Lucy Aikin (1781-1864). Courtesy Musings with Clio.
Aikin, Lucy (1781-1864) was an English poet, and historical and miscellaneous writer.
Life[]
Overview[]
Aikin was the daughter of John Aikin and a niece of Anna Laetitia Barbauld. After publishing a poem, Epistles on Women, and a novel, Lorimer, she began the historical works on which her reputation chiefly rests: Memoirs of the Courts of Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I (1818-33) and a Life of Addison. She also wrote lives of her father and of Mrs. Barbauld. She was remarkable for her conversational powers, and was also an admirable letter-writer. Like the rest of her family she was a Unitarian.[1]
Youth[]
Aikin was born at Warrington in the year 1781. She resided with her parents at Yarmouth and Stoke Newington till the death of her father in 1822, when she removed to Hampstead, where, with the exception of a short interval at Wimbledon, she spent the remainder of her life. Miss Aikin was in early life a diligent student of French, Italian, and Latin, and at the youthful age of 17 began to contribute articles to magazines and reviews.[2]
Career[]
In 1810 appeared her first considerable work, Epistles on Women, a poem in spirited but conventional heroics; and in 1814 she wrote her only work of fiction, entitled Lorimer: A tale. These were her earlier efforts, but her reputation was gained entirely by her historical works published between the years 1818 and 1843; namely, Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth (1818); Memoirs of the Court of James I (1822); Memoirs of the Court of Charles I (1833); and the Life of Addison (1843).[2]
The last of these books, which contains many letters of Addison never before published, is the subject of an essay by Macaulay, who, while praising Miss Aikin's other works, and especially her Memoirs of the Court of James I, observes that she was "far more at home among the ruffs and peaked beards of Theobalds than among the steenkirks and flowing periwigs which surrounded Queen Anne's tea table at Hampton." Of her other memoirs she herself writes, on the completion of her Charles I: "I am resolved against proceeding farther with English sovereigns. Charles II is no theme for me; it would make me contemn my species."[2]
She also wrote a life of her father, and of her aunt, Mrs. Barbauld, and many minor pieces.[2]
Private life[]
Miss Aikin's conversational powers were remarkable, and she was a graceful and graphic letter writer. Her letters to her relatives and intimate friends show her relish for society, and are full of mother wit and lively anecdotes of distinguished literary persons.[2]
She maintained for almost 16 years (1826 to 1842) a graver correspondence with Rev. Dr. William Ellery Channing, of Boston, on religion, philosophy, politics, and literature. Strong opinions freely expressed characterise these shrewd and vigorous letters. In religion, Miss Aikin was, like the other members of her family, a unitarian—a circumstance which, added to a keen recollection of hardships, one might almost say persecutions, endured by herself as a child, and by her father, at Yarmouth, gave her a liberal, but by no means a tolerant, political creed. Writing to Dr. Channing on the progress of tractarianism in England, she pronounces "our Church Establishment the most systematically servile in Christendom."[2]
In discussing the 1st Reform Bill, she defines radicalism as "the supremacy of the rude and selfish and ignorant many." Miss Aikin was, in fact, a whig, with a generous love of liberty wherever she found it under any conditions, but with cultivated tastes that precluded sympathy with democracy. In her letters to Dr. Channing she warmly praises the whig aristocracy, and defends with a certain degree of conservatism English manners and customs from the criticism of her correspondent.[2]
These letters, which were not published till after Miss Aikin's death, are not among her best known writings; but they record in an interesting manner both her own opinions and those of the unitarian body of her time.[2]
See also[]
References[]
Brodribb, Arthur Aiken (1885) "Aikin, Lucy" in Stephen, Leslie Dictionary of National Biography 1 London: Smith, Elder, p. 185
Notes[]
External links[]
- Poems
- Lucy Aikin at Wikisource (2 poems)
- Books
- Works by Lucy Aikin at Project Gutenberg
- "Mary Godolphin" at Many Books
- Lucy Aikin at Amazon.com
- Audio / video
- Lucy Aikin public domain audiobooks from LibriVox
- About
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: Aikin, Lucy
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