Ann Yearsley (1752-1806)

Ann Yearsley, poet, novelist, and playwright, was born in r752 at Clifton, near Bristol, to John and Ann Cromartie. She never attended school but read tombstones and later the Bible, Milton, Thomson, and Pope, along with whatever other books her mother could borrow from employers. With the help of her brother, she learned to write and began to pen verses. In r774 she married John Yearsley, and the couple eventually had six children; her husband appears not to have prospered as a laborer and does not figure promi­nently in her works or in her own accounts of her life. By r783 the family was impoverished. Ann Yearsley sold milk, garden produce, and livestock, gleaning fields for extra food and gathering firewood where she could, but her efforts proved insufficient. The brutal winter of r783-84 found the family without adequate heat or food, with no furniture, work, or income, possibly homeless. Family and friends had long admired her verse; now this talent be­came Yearsley's only economic resource, and she carefully managed to bring her poetry to the attention of Bristol's literary elite.

In February 1784 Richard Vaughn of Bristol heard some of Yearsley's poems read aloud at a friend's house and admired them as "far above the level of a person in the situation of a milk-woman." After dining, he went to visit the poet. Finding her with her children and mother in desperate circumstances in a rude hut, he sent a horse loaded with provisions. Accord­ing to one account, "The gratitude which Mr. V.'s benevolence excited was expressed in language which astonished every one to whom Mrs. Yearsley's letters were shewn." 1 Hannah More recalled that "a copy of verses was shewn me, said to be written by a poor illiterate woman in this neighbourhood, who sells milk from door to door. The story did not engage my faith, but the verses excited my attention; for, though incorrect, they breathed the genuine spirit of Poetry, and were rendered still more interesting, by a certain natural

I. The Weekly Entertainer of Sherborne published an account under the title "Anecdotes of Mrs. Yearsley" in its 14 February I785 issue.

Ann Yearsley

and strong expression of misery, which seemed to fill the heart and mind of the Author." 2 Elizabeth Montagu also was taken with Yearsley's poetry, ex­claiming, "Indeed, she is one of nature's miracles. What force of imagination! what harmony of numbers!" 3

Convinced that she had discovered a natural genius, whom she dubbed "the Milkwoman of Clifton near Bristol," More decided to help Yearsley. During the fall of 1784 and into the early months of 1785 More wrote influ­ential friends asking them to subscribe to a volume of poems, often sending transcriptions of Yearsley's verse. Horace Walpole warned that Yearsley "must remember that she is a Lactilla, not a Pastora, and is to tend real cows, not Arcadian sheep";4 it is clear that, although they hoped to aid Yearsley, More and her circle of friends had no intention of encouraging a life of letters for the milkwoman or of accepting her as an equal. Yearsley's poetry appeared in many periodicals during this time, including the Scots Magazine and London Magazine. According to Chauncey Brewster Tinker, ''All social London and half literary London put its name on the list of subscribers," which numbered almost a thousand.5 Poems, on Several Occasions, containing sixteen poems, half of which, obsequious and full of hyperbole, express gratitude to subscribers, was published in June 1785. Addressed largely to aristocratic and upper­middle-class readers, Yearsley's poetic voice both echoes the established values of her audience and subtly critiques the conditions of her relationship with them, a pattern that would persist throughout her career. Having actually labored in the fields, Yearsley had a view of rural life that did not match the pastoral ideal; "Clifton Hill," for example, vividly describes the hardships of agricultural labor.

The reviews were enthusiastic, though most, such as the review in the Gentleman's Magazine, mixed their praise with condescension. In the Monthly Review, Andrew Badcock wrote, "On the whole these Poems present us with a very striking picture of a vigorous and aspiring genius, struggling with its own feelings. We see an ardent mind exerting itself to throw off every in­cumbrance that oppresses it, and to burst from the cloud that obscures its lustre." The reviewer for the Critical Review was also encouraging: "Stephen [Duck] was merely a rhymer: the protection he obtained proceeded from the

2. From "A Prefatory Letter to Mrs. Montagu," by Hannah More, 20 October 1784, pub­lished in Yearsley's first book, Poems, on Several Occasions, iv, and reprinted in Poems on various Subjects (1787), viii.

3. William Roberts, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah More, 2 vols. (New York, r835), r :204.

4. Horace Walpole's Correspondence, ed. W. S. Lewis, 48 vols. (New Haven, r97r), JI :22r.

5. Nature's Simple Plan: A Phase of Radical Thought in the Mid-Eighteenth Century (r922; reprint, New York, r964), roo-ror.

Ann Yearsley

peculiarity of a thresher's writing verse, not on account of the verses them­selves .... The poems before us are entitled to a superior degree of praise; there are evident traces to be found in them of a strong and fervid imagina­tion." The European Magazine reprinted "Clifton Hill" and More's "Prefatory Letter" in their entirety. The London Chronicle filled its front page and most of its second with a review, devoting more space to Yearsley than to Cowper's The Task the following month.6 This first edition made £350.7

Just as the second edition was being prepared, a dispute over financial control of the profits caused a breach with More and put an end to the gen­erosity of Yearsley's first set of subscribers. Naively and in haste, on ro June 1785 Yearsley and her husband had signed the deed of trust More presented to them. Having anticipated financial independence, the poet now found that she would receive an annual allowance of only eighteen pounds (interest on the principal), so that instead of being able to read and improve her poetry, she would be forced back into manual labor. When Yearsley approached More with a proposal to modify the deed to allow her to serve as joint trustee with More and Elizabeth Montagu, More was insulted to find her judgment and good intentions questioned by a social "inferior." Yearsley felt that she was being denied the fruits of her labor and the means to improve the lives of her children. Both women lost their temper.

During the summer and fall of 1785 More engaged in a letter-writing cam­paign against Yearsley, portraying her as intemperate, ungrateful, and likely to squander her earnings. Even so, she resigned the trust in December, and the money came under Yearsley's control. The fourth edition of Poems, on Several Occasions (1786) contained an indignant prefatory narrative replying point by point to More's version of the dispute, countering what Yearsley saw as slan­der, misrepresentation, and injustice. Casting More as insensitive, arrogant, and a bit dishonest, she promised to show with her performance in Poems on Various Subjects that the quality of her poetry owed virtually nothing to More's corrections and instruction. She reprinted this narrative, along with a copy of the deed of trust and the prefatory letter from More to Montagu, in her next collection. The twentieth-century critic Mary Waldron explains the dispute by suggesting that in order to attract subscribers to her book, Yearsley had been willing to groom herself into the milkwoman phenome­non More announced; in actuality she was a member of the lower middle

6. Gentleman's Magazine 55 (1785): 812-13; Monthly Review 73 (1785): 221; Critical Review 60

(1785): 148. 7. The profits from all four editions would total more than six hundred pounds (see Eliza

Dawson Fletcher, Autobiography of Mrs. Fletcher with Letters and Other Family Memorials, edited by the Survivor of her Family, 3rd ed. [Edinburgh, 1876], 29; and Roberts, Memoirs of Mrs. Hannah More, l :206).

Ann Yearsley

class, only somewhat recently reduced in circumstances. Thus, her defiance can be explained as resentment against a middle-class woman she considered more her equal than her superior.8

Early in r786 Yearsley established a relationship with the bookseller George Robinson, whose sponsorship helped her achieve independence from a re­strictive patronage system and who published most of the poet's subsequent books. That summer, Eliza Dawson (later Fletcher) was moved by Yearsley's narrative to offer to collect subscriptions for Poems, on various Subjects. With fifty pounds from her father and four hundred new subscribers, she helped Yearsley establish a reputation independently of More. Poems on various Sub­jects contains thirty individual works. Along with poems to benefactors, the volume includes sensual lyrics celebrating physical love and the ecstasy of poetic inspiration, polemics, elegies, Augustan imitations, an ode, a Biblical critique, and an indignant poem entitled "To Those Who Accuse the Author of Ingratitude;' which describes such individuals as "low, groveling, and con­fin'd" of sense. Though she sees herself as Chatterton's successor, she distances herself somewhat from the persona of a humble, uneducated milkwoman. In poems such as "On Jephthah's Vow, Taken in a Literal Sense," she condemns patriarchal modes of thought and behavior, testing the limits of what readers would tolerate from a woman of her social standing. She speaks authorita­tively about poetic inspiration, celebrating imagination, emotion, and the intuitive.

Andrew Becket, writing for the Monthly Review, praised "the same origi­nality of thought and expression [as in the earlier volume], the same boldness and grandeur in the imagery." The Critical Review also applauded the poems, observing, "In regard to modulation of numbers, particularly in blank verse, we know few authors superior to the Bristol milk woman. Her sentiments are often equally just and original, her diction strong and animated, and her pauses judiciously varied." For the most part, reviewers took Yearsley's side in her dispute with More. The Critical Review observed, "Miss More, in a prefatory letter, speaks highly of Ann Yearsley's moral character. On their disagreement we are told she has charged her 'with every vice that can dis­grace the sex.' Either the encomium, or accusation, must be unjust; and Miss More cannot escape the imputation of improper partiality, or unjust censure. A few months could not have caused so strange an alteration in this poor woman's character." 9

8. ''Ann Yearsley and the Clifton Records," in The Age of Johnson : A Scholarly Annual, ed. Paul]. Korshin (New York, 1990) , 301-29.

9. Monthly Review 77 (1786) : 485-86; Critical Review 64 (1786): 435.

Ann Yearsley

Yearsley's poems now began to appear regularly in the Universal Magazine, the Annual Register, the European Magazine, and in Bristol's Felix Farley's jour­nal. In February 1788 Yearsley brought out A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-trade, taking on some of the most powerful and affluent people not only in Bristol but in all of Britain. In the abolitionist tradition, she reproaches so­called Christians who trade in human lives, calling them "slave[s) of avarice," "Hypocrites," "a vile race of Christians:' and "thieves." Vivid and moving images portray the effect of slavery on the family. The book was not widely reviewed, but Yearsley was now a self-assured poet, exercising tighter narra­tive control over her material and wearing her lack of formal education as an emblem of pride. Her next major work, Earl Goodwin, an Historical Play, a five­act tragedy in blank verse based on the eleventh-century reign of Edward the Confessor, endorses violence as a means to achieve justice and individual rights. One of her most explicitly feminist works, it portrays independent women characters and critiques patriarchal institutions. Produced in 1789 at the Theatre-Royal, Bristol, and at Bath, it received praise from the Gentle­man's Magazine but a mixed review from the European Magazine. When it was published in 1791, the Analytical Review damned it and the Monthly Review gave it qualified approval.10

During the hay harvest of 1789, two ofYearsley's small sons were whipped by a footman for trespassing on the property of Levi Eames, one of Bristol's most powerful businessmen. That incident, along with a related altercation the following year that caused Yearsley to miscarry, inspired Stanzas of Woe (1790) and The Dispute: Letter to the Public. From the Milkwoman (1791). These works speak out against the injustice of the monied class and advocate the rights of children long before that concept was generally accepted. Stanzas of Woe received favorable notices in the New Annual Register, the Monthly Review, the General Magazine, and the English Review. The Analytical Review, however, was not impressed.11

At about this time Yearsley moved to Bristol Hotwells, a resort commu­nity, and began operating a lending library. But almost immediately after she learned of Louis XVI's execution in 1793, she penned Reflections on the Death of Louis XVI and Sequel to Reflections on the Death of Louis XVI, pri­vately printed and sold locally. These elegies oppose capital punishment and emphasize the humanity of royal figures. An Elegy on Marie Antoinette, which followed soon after, mourns the death of the person and the mother rather

IO. Analytical Review II (1791): 427-28; Monthly Review, n.s., 6 (1791): 347-48. IL New Annual Register II (1790): (249]; Monthly Review, n.s., 5 (1791): 222-23; General

Magazine 5 (1971): 266; English Review r7 (1791): 361-63; Analytical Review 9 (1791): 447-48.

Ami Yearsley

than the destruction of the monarchy. For these three elegies, along with another, Poem on the Last Interview between the King of Poland and Loraski, the poet abandoned her laboring-class epithet and signed herself simply ''.Ann Yearsley," as she would sign all her works from this time forward.

In 1795 George Robinson brought out in four volumes Yearsley's novel The Royal Captives: A Fragment of Secret History. Copied from an Old Manuscript. Partaking of the gothic romance tradition and the tradition of the "discov­ered" manuscript, the novel retells from a female perspective the legend of the "man in the iron mask" and critiques abuses of power during the reign of Louis XIV. Including a pre-Byronic anti-hero, the novel is a dreamlike exploration of psychological identity, full of suspense, sensationalism, co­incidence, and intricate subplots. In this feminist critique of contemporary England, the laboring-class secondary characters interact with the aristocracy in a manner that challenges the very nature of class distinction itself. Joseph Johnson's Analytical Review gave the book a five-page notice, hailing it as "the production of a genius above the common level"; the European Magazine and London Review praised the author's "considerable skill and felicity"; and the English Review applauded Yearsley's style and concluded that the "poetry in these volumes is simple and beautiful." Not surprisingly, Robinson's New An­nual Register puffed it. The Critical Review and the Monthly Review were less enthusiastic but recommended the book to readers.12 Despite this generally positive critical reception as well as pirated editions in Ireland and America and an unauthorized periodical abridgement,13 sales were not encouraging and Yearsley never published another novel.

Her next book, The Rural Lyre; a Volume of Poems (1796), included son­nets, lyrics, elegies, epistles, and a fragment of an epic. It contains some of Yearsley's most pointed feminist commentary, idealizes female nurturing, and emphasizes the domestic roots of justice and order. This book was not ac­knowledged by most of the major national reviews and seems to have ended Yearsley's literary career. The poet, now widowed, retreated from public view and later lived in seclusion in Merksham, Wiltshire. She died in 1806, having achieved financial security as a poet, novelist, and historical dramatist. Her valorizing of inspiration and natural genius, her experiments with form, her championing of the dispossessed and marginalized, and her explorations of the human psyche anticipated the poetic practice and ideology that later would come to be defined as romanticism. But she never escaped the label "peasant poet" during her lifetime or afterward.

12. Analytical Review 21 (1795): 291; European Magazine and London Review 27 (1795): 94;

English Review 24 (1794): 472. lJ. In the Weekly Entertainer from 23 March to 29 June 1795.

Ann Yearsley

MAJOR WORKS: Poems, on Several Occasions, ed. Hannah More (London, 1785); Poems on Various Subjects, ed. Hannah More (London, 1787); A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-trade (London, [ 1788?]) ; Stanzas of Woe, Addressed from the Heart on a Bed of Illness, to Levi Eames, Esq. Late Mayor of the City of Bristol (London, 1790); Earl Goodwin, an Historical Play . .. Peiformed with General Applause at the Theatre-Royal, Bristol (London, 1791); Reflections on the Death of Louis XVI (Bristol, 1793); Sequel to Reflections on the Death of Louis XVI (Bristol, 1793); The Royal Captives: a Fragment of Secret History, 4 vols. (London, 1795); An Elegy on Marie Antoinette of Austria, Ci-devant Queen of France: With a Poem on the Last Interview between the King of Poland and Loraski (Bath, [ 1795 ?]) ; The Rural Lyre; a Volume of Poems (London, 1796).

TEXTS USED: Texts of "Anarchy" and "Peace" from The Royal Captives. Texts of "The Captive Linnet" and "Soliloquy" from The Rural Lyre; a Volume of Poems.

Anarchy

"Furies! Why sleep amid the carnage?-rise! "Bring up my wolves of war, my pointed spears.

"Daggers yet reeking, banners filled with sighs, "And paint your cheeks with gore, and lave your locks in tears.

"On yon white bosom see that happy child! "Seize it, deface its infant charms! And say,

''.Anarchy view'd its mangled limbs and srnil'd. "Strike the young mother to the earth!-Away!

"This is my a!ra! O'er the dead I go! "From my hot nostrils minute murders fall!

"Behind my burning car lurks feeble Woe! "Fill'd with my dragon's ire, my slaves for kingdoms call!

"Hear them not, Father of the ensanguin'd race! -"World! Give my monsters way!-Death! keep thy steady chace!"*

(r795)

•The end quotation mark is missing from the original.

IO

Ann Yearsley

Peace

"What howlings wake me!-my fair olives die! "Storms shake my bow'r, and drive me to the plain. -

"Ah! direful Anarchy, thy chariots fly "O'er worlds of weeping babes, o'er worlds of hero's slain!

"Order! Bright angel down yon rainbow glide! "From the mild bosom of my God appear!

"O'er Gallia spread thy snowy pinions wide-"O! cool the fever'd mind! and whisper to Despair.

"Envenomn'd and unwelcome war! will man, IO "Long nurse thy furies or prolong thy stay?

"Will not his fine, reflective spirit scan "Those desolations that have mark'd thy way?

"Yes! - He shall wearied leave thy crimes, and prove, ''.All that is worthy MAN, is found with ME and LOVE."

(1795)

The Captive Linnet

Mycias, behold this bird! see how she tires-Breaks her soft plumes, and springs against the wires! A clown more rude than gracious brought her here To pine in silence, and to die in snare. Her haunt she well remembers: ev'ry morn Her sweet note warbled from the blowing thorn That hangs o'er yon cool wave; responses clear Her sisters gave, and sprang through upper air. E'en now (by habit gentler made), at eve,

IO A time when men their green dominions leave, They sit, and call her near her fav'rite spray, Meet no reply, and pensive wing their way. This wound in friendship dear affections heal,

Ann Yearsley

Their young require them: to their nests they steal; Nurse them with warmth, with hope, with true delight, And teach the danger of an early flight. -Delicious toil! raptures that never cloy! A mother only can define her joy.

Perhaps, dear Mycias, this poor mourner's breast Was yesternight on her weak offspring prest! -The down scarce breaking on their tender skin, Their eyes yet clos'd, their bodies cold and thin; Waiting when she would kindly warmth impart, And take them trembling to her gen'rous heart. Where are they now, sweet captive? Who'll befriend Thy mourning children, as the storms descend? The winds are bleak, thy mossy cradle's torn -Hark! they lament thee, hungry and forlorn! Each shiv'ring brother round his sister creeps, Deep in the nest thy little daughter sleeps. Again the blast, that tears the oak, comes on: Thy rocking house, thy family are gone! One to an hungry weasel falls a prey; Another chirps, but not to hail the day: Too weak to live, he seeks no casual aid, And dies, rememb'ring thee, beneath the shade. Where could thy daughter go? More weak and shrill Her voice was heard. The ants forsake their hill. -Through that republic Addison display'd, When he unsated hunger virtue made, And gave, unwisely, ant-like souls to man­The barb'rous rumour of misfortune ran. Alike pourtray'd in hist'ry and in verse, For prey industrious, obdurate and fierce: Voracious columns move! The victim's voice Invites her foes, who sting her, and rejoice. Keenly their riots on her frame begin: She tries to shake them from her downy skin;

39 Through that republic Addison display'd) Joseph Addison (1672-1719), British essayist, poet, and dramatist, published his theories about natural law, self-intent, and mercantilism in The Free-Holder, or Political Essays, published from 23 December 1715 to 29 June 1716.

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Ann Yearsley ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Their organs touch her springs of being-Strife She holds not with her fate-she trembles out of life.

0 Mycias! What hath yon barbarian gain'd, Who with malicious joy this linnet chain'd? Could she at morn salute his untun'd ear? When dull with vice could she the gaoler cheer; Hail him with strains of liberty; proclaim, With harmony he hates, her maker's name: Or peck from him the crumb withheld so long, That her heart sicken'd e'en at freedom's song? No: see, she droops, rejects his aid-confin'd­Her dreary cage she scorns, and dies resign'd.

Mycias! thus spreads unseen more ling'ring woe, Than e'en thy sympathising soul must know: Wisely ordain'd! He mocks the proffer'd cure, Who bids his friend one fruitless pang endure: Since pity turns to anguish, when denied, And troubles swell, which must in death subside. Ah! fly the scene; secure that guilt can find In brutal force no fetter for the mind! True! Violated thus, it feels the chain,

70 Rises with languor, and lies down with pain; Yet bless'd in trembling to one mighty WHOLE,

DEATH is the field of VICTORY for the SOUL.

Ann Yearsley

Soliloquy

Begun from the circumstance of the moment, and prolonged as the images of memory arose in the mind of the author, February 27, 1795

Author to her son. Son. Author. Son (laying his watch on the table). Author.

Go you to bed, my boy. Do you write to-night? I do. See, how late! No matter-You can sleep.

How patiently toils on this little watch! My veins beat to its motion. Ye who sing Of atoms, rest, and motion, say, why Time Sets in this toy a larum to my heart. 0 sacred Time! thy moment goes not down But I go with it! Sixty coming hours Are with us poor expectants of more price Than sixty years sunk to oblivion. Rise, Dear Memory, silent fascinating pow'r, Hated by many: I will be thy slave, Thy willing slave. Then lead thy shadows round, Forever sacred to my pensive mind.

Instructive Spirit, hail! For thee I call Mild Contemplation, from the barren rock Where mourns the ship-wreck'd mariner, to trim My midnight lamp. Hail, much rever'd in death! Thou knew'st to chart the moral world, and bend The springs of thought to wisdom: thou wert wont

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8 Of atoms, rest, and motion] Mechanical philosophy is that which undertakes to account for the phenomena of nature from the principles of mechanics, taking in the consideration of motion, rest, figure, size, &c. This is also called the corpuscular philosophy. Yearsley. [Atom­ism, a doctrine maintaining that the universe is composed of simple and unchangeable minute particles called atoms, was propounded by Greek philosophers in the fifth century B.C. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries certain scientists called "atomists" blended Democritean and Aristotelian approaches into a general corpuscular theory, which held that secondary physi­cal qualities, such as color, odor, and taste, were caused by the arrangement, shape, and motion of invisible particles. Ed.]

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Ann Yearsley

In life to smile, when wilder than the bard On Cambria's height I struck the lyre: my sigh, Made harsh and inharmonious by despair, Thou taught'st to break with melody. This hour, Led on by Contemplation, I behold Thine eyes that beam'd benevolence, thy heart Once rich with fine regard. Ah me! that heart 'Mid this inhospitable scene was mine!

Couldst thou declare how long the storms of fate Shall beat around me, when I may repose, Or be as thou art! I have read the code Of statutes form'd by man for future worlds; And found his plan, so pompously display'd, One lot of heterogeneous fragment. Man Adores in fancy, violates in fact, Laws serving his frail being. Yon pale moon Forsakes the mountain top, to bring us round Her renovated splendour; nature works Obedient and unseen forever: we May meet in spheres remote- If not, farewel! I feel and know, those wishes can arise But from affections growing with my life, Mingling with hope, oppress'd by fear. The change Fulfill'd in thee may chill me; ev'ry thought Oblit'rate; vision, fancy forms, be doom'd To sink, like beaming glory in the west; Whilst space contracts on my weak eye, and heav'ns, By human artists coloured, fade away, As life goes gently from my beating heart.

Grant this could be-the import were no more Than as an atom 'mid the vast profound Impell'd, not swerving from the whole. Suppose, This frame dissolving, to the busy winds My ashes fled dividing: shall I know To mourn?-How like my brethren I display

25 On Cambria's height] Cambria is an ancient name for Wales. "Cambria's height" refers to the Cambrian Mountains, located in central Wales.

Ann Yearsley 843

Conjecture without end!- Impatient pow'r Of thought! where wouldst thou fly? Return, return! 60

Nor lose thy strength in phrensy, nor resign The form I love. -This watch is down! Ye points, Attun'd to motion by the art of man, As tell-tales of his doings, can ye mark Eternity by measur'd remnants? No.-Fallacious in your working, ye would say, With us, the life of man is but a day.