Hester Lynch Piozzi

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Standard Name: Piozzi, Hester Lynch
Birth Name: Hester Lynch Salusbury
Married Name: Hester Lynch Thrale
Married Name: Hester Lynch Piozzi
Pseudonym: H: L: T.
Pseudonym: An Old Acquaintance of the Public
Pseudonym: An Old Woman
Self-constructed Name: H: L: P.
Used Form: Hester Thrale
Hester Lynch Thrale, later Hester Lynch Piozzi , was by inclination and practice a woman of letters as well as a woman of the world. She loved recording facts and details; she was an incisive critic (of real learning) and a great entertainer. She wrote poems, translations, essays, letters, journals, memoirs, and works of scholarship, and she published both during the later eighteenth and during the earlier nineteenth century.
Half-length engraving of Hester Lynch Piozzi by M. Meyer, from portrait by J. Jackson, May 1810. She is seated, and is in mourning, wearing a simple dark dress with a cloak around her shoulders, and a large hat decorated with a bow. Her name is below: "Mrs. Hester Lynch Piozzi".

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Education Mary Somerville
Flipping casually through a ladies' fashion magazine when she was about fourteen years old, Mary had her curiosity caught by an algebraic expression in a puzzle. She was told that the variables were Algebra...
Family and Intimate relationships Anne Damer
The somewhat hostile witness Hester Piozzi alleged that AD (whom she called much suspected for liking her own Sex in a criminal way) was engaged in an affair with the leading actress Elizabeth Farren .
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. Thraliana. Editor Balderston, Katharine, Clarendon, 1942.
2: 770
Family and Intimate relationships Susannah Dobson
The couple had three children, two girls and a boy. The eldest, a girl, died in her teens, to their great sorrow; their son, too, died before his father. The other daughter, Susannah, married in...
Family and Intimate relationships Harriet Lee
Hester Lynch Piozzi was trying unsuccessfully to bring about a marriage between HL and the widowed marchese Ludovico Trotti , who seemed to be in love with her.
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. The Piozzi Letters. Editors Bloom, Edward A. and Lillian D. Bloom, University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses, 1989–2002, 6 vols.
1: 356-7, 360 and n7-9
Family and Intimate relationships Dorothea Du Bois
Peter Du Bois enjoyed the patronage of Bishop George Berkeley , who was said to have emphasised his superiority to most musicians—evidence that the match was seen as mixing social classes in a manner analogous...
Family and Intimate relationships Susan Ferrier
The first important position of James Ferrier , SF 's father, was as Writer to the Signet. Later he was appointed Principal Clerk of Session and became estate manager to the Duke of Argyll ...
Family and Intimate relationships Elizabeth Grant
EG 's mother, Jane Ironside Grant, was cold towards her daughter, and was seldom well.
Grant, Elizabeth. Memoirs of a Highland Lady. Editor Tod, Andrew, Canongate, 1988, 2 vols.
1: 51-2
The daughter of a clergyman, she was descended from Norman ancestry, and she married John Peter Grant on...
Family and Intimate relationships Mary Harcourt
Elizabeth Harcourt's verse comprised of one bound volume of poetry, the majority of which was transcribed by herself. She was also heavily involved in the collection of three volumes of poems by other authors (many...
Family and Intimate relationships Sarah Fielding
SF 's most important sibling was her brother Henry , first as the eldest child and later as a highly successful novelist and playwright (as well as theatre manager and lawyer). She kept house for...
Family and Intimate relationships Susan Smythies
Of Susan's identified siblings (apart from those who died young) William was born in November 1722, Humphrey or Humphry in January 1724, Ann in February 1725, Elizabeth in August 1727; from the first marriage there...
Family and Intimate relationships Ann Hatton
Hester Lynch Piozzi observed her indignant melancholy about the discovery.
qtd. in
Highfill, Philip H. et al. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1973–1993.
14: 21
Family and Intimate relationships Lady Eleanor Butler
They were outraged, and at once sought legal advice from Edmund Burke (who had experienced image problems of a not dissimilar kind).
Mavor, Elizabeth. The Ladies of Llangollen. Michael Joseph, 1971.
83-4
Brideoake, Fiona. “Keep Yourself in Your Own Persons, Where You Are: The Ladies of Llangollen and Queer Self-Fashioning”. 42nd ASECS Annual Meeting, 18 Mar. 2011.
This episode was remarkable partly because such hostility was unusual. But not...
Family and Intimate relationships Helen Maria Williams
HMW . it seems, had a life partner: English businessman and fellow radical John Hurford Stone , whom she met when she first visited Paris. He was married, but his wife had taken lovers...
Fictionalization Frances Burney
Bibliographer James Raven notes a crescendo in novelistic echoes of FB 's works during the 1780s. Burney's brother Charles , for instance, noted borrowings from both Evelina and Cecilia in his review for the Monthly...
Friends, Associates Henrietta Maria Bowdler
One of HMB 's male friends was James Plumptre , younger brother of the writers Anne and Annabella (though the sisters' radical politics were diametrically opposed to those of the Bowdler family). By 1802 she...

Timeline

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

Building item

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.
Myers, Sylvia Harcstark. The Bluestocking Circle: Women, Friendship, and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England. Clarendon, 1990.
271-2

January 1781-December 1782: The Lady's Poetical Magazine, or Beauties...

Writing climate item

January 1781-December 1782

The Lady's Poetical Magazine, or Beauties of British Poetry appeared, published by James Harrison in four half-yearly numbers; it is arguable whether or not it kept the first number's promise of generous selections of work...

April 1782: Hester Thrale recorded in her journal a poem...

Women writers item

April 1782

Hester Thrale recorded in her journal a poem by Anne Hunter which seems to be the first English rendering of a Native American death song.
Lonsdale, Roger, editor. Eighteenth-Century Women Poets. Oxford University Press, 1990.
363-4

April 1789: The Gentleman's Magazine published Anna Seward's...

Women writers item

April 1789

The Gentleman's Magazine published Anna Seward 's selection of living celebrated Female Poets.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
59 (1789): 292

1 April 1789: Hester Lynch Piozzi (a propos reports about...

Building item

1 April 1789

Hester Lynch Piozzi (a propos reports about Marie Antoinette ) indignantly recorded what she presents as if it was her first encounter with lesbianism.
Mavor, Elizabeth. The Ladies of Llangollen. Penguin, 1973.
78

7 December 1789: Hester Lynch Piozzi heard the African John...

Building item

7 December 1789

Hester Lynch Piozzi heard the African John Frederick Bridgetower speaking in public at Bath, to great applause, and wrote how Dr. Johnson would have adored that Man!
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. The Piozzi Letters. Editors Bloom, Edward A. and Lillian D. Bloom, University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses, 1989–2002, 6 vols.
1: 330-1 and nn2-4

January 1793: Hester Piozzi reported the indignant melancholy...

Building item

January 1793

Hester Piozzi reported the indignant melancholy of the actress Sarah Siddons , who had been infected with syphilis by her husband.
Stewart, Mary Margaret. “’And Blights with Plagues the Marriage Hearse’: Syphilis and Wives”. The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France, edited by Linda E. Merians, University Press of Kentucky, 1996, pp. 103-13.
105, 110

By 22 July 1797: William Beckford published a second and more...

Women writers item

By 22 July 1797

William Beckford published a second and more marked burlesque attack on women's writing: Azemia: A Descriptive and Sentimental Novel. Interspersed with Pieces of Poetry.
Beckford, William. Azemia. Sampson Low, 1797, 2 vols.
1: 21; 2: 43, 61, 236ff
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
2nd ser. 20 (1797): 470

1 August 1815: The surveyor William Smith dated his first-ever...

Building item

1 August 1815

The surveyor William Smith dated his first-ever geological map of Britain; the national Geological Society cold-shouldered him and published its own map, five years later, which was essentially a plagiarism of his.
Fortey, Richard. “Prophet of the Rocks”. London Review of Books, 9 Aug. 2001, pp. 27-8.
27-8
Winchester, Simon. The Map that Changed the World. HarperCollins, 2001.
xvi
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. The Piozzi Letters. Editors Bloom, Edward A. and Lillian D. Bloom, University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses, 1989–2002, 6 vols.
5: 442

29 April 1852: Physician and polymath Peter Mark Roget published...

Writing climate item

29 April 1852

Physician and polymath Peter Mark Roget published his Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases; it went through 25 editions in its first two decades, and remained an influential writing tool into the twenty-first century...

6 May 2009: The antiquarian book collection of the late...

Women writers item

6 May 2009

The antiquarian book collection of the late Paula Fentress Peyraud (the largest in private hands), auctioned in New York, fetched more than $1.5 million US. Books by women between 1760 and 1830 predominated.
Mulvihill, Maureen E. “Literary Property Changing Hands: The Peyraud Auction (New York City, 6 May 2009)”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
43
, No. 1, 2009, pp. 151-63.
151, 153, 156, 158

Texts

Piozzi, Hester Lynch. Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson. T. Cadell, 1786.
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. British Synonymy. G.G. and J. Robinson, 1794.
Piozzi, Hester Lynch, editor. Letters to and from the Late Samuel Johnson. A. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1788.
Montagu, Elizabeth, and Hester Lynch Piozzi. Letters to Hester Thrale.
Shaw, William, and Hester Lynch Piozzi. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Late Dr. Samuel Johnson. Editor Sherbo, Arthur, Oxford University Press, 1974.
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany. A. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1789.
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany. Cambridge University Press, 2010, 2 vols. , http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CLOR.
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. Retrospection. J. Stockdale, 1801.
Johnson, Samuel, and Hester Lynch Piozzi. The Letters of Samuel Johnson. Editor Chapman, Robert William, Clarendon Press, 1984, 3 vols.
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. The Piozzi Letters. Editors Bloom, Edward A. and Lillian D. Bloom, University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses, 2002, 6 vols.
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. The Thrales of Streatham Park. Editor Hyde, Mary, Harvard University Press, 1977.
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. Thraliana. Editor Balderston, Katharine, Clarendon, 1942.
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. Three Warnings to John Bull Before He Dies. R. Faulder, 1798.