Eugenia was the pseudonym used by an unknown English

pamphleteer A pamphleteer is a historical term used to describe someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (therefore inexpensive) booklets intended for wide circulation. Context Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions: to articu ...

of the early 18th century. She became known for a social riposte entitled ''The Female Advocate: Or, a plea for the just liberty of the tender sex, and particularly of married women. Being reflections on a late rude and disingenuous discourse, delivered by Mr. John Sprint, in a sermon at a wedding... at Sherburn... By a Lady of Quality'' (London, 1700).

Sharp riposte

''The Female Advocate'' (another edition is entitled ''The Female Preacher'') was a powerful

protofeminist Protofeminism is a concept that anticipates modern feminism in eras when the feminist concept as such was still unknown. This refers particularly to times before the 20th century, although the precise usage is disputed, as 18th-century feminism ...

response to the sermon by Rev. John Sprint entitled ''The Bride-Woman's Counsellor'' (1699).Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, eds: ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present Day'' (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 346. Sprint, who may have been a descendant of the more famous theologian John Sprint (died 1623), had preached the offending sermon at a wedding in

Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo (South Somerset), River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish include ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

on 11 May 1699. ''The Female Advocate'' was addressed to "To the Honourable The Lady W—ley" and published in 1700 by the same firm that had issued ''The Bride-Woman's Counsellor'' itself.Margaret J. M. Ezell: Introduction to ''The Poems and Prose of Mary, Lady Chudleigh'' (1993), p. xxi
Retrieved 25 May 2018.
/ref> Its author signed herself, "Your Ladiship's most obliged and most humble Servant, Eugenia."

Unknown identity

Some commentators at the time when the pamphlet was published thought that Eugenia was male. Meanwhile some readers of the essayist Mary Chudleigh were ascribing the work to her. The latter seems unlikely, as the Eugenia of ''The Female Advocate'' takes a sharply edged, prose approach, unlike the lightheartedness of Chudleigh's own.''The Ladies Defense: Or, the Bride-woman's Counsellor Answer'd. A Poem written as a Dialogue... Written by a Lady'
Retrieved 25 May 2018.
/ref> Furthermore, Chudleigh's ''Poems'' (1703) include praise for Eugenia's "ingenious Pen". Eugenia declares at the outset of her work, "If you inquire who I am, I shall only tell you in general, that I am one that never yet came within the Clutches of a Husband; and therefore what I write may be the more favourably interpreted as not coming from a Party concern'd." It is clear from the work that she knows some Latin and Greek and a little about the world. She states that not even in Italy and Spain do men demand of their wives "a Slavery so abject as this printwould fain persuade us to."

References

External source

*The full text of the work is available at Early English Book
Retrieved 25 May 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eugenia (Lady of Quality) Pseudonymous women writers English feminist writers 18th-century British women writers 18th-century English non-fiction writers English religious writers English pamphleteers Unidentified people 18th-century pseudonymous writers Year of birth unknown