Elizabeth Montagu
Elizabeth Montagu ( born October 2, 1718, Yorkshire, † August 25 1800 in London) was an English salon lady, writer and patron, the " bluestocking " movement in England in the 18th century, co-founded ( Blue Stockings Society).
Life
Elizabeth Montague was as the eldest of three daughters ( they also had a brother Matthew Robinson) by Matthew Robinson and Elizabeth Robinson born Drake. Her grandfather was the Cambridge scholar Dr. Conyers Middleton, in which, in her youth, she spent a lot of time with her sisters and received instruction in languages ( Latin, Italian, French) and literature. Her sister Sarah Scott was also a writer later. Elizabeth Montague had earlier about her close friend Lady Margaret Harley, where she often lived in London, access to literary circles, eg Edward Young. 1742 she married the very wealthy, 28 -year-older Edward Montagu ( 1692-1775 ), the vast estates in Northumberland had ( with a family based in Newcastle upon Tyne ) and several coal mines. With him she had a son who died in 1744 but already.
Elizabeth Montague opened in London in 1750 an own literary salon that counted in 1770 to the leading such venues in London and the phrase "Blue Stocking " established for intellectual women in England. There they met, inter alia, George Lyttleton, Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, David Garrick, Horace Walpole. There were also a number of authors who cartridged as Elizabeth Carter, Frances Burney, Sarah Fielding, Hannah More, and, for example, Samuel Johnson's friend Hester Thrale.
To their own works of Montagu counted the satire " Dialogues of the Dead" (1760, anonymous) and " An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespear " (1769, initially anonymously, to 1777 under her name ), who as Shakespeare admirer shows. Montagu was also a good businesswoman and added more to her husband's fortune. It built in London " Montagu House " in Portman Square and a " Montagu House " in Sandleford at Newbury, whose garden had them design by Capability Brown. She died in her London home and left her fortune to the son of her late brother Matthew Robinson, whom she had adopted.