Anne Wharton (1659-1685). Engraving by John Boydell & Richard Earlorn after Sir Peter Lee (1618-1680]. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery.
Anne Wharton (20 July 1659 - 29 October 1685) was an English poet and verse dramatist.
Life[]
Wharton was born Anne Lee at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, the 2nd daughter and coheiress of Sir Henry Lee, third baronet, of Ditchley, by Anne, daughter of Sir John Danvers, knight, of Cornbury.[1]
On 16 September 1673 she married, as his 1st wife, Thomas Wharton (afterwards 1st Marquis of Wharton), to whom she brought a dowry of £10,000 and £2,500 a year. Her marriage proved childless and unhappy, and it was only the good counsel of Burnet that prevented her from leaving her husband about 1682.[1]
In 1680 and 1681 she was in Paris, and both then and afterwards had some correspondence with Dr. Gilbert Burnet, who sent poems for her to criticise, among them his "Paraphrase on the Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah, in imitation of Mrs. Anne Wharton."[1]
Her own "Lamentations of Jeremiah paraphrased," written apparently in 1681, appeared in the collection entitled The Temple of Death, 1695 (it was reprinted with some addition in the second volume of Whartoniana, 1727, pp. 64–92). Her "Verses on the Snuff of a Candle" appeared in the first volume of Dryden's Miscellanies (1684, i. 144); her "Penelope to Ulysses" in Tonson's Ovid's Epistles by several Hands, of 1712, and some minor pieces, including a song, "How hardly I conceal'd my Tears,’ in Tooke's Collection (1716, p. 209), and in other miscellanies.
Her "Elegy on the Death of the Earl of Rochester" (in the Examen Miscellaneum of 1702, p. 15) drew from Waller the lines to "fairest Chloris," commencing "Thus mourn the Muses!"; and her "Paraphrase on the Lord's Prayer," some tumid verses commencing
- Silence, you Winds; listen, Etherial Lights,
- While our Urania sings what Heav'n indites.[1]
Waller pays the lady the somewhat doubtful compliment of assuring her that she was allied to Rochester "in genius as well as in blood." The kinship in either case was remote; the earl's mother was aunt to Anne's father, Sir Henry Lee. Her verses were also commended by Dryden, who upon the death of her elder sister, the Countess of Abingdon, in 1691, wrote the panegyrical poem "Eleonora."[1]
Anne Wharton died at Adderbury, Oxfordshire on 29 October 1685, and was buried at Winchendon on 10 November following.[1]
Writing[]
A collection of Copies of Mrs. Wharton's Poems was appended to the Bodleian copy of Edward Young's Amoris Christiani mnēmoneutikon (1686).[1]
In addition to her printed writings, Mrs. Wharton left in manuscript a blank-verse tragedy in 5 acts called Love's Martyr; or, Witt above crowns. The subject is the love of Ovid for Julia, daughter of the emperor Augustus. The tragedy, formerly at Strawberry Hill, now forms Additional MS. 28693.[1]
Recognition[]
A portrait, painted by Lely, was engraved by R. Earlom. Another, engraved by Bocquet, is given in Walpole's ‘Royal and Noble Authors’ (1806, iii. 284).[1]
Publications[]
Collected editions[]
- Surviving Works (edited by Germaine Greer & Selina Hastings). Stump Cross, UK: Stump Cross Books, 1997.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[2]
See also[]
References[]
Seccombe, Thomas (1899) "Wharton, Anne" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 60 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 401-402 . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 14, 2017.
Notes[]
External links[]
- Poems
- Wharton in A Book of Women's Verse: "On the Storm between Gravesend and Dieppe," A Song: "How hardly I conceal'd my tears"
- Anne Wharton at Poetry Nook (3 poems)
- Foremother Poet: Anne Wharton (1659-85) profile & 4 poems
- About
- Anne Wharton (1659-1685) in Women in World History
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Wharton, Anne
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