Brief Notices: Women of the Pen
6th Century BC – 19th Century AD
Theano, 6th Century BC, Poet
Theano, wife of Pythagoras, wrote both poetry and prose. Of the latter is an
extant fragment of a philosophical work called On Piety. She was considered by her
contemporaries as the ideal representative of both scholarship and womanhood.
Early writers quote several ‘sayings’ which were once widely quoted. When asked
once for what she wished to be remembered, she answered, “Minding the spindle
and tending my marriage bed.” Asked on another occasion to define love, she
responded, “the sickness of a longing soul.”
She had three daughters, of whom Myia was also a writer and is credited
with spreading the fame of her father’s work.
Arete, 435 – 366 BC, Historian
Arete, daughter of Aristippus, was highly educated by her father and a
prolific writer. Some 40 works were attributed to her by early writers, including
treatises on philosophy, agriculture, a biography of Socrates and an history of the
Athenian wars. She lived to the age of 77 and is remembered by a remark her
father once made of her. He observed, “The greatest thing which my daughter
Arete has to thank me for is that I have taught her to set a value on nothing she can
do without.”
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Leontium, 4th Century BC, Philosopher
Leontium (“the little lioness”) was the product of a cultural hetæræ, in which
she studied intellectual disciplines, etiquette and the cosmetic arts. She became a
favorite of Epicurus (341-270, BC) and studied philosophy with him, but caused him
much grief as she was also a mistress of a number of other men.
In response to a work, On Marriage, by Theophrastus the Peripatetic, which
demeaned the female sex, she wrote a famous reply which was greatly admired by
the ancient writers for its subtlety, knowledge and argumentative power. The work
was praised by Pliny, but is now lost.
Praxilla of Sicyon, 4th Century BC, Poet
Praxilla of Sicyon was considered by many early Greek writers as the equal
of Anacreon for her delicate verses, which focused on the legends of Adonis and
Aphrodite. The sculptor, Lysippus, gave her native city a statue of her in her honor.
Dhuoda, 9th Century, Philosopher
Dhuoda was married in 824 AD, to Bernard, a cousin of Charlemagne. For
reasons unknown, her husband banished her to another town soon after the birth of
their son, William, in 826. To solace her loneliness, Dhuoda wrote a Manual
designed for the instruction of her son. This work reminds her son of his duty to
God and man by virtue of his aristocratic heritage. She cautions him to always be
noble, help the poor and pay all debts after her death. By 849 both her husband and
her son had been executed for their political activities.
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Herrad, 12th Century, Historian
Abbess Herrad of Hohenbourg was the author of one of the most important
manuscripts of the 12th century, the Hortus Deliciarum, or the Garden of Delights.
This work, created for the education of her nuns, was a religious anthology of more
than 1,000 texts by various authors, including 66 sermons and 55 poems. The work
was lost in the German bombardment of Strasbourg in 1870.
Ava, died in 1127, Poet
Frau Ava, a church singer and eventual recluse, was the first person known
to us to turn the Biblical stories into poetic German.
Julian, 14th Century, Philosopher
Julian of Norwich was a 14th century mystic in England. Little is known of
her but her Revelations of Divine Love which argues for an almost maternal form of
God’s love for all men.
Lukardis, 15th Century, Historian
Sister Lukardis of Utrecht, a 15th century nun at Colmar, is known only by an entry
in a history of the Dominican order written by a contemporary friar.
Never idle, she busied herself with reading, prayer, nursing or
writing, which she had truly mastered as we may see in the large, beautiful,
useful choir books which she wrote and annotated for the convent and which
has caused astonishment among many fathers and priests who have seen the
missal she prepared, written in a neat, correct script. She was an artistic
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person in many kinds of handwork and she knew how to use grammar and
Latin at table.
Catherine Vigeo, died in 1463, Philosopher
Catherine Vigeo was known as Catherine of Bologna for the many years she
lived in that city as the head of a prosperous convent belonging to the nuns of the
Order of Clarissa until her death. She began experiencing wonderful dreams and
visions which she carefully wrote down in her own hand in 1438.
Catherine of Genoa, 1447 – 1510, Philosopher
Catherine of Genoa was born in 1447 to a noble Fieschi family. She wanted
to enter a convent but her parents forced her to marry, at age 17, a nobleman, Julio
Adorno, with whom she had nothing in common. Upon his death, 10 years later,
Catherine began to devote herself to the public good, in particular to the hospital at
Genoa. When alone she spent her time in mystic contemplation, which she
perceived as a dialogue between body and soul. These visions were later published
together with a volume called Theology of Love.
Maria de Agreda, 17th Century, Philosopher
Maria de Agreda became a nun at age 18, entering a convent her family had
founded in 1619. She began having visions in which both God and the Virgin Mary
commanded her to write of what she had seen. After working some months on these
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manuscripts, a spiritual adviser urged her to burn them as worthless paper and to
content herself with the routine of convent life.
Further visions commanded her to begin writing once again and this time a
book resulted which was published in Madrid and Antwerp. It was found to be
controversial, however, and the theological faculty of the Sorbonne condemned the
book to be burned.
Françoise Bertaut de Motteville, 1621 – 1689, Journalist
Françoise Bertaut de Motteville wrote an important three-volume diary
detailing her 20 years at the court of Anne of Austria. She is remembered for her
observation,
The hard experience I have had of the fictitious friendship of human
beings has forced me to believe that there is nothing so rare in this world as
probity, or a good heart capable of gratitude.
Dorothy Osborne, 1627 – 1695, Correspondent
Dorothy Osborne is considered to have made a contribution to 17th century
English literature through her descriptive letters. After 7 years of courtship, she
married the writer, Sir William Temple, despite the opposition of both their
families. That she waited so long to marry him, is perhaps reflected in her view,
To marry for love were no reproachful thing if we did not see that of
the thousand couples that do it, hardly one can be brought for example that
it may be done and not repented afterward.
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Marie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, 1634 – 1693, Novelist
Marie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Countess de La Fayette was not only
one of the best educated women of the 17th century, but was blessed with good
fortune, good friends and talent. She is remembered as a novelist who reinvented
the novel. Before her, French novels were of gigantic proportion, consisting of
endless plots and endless historical filler. She had the happy idea of writing novels
of about 200 pages only. While other writers wrote essentially parodies of real court
people and situations, hers, though in the spirit of the court and even realistic with
respect to manners, were entirely original.
Her first work was La Princesse de Montpensier (1662), published under the
name of her teacher, Segrais. In 1678, she published as an anonymous work, her
masterpiece, La Princesse de Clèves. Some suspected she wrote it, some her great
friend, La Rochefoucauld, and some, like Mme. La Scudéry, thought both, “a poor
orphan, disowned by father and mother.” It is a novel of virtue and the reward of
virtue, one which presents love and passion without being vulgar.
Miss Carter, 18th Century, Criticism
A Miss Carter was an 18th century English woman who was highly educated
and spoke 6 languages. Her writing consisted of criticism, especially of German
fiction, which she regarded as dangerous for sanctifying the passions. She once
wrote of such a book, “A detestable book, but I know of no other in German that is
exceptionable in the same horrid way.”
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Elizabeth Druzbacka, 1687 – 1760, Poet
Elizabeth Druzbacka was a Polish lady, who, while well educated in her
native language, was unfamiliar with the languages and literature of other
countries. Her poetry, which therefore came entirely from her own soul,
nevertheless rose high above her contemporaries. Much of her work deals with
Nature, in particular the forest.
The dense and shady forests glow in richest colors:
White is the birch tree, tender green its branches:
The beech tree proud shines in its youth fullness;
The noble fir spreads green its lofty branches;
Centuries’ strength sleeps in the iron oak tree.
Fanny Burney, 1752 – 1840, Novelist
Fanny Burney was the daughter of the famous music historian Charles
Burney. She was shy and matured slowly, not marrying until she was 41. At the
age of 25 she wrote a famous novel, Evelina, or A Young Lady’s Entrance into the
World, which described the society of London as she had come to know it from the
many visitors to her father’s house.
The novel became the rage of London and inspired the future novels of Jane
Austen.
Jane Austen, 1775 – 1817, Novelist
Jane Austen was the daughter of the rector of a country parish in
Hampshire. She lived all her life in the countryside, where peace, manners and the
beauty of nature contrasted dramatically with city life at the time of the French
Revolution. Her 6 novels gave her city readers an escape and a sense of renewal.
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Her most famous work was the Pride and Prejudice, which she wrote in 1796-1797,
although it was not published until 1813. She died unmarried at age 41.
Eliza Flower, 1803 – 1846, Composer
Eliza Flower was an English composer. She published a number of hymns and
anthems, among which was the original version of “Nearer, my God, to Thee.”
Fanny Mendelssohn, 1805 – 1847, Composer
Fanny Mendelssohn was the elder sister of the famous composer Felix
Mendelssohn. Fanny was also a talented composer, whose works were sometimes
performed under her brother’s name by mistake. Felix, who admired her talent,
never corrected such mistakes.
The personal relationship between Fanny and Felix was a very close one,
almost as if they were the feminine and masculine sides of one personality. He once
said,
She seemed present at all times, in every piece of music, and on all
occasions, whether of happiness or of sorrow.
When she died unexpectedly of natural causes at age 41, Felix died 6 months
later, also from no apparent cause, at age 38.
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Mary Ann Evens, 1819 – 1880, Novelist
George Eliot was the pen-name of the English writer, Mary Ann Evens. She
was reared in the English countryside of Warwickshire and extended her early
education to include German, Italian and music. In 1851 she accepted a position
with the Westminster Review, in London, where she had the opportunity to know
many of the leading English writers of the day.
Her first literary efforts were in the translation of works by Feuerbach and
Spinoza, but she soon found the need to express herself in fiction. Thus began a
long series of novels which described the Warwickshire countryside and English
social history. The principal love of her life was the writer, George Henry Lewes,
with whom she lived, although he remained married to another woman.
After the death of Lewes, she married an old friend in May, 1880, and died
the following December.
Sophie La Roche, 19th Century, Novelist
Sophie La Roche was a 19th century German lady, the wife of the elector of
Mainz. The important poet, Christoph Wieland, fell in love with her and although
they were not married, she influenced his work. When her husband lost his
position, Sophie supported the family writing Romantic novels describing court life.
Because she was the grandmother of Clemens and Bettina Bretano, she has been
called the “grandmother of German Romanticism.”
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Ida Hahn-Hahn, died in 1880, Novelist
Countess Ida Hahn-Hahn was a German writer whose entire world was
limited to the aristocracy. Her novels take the view point that marriage is an
oppressive fetter to women, hence this institution is ridiculed in nearly all her
works. Her novels call for selfishness in women, believing they should seek nothing
but their own satisfaction, without regard to others.
The civil wars of 1848 changed her dramatically. She converted to
Catholicism and began to write of the influence of the Church to liberate the sinful
from their earthly shackles.
Ida von Düringsfeld, 19th Century, Novelist
Ida von Düringsfeld was a 19th century German novelist whose works are
rich in descriptions of landscape and architecture. During her lifetime she was well
known for her Proverbs on the Germanic and Romance Peoples, which was published
in 1875. When she died, her husband killed himself the following day, not being
able to live without her.
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, 19th Century, Poet
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff became a poet despite the objections of her 19th
century aristocratic family. Her works stressed the importance of holding on to old
German values. Her theme was “cling to thy faith, cling to thyself.” She once
wrote, “Do not suck dry the blood of thy heart, to animate therewith a bastard of
thy soul.”
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