Elizabeth Teft
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox Writer
| name = Elizabeth Teft
| image = Title page Elizabeth Teft Orinthias Miscellanies 1747.jpg
| image_size =
| alt = Title page Elizabeth Teft Orinthias Miscellanies 1747
| caption = Title page of Orinthia's Miscellanies; or, A Compleat Collection of Poems, Never Before Published. By Elizabeth Teft of Lincoln (London, 1747)
| pseudonym = Orinthia
| birth_date = 1723Grundy, Isobel. "Teft, Elizabeth." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/72237/1724Orlando, "[https://orlando.cambridge.org/people/b6ac9a2a-f626-4573-bb0c-0ef91d9ee5de Elizabeth Teft]"
| birth_place = Rothwell, Lincolnshire, England
| death_date = after 1747
| language = English
| occupation = writer
| notablework = Orinthia's Miscellanies (1747)
| relatives = Joshua Teft (father)
| years_active = 1741—1747
| portaldisp = yes
}}
Elizabeth Teft (fl. 1741—1747) was the author of a miscellany of occasional, topical, and political poetry. Although little is known of her life, her work has garnered scholarly interest.
Life
Not much is known about Teft other than what can be read or inferred from her writing. The editors of one modern anthology generally describe her as "an Anglican from the middling ranks." Various researchers have sought to identify her more specifically. There is a record of an Elizabeth Teft having been born in Rothwell, LincolnshireWPHP, "[https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/399 Teft, Elizabeth]" in 1723, usually considered to be the writer, but that Elizabeth Teft seems to have died in infancy in 1724. It is possible that Elizabeth Teft, the writer, was born subsequently to the parents of the deceased Elizabeth and given the same name, a not uncommon practice at that time of high infant mortality. Orlando identifies her father as one Joshua Teft; Roger Lonsdale identified a John Teft, cleric, as a probable relative.
Writing
The mystery surrounding Teft's life has not prevented readers from engaging with her work, then and now. One commentator has written that her work "suggests considerable independence of mind." In "On Learning. Desired by a Gentleman," she criticizes the traditional education of girls and women:
Well, Ignorance, the cause is yet unknown
Why thou'rt confined unto my sex alone.
Why are not girls, as boys, sent forth when young
To learn the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongue? (ll. 1—4)
In other poems, Teft writes about friendship, politics, and popular literature: in "To the Unjust Author of Pamela in High Life," she rebukes Samuel Richardson for giving the heroine of his bestselling novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded the "harsh reward" (l. 22) of marriage to her adversary-turned-lover, Mr. B. Some poems are topical, such as "On hearing the Duke of Cumberland had defeated the Rebels." She often writes with humour, as when in "On Viewing Herself in a Glass," she asks "Was Nature angry when she formed my clay?/Or, urged by haste to finish, could not stay?" (ll. 1—2).
Teft's poems have been anthologized in Eighteenth-century women poets: an Oxford anthology (1989)Lonsdale, "Elizabeth Teft" and British women poets of the long eighteenth century (2009).Backscheider and Ingrassia, "[https://archive.org/details/britishwomenpoet0000unse/page/887/mode/1up?q=Elizabeth+Teft Elizabeth Teft]" A facsimile of Orinthia's Miscellanies was published in 2013.Teft, Elizabeth. Orinthia's miscellanies, or, A compleat collection of poems, never before published (1747). Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, Ann Arbor, Mich., 2013. {{ISBN|9780820115641}}
Works
- "Orinthia's Request to the Gentlemen of Fortune," Gentleman's Magazine (1741)
- Orinthia's Miscellanies; or, A Compleat Collection of Poems, Never Before Published. By Elizabeth Teft of Lincoln (London, 1747)
Etexts
- Orinthia's Miscellanies; or, A Compleat Collection of Poems, Never Before Published. By Elizabeth Teft of Lincoln (London, 1747) ([https://books.google.com/books?id=yqlYAAAAcAAJ Open Access] at Google Books)
Notes
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References
- Backscheider, Paula, and Catherine Ingrassia. "[https://archive.org/details/britishwomenpoet0000unse/page/887/mode/1up?q=Elizabeth+Teft Elizabeth Teft]." British women poets of the long eighteenth century: an anthology. Eds. Paula Backscheider and Catherine Ingrassia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
- Brown, Susan, et al. "[https://orlando.cambridge.org/people/b6ac9a2a-f626-4573-bb0c-0ef91d9ee5de Elizabeth Teft]." Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Ed. Susan Brown, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge UP, n.d. 22 Mar. 2013. Accessed 5 Sept. 2022.
- Grundy, Isobel. "Teft, Elizabeth." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/72237. Accessed 2024-06-09.
- Lonsdale, Roger. "Elizabeth Teft." Eighteenth-century women poets: an Oxford anthology. Ed. Roger Lonsdale, Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 217–219. ([https://archive.org/details/eighteenthcentur00roge/page/217/mode/1up Open access] at Internet Archive.)
- "[https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/399 Teft, Elizabeth]." The Women's Print History Project, 2019, Person ID 399. Accessed 2022-09-05.
External links
- {{OL author|5157628A}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:18th-century English people
Category:18th-century English poets
Category:18th-century English writers
Category:18th-century English women writers
Category:18th-century pseudonymous writers
Category:People from West Lindsey District
Category:Pseudonymous women writers
Category:Writers from Lincolnshire
Category:Writers of the Romantic era