{{short description|Scottish authors}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''The Misses Corbett''' were sisters '''Walterina Cunningham''' (died 1 April 1837) and '''Grace Corbett''' ({{circa|1765/1770}} – 11 June 1843).<ref name=Baptie>{{Cite book|first=David|last=Baptie|title=Musical Scotland|date=1894|page=33|url=https://archive.org/details/musicalscotlandp0000bapt/page/32/mode/2up}}</ref><ref name=Baird>{{Cite book|first=William|last=Baird|title=Annals of Duddingston and Portobello|date=1898|pages=468–470|url=https://archive.org/details/annalsduddingst00unkngoog/page/468/mode/2up}}</ref> They were Scottish authors who wrote a number of books, poems and songs in the early nineteenth century, most notably a series of anthologies called ''The Odd Volume'' (1826–1827).<ref name=Killick>{{Cite book|first=Tim|last=Killick|title=British Short Fiction in the Early Nineteenth Century: The Rise of the Tale|date=2008|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=9780754664130|pages=107–115}}</ref> While their books were published anonymously, generally as "by the authors of ''The Odd Volume''", they were traditionally ascribed to "The Misses Corbett", "'''Misses M and — Corbett'''" or "'''Marion''' and '''Margaret Corbett'''".<ref name=Brown>{{Cite journal|first=Hilary|last=Brown|title=German Women Writers in English Short Story Anthologies of the 1820s|journal=The Modern Language Review|volume=97|issue=3|date=July 2002|page=621|doi=10.2307/3737496 |jstor=3737496 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3737496|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name=SND>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Bibliography: Corbett, Marion & Margaret|encyclopedia=Scottish National Dictionary|url=https://www.dsl.ac.uk/bibliography/snd/sb633|access-date=2022-02-05}}</ref><ref name=BM>{{Cite book|title=British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books: Colm–Comly|date=1886|pages=137–138|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ORJQAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA3-PA137}}</ref>
== Biography == Walterina and Grace (born around 1765 or 1770) were the daughters of John Corbett (died 20 January 1815) of the ancient Glaswegian family of Corbett of Tollcross.<ref name=Baptie/><ref name=Baird/><ref name=Inglis>{{Cite book|first=Ralston|last=Inglis|title=The Dramatic Writers of Scotland|date=1868|pages=129–130|hdl=2027/uc1.$b261541?urlappend=%3Bseq=135 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b261541?urlappend=%3Bseq=135%3Bownerid=9007199259542992-143}}</ref>
When only eleven years old, Grace was said to have composed the song "O Mary ye's be clad in silk", a new melody to a slightly altered version of the "Siller Crown". This was included in Peter Urbani's ''Selection of Scots Songs'' (1794), and James Johnson's ''Scots Musical Museum'' (1803).<ref name=Burns>{{Cite web|title=The 'Scots Musical Museum' - Volume VI, song 585, page 605 - 'O Mary ye's be clad in silk'|publisher=Burns Scotland|url=http://www.burnsscotland.com/items/v/volume-vi,-song-585,-page-605-o-mary-yes-be-clad-in-silk.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605232932/http://www.burnsscotland.com/items/v/volume-vi,-song-585,-page-605-o-mary-yes-be-clad-in-silk.aspx|archive-date=2021-06-05}}</ref>
The sisters lived in Portobello, Edinburgh.<ref name=Baird/> Walterina married John Cunningham of the 54th Regiment of the British Army.<ref name=Baird/> The sisters' niece Laura Corbett (1795–1863) lived with Grace, and may have assisted her with some of the books. An unidentified "H. C." is also given as the author of two songs and a waltz in ''The Odd Volume'' (1826), and may have been a relative of the sisters.<ref name=Baptie/>
Their anthology ''The Odd Volume'' (1826) proved to be popular, with one publisher requesting a reprint of 750 copies, and an advance order for 1,250 copies of ''The Odd Volume: Second Series'' (1827), which contained entirely new material.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Richard Marggraf|last=Turley|title=Bright Stars: John Keats, Barry Cornwall and Romantic Literary Culture|publisher=Liverpool University Press|date=2013|isbn=9781846318139|page=63}}</ref><ref name=Brown/> The poem "We'll Go to Sea No More" from ''The Odd Volume: Second Series'' was reprinted a number of times, including in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's ''Poems of Places'' (1874) where it was ascribed to Marion Corbett.<ref name=Longfellow>{{Cite book|first=Marion|last=Corbett|editor-first=Henry Wadsworth|editor-last=Longfellow|editor-link=Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|chapter=May, the Island: We'll Go to Sea No More|title=Poems of Places|volume=VI–VIII|url=https://www.bartleby.com/270/3/288.html}}</ref>
The sisters wrote a novel ''The Busy Bodies'' (1827) set in Portobello, with characters based on real people. Author William Baird wrote "That some of the characters represented were drawn from the life is only too evident from a statement we have heard that after its publication the Misses Corbett had to leave Portobello for a time to escape the wrath of the so-called Busybodies."<ref name=Baird/>
In 1828, one of the sisters' plays, ''Aloyse'', was performed at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, and was said by author Ralston Inglis to have been a great success. This was followed two or three years later by another of their plays, ''A Week at Holyrood, or the Merry Days of James the Sixth''.<ref name=Inglis/>
Their book ''The Sisters' Budget'' was another anthology, with a preface dated "London, April 1831".<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Ebbes|first1=Verena|last2=Garside|first2=Peter|last3=Koch|first3=Angela|last4=Mandal|first4=Anthony|last5=Schöwerling|first5=Rainer|title=The English Novel, 1830–1836: A Bibliographical Survey of Fiction Published in the British Isles|publisher=Romantic Textualities|date=21 November 2016|url=https://www.romtext.org.uk/resources/english-novel-1830-36/|access-date=2022-02-05}}</ref> Four years later in 1835, they applied to the Royal Literary Fund while living in Saint Saviour, Jersey.<ref name=Killick/>
They were correspondents with and considered by Thomas Aird to be friends of physician and writer David Macbeth Moir (1798–1851).<ref>{{Cite book|editor-first=Thomas|editor-last=Aird|editor-link=Thomas Aird|title=The Poetical Works of David Macbeth Moir|date=1852|volume=1|page=xcii|hdl=2027/hvd.32044090372384?urlappend=%3Bseq=90 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044090372384?urlappend=%3Bseq=90%3Bownerid=27021597765635924-94}}</ref>
Walterina died on 1 April 1837, and Grace in Portobello, Edinburgh on 11 June 1843. They were both buried in Portobello Old Parish Church graveyard.<ref name=Baptie/><ref name=Baird/>
== Bibliography == === Anthologies === * ''Petticoat Tales'' (1823)<ref name=WPHPMarion>{{Cite web|title=Corbett, Marion|publisher=The Women's Print History Project|date=2019|url=https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/846|access-date=2022-02-05}}</ref><ref name=WPHPMargaret>{{Cite web|title=Corbett, Margaret|publisher=The Women's Print History Project|date=2019|url=https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/2676|access-date=2022-02-05}}</ref> * ''The Odd Volume'' (1826)<ref name=WPHPMarion/><ref name=WPHPMargaret/> * ''The Odd Volume: Second Series'' (1827)<ref name=WPHPMarion/><ref name=WPHPMargaret/> * ''Tales and Legends'' (1828)<ref name=WPHPMarion/><ref name=WPHPMargaret/> * ''The Sisters' Budget'' (1831)<ref name=WPHPMarion/><ref name=WPHPMargaret/> * ''The Cabinet for Youth'' (1831)<ref name=Inglis/> * ''Elucidations of Interesting Passages in the Sacred Volume'' (1835)<ref name=Inglis/> * ''Lessons for the Heart'' (1836)<ref name=BM/><ref name=Inglis/>
=== Novels === * ''The Busy Bodies'' (1827)<ref name=WPHPMarion/><ref name=WPHPMargaret/> * ''The Happy Week, or Holydays at Beechwood'' (1834), ascribed to Margaret Corbett<ref name=Inglis/> * ''The New Happy Week, or Holidays at Beechwood'' (1841), as by "M. Corbett, one of the Authors of ''The Cabinet for Youth''..."<ref>{{Cite book|first=M.|last=Corbett|title=The New Happy Week, or Holidays at Beechwood|date=1841|page=iii|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bWhiAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP9}}</ref>
=== Plays === * "Guzzle", a dramatic fragment in ''The Odd Volume: Second Series'' (1827)<ref name=Inglis/> * "The Babbling Barber", a comedy in ''The Odd Volume: Second Series'' (1827)<ref name=Inglis/> * ''Aloyse'' (1828)<ref name=Inglis/> * ''A Week at Holyrood, or the Merry Days of James the Sixth'' (1830/31)<ref name=Inglis/>
=== As contributors === * ''Selection of Scots Songs'' (1794), contains "O Mary ye's be clad in silk" by Grace Corbett<ref name=Burns/> * ''Tales of All Nations'' (1827), contains a story by "one of the authors of ''The Odd Volume''"<ref>{{Cite web|first=Tim|last=Killick|title= The Rise of the Tale: A Preliminary Checklist of Collections of Short Fiction Published 1820–29 in the Corvey Collection|date=29 January 2013|publisher=Romantic Textualities|url=https://www.romtext.org.uk/reports/cc07_n04/|access-date=2022-02-05}}</ref> * ''The Edinburgh Literary Journal'' (1828–1831), contains several prose pieces and poems by "one of the authors of ''The Odd Volume''" * ''Friendship's Offering'' (1830), contains "Muirside Maggie: A Legend of Lammermuir" by "one of the authors of ''The Odd Volume''"<ref name=Killick/> * ''Friendship's Offering'' (1831), contains "Robin Riddell's Pose: A Legend of Lochar Moss" by "one of the authors of ''The Odd Volume''"<ref name=Killick/>
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * {{Cite book|first=William|last=Baird|chapter=The Misses Corbett|title=Annals of Duddingston and Portobello|date=1898|pages=468–470|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/annalsduddingst00unkngoog/page/468/mode/2up}} * {{Cite book|first=David|last=Baptie|chapter=Corbett, Grace|title=Musical Scotland|date=1894|page=33|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/musicalscotlandp0000bapt/page/32/mode/2up}} * {{Cite book|first=Ralston|last=Inglis|chapter=Corbet, Miss|title=The Dramatic Writers of Scotland|date=1868|pages=129–130|hdl=2027/uc1.$b261541?urlappend=%3Bseq=135 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b261541?urlappend=%3Bseq=135%3Bownerid=9007199259542992-143}} * {{Cite book|first=Tim|last=Killick|chapter=The Corbett Sisters|title=British Short Fiction in the Early Nineteenth Century: The Rise of the Tale|date=2008|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=9780754664130|pages=107–115}}
== External links == * {{wikisource-inline|links=We'll Go to Sea No More|single=true}} * {{YouTube|Khpr01__Gjc|"O Mary, ye's be clad in silk"}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbett, Misses}} Category:Sister duos Category:18th-century Scottish writers Category:18th-century Scottish women writers Category:19th-century Scottish novelists Category:19th-century Scottish poets Category:19th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights Category:Scottish women songwriters Category:Scottish translators Category:Scottish women novelists Category:Scottish women poets Category:Scottish women dramatists and playwrights Category:Writers from Edinburgh Category:19th-century British women poets