Beaufort: The Duke and his Duchess, 1657–1715 by Molly McClain, and: Queen Anne by Edward Gregg, George I by Ragnhild Hatton (review)

82 ally with controversial matters aired to a select and discriminating readership of like-minded people. In fact, some of the essays, like Isobel Grundy’s, consider manuscript publication as an avenue for creative expression. The young Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Ms. Grundy argues , participated in a coterie manuscript culture in pursuit of ‘‘mental independence and imaginative self-realization.’’ Leigh Eicke and Margaret Ezell are interested in the way women writers allude to or reveal the practices of manuscript publication in their printed works. Ms. Ezell argues that posthumous print publications can be examined for the purpose of ‘‘reconstructing and reanimating a long-deceased literary landscape’’ that included a vibrant manuscript culture, while Ms. Eicke discusses the way Jane Barker’snovels ‘‘bothcelebrateandresist the world of print’’by paying equal homage to the worlds of scribal and print publication . Collectively, the essays deepen and broaden our sense of women’s options , rather than restrictions, as to how, why, and to whom to write. To read this volume, essay by essay, is to come across signposts pointing in directions for future commentary. In ‘‘Elizabeth Singer Rowe’s Tactical Use ofPrint and Manuscript,’’ Kathryn King writes, ‘‘one of the most insistent needs of feminist literary history is to construct a theoretical framework that accounts for the complexity and variousness of women’s writing in early print culture without recourse to moralized dichotomous models .’’This collection of essays goes a long way toward addressing that need. Elizabeth Kraft University of Georgia MOLLY MCCLAIN. Beaufort: The Duke and his Duchess, 1657–1715. New Haven : Yale, 2001. Pp. xii ⫹ 262. $40. EDWARD GREGG. Queen Anne. Yale English Monarchs. New Haven: Yale, 2001. Pp. xx ⫹ 483. $26. RAGNHILD HATTON. George I. New Haven : Yale, 2001. Pp. 416. $24. There is a danger in viewing history through the lens of biography, especially when the lives concerned are of those closest to power. In addition, current trends in the study of history and literature address Whiggism and Namierism by focusing on ‘‘discourses’’ of power mainly from the point of view of the powerless . The powerful are now subjected to a not-so-subtle brand of ex post facto moral condemnation. What all of this obscures , of course, are the larger historical issues which exerted their influence on early modern society and which infused its political and intellectual life. In these three biographies, we are reminded of the constant tug of religion, commerce, dynastic politics, and England’s often precarious perch at the edge of Europe. Ms. McClain examines the dynamic ‘‘partnership’’of Henry Somerset(1629– 1700), the first Duke of Beaufort, lordlieutenant in the West Country and lord President of the Council in the Welsh March, and his equally impressive wife, Mary Capel Somerset (1630–1715), the epitome of the intellectually curious, yet pious, distaff side of the Restoration aristocracy . Each came from a prominent royalist family—Mary’s father was executed in 1649, while the Somersets provided funding for various royalist campaigns . As a result of the wars, each family declined in material circumstances , but retained its loyalty to the House of Stuart. This was the foundation on which the recouping of fortune was based. This is not a rags-to-riches story in the 83 manner of Pepys. At first, the Capels looked down on the prospective match, thinking Somerset a fortune hunter. His Catholicism—soon to be renounced— did not help matters. Mary—then Lady Beauchamp—was a widow who stood to gain income from an estate entailed upon her son, and Somerset was at the time in need of money with which to buy back the family estates lost during the parliamentary seizureofroyalistlands.Married in August 1657, the pair went to reside at Badminton, the dilapidated seat of the Somersets. Here, in the first descriptions of the domestic life of the newlyweds, is the chief weakness of this book. We are guided not by fact, but by imagination: ‘‘We can only imagine what it must have been like for them to spend their nights in a dark bedchamber hung with tapestries and warmed only by a fire. At night they were man and wife. In the morning, however, they became strangers once again.’’ For all...