Hannah Cowley

Hannah Cowley was the daughter of Philip Parkhouse, a Tiverton bookseller. In 1772 she married Thomas Cowley, a writer and clerk in the Stamp Office, who later worked for the East India company before his death in India in 1797. Cowley lived in London, caring for three children and writing some very successful plays. She quarreled with Hannah More and acquired notoriety as "Anna Matilda" in the newspaper verses she exchanged with Robert Merry ("Della Crusca"), censured by William Gifford in the Baeviad and the Maeviad. Cowley's "The Belle's Stratagem" was performed throughout the nineteenth century.

TEXT RECORDS:

1778A Monody [on Chatterton].
1787To Della Crusca.
1787To Della Crusca. The Pen.
1788Invocation to Horror.
1788To Indifference.

PUBLICATIONS:

The runaway. 1776.
Who's the dupe? 1779.
Albina. Countess Raimond. 1779.
The maid of Arragon: a tale. 1780.
The Belle's stratagem. 1781.
Which is the man? 1782.
A bold stroke for a husband. 1784.
More ways than one. 1784.
A school for graybeards. 1786.
The Scottish village or Pitcairne Green. 1786.
The fate of Sparta, or the rival kings. 1788.
Poetry of Anna Matilda. 1788.
A day in Turkey: or, the Russian slaves. 1792.
The town before you. 1795.
The siege of Acre: an epic poem. 1801.
Works. 3 vols, 1813.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English

privately educated

woman writer
poet
dramatist

The World
European Magazine

Richard Fenton
David Garrick
Robert Merry

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

"Letters by Miss More and Mrs. Cowley" Gentleman's Magazine 49 (August 1779) 407-08; "Anecdotes of Mrs. Cowley" Hibernian Magazine (June 1782) 318; Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788); "Life and Writings of Mrs. H. Cowley" European Magazine 15 (June 1789) 427-28 [portrait]; "Observations on the Writings of Mrs. Cowley" New Lady's Magazine 4 (June-July 1789) 300-03, 342-46; "Mrs. Cowley" New London Magazine 5 (October 1789) 496-97; David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); "Mrs. H. Cowley" Lady;s Monthly Museum 7 (December 1801) 361-63 [portrait]; "Mrts. Hannah Cowley" Monthly Mirror 22 (July 1806) 5-7 [portrait]; "Mrs. Cowley" La Belle Assemblee 6 (May 1809) 156-58; obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 79 (April 1809) 377-78; obituary in European Magazine 55 (May 1809) 363-64; obituary in Monthly Magazine 27 (May 1809) 356-58; obituary in Universal Magazine NS 11 (May 1809) 457-58; obituary in Literary Panorama 6 (September 1809) 1224-26; Biographia Dramatica (1812); Life in Works (1813); J. Anderson, "Hannah Cowley" New British Lady's Magazine 2 (November 1815) 328-31; J. Anderson, "Hannah Cowley" New British Lady's Magazine 2 (April 1819) 65-66; "Hannah Cowley" La Belle Assemblee NS 26 (October-November 1822) 389-90, 439-40 [portrait]; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Alexander Dyce, Specimens of British Poetesses (1827); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Frederic Rowton, Female Poets of Great Britain (1853); Sarah Josepha Hale, Woman's Record (1855); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Eric S. Robertson, in English Poetesses, a Series of Critical Biographies (1883); Wright, West-Country Poets (1896); J. E. Norton, "Some uncollected Authors: Hannah Cowley" Book Collector 7 (1958) 68-76; Todd, Dictionary of ... Women Writers 1660-1800 (1987); Lonsdale, Eighteenth-Century Women Poets (1989).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Hannah Cowley:

1.	1776  Richard Fenton, "To Mrs. Cowley, on her first dramatic Production, the Comedy of the Runaway" 1776; Poems (1790) 1:18-19.
2.	1778  Admiratur, "An Extempore, on reading Mrs. Cowley's Monody" General Advertiser and Morning Intelligencer (12 November 1778).
3.	1779  Alexis, "Impromptu, addressed to Mrs. Cowley" St. James's Chronicle (22 May 1779).
4.	1779  H. A., "Impromptu addressed to Mrs. Cowley" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (22 May 1779).
5.	1779  Anonymous, "An Imitation" Morning Post and Daily Advertiser (17 August 1779).
6.	1779  J. W., "On the Literary Contest between Mrs. Cowley and Miss More" Gentleman's Magazine 49 (September 1779) 462.
7.	1779  T. B****s, "Impromptu, on Female Excellence" General Advertiser and Morning Intelligencer (31 May 1779).
8.	1780  Alexis, "Verses written by an Officer of the Guards, on seeing the Belle's Stratagem" Morning Chronicle (17 November 1780).
9.	1780  Anonymous, "On the Belle's Strategem" St. James's Chronicle (18 April 1780).
10.	1784  Anonymous, "Verses on seeing a Portrait of Mrs. Cowley in the Lady's Magazine" St. James's Chronicle (19 October 1784).
11.	1786  Manucuniensis, "To Mrs. Cowley, upon her late Poem of Pitcairne Green" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (17 August 1786).
12.	1787  Robert Merry, "To Anna Matilda" The World (31 July 1787).
13.	1788  Beville, "To Anna Matilda" The World (29 September 1788).
14.	1789  John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:160 &n.
15.	1789  Laura, "To Anna Matilda" The World (6 March 1789).
16.	1791  Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger, in The Female Geniad; a Poem ... written at the Age of Thirteen (1791) 21.
17.	1800  Richard Polwhele, in "Visitation of the Poets" 1800; Biographical Sketches in Cornwall (1831) 2:48.
18.	1800  Tottenham-Court-Roadiensis, "Anna Matilda and Castalio, a Poetical Effusion" Whitehall Evening Post (30 September 1800).
19.	1801  Alexander Thomson, in The British Parnassus, at the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1801) 50.
20.	1809  Lord Byron, in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809); Poetical Works, ed. E. H. Coleridge (1898-1904) 1:357-58.
21.	1812  Charles Caleb Colton, in Hypocrisy, a Satire (1812) 9 &n.
22.	1827  Alexander Dyce, in Specimens of British Poetesses, selected and chronologically arranged (1827) 283.
23.	1828  Leigh Hunt, in Review of Dyce, Specimens of British Poetesses; The Companion (9 July 1828) 385-88.
24.	1842  C. H. Timperley, in Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote (1842) 2:870n.
25.	1855  Sarah Josepha Hale, Woman's Record; or, Sketches of all Distinguished Women (1852; 1855) 276.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Hannah Cowley:

1.	1782  Isaac Reed, in Biographia Dramatica; or, A Companion to the Playhouse (1782) 1:102-03.
2.	1782  Anonymous, "Anecdotes of the Author" European Magazine 1 (April 1782) 292.
3.	1788  Anonymous, in Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788).
4.	1789  Anonymous, "Life and Writings of Mrs. H. Cowley" European Magazine 15 (June 1789) 427-28.
5.	1798  David Rivers, in Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798) 1:120-21
6.	1809  Anonymous, Obituary in European Magazine 55 (May 1809) 363-64.
7.	1809  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 79 (April 1809) 377-78.
8.	1809  Anonymous, "Mrs. Cowley" La Belle Assemblee 6 (May 1809) 156-58.
9.	1812  Stephen Jones, in Biographia Dramatica; or, A Companion to the Playhouse (1812) 1:152-54.
10.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 10:390-91.
11.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 3:561.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1778  Thomas Chatterton:   Hannah Cowley, "Monody on the Death of Chatterton" Morning Post and Daily Advertiser (24 October 1778).
2.	1787  Robert Merry:   Hannah Cowley, "To Della Crusca. The Pen" The World (10 July 1787).
3.	1787  Robert Merry:   Hannah Cowley, "Stanzas [on Della Crusca's Elegy on the Plain of Fontenoy]" The World (23 November 1787).
4.	1788  Robert Merry:   Hannah Cowley ("Anna Matilda"), "To Della Crusca" 1788; The World (26 February 1789).
5.	1793  Lady Catherine Rebecca Manners:   Hannah Cowley, "On reading the Verses of Lady Manners to Solitude" The Oracle (7 October 1793).