Elizabeth Montagu

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Standard Name: Montagu, Elizabeth
Birth Name: Elizabeth Robinson
Nickname: Fidget
Nickname: The Two Peas (with Sarah Scott)
Nickname: The Queen of the Blues
Married Name: Elizabeth Montagu
EM , eighteenth-century Bluestocking leader, is known on the one hand as an informal letter-writer, and on the other hand for ambitious critical intervention in canonicity and cultural debates, with her critical study of Shakespeare and dialogues of the dead.
Mezzotint of Elizabeth Montagu, published by John Raphael Smith in 1776 after a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds. She is seen in profile, sitting in a large upholstered chair against a backdrop of drapery, a pillar, and an outdoor landscape. Her dress and petticoat are voluminous and heavily decorated, with ruffled sleeves and a bow at the neck. Her hair is brushed back under a small bonnet perched on top of her head and tied with a dark ribbon. Below the image is a coat of arms and italic writing: "Mrs. Mon

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Leisure and Society Joanna Baillie
In the earlier 1840s, however, she was still a keen reader. She tackled the first edition of Frances Burney 's Diary and Letters out of a desire to get some insight into the literary society...
Friends, Associates Anna Letitia Barbauld
ALB met Elizabeth Montagu for the first time (after some months' correspondence) when on her honeymoon trip she visited Montagu's house in Hill Street, Mayfair, London site of the famous bluestocking salon.
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
147
McCarthy, William et al. “Introduction”. The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld, University of Georgia Press, p. xxi - xlvi.
xliv
Rodgers, Betsy. Georgian Chronicle: Mrs Barbauld and her Family. Methuen.
80
Occupation Anna Letitia Barbauld
At some time before November 1773, while the engaged pair were casting around for a means of earning money, Countess Spencer (perhaps, but only perhaps, with the support of Elizabeth Montagu , and quite possibly...
Reception Anna Letitia Barbauld
Miss Aikin's Poems sold five hundred copies in just over four months, and the second edition sold a similar number in a similar period. In September a third edition was announced.
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
111
The Monthly Review...
Literary responses Anna Letitia Barbauld
Frances Burney thought this the best of all Barbauld's poems. Hannah More wrote to thank ALB for writing so well on a subject so near her, More's heart,
Paul, Lissa. The Children’s Book Business. Routledge.
111
and recommended the poem to Elizabeth Montagu
Textual Features Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
EOB writes in terms of a women's tradition: for instance, she praises Barbauld for praising Elizabeth Rowe . She makes confident judgements and attributions (she is sure that Lady Pakington is the real author of...
Family and Intimate relationships Henrietta Maria Bowdler
HMB 's mother, a baronet's heiress and an intellectual, was born Elizabeth Stuart Cotton in about 1718. Four of her children grew up to be writers. She was an acquaintance of Elizabeth Montagu ,
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Henrietta Maria Bowdler
In this work HMB warns against improper choice of friends and the excesses of romantic friendship, even while she idealises true friendship. She praises the well-employed talents of Elizabeth Montagu , Elizabeth Smith , Hannah More
Textual Features Frances Brooke
Brooke's advertisement to volume 3 says she gave up her plan for an essay on the writing of history, and settled instead on using notes to demonstrate how this work is, as all history ought...
Literary responses Frances Burney
Hester Thrale recorded a significant dissenting voice: nine months after publication, Mrs Montagu cannot bear Evelina.
Clifford, James L. Hester Lynch Piozzi (Mrs Thrale). Clarendon Press.
172
The stumbling-block was probably the low elements of the book.
Travel Elizabeth Carter
EC travelled in Europe with Elizabeth Montagu and Lord Bath .
Pennington, Montagu, and Elizabeth Carter. Memoirs of the Life of Mrs Elizabeth Carter. F. C. and J. Rivington.
I: 270-2
Myers, Sylvia Harcstark. The Bluestocking Circle: Women, Friendship, and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England. Clarendon.
194
Textual Production Elizabeth Carter
EC 's nephew Montagu Pennington followed his first collection of her letters with another, of her correspondence with her almost lifelong friend Elizabeth Montagu (whose name he bore, as her godson).
Quarterly Review. J. Murray.
17 (1817): 293
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Carter
EC associated on terms of warmth and equality with men of letters or culture such as Samuel Johnson , Samuel Richardson , Thomas Birch , Moses Browne , Richard Savage , William and John Duncombe
Wealth and Poverty Elizabeth Carter
EC was proud of her financial independence (though she also accepted support from her wealthy friend Elizabeth Montagu and from Archbishop Secker , patron of her friend Catherine Talbot). She leased from Secker a group...
Publishing Elizabeth Carter
The book had gone to press in June 1757.
Feminist Companion Archive.
The original press run of 1,018 copies had to be supplemented with a further 250. First of several more editions was the Dublin one of the...

Timeline

5 December 1738: The trial opened in which Theophilus Cibber...

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5 December 1738

The trial opened in which Theophilus Cibber sued William Sloper for adultery, claiming £5,000 damages: virtually the trial of Susannah Cibber . The jury found Sloper guilty but signified their opinion of Theophilus by awarding...

1 May 1749: Elizabeth Chudleigh created a sensation by...

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1 May 1749

Elizabeth Chudleigh created a sensation by appearing at a masquerade in the character of Iphigenia, in a dress so transparent that she was as good as naked.

22 March 1754: A group of Nobles, Clergy, Gentlemen, & Merchants...

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22 March 1754

A group of Nobles, Clergy, Gentlemen, & Merchants met to establish what became the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

10 August 1758: The Magdalen Hospital (for fallen women)...

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10 August 1758

The Magdalen Hospital (for fallen women) opened in Prescot Street, London, after a considerable campaign to influence public opinion.

31 May 1766: Coalmine-owner and bluestocking Elizabeth...

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31 May 1766

Coalmine-owner and bluestocking Elizabeth Montagu , who had already commented acidly on the narrowness of Newcastle streets, wrote of its people as little better than Savages.

July 1773: The Westminster Magazine printed, along with...

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July 1773

The Westminster Magazine printed, along with its account of Oxford University 's annual degree-giving, an article by L. P.On the Propriety of Bestowing Academical Honours on the Ladies.

April 1774: The Monthly Review, in a notice on Hannah...

Women writers item

April 1774

The Monthly Review, in a notice on Hannah More 's The Inflexible Captive, quoted some lines which transform the Muses from ancient Greece into the living female poets of Britain.

By April 1774: A Father's Legacy to His Daughters, by Dr...

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By April 1774

A Father's Legacy to His Daughters, by Dr John Gregory , was posthumously published.

28 November 1776: The otherwise unidentified Mrs H. Cartwright...

Women writers item

28 November 1776

The otherwise unidentified Mrs H. Cartwright wrote the dedication to Elizabeth Montagu of her first work, Letters on Female Education Addressed to a Married Lady, which appeared early the next year.

1777: Richard Samuel engraved his Nine Living Muses...

Women writers item

1777

Richard Samuel engraved his Nine Living Muses of Great Britain (or Portraits in the Character of the Muses in the Temple of Apollo) for Johnson's Ladies New and Polite Pocket Memorandum for 1778...

1785: Dialogues Concerning the Ladies, a celebration...

Women writers item

1785

Dialogues Concerning the Ladies, a celebration of famous women, was anonymously published; it borrows from Ballard 's Memoirs of Eminent Ladies.

By early October 1930: London publisher Gerald Howe issued a composite...

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By early October 1930

London publisher Gerald Howe issued a composite biography entitled Six Women of the World, which had previously made up six volumes in a Representative Women series, 1927-9.

Texts

Montagu, Elizabeth, and George, first Baron Lyttelton. “Dialogues XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII”. Dialogues of the Dead, Garland, 1970, pp. 291-20.
Climenson, Emily J., and Elizabeth Montagu. Elizabeth Montagu, The Queen of the Bluestockings. Her Correspondence from 1720 to 1761. John Murray, 1906.
Montagu, Elizabeth. Essay on Shakespear. J. Dodsley, 1769.
Blunt, Reginald, and Elizabeth Montagu. Mrs Montagu, "Queen of the Blues", Her Letters and Friendships from 1762 to 1800. Constable, 1923.
Montagu, Elizabeth. “MSS MO 1-6923”. Huntington Library Manuscripts.
Montagu, Elizabeth. The Letters of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu. Editor Montagu, Matthew, T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1813.