Mary Barber
Encyclopedia
Mary Barber poet, was a member of Swift's
circle.
and literary critic Elizabeth Sican
, and maintained that she was a preeminent poet — "the best Poetess of both Kingdoms" — though this assessment was not universally shared and she has only recently garnered much critical attention. She moved into his circle and knew Laetitia Pilkington
, who later became her harshest critic, Mary Delany
, and poets Thomas Tickell
, and Elizabeth Rowe
. Swift's patronage was a substantial support to Barber's career and her Poems on several occasions (1734) was successful. The subscription list for the volume was almost "without precedent for its resplendent length and illustrious contents, and it was moreover remarkable given Barber's otherwise pedestrian social standing as an ailing Irish housewife." There were over nine hundred subscribers including various aristocrats and a number of literary luminaries, notably Pope
, Arbuthnot
, Gay
, Walpole
, and of course Swift himself. She did not, however, achieve financial stability until at her request and in order to alleviate her financial distress, Swift gave her the English rights to his Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1738). Her health declined after the publication of her Poems and subsequent writing was sparse. She did publish some verses about the gout, from which she suffered for over two decades, in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1737. She died in or around 1755.
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
circle.
Life
Barber's parents are unknown; she married Rupert Barber (d. 1777?), a Dublin woollen draper, and had nine children, four of whom survived to adulthood. She wrote, in the preface to her Poems, that she wrote mainly in order to educate her children, but most commentators agree that she had a larger audience in view and was considerably engaged with intervening in wider social and political issues, as she did with "The Widow's Address" when she argued on behalf of the widow of an army officer. She is an example of the eighteenth-century phenomenon of the "untutored poet, or 'natural genius'": an artist of unprepossessing background who achieved the patronage of literary or aristocratic notables. Swift named her as part of his "triumfeminate," along with poet and scholar Constantia GriersonConstantia Grierson
Constantia Grierson [née Crawley] , was an editor, poet, and classical scholar from County Kilkenny, Ireland.- Life :...
and literary critic Elizabeth Sican
Elizabeth Sican
Elizabeth Sican, literary critic, was part of Jonathan Swift's "triumfeminate," along with Mary Barber and Constantia Grierson. Little is known of her apart from her participation in Swift's Dublin literary circle.- Resources :...
, and maintained that she was a preeminent poet — "the best Poetess of both Kingdoms" — though this assessment was not universally shared and she has only recently garnered much critical attention. She moved into his circle and knew Laetitia Pilkington
Laetitia Pilkington
Laetitia Pilkington was a celebrated Anglo-Irish poet and important source of information on the early 18th century. Her Memoirs are the source of much of what is known of the personalities and habits of Jonathan Swift and others.Laetitia was born of two distinguished families...
, who later became her harshest critic, Mary Delany
Mary Delany
Mary Delany was an English Bluestocking, artist, and letter-writer; equally famous for her "paper-mosaicks" and her lively correspondence.-Early life:...
, and poets Thomas Tickell
Thomas Tickell
Thomas Tickell was a minor English poet and man of letters.-Life:The son of a clergyman, he was born at Bridekirk near Cockermouth, Cumberland. He was educated at St Bees School 1695-1701, and in 1701 entered the Queen's College, Oxford, taking his M.A. degree in 1709...
, and Elizabeth Rowe
Elizabeth Rowe
-Life:She was the eldest daughter of Elizabeth Portnell and Walter Singer, a dissenting minister. Born in Ilchester, Somerset, England, she began writing at the age of twelve and when she was nineteen, began a correspondence with John Dunton, bookseller and founder of the Athenian Society.Between...
. Swift's patronage was a substantial support to Barber's career and her Poems on several occasions (1734) was successful. The subscription list for the volume was almost "without precedent for its resplendent length and illustrious contents, and it was moreover remarkable given Barber's otherwise pedestrian social standing as an ailing Irish housewife." There were over nine hundred subscribers including various aristocrats and a number of literary luminaries, notably Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
, Arbuthnot
John Arbuthnot
John Arbuthnot, often known simply as Dr. Arbuthnot, , was a physician, satirist and polymath in London...
, Gay
John Gay
John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...
, Walpole
Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC , known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain....
, and of course Swift himself. She did not, however, achieve financial stability until at her request and in order to alleviate her financial distress, Swift gave her the English rights to his Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1738). Her health declined after the publication of her Poems and subsequent writing was sparse. She did publish some verses about the gout, from which she suffered for over two decades, in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1737. She died in or around 1755.
Works
- "The Widow's Address" (Dublin, 1725)
- "A Tale Being an Addition to Mr. Gay's Fables" (Dublin, 1728)
- Tunbrigialia, or, Tunbridge Miscellanies, for the Year 1730 (contributor).
- Poems on several occasions (sold by subscription, printed by Samuel RichardsonSamuel RichardsonSamuel Richardson was an 18th-century English writer and printer. He is best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded , Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady and The History of Sir Charles Grandison...
, 1734. 2nd ed. 1735; reissued 1736). - Poems by Eminent Ladies (contributor, 1755).
Resources
- Coleborne, Bryan. “Barber, Mary (c.1685–1755).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 1 Apr. 2007.
- Fanning, Christopher. "The Voices of the Dependent Poet: the case of Mary Barber." Women's Writing 8.1 (2001): 81-97.
- Lonsdale, Roger ed. "Mary Barber." Eighteenth-Century Women Poets. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. 118-129.