Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Mary Scott
-
Standard Name: Scott, Mary
Birth Name: Mary Scott
Pseudonym: M. S.
Married Name: Mary Taylor
As well as an elegy printed during her lifetime and hymns printed after her death in 1793, MS
published two ambitious longer poems about whose content she cared passionately: a polemical celebration of women's intellectual achievements (especially as writers), and an epic poem with Christ as hero.
Pickering and Chatto
includes AS
's Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse and Prose, 1780, and Verses for Children, 1788 (as well as work by Mary Scott
, Steele's niece Mary
, and Maria Grace Saffery
Birth
Mary Masters
MM
was born—according to Mary Scott
—in Yorkshire, at Otley near Leeds.
Scott, Mary, and Gae Holladay. The Female Advocate. William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, 1984.
20n
Friends, Associates
Anna Seward
Nine years later her meeting with the provincial literary hostess Anne, Lady Miller
, marked the beginning of a wide and deep acquaintance with the literary world beyond Lichfield.
Ashmun, Margaret. The Singing Swan. Yale University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1931.
36-7, 71
She was on terms...
Friends, Associates
Anne Steele
AS
evidently chose her friends at least partly for their literary interests, since they included three publishing women of a younger generation—Hannah More
, Anna Seward
, and (a closer friend than the first...
Intertextuality and Influence
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...
Literary responses
Catharine Macaulay
Her biographer Bridget Hill
identifies CM
's fame as having lasted fifteen years: from the publication of her first volume to the date of her second marriage (1763-78). But in fact she continued to command...
Literary responses
Mary Collyer
This was not to the Critical's taste. It had already this year declared its dislike of German poetry, and slammed Mary Scott
's Messiah.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
16 (1763): 393-4
Now it called Mr Collyer's translation...
Literary responses
Elizabeth Cooper
EC
's book was generally respected. It was praised by Mary Scott
, and had a significant impact on Thomas Chatterton
Bronson, Bertrand H. “Chattertoniana”. Modern Language Quarterly, Vol.
11
, 1950, pp. 417-24.
417
as well as, perhaps, on Johnson
's format in his Lives of the...
Literary responses
Mary Whateley Darwall
In April 1774 (ten years on from her first volume but long before her second) the Monthly Review (in a notice of Hannah More
's The Inflexible Captive) listed MWD
as one of the...
Literary responses
Elizabeth Tollet
ET
's reputation persisted for some time after her death. Mary Scott
praised her highly in The Female Advocate, 1774. John Duncombe
(though her posthumous publication was too late for inclusion in his Feminiad...
Reception
Sarah Scott
SS
published significantly more than any member of the Bluestocking circle—with which, through her sister, she had close ties despite not living in London. She remains, however, less known than any of that group. Publishing...
Textual Features
Anne Steele
AS
is, however, a secular as well as a religious poet. She twice wrote poems for national fast days during the Seven Years War: On the Publick Fast for 6 February 1756, and National Judgments...
Textual Production
Eugenia
The Eugenia who published The Female Advocate chose a favourite title as well as a favourite pseudonym. The title had already been used by Sarah Fyge
, 1686, and was to be used again by...
Textual Production
Anne Steele
AS
exchanged occasional poems over the span of her life with other women in her circle of correspondents: primarily her sister Mary Steele, later Wakeford
, whom she called Amira, but also her niece...
Timeline
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...
After 1 February 1785: M. Peddle (a gifted, little-known, Evangelical...
Women writers item
After 1 February 1785
M. Peddle
(a gifted, little-known, Evangelical woman of Yeovil in Somerset, who later issued a conduct book under the name of Cornelia) published a biblical paraphrase in novelistic style: The Life of Jacob.
Peddle, M. The Life of Jacob. R. Goadby and Co., 1785.
Texts
Holladay, Gae, and Mary Scott. “Introduction”. The Female Advocate, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, 1984, p. iii - x.
Scott, Mary. Messiah. R. Cruttwell, 1788.
Scott, Mary. The Female Advocate. Joseph Johnson, 1774.
Scott, Mary, and Gae Holladay. The Female Advocate. William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, 1984.