The purpose of this project is to shed light on three female laboring-class poets who have gone largely overlooked by scholars of eighteenth-century studies, Mary Leapor, Ann Yearsley, and Janet Little. This paper argues that when discussed together these poets exemplify the shift from Augustan models of intellectualism to proto-Romantic thought. Issues of literary patronage and trend are highlighted in this thesis as the laboring-class poetic tradition enjoyed a long vogue in the eighteenth-century. Chapter One offers a look in the literary marketplace of the period and what scholars have said about the subject of laboring-class writing so far. Chapters Two, Three, and Four focus on the poetry of Leapor, Yearsley, and Little, with particular attention to tribute poems with the goal of highlighting the role of laboring-class writers from Augustan poetry to proto-Romantic poetry.

Public representation of highwaymen and footpads in the press spawned a climate of fear in London.  Descriptions of the violence that highwaymen and footpads employed in the course of their crimes generated this fear.  Violence set them apart from other non- or less-violent thefts that occurred in much greater numbers in the capital, but received less coverage in the public discussion of crime at the time.  Victims of robbery came from all different social classes and demographic groups, and this too contributed to the fear by creating an image of robbers who could attack anyone at any time.  This ardent fear appeared to have overshadowed some of the new social and economic explanations of criminals' motives and emerging humanitarian approaches to crime prevention. The court records suggest that highwaymen and footpads were often young men who operated in organized gangs and used violence to create fear and ensure success in their attack -- and this paralleled the public perceptions.  However, the trials show that women did in fact account for a small -- but noticeable -- percentage of robbers, and robbers also acted individually as well as in groups.  The court proceedings also <demonstrated that highwaymen and footpads created networks with prostitutes, alehouses, pawnshops, and workhouses in order find potential victims, recruit new robbers, peddle pilfered goods, and increase the odds of successfully accomplishing their crime and escaping. / Master of Arts

In this thesis I assert that Robinson’s theatrical heritage positioned her uniquely to confront the revolutionary explosions of 1790s radical thought. In her writings, Robinson’s onstage experience of gender performativity is transformed into a bold feminist critique of gender roles for women (and men) everywhere. In Chapter 1, I study writings by eighteenth-century theatrical women to argue that Robinson’s feminism must be understood within a theatrical context to appreciate the unique radicalism of her feminist vision. In Chapter 2, I explore how Robinson’s powerful identification with Marie Antoinette lies at the roots of her feminist project. In Chapter 3, I explain how Robinson then turns to the voice of Sappho to develop a radical vision of transcendent genius. In Chapter 4, I demonstrate how Robinson turns her critique of gender on men through the performative space of the masquerade in Walsingham (1797). Finally, in Chapter 5, I explain how this radical feminist critique is moulded to utopian ends in The Natural Daughter (1799), as Robinson rewrites the ending of Wollstonecraft’s Wrongs of Woman in a vision of the revolutionary family. I read three strands into Robinson’s feminism: 1) the rejection of incommensurable sexual difference; 2) the union of rational virtue and benevolent sensibility in the development of transcendent genius; and 3) a radical critique of the anxious crisis in 1790s masculinity. The result of this was a utopian vision of the future quite different from Wollstonecraft’s better-known brand of ascetic feminism. Instead, Robinson’s feminist theory works to rescue the original values of the French Revolution from beneath the ravages of Jacobin corruption. Beyond the limiting categories of incommensurable sexual difference, Robinson envisions a family in which woman would no longer have to renounce her sexual body in order to engage with society, and man could finally accept her as his equal.

This thesis is concerned with the science of geography in the German states during the ‘long’ eighteenth century, c.1690 – c.1815. It speaks to recent scholarly debates in historical geography, the history of science, book history, and Enlightenment studies. The thesis investigates the forms taken by eighteenth-century German geography, its meanings, and practices. This is of particular interest, since this topic is understudied. The thesis is based upon an analysis of geographical print (books and periodicals) and manuscript correspondence. The thesis proposes that geography’s definition was understood as ‘description of the earth’. The interpretative meaning of this definition, geography’s purpose in print, and its educational practice (content and methods) were, in contrast, debated. The thesis suggests that geographical print – in the form of books and periodicals – served two main purposes: progress in geography, guided by the aim of scientific ‘completeness,’ and progress of society, guided by the aim of human improvement. In chapter 1, I outline the main topics and the structure of the thesis. Chapter 2 reviews the background of the thesis, and offers a partial historiographic and conceptual overview of the relevant themes. In chapter 3, I show that the Holy Roman Empire was characterised by fragmented political, religious, urban, and scholarly landscapes. The German emphasis on ‘writing’ geography ‘completely’ was partly, I argue, a way to transcend this fragmentation in an imagined ‘geographical republic of letters’. The emphasis on writing geography systematically was a way to justify the German wish for greater scholarly recognition on part of their foreign ‘colleagues’ who more opportunities to participate in geographical expeditions overseas and in colonial politics. In chapter 4, I argue that the classification of geography and geography’s relation to other sciences were debated. In consequence, geographical practice and use – geography’s writing and teaching – affected its interpretative meaning. In chapter 5, I go on and suggest that geography was a sedentary science aimed at improvement in geography and of society. Geographical print production and its evolution reflect the iii urban and religious landscapes of the empire. Geographical print was produced across the German states and, particularly, in the Protestant – middle and central German – states. This leads in chapter 6 to an analysis of geographical education and the suggestion that wide-spread conservatism in geographical instruction reflects the education aim for social utility and personal ‘eudaimonia’, as well as and an adherence to given social and political structures. In conclusion (chapter 7), the main findings of this thesis shed light on the production and use of geography in the German states during the ‘long’ eighteenth century, and the history of geography more generally. In discussing the relationship between Enlightenment thought and geography, the thesis extends our knowledge on German intellectual history, and contributes to our understanding of the geographies of Enlightenment geographical knowledge and practice.

This paper analyzes the financial and professional circumstances of two single working women in early-to-mid eighteenth-century Lyon. Using the documents deposited in court for their debt investigations, the author examines the matrix of credit, reputation, and gender to understand the challenges facing working women in an increasingly professionalized world, as well as the ways women sought to appropriately represent themselves in court. Several key challenges working women faced are highlighted; women who did not successfully negotiate these challenges might find themselves in court for debt litigation. These challenges included collecting debts (in specie), activating community and regional patronage networks, exercising control over property, and claiming gendered authority against the threat of male-controlled guilds. In response, both women constructed narratives of charitable activity to refute their charges; the documents submitted to the court evince both women's charitable activity in Lyon. By casting themselves as philanthropists they engaged gender and class categories to create an appropriately feminine reputation that would still allow for transacting money and labor. / text

No description available.

During the first half of the `long' eighteenth century the English were, as a nation, vehemently anti-Catholic, yet the art that was most admired, collected and talked about, was Catholic in origin and subject matter (pictures showing the intercession of saints or the figure of God, for example). Such art might have been rejected by English collectors, certainly idolatry was chief among the heresies ascribed to the Papists, but the belief in the supremacy of Italian art was long-standing and tenacious in pan-European culture. The thesis demonstrates that rather than rejecting it, elaborate strategies were developed which allowed the cultural and social value of ownership and knowledge of this canonical art to accrue, whilst managing its potentially troubling content. For example, the royal ownership of the Raphael Cartoons (c. 1514) was a matter of increasing national pride during this period, which is surprising at first sight, given their provenance and their celebration of the apostolic succession of the Papacy from SS Peter and Paul. These meanings were not expunged from the Cartoons by English commentators, instead means were found to transpose them into a Protestant register and to maintain Raphael's reputation as the great universal artist. Each chapter of the thesis offers a different mode of address to the central theme, exploring, for example, the encounters grand tourists had with canonical art in Catholic churches in Rome and the ways in which the Catholic meanings of pictures were managed in a collection. In another chapter I explore how art was used and discussed within the Church of England. It has become clear that the Catholic associations of art did present a historically-significant political challenge to English connoisseurs and that, for example, new histories and theories of art, modified from their continental models, were developed to facilitate its acceptance. In addition, by paying careful attention to the ways in which issues of class, nationhood and culture were managed in relation to this problem, insights into the complex nature of anti-Catholicism in England have been gained.

It is the purpose of this thesis to examine and compare three Restoration and eighteenth century adaptations of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure: William Davenant's The Law Against Lovers, acted in 1662; Charles Gildon's Measure for Measure: or, Beauty the Best Advocate, acted in 1700; and John Philip Kemble's Shakspeare's Measure for Measure, acted in 1794. The plays are discussed with regard to their divergence from Shakespeare's play. In addition, they are examined from the standpoint of their ability to reflect the theatrical practices, audience preferences, and social conditions of the time in which they were performed.

This thesis considers the interrelation between gender, national identity and elite family life in Scotland between 1740 and 1790. Family group portraits painted by Scottish artists of Scottish families are examined and contrasted with English counterparts to demonstrate the evolving nature of Scottish identity as performed in the domestic sphere in the period under consideration. The principal primary sources used are family portraits, alongside letters and other archival material and contemporaneous printed texts. In the first section (chapters 1-3) the centrality of dynasty as an on-going elite concern will be established and the role that portraiture played in establishing, asserting and maintaining dynastic claims and elite status are revealed. As is shown, this concern was shared by aristocrats, gentry, the merchant and intellectual elite. The idea is introduced that the 'family group portrait' does not necessarily simply exist in one frame but may be depicted across several canvases, nevertheless conceived as a coherent whole, and shows that they were intended to interact with the building in which they were hung. The notion that conversation pieces, notable for their informal presentation of family relations, represented a shift in attitude to the importance of lineage and primogeniture will be questioned. A close reading of these portraits shows that old concerns of propriety, gendered roles and dynastic concerns remain central to the conversation piece. In the second section (chapters 4-6), the focus will move from the family as a whole to particular familial relations; nuptial, maternal and paternal. In each case, the correlation between these domestic relationships and the political affairs of Scotland, be that the Jacobite cause or Enlightenment, will be revealed. The chapter on motherhood will highlight that, while patrons commissioned portraits of sentimental motherhood, old concerns of lineage were deeply embedded within these. The matter of fatherhood is one that had been, until recently, rather overlooked by scholars and the chapter dedicated to it in this thesis highlights the centrality of paternity to elite Scottish masculinity. This thesis will demonstrate the centrality of gender to the depiction of elite family life and examine the peculiarly Scottish nature of these pictorial performances. In so doing the thesis offers a contribution to the history of gender and family life in Scotland.

Feeling Subjects investigates sensibility in relation to the production of subjectivity in the later eighteenth century. It creates a model of sensibility as a discursive space bringing together literary, philosophical, and medical understandings of feeling. It argues that sensibility’s discursive space produces experiential subjects in an ongoing, dynamic project of negotiating between the internalization of public experiences and the projection of private feelings and thoughts. It invokes the three-dimensional image of the Möbius strip to envision inner/private and external/public expressions of feeling as inseparable, yet distinct elements that help to produce the feeling subject. This model of sensibility represents a new theory of subjectivity in the later eighteenth-century where the literary subject and the social community that surrounds him or her are both co-constitutive and co-destructive and where the traditional binaries are challenged in a model that sees every character as simultaneously a public and private subject. The aim of the project is to show that the legacies of rational men and emotional women which have occupied scholars of the eighteenth century for much of the last fifty years suggest a much more cohesive understanding of gender and its connection to subjectivity than is revealed in much of the fiction of sensibility in the period. Feeling Subjects offers a theory of sensibility that is not inherently gendered, and that focuses on how individuals experience themselves in relation to the world around them while simultaneously generating that world. The project is divided into two halves which enact the Möbius model of private and public feeling. The first half focuses on the personally and socially productive potential of sensibility in The Adventures of David Simple, The History of Ophelia, The Vicar of Wakefield, and The Fool of Quality. The second half examines the increasingly negative expression of sensibility in A Simple Story, Secresy, The Natural Daughter, and Zofloya. Throughout Feeling Subjects, sensibility is not just a word denoting the expression of feeling, but a discursive space through which to experience the tensions and interrelations between public and private thought and feeling in theories of socialization in the later eighteenth-century novel. / English