Female and Male Voices in Early Modern England: An Anthology of Renaissance Writing

by Betty Travitsky (Editor), Anne Lake Prescott (Editor)

Overview

Most anthologies of Renaissance writing include only (or predominantly) male writers, whereas those that focus on women include women exclusively. This book is the first to survey both in an integrated fashion. Its texts comprise a wide range of canonical and non-canonical writing—including some new and important discoveries. The texts are arranged so that writing by women and men is presented together, not in a "point-counterpoint" system that would "square off" female and male writers against one another, but rather in pairs, sometimes clusters, of texts in which women's writing is foregrounded even as it appears with writing by men.

The anthology arranges recently recovered texts into intriguing patterns, juxtaposing, for example, Aemelia Lanyer's country house poem with an expression of a different type of nostalgia by Surrey. It includes unconventional voices, as in the homoerotic poems by Richard Barnfield or the possibly lesbian poems by Katherine Philips. It makes newly available the voices of English Marrano women (secret Jews) and the Miltonic poetry of Jean Lead.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231100403
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	11/07/2000
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.13(d)
Lexile:	1450L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Betty S. Travitsky, archivist at the College of Staten Island, CUNY, is editor of The Paradise of Women. Anne Lake Prescott is professor of English at Barnard College and the author of Imagining Rabelais in the English Renaissance.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Acknowledgments
I. Domestic Affairs
1. Margaret Lucas Cavendish, duchess of Newcastle (1623–1673)
Richard Brathwait (1588?–1673)
2. Elizabeth Cavendish Egerton, countess of Bridgewater (1626–1663)
Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
3. Mary Sidney Herbert, countess of Pembroke (1561–1621)
Henry Vaughan (1622–1695)
4. Amelia Bassano Lanyer (1569–1645)
Henry Howard, earl of Surrey (1517–1547)
5. Elizabeth Stafford Howard, duchess of Norfolk (1497–1558)
Henry, Baron Stafford (1502–1563)
6. Rachel Wrothesley Vaughan Russell (1636–1723)
Henry King (1592–1669)
7. Jane Sharp (fl. 1641–1671)
John Sadler (fl. 1636)
8. Rachel Speght [Procter] (c. 1597–after 1621)
Richard Hyrde (d. 1528)
9. Elizabeth Talbot Grey, countess of Kent (1581–1651)
Hugh Platt (1552–c. 1611)
II. Religion
10. Sarah Chevers (fl. 1663) and Katherine Evans (d. 1692)
William Weston (1550–1615)
11. Anne Vaughan Lock [Dering, Prowse] (c. 1534–after 1590)
Henry Lock (1553?–1608?)
12. Elizabeth Melville Colville of Culross (fl. 1603–1630)
Thomas Sackville (1536–1608)
13. A Medley of Christian Religious Poetry:
Anne Collins (fl. 1653)
Anne Dudley Bradstreet (1613–1672)
Dame Gertrude More (1601?–1633)
Gertrude Aston Thimelby (c. 1617–1668)
Henry Colman (fl. 1640)
John Collop (1625–after 1676)
Henry Constable (1562–1613)
14. Jane Ward Lead (1624–1704)
John Milton (1608–1674)
15. The Jewish Question in Early Modern England:
Sara Ames Lopez (1550–after 1594)
Anne Lopez alias Pino de Britto (1579–1626)
Johanna and Ebenezer Cartwright (fl. 1648)
Menasseh Ben Israel (1604–1657)
Margaret Fell Foxe (1614–1702)
George Herbert (1593–1633)
III. Political Life and Social Structures
16. Mary Tudor Brandon (1496–1533)
Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk (1473–1554)
17. Margaret Douglas [Stuart], countess of Lennox (1515–1578)
Thomas Howard (d. 1537)
18. Women's Political Petitions, 1649
John Taylor (1578–1653)
19. Margaret Tyler (fl. 1578)
Daniel Tuvil (fl. 1609)
20. Diana Primrose (fl. 1630)
William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
21. Anne Edgcumbe Dowriche (before 1560–after 1613)
Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
22. Mary Fage (fl. 1637)
Francis Lenton (fl. 1630–1640)
23. Eleanor Audley Davies [Douglas] (1590–1652)
A "Digger" Follower of Gerrard Winstanley (c. 1649)
24. Elizabeth Sawyer (d. 1621) and Henry Goodcole (1586–1641)
Thomas Dekker (c. 1572–1632), John Ford (1586–c. 1639) and William Rowley (d. 1626)
25. Mary White Rowlandson (c. 1635–after 1677)
Thomas Hariot (1560–1621), Michael Drayton (1563–1631), and Robert Hayman (1575–1629)
IV. Love and Sexuality
26. Mary Sidney Wroth (1587?–1653?)
Robert Sidney (1563–1626) and Philip Sidney (1554–1586)
27. Katherine Fowler Philips (1632–1664)
Richard Barnfield (b. 1574) and William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
28. Isabella Whitney (fl. 1566–1573)
Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599), John Donne (1572–1631), and Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
29. Mary Sidney Wroth (1587?–1653?)
Philip Sidney (1554–1586)
30. Mary Moders Carleton (d. 1673)
Thomas Whythorne (1528–1598)

What People are Saying About This

Jean E. Howard

Travitsky and Prescott have taken the novel step of pairing Renaissance texts by men and by women on specific topics or in a shared genre. The results are stunning. The book's structure allows for a nuanced exploration of how and when gender matters in the production of literary texts. The editors include many new and underexamined materials and the anthology as a whole suggests the remarkable range of women's participation in early modern literary culture.

Susanne Woods

Fills an important need for a teaching text that illustrates both the commonalities and disjunctions between women and men's approaches to similar experiences in the early modern period. The selections are of real interest on their own merits and usefully paired. While the book is arranged to offer comparisons on specific topics, it also invites teachers to think of new ways to organize the material, and to involve students in the exciting process of redefining English cultural history.

Elizabeth H. Hageman

An important contribution to the field, for it brings together in new ways a host of fascinating texts by currently famous and also lesser-known writers.

Editorial Reviews

This collection on early modern English writing by men and women encourages students to be more aware of gender as a significant category of thought and perception. Selections are grouped so as to show authors of both sexes writing in the same generic tradition or dealing with similar topics. The collection brings the voices of English Marrano women into print for the first time, and the Miltonic poetry of Jane Lead into print for the first time since the 17th century. It also includes unconventional voices, as in the homoerotic poems by Richard Barnfield and the possibly lesbian poems by Katherine Philips. Travitsky is archivist at the College of Staten Island, CUNY. Prescott teaches English at Barnard College. The volume is not indexed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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