Henrietta Battier

Henrietta Battier [née Fleming] ("c."1751–1813) was an Irish poet, satirist, and actress. She married the son of a Dublin banker and had at least four children. While on a visit to London in 1783–4, she approached Samuel Johnson to request his advice about publishing a manuscript collection of poems; Johnson was encouraging and helped her to build a subscription list: he reportedly said to her, "Don't be disheartened my Child, I have been often glad of a Subscription myself." [Donald D. Eddy and J.D. Fleeman. "A Preliminary Handlist of Books to which Dr. Johnson Subscribed". Charlottesville: The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 1993.] His death in 1784, however, delayed Battier's plans and the "The protected fugitives" was not published until 1791. While she was in London she acted the role of Lady Rachel Russell in Thomas Stratford's tragedy on the death of Lord Russell, at the Drury Lane Theatre. Thereafter both she and her husband became seriously ill, and a son died, in 1789, possibly predeceased by his sister. Back in Dublin, as "Patt. Pindar," she published a series of pointed political lampoons beginning with "The Kirwanade": "magnificently controlled vituperation in vigorous, colloquial heroic couplets." ["Battier, Henrietta (Fleming)." "The Feminist Companion to Literature in English". Virginia Blain, et al., eds. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990. 70.] Her subsequent satires argued for reform, religious tolerance, and Irish freedom. They would seem to have sold well, but her financial circumstances were straightened. She died in Dublin in 1813.

Works

*"The Mousiad: an Heroic-Comic Poem". Dublin: P. Byrne, 1787 (attributed).
*"The protected fugitives: a collection of miscellaneous poems, the genuine products of a lady, never before published". 1791.
*"The Kirwanade, or, Poetical Epistle. Humbly Addressed to the Modern Apostle". Published in two parts, 1791.
*"The Gibbonade, or, Political Reviewer". Three issues, 1 May 1793–12 September 1794.
*"Marriage Ode Royal after the Manner of Dryden". Dublin and London, 1795.
*"The Lemon". 1797.
*"An Address on … the Projected Union, To the Illustrious Stephen III, King of Dalkey, Emperor of the Mugglins". 1799.

Notes

Resources

*"Battier, Henrietta (Fleming)." "The Feminist Companion to Literature in English". Virginia Blain, et al., eds. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990. 70.
*Grundy, Isobel. “ [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/45834 Battier , Henrietta (c.1751–1813)] .” "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 5 Apr. 2007.