Women in English Life from Mediæval to Modern Times, Vol. I

by Georgiana Hill

Whatever condemnation the stage incurred in the seventeenth century, it was, whether deservedly or not, quite as much held up to opprobrium in the eighteenth. A tract, published in 1726 by William Law, after describing the playhouse as a “sink of corruption and debauchery,” goes on to say—

“This is not the state of the Play House through any accidental abuse, as any innocent or good thing may be abused; but that corruption and debauchery are the truly natural and genuine effects of the stage entertainment.”

But in spite of the abuses that existed in connection with the stage, the fact remains that all through the eighteenth century there was a succession of actresses whose celebrity was not confined to their own age. The mere mention of the names of Mrs. Oldfield, Mrs. Porter, Peg Woffington, Mrs. Cibber, Kitty Clive, and, later, the incomparable Sarah Siddons, Miss Farren, and Mrs. Jordan, recalls the glories of the playhouse and the privileges enjoyed by audiences of those days.

In the last century it would have seemed scarcely less absurd to question the propriety of having women to act than it would now. The difference in the course of little over fifty years was marvellous. There is no department of the fine arts in which women have progressed with so much rapidity as in acting. It is hardly necessary to record the triumphs won by popular actresses, or to chronicle the successes which have marked the career of numbers who are not in the first rank. Women have entered upon the stage as upon their natural inheritance. Their presence has stimulated the talents of their male compeers. The attempt to represent human nature with only one half of humanity seems absurdly futile to later generations, who find it impossible to conceive of stage performances in which the players were all men.

It has been seen how the first advent of women on the stage was productive of increased licence and freedom of manners—an almost inevitable result considering what the age was, and the novelty of the experiment. The influence of the drama in England, and the important part which it has played in the development of our social life, have been very widely discussed. Those who view the stage as a great educator, and those—a dwindling number—who regard it as a debaser of public morals, can both find apt illustrations to prove their contentions. But whichever standpoint be taken, the stage, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was far more than at the present day the national recreation. There were fewer counterbalancing attractions.

The Puritan party as a whole, of course, held the stage in horror, but more than one actress whose name has come down to us was descended from a stern Republican—like Anne and Rebecca Marshall, who were said to be daughters of a divine of the Long Parliament. The dissoluteness of the stage was in part attributable to the Puritan spirit which kept the soberer members of the community from countenancing the theatre by their presence, and deterred some from entering the dramatic profession. Stage-acting was decried as a calling to which only the debased would resort, and there were plentiful exhortations to those who valued their soul’s welfare to abstain from looking upon corrupting sights. It was difficult, especially in the seventeenth century, for women of unblemished reputation to go on the stage without being besmirched with the vices of the worst of their companions. Many of the mistresses of Charles II. and his courtiers belonged to the theatrical profession. But the century which delighted in the fascinations of Nell Gwynn, in the beauty of Moll Davies, which watched the performances of Prince Rupert’s mistress, Mrs. Hughes, saw also the famous Mrs. Betterton, of unquestioned virtue, and such actresses as Mrs. Bracegirdle and Elizabeth Barry. There never has been a time when the stage has been without women of high repute as well as brilliant talent to uphold its honour.

It is not until the reign of Charles I. that there is any record of women artists. The first efforts of English artists were directed to the illumination of manuscripts. It was for several centuries the only kind of art worth mentioning in England. There were, it is true, clever goldsmiths and workers in precious stones. It was the custom to have books, especially religious books, richly bound and ornamented. Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, gave a missal with gold clasps, which had belonged to the Duchess of Portland, to her nephew, Henry VI. But there was little painting of pictures, except of the rudest kind, up to the seventeenth century. And, as far as women are concerned, the record is absolutely bare. They do not even appear among the illuminators. But with the days of Vandyck’s residence in England begins our roll of female artists. Anne Carlisle shared the royal patronage with the great Flemish painter, whom she outlived. She was a great favourite at court, and the king’s fine taste would not have tolerated an inferior artist. Then followed a period when the fine arts were forgotten in the turmoil of war, and crushed by the gloomy, repressive Puritan spirit. But after the Restoration, matters changed, and from that time onwards there is a steadily increasing stream of artists, though the women are few in number, up to the present century. The only female painters of any note in the seventeenth century were those who obtained royal patronage, like Mary Beale, a painter in both oil and water-colours, and a most industrious artist, highly commended by the famous portrait painter, Sir Peter Lely. Anne Killigrew, maid of honour to Mary of Modena, Duchess of York, had only twenty-five years in which to make a name, but she has secured a niche not only through her pictures, which included portraits of the Duke and Duchess of York, but also by her verses.

It is anticipating events to proceed to the days of Angelica Kaufmann and Mary Moser, but, for the sake of preserving the continuity of the subject, a rapid review may be taken of the work done by women in the last century.

In 1768 the Royal Academy was founded, the first keeper being George Moser, for many years manager of a private academy for artists in St. Martin’s Lane, London. He was the father of Mary Moser, who, like Angelica Kaufmann, was elected a member of the Royal Academy, these two being the only women on whom that honour was conferred. Both had signed a memorial to George III. in favour of the foundation of an Academy of Arts. When it was opened in 1769, Angelica Kaufmann sent two large paintings, and she continued for years to be an exhibitor. Mary Moser sent a flower piece in oils, and two years later a figure subject. After her marriage with Captain Lloyd she ceased to appear among the ranks of professional painters, though she continued to exhibit at the Academy uninterruptedly until 1779, and at intervals to a later period, her last contribution being in the year 1800.

Angelica Kaufmann and Mary Moser were both of Swiss parentage. Angelica’s father was a native of Schwartzenberg, near Lake Constance, and George Moser was born at Schaffhausen. Angelica Kaufmann was born about 1741—the exact date is uncertain—and Mary Moser in 1744. But while the more celebrated artist spent the years of her childhood among the beautiful surroundings of Morbegno, in Lombardy, and on the shores of Lake Como, and acquired her early training in the galleries of Milan, Mary Moser was born and educated in England. Angelica Kaufmann did not come to this country until 1765, after she had made a name for herself in Italy, and had helped her father to decorate the Church of Schwartzenberg with frescoes, had painted the portraits of several noble personages, had been warmly praised and munificently treated by the Bishop of Constance, and had become the pet of the ladies about the court of the Governor of Milan, Francis III., Duke of Modena. It was through Lady Wentworth, the wife of the English Minister at Venice, Mr. Murray, that Angelica Kaufmann came to England, where she was welcomed by artists both English and foreign, and made much of in the fashionable world. The painter Fuseli, whom she had already met in Rome, was desperately in love with her, but she, unfortunately, fell into the meshes of that arch adventurer who passed himself off as Count de Horn, while her fellow-artist, Mary Moser, was languishing for love of Fuseli, who was indifferent or blind to her attachment. In 1781 Angelica Kaufmann married Antonio Zucchi, a Venetian artist, and left England for Italy never to return. Fuseli consoled himself with a Miss Sophia Rawlins in 1788, the year in which he was elected Associate of the Royal Academy, and Miss Moser married Captain Hugh Lloyd.