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Bathsua Reginald Makin (c. 1600 – c. 1675) was a proto-feminist, middle-class Englishwoman who contributed to the emerging criticism of woman's position in the domestic and public spheres in 17th-century England. Herself a highly educated woman, Makin was referred to as "England's most learned lady", skilled in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, German, Spanish, French and Italian. Makin argued primarily for the equal right of women and girls to obtain an education in an environment or culture that viewed woman as the weaker vessel, subordinated to man and uneducable. She is most famously known for her polemical treatise entitled ''An Essay To Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen, in Religion, Manners, Arts & Tongues, with an Answer to the Objections against this Way of Education'' (1673).〔''(An Essay To Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen, in Religion, Manners, Arts & Tongues, with an Answer to the Objections against this Way of Education )'' at upenn.edu〕 ==Life== Makin's identity as the daughter of Henry Reginald has been confirmed by recent scholarship.〔See Frances Teague's ''Bathsua Makin, Woman of Learning'' and Jean R. Brink's "Bathsua Reginald Makin: 'Most Learned Matron'".〕 Up until the 1980s, mistakes and oversights identified Makin wrongly as a sister of John and Thomas Pell. The evidence from the writings of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, a pupil of Reginald (Reynolds), was also lost to sight. Makin's connection with John Pell, known as a mathematician, is documented in correspondence between the two. The John Pell manuscripts in the British Library reveal letters from Bathsua signed "your loving sister,” along with letters written by John Pell in which he refers to Bathsua as "sister". The identification of Bathsua as sister to Pell was in fact an anachronistic reading; Bathsua was Pell's sister-in-law, Pell having married Ithamaria Reginald, Bathsua's sister, in 1632. This realisation led to the tracing of a book of poetry attributed to Bathsua Makin. ''Musa Virginea'', published in 1616, bears a title page which, in its translation, states: “The Virgin Muse Greek-Latin-French, by Bathsua R, (daughter of Henry Reginald, school master and language lover, near London), published in her sixteenth year of age.” This piece of writing is important in distinguishing Bathsua’s parentage and the year she was born. While Makin’s book of poetry names Henry Reginald as her father, scholars have difficulty in pinpointing exactly who he was, since there were several men by the name of Henry Reginald, or variants of Reginald, living around London in the early 17th century. He was a schoolmaster, though, as Bathsua points out on the title page of ''Musa Virginea'', and probably taught at a school outside of London. Bathsua's training in classical and Modern Languages is then easily attributable to her father, the learned man and "language lover". While she was highly educated, Bathsua was of the middle-class and was plagued by financial difficulties throughout her life. The name Bathsua derives from Batshua (an alternative name of Bathsheba appearing in 1 Chronicles 3:5), and, as James L. Helm points out, the name Batshua means "daughter of abundance", yet "abundance" was not Makin's experience.〔1993:46〕 Makin married Richard Makin in the parish of St Andrew Undershaft on 6 March 1621.〔Teague 1993:5〕 It is likely that Bathsua and Richard Makin lived in Westminster, as there is a record of several children christened in parishes there. Frances Teague points out that "documents that Bathsua Makin's biographers have overlooked suggest that Richard Makin was a minor court servant in the 1620s or 1630s who lost his place, while Bathsua Makin entered court service around 1640".〔1993:6〕 Evidence of Richard Makin's petition to court in 1640, and his failure to resume a place in the court of Charles I implies that the Makins probably endured financial hardship, which may have led to Bathsua's seeking employment. There is little definitive information pointing to how Makin assumed her position at court as the tutor to the daughter of King Charles I, Princess Elizabeth. Frances Teague's research on Bathsua reveals that Bathsua was in correspondence with Anna Maria van Schurman, the Dutch scholar, and in a letter from van Schurman dated 1640 there is a reference to Bathsua as teacher to "the royal girl Elizabeth" (1986). Bathsua's position as tutor to Princess Elizabeth was underway then in 1640 and continued until at least 1644, possibly as late as 1650; Makin therefore entered into Parliamentary custody with Elizabeth in 1642, continuing to tutor the princess in mathematics, reading, writing and languages. Princess Elizabeth died in 1650, and it is evident that financial difficulties ensued for Bathsua, as she issued a petition for the payment of her service to the court that was dismissed in 1655. Her husband Richard Makin died in 1659, and probably by this time, or soon thereafter, Bathsua had obtained employment in the household of Lucy Hastings, Dowager Countess of Huntingdon. Makin alludes in her pamphlet, ''An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen'' (1673), to having taught the Countess in languages, Arts and Divinity, and, as Teague points out, letters found in the Huntington Library dated 1664 and 1668 reveal Makin's close connection to the Hastings family. Documents among the Hastings papers reveals Makin was employed in the Hastings household until 1662. After this she probably continued teaching, setting up her own school soon thereafter, a school at Tottenham High Cross, just outside of London, which she advertised in the postscript of ''An Essay'', published in 1673. As Frances Teague points out, "it is not known whether the school was a success, how long Makin taught there, or even when Makin died".〔1998:104〕 Evidently, though, she was still alive in 1675, as a letter dated 1675 from Makin to a noted London physician, Baldwin Hamey, is preserved at the Royal College of Physicians. While struggling financially throughout her lifetime, Bathsua nonetheless was acquainted with well-known scholars and court members. It is not known whether Bathsua was in direct personal contact with Anna Maria van Schurman, yet the evidence of correspondence between the two and the mention of Bathsua in van Schurman's other correspondences alludes to the fact that the two scholars, both Royalists, respected each other and were on fairly intimate terms. In fact, Bathsua mentions van Schurman in her catalogue of learned women in ''An Essay''. Bathsua was probably inspired by van Schurman's ''The Learned Maid; or, Whether a Maid may be a Scholar'' (translated in 1659), using van Schurman's treatise on women and girls' right to education as a model for her pro-educational tract, ''An Essay''. Bathsua was also influenced by the work of John Amos Comenius, a prominent 17th-century scholar and educator, whom she would have been exposed to, either directly or indirectly, through her brother-in-law John Pell. Pell and his friends Samuel Hartlib and John Dury were "England's leading Comenians, believing that implementing Comenian ideas would strengthen education and the common good".〔Teague 1993:7〕 While there was little call for abolishing fixed gender and class hierarchies within the Comenian model, in ''An Essay'', according to Patricia L. Hamilton, "Makin champions pedagogical methods developed by Moravian educator John Amos Comenius and recommends that women be educated according to a broad curriculum—a mixture of classical and modern languages, history, mathematics and science, and issues related to domestic economy".〔2001:147〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bathsua Makin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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