Note 330 — Chapter IX · Bluestockings as Authors
Reading edition
Young praised her in his poem Resignation (Part 2). Like Eve, Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Montagu have ‘caused a fall—A fall of fame in man.’ He institutes a comparison with Addison. But Lord Lyttelton is even bolder: Carter’s singing reminds him at times of the angels singing over Bethlehem and at times of Sappho,
‘Greece shall no more Of Lesbian Sappho boast.... For the sacred head Of Britain’s poetess the Virtues twine A nobler wreath.’
—On reading Miss Carter’s Poems in Manuscript. Mr. Smelt told Fanny Burney that he considered Mrs. Carter’s Ode the best in the language. Diary 4. 222.