The Children of Apollo - Fame and Infamy in Georgian England

     Throughout her life, Elizabeth Craven was haunted by the scandal deliberately spread by her first husband, Lord Craven, at the time of their separation. It was impossible for any woman to separate from her husband in Georgian England without a tinge of unpleasant scandal, and he went further than most irate husbands, spreading sensational accounts of her behaviour to stir up malicious gossip. 

    Needless to say, he did not attract any opprobrium for having a mistress, but she for the rest of her life, struggled to throw off this unfair reputation.

    In 1794, when she had re-married and returned to England, a lengthy poem appeared entitled The Children of Apollo: a Poem. Containing an Impartial Review of all the Dramatic Works of out Modern Authors and Authoresses. Particularly Lady Wallace. Margravine of Anspach. Honourable Major North. Honourable John St. John. Sheridan. Colman. Holcroft. Jackman. O'Keeffe. Coob. Cumberland. Lorris. Bate. Miss Lee. Mrs. Cowly. -Inchbald. Rose. Dibdin. Andrews. Morton. Stuart. Murphy. Macklin. Jephson. M'Nally. Reynolds. Jerningham. Hoare. Hurlstone. Topham. &c. &c. To which are added, occasional notes. By - - -, Esq. agent to the Sun.1794.

    It was anonymous, and no suggestions about authorship ever seem to have been made. The writer, who is definitely a man as he signs himself "-- -- --, Esq., agent to the Sun", offered versified comments on many of the writers of the day, putting those with aristocratic titles in a prominent position so as to attract public attention. There was of course a tradition, going back to Alexander Pope, of writing criticism in versified form.

    The author's reflections on Craven are brief and cruel. He refers to only one of the many works she had written by that date, the one-act musical interlude The Silver Tankard, and he does so scathingly. He accuses her of "thirsting for fame" and goes on to hint something even more pejorative:

        Lo! now the MARGRAVINE OF ANPSACH vies
        With other fair to gain the laurel-prize :
        She to simplicity lays simple claim,
        And in a Silver-tankard thirsts for fame.
        Simplicity's the height of all her wishes,
        Simple, indeed - not fimplex in munditiis;
        For what's simplicity, without some spirit,
        Sure it must fail if lacking sterling merit;
        Shouldest thou again this modest stile renew,
        Study Rosina, study Marian too!
        But now perhaps it is not public fame,
        But private honor is your only aim;
        That private honor you must sure receive,
        When private titles in return you give!

    Rosina and Marian were comic operas by Frances Brooke and William Shield, performed in 1786 and 1788 at the Covent Garden Theatre.

    The Latin phrase "simplex in munditiis" is derived from Horace "simplex munditiis" meaning free from ornament, and often taken to mean "chaste and pure". Simple literally means unadulterated, and adultery is another word for sexually "impure".  

    The lines are full of punning innuendo. "Modest stile" is probably ironic, as modesty could mean female sexual virtue. "Private honour" could be a reference to her private theatre in Hammersmith or could imply that she is a dishonourable woman. And "private titles" seems to mean "entitlements" or "rights", in other words, allowing liberties to be taken with her in private. 

    All in all, the critic judges Craven entirely on her reputation for wild sexual behaviour, and ignores almost everything that she ever wrote. How wounding it must have been for her to endure such attacks, repeated throughout her lifetime. Imagine what critics would have written if they had applied the same standards of judgement to Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley or Burns - even to Shakespeare. 

    It follows its judgement of Craven with an equally damning one of Lady Wallace, whose comedy The Ton was performed at Covent Garden in 1788. 

        

        Next Lady Wallace, almost in a passion

        With Ton, the follies, she reviles of fashion,

        But how? In strains as harsh as Colly-Molly's

        Her Ladyship exposes her own follies.

        Void of all wit, and what is more uncommon,

        Void of all plot, tho' from the brains of woman.

      

It is to be suspected that the critic was influenced by the fact that Lady Wallace, the sister of the Duchess of Gordon, had separated from her husband. She was in fact a woman of considerable linguistic skills who published translations of Schiller and of the letters of Beethoven and Mozart, together with the Life of Mozart by Karl Friedrich Ludwig Nohl.

    The Children of Apollo casts a lot of aspersions on other well-known authors, saying of Sheridan's comedy The Rivals:-

 

        But certainly the author measur'd wrong,

        The play is in three acts, one act too long.

        The joke is known too soon, and after that,

        How stale the character, the plot how flat.

He ridicules Jerningham's play The Siege of Berwick:

        The stile has great variety methinks,

        For see, it rises! -- now alas! it sinks!

        Happy indeed the acts were only four,

        For all the players must have died, if more.

Elizabeth Inchbald is one of the few women for whom he has any praise, and even that is of a patronizing kind:-

        The Midnight Hour is a good alteration,

        Diamond Cut Diamond is the close translation.

But no other author is singled out for the kind of personal censure and public shaming that he reserves for Elizabeth Craven. We should never under-estimate how painful this was for her, or how brave she was to continue writing.