Margaret Lucas Cavendish’s Blazing World

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Today we
are going to talk about Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of

(00:21):
Newcastle upon Tyne, who was a prolific poet and playwright
and natural philosopher. She published multiple works under her own
name at a time when more women were starting to
publish their own work, but they were almost always doing
that anonymously. She also published at least five major works
on natural philosophy, and that makes her the most prolific

(00:44):
woman publishing on that subject in the seventeenth century. She
wrote so much on such a range of subjects that
you can find just dramatically different reads on her depending
on where you look. Like If some but he's focuses
mostly on literature, she's described like as a poet in

(01:04):
a playwright, but if somebody's focuses mostly on science, she's
described as a scientist. She also lived through a really
tumultuous period, including the English Civil Wars, the Interregnum, and
the Restoration, and then all of that was happening during
the Scientific Revolution, just two levels set. We're not going
to talk as much about her work in philosophy specifically

(01:27):
in this episode, because even though there are most certainly
people who think that is the absolute most important part,
there is just so much of it, and it evolves
so much over time, and so much of it is
discussed in relation to the work of other philosophers. It
just was like nested side trips of definitions to make

(01:47):
things even understandable if you don't already have a background
in it um. If that's what you're into, though, the
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has an entry on her that
is almost twenty five thousand words long, so you can
run at that. That'll keep you busy for a bit
and then you will be fully, fully up to date

(02:09):
on her philosophy. But the Future Duchess was born Margaret
Lucas in Colchester, Essex, probably around six three. The records
that would have documented that were destroyed during the Civil Wars.
She was the youngest of eight children of Thomas and
Elizabeth Lucas. The family was wealthy, but Thomas did not

(02:32):
have title. He had enough money that he could have
purchased a title if you wanted to, but he thought
that titles should be earned. According to Margaret's autobiography, her
oldest brother, Thomas, was born before their parents were married
because her father had been banished for killing a Mr.
Brooks in a duel. This seems to have been a

(02:54):
typical duel over a matter of honor, but Brooks had
been a favorite of one of Elizabeth the First courtiers,
so Thomas was forced to leave, was allowed to return
only after Queen Elizabeth had died, and King James the
First allowed him to come back. I feel like we've
had a few of those where it's like Elizabeth did
not like a person. They went away, James the First,

(03:18):
It's cool, comeback. Charles First, who edited an eight eight
six edition of a book containing this autobiography, speculates that
this may really have been George Brooke, who was executed
for his role in the by Plot in sixteen o three.
But if that's the case, none of this makes sense.

(03:38):
The by plot was a plot against King James in
the first year of his reign, but George Brooke was executed,
not killed in a duel, and all that happened after
Queen Elizabeth had already died. Whatever the exact circumstances were, though.
The younger Thomas was born in about fifteen ninety seven,
so he would have been six years older so by

(04:00):
the time his father was able to return and marry
his mother, at which point everyone seems to have treated
him as a full member of the family and one
of his father's heirs. The elder Thomas Lucas died when
Margaret was only about two, and his estate was divided
up among her mother and her three surviving brothers, who

(04:20):
were Thomas, John, and Charles. Elizabeth Lucas never remarried, and
her inheritance from her late husband included a portion that
was meant for Margaret and for each of her sisters.
They would be given that portion either when they got
married or when they came of age. They had enough
money that they all lived pretty comfortably. Margaret described her

(04:41):
mother as always living within their means, but still bringing
them lots of honest pleasures and harmless delights. Margaret and
her sisters also received a very basic education through private tutors.
In addition to subjects like reading and writing, they were
taught things like needlework and dancing. Margaret did not really

(05:02):
like her studies, but she did love to read and write,
and to design her own clothes. She was far more
interested in fashion of her own design than enclosed designed
by anyone else. As an adult, she gained a reputation
for having a lavish and unusual style of dress, which
incorporated elements that were thought of as men's fashion. People

(05:24):
described her wearing things like knee length coats and breeches, or,
in the words of Sir Charles Littleton in sixteen sixty five,
during a visit by the Duke and Duchess of York,
she was quote dressed in a vest and instead of
courtesies made legs and bows. Yeah. That's uh, that's got
some commentary. I had a hard time finding any portraits

(05:46):
of her that showed really what this would have looked like. Um.
The Lucas family, though, divided their time between London and Colchester,
and they seem to have been really very close and
loving with each other, even to the point where Margaret's
married sisters often lived with their mother when she was
in the country, But they also seem to have kept
most other people outside the family at arms length. They

(06:10):
were staunch royalists, and as the Civil Wars began, most
of their neighbors, especially in the country were parliamentarians. For
a super quick recap on that the English Civil Wars
grew out of long standing grievances between Charles the first
in Parliament, along with issues involving religious freedom, tensions between
Protestants and Catholics, and disagreements on how England, Ireland and

(06:34):
Scotland should all be governed. These wars were interconnected with
the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which involved all three
nations and are sometimes described as the British Civil Wars.
As we said earlier, Margaret's family were staunch Royalists. Her brothers,
Thomas and Charles, both became officers in the Royalist Army.

(06:55):
After her brother John tried to rally supporters and horses
to to the king in August of sixteen forty two,
a mob attacked his home, which is where their mother
and sister also were. This mob ransacked the house, killed
deer on the property, destroyed crops, desecrated the family tomb,
and stole the horses. John was briefly imprisoned after this,

(07:19):
but ultimately fled and became a colonel of horse in
the Royalist Army. As all of this was brewing, Margaret
went to Oxford to join the court of Queen Henrietta Maria,
wife of Charles the First. She doesn't spell out her
reasons for doing this, just that she'd heard that the
queen didn't have as many maids of honor as she

(07:39):
used to. Some sources have interpreted this as Margaret wanting
some independence from her family or thinking that she might
be safer with the queen, but the family also had
some concerns about it because of what Margaret described as
her bashfulness. Here is her own description quote, I am
naturally bashful, not that I am ashamed of my mind

(08:02):
or body, my birth or breeding. My actions are fortunes.
For my bashfulness is my nature, not for any crime.
And though I have strived and reasoned with myself, yet
that which is inbred I find is difficult to root out.
But I do not find that my bashfulness is concerned

(08:22):
with the qualities of the persons. But the number. For
were I to enter into a company of Lazarus, is
I should be as much out of countenance as if
they were all Caesar's or Alexander's, Cleopatra's or Queen Dido's.
Neither do I find my bashfulness rise it so often
in blushes, as it contracts my spirits to a chill paleness.

(08:47):
She also says the best remedy she ever found for
this was to believe that everyone she meets is wise
and virtuous, because the wise and virtuous quote sense your least, excuse,
most praise, best esteem, Rightly, judge justly, behave themselves civilly,
demean themselves respectfully, and speak modestly when fools or unworthy

(09:12):
persons are apt to commit absurdities, as to be bold, rude, uncivil,
both in words and actions, forgetting or not well understanding
themselves or the company they are with. Her family's concerns
about whether she was going to be okay leaving home,
they were not entirely unfounded. She also wrote this quote

(09:33):
in truth, my bashfulness and fears made me repent my
going from home to see the world abroad, and much
I did desire to return to my mother again, or
to my sister Pie, with whom I have often lived
when she was in London and loved with a supernatural affection.
So when Margaret told her family that she wanted to

(09:54):
come home, her mother convinced her that it was going
to reflect poorly on everyone if she left the Jean's
service so soon, and in the end Margaret wound up
staying there until after she married, and we're going to
talk a little bit about that after we have a
quick sponsor break. In sixteen forty four, the English Civil

(10:21):
Wars escalated and Queen Henrietta Maria fled to France. She
left her newborn daughter, Henrietta behind. Henrietta's birth had been
really difficult. It wasn't clear whether she would survive, but
she did. She was reunited with her mother after about
two years. Margaret Lucas, though went with the queen when
the queen fled. She described herself as not being good

(10:45):
at learning languages beyond English, and it doesn't appear that
she learned French, even while living in France and serving
a queen who had been born in Paris. But there
also would have been other people connected to the court
in exile who spoke English. One of these was William Cavendish,
Marquess of Newcastle upon Tyne. He had been in command

(11:06):
of some of the forces at the Battle of Marston Moore,
where the Royalists were badly defeated on July second, sixteen
forty four. After this defeat, Cavendish had fled first to
Hamburg and then to Paris. In addition to his military
career and six years in the House of Commons, Cavendish
was an expert horseman and a horse trainer, and a

(11:28):
poet and a playwright, and a patrons of people like
Ben Johnson, John Dryden, Thomas Hobbs, and reneed de cart.
His first wife, Elizabeth, had died in April of sixteen
forty three, and while most of their children were grown
up and married by the time she died, they also
don't really seem to have approved of his second wife,
which was Margaret Lucas they got married in sixteen forty five.

(11:52):
Various accounts described Margaret's family and Queen Henrietta Maria as
being opposed to this match as well, among other things,
William was thirty years older than Margaret, but from Margaret's
point of view, he was a good fit for her.
She wrote, quote, my Lord, the Marquess of Newcastle did
approve of those bashful fears which many condemned, and would

(12:14):
choose such a wife as he might bring to his
own humors, and not such a one as was wedded
to self conceit, or one that had been tempered to
the humors of another, for which he wooed me for
his wife. And though I did dread marriage and shunned
man's company as often as I could, yet I could not,
nor had the power to refuse him. By reason, my

(12:36):
affections were fixed on him, and he was the only
person I was ever in love with. She went on
to say, quote, for it was not amorous love. I
was never infected therewith it is a disease or a passion,
or both. I only know by relation, not by experience.
Neither would title, wealth, power, or person enticed me to love.

(12:58):
But my love was honest and honor, bole being placed
upon merit, which affection joyed the fame of his worth,
pleased with the light in his wit, proud of the
respects he used me, and triumphing in the affections he
professed for me. William seems to have really loved Margaret
and encouraged her pursuits, buying books for her, tutoring her,

(13:20):
and generally just supporting her interests and ambitions. William and
his brother, Sir Charles Cavendish also organized a salone that
came to be known as the Cavendish Circle in the
sixteen forties, holding gatherings with people like Thomas Hobbes Renee
des Cartes, philosopher and mathematician, Pierre guss In, d and
intellectual and Polly math Marin Marsin. Margaret met some influential

(13:45):
philosophers and scientists at these gatherings, but she maintained that
she didn't speak directly to them about anything of consequence,
since many of them spoke French. She also would not
have been able to speak with them without someone there
to translate. Margaret hoped to have children, and as time
passed without her becoming pregnant, she and William consulted with

(14:06):
at least two doctors, Richard Ferrer and Sortor Maren. Maren
seems to have recommended treatments for both her physical and
her mental health, including what was described as melancholy. Eventually, Mayren,
who was the court physician, advised her to discontinue treatments
for infertility. Margaret seems to have tried to treat herself

(14:27):
as well, with things like fasting and blood letting, based
on her own readings on science and medicine. Some of
her writing about this came across to me as maybe
having some food disorder, uh, some disordered eating, like connected
to all of her anxieties and bashfulness that she described. Eventually,
Margaret and William left Paris and moved to Antwerp, where

(14:50):
they lived in a house that they rented from Peter
Paul Rubens's widow, and over the next few years Margaret
experienced a string of losses while separated the rest of
her family. Her mother died in sixteen forty seven, and
her brother Thomas was wounded in battle and died in
sixteen forty eight or sixteen forty nine. Her brother Charles

(15:12):
was in Colchester when it was besieged by Parliamentarian forces
in sixteen forty eight. This siege lasted for more than
a month, and, as is often the case, conditions became
truly horrific. This was complicated by the fact that for
the most part, the people of Colchester were on the
Parliamentarian side, but they were trapped with the Royalist army,

(15:33):
which put its own needs ahead of everyone else's. Meanwhile,
the parliamentarians besieging the town refused to allow provisions to enter.
This siege only ended after the Royalists were defeated at
the Battle of Preston in sixteen forty eight. Afterward, a
Parliamentarian war Council found Charles Lucas guilty of treason and

(15:53):
sentenced him to death. He was executed by firing squad
and was immediately seen as a Royal List murder. King
Charles the First was executed in January of sixteen forty nine,
and later that year Parliament declared England to be a commonwealth.
The New Model Army, which was led by Oliver Cromwell,
embarked on a violent reconquest of Ireland. The Scottish Parliament

(16:18):
had declared Charles's son, Charles the Second, to be king,
and Cromwell led an invasion of Scotland as well. Fighting
continued with all of this until Cromwell's victory at the
Battle of Worcester on September three, sixteen fifty one. This
was the final battle of the Civil Wars, and afterward
Charles the Second fled to France. During the Civil Wars,

(16:39):
Parliament had established committees to deal with the estates seized
from Royalists and others who had opposed Parliament, known as delinquents.
In sixteen fifty one, Margaret returned to England because she
had heard that her husband's estates were being sold, and
there were provisions for delinquents wives to be granted an
allowance from the sale. William could not go with her.

(17:01):
If he did, he would have to renounce his loyalty
to the Crown and swear fealty to the Commonwealth, and
he was not willing to do that. But Margaret didn't
have to do that because as a woman, she wasn't
even considered capable of doing it. So she traveled with
William's brother, Charles, who had been ordered to return to
England and occupy his estates there or else they would

(17:23):
be confiscated. Margaret's efforts to get this allowance from the
sale of William's estates was both lengthy and unsuccessful. The
committee told her that William was quote the greatest traitor
to the state, and that since she had married him
after he had already been made it alinquent, she was
entitled to nothing. She was in England for about eighteen

(17:45):
months working on this, and during that time she wrote
and arranged for the publication of her first two books,
Poems and Fancies and Philosophical Fancies. Both of those were
published in sixteen fifty three. She had meant for all
of that writing to be published as one volume, but
Philosophical Fancies just was not ready in time. Later on,

(18:09):
William would help Margaret arranged for the publication of some
of her books, but she handled these two on her own,
and we noted at the top of the show that
she published these works under her own name at a
time when most women who published were doing so anonymously.
But beyond that, she chose a highly respected publisher for
her work. It was Martin and Alice Styre, who later

(18:32):
became the publisher for the Royal Society. And while most
women who published in seventeenth century Britain were publishing smaller
pamphlets meant to be circulated mostly among people they knew,
Margaret was publishing books that wouldn't be out of place
in a fine library. They were full size books, beautifully bound,

(18:52):
and for some of them she also commissioned artwork by
Abraham von Diepenbeck for the frontispiece. This was unusual not
only because of her gender, but also because of the
content of the books. While Poems and Fancy sounds like
a lighthearted collection of verse, it was really a work
in which She used two hundred eighty poems arranged into

(19:14):
five parts, to explore subjects like physics, medicine, philosophy and ethics,
and her own scientific theories on vital matter, which rested
on the idea that all matter was intelligent and capable
of organizing itself. These were not considered appropriate topics for
women to publish on. It's true that she had more

(19:36):
power than most women to do something like this. Her
husband was in exile and their finances were a mess,
but she was still a marchioness who had her husband's
full support. But even with that in mind, she was
breaking ground with this work. Margaret returns to Antwerp in
sixteen fifty three, and she and William remained in exile

(19:57):
until after the restoration of Charles the Second in sixteen sixty.
During that time that they were still in exile, Margaret
continued to learn and to write. She published her brief
autobiography which was a True Relation of My Birth Breeding
in Life, that was published in sixteen fifty six as
part of Nature's Pictures Drawn by Fancy's Pencil to the Life.

(20:20):
This autobiography was something that she wrote in part to
counter claims that her husband had written all of her
work for her, while also crediting him and his brother
for their encouragement and mentoring and what she had learned.
We are going to get to Margaret's life after they
returned to England after we have a sponsor break. In

(20:48):
sixteen sixty after the restoration of Charles the Second, Margaret
and William Cavendish, Marquess and Marchioness of Newcastle upon time,
were able to return to England. Some of William's lands
were returned to him, including Bolsover Castle, which the couple
rebuilt and refurbished, including building a writing house there. For
a while they lived in London, but they didn't really

(21:10):
enjoy life at court, so they retired to Williams estates
at Wellbeck Abbey, which was not far away from Bolsover Castle.
William also bought Nottingham Castle in sixteen sixty three or
sixteen sixty four and built a mansion there. Margaret was
increasingly involved in managing these and other estates while also
writing and publishing her work. The book Orations came out

(21:34):
in sixteen sixty two. She published her first volume of plays,
just called Plays that same year. These have been written
earlier but the original manuscript had been lost at sea.
In sixteen sixty four she published Sociable Letters, a set
of fictional letters on a range of topics including science, medicine,
and literature. Philosophical Letters followed that same year. In sixteen

(21:59):
sixty five, I've William was made a duke, so Margaret
became a duchess, and in sixteen sixty six she published
Observations on Experimental Philosophy. In addition to her other work,
in the previous few years, she had studied Greek and
Roman philosophy, relying heavily on Thomas Stanley's The History of
Philosophy for that since it was in English. She had

(22:21):
also explored the work of her contemporaries and philosophy and science,
including Thomas Hobbes, reneed A. Cart, Robert Boyle, and Robert Hook.
Observations on Experimental Philosophy drew on all of that knowledge
to outline her thoughts on things like perception, art, various
plants and animals, colors, the nature of heat and cold,

(22:42):
Adams telescopes, medicine, chemistry, anatomy, and more. It is a
very long and wide ranging book. Although this was a
work of nonfiction, she included an appendix called the Description
of a new world called the Blazing World. The Blazing
World was also published as a standalone volume two years later,

(23:04):
and this was a work of utopian fiction, sometimes described
as an early work of science fiction that is also
a commentary on her thoughts on science, philosophy, and society.
And Blazing World, a merchant falls in love with a
woman and steals her away quote. But Heaven, frowning at
his theft, raised such a tempest as they knew not

(23:27):
what to do. The ship is blown off course to
the north Pole, and all the men on board freeze
to death. But this lady is saved by the light
of her beauty, the heat of her youth, and the
protection of the gods. It turns out that Earth's north
pole is conjoined to the pole of another world, and
when the ship approaches our own north pole, it is

(23:47):
forced into the other one, which is a world populated
by sort of human animal hybrids or anthropomorphized animals. Quote.
Some were bear men, some worm men, some fish or
mirror men, otherwise called sirens, some birdmen, some fly men,
some antmen, some geesemen, some spiderman, some lifemen, some foxman,

(24:12):
some apemen, some Jackdawmond, some magpie men, some parrotmen, some satyrs,
some giants, and many more which I cannot all remember.
She's eventually brought before the Emperor of this world, who
takes her as his wife and gives her quote an
absolute power to rule and govern all that world as

(24:32):
she pleased. Then what follows as an account of the
Empress's rule, and it works as a commentary, as we said,
as on science, philosophy, and social issues, including the idea
that a strong, stable monarchy is crucial to a peaceful society.
The year after she published Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, Cavendish

(24:54):
was invited to a meeting of the Royal Society, which
had been established in sixteen sixty. Some accounts read as
though people were so impressed with her work that they
invited her right over, But this work was really controversial,
and the invitation was one that she sought out, in
which her friend Walter Charlton lobbied for. Charlton was one

(25:15):
of the Royal Society's original members, along with Margaret's brother John,
who was another person who had tutored and mentored her
in subjects like science and philosophy. Some of the controversy
was because of Cavendish's gender. She was the first known
woman to be invited to a Royal Society meeting. She
really may have been the only woman to attend one

(25:37):
in the seventeenth century. Women weren't allowed to become fellows
of the Royal Society until nineteen forty five. But the
content of this work was also controversial. In addition to
it being highly unusual and almost scandalous for a woman
to be publishing this kind of scientific and philosophical work,

(25:57):
she also directly criticized the work of some of the
Royal Society's most prominent fellows, including, for example, Robert Hook's
work on microscopes. As we said earlier, Cavendish was living
during the Scientific Revolution and science was becoming its own discipline,
which had a focus on experimentation and measurement, and Cavendish

(26:20):
really questioned that very idea. These criticisms were in both
the main body of the book and in the Blazing World.
In the main body, she discusses how flawed lenses or
bad lighting can distort the image seen through a microscope,
and that that can lead to incorrect conclusions. She also
expresses her belief that microscopes can represent only exterior shapes

(26:44):
and movement, not the interior workings or motions. She compares
men looking through microscopes to boys playing with bubbles. In
Blazing World, the bear men use microscopes to show the
Empress the head of a fly and various licen mites,
but she questions their conclusions about the fly. Maybe what
they're seeing are actually tiny pearls and not the insects eyes.

(27:08):
She questions the purpose of the study of lice and mtes,
What uses it if they're observations don't lead to a
way to keep people from being bitten. Overall, cavendish Is
criticisms of people like Robert Hook were dismissed by many
of her contemporaries, and some people in much more recent
eras kind of wrote it off as the silly nonsense

(27:31):
of a dilettante who did not know what she was
talking about. But Cavendish was knowledgeable about microscopes. Her husband
had a whole collection of them, she had one of
her own, and she had read the latest writings on
the subject, including having read Hook's entire Micrographia, which was
published in sixteen sixty five. Her observations on the problems

(27:53):
that could come from badly made lenses and poor lighting
were well founded, and even her observations that seemed wildly incorrect,
like suggesting that the lenses of a flies compound I
might really be pearls that had nothing to do with vision,
those are based on her sense that a person's own

(28:14):
biases and knowledge can lead them to draw the wrong
conclusion from a simple observation. All that said, Kevindish was
well known at this point, with a reputation for idiosyncratic
behavior and distinctive dress, and now this highly controversial book.
So her visit to the Royal Society on May sixteen

(28:35):
sixty seven was something of a spectacle. Samuel Peeps wrote
about it in his diary quote, I find very much
company in expectation of the Duchess of Newcastle, who had
desired to be invited to the Society, and was after
much debate pro and con it seems many being against it,
and we do believe the town will be full of

(28:57):
ballads of it. Anon comes the Duchess with her women
attending her, among others, the Farrobosco, of whom so much
talk is that her lady would bid her show her
face and kill the gallants. She is indeed black, and
hath good black little eyes, but otherwise but a very
ordinary woman, I do think, But they say sings, well,

(29:19):
the Duchess hath been a good, comely woman. But her
dress so antic and her deportment so ordinary, that I
do not like her at all. Nor did I hear
her say anything that was worth hearing, but that she
was full of admiration, all admiration. Several fine experiments were
shown her of colors, loadstones, microscopes, and of liquors, among others,

(29:43):
of one that did while she was there turn a
piece of roasted mutton into pure blood, which was very rare.
So we talked in our episode about Samuel peeps Uh
about he could be kind of a creeper. We read
a passage from his own diary where we talked about
creeping on this woman in church until she stabbed him

(30:04):
with a pin. His diary details multiple instances of him
going around London trying to get a glimpse of her,
saying at one point that quote all the town talk
is nowadays of her extravagancies. On May tenth of sixteen
sixty seven, he saw her coach, but he couldn't get
close to it because they were quote a hundred boys

(30:25):
and girls running looking upon her. Later on, he also
talks about reading her sixteen sixty seven biography of her husband,
saying it quote shows her to be a mad, conceited,
ridiculous woman, and he unasked to suffer her to write
what she writes to him and of him. I have
thoughts they are unkind. He didn't have anything to say

(30:48):
about the substance of anything that she wrote it all,
except for that one sentence. The rest of it is
mostly about what he thinks of her demeanor and her clothes,
and her appearance and etcetera. M Mostly the things that
I have to say about him that are in kind
are also not fit for this podcast. Controversies and judgments
continued to swirl around Margaret Lucas Cavendish and her work

(31:11):
until the end of her life. A few years later.
She died on December fifteen, sixteen seventy three, at the
age of about fifty. Her death has described as sudden,
but sources don't name a specific cause. She was entombed
at Westminster Abbey on January seventh, sixteen seventy four. The
inscription at the base of the tomb reads in part

(31:32):
this Duchess was a wise, witty and learned lady, which
her many books do well testify. She was a most
virtuous and a loving and careful wife, and was with
her lord all the time of banishment and misery, and
when he came home, never parted from him. In his
solitary retirements. Her husband was too unwell to make the journey,

(31:53):
but he did collect and publish letters and poems in
honor of the incomparable Princess Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle in
sixteen seventy six. He died on January two of that
year and was entombed at Westminster next to her Margaret Lucas.
Cavendish's gender and her eccentricity, and the fact that she

(32:14):
argued against some of the most prominent and respected philosophers
and scientists of her lifetime meant that overall people did
not take her work seriously or seriously study it. For
centuries after her death, she was written off as mad
Madge of Newcastle, although that nickname seems to have been
coined after her lifetime, and that continues well into the

(32:36):
twentieth century. Virginia Wolfe gave this a very mixed description
of Cavendish in her n Common Reader writing quote. Nevertheless,
though her philosophies are feudal, and her plays intolerable, and
her verses mainly dull, the vast bulk of the Duchess
is levined by a vein of authentic fire. One cannot

(32:58):
help following the lure of her erratic and lovable personality
as it meanders and twinkles through page after page. There
is something notable and quixotic and high spirited, as well
as crack brained and bird witted about her. Her simplicity
is so open, her intelligence so active, her sympathy with
fairies and animals so true and tender. She has the

(33:21):
freakishness of an elf, the irresponsibility of some non human creature,
it's heartlessness and its charm. And although they those terrible
critics who had sneered and jeered at her ever since
as a shy girl she had not dared look her
tormentors in the face at court, continued to mock. Few
of her critics, after all, had the wit to trouble

(33:43):
about the nature of the universe, or cared a straw
for the sufferings of the hunted hair or longed as
she did to talk to someone of Shakespeare's fools. Now,
at any rate, the laugh is not all on their side.
It's really only been in the last few decades that
more people have started to study Cavendish's work as anything

(34:05):
other than just the rambling or dabbling of an eccentric aristocrat.
The International Margaret Cavendish Society was established in and several
scholarly critical editions of her writing are either newly published
or are still in the works. Scholars approaching her life
and work today, often working through the lens of feminist

(34:26):
or queer theory, have reinterpreted her plays as original and
transgressive closet dramas meant to be read instead of performed,
rather than earlier interpretations, which just dismissed them as scattered
works that were unstageable because she was bad at writing plays.
More recent scholarship has also approached her philosophy as important

(34:47):
and compelling on its own, rather than being simply derivative
of other people's work. At the same time, some aspects
of her work continue to be contradictory. Sometimes Cavendish is
described as an early feminist. She definitely carved out a
place for herself and lived outside the bounds of what
was expected of her gender, and some of her writing

(35:09):
is focused on women in roles of power or leadership,
or women creating communities with each other. She also criticizes
men's treatment of women and the restrictions on women's place
in society, but at the same time, there are various
places where she describes feminine traits as inferior or describes

(35:30):
women as superior because they can use their beauty to
control men. And to some extent, she was herself contradictory.
She talks so much about this profound bashfulness to use
her word, and that really affected her whole life. But
she simultaneously made it clear that she had an ambition
to become famous, and yet in the work that was

(35:52):
part of that fame, there's also this thread of self deprecation.
A lot of the time, it's almost like she's apologizing
for even existing. Some of this is because she was
aware that her lack of access to a formal education
meant that her work was different and would be judged differently.
So we will end on a poem that reflects all

(36:15):
of that, which was part of the conclusion of poems
and fancies. I language want to dress my fancies in
the hairs uncurled, the garments loose and thin. Had they
but silver lace to make them gay, they'd be more
accorded than in poor array. Or had they an art,
they would make a better show. But they are plain

(36:37):
yet cleanly. Do they go the world in bravery doth
take delight? And glistening shows do more attract the site.
And everyone doth honor a rich hood, as if outside
made the inside good. And everyone doth bow and give
the place, not for the man's sake, but the silver lace.

(36:58):
Let me entreat in my horror books, behalf that all
will not adore the golden calf, consider pray gold half
no life therein, and life in nature is the richest thing.
Be just let fancy have the upper place, and then
my verses may perchance find grace, a flattering language, all

(37:19):
the passions ruled. Then, since I fear will be a
mere dull fool, she's a fun one. She is uh.
Sometimes that that verse is printed with the title of
like I think an apology for the poems in this
book are something broadly apologetic, like that I have some

(37:45):
listener mail to take us out. It is from Corine.
Corine said, hello Tracy and Holly. On your behind the
scenes episode about pies and the gallut at eleven, you
were wondering if motion sickness got worse with age, and
the words of my dance teacher popped into my head.

(38:05):
I'm in my mid forties and have started taking an
adult tap class. It's been close to twenty five years
since I have taken a dance class, and I've been
pleasantly surprised at what my feet remember. Goodness knows, my
brain hasn't retained very much. In this week's class, we
were adding several steps to our routine and they required
multiple turns in a row. Since most of us are

(38:25):
over thirty, we were having trouble practicing the steps over
and over. Not only was the world spinning, it took
longer than I remember to get back to normal. Before
teaching slash, reminding us to spot, the teacher said our
ability to spend decreases as we get older, and that
us old, You've had to be careful. I wanted to
take offense, but it proved to be true. I understand

(38:52):
this feeling. Anyway, Thanks for all you do. Your podcast
is when I can usually have on while I'm chufferring
my kids to all their activities. They roll their eyes
when I put on a podcast, but they get sucked
in and learn something too. I'm attaching pictures of my dog, Buckeye.
We adopted him at the beginning of the pandemic and
we're not sure how old he is. He's incredibly stubborn
and have decided that I am his person. But guy

(39:14):
has gotten so ridiculous that sometimes when my kids take
him for a walk, he decides he's done. You'll lie
down and refuse to move. My kids have to call
me so I can talk to him on the phone,
only after hearing me tell him that he has to
keep walking when he get his seventy pound booty up
and keep going. Corine, thank you so much. Okay, Holly

(39:35):
is laughing with the most delighted la for such a
dog crush on Buckeye. Like I love an obstinate, slightly
spoiled dog. I love it. Um. Yeah. I have a
friend who has started dog walking um as a job
and has lots of stories about various dogs who were

(39:57):
at some point like nope, done, I'm done with my
walk home yet. But I'm finished. Uh, if you want,
I'll tell a very funny version of one of those
in the behind the scenes this week. Okay, So thank
you for these pictures and this story. Uh yeah, I
I had trouble spotting even when I was a young person.

(40:21):
Uh so, yeah, it just seems it seems totally reasonable
to me that as we would get older, that would
get more difficult and our bodies would have a harder
time with it. We've got a number of emails on
that base, same basic topic of saying, yes, yes, many
of us as we get older have more trouble with
things like getting dizzy and being motion sick and etcetera.

(40:45):
So if you would like to send us an email,
we're a history podcast at i heart radio dot com
and we're all over social media. Missed in History. That's
where you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Interest, and Instagram, and
you can subscribe to our show on the I heart
Radio app or wherever else you like to get podcasts.

(41:08):
Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of
I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.

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Tracy V. Wilson

Holly Frey

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