Pepys, Mrs., 86, 87
Pepys, Samuel, 128, 377, 401
_Percy Society Publications_, 68
_Peregrine Pickle_, 204
Perwick, Mrs., 42
_Peveril of the Peak_, 51
Philips, Constantia, 205, 246
Philips, Joan, 138-39
Philips, Mrs. Katherine, 42, 54-59, 141, 160, 230, 248, 326.
_See_ "Orinda"
Phillips, Ambrose, 338, 437
Phillips, Edward, 190, 191, 421
Phillips, John, 20
"Philomela," 157, 158, 160.
_See_ Rowe, Mrs.
_Philosophical and Physical Opinions_, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50
_Pious Englishwomen in the Seventeenth Century_, 92
Pix, Mrs., 132-33
Plügge, Georg, 239
_Poetical Recreations_, 161
_Poetical Register, The_, 191, 421
_Polite Conversation_, 52, 222
_Political and Social Letters of a Lady of Quality_, 156-57
_Polly Honeycomb_, 204, 213, 214, 413-18, 446
_Pompey the Little_, 126, 204
Pope, Alexander, 109, 130, 136, 174, 199, 201, 202, 211, 215, 218,
219, 226, 235, 245, 248, 261, 348-50, 353, 366, 393, 444
Pope, Emma Field, 2
Portland, Duchess of, 184-85
_Positions_, 17
Powell, Thomas, 23
_Power of Love, The_, 209
_Précieuses, Les_, 375, 376, 380, 400
Priests, Josias, 259
Primrose, Lady Diana, 36
_Princess, The_, 370, 430
_Protestant Nunnery, A_, 270
Prude, John, 144
Pseudonyms or Initials
"A. C." [Lady Cokaine?]
"A. M.," Mrs.
"Ardelia" [Lady Winchilsea]
"Astræa" [Mrs. Behn]
"Corinna" [Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas]
"Ephelia" [Joan Philips]
"Galesia" [Jane Barker]
"Lætitia" [Lady Mary Wortley Montagu]
"Marinda" [The Hon. Mrs. Monck]
"Marissa" [Lady Chudleigh]
"Orinda" [Mrs. Katherine Philips]
"Philomela" [Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe]
"Stella" [Hester Johnson]
Putnam, Emily James, 2, 4
Puttenham, George, 18
_Pylades and Corinna_, 212
_Queen-like Closet, The_, 91
_Quixote, The Benevolent_, 241
_Quixote, The Female_, 195, 240-41, 411-12
_Quixote, The Spiritual_, 241
Radegunde, St., 1
Rainbow, Bishop, 31, 32
_Ratione Studii, De_, 7
Reading Lists:
Vives and Hyrde, 8;
Mr. Bellamy's list, 266-67;
Dr. Hickes's list, 294-95;
list in _Essay in Defence of Female Sex_, 307-08;
Steele: _Ladies' Library_, 330-33;
Leonora's Library, 330;
Polly Honeycomb's novels, 414-17;
Lydia Languish's novels, 418-19
_Reasons Humbly Presented_, 103
Reed, Bertha, 232, 233
_Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning_, 22
_Reflections on Marriage_, 298, 300
_Refusal, The_, 395-98, 399
_Restitution of Prophecy, The_, 37
Reynolds, Myra, 150, 151, 369, 393
Richardson, Samuel, 235, 238, 245, 337-42, 354, 444, 450, 452
Riches, Catherine. _See_ Mrs. Bovey
Richmond, Countess of, 5
_Rise of the Novel of Manners_, 231
_Rivals, The_, 418-19
_Rival Widows_, 188-89
_Roger de Coverley, Sir_, 119
_Romantic Novel, An Early_, 231
_Romantick Lady, On a_, 412-13
Roper, Margaret, 7, 8, 9-11, 362, 430
Rose, G. H., 368
Rowe, Mrs. Elizabeth, 87, 157-60, 251, 262, 263, 352, 440
_Royal Hospital, Scheme for Foundation of_, 90
_Royal Mischief, The_, 208
_Rudiments of Grammar_, 6
Russell, Lady Rachel, 76, 90, 96-98, 351, 444
Salmon, Mrs., 42, 54
_Salomon, Les Proverbes de_, 35
Savage, Richard, 201
_Saxon Homilarium_, 179-81
Schiff, Mario, 27
_Scholemaster, The_, 14
Schools for Girls before 1660, 37-45
Schurman, Anna Maria van, 28, 174, 271-76, 290, 315, 323, 364, 365,
441
Scott, Mrs. Mary, 351
Scott, Mrs. Sarah, 270-71
Scott, Walter, 51
_Scottish Text Society_, 21
_Scowrers, The_, 263
Secker, Archbishop, 243, 256, 451, 452
_Secret History of Queen Zarah_, 208
_Select Colloquies_, 12
_Serious Proposal to the Ladies, A_, 102, 298, 301, 305, 311
_Sermon on Alms-giving, A_, 290
_Seventeenth Century Studies_, 57
Seward, Mr. Thomas, 181
Shadwell, Thomas, 129, 130, 380-82, 402
_Shakespeare Illustrated_, 241
Sharp, Jane, 90, 434
Sheridan, R. B., 418-19
Shirley, John, 421
Shorthouse, J. Henry, 40, 41, 113
Siddons, Mrs., 83
Singer, Elizabeth [_See_ Mrs. Rowe]
_Sir Charles Grandison_, 245
_Sir Patient Fancy_, 378-79
Sir Roger de Coverley, 119, 120
Smith, Florence, 101, 297, 301, 302, 303
_Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne_, 260
_Social Life under the Stuarts_, 40, 68
Society for Encouragement of Learning, 193
"Society of Friendship," 57
Somerset, Daughters of Duke of, 13
Somerset, Duchess of, 251, 262, 263
_Song of Three Children Paraphrased_, 146
"Sophia," 111, 313-15, 341, 442, 448, 453
"Sophronia," 395-98
Southey, Robert, 423
_Specimens of British Poetesses_, 19, 423
_Specimens of Later English Poets_, 423
_Spectator, The_, 260, 261, 447
_Spence's Anecdotes_, 196
Sprint, Mr., 147
_Stage, History of the English_, 81
_Stage, Some Account of the English_, 77, 83, 132, 188, 241
Stainforth, Rev. A. J., 127
Stanglmaier, Karl, 161
Steele, Sir Richard, 119, 121, 174, 209-11, 304, 330-33, 338, 366,
403-09, 444
"Stella," 348, 350, 452
Strype, John, 37
_Studies in Chaucer_, 192
_Sullen Lovers_, 380-82
Swearing in England, 52
Swift, Jonathan, 52, 174, 178, 218-31 (_passim_), 303, 444, 452
Symonds, Emily, 193, 194, 196, 199
_Table Talk_, 25
Talbot, Catherine, 77, 243-46, 256, 440
_Tatler, The_, 121
Taylor, Jeremy, 56, 451
_Telemachus_, 266
Telford, John, 115
Temple, Sir William, 61-66 (_passim_)
_Tender Husband, The_, 338, 403-09, 418-19, 444
Tennyson, Alfred, 370, 430
_Term Catalogues_, 35, 68, 85, 90, 92, 144
_Theatrum Poetarum_, 20, 190, 421
Thomas, Edward, 29
Thomas, Miss Elizabeth, 211-12
Thoresby, Ralph, 87, 160, 161, 174, 179, 197, 268
Thornton, Mrs. Alice, 44
_Three Hours after Marriage_, 153, 304, 393-95
_Through England on a Side Saddle_, 165-69
Thwaites, Mr., 174
Tindale, Mr., 181
_Token for Children_, 89
_Tom of All Trades_, 23
_Tom Jones_, 342-43
_Tour in Scotland_, 32, 33
_Tragedy of Marian, The_, 33-34
_Traité de l'éducation des filles_, 291
_Treatise on Education_, 338
_Treatise on the Lord's Prayer_, 7
Trotter, Catherine, 132
_See_ Mrs. Cockburn
_Troy Book_, 3
_Truman, Sir George_, 417
_Turkish Letters_, 207-08
Tutchin, Mrs. Elizabeth, 259
Udall, Nicholas, 17, 426
Upham, A. H., 74, 306
"Valeria," 389-91, 450
Vanbrugh, Sir John, 387-88
Vazeille, Mrs., 352
Verney, Molly, 259, 262
Verney, Sir Ralph, 24, 25, 447
_Victoria History of Yorkshire_, 122, 123
_Vindication of the Church of England_, 103
_Vindication of Mr. Locke's Christian Principles_, 109
_Virtuous Woman Found, The_, 68
Vives, Juan Luis, 7, 426
_Vives and the Renascence Education of Women_, 5-10 (_passim_)
Walker, Dr., 68, 69
Walker, Mrs. Elizabeth, 95
Walker, John, 171
Walpole, Horace, 84
Walsh, Marie Donegan, 4
Walsh, William, 322
Wanley, Mr., 178
Ward, Henry, 114
Ward, Mary, 38-40
_Ward, Mary, A Foundress of the Seventeenth Century_, 38
_Ward, Mary, The Life of_, 38
Warwick, Countess of, 68-69, 80, 428
_Warwicke, M., Specialties in the Life of_, 68
Watson, Foster, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Watts, Isaac, 89, 435
_Way of the World, The_, 444
Webb, Mrs. Maria, 111, 114
"Wellfed, Mrs.," 387
Wentworth, Lady Arabella, 45
Wesley, John, 230, 351-52
_Wesley, John, The Life of_ (Telford), 115
_Wesley, John, The Life of_ (Winchester), 115, 116, 117
_Wesley's Journal, The Heart of_, 230
Wesley, Mrs. Susannah, 115-17
"Western, Mrs.," 342-43, 452
Westmoreland, Jane, Countess of, 14
Weston, Jane, 19-20, 23, 53, 326
Wharton, Mrs., 144, 351
_What Ann Lang Read_, 213
Wheler, Sir George, 270
Whicher, G. F., 212, 213, 215, 216
White, Mrs. Elizabeth, 95
Whitgift, John, 37
_Wife, A_, 23
_Wife, The_, 217-18
Wilford, John, 123, 421
Williams, Jane, 12, 424
Wills, Henry, 119
Winchester, C. T., 115
Winchilsea, Lady, 129, 150-55, 174, 304, 349, 352, 382, 393-95, 424,
426, 432, 438, 451, 452
Winstanley, William, 190, 421
"W. M.," 132, 386-87
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 429, 455
_Woman as Good as the Man, The_, 286-90
_Woman in Italy_, 4
_Woman in Science_, 1, 4, 6
_Woman under Monasticism_, 1
_Womankind in Western Europe_, 4
_Woman's Record_, 424
Women artists, 84-88, 433
Women book-sellers, 229
Women, Catalogue of Learned, 421
Women, Education of, Current opinion embodied in Comedy, 445-47
Women, Education of, Opinion of minority on, 448-53
Women, Education of, in relation to the Church, 453-54
_Women, Education of, during the Renascence_, 9
_Women of England, Literary_, 12, 424
_Women of Florence_, 4
_Women, Illustrious History of_, 421
Women, Learned, and a Public, 430-31
_Women of Letters, English_, 130, 424
Women in Literary Biography, 420-24
Women in medicine, 433-34
Women novelists, 437
Women playwrights, 436-37
Women in practical benevolence, 435
Women printers, 216
Women in propaganda, 441-42
Women in religious controversy, 442-44
Women, Religious verse by, 438
Women in science, 434-35
Women, Work of, compared with contemporary work by men, 444-45
Women writers of autobiography and letters, 439-41
Women writers on practical subjects, 89-92
_Women's speaking justified_, 112
_Wonder, The_, 134, 136
Wood, Anthony à, 190
Wood, Mrs. Hannah, 264-67, 447
Woolley, Mrs. Hannah, 91, 92, 434
Wordsworth, William, 40, 168
_Works of the Learned_, 109
_Worthies of Yorkshire and Lancashire_, 32
Wotton, William, 22, 23
"Wrangle, Lady," 396-98
Wright, Thomas, 382-84, 402
Wright, Thomas, 4
Wroth, Lady Mary, 29, 326
Wycherley, William, 130, 444
Young, Arthur, 167
Young, Edward, 201
Young, Francis Berkeley, 21, 22
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
U . S . A
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mozans, H. J.: _Woman in Science_. Chapter, "Woman's Long
Struggle."
[2] For the work of these nuns see Mozans: _Woman in Science_;
Eckenstein, Lina: _Woman under Monasticism_.
[3] For Hroswitha's plays see _Fortnightly Review_, March, 1896, pp.
443-50; _The English Historical Review_, July, 1888.
[4] Putnam, Emily James: _The Lady_, p. 71.
[5] I am indebted to Miss Emma Pope for the following citations.
[6] _Guy of Warwick_, E.E.T.S., vol. 25, ll. 63 ff.
[7] _Floris and Blanchefleur_, E.E.T.S., vol. 14, ll. 16 ff.
[8] _Sir Bevis of Hamtoun_, E.E.T.S., vols. 46-48, ll. 3671 ff.
[9] _Partonope of Blois_, E.E.T.S., vol. 109, ll. 5912 ff.
[10] Gower: _Confessio Amantis_, E.E.T.S., vol. 82 (part 2), ll. 1327
ff.
[11] Lydgate: _Troy Book_, bk. I, ll. 1606 ff.
[12] Mozans: _Woman in Science_, p. 63.
[13] See Wright, Thomas: _Womankind in Western Europe_; Mozans:
_Woman in Science_; Boulting, William: _Woman in Italy_; Walsh, Marie
Donegan: "A City of Learned Women," _The Catholic World_, 1902;
Lagno, Isadore del: _Women of Florence_, tr. by Mary G. Steegman;
Putnam, Emily James: _The Lady_.
[14] Ballard, George: _Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain_,
p. 5.
[15] _Ibid._, pp. 9-27; Watson, Foster: _Vives and the Renascence
Education of Women_, pp. 2-3. _New and General Biographical
Dictionary_.
[16] Mozans: _Woman in Science_, p. 68; Watson, _Vives and the
Renascence Education of Women_, pp. 6-8; Prescott, W. H.: _History of
the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella_, vol. II, pp. 93-194, _passim_.
[17] Watson, Foster: _Vives and the Renascence Education of Women_,
p. 7.
[18] _Ibid._, p. 11. Mr. Watson gives a full analysis of the
treatises appearing between these dates.
[19] Watson, Foster: _Vives and the Renascence Education of Women_,
p. 43.
[20] _Ibid._, p. 56.
[21] Watson, Foster: _Vives and the Renascence Education of Women_,
p. 117.
[22] _Ibid._, pp. 166-68. Margaret Roper is given as an illustration
of the beneficial effects of learning.
[23] _Ibid._, pp. 57-63, "What Books to be Read and What Not." See
also pp. 203-06.
[24] _Encyclopædia Britannica_ (11th ed.), under "Princess Mary."
[25] See More, Cresacre: _The Life of Sir Thomas More_, first
published about 1631, and edited by Reverend Joseph Hunter, 1828;
Watson, Foster: _Vives and the Renascence Education of Women_, chap.
V, "The School of Sir Thomas More"; Ballard, _Memoirs_, pp. 38-61;
Manning, Anne: _The Household of Sir Thomas More_; Cannon, Mary
Agnes: _Education of Women during the Renaissance_.
[26] More, Cresacre: _The Life of Sir Thomas More_ (ed. 1726), p. 128.
[27] Ballard: _Memoirs_, p. 39.
[28] Watson, Foster: _Vives and the Renascence Education of Women_,
p. 187.
[29] Ballard: _Memoirs_, p. 58.
[30] More, Cresacre: _Life of Sir Thomas More_ (ed. 1726), p. 138.
[31] Ballard: _Memoirs_, p. 43.
[32] More, Cresacre: _The Life of Sir Thomas More_ (ed. 1726), p. 141.
[33] Ballard: _Memoirs_, p. 49.
[34] Drummond, Robert B.: _Erasmus, His Life and Character_, vol. II,
p. 168.
[35] Erasmus: _Select Colloquies_ (edited by Merrick Whitcomb), p.
179.
[36] Ballard (_Memoirs_, pp. 180-210) gives full account of the
daughters of Sir Anthony Coke; see also, Williams, Jane: _Literary
Women of England_; Chalmers, Alexander: _Gen. Biog. Dict._ (ed.
1812), vol. 10.
[37] Ballard: _Memoirs_, pp. 138-43.
[38] Ballard: _Memoirs_, pp. 121-23.
[39] _Ibid._, p. 120.
[40] _Ibid._, pp. 79-97.
[41] _Ibid._, p. 145.
[42] Ascham: _Scholemaster_, bk. I, no. 7; Ballard: _Memoirs_, pp.
98-118.
[43] Ballard: _Memoirs_, p. 36.
[44] Mulcaster, Richard: _Positions_, chap. 38.
[45] Ballard: _Memoirs_, p. 127.
[46] Puttenham, George: _The Arte of English Poesie_, lib. III, chap.
XXI.
[47] Translation of _Cortegiano_ by L. E. Opdyke (1903), bk. III, p.
172.
[48] Ballard: _Memoirs_, pp. 243-47.
[49] Aubrey: _Brief Lives_, vol. I, p. 193.
[50] Scottish Text Society, 1902, p. 4.
[51] _Notes and Queries_, 2d Series, vol. VIII, pp. 247, 312.
[52] Ballard: _Memoirs_, pp. 259-66; Young, Francis Berkeley: _Mary
Sidney, Countess of Pembroke_. (Full and discriminating account of
Lady Pembroke as patroness and author.)
[53] The only record of Lady Pembroke's scientific tastes. Aubrey's
testimony is, unfortunately, not entirely to be relied on. [Young:
_Mary Sidney_, p. 154.]
[54] Wotton, William: _Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning_,
p. 349.
[55] New Shakspere Society Series, vol. VI, p. 173.
[56] Habington, William: _Castara_, Preface to "The Second Part."
[57] Brathwait, Richard: _The English Gentleman_ (ed. 1633), p. 264.
[58] _Memoirs of the Verney Family_, vol. III, pp. 72-74.
[59] Luther, Martin: _Table Talk_ (edited by William Hazlitt), no.
dccxxv.
[60] Milton, John: _Paradise Lost_, bk. IV, 299.
[61] _Notes and Queries_, 4th Series, vol. IV, p. 195. For many years
the superior advantages accorded English women was a stock subject
of national self-congratulation. In the light of this fact we read
with interest a comment by De Segur in 1803: "The English women live
much in the same manner as those of Turkey, with the exception of
walls and keepers. Without being so much overlooked, they suffer
equal constraint. However great the superiority they may be sensible
they possess above their husbands, they are obliged to respect and
to fear them; and they endeavor to acquire their love as a matter
of necessity. Such is also the lesson they give to their children,
and it may be remarked that they recommend it to them rather as a
political measure than as a duty. In fact, they can command only by
obeying; and when it is said that a woman is happier in England than
in any other country, it is only saying that she is prepared, by her
education, to be more satisfied than another woman with a mediocrity
of happiness." (Hill, Georgiana: _Women in English Life_, vol. II, p.
89.)
[62] _Notes and Queries_, 1st Series, vol. II, p. 214.
[63] See Schiff, Mario: _La Fille d'alliance de Montaigne: Marie
de Gournay_. (An account of her life; a list of her works; her two
essays in defense of women, and an account of her relations with Anna
van Schurman. Reviewed in _Modern Language Notes_, 1911.)
[64] Feugère, Leon: _Les femmes poètes au XVI^e siècle_.
[65] Thomas: _Feminine Influence on the Poets_, pp. 335-40.
[66] This edition, brought out by Messrs. Blackwood, "is accompanied
by a long preface or dissertation containing many particulars
relating to the authoress and her relatives, and to a number of
ladies of high station and polished education, who, during the period
intervening between the Reformation in England and the Revolution in
1688, distinguished themselves by publishing works characterized by
exalted piety and refined taste." (_Notes and Queries_, 1st Series,
vol. IV, p. 410.) I have not had access to this edition.
[67] Ballard: _Memoirs_, pp. 265-66.
[68] Two hundred and five letters published by The Camden Society in
1854.
[69] _Biographium Femineum_, vol. II, p. 193. From Funeral Sermon by
Bishop Rainbow on the text, "Every wise woman buildeth her house"
(Proverbs XIV, 1): Coleridge, Hartley: _Worthies of Yorkshire and
Lancashire_, p. 291.
[70] Mr. Pennant's _Tour in Scotland_ (ed. 1790), part II, pp. 355-62.
[71] _Ibid._, p. 360.
[72] _The Tragedy of Mariam_, Malone Society Reprint, "Introduction."
[73] Godfrey, Elizabeth: _Home Life among the Stuarts_, p. 103.
[74] Carter, Thomas T.: _The Life of Nicholas Ferrar_, p. 102.
[75] The _Term Catalogues_ illustrate the permanence of this
interest. Edward Cocker was one of the best-known calligraphers
in the second half of the seventeenth century. One of his works
is _England's Penman, or Cocker's new Copy-Book, containing all
the curious Hands practised in England and our neighboring Nations
with admirable directions peculiar to each Hand. So also the Breaks
of Secretary, Roman, and Italian Letters; with the exemplifying
Court-hand, and an exact copy of the Greek alphabet._ (1679.)
[76] Ballard: _Memoirs_, p. 188.
[77] Dyce: _Specimens_, p. 510.
[78] Dyce: _Specimens_, pp. 271-80.
[79] Strype, John: _The Life and Acts of John Whitgift_, vol. III, p.
383.
[80] Monroe, Paul: _Cyclopædia of Education_, under "Women, Higher
Education of."
[81] _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act IV, Sc. 2. (1591.)
[82] _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act III, Sc. 2. (1594-95.)
[83] See Chambers, Mary C. E.: _The Life of Mary Ward_, ed. by Henry
James Coleridge; Mary Salome (Mother): _Mary Ward, a Foundress of the
Seventeenth Century_.
[84] Much has been written concerning the life of Little Gidding. In
1790 Mr. G. P. Peckard, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and
the husband of a descendant of the Ferrar family, published _Memoirs
of the Life of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar_ (reprinted in Wordsworth's
_Ecclesiastical Biography_, vol. IV). In 1828 and again in 1837
appeared _Brief Memoirs of Nicholas Ferrar_, by the Reverend T. M.
Macdonogh (based on an unpublished _Life_ by Bishop Turner, extracts
from which had been published in _The Christian Magazine_ in 1761).
An abridgment of Peckard's _Memoirs_ appeared in 1852. In 1855 came
the most important of the works on Ferrar. It was _Nicholas Ferrar,
Two Lives_, by J. E. B. Mayor, Cambridge. The Reverend Thomas
Carter's _Nicholas Ferrar, his Household and Friends_, came out in
1892. In 1880 Mr. J. Henry Shorthouse described Little Gidding in
chapter IV of _John Inglesant_. In 1896 Emma Marshall, in _A Haunt
of Ancient Peace_, also introduced the life of Little Gidding into
a fictitious narrative. In 1899 the _Story Books_ of Little Gidding
were edited by E. C. Shorland. In _Archæologia_ for 1888 is Captain
J. E. Ackland's "Catalogue of the Gidding Concordances." In Thomas
Hearne's _Caii Vindiciæ_, vol. II, pp. 713-94, is "Remains of the
Maiden-Sisters' Exercises at Little Gidding." In _Bibliographica_ is
an account of the Bindings. See also Godfrey's _Social Life under the
Stuarts_, pp. 209-15.
[85] Carter, T. T.: _Life of Nicholas Ferrar_, p. 127.
[86] _Bibliographica_, vol. II, pp. 129-49. Article by Cyril
Davenport.
[87] See p. 54.
[88] Monroe: _Cyclopædia of Education_, under "Private Schools."
[89] _Notes and Queries_, 1st Series, vol. XI, p. 279.
[90] Monroe, Paul: _Cyclopædia of Education_, under "Gerbier"; _Notes
and Queries_, 1st Series, vol. III, p. 317.
[91] Hill, Georgiana: _Women in English Life_, vol. I, p. 150.
[92] See p. 46.
[93] See p. 74.
[94] See p. 69.
[95] See _The Philosophical and Physical Opinions, Written by her
Excellency, the Lady Marchionesse of Newcastle_, London, 1655
(containing Lord Newcastle's "Epistle to justifie the Lady Newcastle,
and Truth against falsehood, laying those false and malicious
aspersions of her, that she was not Author of her Books." Also "To
the Reader," "To the Two Universities," "An Epilogue" and several
brief introductory epistles); _Philosophical Letters: or, Modest
Reflections Upon some Opinions in Natural Philosophy, Maintained by
several Famous and Learned Authors of this Age, Expressed by way of
Letters: By the Thrice Noble, Illustrious, and Excellent Princess,
the Lady Marchioness of Newcastle_, London, 1664 (containing "To
His Excellency the Lord Marquis of Newcastle," "To the most Famous
University of Cambridge" and "To the Reader"); _A True Relation of
the Birth, Breeding, and Life of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of
Newcastle, Written by Herself. With a Critical Preface, etc., by Sir
Egerton Brydges, M.P. Printed at the private Press of Lee Priory_,
1814 (taken from _Nature's Pictures drawn by Fancy's Pencil_);
_The Lives of William Cavendish Duke of Newcastle, and of his wife
Margaret Duchess of Newcastle. Written by the thrice noble and
illustrious Princess, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle_, ed. by Mark
Antony Lower, M.A., London, 1872 (a reprint of the first edition of
1667); _The Life of William Cavendish Duke of Newcastle to which is
added, The True Relation of My Birth, Breeding, and Life by Margaret,
Duchess of Newcastle_, ed. by C. H. Firth, M.A., Scribner, 1886;
_Letters and Poems in Honour of the Incomparable Princess, Margaret,
Dutchess of Newcastle, Written by Several Persons of Honour and
Learning. In the Savoy_, 1676; Ballard: _Memoirs_, pp. 299-306;
Walpole, Horace: _Royal and Noble Authors_.
[96] _Philosophical and Physical Opinions_, Duke of Newcastle's
"Epistle."
[97] _Ibid._, "To the Reader."
[98] _Philosophical and Physical Opinions_, "To the Reader," pp.
100-101.
[99] _Philosophical and Physical Opinions_, Duke of Newcastle's
"Epistle."
[100] _Ibid._, "Address to the Two Universities."
[101] _Life of Duke and Duchess of Newcastle_ (ed. Frith), p. xxxi.
[102] Scott, Sir Walter: _Peveril of the Peak_, chap. XLV.
[103] Osborne, Dorothy: _Letters_ (ed. Parry), pp. 92, 111.
[104] On swearing note the following extract from a sixteenth-century
writer: "There is no regyon nor countrie that doth use more swearynge
than is used in Englande, for a chyld that scarse can speake, a
boy, a gyrle, a wenche, now-a-days wyl swere as great othes as an
old knave and an old drabbe.... As for swearers a man nede not
to seke for thym, for in the Kynges courte and lordes courtes in
cities, borowes and in townes, and in every house, in maner there is
abbominable swerynge, and no man dothe go about to redresse it, but
doth take swearyng as for no sinne, which is a damnable synne; and
they the which doth use it, be possessed of the Devill, and no man
can helpe them but God and the Kynge." (Hill, Georgiana: _Women in
English Life_, vol. I, p. 116.)
See p. 317 for reprobation of "female swearers" in _The Ladies'
Calling_ (1671). Swift's _Polite Conversation_ (1738) bears the same
implication as to the manners of good society in the first quarter of
the eighteenth century.
[105] The "Matchless Orinda" gives us an inkling of the way some of
this praise should be discounted. It seems that Waller was reported
to have said that he would give all his own poems to have been the
author of a poem written by the Duchess of Newcastle. On being taxed
with insincerity he answered that he could "do no less in Gallantry
than be willing to devote all his own Papers to save the Reputation
of a Lady, and keep her from the Disgrace of having written anything
so ill." (_Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus_, Letter XLII.)
[106] _Life of the Duchess of Newcastle_ (ed. Brydges), "Critical
Preface."
[107] Aubrey: _Brief Lives_, vol. II, pp. 153-54.
[108] Keats, John: _Letters to his Family and Friends_, pp. 29-30.
[109] Philips, Mrs. Katherine: _Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus_,
Letter XIV. This letter also appeared in the Preface to her _Works_
in 1768.
[110] Giffard, Lady: _Her Life and Letters_, p. 41.
[111] _The Lives of the Norths_, vol. III, p. 289.
[112] _Ibid._, Editor's Preface.
[113] Giffard, Lady Martha: _Her Life and Letters_, p. 27.
[114] Osborne, Dorothy: _Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William
Temple_. "Introduction."
[115] That the letters narrowly escaped destruction is indicated by
the following letter written by Mrs. Sarah Osborne in 1770 to Sir
George Osborne, Dorothy's great-nephew: "Mrs. Temple did lend me
these letters to read with injunction not to shew them. I very much
doubt if she would send them to London.... Most of these letters
were in the tender stile with sensible sentiments, indeed I believe
Mrs. Temple burnt them after I had read them, she said she would,
as indeed I think she should, such letters can never be exposed to
advantage, there were many wrote after her marriage, they soon grew
tame and flat to what was before."
[116] Giffard, Lady: _Her Life and Letters_, pp. 38-39.
[117] _Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple_, p. 100.
[118] Ballard gives the arguments in favor of Lady Pakington.
[119] Johnstone, Grace: _Leading Women of the Restoration_, p. 101.
[120] _Percy Society Publications_, vol. XXII. See also biographies
of the Countess of Warwick by C. Fell Smith (1901) and Mary Palgrave
(1901).
[121] _Term Catalogues._
[122] _Autobiography_ (_Percy Society Publications_, vol. XXII, p.
21).
[123] Godfrey, Elizabeth: _Social Life under the Stuarts_, p. 138.
[124] Johnstone, Grace: _Leading Women of the Restoration_, pp. 107,
117.
[125] _Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson_ (Bohn ed.), Preface, p. ix.
[126] Hutchinson, Mrs. Lucy: _Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson_, p. 16.
[127] _Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson_, p. 14.
[128] _Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson_, pp. 56-62.
[129] _Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson_, p. 478.
[130] _Anglia_: vol. 36, "Lucy Hutchinson and the Duchess of
Newcastle."
[131] _The Memoirs of Ann, Lady Fanshawe, 1600-1672_, p. 22.
[132] _Ibid._, p. 5.
[133] The use of "Miss" and "Mrs." between 1660 and 1750, and even
later, is often confusing. The use of "Mrs." for all reputable
persons of the female sex, even children, prevailed during the
seventeenth and into the eighteenth century. On the tombstone of
Milton's daughter, a child under six months we read, "1657. Mar. 20.
Mrs. Kathern Milton." (_Notes and Queries_, 7th Series, vol. VII,
p. 494.) _A Continuation of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, Written
by a Young Gentlewoman, Miss A. W._ (1651, 2d edition, 1690), is a
striking exception. There was sometimes a distinction between the
married and the unmarried in that the latter had the Christian name
after the "Mrs." as when Evelyn speaks of "Mrs. Margaret Blagge,"
but this custom was by no means invariable. The prefix "Miss" began
soon after the Restoration to be used as a term of reproach. January
9, 1662, Evelyn says of Roxalana, "She being taken to be ye Earl of
Oxford's _Misse_ (as at this time they began to call lewd women)."
In 1669 Flecknoe, in _Epigrams of All Sorts_, wrote a poem to Mary
Davis, the King's mistress, under the title "To Miss Davis." In
1675 appeared "_The 'Miss' displayed; with all her Wheadling Arts
and circumventions, By the Author of the First Part of the 'English
Rogue.'_" In 1683, in Miss Barber's _Poems_, was a poem entitled "To
the Town Miss," and in one of her novels (about 1715) she speaks of
the "Town Miss" who pretends to modesty. In 1690 we find the _Dutch
Whore, or, the Miss of Amsterdam_.
"Miss" in a reputable sense belonged to very young girls. In 1675
Lady Russell speaks of her daughter Rachel, who was then four years
old, as "our Miss." When the little girl is thirteen her grandfather
calls her "Mrs. Rachel." (_Lady Russell's Letters_, vol. I, pp.
14, 139.) In 1723, in _The Gentleman Instructed_, we read "As soon
as Reason begins to sparkle, Miss is led to the drawing-room." The
proper age for "Miss" seems a little advanced in two quotations made
by Mr. Aitkin (_Life of Steele_, vol. I, p. 162) from _Lillie's
Original and Genuine Letters sent to the Tatler and Spectator_.
One young lady says: "Being arrived at sixteen I have left the
boarding-school, and now having assumed the title of Madam instead
of Miss am come home." A second quotation seems to indicate a still
further extension of the proper age for Miss; "Let no woman after the
known age of twenty-one presume to admit of her being called Miss
unless she can fairly prove she is not out of her sampler."
Actresses were usually called "Mrs." in the bills. The first use
of "Miss" that I can find is in 1685 in D'Urfey's _Commonwealth
of Women_, where a part was played by "Miss Nanny" (Genest: _Some
Account of the English Stage_, vol. I, p. 443). In D'Urfey's _Don
Quixote_ Altesidora was played by "Miss Cross." Genest (vol. II, p.
70) says: "She was called _Miss_ because she was quite a girl ...
she was afterwards called Mrs. Cross ... the case was the same with
several other actresses--Cibber in _The Lady's Last Stake_ calls
two of the female characters _Miss_ Notable and _Mrs._ Conquest,
tho' they are both unmarried--but one is a girl and the other a
woman." "Miss Cross" was "Mrs." on the bills within a year. "Miss
Younger" came into the house at seven years old. Later she became
"Mrs. Younger." So with Miss Mountfort, Miss Santlow, Miss Sherburn,
Miss Booth, Miss Rogers, and other young actresses who entered the
theatrical profession between 1700-1715.
By 1750 "Miss" for unmarried women is pretty well established.
The list of subscribers to Ballard's _Memoirs_ (1752) contains
many ladies called "Miss." _The Connoisseur_, November 25, 1754,
said: "Every unmarried woman is now called 'Miss.'" But "Mrs." for
reputable unmarried women beyond girlhood was occasionally used
through the century. Elizabeth Carter was always "Mrs. Carter," while
her friend Catharine Talbot, about the same age, was "Miss Talbot."
In _Humphrey Clinker_ (1771) Tabitha Bramble, though a spinster, is
"Mrs." Sir Walter Scott called Joanna Baillie "Mrs." in the beginning
of the nineteenth century. _Notes and Queries_ (7th Series, vol. VII,
pp. 104-256) calls attention to the fact that as late as 1889 "Mrs."
was in many places considered the correct title for upper-class
unmarried female servants.
[134] Evelyn, John: _Life of Mrs. Godolphin_ (ed. Edward William
Harcourt of Nuneham Park), p. 10.
[135] _Ibid._, p. 24.
[136] Evelyn, John: _Life of Mrs. Godolphin_, p. 8.
[137] _Ibid._, p. 184.
[138] Evelyn, John: _Life of Mrs. Godolphin_, p. 215.
[139] Fitzgerald: _History of the English Stage_, vol. I, pp. 60-62.
[140] "Gildon, in the Comparison between the two stages, 1702,
attacks Mrs. Bracegirdle's private character.
"'_Sullen._ But does that Romantick Virgin still keep up her
reputation?'
"'_Critick._ D' ye mean her reputation for acting?'
"'_Sullen._ I do; but if I were to be saved for believing that
single article, I could not do it: 't is all, all a juggle, 't is
legerdemain; the best on 't is, she falls into good hands, and the
secrecy of the intrigue secures her; but as to her innocence, I
believe no more on 't than I believe of John Mandevil.'
"Tom Brown, in his description of the playhouse, is still more
severe on Mrs. Bracegirdle.... Among Tom Brown's Letters from the
Dead to the Living, there is one from Mrs. Behn to the famous Virgin
Actress--and another from the Virgin to Mrs. Behn.
"Gildon and Tom Brown seem to have had no foundation for their ill
nature, but the extreme difficulty with which an actress at this
period of the stage must have preserved her chastity.
"Mrs. Bracegirdle was perhaps a woman of cold constitution.
"Anthony Aston says--'Mrs. Bracegirdle, that Diana of the stage, had
many assailants on her virtue, as Lord Lovelace and Mr. Congreve,
the last of which had her company most; but she ever resisted his
vicious attacks, and, yet was always uneasy at his leaving her--she
was very shy of Lord Lovelace's company, as being an engaging man,
who drest well; and as, every day, his servant came to her, to ask
her how she did, she always return'd her answer in the most obeisant
words and behavior, that she was indifferent well, she humbly thanked
his Lordship ... her virtue had its reward, both in applause and
specie; for it happen'd, that as the Dukes of Dorset and Devonshire,
Lord Halifax, and other Nobles, over a bottle, were extolling Mrs.
Bracegirdle's virtuous behavior, "Come," says Lord Halifax--"You all
commend her virtue, etc., but why do we not present this incomparable
woman with something worthy her acceptance?"--his Lordship deposited
200 guineas, which the rest made up to 800, and sent to her with
encomiums on her virtue.'" (Genest: _Some Account of the English
Stage_, vol. II, pp. 376-78.)
[141] Walpole, Horace: _Anecdotes of Painting_, vol. II, p. 381.
[142] Walpole, Horace: _Anecdotes of Painting_, vol. II, 537-44;
Pilkington: _Dictionary of Painters_, 1770; _Biographia Britannica_,
vol. II, p. 30; Cibber: _Lives of the Poets_, vol. II.
[143] Cibber: _Lives of the Poets_, vol. II, pp. 224 ff.
[144] At Admiral Killigrew's sale in 1727 were six of his niece's
canvases. They were Venus and Adonis, A Satyr playing on a Pipe,
Judith and Holofernes, A woman's head, Graces dressing Venus, and her
own portrait.
[145] Pepys, _Diary_: May 7, June 30, July 26 and 29, Aug. 7, 21, 22,
Sept. 3, 27, Oct. 10, 1665.
[146] For a list of the books for children published by Newbery and
Carnan see the 1768 edition (a fifth edition) of _Goody Two Shoes_
(_Notes and Queries_, 4th Series, vol. VIII, p. 510). Cf. Mrs.
Field's _The Child and His Book_ and Elizabeth Godfrey's _Home Life
under the Stuarts_, chap. XIII.
[147] See pp. 233-39.
[148] _Term Catalogues_, Easter, 1671, Easter, 1690.
[149] _Lady Russell's Letters_, vol. I, p. 70 n.
[150] See _Pious Englishwomen of the Seventeenth Century_. Derby,
1845. The list of names given in this book is as follows: Lady
Falkland, Lady Carberry, Lady Sunderland, Lady Capel, Mrs. Basire,
Lady Mary Wharton, Margaret Lady Maynard, Anne Lady Halkett, Lady
Jane Cheyne, Countess of Derby, Countess of Dorset; with notices
of Sibylla Egerton, Lady Sophia Chaworth, Isabella Fotherby, Alice
Duchess Dudley, Lady Grace Grenville, Mary Perry, Lady Mary Hastings,
Lady Pakington, Lady Digby, Mary Evelyn, Elizabeth Lady Guildford,
Lady Newland, Lady Cholmondely, Katharine Lady Neville, Barbara Lady
Longueville, Mrs. Susannah Hopton, Anne Baynard, Catharine Bovey,
Mrs. Mary Astell, Lady Elizabeth Hastings. (_Notes and Queries_, 6th
Series, vol. VII, p. 355.)
[151] Hill, Georgiana: _Women in English Life_, vol. I, p. 191.
[152] Published Easter, 1671.
[153] Lady Russell's Letters, vol. II, pp. 72-85.
[154] Ballard: _Memoirs_, p. 390.
[155] Florence Smith: _Mary Astell_, p. 109.
[156] Bourne, H.: _Life of Locke_, vol. II, p. 213.
[157] _Occasional Thoughts_, p. 169. See _The Lady's Magazine_, 1774,
for an article on Lady Masham.
[158] Dunton: _Life and Errors_, p. 334; Nichols: _Anecdotes of
Bowyer_, p. 609; _Ibid._: _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. I, p. 305;
Dryden: _Works_ (ed. by Scott), vol. x, p. 110.
[159] Nichols: _Anecdotes of Bowyer_, p. 612.
[160] Cockburn: _Works_, vol. I, p. vi.
[161] Mrs. Cockburn: _Works:_ Letters to G. Burnet, Dec. 9, 1701;
Feb. 2, 1703-04, vol. II, pp. 153, 166. Also Letter from Mrs. Burnet,
vol. I, p. xvii.
[162] Mrs. Cockburn: _Works_, vol. I, p. xx.
[163] _Ibid._ See Letters to Mr. Cockburn, June 23 to Sept. 21, 1707;
Letters to Mr. Fenn, July 18 to Oct. 31, 1707.
[164] _Ibid._, vol. I, p. xii.
[165] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 171.
[166] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 174.
[167] _Ibid._, vol. I, p. xxv.
[168] Mrs. Cockburn: _Works_, vol. II, p. 206.
[169] _Ibid._, vol. I, p. xi.
[170] Hill, Georgiana: _Women in English Life_, vol. I, p. 248.
[171] Webb, Maria: _The Fells of Swarthmoor Hall_.
[172] Ward's _Life of Henry More_ (1710). _Encyclopædia Britannica_,
11th ed., under "More, Henry"; _Dictionary of National Biography_,
under "Lady Conway"; Webb, Mrs. Maria: _The Penns and Penningtons of
the Seventeenth Century_, pp. 297, 313.
[173] _British Quarterly Review_, July, 1873, pp. 181-87.
[174] Winchester: _Life of Wesley_, p. 1. Telford: _Life of Wesley_,
p. 52.
[175] Winchester, _Life of Wesley_, p. 9.
[176] _Ibid._, p. 8.
[177] _Life of Wesley_, pp. 10-11.
[178] Manley, Mrs.: _The New Atalantis_, vol. III, p. 245; Ballard:
_Memoirs_, p. 440; cf. _Notes and Queries_, 2d Series, vol. IX, pp.
221-22; Wills, Henry: ed. of _Sir Roger de Coverley_, pp. 170-74.
[179] _A History of the County of Yorkshire_, vol. I, p. 499.
[180] _The Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. 5, p. 778.
[181] _Ibid._, vol. 6, p. 42.
[182] _Ibid._, vol. 6, p. 99.
[183] _Ibid._, vol. 10, p. 36.
[184] _Lady Huntingdon and her Friends_. Compiled by Mrs. Helen C.
Knight, p. 18.
[185] Coventry, Francis: _Pompey the Little_, bk. I, chap. XL.
[186] This conception of a divinely authorized aristocracy governed
by a special set of laws tallies with the opinion formulated by Dr.
George Hickes in a sermon preached before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen
of London in 1684. Dr. Hickes justified the presence of the poor in
the body politic, as necessary to the very existence of the State:
"But this Civil Equality is morally impossible, because no
Commonweal, little or great, can subsist without Poor. They are
necessary, for the establishment of Superiority, and Subjection
in Humane Societies, where there must be Members of Dishonour, as
well as Honour, and some to serve and obey, as well as others to
command. The Poor are the Hands and Feet of the Body Politick, the
_Gibeonites_ and _Nethinims_ in all Countries, who hew the Wood,
and draw the Water of the Rich. They Plow our Lands, and dig our
Quarries, and cleanse our Streets, nay, those, who fight our battels
in the defence of their Country, are the _Poor Souldiers_, who, as
the Legions of _Blæsus_ once complained in a Mutiny, sell their
lives for seven pence a day. As there must be Rich to be, like the
Centurian in the Gospel, in Authority: so there must be Poor, to whom
they may say, _Go unto one, and he goeth, and to another come, and he
cometh_; but were all equally rich, there could be no subordination,
none to command, nor none to serve. But in such case, the Body
Politick must dissolve, as the Natural body was like to do in the
Fable of _Agrippa_, when the rest of the Members would work no longer
for the Belly, which, they thought did nothing at all."
[187] In 1656 there appeared a book by Elizabeth Major entitled
_Honey on the Rod, or a Comfortable Contemplation for one in
Affliction, with Sundry Poems. By the Unworthiest of the Servants of
the Lord Jesus Christ._ In 1652 had appeared anonymously _Eliza's
Babes, or the Virgin's Offerings_. A detailed examination of the two
books leads to a surmise that they are by the same author. What is
probably a unique copy of _Eliza's Babes_ is in the British Museum.
(_Notes and Queries_, 7th Series, vol. III, p. 502.)
[188] Cibber: _Lives of the Poets_, vol. II, p. 168.
[189] Lady Winchilsea: _Circuit of Apollo_, note. (Ed. Reynolds,
Myra.)
[190] Behn, Aphra: _Works_, 6 vols.; Cibber, _Lives of the Poets_,
vol. III, pp. 17-23.
[191] _The Epistle to Augustus_, ll. 290-91.
[192] Kavanagh, Julia. _English Women of Letters_, vol. I, chap. II.
[193] See p. 386.
[194] See p. 388.
[195] Genest, _Some Account of the English Stage_, vol. II, p. 104.
[196] See pp. 104-09.
[197] Mrs. Inchbald: _The British Theatre_, vol. XI; Cibber: _Lives
of the Poets_, vol. IV, pp. 58-61.
[198] Centlivre, Susanna: _Works_. "To the World."
[199] Hobohm: _Das Verhältniss von Sus. Centlivre's "Love at a
Venture" zu Thomas Corneille's "Le Gallant Double."_ (Hall. Diss.
1900.) Wüllenweber: _Mrs. Centlivre's Lustspiel "Love's Contrivance"
und seine Quellen_. (Hall. Diss. 1900.) Strube: _Sus. Centlivre's
Lustspiel "The Stolen Heiress" und sein Verhältniss zu "The Heir"
von Thomas May_. (Hall. Diss. 1900.) Grober: _Das Verhältniss von
Sus. Centlivre's Lustspiel "The Gamester" zu Reynard's Lustspiel
"Le Joneur."_ (Hall. Diss. 1900.) Weidler: _Das Verhältniss von
Mrs. Centlivre's "The Busy Body" zu Molière's "L'Etourdi" und Ben
Jonson's "The Divill is an Ass."_ (Hall. Diss. 1900.) Ohnsorg: _John
Lacy's "Dumb Lady," Mrs. Centlivre's "Love's Contrivance" und Henry
Fielding's "Mock Doctor" in ihrem Verhältniss zu einander und zu
ihrer gemeinshaftlichen Quelle_. (Rostock. Diss. 1900.) Poelchau:
_Susannah Centlivre's Tragödie "The Cruel Gift" in ihrem Verhältniss
zur Quelle Boccaccio's Decameron IV_. (Hall. Diss. 1905.)
[200] See p. 85, 86.
[201] See mezzotint engraving by Becket in 1686 edition of her poems.
[202] See pp. 85-86.
[203] _The Lives of the Norths_, vol. I, p. 7; vol. III, pp. 262, 295.
[204] Verses by that "Excellent Poetess, Mrs. Wharton," with other
poems to her, were published with "The Idea of Christian Love," by
Mr. Edward Young of Salisbury. _Term Catalogues._ (Mich. 1688.)
[205] _A Sermon at the Funeral of the late learned and ingenuous Mrs.
Ann Baynard, Daughter and only Child of Dr. Edward Baynard, Fellow
of the College of Physitians. Together with some remarkable passages
of her life, preached at the Parish Church of Barn(e)s in Surrey,
June 6, 1697. By John Prude, A.M., Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of
Norfolk; and Curate of St. Clement's Danes. Term Catalogues._ (Trin.
1697.)
[206] _Biog. Fem._, p. 42.
[207] Cibber: _Lives of the Poets_, vol. III, pp. 177-86.
[208] Mr. Sprint's sermon was printed under the title _The
Bride-Woman's Counsellor. Being a Sermon Preach'd at a Wedding,
May the Eleventh, 1699 at Sherbourne in Dorsetshire._ It was from
1 Cor. VII, 34, "But she that is Married careth for the things of
the World, how she may please her Husband." He explains that "Man
was all Affibility and Sweetness of Temper" before the Fall, the
chief responsibility for which was properly placed on Eve and her
female descendants. God had also fully indicated her function when
he deliberately created her for the Profit and Comfort of Man. "A
good wife," continues Mr. Sprint, "should be like a Mirrour which
hath no Image of its own, but receives its Stamp and Image from the
Face that looks into it: So should a good Wife endeavour to frame
her outward Deportment, and her inward Affections according to her
Husband's." She must not only obey his commands but she must bring
"under unto him the very Desires of the Heart to be regulated by
him so far, that it should not be lawful for her to will or desire
what she herself liked, but only what her husband should approve and
allow." Mr. Sprint printed his sermon only because of attacks by some
"ill-natur'd Females." He gets his revenge by saying that he has not
met among all his accusers one woman "whose Husband is able to give
her the Character of a dutiful and obedient Wife."
[209] Lady Chudleigh's summary of the arts of a successful wife is
exemplified in a serious book published anonymously entitled _The
Fair Counsellor, or, The Young Lady's Conduct after Marriage_.
Charlotte is instructing Olivia in "The Art of Management." A woman
must recognize that she is confined to her husband for life and
hence she should make it her business to please. She should learn to
reflect his moods as in a glass. To all wayward humors she should
oppose passive obedience and non-resistance. If he should come home
intoxicated she should "by all the little innocent Arts of Love and
fond Endearments decoy him to his Bed." An illustrative example of
what may be done by gentleness and submission is the experience of
Sir Toby Testy and his wife. Sir Toby became so warm with anger
one day as to cane my Lady. She retired in tears to her own room,
explaining to him later that it seemed better to her to bemoan her
fate in silence than to expose his unkindness to a censorious world.
The outcome was that he clasped her in his arms with a thousand
endearing protestations, and never disobliged her again to his dying
day.
[210] Winchilsea, Lady: _Poems_ (ed. Reynolds, Myra); "A Fragment."
[211] That Lady Winchilsea's work was pretty well known before 1713
is evident from an interesting passage in Mrs. Manley's _The New
Atalantis_ (1709). Some invisible spectators are being taken about
under the guidance of "Intelligence." They are observing the daily
parade of coaches on the "Prado" when Intelligence calls attention to
a lady in one of the coaches. "The Lady," he says, "once belonged to
the Court, but marrying into the Country, she made it her Business
to devote herself to the Muses, and has writ a great many pretty
Things: These Verses of the Progress of Life, have met with abundance
of applause, and therefore I recommend them to your Excellency's
Perusal." _The Progress of Life_ is then quoted entire and Astræa
comments: "The Lady speaks very feelingly: We need look no further
than this, to know that she's herself past that agreeable Age she so
much regrets. However, I am very well pleas'd with the Thought that
runs thro'; if she had contracted something of the second and third
stanza, it had not been the Worse. I presume she's one of the Few
that write out of Pleasure, and not Necessity. By that means its her
own Fault, if she publish any Thing but what's Good; for it's next to
impossible to write much and write well." (Vol. I, p. 186.) In the
_Key_ the "Lady" thus spoken of is said to be "Col. Finch's Lady once
a Maid of Honour." Mrs. Manley's version of _The Progress of Life_
shows several slight verbal variations from the form published in
1713. Two lines on Parnassus in the second stanza appeared in 1713 as
more orthodox lines on Canaan. But when Miss Seward's mother taught
her the poem in 1763, it was the old and not the 1713 version that
she used. (Winchilsea, Lady: _Works_, ed. Reynolds, p. lxxiii.)
[212] Cibber: _Lives of the Poets_, vol. III, pp. 201-03.
[213] Thoresby: _Diary_, May 13, 1709; May 1, 1713; April 22, 1716;
Sept. 2, 1716.
[214] The most complete account of Miss Barker is in an inaugural
dissertation by Karl Stanglmaier, Berlin, 1906, entitled _Mrs. Jane
Barker. Ein Beitrag zur Englischen Literaturgeschichte_.
[215] "To Mrs. Jane Barker on her most Delightful and Excellent
Romance of Scipina, now in the Press."
"To my Ingenius Friend Mrs. Jane Barker, on my Publishing her Romance
of Scipina."
Both of these poems are in Part II of _Poetical Recreations_ (1688).
The second one is by Benjamin Crayle.
[216] _Amours of Bosvil and Galesia_, pp. 3-4.
[217] In the second edition of the _Entertaining Novels_ (1719), in
a dedication to the Countess of Exeter, Miss Barker says, "Was it
not Burleigh House with its Park, &c., that formed in me the first
idea of my Scipio's country retreat? Most sure it was, for when I
composed my Romance I knew nothing further from home than Burleigh
and Warthorp." These two seats of the Exeter family are about seven
miles from Wilsthorp. (_Notes and Queries_, Series IX, no. 10, p.
171.) Miss Baker lived at Wilsthorp which is near Stamford and only
about forty miles from Cambridge.
[218] Barker, Jane: _Poems, passim_.
[219] _Poems_: "To my Unkind Strephon."
[220] In _Amours of Bosvil and Galesia_ and _A Patch-Work Screen_.
[221] _Amours_, p. 11.
[222] Mr. Barker studied at both Universities.
[223] _Amours_, p. 13.
[224] _A Patch-Work Screen_, p. 10.
[225] _Ibid._, p. 56.
[226] _Poems_, "On the Apothecary's Filing my Bills amongst the
Doctors."
[227] _Poems_: "A Farewell to Poetry with a Long Digression on
Anatomy."
[228] _Poems_: "A Virgin Life."
[229] _Amours_, pp. 44-46.
[230] _Amours_, p. 47.
[231] Celia Fiennes: _Through England on a Side Saddle_,
Introduction, pp. ix-xi.
[232] Celia Fiennes: _Through England on a Side Saddle_, p. 99.
[233] _Ibid._, p. 114.
[234] Between 1767 and 1771.
[235] Celia Fiennes: _Through England on a Side Saddle_, p. 163.
[236] _Ibid._, p. 165.
[237] In Nichols: _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. IV, p. 139, is this
statement: "From another of Miss Elstob's letters in the same
collection [letters to Mr. Ballard] it appears that Dr. Hickes was
her grandfather by the mother's side; a circumstance which may
account for her proficiency, if not for the origin of her Saxon
studies." I have not as yet found confirmation of this relationship.
In the letters and dedications to him the brother and sister put
forward no claim to relationship, and in the letter Dr. Hickes wrote
in behalf of William Elstob and in those written in approbation of
Miss Elstob's work, there is no indication that he was asking help
for his grandchildren. The _Dictionary of National Biography_ says
that Dr. Hickes "left no children," a statement slightly ambiguous,
for while it conveys the impression that he had no children, it
might be literally true even if Jane Elstob were his daughter, for
she died about twenty-four years before he did. Nichols in _Literary
Anecdotes_ speaks of an Elstob pedigree "accompanied by another
pedigree of Mrs. Elstob's mother." These were on a single leaf
fastened into Richard St. George's _Visitation of the County of
Durham_ (1615), among the MSS. of the Harleian Collection.
[238] Walker, John: _Letters of Eminent Persons_, vol. I, pp. 243-40;
Nichols: _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. IV, pp. 112-40, "The Elstobs."
[239] Preface to Miss Elstob's _Homily on the Birthday of St.
Gregory_.
[240] Nichols, _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. IV, p. 130. "Dissertation
on Letter Founders," by Edward Rowe Mores.
[241] Mr. Rowe Mores, in _Dissertation on Letter Founders_, says
of Miss Elstob: "In her latter years she was tutoress in the
family of the Duke of _Portland_, where we have visited her in her
sleeping-room at _Bulstrode_, surrounded with books and dirtiness,
the usual appendages of the folks of learning. But if any one wishes
to see her as she was when she was the favorite of Dr. _Hudson_ and
the _Oxonians_, they may view her portraiture in the initial G of
_The English Saxon homily on the birthday of St. Gregory_." This
portrait is repeated in his _Grammar_.
[242] In the "G" of Gregorium is a portrait of Mr. Thwaites as St.
Gregory. (Nichols: _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. IV, p. 131.)
[243] _Letters of Eminent Men addressed to Ralph Thoresby, F. R. S._
[244] A new edition of this _Homily_ was brought out by William
Pickering, Leicester, 1839.
[245] _Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory_, p. ii.
[246] This _Grammar_ is "remarkable for being the first effort
to present the study of Old English through the medium of modern
English." (Adams, Eleanor N.: _Old English Scholarship in England
from 1566-1800_, p. 92.)
[247] July 31, 1715, Mr. Hearne wrote to Mr. Hickes thanking him
for his "excellently learned _Thesaurus_," and for Mrs. Elstob's
_Grammar_. He comments on her Preface as "judicious, learned, and
elegant." He is particularly pleased with her remarks on the author
of the "Dissertation on reading the Classicks, and forming a just
stile." This gentleman was of St. Edmund's Hall and was always looked
upon as a vain, flashy person. "I look'd upon him as the most unfit
Person I knew of a Scholar to write upon this Subject.... His book
hath been sufficiently ridiculed & condemned her by y^e best Judges."
(_Hearne's Collections_, vol. IV, p. 83.)
[248] An interesting fact in connection with the publication of the
_Grammar_ has to do with the type. Some years after the printing of
the _Homily_ the house of the printer, Mr. Bowyer, was burned and
all the Anglo-Saxon type was destroyed. They could not have printed
the _Grammar_ had not Lord Chief Justice Parker provided the funds
for cutting new type. In 1753 Mr. N. Bowyer, son of the printer of
the _Grammar_, sent this type, as a curiosity, to Mr. Edward Rowe
Mores with this letter: "I make bold to transmit to Oxford, through
your hands, the Saxon punches and matrices, which you were pleased
to intimate would not be unacceptable to that learned Body. It would
be a great satisfaction to me if I could by this means perpetuate
the munificence of the noble Donor, to whom I am originally indebted
for them, the late Lord Chief Justice Parker, afterwards Earl of
Macclesfield, who, among the numerous Benefactors which my father
met with, after his house was burnt in 1712-13, was so good as to
procure those types to be cut, to enable him to print Mrs. Elstob's
Saxon Grammar. England had not then the advantage of such an Artist
in Lettercutting as has since arisen: and that as my father received
them from a great Patron of Learning, his son consigns them to the
greatest Seminary of it." (Nichols: _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. II,
pp. 355-59.) In 1768 Mr. Edward Rowe Mores presented these punches
and matrices to the Society of Antiquaries, and the Reverend Mr.
Pegge at that time communicated to the Society some account of
William and Elizabeth Elstob. (_Archæologia_, 1804, vol. I, p.
xxv.) The difficulty in getting good type is shown by the following
letters: May 19, 1713, Mr. Robert Nelson wrote to Mr. Wanley: "Pray
do me the favor to write out the Saxon characters for Mr. Bowyer,
as you have kindly promised; despatch in this affair is of great
consequence because my Lord Chief Justice Parker does intend to
assist towards repairing this misfortune by giving him a set of
press letters, and is very uneasy that he is not ready to begin
his friend's book which requires these characters to perfect it."
(_Anecdotes of Bowyer_, p. 493.) Mr. Wanley said that he wrote out
the letters in the most exact and able manner that he could "But it
signified little; for when the alphabet came into the hands of the
workman (who was but a blunderer) he could not imitate the fine and
regular stroke of the pen; so that the letters are not only clumsy,
but unlike those that I drew. This appears by _Mrs. Elstob's Saxon
Grammar_ being the book mentioned by Mr. Nelson." (_Ibid._, p. 498.)
[249] Nichols: _Illustrations of Literary History_, vol. I, p. 804.
[250] _Ibid._, vol. IV, pp. 211-12.
[251] Nichols: _Illustrations of Literary History_, vol. IV, p. 213.
[252] Nichols: _Ibid._, vol. I, p. 804.
[253] Dr. Hickes also wrote strongly in favor of Miss Elstob's
work in his manuscript Preface to _Orosius_. (Nichols: _Literary
Anecdotes_, vol. IV, p. 132.)
[254] _Hearne's Collections_, vol. IV, p. 87.
[255] _Ibid._, vol. IV, p. 93.
[256] Nichols: _Anecdotes of Bowyer_, p. 48.
[257] Nichols: _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. IV, pp. 125-27.
[258] _Hearne's Collections_, vol. V, p. 271.
[259] _Ibid._, vol. V, p. 337.
[260] _Ibid_., vol. V, p. 358.
[261] The folio manuscripts of Miss Elstob's _Homilies_ are now
preserved among the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum. See
_Bibliothecæ Lansdownianæ_, nos. 370-74, and _Bibliothecæ Harleiana_,
vol. I, p. 323, no. *27.
[262] _Hearne's Collections_, vol. VI, p. 255. Mr. Rowe Mores said
that Miss Elstob had once had a genteel fortune, but that she had
"pursued too much the drug called learning, and in that pursuit
failed of being careful of any one thing necessary."
[263] "The learned Saxonist, Mrs. Elstob, was one, among many others,
who about this period [1714] experienced the new Bishop's bounty."
(Nichols: _Illustrations of Literary History_, vol. III, p. 227.) Mr.
Thomas Seward, Bishop of Lichfield, knew Miss Elstob and was one of
the contributors to her support. (Nichols: _Literary Anecdotes_, vol.
IV, p. 135.)
[264] Nichols: _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. IV, p. 137.
[265] _Letters of Mrs. Delany_, 1st Series, vol. I, p. 263. Mrs.
Chapone was evidently a gifted letter-writer and it is with a sense
of great loss that we read of the accidental burning of many of her
letters in 1860. (_Letters of Mrs. Delaney_, 1st Series, vol. I, p.
263 n.)
[266] _Letters of Mrs. Delany_, 1st Series, vol. II, p. 31.
[267] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 14.
[268] _Letters of Mrs. Delany_, 1st Series, vol. II, p. 18.
[269] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 56
[270] A full _Life_ of Miss Elstob is much to be desired. In
Ballard's _Letters_, in the Letters of many contemporary antiquaries
and Saxon scholars, especially Dr. George Hickes, and in manuscripts
at Bulstrode, there must be many further sources of interesting
information concerning her life and work. Especially would Mrs.
Chapone's letter be a valuable contribution.
[271] Allibone's _Dictionary of Authors_.
[272] Bruce, James: _Lives of Eminent Men of Aberdeen_; _Chalmer's
Dictionary_; _The Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. XVII; _Anecdotes of
Bowyer_, p. 556.
[273] Footnote 1: _Notes and Queries_, 2d Series, vol. XI, p. 101.
[274] Baker: _Biographia Dramatica_, vol. IV, p. 212.
[275] Gnest: _Some Account of the English Stage_, vol. III, p. 461.
[276] _The Gentleman's Magazine_, March, 1735.
[277] Lowndes: _Bibliographical Manual_.
[278] _Notes and Queries_, 2d Series, vol. XI, pp. 101-02.
[279] Lounsbury: _Studies in Chaucer_, vol. III, p. 242.
[280] The statutes of this Society were dated May 27, 1736. In
December Mr. Alex. Gordon wrote, "We are every day increasing both
in number and in members either conspicuous for their quality or
station, or learning and ingenuity." But constant difficulties
arose between the Society and book-sellers. No plan tried proved
satisfactory to both parties. By 1765 the finances of the Society
were practically exhausted, and in April, 1746, the Society came to
an abrupt close, after a starving and not very productive ten years.
(Nichols: _Anecdotes of Bowyer_, pp. 134-38.)
[281] Miss Emily M. Symonds says of the author of the _Anecdotes_:
"Lady Louisa Stuart inherited her grandmother's tastes for literary
pursuits. That this taste was discouraged by her family is a real
calamity, as all will agree who are familiar with the _Selections
from her Manuscripts (Essays and Verses)_, and the _Letters to Miss
Clinton_. Her sketch of the family of John, Duke of Argyll, is a
biographical gem, and her youthful letters read as if they had been
written by one of Jane Austen's most charming heroines. Her satire
is so sweet-tempered that it is evident she likes her victims none
the less for her laughter, while her common-sense philosophy, with
its sub-acid flavour of gentle cynicism may be studied with advantage
even in these enlightened days. A glimpse of Lady Mary's daughter and
granddaughter may be obtained from the _Diary_ of Miss Burney, who
met the two ladies at Mrs. Delany's in 1787. Lady Bute, she records,
with an exterior the most forbidding to strangers, has powers of
conversation the most entertaining and lively where she is intimate.
She is full of anecdote, delights in strokes of general satire, yet
with mere love of comic, not insidious ridicule. She spares not for
giving her opinions, and laughs at fools as well as follies, with the
shrewdest derision. Lady Louisa Stuart, her youngest daughter, has
parts equal to those of her mother, with a deportment and appearance
infinitely more pleasing; yet she is far from handsome, but proves
how well beauty may be occasionally missed, when understanding and
vivacity unite to fill up her place.... They seem both to inherit
an ample portion of the wit of their mother and grandmother, Lady
Mary Wortley Montagu, though I believe them both to have escaped
all inheritance of her faults. On the occasion of another and later
meeting Miss Burney writes: 'Lady Bute and Lady Louisa were both in
such high spirits themselves, that they kept up all the conversation
between them with such a vivacity, an acuteness, and an observation
on men and manners so clear and so sagacious, that it would be
difficult to pass an evening of greater entertainment.'" (Symonds,
Emily Morse: _Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her Times_, p. 537.)
[282] Symonds, Emily Morse: _Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her
Times_, p. 4.
[283] _The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu_ (Bell,
1887), vol. II, p. 240.
[284] _Ibid._, LXXVI. Lady Louisa gives the later history of these
ponderous black books saying that they survived the wear and tear
of a century through the protection of an excellent person who had
been Lady Bute's attendant before her marriage, and a part of the
family ever after. "Her spectacles were always to be found in Clelia
and Cassandra, which she studied unceasingly six days of the week,
prizing them next to the Bible and Tillotson's Sermons; because, to
give her own words, they were all about good and virtuous people,
not like the wicked trash she now saw young people get from the
circulating libraries."
[285] Symonds: _Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her Times_, p. 7.
[286] _Spence's Anecdotes_, by Singer (Ed. 1820), p. 232.
[287] Montagu, Lady Mary: _Works_, vol. I, p. 40.
[288] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 403.
[289] Montagu, Lady Mary: _Works_, vol. II, p. 5.
[290] Symonds, Emily Morse: _Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her
Times_, p. 201.
[291] _Ibid._, p. 169.
[292] _Letters and Works_, vol. II, p. 41. The debate referred to
was on the conduct of the Spanish government, and took place on
Thursday, March 1, 1739. Mrs. Pendarves, afterwards Mrs. Delany,
gives the following slightly different account of the matter: "Lady
Westmoreland ... and the Duchess of Queensberry, Mrs. Fortescue
and myself, set forward for Westminster, and got up to the gallery
door without any difficulty. There were thirteen ladies more that
came with the same intention. To tell you all the particulars of
our provocations, the insults of the doorkeepers and our unshaken
intrepidity, would flourish out more paper than a single frank
would contain; but we bore the buffets of a stinking crowd from
half an hour after ten till five in the afternoon without moving an
inch from our places, only see-sawing about as the motion of the
multitude forced us. At last, our committee resolved to adjourn to
the coffeehouse of the Court of Request, where debates began how we
were to proceed? It was agreed amongst us to address Sir Charles
Dalton (gentleman usher of the Black Rod) for admittance. The address
was presented, and an answer returned that whilst one lady remained
in the passage to the gallery, the door should not be opened for
the members of the House of Commons, so we generously gave them the
liberty of taking their places. As soon as the door was opened, they
all rushed in, and we followed."
It is of interest to compare the events of this attack on the House
of Lords with two similar attempts to affect legislative action
in the seventeenth century. In 1643, when some peace propositions
had been under consideration in the House of Commons, but had been
finally abandoned, the women of London, with white silk ribbons
in their hats, went in great numbers to the House bearing a peace
petition. The House sent out a deputation of three or four members to
meet them, mollify them, and induce them to return home. Rushworth
recounts the further progress of the affair:
"But the women, not satisfied, remain'd thereabouts, and by noon
were encreased to five thousand at the least; and some men of the
rabble in women's cloaths mixt themselves amongst them and instigated
them to go to the Commons door and cry 'Peace, Peace,' which they
did accordingly, thrusting to the door of the House at the upper
stairs head; and as soon as they were pass'd a part of the Trained
Band (that usually stood sentinal there) thrust the soldiers down
and would suffer none to come in or go out of the House for near two
hours. The Trained Band advised them to come down, and first pulled
them; and, afterwards to fright them shot powder. But they cry'd
out 'Nothing but powder,' and having brickbats in the yard threw
them apace at the Trained Band, who then shot bullets, and killed
a ballad-singer with one arm that was heartening on the women, and
another poor man that came accidentally. Yet the women not daunted,
cry'd out the louder at the door of the House of Commons, 'Give
us these traitors that are against peace that we may tear them to
pieces, give us that dog Pym.'"
This "Female Riot" had a disastrous end. When Waller's troopers
went by with his colors in their hats, the women snatched some of
the ribbons, calling the men Waller's dogs. The troopers defended
themselves, at first with swords "flatways," but later cutting so
furiously over hands and faces that most of the women fled. The few
who remained were later dispersed by a troop of horses.
[293] On her return she brought nineteen volumes of this journal
which she entrusted to her daughter. Lady Bute kept them under lock
and key, occasionally reading passages from them, and once allowing
her daughter, Lady Louisa, to read the first portions. Before Lady
Bute's death the manuscript was solemnly burned as a sacred duty to
her mother's memory.
[294] Montagu, Lady Mary: _Works_, vol. II, p. 211 n.
[295] Montagu, Lady Mary: _Works_, vol. II, p. 314.
[296] _Ibid._, vol. I, p. cxxvii.
[297] Montagu, Lady Mary: _Works_, vol. II, p. 236.
[298] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 239.
[299] Montagu, Lady Mary: _Works_, vol. II, p. 252.
[300] Cibber: _Lives of the Poets_, vol. IV, pp. 4-22.
[301] Reprinted in 1725 as _A Stage Coach Journey to Exeter_.
[302] Vol. I, pp. 205-13.
[303] Vol. IV, pp. 302-07. (Conversation between Steele as "Don
Phœbo" and Mrs. Tofts.)
[304] _The Tatler_ (ed. Aitkin), vol. IV, p. 242 n.
[305] Cibber: _Lives of the Poets_, vol. IV, pp. 146-63.
[306] Whicher, George Frisbie: _The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza
Haywood_ (Columbia, 1915), p. 2.
[307] "Whereas Elizabeth Haywood, Wife of the Reverend Mr. Valentine
Haywood, eloped from him her Husband on Saturday the 26th. of
November last past, and went away without his Knowledge and Consent:
This is to give Notice to all persons in general, That if any one
shall trust her either with Money or Goods, or if she shall contract
Debts of any kind whatsoever, the said Mr. Haywood will not pay the
same." (_Post Boy_, January 7, 1721. Quoted by Mr. Whicher, p. 3.)
[308] In 1723, at Drury Lane, she played "Mrs. Graspall" in her own
comedy, _A Wife to be Lett_. In 1715, six years before she left her
husband, she had appeared as "Chloe" in Shadwell's adaptation of
_Timon of Athens_.
[309] A complete bibliography of Mrs. Haywood's works is given by Mr.
Whicher in his _Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood_, pp. 126-204.
[310] Gosse, Edmund: _Gossip in a Library_; "What Ann Lang Read," pp.
161-69.
[311] Whicher: _The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood_, p. 13.
[312] See section on "Novel-Reading Girl."
[313] Whicher, G. F.: _The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood_,
chap. V, "The Heroine of _The Dunciad_."
[314] Whicher, G. P.: _The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood_,
p. 22.
It may be noticed that late in the century several women were
successful printers and publishers. "Mrs. Munelly was a printer in
White Fryars; and publisher of _The St. James's Evening Post_, a
very old newspaper, the precursor of _The St. James's Chronicle_"
(Nichols's _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. III, p. 467.) "In April, 1775,
Mrs. Baskerville, who had carried on the printing business of her
husband, announced that business for sale, but she continued the
business of letter founding in all its parts." (_Ibid._, vol. III,
p. 459.) "William Caslon, whose foundry was of great repute, died
in 1778, leaving the business to his widow. Her merit and ability
in conducting a capital business during the life of her husband,
and afterwards till her son was capable of managing it, can only be
known to those who had dealings with that manufacturer. In quickness
of understanding, and activity of execution, she has left few equals
among her sex." (_Ibid._, vol. III, p. 357.)
[315] _Ibid._, chap. 7, "The Domestic Novel."
[316] Pope, Alexander: _Works_ (Elwin and Courthope), vol. VII, p.
177.
[317] Pope, Alexander: _Works_ (Elwin and Courthope), vol. VII, p.
191; vol. III, p. 243.
[318] Swift, Jonathan: _Works_ (ed. Scott), vol. XVII, p. 359.
[319] Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), vol. XVII, p. 367. Letter to
Countess of Suffolk, p. 371.
[320] _Ibid._, vol. XVII, p. 306.
[321] _Ibid._, vol. XVII, p. 342.
[322] _Ibid._, vol. XVII, p. 353.
[323] _Ibid._, vol. XVIII, p. 168.
[324] Swift: _Works_: (ed. Scott), vol. XVIII, p. 147.
[325] In 1754, at a sale of 150 pictures belonging to Dr. Mead, a
picture of "Mrs. Barber the poetess, in Water Colours," brought only
1_l._ 9_s._, the next lowest price paid for any picture. (_Notes and
Queries_, 5th Series, vol. II, p. 107.) Mrs. Barber suffered from
severe attacks of gout and she had been one of Dr. Mead's patients.
[326] Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), vol. XIX, pp. 5-9.
[327] "There being then but one Man-Midwife in the Kingdom my Father
made himself Master of That useful Art, and practised it with great
success, Reputation and Humanity." (Mrs. Pilkington: _Memoirs_, vol.
VII, p. 12.)
[328] Mrs. Pilkington: _Memoirs_, vol. I, pp. 27-29.
[329] _Brookiana_, vol. II, p. 123.
[330] Clarke, Adam: _A Bibliographical Dictionary_, vol. VI, p. 142.
[331] Mrs. Pilkington: _Memoirs_, vol. I, p. 46.
[332] Swift to Lord Bathurst, October, 1730: _Works_ (Elrington
Ball), vol. IV, p. 169, note.
[333] Craik, Henry: _Life of Swift_, vol. II, p. 189.
[334] Mrs. Pilkington: _Memoirs_, vol. I, p. 132. Swift: _Works_ (ed.
Scott), vol. XVIII, p. 171.
[335] Mrs. Pilkington: _Memoirs_, vol. I, p. 135.
[336] _Ibid._, vol. I, p. 119.
[337] _Ibid._, vol. I, p. 120.
[338] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 249.
[339] Mrs. Pilkington: _Memoirs_, vol. II, p. 249.
[340] _Ibid._, vol. II, pp. 84, 224, 231, 234.
[341] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 221.
[342] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 240. At the beginning of the eighteenth
century we not infrequently find notice of women book-sellers,
as Elizabeth Janeway of Chichester (1697); Eleanor Smith (1697);
Elizabeth Whitlocke (1697-99); Anne Speed at Three Crowns, Exchange
Alley (1705-09); Mrs. Billingsly under Royal Exchange (1707);
Margaret Coggan (1708-09); Mrs. Appleby of Gravesend (1711); Mrs.
Small of Deal (1711); etc. (_Term Catalogues_, _passim_.)
[343] _The Heart of John Wesley's Journal_, p. 182.
[344] Morgan, Charlotte E.: _The Rise of the Novel of Manners_, p. 70.
[345] Swift, Jonathan: _The Journal to Stella_, February 21, 1713.
[346] See an article entitled "An early Romantic Novel," by Miss
Helen Sard Hughes in the _Journal of English and Germanic Philology_,
vol. XV, pp. 564-97. In an unpublished manuscript Miss Hughes has
made an elaborate study of Mrs. Collyer in her relation to her times.
I am indebted to this study for many suggestions.
[347] See article by Mr. John Louis Haney on "German Literature in
England before 1790," in _Americana Germanica_, vol. IV, pp. 130-54;
and an article on "The Influence of Solomon Gesner upon English
Literature," by Miss Bertha Reed, in _German American Annals_, vol.
VII (1905), vol. VIII (1906).
[348] Article VI, vol. XI, p. 78.
[349] See article by F. J. Harvey Darton on children's books, in
_Cambridge History of Literature_, vol. XI, chap. XVI.
[350] Hughes, Helen Sard: _Mary Mitchell Collyer: A Romanticist of
the Mid-Century_, chap. III (unpublished manuscript).
[351] In my study, _Nature in English Poetry between Pope and
Wordsworth_, in a brief account of fiction from this point of view, I
gave _John Buncle_ as the earliest writer of fiction to make abundant
use of nature. It is interesting to find Mrs. Collyer, not only
antedating him, but excelling him in accuracy and fullness.
[352] Fielding, Henry: _Complete Works_ (edited by Thomas Roscoe), p.
630.
[353] _Familiar Letters between the Characters of David Simple._
(1747).
[354] Fielding, Henry: _Complete Works_ (ed. Roscoe), p. 632.
[355] _The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson_ (ed. Barbauld), vol.
II, pp. 101-05.
[356] _Die Begebenheiten David Simpels, oder Erzählung von dessen
Reisen durch die Städte London und Westminster, am einen wahrhaftigen
Freund zu suchen._ Geschrieben durch ein Frauenzimmer. Übersetzt
durch M. A. Wodarch. (Hamburg, in der Hertelischen Handlung im Dom.
1746.)
[357] _Le véritable Ami, ou la Vie de David Simple._ Traduit de
l'Anglois. (Amsterdam, 1755.)
[358] _Geschichte der Gräfin von Dellwyn_; von Fielding's Schwester,
der Verfasserin des _David Simple_. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt.
(Leipzig, in der Weidmannschen Handling. 1761.)
[359] Plügge, Georg: _Miss Sarah Fielding als Romanschriftstellerin_
(Inaugural-Dissertation, Leipzig).
[360] Hawkins, Sir John: _Life of Samuel Johnson_, p. 286.
[361] _The Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. XXII, p. 146.
[362] Vol. II, p. 251. This chapter was reprinted entire in _The
Gentleman's Magazine_, January, 1841, p. 44. It was Miss Mitford
who pointed out Johnson's authorship of this chapter. See Nichols:
_Literary Anecdotes_, vol. VII, p. 161.
[363] Johnson, Samuel: _Works_ (ed. Murphy), vol. II, p. 58.
[364] Genest: _Some Account of the English Stage_, vol. V, p. 241.
[365] Reprinted in 1778 and 1810. A new edition in four volumes in
1856 by Bohn announced that the text had been collated with the
French "and with such corrections as the ingenious Translator herself
would have made on a careful revision of her translation." Johnson
reviewed this work favorably in _The Literary Magazine_ for 1756.
[366] Johnson, Samuel: _Works_ (ed. Murphy), vol. II, p. 1.
[367] Nichols: _Anecdotes of Bowyer_, p. 248.
[368] _The Works of the Late Miss Catharine Talbot_, vol. I, p. 98.
[369] See _The Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. XLIV (1774), p. 376.
_Ibid._ (1772), vol. XLII, pp. 135, 257. (Her character by Mrs.
Duncomb.) Nichols: _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. IX, pp. 766-69.
(Quotations from the Reverend Weeden Butler's _Memoirs of Bishop
Hildesley_, Letter by Dr. Rundle, Letter by Duchess of Somerset.)
[370] In 1748, in accordance with her dying request, her poems were
published by subscription for her father's benefit, under the title
_Poems on Several Occasions, by the late_ Mrs. Leapor _of_ Brackley
_in_ Northamptonshire. Published for the Benefit of the Author's
Father. 800. Price 5_s._ _Vol. 2d and last_ appeared later at the
same price.
[371] See _Familiar Letters_, p. 52.
[372] "Maria" has made some mistakes in names, but her general
accuracy is attested by a reference to Mozans: _Woman in Science_.
The eighteenth century was a period of great triumph for learned
Italian women. Of the four chief women, Laura Bassi, Anna Manzolini,
Maria Agnesi, Clotilda Tambroni, the first three had attained to
fame before 1755 when Miss Masters's book appeared. Maria Agnesi
(1718-1808) was a European celebrity by the time she was twenty.
"M. Charles de Brosses, in his _Lettres Familières écrites de
l'Italie en 1739 et 1740_, speaks of Agnesi in terms that recall
the marvellous stories which are related of Admirable Crichton and
Cico della Mirandola. 'She appeared to me,' he tells us, 'something
more stupendous--_una cosa piu stupenda_--than the Duomo of Milan.'
Having been invited to a _conversazione_ for the purpose of meeting
this wonderful woman, the learned Frenchman found her to be 'a young
lady about eighteen or twenty.' She was surrounded by 'about thirty
people--many of them from different parts of Europe.' The discussion
turned on various questions of mathematics and natural philosophy."
The astonishment excited by her knowledge of these abstruse subjects
was increased by her command of classical Latin which she spoke with
purity, care, and accuracy. When the conversation became general she
spoke to each person in the language of his own country. At about
thirty Maria Agnesi brought out her great work, a treatise in two
large volumes on the differential and integral calculus. "It would
be impossible to describe the sensation it produced in the learned
world. Everybody talked about it; everybody admired the profound
learning of the author, and acclaimed her: 'Il portento del sesso,
unico al Mondo'--the portent of her sex, unique in the world."
(Mozans: _Woman in Science_, pp. 143-53.)
Laura Caterina Bassi (1711-78) would take rank with learned women
of any age or nation. At twenty-one she took part in a public
disputation on philosophy with some of the most distinguished
scholars of the time as her opponents. The brilliancy of her success
on this occasion led to a request that she should present herself
as candidate for the doctorate in philosophy. This was a still
more imposing ceremony. It was held in the Communal Palace which
was magnificently decorated for the splendid function. After a
discourse in Latin to which she responded in the same tongue, she
was crowned with a laurel wreath exquisitely wrought in silver, and
had thrown round her the _vajo_, or university gown, both symbols
of the doctorate. Her next triumph was when she passed the public
examinations and was appointed by acclamation to the chair of physics
in the University of Bologna, an office which she held many years,
and always with increasing fame. (Mozans: _Woman in Science_, pp.
202-09.)
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was much impressed by the fame of Laura
Bassi and wrote to England about her, and Lady Pomfret, on her visit
to Italy, made a point of seeing the famous lady professor; but in
general the Englishwomen seem to have been quite ignorant of the
status of learned women in Italy.
Anna Manzolini (1716-1774) held the chair of anatomy in Bologna for
many years and is famous for her wax models of the organs of the
human body. (Mozans: _Woman in Science_, pp. 235-37.)
[373] Cibber: _Lives of the Poets_. Nichols: _Literary Anecdotes_,
vol. V, pp. 304-08.
[374] For a recent life see Gaussen: _Alice C. C.: A Woman of Wit and
Wisdom_.
[375] This translation from Crousaz was published anonymously and was
generally attributed to Dr. Johnson, but an article in Dr. Birch's
manuscripts in the British Museum attributes it decisively to her.
The note indicates also Dr. Birch's estimate of the translation:
"_ELISÆ CARTERÆ. S. P. D. Thomas BIRCH. Versionem tuam Examinis
Crousaziani jam perlegi. Summam styli et elegantiam, et in re
difficilimâ proprietatem, admiratus. (Dabam_) Novemb. 27 1738."
Boswell's _Life of Johnson_. (Everyman.) vol. I, p. 78.
[376] Her translation of Algarotti's _Newtonianismo per le dame_
appeared under the title, _Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy Explained
for the use of the Ladies. In Six Dialogues on Light and Colour._ Two
volumes. 1739.
[377] Davies, Randall: _The Greatest House at Chelsey_, p. 92.
[378] Ashton, John: _Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne_, p. 17.
[379] Ashton, John: _Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne_, p. 18.
[380] Published in vol. II of _Works_ of Dr. W. King in 1776. (_The
Tatler_, April 19, 1709, n.)
[381] _The Spectator_, No. 606 (Oct. 13, 1714).
[382] _Ibid._, No. 32 (Dec. 13, 1714).
[383] Dodsley's _Collection of Poems in Six Volumes by Several Hands_
(1758, fifth edition), vol. VI, pp. 161-62.
[384] _Ibid._, vol. III, p. 142.
[385] Johnson: _Works of the English Poets_, vol. VIII, p. 165.
[386] _Ibid._, vol. V, p. 62.
[387] _Ibid._, vol. XXXIX, pp. 233-42.
[388] Wheeler, Ethel Root: _Famous Blue Stockings_, pp. 78-82.
[389] _Memoirs of the Verney Family_, vol. IV, p. 220.
[390] Ashton, John: _Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne_, p. 19.
[391] Malcolm, Jas. P.: _Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of
London in the Eighteenth Century_, vol. I, p. 328.
[392] _Encyclopædia Britannica_, vol. 24, p. 370.
[393] Thoresby: _Diary_, May 20, 1714.
[394] _Ibid._, April 15, 1723.
[395] Plumptre, Dean: _Life of Bishop Ken_.
[396] "Mrs. Scott described their life in her novel, _Millennium
Hall, by a Gentleman on his travels_, 1762, as there was a popular
prejudice then against a female author." Mrs. Sarah Scott (the widow
of George Lewis Scott) wrote several novels, under the pseudonym
"Henry Augustus Raymond," between 1750 and 1776. _Millennium Hall_
reached a fourth edition by 1778.
[397] Birch, Una: _Anna van Schurman: Artist; Scholar; Saint_.
[398] Cut-paper work was an accomplishment in which ladies of various
countries took pride. Deschamps in his account of painters mentions
a Mrs. Block. He says she "excelled in cutting paper; whatever
others produced in a print by a graver, she produced with a pair
of scissors; she executed all kinds of subjects, as landscapes,
sea-pieces, animals, flowers; and what is most astonishing,
portraits, in which the resemblance was preserved in the highest
degree. This new art of expressing representations of objects upon
white paper became the object of universal curiosity, and the artist
was encouraged by all the courts of _Europe_. The Elector _Palatine_
offered her a thousand florins (equal to about a hundred guineas) for
three little pieces, which she refused.... The works of this woman
are in design and taste extremely correct, and may best be compared
with the engravings of Mallon. When they are pasted upon black paper,
the places where the white paper is cut away in strokes, represent
those of a graver or pen, and are in the highest degree neat, true,
bold, and distinct." (_The Gentleman's Magazine_, 1761, p. 338). The
cut-work paper in England never equalled that of Mrs. Block until
Mrs. Delany's herbarium in the late eighteenth century out-distanced
all competitors. But Mrs. Delany's work was more like painting while
Mrs. Block's was like engraving.
[399] Monroe, Paul: _Cyclopædia of Education_; Watson, Foster: "Mrs.
Bathsua Makin and the Education of Gentlewomen," _Atalanta_, July,
1895; Granger: _Biographical History_ (2d ed.), vol. II, p. 392;
Ballard: _Memoirs_, Preface; Jesse: _House of Stuart_, vol. II, p.
250.
[400] Some light is thrown on the curious phrase "read, write, and in
some measure understand," by William Greenhill's dedication of his
_Exposition of the first five chapters of Ezekiel_ to the Princess
Mary in 1644-45. After mentioning other instances of feminine
precocity he praises her for "writing out the Lord's Prayer in Greek
and some texts of Scripture in Hebrew." It was calligraphy rather
than language that was here in question.
[401] See p. 37.
[402] Probably daughters of Dr. Nicholas Love (d. 1630), Head-Master
of Winchester College in 1601, and chaplain to James I. In 1673 the
daughters of Christopher Love (1618-1651), Puritan minister from
Cardiff, would be of too recent date to correspond to the description.
[403] This person was a Mr. M. Lewis whose _Grammar_ and whose _Rules
for Pointing and Reading Grammatically_ she used in her school.
[404] _The Woman as Good as the Man_, p. 6.
[405] _The Woman as Good as the Man_, p. 124.
[406] _Ibid._, p. 45.
[407] From _Instructions to a Young Princess_ on this point we read:
"I only desire you to believe, that true Wisdom consists in knowing
exactly your Duty; and whatsoever carries a Woman farther than that,
is generally either dangerous or unprofitable. For, to be plain, how
doth it concern you, to know, whether the Sun or the Earth move, or
after what manner Thunder and Tempest are form'd in the Skies, and a
Hundred other Things as little necessary as these?"
[408] Smith, Florence: _Mary Astell_. First full presentation of the
life and works of Mary Astell.
[409] Smith, Florence: _Mary Astell_, p. 99.
[410] _Reflections on Marriage_, p. 29. Quoted in Miss Smith's _Mary
Astell_, p. 89.
[411] Smith, Florence: _Mary Astell_, p. 22.
[412] Smith, Florence: _Mary Astell_, p. 70.
[413] Evelyn, John: _Numismata_.
[414] Smith, Florence: _Mary Astell_, p. 73.
[415] _Ibid._, p. 76.
[416] See article by A. H. Upham in _Journal of English and German
Philology_, vol. XII, No. 2, pp. 262-76; Smith, Florence: _Mary
Astell_, Appendix II.
[417] Smith, Florence: _Mary Astell_, p. 180.
[418] _Westminster Review_, vol. CLXIX, p. 444, April, 1898.
[419] _Notes and Queries_, 8th Series, vol. XI, p. 348.
[420] _Journal of Sacred Literature_ (1864), pp. 433-35. Ballard
gives the arguments in favor of Lady Pakington's authorship.
[421] See _Complete Works of George Savile, First Marquess of
Halifax_.
[422] Walsh, William: _A Dialogue concerning Women_, p. 31.
[423] Walsh, William: _A Dialogue concerning Women_, p. 86.
[424] _Ibid._, p. 92.
[425] _Ibid._, p. 93.
[426] _Ibid._, p. 101.
[427] "Mr. Graves said that Mr. Beaton's Map of Warwickshire will now
come out in a little time. He commends it mightily as a most accurate
Thing. This Beaton writes _The Lady's Diary_, an _Almanack_, that
comes out every Year. This Beaton hath a Mathematical Head. It seems
he condemns all the Mapps that ever were done of all or any Parts of
England, as full of Faults. I guess him from hence to be a conceited
vain Man." (Hearne's _Collections_, vol. IX, p. 106.)
[428] _The Guardian_, Sept. 18 and 19, 1713.
[429] "_Leonora_ has been identified as Mrs. Perry, sister of Miss
Shepheard, the 'Parthenia' of No. 140 and 'Leonora' of No. 113. Both
were kinswomen of Sir Fleetwood Shepheard." (_The Spectator_, vol.
II, p. 326.)
[430] Aitkin, George: _The Life of Richard Steele_, vol. II, p. 397.
[431] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 39.
[432] _The Gentleman Instructed in the Conduct of a Virtuous and
Happy Life. In Three Parts. Written for the Instruction of a Young
Nobleman. To which is added, A Word to the Ladies, by way of
Supplement to the First Part._ (William Darrell.) Eighth edition.
London, 1723, p. 127.
[433] _Ibid._, p. 155.
[434] _The Gentleman Instructed in the Conduct of a Virtuous and
Happy Life. In Three Parts. Written for the Instruction of a Young
Nobleman. To which is added, A Word to the Ladies, by way of
Supplement to the First Part._ (William Darrell.) Eighth edition.
London, 1723, p. 151.
[435] _Ibid._, p. 165.
[436] _Ibid._, p. 173.
[437] Chalmers: _English Poets_, vol. XIV.
[438] "The elder Miss Collier," mentioned in a previous letter.
[439] _Correspondence of Richardson_ (ed. Barbauld): "Correspondence
between Miss M. Collier, Miss Fielding, and Mr. Richardson." Vol. II,
pp. 59-112.
[440] See p. 235.
[441] Coventry: _Pompey the Little_, book I, chap. VII.
[442] Swift, Jonathan: _Works_ (ed. Sir Walter Scott), vol. IX, pp.
260-64.
[443] "Mrs. Pilkington pretends that this letter was written on Lady
Betty Moore's Marriage with Mr. George Rochfort. But Mr. Faulkner,
who is the more sound authority, supposed it addressed to Mrs. John
Rochford, daughter of Dr. Staunton." (Swift: _Works_, ed. Scott, vol.
IX, p. 203 n.)
[444] Swift: _Works_, ed. Scott, vol. IX, p. 209. De Quincey has an
interesting comment on this passage: "Often, indeed, I had occasion
to remember the cynical remark of Swift that, after all, as respects
mere learning, the most accomplished woman is hardly on a level
with a schoolboy. In quoting this saying, I have restricted it so
as to offer no offence to the female sex intellectually considered.
Swift probably meant to undervalue women generally. Now, I am well
aware that they have their peculiar province. But that province
does not extend to _learning_, technically so called. No woman ever
was or will be a _polyhistor_, like Salmasius, for example; nor a
philosopher; nor, in fact anything whatsoever, called by what name
you like, which demands either of these two combinations which
follow:--1, great powers of combination, that is, of massing or
grouping under large comprehensive principles; or, 2, severe logic."
(_Works_, ed. Masson, vol. XIV, p. 125.)
[445] _Ibid._, vol. IX, p. 227.
[446] Swift: _Works_, ed. Scott, vol. IX, p. 217.
[447] See p. 303.
[448] _Ibid._, vol. IX, p. 208.
[449] Craik, Henry: _Life of Jonathan Swift_, vol. II, Appendix XI.
[450] _On the Picture of Lady M. Wortley Montagu by Kneller._
[451] _Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot_, ll. 368-69 and note.
[452] _The Rape of the Lock_, canto IV, ll. 59-62.
[453] See _Three Hours after Marriage_, p. 393.
[454] _Epistle II._ _To a Lady._ _Of the Characters of Women._
[455] _Ibid._
[456] T. E. S. Clarke and H. C. Foxcroft: _Life of Bishop Burnet_, p.
436.
[457] Foxcroft, H. C.: _Supplement to Burnet's History of My Own
Times_, p. 85.
[458] _Letters of Lady Russell_, vol. II, p. 2 n.
[459] _A Paraphrase on the 53d Chapter of Isaiah in imitation of Mrs.
Anne Wharton._
[460] Winchester: _Life of Wesley_, p. 179.
[461] _Hearne's Collections_, vol. IX, p. 185 (1914).
[462] _Ibid._, vol. IX, p. 277.
[463] Cf. p. 354, where the sister is said to be "about fourteen."
[464] _Hearne's Collections_, vol. IX, p. 282.
[465] _Hearne's Collections_, vol. IX, p. 304.
[466] _Letters of Eminent Persons_, vol. II, p. 118.
[467] _Letters of Eminent Persons_, vol. II, p. 147 n.
[468] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 123.
[469] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 147 n.
[470] _Ibid._, vol. II, p. 123 n.
[471] _Letters of Eminent Persons_, vol. II, p. 140.
[472] There was at first considerable doubt about the subscriptions.
Mrs. Delany wrote in February, 1752: "I can give you no encouragement
about Mr. Ballard's getting the Princess of Wales among his
subscribers. I don't think the Maid of Honour a proper person to
apply to; if he would only leave out his dedication to me _I could_
solicit for him, but _as it is_, it has even stopped my applying to
get subscriptions." (_Mrs. Delany's Letters._ First Series, vol. III,
p. 186.) In December she wrote: "I am afraid Mr. Ballard has not a
large subscription; it vexes me that he should prevent my being of
use to him, but if we are successful in our affairs I shall hope to
_make it up to him_." (_Ibid._)
[473] The ladies whose poems are included in these volumes are: Mrs.
Barber, Mrs. Behn, Miss Carter, Lady Chudleigh, Mrs. Cockburn, Mrs.
Grierson, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Killigrew, Mrs. Leapor, Mrs. Madan, Mrs.
Masters, Lady M. W. Montagu, Mrs. Monk, Duchess of Newcastle, Mrs. K.
Philips, Mrs. Pilkington, Mrs. Rowe, Lady Winchilsea.
[474] _Memoirs: Containing the Lives of Several Ladies of Great
Britain. A History of Antiquities, Productions of Nature and
Monuments of Art. Observations on the Christian Religion, as
professed by the Established Church, and Dissenters of every
Denomination. Remarks on the Writings of the greatest English
Divines: with a Variety of Disquisitions and Opinions relative to
Criticisms and Manners; and many extraordinary Actions._
[475] The _Memoirs_ (vol. II, p. 87) say that Miss Harcourt "died
suddenly, at her seat in Richmondshire, the first of December 1745,
in the 39th year of her age, and not in the year thirty-seven, as
the world was told in several advertisements in the London Evening
Post of December 1739, by a gentleman who was imposed on in a false
account he received of her death." I have been unable to examine the
_London Evening Post_ to see whether it contains any announcement
correspondent to Amory's statement. (Rose says she was born in 1706
at Richmond in Yorkshire and that she died in 1745.)
[476] For Amory's exceptionally early and eager descriptions of the
English Lake District see Reynolds, Myra: _External Nature in English
Poetry between Pope and Wordsworth_ (2d ed.), p. 208. To this must
now be added his distinction as one of the earliest Englishmen to be
interested in the islands off the coast of Scotland.
[477] For further accounts of Thomas Amory see _The Gentleman's
Magazine_, November, 1788 (vol. LVIII, p. 1062), where there is a
protest from Robert Amory concerning erroneous statements about
his father in the _St. James's Chronicle_ of November 6 (cf. vol.
LIX, pp. 107, 322, 372); _General Biographical Dictionary_ (1798);
Chalmers' _Biographical Dictionary_; Hazlitt's _Round Table_ (1817);
_Retrospective Review_ (vol. VI, p. 100, 1st Series, 1822); edition
of Amory's _Works_ (1825); _Notes and Queries_, 1st Series, vol. XI,
p. 58; _Saturday Review_, May 12, 1877. From these references it
becomes apparent that Amory has attracted considerable attention,
but that there is a wide divergence of opinion as to whether he was
insane or a genius.
[478] _Epicœne, or, The Silent Woman_, Act II, Sc. 2, ll. 117-20.
[479] Juvenal: Satire VI, 434-40. "That woman is a worse nuisance
than usual who, as soon as she reclines on her couch, praises Virgil;
makes excuses for doomed Dido; pits bards against one another and
compares them, and weighs Homer and Mars in the balance."
[480] The word "college" was loosely used in the seventeenth century
as signifying any company or collective body. Burton, in _Anatomy
of Melancholy_ (1621), says, "They have whole colleges of Curtezans
in their Towns and Cities." Randolph, in _The Muse's Looking-Glass_
(1638), calls play-houses "colleges of transgression," and speaks
of "Black-Friar's College." Jonson, in _Staple of News_, says "a
canter's college is proposed." Dryden even speaks of a "college of
bees" (_Flower and Leaf_), and Amory, in _John Buncle_, uses the same
phrase more than half a century later. It becomes evident, then,
that the words "college" and "collegiate" might be used without any
thought of an organization founded for purposes of learning. (See
Jonson: _Epicœne_, Ed. Henry, Aurelia, p. 138.)
[481] Miles, Dudley: _The Influence of Molière on Restoration
Comedy_, chap. III.
[482] _Ibid._, p. 62.
[483] _Ibid._, p. 68.
[484] There are two other indications of the early influence of _Les
Précieuses_. Flecknoe published in 1667 an unacted play entitled
_Damoiselles à la mode_, a sort of mosaic made up from four plays
of which _Les Précieuses_ was one. September 15, 1668, Pepys wrote:
"To the King's play-house, to see a new play, acted but yesterday, a
translation out of French by Dryden, called 'The Lady's à la Mode':
so mean a thing as when they came to say it would be acted again
to-morrow, both he that said it, Beeson, and the pit fell a-laughing,
there being this day not a quarter of the pit full." Pepys is the
only authority for attributing the piece to Dryden.
[485] It is interesting to note that the dedication is to Charles,
Earl of Winchilsea, whose aunt, Mrs. Finch, one of the _literati_,
was at that time living with the young Earl, at Eastwell, and had
even then a vast folio of verse and prose with which the family
circle was occasionally regaled. She would hardly enjoy this choice
of her nephew as public patron of Wright's caricature of female wits.
[486] See p. 106.
[487] See p. 208.
[488] See p. 132.
[489] See Winchilsea, Lady: _Works_ (edited by Myra Reynolds),
Introduction, pp. lxii-lxx, for full account of this character.
[490] This scene may refer both to Lady Winchilsea and the Duchess
of Newcastle. Cibber, in his _Lives of the Poets_, vol. II, p. 164,
says: "The Duchess kept a great many young ladies about her person,
who occasionally wrote what she dictated. Some of them slept in a
room contiguous to that in which her Grace lay, and ever ready, at
the call of her bell to rise any hour of the night, to write down her
conceptions, lest they should escape her memory."
[491] Curll: _No Fool like Wits_, Prologue.
[492] Seigneur de Gomberville brought out his _Polexandre_ in four
volumes, quarto, in 1632. More famous were La Calprenède's romances,
_Cléopâtre_, _Cassandre_, and _Pharamond_, and the works of the
Scudéry brother and sister (the sister being the chief writer) who
wrote _Ibrahim_, _Artemène_, _Clélie_, and _Almahide_. All of these
except _Polexandre_ were published and some of them republished
in France between 1641 and 1661. Their interminable length may be
illustrated by _Artemène_ which was in ten volumes, a total of 6679
pages.
[493] _Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple_, _passim_.
[494] Pepys: _Diary_, Dec. 7, 1660; Feb. 10, 1661; May 12, 1666; Nov.
16, 1668; May 5, 1669.
[495] _The Ladies' Calling_, part II, section II.
[496] Shadwell, Thomas: _Bury-Fair_, Act III, Sc. 1.
[497] Steele, Richard: _The Tender Husband; or, The Accomplished
Fools_ (1705).
[498] Urganda was an enchantress in the Amadis and Palmerin romances.
[499] Musidorus, in Sir P. Sidney's _Arcadia_, is the Prince of
Thessaly, and in love with Pamela.
[500] Parthenissa was the heroine of a romance of that name by Roger
Boyle, Earl of Orrery, the first two parts of which appeared in 1651.
[501] Statira, in _Cassandra_, was the widow of Alexander the Great,
and the daughter of Darius. She married Oroondates after many
difficulties had been overcome.
[502] Chambers, in _Traditions of Edinburgh_ (1869), says that Allan
Ramsay in 1725 set up "a circulating library, whence he diffused
plays and other books of fiction among the people of Edinburgh. It
appears from some private notes of the historian Wodrow that, in
1728, the magistrates, moved by some meddling spirits, took alarm at
the effect of this kind of reading on the minds of youth, and made an
attempt to put it down, but without effect."
The editor of _Notes and Queries_ (4th Series, vol. IX, p. 443) says,
"We are inclined to think the first circulating library in Scotland
was in Dunfermline in 1711."
Scotland was ahead of England in the matter of circulating libraries.
So far as I can discover, Newcastle-on-Tyne has the honor of starting
the first circulating library in England. One Joseph Barber had "lent
books on the High Bridge, at the other end of the Flesh Market,
in 1746, and now, in 1757, at Amen Corner, near St. Nicholas's
Churchyard, he had 1257 volumes on loan. His was the 'old original'
library of circulation." In 1757 a rival appeared in the person of
William Charnley who placed two thousand volumes at the command of
subscribers at twelve shillings a year. (_Notes and Queries_, 5th
Series, vol. VIII, p. 155.)
In 1751 a circulating library was opened in Birmingham by the famous
William Hutton, who wrote in his _Autobiography_, "I was the first
who opened a circulating library in Birmingham, in 1751, since
which time many have entered the race." He also said, "As I hired
out books the fair sex did not neglect my shop." In 1750 there had
been opened at Birmingham a book-club for the circulation of books
among its members--"probably the oldest book-club in existence," and
still flourishing in 1877. The Manchester subscription library dates
from 1765, or earlier. (_Ibid._, 5th Series, vol. VII, p. 452.) The
circulating library of Liverpool was established May 1, 1758. The
first catalogue is dated November 1, 1758. There were 109 subscribers
at five shillings each, and 450 volumes. The centenary of this
library was celebrated May 13, 1858. (_Ibid._ 5th Series, vol. VII,
p. 354.) In January, 1761, Mr. Baker, book-seller of Tunbridge Wells,
lost his circulating library by fire. By 1770 there were circulating
libraries at Settle, Rochdale, Exeter, and doubtless other places.
In _The Annual Register_ (p. 207) for 1761 is an interesting note:
"The reading female hires her novels from some country circulating
library, which consists of about an hundred volumes," which might
very well apply to Polly Honeycomb. (_Ibid._ 7th Series, vol. XII, p.
66.)
When Franklin came to London in 1725 there was not a single
circulating library in the metropolis. See Franklin's _Autobiography_
(vol. I, p. 64), and in 1697 the only library in London which
approached the nature of a public library was that of Zion College,
belonging to the London clergy (Ellis's _Letters of Literary Men_,
p. 245). The exact date of the earliest London circulating library I
have not yet ascertained; but according to Southey (_The Doctor_, ed.
Warter, 1848, p. 271) the first set up in London was about the middle
of the eighteenth century by Samuel Fancourt. (Buckle: _History
of Civilization in England_, vol. I, p. 393.) Samuel Fancourt was
a dissenting minister who went to London about 1730. A library
conducted by him at a subscription of a guinea a year was dissolved,
Michaelmas, 1745. Between 1746 and 1748 he issued an alphabetical
catalogue of _Books and Pamphlets belonging to the Circulating
Library in Crane Court_, in two volumes. In this "Gentlemen and
Ladies' Growing and Circulating Library" the initial payment was a
guinea and four shillings a year. A subscriber could draw one book
and one pamphlet at a time. "He may keep them a reasonable time
according to their bigness." This library contained between two and
three thousand volumes, only about a tenth being light literature,
and nearly half the total contents being on theology. (_Dictionary of
National Biography_, under Fancourt.)
[503] _The Adventures of Jack Smart_ and _The History of Miss Betsey
Thoughtless_ are in Colman's list.
[504] _The Reward of Constancy_ (possibly Shebeare's _The Happy Pair;
or, Virtue and Constancy rewarded_, 1771); _The Fatal Connexion_,
by Mrs. Fogarty (1773); _The Mistakes of the Heart_, by Treyssac de
Vergy (1769); _The Delicate Distress_ (1769) and _The Gordian Knot_
(1769), by Mrs. Griffith; _The Memoirs of Lady Woodford_ (1771);
_Peregrine Pickle_, by Smollett (1751); _Tears of Sensibility_,
translated from French by John Murdock (1773); _Humphrey Clinker_, by
Smollett (1771); _Sentimental Journey_, by Sterne (1768); _Roderick
Random_, by Smollett (1748; eighth ed. 1770); _The Innocent Adultery_
(translation of Scarron's _L'Adultère Innocente_, in 1722-29 and with
later editions); _Lord Aimsworth_ (1773); _The Man of Feeling_, by
Mackenzie (1771). For full comment on these books, and the others in
Lydia's list see _Major Dramas of Richard Brinsley Sheridan_ (edited
by George Henry Nettleton), Introduction, pp. lxviii-lxxvii.
[505] Page 354.
[506] The new names are Mrs. Behn, Mrs. Manley, Mrs. Centlivre, Mrs.
Thomas, Mrs. Rowe, Mrs. Cockburn, Mrs. Pilkington, and Miss Chandler.
Ballard (p. vii) gives a list of the ladies who had a reputation for
learning, but concerning whom he could get no information. The list
is as follows: "Lady Mary Nevil, Lady Anne Southwell, Lady Honor
Hay, Lady Mary Wroath, Lady Armyn, Lady Ranelagh, Lady Anne Boynton
(famous for her skill in ancient coins, and noble collection of
them), Lady Levet, Lady Warner. Gentlewomen: Mrs. Mabilla Vaughan,
Mrs. Elizabeth Grimstone, Mrs. Jane Owen, Mrs. M. Croft, Mrs. Emilia
Lanyer, Mrs. Makins (who corresponded in the learned languages with
Mrs. Maria à Schurman), Mrs. Gertrude More, Mrs. Dorothy Leigh."
None of Cibber's additions appear in this list. Apparently Ballard's
omission of writers of comedy and fiction would indicate that he did
not count them among the learned. The omission of Mrs. Cockburn is
less explicable. The five _Lives_ given by both Ballard and Cibber
are of the Duchess of Newcastle, Anne Killigrew, Lady Chudleigh, Mrs.
Monk, Lady Winchilsea, and Mrs. Grierson.
[507] Pages 4-23.
[508] Pages 23-37.
[509] Strickland, Agnes: _Lives of the Queens of England_, under
"Anne of Denmark."
[510] Pages 46-81.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
A superscript is denoted by ^; for example, w^{ch} or y^e.
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.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspelling in the text,
and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
Pg 53. 'della Donne' replaced by 'delle Donne'.
Pg 82 Footnote [140]. 'Lord Hallifax' replaced by 'Lord Halifax'.
Pg 82 Footnote [140]. 'Lord Hallilfax' replaced by 'Lord Halifax'.
Pg 91. 'were probaby' replaced by 'were probably'.
Pg 126 Footnote [186]. 'Blæcus' replaced by 'Blæsus'.
Pg 141. 'heighth' replaced by 'height'.
Pg 167 Footnote [234]. '1667 and 1771' replaced by '1767 and 1771'.
Pg 181. 'M^{rs}. Elstop' replaced by 'M^{rs}. Elstob'.
Pg 255. 'into French in 1706' left unchanged, but probably should
be 1786.
Pg 329. 'Corpernican' replaced by 'Copernican'.
Pg 335. 'Supplemant replaced by 'Supplement'.
Pg 337. 'ahd sloth' replaced by 'and sloth'.
Pg 366. 'cotemporary' replaced by 'contemporary'.
Pg 414 Footnote [502]. 'under Faucourt' replaced by 'under Fancourt'.
Biblio:
Pg 462. 'La Proverbes' replaced by 'Les Proverbes'.
Pg 465. 'Laeticia' replaced by 'Lætitia'.
Pg 469. 'poëtes an' replaced by 'poètes au'.
Index:
Pg 480. 'Bovy' replaced by 'Bovey'.
Pg 481. 'Demoiselles' replaced by 'Damoiselles', and moved.