Анна Финч, графиня Уинчилси: поэзия, верность и политические испытания.

British countess and poet

Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (née Kingsmill; April 16615 August 1720), was an English poet and courtier. Finch wrote in many genres and on many topics including fables, odes, songs, and religious verse which are informed by "political ideology, religious orientation, and aesthetic sensibility". Her works also allude to other female authors of the time, such as Aphra Behn and Katherine Phillips. Through her commentary on the mental and spiritual equality of the sexes and the importance of women fulfilling their potential as a moral duty to themselves and to society,), celebrated their relationship and ardent intimacy. In expressing herself in such a fashion, Anne Finch quietly defied contemporary social conventions. In other early works she aimed a satiric disapproval at prevailing misogynistic attitudes. Still, her husband strongly supported her writing activities. Despite their court connections, Anne and Heneage Finch led a rather sedate life. At first they lived in Westminster; then, as Heneage Finch became more involved in public affairs, they moved to London. His involvement had increased when James II took the throne in 1685. The couple demonstrated great loyalty to the king in what turned out to be a brief reign.

James II was deposed in 1688 during the "Bloodless Revolution". During his short reign, James fell under intense criticism for his autocratic manner of rule. Eventually, he fled England for exile in Saint Germain, France. As a result, the British Parliament offered William of Orange the English crown. When the new monarchs, William and Mary, assumed the throne, oaths of allegiance became a requirement for both the public and the clergy. William and Mary were Protestants, and the Finches remained loyal to the Catholic Stuart court, refusing to take the oath. They also viewed their oaths to the previous monarchy as morally binding and constant. But such a stance invited trouble. Heneage Finch lost his government position and retreated from public life. As the loss of his position entailed a loss of income, the Finches were forced to live with friends in London for a period. While living in the city the couple faced harassment, fines and potential imprisonment. In April 1690, Heneage Finch was arrested and charged with Jacobitism for attempting to join the exiled James II in France. It was a difficult time for Jacobites and Nonjurors (those who had refused to take the oath of allegiance, such as the Finches), as their arrests and punishments were abusive. Because of his arrest, Heneage and Anne Finch remained separated from April until November of that year. The circumstances caused the couple a great deal of emotional turmoil. Living with friends in Kent while her husband prepared his defence in London, Anne Finch often succumbed to bouts of depression, something that afflicted her for most of her adult life. The poems that she wrote during this period, such as "Ardelia to Melancholy," reflected her mental state. Other poems involved political themes. Her work during this period was less playful and joyous than her earlier output.

After Heneage Finch was released and his case dismissed, his nephew Charles Finch, 4th Earl of Winchelsea, invited the couple to permanently move into the family's Eastwell Park, Kent, estate. The Finches took up residence in late 1690 and found peace and security on the estate, where they would live for more than 25 years in the quiet countryside. For Anne Finch, the estate provided a fertile and supportive environment for her literary efforts. Charles Finch was a patron of the arts and, along with Heneage Finch, he encouraged Anne's writing. Her husband's support was practical. He began collecting a portfolio of her 56 poems, writing them out by hand and making corrective changes. One significant change involved Anne's pen name, which Heneage changed from "Areta" to "Ardelia". The peace and seclusion at Eastwell fostered the development of Finch's poetry, and the retirement in the country provided her with her most productive writing period. Her work revealed her growing knowledge of contemporary poetic conventions, and the themes she addressed included metaphysics, the beauty of nature (as expressed in "A Nocturnal Reverie"), and the value of friendship (as in "The Petition for an Absolute Retreat").

By the early 18th century, the political climate in England had generally improved for the Finches. King William died in 1702, and his death was followed by the succession to the throne of Queen Anne, the daughter of James II, who had died in 1701. With these developments, the Finches felt ready to embrace a more public lifestyle. Heneage Finch ran for a parliamentary seat three times (in 1701, 1705, and 1710), but was never elected. Still, the Finches felt the time was right to leave the seclusion of the country life and move into a house in London. In London, Anne Finch was encouraged to publish her poetry under her own name. Earlier, in 1691, she had anonymously published some of her poetry. In 1701 she published "The Spleen" anonymously in A New Miscellany of Original Poems, on Several Occasions. This well received reflection on depression would prove to be the most popular of her poems in her lifetime. When the Finches returned to London, Anne acquired some important and influential friends, including renowned writers such as Jonathan Swift, Nicholas Rowe, and Alexander Pope, who encouraged her to write and publish much more openly. For instance, Swift's poem "Apollo Outwitted" depicts the angry god condemning Finch to a life "negligent of fame," which playfully suggests that her modesty is a curse. Finch was reluctant, as she felt the current social and political climate remained oppressive of women. (In her poem "The Introduction," which was privately circulated, she reflected on contemporary attitudes toward female poets.) When she published Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions in 1713, the cover page of the first printing indicated that the collected works (which included 86 poems as well as a play) were "Written by a Lady." However, on subsequent printings, Finch (as Anne, Countess of Winchilsea) received credit as the author.

Anne Finch became Countess of Winchilsea upon the sudden and unexpected death of Charles Finch on August 4, 1712. As Charles Finch had no children, his uncle Heneage Finch became the Earl of Winchilsea, making Anne the Countess. The Finches also assumed Charles Finch's financial and legal burdens. The issues were eventually settled in the Finches' favour in 1720, but not before the couple had endured nearly seven years of emotional strain. During this period, Heneage and Anne Finch faced renewed strains resulting from court politics. When Queen Anne died in 1714, she was succeeded by George I. Subsequently, a Whig government, which was hostile to the Jacobite cause, rose to power. The Jacobite rebellion, which took place in Scotland in 1715, further aggravated the tense political situation. The Finches became greatly concerned about their safety, especially after a friend, Matthew Prior, who shared their political sympathies, was sent to prison.

All of her worries took a toll on Anne Finch's health, which had begun to deteriorate. For years she had been vulnerable to depression, and in 1715 she became seriously ill. Her later poems reflected her turmoil. In particular, "A Suplication for the joys of Heaven" and "A Contemplation" expressed her concerns about her life and political and spiritual beliefs. Finch died in 1720 in Westminster, London, and her body was returned to Eastwell for burial, according to her previously stated wishes. Her husband produced an obituary that praised her talents as a writer and her virtues as an individual. A portion of it read, "To draw her Ladyship's just Character, requires a masterly Pen like her own (She being a fine Writer, and an excellent Poet); we shall only presume to say, she was the most faithful Servant to her Royall Mistresse, the best Wife to her Noble Lord, and in every other Relation, publick and private, so illustrious an Example of such extraordinary Endowments, both of Body and Mind, that the Court of England never bred a more accomplished Lady, nor the Church of England a better Christian." Her husband died on September 30, 1726. Anne Finch is the librettist of Venus and Adonis, with music by John Blow; the work is considered by some scholars to be the first true opera in the English language. In his critical edition of the opera for the Purcell Society, Bruce Wood agrees with Winn. However, the recent Cambridge Edition of the Works of Anne Finch contends, "Because her authorship is not established, to consider Finch's desire for anonymity is an act of historical imagination and cannot be used as evidence for her authorship." In 1929, Virginia Woolf, in her classic essay A Room of One's Own, both critiques Finch's writing and expresses great admiration for it. In Woolf's examination of the "female voice" and her search for the history of female writers, she argues that Finch's writing is "harassed and distracted with hates and grievances," pointing out that to Finch "men are hated and feared, because they have the power to bar her way to what she wants to do—which is to write." However, Woolf excuses the flaws she perceives in Finch's work by claiming that Finch surely had to "encourage herself to write by supposing that what she writes will never be published." She goes on to acknowledge that in Finch's work, "Now and again words issue of pure poetry It was a thousand pities that the woman who could write like that, whose mind was turned to nature, and reflection, should have been forced to anger and bitterness." Woolf goes on in defence of her as a gifted but sometimes understandably misguided example of women's writing. It is evident that Woolf sympathises deeply with Finch's plight as a female poet, and though she takes issue with some of the content in Finch's writing, she expresses grief that Finch is so unknown: " when one comes to seek out the facts about Lady Winchilsea, one finds, as usual, that almost nothing is known about her." Woolf wishes to know more about "this melancholy lady, who loved wandering in the fields and thinking about unusual things and scorned, so rashly, so unwisely, 'the dull manage of a servile house.'"

As a poet, Finch attained a modest amount of notoriety during her lifetime. In extension to her lyric poetry, odes, love poetry and prose poetry work, Finch's writing was considered to have fallen into the Augustan period (approximately 1660–1760). This is largely due to her work reflecting upon nature and finding both an emotional and religious relationship to it in her verse, consequentially commenting on the change in philosophical and political policy of the time. Later, literary critics recognized the diversity of her poetic output as well as its personal and intimate style. This style would earn greater attention after her death.

Upon the Death of King James the Second, anonymous (London, 1701). The Tunbridge Prodigy (London: Printed & sold by John Morphew, 1706). The Spleen, A Pindarique Ode. By a Lady (London: Printed & sold by H. Hills, 1709). Free thinkers: A Poem in Dialogue (London, 1711). Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions. Written by a Lady (London: Printed for John Barber & sold by Benj. Tooke, William Taylor & James Round, 1713).

The Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea, edited by Myra Reynolds (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1903). Selected Poems of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (Hull, Que. : Orinda, 1906). Poems, by Anne, Countess of Winchilsea, compiled by John Middleton Murry (London: Cape, 1928). Selected Poems, edited by Katharine M. Rogers (New York: Ungar, 1979). Selected Poems, edited by Denys Thompson (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1987; New York: Fyfield, 1987). The Wellesley Manuscript Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea, edited by Jean M. Ellis D'Alessandro (Florence: Universita degli Studi di Firenze, 1988). The Anne Finch Digital Archive, edited by Jennifer Keith. The Anne Finch Digital Archive
The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, edited by Jennifer Keith, et al., 2 volumes (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2020–2021). Cambridge UP website information