Duchess Of Devonshire Research Articles

Women, Nationalism and the Romantic Stage: Theatre and Politics in Britain, 1780-1800 by Betsy Bolton (review)

966 Reviews As suggested above, there is little coverage of eighteenth-century writers other than Haywood. This is a missed opportunity. Readings ofeighteenth-century women writ? ers could be enhanced by adopting some of the approaches in Women Writing, such as considering writers as defining themselves in coteries or groups, understanding the extent to which their work combines high and low genres, and exploring how seemingly trivial or personal writing can carry a political or religious interpretation. SOMERVILLECOLLEGE,OXFORD KATE WlLLIAMS Women, Nationalism and the Romantic Stage: Theatre and Politics in Britain, ij8o? 1800. By Betsy Bolton. (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism) Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. 2001. xiv + 272 pp. ?40; $59.95. ISBN0-52177-116-1. Betsy Bolton explores women's part in defining national identity at the end ofthe eigh? teenth century. Her arena is the Romantic stage, both London theatre and the public platform of politics. She argues that definition of nation, of gender, and of genre are interrelated, and her study provides a historical context for each. Her subject matter is vast, drawing on parliamentary debate and commentary, political cartoons, history and biography, prose, poetry, drama, and criticism, taken from a longer period than the twenty years indicated in the title. Bolton begins by characterizing the slants taken by writers and politicians who drew on the commonplace analogy between the nation and the theatre, either praising social inclusiveness or bemoaning divisiveness, praising English drama and politics while condemning the 'farce' that was Revolutionary France, or vice versa. Next, she outlines the kinds of English romance being read or performed in the eighteenth century, ultimately narrowing her focus to the minor subgenre of 'dramatic romance', which she peruses for its relevance to women and nationalism. Then comes an examination of Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton as figures of romance, he glorified as popular national hero, she having some qualities of a heroine of prose romance, but finallybe? ing caricatured as the subject of vulgar farce. Documents and facts, commentary and cartoons are scrutinized in the context of these genres, which themselves carry connotationsof class, education, and gender. The next subject is Mary Robinson, actress, mistress of the Prince of Wales, of Charles Fox, and of war hero Banastre Tarleton, and eventually a writer, exemplifying the debasement by cartoonists of women who, like Hamilton, and like Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, approach the political centre. Bolton also uses Robinson as a springboard to examine Wordsworth's attitude to theatre and romance, firstby looking at his ambivalent response to the challenge made to his Lyrical Ballads by the publication of her more cynical Lyrical Tales, then by close study of the London book of The Prelude, reaching this by a somewhat tortuous analogy, built on the coincidence that his 'Belle of Buttermere' was also 'Mary Robinson'. Then comes an account of the development of farce, as prologue to examining 'mixed dramas' by Hannah Cowley and Elizabeth Inchbald. These heterogeneous subjects are ambitiously yoked together, along with many other figures of politics, literature, and the theatre, as manifestations in life, romance, farce, and caricature of women's liminal influence, through their subordinate and subservient roles, on domestic and national life. Often, Bolton's multidimensional approach pays dividends in historical understanding. For example, her examination of Hannah Cowley's A Day in Turkey; or, The Russian Slaves (1791) is set in the following contexts: parliamentary debates about Britain's intervention in a dispute between Russia and Turkey; James Gillray's sexual caricatures of Pitt the Younger and Catherine the Great; Cowley's choice of genre, writing a play which combined MLR, 98.4, 2003 967 sentiment, a mode largely underwriting conventional patriarchy, with farce, usually eschewed by established male playwrights for reasons of finance and prestige, but offeringopportunities to ridicule postures and absurdities; her ambivalent refutation of accusations that the play was 'political'; the use of orientalism as a perspective on imperialism, national identity,and sexual politics. The problem is that the choice of subjects seems arbitrary and their connections are overstretched. Bolton frequently prologues, recapitulates, restates her programme, draws in more characters, but this has the effectof complicating every section. The book refuses either the satisfaction ofa simple...

A Thing in Disguise: The Visionary Life of Joseph Paxton

A brilliantly conceived biography of Joseph Paxton, horticulturist to the Duke & Duchess of Devonshire at Chatsworth, architect of the Crystal Palace at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and one of the greatest unsung heroes of the Victorian Age In the nineteenth century, which witnessed a revolution in horticulture and urban planning and architecture, Joseph Paxton, a man with no formal education, strode like a colossus. Head gardener at Chatsworth by the age of twenty-three, and encouraged by the sixth Duke of Devonshire whose patronage soon flourished into the defining friendship of his life, Paxton set about transforming this Derbyshire estate into the greatest garden in England. Visitors there were astonished by the enormous glasshouses and ambitious waterworks he built, the collection of orchids, the largest in all England, the dwarf bananas and the gargantuan lily, the trees and plants brought back from all over the world. Queen Victoria came to marvel and, increasingly, with the development of the railway in which Paxton was also involved, daytrippers from all over the country. It was the Crystal Palace, home of the Great Exhibition in 1851, that secured Paxton's fame. His design, initially doodled on a piece of blotting paper, was the architectural triumph of its time. Two thousand men worked for eight months to complete it. It was six times the size of St Paul's Cathedral, enclosed a space of 18 acres, and entertained six million visitors. By the time of his death fourteen years later, 'the busiest man in England' according to Dickens, was friends with Brunel and Stevenson and in constant demand to design public parks and gardens. His last, seemingly most eccentric project was for a Great Boulevard under glass, a crystal arcade that would connect all the main railway termini in London. Drawing on exclusive access to Paxton's personal letters, Kate Colquhouns's remarkable biography is a compelling story of a man who typifies the Victorian ideal of self-improvement and a touching portrait of one of that era's great heroes.

Mitford, Madame De Pompadour

Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford is as much a cultural icon as a work of history. Mitford, a British aristocrat born in 1904, was known for writing historical biographies as well as several novels, such as The Pursuit of Love ( 1945) and Don't Tell Alfred (1960). This particular text is a reprint of the 1953 original with an introduction by Amanda Foreman, author of the recent Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Foreman attempted to resuscitate Mitford's reputation by emphasizing her love of learning, her vulnerability, and the popular success of her books. Denied an education by their father, Mitford and her sisters gathered whatever information they could from the family library.

The Butcher-Kissing Duchess of Devonshire: Between Caricature and Allegory in 1784

The Butcher-Kissing Duchess of Devonshire: Between Caricature and Allegory in 1784

A dead disease, as illustrated by the illness of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.

A dead disease, as illustrated by the illness of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Feathered Women and Persecuted Birds: The struggle against the Plumage Trade, c. 1860–1922

In the personality of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, undisputed mistress of Whig society in the two closing decades of the eighteenth century, were combined a heady mixture of formidable intellectual qualities and a recklessness and frivolity extraordinary even by the standards of the day. Leaving aside her involvement in high politics, the ambivalence of her personal relationships and her adventures at the card table, she would be memorable alone as a fashion icon whose excesses, particularly where her milliner and coiffeuse were concerned, were legendary. From the moment she appeared in public with a three-foot hair tower created with pads of horsehair and set off with an exotic arrangement of stuffed birds and ostrich feathers, female society high and low began its lengthy love affair with feathers.1 Fashions might ebb and flow, yet feathers, in some form or another, would intermittently adorn women's clothes (and the uniforms of some units of the Army) for the next century or so. This article is largely concerned with the efforts of various individuals and groups to bring an end to the trade in exotic plumage which fed upon the demand for the feathers of birds from tropical and subtropical territories.

Gender and Politics in the Long Eighteenth Century

Journal Article Gender and Politics in the Long Eighteenth Century Get access Smith Hilda , Women Writers and the Early Modern British Political Tradition , Cambridge University Press , 1998 . Barker Hannah and Chalus Elaine (eds), Gender in Eighteenth Century England: Roles, Representations and Responsibilities , Longman , 1997Foreman Amanda , Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire , Harper Collins , 1998 . Reynolds K. D. , Aristocratic Women and Political Society in Victorian Britain , Clarendon Press , 1998Liddington, Jill , Female Fortune. Land, Gender and Authority. The Anne Lister Diaries and Other Writings, 1833-6 , Rivers Oram , 1998 Anna Clark Anna Clark Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar History Workshop Journal, Volume 48, Issue 1, AUTUMN 1999, Pages 252–257, https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/1999.48.252 Published: 01 October 1999

Shorter notice. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Amanda Foreman

Shorter notice. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Amanda Foreman

Shorter notice. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Amanda Foreman

Shorter notice. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Amanda Foreman

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:The Complete Peerage. Volume XZV; Addenda and Comgenda.Discourse on History, Law, and Governance in the Public Career John Selden, 1610‐35. By Paul ChristiansonSovereignty and the Sword. Hawington, Hobbes, and Mixed Government in the English Civil Wars. By Arihiro FukudaRegicide and Republicanism. Politics and Ethics in the English Revolution 1646‐1659. By Sarah BarberFailed Legislation, 1660‐1800. Extracted from the Commons and Lords Journals.Lord Burlington‐The Man and his Politics. Questions ofloyalty.Georgiana Duchess ofDevonshire. By Amanda ForemanAristocratic Women and Political Society in Victorian Britain. By K. D. ReynoldsWilliam Pitt and the French Revolution, 1785–1795. By Jennifer MoriA Victorian Law Reformer. A LofLord Selborne. By Edward HewardSpeaking for the People. Party, hnguage and Popular Politics in England, 1867‐1914. By Jon LawrenceRebel on the Right. Henry Page Croft and the Crisis of British Consewatism 1903‐1914. By Larry WitherellQuestioning the Postwar Consensus Thesis. Towards an Alternative Account. By James D. Marlow'The Myth ofConsetisus. New Views on British History, 1945‐64.

Romantic women poets: an anthology

Romantic women poets: an anthology

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and Princess Diana: a parallel.

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and Princess Diana: a parallel.

Byron's "Corbeau Blanc." The Life and Letters of Lady Melbourne

What famous letters your own are . . . I never saw such traits of discernment, observation of character, knowledge of your own sex, and sly concealment of your knowledge of the foibles of ours, wrote the twenty-four-year-old Lord Byron to Lady Melbourne. More than one hundred previously unpublished letters of Lady Melbourne are included in this scholarly edition which vividly re-creates the late Georgian age. Lady Melbourne's controversial letters to Lord Byron are published in their entirety for the first time, revealing her significant influence on his masterpiece, Don Juan. Long before the famous correspondence between Byron and Lady Melbourne began, she had impressed her own contemporaries as a woman of no small signficance. Married off to the son of a wealthy lawyer, she used her superior education, attention to detail, and business acumen to manage her amiable but dissolute husband's affairs. A leading female agriculturist, she was the Duchess of Devonshire's closest confidante, as well as the mistress of the Prince of Wales (1780-84). At her residence in Piccadilly, she entertained a brilliant company that included Charles James Fox, George Canning, and Charles Grey. A half dozen of the nation's most famous painters executed her portrait in oil, while Sheridan recorded her witty repartee in The School for Scandal. Scholars of the Romantic period will welcome reading these carefully annotated letters written by one of the age's most ambitious and captivating personalities.

Moral trespass in Georgian London: gaming,gender, and electoral politics in the age of George III

ABSTRACTIn the late eighteenth century, the British electorate began thinking about politics and statecraft in a new way. Britons challenged the natural rights of the nation's aristocracy to rule, and actively linked the personal behaviour of individual noblemen and women to real or imagined public consequences. Aristocratic gaming provided Britons with a rich vocabulary for voicing such concerns. The noble gamester, perceived as erratic, self-interested, and without honour, personified those aspects of private aristocratic vice most likely to undermine national well-being. The 1784 Westminster election specifies two aspects of this controversy. The political unworthiness of notorious gamester Charles James Fox (a front-runner in the election) was linked early on to his personal financial mismanagement, which intimated, in the public mind, his potential abuse of public funds. Fox further contaminated his suitability for public office by allowing the fifth duchess of Devonshire, herself a gamestress, to canvass for him. Her presence in Westminster not only dramatized Fox's gamester persona, but effeminized it. Pittite propaganda stressed Fox's culpability on both counts, and emphasized a new concern with private virtue as fundamental to the moral prerogative to rule.

The Role of Women in Electoral Politics in Yorkshire During the Eighteen-Thirties

THEREFORMACTin 1832 for the first time in British politics assigned the franchise to 'a male person', thus formalizing the removal of women from their, admittedly peripheral, role in the political process. Although they had traditionally been excluded from politics, a few rich and privileged women had been able to use their influence and status to participate in and manipulate political events. The salons of Lady Holland and Lady Blessington and the electioneering exploits of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, in the Westminster election are well-known examples of aristocratic women finding a role for themselves in the universally male world of parliamentary politics. The exclusion of women from participation in politics was part of a larger trend in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries which encouraged women back into the domestic sphere. The rise in the standard of living of the middle classes meant that there was a growing body of women who were able, and who were encouraged, to have little to do with work outside the household. There is a vast body of literature which assigns to women their role within the household and seeks to discourage independent thought or intellectual activity. Mrs Sandford, in her guide for women written in 1831,commented that 'there is something unfeminine in independence, it is contrary to nature and thus offends'. 1Women thus faced legal, economic and cultural obstacles if they wished to enjoy a public role. Both political and feminist historians have been reticent on the political activities of middle-class and aristocratic women during the period immediately following the Reform Act. 2 The political historians of the

Lost & Found: 45. White Watson (1760-1835) and the collections of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Michael P. Cooper (41 Albany Road, Sherwood Rise, Nottingham NG7 7LX) writes: 'Watson has been the subject of several items and articles in GCG and his life and dealings have been well documented. Collections made by him are relatively uncommon, however, and it is worth noting here that a group of volunteers from the Russell Society, headed by myself, is currently engaged in the restoration of a substantial collection of 'fossils' (mainly minerals) at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire which was catalogued, and probably partly, if not largely, supplied by Watson. The collection was made by Her Grace the Duchess Georgiana (1757-1806). Watson's original MS catalogues of the collections, dated 1798 and 1804 and listing...

The duchess's ball

The Duchess of Devonshire's Ball. By Sophia Murphy. Illustrated. 176 pp. London: Sedgwick & Jackson, 1984. £13,95. $22.95.

REVIEWS

REVIEWS

University and Educational Intelligence

LEEDS.—The foundation-stone of the new buildings will be laid by the Duchess of Devonshire on Oct. 2. After the ceremony a congregation will be held in the Great Hall of the University to confer the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on Her Grace, Sir. A. E. Bain, Mr. Alexander Campbell, and Mr. Morton Latham.