Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meeke, Mary
MEEKE, Mrs. MARY (d. 1816?), novelist, seems to have been the wife of the Rev. Francis Meeke (B.A. Christ's College, Cambridge, 1773, and M.A. 1776), who published a volume of poems in 1782 (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. ii. 229). She began her prolific career as a novelist in 1795, when she published ‘Count St. Blancard,’ in 3 vols., and continued her labours for more than twenty years. In October 1816 there died at Johnson Hall, Staffordshire, Mary, widow of the Rev. Francis Meeke, who may perhaps be identified with the novelist.
Mrs. Meeke naïvely recommends novelists, before planning a work, to consult their publisher as to how they may best satisfy the prevailing public taste (Midnight Weddings, pref.) Personally, she apparently followed this plan with some success. Although her plots are commonplace, and her literary style poor, and her characters only faintly reflect contemporary manners, she had some distinguished readers. Macaulay ‘all but knew,’ Lady Trevelyan writes, ‘Mrs. Meeke's romances by heart,’ but, despite his liking for them, he relegated Mrs. Meeke to the position of his favourite among the bad novel-writers, and agreed in his sister's criticism ‘that they were one just like another, turning on the fortunes of some young man in a very low rank of life who eventually proves to be the son of a duke’ (Trevelyan, Life of Macaulay, vol. i.) Miss Mitford was also a reader of Mrs. Meeke's works in her youth, and in her old age reread at least six of them (Notes and Queries, 7th ser. xii. 405).
The titles of the novels published under her own name (all in 3 vols., unless otherwise stated) are: 1. ‘Count St. Blancard, or the Prejudiced Judge,’ 1795. 2. ‘The Abbey of Clugny,’ 1795. 3. ‘Palmira and Ermance,’ 1797. 4. ‘Ellesmere,’ 1799. 5. ‘Which is the Man?’ 4 vols. 1801. 6. ‘Midnight Weddings,’ 1802. 7. ‘A Tale of Mystery, or Selina,’ 1803. 8. ‘Amazement!’ 9. ‘The Old Wife and Young Husband.’ 10. ‘Murray House.’ 11. ‘The Nine Days' Wonder,’ 1804. 12. ‘Ellen, Heiress of the Castle,’ 1807. 13. ‘Matrimony the Height of Bliss or Extreme of Misery,’ 4 vols. 1811. 14. ‘Conscience,’ 4 vols. 1814. 15. ‘Spanish Campaigns, or the Jew,’ 1815. Probably posthumously published were: 16. ‘The Veiled Protectress, or the Mysterious Mother,’ 1818; another edition, 1819. 17. ‘What shall be, shall be,’ 1823.
Mrs. Meeke also translated from the French: ‘Lobenstein Village,’ by Augustus La Fontaine, 4 vols. 1804; ‘Julian, or My Father's House,’ by Ducray Dumenil, 4 vols. 1807; ‘The Unpublished Correspondence of Madame du Deffand,’ 1810, 2 vols.; ‘Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia,’ by Madame de Cottin, 1817. In 1811 she completed the translation by Mrs. Collyer [q. v.] of Klopstock's ‘Messiah’ (another ed. 1821).
Mrs. Meeke has been identified with the writer who assumed the pseudonym of Gabrielli (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. i. 133) and published: ‘The Mysterious Wife,’ 1797; ‘The Mysterious Husband;’ ‘Harcourt,’ 1799; ‘Independence,’ 1802; ‘Something Odd,’ 1804; ‘Something Strange,’ 1806; ‘Laughton Priory,’ 1809; and ‘Stratagems Defeated,’ 1811; all in four volumes excepting ‘Something Odd,’ which was in three. Miss Mitford assigned to her ‘Anecdotes of the Altamont Family.’
[Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816.]