Mary Russell Mitford
Encyclopedia
Mary Russell Mitford (16 December 1787 – 10 January 1855), was an English author and dramatist. She was born at Alresford
, Hampshire. Her place in English literature
is as the author of Our Village
. This series of sketches of village scenes and vividly drawn characters was based upon life in Three Mile Cross
, a hamlet in the parish of Shinfield
, near Reading
in Berkshire, where she lived.
. The family lived in large properties in Reading
and then Grazeley
(in Sulhamstead
Abbots parish), but, when the money was all gone, they lived on a small remnant of the doctor's lost fortune and the proceeds of his daughter's literary career. He is thought to have inspired Mary with the keen delight in incongruities, the lively sympathy, self-willed vigorous individuality, and the womanly tolerance which inspire so many of her sketches of character. She was devoted to him, refused all holiday invitations because he could not live without her, and worked incessantly for him except when she broke off to read him the sporting newspapers.
Later in life she moved from Three Mile Cross
to Swallowfield
, where she died on 10 January 1855 after being injured in a road accident. She is buried in the village.
in 1836, and their acquaintance ripened into a warm friendship. The strain of poverty told on her work, for although her books sold at high prices, her income did not keep pace with her father's extravagances. In 1837, however, she received a civil list
pension, and five years later her father died. A subscription was raised to pay his debts, and the surplus increased Mary's income. She eventually moved to a cottage in Swallowfield
, where she remained for the rest of her life. She is buried in the churchyard there.
Her youthful ambition had been to be the greatest English poetess, and her first publications were poems in the manner of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
and Walter Scott
(Miscellaneous Verses, 1810, reviewed by Scott in the Quarterly; Christina, the Maid of the South Seas, a metrical tale based on the first news of discovery of the last surviving mutineer of the H. M. S. Bounty
and a generation of British-Tahitian children on Pitcairn Island in 1811; and Blanche part of a projected series of 'Narrative poems on the Female Character,' 1813). Her play Julian was produced at Covent Garden
, with William Charles Macready
in the title role, in 1823; The Foscari was performed at Covent Garden, with Charles Kemble
as the hero, in 1826; Rienzi, 1828, the best of her plays, had a run of thirty-four nights, and Mary's friend, Thomas Noon Talfourd
, imagined that its vogue militated against the success of his own play Ion. Charles the First was refused a licence by the Lord Chamberlain
, but was played at the Surrey Theatre in 1834.
The prose, to which she was driven by domestic necessities, was the most successful and financially rewarding of her literary productions. The first series of Our Village sketches appeared in book form in 1824 (having first appeared in The Lady's Magazine
five years previously), a second in 1826, a third in 1828, a fourth in 1830, a fifth in 1832. They were reprinted several times. Belford Regis, another series of literary sketches in which the neighbourhood and society of Reading were idealised, was published in 1835. Her description of village cricket
in Our Village has been called "the first major prose on the game".
Her Recollections of a Literary Life (1852) is a series of causeries about her favourite books. Her talk was said by her friends, Elizabeth Browning and Hengist Horne
, to have been even more amusing than her books, and five volumes of her Life and Letters, published in 1870 and 1872, show her to have been a delightful letter-writer. The many collections available of her letters provide especially useful commentary and criticism of her Romantic and Victorian literary contemporaries.
New Alresford
New Alresford or simply Alresford is a small town and civil parish in the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. It is situated some 12 km north-east of the city of Winchester and 20 km south-west of the town of Alton...
, Hampshire. Her place in English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
is as the author of Our Village
Our Village
Our Village is a collection of about 100 literary sketches of rural life written by Mary Russell Mitford , and originally published during the 1820s and 1830s. The series first appeared in The Lady's Magazine. The full title is: Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery...
. This series of sketches of village scenes and vividly drawn characters was based upon life in Three Mile Cross
Three Mile Cross
Three Mile Cross is a village in the civil parish of Shinfield, to the South of Reading, and immediately North of the adjoining village of Spencers Wood, in the English county of Berkshire....
, a hamlet in the parish of Shinfield
Shinfield
Shinfield is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, just south of Reading. It contains and is administered by the unitary authority of Wokingham District.-Geography:...
, near Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
in Berkshire, where she lived.
Life and relationship with her father
She was the only daughter of Dr George Mitford, or Midford, who spent her mother's fortune in a few years. Then he spent the greater part of £20,000, which in 1797 Mary, then aged ten, drew as a prize in a lotteryLottery
A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...
. The family lived in large properties in Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
and then Grazeley
Grazeley
Grazeley is a small village and former civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It lies about four miles south of Reading at . To the East lies the Village of Spencers Wood. To the West lie the villages of Grazeley Green and Wokefield. To the South lies the village of Beech Hill.-Local...
(in Sulhamstead
Sulhamstead
Sulhamstead is a village, electoral district and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It lies off the A4 national route between Reading and Thatcham, some west of central London.-Location:thumb|left|250px|1888 Ordnance Survey Parish Boundary Map...
Abbots parish), but, when the money was all gone, they lived on a small remnant of the doctor's lost fortune and the proceeds of his daughter's literary career. He is thought to have inspired Mary with the keen delight in incongruities, the lively sympathy, self-willed vigorous individuality, and the womanly tolerance which inspire so many of her sketches of character. She was devoted to him, refused all holiday invitations because he could not live without her, and worked incessantly for him except when she broke off to read him the sporting newspapers.
Later in life she moved from Three Mile Cross
Three Mile Cross
Three Mile Cross is a village in the civil parish of Shinfield, to the South of Reading, and immediately North of the adjoining village of Spencers Wood, in the English county of Berkshire....
to Swallowfield
Swallowfield
Swallowfield is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It is situated south of the town of Reading, and north of the county boundary with Hampshire....
, where she died on 10 January 1855 after being injured in a road accident. She is buried in the village.
Writing
Mitford was an especially prolific and successful writer in a range of genres, from poetry to drama as well as the prose for which she has been best known. Her writing has all the charm of unaffected spontaneous humour, combined with quick wit and literary skill. She met Elizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.-Early life:Members...
in 1836, and their acquaintance ripened into a warm friendship. The strain of poverty told on her work, for although her books sold at high prices, her income did not keep pace with her father's extravagances. In 1837, however, she received a civil list
Civil list
-United Kingdom:In the United Kingdom, the Civil List is the name given to the annual grant that covers some expenses associated with the Sovereign performing their official duties, including those for staff salaries, State Visits, public engagements, ceremonial functions and the upkeep of the...
pension, and five years later her father died. A subscription was raised to pay his debts, and the surplus increased Mary's income. She eventually moved to a cottage in Swallowfield
Swallowfield
Swallowfield is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It is situated south of the town of Reading, and north of the county boundary with Hampshire....
, where she remained for the rest of her life. She is buried in the churchyard there.
Her youthful ambition had been to be the greatest English poetess, and her first publications were poems in the manner of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
and Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
(Miscellaneous Verses, 1810, reviewed by Scott in the Quarterly; Christina, the Maid of the South Seas, a metrical tale based on the first news of discovery of the last surviving mutineer of the H. M. S. Bounty
Mutiny on the Bounty
The mutiny on the Bounty was a mutiny that occurred aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789, and has been commemorated by several books, films, and popular songs, many of which take considerable liberties with the facts. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the...
and a generation of British-Tahitian children on Pitcairn Island in 1811; and Blanche part of a projected series of 'Narrative poems on the Female Character,' 1813). Her play Julian was produced at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, with William Charles Macready
William Charles Macready
-Life:He was born in London, and educated at Rugby.It was his intention to go up to Oxford, but in 1809 the embarrassed affairs of his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management. On 7 June 1810 he made a successful first...
in the title role, in 1823; The Foscari was performed at Covent Garden, with Charles Kemble
Charles Kemble
Charles Kemble was a British actor.-Life:The youngest son of Roger Kemble, and younger brother of John Philip Kemble, Stephen Kemble and Sarah Siddons, he was born at Brecon, South Wales. Like John Philip, he was educated at Douai...
as the hero, in 1826; Rienzi, 1828, the best of her plays, had a run of thirty-four nights, and Mary's friend, Thomas Noon Talfourd
Thomas Noon Talfourd
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, SL , was an English judge and author.The son of a well-to-do brewer, he was born at Reading, Berkshire ....
, imagined that its vogue militated against the success of his own play Ion. Charles the First was refused a licence by the Lord Chamberlain
Lord Chamberlain
The Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom and is to be distinguished from the Lord Great Chamberlain, one of the Great Officers of State....
, but was played at the Surrey Theatre in 1834.
The prose, to which she was driven by domestic necessities, was the most successful and financially rewarding of her literary productions. The first series of Our Village sketches appeared in book form in 1824 (having first appeared in The Lady's Magazine
Lady's Magazine
The Lady's Magazine or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex, Appropriated Solely to Their Use and Amusement, was a British fashion magazine produced every month from 1770 until 1837 and cost six pence per copy. It was started in August 1770 by London bookseller John Coote and publisher John Wheble...
five years previously), a second in 1826, a third in 1828, a fourth in 1830, a fifth in 1832. They were reprinted several times. Belford Regis, another series of literary sketches in which the neighbourhood and society of Reading were idealised, was published in 1835. Her description of village cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
in Our Village has been called "the first major prose on the game".
Her Recollections of a Literary Life (1852) is a series of causeries about her favourite books. Her talk was said by her friends, Elizabeth Browning and Hengist Horne
Richard Henry Horne
Richard Hengist Horne was and English poet and critic most famous for his poem Orion.-Early life:...
, to have been even more amusing than her books, and five volumes of her Life and Letters, published in 1870 and 1872, show her to have been a delightful letter-writer. The many collections available of her letters provide especially useful commentary and criticism of her Romantic and Victorian literary contemporaries.
Literature
- The Life of Mary Russell Mitford, related in a Selection from her Letters, 3 vols (1870 Bentley).
- Henry Fothergill ChorleyHenry Fothergill ChorleyHenry Fothergill Chorley was an English literary, art and music critic and editor. He was also an author of novels, drama, poetry and lyrics....
(Ed.), Letters of Mary Russell Mitford (1872). - A.G.K. L'Estrange (Ed.), The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford as recorded in Letters from Her Literary Correspondents, 2 vols (1882 Hurst & Blackett).
- William J. Roberts, (The Life and Friendships of) Mary Russell Mitford: The Tragedy of a Blue Stocking (Andrew Melrose, London 1913). (Modern publishing: Kessinger 2007, ISBN 0548609381)
- M. Constance Hill, Mary Russell Mitford and Her Surroundings (Bodley Head, London 1920).
- Marjorie Austin, Mary Russell Mitford – Her Circle and Her Books (Noel Douglas, London 1930).
- James E. Agate, Mary Russell Mitford (1940).
- Vera G. Watson, Mary Russell Mitford (Evans Brothers, 1949).
- Caroline Mary Duncan-Jones, Miss Mitford and Mr. Harness. Records of a Friendship. (S.P.C.K./Talbot Press, London 1955).
- W.A. Coles, 'Mary Russell Mitford: the inauguration of a literary career', Journal of the John Rylands Library 40 (1957), 33–46.
- Pamela Horn (Ed.), Life in a Country Town: Reading and Mary Russell Mitford (1787–1855) (Beacon Publications, Sutton Courtenay 1984).
- Catherine Addison, 'Gender and Genre in Mary Russell Mitford's Christina,' English Studies in Africa 41, Part 2 (1998), 1–21.
- Diego Saglia, 'Public and Private in Women's Romantic Poetry: Spaces, Gender, Genre in Mary Russell Mitford's Blanch,' Women's Writing 5.3 (1998), 405–19.
- Martin Garrett, 'Mary Russell Mitford', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004.
- Diego Saglia, 'Mediterranean Unrest: 1820s Verse Tragedies and Revolutions in the South,' Romanticism 11.1 (2005) 99–113.
- Alison Booth, 'Revisiting the Homes and Haunts of Mary Russell Mitford', Nineteenth Century Contexts, 30 Part 1 (2008), 39–65.
- Cecilia Pietropoli, 'The Story of the Foscaris, a Drama for Two Playwrights: Mary Mitford and Lord Byron,' in The Language of Performance in British Romanticism (Peter Lang, New York, 2008), 115–26.
- Elisa Beshero-Bondar, 'Romancing the Pacific Isles Before Byron: Music, Sex, and Death in Mitford's Christina,' ELH 76.2 (Summer 2009) 277–308.