HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI BIOGRAPHY

PIOZZI, HESTER LYNCH (SALUSBURY) (1741-1821). —Miscellaneous writer, m. Henry Thrale, a wealthy brewer, and, after his death, Gabriel Piozzi, an Italian musician. Her chief distinction is her friendship with Dr. Johnson, who was for a time almost domesticated with the Thrales. Her second marriage in the year of Johnson's death, 1784, broke up the friendship. She wrote Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson , a work which had a favourable reception, and gives a lifelike picture of its subject, and left an Autobiography . Her poem, The Three Warnings , is supposed to have been touched up by Johnson. Many details of her friendship with J. are given in the Diary of Madame D'Arblay ( q.v. ).