MONTAGU. Lady Mary Wortley, was the eldest daughter of Evelyn Pierrepont, Duke of Kingston, and Lady Mary Fielding, daughter of William, Earl of Denbigh, and was born at Thoresby, Nottinghamshire, in the year 1690. She was connected through the Pierreponts with Beaumont the dramatist. Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was her grand-uncle, and Henry Fielding was her second cousin. Having lost her mother at the age of four, her education was left to a sensible grandmother, a superstitious nurse, and a weak governess. Under the tuition of her brother's preceptors, she acquired some knowledge of Latin, a smattering of Greek, and the rudiments of the French language. At the age of eight she had made considerable proficiency, and began to read all the books she could lay her hands on. Her first known poetical effusion was an Epistle from Julia to Ovid, written at the age of twelve, and which, besides the complimentary gallantry, exhibits a nice apprehension of the style of versification then in vogue. At fifteen she formed a project of establishing an English nunnery, and of electing herself lady-abbess, but had not the means to carry out her scheme. At twenty she translated Epictetus, most probably from the Latin version, under the eye of her friend Bishop Burnet.
The next step of importance in the life of Lady Mary was her marriage with Edward Wortley Montagu, son of the Hon. Sydney Montagu, and grandson of the first Earl of Sandwich. He was a country gentleman, not remarkably brilliant, but possessed of considerable scholarship. The marriage seems to have been ill-assorted, and certainly proved unfortunate. A radical incongruity of character existed between them which time could not correct.
In 1714 Mr Wortley obtained a place in the Treasury, and in consequence took his lady to court, where her wit, spirit, and beauty attracted general admiration, and made a considerable impression on the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II. In 1716 Mr Wortley, who had made no great figure at home, was appointed ambassador to Constantinople, where his success was not more remarkable. But he took his wife with him to the capital of the Turkish empire, and thus afforded her an opportunity, in her Letters from the Levant, of charming the world with the most luxurious pictures ever yet given of a voluptuous people, and of bringing away with her, in the shape of inoculation for small-pox, a talisman for the preservation of beauty. From these, and indeed from all her future letters, it is clear that her good sense was sound and uncompromising, with an ever-increasing tendency towards universal justice. Besides Constantinople, Lady Mary and her husband, whilst abroad, visited several parts of Germany; and on their return sailed through the Archipelago, touched on the coast of Africa, and, crossing the Mediterranean to Genoa, reached home through Lyons and Paris in October 1718. From all these places we have letters of the liveliest kind, and, considering the time at which she wrote, of the most original description. A traveller so shrewd and observant was till then unknown, and her sex gave to the novelty an additional attraction. The manners of Italy she found peculiarly congenial to her disposition; and accordingly, when in 1739 she resolved to pass the remainder of her life on the Continent, she betook herself to that country, and remained there until within less than a year of her death.
On her return from the East, Pope prevailed on her to come and live near him at Twickenham. Both were then in the zenith of their reputation, and mutual admiration seemed to give assurance of the stability of their friendship.
But a short time sufficed to prove that this anticipation was ill founded. Various causes have been assigned for the sudden rupture which ensued. According to Lady Mary's own statement, the truth of which is borne out by other evidence, Pope at some ill-chosen time made such passionate love to her, as, in spite of her utmost endeavours to be angry and look grave, provoked an immediate burst of laughter, from which moment the mortified poet became her implacable enemy.
On her return from Constantinople, she introduced inoculation for the small-pox into England, through the medium of the medical attendant of the embassy. She had lost her only brother by the disease, which had also destroyed her own beautiful eye-lashes; and she was resolved to give to her family and the world the benefit of a practice which promised to save the lives and to preserve the beauty of millions. With courageous love, she began with her own offspring, and lived to see her innovation triumphant, though not until it had encountered such an opposition that she almost repented of her philanthropy. In the month of July 1739 she left England without her husband, with a resolution to pass the remainder of her life on the Continent. She proceeded at once to Venice, and took possession of a deserted palace on the banks of Lake Iseo, in the Venetian territory, where she planned a garden, applied herself to the business of a country life, and solaced herself with books, which in some measure supplied the want of society. On the death of Mr Wortley, which took place in 1761, she yielded to the solicitations of her daughter, Lady Bute, and after an absence of twenty-two years, returned to England. But her health had suffered much from a cancer with which she was afflicted; and before ten months had elapsed, she expired, on the 21st of August 1762, in the seventy-third year of her age. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was undoubtedly the most remarkable woman of her time. She was the presiding female wit in the days of Pope, the benefactress of her species by the introduction of inoculation, and the keen satirist of the fashionable circles. Her poems are indeed little else than wit in rhyme,—mere vers de société; but her prose is truly admirable. It is idiomatic, easy, fresh, racy, and piquant; sparkling with wit, and often equally remarkable for strong sense and sarcastic bitterness. The conventional shows of things could not deceive her; she saw beneath the painted masks which are worn in society, and fearlessly published her discoveries. It is only to be regretted that she occasionally overlooked what was worthy in human nature, and wasted her fine powers on objects that only served to embitter her life.
The best edition of her Letters and Works is that published by her great-grandson Lord Wharncliffe, London, 1837, in 3 vols. 8vo, containing a very spirited life of Lady Mary, under the title of Biographical Anecdotes, supposed to be from the pen of her grand-daughter Lady Louisa Stuart. A new edition of her Letters appeared in New York in 1856, in vol. ii. of The Library of Standard Letters.