Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
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Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (26 May 1689 – 21 August 1762) was an English aristocrat and writer, chiefly remembered today for her letters.
Quotes
- Let this great maxim be my virtue’s guide,—
In part she is to blame that has been tried:
He comes too near that comes to be denied.- The Lady’s Resolve (1713). A fugitive piece, written on a window by Lady Montagu, after her marriage. Compare: "In part to blame is she, Which hath without consent bin only tride: He comes to neere that comes to be denide", Sir Thomas Overbury (1581–1613), A Wife, stanza 36.
- In response to Lady Mary Montague's line 'And we meet, with champagne and a chicken at last' (from Montague's poem 'The Lover: A Ballad'):
"What say you to such a supper with such a woman? … Is not her 'champagne and chicken' worth a forest or two? Is it not poetry?"
--from Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: with Notices of his Life. Ed. Thomas Moore. Paris: A. and W. Gaglinani, 1830. p. 391.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
- Quotes reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
- Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet;
In short, my deary, kiss me, and be quiet.- A Summary of Lord Lyttelton’s Advice.
- Satire should, like a polished razor keen,
Wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen.- To the Imitator of the First Satire of Horace, Book ii.
- But the fruit that can fall without shaking
Indeed is too mellow for me.- The Answer.
External links
- Works by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu at Project Gutenberg
- The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Lord Wharncliffe (great-grandson), ed. 2 Vols. Third Edition, with Additions and Corrections Derived from the Original Manuscripts, Illustrative Notes, and a New Memoir By W. Moy Thomas. Henry G. Bohn, London: York Street, Covent Garden, 1861.
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Exhibition at The Graves Art Gallery Sheffield, 10 March until 3 June 2007.
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