ABSTRACT
I am grateful to all my colleagues in the Reading University English Department for allowing me the time to finish this book, and particularly to Loraine Fletcher, Andrew Gurr, Elizabeth Heale, Ron Knowles, and Tom Woodman, for their encouragement and advice. The Reading University Research Board financed my attendance at the Alexander Pope Tercentenary Conference at Binfield, 1988, and many meetings of the Women’s Studies Group, 1500-1825: my thanks are due to David Fairer and Yvonne Noble, both for inviting me to participate and for their contributions to this present enterprise. I am also deeply indebted to Edith Hall, Brean Hammond, Olwen Hufton, David Morgan, and Penelope Wilson.
