University of Alberta Augustan Women's Verse Satire David Buchanan O A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilhent of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Edmonton, Alberta Fa11 1998 National Library Bibliothique nationale l*l ofCanada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services seMces bibiiographiques 395 Well'igtm Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaON K1AW Omwa ON KIA ON4 canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Libwof Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distri-bute or sell reproduire, prêter, districbuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/lnlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format Bectronique . The author retains owership of the L'auteur conserve la propSte du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantiai extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract This dissertation investigates womenf s contributions to Augustan verse satire. Verse satire was the dominant literary form of the Augustan age, but literary history would have us believe that Augustan women did not write in that genre. Rather, literary history associates that genre almost exclusively with male writers and masculinity- This study argues that seventeenth and eighteenth-century women did write verse satire and that this body of work is a compelling, vibrant oeuvre. The introduction explores the origins and development of the myth of satire as masculine genre and how Augustan women negotiated around this myth. Chapter one establishes a theoretical framework by considering the key debates in satire theory, theories of womenf s humour and comedy, and resistance theory. Satire is defined as a flexible genre of possibilities, offering women writers a powerful vehicle for a range of strategies of resistance . The second chapter investigates contributions by Sarah Fyge and Mary, Lady Chudleigh, to a popular satiric sub-genre in the late seventeenth century: the satiric debate a5out wornen . Chapter three explores Augustan wornen satiristsf treatment of the theme of rnarriage in verse satire, This chapter looks at the differences between men's and womenfs marriage satire and considers the way womenrs marriage satire changed over the course of the Augustan period. The fourth chapter compares the cases of Elizabeth Thomas and Laetitia Pilkington as a means of examining the various ways Augustan women used verse satire--for displayirrg wit, articulating ref ormist views, exacting revenge, and making money-and how those ways changed. The conclusion examines the persistence of the mytbs surrounding Augustan womenrs satire in both traditional and feminist versions of literary history. 1 would like to acknowledge the support of many people- Pat Clements encouraged me at the beginning. My cornmittee members offered thoughtful feedback at the end. Isobel Grundy bas been an unfailing source of knowledge, enthusiasm, and inspiration throughout . Living far away from a major centre for much of the tirne 1 worked on this project made research especially challenging. Thank you to Sherry Garcia and Gwen Bird, the goddesses of interlibrary loans. John Boraas and Cfiff Lobe helped make up for the absent academic community. Sue Fisher rescued me from more than one long-distance cornputer crisis, Closer to home, my mother has been always been supportive of my decisions to continue going to school. Thanks, rnom. Irrn finally done ! Finally, 1 want to thank Theresa, my fiege, my chadeech, and my best critic, who put up with the "diss" for so long. "Thoughts cannot reach her Chams, nor Words express rny Flame." Table of Contents Introduction Deburiking Monfs Myth The Myth of the Masculine Genre Perceptions of Female Satirists Argument The Female Satiristfs Authority Shifting Attitudes, Reputations Chap ter One Theoretical Framework Satire Theory History vs. Art Feminist Theories of Womenfs Humour and Comedy Feminism, Satire, and Resistance Theory Chapter Two Sharper Answers: Womenrs Contributions to the late Seventeenth-Century Satiric Debate about Women 57 i) the genre 57 ii) Sarah Fygefs The Female Advocate 66 iii) "A Satyr upon your Sex": The Sprint Controversy 89 Chapter Three "Abhorred and shunned , for dif ferent endstr: Augustan Womenfs Marriage Satire 124 Chapter Four Reform, Revenge, Reward: Elizabeth Thomas, Laetitia Pilkington and the Uses of Womenfs Satire 174 i) Elizabeth Thomas 181 ii) Laetitia Pilkington 206 Conclusion Augustan Womenrs Verse Satire and Literary History: Rethinking the Myths 242 Bibliography 248 Introduction Debunking Medonf s Myth "1 have pleasure in reminding you that a female satirist by profession is yet an anornaly in the history of our literature- . -" --Medon (male voice in the prefatory dialogue to Anna Jameson's Shakespeare's Heroines: Characteristics of Wornen, Moral, Poetical, and Historical, 1832, p. 9) Jarneson's Medon articulates a favourite myth of English literary history: that women have not written satire. According to this myth, satire is a "men's genre" from which women are doubly, if not triply, excluded--satire is written by men, for men, and about men's issues. Womenls association with the genre, so the myth goes, is purely passive: they are the subjects of satire and not satirists themselves. (The satirist's "most ordinary theme," Dryden observes, is "the Weaker ex". ) ' The prospect of a woman earning a living by writing satire, as opposed to earning a reptation by being the subject of it, strikes Jamesonls Medon as preposterous and anomalous, "a deviation from the common order" (OED)- . Jameson created the character of Medon in the 1830~~half a century after the great age of English satire, the Augustan period.' Prom the late seventeenth century to the middle of the "Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satireff Works 4:60. There has been much debate about the usefulness and chronological boundaries of this term. Following Weinbrot and Erskine-Hill, 1 use "Augustan period" as a useful shorthand for describing a set of beliefs and tastes for some period between 1600 and 1800. See Howard Weinbrot, Augustus Caesar in "Augustan'' England, (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1978 ) and Howard Erskine-Hill, The Augustan Idea in English Litrature (London: Edward Arnold, 1983) . For my purposes 1 def ine the "Augustan age" even more specifically as between 1680 and 17 60. eighteenth century, satire was the "dominant" literary genre (Nokes 1), the "instinctive literary fondf (Trickett 20), "the major mode of expression" (Elkin 3), the most pervasive and representative style of the period, practised by al1 the great writers of the age. As Joseph Warton wrote in 1782, at the end of satire's reign, "If the moderns have excelled the ancients in any species of writing, it seems to be in satire" (2: 6) . Yet despite satire's prominence in this period, Medon's statement is partly true (as many myths seem to be): satire was not a major genre for women writers in the Augustan period, in the way, for instance, the novel was.) Nevertheless, many women did write satire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and rny purpose is to debunk Medon's myth by exploring some of the rich but neglected body of work that is Augustan womenrs satire. Medon is by no means alone in asserting that "female" and "satirist" are two words that do not go together. Until recently, most critics and theorists of eighteenth-century satire have been reluctant to acknowledge the existence or even the possibifity of womenfs satire. While we may not be surprised that a 'traditional' critic such as David Worcester proclahed in 1940 that "no woman has ever made a mark in satire" ( 13) , it is remarkable that similar announcernents are still being made today. Even a recent revisionist critic of satire, Dustin Griffin, oniy touches on the issue of womenfs satire long enough to wonder why there doesnr t seem to be any: "Have they [women] . - . been excluded by male readers, or have they excluded themselves?" (189- 901.' In my initial forays into satire anthologies in search of age" even more speclfically as between 1680 and 1760. 3 See, for example, Spencer. 4 Similarly, in his 1991 study, satire critic John Snyder relegates women' s satire to a single footnote: "Women, traditionally victimized by satire, have themselves historically preferred to write and read the harmonious comedy of manners, from the female Restoratlon dramatists to the practitioners of the mode in novel fom from Fanny Burney and Jane Austen to Agatha Christie" (215). Augustan women satirists, 1 felt like Virgina Woolf in the British Library looking for books written by wornen. The satire section was full of references to "womenfr but only as "subject ofr' satire; there was no mention of satire by women- Even feminist critics, when they have turned their attention to Augustan satire, have tended to focus on how women are treated in satire and the genrers perceived "structuring misogyny (Ballaster 218), rather than on satire by wornen.' For instance, in Felicity Nussbaumrs groundbreaking The Brink of Al1 We Hate: Enqlish Satires on Women, 1660-1750 (1986), which analyzes how women are portrayed in Augustan satire, she admits that she has "not listened very closely to womenrs voices in this book, for that . is another endeavour" (7). And one of the few feminist critics who has written specifically on womenrs satire in this period, Jayne Lewis, wonders "why is there so little verse satire by women in a period so deeply informed by that mode of expression?" (33).