Vindication (64 page)

‘
new systems'
: To JJ (13 Sept. [1787]),
MWL
, 159;
MWletters
, 133.

writing
Real Life
in the autumn of 1787
: What appears a speedy production depended on material gathered slowly and tested in practice over a substantial preceding period. Her
Education
, written over the summer of 1786, drew on two years' experience in her own school at Newington Green;
Mary
, written in the summer of 1787, drew on the long years of Fanny's decline, the voyage to Lisbon in 1785, and Mary's growing conviction of her own ‘genius' in the course of 1787; and then
Real Life
drew on her outdoor curriculum at Mitchelstown Castle, designed to awaken the conscience of privileged adolescent girls like Margaret and Caroline King before it was too late.

‘painful emotions'
: MW to JJ (20 Sept. [1787]),
MWL
, 162;
MWletters
, 137.

a situation nearer her
: MW reporting to EW,
MWL
, 165–6;
MWletters
, 140–1.

the organ and her resolves
: Ibid.

‘Without your humane and
delicate
assistance'
: To JJ,
MWL
, 186;
MWletters
, 159. Todd dates this undated letter to early 1789; Wardle dates it to late 1789 or early 1790 because MW asks JJ for a German grammar at a time; Wardle assumes, she would have been working on her German translation. But there are three reasons for dating this letter as early as the autumn of 1787: the letter makes it clear that she's only beginning to ‘attempt to learn that language' as a preparatory act–there's no translation as yet at hand. Second, she signs herself ‘Mary W.', indicating an earlier stage in the relationship, for by late 1787 or early 1788 she was using her Christian name alone. Third, the assessment of JJ as ‘delicate' echoes the wording of a letter to Everina in mid-Nov. 1787.

‘how warmly and delicately'
: To EW [c. mid-Nov. 1787],
MWL
, 166;
MWletters
, 159.

Blackfriars Bridge
: Begun in 1760, the bridge was initially called after the Prime
Minister William Pitt the Elder. In 1791 the mill burnt down. The spot is now Rennie Garden.

panoramic view
: The word ‘panorama' entered the language in 1796 soon after a panorama of London was drawn from this vantage point.

‘whim'
:
MWL
, 166;
MWletters
, 141.

‘vehement'
:
Memoirs
, ch. 5.

‘You can conceive…'
:
MWL
, 164–5;
MWletters
, 139–40.

often the sole woman
: Mrs Barbauld (Anna Laetitia Aikin) and later the novelist Mary Hays sometimes attended JJ's dinners.

‘I often visit…'
: To George Blood,
MWL
, 171;
MWletters
, 149.

better health
:
MWL
, 170;
MWletters
, 146.

‘past tumultuous scenes of woe'
: To George Blood,
MWL
, 176;
MWletters
, 156.

Hewlett's sermon for MW
:
MWL
, 171;
MWletters
, 149.

‘MrsSis sunk…'
:
MWL
, 172;
MWletters
, 149–50.

Cowper
:
The Task
(1785).

Bonnycastle
: Leigh Hunt,
Lord Byron and Some of His Contemporaries
(London: 1828), ii, 34.

George Fordyce
: Son of the author of an advice book for girls (see above, ch. 4).

MW's movements after dinner
: Apt question from Elizabeth Crawford (author of
The Women's Suffrage Movement
:
A Reference Guide
and biographer of the pioneering women in the Garrett family) on a rainy Sunday, 30 April 2000, as we followed MW's footsteps from St Paul's to her home across the river.

‘lank'
;
‘a philosophical sloven'
: Knowles,
Life of Fuseli
, i, 164. Pope similarly slandered Lady Mary Wortley Montagu as dirty, and the mud stuck till Isobel Grundy's scrupulous biography in 1995. Fuseli's slander has stuck too, repeated into the twenty-first century.

Henry Adams to his wife
: Patsy Vigderman of Cambridge, Mass., supplied this anecdote.

‘an excellent preservative of health'
: MW used this quote from the
Spectator
, no. 15, for her
Female Reader
.

Hays on MW
: ‘Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft', 460.

Fuseli helped
: Weinglass, ‘Letter of Enquiry', 144–6.

spent…£200 on her family
: JJ, ‘A few facts'.

gain £200
:
MWL
174;
MWletters
, 154.

the obscure, the rude…
: MW is in line with the tendency of the age, represented by the rude forefathers of the hamlet who sleep in the churchyard of Gray's
Elegy
. Marilyn Butler,
Romantics
,
Rebels, and Reactionaries
, 17, shows parallels in music: in Gluck's ‘noble simplicity' and condemnation of superfluous ornament in his dedication of his opera
Alceste
, and in Haydn's attraction to the folk-dances of Eastern Europe.

‘I cannot bear…'
:
MWL
, 167;
MWletters
, 143.

‘deeply immersed'
…
MWL
, 173;
MWletters
, 152.

Necker
: MW remained unconvinced by his combination of finance with spirituality.

‘what does this mean?'
:
MWL
, 177;
MWletters
, 158.

‘almost rewrote'
Young Grandison: JJ, ‘A few facts'.

The Female Reader: Her model was William Enfield's
The Speaker
;
or, Miscellaneous Pieces
, the popular anthology published by JJ for use in schools.

‘Negro woman'
: From hymn VIII,
Hymns
, repr. in
The Female Reader
,
MWCW
, iv, 189.

as yet no schoolbooks for girls
: Gillian Avery, author of
The Best Type of Girl
, in conversation (Feb. 2001).

Most girls…protected…from serious books
: Carol Shields,
Jane Austen
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001).

Mr Cresswick
: He gave public readings, and died in 1792, the year he published an imitation volume:
The lady's preceptor
;
or
,
a series of instructive and pleasing exercises in reading
;
for the particular use of females
;
consisting of a selection of moral essays
,
…
It's hard to see why a jingle that appeared in it entitled ‘On Breaking a China Quart Mug Belonging to the Society of Lincoln College, Oxford' could be appropriate. Mr Cresswick opts for undemanding compositions close to ‘easy and elegant conversation, upon topics interesting the Fair Sex' which would fill their minds with harmless and pleasing thoughts. He does, though, include ‘Observations on Reading by Miss Wollstonecraft and other writers'.

the first anthology for and about women
,
and in part
,
too
, by
women
: I owe this information to Elizabeth Crawford.

contents of
The Female Reader: In 2001 Elizabeth Crawford discovered a Dublin edition of
The Female Reader
, published the same year as the first English edition (1789) but with an additional 198 pages consisting of ‘A Complete System of Geography Not in the London Edition'. It remains to be verified whether the addition was by MW or from some other source (such as her schoolteacher friends, John Hewlett, the Revd Mr Gabell, Jane Arden, or a Dublin teacher). There is no indication that it is by another hand. The British Library has a copy of the Dublin version, republished in 1791. It is not listed in the general catalogue.

‘Dying Friends'
:
The Complaint
, iii, as published in
The Female Reader
,
MWCW
, iv, 183.

‘
During her stay…'
: JJ, ‘A few facts'.

‘intimate';
‘crimes'
:
MWL
, 178;
MWletters
, 166.

‘how often I teazed you…'
:
MWL
, 221;
MWletters
, 206.

‘trash'
;
‘I seemed…'
:
MWL
, 178–9;
MWletters
, 156–7.

short-notice professional reviewing
: Waters, ‘Literary Critic', 415–34.

reviewed her own translation
:
AR
(Jan. 1789).

‘Address to the Bastille'
: Cowper,
The Task
, book v.

Enclosure Acts
: Porter,
English Society
, 208–13.

implications of the Enclosure Acts
: Joan Smith,
Moralities
, 87.

the Revolution debate initiated by Price and Burke
: I am indebted to Prof. David Wormesley's Oxford lecture on this subject (1 May 2003), stressing contested historical narratives.

‘Behold…'
: Price,
Political Writings
, 195–6.

‘an addition of nondescripts…'
:
The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke
, viii, ‘The French Revolution' (1790–4), ed. Paul Langford (Oxford: Clarendon, 1981), 63. Dr Paddy Bullard drew attention to this passage in his Oxford lecture on Burke (15 May 2003).

‘Upon that…stock of inheritance'
: Burke,
Revolution in France
, 117.

‘Man will not be brought up…'
: Paine,
Rights of Man
, 230.

MW stopped writing
: WG mistook this as a fit of ‘indolence',
Memoirs
, 230.

perfectly judged
:
Memoirs
, 300, Holmes's notes.

‘coming warm from the heart…'
: MW writing of Dr Price to George Blood (17 Jan. [1788]),
MWL
, 170;
MWletters
, 147.

publication of
RM: A second edition expanded by nine pages appeared on 14 Dec. with Mary Wollstonecraft's name. (Crawford, ‘Mary Wollstonecraft', 14–19.

MW's exchange with Catharine Macaulay
: MW's letter to Macaulay was first published in 1995, repr. in
SC
, ix, 1–2.

Price to MW
: Abinger: Dep. c. 514.

the title of RW
: MW's switch from the plural (
Men
) to the singular (
Woman
) in her title of the sequel may be influenced by the success of Paine who used the singular form to effect in his
Rights of Man
, published in March 1791 between MW's two
Vindications
.

to meet Paine
: In March, WG had helped to bring out the first part of Paine's more famous
Rights of Man
, against a threat of banning and prosecution.

‘I had little curiosity…'
:
Memoirs
, ch. 6.

Woolf spoofed
: In
Three Guineas
.

the woman as preacher
: Dinah Morris in
Adam Bede
, ch. 2 (‘The Preaching'). I'm grateful to Dr Isobel Rivers of St Hugh's College, Oxford, for alluding to this after Taylor's lecture, cited next.

MW and the Scottish Enlightenment
: Deftly summarised by Taylor in ‘Mary Wollstonecraft and the Enlightenment'.

‘my book…'
: To EW (23 Feb. [1792]),
MWL
, 210;
MWletters
, 198.

Joan Smith
:
Moralities
, ch. 5.

the new marriage laws as property laws
: Ibid., 86–7.

the law's sanction of beating and rape in marriage
: Ibid., 93.

‘From the respect paid to property…'
:
RW
, ch. 9.

The Ladies Dispensatory: Vivien Jones, ‘Sex Education', cites the extract.

Mrs Mason linked with model of womanhood in
RW: Moore,
Mary Wollstonecraft
, 42.

debate on surrendering sexual pleasure for friendship in marriage
: Ibid. Well-judged summary by Jane Moore, who reads
RW
‘as an early attempt to bridge the sexual chasm' between men and women.

sex-based subordination based on educational disabilities
: In the twenty-first century, there remain vast numbers of women who may be equal citizens yet remain victims. One-third of girls in South Africa–despite an advanced constitution–are raped in school, in the main by teachers and headmasters, and though in 2002 the Minister for Education Kadar Asmal commissioned a book from social scientist Anne-Marie Wolpe, addressing teachers in very tactful terms (the book takes account of a culture of entitlement amongst school authorities and compliance traditionally expected from girls), the Department of Education neglected to distribute it. The press exposed an undiminished level of school-hours rape in 2004.