A devoted Anglican, Chudleigh was self-educated in religious, scientific, and philosophical works. A devoted fan of, probably acquainted with, and possibly friend to, her contemporary Mary Astell, Chudleigh acknowledged her intellectual debt to Astell. Both women, along with Elizabeth Thomas, "Cleanthe", "Clorissa," "Lucinda," and "Eugenia", formed part of the literary circle centered around Dryden. Unlike Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle just 2 generations earlier, Lady Chudleigh did have a network of supportive feminist female friends.

      We know nothing of her relationship with her husband: both her published and unpublished writing on that aspect of her personal life remain silent on that issue. Some authors contend that hers was an unhappy marriage. Yet, whether her husband was a model for the misogynist country boor, Sir John Brute in The Ladies' defence, or the lover who has the sense to prize wit in a woman with a beauteous mind, we do not know. We do know that he permitted her to both write and publish 3 feminist works during his lifetime and permitted them to be reprinted after her death.

      Although she did not begin publishing any works until 10 years before her death, they were reprinted 4 times before she died. Her poems were quoted in various anthologies throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, indeed, until our own time and her name continued to appear without qualification in biographical dictionaries of important poets throughout the intervening years. By exploring human reactions many of her poems had appeal to both men and women. Yet, her feminist poems continued to be reprinted, too.

      Her best remembered feminist work, The Ladies Defence: or the Bride-Woman's Counsellor answered: A Poem. In a Dialogue Between Sir John Brute, Sir William Loveall, Melissa, and a Parson (1701, verse), is a response to a wedding sermon given by John Sprint in 1699 in which he advocated woman's total subjection to her husband. (Eugenia and Elizabeth Thomas also responded to this sermon.) She explored a number of themes that still resonate with feminists: "the negative attitudes of males and their demeaning expectations of women; the role of the church in propagating pernicious ideas about women, couched as protection of public morals; the duties of a wife to be silent, abjectly obedient, and tolerant of physical and psychological abuse; and the conventional dismissal of female education."¹ Deeply untrusting of men and fully aware of the unequal and unfair power structure in the family, Chudleigh believed that only single women could freely persue intellectual interests.

      Her three feminist works, The Ladies' Defence, Poems on Several Occasions (1703), which celebrates the friendships women have with one another, and Essays upon Several Subjects (1710) have been reprinted by Oxford University Press and can be found in the reference given below.

      Our excerpts are from The Ladies Defence: or the Bride-Woman's Counsellor answered: A Poem. In a Dialogue between Sir John Brute, Sir William Loveall, and Melissa, and a Parson.

From the Introductory letter²:

Ladies,

      The Love of Truth, the tender Regard I have for your Honor, joyn'd with a just Indignation to see you so unworthily us'd, makes me assume the Confidence of imploying my Pen in your Service, The Knowledge I had of my Inability for so great a Task, made me for a while stifle my Resentments, as thinking it much better privately to lament the Injuries that were done you, than expose you by a weak Defence to the fresh Insults of a Person, who has not yet learnt to distinguish between Railing and Instruction, and who is so vain as to fancy, that the Dignity of his Function will render everything he thinks fit to say becoming: But when I found that some Men were so far from finding fault with his Sermon, that they rather defended it, and espress'd an ill-natur'd sort of Joy to see you ridicul'd, and that those few among 'em who were Pretenders to more Generosity and good Humour, were yet too proud, too much devoted to their Interest, and too indulgent to their Pleasures, to give themselves the Trouble of saying any thing in your Vindication, I had not the Patience to be Silent any longer. Besides it vex'd me to think he should have the Satisfaction of believing, that what by the Malice of some, the Neutrality of others, and the Sacredness of his Character, he was secur'd from all Opposition, and might triumph over you at his Pleasure: it also troubl'd me to find that but one of our own Sex had the Courage to enter the Lists with him [Eugenia]."

Let me write a few lines to introduce the characters.

      Sir John Brute: In the work's Preface to the Reader, Chudleigh says of Sir John Brute, ". . . those Expressions which I thought would be indecent in the Mouth of a Reverend Divine, are spoken by Sir John Brute, who has all the extraordinary Qualifications of an accomplished Husband; and to render his Character compleat, I have given him the Religion of a Wit, and the good Humour of a Critick. I am afraid the Clergy will accuse me of Atheism for making Sir John speak so irreverently of them; but before they condemn me, I beg 'em to be so just as to consider, that I do not speak my own thoughts, but what one might rationally suppose a man of his Character will say on such Occasions. . ." In a word, Sir John hates women.

      Sir William: Sir William is single but bemoans his unmarried state for he cherishes women. In a back-handed way, he defends women.

      The Parson: The Parson stresses that he has tried to teach women complete submission to her husband. Chudleigh casts her real life adversary, the Anglican minister John Sprint, as a lowly, naive, village Parson.

      Melissa: Melissa defends her sex, defends women's intellect, advocates for better education and training for women, and disparages men for blaming women for being what they make women into. She blames male insecurity for attacks on women's intellect. Melissa was probably a stand-in for Chudleigh herself: Chudleigh's "nickname" among her female friends was "Marissa."

From The Ladies Defence: or the Bride-Woman's Counsellor answered: A Poem. In a Dialogue Between Sir John Brute, Sir William Loveall, Melissa, and a Parson (pp. 229-230)

Melissa: I've still rever'd your Order [she is responding to a Parson] as Divine;
And when I see unblemish'd Virtue shine,
When solid Learning, and substantial Sense,
Are joyn'd with unaffected Eloquence;
When Lives and Doctrices of a Piece are made,
And holy Truths with humble Zeal convey'd;
When free from Passion, Bigottry, and Pride,
Not sway'd by Int'rest, nor to Parties ty'd,
Contemning Riches, and abhorring strife,
And shunning all the noisy Pomps of Life,
You live the aweful Wonders of your time,
Without the least Suspicion of a Crime:
I shall with Joy the highest Deference pay,
and heedfully attend to all you say.
From such, Reproofs shall always welcome prove,
As being th' Effects of Piety and Love.
But those from me can challenge no Respect,
Who on us all without just Cause reflect:
Who without Mercy all the Sex decry,
And into open Defamations fly:
Who think us Creatures for Derision made,
And the Creator with his Works upbraid:
What he call'd good, they proudly think not so,
And with their Malice, their Prophaneness show.
'Tis hard we shou'd be by the Men despis'd,
Yet kept from knowing what wou'd make us priz'd:
Debarr'd from Knowledge, banish'd from the Schools,
And with the utmost Industry bred Fools.
Laugh'd out of Reason, jested out of Sense,
And nothing left but Native Innocence:
Then told we are incapable of Wit,
And only for the meanest Drudgeries fit:
Made Slaves to serve their Luxury and Pride,
And with innumerable Hardships try'd,
'Till Pitying Heav'n release us from our Pain,
Kind Heav'n to whom alone we dare complain.
Th' ill-natur'd World will no Compassion show;
Such as are wretched, it wou'd still have so:
It gratifies its Envy and its Spight;
The most in others Miseries take Delight.
While we are present they some Pity spare,
And feast us on a thin Repast of Air:
Look Grave and Sigh, when we our Wrongs relate,
An in a Compliment accuse our Fate:
Blame those to whom we our Misfortunes owe,
And all the Signs of real Friendship show.
But when we're absent, we their Sport are made,
They fan the Flame, and our Oppressors aid;
Joyn with the Stronger, the Victorious Side,
And all our Suff'ring, all our griefs deride.
Those gen'rous few, whom kinder Thoughts inspire,
And who the Happiness of all desire;
Who wish we were from barb'rous Usage free,
Exempt from Toils, and shameful Slavery,
Yet let us, unreprov'd, mis. spend our Hours,
And to mean Purposes employ our nobler Pow'rs.
They think, if we our Thoughts can but express,
And know but how to Work, to Dance and Dress,
It is enough, as much as we shou'd mind,
As if we were for nothing else design'd,
But made, like Puppets, to divert Mankind.
O that my Sex wou'd all such Toys despise;
And only study to be Good, and Wise;
Inspect themselves, and every Blemish find,
Search all the close Recesses of the Mind,
And leave no vice, no ruling Passion there,
Nothing to raise a Blush, or cause a Fear:
Their Memories with solid Notions fill,
And let their Reason dictate to their Will,
Instead of Novels, Histories peruse,
And for their Guides the wiser Ancients chuse,
Thro' all the Labyrinths of Learning go,
And grow more humble, as they more do know.
By doing this, they will Respect procure,
Silence the Men, and lasting Fame secure;
And to themselves the best Companions prove,
And neither fear their Malice, nor desire their Love.

1. Ferguson, p. 212
2. Ferguson, p. 213-214

References:

      George Ballard, Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain Who Have Been Celebrated for Their Writing or Skill in the Learned Languaged, Arts, and Sceince, 1752, reprinted [Detroit: Wayne State Press, 1985] pp.353-356

      Margaret J. M. Ezell, (ed.), The Poems and Prose of Mary, Lady Chudlleigh, [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993] pp. xvii-xxxiv

      Moria Ferguson, First Feminists: British Women Writers 1578 - 1799 [Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1985] pp 213-238

      Hilda L. Smith, Reason's Disciples, Seventeenth-Century English Feminism, [Urbana: University of Illinois, 1982]

Return to Women's History Month 1999 Table of Contents

e-mail sunshine@pinn.net