Frances Macartney, later Greville. Portrait by George Knapton (1698-1778), circa 1745. Courtesy Pinterest.
Frances Greville (?1727-1789) was an Irish poet and a celebrity in Georgian England.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Greville was born Frances Macartney,[1] in Longford, Ireland, in the mid-1720s, 1 of 4 daughters of Catherine (Coote) (daughter of eminent judge Thomas Coote and niece of Richard Coote, 1st earl of Bellomont) and James Macartney,[2] Irish MP for Longford and Granard.[3]
By the early 1740s, she was in London, accompanying Sarah Lennox, duchess of Richmond. Horace Walpole's poem The Beauties (1746) mentions her (as "Fanny") as among the most prominent women of court.[2]
Adult life[]
on 26 January 1748 Frances eloped with Fulke Greville (1717-1806) of Wilbury House, Newton Toney, Wiltshire, a descendent of poet Fulke Greville. Their children included:[3]
- Frances Anne Greville (born November 1748), married John Crewe, (later 1st baron Crewe), and was a noted political hostess;[3]
- Capt. William Fulke Greville (8 November 1751 – 1837);[3]
- Henry Greville (1760-1816), who became a theatrical manager with limtited success;[2]
- Capt. Charles Greville (2 November 1762 – 26 August 1832).[3]
Fulke Greville was a gambler and a dandy, but that he loved his wife is witnessed by her presence (under the character of "Flora") in his Maxims, Characters, and Reflections (1756). Frances is believed to have contributed to the volume herself.[2]
She spent the 1760s and 1770s in travel. Her husband was named envoy to Bavaria in 1764.[2]
She spent her later years in conversation, befriending Charles and Frances Burney, as well as Richard Brinsley Sheridan.[2]
Frances Greville died in 1789 at Hampton Court Green.[2]
Writing[]
Greville's career as an amateur poet was marked by a single resounding success: the "Prayer for Indifference." This poem, originally published in the Edinburgh Chronicle, offers an attack on the cult of sensibility. It was reprinted regularly in the following decades, often paired with a poem in praise of sensibility.[2]
Her output otherwise was light, and mostly within the confines of vers de société.[2]
Recognition[]
Sheridan dedicated his play The Critic to Frances Greville.
Greville's "Prayer for Indifference" was published in both Mendez's Collection of the Most Esteemed Pieces of Poetry and Pearch's Collection of Poems in Four Volumes; by several hands.[1]
3 stanzas of "Prayer for Indifference" were included in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900.[4]
See also[]
References[]
- Fuller, Joyce, ed. British Women Poets, 1660-1800. Troy, New York: Whitson Publishing Company, 1990.
- Lonsdale, Roger. Eighteenth Century Women Poets. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
- Rizzo, Betty. ‘Greville , Frances (1727?–1789)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008), accessed 15 Sept 2008.
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Frances Greville (nee Macartney), Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive. Web, May 27, 2020.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Frances Greville, Wikipedia, June 6, 2021. Web, Aug. 10, 2022.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Fulke Greville (1717-1806), Wikipedia, June 6, 2021. Web, Aug. 10, 2022.
- ↑ "Prayer for Indifference," Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900 (edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch), Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1919. Bartleby.com, Web, May 5, 2012.
External links[]
- Poems
- "Prayer for Indifference" (excerpt)
- Frances Greville (nee Macartney) at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
- About
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