orig. Lady Mary Pierrepont
(baptized May 26, 1689, London, Eng.
died Aug. 21, 1762, London) English writer, the most colourful Englishwoman of her time.
A prolific letter writer, Montagu is remembered chiefly for 52 superb letters chronicling her stay in Constantinople, where her husband was ambassador from 1716 to 1718. On their return, they introduced the Middle Eastern practice of smallpox vaccination into England. Also a poet, essayist, feminist, and eccentric, she was a friend of John Gay and Alexander Pope , who later turned against and satirized her. Among her writings are six "town eclogues," witty adaptations of Virgil ; a lively attack on Jonathan Swift (1734); and essays dealing with feminism and the moral cynicism of her time.