs. Manley, Mrs. Centlivre, Mrs. Wiseman, "A Lady,"
"A Young Lady," "A Lady of Quality," and "A Club of Ladies." Fourteen of
the plays were tragedies, the best one being, probably, Miss Trotter's Fatal
Friendship, almost the only one of the fourteen that survived on the stage
after its initial season. The writers of comedy were more successful.
Few of these authors need particular notice. Miss Trotter's work has
already been discussed.[196] Mrs. Manley's three plays appeared at ten-year
intervals, 1696, 1706, 1717. They were unsuccessful on the stage and they
have no qualities that would claim the reader's attention. It is in fiction, not
in drama, that Mrs. Manley gained her reputation.

Mrs. Pix, daughter of the Reverend Roger Griffith,
Vicar of Nettlested in Oxfordshire, and wife of George Mrs. Pix (1666-
1720?)
Pix, a merchant tailor of London, was thirty when she
brought out her first play. During the ensuing ten years she put on the stage
five tragedies, one comedy, and possibly other plays not under her name.
Her tragedies, though written in blank verse, yet belong to the heroic genre,
and their chief interest lies in the fact that they represent that genre in its
dying throes. In Mrs. Pix's tragedies the heroic play of Dryden's day could
look upon its enfeebled and distorted image. We have the war background,
the remoteness of time and place, the historical source with free alterations
of persons and events, that mark the heroic drama. The type characters are

the same. The heroine is unapproachable in beauty, unassailable in virtue.
The hero, godlike in personal prowess, the idol of the army, framed by
nature to be the darling joy of womankind, cares for glory only that he may
lay it at the feet of his beloved. Blest by her he will leave unenvied
monarchs to "fight for this Dunghil Earth." This noble pair, joined by
indissoluble vows or by a secret marriage, are subjected by the plot to the
machinations of the beautiful wicked woman in whose heart has sprung into
being a passion for the hero, and to the arrogant demands of the tyrant who
claims the heroine as his prey. The result is disaster and the last act is a
holocaust. Fights, murders, and suicides carry off all the important dramatis
personæ. Disguises, mistaken identity, the ravings of sudden madness,
ghosts, and secret documents, determine the events of the play. Passion is
torn into exclamatory tatters from the first scene to the last. We have rant
and bluster and tortured similes, until taste, good sense, and correct English
suffer the same fate as the chief characters. The description of Mrs. Pix as
"a fat female author," appropriately called "Mrs. Wellfed," would prepare us
for something more placid than the chaos into which she leads us.
The one possible explanation of Mrs. Pix's acceptance year after year by
the audiences of Drury Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields is that the business of
her plays never lags. They are short, full of action and surprising turns. An
event is never delayed by a disquisition. They also gave excellent
opportunity for scenic effects of palaces, prisons, and camps.

The only woman writer of plays of real importance in
this period is Susanna Centlivre.[197] She was the Susanna Freeman,
Mrs. Centlivre
daughter of a Mr. Freeman of Holbeach, Lincolnshire. (1680?-1723)
He is said to have had a considerable estate at the time
of the Restoration, but being a zealous dissenter, he was persecuted, his
estates were confiscated, and he was obliged to seek refuge in Ireland,
where Susanna was born. Her early life is involved in obscurity, but there
cling to her name biographical details of a picturesque and romantic sort,
though of rather questionable authenticity. Left an orphan at nine and
subjected to the ill-usage of a stepmother, the child, at twelve, finally
escapes and makes her way to London which she enters penniless, innocent,
beautiful. She is rescued by a Cambridge student, a Mr. Hammond, and
disguised as a boy she accompanies him to the University. Later she marries

the nephew of Stephen Fox, but is left a widow before she is sixteen. A
second marriage to a Mr. Carroll results in a second widowhood before she
is eighteen. At twenty her first tragedy is played at Drury Lane. She appears
soon after this as an actress in country theaters. Mrs. Behn and Mrs.
Haywood could ask no richer material for an adventure novel. Then
suddenly the scene changes. The buffeted Susanna marries Mr. Centlivre,
Queen Anne's chief pastry-cook, and settles down into a comfortable,
orderly, and apparently happy domestic life, of which, however, we know in
reality even less than of her early kaleidoscopic career.[198] The events of
her life are the presentation and publication of her plays.
Before her marriage in 1706 she had begun the series of comedies of
which, between 1703 and 1722, she wrote seventeen. They were all
successful, and four of them, The Gamester (1705), The Busy Body (1709),
The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret (1714), and A Bold Stroke for a Wife
(1718), held a fairly prominent place on the stage through the century.
In 1761 there was published a fine edition of her works in three volumes.
There is a preliminary address "To the World" in which an anonymous
woman endeavors to do justice to "The Manes of the never to be forgotten
Mrs. Centlivre." She thus recounts the difficulties Mrs. Centlivre
encountered as a female author:
She was even ashamed to proclaim her own great Genius, probably because the Custom
of the Times discountenanced poetical Excellence in a Female. The Gentlemen of the Quill
published it not, perhaps envying her superior Talents; and her Bookseller, complying with
national Prejudices, put a fictitious Name to her Love's Contrivance, thro' Fear that the
Work shou'd be condemned if known to be Feminine. With modest Diffidence she sent her
Performances, like Orphans, into the World, without so much as a Nobleman to protect
them; but they did not need to be supported by Interest, they were admired as soon as
known, their real Standard, Merit, brought crowding Spectators to the playhouses, and the
female Author, tho' unknown, heard Applauses, such as have since been heaped on that
great Author and Actor Colley Cibber.
Her play of the Busy Body, when known to be the Work of a Woman scarce defray'd the
Expences of the First Night. The thin audience were pleased, and caused a full House the
Second; the Third was crowded, and so on to the Thirteenth, when it was stopt, on account
of the advanced Season; but the following Winter it appear'd again with Applause, and for
Six Nights successively, was acted by rival Players, both at Drury Lane and at the Hay-
Market Houses. See here the Effects of Prejudice, a Woman who did Honour to the Nation,
suffer'd because she was a Woman. Are these things fit and becoming a free-born People,
who call themselves polite and civilized! Hold! let my Pen stop, and not reproach the
present Age for the Sins of their Fathers....

A Poet is born so, not made by Rules; and is there not an equal Chance that the Poetical
Birth should be female as well as male?... I could wish that some young Ladies of my
Acquaintance, now in Boarding Schools, had classical Education, which would improve
their Minds, furnish them with a more general Knowledge, and of course better fit them for
Conversation, and the Management of Business.

The author of "To the World" finds great satisfaction in the union of Mrs.
Lennox with "Lord Corke and Mr. Samuel Johnson" in the translation of
Brumoy's Greek Theatre.
This convinces me [she says] that not only that barbarous Custom of denying Women to
have Souls, begins to be rejected as foolish and absurd, but also that foolish Assertion, that
Female Minds are not capable of producing literary Works, equal even to those of Pope,
now loses Ground, and probably the next Age may be taught by our pens that our Geniuses
have been hitherto cramped and smothered, but not extinguished, and that the Sovereignty
which the male Part of the Creation have, until now usurped over us, is unreasonably
arbitrary: And, further, that our natural Abilities entitle us to a larger Share, not only in
Literary Decisions, but that, with the present Directors, we are equally entitled to Power
both in Church and State....

In 1764 Baker, in Biographia Dramatica, gave an account of Mrs.
Centlivre's work, and most eighteenth-century dramatic collections included
plays by her. In 1776 The New English Theatre, which professed to
assemble "the most Valuable Plays which have been Acted on the London
Stage," published The Busy Body, A Bold Stroke for a Wife, and The
Wonder. Her plays were included by John Bell in various collections from
1776 to 1792. Mrs. Inchbald, in her British Theatre (1808), and Oxberry, in
The New English Drama, 1818-1824, carried the publication of her plays
into the nineteenth century. Such brief notices as occur are highly laudatory.
Mr. Baker says: "In a word we cannot help giving it as our opinion, that if
we do not allow her to be the very first of our female writers for the stage,
she has but one above her, and may justly be placed next to her predecessor
in dramatic glory, the great Mrs. Behn." Nearly half a century later Mrs.
Inchbald gave even stronger praise when she said that Mrs. Centlivre "ranks
in the first class of our comic dramatists." Of the Busy Body Mrs. Inchbald
said: "This comedy is by far her best work. In excellence of fable, strength
of character, and intricacy of occurrences, it forms one of the most
entertaining exhibitions the theatre can boast." Of The Wonder she wrote:
"Garrick thought Don Felix worthy his most powerful exertions, in
describing the passion of jealousy; and his character was upon the lists with
the favorite parts he performed.... Mrs. Centlivre has somewhere said 'the
Muses, like most females, are least liberal to their own sex.' She was

ungrateful if she did not acknowledge her obligation to them in the
composition of this work; for they presided with no niggardly influence
over the whole production."
Modern study of Mrs. Centlivre's work has taken a surprising turn. It has
to do entirely with Quellen and Verhältnisse. In 1900-1905 there were seven
German dissertations dealing with the sources of her plays.[199]
The impulse to play-writing seems to have expended itself with Mrs.
Centlivre. Hannah Cowley's popular Belle's Stratagem (1782) is the only
other play of even moderate importance through the rest of the century. The
situation with regard to play-writing is rather curious. Virtuous ladies were
at liberty to write tragedies because tragedies were supposed to be moral
and elevating. But unfortunately none of these ladies succeeded in tragedy.
On the other hand, ladies who were not virtuous wrote comedies and were
eminently successful. The realm between tragedy and comedy, the
sentimental comedy, in its combination of didacticism and morality with
social studies from middle-class life and the opportunity for rapid intrigue,
might have seemed the very medium in which women could most
advantageously work. But the successful sentimental comedies from The
Conscious Lovers to False Delicacy were written by men playwrights.
General Learning and Literary Work

Besides the women whose work was sufficiently specialized to be
grouped under particular subjects or species there were many women to
whom learning was itself an avocation with no thought of any literary
outcome, and there were many more whose interests were in the general
field of belles-lettres and who wrote either in verse or in prose, and on such
varied themes as the occasion might suggest. Since no effective principle of
classification suggests itself in connection with these writers, it will
probably be in the interests of clearness to discuss them in an order as
nearly chronological as may be.

An early, almost unknown, little volume of poems,
published in 1679 under the title, Female Poems on Joan Philips (fl.
1679)
Several Occasions. Written by Ephelia, is the work of
Joan Philips whose portrait accompanies the poems. Such of Miss Philips's

poems as can be dated belong but a year or two before the publication of the
book. She apparently had some rather close connection with court circles.
Her little volume is dedicated to the "Most Excellent Princess Mary,
Dutchess of Richmond and Lennox"; she sends a congratulatory poem to
Charles II on the discovery of the Popish Plot; and she writes an elegy on
Archbishop Sheldon.
Her poems are not, however, usually concerned with court and state. The
"Several Occasions" calling forth her verse are chiefly amatory or friendly.
Her love-poems are highly personal. From poem to poem the lady pursues
the uneven and finally disastrous course of her love for "Strephon,"
sometimes less poetically addressed as "F. G." From "Love's First
Approach" to Strephon's final decisive nuptials with a wealthier Fair One
the hopes and despairs of Ephelia are spread before us. She can find no
surcease from sorrow. Books fail her as a resource, and her pen proves as
recalcitrant as that of the White King in Looking Glass Land.
Sometimes with Books I would divert my mind,
But nothing there but F's and G's I find.
Sometimes to ease my Grief, my Pen I take
But it no letters but F. G. will make.

Miss Philips's friendship poems, in their addresses to "the honoured
Eugenia," "the beauteous Marinda," to "Damon," and to "Phylocles inviting
him to friendship" show how definitely Ephelia formed herself on the
model of the great Orinda whom she praises as having reached the summit
of excellence.
Miss Philips also wrote in awe-struck admiration of "Madam Behn"
whose "strenuous polite lines" seemed to her a union of "Strong and Sweet"
such as might be envied by the wittiest men. And she followed in the
footsteps of Mrs. Behn to the extent of writing one comedy, The Pair-Royal
of Coxcombs which had the humble success of being acted at a dancing-
school. The deprecatory Prologue and Epilogue were included in her poems
together with some of the love-songs in the play.
Ephelia seems to spread her life before us, but as a personage in the real
world she escapes us. She and Strephon have faded into obscurity. She is
contemporary in comedy with Mrs. Behn. Had they some literary
comradeship? But twelve years separate the published work of Joan Philips
from that of Mrs. Katherine Philips. Were the two poetesses perhaps

related? Lady Winchilsea was eighteen when the volume by Ephelia
appeared. About fifteen years later we find Lady Winchilsea as "Ardealia"
writing on Friendship to one "Ephelia." Could it possibly be this Ephelia?
Did Ephelia publish the poems herself with her own portrait as frontispiece?
If so she was strangely lacking in the reserve characteristic of Orinda and
Ardelia. But even with no biographical data whereby to substantiate or
correct the poems, the thin little volume holds its place of interest because
of its early date and because of the literary ambitions it indicates.

Anne Killigrew came of a family prominent in the
court of Charles II. Her uncle Thomas, the "court wit," Anne Killigrew
was given a patent for the Theater Royal; her uncle (1660-1685)
Henry was admiral under James, Duke of York; her father was chaplain to
James and Master of the Savoy; and Anne was maid of honor to Mary of
Modena. She was born in St. Martin's Lane and died at her father's lodgings
within the Cloisters of Westminster. London and the court were her habitat.
Ballard says she had "a polite education," but no details are given. She
apparently was taught the accomplishments counted necessary for a girl in
her social position. That she went beyond mediocrity in painting we have
already seen.[200] In poetry, also, according to Dryden, she excelled. The
thin volume of her published verse (1686) scarcely justifies his eulogy, but
Wood, in Athenæ Oxoniensis, says that Dryden in no way exceeds the truth.
Her poems sent anonymously from hand to hand received high praise and
were even at first attributed to the best poets of the age. They gradually
came to be known as hers, but she gives no evidence of having suffered any
contumely as a poetess. She has nowhere any complaint of undue or
irritating feminine limitations. She is pessimistic, scornful, rather hard and
drastic, in her judgments, but it is greed for gold, ambition for place or
power, unbridled love, atheism, war, that are the subjects of her invective.
There is not a light or playful, or even a happy, touch in her poems. They
have a crude virility, what Dryden calls a "noble vigour," and a
contemptuous outlook on "the truly wretched Human Race."
Personally Miss Killigrew must have been attractive. Her epitaph
eulogizes her as a daughter and a sister:

In a numerous race
And vertuous, the highest place
None envy'd her: sisters, brothers,
Her admirers were and lovers:
She was to all s' obliging sweet,
All in one love to her did meet.

And she was an acknowledged favorite at court, especially with her royal
master and mistress. Dryden emphasizes her beauty and charm. The portrait
she painted of herself shows her in no sense averse to pomps and vanities of
attire.[201] In actual life she must have moved along in fairly smooth accord
with the life about her, but there could have been few ladies within the
circle of the court more alien to it in spirit than Anne Killigrew. It is
difficult to place her mentally amid the gayeties of London life. She
presents an anomaly. To be young, beautiful, gifted, high in social
opportunities, praised and loved, and yet to look out upon life with
bitterness and distaste, to be conscious at twenty-five that all this world has
to offer will turn to dust and ashes in the mouth—such is the curious
combination we find in her. While the few accessible details concerning her
indicate a considerable degree of lovableness, her poems are those of an
implacable moral censor.
Anne Killigrew was but four when Mrs. Philips died, but the spell of the
"Matchless Orinda" descended early upon her, and she gives one of the
earliest of the many eulogies written by women concerning their
distinguished ancestor among British Muses.
Orinda (Albion, and her sex's grace)
Ow'd not her glory to a beauteous face:
It was her radiant soul that shone within,
Which struck a lustre thro' her outward skin;
That did her lips and cheeks with roses dye,
Advanc'd her height, and sparkled in her eye.
Nor did her sex at all obstruct her fame.
But high'r 'mongst the stars it fixt her name;
What she did write, not only all allow'd,
But ev'ry laurel, to her laurel bow'd!

John Evelyn's flattering letter to the Duchess of
Newcastle, already quoted, with its list of learned Mrs. Evelyn (1635-
1709) and Mary
women, his suggestion to Lord Cornbury that he add Evelyn (1665-85)
two ladies to his gallery of notables, the trouble he took

to conduct a party of ladies to see the girls' "colleges" at Hackney, and
various references in Numismata (1697) indicate a genuine interest in the
intellectual achievements of women. Mrs. Evelyn seems at first to have
been of a different temper. She wrote as follows to her son's tutor, Mr.
Bohun, in 1672:
Women were not borne to reade authors, and censure the learned, to compare lives and
judge of virtues, to give rules of morality, and sacrifice to the Muses. We are willing to
acknowledge all time borrowed from family duties misspent; the care of children's
education, observing a husband's commands, assisting the sick, relieving the poore, and
being serviceable to our friends, are of sufficient weight to employ the most improved
capacities amongst us. If sometimes it happens by accident that one of a thousand aspires a
little higher, her fate commonly exposes her to wonder, but adds little to esteeme. The
distaffe will defend our quarrels as well as the sword, and the needle is as instructive as the
penne. A heroine is a kind of prodigy: the influence of a blazing starre is not more
dangerous, or more avoyded. Though I have lived under the roofe of the learned, and in the
neighborhood of science, it has had no other effect on a temper like mine, but that of
admiration.

But these very letters, in which Mrs. Evelyn disclaims learning, would be
a capital point in refutation of Macaulay's charge of general feminine
illiteracy. In subject-matter, in style, and in the mechanics of writing they
show a development not unworthy of that "roofe of the learned" under
which she dwelt. At the time Mrs. Evelyn wrote the letter just quoted her
daughter Mary was but six years old, but her literary and artistic tastes must
have soon become manifest, for when she died of small-pox at nineteen she
was an accomplished young woman, on the road, apparently, to be the
dangerous "blazing starre" her mother decried, and her training must have
been going on for ten or twelve years in the home with the active
connivance of her parents. Her father was exceedingly proud, not only of
her excellence in dancing and music, but especially, it would seem, of her
passion for books. She had, he said, "read abundance of history, and all the
best poets, even Terence, Plautus, Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid; all the best
romances and modern poems." After her death they found among her papers
a commonplace book in which she had entered "an incredible number of
selections from historians, poets, travellers." Her piety and her impulse
towards expression were both shown in the many "resolutions,
contemplations, prayers and devotions" she left in written form. Of the
extent to which both Mrs. Evelyn and her daughter carried their work in
painting and enamel I have already spoken.[202]

The Evelyn household may stand doubtless as one of many where,
without any tinge of pedantry or any especial outward manifestations of
learning, there was yet a natural interest in arts and letters, an interest
shared, in quite a simple, normal way by all the members of the family.

The Honorable Miss Dudleya North was a niece of
the Honorable Roger North, and it is through the The Honorable
Miss Dudleya
memorable Lives of the Norths that we come upon an North (1675-1712)
account of her life. Dudleya and her two younger
brothers were brought up together. She learned the same lessons and read
the same books as her brothers, and joined in their amusements. When they
went to the University, she carried on her studies at home and she became
one of the most highly cultured and learned women of her time. After she
had conquered Greek and Latin she advanced to Hebrew, and finally, "by a
long and severe course of study," she gained "a competent knowledge in the
whole circle of Oriental learning." Her uncle Roger laconically described
her life as follows: "The eldest sister, Catharine, died ... and the youngest,
named Dudleya, having emaciated herself with study whereby she had
made familiar to her, not only Greek and Latin, but the Oriental languages,
under the infliction of a sedentery distemper, died also."
The fine collection of Oriental books left by Miss North was given by her
brother, Lord North and Grey, to the parochial library at Rougham in
Norfolk. Her uncle wrote: "I have had a design to build a parochial library
at Rougham, and now shall finish it this summer, and placing my niece's
books there, entitle the Catalogue Ex dono, etc., e libris eruditissimæ
virginis, etc., which will be a monument more lasting than marble."[203]

Anne Lee, the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry
Lee, married in 1673 Thomas Wharton, whose chief Anne Lee, Lady
Wharton (1632?
interest in her was based on the large dowry she brought -1685)
him. The unhappiness of her married life received some
alleviation from the wise and steadfast friendship of Dr. Gilbert Burnet. In
1680-81, she was in France for her health and during this time she
corresponded regularly with Dr. Burnet. He addressed to her various poems
with titles such as The Secrets of Friendship, Friendship's Mysteries, Pure

Love, and Love's Magnetism. She wrote a tragedy in blank verse on the love
of Ovid for Julia, a number of Scripture paraphrases, and some occasional
poems.[204] Some of these poems drew approving verses from Dryden in his
Eleonora, a panegyrical poem on the death of Mrs. Wharton's elder sister,
Lady Abingdon, in 1691, and from Waller, who, in his old age, was still
equal to flattering a new "Chloris," under which name he celebrated her
learning and her poetry.

Ann Baynard had a natural propensity to learning and
her father Dr. Edward Baynard, Fellow of the College of Ann Baynard
(1672-1697)
Physicians, London, gave her a very liberal education.
Dr. Prude[205] says of her:
As for learning, whether it be to know and understand natural causes and events, to
know the courses of the sun, moon, and stars; the qualities of herbs and plants; to be
acquainted with the demonstrable verities of the mathematicks; the study of philosophy;
the writings of the antients; and that in their own proper language, without the help of an
interpreter: These and the like are the most noble accomplishments of the human mind, and
accordingly do bring great delight and satisfaction along with them, these things she was
not only conversant in, but mistress of, and that to such a degree, that very few of her sex
did ever arrive at. She had from her infancy been trained up in the knowledge of these
things, and had made a great progress therein; and even in her green years, at the age of 23,
was arrived to the knowledge of a bearded philosopher.[206]

She was a "nervous and subtle disputant" in the "hard and knotty
arguments of metaphysical learning." She was always coveting more
knowledge, saying that it was a sin to be contented with but a little. She was
exceedingly religious and learning was to her but a handmaid of piety. Her
last words were a recommendation to women to study philosophy and the
great book of nature which would give them a sound basis for wisdom in
practical life. Women, she said, are capable of such study, and could
accomplish much if they would "spend of that time in study and thinking,
which they do in visits, vanity and folly." Mr. Collier, in the Great
Historical Dictionary, says of her that it is doubtful whether the first Ralph
Baynard, who for his conduct at the battle of Hastings was rewarded with
eighty-five lordships, did more honor to the name of Baynard or the last
Anne.

Academia: or the Humours of the University of
Oxford in burlesque verse is a thin quarto by Mrs. Alicia Mrs. Alicia
D'Anvers. It was printed in May, 1691, and again with a D'Anvers (fl. 1691)
fuller descriptive title in June of the same year. The poem is an account
given to his fellow-servants by John who has recently visited Oxford. Mrs.
D'Anvers puts herself in John's place. She uses his crude and even rough
language, she gives his point of view, and relishes the misconceptions due
to his ignorance. Heavy and clumsy as the poem is there is something
refreshing and original in its tone. As an attempted realistic portrayal of a
servant's experiences it stands quite by itself, except in comedies, in the
decades before the novel widened human interests. Mrs. D'Anvers is neither
patronizing nor didactic. She simply finds genuine humor and entertainment
in the comic juxtaposition of John's mind and the ancient customs and
glories of Oxford.

Lady Chudleigh[207] was a lady of much repute in the
eighteenth century for her writings in both prose and Lady Chudleigh
(1656-1710)
verse. Her Poems were published in 1703 and her Essays
in 1710, but her chief literary activities belong in the late seventeenth
century. Her Essays are disquisitions on Pride, Humility, Self-love,
Friendship, Death, Anger, Avarice, Solitude, and kindred themes. Mr.
Ballard says of them: "They appear to be, not the excursions of a lively
imagination ... so much as the deliberate results of a long exercise in the
world, improv'd with reading, regulated with judgment; softened by good
breeding, and heightened with sprightly thoughts and elevated piety." Her
prose style is fluent, energetic, and, for the most part, correct. In her Preface
to her Song of Three Children Paraphrased she makes several points that
indicate mental independence. In the height of the dominance of the heroic
couplet she chooses Pindaric verse because she does not wish to be tied up
to the rules of the couplet, and because she desires to give her fancy greater
scope. She begs pardon for introducing into her poem ideas "not generally
received," such as Dr. Burnet's conception of the "Ante-diluvian Earth as
Smooth, regular, and uniform; without Mountains or Hills." Concerning her
poetic use of the doctrine of preëxistence she says, "To me 't is indifferent
which is true, as long as I know I am by the Laws of Poetry allow'd the
Liberty of chusing that which will sound most gracefully in Verse." In

regard to the stars she adopts "the Cartesian Hypothesis" because it makes
the universe "appear infinitely larger, fuller, more magnificent." Her
imagination is as genuinely excited as was Tennyson's by her conception of
the "boundless Spaces" of the heavens and the splendor of the "huge Globes
which roll over our Heads." She believes also in a millennial existence on
"a new habitable earth." The poem itself is an unbroken ecstasy ninety long
stanzas in duration, and becomes undeniably wearisome. But the woman
who could spend months in a lonely country place absorbed in such
religious and scientific reflections, who could maintain for so long a time so
rapt and energetic a mental attitude towards abstract subjects, was far
enough removed from the traditional hausfrau.
Though Lady Chudleigh rejoices in these learned topics she modestly
disclaims any accurate knowledge. "But 't is not reasonable to expect that a
Woman should be nicely skill'd in Physics: We are kept Strangers to all
ingenious and useful Studies, and can have but a slight and superficial
Knowledge of things." Two poems, Resolution and To Mr. Dryden on his
excellent Translation of Virgil, give evidence of Lady Chudleigh's wide
reading in poetry, history, drama, and divinity. Her literary dicta are of little
value, for they do hardly more than echo the judgments of the day.
According to her it was the poet Waller who, coming after the "transient
Glimm'rings of Chaucer" and the "Lunar Beams of Spenser," announced the
dawn of a new Morn, and with Dryden came "The Triumphs of refulgent
Day." Taken as a whole the poems bitterly inveigh against life with its
blighting sorrows, its fleeting, unreal joys, its injustice, its black despairs.
The only break in the gloom comes in short periods of absorption in books,
or in occasional religious ecstasies.
The first poem by which Lady Chudleigh became known is The Ladies'
Defence: a sudden, angry outburst caused by a sermon on Conjugal Duty by
a Mr. Sprint, a nonconformist in Sherbourn, Dorsetshire.[208] The personal
animus in a little poem To the Ladies warning them against marriage,
apparently grew out of her own matrimonial infelicities. And The Ladies'
Defence has the same ring of indignant sincerity. The poem is in the form of
a conversation between the parson who preached the sermon; Sir William
Loveall, who, out of the ignorance of his unmarried state, endeavors to
reconcile the warring parties; Marissa, Lady Chudleigh herself; and Sir
John Brute, who thanks the parson for preaching against "those Terrors of

our Lives, those worst of Plagues, those Furies call'd our Wives." The
parson replies:

Not led by Passion, but by Zeal inspir'd,
I've told the Women what's of them requir'd:
Taught them their Husbands to Obey and Please,
And to their Humours sacrifice their Ease:
Give up their Reason, and their Wills resign,
And ev'ry look, and ev'ry thought confine.
Sure, this Detraction you can't justly call?
'T is kindly meant, and 't is address'd to All.

If you wou'd live as it becomes a Wife,
And raise the Honour of a marry'd Life,
You must the useful Art of wheedling try,
And with his various Humours still comply;

Whate'er he is, you still must think him best,
And boast to all that you are truly blest;

Also, to him you inward Reverence owe;
If he's a Fool, you must not think him so;
Nor yet indulge one mean contemptuous Thought,
Or fancy he can e'er commit a Fault.
Nor must your Deference be alone confin'd
Unto the hid Recesses of your Mind,
But must in all your Actions be display'd,
And visible to each Spectator made.[209]

After this sarcastic summary of Mr. Sprint's irritating sermon Lady
Chudleigh in the person of Marissa, depicts the general condition of women
and her own loftier ambitions:

'T is hard we should be by the Men despis'd
Yet kept from knowing what would make us priz'd.
Debarr'd from Knowledge, banish'd from the Schools,
And with the utmost Industry bred Fools.
Laugh'd out of Reason, jested out of Sense,
And nothing left but Native Innocence:

Or that my Sex would all such Toys despise;
And only study to be Good, and Wise:

Instead of Novels, Histories peruse,
And for their Guides the wise Ancients chuse,
Thro' all the Labyrinths of Learning go,
And grow more humble as they more do know.

Beauty's a Trifle merits not my Care.
I'd rather Æsop's ugly Visage wear,
Joyn'd with his Mind, than be a Fool, and Fair.

But spite of you, we'll to ourselves be kind:
Your censures slight, your little Tricks despise,
And make it our whole business to be wise.
The mean low trivial Cares of Life disdain,
And read and Think, and Think and read again,
And on our Minds bestow the utmost Pain.

One of the important women of letters in the late
seventeenth century was Anne Kingsmill.[210] Of her Anne Kingsmill,
Lady Winchilsea
early life we have no definite details. That it was a gay (1661-1720)
and happy life may be inferred from one of her
retrospective poems in which she says that in her youth "Pleasure's
tempting Air" blew soft about her, and that she dedicated her "Prime" to
"vain Amusements." Later she coveted a place at court which to her
ambitious eye seemed "Paradice below." At what time this desire was
realized we have no record, but in 1683 we find her listed as one of the
maids of honor to Mary of Modena. Miss Strickland says that Anne
Killigrew and Anne Kingsmill were "ladies of irreproachable virtue,
members of the Church of England, and alike distinguished for moral worth

and literary achievements," and she adds that Anne Kingsmill was "well-
known as the beautiful and witty maid of honour." In 1684 Anne married
Mr. Finch, gentleman of the bedchamber to the Duke of York. At the
coming of William and Mary, Mr. and Mrs. Finch went to the family place
at Eastwell Park where they spent the rest of their uneventful lives in a
retirement, embittered at first, doubtless, by their grief over Stuart disasters,
but, as the years passed, rendered more and more delightful by the joys of
country life, of books, and of friends. Mrs. Finch's best poems are those
inspired by Eastwell and its associations. The Elizabethan house at Eastwell
was set in a park of old yew trees and majestic beeches, forming "the very
ideal of an ancestral park of the ancient noblesse," and it was by the
extraordinary dignity and beauty of this park that Mrs. Finch's most
imaginative work was inspired. Within doors the gathering of antiquities,
the illuminating of books, the formation of a great library, and free literary
productivity were the family interests. There were also many and close ties
of friendship founded on natural causes of union such as loyalty to the
Stuarts, devotion to the Church of England, high and even austere ideals of
life. And family ties and ties of friendship received ardent acknowledgment.
No woman of this period was more happily circumstanced in her home for
the unhampered pursuit of literary tastes than was Lady Winchilsea. She
began to write when she was a maid of honor, but it was with a nervous
sense of the ridicule that would probably follow any disclosure of that fact.
But at Eastwell the case was different. There are charming pictures of
evening sessions when the authoress presented her work to an enthusiastic
circle. A scribe entered her writings in a fair and clerkly hand in a majestic
folio. With such encouragement the lady kept sedulously and joyfully to her
task. And when her husband's accession to the title gave her a new position
of dignity and authority she even ventured, in 1713,[211] to publish a
selection from her verse, first under the pseudonym "Ardelia," and then, in
a later impression, with her full name and title.
Lady Winchilsea's poems were composed between 1683 and 1720, and
during this period she tried nearly all poetic forms. Songs, satires, fables,
tragedies, translations, are fully represented. She was the most voluminous
of the minor poets of her time, and in vigor and scope she outranks most of
them. But her literary importance to-day rests not so much on the amount or
variety of her work, as on the fact that in an age of didacticism and satire
she delicately foreshadowed tastes that ruled in the romanticism of a

century later. It was her Nocturnal Reverie, with its minute accuracy of
observation, its sense of the mystery of nature and of the mystic union
between man and nature, that secured Wordsworth's praise, gave her an
honorable place in Ward's English Poets, and finally established her in the
heaven of literary fame as, in Mr. Gosse's phrase, "a minor excelsitude."
In the present study quite other points are to be made concerning Lady
Winchilsea. She is particularly interesting when considered as a heretic
against certain prevailing social and educational ideals. In the gay
dissipations of court life under Charles II she maintained a conception of
life serious and even austere. In close association with Mary of Modena and
James II she yet maintained her devotion to the Church of England. With
the world of fashion flocking to the comedies of the Restoration dramatists
she yet condemned the immoralities of the stage with the bitterness of a
Jeremy Collier. There was, then, in Lady Winchilsea an independence of
judgment, a stoutness of fiber in forming and defending her own views,
which would lead one to expect some trenchant remarks on the
contemporary attitude towards women. It is much to be regretted that the
letters of Lady Winchilsea, if any are extant, have never been published.
Her interests were so varied, her friendships so ardent, her hours of country
leisure so numerous, her pen so facile, that she must have found, in what
Anne Seward called "epistolary solicitudes," one of the most convenient
outlets for a spirit often kicking against the pricks of social conventions,
and her keenness of insight, her caustic phrasing, would make her letters
worth many pages of pindarics. But in default of such letters we turn to the
one prose essay and to the poems. From scattered passages we can build up
the elements of her heresies. Though she loved her home and was the most
devoted of wives, she utterly rejected the hausfrau theory of life. She
declared that she, at least, was never meant for "the dull manage of a servile
house." She asked little of her table except that it should be "set without her
care." Rich food and elaborate service could be dispensed with, but leisure
and a free mind she must have. The frivolous occupations of the town lady,
the endless discussions of laces and brocades, the rivalries as to dishes and
screens from China, the gossip and ill-natured jests at fashionable tea-
tables, she found unendurable. Feminine accomplishments, such as
embroidery, amateurish drawing and painting, awakened her active
hostility.

This definite rejection of all that ordinarily filled the feminine mind, and
a rejection, moreover, in the interests of books and writing, of course made
Ardelia the unhappy victim of many a sneer. The attack on her by Pope and
Gay, in Three Hours after Marriage, in 1717, may be taken as an extreme
example of the indignities to which "a petticoat author" might be subjected,
but there must have been many lesser evidences of social disapproval or the
irritating theme would not so often recur in her poems. In "The
Introduction" she says:
Alas! a woman that attempts the pen,
Such an intruder on the rights of men,
Such a presumptuous Creature, is esteem'd,
The fault, can by no vertue be redeem'd.
They tell us, we mistake our sex and way;
Good breeding, fassion, dancing, dressing, play
Are the accomplishments we should desire;
To write, or read, or think, or to enquire
Would cloud our beauty, and exhaust our time,
And interrupt the Conquests of our prime.

She congratulates herself that she had at least had the good sense to keep
her rhymes a secret while at court, where a "Versifying Maid of Honour"
would have been looked upon "with prejudice, if not with contempt."
During a visit to London she heard the young gossip Almeria describe a
certain lady as "A Poetess! a woman who writes! A common jest!"
Conscious of her growing folio at Eastwell, Ardelia resented the implied
censure. What law, she asks, forbids women to think? Women, she protests,
are "Education's and not Nature's fools." Ardelia had high praise from noted
contemporaries and cordial appreciation at home. But these did not avail to
conquer her morbid sensitiveness to criticism. She seemed to embody in
herself two warring tendencies, a demand for complete intellectual freedom
and the author's inevitable desire to spread his wares abroad, with the
shrinking modesty of the lady to whom any sort of publicity was hateful.
The "Matchless Orinda," Lady Winchilsea tells us, was the model on
whom, from her early girlhood she formed herself. The first verses she
wrote were in honor of Orinda. By Orinda's example she justified the efforts
and aims of her own muse, but she is in no sense a copyist. It was Orinda's
fame as a noted and virtuous woman poet that inspired her rather than any
close study of Orinda's work. Lady Winchilsea, in that small portion of her
work on which her fame rests, is very delicately and truly original. Her

spirit reacted against court life as definitely as did Anne Killigrew's, but she
found no satisfaction in satiric comment. She shrank from any sort of
contest. She argued and protested only when pushed to the wall. She was
shy and easily intimidated, and her best work does not come from the heat
of conflict or from bitterness of spirit. She is essentially contemplative. The
poems on which her fame rests blossomed out quietly, exquisitely, under the
gentle stimulus of a happy home life in the midst of lovely natural
surroundings. She is typically a lady of letters because, without the spur of
necessity, urged on by no popular applause, she yet, for more than thirty
years, made the reading of books and the writing of books the central
occupation of her life.

The honorable Mrs. Monck[212] was the daughter of
Lord Molesworth, a nobleman of Ireland. Mr. Ballard The Honorable Mrs.
Monck (d. 1715)
says of her learning: "She, purely by force of her own
natural genius, acquired a perfect knowledge of the Latin, Italian and
Spanish tongues: and by a constant reading of the finest authors in those
languages, became so great a mistress of the art of poetry, that she wrote
many poems for her own diversion." In 1716, after her death, Lord
Molesworth published her poems under the title Marinda. Poems and
Translations on Several Occasions. In his dedication to Caroline, the
Princess of Wales, he says that the book represents the works of the leisure
hours of a young gentlewoman in a remote country solitude, with no
assistance but that of a good library, and with the daily care of a large
family on her hands. In commending her character he says, "I loved her
more because she deserved it, than because she was mine." Various slight
poems show Marinda's knowledge of Italian and Spanish. Better than all
these are two cleverly turned epigrams on "a lady of pleasure," and some
affecting farewell lines written in her last sickness to her husband. Mrs.
Monck's repute for learning comes largely by hearsay, her printed
memorials are slight and unimportant, but she nevertheless gives an
impression, elusive but real, of a most interesting personality.

Lady Giffard was Sir William Temple's sister. She was
twelve years younger than Dorothy. After her marriage Martha, Lady
Giffard (1639-

and almost immediate widowhood, in 1661, she made 1722)
her home with the Temples. Her Life and
Correspondence has been published by Mrs. Longe as a sequel to the
Letters of Dorothy Osborne. The volume contains letters from Lady
Chesterfield, from Lady Sunderland ("Saccharissa"), and others, to Lady
Giffard. The letters by Lady Giffard are few in number and are all written to
her niece Lady Berkeley, later Lady Portland, and belong in the years 1697-
1722. These letters have none of the sparkle and humor and literary charm
of Dorothy's. But we get indications that Lady Giffard was a woman of
intellectual interests. We find her reading Turkish history daytimes with
recourse to Virgil, "as less exacting," for evenings. She knew Spanish and
French, and one of the specific items in her will is a bequest of the books
she had collected in these two languages.

A third series of letters, published under the title
Political and Social Letters of a Lady of the Eighteenth Sarah Byng, Mrs.
Osborne (1693-
Century, though belonging later in the century, may be 1775)
brought in here because they carry on the series of
Osborne letters. Sarah Byng, the daughter of Admiral Byng, Viscount
Torrington, married, in 1710, John Osborne of Chicksands Priory, the old
home of Dorothy and the place from which she wrote most of her letters.
Mr. John Osborne was Dorothy's grand-nephew. He died in 1719 and his
father in 1720, leaving to Sarah Osborne an infant son, Danvers, the heir to
the title and a heavily burdened estate. Her letters fall in several series, the
first set from 1721 to 1739 being to her brother George on business matters
concerning the property. Most interesting are the letters to Danvers from
1733 to 1751. When he came of age in 1736 she was able to turn over to
him an unincumbered estate, and on his marriage in 1740 she superintended
the establishment of the new household at Chicksands. A third set of letters
has to do with the sentence and execution of her brother Admiral Byng, in
1757. Through the death of the wife of Danvers in 1743 and the death of
Danvers in 1750 Mrs. Osborne was left with two grandsons to bring up, and
her last letters are to John, one of these grandsons, who was traveling in
Holland.
Through two generations Mrs. Osborne bore heavy administrative and
financial burdens. She was both father and mother to her son, and then to

her grandsons. And she was left single-handed to conduct the defense of her
brother Admiral Byng. It is not strange that the letters are frequently hurried
and harassed in tone. She is constantly vexed and baffled because, as a
woman, she cannot conduct affairs directly. Some man must be her
intermediary. She lays plans, foresees difficulties, writes explicit directions,
and then she must urge and cajole her representative to due interest and
prompt action. The especial interest in her letters is their abundant and exact
account of social life and especially of domestic economy. Energetic,
courageous, resourceful, keenly observant, and with a clear head for
business, Mrs. Osborne shows herself to be. Perhaps if we had her letters
before the burdens of life fell so heavily upon her we might find some hint
of the charm in Dorothy's letters, for even Dorothy's letters after marriage
became "tame and flat to what was before." As it is, Mrs. Osborne's letters
are valuable for scattered social detail, not for any permanent charm of
expression.

Mr. Walter Singer, a dissenting minister of Frome,
was early left a widower with three daughters. Two of Elizabeth Singer,
Mrs. Rowe (1674-
these daughters showed while still young exceptionally 1737)
good minds and a natural interest in study. One daughter,
who died at nineteen, was devoted to medicine and collected books on that
subject. Elizabeth preferred drawing and poetry. She began drawing when
her fingers could hardly hold the pencil, and she squeezed out the juices of
plants to make colors. Her father furnished her an excellent master, and she
attained sufficient skill so that throughout her life her work was highly
prized by her friends. She also loved music "to excess." But poetry was her
chief delight. She began writing at twelve, and by the time she was twenty-
two she had on hand a store of verse so pleasing to her friends that they
insisted on its publication, and there accordingly appeared a thin little
volume in 1696 under the title Poems on Several Occasions. Written by
Philomela. The "Preface to the Reader," by one Elizabeth Johnson, is
another of many contemporary indications of feminine irritation at the
limitations imposed upon them. Miss Johnson allows "Mankind the Brutal
Advantages of Strength," but when they "wou'd Monopolize Sence too,
when neither that, nor Learning, nor so much as Wit" is granted the women,
they are forced to protest against such "notorious Violations on the Liberties

of Free-born English Women." "This makes the Meekest Worm amongst us
all, ready to turn agen when we are thus trampled on; But alas! What can
we do to Right our selves? stingless and harmless as we are, we can only
Kiss the Foot that hurts us." But it sometimes pleases Heaven to succor a
distressed people by sending them some bright genius, "an Epaminondas, a
Timoleon, a Nassaw." "Nor is our Defenceless Sex forgotten—we have not
only Banduca's and Zenobia's, but Sappho's, and Behn's, and Schurman's,
and Orinda's, who have humbled the most haughty of our Antagonists, and
made 'em do Homage to our Wit, as well as our Beauty." Miss Singer's
consent to the publication of this volume was gained only by a promise of
strict anonymity, and the "Philomela," then chosen as a pen-name through a
naïve adaptation of "Singer," became her permanent appellation.
One interesting fact with regard to these early poems is the indication we
have of a kind of poetical commerce maintained among the members of a
group of persons similarly inclined to verse. Philomela writes a Pindarick
Poem on Habbakuk which she sends to "The Athenians" and they respond
with a poem beginning,
We yield! we yield! the Palm, bright Maid! be thine!

She sends a Poetical Question to the Athenians and gets a long answer. The
Vanity of the World and The Wish are likewise addressed to the Athenians
and have similar responses. In a Pindarick to the Athenian Society she
brings as "Zealous Tribute," "The early products of a Female muse,"
praising especially their piety and heroic sentiments and the courage with
which they have lashed the darling vices of the times.
A friendship so exalted and immense,
A female breast did ne'er before commence.

A little poem in humorous vein, To one that persuades me to leave the
Muses, gives some account of her school-days. "I fairly bid the Boarding
Schools farewell," "Old Governess farewell with all my heart," are lines
indicative of her attitude.

Spite of her heart, Old Puss shall damn no more
Great Sedley's Plays, and never look 'em o're;
Affront my Novels, no, nor in a Rage,
Force Dryden's lofty Products from the Stage,
Whilst all the rest of the melodious crew,
With the whole System of Athenians too,
For Study's sake out of the Window flew.
But I, to Church, shall fill her Train no more,
And walk as if I sojurn'd by the hour.

In like vein she bids adieu to "dancing days," singing lessons, Japan work,
and even her "esteemed Pencil," and vows to give herself to poetry. And
true it is that the rest of her life is mainly of literary and pious significance.
When young her beauty and charm had resulted in "a train of lovers," but
no one of them, not even Mr. Prior, the poet, could lure her from her serene
solitude—possibly because she was "destined by heaven for the possession
of another gentleman." At any rate, she went smoothly on with her chosen
literary life till she was thirty-six, when she married Mr. Thomas Rowe,
thirteen years younger than herself, but of like tastes and himself an author.
Their extraordinarily happy life together was brought to a close by his death
in 1715, and, after this five years of happiness, she spent the twenty-seven
years of her widowhood in a stricter solitude, a more absorbed religious
communion, a completer devotion to literary pursuits, than before her
marriage. Her essays, her poems, her letters, were the events of her life. She
had early come to know the family of Lord Weymouth at Longleate. Mr.
Thynne had taught her French and Italian; various members of the family
and various family events were celebrated in her verse. She was on most
intimate terms with the Countess of Hertford and corresponded with her for
many years. Over a hundred of her letters to the Countess were published in
The Works of Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe and Mr. Thomas Rowe, and though they
make dull and monotonous reading now were highly esteemed at the time.
In fact, the modest and anonymous Philomela had great eighteenth-century
vogue. She had the friendship of many in the great world, she was
abundantly praised by poets and divines, and her works went through
numerous editions. Her husband said that she combined the fire and passion
of Aphra Behn with the chaste purity of Mrs. Katherine Philips. But
Astræa's passion underwent some strange alchemy when it was transmuted
into Philomela's religious ecstasy. Orinda's purity was fatal to the
combination. Yet Mrs. Rowe's "divine transports" have—Mr. Watts admits
it—sometimes a soft and passionate sound, even an amorous note, capable

of misinterpretation, but evidently reminiscent of the Songs of Solomon,
beloved of her youth. It was not an age for enthusiasms and ecstasies. That
her "flights" were so popular may possibly be explained by the fact that
through them all she was curiously prosaic and intellectually commonplace.

Mr. Ballard speaks of "Mrs. Bland,[213] a Yorkshire
gentlewoman so well skilled in Hebrew that she taught it Mrs. Bland (1660?
-1765?)
to her son and daughter." Mrs. Bland was born about
1660 and married Mr. Nathaniel Bland in 1681. Her instructor in Hebrew
was Lord Van Helmont from whom she learned to write the language with
great exactness. At the request of Mr. Thoresby she wrote a Phylactery in
Hebrew and presented it to the Royal Society, where it was preserved
among their curiosities. Mr. Bland became Lord of the Manor at Beeston
and Mr. Thoresby visited him there. To the astonishment of the guest
Martha Bland, the young daughter of the house, was translating Hebrew
into English, having been taught by "that ingenious gentlewoman," her
mother. Four years later Mr. Thoresby took his son Ralph to see "Mrs.
Bland, the Hebrician." She had also studied Anglo-Saxon, for she borrowed
Elizabeth Elstob's book from Mr. Thoresby and kept it long enough to copy
out the grammar part.

Miss Jane Barker is a literary lady whose productions
belong in two epochs. Her collected poems appeared in Miss Jane Barker
(fl. 1688-1723)
1688 under the title Poetical Recreations: Consisting of
Original Poems, Songs, Odes, etc. With Several New Translations. In Two
Parts, Part I. Occasionally Written by Mrs. Jane Barker. Part II. By Several
Gentlemen of the Universities, and Others. Twenty-seven years after the
publication of this verse Miss Barker again came before the public, this
time as a writer of romances which proved very popular. They were
collected under the title The Entertaining Novels of Mrs. Jane Barker, and a
second edition had appeared by 1719. In 1723 she brought out A Patch-
Work Screen for the Ladies; or Love and Virtue Recommended: In a
Collection of Instructive Novels. Related after a Manner intirely New, and
interspersed with Rural Poems, describing the Innocence of a Country Life.
By Mrs. Jane Barker, of Wilsthorp, near Stamford, in Lincolnshire.[214]

The long silence between the verse of 1688 and the romances of 1715-26
is unbroken by any explanatory hint or reference. Yet Miss Barker had but
one story to tell and that was told in her youth. In her novels she uses the
characters, events, and emotions recorded in her early verse. Under the
form of a sustained narration, with the addition of much in the way of
romantic adventure, they make more entertaining reading, but offer no
essentially new elements. The fifth novel, Clodius and Scipiana, is perhaps
but an enlargement of a romance entitled Scipina, which had been published
and concerning which she had received several congratulatory poems,
before 1688.[215]
One persistent element in Miss Barker's verse and prose is
autobiographic reference. Especially is this true of the poems, The Amours
of Bosvil and Galesia and A Patch-Work Screen. From these sources various
facts emerge concerning Miss Barker's life and personality.
She says that she was sent at first to the "Putney School," but that she
was taken home at about ten by her mother who had come to consider such
schools as "Academies of Vanity and Expense, no Way instructive in the
Rudiments of a Country Gentlewoman's Life." At fifteen she was sent to
London under the care of an aunt to learn "Town Politeness."[216] Her father
lived near Cambridge,[217] and through her brother, a Cambridge man, she
was well known in the younger literary set at the University. The praise
accorded her verse was excessive. "Philaster" of St. John's hails her as the
true heiress of the great Orinda. To "C. G." she is the Elijah for whose
mantle meaner poets wait. "Exilius," also of St. John's, celebrates the
miracles of her Almighty Pen. "S. C." wonders to see men "tug at Classic
Oars" and "sweat over Horace" when along comes a lady who without
effort utters "well-shapt Fancy and true Digested Thought." "Fidelius"
rejoices to see "Physick and Anatomie done into purest Verse." And "J. N.,"
Fellow of St. John's, praises her Scipina as writ in lines,
More than Astrea's soft, more than Orinda's Chaste.

Another gentleman from St. John's said that she surpassed "the Scaroons
and Scudderies of France" and showed that England could originate as well
as translate.[218] Miss Barker was evidently in the stimulating and unusual
position of being the temporary literary idol of an academic coterie.

There was a false lover in Miss Barker's early life who, as "Strephon" in
verse[219] and as "Bosvil" in prose,[220] is copiously written up along with
her own emotional experiences as "Galesia." The most interesting portion
of the affair has to do with Galesia's original ways of reëstablishing her
happiness. She found comfort in contemplating the wonderful works of
Creation.[221] She wandered along shady paths, by little streams, and
through the meadows. She loved the early morning, the evening dews, the
starry night sky. There is no felicitous phrasing in the references to nature,
but the fact remains that Galesia found in nature a satisfaction and
sometimes an exaltation quite foreign to the heroines of her time.
Galesia's second resource is study. She says of this new occupation:
Finding myself abandon'd by Bosvil and thinking it impossible ever to love any Mortal
more, resolv'd to espouse a Book, and spend my Days in Study ... I imagin'd my self the
Orinda or Sapho of my Time. In order to this, I got my brother, who was not yet return'd to
Oxford,[222] to set me in the way to learn my Grammar, which he really did, thinking it ...
a Freak without Foundation to be overthrown by the first Difficulty I shou'd meet with in
the Syntax, knowing it to be less easy to make Substantive and Adjective agree, than to
place a Patch or Curl.[223]

Her indulgent brother, when he came back from his studies abroad, also
taught her medicine. With him she went on long "simpling" excursions to
gather flowers for the "large natural Herbal" they were making. With him
she read "Bartholine, Walæus, Harvey, his Circulatio Sanguinis, and
Lower's Motion of the Heart."[224] She learned to write prescriptions, or
"bills" as she called them, in Latin, with the same "Cyphers and Directions
as Doctors do," so that even the apothecaries were misled and filled her
"bills" with those of the regular physicians.[225] She also ventured on
something in the way of practice and gained some repute for curing cases of
gout given up by the doctors.[226] She began to abandon the Muses for
Paracelsus. Or if she wrote poems the processes of digestion and the
circulation of the blood were her themes.[227] If the shackles of rhyme
hindered scientific accuracy of statement, she squared herself with facts by
abundant footnotes in which the proper Latin terminology was given full
scope. Her interest in medicine was a vital one. She even thanks Strephon,
through whose falsity she had been driven to study, and had so gained a joy
beyond "the sottish ease" that waits on love. In her new love of learning she
even took a vow of virginity:

In this happy life let me remain,
Fearless of twenty-five and all its train
Of slights or scorns, or being call'd Old Maid,
Those Goblings which so many have betray'd.[228]

Somewhat later Galesia gained a complete victory over her lovelorn self
by a most original and sensible method. She took entire charge of her
father's farm. She planned the work, hired the laborers, superintended in
person the occupations of each day, paid the wages, and kept the accounts.
The wholesome interests of each day and equally wholesome fatigue at
night left no intervals in which to regret her lost lover.[229]
Galesia's recourse to hard study and responsible farm management as a
cure for a wounded heart sets her as a heroine in a class by herself. She is so
sensible and reasonable as to seem out of place in a romance. It is therefore
something of a surprise to find her out-distancing the most sentimental in
sighs and sobs and tears. Her utterance in recounting the baseness of Bosvil,
"It is fitting that I should weep on all occasions," might serve as her
permanent order of business. "My sighs alternately blew up my Tears and
my Tears allay'd my Sighs" till "fresh Reflections rais'd new Gusts of
Sorrow," describes her stormy woes. Sometimes she is able to restrain "the
briny Ebullition," but usually "a new Flux of Tears" breaks down all
barriers.
With the death of her brother the joy of Galesia's life went out. Books
and medicine lost their charm. Without his inspiring presence all her
occupations became insipid. Her view of learned women also changed. She
says a learned woman is as ridiculous as a spinning Hercules; that books are
as unfit for women as paint, washes, and patches are for a man; that a
studious woman and an effeminate man may be classed together as out of
their sphere. A learned woman is "like a Forc'd Plant that never has its due
or proper Relish but is wither'd by the first Blast," or "like the Toad in the
Fable, that affected to swell itself as big as the Ox," and burst in the
enterprise.[230] This bitter view of learning comes only in the novels, and
probably indicates some unhappy experiences on Miss Barker's part since
the days when her muse was honored by the University wits.

Celia Fiennes was the daughter of Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes and the
sister of the third Viscount Saye and Sele. The one book by which she is

known is Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time
of William and Mary, Being the Diary of Celia Fiennes, Celia Fiennes (fl.
first published in 1888 by the Honorable Mrs. Griffith, 1691-1703)
to whom the original manuscript was given by her father, the thirteenth
Baron Saye and Sele. In her interesting "To the Reader" Miss Fiennes
explains that these journeys were undertaken that she might regain her
health by "variety and change of aire and exercise"; that she picked up such
information as came in her way because her mind could not remain totally
unoccupied; and that she wrote down her observations merely for the
pleasure of her near relations, the manuscript not being designed for more
public use. She then proceeds to justify her travels:
Now thus much without vanity may be asserted of the subject, that if all persons, both
Ladies, much more Gentlemen, would spend some of their tyme in Journeys to visit their
native Land, and be curious to Inform themselves and make observations of the pleasant
prospects, good buildings, different produces and manufactures of each place, with the
variety of sports and recreations they are adapt to, would be a souveraign remedy to cure or
preserve ffrom these Epidemick diseases of vapours, should I add Laziness?—it would also
fform such an Idea of England, add much to its Glory and Esteem in our minds and cure
the evil Itch of over-valueing fforeign parts; at least ffurnish them with an Equivalent to
entertain strangers when amongst us, Or jnform them when abroad of their native Country,
which has been often a Reproach to the English, ignorance and being strangers to
themselves. Nay the Ladies might have matter not unworthy their observation, soe subject
for conversation, within their own compass in each country to which they relate, and
thence studdy now to be serviceable to their neighbours especially the poor among whome
they dwell, which would spare them the uneasye thoughts how to pass away tedious dayes,
and tyme would not be a burden when not at a card or dice table, and the ffashions and
manners of fforeign parts less minded and desired.... But now I may be justly blamed to
pretend to give acc: of our Constitution, Customs, Laws, Lect, matters farre above my
Reach or capacity, but herein I have described what have come within my knowledge
either by view and reading, or relation from others which according to my conception have
faithfully Rehearsed, but where I have mistaken in any form or subject matter I easily
submitt to a correction and will enter such Erratas in a supplement annext to ye Book of
some particulars since remark'd; and shall conclude with a hearty wish and
recommendation to all, but Especially my own Sex, the studdy of those things which tends
to Improve the mind and makes our Lives pleasant and comfortable as well as proffitable
in all the Stages and Stations of our Lives, and render suffering and age supportable and
Death less fformidable and a future State more happy.[231]

Miss Fiennes's separate journeys are not dated, but we know that they
began before 1691 because the earlier trips from her home at Newtontony
in Wiltshire to Bath, to Oxfordshire, to "Salsebury," were taken with her
mother, and her mother died in 1691. The description of the coronation of
Queen Anne would indicate that the travels extended beyond 1703. "My

Northern Journey in May 1697" was one of the most important of her
travels. She thus records its close: "Thence to Highgate 6 miles, thence to
London 4 miles where I returned and all our Company Blessed be God very
well wthout any disaster or trouble in 7 weeks tyme about 635 miles that we
went together."[232] Cambridge, Ely, Peterborough, Nottingham, Lincoln,
Hull, and Scarborough, indicate their general route north. Encouraged by
the success of this difficult trip, Miss Fiennes determined upon a still more
hazardous enterprise. "My great Journey to Newcastle and to Cornwall"[233]
records a remarkable achievement. She went north to Peterborough; then
west to Chester; then north by way of Liverpool, Preston, Lancaster,
Kendall, Lake Windermere, Ambleside, Ulswater, Penrith, Carlisle, and so
over into the edge of Scotland; then east to Newcastle; then southwest by
Durham, Manchester, Worcester, Exeter, Plymouth, Land's End; and finally
home to Newtontony.
Arthur Young is famous for his English tours, but his travels are nearly
three quarters of a century later than those of Miss Fiennes.[234] Gray's
notable visit to the Lakes was in 1769. In 1756-1766 Amory, in his Life of
John Buncle, described the Lake Region, and as early as 1760 Dr. Brown
wrote a letter praising the Lakes. But Celia Fiennes's visit and description
belong at the very beginning of the century and confer upon her the honors
belonging to the pioneer. Her book has also a distinctive interest of its own.
I cannot forbear to quote her account of her journey through the
Westmoreland Hills:
Thence I Rode almost all the waye in sight of this great water [Windermere], some
tymes I lost it by reason of ye great hills interposeing and so a Continu'd up hill and down
hill and that pretty steep, even when I was in that they Called bottoms wch are very rich
good ground, and so I gained by degrees from Lower to higher hills wch I alwayes went up
and down before I came to another hill. At last I attained to the side of one of these hills or
ffells of Rocks, wch I passed on the side much about the Middle, for Looking down to the
bottom it was at Least a Mile all full of those Lesser hills and jnclosures, so Looking
upward I was as farre from the Top which was all Rocks, and something more barren tho
there was some trees and wood growing in ye Rocks and hanging over all down ye Brow
of some of the hills. From these great ffells there are severall springs out of ye Rock that
trickle down their sides, and as they meete with stones and Rocks in the way, when
something obstructs their passage and so they Come with more violence, that gives a
pleaseing sound and murmuring noise.... As I walked down at this place I was walled on
both sides by those inaccessible high rocky barren hills wch hangs over ones head in some
places and appears very terrible, and from them springs many Little Currents of water from

the sides and Clefts, wch trickle down to some Lower part where it runs swiftly over the
stones and shelves in the way, wch makes a pleasant Rush and murmuring noise.[235]

Wordsworth's "And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters," has
here an interesting early statement. Of Ulswater, she says:

I rode the whole Length of this water by its side, sometyme a Little higher upon the side
of the hill and sometyme just by the shore.... I observed the boundaries of all these great
waters (which are a sort of deep Lakes or kind of standing waters) are these sort of Barren
Rocky hill wch are so vastly high. I Call this a standing water because its not like other
great Rivers as ye Trent, Severne, Hull or Thames, etc. to appear to Run wth a streame or
Current but only as it Rowles from side to side Like waves as the wind moves it.[236]

As a rule scenery is but slightly touched upon. Miss Fiennes's interest
was in roads, bridges, markets, dwellings and grounds, churches; in the
quality and price of food, in dress, in pictures and furniture, in manners and
customs; in pageantry, processions, and ceremonials. Her description of the
customs at Bath, of the funeral of Queen Mary, of the Lord Mayor's Day in
London, may be taken as illustrative of her method of writing. Her
manuscript was printed verbatim, and that was, indeed, the only course to
pursue. Any attempt to correct or methodize, or modernize it, would result
almost in rewriting it. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a generation later, was
a keen observer of affairs in Turkey, but Miss Fiennes surpasses her in
fullness of detail. Nothing escapes her quick, accurate eye, her sharply
retentive memory, and her unwearied pen. The facts crowd in upon each
other with breathless haste. There is no such thing as grace or melody or
beauty of style. There is hardly anything so tranquilizing as order and
clearness. There is no time for any personal reactions on the things seen.
There is only here and there a reflection, there are only the scantiest notes
on people. But there is an astounding assemblage of external facts,
undiscriminating, uninterpreted, unenlivened by a spark of emotion or
imagination, but, in their total effect, genuinely impressive. What energy,
what courage, what endurance, it required for a woman to make these
unusual and very difficult journeys! And yet at first reading the dry, rapid,
confused narrative is as uninspiring as a guidebook. It is only gradually that
we become conscious of the burning enthusiasm that kept Miss Fiennes at
her self-imposed task. She had the zeal of a devotee with the intellectual
method of a chronicler or maker of inventories. But whatever may be the
counts against her style, there can be no deductions from the high estimate
of her book as a contribution to social history. And still more must it stand
to her credit that not only no other woman, but no man of her day knew so
much about England as did this earliest of the women travelers.

A lady who can in the strictest interpretation of the
word be called learned is Elizabeth Elstob. For this Elizabeth Elstob
reason and because she is very little known, I shall give (1683-1756)
as full an account as I have been able to obtain. In Ballard's Collection of
Original Letters, in the Bodleian Library are several to him from Miss
Elstob, and among them is the following brief memoir of her life, in her
own handwriting, enclosed in a letter dated November 23, 1738:
Elizabeth Elstob, Daughter of Ralph and Jane Elstob,[237] was born in the Parish of St.
Nicholas, in New Castle upon Tyne, September the twenty ninth, sixteen hundred and
eighty-three. From her childhood she was a great lover of books, which being observed by
her mother, who was also a great admirer of learning, especially in her own sex, there was
nothing wanting for her improvement, so long as her mother lived. But being so
unfortunate as to lose her when she was about eight years old, and when she had but just
gone thro' her accidence and grammar, there was a stop put to her progress in learning for
some years. For her brother being under age when her mother died, she was under the
guardianship of a relation, who was no friend to women's learning, so that she was not
suffered to proceed, notwithstanding her repeated requests that she might, being always put
off with that common and vulgar saying that one tongue is enough for a woman. However,
this discouragement did not prevent her earnest endeavours to improve her mind, in the
best manner she was able, not only because she had a natural inclination to books herself,
but in obedience to her excellent mother's desire. She therefore employed most of her time
in reading such English and French books (which last language she with much difficulty
obtained leave to learn) as she could meet with till she went to live with her brother, who
very joyfully and readily assisted and encouraged her, in her studies, with whom she
laboured very hard as long as she lived. In that time she translated and published an Essay
on Glory, written in French by the celebrated Mademoiselle de Scudery, and published an
English-Saxon Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory, with an English translation and
Notes, etc. Also the Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue. She designed,
if ill fortune had not prevented her, to have published all Ælfrick's Homilies, of which she
made an entire transcript, with the various readings from other manuscripts, and had
translated several of them into English. She likewise took an exact copy of the Textus
Roffensis upon vellum, now in the library of that great and generous encourager of
learning, the Right Honourable the Earl of Oxford. And transcribed all the Hymns, from an
ancient Manuscript belonging to the Church of Sarum. She had several other designs, but
was unhappily hindered, by a necessity of getting her bread, which with much difficulty,
labour, and ill health, she has endeavoured to do for many years, with very indifferent
success. If it had not been that Almighty God was graciously pleased to raise her up lately
some generous and good friends, she could not have subsisted, to whom she always was,
and will, by the grace of God, be most faithful.[238]

ELIZABETH ELSTOB
From a drawing by herself engraved in an initial for her translation of The Pastoral of St. Gregory,
1709, and used also in her Grammar in 1713

The brother of whom Miss Elstob speaks was William Elstob, who was
ten years older than she. At eleven he was sent to Eton. At sixteen he went
to Cambridge, and later to Oxford, where he was finally, in 1696, elected
fellow of University College. In 1702 he became rector of the united
parishes of St. Swithin and St. Mary Bothaw, in London, where he died in
1715 at the age of forty-two. He was a highly trained linguist, a great lover
of antiquities, and one of the most promising Anglo-Saxon scholars of his
time. He apparently had liberal sentiments concerning the education of
women, so that as soon as his sister came under his care all her desires for
study were gratified. Just when she went to Oxford is not certain, but it was
probably about the time he took his fellowship, when she was thirteen. She
gives the date of her entrance upon her Anglo-Saxon studies as 1698, when
she was fifteen. In that year her brother had made a transcript of King
Alfred's version of the Latin historian Orosius which he designed to
publish. She wished to understand it and says, "Having gained the Alphabet,
I found it so easy, and in it so much the grounds of our present Language,
and of a more particular Agreement with some Words which I had heard
when very young in the North, as drew me to be more inquisitive after
Books written in that Language." Her brother was well pleased and
recommended the Saxon Heptatuch. From this she went on to other
treatises, and finally began to divert herself with taking transcripts of such
ancient manuscripts as she could find.[239] She proved to be particularly
facile with her pen. The copies she made of the old manuscripts were said
to be marvels in the way of beauty and accuracy of lettering. Her copy of
the Textus Roffensis is described by Nichols as "one of the most lovely
specimens of modern Saxon writing that can be imagined." She was well
received in the University, for Mr. Rowe Mores speaks of her as "the
indefessa comes of her brother's studies, a female student in the University
and a favourite of Dr. Hudson and the Oxonians."[240] In 1702 she went
with her brother to London and they kept on in their work together with
great eagerness and satisfaction. There gradually grew up in Miss Elstob's
mind a desire to translate and publish some Anglo-Saxon manuscript. She
was encouraged in this not only by her brother, but by Dr. Hickes, "the great
patron of the Septentrional Studies," who said that by publishing somewhat
in Saxon she might invite "the ladies to be acquainted with the Language of
their Predecessors, and the Original of their Mother Tongue." The text
finally determined upon was the Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory. Dr.

Hudson, "a man of so generous a mind as not to discourage learning, even
in the female sex," gave her access to the ancient parchment Book of
Homilies in the Bodleian. The book on St. Gregory appeared in 1709 under
the title, An English-Saxon Homily on the Birth-Day of St. Gregory:
Anciently used in the English-Saxon Church. Giving an Account of the
Conversion of the English from Paganism to Christianity. Translated into
Modern English, with Notes. It was a stately and dignified volume with a
full-page engraving by Gribelin, and many engraved letters and head and
tail pieces. In the capital "G" of Gregory was a portrait of Miss Elstob done
by herself.[241] The Dedication to Queen Anne apologizes for using a
language so "out-dated and antiquated," a language which "few Men and
none of the other Sex have ventured to converse with" since the time when
it was the current speech. But she adroitly pays the necessary compliment
and at the same time recommends her theme, by pointing out that Anglo-
Saxon was the language in which the Pious Progenitors of Queen Anne had
received the Orthodox Faith of which the Queen was the undoubted
Defender. The Preface, sixty pages long, is a learned account of the
introduction of Christianity into England. In the text the Saxon and English
are in parallel columns, and there is a brave apparatus of notes and
comments. Following the English-Saxon Homily is a Latin version by
William Elstob which he presents to his sister with the following Latin
letter:
Gulielmus Elistobius
ELIZABETHÆ
Sorori suæ carissimæ
S. D.
Dum tu, soror mea dilectissima, Homiliæ Saxonicæ, de gentis nostræ Conversione paras
versionem Anglicam fæminis liberalibus: nonnulli forte ex amicis nostris, tum Academicis
tum aliis, Latinam postulant hominibus eruditis. Id te velle accomodare venis ad me dicens,
bene autem posse negâsti. Verecundius sane id quam verius. Sed favendum omnino
verecundiæ, præsertim muliebri: maximè autem tuæ, cum in te virtus illa sit notissima.
Quare, quod poscis, dulcis & indefessa studiorum meorum comes, do tibi Latinè. Non
Ciceronianè, ut tu velis, id est ornatè, at non ineptè tamen: iisdem ferè verbis repositis quæ
in Saxonica olim tansfusa, vel ex Turonensi Gregorio, vel tuo, vel ex Beda nostrate, vel
utroque Diacono, & Johanne & Paulo. Eadem plane ratione, qua jam pridem Orosium à
nobis elucubratum scis, & qua Gregorii tui Curam Pastoralem, Deo favente, & adjutrice
te, Eruditis perlibenter darem. Vale.
Kal. Jun. MDCCIX.

The book was published by subscription and the list of subscribers is an
interesting one. We, of course, find the Anglo-Saxon scholars, such as Mr.

Thwaites[242] and Dr. Hickes, various Oxonians, the Elstobs of Canterbury
and Durham, and others who were in the same religious or learned circles.
Various letters to Ralph Thoresby[243] show his interest. In March, 1708-09,
she sent him the frontispiece to the Homily saying there would be other
ornaments in the way of borders and letters "which will make the book
somewhat dear, but I would willingly have it as beautiful as possible." In
May, 1709, she thanks him for procuring "so noble a number of
encouragers" to her work. Nearly half of the two hundred and sixty
subscribers are women. Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Lady Catharine Jones,
Mary Astell's friends, are there; and Lady Winchilsea's friends, the Thynnes,
the Worseleys, and the Thanets, but not Mary Astell or Lady Winchilsea.
The literary set—Pope, Swift, Gay, Addison, Steele—is not represented.
Women of title, clergymen, and scholars make up the list.[244]
The Preface is of personal as well as learned interest. Miss Elstob did not
enter upon the career of authorship without an uneasy recognition of the
opprobrium she might bring upon herself by aspirations so unfeminine. She
was, in her own mind, fortified by the elegant Latin treatise in which "Mrs.
Anna Maria à Schurman, that Glory of her Sex," had answered, with due
scholastic form and dignity, the usual objections made by Gentlemen to
Women's Learning, but in deference to the readers of her Homily she felt the
necessity of a few words of self justification:
For first, I know it will be said, What has a Woman to do with Learning? This I have
known urged by some Men, with an Envy unbecoming that greatness of Soul, which is said
to dignify their Sex.... Where is the Fault in Womens seeking after Learning? why are they
not to be valu'd for acquiring to themselves the noblest Ornaments? what hurt can this be to
themselves? what Disadvantage to others? But there are two things usually opposed against
Womens Learning. That it makes them impertinent, and neglect their household Affairs.
Where this happens it is a Fault. But it is not the Fault of Learning, which rather polishes
and refines our Nature, and teaches us that Method and Regularity, which disposes us to
greater Readiness and Dexterity in all kinds of Business. I do not observe it so frequently
objected against Womens Diversions, that They take them off from Household Affairs.
Why therefore should those few among us, who are Lovers of Learning, altho' no better
account cou'd be given of it than its being a Diversion, be deny'd the Benefit and Pleasure
of it, which is both so innocent and improving.... I shall not enter into any more of the
Reasons why some Gentlemen are so eager to deny us this privilege: I am more surprised,
and even ashamed, to find any of the Ladies were more violent than they, in carrying on the
same charge. Who despairing to arrive at any eminent or laudable degree of knowledge,
seem totally to abandon themselves to Ignorance, contenting themselves to sit down in
Darkness, as if they either had not Reason, or it were not capable by being rightly
cultivated, of bringing them into the Light.... Admit a Woman may have Learning, is there
no other kind of Learning to employ her time? What is this Saxon? What has she to do with

this barbarous antiquated Stuff? so useless, so altogether out of the way?... I fear, if things
were rightly consider'd, that the charge of Barbarity would rather fall upon those who,
while they fancy themselves adorn'd with the Embellishments of foreign Learning, are
ignorant, even to barbarity, of the Faith, Religion, the Laws and Customs, and Language of
their Ancestors.[245]

It was inevitable that the learning in Miss Elstob's work should be
thought of by many as in reality the work of her brother. On this point,
towards the close of the Preface, she comments rather ambiguously as
follows:
I have been askt the Question, more than once, whether this Performance was all my
own? How properly such a Question may be ask'd by those who know with whom I live, I
shall not dispute: But since some there are who may have a Curiosity to know the same
thing, who yet suspect the Decency of such a Question: that they may be under no
Uneasiness on this account, they may be pleas'd to understand that I have a kind Brother,
who is always ready to assist and encourage me in my Studies. I might say much of my
Obligations on this account: wou'd he permit me to express my self at large on that Subject.
But as I think it no shame to me to take any Advice where it may be so easily obtain'd: so I
should think it unpardonable to be guilty of such a Silence, as might make me seem averse
to all Acknowledgement.

After the publication of the Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory Miss
Elstob made a visit to Canterbury where her uncle was prebendary. The
number of Canterbury names in her list of subscribers shows that her fame
for learning had preceded her. She was very favorably received, especially
by some ladies of rank, one of whom expressed a desire to study Anglo-
Saxon under her direction. In pursuance of this project Miss Elstob began at
once on the preparation of an Anglo-Saxon Grammar.[246] In 1715, when
the Grammar finally appeared, Miss Elstob wrote thus in a Preface
addressed to Dr. Hickes:
I was more particularly gratified with the new Friendship and Conversation, of a young
Lady, whose Ingenuity and Love of Learning is well known and esteem'd, not only in that
Place, but by yourself: and which so far indear'd itself to me, by her promise that she wou'd
learn the Saxon Tongue, and do me the Honour to be my Scholar, as to make me think of
composing an English Grammar of that Language for her use. That Ladies Fortune hath so
disposed of her since that time, and hath placed her at so great distance, as that we have
had no Opportunity, of treating farther on this Matter, either by Discourse or
Correspondence. However, though a Work of a larger Extent, and which hath amply
experienced your Encouragement, did for some time make me lay aside this Design, yet I
did not wholly reject it.... But considering the Pleasure I my self had reaped from the
Knowledge I have gained from this Original of our Mother Tongue, and that others of my
own Sex might be capable of the same Satisfaction: I resolv'd to give them the Rudiments
of that Language in an English Dress.

The long Preface to the Grammar is chiefly taken up with an attack on
John Brightland, author of the Whole System of English Education, and
other wise grammarians who had spoken lightly of Anglo-Saxon and
especially of the Thesaurus of Dr. Hickes. One of the aspersions cast by the
gentlemen on their mother tongue was that the Northern Languages "consist
of nothing but Monosyllables," and Miss Elstob plunges into a lengthy
defense of monosyllables with so many quotations from English verse as to
show that being "mistress of eight foreign languages" did not prevent her
from being exceedingly well read in the poetical literature of her own
tongue. This portion of the Preface is followed by a diatribe against those
who consider the study of antiquities and of the Saxon tongue as belonging
to a lower order of mind, and not contributing to a "just stile" as do the
classics.[247] This topic, also, is illustrated by literary characterizations so
numerous and apt as to show wide and discriminating reading in English
prose.[248]
Miss Elstob was a redoubtable champion in the cause of Anglo-Saxon
learning. At the beginning of her career, in 1709, just as her Homily on the
Birthday of St. Gregory was coming from the press, Swift had spoken of her
as one of the Professors in the College of Madonella, ascribing to her the
publication of "two of the choicest Saxon novels, which are said to have
been in as much repute at Queen Emma's Court, as the 'Memoires from the
New Atalantis' are with those of ours."[249] This disparaging allusion may
have predisposed Miss Elstob to answer Swift with exceptional energy
when he ranged himself with the scorners of Anglo-Saxon learning. In 1737
Mr. Ballard, in expressing surprise at the appearance of some new opponent
of Saxon, wrote: "Indeed I thought that the bad success Dean Swift had met
with in this affair from the incomparably learned and ingenious Mrs. Elstob,
would have deterred all others from once opening their mouths on this
head."[250]
The Homily and the Grammar gave Miss Elstob, at thirty-two, a
distinguished place in the world of scholarship. She had also shown unusual
skill with her pencil. Not only were her transcripts of manuscripts noted for
their beauty, but she also drew admirable portraits. In 1737 Mr. Ballard
wrote Mr. Joseph Ames:
I design, if possible, to make a tour to London this Winter, just to peep upon a few
choice friends, and will bring Miss Elstob's Life of her Brother along with me, to pleasure

you with. But you must be silent in the affair, for some particular reasons not proper here to
be mentioned. Besides the above mentioned Life, I have a dozen pieces of this fine
accomplished gentlewoman's drawings, amongst which are pictures of herself, Dr. Hickes,
Mr. Dryden, and Johannes Ogilvius, etc. very masterly done, and, as I am told, very
extraordinary true likenesses.[251]

We get no further completed work from Miss Elstob after the Grammar
of 1715, but the six years between the Homily and the Grammar were rich
in study and plans. In February, 1708-09, Mr. Thoresby wrote to Dr.
Richardson:
Amongst the Authors, I might have mentioned some of the female sex; as the Bishop of
Sarum's lady, and Miss Elstob; the former has writ a Method of Devotion, the latter
translated a piece of Mons. Scudery from the French, and added some of her own: and is
for giving us a more correct Edition of Sir John Spelman's Saxon Psalms, in which tongue
she is a great proficient, and has writ that in my Album, etc.[252]

The "work of larger extent" for which Miss Elstob temporarily set aside
her Grammar was the proposed publication of a Saxon Homilarium with
English translations and notes. That this Homilarium, which was to have
been her great work, was well under way by 1712 is indicated by the
following letter, December 23, 1712, from Dr. Hickes to Dr. Charlett:
I suppose you may have seen Miss Elstob, sister to Mr. Elstob, formerly fellow of your
Coll. and the MSS. she hath brought to be printed at your press. The University hath
acquired much reputation and honour at home and abroad, by the Saxon books printed
there, as well as by those printed in Latin and Greek, and the publication of the MSS. she
hath brought (the most correct I ever saw or read) will be of great advantage to the Church
of England against the Papists; for the honour of our Predecessors the English Saxon
Clergy, especially of the Episcopal Order, and the credit of our country to which Miss
Elstob will be counted abroad as great an ornament in her way, as Madam Dacier is to
France. I do not desire you to give her all encouragement, because I believe you will do it
of your own accord from your natural temper to promote good and great works. But I
desire you to recommend her, and her great undertaking to others, for she and it are both
very worthy to be encouraged, and were I at Oxford, I should be a great solicitor for her.
And had I acquaintance enough with Mr. Vice-Chancellor I had troubled him with a letter
in her behalf. I will add no more but to tell you that the news of Miss Elstob's
encouragement at the University will be very acceptable to me, because it will give her
work credit here, where it shall be promoted to the utmost power by your Philo-Sax. and
Philo-Goth. and most faithful, humble Servt.[253]

In February, 1713, Bedford wrote to Mr. Hearne: "I am to desire yo from
him to give all ye assistance & encouragement yo can to Mrs. Elstob's work,
who is now going down to ye University again abt it."[254] Mr. Hearne
responded in March: "I wish Mrs. Elstob good success. Tho' if she meet

with no better Encouragement here than I have done as yet 't will not be
great."[255]
In the same year Mr. Bowyer printed "Some Testimonies of Learned Men
in favour of the intended edition of the Saxon Homilies, concerning the
learning of the author of those Homilies, and the advantages to be hoped
from an edition of them."[256] And three letters from Miss Elstob to the Lord
Treasurer show that he solicited and obtained the Queen's Bounty towards
printing the Homilies.[257]
In spite of all this encouragement the publication of the Homilies hung
fire for many months. It is possible that the death of Mr. Elstob and of Dr.
Hickes in 1715 delayed matters by depriving Miss Elstob of able advocates
and counselors. In July, 1716, Sir P. Sydenham indicates his concern that
the book had not yet appeared.[258] In November of that year Mr. T. Baker
writes apologetically to Mr. Hearne that he is "deep in Mrs. Elstob and Mr.
Strype," and that the work does not admit of haste.[259] Later in the same
month Mr. Hearne gives the cheering news that "Mrs. Elstob's book is going
on at last."[260] But only five of the Homilies were actually printed off at
Oxford.[261] The great scheme failed for want of money. Miss Elstob's own
fortune was apparently involved, for in 1718 Mr. T. Baker wrote to Hearne
that Miss Elstob was "lately gone off for debt."[262]
Except these few facts concerning the Homilies very few details are
known concerning Miss Elstob's life after 1715. Bishop Smalridge[263]
aided her for a time, but she could not endure the thought of being a burden
on her friends, and she finally went to Evesham, Worcestershire, where she
started a little school. Mr. Tindale, in his History of Evesham, says that he
was credibly informed that her weekly stipend in this school was at first but
a groat a week. She was in this very contracted and difficult way of life for
nearly twenty years. When relief came it was as the result of the efforts of
an obscure young Anglo-Saxon scholar, Mr. George Ballard, a lady's-stay-
maker, who became acquainted with Miss Elstob and described her
situation so effectively to one of his customers, a Mrs. Chapone, that this
lady wrote a circular letter representing Miss Elstob's extensive learning,
her service to literature, her multiplied distresses, her meekness and
patience, and sent it to the neighboring gentry. An annuity of twenty
guineas was raised, and Miss Elstob was enabled to keep an assistant so that

she could again "taste of that food of the mind from which she had been so
long oblig'd to fast."
Another result of Mrs. Chapone's letter was a possible appointment for
Miss Elstob as mistress of a charity school kept up by Lady Elizabeth
Hastings. With regard to this plan Miss Elstob wrote the following very
interesting letter to Mr. George Ballard:
Since you desire to know if I have accepted Mrs. Capon's proposal, I do, though I am
very sensible it is not commendable to expose a private correspondence, venture to
communicate to so good a friend, a copy of the worthy gentleman's letter, sent her in
answer to her vastly kind recommendation of me, and the charming letter she sent to me. In
answer to hers, after I had received your answer, I assured her of my readiness to serve that
excellent lady, as far as lyes in my power. But there are some things to be taught in such a
school, which I cannot pretend to: I mean, the two accomplishments of a good housewife,
spinning and knitting. Not that I would be thought to be above doing any commendable
work proper for my sex; for I have continually in my thoughts the glorious character of a
virtuous woman, Proverbs XXXI, 13; "She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly
with her hands." And as an instance of the truth of this, the gown I had on when you gave
me the favour of a visit was part of it my own spinning, and I wear no other stockings but
what I knit myself: yet I do not think myself proficient enough in these arts to become a
teacher of them. As to your objection on the meanness of the scholars, I assure you, Sir, I
should think it as glorious an employment to instruct those poor children, as to teach the
children of the greatest. But I must tell you that mine may be termed a life of
disappointments from my cradle till now, nor do I expect any other while I live. This, and
hearing no more of that affair, makes me think her ladyship is provided with a mistress
before now, there being many more deserving than myself, that are in want of such an
employment. Nor do I repine; for I am so inured to disappointments, that I expect nothing
else, and I receive them with as much easiness as others do their greatest prosperity.... I
often compare myself to poor John Tucker, whose Life I read when a girl in Winstanley's
Lives of the Poets, which affected me so much that I cannot forget it yet. He is there
described to have been an honest, industrious, poor man, but, notwithstanding his
indefatigable industry, as the author writes, "no butter would stick on his bread."[264]

The Mrs. Chapone who wrote the circular letter concerning Miss Elstob
was Sarah Kirkham, an intimate girlhood friend of Mary Granville,
afterward Mrs. Pendarves, but better known as Mrs. Delany. Sally Kirkham
is described by Mrs. Delany as a girl of "extraordinary understanding, lively
imagination, and humane disposition," of "uncommon genius and intrepid
spirit." In 1725, at the age of twenty-four she married the Reverend John
Chapone, and they went to live in Stanton, Gloucestershire, and little more
is heard of her until the writing of this letter before 1734. Mrs. Chapone
meant the letter for the neighboring gentry, but it finally reached a more
distinguished audience. Mrs. Pendarves writes:

I told you in my last I had left Sally's letter with Mrs. Pointz. She gave it to her husband,
who desired the Duke to read it to the Queen. The Queen was so touched with the letter
that she immediately sent for Mrs. Pointz, to inquire into some more particulars about the
person mentioned in it, and the person who wrote it. Mrs. Pointz said she knew no more
than what the letter told, but that Mrs. Chapone was a friend of ours. The Queen said she
never in her life read a better letter, that it had touched her heart, and ordered immediately
an hundred pounds for Mrs. Elstob, and said she "need never fear a necessitous old age
whilst she lived, and that when she wanted more to ask for it, and she should have it." I
think this was acting like a queen, and ought to be known.... I hope this may be the means
of serving our friend Sally, the letter was the whole discourse of the drawing-room. The
Queen asked the Duke "When he should be able to write such a letter." He answered,
honestly, "Never." Mrs. Pointz has asked many particulars about Mr. Chapone, and I did
him justice.[265]

Queen Caroline's interest was so genuinely aroused that she not only
ordered the £100 to be at once sent to Miss Elstob, but promised to repeat
the same every five years. This was evidently with the idea that she should
be taken from the little school at Evesham and put into her proper station as
"mistress of a boarding-school for young ladies of a higher rank." Such
might have been the outcome had not the money lapsed with the death of
the Queen in 1737.
All plans for Miss Elstob seemed to end in failure till "Sally's historical
epistle," as Mrs. Pendarves called it, was sent to the Duchess of Portland at
Bulstrode.[266] The result in this case was of permanent value, for Miss
Elstob was invited by the Duchess to make her home at Bulstrode as
instructor of the children. Of this appointment Mrs. Pendarves wrote,
December 12, 1738, to her mother:
The Duchess has now a thousand fears, lest my Lord and Lady Oxford should have any
objections against taking her, but I hope they will all prove false.... Mrs. Elstob seems, out
of modesty and diffidence of herself, to decline coming, but it would be most imprudent of
her to decline such an offer, when no fatigue will be imposed upon her, but all imaginable
care will be taken of her. I own I long to have you see her, that I may really know what sort
of woman she is. My Lord Oxford objects to her not speaking French, but the Duchess
answers she shall have a master for that, or a maid to talk, and all she requires and hopes of
Mrs. Elstob is to instruct her children in the principles of religion and virtue, to teach them
to speak, read, and understand English well, to cultivate their minds as far as their capacity
will allow, and to keep them company in the house and when her health and strength will
permit to take the air with them. All this she is surely well qualified to do, and it would be
a sincere joy to me to have our worthy Duchess possest of so valuable a person.[267]

Ten days later Mrs. Pendarves wrote again from Bulstrode:
The Elstobian matter is quite fixed, and she expressed the utmost satisfaction at having
secured such a worthy woman to educate her children; I wrote last post to Mrs. Elstob to
tell her that the Duchess looked on her as engaged to her, and that her salary should begin

on Xmas Day next, though she could not conveniently take her into her family till
Midsummer. I hope she will write to the Duchess, and suppose she will of course; I gave
her a little hint but would not have it mentioned that I did.... I think your advice to Mrs.
Elstob quite right about paying debts; a person of such principles as hers cannot enjoy any
advantages without doing that justice when it is in her power to do it.[268]

In August, 1739, Miss Elstob was in Evesham and several times met her
benefactor, Mrs. Chapone, of whom she gives a lively picture showing that
letter-writing was not Mrs. Chapone's only title to fame. Miss Elstob writes:
The last time she was here, I had an exceeding pleasure, though not without some
concern, at hearing a long and warm dispute between that charming woman, and Mr. Ben
Seward, on some methodistical notions, in which it was by better judges than myself
agreed that the female antagonist had much the advantage over him.[269]

Miss Elstob spent the remaining seventeen years of her life with the
Duchess of Portland. They were comfortable, leisurely, studious years, a
delightful haven after her twenty years of hardship, penury, and intellectual
starvation. But she was fifty-six when she went to Bulstrode, and the ease
and security of her life there came too late to rouse into life the mental
activity so long dormant. Miss Elstob's real life was the twenty years with
her brother, years of plain living and high aspirations while they worked
together in the realms of pure scholarship. It would be difficult to find a
more satisfying example of literary comradeship than that offered by the
learned young curate and the learned young sister, the "dulcis & indefessa
comes" of his studies.[270]

In 1739 Mrs. Elizabeth Blackwell published in two
folio volumes A Curious Herbal, containing Five Elizabeth Blackwell
(fl. 1739)
Hundred Cuts, of the most useful Plants, which are now
used in the Practice of Physick, engraved on folio Copper Plates, after
Drawings taken from the Life, by Elizabeth Blackwell. To which is added, a
short Description of the Plants and their common Uses in Physick. Printed
for John Nourse at the Lamb without Temple Bar. The first of these
magnificent volumes is dedicated to the famous Dr. Richard Mead,
"Physician to Kings," as the one who first advised the publication of the
work. The dedication of the second volume is to Isaac Rand, an apothecary
and Fellow of the Royal Society, and Curator of the Botanical Garden at
Chelsea, as the one to whom she went for assistance in all difficult botanical
questions. The short descriptions of the plants were taken mainly from Mr.

Joseph Miller's Botanicum Officinale with his consent. She lived near the
Botanical Garden and made all her drawings from life. She also etched
them on copper, and colored them herself. The book received high
recognition. Much of the work must have been done by 1735, for on
October 1 of that year the following testimonial, now one of the title-pages,
was written:
We whose names are underwritten, having seen a considerable Number of the Drawings
from which the Plates are to be engraved, and likewise some of the Coloured Plants, think
it a Justice done the Publick to declare our Satisfaction with them, and our good Opinion of
the Capacity of the Undertaker.
R. Mead, M.D. Ia. Douglas, M.D. Joseph Miller
G. L. Tessier, M.D. James Sherard, M.D. Isaac Rand
Alexander Stuart, M.D. W. Cheseldon Rob. Nicholls

This statement was repeated in French and the names again signed.
A further endorsement on the completion of the book was dated July 1,
1737. It is as follows:
Imagines hasce Plantarum Officinalium per Dominam Elizabetham Blackwell delineatas
ceri incisas & depictas, iis qui Medicinæ Operam dant, perutiles fore judicamus.
Thomas Pellet, Præs.
Henricus Plumptre }
Richardus Tyson }
Censores.
Peircuis Dod }
Gulienius Wasey }

In 1757-73 there was a fine republication of the work in Nuremberg with
an addition of a hundred plants, and a highly laudatory Preface. The work
was recognized at once as of great practical value because of the accuracy
of the drawings and the large number of plants represented. The charm of
the plates is beyond question so far as delicacy of outline and beauty of
coloring are concerned. They are superior to the plates in Darwin's Botanic
Garden, nearly half a century later. The Blackwellia race of plants was
named after Mrs. Blackwell in recognition of her admirable work.[271]
Mrs. Blackwell is herself an enigma. She emerges into public notice for
three years, but her life before and after sinks into obscurity. She was said
to be "a virtuous gentlewoman, daughter of a worthy merchant," who gave
her a handsome portion. Her husband was Alexander Blackwell, a printer.
He was a well-educated and able man, but generally counted an adventurer.
He at one time entered upon a project of conducting a printing

establishment of his own. His failure in this landed him in a debtor's prison
where he was confined several years. Mrs. Blackwell's Herbal was made by
her for the purpose of securing his release. He is said to have aided her in
the foreign terminology and in the abridgments from Miller. When he was
free her object was accomplished and we hear of no further work. It would
be interesting to know how she came to have so much skill. It would be
more interesting to know the psychology of her prompt abandonment of
work by which she won both fame and money, and in which she took such
evident delight.[272]

It is to be regretted that so few facts are accessible
concerning Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper. Her works seem to Mrs. Elizabeth
Cooper (fl. 1735-
offer interesting points of departure for investigation 40)
into her life and education, but we know little about her
except that her literary ventures belong between 1735 and 1740. She was
the wife of Thomas Cooper,[273] who was either an auctioneer or a book-
seller, or possibly both, and she was married before 1735. Beyond these
meager facts our knowledge of her must be gleaned from her books.
Apparently her first literary venture was a comedy. It was entitled The Rival
Widows; or, the Fair Libertine, and was brought out at the Covent Garden
Theater in 1735. It had a successful run of nine nights. Baker says that
"allowing for the too common freedom of female dramatists, this is far from
a bad comedy."[274] Genest, after briefly outlining the play and commenting
on various passages that seem to him borrowed from preceding dramatists,
says: "It is on the whole a tolerable play, but it wants incident sadly." But he
does not agree with Baker as to the moral tone of the play, for he says of
Lady Bellair, the heroine, "Lady Bellair is gay and extravagant, but of good
principles at bottom ... it is with much impropriety that she is called a Fair
Libertine—she is only above vulgar prejudices."[275] In her preface to the
play Mrs. Cooper says that it was designed "an Offering to the Sex" in that
the chief character is a woman "capable of thinking for herself, and acting
on the principles of Nature and Truth." Some indications of the
characteristics of Lady Bellair may be found in the fact that Mrs. Horton
was chosen to create the part. Millamant in Congreve's Way of the World,
Lady Dainty in Burnaby's The Reform'd Wife, Lady Betty Modish in
Cibber's Careless Husband, and Lady Townly in his Provoked Husband,

were the parts in which Mrs. Horton's beauty and her elegance of dress and
manner found their fitting opportunity. Lady Bellair belongs evidently to
this class of fine lady coquettes, and a further point of interest concerning
Mrs. Cooper is that on her benefit night she herself played the part of Lady
Bellair. Either Mrs. Cooper had already shown enough ability as an amateur
actress to warrant her appearance on the stage of one of the leading theaters,
or she was well enough known as a writer or as a personality to make her
presence in the cast a drawing card. That she could venture on the inevitable
comparison with Mrs. Horton may indicate some possibilities in the way of
her own attractive qualities. And it is to be further noted that she
"unexpectedly and surprizingly" eclipsed Mrs. Horton. The Prompter
endeavors to explain Mrs. Cooper's success by saying that she "looked" the
character and represented with great "naturalnes," the somewhat bold and
libertine heroine.[276]
Mrs. Cooper's second dramatic attempt was a tragedy which was not
successful. It was acted but one night and was never printed.
This theatrical work was, however, only on the fringe of Mrs. Cooper's
real interest. In 1737 she published a book entitled The Muses Library; Or,
a Series of English Poetry, from the Saxons, to the Reign of King Charles II
containing, The Lives and Characters of all the known Writers in that
Interval, the names of their Patrons; Complete Episodes, by way of
Specimen of the larger Pieces, very near the intire works of some, and large
Quotations from others. Being a General Collection of almost all the old
valuable Poetry extant, now so industriously enquir'd after, tho' rarely to be
found, but in the Studies of the Curious, and affording Entertainment on all
Subjects, Philosophical, Historical, Moral, Satyrical, Allegorical, Critical,
Heroick, Pastoral, Gallant, Amorous, Courtly and Sublime. But one volume
of this projected work was published. The early Georgian public was not
trained to an interest in the past. Mrs. Cooper suffered the not infrequent
fate of pioneers. There was even difficulty in working off one edition of the
first volume, as is evident from its appearance in 1738 and 1741 with
changed title-pages.[277] That Mrs. Cooper expected to publish the second
volume, including the poets from Samuel Daniel to the time of Charles II, is
shown not only by the statement in her Preface, but by interesting notes in
the Diary of William Oldys (1696-1761), the famous antiquary. In 1736 he
was in London employed in seeing through the press a new edition of

Raleigh's History of the World. His Chambers were in Gray's Inn and he
was frequently consulted there "on obscure and obsolete writers by eminent
men of letters." Two of the people in whom he was particularly interested
were Thomas Hayward, who was compiling his British Muse, and Mrs.
Cooper. In his Diary are the following records:
1737, June 22. Mrs. Cooper came to my chambers: said she would return Puttenham's
Art of Poesy, Browne's Pastorals, and Sir Henry Wotton, when she had finished her
extracts for the second volume of her Muses' Library to be published by Christmas.
July 4, Monday. Returned Sir T. More's works: some of his English poetry therein might
be for Mrs. Cooper's work, or Mr. Haywards, on Fortune, etc.
Aug. 13. Rec'd letter from Mrs. Cooper to borrow old Marlowe's poem of Hero and
Leander for the continuation of her Muses' Library; sent by the servant a very scarce
collection of old poetry, called The Paradise of Dainty Devices, in which are several pieces
by the old Lord Vaux in King Henry the Eighth's time, the Earl of Oxford, Sir W. Raleigh,
Mr. Edwards, Jasper Haywood, Hunis, Churchyard, Kinwelmarsh, Lloyd, Whetstone, etc.,
printed 4o. 1578. To borrow one of Caxton's books of Sir Hans Sloane and remember to
apply the story of Absyrtus in the preface for Mr. Hayward's Collection of select thoughts
from our old poets.[278]

Mrs. Cooper frequently comments on the difficulty and expense of
gathering material for her enterprise and gratefully acknowledges "the
generous Assistance of the Candid Mr. Oldys." Biographical data were also
obtained only through most patient effort. The only Lives of the Poets to
which she could have access were Wood's Athenæ Oxoniensis and the
works of Phillips, Winstanley, and Jacob. Edward Phillips's Theatrum
Poetarum appeared in 1675. Its first volume gave brief biographical and
critical notes on sixty-four authors from Robert of Gloucester to George
Chapman, thus covering about the same ground as Mrs. Cooper's first
volume which closes with Samuel Daniel. William Winstanley's Lives of the
English Poets was published in 1687. It includes notes on poets from
William the Conqueror to James II with occasional brief illustrative
extracts. The Poetical Register of Giles Jacob (1724) is, in the first volume,
confined to dramatists and is based on Langbain. The second volume, The
Lives and Characters of the English Poets, extends about a century and a
quarter later than Mrs. Cooper's volume. In the period before 1600 about
half the names in her volume are included and briefly commented on. Jacob
also gives an occasional extract.
Mrs. Cooper was not, then, without predecessors in her undertaking. The
novelty in her book was her assumption that people would not only like to

know about the old poets, but that there would be many lovers of literature
who would rejoice in reading the old poems, and very nearly in their
original antiquated form. She gives ten pages from Langland, eleven from
Barclay, twenty-eight from Sackville, twenty-four from Churchyard, thirty-
five from Fulke Greville, thirty-one from Fairfax, and so on. Chaucer,
Spenser, and Shakespeare are less fully represented, as being already well
known. The selections are the result of wide reading and are made because
they pleased Mrs. Cooper's own taste. "What has given me Pleasure in my
Closet," she says, "I have undertaken to recommend to the Publick; not
presuming to inform the Judgment, but only awaken the Attention." That
she failed to "awaken Attention" was the fault of the age. Her selections
were representative and interesting.
Mrs. Cooper's book shows not only wide research and a full knowledge
of extant criticism, but it also manifests a personal zest in reading and an
unusual independence of literary judgment. This independence is shown in
her choice of authors. Phillips, Winstanley, and Jacob had omitted
Langland, but she says, "In my Judgment, no Writer, except Chaucer, and
Spenser, for many Ages, had more of real Inspiration." Or take the case of
Lydgate. Phillips mentions him, but not, apparently, from any personal
knowledge of his work. Winstanley and Jacob praise him highly. Mrs.
Cooper says of him: "Many Authors are so profuse in his Praise as to rank
him very little below his Master, and, often, quote them together; which
rais'd my Curiosity so high, that I gave a considerable Price for his Works,
and waded thro' a large Folio, hoping still to have my Expectation
gratified.... But I must, either confess my own want of Penetration, or beg
leave to dissent from his Admirers." She gives a long quotation from Lord
Brook's A Treatise of Humane Learning, because his name has "never yet
received the Honours it deserved." She is indignant at the general
indifference to the work and fame of Edward Fairfax and writes a eulogy of
several pages. Her comments on Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare are
brief, since all agree on their preëminence. Mr. Lounsbury, after noting one
or two errors in the book, says of it: "I know of no similar work produced at
that period in which the knowledge displayed is so accurate and
comprehensive, or the critical estimates so uniformly good and just. There
was exhibited in it not merely freshness of judgment but the independence
that springs from the study of writers at first hand."[279] Mrs. Cooper had in
her the making of a scholar. She allowed herself no generalities. Whatever

she said was based on a thorough study of the material under discussion.
Furthermore, she acquainted herself with all extant critical opinion without
thereby losing the power to form an opinion of her own.
Mrs. Cooper's Preface is an excellent, even an eloquent, piece of writing,
in justification of poets as a nation's glory. She recognizes that "Merit is not
its own Preservative" and wishes in her book to set up if possible "a
Bulwark which shall preserve Merit from the attacks of Time." She
considers her "Series of Poetry (which has never been aim'd at anywhere
else) ... one of the most valuable collections that ever was made publick."
She has no apologies to make. In introducing to the moderns this august
company of ancient poets she is saved from any possible self-consciousness
by the dignity of her enterprise. The same tone pervades her Dedication. No
single name is glorious enough to appear at the head of her list. She chooses
rather a dedication to "the truly Honourable Society for the Encouragement
of Learning."[280] That Society was then in the hey-day of its brief glory.
Mrs. Cooper had, apparently, no thought of personally benefiting by her
Dedications. On the contrary she counted this an opportunity to express
what all authors and lovers of literature must feel towards a design "so
great, seasonable, and humane" as that of this new organization, a design
applauded by "all who have Generosity, Benevolence or Politeness."
As dramatist and actress Mrs. Cooper would deserve at least passing
mention, but as a scholar, as an ardent advocate of early English poetry, she
must take high rank, not only among the learned women, but also among
the learned men of her day.

No woman of the first half of the eighteenth century
had a more active mind or facile pen than Lady Mary Lady Mary Wortley
Wortley Montagu. Although almost none of her work Montagu 1762)
(1689-

appeared in print in her lifetime, her personality made its
own way, and she was early recognized as of note for genius and learned
acquirements. It is, therefore, of especial interest to inquire into the
particulars of her education, and to find out her status as a woman of letters.
The materials for such an inquiry are fairly abundant, and are mainly: her
miscellaneous letters, first published in 1803; a fragmentary
autobiographical romance, of which she says "not a sillable" except the

names is feigned; and the Introductory Anecdotes by her granddaughter,
Lady Louisa Stuart,[281] included in Lady Mary's Letters and Works brought
out by Lord Wharncliffe, her great-grandson, in 1887. The important groups
of letters containing personal details are those written to Mr. Montagu from
about 1709 till their marriage in 1712, and the very large group to her
family and friends, chiefly to Lady Bute, her daughter, during Lady Mary's
stay in Italy from 1739 to 1761.
Lady Mary's mother died when she was eight, and her father, too much a
man of pleasure to trouble himself with the education of girls, gave his
three young daughters into the care of "an old governess, who, though
perfectly good and pious, wanted a capacity for so great a trust."[282] In
commenting on the evil effects of an ignorant education, Lady Mary said:
"My own was the worst in the world, being exactly the same as Clarissa
Harlowe's; her pious Mrs. Norton so perfectly resembling my governess,
who had been nurse to my mother. I could almost fancy the author was
acquainted with her. She took so much pains from my infancy, to fill my
head with superstitious tales and false notions, it was none of her fault I am
not at this day afraid of witches and hobgoblins, or turned methodist."[283]
But at least there were no hindering home influences, and Lady Mary had
what Charles Lamb would call the luck to be "tumbled early into a closet of
good old English books." Forsaking the dolls of her sisters she took refuge
in her father's fine library and there she read with the absorption of a
youthful Coleridge. She "got by heart all the poetry that came in her way,"
and she "read every romance as yet invented." Lady Louisa says she
"possessed and left after her, the whole library of Mrs. Lenox's Female
Quixote—Cleopatra, Cassandra, Clelia, Cyrus, Pharamond, Ibrahim, etc.,
etc.—all, like the lady Arabella's collection, 'Englished,' mostly, 'by persons
of honour.' The chief favourite appeared to have been a translation of
Monsieur Honoré d'Urfé's Astrea, once the delight of Henri Quatre and his
court, and still admired and quoted by the savans who flourished under
Louis XIV. In a blank page of this massive volume (which might have
counterbalanced a pig of lead of the same size) Lady Mary had written in
her fairest youthful hand the names and characteristic qualities of the chief
personages thus:—the beautiful Diana, the volatile Climene, the
melancholy Doris, Celedon the faithful, Adamas the wise, and so on;

forming two long columns."[284] Among Lady Mary's earliest attempts at
authorship were romantic stories in imitation of these her favorite authors.
But along with her romances, and soon superseding them, were sterner
studies. She early began to teach herself Latin. In her account of herself
under the name Lætitia, she said:
Her appetite for knowledge increasing with her years, without considering the toilsome
task she undertook, she began to learn herself the Latin grammar, and with the help of an
uncommon memory and indefatigable labour, made herself so far mistress of that language
as to be able to understand almost any author. This extraordinary attachment to study
became the theme of public discourse. Her Father, though no scholar himself, was flattered
with a pleasure in the progress she made, and this reputation which she did not seek
(having no end in view but her own amusement) gave her enviers and consequently
enemies among the girls of her own age.

Lady Mary was but fourteen when her "just and knowing" criticism of a
play, her knowledge of Latin, and her relish for the classics, excited the
wonder and admiration of Mr. Wortley Montagu. He was as amazed "as if
he had heard a piece of wax work talk."[285] But the envy of her girl
companions and the liberal praise of Mr. Wortley are not the only proofs
that Lady Mary's shining talents and learned tastes met early recognition.
Her uncle, Mr. William Fielding, "perceived her capacity, corresponded
with her, and encouraged her pursuit of information." Bishop Burnet
showed himself most friendly, and condescended to direct her studies. Mr.
Wortley also kept up a kind of scholarly guidance. Lady Mary said to
Spence in Rome in 1741: "When I was young I was a great admirer of
Ovid's Metamorphoses, and that was one of the chief reasons that set me
upon the thoughts of stealing the Latin language. Mr. Wortley was the only
person to whom I communicated my design, and he encouraged me in it. I
used to study five or six hours a day for two years in my father's library;
and so got that language, whilst everybody else thought I was reading
nothing but novels and romances."[286] By the time she was twenty Italian
had been added to her accomplishments. In an early undated letter to Mrs.
Hewet she wrote: "I have begun to learn Italian, and am much mortified I
cannot do it of a signor of Monsieur Resingade's recommendation; but 'tis
always the fate of women to obey, and my papa has promised me to a Mr.
Cassotti. I am afraid I shall never understand it as well as you do." By 1710
she was quoting Italian verse, and in the following year she corresponded
with Mr. Resingade in Italian. That she was still working under Mr. Cassotti

in 1712 is apparent from her request that Mr. Wortley should send one of his
letters to her under the care of Mr. Cassotti, her "Italian master." At this
period, or a little later, she also learned French, so that she wrote letters and
essays in that language. Her continued devotion to study is shown by a
letter from Thoresby to Anne Wortley in 1709: "I am now so much alone, I
have leisure to pass whole days in reading.... My study is nothing but
dictionaries and grammars. I am trying whether it be possible to learn
without a master; I am not certain (and dare hardly hope) I shall make any
great progress; but I find the study so diverting. I am not only easy, but
pleased with the solitude that indulges it."[287]
Lady Mary's diligence resulted in 1710 in a translation of the Latin
version of the Enchiridion of Epictetus which she sent to Bishop Burnet
with a notable letter. Of the translation she says: "Here is the work of one
week of my solitude—by the many faults in it your lordship will easily
believe I spent no more time upon it; it was hardly finished when I was
obliged to begin my journey, and I had not leisure to write it over again.
You have it here without any corrections with all its blots and errors."
Bishop Burnet returned the document with emendations which in the
present printed form are given in italics.[288] In spite of the numerous
changes suggested as closer to the original, the translation remains as a
remarkable production for a self-educated girl of twenty. Even more
remarkable as evidencing maturity of thought and command of an
admirable English style is the letter, which is of particular significance in
connection with the contemporary attitude towards the learned woman:
My sex is usually forbid studies of this nature, and folly reckoned so much our proper
sphere, we are sooner pardoned any excesses of that, than the least pretensions to reading
or good sense. We are permitted no books but such as tend to the weakening and
effeminating of the mind. Our natural defects are every way indulged, and it is looked upon
as in a degree criminal to improve our reason, or fancy we have any. We are taught to place
all our art in adorning our outward forms, and permitted, without reproach, to carry that
custom even to extravagancy, while our minds are entirely neglected, and, by disuse of
reflections, filled with nothing but the trifling objects our eyes are daily entertained with.
This custom, so long established and industriously upheld, makes it even ridiculous to go
out of the common road, and forces one to find as many excuses as if it was a thing
altogether criminal not to play the fool in concert with other women of quality, whose birth
and leisure only serve to render them the most useless and most worthless part of the
creation. There is hardly a character in the world more despicable, or more liable to
universal ridicule, than that of a learned woman: those words imply, according to the
received sense, a tattling, impertinent, vain, and conceited creature. I believe nobody will
deny that learning may have this effect, but it must be a very superficial degree of it.

Erasmus was certainly a man of great learning and good sense, and he seems to have my
opinion of it when he says, Fæmina qui (sic) vere sapit, non videtur sibi sapere; contra,
quæ cum nihil sapiat sibi videtur sapere ea demum bis stulta est. The Abbé Bellegarde
gives a right reason for women's talking overmuch: they know nothing, and every outward
object strikes their imagination, and produces a multitude of thoughts, which, if they knew
more, they would know not worth their thinking of. I am not now arguing for an equality of
the two sexes. I do not doubt God and nature have thrown us into an inferior rank; we are a
lower part of the creation, we owe obedience and submission to the superior sex, and any
woman who suffers her vanity and folly to deny this, rebels against the law of the Creator,
and indisputable order of nature: but there is a worse effect than this, which follows the
careless education given to women of quality, its being so easy for any man of sense, that
finds it either his interest or his pleasure, to corrupt them.[289]

In 1712 Lady Mary married Mr. Wortley Montagu, in 1713 her son was
born, and in 1715 she started with her husband on their journey to Turkey.
The six years between the Enchiridion and the Embassy present Lady Mary
to us in an enviable position. The reputation of her youth was augmented.
"The wittiest as well as one of the most beautiful women of her day, she
numbered among her admirers the most powerful of the statesmen, and the
most brilliant of the littérateurs; while, for a time at least she was a
favourite at the rival Courts of the King and the Prince of Wales."[290] The
only literary output of this period is a long, rather stilted and perfunctory
criticism of Addison's Cato which she undertook at her husband's request,
[291]
and some Court Poems which she wrote with great zest, in conjunction
with Pope and Gay, in pursuance of Gay's plan to ridicule the pastoral by
keeping the form, but making it the vehicle of corrupt court and town life.
Of the seven poems so written four were by Lady Mary. In them we come
for the first time on her power of combining picturesque detail and caustic
comment. Not Gay himself was richer in local color; and Pope and Swift
were almost equaled in contemptuous social portraiture.
During the six years before the Embassy Lady Mary's activities were
essentially those of a social leader and the mistress of a household. But all
her interests were focused to one point when she found that she could go to
Turkey with Mr. Montagu. Travel "is the thing on earth I most wish," she
had written in 1710, and now that her husband was sent as Ambassador to
the Porte, her dreams could be realized. She must have been a perfect
traveling companion. She had great courage, great endurance; no hardships
or dangers daunted her. During the fifteen months of their absence she had
her three-year-old son to care for, and her daughter was born while they
were in Constantinople, but nothing interfered with her zest for experiences.

Each day was a new adventure. Each day her insatiable desire to learn and
to know some new thing received some new satisfaction. During the
journey she kept a full diary which, though not published till after her death,
became known in manuscript soon after her return. Certainly by 1725 she
had prepared a copy with an eye to publication. To this manuscript Mary
Astell wrote a Preface, signed "M. A.," and dated 1725. Mary Astell was
twenty-two years older than Lady Mary for whom she had a strong personal
affection, as well as a very sincere pride in her reputation as a learned
woman. The Preface would seem to indicate that Lady Mary's "enviers" and
"enemies" had not decreased since her girlhood days:
In short [says Mary Astell] let her own sex, at least, do her justice; lay aside diabolical
Envy, and its brother Malice, with all their accursed company, sly whispering, cruel
backbiting, spiteful detraction, and the rest of that hideous crew, which, I hope, are very
falsely said to attend the Tea-Table, being more apt to think they attend those public places
where virtuous women never come. Let the men malign one another, if they think fit, and
strive to pull down merit, when they cannot equal it. Let us be better-natured, than to give
way to any unkind or disrespectful thought of so bright an ornament of our sex merely
because she has better sense; for I doubt not but our hearts will tell us, that this is the real
and unpardonable offense, whatever may be pretended. Let us be better Christians, than to
look upon her with an evil eye, only because the Giver of all good gifts has entrusted and
adorned her with the most excellent talents. Rather let us freely own the superiority of this
sublime genius, as I do in the sincerity of my soul, pleased that a woman triumphs, and
proud to follow in her train. Let us offer her the palm which is so justly her due; and if we
pretend to any laurels, lay them willingly at her feet.

After Lady Mary's return to England in 1718 we come upon a long period
of quiescence. Domestic affairs, events of social and political life, her
friendships and hatreds, her economies and stock speculations, completely
occupied her. During the first part of this period she was extravagantly
praised. Steele said of her in his essay on Inoculation:
This ornament of her Sex and Country, who ennobles her own Nobility by her Learning,
Wit and Virtues, accompanying her consort into Turkey, observed the Benefit of this
Practice, with its frequency, even among these obstinate Predestinarians, and brought it
over for the service and safety of her native England, where she consecrated its first effects
on the persons of her own fine children.

In 1720 Pope wrote

In beauty and wit
No Mortal as yet
To question your empire has dared:
But men of discerning
Have thought that in learning
To yield to a lady was hard.

Impertinent schools,
With musty dull rules,
Have reading to females denied;
So Papists refuse
The Bible to use,
Lest flocks should be wise as their guide.

But if the first Eve
Hard doom did receive
When only one apple had she,
What a punishment new
Shall be found out for you,
Who, tasting, have robbed the whole tree.

And in 1727 he wrote in Sandys' Ghost:
Ye ladies, too, draw forth your pen,
I pray where can the hurt lie?
Since you have brains as well as men,
As witness Lady Wortley.

Before 1724 Dr. Young had sent her his tragedy The Brothers, requesting
her criticism. In 1725 Richard Savage dedicated his Miscellanies to her as
one through whose elevated and immortal wit England had been honored,
and who had firmly established the fact that women have "strength of mind
in proportion to their sweetness." And Henry Fielding, her second cousin,
sent her his comedies, "exceedingly anxious" for her opinion of them.
But after 1724 or 1725 the years seem to slip on in an aimless fashion,
the only breaks in the monotony coming from the intermittently virulent
quarrels with Pope, the religious and medical animosities roused by the
inoculation process, family sorrows and family discords, with no literary
output to mark any personal achievements. From thirty to fifty should have
been harvest years after so brilliant a beginning. But the early promise
faded into a middle age disillusioned, unambitious, and rather
commonplace. The only writing of any importance was in the
correspondence kept up in a desultory fashion with various friends. Such of

the letters of this period as have been preserved are so vivid and
picturesque, so witty, and so pleasantly caustic in their comment, that we
can only regret their small number. Take for instance the following
description of a feminine riot in the House of Commons:
At the last warm debate in the House of Lords, it was unanimously resolved there should
be no crowd of unnecessary auditors; consequently the fair sex were excluded, and the
gallery destined to the sole use of the House of Commons. Notwithstanding which
determination, a tribe of dames resolved to show on this occasion that neither men nor laws
could resist them. These heroines were Lady Huntington, the Duchess of Queensberry, the
Duchess of Ancaster, Lady Westmoreland, Lady Cobham, Lady Charlotte Edwin, Lady
Archibald Hamilton, and her daughter, Mrs. Scott, and Mrs. Pendarves, and Lady Frances
Saunderson. I am thus particular in their names, since I look upon them to be the boldest
asserters, and most resigned sufferers for liberty, I ever read of. They presented themselves
at the door at nine o'clock in the morning, where Sir William Saunderson respectfully
informed them the Chancellor had made an order against their admittance. The Duchess of
Queensberry, as head of the squadron, pished at the ill-breeding of a mere lawyer, and
desired him to let them upstairs privately. After some modest refusals, he swore by G——
he would not let them in. Her grace, with a noble warmth, answered, by G—— they would
come in in spite of the Chancellor and the whole House. This being reported, the Peers
resolved to starve them out; an order was made that the doors should not be opened till
they had raised their siege. These Amazons now showed themselves qualified for the duty
even of foot soldiers; they stood there till five in the afternoon, without either sustenance or
evacuation, every now and then playing volleys of thumps, kicks, and raps against the
door, with so much violence that the speakers in the House were scarce heard. When the
Lords were not to be conquered by this, the two duchesses (very well apprised of the use of
stratagems in war) commanded a dead silence of half an hour; and the Chancellor, who
thought this a certain proof of their absence (the Commons also being very impatient to
enter), gave order for the opening of the door; upon which they all rushed in, pushed aside
their competitors, and placed themselves in the front rows of the gallery. They stayed there
till after eleven, when the House rose; and during the debate gave applause and showed
marks of dislike, not only by smiles and winks (which have always been allowed in these
cases), but by noisy laughs and apparent contempts; which is supposed the true reason why
poor Lord Hervey spoke miserably.[292]

In 1739 Lady Mary drifted, without settled plan, to Italy, and there her
self-elected exile lengthened itself insensibly into a habit of absence, so that
she did not return to England till 1761, the year before her death. During
this period she kept a full journal, and projected other work, but brought
nothing to fruition.[293] Her chief occupation was reading. Her voracious
appetite for fiction passed over from her girlhood absorption in French
romances to the novels crowding the presses of the mid-eighteenth century.
The events of her placid life were boxes of books from England, and the
novels she read would make an adequate list even for Polly Honeycomb.
Lady Orford said she wondered how any one could find pleasure in the

books Lady Mary chose. But Lady Mary confessed herself "a rake in
reading," and said, in 1750: "I thank God my taste still continues for the gay
part of reading. Wiser people may think it trifling but it serves to sweeten
life to me."[294] In 1752 her daughter sent her Peregrine Pickle (1751),
Lady Vane's Memoirs (1750), The Fortunate Parish Girl (1750), Pompey
the Little (1751), Eleanora's Adventures (1751) and the Life of Mrs.
Constantia Philips, as among the interesting new books. In a letter to Lady
Bute Lady Mary wrote:
I see in the newspapers the names of the following books: Fortunate Mistress,
Accomplished Rake, Mrs. Charke's Memoirs, Modern Lovers, History of Two Orphans,
Memoirs of David Ranger, Miss [Mos]tyn, Dick Hazard, History of a Lady Platonist,
Sophia Shakespear, Jasper Banks, Frank Hammond, Sir Andrew Thompson, Van a
Clergyman's Son, Cleanthes and Celimena. I do not doubt at least the greatest part of these
are trash, lumber, etc.; however, they will serve to pass away the idle time, if you will be so
kind to send them to your most affectionate mother.[295]

And she read English drama from Gammer Gurton's Needle to Lillo's
George Barnwell, her prime favorite.[296]
During the twenty-two years in Italy Lady Mary was practically alone,
but she says time never hung heavy on her hands. She wrote letters
constantly, and her interest never flagged in the affairs of England in
general and of Lady Bute's family in particular. As the daughters grew up,
Lady Mary wrote often about their education, and we see that the ideas of
the letter to Bishop Burnet persist. In 1753 she wrote concerning Lady
Mary, the eldest granddaughter, who had shown herself excellent in
arithmetic:
Learning, if she has a real taste for it, will not only make her contented, but happy in it.
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. She will not want new
fashions, nor regret the loss of expensive diversions, or variety of company, if she can be
amused with an author in her closet. To render this amusement extensive, she should be
permitted to learn the languages. I have heard it lamented that boys lose so many years in
mere learning of words: this is no objection to a girl, whose time is not so precious: she
cannot advance herself in any profession, and has therefore more hours to spare; and as
you say her memory is good, she will be very agreeably employed in this way. There are
two cautions to be given on this subject: first, not to think herself learned when she can
read Latin, or even Greek. Languages are more properly to be called vehicles of learning
than learning itself, as may be observed in many schoolmasters, who, though perhaps
critics in grammar, are the most ignorant fellows on earth. True knowledge consists in
knowing things, not words. I would wish her no further a linguist than to enable her to read
books in their originals, that are often corrupted, and always injured by translations. Two
hours application every morning will bring this about much sooner than you can imagine,
and she will have leisure enough besides to run over the English poetry, which is a more

important part of a woman's education than it is generally supposed.... If she has the same
inclination (I should say passion) for learning that I was born with, history, geography, and
philosophy will furnish her with materials to pass away cheerfully a longer life than is
allotted to mortals. I believe there are few heads capable of making Sir I. Newton's
calculations, but the result of them is not difficult to be understood by a moderate capacity.
Do not fear this should make her affect the character of Lady ——, of Lady ——, or Mrs.
——: These women are ridiculous, not because they have learning, but because they have
it not. One thinks herself a complete historian, after reading Echard's Roman History;
another a profound philosopher, having got by heart some of Pope's unintelligible essays;
and a third an able divine, on the strength of Whitfield's sermons: thus you hear them
screaming politics and controversy.[297]

In the next letter Lady Mary shows some doubt as to the wisdom of
giving advice so outspoken on the subject of learning. She says:
I cannot help writing a sort of apology for my last letter, foreseeing that you will think it
wrong, or at least Lord Bute will be extremely shocked at the proposal of a learned
education for daughters, which the generality of men believe as great a profanation as the
clergy would do if the laity should presume to exercise the functions of the priesthood. I
desire you would take notice, I would not have learning enjoined them as a task, but
permitted as a pleasure, if their genius leads them naturally to it.[298]

Later in the same letter she says:
There is nothing so like the education of a woman of quality as that of a prince: they are
taught to dance, and the exterior part of what is called good breeding, which, if they attain,
they are extraordinary creatures in their kind, and have all the accomplishments required
by their directors. The same characters are formed by the same lessons, which inclines me
to think (if I dare say it) that nature has not placed us in an inferior rank to men, no more
than the females of other animals, where we see no distinction of capacity; though, I am
persuaded, if there was a commonwealth of rational horses (as Doctor Swift has supposed),
it would be an established maxim among them, that a mare could not be taught to pace.

In October of the same year she wrote further on the subject of the learned
woman:
I confess I have often been complimented, since I have been in Italy, on the books I have
given the public. I used at first to deny it with some warmth; but, finding I persuaded
nobody, I have of late contented myself with laughing whenever I heard it mentioned,
knowing the character of a learned woman is far from being ridiculous in this country, the
greatest families being proud of having produced female writers; and a Milanese lady
being now professor of mathematics in the University of Bologna, invited thither by a most
obliging letter, wrote by the present Pope, who desired her to accept of the chair, not as a
recompense for her merit, but to do honor to a town which is under his protection. To say
truth, there is no part of the world where our sex is treated with so much contempt as in
England. I do not complain of men for having engrossed the government: in excluding us
from all degrees of power, they preserve us from many fatigues, many dangers, and
perhaps many crimes. The small proportion of authority that has fallen to my share (only
over a few children and servants) always has been a burden and never a pleasure, and I
believe every one finds it so who acts from a maxim (I think an indispensable duty), that

whoever is under my power is under my protection. Those who find a joy in inflicting
hardships and seeing objects of misery, may have other sensations; but I have always
thought corrections, even when necessary, as painful to the giver as to the sufferer, and am
therefore very well satisfied with the state of subjection we are placed in: but I think it the
highest injustice to be debarred the entertainment of my closet, and that the same studies
which raise the character of a man should hurt that of a woman. We are educated in the
grossest ignorance, and no art omitted to stifle our natural reason; if some few get above
their nurse's instructions, our knowledge must rest concealed, and be as useless to the
world as gold in a mine. I am speaking now according to our English notions, which may
wear out, some ages hence, along with others equally absurd.[299]

Lady Montagu died in London in 1762. Her Turkish Letters were
published the next year. Her miscellaneous correspondence came out in
1807. Nor was her real significance apparent until both publications were
accessible. It was then at once recognized that no English letter-writer had
surpassed Lady Mary in brilliancy and wit. Her eye was so quick and
accurate that no interesting details of dress or manner escaped her. As a
chronicler and critic of social faults and foibles she was cool, keen,
merciless. She was graphic in phrase, homely and direct in figures of
speech, racy and idiomatic. The whole tone of her writing was free, lively,
energetic, and she could make any topic entertaining. As a person there
seems to be ground for two opposite opinions concerning Lady Mary.
People admired her and praised her, or they hated her and told scandalous
stories about her. But as a writer there could be but one opinion. She was
not the first woman of letters to be eulogized, but she was the first woman,
not in fiction or drama, whose writings every one wished to read.

Mrs. Manley,[300] a gentlewoman of good family, the
daughter of Sir Roger Manley, was left an orphan while Mrs. De la Rivière
Manley (1672-
still young. Her guardian, a cousin twenty years older 1724)
than herself, tricked her into a false marriage, and then,
on the birth of a child, announced the cheat and disappeared. Most of the
fortune left by her father had also vanished. The details of her life after this
until she began her career of authorship are but vaguely known. In 1696 she
made a threefold appeal to the public in Letters written by Mrs. Manley;[301]
The Lost Lover, a comedy written in seven days, produced at Drury Lane,
and not successful; and The Royal Mischief, successfully brought out at
Lincoln's Inn Fields. In the Preface to her Letters (1696) Mrs. Manley spoke
of the eager contention between the theaters as to which should bring her on

the stage, but drama was not her natural medium. When, after a silence of
nine years, she again appeared as an author, it was with The Secret History
of Queen Zarah (1705), a precursor of the scandalous personal and political
memories for which she became known. In 1709 she published Secret
Memoirs and Manners of several Persons of Quality of Both Sexes. From
the New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean. The popularity of this
book brought a second volume the same year. In 1710 appeared Memoirs of
Europe towards the Close of the Eighth Century. This and a second volume
were afterwards reprinted as the third and fourth volumes of The New
Atalantis. The sixth edition of The New Atalantis had a Key at the end of the
fourth volume.
This book purported to be by an Italian and put into English by an
anonymous translator. The plan of the romance is that of a journey where
Astræa (Mrs. Behn revisiting the earth), Fame, and Virtue are conducted
invisibly about while their guide, "Intelligence," tells them the secret
histories of the persons they meet. Under this thin disguise the statesmen,
wits, and beauties of the reign of William and Mary and Queen Anne were
at once recognized. Mrs. Manley, the publisher, and the printer, were
arrested. On her own testimony, however, the blame was counted hers and
she was examined before the court, but after about three months she was
discharged. And the later volumes followed with no public expression of
disapproval.
In 1711 Mrs. Manley succeeded Swift as editor of The Examiner. In 1714
appeared The Adventures of Rivella, or, the History of the Author of
Atalantis, by Sir Charles Lovemore. In 1724 Curll brought this out as Mrs.
Manley's History of Her own Life and Times, and it was probably written by
her. In 1720 The Power of Love in Seven Volumes, and Verses, in Anthony
Hammond's New Miscellany, close her contributions to literature. She died
at the house of Alderman Barker whose mistress she had been for several
years.
A fact of central interest about Mrs. Manley's personal and literary career
is her quarrel with Steele which kept up with long lulls and acrimonious
crises from before 1709 to 1717. In the first volume of The New
Atalantis[302] she gave an account of Steele as "Monsieur le Ingrate,"
narrating in detail her aid in rescuing him from the impostors who were
leading him into ruinous expenses in search of the philosopher's stone, and

bitterly assailing him for his later ingratitude in the time of her own
distresses. In the same year The Tatler, No. 35, possibly referred to Mrs.
Manley under the description of the snuff-eating lady. Certainly in
September Swift represented her, under the name of "Epicene," as one of
the professors in Madonella's college. Mrs. Manley, assuming that the paper
was by Steele, wrote a denunciatory letter, which he answered in mild
fashion, owning his former indebtedness to her and explaining his inability
to aid her when she appealed to him. In the third and fourth volumes of The
New Atalantis (1710) were further attacks on Steele.[303] This third volume
was dedicated to him as "Isaac Bickerstaffe." She quoted his letter, but
omitted some of the mitigating sentences. Of the "mighty Tatlers" leveled at
her she says: "A weak, unlearn'd Woman's Writings, to employ so great a
Pen! Heavens? how valuable am I? How fond of that Immortality, even of
Infamy, that you have promised! I am ravished at the Thoughts of living a
Thousand Years hence in your indelible lines, tho' to give Offence.... I shall
be proud of furnishing Matter towards your inexhaustible Tatler, and of
being a perpetual Monument of Mr. Bickerstaffe's Gallantry and Morality."
In August, 1713, (The Guardian, No. 128), Steele entered the controversy
concerning the demolition of Dunkirk. Mrs. Manley answered with a
pamphlet in which the "honour and Prerogative of the Queen's Majesty"
were defended "against the unexampled Insolence of the Author of the
Guardian." This closed the open hostilities, and by 1717 there were
handsome apologies and frank admissions of error on both sides, and the
reconciliation seems to have been complete. The chief interest we find in
Mrs. Manley's play is the fact that Steele wrote the Prologue and that the
play was dedicated to him. In this Dedication she said, "I have not known a
greater mortification than when I have reflected upon the severities which
have flowed from a pen which is now, you see, disposed to celebrate and
commend you."[304]

Dryden conferred upon Mrs. Thomas the title of
"Corinna" and says, "I would have called you Sapho, but Mrs. Elizabeth
Thomas (1677-
that I hear you are handsomer." The young poetess had 1731)
received no regular education, but she improved her
mind by reading the politest authors, and finally, at twenty-two, she

ventured forth as a poet herself. She sent two poems to Mr. Dryden asking
his critical judgment of them. He responded with the following letter:
Fair Corinna,
I have sent your two poems back again, after having kept them so long from you:
They were I thought too good to be a woman's; some of my friends to whom I read them,
were of the same opinion. It is not very gallant I must confess to say this of the fair sex;
but, most certain it is, they generally write with more softness than strength. On the
contrary, you want neither vigour in your thoughts, nor force in your expression, nor
harmony in your numbers; and methinks, I find much of Orinda in your manner, (to whom
I had the honour to be related, and also to be known) but I am so taken up with my own
studies, that I have not leisure to descend to particulars, being in the meantime, the fair
Corinna's
Most humble, and
Most faithful servant
John Dryden.
Nov. 12, 1699.

The poetical career thus auspiciously begun with the praise of the great
poet ended in disaster. After the death of Mr. Gwinnet, who had courted her
for sixteen years, in 1717, and of her mother in 1719, she was always in
financial straits and used almost any means to avoid her creditors. During
the time when she was living under the protection of Mr. Henry Cromwell,
she gained possession of twenty-five letters written to him by Mr. Pope.
These she sold to Curll, who published them in 1726, and she thus gained a
disgraceful place in The Dunciad. Her Poems were published in 1722,
1726, 1727, but she does not seem to have been rewarded with either fame
or money. Besides other unimportant literary work she wrote an
autobiography entitled Pylades and Corinna; or, Memoirs of the Lives,
Amours, and Writings of Richard Gwinnet, Esquire, and Mrs. Elizabeth
Thomas, junior.... To which is prefixed the Life of Corinna, written by
herself. This was published in 1731 in two volumes. The autobiography in
an abridged form appears in Cibber's Lives of the Poets.[305]

Miss Eliza Fowler, the daughter of a small shopkeeper
in London, was married before she was twenty to the Mrs. Eliza
Haywood (1693-
Reverend Valentine Haywood.[306] In 1721 she left her 1756)
husband[307] and thereafter she had her own way to
make. A few unimportant attempts as an actress[308] and some occasional
unsuccessful attempts as a playwright may be set aside as not belonging to

her real career. It was as a writer of romantic tales and novels that she
achieved success. This vein once tapped, the ore, such as it was, seemed
inexhaustible. From 1719 to 1756 Mrs. Haywood published about seventy
single works, nearly all of them "fictitious tales."[309] If we should count
various editions, the numbers of times she was privileged to see some work
by her issue from the press during her thirty-seven years of authorship
would exceed one hundred and fifty. Her most prolific years were 1724 to
1728, thirty-three new books appearing during this short time.
This crowding of book after book through the press, the numerous
editions of the more popular novels, and the fact that four "Collections" of
her works had appeared by 1729, sufficiently attest her extraordinary
contemporary popularity. Mrs. Haywood's fecundity is not a matter for
great surprise. It is easy to understand that if she could write one novel like
Love in Excess, she could write half a hundred more without seriously
taxing her creative spirit. But to the present-day reader her popularity seems
incredible. Of what sort was the reading public that stimulated her and her
publishers to such activity? According to Mr. Gosse's conjecture in "What
Ann Lang Read," "Eliza was read by servants in the kitchen, by
seamstresses, by basket-women, by prentices of all sorts, male and female,
but chiefly the latter."[310] But Mr. Whicher points out that Mrs. Haywood's
novels were never issued in cheap form, and that one to three shillings for a
slender octavo would put the books beyond the purses of the servant class.
[311]
In all probability Ann Lang, the milliner's apprentice, is less truly
representative of Mrs. Haywood's readers than is Polly in Colman's Polly
Honeycomb (1760). Polly did not begin her career as a novel-reader till
more than a decade after the appearance of Pamela, so that a fairly wide
range of fiction was open to her, and Mrs. Haywood could be but one
element of her possible literary joys. But we know that The History of Miss
Betsy Thoughtless was one of her favorites, and the extracts she gives from
Mrs. Haywood's previous novels and the names she cherishes, read like
satires on that lady's heroics. If Polly may be counted as typical of Mrs.
Haywood's public, we have readers distinctly above the servant class. Mr.
Honeycomb was a well-to-do tradesman with clerks in the office and a
fairly elaborate domestic establishment. Polly may even have been to a
finishing school. There are also indications of a class of readers higher still.
The ladies of fashion who so attentively pursued Mrs. Manley's New

Atalantis could hardly be supposed indifferent to the social scandal in Mrs.
Haywood's Memoirs of a Certain Island and The Court of Carimania. In
Leonora's library there was a Book of Novels which would doubtless appeal
to the same taste as Mrs. Haywood's tales. Furthermore, the impassioned
protests against novel-reading in all didactic addresses to young ladies
would indicate a widespread devotion to fiction in the higher social ranks.
Mrs. Haywood's popularity was certainly contributed to by a lack of
important competitors. Before the advent of Pamela the young girl eager
for stories must read French romances, Defoe's novels, or Mrs. Haywood's
novels. Defoe was not particularly attractive to the Pollys of the age, and
the taste for the many-volumed romances, beloved of ladies from Dorothy
Osborne and Mrs. Pepys to Biddy Tipkin and Arabella,[312] was gradually
dying out. So Mrs. Haywood had her chance. Her "little Performances," as
she called them, offered in brief compass the love and adventure of the long
romance without its tax on the reader's patience.
Mrs. Haywood's short romances have but one theme. "Eliza writes, but
Love alone inspires," is a correct analysis by one of her admirers. She is the
self-appointed chronicler of Love and all its attendant passions. She sets
herself to trace "The Wild Career of untamed Love in the proud Heart of
Arbitrary Man"; to note the thrilling ardors, the languishments, the ecstasies
and violent agitations on the part of the adored one; to depict with
extravagant emphasis the jealousy, rage, despair, of disappointed affections.
These experiences of the heart take place in the midst of adventures of the
most melodramatic sort. Flights over land and sea are complicated by
storms and shipwreck, by bandits and pirates. The heroic play itself is less
prolific in elopements, seductions, duels, murders, and suicides. The sword,
the dagger, and the poison cup play an active part in cutting Gordian knots
too intricately tied. There is small effort to make the story probable. The
whole effort is to make it exciting. The reader is plunged from adventure to
adventure with no breathing place in which to be critical, and it is by this
headlong speed that the attention is held. But after reading several of the
tales it becomes apparent that to know one is to know all. The passions, the
situations, the obstacles, the dénouements recur. Nor are the people
differentiated. The ardent lovers, their yielding or temporarily obdurate fair
ones, the jealous lovers and mistresses, hard-hearted fathers, faithless
friends, and mercenary confidants, make up the personnel of each story.

Among the hundreds of characters there is not one that remains in the
memory as a real person. They are but puppets through whose convulsive
starts and unnatural tones Mrs. Haywood vainly endeavors to make genuine
passion speak.
Nor have these novels any additional points of interest such as might
come from witty dialogue, pungent comment, or beautiful description. Mrs.
Haywood's English is fluent, intelligible, and fairly correct, but it never
attains distinction. The total effect of these tales of passion is one of almost
stupefying dullness and monotony. It is painful to reflect on the blunted
moral, emotional, and æsthetic sensibilities of a generation of readers who
found their solace in The Excess of Love and its congeners.
Mrs. Haywood's activities suffered something of a check after 1729,
possibly owing to the savage attacks on her by Pope in The Dunciad (1728).
[313]
At any rate, for some reason or combination of reasons, no new
original works of any importance by her appeared between 1729 and 1751.
Among various expedients to earn a livelihood during this period the most
notable is her attempt to establish herself as a publisher in 1742, but since
only two books are recorded as published by her she probably quickly
found herself without the business training for such an enterprise.[314] A
more notable undertaking is The Female Spectator edited and at least partly
written by Mrs. Haywood in April, 1744—May, 1746.
She entered again the field of authorship with her best novels, The
History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, in four volumes (1751), and The History
of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, three volumes (1752), which have the merit
of faintly foreshadowing the domestic novel of a later day.[315]
The paper is professedly modeled on the work of Addison and Steele.
The writing purports to be by an editorial group of four ladies with Mrs.
Haywood as editor-in-chief. A vivacious widow in whom lovers confide;
Euphrosine, so called because of her brightness and charm; and Mira, a lady
of hereditary wit, complete the quadrumvirate. Their avowed purpose is to
give entertaining items of news, discuss dress, decorum, and social foibles
in friendly admonition, and analyze the human heart. But there is no real
emphasis except on the last of these topics. The Tenderillas, Claribellas,
Elismondas, Dorindas, and the rest, pursue their amorous way from volume

to volume, unconscious that the world holds any interest but love, that
"noblest, softest, and the best" of all the passions.

THE SUPPOSED EDITORS OF THE FEMALE SPECTATOR BY MRS.
ELIZA HAYWOOD
From Vol. I of the seventh edition, 1771
Mrs. Haywood is the scribe; the lady in black is the vivacious widow of quality; the lady standing is
"Euphrosine"; the other lady is "Mira"

But now and then the editors or some contributor break out of the
charmed circle, and we get a glimpse of women who, along with their
overworked hearts, have at least rudimentary minds. A certain "Cleora"
urges that women's best qualities are often stifled by a wrong education, and
that "the world would infallibly be happier than it is if women were more
knowing than they generally are." The studies suggested are history,
geography, some of the more agreeable parts of mathematics, and
"Enchanting Philosophy, its path strewd with Roses." Music, poetry,
dancing, and novels are suggested by way of relaxation. For solid reading
the recommendation includes translations of Latin historians and French
books of travel, and closes with Bailey's Dictionary, "a library of itself
since there was never person, place or action of any note, from the creation
down to the time of its being published, but what it gives a general account
of." In another essay "Philo-Naturæ" spends impassioned pages urging
ladies to study natural history, but nullifies her eloquence by the narrow
limit she assigns to their work. "It is easy to see, that it is not my ambition
to render my sex what is called deeply-learned." Women need only "a kind
of general understanding" of science, such as will enable them to take an
agreeable part in conversation. They are not called to abstruse and difficult
researches, but merely to those light and charming observations that catch
the watchful eye on little excursions such as ladies make in fields,
meadows, and gardens.
In The Wife (1755) Mrs. Haywood is less liberal than in The Spectator.
The married lady is particularly warned against the dangers of an active
mind or speculative disposition. She may be so misguided as to "attempt to
investigate those things that Heaven has hidden from human
understanding," in which case her brain will be distracted by books of
controversy. Or she may strangely busy her mind about the planets,
wondering whether those vast and luminous orbs are habitable, and if so,
whether possessed by men or angels or the ghosts of the departed. A lady so

fantastically engaged is likely to waste her time over such books as
Fontanelle's Plurality of Worlds.
A woman who once gets either of these fancies into her head, is lost to everything
besides; her husband, children, family, friends, acquaintances, with all the necessary
avocations and duties of her station, seem altogether unworthy her regard; she lives in the
clouds, and it is with difficulty she is dragg'd down to the performance of anything requir'd
of her below.
Methinks it is down-right madness to waste any part of time in seeking after things
impossible to be attain'd; or if attain'd could be of no real service:—a married woman,
above all others, should avoid this error:—it best becomes her to center her whole studies
within the compass of her own walls,—to enquire no farther than into the humours and
inclinations of her husband and children, to the end she may know how to oblige those she
finds in him, and rectify whatever is amiss in them, and not attempt to extend her
speculations beyond her family, and those things which are entrusted to her management.

Mrs. Haywood's programme reads like a combination from Molière's
Chrysal and Mrs. Barbauld.

In 1729 Swift wrote from Dublin to Pope:
There are three citizens' wives in this town; one of them whose
name is Grierson, a Scotch book-seller's wife. She is a very good Latin Mrs. Mary Barber
and Greek scholar, and has lately published a fine edition of Tacitus, (1690?-1757)
with a Latin dedication to the Lord Lieutenant; and she writes
Carmina Anglicana non Contemnenda. The second is one Mrs. Barber, wife to a woolen
draper, who is our chief poetess, and, upon the whole, has no ill genius. I fancy I have
mentioned her to you formerly. The last is the bearer hereof, and the wife of a surly rich
husband, who checks her vein; whereas Mrs. Grierson is only well to pass, and Mrs.
Barber, as it becomes the chief poetess, is but poor. The bearer's name is Sykins. She has a
very good taste of poetry, has read much, and, as I hear, has writ one or two things with
applause, which I never saw, except about six lines she sent me unknown, with a piece of
sturgeon, some years ago, on my birthday. Can you show such a triumfeminate in London?
[316]

Soon after Swift added Mrs. Pilkington to his list of Dublin writers, but it
still remains a triumfeminate, because we hear no more of Mrs. Sykins, the
surly rich husband having apparently been successful in checking her vein.
Her proposed visit to Pope was also a failure. She went to Twickenham and
delivered Swift's letter, but, for some unknown reason, returned to London
two hours before the time Pope had appointed to receive her. His irritation
found expression in the reference to "an Irish poetess" as among his
troublesome visitors in one version of The Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot.[317]

Mrs. Mary Barber would hardly be so much as a name to-day were it not
for Swift. He first met her in about the year 1729, and from that time to
1736 letters to and from him have much to say concerning her career. She
was then nearly forty, most of her poems existed in manuscript, she was
already something of a celebrity in Dublin, and her one desire was a
subscription publication of her work. In pursuance of this wish she went to
London late in 1730 and Swift sent kindly letters in her behalf to several of
his London friends. In the summer of 1731 a mysterious letter to the Queen,
purporting to be from Swift, contained this passage: "Mrs. Barber, the best
female poet of this or perhaps any age, is now in your majesty's capital;
known to Lady Hertford, Lady Torrington, Lady Walpole, etc.; a woman
whose genius is honoured by every man of genius in this kingdom, and
either honoured or envied by every man of genius in England."[318] Pope
sent a copy of this letter to Swift, who immediately and indignantly, in
letters to Pope and the Countess of Suffolk, disavowed it. Such a letter, he
said, would be "a folly so transcendent, that no man could be guilty of, who
was not fit for Bedlam." In his letter to Pope Swift said of Mrs. Barber:
Dr. Delany has been long her protector; and he, being many years my acquaintance,
desired my good office for her, and brought her several times to the deanery. I knew she
was poetically given, and, for a woman, had a sort of genius that way. She appeared very
modest and pious, and I believe was sincere; and wholy turned to poetry. I did conceive her
journey to England was on the score of her trade, being a woollen-draper, until Dr. Delany
said, she had a design of printing her poems by subscription, and desired I would befriend
her: which I did, chiefly by your means, the doctor still urging me on: upon whose request
I writ to her two or three times, because she thought my countenancing her might be of use.
Lord Carteret very much befriended her, and she seems to have made her way not ill.[319]

The perpetrator of the forged letter and the purpose in sending it to the
Queen have never been discovered, but the irritation arising from it might
well have destroyed Swift's interest in Mrs. Barber's subscription list. He
apparently recognized, however, that she was innocent of offense and
continued his efforts in her behalf. Dr. Arbuthnot writes that he has shown
"as much civility as he could" to Mrs. Barber.[320] Gay has "made a visit to
Mrs. Barber."[321] Lady Betty Germain says Mrs. Barber "goes on in her
subscription very well."[322] But the list was incomplete by the summer of
1732 and dragged slowly on till 1734 in spite of the aid of Mr. Barber, Lord
Mayor of London, Mrs. Worsley, Mrs. Cæsar, Mrs. Conduitt, Miss Kelly,
Lord Carteret, Lord Orrery, and the Duchess of Queensberry, all of whom in
response to applications from Swift wrote to him concerning the progress of

Mrs. Barber's affairs. In 1733 Mrs. Conduitt wrote that "the town had
already been so long invited into the subscription that most people had
already refused or accepted."[323] It was not till 1734 that the list was
considered long enough to make publication safe.
Swift crowned his service by writing a dedicatory letter to Lord Orrery.
In this letter he spoke of Mrs. Barber as follows:
She desireth your protection on account of her wit and good sense, as well as of her
humility, her gratitude, and many other virtues. I have read most of her poems; and believe
your Lordship will observe, that they generally contain something new and useful, tending
to the reproof of some vice or folly, or recommending some virtue. She never writes on a
subject with general unconnected topics, but always with a scheme and method driving to
some particular end: wherein many writers in verse, and of some distinction, are so often
known to fail. In short, she seemeth to have a true poetical genius, better cultivated than
could be expected, either from her sex, or the scene she hath acted in, as the wife of a
citizen. Yet I am assured, that no woman was ever more useful to her husband in the way of
his business. Poetry hath only been her favorite amusement; for which she hath one
qualification that I wish all good poets possess'd a share of; I mean, that she is ready to
take advice, and submit to have her verse corrected, by those who are generally allow'd to
be the best judges.[324]

But for the persistent efforts of Swift the subscription would never have
been completed. Yet Mrs. Barber had gained incidentally such a retinue of
supporting friends that her poems were republished in 1735 and 1736.
There was apparently a touch of personal venom in the passage where Mrs.
Pilkington chronicles the generous aid given Mrs. Barber and emphasizes
the final small success of the poems:
Mrs. Barber ... was at this time writing a volume of Poems, some of which I fancy
might, at this Day, be seen in the Cheesemungers, Chandlers, Pastry-cooks, and Second-
hand Book-sellers' Shops: However, dull as they were, they certainly would have been
much worse, but that Dr. Delany frequently held what he called a Senatus Consultum, to
correct these undigested materials; at which were present sometimes the Dean, (in the
Chair) but always Mrs. Grierson, Mr. Pilkington, the Doctor, and myself.[325]

A poem in which they were summoned to one of these meetings began:
Mighty Thomas a solemn Senatus I call,
To consult for Saphira, so come one and all.

In 1736 Mrs. Barber was again in financial straits. A scheme for letting
lodgings, and another scheme for selling Irish linens at Bath having proved
impracticable, she made a final appeal to Swift. Dr. King of Oxford and
Mrs. Cleland had spoken so warmly of Swift's Treatise on Polite
Conversation that many people wished to see it, and Lady Worsley with

many other of Mrs. Barber's patronesses urged her to ask Swift to let her
publish it for her own benefit. After apologies for asking such a favor she
says:
I humbly beseech you, sir, if you do not think it proper not to be offended with me for
asking it; for it was others, that out of kindness to me, put me upon it. They said you made
no advantage for yourself, by your writings; and that, since you honoured me with your
protection, I had all the reason in the world to think it would be a pleasure to you, to see
me in easy circumstances; that everybody would gladly subscribe for anything Dr. Swift
wrote; and indeed, I believe in my conscience, it would be the making of me.[326]

Dean Swift presented her with the copy and the sale proved advantageous.
The career of a mediocre writer like Mrs. Barber would hardly justify
chronicling were it not for the interesting exemplification it offers of the
system of patronage. Swift and his influential friends manifest no particular
interest in Mrs. Barber's "moral and not inelegant verse," but responsibility
for her welfare seems to have been accepted by them without demur, nor
does she seem to have felt any hesitancy about accepting any aid that might
be forthcoming.

The most vivid introduction to Mrs. Grierson comes from the pen of her
early friend Mrs. Pilkington:
About two years before this a young Woman of about eighteen
years of age, was brought to my Father, by a Stationer to be by him Mrs. Constantia
instructed in Midwifery.[327] She was Mistress of Hebrew, Greek, Grierson (1706?
Latin, and French, understood the mathematicks, as well as most men. -33)
And what made these extraordinary Talents yet more surprizing was,
that her Parents were poor illiterate Country People; so that her learning appeared like the
Gift poured out on the Apostles, of speaking all languages, without the Pains of Study; or,
like the intuitive Knowledge of Angels: Yet in as much as the Power of Miracles is ceased;
we must allow she used human Means for such great and excellent Acquirements: And yet
in a long Friendship and Familiarity with her, I could never obtain a satisfactory Account
from her on this Head; only she said, "she had received some little Instruction from the
Minister of the Parish, when she could spare time from her Needlework, to which she was
closely kept by her Mother." She wrote elegantly both in Verse and Prose; and some of the
most delightful Hours I ever past, were in the Conversation of this female Philosopher.
My Father readily consented to accept her as a Pupil; and gave her a general Invitation
to his Table, so that she and I were seldom asunder. My Parents were well pleased with our
Intimacy, as her Piety was not inferior to her Learning. Whether it was owing to her own
Desire, or the Envy of those who survived her, I know not; but of her various and beautiful
Writings except one Poem of her's in Mrs. Barber's Works, I have never seen any
published; 't is true, as her turn was chiefly to philosophical or divine Subjects, they might
not be agreeable to the present Taste.[328]

A eulogy of Mrs. Grierson was written by Henry Brooke (1703?-1783) the
author of a tragedy, Gustavus Vasa, and various popular novels, in a poem
on "The Art of Printing," and an account of her, derived from his notes, was
published in Brookiana in 1804.
Mr. Brooke has celebrated the learning, piety, and virtue, of Mrs. Grierson, in a poem
which he wrote on the Art of Printing. This lady was born in the city of Kilkenny. Such is
the vanity of man, that he thinks he pays a sufficient compliment to woman, when he says,
she has a masculine mind, when, in truth, it is known that there are many females on
record, who have rivalled the lords of the creation in every branch of science, and
department of learning. In this constellation the name of Mrs. Grierson will shine with
increasing luster. Her father observed, that his daughter, while yet a child, was very fond of
books, and not-withstanding his circumstances were narrow, he was determined to furnish
her with all those that he thought were suited to her years; but he soon found, to his great
joy, that her capacity was not to be measured by her years, it flew before them; and that her
genius and inclination would triumph over every difficulty, even without the aid of a
master. In a time that is almost too short to be mentioned, she was allowed by competent
judges, to be a perfect mistress of the Greek and Roman tongues; and whilst other young
women were proud of carrying the keys of closets, etc., she carried the keys of science,
which she unlocked and surveyed, not with a transient eye, but with the warmth and
constancy of one that fell in love with their beauties, and could duly appreciate their
charms, so that all her attainments may be said to have been dictated by nature, aided by
laudable curiosity and industry. She was early married to George Grierson, Esq., the king's
printer. As he had a good library, she had an opportunity of indulging her literary pursuits.
[329]

After her marriage Mrs. Grierson carried on her studies with such ardor
that at twenty-one she brought out an edition of Terence and at twenty-three
an edition of Tacitus. When she died at twenty-seven, she left a partially
completed edition of Sallust. Mrs. Barber says that she also wrote an
unpublished Abridgment of the History of England. Her Tacitus has
received high praise. Dr. Harwood, a learned bibliographer, commented on
it in the following terms:
This is one of the best edited books ever delivered to the world. Mrs. Grierson was a
lady possessed of singular erudition, and had an elegance of taste and solidity of judgment,
which justly rendered her one of the most wonderful as well as amiable of her sex. Prefixed
to this edition of Tacitus, is a dedication to Lord Carteret, in most elegant Latinity.[330]

Mrs. Grierson also wrote occasional verse a few specimens of which
appear in Mrs. Pilkington's Memoirs, in Poems by Eminent Ladies, and in
Mrs. Barber's edition of her own poems. Mrs. Barber in her Preface praised
Mrs. Grierson and gave many of the facts used by later writers. Mr. Ballard
was anxious to give a full account of Mrs. Grierson, and he wrote in 1747 to
Mrs. Barber for further information. "I likewise," says Mr. Ballard, "got the

same friend to apply to a learned and eminent dignitary in the church in
Ireland; one who is thoroughly acquainted with all the various
circumstances of her life and is every way qualified for the performance."
The eminent churchman promised an account of her life, but it never came
to hand, so Mr. Ballard was obliged to content himself with a general
eulogy. He says, "If Heaven had spared her life, and blessed her with health,
which she wanted for some years before her death, there is good reason to
think she would have made as great a figure in the learned world, as any of
her sex are recorded to have done." Mrs. Grierson, "the learned Nymph
Whom Curiosity engaged every Person to see,"[331] was on intimate terms
with Swift, Thomas Sheridan, and Dr. Delany, and it is singular that a more
exact account of her life should not have been preserved.

Lætitia Pilkington, the daughter of Dr. Van Lewen, a
physician of Dublin, was about twenty-two years Lætitia van Lewen
Pilkington (1712-
younger than Mrs. Barber, but Mrs. Barber's work came 50)
so late in her life and Mrs. Pilkington was so precocious
that they were in effect poetical contemporaries. Lætitia's love for literature
and her lively mind were in evidence before she was five. She thus
describes the beginning of her education:

My mother strictly followed Solomon's Advice, in never sparing the Rod; insomuch that
I have frequently been whipt for looking blue of a frosty Morning; and whether I deserved
it or not, I was sure of Correction every Day of my life.
From my earliest Infancy I had a Disposition to Letters; but my Eyes being weak after
the Small-pox, I was not permitted to look at a Book; my Mother regarding more the
Beauty of my Face, than the Improvement of my Mind; neither was I allowed to learn to
read: This Restraint, as it generally happens, made me but more earnest in the Pursuit of
what I imagined must be so delightful. Twenty times a Day have I been corrected, for
asking what such and such Letters spelt; my Mother used to tell me the Word,
accompanying it with a good Box on the Ear, which, I suppose, imprinted it on my Mind....
I do assure you, it had this Effect on me, that I never forgot what was once told me; and
quickly arrived at my desired Happiness, being able to read before she thought I knew all
my Letters; but this Pleasure I was obliged to enjoy by Stealth with Fear and Trembling.
I was at this Time about five Years of Age; and my Mother being one Day abroad, I had
happily laid hold on Alexander's Feast and found something in it so charming, that I read it
aloud; but how like a condemned Criminal did I look, when my Father, softly opening his
Study-door, took me in the very Fact; I dropt my Book and burst into Tears, begging
Pardon and promising never to do so again: But my Sorrow was soon dispelled, when he
bade me not to be frightened, but read to him, which to his great Surprize, I did very
distinctly, and without hurting the Beauty of the Numbers. Instead of the whipping, of
which I stood in dread, he took me up in his Arms, and kissed me, giving me a whole
Shilling, as a Reward, and told me, "He would give me another as soon as I got a Poem by
Heart," which he put into my Hand, and proved to be Mr. Pope's sacred Eclogue; which
Task I performed before my Mother returned Home. They were both astonished at my
Memory, and from that Day forward, I was permitted to read as much as I pleased; only my
Father took care to furnish me with the best, and politest Authors; and took Delight in
explaining to me, whatever, by Reason of my tender Years, was above my Capacity of
Understanding.
But chiefly was I charmed and ravished with the Sweets of Poetry; all my Hours were
dedicated to the Muses; and, from a Reader, I quickly became a Writer; I may truly say
with Mr. Pope,
I lisp'd in Numbers, for the Numbers came.
My Performances had the good Fortune to be looked on as extraordinary for my Years;
and the greatest and wisest Men in the Kingdom did not disdain to hear the Prattle of the
little Muse, as they called me, even in my Childish Days. But as I approached towards
Womanhood a new Scene opened to me; and by the Time I had looked on thirteen Years, I
had almost as many Lovers.

At seventeen Lætitia married a penniless Irish parson, Mr. Matthew
Pilkington. Soon after their marriage they became well known in the Dublin
literary set. Constantia Grierson who was the first to congratulate Lætitia on
her marriage, and who witnessed the cruel treatment the couple received
from Mrs. Van Lewen, introduced them to Dr. Delany who befriended them.
Through Dr. Delany they met Swift, who was much taken by the "little
poetical parson and his littler poetical wife." He called them "The Mighty

Thomas Thumb and her Serene Highness of Lilliput,"[332] and for a short
time they were evidently much at the deanery. The most famous portions of
her Memoirs have to do with Swift. His early biographers were apparently
unwilling to own how much of their vivid, picturesque material came from
a source so little esteemed, but Mr. Craik credits Mrs. Pilkington with "a
picture of the Dean which is probably more true to the life than many that
are more pretentious."[333] The young lady's wit, vivacity, courage, and
independent mind brought a new and piquant element into Swift's life. He
scolded her till she fled in tears, but at his imperious summons she always
came back in new, adoring subjection. On one occasion, after an
exceptionally severe castigation, he wrote sharply but with an underlying
compliment: "You must shake off the Leavings of your Sex. If you cannot
keep a Secret, and take a Chiding, you will quickly be out of my Sphere.
Corrigible People are to be chid; those who are otherwise, may be very safe
from any Lectures of mine: I should rather choose to indulge them in their
Follies, than attempt to set them right."[334] Usually her wit could turn an
impending quarrel into some sort of gay banter. On one occasion Swift
began to reprimand her for having copied out one of his manuscript poems.
But she interrupted, saying she did not copy it, but knew it by heart from
one reading. Whereupon there ensued a memory contest. The test given her
was from Shakespeare, all of whose works she said she could repeat. "The
Line he first gave me, he had purposely picked out for its Singular Oddness:
But [sic] rancours in the Vessel of my Peace. Macbeth. I readily went on
with the whole Speech, and did so several times, that he tried me with the
different Plays. The Dean then took down Hudibras, and ordered me to
examine him in it, as he had done me in Shakespeare; and, to my great
surprize, I found he remembered every Line from Beginning to End of it."
[335]

When Swift first saw little Mrs. Pilkington as a bride he exclaimed,
"What, this poor little Child married! God help her, she is early in Trouble."
[336]
The words were prophetic, for the troubles began very soon. They were
engendered by literary jealousy, for Mr. Pilkington was a poet on his own
account. Compliments to the wife became as wormwood to the husband,
especially when such compliments were accompanied by frank depreciation
of his own talents. Swift once put a question to Mrs. Pilkington and
received her answer. Mr. Pilkington then entered the room and was asked

the same question and gave an unsatisfactory answer. "P-x on you for a
Dunce," said the Dean. "Were your Wife and you to sit for a Fellowship, I
would give her one, sooner than admit you a Sizar." From that time on Mr.
Pilkington viewed his wife "with scornful yet with jealous eyes."[337]
On another occasion the two wrote odes in imitation of Horace. Angered
at her success Mr. Pilkington told her that a Needle was more becoming to a
Woman's Hand than a Pen, and was placated only when the lady consigned
her own ode to the flames and highly praised his. Her comment is: "And
here let me seriously advise every Lady, who has the Misfortune to be
poetically turned, never to marry a Poet.... If a Man cannot bear his Friend
should write, much less can he endure it in his Wife; it seems to set them
too much on a Level with their Lords and Masters; and this I take to be the
true Reason why even Men of Sense discountenance Learning in Women,
and commonly choose for Mates the most illiterate and stupid of the Sex;
and bless their Stars their Wife is not a Wit."[338] Jealousy was, however,
the least of Mr. Pilkington's faults. He soon proved himself "the arrantest
rogue in England." The action he brought against his wife for divorce was
not sustained by the courts, but the outcome of it was that he abandoned her
and her two children, and she was left penniless. She went to London where
she lived a life compounded of misfortunes and misdemeanors.
In the Memoirs she gives in extenso the various expedients whereby she
tried to get a living. One of the most successful was as a public letter-writer
for which she issued the following card:
Letters written here on any Subject, except on the Law, Price Twelvepence; Petitions also
Drawn at the same Rate. Mem. Ready Money, no Trust.[339]

Under cover of getting subscriptions for the Memoirs, she really lived on
the charities of the charitable and what she euphemistically termed
"contributions from the great." Colley Cibber[340] especially befriended her
and urged her to push forward the Memoirs. But spite of all aid her course
was downward. At one time she was even imprisoned for debt.[341] On her
release she tried to keep a print and pamphlet shop,[342] but failed. And
finally she wandered back to Dublin where she died at thirty-eight.
The one book by which Mrs. Pilkington is known is her Memoirs, the
three volumes of which appeared in 1748. In 1754 a third edition appeared
with an additional volume by her son. Shortly after her death there appeared

a compilation entitled The Celebrated Mrs. Pilkington's Jests; or, The
Cabinet of Wit and Humour. In the Memoirs the early happy life in Dublin
and the later tricks and shifts and intrigues of the London life are described
with equal frankness. The result was a tarnished fame as a woman, but an
undisputed reputation as a clever writer. When the Earl of Chesterfield
wondered that she could write English so well, she sent word to his lordship
that Dr. Swift had been her tutor.
As a literary critic Mrs. Pilkington is especially severe on the immorality
of some contemporary women writers. Speaking of a lady who had refused
to subscribe to her book she said:
She would have purchased my Book sooner than the Bible, to indulge her private
Meditations, Especially if I had the wicked Art of painting up Vice in attractive Colours, as
too many of our Female Writers have done, to the Destruction of Thousands, amongst
whom Mrs. Manly and Mrs. Haywood deserve the foremost Rank.
But what extraordinary Passions these Ladies may have experienced, I know not; far be
such Knowledge from a Modest Woman: Indeed Mrs. Haywood seems to have dropped her
former luscious Stile, and, for Variety presents us with the insipid: Her Female Spectators
are a Collection of trite Stories, delivered to us in stale and worn-out Phrases: Bless'd
Revolution!
Yet of the two, less dang'rous is th' Offence
To tire the Patience, than mislead the Sense.
And here give me leave to observe, that amongst the Ladies that have taken up the Pen, I
never met with but two who deserved the Name of a Writer; the first is Madam Dacier,
whose Learning Mr. Pope, while he is indebted to her for all the notes on Homer,
endeavoured to depreciate; the second is Mrs. Catherine Philips, the matchless Orinda,
celebrated by Mr. Cowley, Lord Orrery, and all the Men of Genius who lived in her Time.
I think this incomparable Lady was one of the first Refiners of the English Numbers. I
cannot, except my own Country-woman Mrs. Grierson, find out another female Writer,
whose Works are worth reading; she indeed had a happy and well-improved Genius!

The last glimpse we have of Mrs. Pilkington is most effective in the
dramatic contrast it presents. On Thursday, April 12, 1750, John Wesley
wrote in his Dublin Diary: "I breakfasted with one of the Society, and found
she had a lodger I little thought of. It was the famous Mrs. Pilkington, who
soon made an excuse for following me up stairs. I talked with her seriously
about an hour: we then sung, 'Happy Magdalene.' She appeared to be
exceedingly struck: how long the impression may last, God knows."[343]

Mrs. Mary Davys wrote a comedy produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields in
1716, and a didactic novel, The Reform'd Coquet, which appeared in 1724.

Her Works, in two volumes, appeared in 1725. Miss
Morgan says that the young lord who is the hero of The Mrs. Mary Davys
Reform'd Coquet, is one of the earliest examples in (fl. 1725)
fiction of "the perfect prig of which Sir Charles Grandison is the
consummate example."[344] She was the wife of the Reverend Peter Davys,
master of the free school of St. Patrick's, Dublin, so she came into the circle
of Swift. Dr. Ewen of Cambridge formerly had thirty-six letters from Swift
to Mr. and Mrs. Davys. Mr. Davys died in 1698 and Mrs. Davys was "left to
her own endeavours." In 1713 she wrote to Swift complaining that he had
not written to her for four years. "I have honestly told her," he said, "it was
my way never to write to those whom I am never likely to see, unless I can
serve them, which I cannot her, etc. Davis the schoolmaster's widow."[345]
She was not so fortunate as Mrs. Grierson and Mrs. Pilkington.

Mrs. Collyer's publications were anonymous and she
has been hardly more than a name in literary history. Mrs. Mary Mitchell
Collyer (1716?
Recent investigations have, however, shown her to be of -1762?)
genuine importance, not merely as a writer of
considerable ability, but especially as an author in whom romantic
tendencies found early and well-defined statement.[346] Mrs. Collyer was
the wife of Joseph Collyer, a compiler, translator, and publisher to whom
her books have sometimes been attributed. Her son was Joseph Collyer, an
engraver of merit. Mr. Collyer's income was apparently small, for Mrs.
Collyer wrote for the support of her family. In the Dedication to her Death
of Abel she said: "Placed by the hand of Providence at an humble distance
from the Great, my cares and pleasures are concentrated within the narrow
limits of my little family, and it is in order to contribute to the support and
education of my children, I have taken up my pen."
The seven works attributed to Mrs. Collyer fall between 1743 and 1763.
It is unnecessary to consider these works here in detail except so far as may
serve to indicate their historical significance. For this purpose we may take
up first the last of her books, the translations from the German, for it is on
these that her modicum of fame has rested. When Mrs. Collyer translated
Gesner's Der Tod Abels in 1761 and began Klopstock's Messiah the year
after, she was a pioneer in a new kind of learning. The professed linguists
seldom included German in their list, and German literature was practically

unknown.[347] Mr. Haney, in his study of "German Literature in England
before 1790," gives William Taylor of Norwich as "the first literary critic to
attempt a systematic introduction of German literature into England," and
Mr. Taylor's period of literary activity did not begin until 1790. Of the
sporadic translations before that period, aside from scientific and
theological works and a few hymns, Mr. Haney cites but two anterior to
Mrs. Collyer's Death of Abel. There were few more popular works in the
eighteenth century than this translation. There were eighteen editions in
twenty-one years, and many later editions. It satisfied alike the pious reader
and the lover of fiction. The Quarterly Review for 1814[348] says: "No book
of foreign growth has ever become so popular in England as the Death of
Abel. Those publishers whose market lies among that portion of the people
who are below what is called the public, but form a far more numerous
class, include it regularly among their 'sacred classics': it has been
repeatedly printed at country presses with worn types and on coarse paper;
and it is found at country fairs, and in the little shops of remote towns
almost as certainly as the Pilgrim's Progress and Robinson Crusoe." Miss
Hughes quotes numerous other testimonies to the same effect.
This remarkable popularity was due, of course, to the original author
rather than to the translator. Mrs. Collyer's version received high
contemporary praise, but according to modern ideas it would be counted
loose and inaccurate. Miss Reed characterizes the style as unnatural and
affected, and she thinks that while the translation made Gesner widely
known, it in reality injured his fame. But the excellence of the work, or its
defects, are not so significant in a study of Mrs. Collyer as are the facts that
she was sufficiently well trained in German to give even a fairly adequate
version, and that she should be the first to present a German poet of the new
school to an English public.
Mrs. Collyer died before completing her translation of Klopstock and her
husband carried it to a conclusion. He said in his Preface that his wife's fatal
illness was brought on by her agitation of mind in connection with her work
on the Death of Abel.
Mrs. Collyer's Christmas Box is another instance of pioneer work. Its full
descriptive title is A Christmas Box, Consisting of Moral Stories, adapted to
the Capacities of Little Children and calculated to give them early
impressions of Piety and Virtue. Two volumes. Adorned with cuts. The

Christmas Box and Miss Fielding's Little Female Academy appeared in
1749, five years after Newbery's first child's book, The Little Pretty Pocket
Book, of 1744. In 1745 he brought out three volumes of The Circles of the
Sciences, and in 1751-52 The Lilliputian Magazine. Thus a new class of
literature was definitely started, with Mrs. Collyer and Miss Fielding as
important contributors to the spread of the idea at its inception.[349]
Two of Mrs. Collyer's novels are translations from the French, and are of
slight importance in comparison with her one original novel the full title of
which is Felicia to Charlotte: Being Letters from a Young Lady in the
Country, to her Friend in Town. Containing A Series of the most interesting
Events, interspersed with Moral Reflections; chiefly tending to prove that
the Seeds of Virtue are implanted in the Mind of Every Reasonable Being.
Volume one appeared in 1744 and a second volume in 1749. Miss Hughes
in her analysis of this novel[350] points out various elements that forecast
ideas not dominant till some decades later. It was a novel of purpose,
written for ethical and religious ends, and as such antedates John Buncle by
twelve years. It is also a novel of feeling. Its hero, Lucius, must wait for
Sterne before he can find his true kin. The courtship of Lucius is punctuated
with sighs and tears, with the overwrought emotions of a sensitive heart.
Steele's Conscious Lovers offers an early sentimental parallel, but the type
was not fully developed till in the seventies. The first volume ends with the
marriage of Felicia and Lucius. In the second volume the happy pair, now
quite sane and sensible, are able to discuss with fluency and precision their
ideas on the nurture and education of children. This volume was thus a
pedagogic romance of the sort that became popular after Rousseau.
The most interesting of all the new ideas brought forward by Felicia and
Lucius is their love of nature and of country life. They choose the country
as a place of residence and justify their choice on rational grounds. And
Mrs. Collyer has a surprising fullness and ardor of description, and a
sincere joy in nature not equaled in fiction before John Buncle (1756-66),
and she is a decade earlier.[351] It was only in poetry or in philosophical
theory that Mrs. Collyer could have found sources for her literary use of
nature. Spenser, Milton, and Thomson were well known to her and they
doubtless influenced her.

Connected with this love of nature are Mrs. Collyer's ideas on gardening.
When she and Lucius bought their estate it was in the formal style, but they
at once changed it to make it appear as much like nature as possible. In this
Mrs. Collyer was not entirely original, for the Spectator and the Guardian,
Pope, Switzer, and Batty Langley had decried the stiff regularity of the
formal garden, and Kent's great gardens came between 1730 and 1748. But
Mrs. Collyer promptly took up the new ideas and she ranks among their
early defenders.
Mrs. Collyer is very interesting because she showed herself in these
various ways so sensitive to new ideas. She seemed to know what was in
the air even before it had had any but the most casual expression. She sat
down very modestly and with much trepidation to write anonymous
translations and novels for the support of her family, but she was, quite
unconsciously it may be, treading the path of the pioneer.

Sarah Fielding's first and most important novel, The
Adventures of David Simple in search of a Faithful Sarah Fielding
(1710-1768)
Friend (1744), received extraordinary commendation
from the two contemporary authors whose judgments might be counted
authoritative, Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson. Fielding's satiric
picture of Mrs. Western in Tom Jones is more than offset by his utterances
in connection with his sister Sarah's books. When David Simple appeared,
Joseph Andrews had been two years before the public, and it was natural
that her popular little book should be attributed to Fielding. But when the
second edition came out (also 1744) he took occasion to disavow his
supposed authorship, and likewise to commend the book.
A third, and indeed the strongest, reason which hath drawn me into print, is to do justice
to the real and sole author of this little book; who, notwithstanding the many excellent
observations dispersed through it, and the deep knowledge of human nature it discovers, is
a young woman; one so nearly and dearly allied to me, in the highest friendship as well as
relation, that if she had wanted any assistance of mine I would have been as ready to have
given it to her as I would have been just to my word in owning it; but, in reality, two or
three hints which arose on the reading it, and some little direction as to the conduct of the
second volume, much the greater part of which I never saw till in print, were all the aid she
received from me. Indeed, I believe there are few books in the world so absolutely the
author's own as this....
And as the faults of this work want very little excuse, so its beauties want as little
recommendation; though I will not say but they may sometimes stand in need of being
pointed out to the generality of readers. For as the merit of this work consists in a vast

penetration into human nature, a deep and profound discernment of all the mazes,
windings, and labyrinths, which perplex the heart of man to such a degree that he is
himself often incapable of seeing through them; and as this is the greatest, noblest, and
rarest of all the talents which constitute a genius; so a much larger share of this talent is
necessary even to recognize these discoveries when they are laid before us than fall to the
share of a common reader....
As to the characters here described, I shall repeat the saying of one of the greatest men
in this age,—"That they were as wonderfully drawn by the writer as they were by Nature
herself." There are many strokes in Orguiel, Spatter, Varnish, Levif, the Balancer, and some
others which would have shined in the pages of Theophrastus, Horace, or La Bruyère. Nay,
there are some touches which I will venture to say might have done honour to the pencil of
the immortal Shakespeare himself.[352]

For a continuation of David Simple in 1747,[353] Fielding wrote a dedication
and five letters. In this Preface he gave his opinion on learning for women:
The objection to the sex of the author hardly requires an answer; it will be chiefly
advanced by those who derive their opinion of women, very unfairly, from the fine ladies
of the age; whereas, if the behavior of their counterparts, the beaux, was to denote the
understanding of men, I apprehend the conclusion would be in favour of the women,
without making a compliment to that sex. I can, of my own knowledge and from my own
acquaintance, bear testimony to the possibility of those examples which history gives of
women eminent for the highest endowments and faculties of mind. I shall only add an
answer to the same objection, relating to David Simple, given by a lady of very high rank,
whose quality, is however, less an honour to her than her understanding. "So far," said she,
"from doubting David Simple to be the performance of a woman, I am well convinced it
could not have been written by a man."[354]

Miss Fielding's own views on the woman question are slightly indicated
in this story. In the course of his peregrinations David Simple meets the
charming Miss Cynthia, who tells him the story of her life and leads him to
reflect upon the irritation and unhappiness which result from the undue
restrictions imposed upon women. Miss Cynthia had always been subject to
repression. Whenever she asked questions she was told, such things were
not proper for girls of her age to know. She was not allowed to read, for
Miss Cynthia must not inquire too far into things lest it should turn her
brain. She was to mind her needlework and such things as are useful to
women. Reading and poring over books would never get her a husband.
Cynthia's restlessness doubtless well represents the state of mind of many a
contemporary girl eager for learning, but not able to escape from the
feminine conventions.
In 1749 Miss Fielding published a work quite new in form and intention.
It was entitled The Governess; Or, The Little Female Academy. Calculated

for the Entertainment and Instruction of Young Ladies in their Education. It
was so popular that a seventh edition appeared in 1760. This little book
represents the happenings of nine days in the school of Mrs. Teachum, a
gentlewoman who taught young ladies "in Reading, Writing, Working, and
in all proper Forms of Behavior." The oldest of her nine young ladies was
fourteen, the youngest was six, and the others between six and twelve. The
book was professedly written, not for the Mrs. Teachums of the age, but for
little girls under twelve. And the instruction embodied was thrown into
story form to make it more acceptable to young readers. I know of no
earlier similar attempt. Such books as had been written for children were
serious and religious in tone. But Miss Fielding's book was lively and
entertaining. Each little girl told the history of her life and analyzed her
adventures and emotions, particularly her faults and their outcome, in true
romance style. But all is kept pretty near to a child's understanding. And
there are some occurrences—as a fracas in which the genteel young ladies
"fought and scratched and tore like young cats," for the possession of an
apple redder and bigger than its companions in the basket, a collation at a
dairy farm, sewing-parties in an arbor with Miss Jenny Peace, the fourteen-
year old girl, as story-teller and as umpire in all disputes, that must have
had extraordinary charm for young misses who had never before seen even
a semblance of their own lives in print.
Miss Fielding's other works are of less significance except for her
translation of Xenophon's Memoirs of Socrates; with the Defence of
Socrates before his Judges (1762), which indicates a knowledge of Greek
more exact than was common in her day.
The most interesting fact in Miss Fielding's life is her close friendship
with Richardson. She was one of the most ardent admirers of his work. She
says of Clarissa: "When I read of her I am all sensation; my heart glows; I
am overwhelmed; my only vent is tears.... Often have I reflected on my own
vanity in daring but to touch the hem of her garment." In 1756 Richardson
wrote to her:
Why did you not tell Lady Bradshaigh ... that you were my much-esteemed Sally
Fielding, the author of David Simple? She knows my opinion of you, and of your writing
powers.... I have just gone through your two vols. of Letters. Have re-perused them with
great pleasure, and found many new beauties in them. What a knowledge of the human
heart! Well might a critical judge of writing say, as he did to me, that your late brother's
knowledge of it was not (fine writer as he was) comparable to yours. His was but as the

knowledge of the outside of a clock-work machine, while your's was that of all the finer
springs and movements of the inside.[355]

The most popular work by Miss Fielding was The Little Female
Academy. David Simple, to be sure, went through two editions in 1744. But
the indications of contemporary recognition are not at all commensurate
with the praise from her brother and Richardson and other high authorities.
Of foreign appreciation of her work there are more proofs. David Simple
was translated into German[356] in 1746 and into French in 1755,[357] and
The Countess of Gräfin was translated into German in 1761.[358] The
French translator of David Simple commented on the approbation générale
which this romance had found.[359]

Charlotte Rumsey was the daughter of Colonel James
Rumsey, Lieutenant-Governor of New York. At fifteen Charlotte Lennox
(1720-1804)
she was sent to England as the protégé and probable
heiress of an aunt. But the aunt became insane, and the girl was left
penniless. The only facts that emerge concerning the difficult years before
her marriage to Mr. Lennox in about 1748 have to do with her very
mediocre career as an actress.
Except for a volume of poems in 1747, it was not till after her marriage
that Mrs. Lennox came forward prominently as an author. Her two-volume
novel, The Life of Harriet Stuart, Written by Herself, appeared in 1751. But
in literary circles she was evidently well known before this, for Johnson
was her especial friend. When her manuscript was ready for publication, he
arranged a celebration at his Club. The festivities were to last all night. Mrs.
Lennox was ceremoniously crowned with laurel, and there was a
magnificent hot apple-pie stuck with bay leaves.[360] This first novel is
probably in part autobiographical inasmuch as the heroine, Harriet Stuart, is
the daughter of a man of high official rank in America, and goes to England
at fifteen to live with an aunt who becomes insane and leaves her penniless.
But this is merely a slight framework for a series of love adventures. Miss
Stuart's wit and beauty gather about her lovers of all varieties, army
officers, sea-captains, pirates, merchants; and the alarming crises of her fate
put her into close competition with Clarissa Harlowe herself. America,
France, and England are the far-separated scenes of Miss Stuart's trials and

victories, the emphasis being on her life in America. There would be a
chance for some interesting local color in this representation of mid-
eighteenth-century life in New York if the young lady could have spared a
moment from her adventures to observe her surroundings. An Indian
encampment, a visit to a fort, an escapade to a "farm," a midnight row on
the Hudson, are mentioned, but with no comment. Towns and houses, roads,
rivers, and seas, are but localities for love scenes, means of transit from one
episode to another. The story is told with a deft manipulation of details and
an easy fluency that would seem to indicate something of a previous literary
apprenticeship. At any rate, in this novel she had found her medium, and
she was soon ready with a tale that gave her genuine distinction. The
Female Quixote appeared in 1752 with a Dedication written by Johnson,
and it was reviewed by him in The Gentleman's Magazine for March. He
said of it: "Mr. Fielding, however emulous of Cervantes, and jealous of a
rival, acknowledges in his paper of the 24th, that in many instances, this
copy excels the original, and though he has no connection with the author,
he concludes his encomium on the work, by earnestly recommending it as a
most extraordinary, and most excellent performance. 'It is,' says he, 'a work
of true humour, and cannot fail of giving a rational, as well as a very
pleasing amusement, to a sensible reader, who will at once be instructed,
and highly diverted.'"[361] Johnson's name is still more intimately connected
with the book, for he wrote the chapter which has the heading, "Being in the
author's opinion, the best chapter in this history."[362] Harriet Stuart reads
like an echo of Richardson, but in The Female Quixote Mrs. Lennox strikes
an original note. Comedy had already, a generation earlier, in Biddy Tipkin,
made sport of the romance-reading girls of the day. But the satire was new
in fiction. And it was carried out with a fullness and accuracy of details
possible only to one who had herself been a traveler in enchanted realms.
Mrs. Lennox must at some time have been as devoted to French fiction as
even Dorothy Osborne and Mrs. Pepys in the preceding century. Her story
is long-drawn-out and improbable, but the cleverness with which Arabella
and Lucy parody Don Quixote and Sancho Panza gives the book a notable
place among the English followers of Cervantes. The Spiritual Quixote
(1773), a satire on the Methodists, and The Benevolent Quixote (1791), a
satire on mawkish ideas of charity, are inferior in vivacity and interest to
Mrs. Lennox's work.

In 1753-54 Mrs. Lennox brought out Shakespeare Illustrated; or, Novels
and Histories on which the Plays are ... founded, collected and translated,
an uncritical piece of work according to present standards, but historically
significant as one of the earliest attempts to present Shakespeare's sources.
[363]
A two-volume novel, Henrietta, in 1758, was dramatized as a didactic
comedy under the title The Sister,[364] and brought out at Covent Garden in
1769. Though Miss Mattocks played the chief part, and the Prologue and
Epilogue were respectively by Colman and Goldsmith, the play met with
but moderate success. In 1760-61 Mrs. Lennox edited The Ladies Museum,
in which were illustrated articles on natural history written especially for
ladies, philosophical discussions simplified for ladies, and continued stories
of the love-adventure type evidently calculated for the same tastes. The
most interesting character drawing is that of an incipient Mrs. Malaprop in
the person of a Mrs. Gibbons.
If any annals were extant of Mrs. Lennox's life we should doubtless find
records of continuous study. At least we constantly get new proofs of her
learning. The Memoirs of M. de Bethune, Duke of Sully, in three volumes in
1756,[365] The Memoirs of the Countess Berci, in two volumes in the same
year, and Memoirs for the History of Madame de Maintenon, in 1757, show
not only her mastery of French, but very steady application to intellectual
tasks. In 1759 she had what might be considered her crowning honor as a
learned lady. She was chosen to edit a translation of Brumoy's Greek
Theatre. In collaboration with her were Dr. Johnson, Dr. Gregory Sharpe,
Dr. Grainger, and John Bourrya, men of recognized standing as scholars.
[366]

Mrs. Lennox lived forty-four years after the close of the period under
discussion. But she belongs properly in the first half of the century because
all her important work comes between 1750 and 1760. After a decade of
exceptional literary activity she sinks into obscurity. In 1775 Dr. Johnson
assisted in preparing proposals for the publication of her collected works, in
three quarto volumes, by subscription. Had this plan been carried out there
would doubtless have been preserved much interesting information
concerning the social and literary life of an eminently successful mid-
eighteenth-century bas bleu. From the facts at hand it is easy to see that she
was countenanced by some of the best minds of her time. Her portrait was
painted by Reynolds and engraved by Bartolozzi.

In 1770 Miss Elizabeth Carter gathered together and
published the Works of her friend Miss Catharine Talbot. Miss Catharine
There had been considerable urgency on the part of Miss Talbot (1721-1770)
Talbot's friends to secure such a publication during her lifetime, but she was
too timid, and, though The Green Book in which she kept sketches and
fragments, and "the considering drawer," constantly received accessions,
her modest opinion of her own worth and an exaggerated dread of general
criticism held her back from the ordeal of the printed page. But when the
Works finally appeared they achieved immediate popularity. The Reflections
on the Seven Days of the Week went through three editions the first year and
there was a tenth edition in 1784. Of the Works the eighth edition appeared
within forty years. The extravagant contemporary estimate of Miss Talbot
as a moral and religious writer, as a supporter of Christian ethics, can awake
only surprise in the modern reader. Even a reader whose mind has been
subdued to second-class eighteenth-century didacticism finds Miss Talbot's
moralizings pale and anæmic. But when we read her letters we come upon a
much more attractive and vital personality. A letter descriptive of Mr.
Browne Willis and his four daughters shows a gay spirit and a talent for
minute observation and social satire of the Jane Austen type.[367]
From the age of five Miss Talbot lived in the family of Mr. Seeker,
Bishop of Oxford and later Archbishop of Canterbury. Her spiritual and
mental training were constantly under the supervision of the Archbishop,
who loved her devotedly. And her education is particularly interesting as an
illustration of the desultory and fragmentary character of the intellectual
discipline provided for a girl of active mind, even in one of the best
families. One advantage was hers from early life, and that was her
association with the learned guests at the deanery where there was always
an atmosphere of scholarly and serious discussion. And her position as a
member of the Archbishop's family not only gave her entrance into the best
social circles, but made it incumbent on her, as hostess or guest, to cultivate
the amenities of life. But she did comparatively little in the way of exact
studies. She was proficient in French and Italian, but she knew no Hebrew
or Greek and but little Latin. She had tutors in geography and astronomy
and found satisfaction in the conceptions opened up to her by these
subjects. Of her drawing and painting for which she had considerable repute
she wrote in 1745:

I learn of a good master but am much too impatient and too volatile to give half the time
and application that are necessary to make anything tolerable, yet I undertake large
pictures, like an inconsiderate goose as I am, and then have the mortification to leave them
unfinished. This is actually the case with a fine holy family of Carlo Maratti's, which I
began last winter (and two or three other pictures at the same time) in crayons, and which
must now want the perfecting touches till February or March. At the same time I had
undertaken to learn perspective of Mr. Wright. I hope from all these things I shall in time
learn discretion at least, and not to be thus perpetually aiming de prendre la lune avec les
dents.[368]

This letter was written when she was twenty-five. A Dialogue written at
eighteen gives an earlier glimpse of her chaotic student life. This Dialogue
is entitled "Enquiry how far Practice has kept pace with Intention."
What have you done, this Summer?
Rode, and laughed, and fretted.
What did you intend to do?
To learn geography, mathematics; decimal fractions and good humour: to work a screen,
draw copies of two or three fine prints, and read abundance of history: to improve my
memory and restrain my fancy: to lay out my time to the best advantage: to be happy
myself, and make everybody else so. To read Voltaire's Newton, Whiston's Euclid, and
Tillotson's Sermons.
Have you read nothing?
Yes: some of the Sermons; Mrs. Rowe's Works; The Tale of a Tub; a book of Dr. Watt's;
L'Histoire du Ciel; Milton, and abundance of plays and idle books.

Archbishop Secker's household presents an agreeable picture of lettered
leisure. During the evenings there are long sessions known as "the family
readings." In 1751 they are reading Pope's Works, evidently in the recent
nine-volume edition by Warburton. They are filled with mingled pride and
shame as they reflect on his genius and his failings. They have read Mrs.
Cockburn's defense of him and they love her for her zealous championship.
But Pope is not their idol. All their hero worship, at least all of Miss Talbot's
hero worship, goes to Richardson. She cannot subscribe to any criticism of
him. In a discussion of one of his essays in The Rambler, Miss Carter's
strictures bring a spirited protest from Miss Talbot:
He does not pretend to give a scheme (not an entire scheme) of female education, only to
say how when well educated they should behave, in opposition to the racketing life of the
Ranelagh-education misses of these our days. Do read it over again a little candidly. How
can you ever imagine that the author of Clarissa has not an idea of what women may be,
and ought to be.

Richardson and Miss Talbot were personal friends and he thought so
highly of her judgment that when he contemplated creating the character of
a perfect gentleman as the hero of Sir Charles Grandison, he consulted her
concerning the traits of this superman. She in turn consulted Miss Carter,
and when the book appeared she wrote to Miss Carter in great glee:
Oh! Miss Carter, did you ever call Pigmalion a fool, for making an image and falling in
love with it ... and do you know that you and I are two Pigmalionesses? Did not Mr.
Richardson ask us for some traits of his good man's character? And did we not give him
some? And has not he gone and put these and his own charming ideas into a book and
formed a Sir Charles Grandison?

Beside the evening readings there were leisurely literary picnics, where
by some riverside they drank tea and read Madame de Sévigné's Letters and
Miss Fielding. They read Mrs. Cockburn and Mrs. Jones, and Mrs. Lennox,
even the Memoirs of Mrs. Constantia Phillips, and the early verse of Miss
Mulso. There is time for slow and meditative reading, and for interested
comment and question, back and forth, by letter. It was a normal,
unpretentious, and stimulating way to gain an acquaintance with
contemporary literature. And the great classics were read, in translations, in
the same manner. To read with a learned man like Archbishop Secker was in
itself an education.
It is thus that Miss Talbot had all the environment of education with none
of its disciplinary work. By twenty she was known as "the celebrated Miss
Talbot" without any basis of actual achievement. She seems to have
embodied an eighteenth-century ideal. Her religious beliefs were beyond
cavil, her conduct irreproachable. She had an alert mind, wide interests, and
considerable information on varied topics. She had a high social rank, and
she recognized social obligations. She was affable, approachable, attentive.
She had enough learning to give her distinction, but not enough even to
threaten pedantry. And she exerted all her talents in home and church
circles. She was not a Lætitia Pilkington writing scandal for daily bread, nor
a Mary Astell protesting against the tyranny of man, nor an Elizabeth Elstob
delving in unfashionable research. She awakened no antagonisms. She had
the success and happiness that come from being entirely in accord with
one's environment.[369]

A few mediocre poetesses at the end of the period
may be cursorily noticed because in their own day they Mary Leapor
attracted some attention. In Poems by Eminent Ladies (1722-1746)
Mary Leapor (1722-1746)[370] is given more space than any other author.
And in these decorous pages she stands out as a distinct individuality. She is
the daughter of a gardener, but no such elegant creature as Tennyson's Rose.
She has work to do indoors and out, and her life is eminently prosaic. She
has a plain face, an awkward figure, and non-descript clothes. But she has
no quarrel with fate or her mirror. She seems to have been a shrewd,
sensible young woman, vivacious, quick-witted, with no illusions, no
sentimentality, no dreams. In her minor fashion she was a satirist of the
Pope school. Of the seventeen books in the little library she had painfully
gathered, the ones she valued most were by Pope and Dryden. She manages
the heroic couplet with considerable correctness and ease and she follows
Pope's method of illustrating a topic with verse portraits. Her closely
studied country scenes suggest that Gay's Shepherd's Week must have been
among her books. Considering her youth and contracted way of life, she
had a remarkable insight into social foibles, but she had none of Swift's
scorn of the human race nor of Pope's personal virulence. Her outlook on
life was detached, tolerant, and amused.

In 1755, when Miss Mary Jones was included in
Eminent Ladies, she was still living, and therefore the Miss Mary Jones
(fl. 1755)
date of her birth was not given. But the editorial
comment says that Oxford was her home, and "hence deservedly called the
Seat of the Muses." Miss Jones corresponded with a maid of honor, had
many intimacies among the nobility, and rejoiced in the friendship of Her
Royal Highness, the Princess of Orange. Her poems had, therefore, especial
opportunities to make their way. But the modest author long resisted the
suggested publication of her works. She felt that these "accidental
ramblings of her thoughts into rhyme" were of too slight value to be
preserved in print. But she finally, in 1752, came forward with a volume
which was greeted with high praise. The Monthly Review for 1752 began an
Appreciation of her in the following flattering fashion: "To the applauded
names of the ingenious Molly Leapor, and the truly admirable Mrs.
Cockburn (see Review, the preceding volumes) we have now the pleasure to

add that of Mrs. Jones; whose name will not be less an honour to her
country, and to the republic of letters, than her amiable life and manner are
to her own sex: to that sex whose natural charms alone are found sufficient
to attract our tenderest regards; but which, when joined to those uncommon
accomplishments and virtues this lady is mistress of, so justly command our
highest admiration, and most ardent esteem." The Review considers her
compositions in verse as "superior to those of any other of our female
writers since Catherine Phillips" and her prose as "superior to any pieces of
the kind that our own country has produced, from the pen of a woman." She
was of a gay and vivacious temperament, and social by nature. Her interest
in her friends' affairs brought forth many occasional poems. A spider
frightens Charlot, Mrs. East's canary bird dies, a hare is sent to Mrs.
Clayton, Lady Beauclerk desires an elegy in memory of her husband,—
each incident receives poetical commemoration. Epistles on Patience,
Desire, and Hope are addressed to her friends among the nobility.
Like Miss Leapor she is a satellite of Pope. She has studied him to such
effect that phrases and whole lines from his poems occur in her verse, and
to the best of her ability she copies his style. Her Epistle to Lady Bowyer is
throughout curiously reminiscent of his Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Her verse
essays are loosely constructed amplifications of Pope's aphorism which she
transforms into "Whatever is, is Best."

Mrs. Madan ("formerly Miss Cowper") was living in
1755. She was reputed to have fine talents for poetry, an Mrs. Madan (fl.
"extraordinary genius," in fact, but she could never be 1755)
brought to publish any of her poems. She is therefore known now only by
her translation of Abelard's Letter to Eloisa, a kind of companion piece to
Pope's Eloisa to Abelard. It is smooth, well-expressed, and shows some
sympathetic understanding of Abelard's emotions.

Miss Mary Masters, a native of Ottley near Leeds in
Yorkshire, had an early taste for poetry, but she was Miss Mary Masters
"always brow-beat and discountenanced by her parents." (fl. 1755)
[371]
The chief poems by her in Eminent Ladies are trite paraphrases of the
Psalms and need not detain us.

In 1755 she brought out by subscription Familiar Letters and Poems on
Several Occasions. The letters between her as Maria and various friends in
1755 are of considerable interest. The young ladies discuss, in the main,
questions of love and marriage, but some letters at the end of the book
concern themselves with the relative powers of men and women. "Miss
——" sustains the conventional view that they differ fundamentally, men
having more strength of judgment, and women quicker apprehension. She
says that no woman has been great as an orator, that the best women poets
are inferior to Milton, and that men have always managed the government.
Maria maintains that the difference is not in the faculties themselves, but in
the training of the faculties and in opportunities for their use. She cites a
young lady of twenty-two in France who had been admitted to the Academy
of Science. And one entire letter is a eulogy of Italian learned ladies. She
gives the name of Clelia Borromeo of Milan, counted by the Italians "the
greatest mathematician their country has produced, except Galileo and
Manfredi"; Gabriella Agnesi, also of Milan, skilled in algebraic
computations; Countess Tullia Francesca Bizetti Imbonati, a "Lyrick
Poetess," another Milanese lady; Laura Catterina Bassi, Professor of
Experimental Philosophy in the University of Bologna, and many others.
Maria is the earliest apologist for the advancement of women to make such
definite and intelligent use of the learned Italian ladies as corroborative
illustrations.[372]

Miss Mary Chandler (1687-1745), the daughter of a
minister, was a popular poetess of Bath, where she had Miss Mary
Chandler (1687-
at eighteen set up a little shop. She was literary in her 1745)
tastes and in spite of constant ill-health and the hard
work entailed by her shop she found time for wide reading in poetry. She
also wrote rhyming riddles and poems to her friends. She became a favorite
among the gentry and the literary ladies in and about Bath, Lady Russell,
the Duchess of Somerset, Mrs. Barber, and Elizabeth Rowe being among
her friends. She often visited at great houses and her poems were handed
about with much praise. She was finally advised to make a collection of
these occasional verses and publish them. They appeared under the title A
Description of Bath, and the book was so favorably received that it went
through six editions by 1744, and a seventh and an eighth edition in 1755

and 1767. Our knowledge of Miss Chandler comes mainly from Cibber's
Lives of the Poets. The account published by Cibber was written by Miss
Chandler's brother Samuel.[373]

Mary Granville was sent at six to the private school of
Mdlle. Puelle. From eight to seventeen she was educated Mary Granville
(Mrs. Delany)
at home according to the established programme for (1700-1788)
girls destined for marriage and social position. "Music,
reading, writing, French, work, and whist" are the occupations she
enumerates. At seventeen she was married to Alexander Pendarves, a match
counted advantageous though the bridegroom was sixty and detested by the
bride. After the wedding—"conducted with much pomp and misery"—there
came seven years on an isolated estate where all the skill and patience of
the young wife were called into action by the jealous fancies and the
hypochondriac whims of her invalid husband. At twenty-four, a beautiful
widow, she entered upon a gay period of London life. Socially a success she
had many offers of marriage, but her affections were entirely centered upon
Lord Baltimore. His impassioned love was not, however, equal to the strain
put upon it by her small dowry, and he suddenly married a rich wife. After
the long illness that followed this destruction of her hopes Mrs. Pendarves
went to Ireland to recuperate. There she met Patrick Delany whom, years
later, when she was forty-three, she married. The most satisfying years of
her life came after this marriage. Dr. Delany belonged to the best literary set
of Dublin, and he was in full accord with his wife's literary and artistic
interests. For a quarter of a century her life was one of leisure, stimulating
companionship, much reading and discussion, much social variety, and long
hours of entertaining hand-work. After Dr. Delany's death in 1768 Mrs.
Delany lived in an honored, dignified, but not inactive retirement. She was
loved and visited by the King and Queen and by many devoted friends.
There had gathered about her name a tradition of love and admiration. A
sketch of her entitled "Maria," by Dr. Delany, does not exceed the general
impression we get of her charm. He wrote:
Maria was early initiated into every art, with elegance and condition, that could form her
into a fine lady, a good woman, and a good Christian. She read and wrote two languages
correctly and judiciously. She soon became a mistress of her pen in every art to which a
pen could be applied. She wrote a fine hand in the most masterly manner, she drew, and
she designed with amazing correctness and skill....

With a person finely proportioned, she had a lovely face of great sweetness set off with a
head of fair hair, shining and naturally curled, with a complexion which nothing could
equal, in which the lilies and the roses contended for the mastery. Her eyes were bright ...
indeed, I could never tell the colour they were of, but to the best of my belief they were
what Solomon calls "Dove's eyes," and she is almost the only woman I ever saw whose lips
were scarlet and her bloom beyond comparison.

Mr. Ballard dedicated the second part of the Memoirs of Learned Ladies
to her as "the truest judge, and the brightest pattern of all the
accomplishments which adorn her sex." Burke called her "the highest bred
woman of the world and the woman of fashion of all ages."
These citations but faintly indicate the impression made by Mrs. Delany
on her contemporaries. It is not, however, an impression sustained by any
existing work of hers. The seventy-two pictures she painted were copies of
old masters with occasional portraits of relatives and friends, and they were
highly prized at the time, but no one of them was of sufficient excellence to
secure permanent recognition. Her wide and diversified reading is
evidenced by her letters which are full of references to the histories, novels,
plays, criticism, and devotional works occupying her eager attention. She
carried books on every journey. She read or was read to every spare
moment. But none of this miscellaneous devotion to books resulted in
anything like learning or even in a critically discriminating taste.
Her two real achievements were letter-writing and hand-work. Over a
thousand of her letters have been published. They are lively and
entertaining and are valuable for the study of mid-eighteenth-century social
life. Especially vivid are her accounts of festivities. The rooms and their
furnishings, the gowns and jewels of the ladies, the refreshments served, the
guests and their idiosyncrasies, are effectively sketched in. There is
humorous appreciation, but no touch of malice, and almost no gossip. The
refinement and sweetness of tone in the letters never becomes vapid or
mawkish. There is always a counter-balancing gayety and buoyancy of
mood. Mrs. Delany must have made letter-writing nearly as much a matter
of business as did Miss Seward, but the heavy "epistolary solicitudes" of the
Swan of Lichfield are at the other end of the scale from Mrs. Delany's
bright naturalness. Mrs. Delany's letters are but a clear medium revealing
"the fine lady, the good woman, and the good Christian" of Dr. Delany's
picture of "Maria."

The most surprising element of Mrs. Delany's life is her hand-work. In
October, 1750, she wrote: "I am going to make a very comfortable closet, to
have a dresser, and all manner of working tools, to keep all my stores for
painting, carving, and gilding, etc., for my own room is now so clean and
pretty that I cannot suffer it to be strewed with litter, only books and work,
and the closet belonging to it to be given up to prints, drawings, and my
collections of fossils and minerals."
With almost any tool she had instinctive dexterity, and she had taste and
originality. She apparently enjoyed every kind of hand-work that came to
her notice. She never wasted a minute. The knotting-shuttle and the
embroidery needle were constant attendants on her tea-table hours, and she
accomplished almost unbelievable amounts in designing and working fancy
gowns, coverings for chairs and sofas, bed-curtains, etc. She made a carpet
and other elaborate pieces in double cross-stitch; she did "shell lustres" and
chenille work; she designed and executed a chapel ceiling in cards and
shells. Most remarkable of all is her herbal begun when she was seventy-
two and completed when she was eighty-five. The flowers were made of
colored papers and were so accurate as hardly to be distinguished from the
flowers themselves. This paper mosaic was left to the Duchess of Portland
with a selection of twenty of the flowers to Queen Charlotte. The herbal is
now in the British Museum.
A review of the achievements of Mrs. Delany—her painting, her hand-
work, her letter-writing, her multifarious reading—shows that these are but
incidental to her personal charm. Her beauty, and the loveliness of her
nature, made a fine commendatory background for whatever she did. A
friend's portrait, a design for a gown, a bit of turning in ivory, a letter—
every trifle gained in value when illumined by the "dove's eyes" of so high-
bred and elegant a lady. Her character was marked by uprightness, dignity,
and good judgment. She was delicate in her feelings, gentle, courteous, and
most sincerely kind. All of her qualities made her a desirable member of
any family or social group. It is as a fine lady of the best type that she is
remembered, not as a learned woman.

Elizabeth Carter lived nearly half a century after the
close of the period now under consideration, and her Elizabeth Carter
(1717-1806)

fame as a learned lady belongs chiefly in the second half of the century, but
the work on which that fame was based belongs before 1760. Our
knowledge of her life comes mainly from two sources, her Memoirs
published in 1807 by her nephew and executor, Montagu Pennington, and a
series of letters between Miss Carter and Miss Talbot written in the years
1741-1770 and published in 1809. There are also many allusions to Miss
Carter in contemporary writings.[374]
Miss Carter's linguistic tastes were early in evidence, but she was
discouragingly slow and dull in mastering language details. It was by sheer
force of industry that she developed her remarkable aptitude for foreign
tongues. Latin, Greek, and Hebrew she learned from her father. Italian,
Spanish, and German she taught herself. French she had learned as a child
from a Huguenot refugee minister in Canterbury. She also gained some
knowledge of Portuguese, and she finally studied Arabic. She began her
career as an author at seventeen with verses signed "Eliza" in The
Gentleman's Magazine. At twenty-one her slender little volume of poems
appeared. It is all occasional verse and nowhere rises to any particular
excellence. But its moralizing and reflective tone proved acceptable to
many readers and there were new editions in 1762, 1766, 1776, 1777, with
a translation into French in 1706.
In 1739 Miss Carter's knowledge of French and Italian, her wide reading,
and her interest in philosophical questions were shown by her translation
from the French of an attack on Pope's Essay on Man, by M. Crousaz,[375]
and a translation from the Italian of Algarotti's Newtonianismo per le dame.
[376]
At thirty-two she began her translation of Epictetus at the request of
Miss Talbot and Archbishop Secker. She kept rather fitfully at this task for
three years, from time to time forwarding completed sheets to the deanery.
She had not made the translation with any thought of publication and it was
with much difficulty that she could be brought to consider the thought of
presenting her work to a general public. But consensus of authoritative
opinion as to the ethical value of the original and the excellence of the
translation led her finally to consent to a subscription publication at a
guinea a volume in 1758. The success was unprecedented. Her share of the
profits was one thousand guineas and her fame was established beyond
cavil.

After Epictetus we hear of no more work by Miss Carter. Her intellectual
life was not, however, at a standstill. She kept up her languages by daily
assigned readings, she read much in ancient and modern history, she shows
thorough familiarity with new books of science, poetry, and letters. She
practiced on the spinet and German flute. She was an admirable
housekeeper, being in especial repute for puddings, cakes, and pastries. All
odd minutes were given to work with the needle and the shuttle. And she
was guide and teacher to her young half-brothers and sisters. But we get no
more poems, no more learned translations.
Her growing reputation as the most distinguished bas bleu in England,
her social success during London winters, the awe with which her country
neighbors regarded her as "the greatest schollard in the world," her travels
in England and on the Continent, her literary and artistic friendships—all
these given in vivid detail in her letters—belong in the picture of the
brilliant life after the mid-century mark.

MISS ELIZABETH CARTER
From an engraving in The Works of Elizabeth Carter, 1806

But in whatever period, from whatever point of view, Miss Carter
presents us with a career almost unexampled in the annals of learned ladies.

She chose learning young and pursued it undeviatingly, with no hesitancies
and no retrospective regrets. There were no disapproving friends or
relatives to interpose obstacles in her path. Few girls, even to-day, could
have greater freedom in the determination of their own hours, occupations,
and pleasures. Her father, though disheartened by her slow progress, was
her faithful teacher. Even her stepmother aided and abetted her extravagant
devotion to study. She was allowed to determine the momentous question of
marriage entirely according to her own inclinations. Her published work
met with immediate praise. She was but twenty-two when Johnson
published epigrams in Greek and Latin in her honor, and said she should be
praised in as many languages as Lewis the Grand. And by middle life she
had achieved independence, money, and fame.
Nor was her career merely an external success brilliantly masking
unsatisfied inner desires. On the contrary, to the end her eighty-nine years
seemed rich and gracious to her. She did not covet other women's lovers or
husbands or children or homes. She set possible honors lightly aside. When
her friends were urging upon her a place at court, she dreamed that she had
cut off her head for the greater convenience of curling her hair, and she
declared this dream symbolic of the fatal cost at which honors were often
bought. Her joys were of an unambitious, quiet, perennial sort. She loved
nature in all its moods of storm and shine. Her genius for friendship nearly
equaled the "Matchless Orinda's." She loved reading and had many books.
She enjoyed reflection and had many hours of happy solitude. She was
domestic in her tastes and found herself loved and needed in her father's
home. She had a sound, sweet, sensible, modest nature that not only
disarmed criticism, but preserved her from any undue or arrogant emphasis
on her position as the most distinguished literary woman of her time. And
she had an unfailing sense of humor that sent an undercurrent of enjoyment
through even the prosaic and dreary parts of life.