https://www.archivalgossip.com/collection/files/original/e959c0fe3d89507c481a7b809e9b33a4.png bf5d1c6ff82a2db0ac0a3b28c60f3982 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Portrait of Frances Power Cobbe Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Londoner Science Museum Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available F P Cobbe, The Life of Frances Power Cobbe, as told by herself, Bentley and Son: London, 1894, Retrieved from the Londoner Science Museum, <<a href="http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/francespowercobbe">http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/francespowercobbe</a>>. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1894 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Cushmania Subject The topic of the resource Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876 Stebbins, Emma, 1815-1882 Gossip--Published Gossip--Private Relationships--Networks Italy--Rome Description An account of the resource A collection of archival material (letters, diaries, articles, auto/biographical accounts) collected from different archives (cf. <a href="https://www.archivalgossip.com/sources/archives/">list</a>) that showcase the life of Charlotte Cushman, one of the most successful US American actresses of the nineteenth century. We invite you to either look for specific items via the tag cloud at the bottom of the page or the search function at the top, <a href="https://archivalgossip.com/collection/items/browse?collection=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">browse all items</a> in this collection, or explore thematic compilations of selected items in our "<a href="https://archivalgossip.com/collection/exhibits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Exhibits</a>." <h6 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://archivalgossip.com/collection/files/original/c4226e025914fe32ca1542c728bd11cc.JPG"><img title="Item Locations" alt="Item Locations" src="https://archivalgossip.com/collection/files/original/c4226e025914fe32ca1542c728bd11cc.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="349.5" height="237.5" /></a>(<a href="http://hdlab.stanford.edu/palladio/">Palladio</a> visualization, Dec 2021: location of items in collection, size nodes)</h6> <h6 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://archivalgossip.com/collection/files/original/44bccce1e23bf9efe34d0078d3cc97f0.JPG"><img title="Item Locations" alt="Item Locations" src="https://archivalgossip.com/collection/files/original/44bccce1e23bf9efe34d0078d3cc97f0.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="349.5" height="324.5" /></a>(<a href="http://hdlab.stanford.edu/palladio/">Palladio</a> visualization, Dec 2021: letter correspondence for items that have values defined for "location sender" AND "location recipient," size nodes)</h6> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Library of Congress New York Public Library Philadelphia Historical Society Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1816-00-00/1920-00 Person An individual. Admin Comment Comments for further research, pending questions, tasks that still have to be completed Culkin describes flirtations between Cobbe and Harriet. As this relationship is too far away from our research focus, it is not further defined, since it does not fit the relationship categories of "in a relationship with" and "in love with." "[Frances Power] Cobbe lived with Cushman and Harriet at Via Gregoriana in 1861 and 1862, and has a short flirtation with Harriet, suggesting that her relationship with Alford had already settled more into a friendship. […] Elizabeth Barrett Browning's unexpected death in June rattled her further." (Culkin 66) <a href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/svPeople?formname=r&person_id=cobbfr&people_tab=3&t=0:143#scrollPosition">http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/svPeople?formname=r&person_id=cobbfr&people_tab=3&t=0:143#scrollPosition</a> Accessed 22 July 2020: <ul> <li>"Winter 1862 Wintering again in <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=4:42:s" title="Settlement (city, town, village) link: Rome">Rome</a>, FPC was introduced by <a name="scrollPosition"></a><a class="ROLLY_MARK" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:143" title="Person Name link: Cushman, Charlotte">Charlotte Cushman</a> to her future 'life-friend' <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:144" title="Person Name link: Lloyd, Mary,, d. 1896">Mary Lloyd</a>, a Welsh sculptor.[Cobbe, Frances Power. Life of Frances Power Cobbe. Titlepage Title: Life of Frances Power Cobbe by Herself. 2 vols. Boston, MA, and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1894: 1: 356, 358-9; Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. Victorian Literature and Culture. Charlottesville, VA, and London: University of Virginia Press, 2004: 125.]"</li> <li>"FPC, whose connection with the Cushman circle had brought her into contact with some of the most public examples of intimate relationships between women in her day, had already commented in <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=2:16" title="Title (of text) link: Celibacy v. Marriage">"Celibacy v. Marriage"</a> that an 'old maid' need not suffer "a solitary age as the bachelor must usually do. It will go hard but she will find a woman ready to share it. [Cobbe, Frances Power (as F. P. C.). "Celibacy v. Marriage." Fraser's Magazine. 65 (February 1862): 228-35: 233.]"</li> <li>"January 1862 FPC was by this date established enough to be engaged, during her winter in <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=4:41:g" title="Geography (country or continent) link: Italy">Italy</a>, as a contributor to the new <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=2:13" title="Title (of text) link: English Woman's Journal">English Woman's Journal</a> and as a foreign correspondent with the <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=2:14" title="Title (of text) link: Daily News">Daily News</a> [Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. Victorian Literature and Culture. Charlottesville, VA, and London: University of Virginia Press, 2004: 120.]"</li> <li>"FPC's wide London circle included <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:172" title="Person Name link: Bagehot, Walter">Walter Bagehot</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:173" title="Person Name link: Colenso, Frances Sarah">Frances Sarah Colenso</a> and her husband <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:174" title="Person Name link: Colenso, John William">Bishop Colenso</a> (while they were home from Africa), <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:175" title="Person Name link: Fawcett, Henry">Henry Fawcett</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:176" title="Person Name link: Kingsley, Charles,, 1819 - 1875">Charles Kingsley</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:177" title="Person Name link: Lecky, William Edward Hartpole">W. E. H. Lecky</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:178" title="Person Name link: Lyell, Charles">Sir Charles Lyell</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:179" title="Person Name link: Mill, John Stuart">John Stuart Mill</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:180" title="Person Name link: Arnold, Matthew">Matthew Arnold</a>, and <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:181" title="Person Name link: Spencer, Herbert">Herbert Spencer</a>. She also knew <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:182" title="Person Name link: Darwin, Charles">Charles Darwin</a> and his brother <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:183" title="Person Name link: Darwin, Erasmus Alvey">Erasmus</a>, but her friendship with Charles ended when he became an advocate of vivisection, as did that with <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:184" title="Person Name link: Huxley, Thomas Henry">T. H. Huxley</a>. On several occasions she visited <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:185" title="Person Name link: Tennyson, Alfred">Alfred Tennyson</a>, who like her supported the anti-vivisection cause. <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:186" title="Person Name link: Collins, Wilkie">Wilkie Collins</a>, whom she also knew, was another supporter.<a href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=1: 86, 2: 405, 412, 414, 424, 427, 436, 443-4, 496, 503&t=6:101656&dbref=27485&qtdin=&text=153, 166, 202, 347&t=6:27485" target="external" onclick="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=1: 86, 2: 405, 412, 414, 424, 427, 436, 443-4, 496, 503&t=6:101656&dbref=27485&qtdin=&text=153, 166, 202, 347&t=6:27485','citation'); return false;" onkeypress="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=1: 86, 2: 405, 412, 414, 424, 427, 436, 443-4, 496, 503&t=6:101656&dbref=27485&qtdin=&text=153, 166, 202, 347&t=6:27485','citation'); return false;" title="open bibliographic citation in a new window"><img src="http://orlando.cambridge.org/pics/bibcit.gif" alt=" Bibliographic Citation link. " class="BIBCIT" /></a>[Cobbe, Frances Power. Life of Frances Power Cobbe. Titlepage Title: Life of Frances Power Cobbe by Herself. 2 vols. Boston, MA, and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1894: 1: 86, 2: 405, 412, 414, 424, 427, 436, 443-4, 496, 503.   Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. Victorian Literature and Culture. Charlottesville, VA, and London: University of Virginia Press, 2004: 153, 166, 202, 347.] <div class="paragraph">FPC was a friend of <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:188" title="Person Name link: Faithfull, Emily">Emily Faithfull</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:189" title="Person Name link: Jewsbury, Geraldine">Geraldine Jewsbury</a>, and <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:190" title="Person Name link: Bonheur, Rosa">Rosa Bonheur</a>, and she knew <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:191" title="Person Name link: Butler, Josephine">Josephine Butler</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:192" title="Person Name link: Webster, Augusta">Augusta Webster</a>, Lady Battersea, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:194" title="Person Name link: Pfeiffer, Emily Jane">Emily Pfeiffer</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:195" title="Person Name link: Ritchie, Anne Thackeray">Anne Thackeray Ritchie</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:196" title="Person Name link: Taylor, Helen">Helen Taylor</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:197" title="Person Name link: Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith">Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:198" title="Person Name link: Noel Byron, Anne Isabella,,, Baroness">Lady Byron</a>, and <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:199" title="Person Name link: Betham-Edwards, Matilda">Matilda Betham-Edwards</a>. Her involvement with <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:200" title="Person Name link: Taylor, Clementia">Mentia Taylor</a>'s <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=1:26" title="Organization Name link: Pen and Pencil Club">Pen and Pencil Club</a> from 1864 brought her into contact with yet more writers. She numbered <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:201" title="Person Name link: Grey, Maria">Maria Grey</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:202" title="Person Name link: Shirreff, Emily">Emily Shirreff</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:203" title="Person Name link: Fawcett, Millicent Garrett">Millicent Garrett Fawcett</a>, <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:204" title="Person Name link: Wedgwood, Julia">Julia Wedgwood</a>, and Florence Davenport Hill among her most "beloved, and honoured friends."<a href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=2: 522&t=6:101656" target="external" onclick="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=2: 522&t=6:101656','citation'); return false;" onkeypress="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=2: 522&t=6:101656','citation'); return false;" title="open bibliographic citation in a new window"><img src="http://orlando.cambridge.org/pics/bibcit.gif" alt=" Bibliographic Citation link. " class="BIBCIT" /></a> [Cobbe, Frances Power. Life of Frances Power Cobbe. Titlepage Title: Life of Frances Power Cobbe by Herself. 2 vols. Boston, MA, and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1894: 2: 522. ] She never met <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:206" title="Person Name link: Martineau, Harriet">Harriet Martineau</a> but she claimed that with the "two great exceptions" of Martineau and <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:207" title="Person Name link: Eliot, George">George Eliot</a> she could "boast of having come into contact with nearly all the more gifted English women of the Victorian era."<a href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=2: 522&t=6:101656" target="external" onclick="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=2: 522&t=6:101656','citation'); return false;" onkeypress="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=2: 522&t=6:101656','citation'); return false;" title="open bibliographic citation in a new window"><img src="http://orlando.cambridge.org/pics/bibcit.gif" alt=" Bibliographic Citation link. " class="BIBCIT" /></a> [Cobbe, Frances Power. Life of Frances Power Cobbe. Titlepage Title: Life of Frances Power Cobbe by Herself. 2 vols. Boston, MA, and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1894: 2: 522.  ] Presumably a relationship with Martineau was out of the question because of her friendship with Harriet's estranged brother <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:208" title="Person Name link: Martineau, James">James</a>.<a href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=2: 414, 521&t=6:101656&dbref=27485&qtdin=&text=101, 130, 140, 151, 182, 189, 190, 193, 265, 347&t=6:27485" target="external" onclick="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=2: 414, 521&t=6:101656&dbref=27485&qtdin=&text=101, 130, 140, 151, 182, 189, 190, 193, 265, 347&t=6:27485','citation'); return false;" onkeypress="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=101656&qtdin=&text=2: 414, 521&t=6:101656&dbref=27485&qtdin=&text=101, 130, 140, 151, 182, 189, 190, 193, 265, 347&t=6:27485','citation'); return false;" title="open bibliographic citation in a new window"><img src="http://orlando.cambridge.org/pics/bibcit.gif" alt=" Bibliographic Citation link. " class="BIBCIT" /></a>[Cobbe, Frances Power. Life of Frances Power Cobbe. Titlepage Title: Life of Frances Power Cobbe by Herself. 2 vols. Boston, MA, and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1894: 2: 522.]</div> <div class="paragraph">FPC also numbered Americans among her wide circle of friends. <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:210" title="Person Name link: Alcott, Louisa May">Louisa May Alcott</a> recalled vividly how her assumption that FPC would be "a serious, severe lady, of the 'Cornelia Blimber' school" was immediately banished on her first encounter, in June 1866, with "this merry, witty, Falstaffian personage."<a href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/getBibcit?&dbref=27485&qtdin=QTDINYES&text=2&t=6:27485" target="external" onclick="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=27485&qtdin=QTDINYES&text=2&t=6:27485','citation'); return false;" onkeypress="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=27485&qtdin=QTDINYES&text=2&t=6:27485','citation'); return false;" title="open bibliographic citation in a new window"><img src="http://orlando.cambridge.org/pics/bibcit.gif" alt=" Bibliographic Citation link. " class="BIBCIT" /></a> [Quoted in Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. Victorian Literature and Culture. Charlottesville, VA, and London: University of Virginia Press, 2004: 2.  ] In 1870 FPC became a friend of abolitionist <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:213" title="Person Name link: Wister, Sarah Butler">Sarah Wister</a> (who was daughter of <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:214" title="Person Name link: Kemble, Fanny">Fanny Kemble</a>—also a friend of Cobbe—and sister of novelist <a class="actionItem" href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/wheel?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&&t=0:215" title="Person Name link: Wister, Owen,, 1860 - 1938">Owen Wister</a>).<a href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/getBibcit?&dbref=27485&qtdin=&text=201&t=6:27485" target="external" onclick="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=27485&qtdin=&text=201&t=6:27485','citation'); return false;" onkeypress="javascript:rollyRules('getBibcit?&dbref=27485&qtdin=&text=201&t=6:27485','citation'); return false;" title="open bibliographic citation in a new window"><img src="http://orlando.cambridge.org/pics/bibcit.gif" alt=" Bibliographic Citation link. " class="BIBCIT" /></a><a href="http://orlando.cambridge.org/protected/showScholarNote?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&sn_id=10" target="external" onclick="javascript:scholarWindow('showScholarNote?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&sn_id=10', 'scholarnote'); return false;" onkeypress="javascript:scholarWindow('showScholarNote?src_ref=cobbfr-b.sgm&doc_type=0&sn_id=10', 'scholarnote'); return false;" title=" open scholarly note in a new window "><img src="http://orlando.cambridge.org/pics/note.gif" alt=" scholarly note link. " /></a> [Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. Victorian Literature and Culture. Charlottesville, VA, and London: University of Virginia Press, 2004: 201. ]</div> <div class="paragraph">In 1875 Constance de Rothschild (later Lady Battersea) became an admirer of FPC as she was stepping up her involvement in anti-vivisection.[Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. Victorian Literature and Culture. Charlottesville, VA, and London: University of Virginia Press, 2004: 232.]"</div> </li> </ul> Secondary Texts: Comments Secondary sources that have explicitly commented on the respective item or raised important concerns/questions that are of interest Culkin, Hosmer's biographer mentions Cobbe when she speaks of Harriet's flirtations with other women and when discussing the significance of Rome, and Cushman's circle in particular, to British and Amerian women: "The Irish writer Frances Power Cobbe thought that Rome offered women from the United States an opportunity to expand the independence that was an inherent characteristic of their countrymen and women. She wrote, 'American women, in particular, seem to find it a congenial sphere for the development of the more marked individuality which characterizes them.' [Italics: Brief Notes on Politics, People and Places 1864] These women's freedom was not total, as is illustrated by Story's complaints about Harriet, but it was far more than the women would have experienced at home. […] This liberation was especially important for a woman such as Harriet, who, like Cushman and Hays, knew she was attracted to other women. Rome allowed these women to play with their identities and, at least to some extent, make their relationship known to the public, even at times calling each other 'lovers.'" (Culkin 32) "Cobbe's life is an example of how social networks and informal, extra-legal relationships affected the political and the legal. Because female marriage was not a marginal, secret practice confined to a subculture, but was integrated into farflung, open networks, women like Cobbe could model their relationships on a contractual ideal of marriage and propose that legal marriage remodel itself in the image of their own unions. Cobbe belonged to a network of feminist marriage reformers that included John Stuart Mill, Barbara Leigh Smith, Charlotte Cushman, and Geraldine Jewsbury, as well as to a wider network of politicians, philanthropists and journalists that comprised Walter Bagehot Matthew Arnold, Lord Shaftesbury, Cardinal Manning, and Lady Battersea, whose memoirs remarked on Cobbe's short hair and unconventional dress but also described her as "one of my most honored friends." Cobbe was even friends with W. R. Greg, her antagonist in the debate about unmarried women. Through her writings and her professional and personal connections, Cobbe was able to shape legislation and policy. Her article on "Wife-Torture in England" (1878) led to the passage of laws making it easier for poor women to obtain separation orders from husbands convicted of assaulting them. Cobbe achieved all this while living openly with another woman in a relationship that she and others perceived to be modeled on marriage." (Marcus 211) "Cobbe's greatest enthusiasm, however, is reserved for two independent women, one a young American, the other an elderly English-woman. In the sculptor Harriet Hosmer, Cobbe finds 'the first woman who has combined genius, with opportunity and resolution to study thoroughly . . . . the noble are of sculpture.' Marveling at how Hosmer captures the vivacity of her fauns and satyrs, Cobbe captures her as 'a girl who has spend the bloom of her youth in voluntary devotion to a high pursuit, adding to unusually gifts scarcely less unusual resolution and perseverance.' Taken with Hosmer's personal attractivenesses – her charms, her equestrian skills, her 'drollery' – Cobbe seems especially intrigued by Hosmer's all-female household, living 'in the happy way women club together in Italy.' Julia Markus, in her group biography pf the Charlotte Cushman circle, quotes a letter in which Cushman reports that '<a href="https://archivalgossip.com/collection/items/show/269">Miss Cobbe is her & making great love to Hattie . . . [who] is so fickle she make me heartsick</a>.' Whatever the truth of their sexual relations, Cobbe's infatuation with Hosmer and her household of independent women can hardly be contained. The chapter ends with an extended paen to the twice-widowed Mary Somerville, who at the age of eighty-three is not only a working scientist writing 'a treatise which will probably be considered her greatest work'. but also a heroine fo Christian faith and the domestic affections. In her autobiography, Cobbe portrays their intimacy. '[she] took me to her heart as I had been a newly-hound daugther, and for whom I soon felt such a tender affection that sitting beside her on her sofa . . . . I could hardly keep myself from caressing her.' Her greatest pleasure in all her travels, Cobbe notes in Italics, 'is that I have been allowed to see and know and love Mary Somerville. Ultimately, Cobbe redeems the disillusionment of Italy's wedded life not only in her developing independence but also in precisely these images of female bonding, whether in cults of the Virgin, in all-female household, or in the intimate maternal affection of Mary Somerville. Though Cobbe sets these female bonds in Italy, they remind as that one current of protest of the English marriage laws ran through the English novel's depiction of same-sex unions; by the mid-nineteenth century, devotion between women had become a recurring theme in poetry as well. That such unions were often said to jeopardize not only the patriarchal family, but also the nation sharpens the subversive flavor of Cobbe's stress on female bonding." (Esther Schor, "Acts of Union. Theodesia Garrow Trollope and Frances Power Cobbe in the Kingdom of Italy," 106-107) Cobbe "e secretly wrote her first book Essay on Intuitive Morals (1855 and 1857), while her father was still alive and she was in her thirties […] Already in this early work Cobbe was attacking the double standard in morals for women and men" (McFadden 162) "As an only daughter, Cobbe could neither pursue her own career nor think of marrying while caring for her father; at his death in 1857 she received a small inheritance of £200 a year, with which she did her first traveling. As she notes ruefully, however, she was immediately thrust into poverty" (McFadden 165) Sex Female Nationality Irish Occupation writer Birth Date 1822-12-4 Death Date 1910-04-15 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Frances Power Cobbe Type The nature or genre of the resource Person Reference Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 0086 Description An account of the resource Cobbe stayed with <a href="https://www.archivalgossip.com/collection/items/show/21" title="Harriet Goodhue Hosmer">Hosmer</a> and <a href="https://www.archivalgossip.com/collection/items/show/1" title="Charlotte Cushman">Cushman</a> in Rome, 38 Via Gregoriana, during her Italian travels in 1861/62. Commenting on the role of Rome for independent women, Cobbe publishes Italics: Brief Notes on Politics, People and Places in 1864. In vol. 2 of her autobiography <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.43991/page/n37/mode/2up" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="Archive.Org: Life of Francs Power Cobbe">Life Of Frances Power Cobbe</a>, she expresses her keen insight into the hierarchies within Cushman's household in subtle terms suitable for her reading public:  "A merry party [...] used to meet frequently that winter at the hospitable table of Charlotte Cushman, the actress. She had, then, long retired from the stage, and had a handsome house in the via Gregoriana, in which she lived with her friend Miss Stebbins and Miss Hosmer." (29-30) Frances Power Cobbe publicly campaigns for women's rights in higher education. For over thirty years, she lives with her partner Mary Lloyd. Subject The topic of the resource Italy--Rome Relationships-- Intimate--Same-sex Journalists/Writers Gossip--Published public intimacy Rome same-sex attraction