immediately carried over to Dublin, and given to Mr. Faulkner (an
eminent printer and bookseller there) by a gentleman, who wished to
see an edition of it in Ireland; Mr. Faulkner published it, and the
success thereof was so great, some thousands thereof were disposed
of in a very short time: Just before the intended edition appeared,
the Dean (who often visited Mr. Faulkner) coming into the shop,
asked, 'What new pieces were likely to come forth?'--Mr. Faulkner
gave Mr. Cibber's Apology to him;--The Dean's curiosity
[Transcriber's note: 'curosity' in original] was pretty strong to
see a work of that uncommon sort:--In short, he stay'd and dined
there; and did not quit the house, or the book, 'till he had read it
through: He advised Faulkner, to lose no time in printing it; and
said, he would answer for it's success:--He declared, he had not
perus'd any thing a long time that had pleas'd him so much; and
dwelt long in commendation of it: He added, that he almost envy'd
the author the pleasure he must have in writing it;--That he was
sorry he had ever said any thing to his disadvantage; and was
convinced Cibber had been very much misrepresented to him; nor did
he scruple to say, that, as it had been formerly the fashion to
abuse Cibber, he had unwarily been drawn into it by Pope, and
others. He often, afterwards, spoke in praise of Mr. Cibber, and his
writing in general, and of this work in particular.--He afterwards
told Mr. Faulkner, he had read Cibber's Apology thro' three times;
that he was more and more pleased with it: That the style was not
inferior to any English he had ever read: That his words were
properly adapted: His similes happy, uncommon, and well chosen: He
then in a pleasant manner said--'You must give me this book, which
is the first thing I ever begg'd from you.' To this, we may be sure
Mr. Faulkner readily consented. Ever after in company, the Dean gave
this book a great character.--Let the reader make the application of
this true and well known fact.
[4] The name is pronounced Vannumery.
* * * * *
MRS. CONSTANTIA GRIERSON.
This lady was born in Ireland; and, as Mrs. Barber judiciously remarks,
was one of the most extraordinary women that either this age, or perhaps
any other, ever produced. She died in the year 1733, at the age of 27,
and was allowed long before to be an excellent scholar, not only in
Greek and Roman literature, but in history, divinity, philosophy, and
mathematics.
Mrs. Grierson (says she) 'gave a proof of her knowledge in the Latin
tongue, by her dedication of the Dublin edition of Tacitus to the lord
Carteret, and by that of Terence to his son, to whom she likewise wrote
a Greek epigram. She wrote several fine poems in English[1], on which
she set so little value, that she neglected to leave copies behind her
of but very few.
'What makes her character the more remarkable is, that she rose to this
eminence of learning merely by the force of her own genius, and
continual application. She was not only happy in a fine imagination, a
great memory, an excellent understanding, and an exact judgment, but had
all these crowned by virtue and piety: she was too learned to be vain,
too wise to be conceited, too knowing and too clear-sighted to
irreligious.
'If heaven had spared her life, and blessed her with health, which she
wanted for some years before her death, there is good reason to think
she would have made as great a figure in the learned world, as any of
her sex are recorded to have done.
'As her learning and abilities raised her above her own sex, so they
left her no room to envy any; on the contrary, her delight was to see
others excel. She was always ready to advise and direct those who
applied to her, and was herself willing to be advised.
'So little did she value herself upon her uncommon excellences, that it
has often recalled to my mind a fine reflexion of a French author, _That
great geniuses should be superior to their own abilities._
'I perswade myself that this short account of so extraordinary a woman,
of whom much more might have been said, will not be disagreeable to my
readers; nor can I omit what I think is greatly to the lord Carteret's
honour, that when he was lord lieutenant of Ireland, he obtained a
patent for Mr. Grierson, her husband, to be the King's Printer, and to
distinguish and reward her uncommon merit, had her life inserted in it.'
Thus far Mrs. Barber. We shall now subjoin Mrs. Pilkington's account of
this wonderful genius.
'About two years before this, a young woman (afterwards married to Mr.
Grierson) of about eighteen years of age, was brought to my father[2],
to be by him instructed in Midwifry: she was mistress of Hebrew[3],
Greek, Latin, and French, and understood the mathematics as well as most
men: and what made these extraordinary talents yet more surprizing was,
that her parents were poor, illiterate, country people: so that her
learning appeared like the gift poured out on the apostles, of speaking
all languages without the pains of study; or, like the intuitive
knowledge of angels: yet inasmuch as the power of miracles is ceased, we
must allow she used human means for such great and excellent
acquirements. And yet, in a long friendship and familiarity with her, I
could never obtain a satisfactory account from her on this head; only
she said, she had received some little instruction from the minister of
the parish, when she could spare time from her needle-work, to which she
was closely kept by her mother. She wrote elegantly both in verse and
prose, and some of the most delightful hours I ever passed were in the
conversation of this female philosopher.
'My father readily consented to accept of her as a pupil, and gave her a
general invitation to his table; so that she and I were seldom asunder.
My parents were well pleased with our intimacy, as her piety was not
inferior to her learning. Her turn was chiefly to philosophical or
divine subjects; yet could her heavenly muse descend from its sublime
height to the easy epistolary stile, and suit itself to my then gay
disposition[4].
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mrs. Barber has preserved several specimens of her talent in this
way, which are printed with her own poems.
[2] Dr. Van Lewen of Dublin, an eminent physician and man-midwife.
[3] Her knowledge of the Hebrew is not mentioned by Mrs. Barber.
[4] Vide MRS. PILKINGTON'S MEMOIRS, Vol. I.
* * * * *
MRS. CATHERINE COCKBURN.
The Revd. Dr. Birch, who has prefixed a life of Mrs. Cockburn before the
collection he has made of her works, with great truth observes, that it
is a justice due to the public, as well as to the memory of Mrs.
Cockburn, to premise some account of so extraordinary a person.
"Posterity, at least, adds he, will be so sollicitous to know, to whom
they will owe the most demonstrative and perspicuous reasonings, upon
subjects of eternal importance; and her own sex is entitled to the
fullest information about one, who has done such honour to them, and
raised our ideas of their intellectual powers, by an example of the
greatest extent of understanding and correctness of judgment, united to
all the vivacity of imagination. Antiquity, indeed, boasted of its
Female Philosophers, whose merits have been drawn forth in an elaborate
treatise of Menage[1]. But our own age and country may without injustice
or vanity oppose to those illustrious ladies the defender of Lock and
Clark; who, with a genius equal to the most eminent of them, had the
superior advantage of cultivating it in the only effectual method of
improvement, the study of a real philosophy, and a theology worthy human
nature, and its all-perfect author. [Transcriber's note: closing quotes
missing from original.]
She was the daughter of captain David Trotter, a Scots gentleman, and
commander of the royal navy in the reign of Charles II. He was highly in
favour with that prince, who employed him as commodore in the demolition
of Tangier, in the year 1683. Soon after he was sent to convoy the fleet
of the Turkey company; when being seized by the plague, then raging at
Scanderoon, he died there. His death was an irreparable loss to his
family, who were defrauded of all his effects on board his ship, which
were very considerable, and of all the money which he had advanced to
the seamen, during a long voyage: And to add to this misfortune, the
goldsmith, in whose hands the greatest part of his money was lodged,
became soon after a bankrupt. These accumulated circumstances of
distress exciting the companion of king Charles, the captain's widow was
allowed a pension, which ended with that king's life; nor had she any
consideration for her losses in the two succeeding reigns. But queen
Anne, upon her accession to the throne, granted her an annual pension of
twenty pounds.
Captain Trotter at his death, left only two daughters, the youngest of
whom, Catherine, our celebrated author, was born in London, August 16,
1679. She gave early marks of her genius, and was not passed her
childhood when she surprized a company of her relations and friends with
extemporary verses, on an accident which had fallen under her
observation in the street. She both learned to write, and made herself
mistress of the French language, by her own application and diligence,
without any instructor. But she had some assistance in the study of the
Latin Grammar and Logic, of which latter she drew up an abstract for her
own use. The most serious and important subjects, and especially
[Transcriber's note: 'espepecially' in original] those of religion, soon
engaged her attention. But not withstanding her education, her intimacy
with several families of distinction of the Romish persuasion exposed
her, while very young, to impressions in favour of that church, which
not being removed by her conferences with some eminent and learned
members of the church of England, she followed the dictates of a
misguided conscience, and embraced the Romish communion, in which she
continued till the year 1707.
She was but 14 years of age, when she wrote a copy of verses upon Mr.
Bevil Higgons's sickness and recovery from the small pox, which are
printed in our author's second volume. Her next production was a Tragedy
called Agnes de Castro, which was acted at the Theatre-royal, in 1695,
when she was only in her seventeenth year, and printed in 1696. The
reputation of this performance, and the verses which she addressed to
Mr. Congreve upon his Mourning Bride, in 1697, were probably the
foundation of her acquaintance with that admirable writer.
Her second Tragedy, intitled Fatal Friendship, was acted in 1698, at the
new Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. This Tragedy met with great
applause, and is still thought the most perfect of her dramatic
performances. Among other copies of verses sent to her upon occasion of
it, and prefixed to it, was one from an unknown hand, which afterwards
appeared to be from the elegant pen of Mr. Hughs, author of the Siege of
Damascus [2].
The death of Mr. Dryden engaged her to join with several other ladies in
paying a just tribute to the memory of that great improver of the
strength, fulness, and harmony of English verse; and their performances
were published together, under the title of the Nine Muses; or Poems
written by so many Ladies, upon the Death of the late famous John
Dryden, Esq;
Her dramatic talents not being confined to Tragedy, she brought upon the
stage, in 1701, a Comedy called Love at a Loss; or most Votes carry it,
published in May that year. In the same year she gave the public her
third Tragedy, intitled, The Unhappy Penitent, acted at the
Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. In the dedication to Charles lord Hallifax,
she draws the characters of several of the most eminent of her
predecessors in tragic poetry, with great judgment and precision. She
observes, that Shakespear had all the images of nature present to him,
studied her thoroughly, and boldly copied all her various features: and
that though he chiefly exerted himself on the more masculine passions,
it was the choice of his judgment, not the restraint of his genius; and
he seems to have designed those few tender moving scenes, which he has
given us, as a proof that he could be every way equally admirable. She
allows Dryden to have been the most universal genius which this nation
ever bred; but thinks that he did not excel in every part; for though he
is distinguished in most of his writings, by greatness and elevation of
thought, yet at the same time that he commands our admiration of
himself, he little moves our concern for those whom he represents, not
being formed for touching the softer passions. On the other hand, Otway,
besides his judicious choice of the fable, had a peculiar art to move
compassion, which, as it is one of the chief ends of Tragedy, he found
most adapted to his genius; and never venturing where that did not lead
him, excelled in the pathetic. And had Lee, as she remarks, consulted
his strength as well, he might have given us more perfect pieces; but
aiming at the sublime, instead of being great, he is extravagant; his
stile too swelling; and if we pursue him in his flight, he often carries
us out of nature. Had he restrained that vain ambition, and intirely
applied himself to describe the softest of the passions (for love, of
all the passions, he seems best to have understood, if that be allowed a
proper subject for Tragedy) he had certainly had fewer defects.
But poetry and dramatic writing did not so far engross the thoughts of
our author, but that she sometimes turned them to subjects of a very
different nature; and at an age when few of the other sex were capable
of understanding the Essay of Human Understanding, and most of them
prejudiced against the novelty of its principles; and though she was at
that time engaged in the profession of a religion not very favourable to
so rational a philosophy as that of Mr. Lock; yet she had read that
incomparable book, with so clear a comprehension, and so unbiassed a
judgment, that her own conviction of the truth and importance of the
notions contained in it, led her to endeavour that of others, by
removing some of the objections urged against them. She drew up
therefore a Defence of the Essay, against some Remarks which had been
published against it in 1667. The author of these remarks was never
known to Mr. Lock, who animadverted upon them with some marks of
chagrin, at the end of his reply to Stillingfleet, 1697. But after the
death of the ingenious Dr. Thomas Burner, master of the Charter-House,
it appeared from his papers, that the Remarks were the product of his
pen. They were soon followed by second Remarks, printed the same year,
in vindication of the first, against Mr. Lock's Answer to them; and in
1699, by Third Remarks, addressed likewise to Mr. Lock. Mrs. Trotter's
Defence of the Essay against all these Remarks was finished so early as
the beginning of December 1701, when she was but 22 years old. But being
more apprehensive of appearing before the great writer whom she
defended, than of the public censure, and conscious that the name of a
woman would be a prejudice against a work of that nature, she resolved
to conceal herself with the utmost care. But her title to the reputation
of this piece did not continue long a secret to the world. For Mrs.
Burnet, the late wife of Dr. Burnet, bishop of Sarum, a lady of an
uncommon degree of knowledge, and whose Method of Devotion, which passed
through several editions, is a proof of her exemplary piety, and who, as
well as that prelate, honoured our author with a particular friendship,
notwithstanding the difference of her religion, being informed that she
was engaged in writing, and that it was not poetry, was desirous to know
the subject. This Mrs. Trotter could not deny a lady of her merit, in
whom she might safely confide, and who, upon being acquainted with it,
shewed an equal sollicitude that the author might not be known. But
afterwards finding the performance highly approved by the bishop her
husband, Mr. Norris of Bemmerton, and Mr. Lock himself; she thought the
reasons of secrecy ceased, and discovered the writer; and in June 1707
returned her thanks to Mrs. Trotter, then in London, for her present of
the book, in a letter which does as much honour to her own
understanding, principles and temper, as to her friend, to whom she
addressed it. Dr. Birch has given a copy of this letter.
Mr. Lock likewise was so highly satisfied with the Defence, (which was
perhaps the only piece that appeared in favour of his Essay, except one
by Mr. Samuel Bold, rector of Steeple in Dorsetshire, 1699) that being
in London, he desired Mr. King, afterwards lord high chancellor, to make
Mrs. Trotter a visit, and a present of books; and when she had owned
herself, he wrote to her a letter of compliment, a copy of which is
inserted in these memoirs.
But while our author continued to shew the world so deep a penetration
into subjects of the most difficult and abstract kind, she was still
incapable of extricating herself from those subtilties and perplexities
of argument, which retained her in the church of Rome. And the sincerity
of her attachment to it, in all its outward severities, obliged her to
so strict an observance of its fasts, as proved extremely injurious to
her health. Upon which Dr. Denton Nicholas, a very ingenious learned
physician of her acquaintance, advised her to abate of those rigours of
abstinence, as insupportable to a constitution naturally infirm.
She returned to the exercise of her dramatic genius in 1703, and having
fixed upon the Revolution of Sweden under Gustavus Erickson (which has
been related in prose with so much force and beauty by the Abbé Vertot)
for the subject of a Tragedy, she sent the first draught of it to Mr.
Congreve, who returned her an answer, which, on account of the just
remarks upon the conduct of the drama, well deserves a place here, did
it not exceed our proposed bounds, and therefore we must refer the
reader to Dr. Birch's account. This Tragedy was acted in 1706, at the
Queen's Theatre in the Hay-Market, and was printed in quarto.
By a letter from Mrs. Trotter to her friend George Burnet of Kemnay in
Scotland, Esq; then at Geneva, dated February 2, 1703-4, it appears that
she then began to entertain more moderate notions of religion, and to
abate of her zeal for the church of Rome. Her charitableness and
latitude of sentiments seems to have increased a-pace, from the farther
examination which she was now probably making into the state of the
controversy between the church of Rome and the Protestants; for in
another letter to Mr. Burnet, of August 8, 1704, she speaks to the
subject of religion, with a spirit of moderation unusual in the
communion of which she still professed herself.
'I wish, (says she) there was no distinction of churches; and then I
doubt not there would be much more real religion, the name and notion of
which I am so sorry to observe confined to the being of some particular
community; and the whole of it, I am afraid, placed by most in a zeal
of those points, which make the differences between them; from which
mistaken zeal, no doubt, have proceeded all the massacres,
persecutions, and hatred of their fellow christians, which all churches
have been inclined to, when in power. And I believe it is generally
true, that those who are most bigotted to a sect, or most rigid and
precise in their forms and outward discipline, are most negligent of
the moral duties, which certainly are the main end of religion. I have
observed this so often, both in private persons and public societies,
that I am apt to suspect it every where.'
The victory at Blenheim, which exercised the pens of Mr. Addison and Mr.
John Philips, whose poems on that occasion divided the admiration of the
public, tempted Mrs. Trotter to write a copy of verses to the duke of
Marlborough, upon his return from his glorious campaign in Germany,
December, 1704. But being doubtful with respect to the publication of
them, she sent them in manuscript to his grace; and received for answer,
that the duke and duchess, and the lord treasurer Godolphin, with
several others to whom they were shewn, were greatly pleased with them;
and that good judges of poetry had declared, that there were some lines
in them superior to any that had been written on the subject. Upon this
encouragement she sent the poem to the press.
The high degree of favour with which she was honoured by these
illustrious persons, gave her, about this time, hopes of some
establishment of her fortune, which had hitherto been extremely narrow
and precarious. But though she failed of such an establishment, she
succeeded in 1705, in another point, which was a temporary relief to
her. This particular appears from one of her letters printed in the
second volume; but of what nature or amount this relief was, we do not
find.
Her enquiries into the nature of true religion were attended with their
natural and usual effects, in opening and enlarging her notions beyond
the contracted pale of her own church. For in her letter of the 7th of
July 1705, to Mr. Burnet, she says, 'I am zealous to have you agree with
me in this one article, that all good christians are of the same
religion; a sentiment which I sincerely confess, how little soever it is
countenanced by the church of Rome.' And in the latter end of the
following year, or the beginning of 1707, her doubts about the Romish
religion, which she had so many years professed, having led her to a
thorough examination of the grounds of it, by consulting the best books
on both sides of the question, and advising with men of the best
judgment, the result was a conviction of the falseness of the
pretensions of that church, and a return to that of England, to which
she adhered during the rest of her life. In the course of this enquiry,
the great and leading question concerning A Guide in Controversy, was
particularly discussed by her; and the two letters which she wrote upon
it, the first to Mr. Bennet, a Romish priest, and the second to Mr.
H----, who had procured an answer to that letter from a stranger, Mr.
Beimel's indisposition preventing him from returning one, were thought
so valuable on account of the strength and perspicuity of reasoning, as
well as their conciseness, that she consented to the importunity of her
friends, for their publication in June 1707, under the following title,
A Discourse concerning a Guide in Controversies; in two Letters: Written
to one of the Church Church of Rome, by a Person lately converted from
that Communion; a later edition of them being since printed at Edinburgh
in 1728 in 8vo. Bishop Burnet wrote the preface to them, though without
his name to it; and he observes, that they might be of use to such of
the Roman Catholics as are perswaded, that those who deny the
infallibility of their church, take away all certainty of the Christian
religion, or of the authority of the scriptures. This is the main topic
of those two letters, and the point was considered by our author as of
such importance, that she procured her friend Mrs. Burnet to consult Mr.
(afterwards Dr.) Clark upon it, and to show him a paper, which had been
put into her hands, urging the difficulties on that article, on the side
of the Papists. The sentiments of that great man upon this subject are
comprised in a letter from Mrs. Burnet to Mrs. Trotter, of which our
editor has given a copy, to which we refer the reader in the 31st page
of his account.