1. Henry F. Chorley, Memorials of Mrs. Hemans, with Illustrations of Her Literary Character from Her Private Correspondence, 2 vols (New York: Saunders and Otley, 1836), vol. 1, p. 112.
2. Frederic Rowton, The Female Poets of Great Britain, Chronologically Arranged, with Copious Selections and Critical Remarks (1853), facsimile, ed. Marilyn L. Williamson (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 386.
3. British Review 15 (January 1820). Page numbers refer to this review.
4. In an interesting parallel case, Lucy Aikin’s slightly earlier Epistles on Women (1810) received surprisingly favorable reviews. The Critical Review commended the author for ‘asserting the proper dignity of her sex’ (s.3. 23 |August 1811|, p. 419), while another reviewer called the poem ‘in no common degree, pointed, polished, and energetic... |while| the versification, too, is of the best kind’ (Poetical Register ami Repository of Fugitive Poetry for 1810–11, p. 553).
5. Norma Clarke, Ambitious Heights: Writing, Friendship, Love — The Jewsbury Sisters, Felicia Hemans, and jane Welsh Carlyle (London: Routledge, 1990), p. 33; my emphases.