There’s a house on Fortis Green with a blue plaque denoting that the Victorian poet Coventry Patmore lived here for a couple of years from 1858-1860. Can anyone tell me if it’s true that this is the only memorial plaque in N2? I’m told that there are certainly no English Heritage blue plaques in this post code – but there are might be some rogue notices around the place.
Why do we know of Patmore? Because he wrote a poem which extolled the virtues of the perfect Victorian wife which became the standard to live up to – oh dear.
My thanks to the Poetry Foundation for the following biographical notes. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/coventry-patmore
Coventry Patmore 1823–1896
Victorian poet and critic Coventry Patmore was born into a literary household in Essex, England. His father, editor and novelist Peter George Patmore, educated his son, sent him to Paris when he was 16, and encouraged him to publish his first book, Poems (1844). Coventry Patmore’s subsequent collections of poetry include Tamerton Church Tower (1853) and The Angel in the House—composed of four volumes: The Betrothal (1854), The Espousals (1856), Faithful for Ever (1860), and The Victories of Love (1863).
Patmore worked at the British Museum from 1846 to 1865 and was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. His acquaintances included William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Alice Meynell, and John Ruskin, and his portrait was painted by John Singer Sargent. Patmore also wrote essays on art, including the collections Principles in Art (1889) and Religio Poetae (1893).
The Angel in the House presented a portrait of married life that became a Victorian ideal of domestic bliss. The work was inspired by Patmore’s first wife, Emily Augusta Andrews. Andrews was an author of children’s stories and the mother of six of Patmore’s children. They were married from 1847 until her death in 1860.
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