Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (26 May 1689 – 21 August 1762) was an English aristocrat and writer, chiefly remembered today for her letters.

Quotes

Let this great maxim be my virtue’s guide,—
In part she is to blame that has been tried:
He comes too near that comes to be denied.
- The Lady’s Resolve (1713). A fugitive piece, written on a window by Lady Montagu, after her marriage. Compare: "In part to blame is she, Which hath without consent bin only tride: He comes to neere that comes to be denide", Sir Thomas Overbury (1581–1613), A Wife, stanza 36.

In response to Lady Mary Montague's line 'And we meet, with champagne and a chicken at last' (from Montague's poem 'The Lover: A Ballad'):
"What say you to such a supper with such a woman? … Is not her 'champagne and chicken' worth a forest or two? Is it not poetry?"

--from Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: with Notices of his Life. Ed. Thomas Moore. Paris: A. and W. Gaglinani, 1830. p. 391.

Quotes reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet;
In short, my deary, kiss me, and be quiet.
- A Summary of Lord Lyttelton’s Advice.

Satire should, like a polished razor keen,
Wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen.
- To the Imitator of the First Satire of Horace, Book ii.

But the fruit that can fall without shaking
Indeed is too mellow for me.
- The Answer.

Works by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu at Project Gutenberg
The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Lord Wharncliffe (great-grandson), ed. 2 Vols. Third Edition, with Additions and Corrections Derived from the Original Manuscripts, Illustrative Notes, and a New Memoir By W. Moy Thomas. Henry G. Bohn, London: York Street, Covent Garden, 1861.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Exhibition at The Graves Art Gallery Sheffield, 10 March until 3 June 2007.

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