A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Newcastle, (Margaret, Duchess of)
Her mother took the utmost care in the education of her daughters, and instructed them in all polite accomplishments, such as needlework, dancing, music, and the French tongue. She was herself a woman of an excellent character, which this daughter did justice to in her writings afterwards; who from her infancy discovered a natural propensity to learning, and spent much time in study and writing.
In 1643, she obtained leave of her mother to go to Oxford, where the court then resided, and became maid of honour to Henrietta Maria, the consort of king Charles I. When the queen was obliged by the unhappy situation of the king's affairs, to retire to France, she attended her thither to Paris, and became acquainted with the marquis of Newcastle, then a widower, who married her in 1645. From Paris they went to Rotterdam, and from thence to Antwerp, where they settled and remained during the time of exile, enjoying quietly the remnant of their broken fortunes. That she proved a very agreeable companion to the marquis, the many compliments he made to her sufficiently testify.
Being greatly distressed for want of money, and by debts contracted there, she came to England, in order to obtain some of his rents, and accordingly went with lord Lucas her brother to Goldsmith's hall, but could not procure a grant to receive one penny of the marquis's vast estate; and had they not been relieved by the generosity of Sir Charles Cavendish, his brother, they must have been reduced to extreme poverty. Having got a considerable sum from her own and his relations, she returned to Antwerp, where they continued till the restoration of king Charles II. This opportunity the marquis laid hold of to return to his native country, after sixteen years banishment from it; leaving his lady at Antwerp to dispatch his affairs there; which having done, she soon followed him into England, where she spent the remainder of her life in composing and writing letters, plays, poems, philosophical discourses, and orations. Mr. Giles Jacob says, she was the most voluminous writer of our female poets; that she had a great deal of wit, and a more than ordinary propensity to dramatic poetry. Mr. Langhorn tells us, that all the language and plots of her plays were her own, which will atone for some faults in her numerous productions.
In her person she was graceful and noble; in her temper, shy and reserved; in her studies, contemplations, and writings, indefatigable; she was truly pious, generous, and charitable; an excellent economist, kind to her servants, and a perfect pattern of conjugal love and duty.
She died in London, 1673; and was buried in Westminster-Abbey, where a monument was erected to her memory, containing that eulogium on the Lucas's noticed by the Spectator. "A noble family; for all the brothers were valiant, and all the sisters virtuous."
A considerable strength of imagination, with much ease and clearness of diction, and in general a smoothness of versification, unusual in those times, appears to characterise her poetical compositions. Milton is said to have borrowed from the compositions of the duchess, particularly in Il Penseroso.
Having asked bishop Wilkins, "How she could get up to the world in the moon he had discovered; for, as the journey must needs be very long, there would be no possibility of going through it, without resting on the way?" "Oh, madam," said the bishop, "your grace has built so many castles in the air, that you cannot want a place."