YEARSLEY, ANNE,
A poetess, novel-writer, and dramatist, born at Bristol about 1756. Her mother was a milkwoman in that city, and she for some time exercised the same occupation. She was taught by her mother and brother to read and to write; and having had opportunities of perusing Young's Night Thoughts, and some of the works of Pope, Milton, Dryden, and Shakspeare, her talents were called forth, and she produced several pieces of poetry which excited the attention of Mrs. Hannah More. To the assistance and advice of that lady, she was much indebted for the improvement of her abilities; and under her patronage, she published by subscription a volume of poems in 1785. The profits of this work enabled her to relinquish her business, for the congenial employment of keeping a circulating library at Bristol Hot Wells. Her subsequent publications were, a second collection of "Poems on Various Subjects," 1787; a short poem "On the Inhumanity of the Slave Trade," 1788; "Stanzas of Woe," addressed to Levi Ames, Esq., Mayor of Bristol, 1790; "Earl Godwin," an historical tragedy, which was performed at the Bristol and Bath Theatres; and a novel, entitled "The Royal Captive," 1795, four volumes, 12mo., founded on the history of the man with the iron mask, imprisoned in the Bastile, whom she supposes to have been a twin-brother of Louis the Fourteenth. She experienced great encouragement from the public in the course of her literary career; but an unfortunate quarrel with her patroness, Mrs. More, which, like most affairs of this kind, was carried on in a manner by no means creditable to either party, tended somewhat to injure her popularity. Some years before her death, she retired from trade, and resided with her family at Melksham, in Wiltshire, in a state of almost absolute seclusion. She died May 8th., 1806, leaving a son and two daughters. Another son, who had studied painting as a profession, and who appeared to be a talented individual, was cut off by a pulmonary disease, two or three years previously to the death of his mother.
ZAIDA,
A Moorish princess, daughter of Benabet, King of Seville, married Alfonso the Sixth, King of Castile and Leon. Zaida is said to have been induced to adopt the Christian faith by a dream, in which St. Isodorus appeared to her and persuaded her to become a convert. Her father, when she acquainted him with the resolution she had formed, made no objections; but fearful it might cause discontent among his subjects, he allowed her to escape to Leon. Thither she fled; the Christian sovereigns instructed her in the new creed, and had her baptized Isabel; or, as some assert, Mary. Zaida subsequently became the third wife of Alfonso, the king; though Pelagius, the Bishop of Oviedo, denies that she was married to that sovereign, asserting she was only his mistress. She bore the king one son, Don Sancho, and died soon afterwards, near the close of the eleventh century.
ZANARDI-BOTTIONI, SPECIOSA,
Was born at Fontanellato, in the Parmesan territory, a place
