Women of History

<h3>PH&OElig;BE BENTLEY.</h3> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></SPAN></span></p> <p class="heading">[1700.]<br/> CUMBERLAND.</p> <p><ANTIMG src="images/it.jpg" alt="T" width-obs="78" height-obs="72" class="floatl" />HE youngest daughter of the illustrious Dr Bentley was the Ph&oelig;be of Byron's Pastoral. She was a woman of extraordinary accomplishments, and was the mother of the well-known Richard Cumberland, the most valuable part of whose early education was due to the taste and intelligence of this excellent woman. "It was," according to his account, "in these intervals from school that she began to form both my taste and my ear for poetry, by employing me every evening to read to her, of which art she was a very able mistress. Our readings were, with very few exceptions, confined to the chosen plays of Shakespeare, whom she both admired and understood in the true spirit and sense of the author. With all her father's (Dr Bentley's) critical acumen, she could trace and teach me to unravel all the meanders of Shakespeare's metaphors, and point out where it illuminated or where it only loaded or obscured the meaning."</p> <p>These were happy hours and interesting lectures to Richard Cumberland; and the effect was a sort of drama produced at twelve years, called "Shakespeare in the Shades," and composed almost entirely of passages from that great writer, strung together and assorted with no despicable ingenuity.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />