Romantic Women Writers and Their Commonplace Books A

ROMANTIC WOMEN WRITERS AND THEIR COMMONPLACE BOOKS A Dissertation by DEBORAH LYNN PFUNTNER Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Susan B. Egenolf Committee Members, Margaret J. M. Ezell Mary Ann O’Farrell James M. Rosenheim Head of Department, Maura Ives August 2016 Major Subject: English Copyright 2016 Deborah Lynn Pfuntner ABSTRACT Women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries changed the genre of commonplace books. During the Romantic period, women shifted emphasis away from classical texts and conduct literature toward colloquial, individualized compilations. This generic shift, fostered by the advent of print culture, suited women’s practical needs and creativity. Scholarship has often excluded the commonplace books of women— especially Scottish, Welsh, and Irish women--from discussions of genre or textual studies. Building upon the scholarship of David Allan and Earle Havens, I redress this oversight. I analyze literary, financial, and political compilations, as an emerging trivium in commonplace books, comprising significant subject areas in women’s commonplacing. Case studies of women writers in this dissertation demonstrate the significance of commonplace books as workspaces for composing and revising self-authored and other- authored literary works—especially poetry. Angela Reyner, Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock Castle, and Dorothy Wordsworth included various modes of poetic expression and emendation in their commonplace books. Wordsworth’s commonplace books, correspondence, and journals suggest how and why she edited and versioned her poetry, which circulated through social networks and coteries. Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby (the Ladies of Llangollen), Rose, and Wordsworth exemplify in their commonplacing how and why women compiled shopping memoranda, registers, and asset inventories. Ponsonby’s commonplace book ii especially demonstrates how property was recorded using cartographic accountancy, which conflates sketching, surveying, and mapping with accounting. Women’s commonplacing suggests that they kept valuatory records of ownership or stewardship that indicate what women valued, revealing their long-term investment perspectives. Women valued sociability and included the public sphere of shared ideas in their commonplace books. In crafting commonplace books with resources from periodicals and the domestic sphere or commonplacing the domestic domain itself, women expressed cultural, economic, and socio-political opinions and voiced controversies in relation to identity and community. Lady Morgan (Sydney Owenson), Ponsonby, and Butler resisted English hegemony by incorporating into their commonplacing Celtic inter-linkages, Gothic artifacts, or cultural-political awareness of new nationalism. Commonplace books continue to evolve. On digital Internet sites, such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook, commonplacing maintains the relevant need to share and retain ideas—informing social networks of communication. iii DEDICATION Dedicated to Kevin J., Carol, Kasey, Harper, Joshua, Kevin V., Beth & Joy. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Susan B. Egenolf, and committee members, Dr. Margaret J. M. Ezell, Dr. Mary Ann O’Farrell, and Dr. James M. Rosenheim, for their insightful guidance and invaluable support throughout the course of this research project and dissertation. Thanks also go to friends, colleagues, faculty, and staff in the Department of English for making my time at Texas A&M University an enriching experience. Special thanks go to Dr. Sally Robinson, Dr. Claudia Nelson, and Paulette Hoelscher. I was to express my appreciation to the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research and the Department of English for their generous Graduate Research Fellowship and travel support. I want to express my appreciation as well to the College of Liberal Arts for funding the Texas A&M University and Aberystwyth University PhD Fellowship Exchange and the Vision 2020 Dissertation Improvement Award from which my research benefitted greatly. Special thanks go to Dr. Margaret Ezell and Dr. Sarah Prescott for their vision in initiating the Texas A&M University and Aberystwyth University exchange program. I also want to express my gratitude to Jeff Cowton MBE, Rebecca Coombe- Turner, and the Wordsworth Trust Library, as well as express my gratitude to the National Library of Wales, the National Library of Ireland, and the Cushing Memorial Library. This dissertation was made possible by their help and generous access to archives. v I want to extend my appreciation and gratitude to those who were absolutely vital as my second pair of eyes, technical support, and moral support as I battled the long and many late hours of researching, writing, editing, and formatting my dissertation: Rebecca Renfro, Dr. Dane Bozeman, and Kevin Pfuntner. Special thanks to my sister, Dr. Susan Rose, for being an inspiration and for introducing me to the Lake District, the home of the Wordsworths. Finally, cheers to friends and colleagues in Wales who helped me in more ways than there are lines to write: Camilla Calder, Nigel Jones, Sarah Jones, and Mark Herbert-Lloyd. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................ii DEDICATION .................................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................vii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: A SALMAGUNDIAN “COLLECTION OF A VARIETY OF SUBJECTS, ORIGINAL PIECES, PIECE-MEALS OF ECONOMY, AND CONTROVERSIES AND OPINIONS” IN WOMEN’S COMMONPLACE BOOKS ................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER II “NAY, ILL THOSE WORDS BEFIT”: THE LITERARY WORKSPACE OF POETIC COMPOSITION IN WOMEN’S COMMONPLACE BOOKS ............................................................................... 72 CHAPTER III “ALL THAT IS YOUR OWN”: THE VALUATORY WORKSPACE OF COMMONPLACE BOOKS ............................................. 132 CHAPTER IV “VENTURE FORTH, A NOBLE PEOPLE DWELL THERE”: COMMONPLACING CULTURAL AND SOCIABLE POLITICS IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE OF LADY MORGAN’S, SARAH PONSONBY’S, AND ELEANOR BUTLER’S COMMONPLACE BOOKS ............................ 190 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION: COMMONPLACE BOOKS AND DIGITAL COTERIES ........................................................................................................ 263 WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................. 272 WORKS CONSULTED ................................................................................................. 289 vii LIST OF FIGURES Page Fig. 1. Snippet view of inaugural first page of Lady Morgan’s Commonplace Book MS 878. This page contains a published print clipping of Thomas Moore’s poem, “The Periwinkles and the Locusts: A Salmagundian Hymn” (ca. 1827), in which he includes an excerpted passage from François Rabelais’s “Third Book of the Heroic Deeds and Sayings of the Good Pantagruel” (ca. 1550) featuring the term Salmagundi as a synecdoche for political excess. (MS 878). Reprinted with permission from The National Library of Ireland (“Sydney Morgan” 1825). ..................................................................................... 4 Fig. 2. An ephemeral organic stain from a flowering plant in Dorothy Wordsworth’s shared commonplace book with William Wordsworth, Book of Verse DCMS 89. Reprinted with permission from The Wordsworth Trust (“Dorothy Wordsworth” 1820). .......................................................................... 12 Fig. 3. Inner front cover fly leaf of Camilla Calder’s Victorian scrapbook. This family heirloom designates the provenance of the manuscript with inscriptions written in pencil and ink. Reprinted with permission from Camilla Calder (“Camilla Calder”1850). ............................................................ 24 Fig. 4. Two-page spread from Camilla Calder’s scrapbook. This layout depicts Victorian interest in handcrafted commonplacing utilizing colored and gray- scaled images readily available in a print culture of abundant and affordable media. Reprinted with permission from Camilla Calder (“Camilla Calder”1850). ...................................................................................................... 27 Fig. 5. Snippet view of Morgan’s Commonplace Book MS 881 (ca. 1837-1850) featuring two dime-sized remnants of newsprint adhered with sealing wax. Reprinted with permission from The National Library of Ireland (“Sydney Morgan” 1837). ................................................................................................... 32 Fig. 6. Snippet view of Aubrey [Thomas] de Vere’s sonnet, “There is no remedy for time misspent” (ca. 1842), and Sir George Head’s “Extracts from Forest Scenes & Incidents in the Wilds of North America” (1829). The extracts in Dorothy Wordsworth’s Commonplace Book DCMS 120 exhibit mixed genres in close proximity. Reprinted with permission from The Wordsworth

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