The Memoirs of Mrs. Sophia Baddeley, Late of Drury Lane Theatre....A New Edition by STEELE (Elizabeth):

London: Printed for the Author, And sold by all the Booksellers, 1787. 6 volumes. 12mo, 178 x 104 mms., pp. [5] 6 -203 [204 blank]; [5] - 223 [224 blank]; [5] - 199 [200 Errata]; [5] 6 - 240; [5] 6 - 228; [ii], 215 [216 blank], including half-title in each volume, signed by the author, contemporary quarter calf; joints cracked and worn (but holding), spines worn and defective, boards worn. Elizabeth Steele (1740 - 1787) met Sophia Snow, later Sophia Baddley (1744 - 1786) in 1753. The work received a rather curious notice in The Monthly Review: "The success of Mrs. Bellamy's memoirs [i. e., Memoirs of George Anne Bellamy, published in 1785] hath, no doubt, paved the way for those relative to her professional sister; and here, too, as in the former publication, many are the names introduced, and many the reputations that are 'hacked and hew'd,' past all mending.-- But, Ladies, you should consider that if this practice continues, the cause of your pleasure, your sacred cause! must, in consequence, greatly suffer. Ye priestesses of Cyprus, who will then dare to sacrifice at your altars? 'Gallants beware! look sharp! take care!' For sooner or later, all will out; and then, brothers, uncles, fathers, aye and grandfathers too, will stand exposed, as in these volumes, and pointed out by the finger of scorn, and the eye of ridicule." And I cite this example of the kind of observation made in certain departments of English literature: "Despite its critical neglect, the Memoirs informs the debate within eighteenth-century studies surrounding the discourse of sensibility and its diverse characterization as both an empowering re-evaluation of femininity and a disabling set of social dictate" (Studies in English Literature, 1500 - 1900; 48, 3; 2008). Other recent critics have asserted that the female friendship between Steele and Baddeley is a protest against patriarchy but one which ultimately is not that much different from that found in a conventional marriage.