Happy Unfortunate - E Boyd - Frontispiece

Elizabeth Boyd (c. 1710 – 1745) was an English writer and poet who supported her family by writing novels, poetry, a play, and a periodical. She also wrote under the

noms de plume A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Louisa or Eloisa. Boyd is one of three known members of the

Shakespeare Ladies Club The Shakespeare Ladies Club (or Shakespeare Ladies' Club) refers to a group of upper class and aristocratic women who petitioned the London theatres to produce William Shakespeare's plays during the 1730s. In the 1700s they were referred to as "t ...

Life and work

Little is known of her birth or career. From her writings it can be gleaned that she came from a large family who had supported the Stuart cause. Her father enjoyed

Stuart Stuart may refer to: Names * Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile *Stuart (automobile) Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory Northe ...

favour, her mother is said to have been worn down by the care of many children. It was to support her ailing mother that she took up writing. The subscription lists to her work contain many aristocrats which suggests the family had been well connected but had fallen on hard times.Lonsdale, Roger (ed) (1990). ''Eighteenth Century Women Poets: An Oxford Anthology''. Oxford University Press. page 134. . She first published poetry under the name of Louisa, ''Variety:A Poem'' (1727) and ''Verses on the King's Birthday'' (1730). Her first major work was a novel entitled ''The Happy Unfortunate; Or The female page''. This appeared in 1732 and was reprinted in 1737. It is a masquerade romance in which the lead female characters hide behind masks for most of the story. With money from this she set up a

stationers Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter paper) ...

shop in George Court, Princes Street, London, near Leicester Fields The ''Humorous Miscellany'' of 1733 contains her best known poem ''On the Death of an Infant of five Days old; being a beautiful but abortive Birth.'' She wrote a play ''Don Sancho, Or The Students Whim'', (1739), which was never performed. However, ''Don Sancho'' was given a reading in the green room of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. ''Don Sancho'' takes place in an Oxford College garden and features the ghosts of William Shakespeare and John Dryden. At the end of the play, after the ghosts return to the afterlife, Minerva creates a monument to Shakespeare; this ending is why many Shakespearean scholars believe Boyd was involved in the

and, specifically, the club's fundraising efforts for the Shakespeare memorial statue in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. ''The Snail: Or the Lady's Lucubrations'' (1745) was an ambitious project to produce a regular periodical aimed at aristocratic Ladies. Only one volume was produced and there is an indication in her writing that her health was failing. It contains veiled attacks on the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, who twenty years previously had engaged in

Jacobite Jacobite means follower of Jacob or James. Jacobite may refer to: Religion * Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Churches in the Jacobite tradition and sometimes called Jacobite include: ** Syriac Orthodox Church, sometimes ...

intrigue but had abandoned their support in favour of what many saw as their own career advancement.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''The Happy-Unfortunate; Or, the Female-Page: a Novel, Etc''

Periodicals

* ''The Snail: Or The Lady's Lucubrations. Being entertaining letters between a lady at St. James's, and her friend at Dover, on new and curious subjects''

Plays

* ''Don Sancho, Or The Students Whim''

Poems

* ''On the Death of an Infant of five Days old; being a beautiful but abortive Birth'' * ''Truth, a poem : Address'd to the Right Honourable William Lord Harrington'' * ''Variety: A Poem, 1727'' * ''Verses Congratulatory, on the Happy Marriage of the Right Honourable the Lady Diana Spencer with the Lord John Russel'' * ''The humorous miscellany; or, riddles for the beaux. Humbly inscribed to the ... Earl of Cardigan''

References

External links

Works by Elizabeth Boyd

* ''On the Death of an Infant of five Days old; being a beautiful but abortive Birth'' by Elizabeth Boyd, 1733
Poem in full at Poetry Nook website
Accessed April 2016 * ELOISA, pseud. ''The Snail: or the Lady's Lucubrations. Being Entertaining Letters between a Lady at St. James's, and Her Friend at Dover, on New and Curious Subjects. by Eloisa. (to Be Continued Monthly.)''. London: E. Boyd, 1745. Print
Available through WorldCat
* Boyd, Elizabeth. ''Don Sancho Or, the Students Whim, a Ballad Opera of Two Acts, with Minerva's Triumph, a Masque''. New York: Garland, 1974. Print
Available through WorldCat.
* BOYD, Elizabeth. ''The Female Page: a Genuine and Interesting History Relating to Some Persons of Distinction, Etc''. London: Olive Payne, 1737
Available through WorldCat
* Boyd, Elizabeth. ''Admiral Haddock: Or, the Progress of Spain. a Poem''. Farmington Hills, Mich: Thomson Gale, 2005. Internet resource
Available through WorldCat
* Boyd, Elizabeth. ''Variety: a Poem, 1727''. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Women Writers Project, 2001. Internet resource
Available through WorldCat
* Boyd, Elizabeth. ''Verses Congratulatory, on the Happy Marriage of the Right Honourable the Lady Diana Spencer with the Lord John Russel. by Elizabeth Boyd''. Farmington Hills, Mich: Thomson Gale, 2005
Available through WorldCat
* Boyd, Elizabeth. ''The Humorous Miscellany; Or, Riddles for the Beaux. Humbly Inscribed to the ... Earl of Cardigan. by E B''. Farmington Hills, Mich: Thomson Gale, 2005
Available through WorldCat.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Elizabeth 1710 births 1745 deaths 18th-century English poets 18th-century English novelists 18th-century English dramatists and playwrights 18th-century English women writers 18th-century English writers English women poets English women novelists English women dramatists and playwrights