A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Piozzi, Hester Lynch

by John William Cousin

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.).