Lady Montagu vs. Dr. Swift: Is It Any Good?

At a time when a woman's ability to write was much doubted and criticized, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu published "The Reasons That Induced Dr. Swift to Write a Poem Called the Lady's Dressing Room" in 1734 as a response to Jonathan Swift's "The Lady's Dressing Room" published two years prior. Swift's poem is an incredibly misogynistic work, portraying all of the disgusting things that Strephon has found in Celia's dressing room. He critiques everything from a sweat-stained smock to a cosmetic he believes was made from the internal organs of the lady's dead puppy. Near the end of Swift's poem, Strephon makes a profound discovery: "Oh! Celia, Celia, Celia shits!" (line 118) In this poem, Swift declares that women are filthy creatures born of "stinking ooze" (line 132). Montagu's response chides Dr. Swift by making the bold assertion that he wrote "The Lady's Dressing Room" as a means of obtaining vengeance against a prostitute that would not return his money after he was unable to perform sexually, and thus get what he paid for. When writing at a time that women's writing was constantly under attack, it would seem that Montagu's writing would have to be of an exceptional quality, especially when assaulting someone of such formidable literary clout as Jonathan Swift. So, is Montagu's poetic retaliation on behalf of womankind any good? To answer such a question, I turn to the Classical poet Horace. Horace's criteria of good literature is helpful here because, in the eighteenth century, when these poems were written, Horace was of great influence. Montagu even mentions him in her poem. From Horace's "The Art of Poetry," the most influential criteria for good literature is that it must instruct and delight: "The man who has managed to blend usefulness with pleasure wins everyone's approbation, for he delights his reader at the same time as he instructs him" (108). By successfully instructing and delighting, Montagu produced an excellent response to Swift's misogyny. And so doing, argues for a raising of the status of women writers.