More, Hannah

(1745-1833)

   Born at Stapleton, Gloucestershire, she was educated at home and at her sisters' school in Bristol, where she acquired mathematics, Italian, Spanish, and Latin. In 1773, she published The Inflexible Captive- a translation from Metastasio's Regulus, and in 1762, a pastoral drama, The Search after Happiness. In London she was friendly with many prominent figures, including Dr. Johnson, David and Mrs. Garrick, and all the Blue Stocking ladies. Her poem "Sir Eldred of the Bower" (1776) earned her a substantial fee. One of her plays, Percy, produced at Covent Garden in December 1777, resulted in the charge of plagiarism by Hannah Cowley (see entry). She went on to write many more plays and serious works often of a religious, moral or political nature and was involved in setting up Sunday schools. She died at Bristol. Some of her poems: "A Christmas Hymn," "Faith and Works, A Tale," "Ode to Charity," "Patient Joe; or, The Newcastle Collier," "Resolution," "Slavery, a Poem," "The Bas Bleu; Or, Conversation," "The Gin-Shop; A Peep into Prison," "The Sorrows of Yamba, or the Negro Woman's Lamentation."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Eighteenth Century Women Poets: An Oxford Antholog y. Roger Lonsdale, ed. Oxford University Press, 1989. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The National Portrait Gallery (www. npg.org.uk). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poetical Works of Hannah More. Scott, Webster, and Geary,