Ann Yearsley and Hannah More, Patronage and Poetry

The Story of a Literary Relationship

Kerri Andrews

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317322740
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This study offers a timely and necessary reassessment of the careers of Ann Yearsley and Hannah More. Making use of newly-discovered letters and poems, Andrews provides a full analysis of the breakdown of the two writers' affiliation and compares it to other labouring-class relationships based on patronage.

GENDER AND GENRE

Series Editor: Ann Heilmann

Editorial Board: Audrey Bilger

Mark Llewellyn

Johanna M. Smith

Margaret Stetz

TITLES IN THIS SERIES

1 Let the Flowers Go: A Life of Mary Cholmondeley

Carolyn W. de la L. Oulton

2 Mary Cholmondeley Reconsidered

Carolyn W. de la L. Oulton and Sue Ann Schatz (eds)

3 Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country: A Reassessment

Laura Rattray (ed.)

4 Fictions of Dissent: Reclaiming Authority in Transatlantic Women’s Writing of the Late Nineteenth Century

Sigrid Anderson Cordell

5 Victorian Settler Narratives: Emigrants, Cosmopolitans and Returnees in Nineteenth-Century Literature

Tamara S. Wagner (ed.)

6 Art and Womanhood in Fin-de-Siècle Writing: The Fiction of Lucas Malet, 1880–1931

Catherine Delyfer

7 ‘The Celebrated Hannah Cowley’: Experiments in Dramatic Genre, 1776–1794

Angela Escott

8 Dying to be English: Suicide Narratives and National Identity, 1721–1814

Kelly McGuire

9 Jane Austen’s Civilized Women: Morality, Gender and the Civilizing Process

Enit Karafili Steiner

10 Winifred Holtby’s Social Vision: ‘Members One of Another’

Lisa Regan

FORTHCOMING TITLES

The Lesbian Muse and Poetic Identity, 1889–1930

Sarah Parker

ANN YEARSLEY AND HANNAH MORE, PATRONAGE AND POETRY: THE STORY OF A LITERARY RELATIONSHIP

BY

Kerri Andrews

First published 2013 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited

Published 2016 by Routledge

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605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© Taylor & Francis 2013

©Kerri Andrews 2013

To the best of the Publisher s knowledge every effort has been made to contact relevant copyright holders and to clear any relevant copyright issues.

Any omissions that come to their attention will be remedied in future editions.

All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Andrews, Kerri, author.

Ann Yearsley and Hannah More, patronage and poetry: the story of a literary relationship. – (Gender and genre)

1. More, Hannah, 1745–1833 2. Yearsley, Ann, 1753–1806 3. More, Hannah, 1745–1833 – Friends and associates. 4. Yearsley, Ann, 1753–1806 – Friends and associates. 5. Authors and patrons – England – History – 18th century. 6. Working class authors – England – History – 18th century.

I. Title II. Series

821.5’09-dc23

ISBN-13: 978-1-84893-151-0 (hbk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315655666

Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited

CONTENTS

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Hannah More and David Garrick: Patronage and Friendship
• 2 A Middling-Class Poet-Maker: Hannah More and Ann Yearsley
• 3 Patronage, Gratitude and Friendship, 1785–90
• 4 ‘Such is Bristol’s Soul’: Patronage and Rivalry
• 5 Novel Writing and the French Revolution
• 6 Romantic Bristol: Creative Networks in the 1790s
• 7 Afterword
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index

Acknowledgements

This project had its origins in my University of Leeds PhD thesis on Ann Yearsley, Hannah More and Charlotte Smith. It took physical form during my time at Nottingham Trent University, and was brought to completion after my move to the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. My debts to colleagues at these three institutions are considerable, but they are by no means the only debts I have been fortunate enough to incur during the development and writing of this study. My interest in eighteenth-century female poets was first sparked and nurtured by Bill Overton at Loughborough University, and I remain grateful for his inspirational teaching. As a postgraduate at the University of Leeds, David Fairer allowed me to hold his very beautiful first editions of Yearsley’s poetry during our conversations: he has been a model of collegiality and scholarly rigour. Vivien Jones supervised my PhD thesis and endured many an error-strewn draft. Thanks are due to her patience. My external examiner Jackie Labbe offered suggestions for the development of the thesis into a book.

At Nottingham Trent I was fortunate to have many supportive colleagues who helped guide me through the early stages of preparing this study, including Carl Thompson, Claire Jowitt and David Worrall. Special thanks should be given to John Goodridge, in whose company I learned so much not only about Yearsley, but also how to communicate my research to others. My Strathclyde colleagues have provided a supportive and convivial atmosphere in which it has been a pleasure to work. But my biggest debt is to Tim Fulford, who has been relentless in his support for this project and in his belief that I could bring it to completion. I hope what follows goes some way towards repaying him for his faith.

Conversations with Tim Fulford, Michael Gamer, Alan Vardy, Gregory Leadbetter, Dahlia Porter and Gabe Cervantes during various walking holidays in various Romantic locations helped shape my thinking at key points in this study. I have also benefitted from the intellectual generosity of Bridget Keegan and Anne Milne, and Anne Stott and Nick Smith, all of whom have shared their considerable knowledge of Ann Yearsley or Hannah More, and whose insights have significantly enriched this study. Matthew Sangster’s expertise on the Royal Literary Fund provided me with important new information about Yearsley’s surviving children. My thanks also to those friends who cheerfully volunteered to proofread my work, despite not always knowing what they had let themselves in for: Alexa Armstrong, Lexi Drayton, Nicola Whitefor...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Frontmatter 1
• Frontmatter 2
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Hannah More and David Garrick: Patronage and Friendship
• 2 A Middling-Class Poet-Maker: Hannah More and Ann Yearsley
• 3 Patronage, Gratitude and Friendship, 1785–90
• 4 ‘Such is Bristol’s Soul’: Patronage and Rivalry
• 5 Novel Writing and the French Revolution
• 6 Romantic Bristol: Creative Networks in the 1790s
• 7 Afterword
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index