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Reception History
[edit]Egerton was generally well received by her audience and peers alike throughout her lifetime, however, her first work, The Female Advocate, was highly controversial; albeit her most famous piece[1] . Upon the second publishing of the poem, her father, enraged and embarrassed, banished her from their home in London[2]. A few of her poems, in Poems on Several Occasions, lament this act and blame poetry for, “…[robbing her] of a tender Father’s love ”[3]. She was also criticized for lacking humor, and grace compared to male satirists such as Robert Gould-the author of the work that inspired The Female Advocate [2], and for having the reputation of being a young lady too familiar with the world and how it functions[2]. Additionally, she was publicly ridiculed by one of her peers, Delarivier Manley, four years after publishing her last piece, Poems on Several Occasions [1].Manley occasionally wrote negative commentary about Egerton. In both The New Atalantis and Memoirs of Europe[4], Manley makes fun of Egerton's second marriage, physical appearance, and some of her literary work[5].This lasted for a span of four years( 1707 to 1711) and affected how Egerton was later perceived[1].
On the other hand, Egerton did have several supporters. Although Poems on Several Occasions was not a commercial success, Egerton was still regarded as a talented poetess [1]. Notable authors and poetesses, such as Susanna Centlivre and Mary Pix wrote dedicatory poems to her in Poems on Several Occasions. In a poem titled, “To Mrs. S.F. on her incomparable Poems”, Centlivre says, “Thou Champion for our Sex go on and show Ambitious Man what Womankind can do… [3].” Mary Pix tells her in a poem entitled, “To Mrs. S.F. on her poems”, “Clarinda will her charming lines expose, and in her strength we vanquish all our Foes[3].” Clarinda was Egerton’s pen name[6]. There are two more poems dedicated to her; one with the same title as Pix’s and the other entitled, “To my Ingenious Friend Mrs. S.F. on her Poems”, written by a J.H. and an E.C. respectively. All four of the poems praise Egerton’s prowess as a female author.
Today, scholars look at Egerton's first work as an "astonishingly mature" piece for such a young girl[1]. Jeslyn Medoff, a Sarah Fyge Egerton history scholar, said, "...Sarah Fyge is a small but sturdy link in feminist literary history, a history that goes back to Sulpicia, Corinna, and Sappho [2]." She is also highly praised for commanding respect in her work[7]. She did this by writing about personal experiences; a writing style which had only barely begun[7]. This allowed her to take ownership of both her private and public lives; refraining from the traditions of women's writing at the time[7]. Overall, she is regarded as both a strong, rebellious feminist who insisted on women's rights, and a vulnerable woman who had to the deal with: the unfairness of a resentful marriage, unrequited love, and the loss of her father's respect[2].
- ^ a b c d e Evans, Robert; Scott, MeKoi (2012). Sarah Fyge Egerton. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate. ISBN 9780754631163.
- ^ a b c d e Medoff, Jeslyn (1982). "New Light on Sarah Fyge". Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. 1 (2): 155-175.
- ^ a b c Egerton, Sarah (1987). Poems on Several Occasions (1703), A Photoreproduction with an Introduction by Constance Clark. Delmar, New York: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints.
- ^ Turner, Cheryl (2002). Living by the Pen: Women Writers in the Eighteenth Century (3 ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 229. ISBN 0-203-16014-2.
- ^ Sargent, Carole (2011). "How a Pie Fight Satirizes Whig-Tory Conflict in Delarivier Manley's 'The New Atalantis". Eighteenth-Century Studies.
- ^ Room, Adrian (2010). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins (5 ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Incorporated. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-7864-4373-4.
- ^ a b c Genovese, Michael (2010). ""Profess as Much as I": Dignity as Authority in the Poetry of Sarah Fyge Egerton". The Eighteenth Century. 51: 45-66. doi:10.1353/ecy.2010.0009.