Farewell, Thalia's Daughters
~Joanna Baillie's The Tryal

Cheers!
~Kari
...I just realized that in my last post it sounds like Frances Burney had a sexual attraction to paper! That's not what I meant!
"A woman write a play! Out upon it, out upon it, for it cannot be good..."
~ Margaret Cavendish's "Bell in Campo"
Reinventing the Feminine: Bluestocking Women Writers in 18th Century London examines the context for the social salon's development in 18th century London, the major players in the literary revolution, and examples of written works that sustained the movement from 1750 to 1790.
The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature, 3rd edition, says this:
"During the first half of the 18th century, English women had little education and even less intellectual status. The first attempt to create a circle in which intelligent conversation should take the place of cards or scandalous chatter was made by Mrs. Elizabeth Vesey (1715-91), in whose literary gatherings the term "blue stocking" gained currency. Benjamin Stillingfleet... though gifted and brilliant, was not, in appearance at least, respectable. Being invited by Mrs. Vesey to one of her "conversations," he excused himself as sartorially unfit. Upon which the lady exclaimed: "Don't mind the dress; come in your blue stockings" --i.e. in blue or grey worsted, the everyday wear, instead of black silk, the correct wear for assemblies. "Bluestocking" or "undress" parties became a kind of catchword, and gradually, in the ironic course of time, the phrase applied to a man became applied to the women he met at these assemblies. Mrs. Vesey originated the blue-stocking circles, but the "Queen of the Blues" was Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu...
The blue-stockings were sometimes ridiculous, but they must not be dismissed as unimportant. They did much to infuse a general interest in literature and they helped to make society more decent."
"Doctor Syntax with a Blue Stocking Beauty" by Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), from William Combe's The Third Tour of Doctor Syntax, In Search of a Wife, 1812.
"Breaking Up of the Blue Stocking Club," Thomas Rowlandson, 1815.
Rowlandson’s print reminds us that the newer image of women as passive “angels of the house” was not the only one carrying cultural currency; older images of women who were raucous and ready for a fight were still funny to audiences in 1815. The melee he depicts, however, in which bluestockings—a semi-contemptuous term for learned women —fight like fishwives and spill “French cream” (shorthand for their supposed interest in the French Revolution), is a far cry from the decorous bluestocking teas that Hannah More had attended decades earlier.
R. Crompton Rhodes sums up my impression of the play really well: "Most of the situations are the 'dramatic commonplaces' of earlier authors, but the characters are of their own period" (Rhodes 131). He also gives some nice historical details about the setting: “the fashionable amusement of the era, a masquerade at the Pantheon. This splendid building in Oxford Street was lavishly decorated, [transformed into] a romantic paisage [...] with cascades, bowers, rocks, and cataracts… every niche filled with orange and myrtle” (134). Sounds a bit like Pope's grotto!
I'll end by touching on an important idea raised by Finberg about Letitia Hardy's ability to change herself. Since Letitia can fit seamlessly into any social role, "Cowley seems to be asking a very modern question: 'Is there true identity?'" (Finberg xlvii). I'm sure this kettle of fish will be discussed in class. Looking forward to it!
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The photos are from (the editor of our anthology) Melinda C. Finberg's revival of The Belle's Stratagem at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2005.