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
Literary responses Phebe Gibbes
This novel aroused much interest. One letter was reprinted almost entire, without attribution, on 2 July 1789 in the Aberdeen Magazine as a Picture of the Mode of living at Calcutta. In a letter from...
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, 1987.
172
The stumbling-block was probably the low elements of the book.
Literary responses Hannah More
Elizabeth Montagu wrote to Elizabeth Carter on 19 September 1793 ostensibly speculating as to what exactly was meant by the title Bas Bleu. She seemed to think (probably feigning, since the term bluestocking was...
Literary responses Samuel Johnson
Like all of Johnson's later works this was controversial. For Johnson the art of biography has nothing to do with eulogy, and (quite apart from personal objections, like Elizabeth Montagu 's indignation at his low...
Literary responses Hannah More
HM was much praised for this pamphlet as soon as her authorship was known. Porteus wrote to her as if to Mrs Chip, the author's wife, with the conceit that the pamphlet would make Chip...
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...
Occupation Sarah Murray
SM later ran another school in Kensington. Elizabeth Hagglund , author of the entry on Sarah Murray in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, takes the identity between Murray and the author Mease...
Occupation Hester Mulso Chapone
Suggestions were put to her about taking up a job as companion to an English duchess or governess in a German princely household, but the always-influential Elizabeth Montagu disliked the sound of the first position...
Occupation Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
LMWM acted as patron to a number of writers (all male so far as is known), most notably Richard Savage and Henry Fielding , but also Edward Young and Samuel Boyse . Books to which...
Occupation Frances Reynolds
Samuel Johnson was eager to sit for her, and did so on three occasions: in March 1775, in June 1780, and in summer 1783. He may have been sitting for her on the day before...
Occupation Hannah More
HM embarked on helping Ann Yearsley in the terrible winter of 1783-4, when the Yearsley family were near destitution. Charity modulated into literary patronage over the year 1784, as More brought Yearsley to the attention...
politics Sarah Scott
The Bath Road also runs close to Elizabeth Montagu's country house at Sandleford. SS modelled this community on the one she had imagined in Millenium Hall, which in turn is closely related to the...
Publishing Sarah Fielding
The work was dedicated to Lady Pomfret . Its 440 subscribers included many prominent people, reflecting the bluestockings' range of influence as well as SF 's local and family connections: Ralph Allen , Lord Chesterfield
Publishing Helen Maria Williams
HMW presented the manuscript of her Ode on the Peace to Elizabeth Montagu ; it was published the same year, without her name but with mention of her previous publication.
Publishing Mary Deverell
A dedication to the Princess Royal praises the immortal writings of many other women, or rather ladies. MD herself, she says, is a person of obscure and undistinguished rank, who yet hath not reliquished the...

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