“I mourn their nature, but admire their art”: Anna Seward’s Assertion of Critical Authority in Maturity and Old Age

espanolEn 1786 la revista inglesa Gentleman’s Magazine publico una carta firmada con el pseudonimo de Benvolio, dirigida a James Boswell, biografo de Samuel Johnson. Detras de dicho pseudonimo escribia la celebrada poetisa Anna Seward. Durante los anos 1786‒87 y 1793‒94, Boswell y Seward se enfrentaron en un encarnizado debate sobre la reputacion de Johnson. Este articulo argumenta que en el centro de tales debates se encuentra la defensa de la autoridad literaria y critica de Seward, y sugiere que la edad y el genero de la autora tuvieron un papel clave en la deslegitimacion de dicha defensa. EnglishIn 1786 an anonymous correspondent appealed to Samuel Johnson’s biographer James Boswell in the pages of the Gentleman’s Magazine. Behind the pseudonym Benvolio was Anna Seward (1742‒1809), one of the prominent poetical voices of Britain at the time. From 1786‒87 and 1793‒94, Seward and Boswell engaged in a public and gradually acrimonious dispute over Johnson’s reputation. This article argues that at the core of the debates was Seward’s assertion of her literary and critical authority, and I contend that age and gender played key roles in Boswell’s dismissal of Seward’s claim.