Who's Afraid of the Duchess of Newcastle (Part Two)

Virginia Woolf compared her to a giant cucumber plant. Had she read that, Margaret Cavendish might have thought it a compliment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
The first published volume of work from Margaret Cavendish, Poems
and Fancies in sixteen fifty three, introduced readers to an
author who didn't settle for one subject or style. The
volume features poems about atoms, arguments for the existence of fairies,

(00:26):
and conversations between man and nature. Amongst these varied pieces,
one can also find a short essay titled to All
Writing Ladies. In that essay, Cavendish argues that history is
composed of ages defined by men's changing desires. There are

(00:48):
ages of peace, ages of war, ages of many gods,
ages of atheism, ages of learning, ages of ignorance. Throughout
these ages, Margaret explains, there are times when women rise
to prominence, whether they be heroines, prophets, rulers, or scholars.

(01:09):
For brief periods of time. Then women, she argues, can
define an era, and if it be an age when
the effeminate spirits rule, Cavendish rites, let us take the
advantage and make the best of our time, for fear
their reign should not last long. To that same effect,

(01:30):
Cavendish rites, let us strive to build us tombs while
we live, followed by a couplet that, though our bodies
die our names may live to after memory. Sixteen fifty
three's Poems and Fancies would be the first of many
tombs Margaret built herself while she was living. If you

(01:55):
recall the ending of our last episode, readers of Poems
were met with a title page loudly declaring that the
book was written by the right Honorable the Lady Margaret,
Countess of Newcastle. Some editions even featured a bold etching
of Margaret as a classical statue, standing in between Apollo

(02:17):
and Athena. Margaret's writing would never be so groundbreaking as
to define an era or earn a spot among the classics,
but simply by putting her own name on a work
of fiction, Margaret Cavendish solidified her place in history as
a trailblazer. A quote from a friend is included in

(02:38):
the introduction to poems, quote, you are not only the
first English poet of your sex, but the first that
ever wrote this way. When the then Countess released Poems
and Fancies, only an estimated one point three percent of
total English publications were openly written by women, and naturally

(03:01):
we don't even have the statistics for women who may
have been writing anonymously. Although some certainly did one point
three percent, then is small and mostly made up of
works offering religious and maternal advice. From sixteen fifty to
sixteen sixty, religious texts made up around sixty one percent

(03:24):
of all published writing by women. Literature, including poetry and plays,
made up only zero point zero one six percent. Trailblazers are,
as we know, not always well regarded in their time.
There's a quote from one of Margaret's contemporaries, Dorothy Osborne,

(03:46):
known posthumously for her collection of letters. In one such correspondence,
Osborne wrote, they say poems and fancies 'tis ten times
more extravagant than her dress. And once Osborne got her
hands on a copy, she declared that I have seen
it and am satisfied that there are many soberer people

(04:09):
in Bedlam. Osborne was not alone in her perception of Cavendish.
After all, her nickname of the crazy Duchess persists to
this day, immortalized by Virginia Woolf in a Room of
One Zone. Was Cavendish truly as crazy as they say?

(04:31):
In her own view? At least it's a bit more complex.
I am not covetous, but as ambitious as ever any
of my sex was, is or can be. Which is
the cause though that I cannot be Henry the fifth
or Charles the second. Yet I will endeavor to be
Margaret the first. I'm Danish Schwartz, and this is noble blood.

(05:02):
When we last left Margaret, she had discovered her passion
for writing under the tutelage of her husband William and
her brother in law Charles. Before she could publish poems, however,
she would have to make an unexpected trip back to
her home country following years abroad. In November sixteen fifty one,

(05:24):
she locked her writings up in a trunk as though
they had been buried in a grave, and left them
behind in Antwerp with her husband William. That fall, the
Cavendishes had learned that Charles's estates were sequestered by Parliament,
while William's previously seized estates were being sold to fund

(05:47):
war in Ireland. In order to regain possession or entitlement,
the deemed delinquent had to appear in front of the
newly established rump Parliament, more specif, there a literally named
committee for compounding. The Cavendishes at this point were so

(06:07):
broke that William recognized the necessity of the journey, but
he himself could not join his brother, as setting foot
on English soil would have been a death sentence for him.
Thus it was up to Charles and Margaret to travel
home in frugal style to try to reclaim what they could. Margaret,

(06:30):
with her debilitating separation and social anxiety, certainly would not
have left her husband's side if she didn't think the
situation was so dire. After all, she had an important
role to play. As William's wife. She was entitled to
one fifth of the proceeds from his sold estates, which

(06:52):
would have aided considerably in relieving the family's debt. Unfortunately
for the couple, they would never see the promised payout.
Margaret was so anxious to appear in court that her
only living brother, John Lucas, had to speak to the
committee on her behalf. Margaret listened quietly while they ruled

(07:16):
that because she had married William, since he became a delinquent,
she was owed nothing. For Charles's part, he managed to
regain some of his estates, but he paid such hefty
fines in the process that he had to sell some
of the land that he had just won back. While

(07:37):
Margaret's mission was ultimately unsuccessful, there were still bright spots
to be found in London. For one thing, she was
reunited with her family for the first time in many years.
They were smaller in number by this point. Margaret's brothers,
Charles and Thomas, her mother, and one of her sisters

(07:58):
had all died while Margaret was abroad, but her brother
John and her beloved sister Catherine were alive and well
in London. If you recall, it was Catherine whom Margaret
intensely feared losing, so to see her again must have
felt like a miracle. Margaret was also able to meet

(08:19):
some of Williams's sons and daughters for the first time,
who all remained in London after their father's self imposed exile.
This was also the period in which Margaret was introduced
to London's royalist intellectual circles. She frequented the salons of

(08:40):
composer Henry Laws, who welcomed the contributions of women, including
Margaret's contemporary, the poet Katherine Phillips. In these groups, work
was typically circulated as unpublished manuscripts, which would later sometimes
be published posthumously. Margaret was one of the select few

(09:02):
who chose to officially publish her work in her lifetime.
Her publication was also notably not an independent venture. She
worked with Martin and Alstree, a small but not unimportant
press who would go on to become the official booksellers
to the Royal Society. What drove her to take this

(09:25):
step that few others, let alone women often took, we
don't quite know. In the introduction to Poems and Fancies,
Margaret explained the driving force behind her writing and defends
her right to publish said writing, but she doesn't detail
her thought process about the in between. As we discussed

(09:48):
last time, Margaret found the practice of writing eased her
anxiety and her sadness like nothing else, and indeed she
was living in a specifically un settling time. Though she
reunited with some of her family in London, she was
without her husband in a country that did not look

(10:09):
the same after eight years abroad. I was from my Lord,
she writes in the preface to Poems, meaning she was
away from her husband and knowing him to be in
great wants, and myself in the same condition to divert them.
I wrote to turn the stream. When she says once

(10:29):
she could be referring to their longing for each other,
but also their financial struggles. In that way, that line
could be suggesting that publishing her work was an economic venture.
Margaret certainly couldn't have hoped to make a living off
her writing, after all, men of the era capable of
such were few and far between. But even a small

(10:52):
prophet could have helped to turn the stream, if not
the tides, when it came to defending herself. Margaret dedicated
poems in part quote to all noble and worthy ladies.
In this short letter, she shares her fears. I imagine
I shall be censored by my own sex, and men

(11:15):
will cast a smile of scorn upon my book because
they think thereby women encroach too. She implores her fellow
women to stand up for her, and knows them to
be capable of it, for I know women's tongues are
as sharp as two edged swords, and wound as much
when they are angered. After all, in Margaret's mind, she

(11:38):
was doing no harm. Quote, the world may wonder at
my confidence, how dare I put out a book, especially
in these censorious times? Why should I be ashamed or afraid?
Where no evil is her publication was not only audacious
in its very existence, but also in its content. Most

(11:59):
not the first poem, A World Made by Atoms, describes
exactly what its title implies, the creation of our world
as a scientific process with no mention of God. It
may seem counterintuitive coming from a woman who was a
royalist and believed in the divine right of kings, but

(12:21):
much of Margaret's early philosophy is considered epicurean atomism, which
was bold enough to garner accusations of atheism. In Margaret's
work The World's Olio, she goes so far as to say, quote,
it is better to be an atheist than a superstitious man,
For in atheism there is humanity and civility towards man

(12:46):
to man, but superstition regards no humanity. Margaret would later
reassure readers, pray, account me not an atheist, but believe
as I do in God Almighty. In typical Margaret fashion,
her thoughts on her own work flip between shyly modest
and brazenly ambitious. Spare your severe censures, she calls on

(13:10):
the reader, I having not so many years of experience
as will make me a garland to crown my head.
Only I have had so much time as to gather
a little posey to stick upon my breast. In the
same introduction, she claims, my ambition is such as I
would either be a world or nothing. Margaret's journey to

(13:38):
being a world would take some time, but her next
step would be to travel across our world once again.
In February sixteen fifty three, just weeks after poem's publication,
she prepared to cross the Channel and return to her
husband Williams's side. While she had found prosperous Royalist circles,

(14:01):
her home country was still a hostile place for those
loyal to the dead King Charles. Her brother in law
was meant to make the journey with her, but he
fell ill and was advised against traveling for the time being.
In order to leave England, Parliament was requiring travelers to
swear an oath of allegiance known as the Engagement. I

(14:26):
do declare and promise It read that I will be
true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England as it
is now established, without a king or house of lords.
You can imagine this would have been a real indignity
for Margaret if she had to swear it. The catch
was that only men had to take this oath. Women were,

(14:48):
of course, assumed to be so politically ignorant that there
was no need for such declarations. On March second, the
Council issued permission for Lady Newcastle and servants to go
out of England without having taken of the engagement pressed
upon her, As William had done in the early days

(15:09):
of their courtship. William wrote Margaret many poems of longing
during those fifteen months spent apart, and many poems of passion.
Upon their reunion. Our tongues thought much when lips did touch,
they should not meet softly, reads one written after his
wife's return to Antwerp. The couple's childlessness then cannot be

(15:34):
attributed to a lack of trying. As for Margaret, she
continued working on her second prose collection, Philosophical Fancies, a
series of essays originally intended to be included in poems.
With soon to be two publications under her belt, now,
Margaret showed no signs of slowing down. Her next step

(15:57):
was to establish herself as a literary figure in Europe.
With William's help, Margaret sent out copies of poems and
Fancies and philosophical fancies to prominent courtiers and intellectuals. Many
of these celebrated figures sent messages of praise, but much

(16:19):
of that praise comes across as too flattering, veering into
the insincere. She was, after all, still a noble woman,
As Margaret often referred to her writings as her children.
One royalist scholar played on her own idea, advising her
to go on, then, most honorable madam, bless the world

(16:40):
with these noble infants of your brain. Margaret's most honest
compliment may have come from a criticism. The English courtier
and author Sir Edward Hyde argued that since Margaret was
quote unskilled in any but our mother tongue, and lack
of one normal education, she could not have written a

(17:02):
book with so many terms of art and such expressions
proper to all science. In his denouncement, Hyde evidently put
forth the idea that Margaret's work was not only good,
but too good. In response, the epilogue to Philosophical Fancies
includes a rebuttal, I hear that my first book was

(17:24):
thought to be none of mine own. Margaret argues, she
is too honest as not to steal another's work, nor
so vainglorious as to strain to build up a fame
upon the ground of another man's wit. This would be
a recurring battle throughout Margaret's career. Anatomists, philosophers, and writers

(17:48):
of all kinds would accuse Margaret of lying about her
education level or passing off someone else's work as her own.
Margaret or William would write a defense in response, rinse,
and repeat. As Margaret began to work on her next publication,
the Words Olio, the Cavendish family faced a major loss.

(18:11):
The illness that had kept Charles in London turned out
to be deadly. He died in early sixteen fifty four,
never having made it back to Antwerp. Both Margaret and
William were devastated. In her memoir, Margaret later wrote that
she would quote lament the loss so long as I live,

(18:34):
going on to describe her brother in law and tutor
as quote nobly generous, wisely valiant, naturally civil, honestly kind,
truly loving, virtuously temperate. Maybe now is a good time
to mention the rumor that Charles and Margaret had an affair.

(18:55):
There's no concrete proof here, but a series of angry
poet written by William after the couple's reunion, with titles
like Love's Changeable Heart and Love's Perjury suggest a potential
discovery of infidelity. And then there are Margaret's own published
words in poems. A letter dedicated to Charles reads, and

(19:22):
though I am your slave, being manicled with chains of obligation,
yet my chains feels softer than silk, and my bondage
is pleasanter than freedom, because I am bound to yourself,
who are a person so full of generosity kinki. Margaret
often writes of marriage as a form of slavery for women,

(19:45):
so it's possible she was speaking of their legal bondage
as brother and sister in law, or they were having
an affair. Will likely never know for certain. Somewhat ironically,
the portion of Charles's states that he was able to
reclaim before his death had boosted the Cavendish fortune significantly.

(20:07):
They were not clear of their debts, but they no
longer had to pinch pennies on day to day expenses,
and could even afford, albeit slightly irresponsibly, to spend on luxuries.
Margaret published three more works while they were in Antwerp,
the world's o Leo and the Philosophical and Physical Opinions

(20:31):
in sixteen fifty five and Nature's Pictures in sixteen fifty six.
Four years later, after spending nearly her entire adulthood as
an expat, Margaret moved back to her home country. She
would reside in England for the rest of her life.
Sixteen sixty was, of course, also the year Charles the

(20:52):
Second made his grand return home, re establishing the monarchy. William,
so thrilled at the prospect of returning to his homeland
and serving the king he had actually tutored when he
was a boy, sailed for England even before the royal
entourage did. In Margaret's autobiography, she quotes his reaction upon

(21:17):
finally seeing the smoke of London on the horizon. I
have been sixteen years asleep and am not thoroughly awake yet. Margaret, however,
did not hear those words first hand. William's departure for
England was so rushed, in fact, that Margaret had to
stay behind as a security for his debts. As margaret

(21:38):
biographer Francesca Peacock phrases it, this situation was another classic
Cavendish contradiction. It was a role that required independence. She
had to organize the transport of all their possessions to England,
deal with the magistrates of Antwerp, and secure another loan
to pay off those remaining bills. But at the same

(22:01):
time Margaret was quite literally being used as collateral upon
for his debts. In her own words, Margaret expresses no
displeasure at this turn of events. Despite her repeated opinion
of marriage as a financial deal for men and bondage
for women. For all of her historically overlooked positive qualities,

(22:24):
Margaret was also inherently contradictory and often myopic in her
otherwise progressive positions. We cannot forget, after all, the influence
of her Royalist politics on her thinking. For example, in
Sociable Letters, she writes that the disturbance in this country,

(22:45):
referring pretty casually to the Civil War, hath made no
breach of friendship betwixt women. For though there hath been
a civil war in the Kingdom and a general war
amongst the men, yet there have been no amongst the women.
Margaret naturally did not know any parliamentary women who might disagree.

(23:07):
It's a line of thinking that still echoes today when
feminist talking points failed to consider other social metrics. Margaret
was alone for about three months following William's departure for London.
With the couple's affairs sorted, the proud royalist boarded a
Dutch warship and set sail herself for England. Sea journeys

(23:30):
and their unpredictable, potentially destructive outcomes are a major recurring
motif in Margaret's work. In comparison to her near death
experience departing England by boat when she was a teenager,
her return trip was nothing but smooth sailing. Life in

(23:51):
London was not as easy. William, once again officially the
Marquise of Newcastle upon Tyne, expected a prestigious court appointment
for his service to the late Charles the First and
the young Charles the Second. By the time of Margaret's arrival, however,
no such appointment had come. William was eventually appointed to

(24:12):
some conciliatory but ultimately powerless positions. Fed Up, he respectfully
took his leave from court to retire to his country estate.
For the first time, Margaret was to see Wellbeck, where
once upon a time William and Charles curated their intellectual circle.
Later deemed the Wellbeck Academy. The estate was not the

(24:37):
jewel it had once been. In place of accommodations designed
for royalty and fame. Scholars were now, in Margaret's words,
but some few old feather beds, and all those spoiled
fit for no use. Much like the estate, the Cavendish
family situation was in disorder. Margaret was not quite given

(25:03):
the evil stepmother treatment, but some of William's children and
longtime employees considered her influence on him too powerful. While
they may have been misplacing their frustrations, William was in
fact giving them a number of reasons to worry. Now
back in England, the Marquess finally settled the jointure, or

(25:25):
the portion of his estate that would be left to
Margaret in the event that he died before her, that
normally would have been finalized upon their marriage. Margaret was
set to have an annuity of one thousand, one hundred
and twenty five pounds, as well as possession of the
manors Chesterfield, Woodthorpe and William's favorite Bolsover Castle. In later

(25:50):
years he would add another home and more land to
that already generous arrangement. Henry William's youngest son and heir
following the deaths of his uncle and older brother, feared
that there would be no land left for his own
children or for the continuation of the male line and

(26:11):
family name. Considering that William was thirty years his wife's senior,
Henry understandably saw the jointure as a pretty sure thing.
This wasn't the only concern. Margaret's dearest friend had married
a Dutch businessman named Francis Topp during their exile abroad.

(26:33):
William was evidently so impressed by Topp that he replaced
Welbeck's long term steward Andrew Clayton, with that new acquaintance.
Clayton blamed his displacement on Margaret and teamed up with
an unhappy tenant of Williams to turn the marquess against
his wife. They wrote an unsigned letter in which they

(26:56):
blamed William's diminished respect at court on Margaret and went
even further as to accuse her of committing adultery with
top All of that sitcom esque scheming was ultimately for not.
William saw through their ruse quite clearly. Margaret was but

(27:18):
of course still publishing through the drama. Her first collection
of plays published with the mouthful of a title, Plays
Written by the thrice Noble, Illustrious and Excellent Princess, was
printed in sixteen sixty two. Notably, it was also Margaret's
first book printed by a woman, the widow of the

(27:41):
printer Thomas Warren. Alice took over her husband's business after
he passed, and from sixteen sixty six onwards almost all
of Margaret's works were published by Anne Maxwell, the widow
of David Maxwell, who had inherited and managed to her
late husband's rather large business on her own. At this point,

(28:05):
Margaret was still a crazy Countess, but she was about
to become the crazy duchess history would remember her as.
In sixteen sixty four, William was finally rewarded by his
old pupil and friend. On June seventh, he received a
letter from Charles the Second reading, I'm resolved to grant

(28:28):
your request. Send me there for word what title you
desire to have, or whether you will choose to keep
your old and leave the rest to me. I am
glad you enjoy your health, for I love you very well.
William was to be made a duke, the highest rank
of English nobility below the monarch. It would take a

(28:50):
year to make things official, but in sixteen fifty five
Margaret and William traveled to London for a small ceremony
where they were official recognized as the Duke and Duchess
of Newcastle on Tyne. In sixteen sixty six, William sold

(29:11):
one of his country estates to buy back Newcastle House,
the family home in London. In sixteen sixty seven, the
couple moved in and found themselves in the heart of
the city's social scene. The King visited their home, and
the couple visited court to meet his queen for the
first time. They hosted fellow aristocrats and intellectuals, including many

(29:35):
of Margaret's philosophical correspondents. The writer John Evelyn visited Margaret
several times a week, delighted by her extraordinary, fanciful habit, garb,
and discourse. John Avelyn's wife did not share his good opinion.
Never did I see she wrote, a woman so full

(29:55):
of herself, so amazingly vain and ambitious. Margaret's reputation, both
positive and negative, was growing by the day. Some of
her rising notoriety was of her own doing. Eveland's wife
goes on to say that Cavendish took occasion to cite
her own pieces, line and page in such a book,

(30:18):
and to tell the adventures of some of her nymphs.
Margaret wanted to be a serious philosopher, and beyond that,
she wanted to be a world. Accounts from the social
season of sixteen sixty seven make it clear she had
achieved something close to celebrity status and was recognizable enough

(30:40):
to be regularly surrounded on the street. Sixteen sixty six
saw the publication of her most famous work, The Blazing World,
which we discussed in the introduction of last week's episode.
Margaret's recognizability, however, did have a little bit more to
do with her fashion than with her writing. To get

(31:03):
an idea of what exactly was so daring about Margaret's clothing,
a letter from a young man who saw Margaret Cavendish
at the premiere of William's play The Humorous Lovers describes
her as having her breasts all laid out to view
and accessorized with scarlet trimmed nipples. Fashionable cleavage was not

(31:26):
uncommon in the period, but Margaret was taking things further
than socially accepted. But her style was not without purpose,
Like her work, she was seeking to emulate the Greco
Roman classics. Margaret also had a strong preference for black
patches or mouchet, which were typically worn to cover blemishes

(31:48):
and make the complexion look lighter by contrast, and she
fancied accessories usually associated with the masculine, including certain styles
of hats and vests. Her rise in status culminated in
a visit to the prestigious exclusive Royal Society, established in

(32:09):
sixteen sixty. Margaret had actually originally been highly critical of
the society's approach to science, which she viewed as hubristic.
Though her visit was arranged by a friend, there is
no doubt a large portion of the society was unhappy
with her presence there. Not only was she a woman,

(32:30):
the Royal Society would not elect a female fellow for
three more centuries, but she was the most gossiped about
woman in London, after all, the crazy Duchess. She arrived
at the Royal Society late in a gilded carriage and
wearing a dress with a train which, as described by

(32:50):
one spectator, took up half a road. At least, she
had to be literally carried inside by her maids of honor.
Like she was at the mecha. She was roughly a
decade ahead of her time with address of that style.
But even more unusual was her decision to pair the
gown with a masculine, wide brimmed hat. In all her extravagance,

(33:15):
Margaret walked the halls of the Royal Society, listening and
learning about their ongoing experiments. Margaret's presence in the Royal
Society was an experiment in its own way. As she
observed their work, the men observed her. The woman who
proudly called herself a philosopher wanted to be an empress

(33:36):
in fiction, at least, dressed like a performer, and was
also so shy that she hardly spoke through all her contradictions,
her greatest desire was to be amongst the greats, to
have her name on everyone's lips. She knew that she
was not the most talented or educated writer, but she

(33:59):
would reach for it nonetheless. As the character of the
Empress says in The Blazing World, she would rather die
in the adventure of noble achievements than live in obscurity
and sluggish serenity. Margaret's time as a London socialite was grand,
but I imagine given her social anxiety, she felt some

(34:22):
relief when the couple returned to the country following that
busy summer. Her focus at this point became editing and
translating her older works for reissues. In sixteen sixty eight,
she published what would be her final volume of her
new work, plays, never before printed. In the early sixteen seventies,

(34:44):
Margaret returned to conducting her own scientific experiments, as she
had once done with her brother in law, Charles, though
she seemed a source of perpetual motion. Margaret Cavendish died
suddenly on December fifteenth, sixteen seventy three, at fifty years old.

(35:08):
She had already published more than a dozen original works.
We don't know how she died, but we do know
William would constantly remind her to be mindful of her
health and fought to pull her away from her writing
to exercise. In an absolutely delightful retort, she once wrote,
the motions of my mind hinders the active exercises of

(35:31):
my body. For should I dance or run or walk apace?
I should dance my thoughts out of measure, run my
fancies out of breath, and tread out the feet of
my numbers. William, who outlived his wife after all, assembled
a posthumous collection in his wife's honor, Letters and Poems

(35:51):
in Honor of the incomparable Princess Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle,
which was published just months before he died in sixteen
seventy six. Margaret's greatest desire to be a world or
nothing was born out of a fear of becoming obsolete.
The desire for fame proceeds from a doubt of being

(36:15):
an afterthought. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Margaret's work
was not forgotten, but the subject of repeated criticism and mockery.
In eighteen forty four's Memoirs of Eminent English Women, Louisa
Stuart Costello bitingly writes, in almost every age there has

(36:36):
been some such self esteemed phoenix, whose harmless conceit does
but little injury, but is nevertheless a general annoyance, except
to the tradesman she employs to print and bind the
countless volumes with which she delights to adorn her own library.
Tell us how you really feel, Louisa cai had become

(37:01):
as wolf. Put it in a room of one's own,
a bogey to frighten clever young girls with a cautionary
tale see girls, If you try to write, you might
become like the crazy Duchess. In more recent years of scholarship, however,
Margaret's contributions and natural philosophy and fiction have been canonically acknowledged.

(37:25):
She might be the giant cucumber. Wolf described her as
crushing her floral contemporaries in the Garden of Good Taste.
But you can't deny that a cucumber takes up space.
Margaret was buried in the joint tomb William had purchased
at Westminster Abbey. He could never have imagined his wife,

(37:47):
thirty years his junior, would be laid to rest inside
before he The monument in which the couple now lay
side by side can still be seen at the abbey today.
Visitors will see the couple, elaborately sculpted in ceremonial dress,
lying peacefully next to each other. If they look closely,

(38:09):
they can see a book and an inkpot in Margaret's
left hand. Look even closer, and they'll read the inscription
below telling them that here lies a wise, witty and
learned lady, which many of her books do well testify
decide for yourself. That's the story of Margaret Cavendish. But

(38:40):
keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a
little reminder about one of her forebears. In our earlier

(39:02):
episode on Lady Mary Roth, the first english woman to
publish fiction under her own name, we mentioned that it
would take forty years for another englishwoman to do the same.
This woman was, of course, Margaret Cavendish. What Margaret had
feared had happened to Mary. Mary was shunned by society

(39:25):
after her prose fiction Urania's sixteen twenty one release shocked
the English Court. One detractor, Edward Denny infamously called her
a hermaphrodite in show, indeed a monster in a scathing poem.
In the preface to sixteen sixty four's Sociable Letters, Margaret

(39:47):
Cavendish quotes the final couplet from Denny's poem to Mary work, Oh,
the works leave idle books alone, For wise and worthier
women have written none. Noble Blood is a production of

(40:11):
iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble
Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing
and research by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, Courtney Sender, Amy
Hit and Julia Milani. The show is edited and produced
by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il KLi and

(40:33):
executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.