 Title page of Mary Scott's The Female Advocate (1775) | |
| Author | Mary Scott |
|---|---|
| Subject | literary women |
| Genre | poetry |
| Published | London |
| Publisher | Joseph Johnson |
Publication date | 1775 |
| Pages | viii+41 pp. |
| Website | Google Books |
Mary Scott's The Female Advocate; a poem occasioned by reading Mr. Duncombe's Feminead (1775) is both a celebration of women's literary achievements, as well as an impassioned piece of advocacy for women's right to literary self-expression.
The Female Advocate takes John Duncombe's The Feminead: or, female genius. A poem (1754) as its inspiration. Scott expresses gratitude and admiration for Duncombe, then justifies her own project with her stated wish to expand his original list of "female geniuses", as well as to include some of those who came to prominence since he wrote (page v).
Duncombe's poem is celebratory; it rehearses the accomplishments of women writers of the mid-eighteenth-century. Scott cast further back in time in order to "tell what bright daughters BRITAIN once could boast" (l. 25) and introduces a series of women from the previous two centuries that would have already been familiar to most of her readers, beginning with the learned Protestant sixth wife of Henry VIII, Catherine Parr. She continues chronologically into the quarter-century between when Duncombe's poem was published two decades earlier and the time of her own writing. Her poem combines the tradition of the catalogue of exemplary women that Duncombe follows, with that of another genre that would also have been familiar to her readers: the defence of women.
Scott's poem consists of 522 lines of heroic couplets. It is dedicated to her close friend, Mary Steele, [1] and contains several references to people within their circle. [2]
Pastoral pseudonyms, or noms de plumes, were popular in the eighteenth century, and Scott uses them in this poem, both widely known ones such as "Orinda" for Katherine Philips, as well as pen names employed in a more limited way, within her own circle. Female writers often published anonymously. Scott includes two anonymous writers in the body of the poem [3] and mentions a third in the introduction.
In the introduction, Scott mentions four writers who had "started up since the writing of this little piece": [4] Hester Chapone (1727–1801), [5] Hannah More, Phillis Wheatley, and the unnamed author of "poems by a lady" "lately published" by G. Robinson in Paternoster Row. [6] She implies that there is no shortage of subjects: "Authors have appeared with honour, in almost every walk of literature."
Mary Alcock was an English poet, essayist, and philanthropist. She was part of Lady Anne Miller's literary circle in Bath.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
George Ballard was an English antiquary and biographer, the author of Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain (1752).
John Duncombe was an English clergyman and writer.
The academic discipline of women's writing is a discrete area of literary studies which is based on the notion that the experience of women, historically, has been shaped by their sex, and so women writers by definition are a group worthy of separate study: "Their texts emerge from and intervene in conditions usually very different from those which produced most writing by men." It is not a question of the subject matter or political stance of a particular author, but of her sex, i.e. her position as a woman within the literary world.
Mary Barber, Irish poet, was a member of Swift's circle. She has been described as "a domestic, small-scale, early eighteenth-century poet of charm and intelligence, but also an incisive, often satirical commentator on social and gender issues."
Mary Scott (1751/52–1793), who became Mary Taylor after her marriage, was an English poet originating from Milborne Port, Somerset. Notable for her literary contributions, Scott authored "The Female Advocate" in 1774, a work advocating for women's participation in writing and literature.
Susanna Duncombe was an English poet and artist.
This is a chronological list of women playwrights who were active in England and Wales, and the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland before approximately 1800, with a brief indication of productivity. Nota Bene: Authors of dramatic works are the focus of this list, though many of these writers worked in more than one genre.)
John Duncombe (1729-1786) published his "canon-forming" celebration of British women writers as The Feminiad in 1754, though the title was revised as The Feminead in the second, 1757 edition.
During the eighteenth century, there were several attempts to describe a "women's literary tradition." This table compares six eighteenth-century collections of notable women: George Ballard's Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain (1752), John Duncombe's The Feminead (1754), the Biographium Faemineum, Mary Scott's The Female Advocate (1775), Richard Polwhele's The Unsex'd Females (1798), and Mary Hay's Female Biography (1803).
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Cecily Heron, one of Thomas More's children, was part of a circle of exceptionally educated and accomplished women who exemplified "learned ladies" for the next two centuries.
Eighteenth century women poets: an Oxford anthology is a poetry anthology edited by Roger Lonsdale and published in 1989 by the Oxford University Press. In the introduction, Lonsdale notes that while the featured writers may have flourished, to one degree or another, during the eighteenth century, by the time he came to collect their work, many of them had "disappeared from view." Scholars since have credited Lonsdale's "unprecedented" work for opening up new avenues for teaching and research. The collection comprises three hundred and twenty-three separate poems by one hundred and seven different poets, fifteen of whom remain anonymous. The entries are arranged chronologically, and each includes a biographical note.
Poems by Eminent Ladies (1755) is one of the first anthologies of women's writing in English. It was edited by George Colman (1732–1794) and Bonnell Thornton (1725–1768).