Elizabeth Montagu was one of the first English Bluestockings.
Elizabeth Montagu referred to her house at 22 Portman Square,
Mayfair, London as a "Temple of virtue and friendship", "a
palace of chaste elegance". Elizabeth Montagu was an educated
woman with artistic taste. The architecture, sculpture, marquetry
floors, art, marquetry or stone intarsia furniture, were made by
the best artists and craftsmen. The Hill Street home was the
original site for bluestocking meetings.
This satirical print is a characture of Elizabeth Montagu and
William Mason. The public view of William Mason, an aspiring
clergyman-poet. The medieval love story of Abelard and Eloisa
suggests that the satirical print is of the not too brilliant
clergyman is seeking widow Montagu's hand in marriage (or more
precisely, her property and finances). Gossip is enjoyed everywhere
at all times, but perhaps what is suggested is that Bluestocking
women were not too intelligent, easy "marks". Thus an attack on
independent, educated (as men were) English women.
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