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The Female Advocate
Mary Scott (poet), Mary Scott's ''The Female Advocate; a poem occasioned by reading Mr. Duncombe's Feminead'' (1775) is both a celebration of women's literary achievements, as well as an impassioned piece of advocacy for women's right to literary self-expression. The poem ''The Female Advocate'' takes John Duncombe (writer), John Duncombe's ''The Feminead, The Feminead: or, female genius. A poem'' (1754) as its inspiration. Scott expresses gratitude and admiration for Duncombe, then justifies her own project with her stated wish to expand his original list of "female geniuses", as well as to include some of those who came to prominence since he wrote (page v). Duncombe's poem is celebratory; it rehearses the accomplishments of women writers of the mid-eighteenth-century. Scott cast further back in time in order to "tell what bright daughters BRITAIN once could boast" (l. 25) and introduces a series of women from the previous two centuries that would have already been familiar to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Scott (poet)
Mary Scott (1751/52–1793), married name Mary Taylor, was an English poet, born in Milborne Port, Somerset. She wrote '' The Female Advocate'' (1774) in defence of women writing. Life and work Scott's father was a linen draper. Not much else is known about her life before the publication of '' The Female Advocate'', dedicated to her friend Mary Steele, in 1774. Scott credits John Duncombe's '' The Feminead'' (1754), a poem in praise of the accomplishments of women writers, as the inspiration for her own poem. The poem consists of 522 lines of rhyming couplets; it supplements Duncombe's, and discusses more contemporary writers. Among the poets referred to are Lucy Aikin, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Mary Chudleigh, Sarah Fielding, Anne Killigrew, Catharine Macaulay, Catherine Parr, Helen Maria Williams, and Phillis Wheatley. Men are also praised: Duncombe; Rev. Thomas Seward, author of ''The Female Right to Literature, in a Letter to a Young Lady from Florence'' (1766); William Ste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
