Judith Cowper Madan

Judith Cowper, daughter of Judge Spencer Cowper, M.P. (and the aunt of William Cowper), married Captain Martin Madan, equerry to Frederick, Prince of Wales. She was acquainted with the Countess of Huntington, John Wesley, and early in life corresponded with Alexander Pope. She has a poem in Dodsley's Collection; her oft-reprinted "Abelard to Eloisa" was first published in William Pattison's Poems in 1728 — the authorship has subsequently been disputed. Her son, Martin Madan, was the author of Thelyphthora, satirized by William Cowper in Antithelyphthora.

TEXT RECORDS:

1721The Progress of Poetry.
1721 ca.To Mr. Pope.

PUBLICATIONS:

Letters of the late Alexander Pope, Esq. to a lady. 1769.
The progress of poetry. 1783.
Letters of Abelard and Heloise ... To which are now added The poems of Eloisa to Abelard, by Mr. Pope. And Abelard to Eloise, by Mrs. Madan. 1773.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

privately educated
courtier

woman writer
poet

Jane Brereton
William Cowper
John Hughes
Alexander Pope
Rev. John Wesley

REFERENCE:

Not DNB; not NCBEL.

Robert Dodsley, Collection of Poems (1748-58); George Coleman and Bonnell Thornton, Poems by Eminent Ladies (1755); Gentleman's Magazine 51 (December 1781) 594; memoir in Gentleman's Magazine 53 (February 1783) 152; John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the XVIII Century (1812-15); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Alexander Dyce, Specimens of British Poetesses (1827); Frederic Rowton, Female Poets of Great Britain (1853); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); W. P. Courtney, in Dodsley's Collection of Poetry (1910) 80-83; Falconer Madan, The Madan Family (1933); Todd, Dictionary of ... Women Writers 1660-1800 (1987); Lonsdale, Eighteenth-Century Women Poets (1989); Michael F. Suarez, ed., Dodsley, Collection of Poems (1997) 1:139-40.

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Judith Cowper Madan:

1.	1722  Alexander Pope to Judith Cowper Madan, 30 September 1722; Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 9:417-18.
2.	1724  Anonymous, "Lines by a youthful Lady" London Journal (30 May 1724).
3.	1731  Anonymous, in "To the Author of the Progress of Poetry" The Flower Piece (1731) 143-44.
4.	1731 ca.  Jane Brereton, "To the Author of the Progress of Poetry" 1731 ca.; Brereton, Poems on Several Occasions (1744) 88-89.
5.	1754  John Duncombe, in The Feminiad (1754) 19-20 & n.
6.	1760  Anonymous, "Occasion'd by reading a Copy of Verses, entitled The Progress of Poetry" London Magazine 29 (February 1760) 99.
7.	1768  William Cowper to Judith Cowper Madan, 28 June 1768; Correspondence, ed. Thomas Wright (1904) 1:103-04.
8.	1803  William Hayley, in Life of Cowper (1803-04, 1806) 1:4.
9.	1809  L. W., in Gentleman's Magazine 79 (1809) 913.
10.	1812  John Nichols, in Literary Anecdotes of the XVIII Century (1812-15) 3:60-61n.
11.	1827  Alexander Dyce, in Specimens of British Poetesses, selected and chronologically arranged (1827) 195.
12.	1886  Whitwell Elwin and William John Courthope, Note in Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 9:416n.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Judith Cowper Madan:

1.	1755  George Coleman and Bonnell Thornton, Poems by Eminent Ladies (1755) 2:136.
2.	1781  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 51 (December 1781) 594.
3.	1782  Isaac Reed, in Dodsley, Collection of Poems (1782) 4:245n.
4.	1783  Anonymous, in Review of Madan, Progress of Poetry; Gentleman's Magazine 53 (February 1783) 152.
5.	1886  Whitwell Elwin, in Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871-1889) 9:416.
6.	1910  William Prideaux Courtney, in Dodsley's Collection of Poetry, its Contents and Contributors (1910) 80-83.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1720  John Hughes:   Judith Cowper Madan, "To the Memory of Mr. Hughes" 1720; Hughes, Poetical Works (1735) 1:lxv-lxviii.
2.	1721  Joseph Addison:   Judith Cowper Madan, in "The Progress of Poetry" 1721; London Magazine (1759) 157.
3.	1721  Abraham Cowley:   Judith Cowper Madan, in "Progress of Poetry" 1721; London Magazine 28 (1759) 156.
4.	1721  Sir John Denham:   Judith Cowper Madan, in "The Progress of Poetry" 1721; London Magazine 28 (1759) 156.
5.	1721  John Dryden:   Judith Cowper Madan, in "The Progress of Poetry" 1721; London Magazine 58 (1759) 156.
6.	1721  John Hughes:   Judith Cowper Madan, in "Progress of Poetry" (1721); London Magazine 58 (1759) 157.
7.	1721  John Milton:   Judith Cowper Madan, in "The Progress of Poetry" 1721; London Magazine (1759) 156.
8.	1721  Alexander Pope:   Judith Cowper Madan, "To Mr. Pope" 1721; Works of the English Poets (1779) 32:xvi-xix.
9.	1721  Edmund Waller:   Judith Cowper Madan, in "Progress of Poetry" 1721; London Magazine 28 (1759) 156.