Author: Barnes, Esther (dates uncertain; fl. 1796 )
Title: The Disengaged Fair. Written the Tenth of September, 1796
Date: [1796]
Biographical Information
Esther Barnes is an obscure author. Because virtually nothing is known about her and her circumstances, I have been forced to infer and deduce from what minute information is available. In her preface and throughout the poems in The Disengaged Fair, Barnes reveals that her writing experience has been very minor; she tells us that the collection is the first set of poems she has ever written and published. However, the beauty and intelligence she displays in her writing lead me to believe she is more sophisticated than she claims to be. Her writing includes numerous historical references, witty humor, and impressive rhyme schemes as well as progressive, feminist ideals. While she may never have published any poetry prior to this collection, the sophistication of her writing makes me think that she was an educated, strong-willed, forward thinking woman. Barnes employs both sarcasm and witty humor in the poems in her collection, so fibbing about her writing experience would seem not to be out of the ordinary.
Additionally, beneath the title on the title page of The Disengaged Fair, is a simple inscription: “Boarding-School, Shepton-Mallett, Somersetshire.” Shepton-Mallet is a former market town about 18 miles south of Bristol, where the collection was published. In Shepton-Mallet, at the time that Barnes was writing, there was a boarding school attached to an “almshouse” or poorhouse. Because Barnes included “Boarding-School” on her title page, she must have had some sort of tie to the school. Barnes may possibly have been either a teacher or some sort of administrator at the school. While it is of course possible that she worked in a lower position, such as a maid, cook, or governess, her apparent level of education argues against thinking she was a menial employee. Also, her strong feminist stances may partially reflect having a majority of male coworkers who look down on her in the chauvinistic manner of many Romantic-era men. It is also likely that her young nephew, Robert Morrant, whom she references in her final poem of the collection, is a student at the school. The motherly advice that she gives this nephew in the acrostic poem could be a hint that she is middle-aged at the point of publishing The Disengaged Fair. The biographical information on Esther Barnes is limited and unfortunately tentative, but her writing offers at least some few hints that have helped me begin to work out some of the possible outlines of her life.
Sources
Barnes, Esther. The Disengaged Fair. Bristol, S. Bonner, 1796, pp. 4-32.
Prepared by Maci Burke, University of Nebraska, April 2018.
© Maci Burke, 2018.