-Lady Mary's use of the figure "Jenny" is two-fold
1)Jenny represents the Irish, middle and wroking class women Swift was
accustom to associating with...as social snob she can pass judgement on
crafty maid, and the "vain" Doctor at a safe and humorous distance
2)Jenny could also be a manifestation of Lady Mary's resentment of the
limitations her class and gender impose on her own poetics
--This is to say that because "Jenny" accepts money from the "Doctor"
after hearing his "Bawdy politicks and Satyr" she represents the facilty
that Swift's low born consorts profit from mimicking Swift's poetics when
writing and selling their own poetry
--by removing herself in the character of "Betty" from the transaction
Montagu suggests that as a high born woman her ability to participate
fully and benefit freely was stifled by aristocratic disdain for
publication and literary reputation
--"jenny" therefore replaces Lady Mary as the voice for disgruntled
women
--Montagu briefly drops the guise of Jenny(lines 31-58) to make a serious
commentary,but adherence to the Swiftian mode and sprightly meter ensures her ideals
don't seem too lofty or political for a woman of her class
--in lines 49-58 she address the plight of all women poets by suggesting
that women poets do not get applauded for attempting to be more than just
pretty faces, and have little hope of equal reward; if she were a man of
position a successful career in writing would go without saying
--lines 53-54 make clear that men are "heirs" to the literary tradition
and the intellectual and economic independence that comes with that
inheritance; the phonetic pun on "heir" adds to her rejection of the idea
that women's participation poetry is improper. If we read the line as
"err" (as in to make an error) Lady Mary could also be saying that it is
wrong to suggest that the feamle point of view and perspective in poetry
degrades or debases the integrity of the poetic canon in general
--even as Montagu tries to depict herself as being above answering Swift,
as the presence of Jenny facilitaes, she takes the opportunity to raise
some interesting questins about the restriction of class and gender on
some women's poetry