A Companion to Early Modern Women's Writing

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

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

PART FOUR Issues and Debates 337

22 The Work of Women in the Age of Electronic Reproduction: The Canon, Early Modern Women Writers and the Postmodern Reader 339
Melinda Alliker Rabb

23 Feminist Historiography 361
Margo Hendricks

Index 377