In Letters to a Young Man (1801) Jane West states that “no character is so difficult to invent or support as that of a gentleman” (74). The invention of that character, determining what qualities, qualifications, and behaviour befits a gentleman, preoccupied writers and thinkers throughout the eighteenth century. This thesis traces the evolution of the masculine ideals – chivalry, republican virtue, professional merit – that informed what it meant to be a gentleman. Because gentlemanliness had implications for citizenship and political rights, Defoe, Richardson, Rousseau, and the other men who sought to define gentlemanliness increasingly connected it and citizenship to gendered virtue rather than socio-economic status. Women writers were equally concerned with the developing gentlemanly ideal and, as I will show, its political implications. This thesis brings together masculinity studies and feminist literary history, but also combines the gendered social history that often frames studies of women’s writing with the political and military history traditionally associated with men. Doody (1988) suggests that novels are influenced by three separate histories: “the life of the individual, the cultural life of the surrounding society, and the tradition of the chosen art” (9). With the feminocentric novel, however, the historical context is often circumscribed by a concern for what is ‘feminine’ and what polite lady novelists might be responding to. With the exception of women’s participation in the 1790s debates, eighteenth-century women writers have been seen as shying away from divisive political topics, including war. However, I will show that masculinity is central to re-evaluating the ways in which women writers engaged with politics through the courtship plot, because, as McCormack (2005) stresses, “politics and the family were inseparable in Georgian England” (13). Furthermore, as Russell (1995) observes, war is a cultural event that affects and alters “the textures of thought, feeling, and behaviour” (2-3). Focusing on late-eighteenth-century wars, this thesis will explore how political and military events influenced masculine ideals – particularly independence – and how these changes were negotiated in women's novels. Beginning with Frances Burney, this thesis explores the ways in which women writers offered solutions to the problem of masculinity while promoting a (proto)feminist project of equality. By rejecting chivalry and creating a model of manliness that builds on republican virtue and adopts the emerging professional ethic, women writers created heroes defined by personal merit, not accidents of birth. Burney begins this process in Evelina (1778) before problematising the lack of manly independence in Cecilia (1782). Charlotte Smith and Jane West take the problems Burney’s work exposes and offer alternatives to chivalric masculinity amidst the heightened concerns about liberty and citizenship surrounding the French revolution. Finally, Maria Edgeworth’s and Jane Austen’s Napoleonic-era novels promote professionalism as a path to gentility but also as a meritocratic alternative to landed and aristocratic social models. Though the solutions offered by these writers differ, in their opposition to chivalric masculinity they demonstrate that liberating men from the shackles of feudal dependence is essential to freeing women from patriarchal tyranny.

Eighteenth-century Scottish bibliography is a vast subject still awaiting exploration. There are, however, some landmarks to look for and guides to employ. I am thinking particularly, in the context of my own interests, of the writings of Philip Gaskell, and a work that should open up new sources, Robert H. Carnie’s awaited dictionary of the Scottish Book trade. The national Library of Scotland is in the early stages of compliling a catalogue of its eighteenth-century Scottish books which, no matter what form it takes, will provide scholars with a major tool. The description of books has been and doubtless will continue to be a controvertial subject, but those students who have much to identify can take encouragement, I believe from David Foxon’s ‘Thoughts on the History and future of Bibliographical Description’. In this work I map some particular and general areas of Scottish publishing history by examining the partnership of Gavin Hamilton and John Balfour, and the association they formed with the printer Patrick Neill. I study the partners in their own right as booksellers, publishers and printers, but I am concerned also with the larger bibliographical background. Hamilton and Balfour were strong-willed individuals who bought the force of their personal and private interests to bear on their professional lives; Hamilton, especially, in the period under consideration, saw little difference between his duty as a Scottish gentleman and his activities as a Scottish publisher. He and Balfour were far-sighted and adventurous, and deserve to be thought of as central figures in the story of the Edinburgh book trade.

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The purpose of the present work is to shed fresh light not only upon the life and work of Maurice Greene , but also upon the whole state of music in England during the first half of the eighteenth century. Thus, while the basic framework is that of a full-scale historical biography, whole sections are devoted to a detailed discussion of various aspects of the contemporary scene. Chapter one traces the composer's family background end early career up to about 1710. His work at St. Paul's, and the general conditions which there obtained, are separately considered, as is also the musical history of the important Sons of the Clergy festival which Greene conducted from 1718 until 1750. The biographical narrative continues with an account of Greene's marriage and family affairs, and also deals with his influence as a teacher. In chapter four, the composer's career as a secular musician is surveyed against the background of London musical life, end special attention is given to the history of the Academy of Ancient Music with which he was for a time intimately connected. Throughout the 1720s, Greene's reputation grew. In 1727, he was appointed Organist and Composer of the Chapel Royal. Three years later, he took his doctorate at Cambridge, and was honoured with the title of Professor of Music in the University. In 1735, he succeeded Eccles as Master of the King's Band of Musick. Not yet thirty-nine, he now held every major musical appointment in the land. A detailed summary of this triumphal progress, and of those institutions in which Greens worked, forms the central core of the dissertation. A thorough examination of Greene's relationship with Handel is contained in chapter six. The two final chapters deal with the period during which Greene's fame stood at its height, his gradual decline, death, and posthumous reputation. An extended postscript surveys Greene's contribution to Boyce'e Cathedral Music. Two short appendices and a bibliography complete the volume. Volume two consists entirely of a Descriptive Catalogue of all Greene's knovn works, including those which are no longer extant. Both printed and MSS. sources are listed, end copyists identified wherever possible. Ten pages of plates provide examples of the composer's autograph, and those of his four chief pupil-copyists. There are also extensive notes containing any historical or bibliographical information which might possibly be of use to future researchers.

This thesis looks at some of the intellectual and educational relations between Scotland and the Netherlands in the period 1680-1730. Although the importance of such an exchange has been a long acknowledged fact, an overview has hitherto been lacking. By charting the extent and the nature of the Scottish student community at the four main universities in the United Provinces - Leiden, Franeker, Groningen and Utrecht - the thesis aims to provide as full a picture of the Scots' experience of Dutch education as the available resources will allow. At the same time, it re-examines the well-known idea that the United Provinces provided a model or example for Scotland and the notion that there such a thing as a specifically Dutch root to the Scottish Enlightenment. The thesis is divided in two parts. The first offers the most complete study of the Scottish student community in the Netherlands so far undertaken. Based on the hard figures provided by the matriculation lists of the Dutch universities and the private accounts of Scottish students, both the number of students and their personal experiences are described and analysed. The infrastructure and mechanics of the resultant community are subsequently established as being very specific to the Scots and prone to change over time. The exchange in ideas is analysed by looking at both the different curricula of the Dutch universities and the Scotto-Dutch book trade. These studies lead to a number of revelations, most notably that universities other than Leiden had a lasting influence on the Scots and that this influence was not always as 'modern'as has hitherto been thought. In the second part, two case studies of famous 'Dutch' Scots, William Carstares and Charles Mackie, are used to illustrate and test these claims.