Elizabeth Sican was an Irish literary critic. She was part of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, ...

's "triumfeminate," along with Mary Barber and

Constantia Grierson Constantia Grierson (née Crawley; c. 1705 – 2 December 1732), was an editor, poet, and classical scholar from County Kilkenny, Ireland. She is notable for her achievements as a classicist, which were all the more remarkable given her labouri ...

Life

Most of what is known about Sican comes via her connection to Swift. She was "a prosperous grocer's wife from Essex St." Sican was her married name, and she had at least one child, named John after his father, who was in turn a sometime author. In a letter to

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

in 1729, Swift describes her as "the wife of a Surly rich husband who checks her oeticvein."cit. Barry, 2019.''Correspondence'', Feb. 6, 1729, Vol. 3
p. 369

Swift's circles

Swift was part of the

Scriblerus Club The Scriblerus Club was an informal association of authors, based in London, that came together in the early 18th century. They were prominent figures in the Augustan Age of English letters. The nucleus of the club included the satirists Jonathan ...

, a famous literary circle in London along with other celebrated writers, notably Pope,

John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for '' The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly ...

John Arbuthnot John Arbuthnot FRS (''baptised'' 29 April 1667 – 27 February 1735), often known simply as Dr Arbuthnot, was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. He is best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, his member ...

, Henry St. John and

Thomas Parnell Thomas Parnell (11 September 1679 – 24 October 1718) was an Anglo-Irish poet and clergyman who was a friend of both Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. He was born in Dublin, the eldest son of Thomas Parnell (died 1685) of Maryborough, Queen' ...

. But he also became part of a smaller circle in Dublin, composed of local literary women. Mary Barber,

Laetitia Pilkington Laetitia Pilkington (born Laetitia van Lewen; ''c.'' 1709 – 29 July 1750) was an Anglo-Irish poet. She is known for her ''Memoirs'' which document much of what is known about Jonathan Swift. Life Early years Laetitia was born of two dist ...

and Elizabeth Sican were all members, and this group of "self-made women" was well-established before Swift met the Barbers in 1728. Of Sican, he wrote to Pope: "She has a very good tast of Poetry, hath read much, and as I hear hath writ one or two things with applause, which I never saw, except about six lines she sent me unknown, with a piece of Sturgeon, some Years ago on my birth day." In another letter in 1735, again to Pope, Swift writes that Sican "hath more sense, wit & Knowledge than the whole sex here could make up among them." Swift wrote " On Psyche" about her:

AT two afternoon for our Psyche inquire,
Her teakettle's on, and her smock at the fire:
So loitering, so active; so busy, so idle;
Which has she most need of, a spur or a bridle?
Thus a greyhound outruns the whole pack in a race,
Yet would rather be hang'd than he'd leave a warm place.
She gives you such plenty, it puts you in pain;
But ever with prudence takes care of the main.
To please you, she knows how to choose a nice bit;
For her taste is almost as refin'd as her wit.
To oblige a good friend, she will trace every market,
It would do your heart good, to see how she will cark it.
Yet beware of her arts; for, it plainly appears,
She saves half her victuals, by feeding your ears.Swift, Jonathan. "On Psyche." ''The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 8: Poems, Polite Conversation''. Edited by Thomas Sheridan, et al. London, c. 1733, rpt. 1808, p. 204

Sican's response, if it was recorded, has not survived. None of her writings are extant.

Notes

References

*Backscheider, Paula. "Inverting the Image of Swift's 'Triumfeminate'." ''Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies'' Vol. 4, No. 1, Women Writers of the Eighteenth Century (Spring/Summer 2004), pp. 37-71. JSTOR. Accessed 9 Sep. 2022. *Barry, C. M.
Mary Delany, the Triumfeminate and other Dublin Women: Swift’s 'Female Senate'
"
Irish Philosophy
'. April 7, 2019. Accessed 9 September 2022. *Budd, Adam.
Merit in distress': The Troubled Success of Mary Barber
" ''The Review of English Studies'' 53.210 (2002):204-227. *Coleborne, Bryan. �
Barber, Mary (c.1685–1755)
” ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 1 Apr. 2007. *Doody, Margaret Anne. "Swift Among the Women." ''The Yearbook of English Studies'' 18 (1998): 68—92. * Pilkington, Laetitia. ''Memoirs of Laetitia Pilkington''. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997.
Etext
Internet Archive). * Swift, Jonathan. ''The correspondence of Jonathan Swift, D.D. Vol III''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.
Etext
Internet Archive) * Swift, Jonathan. ''The correspondence of Jonathan Swift, D.D. Vol IV''. New York: P. Lang, 1999.
Etext
Internet Archive) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sican, Elizabeth 18th-century Irish writers Irish literary critics Irish women literary critics 18th-century Irish women writers Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Literary circles

Life

Swift's circles

See also

Notes

References