A Companion to Early Modern Women's Writing

414 Pages·2002·1.085 MB·English

by  Arturo Pacheco, Anita Pacheco

A C O M P A N I O N T O
E M
ARLY ODERN
W ’ W
OMEN S RITING
EDITED BY ANITA PACHECO

A Companion to Early Modern Women’s Writing
Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture
This series offers comprehensive, newly written surveys of key periods and movements, and certain
major authors, in English literary culture and history. Extensive volumes provide new perspectives and
positions on contexts and on canonical and post-canonical texts, orientating the beginning student in
new fields of study and providing the experienced undergraduate and new graduate with current and
new directions, as pioneered and developed by leading scholars in the field.
1 A Companion to Romanticism Edited by Duncan Wu
2 A Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture Edited by Herbert F. Tucker
3 A Companion to Shakespeare Edited by David Scott Kastan
4 A Companion to the Gothic Edited by David Punter
5 A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare Edited by Dympna Callaghan
6 A Companion to Chaucer Edited by Peter Brown
7 A Companion to English Literature from Milton to Blake Edited by David Womersley
8 A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture Edited by Michael Hattaway
9 A Companion to Milton Edited by Thomas N. Corns
10 A Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry Edited by Neil Roberts
11 A Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature Edited by Phillip Pulsiano and
Elaine Treharne
12 A Companion to Restoration Drama Edited by Susan J. Owen
13 A Companion to Early Modern Women’s Writing Edited by Anita Pacheco
14 A Companion to English Renaissance Drama Edited by Arthur Kinney
15 A Companion to Victorian Poetry Edited by Richard Cronin, Alison
Chapman and Anthony Harrison
16 A Companion to the Victorian Novel Edited by Patrick Brantlinger and
William B. Thesing
A C O M P A N I O N T O
E M
ARLY ODERN
W ’ W
OMEN S RITING
EDITED BY ANITA PACHECO
Copyright © Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2002
Editorial matter, selection and arrangement copyright © Anita Pacheco 2002
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without the prior permission of the publisher.
First published 2002 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, a Blackwell Publishing company
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN 0-631-21702-9 (hbk)
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
Set in 11 on 13 pt Garamond 3
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Printed and bound by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
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For my mother

Contents
Notes on Contributors x
Introduction xiv
PART ONE Contexts 1
1 Women and Education 3
Kenneth Charlton
2 Religion and the Construction of the Feminine 22
Diane Willen
3 Women, Property and Law 40
Tim Stretton
4 Women and Work 58
Sara H. Mendelson
5 Women and Writing 77
Margaret J. M. Ezell
PART TWO Readings 95
6 Isabella Whitney, A Sweet Nosegay 97
Patricia Brace
7 Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, Psalmes 110
Debra K. Rienstra
viii Contents
8 Aemilia Lanyer, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum 125
Susanne Woods
9 Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam and History 136
Elaine Beilin
10 Mary Wroth, The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania 150
Naomi J. Miller
11 Margaret Cavendish, A True Relation of My Birth, Breeding and Life 165
Gweno Williams
12 Anna Trapnel, Anna Trapnel’s Report and Plea 177
Hilary Hinds
13 Katherine Philips, Poems 189
Elizabeth H. Hageman
14 Aphra Behn, The Rover, Part One 203
Anita Pacheco
15 Mary Astell, Critic of the Marriage Contract/Social Contract Analogue 216
Patricia Springborg
PART THREE Genres 229
16 Autobiography 231
Sheila Ottway
17 Defences of Women 248
Frances Teague and Rebecca De Haas
18 Prophecy 264
Elaine Hobby
19 Women’s Poetry 1550–1700: ‘Not Unfit to be Read’ 282
Bronwen Price
20 Prose Fiction 303
Paul Salzman
21 Drama 317
Sophie Tomlinson