Elizabeth Moody (1737-1814) Born Elizabeth Greenly, Elizabeth Moody grew up in fashionable circles in the outskirts of London. She was an avid reader and an apt scholar in modern languages, acquiring unusual fluency in French and Italian, skills that are evident in her literary criticism. As a young woman, she circulated her verse compositions within a small literary coterie until shortly after her 1777 marriage to Dissenting clergyman Christopher Lake Moody, a versatile literary professional. Soon after the wedding and probably with Dr. Moody's encouragement, Elizabeth Moody began publishing poetry in the General Evening Post and the Gentleman's Magazine. The following year, Christopher Moody and publisher Ralph Griffiths founded the St. James’s Chronicle featuring the poetry of Elizabeth Moody, now dubbed "The Muse of Surbiton." Griffiths was editor as well of the Monthly Review, where Christopher Moody frequently reviewed arts and letters publications, and in 1789 Elizabeth Moody became the periodical's first regular woman reviewer. French and Italian literature makes the bulk of Moody's twenty-six reviews between 1789 and 1808. In 1798, Moody published Poetic Trifles, containing a selection of her periodical verse as well as many new poems.