Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Mary Astell
-
Standard Name: Astell, Mary
Birth Name: Mary Astell
Pseudonym: A Lover of Her Sex
Pseudonym: The Author of the Proposal to the Ladies
Pseudonym: The Reflector
Pseudonym: Tom Single
Pseudonym: A very Moderate Person and Dutiful Subject of the
Queen
Pseudonym: A Daughter of the Church of England
Pseudonym: Mr Wotton
Best known as a feminist theorist and polemicist, MA
is also a fine poet and an energetic and funny controversialist on the political affairs of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. A High Anglican and High Tory in politics, she was nevertheless outspokenly radical about matters concerning gender. Her regular publisher, Rich or Richard Wilkin
, was known for his piety.
The lengthy title lists the satirical sketches that the work contains.
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.
The attribution to JD
by name comes from a catalogue published by Edmund Curll
in 1741 (which mentions James Drake
as arranging the publication...
Cultural formation
Ann Cook
AC
, apparently English and presumably white, presents an interesting study in class consciousness. She links herself with poor, low Servants in indignation at their treatment by the gentry class. She hints that her parents...
death
John Norris
JN
, philospher, clergyman, and friend of Mary Astell
, died at his parish of Bemerton in Wiltshire, the place with which his name is generally associated.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Dedications
Elizabeth Tipper
The title-page continues: The Pilgrim's Viaticum; or, The Destitute, but not Forlorn, Being a Divine Poem, Digested from Meditations upon the Holy Scripture. The title-page quotes Psalm 119, about loving God's law. This...
Dedications
Aphra Behn
According to its title-page, it was published in 1689.
O’Donnell, Mary Ann. Aphra Behn: An Annotated Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources. Garland, 1986.
155
It was dedicated to Hortense Mancini, duchesse de Mazarin
, now settled in England (who had been, like Behn's former dedicatee Nell Gwyn, a mistress...
Family and Intimate relationships
Mary Eleanor Bowes Countess of Strathmore
Her mother, born Mary Gilbert
, from a gentry family in Hertfordshire, was her father's second wife, married more than twenty years after the death of his first. (That first wife, the beautiful, scholarly, fourteen-year-old...
Family and Intimate relationships
Jane Squire
JS
might be related (her father had several brothers) to the high-church John Squire
of St Leonard's parish, Shoreditch, who is mentioned in The Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714, by John Walker
(with...
Friends, Associates
Anne Finch
AF
enjoyed personal friendships with a number of distinguished men, among them Bishop Thomas Ken
. She valued female friendship very highly; women friends figure prominently in her poetry. Lady Catherine Jones
, to whom...
She later told Anne Dewes
that she blamed herself for having neglected several overtures of acquaintance, especially the one which Lady Betty Hastings made through the intermediary of Mary Astell
while William Elstob was still...
Friends, Associates
Sarah Chapone
SC
was a great networker. Having met George Ballard
, a local man (perhaps because her sister was a patient of his mother, who was a midwife), she introduced him to Elizabeth Elstob
and to...
Friends, Associates
Mary Lady Chudleigh
MLC
's circle of friends was largely maintained by correspondence. She discussed literary and philosophical ideas with John Dryden
, Mary Astell
(Almystrea in Chudleigh's poetry), Elizabeth Thomas
, and other women who are...
Intertextuality and Influence
Constantia Grierson
Other poems in the manuscript include advice to young women (a topic CG
also pursued in a prose piece), expressions of female aspiration and solidarity and of fervent religious belief (for instance in a prayer-poem...
Timeline
1628: Publication began of the legal treatise known...
Building item
1628
Publication began of the legal treatise known to later generations as Coke upon Littleton: The first part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England, or a Commentarie upon Littleton by jurist Sir Edward Coke
1656: Abraham Cowley published Poems; this volume,...
Writing climate item
1656
Abraham Cowley
published Poems; this volume, which included his Pindaric Odes and Miscellanies, confirmed his stature as the leading poet of the day.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
1670: Les Pensées de M. Pascal sur la réligion,...
Writing climate item
1670
Les Pensées de M. Pascal
sur la réligion, et sur quelques autres sujets was posthumously published: it takes the form of a collection of aphorisms and very brief essays.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
1680: Josiah Priest and his wife moved their girls'...
Building item
1680
Josiah Priest
and his wife moved their girls' boarding school from Leicester Fields in London to Chelsea, where they took over an existing school in Gorges House.
Campbell, Margaret. Henry Purcell, Glory of His Age. Oxford University Press, 1995.
131, 146
Evelyn, John. Diary and Correspondence. Editor Bray, William, Routledge, 1906.
508
1 April 1684: George Hickes (later a patron of Elizabeth...
Building item
1 April 1684
George Hickes
(later a patron of Elizabeth Elstob
) preached at St Bridget's Church in London a sermon on almsgiving which made particular mention of charities to benefit women, including schools and colleges along the...
January 1697: Daniel Defoe proposed in his early publication...
Building item
January 1697
Daniel Defoe
proposed in his early publication An Essay upon Projects (advertised for sale this month) the founding of an academy for women.
Kersey, Shirley Nelson, editor. Classics in the Education of Girls and Women. Scarecrow Press, 1981.
87-94
Defoe, Daniel. Essay Upon Projects. Printed by R. R. for Tho. Cockerill, 1697.
31
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.
George Hickes
published, as Instructions for the Education of a Daughter, a translation of Fénelon
's Traité de l'éducation des filles, 1687.
Reynolds, Myra. The Learned Lady in England, 1650-1760. Houghton Mifflin, 1920.
291
Before 21 October 1714: George Berkeley compiled and published The...
Writing climate item
Before 21 October 1714
George Berkeley
compiled and published The Ladies Library, as by a Lady.
Steele, Sir Richard. The Correspondence of Richard Steele. Editor Blanchard, Rae, Oxford University Press, 1941.
95 and n1
June 1816: Lady Isabella King opened at Bailbrook House...
Building item
June 1816
Lady Isabella King
opened at Bailbrook House near Bath a communal home for single gentlewomen (or Protestant nunnery): a project going back to Mary Astell
, which King picked up from Sarah Scott
's Millenium Hall.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Texts
Astell, Mary. A Fair Way with the Dissenters. Richard Wilkin, 1704.
Astell, Mary. A Serious Proposal to the Ladies. Richard Wilkin, 1694.
Astell, Mary. A Serious Proposal to the Ladies. Editor Springborg, Patricia, Pickering and Chatto, 1997.
Astell, Mary. A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part II. Richard Wilkin, 1697.
Astell, Mary. An Impartial Enquiry into the Causes of Rebellion and Civil War in this Kingdom. Richard Wilkin, 1704.
Astell, Mary. Astell, Political Writings. Editor Springborg, Patricia, Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Astell, Mary. Bart’lemy Fair. Richard Wilkin, 1709.
Astell, Mary. “Introduction”. The First English Feminist, edited by Bridget Hill, St Martin’s Press, 1986, pp. 1-62.
Norris, John, and Mary Astell. Letters Concerning the Love of God. S. Manship and Richard Wilkin, 1695.
Astell, Mary. Moderation Truly Stated. Richard Wilkin, 1704.
Astell, Mary. Reflections Upon Marriage. John Nutt, 1700.
Astell, Mary. The Christian Religion. Richard Wilkin, 1705.
Astell, Mary. The First English Feminist. Editor Hill, Bridget, St Martin’s Press, 1986.