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PREFACE

IT is well known that, between 1750 and 1790, a group of remarkable women emulated in London the example given them in Paris by Mmes du Tencin, du Deffand, and Geoffrin, and instituted assemblies, whence card-playing was excluded for the sake of literary conversation. Among these ladies, familiarly nicknamed "Blue Stockings," the leading spirit undoubtedly was Mrs Montagu, the subject of this Essay.

It could not be maintained without great exaggeration that, since her day, her fame has lost none of its brightness. Her conversational powers, like the acting of a player, have vanished into air, hardly leaving any trace behind. Her merits as a critic and a

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champion of Shakespeare against Voltaire are sometimes disputed, and, at best, acknowledged in a footnote.

Yet, she has never been totally forgotten. Her early Letters, first published in 1809, have been partly reprinted, with much additional matter, in Mrs Climenson's recent work on The Early Life of Elizabeth Montagu. Dr Doran's study, published in 1873 under the title of A Lady of the Last Century, though superficial and desultory, was the first attempt at a sketch of the whole subject. And as long as Voltaire finds readers, Mrs Montagu's name will remain inseparable from his last production, the second Letter to the Academy prefixed to the tragedy of Irène.

This little book is not intended as a Biography, which Mrs Climenson alone can satisfactorily write, with the help of the mass of unprinted correspondence in her possession. Our scope is narrower. From the tangled biographical details contained in the printed

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volumes, we have tried to discover and collect, as best we could, the half-obscured and scattered lineaments of Mrs Montagu's intellectual and moral character. We have devoted more attention than any previous writer to her Essay on the Genius of Shakespeare, examined it in the light of the criticism of the time, and accompanied its author in her journey to France during the eventful summer of 1776. In the third and concluding chapter, her social influence and intercourse with the men and women of letters, her contemporaries, have been considered. We cannot conclude without expressing our great indebtedness to Mrs Climenson and to Mr Broadley for some unprinted material, which proved most valuable in the compiling and writing of this Essay.

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