1.
1778 in architecture
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The year 1778 in architecture involved some significant events. Ivan Starov draws up an urban master plan for the Russian city of Yaroslavl. Denton Hall, Wharfedale, England, designed by John Carr, is completed, reconstruction of Downton Castle, Herefordshire, England by Richard Payne Knight in Gothic Revival style is largely completed. Emin Minaret, Turpan, modern-day China, is completed, la Scala opera house in Milan, designed by Giuseppe Piermarini, is opened and remodelling of the Royal Palace of Milan by him is largely completed. Grand Prix de Rome, architecture, prize carried over to 1779
2.
Nathaniel Brassey Halhed
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Nathaniel Brassey Halhed was an English Orientalist and philologist. Halhed was born at Westminster, and was educated at Harrow School and he entered Christ Church, Oxford, and while at Oxford he met William Jones who induced him to study Arabic. This translation was published in 1776 as A Code of Gentoo Laws, in 1778 he published a Bengali grammar, to print which he set up the first Bengali press in India. In 1785 Halhed returned to England, and from 1790–1795 was Member of Parliament for Lymington, Hants. For some time he was a disciple of Richard Brothers, and he subsequently obtained a home appointment under the East India Company. He died in London on 18 February 1830 and he went to Harrow School from the age of seven to seventeen. Halhed entered Christ Church, Oxford on 13 July 1768, at the age of 17 and he remained there for three years but did not take a degree. Jones had preceded him from Harrow to Oxford and they shared an intellectual relationship, at Oxford he learnt Persian and, possibly, dabbled in some Arabic. Halheds father was disappointed in him and decided to send him to India under the employment of the East India Company through his connections and his petition for a writership was granted by Harry Verelst. Appointed on 4 December 1771, Halhed knew about it in advance, Halhed was first placed in the accountant generals office under Lionel Darrell. He was next used as a Persian translator, and was sent to Kasimbazar for practical experience and it was in Kasimbazar that Halhed acquired Bengali, essential while dealing with the aurungs or weaving districts. In Bengal he had romantic affairs, with Elizabeth Pleydell, a certain Nancy, Diana Rochfort. Halhed became one of Warren Hastings favorites, and a believer in his approach to Indian affairs, on 5 July 1774 the Governor asked for an assistant for Persian documents, in addition to the munshis, and Halhed was appointed. When Hastings then nominated him for the post of Commissary General in October 1776, however, there was serious resistance, leaving Bengal, Halhed went to Holland, and on to London. Financial reasons forced him to consider a return to India, on 18 November 1783 he asked the Companys directors to appoint him to the committee of Revenue in Calcutta. He was successful, but not in dissociating himself from Hastings and he returned to India as a reputed Englishman with a wife and black servant, but when he reached Calcutta, Hastings was in Lucknow. He presented his credentials to Edward Wheler, the acting governor-general, then summoned by Hastings to Lucknow, he made a futile journey there, since Hastings had by then decided to leave for England and was bound for Calcutta. Hastings was planning to bring supporters to England, and wanted to have Halhed there as an agent of the Nawab Wazir of Oudh, Halhed threw in his lot with Hastings
3.
Chinsurah
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Chinsurah is a city in the state of West Bengal, India. It lies on the Hooghly River,35 kilometres north of Kolkata and it is in the district of Hooghly and is home to the district headquarters. Chuchura houses the commissioner of the Burdwan Range and it forms a part of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority region. The District Court building of Chinsurah is the longest building in West Bengal, Chinsurah is the home to the new state-of-the-art 1000 KW DrM transmitter of Prasar Bharti which enables Akashvaani Maitree to be broadcast across Bangladesh. This Special Bangla Service of All India Radio was launched in the wake of the Bangladesh Liberation Movement and played a key role during the war and it continued till April 2010, but was discontinued thereafter due to decommissioning of the Super Power Transmitter at Chinsurah. Chinsurah is also the home of the oldest Armenian church in India, Hooghly-Chuchura was a municipality formed by the merging of two towns, Hugli and Chinsura, in 1865. The names are spelled in other ways including Hooghly, Hugli, Hughli, Ugulim, Chinsura, Chunchura, Chuchro, the Grand Trunk Road passes through the town. Chuchura and Hugli are historic stations on the Howrah-Burdwan main line of the Eastern Railway, ferry services on the River Hugli serves as a link with the district of North 24 Parganas. Hooghly-Chuchura is at 22. 90°N88. 39°E /22.90,88.39 and this city is on the flood plain on the right bank of river Bhagirathi-Hooghly. The Portuguese founded the town of Ugulim, now Hooghly-Chuchura, in 1579, the city flourished as a trading port and some religious structures were built. One such structure is a dedicated to a charismatic statue of the Mother Mary brought by the Portuguese. In the 17th century, political disorder struck the city and the Mughal governor of Bengal expelled the Portuguese, the fleeing Portuguese lost the statue in the river, but local people later found it on the river bank. The arrested Portuguese were taken to Delhi where a sentence of trampling by elephants was decreed. When the emperor Shah Jahan heard this he ordered the priests released and granted a piece of land on the bank of the river Hoogly where the statue of the Mother Mary was reestablished, there the Portuguese constructed a church to house the statue, which still receives pilgrims today. The church was renovated in 1980s and has declared as a basilica by the authority of Rome. In 1656 the Dutch erected a factory on the site of the town, at that time Calcutta was the principal settlement in Dutch Bengal, being used as a base for the Dutch intra-Asian opium trade. In 1759 the garrison of Chinsurah, on its march to Chandernagore, the Battle of Chinsurah lasted less than half an hour and ended with the rout of the Dutch attackers. In 1795, during the Napoleonic wars, a British garrison occupied the settlement, the peace of 1814 restored Hughli to the Dutch
4.
East India Company
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The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India. The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the Companys shares. Initially the government owned no shares and had only indirect control, during its first century of operation the focus of the Company was trade, not the building of an empire in India. The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own armies, exercising military power. Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances, the official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies. Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean, one of them, Edward Bonventure, then sailed around Cape Comorin to the Malay Peninsula and returned to England in 1594. In 1596, three ships sailed east, however, these were all lost at sea. Two days later, on 24 September, the Adventurers reconvened and resolved to apply to the Queen for support of the project, the Adventurers convened again a year later. For a period of fifteen years the charter awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Anybody who traded in breach of the charter without a licence from the Company was liable to forfeiture of their ships and cargo, the governance of the company was in the hands of one governor and 24 directors or committees, who made up the Court of Directors. They, in turn, reported to the Court of Proprietors, ten committees reported to the Court of Directors. According to tradition, business was transacted at the Nags Head Inn, opposite St Botolphs church in Bishopsgate. Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601, in March 1604 Sir Henry Middleton commanded the second voyage. Early in 1608 Alexander Sharpeigh was appointed captain of the Companys Ascension, thereafter two ships, Ascension and Union sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1607–8. Initially, the company struggled in the trade because of the competition from the already well-established Dutch East India Company. The company opened a factory in Bantam on the first voyage, the factory in Bantam was closed in 1683. During this time belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat. In the next two years, the company established its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal
5.
Bengali alphabet
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The Bengali alphabet or Bangla alphabet or Bangali/Bengali script is the writing system for the Bengali language and is the 5th most widely used writing system in the world due to its population. Historically, the script has also used to write Sanskrit in the region of Bengal. From a classificatory point of view, the Bengali script is an abugida, i. e. its vowel graphemes are mainly realised not as independent letters and it is written from left to right and lacks distinct letter cases. It is recognisable, as are other Brahmic scripts, by a horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together which is known as মাত্রা matra. The Bengali script is less blocky and presents a more sinuous shape. The Bengali script evolved from the Kamarupi script, which belongs to the Brahmic family of scripts, Assamese script has an additional character, wô, represented as ৱ, which is absent in the Bengali script. The version of the used for Manipuri is also a different variation, it uses the rô. It also uses the Assamese script character sounding wô, represented as ৱ, the Bengali script was originally not associated with any particular language but was often used in the eastern regions of the Middle kingdoms of India and then in the Pala Empire. It later continued to be used in the Bengal region. It was later standardised into the modern Bengali script by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar under the reign of the East India Company, today, the script holds official script status in Bangladesh and India, and it is associated with the daily life of Bengalis. The Bengali script can be divided into vowel diacritics, consonant and vowel letters, modifiers, digits, the Bengali script has a total of 11 vowel graphemes, each of which is called a স্বরবর্ণ sbôrôbôrnô vowel letter. The sbôrôbôrnôs represent six of the seven vowel sounds of Bengali. All of them are used in both Bengali and Assamese, the two main languages using the script, অ ô /ɔ/ sounds as the default Inherent vowel for the entire Bengali script. As a result, the sound is orthographically realised by multiple means in modern Bengali orthography, usually using some combination of এ, অ, আ, two vowel symbols for the vowel sound and two symbols for the vowel sound. The redundancy stems from the time when this script was used to write Sanskrit, a language that had a short ই and a long ঈ, and a short উ and a long ঊ. The letters are preserved in the Bengali script with their traditional names despite the fact that they are no longer pronounced differently in ordinary speech and these graphemes serve an etymological function, however, in preserving the original Sanskrit spelling in tôtsômô Bengali words. The grapheme called ঋ ri does not really represent a vowel phoneme in Bengali, nevertheless, it is included in the vowel section of the inventory of the Bengali script. This inconsistency is also a remnant from Sanskrit, where the grapheme represents a retroflex approximant, when a vowel sound occurs at the beginning of a syllable or when it follows another vowel, it is written using a distinct letter
6.
Sarah Scott
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Sarah Scott was an English novelist, translator, social reformer, and member of the Bluestockings. Her most famous work was her utopian novel A Description of Millenium Hall, Sarahs father, Matthew Robinson, and her mother, Elizabeth Drake, were both from distinguished families, and Sarah was the youngest of nine children. The sisters were close in their early years. Sarahs letters also revealed a love of literature, especially the works of Spenser, Sidney, Milton, Swift. Sarah contracted smallpox in 1741, a disease that would leave its victims scarred and disfigured. Sarah would later create a character in Millenium Hall who had the telltale marks of smallpox that diminished her complexion. Sarah stayed home to tend to her mother, who was dying of cancer, after her mother died in 1746, Sarah visited Elizabeth and Edward in Bath. She chose to stay and care for the invalid Lady Barbara Montagu, or Lady Bab, in 1748, the two women combined their finances and set up house together. In the late 1740s, Sarah contracted to marry George Lewis Scott, Sarah and George Lewis Scott were married on 15 June 1751. The marriage, according to letters, was never consummated. In April 1752, Sarahs father and brothers came to London to remove her from her husbands house for undisclosed reasons, speculations persisted of incompatibility, abuse, an illicit affair, or even nondisclosure of a prior marriage. Regardless of reason, the scandal if made public would have damaged George Scotts career, when she was no longer with her husband, she became her fathers charge, and he gave her no money at all. Further, he forbade Elizabeth or Sarahs brother Matthew from relieving Sarahs poverty, Sarah wrote her first novel before her marriage, The History of Cornelia, a portrait of an ideal and pious young woman. To help with the expenses and philanthropy, Sarah decided to write. In 1754, she translated Le Laideur aimable as An Agreeable Ugliness, after publishing her first novels and completing a translation of another, Sarah began to write educational texts. In the late 1750s, Sarah and Lady Barbara followed their earlier endeavors to educate children by writing a series of cards that concentrated on teaching history. She succeeded this with The History of Mecklenburgh in 1762 to capitalize on the publics interest in George IIIs wife, also in 1762, Scott published her most successful novel, A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent. The utopian tale depicts a community of devoted to artistic pursuits and education, Christian virtues
7.
The Plays of William Shakespeare
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The Plays of William Shakespeare was an 18th-century edition of the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, edited by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. Johnson announced his intention to edit Shakespeares plays in his Miscellaneous Observations on Macbeth, the edition was finally published in 1765. In the Preface to his edition, Johnson justifies trying to determine the language of the Shakespearean plays. To benefit the reading audience, he added explanatory notes to various passages, later editors followed Johnsons lead and sought to determine an authoritative text of Shakespeare. Johnson began reading Shakespeares plays and poetry when he was a young boy and he would involve himself so closely with the plays that he was once terrified by the Ghost in Hamlet and had to have people about him. Johnson came to believe there was a problem with the collections of Shakespearean plays that were available during his lifetime. Instead, Johnson believed that the reader of Shakespeare was the audience of the play. Furthermore, Johnson believed that later editors both misunderstood the context of Shakespeare and his plays, and underestimated the degree of textual corruption that the plays exhibit. He believed that this was because The style of Shakespeare was in itself perplexed, ungrammatical, to correct these problems, Johnson believed that the original works would need to be examined, and this became an issue in his Proposal. Johnson also believed that an edition of Shakespeare could provide him with the income, however, a full edition of Shakespeare would require a publisher to make a large commitment of time and money, so Johnson decided to begin by focusing on a single play, Macbeth. Johnson began work on Macbeth to provide a sample of what he thought could be achieved in a new edition of Shakespeare. He got much of his information while working on the Harleian Catalogue, Hanmer produced an edition of Shakespeares plays for the Clarendon Press in October 1744, and Johnson felt that he could attract more attention to his own work by challenging some of Hanmers points. Johnson criticised Hanmer for editing Shakespeares words based on subjective opinion instead of objective fact, such harmless industry may surely be forgiven if it cannot be praised, may he therefore never want a monosyllable who can use it with such wonderful dexterity. The Miscellaneous Observations contains many of Johnsons early thoughts and theories on Shakespeare, for instance, Johnson thought that there was an uncanny power in Shakespeares supernatural scenes and wrote, He that peruses Shakespeare looks round alarmed and starts to find himself alone. By the author of the Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, in response, Jacob Tonson and his associates, who controlled the copyright of the current edition of Shakespeare, threatened to sue Johnson and Cave in a letter written on 11 April 1745. They did so to protect their new edition, edited by the Shakespeare scholar William Warburton, the Proposal sold subscriptions for Johnsons future edition at the cost of two guineas, the first paid before and the second upon printing. When Johnson achieved scholarly renown for his A Dictionary of the English Language, Warburtons publishers, in the Proposal, Johnson describes the various problems with previous editions of Shakespeare and argues how a new edition, written by himself, would correct these problems. In particular, Johnson promised to correct what is corrupt, and he would accomplish this by relying on a careful collation of all the oldest copies and to read the same story in the very book which Shakespeare consulted
8.
Samuel Johnson
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Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and is described by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history. He is also the subject of perhaps the most famous biography in English literature, born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Johnson attended Pembroke College, Oxford for just over a year, before his lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London, where he began to write for The Gentlemans Magazine and his early works include the biography Life of Mr Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of Human Wishes, and the play Irene. After nine years of work, Johnsons A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755 and it had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship. This work brought Johnson popularity and success, until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, Johnsons was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary. His later works included essays, an annotated edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he travelled to Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Johnson was a tall and robust man. His odd gestures and tics were disconcerting to some on first meeting him, after a series of illnesses, he died on the evening of 13 December 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Born on 18 September 1709, to Michael Johnson, a bookseller and he did not cry and, with doubts surrounding the newborns health, his aunt exclaimed that she would not have picked such a poor creature up in the street. Since it was feared that the baby die, the vicar of St Marys was summoned to perform a baptism. Two godfathers were chosen, Samuel Swynfen, a physician and graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Richard Wakefield, a lawyer, coroner, Johnsons health improved and he was put to wet-nurse with Joan Marklew. He soon contracted scrofula, known at time as the Kings Evil because it was thought royalty could cure it. Sir John Floyer, former physician to King Charles II, recommended that the young Johnson should receive the royal touch, however, the ritual was ineffective, and an operation was performed that left him with permanent scars across his face and body. Johnson demonstrated signs of intelligence as a child, and his parents, to his later disgust. His education began at the age of three, and was provided by his mother, who had him memorise and recite passages from the Book of Common Prayer. When Samuel turned four, he was sent to a nearby school, a year later, Johnson went to Lichfield Grammar School, where he excelled in Latin. During this time, Johnson started to exhibit the tics that would influence how people viewed him in his years
9.
George Steevens
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George Steevens was an English Shakespearean commentator. He was born at Poplar, the son of a captain and he was educated at Eton College and at Kings College, Cambridge, where he remained from 1753 to 1756. Leaving the university without a degree, he settled in chambers in the Inner Temple, moving later to a house on Hampstead Heath and he also accumulated a large collection of Hogarth prints, and his notes on the subject were incorporated in John Nicholss Genuine Works of Hogarth. He began his work as a Shakespearean editor with reprints of the editions of Shakespeares plays. Samuel Johnson was impressed by this work, and suggested that Steevens should prepare a complete edition of Shakespeare, the result, known as Johnsons and Steevenss edition, was The Works of Shakespeare with the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators, Johnsons contributions to which were very slight. The definitive result of his researches was embodied in an edition of fifteen volumes, in the 20 years between 1773 and 1793, Steevens was less harmlessly engaged in criticizing his fellows and playing malicious practical jokes on them. Dr Johnson, who was one of his staunchest friends, said he had come to live the life of an outlaw and he was one of the foremost in exposing the Chatterton-Rowley and the Ireland forgeries. He died at Hampstead on 22 January 1800, a monument to his memory by John Flaxman, with an inscription commemorating his Shakespearian labours, was erected in Poplar Chapel. The sale catalogue of his library is in the British Museum. Steevenss Shakespeare was re-issued by Reed in 1803, in 21 volumes and this, which is known as the first variorum edition, was reprinted in 1813. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1767, Shakespeares editors This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. “Boswell, George Steevens, and the Johnsonian Biography Wars”, the Age of Johnson, A Scholarly Annual,22
10.
Edmond Malone
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Edmond Malone was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare. Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first political and he went to London, where he frequented literary and artistic circles. He regularly visited Samuel Johnson and was of assistance to James Boswell in revising and proofreading his Life. He was friendly with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and sat for a now in the National Portrait Gallery. He was one of Reynolds executors, and published a collection of his works with a memoir. Horace Walpole, Edmund Burke, George Canning, Oliver Goldsmith, Lord Charlemont and his refusal to alter some of his notes to Isaac Reeds edition of 1785, which disagreed with Steevenss, resulted in a quarrel with the latter. Malone was also a figure in the refutation of the claim that the Ireland Shakespeare forgeries were authentic works of the playwright. He had two sisters, Henrietta and Catherine, and a brother, Richard. Edmond Malone Sr. was a lawyer and politician, educated at Oxford University and the Inner Temple in London, and called to the Bar in England in 1730. But in 1740, a year before Edmond Jr. was born, his practice in England failed and he took up residence with his wife on the familys country estate, Shinglas, in County Westmeath, and began a more successful legal practice there. Malone excelled at his studies, a student, naturally diligent, consistently at the top of his class. In the very first examination, of four in the year, he shared top honours with James Drought and John Kearney. As an undergraduate he wrote poetry and literary history. Of the latter, an example is a prose translation of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles with annotations. His studies were interrupted when, in the summer of 1759, he, catherines health had been deteriorating for some time and she now had increasing difficulty walking. After a short stay in Highgate she moved to the Roman Baths at Bath in Somerset, Malone and his father returned to Ireland in October, too late to resume the winter term, so he elected to stay at Shinglas until the new year and study on his own. Not wishing to leave his father solitary, he nearly did not return to Trinity, Malones final examination at Trinity was in the Michaelmas term in 1761, and he received his BA degree at the following Commencement on 23 February 1762. As only one of three, he achieved the top mark, the decision to study law was an obvious choice, his father, uncle, and grandfather had all been Irish Barristers
11.
Frances Burney
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For the playwright Frances Burney, niece of the novelist, see Frances Burney. Frances Burney, also known as Fanny Burney and after her marriage as Madame dArblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. She was born in Lynn Regis, now Kings Lynn, England, on 13 June 1752, to the musician and music historian Dr Charles Burney and his first wife, Esther Sleepe Burney. The third of six children, she was self-educated and began writing what she called her scribblings at the age of ten, in 1793, aged 41, she married a French exile, General Alexandre DArblay. Their only son, Alexander, was born in 1794, after a lengthy writing career, and travels during which she was stranded in France by warfare for more than ten years, she settled in Bath, England, where she died on 6 January 1840. Frances Burney was a novelist, diarist and playwright, in all, she wrote four novels, eight plays, one biography and twenty volumes of journals and letters. She has gained respect in her own right, but also foreshadows such novelists of manners with a satirical bent as Jane Austen. She published her first novel, Evelina, anonymously in 1778, when the books authorship was revealed, it brought her almost immediate fame due to its unique narrative and comic strengths. She followed it with Cecilia in 1782, Camilla in 1796, all Burneys novels explore the lives of English aristocrats, and satirise their social pretensions and personal foibles, with an eye to larger questions such as the politics of female identity. The exception was Edwy and Elgiva, which unfortunately was not well received by the public, today critics are returning to her novels and plays with renewed interest in her outlook on the social lives and struggles of women in a predominantly male-oriented culture. Scholars continue to value Burneys diaries as well for their depictions of English society in her time. Her early novels were read and enjoyed by Jane Austen, whose own title Pride, william Makepeace Thackeray is reported to have drawn on the first-person account of the Battle of Waterloo, recorded in her diaries, while writing Vanity Fair. Frances Burneys early career was affected by her relationship with her father. Many feminist critics thus see her as an author whose natural talent for satire was somewhat stifled by the pressures exerted on female authors of the age. But Burney persisted in writing despite the setbacks, when her comedies were poorly received, she returned to novel writing, and later tried her hand at tragedy. She supported both herself and her family with the proceeds of her novels, Camilla and The Wanderer. Frances was the child in a family of six. Her elder siblings were Esther and James, the younger Susanna Elizabeth, Charles, of her brothers, James became an admiral and sailed with Captain James Cook on his second and third voyages
12.
Evelina
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Evelina, or the History of a Young Ladys Entrance into the World is a novel written by English author Fanny Burney and first published in 1778. Although published anonymously, its authorship was revealed by the poet George Huddesford in what Burney called a vile poem. In this 3-volume epistolary novel, title character Evelina is the unacknowledged, the novel opens with a distressed letter from Lady Howard to her longtime acquaintance, the Reverend Arthur Villars, in which she reports that Mme. Duval, the grandmother of Villars ward, Evelina Anville, intends to visit England to renew her acquaintance with her granddaughter Evelina, Duval had broken off her relationship with her daughter Caroline, Evelinas mother, and has never acknowledged Evelina. Duvals influence could lead Evelina to a similar to that of her mother Caroline, who secretly wedded Sir John Belmont, a libertine. Duval, the Reverend lets her visit Howard Grove, Lady Howards home, while she is there, the family learns that Lady Howards son-in-law, naval officer Captain Mirvan, is returning to England after a seven-year absence. Desperate to join the Mirvans on their trip to London, Evelina entreats her guardian to let her attend them, in London, Evelinas beauty and ambiguous social status attract unwanted attention and unkind speculation. Ignorant of the conventions and behaviors of 18th-century London society, she makes a series of humiliating faux pas that further expose her to social ridicule, the Mirvans finally return to the country, taking Evelina and Mme. Spurred by Evelinas greedy cousins, Mme, Duval concocts a plan to sue Sir John Belmont, Evelinas father, and force him to recognize his daughters claim in court. Reverend Villars is displeased, and they decide against a lawsuit, but Lady Howard writes to Sir John, Duval is furious and threatens to rush Evelina back to Paris to pursue the lawsuit. He is in financial straits, is engaged in tracing his own obscure parentage, as well as recovering from his mothers sudden death. Evelina charitably gives him her purse, sure that he can never respect her now, she is stunned when he seeks her out in Londons unfashionable section and seems interested in renewing their acquaintance. When an insulting letter supposedly from Lord Orville devastates her and makes her believe she misperceived him, she returns home to Berry Hill, the unexpected appearance of Mr. Macartney reveals an unexpected streak of jealousy in the seemingly imperturbable Lord Orville. Convinced that Macartney is a rival for Evelinas affections, Lord Orville withdraws, however, Macartney has intended only to repay his financial debt to Evelina. Lord Orvilles genuine affection for Evelina and her assurances that she and Macartney are not involved finally win out over Orvilles jealousy, Lord Orville proposes, much to Evelinas delight. However, Evelina is distraught at the gulf between herself and her father and the mystery surrounding his false daughter. Finally, Mrs. Selwyn is able to secure a meeting with Sir John. When he sees Evelina, he is horrified and guilt-stricken because she resembles her mother
13.
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
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Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire was an English socialite, style icon, author, and activist. Of noble birth from the House of Spencer, married into the House of Cavendish, she was the first wife of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, as the 5th Duchess of Devonshire, she garnered much attention and fame in society during her lifetime. She was the great-great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales and their lives, centuries apart, have been compared in tragedy in contemporary time. The duchess was born Miss Georgiana Spencer, on 7 June 1757, as the first child of John Spencer and his wife, Georgiana, at the Spencer family home, Althorp. After her daughters birth, her mother wrote that I will own I feel so partial to my Dear little Gee, two younger siblings followed, Henrietta and George. Mr John Spencer, great-grandson of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and he built a Spencer family residence at St. Jamess, London and raised his children there. The parents raised Georgiana and her siblings in a marriage which bears no record of ever having been any extramarital affairs - a rarity in the era. Meanwhile, Georgiana grew to be close to her mother who was said to favour Georgiana over her other children, when her father assumed the title of Viscount Spencer in 1761, she became The Honourable Georgiana Spencer. In 1765, her father became Earl Spencer and she Lady Georgiana Spencer, on her seventeenth birthday,7 June 1774, Lady Georgiana Spencer was married to societys most eligible bachelor, William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire. The wedding took place at Wimbledon Parish Church and it was a small ceremony attended only by her parents, her maternal grandmother, one of her prospective brothers-in-law, and soon-to-be sister-in-law. Her parents were reluctant to let their daughter go. Her father, who had always shown affection to his children, wrote to her, My Dearest Georgiana, I did not know till lately how much I loved you, I miss you every day. Mother and daughter continued to correspond throughout their lives and many of their letters survive. From the beginning of the marriage, the Duke of Devonshire proved to be a reserved man who was quite unlike the duchesss father. The spouses also had little in common and he would seldom be at her side and would spend nights at Brooks playing cards. The duke continued with adulterous behaviour throughout their life and discord followed pregnancies that ended in miscarriage or failure to produce a male child as heir. Before their marriage, the duke had fathered a daughter, Charlotte Williams, born from a dalliance with a former milliner. This was unknown to the duchess until years after her marriage to the duke, after the death of the childs mother, she was compelled to raise Charlotte herself
14.
Ignacy Krasicki
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His most notable literary works were his Fables and Parables, Satires, and poetic letters and religious lyrics, in which the artistry of his poetic language reached its summit. Krasicki was born in Dubiecko, on southern Polands San River and he was related to the most illustrious families in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and spent his childhood surrounded with the love and solicitude of his own family. He attended a Jesuit school in Lwów, then studied at a Warsaw Catholic seminary, in 1759 he took holy orders and continued his education in Rome. Two of his brothers entered the priesthood. Returning to Poland, Krasicki became secretary to the Primate of Poland, when Poniatowski was elected king, Krasicki became his chaplain. He participated in the Kings famous Thursday dinners and co-founded the Monitor and this office gave him a high standing in the social hierarchy and a sense of independence. It did not, however, prove a quiet haven, the Warmia cathedral chapter welcomed its superior coolly, fearing changes. At the same time, there were growing provocations and pressures from Prussia, Krasicki protested publicly against external intervention. In 1772, as a result of the First Partition, instigated by Prussias King Frederick II and he did not, however, pay homage to Warmias new master. He now made frequent visits to Berlin, Potsdam and Sanssouci at the bidding of Frederick and this created a difficult situation for the poet-bishop who, while a friend of the Polish king, maintained close relations with the Prussian king. These realities could not but influence the nature and direction of Krasickis subsequent literary productions, soon after the First Partition, Krasicki officiated at the 1773 opening of Berlins St. Hedwigs Cathedral, which Frederick had built for Catholic immigrants to Brandenburg and Berlin. In 1786 Krasicki was called to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, after Frederick the Greats death, Krasicki continued relations with Fredericks successor. In 1795, six years before his death, Krasicki was elevated to Archbishop of Gniezno, upon his death in Berlin in 1801, Krasicki was laid to rest at St. Hedwigs Cathedral, which he had consecrated. In 1829 his remains were transferred to Polands Gniezno Cathedral, czesław Miłosz describes Krasicki, He was a man of the golden mean, a smiling, skeptical sage prais moderation and despis extremes. His was a mentality which returned to Horatian ideals of the Renaissance, E was a cosmopolit and owed his imposing literary knowledge to his readings in foreign languages, yet. He was indebted to the mentality of the Polish Golden Age, as a poet, he was for that distillation of the language which for a while toned down the chaotic richness of the Baroque. In a way, he returned to the clear and simple language of Kochanowski, E conceived of literature as a specific vocation, namely, to intervene as a moralist in human affairs. Since he was not pugnacious by temperament, his moralizing, rarely distinguishable from sheer play, Krasickis literary writings lent splendor to the reign of Polands King Stanisław August Poniatowski, while not directly advocating the Kings political program
15.
Pan Podstoli
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Pan Podstoli is a novel by Polish author, Ignacy Krasicki, published in several parts. It is one of the first Polish novels, and one of the most important works by Krasicki and it served as an inspiration future Polish novelists and other writers, including Adam Mickiewicz. Krasicki wrote the first part in 1776, and it was published in 1778, Krasicki would however publish a second part in 1784, and write a third one, published posthumously in 1803. Krzyżanowski writes that four was planned, but never written. The novel was inspired by Krasickis experiences with the Monitor newspaper, Renaissance works of Łukasz Górnicki. The novel does not have much of a plot, it has described as unashamedly utilitarian, more of a didactic treatise. The titular hero, a local noble holding the office of podstoli in his land, is a model szlachta noble-landowner, Krasicki often compares the order of his home and estate with the customs and life of the Polish Sarmatian countryside. The novels message is the need for restoration, criticizing both the slavish keeping of old traditions, as well as reckless abandonment of them in exchange for the foreign novel customs. For the novels role model, being a noble is not just a case of being born into the class, a proper noble should act in specific way. One of the Enlightened themes of the novel can be seen in its treatment of peasants serfs, the novels protagonist is an unnamed narrator, who in Part 1 spends several weeks in the house of Podstoli, located somewhere in the Lesser Poland. In Part 2 he returns to his village, to implement reforms based on the model he has seen in Podstolis village, in Part 3 he returns to Podstolis manor for a wedding of his daughter. Pan Podstoli was seen as one of the first Polish novels and it served as an inspiration future Polish novelists and other writers, including Adam Mickiewicz, who likely drew upon it in his representation of idealized noble life portrayed in his Pan Tadeusz. The work has spawned a number of works in Poland. The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom Fables and Parables T.1 T.2
16.
Clara Reeve
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Clara Reeve was an English novelist, best known for her Gothic novel The Old English Baron. She also wrote an history of prose fiction, The Progress of Romance. Her first work was a translation from Latin, then a language for a woman to learn. Reeve was born in Ipswich, England, one of the eight children of Reverend William Reeve, rector of Freston and of Kreson in Suffolk, and perpetual curate of St Nicholas. Her mother was the daughter of a Smithies, a goldsmith, I gaped and yawned over them at the time, but, unawares to myself, they fixed my principles once and for all. He made me read Rapins History of England, the information it gave made amends for its dryness. I read Catos Letters by Trenchard and Gordon, I read the Greek and Roman histories, after the death of her father, she lived with her mother and sisters in Colchester. It was there that she first became an author, publishing a translation of the historical allegory Argenis by John Barclay under the title of The Phoenix. The first edition under the title of The Old English Baron was dedicated to the daughter of Samuel Richardson, the novel noticeably influenced Mary Shelleys Frankenstein. Reeve also wrote the epistolary novel The School for Widows, one of the stories in the work, The History of Charoba, Queen of Egypt, was the inspiration for Walter Savage Landors first major piece, Gebir. Reeve led a life, leaving very little biographical material. She died at Ipswich and was buried, as she wished, in the churchyard of St. Stephens, clara Reeve from Lives of the Eminent Novelists and Dramatists. A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, london, J. M. Dent & Sons
17.
The Old English Baron
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The Old English Baron is an early Gothic novel by the English author Clara Reeve. Apart from typographical errors, the revision was trifling, originally Miss Reeve presented the story, as Walpole had done before her, as an old manuscript she had merely discovered and transcribed. Under Mrs Bridgens auspices this fiction was removed from the preface, the Oxford Worlds Classics edition notes that it was a major influence in the development of Gothic fiction. It was dramatized in 1799 as Edmond, Orphan of the Castle, the story follows the adventures of Sir Philip Harclay, who returns to medieval England to find that Arthur Lord Lovel, the friend of his youth, is dead. His cousin Walter Lord Lovel had succeeded to the estate, and sold the castle to the baron. When Sir Philip saw him, he took a liking to him. The narrative then oversteps the interval of four years, by his manifestly superior nature and qualities Edmund had attracted the enmity of his benefactors nephews, and the coldness of Sir Robert, the eldest son. William, his brother, is his staunch friend however. Walpole remarked in response that the Old Baron was So probable, ridiculing the concept of a probable ghost-story. The Old English Baron at Internet Archive The Old English Baron at Project Gutenberg The Old English Baron public domain audiobook at LibriVox
18.
Lady Mary Hamilton
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Lady Mary Hamilton or Lady Mary Walker was a Scottish novelist of the 18th century. She was the youngest daughter of Alexander Leslie, 5th Earl of Leven and the mother of James Walker and her works included discussions of philosophy, education and art. Advanced in thinking for the period, she was a strong advocate of education for women. Her most successful novel, Munster Village, centres on a garden city populated with fallen women. Jane Austen may have influenced by her writings, taking the same names as some of Lady Marys characters. On 3 January 1762, Lady Mary was married to Dr. James Walker of Innerdovat and he was a physician based at Edinburghs prison infirmary and heavily in debt. Though the marriage was unhappy, it was said to have produced ten children, at least half must have died in infancy, the Scots Peerage, followed by McMillan, asserts three sons and one daughter though other sources point to two Walker daughters, Isabella and Elizabeth. Lady Mary was estranged from Walker, who moved alone to Jamaica in the 1770s to take up a position there as a prison physician, Lady Mary turned to writing to provide for her family. She would later note to a friend that with a family of young children… abandoned by their father, she was forced to cloath, feed and she thus needed to support herself, producing her first novel Letters from the Duchesse de Crui. She took Hamiltons name, and she and George settled in Lille, France in 1782, two of her daughters with Walker, Isabelle and Betzy, married respectively the dramatist Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy and General Paul Thiébaut. Again, accounts vary, Lady Mary had two daughters with Hamilton, or had at least one surviving daughter with Hamilton, Sophia Saint John Hamilton Alderson. George Hamilton died on 29 October 1797, and an analysis of his will demonstrates both that he and Mary were not married, and that James Walker was still alive in 1786. After Hamiltons death, Lady Mary lived near Amiens, where she was close to the writer Sir Herbert Croft. Croft was an eccentric English scholar who had compiled dictionaries, and her daughter Bell and son-in-law Jouy visited them often. Croft introduced her to his secretary, Charles Nodier, Nodier translated Munster Village and helped her write another book in French, La famille du duc de Popoli or The Duc de Popoli. Despite her extensive holdings in Jamaica, little or no income was earned from them, in 1815, she went to Jamaica, as she believed she was being cheated financially out of some of her husbands estates, which had produced £3000 per annum but were now yielding £400. After her return – Croft having died in April 1816 – she lived with her daughter Sophia Alderson, Lady Mary died in Brompton, Middlesex near London on 28 February 1821, although some sources such as McMillan specify an 1822 date of death. The discrepancy may arise out of a delay in proving Lady Marys will and her son James Walker, a Royal Navy officer, achieved the rank of Rear-Admiral
19.
Anna Laetitia Barbauld
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Anna Laetitia Barbauld was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and childrens author. A woman of letters who published in multiple genres, Barbauld had a writing career at a time when female professional writers were rare. She was a teacher at the Palgrave Academy and an innovative childrens writer, her primers provided a model for pedagogy for more than a century. Her essays demonstrated that it was possible for a woman to be engaged in politics. Barbauld was also a critic, and her anthology of 18th-century British novels helped establish the canon as known today. Barbaulds career as a poet ended abruptly in 1812 with the publication of Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, vicious reviews shocked Barbauld, and she published nothing else during her lifetime. Her reputation was damaged when many of the Romantic poets she had inspired in the heyday of the French Revolution turned against her in their later, more conservative. Some letters from Barbauld to others also exist, however, a great many Barbauld family documents were lost in a fire that was the result of the London blitz in 1940. Barbauld was born on 20 June 1743 at Kibworth Harcourt in Leicestershire to Jane and she was named after her maternal grandmother and referred to as Nancy. She was baptised by her mothers brother, John Jennings, in Huntingdonshire two weeks after her birth, Barbaulds father was headmaster of the Dissenting academy in Kibworth Harcourt and minister at a nearby Presbyterian church. The family had a standard of living. McCarthy suggests they may have ranked with large freeholders, well-to-do tradesmen, at his death in 1780, Barbaulds fathers estate was valued at more than £2,500. Barbauld commented to her husband in 1773 that For the early part of my life I conversed little with my own Sex, in the Village where I was, there was none to converse with. Barbauld was surrounded by boys as a child and adopted their high spirits, Barbauld demanded that her father teach her the classics and after much pestering, he did. Thus she had the opportunity to learn Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Barbaulds penchant for study worried her mother, who expected her to end up a spinster because of her intellectualism, the two were never as close as Barbauld and her father. Barbaulds brother, John Aikin, described their father as the best parent, the wisest counsellor, Barbaulds father prompted many such tributes, although Lucy Aikin described him as excessively modest and reserved. Barbauld developed a bond with her brother during childhood, standing in as a mother figure to him. In 1817, Joanna Baillie commented of their relationship How few brothers and sisters have been to one another what they have been through so long a course of years
20.
Elizabeth Craven
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Elizabeth Craven, Princess Berkeley, previously Lady Craven of Hamstead Marshall, was an author, playwright, traveller, and socialite, perhaps best known for her travelogues. Ed. with an introduction by John Franceschina, thereafter she lived in France and travelled extensively on the Continent. For a number of years she maintained a relationship with Charles Alexander. His wife since 1754, Princess Friederike of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, died in Germany on 18 February 1791, the couple then married in Lisbon on 30 October 1791 and settled in England. In England, however, the couple were known as the Margrave. After Charles Alexanders death at Benham Park in 1806, Elizabeth moved to Naples and she died at Craven Villa in Posillipo and was buried in 1828 in the English Cemetery at Naples. Her links with the Hammersmith area are commemorated in the name of two roads in the area – Margravine Gardens and Margravine Road, there is a wall monument by Roubiliac to her in St Marys Church, Scarborough. The Peerage. com Elizabeth Craven at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive Anspach, Elizabeth, Margravine of
21.
Richard Cumberland (dramatist)
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Richard Cumberland was an English dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged, during the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived critical journal called The London Review and his plays are often remembered for their sympathetic depiction of colonial characters and others generally considered to be margins of society. N. b. Cambridgeshire Family History Society have transcribed his baptism record & quote his birth as 19th Feb 1731, the Oxford University and City Herald 18 May 1811, Deaths, Richard Cumberland esq. author of the Observer Aged 80. The Society of Genealogists have a record for Richard Cumberland 1731-1811 buried at Westminster Abbey. Richard Cumberland was born in the lodge of Trinity College, Cambridge on 19 February 1731/2. His father was a clergyman, Doctor Denison Cumberland, who became successively Bishop of Clonfert and his mother was Johanna Bentley, youngest daughter of Joanna Bernard and the classical scholar Richard Bentley, longtime master at Trinity College. She was featured as the heroine of John Byroms popular eclogue, Cohn, Cumberlands youngest sister Mary became recognized later as the poet Mary Alcock. One great-grandfather was the bishop of Peterborough, a great-great grandfather was Oliver St John, the statesman. Cumberland was educated at the school in Bury St Edmunds. In 1744 Cumberland was moved to the prestigious Westminster School, under Doctorr Nicholls as headmaster, among his contemporaries at Westminster were Warren Hastings, George Colman, Charles Churchill and William Cowper. At the age of fourteen, Cumberland went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in his beginning writing, he was influenced by Edmund Spenser, his first dramatic effort was modeled after William Masons Elfrida and called Caractacus. Cumberlands family persuaded him to accept, and he returned to the post after his election as fellow and it left him time for literary pursuits, which included a poem in blank verse about India. Cumberland resigned his fellowship when he married his cousin Elizabeth Ridge in 1759, in 1761 Cumberland accompanied his patron Lord Halifax to Ireland. Halifax who had been appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Cumberland the post as Ulster secretary and he was offered a baronetcy, which he declined. When Lord George Germain in 1775 acceded to office, Cumberland was appointed secretary to the Board of Trade and Plantations, a post he held till Edmund Burkes reforms abolished it in 1782. In 1780, he was sent on a mission to Spain to negotiate a separate peace treaty during the American War of Independence in an effort to weaken the anti-British coalition. Although he was received by King Charles III of Spain and his minister Count Floridablanca
