CHARLOTTE

See also:

• LENNOX
• CHARLOTTE LENNOX (1720-1804)
• LENNOX, MARGARET, COUNTESS OF (1515-1578)

LENNOX (1720-1804)  , British writer, daughter cif Colonel James Ramsay, lieutenant-governor of New York, was born in 1720 . She went to London in 1735, and, being left unprovided for at her father's death, she began to earn her living by writing . She made some unsuccessful appearances on the stage and married in 1748 . Samuel Johnson had an exaggerated admiration for her . " Three such women," he said, speaking of Elizabeth Carter, Hannah More and Fanny Burney, " are not to be found; I know not where to find a fourth, except Mrs Lennox, who is superior to them all." Her chief works are: The Female Quixote; or the Adventz,res of Arabella (1752), a novel; Shakespear illustrated; or the novels and histories on which the plays . . . are founded (1753-1754), in which she argued that Shakespeare had spoiled the stories he borrowed for his plots by interpolating unnecessary intrigues and incidents; The Life of Harriet Stuart (1751), a novel; and The Sister, a comedy produced at Covent Garden (18th February 1769) . This last was withdrawn after the first night, after a stormy reception, due, said Goldsmith, to the fact that its author had abused Shakespeare .