Author: Montagu, Mary Wortley
Biography:
MONTAGU, Mary Wortley, formerly PIERREPONT (1689-1762: ODNB)
A “prior” writer, she owes her place in this bibliography to the edition of her works published first from manuscript in 1803 by James Dallaway and regularly reprinted, which enlarged the canon of her poetry--although the editing itself falls far short of modern scholarly standards. As Dallaway pointed out in his “Advertisement,” Montagu never sanctioned the publication of the works attributed to her in her lifetime. She was baptised at St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, London on 26 May 1669, the eldest child of Evelyn Pierrepont, later first Duke of Kingston, and his first wife, Lady Mary Feilding (d 1692). She had an irregular but effective literary education and took to writing early. Against the wishes of her father and desperate to avoid his favoured suitor, she eloped with Edward Wortley Montagu (1678-1761) and was married at Salisbury, probably on 23 Aug. 1712. He was a wealthy landowner with a growing fortune from coal mines, politically engaged and later an MP. The couple had two children. Montagu’s fame rests on her voluminous, frank, and detailed correspondence, which was itself the byproduct of a difficult life. She made both friends and enemies with verses that circulated in manuscript or were known to be hers. A brave traveller, she accompanied her husband to Turkey, where he was a British ambassador in 1816-18, and on her return became a successful advocate for the Turkish practice of inoculation against smallpox. But she and her husband lived increasingly separate lives, and in 1739 she left London for Italy, following a man with whom she was infatuated, Count Algarotti (1712-64). Even when that venture proved fruitless, she stayed on in Europe, in Avignon, France (1742-6); in Brescia, Italy (1746-56); and finally in Venice and Padua (1756-62). She returned to England to sort out complications arising from her husband’s will but was already suffering from advanced breast cancer. She died at Great George Street, Westminster, on 21 Aug. 1762 and was buried on 22 Aug. at Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street. For the complicated history of the attribution and publication of her works, readers should see the Clarendon Press editions by Robert Halsband: Complete Letters (1965-7) and Essays and Poems (1976, with Isobel Grundy). (ODNB 1 July 2023; Robert Halsband and Isobel Grundy, eds., Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Essays and Poems and Simplicity, a Comedy [1976]; Orlando 1 July 2023)
Other Names:
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu