Adelaide Procter

In 1853, the twenty-eight-year-old Adelaide Anne Procter wrote a letter describing a peasant’s engagement party she had attended in Italy:

"We have been to a ball, of which I must give you a description. Last Tuesday… we heard very distinctly a band of music, which rather excited my astonishment… Emily said, ‘Oh! That band is playing at the farmer’s near here. The daughter is fiancée to-day, and they have a ball.’ I said, ‘I wish I was going!’ ‘Well,’ replied she, ‘the farmer’s wife did call to invite us.’ ‘Then, I shall certainly go,’ I exclaimed… We were received with great enthusiasm; the only drawback being, that no one spoke French… I began to be afraid that some idea of our dignity might prevent my getting a partner; so, by Madame B.’s advice, I went up to the bride, and offered to dance with her… My [other] partner was a little man, like Perrot, and very proud of his dancing. He cut in the air and twisted about, until I was out of breath, though my attempts to imitate him were feeble in the extreme… after seven or eight dances, I was obliged to sit down. We stayed till nine, and I was so dead beat with the heat that I could hardly crawl about the house… it is so long since I have danced.” –Dickens, xvii-xix

Adelaide Anne Procter’s exuberance in this anecdote conflicts with the general impression of a severe or meditative character, reflected in her role as a poet, advocate for women’s rights, and member of a prominent literary family. A friend of the family described the young Procter as possessing a “doomed” look about her, manifested in a “marked brow over heavy blue eyes" and a “mournful expression for a little child” (Gregory, Life and Work [LW], 5). However, Charles Dickens provides us with a contrasting view of Procter’s character as he writes that even on her deathbed “her old cheerfulness never quitted her” (Dickens, xxiii). Though Dickens proved to be a prominent advocate for Procter and her works, one must wonder what he saw in the young lady that few others did. These markedly different perceptions of Adelaide Anne Procter’s personality only begin to relate all the ways she was, and is today, perceived by critics and friends alike.

Adelaide was born into the Procter family in London on October 30, 1825, and she “grew up amid surroundings calculated to develop her literary taste” (Lee, 1). Many family friends perceived that she had a serious demeanor, as they would have expected of the daughter of a well-respected poet. Her father, Bryan Waller Procter, who published under the name Barry Cornwall, was a lawyer and a poet so well regarded that he has prominent placement in several short obituaries of his daughter. Procter’s mother encouraged her daughter’s interest in poetry by copying poems into a small album, which the young girl carried “about like another little girl might have carried a doll” (Dickens, xvi). Procter grew up surrounded by important figures of literature and reform, such as William Makepeace Thackery, Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle, and M. P. Benjamin Leigh Smith (Hoeckley, 2); however, as her experience at the engagement party documents, she also enjoyed associating with people outside her elite circle, and took pleasure in non-literary pursuits.

Despite Procter’s familiarity with the literary world, she refused to rely on her connections as she sought publication. She even submitted her poetry to Dickens’ publication, Household Words, under the pseudonym “Miss Berwick” (2). Her use of a female name (unlike authors such as Marian Evans and the Brontë sisters who used masculine pen names) can be seen as an early indication of her later campaigns for women’s rights, becaue she promoted women’s entrance into the male-dominated sphere of publication. Dickens himself was unaware that Miss Berwick, whose poetry he frequently published, was actually Adelaide Anne Procter, the daughter of a long-time family friend. One winter day in 1854, as he visited with the Procter family, he warmly praised the unknown female poet whose work he had been publishing for two years (2). The following evening, he learned that he had been praising “Miss Berwick” in her presence (2). Until then, Dickens and the Household Words staff had fantasized that this mysterious Miss Berwick was a governess. He had so fully invented her character that his “mother was not a more real personage to [him], than Miss Berwick the governess became” (Dickens, xiv), but he transferred his admiration for “Miss Berwick” to Miss Procter. Her use of a pseudonym “strikingly illustrates the honesty, independence, and quiet dignity, of the lady’s character” (xiv-xv) because she relied on her talent, rather than her connections, to advance her art.

Dickens’ appreciation for Procter’s poetry continued after he discovered her identity, and over time she became his most published author (Gregory, A. Procter, 1). Dickens published her poetry not only in Household Words, but also All the Year Round, another of his well-circulated periodicals (Hoeckley, 2; Lee, 1). Although very few periodicals besides Dickens’ featured her work (Drain, 2), she had ample opportunity to publish her poetry through Dickens. She was the only poet whom he featured in his Christmas edition. (Gregory, LW, 228). She published her own two-volume book of poetry, Legends and Lyrics, in May of 1858, and both volumes were reprinted in multiple editions.

Although Procter found professional success as an artist, her poetic ability is only one of many traits distinguishing her from most Victorian women. She was raised as a Protestant, but she and her sisters converted to Catholicism in 1851, possibly influenced by an Italian aunt (Hoeckley, 2). This conversion is significant: given the strong anti-Catholic sentiments throughout England at this time, her conversion shows strength of character. Some scholars speculate, however, that she had already secretly adopted Catholicism two years earlier (Drain, 2), when she was twenty-four. Adelaidemay have waited to announce her decision until she had her sisters’ support because her conversion complicated the initially strong relationship between herself and her father (Gregory, LW, 10). But whether she feared cultural or familial disapproval, her delay may detract from her iconic position as an independent woman. However, her Catholic faith led her directly to passionate involvement with social work, arguably one of her most progressive achievements.

Because of widespread bigotry against Catholics, Procter’s conversion aligned her with oppressed sectors of society, including working-class Irish Catholics (11). She supported the Providence Row Night Refuge, which aided predominantly Catholic homeless women and children (11). Her concern for the disenfranchised also led her to the struggle for women’s rights, a cause she championed throughout her life. She associated with other women who combined their artistic and cultural interests with the advancement of women’s causes. These women frequently met in each other’s homes to discuss marriage and property laws in the context of women’s lives (Hoeckley, 3). Though they often met sexist criticism meant to trivialize their cause (3), that attention also indicated that their ideas posed a threat to the societal status quo.

Procter used her success as a poet to advance the causes for which she fought. Beyond writing for personal enjoyment, she also dedicated her literary efforts to helping women in the workplace. She united her passions for writing and reform through her work in The English Woman’s Journal, which fought for women’s equality in education, employment, and property rights (3). She used her poetic skills to provide a voice for the Catholic widows and orphans she was helping through the Providence Row Night Refuge. While working to support the Society to Promote the Employment of Women (SPEW), she published Victoria Regia: a Volume of Original Contributions in Poetry and Prose (3-4). This publication supported the cause of female employment by using a printing company which exclusively employed women (4). Procter’s poetic success was not only a personal victory, but also a way for her to advance her belief in social justice.

Despite her prolific publication, critical reception of her poetry was and remains highly ambivalent. Even Dickens, Procter’s most enthusiastic advocate, was uneasy about the social aspects of her poetry. While declaring his admiration for her style, he evinced some apprehension about those social aspects (Gregory, LW, 197). He praised her philanthropic work but avoided mentioning her official positions within liberal organizations (197). Beyond her possibly controversial topics, a contemporary biographer writes that her style of poetry was often “not only sentimental but also formally simplistic” (Hoeckley, 5). Procter herself admitted that “Papa is a poet. I only write verses” (Drain, 3). Despite its formal uninventiveness, her poetry was popular because of its “invariably simple and direct language and strongly affective rhetoric. This simplicity… masks a complexity of thought and feeling” (Gregory, LW, 3-4). Critiques of her work, accompanied with Procter’s own humility, suggest that her poetry’s significance comes from its content rather than its form or style.

Procter’s relationships within feminist societies have led to speculations about her sexuality. Little is known about her romantic and sexual liaisons. She was engaged at least once, according to a letter from William Makepeace Thackeray, and there is additional evidence that she was engaged to a man who devastated her by breaking the engagement (21, 24). This latter incident probably occurred two years before the Thackeray letter, although the dating and details are so uncertain that this may be the same man (21, 24). Despite these documented heterosexual relationships, rumors of her lesbianism have persisted. Her friendship with Matilda M. Hays, a co-editor of The English Woman’s Journal, may not have been platonic: “She dedicated the ‘First Series’ of Legends and Lyrics to ‘Matilda M. Hays’. On the 23 January 1858 Procter wrote a poem titled ‘To M.M.H’…It is a poem which expresses love for Hays… who dressed in men’s clothes and had lived with [a woman] in Rome” (24-25). Other than the vaguely erotic nature of several of her poems (254), there is little evidence about her romantic or sexual life.

The intense activity and ceaseless work that made Procter remarkable contributed to her early death at the age of thirty-eight. She was confined to her bed for the last fifteen months of her short life as she suffered from tuberculosis. It is highly possible that her work among the sick exposed her to the tuberculosis that killed her, although her intense work ethic rendered her physically ill-equipped to fight the disease (Hoeckley, 5). She died in the presence of her mother and sister in London at the age of thirty-eight (Dickens, xxiv).

Despite her passionate activism, her obituaries hailed her importance as a poet and as her father’s literary heir. Her obituary in The Examiner lists her poetic achievements with no mention of her social importance (The Examiner). It fallaciously states that she died unexpectedly, despite her fifteen months on bed rest (The Examiner). Her obituary in Liverpool Mercury Etc. falsely reports that she died “at about thirty years of age” (Liverpool). Both of these inconsistencies romanticize her premature death. In another obituary, published by an Irish newspaper, Procter’s Catholic faith is celebrated above her achievements; the author claims that “The religious no less than the literary world has good cause to lament [her] loss” (Freeman’s). These early accounts of her life omit her social reform, while contemporary biographers emphasize her importance as a woman’s advocate above her merit as a poet. As society has recognized the importance of women’s rights, this aspect of Procter’s life has been more celebrated. These different perceptions are possible because Procter was such a rich character, with a young woman’s cheerfulness, a poet’s intensity, an artistic vision, and a passion for reform.

Works Cited

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