Elizabeth Hands

Elizabeth Hands(pen name,Daphne;1746–1815) was an Englishpoet.

Early life

Elizabeth Herbert was born inHarbury,1746.^[1]Before the birth of her daughter she worked as adomestic servantfor at least one family inWarwickshire,in the area betweenRugbyandCoventry.^[2]

Career

By 1785, when her daughter was born, she was married to ablacksmith,Mr. Hands. They lived nearRugby.

Poems written by Hands using the pseudonym "Daphne" were published inJopson's Coventry Mercury.^[3]Among those impressed by her work was Thomas James, the headmaster ofRugby School.^[3]In 1789 the school's press published by subscription a book of her poems,The Death of Amnon. A Poem, with an Appendix: containing Pastorals, and other Poetical Pieces.^[4]It is not known whether Hands continued writing after the publication ofAmnon.^[5]The classics master at Rugby school, Philip Bracebridge Homer, used his extensive network of contacts in clerical and literary circles to secure 1,200 subscribers forThe Death of Amnon,including members of the nobility from across England and members of parliament such asEdmund BurkeandCharles James Fox.The volume was reviewed in several important literary journals of the period: theGentleman's Magazine,theMonthly Reviewand the politically radicalAnalytical Review.

Style and themes

Hands' poems treat a wide variety of subjects and are frequently satirical.The Death of Amnon,a long poem inblank verse(regarded as the most serious and prestigiouspoetic metreby eighteenth-century literary theorists), divided into fivecantos,tells the violent and sombre biblical story of how King David's son Amnon raped his sister Tamar and was killed by their half brother Absalom. Other poems, mostly in more informaliambic tetrameter,concentrate on themes that were conventional for thepastoral modein poetry (love, friendship, loss, the seasons, the country versus the city life), as well as poetics ( "On Reading Pope's Eloisa to Abelard", "Critical Fragments on some of the English Poets" ), philosophical topics ( "Observation on the Works of Nature"; "Friendship. An Ode" ), and occasional observations from everyday life ( "Written while the Author sat on a Cock of Hay"; "On an Unsociable Family" ).

Literary and social historians have highlighted Hands' astute management of how her poems' would be interpreted by eighteenth-century literary journalists and general readers. Her ironic handling of how her poems would be judged was intended to cause her social superiors discomfort.^[6]Hands' anticipation of her poems' reception is especially evident in the first two poems in theAppendix:"A Poem, On the Supposition of an Advertisement appearing in a Morning Paper, of the Publication of a Volume of Poems, by a Servant Maid" and "A Poem, On the Supposition of the Book having been published and read". These poems present readers with scenarios in which the volume of poems they are holding – and its author – are being commented on by members of the rural gentry. The two "Suppositions" satirise the manners and taste of various bourgeois personages, showing the impoverished state of their literary judgement, at the same time that those personages ( "Miss Coquettilla", "Miss Prudella", "Mrs Domestic", "Timothy Turtle", "Captain Bonair", and others) dismiss Hands' poetry because it is written by a servant. In "A Poem, On the Supposition of an Advertisement appearing in a Morning Paper, of the Publication of a Volume of Poems, by a Servant Maid", Hands shows the assembled characters' incredulity and disdain, while allowing the reader to see that she knows more than they do:

A servant write verses! says Madame du Bloom;

Pray what is the subject – a Mop or a Broom?

He, he, he, says Miss Flounce; I suppose we shall see

An Ode on a Dishclout – what else can it be?^[7]^[8]

Clifford Siskin argues that the satire of the second "Supposition" is directed at all those people who discussed the book at social gatherings (or subscribed to the volume and received a copy), but never read it.^[9]Carolyn Steedman describes the "Suppositions" as "intentionally offensive, and wonderfully so", and shows how Hands manages to suggest the limitedness of her superiors' worldview and critical powers.^[10]

References

^Baines, Ferraro & Rogers 2010,p. 267.
^Steedman, Carolyn (2005). "Poetical Maids and Cooks Who Wrote".Eighteenth-Century Studies.39(1): 1–27.doi:10.1353/ecs.2005.0053.JSTOR 30053586.S2CID 145380863.
^^a ^bFeldman, Paula R. (1997).British women poets of the Romantic era: an anthology.Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 256.ISBN 0-8018-5430-X
^Hands, Elizabeth (1789).The Death of Amnon. A Poem, with an Appendix: containing Pastorals, and other Poetical Pieces.Coventry: Printed for the Author by N. Rollason.
^Feldman, Paula R. (1997).British women poets of the Romantic era: an anthology.Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 258.ISBN 0-8018-5430-X
^Steedman, Carolyn (2009).Labours Lost: Domestic Service and the Making of Modern England.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 276–304.ISBN 9780521736237.
^Hands, Elizabeth (1789)."A Poem, on the Supposition of an Advertisement Appearing in a Morning Paper, of the Publication of a Volume of Poems, by a Servant-Maid".PoetryFoundation.
^Innes, Joanna (14 April 2011). "Ode on a Dishclout".London Review of Books33(8): 24.
^Siskin, Clifford (1998).The Work of Writing: Literature and Social Change in Britain, 1700-1830.Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 221.ISBN 978-0801862847.
^Steedman, Carolyn (2005). "Poetical Maids and Cooks Who Wrote".Eighteenth-Century Studies.39(1): 1–27 (p. 12).doi:10.1353/ecs.2005.0053.JSTOR 30053586.S2CID 145380863.

Bibliography

Baines, Paul; Ferraro, Julian; Rogers, Pat (28 December 2010).The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Eighteenth-Century Writers and Writing 1660 - 1789.John Wiley & Sons.ISBN 978-1-4443-9008-7.

External links

Elizabeth Handsat theEighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
Works by or about Elizabeth Handsat theInternet Archive
Works by Elizabeth HandsatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
Hands, Elizabeth (1789).The Death of Amnon: A poem. With an Appendix: containing Pastorals, and other Poetical Pieces.Coventry: Printed for the Author by N. Rollason at Internet Archive[1]
PoetryFoundation.org
Poems by Hands available, via Poetry Foundation:

[FOOTNOTEBainesFerraroRogers2010267-1] Baines, Ferraro & Rogers 2010,p. 267.

[2] Steedman, Carolyn (2005). "Poetical Maids and Cooks Who Wrote".Eighteenth-Century Studies.39(1): 1–27.doi:10.1353/ecs.2005.0053.JSTOR 30053586.S2CID 145380863.

[Feldman256-3] Feldman, Paula R. (1997).British women poets of the Romantic era: an anthology.Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 256.ISBN 0-8018-5430-X

[4] Hands, Elizabeth (1789).The Death of Amnon. A Poem, with an Appendix: containing Pastorals, and other Poetical Pieces.Coventry: Printed for the Author by N. Rollason.

[5] Feldman, Paula R. (1997).British women poets of the Romantic era: an anthology.Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 258.ISBN 0-8018-5430-X

[6] Steedman, Carolyn (2009).Labours Lost: Domestic Service and the Making of Modern England.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 276–304.ISBN 9780521736237.

[7] Hands, Elizabeth (1789)."A Poem, on the Supposition of an Advertisement Appearing in a Morning Paper, of the Publication of a Volume of Poems, by a Servant-Maid".PoetryFoundation.

[8] Innes, Joanna (14 April 2011). "Ode on a Dishclout".London Review of Books33(8): 24.

[9] Siskin, Clifford (1998).The Work of Writing: Literature and Social Change in Britain, 1700-1830.Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 221.ISBN 978-0801862847.

[10] Steedman, Carolyn (2005). "Poetical Maids and Cooks Who Wrote".Eighteenth-Century Studies.39(1): 1–27 (p. 12).doi:10.1353/ecs.2005.0053.JSTOR 30053586.S2CID 145380863.

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