Charlotte Lennox

Charlotte Lennox, née Ramsay ( 4 January 1804), was a Scottish writer and a literary and cultural critic, whose publishing career flourished in London. Best known for her novel The Female Quixote, she was frequently praised for her genius and literary skill. As a result, Sir Joshua Reynolds painted her portrait and she was featured in "The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain" in 1778. Samuel Johnson declared her superior to all other female writers, and Henry Fielding said that she "excelled Cervantes." Her pioneering study of Shakespeare's source material is still cited and her magazine (1760–1761) is the focus of "The Lady's Museum Project." where he was lieutenant-governor. He died in 1742.

Lennox's experiences in the colonies probably inspired her first and last novels, Harriot Stuart (1750) and Euphemia (1790). the most influential French study of Greek tragedy in the mid-18th century, she found several learned men to contribute. In 1755, she translated Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, which sold well. Learning several languages, including Italian from Joseph Baretti, Lennox studied the sources for William Shakespeare's plays. In 1753, the first two volumes of Shakespear Illustrated – seen by many scholars as the first feminist work of literary criticism – were published by Andrew Millar. The third volume, which appeared in 1754, spoke to its success. Lennox studied and discussed how Shakespeare used his sources and was especially attentive to the romance tradition on which Shakespeare drew. One criticism Lennox had was that his plays strip female characters of their original authority, "taking from them the power and the moral independence which the old romances and novels had given them."

Samuel Johnson wrote the dedication for Shakespear Illustrated, but others criticized its treatment, in David Garrick's words, by "so great and so Excellent an Author." and the literary world took its revenge upon the presentation of her play, The Sister (1769), based on her third novel, Henrietta (1758). Several groups of attendees concerted to boo the play off the stage on its opening night, though it went on to be printed in several editions.

Henrietta sold well, but did not bring her any money. From 1760 to 1761 she edited and wrote for the periodical The Lady's Museum, which included her novel Harriot and Sophia (later Sophia), known as one of two of the earliest serialized novels (along with Tobias Smollett's The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves). Lennox called this magazine "a course in female education" and included the learned subjects botany, history, astronomy, medicine, literary criticism, zoology, and theology.

Works

Poetry Poems on Several Occasions (1747) The Art of Coquetry (1750) Birthday Ode to the Princess of Wales

Novels The Life of Harriot Stuart (1751) The Female Quixote (1752) Henrietta (1758) Sophia (1762) Eliza (1766) Euphemia (1790) Hermione (1791)

Plays Philander (1758) The Sister (1769) Old City Manners (1775)

Literary criticism Shakespear [sic] Illustrated (1753–1754)

Periodical The Lady's Museum (1760–1761)

Translations

1756: The Memoirs of the Countess of Berci 1757: Memoirs for the History of Madame de Maintenon and of the Last Age 1759: The Greek Theatre of Father Brumoy 1774: Meditations and Penitential Prayers by the Duchess de la Valière