Note 316 — Chapter IX · Bluestockings as Authors
Reading edition
Life 2. 88. As late as 1787, she was thus described in the Epilogue to Thomas Holcroft’s play, Seduction:
Say, shall not we, with conscious pride proclaim A female critic raised—ev’n Shakespear’s Fame!
Towards the end of the century the fame of the book declined. Mrs. Montagu was anonymously attacked by Mathias in his Pursuits of Literature (1794). In speaking of commentators on Shakespeare he says (p. 37):
Nor can I pass Lycisca Montagu, Her yelp though feeble, and her sandals blue.