Hester Thrale

Hester Thrale with daughter (painting by Joshua Reynolds , circa 1777)

Hester Lynch Thrale , née Salusbury, later married Piozzi, (born January 27, 1741 in Bodvel Hall, Caernarvonshire , Wales , † May 2, 1821 in Clifton ) was an English author, Salonnière and art patron. She was friends with Samuel Johnson , for whom her diaries are an important source.

Life

Thrale was born Hester Lynch Salusbury and was part of one of the wealthiest landowning families in Wales. She was also a direct descendant of King Henry VII. After her father, Governor of Nova Scotia , went bankrupt due to a failed investment in Halifax, Canada , she married the wealthy brewer Henry Thrale on October 11, 1763, with whom she had twelve children lived in Streatham Park . In London she found access to literary circles around Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith and patronized the young writer Frances Burney , with whom she traveled to Bath . Samuel Johnson was introduced to her in January 1765. He became the central figure in the intellectual circle that met at Mrs. Thrale's. He had a permanent guest room there and often worked in the library at Thrale's house in Streatham Park, which was supplemented on his recommendations. Johnson, who also dedicated a few verses to her, praised her for the fact that “the joke of her speech was a continually bubbling fountain” (Her colloquial wit was a fountain of perpetual flow). In 1774 he traveled with the Thrales to Wales and in 1775 to Paris. Famous guests of her salon were portrayed by Joshua Reynolds (e.g. Goldsmith and Charles Burney and also several times Hester Thrale and her family). After the death of her husband in 1781, she married the Italian music teacher (teacher of her children) Gabriel Mario Piozzi (1740-1809) in 1784, which led to a break with Johnson (who died a short time later), but many friends and relatives turned away from her from. She traveled with her husband to Italy until 1787 and moved to the country (country house "Brynbella") in north Wales in the valley of the Clwyd near Tremeirchion , where she is also buried in the Corpus Christi Church. A plaque in the church reads: “Dr. Johnson's Mrs. Thrale. Witty, Vivacious and Charming, in an age of Genius She held ever a foremost Place ”.

It is an important source for the life of Samuel Johnson (apart from James Boswell's "Life of Johnson"). After Johnson's death she published in 1786 "Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson" (written in Florence in 1785) and in 1788 two volumes "Letters to and from the late Samuel Johnson". Her diaries are also an important source for Johnson and eighteenth-century England social life. She also published travel descriptions in 1789 ("Observations and reflections made in the course of a Journey through France, Italy and Germany", German 1790), in 1785 "The British Synonymy, or an Attempt to Regulate the Choice of Words in Familiar Conversation" and in 1801 "Retrospection or a Review of the Most Striking and Important Events, Characters, Situations and their Consequences which the last Eighteen Hundred Years have presented to the view of mankind".

Her eldest daughter was Hester Maria Elphinstone , Viscountess Keith (called Queeney, a nickname given by Dr. Johnson), (1764-1857). She was also a literary patroness and wife of Admiral Lord Keith (George Elphinstone). Letters to her from her mother and Dr. Johnson was published as "The Queeney Letters" in 1934.

Works

• Observations and reflections made in the course of a journey through France, Italy, and Germany. 1789
  • Esther Lynch Piozzi: Comments on a trip through France, Italy and Germany. Übers. Meta Forkel-Liebeskind ; Revised der Übers., Preface, Notes Georg Forster . 2 vols. Varrentrapp and Wenner, Frankfurt, Mainz 1790

literature

• Marianna D'Ezio: Hester Lynch Piozzi: A Taste for Eccentricity . Cambridge Scholars Publ., Newcastle upon Tyne 2010
• Ian McIntyre: Hester. The Remarkable Life of Dr Johnson's "Dear Mistress . " Constable and Robinson, London 2008 ISBN 978-1-84529-449-6
• Katharine Balderston Ed .: Thraliana - the diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale , Clarendon Press 1951.

Web links

• Web pages on the Thrale family with some of their works
• Biography from the same website
• Adam Gopnik: “Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale, ” The New Yorker