Various Authors - Feminism in Literature Volume 1 PDF

Volume 1: Antiquity–18th Century, Topics & Authors
FEMINISM IN
LITERATURE
A Gale Critical Companion
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FEMINISM IN
LITERATURE
A Gale Critical Companion
Volume 1: Antiquity–18th Century, Topics & Authors
Foreword by Amy Hudock, Ph. D

University of South Carolina
Jessica Bomarito, Jeffrey W. Hunter, Project Editors

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Feminism in literature : a Gale critical companion / foreword by Amy Hudock ; Jessica Bomarito, project editor, Jeffrey W. Hunter, project editor.
p. cm. -- (Gale critical companion collection)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7876-7573-3 (set hardcover : alk. paper) -- ISBN 0-7876-7574-1 (vol 1) --
ISBN 0-7876-7575-X (vol 2) -- ISBN 0-7876-7576-8 (vol 3) -- ISBN 0-7876-9115-1 (vol 4) --
ISBN 0-7876-9116-X (vol 5) -- ISBN 0-7876-9065-1 (vol 6)
1. Literature--Women authors--History and criticism. 2. Women authors--Biography. 3. Women--History. I. Bomarito, Jessica, 1975- II. Hunter, Jeffrey W., 1966- III. Series.
PN471.F43 2005
809'.89287--dc22
2004017989
Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Foreword by Amy Hudock ...................................xix On the Subject Of . . . Eleanor of
CONTENTS
Aquitaine (1122-1204) . . . . . . . . . 37
Preface...............................................................xxv On the Subject Of . . . Marie de France
(fl. 12th century) . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Acknowledgments .............................................xxix
On the Subject Of . . . Hypatia
(c. 370- 415) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Chronology of Key Events ..................................xlix
On the Subject Of . . . Hildegard von
Bingen (1098-1179) . . . . . . . . . . 91
Women in the 16th, 17th, and 18th

VOLUME 1 Centuries: An Overview
Women and Women’s Writings from Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Antiquity through the Middle Ages Representative Works . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Representative Works . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Overviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Women in the Ancient World . . . . . . . 12 Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Women in the Medieval World . . . . . . 34 Women in Literature . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Women in Classical Art and Literature . . . 44 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Women in Medieval Art and Literature . . . 56
Sidebars:
Classical and Medieval Women Writers . . 74
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 On the Subject Of . . . Laura Cereta
Sidebars: (1469-1499) and Moderata Fonte
(1555-1592) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
On the Subject Of . . . Women in
Chinese Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 On the Subject Of . . . St. Teresa de
On the Subject Of . . . St. Catherine Avila (1515-1582) . . . . . . . . . . . 113
of Siena (1347-1380) . . . . . . . . . . 11 On the Subject Of . . . Cassandra
On the Subject Of . . . Nefertiti (c. 1390 Fedele (1465-1558) . . . . . . . . . . 151
B.C.-1360 B.C.) and Cleopatra On the Subject Of . . . Marguerite de
(69 B.C.-c. 30 B.C.) . . . . . . . . . . 27 Navarre (1492-1549) . . . . . . . . . 161
v
On the Subject Of . . . Catherine the Sidebars:
CONTENTS Great (1729-1796) . . . . . . . . . . 175 From the Author: Villancico VI, from
On the Subject Of . . . Queen “Santa Catarina,” 1691 . . . . . . . . 328
Elizabeth I (1533-1603) . . . . . . . . 188 From the Author: Poem 146 . . . . . . 349
Women’s Literature in the 16th, 17th, Margery Kempe 1373-1440

and 18th Centuries English autobiographer
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Representative Works . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Overviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Women’s Literature in the 16th, 17th, Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
and 18th Centuries . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Sidebars: Sidebars:
On the Subject Of . . . Madeleine de On the Subject Of . . . Julian of
Scudéry (1607-1701) . . . . . . . . . 200 Norwich. Excerpt from The Shewings
On the Subject Of . . . Anne of Julian of Norwich . . . . . . . . . . 363
Bradstreet (1612?-1672) . . . . . . . . 213 From the Author: Excerpt from The
On the Subject Of . . . Aphra Behn Book of Margery Kempe . . . . . . . . 374
(1640-1689) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
On the Subject Of . . . Mercy Otis
Warren (1728-1814) . . . . . . . . . 239 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
On the Subject Of . . . Catherine Parr 1689-1762
(1512-1548) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
English epistler, poet, essayist, translator, and
On the Subject Of . . . Abigail Adams playwright
(1744-1818) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Christine de Pizan 1365- c. 1431
French poet, prose writer, allegorist, epistler, General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 399
and biographer Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Sidebars:
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 From the Author: Letter to Lady Mar,
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 288 10 March 1718 . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
About the Author: Mary Astell’s Preface
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
to the Turkish Embassy Letters, 1763 . . 409
Sidebars:
From the Author: Dedicatory Letter to
the Queen of France, in La Querelle
de la Rose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 Sappho fl. 6th century B.C.
From the Author: Letter to Gontier Col, Greek poet
October, 1401 . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
From the Author: Lament to God that
Principal English Translations . . . . . . . 425
opens The Book of the City of Ladies . . 314
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 426
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 1651-1695
Mexican poet, playwright, and prose writer
Sidebars:
From the Author: Two Translations of
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
“Fragment 130” . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 About the Author: H. D., “The Wise
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 326 Sappho,” in Notes on Thought and
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Vision, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 From the Author: “Fragment 10” . . . . 459
vi F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
Phillis Wheatley 1753-1784 Overviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
CONTENTS
American poet Early Feminists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471 Representations of Women in Literature
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472 and Art in the 19th Century . . . . . . . . 67
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 474 Sidebars:
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 499 On the Subject Of . . . Lucy Stone
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521 (1818-1893) and Julia Ward Howe
Sidebars: (1819-1910) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
From the Author: Excerpt from “On On the Subject Of . . . Frances Ellen
Being Brought from Africa to Watkins Harper (1825-1911) . . . . . . 13
America,” 1773 . . . . . . . . . . . . 475 On the Subject Of . . . John Stuart Mill,
About the Author: Letter from George excerpt from The Subjection of
Washington to Phillis Wheatley, 28 Women, 1869 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
February 1776 . . . . . . . . . . . . 492 On the Subject Of . . . Caroline Sheri-
About the Author: Excerpt from Jupiter dan Norton (1808-1877) . . . . . . . . 35
Hammon’s poem “An Address to On the Subject Of . . . Sarah Winne-
Miss Phillis Wheatley” . . . . . . . . 510 mucca (1844?-1891) . . . . . . . . . . 58
On the Subject Of . . . Anna Julia
Haywood Cooper (1858-1964) . . . . . 78
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-1797
English essayist and novelist
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523 Women’s Literature in the 19th
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526 Century
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 531 Representative Works . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 550 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570 Overviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Sidebars: American Women Writers . . . . . . . . 141
From the Author: Excerpt from “To M. British Women Writers . . . . . . . . . . 177
Talleyrand-Périgord,” in A Vindication Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
of the Rights of Woman, 1792 . . . . . 530 Sidebars:
About the Author: Excerpt from A On the Subject Of . . . Frances Power
Defense of the Character and Conduct of Cobbe (1822-1904) . . . . . . . . . . . 98
the Late Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, On the Subject Of . . . Elizabeth
1803 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865) . . . . . 104
About the Author: William Godwin, On the Subject Of . . . Victoria Earle
excerpt from Memoirs of Mary Matthews (1861-1907) . . . . . . . . 143
Wollstonecraft, 1798 . . . . . . . . . . 558 On the Subject Of . . . Caroline M.
Kirkland (1801-1864) . . . . . . . . . 164
On the Subject Of . . . Lydia Maria
Child (1802-1880) . . . . . . . . . . 173
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577-581 On the Subject Of . . . Charlotte Yonge
(1823-1901) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Title Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583-599
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601-662 United States Suffrage Movement in

the 19th Century
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Representative Works . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
VOLUME 2 Overviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
The Civil War and Its Effect on Suffrage . . 239
Women in the 19th Century: An Suffrage: Issues and Individuals . . . . . . 253
Overview Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Sidebars:
Representative Works . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 On the Subject Of . . . Sojourner Truth
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 (c. 1797-1883) . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 vii
On the Subject Of . . . Susan B. Sidebars:
CONTENTS Anthony (1820-1906) . . . . . . . . . 227 About the Author: Elizabeth Gaskell,
On the Subject Of . . . Lucretia Coffin excerpt from The Life of Charlotte
Mott (1793-1880) . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Brontë, 1857 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
On the Subject Of . . . Sarah Moore From the Author: Letter to Elizabeth
Grimké (1792-1873) and Angelina Gaskell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Emily Grimké (1805-1879) . . . . . . 249 From the Author: Letter to G. H.
On the Subject Of . . . Victoria Lewes, 1 November 1849 . . . . . . . 422
Woodhull (1838-1927) . . . . . . . . 279
On the Subject Of . . . Matilda Joslyn
Gage (1826-1898) . . . . . . . . . . . 288 Emily Brontë 1818-1848
English novelist and poet
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Louisa May Alcott 1832-1888 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
American novelist, short story writer, and Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
playwright General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 432
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 Sidebars:
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 301 About the Author: Harriet Martineau,
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 excerpt from an obituary for Charlotte
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 Brontë, Daily News, April 1855 . . . . 432
Sidebars: About the Author: G. H. Lewes, excerpt
From the Author: Letter to the Editor from a review of Wuthering Heights and
of Woman’s Journal, 8 May 1884 . . . 302 Agnes Grey, the Leader, 28 December
1850 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
From the Author: “Happy Women,” in
About the Author: Charlotte Brontë,
the New York Ledger, 11 April 1868 . . . 310
excerpt from a Preface to Wuthering
From the Author: Letter to Maria S.
Heights, 1847 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Porter, 1874 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861

Jane Austen 1775-1817
English poet and translator
English novelist
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 473
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 338 Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 Sidebars:
Sidebars: From the Author: Excerpt from a letter
From the Author: Letter to James to Henry Chorley, 7 January 1845 . . . 471
Stanier Clarke, 11 December 1815 . . . 337 From the Author: Excerpt from an
From the Author: Excerpt from Plan untitled, unpublished essay . . . . . . 477
of a Novel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 From the Author: Excerpt from a letter
From the Author: Letter to James to Mary Russell Mitford, 30 December
Stanier Clarke, 1 April 1816 . . . . . . 363 1844 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
Charlotte Brontë 1816-1855 Fanny Burney 1752-1840

English novelist and poet English novelist, playwright, and diarist
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 393 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 508
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
viii F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
Sidebars: Maria Edgeworth 1768-1849
CONTENTS
About the Author: Hester Lynch Thrale, English novelist, short story writer, essayist,
excerpt from Thraliana: The Diary of and playwright
Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale . . . . . . . . 508 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
From the Author: Excerpt from a letter Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
to Suzy Burney, 5 July 1778 . . . . . . 516 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545-549 Sidebars:
About the Author: Mitzi Myers, excerpt
Title Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551-567 from “‘We Must Grant a Romance
Writer a Few Impossibilities’:
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569-630 ‘Unnatural Incident’ and Narrative
Motherhood in Maria Edgeworth’s
Emilie de Coulanges,” in The Words-
worth Circle, Summer, 1996 . . . . . . . 99
VOLUME 3 George Eliot 1819-1880

Kate Chopin 1851-1904 English novelist, essayist, poet, editor, short
story writer, and translator
American novelist and short story writer
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Sidebars:
Sidebars:
About the Author: Anonymous, excerpt
About the Author: Willa Cather, excerpt from “Dreams,” The Overland Monthly,
from an essay in the Leader, 8 July February 1892 . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
1899 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
From the Author: Excerpt from “Belles
From the Author: Excerpt from “‘Is Love Lettres,” Westminster Review, 1867 . . . 134
Divine?’ The Question Answered by
Three Ladies Well Known in St. Louis
Society.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Margaret Fuller 1810-1850
American essayist, critic, travel writer,
translator, and poet
Emily Dickinson 1830-1886
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
American poet
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 173
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Sidebars:
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 About the Author: Vernon Louis
Sidebars: Parrington, excerpt from “Margaret
About the Author: Martha Dickinson Fuller, Rebel” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Bianchi, excerpt from “The Editor’s About the Author: Annette Kolodny,
Preface,” in The Single Hound: Poems of excerpt from “Inventing a Feminist
a Lifetime, by Emily Dickinson, 1914 . . . 54 Discourse: Rhetoric and Resistance in
On the Subject Of . . . Review of Letters Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the
of Emily Dickinson, Philadelphia Public Nineteenth Century,” New Literary
Ledger, 7 December 1894 . . . . . . . . 71 History, spring, 1994 . . . . . . . . . 181
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 ix
Marietta Holley 1836-1926 George Sand 1804-1876
CONTENTS American novelist, short story writer, poet, French novelist, essayist, and playwright
playwright, and autobiographer
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 303
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 204 Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Sidebars:
Sidebars:
From the Author: Excerpt from “A
From the Author: Excerpt from the
Allegory on Wimmen’s Rights,” My
preface to Indiana, 1842 . . . . . . . 315
Opinions and Betsey Bobbets, 1877 . . . 212
Catharine Maria Sedgwick 1789-1867

Harriet Jacobs 1813-1897
American novelist
American autobiographer
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Sidebars: Sidebars:
On the Subject Of . . . Wm. C. Nell, On the Subject Of . . . Anonymous,
excerpt from “Linda the Slave Girl,” excerpt from a review of Hope Leslie,
The Liberator, 24 January 1861 . . . . 236 The North American Review, April
1828 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Sarah Orne Jewett 1849-1909

American short story writer, novelist, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 1797-1851
poet English novelist, short story writer, and travel
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 writer
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 251 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 366
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Sidebars: Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
About the Author: Willa Cather, excerpt Sidebars:
from “Preface” to In The Country of the
From the Author: Letter to Sir Walter
Pointed Firs, 1925 . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Scott, 14 June 1818 . . . . . . . . . . 368
Christina Rossetti 1830-1894

Germaine de Staël 1766-1817
English poet, short story writer, and prose
French critic, novelist, historian, and
writer
playwright
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 277 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 406
About the Author: Diane D’Amico, Sidebars:
excerpt from “Christina Rossetti and From the Author: Excerpt from “On the
The English Woman’s Journal,” The Letter on Spectacles,” An Extraordinary
Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, Woman: Selected Writings of Germaine
spring, 1994 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 de Staël . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
x F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1815-1902 Overviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
CONTENTS
American critic, nonfiction writer, and editor Social and Economic Conditions . . . . . . 48
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Women and the Arts . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428 Sidebars:
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 432 On the Subject Of . . . Emma Goldman
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 (1869-1940) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 On the Subject Of . . . Margaret Sanger
Sidebars: (1879-1966) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
From the Author: Excerpt from On the Subject Of . . . The Triangle
“Solitude of Self,” delivered before Shirtwaist Factory Fire (25 March
the Committee of the Judicary of the 1911) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
United States Congress, 18 January On the Subject Of . . . Eleanor Roosevelt
1892 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433 (1884-1962) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
On the Subject Of . . . Stanton’s Friend- On the Subject Of . . . Kate Millett
ship with Susan B. Anthony. Excerpt (1934-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
from Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, On the Subject Of . . . Clare Boothe
Woman’s Tribune, 22 February 1890 . . 441 Luce (1903-1987) . . . . . . . . . . . 119
On the Subject Of . . . The Revolution.
Eleanor Flexner, “The Emergence of
a Suffrage Movement,” Century of Suffrage in the 20th Century
Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
in the United States, 1975 . . . . . . . 451 Representative Works . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Overviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811-1896 Major Figures and Organizations . . . . . 177
American novelist, short story writer, and Women and the Law . . . . . . . . . . . 214
essayist Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455 Sidebars:
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457 On the Subject Of . . . Carrie Chapman
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458 Catt (1859-1947) . . . . . . . . . . . 134
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 460 On the Subject Of . . . Alice Paul
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 470 (1885-1977) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490 On the Subject Of . . . The Pankhursts . 138
Sidebars: On the Subject Of . . . Rebecca West
About the Author: Jean Lebeden, excerpt (1892-1983) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
from “Harriet Beecher Stowe’s interest On the Subject Of . . . Harriot Stanton
in Sojourner Truth, Black Feminist,” Blatch (1856-1940) . . . . . . . . . . 156
American Literature, November 1974 . . 466 On the Subject Of . . . Ida B. Wells-
From the Author: Excerpt from The Key Barnett (1862-1931) . . . . . . . . . 169
to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1853 . . . . . . 476 On the Subject Of . . . Jane Addams
(1860-1935) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497-501

Women’s Literature from 1900 to 1960
Title Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503-519 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521-582 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Overviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Impact of the World Wars . . . . . . . . 261
Women and the Dramatic Tradition . . . 304
Asian American Influences . . . . . . . . 339
VOLUME 4 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Women in the Early to Mid-20th Sidebars:
Century (1900-1960): An Overview On the Subject Of . . . Isak Dinesen
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 (1885-1962) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Representative Works . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 On the Subject Of . . . Amy Lowell
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 (1874-1925) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 xi
On the Subject Of . . . Indira Gandhi On the Subject Of . . . Ntozake Shange
CONTENTS (1917-1984) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 (1948-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
On the Subject Of . . . The Little On the Subject Of . . . Angela Carter
Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 (1940-1992) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
On the Subject Of . . . Elizabeth Bowen On the Subject Of . . . Grace Paley
(1899-1973) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 (1922-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
On the Subject Of . . . Muriel Rukeyser On the Subject Of . . . Alice Childress
(1913-1980) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 (1920-1994) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
On the Subject Of . . . Colette On the Subject Of . . . Gloria Naylor
(1873-1954) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 (1950-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
On the Subject Of . . . Susan Glaspell
On the Subject Of . . . Paula Gunn
(1876-1948) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Allen (1939-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
On the Subject Of . . . Djuna Barnes
On the Subject Of . . . bell hooks
(1892-1982) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
(1952?-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
On the Subject Of . . . Rita Mae Brown
(1944-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
The Feminist Movement in the 20th
Century
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541-545
Overviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Feminist Legal Battles . . . . . . . . . . 403 Title Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547-563
Third-Wave Feminism . . . . . . . . . . 434
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565-626
Sidebars:
On the Subject Of . . . Germaine Greer
(1939-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
On the Subject Of . . . Phyllis Schlafly
(1924-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
On the Subject Of . . . Susan Faludi VOLUME 5
(1959-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
On the Subject Of . . . Gloria Steinem Anna Akhmatova 1889-1966
(1934-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 Russian poet, essayist, and translator
On the Subject Of . . . Betty Friedan Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
(1921-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
On the Subject Of . . . Shirley Chisolm Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
(1924-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
On the Subject Of . . . Bella Abzug Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
(1920-1998) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
On the Subject Of . . . Naomi Wolf
Sidebars:
(1962-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
About the Author: Amanda Haight,
excerpt from Anna Akhmatova: A
Poetic Pilgrimage, 1976 . . . . . . . . . 23
Women’s Literature from 1960 to
Present
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Isabel Allende 1942-
Chilean novelist, essayist, journalist, short
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448 story writer, memoirist, playwright, and
Overviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460 juvenile fiction writer
Women Authors of Color . . . . . . . . . 483
Feminist Literary Theory . . . . . . . . . 497 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Modern Lesbian Literature . . . . . . . . 511 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Sidebars: General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . 47
On the Subject Of . . . Erica Jong Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
(1942-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
xii F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
Sidebars: Gwendolyn Brooks 1917-2000
CONTENTS
From the Author: Excerpt from Isabel American poet, novelist, editor,
Allende: Life and Spirits, 2002 . . . . . . 47 autobiographer, and author of children’s
From the Author: Excerpt from books
Conversations with Isabel Allende, Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
1999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Maya Angelou 1928- Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
American novelist, memoirist, poet, short Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
story writer, playwright, screenwriter,
Sidebars:
nonfiction writer, and author of children’s
books About the Author: Janet Palmer Mullaney,
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 excerpt from Truthtellers of the Times:
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Interviews with Contemporary Women
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Poets, 1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Willa Cather 1873-1947
American novelist, short story writer, essayist,
critic, and poet
Margaret Atwood 1939- Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
essayist, critic, and author of children’s books
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 214
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 100 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Sidebars:
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 About the Author: Katherine Anne Porter,
Sidebars: “Reflections on Willa Cather,” The
From the Author: Excerpt from “Writing Collected Essays and Occasional Writings
the Male Character,” Second Words, of Katherine Anne Porter, 1970 . . . . . 226
1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 From the Author: Excerpt from “On the
On the Subject Of . . . Atwood’s Use of Art of Fiction,” On Writing: Critical
Food Imagery in Her Works. Emma Studies on Writing as an Art, 1976 . . . 245
Parker, excerpt from “You Are What
You Eat: The Politics of Eating in the
Novels of Margaret Atwood,” Twentieth Sandra Cisneros 1954-
Century Literature, fall 1995 . . . . . . 114
American short story writer, poet, and
novelist
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Simone de Beauvoir 1908-1986 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
French philosopher, novelist, nonfiction
writer, short story writer, and playwright
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 136 Sidebars:
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 From the Author: Excerpt from Writing
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Women’s Lives: An Anthology of
Sidebars: Autobiographical Narratives by
About the Author: Carol Ascher, excerpt Twentieth-Century American Women
from Simone de Beauvoir . . . A Life of Writers, 1994 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Freedom, 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 From the Author: Excerpt from “An
From the Author: Excerpt from Memoirs Interview with Sandra Cisneros,”
of a Dutiful Daughter, 1959 . . . . . . 168 Missouri Review, 2002 . . . . . . . . . 280
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 xiii
Hélène Cixous 1937- Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
CONTENTS Algerian-born French novelist, short story General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 409
writer, essayist, nonfiction writer, playwright,
and screenwriter
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Sidebars:
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 From the Author: Excerpt from Letters
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 288 from a War Zone: Writings 1976-1989,
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 1988 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Sidebars:
From the Author: Excerpt from “Sorties: Buchi Emecheta 1944-
Out and Out: Attacks/Ways Out/ Nigerian novelist, autobiographer, and
Forays,” The Logic of the Gift, 1997 . . 293 author of children’s books
From the Author: Excerpt from Hélène
Cixous: Writing the Feminine, 1984 . . . 302 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
H. D. 1886-1961
American poet, novelist, playwright, Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
translator, memoirist, and editor
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 Louise Erdrich 1954-
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 American novelist, poet, essayist, short story
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 317 writer, and author of children’s books
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Sidebars: Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
On the Subject Of . . . The Feminist Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Interest in H. D.’s works. Susan General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 436
Stanford Friedman, excerpt from Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
45: American Poets, 1880-1945, First Sidebars:
Series, 1986 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
On the Subject Of . . . Erdrich’s Mythic
On the Subject Of . . . H. D.’s Helen of
Women. Connia A. Jacobs, excerpt
Troy. Susan Friedman, excerpt from
from “‘Power Travels in the Bloodlines,
“Creating a Women’s Mythology:
Handed Out before Birth’: Louise
H. D.’s Helen in Egypt,” Women’s
Erdrich’s Female Mythic Characters,”
Studies, 1977 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
The Novels of Louise Erdrich. Stories of
Her People, 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Marguerite Duras 1914-1996

French novelist, playwright, screenwriter,
Marilyn French 1929-
short story writer, and essayist
American novelist, critic, essayist, memoirist,
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 historian, and nonfiction writer
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 365 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 389 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Sidebars:
Andrea Dworkin 1946- On the Subject Of . . . The Women’s
American nonfiction writer, novelist, essayist, Room. Carolyn Dever, excerpt from
short story writer, and poet “The Feminist Abject: Death and the
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 Constitution of Theory,” Studies in
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 the Novel, summer 2000 . . . . . . . . 478
xiv F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1860-1935 From the Author: Excerpt from “Writing
CONTENTS
American short story writer, essayist, novelist, Out of Southern Africa,” A Woman
poet, and autobiographer Alone: Autobiographical Writings, 1990 . . 49
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487 Lillian Hellman c. 1905-1984
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 488 American playwright, scriptwriter, memoirist,
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 507 short story writer, director, critic, and editor
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Sidebars:
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
From the Author: “Why I Wrote ‘The
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Yellow Wallpaper,’” The Captive
Imagination: A Casebook on “The Yellow
Wallpaper,” 1992 . . . . . . . . . . . 508
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Sidebars:
About the Author: Vivian M. Patraka,
excerpt from “Lillian Hellman’s
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533-537 Watch on the Rhine: Realism, Gender,
and Historical Crisis,” Modern Drama,
Title Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539-555 March 1989 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
From the Author: Excerpt from an
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557-618
interview with Nora Ephron, “Lillian
Hellman Walking, Cooking, Writing,
Talking,” 1973, Conversations with
Lillian Hellman, 1986 . . . . . . . . . . 75
VOLUME 6
Zora Neale Hurston 1891-1960
Lorraine Hansberry 1930-1965 American novelist, folklorist, essayist, short
American playwright and essayist story writer, playwright, anthropologist, and
autobiographer
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
From the Author: Excerpt from “Willy Sidebars:
Loman, Walter Younger, and He Who About the Author: Susan Meisenhelder,
Must Live,” Village Voice, 12 August excerpt from “‘With a Harp and a
1959 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Sword in My Hand’: Black Female
Identity in Dust Tracks on a Road,”
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked
Stick: Race and Gender in the Work of
Bessie Head 1937-1986
Zora Neale Hurston, 1999 . . . . . . . 103
South African novelist, short story writer, and
historian
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Maxine Hong Kingston 1940-
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 American memoirist, nonfiction writer,
novelist, essayist, and poet
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Sidebars: Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
From the Author: Excerpt from “Some General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 130
Notes on Novel Writing,” A Woman Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Alone: Autobiographical Writings, 1990 . . 37 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 xv
Sidebars: Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
CONTENTS From the Author: Excerpt from an General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 207
interview with Paul Skenazy, Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Conversations with Maxine Hong Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Kingston, 1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Sidebars:
On the Subject Of . . . Moore’s Verse.
W. H. Auden, excerpt from “Marianne
Moore,” The Dyer’s Hand and Other
Doris Lessing 1919-
Essays, 1962 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Persian-born English novelist, short story
writer, essayist, playwright, poet, nonfiction
On the Subject Of . . . Moore’s “Marriage.”
writer, autobiographer, and travel writer Roseanne Wasserman, excerpt from
“Marianne Moore’s ‘Marriage’: Lexis
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
and Structure.” New Interpretations of
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
American Literature, 1988 . . . . . . . 226
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Toni Morrison 1931-
Sidebars: American novelist, essayist, editor, and
On the Subject Of . . . The “Free Women” playwright
in Lessing’s Fiction. Florence Howe, Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
excerpt from “Doris Lessing’s Free Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Women,” The Nation, 11 January Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 243
On the Subject Of . . . The Golden Note- Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
book as a Feminist Text. Margaret Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Drabble, excerpt from “Doris Lessing: Sidebars:
Cassandra in a World under Siege,” From the Author: Excerpt from “An
Ramparts, February 1972 . . . . . . . 174 Interview with Toni Morrison, Hessian
Radio Network, Frankfurt West
Germany,” 1983 . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892-1950
American poet, playwright, short story writer,
essayist, librettist, and translator Joyce Carol Oates 1938-
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 American novelist, short story writer, poet,
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 playwright, essayist, critic, and editor
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 181 Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 272
Sidebars: Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
About the Author: Walter S. Minot, Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
excerpt from “Millay’s ‘Ungrafted
Tree’: The Problem of the Artist as
Woman,” New England Quarterly, Sylvia Plath 1932-1963
June 1975 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 American poet, novelist, short story writer,
About the Author: Max Eastman, essayist, memoirist, and scriptwriter
excerpt from “My Friendship with Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Edna Millay,” Critical Essays on Edna Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
St. Vincent Millay, 1993 . . . . . . . . 194 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Marianne Moore 1887-1972 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
American poet, essayist, translator, short Sidebars:
story writer, editor, playwright, and author of From the Author: Excerpt from journal
children’s books entry, 7 November 1959, “Boston
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 1958-1959,” The Journals of Sylvia
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Plath, 1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
xvi F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
From the Author: Excerpt from journal Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
CONTENTS
entry, 4 October 1959, “12 December General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 394
1958 - 15 November 1959,” The Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 Sidebars:
About the Author: Brenda Wineapple,
excerpt from “Gertrude Stein: Woman
Is a Woman Is,” American Scholar,
Adrienne Rich 1929-
American poet, essayist, and critic
winter 1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
About the Author: Elyse Blankley,
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
excerpt from “Beyond the ‘Talent of
Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Knowing’: Gertrude Stein and the
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 336 New Woman,” Critical Essays on
Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Gertrude Stein, 1986 . . . . . . . . . . 424
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Sidebars:
On the Subject Of . . . Anger and the Amy Tan 1952-
Status of Victim in Rich’s Poetry. American novelist, essayist, and author of
Elissa Greenwald, excerpt from “The children’s books
Dream of a Common Language: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Vietnam Poetry as Reformation of Principal Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Language and Feeling in the Poems Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
of Adrienne Rich,” Journal of American General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 437
Culture, fall 1993 . . . . . . . . . . . 342 Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
On the Subject Of . . . Rich’s Culturual Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Influence as a Poet and Essayist. David Sidebars:
St. John, excerpt from “Brightening From the Author: Excerpt from an inter-
the Landscape,” Los Angeles Times Book view, People Weekly, 7 May 2001 . . . . 445
Review, 25 February 1996 . . . . . . . 346
Alice Walker 1944-

Anne Sexton 1928-1974 American novelist, short story writer, essayist,
American poet, playwright, author of poet, critic, editor, and author of children’s
children’s books, short story writer, and books
essayist
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Sidebars: Sidebars:
About the Author: Diane Middlebrook, From the Author: Excerpt from “A Letter
excerpt from “Ann Sexton: The Making to the Editor of Ms.,” 1974, In Search
of The Awful Rowing Toward God,” of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist
Rossetti to Sexton: Six Women Poets at Prose, 1983 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Texas, 1992 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 About the Author: Barbara Smith,
About the Author: Liz Porter Hankins, excerpt from “The Truth That Never
excerpt from “Summoning the Body: Hurts: Black Lesbians in Fiction in
Anne Sexton’s Body Poems,” Midwest the 1980s,” Feminisms: An Anthology
Quarterly, summer 1987 . . . . . . . . 381 of Literary Theory and Criticism, 1991 . . 489
Gertrude Stein 1874-1946 Edith Wharton 1862-1937

American playwright, autobiographer, poet, American short story writer, novelist, critic,
novelist, and essayist autobiographer, travel writer, and poet
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 xvii
CONTENTS General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 503 Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 General Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 539
Sidebars: Title Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . 568
On the Subject Of . . . Wharton’s Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Feminism. Claudia Roth Pierpont,
Sidebars:
excerpt from “Cries and Whispers,”
New Yorker, 2 April 2001 . . . . . . . 513 About the Author: Jane Marcus, excerpt
On the Subject Of . . . Comparison of The from “Storming the Toolshed,” Art
Reef and Ethan Frome. Cynthia Griffin and Anger: Reading Like a Woman,
Wolff, excerpt from Dictionary of 1988 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
Literary Biography, Volume 9: American
Novelists, 1910-1945, 1981 . . . . . . 527
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581-585

Virginia Woolf 1882-1941
English novelist, critic, essayist, short story Title Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587-603
writer, diarist, autobiographer, and
biographer
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605-666
xviii F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
When I was a girl, I would go to the library the goal of social justice. When people in the
FOREWORD
with my class, and all the girls would run to the United States speak of feminism, they are often
Nancy Drew books, while the boys would head referring to the mainstream liberal feminism that
toward the Hardy Boys books—each group drawn grew out of the relationship between grassroots
to heroes that resembled themselves. Yet, when I civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s
entered formal literary studies in high school and and these movements’ entrance into the academy
college, I was told that I should not read so much through the creation of Women’s Studies as an
in the girls’ section any more, that the boys’ sec- interdisciplinary program of study in many col-
tion held books that were more literary, more leges and universities. Mainstream liberal femi-
universal, and more valuable. Teachers and profes- nism helped many women achieve more equity
sors told me this in such seemingly objective in pay and access to a wider range of careers while
language that I never questioned it. At the time, it also transformed many academic disciplines to
the literary canon was built on a model of scarcity reflect women’s achievements. However, liberal
that claimed that only a few literary works could feminism quickly came under attack as largely a
attain “greatness”—defined according to a sup- movement of white, heterosexual, university-
posed objective set of aesthetic criteria that more educated, middle-class women who were simply
often than not excluded women authors. New trying to gain access to the same privileges that
Criticism, a way of reading texts that focuses on a white, middle-class men enjoyed, and who as-
poem, short story, or novel as an autonomous sumed their experiences were the norm for a
artistic production without connections to the mythical universal “woman.” Liberal feminists
historical and social conditions out of which it have also been critiqued for echoing the patriar-
came, ruled my classrooms, making the author’s chal devaluation of traditional women’s nurturing
gender ostensibly irrelevant. Masculine experience work in their efforts to encourage women to
was coded as universal, while women’s experience pursue traditional men’s work, for creating a false
was particular. Overall, I had no reason to ques- opposition between work and home, and for
tion the values I had been taught, until I encoun- creating the superwoman stereotype that can
tered feminism. cause women to believe they have failed if they
Feminism, sometimes put in the plural femi- do not achieve the perfect balance of work and
nisms, is a loose confederation of social, political, home lives. Other feminisms developed represent-
spiritual, and intellectual movements that places ing other women and other modes of thought:
women and gender at the center of inquiry with Marxist, psychoanalytic, social/radical, lesbian,
xix
trans- and bi-sexual, black womanist, first nations, femininity as image, not biologically but cultur-
FOREWORD chicana, nonwestern, postcolonial, and ap- ally defined, thus allowing analysis of the femi-
proaches that even question the use of “woman” nine ideal as separate from real women. This
as a unifying signifier in the first place. As Wom- separation of biological sex and socially con-
en’s Studies and these many feminims gained structed gender laid the foundation for the later
power and credibility in the academy, their pres- work of Judith Butler in Gender Trouble: Feminism
ence forced the literary establishment to question and the Subversion of Identity (1990) and Marjorie
its methodology, definitions, structures, philoso- Garber’s Vested Interests: Cross Dressing and Cultural
phies, aesthetics, and visions as well at to alter the Anxiety (1992) in questioning what IS this thing
curriculum to reflect women’s achievements. we call “woman.” These critics argued that gender
Once I learned from Women’s Studies that is a social construct, a performance that can be
women mattered in the academy, I began explor- learned by people who are biologically male,
ing women in my own field of literary studies. female, or transgendered, and therefore should
Since male-authored texts were often the only not be used as the only essential connecting ele-
works taught in my classes, I began to explore the ment in feminist studies. The study of woman and
images of women as constructed by male authors. gender as image then has contributed much to
Many other women writers also began their feminist literary studies.
critique of women’s place in society studying Tired of reading almost exclusively texts by
similar sites of representation. Mary Woll- men and a small emerging canon of women writ-
stonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women ers, I wanted to expand my understanding of writ-
(1792), Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth ing by women. As a new Ph. D. student at the
Century (1845), Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second University of South Carolina in 1989, I walked up
Sex (1949), and Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics (1969) the stairs into the Women’s Studies program and
explored how published images of women can asked the first person I saw one question: were
serve as a means of social manipulation and there any nineteenth-century American women
control—a type of gender propaganda. writers who are worth reading? I had recently
However, I began to find, as did others, that been told there were not, but I was no longer satis-
looking at women largely through male eyes did fied with this answer. And I found I was right to
not do enough to reclaim women’s voices and did be skeptical. The woman I met at the top of those
not recognize women’s agency in creating images stairs handed me a thick book and said, “Go home
of themselves. In Sexual/Textual Politics (1985), To- and read this. Then you tell me if there were any
ril Moi further questioned the limited natures of nineteenth-century American women writers who
these early critical readings, even when including are worth reading.” So, I did. The book was the
both male and female authors. She argued that Norton Anthology of Literature by Women (1985),
reading literature for the accuracy of images of and once I had read it, I came back to the office at
women led critics into assuming their own sense the top of the stairs and asked, “What more do
of reality as universal: “If the women in the book you have?” My search for literary women began
feel real to me, then the book is good.” This kind here, and this journey into new terrain parallels
of criticism never develops or changes, she argued, the development of the relationship between
because it looks for the same elements repetitively, western feminism and literary studies.
just in new texts. Also, she was disturbed by its In A Room of Her Own (1929), Virginia Woolf
focus on content rather than on how the text is asks the same questions. She sits, looking at her
written—the form, language, and literary ele- bookshelves, thinking about the women writers
ments. Moi and others argued for the develop- who are there, and the ones who are not, and she
ment of new feminist critical methods. calls for a reclaiming and celebrating of lost
However, examination of images of women women artists. Other writers answered her call.
over time has been fruitful. It has shown us that Patricia Meyer Spacks’s The Female Imagination: A
representation of women changes as historical Literary and Psychological Investigation of Women’s
forces change, that we must examine the histori- Writing (1972), Ellen Moers’s Literary Women: The
cal influences on the creators of literary texts to Great Writers (1976), Elaine Showalter’s A Literature
understand the images they manufacture, and of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to
that we cannot assume that these images of Lessing (1977), and Sandra Gilbert and Susan
women are universal and somehow separate from Gubar’s The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) are a
political and culture forces. These early explora- few of the early critical studies that explored the
tions of woman as image also led to discussions of possibility of a tradition in women’s literature.
xx F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
While each of these influential and important tradition in language. Despite its problems, it of-
FOREWORD
books has different goals, methods, and theories, fered much to the general understanding of
they share the attempt to establish a tradition in gender and language and helped us imagine new
women’s literature, a vital means through which possible forms for scholarship.
marginalized groups establish a community iden- The idea that language might be gendered
tity and move from invisibility to visibility. These itself raised questions about how aesthetic judge-
literary scholars and others worked to republish ment, defined in language, might also be gen-
and reclaim women authors, expanding the dered. Problems with how to judge what is “good”
number and types of women-authored texts avail- literature also arose, and feminist literary critics
able to readers, students, and scholars. were accused of imposing a limited standard
Yet, I began to notice that tradition formation because much of what was being recovered looked
presented some problems. As Marjorie Stone the same in form as the traditional male canon,
pointed out in her essay “The Search for a Lost At- only written by women. Early recovered texts
lantis” (2003), the search for women’s traditions tended to highlight women in opposition to fam-
in language and literature has been envisioned as ily, holding more modern liberal political views,
the quest for a lost continent, a mythical mother- and living nontraditional lives. If a text was
land, similar to the lost but hopefully recoverable “feminist” enough, it was included. Often times,
Atlantis. Such a quest tends to search for similari- this approach valued content over form, and the
ties among writers to attempt to prove the tradi- forms that were included did not differ much from
tion existed, but this can sometimes obscure the the canon they were reacting against. These critics
differences among women writers. Looking to were still using the model of scarcity with a similar
establish a tradition can also shape what is actu- set of critical lens through which to judge texts
ally “found⬙: only texts that fit that tradition. worthy of inclusion. However, because later
Traditions are defined by what is left in and what scholars started creating different critical lenses
is left out, and the grand narratives of tradition through which to view texts does not mean we
formation as constructed in the early phases of need to perceive difference as inequality. Rather,
feminist literary criticism inadvertently mirrored texts that differ greatly began to be valued equally
the exclusionary structures of the canon they were for different reasons. In order to do this, critics
revising. had to forfeit their tendency to place literary forms
Some critics began discussing a women’s tradi- on a hierarchical model that allows only one at
tion, a lost motherland of language, in not only the apex. Instead, they exchanged the structure of
what was written but also how it was written: in a value from one pyramid with a few writers at the
female language or ecriture feminine. Feminist apex for one with multiple high points, a model
thinkers writing in France such as Hélène Cixous, which celebrates a diversity of voices, styles, and
Julia Kristeva, and Luce Irigaray argued that forms. The model functioning in many past criti-
gender shapes language and that language shapes cal dialogues allowed for little diversity, privileg-
gender. Basing their ideas on those of psychoana- ing one type of literature—western, male, linear,
lyst Jacques Lacan, they argued that pre-oedipal logical, structured according to an accepted
language—the original mother language—was lost formula—over others—created by women and
when the law and language of the fathers asserted men who fail to fit the formula, and, thus, are
itself. While each of these writers explored this judged not worthy. Creating hierarchies of value
language differently, they all rewrote and revi- which privilege one discourse, predominantly An-
sioned how we might talk about literature, thus glo male, over another, largely female, non-Anglo,
offering us new models for scholarship. However, and nonwestern undermines the supposed “im-
as Alicia Ostriker argued in her essay, “Notes on partiality” of critical standards. Breaking down the
‘Listen’” (2003), for the most part, women teach structure of canon formation that looks for the
children language at home and at school. So, she “great men” and “great women” of literature and
questioned, is language really male and the “the instead studies what was actually written, then
language of the father,” or is it the formal dis- judging it on its own terms, has the potential for
course of the academy that is male? Ostriker and less bias. Challenging the existence of the canon
others question the primacy of the father as the itself allows more writers to be read and heard;
main social/language influence in these discus- perhaps we can base our understanding of litera-
sions. Other critics attacked what came to be ture not on a model of scarcity where only a few
known as “French Feminism” for its ahistorical, great ones are allowed at the top of the one peak,
essentializing approach to finding a women’s but where there are multiple peaks.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 xxi
Another problem is that the tradition that was simply add the women from non-western literary
FOREWORD being recovered tended to look most like the crit- traditions into existing western timelines, catego-
ics who were establishing it. Barbara Smith’s essay ries, and periodizations may not fully reflect the
“Toward a Black Feminist Criticism” (1977) and complexity of non-western writing. In fact, critics
bell hooks’s Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Ann DuCille,
Feminism (1981) argued that academic feminism and Teresa Ebert argue post-colonial and transna-
focused on the lives, conditions, histories, and tional critics have created yet another master nar-
texts of white, middle-class, educated women. rative that must be challenged. Yet, before the
Such writers revealed how the same methods of westernness of this new, transnational narrative
canon formation that excluded women were now can be addressed, critics need to be able read,
being used by white feminists to exclude women discuss, and share the global texts that are now
of color. They also highlighted the silencing of being translated and published before we can do
black women by white women through the as- anything else; therefore, this reclaiming and
sumption that white womanhood was the norm. celebration of a global women’s tradition is a
These writers and others changed the quest for necessary step in the process of transforming the
one lost Atlantis to a quest for many lost conti- very foundations of western feminist literary criti-
nents as anthologies of African American, Chi- cism. But it is only an early step in the continual
cana, Native American, Asian, Jewish, lesbian, speak, react, revise pattern of feminist scholarship.
mothers, and many more women writers grouped Some critics argue that the ultimate goal of
together by identity began to emerge. This Bridge feminist literary history should be to move beyond
Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color using gender as the central, essential criteria—to
(1981), edited by Ana Castillo and Cherríe Moraga, give up looking for only a woman’s isolated tradi-
is one such collection. Yet, while these and other tions and to examine gender as one of many ele-
writers looked for new traditions of women’s writ- ments. In that way, we could better examine
ing by the identity politics of the 1980s and 1990s, female-authored texts in relationship with male-
they were still imposing the same structures of authored texts, and, thus, end the tendency to
tradition formation on new groups of women examine texts by women as either in opposition
writers, still looking for the lost Atlantis. to the dominant discourse or as co-opted by it. As
Western feminist critics also began looking for Kathryn R. King argues in her essay “Cowley
the lost Atlantis on a global scale. Critiques from Among the Women; or, Poetry in the Contact
non-western critics and writers about their exclu- Zone” (2003), women writers, like male writers,
sion from feminist literary histories that claimed did not write in a vacuum or only in relationship
to represent world feminisms is bringing about to other women writers. King argues for a more
the same pattern of starting with an exploration complex method of examining literary influence,
of image, moving to recovery of writers and tradi- and she holds up Mary Louise Pratt’s discussion of
tions, then a questioning of recovery efforts that the contact zone in Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing
we have seen before. Now, however, all these and Transculturation (1992) as a potential model
stages are occurring at the once. For example, for exploring the web of textual relationships that
American feminist critics are still attempting to influence women writers. Pratt argues that the
make global primary texts available in English so relationship between the colonized and the colo-
they can be studied and included at the same time nizer, though inflected by unequal power, often
they are being critiqued for doing so. Chandra creates influence that works both ways (the
Talpade Mohanty in “Under Western Eyes: Femi- contact zone). Using Pratt’s idea of mutual influ-
nist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses” (1991) ence and cultural hybridity allows, King argues,
argues that systems of oppression do not affect us women’s literary history to be better grounded in
all equally, and to isolate gender as the primary social, historical, philosophical, and religious
source of oppression ignores the differing and traditions that influenced the texts of women writ-
complex webs of oppressions non-western women ers.
face. Western tendencies to view non-western So, what has feminism taught me about liter-
women as suffering from a totalizing and undif- ary studies? That it is not “artistic value” or
ferentiated oppression similar to their own “uni- “universal themes” that keeps authors’ works
versal” female oppression cause feminist literary alive. Professors decide which authors and themes
critics to impose structures of meaning onto non- are going to “count” by teaching them, writing
western texts that fail to reflect the actual cultures scholarly books and articles on them, and by mak-
and experiences of the writers. Therefore, to ing sure they appear in dictionaries of literary
xxii F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
biography, bibliographies, and in the grand narra- What has literary studies taught me about
FOREWORD
tives of literary history. Reviewers decide who gets feminism? That being gendered is a text that can
attention by reviewing them. Editors and publish- be read, interpreted, manipulated, and altered.
ers decide who gets read by keeping them in print. That feminisms themselves are texts written by
And librarians decide what books to buy and to real people in actual historical situations, and that
keep on the shelves. Like the ancient storytellers feminists, too, must always recognize our own
who passed on the tribes’ history from generation biases, and let others recognize them. That femi-
to generation, these groups keep our cultural nism is forever growing and changing and rein-
memory. Therefore, we gatekeepers, who are venting itself in a continual cycle of statement,
biased humans living in and shaped by the intel- reaction, and revision. As the definitions and goals
lectual, cultural, and aesthetic paradigms of an
of feminisms change before my eyes, I have
actual historical period must constantly reassess
learned that feminism is a process, its meaning
our methods, theories, and techniques, continu-
constantly deferred.
ally examining how our own ethnicities, classes,
genders, nationalities, and sexualities mold our —Amy Hudock, Ph.D.
critical judgements. University of South Carolina
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 xxiii
The Gale Critical Companion Collection provide students with historical and cultural
PREFACE
In response to a growing demand for relevant context on a topic or author’s work. GCCC titles
criticism and interpretation of perennial topics will benefit larger institutions with ongoing
and important literary movements throughout subscriptions to Gale’s LCS products as well as
history, the Gale Critical Companion Collection smaller libraries and school systems with less
(GCCC) was designed to meet the research needs extensive reference collections. Each edition of
of upper high school and undergraduate students. the GCCC is created as a stand-alone set provid-
Each edition of GCCC focuses on a different liter- ing a wealth of information on the topic or move-
ary movement or topic of broad interest to stu- ment. Importantly, the overlap between the
dents of literature, history, multicultural studies, GCCC and LCS titles is 15% or less, ensuring that
humanities, foreign language studies, and other LCS subscribers will not duplicate resources in
subject areas. Topics covered are based on feedback their collection.
from a standing advisory board consisting of refer- Editions within the GCCC are either single-
ence librarians and subject specialists from public, volume or multi-volume sets, depending on the
academic, and school library systems. nature and scope of the topic being covered. Topic
The GCCC is designed to complement Gale’s entries and author entries are treated separately,
existing Literary Criticism Series (LCS) , which with entries on related topics appearing first, fol-
includes such award-winning and distinguished lowed by author entries in an A-Z arrangement.
titles as Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism Each volume is approximately 500 pages in length
(NCLC), Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism and includes approximately 50 images and side-
(TCLC), and Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC). bar graphics. These sidebars include summaries of
Like the LCS titles, the GCCC editions provide important historical events, newspaper clippings,
selected reprinted essays that offer an inclusive brief biographies of important figures, complete
range of critical and scholarly response to authors poems or passages of fiction written by the author,
and topics widely studied in high school and descriptions of events in the related arts (music,
undergraduate classes; however, the GCCC also visual arts, and dance), and so on.
includes primary source documents, chronologies, The reprinted essays in each GCCC edition
sidebars, supplemental photographs, and other explicate the major themes and literary techniques
material not included in the LCS products. The of the authors and literary works. It is important
graphic and supplemental material is designed to to note that approximately 85% of the essays
extend the usefulness of the critical essays and reprinted in GCCC editions are full-text, meaning
xxv
that they are reprinted in their entirety, including cal order. The genre and publication date of
PREFACE footnotes and lists of abbreviations. Essays are each work is given. Unless otherwise indicated,
selected based on their coverage of the seminal dramas are dated by first performance, not first
works and themes of an author, and based on the publication.
importance of those essays to an appreciation of • Entries generally begin with a section of Pri-
the author’s contribution to the movement and mary Sources, which includes essays,
to literature in general. Gale’s editors select those speeches, social history, newspaper accounts
essays of most value to upper high school and and other materials that were produced dur-
undergraduate students, avoiding narrow and ing the time covered.
highly pedantic interpretations of individual • Reprinted Criticism in topic entries is arranged
works or of an author’s canon. thematically. Topic entries commonly begin
with general surveys of the subject or essays
Scope of Feminism in Literature providing historical or background informa-
Feminism in Literature, the third set in the Gale tion, followed by essays that develop particular
Critical Companion Collection, consists of six aspects of the topic. Each section has a sepa-
volumes. Each volume includes a detailed table of rate title heading and is identified with a page
contents, a foreword on the subject of feminism number in the table of contents. The critic’s
in literature written by noted scholar Amy Hu- name and the date of composition or publica-
dock, and a descriptive chronology of key events tion of the critical work are given at the begin-
throughout the history of women’s writing. ning of each piece of criticism. Unsigned criti-
Volume 1 focuses on feminism in literature from cism is preceded by the title of the source in
antiquity through the 18th century. It consists of which it appeared. Footnotes are reprinted at
three topic entries, including Women and Wom- the end of each essay or excerpt. In the case
en’s Writings from Classical Antiquity through of excerpted criticism, only those footnotes
the Middle Ages, and seven author entries on such that pertain to the excerpted texts are in-
women writers from this time period as Christine cluded.
de Pizan, Sappho, and Mary Wollstonecraft.
• A complete Bibliographical Citation of the
Volumes 2 and 3 focus on the 19th century.
original essay or book precedes each piece of
Volume 2 includes such topic entries as United
criticism.
States Women’s Suffrage Movement in the 19th
Century, as well as author entries on Jane Austen, • Critical essays are prefaced by brief Annota-
Charlotte Brontë, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. tions explicating each piece. Unless the de-
Volume 3 contains additional author entries on scriptor “excerpt” is used in the annotation,
figures of the 19th century, including such no- the essay is being reprinted in its entirety.
tables as Kate Chopin, Emily Dickinson, and Har- • An annotated bibliography of Further Read-
riet Beecher Stowe. Volumes 4, 5, and 6 focus on ing appears at the end of each entry and sug-
the 20th century to the present day; volume 4 gests resources for additional study. In some
includes coverage of topics relevant to feminism cases, significant essays for which the editors
in literature during the 20th century and early could not obtain reprint rights are included
21st century, including the Feminist Movement, here.
and volumes 5 and 6 include author entries on A Feminism in Literature author entry consists
such figures as Margaret Atwood, Charlotte Per- of the following elements:
kins Gilman, Sylvia Plath, and Virginia Woolf. • The Author Heading cites the name under
which the author most commonly wrote, fol-
Organization of Feminism in Literature lowed by birth and death dates. Also located
A Feminism in Literature topic entry consists of here are any name variations under which an
the following elements: author wrote. If the author wrote consistently
• The Introduction defines the subject of the under a pseudonym, the pseudonym will be
entry and provides social and historical infor- listed in the author heading and the author’s
mation important to understanding the criti- actual name given in parentheses on the first
cism. line of the biographical and critical informa-
• The list of Representative Works identifies tion. Uncertain birth or death dates are indi-
writings and works by authors and figures as- cated by question marks.
sociated with the subject. The list is divided • A Portrait of the Author is included when
into alphabetical sections by name; works available.
listed under each name appear in chronologi- • The Introduction contains background infor-
xxvi F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
mation that introduces the reader to the references to the main author entries in volumes
PREFACE
author that is the subject of the entry. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 as well as commentary on the
• The list of Principal Works is ordered chrono- featured author in other author entries and in the
logically by date of first publication and lists topic volumes. Page references to substantial
the most important works by the author. The discussions of the authors appear in boldface. The
genre and publication date of each work is Author Index also includes birth and death dates
given. Unless otherwise indicated, dramas are and cross references between pseudonyms and
dated by first performance, not first publica- actual names, and cross references to other Gale
tion. series in which the authors have appeared. A
• Author entries are arranged into three sections: complete list of these sources is found facing the
Primary Sources, General Commentary, and first page of the Author Index.
Title Commentary. The Primary Sources sec- The Title Index alphabetically lists the titles
tion includes letters, poems, short stories, of works written by the authors featured in
journal entries, novel excerpts, and essays volumes 1 through 6 and provides page numbers
written by the featured author. General Com- or page ranges where commentary on these titles
mentary includes overviews of the author’s can be found. Page references to substantial
career and general studies; Title Commentary discussions of the titles appear in boldface. English
includes in-depth analyses of seminal works translations of foreign titles and variations of titles
by the author. Within the Title Commentary are cross-referenced to the title under which a
section, the reprinted criticism is further work was originally published. Titles of novels,
organized by title, then by date of publica- dramas, nonfiction books, films, and poetry, short
tion. The critic’s name and the date of compo- story, or essay collections are printed in italics,
sition or publication of the critical work are while individual poems, short stories, and essays
given at the beginning of each piece of criti- are printed in roman type within quotation
cism. Unsigned criticism is preceded by the marks.
title of the source in which it appeared. All The Subject Index includes the authors and
titles by the author featured in the text are titles that appear in the Author Index and the Title
printed in boldface type. However, not all Index as well as the names of other authors and
boldfaced titles are included in the author and figures that are discussed in the set, including
subject indexes; only substantial discussions those covered in sidebars. The Subject Index also
of works are indexed. Footnotes are reprinted lists hundreds of literary terms and topics covered
at the end of each essay or excerpt. In the case in the criticism. The index provides page numbers
of excerpted criticism, only those footnotes or page ranges where subjects are discussed and is
that pertain to the excerpted texts are in- fully cross referenced.
cluded.
Citing Feminism in Literature
• A complete Bibliographical Citation of the
When writing papers, students who quote
original essay or book precedes each piece of
directly from the FL set may use the following
criticism.
general format to footnote reprinted criticism. The
• Critical essays are prefaced by brief Annota-
first example pertains to material drawn from
tions explicating each piece. Unless the de-
periodicals, the second to material reprinted from
scriptor “excerpt” is used in the annotation,
books.
the essay is being reprinted in its entirety.
Bloom, Harold. “ Feminism as the Love of Reading,”
• An annotated bibliography of Further Read- Raritan 14, no. 2 (fall 1994): 29-42; reprinted in
ing appears at the end of each entry and sug- Feminism in Literature: A Gale Critical Companion, vol.
gests resources for additional study. In some 6, eds. Jessica Bomarito and Jeffrey W. Hunter (Farm-
cases, significant essays for which the editors ington Hills, Mich: Thomson Gale, 2004), 29-42.
could not obtain reprint rights are included Coole, Diana H. “The Origin of Western Thought
and the Birth of Misogyny,” in Women in Political
here. A list of Other Sources from Gale fol-
Theory: From Ancient Misogyny to Contemporary Femi-
lows the further reading section and provides nism (Brighton, Sussex: Wheatsheaf Books, 1988),
references to other biographical and critical 10-28; reprinted in Feminism in Literature: A Gale
sources on the author in series published by Critical Companion, vol. 1, eds. Jessica Bomarito and
Jeffrey W. Hunter (Farmington Hills, Mich: Thomson
Gale. Gale, 2004), 15-25.
Indexes Feminism in Literature Advisory Board

The Author Index lists all of the authors The members of the Feminism in Literature
featured in the Feminism in Literature set, with Advisory Board—reference librarians and subject
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 xxvii
specialists from public, academic, and school We wish to thank the advisors for their advice dur-
PREFACE library systems—offered a variety of informed ing the development of Feminism in Literature.
perspectives on both the presentation and content
of the Feminism in Literature set. Advisory board Suggestions are Welcome
members assessed and defined such quality issues Readers who wish to suggest new features, top-
as the relevance, currency, and usefulness of the ics, or authors to appear in future volumes of the
author coverage, critical content, and topics Gale Critical Companion Collection, or who have
included in our product; evaluated the layout, other suggestions or comments are cordially
presentation, and general quality of our product; invited to call, write, or fax the Product Manager.
provided feedback on the criteria used for select-
Product Manager, Gale Critical Companion
ing authors and topics covered in our product;
Collection
identified any gaps in our coverage of authors or
topics, recommending authors or topics for inclu- Thomson Gale
sion; and analyzed the appropriateness of our 27500 Drake Road
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xxviii F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
The editors wish to thank the copyright holders permission of the author.—American Literary
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
of the excerpted criticism included in this volume History, v. 1, winter, 1989 for “Bio-Political
and the permissions managers of many book and Resistance in Domestic Ideology and Uncle Tom’s
magazine publishing companies for assisting us in Cabin” by Lora Romero. Copyright © 1989 by
securing reproduction rights. We are also grateful Oxford University Press. Reproduced by permis-
to the staffs of the Detroit Public Library, the sion of the publisher and the author.—American
Library of Congress, the University of Detroit Literature, v. 53, January, 1982. Copyright ©
Mercy Library, Wayne State University Purdy/ 1982, by Duke University Press. Reproduced by
Kresge Library Complex, and the University of permission.—The American Scholar, v. 44, spring,
Michigan Libraries for making their resources 1975. Copyright © 1975 by the United Chapters
available to us. Following is a list of the copyright of Phi Beta Kappa. Reproduced by permission of
holders who have granted us permission to repro- Curtis Brown Ltd.—The Antioch Review, v. 32,
duce material in this edition of Feminism in Litera- 1973. Copyright © 1973 by the Antioch Review
ture. Every effort has been made to trace copyright, Inc. Reproduced by permission of the Editors.—
but if omissions have been made, please let us
Ariel: A Review of International English Litera-
know.
ture, v. 21, January, 1990 for “Female Sexuality in
Copyrighted material in Feminism in Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! and the Era of Scientific
Literature was reproduced from the Sexology: A Dialogue between Frontiers” by C.
following periodicals: Susan Wiesenthal; v. 22, October, 1991 for “Marga-
African American Review, v. 35, winter, 2001 for ret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye: Re-Viewing Women in a
“‘The Porch Couldn’t Talk for Looking’: Voice and Postmodern World” by Earl G. Ingersoll. Copy-
Vision in Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Debo- right © 1990, 1991 The Board of Governors, The
rah Clarke; v. 36, 2002 for “Phillis Wheatley’s University of Calgary. Both reproduced by permis-
Construction of Otherness and the Rhetoric of sion of the publisher and the author.—Atlantis: A
Performed Ideology” by Mary McAleer Balkun. Women’s Studies Journal, v. 9, fall, 1983. Copy-
Copyright © 2001, 2002 by the respective authors. right © 1983 by Atlantis. Reproduced by permis-
Both reproduced by permission of the respective sion.—Black American Literature Forum, v. 24,
authors.—Agora: An Online Graduate Journal, v. summer, 1990 for “Singing the Black Mother:
1, fall, 2002 for “Virgin Territory: Murasaki Shiki- Maya Angelou and Autobiographical Continuity”
bu’s Ôigimi Resists the Male” by Valerie Henitiuk. by Mary Jane Lupton. Copyright © 1990 by the
Copyright © 2001-2002 Maximiliaan van author. Reproduced by permission of the author.—
Woudenberg. All rights reserved. Reproduced by The Book Collector, v. 31, spring, 1982. Repro-
xxix
duced by permission.—The CEA Critic, v. 56, chardt, Inc. for the author.—Dissent, summer,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS spring/summer, 1994 for “Feminism and Chil- 1987. Copyright © 1987, by Dissent Publishing
dren’s Literature: Fitting Little Women into the Corporation. Reproduced by permission.—The
American Literary Canon” by Jill P. May. Copy- Eighteenth Century, v. 43, spring, 2002. Copyright
right © 1994 by the College English Association, © 2002 by Texas Tech University Press. Reproduced
Inc. Reproduced by permission of the publisher by permission.—Eighteenth-Century Fiction, v. 3,
and the author.—The Centennial Review, v. xxix, July, 1991. Copyright © McMaster University
spring, 1985 for “‘An Order of Constancy’: Notes 1991. Reproduced by permission.—Emily Dickin-
on Brooks and the Feminine” by Hortense J. Spill- son Journal, v. 10, 2000. Copyright © 2000 by
ers. Michigan State University Press. Copyright © The Johns Hopkins University Press for the Emily
1985 by The Centennial Review. Reproduced by Dickinson International Society. All rights re-
permission of the publisher.—Chaucer Review, v. served. Reproduced by permission.—The Emporia
37, 2003. Copyright © 2003 by The Pennsylvania State Research Studies, v. 24, winter, 1976.
State University. All rights reserved. Reproduced Reproduced by permission.—Essays and Studies,
by permission.—Christianity and Literature, v. 2002. Copyright © 2002 Boydell & Brewer Inc.
51, spring, 2002. Copyright © 2002 by the Confer- Reproduced by permission.—Essays in Literature,
ence on Christianity and Literature. Reproduced v. 12, fall, 1985. Copyright © 1985 Western Illinois
by permission.—CLA Journal, v. XXXIX, March, University. Reproduced by permission.—Feminist
1996. Copyright © 1966 by The College Language Studies, v. 6, summer, 1980; v. 25, fall, 1999.
Association. Used by permission of The College Copyright © 1980, 1999 by Feminist Studies. Both
Language Association.—Classical Quarterly, v. 31, reproduced by permission of Feminist Studies,
1981 for “Spartan Wives: Liberation or Licence?” Inc., Department of Women’s Studies, University
by Paul Cartledge. Copyright © 1981 The Classical of Maryland, College Park, MD 20724.—French
Association. Reproduced by permission of Oxford Studies, v. XLVIII, April, 1994; v. LII, April, 1998.
University Press and the author.—Colby Library Copyright © 1994, 1998 by The Society for French
Quarterly, v. 21, March, 1986. Reproduced by per- Studies. Reproduced by permission.—Frontiers, v.
mission.—Colby Quarterly, v. XXVI, September IX, 1987; v. XIV, 1994. Copyright © The University
1990; v. XXXIV, June, 1998. Both reproduced by of Nebraska Press 1987, 1994. Both reproduced by
permission.—College English, v. 36, March, 1975 permission.—Glamour, v. 88, November 1990 for
for “Who Buried H. D.?: A Poet, Her Critics, and “Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros. Copyright
Her Place in ‘The Literary Tradition’” by Susan © 1996 by Wendy Martin. All rights reserved.
Friedman. Copyright © 1975 by the National Reproduced by permission of Susan Bergholz Liter-
Council of Teachers of English. Reproduced by ary Services, New York.—Harper’s Magazine, for
permission of the publisher and the author.— “Women’s Work” by Louise Erdrich. Copyright ©
Connotations, v. 5, 1995-96. Copyright © Wax- 1995 by Harper’s Magazine. All rights reserved.
mann Verlag GmbH, Munster/New York 1996. Reproduced from the May edition by special per-
Reproduced by permission.—Contemporary Lit- mission.—History Today, v. 50, October, 2000; v.
erature, v. 34, winter, 1993. Copyright © 1993 by 51, November, 2001. Copyright © 2000, 2001 by
University of Wisconsin Press. Reproduced by per- The H. W. Wilson Company. All rights reserved.
mission.—Critical Quarterly, v. 14, autumn, 1972; Reproduced by permission.—The Hudson Review,
v. 27, spring, 1985. Copyright © 1972, 1985 by v. XXXVI, summer, 1983. Copyright © 1983 by
Manchester University Press. Both reproduced by The Hudson Review, Inc. Reproduced by permis-
permission of Blackwell Publishers.—Critical Sur- sion.—Hypatia, v. 5, summer, 1990 for “Is There a
vey, v. 14, January, 2002. Copyright © 2002 Feminist Aesthetic?” by Marilyn French. Copy-
Berghahn Books, Inc. Reproduced by permis- right by Marilyn French. Reproduced by permis-
sion.—Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction, v. XV, sion.—International Fiction Review, v. 29, 2002.
1973. Copyright © by Critique, 1973. Copyright © Copyright © 2002. International Fiction Associa-
1973 by Helen Dwight Reid Educational Founda- tion. Reproduced by permission.—Irish Studies
tion. Reproduced with permission of the Helen Review, spring, 1996 from “History, Gender and
Dwight Reid Educational Foundation, published the Colonial Movement: Castle Rackrent” by
by Heldref Publications, 1319 18th Street, NW, Colin Graham. Reproduced by permission of
Washington, DC 20036-1802.—Cultural Critique, Taylor & Francis and the author.—Journal of
v. 32, winter, 1995-96. Copyright © 1996 by Cul- Evolutionary Psychology, v. 7, August, 1986.
tural Critique. All rights reserved. Reproduced by Reproduced by permission.—Journal of the Mid-
permission.—Denver Quarterly, v. 18, winter, west Modern Language Association, v. 35, 2002
1984 for “Becoming Anne Sexton” by Diane for “The Gospel According to Jane Eyre: The Sut-
Middlebrook. Copyright © 1994 by Diane Middle- tee and the Seraglio” by Maryanne C. Ward.
brook. Reproduced by permission of Georges Bou- Copyright © 2002 by The Midwest Modern Lan-
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
the publisher and the author.—Journal of the view, v. 18, January/February, 1992. Reproduced
Short Story in English, autumn, 2002. Copyright by permission of Carcanet Press Ltd.—Papers on
© Université d’Angers, 2002. Reproduced by Language & Literature, v. 5, winter, 1969. Copy-
permission.—Keats-Shelley Journal, v. XLVI, right © 1969 by The Board of Trustees, Southern
1997. Reproduced by permission.—Legacy, v. 6, Illinois University at Edwardsville. Reproduced by
fall, 1989. Copyright © The University of Nebraska permission.—Parnassus, v. 12, fall-winter, 1985
Press 1989. Reproduced by permission.—The Mas- for “Throwing the Scarecrows from the Garden”
sachusetts Review, v. 27, summer, 1986. Repro- by Tess Gallagher; v. 12-13, 1985 for “Adrienne
duced from The Massachusetts Review, The Mas- Rich and Lesbian/Feminist Poetry” by Catharine
sachusetts Review, Inc. by permission.—Meanjin, Stimpson. Copyright © 1985, 1986 by Poetry in
v. 38, 1979 for “The Liberated Heroine: New Review Foundation. Both reproduced by permis-
Varieties of Defeat?” by Amanda Lohrey. Copy- sion of the publisher and the respective authors.—
right © 1979 by Meanjin. Reproduced by permis- Philological Papers, v. 38, 1992. Copyright © 1992
sion of the author.—MELUS, v. 7, fall, 1980; v. 12, by Philological Papers. Reproduced by permis-
fall, 1985; v.18, fall, 1993. Copyright © MELUS: sion.—Philological Quarterly, v. 79, winter, 2000.
The Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Litera- Copyright © 2001 by the University of Iowa.
ture of the United States, 1980, 1985, 1993. Reproduced by permission.—Quadrant, v. 46,
Reproduced by permission.—Modern Drama, v. November, 2002 for “The Mirror of Honour and
21, September, 1978. Copyright © 1978 by the Love: A Woman’s View of Chivalry” by Sophie
University of Toronto, Graduate Centre for Study Masson. Copyright © 2002 Quadrant Magazine
of Drama. Reproduced by permission.—Modern Company, Inc. Reproduced by permission of the
Language Studies, v. 24, spring, 1994 for “Jewett’s publisher and the author.—Raritan, v. 14, fall,
Unspeakable Unspoken: Retracing the Female 1994. Copyright © 1994 by Raritan: A Quarterly
Body Through The Country of the Pointed Firs” by Review. Reproduced by permission.—Resources for
George Smith. Copyright © Northeast Modern American Literary Study, v. 22, 1996. Copyright
Language Association 1990. Reproduced by per- © 1996 by The Pennsylvania State University.
mission of the publisher and author.—Mosaic, v. Reproduced by permission of The Pennsylvania
23, summer, 1990; v. 35, 2002. Copyright © 1990, State University Press.—Revista Hispánica Mod-
2002 by Mosaic. All rights reserved. Acknowledg- erna, v. 47, June, 1994. Copyright © 1994 by
ment of previous publication is herewith made.— Hispanic Institute, Columbia University. Repro-
Ms., v. II, July, 1973 for “Visionary Anger” by Erica duced by permission.—Rhetoric Society Quarterly,
Mann Jong; June 1988 for “Changing My Mind v. 32, winter, 2002. Reproduced by permission of
About Andrea Dworkin” by Erica Jong. Copyright the publisher, conveyed through the Copyright
© 1973, 1988. Both reproduced by permission of Clearance Center.—Romanic Review, v. 79, 1988.
the author.—New Directions for Women, Copyright © 1988 by The Trustees of Columbia
September-October, 1987 for “Dworkin Critiques University in the City of New York. Reproduced
Relations Between the Sexes” by Joanne Glasgow. by permission.—The Russian Review, v. 57, April,
Copyright © 1987 New Directions for Women, 1998. Copyright © 1998 The Russian Review.
Inc., 25 West Fairview Ave., Dover, NJ 07801-3417. Reproduced by permission of Blackwell Publish-
Reproduced by permission of the author.—The ers.—San Jose Studies, v. VIII, spring, 1982 for
New Yorker, 1978 for “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid. “Dea, Awakening: A Reading of H. D.’s Trilogy” by
Copyright © 1979 by Jamaica Kinkaid. All rights Joyce Lorraine Beck. Copyright © 1982 by Trustees
reserved. Reproduced by permission of the Wylie of the San Jose State University Foundation.
Agency; v. 73, February 17, 1997 for “A Society of Reproduced by permission of the publisher and
One: Zora Neal Hurston, American Contrarian” the author.—South Atlantic Review, v. 66, winter,
by Claudia Roth Pierpont. Copyright © 1997 by 2001. Copyright © 2001 by the South Atlantic
The New Yorker Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Modern Language Association. Reproduced by per-
Reproduced by permission of the author.— mission.—Southern Humanities Review, v. xxii,
Nineteenth-Century Feminisms, v. 2, spring- summer, 1988. Copyright © 1988 by Auburn
summer, 2000. Reproduced by permission.— University. Reproduced by permission.—The
Nineteenth-Century French Studies, v. 25, spring- Southern Quarterly, v. 35, spring, 1997; v. 37,
summer, 1997. Copyright © 1977 by Nineteenth- spring-summer, 1999. Copyright © 1997, 1999 by
Century French Studies. Reproduced by the University of Southern Mississippi. Both
permission.—Novel, v. 34, spring, 2001. Copyright reproduced by permission.—Southern Review, v.
© NOVEL Corp. 2001. Reproduced with permis- 18, for “Hilda in Egypt” by Albert Gelpi. Repro-
sion.—Oxford Literary Review, v. 13, 1991. Copy- duced by permission of the author.—Soviet Litera-
right © 1991 the Oxford Literary Review. All rights ture, v. 6, June, 1989. Reproduced by permission
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of FTM Agency Ltd.—Studies in American Fic- by permission of the publisher; v. 4, 1997 for
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS tion, v. 9, autumn, 1981. Copyright © 1981 “(Female) Philosophy in the Bedroom: Mary Woll-
Northeastern University. Reproduced by permis- stonecraft and Female Sexuality” by Gary Kelly.
sion.—Studies in American Humor, v. 3, 1994. Copyright © Triangle Journals Ltd, 1997. All rights
Copyright © 1994 American Humor Studies As- reserved. Reproduced by permission of the pub-
sociation. Reproduced by permission.—Studies in lisher and the author.—World & I, v. 18, March,
the Humanities, v. 19, December, 1992. Copyright 2003. Copyright © 2003 News World Communica-
© 1992 by Indiana University Press of Pennsylva- tions, Inc. Reproduced by permission.—World
nia. Reproduced by permission.—Studies in the Literature Today, v. 73, spring, 1999. Copyright ©
Novel, v. 31, fall 1999; v. 35, spring, 2003. Copy- 1999 by the University of Oklahoma Press. Re-
right © 1999, 2003 by North Texas State Univer- printed by permission of the publisher.—World
sity. Reproduced by permission.—Textual Prac- Literature Written in English, v. 15, November,
tice, v. 13, 1999 for “Speaking Un-likeness: The 1976 for “Doris Lessing’s Feminist Plays” by Agate
Double Text in Christina Rossetti’s ‘After Death’ Nesaule Krouse. Copyright © 1976 by WLWE.
and ‘Remember’” by Margaret Reynolds. Copy- Reproduced by permission of the publisher and
right © 1999 Routledge. Reproduced by permis- the author.
sion of the publisher and the author.—The
Threepenny Review, 1990 for “Mother Tongue” Copyrighted material in Feminism in
by Amy Tan. Reproduced by permission.— Literature was reproduced from the
Transactions of the American Philological As- following books:
sociation, v. 128, 1998. Copyright © 1998 Ameri- Acocella, Joan. From Willa Cather and the Poli-
can Philological Association. Reproduced by tics of Criticism. University of Nebraska Press,
permission of The Johns Hopkins University 2000. Copyright © 2000, by Joan Acocella. All
Press.—Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, v. 6, rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.—Ai-
fall, 1987 for “Revolutionary Women” by Betsy mone, Joseph. From “Millay’s Big Book, or the
Erkkila. Copyright © 1987, The University of Feminist Formalist as Modern,” in Unmanning
Tulsa. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permis- Modernism: Gendered Re-Readings. Edited by
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rian Newsletter, v. 82, fall, 1992 for “Revisionist University of Tennessee Press, 1997. Copyright ©
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ket’: Eve’s Apple and Other Questions” by Sylvia rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The
Bailey Shurbutt; v. 92, fall, 1997 for “The Poet and University of Tennessee Press.—Allende, Isabel.
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row I Have Thought More About’: The Tragic Novel. Edited by William Zinsser. Houghton Miff-
Failure of George Eliot’s St. Theresa” by June Skye lin Company, 1989. Copyright © 1989 Isabel Al-
Szirotny. All reproduced by permission of The lende. Reproduced by permission of the author.—
Victorian Newsletter and the author.—Victorians Angelou, Maya. From And Still I Rise. Random
Institute Journal, v. 13, 1985. Copyright © House, 1978. Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou.
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winter, 1999 from “Consorting with Angels: Anne “The Convent as Catalyst for Autonomy: Two
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the author. (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals).— Copyright © 1983 by The Regents of the Univer-
Women and Language, v. 13, March 31, 1995; v. sity of California. Reproduced by permission of
19, fall, 1996. Copyright © 1995, 1996 by Com- the publisher and the author.—Arndt, Walter.
munication Department at George Mason Univer- From “Introduction: I The Akhmatova Phenom-
sity. Reproduced by permission of the publisher.— enon and II Rendering the Whole Poem,” in Anna
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v. 3, 1975; v. 4, 1976; v. 17, 1990; v. 18, 1990; v. lated by Walter Arndt. Ardis, 1976. Reproduced by
23, September, 1994; v. 30, 2001. Copyright © permission.—Atwood, Margaret. From Second
1975, 1976, 1990, 1994, 2001 Gordon and Breach Words. Anansi Press Limited, 1982. Copyright ©
Science Publishers S.A. Reproduced by permis- 1982, by O. W. Toad Limited. All rights reserved.
sion.—Women’s Studies in Communication, v. Reproduced by permission of the author.—Baker,
24, spring, 2001. Reproduced by permission.— Deborah Lesko. From “Memory, Love, and Inac-
Women’s Writing, v. 3, June, 1996. Reproduced cessibility in Hiroshima mon amour,” in Marguerite
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
versity Press of America, 1998. Copyright © 1998 Selected Revelations. Edited with a preface by
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right © 1994 by Electa Arenal and Amanda Pow- onel Trilling. All rights reserved. Reproduced by
ell. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission permission of the Wylie Agency, Inc.—Turner,
of The Feminist Press at the City University of Katherine S. H. From “From Classical to Imperial:
New York. www.feministpress.org.—Spender, Dale. Changing Visions of Turkey in the Eighteenth
From “Introduction: A Vindication of the Writing Century,” in Travel Writing and Empire: Postco-
Woman,” in Living by the Pen: Early British lonial Theory in Transit. Edited by Steve Clark.
Women Writers. Edited by Dale Spender. Teachers Zed Books, 1999. Copyright © Katherine S. H.
College Press, 1992. Copyright © 1992 by Teach- Turner. Reproduced by permission.—Van Dyke,
ers College. All rights reserved. Reproduced by Annette. From “Of Vision Quests and Spirit Guard-
permission.—Staley, Lynn. From Margery Kempe’s ians: Female Power in the Novels of Louise Er-
Dissenting Fictions. Pennsylvania State University drich,” in The Chippewa Landscape of Louise Er-
Press, 1994. Copyright © 1994 The Pennsylvania drich. Edited by Allan Chavkin. The University of
State University. All rights reserved. Reproduced Alabama Press, 1999. Copyright © 1999, by The
by permission.—Stehle, Eva. From Performance University of Alabama Press. Copyright © 1999.
and Gender in Ancient Greece: Nondramatic All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.—
Poetry in Its Setting. Princeton University Press, Waelti-Waters, Jennifer and Steven C. Hause. From
1997. Copyright © 1997 by Princeton University an introduction to Feminisms of the Belle Époque:
Press. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permis- A Historical and Literary Anthology. Edited by
sion of Princeton University Press.—Stein, Ger- Jennifer Waelti-Waters and Steven C. Hause.
trude. From “Degeneration in American Women,” University of Nebraska Press, 1994. Copyright ©
in Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein. Edited The University of Nebraska Press, 1994. All rights
by Brenda Wineapple. G. Putnam’s Sons, 1996. reserved. Reproduced by permission.—Wagner-
Copyright © 1996 by Brenda Wineapple. All rights Martin, Linda. From “Panoramic, Unpredictable,
reserved. Used by permission of G. Putnam’s Sons, and Human: Joyce Carol Oates’ Recent Novels,”
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and in Traditions, Voices, and Dreams: The American
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.—Stott, Rebecca. From Novel since the 1960s. Edited by Melvin J. Fried-
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Pearson Education man and Ben Siegel. University of Delaware Press,
Limited, 2003. Copyright © Pearson Educated 1995. Copyright © 1995 by Associated University
Limited 2003. All rights reserved. Reproduced by Presses, Inc. Reproduced by permission.—Wagner-
permission.—Straub, Kristina. From Divided Fic- Martin, Linda. From Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 xliii
St. Martin’s Press, 1999. Copyright © 1999 by Routledge, 1999. Reprint. Copyright © 1998 by J.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Linda Wagner-Martin. All rights reserved. Repro- M. Dent. All rights reserved. Reproduced by
duced by permission of Palgrave Macmillan.— permission of Routledge/Taylor & Francis and the
Walker, Alice. From Revolutionary Petunias & author—Yalom, Marilyn. From “Toward a History
Other Poems. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971. of Female Adolescence: The Contribution of
Copyright © 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, renewed George Sand,” in George Sand: Collected Essays.
1998 by Alice Walker. All right reserved. Repro- Edited by Janis Glasgow. The Whitson Publishing
duced by permission of Harcourt Inc. In the Brit- Company, 1985. Reproduced by permission of the
ish Commonwealth by David Higham Associ- author.—Yu Xuanji. From “Joining Somebody’s
ates.—Watts, Linda S. From Rapture Untold: Mourning and Three Beautiful Sisters, Orphaned
Gender, Mysticism, and the ‘Moment of Recogni- Young,” in The Clouds Float North: The Complete
tion’ in Works by Gertrude Stein. Peter Lang, Poems of Yu Xuanji. Translated by David Young
1996. Copyright © 1996 Peter Lang Publishing, and Jiann I. Lin. Wesleyan University Press, 1998.
Inc., New York. All rights reserved. Reproduced by Copyright © 1998 by David Young and Jiann I.
permission.—Weatherford, Doris. From A History Lin. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permis-
of the American Suffragist Movement. ABC-CLIO, sion.
1998. Copyright © 1998 by The Moschovitis
Group, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Moscho- Photographs and Illustrations in
vitis Group, Inc.—Weeton, Nellie. From “The Tri- Feminism in Literature were received
als of an English Governess: Nelly Weeton Stock,” from the following sources:
originally published in Miss Weeton: Journal of a 16th century men and women wearing fashion-
Governess. Edited by Edward Hall. Oxford Univer- able clothing, ca. 1565 engraving. Hulton/Ar-
sity Press (London), H. Milford, 1936-39. Repro- chive.—A lay sister preparing medicine as shown
duced by permission of Oxford University Press.— on the cover of The Book of Margery Kempe, photo-
Weston, Ruth D. From “Who Touches This graph. MS. Royal 15 D 1, British Library, Lon-
Touches a Woman,” in Critical Essays on Alice don.—Akhmatova, Anna, photograph. Archive
Walker. Edited by Ikenna Dieke. Greenwood Press Photos, Inc./Express Newspaper.—Alcott, Louisa
1999. Reproduced by permission of Greenwood May, drawing. The Granger Collection, New
Publishing Group, Inc., Westport, CT.—Wheeler, York.—Alcott, Louisa May, photograph. Archive
Marjorie Spruill. From an introduction to One Photos, Inc.—Allen, Joan, Joanne Camp, Anne
Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Lange, and Cynthia Nixon, in a scene from the
Suffrage Movement. Edited by Marjorie Spruill play “The Heidi Chronicles,” photograph. Time
Wheeler. NewSage Press, 1995. Copyright © 1995 Life Pictures/Getty Images.—Allende, Isabelle,
by NewSage Press and Educational Film Company. photograph. Getty Images.—An estimated 5,000
All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.— people march outside the Minnesota Capitol
Willard, Charity Cannon. From Christine de Pi- Building in protest to the January 22, 1973 Su-
zan: Her Life and Works. Persea Books, 1984. preme Court ruling on abortion as a result of the
Copyright © 1984 by Charity Cannon Willard. “Roe vs. Wade” case, photograph. AP/Wide World
Reproduced by permission.—Willis, Sharon A. Photos.—Angelou, Maya, photograph. AP/Wide
From “Staging Sexual Difference: Reading, Recita- World Photos.—Anthony, Susan B., Frances Wil-
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in Feminine Focus: The New Women Playwrights. Council of Women, photograph. Copyright ©
Edited by Enoch Brater. Oxford University Press, Corbis.—Atwood, Margaret, photograph by Jerry
1989. Copyright © 1989 by Oxford University Bauer. Copyright © Jerry Bauer.—Autographed
Press, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Oxford manuscript of Phillis Weatley’s poem “To the
University Press.—Winter, Kate H. From Marietta University of Cambridge.” The Granger Collec-
Holley: Life with “Josiah Allen’s Wife.” Syracuse tion, New York.—Beller, Kathleen as Kate in the
University Press, 1984. Copyright © 1984 by 1980 film version of Margaret Atwood’s novel,
Syracuse University Press. All rights reserved. Surfacing, photograph. Kobal Collection/Surfacing
Reproduced by permission.—Woolf, Virginia. Film.—Blackshear, Thomas, illustrator. From a
From “George Eliot,” in The Common Reader, cover of The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison.
Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1925, L. & V. Woolf, Plume, 1994. Reproduced by permission of Plume,
1925. Copyright 1925 by Harcourt Brace & Com- a division of Penguin USA.—Broadside published
pany. Renewed 1953 by Leonard Woolf. Reprinted by the National American Woman Suffrage As-
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The Society of Authors.—Wynne-Davies, Marion. The Library of Congress.—Brontë, Anne, Emily
From an introduction to Women Poets of the and Charlotte, painting by Patrick Branwell
Renaissance. Edited by Marion Wynne-Davies. Brontë, located at the National Portrait Gallery,
xliv F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
1939, photograph. Copyright © Corbis-Bett- Yoko Ono, photograph. Copyright © Bettmann/
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
mann.—Brontë, Charlotte, painting. Archive Corbis.—Frontpiece and title page from Poems on
Photos.—Brooks, Gwendolyn, holding a copy of Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, written by
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Bauer. Copyright © Jerry Bauer.—Chin, Tsai and tos.—Hurston, Zora Neale looking at “American
Tamlyn Tomita in the 1993 film production of Stuff,” at the New York Times book fair, photo-
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Hollywood/The Kobal Collection.—Chopin, Kate, Neale, photograph by Carl Van Vechten. The Carl
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The Library of Congress.—Cyanotype by Frances Collection/O’Neal, Jane.—Karloff, Boris, in movie
Benjamin Johnson, ca. 1899, of girls and a teacher Frankenstein; 1935, photograph. The Kobal Collec-
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Art/Corbis-Bettmann.—de Pizan, Christine, writ- Paradise. The Library of Congress.—Lessing, Doris,
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f.4R. British Library, London.—Dickinson, Emily, Bauer.—Luce, Clare Booth, portrait. Copyright ©
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Edgeworth, Maria, engraving. The Library of Madrid: Antonio Sanz, 1731. The Special Collec-
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Emily Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Mas- shoulder, Nipomo, California, 1936, photograph
sachusetts, photograph. Copyright © James by Dorothea Lange. The Library of Congress.—
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from Tale of Genji. Copyright © Asian Art Archae- her secretary and companion Alice B. Toklas,
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early feminist periodical, The New Freewoman, Washington, DC, photograph. AP/Wide World
photograph. McFarlin Library, Department of Photos.—Sur la Falaise aux Petites Dalles, 1873.
Special Collections, The University of Tulsa.—Paul, Painting by Berthe Morisot. Copyright © Francis
Alice (second from right), standing with five other G. Mayer/Corbis.—Tan, Amy, 1993, photograph.
suffragettes, photograph. AP/Wide World Pho- AP/Wide World Photos.—Time, cover of Kate Mil-
tos.—Pfeiffer, Michelle, and Daniel Day-Lewis, in lett, from August 31, 1970. Time Life Pictures/
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Sylvia, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos.— and Moral Subjects, written by Mary Wollstonecraft.
Poster advertising Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet William L. Clements Library, University of Michi-
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F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 xlvii
● = historical event C. 550 B.C.
CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

■ = literary event ● Sappho dies on the Isle of Lesbos.
1570 B.C.
C. 100 B.C.
● Queen Ahmose Nefertari, sister and principal
wife of King Ahmose, rules as “god’s wife,” in ● Roman laws allow a husband: to kill his wife
a new position created by a law enacted by if she is found in the act of adultery, to
the King. determine the amount of money his wife is
owed in the event of divorce, and to claim his
children as property.
C. 1490 B.C.
● Queen Hatshepsut rules as pharaoh, several
years after the death of her husband, King 69 B.C.
Thutmose II. ● Cleopatra VII Philopator is born in Egypt.
C. 1360 B.C.
● Queen Nefertiti rules Egypt alongside her
36 B.C.
husband, pharaoh Akhenaten. ● Marriage of Antony and Cleopatra.
C. 620 B.C. C. 30 B.C.

● Sappho is born on the Isle of Lesbos, Greece.
● Cleopatra VII Philopator commits suicide in
Egypt.
C. 600 B.C.
■ Sappho organizes and operates a thiasos, an
academy for young, unmarried Greek women. 18
● Spartan women are the most independent ● Emperor Augustus decrees the Lex Julia, which
women in the world, and are able to own penalizes childless Roman citizens, adulterers,
property, pursue an education, and participate and those who marry outside of their social
in athletics. rank or status.
xlix
C. 370 C. 960
● Hypatia is born in Alexandria, Egypt. ● Japanese poet Izumi Shikibu, known for her
expression of erotic and Buddhist themes, is
born. Her body of work includes more than
415 1,500 waka (31-syllable poems).
● Hypatia is murdered in Alexandria, Egypt.
C. 1002
C. 500 ■ Sei Shonagon, Japanese court lady, writes
● Salians (Germanic Franks living in Gaul) issue Makura no Soshi (The Pillow Book), considered
a code of laws which prohibit women from a classic of Japanese literature and the origina-
inheriting land; the law is used for centuries tor of the genre known as zuihitsu (“to follow
to prevent women from ruling in France. the brush”) that employs a stream-of-
consciousness literary style.
592
● Empress Suiko (554-628) becomes the first C. 1008
woman sovereign of Japan. ■ Murasaki Shikibu writes Genji Monogatari (The
Tale of Genji), considered a masterpiece of clas-
sical prose literature in Japan.
C. 690
● Wu Zetian (624-705) becomes the only female
emperor of Imperial China. C. 1030
● Izumi Shikibu dies.
C. 700
● Japanese legal code specifies that in law, 1098
ceremony, and practice, Japanese men can be ● Hildegard von Bingen is born in Bermersheim,
polygamous—having first wives and an unlim- Germany.
ited number of “second wives” or concu-
bines—, but women cannot.
C. 1100
■ Twenty women troubadours—aristocratic
877
poet-composers who write songs dealing with
● Lady Ise, Japanese court lady, is born. She is love—write popular love songs in France.
considered one of the most accomplished About twenty-four of their songs survive,
poets of her time and her poems are widely including four written by the famous female
anthologized. troubadour known as the Countess of Dia, or
Beatrix.
935
● Hrotsvitha (also Hrotsvit or Roswitha), consid- 1122
ered the first German woman poet, is born. ● Eleanor of Aquitaine is born in Aquitaine,
France. Her unconventional life is chronicled
for centuries in books and dramatic works.
940
● Lady Ise dies.
C. 1150
● Sometime in the twelfth century (some sources
950 say 1122), Marie de France, the earliest known
■ Publication of the Kagero Nikki (The Gossamer female French writer and author of lais, a col-
Years), a diary written by an anonymous lection of twelve verse tales written in octosyl-
Japanese courtesan. The realism and confes- labic rhyming couplets, flourished. She is
sional quality of the work influence the works thought to be the originator of the lay as a
of later court diarists. poetic form.
l F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
C. 1170 1347

■ Marie of Champagne (1145-1198), daughter of ● Caterina Benincasa (later St. Catherine of
King Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Siena) is born on 25 March in Siena, Italy.
Aquitaine, cosponsors “courts of love” to
debate points on the proper conduct of
knights toward their ladies. Marie encourages C. 1365
Chrétien de Troyes to write Lancelot, and An- ● Christine de Pizan is born in Venice, Italy.
dreas Capellanus to write The Art of Courtly
Love.
C. 1373
1179 ● Margery Kempe is born in King’s Lynn (now
known as Lynn), in Norfolk, England.
● Hildegard von Bingen dies in Disibodenberg,
Germany.
1380
C. 1200 ● St. Catherine of Siena dies on 29 April in
Rome, Italy.
■ Women shirabyoshi performances are a part
of Japanese court and Buddhist temple festivi-
ties. In their songs and dances, women per- C. 1393
formers dress in white, male attire which
■ Julian of Norwich (1342?-1416?), the most
includes fans, court caps, and swords. This
famous of all the medieval recluses in Eng-
form of traditional dance plays an important
land, writes Revelations of Divine Love, ex-
role in the development of classical Japanese
pounding on the idea of Christ as mother.
noh drama.
1204 1399
● Eleanor of Aquitaine dies on 1 April. ■ Christine de Pizan writes the long poem “Let-
ter to the God of Love,” which marks the
beginning of the querelle des femmes (debate
C. 1275 on women). This attack on misogyny in
medieval literature triggers a lively exchange
■ Japanese poet and court lady Abutsu Ni
of letters among the foremost French scholars
(1222?-1283) writes her poetic travel diary,
of the day, and the querelle is continued by
Izayoi Nikki (Diary of the Waning Moon) on the
various European literary scholars for centu-
occasion of her travel to Kyoto to seek inherit-
ries.
ance rights for herself and her children.
C. 1328 1429
● The French cite the Salic Law, which was ● Joan of Arc (1412-1431)—in support of Charles
promulgated in the early medieval period and I, who is prevented by the English from as-
prohibits women from inheriting land, as the suming his rightful place as King of France—
authority for denying the crown of France to leads liberation forces to victory in Orléans.
anyone—man or woman—whose descent
from a French king can be traced only through
1431
the female line.
● Joan of Arc is burned at the stake as a heretic
by the English on 30 May. She is acquitted of
1346 heresy by another church court in 1456 and
● Famous mystic St. Birgitta of Sweden (c.1303- proclaimed a saint in 1920.
1373) founds the Roman Catholic Order of St.
Saviour, whose members are called the Brigit-
tines. She authors Revelations, an account of
C. 1431
her supernatural visions. ● Christine de Pizan dies in France.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 li
C. 1440 1515
● Margery Kempe dies in England. ● Teresa de Alhumadawas (later St. Teresa de
Ávila) is born on 28 March in Gotarrendura,
Spain.
1451
● Isabella of Castile, future Queen of Spain, is 1524
born. She succeeds her brother in 1474 and
● Courtesan Gaspara Stampa, widely regarded as
rules jointly with her husband, Ferdinand of
the greatest woman poet of the Renaissance,
Aragon, from 1479.
is born in Padua, Italy.
1465 1533
● Cassandra Fedele, who becomes the most ● Queen Elizabeth I is born on 7 September in
famous woman scholar in Italy, is born in Greenwich, England, the daughter of King
Venice. Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn.
1469 1536
● Laura Cereta, outspoken feminist and human- ● King Henry VIII of England beheads his second
ist scholar, is born in Brescia, Italy. wife, Anne Boleyn, on 19 May. Boleyn is
convicted of infidelity and treason after she
fails to produce the desired male heir.
1485
● Veronica Gambara is born in Italy. Her court 1538
becomes an important center of the Italian ■ Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547), an influential
Renaissance, and Gambara earns distinction woman in Renaissance Italy, achieves distinc-
as an author of Petrarchan sonnets as well as tion as a poet with the publication of her first
for her patronage of the artist Corregio. book of poetry.
1486 1548
■ Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), ● Catherine Parr dies in England.
an encyclopedia of contemporary knowledge
about witches and methods of investigating
1549
the crime of witchcraft, is published in Europe.
The volume details numerous justifications ● Marguerite de Navarre dies in France.
for women’s greater susceptibility to evil, and
contributes to the almost universal European 1550
persecution of women as witches that reaches
● Veronica Gambara dies in Italy.
its height between 1580 and 1660 and makes
its way to Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.
1554
● Gaspara Stampa dies on 23 April in Venice,
1492 Italy.
● Marguerite de Navarre is born on 11 April in
France.
1555
● Moderata Fonte (pseudonym of Modesta
1499 Pozzo) is born in Venice, Italy.
● Laura Cereta dies in Brescia, Italy.
1558
● Elizabeth I assumes the throne of England and
C. 1512 presides over a period of peace and prosperity
● Catherine Parr is born in England. known as the Elizabethan Age.
lii F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
● Cassadra Fedele dies in Venice. She is honored 1603

with a state funeral.
● Queen Elizabeth I dies on 24 March in Surrey,
England.
1559 ■ Izumo no Okuni is believed to originate ka-
■ Marguerite de Navarre completes her buki, the combination of dance, drama, and
L’Heptaméron des Nouvelles (the Heptameron), a music which dominates Japanese theater
series of stories primarily concerned with the throughout the Tokugawa period (1600-1868).
themes of love and spirituality.
1607
1561 ● Madeleine de Scudéry, one of the best-known
● Mary Sidney, noted English literary patron, is and most influential writers of romance tales
born in England. She is the sister of poet Sir in seventeeth-century Europe, is born on 15
Philip Sidney, whose poems she edits and November in Le Havre, France.
publishes after his death in 1586, and whose
English translation of the Psalms she com-
pletes. C. 1612
● American poet Anne Bradstreet is born in
Northampton, England.
1565
● French scholar Marie de Gournay is born on 6
October in Paris. Known as the French “Min- 1614
erva” (a woman of great wisdom or learning), ● Margaret Askew Fell, who helps establish the
she is a financial success as a writer of treatises Society of Friends, or Quakers, and becomes
on various subjects, including Equality of Men known as the “mother of Quakerism,” is born
and Women (1622) and Complaint of Ladies in Lancashire, England. Quakers give women
(1626), which demand better education for unusual freedom in religious life. An impas-
women. sioned advocate of the right of women to
preach, Fell publishes the tract Women’s Speak-
ing Justified, Proved and Allowed of by the Scrip-
1582
tures in 1666.
● St. Teresa de Avila dies on 4 October in Alba.
1621
1592
● Mary Sidney dies in England.
● Moderata Fonte (pseudonym of Modesta
Pozzo) dies in Venice, Italy.
C. 1623
C. 1600 ● Margaret Lucas Cavendish, later Duchess of

Newcastle, is born in England. She authors
■ Catherine de Vivonne (c. 1588-1665), Madame fourteen volumes of works, including scientific
de Rambouillet, inaugurates and then presides treatises, poems, and plays, and her autobiog-
over salon society in Paris, in which hostesses raphy The True Relation of My Birth, Breeding
hold receptions in their salons or drawing and Life (1656).
rooms for the purpose of intellectual conversa-
tion. Salon society flourishes in the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries, and stimu- 1631
lates scholarly and literary development in
● Katherine Phillips (1631-1664), who writes
France and England.
poetry under the pseudonym “Orinda,” is
● Geisha (female artists and entertainers) and born. She is the founder of a London literary
prostitutes are licensed by the Japanese gov- salon called the Society of Friendship that
ernment to work in the pleasure quarters of includes such luminaries as Jeremy Taylor and
major cities in Japan. Henry Vaughn.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 liii
C. 1640 1689
● Aphra Behn is born. ● Mary Pierrpont (later Lady Mary Wortley Mon-
tagu) is born on 26 May in London, England.
C. 1645 ● Aphra Behn dies on 16 April and is buried in
● Deborah Moody (c. 1580-c. 1659) becomes the the cloisters at Westminster Abbey.
first woman to receive a land grant in colonial
America when she is given the title to land in 1692
Kings County (now Brooklyn), New York. She
is also the first colonial woman to vote. ● The Salem, Massachusetts, witch hysteria
begins in February, and eventually leads to
the execution of eighteen women convicted
C. 1646 of witchcraft in the infamous Salem Witch-
● Glückel of Hameln, who records her life as a craft Trials (1692-1693).
Jewish merchant in Germany in her memoirs,
is born in Hamburg.
C. 1694
■ Mary Astell (1666-1731) publishes the treatise
1651 A Serious Proposal to the Ladies in two volumes
● Juana Ramírez de Asbaje (later known as Sor (1694-1697). In the work, Astell calls for the
Juana Inés de la Cruz) is born on 12 November establishment of private institutions where
on a small farm called San Miguel de Nepantla single women live together for a time and
in New Spain (now Mexico). receive quality education.
1670 1695
■ Aphra Behn becomes the first professional ● Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz dies on 17 April at
woman writer in England when her first play the Convent of St. Jerome in Mexico.
The Forced Marriage; or, The Jealous Bridegroom,
is performed in London.
1701
1672 ● Madeleine de Scudéry dies on 2 June in Paris,
France.
● Anne Bradstreet dies on 16 September in An-
dover, Massachusetts.
C. 1704
C. 1673 ■ Sarah Kemble Knight (1666-1727), a Puritan
author, records her arduous journey from
■ Francois Poulain de la Barre publishes The
Boston to New York to settle the estate of her
Equality of the Sexes, in which he supports the
cousin.
idea that women have intellectual powers
equal to those of men. His work stimulates
the betterment of women’s education in suc- C. 1713
ceeding centuries.
■ Anne Kingsmill Finch (1661-1720) writes
many poems dealing with the injustices suf-
1673 fered by women of the aristocratic class to
● Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of New- which she belonged. As Countess of Win-
castle, dies in England. chilsea, she becomes the center of a literary
circle at her husband’s estate in Eastwell, Eng-
land.
1676
■ After being captured and then released by
Wampanaoag Indians, Puritan settler Mary
1728
White Rowlandson (1636-1678) writes what ● Mercy Otis Warren is born on 14 September in
becomes a famous account of her captivity. Barnstable, Massachusetts.
liv F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
1729 1775

● Catherine the Great is born on 2 May in ● Jane Austen is born on 16 December at Steven-
Germany as Sophia Friederica Augusta. ton Rectory, Hampshire, England.
1744 1776
● Men and women who hold property worth
● Abigail Adams is born Abigail Smith on 11
over 50 pounds are granted suffrage in New
November in Weymouth, Massachusetts.
Jersey.
1748 C. 1780
● Olympe de Gouges, French Revolutionary ■ Madame Roland (1754-1793), formerly Marie
feminist, is born Olympe Gouze in Mon- Philppon, hosts an important salon where
tauban, France. She plays an active role in the revolutionary politicians and thinkers debate
French Revolution, demanding equal rights during the French Revolution. An outspoken
for women in the new French Republic. feminist, she presses for women’s political and
social rights.
1752
● Frances “Fanny” Burney is born on 13 June in 1784
England. ■ Hannah Adams (1758-1831) becomes the first
American woman author to support herself
with money earned from writing, with the
C. 1753 publication of her first book, View of Religions
● Phillis Wheatley is born in Africa. (later Dictionary of Religions).
● Phillis Wheatley dies on 5 December in Bos-
ton, Massachusetts.
1759
● Mary Wollstonecraft is born on 27 April in
1787
England.
■ Catherine Sawbridge Macaulay publishes Let-
ters on Education, an appeal for better educa-
1762 tion of women.
● Lady Mary Wortley Montagu dies on 21 Au- ■ Mary Wollstonecraft’s Thoughts on the Educa-
gust in London, England. tion of Daughters: With Reflections on Female
Conduct, in the More Important Duties of Life is
● Catherine the Great becomes Empress of Rus-
published by J. Johnson.
sia.
1789
1766
● Catharine Maria Sedgwick is born on 28
● Germaine Necker (later Madame de Staël) is December in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
born on 22 April in Paris, France.
■ Olympe de Gouges writes The Declaration of
the Rights of Women and Citizen, a 17-point
1768 document demanding the recognition of
women as political, civil, and legal equals of
● Maria Edgeworth is born on 1 January at Black men, and including a sample marriage con-
Bourton in Oxfordshire, England. tract that emphasizes free will and equality in
marriage.
1774
■ Clementina Rind (1740-1774) is appointed 1792
publisher of the Virginia Gazette by the House ● Sarah Moore Grimké is born on 26 November
of Burgesses in Virginia. in Charleston, South Carolina.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 lv
■ Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the to be obedient to their husbands, bars women
CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS Rights of Woman, with Strictures on Political and from voting, sitting on juries, serving as legal
Moral Subjects is published by J. Johnson. witnesses, or sitting on chambers of commerce
or boards of trade.
1793
● Lucretia Coffin Mott is born on 3 January in 1805
Nantucket, Massachusetts. ● Angelina Emily Grimké is born on 20 Febru-
● Olympe de Gouges is executed by guillotine ary in Charleston, South Carolina.
for treason on 3 November.
● Madame Roland is executed in November, 1806
ostensibly for treason, but actually because
the Jacobins want to suppress feminist ele- ● Elizabeth Barrett Browning is born on 6 March
ments in the French Revolution. in Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England.
1796 1807
● Catherine the Great dies following a stroke on ■ Germaine de Staël’s Corinne, ou l’Italie (Corinne,
6 November in Russia. or Italy) is published by Nicolle.
● Suffrage in New Jersey is limited to “white

1797 male citizens.”
● Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is born on 30
August, in London, England.
1808
● Mary Wollstonecraft dies on 10 September in
London, England, from complications follow- ● Caroline Sheridan Norton is born on 22 March
ing childbirth. in England.
● Sojourner Truth is born Isabella Bomefree in

Ulster County, New York. 1810
● (Sarah) Margaret Fuller is born on 23 May in
1799 Cambridgeport, Massachusetts.
■ Mary Wollstonecraft’s Maria; or, The Wrongs of ● Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell is born on 29
Woman: A Posthumous Fragment is published September in London, England.
by James Carey.
1811
1801
● Harriet Beecher Stowe is born on 14 June in
● Caroline M. (Stansbury) Kirkland is born on
Litchfield, Connecticut.
11 January in New York City.
■ Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is published
by T. Egerton.
1802
● Lydia Maria Child is born on 11 February in
Medford, Massachusetts. 1813
● Harriet A. Jacobs is born in North Carolina.
1804 ■ Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is published
● George Sand (pseudonym of Armandine Au- by T. Egerton.
rore Lucille Dupin) is born on 1 July in Paris,
France.
1814
● The Napoleonic Code is established in France
under Napoleon I, and makes women legally ● Mercy Otis Warren dies on 19 October in Ply-
subordinate to men. The code requires women mouth, Massachusetts.
lvi F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
1815 1822

● Elizabeth Cady Stanton is born on 12 Novem- ● Frances Power Cobbe is born on 4 December
ber in Johnstown, New York. in Dublin, Ireland.
● King Louis XVIII of France outlaws divorce.
1823
1816 ● Charlotte Yonge is born 11 August in Otter-
● Charlotte Brontë is born on 21 April in Thorn- bourne, Hampshire, England.
ton, Yorkshire, England.
■ Jane Austen’s Emma is published by M. Carey. 1825
● Frances Ellen Watkins Harper is born on 24
1817 September in Baltimore, Maryland.
● Madame Germaine de Staël dies on 14 July in
Paris, France. 1826
● Jane Austen dies on 18 July in Winchester, ● Matilda Joslyn Gage is born on 24 March in
Hampshire, England. Cicero, New York.
1818 1830
● Emily Brontë is born on 30 July in Thornton,
● Christina Rossetti is born on 5 December in
Yorkshire, England.
London, England.
● Lucy Stone is born on 13 August near West
● Emily Dickinson is born on 10 December in
Brookfield, Massachusetts.
Amherst, Massachusetts.
● Abigail Adams dies on 28 October in Quincy,
Massachusetts. ■ Godey’s Lady’s Book—the first American wom-
en’s magazine—is founded by Louis Antoine
■ Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Persuasion Godey and edited by Sarah Josepha Hale
is published by John Murray. (1788-1879).
■ Educator Emma Hart Willard’s A Plan for
Improving Female Education is published by
1832
Middlebury College.
● Louisa May Alcott is born on 29 November in
■ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein; or,
Germantown, Pennsylvania.
The Modern Prometheus is published by Lack-
ington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones. ■ George Sand’s Indiana is published by Roret et
Dupuy.
1819
● Julia Ward Howe is born on 27 May in New 1833
York City. ● Oberlin Collegiate Institute—the first coeduca-
● George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans) tional institution of higher learning— is
is born on 22 November in Arbury, Warwick- established in Oberlin, Ohio.
shire, England.
1836
1820 ● Marietta Holley is born on 16 July near Ad-
● Susan B. Anthony is born on 15 February in ams, New York.
Adams, Massachusetts.
1837
1821 ● Mt. Holyoke College—the first college for
● Emma Hart Willard establishes the Troy Fe- women—is founded by Mary Lyon in South
male Seminary in Troy, New York. Hadley, Massachusetts.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 lvii
● Alexandria Victoria (1819-1901) becomes ● Sarah Orne Jewett is born on 3 September in
CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS Queen Victoria at the age of eighteen. Her South Berwick, Maine.
reign lasts for 63 years, the longest reign of ■ Amelia Bloomer publishes the first issue of her
any British monarch. Seneca Falls newspaper The Lily, which pro-
vides a forum for both temperance and wom-
1838 en’s rights reformers.
● Victoria Woodhull is born on 23 September in ● The first state constitution of California ex-
Homer, Ohio. tends property rights to women in their own
name.
■ Sarah Moore Grimké’s Letters on the Equality of
the Sexes, and the Condition of Woman is pub-
lished by I. Knapp. 1850
● Margaret Fuller drowns—along with her hus-
1840 band and son—on 19 July in a shipwreck off
of Fire Island, New York.
● Frances “Fanny” Burney dies on 6 January in
London, England. ● The first National Woman’s Rights Conven-
tion, planned by Lucy Stone and Lucretia
● Ernestine Rose (1810-1892) writes the petition
Mott, is attended by over one thousand
for what will become the Married Woman’s
women on 23 and 24 October in Worcester,
Property Law (1848).
Massachusetts.
■ Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Poems, contain-
C. 1844 ing her Sonnets from the Portuguese, is published
● Sarah Winnemucca is born on Paiute land by Chapman & Hall.
near Humboldt Lake in what is now Nevada.
■ The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, transcribed by
Olive Gilbert, is published in the Boston
1845 periodical, the Liberator.
■ Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Cen-
tury is published by Greeley & McElrath. 1851
● Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley dies on 1 Febru-
1847 ary in Bournemouth, England.
■ Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is published by ● Kate Chopin is born on 8 February in St. Louis,
Smith, Elder. Missouri.
■ Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is published ■ Sojourner Truth delivers her “A’n’t I a
by T. C. Newby. Woman?” speech at the Women’s Rights
Convention on 29 May in Akron, Ohio.
1848
● The first women’s rights convention is called 1852
by Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Cady ■ Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or,
Stanton on 19 July and is held in Seneca Falls, Life among the Lowly is published by Jewett,
New York on 20 July. Proctor & Worthington.
● Emily Brontë dies on 19 December in Ha- ● Susan B. Anthony founds The Women’s Tem-
worth, Yorkshire, England. perance Society, the first temperance organiza-
● New York State Legislature passes the Married tion in the United States.
Woman’s Property Law, granting women the
right to retain possession of property they 1853
owned prior to marriage.
■ Charlotte Brontë’s Villette is published by
Smith, Elder.
1849 ■ Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis (1813-1876)
● Maria Edgeworth dies on 22 May in Edge- edits and publishes Una, the first newspaper
worthstown, her family’s estate in Ireland. of the women’s rights movement.
lviii F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
1854 1862

■ Margaret Oliphant’s A Brief Summary in Plain ● Edith Wharton is born on 24 January in New
Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning York City.
Women, a pamphlet explaining the unfair laws ● Ida B. Wells-Barnett is born on 16 July in Holly
concerning women and exposing the need for Springs, Mississippi.
reform, is published in London.
■ Julia Ward Howe’s “The Battle Hymn of the
Republic” is published in the Atlantic Monthly.
1855
● Charlotte Brontë dies on 31 March in 1864
Haworth, Yorkshire, England.
● Caroline M. (Stansbury) Kirkland dies of a
● Elizabeth Cady Stanton, speaking in favor of stroke on 6 April in New York City.
expanding the Married Woman’s Property
Law, becomes the first woman to appear
before the New York State Legislature. 1865
● Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell dies on 12 Novem-
ber in Holybourne, Hampshire, England.
1856
● Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch is born on 20
January in Seneca Falls, New York. 1866
● The American Equal Rights Association—
dedicated to winning suffrage for African
1857 American men and for women of all colors—is
■ Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh is founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth
published by Chapman & Hall. Cady Stanton on 1 May. Lucretia Coffin Mott
is elected as the group’s president.
1858 ● Elizabeth Cady Stanton runs for Congress as

an independent; she receives 24 of 12,000
● Emmeline Pankhurst is born on 4 July in votes cast.
Manchester, England.
● Anna Julia Haywood Cooper is born on 10
1867
August in Raleigh, North Carolina.
● Catharine Maria Sedgwick dies on 31 July in
Boston, Massachusetts.
1859
● Carrie Chapman Catt is born on 9 January in 1868
Ripon, Wisconsin.
■ Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
found the New York-based weekly newspaper,
1860 The Revolution, with the motto: “The true
● Charlotte Perkins Gilman is born on 3 July in republic—men, their rights and nothing more;
Hartford, Connecticut. women, their rights and nothing less,” in
January.
● Jane Addams is born on 6 September in Ce-
darville, Illinois. ● Julia Ward Howe founds the New England
Woman Suffrage Association and the New
England Women’s Club.
1861 ■ Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women; or, Meg, Jo,
● Victoria Earle Matthews is born on 27 May in Beth, and Amy (2 vols., 1868-69) is published
Fort Valley, Georgia. by Roberts Brothers.
● Elizabeth Barrett Browning dies on 29 June in
Florence, Italy. 1869
■ Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave ■ John Stuart Mill’s treatise in support of wom-
Girl, Written by Herself, edited by Lydia Maria en’s suffrage, The Subjection of Women, is
Child, is published in Boston. published in London.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 lix
● Emma Goldman is born on 27 June in Kovno, ● Sojourner Truth attempts to cast her vote in
CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS Lithuania. Grand Rapids, Michigan in the presidential
election but is denied a ballot.
■ Louisa May Alcott’s Hospital Sketches and Camp
and Fireside Stories is published by Roberts
Brothers. 1873
● Women are granted full and equal suffrage ● Colette is born on 28 January in Burgundy,
and are permitted to hold office within the France.
territory of Wyoming. ● Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), astronomer and
● The National Woman Suffrage Association is faculty member at Vassar College, establishes
founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan the Association of the Advancement of
B. Anthony in May in New York City. Women.
● The American Woman Suffrage Association is ● Willa Cather is born on 7 December in Back
founded by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Creek Valley, Virginia.
others in November in Boston, Massachusetts. ● Sarah Moore Grimké dies on 23 December in
Hyde Park, Massachusetts.
1870 ■ Louisa May Alcott’s Work: A Story of Experience

is published by Roberts Brothers.
■ The Woman’s Journal, edited by Lucy Stone,
Henry Blackwell, and Mary Livermore, begins
publication on 8 January. 1874
■ Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin ● Gertrude Stein is born on 3 February in Al-
publish the first issue of their controversial legheny, Pennsylvania.
New York weekly newspaper, Woodhull and ● Amy Lowell is born on 9 February in
Claflin’s Weekly. Brookline, Massachusetts.
1871 1876
● Women are granted full and equal suffrage in ● George Sand dies on 9 June in Nohant, France.
the territory of Utah. Their rights are revoked ● Susan Glaspell is born on 1 July (some sources
in 1887 and restored in 1896. say 1882) in Davenport, Iowa.
● Victoria Woodhull presents her views on
women’s rights in a passionate speech to the 1877
House Judiciary Committee, marking the first
● Caroline Sheridan Norton dies on 15 June in
personal appearance before such a high con-
England.
gressional committee by a woman.
● Wives of many prominent U. S. politicians,
military officers, and businessmen found the 1878
Anti-Suffrage party to fight against women’s ● Passage of the Matrimonial Causes Act in Eng-
suffrage. land enables abused wives to obtain separa-
tion orders to keep their husbands away from
them.
1872
● The “Susan B. Anthony Amendment,” which
● Victoria Woodhull, as a member of the Equal will extend suffrage to women in the United
Rights Party (or National Radical Reform States, is first proposed in Congress by Senator
Party), becomes the first woman candidate for A. A. Sargent.
the office of U.S. President. Her running mate
is Frederick Douglass.
1879
● Susan B. Anthony and 15 other women at-
tempt to cast their votes in Rochester, New ● Margaret Sanger is born on 14 September in
York, in the presidential election. Anthony is Corning, New York.
arrested and fined $100, which she refuses to ● Angelina Emily Grimké dies on 26 October in
pay. Hyde Park, Massachusetts.
lx F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
1880 1886

● Christabel Pankhurst is born on 22 September ● Emily Dickinson dies on 15 May in Amherst,
in Manchester, England. Massachusetts.
● Lydia Maria Child dies on 20 October in Way- ● H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) is born on 10 September
land, Massachusetts. in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
● Lucretia Coffin Mott dies on 11 November in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1887
● Marianne Moore is born on 15 November in
● George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans) Kirkwood, Missouri.
dies on 22 December in London, England.
● Article five of the Peace Preservation Law in
Japan prohibits women and minors from join-
1881 ing political organizations and attending
meetings where political speeches are given,
■ Hubertine Auclert founds La Citoyenne (The
and from engaging in academic studies of
Citizen), a newspaper dedicated to female suf-
political subjects.
frage.
■ The first volume of A History of Woman Suf-
frage (Vols. 1-3, 1881-1888; Vol. 4, 1903),
1888
edited and compiled by Susan B. Anthony, ● Louisa May Alcott dies on 6 March in Boston,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida Harper Husted, Massachusetts, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow
and Matilda Joslyn Gage, is published by Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.
Fowler & Welles. ● Susan B. Anthony organizes the International
Council of Women with representatives from
48 countries.
1882
■ Louisa Lawson (1848-1920) founds Australia’s
● Virginia Woolf is born on 25 January in first feminist newspaper, The Dawn.
London, England.
● The National Council of Women in the United
● Sylvia Pankhurst is born on 5 May in Manches- States is formed to promote the advancement
ter, England. of women in society. The group also serves as
a clearinghouse for various women’s organiza-
● Aletta Jacobs (1854-1929), the first woman
tions.
doctor in Holland, opens the first birth control
clinic in Europe.
1889
● Anna Akhmatova is born Anna Adreyevna
1883
Gorenko on 23 June in Bolshoy Fontan, Rus-
● Sojourner Truth dies on 26 November in Battle sia.
Creek, Michigan.
■ Olive Schreiner’s The Story of an African Farm 1890
is published by Chapman & Hall. ● The National American Woman Suffrage As-
sociation (NAWSA) is formed by the merging
of the American Woman Suffrage Assocation
1884
and the National Woman Suffrage Associa-
● Eleanor Roosevelt is born on 11 October in tion. Elizabeth Cady Stanton is the NAWSA’s
New York City. first president; she is succeeded by Susan B.
Anthony in 1892.
1885
1891
● Alice Paul is born on 11 January in Moore-
● Zora Neale Hurston is born on 15 (some
stown, New Jersey.
sources say 7) January in Nostasulga, Alabama.
● Isak Dinesen is born Karen Christentze Dine- (Some sources cite birth year as c. 1901 or
sen on 17 April in Rungsted, Denmark. 1903, and birth place as Eatonville, Florida).
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 lxi
● Sarah Winnemucca dies on 16 October in 1897
CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS Monida, Montana.
● Harriet A. Jacobs dies on 7 March in Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts.
1892
● Edna St. Vincent Millay is born on 22 Febru- 1898
ary in Rockland, Maine.
● Matilda Joslyn Gage dies on 18 March in
● Djuna Barnes is born on 12 June in Cornwall Chicago, Illinois.
on Hudson, New York.
■ Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Women and Eco-
● Rebecca West (pseudonym of Cicily Isabel Fair- nomics is published by Small Maynard.
field) is born on 21 December in County
● The Meiji Civil Law Code, the law of the
Kerry, Ireland.
Japanese nation state, makes the patriarchal
■ Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpa- family, rather than the individual, the legally
per is published in New England Magazine. recognized entity.
■ Frances E. W. Harper’s Iola Leroy; or, Shadows
Uplifted is published by Garrigues Bros.
1899
● Olympia Brown (1835-1926), first woman
● Elizabeth Bowen is born on 7 June in Dublin,
ordained minister in the United States, founds
Ireland.
the Federal Suffrage Association to campaign
for women’s suffrage. ■ Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is published by
Herbert S. Stone.
■ Ida Wells-Barnett’s Southern Horrors. Lynch Law
in All its Phases is published by Donohue and
Henneberry. 1900
■ Colette’s Claudine a l’ecole (Claudine at School,
1893 1930) is published by Ollendorf.
● Lucy Stone dies on 18 October in Dorchester, ● Carrie Chapman Catt succeeds Susan B. An-
Massachusetts. thony as president of the NAWSA.
● The National Council of Women of Canada is
founded by Lady Aberdeen. 1901
● Suffrage is granted to women in Colorado. ● Charlotte Yonge dies of bronchitis and pneu-
● New Zealand becomes the first nation to grant monia on 24 March in Elderfield, England.
women the vote.
1902
1894 ● Elizabeth Cady Stanton dies on 26 October in
● Christina Rossetti dies on 29 December in New York City.
London, England. ● Women of European descent gain suffrage in
Australia.
1895
■ The first volume of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s 1903
The Woman’s Bible (3 vols., 1895-1898) is ● The Women’s Social and Political Union, led
published by European Publishing Company. by suffragists Emmeline and Christabel
Pankhurst, stage demonstrations in Hyde Park
1896 in London, England.
● Harriet Beecher Stowe dies on 1 July in Hart-

ford, Connecticut. 1904
● Idaho grants women the right to vote. ● Frances Power Cobbe dies on 5 April.
● The National Assocation of Colored Women’s ● Kate Chopin dies following a cerebral hemor-
Clubs is founded in Washington, D.C. rhage on 22 August in St. Louis, Missouri.
lxii F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
● Susan B. Anthony establishes the International workhouse sentences. The strike is called off

Woman Suffrage Alliance in Berlin, Germany. on 15 February 1910. Over 300 shops settle
with the union, and workers achieve the terms
demanded.
C. 1905
● Jeanne-Elisabeth Archer Schmahl (1846-1915)
● Lillian Hellman is born on 20 June in New founds the French Union for Woman Suffrage.
Orleans, Louisiana.
1910
1905
● Julia Ward Howe dies of pneumonia on 17
● Austrian activist and novelist Bertha von Sutt- October in Newport, Rhode Island.
ner (1843-1914) receives the Nobel Peace
● The Women’ Political Union holds the first
Prize.
large suffrage parade in New York City.
● Suffrage is granted to women in Washington
1906 State.
● Susan B. Anthony dies on 13 March in Roches- ■ Jane Addams’s Twenty Years at Hull House is
ter, New York. published by Macmillan.
● Finnish women gain suffrage and the right to
be elected to public office. 1911
● Frances Ellen Watkins Harper dies on 22 Febru-
1907 ary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
● Victoria Earle Matthews dies of tuberculosis ● A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New
on 10 March in New York City. York City on 25 March claims the lives of 146
factory workers, 133 of them women. Public
■ Mary Edwards Walker, M.D.’s pamphlet on outrage over the fire leads to reforms in labor
women’s suffrage, “Crowning Constitutional laws and improvement in working conditions.
Argument,” is published.
● Suffrage is granted to women in California.
● Harriot Stanton Blatch founds the Equality
League of Self-Supporting Women, later called ■ Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome is published by
the Women’s Political Union. Scribner.
1908 1912
● Suffrage is granted to women in Arizona,
● Simone de Beauvoir is born on 9 January in
Kansas, and Oregon.
Paris, France.
● A parade in support of women’s suffrage is
● Julia Ward Howe becomes the first woman to held in New York City and draws 20,000
be elected to the American Academy of Arts participants and half a million onlookers.
and Letters.
1913
1909
● Muriel Rukeyser is born on 15 December in
● Sarah Orne Jewett dies on 24 June in South New York City.
Berwick, Maine.
■ Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! is published by
■ Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) Houghton.
becomes the first woman to receive the Nobel
● Ida Wells-Barnett founds the Alpha Suffrage
Prize for Literature.
Club in Chicago.
● “The Uprising of the 20,000” grows from one
● Suffrage is granted to women in Alaska.
local to a general strike against several shirt-
waist factories in New York City. Over 700 ● The Congressional Union is founded by Alice
women and girls are arrested, and 19 receive Paul and Lucy Burns.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 lxiii
1914 1917
● Marguerite Duras is born on 4 April in Gia ● Gwendolyn Brooks is born on 7 June in To-
Dinh, Indochina (now Vietnam). peka, Kansas.
● The National Federation of Women’s Clubs, ● The National Women’s Party becomes the first
which includes over two million white women group in U.S. history to picket in front of the
and women of color, formally endorses the White House. Picketers are arrested and incar-
campaign for women’s suffrage. cerated; during their incarceration, Alice Paul
leads them in a hunger strike. Many of the
● Suffrage is granted to women in Montana and
imprisoned suffragists are brutally force-fed,
Nevada.
including Paul. The suffragettes’ mistreatment
■ Margaret Sanger begins publication of her is published in newspapers, the White House
controversial monthly newsletter The Woman bows to public pressure, and they are released.
Rebel, which is banned as obscene literature. ● White women in Arkansas are granted partial
suffrage; they are able to vote in primary, but
1915 not general, elections.
■ Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland is pub- ● Suffrage is granted to women in New York.
lished in the journal Forerunner. ● Suffrage is granted to women in Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania.
■ Woman’s Work in Municipalities, by American
suffragist and historian Mary Ritter Beard ● Women in Ontario and British Columbia,
(1876-1958), is published by Appleton. Canada, gain suffrage.
● Icelandic women who are age 40 or older gain ● Suffragists and members of the NAWSA, led
suffrage. by president Carrie Chapman Catt, march in
a parade in New York City.
● Members of the NAWSA from across the
United States hold a large parade in New York ■ Margaret Sanger founds and edits The Birth
city. Control Review, the first scientific journal
devoted to the subject of birth control.
● Most Danish women over age 25 gain suffrage.
1918
1916 ■ Willa Cather’s My Antonia is published by
● Ardent suffragist and pacifist Jeannette Picker- Houghton.
ing Rankin (1880-1973) of Montana becomes
● Suffrage is granted to women in Michigan,
the first woman elected to the U. S. House of
Oklahoma, and South Dakota; women in
Representatives. She later votes against U. S.
Texas gain suffrage for primary elections only.
involvement in both World Wars.
● President Woodrow Wilson issues a statement
● The Congressional Union becomes the Na- in support of a federal constitutional amend-
tional Women’s Party, led by Alice Paul and ment granting full suffrage to American
Lucy Burns. women.
● NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt un- ● A resolution to amend the U.S. constitution to
veils her “Winning Plan” for American wom- ensure that the voting rights of U.S. citizens
en’s suffrage at a convention held in Atlantic cannot “be denied or abridged by the United
City, New Jersey. States or any state on account of sex” passes
● Suffrage is granted to women in Alberta, Mani- in the House of Representatives.
toba, and Saskatchewan, Canada. ● President Wilson urges the Senate to support
● Margaret Sanger opens the first U. S. birth- the 19th amendment, but fails to win the two-
control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. The thirds majority necessary for passage.
clinic is shut down 10 days after it opens and ● Women in the United Kingdom who are mar-
Sanger is arrested. ried, own property, or are college graduates
■ Margaret Sanger’s What Every Mother Should over the age of 30, are granted suffrage.
Know; or, How Six Little Children were Taught ● Women in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany,
the Truth is published by M. N. Maisel. Luxembourg, and Poland gain suffrage.
lxiv F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
● Women in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, 1922

Canada, gain suffrage. Canadian women of ● Irish women gain full suffrage.
British or French heritage gain voting rights in
Federal elections. ● Grace Paley is born on 11 December in New
York City.
■ Marie Stopes’s Married Love and Wise Parent-
■ Edna St. Vincent Millay’s The Ballad of the
hood are published by A. C. Fifield.
Harp-Weaver is published by F. Shay.
■ Harriot Stanton Blatch’s Mobilizing Woman-
Power, with a foreword by Theodore Roosevelt,
is published by The Womans Press.
1923
■ Edna St. Vincent Millay receives the Pulitzer
Prize for Poetry for The Ballad of the Harp-
1919 Weaver.
● Women in the Netherlands, Rhodesia, and ● Margaret Sanger opens the Birth Control Clini-
Sweden gain suffrage. cal Research Bureau in New York to dispense
contraceptives to women under the supervi-
● Doris Lessing is born on 22 October in Ker-
sion of a licensed physician and to study the
manshah, Persia (now Iran).
effect of contraception upon women’s health.
● The “Susan B. Anthony Amendment,” also ● Margaret Sanger founds the American Birth
known as the 19th Amendment to the U. S. Control League.
Constitution, after it is defeated twice in the
● The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), written
Senate, passes in both houses of Congress. The
by Alice Paul, is introduced in Congress for
amendment is sent to states for ratification.
the first time in December.
1920 1924
● The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitu- ● Phyllis Schlafly is born on 15 August in St.
tion is ratified by the necessary two-thirds of Louis, Missouri.
states and American women are guaranteed
● Shirley Chisolm is born on 30 November in
suffrage on 26 August when Secretary of State
Brooklyn, New York.
Bainbridge Colby signs the amendment into
law.
● The NAWSA is reorganized as the National
1925
League of Women Voters and elects Maud ● Amy Lowell dies on 12 May in Brookline, Mas-
Wood Park as its first president. sachusetts.
● Bella Abzug is born on 24 July in New York ■ Collected Poems of H.D. is published by Boni &
City. Liveright.
■ Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway is published by
● Icelandic women gain full suffrage.
Harcourt.
■ Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence is pub-
lished by Meredith.
1926
■ Colette’s Cheri is published by Fayard. ● Marietta Holley dies on 1 March near Adams,
New York.
1921 ■ Marianne Moore becomes the first woman edi-
tor of The Dial in New York City, a post she
● Betty Friedan is born on 4 February in Peoria, holds until 1929.
Illinois.
■ Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie Rogers Schul-
■ Edith Wharton receives the Pulitzer Prize for er’s Woman Suffrage and Politics; the Inner Story
fiction for The Age of Innocence. of the Suffrage Movement is published by
● Margaret Sanger organizes the first American Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Conference on Birth Control in New York ■ Grazia Deledda receives the Nobel Prize in
City. Literature.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 lxv
1927 1932
● Victoria Woodhull dies on 10 June in Norton ● Sylvia Plath is born on 27 October in Boston,
Park, England. Massachusetts.
■ Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse is published
by Harcourt. 1933
■ Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B.
1928 Toklas is published by Harcourt.
● Maya Angelou is born Marguerite Johnson on ● Frances Perkins (1882-1965) is appointed
4 April in St. Louis, Missouri. Secretary of Labor by President Franklin D.
● Emmeline Pankhurst dies on 14 June in Lon- Roosevelt, and becomes the first female cabi-
don, England. net member in the United States.
● Anne Sexton is born on 9 November in New-

ton, Massachusetts. 1934
■ Virginia Woolf’s Orlando is published by ● Gloria Steinem is born on 25 March in Toledo,
Crosby Gaige. Ohio.
● Women are granted full suffrage in Great ● Kate Millett is born on 14 September in St.
Britain. Paul, Minnesota.
■ Gertrude Stein’s Useful Knowledge is published ■ Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour debuts
by Payson & Clarke. on 20 November at Maxine Elliot’s Theatre in
■ Sigrid Undset receives the Nobel Prize in New York City.
Literature.
1935
1929 ● Jane Addams dies of cancer on 21 May in
● Adrienne Rich is born on 16 May in Baltimore, Chicago, Illinois.
Maryland. ● Charlotte Perkins Gilman commits suicide on
● Marilyn French is born on 21 November in 17 August in Pasadena, California.
New York City. ● The National Council of Negro Women is
● While Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. reads her founded by Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-
speech for her, Margaret Sanger appears in a 1955).
gag on a stage in Boston where she has been
prevented from speaking.
1936
■ Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own is pub-
● First lady Eleanor Roosevelt begins writing a
lished by Harcourt.
daily syndicated newspaper column, “My
Day.”
1930 ■ Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind is
● Lorraine Hansberry is born on 19 May in published by Macmillan.
Chicago, Illinois.
● Cairine Wilson is appointed the first woman 1937
senator in Canada.
● Hélène Cixous is born on 5 June in Oran,
Algeria.
1931 ● Bessie Head is born on 6 July in Pietermar-
● Jane Addams receives the Nobel Peace Prize. itzburg, South Africa.
● Toni Morrison is born Chloe Anthony Wof- ● Edith Wharton dies on 11 August in St. Brice-
ford on 18 February in Lorain, Ohio. sous-Foret, France.
● Ida B. Wells-Barnett dies on 25 March in ■ Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching
Chicago, Illinois. God is published by Lippincott.
lxvi F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
■ Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949) receives the Pu- ● Isabel Allende is born on 2 August in Lima,

litzer Prize in Letters & Drama for novel for Peru.
Gone with the Wind.
■ Ellen Glasgow (1873-1945) receives the Pu-
■ Anne O’Hare McCormick becomes the first litzer Prize for her novel In This Our Life.
woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Journal-
■ Margaret Walker (1915-1998) becomes the first
ism, which she is given for distinguished cor-
African American to receive the Yale Series of
respondence for her international reporting
Young Poets Award for her collection For My
on the rise of Italian Fascism in the New York
People.
Times.
1944
1938
● Alice Walker is born on 9 February in Eaton-
● Joyce Carol Oates is born on 16 June in Lock-
ton, Georgia.
port, New York.
● Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) is the only
■ Pearl Buck receives the Nobel Prize in Litera-
woman journalist to go ashore with Allied
ture.
troops during the D-Day invasion of Nor-
mandy, France in June.
1939 ● Buchi Emecheta is born on 21 July in Yaba,
● Germaine Greer is born on 29 January near Lagos, Nigeria.
Melbourne, Australia.
● Rita Mae Brown is born on 28 November in
■ Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes debuts on 15 Hanover, Pennsylvania.
February at National Theatre in New York City.
● Women are granted suffrage in France and
● Margaret Atwood is born on 18 November in Jamaica.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
● Paula Gunn Allen is born in Cubero, New
1945
Mexico.
● Eleanor Roosevelt becomes the first person to
● French physician Madeleine Pelletier (1874-
represent the U. S. at the United Nations. She
1939) is arrested for performing abortions in
serves until 1951, is reappointed in 1961, and
Paris, France; she dies later the same year.
serves until her death in 1962.
Throughout her medical career, Pelletier
advocated women’s rights to birth control and ■ Gabriela Mistral receives the Nobel Prize in
abortion, and founded her own journal, La Literature.
Suffragist. ■ Louise Bogan is named U. S. Poet Laureate.
1940 1946
● Emma Goldman dies on 14 May in Toronto, ● Gertrude Stein dies of cancer on 27 July in
Ontario, Canada. Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
● Maxine Hong Kingston is born on 27 October
● Andrea Dworkin is born on 26 September in
in Stockton, California.
Camden, New Jersey.
● Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch dies on 20
■ Mary Ritter Beard’s Woman as a Force in His-
November in Greenwich, Connecticut.
tory: A Study in Traditions and Realities is
published by Macmillan.
1941 ● Eleanor Roosevelt becomes chair of the United
● Virginia Woolf commits suicide on 28 March Nations Human Rights Commission. She
in Lewes, Sussex, England. remains chair until 1951.
1942 1947
● Erica Jong is born on 26 March in New York ● Carrie Chapman Catt dies on 9 March in New
City. Rochelle, New York.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 lxvii
● Willa Cather dies on 24 April in New York 1953
CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS City. ■ A Writer’s Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of
● Dorothy Fuldheim, a newscaster in Cleveland, Virigina Woolf, edited by Leonard Woolf, is
Ohio, becomes the first female television news published by Hogarth.
anchor at WEWS-TV.
● The International Planned Parenthood Federa-
tion is founded by Margaret Sanger, who
1948 serves as the organization’s first president.
● Susan Glaspell dies on 27 July in Provinc- ● Women are granted suffrage in Mexico.
etown, Massachusetts.
● Ntozake Shange is born Paulette Linda Wil- 1954
liams on 18 October in Trenton, New Jersey.
● Louise Erdrich is born on 7 June in Little Falls,
■ Leonie Adams is named U. S. Poet Laureate. Minnesota.
● Colette dies on 3 August in Paris, France.
1949
● Sandra Cisneros is born on 20 December in
■ Simone de Beauvoir’s Le deuxième sexe (The Chicago, Illinois.
Second Sex, H. M. Parshley, translator: Knopf,
1953) is published by Gallimard.
■ Elizabeth Bishop is named U. S. Poet Laureate.
1955
● On 1 December American civil rights activist
■ Gwendolyn Brooks’s Annie Allen is published
Rosa Parks (1913-) refuses to move from her
by Harper.
seat for a white passenger on a Montgomery,
Alabama bus and is arrested.
1950
● Gloria Naylor is born on 25 January in New 1956
York City.
● The Anti-Prostitution Act, written and cam-
● Edna St. Vincent Millay dies of a heart attack paigned for by Kamichika Ichiko, makes
on 19 October at Steepletop, Austerlitz, New prostitution illegal in Japan.
York.
■ Gwendolyn Brooks receives the Pulitzer Prize
for poetry for Annie Allen. 1958
● Christabel Pankhurst dies on 13 February in
Los Angeles, California.
1951
■ Marianne Moore’s Collected Poems is published
by Macmillan. 1959
■ Marguerite Higgins (1920-1960) receives the ● Susan Faludi is born on 18 April in New York
Pulitzer Prize for Journalism in overseas report- City.
ing for her account of the battle at Inchon, ■ Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun debuts
Korea in September, 1950. in March at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in
New York City.
1952 ■ Lorraine Hansberry becomes the youngest
● Amy Tan is born on 19 February in Oakland, woman and first black artist to receive a New
California. York Drama Critics Circle Award for best
American play for A Raisin in the Sun.
● Rita Dove is born on 28 August in Akron,
Ohio.
● bell hooks is born Gloria Jean Watkins on 25
1960
September in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. ● Zora Neale Hurston dies on 28 January in Fort
Pierce, Florida.
■ Marianne Moore receives the National Book
Critics Circle award for poetry and the Puliz- ● Sylvia Pankhurst dies on 27 September in Ad-
ter Prize for poetry for Collected Poems. dis Ababa, Ethiopia.
lxviii F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
● The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ap- 1964

proves the first oral contraceptive for distribu-
● Anna Julia Haywood Cooper dies on 27 Febru-
tion to consumers in May.
ary in Washington, DC.
■ Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is published
by Lippincott.
1965
● Lorraine Hansberry dies of cancer on 12 Janu-
1961 ary in New York City.
● H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) dies on 27 September ● Women are granted suffrage in Afghanistan.
in Zurich, Switzerland.
■ Harper Lee receives the Pulitzer Prize for the 1966
novel for To Kill a Mockingbird.
● Anna Akhmatova dies on 6 March in Russia.
● President John F. Kennedy establishes the
● Margaret Sanger dies on 6 September in Tuc-
President’s Commission on the Status of
son, Arizona.
Women on 14 December and appoints Eleanor
Roosevelt as head of the commission. ● National Organization for Women (NOW) is
founded on 29 June by Betty Friedan and 27
other founding members. NOW is dedicated
1962 to promoting full participation in society for
● Isak Dinesen dies on 7 September in Rungsted women and advocates for adequate child care
Kyst, Denmark. for working mothers, reproductive rights, and
the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S.
● Eleanor Roosevelt dies on 7 November in New Constitution.
York City.
■ Anne Sexton’s Live or Die is published by
● Naomi Wolf is born on 12 November in San Houghton.
Francisco, California.
■ Nelly Sachs (1891-1970) receives the Nobel
■ Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook is pub- Prize in Literature, which she shares with
lished by Simon & Schuster. Shmuel Yosef Agnon.
1963 1967
■ Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique is pub- ● Anne Sexton receives the Pulitzer Prize for
lished by Norton and becomes a bestseller. poetry for Live or Die.
■ Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is published under ● Senator Eugene McCarthy, with 37 co-
the pseudonym Victoria Lucas by Heinemann. sponsors, introduces the Equal Rights Amend-
ment in the U.S. Senate.
● Sylvia Plath commits suicide on 11 February
in London, England.
■ Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (1912-1989) 1968
becomes the first woman to receive the Pu- ■ Audre Lorde’s The First Cities is published by
litzer Prize for general nonfiction for The Guns Poets Press.
of August.
● The Equal Pay Act is passed by the U.S. Con- 1969
gress on 28 May. It is the first federal law
requiring equal compensation for men and ■ Joyce Carol Oates’s them is published by
women in federal jobs. Vanguard Press.
● Shirley Chisolm becomes the first African
● Entitled American Women, the report issued by
American woman elected to Congress when
the President’s Commission on the Status of
she takes her seat in the U.S. House of Repre-
Women documents sex discrimination in
sentatives on 3 January.
nearly all corners of American society, and
urges the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify legal ● Golda Meir (1898-1978) becomes the fourth
status of women under the U.S. Constitution. Prime Minister of Israel on 17 March.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 lxix
● California adopts the nation’s first “no fault” ment expires in 1982, without being ratified
CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS divorce law, allowing divorce by mutual con- by the required two-thirds of the states; it is
sent. three states short of full ratification.
● President Nixon signs into law Title IX of the
1970 Higher Education Act banning sex bias in
athletics and other activities at all educational
■ Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye is published by institutions receiving federal assistance.
Holt.
■ Women’s Press is established in Canada.
■ Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch is pub-
lished by MacGibbon & Kee.
1973
■ Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings is published by Random House. ● The U.S. Supreme Court, in their decision
handed down on 21 January in Roe v. Wade,
■ Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics is published by decides that in the first trimester of pregnancy
Doubleday and becomes a bestseller. women have the right to choose an abortion.
■ Joyce Carol Oates receives the National Book ● Elizabeth Bowen dies of lung cancer on 22
Award for fiction for them. February in London, England.
● The Equal Rights Amendment passes in the ■ Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle is published
U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 350 by Daughters, Inc.
to 15 on 10 August.
■ Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying is published by Holt
● Bella Abzug is elected to the U.S. House of and becomes a bestseller.
Representatives on 3 November. ■ Alice Walker’s In Love and Trouble: Stories of
■ The Feminist Press is founded at the City Black Women is published by Harcourt.
University of New York. ■ The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective’s
■ Off Our Backs: A Women’s News Journal is Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book By and For Women
founded in Washington, D.C. is published by Simon and Schuster.
■ The Women’s Rights Law Reporter is founded in

Newark, New Jersey. 1974
■ Andrea Dworkin’s Women Hating is published
by Dutton.
1971
■ Adrienne Rich receives the National Book
● Josephine Jacobsen is named U. S. Poet Laure-
Award for Diving into the Wreck: Poems, 1971-
ate.
1972.
● Anne Sexton commits suicide on 4 October in
1972 Weston, Massachusetts.
● Marianne Moore dies on 5 February in New ● Katharine Graham (1917-2001), publisher of
York City. the Washington Post, becomes the first woman
■ Ms. magazine is founded; Gloria Steinem member of the board of the Associated Press.
serves as editor of Ms. until 1987. The 300,000
copy print run of the first issue of Ms. maga- 1975
zine sells out within a week of its release in
■ Paula Gunn Allen’ essay “The Sacred Hoop: A
January.
Contemporary Indian Perspective on Ameri-
● Shirley Chisolm becomes the first African can Indian Literature” appears in Literature of
American woman to seek the presidential the American Indian: Views and Interpretations,
nomination of a major political party, al- edited by Abraham Chapman and published
though her bid for the Democratic Party by New American Library.
nomination is unsuccessful.
■ Hélène Cixous and Catherine Clement’s La Je-
● The Equal Rights Amendment is passed by une nee (The Newly Born Woman, University of
both houses of the U.S. Congress and is signed Minnesota Press, 1986) is published by Union
by President Richard M. Nixon. The amend- Generale.
lxx F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
● Margaret Thatcher is elected leader of the ● Barbara Wertheim Tuchman becomes the first

Conservative Party and becomes the first woman elected president of the American
woman to head a major party in Great Britain. Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
■ Susan Brownmiller’s Against our Will: Men, ● Mother Teresa (1910-1997) receives the Nobel
Women, and Rape is published by Simon and Peace Prize.
Schuster.
■ Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s The Mad-
woman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the
1976 Nineteenth-Century Imagination is published by
■ Andrea Dworkin’s Our Blood: Prophecies and Yale University Press.
Discourses on Sexual Politics is published by
Harper.
■ Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: 1980
Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts is pub- ● Muriel Rukeyser dies on 12 February in New
lished by Knopf. York City.
■ Maxine Hong Kingston’s receives the National
■ Adrienne Rich’s essay “Compulsory Hetero-
Book Critics Circle award for general nonfic-
sexuality and Lesbian Experience” is published
tion for The Woman Warrior.
in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.
● Barbara Walters (1931-) becomes the first
female network television news anchorwoman
when she joins Harry Reasoner as coanchor of 1981
the ABC Evening News. ■ bell hooks’s Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and
■ Shere Hite’s The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study Feminism is published by South End Press.
of Female Sexuality is published by Macmillan.
■ Sylvia Plath’s Collected Poems, edited by Ted
Hughes, is published by Harper.
1977
● Alice Paul dies on 9 July in Moorestown, New ● Sandra Day O’Connor (1930-) becomes the
Jersey. first woman Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court,
after being nominated by President Ronald
■ Marilyn French’s The Women’s Room is pub- Reagan and sworn in on 25 September.
lished by Summit.
■ Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is published ■ Women of Color Press is founded in Albany,
by Knopf. New York by Barbara Smith.
■ Toni Morrison receives the National Book Crit- ■ Cleis Press is established in Pittsburgh, Penn-
ics Circle Award for fiction for Song of Solomon. sylvania, and San Francisco, California.
● Labor organizer Barbara Mayer Wertheimer’s ■ This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical
We Were There: The Story of Working Women in Women of Color, edited by Cherríe Moraga and
America is published by Pantheon. Gloria Anzaldúa, is published by Persephone
■ Women’s Press is established in Great Britain. Press.
■ Maxine Kumin is named U. S. Poet Laureate.
1978
● The Pregnancy Discrimination Act bans em-
ployment discrimination against pregnant 1982
women. ● Djuna Barnes dies on 19 June in New York
■ Tillie Olsen’s Silences is published by Delcorte City.
Press/Seymour Lawrence. ■ Sylvia Plath is posthumously awarded the Pu-
litzer Prize in poetry for Collected Poems.
1979
■ Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is published by
● Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman
Harcourt.
prime minister of Great Britain. She serves
until her resignation in 1990, marking the ■ Carol Gilligan’s In a Different Voice: Psychologi-
longest term of any twentieth-century prime cal Theory and Women’s Development is pub-
minister. lished by Harvard University Press.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 lxxi
1983 1988
● Rebecca West dies on 15 March in London, ■ Toni Morrison receives the Pulitzer Prize for
England. fiction for Beloved.
■ Gloria Steinem’s Outrageous Acts and Everyday ■ The War of the Words, Volume 1 of Sandra M.
Rebellions is published by Holt. Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s No Man’s Land: The
Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Cen-
tury, is published by Yale University Press.
1984
■ Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street is 1989
published by Arte Publico. ■ Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club is published by
● Lillian Hellman dies on 30 June in Martha’s Putnam.
Vineyard, Massachusetts.
● Geraldine Ferraro (1935-) becomes the first 1990
woman to win the Vice-Presidential nomina- ■ Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth: How Images of
tion and runs unsuccessfully for office with Beauty Are Used against Women is published by
Democratic Presidential candidate Walter Chatto & Windus.
Mondale.
● The Norplant contraceptive is approved by the
■ Firebrand Books, publisher of feminist and FDA on 10 December.
lesbian literature, is established in Ann Arbor, ■ Camille Paglia’s Sexual Personae: Art and Deca-
Michigan. dence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson is pub-
■ bell hooks’s Feminist Theory: From Margin to lished by Yale University Press.
Center is published by South End Press. ■ Wendy Kaminer’s A Fearful Freedom: Women’s
Flight from Equality is published by Addison-
Wesley.
1985
■ Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale: The
■ Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-
published by McClelland & Stewart. 1812 is published by Knopf.
● Wilma P. Mankiller is sworn in as the first ■ Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble: Feminism and
woman tribal chief of the Cherokee nation. the Subversion of Identity is published by Rout-
She serves until 1994. ledge.
■ Gwendolyn Brooks is named U. S. Poet Laure-
ate. 1991
■ Susan Faludi’s Backlash: The Undeclared War
Against American Women is published by
1986
Crown.
● Simone de Beauvoir dies on 14 April in Paris, ● Antonia Novello (1944-) is appointed by
France. President George H.W. Bush and becomes the
● Bessie Head dies on 17 April in Botswana. first woman and first person of Hispanic
descent to serve as U. S. Surgeon General.
■ Rita Dove’s Thomas and Beulah is published by
Carnegie-Mellon University Press. ● Bernadine Healy, M.D. (1944-) is appointed by
President George H.W. Bush and becomes the
■ Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s A Lesser Life: The Myth of first woman to head the National Institutes of
Women’s Liberation in America is published by Health.
Morrow.
■ Suzanne Gordon’s Prisoners of Men’s Dreams:
Striking Out for a New Feminine Future is pub-
1987 lished by Little, Brown.
■ Laurel Thatcher Ulrich receives the Pulitzer
■ Toni Morrison’s Beloved is published by Knopf.
Prize for history for A Midwife’s Tale: The Life
■ Rita Dove receives the Pulitzer Prize for poetry of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-
for Thomas and Beulah. 1812.
lxxii F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
1992 1995

● Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun (1947-) be- ● Ireland’s electorate votes by a narrow margin
comes the first African American woman in November to end the nation’s ban on
elected to the U. S. Senate on 3 November. divorce (no other European country has such
■ Carolyne Larrington’s The Feminist Companion a ban), but only after 4 years’ legal separation.
to Mythology is published by Pandora.
■ Marilyn French’s The War against Women is 1996
published by Summit.
● Marguerite Duras dies on 3 March in Paris,
■ Clarissa Pinkola Estes’s Women Who Run with France.
the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman
■ Hillary Rodham Clinton’s It Takes a Village,
Archetype is published by Ballantine.
and Other Lessons Children Teach Us is pub-
■ Naomi Wolf’s Fire with Fire: The New Female lished by Simon and Schuster.
Power and How It Will Change the Twenty-first
Century is published by Random House.
1998
■ Mona Van Duyn is named U. S. Poet Laureate.
● Bella Abzug dies on 31 March in New York
City.
1993
■ Drucilla Cornell’s At the Heart of Freedom:
● Appointed by President Bill Clinton, Janet Feminism, Sex, and Equality is published by
Reno (1938-) becomes the first woman U.S. Princeton University Press.
Attorney General when she is sworn in on 12
March.
■ Toni Morrison receives the Nobel Prize in 1999
Literature. ■ Susan Brownmiller’s In Our Time: Memoir of a
● Toni Morrison receives the Elizabeth Cady Revolution is published by Dial Press.
Stanton Award from the National Organiza- ■ Gwendolyn Mink’s Welfare’s End is published
tion for Women. by Cornell University Press.
● Canada’s Progressive Conservative party votes ■ Martha C. Nussbaum’s Sex and Social Justice is
on 13 June to make Defense Minister Kim published by Oxford University Press.
Campbell the nation’s first woman prime
minister. Canadian voters oust the Conserva-
tive party in elections on 25 October as reces- 2000
sion continues; Liberal leader Jean Chrétien
● Gwendolyn Brooks dies on 3 December in
becomes prime minister.
Chicago, Illinois.
■ On 1 October Rita Dove becomes the young-
est person and the first African American to ■ Patricia Hill Collins’s Black Feminist Thought:
be named U. S. Poet Laureate. Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Em-
powerment is published by Routledge.
■ Faye Myenne Ng’s Bone is published by Hype-
rion. ■ Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards’s
Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Fu-
ture is published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
1994
● The Violence Against Women Act tightens
2002
federal penalties for sex offenders, funds
services for victims of rape and domestic ■ Estelle B. Freedman’s No Turning Back: The His-
violence, and provides funds for special train- tory of Feminism and the Future of Women is
ing for police officers in domestic violence and published by Ballantine.
rape cases.
■ Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s
■ Mary Pipher’s Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves Feminism, edited by Daisy Hernandez and
of Adolescent Girls is published by Putnam. Bushra Rehman, is published by Seal Press.
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1 lxxiii
2003 tive rights activists to have the abortion drug
CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS ● Iranian feminist and human rights activist Shi- approved. Opponents made repeated efforts
rin Ebadi (1947-) receives the Nobel Peace to prevent approval and distribution of mife-
Prize. pristone.
■ Louise Glück is named U. S. Poet Laureate. ■ The Fire This Time: Young Activists and the New
■ Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the Feminism, edited by Vivien Labaton and Dawn
21st Century, edited by Rory Cooke Dicker and Lundy Martin, is published by Anchor Books.
Alison Piepmeier, is published by Northeastern
University Press. ■ The Future of Women’s Rights: Global Visions
and Strategies, edited by Joanna Kerr, Ellen
2004 Sprenger, and Alison Symington, is published
● The FDA approves the contraceptive mifepris- by ZED Books and Palgrave Macmillan.
tone, following a 16-year struggle by reproduc-
lxxiv F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , V O L . 1
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S
WRITINGS FROM
ANTIQUITY THROUGH
THE MIDDLE AGES
C ontemporary feminist theory has allowed

social and literary critics to observe and
reconstruct the past through the lens of the
social roles. Bringing together numerous common
themes, such as the conflict between women of
influence and the strong patriarchal tendency to
woman, and more specifically, through that of marginalize the feminine and codify it symboli-
the woman writer. Looking to the premodern eras cally, feminist criticism has offered a new way of
of antiquity and the Middle Ages, feminist scholars looking at the ancient past that seeks to question
have studied women’s roles as artists, leaders, and some of the underlying assumptions of traditional
agents of history. Likewise, they have examined humanist criticism. By examining textual and
the status of ordinary individuals as the subjects archeological evidence, critics have endeavored to
of social and historical change across the millen- reassess the society, daily lives, and literary produc-
nia. Importantly, most classicists and medievalists tion of women in various cultures of the ancient
who employ the tools of feminist theory in their world. Because women writers of antiquity tended
work have been careful to note that feminism is a to be individuals with unique talent, their status
decidedly contemporary development, cautioning is generally viewed as highly exceptional. Writers
those who would describe women of the distant such as the Greek poet Sappho, the Alexandrian
past as feminists to be aware of the consequent mathematician and philosopher Hypatia, and the
anachronism. Nevertheless, in their explorations Chinese scholar Pan Chao (Ban Zhao), in some
of early literature and past civilizations, these fashion and for some limited period enjoyed
scholars have recognized an emerging conscious- favorable social or familial circumstances that as-
ness regarding women’s issues. While women sisted them in their vocations. For feminist critics,
writers of ancient Greece, Alexandrian Egypt, or their rarity and the treatment they received in
feudal Japan can scarcely be labeled feminists by society—Hypatia, for instance, was murdered in
contemporary standards, their unique awareness the streets of Alexandria—suggest a prevalent lack
of themselves and their status in their societies of opportunity and respect for creative and intel-
has inspired the endeavor to read and write the lectual women in antiquity. Such conclusions
history of women in art and literature. have led scholars to probe the origins of misogyny
Scholars have unearthed, in the early records in the patriarchal societies these writers represent
of antique civilizations from Bronze Age Greece and to analyze the system of masculine and
and Old Kingdom Egypt to ancient China and feminine semiotics upon which the notion of
imperial Rome, suggestions of similar elements misogyny rests. Beginning with ancient Greece,
within the diversity of women’s literature and commentators have evaluated the gendered dis-
F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , VO L . 1 1
tinction between private and public spheres, usu- but one that nevertheless betrays antique assump-
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES ally described as a symbolic tension between the tions about the nature of woman and man that
feminine oikos (household) and masculine polis modern feminists seek to question. Literary depic-
(city-state or society). Thus, women of the Athe- tions of women in the Bible, additionally, contrib-
nian classical period in the fourth and fifth uted to a reductive dichotomy that informed the
centuries B.C. were expected to attend to their fundamental gender bias of medieval European
domestic duties without mingling in political af- society and literature. While self-possessed and
fairs. Women’s ritual lives were also generally kept heroic female figures such as Esther and Judith are
separate from those of men, giving rise to the present in the Bible, their stories are usually
feminine mysteries of ancient Greek religion. categorized with the Old Testament Apocrypha.
Ancient Sparta, in contrast, promoted a more For the most part, perceptions of women in bibli-
egalitarian view of the sexes, but a woman’s cal contexts became symbolically aligned with one
primary role remained the bearing of strong future of two poles—the sinning temptress Eve or the
warriors to defend the militaristic city-state. In flawless Virgin Mary.
later times, Roman law placed rather severe restric- Studying continuity from classical and biblical
tions on women, making their legal and social perceptions of women, feminist scholars interested
status completely subject to the authority of their in the Middle Ages have generally focused on the
fathers and husbands. In a few cases, however, the social roles of women depicted in a wide array of
position of aristocratic women in the ancient texts, in the visual arts of the period, and in the
world may have been somewhat more favorable. works of a growing pool of female writers. The
In Ptolemaic Egypt, for example, Queens Nefertiti medieval epoch in Europe and Asia witnessed
and Cleopatra appear to have been treated with major developments in women’s writings in large
much the same regard as their male counterparts. part due to the spread of religious education.
Notwithstanding these rare instances, the lives of Consequently, feminist critics have been drawn to
most antique women were generally circumscribed the works of female mystic writers, among them
by limits on education, mobility, and vocation Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, St. Cathe-
precluding virtually all possibilities that might rine of Siena, and St. Birgitta of Sweden. Their
conflict with either domestic or reproductive writings generally include revelatory visions of
responsibilities. Christ and the Virgin Mary, religious poetry, and
Women’s relatively limited social roles are also similar works of a spiritual nature. Other medieval
reflected in the arts and literature of the antique European writers, such as Marie de France and He-
period, from Athenian vase painting to Homeric loise (in her well-known correspondence with
verse, which suggest that the most common posi- Pierre Abelard), offered unique contributions to
tion of ancient woman was in the home, occupied the romantic and epistolary genres, respectively.
with household duties—cooking, weaving, child In the Far East, the ninth-century Chinese poet
rearing,—leaving men to handle political issues, Yu Xuanji produced some of the finest lyric poetry
which often meant war. Feminist critics have in her language, while writers such as Murasaki
noted that such representations of women in the Shikibu, in her innovative novel The Tale of Genji,
ancient period derive from the patriarchal assump- and Sei Shonagon, in her Pillow Book, recorded
tions of premodern societies, which were reflected the flowering and decadence of the imperial court
in the symbolic order of the mythic past. Greco- in Heian Japan around the turn of the eleventh
Roman mythology—embodied for the purposes of century. Despite such literary accomplishments,
literary scholarship here in the Homeric epics the the essential social and political status of women
Iliad and Odyssey, and in Ovid’s Latin Metamorpho- in the medieval period changed relatively little
ses—encapsulates classical perceptions of the from that of the antique, and in some respects
feminine, depicting women as powerful god- may even have declined. For the most part,
desses, vengeful queens, cunning witches, and as women continued to be valued only for their
the objects or victims of male aggression. Such domestic skills and reproductive role. Those who
mythic stereotypes inform an array of world protested, and thereby failed to acquiesce to the
literature and are precisely the sorts of ingrained patriarchal social order, were often harshly treated
depictions of women that contemporary feminists at all levels of society. Among the aristocracy, the
wish to discover and understand. Likewise, classi- example of the twelfth-century Queen Eleanor of
cal drama, perhaps best typified in the works of Aquitaine demonstrates this point. Scornfully
Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Sophocles, denounced in popular legend as the embodiment
presents a somewhat divergent view of women, of feminine guile and malevolence for requesting
2 F E M I N I S M I N L I T E R AT U R E : A G A L E C R I T I C A L C O M PA N I O N , VO L . 1
a divorce from her husband, Eleanor was unfairly Elizabeth of Hungary
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES
burdened with maintaining the integrity of her The Revelations of Saint Elizabeth (prose) c. 1231
family at all costs and regardless of circumstances.
Far worse, from the point of view of most men, Euripides
was that a woman should be guilty of unchaste Medea (drama) c. 431 B.C.
behavior—an accusation also leveled against the
Queen. Critics have observed that this common Hadewijch of Antwerp
theme in medieval society and literature was prob- Visioenen [Visions] (prose) mid 13th century
ably best articulated by Geoffrey Chaucer in his
Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. Ironically in the Heloise
Letters of Abelard and Heloise [with Pierre Abelard]
view of modern critics, Chaucer, with his compel-
(letters) c. 1119-41
ling description of the Wife of Bath as a self-
possessed, outspoken, and boastfully licentious
Herrad of Landsberg
woman, rendered an epitome of the medieval
Hortus Deliciarum [Garden of Delights] (prose)
antifeminist tradition, while at the same time
c. 1170
sketching a figure in whom many have seen the
first inklings of an incipient feminist conscious- Hesiod
ness. Works and Days (poetry) mid 8th century B.C.
Hildegard von Bingen

Liber Scivias (prose) c. 1152
REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Homer

Iliad (poetry) c. 9th century B.C.
Abutsu-ni
Izayoi nikki (travel diary) mid 13th century Odyssey (poetry) c. 9th century B.C.
Aeschylus Hrotsvit of Gandersheim

Oresteia (dramas) c. 458 B.C. The Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins Fides, Spes, and
Karitas (drama) late 10th century
Aristophanes
Lysistrata (drama) c. 411 B.C. Hypatia
Astronomical Canon (nonfiction) c. 415
Ecclesiazusae (drama) c. 393 B.C.
On the Conics of Apollonius (nonfiction) c. 415
The Bible
Book of Esther (prose) c. 2nd century B.C. Izumi Shikibu
The Diary of Izumi Shikibu (diary) c. 1003
Birgitta of Sweden
Liber celestis revelaciones [Revelations] (prose) Julian of Norwich
c. 1377 Shewings [Revelations] (prose) c. 1373-93
Catherine of Siena Margery Kempe

Book of Margery Kempe (autobiography) c. 1438
Libro della divina dottrina [The Dialogue of the
Seraphic Virgin Catherine of Siena] (prose) c.
Marie de France
1377-80
Lais (poetry) c. 1170
Geoffrey Chaucer Murasaki Shikibu
Troilus and Criseyde (poetry) c. 1385
Genji monogatori [The Tale of Genji] (novel) early
Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale (poetry) c. 1387 11th century
Christine de Pizan Ovid

Letter of the God of Love (prose) c. 1399 Metamorphoses (poetry) c. 1
The Book of the City of Ladies (dialogues) c. 1405
Pan Chao (Ban Zhao)
Cynewulf Nujie [Lessons for Women] (nonfiction) 1st century
Elene (poetry) c. 8th-9th century Han Shu [with others] (history) 1st-2nd centuries
Perpetua Then how can I not encourage myself to press
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis [The Passion forward?
And further, am I different from other people?
of Saints Perpetua and Felicity] (diary) c. 203
Let me but hear heaven’s command and go its
way.
Marguerite Porete Throughout the journey we follow the great
Le Mirouer des simples ames [The Mirror of Simple highway.
Souls] (prose) c.1296-1306 If we seek short cuts, whom shall we follow?
Pressing forward, we travel on and on;
Sappho In abandonment our eyes wander, and our spirits
roam. . . .
Sapphic Fragments (poetry) 6th century B.C.
Secretly I sigh for the Capital City I love, (but)
To cling to one’s native place characterizes a
Sei Shonagon small nature,
Makura no soshi [Pillow Book] (prose) c. late 10th As the histories have taught us. . . .
century When we enter K’uang City I recall far distant
events.
Sophocles I am reminded of Confucius’ straitened activities
Antigone (drama) 442? B.C. In that decadent, chaotic age which knew not
the Way,
Trachinian Women (drama) 440-30 B.C. And which bound and awed even him, that
Holy Man!
Electra (drama) 425-10 B.C.
In fact genuine virtue cannot die;
Though the body decay, the name lives on. . . .
Yu Xuanji I know that man’s nature and destiny rests with
*The Clouds Float North: The Complete Poems of Yu Heaven,
Xuanji (poetry) 1998 But by effort we can go forward and draw near
to love.
Stretched, head uplifted, we tread onward to the
* This title is an edition of Yu Xuanji’s collected Chinese
poetry translated by David Young and Jiann I. Lin; the vision. . . .
poems were composed c. 860-71.
YU XUANJI (LYRIC DATE C. 9TH

CENTURY)
PRIMARY SOURCES SOURCE: Yu Xuanji. “Joining Somebody’s Mourning”
and “Three Beautiful Sisters, Orphaned Young.” In The
Clouds Float North: The Complete Poems of Yu Xuanji,
PAN CHAO (POEM DATE C. 1ST translated by David Young and Jiann I. Lin, pp. 52, 54-
CENTURY) 56. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England,
1998.
SOURCE: Pan Chao. Pan Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar
of China, translated by Nancy Lee Swann. Ann Arbor: The following are translations of two lyrics by the ninth-
University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, century Chinese poet Yu Xuanji (844-871), a nun who
1932. was executed in the latter years of the Tang Dynasty.
The following is an excerpt from the poem “Traveling
Eastward,” the oldest surviving work composed by the Many of [Yu Xuanji’s] poems, to be sure, dwell
first century A.D. Chinese writer Pan Chao (or Ban on absence, longing, and loss, as do lyric poems
Zhao). in any culture and period. But their original
It is the seventh year of Yung-ch’u; handling of theme, their inspired sense of detail,
I follow my son in his journey eastward. their exuberant rightness of tone and form, all
It is an auspicious day in Spring’s first moon; counterbalance the painful subject matter with
We choose this good hour, and are about to
exquisite formal and aesthetic pleasure. Whether
start.
Now I arise to my feet and ascend my carriage. this sleight-of-hand fully compensates the poet is
At eventide we lodge at Yen-shih: not the question: the reader’s gift is the distilla-
Already we leave the old and start for the new. tion of experience, still potent after eleven centu-
I am uneasy in mind, and sad at heart. ries. In that distillation, the resilience and dignity
Dawn’s first light comes, and yet I sleep not; of the human spirit are held in a kind of suspen-
My heart hesitates as though it would fail me. sion. The pain and pleasure mingle, not canceling
I pour out a cup of wine to relax my thoughts.
each other out but simply coexisting. Two truths
Suppressing my feelings, I sigh and blame
myself: are told at once—that life is streaked with sorrow
I shall not need to dwell in nests, nor (eat) and loss, and that existence is a miraculous gift to
worms from dead trees. the responsive spirit.
JOINING SOMEBODY’S MOURNING as if I could rival the moon
by flaunting a white jade hairpin
You’ve seen her, bloom of the peach,
. . . . .
posture graceful as jade
A little cave among the pines
breeze through willows and poplars
where dew drips down
delicate arch of the eyebrows
the sky above the willows
pearl hoard in a dragon’s cave
a great net filled with mist
that shock of recognition
glimpsed in the mirror at state functions when you can be like the rain
happy among the chitchat your heart will have strength to go on
now changed to a somber dream and you won’t be afraid to blow the flute
lost in mist on a rainy night before you’ve fully mastered it
hating to hear the story my mother would get upset

of bitter times and solitude because I talked to flowers
hills to the west, sunset and my lover was from the past
hills to the east, moonrise a poet who came to me in dreams
. . . . .
and thoughts of loss
that are never going to end. The spirit makes fine, fresh verses
and then is broken
THREE BEAUTIFUL SISTERS, ORPHANED
YOUNG it’s like watching a lovely young woman
We used to hear about the south, give up her will to live
its splendid fresh appearance
these gorgeous young creatures
now it’s these eastern neighbors who knows what they’ll come to?
these sisters three
the clouds float north
up in the loft, inspecting their trousseaus the clouds float south.
reciting a verse about parrots
sitting by blue-green windows

embroidering phoenix garments IZUMI SHIKIBU (DIARY DATE
C. EARLY 11TH CENTURY)
their courtyard filled with colorful petals
like red smoke, billowing unevenly SOURCE: Izumi Shikibu. “The Diary of Izumi Shikibu.”
In Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan, translated by
Anne Sheply Omori and Kochi Doi, pp. 147-96.
their cups full of good green wine
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920.
tasted one by one
. . . . . The following excerpt from the diary of Izumi Shikibu, a
Japanese noblewoman of the early eleventh century,
It’s dreadful, staring into the mystic pond, describes a clandestine love affair in the imperial court of
knowing you’ll always be female Heian Japan.
banished from heaven, stuck in this life, Many months had passed in lamenting the
unable to do what men do World, more shadowy than a dream. Already the
tenth day of the Deutzia month was over. A
a poet who happens to have some beauty, deeper shade lay under the trees and the grass on
ends up being compared
the embankment was greener. These changes, un-
to a gorgeous woman who’s silent— noticed by any, seemed beautiful to her, and while
that makes me feel ashamed musing upon them a man stepped lightly along
behind the hedge. She was idly curious, but when
me, singing solo love songs he came towards her she recognized the page of
upon this vanishing zither the late prince. He came at a sorrowful moment,
plucking the four strings softly
so she said, “Is your coming not long delayed? To
murmuring the words
talk over the past was inclined.” “Would it not
facing my mirror and dressing table have been presuming?—Forgive me—In mountain
to admire my black silk hair temples have been worshipping. To be without
he is very gracious. He asked me whether I ever
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES visit you nowadays—‘Yes, I do,’ said I; then, break-
ing off this branch of tachibana flowers, His High-
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ ness replied, ‘Give this to her, [see] how she will
take it’. The Prince had in mind the old poem:
WOMEN IN CHINESE RELIGION The scent of tachibana flowers in May
Buddhism as practiced in Japan and China Recalls the perfumed sleeves of him who is no longer
here.
. . . granted women areas of empowerment
while at the same time treating them as So I have come—what shall I say to him?”
subordinates, and portraying them as deceit- It was embarrassing to return an oral message
ful in much of the literature. Women went on through the page, and the Prince had not written;
pilgrimages to Buddhist temples, retreated to discontented, yet wishing to make some response,
nunneries, sometimes gave public lectures, she wrote a poem and gave it to the page:
and led temple groups. Chinese Buddhism
was at its height during the reign of Wu Ze- That scent, indeed, brings memories
But rather, to be reminded of that other,
tian, who promoted the religion and even
Would hear the cuckoo’s voice.
justified her rule by claiming she was a
reincarnation of a previous female Buddhist The Prince was on the veranda of his palace,
saint. During Wu’s reign, and throughout the and as the page approached him with important
early to mid Tang period, women enjoyed face, he led him into an inner room saying, “What
relatively high status and freedom. Lovely is it?” The page presented the poem.
Tang Era paintings and statues depict women The Prince read it and wrote this answer:
on horseback and as administrators, dancers,
and musicians. Stories and poems, like those The cuckoo sings on the same branch
With voice unchanged,
by the female poet Yu Xuanji, also attest to
That shall you know.
the openness of the period.
His Highness gave this to the page and walked
In contrast, Confucianism became the away, saying, “Tell it to no one, I might be
most pervasive doctrine to promote a belief thought amorous.” The page brought the poem to
in women’s “natural place.” Confucius him- the lady. Lovely it was, but it seemed wiser not to
self did not directly denigrate women, al- write too often [so did not answer].
though he placed them at the lower end of
the patriarchal family structure. Through the On the day following his first letter this poem
ages, however, the belief that men and was sent:
women had distinct social roles was based on To you I betrayed my heart—
Confucian hierarchical precepts. Prescriptive Alas! Confessing
advice manuals like Lessons for GMs reinforced Brings deeper grief,
these lessons. Written by the female historian Lamenting days.
Ban Zhoa (Han Dynasty, ca. 45-120 C.E.), Les- Feeling was rootless, but being unlearned in
sons became one of China’s most durable loneliness, and attracted, she wrote an answer:
sources of advice about female behavior. One
If you lament to-day
nugget tells women to “yield to others; let
At this moment your heart
her put others first, herself last” May feel for mine—
For in sorrow
Reese, Lyn. “Teaching about Women in China and Months and days have worn away.
Japan: A Thematic Approach.” Social Education
67, no. 1 (January-February 2003): 38-43. He wrote often and she answered—some-
times—and felt her loneliness a little assuaged.
Again she received a letter. After expressing feel-
ings of great delicacy:
[I would] solace [you] with consoling words
ties is sad, so wishing to take service again I went If spoken in vain
to Prince Sochi-no-miya.” No longer could be exchanged.
“Excellent! that Prince is very elegant and is To talk with you about the departed one; how
known to me. He cannot be as of yore?” [i.e. would it be [for you] to come in the evening
unmarried.] So she said, and he replied, “No, but unobtrusively?
Her answer: She answered:
As I hear of comfort I wish to talk with you, but Whether commonplace or not—
being an uprooted person there is no hope of my Thoughts do not dwell upon it
standing upright. I am footless [meaning, I cannot For the first time [I] am caught in the toils.
go to you].
O what a person! What has she done! So
Thus she wrote, and His Highness decided to tenderly the late Prince spoke to her! She felt
come as a private person. regret and her mind was not tranquil. Just then
the page came. Awaited a letter, but there was
It was still daylight, and he secretly called his
none. It disappointed her; how much in love!
servant Ukon-no-zo, who had usually been the
When the page returned, a letter was given.
medium by which the letters had reached the
Prince, and said, “I am going somewhere.” The The letter:
man understood and made preparations. Were my heart permitted even to feel the pain of
His Highness came in an humble palanquin waiting!
It may be to wait is lesser pain—
and made his page announce him. It was embar- To-night—not even to wait for—
rassing. She did not know what to do; she could
not pretend to be absent after having written him The Prince read it, and felt deep pity, yet there
an answer that very day. It seemed too heartless must be reserve [in going out at night]. His affec-
to make him go back at once without entering. tion for his Princess is unusually light, but he may
Thinking, “I will only talk to him,” she placed a be thinking it would seem odd to leave home
cushion by the west door on the veranda, and every night. Perhaps he will reserve himself until
invited the Prince there. Was it because he was so the mourning for the late Prince is over; it is a
much admired by the world that he seemed to sign that his love is not deep. An answer came
her unusually fascinating? But this only increased after nightfall.
her caution. While they were talking the moon Had she said she was waiting for me with all her
shone out and it became uncomfortably bright. heart,
Without rest towards the house of my beloved
He: “As I have been out of society and living Should I have been impelled!
in the shade, I am not used to such a bright place
as this”—It was too embarrassing!—“Let me come When I think how lightly you may regard me!
in where you are sitting; I will not be rude as oth- Her answer:
ers are. You are not one to receive me often, are
Why should I think lightly of you?
you?” “No indeed! What a strange idea! Only to-
night we shall talk together I think; never again!” I am a drop of dew
Thus lightly talking, the night advanced—“Shall Hanging from a leaf
we spend the night in this way?” he asked: Yet I am not unrestful
For on this branch I seem to have existed
The night passes, From before the birth of the world.
We dream no faintest dream—
What shall remain to me of this summer night? Please think of me as like the unstable dew which
cannot even remain unless the leaf supports it.
She:
Thinking of the world
His Highness received this letter. He wanted
Sleeves wet with tears are my bed-fellows. to come, but days passed without realizing his
Calmly to dream sweet dreams— wish. On the moon-hidden day [last day of
There is no night for that. month] she wrote:
He: “I am not a person who can leave my If to-day passes
house easily. You may think me rude, but my feel- Your muffled voice of April, O cuckoo
ing for you grows ardent.” And he crept into the When can I hear?
room. Felt horribly embarrassed, but conversed She sent this poem, but as the Prince had
together and at daybreak he returned. many callers it could only reach him the next
Next day’s letter: morning. His answer:
In what way are you thinking about me? I feel The cuckoo’s song in spring is full of pain.
anxiety— Listen and you will hear his song of summer
Full-throated from to-day.
To you it may be a commonplace to speak of love,
But my feeling this morning— And so he came at last, avoiding public atten-
To nothing can it be compared! tion. The lady was preparing herself for temple-
going, and in the act of religious purification. They always took the greatest care
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES Thinking that the rare visits of the Prince betrayed Not to let anyone detect
Anything that might be suspect.
his indifference, and supposing that he had come And it was easy enough to hide:
only to show that he was not without sympathy, Their houses were almost side by side,
she continued the night absorbed in religious With nothing between the two at all
services, talking little with him. Except a single high stone wall.
The baron’s wife had only to go
In the morning the Prince said: “I have passed And stand beside her bedroom window
an extraordinary night”— Whenever she wished to see her friend.
They would talk for hours on end
New is such feeling for me Across the wall; often they threw
We have been near, Presents to one another too.
Yet the night passed and our souls have not met. They were much happier than before
And he added, “I am wretched.” And would have asked for nothing more—
But lovers can’t be satisfied
She could feel his distress and was sorry for When love’s true pleasure is denied.
him; and said: The lady was watched too carefully
As soon as her friend was known to be
With endless sorrow my heart is weighted At home. But still they had the delight1
And night after night is passed Of seeing each other day or night
Even without meeting of the eyelids. And talking to their hearts’ content.
The strictest guard could not prevent
For me this is not new. The lady from looking out her window;
What she saw there, no one could know.
Nothing came to interfere
MARIE DE FRANCE (POEM DATE With their true love, until one year,
In the season when the summer grows
C. 12TH CENTURY) Green in all the woods and meadows,
SOURCE: Marie de France. “The Nightingale.” In The When birds to show their pleasure cling
Honeysuckle and the Hazel Tree: Medieval Stories of Men To flower tops and sweetly sing;
and Women, translated by Patricia Terry. Berkeley: Then those who were in love before
University of California Press, 1995. Do, in love’s service, even more.
Below is a translated reprint of Marie de France’s twelfth- The knight, in truth, was all intent
century lai titled “The Nightingale.” On love; the messages he sent
Across the wall had such replies
The story I shall tell today From his lady’s lips and from her eyes,
Was taken from a Breton lai He knew that she felt just the same.
Called Laüstic in Brittany, Now she very often came
Which in proper French would be To her window, lighted by the moon,
Rossignol. They’d call the tale Leaving her husband’s side as soon
In English lands The Nightingale. As she knew that he was fast asleep.
Wrapped in a cloak, she went to keep
There was near Saint Malo a town Watch with her lover, sure that he
Of some importance and renown.
Would be waiting for her faithfully.
Two barons, who could well afford
To see each other was, despite
Houses suited to a lord,
Their endless longing, great delight.
Gave the city its good name
She went so often and remained
By their benevolence and fame.
So long, her husband soon complained,
Only one of them had married.
Insisting that she must reply
His wife was beautiful indeed,
To where she went at night and why.
And courteous as she was fair:
“I’ll tell you, my lord,” the lady answered;
A lady who was well aware
Of all that custom and rank required. “Anyone who has ever heard
The younger knight was much admired, The nightingale singing will admit
Being, among his peers, foremost No joy on earth compares with it.
In valor, and a gracious host. That’s why I’ve been standing there.
He never refused a tournament, When the sweet music fills the air,
And what he owned he gladly spent. I’m so delighted, I must arise;
He loved his neighbor’s wife. She knew I can’t sleep, or even close my eyes.”
That all she heard of him was true, The baron only answered her
And so she was inclined to be With a malicious, raging laughter.
Persuaded when she heard his plea. He wrought a plan that could not fail
Soon she had yielded all her heart, To overcome the nightingale.
Because of his merit and, in part, The household servants all were set
Because he lived not far away. To making traps of cord or net;
Fearful that others might betray Then, throughout the orchard, these
The love that they had come to share, Were fixed to hazel and chestnut trees,
And all the branches rimmed with glue was at home, but it seems more logical to assume that
So that the bird could not slip through. cil refers to the lover when he was at home, that is,
It was not long before they brought not at tournaments.
The nightingale; it had been caught
2. Line 138 The cloth was tut escrit, which could mean
Alive. The baron, well content, either that it was covered with the gold embroidery or
Took the bird to his wife’s apartment. that the message was written or depicted on it. In any
“Where are you, lady? Come talk to me!” case, there was an oral message as well, conveyed by
He cried. ““I’ve something for you to see! the messenger.
Look! Here is the bird whose song
Has kept you from your sleep so long.
Your nights will be more peaceful when
He can’t awaken you again!” HELOISE (LETTER DATE C.
She heard with sorrow and with dread 1163/64)
Everything her husband said, SOURCE: Heloise. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise,
Then asked him for the bird, and he translated by Betty Radice. Hammondsworth, England:
Killed it out of cruelty; Penguin Books, 1974.
Vile as he was, for spite, he wrung
Its neck with his two hands and flung In the following excerpts from her letters to Pierre Abelard,
The body at his wife. The red the twelfth-century nun Heloise (d. 1163/64) proclaims
Drops of blood ran down and spread her love for the man who had seduced and secretly mar-
ried her—a crime for which he was subsequently cas-
Over the bodice of her dress.
trated.
He left her alone with her distress.
Weeping, she held the bird and thought
God is my witness that if Augustus, Emperor
With bitter rage of those who brought
The nightingale to death, betrayed of the whole world, thought fit to honour me with
By all the hidden traps they laid. marriage and conferred all the earth on me to pos-
“Alas!” she cried, “They have destroyed sess for ever, it would be dearer and more honour-
The one great pleasure I enjoyed. able to me to be called not his Empress but your
Now I can no longer go
whore.
To see my love outside my window
At night, the way I used to do! For a man’s worth does not depend on his
One thing certainly is true: wealth or power; these depend on fortune, but
He’ll believe I no longer care.
worth on his merits. And a woman should realize
I’ll send the nightingale over there,
And a message that will make it clear that if she marries a rich man more readily than a
Why it is that I don’t appear.” poor one, and desires her husband more for his
She found a piece of samite, gold- possessions than for herself, she is offering herself
Embroidered, large enough to fold for sale.
Around the body of the bird;
. . . . .
There was room for not another word.2
Then she called one in her service But if I lose you what is left for me to hope
Whom she could entrust with this, for? What reason for continuing on life’s pilgrim-
And told him exactly what to say
age, for which I have no support but you, and
When he brought it to the chevalier.
Her lover came to understand none in you save the knowledge that you are
Everything, just as she planned. alive, now that I am forbidden all other pleasures
The servant carried the little bird; in you and denied even the joy of your presence
And soon enough the knight had heard which from time to time could restore me to
All that he so grieved to know.
myself?
His courteous answer was not slow.
He ordered made a little case, . . . . .
Not of iron or any base For a long time my pretense deceived you, as
Metal but of fine gold, embossed
it did many, so that you mistook hypocrisy for
With jewels—he did not count the cost.
The cover was not too long or wide. piety; and therefore you commend yourself to my
He placed the nightingale inside prayers and ask me what I expect from you. I beg
And had the casket sealed with care; you, do not feel so sure of me that you cease to
He carried it with him everywhere. help me by your own prayers. Do not suppose me
Stories like this can’t be controlled, healthy and so withdraw the grace of your heal-
And it was very promptly told.
ing. Do not believe I want for nothing and delay
Breton poets made of the tale
A lai they called The Nightingale. helping me in the hour of my need. Do not think
me strong, lest I fall before you can sustain
me. . . .
Notes
1. Lines 49-51 Some have interpreted this passage to I do not want you to exhort me to virtue and
mean that the lady was watched when her husband summon me to the fight, saying, “Power comes to
its full strength in weakness” and “He cannot win things, He used to say: “Open the eye of your
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES a crown unless he has kept the rules.” I do not intellect, and gaze into Me, and you shall see the
seek a crown of victory; it is sufficient for me to beauty of My rational creature. And look at those
avoid danger, and this is safer than engaging in creatures who, among the beauties which I have
war. In whatever corner of heaven God shall place given to the soul, creating her in My image and
me, I shall be satisfied. No one will envy another similitude, are clothed with the nuptial garment
there, and what each one has will suffice. (that is, the garment of love), adorned with many
virtues, by which they are united with Me through
love. And yet I tell you, if you should ask Me, who
CATHERINE OF SIENA (ESSAY these are, I should reply” (said the sweet and
DATE 1370) amorous Word of God) “they are another Myself,
SOURCE: Catherine of Siena. The Dialogue of the inasmuch as they have lost and denied their own
Seraphic Virgin Catherine of Siena, translated by Algar will, and are clothed with Mine, are united to
Thorold. Westminster, Md.: The Newman Bookshop, Mine, are conformed to Mine.” It is therefore true,
1943.
indeed, that the soul unites herself with God by
In the following excerpted translation of Catherine of Sie- the affection of love.
na’s 1370 Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin, originally
published in 1907, Catherine describes the sufferings and So, that soul, wishing to know and follow the
ecstasies of the soul on its path toward blissful union truth more manfully, and lifting her desires first
with God. for herself—for she considered that a soul could
not be of use, whether in doctrine, example, or
How a soul, elevated by desire of the honor of God, prayer, to her neighbor, if she did not first profit
and of the salvation of her neighbors, exercising herself herself, that is, if she did not acquire virtue in
in humble prayer, after she had seen the union of the herself—addressed four requests to the Supreme
and Eternal Father. The first was for herself; the
soul, through love, with God, asked of God four re-
second for the reformation of the Holy Church;
quests. the third a general prayer for the whole world,
The soul, who is lifted by a very great and and in particular for the peace of Christians who
rebel, with much lewdness and persecution,
yearning desire for the honor of God and the against the Holy Church; in the fourth and last,
salvation of souls, begins by exercising herself, for she besought the Divine Providence to provide for
a certain space of time, in the ordinary virtues, things in general, and in particular, for a certain
remaining in the cell of self-knowledge, in order case with which she was concerned.
to know better the goodness of God towards her.
How the desire of this soul grew when God showed
This she does because knowledge must precede
her the neediness of the world.
love, and only when she has attained love, can
she strive to follow and to clothe herself with the This desire was great and continuous, but grew
truth. But, in no way, does the creature receive much more, when the First Truth showed her the
such a taste of the truth, or so brilliant a light neediness of the world, and in what a tempest of
therefrom, as by means of humble and continu- offense against God it lay. And she had understood
ous prayer, founded on knowledge of herself and this the better from a letter, which she had
of God; because prayer, exercising her in the above received from the spiritual Father of her soul, in
way, unites with God the soul that follows the which he explained to her the penalties and
footprints of Christ Crucified, and thus, by desire intolerable dolor caused by offenses against God,
and affection, and union of love, makes her and the loss of souls, and the persecutions of Holy
another Himself. Christ would seem to have Church.
meant this, when He said: To him who will love Me All this lighted the fire of her holy desire with grief
and will observe My commandment, will I manifest for the offenses, and with the joy of the lively
Myself; and he shall be one thing with Me and I with hope, with which she waited for God to provide
him. In several places we find similar words, by against such great evils. And, since the soul seems,
in such communion, sweetly to bind herself fast
which we can see that it is, indeed, through the
within herself and with God, and knows better
effect of love, that the soul becomes another His truth, inasmuch as the soul is then in God,
Himself. That this may be seen more clearly, I will and God in the soul, as the fish is in the sea, and
mention what I remember having heard from a the sea in the fish, she desired the arrival of the
handmaid of God, namely, that, when she was morning (for the morrow was a feast of Mary) in
order to hear Mass. And, when the morning came,
lifted up in prayer, with great elevation of mind,
and the hour of the Mass, she sought with anxious
God was not wont to conceal, from the eye of her desire her accustomed place; and, with a great
intellect, the love which He had for His servants, knowledge of herself, being ashamed of her own
but rather to manifest it; and, that among other imperfection, appearing to herself to be the cause
of all the evil that was happening throughout the
world, conceiving a hatred and displeasure against
herself, and a feeling of holy justice, with which
knowledge, hatred, and justice, she purified the
stains which seemed to her to cover her guilty ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
soul, she said: “O Eternal Father, I accuse myself
before You, in order that You may punish me for
my sins in this finite life, and, inasmuch as my ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA (1347-1380)
sins are the cause of the sufferings which my Caterina Benincasa was born in Siena, Italy,
neighbor must endure, I implore You, in Your in 1347, and had her first vision of Christ
kindness, to punish them in my person.”
smiling at her at the age of six or seven. At
How finite works are not sufficient for punish- age fifteen, she began to actively reject the
ment or recompense without the perpetual affection of world and engage in strict self-denial that
love. included little sleep, almost no food or water,
Then, the Eternal Truth seized and drew more binding her hips with an iron chain, and daily
strongly to Himself her desire, doing as He did in self-flagellation. Within a year, she joined the
the Old Testament, for when the sacrifice was of- Dominican order in the congregation of the
fered to God, a fire descended and drew to Him Sisters of Penance, and became well-known
the sacrifice that was acceptable to Him; so did as a religious mystic and selfless caregiver to
the sweet Truth to that soul, in sending down the Siena’s poor and sick. Her influence soon
fire of the clemency of the Holy Spirit, seizing the extended from caretaking to political action
sacrifice of desire that she made of herself, saying: in support of the church, and she dictated
“Do you not know, dear daughter, that all the suf- letters to various political and church officials.
ferings, which the soul endures, or can endure, in Between 1377 and 1378 Catherine com-
this life, are insufficient to punish one smallest posed her well-known mystical work, which
fault, because the offense, being done to Me, who she simply called her “Book” but which has
am the Infinite Good, calls for an infinite satisfac- come to be known as Il dialogo della Divina
tion? However, I wish that you should know, that Provvidenza (“dialogue of Divine Providence,”
not all the pains that are given to men in this life or The Dialogue). In this work, she articulated
are given as punishments, but as corrections, in more fully the mystical theology of love and
order to chastise a son when he offends; though it service that was evident in her letters.
is true that both the guilt and the penalty can be When her letters and prayers failed to
expiated by the desire of the soul, that is, by true resolve the Great Schism of the Catholic
contrition, not through the finite pain endured, church (1378-1415), Catherine starved her-
but through the infinite desire; because God, who self to death, hoping that her sacrifice would
is infinite, wishes for infinite love and infinite save the church. She died on April 29, 1380.
grief. Infinite grief I wish from My creature in two In 1395, Catherine’s confessor, Raymond of
ways: in one way, through her sorrow for her own Capua, completed his biography of Cathe-
sins, which she has committed against Me her rine, Legenda major (The Life of Catherine of
Creator; in the other way, through her sorrow for Siena, 1960), which was widely read and
the sins which she sees her neighbors commit copied by others. In 1461, Catherine was
against Me. Of such as these, inasmuch as they declared a saint by Pope Pius II, and she is
have infinite desire, that is, are joined to Me by an considered, with Saint Francis of Assisi, a
affection of love, and therefore grieve when they patron saint of Italy. In 1970, Pope Paul VI
offend Me, or see Me offended, their every pain, declared Catherine to be a Doctor of the
whether spiritual or corporeal, from wherever it Church. She and Saint Teresa of Avila are the
may come, receives infinite merit, and satisfies for only women who have been granted this
a guilt which deserved an infinite penalty, al- status.
though their works are finite and done in finite
time; but, inasmuch as they possess the virtue of
desire, and sustain their suffering with desire, and
contrition, and infinite displeasure against their
guilt, their pain is held worthy. Paul explained
this when he said: If I had the tongues of angels, and
if I knew the things of the future and gave my body to finite works are not valid, either as punishment or
be burned, and have not love, it would be worth noth- recompense, without the condiment of the affec-
ing to me. The glorious Apostle thus shows that tion of love.”
BIRGITTA OF SWEDEN (ESSAY through the infusion of his Holy Spirit, put into
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES DATE C. 1377) the heart of the pope then guiding the Church
SOURCE: Birgitta of Sweden. “The Fifth Book of another law more acceptable and pleasing to him
Revelations or Book of Questions” and “The Seventh in this matter . . . so that he established a statute
Book of Questions.” In Life and Selected Revelations, in the universal Church that Christian priests,
edited by Marguerite Tjader Harris, translated by Albert
who have so holy and so worthy an office, namely,
Ryle Kezel, pp. 99-156; 157-218. New York: Paulist
Press, 1990. of consecrating this precious Sacrament, should
by no means live in the easily contaminated,
In the following excerpt, originally written in the
fourteenth-century, Saint Birgitta of Sweden relates por- carnal delight of marriage.”
tions of her mystic vision in which Christ and the Virgin
Mary appeared before her and spoke. Christ begins on the
subject of Birgitta’s spiritual conversion, followed by
Mary’s admonition against priests marrying.
“For your heart was as cold toward my love as WOMEN IN THE ANCIENT
steel; and yet, in it there moved a modest spark of WORLD
love for me, namely, when you thought me
worthy of love and honor above all others. But PAUL CARTLEDGE (ESSAY DATE
that heart of yours then fell upon the sulpherous 1981)
mountain when the glory and delight of the world
turned against you and when your husband,
whom you carnally loved beyond all others, was
taken from you by death. . . .
And when at your husband’s death your soul
was greatly shaken with disturbance, then the
spark of my love—which lay, as it were, hidden
and enclosed—began to go forth, for, after consid-
ering the vanity of the world, you abandoned your
whole will to me and and desired me above all
things.”
. . . . .
“O you to whom it has been given to hear and
see spiritually, hear now the things that I want to
reveal to you: namely, concerning that archbishop
who said that if he were pope, he would give leave
for all clerics and priests to contract marriages in
the flesh. He thought and believed that this would
be more acceptable to God than that clerics live
dissolutely, as they now do. For he believed that
through such marriage the greater carnal sins
might be avoided; and even though he did not
rightly understand God’s will in this matter,
nonetheless that same archbishop was still a friend
of God.
But now I will tell you God’s will in this mat-
ter; for I gave birth to God himself. . . .
For after he [Christ] instituted in the world
this new sacrament of the eucharist and ascended
into heaven, the ancient law was then still kept:
namely, that Christian priests lived in carnal
matrimony. And, nonetheless, many of them were
still friends of God because they believed with
simple purity that this was pleasing to God. . . .
After those earlier Christian priests had ob-
served these practices for a time, God himself,
Western political philosophy first flourished
in Athens, in the fourth century B.C.; it is the
names of Plato and Aristotle that are most often
associated with these origins. Their concern with
arrangements for a just and stable state involved
more than constitutional organization, however.
Questions regarding the nature of virtue and the
good life were meshed with broader inquiries
regarding the status of knowledge; birth and
death; the order of the universe. Such fundamen-
tal questions involved speculations about wom-
an’s place in the design of Being and her role in
the city-state (polis). The answers given would
exert a strong influence on more than two millen-
nia of subsequent political theory, offering both
assumptions and explicit arguments to its exposi-
tors. Over and again we will find the debate
between Plato and Aristotle regarding women’s
nature and role, echoing across the centuries. For
their pronouncements on the subject have re-
mained influential well beyond the function they
actually ascribed to women in the well-ordered
state. Powerful associations between the female
and certain qualities viewed as antithetical to
politics, even to civilization itself, have also been
inherited from these early examples of political
thought. Yet Plato and Aristotle were by no means
the first to make such allusions. They already
wrote within a cultural tradition of misogyny and
a social context of women’s subjugation. In order
to understand the premises underlying their refer-
ences to woman, it is first necessary, therefore, to
look back to the origins of Greek civilization itself.
It is tempting to think that such an excursion
into the past might answer that ubiquitous ques-
tion: how and why did women’s oppression
begin? The earliest records of Greek life cannot,
however, resolve this conundrum; at best they
yield a glimpse of the late Bronze Age, when a
sexual division of labour and a general pattern of
male dominance were already well established.
What they do offer us are the earliest literary
presentations of women in the West and an op-
portunity to speculate on the reasons for the
generally unfavourable nature of these.
Peoples speaking an early form of Greek began
to infiltrate the Attic and Peloponnesian region
DIANA H. COOLE (ESSAY DATE early in the second millennium B.C. Here they
1988) encountered a Near Eastern culture, some of
SOURCE: Coole, Diana H. “The Origin of Western whose elements became integrated into their own.
Thought and the Birth of Misogyny.” In Women in The Greek-speaking Dorians probably arrived as a
Political Theory: From Ancient Misogyny to Contemporary second wave around 1200 B.C., shortly before the
Feminism, pp. 10-28. Brighton, Sussex: Wheatsheaf
Books, 1988. Trojan War. It was about this time that the
Mycenean-Minoan civilization that preceded Iron
In the following excerpt, Coole probes the sources of
Western misogyny in the philosophy, literature, and social Age Hellenic Greece, mysteriously disappeared.
structure of classical Greece. We know very little about this earlier Bronze Age
culture apart from the obscure Linear B Tablets. station. The role of the hero is defence of home-
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES These already record women spinning, weaving, land and household.5 There is no role women can
grinding corn, reaping, fetching water and draw- perform that will allow them to excel in this man-
ing baths.1 There are great kings who rule yet the ner, and the term ‘hero’ has no feminine form.6
priests apparently worship the Great Mother. Nevertheless, women’s social position does allot
Subsequently, the art of writing was lost and the them a function and thus an opportunity to
first Greek literature appears with the poems of display excellence of a different kind. The unity of
Homer and Hesiod, probably composed around the household depends upon the loyalty of its
the eighth century B.C.. These were constructed members and so the key virtue of the women is
from myths and histories passed verbally across fidelity.7 It is Helen’s infidelity that starts the
the generations of the Dark Age and were facili- Trojan War to begin with, while Agamemnon’s
tated by the introduction of the alphabet. faithless wife Clytemnestra brings political chaos
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey tell of the Trojan when she takes a new lover. In stark contrast, there
War and its aftermath, ostensibly depicting some- is the chaste and honourable Penelope, who
thing of the older twelfth-century culture, al- maintains Odysseus’ kingdom for him during his
though scholars now locate the social structures ten years of wandering. While it is true that fidel-
described more in the tenth and ninth centuries.2 ity is also demanded of men, it does not in their
Although most commentators find little trace of case have a sexual implication: the husbands are
misogyny in Homer,3 some of the images that hardly monogamous.
would later degrade women were already present. Homer’s leading women are powerful agents
A misogynous approach is more readily discern- who use intelligence and cunning to further their
ible in the work of Hesiod, who recorded events ends; they are never passive figures in this virile
of daily life in Archaic Greece in his Works and world. If Penelope cannot become queen in her
Days and offered a mythical account of cosmic own right but must choose a new husband who
evolution in his Theogony. Over the next three will replace the missing Odysseus as king, and if
centuries, a clear picture of woman’s lesser status her son Telemachus is able to silence her and bid
and qualities would emerge via equivalent and her depart to engage in womanly tasks during the
interlocking accounts offered in myth, drama, sci- proceedings, she is nevertheless successful in
ence and philosophy. Although these early works deflecting her suitors and in sustaining a public
were not political tracts, then, they did articulate presence that would be denied to women of a later
those ideas pertaining to the sexes that later politi- age. And although Penelope and Helen are fre-
cal writers would adopt. quently to be found engaged in domestic pursuits
Homer’s depiction of women, in an age he as- like weaving, no denigration is applied by Homer
sociated with the Heroic past, would be of lasting to such activities.
significance since his poems were still read and Nevertheless, the tapestry that underlies the
recited in Plato’s day as an authentic narrative of main characters of the Homeric epics tells a rather
Greek history, as well as a source of moral exhorta- different tale of women: one where they are
tion. While the chief females of the Iliad and Odys- viewed merely as pieces of movable property, to
sey appear as strong characters and avoid the sort be allocated as prizes of war like other booty. The
of denigration women would receive in subse- first book of the Iliad is illustrative here. Agamem-
quent literature, their subordinate role in the non has been awarded Khryseis, a beautiful cap-
household (oikos) remains unquestioned. Indeed, tive, by the army. At first he refuses to return her
it was the arrangement presented here that Engels to her father, swearing he will have her back in
would later describe as a manifestation of the new Argos ‘working my loom and visiting my bed’.8
relations imposed after the ‘world-historical defeat He rates her higher than his wife in beauty,
of the female sex’.4 womanhood, mind and skill. Learning that Apollo
The heroes of the Homeric epics are the kings has put a curse on the Greek army while the girl is
who went to fight Sparta in the Trojan Wars, kept captive, however, Agamemnon agrees to send
among whom attention focuses on Odysseus and her home provided the army supplies him with
Agamemnon. The heroic virtues they display are an equivalent prize. This provokes a violent quar-
manly qualities: courage, physical strength, brav- rel with Achilles, also recipient of a lovely female
ery, prowess. For this was an age when status and captive, whom Agamemnon now seizes. Achilles
duty were defined by one’s position in the social laments that she is ‘my prize, given by the army’9
structure and virtue was manifested by perform- and persuades his mother to take his case to Zeus.
ing with excellence the virtues ascribed to a given But Zeus is also having woman trouble: he agrees
to help but fears the wrath of his wife Hera, who between gods and goddesses, it drags in its train a
‘will be at me all day long. Even as matters stand whole series of related oppositions, since the no-
she never rests from badgering me before the tions of male and female already resonate with a
gods’. We thus find women depicted in unflatter- powerful symbolism. Reconciliation is required,
ing terms and ones with which they already seem but in successful resolutions it is invariably the
to be stereotyped: the beautiful slave/concubine, male principle which triumphs and this result is
unwitting cause of rage and jealousy among men; implied to be necessary if progress is to occur. One
the nagging and scheming wife (Hera, account of such a process can be found in Hesiod’s
Clytemnestra) versus her pure and patient antith- Theogony.
esis (Penelope).
The Theogony became the standard Greek ac-
The background against which these roles count of creation, although it was composed in a
were performed was one where society and state tradition of theogonies (of which Genesis is
had not yet clearly emerged from kinship struc- another example) and probably owed much to
tures. The household was the unit for the satisfac- Near Eastern models.1 1 It tells of the evolution of
tion of material needs but also the locus of ethical the gods and of a cosmos personified in deities.
norms and values, obligations and responsibili- Thus Hesiod begins with the Earth, who is mother
ties, personal and religious relations. When crimes of all and gives birth parthenogenetically to Sea
were committed, it was the family which pursued and Sky. She needs no sexual partner; she is the
retribution. In so far as public life existed, its main first and supreme matriarch. However, she subse-
concern was with defence, and its authority rela- quently mates with Sky, thereby initiating the line
tions were understood by analogy with those of of the gods. In the fourth generation the Olympi-
kinship roles. ans, headed by the patriarchal Zeus, appear. While
The world of which Homer wrote was there- early male gods had played only a hazy role
fore one where social relations still centred on oi- compared with the more significant mothers, it is
kos (household) rather than polis (city-state) and they who come to the fore once Zeus claims as-
where the oikos was identified with property rather cendency. The divine hierarchy now moves from
than with affective bonds. The household did not female to male dominance and also, with the pass-
refer simply to the family but included land, ing of power from Mother Earth to Sky God, it
goods, slaves, wives, relatives’ wives and children shifts from material to non-material hegemony.1 2
all under the patriarchal authority of the male Zeus is himself equated with the law as opposed
head. Throughout archaic and classical Greece, to an original chaos. The poem thus tells how the
emotional bonds between husband and wife earth goddesses, associated with fertility cults and
would remain weak. Women functioned predomi- nature, were defeated by the Olympian patriarchs,
nantly as bearers of children and servicers of the who represent reason, order and wisdom. It is an
household, and their performance was evaluated account that probably bears some relation to the
accordingly.1 0 When their husbands took female actual replacement of one religion by another.
slaves as sexual partners, no jealousy was expected The Theogony is of symbolic interest vis-à-vis
(although Clytemnestra clearly fails to rise to the its attitudes toward the female in two additional
occasion when she kills Cassandra, whom Ag- ways: the generation of woman and generation
amemnon brings back from the war as his per se. First, although its subject is divine creation,
concubine). it also explains how woman appeared.1 3 Angry at
Gods and goddesses perform a significant role Prometheus for stealing the secret of fire, Zeus
in the Homeric poems. Indeed, myth figured contrives an ‘evil’ for all men that will destroy
strongly in Greek culture as a whole and the line their sojourn in peace and plenty: he bids his co-
between historical and mythic events or actors is deities create a ‘modest’ maiden out of clay and
not drawn with any clarity. The function of such proceeds to parade her for all to see:
myths remains controversial: whether they sym-
Immortal gods and mortal men / were amazed
bolize real historical events or merely justify a when they saw this tempting snare / from which
status quo whose origins are unknown; whether men cannot escape. From her comes the fair sex; /
they are the playing out of oppositions or emo- yes, wicked womenfolk are her descendants. /
tions underlying all cultures or a primitive attempt They live among mortal men as a nagging burden
/ and are no good sharers of abject want, but only
to understand and systematize the world. What-
of wealth. / Men are like swarms of bees clinging
ever the answer, it is certain that the male-female to cave roofs / to feed drones that contribute only
antithesis provides a central theme for Greek to malicious deeds; / the bees themselves all day
mythology. And when the conflict is played out long until sundow / are busy carrying and storing
the white wax, but the drones stay inside in their On a more mundane level, Hesiod’s Works and
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES roofed hives and cram their bellies full of what Days, which gives counsel to tillers of the soil, is
others harvest. / So, too, Zeus who roars on high
sprinkled with misogynous advice. Thus: ‘you
made woman / to be an evil for mortal men, help-
mates in deed of harshness.1 4 trust a thief when you trust a woman’;1 8 ‘Five
years past puberty makes a woman a suitable
A yet nastier version of this story of Pandora’s bride. Marry a virgin so you can teach her right
creation is told by Hesiod in his Works and Days. from wrong’;1 9 ‘Nothing is better for a man than a
Here the various divinities teach woman her work good wife, and no horror matches a bad one’.2 0
(‘intricate weaving’). They give her ‘stinging desire Four major themes pertaining to the female
and limb-gnawing passion’, ‘the mind of a bitch’ thus appear in Hesiod’s poems: the overthrow of
and a ‘thievish nature’. She is made full of ‘lies’ the old fertility goddesses by the rational, patriar-
and ‘coaxing words’. She is a ‘scourge to toiling chal Olympian deities; the explanation of men’s
men’; with her arrival, ‘toilsome hardship’ and woes as a function of woman’s creation; the myth
‘painful illness’ appear. For ‘the woman with her of male generation and the more prosaic anec-
hands removed the lid of the jar and scattered its dotes concerning women’s generally amoral and
contents, bringing grief and cares to men’.1 5 It is unpleasant nature. Such themes reappear in
woman, then, who brings a whole series of misfor- subsequent Greek literature; it is instructive to
tunes into the world and whose very existence is look at some of the later dramatic presentations of
but the infliction of punishment. In the Theogony, the conflict between male and female principles.
Hesiod says that even he who marries a woman of
sound and prudent mind, will spend his life try- Drama flourished in classical Athens during
ing to balance the good and bad in her. But he the fifth century B.C. The three major playwrights,
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, all produced
does acknowledge a wife’s benefits: she will look
plays which enacted conflicts related to the male-
after a man in his old age and give him descen-
female opposition. In the tradition of the
dants to inherit his property, so her malice must
Theogony, the male order is associated with reason
be suffered.1 6
and the polis; with political and legal relations,
Since the account suggests that men did justice, progress and good organization. The
originally live happily without women, it seems female is correspondingly aligned with the old
that their birth must have been somehow ac- world of kinship bonds and family honour; with a
complished without female assistance. Such a pos- certain madness that threatens the impersonal
sibility is made more explicit in a further passage relations of justice, with chaos and prejudice. Thus
in the Theogony, where Hesiod describes the birth in Sophocles’ Antigone, the heroine opposes the
of the goddess Athena. Thus a second level of rational laws of Creon’s polis in favour of the
significance relates to Hesiod’s account of genera- traditional duties owed to blood relatives. The
tion itself. consequences are tragic. In Euripides’ Bacchae,
Prior to Zeus’ rule, there had been a pattern of failure to reconcile male and female elements ends
depositions of male rulers by mothers and sons in in disequilibrium and disaster when the irrational
alliance. Zeus is warned that the pregnant Metis, forces associated with the women are left to run
goddess of wisdom, will bear him a son and repeat their course.2 1 But it is Aeschylus’ Oresteia which
the syndrome. So he swallows her. Eventually, he offers the most resonant account of sexual contra-
gives birth, out of his skull, to a fully-armed Ath- diction across a variety of levels.
ena.1 7 A number of benefits accrue to this solu- The Oresteia is a trilogy whose component
tion. Zeus ends threats to his sovereignty by giv- parts—Agamemnon, The Choephorae and The Eu-
ing birth to a female. She has no mother to ally menides—tell a continuous story. This draws on
with and is also sufficiently androgynous both to Homer’s Odyssey for its narrative, but its theology
identify with him and to remain impotent. By is taken from Hesiod. When Clytemnestra murders
swallowing Metis he appropriates wisdom, render- Agamemnon and takes a new lover, a series of
ing it a male prerogative. And finally, the myth tragic consequences ensues. Orestes slays his
achieves a further erosion of female power by mother to avenge his father and thereby re-
reversing the natural order of generation. It is now establishes male authority. But he is in turn
the male who gives birth to the female and pursued by the female Erinyes, who seek retribu-
reproductive capacity is transferred from womb to tion on his mother’s behalf, for the Erinyes are be-
head, suggesting that the male version is of a ings from the Underworld who punish murderers
superior kind, rooted in reason rather than in the of kin. Orestes turns to Apollo for help, and the
dark recesses of the flesh. god purifies him, insisting that Orestes’ crime is a
justifiable one, whereupon conflict erupts between subjugation of the female. Freud and Engels would
the female goddesses and the male Apollo. Crucial both see in these events a dramatization of the
to its outcome is the question of whether matri- overthrow of matriarchy.2 6
cide or homicide is the greater crime and therefore There is yet a further dimension to this defeat,
whether blood-bond or bed-bond, kinship or legal however. The female’s power emanates from her
relations, mother-right or father-right, takes ability to create new life, and this must be defused
precedence. Eventually, Orestes flees to Athens, if male sovereignty and the rationality associated
where Athena herself agrees to mediate. She refers with it, are to be ensured. Thus when the Erinyes
the conflict to a tribunal over which she presides. ask Apollo how he dares petition for Orestes’
The Erinyes prosecute, Apollo is Orestes’ advocate; acquittal, given that he has spilt his mother’s
the tribunal votes inconclusively; Athena inter- blood (‘How else did she nourish you beneath her
venes in support of Orestes and the latter wins his girdle, murderer?’ they ask Orestes. ‘Do you
case. disown your mother’s blood?’2 7 ), the god replies
What does this victory symbolize? It is not that although she might have nourished the
insignificant that Apollo is the son of Zeus, who is embryo, the mother is not strictly a parent:
identified with law and order. Nor is it incidental She who is called the child’s mother is not its
that it is a human court that is engaged in judicial begetter, but the nurse of the newly sown concep-
procedures and judges the crime, for it represents tion. The begetter is the male, and she is a stranger
for a stranger preserves the offspring2 8
the polis and impersonal justice. The outcome
means that marital relations take precedence over As proof he cites the birth of his sister: ‘There
those of kinship, and this suggests both control can be a father without a mother; near at hand is
over women’s sexuality by the male and the the witness, the child of Olympian Zeus’. Athena
dominance of legal over familial bonds. Further- was ‘not nurtured in the darkness of the womb,
more, it is appropriate that the androgynous Ath- but is such an offspring as no goddess might
ena should be the one to tip the tied vote in Or- bear’.2 9 The idea of male generation that appears
estes’ favour: she argues that she is unable to in The Eumenides evokes the mythic account given
sympathize with a mother’s position, lacking one previously by Hesiod.
herself. But most important of all, the outcome is
a victory for the new order over the old, since the The belief that the male plays at least the more
defeated Erinyes belonged to the ancient pre- important role in reproduction, was to remain a
Olympian divinities and were regarded as defend- popular one throughout Greek thought. It ap-
ers of the natural order of things. Daughters of peared in a rather different form, for example, in
the Night, they represent primitive incarnations Plato’s Symposium. Here, not only is spiritual love,
of the female, bloodsucking and oozing poison of which men alone are held to be capable, praised
from every orifice. Thus Clytemnestra exhorts as superior to carnal pleasure, but its outcome is
them: ‘waft your bloody breath upon him! Dry also claimed a superior progeny:
him up with its vapour, your womb’s fire!’2 2 And Men whose bodies are only creative, betake them-
Apollo refers to them as ‘gray virgins, ancient selves to women and beget children—this is the
maidens, with whom no god or any among men character of their love; their offspring, as they
nor any beast has intercourse’.2 3 Yet their associa- hope, will preserve their memory and give them
the blessedness and immortality which they desire
tion with the female, with kinship bonds and
in the future. But creative souls—for there are men
Mother Earth, gives the Erinyes power over fertil- who are more creative in their souls than in their
ity, and this is not something that can be banished bodies—conceive that which is proper for the soul
from the new patriarchal order. Only its control is to conceive or retain. And what are these concep-
called for. Accordingly, the Erinyes are placated tions?—wisdom and virtue in general.3 0
with the offer of a special cult in Athens. If they
In so far as the purpose of reproduction is im-
promise to refrain from causing ‘all things that
mortality, the latter are superior products. The
bear fruit not to prosper’,2 4 they are promised
Republic will manage . . . even to eliminate
‘sacrifice in thanks for children and the accom-
women’s special relationship with the generation
plishment of marriage’.2 5 Their bargain is homolo-
of material beings.
gous with the judgement that marital relations
have priority over blood bonds, in so far as It was in the new scientific theories, however,
women’s ancient powers of fertility are retained that the notion of a more important male contri-
but controlled within the restraints of a patriarchal bution to reproduction was most literally stated.
legal order. Social advance is won only by the Although these theories were based on observa-
tion and deduction, it is difficult to imagine that experience as an analogy, likening the mother to
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES they would have taken the form they did had they the receptacle and the father to the model. The
not arisen within a cultural paradigm already qualities of the former are that ‘it continues to
ascribing inferiority to things female. And they, in receive all things, and never itself takes a perma-
turn, clearly reinforced the equation. They receive nent impress from any of the things that enter it;
their clearest expression in Aristotle’s Generation of it is a kind of neutral plastic material in which
Animals, but this only represents a more sophisti- changing impressions are stamped by the things
cated version of earlier themes. that enter it’.3 8
For Aristotle, the respective and hierarchical Finally, these mythic, dramatic and scientific
functions of the two sexes are evident: ‘the male equations between male and female and related
as possessing the principle of movement and of oppositions, were reinforced in and by Greek
generation, the female as possessing that of philosophy. Already in the sixth century B.C. the
matter’.3 1 There emerges a series of opposed terms Pythagoreans had seen a universe riven by dual-
related to the sexes: soul-body (the ‘physical part, isms. In the table they drew up to classify these,
the body, comes from the female and the soul male-female was aligned with light-dark, good-
from the male’3 2 ); active-passive (she is the one bad, limited-unlimited and so on. Femaleness was
who ‘receives the semen’ but is unable to discharge linked to that which lacked form; with vagueness,
or shape it. Male semen is the ‘active and efficient indeterminacy, irregularity. It was the male prin-
ingredient’ which sets and gives form to, the ciple that brought order and rational organiza-
female residue3 3 ); ability-inability (the colder tion; that gave shape to the indeterminate, in
female body lacks the heat needed to ‘concoct’ or much the same way that Aristotle’s male would
‘act upon’ her own seminal—menstrual—fluid in shape offspring out of the indeterminate female
order to make it fertile: ‘the male and female are fluids, to suggest a correspondence between
distinguished by a certain ability and inability’3 4 ); embryology and epistemology.
form-matter (‘the contribution which the female The question remains how and why a whole
makes to generation is the matter used therein; se- culture evolved such powerful symbolic associa-
men possesses the “principle” of “form”).3 5 These tions with the sexes. Clearly, they do not rest upon
equations are all finally ranked as better-worse, simply functionalist or empirical arguments about
superior-inferior. The male is the norm and the the different physical or emotional capacities
female but an ‘infertile male’; a ‘deformity’ identi- related to a sexual division of labour (although
fied by an ‘inability of a sort’:3 6 they would eventually be used to underpin
And as the proximate motive cause, to which these).3 9 We need to explain why women were
belongs the logos and the form, is better and more seen not merely as different but also as synony-
divine in its nature than the matter, it is better also
mous with a whole host of negative qualities. Our
that the superior one should be separate from the
inferior one. This is why whenever possible and conclusions are important since the equations and
so far as is possible the male is separate from the deprecations traced thus far reappear in Greek
female, since it is something better and more political writing and achieve considerable endur-
divine in that it is the principle of movement for ance within the genre.
generated things, while the female serves as their
matter.3 7 From the beginning women seem to have
been associated with certain natural phenomena,
While the female provides the ‘stranger’ and this is perhaps unsurprising. Their power to
receptacle that nourishes, it is thus the male who create new life was wondered at long before any
imparts life, soul and reason. Such theories, hark- male contribution was recognized. This power
ing back to the mythical belief in the head as the seemed to ally them with the earth and with a
organ of generation, held that seminal fluid nature whose fecundity they shared. The early
originated in the male’s head, flowing down the fertility cults would naturally have been presided
spine and out through the genitals. over by female goddesses. Plato shows himself still
We have already seen how Plato took this idea immersed in the equation when he suggests that
a stage further, claiming that the soul could actu- in conceiving and generating, women imitate the
ally produce a superior creation—virtue, wisdom— earth, such that there is a correspondence between
when unadulterated by carnal imperatives. As far the milk of motherhood and the grain the earth
as real offspring were concerned, however, Plato yields to men.4 0 However, women’s identification
evidently believed in an explanation resembling with the earth also seems to have suggested an al-
that of Aristotle. Discussing the origin of the legiance with dark powers inimical to the mind
universe in the Timaeus, he uses the human (but related to the womb). Most Greek daemons
were born of the earth (chthonic) and were rights of individuals within it; justice meant
female. They threaten their victims with madness. performing the civic role associated with one’s
Thus Aeschylus has the Erinyes chant: station, in order to strengthen the whole. Law
Over our victim / we sing this song, maddening meant an escape from arbitrary or customary
the brain, / carrying away the sense, destroying decrees; an impartial and rational expression of
the mind, / a hymn that comes from the Erinyes, what was objectively right. Against this back-
/ fettering the mind4 1
ground, the oikos could only represent threats of
By linking woman to darkness via the earth, factionlism, partiality, privacy and avarice.
the Greeks associated her with insanity and also Engels would associate the Heroic family form
with death. The latter was in turn identified with with a transition to father-right, engendered by
contamination and women were seen as having the development of new wealth, private property
an affinity with polluting forces, with which they and a desire by husbands to bequeath that prop-
mediated on men’s behalf in religious rituals.4 2 At erty to legitimate sons, which required rigorous
the same time, women’s fertility related them to policing of women’s sexuality.4 4 Certainly, Solon’s
the flesh in a culture that maintained a strict reforms in the sixth century achieved the latter,
mind-body dualism and hierarchy in its thought. while simultaneously freeing individual property
This had important consequences for the theories from clan control.
of knowledge that developed as well as for a politi-
cal thought which equated the good life with the As well as the Marxist account, which anchors
capacity to subordinate body to soul and a virtu- misogyny in the development of private property,
ous existence with contemplation and rational there is a more Hegelian theme implicit in the
discourse. work of many scholars. This suggests that reason
itself could not have emerged in political or
A variety of explanations has been offered for philosophical form, without the suppression of all
the misogyny that accompanied this symbolism. that women had come to represent.4 5 Certainly,
From a political perspective it is suggested that the Greeks themselves seem to have proffered
the historical overthrow of matriarchal religion such a view and it is impossible to conceive
and/or matriarchy itself, was sufficiently recent whether this type of judgement would even be
for the new patriarchal order to yet be on the possible for us, had they not started philosophy
defensive against women’s power.4 3 It is evident off on a course that associated reason with the
from Homer’s account of Heroic Greece that kin- subjection of a flesh identified with woman.
ship bonds had only recently yielded precedence
to the authority of the city-state, and the women Genevieve Lloyd develops this theme when
associated with familial loyalties are still greeted she argues that the Greeks associated femaleness
with suspicion by Plato several centuries later. with that which reason must leave behind: the
vagueness and unboundedness equated with the
City-states first appeared in Greece around the
female were seen as anathema to the clear and
seventh century B.C., bringing with them a decline
ordered thought identified with reason and the
in tribal and familial authority. Civic republics of
male. Although this did not necessarily imply that
a small and intimate nature, they drew no distinc-
women themselves lacked reason, ‘the very nature
tion between society and state, fulfilling equally
of knowledge was implicitly associated with the
both moral and material needs. They aspired to a
extrusion of what was symbolically associated
harmonious existence; to a community wherein
with the feminine’.4 6 With Aristotle the associa-
values and destinies were shared, shaped by the
tion becomes explicit and it is tempting to discern
rational discourse of virtuous citizens who inhab-
it, too, in Plato’s allegory of the cave. For the
ited the public realm. Citizenship was neverthe-
cavernous domicile of the uninitiated has a certain
less extended only to a minority: women, as well
affinity with the darkness/earth/womb metaphors
as slaves and foreign residents, were excluded. It
equated with woman, while the state of enlighten-
brought with it both a sense of membership and a
ment is quite literally that: its protagonists escape
right to participate, in what was perceived as the
into the sunlight of knowledge (light/head/sky/
highest association known to humanity; an as-
male).4 7
sociation which transcended and bestowed mean-
ing upon lesser groupings such as the family. Since A variety of analogous explanations, similarly
the polis defined and facilitated the good life, there equating women with phenomena to be tran-
was no room for a counter-realm of privacy into scended in the name of historical progress, has
which one might retreat. Liberty meant the politi- proliferated. Thus it is claimed that the emotion
cal autonomy of the republic rather than the and sexuality linked with the female were per-
ceived as a threat to the polis; that their closeness new wife’s keep. Divorce was easy for a man
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES to biological rhythms associated them with the provided he returned the dowry, along with his
seasons, with birth and death (transitional pro- bride, to her father. Husbands might also give their
cesses that threatened the desire for permanence, wives to another or fathers might themselves
independence and autonomy); that women decide to terminate a marriage. Thus women
threatened the clear antimonies (like nature/ could be transferred to several households during
culture, barbarian/civilization) so dear to the their lives, engendering suspicions among men
Greek mind.4 8 The homosexual practices of the that their loyalty was suspect.
upper classes are also offered as a reason for During this process, women remained under
widespread misogyny,4 9 although it is difficult the guardianship of the male to whose oikos they
here to disentangle cause from effect. Finally, Si- currently belonged; they were permanent legal
mone de Beauvoir suggests that, among other minors. Although they might inherit property,
things, men might simply have railed against ‘the they could not own it. If her father had no sons,
adversities of married life’.5 0 then the household property went to the daugh-
Perhaps there is some truth in all of these ter, but only as a means of transmission to another
speculations, for as Greek society evolved, so male. For a female heiress, an epikleros, was obliged
religious, sexual, literary, philosophic, scientific to marry her oldest male relative on her father’s
and political attitudes towards women reinforced side so that the property might remain within the
one another until a coherent dialectical unity, family. Such an arrangement must have had an
characterized by misogyny, crystallized. The ques- important economic function in preserving the
tion would then arise as to whether this ideology household property against subdivision.5 1
served some underlying economic purpose, and For the women, one household must have
with this in mind it is salient to look briefly at the been much like another. Whether young girls or
socioeconomic conditions under which Greek married citizens, they were confined together in
women lived. Before doing so, however, it should the women’s quarters, the gynaeceum. They were
be noted that none of the above accounts of not allowed into the inner courtyard lest they be
misogyny suggests a simple desire by men to espied by male relatives; they went out rarely, and
dominate women, although the very fact that the then never unescorted. Family festivals offered
culture described was one devised by men should infrequent opportunities to meet with male kin.
alert us to women’s powerlessness in defining a There was little education for such persons beyond
more positive image of themselves. Women have the learning of skills from older women. These, of
left virtually no record of their own attitudes and course, focused on domestic labours: cooking,
aspirations, apart from the work of a rare poet like cleaning, weaving, childbearing. All of a woman’s
the sixth-century Sappho. This is unsurprising relationships thus revolved around the home, but
since, as we will see below, women in ancient these remained strictly limited. There remains no
Greece, and especially in the Classical Age, when evidence of the sort of relations they might have
the arts flourished, had little opportunity for enjoyed with one another, although the familiar
public expression. stories of women’s love of gossip circulated among
Since it was in classical Athens that political the men.5 2 In fact, however, it was the men who
thought reached its zenith, it is most useful to met for discussion and enjoyed public life. They
concentrate on arrangements here. The position spent little time at home but visited the market,
of women can perhaps be understood best if we the assembly, the gymnasium or the symposium,
think of them merely as functionaries of a state for civic discussion, feasting and drinking. Women
conceived as a simply male institution. Their role were allotted no political responsibilities or
was to produce legitimate sons who would carry privileges; they had no access to the assembly. The
on the family cult and property of the oikos, and only virtue available to Athenian women was soph-
also to provide the polis with new citizens and rosyne, meaning modesty, self-restraint, especially
warriors. They did therefore perform a civic duty, over their passions.5 3 Strict monogamy was de-
but from within the privacy of the family and manded, though rape was seen as an insult to the
with none of the privileges accorded to male husband and retribution was settled between the
citizens. By marrying, women were simply being men involved.
used as a medium of exchange between men of This picture of the secluded Athenian woman
different households. They were ideally married nevertheless fails to tell the whole story. Female
off at the age of 18, when their father would select slaves were sent into public places to perform
a suitable husband and pay him a dowry for his necessary functions (often including sexual avail-
ability to the master). Then there were the wives a society that sustained communal property,
of metics—the foreign residents who worked in might be compared with the confinement of
Athens—who were obliged to seek employment. Athenian women in a culture favouring private
Records tell of freewomen in a number of profes- property, to support this view. On the other hand,
sions: sesame seed-seller; wet-nurse; wool-worker; it is undoubtedly true that male Athenians, qua
groceress; harpist; horsetender; pulse vendor; men, reaped benefits from the sexual division.
aulos-player; honey-seller.5 4 Moving down the And it would certainly be grossly reductive to sug-
social scale, the differences between the lives and gest that the interlocking facets of Greek culture,
status of the sexes undoubtedly diminished.5 5 with their elaborate images of woman, were but a
There were also large numbers of prostitutes, reflection of economic imperatives. A certain
many of whom worked in state brothels and autonomy must surely be granted to the ideas that
received wages from the public purse. And there gave birth to Western thought and that were
were free courtesans, among them the hetairas destined to endure across the millennia, even if
who might strike up relationships with important they did help to sustain a system of which both
men (even with Socrates himself) and who might men and the institution of private property were
alone acquire the intellectual skills and personal beneficiaries.
property that would make them welcome in male
company. Athenian men, it follows, were bound
Notes
by no monogamous restraints. As one fourth- 1. Sarah Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves:
century representative put it, ‘we have courtesans Women in Classical Antiquity (New York: Schocken
for pleasure, concubines to perform our domestic Books, 1975), p. 30.
chores, and wives to bear us legitimate children 2. M. I. Finley, The World of Odysseus (Harmondsworth:
and be the faithful guardians of our homes’.5 6 Penguin, 1962), p. 48.
They also had young boys for homosexual rela-
3. Pomeroy, Goddesses, p. 28; Marilyn Arthur, ‘Early
tions and older male friends for intellectual discus- Greece: The Origin of the Western Attitude Toward
sion. As one author sums up the situation: public Women’ in J. Peradotto and J. P. Sullivan (eds) Women
life in Athens was a ‘men’s club’.5 7 in the Ancient World: The Arethusa Papers (Albany, NY:
State University of New York Press, 1984). Okin rightly
The classical situation was far more oppressive points out, however, that in the Iliad at least, women
than anything portrayed in Homer and had are hardly shown in an elevated light. See Susan Mol-
ler Okin, Women in Western Political Thought (London:
largely resulted from reforms enacted by Solon in Virago, 1980), p. 16.
the sixth century. It would therefore be wrong to
4. F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and
suggest that no alternative was imaginable, and
the State (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1972), p. 68.
this is especially true since different practices
pertained in some of the other Greek city-states. 5. Finley, World of Odysseus, p. 28; A. MacIntyre, After
Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (London: Duckworth,
In Sparta, for example, women had much more 1982), ch. 10.
freedom and public presence. Eugenics rather than
legitimacy was the concern of this society with its 6. Finley, World of Odysseus, p. 33.
communal property and military ambition. Thus 7. A. MacIntyre, After Virtue, p. 116.
girls exercised in public to become fit, and clandes-
8. Homer, Iliad, trans. R. Fitzgerald (New York: Anchor
tine marriages were practised to ensure that a Press, 1975), I, lines 1-10.
partnership would be a fecund one. Satires like
9. Ibid., lines 310-74.
Aristophanes’ play the Ecclesiazusae, in which the
women take over the assembly to institute com- 10. See Finley, World of Odysseus, pp. 48-130; Arthur, ‘Early
mon property, wives and children, further suggest Greece’; Mary O’Brien, The Politics of Reproduction
(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981); M. I. Finley,
a familiarity among the theatre-going public with The Ancient Economy (London: Chatto & Windus,
questions of gender relations. There is some 1973), p. 18; T. Sinclair, A History of Greek Political
evidence to suggest that the woman question was Thought (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951), ch.
1.
even then in the air.
11. A. N. Athanausakis, Introduction to Hesiod, Theogony,
In conclusion, it is evident that women’s Works and Days, Shield, trans. A. N. Athanausakis
social and political position was fully consonant (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University
with the misogyny manifest in Greek culture. Press, 1983).
How far that ideology might have been used to 12. Ibid., p.7.
legitimize an arrangement whose true raison d’être
13. Ibid., Theogony, lines 570-612.
was an economic one, is hard to say. The greater
liberty and esteem accorded to Spartan women in 14. Ibid., lines 588-601.
15. Ibid., Works and Days, lines 56-105. fourth century Oeconomicus, where he claimed that
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES 16. Ibid., Theogony, lines 602-10.
the gods prepared woman’s nature for indoor work
while man’s body and soul were endowed with the
17. Ibid., lines 886-926. ability to endure extremes of temperature and long
journeys. Women were given greater affection because
18. Ibid., Works and Days, line 375. their role was to nourish children. See excerpt in Mary
Lefkowitz and Maureen Fant (eds), Women’s Life in
19. Ibid., lines 693-9.
Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation (London:
20. Ibid., lines 702-3. Duckworth, 1982), p. 100. The relevant lines are from
Oecomomicus, lines 7-10.
21. Regarding Antigone, see Hegel’s account where he
speaks of an antagonism between ‘female’ law, the law 40. Plato, Menexenus, lines 237-8. See also Aristotle, De
of the ancient gods, and public law. ‘This is the Generatione, 716a, where he relates earth to female
supreme opposition in ethics and therefore in tragedy; and heaven/sun to father.
and it is individualised in the same play in the oppos-
ing natures of man and woman’. G. W. F. Hegel, The 41. Aeschylus, Eumenides, lines 328-32.
Phenomenology of Mind, trans. J. B. Baillie (New York: 42. See Ruth Padel, ‘Women: Model for Possession by
Harper & Row, 1967). §166, pp. 114f. Also, see Charles Greek Daemons’ in Averil Cameron and Amelie Kuhrt
Segal, ‘The Menace of Dionysus: Sex Roles and Rever- (eds), Images of Woman in Antiquity (London: Croom
sals in Euripides’ Bacchae’ in Peradotto and Sullivan, Helm, 1983).
Women in the Ancient World.
43. Thus Bachofen, one of Engels’ main sources, sees
22. Aeschylus, The Eumenides, trans. H. Lloyd-Jones
religious change as responsible for the transition to
(London: Duckworth, 1979), lines 137-8.
father-right. Both Engels and Freud believed in a
23. Ibid., lines 68-70. prehistoric matriarchy. See also O’Brien, Politics of Re-
production, pp. 123-7.
24. Ibid., line 831.
44. Engels, Origin, Pt. 2.
25. Ibid., lines 835-6.
45. See, for example, Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex,
26. Engels, Origin pp. 29f; S. Freud, Moses and Monotheism
trans. H. M. Parshley (Harmondsworth: Penguin,
in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sig-
1972), pp. 106-8.
mund Freud, trans. James Strachey (London: Hogarth
Press, 1964), vol. 23, pp. 113f. Freud writes that the 46. Genevieve Lloyd, The Man of Reason: ‘Male’ and
transition from a matriarchal to a patriarchal culture ‘Female’ in Western Philosophy (London: Methuen,
must have ‘involved a revolution in the judicial condi- 1984), p. 4.
tions that had so far prevailed’ and ‘a victory of intel-
lectuality over sensuality—that is, an advance in 47. Plato, Republic, lines 514-17. All references to the Re-
civilization, since maternity is proved by the evidence public are to the F. M. Cornford edition (Oxford: Clar-
of the senses while paternity is a hypothesis, based on endon Press, 1941).
an interference and a premiss’. (p. 114). See addition-
ally Froma Zeitlin, ‘The Dynamics of Misogyny in the 48. Segal, ‘Menace of Dionysus’, p. 196.
Oresteia’ in Peradotto and Sullivan, Women in the 49. Victor Ehrenberg, The People of Aristophanes (Oxford:
Ancient World. Blackwell, 1943), pp. 142 f.
27. Aeschylus, Eumenides, lines 604-8.
50. De Beauvoir, Second Sex, p. 123.
28. Ibid., lines 658-61.
51. This function is supported by Aristotle when he
29. Ibid., lines 663-6. criticizes the Spartan constitution for allowing unregu-
lated subdivision of land among the children of large
30. Plato, Symposium, lines 208-9. All references to Plato’s families, reducing many to poverty. Aristotle, Politics,
writings are taken, unless otherwise stated, from The trans. Sir Ernest Barker (Oxford: Oxford University
Dialogues of Plato, B. Jarrett (ed.), 4 vols, 4th edn Press, 1958), 1270b. For further discussion, see G. E.
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953). M. de ste. Croix, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek
31. Aristotle, De Generatione Animalium, trans. A. L. Peck World: From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests
(London: Heinemann, 1943), 716a. (London: Duckworth, 1981). He argues that Greek
wives constituted ‘a distinct economic class, in the
32. Ibid., 738b. technical Marxist sense’, although he sees in Athenian
inheritance a safeguard against concentrations of
33. Ibid., 729a, 729b, 733b, 765b.
wealth since women could not be married into
34. Ibid., 765b. wealthy families in order to amass property there, pp.
98-103.
35. Ibid., 727b, 765b.
52. See for example Aristophanes’ satire The Ecclesiazusae,
36. Ibid., 728a, 783b, 766a. trans. B. Rogers (London: Heinemann, 1931), lines
37. Ibid., 732a. 118-20.
38. Plato, Timaeus, trans. D. Lee (Harmondsworth: Pen- 53. R. Flacière, Daily Life in Greece at the Time of Pericles,
guin, 1965), 50, pp. 68f. trans. P. Green (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
1965), p. 69. Also MacIntyre, After Virtue, p. 128.
39. The later Greeks did move nearer to Aristotle’s
functionalist view. Xenophon based different sexual 54. Lefkowitz and Fant, Women’s Life in Greece and Rome,
functions on differential biological capacities in his p. 29.
55. De ste. Croix, Class Struggle, pp. 100f. first and second centuries C.E. Pomeroy argues that
56. Pseudo-Demos in Against Neaera. this situation is a by-product of the Roman toler-
ance of woman landholders: it is not that more
57. Sir Ernest Barker, Greek Political Theory, Plato and his
Predecessors (London: Methuen, 1918), p. 218. women are illiterate than at earlier periods, but
that more illiterate (normally) women are land-
holders and accordingly produce documents.7
JENNIFER A. SHERIDAN (ESSAY Although the papyri can therefore give false
DATE 1998) impressions, one cannot argue that there was
widespread literacy among women, because that
SOURCE: Sheridan, Jennifer A. “Not at a Loss for
Words: The Economic Power of Literate Women in Late is certainly not the case. Still, one must keep in
Antique Egypt.” Transactions of the American Philological mind that the sources are not telling us all we
Association (1974-) 128 (1998): 189-203. need to know about this society that excluded
In the following excerpt, Sheridan discusses female women from much of the public sphere.8
literacy in Roman Egypt during the early centuries of the
common era. Rates of female literacy in Egypt seem to have
changed over time. In the Ptolemaic era, the
A literate woman was a rarity in the Graeco- education of girls was common, at least in literate
Roman world. Only among the upper socio- Alexandria, where, of course, a number of female
economic classes could one expect to find any authors were well known, who could serve as role
women who could read or write.1 Ancient men, models. With the coming of the Romans, however,
themselves mostly illiterate, were clearly unsettled female literacy rates dropped off, only to increase
by the idea of a literate woman. It is apparent, in again in the second and third centuries C . E .
a number of sarcastic quips preserved from antiq- Certainly there are a number of factors at play
uity, that men understood the power that literacy here, including where a woman lived and what
might bestow on a woman. A fragment of a comic social class she belonged to,9 not to mention other
play, for example, reads “The man who teaches a cultural changes in the Empire itself, but—since
woman letters does not do well; he gives more we are dealing with an imperfect body of data—
poison to a frightening asp.”2 In Roman Egypt, what appear as changes in the literacy rates of
schoolboys were taught to write by copying the women over time may just be distortions of the
phrase “Seeing a women being taught letters, he facts.
said ‘What a sword she is sharpening.’”3
The actual number of literate women known
Graeco-Roman Egypt provides more informa- to us from Graeco-Roman Egypt is extremely
tion concerning women’s literacy than the rest of small. There is no evidence, direct or indirect, for
the ancient world because of the large number of a single literate woman in the countryside, and
everyday documents, recorded on papyrus, which only a handful from the cities are known. A
survived from it.4 Nevertheless the papyri, plenti- comprehensive statistical study of women’s lit-
ful as they are, are still an inadequate source of eracy would yield the same results that a quick
evidence for women’s literacy because they are impression does: the level of female literacy in
the products of a world to which women were Graeco-Roman Egypt was negligible.1 0
not privy in large numbers. Women do not ap- The literate women we do know about are
pear as frequently in the papyri as men, and when statistical abnormalities; that is, they cannot be
they do, it is very often in a secondary role; used in a general argument concerning female
women who appear in the documents are often literacy rates, since they are such a deviation from
from a select group, the higher socio-economic the norm. Yet these are the only literate women
classes.5 Women, of course, sent and received let- in antiquity whose lives we can delve into in any
ters, but this proves nothing about their literacy, depth, because we have actual contact with them
since they could and did employ scribes and read- through their documents. For this reason, these
ers. Furthermore, since women rarely acted on women from late antique Egypt should be of great
their own in legal, official, or commercial situa- interest to scholars of women in the ancient
tions (i.e., the transactions that prompted the world; and it is that group of scholars to whom
creation of papyri), we have less opportunity to this paper is particularly addressed.1 1 The women
see whether they are literate.6 discussed here are not legendary literates like Sap-
Socio-economic forces can also distort our no- pho or Hypatia, but ordinary people whose unself-
tions of women’s literacy. It appears, for example, conscious documents tell us of their histories.
that there is an increase in the ratio of illiterate From their papyri, we can learn what circum-
women to illiterate men in the papyri during the stances in their lives led them to literacy, and what
Cleopatra VII, last of Egypt’s Ptolemaic rulers (69-30 B.C.). This illustration depicts Cleopatra experimenting with the
effects of poison.
significance literacy had in their lives. Most sible to conclude anything about the actual eth-
importantly, we can explore whether these ancient nicity of individuals; many with Greek names may
women understood, like their male counterparts, have been Egyptian in origin.
that the ability to read and write endows its holder
Whether or not it contained an ethnic mix,
with power.
the bouleutic class was small and exclusive. The
. . . . .
boule itself comprised approximately one hundred
This paper will center on one particular liter- men;1 3 the entire class was composed of those
ate woman, Aurelia Charite. An extensive papyrus men and their female relatives and children. Since
dossier1 2 provides us with a great deal of biographi- the group was heavily intermarried, the total
cal information about her, much of which is number of bouleutic citizens probably numbered
relevant to her literacy. As Worp notes in the no more than five hundred.1 4
introduction to that dossier, Charite prospered in
the middle Egyptian city of Hermopolis between Members of the bouleutic class were the mov-
320 and 350 C.E. She is mentioned in forty-two ers and shakers of the city and the entire nome. It
documents, five of which are written wholly or was the councillors who held all the important
partially by Charite herself, and two of which governmental positions in the city. The influence
specifically mention her literacy. Hers is one of of the bouleutic class was also based on its wealth,
the few woman’s signatures to survive from i.e., its landholding. Among the councillors would
Graeco-Roman antiquity. be a small number of the super-rich; the rest, we
can assume, were comfortable enough to live on
Hermopolis, like other nome capitals, was
the income from their holdings.1 5 Poorer city
overlaid with a thick veneer of Hellenism. Its
dwellers and residents of the rest of the nome
streets were lined with Greek-style buildings
regularly came into contact with members of the
interspersed with those in an Egyptian style, and
bouleutic class, since councillors were both tax-
its governmental forms mimicked those of earlier
collectors and landlords; they also owned many
Greek cities. The ruling class of the city, members
of the businesses in the city.
of the boule, also bear many marks of Helleniza-
tion, not least of which are their names, many of Among groups of landholders it would not be
which are Greek. Because we view this group unusual to find a woman. In Roman Egypt, there
through their documents in Greek, it is impos- were no prohibitions against women holding
land, and they regularly acquired it through
inheritance or as part of their dowry. The overall
percentage of landholders who were women is
impossible to determine with the information ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
available to us, but approximately thirty-three
percent of land at Soknopaiou Nesos was owned
NEFERTITI (C. 1390 B.C.-1360 B.C.)
by women; forty percent of landholders in a tax
roll from Karanis were women,1 6 and in a Her- Nefertiti became one of the most famous women
mopolite land list fourteen percent of the land in antiquity with the discovery in 1912 of a
limestone bust sculpted and painted in her image
was held by women.1 7 Thus women had some ac- by Tutmose during the 18th dynasty. Her name
cess to power through wealth; their independent means “The Beautiful One is Come,” and Nefertiti
landholding would add to that of their husbands, is known not only for her great beauty, but for her
augmenting the status of the family, and they role as the wife of Akhenaten, the first Egyptian
themselves could act as landlords.1 8 But it is rare pharaoh to worship only one god. During the early
years of Akhenaten’s reign, Queen Nefertiti enjoyed
to see a woman managing her own properties.1 9 significant political importance, evidenced by the
Aurelia Charite was born into the affluent, large number of carved scenes in which she is
shown accompanying Akhenaten during the cer-
landed upper class of Hermopolis at the end of
emonial acts he performed. She is depicted taking
the third century C.E. Her father, Amazonios, who part in acts quite unlike those relegated to the
lived from around 275 until the mid-310s C.E., was generally subservient status of previous chief
a councillor and gymnasiarch. Her mother Dem- queens, including daily worship and making offer-
etria, also known as Ammonia, was the daughter ings similar to those of the king. Images of Nefer-
titi and Akhenaten were erased from Egyptian his-
of Polydeukes, also a city councillor.2 0 Demetria tory after Akhenaten’s death, when the succeeding
herself was literate.2 1 pharaoh denounced monotheism and returned to
polytheistic worship.
By the year 314 C.E., Charite had married Au-
relios Adelphios, son of Adelphios.2 2 Adelphios, CLEOPATRA (69 B.C.-C. 30 B.C.)
also known as Dionysodoros, held the usual of-
Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last of the Ptole-
fices of a wealthy city dweller—councillor, prytanis maic rulers of Egypt. She was notorious in antiquity
(proedros), gymnasiarch, strategos, and logistes.2 3 and has been romanticized in modern times as the
Charite and Adelphios had at least one child who lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Following
can be identified in the papyri. Their son, Aurelios the death of her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, in 51
B.C., the ministers of Cleopatra’s brother Ptolemy
Asklepiades, was praepositus pagi of the fifteenth XIII feared her ambition to rule alone and drove
pagus of the Hermopolite Nome in 340 C.E.; he her from Egypt. Cleopatra was determined to use
was also a magistrate and councillor at Hermopo- Roman power and when Julius Caesar arrived in
lis. Charite may have had other children, but they Alexandria in 48, she established a union of mutual
are not documented.2 4 We can assume that when benefit with him. Caesar helped Cleopatra to
reestablish her place on the Egyptian throne and
Charite disappears from the papyri, around 350 then returned to Rome, followed by Cleopatra in
C.E., she has died. She outlived her husband by 46. When the emperor was assassinated in 44,
about thirty years. Cleopatra returned to Egypt and awaited the
outcome of the political struggle in Rome. She
The remainder of Charite’s biography con- soon seduced Mark Antony, who was consolidat-
cerns her fiscal status and business dealings. ing his power on the Roman throne. In Rome,
Charite was quite wealthy. She belonged to an however, Octavian was gaining power. Antony later
elite group of metropolitan landholders who not married Cleopatra, but Roman sentiment was
against the union. Octavian turned against Antony
only owned urban properties but also had land in
and defeated a fleet commanded by Antony and
the countryside. Charite’s mean property holding Cleopatra in 31 at the Battle of Actium. Antony
in the countryside was 410 or more arouras.2 5 The killed himself. Cleopatra tried, but failed, to
documents do not quantify the property she must captivate another Roman emperor. Rather than suf-
have owned in the city of Hermopolis, where she fer humiliation, she also committed suicide, and
was buried beside Antony.
lived.
Although we do not know her absolute
wealth, we are able to compare Charite’s landhold-
ings with those of her neighbors in the so-called
Hermopolite landlists of the mid-fourth century city, Charite is said to own 376 arouras, less than
C.E., just before her death. In the landlists, which her personal average; but by this late point in her
26
record the country holdings of residents of the life she may have already distributed some prop-
erty to her children or grandchildren. Even with her name (PCharite 41).3 1 Charite also signed an
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES 376 arouras, though, she is among the top six acknowledgment of a receipt (PCharite 37).
percent of landholders in the city, and well above Charite’s claims to literacy appear genuine.
the mean holding of only sixty-three arouras.2 7 Her hand is neat but not elegant, the hand of a
The papers in Charite’s dossier are those we literate, not a semi-literate, person. Charite’s let-
would expect of a landholder. Twenty-one docu- ters are written with definitive strokes, indicating
ments record the payment of taxes on her prop- that she wrote somewhat regularly and without
erty. These are typical land taxes for the period, hesitation.3 2 She was practiced enough in writing
which collect items needed by the army, such as to ligature some letter combinations, such as
wine, fodder, and barley. Eight documents record alpha-iota and epsilon-iota.3 3 She uses abbrevia-
Charite’s leasing property to others. She let farm tions and symbols, which again displays her
land, fodder land, and orchards. A number of her comfort with writing.3 4 Yet she was not the great-
tenants appear repeatedly in the documents and est speller, and her documents show some fairly
must have had long-term business relationships typical misspellings: she regularly confused ⑀␫ and
with her.2 8 According to a few documents she also ␫, for example.3 5
lent money. . . . . .
Six of Charite’s forty-two documents are either We can only conjecture why Charite, or any
written by her or mention her literacy. The num- other literate woman, was taught to write.
ber itself is not significant; of the forty-two docu- Charite’s mother Demetria was literate and may
ments in the dossier, twenty-four are addressed to well have been her daughter’s teacher since their
Charite, eight are lists, one is a letter written by hands are strikingly similar.3 6 The fact that the
Demetria, Charite’s mother, and two are of ques- family was wealthy may have allowed them the
tionable content. There is only one other docu- luxury of educating their daughter. If economics
ment in the dossier that could have been written alone affected literacy, however, we might expect
by Charite (or at least mentioned her literacy) but to encounter many more rich, literate women in
was not composed by her.2 9 the papyri. But this is not the case. . . .
Of the just mentioned “literacy” documents,
the only one that contains a definitive date is a Notes
receipt for a paid lease, dated 348 C.E. (PCharite 8). 1. On women’s literacy in general in the ancient world,
In the opening lines of the receipt, Charite is see Cole and Harris 22-24 et passim.
referred to as 2. ␥␷␯␣θ̃␹’ ␱´ ␦␫␦␣´ ␵␬␻␯ ␥␳␣´ µµ␣␶’ ␱u ␬␣␭ω̃␵ ␲␱⑀θ̃ / N␵␲␫´␦␫ ␦c
␾␱␤⑀␳Z ␲␳␱␵␲␱␳␫´␨⑀␫ ␾␣´ ␳µ␣␬␱␯. [Men.] 702 Kock.
〈u␳␩␭␫´␣ ␹␣␳␫´␶␩ ‘〈µ␣␨␱␷␫´␱␷ P␲ò
‘⌭␳µ␱ũ ␲␱´ ␭⑀␻␵ ␶␩´ ␵ ␭␣µ␲␳␱␶␣´ ␶␩␵ 3. ⌱␦␻
´ ␯ ␥␷␯␣θ̃␬␣ ␦␫␦␣␵␬␱µd␯␩␯ ␥␳␣´ µµ␣␶␣ ⑀n␲⑀␯ ␱n␱␯ ␰␫´␾␱␵
⑀k␦␷⑀θ̃␣ ␥␳␣´ µµ␣␶␣ ␹␻␳r␵ ␬␷␳␫´␱␷ ␹␳␩µ␣␶␫´␨␱␷␵␣ N␬␱␯␣˜ ␶␣␫. PBouriant. 1.153 (fourth century C.E.).
␦␫␬␣␫´v ␶d␬␯␻␯. 4. Literacy in Roman Egypt, of course, refers to the abil-
Aurelia Charite, daughter of Amazonios, from ity to read and write Greek. See Youtie 1975a.
splendid Hermopolis, a knower of letters, acting 5. Pomeroy 1988: 720.
without a guardian and with the ius liberorum.
6. Under the Lex Julia of Augustus, women could act
The body of the receipt is written by a scribe, without a guardian after they had produced a certain
but Charite wrote the subscription: number of children (three in the original law; later
fewer children may have been required). One hundred
〈u␳␩␭␫´␣ ␹␣␳␫´␶␩ ␲⑀␲␭␩´ - and twenty-three legally independent women are
␳␻µ␣␫ ␻´ ␵ ␲␳␱´ ␬⑀␫␶␣␫. known from Roman Egypt. They are listed in Sheri-
dan.
I, Aurelia Charite, was paid in full as set forth
above. 7. Pomeroy 1988: 718.
8. As Bowman and Woolf so eloquently point out:
Charite is again described as a “knower of let- “Power exercised over texts allows power to be exer-
ters” (⑀k␦␷⑀θ̃␣ ␥␳␣´ µµ␣␶␣) in a money loan dated cised through texts” (1994b: 8).
either 331/2 or 346/7 (PCharite 33).3 0 9. Pomeroy 1988: 717-19.
Three additional documents are written either 10. That literacy rates were small but the percentages
wholly or partially in Charite’s hand. These themselves were not very significant is true of Egypt
include a four-line order to pay for the value of in general. See Bowman 1991: 122 and 1994a: 111-12,
passages in which he argues that the percentage of
green fodder written entirely by Charite (PCharite
literates is not so important as the extent to which the
27), a list of deliveries dated circa 322 (PCharite society functioned in a literate mode without many
36), and a small two-word fragment that includes literates.
11. As I am hoping to reach a non-papyrological audience 30. The word ⑀k␦␷⑀θ̃␣ is restored in a lacuna, based on the
with this essay, I have provided a fairly extensive formula in PCharite 8.
introduction to literacy and life in late antique Egypt,
including information which, while well known to 31. Worp (1980: 103) identified this fragment as probably
papyrologists, may not be as familiar to other clas- coming from the hand of Charite; my examination of
sicists. the photograph concurs with this identification.
12. Worp 1980. There is one further document (“Anhang 32. Bagnall 1993: 247.
B”) concerning Charite in Worp 1991. The term “ar- 33. Both alpha-iota and epsilon-iota are ligatured in the
chive” is now reserved for papers which were gathered word ␹␣␫´␳⑀␫␯ in PCharite 27.2; the epsilon-iota combi-
together in antiquity. This is not the case with either nation is ligatured in . . . µ␱␷⑀␫␻␯ in PCharite 41.2.
of the collections cited in this note.
34. 〈␷ for 〈u␳␩␭␫´␣ in PCharite 8.24; ␫␦␫␬ (sic) for
13. Bowman 1971: 22. k␯␦␫␬␶␫´␻␯␱␵ in PCharite 27.3; ␬␯ for ␬␯␫´␦␫␱␯/␣ in PCharite
36.1, 2, 3, 6, 7. PCharite 27.3 preserves the symbol for
14. I have estimated elsewhere (Sheridan 129) that the
␶␣´ ␭␣␯␶␣; the symbol for ␥␫´␯⑀␶␣␫ must have preceded it
maximum size of the female bouleutic population in
but is lost in a lacuna.
a city would be one thousand, allowing ten female
relatives per bouleutic man. But there probably were 35. There are other errors in PCharite 8, 27, and 36.
fewer, perhaps only a few hundred at any given time,
since the women’s family roles would overlap, i.e., 36. Worp 1980: 2.
one man’s wife was another’s daughter and still
another’s sister.
Works Cited
15. Rowlandson 115-22, who notes, however, that a small Bagnall, R. S. 1992. “Landholding in Late Roman Egypt.”
number of members of this class lacked the financial JRS 82: 128-43.
resources needed to bear its burdens, such as liturgies.
———. 1993. Egypt in Late Antiquity. Princeton.
16. Hobson 315.
———. 1995. “Charite’s Christianity.” BASP 32: 37-40.
17. Bagnall 1992: 138.
Bowman, A. K. 1971. The Town Councils of Roman Egypt.
18. Rowlandson 113-15 and 132-35 discusses two very Toronto.
wealthy Oxyrhynchite land-holding women.
———. 1985. “Landholding in the Hermopolite Nome in
19. Rowlandson 284. the Fourth Century A.D.” JRS 75: 137-63.
20. Worp 1980: 5-7. ———. 1991. “Literacy in the Roman Empire: Mass and
Mode.” In Humphrey 1991. 119-31.
21. She writes on behalf of her daughter in PCharite 38.
———. 1994a. “The Roman Imperial Army: Letters and
22. Adelphios also left a substantial group of papers, Literacy on the Northern Frontier.” In Bowman and
published in Worp 1991. That Adelphios was Charite’s Woolf 1994c. 109-25.
husband is virtually, but not absolutely, certain.
———, and G. Woolf. 1994b. “Literacy and Power in the
23. Worp 1991: 8-10. Ancient World.” In Bowman and Woolf 1994c. 1-16.
24. Worp 1980: 9 points out that Charite is likely to have ———, and G. Woolf, eds. 1994c. Literacy and Power in the
had a son named Amazonios after her father. Diokles, Ancient World. Cambridge.
son of Adelphios, was at one time believed to be
Charite’s son, but that identification has now been Cole, S. G. 1981. “Could Greek Women Read and Write?”
called into question. The fact that Charite had the ius In H. Foley, ed., Reflections of Women in Antiquity. New
liberorum, however, does not necessarily mean that York. 219-45.
she had three or more children. Harris, W., 1989. Ancient Literacy. Cambridge, MA.
25. Worp 1980: 11. Hobson, D. 1983. “Women as Property Owners in Roman
Egypt.” TAPA 113: 311-21.
26. PCharite 9 = PHerm. Landl. I.252-56, II.466-69.
Kehoe, D. 1992. Management and Investment on Estates in Ro-
27. Bowman 1985: 146. There was an extremely unequal
man Egypt during the Early Empire. Bonn.
division of landholding in the Hermopolite Nome.
The landlists show that ten percent of the landholders Pomeroy, S. B. 1988. “Women in Roman Egypt: A Prelimi-
held seventy-eight percent of the land (Bagnall 1992: nary Study Based on Papyri.” ANRW II.10.1: 708-23.
142).
———. 1997. Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece.
28. On Charite as landlord, see Kehoe 123 n. 6. Oxford.
29. PCharite 34, a money loan. Although literate, like most Rowlandson, J. 1996. Landowners and Tenants in Roman
wealthy people Charite regularly used scribes (see Bag- Egypt. Oxford.
nall 1993: 247). This document is fragmentary, so it is
possible that she wrote a subscription which is now Sheridan, J. A. 1996. “Women Without Guardians: An
lost; she signs PCharite 37 without first being intro- Updated List.” BASP 33: 117-31.
duced as literate in its opening (this signature is Worp, K. A. 1980. Das Aurelia Charite Archiv. Zutphen.
partially lost, but the restoration is appropriate, since
the first four letters of her name, written in her hand, ———. 1991. Die Archive der Aurelii Adelphios und Asklepia-
are visible). des. CPR XIIA. Vienna.
JUDITH EVANS GRUBBS (ESSAY
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES DATE 2002)
literacy using gender as a category of examina-
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES tion.3 By adding gender to the mix, these scholars
challenge the more narrow definitions of literacy
such as those established by David Cressy’s influ-
ential Literacy and the Social Order.4 They have
sought instead to define literacies by exploring
the multiple ways in which the ‘products of a
culture can be acquired and transmitted.’5
By imagining less traditional forms of female
literacy, we allow for the possibility of interrogat-
ing the cultural currency these broader forms of
literacy carried.6 The examination of medieval and
early modern female literacy practices offer us op-
portunities to continue redefining what it meant
to be literate. Evidence suggests that while women
across the classes were often denied access to the
same kind of education in reading and writing to
which their male counterparts had access, some
WOMEN IN THE MEDIEVAL still managed to find ways to learn to read and get
WORLD access to texts. Though these texts were most
often devotional in nature, and therefore more
JENNIFER WYNNE HELLWARTH ‘acceptable’ for use, it appears that women also
(ESSAY DATE JANUARY 2002) had access to other kinds of texts and forms of
SOURCE: Hellwarth, Jennifer Wynne. “‘I Wyl Wright knowledge. Women increasingly became impor-
of Women Prevy Sekenes’: Imagining Female Literacy tant textual learners, and they were involved in
and Textual Communities in Medieval and Early
Modern Midwifery Manuals.” Critical Survey 14, no. 1
and responsible for the education of their children
(January 2002): 44-64. and families, with or without traditional literacy
skills. The means by which women educated their
In the following excerpt, Hellwarth explores the subject of
female literacy in the Middle Ages as a threat to patriar- own daughters through communal instruction
chal order, using late medieval midwifery manuals as her suggests the existence of a model of female textual
textual focus. communities; it was not uncommon for groups of
women to gather around a ‘text’ with ‘literate’
Defining the term ‘literacy’ in medieval and
women disseminating its contents.7
early modern England is not a simple task; it de-
fies the more modern (and relatively uncompli- I take the basic notion of a textual community
cated) definition of having the ability to read and from Brian Stock, who argues that ‘what was es-
write. In medieval terminology, a litteratus was sential to a textual community was not a written
someone who was learned in Latin, while an illit- version of a text, although that was sometimes
teratus was someone who was not. Eventually, lit- present, but an individual, who, having mastered
teratus and illitteratus came to be associated with it, then utilized it for reforming a group’s thought
the clergy and laity respectively.1 But these terms and action’.8 By modifying Stock’s notion of
were not used for describing literacy in the ver- textual community, which does not consider
nacular, or the various categories and levels of gender, we can apply it to women’s textual prac-
competence in both reading and writing, either in tices in the medieval and early modern periods.
Latin or in the vernacular. Recently, scholars have These communities could, and did, use their
increasingly been thinking in terms of multiple shared ‘literacy’ to interpret, perpetuate, and rebel
‘literacies’, especially when considering the more against the cultural structures that defined women
elusive female literacy. In her 1998 book, Gender and their relationship to God, to men, and to
and Literacy on Stage in Early Modern England, Eve mothering. They did this through dissemination
Sanders asserts that literacy practices following of knowledge, through oral transmission (reading
the Reformation played a role in the formation of aloud, gossiping, teaching), and through private
gender identity, and that ‘different levels and and public reading. Anne Clark Bartlett suggests
forms of literacy’ were assigned to each gender.2 that reading ‘is always a process of negotiation
Sanders contributes to what is the project of a between . . . the culturally activated text and the
growing number of literary scholars, such as culturally activated reader, an interaction struc-
Margaret Ferguson and Frances Dolan, who study tured by the material, social, ideological, and
institutional relationships in which both texts and ica Green suggests the concept of ‘medical literacy’
readers are inescapably inscribed’.9 The complex- as ‘a way of acknowledging that not all kinds of
ity of the reading process, then, is in part defined texts are read in the same way’.1 1 As part of her
by the response of a textual community to its ongoing inquiry, Green observes that female
culture through a given text, and in part based on medical practitioners, prominent in the healing
the reader’s skills and strategies. In this model practices, most probably interacted with medical
there is always circulation, perpetuation, exchange discourse in a number of ways as a result of the
and reconfigurations of the larger culture’s ideolo- relationship between gender and acquisition of
gies of class, gender, religion, and conduct. Teas- literacy. As a historian, Green is interested in
ing out and identifying some of the mechanisms defining a documentary relationship between
of this circulation, and the interchange between reader and text. My project is interested in the
more and less isolated communities and the larger ways this literacy gets imagined. I will argue that
culture, will have an impact on how we conceive the acquisition of such a literacy—often through
of female textual communities, female literacy as gossip and other potentially liminal and less
cultural capital, and the negotiation of power formal or conventionally circulated forms of
between men and women. knowledge—was anxiety-producing to the patriar-
One such negotiation that I take up in this es- chy in general, and to the medical patriarchy in
say occurs between the medical patriarchy and particular. Further, the cultural negotiations
female textual and birth communities, and is most around such texts indicate a textual intercourse
evident in midwifery, obstetrical, and gynecologi- between the largely male medical profession and
cal manuals of medieval and early modern Europe. the experiential knowledge and authority of
The medieval Trotula and ‘Sekenesse of Wymmen’, women; paradoxically, they also illustrate a reli-
the early modern multi-edition der Swangern fra- ance of the patriarchal communities on female
wen und hebammen rosegarten (Rose Garden for textual communities for both their knowledge and
Pregnant Women and Midwives), with its essentially their patronage.
English translation The Byrth of Mankynde, and
Medieval midwifery manuscripts express a
Jane Sharp’s The Midwives Book, all give us ways of
mode of empowerment available through the
thinking about the development of specifically
reproductive female body and privy knowledge of
female literacy as capital.1 0 These medieval texts
that body. Similarly, but with more ambivalence,
draw our attention to the social management of
early modern midwifery and gynecological and
‘women’s privy sickness’ and childbirth, illustrat-
obstetrical handbooks emphasize the cultural
ing the ways that women taught and were taught
capital of that power. The consumption and
to manage childbirth. In addition, sixteenth and
production of the text enables women’s literacy
early-seventeenth century instructional manuals
practices, yet the text itself represents power over
illustrate how men began to take over this field,
and infiltration into women’s childbirth practices.
and these manuals indicate various ways in which
These texts also offer a window into the ideology
men’s and women’s anxieties about childbirth to
of the culture since they contain the potential
some degree fueled this shift. At times these works
response of men to the text and they imagine,
offer us images of female textual communities and
simultaneously, female textual practice. A certain
an authoritative social ‘voice’; sometimes the
kind of subjection and submission is expected on
voice seeks to participate in or enable the com-
the part of the female reader, yet the female reader
munity, sometimes it seeks to infiltrate and disrupt
concomitantly exerts a resistance to that force.
it. While we cannot know whether the descrip-
Bartlett argues that one way resistance might oc-
tions and imaginations of these female textual
cur is through the literacy skills a woman may or
communities are representative of those who actu-
may not have. That is, potential gaps that a
ally acquired and used these texts, they do infer a
woman might have from her particular kind of
potential, desired, if not true readership. Thus,
schooling—full, interrupted, or non-existent-
these texts give us a sense of a female literacy that
would force her to attempt to create sense out of
is secret yet culturally valuable.
phrases that might confound her; Bartlett calls
Specifically, midwifery manuals indicate the these ‘reconstructive readings’ and shows how
gendering of literacy in this period and ask us to they might potentially change a work’s meaning
define a particular ‘female medical literacy’ that in significant ways (20-21). Bartlett argues this in
differs from other categories of literacy. In her es- her discussion of devotional texts, but this same
say on medieval women’s tenuous and limited hypothesis can be applied to a childbirth com-
relationship to ‘literate medicine’, historian Mon- munity processing information through textual
transmission, oral transmission, or both. Recon- 6. I am indebted to Margaret Ferguson’s concept of
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES structive readings would have created an occasion literacy as a form of cultural capital from Dido’s
Daughters: Literacy, Gender and Empire in Early Modern
for anxiety, and we can measure responses to this England and France.
anxiety by investigating how a text’s author ad-
7. Among others, Michael Van Cleave Alexander argues
dresses his or her ‘audience’. that medieval and early modern women who learned
Nowhere is this negotiation better illustrated how to read almost always took care to educate their
than in the prefaces and prologues of midwifery daughters—he cites Elizabeth Woodville and her
daughters, and their daughters in turn. He also offers
manuals—locations where the author, editor, up family letters that provide ‘graphic proof’ of the
and/or translator asserts his or her purpose and spread of literacy among middle class women. The
where imagined relationships to the reader and Growth of English Education: 1348-1648: A Social and
that reader’s desired relationship to the text are Cultural History (University Park and London: Pennsyl-
vania State University Press, 1990), 40.
configured. The prefaces, prologues and ‘Notes to
the Reader’ articulate various relationships be- 8. Brian Stock is of course most specifically interested in
the role the rise of literacy had in the ‘formation of
tween a female and male ‘author’ and a female heretical and reformist religious groups’ (88), and how
audience. The prefaces produced for pregnant these groups functioned as textual communities. See
women and midwives embody several cultural his section on ‘Textual Communities’ from The
paradoxes related to the gendering of medical Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of
Interpretation in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
literacy in particular, and female literacy in (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 88-240.
general. They suggest an ambivalent relationship
9. See Anne Clark Bartlett, Male Authors, Female Readers:
of the patriarchal medical profession to female
Representation and Subjectivity in Middle English Devo-
literacy, one in which the literate female is both tional Literature (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
feared and desired. As a form of literacy becomes 1995), 2-3.
capital (when it becomes exchangeable), as it does 10. In 1981, Beryl Rowland published the Medieval
in the case of the specific kind of female literacy Woman’s Guide to Health: The First English Gynecological
practice, the conventional forms of literacy no Handbook (Kent: Kent State University Press, 1981).
longer function as viable categories. Thus, para- Rowland’s transcription of the Medieval Woman’s Guide
has been particularly useful in drawing attention to
doxically, once a form of literacy is seen as valu- some of the actual medieval medical obstetrical and
able by the dominant culture, once it is viewed as gynecological practices of women, ostensibly from a
capital, it becomes both a definable category and female practitioners point of view. And while Wendy
more difficult to manage and standardize. . . .1 2 Arons has published a modern translation of Rosslin’s
The Rose Garden, there is not as yet a published
modern edition of England’s most significant mid-
Notes wifery treatise of the mid-sixteenth and mid-
1. See M. T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record: Eng- seventeenth centuries, Raynald’s translation of De
land 1066-1307, Second Edition (Oxford UK & Cam- Partu Hominis, The Byrth of Mankynde. See When
bridge USA: Blackwell, 1993), Chapter 7, ‘Literate and Midwifery Became the Male Physician’s Province: The
Illiterate’, for a more detailed discussion of this issue. Sixteenth Century Handbook: Rose Garden for Pregnant
Women and Midwives, trans. Wendy Arons (Jefferson,
2. Eve Rachele Sanders, Gender and Literacy on Stage in
N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1994).
Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1998), 2. 11. Monica Green, ‘The Possibilities of Literacy and the
3. See Margaret Ferguson, Dido’s Daughters: Literacy, Limits of Reading: Women and the Gendering of
Gender and Empire in Early Modern England and France Medical Literacy’ in Women’s Healthcare in the Medieval
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, forthcoming). West (Ashgate Variorum, 2000), 6.
See also Frances Dolan, ‘Reading, Writing, and other 12. Many thanks to Kate Koppelman for contributing her
crimes’, from Feminist Readings of Early Modern Culture: insights here, as well as in many other places.
Emerging Subjects, Valerie Traub, M. Lindsay Kaplan
and Dympna Callaghan, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996), 158.
4. David Cressy, Literacy and the Social Order: Reading and SOPHIE MASSON (ESSAY DATE
Writing in Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge: NOVEMBER 2002)
Cambridge University Press, 1980).
SOURCE: Masson, Sophie. “The Mirror of Honour and
5. See R. A.Houston, Literacy in Early Modern Europe Love: A Woman’s View of Chivalry.” Quadrant 46, no.
(London: Longman, 1988), 3. Houston suggests that 11 (November 2002): 56-59.
knowledge and information can be disseminated
In the following essay, Masson stresses the importance of
and/or obtained in a number of different ways:
chivalry and its attendant virtues to the lives of European
through looking at an image, through reading either
women during the Middle Ages.
privately or publicly, by attending that which is read
either in small or large, informal or formal groups,
and finally, through writing—from a signature to a Chivalry. Isn’t that a bloke’s thing? Isn’t it to
composition. do with being a man-at-arms, with strapping on
armour and sallying forth into the wildwood on
your horse, your lady’s token on your arm, to right
wrongs and do great deeds? Isn’t the only role of
the woman in chivalry to be the inspirer, the muse
of a paragon of the knightly virtues? Well, yes—
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
and no. Chivalry was much more than that. And
its ideals encompassed both sexes, actively. ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE (1122-1204)
As the French-derived term chivalry indi- Eleanor was born in 1122, and became heir
cates—it is originally from chevalerie, literally to Aquitaine—a vast area in the southwest of
meaning horsemanship—it came about as a means what is now France—while still a young girl.
of codifying and disciplining a mounted order of Her father had supported troubadours, poets,
military types. Mounted men-at-arms—knights, and storytellers, and through exposure to
in the English word, which by the way derives them and other teachers, Eleanor received a
from the same root as knife, referring to weap- superior education, unusual for a woman of
ons—could be a damn nuisance in the early and her era. Honoring her father’s deathbed wish
later Middle Ages. The way they were regarded by to unite Aquitaine and France, fifteen-year-old
many people is perhaps best summed up in the Eleanor married the son of the King of France,
German proverb, Er will Ritter an mir werden—he and when the king died a few days later, she
wants to play the knight over me, ride roughshod became the Queen of France, wife of King
over me. That is, these mounted men were re- Louis VII. Their marriage was annulled in
garded as tyrannical bullies, delinquents and pests. 1152, and Eleanor held such power in the
That they were pests more often than not is south that Louis VII had no choice but to al-
indisputable; a combination of young man’s low her to retain control of Aquitaine. She
energy, a lack of efficiently centralised civic or soon married Henry Plantagenet, who be-
moral teaching (the state did not really exist, and came King of England two years later. Four
the church struggled mightily to tame the war- months after their marriage she gave birth to
riors for centuries), and the fact that on a horse William, the first of the couple’s eight chil-
you could quickly get away from the scene of your dren. Henry had numerous affairs; the most
crimes, mixed with a kind of carte blanche, a blind infamous was with Rosamond Clifford, the
eye turned to your high jinks by the man—or daughter of a knight. “Fair Rosamond” and
woman—who paid your wages when you were at her interactions with Eleanor have served as
war with their rivals or enemies (but cut you loose the inspiration for dozens of poems and
when they didn’t need you, leaving you to fend romances.
for yourself), made for a potent cocktail of public
Eleanor had considerable impact on the
nuisance. The Middle Ages was a young person’s
music of her time both as patron of and
period; though many people did live on into old
inspiration for troubadours. In 1168 she
age, the average age of death for a woman was
returned to rule her subjects in France, and
thirty-three; for a man, especially a knight, it was
her court became a center of culture. In her
under thirty. The often wild energy, idealism and
“court of love” she and her ladies regularly
exaltation that characterises medieval culture
listened to and judged the poets delivering
comes from that demographic fact. This was real
youth culture. their verses. When Henry II died in 1189, her
third son, Richard I (the Lionheart), became
But as time went on, and the disorder of the King. While Richard was fighting on a crusade
post-Roman period, the invasions, and the Nor- in the Holy Land from 1190 to 1194, Eleanor
man adventures receded, and prosperity and peace
ruled England herself. Numerous official writs
descended in Europe, some kind of balance hav-
and charters were issued under Eleanor’s
ing been precariously achieved, more attention
name, and she (or perhaps Richard) is given
was paid to the fact that the youth had not only
credit for publishing a compilation of mari-
to be kept in line, but also to be given a channel
time laws known as the Laws of Oleron. She
for their energies which would make them more
died in 1204 in the abbey of Fontevrault,
productive and more disciplined. Added to that
where she is buried along with Henry II and
was the change in peacetime culture, particularly
Richard the Lionheart.
in England and France, with women becoming
more prominent again, able to provide a guiding
hand.
Modern people all too often view the Middle vast lands of Aquitaine, the teenaged Eleanor mar-
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES Ages through distorting mirrors; and one of the ried the pious, shy Louis VII of France, who was
most distorting is the idea of medieval women’s no match for her wilfulness and talents. She went
position. In fact, it is probably true to say that along with him on Crusade, as an important
women in the Middle Ages, especially after about person in her own right, had several children with
the eleventh century and up to the fifteenth, him, including Marie, then tiring of him and his
enjoyed a level of relative freedom not equalled font-frog ways, and infatuated with the younger,
until the twentieth. The fall of Rome had also sexy Henri Plantagenet d’Anjou, (Henry II of
made many of her laws recede into the distance, England) she concocted an excuse to get rid of
slowly; Roman statute law was notably more Louis. She even managed to persuade the Pope to
misogynist than the customary law of the tribal grant her an annulment on the basis of too-close
groups the empire had conquered. Celtic and kinship to her former husband, and so was able to
Germanic women enjoyed a degree of freedom enter into legal marriage with Henry.
that scandalised the Romans: perhaps the greatest She and Henry were a match for each other,
and most serious of the rebellions against Rome but too much so in many ways; though they had
in Britain occurred when an arrogant Roman six more children, and for a long time had a
governor flouted the realpolitik of his masters and strong relationship, Henry’s roving eye and Elean-
cut across British customary law by refusing to or’s pride proved the undoing of a partnership
ratify the awarding of the chieftainship of the that had had all Europe enthralled. During this
Iceni to the widowed Queen Boudicca, or Boadi- time, she ran her own court separately in Poitiers,
cea. and was the patron of artists, poets, musicians and
Now as the Middle Ages advanced and people philosophers.
forgot about Roman law, or cheerfully ignored it, It was at this court, and at her daughter
opting instead for a mixture of old and new in Marie’s in Champagne, that the codes of chivalry
their customary law, so the position of women and of courtly love were established, in close
improved. Please don’t think I’m talking feminism contact with the great ladies. Eleanor and Marie
here. Medieval society, like pre-Roman society, was were aware not only of the delinquent tendencies
one of kinship and hierarchy (which is not the of knights, but also of the boredom of ladies—and
same as class, by the way). If you were related to of the many sexual adventures that went on. They
the right people, if you were part of the clan, you would encourage the concept of a new form of
had a right to exercise the rights given to you on chivalry, which would not only emphasise prow-
that basis, no matter what your sex. So women in ess in arms and great deeds, as had been the case
the Middle Ages, as in the Celtic and Germanic in the past, but also the great adventure of love,
worlds, could openly be chiefs, could command the way it helped in the journey to self-knowledge
armies, an huge estates, run businesses, inherit and integration. It would mean that women
and so forth, in a way that women in Roman would have a central part in the culture, as muses
times and women in the Renaissance—which and inspirers certainly, but also as honourable be-
rediscovered Roman law and reinstated many of ings in their own right.
the old ways, including the institutionalised
Secular Woman in Romance, and Sacred
repression of women—could not, or could only
Woman, the Madonna, dominated medieval
do through subterfuge. Medieval people recogn-
culture from the twelfth century, in the process
ised custom, and its pre-eminence; kinship, and
turning a rather rough and ready culture to a most
its inextricable centrality; hierarchy, which meant
beautiful, subtle and richly patterned one. As well,
that everyone had a place but that people could
contact with the East meant that philosophy,
move between places, in case of great personal
astrology and astronomy, and the natural sciences
merit (there were quite a number of serfs who
in general, flourished. Indeed, I believe that it
became knights).
would be truer to speak of the twelfth century,
What we now think of as chivalry came out rather than the fifteenth, as the Renaissance, for
of that world. It began, as a codified idea, in the this was the true turning-point in medieval
twelfth century, in the courts of two famous and culture. I think too that the new concept of
talented and powerful women of the time: the chivalry, whose ideals became deeply ingrained in
extraordinary Eleanor of Aquitaine, and her Western modes of thinking and imagining, repre-
daughter, Marie of Champagne. Eleanor was a sents a major and important divergence between
force of nature, a brilliant figure whose true stature Eastern (particularly Arab, but also Byzantine) and
is only slowly being rediscovered. Sole heir to the Western cultures at the time.
What were the distinguishing elements of quest for honour, and the development of the soul
chivalry? I have devised a list of the Seven Quali- that chivalry represented. At least two of those
ties of Honour, gleaned from various medieval writers were women: the twelfth-century Marie de
books, qualities which were firmly to be sought France (not the same person as Marie de
after by both men and women. Champagne) and the early-fifteenth-century
Christine de Pisan. Marie wrote lais, narrative
Franchise, or Frankness (that is, openness of
poems, romances based on Celtic motifs, full of
mind); Pitie, or Compassion; Courage; Courtoisie,
love, magic, humour and adventure. Christine was
or Courtesy; Sagesse, or Wisdom; Largesse, or
a non-fiction writer, who wrote hugely popular
Generosity; and Temperance, or Moderation. As is
and influential books on the achievements and
obvious, these were not sex-limited characteristics.
behaviour of women. Some of these were intended
And though they were ideals, they were often
as self-help guides; others as witty and fierce
lived up to. From those seven qualities, we can get
ripostes to anti-woman propagandists. One of her
a sense of the characteristics of post-twelfth-
books, The Treasury of the City of Ladies, talks at
century medieval culture. Hotheadedness was to
length about the ways in which women achieve
be restrained; greed and avarice, always pet hates
honour and respect, and the ways in which the
of the times (and major problems) cast into the
chivalric code can be applied to everyday life.
darkness; ignorant yobbo behaviour firmly re-
jected. Let’s have a look at some of the things the
women writers said. Marie, who has a rather salty
Respect for others, and for oneself as a grow-
tongue and sardonic eye and ear for the way
ing soul, is intrinsic to the chivalric tradition. It is
people behave, is particularly preoccupied with
intended to carry through into all aspects of one’s
love and the different ways in which lovers act.
life; at its best it is truly impressive. It is pointless
She firmly tells her audience that chivalry and
to keep saying, as all too many modern writers
courtliness are about real things, that hypocrites
do, that the ideal wasn’t always lived up to; what
and coy flibbertigibbets are without honour:
ideal ever is? The fact is that this ideal genuinely
changed a whole society, and laid the groundwork The professional beauty will mince
for many other social developments in the future. and preen her feathers, and wince
at showing she favours a man,
Writers like Chretien de Troyes and Andre le unless it’s all for her gain.
Chapelain—or Andreas Capellanus, as he’s often But a worthy lady of wisdom and valour
known—wrote books demonstrating and portray- will not be too proud to show her favour
ing the new ways of being and relating between and enjoy the love of her man
the sexes: incidentally also changing the face of in every way that she can.
(This quote is from Marie’s poem
literature (the romance being the true ancestor
“Guigemar”—the translation is my own; you can
not only of the novel in general but of the fantasy find it in my novel centred on Marie, Forest of
novel). As time went on, more and more writers, Dreams.)
inspired by the beauty and depth of the ideas
Marie’s outlook is that of an upper-class
embodied within the notions of chivalry, explored
medieval woman, fluent in several languages,
it in ever greater depth. Many of these (in the
moving easily around Europe, sure of her place
main) male writers saw Woman as Muse: whether
and independent within it. She chastises strongly
spiritually as well as romantically, like Ramon
those critics who have said that what she writes
Llull, for instance, or practically and realistically,
about is not serious literature, or that it is immod-
like Godefroi de Charny (both men wrote books
est, or “untrue”, because it has magic in it (I must
on chivalry which are still in print today). Of
say that as a writer of fantasy, I felt a great sense
course, there were also those who fought hard
of kinship with her there). She is very concerned
against it and the implicit validation of women as
with female honour, and makes it quite clear that
real human beings worthy of respect, of true love,
women must show as much courage, courtesy,
and even adoration. Such a one was Jean de Me-
generosity and the other chivalric virtues as men.
ung, writer of the Romance of the Rose, an anti-
She has several examples of female characters who
woman diatribe, and the anonymous authors of
run a love affair from beginning to end, fight,
the scatological Roman de Renart, which in many
travel, and so on; just as she has a female character,
ways functions as an anti-romance.
werewolf knight Bisclavret’s faithless wife, who is
Between idealism and misogyny, though, punished severely—not for being a woman but
there were also those who saw women as equal for being faithless. This savage justice is also meted
partners in the great journey of life, and in the out to men who transgress the code.
Women really did live by this code; there are knowledge, the “mirror held up to nature”, as she
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES numerous examples of women left in charge of called it; Dame Rectitude, with her rod of peace;
large estates who faithfully and bravely mounted and Dame Justice, with her cup from whence she
the defence of those estates against the enemies of pours out stability and equilibrium—to frame a
their house, and were praised for it by chroniclers discourse in which a “City of Ladies” can be
of the time. Medieval people had a horror of constructed which allows women to fully develop
treachery and cowardice; the two were often felt their talents and potential. In so doing, she refuted
to go hand in hand. The fact that you were a many of the criticisms of women made by con-
woman did not absolve you from keeping to the temporary writers, and highlighted the achieve-
ideals of chivalry, in times of crisis and in your ments of women in many areas.
ordinary life. And in her fiction, Marie demon-
Her sequel, The Treasury of the City of Ladies
strates clearly both the complex realities of medi-
(recently republished, in English, as The Medieval
eval life, and what was considered honourable for
Woman’s Mirror of Honour), was more of a self-help
both sexes.
and advice book, tailored not only to aristocratic
From the twelfth century to the early fifteenth women but to women of all social backgrounds,
is quite a jump. We come here to the tail-end of from rich merchants to poor cottage women. The
the code of chivalry—we have been through the thrust of her argument is that, in order to act ho-
culture-shaking hideousness of the Black Death nourably, women do not need to fight against
(which, incidentally, in the latest research is no nature, but to follow selectively and intelligently
longer thought to be bubonic plague but a kind of the dictates of their truest selves.
Ebola-like virus), and are close to the shift in
Real self-knowledge and respect for others, so
thinking represented by humanism and the Refor-
central to chivalry, are also the centre of Chris-
mation. In this climate, propaganda against
tine’s words to her readers, the armour she advises
women was growing, though much of the old
them to put on to sally forth into the great
chivalric spirit remained and indeed never went
adventure of life. From it grow all those qualities
away altogether. Women of all backgrounds were
of honour, from courage and generosity to open-
still very much in evidence in ordinary life, in all
ness of mind and temperance, compassion and
kinds of ways; the cruel Roman-derived statutes,
courtesy—and the result is true wisdom. For that
which wiped out many customary rights of inher-
was the aim of chivalry: a way of reaching one’s
itance and divorce and so on, had not yet been
fullest potential as a human being, but always
applied.
keeping in view the presence, the needs, and the
Christine de Pisan, a prolific and indefatigable worth of other people. Chivalry, both male and
writer who proselytised tirelessly for the recogni- female, recognised that each of us is, indeed, our
tion of the talents, achievements and potential of brother’s or sister’s keeper—but also courageously
women, gave her advice and insights in the form responsible for our own actions. It is an ideal
of allegory and exposition. She was enormously which is of increasing and urgent relevance in the
influential and popular; her own life story is an world today.
inspiration for women desperate to know more
about the lives and achievements of women in
the past. Left a widow at a young age, with small JO ANN MCNAMARA (ESSAY DATE
children to support, Italian-born Christine
2003)
launched into a professional career as a writer in
early fifteenth-century Paris. She was not one to
bite her tongue, but took part vigorously in many
of the intellectual debates of the day, in which her
sharp intelligence, comprehensive education and
refusal to be beaten thrilled her fans and infuri-
ated her enemies.
Christine launched into a lively denunciation
of the anti-woman Romance of the Rose, pointing
out tartly the many faults in its logic and its
humanity. Her Book of the City of Ladies was
conceived as a direct riposte to Jean de Meung’s
jeremiads. She used the device of three allegorical
figures—Dame Reason, with her mirror of self-
WOMEN IN CLASSICAL ART

AND LITERATURE
JUDITH P. HALLETT (ESSAY DATE
1984)
DENISE LARDNER CARMODY

(ESSAY DATE 1988)
SOURCE: Carmody, Denise Lardner. “Genesis 2:23-
24.” In Biblical Woman: Contemporary Reflections on
Scriptural Texts, pp. 9-14. New York: Crossroad Publish-
ing, 1988.
In the following essay, Carmody approaches the book of
Genesis from an analytical perspective informed by
contemporary feminism.
Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man
leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his
wife, and they become one flesh.
The scholarly consensus is that this text oc-

curs in a stratum of the J, or Yahwist (J from the
German Jahwist), tradition. J is the oldest of the
traditions woven into Genesis, probably having
roots as early as the tenth century B.C.E. It is earthy,
shrewd, and the source of some of our most
memorable Genesis passages. In contrast to the
priestly (P) source that opens Genesis and the
Bible, J is less interested in questions of cosmic
order and more interested in concrete humanity,
with its wonders and scars alike.
Our text occurs in a block of J material extend-
ing from 2:4b to 3:24. In terms of the full canoni-
cal text, this block, concerned with the creation
and disobedience of the first human beings, is in
part a reprise of the account of the creation of all
the things of heaven and earth (see 1:26-29 for
the P account of the rise of human beings) and in
part a new venture, a much closer look at the
creature of most interest to the Bible. Prior to our
verses, the J account has narrated the creation of
the earth and the heavens and the formation of
the man from dust, into which God breaths the
spirit of life. Placed in Eden to keep its gardens,
the man is commanded not to eat of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. At this time he is
alone, apparently a solitary male, and the full
force of both the Lord’s creative force and com-
mand rest on him. God then seems to observe the
solitary state of this man and to decide it will not count in P makes humanity male and female from
do. So, to make him a helper, God fashions beasts the outset (1:27). The idea that women exist to be
and birds of every kind. (In the J account, the man helpers of men, rather than independent agents
is the first creature; in the P account, human be- or species of humanity equally entitled to receive
ings come at the end of the creative process.) help, buttresses this male-supremacist reading. J
However, none of these beasts or birds is satisfac- takes us into a patriarchal world in which men
tory. Apparently, the man needs a different sort of place themselves at the center of society (indeed,
helper. at the center of creation) and in which women (as
well as beasts and birds) exist for men’s support.
There follows the well-known story of the
formation of a woman from the rib of the man, Nonetheless, the tone of the man’s exclama-
whom God has put into a deep sleep. When God tion softens this legitimate reading. However
takes the woman to the awakened man, he utters much he accepts the notion that he should have
the words of our text, every indication being that a helper, someone to assuage his lonely estate as
he is delighted, if not indeed awed. The etymol- the overlord of God’s work, he is delighted beyond
ogy of woman clearly derives from man, and the the measure one would expect had he been shown
story of the rib may be a visual way of putting “man’s best friend” or a noble steed. Even were
this derivation. A midrash (Jewish interpretational these animals to prove themselves exceptional
gloss) on this text offers the opinion that human- helpers, servants willing and able to labor from
ity originally was bisexual—an undivided whole.1 dawn to dusk, the man would still be alone, the
How literally we are to take this opinion is uncer- word that dominates Gen. 2:18, where God is
tain, but it underscores the mysterious affinity musing about the situation of his first creature.
between male and female, which is such as to sug- The helper the man sees upon awakening from
gest a common source. The second of our two the sleep that allowed the removal of his rib bids
verses seems in the nature of a homily, a short fair to dispel his loneliness. Furthermore, we may
sermon by way of reaction to the man’s exclama- infer that she seems a work worthy of God,
tion. However, it is a homily with an eye to something that can more than redeem the man’s
Israelite custom, as well as the well-nigh universal loss of part of his bodily substance.
custom of all peoples: when woman and man The exclamation thus stresses the unity of the
marry, they leave (emotionally if not physically) now two examples of humankind. To bone-depth,
what had previously been their strongest emo- as something inscribed in the flesh of both, they
tional ties: those with their parents. Even when are together. By cleaving, they make a natural
one grants that the extended family structures of unity, a primordial building block. Indeed, their
the ancient Near East make it possible the author sexual union will be a reminder of their unified
meant to include the new family arrangements beginnings. Even when the man is made the
set between the spouses, who become daughter source of the woman (in an arrogation of birthing
and son to another set of parents, the basic refer- symbolism to males that has parallels in other
ence to the implications of heterosexual encounter patriarchal societies—woman’s primacy in produc-
seems obvious. The two become one flesh, not ing new human life is something male-dominated
just because that is how children get born, not societies everywhere have struggled with), the
just because that is what families arrange so that more important point is the conjunction of their
children get born, but because from the begin- destinies. From the moment the man delights in
ning they have been “one flesh” in the sense of his womanly helper/companion/coordinated
allied, so made physically and emotionally that flesh, their story is bound to unfold as one family
“helping” defines their relationship. tale.
This said, we must also underscore the fairly If we now step back to take stock of how this
obvious patriarchalism or male supremacism of text rings in a feminist age, we realize, perhaps
the text. This stance seems more unthinking and fully for the first time, that the Bible is one of
assumed than deliberately taught, but it shows feminists’ great problems. For centuries, people
quite clearly that the J authors thought of male have been able to go to this text, usually thinking
humanity as the primary instance and of female it virtually God’s dictated word (both traditional
humanity as something secondary, if not deriva- Jews and traditional Christians tended to think
tive. (One should not push images too hard and this way), and find an anthropology, an under-
assume that the woman’s coming from the man’s standing of human nature, that makes masculin-
rib means the authors thought in terms of direct ity primary and femininity secondary, or ancil-
physical derivation.) In contrast, the creation ac- lary. The tip-off to the patriarchal mentality comes
in the biological shift that makes the male the well the maturity that critical interpretation
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES producer of the female. This twist so flies in the requires. One cannot do it well as an ideologue,
face of how every mother’s son has come into bean absolutist. Neither unchallenging fidelity to
ing that we should hear the alarm bells ringing. the letter of the scriptural text nor ungracious
Patriarchy felt it had to say that, in the beginning, refusal to recognize the contributions of biblical
at the crucial first hour, masculinity begot femi- faith will do the job. If the text manifestly is
ninity. After that beginning, the fathers perhaps inadequate to today’s feminists’ needs, it remains
felt, the helper could take over the ongoing true that the text has helped millions of men and
reproduction. The male had given the first initia- women, however unknowingly, to cherish one
tive, had provided the creative impulse (and had another as flesh of one flesh and bone of one
been accorded the first honors), so the patriarchal bone.
mythology remained intact.
One notes similar tendencies in such parallel Notes
1. W. Gunter Plaut, ed., The Torah: A Modern Commentary
creation accounts as the Japanese. There, in the (New York: Union of American Hebrew Congrega-
Shinto chronicles, the male, Izanagi, has to speak tions, 1981), p. 32.
first, because that is what is fitting. Because Izan- 2. Rysyaku Tsunoda, William Theodore DeBary, and
ami, the female, breaks this fitting pattern, their Donald Keene, eds., Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol. 1
first child is defective.2 On the other hand, in (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964), pp. 25-
many places the Bible is its own debunker of pa- 26. This story is discussed in Denise Lardner Carmody
and John Tully Carmody, The Story of World Religions
triarchalism, including in this text. For it is not (Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield, 1988), pp. 441-44.
the first male who really creates, but only the Lord
God. Thus any tendency of patriarchal Israelite
mythology to snatch the creative power from ANNETTE DEPLA (ESSAY DATE
females and arrogate it to themselves runs into 1994)
the textual problem of God’s creative primacy. At
best the first male was the matter from which God
fashioned the first female. A certain male primacy
remains, in that the myth first considers human-
ity to be solitary maleness, but this “advantage” is
proven inadequate, unworkable, and so any
extended claims to male supremacy easily could
be debunked (“When you were on your own, you
couldn’t hack it”). Throughout, God’s judgment
and creative power are truly significant, and by
the end God has made it clear that authentic
humanity is a delightful coordination of male and
female.
Insofar as present-day culture allows feminists
to start from an assumption that men and women
are radically equal in their humanity, it places
feminists in a dialectical relationship with the
biblical text. We shall see that this is a regular oc-
currence. Here feminists may judge themselves
both debtors to the text for a deep insight into
the coordination, the shared origin and fate, of
men and women, and people called to accuse the
text of patriarchal sexual biases. In other words,
feminists may find themselves not only recipients
of a valuable heritage but people whom honesty
forces to challenge, criticize, and even, at places,
reject the biblical text. Such a finding implies the
heady wine of critical hermeneutics—theory of
interpretation that wants both to listen and to
respond. We shall see a good deal more of this
need for a critical mind, but here we should mark
SUE BLUNDELL (ESSAY DATE 1995)
SOURCE: Blundell, Sue. “Myth: An Introduction.” In
Women in Ancient Greece, pp. 14-19. London: British
Museum Press, 1995.
In the following excerpt, Blundell reviews the principal
ways in which women are portrayed in Greek myth: typi-
cally as powerful goddesses, royal figures, or destructive
monsters, but in many cases as liminal or victimized
individuals.
Women in Myth: Goddesses, Royals and

Monsters
The heading above refers to the three levels of
being which women assume in Greek myth. The
divine level is dominated by the figures of the six
goddesses (Hera, Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite,
Demeter, Hestia) who together with six gods (Zeus,
Poseidon, Apollo, Hermes, Ares, Hephaestus) form
a ruling élite known as the Olympian deities. But
there are also many lesser goddesses, the relatives
and associates of the Olympians; and a number of
divine female collectives, such as the Fates, the
Muses and the Graces. On the human level of
representation, myth features women from a
number of social classes. But it would be true to
say that the only ones with starring roles are the
queens and princesses of the ruling households,
such as Helen or Electra. This is indicative of the
fact that the Bronze Age, when many Greeks were
still ruled by monarchs, was a crucial time for the
creation of myth. Royalty was one of the bits of
traditional social baggage that Greek myth carried
with it into later ages, but its presence did not
mean that the stories were of no relevance to
women and men of other classes. When, for
example, the tragedian Aeschylus was writing
about the queen Clytemnestra in fifth-century
Athens, where no royal women existed, his play
would not have been dismissed as having no
implications for the more egalitarian society of his
own day.
On the third level of being there is the female
monster, who is part-woman and part-animal.
Examples of this type are the Gorgons, three sisters
who had golden wings, boars’ tusks and snaky
hair, and who turned men to stone; and the
Sphinx, whose form embraced that of woman,
lioness and bird. These creatures speak most obvi-
ously of the fear which women inspired in men.
to account for this anomaly by resorting to a
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES hypothetical reconstruction of the origins of
Greek religion. According to this hypothesis,
before the arrival of the Greeks on the Greek
mainland, in about 2000 B.C., the native popula-
tion consisted of settled agriculturalists, who
worshipped deities who were primarily female and
were associated with the fertility of the earth. The
Greeks then brought with them a set of strong
male deities more suited to their own way of life,
which hitherto had revolved around warfare, pil-
lage and the use of horses. As the native and Greek
populations combined, their religions went
through a process of fusion whereby the resident
females and the incoming males were brought
together in a single system. The tensions gener-
ated by this development found expression in
mythological accounts of friction between females
and males, one example being the stormy mar-
riage of Hera and Zeus.2
Nowadays it is widely accepted that this
reconstruction is a gross oversimplification. The
culture of ancient Greece was a complex phenom-
Sculpture by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1630) depicting enon made up of many strands, and its anomalies
Medusa, a Greek mythological figure whose gaze turned cannot be explained simply in terms of the racial
people to stone. differences which are the basis of this theory.
Archaeological evidence from the Cycladic islands
and from Crete, dating from the Early and Middle
But it is worth remembering that beings which Bronze Age periods, would certainly seem to
are terrifying can also be useful, because they help indicate that female deities were widely wor-
to keep one’s enemies at bay. So, while Freud’s shipped during that time,3 and this may go some
theory that the Gorgon’s head represents the way towards explaining the prominence of god-
castrating female genitals should certainly not be desses in later Greek religion. There is, however,
dismissed out of hand,1 it should also be borne in very little evidence to support the idea, still com-
mind that antefixes in the form of these heads monly encountered, that in the prehistoric era
were commonly used to decorate Greek temples. there existed a single unified Mother or Earth God-
Similarly the Sphinx, which in myth destroys dess, who was worshipped throughout Europe and
those hapless passers-by who cannot answer its the Middle East. It seems much more likely that
riddles, often served as a grave-marker in Greek there were quite a few female deities, with varying
cemeteries of the sixth century B.C. Both these functions, in early Greece. The historical process
objects doubtless had the function of frightening whereby these goddesses were gradually incorpo-
away evil spirits. This points to the ambiguity of rated into a male-dominated pantheon cannot
the male response to the female. Even the Furies, now be recovered, because the evidence simply
the ghastly spirits of vengeance with Gorgon-style does not exist. It would undoubtedly have been a
snaky hair, who generally seem to be pretty complex transformation, involving social, politi-
straight-forwardly nasty, turn into kindly beings, cal and cultural changes as well as external influ-
or Eumenides, at the end of the play of that name ences.
by Aeschylus. The notion of a prehistoric Mother Goddess
The amount of speculation prompted by the has been linked by some people with the idea of
Greek goddesses in recent years makes it necessary matriarchy, or rule by women. The matriarchal
to provide some additional comment on their his- era as such is outside the scope of this work, since,
tory. It is a frequently-noted paradox that the if it ever existed, it would have been located in
societies which worshipped these prominent the Stone and Early Bronze Ages. However, since
female deities were ones in which real women had the idea of matriarchy has influenced the interpre-
a very low status. Many commentators have tried tation of Greek myths, a brief discussion is neces-
sary. As a theory it relies very heavily on those Dionysus whom he is persecuting are repeatedly
myths which describe the suppression of women’s linked to the savage world of the mountainside
power. The upholders of matriarchy argue that and its wild animals. That the encounter between
these contain echoes of the historical transition nature and culture can be seen as leading to the
from matriarchal to patriarchal government. But destruction of men is demonstrated in this in-
this reliance on myth makes the theory a very stance by the appalling fate of Pentheus, who is
dubious one, since, as we have seen, the myths torn to pieces by the women when he tries to spy
which we possess were the products of the adapta- on them.7
tions worked upon them by later patriarchal We have already seen, in the discussion of
societies. For example, it was probably not until female monsters, that women in myth can be ter-
the sixth century B.C. that the story of Agamem- rifying and destructive. This is equally true of
non’s murder was altered in order to make Clytem- regular mortal women, among whom betrayers,
nestra the chief perpetrator. In other words, the avengers and murderers are legion. Not all of these
‘matriarchal’ element, the woman’s attempt to women are isolated individuals: there are also
rule and her violent overthrow, was added at a whole societies of women who murder their
later stage, at a time when patriarchal domination husbands, such as the daughters of Danaus or the
in Greece was firmly established. women of Lemnos. Men in Greek myth can, of
There is no clear evidence to prove that course, do their fair share of killing, but this is
matriarchy ever existed as a historical reality. usually a straightforward manly affair, in the hunt
Many feminist scholars today, while accepting or on the battlefield. Typically, a woman employs
that some prehistoric societies were much more trickery and deception in order to dispose of oth-
egalitarian than later historical ones, reject the ers; and the people disposed of are generally
notion of outright female dominance. 4 As a related to her by blood or by marriage. The
feature of myth, rule by women (which is not in ultimate negation of the woman who adheres to
fact all that common) can best be understood, not her proper role in life is the mother who murders
as a memory of historical events, but as a narra- her sons, and of these there are several examples.
tive ‘providing justification for a present and In The Bacchae, for instance, Agave is the leader of
perhaps permanent reality by giving an invented the band of women worshippers who tear her son
“historical” explanation of how this reality was Pentheus limb from limb.
created’.5 In other words, the myth explains why Clearly these themes demonstrate a great
men and not women rule, and hence helps to anxiety about women—one which does not ap-
validate and reinforce male control. It is the pear to be justified by any of the facts which are
‘justifiable’ male take-over which is the crucial known to us. The question of this anxiety will be
factor. So, to take the example of Clytemnestra, as taken up again. . . . For now, it should be noted
a ruler she is shown to be bloody and tyrannical, that the notion of women’s destructiveness can
and the restoration of male power is seen as probably be linked in part to their perceived close-
something to be welcomed. ness to nature, and hence their perceived remote-
A brief survey of the symbolic associations of ness from civilised values. As Gould has written,
the mythological female concludes this [essay]. ‘women are not part of, do not belong easily in,
Prominent among these is the identification of the male ordered world of the “civilised” com-
women with the wildness of nature—that is, with munity; they have to be accounted for in other
whatever exists beyond the boundaries of an terms, and they threaten continually to overturn
ordered civilisation. It is generally assumed that it its stability or subvert its continuity, to break out
is women’s capacity for child-bearing, and hence of the place assigned to them by their partial
their alignment with natural forces beyond male incorporation within it. Yet they are essential to
control, that prompts these commonly envisaged it: they are producers and bestowers of wealth and
relationships with trees, plants, springs, birds, and children, the guarantors of due succession . . .
so on.6 This nature symbolism can often be found Like the earth and once-wild animals, they must
to be operating within a ‘nature versus culture’ be tamed and cultivated by men, but their “wild-
model, where men are seen as the representatives ness” will out.’ (1980, p. 57).
of a civilised society which is somehow opposed Implicit in what Gould is saying here is a no-
to the forces of nature. One example occurs in Eu- tion of women as ‘liminal’. This is an anthropo-
ripides’ play The Bacchae, where the king, Pen- logical term, meaning ‘existing on, or crossing,
theus, is associated with ordered life within the boundaries’.8 Women in Greek myth can be seen
walls of the city, while the women worshippers of more often than not to be boundary-crossers: they
are represented as anomalous creatures who, while J. Gould (1980) ‘Law, custom and myth: aspects of the social
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES they live in the ordered community and are vital position of women in Classical Athens’ Journal of Hel-
lenic Studies 100, pp 38-59.
to its continuance, do not really belong there.
They are always liable to cross over its boundaries W. K. C. Guthrie (1950) The Greeks and their gods Methuen.
into some disorderly state of being, and for this S. B. Ortner (1974) ‘Is female to male as nature is to
reason they are seen as highly dangerous. culture?’, in Rosaldo and Lamphere (1974), pp 67-87.
Perhaps equally as common as the destructive M. Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere (1974) Woman, culture and
society Stanford University Press.
women of myth, though receiving far less atten-
tion, are the women who are victims. They are
united with their more outgoing sisters in a basic
antithesis: mortal women who are active are very
often destroyers, while mortal women who are WOMEN IN MEDIEVAL ART
passive are very often destroyed. This is particu-
larly true of the scores of women who are raped AND LITERATURE
or seduced by gods in Greek myth: in the sexual
CHRISTA GRÖSSINGER (ESSAY
act or in subsequently giving birth they are liable
to perish, often in very nasty ways.
DATE 1997)
Notes
1. See S. Freud (1922). The fact that in visual images the
Gorgon has a gaping mouth, and that the Greek word
stoma denotes both a mouth and either the cervix of
the uterus or the lips of the vulva, lends some plausi-
bility to Freud’s theory. For Freud, the snaky hair of
the Gorgon symbolises both pubic hair and, in a typi-
cally Freudian piece of acrobatic thinking, a multipli-
cation of penises.
2. For one version of this theory, see Guthrie (1950), pp.

27-35.
3. For discussions of the evidence, and a résumé of recent

references, see Ehrenberg (1989), pp. 66-76, and
Goodison (1989), pp. 4-11.
4. For example, see Ehrenberg (1989), pp. 63-6.

5. Bamberger (1974), p. 267.
6. For a much fuller discussion of this symbolisation, see

Ortner (1974).
7. I would not want to suggest that in this play Euripides

is ‘for’ civilisation and ‘against’ nature: the work is far
more complex than this. See pp. 174-7.
8. For a useful discussion of liminality, see Friedrich
(1978), pp. 132-3.
Bibliography
J. Bamberger (1974) ‘The myth of matriarchy: why men
rule in primitive society’, in Rosaldo and Lamphere
(1974), pp 263-80.
M. Ehrenberg (1989) Women in prehistory British Museum
Press.
S. Freud (1922) Medusa’s head, reproduced in the Standard
edition of the complete psychological works, Hogarth Press,
1955, vol. 18, pp 273-4.
P. Friedrich (1978) The meaning of Aphrodite University of

Chicago Press.
L. Goodison (1989) ‘Death, women and the sun: symbol-

ism of regeneration in early Aegean religion’ Bulletin of
the Institute of Classical Studies supplement 53.
Illustration depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
CORINNE SAUNDERS (ESSAY DATE
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES 2001)
DAVID SALTER (ESSAY DATE 2002)
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ

MARIE DE FRANCE (FL. 12TH CENTURY)
The earliest known female French writer,
Marie de France is considered one of the fin-
est poets of her century. She is best known
for her Lais, a collection of twelve verse tales
written in octosyllabic rhyming couplets.
Historians speculate that Marie may have
been the originator of the form, but they
concede that the absence of extant Breton
lays, upon which Marie claimed to have
based her lais, makes it difficult to determine
the extent of her originality. Very little is
known for certain of Marie’s life, and much
of the information cited by biographers is
conjectural. Biographers generally agree that
Marie was born in France in the last half of
the twelfth century and that she lived for
many years in England. Many critics have
held that her vocabulary, style, end knowl-
edge of Latin, French, and English indicate
that Marie belonged to an aristocratic, per-
haps even noble, family.
Marie’s lais are undoubtedly romances
and share certain elements with the tradi-
tional love tales of her day. Yet they differ
from the prevailing forms of medieval ro-
mance, especially the chivalric tales of courtly
love, in that Marie informs her work with an
unprecedented feminine sensibility and writes
about women as significant characters, not
just as objects of devotion. Contemporary
critics describe Marie as a storyteller of great
charm and imagination, who wrote with wit,
intelligence, and economy. In her narratives
Marie conveys not only style of dress and
manner of speech, but also the behavioral
codes and societal attitudes of the late twelfth
century. Her vivid portrait of life in the
medieval Anglo-Norman court, as well as her
insightful and vigorous treatment of love and
human relationships, have earned her both
critical attention and acclaim.
and attractive for the female. The subtle privileg-
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES ing of the fairy queen over Arthur—syntactically,
with just a little more word space and more move-
ment—accurately establishes the appositional pat-
tern that the hag will develop fully. Just as the
Irish Sovranty Hag takes her authority from the
SUSAN CARTER (ESSAY DATE 2003) land of which she is a personification, so the fairy
SOURCE: Carter, Susan. “Coupling the Beastly Bride aspect of the loathly lady takes strength from
and the Hunter Hunted: What Lies behind Chaucer’s
outdoor space.4 The opening emphasis on the
Wife of Bath’s Tale?” Chaucer Review 37, no. 4 (2003):
329-45. female at home in the green meadow sets up a
paradigm that the hag will fully realize.
In the following excerpt, Carter elucidates the critical
feminine subjectivity of Chaucer’s “loathly lady,” the Despite the acknowledgment of Arthur’s
Wife of Bath, as seen in her tale of King Arthur’s court in
The Canterbury Tales.
reputation for honor, his court is flagrantly sub-
verted by the Wife of Bath’s subjective narration.5
We do not know where Chaucer found the Once the Wife has set the stage in “th’olde dayes
loathly lady motif. Whatever source he encoun- of the Kyng Arthour” (III 857), that specifically
tered, whatever transmutation to it had occurred, British king, she does not valorize the knights of
he evidently appreciated the more immediate the Round Table. Chaucer precedes Malory with a
destabilization of gender roles that springs from redaction that is conspicuously more sophisticated
the loathly lady seen as a personification of the in licensing a wry female perspective. Malory’s
kingdom. Jill Mann pinpoints exactly what is so knights are often bunglers of the adventure God
powerful in the Wife of Bath’s Tale when she notes gives them, such as when Sir Gawain returns from
that “[t]he ‘anti-feminist’ elements . . . constitute his first episode with a maiden’s head, having
the force behind the tale’s challenge to male botched the principle of mercy, but Malory ex-
domination. When the knight surrenders to presses straight-faced regret for such misadventure
female ‘maistrye’, he surrenders not to the roman- with a tone of authorial respect: living by the
ticized woman projected by male desire, but to sword simply has a bit of a downside. In contrast,
the woman conceived in the pessimistic terms of the Wife presents the house of Arthur as unques-
anti-feminism.”1 To her observation I add that the tionably the source of sexual “oppressioun” (III
loathly lady contributes pagan weight to this task 889). The male lead is a young knight who belongs
of turning misogyny back upon itself. Acceptance to Arthur—“And so bifel that this kyng Arthour /
of what is repulsive about women is inherent in Hadde in his hous a lusty bacheler” (III 882-83)—
the motif. Chaucer’s loathly lady directly relates and who launches the tale by raping a maiden.
to the Wife of Bath’s obsession with the dynamics
This event contrasts startlingly with the Irish
of heterosexual commerce: the manipulation of
tales and most other loathly lady tales—for ex-
power ratios by desire, pleasure, and frustration.
ample the Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell
Moreover, vestiges of the earlier tales’ framework
and the ballad King Henry—which begin with a
brings the anagogic force inherent in the Irish
knight hunting, engrossed in that aristocratic
tales into the courtly English work. The sense of a
masculine pastime.6 Like the forest, the hunt is a
deep truth, a truest truth, such as that underlying topos grounded upon actuality, but with a literary
the testing of the true king, is poetically imprinted life of its own. Marcelle Thiebaux likens the hunt
in these vestiges and brought into the Wife’s field to “the familiar narrative framework of the Jour-
of interest in the background details of Chaucer’s ney.”7 This observation makes sense of the Bil-
tale.2 dungsroman quality of many of the loathly lady
Before the hag appears at the forest side, tales (arguably, Chaucer’s included) in which the
manifesting herself as a dance of ladies to lure her male protagonist makes a journey through conflict
venial knight into her clutches, the Wife sets the and harrying to self-realization. In the Wife of
scene of her tale by establishing “Kyng Arthour” Bath’s Tale the motif is suppressed, although when
in apposition with a fairy queen who once danced we first meet the knight he may be riding from
upon “many a grene mede” (III 861), a nostalgic the river, as Christine Ryan Hilary suggests,
reminder of fairy influence over natural space.3 because he is hawking for waterfowl. 8 Anne
“Greet honour” is reportedly attributed to Arthur, Rooney notes that “The noble hunt in England
but the fairy queen dances “with hir joly com- was especially limited in its scope,” and that
paignye,” so that high esteem for the male is “hunting manuals paid no attention to the utili-
countered by something more communal, lively, tarian trapping of animals . . . for food.”9 Perhaps
hawking for waterfowl is also unworthy of men- looses the “lusty bacheler” into the countryside, it
tion, being at a remove from the hunter, as well as is women who people the Arthurian court interior.
less dramatic than the killing of larger animals, The feminization of Arthur’s court, and of
and thus Hilary’s assumption is in keeping with justice, is compounded when the knight returns
literary convention. But I suspect that it is based to either answer the riddle correctly or submit his
on her sensitivity to the formula by which, in the neckbone to iron. “Whan they be comen to the
earliest versions, the male is out hunting when he court” (III 1023) to judge the knight’s response,
encounters the hag. “they” are made up entirely of women: “Ful many
Although the audience may be meant to a noble wyf, and many a mayde, / And many a
presume that any knight by a river is hunting wydwe” (III 1026-27) assemble. Although Gower’s
fowl, as Hilary proposes, Chaucer’s tale slips away and Chaucer’s unknown source is likely to have
from the hunt—with its resonance of fate, magic, come through a French filtration, the sense that
and the testing of prowess—to displace the contes- Chaucer’s hag is related to the Celtic triple moon
tation onto the female person: the maid whom goddess tales is reinforced in the three stages of
the knight rapes. The knight’s hunt is transposed womanhood assembled with life-or-death power
to the rape of the “mayde walkynge him beforn” over the knight.
(III 886)—like a stalker he approaches from be- The head to this feminine body politic is the
hind—in keeping with Chaucer’s more significant queen, “hirself sittynge as a justise” (III 1028).
relocation: the placing of sovereignty within the When Arthur relinquishes the matter to his
personal power politics of marriage rather than in queen, his surrender is complete, and she is
the kingship which the word sovereignty literally authorized to take over the king’s power as ulti-
signifies. Since the knight is a sexual predator mate judge. Malory’s Guinevere is isolated from
rather than an aristocratic sportsman, the turning feminine company, never given legitimate power,
of the power ratio to make him a sexual victim is and resented as a breaker of male bonds; she is a
acutely appropriate. The rape, so inappropriate for single representation in the court of the danger-
a true hero, signals that Chaucer’s tale is more ous sexuality of the female species. The Wife, in
interested in gender power imbalance than in the contrast, places Guinevere in the seat of judgment,
qualities that make a good king. surrounded by a court of curious women, who
The Wife’s subjective voice is also authenti- “Assembled been, his answere for to heere” (III
cated by her sharply critical view of the reality of 1029). This feminine jury will help her to decide
knights and maidens. The Wife sees that maidens the knight’s fate. The Wife thus briskly usurps the
are grist for the mill in the chivalric scheme— male prerogative of justice, redistributes it to the
objects with the limited option of being either women of the court, and puts the knights of the
rescued or raped—and her response is to rewrite court in the shadows off the edge of the narrative,
the script, allowing the hag to oppress and reedu- the spot usually reserved for the ladies.
cate the errant knight. Her cynicism goes so far as Even in the closure of the tale, patriarchy is
to displace the males from the central position not restored to the court, despite the fact that the
and to promote instead the women of the court.1 0 loathly lady offers her groom ultimate jurisdiction
The reaction to the rape is “swich clamour / And over her person, declaring somewhat excessively,
swich pursute unto the kyng Arthour” (III 889-90) “Dooth with my lyf and deth right as yow lest”
that the knight is condemned to death through (III 1248). Her problematic concession of will is
“cours of lawe” (III 892). In theory, Arthur is the made in a narrow world peopled by two who
ultimate adjudicator, pressed by the people to share “parfit joye” (III 1258), thus in the context
punish his own, a reminder that his knights of consensual sex. Is it too essentialist to assume
provide an elite-military system of justice. How- that what is said in intimate play may not be a
ever, the last we see of Arthur is when he concedes definitive statement on power relations, but an
jurisdiction over the knight to the queen, who indulgence, equivalent to Mars allowing his lover
has prayed for his “grace” in this matter for “[s]o to wear his armor during dalliance? The unequal
longe,” along with “other ladyes mo” (III 894-95). power balance between the hag who can change
The sense of a full court surrounding the king and shape and the knight who remains nameless is
queen is thus achieved only by the inclusion of well-established by this stage; the bride hands over
these ladies, who beg the king for control with a phallic power to a man she has selected, won, and
persistence that seems to match the earlier clamor is bedding in a private moment of pleasure,
for his punishment. Although Arthur is named presumably so that her own pleasure will be
and Guinevere is not, and although his household enhanced by his empowerment. For the purposes
of this tale, the court is represented by what swiftly, / Until he reached the stream” where “the
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES women want; the bedchamber in which a hus- fawn was slain / By the four noble and very comely
youth” (71). Iteration of the youth’s nobility and
band is rendered as subservient as a lover sub- comeliness counters the possibility that the slaying of
sumes the usual representation of the court, its a father’s familiar is loutish behavior. In “Lughaidh
hall, and Round Table, as the seat of masculine Laidhe” king-making begins with Lughaidh’s capture
of a golden fawn. Niall, too, in the Adventures of the
power. As well as creating a sense of authentic
Sons of Eochaid, is a hunter out in the forest with his
feminine subjectivity in the Wife’s assessment of brothers when he encounters the hag.
the Arthurian court, her regendering is sympa-
7. Marcelle Thiebaux, The Stag of Love: The Chase in
thetic to the Sovranty Hag’s ultimate jurisdiction Medieval Literature (Ithaca, N.Y., 1974) 21.
over the male court. . . .1 1
8. Gloss to ryver, Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson
(Boston, 1987) 117.
Notes 9. Anne Rooney, Hunting, in Middle English Literature
1. Jill Mann, Geoffrey Chaucer (New York, 1991), 92.
(Suffolk, 1993) 3.
2. The Wife of Bath’s Tale is a lai in the romance genre.
10. Susanna Fein notes that in the “faery realm” of WBT,
Louise O. Fradenburg considers whether this makes it
“[a] maternal presence supersedes the laws fixed by
a “regressive fantasy” and finds that, conversely, it
the king” and that “maternal justice . . . takes a more
makes the Wife seem “progressive or modern” (“The
flexible view of women’s bodies” (“Other Thought-
Wife of Bath’s Passing Fancy,” Studies in the Age of
worlds,” [A Campanion to Chaucer, ed. Peter Brown
Chaucer 8 [1986]: 31-58, at 34-35). Fradenberg observes
Oxford, 2000] 337): “woman with her permeable body
that “The very escapism of romance thus points,
is the archetypal shape-shifter” (340). My consider-
paradoxically, to the genre’s potential as an instru-
ation of the Irish Sovranty Hag’s contribution endorses
ment for change” (41). Sarah Disbrow conversely finds
Fein’s interpretation of the effects of “the full force of
the Wife’s genre to be an “antiquated fairy tale” and
mystical ‘femenye’” (341) on the rapist knight.
proposes that the Wife is intended to be “an allegori-
cal figure representing human carnality much like her 11. Fein notes that “It is almost as if, figuratively, the
male counterpart, January” (“The Wife of Bath’s Old realm of feminine faery surrounds, womb-like, the
Wives’ Tale,” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 8 [1986]: 59- masculine world of Arthur and his virile knights”
71, at 59-60). Disbrow speculates that, by giving this (“Other Thought-worlds,” 340), without underscoring
tale to the Wife, Chaucer “hoped to discredit Arthu- the Irish Sovranty figure’s control of the king as the
rian romance” (61). However, Chaucer is building up model for this dynamic.
a convincing feminine perspective when he allows
the Wife to deconstruct Arthurian romance, and, since
I agree with Mann’s summation of the Wife as finally
likeable (as January is not), I am not convinced by
Disbrow’s argument.
3. Angela Jane Weisl briefly notes the spatial significance
CLASSICAL AND MEDIEVAL
of this outdoors dance, proposing that “by moving WOMEN WRITERS
the outside inside, the friars have chased away those
who lived in the natural world” (Conquering the Reign NANCY LEE SWANN (ESSAY DATE
of Femeny: Gender and Genre in Chaucer’s Romance
[Cambridge, Eng., 1995], 90), although she is more 1932)
interested in the temporal comparison that the Wife SOURCE: Swann, Nancy Lee. “The Moralist.” In Pan
sets up than in the implications inherent in the Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar of China, pp. 133-39.
interior and exterior spaces. New York: Russell & Russell, 1968.
4. This contrasts with the mortal women in medieval In the following excerpt, originally published in 1932,
literature, who are typically confined to the domestic Swann examines the moral precepts of Pan Chao’s first-
interiors of narrative settings and are vulnerable to century A.D. treatise Lessons for Women, the oldest
danger when they are found outdoors, as are, for known work of its kind.
example, Dame Herodis of Sir Orfeo and Guinevere
(kidnapped while out on a May picnic) of Malory’s Pan Chao holds a unique place in the history
“The Knight and the Cart” episode. of Chinese philosophy, as the first thinker to
5. Weisl declares that WBT is “an essentially court-based formulate a single complete statement of feminine
one,” since all within it speak the “language of courtly ethics. Despite its brevity, her “Lessons for
romance” (Conquering the Reign, 91). Granting this, the
Women” not only contains an elucidation of the
court within the poem is no ordinary one, being
insistently feminized. science of the perfecting of womanly character—a
system of theoretical moral principles,—but also
6. In the “Lughaidh Mal” the seven sons of Daire are all
called Lughaidh, “In hopes the prophecy in them lays down rules for the practical application of
would be fulfilled” ([“Appendix A to The Genealogy these principles. Although the basis of this science
of Corca Laide,” Miscellany of the Celtic Society, Dublin, is an unchanging moral code, which is affirmed
1849] 69). Daire’s deer is immediately introduced as
in the most absolute manner, many of its rules are
though bound into the prophecy: “Daire had a magi-
cal fawn as a familiar / In the shape of a yearling deer” such as could easily be restated in new terms to
(69). Four of the sons meet the deer, who “passed on meet the conditions of a new age, so that the work
may be considered as involving in some degree inculcated humility, and formulated practical rules
the concept of relative ethics. of conduct implying that the young woman must
According to the Mémoires concernant les Chi- claim nothing for herself. While strength was the
nois, followed by S. Wells Williams in his article, chief glory of man, the beauty of woman’s charac-
“Education of Woman in China,” Pan Chao ter lay in gentleness, and the most important les-
composed the “Lessons” in her position as instruc- son for woman to learn was that of respectful
tress to the young consort of the emperor Ho (89- acquiescence. In the home, however, woman
105 A.D.), intending them also, however, “for the should fill her place as perfectly as man fills his in
improvement of her sex at large.”1 Perhaps there the larger and perhaps more important world of
is, or was, a Chinese written source for these state- affairs. “That which must be done, let her finish
ments; but Pan Chao’s own explanation, given in completely, tidily, and systematically.” Probably
her introduction, is that the book was intended implying that she must bear sons for this purpose,
for “unmarried girls,” whom she asked to make, Pan Chao assigned to the woman the duty of
each for herself, a copy for personal use.2 The term ensuring the continuance of worship in the home,
chu nü could never be interpreted to include the as well as the tasks of preparation for the rites. She
empress. That she wrote primarily for the girls in went so far as to say that boys and girls are equally
her own family seems to be clear from the fact important, and though it must be the woman
that a reference to her son is followed by the who should seek to win5 her husband’s heart, she
reflection that “a man is able to plan his own life “need not use flattery, coaxing words, and cheap
. . . but I do grieve that girls just at the age of methods of intimacy.” It was the modest and
marriage have not at this time training and obedient gentlewoman who would become il-
advice.” In writing the treatise she may well have lustrious in her district and win honor and fame
had in view also “the improvement of her sex at for herself and her parents.
large;” but she does not say so in any definite The conduct of such a woman would be
statement. However the work was handed, as soon dictated by her own respect for her husband. In
as it was completed, to Ma Rung, who so highly the high place accorded to her as his consort in
approved of its contents that he “ordered the the family line of ancestors and descendants, she
wives and daughters (of his family) to practise it.” should take upon herself as a sacred duty the
Indisputably the “Lessons” were designed to preparation of the offerings of food and wine for
meet the needs of the women of the period, as worship. The routine tasks which ensure cleanli-
Pan Chao saw them. By the use of the phrase chih ness in person, food, and household must be care-
mien êrh,3 “I know how to escape (from my fears fully and systematically performed, with no waste
or my faults),” she suggested her desire that her of time in gossip and silly laughter. In quietness of
daughters, and no doubt young women in general, spirit, attending to her own affairs, thinking
should be spared the terrors which she had herself before speaking, the wife should follow the cor-
experienced as a young bride in a strange house. rect way in thought, action, and speech. With full
Although the Classical Writings which she knew control of self, and with mind at peace, she must
and loved are filled with moral teachings il- be content.
lustrated by precept and example, there existed The gentlewoman should be industrious.
then no treatise4 especially devoted to the practi- “Late to bed, but early to rise” meant long hours,
cal everyday life of woman in the home. It was with many tasks, some easy, some difficult. Always
from her own studies and experiences that Pan ready and willing to serve others, orderly and neat
Chao evolved her ethical system with its homely in her work, giving her whole heart to the duties
rules for training girls in personal deportment and of the household, she would have neither leisure
right appreciation of family relationships. nor inclination to stand in the gateway or to gos-
In this system the cardinal virtue of the ideal sip in the courtyard. She would find her joy in the
young woman is precisely that humility which is womanly vocations of sewing and weaving, sanc-
now so strongly condemned by modern Chinese tified by her illustrious predecessors in the homes
youth. Pan Chao made no attempt to raise the of her forbears.
question of the equality of the sexes. She assumed Tucked away in chapter two of Pan Chao’s
the superiority of man over woman as a matter of treatise is her remarkable plea for the education of
course, just as she did that of the old over the girls, a plea which would of itself be sufficient to
young, whether man or woman. Through her ensure its author a place of first importance in the
interpretation of the symbolic customs of the history of the advancement of women not only
ancients at the time of the birth of a girl she in China but in the world. She was just as con-
vinced that girls needed education in order to Women” was made in no uncertain terms by Li
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES fulfill their duties in the home as she was that Ju-chên in his novel, “Flowers in the Mirror,”9
boys needed it in order to perform the tasks of which was published about 1825. This man spoke
their own sphere of life. She wished to apply to out frankly not only for the moral training of girls
girls as well as to boys the ancient rule that according to the four womanly qualifications of
children should be occupied from the age of eight Pan Chao’s ideal, but also for political as well as
to fifteen in what may be termed primary studies educational rights for women as members of
as distinguished from the higher or cultural society. He advocated the opening of the then
instruction after that age. For this later period Pan prevailing system of examinations for political of-
Chao proposed no changes in the customary fice to women, which would of course have neces-
procedure of her time regarding young women. sitated the classical education prerequisite to such
Some idea of this procedure may be obtained from examinations. This bold advocate of women’s
passages in the Li Chi,6 which may be taken as a education and political rights is a worthy forerun-
fair indication of the ideals if not the practices of ner of the hundreds of young men and women in
the Han age. It is there stated that a girl at fifteen China who to-day are striving for the equality of
years of age “assumed the hair-pin; at twenty she the sexes in education and politics as well as in
was married, or, if there were occasion (for the the home.
delay) at twenty-three.” “Three months before the
The relationship of wife to husband is easily
marriage of a young lady, . . . she was taught in
the most important of those with which Pan Chao
. . . the public hall (of the members of her
dealt, and she devoted to it three out of the seven
surname) . . . the virtue, the speech, the carriage,
chapters of her “Lessons.” Her belief in the superi-
and the work of a wife.”
ority of man over woman involves no idea of any
It is significant that Pan Chao’s stand for equal degradation of womanhood. Rather she took for
education up to fifteen was taken at a time when granted a differentiation of functions in two
boys were already receiving a classical education entirely distinct spheres of life. In their relation to
with a view to official employment. There was no others the husband and wife had but one purpose;
question in the minds of the cultured men of the in their relation to one another the man con-
period that boys ought to be taught, but about trolled the woman, the wife served her husband.
girls they had no such conviction. To Pan Chao The two constituted a single link in the chain of
this neglect to instruct girls meant a disregard of the life of the family, but the functions of that
an essential requirement for the proper relation- link were divided; the man’s share was without,
ship between men and women. Her appeal for the the woman’s within the home. For the man
education of girls in the primary studies was based remarriage was authorized by the “Rites,” but for
on the argument that it was necessary for the cor- the woman no such canonical sanction existed.
rect relationship between the married woman and Her will must be the will of her husband, whether
the family into which she married. Had her ap- he were alive or dead, and throughout her life her
peal been listened to by her own generation, it is endeavor must be to learn the lessons of respect
possible that later moralists might have incorpo- and obedience, of devotion and tenderness, and
rated this reform in their teachings, and Chinese of contentment with her lot.
women might have been spared the eighteen
The “Lessons” were addressed to women only,
centuries of illiteracy and the long ages of foot-
and they portray the model woman as one who
binding to which they have been subjected.
by her attitude of respect and acquiescence has
But the doctrine that the early education of succeeded in accomplishing the adaptability
boys and girls should be the same was too radical necessary for wedded life. Yet throughout the
not only for Pan Chao’s contemporaries but for delineation of the model woman’s conduct there
all the moralists who succeeded her. It was not surely runs the thought that respect and caution
until the eighteenth century that the appeal was were also necessary on the part of the husband
renewed. In 1738 a work entitled “Women’s Cul- towards the wife; that the need in fact was mutual.
ture”7 by a Fukienese, Lan Lu-chou, was published The method inculcated for the practical applica-
in two volumes. Its author accepted the principle tion of the moral principles involved is that of
that education is fundamentally necessary for constant self-examination and self-restraint. Since
training girls in morals. “Their dispositions incline for the woman the marriage agreement was final,
contrary ways,” he wrote in his preface, “and if it and the power of the husband over his wife
is wished to form them alike, there is nothing like absolute, she affirmed the need of a lasting devo-
education.”8 “A Chinese Declaration of Rights of tion by wife to husband, and of correct behavior
on the part of the woman in order to gain and to for her husband, in no wise hinder the young
hold the affection of the man. bride from rendering the proper obedience to her
Further, the daughter-in-law must obey the parents-in-law, and should likewise make her
parents-in-law.1 0 Although the man had authority more able to adapt herself in her new home to
over the woman, the old, whether man or woman, the wishes of her brothers- and sisters-in-law. Thus
was superior to the young. Thus there should she would become an example to the world, the
always be supreme respect for old age. In all the model young bride in her husband’s home.
affairs of the home the mother-in-law was su- It is regrettable that the form of Pan Chao’s
preme; the daughter-in-law was bound to obey instructions gives to permanent truths so imper-
the parents-in-law. “If a daughter-in-law,” quoted manent an application. The feminine virtues are
Pan Chao, “is like an echo and a shadow, how immutable, and what is required by modern
could she not be praised?” If her views differed, conditions is a restatement rather than a rejection
the daughter-in-law must sacrifice her personal of Pan Chao’s instructions. Twentieth century
opinions. There could be no question of right and China can more easily repudiate the rules of the
wrong; it was hers only to obey. Li Chi for the “Inner Apartments,”1 1 or the pious
Pan Chao maintained that the wife could live platitudes of Pan Chao’s successors in the field of
in cordial relationship with her husband’s broth- morality, than the profound psychological truths
ers and sisters. This was best assured by the young which underly the “Lessons.” Perhaps it is because
woman’s yielding to the wishes of her husband’s Pan Chao understood and valued the position of
family instead of exalting her own. It is true, said women in an age of culture and refinement such
Pan Chao, that a young girl going into a strange as the Han period, that her interpretation of the
home will inevitably make mistakes, but if like ideals of the ancients has so much value even for
Yen Tzû she never repeat an error, then she will the present time. Modern Chinese womanhood
win the love of her husband’s family and they needs a leader who, like Pan Chao, can interpret
will stand by her. The concrete picture of the anew for a new age the permanent truths of the
model young woman which Pan Chao drew in functions and relations of the sexes in human
this connection is certainly applicable only to the society.
family system of the Orient, but the underlying
principle upon which it is based is true in East Notes
and West alike. 1. III, 367: Chinese Recorder, XI (1880), 50.
Pan Chao did not, unfortunately, formulate 2. [Chinese characters deleted.]

any general principle to summarize the detailed 3. [Chinese characters deleted.]
precepts which she laid down. Her treatise is
4. The Nü Hsien or “Pattern for Women” is twice quoted
severely practical, and follows a definite plan. Hav- by Pan Chao, but no further information concerning
ing accepted the two beliefs of her age that man the contents of this lost book has been discovered.
was superior to woman and that the old were It may be that the manners and customs in the homes
superior to the young, she set out to present the of the women of the Eastern Han period, as well as
picture of a model young bride in three relation- the responsibilities for the duties involved in them,
ships, namely, in relation (1) to her husband, (2) will be revealed from further study of the Han relics
discovered in Han tombs in Korea, see Harada: Lo-
to her parents-in-law, and (3) to her brothers- and Lang.
sisters-in-law. The humility required in all three of
5. The Chinese marriage agreement is still generally
these relationships must be taught to her from made for the couple by their families. It is customary
birth. For the maintenance of the right relation- for the bride and groom not to meet before the wed-
ship with the husband, Pan Chao pleaded that ding ceremony. Any such courting as may take place
the girl should be educated in the same subjects in these circumstances is done as man and wife.
as the boy up to the period of cultural training. 6. Legge: Li Ki, SBE, XXVII, 479, XXVIII, 432. Cf. pp. 84-
After that, the special cultural training of the girl 87.
along the lines of the four “womanly qualifica- 7. Nü Hsüeh.
tions” of “virtue, suitable language, good bearing,
8. Trans. from Chinese Repository, IX (1840), 542. The
and industry” would fit her to win and hold her object of education he thus conceived to be unifor-
husband’s affection by “whole-hearted devotion” mity. Lan Ting-yüan, (1680-1733), district magistrate
and correct manners. At the same time the entire of P‘u-ning. The Nü Hsüeh in six chüan consists of
extracts from classical and historical writings. It is
educational process—the lessons in humility, the
divided into four parts devoted respectively to the il-
primary studies of childhood, the cultural train- lustration of the virtues, sayings, conduct, and works
ing—should, when aided by lasting attachment of renowned women of past times, see Wylie: Notes,
pp. 37 and 88; Giles: Biog., no. 1083. Without follow- no career open to an educated man at this time
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES ing Pan Chao’s order, it quotes her entire treatise. except in the Church, and that Abelard was
9. For “Flowers in the Mirror,” see Hu Shih, “A Chinese prepared to sacrifice his ambitions for high office
Declaration of Rights of Women,” Chinese Soc. and in order to secure Heloise for himself. He admits
Polit. Review (1924), VIII, no. 1, 100-109. Preface by
Hu Shih.
in a later letter (p. 149) that ‘I desired to keep you
whom I loved beyond measure for myself alone.’
10. For the reaction in contemporary China against the Any marriage, open or secret, would be an effec-
frequently intolerable despotism of the mother-in-law,
see an article by Ku Chieh-kang. The Renaissance, chüan tive bar. An open marriage would damage his
2, vol. 4, May, 1920. reputation but might, just possibly, appease Ful-
11. Legge: Li Ki, SBE, XXVII, 449-479. bert, though Heloise who knew him well thought
not. A secret marriage would not be damaging but
would be dangerous in its effects on Fulbert.
BETTY RADICE (ESSAY DATE 1974) All the authorities are now agreed that the
SOURCE: Radice, Betty. Introduction to The Letters of question of reputation is crucial to Heloise’s argu-
Abelard and Heloise, translated by Betty Radice, pp. 9-55. ments and refers to something much deeper than
Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1974.
self-interest on Abelard’s part. If her arguments
In the following excerpt from her introduction to the col- are read closely it is clear that she was much less
lected letters of the twelfth-century lovers Heloise and concerned with the possible loss of Abelard’s
Abelard, Radice outlines the principal events of their
forbidden passion. services to the Church than with the betrayal of
the ideal which they both admired, that of the
Nothing at all is known of Heloise’s parent- philosopher as a man who is set apart and above
age, though much has been conjectured.1 She is human ties. She argues from a classical rather than
thought to have been about seventeen at this time a Christian viewpoint, and she takes her illustra-
and born in 1100 or 1101. Fulbert’s possessiveness tions from Theophrastus, Cicero, Seneca, and So-
has suggested to some that she was really his crates as recorded by St Jerome. ‘The great philoso-
daughter, but taken with his brutal treatment of phers of the past have despised the world, not
Abelard it would seem to have a strong sexual ele- renouncing it so much as escaping from it, and
ment, probably subconscious. Every credit is due have denied themselves every pleasure so as to
to the nuns at Argenteuil for her early education, find peace in the arms of philosophy alone.’ (p.
and to Fulbert for his encouragement of her 72) She points out the distractions and petty
remarkable gifts at a time when women were hindrances of domestic life which are inimical to
rarely educated at all. During the short time she philosophic contemplation, and compares the
was studying with Abelard they probably worked philosophers with ‘those who truly deserve the
on philosophy; it was certainly a trained logical name of monks’, that is, the dedicated solitaries
mind which argued so cogently against the mar- such as John the Baptist or the ascetic sects of Jew-
riage he proposed. ish history. She concludes (Abelard says) that ‘the
name of mistress instead of wife would be dearer
Heloise saw clearly, as Abelard would not, that
to her and more honourable for me’, because then
a secret marriage was not going to satisfy Fulbert
they would both be free from a permanent legal
for a public scandal and, indeed, ‘that no satisfac-
tie and Abelard would not incur the disgrace of
tion could ever appease her uncle’. She therefore
renouncing the realization of his true self as a
opposed any form of marriage, first because of the
philosopher. They should be bound only by gra-
risk to Abelard, secondly because it would disgrace
tia—love freely given; marriage can add nothing
them both. Both have a low view of marriage,
of significance to an ideal relationship which is
derived from St Paul and St Jerome; they see it
also classical in concept: that described in Cicero’s
from the Christian monastic standpoint as no
De amicitia, a work they both knew, which sets
more than legalization of the weakness of the
the standard for true friendship in ‘disinterested
flesh. As a scholar Abelard was a clerk (clericus),
love’ where physical love would be sublimated.
and as magister scholarum of Notre Dame he would
be a member of the Chapter and a canon. Neither Heloise amplifies this point in her first letter
was a legal bar to marriage; though a married mag- (p. 114), in the well-known passage where she says
ister might be unusual, one feels that his personal- that if the Emperor Augustus offered marriage she
ity could have made the situation acceptable. It is would still choose to be Abelard’s whore; she says
not known whether he was a priest in orders at this in the context of preferring ‘love to wedlock
this time: probably not. In any case, the Church and freedom to chains’. She has loved Abelard
forbade marriage only to the higher orders of the only for himself, not for anything he could give
clergy. It is important to remember that there was her, and indeed, in her view, marriage for what
either party could get from the other was no bet- tion but punished ‘through a marriage which you
ter than prostitution. By contrast, a lasting rela- believed had made amends for all previous wrong-
tionship should rest on the complete devotion of doing’ (p. 130). There were furtive meetings fol-
two persons; this is true disinterested love, based lowed by scenes with Fulbert, which made Abelard
on what she calls ‘chastity of spirit’. To such an decide to remove her from her uncle’s house. The
ideal union a legal marriage could add nothing, convent at Argenteuil where she had spent her
and the presence or absence of an erotic element childhood was the obvious place to take her, and
is, in a sense, irrelevant. The intention towards it was near enough Paris for further meetings to
the ideal relationship is all-important. This is the be fairly easy. We know that Abelard could not
‘ethic of pure intention’ in which both Abelard keep away; he argues in one of his letters (p. 146)
and Heloise believed and to which she often that they were more justly punished for their
returns. ‘Wholly guilty though I am, I am also, as conduct when married than for anything they did
you know, wholly innocent. It is not the deed but before, because of their sacrilege in making love
the intention of the doer which makes the crime, in a corner of the convent refectory, the only place
and justice should weigh not what was done but where they could snatch a moment together
the spirit in which it is done. What my intention alone. What he had in mind when he made her
towards you has always been, you alone who have wear a postulant’s habit no one can know, unless
known it can judge.’ (p. 115-16). it was to give greater protection from Fulbert, but
it was a disastrous thing to do. She could have
For Heloise the issue was clear and unequivo- stayed indefinitely with the nuns without it, and
cal, however difficult it is for us to follow her. Fulbert very naturally assumed that Abelard was
Conventional morality would speak of a young trying to get rid of her by making her a nun. This
woman who is willing to ‘live in sin’ with a man, was the immediate cause of his horrible revenge:
so as not to stand in his path, as sacrificing herself, his servants broke into Abelard’s room at night
but for her living wholly for Abelard is self- and castrated him.
realization. Abelard was torn by an impossible
conflict between his desire for Heloise and all the Long afterwards Abelard could write of this to
jealous possessiveness which went with it, and his Heloise with hindsight as an act of God’s mercy
belief that his duty was to realize himself as a which rid him of his personal dilemma along with
philosopher and to preserve his intention towards the torments of the flesh. But in the Historia what
that ideal. It has been pointed out2 that the quota- he vividly recalls is the pain and horror, his urge
tions used by Heloise all appear in a work of his to escape and hide from the noisy sympathy of
own (Book II of his Theologia Christiana) written the crowds outside and the outcry of his pupils
after they parted but several years before the His- pushing into his room, his feelings of humiliation
toria. It certainly seems likely that he filled in the and disgust at being a eunuch, the unclean beast
outlines of her arguments with references to of Jewish law. He admits that ‘it was shame and
chapter and verse when he wrote his account for confusion in my remorse and misery rather than
circulation. But there is no suggestion that he did any devout wish for conversion which brought
not accept their validity; he simply refused to be me to seek shelter in a monastery cloister’ (p. 76).
persuaded. Perhaps it was too much to expect of
an ardent lover and a proud and hypersensitive Notes
man. ‘But at last she saw that her attempts to 1. McLeod, Enid, Héloïse, 2nd edn, Chatto and Windus,
London, 1971, p. 8 ff. and notes.
persuade or dissuade me were making no impres-
sion on my foolish obstinacy, and she could not 2. J. T. Muckle, Mediaeval Studies, Vol. XII, pp. 173-4.
bear to offend me; so amidst deep sighs and tears
she ended in these words: “We shall both be
destroyed. All that is left us is suffering as great as JANE MCINTOSH SNYDER (ESSAY
our love has been.” In this, as the whole world DATE 1989)
knows, she showed herself a true prophet.’ (p. 74) SOURCE: Snyder, Jane McIntosh. “Women Philoso-
phers of the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds.” In The
Heloise never reproaches Abelard for the se- Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece
crecy of the marriage, which to her must have and Rome, pp. 99-121. Carbondale: Southern Illinois
University Press, 1989.
seemed an act of hypocrisy and another betrayal
of the ideal. She was even ready to lie on Abelard’s In the following excerpt, Snyder recounts the life of the
martyred Alexandrian mathematician and philosopher
behalf and deny it when Fulbert broke his promise
Hypatia.
and spread the news. Years later, however, in a bit-
ter moment she pointed out the irony of the fact Of all the women discussed [here] none—with
that they had been spared when guilty of fornica- the possible exception of Sappho—has enjoyed
more enduring fame than Hypatia, the represents the closest we can come to Hypatia’s
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES philosopher-mathematician who was murdered in own thinking. Further details of more dubious ac-
Alexandria, Egypt, by a mob of antipagan Chris- curacy can be supplied from late sources such as
tians in 415 A.D. In the nineteenth century the the Suda or the ninth-century scholar Photius,
figure of Hypatia was romanticized in Charles whose hostile comment nevertheless shows Hypa-
Kingsley’s lengthy novel, Hypatia, or New Foes with tia’s continuing reputation in the Byzantine
an Old Face. Kingsley offers what no doubt tells us period: “Isidore (of Seville) was much different
more about his own peculiar views of a woman from Hypatia, not only as a man differs from a
scholar than about the real Hypatia. Here is the woman, but also as a real philosopher differs from
Kingsley Hypatia—literally quivering with emo- a woman who knows geometry.”3
tion after delivering a lecture to her students on Before we examine what can be deduced
Book 6 of Homer’s Iliad: about Hypatia’s written contributions to scholar-
And the speaker stopped suddenly, her eyes ship, let us first review briefly the main facts of
glistening with tears, her whole figure trembling her life and death insofar as they can be gleaned
and dilating with rapture. She remained for a mo-
from the ancient sources. The task of presenting a
ment motionless, gazing earnestly at her audience,
as if in hopes of exciting in them some kindred coherent sketch of her biography is complicated
glow; and then recovering herself, added in a more by inconsistencies among these sources and even
tender tone, not quite unmixed with sadness— within the same source; the unusually long ency-
“Go now, my pupils, Hypatia has no more for you clopedia entry on Hypatia in the Suda, for ex-
today. Go now, and spare her at least—woman as ample, is quite obviously a patchwork of at least
she is after all—the shame of finding that she has two variant sources, for it begins with a very brief
given you too much, and lifted the veil of Isis description of her family, works, and death, claim-
before eyes which are not enough purified to
behold the glory of the goddess.—Farewell.”1
ing that she was the wife of Isidore, and then
begins over again with the phrase “Concerning
Far from being represented as a figure of Hypatia the philosopher”; in the second (much
authority imparting information to her students, lengthier) account, she is described not as any-
this Hypatia is a curious mixture of helplessness, one’s wife but as a beautiful virgin.4
pretentiousness, and titillation. The ancient sources do agree that Hypatia was
Hypatia seems to have fared somewhat better the daughter of the Alexandrian geometrician and
in the present century. She has been mentioned philosopher Theon, who may have been con-
in recent popularizing accounts of the history of nected with the research institute known as the
science such as Carl Sagan’s television series, Museum in Alexandria, where Hypatia was raised
“Cosmos,” and she (along with Sappho) has a and educated. She herself is described as a geome-
place setting among the women honored in the trician, mathematician, astronomer, and exponent
artist Judy Chicago’s “Dinner Party.” She has also of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy—interests
been written about in journals of the history of that are borne out by the known titles of her
mathematics, and her name appears routinely in works. The sources also generally agree on the
recent biographical dictionaries of women in sci- period of her activity; she was born in 370 A.D.
ence. As Alic notes, she is often the only woman and was murdered at the age of forty-five in 415.
cited in contemporary histories of astronomy and As has been recently noted, the “spectacularly
mathematics.2 Moreover, an American journal brutal murder . . .” as well as its subtle political
founded in 1983 as a forum for research in femi- and religious overtones encouraged both friends
nist philosophy was appropriately [titled] Hypatia. and enemies to remember her. Not surprisingly,
Although not a word of anything that can be all of the reports place more emphasis on the
definitely attributed to Hypatia remains to us social impact of her life than on her contributions
today, a rough idea of the circumstances of her to science and mathematics.5 The first section in
life and death and a reasonably complete sketch the Suda provides only the barest outline: “She
of her interests in mathematics, astronomy, was torn to pieces by the Alexandrians, and her
Platonic philosophy, and what might be termed body was shamefully treated and parts of it scat-
engineering can be reconstructed through the ac- tered all over the city. She suffered such treatment
counts of the fifth-century A . D . ecclesiastical on account of envy and because of her superior
historian, Sokrates, and especially through several wisdom, especially in the area of astronomy; some
letters of her student Synesios of Cyrene. The cor- say the envy was on the part of Cyril [Bishop of
respondence of Synesios (who was elected Bishop Alexandria], while others claim that these events
of Ptolemais in Libya) with and about Hypatia took place on account of the innate rashness and
proclivity towards sedition among the Alexandri-
ans.”6 For a more detailed report, we must turn to
the contemporary account provided by the eccle-
siastical historian, Sokrates:
There was in Alexandria a certain woman named
Hypatia, daughter of Theon the philosopher. She
had achieved such heights of erudition that she
surpassed all the philosophers of her time, suc-
ceeded to the Platonic school derived from Ploti-
nus, and delivered all the philosophy lectures to
those who wished to listen. Accordingly, everyone
who wanted to study philosophy flocked to her
from all directions. On account of the majestic
outspokenness at her command as the result of
her education, she came face to face even with
the magistrates without losing her composure,
and felt no shame at being in the presence of men.
Everyone revered her for her outstanding compo-
sure, and at the same time found her a source of
amazement. It was at that time that envy arose
against this woman. She happened to spend a
great deal of time with Orestes [Prefect of Egypt],
and that stirred up slander against her among the
people of the Church, as if she were the one who
prevented Orestes from entering into friendship
with the Bishop [Cyril]. Indeed, a number of men
who heatedly reached the same conclusion,
whom a certain Peter (who was employed as a
reader) led, kept watch for the woman as she was
returning home from somewhere. They threw her
Hypatia of Alexandria (c.370-415)
out of her carriage and dragged her to the church
called Caesareum. They stripped off her clothes
and then killed her with seashells. When they had
torn her body apart limb from limb, they took it gone figure—a female whose extraordinary nature
to a place called Cinaron and burned it. This deed and deeds are the source of her downfall at the
brought no small blame to Cyril and to the Alex-
hands of male authority.
andrian Church. For murder and fighting and
other such things are completely alien to those Turning from Hypatia’s life and death to the
who profess Christianity. These deeds were done question of her writing, we must again note that
in the fourth year of Cyril’s bishopric, in the tenth
our only sources of information about her scien-
consulship of Honorius and the sixth of Theodo-
sius, in the month of March during Lent.7 tific and philosophical interests are the titles of
her works (insofar as they have been preserved),
Ironically, Hypatia’s unfortunate end seems to and a collection of eleven letters of her pupil, Syn-
have led Sokrates, as a Christian historian, to esios, in which she is either the addressee or the
regard her as a kind of pagan martyr whose subject of a passing reference. According to the
Christian murderers should be condemned for Suda, Hypatia wrote three major works: a com-
their violent act. It is worth remarking that both mentary on Diophantos (an Alexandrian author
in the Suda and in Sokrates’ contemporary ac- of a treatise on algebra), a treatise entitled Astro-
count, although the exact reasons behind the plot nomical Canon (presumably on the movements of
to assassinate Hypatia are not clear, the excep- the planets), and a commentary entitled On the
tional character of her position as an outstanding Conics of Apollonius, in which she treated the
woman scholar is noted as a source of hostility subject of conic sections previously expounded
toward her. As Lefkowitz remarks, “We may well upon in the third century B.C. by Apollonius, yet
ask whether her death was to some extent caused another scholar from Alexandria.1 0 But for one
by her being a woman.”8 Whether or not we agree book, Apollonius’ treatise survives to this day
with Gibbon, who argued that Cyril “prompted, (either in the Greek original or in Arabic
or accepted, the sacrifice of a virgin,” it is clear translation), but not a word of Hypatia’s study is
that Hypatia’s fame as a learned woman made her extant. (Ironically, several works by her less
a vulnerable target for the antipagan factions in famous father, Theon, do survive.) These three
Alexandria.9 In the ancient biographies, at least, titles suggest a focus on mathematics and as-
she takes on the mythical proportions of an Anti- tronomy, but the ancient biographical notices and
the letters of Synesios imply that Hypatia’s intel-
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES lectual interests ranged from Plato and Aristotle to
Homer to technological inventions as well.
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ Since we do not have even fragments of Hy-
patia’s work, the nearest we can come to some
sense of her as a thinker and a writer—rather than
HYPATIA (C. 370-415) as a martyr—are the letters of her student, Syn-
Widely regarded as the first female mathema- esios, who, despite his interest in Neoplatonism,
tician, Hypatia was born and spent most of was a Christian who held office as Bishop of Ptole-
her life in Alexandria, a center—with Ath- mais. Three of these letters are translated here as
ens—of late fourth-century Greek intellectual representative samples of this one-sided cor-
activity. She was greatly influenced by her respondence between master and pupil. The first
father, Theon, a noteworthy mathematician, is interesting for its allusion to Synesios’ hope for
astronomer, and teacher who supervised her regular correspondence from his former teacher,
early education. As a young woman, she whom he depicts as flourishing in a group of like-
began instructing a privileged circle of stu- minded individuals:
dents in private classes at her home, and later To the philosopher Hypatia:
added public lectures as her fame increased.
Blessed lady, I send greetings both to you yourself
She was reputed to be a woman of intel- and, through you, to your most fortunate compan-
ligence, modesty, dignity, and beauty. De- ions. For a long time I would have been eager to
spite the widespread respect she enjoyed in accuse myself of not being worthy of your letters;
Alexandria—or perhaps because of it—Hypa- but now that I know that I have merely been
overlooked by all of you—in this case, while I have
tia apparently became the object of factional
done no wrong, I have encountered a good deal
hatred in a city troubled by conflicts between of ill luck, as much ill luck as a man could encoun-
Christians, Jews, and pagans. In 415 she was ter. But if indeed I were able to receive letters from
attacked by a mob in the streets of Alexandria you, and to learn how you are spending your time
and brutally murdered. (certainly you are in good company and are
experiencing good fortune), I would fare only half
The letters of Synesius of Gyrene (c. 370- so badly, and in all of you I would find my own
413), a philosopher and churchman who good fortune. But as it is, this is only one of the
difficulties that have overtaken me. I am deprived
studied with Hypatia for many years and was both of my children and of my friends, and of
devoted to her, refer to Hypatia’s mechanical goodwill from everyone; and most of all, of your
abilities and credit her with several inven- divine spirit, which alone I had hoped would
tions, including astronomical instruments and remain with me as a force stronger than this
heaven-sent ill fortune and the fluctuations of
an apparatus that measured the density of
fate.1 1
liquids. Socrates Scholasticus (c. 379-450) . . . . .
documented Hypatia’s life in his Ecclesiastical
History and reported that she attracted After Hypatia’s death in 415 A.D., the philo-
students from throughout Egypt and beyond, sophical school of thought that she represented—
exerting considerable influence in Alexan- the blend of Platonic, Aristotelian, Pythagorean,
dria’s political and social life. The Suda, an and Stoic elements conveniently known as Neo-
anonymous tenth-century historical and liter- platonism—continued as a dominant intellectual
ary collection, indicates that Hypatia was force through the end of the ancient world and
awarded an official appointment as public even on into the medieval and Renaissance peri-
lecturer in philosophy, drawing audiences ods. Other Neoplatonist philosophers (such as Hi-
from the highest ranks of society as well as erocles and Hermeias) succeeded to the leadership
from the academy. Three major works are of Neoplatonic teaching in Alexandria, but none
commonly attributed to Hypatia: a com- seems to have captured the imagination of later
mentary on the Arithmetica, Diophantus’s writers in the way that Hypatia did.1 2 One of the
Greek epigrammatists, Palladas (fifth or sixth
great treatise on algebra; an edition, with
century A.D.), honors her place as philosopher,
commentary, of the geometrician Apollonius
astronomer, and teacher in the following poem:
of Perga’s Conic Sections, and the Astronomi-
cal Canon. Whenever I look upon you and your words, I
pay reverence,
As I look upon the heavenly home of the virgin.
For your concerns are directed at the heavens,
Revered Hypatia, you who are yourself the ALEXANDRA BARRATT (ESSAY
beauty of reasoning,
The immaculate star of wise learning.1 3
DATE 1992)
SOURCE: Barratt, Alexandra. “The Fourteenth Century
Some scholars have argued that the second and Earlier.” In Women’s Writing in Middle English,
line of the poem refers to the constellation Virgo, edited by Alexandra Barratt, pp. 27-136. Essex: Long-
but it may be that the “virgin” (“parthenon”) is man, 1992.
Hypatia herself and that her home is “heavenly” In the following excerpt from her collection of medieval
because of its occupant’s astronomical concerns women’s writing, Barratt briefly summarizes the lives
and careers of Marguerita Porete, Elizabeth of Hungary,
(as explained in the next line).1 4 The metaphor is Birgitta of Sweden, and Julian of Norwich. The critic also
extended through the last line of the poem, in provides concise commentary on the major works of these
which the addressee herself, in her role as teacher, writers that have appeared in Middle English.
becomes a star.
Marguerite Porete
Notes Marguerite Porete was a late thirteenth-
1. Charles Kingsley, Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face century béguine from Hainault in Flanders
(New York: Thomas Crowell, 1897), 127. (béguines were laywomen vowed to chastity who
2. Margaret Alic, Hypatia’s Heritage: A History of Women in were self-supporting and led a disciplined life,
Science from Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century either at home, in convents or in béguinages, i.e.
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1986), 41.
settlements or special areas within a town). Some
3. Photius, Biblioteca 24-2.38 in Photius: Bibliothèque, ed. time between 1296 and 1306 she wrote a lengthy
and trans. R. Henry, 3 vols. (Paris: Société d’édition and obscure mystical treatise in Old French, Le
“Les belles lettres,” 1959-62).
Mirouer des Simples Ames, a dialogue between Lady
4. See Karl Praechter, “Hypatia,” Real-Encylcopädie der Love, Lady Reason and the Free Soul, which was
Klassischen Altertumswissenschaft. condemned by the local bishop as heretical and
5. Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, Women in Science: Antiquity publicly burnt. The bishop considered that Mar-
through the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: MIT Press, guerite’s book was associated with the heresy of
1986), 104.
the Free Spirit, a loosely organised Continental
6. “Hypatia,” in Suidae Lexicon. movement whose adherents (many of them
7. Sokrates, Historia Ecclesiastica 7.15, in Patrologiae,
women) taught that Free Spirits, i.e. advanced and
Patrum Graecorum Traditio Catholica, ed. J.-P. Migne favoured souls whose wills were united with the
(Paris: 1864). Divine, no longer needed to observe the moral
8. Mary R. Lefkowitz, Women in Greek Myth London: law or avail themselves of the Church and the
Duckworth, 1986), 107. sacraments (see Lerner 1972). In spite of this
condemnation, Marguerite Porete continued to
9. For an excellent discussion of Gibbon’s account in
particular and of Hypatia’s philosophical interests in circulate copies of Le Mirouer and seek approval
general, see J. M. Rist, “Hypatia,” Phoenix 19 (1965): from theologians of its orthodoxy. She was there-
214-25. A very detailed study of the ancient and fore arrested by the Inquisition, brought to Paris
Byzantine sources may be found in R. Hoche, “Hypa-
tia, die Tochter Theons,” Philogus 15 (1860): 435-74.
and imprisoned. In 1309 fifteen suspect articles
extracted from Le Mirouer were examined and
10. “Hypatia,” in Suidae Lexicon. condemned by twenty-one prominent Paris theo-
11. Synesios, epistle 10, in Epistolographi Graeci, ed. R. Her- logians. In 1310 she was condemned by the
cher (Paris: Didot, 1871), 638-739. For Synesios’ letters Inquisition as a relapsed heretic and burnt at the
in the context of early Christianity and the classical stake, having refused to speak in her own defence
background, see Stanley K. Stowers, Letter Writing in
Greco-Roman Antiquity (Philadelphia: Westminster (see Verdeyen 1986: 47-94).
Press, 1986).
Of the French original only one late and
12. On the succession, see R. T. Wallis Neoplatonism somewhat corrupt manuscript survives, from the
(London: Duckworth, 1972), 138-78. late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. Four
13. Palladas, Anthologia Palatina 9. 400, in The Greek An- manuscripts, three from the fourteenth century,
thology, ed. and trans. W. R. Paton, 5 vols. (London: survive of the Latin translation, which may have
Heinemann, 1948). been made by the Inquisition as part of their
14. Georg Luck, “Palladas—Christian or Pagan?,” Harvard investigation, and translations were made into
Studies in Classical Philology 63 (1958): 455-71. Points Italian as well as into Middle English. None of the
out that “oikos” in line 2 cannot mean “constella-
surviving manuscripts of the original or of the
tion.” He argues, however, that Palladas is not the
author of the poem and that the Hypatia referred to is translations identifies the author or indicates that
not our Hypatia. the text had been condemned as heretical. It was
not until 1965 that an Italian scholar, R. Guarni- The dialogue form is not in itself unusual in
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES eri, linked the historical Marguerite Porete, of visionary and mystical writings, which often
whose trial and condemnation there are full consist largely of exchanges between the vision-
historical records which do not, however, name ary and God or the Virgin (cf. The Revelations of St
her heretical book, with the French, Latin and Elizabeth). In medieval didactic literature, from
English versions of Le Mirouer. Since then there Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy to Christine
has been much discussion of whether Porete was de Pisan’s Book of the City of Ladies, dialogues
indeed a heretic, and much favourable comment between the narrator and various abstract personi-
on the literary value of her writings, which fications are also common. But Marguerite’s use of
combine the conventions and language of courtly the form, with its three female protagonists, is
love with a passionate and exalted mysticism (see distinctive. Reason when personified in medieval
Dronke 1984: 217-28). literature is invariably female because L. ratio and
OF raison are grammatically feminine nouns.
The Mirror of Simple Souls is a late fourteenth- ‘Lady Reason’ is usually a direct descendant of
or fifteenth-century Middle English translation of Boethius’s Lady Philosophy; she is prominent in
Le Mirouer, probably made by a Carthusian, a the great thirteenth-century French allegorical
member of a strict and austere contemplative dream poem Le Roman de la Rose, and also appears
order of monks who led the lives of hermits in Christine’s Book of the City of Ladies. But Mar-
within their monasteries. We do not know his guerite’s Lady Reason is very different: she is seen
name, only his initials, ‘M.N.’, with which he as earth-bound and must die before the soul can
signed various editorial comments inserted to progress. The figure of Lady Love is also unusual.
explain passages in his translation that he feared L. amor is masculine, though its OF derivative is
might be misunderstood. He tells us that his usually a feminine noun and Love is more usually
original version had indeed been poorly received personified as a male figure, especially as the God
and misinterpreted. of Love, in medieval literature. However, Marguer-
ite’s near-contemporary, Mechtild of Hackeborn,
Although the Carthusians avoided all contact
also personifies Divine Love as a female figure.
with women, they took a great interest in women’s
Finally, the soul too, as always in Christian tradi-
mystical texts and we owe to them the preserva-
tion, is female.
tion of both the Short Version of Julian of Nor-
wich’s A Revelation of Love and The Book of Margery The first passage, from the dialogue between
Kempe. But it is interesting that this translator Lady Love and Lady Reason, comes from the early
clearly had no suspicion that his original was part of the text and contains those daringly
composed by a woman who had been condemned paradoxical and extravagant statements about the
as a heretic (see Colledge and Guarnieri 1968). In freedom of the ‘free’, ‘surmounted’ (i.e. sublime)
medieval England, therefore, The Mirror of Simple soul which led ultimately to Porete’s condemna-
Souls was not perceived as a woman’s text, but tion. The second passage comes from very near
this very fact is significant for it indicates the dif- the end of the book, after the death of the invin-
ficulty of assigning gender to texts in the absence cibly ignorant and incorrigible Lady Reason, and
of external evidence. records a crucial but agonising stage in the soul’s
progress towards perfection and complete union
Comment: Generally, The Mirror of Simple Souls
with the Divine, when she is faced with the need
is a difficult and challenging text; as the translator
completely to annihilate her own will in order to
puts it, it is written ‘full mistily’. His translation is
mature spiritually and finally enter the Country
literal and consequently does not always make
of Freedom. The extreme passivity which this
obvious sense, nor does it read elegantly; it also
requires, though cultivated by male as well as
contains a number of mistranslations which may
female mystics, can be seen in part as a logical
be due as much to the corruption of the original
extension of the role forced on women in the
as to the translator’s shortcomings. And his own
Middle Ages. . . .
translation is further corrupted in the three surviv-
. . . . .
ing manuscripts. (Most notably, they all have the
garbled phrase ‘Far night’ for what must have been
the translator’s original rendering of Marguerite’s Elizabeth of Hungary
term for God, OF loing-pres, as ‘Far-nigh’.) But Two Middle English translations of The Revela-
fortunately these factors still cannot obscure the tions of Saint Elizabeth are extant. One (like most
intellectual daring, spiritual passion and profound of the manuscripts of the Latin) attributes the
originality of Marguerite Porete. original to the Elizabeth of Hungary who died in
1231, i.e. to Elizabeth of Thuringia (b. 1207). mother and as ‘maystresse’. (L. magistra, like
Elizabeth, who was the widow of the Count of ‘mistress’, can specifically mean ‘teacher’ as well
Thuringia and the mother of his three children, as, more generally, ‘woman in a position of
was devoted to poverty and to the care of the sick. authority’.) Elizabeth swears allegiance to her with
She never became a nun but was a Franciscan the traditional gesture of feudal submission which
tertiary (i.e. a member of the Third Order of St establishes a contractual relationship between
Francis, lay people who led a disciplined and them. The written charter, which the notably
dedicated life in the world), and there is no silent St John the Evangelist is later commanded
authentic early tradition that she was a visionary. to provide, acts merely as a record. . . .
Although St Elizabeth of Schönau, a twelfth- . . . . .
century German Benedictine nun and mystic, has
been suggested as a more likely candidate for the
authorship of the Revelations, a better case can be Bridget of Sweden
made for Elizabeth of Toess (c. 1294-1336), the Bridget of Sweden (1302 or 1303-1373) was a
great-niece of Elizabeth of Thuringia and also, like devout noblewoman who, before she was wid-
her, daughter of a king of Hungary. This Elizabeth owed, spent much time at the Swedish court at-
was a Dominican nun in the Swiss convent of tempting to influence King Magnus and his
Toess whose life, together with those of her sisters French wife Blanche by her own example and her
in religion, was written in Middle High German constant exhortations to moral reformation. A
by Elsbeth Stagel, the close friend and spiritual mother of eight, after her husband’s death in 1344
daughter of the great Rhineland mystic Henry she started to experience visions which led her to
Suso. found a religious order dedicated to the Virgin,
As an account of her spiritual experiences, the whose apotheosis Bridget took to new heights.
Revelations must have originated with Elizabeth. The Order of the Most Holy Saviour was a double
But she apparently communicated them orally to order for nuns and monks, ruled by an abbess;
another person, presumably a fellow nun Bridget’s own daughter Katherine presided over
(probably Elsbeth Stagel), who was responsible for both the men and women in the mother house at
the literary form of the work. The Middle English Vadstena in Sweden.
versions were translated from a Latin text, but the Although Bridget was the first woman in the
original text of the Revelations may not have been Western Church to found a religious order, she
in that language. There are two, rather different, never herself became a nun. She travelled to Rome
Latin versions extant and both may be transla- to seek papal approval for her new order and
tions from a now vanished original, possibly stayed to press for the return of the pope from
composed in Middle High German (see Barratt Avignon in France where, for political reasons, all
1992). In the Middle Ages the Revelations also the popes had lived with their courts since 1304.
circulated in Italian, French, Spanish and Catalan As a result of her efforts Pope Urban V did indeed
translations. return in 1367 but, finding conditions intolerable,
The Book of Margery Kempe almost certainly left again in 1370, only to die a month later. It
refers to this text when it speaks of ‘Saint Elizabeth was left to another woman visionary, Catherine of
in her treatise’, whose tears were like Margery’s. Siena, to help bring about the permanent resettle-
There are many references in the Revelations to ment of the papacy in Rome and to accidentally
Elizabeth’s noisy and boisterous weeping and precipitate the election of a rival pope, leading to
other points of contact make it clear that either the crisis known as the Great Schism.
Margery herself or her scribe knew this text well, Bridget died in 1373 and, renowned for her
in a Latin or Middle English version (see Ellis holiness, her works of charity and her miracles,
1990: 164-8). was canonised in 1391. But she was as well known
Comment: As nine out of the thirteen indi- for her numerous visions, many of which de-
vidual visions consist of dialogues with the Virgin, nounced the corruption of the Church in general
she is a central figure in Elizabeth’s Revelations. and of certain individuals in particular, and
Generally she both models and validates the stressed apocalyptic themes of the judgemental
visionary’s own ecstatic, affective (i.e. emotional) wrath of God. Other visions were vivid recreations
and unrestrained spirituality. In the first passage, of events in the lives of Christ and the Virgin,
which opens the Revelations, the Virgin is also which had a strong influence on the representa-
presented as a multivalent figure of supreme tion of the Nativity and the Crucifixion in the
power: as ‘lady’ with all its feudal overtones, as later Middle Ages.
Bridget was a very popular saint in fifteenth- visionary’s own experience of childbirth (contrast
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES century England and in 1415 Henry V founded the very different treatment of the subject by the
Syon, the only English Bridgettine house, at lifelong nun Mechtild). Thus it emphasises the
Twickenham in Middlesex (it later moved to status of the Virgin as the Mother of Christ in a
Isleworth). Until its closure in 1539 it continued way that could not have occurred to male com-
to enjoy close ties with the Lancastrians and their mentators.
descendants, including Lady Margaret Beaufort . . . [A] second passage shows Bridget’s pas-
(see Keiser 1987b: 11-13). It was renowned for its sion for detail extending to a curiosity that goes
austerity, its influence at court and its learning. beyond what would now be considered the
Bridget, who had learnt Latin late in life, encour- bounds of good taste. It also asserts the Virgin’s
aged scholarship as much as asceticism among supremacy as head of the apostles after Christ’s
her nuns; her Rule, which otherwise stressed Ascension, a position used in the final extract to
personal poverty, allowed them as many books as justify the unusual power structure of the Bridget-
they needed for reading. Syon continued its tine order within which the abbess, elected by the
corporate existence abroad after the Reformation sisters alone, had absolute authority over all the
and, having returned in the nineteenth century, is temporal affairs of the monastery.
the only religious community in England that can
claim an unbroken existence since the Middle . . . [A] third passage shows the same concern
Ages. for detail finding a practical outlet in prescribing
the distinctive, not to say eccentric, habit of the
Bridget’s revelations, too, were widely known.
Bridgettine nuns. The good sense of their winter
Indeed, of all the continental women mystics
outfit, with its sheepskin cloak, boots and stock-
included in this anthology whose writings were
ings, reminds us that Bridget was not only the
translated into English, she is the only one to have
first woman but also the first Northern European
achieved real popularity and widespread circula-
to draft a religious rule. . . .
tion among layfolk as well as religious. . . . [A]
. . . . .
first set of passages . . . derives from the Liber
Celestis, the vast collection of Bridget’s visions
originally dictated by her in Old Swedish, trans- Julian of Norwich
lated and recorded in Latin by her spiritual direc- Very little is known about Julian of Norwich,
tors, and then checked by her. The visions were not even her baptismal name. She was born in
later translated into Middle English in several ver- 1342. On 8 or 13 May 1373, when aged thirty, she
sions; there are two translations of the complete experienced a series of visions as she lay dying,
text and in addition numerous extracts and selec- followed by a miraculous recovery. She wrote two
tions (see Ellis 1982). The passages . . . come from accounts of this experience, one almost at once
a collection which has extracted and rearranged and another up to twenty years later. Before 1413
individual revelations to construct a life of the she became an anchoress at St Julian’s Church,
Virgin, as told by her to Bridget; this forms an Norwich, from which she may have taken her
interesting parallel with the preference of so many name in religion. She was still alive in 1416, when
medieval women visionaries for hagio- a will of that year left her a bequest, but was dead
autobiography. by 1426 when another will refers to the male
recluse at St Julian’s.
[Another] set of extracts comes from The Rule
of St Saviour, the Middle English translation of the Julian was not a nun or an anchoress at the
Latin Rule that was dictated by Christ himself, time of her revelations. She mentions that her
Bridget claimed. The translation was one of the mother, the parish priest and a small boy were
official legislative documents of the Bridgettine present at her sick-bed, which would have been
monastery at Syon and was presumably made for impossible if she were an enclosed religious. She
the benefit of the nuns, who could not read the had probably been married, for unmarried lay-
original Latin. women of thirty were virtually unknown in
medieval England, but as there is no mention of
Comment: . . . Bridget’s best-known revelation
her husband we may deduce that she was a widow
[is] a vivid and emotional vision of the Nativity
(like Bridget of Sweden, Christine de Pisan, Eleanor
which had an immediate and continuing influ-
Hull and Lady Margaret Beaufort) and that, if she
ence on its representation in art (Butkovich 1972:
had borne children, they too were dead by 1373.
31-4). It stresses the supernatural, if not anti-
natural, aspects of Christ’s birth, with a passion Julian has been the object of much ill-
for ingenious detail that clearly derives from the informed adulation and dubious interpretation.
She was a profound thinker, a difficult writer and fering of Christ, of the visionary and of the whole
an original theologian, not at all the simple, of creation is transformed into joy.
homely and cheerful woman of popular percep-
. . . [A] third passage, from the Long
tion. Although one manuscript asserts that ‘she
(Benedictine) Version of the text, is part of Julian’s
did not know a letter’, i.e. was illiterate or at least
radical attempt to reconstruct the traditional
without Latin, and Julian describes herself as
model of the Trinity on a Father-Mother rather
‘lewd’ (i.e. uneducated), she was clearly literate in
than Father-Son basis. The latter part of the argu-
English and in the Latin of the Vulgate at least;
ment, in which Julian describes Christ’s mother-
how much further her learning extended is, like
hood as an aspect of the humility of the Incarna-
so much about her, a subject of dispute. . . . A
tion, his Passion as the travail of childbirth, and
passage in the Short Version of A Revelation of Love
the Eucharist as his feeding his children with his
apologising for her temerity in writing as a
body and blood as a mother does with her milk, is
‘woman, lewd, feeble and frail’ has been removed
clear enough. So is her moving description of how
from the later Long Version. She was also unlike
Christ deals with the individual soul as a mother
other women visionaries in her tendency to
relates to her growing child, providing nurture,
engage in theological speculations on the most
support and an education in which mistakes and
intractable of topics, such as the reality of sin and
setbacks (i.e. sins) actually play a positive role. No
the constitution of the Trinity, rather than in af-
experience is wasted, for sin is not so much
fective, emotional recreations of events from the
something from which we must dissociate our-
life of Christ. Her probing, analytical mind is most
selves as a part of ourselves through which we
like that of her near-contemporary Catherine of
grow but which we eventually outgrow. The
Siena.
model is developmental, a very modern idea of
Comment: . . . [T]wo passages are from the fulfilling one’s potential, through God’s grace, and
Short (Carthusian) Version of A Revelation of Love. becoming the ideal, complete person whom God
The first, which provides the context for Julian’s has eternally in mind.
visionary experiences, makes it clear that Julian
But it would misrepresent the complexity of
was originally a medieval pious woman of a not
Julian’s thought to omit the earlier part of the
uncommon type who, like many others, desired
passage, difficult and obscure though it is. For the
personal religious experience to enhance her faith
motherhood of God is a truth which operates on
based on the authority of the Church. Her long-
more than one level and springs ultimately from a
ing for a more intense realisation, a ‘bodily vision’,
conception of the Trinity as primarily a Father-
of Christ’s Passion, as if she had herself been
Mother relationship, and of Christ—who as the
present at the Crucifixion, is similar to that of
Second Person of the Trinity was traditionally
Margery Kempe or Bridget of Sweden. What is both the masculine logos or cosmic Reason and
slightly unusual, however, is her choice of St Ce- the feminine Wisdom or divine creative activ-
cilia as a role model; a combative early Christian ity—as God our Mother in relation to God our
martyr who converted her husband and his Father. One cannot consider Julian’s teaching on
brother, she was popular in the Middle Ages (her the motherhood of God without remembering
legend is told by, among others, Chaucer in his that it is complementary to her concept of God’s
Second Nun’s Tale) but she represented a type of fatherhood, nor can it be fully understood without
heroic, apostolic spirituality out of sympathy with some knowledge of medieval theories about the
late medieval piety. She was a preacher and biological roles of father and mother. Some medi-
teacher, a role Julian too ultimately adopted. eval physiologists, following Aristotle, gave the
. . . [A] second passage is one of six revela- mother a subordinate role in reproduction; she
tions concerned with Christ’s Passion, granted retained and nourished the father’s seed and in
Julian in response to her request for her first due course produced it, but did not contribute
‘grace’. The vision is painfully vivid, though not anything herself to the initial conception
morbid or grotesque as late medieval devotion can (Rousselle 1988: 27-32).
so often be: the physical description of the suffer- . . . [A] final passage illuminates the composi-
ing Christ is balanced and ultimately obliterated tional history of the texts. In this moving conclu-
by her perception that even such physical pain is sion Julian draws a careful distinction between
less than the spiritual pain of Christ’s thirst for the visions and their meaning. For all their
souls or the anguish of despair. Above all, Christ’s complexity, she finally sees that their meaning is
love is stronger than his pain, and finally the suf- single: ‘Love was Our Lord’s meaning.’ All that
ever can be drawn out of the revelations can strained enthusiasm for her work, that “records of
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES neither exceed, nor exhaust, that parameter. . . . her music are outselling pop stars; her opera is be-
ing performed on various continents; most of her
Bibliography books now exist in critical German and Latin edi-
Butkovich, A. (1972), Revelations: Saint Birgitta of Sweden, tions and are being translated into English; her
Los Angeles. mystical writings are being studied, prayed, and
Colledge, E. and Guarnieri, R. (1968), ‘The Glosses by M.N. danced to; plays are being written of her work and
and Richard Methley to “The Mirror of Simple Souls”’, life. . . .”2
AISP, Vol. v, pp. 357-82.
Barbara Newman, whose Sister Wisdom: St.
Dronke, P. (1984), Women Writers of the Middle Ages, Hildegard’s Theology of the Feminine is the most il-
Cambridge.
luminating scholarly analysis of Hildegard’s work
Eccles, A. (1982), Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Tudor and Stu- to date, acknowledges that “[the day is past] when
art England, Kent, Ohio.
St. Hildegard’s theological enterprise could be
Ellis, R. (1982), ‘“Flores ad fabricandum . . . coronam”: An dismissed as a curiosity in church history, and she
Investigation into the Uses of the Revelations of St herself patronized as a token woman and thereby
Bridget of Sweden in Fifteenth-century England’, Me-
dium Aevum, Vol. li, pp. 163-86. marginalized. . . . Within the past decade, this
exceptional woman of God has won considerable
———(1990), ‘Margery Kempe’s Scribe and the Miraculous
Books’ in H. Phillips (ed.), Langland, the Mystics and the
recognition in the English-speaking world.”3 New-
Medieval English Religious Tradition, Woodbridge, Suf- man laments the fact that Hildegard has been
folk, pp. 161-75. taken up as a kind of “New Age mystic” by “gurus
Keiser, G. (1987b), ‘Lady Margaret Beaufort and the Eco- of creation-centered spirituality” like Matthew
nomics of Devotionalism’ in M. Glasscoe (ed.), The Fox, partly because, as she justly observes, the
Medieval Mystical Tradition in England: Exeter Symposium translations of Hildegard’s work on which Fox
IV, Cambridge, pp. 9-26.
bases his analysis are “not to be trusted” (250).
Lerner, R. E. (1972), The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later
Middle Ages, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London.
The legendary “Sibyl of the Rhine” inspiring
passionate interest in three such radically differ-
Rousselle, A. (1988), Porneia: On Desire and the Body in
ent groups—feminist artists, academic scholars,
Antiquity, trans. by F. Pheasant, Oxford.
and New Age mystics—was a German visionary,
Verdeyen, P. (1986), ‘Le procès d’inquisition contre Mar- poet, abbess, and founder of Benedictine com-
guerite Porete et Guiard de Cressonessart’, Revue
d’histoire ecclésiastique, Vol. lxxxi, pp. 47-94. munities who lived in what has been called “an
age of great abbesses.” As Bonnie Anderson and
Judith Zinnser observe in the first volume of their
MARILYN R. MUMFORD (ESSAY fine new history of women, “. . . the world of the
great abbesses was disappearing. By the end of the
DATE 1993)
next [13th] century, the circumstance and at-
SOURCE: Mumford, Marilyn R. “A Feminist Prolego-
menon for the Study of Hildegard of Bingen.” In Gen- titudes that had favored learned establishment
der, Culture, and the Arts: Women, the Arts, and Society, and had allowed holy women like Hildegard intel-
edited by Ronald Dotterer and Susan Bowers, pp. 44- lectual achievement and spiritual power had gone
53. Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Presses, 1993.
forever.”4
In the following excerpt, Mumford focuses on the
contemporary feminist rediscovery of Hildegard of Bingen
As a direct result of the church’s derogation
as the embodiment of the “modern women’s spiritual and suppression of women’s creative and intel-
quest.” lectual activity in all spheres of life, both in com-
munity and in secular contexts, the involvement
The past decade has seen a great surge of inter- of women in the formation of Christian theology
est in the works of Hildegard of Bingen, abbess was cut off at the root by an increasingly deliber-
and visionary who lived from 1098 to 1179. One ate policy on the part of the church fathers of
of the first persons to call attention to Hildegard excluding women from the life of the mind. Mil-
in the 1980s was the feminist artist Judy Chicago, lions of women died at the stake, on the rack, and
who invited her to the magical “Dinner Party” in other ghastly torments as a result of this vi-
that has since appeared in twelve major museums cious suppression of the feminine. More than 800
in the United States and Canada.1 years after the death of Hildegard, women are still
More recently, Hildegard’s theology, music, suffering some of the effects of ecclesiastical and
poetry, and images have engaged the interest of clerical fear and hatred of women. It is particularly
both academic scholars and New Age seekers after important, given these circumstances, to go back
spiritual truth. One critic claims, in his unre- to the work of Hildegard of Bingen to comprehend
the magnitude of what has been lost. The extraor- that “gender-related differences are culturally
dinary spiritual and intellectual power vested in conditioned rather than innate” (267) . . . in
Hildegard and many other women of the early other words, they accept a deconstructionist or
and high Middle Ages, as Anderson and Zinnser social constructivist point of view, although not
have amply demonstrated, attests to the impor- all who embrace that critical stance would describe
tance, for feminist teachers, of re-membering and themselves as liberal.
reclaiming the distant past. I suspect that Newman’s position on the
Hildegard’s achievement, then, can be located feminist spectrum and my own position are not
in the context of the high Middle Ages, on the so far apart as would first appear. She speaks in
threshold of a new dark age for women. But in terms of the “traditional framework of Christian
many ways she epitomizes the concept of the symbolics . . . the great feminine paradigms of
Renaissance woman long before the concept of Eve, Mary, and Ecclesia, or Mother Church” (xvii).
the Renaissance man came into being. In addition Obviously these are the literal terms in which
to her powerful work as theologian and visionary, Hildegard herself expressed her conceptions of the
Hildegard was a poet, playwright, composer of in- feminine. These paradigms, however, sound very
novative music, preacher, scientist, healer, cor- like archetypes of the feminine divine perhaps
respondent, and spiritual biographer whose im- unconsciously reflected in Hildegard’s poems and
ages of the inner life are often astonishing in their illuminations. Newman observes that “. . . at the
artistic power and authenticity. In the midst of a heart of [Hildegard’s] world there stands the nu-
long and busy life as founder or administrator of minous figure she called Sapientia or Caritas; holy
three communities of Benedictine women, she Wisdom and Love divine, a visionary form who
wrote, among other things, seventy-seven songs transcends allegory and attains the stature of
and a morality play set to music; three great works theophany” (xvii-xviii). This seems an apt descrip-
of theology accompanied by illuminations of her tion of a goddess archetype, except for holy
mystical visions; treatises on medicine, physiol- Wisdom’s transcendent separation from an earthly
ogy, and pharmacology; and hundreds of letters female body, and Hildegard supplied that missing
to the great, the near great, and the humble, in aspect, as we shall see, in certain of her illumina-
which she chastised the great for their spiritual tions.
corruption or offered wise counsel to those who Newman’s brilliant analysis of the intersec-
sought her advice. tion of gender and the feminine divine in Hilde-
This essay attempts to suggest something of gard’s theology must be the foundation for any
Hildegard’s sense of herself not only as a child of feminist examination of archetypal material in
God and as a Christian but also of herself as a the illuminations and songs. Basing her own work
woman, a woman whose insights into the nature on the pioneering studies of Hildegard by Peter
of her spiritual life are sometimes expressed in Dronke and of gender in twelfth-century religious
startling images of unconscious feminine arche- life by Caroline Bynum, Newman rightly observes
typal material. that “. . . as [Hildegard] pursued her highly
In doing this work it would be tempting to ‘unfeminine’ career as writer, reformer, and
define oneself as a “romantic feminist” in Barbara preacher, she naturally encountered opposition,
Newman’s sense of the word, a label based on the both from her enemies and from within her own
distinction between liberal and romantic feminism psyche. As a result, she developed an unusual
in Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Sexism and God- degree of self-awareness about her gender and its
Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology (1976). A “roman- social and spiritual implications” (xviii). Further-
tic radical feminist” accepts an “absolute distinc- more, Newman agrees with romantic radical
tion between male and female modes of being in feminists that “We may boldly claim Hildegard as
the world,” (268) and rejects “the Christian tradi- the first Christian thinker to deal seriously and
tion altogether in order to celebrate the feminine positively with the feminine as such, not merely
divine as Goddess . . .” (269). In the academy, with the challenges posed by and for women in a
romantic feminists are likely to be scorned as es- male-dominated world” (xvii).
sentialist in their assumptions about female Newman is reluctant to see the works of Hilde-
nature. Newman defines liberal feminists, on the gard in the context of modern women’s spiritual
other hand, as the “overwhelming majority of quest or in the context of women’s writing,
American and European feminists,” who “. . . categories she feels are “too broad to give us a suit-
(veto) the notion that gender is a metaphysical able context for Hildegard” (xvi). My own work
category” (267). Feminists in this group believe suggests that Hildegard’s spiritual autobiography
reveals significant connections with the stages of Notes
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES women’s spiritual quest identified by Carol Christ 1. Judy Chicago, “From the Creation to the Fall: A
in the works of such modern writers as Kate Discussion of the Birth Project, Power Play, and The
Holocaust Project” (keynote address, Woman, The Arts,
Chopin, Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, Adri- and Society, Susquehanna University, 5 November
enne Rich, and Ntozake Shange. Although such 1988).
comparisons between Hildegard and modern
2. Matthew Fox, ed. The Illuminations of Hildegard of Bin-
women writers are ahistorical and thus in danger gen (Santa Fe: Bear Press, 1985), 13.
of universalizing women’s experience, I am going
3. Barbara Newman, Sister of Wisdom: Hildegard’s Theol-
to take what Diana Fuss, quoting Stephen Heath, ogy of the Feminine (Berkeley: University of California
calls the “risk of essence” to suggest the possibility Press, 1987), xv. Subsequent page references to this
of a spiritual connection between Hildegard and text are given parenthetically in the text.
some modern women, myself included, who have 4. Bonnie S. Anderson and Judith P. Zinnser, A History of
seen in Hildegard’s words and illuminations radi- Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the
cal images of their own spiritual experience.5 Present, vol. I (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 190.
Although Christ’s description of these stages of 5. Diana Fuss, Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature, and
“women’s” spiritual quest is expressed in essential- Difference (New York: Routledge, 1989), 18.
ist terms, it is possible to qualify the conception 6. Carol Christ, Diving Deep and Surfacing: Women Writers
by suggesting that these stages can be said to refer on Spiritual Quest (Boston: Beacon Press, 1980), 13-14.
only to the experience of some modern British and
American women writers:
Women’s spiritual quest takes a distinctive form VALERIE HENITIUK (ESSAY DATE
in the fiction and poetry of women writers. It FALL 2002)
begins with an experience of nothingness. Such
SOURCE: Henitiuk, Valerie. “Virgin Territory: Murasaki
women experience emptiness in their own
Shikibu’s Ôigimi Resists the Male.” Agora: An Online
lives—in self-hatred, in self-negation, and in being Graduate Journal 1, no. 3 (fall 2002) http://
a victim; . . . in the values that have shaped their www.humanities.ualberta.ca/agora/articles.cfm? Ar-
lives. . . . The experience of nothingness often ticleNo=150 (accessed 21 October 2003).
precedes an awakening, similar to a conversion
experience, in which the powers of being are In the following excerpt, Henitiuk offers a feminist read-
revealed. A woman’s awakening to great powers ing of gendered space and female circumscription in Mu-
grounds her in a new sense of self and a new rasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji.
orientation in the world . . . We must not look at goblin men,
Awakening often occurs through mystical identifi- We must not buy their fruits:
cation, which women’s traditional attunement to Who knows upon what soil they fed
the body and mothering processes have prepared Their hungry, thirsty roots.
them for. Women’s mystical experiences often oc- —Christina Rossetti
cur . . . in community with other women.
Awakening is followed by a new naming of self
The controversial Japanese critic, author, and
and reality that articulates the new orientation to translator Setouchi Jakuchō has characterized the
self and world achieved through experiencing the early 11th-century Genji monogatari (The Tale of
powers of being. Women’s new naming of self and Genji) as a sex education manual designed at least
world often reflects wholeness, a movement in part to guide Empress Akiko, who was brought
toward overcoming dualisms of self and world,
body and soul, nature and spirit, rational and
to Court as a young child, through the complex
emotional, which have plagued Western con- maze of male/female relations.1 In this context,
sciousness. Women’s new naming of self and the Ôigimi story is highly instructive regarding
world suggests directions for social change and author Murasaki Shikibu’s attitude toward love
looks forward to the realization of spiritual insight and sexuality, dealing as it does with the ulti-
in social reality—the integration of spiritual and
social quests.6
mately fatal anorexia of a woman who feels an
overpowering need to escape being wedded and
Many of these psychological epiphanies can bedded. Many episodes found in Japanese litera-
be recognized in Hildegard’s spiritual autobiogra- ture of the Heian period (8th through 12th
phy, from her description of herself as “a poor century) show how, despite varying degrees of
little figure of a woman” (2) and as “wretched and initial reluctance, women are married off. Michit-
more than wretched in the name of woman” (8) suna no Haha, author of the biographical Kagerô
to the great mystical visions of the later years, nikki written in the mid- to late-10th century, ac-
when she envisioned the creation as the conse- cepts Kaneie’s suit and, in the Genji monogatari,
quence of male and female aspects of divinity the young Murasaki, the Akashi Lady, Tamaka-
working through the cosmos. . . . zura, and countless others do in the end become
brides, to name but a few examples. Thus, while
Heian heroines are frequently portrayed as offer-
ing a posture of resistance to the sexual demands
made by men, most do at one time or another ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
yield more or less willingly to such demands. In
the darker Uji chapters that form the final third of
HILDEGARD VON BINGEN (1098-1179)
the Genji, however, a unique female character ap-
pears, one who clings to her decision to resist mar- Born into a noble family, Hildegard was
riage and all that it entails, even unto death. entered at the age of eight by her parents
When viewed microscopically, the actions of this into a hermitage attached to a Benedictine
ie no onna (literally, “house woman,” i.e., one not monastery, where she demonstrated a talent
serving at the imperial court) may well appear for leadership and theology. In 1136, when
paranoid and irrational (or, in Freudian terms, the abbess died, the nuns unanimously
elected Hildegard as her successor. Although
frigid), but macroscopically, taking into account
Hildegard possessed a gift for prophetic vi-
the women’s stories that have come before, they
sions from an early age, it was not until she
are all too justifiable. Through a discussion of the
was in her forties that she revealed her vision-
tactics she uses to resist her suitor, and especially
ary gifts to others. During this time, Hilde-
of the rationale behind such resistance, this article
gard worked toward the completion of the
will argue that Ôigimi’s behaviour actually demon-
Scivias (c. 1151; Scito vias Domini; or Know
strates a powerfully subversive response to male
the Ways of the Lord)—a documentation of
invasion and attempted appropriation of the self.
the images and messages she received di-
In the interests of readability, references to rectly from God—while her fame as a
Murasaki Shikibu’s text will be drawn primarily prophet, healer, and visionary grew. Hilde-
from Edward Seidensticker’s 1976 English version gard established her own convent at Ruperts-
(1989 Knopf edition), with Japanese terms and berg, near Bingen, in 1150. Throughout the
phrases introduced only where specifically rel- next decade, the convent flourished and
evant. While use of a translation rather than the Hildegard began to write works on medicine
original is necessarily problematic, this strategy and natural philosophy, along with another
has the not inconsiderable benefit of rendering visionary treatise, the Liber vitae meritorum (c.
my argument accessible to an audience beyond 1163; The Book of Life’s Rewards).
that versed in the Classical Japanese language.2 Between 1158 and 1161 she embarked
Critical works written in both English and Japa- upon a series of preaching tours, and in 1163
nese (in the latter case, translations are my own) she began the last of her visionary writings,
will, of course, be employed throughout. the Liber divinorum operum (c. 1170; Book of
Similarly, while examples drawn from else- the Divine Works). Often regarded by several
where in Japanese literature will be used to il- scholars as Germany’s first woman doctor
lustrate the various points, I have also chosen to and scientist, Hildegard’s Liber subtilitatum di-
engage with certain textual references more versarum naturarum creaturarum libri novum
familiar to a Western reader. Given that both (c. 1158; Nine Books on the Subtleties of Dif-
Comparative Literature and feminist research are ferent Kinds of Creatures), which is comprised
largely interdisciplinary in scope, they expose the of two parts—Physica and Causae et curae—is
falsity of many purportedly common-sensical divi- a pharmacopoeia and an encyclopedia denot-
sions, revealing that certain artificial barriers may ing the characteristic medicinal properties of
have “obstructed a complete view of women’s various plants, animals, and minerals, and
situations and the social structures that perpetu- contains discussion of the origin and treat-
ated gender inequalities” (Hesse-Biber 1) and sug- ment of disease. The later years of Hildegard’s
gesting that there is an inherent value to bringing life were marked by her controversial yet suc-
disparate elements together, to moving beyond cessful defiance of church decrees when they
the bounds of national literatures. In a recent were contrary to her own impulses and
report on the status of the discipline, Charles beliefs. This defiance has been the focus of
Bernheimer argues convincingly that much of the contemporary feminist criticism
and analysis of Hildegard’s life and works.
comparative literature illuminates the artistic and
cultural patterns of sameness and difference which
exist both within and between societies, and it
than one’s own needs to remain aware of the
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES danger of daring to speak for the Other, of ap-
propriating and (mis) interpreting what those
from utterly different centuries and circumstances
have said. While one could assert that every at-
tempt to interpret a cultural artefact means a de
facto act of speaking for its creator, whether
sympathetically or not, it is a fact that the cross-
cultural researcher must always remain especially
conscious of the need to respect another’s separate
identity and experience if s/he is to avoid the
pitfalls of misrepresentation and ahistoricism. One
has also to be wary of anachronistic terminology
such as “medieval feminist” and unjustified
exploitation of early texts for supporting an
unrelated, foreign perspective. Terms and phrases
such as “patriarchal oppression” and “violation of
personal space” certainly were not part of the
vocabulary (be it Japanese or English) until very
recent times indeed. Regardless, the ideas and
emotions behind this modern-day wording are
hardly new or geographically specific. Despite
obvious and significant differences of culture and
language, therefore, an examination of similar
literary strategies can fruitfully exemplify and shed
light on many of the concepts and arguments that
have fascinated readers in both past and present,
east and west.
Lady Murasaki (c. 973-c. 1020).
Turning now to our main topic, we note that
the reader is given a multitude of reasons for the
thereby gives us a precious contrastive portrait of
elder Uji princess’ rejection of Kaoru’s advances.
societies’ values and beliefs, as well as their Her most often stated rationale is the desire to ho-
aesthetic and literary traditions. nour her father’s wishes and protect the family
(81) name from ridicule (hitowarae). As Haruo Shirane
explains at some length in The Bridge of Dreams,
New ways of seeing and theorizing the condi- while her high rank requires Ôigimi to marry
tion of women may well be revealed when the within an elite group or suffer social opprobrium,
point of departure is located elsewhere than in the family’s status has diminished to the point
Europe and North America. Ultimately, by focus- where she has little hope of marrying well, if at
sing attention on a work of pre-modern Japanese all.3 The aristocratic Kaoru’s offer should, there-
literature, I am making an argument for a decen- fore, logically be received as a welcome one. As for
tring move, questioning and destabilizing assump- the purported parental disapproval, Hachi no
tions as to how our world can be understood and Miya (the Eighth Prince) clearly had never in-
thus potentially leading to a re-thinking of certain tended his stricture against marrying to apply in
feminist projects that have previously been rooted this case; on the contrary, he entertained the fond
in the West. hope that one of the daughters would indeed wed
Reading a 1000-year-old Japanese text from his trustworthy and admirable pupil. The Prince
an early 21st-century Canadian perspective does makes several rather vague comments about the
inevitably run the serious risk of appropriation of nature of the relationship either Ôigimi or Na-
voice. As Toril Moi rightly cautions, “it is not an kanokimi might eventually enter into with Kaoru,
unproblematic project to try to speak for the other such as “his thoughts have turned to you because
woman, since this is precisely what the ventrilo- I once chanced to hint at a hope that he would
quism of patriarchy has always done: men have watch over you after my death” (Seidensticker
constantly spoken for women, or in the name of 1989: 792). Nonetheless, other statements become
women” (67-8). Any analysis of a culture other much more explicit: “I have done what I could to
bring you together. You have years ahead of you sions in The Tale of Genji and elsewhere play
and I must leave the rest to you” (805), and repeatedly on the association of the place name
especially: “Kaoru was exactly what he hoped a Uji with ushi, an adjective meaning gloomy, weari-
son-in-law might be” (801). Should a proposal be some, distasteful, or miserable. Indeed, the Eighth
made, therefore, it would scarcely fall into the Prince moved his family to this location only as a
category of “unsuitable marriages” (807) against last resort, when their principal residence in the
which he warns the sisters, and one is hard pressed city burned down. He is aware of the hardship
to misinterpret the father’s actual wishes in this such a rusticated life may pose for his young
matter. daughters, but has no viable alternative. This
So why does Ôigimi adamantly refuse the environment is described in quite forbidding
suitor? A far more convincing factor behind her terms:
decision not to accept this husband is a fear of Mountain upon mountain separated his [the
what intimacy with men will entail. While allow- Prince’s] dwelling from the larger world. Rough
ing males to have access to her person would people of the lower classes, woodcutters and the
like, sometimes came by to do chores for him.
provide the support (ushiromi) Ôigimi needs to
There were no other callers. The gloom continued
make her way in society, accepting such support day after day, as stubborn and clinging as ‘the
would place her completely at the mercy of a morning mist on the peaks’.
patriarchy that is more than a little misogynous. (779-80)
Consequently, the resistance she manifests can be
viewed as a conscious attempt to retain her Not only is the villa remote from the city and
autonomy and sense of self. Ironically, in this case, human companionship, it is constantly en-
self-preservation is possible only through self- shrouded in oppressive mist and surrounded by
annihilation, and the reader bears witness to Ôigi- dense undergrowth:
mi’s inexorable progress toward death. As he [Kaoru] came into the mountains the mist
While the isolated domestic space of Uji was so heavy and the underbrush so thick that he
could hardly make out the path; and as he pushed
initially offers a stable place of refuge for the
his way through thickets the rough wind would
princesses, loss of the father-protector exposes throw showers of dew upon him from a turmoil
them to Kaoru’s and Niou’s claims to right of ac- of falling leaves.
cess. Despite her initial protestations that she (783)
prefers to spend the rest of her life alone with her
sister, Nakanokimi soon succumbs to what is The modern reader cannot help but be re-
considered a normal woman’s fate and marries minded of Sleeping Beauty, where the hero must
Niou. The elder sister, however, is unable to fight his way through an almost impenetrable for-
conceive of wedlock as a desirable or even imagin- est to rescue a virginal and insensible heroine.
able option, and repeatedly rejects Kaoru’s over- Nevertheless, as we will see below, in this case the
tures. Unwilling or unable to accept this quite acutely sensible beauty considers the wilderness
unparalleled resistance as genuine, the hero an asylum and, to the consternation of her
nonetheless continues to badger her. Given that would-be champion, declines to be delivered from
external flight is not a viable option, Ôigimi’s fear her unwed status in the traditional manner.
of the Phallus (and the threat it represents) neces- As Rachel Brownstein points out, this cult of
sitates ever further retreat within the inner sphere. the chaste maiden is an important and recurring
Eventually, her desperate efforts to maintain motif in Western literature: “A beautiful virgin
spatial integrity lead her to reject any trespass of walled off from an imperfect world is the central
bodily boundaries, including via the act of eating. figure in romance” (35). During Japan’s Heian
By starving herself to death, she gradually suc- period as well, high-born women were very much
ceeds in eliminating her own physicality, which “walled off,” in that they remained jealously
has served to attract the unwanted and insistent guarded behind several layers of both moveable
suitor. To Ôigimi’s mind, intimacy with the male and immoveable barriers. Clearly defined separate
can be achieved only by sacrificing autonomy and spheres for the sexes were fundamental to the
identity, and is thus a destiny to be avoided at all elaborate etiquette of the time: “Good manners
costs. maintained proper distance, which amounted to
Although born in Heian-kyô, Ôigimi and Na- upholding the accepted social order. [. . .] Domes-
kanokimi have spent many years of their lives in tic space, divided by screens, curtains, blinds, and
the Uji villa, isolated from the capital and the so on [. . .] upheld distance and inviolate dignity”
glories of civilization it has to offer. Poetic allu- (Tyler xix). It is important to note that women in
this society normally lived apart from their been carried to them on the breeze. After all, they
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES husbands in property owned by themselves, and are described here as uchi naru hito (Abe 16: 131)—
thus could, at least in theory, limit intrusions to a literally, “the people inside”—thus hardly sitting
significant degree. Direct access by even closely out in the open, or even on the verandah as two
related adult males was not socially acceptable, of their ladies-in-waiting do. It is only reasonable
with the result that the interior is portrayed as an for the princesses to assume that they were shel-
almost exclusively female-gendered space. As a tered from prying eyes there in their private
recent Japanese critical study on the architectural quarters, behind gates and fences, surrounded by
setting of the Genji (Yasuhara Morihiko, Genji mo- serving women and protected by guardsmen
nogatari: Kûkan dokkai, 2000) points out, female outside, as had been the case until this fateful day.
ownership of real estate meant that the woman’s
In these chapters, nature and geography ap-
ability to decide what went on in her home was
pear to offer additional barriers to violation and
widely recognized, including even where a male
protect Ôigimi and Nakanokimi from unwanted
visitor was allowed to sit.4
intrusions. The Uji palace is presented as both a
Ironically, however, most Heian architecture is religious and secular sanctuary, the tortuous route
revealed to be insubstantial, in that physical, from the capital serving to discourage most gal-
visual, and aural penetration is within the reach lants and thus keeping its occupants safe from
of any moderately resourceful voyeur. Indeed, the harm. Seidensticker rightly comments on the
entire tragedy of Ôigimi begins to unfold with significance of the “gothic mists and waters of Uji”
Kaoru catching a hint of music wafting from the (1983: 203), and one is tempted to see the Uji
sisters’ quarters. In this initially accidental, al- River as a moat-like additional defense against
though not unqualifiedly innocent5 , aural viola- invaders. Of course, being on the far side of the
tion of their privacy, the young man becomes Eighth Prince’s property, it does not pose a physi-
tantalized by the faint strains of the lovely and cal barrier to access. Nevertheless, the river is
melancholy duet that Ôigimi and Nakanokimi are repeatedly described in terms that make of it an
playing on koto and biwa. Once he learns that omnipresent symbol of nature’s power, serving as
the Prince, whom he has intended to visit, is away a warning to those from outside but somehow a
on a spiritual retreat (and that the two young source of comfort to the female inmates. I have
women are thus alone and unprotected), the titil- already pointed out that prospective suitors must
lating possibility of a chance at kaimami (literally, struggle through almost impassible thickets and
“peering through a gap in the fence,” but more underbrush, their passage made more difficult by
generally this literature’s omnipresent peeping the ever-present fog. Until Kaoru thoughtlessly
tom motif) proves irresistible. With the conniv- discloses their existence to the licentious Niou,
ance of a guardsman employed by the princesses, the sisters enjoy an almost uterine security in what
he hides behind a fence and, by the light of the is in effect a secure, woman-centred world. Let us
moon shining out from behind a cloud, is able to not forget that this is a society where homes are
peer at the two unsuspecting women under their principally inherited on a matrilineal basis, and
raised blinds. The reader participates in this sur- thus female characters are intimately associated
reptitious violation of their privacy and Kaoru’s with their residences.
resulting arousal, which fact is made clear in
countless illustrations (such as the emaki, or Given that Ôigimi lost her mother at a tender
picture scrolls) of this and similar scenes. As age, this locale can even, to a certain extent, be
Joshua Mostow comments: taken as a mother figure—an abstraction of the
feminine principle. It is worth noting in this con-
The female narrator and her illustrator have nection that, as a would-be priest who, despite
internalized the masculine gaze and have been
colonized by it: the narrator and viewer both
pressure from members of his household, declines
merge with Kaoru and become complicit in his to remarry following his wife’s death, the Eighth
voyeurism. Essential to the voyeur’s pleasure is Prince is presented as a de-sexed or not-male
the obliviousness of his object: the one he views character. Norma Field underscores the effeminate
must be totally absorbed in her own actions and nature of the princesses’ father by positing a ho-
unaware of the presence of a viewer.
(467)
moerotic attraction between Kaoru and his spiri-
tual tutor. Along these lines, Ôigimi’s anorexia
Ôigimi and her sister certainly have no reason can be interpreted as a rejection of her own sexual-
to suspect the presence of a peeping tom, although ity or femaleness in imitation of her sole parental
they do subsequently blame themselves for being role model: a final desire to regress to childhood,
oblivious to Kaoru’s distinctive aroma, which had to undifferentiation, even if this regression means
death. Such a reading would then significantly The life of the female savage is freedom itself . . .
parallel the failed attempt by the Third Princess compared with the increasing constriction of
custom closing in upon the woman, as civiliza-
(another motherless child in the Genji) to cling to
tion advances, like the iron torture chamber of
the prepubescent space that she views as her one romance.
refuge from the menacing Phallus.6 Kaoru’s viola- (65)
tion would accordingly take on even more omi-
nous overtones as an attack on not only Ôigimi To these intellectually astute women who
herself, but also Child or Woman in general. have come of age in the hinterlands of Uji or
Akashi, which offer (relatively speaking) a certain
Bearing all these connotations associated with
amount of personal freedom, Heian-kyô and the
Uji in mind helps make more readily comprehen-
patriarchal society there enshrined do symbolize
sible Ôigimi’s inward-looking obsession and
such an iron chamber waiting to close in on them.
consistent reluctance to leave. The security of her
In their view, far from the pinnacle of joy and
home is not something an intelligent woman
security that it represents to the waiting women
throws away lightly, and the princesses have no
and others in their entourage, the capital is a site
hope of effective support elsewhere. As Brown-
of dependence and potential humiliation. Ôigi-
stein points out, heroines of romance, symbolized
mi’s preference for the independence she has
by a rooted flower fated passively to await the
known, in spite of its obscure and peripheral
male, must stand guard over their spatial and
nature, is thus understandable and leads her to
corporeal boundaries:
resist being brought to a central position (i.e., to
Everything that can happen to the Rose while the an estate within the city limits) that will inevitably
lover struggles to reach her happens inside. She
cannot but be self-preoccupied (which is not to
be a weaker one. What makes the situation of this
say self-aware); unlike the Lover, she has no Rose Uji princess even more untenable than most is
outside of herself to draw her out or up. Her life the fact that, in his concern for the well-being of
must be passed in staring at the bare insides of his daughters, the Eighth Prince has to a certain
garden walls. Eternal vigilance is her lot; if she lets degree dispossessed her by making both sisters de
herself be distracted it may be dangerous.
(36)
facto wards of another man. (This other man is, of
course, Kaoru, the stubbornly persistent suitor.)
The interior is clearly identified as her predes- Although she does inherit the property that has
tined space, and allowing any male to have access been her home for many years and thus gains
is a step fraught with danger. This lesson seems to increased nominal autonomy, Ôigimi finds herself
have been instinctively learned by women in the even more reliant on Kaoru’s good will than ever
Heian period: “So the last veil had been stripped before as, in his role as protector sanctioned by
away, thought Ôigimi. One thing was clear: theirs her late father, he presses her with unwelcome at-
was a world in which not a single unguarded mo- tentions that she now finds extremely awkward
ment was possible” (835). The fatal conclusion of and risky to rebuff.
her story proves just how dangerous distraction
Ôigimi’s dilemma is a metaphor for woman’s
can be.
ambiguous position within and without the
Space is unambiguously presented as a locus dominant male culture of Heian Japan and else-
of power relationships. While Ôigimi has long where, where the appropriation of space signifies
been marginal to society at large and the class into appropriation of the body. A paralyzing fear of, or
which she was born, she conversely enjoys a at least pronounced distaste for, intimacy with
pivotal position in the domestic haven at Uji. Her men offers little mystery in a society where
role as mistress of the house, companion to her women can achieve sexual union only at the cost
father, and mother-substitute to Nakanokimi has of totally sacrificing independence and self. It has
been relatively autonomous. She thus resists Kao- been said that, “conceiving of herself as the
ru’s intention to displace her from her house to creature of her relationships with others, and
his, where she would clearly become more subject bound by her woman’s fate to a life of relation-
to another’s whims. This situation is strikingly ships, the conscious heroine longs for solitude and
analogous to that of the Akashi Lady from earlier separateness” (Brownstein 288-9). . . .
in The Tale of Genji, who has benefited from a
childhood and youth where the world revolved
around herself, and who sees no personal advan- Notes
1. “Akiko wa jûni-sai de kôkyû ni hairaretan dakedo,
tage—indeed considerable disadvantage—in being
nenne de, ren’ai mo sekusu mo wakaranai. O-ningyô
transported to Genji’s household. As Charlotte mitaina hito deshô. Tsumari, ‘Genji’ wa isshu no
Perkins Gilman once wrote: seikyôiku hon datta no yo.” (“Akiko was twelve years
old when she entered the Court, and knew nothing of Genji’s Third Princess.” Canadian Review of Comparative
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES either love or sex. She was like a little doll. In short, Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée.
‘Genji’ was a sort of sex education manual.”) Tawara Forthcoming.
Machi. “Ima mo mukashi mo ai koso jinsei no
———. “Translating Woman: Reading the Female through
gendôryoku.” Interview with Setouchi Jakuchô.
the Male,” Meta 44.3 (September 1999): 469-84.
(Tokyo: Shûkan Asahi, August 21-8, 1998) 45.
Hesse-Biber, Sharlene, et al., ed. Feminist Approaches to
2. Readers wishing to delve into the question of transla- Theory and Methodology: An Interdisciplinary Reader. New
tion accuracy with regard to women’s writing in He- York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
ian Japan may find my article entitled “Translating
Woman: Reading the Female through the Male” to be Imai Hisayo. “Migushi no koborekakaritaru o kakiyaritsutsu
of interest. mitamaeba: Otoko to onna no hazama ni wa. Ôigimi
to Kaoru no koimonogatari.” Genji monogatari
3. Haruo Shirane, The Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of ‘The tekusuto tsua-, v. Kokubungaku 45:9 (July 2000) 172-77.
Tale of Genji’ (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1987). See especially pp. 140-41. As a frequently cited Keene, Donald, trans. Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of
footnote in Abe et al. (15:23 n. 25) makes clear, the Kenkô. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967.
vast majority (85%) of princesses of the blood re- Komashaku Kimi. Murasaki Shikibu no messêji. Tokyo: Asahi,
mained single during the first two centuries of the He- 1991.
ian period, primarily owing to the scarcity of ap-
propriately ranked marriage partners. Miller, Nancy K. The Heroine’s Text: Readings in the French
and English Novel, 1722-1782. New York: Columbia
4. Further, the exact location within the home to which University Press, 1980.
she accords him access is of great import, implying
minute differentiations of degrees of intimacy. As Ya- Moi, Toril. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory.
suhara (201) puts it, Kono onna no kûkan ni oite wa London and New York: Routledge, 1985.
onna ga otoko no suwaru ichi o kimeta. Misu de au ka, Mostow, Joshua S. “‘Just Like a Picture’: Metaphors of
hisashi de au ka no sa wa ôkii. (“In this woman’s space, Beauty, Romance, and the Feminine Regard.” ICLA ’91:
it was the woman who decided the place where a man Tokyo: The Force of Vision I: Dramas of Desire, Visions of
would sit. There was a vast difference in whether she Beauty. 1995. 463-69.
met him at the bamboo blind or closer to the eaves.”)
Nakamoto Takako. “The Female Bell-Cricket.” Trans. Yukiko
5. In having Kaoru travel to Uji through darkness and Tanaka. To Live and To Write. Yukiko Tanaka, ed. Seattle:
rain, dressed inconspicuously and accompanied by a The Seal Press, 1987. 135-44.
reduced number of retainers, the narrator accords him
Ôba, Minako. “Special Address: Without Beginning, With-
all the trappings of a lover on his way to a secret tryst.
out End”. Trans. Paul Gordon Schalow. The Woman’s
Indeed, our hero, unfamiliar with such intrigues,
Hand. Ed. Paul Gordon Schalow and Janet A. Walker.
seems to derive a certain level of sexual exhilaration
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. 19-40.
from the escapade, even before the women appear on
the scene: “This was not the sort of journey he was ac- Orbaugh, Sharalyn. “The Body in Contemporary Japanese
customed to. It was sobering and at the same time Women’s Fiction.” The Woman’s Hand. Ed. Paul Gor-
exciting” (783). don Schalow and Janet A. Walker. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1996. 119-164.
6. For an in-depth discussion of this heroine’s use of
temporal suspension, see my forthcoming article Rossetti, Christina. “Goblin Market.” The Norton Anthology
entitled “Seeking Refuge in Prepubescent Space: The of English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York: W.W.
Strategy of Resistance Employed by The Tale of Genji’s Norton & Company, 1979. 1523-35.
Third Princess.” Seidensticker, Edward. Genji Days. New York: Kodansha
International, 1983.
Works Cited ———. trans. The Tale of Genji. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
Abe Akio, Akiyama Ken, and Imai Gen’e, eds. Genji monoga- 1989.
tari. Nihon Koten Bungaku Zenshû vols. 12-17, 1970-
1976. Shirane, Haruo. The Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of ‘The Tale
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Bernheimer, Charles, ed. Comparative Literature in the Age of
Tawara Machi. “Ima mo mukashi mo ai koso jinsei no
Multiculturalism. Baltimore and London: The Johns
gendôryoku.” Interview with Setouchi Jakuchô. Shûkan
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Asahi August 21-8, 1998. 41-45.
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Women in Novels. New York: Columbia University Press, Kashima Shuppankai, 2000.
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Field, Norma. The Splendor of Longing in the Tale of Genji.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987. FURTHER READING
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Women and Economics. Ed. Carl
N. Degler. New York: Harper and Row, 1966.
Criticism
Antonopoulos, Anna. “The Double Meaning of Hestia:
Henitiuk, Valerie. “Seeking Refuge in Prepubescent Space: Gender, Spirituality, and Signification in Antiquity.”
The Strategy of Resistance Employed by The Tale of Women and Language 16, no. 1 (spring 1993): 1-6.
Semiotic study of the Greek goddess of the hearth, Hestia, Surveys the role of women as artists and scholars in the
which suggests she may represent an “omphalos” (navel) Middle Ages, with particular emphasis on Herrad of
symbol that stands in opposition to the phallus. Landsberg’s encyclopedic Hortus Deliciarum and Hilde-
gard of Bingen’s visionary manuscript, the Scivias.
Arens, Katherine. “Between Hypatia and Beauvoir: Philoso-
phy as Discourse.” Hypatia 10, no. 4 (fall 1995): 46-75. Chamberlain, David. “Marie de France’s Arthurian lai:
Compares literary interpretations of two female philoso- Subtle and Political.” In Culture and the King: The Social
phers, one modern, Simone de Beauvoir, and the other Implications of the Arthurian Legend, edited by Martin B.
classical, Hypatia, in order to explore the constraints Shichtman and James P. Carley, pp. 15-34. Albany:
placed upon feminine philosophical discourse. State University of New York Press, 1994.
Bar On, Bat-Ami, ed. Engendering Origins: Critical Feminist Analyzes Marie de France’s Arthurian “Lai de Lanval” in
Readings in Plato and Aristotle. Albany: State University the context of twelfth-century social and political themes.
of New York Press, 1994, 248 p. Chance, Jane, ed. Gender and Text in the Later Middle Ages.
Collection of twelve essays by various contributors featur- Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996, 342 p.
ing feminist approaches to the writings of Plato and Aris- Features essays on such topics as feminine mysticism,
totle on the subjects of women and philosophy. misogyny, and female self-representation in works by
Black, Nancy B. “Woman as Savior: The Virgin Mary and Julian of Norwich, Birgitta of Sweden, Margery Kempe,
Empress of Rome in Gautier de Coinci’s Miracles.” Ro- Hadewijch, Marie de France, Christine de Pisan, and oth-
manic Review 88, no. 4 (November 1997): 503-17. ers.
Considers thirteenth-century Benedictine monk Gautier Cherewatuk, Karen, and Ulrike Wiethaus, eds. Dear Sister:
de Coinci’s depiction of the empress of Rome as a saintly Medieval Women and the Epistolary Genre. Philadelphia:
spiritual figure akin to the Virgin Mary in his collection University of Philadelphia Press, 1993, 215 p.
Miracles de Nostre Dame.
Collection of essays that survey women’s contributions to
Blamires, Alcuin. Introduction to Woman Defamed and the literary tradition of letter-writing from the sixth to
Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts, edited the sixteenth centuries.
by Alcuin Blamires, pp. 1–16. Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1992. Cowell, Andrew. “Deadly Letters: ‘Deus amanz,’ Marie’s
‘Prologue’ to the Lais, and the Dangerous Nature of
Presents an overview of the sources and themes of the Gloss.” Romanic Review 88, no. 3 (May 1997): 337-
antifeminism in the literature of the Middle Ages. 56.
Bremmer, Jan N. “Gender.” In Greek Religion, pp. 69-83. Evaluates Marie de France’s efforts to appropriate
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. traditionally male forms of legitimizing narrative author-
Details the daily and ritual life of women in ancient ity in her prologue to the Lais.
Greece, considering in particular a number of religious
festivals reserved exclusively for women. Duby, Georges. Women of the Twelfth Century, Volume Three:
Eve and the Church, translated by Jean Birrell. Chicago:
Brosius, Maria. Women in Ancient Persia, 559-331 B.C. University of Chicago Press, 1998, 122 p.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, 258 p.
Discusses the twelfth-century recognition by leaders
Studies Greek perceptions of Persian women in Achae- within the Christian Church of the unique spiritual and
menid Persia (559-331 B.C.), examining social customs social expectations of women in the Middle Ages.
and rituals, especially among the aristocracy.
Evans, Ruth, and Lesley Johnson, eds. Feminist Readings in
Cameron, Alan, and Jacqueline Long. “Hypatia.” In Barbar- Middle English Literature: The Wife of Bath and All Her
ians and Politics at the Court of Arcardius, pp. 39-62. Sect. London: Routledge, 1994, 257 p.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Consists of nine essays that approach Chaucer’s Wife of
Chronicles the life and teachings of the Alexandrian Bath and other figures—both historical and literary—of
philosopher and mathematician Hypatia, observing her the medieval period generally associated with a protofemi-
active role in the public life of fourth-century Roman nist critique of patriarchal society.
Egypt.
Faraone, Christopher A. “Salvation and Female Heroics in
Cartwright, Jane. “Dead Virgins: Feminine Sanctity in
the Parodos of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata.” Journal of Hel-
Medieval Wales.” Medium Aevum 71, no. 1 (spring
lenic Studies 117 (1997): 38-59.
2002): 1-28.
Comments on the theatrical reenactment of what would
Compiles biographical and historical evidence concerning
have been to classical Greek audiences a recognizable
female Welsh saints of the fifth, sixth, and seventh
ritual celebration of salvation by women in Aris-
centuries, noting that their stories typically focus on
tophanes’s drama Lysistrata.
humane acts and efforts to maintain their own chastity.
Castelli, Elizabeth A. “Gender, Theory, and the Rise of Foley, Helene P. “The ‘Female Intruder’ Reconsidered:
Christianity: A Response to Rodney Stark.” Journal of Women in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Ecclesiazusae.”
Early Christian Studies 6, no. 2 (1998): 227-57. Classical Philology 77, no. 1 (January 1982): 1-21.
Illuminates the role of women in the spread of Roman Problematizes the tension between oikos and polis
Christianity during the early centuries of the modern era, (household and city-state), generally depicted in terms of
claiming that evidence of the social benefits of Christian- a binary opposition between feminine and masculine
ity for women during this period is relatively thin. spheres, by drawing counterexamples from classical Greek
drama.
Chadwick, Whitney. “The Middle Ages.” In Women, Art,
and Society, pp. 37-58. London: Thames and Hudson, ———. Female Acts in Greek Tragedy. Princeton, N.J.: Prince-
1990. ton University Press, 2001, 410 p.
In-depth study of the gendered conflict between private Suggests that Marie de France’s twelfth-century lai “Le
WOMEN AND WOMEN’S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES and public concerns depicted in the tragic drama of Fraisne” introduces a notion of the bond between mar-
Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus. riage and love that at the time may have been quite
revolutionary.
Fulkerson, Laurel. “Epic Ways of Killing a Woman: Gender
and Transgression in Odyssey 22.465-72.” Classical Jour- Janan, Micaela. “‘There beneath the Roman Ruin where the
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Feminine Imagination.” American Journal of Philology
Treats the theme of infidelity in Homer’s Odyssey by 115 (1994): 427-48.
contrasting the unfaithfulness of twelve serving maids,
later hanged by Telemachus, with Penelope’s lifelong Focuses on Ovid’s evocation of feminine desire in the
constancy to Odysseus. stories of his Metamorphoses involving the Minyeides,
viewing it as a force disruptive to all social and institu-
Garber, Rebecca L. R. Feminine Figurae: Representations of tional constraints.
Gender in Religious Texts by Medieval German Women Jensen, Anne. God’s Self-Confident Daughters: Early Christian-
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three literary forms associated with medieval women writ- 1996, 347 p.
ers: the vision cycle, sister-book, and personal revelation. Endeavors to construct a feminist history of women and
the church in late antiquity, with sections on the educa-
Gold, Barbara K., Paul Allen Miller, and Charles Platter, eds.
tion, marginalization, martyrdom, and the spiritual
Sex and Gender in Medieval and Renaissance Texts: The
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Latin Tradition. Albany: State University of New York
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Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 33, no. 1
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(2003): 47-89.
body in a number of Latin texts of the medieval and
early Renaissance periods, including works by Hrotsvit, Explains the influence of Cynewulf’s poem Elene in
St. Augustine, and Petrarch. defining the nature of queenship in Anglo-Saxon Eng-
land.
Greer, Germaine. “The Cloister.” In The Obstacle Race: The
Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work, pp. 151-68. Koloski-Ostrow, Ann Olga, and Claire L. Lyons, eds. Naked
New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1979. Truths: Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and
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Evaluates the unique social position of the convent in
Collection of essays oriented toward the redefinition of
medieval Europe, exploring the link between monasticism
classical art history from the perspective of contemporary
and the creation of illuminated manuscripts by women.
feminism (featuring selections on antique representations
Harris, Kevin. “The Place of Women.” In Sex, Ideology, and of such figures as Sappho and Clytemnestra), as well as
Religion: The Representation of Women in the Bible, pp. on classical renderings of the feminine form in the visual
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Highlights the relative absence of women as significant or Lesko, Barbara S. The Great Goddesses of Egypt. Norman:
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Havelock, Christine Mitchell. “Mourners on Greek Vases: Detailed study of the seven goddesses of the ancient
Remarks on the Social History of Women.” In Feminism Egyptian pantheon and of the temples and cults devoted
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into the status and emotional life of women in classical women in Greek painting and sculpture of the fifth and
Greece. sixth centuries B.C., encapsulating what can be known of
their social and personal life from these sources.
Head, Pauline. “Who Is the Nun from Heidenheim? A Study
of Hugeburc’s Vita Willibaldi.” Medium Aevum 71, no. 1 McLaren, Anne, and Chen Qinjian. “The Oral and Ritual
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Probes Hugeburc’s eighth-century biographies of Willi-
bald and Wynnebald, describing narrative tensions Interprets the bridal lamentation ritual performed by
between hagiographic convention, the author’s feminine women of the Yangtze River delta region in imperial
subjectivity, and her male literary subjects. China—one of only a few available insights into the
spiritual and personal life of generally secluded and
Hedreen, Guy. “Image, Text, and Story in the Recovery of socially marginalized Chinese women during this period.
Helen.” Classical Antiquity 15, no. 1 (April 1996): 152-
84. Pomeroy, Sarah B. “Women in the Bronze Age and Homeric
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ships between men and women in Bronze-Age Greece.
Surveys the position of women in Bronze-Age Greece as
Hurtig, Dollian Margaret. “‘I Do, I Do’: Medieval Models of portrayed in Homeric epics the Iliad and the Odyssey,
Marriage and Choice of Partners in Marie de France’s noting that despite the patriarchal bent of this early
‘Le Fraisne.’” Romanic Review 92, no. 4 (November civilization, Homer’s works remain relatively free of
2001): 363-79. misogyny.
———. Spartan Women. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Shaw, Michael. “The Female Intruder: Women in Fifth-
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Full-length history of women in ancient Sparta that
features sections on education, marriage, motherhood, Evaluates distinctions between masculine and feminine
the aristocracy, and religion in Spartan society. social roles portrayed in classical Greek drama.
Richmond, Colleen D. “Hrotsvit’s Sapientia: Rhetorical Sikorska, Liliana. “Internal Exile: Dorothea of Montau’s
Power and Women of Wisdom.” Renascence: Essays on Inward Journey.” Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: Interna-
Values in Literature 55, no. 2 (winter 2003): 133-45. tional Review of English Studies 38 (mid-summer 2002):
433-44.
Argues that in her play The Martyrdom of the Holy
Virgins Fides, Spes, and Karitas, the tenth-century Documents the solitary pilgrimage and writings of
Saxon canoness Hrotsvit offers an empowering reassess- fourteenth-century saint and mystic Dorothea of Montau.
ment of women that breaks with many of the patriarchal
Thompson, Patricia J. “Dismantling the Master’s House: A
stereotypes found in classical Roman drama.
Hestian/Hermean Deconstruction of Classic Texts.” Hy-
Rigby, S. H. “The Wife of Bath, Christine de Pizan, and the patia 9, no. 4 (fall 1994): 38-56.
Medieval Case for Women.” Chaucer Review 35, no. 2 Concentrates on the gendered tension between domestic
(2000): 133-65. and public spheres in ancient Greece (usually typified in
Adapts Christine de Pizan’s rhetorical strategies in the symbolic opposition between oikos and polis) in
defense of women to the critical debate surrounding Geof- terms of the gods Hestia and Hermes as respective guard-
frey Chaucer’s Wife of Bath as either an outspoken ians of private and public space.
champion of feminist rights or the embodiment of nega-
Walcot, Peter. “Greek Attitudes towards Women: The
tive and patriarchal stereotypes regarding women.
Mythological Evidence.” In Women in Antiquity, edited
Rose, Christine M. “What Every Goodwoman Wants: The by Ian McAuslan and Peter Walcot, pp. 91–102.
Parameters of Desire in Le Menagier de Paris/The Good- Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
man of Paris.” Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: International Claims that the Greek representation of women in mythic
Review of English Studies 38 (mid-summer 2002): 393- literature suggests that male perceptions of the opposite
410. sex were conditioned by a fear of female sexuality. This
Assesses the ways in which women may have been essay was originally published in 1984.
manipulated by popular medieval conduct and advice
Walters, Barbara R. “Women Religious Virtuosae from the
books written by men, using the example of the
Middle Ages: A Case Pattern and Analytic Model of
fourteenth-century Le menagier de Paris, a housekeeping
Types.” Sociology of Religion 63, no. 1 (2002): 69-89.
book written by a 60-year-old French official for his 15-
year-old wife. Comparative analysis of five female religious models of
the thirteenth century (including Hadewijch of Antwerp,
Rossi, Mary Ann. “The Passion of Perpetua: Everywoman of Marguerite Porete, and Gertrude of Helfta) that endeavors
Late Antiquity.” In Pagan and Christian Anxiety: A to rework Max Weber’s sociological theory of medieval
Response to E. R. Dodds, edited by Robert C. Smith and mysticism.
John Lounibos, pp. 53-85. Lanham, Md.: University
Press of America, 1985. White, Rachel Evelyn. “Women in Ptolemaic Egypt.” Journal
of Hellenic Studies 18 (1898): 238-66.
Analyzes the text of the Passio Perpetuae, highlighting
insights the diary provides regarding Perpetua’s status as Compiles evidence relating to royal mothers, sisters, and
a female Christian convert within the patriarchal society wives in Ptolemaic Egypt, and includes brief descriptions
of imperial Rome. of the queens who bore the name Cleopatra.
Salisbury, Joyce E. Encyclopedia of Women in the Ancient Wren, James A. “Salty Seaweed, Absent Women, and Song:
World. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2001, 385 p. Authorizing the Female as Poet in the Izayoi nikki.”
Criticism: A Quarterly for Literature and the Arts 39, no. 2
Presents brief entries on literary and historical women of
(spring 1997): 185-204.
antiquity and topics of related interest.
Discusses the travel diary of the twelfth-century Japanese
Shaw, Brent D. “The Passion of Perpetua.” Past & Present, nun Abutsu as it presents a literary challenge to the
no. 139 (May 1993): 3-45. patriarchal culture of feudal Japan.
Studies the document known as the Passio Sanctarum
Zeitlin, Froma I. “The Dynamics of Misogyny: Myth and
Perpetuae et Felicitatis, which includes Perpetua’s ac-
Mythmaking in the Oresteia.” Arethusa 2 (1978): 149-
count of her arrest and imprisonment prior to her execu-
81.
tion in early-third-century A.D. Rome. The critic stresses
Perpetua’s clear and direct literary mode of self-expression Argues that Aeschylus’s dramas enact the conflict
and also examines the additions of a male editor to the between female and male principles in a patriarchal
text of her diary. society.
WOMEN IN THE 16TH,
17TH, AND 18TH
CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW
W omen in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and

eighteenth centuries were challenged with
expressing themselves in a patriarchal system that
spoken English Protestant, was tried for heresy in
1545; her denial of transubstantiation was grounds
for her imprisonment. She was eventually burned
generally refused to grant merit to women’s views. at the stake for her refusal to incriminate other
Cultural and political events during these centu- Protestant court ladies. Elizabeth I ascended to the
ries increased attention to women’s issues such as throne in 1558, a woman who contradicted many
education reform, and by the end of the eigh- of the gender roles of the age. She was well
teenth century, women were increasingly able to educated, having studied a variety of subjects
speak out against injustices. Though modern including mathematics, foreign language, politics,
feminism was nonexistent, many women ex- and history. Elizabeth was an outspoken but
pressed themselves and exposed the conditions widely respected leader, known for her oratory
that they faced, albeit often indirectly, using a skills as well as her patronage of the arts. Despite
variety of subversive and creative methods. the advent of the age of print, the literacy rate
during this period remained low, though the Bible
The social structure of sixteenth century
became more readily available to the lower classes.
Europe allowed women limited opportunities for
Religious study, though restricted to “personal
involvement; they served largely as managers of
introspection,” was considered an acceptable
their households. Women were expected to focus
pursuit for women, and provided them with
on practical domestic pursuits and activities that
another context within which they could com-
encouraged the betterment of their families, and
municate their individual ideas and sentiments.
more particularly, their husbands. In most cases
In addition to religious material, women of this
education for women was not advocated—it was
period often expressed themselves through the
thought to be detrimental to the traditional
ostensibly private forms of letters and autobiogra-
female virtues of innocence and morality. Women
phies.
who spoke out against the patriarchal system of
gender roles, or any injustice, ran the risk of being The seventeenth century was not an era of
exiled from their communities, or worse; vocal drastic changes in the status or conditions of
unmarried women in particular were the targets women. Women continued to play a significant,
of witch-hunts. Anne Hutchinson, who chal- though not acknowledged, role in economic and
lenged the authority of Puritan clergy, was excom- political structures through their primarily domes-
municated for her outspoken views and controver- tic activities. They often acted as counselors in the
sial actions. Anne Askew, a well-educated, out- home, “tempering” their husbands’ words and ac-
tions. Though not directly involved in politics, sional writing, however, was still considered
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW women’s roles within the family and local com- “vulgar” among the aristocracy. Significant colo-
munity allowed them to influence the political nial expansion during this period provided
system. Women were discouraged from directly would-be writers with unique subject matter—let-
expressing political views counter to their ters written by women abroad discussed foreign
husbands’ or to broadly condemn established issues and culture, and offered a detailed view of
systems; nevertheless, many women were able to far-off lands. These letters were often circulated
make public their private views through the veil among members of an extended family, as well as
of personal, religious writings. Again, women who in the larger community. In defiance of social
challenged societal norms and prejudices risked strictures, women such as Mary Wollstonecraft
their lives—Mary Dyer was hanged for repeatedly began to speak out publicly on women’s rights,
challenging the Massachusetts law that banished including education and marriage laws. Though
Quakers from the colony. Though their influence women had better access to education, the goal of
was often denigrated, women participated in vari- women’s education was to attain an ideal “wom-
ous community activities. For example, women anhood”—a “proper education” was viewed as
were full members of English guilds; guild records one that supported domestic and social activities
include references to “brethern and sistern” and but disregarded more academic pursuits. Women
“freemen and freewomen.” During the seven- such as Wollstonecraft advocated access to educa-
teenth century, women’s writings continued to tion for women that was equal to that of their
focus on largely religious concerns, but increas-
male counterparts. Marriage laws, which over-
ingly, women found a creative and intellectual
whelmingly favored men, also spurred public
outlet in private journal- and letter-writing. Mary
debate, though little was accomplished to reform
Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, published in
laws during this period.
1682, is a famous narrative written ostensibly for
personal use that was made public and became a Throughout the world, women took action to
popular success. advance their political and social rights. Catherine
the Great of Russia devised a coup d’etat to take
The eighteenth century brought the begin-
the throne in 1762, an aggressive act to prevent
ning of the British cultural revolution. With the
her son’s disinheritance. Catherine continued to
increasing power of the middle class and an
rule in an unconventional, independent manner,
expansion in consumerism, women’s roles began
withdrawing from the men who made her ascen-
to evolve. The economic changes brought by the
sion possible and remaining unmarried to ensure
new middle class provided women with the op-
her power. Catherine was a shrewd politician, and
portunity to be more directly involved in com-
used wide public support to enact laws that
merce. Lower- to middle-class women often as-
significantly altered the Russian political system.
sisted their husbands in work outside the home. It
was still thought unseemly for a lady to be knowl- In France, Olympe de Gouges demanded equal
edgeable of business so, though some class distinc- rights for women in the new French Republic, and
tions were blurring, the upper class was able to was eventually executed by guillotine in 1793.
distinguish themselves from the rest of society. Madame Roland, who also met an untimely death
The rise in consumerism allowed the gentry to in 1793, influenced revolutionary politicians and
place a greater emphasis on changing fashion and thinkers during the French Revolution through
“display,” further distancing them from the her famous salon. She, too, was an activist for
middleclass. With the advent of changes in rules women’s social and political rights and was
of fashion and acceptable mores within society, executed for treason, largely due to her outspoken
some women established a literary niche writing feminist ideas. Phillis Wheatley, an African-
etiquette guides. Also due to the cultural revolu- American slave, examined slavery and British
tion, mounting literacy rates among the lower imperialism in her poetry, and became a notable
classes caused an increase in publishing, including figure among abolitionists in America and abroad.
the rise of the periodical. Men and women of all Increasingly, women rebuked traditional roles and
classes found new means to express ideas in the spoke out against the social and political inequali-
wider publishing community. Though women’s ties they faced. The century closed with the deaths
writing during this period continued largely to be of visionaries such as Mary Wollstonecraft and
an extension of domesticity, and focused mainly Catherine the Great, and the births of a new breed
on pragmatic, practical issues, women found a of female writers and scholars. The political and
wider market for publication. The act of profes- social changes that took place in the eighteenth
century paved the way for these future writers and Cassandra Fedele
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW

activists to advance the cause of women’s rights. Letters and Orations [edited and translated by Di-
ana Robin] (letters and speeches) 2000
James Fordyce
Sermons to a Young Woman (handbook) 1766
REPRESENTATIVE WORKS
Mary Hays
Marie Jean Antoine Letters and Essays, Moral and Miscellaneous [with
On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizen- Elizabeth Hays] (letters and essays) 1793
ship (essay) 1790
Memoirs of Emma Courtney 2 vols. (novel) 1796
Elizabeth Ashbridge Appeal to the Men of Great Britain on the Behalf of
Some Account of the Fore-Part of the Life of Elizabeth the Ladies (essay) 1798
Ashbridge (autobiography) 1774 Female Biography: or Memoirs of Illustrious and
Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries
St. Teresa de Avila (biographies) 1803
El libro de su vida [The Life of the Mother Teresa of
Jesus] 1562 Eliza Haywood
The Female Spectator. 4 vols. (periodical) 1744-46
El libra de las fundaciones de Santa Teresa de Jesús
[The Book of the Foundations] 1576
Charlotte Lennox
El castillo interior, o las moradas [The Interior Castle; The Female Quixote; or, The Adventures of Arabella. 2
or, The Mansions] 1577 vols. (novel) 1752
The Lady’s Museum [editor] (essays, prose, poetry)
Mary Astell 1760-61
A Serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement
of Their True and Greatest Interest. By a Lover of Bathusa Makin
Her Sex (essay) 1694 An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentle-
A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part II. Wherin a women (essay) 1673
Method is Offer’d for the Improvement of Their
Minds (essay) 1697 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
*Letters of the Right Honorable Lady M—y W—y
M—e: Written, during her Travels in Europe, Asia
Aphra Behn
and Africa, To Persons of Distinction, Men of Let-
Oroonoko; Or, The Royal Slave. A True History (novel)
ters, & c. in Different Parts of Europe. 3 vols.
1688
(letters) 1763
The Lady’s Looking-Glass, to dress herself by; or, The
Whole Art of Charming (novel) 1697 Marguerite de Navarre
L’Heptaméron des Nouvelles [Heptameron] (novellas)
Anne Bradstreet 1559
The Tenth Muse (poetry) 1650
Modesta Pozzo (Moderata Fonte)
Margaret Cavendish Il Merito delle donne (novel) 1600; translated as The
CCXI Sociable Letters (correspondence) 1664 Worth of Women, 1997
Daniel Defoe Anne Radcliffe

The Female Advocate; or, An Attempt to Recover the
“On the Education of Women” (essay) 1719
Rights of Women from Male Usurpation (essay)
1799
Elizabeth I
The Public Speaking of Queen Elizabeth: Selections
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
from Her Official Addresses (addresses) 1951 Lettres de deux amans, habitans d’une petite ville au
pied des Alpes. 6 vols.; also published as La Nou-
Mary Evelyn velle Héloïse (novel) 1761
Mundus Muliebris: Or, the Ladies Dressing-Room
Unlock’d, and her Toilette Spread (prose poem) Du contrat social [The Social Contract] (essay) 1762
1690 Émile, ou l’education. 4 vols. (novel) 1762
Mary Rowlandson PRIMARY SOURCES
The Soveraignty & Goodness of God, Together with the
Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed; Being a ANNE WHEATHILL (ESSAY DATE
Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of 1584)
Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Commended by her to all SOURCE: Wheathill, Anne. “A Handfull of Holesome
that Desire to Know the Lord’s Doings to, and (though Homelie) Hearbs.” In Lay by Your Needles Ladies,
Take the Pen: Writing Women in England, 1500-1700,
Dealings with Her. Especially to her Dear Children
edited by Suzanne Trill, Kate Chedgzoy, and Melanie
and Relations. [republished as A True History of Osborne, pp. 50-56. London: Arnold, 1997.
the Captivity & Restoration of Mrs. Mary Row- In the following excerpt from her 1584 work, Wheathill
landson, A Minister’s Wife in New-England: offers a collection of prayers.
Wherein is set forth, The Cruel and Inhumane
Usage she underwent amongst the Heathens for To all Ladies, Gentlewomen, and others,
Eleven Weeks time: And her Deliverance from which love true religion and vertue, and
them. Written by her own Hand, for her Private be devoutlie disposed; Grace mercie, and
Use: and now made public at the earnest Desire of peace, in Christ Jesus
some Friends, for the Benefit of the Afflicted, For a testimonall to the world, how I have and
1682] (autobiography) 1682 doo (I praise God) bestowe the pretious treasure of
time, even now in the state of my virginitie or
George Savile, Marquis of Halifax maidenhood; lo heare I dedicate to all good
The Lady’s New Year’s Gift; or, Advice to a Daughter Ladies, Gentlewomen, and others, who have a
(handbook) 1688 desire to invocate and call upon the name of the
Lord, a small handfull of grose hearbs; which I
William Shakespeare have presumed to gather out of the garden of
Comedy of Errors (play) 1592-94
Gods most holie word. Not that there is anie un-
Romeo and Juliet (play) 1595-96 purenes therein, but that (peradventure) my
Twelfth Night (play) 1601-02 rudenes1 may be found to have plucked them up
unreverentlie, and without zeale.
Anne Wheathill Whereupon of the learned I may be judged
A Handfull of Holesome (though Homelie) Hearbs grose2 and unwise; in presuming, without the
(devotions) 1584 counsell or helpe of anie, to take such an enter-
prise in hand: nevertheles, as GOD dooth know, I
Phillis Wheatley have doone it with a good zeale, according to the
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
weakenes of my knowledge and capacitie. And
(poetry) 1773
although they be not so pleasant in taste, as they
can find out, to whom God hath given the spirit
Mary Wollstonecraft
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflec- of learning: yet doo I trust, this small handfull of
tions on Female Conduct, in the More Important grose hearbs, holesome in operation and worke-
Duties of Life (essay) 1787 ing, shall be no lesse acceptable before the majes-
tie of almightie God than the fragrant floures of
The Female Reader; or, Miscellaneous-Pieces, in Prose others, gathered with more understanding.
and Verse, Selected from the Best Writers, and
But without presumption I may boldly saie,
Disposed Under Proper Heads; for the Improve-
they have not sought them with a more willing
ment of Young Women [editor] (poetry and
hart and fervent mind; nor more to the advance-
essays) 1789
ment of Gods glorie, and the desire of accepta-
A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the tion, than I have doon. Which if I may obtaine,
Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned by with the good judgement and liking of all my
His Reflections on the Revolution in France (essay) brethren and sisters in the Lord, I shall thinke my
1790 time most happilie bestowed: for that thereby I
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures did avoid idlenes, to the pleasing of almightie
on Political and Moral Subjects (essay) 1792 God; and have gained those, whom I know not,
as well strangers to me, as my acquaintance, to be
Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman: A Posthumous
my freends, that shall taste these grose hearbs with
Fragment (unfinished novel) 1799
me.
* This work is commonly referred to as Turkish Embassy The Lord Jesus Christ, who moisteneth all his
Letters. elect3 with his most pretious blood, give us all a
sweete taste in him: whome I humblie beseech, beseeching thee for Jesus Christ his sake, to forgive

from the bottome of my hart, to give unto those me all my sinnes, negligences and ignorances. For
that are vertuouslie bent, a desire to increase I confesse how wickedlie I have mispent the tal-
therein; and those, which have not yet reached ent that thou gavest me, abusing thy gifts of grace
thereunto, I praie the holie Ghost to inspire their manie waies, burieng the same in obscure dark-
hearts from above, that they and we may be wor- nesse, woorse than the servant that hid his maist-
thie to meete together, in the blessed kingdome of ers treasure, not putting it to anie increase; for he
our heavenlie father, which his deare sonne our delivered the principall againe [Matt. 25: 14-30].
saviour Jesus Christ did purchase for us; whose But I most miserable creature, can shew unto
blessed name, with the living father, and the holie thy majestie no part of that which thou gavest
Ghost, be praised and magnified now and for ever, me, to use to thine honor and glorie: for the
Amen, Amen. which I am most hartilie sorie, and doo unfeined-
Yours in Christ, lie repent, having no meane to helpe myselfe, but
onelie to lift up the eies of my faith unto thy deare
Anne Wheathill,
sonne Jesus Christ, beseeching him most instant-
Gent lie to make perfect my wants, and to renue
whatsoever is lacking in me. For I commit my
bodie and soule, this night and evermore, into his
1. A Praier for the Morning
most holie hands; hoping, O Christ, thou wilt
O Mightie maker and preserver of all things,
make me an acceptable sacrifice unto thy father.
God omnipotent, which like a diligent watchman,
alwaies attendest upon thy faithfull people, so that I have no place to flie unto, but to shrowd me
whether they sleepe or wake, live or die, thy under the wings of thine almightie power, who
providence never forsaketh them: looke favour- wast so loving unto us, that thou wast contented
ablie upon me, O Lord, thy poore and sinfull to shed thy most pretious bloud, for the sinnes of
servant, which am not woorthie, but through thy the whole world; for the which I most humblie
great mercies offered to me in Christ, once to lift and hartilie yeeld unto thee thanks, honor, praise
up mine eies unto thy mercie seat. and glorie.
Wherefore in the name of thy deere sonne my O lambe of God, sonne of the father, heare
Lord and Saviour, I offer unto thee, through him, thou me, thou that saiedst; I am thy health and
the sacrifice of praise and thanks giving; that thou salvation, I am thy peace and life; cleave fast unto
hast preserved me both this night, and all the time me, and thou shalt live. O Lord I am the woonded
and daies of my life hitherto, untill this present man, and thou art the good Samaritane: powre
houre. I beseech thee of thy great mercie to il- oile into my wounds, and bind them up [Luke 10:
luminate my understanding, that I may lead and 25-37]. Lord heale thou me, and I shall be whole:
frame my life as thou hast taught me in thy holie for thou art my God and Saviour.
word, that my light may so shine here on earth, Heare thou therefore my supplications from
that my heavenlie father may be glorified in me, heaven, and have mercie. Take from me all my
through Jesus Christ our Lord and redeemer; for sinnes and wickednesse, and give me thy grace
whose sake heare me deare father, and send thy and holie spirit. Lighten mine eies, that I sleepe
holie Ghost to direct me in all my dooings. To not in death: so shall I joiefullie, after this slug-
thee O glorious and blessed Trinitie, the Father, gish sleepe of sinne, rise againe, living in thy feare
the Sonne, and the holie Ghost, be given all honor all the daies of my life. Which grant me to doo, O
and praise, now and for ever more, Amen. Father, Sonne, and holie Ghost, three persons and
one true GOD, world without end, Amen.
4. An Evening Praier
O Everlasting light, whose brightnesse is never 21. A praier of the creation of mankind,
darkned; looke favourablie upon me thy poore of the true Samaritane, and for strength
and sinfull servant, who hath not onelie this daie, against temptation
but all the daies and time of my life hitherto, un- O Father of heaven, of power almightie, which
till this present houre, offended thy divine Majes- with thine onlie word diddest create and make all
tie, in thought, word, and deed; wherby I have the whole world, and all for the profit and service
most justlie provoked thy wrath and indignation of man, whom thou diddest create of all other a
against me. And now I bow the knees of my hart most noble and perfect creature, giving him power
unto thee most mercifull and heavenlie father, upon earth, the waters, and all the fowles and
birds of the aire; thou madest him also after thine cares and troubles, can by no meanes ascend to
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW own similitude and likenes, induing him with a thee, that art on the top of so high a mountaine,
reasonable soule, and all the powers thereof, thou (so manie legions of angels attending on thy
also diddest put him in the pleasant garden of Majestie) we have no remedie, but with the
paradise, excepting nothing from him, but the prophet David now to lift the eies of our harts and
eating of the onelie tree of knowledge of good minds towards thee, and to crie for helpe to come
and evill: and further, for his helpe, comfort, and down from thee to us thy poore and wretched
companie, of a ribbe of his side thou madest for servants.5
him a woman, and gavest hir to him to be his
We wander here below as lost sheepe, having
wife [Gen. 1-3].
no shepheard; we are assailed on every side with
There had they instructions given them, and manifold enimies; the divell ravening and hunger-
the lawe of life for an heritage. Before them was ing, seeketh whom he may devoure; the world al-
laid both life and death, good and evill, with a lureth us also to hir deceitfull vanities; our flesh
freewill given them to take which liked them best. also, which we carrie about us, is our enimie readie
But their frailtie was such, that they, through a and prone to drawe us unto all vices and pleasures.
small intisement, chose the evill, and left the From this can we by no meanes be defended, but
good: they left life, and chose death. Thus Lord, by thee Lord.
through sin and breaking of thy commandements,
Send us therfore thy helpe and holie angell,
man lost the freewill that was given him in his
to assist and strengthen us: for of thee most mer-
creation, and purchased death to all his posteritie.
cifull Father floweth all bountie and goodnes.
In the waie as he went to Jerusalem and Jeri- Thou O Lord God madest heaven and earth for
cho, he fell in the hands of theeves, who hurting thine honour, and mans commoditie; establish
and wounding him sore, departed, leaving him therefore good Lord the chosen works of thy hand
halfe dead; so that he could have helpe of none, with thy eternall helpe: from heaven send us
but only the good Samaritan, who, as he passed downe the welspring of thy grace, and thy strong
by the same waie, powred wine and oile into his angell to aide us by his helpe, that no assault of
wounds, and tooke the cure of him. our spirituall enimies doo prevaile against us: but
This onelie Samaritan was thy deare Sonne from all evils by thy word defend us, Lord, both
Christ, which tooke upon him all the iniquities of touching the bodie, and also the soule, that no
mankind, and laid them on his backe by his temptation prevaile against us.
death, purging and clensing him, not onelie from Thou hast beene our protectour, even from
the originall sin of our father Adam, but also from our mothers wombe [Ps. 22: 9]; and our trust is
all our sins which we commit from time to time, that thou wilt so continue all the daies of our life,
by the vertue of his passion, and the sacrament of and speciallie at the houre of our death, that we
baptisme upon our repentance. For as by Adam, may ascend to the heavenlie Jerusalem, where we
death came to mankind, so by Jesus Christ was shall reast in the bosome of our father Abraham,
mankind restored to life.4 the father of all faithfull beleevers, there to praise
For this great and high benefit of thy sonnes thee, and thy loving Sonne, and the holie Ghost,
blessed passion for our redemption, we thy poore world without end, Amen.
creatures praise and thanke thee, most humblie
acknowledging his inestimable love towards us, in 31. A praier that we may heare the
that thou vouchsafedst to die for us, being then word of God and keepe it
sinners, and thy mortall enimies. Neverthelesse, I am thy servant, Lord, give me understand-
most mercifull father, we are of our selves not able ing, that I may learne thy lawe and decrees:
to do any thing that good is, no not so much as incline my soule to the words of thy mouth, bi-
to thinke a good thought, without thine aid and cause thy talke floweth like unto dew. The Israel-
assistance. We wander here miserablie, in the lowe ites said unto Moses; Speake thou unto us, and we
parts of the vile earth; our strength will not serve will heare thee, but let not the Lord speake, least
us to clime to the high of the hilles, where thou we die [Exod. 20: 19]. Howbeit, I praie not so, O
dwellest in thy mount Sion, a place prepared for Lord, but rather with the prophet Samuel I doo
thine elect, a chosen inheritance of thy faithfull humblie and earnestlie beseech thee thus; Speake
servant Abraham, and his seed. on Lord, for thy servant dooth hearken [1 Sam. 3:
Wherefore since we, being burthened with the 9, 10], for thou art the giver and inspirer of life,
affects of worldlie pleasures, and also with other who art able without anie to instruct me.
Thy Ministers speake for thee thy secreats, but eares are readie in the hearts of all that are willing

thou unlockest the understanding of the things to crie for the help of thy grace. Who so is made
pronounced; they rehearse to us thy commande- farre from thee, through sinne, by repentance is
ments, but it is thy aid and helpe that giveth made neere unto thee. He that is in the bottom of
strength to walke over the same, and givest light the sea of miserie, if he beginne to call for thy
unto the minds. Wherefore, bicause thou art the helpe, he shall not be suffered to sinke. From all
everlasting truth, speake thou Lord my God unto deepe dangers most mercifull God deliver me.
me, least I die, and be made unfruitfull: for thou
I crie and call pitiouslie unto thee, which art
hast the words of everlasting life. Speake therefore
onelie able to helpe me. Heare therefore, I most
that thing, which may bring both comfort unto
hartilie praie thee, my sorowfull praier, and let my
my soule, and amendment unto my life, and also
poore petition pearse the eares of thy Godhed.
may cause glorie and immortall honor unto thee.
And since thy sonne Christ died for to release us
For man dooth perish, but thy truth indureth, O
of sinne, let not my sinnes be a staie, whereby my
God, for ever.
praiers should not be heard, but wipe them cleane
Blessed are they therefore, whom thou in- awaie, that they never more appeere. For I miser-
structest and givest knowledge unto O Lord, and able sinner doo flie to the gentlenes, of thy favour-
doost teach thy lawe, that thou maist helpe them able mercie, whose nature and propertie is to have
in time of trouble, that they perish not. Looke pitie and compassion.
favourablie upon me, O GOD, and graunt (I praie From thee floweth all mercie and grace, which
thee) that thy truth may teach me, keepe me, and was so great unto us, that it mooved thee to send
bring me unto a happie end. Let the same deliver thine onlie Sonne to die for our redemption;
me from all wicked lusts, and from inordinate whereby thy justice was satisfied, and thy mercie
love. Thou hast infinit means, and all creatures found that it sought. O how fervent was this thy
are at thy commandement; therefore good Lord noble charitie to us vile wretches! It tooke root
shewe some signe, whereby I shall be delivered, and beginning in thy mightie deitie, and from
and send thine holie angell before me, to keepe thence it was derived to mankind; being an
me in thy waie, and to bring me to the place example that we thy christian people should, like
which thou hast provided for me, that I may live loving brethren, beare one anothers burthen.
with thee everlastinglie, world without end,
Amen. Wherefore I am most willinglie contented, to
remit all injuries doon to me; as it hath pleased
thy goodnes to forgive me much greater offenses
39. A praier of lamentation, wherein the comitted against thee. And whensoever it shall
sinner lamenteth his miserable estate, please thee to scourge and punish me, I will glad-
and crieth for mercie lie receive thy chastisement, for that I knowe it
My God, when I do earnestlie behold mine proceedeth of love for my wealth and suretie;
owne state, whereunto I am brought through trusting that after my long abiding and suffering
sinne, not onelie being naked and bare of all in this life, I shall surelie obteine thy reward, by
goodnes, but also to be overwhelmed in the depth thy promise, that is; If we suffer with Christ, we
of all iniquitie; I cannot but lament, moorne, and shall also reigne with him [Rom. 8: 17].
crie for helpe, as dooth a woman, whose time
Such sure hope have I ever had in thee Lord,
draweth neere to be delivered of hir child; for she
and by the same hope I trust to have thy favour,
can take no rest, till she be discharged of hir bur-
and live for ever. For blessed are they that trust in
then.
thee, most mercifull Father; and cursed are they
No more can I, Lord, as long as I feele my selfe that trust in man. Of thy grace and mercie onelie
loden with my heavie burthen of sinne, the commeth all goodnes; thy mercie forgiveth onelie
weight wherof draweth me downe to the deepe our sinnes dailie and hourelie, and the painfull
bottome of all miserie; from whence I can by none death of thy sonne Christ delivereth us from all
be delivered, but onelie by thee, that art the guide the paines due for our sinnes. Thou boughtest us
and the eie to those that are blind through not with gold and silver, but with the pretious
ignorance, the succor of the oppressed, the com- bloud of that lambe without spot, thy blessed
fort of the weake, the life of those that are dead; Sonne, whose death had beene sufficient for
so that they repent and turne unto thee. thousands of worlds.
It is not the long distance of us from thy high- The greatnes of thy love caused the plentifull
nesse, which keepeth our praiers from thee; thine paiment of the price of our redemption. The chari-
tie of our Lord Jesus Christ hath burnt up, and first appearance, but upon examination it will be
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW consumed, by his death, all our iniquities. Where- found that nature is so far from being unjust to
fore the faithfull, being thus delivered from all you that she is partial on your side. She hath made
dangers, by thine onlie goodnesse, may now give you such large amends by other advantages for
thanks unto thy mightie Majestie, resting in hope the seeming injustice of the first distribution that
to have, after this life, everlasting joie and felicitie; the right of complaining is come over to our sex.
through Jesus Christ our mercifull Lord and You have it in your power not only to free your-
redeemer; to whom with thee O deare Father, and selves but to subdue your masters, and without
the holie Ghost, be given all honor, glorie, and violence throw both their natural and legal
praise, now and for ever, Amen. authority at your feet. We are made of differing
tempers, that out defects may the better be mutu-
ally supplied: your sex wanteth our reason for
GEORGE SAVILE, MARQUIS OF your conduct, and our strength for your protec-
HALIFAX (ESSAY DATE 1688) tion; ours wanteth your gentleness to soften and
SOURCE: Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of. “Advice to entertain us. The first part of our life is a good
to a Daughter.” In, The Lady’s New Years Gift, or, Advice
to a Daughter pp. 24-38. London: Gillyflower and deal subjected to you in the nursery, where you
Partridge, 1688. reign without competition, and by that means
In the following excerpt, Savile, the Marquis of Halifax, have the advantage of giving the first impressions.
gives suggestions to his daughter concerning marriage. Afterwards you have stronger influences, which,
well managed, have more force in your behalf
Husband than all our privileges and jurisdictions can
That which challengeth the next place in your pretend to have against you. You have more
thoughts is how to live with a husband. And strength in your looks than we have in our laws,
though that is so large a word that few rules can and more power by your tears than we have by
be fixed to it which are unchangeable, the meth- our arguments.
ods being as various as the several tempers of men It is true that the laws of marriage run in a
to which they must be suited, yet I cannot omit harsher style towards your sex. Obey is an ungen-
some general observations, which, with the help
teel word, and less easy to be digested by making
of your own, may the better direct you in the part
such an unkind distinction in the words of the
of your life upon which your happiness most de-
contract, and so very unsuitable to the excess of
pendeth.
good manners which generally goes before it.
It is one of the disadvantages belonging to Besides, the universality of the rule seemeth to be
your sex that young women are seldom permitted a grievance, and it appeareth reasonable that there
to make their own choice; their friends’ care and might be an exemption for extraordinary women
experience are thought safer guides to them than from ordinary rules, to take away the just excep-
their own fancies, and their modesty often forbid- tion that lieth against the false measure of general
deth them to refuse when their parents recom-
equality.
mend, though their inward consent may not
entirely go along with it. In this case there re- It may be alleged by the counsel retained by
maineth nothing for them to do but to endeavour your sex, that as there is in all other laws an ap-
to make that easy which falleth to their lot, and peal from the letter to the equity, in cases that
by a wise use of everything they may dislike in a require it, it is as reasonable that some court of a
husband turn that by degrees to be very support- larger jurisdiction might be erected, where some
able which, if neglected, might in time beget an wives might resort and plead specially, and in such
aversion. instances where Nature is so kind as to raise them
You must first lay it down for a foundation in above the level of their own sex they might have
general, that there is inequality in the sexes, and relief, and obtain a mitigation in their own
that for the better economy of the world the men, particular of a sentence which was given generally
who were to be the lawgivers, had the larger share against womankind. The causes of separation are
of reason bestowed upon them; by which means now so very coarse that few are confident enough
your sex is the better prepared for the compliance to buy their liberty at the price of having their
that is necessary for the better performance of modesty so exposed. And for disparity of minds,
those duties which seem to be most properly as- which above all other things requireth a remedy,
signed to it. This looks a little uncourtly at the the laws have made no provision, so little refined
are numbers of men by whom they are compiled. way: if he is a man of sense he will reclaim

This and a great deal more might be said to give a himself, the folly of it is of itself sufficient to cure
colour to the complaint. him; if he is not so, he will be provoked but not
But the answer to it in short is, that the reformed. To expostulate in these cases looketh
institution of marriage is too sacred to admit a like declaring war, and preparing reprisals, which
liberty of objecting to it; that the supposition of to a thinking husband would be a dangerous re-
yours being the weaker sex having without all flexion. Besides, it is so coarse a reason which will
doubt a good foundation maketh it reasonable to be assigned for a lady’s too great warmth upon
subject it to the masculine dominion; that no rule such an occasion that modesty no less than
can be so perfect as not to admit some exceptions, prudence ought to restrain her, since such an
but the law presumeth there would be so few indecent complaint makes a wife more ridiculous
found in this case who would have a sufficient that the injury that provoketh her to it. But it is
right to such a privilege that it is safer some yet worse, and more unskilful, to blaze it in the
injustice should be connived at in a very few world, expecting it should rise up in arms to take
instances than to break into an establishment her part; whereas she will find it can have no other
upon which the order of human society doth so effect than that she will be served up in all
much depend. companies as the reigning jest at that time; and
will continue to be the common entertainment
You are therefore to make your best of what is
till she is rescued by some newer folly that cometh
settled by law and custom, and not vainly imagine
upon the stage, and driveth her away from it. The
that it will be changed for your sake. But that you
impertinence of such methods is so plain that it
may not be discouraged, as if you lay under the
doth not deserve the pains of being laid open. Be
weight of an incurable grievance; you are to know
assured that in these cases your discretion and
that by a wise and dexterous conduct it will be in
silence will be the most prevailing reproof. An af-
your power to relieve yourself from anything that
fected ignorance, which is seldom a virtue, is a
looketh like a disadvantage in it. For your better
great one here; and when your husband seeth how
direction I will give a hint of the most ordinary
unwilling you are to be uneasy there is no stronger
causes of dissatisfaction between man and wife,
argument to persuade him not to be unjust to you.
that you may be able by such a warning to live so
Besides, it will naturally make him more yielding
upon your guard that when you shall be married
in other things; and whether it be to cover or
you may know how to cure your husband’s
redeem his offence, you may have the good ef-
mistakes and to prevent your own.
fects of it whilst it lasteth, and all that while have
First then, you are to consider you live in a the most reasonable ground that can be of presum-
time which hath rendered some kind of frailties ing such a behaviour will at last entirely convert
so habitual that they lay claim to large grains of him. There is nothing so glorious to a wife as a
allowance. The world in this is somewhat unequal, victory so gained; a man so reclaimed is for ever
and our sex seemeth to play the tyrant in distin- after subjected to her virtue, and her bearing for a
guishing partially for ourselves, by making that in time is more than rewarded by a triumph that will
the utmost degree criminal in the woman which continue as long as her life.
in a man passeth under a much gentler censure.
The root and the excuse of this injustice is the
preservation of families from any mixture which
DANIEL DEFOE (ESSAY DATE 1719)
may bring a blemish to them; and whilst the point
SOURCE: Defoe, Daniel. “(On) The Education of
of honour continues to be so placed, it seems Women.” In English Essays from Sir Philip Sidney to
unavoidable to give your sex the greater share of Macaulay, pp. 1-16. New York: Collier, 1910.
the penalty. But if in this it lieth under any
In the following essay from 1719, Defoe praises women’s
disadvantage, you are more than recompensed by natural abilities and argues for their education.
having the honour of families in your keeping.
The consideration so great a trust must give you I have often thought of it as one of the most
maketh full amends, and this power the world barbarous customs in the world, considering us as
hath lodged in you can hardly fail to restrain the a civilized and a Christian country, that we deny
severity of an ill husband and to improve the the advantages of learning to women. We re-
kindness and esteem of a good one. This being so, proach the sex every day with folly and imperti-
remember that next to the danger of committing nence; while I am confident, had they the advan-
the fault yourself the greatest is that of seeing it in tages of education equal to us, they would be
your husband. Do not seem to look or hear that guilty of less than ourselves.
One would wonder, indeed, how it should
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW happen that women are conversible at all; since
they are only beholden to natural parts, for all
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ their knowledge. Their youth is spent to teach
them to stitch and sew or make baubles. They are
LAURA CERETA (1469-1499) taught to read, indeed, and perhaps to write their
Laura Cereta of Brescia, Italy, was one of the names, or so; and that is the height of a woman’s
first female humanists. Widowed while still in education. And I would but ask any who slight
her teens, Cereta devoted herself to writing the sex for their understanding, what is a man (a
essays in the form of letters to male scholars gentleman, I mean) good for, that is taught no
and leaders of the church and the state. Her more? I need not give instances, or examine the
works expressed ideas very unusual for the character of a gentleman, with a good estate, or a
time. She rejected traditional views of men’s good family, and with tolerable parts; and examine
and women’s roles, argued that housework what figure he makes for want of education.
imposed limits on women’s intellectual The soul is placed in the body like a rough
growth, and portrayed marriage as a kind of diamond; and must be polished, or the lustre of it
slavery. Cereta’s bold writings had a strong will never appear. And ’tis manifest, that as the
influence on later feminists of the Renaissance rational soul distinguishes us from brutes; so
and the centuries that followed. education carries on the distinction, and makes
some less brutish than others. This is too evident
MODERATA FONTE (1555-1592)
to need any demonstration. But why then should
And when it’s said that women must be
women be denied the benefit of instruction? If
subject to men, the phrase should be under-
knowledge and understanding had been useless
stood in the same sense as when we say that
additions to the sex, God Almighty would never
we are subject to natural disasters, diseases,
have given them capacities; for he made nothing
and all the other accidents of this life: it’s not
needless. Besides, I would ask such, What they
a case of being subject in the sense of obey-
can see in ignorance, that they should think it a
ing, but rather of suffering an imposition; not
necessary ornament to a woman? or how much
a case of serving them fearfully, but rather of
worse is a wise woman than a fool? or what has
tolerating them in a spirit of Christian charity,
the woman done to forfeit the privilege of being
since they have been given to us by God as a
taught? Does she plague us with her pride and
spiritual trial. But they take the phrase in the
impertinence? Why did we not let her learn, that
contrary sense and set themselves up as
she might have had more wit? Shall we upbraid
tyrants over us, arrogantly usurping that
dominion over women that they claim is their women with folly, when ’tis only the error of this
right, but which is more properly ours. inhuman custom, that hindered them from being
Fonte, Moderata (Modesta Pozzo). “First Day.” In
made wiser?
The Worth of Women, Wherein Is Clearly Revealed The capacities of women are supposed to be
Their Nobility and Their Superiority to Men, ed. and
trans. Virginia Cox (University of Chicago Press),
greater, and their senses quicker than those of the
p. 59. 1997. Originally published as Il Merito delle men; and what they might be capable of being
donne (1600). bred to, is plain from some instances of female
Moderata Fonte is the pseudonym of Mod- wit, which this age is not without. Which upbraids
esta Pozzo, author of Il Merito delle donne us with Injustice, and looks as if we denied women
(1600; The Worth of Women, 1997), in which the advantages of education, for fear they should
seven noblewomen debate the unequal treat- vie with the men in their improvements. . . .
ment of women in Venetian society, present- [They] should be taught all sorts of breeding
ing what was, at the time, a revolutionary suitable both to their genius and quality. And in
indictment of patriarchy and misogyny and particular, Music and Dancing; which it would be
defense of women’s rights by a woman cruelty to bar the sex of, because they are their
writer. Fonte died during childbirth at the darlings. But besides this, they should be taught
age of thirty-seven, only a day after complet- languages, as particularly French and Italian: and I
ing The Worth of Women. The work was would venture the injury of giving a woman more
published eight years after Fonte’s death, by tongues than one. They should, as a particular
her daughter, Cecelia de’ Zorzi. study, be taught all the graces of speech, and all
the necessary air of conversation; which our com-
mon education is so defective in, that I need not
expose it. They should be brought to read books, If she be passionate, want of manners makes her a

and especially history; and so to read as to make termagant and a scold, which is much at one with
Lunatic.
them understand the world, and be able to know
and judge of things when they hear of them. If she be proud, want of discretion (which still is
breeding) makes her conceited, fantastic, and
To such whose genius would lead them to it, I ridiculous.
would deny no sort of learning; but the chief
And from these she degenerates to be turbulent,
thing, in general, is to cultivate the understand- clamorous, noisy, nasty, the devil! . . .
ings of the sex, that they may be capable of all
sorts of conversation; that their parts and judge- The great distinguishing difference, which is
ments being improved, they may be as profitable seen in the world between men and women, is in
in their conversation as they are pleasant. their education; and this is manifested by compar-
ing it with the difference between one man or
Women, in my observation, have little or no
woman, and another.
difference in them, but as they are or are not
distinguished by education. Tempers, indeed, may And herein it is that I take upon me to make
in some degree influence them, but the main such a bold assertion, That all the world are
distinguishing part is their Breeding. mistaken in their practice about women. For I can-
not think that God Almighty ever made them so
The whole sex are generally quick and sharp. I
delicate, so glorious creatures; and furnished them
believe, I may be allowed to say, generally so: for
with such charms, so agreeable and so delightful
you rarely see them lumpish and heavy, when
to mankind; with souls capable of the same ac-
they are children; as boys will often be. If a
complishments with men: and all, to be only
woman be well bred, and taught the proper
Stewards of our Houses, Cooks, and Slaves.
management of her natural wit, she proves gener-
ally very sensible and retentive. Not that I am for exalting the female govern-
ment in the least: but, in short, I would have men
And, without partiality, a woman of sense and
take women for companions, and educate them
manners is the finest and most delicate part of
to be fit for it. A woman of sense and breeding
God’s Creation, the glory of Her Maker, and the
will scorn as much to encroach upon the preroga-
great instance of His singular regard to man, His
tive of man, as a man of sense will scorn to op-
darling creature: to whom He gave the best gift
press the weakness of the woman. But if the
either God could bestow or man receive. And ’tis
women’s souls were refined and improved by
the sordidest piece of folly and ingratitude in the
teaching, that word would be lost. To say, the
world, to withhold from the sex the due lustre
weakness of the sex, as to judgment, would be
which the advantages of education gives to the
nonsense; for ignorance and folly would be no
natural beauty of their minds.
more to be found among women than men.
A woman well bred and well taught, furnished
I remember a passage, which I heard from a
with the additional accomplishments of knowl-
very fine woman. She had wit and capacity
edge and behaviour, is a creature without compari-
enough, an extraordinary shape and face, and a
son. Her society is the emblem of sublimer enjoy-
great fortune: but had been cloistered up all her
ments, her person is angelic, and her conversation
time; and for fear of being stolen, had not had the
heavenly. She is all softness and sweetness, peace,
liberty of being taught the common necessary
love, wit, and delight. She is every way suitable to
knowledge of women’s affairs. And when she
the sublimest wish, and the man that has such a
came to converse in the world, her natural wit
one to his portion, has nothing to do but to
made her so sensible of the want of education,
rejoice in her, and be thankful.
that she gave this short reflection on herself: “I
On the other hand, Suppose her to be the very am ashamed to talk with my very maids,” says
same woman, and rob her of the benefit of educa- she, “for I don’t know when they do right or
tion, and it follows— wrong. I had more need go to school, than be
If her temper be good, want of education makes married.”
her soft and easy.
I need not enlarge on the loss the defect of
Her wit, for want of teaching, makes her imperti- education is to the sex; nor argue the benefit of
nent and talkative. the contrary practice. ’Tis a thing will be more
Her knowledge, for want of judgement and experi- easily granted than remedied. This chapter is but
ence, makes her fanciful and whimsical. an Essay at the thing: and I refer the Practice to
If her temper be bad, want of breeding makes her those Happy Days (if ever they shall be) when
worse; and she grows haughty, insolent, and loud. men shall be wise enough to mend it.
OVERVIEWS
DALE SPENDER (ESSAY DATE 1992)
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
ST. TERESA DE AVILA (1515-1582)
One of the most significant figures in the
sixteenth-century Spanish mystic movement,
St. Teresa de Avila (also known as St. Teresa
de Jesus) is also highly regarded as an ac-
complished prose writer. Her autobiography
El libro de su vida (1562; The Life of the Mother
Teresa of Jesus) is one of the most widely read
books in Spain. Teresa was born in Avila, and
in 1536 she entered the convent of Encar-
nación de Avila as a novice in the Carmelite
order. Two years later, Teresa suffered a
severe bout of illness, during which she read
a number of religious works and began to
question her own beliefs about the nature of
religious devotion. In 1555 she underwent a
conversion experience, and convinced that
she had been granted a mystical union with
God as a result of her intense meditation and
prayer, she began to advocate a more con-
templative, ascetic life for the Carmelites in
reformed, or Discalced convents, which she
established throughout Spain between 1563
and 1576.
Teresa authored several books, including
El libra de las fundaciones de Santa Teresa de
Jesús (1576; The Book of the Foundations), a
continuation of her autobiography with an
account of the Carmelite reform, and El
castillo interior, o las moradas (1577; The
Interior Castle; or, The Mansions), an allegory
of the process of spiritual maturation. Long
revered for her importance as a writer of
spiritual and devotional works, Teresa has
received much critical attention as a literary
figure during the twentieth century. Numer-
ous scholars have praised her wit and enter-
taining prose style while recognizing her skill
in clarifying enigmatic theories. In recent
years studies of Teresa’s works have focused
on the influence of gender in her autobiogra-
phy, the psychological implications of her
writings and her mystic visions, and the
rhetorical goals of her works.
SOCIETY
GARY KELLY (ESSAY DATE 1996)
Woodcut depicting women invading the assembly during the French Revolution.
Engraving (c. 1565) depicting contemporary fashion in the sixteenth century. From left to right, typical nobleman’s
attire, military dress, middle-class dress, noblewomen’s attire, and merchant’s dress are shown.
drawing a direct line between Hutchinson’s
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW religious unruliness and her perceived political
and sexual disorder.
Patriarchal power in the colonies was not
absolute, however. Due to the centrality of the
household in an agrarian, primarily subsistence
economy, women did create important economic
and social roles for themselves. The case of Marga-
ret Brent illustrates both how women could gain
some power in the political sphere of colonial life,
and also how the law inevitably circumscribed
that power. In 1648, Brent petitioned the Mary-
land Assembly for the right to vote, an unprec-
edented act that was nevertheless in keeping with
Brent’s active legal and political career. She never
married and frequently served as her brothers’
business advisor and legal representative. A major
landowner in her own right, Brent also repre-
sented herself in court cases, and for her acumen
she was named the executrix of Maryland’s gover-
nor—a close friend—when he died in 1657. It was
on the grounds of her legal right to protect the
former governor’s interests that Brent sought the
DAWN KEETLEY AND JOHN vote. Although her request was denied, the record
PETTEGREW (ESSAY DATE 1997) shows that Brent “protested.”
SOURCE: Keetley, Dawn and John Pettegrew. “Intro-
duction: Part I: Identities through Adversity.” In Public Aside from the economic and legal actions of
Women, Public Words: A Documentary History of American a handful of prominent, land-owning women, the
Feminism, edited by Dawn Keetley and John Pettegrew, first stirrings of feminism in the colonies were the
pp. 3-7. Madison, Wis.: Madison House Publishers,
1997. individual acts of rebellion against one institu-
tion—the Puritan church. Dissenting women,
In the following essay, Keetley and Pettegrew discuss the
challenges that women colonial dissenters faced. however, necessarily challenged those other
institutions from which religion was inseparable,
The first European settlers in New England notably family and gender. Paradoxically, these
brought with them family structure that vested early feminists drew their power to challenge
authority unambiguously in the hands of the established religion and the sexual hierarchies it
father. Woman’s place in this “patriarchal” institu- instituted from Puritanism itself. Religious dissent-
tion was clearly delimited; less autonomous ers in New England carried the Puritan idea of the
individuals than wives and mothers, women “aloneness” of believers in their relation with God
throughout the North American colonies were so far that even the ministry became an obstacle
subject to an intricately organized hierarchy that to faith. “Grace,” which was located within the
placed them below father, husband, brothers, and self, accrued liberating possibilities in that it
even adult sons. Unable to inherit either the land potentially challenged the hegemony of the
or the offices of their fathers, women became clergy—the powerful elite of both church and
virtually invisible in the public life of the thirteen state. The radical potential of the individual and
colonies. With its strict gender stratification and its corollary—the spiritual equality of each indi-
divisions of labor, the patriarchal family served as vidual regardless of sex—caused tensions in a
a model for and basis of social and political rela- society based on female subordination and finally
tions and institutions. In the 1637 trial of Anne created an avenue for women to question that
Hutchinson for dissent from the Puritan church, subordination. The assertion of one’s inner feeling
for instance, the issue of Hutchinson’s revolt of God’s grace, of a distinctly personal revelation,
against the subordinate status of women was could be used to justify rebellion against any and
inextricable from her religious rebellion. As one of all of the authoritarian structures in which the
her accusers proclaimed: “You have rather bine a individual was situated. Conversely, any woman
Husband than a Wife and a preacher than a who questioned the church was also perceived to
Hearer; and a Magistrate than a subject”—thus be disavowing her place in secular and family life,
of transgressing even her sex. In subsequent being banished twice by the authorities, Dyer

centuries it was this “wayward” and radically returned to Boston, refusing to leave peacefully
individualistic Puritan woman who would become after the magistrates executed her friends and fel-
an icon of the feminist individual, challenging a low Quakers. Accusing the magistrates of “disobe-
culture that on the one hand celebrates individu- dience,” Dyer warned them in a letter of 1659 of
alism and on the other hand limits, by gender the dire consequences of their sins. She paid for
and race, its realization. her challenge to Puritan authority and for her
One major strand of dissent was the Antino- convictions about the freedom of conscience with
mian heresy, in which Anne Hutchinson played a her life.
central part. Antinomianism placed the private When trying dissenters, Massachusetts courts
experience of religion above the formal rules of inevitably delivered a sentence of banishment,
orthodox Puritanism, stressing that questions of forcing “heretics” into areas beyond the bounds
salvation were decided between an individual and of the Puritan theocracy such as Rhode Island and
God, without the intervention of ministers. Pennsylvania. In a sense, this banishment func-
Hutchinson came under attack from the Puritan tions as a metaphor for a second legacy that early
clergy of the Massachusetts Bay Colony precisely American rebellious women bequeathed to subse-
because of her defiance of their authority; she held quent generations of feminists: an oppositional or
meetings in her home every Sunday to discuss the “liminal” impulse—an unruly existence, in other
day’s sermon, even as rumors began to circulate words, beyond the pale of established structures.
that both the religious and political leadership Whether by choice (as in the case of the religious
were being criticized. Ordered to appear before a dissenters) or not (as in the case of Mary Row-
convocation of ministers, Hutchinson was ulti- landson, forcibly removed from her town by
mately excommunicated and banished; she and Indians), some colonial women lived outside the
five of her six children were killed by Indians five confines of patriarchal society. While they spoke
years later on Long Island. from beyond the literal and institutional borders
Another strand of religious dissent in colonial of their culture, however, these women shaped
North America was Quakerism. Like the Antino- and changed that culture, contributing in part to
mians, the Quakers believed in the “Inner Light”— the loosening of oppressive hierarchies.
rather than the authoritarian, institutional struc- Perhaps the epitome of the liminal
tures of the church—as a means to truth and woman—of her social marginality, of her occupa-
salvation. The Society of Friends empowered tion of the borders of society—is the figure of the
women through their belief in spiritual equality witch. Accusations of witchcraft reflect the anxiety
and also in the development of co-equal status in of a culture that anticipates its own dissolution
church organization, including encouraging and thus demonizes and expels that which it fears
women to preach. The women’s movement of the is the cause of incipient social breakdown. Often
nineteenth-century was in part made possible by that “culprit” in colonial New England was the
the legacy of Quaker women in the seventeenth independent, unmarried woman, more frequently
and eighteenth centuries; indeed, a large number the victim of witch-hunting than any other group.
of the first nationally-known women’s rights Carol Karlsen has added that “witches” were often
advocates were Quakers, including Sarah and An- women without brothers or sons—women, that
gelina Grimké, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. An- is, who “stood in the way of the orderly transmis-
thony. sion of property from one generation of males to
One of the most prominent of early Quaker another.”1 Clearly having gained enough power
women was Mary Dyer, who exemplified the to provoke such deep-seated fears in the first place,
Quaker belief in religious freedom and also non- the “witch” was at the same time a victim of those
violence, two values that would persist and flour- social processes that she defied.
ish within the women’s movement. Like Hutchin- Both Susannah Martin and Martha Carrier
son, Dyer was tried and convicted in were victims of the Salem witchcraft “hysteria,”
Massachusetts for religious dissent; she became which began in 1692 when a group of adolescent
the only woman executed for defying the Puritan girls claimed to be possessed and began naming
authorities. Dyer protested, specifically, the 1658 several of their neighbors as having consorted
Massachusetts law that banished all Quakers from with the devil. Out of the 200 people (mostly
the colony on pain of death. She had come to women) who were accused of witchcraft in Salem
Boston after the passage of the law in order to during the course of the summer of 1692, thirteen
support two friends who were imprisoned; after women and six men were finally executed.
Lithograph by George H. Walker depicting the Salem Witch Trials.
Some of the women executed as witches at collective and public feminist movement. Only as
Salem were clearly nontraditional women who women began to define and represent themselves
did not conform to ideals of Puritan womanhood. could they start to transcend gender roles imposed
A contemporary, Thomas Maule, for instance, from without by the state, the church, the law,
estimated that two-thirds of the accused in the and other social and cultural forms. Women in
Salem witchcraft trials had either rebelled against America first found a public voice and identity
their parents or committed adultery. Certainly, through religion, again discovering, paradoxically,
women accused of witchcraft were often on the a certain amount of freedom in the system that
margins of society, frequently unmarried and also oppressed them. Puritanism incorporated an
sometimes with a history of outspokenness. Sus- emphasis on self-scrutiny, often in the form of
annah Martin had been involved in altercations written conversion narratives and spiritual autobi-
with her neighbors; she expressed anger toward ographies, in which one would detail personal
her accusers at her trial, using her own reading of struggles on the path to salvation. At a time when
the Bible to try to discredit them. Martha Carrier, women had virtually no social or institutional
charged with at least thirteen murders, had argued frameworks within which to express themselves,
with neighbors over land and threatened a male written or spoken words of religious introspection
antagonist with physical violence; in her examina- and nascent subjectivity became the first step to
tion, she charged the magistrate as the only “black subverting patriarchal discourse and power.
[i.e., satanic] man” she had seen and insisted that Two of the earliest autobiographies by women
she be believed over a group of hysterical girls. in America were those of Mary Rowlandson and
Like Mary Dyer, Martin and Carrier died because Elizabeth Ashbridge, both of which began to
of their integrity; the public legacy of all three shape women’s distinct consciousness and indi-
women helped to ensure that the execution of viduality. Published in Boston in 1682, Mary Row-
“deviant” women in New England would not last. landson’s narrative tells the story of her three-
That women began to develop a distinct month long captivity by the Naragansett tribe of
identity and voice in colonial America was a Native Americans. Rowlandson’s account of her
prerequisite for the subsequent emergence of a experience with the Naragansetts is one of the
earliest of the captivity narratives, regarded by Muse, was published in London, the first book of

some as the first distinctively “American” literary original poetry written in America. Publicly chal-
genre. In her account, Rowlandson is clearly lenging the preconception that poetry was a
directed by the Puritan belief in the providential masculine endeavor, Bradstreet asserts in “The
nature of the colonists’ encounter with the Indi- Prologue” that “I am obnoxious to each carping
ans; she interprets each event as part of God’s tongue / Who says my hand a needle better fits.”
divine plan to test his “chosen people” through In both “The Prologue” and “The Author to Her
their encounter with the “evil” natives. Placed in Book,” Bradstreet reflects on and defends her own
exigent circumstances, however, Rowlandson’s role as a woman poet. Like proponents of women’s
individuality—separate from the Puritan ortho- education in the late-eighteenth century, Brad-
doxy—starts to emerge; she finds her own food, street insists that her intellectual work is not
makes things to trade with her captors, and even incompatible with domestic duties and child-
shifts her opinion about Indians, refusing to rearing.
recognize them as simply evil.
About a century after Bradstreet issued her
Elizabeth Ashbridge quite literally creates volume of poetry, Phillis Wheatley became the
herself anew in her autobiography of 1774; there first African-American to publish a poetic work,
is virtually no record of her other than that which her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
her own hand transcribes. Evidence suggests that (1773). Wheatley’s poetry was a distinct assertion
Ashbridge was authorized by her local Quaker of subjectivity at a time when most Anglo-
meeting at Goshen, Pennsylvania, to travel and to Americans believed that African-Americans had
preach and that it was generally acknowledged none; there was even a “hearing” shortly after
that she spoke with an increasingly authoritative publication to determine if Wheatley was in fact
voice. Ashbridge’s text is a spiritual autobiogra- the writer of the poems, since intellectual output
phy—the story of her struggle to achieve grace from a black woman and a slave at that time was
and a divine life, a story given symbolic expres- considered scarcely credible. Wheatley’s writing,
sion in the dream she has of a woman bearing a then, began to replace the patriarchal construc-
lamp. As a Quaker, Ashbridge’s “lamp” is, of tions of women—especially African-American
course, the Quaker “Inner Light” that Mary Dyer women—with their own authentic self-
died for over a century earlier; it is also the light constructions. Wheatley’s poetry, however, con-
of personal faith for which Anne Hutchinson was tributed to political issues other than the subjectiv-
excommunicated. Like both Dyer and Hutchin- ity of women and slaves. “On Being Brought from
son, Ashbridge’s story is not just a quest for spiri- Africa to America” expresses a spiritual vision that
tual freedom though; her text, makes explicit her necessitates an equality between the races inimi-
challenge to patriarchal institutional authority in cable to the institution of slavery. And “The Right
secular areas of life such as the family, a challenge Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth” reflects
that was more covert in the religious struggles of Wheatley’s interest in the politics of the pre-
Hutchinson and Dyer. Ashbridge’s search for her Revolutionary ferment. Her poetry represents,
personal truth is undertaken not just in the face albeit somewhat obliquely, the first entry of an
of male-dominated religion but also in the face of African-American woman into the political issues
tyrannical social and sexual relations, and her tri- of slavery and British imperialism.
als include, an exploitative master and a coercive,
To write about “feminism” in the colonial
abusive husband. Finally, Ashbridge does achieve
period is to commit somewhat of an anachronism;
not only freedom of conscience but also a rela-
and those few historians who have even broached
tively autonomous identity.
the topic of feminism in early America do so
Another literary genre at which women ex- tentatively. The “disorder” of colonial women was
celled in the colonial period was poetry, which not, after all, directed self-consciously against the
was originally a distinctly masculine discourse in collective situation of women as women. Anne
Puritan New England. Women poets not only Hutchinson is probably closest to such an ideal, as
stepped into the public sphere themselves, giving she did specifically argue for the right of women
future women writers intellectual forebears, but to exercise religious freedom and as she drew a
they also carried on women’s cultural work of crowd of largely female followers. (A contempo-
defining their own subjectivity, making their own rary of Hutchinson wrote that “‘the weaker sex’
preoccupations part of the store of public knowl- set her up as ‘a Priest’ and ‘thronged’ after her.”)2
edge. Anne Bradstreet first encroached on that ter- But these early rebels and intellectuals laid the
rain in 1650 when her book of poems, The Tenth groundwork for future feminist action—daring to
transgress their allotted place, daring to oppose
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW patriarchal authority within the institutions of
the church and the family, and daring to move
into masculine literary territories. Colonial women
developed, in great adversity, an individuality that
they expressed publicly.
Notes
1. Carol F. Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman:
Witchcraft in Colonial New England (New York: Norton,
1987), 116, 213.
2. Lyle Koehler, “The Case of the American Jezebels:
Anne Hutchinson and Female Agitation During the
Years of Antinomian Turmoil, 1636-1640,” William
and Mary Quarterly 31 (1974): 61.
JANE DONAWERTH (ESSAY DATE

2000)
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
CASSANDRA FEDELE (1465-1558)
Cassandra Fedele was the first Italian woman
writer to engage, publicly and independently,
in scholarly discussions of morality, philoso-
phy, education, literature, and politics, and
was a steadfast and vocal proponent of the
education of women. Fedele was born in Ven-
ice, Italy, and as a child was tutored—by her
humanist father and others—in a variety of
subjects, including Latin, Greek, classical
literature, and rhetoric. By the age of sixteen,
Fedele had established herself as a humanist
and liberal arts prodigy, and was invited
frequently to speak before various audiences
of learned men.
In 1487, Fedele’s cousin graduated with
honors from the University of Padua—the
center of learning for Venetian scholars—and
Fedele presented a public oration on Latin,
which was subsequently printed at Modena,
Venice, and Nurenberg. The widespread
publication and popularity of her oration led
to Fedele’s correspondence with numerous
scholars, religious leaders, and educators
worldwide, including the king of France,
Pope Alexander VI, and Spain’s Queen Isa-
bella and King Ferdinand, who invited her to
join their court. Although Fedele entertained
the Spanish monarchs’ invitation, the Vene-
tian senate prevented the twenty-two-year-
old Fedele from accepting it, claiming that
the state could not afford to lose her. Fedele
presented a public oration in praise of literary
scholarship before the Doge and senators of
Venice, and her last oration, in 1556, was
delivered in honor of the visiting Queen of
Poland. When she died in 1558, Fedele was
honored with a state funeral. The majority of
Fedele’s letters and her three public orations
are collected in Letters and Orations (2000),
edited and translated by Diana Robin.
Bible, was hotly debated as the Reformation got
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW underway. In England, the Tudor state intervened
erratically, first encouraging the reading of the
English Bible for all, then forbidding its reading to
all but a privileged few. In 1538, every parish
church was required by a royal injunction to
purchase an English Bible and place it in the
choir.1 The Great Bible, published in 1540 with a
new preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
stressed the ideal of an England peopled by ‘all
manner’ of readers of Scripture in the vernacular:
‘Here may all manner of persons, men, women,
young, old, learned, unlearned, rich, poor, priests,
laymen, lords, ladies, officers, tenants, and mean
men, virgins, wives, widows, lawyers, merchants,
artificers, husbandmen, and all manner of persons,
of what estate or condition soever they be, may in
this book learn all things’.2 Only three years later,
however, in 1543, the self-vauntingly named Act
for the Advancement of True Religion and for the
Abolishment of the Contrary attempted to undo
that opening of the floodgates by lowering them
again to allow for only a trickle of elite readers to
have access to Scripture. Reading the Bible in
English was prohibited outright for women,
artificers, journeymen, serving-men of the rank of
yeoman and under, husbandmen and laborers;
noblewomen and gentlewomen could read the
Bible silently; only noblemen, gentlemen, and
merchants were permitted to read it aloud to oth-
ers.3
The contradictions of that early effort to police
reading and writing, the contentitiousness of it
signaled by backtracking on earlier initiatives,
provide a window onto the topic of this special is-
sue of Critical Survey and its theme of literacies in
early modern England. The interjecting of social
categories into the debate over scriptural literacy
indicates the breadth and complexity of concerns
stimulated by greater access to books by a greater
portion of the population. In the emerging brave
EVE RACHELE SANDERS AND new world of cheap print and increasingly wide-
MARGARET W. FERGUSON (ESSAY spread skills in decoding vernacular texts, who
DATE JANUARY 2002) would be allowed to read what? And to whom?
SOURCE: Sanders, Eve Rachele and Margaret W. Fergu- How would various social rubrics—sex, marital
son. “Literacies in Early Modern England.” Critical Sur- status, age, occupation, wealth and class—
vey 14, no. 1 (January 2002): 1-8.
determine who would have entry to institutions
In the following essay, Sanders and Ferguson discuss the in which books were read in more or less formally
wide range of levels of literacy that existed in sixteenth-
century England. determined ways? The list of no less than twenty-
two different categories of potential Bible readers
Literacy, in the sixteenth century, was con- (men and women, young and old, learned and
strued as multiple, variable, subject to redefinition unlearned, etc.) invoked by Archbishop Thomas
by edict from above and by practices from below. Cranmer illustrates by its exhaustiveness the
The importance of regulating changes in skills and mixed and uneven nature of the skills and ap-
behaviors, in particular, increased reading of the proaches that reading designated at that time. In
the hands of ‘priests’ or ‘lawyers’, in those of ‘ten-

ants and mean persons’, or of ‘virgins, wives, and
widows’, the Bible—or any other book—would
have been read with different levels of fluidity, ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
different accents, different purposes, assumptions,
pleasures.
MARGUERITE DE NAVARRE (1492-1549)
This volume presents a collaborative effort to An important figure in the transition between
investigate the implications of literacies (in the medieval and Renaissance literature, Mar-
plural) for early modern culture. We speak here of guerite de Navarre was one of the first
‘literacies’ because the phenomenon under scru- women in Europe to write fiction. She is best
tiny in these essays resists reduction to the kind of known for L’Heptaméron des Nouvelles (1559;
mono-lingual three R’s (two R’s if numeracy is the Heptameron), a series of stories, or “novel-
excluded) often taken for granted today as a las,” primarily concerned with the themes of
quantifiable standard for use in economic develop- love and spirituality. Marguerite received a
ment programs, a standard for measuring uniform classical education and became particularly
‘basic skills’. In early modern England, as the work interested in literature. She moved to court
of a growing number of scholars has shown, when her brother became the King of France
acquiring the ability to decipher, sound, and in 1515, and immersed herself not only in
reproduce the letter of the emergent, not-yet- the social pleasures of court life but in
standardized national language was far more diplomatic responsibilities and intellectual op-
variegated, both in its procedures and in its results, portunities as well. Marguerite moved with
than previously understood or acknowledged. her second husband, the King of Navarre, in
Reading and writing took place in two stages, the 1527, to Navarre, an independent kingdom
second of which never arrived for the majority of located between France and Spain. She
young learners, those who would have had to continued her political activity, engaged in
abandon schooling for economic or ideological charitable work, and became a patron of the
reasons about when they turned seven, the ap- arts.
proximate age at which instruction in writing and
The stories in the Heptameron are framed
the rudiments of Latin grammar began for the
by a narrative in which ten travellers—five
privileged rest (poorer children were expected to
men and five women of various ages and
dedicate their labor to their families at that age;
social roles—are stranded in an abbey in Na-
girls of all classes faced the additional hurdle of
varre after a bridge is washed out, and
prescriptions discouraging female writing).4
entertain themselves for a week by storytell-
Different type fonts and forms of script shaped ing. Both comedic and tragic, the stories
different experiences of literacy. Letters learned by concern love, marriage, adultery, and human
beginners were printed in Gothic type. Roman weakness; they offer glimpses of aristocratic,
type, for them, was near-unreadable code. So, too, monastic, and common life in the sixteenth
were various forms of handwriting, including the century, and suggest a critical perspective on
most common, italic and secretary, scripts more the inequities that emerge from differences
advanced writers alternated between or combined in class, gender, and political power. The Hep-
into a ‘mixed hand’.5 Factors such as these— tameron has been praised primarily for its
varieties of script forms and type fonts, kinds of psychological realism and complex narrative
language instruction ranging from English-only to structure. Recent scholarship focuses on the
classical Latin and Greek, variable access to kinds disruption of social expectations through the
of books and tiers of educational institutions—all transgression of proscribed gender and class
helped the emergence of multiple literacies in this roles, depicted in many of the stories, as well
period: reading-only literacy, scribal-literacy, as Marguerite’s own position as an female
English-only literacy, vernacular foreign-language author in the Renaissance.
literacy, Latin-literacy, scriptural literacy, heraldic
literacy, legal literacy, etc. Moreover, the relatively
standardized English of the printing press, which
helped serve the Protestant nationalist agenda of
the Tudor state, still had to vie with rival lan-
guages, Irish and Welsh, and with its own regional liam Caxton recounted the story of an English
variants. To illustrate that point, the printer Wil- merchant who was rebuffed when he found
himself in a different region of England and tried society that shaped the writing, acquisition,
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW to purchase ‘eggys’ from a local household.6 The circulation, and reading of such texts.
word meant nothing to the farmwife who an-
This questioning of literature via literacy has
swered the merchant by saying she didn’t speak
sparked disagreements and debate; it has also
French (in her dialect the word was ‘eyren’). As furthered among a number of scholars a consensus
this anecdote conveys, a transaction as simple as about several points. First, ‘literacy’ is in need of
the purchase of eggs between residents of differ- redefinition. The term requires updated explana-
ent English shires could be frustrated by lack of a tion if it is to refer usefully to the specific configu-
common vocabulary. English itself was multiple, a ration of practical skills, in potentially multiple
designation for a host of regional dialects that languages, differentially valued, that reading and
emerged as a national language only gradually writing present in a given society. Second, literacy,
through concerted efforts at standardization, if we use the singular to denote the phenomenon
uniform curricula, state supervision. Moreover, as in a general sense, was in the early modern period
Cranmer’s crisscrossing categories—sex, marital a domain of social contest. Most of the popula-
status, age, occupation, wealth and class—of tion of Europe between the fourth and the eigh-
potential Bible readers indicates, the varied litera- teenth centuries was unable to read or write in
cies of different social groups applied in overlap- any language; literacy conveyed status in sixteenth
ping ways to the same individuals. Early moderns and early seventeenth-century England precisely
found themselves at the interstices of competing because the majority lacked advanced instruction
languages, symbolic systems for writing and (schooling beyond the elementary level) at a time
deciphering them, social, institutional and profes- when ordinary dealings increasingly required it
sional settings requiring particularized textual and (selling livestock, answering legal charges, partici-
linguistic competencies. pating in local government, etc.).7 Finally, for all
of the disparities it helped to consolidate, particu-
The work of our colleagues and our work in larly with respect to those who lacked writing,
this area contributes to a still-forming field. literacy was also a source of unanticipated agency
Literacy studies, along with the related fields of for readers. The market for books, partly respon-
the history of reading and the history of the book, sive to the purchasing preferences of readers, gave
center on a set of connected topics: acquisition of book buyers some influence over titles and con-
reading and writing, variable practices of those tent; moreover, the uses to which readers put what
skills, books and documents as material artifacts. they read were unpredictable, often contrary to
This domain is capacious enough to accommodate expectations, implicit or explicit, on the part of
the work of scholars in many disciplines, both in authors or censors.
the social sciences and in the humanities, and to
The essays in this volume present a diversity
foster as well an unusual degree of information
of perspectives on early modern literacies. To-
sharing and collaboration between disciplines. gether, they illustrate the work of redefining
From our particular vantage points within that literacy currently ongoing in the field. Mary Ellen
larger field, literacy studies matter outside of the Lamb’s analysis of the play The Old Wives Tale
contribution they make to our knowledge about challenges the notion that literacy and its social
reading and writing as central cultural practices in distribution can be understood in binary terms:
the history of much of the world (nearly all of it if literacy versus illiteracy, men versus women. She
we include post-Colonial history). From where we argues that that representation of literacy as a
stand, from our positions as teachers in depart- polarized phenomenon did not reflect a social
ments of English, we believe that literacy studies reality but rather a social agenda. The very coin-
matter also because of the new perspectives they age ‘old wives’ tales’ reflects a bias to promote Lati-
bring to our understanding of familiar subjects nate classroom culture over and against the
(writers, readers) and objects (books, manuscripts) culture of oral narrative. In her view, literacy was
of literary studies. Materials and approaches made a multiple phenomenon rather than a single one
available through literacy studies are enabling conceptually defined against ‘illiteracy’, not only
crucial reconceptualizations of received literary because there were gradations of difference be-
tradition. As a growing body of research shows, tween more or less educated individuals, which
works that literary scholars have always studied— were not keyed invariably to sex, but also because
poems, plays, prose romances, sermons, letters, even the Latin-based grammar school was not
diaries—take on new dimensions and meanings impervious to oral culture, ballads and old wives
in the context of broader changes in language and tales, narratives linked with illiteracy and the il-
literate. Works by writers ranging from George and man servants, also brings to our attention the

Peele to Philip Sidney and William Shakespeare behaviors of readers, another previously under-
testify to the lasting traces of orally-transmitted examined category of participants in literate
narratives even on minds schooled in humanist culture. Previously, only the author or the text
classrooms. Similarly, Janet Starner-Wright and (after the proverbial ‘death of the author’) was
Susan Fitzmaurice challenge the notion of a hard ascribed proprietary rights over meaning or play
and fast divide between print and oral cultures. In of meaning; more recently, due to the painstaking
their discussion of The History of Edward II, pub- work of many scholars, the reader now is under-
lished in 1680 and believed by many modern crit- stood to have played a crucial role as well in work-
ics to have been written by Elizabeth Cary, the ing out the meanings texts accrued. Readers were
authors argue that Cary, like other history writers not (and are not) passive recipients of content;
of her day, draws upon conventions of print they argued with the texts they read; they
publishing interchangeably with those of tradi- emended and corrected them, cut from the pages
tional storytelling, mixing Latin phrases with elements they found valuable or objectionable;
proverbial sayings. they added to them their own owner marks,
This destabilization of existing social and marginal comments, insignia, poems, unrelated
cultural categories by writers and readers shows notes and scribblings.8 Often, readers formed as-
why literacy was a site of contest. In her study of sociations and at times larger social networks
Roman capital letters, Bianca F.-C. Calabresi argues through their reading. In the roles of consumers,
that uppercase letters, which evoke classical tradi- they exerted influence as well over textual produc-
tion and royal decrees, had the effect of bestow- tion. As Jennifer Hellwarth demonstrates, early
ing dignity and high status on those who learned modern midwifery manuals give clear indication
to form them (uppercase letters were considered that their authors, male medical practitioners,
an advanced skill that could be acquired only after though dismissive of midwives, nevertheless were
mastering that of writing lowercase ones). To take reliant on a female readership for information and
the example of the forged letter that appears in financial support. This point about the agency of
Twelfth Night, Maria’s use of Roman capitals in the reader arises in a more figurative context in
inscribing that document displays her social Rivlin’s essay. She notes that one of the servants
aspirations and, indeed, achieves them in part. As in Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors is shown at first
Elizabeth Rivlin also reminds us in her reading of to be a passive recipient of blows that inscribe his
The Comedy of Errors, the fact that literacy was body as a text, as ‘if the skin were parchment and
perceived as a marker of hierarchy made it also an the blows . . . were ink’ (3.1.13); however, the
instrument for upsetting hierarchy. The drama, servant then asserts his own explanation of those
then, highlights the conflictual dimensions of marks—his own bodily text—and emerges as an
literacy by heightening our sense of how ambigu- independent reader-interpreter. The humor of the
ous writing can be as a marker of position, hence scene depends not only on the mercurial qualities
how indeterminate or superficial also the nature of the identities of the two pairs of identical
of social standing itself. Judith Rose explains that masters and identical servants but also on those
among Quakers requiring women to write down of writing itself, at once indelible in its mark and
their prophecies constituted a means of restricting unstable in its meaning.
their expression: ‘once women’s prophecies were
‘Reading, viewing and listening’, Roger
written down, they could be censored, witheld, or
Chartier has commented, ‘are, in fact, so many
circulated only in manuscript; they were therefore
intellectual attitudes which, far from subjecting
more manageable, less incendiary’. Following the
consumers to the omnipotence of the ideological
Restoration, however, what had been a source of
or aesthetic message that supposedly conditions
restriction during the Civil War era turned into a
them, make possible reappropriation, redirection,
force for enabling women’s expression when
defiance, or resistance’.9 The present collection of
Quaker schools, unlike other educational estab-
essays adds to our understanding of the subjective
lishments, included writing on the curriculum for
and social dimensions of literate practices, their
girls. Ironically, innovations introduced as instru-
availability to personal and communal adaptation
ments for the containment of one generation
and innovation. Scholars, as readers themselves,
provided another with tools for social mobility
interpret newly texts that have been read differ-
and intellectual training.
ently before; in so doing, they redefine meanings
The shift in perspective that brings into clearer and concepts in ways that may go against doxical
focus the activities of Quaker prophets, old wives or ideological definitions. The definitions of
literacy emerging from current discussion among convenience, Caxton printed the passage as a detach-
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW scholars in this field are multiple, provisional, and able appendix at the back of the book (cited by Susan
Schibanoff, ‘Taking the Gold Out of Egypt: The Art of
often counter-intuitive. They are opening concep- Reading as a Woman,’ in Gender and Reading: Essays on
tual territory for newly important types of evi- Readers, Texts, and Contexts, eds. Elizabeth A. Flynn
dence (the marked copy of a book rather than the and Patrocinio P. Schweickart [Baltimore: The Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1986], 85). Stephen Orgel
clean copy, the margin along with the central text,
provides the example of an owner of Holinshed’s
the ‘paratext’ or prefatory materials preceding the Chronicles who added to his copy heraldic shields of
‘main’ text) and newly shared questions: is it pos- families figured in the narrative; a subsequent owner
sible to measure literacy with any precision if we of the volume cut out some of the shields (‘Records of
Culture,’ in Books and Readers in Early Modern England.
define it to be multiple and compound? In early
Eds. Jennifer Andersen and Elizabeth Sauer [Philadel-
modern England, how did literate practices partici- phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002], 282-9).
pate in the formation of the self? (And, in this age
9. Roger Chartier, Cultural History: Between Practices and
of computer literacy, how do they continue to do Representations, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Ithaca, New
so to this day?) What is the relation between York: Cornell University Press, 1988), 41.
literacy and literature? These questions continue
to be the work of many volumes and many
scholars. They point the way to some larger
implications of the multiple literacies documented
here. POLITICS
HILDA L. SMITH (ESSAY DATE
Notes 1998)
1. Joan Simon, Education and Society in Tudor England
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966), 175.
2. C. H. Williams, ed., English Historical Documents 1485-
1558 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), 827.
3. H. S. Bennett, English Books and Readers: 1475 to 1557
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 27.
4. W. J. Frank Davies, Teaching Reading in Early England,
1973; rpt. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1974.
5. Keith Thomas, ‘The Meaning of Literacy in Early
Modern England,’ in The Written Word: Literacy in
Transition, ed. Gerd Baumann (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1986), 97-131.
6. Margaret Ferguson discusses the anecdote and its
implications for the linguistic diversity of English in
her book, Dido’s Daughters: Literacy, Gender and Empire
in Early Modern England (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2002). Caxton tells the story in the
preface to his translation of Virgil’s Aeneid (Eneydos, as
Caxton’s title has it) published in 1490.
7. Keith Thomas points out that in early modern Eng-
land, ‘It . . . became increasingly common to require
that holders of local offices should be literate and to
discharge them if they were not.’ Moreover, literacy
was an asset in commercial transactions as well, since
‘anyone involved in business ran the risk of being
cheated if he could not read a document or a set of
accounts’ (‘The Meaning of Literacy in Early Modern
England,’ in The Written Word: Literacy in Transition,
ed. Gerd Baumann [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986],
110).
8. In his 1473 English translation of a French collection
of philosophers’ sayings, The Dictes and Sayeings of the
Philosophers, Caxton acknowledges the proprietary at-
titudes of contemporary readers toward their books
when he recommends that any reader offended by
certain misogynistic maxims of Socrates (omitted by
the translator and reinserted by Caxton) simply
remove that passage, ‘wyth a penne race it out or ellys
rente the leef oute of the booke’; for the reader’s
further by having many publicly acknowledged
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW lovers at a time when virtue was still demanded of
a woman. By modern standards, Catherine was
not really promiscuous. She had only twelve well-
documented lovers in some forty-four years. But
neither Victorian England nor Victorian Russia
approved. Alexander Herzen (1812-70), the great
Russian revolutionary, who later sought asylum in
England, exclaimed in the mid-nineteenth century
that ‘the history of Catherine the Great cannot be
read aloud in the presence of ladies’.
The prejudice was so great that for a long time
it prevented an objective study of the events of
Catherine’s reign, and fostered the assumption
that she had achieved nothing. Nineteenth-
century historians, often populists or Marxists
viewed her proclamation of the tenets of the
French enlightenment as hypocrisy—as did the
poet Alexander Pushkin in his young days—
because she did nothing to free the serfs. With the
ISABEL DE MADARIAGA (ESSAY coming of the Bolsheviks, the publication of
DATE NOVEMBER 2001) Catherine’s official papers ceased almost entirely
SOURCE: de Madariaga, Isabel. “Catherine the Great: and study of the class war superseded study of the
A Personal View.” History Today 51, no. 11 (November action of individuals. It is only since the fall of
2001): 45-51. Communism that Russian historians have been
In the following essay, de Madariaga explores the life, ac- freed to undertake fresh documentary research,
complishments, and political writings of Catherine the and to approach their past in an objective spirit.
Great.
Historians have thus rescued their most impres-
Since I first took Catherine seriously as a ruler, sive and intellectually distinguished ruler from
some forty years ago, I have grown to like her very the undeserved neglect she has suffered in the
much. This is not therefore going to be an exercise country she ruled over so successfully for thirty-
in debunking, it is a personal portrait of someone four years.
who has become a close friend. Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst, the name of the girl
For nearly two hundred years the Empress baptised Catherine on her conversion from Luth-
Catherine II of Russia (1762-96), or Catherine the eranism to the Orthodox religion, arrived in Rus-
Great, as she is known, has had a very bad press sia in 1744, aged fourteen, and was married at
as a German usurper from a minor ducal family, sixteen to a seventeen-year-old who failed to
without any claim to the Russian throne. Women consummate the marriage for some years. The
on the throne were an anomaly and it was ex- reigning Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Great’s
pected that they would rule through favourites or daughter, was so perturbed at the lack of an heir
husbands. But Catherine had blotted her copy to the throne that she conveyed a message to
book in a more serious way: she had mounted the Catherine urging her to produce one, if not by
throne as the result of a military coup d’etat in June her husband, then by someone else, which Cathe-
1762, over the body of her murdered husband, rine duly did, and her son Paul, probably fathered
Peter III, the grandson of Peter the Great. From by a courtier known as ‘handsome Serge’ Saltykov,
Catherine’s point of view at the time it was a ques- was born in 1754.
tion of ‘who whom’, as Lenin later put it. Peter The Empress Elizabeth died in 1762, and
was supposed to have been about to repudiate her, Catherine’s husband became emperor. He soon
disinherit her son and marry his mistress. Cathe- showed himself as unsatisfactory as a ruler as he
rine’s many friends in the army joined in a plot to had proved as a husband. It was not so much what
de-throne Peter and seized power with her full ap- he did, but the way in which he did it. His
proval and participation. She circumvented the gracelessness and his lack of judgement alienated
men who helped her to seize the throne in 1762 all the powerful social groups, including his wife
and was wise enough never to enter into a publicly for whom he had ceased to have any regard: ‘she
recognised marriage. She shocked opinion even will squeeze you like a lemon’, he had said ‘and
then she will throw you away’. But Catherine religion freely though under state inspection of

through her lover, the guards officer Grigory Or- their organisation and finances. In theory, religion
lov and his four dashing brothers, won over the was no obstacle to participating in elective local
army to her cause, and by sheer force of personal- government posts—even for Jews whose number
ity, many of the high officials as well, even those within the borders of Russia increased consider-
close to Peter III. Her supporters proclaimed her ably after the first partition of Poland in 1772.
not as regent for her son Paul, as some had hoped, Who knows what she believed in? She would at-
but as ruler in her own right, as Empress regnant. tend all-night services in church but sat at a little
table out of sight where she could pass the time
What sort of woman was she? By the time she
with a pack of cards, playing patience.
came to power, she had spent eighteen years steer-
ing her way through the many pitfalls of the Rus- Catherine was also extremely hardworking.
sian court. During this time she had given birth She rose early, read or wrote, copied out her drafts,
to one son by a lover, to a daughter, who died, by and discussed them with her advisers. Thousands
another lover, Stanislas Poniatowski, and to a of sheets of paper covered in her handwriting have
second son by her lover Grigory Orlov, born in survived, and her writings, both political and belles
secret only four months before her coup, who was lettres, occupy twelve substantial volumes. The
not recognised by Peter III. She had had to ma- most outstanding of them was her Great Instruc-
noeuvre between the many factions in the Rus- tion, published in 1767 in order to lay before an
sian court, her friends had been removed, some assembly of elected representatives of the nobles,
disgraced and sent into exile, leaving her at times the townspeople, cossacks, tribesmen and state
in considerable solitude. And yet always she had peasants (not the serfs) the general principles on
had to share a bed with a totally uncongenial which laws should be codified by this assembly.
man, who for instance court martialled a rat The Instruction, comprising some 650 articles in
caught in her bedchamber and executed it. She all, defined the functions of social estates and laid
took refuge from boredom in reading, mainly his- down the means of establishing the rule of law
tory, politics, and philosophy, a great deal of and the welfare of the citizens. Catherine drew on
French literature and a life of Henri IV of France, a number of important German and French think-
who became her model of a king. In this way ers of the time, and there is even a suggestion that
Catherine accumulated a considerable fund of she may have known about the work of Adam
knowledge of the theory of government, and of Smith. She was very proud of her compilation,
comparative politics. She was greatly influenced which was published in over twenty-five lan-
by Montesquieu’s Esprit des Lois which became for guages, including English. It was so radical that it
a while her bedside book and profoundly affected was condemned by the Sorbonne in Paris.
her legislation; she read Voltaire, of course, with
From the Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria, Cathe-
whom she began a regular correspondence. When
rine drew her condemnation of torture in judicial
Diderot met with obstacles over the publication of
proceedings in her Great Instruction:
the Great Encyclopedia in France, Catherine offered
to publish it in Russia. A translation fund she The innocent ought not to be tortured; and in the
established published works by Voltaire, Rousseau, eye of the law every person is innocent whose
crime is not yet proved.
Mably, Gulliver’s Travels, Robertson’s History of
America, and in 1778 a translation of Sir William
This axiom, which sounds so familiar to an
Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England
English ear, was completely novel in eighteenth-
(from the French) which exercised a great influ-
century Russia. One cannot say that the Empress
ence on her political and legal thinking until her
succeeded in eliminating torture entirely from
death.
Russian legal procedure, but she did succeed in
Brought up a Lutheran, religion sat very reducing its sphere of operation. It is not unfair to
lightly on her. She fulfilled all her Orthodox Catherine’s predecessors to state that she was the
religious duties punctiliously, was courteous to first ruler of Russia to have any sense of legality, of
the Russian hierarchy but gave the Church no ac- what the rule of law meant. Indeed, there was no
cess to political institutions, and confiscated its university in Russia until 1755, no teaching of
lands. She turned a blind eye to the presence and jurisprudence except by Germans who taught in
activities of the Old Believers, wound down Latin. The first professor of Russian law (trained in
Orthodox missionary activity among Muslims and Glasgow) teaching in Russian was appointed by
pagans and allowed ‘reputable’ religions to build Catherine II in 1773. As a result Russian officials
churches, run their own schools and practise their were prone to override the decisions of judges in
conet, Grimm and others, served to promote her
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW interests and to portray her personality and ideas
in the most attractive light. Thus the proceedings
of the Assembly were public, and accounts of its
activities were published in the Moscow and St
Petersburg gazettes. No such gathering had been
held in Russia since the seventeenth century, nor
was one to meet again until after the revolution
of 1905. It is a tribute to Catherine’s political cour-
age, that a mere five years after seizing the throne,
she did not fear that such a gathering might
provide a focus for opposition to her rule. Indeed,
the sluices were opened for a freedom of speech
unheard of in Russia and rendered possible by the
fact that the deputies needed only to start their
contributions with the words: ‘As the Empress says
in para xyz of her Instruction’.
Much of Catherine’s future programme of
legislation is to be found in embryo in her Great
Instruction, and in the documents collected by the
Assembly, which provided her with a vast amount
of information about the state of her realm. What
of the serfs who were not represented? There was
Catherine the Great (1729-1796). of course much information about them available
in the form of the murder of landowners and lo-
cal risings on private estates which had to be put
favour of what they might regard to be common down by troops. Catherine herself was opposed to
sense, convenient, or politically desirable. serfdom and she took some steps to introduce
non-servile tenures on imperial estates which
In a document intended to teach her subjects proved highly unpopular with the serfs. Chapter
how to draft laws, Catherine spent some time in XI of her Instruction dealt with serfdom and
defining how laws should be written: in the slavery. She showed it to some of her advisers who
vernacular, in simple, concise language, bearing in cut out vast portions. The leading Russian drama-
mind that they were written for people of moder- tist of the period, A. P. Sumarokov, complained
ate capacities; they should be published as a small that the nobles would have neither coachman nor
book which could be bought as cheaply as the cook nor lackey, for they would all run away to
catechism, and which should be used in schools better paid jobs, whereas at present the nobles all
to teach children to read. Napoleon had the same lived quietly on their estates. Catherine did not
idea. agree; she noted in the margin of Sumarokov’s
What is striking about Catherine’s Instruction comments: ‘and have their throats cut from time
is that it formed part of a plan to shake up the to time’.
political culture of Russia in a dramatic way. It It was only in 1907 that the suppressed por-
was a pedagogical instrument designed to instruct tions of Chapter XI were brought to light, so that
public opinion in the assembly which was to draft the Empress’s real views were simply unknown to
her new code. It was read through in public every the general public for more than a century. She
month from cover to cover from August 1767 had, for instance, suggested that serfs should be
until the Assembly was disbanded in autumn 1768 entitled to purchase their freedom, or that servi-
on the outbreak of war with Turkey. The deputies tude should be limited to a period of six years.
were thus subjected to a flood of unheard of ideas Subsequently she stopped up many holes which
in what amounted to a speech from the throne. enabled people to be enserfed, but she did not
It is worth pausing for a moment to consider pursue total emancipation. Historians have also
this aspect of Catherine as a ruler. She had a criticised her for giving away thousands of ‘free’
profound understanding of the nature and impor- peasants to her favourites and public servants,
tance of public opinion, and of the need to mould thus enserfing them. Stated bluntly like that of
it. Her correspondence with Voltaire, Diderot, Fal- course it sounds terrible, and what actually hap-
pened is probably not much better. For, in fact,

three-quarters of the peasants she gave away were
already serfs on estates acquired in the partitions
of Poland. This has been known by historians
since 1878, but . . . shall we say forgotten?
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
What marks Catherine’s approach is the care- CATHERINE THE GREAT (1729-1796)
ful planning of a programme of interrelated Born a German princess, Catherine was
measures, steadily pursued over a number of years. schooled under a French governess, who
Local government and the judiciary were remod- taught her French and introduced her to the
elled in 1775, with elected participation by nobles, neoclassical plays of such dramatists as Ra-
townspeople and state peasants and separation of cine, Moliére, and Corneille. She converted
the new network of courts based on social rank to the Russian Orthodox faith, took the name
from the administration. Local responsibility for Ekaterina Alekseevna, and married her cousin,
certain welfare functions such as schools, hospitals Peter Fedorovich, in 1745. She escaped the
and almshouses was also established, and a na- unhappy marriage by travelling the kingdom,
tional network of primary and secondary schools, engaging in intellectual pursuits, and involv-
free and co-educational, which even serf children ing herself in several scandalous sexual
could attend with the permission of their owners. relationships. When his mother died in 1761,
The civil rights of nobles and townspeople were Peter Fedorovich took the throne; he reigned
set out in terms which reflect English legal thought for six months while Catherine was in seclu-
in charters issued in 1785. Some of Catherine’s sion, pregnant with the son of one of her lov-
work survived until 1864, some until the Bolshe- ers. Shortly after giving birth, Catherine took
viks in 1917. the throne from Peter in a coup of 1762, and
Thus far the ruler. What of the woman? After within a week her supporters had murdered
Sergey Saltykov, Catherine found another lover, Peter.
Count Stanislas Poniatowski, a Polish noble, who
Catherine worked hard to demonstrate
came to St Petersburg in the suite of the English
her competence and to advocate a cultural
ambassador, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, and
program designed to bring Russia into the
may well have introduced Catherine to the plea-
Enlightenment that had already swept across
sures of collecting. Poniatowski was handsome,
most of Europe. She was a great patron of
well bred, cultured, and fell genuinely in love with
the arts, encouraging the works of play-
Catherine, who in turn found a soul mate and an
wrights and poets, and corresponding with
intellectual companion for the first time in her
major Enlightenment figures. Her first publi-
life. In dangerous and sometimes farcical circum-
cation, the Bol’shoi nakaz (1767; Great
stances Catherine conducted her affair and gave
Instruction) reflected Catherine’s interest in
birth to their daughter. But a political crisis in
constitutional law and social reform. She also
1758 cut short their relationship, and Poniatowski
sponsored a journal, the translation of foreign
returned to Poland. Love for a handsome guards
classics, and attempted serious intellectual
officer, Grigory Orlov, as well as concern for her
endeavors in the fields of Russian language
own safety led Catherine into a new affair, in
and history. Possessed of a powerful personal-
which she proved remarkably faithful since it
ity and acquainted with some of the leading
lasted twelve years.
intellectuals of the modern age, Catherine
In 1772, kind friends warned Catherine about produced letters and memoirs—containing a
her lover’s infidelities and she dismissed him. detailed and quite lively view of her relation-
Emotionally vulnerable and at a loss, Catherine ships with Voltaire, Diderot, and others, as
was also faced with a political crisis: by the winter well as her observations about court life,
of 1773, the Pugachev revolt was in full swing, political developments, and philosophy—that
the war against the Ottoman Porte marked time, have remained of great interest to readers
and her son Paul attained his majority, which and scholars throughout the centuries.
might threaten her hold on the throne. At this
point her whole emotional life changed gear for
good. She summoned to her side Grigory
Potemkin, ten years her junior, a man who had
reached the rank of Lt General on the battlefields, in her coup d’etat, and who had the authority to
whom she knew since he had played a minor part impose himself on the armed forces, the imagina-
tion and the political acumen to make his way to palace staff. Her easy manners and lack of social
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW the top of the political tree, and the energy to pretensions were commented on by all who at-
sweep all rivals aside. He also offered her total tended court. When she travelled to the Crimea
devotion, both as a woman and as his liege lady. in 1787, she stopped in many towns on her way
(I use this archaic phrase deliberately because it to attend receptions and emerged from the crush
represents how he thought of her to his dying with her cheeks covered with rouge from kissing
day.) He was a handsome man (though he had the highly made-up bourgeois ladies. Her simplic-
lost an eye), imposing, witty and well-educated. ity of manner is what made working for her
Their meeting was explosive, and led to a stormy, pleasurable. She chose her senior advisers—her
passionate and well-documented love affair. ministers—well and kept them on for years. Prince
Potemkin was conscious that his position was A. A. Vyazemsky, to all intents and purposes her
insecure and was very jealous of Catherine’s past Home Secretary and Finance Minister, worked for
lovers. He sulked and made scenes, but so great her from 1764 to 1792, and when he became too
was Catherine’s trust in him that it is generally ac- ill to continue, her minister of commerce from
cepted now that she went through a religious 1772 to 1792. When she received the news of the
ceremony of marriage with him, thus giving him, death of Potemkin in 1791 she had to be bled,
as her husband, the security he needed. For after wept for days, and was never the same again.
barely two years, the passion between them wore None of her senior public servants was ever exiled
out, though the love remained. Catherine needed or sent to Siberia, so that high office became a
him as her partner in government, particularly in safe occupation. She spoke freely to her advisers
military affairs, and he loved her and served her and welcomed frank speaking to her; she did not
unconditionally. They found a way out of their dismiss her staff for making mistakes, not even for
dilemma by separating sex from love: Catherine
losing battles, she merely encouraged them to do
chose a series of lovers, one after the other, and
better next time. This contributed greatly to the
he chose his mistresses, starting with three of his
stability of the regime and the sense of security
nieces who became protégées of the Empress and
and continuity in government.
much loved by her. To the surprise of Catherine’s
public servants and courtiers, Potemkin continued Catherine loved the theatre and wrote for it
in greater favour than ever, and remained by the herself. ‘I cannot see a sheet of blank paper
Empress as unacknowledged prince consort until without wanting to write on it.’ She wrote short
his death fifteen years later in 1791. pieces for a satirical journal, and quite a number
of plays, ‘because I enjoy it’. She was among the
But there were occasional difficulties with
first to take an interest in Shakespeare, whose
Catherine’s lovers. She seems to have been easily
bored, and broke with several of them, sending plays she read in German translation. She com-
them away to travel abroad or to live in Moscow, mented:
well endowed. Some of them deserted her. We . . . imitations of Shakespeare are very conve-
cannot tell how important the sexual aspect of nient, for since they are neither comedies nor
this relationship was to her, but what is clear from tragedies and have no other rules but tact, but a
her letters to others is that there was a strong dose feeling for what the spectator can bear, I think we
can do anything with them.
of maternal feeling for them. She valued them as
participants in her intellectual and artistic occupa- She tried to imitate Shakespeare in a play
tions.
called How to have both the linen and the basket,
As a woman, Catherine was generous, consid- based on the Merry Wives of Windsor, and also
erate and humane and not at all vindictive. There wrote historical plays like ‘From the life of Ryurik,
are endless examples of her servants’ love for her. an imitation of Shakespeare without the dramatic
An early riser, she would make up her fire herself unities’ in which there are many echoes of Henry
in order not to rouse her stoker. My favourite IV parts I and II. She wrote fairy tales for her
example of her thought for others occurred one grandchildren, treatises on conduct, education
day when she entered a room in the Winter Palace and bringing up children (I should perhaps men-
where a young soldier, supposedly on guard, was tion that children in the Foundling Homes she
sitting reading at a table. Horrified at being caught established were given muesli for breakfast). She
off guard, he sprang to his feet. The empress asked issued an ukaz recommending the cultivation of
him what he was reading and talked for a while potatoes with instructions on how to cook them
with him. A few days later she gave orders to set and potatoes were even served in the palace. She
aside a room and to establish a library for the even devised a special garment for babies which
could be easily pulled off with one tug of a tape, by Potemkin’s one-time secretary, V. S. Popov.

and sent the pattern to the King of Sweden for his When he expressed his surprise to her at the blind
wife. obedience with which her every order was treated:
So far I have shown the side of Catherine that She condescended to reply: It is not as easy as you
won her many admirers. I must now try to find a think. In the first place my orders would not be
few faults. First of all she was vain, vain of her carried out unless they were the kind of orders
which could be carried out. You know with what
achievements, but also of her role as a woman on
prudence . . . I act in the promulgation of my
the throne who outshone many men as a success- laws. I examine the circumstances, I take advice, I
ful modern and reforming ruler, as a correspon- consult the enlightened part of the people and
dent of leading minds in Paris and Germany, as this way I find out what sort of effect my law will
an art collector. She was proud of the victories of have. And then when I am already convinced in
advance of general approval, then I issue my
her armies, and determined to assert the equality
orders, and have the pleasure of observing what
of Russia—a newcomer—with the other great you call blind obedience. And that is the founda-
powers in Europe. She was delighted at the suc- tion of unlimited power.
cessful dispatch of several Russian Baltic fleets to
the Mediterranean in 1769-74. It did indeed Further Reading
astound most European countries, and could not Catherine II, The Correspondence with Voltaire and the Instruc-
have been achieved without the help of Britain. tion of 1767 in the English Text of 1768. Edited under
But her letter to her ambassador in London notify- the title Documents of Catherine the Great by W. F. Red-
daway (Cambridge University Press, 1931); Carol S. Le-
ing him of her intention reads almost like that of
onard, Reform and Regicide: the Reign of Peter III of Russia
a gleeful little girl: (Indiana University Press, 1992); Isabel de Madariaga,
We have aroused the sleeping cat, and the cat is Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great (reprint forthcom-
going to attack the mice and you will see what ing, Phoenix Press, January 2002); Isabel de Madariaga,
Catherine the Great: A Short History (Yale University
you will see, and people will talk about us and
Press, 1991); Isabel de Madariaga, Politics and Culture in
nobody expected us to make such a rumpus . . .
Eighteenth Century Russia (Longmans, 1998); T. Alex-
ander, Catherine the Great—Life and Legend (Oxford
As she grew older her vanity took on a Rus- University Press, 1989); Simon Sebag Montefiore, Prince
sian nationalist flavour with an unpleasant ten- of Princes, The Life of Potemkin (Weidenfeld and Nicol-
dency to browbeat her enemies. Her strong nerves son, 2001).
enabled her to overcome the anxieties of indeci-
sive campaigns, but during the Ochakov crisis in
1791 she had to be bullied into climbing down by
the pressure of Potemkin, more aware than she of
the military danger of a Prussian attack on land
WOMEN IN LITERATURE
and of a possible British naval attack in the Baltic,
DYMPNA C. CALLAGHAN (ESSAY
but she was saved from total surrender by the col-
DATE 1994)
lapse of Pitt’s policy in England. There is one
aspect of her increasingly brash attitude to other
powers which I personally find unforgiveable and
that is her treatment of her ex-lover Stanislas
Poniatowski as a man, and of Poland as a nation.
The destruction of Poland was carried out with a
ruthlessness and an undercurrent of raillery which
is extremely unpleasant and Catherine’s bullying
of Stanislas himself was downright cruel. For she
could be ruthless in defence of her own position,
and the existing political and social structure.
Yet she had an original and creative political
mind, and the disciplined temperament of a
statesman. To the end of her life she continued to
ponder over possible ways of associating elected
representatives of the Russian nobility, towns-
people and peasantry with a decision-making
body in the government of Russia, drawing often
on English models. Her attitude to government
can be summed up in a remark attributed to her
majesty made one of the best answers extempore

in Latin that ever I heard, being much moved to
be so challenged in public, especially so much
against her expectation.’ Her reply to the Polish
ambassador expressed her astonishment at ‘so
great and insolent a boldness in open Presence’
and tartly corrected his ‘ignorant’ misapprehen-
sion of ‘the law of nature’ and ‘of nations,’ and
‘what is convenient between kings.’ She closed
with a suggestion that he ‘repose himself’ or ‘be
silent,’ depending on how much indignity one
wishes to infuse into the translation of Elizabeth’s
Latin.
The learning and rhetorical skill displayed in
this public rebuke were characteristic of Elizabeth
I. Typically, her public speeches were not penned
in advance, but delivered more or less impromptu.
She was at her best when she was most spontane-
ous, both as a speaker and as a writer, and she was
much admired by her contemporaries for both
talents. No doubt, those who admired her literary
skills saw them through the usual haze of flattery
that surrounds a reigning monarch’s every gesture.
And we moderns have been hesitant to acknowl-
edge the power of many of Elizabeth’s writings
out of fear that we will be suspected of a similar
uncritical adulation. Nevertheless, as we begin a
new century, her work is of increasing interest to
historians and literary scholars. Her reputation as
a writer is arguably higher now than it has been
at any time since her own era.
For all their acknowledged brilliance in deliv-
ery, Elizabeth’s speeches are elusive, precisely
because they did not exist in advance copies. Lack-
ing modern recording devices, contemporaries
LEAH MARCUS (ESSAY DATE who wanted to preserve her utterances were
OCTOBER 2000) required either to take down the queen’s words in
SOURCE: Marcus, Leah. “Elizabeth the Writer.” History rudimentary shorthand as she spoke them or,
Today 50, no. 10 (October 2000): 36-38.
more likely, record them from memory as soon as
In the following essay, Marcus praises Queen Elizabeth’s possible after the end of the speech. Frequently,
oratory strengths.
they record their frustration at not having cap-
In July 1597, a dashing young Polish ambas- tured her performance adequately. In 1601, for
sador made his debut at the Elizabethan court. example, Sir Roger Wilbraham, the Queen’s solici-
The English welcomed him with pageantry that tor general for Ireland, complained as he at-
was more splendid than usual and prepared to tempted to record her speech of December 19th,
celebrate a ‘great day.’ But the young ambassador’s besides the fact that ‘I could not well hear all she
formal Latin oration of greeting froze the cordial spake, the grace of pronunciation and of her apt
environment, offering the aging Queen Elizabeth and refined words, so learnedly composed, did
a series of rebukes rather than the diplomatic ravish the sense of the hearers with such admira-
platitudes that had been expected. What hap- tion as every new sentence made me half forget
pened next was predictable to those who had seen the precedents’.
the Queen in action before, but astonishing to Because they were written down after the fact,
those less acquainted with her oratorical skills. Sir different manuscript versions of Elizabeth’s
Robert Cecil marvelled in a letter to the Earl of Es- speeches often display strikingly different word-
sex, ‘to this, I swear by the living God that her ing. In the first of her impromptu 1586 replies to
plaining about ‘pettifoggers of the law, who look
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW more on the outside of their books than study
them within.’ The version Robert Cecil printed
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ shortly after the speech’s delivery is more polite:
‘you lawyers are so nice in sifting and scanning
every word and letter that many times you stand
QUEEN ELIZABETH I (1533-1603)
more upon form than matter, upon syllables than
Elizabeth I was the reigning monarch of Eng-
sense of the law.’ In this case, the difference in
land from 1558 to 1603. She preserved the
wording may be a result of the Queen’s own revi-
English nation against internal as well as
sion, for we possess in her own hand corrections
external threats, and during her forty-five-
made to the speech in preparation for its publica-
year reign the island kingdom emerged as a
tion. But to make her corrections, she had to rely
world power. It is because of her influence
on someone else’s written copy made from
that the latter half of the sixteenth century in
memory after her delivery of the speech. We can
England is known as the Elizabethan Age.
judge pretty closely what she wanted her public
Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry to read, since her written corrections correlate
VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Be- fairly closely with the speech as printed. But how
cause Henry VIII had defied the Pope and does that version compare with the speech as she
married Boleyn in the hope of producing a actually delivered it? We can make educated
male heir to the throne, he was bitterly disap- guesses, but we will never know certainly.
pointed in the birth of a second daughter.
The Queen’s most famous speech before
Before Elizabeth was three, the king had her
Parliament was undoubtedly her ‘Golden Speech’
mother beheaded and their marriage de-
of November 1601, delivered in answer to the
clared invalid. Although now considered an
Commons’ complaint about her toleration for
illegitimate child, Elizabeth was still third in
monopolies that restricted trade and impoverished
line to the throne (after her half brother
her subjects. Here, as usual, contemporaries
Edward and half sister Mary). She received
bemoaned the fact that their written recollections
tutoring from leading Renaissance scholars
of the speech preserved it so imperfectly. One
who noted her intellect and seriousness, and
copyist recorded, ‘Many things through want of
became fluent in Greek, Latin, French, and
memory I have omitted, without setting down
Italian. On 17 November 1558 Elizabeth
many her majesty’s gestures of honour and
became queen of England, and quickly sur-
princely demeanor used by her. As when the
rounded herself with experienced and loyal
speaker spake any effectual or moving speech
advisers.
from the Commons to her majesty, she rose up
The remarkable literary flowering that and bowed herself. As also in her own speech,
took place during Elizabeth’s rule, when Wil- when the Commons, apprehending any extraordi-
liam Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip nary words of favour from her, did any reverence
Sidney, and Christopher Marlowe were all to her majesty, she likewise rose up and bowed
writing, has kept alive the idea that Elizabe- herself.’ In the case of the Golden Speech, how-
than England enjoyed a golden age. Elizabeth ever, the version published immediately after the
was successful at maintaining peace at home event is even less reliable than usual as a guide to
and abroad and also at establishing her own the speech in delivery as we have it recorded by
image as a loving and able ruler. Although MPs present at the occasion. The official printed
her own writings—speeches, poetry, and version is a disappointingly short abstract that
devotional works—do not begin to equal the omits most of the ‘golden’ language for which the
greatest of her age, they were nevertheless speech became famous. The uncertainty of con-
important in creating and sustaining that temporary evidence is surely one reason why it
age. has taken us so long fully to acknowledge Eliza-
beth’s formidable skills as an orator.
Roger Wilbraham’s adulatory remarks are typi-
cal of auditors’ responses to speeches at the end of
Elizabeth’s reign, when the Cult of Elizabeth was
a parliamentary delegation urging the queen to in full swing and her oratorical powers had
consent to the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, become the stuff of legend. Four decades earlier,
for example, one manuscript has Elizabeth com- she was probably just as eloquent but aroused a
rather different reaction from MPs. Most of her the published version is a later tidying clarifica-

addresses from the first years of her reign were tion of the Queen’s highminded sprezzatura in the
designed to deflect parliamentary petitions urging face of the Spanish threat, or whether it is closer
her to marry and declare a succession. She ended to what she actually said than the surviving
her very first speech before Parliament (February manuscript. As usual, the early evidence allows us
1559) by deftly parrying their demands and to come close to recapturing what she uttered, but
declaring, ‘And in the end this shall be for me suf- leaves us at a tantalising distance from certainty.
ficient: that a marble stone shall declare that a Elizabeth’s speeches are arguably her most
queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died glorious literary production, even though, in the
a virgin.’ Later speeches on the same general topic forms we have, they are imperfect records of
are less pacific towards those who would coerce performance. But she also produced poems,
her into procreation. In a 1562 conversation with prayers, and hundreds of letters. The Armada
the Scottish ambassador, she complained that to threat of 1588 inspired her to intense literary
declare a succession would be like holding up her activity. Beyond the Armada Speech itself, we pos-
own winding sheet before her eyes. In November sess two public prayers of thanksgiving for the
1566, incensed that parliamentarians were tying Armada victory, one of which shows the Queen in
their grant of funds to run her government to her high, vatic mode as a priestess of her people,
promise to marry and declare a succession. Eliza- thanking God for creating the four elements by
beth lashed out against their presumption: ‘When which, acting in concert, the Spanish fleet was
I call to mind how far from dutiful care, yea, destroyed:
rather how nigh a traitorous trick this tumbling Everlasting and omnipotent Creator, Redeemer,
cast did spring, I muse how men of wit can so and Conserver, when it seemed most fit time to
hardly use that gift they hold. I marvel not much Thy worthy providence to bestow the workman-
that bridleless colts do not know their rider’s ship of this world or globe, with Thy rare judg-
ment Thou didst divide into four singular parts
hand, whom bit of kingly rein did never snaffle the form of all this world, which aftertime hath
yet.’ termed elements, they all serving to continue in
orderly government the whole of all the mass:
After 1567, Elizabeth spoke less frequently
which all, when of Thy most singular bounty and
before Parliament. We have only one full-length never-earst-seen care Thou hast this year made
speech from the 1570s, and only the speeches on serve for instruments both to daunt our foes and
the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, from the to confound their malice.
1580s. One of her most arresting productions was
her famous ‘Armada Speech’, delivered before the Elizabeth’s enigmatic French verses, which
troops at Tilbury who were awaiting Spanish inva- record a mystical rise into otherworldly constancy
sion in 1588. As we would expect, this stirring ad- and spiritual equilibrium, may have been inspired
dress exists in several versions which display by the Armada victory, as was a little-known
intriguing differences. The earliest known pub- ‘Song’ that was, according to the heading of the
lished version of the speech dates from 1654, and single known copy, ‘made by her majesty and
is, according to the compiler of the volume in sung before her at her coming from Whitehall to
which it appears, based on the recollection of Li- Paul’s through Fleet Street’ in public celebration
onel Sharp, an adherent of the Earl of Leicester of the scattering of the Spanish ships. In this
who was present at the speech’s delivery. This ver- highly psalmic poem, she offers herself as a
sion has the Queen protesting her fearlessness to sacrifice in thanksgiving for the victory:
appear in public, despite threats of assassination: Look and bow down Thine ear, O Lord.
‘And therefore I am come amongst you, as you From Thy bright sphere behold and see
see at this time, not for my recreation and disport, Thy handmaid and Thy handiwork,
Amongst Thy priests, offering to Thee
but being resolved in the midst and heat of the
Zeal for incense, reaching the skies;
battle to live or die amongst you all.’ A manuscript Myself and sceptre, sacrifice.
that can be dated closer to the time of the speech’s
actual delivery has Elizabeth promising, ‘Where- Given the importance of its occasion, it is
fore I am come among you at this time but for astonishing that the Queen’s ‘Song’ has until now
my recreation and pleasure, being resolved in the been so little known.
midst and heat of the battle to live and die The most famous of Elizabeth’s political verses
amongst you all.’ In this version, death in battle is ‘The doubt of future foes’, written in 1570-71 in
becomes her highest pleasure, a blood-feast of dar- response to the Northern Rebellion and the abor-
ing and sacrifice. We cannot be certain whether tive plot to place the Duke of Norfolk and Mary,
Queen of Scots, on the throne of England. Her Alencon, advice about rule in numerous impatient
WOMEN IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES: AN OVERVIEW contemporaries admired this poem greatly for its harangues to James VI of Scotland and Henry IV
extended ‘dark conceit’, a threat of death, half of France, condolences, pleasantries and intimate
submerged in allegory, against Mary, the ‘daughter advice to her courtiers. As usual, Elizabeth’s writ-
of debate,’ and Elizabeth’s rebellious subjects. The ing is at its best when she is in her mode of high
poem begins: indignation, as in a characteristic opening to
James, ‘I rue my sight that views the evident
The doubt of future foes
Exiles my present joy spectacle of a seduced king, abusing Council, and
And with me warns to shun such snares wry-guided kingdom’. Elizabeth usually gets high
As threatens mine annoy marks for her diplomatic skills, but we have not
and ends with the promise to prune her ‘foes’ fully acknowledged how much of her success can
with an instrument of war: be traced to her brilliance with language.
My rusty sword through rest

Shall first his edge employ
To poll their tops who seek such change FURTHER READING
Or gape for future joy.
Alexander, Meena. “Introduction: Mapping a Female
Like her speeches, this poem is securely at- Romanticism.” In Women in Romanticism: Mary Woll-
tributed to Elizabeth and exists in a number of stonecraft, Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Shelley, pp.
manuscript copies, all of them different in their 1-17. Savage, Md.: Barnes & Noble Books, 1989.
precise wording. But her less obviously political Examines how women authors faced the “anxiety of
poems are more elusive, and many of them may authorship” and social constraints.
be lost for good. Most of them were composed as Berry, Philippa. Of Chastity and Power: Elizabethan Literature
verse conversations with courtiers like Sir Thomas and the Unmarried Queen. London: Routledge, 1989,
Heneage and Sir Walter Ralegh, and were carefully 193 p.
kept from circulation. To the extent that they have Considers literary representations of Elizabeth I.
survived, it is often because of the fortuitous Burroughs, Catherine B. “English Romantic Women Writers
durability of the surface on which they were and Theatre Theory: Joanna Baillie’s Prefaces to the
composed or copied. Two of Elizabeth’s lyrics ‘Plays on the Passions’.” In Re-Visioning Romanticism:
British Women Writers, 1776-1837, edited by Carol
survive only as marginalia in religious books, and Shiner Wilson and Joel Haefner, pp. 274-96. Philadel-
the verse exchange between Ralegh and Elizabeth phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.
was printed decades later, shorn of its personal Discusses Baillie’s closet theatre theory in the context of
references and the names of its authors, as a the tradition of women writing about the stage.
broadside ballad entitled ‘The Lover’s Complaint
Dixon, Annette. “Women Who Ruled: Queens, Goddesses,
for the Loss of His Love’ and ‘The Lady’s Comfort- Amazons 1500-1650: A Thematic Overview.” In Women
able and Pleasant Answer.’ Even when Elizabeth’s Who Ruled: Queens, Goddesses, Amazons in Renaissance
lyrics were copied, their attribution to the Queen and Baroque Art, edited by Annette Dixon, pp. 119-179.
London: Merrell Publishers Limited, 2002.
was frequently recorded in the manuscript, and
then cancelled out—a clear marker of the ambiva- Features dozens of plates of art depicting the power of
female rulers.
lence her subjects felt about daring to preserve her
verses. Garrard, Mary D. “Artemisia and Susanna.” In Feminism and
Art History: Questioning the Litany, edited by Norma
Luckily, with Elizabeth’s numerous letters, we Broude and Mary D. Garrard, pp. 146-71. New York:
are on firmer ground, because they are, like the Harper & Row, Publishers, 1982.
speeches, always acknowledged as hers. To read Analyzes the paintings of Artemisia Gentileschi that
her correspondence from the first awkward girlish portray Susanna of the Apocrypha.
production addressed to her father ‘the most il- Glenn, Cheryl. “Inscribed in the Margins: Renaissance
lustrious and most mighty King Henry the Eighth’ Women and Rhetorical Culture.” In Rhetoric Retold: Re-
gendering the Tradition from Antiquity through the Renais-
through to the instructions to Charles Blount,
sance, pp. 118-72. Carbondale: Southern Illinois
Lord Mountjoy, for the submission of the Earl of University Press, 1997.
Tyrone at the very end of her reign, is to survey Explores Renaissance rhetoric and the contributions made
the major events of the Elizabethan age through by Margaret More Roper, Anne Askew, and Elizabeth I.
the perceptions of its major actor. Elizabeth’s let-
Gutwirth, Madelyn. “Gendered Rococo as Political Provoca-
ters are fascinating for their diversity and stylistic tion.” In The Twilight of the Goddesses: Women and
range: pleas for her life during her ‘troubles’ under Representation in the French Revolutionary Era, pp. 3-22.
the reign of her sister Mary, love letters (or so, at New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1992.
least, she wanted them to appear) to the Duke of Examines some of the underlying issues of rococo art.
Hellwarth, Jennifer Wynne. “‘I wyl wright of women prevy Spongberg, Mary. “‘Above Their Sex’? Women’s History

sekenes’: Imagining Female Literacy and Textual Com- ‘before’ Feminism.” In Writing Women’s History since
munities in Medieval and Early Modern Midwifery the Renaissance, pp. 63-85. Hampshire, England: Pal-
Manuals.” Critical Survey 14, no. 1 (January 2002): 44- grave MacMillan, 2002.
63. Documents female historical writers from the Renais-
Considers the cultural implications of the prefaces to sance to the French Revolution.
medieval midwifery manuals.
Sturkenboom, Dorothée. “Historicizing the Gender of Emo-
Hull, Suzanne W. Women According to Men: The World of tions: Changing Perceptions in Dutch Enlightenment
Tudor-Stuart Women. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Thought.” Journal of Social History 34, no. 1 (2000): 55-
Press, 1996, 240 p. 75.
Describes the world of English women from 1525 to 1675 Uses eighteenth century Dutch periodicals to investigate
using the written words of contemporary men. prevailing ideas on the genderedness of emotions.
Kelly, Joan. “Did Women Have a Renaissance?” In Feminism Summit, Jennifer. “The Reformation of the Woman Writer.”
and Renaissance Studies, edited by Lorna Hutson, pp. In Lost Property: The Woman Writer and English Literary
21-47. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1999. History 1380-1589, pp. 109-61. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2000.
Contends that during the Renaissance women experienced
a diminishment of public and personal power. Discusses the political significance of religious women’s
writing.
Miller, Nancy K. “Men’s Reading, Women’s Writing: Gender
Turner, Cheryl. Living by the Pen: Women Writers in the
and the Rise of the Novel.” Yale French Studies, no. 75
Eighteenth Century. London: Routledge, 1994, 261 p.
(1988): 40-55.
Studies the rise of women’s fiction and the beginnings of
Criticizes past attempts at writing a history of women’s
the professional woman writer.
involvement in the development of the eighteenth-century
novel. Walker, Kim. “‘Busie in my Clositt’: Letters, Diaries, and
Autobiographical Writing.” In Women Writers of the
Rose, Judith. “Prophesying Daughters: Testimony, Censor- English Renaissance, pp. 26-46. New York: Twayne
ship, and Literacy Among Early Quaker Women.” Criti- Publishers, 1996.
cal Survey 14, no. 1 (January 2002): 93-110.
Explores how literate Renaissance women pushed the
Contends that attempts to contain literacy among Quaker boundary between private and public writing.
women actually led to greater self-empowerment.
Wall, Wendy. “Dancing in a Net: The Problems of Female
Schor, Naomi. “The Portrait of a Gentleman: Representing Authorship.” In The Imprint of Gender: Authorship and
Men in (French) Women’s Writing.” Representations, Publication in the English Renaissance, pp. 279-340. Ith-
no. 20 (autumn 1987): 113-33. aca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1996.
Analyzes descriptions of men by Mme. de Lafayette, Explores the different reactions of Isabella Whitney, Mary
Mme. de Staël, and George Sand. Sidney, Amelia Lanyer, and Mary Wroth in response to
the inhibiting factors affecting their writing.
Smith, Hilda L. “Humanist Education and the Renaissance
Concept of Woman.” In Women and Literature in Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. My Gracious Silence: Women in the
Britain, 1500-1700, edited by Helen Wilcox, pp. 9-29. Mirror of 16th Century Printing in Western Europe, edited
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, by Axel Erdmann. Luzern, Switzerland: Gilhofer & Ran-
1996. schburg, 1999, 319 p.
Examines the definition of the concept of “woman” dur- Examines women writers’ responses to societal admoni-
ing the Renaissance, particularly for humanist writers. tions that they remain silent.
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN
THE 16TH, 17TH, AND
18TH CENTURIES
W ith the advent of print in Europe in the mid

1400s, literature began to garner a much
larger audience. The most famous early book was
style. Epistolary writing by such authors as Marga-
ret Cavendish and Mary Wortley Montagu el-
evated the style, contributing to the creation of
the Gutenberg Bible of 1456, and twenty years later, the epistolary novel genre and to the development
William Caxton effectively originated print in of fiction itself. These and other letters by women
England when he set up his press at Westminster. are currently studied not only for their social and
The trend toward literacy and the wider distribu- historical commentary, but for their literary merits
tion of texts throughout the sixteenth, seven- as well.
teenth and eighteenth centuries significantly
Nancy Cotton has traced the contributions of
altered not only the intellectual landscape of
women playwrights to the fourteenth century,
Europe, but the role of women writers—as print
noting that the first known woman playwright in
made literature more widely available to the
England, Katherine of Sutton, rewrote traditional
middle class and to middle-class women, the focus
liturgical plays between 1363 and 1376. Cotton
of literature changed significantly. Despite often
credits the Countess of Pembroke, with her An-
being denied the educational opportunities af-
tonie printed in 1592, as the first woman in Eng-
forded to men, far more women were able to
land to publish a play. Angela J. Smallwood
express themselves in writing than before this
examines eighteenth-century British theater, and
period.
notes that the second half of the century was a
Much early writing, including that of female “heyday of genteel comedy for female as well as
authors, was devotional in nature. Many women male writers.” A playwright as well as a novelist,
wrote prayers, translations of religious works Aphra Behn is known as the first woman to earn
originally in Latin, and other texts primarily her living entirely from writing. Her novels,
centered on spirituality. Notable, and often auto- especially Oroonoko (1688) are widely studied to
biographical, religious works by authors such as this day, as are the romantic works of Madeleine
Margery Kempe, were especially popular. The de Scudéry, and both authors were highly influen-
increasing availability of print gradually allowed tial in the further development of literature.
literature to focus on more secular themes, and Women also participated heavily in the poetry of
many women contributed to the body of literature the era. As poetry writing changed from an act
by writing journals, essays, and letters. Initially a practiced by the aristocracy to one available to
private genre, letters evolved from a basic form of women of all classes, working-class women such
communication into a significant public literary as Ann Yearsley and Hannah More joined noble-
women such as Anne Finch, Countess of Win- El libra de las fundaciones de Santa Teresa de Jesús
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES chilsea, as published poets. Women made signifi- [The Book of the Foundations] 1576
cant contributions to a wide variety of literature El castillo interior, o las moradas [The Interior Castle;
and literary periods, from the rise of the periodical or, The Mansions] 1577
in the sixteenth century to the rise of literary criti-
cism. Mary Astell
Modern analyses of women’s literature from A Serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement
1500 to 1800 investigate the effects of social, of Their True and Greatest Interest. By a Lover of
economic, and political conditions under which Her Sex (essay) 1694
women lived, in addition to studying the literary A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part II. Wherin a
merits of their works. For instance, Marion Method is Offer’d for the Improvement of Their
Wynne-Davies demonstrates how women’s very Minds (essay) 1697
lack of status and financial independence served
as an important impetus to publish, since they Aphra Behn
recognized their literary skills as a means to earn Oroonoko; Or, The Royal Slave. A True History (novel)
money. Elaine Hobby contends that women were 1688
more suited than men to write religious medita-
tions, due to the “specifically female advantages The Lady’s Looking-Glass, to dress herself by; or, The
of abandoning the world,” and its “concerns of Whole Art of Charming (novel) 1697
state.” Margaret J. M. Ezell explains that women’s
literature was historically neglected by scholars, Anne Bradstreet
The Tenth Muse (poetry) 1650
except in the area of nineteenth-century novels,
but that literary historians, particularly since the
1970s, have recovered many previously unknown
Margaret Cavendish
CCXI Sociable Letters (correspondence) 1664
texts and manuscripts. Isobel Grundy analyzes the
many elements involved in recovering a particular
Anne Finch
text and explores why a text might have been sup-
Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions (poems)
pressed in the past. The recovery of such texts
1713
enables the study of early female writers, and the
critical study and popular appeal of these authors
Anne Killigrew
continues to grow.
Poems By Mrs. Anne Killigrew (poetry) 1686
Sarah Kemble Knight

The Journals of Madam Knight, and Rev. Mr. Bucking-
REPRESENTATIVE WORKS ham. From the Original Manuscripts Written in
Abigail Adams 1704 & 1710 (journals) 1825
Letters of Mrs. Adams, The Wife of John Adams
(letters) 1840 Charlotte Lennox
The Female Quixote; or, The Adventures of Arabella. 2
Elizabeth Ashbridge vols. (novel) 1752
Some Account of the Fore-Part of the Life of Elizabeth
The Lady’s Museum [editor] (essays, prose, poetry)
Ashbridge (autobiography) 1774
1760-61
Anne Askew
The first examinacyon of the worthy servant of God, Elizabeth Major
Mistresse Anne Askewe . . . lately martyred in Honey on the Rod: Or a comfortable Contemplation
Smith-fielde, by the Romish Antichristian Broode for one in Affliction (devotions) 1656
. . . with the elucydation of Johan Bale (personal
narrative) 1546 Bathusa Makin
The lattre examinacyon of the worthye servaunt of An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentle-
God mastres Anne Askewe (personal narrative) women (essay) 1673
1547
Catherine Parr
St. Teresa de Avila Prayers or Meditations, Wherin the Mynde is Styrred
El libro de su vida [The Life of the Mother Teresa of Paciently to Suffre all Afflictions Here [editor]
Jesus] 1562 (meditations) 1545
The Lamentation of a Sinner, Made by ye Most Vertu- A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES

ous Ladie, Quene Caterine, Bewayling the Igno- Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned by
rance of Her Blind Life (autobiography) 1547 His Reflections on the Revolution in France (essay)
1790
Eliza Lucas Pinckney A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures
Journal and Letters of Eliza Lucas, Now First Printed
on Political and Moral Subjects (essay) 1792
(journal, letters) 1850
Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman: A Posthumous
Mary Rowlandson Fragment (unfinished novel) 1799
The Soveraignty & Goodness of God, Together with the
Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed; Being a Lady Mary Wroth
Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania (novel) 1621
Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Commended by her to all Pamphilia to Amphilanthus by Lady Mary Wroth
that Desire to Know the Lord’s Doings to, and (poetry) 1977
Dealings with Her. Especially to her Dear Children
and Relations. [republished as A True History of
the Captivity & Restoration of Mrs. Mary Row-
landson, A Minister’s Wife in New-England:
Wherein is set forth, The Cruel and Inhumane PRIMARY SOURCES
Usage she underwent amongst the Heathens for
Eleven Weeks time: And her Deliverance from MARY ROWLANDSON (ESSAY
them. Written by her own Hand, for her Private DATE 1682)
Use: and now made public at the earnest Desire of SOURCE: Rowlandson, Mary. “Captivity, Sufferings,
some Friends, for the Benefit of the Afflicted, and Removes (1682).” In Public Women, Public Words:
1682] (autobiography) 1682 A Documentary History of American Feminism, edited by
Dawn Keetley and John Pettegrew, pp. 21-26. Madison,
Wis.: Madison House, 1997.
Mercy Otis Warren
In the following excerpt from her 1682 book, Rowland-
History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the
son relates her time spent as a captive of American
American Revolution: Interspersed with Biographi- Indians.
cal and Moral Observations (history) 1805
On the 10th of February, 1675, the Indians, in
Phillis Wheatley great numbers, came upon Lancaster. Their first
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral coming was about sun-rising; hearing the noise of
(poetry) 1773 some guns, we looked out; several houses were
burning, and the smoke ascending to heaven.
Isabella Whitney There were five persons taken in one house, the
The Copy of a Letter, Lately Written in Meeter, by a father, the mother, and a sucking child they
Youge Gentilwoman: To Her Vnconstant Louer [as knocked on the head; the other two they took
Is. W.] (prose poetry) 1567 and carried away alive.—There were two others,
A Sweet Nosgay, or Pleasant Posye: Contayning a who being out of the garrison upon occasion, were
Hundred and Ten Phylosophicall Flowers [as Is. set upon; one was knocked on the head, the other
W.] (prose poetry) 1573 escaped: another there was, who running along,
was shot and wounded, and fell down; he begged
Hannah Wolley of them his life, promising them money, (as they
The Gentlewomans Companion; or, A Guide to the told me) but they would not hearken to him,
Female Sex, (essay) 1675 knocked him on the head, stripped him naked,
and ripped open his bowels. Another, seeing many
Mary Wollstonecraft of the Indians about his barn, ventured out, but
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflec- was quickly shot down. There were three others
tions on Female Conduct, in the More Important belonging to the same garrison, who were killed;
Duties of Life (essay) 1787 the Indians getting up on the roof of the barn,
had advantage to shoot down upon them over
The Female Reader; or, Miscellaneous-Pieces, in Prose
their fortification. Thus these murderous wretches
and Verse, Selected from the Best Writers, and
went on burning and destroying all before them.
ment of Young Women [editor] (poetry and At length they came and beset our own house,
essays) 1789 and quickly it was the dolefulest day that ever
mine eyes saw. . . . Now is the dreadful hour return; the Indians laid hold on us, pulling me
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES come, that I have often heard of (in the time of one way, and the children another, and said,
the war, as was the case with others) but now Come, go along with us: I told them they would
mine eyes see it. Some in our house were fighting kill me; they answered, If I were willing to go
for their lives, others wallowing in their blood, along with them, they would not hurt me.
the house on fire over our heads, and the bloody Oh! the doleful sight that now was to behold
heathen ready to knock us on the head if we at this house! Come behold the works of the Lord,
stirred out. Now might we hear mothers and what desolations he has made in the earth. Of
children crying out for themselves and one an- thirty seven persons who were in this one house,
other, Lord what shall we do! Then I took my none escaped either present death, or a bitter
children (and one of my sisters her’s) to go forth captivity, save only one, who might say as in Job
and leave the house: but as soon as we came to 1. xv. And I only am escaped alone to tell the
the door, and appeared, the Indians shot so thick, news. There were twelve killed, some shot, some
that the bullets rattled against the house, as if one stabbed with their spears, some knocked down
had taken an handful of stones and threw them, with their hatchets. When we are in prosperity,
so that we were forced to give back. We had six ho, the little that we think of such dreadful sights,
stout dogs belonging to our garrison, but none of to see our dear friends and relations lie bleeding
them would stir, tho at another time, if an Indian out their hearts blood upon the ground.—There
had come to the door, they were ready to fly upon was one who was chopped into the head with a
him and tear him down. The Lord hereby would hatchet and stripped naked, and yet was crawling
make us the more to acknowledge his hand, and up and down. It is a solemn sight to see so many
to see that our help is always in him.—But out we christians lying in their blood, some here and
must go, the fire increasing, and coming along some there, like a company of sheep torn by
behind us, roaring, and the Indians gaping before wolves. All of them stripped naked by a company
us with their guns, spears, and hatchets, to devour of hell hounds, roaring, singing, ranting and
us. No sooner were we out of the house, but my insulting, as if they would have torn our very
brother-in-law (being before wounded, in defend- hearts out; yet the Lord, by his almighty power,
ing the house, in or near the throat) fell down preserved a number of us from death, for there
dead, whereat the Indians scornfully shouted, and were twenty four of us taken alive and carried cap-
hallooed, and were presently upon him, stripping tive.
off his cloaths. The bullets flying thick, one went I had often before this said, that if the Indians
thro my side, and the same (as it would seem), should come, I should choose rather to be killed
thro the bowels and hand of my poor child in my by them, than taken alive: but when it came to
arms. One of my elder sister’s children (named the trial, my mind changed; their glittering
William) had then his leg broken, which the weapons so daunted my spirits, that I chose rather
Indians perceiving, they knocked him on the to go along with those (as I may say) ravenous
head. Thus were we butchered by those merciless bears, than that moment to end my days. And
heathens, standing amazed, with the blood run- that I may the better declare what happened to
ning down to our heels. My elder sister being yet me during that grievous captivity, I shall particu-
in the house, and seeing those woeful sights, the larly speak of the several Removes we had up and
infidels hauling mothers one way, and children down the wilderness.
another, and some wallowing in their blood: and
her eldest son telling her that her son William The First Remove
was dead, and myself wounded, she said, Lord, let Now away we must go with those barbarous
me die with them.—which was no sooner said than creatures, with our bodies wounded and bleeding,
she was struck with a bullet, and fell down dead and our hearts no less than our bodies. About a
over the threshold. I hope she is reaping the fruit mile we went that night, up upon a hill within
of her good labours, being faithful to the service sight of the town, where they intended to lodge.
of God in her place. In her younger years she lay There was hard by a vacant house, (deserted by
under much trouble upon spiritual accounts, till it the English before, for fear of the Indians) I asked
pleased God to make that precious scripture take them whether I might not lodge in the house that
hold of her heart, 2 Cor. xii. 9. And he said unto night to which they answered, What, will you
me, My Grace is sufficient for thee. More than love Englishmen still. This was the dolefulest
twenty years after, I have heard her tell how sweet night that ever my eyes saw. Oh, the roaring, and
and comfortable that place was to her. But to singing, dancing, and yelling of those black
creatures in the night, which made the place a healed me with the other. This day there came to

lively resemblance of hell: and as miserable was me one Robert Pepper, (a man belonging to
the waste that was there made, of horses, cattle, Roxbury) who was taken at Capt. Beers’s fight;
sheep, swine, calves, lambs, roasting pigs, and and had been now a considerable time with the
fowls, (which they had plundered in the town) Indians, and up with them almost as far as Albany,
some roasting, some lying and burning, and some to see King Philip, as he told me, and was now
boiling, to feed our merciless enemies, who were very lately come with them into these parts. Hear-
joyful enough, though we were disconsolate. To ing that I was in this Indian town, he obtained
add to the dolefulness of the former day, and the leave to come and see me. He told me he himself
dismalness of the present night, my thoughts ran was wounded in the leg at Capt. Beers’s fight; and
upon my losses, and sad bereaved condition. All was not able for some time to go, but as they car-
was gone, my husband gone, (at least separated ried him, and that he took oak leaves and laid on
from me, he being in the bay; and to add to my his wound, and by the blessing of God, he was
grief, the Indians told me they would kill him as able to travel again. Then I took oak leaves and
he came homeward) my children gone, my rela- laid on my side, and with the blessing of God, it
tions and friends gone, our house and home, and cured me also; yet before the cure was wrought, I
all our comforts within door and without, all were might say as it is in Psai. xxxviii 5, 6, My wounds
gone, (except my life) and I knew not but the next stink and are corrupt, I am troubled, I am bowed down
moment that might go too. greatly, I go mourning all the day long.—I sat much
There remained nothing to me but one poor alone with my poor wounded child in my lap,
wounded babe, and it seemed at present worse which moaned night and day, having nothing to
than death, that it was in such a pitiful condition, revive the body, or cheer thee spirits of her; but
bespeaking compassion, and I had no refreshing instead of that, one Indian would come and tell
for it, nor suitable things to revive it. Little do me one hour, your master will knock your child
many think, what is the savageness and bruitish- on the head; and then a second, and then a third,
ness of this barbarous enemy . . . your master will quickly knock your child on the
head. . . .
The Third Remove

The morning being come, they prepared to go The Seventh Remove
on their way: one of the Indians got up on a horse, After a restless and hungry night there, we had
and they set me up behind him, with my poor a wearisome time of it the next day. The swamp,
sick babe in my lap. A very wearisome and tedious by which we lay, was as it were a deep dungeon,
day I had of it; what with my own wound, and and a very high and steep hill before it. Before I
my child being so exceedingly sick, and in a got to the top of the hill, I thought that my heart,
lamentable condition with her wound, it may eas- legs, and all would have broken, and failed me.
ily be judged what a poor feeble condition we What through faintness and soreness of body, it
were in, there being not the least crumb of refresh- was a grievous day of travel to me. As we went
ment that came within either of our mouths from along, I saw a place where English cattle had been;
Wednesday night to Saturday night, except only a that was comfort to me, such as it was. Quickly
little cold water. This day in the afternoon, about after that, we came to an English path, which so
an hour by sun, we came to the place where they took with me, that I thought I could there have
intended, viz. an Indian town called Wenimesset, freely lain down and died. That day, a little after
northward of Quabang. When we were come, Oh noon, we came to Squauheag, where the Indians
the number of pagans (our merciless enemies) that quickly spread themselves over the deserted
there came about me! I might say as David, Psal. English fields, gleaning, what they could find:
xxvii 13. I had fainted, unless I had believed, &c. The some picked up ears of wheat, that were crickled
next day was the sabbath: I then remembered how down; some found ears of Indian corn; some
careless I had been of God’s holy time; how many found groundnuts, and others sheaves of wheat,
Sabbaths I had lost and misspent, and how evilly I that were frozen together in the shock, and went
had walked in God’s sight; which lay so closely to threshing them out. I got two ears of Indian
upon my spirit that it was easy for me to see how corn, and whilst I did but turn my back, one of
righteous it was with God to cut off the thread of them was stolen from me, which much troubled
my life, and cast me out of his presence forever. me. There came an Indian to them at that time,
Yet the Lord still shewed mercy to me, and helped with a basket of horse-liver; I asked him to give
me; and as he wounded me with one hand, so he me a piece. What, (says he) can you eat horse-
liver? I told him I would try, if he would give me a asked me, why I wept? I could hardly tell what to
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES piece, which he did; and I laid it on the coals to say; yet I answered, they would kill me. No, said
roast; but before it was half ready, they got half of he, none will hurt you.—Then came one of them,
it away from me; so that I was forced to take the and gave me two spoonfuls of meal, to comfort
rest and eat it as it was, with the blood about my me; and another gave me half a pint of peas,
mouth, and yet a savoury bit it was to me, for to which was more worth than many bushels at
the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.—A another time. Then I went to see King Philip; he
solemn sight I thought it was, to see whole fields bade me come in, and sit down; and asked me
of wheat and Indian corn forsaken and spoiled, whether I would smoke it? (an usual compliment
and the remainders of them to be food for our now-a-days, among saints and sinners): But this
merciless enemies. That night we had a mess of
no way suited me. For though I had formerly used
wheat for our supper.
tobacco, yet I had left it ever since I was first taken.
It seems to be a bait the devil lays, to make men
The Eighth Remove lose their precious time. I remember with shame,
On the morrow morning we must go over how formerly, when I had taken two or three
Connecticut river to meet with king Philip; two pipes, I was presently ready for another; such a
canoes full they had carried over; the next turn I bewitching thing it is: but I thank God, he has
was to go; but as my foot was upon the canoe to now give me power over it; surely there are many
step in, there was a sudden out-cry among them, who may be better employed, than to sit sucking
and I must step back; and instead of going up the a stinking tobacco pipe. . . .
river, I must go four or five miles farther north-
ward. Some of the Indians ran one way, and some During my abode in this place, Philip spake to
another. The cause of this rout was, as I thought, me to make a shirt for his boy, which I did; for
their espying some English scouts, who were which he gave me a shilling; I offered the money
thereabouts. In this travel, about noon the com- to my master, but he bade me keep it, and with it
pany made a stop, and sat down, some to eat and I bought a piece of horse flesh. Afterward he asked
others to rest them. As I sat amongst them, mus- me to make a cap for his boy, for which he invited
ing on things past, my son Joseph unexpectedly me to dinner: I went, and he gave me a pancake,
came to me: we asked of each other’s welfare, about as big as two fingers; it was made of parched
bemoaning our doleful condition, and the change wheat, beaten, and fried in bear’s grease, but I
that had come upon us; we had had husband, and thought I never tasted pleasanter food in my life.
father, children, and sisters, friends, and relations, There was a squaw who spake to me to make a
house and home, and many comforts of this life; shirt for her sannup; for which she gave me a
but now might we say with Job, Naked came I out piece of bear. Another asked me to knit a pair of
of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return: The stockings, for which she gave me a quart of peas. I
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be boiled my peas and bear together, and invited my
the name of the Lord. . . . master and mistress to dinner; but the proud gos-
But to return: We travelled on till night, and sip, because I served them both in one dish, would
in the morning we must go over the river to Phil- eat nothing, except one bit that he gave her upon
ip’s crew. When I was in the canoe, I could not the point of his knife. . . .
but be amazed at the numerous crew of pagans
that were on the bank on the other side. When I
came ashore, they gathered all about me, I sitting The Ninth Remove
alone in the midst; I observed they asked one But instead of going either to Albany or
another questions, and laughed, and rejoiced over homeward, we must go five miles up the river,
their gains and victories. Then my heart began to and then go over it. Here we abode a while. Here
fail, and I fell a weeping; which was the first time, lived a sorry Indian, who spake to me to make
to my remembrance, that I wept before them; him a shirt; when I had done it, he would pay me
although I had met with so much affliction and nothing for it. But he lived by the river side, where
my heart was many times ready to break, yet I often went to fetch water; I would often be put-
could I not shed one tear in their sight, but rather ting him in mind, and calling for my pay; at last
had been all this while in a maze, and like one he told me, if I would make another shirt for a pa-
astonished; but now I may say as Psal. cxxxii. 1. poos not yet born, he would give me a knife,
By the River of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we which he did, when I had done it. I carried the
wept when we remembered Zion. There one of them knife in, and my master asked me to give it to
him, and I was not a little glad that I had any the squaw laid a skin for me and bade me sit

thing that they would accept of, and be pleased down, and gave me some ground-nuts, and bade
with. . . . me come again; and told me they would buy me,
My son being now about a mile from me, I if they were able; and yet these were strangers to
asked liberty to go and see him; they bade me go, me that I never knew before. . . .
and away I went; but quickly lost myself, travel- [Rowlandson, along with her son and daugh-
ling over hills and thro swamps, and could not ter, were finally redeemed from the Indians and
find the way to him. And I cannot but admire at allowed to return home.]
the wonderful power and goodness of God to me
Our family being now gathered together, the
in that tho I was gone from home, and met with
south church in Boston hired an house for us;
all sorts of Indians, and those I had no knowledge
Then we removed from Mr. Shepard’s (those
of, and there being no Christian soul near me, yet
cordial friends) and went to Boston, where we
not one of them offered the least imaginable
continued about three quarters of a year. Still the
miscarriage to me. I turned homeward again, and
Lord went along with us, and provided graciously
met my master, and he shewed me the way to my
for us. I thought it somewhat strange to set up
son. When I came to him I found him not well;
house-keeping with bare walls; but, as Solomon
and withal he had a boil on his side, which much
says, Money answers all things: And that we had,
troubled him: we bemoaned one another a while,
thro the benevolence of christian friends, some in
as the Lord helped us, and then I returned again.
this town, and some in that, and others; and some
When I was returned, I found myself as unsatis-
from England, so that in a little time we might
fied as I was before. I went up and down mourn-
look and see the house furnished with love. The
ing and lamenting, and my spirit was ready to
Lord hath been exceedingly good to us in our low
sink with the thoughts of my poor children. My
estate, in that, when we had neither house nor
son was ill, and I could not but think of his
home, nor other necessaries, the Lord so moved
mournful looks, having no Christian friend near
the hearts of these and those towards us, that we
him, to do any office of love for him, either for
wanted neither food nor raiment for ourselves nor
soul or body. And my poor girl, I knew not where
ours. Prov. xv.ii. 24. There is a friend that sticketh
she was, nor whether she was sick or well, alive or
closer than a brother. And how many such friends
dead. I repaired under these thoughts to my bible,
have we found, and now live among! . . .
(my great comforter in that time) and that scrip-
ture came to my hand, Cast thy burden upon the
Lord, and he shall sustain thee. Psal. lv. 22.
But I was fain to go and look after something
OLYMPE DE GOUGES (ESSAY DATE
to satisfy my hunger; and going among the wig-
1791)
wams, I went into one, and there found a squaw SOURCE: de Gouges, Olympe. “The Rights of Women.”
In Women in Revolutionary Paris 1789-1795: Selected
who shewed herself very kind to me, and gave me Documents, edited and translated by Daline Gay Levy,
a piece of bear, I put it into my pocket, and came Harriet Branson Applewhite, and Mary Durham
home; but could not find an opportunity to broil Johnson, pp. 87-96. Urbana: University of Illinois,
it, for fear they should get it from me; and there it 1979.
lay all that day and night in my stinking pocket. In the following excerpt from her 1791 pamphlet ad-
In the morning I went again to the same squaw, dressed to the Queen, Marie Antoinette, de Gouges offers
a declaration of women’s rights.
who had a kettle of groundnuts boiling: I asked
her to let me boil my piece of bear in the kettle, Man, are you capable of being just? It is a
which she did, and gave me some ground-nuts to woman who poses the question; you will not
eat with it, and I cannot but think how pleasant it deprive her of that right at least. Tell me, what
was to me. I have sometimes seen bear baked gives you sovereign empire to oppress my sex?
handsomely among the English, and some liked Your strength? Your talents? Observe the Creator
it; but the thoughts that it was bear, made me in his wisdom; survey in all her grandeur that
tremble: But now that was savoury to me that one nature with whom you seem to want to be in
would think was enough to turn the stomach of a harmony, and give me, if you dare, an example of
brute creature. this tyrannical empire. Go back to animals,
One bitter cold day, I could find no room to consult the elements, study plants, finally glance
sit down before the fire: I went out, and could not at all the modifications of organic matter, and sur-
tell what to do, but I went into another wigwam, render to the evidence when I offer you the
where they were all sitting around the fire; but means; search, probe, and distinguish, if you can,
the sexes in the administration of nature. Every-
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES where you will find them mingled; everywhere
they cooperate in harmonious togetherness in this
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ immortal masterpiece.
Man alone has raised his exceptional circum-
MADELEINE DE SCUDÉRY (1607-1701)
stances to a principle. Bizarre, blind, bloated with
science and degenerated—in a century of enlight-
Although Madeleine de Scudéry was one of
the best-known and most influential writers enment and wisdom—into the crassest ignorance,
of romance tales in seventeeth-century Eu- he wants to command as a despot a sex which is
rope, many critics suggest that neither her in full possession of its intellectual faculties; he
talent nor the extent of her influence was pretends to enjoy the Revolution and to claim his
recognized until the twentieth century. In rights to equality in order to say nothing more
part, her gender was to blame for her unde- about it.
served poor reputation: in Scudéry’s time,
writing for pay was considered an unworthy Declaration of the Rights of Woman
occupation for either sex, and in the case of and the Female Citizen
women writers, often led to accusations of
Mothers, daughters, sisters [and] representa-
immorality and sexual licentiousness. It was
tives of the nation demand to be constituted into
perhaps for that reason that Scudéry pub-
a national assembly. Believing that ignorance,
lished under the name of her brother,
omission, or scorn for the rights of woman are the
Georges, until his death, even though it was
only causes of public misfortunes and of the cor-
widely known that she was largely responsible
ruption of governments, [the women] have re-
for such romantic novels as Ibrahim; ou,
solved to set forth in a solemn declaration the
L’illustre Bassa (1641; Ibrahim; or, The Illustri-
natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of woman
ous Bassa), Artamène; ou, Le grand Cyrus
in order that this declaration, constantly exposed
(1649-53; Artamenes; or, The Grand Cyrus),
before all the members of the society, will cease-
and Clélie: Histoire romaine (1654-60; Clelia).
lessly remind them of their rights and duties; in
Scudéry received an unusual honor as the order that the authoritative acts of women and
only woman in the seventeenth century to the authoritative acts of men may be at any mo-
be acknowledged by the Academie Français, ment compared with and respectful of the purpose
for her essay Discours sur la gloire (1671; An of all political institutions; and in order that
Essay upon Glory). Scudéry’s work was greatly citizens’ demands, henceforth based on simple
influenced by, and did much to popularize, and incontestable principles, will always support
préciosité, the exquisite politeness and deli- the constitution, good morals, and the happiness
cate manners of the world of the Paris salons of all.
she frequented. Although such authors as Consequently, the sex that is as superior in
Molière and Nicholas Boileau satirized the beauty as it is in courage during the suffering of
exaggerated posturings of these overly zeal- maternity recognized and declares in the presence
ous précieux in their works, they respected and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the
Scudéry, and critics now believe it likely that following Rights of Woman and of Female Citi-
Molière was impressed and influenced by zens.
Scudéry’s feminist ideas. Some critics have
demonstrated that Scudéry’s work was famil- ARTICLE 1
iar to Samuel Richardson, who is considered Woman is born free and lives equal to man in
one of the foremost creators of the English her rights. Social distinctions can be based only
novel. Her revisions of the romance genre, on the common utility.
focusing on the inner life of her characters
and drawing material from contemporary ARTICLE 2
society, are considered among the key early The purpose of any political association is the
contributions to the development of the conservation of the natural and imprescriptible
novel. rights of woman and man; these rights are liberty,
property, security, and especially resistance to op-
pression.
ARTICLE 3 woman, since the liberty assures the recognition

The principle of all sovereignty rests essentially of children by their fathers. Any female citizen
with the nation, which is nothing but the union thus may say freely, I am the mother of a child
of woman and man; no body and no individual which belongs to you, without being forced by a
can exercise any authority which does not come barbarous prejudice to hide the truth; [an excep-
expressly from it [the nation]. tion may be made] to respond to the abuse of this
liberty in cases determined by the law.
ARTICLE 4
Liberty and justice consist of restoring all that
ARTICLE 12
belongs to others; thus, the only limits on the
The guarantee of the rights of woman and the
exercise of the natural rights of woman are per-
female citizen implies a major benefit; this guaran-
petual male tyranny; these limits are to be re-
tee must be instituted for the advantage of all,
formed by the laws of nature and reason.
and not for the particular benefit of those to
ARTICLE 5 whom it is entrusted.
Laws of nature and reason proscribe all acts
harmful to society; everything which is not ARTICLE 13
prohibited by these wise and divine laws cannot For the support of the public force and the
be prevented, and no one can be constrained to expenses of administration, the contributions of
do what they do not command. woman and man are equal; she share all the du-
ties [corvees] and all the painful tasks; therefore,
ARTICLE 6
she must have the same share in the distribution
The laws must be the expression of the general
of positions, employments, offices, honors and
will; all female and male citizens must contribute
jobs [industrie].
either personally or through their representatives
to its formation; it must be the same for all: male
ARTICLE 14
and female citizens, being equal in the eyes of the
law, must be equally admitted to all honors, posi- Female and male citizens have the right to
tions, and public employment according to their verify, either by themselves or through their
capacity and without other distinctions besides representatives, the necessity of the public contri-
those of their virtues and talents. bution. This can only apply to women if they are
granted an equal share, not only of wealth, but
ARTICLE 7 also of public administration, and in the determi-
No woman is an exception: she is accused, ar- nation of the proportion, the base, the collection,
rested, and detained in cases determined by law. and the duration of the tax.
Women, like men, obey this rigorous law.
ARTICLE 15
ARTICLE 8
The collectivity of women, joined for tax
The law must establish only those penalties
purposed to the aggregate of men, has the right to
that are strictly and obviously necessary, and no
one can be punished except by virtue of a law demand an accounting of his administration from
established and promulgated prior to the crime any public agent.
and legally applicable to women.
ARTICLE 16
ARTICLE 9 No society has a constitution without the
Once any woman is declared guilty, complete guarantee of the rights and the separation of pow-
rigor is [to be] exercised by the law. ers; the constitution is null if the majority of
individuals comprising the nation have not
ARTICLE 10
cooperated in drafting it.
No one is to be disquieted for his very basic
opinions; woman has the right to mount the scaf-
ARTICLE 17
fold; she must equally have the right to mount
Property belongs to both sexes whether united
the rostrum, provided that her demonstrations do
or separate; for each it is an inviolable and sacred
not disturb the legally established public order.
right; no one can be deprived of it, since it is the
ARTICLE 11 true patrimony of nature, unless the legally
The free communication of thoughts and determined public need obviously dictates it, and
opinions is one of the most precious rights of then only with a just and prior indemnity.
OVERVIEWS translated the ancients. The earliest extant English
translation of a Greek play was the work of Lady
NANCY COTTON (ESSAY DATE Jane Fitzalan Lumley (c.1537-77), who made a free
1998) and abridged prose version of Euripides’ Iphigeneia
SOURCE: Cotton, Nancy. “Women Playwrights in Eng- in Aulis.4 Lady Lumley probably translated Eurip-
land: Renaissance Noblewomen.” In Readings in Renais- ides shortly after her marriage at the age of 12.
sance Women’s Drama: Criticism, History, and Performance This precocious marvel worked directly from the
1594-1998, edited by S. P. Cerasano and Marion
Greek at a time when secondhand translation
Wynne-Davies, pp. 32-46. London: Routledge, 1998.
from Latin was much more usual. The Latin
In the following essay, Cotton provides a history of tragedies of Seneca of course found many transla-
England’s early women playwrights.
tors. Even Queen Elizabeth, during the early years
The first recorded woman playwright in Eng- of her reign, sometime around 1561, translated
land was Katherine of Sutton, abbess of Barking the chorus of Act II of Hercules Oetaeus.5
nunnery in the fourteenth century. Between 1363 Imitations of Senecan tragedy were popular in
and 1376 the abbess rewrote the Easter dramatic aristocratic and academic circles. An influential
offices because the people attending the paschal figure in this tradition was Mary Sidney Herbert,
services were becoming increasingly cool in their Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621).6 Mary Sidney
devotions (‘deuocione frigessere’). Wishing to excite studied at home with private tutors and attained
devotion at such a crowded, important festival proficiency in French, Italian, probably Latin, and
(‘desiderans . . . fidelium deuocionem ad tam cele- perhaps Hebrew. At the queen’s request, she lived
brem celebracionem magis excitare’), Lady Katherine for a time at court, which served her as a finishing
produced unusually lively adaptations of the school. When she was 16, her parents married her
traditional liturgical plays.1 Particularly interesting to Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, a match
is her elevatio crucis, one of the few surviving economically and politically advantageous, even
liturgical plays that contains a representation of though the earl was nearly thirty years older than
the harrowing of hell. In the visitatio sepulchri that Mary. After her marriage Mary Herbert lived at
follows, the three Marys are acted not by male Wilton House, the earl’s home in Wiltshire, where
clerics, which was customary, but by nuns.2 The she had four children, collected a notable library,
Barking plays are not unique, however, in show- and became famous as a translator, patron of
ing the participation of nuns. In religious houses literature, and editor of the Arcadia. The countess’s
on the continent women sometimes acted in dramatic activity grew out of her close relation-
church dramas, and Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim ship with her brother, Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86).
and Hildegard of Bingen wrote Latin religious In his Defence of Poesie Philip attacked English
plays. Although the destruction of liturgical texts romantic drama, advocating instead the classical
in England at the Reformation makes certainty drama of Seneca. He admired a play ‘full of stately
impossible, it is likely, in view of the uniformity speeches, and wel sounding phrases, clyming to
of medieval European culture and the consider- the height of Seneca his style, and as full of
able authority of women who headed the medi- notable morallitie, which it dooth most delight-
eval nunneries, that other English abbesses con- fully teach’.7
tributed to the slow, anonymous, communal
After Philip’s death Mary translated the Marc-
growth of the medieval religious drama.
Antoine of Robert Garnier (1534-90), the most as-
Katherine of Sutton was a baroness in her own sured French Senecan dramatist, whose eight
right by virtue of her position as abbess of Bark- tragedies were notable for their vigorous but
ing.3 Only women of similar rank wrote drama in polished style. Written in 1590, the countess’s An-
England until the Restoration. Virginia Woolf in tonie transforms rhymed French alexandrines into
her fable of Shakespeare’s sister in A Room of One’s pedestrian blank verse. Rather better are the choral
Own (New York, 1929) was of course right in her lyrics, written in a variety of meters and rhymes.
statement that no middle-class woman, however Here, for example, is the opening of the chorus to
talented, could have written for the Elizabethan Act III:
public theaters. But Renaissance noblewomen,
Alas, with what tormenting fire
although they shared some of the disabilities of Us martireth this blinde desire
middle-class women, nonetheless wrote closet To staie our life from flieng!
dramas, masques, and pastoral entertainments. How ceasleslie our minds doth rack,
How heavie lies upon our back
The English Renaissance fostered rigorous clas- This dastard feare of dieng!
sical training for ladies, who, like male humanists, Death rather healthfull succor gives,
Death rather all mishapps relieves full-length original play. This was Elizabeth Tan-

That life upon us throweth: field Cary, later Viscountess Falkland (1586-1639).
And ever to us doth unclose
The doore, wherby from curelesse woes
More is known about Elizabeth Cary than about
Our wearie soule out goeth.8 most figures of the period because one of her
daughters wrote a detailed biography of her
The Countess of Pembroke had Antonie
mother.1 1 Lady Falkland was the only child and
printed in 1592 and thus became the first woman
heiress of a wealthy Oxford lawyer, Lawrence Tan-
in England to publish a play. Antonie was reprinted
field, later Sir Lawrence and Lord Chief Baron of
in 1595, 1600, 1606, and 1607;9 although un-
the Exchequer. She was startlingly precocious,
acted, it was widely influential. Swayed by ex-
teaching herself French, Spanish, Italian, Latin,
ample, or coerced by friendship or patronage,
Hebrew, and ‘Transylvanian’ (Life, p. 5). She loved
members of the countess’s circle turned out
to read so much that she sat up all night. When
numerous Senecan imitations. Among the earli-
her parents refused her candles, she bribed the
est, oddly enough, was a translation of Garnier’s
maids to smuggle them in; by the age of 12 she
Cornelie made in 1594 by Thomas Kyd, who, as
had run up a debt to them of a hundred pounds
author of The Spanish Tragedy (1587), was the chief
‘with two hundred more for the like bargains and
exponent at the time of the blood-and-thunder
promises’ (Life, p. 7), a considerable sum in those
action drama. Presumably hoping for patronage,
days even for an heiress. As a child she made
Kyd promised a translation of Porcie, but this never
translations from Latin and French and at 12
appeared. Samuel Daniel, long a protégé of the
found internal contradictions in Calvin’s Institutes
countess, wrote Cleopatra (1593) and Philotas
of Religion—upsetting behavior for a child of good
(1604), the best of the plays on the Pembroke
Protestants.
model. Samuel Brandon in 1598 published The
Virtuous Octavia. Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, About the age of 15 or 16 Elizabeth Tanfield
Philip Sidney’s friend and later biographer, wrote was married to a knight’s son named Henry Cary.
Mustapha and Alaham in the late 1590s, and in After the marriage had secured the Tanfield for-
the next decade William Alexander, Earl of tune, Henry followed the custom of the times and
Stirling, published Darius, Croesus, and The Alex- left his bride with her parents while he finished
andraean Tragedy. his military service abroad. During this period,
The countess also published a dramatic dia- sometime between 1602 and 1605, Elizabeth Cary,
logue, which she wrote for the royal entertain- who, according to her daughter, loved plays
ment about 1592, when she was expecting a visit ‘extremely’ (Life, p. 54), wrote two closet dramas.
from the queen. A pastoral containing ten six-line Cary’s first play was set in Sicily and dedicated to
stanzas, Thenot and Piers in Praise of Astraea was her husband; the title is unknown and the play is
published in 1602 in the anthology A Poetical lost. Her second play, dedicated to her sister-in-
Rhapsody, which went through four editions by law, was Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry.
1621. In each of the ten stanzas, Thenot’s praise A Senecan tragedy based on Josephus’s Antiq-
of Astraea (goddess of justice, a poetical name for uities, Mariam is carefully researched and con-
Queen Elizabeth) is criticized by his fellow shep- structed. The play is attentive to historical details
herd Piers. The last stanza, in a graceful turn of but also is sensitive to dramatic effectiveness. As
compliment, discloses why Piers is dissatisfied at the play opens, rumor has just reached Jerusalem
praise of the queen: that Caesar has executed Herod at Rome. The first
half of the play shows the effects of this news.
THENOT.
Queen Mariam is torn between grief for her
Then Piers, of friendship tell me why,
My meaning true, my words should ly, husband and joy. She rejoices at Herod’s death
And strive in vaine to raise her. because he had killed her brother and grandfather
and because he had left orders for her own death
PIERS.
in case he did not return. Pheroras, now happily
Words from conceit do only rise,
freed from his brother’s authority, immediately
Above conceit her honour flies;
But silence, nought can praise her.1 0 makes a love marriage with his maid Graphina.
Herod’s cast-off first wife Doris now hopes to
This is the first original dramatic verse written unseat Mariam’s children as heirs and install her
by a woman to appear in print. own son Antipater on the throne. Only Salome
Before the Countess of Pembroke died, and regrets the loss of Herod, but her sorrow is self-
probably because of her example, an English- interested. She wishes to marry her Arabian lover
woman for the first time wrote and published a Silleus. If Herod were alive, she could accuse her
husband Constabarus of treason for protecting In the Renaissance this was of course villain-
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES the two sons of Baba. Salome also hates Mariam, ess talk, but villainess or not, Salome was ahead of
but sees no way to remove her haughty sister-inher time in her attitude toward equitable divorce
law. While these events are underway, constant laws.
pointers remind us that the characters believe the The active and lustful Salome makes a pro-
rumor of Herod’s death because they wish to. vocative contrast with the passive and chaste
The reversal comes in 3.2 with the news that Mariam, who initiates no action whatever, not
Herod is alive and will arrive immediately. Herod’s even to save her own life. As she is facing death,
delight as he returns in Act 4 is short-lived. Salome she decides that her fault was a sullenness of
now has the upper hand and her machinations temper that prevented her from defending herself.
lead to the catastrophe. She offers to protect She feels guilty because she had placed her full
Pheroras and his bride if he will accuse Cons- reliance on her chastity of body without giving
tabarus of treason. She tricks Herod into believing her husband her chastity of spirit; she had, then,
that Mariam has been unfaithful in his absence. been guilty of a certain infidelity of mind. This
Herod, a man of impulse, orders the executions of seems a harsh self-accusation for a woman whose
Constabarus, Baba’s sons, and his own beloved husband had murdered two of her close relatives,
but her conclusion is nonetheless reinforced by
queen. In Act 5 a nuntius recounts to Herod the
the chorus’s strong statement of the duties of
noble death of Mariam. He also reports that
wives:
Salome’s agent in the plot against Mariam has
confessed and committed suicide. Herod now real- When to their Husbands they themselves doe
izes the magnitude of his loss and becomes frantic bind,
Doe they not wholy give themselves away?
with grief.
Or give they but their body not their mind,
The play is a sophisticated performance for a Reserving that though best, for others pray?
No sure, their thoughts no more can be their
largely self-educated person of 17. Cary is careful
owne,
with details, and the absence of anachronisms is And therefore should to none but one be
unusual in the period. Stylistically and dramatur- knowne.
gically, the play is competently though conven-
tionally Senecan. Action is discussed rather than Then she usurpes upon anothers right,
That seekes to be by publike language grac’t:
dramatized, and the gory details of the execution
And though her thoughts reflect with purest
are properly left to a nuntius. Cary uses literarily light,
varied prosody instead of the dramatically supple Her mind if not peculiar is not chast.
blank verse of her theatrical contemporaries. For in a wife it is no worse to finde,
Mariam is written in rhymed quatrains, with oc- A common body, then a common minde.
casional couplets and sonnets inserted. Cary has, (sig. E4r)
however, infused this dramatically awkward These are hard beliefs for a woman who
mixture of verse forms with emotional intensity wished to be a writer.
at key points.
The vividness of Cary’s treatment of Mariam
Salome, for example, is most convincing when and Salome suggests that she had the range of
she meditates an unorthodox method of remov- emotional experience and the imaginative power
ing Constabarus so that she can marry Silleus: to appreciate both attitudes toward experience.
Cary apparently entered marriage with an impos-
He loves, I love; what then can be the cause,
Keepes me f[rom] being the Arabians wife?
sible idealization of wifely behavior, which she
It is the principles of Moses lawes, expresses through Mariam, and with an even
For Con[s]tabarus still remaines in life, more impossible ideal of an independent, even
If he to me did beare as Earnest hate, rebellious, intellectual life, embodied in Salome.
As I to him, for him there were an ease, These deeply ambivalent attitudes shaped the
A separating bill might free his fate: remainder of her life. An intellectual heiress of
From such a yoke that did so much displease. Catholic leanings joined with a careerist courtier
Why should such priviledge to man be given?
in a Protestant court, Cary lived with her husband
Or given to them, why bard from women then?
twenty years, during which she bore eleven
Are men then we in greater grace with Heaven?
Or cannot women hate as well as men? children and was nearly always either pregnant or
Ile be the custome-breaker: an beginne nursing. Her intellectual and artistic talents found
To shew my Sexe the way to freedomes doore. their only outlet in religion. During her marriage
(sig. B3r) she continued to read theology and discussed
religious doctrines with distinguished prelates. At use of that worn form of saying I printed it against

the same time, she acted out her ideals of wifely my will, moved by the importunity of friends.’1 3
behavior. She taught her children to love their A more likely explanation is that the publica-
father better than their mother. She acceded to tion of Mariam was inspired by the Countess of
her husband’s wishes that she become a fashion- Pembroke. Both Mary Herbert and Elizabeth Cary
able dresser and an accomplished horsewoman, were well acquainted with John Davies of Here-
despite her indifference to clothes and terror of ford, the famous master of calligraphy. Davies was
horses. She mortgaged her jointure to advance her a protégé and intimate of the Pembroke circle; he
husband’s career, whereupon her father disinher- made a beautiful manuscript of Philip Sidney and
ited her in favor of her oldest son, Lucius Cary, Mary Herbert’s translation of the psalms. He was
who also inherited his mother’s literary talent. It also Elizabeth Cary’s writing master. Davies must
is not surprising that she had periods of depres- have spoken to his brilliant young pupil about his
sion severe to the point of mental illness. Mean- distinguished patroness and her activities. Indeed,
while, Henry Cary achieved a seat on the Privy the immediate cause that prompted Cary to
Council, the rank of viscount, and the Lord Chief publish her play may have been a poem by Davies.
Deputyship of Ireland. In 1612 he prefaced his ‘Muse’s Sacrifice, or Divine
In 1626 Lady Falkland rebelled. She converted Meditations’ with a poetical dedicatory letter to
to Catholicism, nearly ruining her husband’s the Countess of Pembroke, the Countess of Bed-
career. He repaid her by abandoning her, taking ford, and Elizabeth Cary. Davies compliments the
custody of her children, and stripping her house Countess of Pembroke for her psalms and then
of the bare necessities of life. Lady Falkland’s praises ‘Cary, of whom Minerva stands in feare’:
poverty and suffering were severe; for long periods Thou mak’st Melpomen proud, and my Heart
she lived in semistarvation. She appealed to the great
court for help (Queen Henrietta Maria was a of such a Pupill, who, in Buskin fine,
French Catholic) and finally in 1627 the Privy With Feete of State, dost make thy Muse to mete
Council ordered Lord Falkland to support his wife, the scenes of Syracuse and Palestine.
. . . . .
although seven months later he still had not
complied with the order. Lady Falkland turned Such nervy Limbes of Art, and Straines of Wit
again to writing, producing a life of Edward II, Times past ne’er knew the weaker Sexe to
poems to the Virgin, and lives of saints. She have;
translated Catholic polemics; her translation of And Times to come, will hardly credit it,
Cardinal Perron’s reply to King James was publicly if thus thou give thy Workes both Birth and
burned. Lady Falkland kept her rebellious spirit to Grave.1 4
the end. In her last years she kidnapped two of Davies then chides all three ladies because
her sons and, defying the Star Chamber, smuggled they ‘presse the Presse with little’ they have writ-
them to the continent to become Catholics. ten. Could the woman who wrote Salome’s speech
resist the appeal for publication on behalf of her
Given the outward docility of Elizabeth Cary’s
sex’s honor? Mariam was entered for publication
married life until 1626, it is strange that Mariam
in December of the same year as the appearance
was ever published. None of her other creative
of Davies’s poem. However Mariam came to be
works were printed, and Mariam was not entered
printed, and so preserved, it was never intended
for publication until 1612, ten years after it was
for acting. Neither the Countess of Pembroke nor
written, and did not actually appear until 1613.
Viscountess Falkland wrote their plays for the
Her daughter claims, ‘She writ many things for
stage; Antonie and Mariam were written as closet
her private recreation . . . one of them was after
drama. To write for the public stage was déclassé.
stolen out of that sister-in-law’s (her friend’s)
It was a queen who broke down this barrier of
chamber, and printed, but by her own procure-
caste and helped break down also the barriers
ment was called in’ (Life, p. 9). This explanation is
against actresses.
suspect for a number of reasons, not the least of
which is that the Stationers’ Register shows that Queen Henrietta Maria (1609-69) arrived in
there was nothing surreptitious about the publica- England at the age of 16 as the bride of Charles
tion of the play.1 2 Moreover, Lady Falkland’s I.1 5 In 1626, during her first year in her new
daughter makes the standard excuse of the period country, the young queen acted at court in a
for an aristocrat who stoops to publication. Cary pastoral play and masque that she herself wrote
herself scorns such excuses in the introduction to and directed. The play, which has been lost, was
her translation of Cardinal Perron: ‘I will not make written in French and performed by the French
ladies who attended the queen. Letters of English- stage, within a few days of the queen’s perfor-
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES men commenting on the occasion show the mance. Prynne inopportunely denounced
dismay produced even in an audience carefully ‘Women-Actors, notorious whores’: ‘And dare
handpicked: then any Christian woman be so more then who-
On Shrovetuisday the Quene and her women had
rishly impudent, as to act, to speak publicly on a
a maske or pastorall play at Somerset House, Stage (perchance in man’s apparel, and cut hair,
wherin herself acted a part, and some of the rest here proved sinful and abominable) in the pres-
were disguised like men with beards. I have ence of sundry men and women?’1 7 Prynne was
knowne the time when this wold have seemed a condemned to have his ears cut off, the queen
straunge sight, to see a Quene act in a play but
tempora mutantur et nos.
continued to act, amateur theatricals became com-
mon in polite circles, and by 1660 the profession
‘I heare not much honor of the Quene’s of acting on the public stage was open to women.
maske, for, if they were not all, soome were in The admission of actresses to the stage was impor-
men’s apparell.’ Ambassadors from continental tant for women playwrights because as actresses
courts were more sophisticated. The Venetian women for the first time obtained practical theat-
ambassador admired the ‘rich scenery and dresses’ rical apprenticeship. By the eighteenth century
and the ‘remarkable acting’ of the queen. ‘The there would be a number of actress-playwrights.
king and court enjoyed it, those present being Henrietta Maria helped transform aristocratic
picked and selected, but it did not give complete attitudes not only toward actresses but also toward
satisfaction, because the English objected to the the commercial stage. She was the first English
first part being declaimed by the queen.’ The queen to attend plays at public theaters. Her
ambassador from Florence was equally compli- considerable power over her husband caused
mentary: Charles I to do what no English king had done
She acted in a beautiful pastoral of her own before—he looked over scripts and even suggested
composition, assisted by twelve of her ladies plots for several plays written by others. The
whom she had trained since Christmas. The queen introduced from France the cults of préci-
pastoral succeeded admirably; not only in the
osité and Platonic love and persuaded courtiers
decorations and changes of scenery, but also in
the acting and recitation of the ladies—Her Maj- like Cartwright and Carlell to write plays illustrat-
esty surpassing all the others. The performance ing her pet theories; thus the gentleman play-
was conducted as privately as possible, inasmuch wright came into existence. By the Restoration
as it is an unusual thing in this country to see the persons of the highest social rank in England were
Queen upon a stage; the audience consequently
writing for the public stage.
was limited to a few of the nobility, expressly
invited, no others being admitted.1 6 This upper-class interest in playwrighting is
seen in Lady Jane Cavendish (1621-69) and her
The English disapproval of the queen’s per-
sister Lady Elizabeth Brackley (c. 1623-63).1 8 The
forming a role on stage must have come as a
Cavendish sisters, daughters of William Cavend-
surprise to Henrietta Maria. She had been reared
ish, Duke of Newcastle, were, by both upbringing
in a court where nobility and even royalty acted
and marriage, part of the world of aristocratic
in masques and plays. Her brother Louis XIII as a
theatricals. Before the war their father was a
child led his brothers and sisters in amateur
patron of the playwrights Brome, Shirley, and Jon-
theatricals.
son. In 1633 and 1634 Jonson wrote entertain-
Although she has been suggested as the author ments for the king’s visits to the Newcastle estates;
of the anonymous lost pastoral Florimene, pre- perhaps Jane and Elizabeth were present. About
sented by the queen’s ladies at court in December 1640 The Country Captain, publicly attributed to
1635, Henrietta Maria apparently wrote no more Newcastle but largely written by James Shirley,
plays, but her incorrigible love of acting liberal- was performed at the Blackfriars Theatre. Lord
ized aristocratic attitudes towards actresses. After Brackley, Elizabeth’s future husband, in 1634 ap-
the disapproval of her 1626 court performance, peared with the king in Thomas Carew’s masque
she continued to have amateur theatricals in her Coelum Britannicum. The same year Brackley acted
private apartments and to dance in court masques. in Milton’s Comus at Ludlow Castle; his sister and
In 1633 she took the chief part in another play, brother were also principal performers, their
The Shepherd’s Paradise, written by the courtier parents the chief spectators. With this background,
Walter Montague for her and her ladies. Again it is not surprising that the Cavendish sisters
there was a furor. Puritan William Prynne had the should themselves write plays. Sometime between
bad luck to publish Histriomastix, his attack on the 1644 and 1646, the young women, both in their
early twenties, collaborated on two plays. A Pasto- three children and continued to write, producing

ral remains in manuscript, but The Concealed Fan- several volumes of verse. Nothing further is
syes was published in 1931. The authors here had known of Lady Brackley.
promising raw material but were unable to con- The Cavendish sisters’ young stepmother,
struct a coherent plot. The story line, clumsily Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-
handled, shows a sound and simple comedic pat- 73), was the first woman in England to publish
tern: two sisters, Lucenay and Tattiney, are wooed collections of plays and England’s first feminist
by Courtly and Presumption. The men plan to playwright.1 9 Her career as a prolific writer is
tame their wives after marriage, but the women surprising in view of her secluded upbringing and
turn the tables and tame their husbands. The poor education. She was born Margaret Lucas,
dialogue reflects the concerns of the authors as youngest of the eight children of a wealthy
heiresses. Lucenay and Tattiney repeatedly and country gentleman who died before she was 2,
bluntly discuss marriage as the buying and selling leaving the family affairs in the strong hands of
of heiresses for dowries and estates. Lucenay his wife. The family was exceptionally close-knit
dreads marriage: ‘My distruction is that when I and exclusive, drawing the sons- and daughters-
marry Courtly I shall bee condemn’d to looke in-law into the family orbit. Margaret, as the
upon my Nose, whenever I walke and when I sitt youngest, grew up painfully shy of strangers. As a
at meate confin’d by his grave winke to looke child she was indulged in her habit of wearing
upon the Salt, and if it bee but the paireing of his clothes of her own flamboyant design, one of the
Nales to admire him’ (p. 815). After her marriage trademarks of the ‘eccentricity’ for which she was
she describes how she escaped this servility. By later notorious among her contemporaries. Her
refusing to keep her place, she throws her husband education was undisciplined. After the death of
into a Queen Elizabeth, a reaction had set in against
conflict, betwixt Anger and mallencholly not kno- rigorous studies for gentlewomen. Margaret de-
weinge whether my behaivour proceeded from scribes an education almost negative:
neglect or ignorance, then hee declared himselfe
As for tutors, although we had for all sorts of
by allygory and praysed a Lady, obedyent ffoole in
virtues, as singing, dancing, playing on music,
towne, and swore hir Husband was the happyest
reading, writing, working, and the like, yet we
man in the world. I replyed shee was a Very good
were not kept strictly thereto, they were rather for
Lady, and I accounted him happy that was hir
formality than benefit; for my mother cared not
Husband, that hee could content hinmselfe with
so much for our dancing and fiddling, singing and
such a Meachanick wife. I wishe sayd hee shee
prating of several languages, as that we should be
might bee your Example, and you have noe reason
bred virtuously, modestly, civilly, honorably, and
to sleight hir, for shee is of a noble family. I knowe
on honest principles.2 0
that sayd I, and doe the more admire why shee
will contract hir family, Noblenes and Birth, to Her lack of education marred all her writing;
the servitude of hir husband, as if hee had bought
she never absorbed some elementary principles of
hir his slave, and I’m sure hir Father bought him
for hir, for hee gave a good Portion, and now in grammar, and the idea of revision was unknown
sense who should obey? to her. Later in life, Margaret felt keenly her lack
(pp. 834-5) of learning and spoke strongly for education for
women.
The conversational patterns are convincing;
At the age of 20, the bashful Margaret Lucas
the use of indirect conversation suggests a writing
astonished her family (and her biographers) by at-
skill born of epistolary, rather than dramatic,
tending the distressed Queen Henrietta Maria as a
cultivation.
maid of honor and then following the queen into
After collaborating with her sister in The exile in France. The explanation of her puzzling
Concealed Fansyes, Lady Jane Cavendish was behavior is that Margaret was a female cavalier,
present during the military action when the whose romantic gesture for a lost cause was in the
Parliamentarians captured and recaptured her spirit of the age. In France she met and married
home, Welbeck Abbey. She saved the art treasures the exiled Marquis, later Duke, of Newcastle, thirty
of Bolsover Castle, another of the Newcastle years her senior, whom she adored with fervent
estates. She raised money for her exiled father by hero worship. Her marriage was an ideal one for a
selling her jewels and plate and sent him a thou- seventeenth-century woman writer. William Cav-
sand pounds of her private fortune. She refused to endish was himself an amateur poet and play-
marry until the age of 33 because she refused wright, and a generous patron of writers, philoso-
anyone but a royalist, and at the time most royal- phers, and artists. He encouraged and assisted his
ists were in exile. After her marriage, she bore young, beautiful, childless wife in her writing, her
‘chiefest delight and greatest pastime’ (Plays Never battle. Victoria points out to her troops that
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES Before Printed, 1668). She describes their relation- masculine contempt for female ability ultimately
ship in a letter to the duke in her Philosophical and rests on the physical weakness of women, but
Physical Opinions (1663): urges that right education could make women
Though I am as Industrious and Carefull to serve
good soldiers, ‘for Time and Custome is the Father
Your Lordship in such imployments, which belong and Mother of Strength and Knowledge’ (Plays, p.
to a Wife, as Household affairs, as ever I can . . . 588). She urges:
yet I cannot for my Life be so good a Huswife, as
Now or never is the time to prove the courage of
to quit Writing. . . . you are pleased to Peruse my
our Sex, to get liberty and freedome from the
Works, and Approve of them so well, as to give
Female Slavery, and to make our selves equal with
me Leave to Publish them, which is a Favour, few
men: for shall Men only sit in Honours chair, and
Husbands would grant their Wives; But Your Lord-
the Women stand as waiters by? shall only Men
ship is an Extraordinary Husband, which is the
in Triumphant Chariots ride, and Women run as
Happiness of Your Lordships Honest Wife and
Captives by? shall only men be Conquerors, and
Humble Servent Margaret Newcastle.
women Slaves? shall only men live by Fame, and
women dy in Oblivion?
After her marriage, she began, out of ambi-
(Plays, p. 609)
tion, to write with a view to publication: ‘I am
very ambitious, yet ’tis neither for beauty, wit, Encouraged by Victoria, the woman army
titles, wealth, or power, but as they are steps to achieves heroic exploits, rescuing the men from
raise me to Fame’s tower, which is to live by military disaster. They are rewarded after the war
remembrance in afterages.’2 1 This desire for fame with special privileges. Lady Victoria herself is
is the key to her personality.2 2 She saw literature given a public triumph, a suit of gold armor, and
as the only avenue to renown for a woman: a sword with a diamond hilt; her statue is set up
I confess my Ambition is restless, and not ordi- in the center of the city.
nary; because it would have an extraordinary In Youth’s Glory and Death’s Banquet Sir Tho-
fame: And since all heroick Actions, publick Im-
mas Father Love, over the objections of Lady
ployments, powerfull Governments, and eloquent
Pleadings are denyed our Sex in this age, or at least Mother Love, is rearing their daughter, Lady Sans-
would be condemned for want of custome, is the pareille, with an education masculine and intel-
cause I write so much. lectual:
(An Epistle to my Readers, Natures Pictures, 1656) MOTHER LOVE. What? would you have women bred
up to swear, swagger, gaming, drinking,
The first Englishwoman to publish extensively, whoring, as most men are?
the duchess produced a dozen books, including FATHER LOVE. No, Wife, I would have them bred in
poetry, fiction, scientific and philosophical specu- learned Schools, to noble Arts and Sci-
ences, as wise men are.
lations, letters, and declamations. She was the first MOTHER LOVE. What Arts? to ride Horses, and fight
woman in England to publish her autobiography, Dewels.
the first to publish a biography of her husband, FATHER LOVE. Yes, if it be to defend their Honour,
the first to write about science. Countrey, Religion; For noble Arts makes
not base Vices, nor is the cause of lewd
In 1662 the duchess published Plays, a collec- actions, nor is unseemly for any Sex.
tion of closet dramas written while she was (Plays, p. 124)
abroad. The volume includes fourteen plays, Lady Sanspareille is melancholy because of her
several in two parts. In 1668 she brought out a desire for fame, which she describes in words like
smaller collection, Plays Never Before Printed, which those that Margaret used about herself:
includes five plays and various dramatic frag-
Know it is fame I covet, for which were the ambi-
ments. In these volumes are some of the most tions of Alexander and Caesar joyned into one
ardently feminist plays ever written. In Part II of mind, mine doth exceed them . . . my mind be-
Loves Adventures, for example, Lady Orphan, ing restless to get to the highest place in Fames
disguised as the page Affectionata, wins great fame high Tower; and I had rather fall in the adventure,
than never try to climb.
as a soldier; the Venetian States make her
Lieutenant-General of the army and a member of She despairs that she may not have ‘a suf-
the Council of War. The Pope invites Affectionata ficient stock of merit, or if I had, yet no waies to
to Rome and offers to make her a cardinal. advance it’ (Plays, p. 130). She resolves, with her
Another military woman, Lady Victoria, ap- father’s consent, never to marry, but to devote
pears in Bell in Campo. Refusing to be left at home herself to poetry:
when her husband goes to war, Lady Victoria for that time which will be lost in a married condi-
raises a female army and accompanies the men to tion, I will study and work with my own thoughts,
and what new inventions they can find out, or All my Playes Plots, my own poor brain did

what probabilityes they conceive, or phancies they make
create, I will publish to the world in print . . . but From Plutarchs story I ne’r took a Plot,
if I marry, although I should have time for my Nor from Romances, nor from Don Quixot,
thoughts and contemplations, yet perchance my As others have, for to assist their Wit,
Husband will not approve of my works, were they But I upon my own Foundation writ.
never so worthy, and by no perswasion, or reason
There is another reason for the peculiar struc-
allow of there publishing; as if it were unlawfull,
or against nature, for Women to have wit. . . . ture of her plays. In the 1662 collection she says
some men are so inconsiderately wise, gravely that she wrote her plays from her husband’s
foolish and lowly base, as they had rather be example, and, indeed, the duchess’s plays follow
thought Cuckolds, than their wives should be the pattern of the duke’s unaided efforts. An
thought wits, for fear the world should think their
example of his unretouched work survives, A
wife the wiser of the two.
(Plays, p. 131) Pleasante & Merrye Humor of A Roge,2 4 an unstruc-
tured dramatic sketch. Professional playwrights
In Part II Lady Sanspareille fulfills her ambi- like Dryden, Shirley, and Shadwell turned the
tions, addressing assemblies of amazed savants on duke’s sketches into professional plays which were
learned and literary topics. After her untimely then performed in the London theaters. The duch-
death, her memory is preserved by statues set up ess, looking up to her husband, assumed that this
in all the colleges and public places in the city.2 3 was the way plays were written: ‘I have heard that
While interesting for their early feminist such Poets that write Playes, seldome or never join
heroines, the Duchess of Newcastle’s plays are the or sow the several Scenes together; they are two
poorest of her works. Her plays, like those of her several Professions.’ She explains that, as her plays
stepdaughters, are structurally incoherent. She were written while she was in exile, she was
produces original and arresting raw materials for ‘forced to do all my self . . . without any help or
plots that are never constructed; actions are direction’ (To the Readers, Plays).
discussed rather than dramatized. Her usual Structurally incoherent as they are, the plays
method of organization is to take three unrelated of the Duchess of Newcastle are historically
story lines and alternate scenes among them significant as early feminist statements. They
mechanically. Often the individual scenes have made a statement to her contemporaries partly by
no beginning, middle, or end; one scene simply their physical appearance. The two volumes of
stops abruptly and an unrelated scene follows. The plays, like all the duchess’s works, were large,
most common type of scene is a dialogue or tria- handsome books with sumptuous engravings of
logue in which one character orates, harangues, the author’s portrait. Her title pages carried the
or lectures to the other(s). Occasionally there is a resounding ascription ‘Written by the Thrice
real conversation, but generally there is no interac- Noble, Illustrious, and Excellent Princess, the
tion among characters. The characters are personi- Duchess of Newcastle.’ With princely arrogance,
fied abstractions, such as The Lord Fatherly, The she sent copies to friends, protégés, and even to
Lord Singularity, The Lady Ignorant; and develop- the libraries of the universities. And no matter
ment of such characters rarely occurs. how much she was ridiculed, she was too rich and
The duchess was aware of these obvious flaws: powerful to be ignored. Her books, although often
‘Some of my Scenes have no acquaintance or rela- empty of artistic worth, existed, and the me-
tion to the rest of the Scenes; although in one and dium—handsome folios written by a woman—
the same Play, which is the reason so many of my was the message.
Playes will not end as other Playes do’ (To the Contrary to general contemporary belief,
Reader, Plays). She offered this poem as ‘A General none of her plays was performed. Pepys, on 30
Prologue to all my Playes’: March 1667, recorded, ‘Did by coach go to see the
silly play of my Lady Newcastle’s called “The Hu-
But Noble Readers, do not think my Playes,
Are such as have been writ in former daies;
mourous Lovers”.’ A month later Pepys was still
As Johnson, Shakespear, Beaumont, Fletcher writ; unaware that the play was a professional version
Mine want their Learning, Reading, Language, of one of the duke’s sketches. In April he wrote
wit: that the duchess ‘was the other day at her own
The Latin phrases I could never tell, play, The Humourous Lovers.’2 5 The same play was
But Johnson could, which made him write so
attributed to the duchess by others. In May 1667,
well,
Greek, Latin Poets, I could never read, Gervase Jaquis wrote to the Earl of Huntington,
Nor their Historians, but our English Speed; ‘Upon monday last the Duchess of Newcastls play
I could not steal their Wit, nor Plots out take; was Acted in the theater in Lincolns Inne field the
King and the Grandees of the Court being present 6. Biographical information is taken from Frances
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES and soe was her grace and the Duke her hus- Berkeley Young, Mary Sidney Countess of Pembroke
(London: David Nutt, 1912) and Mona Wilson, Sir
band.’2 6 Philip Sidney (London: Duckworth, 1931). Antonie has
been edited by Alice Luce (Weimer: E. Felber, 1897)
and by Geoffrey Bullough in Narrative and Dramatic
Notes
Sources of Shakespeare, 8 vols. (New York: Columbia
1. Katherine of Sutton’s plays are preserved in the Bark-
University Press, 1957-75), 5: 358-406. The translation
ing ordinarium. Sibille Felton, abbess of Barking from
of the psalms by the Countess of Pembroke and Sir
1394 to 1419, caused this to be written and presented
Philip Sidney has been edited by J. C. A. Rathmell
it to the convent in 1404. Karl Young was the first to
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963). This volume is
publish the Barking plays, in ‘The Harrowing of Hell
supplemented by G. F. Waller, ‘The Triumph of Death’
in Liturgical Drama,’ Transactions of the Wisconsin
and Other Unpublished Poems by Mary Sidney, Countess
Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters 16 (1910): 888-
of Pembroke (Salzburg: Institut für Englische Sprache
947. Young later included the plays in his Drama of
und Literatur, 1977). The Pembroke circle of Senecan
the Medieval Church, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
writers is discussed by John W. Cunliffe, The Influence
1933), 1: 164-6, 381-4. Meanwhile, the entire ordinale
of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy (London: Macmillan,
had been edited by J. B. L. Tolhurst and printed in two
1893); Joan Rees, Samuel Daniel (Liverpool: Liverpool
volumes of the Henry Bradshaw Society Publications
University Press, 1964); Cecil Seronsy, Samuel Daniel
in 1927-8. The Latin quotations are from Young,
(New York: Twayne, 1967). T. S. Eliot discusses the
Drama, 1: 165.
influence of the Pembroke circle in ‘Apology for the
2. Although English women did not act on the public Countess of Pembroke,’ The Use of Poetry and the Use of
stage until almost exactly three hundred years later, Criticism (London: Faber and Faber, 1933). Mary Her-
they participated more widely in English medieval bert is memorialized beautifully but stereotypically in
drama than is generally realized. Women belonged to ‘On the Countesse Dowager of Pembroke,’ long
religious gilds responsible for plays—for example, the ascribed to Ben Jonson but written by William Browne
York Pater Noster Gild and the Norwich St Luke’s of Tavistock, in Ben Jonson, ed. C. H. Herford and Percy
Gild—and participated to some extent in the trade and Evelyn Simpson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925-
gilds. See Karl Young, ‘The Records of the York Play of 52), 8: 433.
the Pater Noster,’ Speculum 7 (1932): 544; Lucy Toul-
min Smith (ed.) York Plays (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 7. The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney, ed. Albert Feuill-
1885), pp. xxviii-xxxix; Harold C. Gardiner, Mysteries’ erat (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1912-
End, Yale Studies in English, 103 (New Haven, CT: Yale 26), 3: 38.
University Press, 1946), p. 42; Eileen Power, Medieval
8. The Countess of Pembroke’s ‘Antonie’, ed. Luce, p. 97.
Women (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1975), pp. 55-69. At Chester the ‘wurshipffull wyffys’ 9. A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave, A Short-Title
of the town bound themselves to bring forth the Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and
pageant of the Assumption of the Virgin. This pageant Ireland 1475-1640 (London: The Bibliographical
was a regular part of the Chester cycle until it was Society, 1926), pp. 255, 412.
excised at the Reformation. The wives acted their play
separately in 1488 before Lord Strange and again in 10. A Poetical Rhapsody, ed. Hyder Rollins (Cambridge,
1515. See W. W. Greg (ed.) The Trial and Flagellation MA: Harvard University Press, 1931), 1: 17.
with Other Studies in the Chester Cycle, Malone Society
11. This was edited and published in 1861 by Richard
Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1935), pp.
Simpson as The Lady Falkland: Her Life (London:
137, 170-1; F. M. Salter, Mediaeval Drama in Chester
Catholic Publishing Company). In-text citations refer
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1955), pp. 50,
to this volume. Two biographies based on the Life are
70-1. Women also participated in church ludi. There
Lady Georgiana Fullerton, The Life of Elisabeth Lady
are records of an Abbess of Fools or Girl Abbess elected
Falkland (London: Burns and Oates, 1883) and Ken-
from the novices on Holy Innocents’ Day at the nun-
neth B. Murdock, The Sun at Noon (New York: Mac-
neries of Godstow and Barking in the thirteenth
millan, 1939), pp. 6-38. Both are concerned with Cary
century. See Eileen Power, Medieval English Nunneries c.
as a Catholic convert; neither is aware of her unique
1275-1535 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
position in the history of English drama. Mariam was
1922), p. 312.
edited for the Malone Society Reprints by A. C. Dun-
3. Barking was an abbey holding of the king in chief; as stan and W. W. Greg (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
tenant in chief, Katherine of Sutton was a baroness in 1914). In-text citations refer to this edition; I have
her own right. She was almost certainly a noble- modernized the u/v and i/j conventions and discarded
woman by birth also. In the later Middle Ages Barking nonfunctional italics. Mariam is discussed at length by
accepted novitiates only from the aristocracy and the A. C. Dunstan in Examination of Two English Dramas
wealthiest bourgeois class; moreover, the nun of high- (Königsberg: Hartungsche Buchdruckerei, 1908). Dun-
est social rank usually became abbess. See Power, Medi- stan also discusses Cary’s use of source material in the
eval English Nunneries, pp. 4-13, 42. introduction to the Malone Society edition of the play.
Mariam is briefly discussed by Alexander Witherspoon,
4. Information about Lady Lumley is taken from the
The Influence of Robert Garnier on Elizabethan Drama
introduction to Iphigeneia at Aulis, edited by Harold H.
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1924), pp.
Child for the Malone Society Reprints (London:
150-5, and Maurice J. Valency, The Tragedies of Herod
Chiswick Press, 1909). Myra Reynolds, The Learned
and Mariamne (New York: Columbia University Press,
Lady in England 1650-1760 (Boston, MA: Houghton
1940), pp. 87-91. Valency points out that Cary’s
Mifflin, 1920), pp. 13-14, also discusses Lady Lumley.
Mariam is the first of many English plays written about
5. In The Poems of Elizabeth I, ed. Leicester Bradner Herod and Mariamne. Donald A. Stauffer, ‘A Deep and
(Providence, RI: Brown University Press, 1964). Sad Passion,’ The Parrott Presentation Volume, ed. Har-
din Craig (1935; reprinted, New York: Russell and Rus- 24. Francis Needham (ed.) Welbeck Miscellany, 1 (1933)

sell, 1967), pp. 289-314, shows that Elizabeth Cary from a fair copy in the duke’s handwriting.
wrote The History of Edward II, formerly ascribed to
Henry Cary. 25. Pepys on the Restoration Stage, ed. Helen McAfee (New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1916), pp. 171-2.
12. Introduction to the Malone Society edition, p. ix.
26. The London Stage, 1600-1700, ed. William Van Lennep
13. Quoted by Fullerton, Life of Lady Falkland, p. 120. (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press,
1965), p. 108. Harbage, Cavalier Drama, pp. 232-3, sug-
14. The Complete Works of John Davies of Hereford, ed. Alex- gests that the duchess wrote at least the first draft of
ander Grosart (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, Lady Alimony, performed at the Cockpit in 1659. While
1878), 2: 4-5. the play is structurally odd and schematic enough to
15. Biographical information is taken from Carola Oman, be hers, its anonymity is conclusive proof against her
Henrietta Maria (London: Hodder and Stoughton, authorship.
1936). Henrietta Maria’s pervasive influence on
theatrical history is discussed in detail by Alfred Har-
bage, Cavalier Drama (1936; reprinted, New York: Rus-
sell and Russell, 1964), which suggests the queen as
MARION WYNNE-DAVIES (ESSAY
the author of Florimene; and by Kathleen M. Lynch, DATE 1998)
The Social Mode of Restoration Comedy (New York: Mac-
millan, 1926).
16. Quotations are from Gerald Eades Bentley, The Jaco-
bean and Caroline Stage (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1941-68), 4: 548-9.
17. Quoted by Harbage, Cavalier Drama, pp. 14-15.
18. Except for my inferences about the effect of Newcas-
tle’s dramatic activities on his daughters, biographical
information on the Cavendish sisters is taken from
the DNB and from Nathan Comfort Starr’s introduc-
tion to his edition of The Concealed Fansyes in Proceed-
ings of the Modern Languages Association 46 (1931): 802-
38. Page references in the text refer to Starr’s edition.
Harbage, Cavalier Drama, pp. 228-9, describes the plays
of the Cavendish sisters.
19. I have drawn on a number of sources for biographical
information. Standard and useful are Douglas Grant,
Margaret the First (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1957) and Henry Ten Eyck Perry, The First Duchess of
Newcastle and Her Husband as Figures in Literary History
(Boston, MA: Ginn, 1918). Of the numerous biographi-
cal essays, the finest is Virginia Woolf’s in The Com-
mon Reader (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1925), pp. 101-
12. The best source of biographical material is the
duchess herself, particularly in the introductions,
dedications, and letters in her various works. Her
autobiography, ‘A True Relation of my Birth, Breeding,
and Life,’ originally the last section of Natures Pictures
(1656), is included by C. H. Firth in his edition of the
duchess’s Life of William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle
(London: John C. Nimmo, 1886). These two works of
the duchess are available in several editions. Firth also
prints the duchess’s letter ‘To the Two Most Famous
Universities of England,’ a moving appeal for educa-
tion for women.
20. ‘A True Relation,’ ed. Firth, pp. 157-8.
21. Ibid., p. 177.
22. My interpretation draws upon Jean Gagen, ‘Honor
and Fame in the Works of the Duchess of Newcastle,’
Studies in Philology 56 (1959): 519-38.
23. Jean Gagen focuses on this type of character, which
she calls ‘the oratorical lady,’ in her excellent discus-
sion of the duchess’s plays in ‘A Champion of the
Learned Lady,’ ch. 2 in The New Women: Her Emergence
in English Drama 1600-1730 (New York: Twayne,
1954). Gagen’s discussion led me to examine the
pervasive feminism in the duchess’s plays.
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
ANNE BRADSTREET (1612?-1672)
Bradstreet was America’s first published poet
and the first woman to produce a lasting
volume of poetry in the English language.
Her work is considered particularly significant
for its expression of passion, anger, and
uncertainty within the rigid social and reli-
gious atmosphere of Puritan New England,
and for the insight it provides into the lives
of women from that period. Bradstreet was
born in England to a Puritan family. Her
father, Thomas Dudley, was steward to the
Earl of Lincoln, a leading nonconformist in
the religious strife of England. Because of her
father’s high position and the availability of
the Earl’s extensive library, Bradstreet’s educa-
tion was unusually comprehensive for a
woman of her time. In 1630 she moved with
her husband and her parents to the Mas-
sachusetts Bay Colony.
In 1647 her brother-in-law returned to
England, taking with him the manuscript of
Bradstreet’s poems. He published them
without her knowledge, under the title The
Tenth Muse, Lately sprung up in America
(1650). The volume met with immediate suc-
cess in London. Surprised by the work’s
reception, though unhappy with its unpol-
ished state, Bradstreet revised the poems,
some of which were lost in a fire that de-
stroyed the Bradstreet home in 1666. In
1678, six years after Bradstreet’s death, the
revisions and some new poems were pub-
lished under the title Several Poems Compiled
with great variety of Wit and Learning, full of
Delight. Her prose meditations and later
poems did not appear in print until 1867.
Most of Bradstreet’s works may be placed
into one of two distinct periods. The “public”
poems that appeared in The Tenth Muse are
structurally and thematically formal, written
in the style of Renaissance poetry. Bradstreet’s
later poems—described by most scholars as
her “private” poems—are less stylized in form
and more personal in content.
After Macbeth fails to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth seeks to finish the deed in Act II, scene ii of Macbeth.
ISOBEL GRUNDY (ESSAY DATE

2000)
Aphra Behn (1640?-c. 1689).
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
APHRA BEHN (1640-1689)
Behn is best remembered as the first woman
to earn her living solely by writing, and she is
credited with influencing the development of
the English novel toward realism. Behn
competed professionally with the prominent
“wits” of Restoration England, including
George Etherege, William Wycherley, John
Dryden, and William Congreve. Similar to the
literary endeavors of her male contemporar-
ies, Behn’s writings catered to the libertine
tastes of King Charles II and his supporters.
Her works, especially her dramas, are usually
coarse, witty farces which focus upon the
amatory adventures of her characters. Oc-
casionally they excel as humorous satires
recording the political and social events of
the era. After nearly 300 years, however, Be-
hn’s most enduring work is the novel
Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave (1688). This
work is considered one of the earliest novels
to use a realistic technique, and the title
character is often regarded as the first portrait
of the “noble savage” in English literature.
Behn is acknowledged for her revolution-

ary influence on the novel form and as a
pioneering example for other professional
women writers. She was a controversial and
vital figure during her lifetime, contributing
to Restoration literature and boldly attempt-
ing to overcome the barriers of seventeenth-
century prejudices. Behn dared to expose the
hypocrisy of the era by advocating, through
both her literary works and her manner of
living, individual freedom for women in mat-
ters of love, marriage, and sexual expression.
Although her works never equaled the pol-
ished, sophisticated writings of her more
prominent contemporaries, such as Dryden
or Congreve, they provided Restoration audi-
ences and readers with the kind of farcical
entertainment they enjoyed. Today her dra-
mas and novels offer the modern reader an
interesting and perceptive account of the
colorful period in which she wrote.
amples of rare creatures; typically mentioned in
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES passing were Katherine Philips and Anne Finch,
who dwelt in the realm of feminine sentimental
or melancholy verse, or Margaret Cavendish, who
occupied the isolated mansion of aristocratic, ec-
centric scribblers. Those readers game for a more
robust tour of the literary past might encounter
the bawdy Restoration dramatist Aphra Behn but
none of her female contemporaries, respectable or
not.
This topographical understanding of literary
history, however, also made the task easier. The
numbers of individuals to be discussed was small
and the regions, or genres, in which to search for
them clearly defined, either poetry or fiction. Us-
ing this approach, the critical questions to be
answered about early modern women writers
would have been why did not more women write
and why were there no great women writers to
rival their male contemporaries, apart from a
handful of later women novelists.
While a recent literary historian will start with
the same premise that a 1920s or 1930s one
MARGARET J. M. EZELL (ESSAY would, that early modern women writers existed
DATE 2002) within a conventionally patriarchal and hierarchi-
SOURCE: Ezell, Margaret J. M. “Women and Writing.” cal social structure, the oft-cited injunction that
In A Companion to Early Modern Women’s Writing, edited women should be chaste, silent and obedient and
by Anita Pacheco, pp. 77-94. Oxford, England: Black-
well Publishing, 2002. confine their creative work to needles and threads
rather than pen and paper can no longer be taken
In the following essay, Ezell discusses the circumstances
and motivations of numerous women writers. as an accurate delineation of women’s participa-
tion in early modern literary culture. Likewise, the
But, why not women write, I pray?
traditional assumption that one reason why so
Sarah Jinner, ‘To the Reader’, An Almanack or
Prognostication of Women (1658) few women wrote was because so very few were
literate has also come under fire during the last
If this essay were being composed in the 1920s few decades. As Margaret W. Ferguson has ob-
or 1930s the task would have been at once harder served in her article examining Renaissance
and simpler. It would have been harder in that concepts of the ‘woman writer’, it is important to
the topic of early modern women writers had not recognize still that we ‘know little about how
been defined as an area suitable for intellectual many women might have merited the label
enquiry beyond obscure antiquarian or genealogi- “writer” in any of that term’s various senses’, and
cal interests. During that period, too, the domi- that the ‘concept of the “woman writer” in the
nant metaphor for literary history was of the liter- early modern period signifies a shifting mix of il-
ary past as a landscape and the historian’s job was lusion and empowerment; the consequences of
to provide a map or tour guide through its major women’s emergence as writers were equally
points of attraction, defined by genre or monu- complex’ (Ferguson 1991: 149, 163). What has
mental figures. The literary critic’s task was to changed between the 1920s and recent modes of
point out both the particular and the characteristic thinking about women writers is not only the
beauties of a region and also to warn the reader ways in which literacy is assessed but also the
away from any deceptive shifting sands or literary development of an appreciation of what is encom-
fens. passed by the term ‘authorship’, the layers of is-
In this version of literary history the territory sues involved in assessing connections between
occupied by writing women was largely populated early modern women who wrote and women who
by nineteenth-century novelists. Earlier female read in terms of how texts were created, repro-
authors could be pointed out as interesting ex- duced, circulated and preserved.
Since the 1970s, literary historians have who wrote and published and got paid for doing

recovered significant numbers of women’s texts in so, but also about women who wrote and circu-
both manuscript and print form. In addition to lated texts socially, women who compiled volumes
making rare individual items more widely avail- and managed the preservation and transmission
able through the ESTC microfilm project, other of texts by themselves and by others, women who
groups such as the Brown University Women patronized and supported other writers through
Writers Project, the Renaissance Women Writers their writings, and even those early modern
Online, and the Perdita Project have worked to women who owned books and who interwove
include such texts in electronic databases. Simulta- their own writing into others’ texts.
neously, the last twenty years have seen an explo-
sion of printed anthologies and editions, from An- Sites of Writing, Scenarios of Authorship
geline Goreau’s early collection The Whole Duty of
I turned it into English in a roome where my
a Woman: Female Writers in Seventeenth-Century
children practiz’d the severall qualities they were
England (1985), Germaine Greer et al.’s Kissing the taught, with their Tutors, & I numbred the syl-
Rod: An Anthology of 17th Century Women’s Verse lables of my translation by the threds of the
(1988), Roger Lonsdale’s Oxford Book of Eighteenth- canvas I wrought in & sett them downe with a
pen & inke that stood by me.
Century Women Poets (1989), to the most recent
(Lucy Hutchinson, dedication of her translation
Oxford Book of Early Modern Women Poets (2001), of Lucretitus’ De rerum natura)
edited by Jane Stevenson and Peter Davidson.
Along with such anthologies, facsimile reprint Traditionally, when thinking about women
series such as the Ashgate Library of Essential Writ- and writing, the first question asked has been what
ings by Early Modern English Women headed by a woman wrote, in terms of genre: did she write
Betty Travitsky and Patrick Cullen continue to call poetry? Fiction? Drama? A diary? Perhaps a more
attention to the wide range of texts by early revealing way of rethinking the literary culture of
modern women which were in circulation among early modern women might be to ask where did
their contemporary readers. she write and why. Virginia Woolf imagined the
early modern woman writing secretively, hiding
Helen Wilcox has noted the paradox about
her activity, yet her ultimate goal was to achieve
early modern women that ‘the centuries in ques-
public recognition and money. For Woolf, one es-
tion were thrilling ones in terms of new achieve-
sential requirement for being an author was the
ments by women writers . . . [however, their ac-
possession of private physical space for writing, a
complishments] have always to be set against the
room of one’s own, with a lock on the door,
backdrop of women’s severely constrained social
enabling the woman writer to close out the
and legal position. In law, women had no status
distractions of everyday domestic life as well as
whatsoever but were only daughters, wives or
her society’s definitions and expectations of her as
widows of men’ (Wilcox 1991: 4). Clearly, our
a woman. Given the recovery of a much wider
earlier assumptions (shaped in part by Virginia
range of early modern women’s texts than Woolf
Woolf’s fictitious Judith Shakespeare in A Room of
had access to in shaping her story of women and
One’s Own) that these conditions absolutely
writing, what other scenarios can we imagine for
prevented women from writing, were misleading.
an early modern woman writing? What types of
Indeed, Jane Stevenson states that in the prepara-
questions can we raise for exploration of her writ-
tion of The Oxford Book of Early Modern Women
ing and her reading as part of a larger picture of
Poets the editors determined that ‘there were in
literary culture? Did some have a ‘room of her
the region of fifty English and Scottish women
own’, some female domestic space, or was this,
who wrote some kind of verse before 1600 which
indeed, even viewed as a necessary prerequisite
still survives in some form or other (and also a
for authorship in early modern literary culture?
number of women composing in Welsh, Scottish
Gaelic, or Irish, whose work falls outside this Let us begin with familiar images of women
discussion). Of these fifty, about half printed at writing. Certainly, during the early modern period
least some of what they wrote’ (Stevenson 2000: there were women writing in solitude and isola-
1). To explore more fully these rediscovered texts tion as Woolf imagined them. Most, however,
by women who lived and wrote within such social sought no immediate readership other than
and legal constraints, we need to consider several themselves and their God, and they wrote not for
issues in a larger context of literary culture and the financial reward which Woolf felt validated
the dynamics of textual production and circula- the act of writing for women, but for personal
tion. We need to think about not only women profits. Elizabeth Burnet (1661-1709), who wrote
extensively and published her Method of Devotion recording private prayers and meditations and
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES (1708), observed that for the purpose of serious keeping diaries or journals. Many of the volumes
meditation a crowded household should still be of this type of women’s writing were published as
able to provide ‘little rooms or closets’ in which to historical records during the nineteenth and early
retreat. Sometimes used as a dismissive adjective twentieth centuries, but many still remain in
of women’s writing, such ‘closet writing’ needs to manuscript copies. A brief survey of only a repre-
be reconsidered. The importance of the closet as a sentative few suggests the appeal of diary and
feminine site of authorship is combined with the journal writing for early modern women of a
fact that it also served multiple social functions in variety of social backgrounds, religious persuasions
the household in addition to private devotional and political positions: Lady Elizabeth Brackley,
ones, from the preparation of medicinal concoc- Countess of Bridgewater (1626-63), who wrote
tions to a place of private reflection and storage of pastorals, occasional verse, and masques with her
books and writing materials. sister Lady Jane Cavendish, which will be dis-
It was in this type of domestic space, for cussed later, left behind a manuscript collection of
example, that Anne, Lady Halkett (1623-99) Meditations on the Several Chapters of the Holy Bible;
retired to both read and write. At her death she a maid of honour in Catharine Braganza’s court,
left behind 21 folio and quarto manuscript vol- Elizabeth Livingstone Delaval (1649-1717), cre-
umes, composed between 1644 and the late 1690s, ated an elaborate memoir intertwining pious
which are now housed in the National Library of devotions and prayers with her romantic misad-
Scotland, in addition to what her contemporary ventures; the businesswoman Alice Thornton
biographer described as ‘about thirty stitched (1626-1707) wrote down her prayers as well as her
Books, some in Folio, some in 4tc. Most of them fears over childbirth and poverty in her Diaries;
of 10 or 12 sheets, all containing occasional Elizabeth, Vicountess Mordaunt (1632/3-79) care-
Meditations’ (‘S.C.’, Life: 64). Her biographer ‘S.C.’ fully recorded wasting her time reading plays as
explained that Halkett regularly set aside five well as the arrest of her husband for treason
hours a day for devotion, ‘from 5 to 7 in the against the commonwealth in 1658; the parlia-
Morning, from one in the afternoon to two, from mentarian paymaster’s wife Mary Carey (1609/12-
6 to 7, and from 9 to 10, together with nine 80) shared the pages of her meditations and verses
[hours] for Business’, and ‘ten for necessary with those of her second husband, George Payler,
refreshment’ (ibid.: 55). Clearly, for Anne Halkett, as they moved from town to town with the army.
the act of writing down her meditations on the
Elizabeth Bury (1644-1720) offers an extended
texts she read, her analysis of her dreams, her
example of this type of women’s writing. Born
hopes for her children, and her autobiography
into a comfortable but not aristocratic family, Bury
were a vital part of her daily domestic devotions.
devoted her life to study, ‘of almost every Thing
As she herself observed in one of the volumes
. . . taking continual Pleasure in Reading and
begun in 1676, ‘It is naturall for all persons to
Conversation’ (5). Her husband had portions of
please themselves in pursuing what is most suit-
her diary printed after her death, noting that dur-
able to there inclination. & to aime att an emi-
ing her life, she had maintained an extensive cor-
nency in what ever profession there Genius lead
respondence on philosophical, historical, and
them to, from wch many have arived to Great
spiritual subjects: ‘in Writing of Letters, she had a
Knowledge in Severall Arts and Sciences’ (National
great Aptness and Felicity of Expression; and was
Library of Scotland MS 6494, f.1). Anne Halkett,
always so close and pertinent, and full to the
as did other early modern women, wrote exten-
Purpose; and withal, so Serious, Spiritual, and
sively and wrote for pleasure, but it was for her
Pungent, that her Correspondence was greatly
spiritual, not worldly, profit.
valued, by some of the brightest Minds, even in
Examples of domestic devotional writing by very distant Countries’ (ibid.). This same talent for
women throughout the seventeenth and eigh- expression, Mr Bury maintains, shines through
teenth centuries span numerous social classes and her diaries, begun when she was between 18 and
settings, from mothers recording spiritual advice 20 years of age and kept continuously until the
for children (Dorothy Leigh, The Mother’s Blessing: end of her life; he was only able to publish the
Or the Godly Counsaile of a Gentlewoman not long portions written after 1690, when she changed
since deceased, left behind for her children, 1616; from recording her thoughts in shorthand with
Elizabeth Clinton, Countess of Lincoln, The Count- ‘many peculiar Characters and Abbreviations of
ess of Lincoln’s Nurser, 1622; Elizabeth Richardson, her own’ (ibid.: 11). In her diaries, in which she
A Ladies Legacie to her Daughters, 1645), to women wrote both in the morning and evening, ‘with a
very great Liberty and happy Variety of me with lameness. . . . Then I was forc’t to repair

Expression’, she recorded daily events, including home to my Father again’. As part of her repen-
providential acts of God towards herself and her tance, Major created Honey on the Rod: Or a
family, ‘the solemn transactions betwixt GOD and comfortable Contemplation for one in Affliction
her own Soul, in her Closet, in her Family, in the (1656), detailing in prose and verse how her ill-
Assembly, and in her daily Walk and Conversa- ness, ‘I / In prime arrested, here I in prison lie’,
tion with others; the Substance of what she had forced her to analyse the narrative of her past life
Read or Heard’ (ibid.: 11-12). In short, Elizabeth as part of seeking future salvation and to organize
Bury used writing to record, interpret and create a and communicate her findings poetically (Greer
spiritual narrative of the events of the everyday et al. 1988: 183, 184).
life of a clergyman’s wife in late seventeenth-
Likewise An Collins, who published her Divine
century Suffolk.
Songs and Meditacions (1653), was kept house-
For Englishwomen living abroad as part of bound by her illnesses and offers her poetry as
religious houses, writing, too, was an integral part ‘the offspring of my mind’ since her body will not
of their religious avocation and the convent have children. For Collins, her apparently sickly
house. Such separate devotional communities, childhood created a scenario of authorship as a
including the Anglican community of Little Gid- means of overcoming those ‘Clouds of Melan-
ding, have remained a very little appreciated site choly over-cast / My heart’ and writing formed
of female participation in the creation, preserva- part of her recreation: ‘I became affected to Poetry,
tion and circulation of texts, as a site of communal insomuch that I proceeded to practise the same;
authorship and vital supporting roles in maintain- and though the helps I had therein were small,
ing a literary culture. The English nuns residing at yet the thing it self appeared unto me so amiable,
the Benedictine community at Cambrai, founded as that it enflamed my faculties, to put forth
in 1623 by Dame Gertrude More, produced medi- themselves, in a practise so pleasing’ (Collins
tations and prayers as part of their daily spiritual 1653: Sig. A1). Through writing, Collins continues
practice. Heather Wolfe stresses the importance of in ‘The Preface’, ‘sorrow serv’d but as springing
both reading and writing in these women’s lives, raine / To ripen fruits, indowments of the minde,
pointing out that ‘there was a particular emphasis / Who thereby did abillitie attaine / To send forth
on reading during Lent’ in this community and flowers’ and, although her circumstances dictate
that ‘death notices’ or biographies of fellow nuns solitude while writing, she is determined to
were important texts as ‘an example to posteritie’ ‘publish . . . those Truths’ and to ‘tell what God
(Wolfe 2000: 206). At a nun’s death, Wolfe notes, still for my Soule hath wrought’.
her ‘loose papers’ frequently were placed in the
Thus far we have looked at scenarios of
convent’s library, bound together in a titled
women writing which are not far removed from
volume, such as ‘a little book of Dame Mary Wat-
our modern expectations of the requirements of
sons Collections’ or ‘Eight Collection Bookes of
authorship: solitude, leisure and private domestic
. . . Mothere Clementia Cary’. Wolfe argues that
space. What other scenarios are revealed when
the Life of Lady Falkland is an example of such
one examines texts by early modern women writ-
convent-created texts. Other texts by the nuns,
ers? Lady Falkland: Her Life (1645), written (as
including the prayers and meditations of Gertrude
Heather Wolfe has convincingly argued) by her
More, for example, were occasionally published
daughter Lucy while a member of the convent at
later for a general readership.
Cambrai, offers glimpses of some unexpected
There are scenarios of women writing in circumstances under which an early modern
solitude to consider other than religious retreat; woman might conduct her reading and writing.
some women had solitude imposed on their We are told that as a child Elizabeth Cary, Lady
practice of writing because of their particular Falkland (1586-1639) ‘spent her whole time in
personal circumstances. Elaine Hobby has called reading; to which she gave herself so much that
such writers women who were ‘making a virtue of she frequently read all night; so as her mother
necessity’. Hobby discusses at length the examples was fain to forbid her servants to let her have
of Elizabeth Major and An Collins as ‘celebra- candles’ (Weller and Ferguson 1994: 187). Married
tion[s] of women’s writings’ where an authorial at age 15 to Sir Henry Cary, the young bride fell
voice is created out of bodily distress and spiritual out with her mother-in-law who ‘used her very
trials (Hobby 1989: 61-6). Elizabeth Major tells her hardly, so far, as at last, to confine her to her
readers that after having led a secular life wedded chamber; which seeing she little cared for, but
to ‘earthen pleasures’, ‘God was pleased to visit entertained herself with reading’; when her
mother-in-law had all the books removed from as an author. As Margaret W. Ferguson points out
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES Elizabeth Cary’s room, ‘then she set herself to in the preface to Cary’s translation of The Reply to
make verses’ (ibid.: 189). Life improved with the the Most Illustrious Cardinall of Perron (1630), ‘she
return of her husband and not only used her own name but explicitly men-
he grew better acquainted with her and esteemed tioned her refusal to “make use of the worne-out
her more. From this time she writ many things forme of saying I printed it against my will, moved
for her private reaction, on several subjects, and by the importunitie of Friends”’ (Weller and Fer-
occasions, all in verse (out of which she scarce guson 1994: 158).
ever writ anything that was not translations). One
of them was after stolen out of that sister-in-law’s The close connection between Elizabeth Cary’s
(her friend’s) chamber and printed, but by her reading and writing habits is a key element in
own procurement was called in. Of all she then
Barbara Kiefer Lewalski’s assessment of the literary
writ, that which was said to be the best was the
life of Tamberline in verse. activities of other aristocratic women writing dur-
(Ibid.: 189-90) ing the Jacobean period. Lewalski examines the
accumulated writings of Lady Anne Clifford
In addition to the solitude imposed on her by (1590-1676), including her histories of her parents
her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Cary supposedly was as well as her own. Writing about her mother,
able to compose under rather more distracting Margaret Clifford, Anne noted that ‘for though
circumstances: she cared little about her appear- she had no language but her own, yet was there
ance except to satisfy her husband’s wishes and few books of worth translated into English but
‘her women were fain to walk round the room she read them, whereby that excellent mind of
after her (which was her custom) while she was hers was much enriched’ (Lewalski 1993: 134). In
seriously thinking on some other business, and addition to her habit of studious reading, Margaret
pin on her things and braid her hair; and while Clifford was also ‘a lover of the study and practice
she writ or read, curl her hair and dress her head’ of alchemy, by which she found out excellent
(ibid.: 194). medicines that did much good to many’, which
Throughout her subsequent conversion to she, like many early modern women, recorded in
Catholicism and her estrangement from most of a manuscript volume. Lewalski notes that in the
her family and friends, Elizabeth Cary continued ‘Great Picture’ of the Clifford family Margaret is
to write. Her environment was drastically painted with all the elements of her reading and
changed, but her literary output continued even writing practices defining the nature of her domes-
in conditions represented as being far removed tic space, ‘holding the Psalms of David; the Bible,
from the comfort of her previous life. During this and English translation of Seneca, and (her own)
period of her life, waiting ladies did not follow handwritten book of alchemical distillations and
her from room to room as she wrote, but instead medicines are on a shelf over her head’ (ibid.: 373,
she was reduced to living with a single servant, n. 43).
her room only furnished with a bed on the ground Cary’s example also invites a reconsideration
and ‘an old hamper which served her for a table, of how and why women were writing. The sce-
and a wooden stool’; according to her daughter, nario of Cary surrounded by her waiting women
here is where she composed in verse the lives of as she both read and wrote, for example, is one
‘St Mary Magdalene, St Agnes Martyr, and St which Louise Schleiner has called a ‘reading
Elizabeth of Portingall . . . and of many other formation’, a social situation consisting of aristo-
saints’ (ibid.: 213-14). cratic women and their waiting ladies, ‘circles of
Elizabeth Cary might seem to be an anoma- women encompassing two or three social classes
lous example of an early modern woman writing liv[ing] in daily association, reading and often
in extreme situations, but a closer look at the ele- making music together’ (Schleiner 1994: 3). The
ments which characterize her sites of writing—her practice of reading as part of a female circle,
writing spaces, her scenarios of authorship, and Schleiner maintains, ‘might inspire various urges
her readers and the nature of the production of to write, up and down its encompassed social
her texts—suggests further possibilities for explor- spectrum’ and, she argues, is mirrored in the way
ing the literary activities of other women. Clearly, in which women poets such as Aemilia Lanyer
for Elizabeth Cary, the possession of a special space and Isabella Whitney use paratexts to celebrate
for writing was not central to her endeavours as the relationship between the waiting woman and
an author. Nor do we see the scenario of the writer her aristocratic female reader or, as in Whitney’s
as the self-imposed social exile because of her liter- situation, to lament its loss (ibid.: 4, 23, 25).
ary pursuits, nor the woman hiding her identity Examples such as these cause us to ponder the
scenario of a woman writing for an audience of rest are by ‘Gentlemen of the Universities, and

women readers, perhaps even doing such writing Others’ (King 1994: 552). The titles of the poems
in their company: in this scenario, rather than the reflect the occasions of their composition and
isolated individual writing in solitude and not dar- their function as a type of social performance. This
ing to seek an audience, we have instead the same pattern of linked verses where one poet
performance of reading and writing among writes in response to another’s verse, typically
women as part of their domestic life and an ac- written to record social occasions from weddings
cepted elite social practice. and deaths to broken friendships and flirtations,
is not infrequently found in posthumous collec-
The female reading circles discussed by
tions of poetry by women writers, such as Anne
Schleiner and those women loosely associated
Killigrew’s Poems (1686) and Mary Monck’s
with Queen Anne’s court between 1605 and 1609
Marinda (1716). Such posthumous volumes serve
at Hampton Court and Somerset (Denmark)
as a type of blueprint of the patterns of social verse
House, the Countess of Bedford, Cecily Bulstrode,
exchange among women and their friends, both
Lady Ann Southwell (more of whom later in this
male and female: Killigrew’s volume includes, for
essay) and Lady Mary Wroth also suggest that we
example, ‘To My Lord Colrane, In Answer to his
can look for women writing as part of intricate
Complemental Verses sent me under the Name of
social interactions as well as for moral or medicinal
Cleanor’, while Mary Monck’s volume includes 11
improvement. Leeds Barroll places Anne of Den-
poems addressed to her as ‘Marinda’, as well as
mark at the centre of a ‘rich and hospitable
one entitled ‘Upon an Impromptu of Marinda’s,
climate’ for the arts, surrounding herself with liter-
in answer to a Copy of Verses’.
ate and literary women and female patrons of
contemporary male writers (Barroll 1998: 55). This practice of the exchange of verses as part
Mary Ellen Lamb likewise points to the impor- of a social pastime is clearly continued throughout
tance of ‘poetic numbers’ for early modern women the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and
writers: for Lady Mary Wroth in particular, the was not restricted to highly placed courtiers and
numerous women writers in the Sidney family as aristocrats. At some times, too, the composition,
well as the Vere family provided a ‘“safe house” in compilation and preservation of manuscript
which women could write’ ambitious literary volumes by women also act as a means of confirm-
projects (Lamb 1990: 150). On a more casual level, ing religious or political loyalties within the
as Jane Stevenson has observed, surviving textual woman’s literary circle. Constance Aston Fowler
evidence suggests that ‘a number of women of the organized her family and friends to contribute
rank of gentlewoman or above participated in the verses to her compilations in the 1630s and 1640s,
writing of ephemeral poetry as a social activity’ and her correspondence contains several refer-
(Stevenson 2000: 4). Lewalski (1993) notes that ences to her compilations and to her family’s
some of the prose ‘inventions’ by Bulstrode and lively literary life (Ezell 1999: 25-8). Fowler’s
Southwell ended up being included in Sir Thomas manuscript miscellany reveals both her reading
Overbury’s collection of miscellaneous pieces, Sir and writing practices: in addition to collecting
Thomas Overbury His Wife (1611), and Stevenson poems by her father, her brother Herbert Aston
points to George Gascoigne’s even earlier Hundred (whose wife later assembled a separate manuscript
Sundrie Flowers (1573) containing several examples volume of his verse), her brother-in-law Sir Wil-
of witty exchanges of verses between gentle- liam Pershall, her sister-in-law Katherine
women and their male admirers (Stevenson 2000: Thimelby, her friend Lady Dorothy Shirley, and
5-7). possibly herself, Constance Fowler also included
verses by Ben Jonson, John Donne, Richard Fan-
Later in the seventeenth and early eighteenth
shawe and Aurelian Townshend. Victoria Burke
century, the titles of women’s poems found in
has described this as ‘a clearly definable literary
published volumes often reveal both the connec-
network’, tying together a diverse group bound by
tion between a woman’s reading and her writing
their ‘embattled Catholic faith’, ranging from ‘her
and the social or coterie origins of her verse. Writ-
blood relatives, to her relatives by marriage, to her
ing at the end of the seventeenth century, the
friends in the Catholic faith, to diplomatic friends
poet, novelist and medicinal writer Jane Barker
of her father’s, to the people who were the means
(1652-c.1727) participated in a number of literary
by which popular poetry circulating in manuscript
exchanges throughout her life. Kathryn R. King
reached her’ (Burke 1997: 139).
describes Barker’s first appearance in print, Poetical
Recreations (1688), as an example of a ‘sociable The same practice of literary compilation and
text’; 51 of the 109 poems are by Barker and the collaboration among family members rather than
and household. Anna Cromwell Williams as-
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES sembled A Books of Several Devotions collected from
good men (1656, 1660), whose inscription declares
it to have been a gift between sisters. Williams
also embellished the good men’s devotions with
her own verses; in the same volume other hands
recorded poems on family events, such as the
death of Bettina Cromwell (British Library Harl.
Ms. 2311).
The shared commonplace book of Lady Anne
Southwell (1573-1636) and her second husband,
Captain Henry Sibthorpe, likewise displays mul-
tiple hands, voices, agendas and genres of writing.
Lady Anne’s original verses are mingled with cop-
ies of her letters, one to Cicely MacWilliams on
the superiority of verse to prose, and one to
Elizabeth Cary’s husband on his return to Eng-
land. The same volume also contains the hand of
her father-in-law, John Sibthorpe, prosaically
recording his account of receipts for moneys spent
during the Dutch war, as well as Ann Johnson and
Mary Phillips signing receipts for rents. As Jean
Engraving by Diepenbeke depicting Margaret Klene notes, this remarkable collection also
Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673). includes Henry Sibthorpe’s tribute to his departed
wife, ‘the pattern of conjugall love and obedience’,
and Klene views the preservation of manuscript
the scenario of the isolated artist is found in the text with all its hands and purposes as a husband’s
manuscript volumes compiled by Lady Jane Cav- monument to his remarkable spouse (Klene 1998:
endish (1621-69) and Lady Elizabeth Brackley 165).
(1626-63), the daughters of the Duke of Newcastle Still other women joined together to write col-
by his first wife. As with the Aston family circle, laboratively for pressing political reasons. By far
the manuscript volume, Poems Songs and a Pastoral, the largest single group of women publishing their
also reveals how literary exchanges were used to writings during the Restoration period were Quak-
cement social bonds during times of duress. The ers, who wrote not only to record their individual
two sisters were at Welbeck when it was besieged spiritual journeys for the assistance of their fellow
by parliamentary troops, and several of the verses travellers, but who also turned out accounts of
reflect the women’s concerns for their absent rela- persecutions, trials and incarceration where the
tives fighting for the king in the Civil War, while authorship of a single document is the work of
the play The Concealed Fansyes features scenes of several hands, carrying several signatures. They
witches overturning natural order and harmony sent petitions and appeals with over 100 women’s
to create civil strife. As preserved miscellanies and signatures attached to plead their causes. Such use
family papers show us, the Duke of Newcastle of the press to present a public appeal can be seen
encouraged his children from an early age to write as a continuation of the practices of other women
and to compose little social verses; their surviving petitioners during the 1640s and during the Civil
manuscript volumes embody their continuing War years. In 1642 the ‘Gentlemen and Trades-
literary activities as young women, wives and mens Wives, In and About the City of London’
mothers (Ezell 1998: 256-7). petitioned parliament to protect its citizens
The social aspect of women’s writing can also against the dangers of papistry and false prelates
be seen in the practice of writers sharing space on (Archbishop Laud), citing as their precedent for
the page itself. The Cavendish sisters, for example, writing Esther’s petition to King Ahasuerus on
intermingled their poems, not dividing them into behalf of the church. During the war years women
separate author sections. Manuscript volumes associated with the Leveller movement petitioned
often reflect multiple generations of women read- for the release of John Lilburne in 1649, and in
ers and writers at work, and such volumes often 1653 a group of some 6,000 women petitioned
display their multiple functions within the family parliament to stop his trial. The Quaker Mary For-
ster (c. 1620-87) explained ‘To the Reader’ in a sentation of women’s roles and natures. Polemical

petition presented in May 1659 arguing against writers such as Judith Drake (fl. 1696), Bathsua
tithes that the 7,000 women who attached their Makin (c. 1600-?) and Mary Astell (1666-1731)
names to the petition do so in order to be the argued strenuously for the education of middle-
‘weak means to bring to pass his mighty work’. and upper-class women as rational rather than
Better known than such examples of multiple ornamental creatures. Others such as Sarah Fyge
women writers combining to create a single Egerton (1669-1722) turned to satire, publishing
female public voice are individual women such as The Female Advocate (1686) to rebut Robert Gould’s
Katherine Chidley (believed to have participated attack; Mary, Lady Chudleigh (1656-1710) was suf-
in the Leveller group petitions), who used pam- ficiently provoked by the Revd John Sprint’s
phlet writing to explain her political opposition advice to brides to reply with The Ladies Defense
to a national church and to argue for the right of (1701). All of these women share the view that
women to preach. Other women turned to printed while men had rejected the notion of absolutism
pamphlets and broadsides to map out their vi- in national politics, they had strenuously pre-
sions of England’s future: Mary Cary (c. 1621-53) served it in the domestic realm. For these women,
wrote petitions explaining to parliament the plans writing and reading were the keys to middle-class
to build God’s kingdom on earth, A New and Exact women’s improvement of their lives, and they
Mappe or Description of New Jerusalems (1651), and argued for a system of education for women
in Twelve Humble Proposals (1653) she, like Chid- which paralleled that offered to men of that sta-
ley and the 1659 women petitioners, recom- tion.
mended the abolition of tithes as a first step. In Finally, the scenario of authorship most famil-
the 1680s and 1690s Elinor James (fl. 1675-1715), iar to us, the commercial, professional woman
in contrast, used broadsides to support the estab- writer, also begins to be performed more fre-
lished church and the Stuart monarchy, the titles quently during the latter part of the seventeenth
of her broadsides clearly displaying her loyalties; century. As Janet Todd has observed, ‘the Restora-
for example, ‘Mrs. James’s Defence of the Church tion and early eighteenth century is the first
of England in a short answer to the canting Ad- period when women as a group began writing for
dress: with a word or two concerning a Quakers money clearly and openly’ (Todd 1989: 37). With
good advice to the Church of England’ (1687) and the reopening of the theatres, the expansion of
‘Mrs. James’s letter of thanks to the Q———n and commercial publishing, as well as the develop-
both houses of Parliament for the deliverance of ment of new types of literary genres such as
Dr. Sacheverell’ (1710). periodicals, earning money by writing became
We also find individual women making their more of a possibility for middle-class women in
private writing public in response to legal cases search of an income. The theatres were hungry for
involving their families. During the war years new materials to present, and women dramatists
individual women such as Elizabeth Lilliburne such as Aphra Behn (c. 1640-89), Delarivier Man-
petitioned on behalf of their imprisoned hus- ley (c. 1663-1724), Catherine Trotter (1679-1749),
bands. During the Restoration women such as Eliza Haywood (1693-1756) and Mary Pix (1666-
Mary Love approached parliament with numer- 1729) provided comedies and tragedies for the
ous petitions to spare the life of her husband new theatre companies at a considerable rate. Jac-
Christopher; the unsuccessful petitions were queline Pearson’s study of women dramatists of
subsequently published, along with letters be- the period credits Behn with over 20 plays, Man-
tween the husband and wife in a volume called ley 6, Pix 13 and Susanna Centlivre (?-1723) with
Love’s Name Lives (1663). Rachel, Lady Russell 19 (Pearson 1988: 288-91). While Trotter produced
(1636-1723) took the notes at her husband’s trial fewer dramas, only five, she was widely known for
for high treason that were used as part of his her attempts to write for a ‘reformed’ stage,
defence; like Mary Love, she unsuccessfully although she, along with Pix and Manley, was
pleaded for his life and as with the letters of Love, satirized in The Female Wits (1696). As unpleasant
Lady Russell’s letters to her husband and to her as the caricatures of these women dramatists are,
spiritual advisers were subsequently published. it does suggest that women commercial writers as
a group posed a sufficient, visible competition to
Still another group of women whose writings
provoke defensive measures from concerned
begin appearing as printed volumes during the
professional rivals.
period following the Restoration were motivated
by a desire to improve the status of the female sex Although professional women writers drew at-
as a whole and to respond to male writers’ repre- tacks from male professionals, it is also clear that
women writers were frequently supportive of the wifery, / Transcribing old Receipts of Cookery’: for
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES literary activities of their peers. Todd notes that Egerton, ‘My daring Pen, will bolder Sallies make /
during the later part of the seventeenth century And like myself, an uncheck’d freedom take’
‘there was . . . a sense of a female writing com- (Greer et al. 1988: 347). Elizabeth Tipper (fl.
munity, which in many ways looked towards the 1690s), on the other hand, considers and rejects
Bluestocking groupings of the last half of the the role of satirist for herself: ‘Where’s then my
eighteenth century’ (Todd 1989: 40). Sometimes Muse? Does my Poetick Vein! / Want Skill or Cour-
the public, printed endorsement of another age for this useful strain? / . . . / I find no Mo-
woman’s writing was simply a continuation of a ment where I need explore / The Faults of others,
literary relationship begun as part of a social liter- but my own deplore’ (‘The Pilgrim’s Viaticum’,
ary exchange: Elizabeth Thomas wrote enthusias-
1698; ibid.: 71-2).
tic letters and poems to Mary Chudleigh which
she later published; Chudleigh and Mary Astell Although, as we have seen, the genres of
knew and endorsed each other’s works and opin- women’s texts varied widely and most wrote in
ions in verse as well as prose; and Chudleigh more than one, there are some recurrent meta-
introduced Thomas to Astell’s circle. Women phors used by women for writing which transcend
dramatists provided prefaces and commendatory both period and geographical location. While the
verses for other women’s plays. Aphra Behn metaphor of a poem or a book as the author’s
included verses by other women, such as ‘Mrs. child is a common one for both male and female
Taylor’, in her verse miscellanies. In Nine Muses, or writers during the early modern period, it seems
Poems written by as many Ladies Upon the Death of important to look at the particulars when consid-
the Late Famous John Dryden Esq (1700) Manley as- ering how early modern women viewed their writ-
sembled poems by herself and her female acquain- ing. While male authors such as Dudley, 4th Lord
tances, including Egerton, Trotter, Pix, and Trot- North, tended to dwell upon the image of poetic
ter’s patron, Lady Sarah Piers. creation as involving labour and birth pains—‘a
The self-representations of this generation of burden of perplexed thoughts, the very being
women writers we see in their printed texts are delivered (a terme well known to you Ladyes)’
remarkably similar to the various masks of author- (Ezell 1999: 35)—the use of the image by women
ship assumed by their male contemporaries. more typically focuses on the pleasure of the
Elizabeth Singer Rowe (1674-1737) jauntily recreation and the subsequent fond pride in the
jected the advice of a friend ‘Who Persuades me literary ‘offspring’. This characterization of writing
to leave the Muses’ on the grounds that her liter- by women as giving birth and the writers’ affec-
ary pursuits harm no one: tion for their productions crosses the social classes
Forego the charming Muses! No, in spite of those women who wrote about writing. Marga-
Of your ill-natur’d prophecy I’ll write; ret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-73), in
And for the future paint my thoughts at large, ‘An excuse for so much write upon my Verses’,
I waste no paper at the hundred’s charge: pleads: ‘Condemme me not for making such a
I rob no neighbouring geese of quills, nor slink coyle / About my Book, alas it is my Childe’
For a collection, to the church for ink:
(Poems, and Fancies, 1653, Sig. A8v). A year before
Yet I’m so naturally inclined to rhyming, her volume appeared, ‘Eliza’ published Eliza’s
That undesigned, my thoughts burst out a chim- Babes: or The Virgin’s Offspring (1652), describing,
ing; as did An Collins, the pleasure of writing; her
My active genius will by no means sleep, poems, ‘my Babes . . . were obtained by vertue,
Pray let it then its proper channel keep. borne with ease and pleasure’ through divine
I’ve told you, and you may believe me too,
inspiration (Sig. A3). In a more exasperated use of
That I must this, or greater mischief do:
And let the world think me inspired, or mad, the metaphor, in the American colonies, Anne
I’ll surely write whilst paper’s to be had. Bradstreet (1612-72) described her collection of
Poems on Several Occasions, Written by Philomena, verses as ‘my rambling brat’ when she remarked
1696 on their publication in England under the title
(Goreau 1985: 291-2) The Tenth Muse: ‘Thou ill-form’d offspring of my
In her poem ‘The Liberty’ Sarah Fyge Egerton feeble brain, / Who after birth didst’st by my side
voiced even more strongly her commitment to remain, / Till snatcht from thence by friends, less
her pen in her role as the defender of the female wise then true’ (‘The Author to her Book’, Several
sex. She rejects the model of a woman’s writing as Poems, 1678). For such women, writing was a
being confined to ‘lofty Themes of useful Hous- natural process of generation from the woman’s
self and a process over which nature, not the compelled to share with others their experiences

individual will, had the final say about produc- of God and salvation, pain and hope. Tudor
tion. women, Margaret P. Hannay suggests, found a
Early modern women also shared with con- means to ‘find their own voices through their
temporary male writers reasons to write other proclamations of the Word of God’ as translators
than God’s command or the urging of friends. In and devotional writers (Hannay 1985: 14). During
her ‘Preface’ to her Miscellany Poems (1713) Anne the Civil War years and Restoration period,
Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661-1720) quotes women prophets from diverse social backgrounds
from Beaumont’s verse to Fletcher: ‘no more can such as the Quaker Ester Biddle (c.1629-96) and
he, whose mind / Joys in the Muses, hold from aristocratic Lady Eleanor Douglas (1590-1652) felt
that delight / When nature, and his full thoughts, compelled to publish their warnings and prophe-
bid him write’; adding ‘I not only find true by my cies for the good of England. Other women were
own experience, but have also to many witnesses clearly motivated by a compelling combination of
of it against me, under my own hand in the fol- contemporary politics and profit. As Paula Mc-
lowing poems’. She concludes, sounding rather Dowell has suggested in her study of the women
like her friend Alexander Pope, that it was ‘an ir- writers, printers and booksellers occupying Grub
resistible impulse’ which is her primary reason for Street during the years after the Restoration,
writing. Occasional dramatist, coffee-house keeper, ‘religious and religio-political works’ formed the
and novelist Mary Davys (1674-1732) used the ‘largest category of women’s (and men’s) writings’
preface to her Works (1725) to assure her readers (McDowell 1998: 18), but these are markedly dif-
that ‘idleness has so long been an excuse for writ- ferent from the books of private devotions or
ing, that I am almost ashamed to tell the world it solitary prophecy from the start of the century.
was that, and that only, which produced the fol- The period following the Civil Wars, as she notes,
lowing sheets’. She concludes by hoping that ‘my was remarkable for the simultaneous ‘birth of the
pen is at the service of the public, and if it can but modern literary marketplace . . . concurrent with
make some impression upon the young unthink- women’s emergence in significant numbers as
ing minds of some of my own sex, I shall bless publishing authors’ (ibid.: 5). We are most familiar
my labour and reap an unspeakable satisfaction’. with women’s participation in commercial literary
Writing for women was variously presented as culture as authors, but, in the same way that we
childbirth, as an irresistible compulsion, a divine have tended to overlook women’s participation in
channelling, and an amusing pastime, and the the production and dissemination of manuscript
wide variety of metaphors employed suggests to texts, McDowell draws our attention to the activi-
us the wide variety of scenarios of authorship. ties of women ‘working in all aspects of material
literary production, and doing so for pay’ (ibid.).
Conclusion: Why Write? Where were early modern women writing and
Surveying the different materials written by why? As their surviving manuscripts and volumes
early modern women as a whole, we find that by reveal, writing for women and men was a social
the end of the seventeenth century into the early activity as well as a means of private consolation.
part of the eighteenth, we are looking at a collage Once we leave behind the notion of authorship as
of various overlapping sites and scenarios of an act defined by solitary alienation and the text
women writing rather than a map giving us as an isolated literary landmark, we start to see a
individual landmarks and clearly defined ter- much livelier literary landscape for early modern
ritories. For example, the practice of keeping women. While looking at the diversity of texts
diaries and journals for private spiritual improve- they created and which have recently been recov-
ment feeds into the developing forms of fiction ered, we now can see them more clearly at their
for profit; the mother writing for her children writing—alone, in groups, in the closet, in the
seems related to the woman writing for the courtroom—and for whom they wrote—for them-
improvement of her sex; the woman sitting with selves, God, their friends, their children, parlia-
her waiting ladies or sending her poems to her ment and for future readers. For many early
friends in letters seems reflected in the links modern women, writing was an essential part of
between the growing numbers of professional their devotional life, as much a part of daily
women writers praising and contributing to each domestic life as prayer; while historians are right
other’s works. to remind us about the separation of the teaching
How did early women themselves describe of reading and writing skills, it is well to remember
their desires to write? As we have seen, many felt the role that reading played in inspiring many
such women to write their own thoughts in In S. P. Cerasano and Marion Wynne-Davies (eds),
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES response to what they read. For other women, Readings in Renaissance Women’s Drama: Criticism, His-
tory and Performance 1594-1998 (pp. 246-58). London:
writing was a means to reinforce family and social Routledge.
ties, often in manuscript volumes compiled by
———(1999). Social Authorship and the Advent of Print.
women and passed through generations of family Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
readers and contributors. Writing women also cre-
Ferguson, Margaret W. (1991). ‘Renaissance concepts of the
ated collections and compilations of others’ works “woman writer”.’ In Helen Wilcox (ed.), Women and
and added their annotations to printed books in Literature in Britain 1500-1700 (pp. 143-68). Cambridge:
their libraries. Separately printed broadsides and Cambridge University Press.
pamphlets permitted individual women such as Goreau, Angeline (1985). The Whole Duty of a Woman:
Anna Trapnel, Lady Eleanor Douglas and Jane Female Writers in Seventeenth-Century England. Garden
City, NY: Dial Press.
Lead to share their prophetic visions of God’s
wishes for England, while petitions gave groups of Greer, Germaine, Medoff, Jeslyn, Sansone, Melinda and
Hastings, Susan (eds) (1988). Kissing the Rod: An Anthol-
women a means of making written statements on ogy of 17th Century Women’s Verse. London: Virago
political events which they were legally barred Press.
from participating in directly. Hannay, Margaret P. (1985). ‘Introduction.’ In M. P. Hannay
(ed.), Silent But for the Word: Tudor Women as Patrons,
For early modern women, writing could be Translators, and Writers of Religious Works (pp. 1-14).
both a private pleasure and a means of public Kent, OH: Kent State University Press.
performance. Writing could be a response to a Hobby, Elaine (1989). Virtue of Necessity: English Women’s
particular life crisis or a sustained life-long practice. Writing 1649-88. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
When we imagine scenarios of authorship for Press.
these women, we need to remember that writing King, Kathryn R. (1994). ‘Jane Barker, Poetical Creations, and
could function as an act of creation, a bid for the social text.’ English Literary History, 61, 551-70.
fame, an affirmation of allegiances, and a part of a Klene, Jean (1998). ‘Introduction.’ In J. Klene (ed.), The
prayer, and that a woman who wrote probably Southwell-Sibthorpe Commonplace Book, Folger MS V.b.
198 (pp. xi-xliii). Tempe, AZ: Medieval and Renaissance
did so in a variety of genres for a variety of audi-
Texts and Studies.
ences. In this expanded sense of the literary stage
———(2000). ‘“Monument of an Endless affection”: Folger
for early modern women—in her closet, in the
MS V.b. 198 and Lady Anne Southwell.’ In Peter Beal
children’s schoolroom, in the sickroom, in the and Margaret J. M. Ezell (eds), English Manuscript Stud-
kitchen, in the great hall, in the courtroom, in ies 1100-1700, vol. 9 (pp. 165-86). London: British
prison and in the parlour—wherever one looks, Library.
the possibility is there that one will find women Lamb, Mary Ellen (1990). Gender and Authorship in the Sid-
writing and that, indeed, there are more early ney Circle. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
modern women writers still waiting for us to see Lewalski, Barbara K. (1993). Writing Women in Jacobean Eng-
them. land. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
McDowell, Paula (1998). The Women of Grub Street: Press,
Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace,
Works Cited 1678-1730. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Barroll, Leeds (1998). ‘The arts at the English court of Anna Pearson, Jacqueline (1988). The Prostituted Muse: Images of
of Denmark.’ In S. P. Cerasano and Marion Wynne- Women and Women Dramatists 1642-1737. New York:
Davies (eds), Readings in Renaissance Women’s Drama: St Martin’s Press.
Criticism, History and Performance 1594-1998 (pp. 47-
59). London: Routledge. Prior, Mary (ed.) (1985). Women in English Society, 1500-
1800. London: Methuen.
Beilin, Elaine V. (1987). Redeeming Eve: Women Writers of the
English Renaissance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University ‘S.C.’ (1701). The Life of Lady Halkett. Edinburgh.
Press. Schleiner, Louise (1994). Tudor and Stuart Women Writers.
Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.
Blaine, Virginia, Grundy, Isobel and Clements, Patricia (eds)
(1990). The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Stevenson, Jane (2000). ‘Women, writing and scribal
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. publication in the sixteenth century.’ In Peter Beal and
Margaret J. M. Ezell (eds), English Manuscript Studies
Burke, Victoria (1997). ‘Women and early seventeenth- 1100-1700, vol. 9 (pp. 1-32). London: British Library.
century manuscript culture: four Miscellanies.’ The
Seventeenth Century, 12, 135-50. Todd, Janet (1989). The Sign of Angellica: Women, Writing
and Fiction, 1660-1800. London: Virago Press.
Collins, An (1653). Divine Songs and Meditacions. London.
Weller, Barry and Ferguson, Margaret W. (eds) (1994).
Ezell, Margaret J. M. (1998). ‘“To be your daughter in your Elizabeth Cary. The Tragedy of Mariam The Fair Queen of
pen”: the social functions of literature in the writings Jewry with The Lady Falkland Her Life. Los Angeles:
of Lady Elizabeth Brackley and Lady Jane Cavendish.’ University of California Press.
Wilcox, Helen (1991). ‘Introduction.’ In Helen Wilcox (ed.),

Women and Literature in Britain 1500-1700 (pp. 1-6).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wolfe, Heather (2000). ‘The scribal hands and dating of
Lady Falkland Her Life.’ In Peter Beal and Margaret J. M. ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
Ezell (eds), English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, vol. 9
(pp. 187-217). London: British Library.
MERCY OTIS WARREN (1728-1814)
Warren was a foremost patriot during the
revolutionary period and one of the United
States’ first women of letters. A prominent
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN pamphleteer and historian, she is remem-
bered for her anti-Loyalist dramas, which
THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH helped to stir patriotic fervor at a crucial time
CENTURIES in American history. Critics value her History
of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the
FAYE VOWELL (ESSAY DATE American Revolution: Interspersed with Bio-
WINTER 1976) graphical and Moral Observations (1805), one
SOURCE: Vowell, Faye. “A Commentary on ‘The of the first accounts of the revolutionary war,
Journal of Sarah Kemble Knight’.” The Emporia State
Research Studies 24, no. 3 (winter 1976): 44-52. as an astute analysis and vivid firsthand
description of the era. Critics also assert that
In the following essay, Vowell praises Knight’s narrative
as “fresh,” “delightful,” and “humorous.” her History stands as a testimonial to its
author, who ventured with confidence and
The Journal of Sarah Kemble Knight is one of success into areas outside the proscribed
those delightful, almost forgotten, pieces of realm of women of her time. In the 1950s
American literature which one occasionally en- and 1960s, commentary on the History fo-
counters. The journal itself recounts a trip made cused on such issues as Warren’s application
by horseback between Boston and New York, with of morality to history and the philosophical
an intermediate stop in New Haven, in the year background of her works, and there has been
1704. But the account is lifted out of the ordinary a particular emphasis on the latent feminist
by the fact that the journey was made by a thirty- philosophy expressed in the History in criti-
eight year old woman. A middle class American cism published since the 1970s.
woman capable and assertive in her own right,
Through the History, and her other works,
Sarah Kemble Knight contradicts the stereotypes
which included the essay Observations on the
of the delicate female, and the shy, sheltered
New Constitution and on the Federal Conven-
housewife. She is not only a successful business-
tion by a Columbian Patriot, Sic Transit Gloria
woman, but also the mediator in settling her
Americana (1788), Warren was an outspoken
niece‘s estate, on the pretext of which she makes
champion of independence and Republican
her journey. Brave, despite her assertions to the
democracy at a time when few women were
contrary, Knight is a truly remarkable woman
involved in politics. Many of the nation’s
whose sometime pose of helpless female is belied
leaders, including John Adams, Alexander
by her adventurous actions. Madame Knight uses
Hamilton, George Washington, and Thomas
her awareness of the power of words effectively to
Jefferson, were personal friends who re-
make a statement about life in colonial New Eng-
spected her opinions and sought her advice,
land. Besides its use as an historical document,
and Warren is counted among them as one
The Journal lays claim to further consideration by
of the most eloquent and independent think-
its skillful use of personae, its humor, and its vivid
ers in the early history of the United States.
backwoods dialect.
Her correspondence with John Adams was
Previous critics have given The Journal, at best, published in the 1878 collection The Cor-
only a passing reference,1 and most begin their respondence of John Adams and Mercy Warren.
studies of American humor and its accompanying
distinctive idiom with A. B. Longstreet and other
Southwestern humorists. Yet an examination of
Madame Knight’s journal will reveal it to be a
closer progenitor of Southwestern humor than By-
rd’s Histories of the Dividing Line, to which it is journal occupies an intermediate point between
sometimes compared. In fact, Madame Knight’s the works of Byrd and Longstreet in terms of its
use of persona, language, and kind of humor. definite indication that the journal was written
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES Though Byrd and Knight were contemporary, for an audience, through such “casual” statements
Byrd is very much the aristocrat striving to impress as that of an invitation to dine with Governor
an absent English audience. Even the audience of Winthrop: “I stayed a day here Longer than I
his peers, to whom the Secret History was directed, intended by the Commands of the Honerable
operates under these basic assumptions. Thus, By- Governor Winthrop to stay and take a supper with
rd’s persona describes the incompetence of the him whose wonderful civility I may not omitt.”3
North Carolina surveyors and lazy North Carolina Functioning in some ways as a guidebook, the
colonials from a superior moral vantage point. journal also contains such diverse elements as
The final form of the History detaches the persona detailed descriptions of the towns of New York
almost totally from the action, and the entire story and New Haven and points in between, a thumb-
is told in his words, without the intrusion of the nail sketch of people and customs in both the
“vulgar common speech.” In Georgia Scenes, Long- towns and the country, a recounting of the hor-
street also uses the framing device of a gentleman rors of travels, and successful business deals. What
narrator, yet he consciously allows his other better way to express these various subjects than
characters to speak in the vernacular. In addition, through several personae, or one persona with dif-
the attitude of his narrator toward the lower class ferent voices for use at different times? This is
is not as derogatory as that of Byrd. what Knight has done, using four main roles or
voices for her persona: the frightened female
Knight’s Journal falls somewhere in between
traveller, the curious recorder of facts, the acute
and even points the way to later developments.
businesswoman, and the superior, and at times
Though the narrator feels definitely superior to
sarcastic, commentator.
many of the people she encounters, she is not at
all detached from the action. Neither is she of the Knight refers to herself occasionally as a “fear-
nobility. In fact, she is refreshingly middle-class, ful female travailler” and in the first part of the
as revealed in her language and that of the other journal dwells on her fears of the dark night and
characters. The Journal itself chronicles a journey crossing swift rivers:
made to conclude a business deal, and Knight The Canoo was very small and shallow, so that
subscribes to the American business ethic in when we were in she seem’d redy to take in water,
several places. However, she does have certain which greatly terrified mee, and caused me to be
literary pretensions in common with the upper very circumspect, sitting with my hands fast on
each side, my eyes stedy, not daring so much as to
class, and at times breaks out in passable oc- lodg my tongue a hair’s breadth more on the side
casional verse, as well as less literary rhyme. of my mouth than tother, nor so much as think
Though her journal reveals a certain English influ- on Lott’s wife. . . .
ence, its debt is less than that of Byrd. Rather, the (p. 10)
liveliness of her humor and language, with its Sometimes seing my self drowning, otherwhile
sprinkling of anecdotes, is clearly related to later drowned, and at the best like a holy Sister Just
American humorists. The most distinguishing come out of a Spiritual Bath in dripping garments.
facet of her language is perhaps that its humor is (p. 11)
not used to make palatable sadism and violence,
She pretends to be repeatedly frightened by
as Kenneth Lynn suggests is the purpose of South-
her guide with stories of coming dangers, yet her
western humorists in Mark Twain and Southwestern
fear is almost always undercut with humorous al-
Humor. Knight’s humor is more in the comedy of
lusion, as well as by the confident tone in other
manners tradition, directed against herself and
places. For instance, Madame Knight, though
others, toward some universal human failing.
thirty-eight years old in an age when life expect-
However, to understand the humor and language
ancy was not much greater, sets off on a journey
of Madame Knight’s work, one must look at the
on October 2 at three in the afternoon, hardly a
journal as a whole and at the different personae
time of the year or the day to expect easy travel-
she creates.
ling. She chooses to journey on after dark to reach
The historical Madame Knight was known as a self-appointed goal. Subsequent timorousness
a teacher, recorder of public documents, and a on her part seems a bow to convention, especially
successful businesswoman. Yet when her journal when far greater danger of being lost in a snow-
was first published in 1825, the editor assumed it storm later confronts her and she betrays no fear
to be fiction.2 The journal itself shows evidence of at all. She simultaneously assumes the pose of
careful rewriting, obviously from the daily diary, gentlewoman accepted by society, and deflates it
which Knight mentions frequently. There is also a through the vigor of her actions. She is no help-
less, sheltered lady; rather she is a new breed of Knight’s third guise as the curious recorder of

American woman, equally capable of caring for facts is quite compatible with that of the business-
himself and of posing as a “fearful female” when woman; in each she takes a practical view of the
it furthers her purpose. world around her, carefully observing and record-
This conventional guise also gives her the op- ing all relevant details. The persona of recorder of
portunity to compose some verses to “Fair Cyn- facts is most dominant after the arrival in New
thia” and to speak in rather elevated language that Haven, since from this point the focus of the
seems out of place when contrasted with the other journal seems to change. Heretofore, the narrative
voices. “Now was the Glorious Luminary, with his has focused on the hardships of the journey and
swift Coursers arrived at his Stage, leaving poor the oddities of the rural people encountered; now,
me with the rest of this part of the lower world in more attention is given to manners and customs
darkness . . .” (p. 11). But here, again, Knight is in an urban setting, the first evidence of which is
only manipulating an accepted poetic pose, while Knight’s description of New Haven. Anxious that
her actions burlesque it. When at the end of her neither she nor the reader misses a detail, she
journey she desires “sincearly to adore [her] Great discusses law, religion, customs such as Lecture
Benefactor for thus graciously carrying forth and days—Election Day, Training Day, marriage cus-
returning in safety his unworthy handmaid” (p. toms, food, the Indian question, and merchant
72), the reader again senses an acquiescence to practices. Moreover, like a good logician, she states
literary tradition in the style and imagery. Thus, first the good points, then the bad. The tone
the guise of “fearful female travailler,” with equal throughout is informative and casual. At no time
emphasis on the fearful and the female, is useful does the reader wonder about Knight’s opinion of
when Knight is being consciously literary and is these things, for she repeatedly interjects her com-
quite undercut when contrasted with the other ments with humorous asides and anecdotes.
voices.
This thorough, opinionated inquisitiveness is
The voice to which it is most directly antitheti- apparent in her description of New York. There,
cal is the many-faceted one of the businesswoman she even notes the architectural details of the
or woman of affairs. Knight chooses what time houses in comparison with those in Boston. On
and with whom she will travel, bargaining with the return trip from New York, she comments on
her guide for a good price. Further, though she many of the small villages, which she had ignored
has gone to settle the inheritance of a relation, before. No vestige of the “fearful female travailler”
she snaps up a chance to make a profit on a quick remains as she assesses the scene before her. “This
deal herself:
is a very pretty place, well compact, and good
Mr. Burroughs went with me to Vendue where I handsome houses, Clean, good and passable
bought about 100 Rheem of paper wch was retaken Rodes, and situated on a Navigable River, abun-
in a flyboat from Holland and sold very Reason-
dance of land well fined and Cleerd all along as
ably here—some ten some Eight shillings per
Rheem by the Lott wch was ten Rheem in a Lott. wee passed” (p. 59). Thus, the latter part of the
(p. 52) journal becomes a very factual travel book or
guide book to that part of the country, though it
At times, Knight foreshadows the modern is still leavened with humor.
American business ethic in her standard of moral-
ity: correct conduct in business matters overrides The final, probably most delightful, voice is
other concerns, even religion. In a comment that of a superior, sarcastic commentator who
about the people of New York she says, “They are comments on and participates in the action. The
not strict in keeping the Sabbath as in Boston and most pervasive and, thus, most fully developed,
other places where I had bin, But seem to deal this voice binds the others together with the
with great exactness as farr as I see or Deall with” characteristic humor and viewpoint of a sophisti-
(p. 54). And like a good business woman she cated city woman, passing judgment on country
refuses to be deflected from her purpose, no mat- bumpkins. An instance of this observation is seen
ter what the inconvenience (p. 67). This sense of from the very beginning when she characterizes
purpose and dispatch becomes more noticeable some tavern drinkers as “being tyed by the Lipps
toward the latter part of the journal. Days become to a pewter engine” and slyly describes the figure
condensed and less attention is given to humor- of the guide as “a Globe on a Gate post.” Perhaps
ous detail. It is as if, nearing the end of her busi- it is Knight’s very human annoyance with appar-
ness, Knight wishes to wrap things up and get ent stupidity that so appeals to the reader. For
them out of the way. example, she expresses this annoyance in pithy
terms when a dull-witted country wench is slow and sometimes a Larger, than those who have bin
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES to give her food and lodging at a tavern: brought up in citties” (p. 43). Cohen and Dilling-
ham’s description of Southwestern humor well
Miss star’d awhile, drew a chair, bid me sitt, And
then run upstairs and putts on two or three Rings, applies to this situation:
(or else I had not seen them before,) and return- When the narrator abandoned his gentlemanly
ing, sett herself just before me, showing the way pose and made the characters themselves speak,
to Reding, that I might see her Ornaments, per- he was laying the foundation for a new style in
haps to gain the more respect. But her Granam’s American writing. Rich in similes, metaphors, and
new Rung sow, had it appeared, would have af- in exaggerations, this backwoods language is
fected me as much. characterized by concreteness, freshness and
(p. 7) color.6
In language at once vivid and concrete, Knight Knight’s narrator, rather than her characters,
deflates the girl’s attempt to impress her; her use most forcefully exhibits this kind of concrete,
of the “sow” comparison is especially insulting fresh language. In addition, she clearly points the
because it is directed from one woman to another. way to this treatment of humor through her
But to fully understand the effect of this voice one manipulation of dialect, long before Longstreet,
must also examine the type of humor and the who is more popularly seen as the originator.
idiom used to create it. This passage demonstrates
Along with the creation of comic stereotypes
one of the ways humor surfaces in the Journal and
and usage of common speech, Knight uses certain
agrees with Kenneth Lynn’s description of frontier
words and images which comment on the preju-
humor, “the humor [is] the vernacular and the
dices and concerns of her time. Religion is often a
vernacular [is] the humor.”4 In using this persona
tool used to produce the mocking, humorous tone
to tell numerous anecdotes and relate the inci-
so pervasive in the journal. The Quakers are twice
dents of the journey, the author reveals her aware-
an object of derision. Once, describing a locqua-
ness of the power of words and her ability to
cious hostess, Knight says, “I began to fear I was
manipulate them.
got among the Quaking tribe, beleeving not a
Knight’s vivid description of the way mer- Limber tong’d sister among them could out do
chants do business in Connecticut makes the Madm. Hostes” (p. 3). She speaks of the hostess
reader feel he is present at the scene. Her language “catechis’ing” John for going with her, and doubts
is graphic, if not too flattering, and the words the the truth of her “Call” to fulfill this mission.
country bumpkins speak reinforce and complete
In her later description of the towns, Knight
the picture. Yet one is also aware of the regional
invariably comments on the church and on how
tension in her portrayal, critical of both classes of
the inhabitants keep the Sabbath. The villagers of
people from Connecticut:
Fairfield receive her special attention. She notes
Being at a merchants house, in comes a tall they are “litigious” and do not agree with their
country fellow, with his alfogeos full of tobacco; minister. “They have aboundance of sheep, whose
for they seldom Loose their Cudd, but keeping
Chewing and Spitting as long as they’r eyes are
very Dung brings them great gain, with part of
open, . . . At last, like the creature Balaam Rode which they pay their Parsons sallery. And they
on, he opened his mouth and said: have You any Grudg that, prefering their Dung before their
Ribenin for Hatbads to sell I pray? . . . Bumpkin minister” (p. 63). As a kind of divine retribution,
Simpers, cryes its confounded Gay I vow. she notes they get their comeuppance; they were
(p. 42)
“once Bitt by a sharper who had them a night and
The bumpkin’s female counterpart does not sheared them all before morning.” Here, the
fare much better. Knight’s tendency to make stereotype of the thrifty Yankee who makes use of
names descriptive is apparent in the characteriza- everything rises to the surface, as Knight illustrates
tion of “Jone Tawdry” who “curtsees” fifty times the popular moral that scoundrels tend to get
before she speaks and then speaks in an awed, what they deserve.
ignorant tone: “Law you . . . its right Gent, do Knight is also quite free in her allusions to the
You, take it, tis dreadful pretty” (p. 43). These devil, who is not the same object of awe and ter-
portraits, together with those of the other rustic ror as early Pilgrims imagined him. In an extended
Knight encounters, create the figure of the typical rather labored metaphor, she compares a bad
New England bumpkin, the ancestor of the arche- innkeeper to Satan, thus rendering them both
typal Yankee.5 Yet Knight is also quick to point ridiculous. “I questioned whether we ought to go
out that they only lack education, “for these to the Devil to be helpt out of affliction. However,
people have as Large a portion of mother witt, like the rest of Deluded souls that post to ye
Infernal dinn, Wee made all posible speed to this Shouting. Nay, sais his worship, in an angry tone,

Devil’s Habitation” (p. 20). In these casual refer- if it be so, take mee off the Bench.
(pp. 34-36)
ences to religion and her uses of religious meta-
phor, Knight typifies the attitude of the common This anecdote is interesting for several reasons.
New Englander, of whose carelessness or laxness On the surface, it is a naive and rather crude joke,
one is not too aware when reading only the yet with closer scrutiny, it becomes something
religious treatises of the time. else. It reveals prejudice against the Indian and
Another interesting detail revealed through Black, but also a refreshing ridicule of authority.
Knight’s use of language is the New Englander’s The participants are an Indian, a Negro, and two
prejudice toward the English, the Negro, and the white Judges. The Negro and Indian are the stock
Indian. Understandably perhaps, all connected dishonest, sly characters. Surprisingly, they are
with the Indian is deplorable to her, and the very presented in a better light than the judges and
word Indian becomes pejorative. Poor food is could even be said to triumph in this joke. The
described as “Indian fare,” a poverty stricken back- two judges are out in the field gathering pumpkins
woodsman is described as “an Indian-like animal when they are called upon to render a decision.
[who] . . . makes an Awkerd Scratch with his Yet, like the two generals in Catch-22 who know
Indian shoo” (p. 25). Indian customs are dispar- they have no authority without their badge of of-
aged and the English censured for emulating them fice, they build a bench of pumpkins. Like typical
in their practice of divorce. The Black also comes lawyers, each has his own idea of how to proceed,
in for his share of indictment, and, again, the and each only succeeds in making himself a
English are tainted by an association with them. laughingstock. In comparison with the lowest
. . . too Indulgent (especially ye farmers) to their members of society, these justices are made to
slaves: sufering too great familiarity from them, seem even more ridiculous.
permitting ym to set at Table and eat with them
The effect of this joke is totally dependent on
(as they say to save time,) and into the dish goes
the black hoof as freely as the white hand. word play, emphasizing, again, Knight’s manipula-
tion of language. The Indian does not know the
This intolerant attitude toward those who dif- meaning of “Hoggshead,” and the pantomime of
fer from her in class or race is probably a clue to the judge make him believe that the judge is refer-
an understanding of one of the several anecdotes ring to his own head as a Hoggshead (perhaps the
Knight tells: first pig joke in our history). Yet there is a nice
A negro Slave belonging to a man in ye Town, discrimination between types of language, also.
stole a hogs head from his master, and gave or The first judge is interrogating the Indian incor-
sold it to an Indian, native of the place. The rectly because he is “speaking Negro” to him, “it’s
Indian sold it in the neighbourhood, and so the a Grandy wicked thing to steal.” The junior judge
theft was found out. Thereupon the Heathen was
seized, and carried to the Justices House to be
thinks he will succeed by speaking what he
Examined. But his worship (it seems) was gone considers to be Indian to him. Since he has to
into the feild, with a Brother in office, to gather in pantomime part of the action, his opinion of the
his Pompions. Whither the malefactor is hurried, Indian’s mentality is quite low. “Tatapa—You,
And Complaint made, and satisfaction in the Tatapa—you; all one this. Hoggshead all one this.”
name of Justice demanded. Their Worships cann’t
proceed in form without a Bench: whereupon
The justice reacts the way one would to a foreigner
they Order one to be Imediately erected, which, and tries to make him understand by loudly
for want of fitter materials, they made with pom- repeating the words, which in this case sound like
pions—which being finished, down setts their bad TV Indian dialogue. Perhaps this comic
Worships, and the Malefactor call’d, and by the stereotype is also older than heretofore imagined.
Senior Justice Interrogated after the following
manner. You Indian why did You steal from this Thus, humor for Sarah Kemble Knight be-
Man? You sho’dn’t do so—it’s a Grandy wicked comes a vehicle to express her view of reality.
thing to steal. Hol’t Hol’t cryes Justice Junr
Language is the medium to convey the humor,
Brother, You speak negro to him. I’le ask him. You
sirrah, why did You steal this man’s Hoggshead? and she effectively experiments with language,
Hoggshead? (replys the Indian,) me no stomany. with the use of the vernacular, to portray her view
No? says his Worship; and pulling off his hatt, of life in colonial New England. Unconsciously or
Patted his own head with his hands, sais, Tatapa— consciously, she reveals an attitude toward religion
You Tatapa—you; all one this. Hoggshead all one
and toward business which is closer to that of Ben
this. Hah! says Netop, now me stomany that.
Whereupon the Company fell into a great fitt of Franklin than that of the Mathers; her language
Laughter, even to Roreing. Silence is comanded, reveals the sectionalism already surfacing in New
but to no effect: for they continued perfectly England, especially in her criticism of the Con-
necticut colony. Furthermore, in her use of anec- tions of the belief that each person had an indi-
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES dote and concrete language she lays a foundation vidual relationship with God, other women were
for the stereotypical Yankee and creates a persona engaged in its more private anatomising, analys-
with four distinct voices. ing and recording the development of their
The Journal of Sarah Kemble Knight is not great spiritual well-being. Such texts fall into two main
literature, yet it is worthy of more consideration groups. First, there are three books of poetry and
than it has been given in American literary his- meditations, the authors of which are clearly well
tory. Its social considerations are just as important to the right of Quakers and Baptists. Second, there
as its historical ones. The Journal gives an insight is a series of spiritual autobiographies composed
into the life of a colonial woman who defies by members of Independent congregations,
stereotype. She is cultured enough to be aware of mostly in London. What all these writings have
society’s genteel expectations of woman and of in common is the fact that their authors faithfully
English poetic traditions, while she is practical promote highly restrictive ideologies about wom-
and American enough to reject them when they en’s duties and necessary passivity, while at the
do not suit her. She also reveals of independence same time finding ways to justify their own
of women in America, both in the realm of unfeminine activities.
finance and of adventure. She is, indeed, a repre- My bounded spirits, bounded be in thee,
sentative of the “liberated woman,” in a time and For bounded by no other can they be.
place where we expect no liberation. (Eliza’s Babes, p. 36)
For a woman to write for publication at all in
Notes the seventeenth century was to challenge the
1. Walter Blair, Native American Humor (San Francisco: limits of acceptable feminine behaviour. Between
Chandler Publishing Co., 1960), p. 4, states, “By 1652 and 1656, three women published books of
contrast two rare frivolous souls of colonial times, Sara
Kemble Knight and William Byrd, in their treatment religious poetry and meditations, all of them find-
of typical details, foreshadowed American humor.” ing ways within their work of making such activ-
See also Willard Thorp, American Humorists ity possible. In their texts they construct models
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1964), p.
of a writing, female Christian who is supposed to
5.
be acceptable to the reading public. The ideal
2. A very good article for bibliographical information is
female author who appears in these texts is able
Alan Margolies, “The Editing and Publication of ‘The
Journal of Madame Knight,’” Bibliographical Society of to enter the public world free from male prefaces,
America Papers, 58 (1964), 25-32. but nonetheless is restricted by the characteristics
3. George Parker Winship, The Journal of Madame Knight of this ideal. All these texts, to a lesser or greater
(New York: Peter Smith, 1935), p. 68. All subsequent extent, are didactic, creating for writer and reader
references will be to this text. an image of desirable femininity which can
4. Kenneth S. Lynn. Mark Twain and Southwestern Humor embrace the identity of poet.
(Boston, Toronto: Little, Brown & Co., 1959), p. 31.
Much of Eliza’s Babes, 1652, was produced
5. For discussions of the Yankee figure in early American
abroad, possibly at the court of Elizabeth of Bohe-
literature see Constance Rourke, American Humor: A
Study of National Character (New York: Harcourt, Brace mia, after the anonymous author had fled Eng-
& Co., 1931), pp. 12, 14; Jennette Tandy, Crackerbox land during the 1640s. Her references to the civil
Philosophers in American Humor and Satire (New York: war (‘To the King, writ, 1644’, p. 23) make it clear
Columbia University Press, 1925), p. 2; and Walter
that she was a royalist who had hoped for some
Blair, pp. 8, 9.
compromise between king and parliament in the
6. Hennig Cohen and William B. Dillingham, Humor of
the Old Southwest (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co.,
mid-1640s. Once in exile, however, she rejoiced in
1964), p. xvii. the unexpected delights found in forced exclusion
from her country, and in ‘To the Queen of
Bohemia’ celebrates the fact that her exile had
ELAINE HOBBY (ESSAY DATE 1989) made it possible for her ‘To see that queen, so
SOURCE: Hobby, Elaine. “Religious Poetry, Medita- much admir’d’ (p. 23).
tions and Conversion Narratives.” In Virtue of Necessity:
English Women’s Writing 1649-88, pp. 54-75. Ann Arbor: Many of the defeated royalists, of course, had
The University of Michigan Press, 1989. to find some way of making failure and with-
In the following essay, Hobby examines the writings of drawal from the world palatable. In Eliza’s Babes,
several women who described their experiences of religious however, we also find an exploration of the
conversion.
specifically female advantages of abandoning the
While radical sectaries were out in the streets world. The Eliza persona that the poems create
pamphleteering, proclaiming the social implica- demonstrates the freedoms available for women
who retire from the public domain and immerse developed image, drawing on the language and

themselves in religious devotions. Not only can concepts of courtly love poetry. In ‘The Flight’, for
women dismiss concerns of state; they can also, instance, she reworks the conventional notion of
to some extent, retire from the family structures a lover dying from grief at his (usually) beloved’s
which compose it. death.
The title page of Eliza’s Babes announces that Eliza for, ask now not here,
the author ‘only desires to advance the glory of She’s gone to heaven, to meet her peer.
God, and not her own’. This reiterates the point For since her Lord, on earth was dead,
that Eliza makes several times in introductory What tarry here? she’d not, she said.
And to the heavens, she took her flight,
remarks: the normally reprehensible act of pub-
That she might be still in his sight;
lishing her works is acceptable, even necessary, And so to us she bid adieu,
because of her duty to God. Publishing is a But proved herself a lover true.
Christian act, she argues, because Christ died a (p. 11)
‘public death’, compelling her ‘to return him
As ‘a lover true’ she delights in praising her
public thanks, for such infinite and public favours’
beloved, ‘his fair sweet lovely face’ and ‘his pleas-
(sig. A3). This action should be emulated by all
ing eyes [that] do dart / Their arrows which do
true believers, and not criticised in her.
pierce my heart’ (pp. 24-5).
And if any shall say ‘Others may be as thankful as
thee, though they talk not so much of it’; let them
When it comes to earthly love, however, she
know that if they did rightly apprehend the asks God to harden her heart ‘as hard as steel’ (p.
infinite mercies of God to them, they could not 2): ‘Great God, thou only worth desiring art, / And
be silent: and if they do not think the mercies of none but thee, then must possess my heart’ (p.
God worth public thanks, I do. 12). The comparison between earthly love and
(sig. A3)
divine affection, made repeatedly in the poems’
Like her more radical sectary sisters, she uses use of love poetry conventions, is clear and
the idea that women should be the most lowly of consistent. As God’s spouse she has peace and
creatures to argue that, therefore, they are least freedom. Repeatedly and wittily she dismissed the
able to resist being used by God to his greater claims of men to possess her as a limitation, even
glory. a slavery.
And now I dare not say ‘I am an ignorant woman, Since you me ask, why born was I?
and unfit to write’, for if thou will declare thy I’ll tell you; ’twas to heaven to fly,
goodness and thy mercy by weak and contempt- Not here to live a slavish life,
ible means, who can resist thy will. By being to the world a wife.
(p. 75) (p. 31)
If we turn to her poem ‘What I Love’, we find

Although inhabiting this passive role restricts
that what might at first glance be anticipated as a
her subject matter—in one of her poems she
heartfelt declaration of love for some man, in fact
exhorts ‘Lord let no line be writ by me, / That
mocks the very idea of her deigning to feel affec-
excludes, or includes not, thee’—it also frees her
tion for any man.
from fear of human disapproval. Her opening
poem exults in this licence. Give me a soul, give me a spirit,
That flies from earth, heaven to inherit.
I glory in the word of God,
But those that grovel here below,
To praise it I accord.
What! I love them? I’ll not do so.
With joy I will declare abroad,
(p. 36)
The goodness of the Lord.
The product of this marriage with God is her
All you that goodness do disdain, book of poems, her ‘babes’. Her first use of the
Go; read not here:
term ‘babes’ to describe her work serves to empha-
And if you do; I tell you plain,
I do not care. sise her purported passivity in its production. Ad-
dressing other women as ‘my sisters’, she urges
For why? above your reach my soul is placed, them
And your odd words shall not my mind distaste.
(p. 1) Look on these babes as none of mine,
For they were but brought forth by me;
Eliza has committed herself to Christ—‘He is But look on them, as they are divine,
my spouse’, she assures God (p. 21)—and her Proceeding from Divinity.
description of herself as Christ’s wife is a highly (sig. Av)
Publishing her writings, even though she And still that glory I shall hold
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES claims divine sanction, was as great a risk to her If thou my spirit dost enfold.
modest reputation as sexual irregularities would
It is my bliss, I here serve thee,
have been. Defining herself on the title page as a ’Tis my great joy; thou lovest me.
‘virgin’, and stressing the modesty of her entry (p. 42)
into the public domain with these ‘babes’, she
This fate, however, is exemplary. Making the
adds: ‘I am not ashamed of their birth; for before I
married Eliza representative of women’s rightful
knew it, the Prince of eternal glory had affianced
role in wedlock, the poet explains ‘Not a husband,
me to himself; and that is my glory’ (sig. A2).
though never so excelling in goodness to us, must
These offspring, the result of an ‘irregular union’
detain our desires from heaven’ (p. 45). Even
with God, are a blessing to their ‘mother’ which
though the new spouse is kind—‘with him I have
makes them far preferable to children of flesh and
no annoy’ (p. 45)—this is unimportant in com-
blood born in wedlock, since ‘they immortalise
parison with the spiritual freedom that a relation-
the name’ (p. 42; children of the flesh, of course,
ship with God gives her. Representative of all
would only immortalise a husband’s name). Ad-
women, Eliza draws out the lesson that true
dressing ‘a Lady that bragged of her children’,
religion frees the female sex from dependence on
Eliza delights in the joy and holiness of her own
male approval or concern.
‘babes’.
For should our husband’s love fixed be
If thou hast cause to joy in thine, Upon some others, not on thee
I have cause too to joy in mine. Heaven’s Prince will never thee forsake,
Thine did proceed from sinful race, But still his darling will thee make.
Mine from the heavenly dew of grace. And should he of thee careless be,
Thine at their birth did pain thee bring, Heaven’s Prince, He will more careful be.
When mine are born, I sit and sing. He from the earth will raise thy heart,
Thine doth delight in nought but sin, That thou content mayst act that part.
My babes’ work is, to praise heaven’s King.
Thine bring both sorrow, pain and fear, Being married is merely playing a necessary
Mine banish from me dreadful care. role; her true identity is defined in relation to God.
(pp. 54-5)
Producing her ‘babes’, the fruit of her union
Some of the later poems in Eliza’s Babes with God, Eliza reflects that God must have
describe the unavoidability of marriage, and work ‘something here remarkable for me to do, before I
out a pattern whereby the poet can maintain her leave the earth’ (p. 102). The relationship between
autonomy within it. Dutiful to her God and to woman and God that the poems represent and
the male hierarchy of the family, she finds herself define makes her ‘capable of as great a dignity as
‘given away’ despite her own gift of her heart to any mortal man’.
God. The only solace offered in ‘The Gift’ is to
continue to follow God’s bidding. Peace! Present now no more to me (to take my
spirit from the height of felicity) that I am a
My Lord, hast thou given me away? creature of a weaker sex, a woman. For my God! If
Did I on earth, for a gift stay? I must live after the example of thy blessed
Hath he by prayer of thee gained me, apostle, I must live by faith, and faith makes
Who was so strictly knit to thee? things to come, as present; and thou hast said by
thy servant, that we shall be like thy blessed Son:
To thee I only gave my heart, then thou wilt make all thy people like kings and
Wouldst thou my Lord from that gift part? priests. Kings are men, and men are kings; and
I know thou wouldst deliver me souls have no sex. The hidden man of the heart
To none, but one beloved by thee. makes us capable of being kings; for I have heard
it is that within makes the man. Then are we by
election capable of as great a dignity as any mortal
But Lord my heart thou dost not give,
man.
Though here on earth, while I do live
My body here he may retain,
It is through withdrawal from the world and
My heart in heaven, with thee must reign.
in obedience solely to God, these ‘virgin’s
Then as thy gift let him think me, offerings’ demonstrate, that women can attain a
Since I a donage am from thee. measure of self-definition and control.
And let him know thou hast my heart,
He only hath my earthly part.
An Collins’s Divine Songs and Meditacions ap-
peared in 1653. The book, which is almost entirely
It was my glory I was free, in verse, is highly experimental in stanza form,
And subject here to none but thee, and it is possible that some of the songs, at least,
were intended to be set to music and performed.

In the introductory address ‘To the Reader’, Col-
lins explains that she has found writing ‘so ami-
able, as that it inflamed my faculties, to put forth ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
themselves in a practice so pleasing’. Writing is
described, in other words, as a delightful and
CATHERINE PARR (1512-1548)
empowering activity for the author. Choice of
The sixth wife of King Henry VIII, Parr was
subject-matter, however, was not free. She had
known in her day for her piety and learning
found no satisfaction, she asserts, in writing
as well her immensely popular devotional
‘profane history’. It was only when committing
works. The volume she edited, Prayers or
herself to the exposition of ‘divine truth’ that she Meditations (1545), was one of the earliest
found contentment. Composing poetry on such Protestant devotional works, and her spiritual
themes ‘reduced my mind to a peaceful temper’. autobiography, The Lamentation or Complaint
Her ‘inflamed faculties’, therefore, were at the of a Sinner (1547), was one of the first
same time ‘peaceful’. The Songs and Meditacions Protestant confessionals and an especially
proceed to promote tranquillity and contentment unusual publication for a woman of her day.
as qualities of the highest value, both for the state A devoted humanist, Parr worked tirelessly to
and for the individual. The author is portrayed in make religious works available to the English
her poetry as a pattern for the reader, a Christian reading public, and her works reveal her deep
woman who has achieved satisfaction by follow- interest in promoting Protestantism and call-
ing the rules promoted in the text. ing for reform. She also was a patron to a
number of Reformist thinkers in her court
If women’s sphere, according to conventional
circle and promoted the production of other
wisdom and dominant practice, extended no
Protestant religious works.
further than the boundaries of her home, An Col-
lins is shown as more especially confined within As a child Parr was encouraged to study
such limits. The long introductory poem ‘The by her mother, and became a notable scholar,
Preface’ consists of a fascinating fusion of personal fluent in Latin and capable in Greek and
history, commentary on the contemporary religio- modern languages. When Henry VIII was
political conflicts and a brief history of Christian- away in France in 1544, Parr acted as regent
ity, with a series of statements about the role of in his absence. She was also said to have
the author. Collins describes how her confinement behaved kindly to his children, the future
to the house was necessitated by chronic ill- queens Mary and Elizabeth, encouraging
health, inactivity lulling her brain to sleep. Writ- them in their learning. Factions at court were
ing has revived her. In ‘The Preamble’ to her first envious of Parr’s influence on Henry and
meditation, she also describes writing as a release sought to destroy her by linking her Protes-
tant leanings with “heretical” religious re-
from crippling despair and misery.
formers, and went so far as to accuse her of
Amid the ocean of adversity, treason. In 1545 Henry signed a warrant for
Near whelmed in the waves of sore vexation, her imprisonment in the Tower of London,
Tormented with the floods of misery, but Parr submitted to the king and did away
And almost in the guise of desperation,
with his suspicions.
Near destitute of comfort, full of woes,
This was her case that did the same compose.1 Early in the twentieth century, scholars
Writing has empowered her, and it is particu- regarded Parr’s writings as being of interest
larly important that she is writing about divine only as historical documents, but later femi-
truth. Since her subject matter is righteous, she is nist critics have emphasized Parr’s effect on
protected by a ‘sovereign power’ from the malice women’s learning and religious life in the
of her enemies who would wish her to remain sixteenth century as well as the challenges
she faced as a woman expressing her religious
silent. People have tried to hinder her, ‘Yet this
experiences.
cannot prevail to hinder me / From publishing
those truths I do intend’ (‘The Preface’).
Firm in the duty to publish her truths, she
makes no further apology for commenting on af-
fairs of state. Her task is to give voice to God’s contemporaries and to future ages the need for
truth, which entails a duty to pass on to her moderation, peace and order. The people are
‘wrapped in fangles new’, corrupted and confused band’s identity were, after all, supposed to be of
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES by ill-doers (‘Time past we understood by story’). paramount importance. The retirement advocated
Committed to the position that radical sectaries in Divine Songs and Meditacions, therefore, is of
are merely producing ‘new glosses’ on ‘old particular advantage to women, and is certainly
heresies’ (‘The Preface’), she argues for re- an important factor in the presentation of the
establishment of order and authority in church poet’s contentment. The good Christian of these
and state, and ‘Another Song Exciting to Spiritual Songs is not just singleminded, but also single-
Mirth’ proposes abandonment of concern over hearted. Her only spouse (like Eliza’s) is Christ.
the outcome of human conflict. She must withdraw from duties to men, as well as
from conflicts of state.
But those that are contented
However things do fall, Then let them know, that would enjoy
Much anguish is prevented, The firm fruition,
And they soon freed from all; Of his sweet presence, he will stay
They finish all their labours With single hearts alone,
With much felicity. Who [but] their former mate,
Do quite exterminate:
If the author and reader become singleminded With all things that defile.
in the pursuit of wholly spiritual concerns, they They that are Christ’s truly,
will find happiness. Only by refusing rebellion The flesh do crucify
and discord can the true Christian find happiness With its affections vile.
The grounds of truth are sought
(‘Another Song’ “Having restrained discontent”).
New principles are wrought
Quite clearly in such passages, the model Of grace and holiness,
Christian woman that the poet represents asserts Which plantings of the heart
Will spring in every part,
that conflict and dissension are evils, the work of And so itself express.
the devil, and so should be rejected in favour of (‘A Song Expressing Their Happiness who have
social order and moderation. While calling for Communion with Christ’)
retreat from argument she is also, therefore, In this union with Christ, the female poet can
promoting a particular (and reactionary) political justify her writing as proper feminine employ-
ideology. Arguing that state politics are unimpor- ment. ‘The Preface’ describes the Songs as offspring
tant, she makes a political statement, and holds clad in homely dress—fitting products of a virtu-
up the contented poet persona as evidence that ous woman. She defends her writing
retirement from worldly concerns brings happi-
ness. She looks to God to provide the only pos- Now touching that I hasten to express
Concerning these, the offspring of my mind,
sible unity in the families of a nation torn apart Who though they here appear in homely dress
by civil war. And as they are my works, I do not find
But ranked with others, they may go behind,
No knot of friendship long can hold
Yet for their matter, I suppose they be
Save that which grace hath tied,
Not worthless quite, whilst they with truth agree.
For other causes prove but cold
When their effects are tried. The fruit of this union with Christ is necessar-
For God who loveth unity
ily good.
Doth cause the only union
Which makes them of one family So sorrow served but as springing rain
Of one mind and communion. To ripen fruits, endowments of the mind,
This is the cause of home debate, Who thereby did ability attain
And much domestic woes, To send forth flowers, of so rare a kind,
That one may find his household mates Which wither not by force of sun or wind:
To be his greatest foes, Retaining virtue in their operations,
That with the wolf the lamb may bide Which are the matter of those meditations.
As free from molestation
As Saints with sinners, who reside The overriding assertion of the Songs and Medi-
In the same habitation. tacions, indeed, is that the poet, the Christian
(‘A Song Declaring that a Christian May Find woman, having suffered greatly in the world from
True Love only where True Grace Is’) conflict and physical constraints, has found the
The championing of withdrawal from the wisdom to willingly abandon worldly concerns
world indeed becomes particularly interesting and fence herself into a narrow domain which al-
when applied specifically to the question of fam- lows, in practice, greater freedom. The final
ily ties: a woman’s duty of obedience to her father, expression of this is the Songs themselves, ‘flowers
and her subsequent absorption within her hus- of so rare a kind, / Which wither not by force of
sun or wind’. The most succinct statement of this her uneasiness about ‘making it public’ (sig. A6v)

conclusion appears in ‘Another Song’ “The winter has been overcome: ‘the subject will be the ho-
of my infancy”, which traces the poet’s suffering nour of it’ (sig. A7v). Apologising for her ‘lowly’
and subsequent attainment of peace. The enclos- achievements, she makes it clear that the book is
ing of her mind by the strictures of contentment all her own work (helped by the Lord), and that it
and divine truth has brought with it safety, mak- is the best she can do. The book is her child.
ing it possible for her to write undisturbed and
And now to you, O my friends, I present these
thus attain more than most women ever can. The poor and undressed lines, being as they came into
cottage garden of her mind can grow rare fruits the world, I not finding any hand to help me to
indeed. put it into a better dress than what it brought with
it . . . For though I was not ambitious of a beauti-
Yet as a garden is my mind enclosed fast ful babe, yet I confess I would gladly have had it
Being to safety so confined from storm and blast appear comely; therefore where you find it harsh
Apt to produce a fruit most rare, or uneven, know, it should not have come abroad
That is not common with every woman so, had not my ignorance to find the fault been
That fruitful are. the cause of it.
(sig. h3v)
Most women’s ‘fruitfulness’ is shown in their
ability to bear sons for their husbands. Her off- As a godly text, Honey on the Rod is didactic.
spring were acquired, the text proclaims, through The author warns her reader to understand the
accepting the need for quiescence and withdrawal ‘comfortable contemplation’ as exemplary, not
from worldly turmoil and family ties in a country just revealing the author’s condition but also
split apart by civil war. This alone can bring hap- showing the sinner her/his own true, mortal state.
piness.
Come, O come, I beseech you, whoever you are
For in our union with the Lord alone that read these lines, and behold yourselves and
Consists our happiness. me in them, as objects of mortality, like dust
Certainly such who are with Christ at one before the wind or as stubble before a consuming
He leaves not comfortless. fire; weak, and not able of ourselves to resist the
(‘A Song Expressing Their Happiness who have least assault.
Communion with Christ’) (p. 9)
In Divine Songs and Meditacions an apparently The recurrent simile of Honey on the Rod
conventional restatement of a basic Christian portrays the author as an erring child or poor
tenet—that God alone is the source of secure joy— scholar, God as the father and teacher. The author
becomes a justification for female celibacy and a and reader together are led through a series of les-
celebration of women’s writing. sons in order to achieve their salvation.
Elizabeth Major’s Honey on the Rod: Or a The major part of the book—about three
comfortable Contemplation for one in Affliction ap- quarters of it—consists of a prose dialogue ‘A
peared prefaced by a commendatory note by the Comfortable Contemplation for One in Affliction’.
censor Joseph Caryl in 1656. Caryl recommends The main protagonists are ‘Consolation’ and
the book to the reader as evidence that ‘the Lord ‘Soul’, who discuss how hope and salvation can
gives instruction with correction’. The author’s be found in the midst of affliction. The soul, cast
own address to her readers is properly self- down and repentant, looks to language and
deprecating, while making the necessary claim specifically to writing as a way to find relief from
that her writings are both godly and useful. despair.
If you please so far to descend, as to cast an eye I could wish my tongue were as the pen of a ready
upon these poor lines presented to you, you may writer, if there be hopes of ease by imparting; for
behold in it a little (but a full) hive. I entreat thee my sighs are many, and my heart is heavy. I, I am
not to be offended, if thou find in it more wax she that hath seen affliction.
than honey, and more dross than either. The (p. 2)
honey (the divine part) I commend to thee, and
the wax (the mortal part) being clarified from the Honey on the Rod, then, acts as the site where
dross (that is, the faults and failings through
weakness) is useful in its place. affliction is made sense of, and a particular under-
(sig. A3r-v) standing and interpretation of suffering is given
to the distressed author and reader. In the author’s
That which is good in the book comes from case, the suffering is not solely the conventional
the Lord, she asserts, or from the experience he penitence of a believer seeking salvation and
has seen fit to give her (sig. A4). Since it is godly, escape from the bondage of sin, but a particularly
acute pain. Major explains to the reader that God includes several poems which do, quite literally
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES ‘was pleased in the prime of my years to take me, represent (and re-present) the author in this
as it were, from a palace to a prison, from liberty exalted role. These poems use her name, Elizabeth
to bondage, where I have served some Major, as a frame to lay out her qualities and
apprenticeships’ (sig. A4v). This ‘prison’ is physical aspirations, defining and constructing a self that
confinement brought on by sudden and crippling is both saint and sinner, saved by suffering and
illness. God’s grace. Elizabeth Major the author, as de-
picted in these verses, is a blessed and exemplary
No help here is below; alas, I must, I must to
prison here: where Lord, thou knowest, some ap- Saint. The most remarkable of these is ‘The Au-
prenticeships I have close prisoner been: my thor’s Prayer’.
strength thou were pleased to melt away by secret,
unseen ways, leaving me almost as helpless, as
The Author’s Prayer: O my blessed Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, have mercy on thy poor
when I first entered this vale of tears: and to my
hand-maid, Elizabeth Major.
debility many other afflictions thy wisdom sees it
needful here to add; for scarce doth the day break Oh gracious God, inhabiting E ternity
in upon me, before a new cause of sorrow hath My blest redeemer, that hast L ovingly
made a breach. Blessed me with hope, a kingdom to I nherit,
(p. 8) Lord of this mercy give an humble S pirit,
And grant I pray, I may my life A mend:
Her weakness and consequent close confine- Saviour ’tis thou that canst my soul B efriend.
ment to the home are presented, however, as hav- Jesus with grace my guilty soul E ndue
ing a particular metaphorical significance. She Christ promised grace, and thou, O Lord art T rue;
reminds herself repeatedly that her disability is Have care of me, deal out with thine own H and
God’s judgement on her as a sinner: ‘because ye Mercy to my poor soul, thou canst com- M and
have sinned against the Lord, and have not On me a shower of grace, sin to A void,
obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come Thy praise to sing, my tongue shall be I mployed;
upon you’ (p. 14). She presents herself to the Poor, Lord I am, with fear and care O ppressed,
reader as a particularly clear exemplar of the state Handmaid to thee I am, in thee I’ll R est.
of sin; and, as the text proceeds, the sinner saved. The self thus defined and recommended to
Her illness and pain have given her the lesson that the reader is one with strictly limited freedoms.
Honey on the Rod offers to the reader: we must She must behave in acceptable, godly ways—
withdraw from the world, and concern ourselves something which would not usually involve writ-
only with Christ who (like the author) suffered for ing, for a woman, necessitating her introductory
the sake of our salvation. justification of the act, and the didactic concern
The passive, chastened self can be useful, and of the book. In order to explore the range of
so the sinner calls on God to humble and break subject-matter relevant to a discussion of sinful-
her. In the context of constant references to real ness, she also has to vindicate making reference to
physical pain, such passages acquire poignancy. things ‘that your blushing sex should want confi-
Passivity here is not a metaphorical state advo- dence to mention’ (sig. h3). When writing ‘On
cated by a man with real power and control in Immodesty’, therefore, she inevitably reprimands
the world. It is an inescapable fate, based in female women for not being sufficiently chaste and mod-
powerlessness and the author’s chronic illness, est.
which she is trying to present and interpret in a For England sure doth Sodom pass in sins,
manner which gives it some purpose and her O here’s committed unseen, unheard of things
some stature. To former ages, by my own sex are done,
Things but to name, would taint a modest
Lord, give an humble heart, that I may yield, tongue:
O get the conquest ere thou quit the field: Therefore myself I’ll silence, since tongue nor ear
And melt it, Lord, by mercies, if that won’t do, Of a chaste soul can it describe, nor hear:
Break it in pieces, and then make it new. For certainly, ’tis scarce unknown to any.
O frame it to thy will, to thee ’tis known, With grief I speak, ill’s acted by too many.
And not to me, O Lord, though ’tis mine own. (p. 175)
O bring it to obedience, make’t what thou wilt She can only make the immodest step of writ-
So thou wilt own it, help ere my soul be spilt. ing and publishing by claiming to silence herself
(p. 185)
on certain matters, while warning other women
The self torn apart and remade by God is one against being overbold. Writing allows Major to
who has a right to write, and who can represent create and inhabit a contradictory space, where
the sinner saved. The final section of the book she is both free to write as a sinner saved, and yet
still tightly bound by rules of passivity and as proof of true deliverance that Elizabeth Moore

modesty. She constructs a new self, but a new self cited the fact that God had taken her through the
broken by suffering and made up only of permis- same processes as those reported by other converts
sible feminine elements. as evidence of her own Sainthood.3 It was prob-
‘I could not see the need I had of my troubles, nor ably the same conviction of the inevitability of a
the end for which they were sent.’ specific pattern that led the editor of Sarah Davy’s
(Sarah Davy, Heaven Realiz’d, p. 5) posthumous Heaven Realiz’d to divide it into sec-
tions, the headings of which trace a formal
Women’s published records of their spiritual
development that bears little relation to the actual
lives have roots in the convention of spiritual self-
content of the text.
examination recommended by Puritan divines.
This practice served in part to replace the earlier The conventions of spiritual autobiography
Catholic pattern of confession to a priest to obtain both provided an acceptable reason for women to
absolution: each person had to examine their own write about their experiences, and established a
soul’s health to discover whether s/he would be framework through which they could order and
numbered among the saved. Such a practice was make sense of disparate elements of their lives.
particularly relevant when death seemed im- On the whole, however, it was not possible for
minent, and it is thanks to the desire of the dying women themselves to publish their own accounts.
to recall evidence that they were included among These spiritual autobiographies were often pub-
God’s chosen people that accounts survive of the lished posthumously and they enter the public
lives of Elizabeth Moore, Mary Simpson2 and Luce domain more carefully surrounded by a bevy of
Perrot. The writings of all these women were masculine praise, exhortation and interpretation
published post-humously by men. None of them than any other body of women’s writing in the
appeared as autonomous texts, but were reworked period. Anne Venn’s A Wise Virgins Lamp Burning,
by their male editors to serve their own ends. for instance, although clearly written with a
Elizabeth Moore’s Evidences for Heaven, for in- readership of Christians in mind, was not pub-
stance, appears in Calamy’s The Godly Man’s Ark lished until her parents found the manuscript in
as part of his argument in favour of patient fore- her closet after her death. It is prefaced by a
bearance. Luce Perrot’s Account was divided into recommendation from her congregation’s minis-
short sections, each one followed by far more ter, Thomas Weld, who hopes it will serve as an
lengthy interpretations and observations com- example of desirable female behaviour, even if ‘to
posed by her husband, Robert. In all three cases, thy knowledge it should not add much’.4
the women’s names only appear in print to be The writings most excused and qualified by
used to urge modesty and acceptance of duty. male approval include those by Sarah Wight, Jane
It was not only when confronted by the fear Turner and Anne Venn. Sarah Wight had first
of their own imminent demise, however, that entered the arena of public scrutiny in 1647 when,
Puritans assessed their chances of salvation. In the at the age of fifteen, she had fallen into a trance.
early 1650s, compilations of ‘conversion She had arisen from this periodically to quote
experiences’ were published by Henry Walker, scripture or to converse with some of the crowds
Vavasor Power, Samuel Petto and John Rogers. who came to observe her. Henry Jessey’s best-
These ‘confessions’, many of which were made by selling description of this period of her life, The
women, are professions of faith made by individu- Exceeding Riches of Grace, includes a list of almost
als seeking to join a specific Independent congre- thirty ministers and over fifty ‘persons of note’
gation. For an experience to be accepted as a who came to visit her.5 She was the ideal model of
genuine guarantee of salvation, it would have to the divinely inspired woman, humbly submitting
fall within a specific pattern: otherwise the conver- to being used as God’s tool, and not presuming to
sion might be a false one, and the sinner caught speak on the issues of state politics that should lie
in the hypocrisy of a false confidence in their beyond her scope. Unlike her fellow seer Anna
salvation. As Owen Watkins has demonstrated in Trapnel, she represented no threat to the civil
The Puritan Experience, the conversion narrative authorities. It is consistent with this that her only
rapidly established its own conventions, a particu- publication should have found its way into print
lar pattern of false confidence, doubt, and re- without her prior knowledge. (Perhaps the book-
newed, true confidence coming to be seen as the seller, Richard Moone, was hopeful that A Wonder-
necessary sequence in achieving genuine salva- ful Pleasant and Profitable Letter Written by Mrs
tion, permitting admission to a gathering of Sarah Wight would sell as well as Jessey’s work
Saints. This structure came to be so surely accepted about her had.) Although her Letter is of prodi-
gious length—about fourteen thousand words—it Jane Turner writes to be useful. Having found
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES shows no sign of having been written with any reading helpful in her own soul’s growth, she
audience in mind other than the friend (minister wants the record of her experiences to profit oth-
Robert Bragg?) to whom it is addressed.6 It records ers. Despite her disclaimer in her ‘word from the
the stages of her conversion, and consists mainly author to the reader’ that the thought of publica-
of a detailed exposition of Christian doctrine, tion had never occurred to her, the text exhibits
starting from the premise that ‘A Christian’s true many signs that it was written with a public in
happiness lies in being emptied of all self, self mind. Details of her narrative are frequently omit-
refined, as well as gross self; and being filled with ted with the observation that it is fitting only to
a full God’ (p. 5). ‘hint’ at them, and a thorough attempt is made to
order the story, referring the reader back and fore
Jane Turner’s Choice Experiences portray a
to other passages. This care for her work and at-
woman far less hemmed in by male approbation,
tention to a reader’s needs might even have
who nonetheless needs masculine endorsement
extended to following it through the press, as
for publication of her work. For her, a personal
more than one of these directions to the reader
relationship with God engendered not passive
refers her/him to specific page numbers.
submission but a new activity and responsibility
for vigilance against backsliding. She explains The lengthy prefaces to Choice Experiences,
written by John Turner and two ministers, John
In the work of conversion we are passive, I mean
as to inward spiritual activity, we can do nothing
Spilsbury and John Gardner, indicate the exist-
being dead . . . But after conversion we are active, ence of a dispute within their church concerning
and therefore commanded to keep ourselves in the role of women. (Spilsbury’s congregation were
the love of God. an offshoot of the Jacob group of churches in
(p. 189) London. The group’s membership ranged from
the conservative Henry Jessey, who wrote the ac-
Even her description of the ‘passivity’ of
count of Sarah Wight’s famous trance described
conversion itself is only a conventional acceptance
above, to the radical Katherine Chidley, who was
of the tenet that it is God who calls the sinner,
centrally involved in the pamphleteering by Level-
and decides who is to be saved. This quiescence
ler women in the 1640s.7 ) Jane Turner complains
does not mean that she should make no initial ef-
that her greatest discouragements have come from
fort to find the truth. Her third ‘Note of
the Saints even while affirming her belief that
Experience’ relates how she had read and rejected
‘such brethren only whose gifts are approved of
some unnamed book promoting the new theol-
by the church, may exercise their gifts publicly,
ogy. When her Presbyterian minister later
and no other’ (p. 7). She is determined that such
preached against the text, however, and talked
approval should be given to her, and cautions her
about it in terms which differed from her recollec-
fellows ‘to take heed of casting stumbling blocks
tion of its contents, she went to considerable
in each other’s way’, and to leave the final selec-
lengths to acquire another copy of this banned
tion of the Chosen to God (p. 8). It is only with
text. Finding that the minister had indeed misrep-
the explicit backing of Spilsbury, and her hus-
resented the book was a key element in her deci-
band’s attesting to her modesty and his ‘owning’
sion to change her religious allegiances (pp. 49-
of her work, that publication can be counte-
53).
nanced. The alternative would be to align herself
It has frequently been noted that the ideas of with the more radical Quakers, whose advocacy of
the sects allowed women some measure of au- Inner Light she examines, and finally rejects as
tonomy from their husbands. Quite what this impermissible, in the course of her experiences
could mean becomes apparent when we examine (pp. 111-30). Having made her way into print, the
the writings of the women themselves. Jane conclusion of the text (which might well be the
Turner’s husband, in fact, always enters the text as section written after her husband had seen and
an afterthought. Only once she has pondered an approved the work) contains a general reflection
issue and made her decision does it occur to her on the meaning of the concept of ‘experience’ and
to discuss it with him. It is quite in accordance her recommendations on specific issues, such as
with this sense of separateness that she should the status of the church’s younger members (pp.
have been writing her Choice Experiences without 193-207). Within the confines of her church, she
her husband’s knowledge, and that his first sight gained the time to write carefully and at length
of the book should have been when it was nearly about weighty matters, and was able to negotiate
finished (dedicatory epistle). a route into print.
The pattern of the conversion experience This divine command gives licence to love

could provide a framework to make sense of vari- ‘although it be to some prejudice to thyself’,
ous crises in the course of a lifetime, and resulted justifying to Davy and her reader a relationship
in widely different reminiscences being written. which is taboo, since the friend who gave her so
In the case of these women writers, the experi- many ‘sweet refreshments’ (p. 21) was another
ences of falling in love, marrying and childbear- woman. This female friend first enters Heaven
ing—events commonly regarded as key stages in Realiz’d in a passage which at first avoids assign-
female existence—were frequent matters of con- ing gender, dwelling on the religious significance
cern. The unifying factor of conversion allowed of the encounter.
such issues to be understood and written about, One day the Lord was pleased by a strange provi-
and justified publication. Sarah Davy’s reminis- dence to cast me into the company of one that I
cences centre on the terror produced by her fall- never saw before, but of a sweet and free disposi-
ing in love with a minister, another woman. Sus- tion, and whose discourse savoured so much of
the gospel, that I could not but at that instant
annah Bell uses her text to work out the bless God for his goodness in that providence. It
requirements of wifely duty, and Elizabeth White pleased the Lord to carry out our hearts towards
writes to produce a vision of marriage that dis- one another at that time, and a little while after,
counts the relevance of romantic love. In Hannah the Lord was pleased to bring us together again
for the space of three days, in which time it
Allen’s account, finally, the usefulness of the writ-
pleased God by our much discourse together, to
ten word itself, and of the conversion narrative establish and confirm me more in the desires I
framework in particular, are brought into doubt, had to join with the people of God in society, and
though finally reaffirmed. Since almost all the enjoy communion with them according to the
texts under discussion here were published post- way of the gospel. She was of a society of the
Congregational way called Independents . . .
humously, the writers shared the problem that a Then were our hearts firmly united, and I blessed
third party had to be convinced, through the the Lord from my soul for so glorious and visible
format of the conversion experience, of the an appearance of his love.
potential interest of publishing a woman’s work.8 (pp. 20-1)
Sarah Davy’s ‘precious relics’, Heaven Realiz’d, Peace, the end of Davy’s story, and the begin-
were published by her minister Anthony Palmer, ning of the possibility of writing about it, arrive
who recommends them as a model to be imitated when, having joined her friend’s Independent
by ‘younger persons (especially young gentle- church, she abandons this forbidden love and
women)’, in the hope that they will help to stem marries. She writes no meditations on wedded
the rise of atheism.9 love.
Davy describes her early life as a period of The other longing that fills Davy’s text is the
great loneliness and isolation, during which time desire to be useful in her life. She learns that this
her mother and baby brother died and she passed can be achieved by making herself the wholly pas-
through a crisis of faith. The turning point comes sive instrument of God’s will, and urges him to
when she meets the person who effects her con- accept her converted soul: ‘make me useful to thee
version to an Independent congregation. Her in that way or any way thou shalt be pleased to
depiction of this, and of her subsequent heartache choose’ (p. 29). It is this submission to God’s bid-
at being parted from her new-found friend, is in ding that permits her both to be united with her
language which conjures up associations of ro- friend, if only for a while, and to write the medita-
mantic love. Release from misery arrives when she tions which are finally published. By writing about
joins the Independent church her friend belonged the episode, she is able to make sense of it, and
to. God then addresses her directly, as recorded in integrate it into an acceptable interpretation of
one of her meditations. the world. She had begun by puzzling over ‘the
need I had of my troubles’ (p. 5). By accepting the
Did not I first love you? and therefore give you logic of conversion she ends a Saint, a married
this new commandment, that as I have loved you woman and, once dead, a published author.
so you should love one another, with a pure
unbounded love . . . to love one another as I have Susannah Bell’s Legacy of a Dying Mother was
loved you, or to love thy friend, as thou lovest also published by her church minister, the Inde-
thyself, most willingly to do that which may be
pendent Thomas Brooks.1 0 Bell’s account of her
for thy friend’s good, although it be to some
prejudice to thyself, this is love and by this you experiences was, Brooks tells us, written down by
shall know that you are my disciples. one of her sons as she spoke it on her deathbed.
(p. 37) The ‘Epistle Dedicatory’ by Brooks which prefaces
the story in fact fills two thirds of the book (pp. sition of true confidence in her salvation. The
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES 1-43). He holds Bell up as a model of humility, experiences she describes, however, like those that
who faithfully continued to justify the Lord dur- Bell and Davy depict, are problems caused by love
ing her suffering. Her acts of charity, earnest and childbearing. Her first crisis of faith occurs
desires for the salvation of her friends and family, immediately before her marriage, the second
and loving behaviour to poor miscarrying Chris- about fifteen months later when she is expecting
tians all gain a mention. She is presented as both the birth of her first child. The wrongdoing which
virtuous and self-denying, the ideal woman. preoccupies her thoughts at both these times is
The ‘conversion experiences’ which follow are the fact that she had spent so much time in her
as much concerned with Bell’s conversion to the youth reading ‘histories [i.e. romances], and other
merits of wifely duty as they are with more mysti- foolish books’.1 2
cal matters. She tells how when her husband had I was a great lover of histories, and other foolish
first wanted to go to New England she had resisted books, and did often spend my sleeping-time in
his will, as she had a small child and was heavily reading of them, and sometimes I should think I
did not do well in so doing, but I was so bewitched
pregnant with another. The Lord reminds her of
by them, that I could not forbear; and hearing of
the command ‘Wives submit yourselves unto your a friend of mine, which was esteemed a very holy
own husbands, as unto the Lord’, and she submits. woman, that did delight in histories, I then
She has seen the error of her ways too late, concluded it was no sin, and gave myself wholly
however, and the second child dies. God tells her then to this kind of folly, when I had any spare
time, for two or three years. I had sometimes slight
that this has happened as a punishment for her
thoughts of repentance, but was loath to set about
disobedience. She informs her husband of her it.
decision to accompany him after all, and by the (p. 3)
time they set out she is again ‘big with child’ (pp.
45-7). Most of the rest of the narrative is concerned Such reading might seem a venial enough sin,
with her life in New England, while her husband unless we reflect that the subject-matter of these
travels back and forth between the two countries. romances which had so obsessed her was a glorifi-
She has become a good wife and Christian, and is cation of the joys of love. Perhaps the reality had
soon allowed to join the local church. She sees it not matched up to her expectations. Certainly the
as a reward for this godly behaviour that her fam- thought that dominates as her confinement ap-
ily are not hurt by an earthquake, and that on proaches is the fear that she will perish in
their return to England they survive the Plague childbed: ‘I was much dejected, having a sense of
and the Great Fire (pp. 59-61). The only distur- my approaching danger’ (p. 11). After giving birth,
bance to this surface contentment comes during she has a vision and then a dream which confirm
one of her husband’s trips back to England. While that she will die. While still convalescing from the
he is there, war breaks out, and Susannah Bell’s birth, she finds release from fear by writing of
neighbours fear that he might have been killed. ‘God’s Gracious Dealings’ with her. As the title
This, too, she accepts with cheerful resignation, page informs the reader, she did then die in
telling them ‘If God should take my husband out childbed, like many of her contemporaries (see
of the world, I should have a husband in heaven, Chapter Seven).
which was best of all’ (pp. 55-6). The introductory remarks to Hannah Allen’s
The manuscript of Elizabeth White’s The Satan his Methods and Malice Baffled seem to be
Experiences of Gods Gracious Dealing was found after written by a church minister and direct the reader
her decease, as Anne Venn’s had been, in her to the expected interpretation of her story: melan-
closet.1 1 The reasons she gives for her writing are choly is physical in its origins, but the devil can
the same as those of the authors of meditations use this ‘malady’ to his own ends. Hannah Allen’s
and conversion experiences: memory of God’s experiences are to be understood as the tale of her
goodness will support her in times of darkness, overcoming, with God’s help, Satan’s temptations
and prevent her forgetting its details. The text will to despair and self-destruction. This interpretation
remind her that ‘he only hath wrought my works of her story is remarkable in view of the fact that
in me, for of myself I am not able to think a good the problem the narrative centres on is the failure
thought, speak a good word, or do a good action’ of this religious framework to explain or relieve
(pp. 21-2). Hannah Allen’s state of mind.
Her story follows the usual conversion narra- Allen’s story begins conventionally enough:
tive format of progress from ignorance and self- she records being raised by religious parents,
deception through spiritual torment to the acqui- undergoing early doubts about her salvation, and
finding relief and new hope when reading a book despair lifted. After about three years the melan-

by Mr Bolton. After her marriage in 1655 or 1656 choly began to leave her, she records,
at the age of seventeen to a merchant, Hannibal and then I changed much from my retiredness,
Allen, she joined Edmund Calamy’s church (pp. and delighted to walk with friends abroad . . .
1-6). Eight years later her husband died on one of And this spring it pleased God to provide a very
his many foreign voyages, and she ‘began to fall suitable match for me, one Mr Charles Hatt, a
into a deep melancholy’ (p. 7). She turned to the widower living in Warwickshire; with whom I live
very comfortably, both as to my inward and
established routines of her religion to lift her outward man, my husband being one that truly
depression, seeking evidence that she was one of fears God.
the saved and could look forward to an eternity of (p. 71)
bliss. Attempting to relieve her melancholy, Han-
nah Allen reread her diary, seeking proof that her Her religion had provided no explanation for
writing had served some useful purpose and that the arrival of her melancholy at her first husband’s
her belief in her salvation was not ‘hypocrisy’. death, and produced no reason for its leaving her
at her remarriage. Nonetheless, with the problem
Then I would repeat several promises to my condi- gone the experience could be written about, and
tion, and read over my former experiences that I
had writ down, as is hereafter expressed, and
an attempt made to fit it into the accepted pat-
obligations that I had laid upon myself, in the tern of false confidence, doubt and new, true
presence of God, and would say, ‘Aunt, I hope I knowledge of salvation. The text ends by quoting
write not these things in hypocrisy, I never a series of biblical passages selected to make sense
intended any eye should see them; but the devil of events in such a framework.
suggesteth dreadful things to me against God, and
that I am an hypocrite’. Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called
(pp. 8-9) thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou
passest through the water, I will be with thee; and
Despite all the comforts her diary offered, her through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee:
depression deepened. The Bible, too, failed to as- when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt
not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon
suage her misery: ‘When I had seen the Bible, I thee. Isaiah 43.1-2.
would say, “Oh that blessed book that I so de-
Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye
lighted in once!”’ (p. 9). Travelling between friends
have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen
and relatives, and seeking spiritual counsel, she the end of the Lord: that the Lord is very pitiful
found no comfort and ceased bothering to keep and of tender mercy. James, 5.11.
her record of God’s marks of favour to her, and
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome
began to despair. As she began to have dreams them: because greater is he that is in you, than he
and visions confirming her doom, and found no that is in the world. 1 John, 4.4.
relief in writing or in reading the Bible, she
forbade her son to read and spurned the written With the experience itself removed, the writ-
word herself. ten word can be allowed once again to reinterpret
its significance.
Nor could I endure to be present at prayer, or any
other part of God’s worship, nor to hear the sound These books of religious poetry, meditations
of reading, nor the sight of a book or paper; and conversion experiences indicate that even
though it were but a letter, or an almanac . . . I such apparently narrow and formulaic genres
would wish I had never seen book, or learned let-
could be used by women to justify their writing.
ter; I would say ‘It had been happy for me if I had
been born blind’; daily repeating my accustomed Also, it is clear that women were able to use the
language, that I was a cursed reprobate, and the available formats to explore subject-matter that
monster of the creation. might be taboo, and that they wrote about love,
(pp. 58, 59) marriage and their relationships with women and
men in ways which challenge fundamentally the
Throughout the time of her melancholy,
impressions of female existence that can be
which lasted about three years, she made a series
gleaned from male texts. The religious poetry,
of dramatic suicide attempts, smoking a pipeful of
particularly, shows that women were not at all
spiders (generally believed to be venomous) to
convinced that love and marriage were in their
poison herself (p. 33); trying to starve herself to
own best interests. Nonetheless, texts had to be
death but losing courage (p. 36); cutting her arm
publishable, and their female authors found it
so as to bleed to death (p. 44).
necessary to negotiate some acceptable way of
She gives no real explanation for the cessation existing within the constraints of the society in
of these efforts at self-destruction, or how her which they lived. The struggle to find a solution
provides the dynamic of the texts themselves. 11. Many diary manuscripts were discovered and printed
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES Women daring to examine closely the limits of in private editions in the nineteenth century. See, for
instance, The Priuate Diarie of Elizabeth, Vicountess
female behaviour are forced in their writing to Mordaunt.
reaffirm femininity, their texts becoming both an
12. See also chapter 3 for a related discussion of Mary
exploration of its constraints and an analysed self- Rich.
policing which vindicates the fetters of feminine
duty. The authorial personae that emerge in the
process are model women, held up for admiration WILLIAM J. SCHEICK (ESSAY DATE
and emulation. The contradictions of this posi- 1998)
tion are neatly expressed in Eliza’s Babes in a SOURCE: Scheick, William J. “Captivity and Libera-
couplet addressed by the author both to her God tion.” In Authority and Female Authorship in Colonial
America, pp. 82-106. Lexington: The University Press of
and to her poetry itself: ‘My boundless spirits,
Kentucky, 1998.
bounded be in thee, / For bounded by no other
In the following essay, Scheick analyzes two captivity
can they be’ (p. 36). narratives written by Elizabeth Hanson and Elizabeth
Ashbridge.
Notes The instances of logonomic conflict we have

1. Divine Songs and Meditacions is unpaginated, and many reviewed to this point occur in works written by
of the poems are entitled simply ‘Another Song’. I
have therefore referred to such verses by quoting the
Congregationalist and Presbyterian authors. As
first line as well as the title. A modern facsimile of part my discussion peripherally indicates, these women
of Collins’s book has been printed by the Augustan are by no means perfectly aligned in every aspect
Reprint Society. of their Reformed beliefs. Mary English and Anne
2. Mary Simpson’s account is published with the sermon Bradstreet do not share precisely the same cultural
preached at her funeral by John Collings, in Faith and heritage or, perhaps, Congregationalist ideas,
Experience. Sermons preached at women’s funerals which were far from monolithic even at the start
might prove a rich source of forgotten women’s writ- of the Puritan enterprise in England (Foster 1991).
ings.
And compared with Bradstreet and English, Esther
3. Edmund Calamy, The Godly Man’s Ark, p. 203. Edwards Burr reflects a more liberating exposure
4. ‘Dedicatory Epistle’ by Thomas Weld. In this same
to both Presbyterian dogma and eighteenth-
year, Weld published a defence of his doctrines, after century thought, while at the same time in some
his refusal to baptise children had led him into trouble important respects she also seems, in contrast to
with other church officers. The Council of State them, less able to accommodate the validation of
removed his opponents. For details, see Michael Watts, secular interests. Nevertheless, whether conserva-
The Dissenters, Oxford, 1978. Perhaps this incident
encouraged Weld to publish Venn’s writings and use
tive or liberal, these authors collectively share a
them to promote his own theological position. She Calvinistic reading of existence and a Puritan
had died four years previously. context for coming to terms with their identity as
women. It is not surprising, therefore, that their
5. See Dorothy Ludlow, ‘“Arise and Be Doing”: English
“Preaching” Women, 1640-1660’, unpublished PhD writings should mutually reflect similar problems
thesis, Indiana University, 1978; Murray Tolmie, The in self-expression and aesthetics despite some
Triumph of the Saints, 1977; Watts, op. cit. variation in authorial contexts.
6. Ludlow, op. cit., p. 159. We turn now to two Quaker women—
7. Tolmie, op. cit.; H. N. Brailsford, The Levellers and the Elizabeth Hanson (1684-1737) and Elizabeth Ash-
English Revolution, ed. Christopher Hill, 1961. bridge (1713-55)—to consider whether they were
more successful in negotiating the theocratic logo-
8. According to Owen Watkins, The Puritan Experience:
Studies in Spiritual Autobiography, 1972, after 1670 nomic system in which they lived. It is reasonable
almost all the printed conversion experiences written to raise this possibility because in many important
by men were also posthumous publications. respects Quaker women, in comparison to their
9. The prefatory remarks to Davy’s text are signed ‘A. P.’. Congregationalist and Presbyterian peers, enjoyed
A likely identity for this anonymous Baptist minister a greater opportunity for enhancing their self-
is Anthony Palmer of Pinners’ Hall, London. esteem (Edkins 1980). They found this opportu-
10. Brooks, along with Jessey, was one of the supporters of nity within both the theological beliefs and the
the 1647 Declaration by Congregational Societies in and social structures of the Society of Friends.
about London, which ‘solemnly repudiated polygamy,
and community of property, and . . . defined liberty
Outside the Friends, of course, they were
exclusively in terms of religious liberty’ (Tolmie, op. pariahs, as is attested by the well-known history
cit., pp. 170-1). of their persecution in many of the colonies. To
their adversaries, Quaker women were whorish to speak” (1 Cor. 14:34), but unlike Mather, who

vagabonds, polluters of religious faith, and ir- cited this same passage specifically against female
rational opponents of both civil and ecclesiastical Quakers, Fox unconventionally interpreted the
authority (Koehler 1980, 246-53). All of these Pauline admonishment to refer only to ignorant
charges readily converged in the handy suspicion women (Sewel 1800, 2:1636), women who had
that Quaker women routinely practiced witchcraft not been illuminated by the Inward Light, “the
(288). Their adversaries often believed, in short, true Light, which lighteth every man” (John 1:9).
that male and female Quakers alike spoke in Since female Quakers were, in theory if not
Satanic double-talk, not in Pentecostal tongues. always in custom (Berkin 1996, 91-97), thoroughly
And speak they did, especially women, who equal to men, should not their writings transcend
found in Quakerism a communal legitimation of the kind of authoritarian dissonance evident in
their voice. Similar to the early Christians, with documents by contemporary Congregational and
whom the Quakers identified (Bowden 1850, Presbyterian women? Not necessarily, as we shall
1:30), persecution from without strengthened see in this chapter on Hanson’s captivity narrative
communal bonding from within, even to the and Ashbridge’s autobiography. Although some
extent of encouraging the formation of a pan- features change, especially assumptions pertaining
theon of Quaker martyrs. Within this community, to gender parity, logonomic conflict nonetheless
Quaker women found an identity and voice un- oddly surfaces at critical junctures in both Han-
like any offered by other colonial Christian sects. son’s oral report and Ashbridge’s transcribed ac-
This greater liberation of female identity made count.
Quakerism particularly attractive to women. For Given their view of female evangelizing, the
some women, it has been suggested (Koehler dwindling but still prominent notion that public
1980, 258), Quakerism seems to have cured depres- expression, especially writing, was principally a
sion. More generally, however, it appealed to those male province was not likely a significant constitu-
who desired to breach some of the restraints ent of the conflictive negotiation of orthodox and
placed upon their gender by the prevalent social personal authority in works by female Quakers as
structures of their day. it was for Bradstreet and Burr. We might reason-
In fact, as was the case with Mary Fisher and ably surmise, however, that part of what these
Anne Austin (the first Quakers in the colonies, women tried to surmount—particularly the preva-
both jailed on the charge of witchcraft in 1656), lent colonial view of women as the weaker sex
Quaker women could serve as preachers, autho- and the Reformed theocratic devaluation of hu-
rized to speak as men. During Oliver Cromwell’s man attachments in general—constituted a kind
Protectorate, an apprehensive House of Commons of authoritarian static within their more “emanci-
affirmed that only officially ordained males may pated” contemplation of the Quaker idea of
preach (Otten 1992, 358), but growing numbers woman.
of English Quaker women persisted in the practice
and later even defended it in print. Such publica- Elizabeth Hanson’s Captivity Narrative
tions as Margaret Fell’s Womens Speaking Justified, Elizabeth Hanson’s God’s Mercy Surmounting
Proved and Allowed of by the Scriptures (1666, 1667), Man’s Cruelty (1728) is today not the most well-
Anne Whitehead and Mary Elson’s An Epistle for known colonial captivity narrative, but it was suf-
True Love, Unity, and Order in the Church of Christ ficiently popular before 1800 to go through
(1680), and Mary Waite’s Epistle from the Women’s thirteen editions at home and various reprints
Yearly Meeting at New York (1688) anticipated the abroad (Derounian-Stodola and Levernier 1993,
many eighteenth-century defenses of the practice 14). In later editions, of which there also were
that were to follow, all of which advanced the many, it was variously modified by others for both
early case made by George Fox. propagandistic and marketing purposes
Fox, the first major proponent of Quaker (VanDerBeets 1984, 16, 25-26). Whereas the
beliefs, pointed to scriptural examples of female American versions bear the initials “E. H.,” the
preachers. He understood Saint Paul’s equation of English editions are said to have been “taken in
the sexes in Galatians to refer to the quotidian, substance from her own mouth” by Samuel Bow-
not only to the afterlife, as we saw Congregation- nas, an English Quaker divine. Bownas’s actual
alist minister Cotton Mather insist in Ornaments role is uncertain, however. More certain is the
for the Daughters of Zion. Fox did acknowledge claim of the first American edition to be a tran-
Saint Paul’s comment that “women keep silence scription of an earlier account written by a friend
in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to whom Hanson told her story. Hanson, by her
own admission “not . . . capable of keeping a part of the country far distant from” her; then the
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES journal” (Vaughan and Clark 1981, 244), was one captors “divided again, taking [her] second daugh-
of the many colonial women who could not write ter [Elizabeth] and servant maid from” her (234-
in the early eighteenth century. 35). Before long, her “daughter and servant were
Although the first American edition claims to likewise parted” (235). She would have lost the
“differ . . . very little from the original copy, but child born to her during this captivity had not
is even almost in her own words” (231), the tribal women aided her in preventing its starva-
“almost” insists that the published version is in tion.
fact a revision of the amanuensis’s written account Hanson and her two remaining children are
of the oral report. To be borne in mind, as well, is ransomed by a Frenchman, whose civility surprises
the eighteenth-century Quaker practice of collec- her (given traditional English vilification of the
tive authorship, an editorial procedure that “re- French). She is reunited with her husband, who
fines” Quaker works, including John Woolman’s also eventually “recovers” the younger daughter.
journal (Fichtelberg 1989, 77-80), to reflect ideal
And she finally witnesses the successfulness of her
communal values. (The assumption that Hanson
husband’s refusal “to omit anything for [the]
was a Quaker is based not only on Bownas’s edito-
redemption” of “his dear daughter Sarah,” who is
rial presence in the English edition but also on
on the verge of being married to a young Native
her husband’s religion and her explicit attack on
American. However, as Hanson’s family is pains-
Puritan clergy [q.v. Vaughan and Clark 1981,
takingly nearly reunited, it sustains one more
241].) Such cautionary considerations about the
substantial division. While seeking Sarah’s libera-
fidelity of the text to Hanson’s intention are
tion, her husband succumbs to an illness “in the
important to remember when basing any argu-
wilderness” about “halfway between Albany and
ment on her report in its published form.
Canada” (243).
In spite of these reservations, the first Ameri-
can edition conveys, in narrative terms at least, a In short, the redemption of Hanson’s family,
sense of overall authenticity. It is not polished in its restoration to its wholeness prior to its trau-
any literary way, a fact that might make the work matic rupture and subsequent divisions, never oc-
seem uninspired to latter-day readers. The manner curs. Two small children and a father are dead as a
of its expression and design is minimalist, but this result of these events, and the remaining family
very same lack of embellishment and grace im- members simply can never re-form the unit it
parts a sense of genuineness to the book. More- once comprised. Hanson’s family is, finally, at
over, even if one or more Quaker editors possibly once reconstructed and fragmented, and this
oversaw even the American document, they dichotomous condition henceforth defines the
would in all likelihood not have interfered with curious identity of her “redeemed” family.
Hanson’s scriptural allusions, save perhaps to Dichotomy likewise characterizes her overall
make them accurate. Even the private journals response. On the surface, as the title of her little
and personal letters of colonial women indicate, book indicates, she celebrates God’s mercy in
we should recall here, an extensive use of biblical these providential events; below the surface, she
allusion, especially the scriptural loci they encoun- unofficially registers an elegiac sense of loss akin
tered by way of the pulpit, discussion groups, and to Bradstreet’s in “Upon the Burning of Our
books. Accordingly, the biblical allusions in God’s House.” The official, ventriloquized voice of praise
Mercy Surmounting Man’s Cruelty are altogether observes, for example, that “though my own
likely Hanson’s selections. And that they become children’s loss [of their father] is very great, yet I
sites of logonomic conflict similar in effect to doubt not but his gain is much more” (243). Here
those of her Congregationalist female peers further the unauthorized, personal voice of mourning is
testifies on behalf of their authenticity as her own evaded, consigned to the children (rather than
choices. herself) and to the anterior, the seemingly “left
After having witnessed the slaying of two of behind,” portion of her figure of speech. In Han-
her young children, Elizabeth Hanson, her two son’s use of antithesis, a neoclassical favorite for
teenage daughters, her six-year-old son, and her balancing one term against the other, proscribed
maid were taken captive in Dover Township in sentiment appears to be prescriptively relin-
August 1724, and forced to journey to French quished through the turn of a phrase. In a signifi-
Canada. During the ordeal of this trek, Hanson’s cant sense, of course, the ostensibly abandoned
family sustained a series of further divisions. First first part of this figure of speech (and its sentiment)
her eldest daughter Sarah was “carried to another lingers elegylike in the second part because the
rhetorical play of the second part always depends tion: by praising God for liberating her from a

on and points back to the first part for its effect captivity that separated her from her family; and,
and meaning. at the same time, by imploring God for a new
captivity that would remove her from liberated,
A related interaction of public conviction and
unlicensed feelings. If her family is not restored
private sentiment can be detected more clearly
because all of its “divisions” cannot be temporally
when Hanson says at the end of her narrative that
undone, if her precaptive state of mind is not
she “supplicat[es] the God and Father of all our
restored because all of its dichotomous sentiments
mercies to be a father to [her] fatherless children”
cannot be resolved, Hanson’s captivity narrative
(243). To implore the Lord of mercy to serve as
likewise does not come full circle to restore her
the father of the children, whom this same Lord
previous comfortable state of mind because it
mercilessly made fatherless, is an odd sentiment
expresses a divided state of mind. Instead of
embodied here in a figure of speech (ploce) de-
restoration, in God’s Mercy Surmounting Man’s Cru-
signed to negotiate Hanson’s contrary feelings.
elty one mode of bondage gives way to conditions
The repetition of the word “father,” commingling
that engender Hanson’s earnest ache for another
biblical and secular contexts, becomes a logo-
mode of captivity.
nomic site subtly recording Hanson’s resistant
elegiac voice beneath the louder and more appar- In this regard, Hanson’s allusion to the Baby-
ent expression of her acceptance of loss. lonian Captivity conveys more than she likely
understood. During their wilderness trek, her
Sensitivity to this other voice here and in daughter Sarah recites Psalm 137:1-3: “By the riv-
related instances in Hanson’s book is stimulated ers of Babylon there we sat down, yea we wept
by an indicative comment immediately preceding when we remembered Zion; . . . there they that
her unintentionally bivocal references to father- carried us away captives required of us a song”
hood: “I, therefore, desire and pray that the Lord (233). Hope is communicated in this application
will enable me patiently to submit to His will in of Scripture, hope to the effect that like the Jews
all things” (243). Here her own sense of loss is not under Cyrus (the conqueror of Babylon) the Han-
displaced, not attributed to her children. Here the son captives (likewise on the verge of “repining
conscious, official desire to submit counters an il- against God”) will one day be freed from a “strange
legitimate desire to mourn. Hanson prays for land” (Ps. 137:4) to return home and restore the
patient acquiescence because by the end of her ac- temple of their previous confident faith. This is
count she is apparently still unable to let go of the doubtless the analogy Hanson had in mind,
anterior, antithetical portion of her experience although as we have seen at the end of her ac-
and narrative. count, the comfort of both her home and her faith
Earlier she had admitted her concern about has not been fully recovered.
“repining against God under [her] affliction”; at Indeed, it would seem—despite Hanson’s
that time she “found it very hard to keep [her] probable ignorance of the detail—that the allu-
mind as [she] ought under the resignation which sion aptly associates her final failure to escape the
is proper to be in under such afflictions and sore locus of her captivity (reinscribed through both
trials” (236). And this perfectly natural, if doctri- an expressed concern with a lingering grief and a
nally illicit, response haunts the end of her tale desire for a divinely imposed recapture) with those
when she speaks of needing divine empowerment many Jews who never left Babylon after their
if she is truly to resign herself to divine will. To emancipation. For them, as for the mourning part
grieve, after all, is not to submit to this will, for of Hanson’s mind, the former theocratic home
grieving is a form of resistance urged by unsanc- rather than the locality of captivity had become
tioned sentiment. So at the close of her book the the strange land. The difference, of course, is that
word “desire” becomes a site of conflict, a locus of these Jews stayed voluntarily, whereas Hanson’s
an anxious negotiation of two opposite disposi- continuing thralldom to grief in her life is as
tions: resistant personal sorrow and submissive involuntary as is the persistent echo of Davidian
orthodox acceptance. lamentation throughout her narrative.
Hanson’s desire for a sanctioned resignation This issue of volition likewise emerges at a
she has yet to find not only calls attention to the crucial moment of logonomic conflict in the final
experiential persistence of her grief but also erodes sentence of Hanson’s book: “I have given a short
her narrational celebration of emancipation from but a true account of some of the remarkable tri-
coerced submission. In effect, her captivity narra- als and wonderful deliverances which I never
tive concludes in a mutually constitutive opposi- purposed to expose but that I hope thereby the
merciful kindness and goodness of God may be of her soul occasioned by rebellious bitter feelings
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES magnified, and the reader hereof provoked with of resistant grief, once again she “must go or die.
more care and fear to serve Him in righteousness There was no resistance.”
and humility, and then my designed end and
Hanson is doubtless straightforward when she
purpose will be answered” (244). There is much
openly declares her “designed end and purpose”
here that is conventional, but of special interest is
as the stimulation of her reader’s humble submis-
the allusion to Mary’s canticle embracing her
sion (like Mary’s) to a God of “merciful deliver-
maternal role, replete with future sorrow, in the
ance[s]” (239). Nevertheless, the elegiac voice
birth of Jesus: “My soul doth magnify the Lord”
lingering throughout her account, and inadvert-
(Luke 1:46). This alignment with Mary, one far
ently countering the primary theme of God’s
more comfortable for Hanson than it is for con-
“merciful kindness and goodness,” implies a dif-
temporaneous Congregationalist women, repre-
ferent “end and purpose.” At moments of dichoto-
sents her conscious desire; at the same time,
mizing logonomic conflict, such as the allusion to
however, it peculiarly underscores a key difference
Mary’s voluntary willingness to magnify the Lord
between Elizabeth Hanson and Mary. Mary’s
through submission, Hanson’s bivocality includes
submission is totally voluntary and achieved,
another story altogether, a story she can barely
whereas Elizabeth’s is coerced and incomplete.
articulate. This story concerns not the physical
Hanson has not been given a choice as to miseries she endured, but specifically the mental
whether or not she would play a role in a course “afflictions [that] are not to be set forth in words
of events that would result in the demise of her to the extent of them” (236). They cannot be so
two children and her husband. She has, on the “set forth” because the feelings they arouse surpass
contrary, been given, and is expected to resign the capacity of language and, more important, are
herself to, a providential fait accompli. As a result, theocratically prohibited.
the allusion to Mary’s acquiescence to divine will
This illegitimate other story, as fatherless as
is bivocal within the dual contexts of Hanson’s
Hanson’s children, concerns lost sweetness and
narrative; it expresses Hanson’s wish to conform
found bitterness. This underground version of her
to a licensed theocratic ideal of humility and
tale opposes the orthodox moral extracted from
voluntary submission, and it also inadvertently
such an observation as “None knows what they
intimates another concurrent desire to align with
can undergo till they are tried, for what I had
an illicit personal sentiment of grief and its
thought in my own family not fit for food would
involuntary resistance to any renunciation of
here have been a dainty dish and sweet morsel”
temporal loss.
(238). The moral analogue for this passage surfaces
It is, in fact, a curious feature of God’s Mercy earlier in Hanson’s report when, apropos the cap-
Surmounting Man’s Cruelty that the language Han- tives being given pieces of old beaver skin to eat,
son uses to describe her involuntary enslavement she cites Proverbs 27:7: “to the hungry soul every
crosses over into the language she uses to describe bitter thing is sweet” (234). Contemplating the
her relationship with the deity. There is nothing demise of her husband, she publicly asserts this
typological or deliberate in this association; it is sweetness—“his gain is much more”—while she
incidental and unwitting, albeit it possibly inti- privately husbands “the bitterness of death” (237).
mates Hanson’s repressed personal sentiment. In Before her captivity, she had not been hungry in
response to her situation, Hanson fashions the either her physical or spiritual life. After her
following statements: “I must go or die. There was experiences in the wilderness, she indeed has
no resistance” (Vaughan and Clark 1981, 232); become a hungry soul who laments the loss of
“This was a sore grief to us all. But we must her husband and who consequently requires
submit” (234); “I dreaded the tragical design of divine force to make her accept “the bitterness of
my master” (237). These remarks refer to her Na- death.” For Hanson, if we listen to her faint
tive American captors, but aside from their specific outlawed voice, the bitterness of dispossession in
textual emplacement, these remarks are strikingly her life has hardly been translated into a gracious
similar to her sense of both “having no other way sweetness in her soul, even as the end of her
but to cast [her] care upon God” and “the overrul- captivity has hardly resulted in the “sweet”
ing power of Him in whose Providence [she] put restoration of her family life or the “gracious”
[her] trust” (239). No wonder that at the end of resolution of her narrative. Hanson may have
her narrative she seeks a new form of captivity, wished to endorse the words that immediately fol-
seeks to be made “to submit to His will in all low Mary’s express choice to magnify the Lord—
things”; for given the danger to the spiritual life “He hath filled the hungry with good things”
(Luke 1:46)—but certain embedded resistant education, which had depended “mostly on [her]

features of her experience and her story insist Mother,” had primarily emphasized “the prin-
otherwise. ciples of virtue” (Shea 1990, 147); but in the world
Although Hanson is a Quaker, the effects we of economic exchange in which she now had
have reviewed in her book are similar to those in become a bound servant, virtue seemed virtually
the well-known captivity narrative by Congrega- valueless. Virtue’s residual value, moreover, was
tionalist Mary Rowlandson (c. 1635-post 1678). readily bankruptable, even merely by calumnious
Rowlandson’s Sovereignty and Goodness of God words: “I began to think my Credit was gone (for
(1682) likewise evidences an undeclared tension they said many things of me which I blessed God
between the experience of woe and its displace- were not True)” (153). Indentured physically and
ment through sanctioned moral representation adrift emotionally, teenager Elizabeth is brought
(Breitwieser 1990, 10; Logan 1993). There are, as to the brink of suicide more than once during her
well, moments of logonomic conflict, especially tribulations in New York.
when the Bible is cited. Such moments contain Ashbridge characterizes her experiences col-
unidentified discrepancies between what actually lectively as various forms of bondage. This meta-
happens and what is quoted by way of explana- phor pertains not only to her “becoming bound”
tion. As a result, although Rowlandson (like through indentured “Servitude” (151), the abject
Hanson) alludes to the Bible in an orthodox man- conditions of which are similarly documented by
ner to analogize her situation, “her complicated Elizabeth Sprigs, Ashbridge’s southern contempo-
use of Scripture reveals both a fear and an anger at rary. The metaphor of bondage also represents
a punishing God that must be transformed into Ashbridge’s second marriage, of which she says, “I
an anger at herself, which nonetheless resurfaces got released from one cruel Servitude & then not
as a paradoxically self-abnegating accusation of Contented got into another” (153-54). During this
Him” (Toulouse 1992, 664). And similar to Han- marriage, the itinerancy of her new husband was
son’s manner, this complex effect is apparently hardly the only “Disagreeable” matter to which
not intentional: “The more mechanically Row- she felt she “must submit” (155). Such experiences
landson acknowledges her submission in orthodox of servility, however, had an important anteced-
terms, the more she complicates the range of ent, which Ashbridge seems reticent to declare
explanation offered to her by such orthodoxy”; openly but which her memoir associates with her
“as hard as she might try to conceal it in her Nar- later replications of thralldom: her constraining
rative, the text reveals the impasse imposed upon relationship with her father.
her imagination by her own interrogation of the
old models for establishing her sense of value” As was typical of early-eighteenth-century
(669). colonial daughters, Elizabeth was not free to
decide much for herself, including her marriage.
Hanson’s oral report of her captivity is a work She explicitly admits that her courtship with the
of less imagination than is Rowlandson’s written first young man she would marry was “without
document. Nevertheless, despite different religious [her] Parents’ consent,” that her impetuous mar-
orientations and slight editing by other hands, riage to him was an act of “disobedience,” and
both works are equally rich in documenting that her behavior had denied her parents the
certain problems with the authorization of per- “right . . . to have disposed of [her] to their
sonal sentiment and expression that were fre- contents” (Shea 1990, 148). When she eloped with
quently experienced by female colonial authors, her first husband, she in effect dispossessed her
including Quakers. parents, particularly her father, of the property of
her body. Her act was a violation not only of filial
Elizabeth Ashbridge’s Autobiography respect but also of economic propriety concerning
Some Account of the Fore Part of the Life of children, an issue as well in eighteenth-century
Elizabeth Ashbridge (written, c. 1753; 1st ed., 1774) representations of rape as a confiscation of patriar-
is a far more complex Quaker testament than is chal property (Williams 1993). Dispossessed of
God’s Mercy Surmounting Man’s Cruelty. Ashbridge’s what was by custom rightfully his, Elizabeth’s
narrative, which we have only in others’ transcrip- father “was so displeased,” he “would not send
tions, recounts the numerous trials of a young for” her and “would do nothing for” her (148).
woman who eloped at the age of fourteen and Henceforth she was not only widowed but also
within months found herself widowed, exiled orphaned. She was sheltered briefly by relatives
from her family home, and badly prepared to and eventually turned loose in the world. Al-
survive either in the world or in her mind. Her though some time later her father relented and
apparently would have met the financial obliga- of male authority, a defiance she crowns by
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES tions of her indenture, Elizabeth “chose Bondage becoming a Quaker preacher. Ashbridge fulfills
rather” than to return to his household (153), and her youthful fantasy of becoming a minister by
she even desperately entertained the possibility of way of inversion. Far past the point of wishing
running off with an acting troupe. she were a male so that she could join the tradi-
Elizabeth presents her “Disobedience in mar- tional ministry, she now identifies with an unor-
rying” (153), her tenuous rebellion against her thodox ministry in which women and men are
father, as a kind of fall from grace. (The word equally “ordained” solely through their encounter
“disobedience” is virtually a refrain in the first with the Inward Light. And, Ashbridge’s account
part, as the word “obedience” is in the second part further suggests, these Quaker preachers redeem
of all versions of her account.) Insubordination the establishmentarian Christian ministry by
serves as a primary determinant of the harrowing displacing the male mercenary interest of such
experiences that befall her in a harsh world where, conformist clergy with a “female” alternative
subsequent to her postlapsarian expulsion from interest in the heretofore dispossessed principles
the security of her family home, widowed virtue of virtue (of the kind she learned from her
can purchase little, if anything, and presumably mother).
can be forfeited by mere verbal deceit. As pre- This version of the plot of her autobiography
sented in all the versions of her narrative, her life reinforces a recent observation that Ashbridge
in the world commences with and replicates this records “the phenomenon of a woman speaking
self-wounding insurrection against thralldom to of her coming to speak” or, in other words, her
her father. As best she is able, accordingly, she progression from speechless listening to numer-
resists her inhumane master, who purchased her ous voices to her proclamation of a “new identity
indenture; her stern father, who eventually re- . . . through the familiar Quaker usage of ‘thee’”
lented and would permit her to return on his (Shea 1990, 132-33). But, as we shall observe, a
terms; and her domineering second husband, who specter-like question haunts this progress toward
“flew into a rage” and “Struck [her] with sore empowerment of voice, despite an authorizing
Blows” when she announced her willingness “to belief in the Inward Light. This question chal-
obey all his Lawfull Commands but where they lenges the “narrative restraint” that has been
Imposed upon [her] Conscience” (165-66). esteemed as “admirable” (Shea 1968, 37).
(Anticipating a prevalent custom today in mar-
riage ceremonies, incidentally, Quaker women for In fact, a key point in the loose structure of
some time have not agreed to obey their husbands the autobiography provides an apt place to initiate
[Frost 1973, 174].) an investigation of this instability in referential
authority. . . .
Ashbridge’s coalescence of her original disobe-
dience and her a posteriori acts of resistance to At first, the trajectory of Ashbridge’s experi-
male authority include a significant revision of ences inclines downward. Unable to return home,
her stance toward the orthodox ministry. In her she becomes a nearly powerless and voiceless
sheltered youth, she had looked upon the clergy indentured servant, a nondescript human whose
as paragons of male empowerment in the world, beliefs (including her religious faith) are so un-
so much so that she “sometimes wept with Sor- stable that she becomes despondent and suicidal.
row, that [she] was not a boy [so] that [she] might At the nadir of this downward turn lies a tempta-
have” become a minister (Shea 1990, 148). (This tion, “another Snare,” which “would Probably
sentiment is expressed even more passionately, have been [her] Ruin.” Here she is temporarily
and hence possibly more authentically, in the vari- “Perswaded” to join a “Play house company then
ant report that she “sometimes grieved at . . . not at New York” (153), indeed a temptation given
being a boy” [Baym 1994, 602].) While adrift in the shared Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and
the world, however, she becomes skeptical toward Quaker association of theater productions and
“that set of men,” the “Very Religious” for whom players with unchaste behavior and bad reputa-
“in [her] youth” she “had a Great Veneration” tions, specifically in violation of the seventh com-
(152). Later still, she sees “beyond the Men made mandment (Meserve 1977, 26-27).
Ministers,” those “Mercenary creatures” more The earliest contributors to these Reformed
devoted to “the Love of Money” than to “the sects apparently did not construct the stage in
regard of Souls” (163). these terms; in a work revered by these sects and
This repudiation of the traditional ministry commonly designated as Book of the Martyrs
amounts in effect to Ashbridge’s ultimate defiance (English version, 1563), for instance, John Foxe
associates “players, printers, [and] preachers” as dom under the controlling gaze of male spectators

allies “set up of God, as a triple bulwark” against (akin to her later experience in a tavern), she now
the antiChrist (Foxe 1965, 6:57). But with the participates in the genuine drama of voicing a
emergence of the new theater, the stage and the divinely authored providential text. Like other
Reformed pulpit became antagonists in defining Quaker “Ministers . . . [likewise] dipt into all
the nature of spirituality (Knapp 1993). By Ash- States, that thereby they might be able to Speak to
bridge’s time, Quakers spoke of the theater as the all Conditions” (168), Ashbridge reconfigures
“floodgate of vice,” especially “looseness and im- theatricality so that the pulpit of her adult female
morality,” and they consequently influenced ministry inverts/reconverts the stage demarcating
eighteenth-century laws against theatrical produc- the nadir of her youthful experiences.
tions in Pennsylvania (Bowden 1854, 2:287-89).
Such an inversion, or reconversion, is meant
As a naive teenager, Ashbridge is enticed by to be as heuristic as are the official dichotomies
the theater, which evidently appealed to a number (as opposed to the conflictive sentiments) of Han-
of other young women, most notably late in the son’s captivity narrative. And on first encounter
eighteenth century, as a flagrant opportunity to the redemptive message of inversion seems as
invert the social paradigm of female impotence, definitively conclusive as Ashbridge apparently
invisibility, and silence (Dudden 1994). Ashbridge intended. On second thought, however, the trope
is attracted by the disingenuous promise that with of the stage steadfastly inheres within Ashbridge’s
membership in the troupe she would “Live Like a implied reconstruction of it as the pulpit, just as
Lady” (153). Implied in this promise is the notion mourning persists as a subversive undercurrent
that the deception of on-stage representation within Hanson’s use of antithesis when speaking
could be transferred to the off-stage world, cer- of her acceptance of divine will. (Ashbridge does
tainly an appealing proposition for such a luckless not explicitly refer to a preacher’s platform, which
child as she was at that time. However, as sug- is not a usual feature of Quaker worship; but since
gested by the retrospective reference to her predict- the pulpit would likely be mentally imaged by
able “Ruin,” many of young Elizabeth’s adult most non-Quaker readers of her day whenever
contemporaries would have readily detected a they encountered her references to preaching, it is
shady nuance, an allusion to prostitution, in the an implicit contemporary metonymy for all the
euphemistic expression “Live Like a Lady.” Ash- forums of her own ministry, including her
bridge reads numerous plays in preparation for memoir.) Ashbridge’s oral and written preaching,
joining the troupe, but finally she resists this like stage performances, are modes of theatricality,
temptation after “Consider[ing] what [her] Father spectacles that cannot break free from what they
would say” now that he has “forgiven [her] once were culturally aligned with (as John Foxe
Disobedience in marrying” (Shea 1990, 153). suggested in 1563) and what they now invert or
reconvert. Although in the autobiography the al-
Eventually Ashbridge remarries, which frees
legedly immoral stage may be superseded by the
her from her indenture if not altogether from
moral pulpit, the displaced stage persists as a
theatrical performances, for she has married a man
palimpsest beneath this implicit pulpit. And, cor-
who is attracted to her for her dancing (154) and
respondingly, the practice of assuming and dis-
who, in a demonstration of his hostility to her
carding various identities on the stage, including
Quaker leanings, makes her “the Spectacle &
clever transgressions of gender boundaries, in-
discourse of [his] Company” in a tavern (162). If
forms and latently destabilizes Ashbridge’s depic-
her marriage binds her in ways similar to her
tion of her unconventional identity as a female
indenture—as she herself claims—it nonetheless
preacher at the end of her memoir. How firm, and
results in encounters that collectively form the
how firmly authorized, is such an identity if it is
upward movement of her life. Ashbridge affirms
troped, however accidentally, in proscribed theat-
that through the debilitating itinerancy of her
rical terms?
husband “God [brought] unforeseen things to
Pass, for by [her] going . . . [she] was brought to This is a literary not a religious query. But
[the] Knowledge of [divine] Truth” (158). In terms interestingly the semiotic equivocation suggested
of the structural scheme of her memoir, that is to by Ashbridge’s tacit reinscription of the metaphor
say, she finds fulfillment in a new community of theatricality is also replicated in her manage-
where, as a Quaker preacher, she displaces corrupt ment of her more overtly declared subject of
father figures. Instead of participating in the false disobedience. As we established earlier, Ashbridge
spectacle of voicing some humanly authored coalesces her “fathering” act of disobedience and
dramatic text and experiencing an illusory free- her subsequent acts of obedience to God through
resistance to male authority, acts that collectively complications can emerge from antinomian at-
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES result in inversions of stage/pulpit theatricality tempts to harken to an inner voice, and Ash-
and male/female ministry. As presented by Ash- bridge’s document concurs. This memoir
bridge, then, disobedience is bi-valent. It is, in progresses from her youthful “giving way to a
other words, referentially unstable since it may foolish passion” when she elopes (148), through
produce good as well as bad effects. Left unasked, inner promptings to hang herself (153), to receiv-
because the answer would become enmeshed in ing divine messages “as tho’ [she] had heard a
the vexatious issue of authority, is a key question: Distinct Voice” (167).
how is one—especially the second or weaker sex as In narrative terms, as distinct from religious
defined in colonial times—to know when disobe- ones, a Bakhtinian heteroglossia (Holquist 1981,
dience is appropriate? 428) lingers in the memoir, specifically a po-
This question of authorization is faintly in- lyphony of competing inner provocations. In nar-
scribed, if finally unreadable, beneath the equivo- rative terms, a confessional moment at midpoint
cal opening of the autobiography. In the very first in her account suggests the magnitude of this
sentence Ashbridge claims that some of the polyphony. There she admits how easy it is for
“uncommon Occurences” in her life were her and others to mistake the voice of “the Subtile
“through disobedience brought upon” herself, Serpent,” when as an interior prompter he “hid-
while “others . . . were for [her] Good” (147). denly” interprets “the Texts of Scripture,” as if his
Such a comment at once authorizes and deautho- influence were “a timely Caution from a good
rizes disobedience, at least certain instances of Angel” (159). Although Ashbridge plots her story
disobedience. But which instances? The insubordi- so that her youthful disobedience to her human
nation she directs at her master, at her second father is redressed by “the fruits of [her adult]
husband, and at mercenary ministers seems suf- Obedience” to the divine father (167), she cannot
ficiently clear, but it does not mask fully the prior repair the implicit confounding of authority that
defiance of her father, the oft confessed bad act inheres in this very pattern, whereby improper
that somehow leads to Ashbridge’s salvation. Nor disobedience leads to proper obedience. Contin-
does the V-like symmetry of her plot—how the gently negotiating this crisis in authority, in short,
disobedience to her human father of the first part Ashbridge’s particular application of the
leads to her decline outside of her home and how disobedience/obedience equation is as “fatherless”
the obedience to the divine father in the second as Hanson’s particular application of the
part leads to her ascent to the pulpit—quite bitterness/sweetness equation.
disguise the problem. The fragility of Ashbridge’s construction of a
Indeed, an attempt to fashion from Ash- plot in which proscribed disobedience is trans-
bridge’s memoir a moral map, as it were, based on formed into prescribed obedience, prohibited
her specific references to disobedience and obedi- stage is transformed into the licensed pulpit, is
ence would result in a substantial confusion of likewise suggested by an incident reported near
vectoring. Obscured in the shadowy margins of the conclusion of her autobiography. At this point
this confusion is the issue of authority concerning she tells of “hearing a Woman relate a book she
how to recognize improper disobedience from had read in which it was Asserted that Christ was
proper disobedience, heuristic reproach from not the son of God,” merely “the Contrivance of
homiletic commemoration, especially when as- men.” Immediately “an horrour of Great Darkness
sessing one’s own life. In this regard, at least, it is fell upon [her], which Continued for three weeks”
more of a mystification of the problem than a (167). Ashbridge’s response is surprising given the
clarification to be told, as we previously heard, advanced stage of her Quaker beliefs at this
that “God brings unforeseen things to Pass,” that juncture. Could this woman’s message, tempo-
“unforeseen things are brought to Pass, by a rarily marring the heuristic plot of the narrative,
Providential hand” (158, 164). inadvertently suggest a certain ambiguity in the
The doctrine of the Inward Light, of interior design of Ashbridge’s textualized life and theatri-
divine revelation, is the official Quaker repository cal memoir?
for negotiating this problem. Nevertheless, the Consider that the opposition between this
narrative function of proper and improper disobe- woman and Ashbridge is determined merely by
dience in Ashbridge’s account, from its ambigu- inversion, the very same narrative device of
ous opening sentence onward, defies conclusive Elizabeth’s life and her autobiography as a whole.
resort to such a closeting doctrinal rationale in The two women are like opposite sides of the same
this instance. History, moreover, attests to what coin. If Ashbridge’s autobiography represents the
assertion of self as authorized by its alignment narrative. Here she reports one of her dreams,

with divine authority, the reading woman repre- which combines several biblical allusions and
sents the supplanting of divine authority by the provides a remarkable site of logonomic conflict:
assertive self as the sole fashioner of the notion of I had a Dream, & tho’ some make a ridicule of
divinity. Ashbridge’s extensive incapacitation Dreams, yet this seemed a significant one to me &
upon hearing this woman’s views possibly indi- therefore [I] shall mention it. I thought somebody
cates Ashbridge’s unconscious acknowledgment knocked at the Door, by which when I had opened
of the ambiguity inherent in her personal reliance it there stood a Grave woman, holding in her right
hand an oil lamp burning, who with a Solid
upon the precarious disobedience-obedience Countenance fixed her Eyes upon me & said—“I
formula. am sent to tell thee that If thou’l return to the
Such moments, I am inclined to believe, hint Lord thy God, who hath Created thee, he will
have mercy on thee, & thy Lamp shall not be put
at Ashbridge’s unwitting anxiety over the issue of out in obscure darkness;” upon which the Light
authority; the failure of sanctioned obedience to flamed from the Lamp in an extraordinary Man-
displace altogether illicit disobedience and of the ner, & She left me and I awoke.
pulpit to displace altogether the stage in the [Shea 1990, 153]
autobiography corresponds to the failure of Ash-
This passage may be read, as it has been (131),
bridge’s attained voice (identity) to displace
as a prophecy of the narrator’s eventual discovery
altogether her initial voicelessness. This observa-
of both “the Quaker Inner Light” and “an
tion indeed may seem very strange, especially in
achieved identity.” Also encoded in this dream,
light of the trajectory of her life toward the pulpit.
however, are conflictive elements concerning the
A closer consideration of her voice, however, sug-
nature and enablement of this identity.
gests a distinctive complexity in this matter.
The dream combines several biblical allusions.
When Ashbridge disobeys in the first part of
The last part of the prophecy echoes a scriptural
her memoir, she expresses herself through the
admonition, that “the lamp of the wicked shall be
authority of her passionate feelings for her first
put out,” that “whoso curseth his father or his
husband. But this self-expression, explicitly desig-
mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure dark-
nated as illegitimate disobedience, is dispossessed
ness” (Prov. 13:9 and 20:20). In terms of the latter
of its authority and replaced by divinely inspired
passage, Ashbridge’s vision evidently reassures her
self-expression, explicitly designated as legitimate
that she has been forgiven for her specific trans-
obedience: “[God] would require me to go forth &
gression against her parents—another clue, inci-
declare to others what he . . . had done for my
dentally, to the problematic importance of her
Soul” (160). The latter is, however, a form of
primary act of disobedience to the salvational
ventriloquism, as if on the world stage she were a
outcome of her life. The dream as well alludes to
player delivering lines from a divinely crafted
those New Testament passages promising, for
script (Scripture). Her self-expression, in other
instance, that the followers of Jesus, as “the light
words, is from her point of view authorized from
of the world[,] . . . shall not walk in darkness, but
an inward prompting determined by an outward
shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).
divine force. In this sense, therefore, her speech is
not, or at least not entirely, a form of self- Still more prominent in the dream is the
expression. The voicelessness Ashbridge believes scriptural text that advises Christians, “Let . . .
has been transformed into identity-giving voice your lights [be] burning” when the “Lord . . .
has not at last been fully displaced. When she cometh and knocketh” (Luke 12:35-36). In render-
disqualifies her early personal feelings as unautho- ings of this scene—images of which Quakers
rized and credits her new beliefs as authorized, would not have approved but which Ashbridge
her voice is at once empowered on the basis of may have seen in books or while living abroad,
external license (God) and disempowered on the especially among Roman Catholics—Christ holds
basis of internal license (sentiment). As a plot ele- a lamp in one hand while knocking on a door
ment, the conversion of viocelessness to voice with the other.
remains, finally, as entangled in ambiguity as is Most interesting in the dream version of this
the correspondent and implicated conversion of scene is the transmutation of the gender of the
disobedience into obedience, stage into pulpit, light-bearing visitant at the door. This unacknowl-
male into female ministry. edged feature is far more significant than the
This curiously equivocated sense of identity, acknowledged dubiety of dreams, the latter factor
particularly in terms of an inversion of gender accommodated by Ashbridge’s use of the equivo-
roles, informs another key moment in Ashbridge’s cal word “seemed” in order to justify the inclu-
sion of the vision in her account. The person in they wield through spoken and written language.
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES the dream is not Jesus or even John, who spoke of In the scheme of her story she tries to transform
himself as a “witness of the Light, that all men one thing into its opposite, an act that paradoxi-
through him might believe” (John 1:6). It is a cally unites and disunites contraries. She tries to
woman with a grave countenance. In one sense, warrant obedience to herself by means of obedi-
this figure usurps the male savior role, as a promi- ence to God. But this equation is hardly equal in
nent colonial cultural feature, but unwittingly it its parts, for as Ashbridge observes on another oc-
also displaces John and Jesus as well. The figure casion, “if it be of God [you] can’t over throw it,
may represent Ashbridge’s attempt to awaken & if it be of your self it will soon fall” (167). In the
herself from her subjection to suicidal noniden- dynamic of Ashbridge’s implied equation, obedi-
tity as a commodity in a mercenary world con- ence to God necessarily overdetermines obedience
trolled by men. Read as a projection of her later to herself, and so they finally are not at all
ministerial role as an ambassador of Christ, the equitable.
woman in her dream seems a bold, even heretical, Ashbridge achieves identity and voice, less
figuring of an achievable autonomous identity. from an internal authority than from an external
Beneath this fantasy of self-awakening, how- authority. This means, despite her mystifying
ever, the woman in the dream derives her dramatic acknowledgment (like Hanson’s) that God “Mak-
power by appearing in a scene and role given est every bitter thing Sweet” (170), that to some
signification by someone prior to herself. In other degree the authority of her voice and identity
words, the somber woman (like an actress in a remains firmly indentured. Ashbridge inadvert-
theatrical performance) replays, but does not ently reinscribes indenture in Some Account, just as
invent, a role in the dream. Her inversion/ Hanson reinscribes captivity in God’s Mercy Sur-
transformation of the role cannot break free from mounting Man’s Cruelty. Their narratives dramatize,
its antecedents anymore than can obedience from finally, an anxious, conflicted, and unresolved
disobedience, the pulpit from the stage, or female negotiation of authorization, expressed through
from male ministry throughout Ashbridge’s mem- the dynamic interplay of the dichotomous inver-
oir. The grave woman’s performance invokes the sions and reconversions composing the mutual
memory of and draws its own power from another, “plot” of their lives.
antecedent, and far more potent one: the image
of Christ bearing the light of truth and knocking Works Cited
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36. Eliza Lucas could afford to be independent.
White, Elizabeth Wade. 1971. Anne Bradstreet: The Tenth Her father was absent on military service in the
Muse. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. West Indies; for some years she had been manag-
Whyte, Martin K. 1978. The Status of Women in Preindustrial ing his South Carolina estates, making a good
Societies. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. profit from the export of rice and naval stores.
Wigger, John H. 1994. “Taking Heaven by Storm: Enthusi- Small wonder that there was a line of suitors at
asm and Early American Methodism, 1770-1820.” Jour- her door. A wife with a business head was a prime
nal of the Early Republic 14: 167-94. asset for any planter. Far from being the giddy
Willard, Carla. 1995. “Wheatley’s Turns of Praise: Heroic belles of the Cavalier myth, women in the colonial
Entrapment and the Paradox of Revolution.” American South played a vital role in the plantation
Literature 67: 233-56.
economy. They managed the household and its
Williams, Daniel. 1993. “The Gratification of That Corrupt servants, superintended the gardens and slaughter-
and Lawless Passion: Character Types and Themes in
ing pens that kept the plantation in daily fare,
Early New England Rape Narratives.” In A Mixed Race:
Ethnicity in Early America, ed. Frank Shuffelton, 194- looked to the health of the labor force, and in
221. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. some cases kept the business ledgers. The brisk
self-confidence with which Eliza Lucas mastered Jamaica and some of the Spanish islands (Cuba,
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES all of these tasks bespoke a woman of uncommon Puerto Rico) undermined the economies of older,
wisdom and maturity. She had just turned seven- smaller, English islands (Barbados, Antigua, St.
teen. Kitts). Unable to compete, planters from these
islands moved to the southernmost of the main-
land colonies in the 1670s and ’80s, taking their
From the Indies to Carolina
slaves with them. Because of this migration, blacks
Eliza Lucas had, by the age of seventeen,
almost from the beginning of the colony outnum-
already touched the three corners of Britain’s
bered whites in low-country South Carolina.
Atlantic empire. She was born on Antigua in the
West Indies, where her father, Lieutenant Colonel Adapting to their new environment, the
George Lucas, was stationed, but spent her youth emigrants developed a flourishing trade in naval
in England acquiring the education and social stores. The forests of long-leaf pine, which blan-
graces thought suitable for ladies of her station in keted every well-drained slope in the colony, were
society. In 1738 Colonel Lucas moved his family nearly limitless sources of tar and pitch, the caulk-
to South Carolina, where he had inherited several ing compounds that kept wooden sailing ships
plantations from his father. War loomed between afloat. And, like sugar, naval stores could be ef-
Britain and Spain (the War of Jenkins’ Ear), and ficiently produced by gangs of semiskilled slaves.
Lucas apparently felt his family would be safer in The profits from the export of naval stores, in
South Carolina. (They were, as it turned out, due turn, provided investment capital for the construc-
to the efforts of James Oglethorpe, although Eliza tion of rice plantations.
had small regard for his military capabilities.)
Rice, which was not grown in sizable quanti-
The family settled on a plantation overlook- ties elsewhere in the British colonies, proved an
ing Wappoo Creek, some six miles from Charles- enormously profitable crop. Parliament initially
ton by water. Within a year Colonel Lucas re- listed it among the “enumerated articles”—which
turned to Antigua to accept the post of governor, meant that, like Virginia tobacco, it could be
leaving his family in Carolina. Mrs. Lucas was in shipped only to the mother country—but after a
chronic ill health; George Lucas, Jr., was still in few years, on the special plea of Carolina planters,
school in England. Management of Wappoo and that restriction was lifted. Able to ship their
its twenty slaves fell upon Eliza. In addition, she product directly to Spain, Portugal, and Italy, the
had to superintend the overseers on two other planters made more profit than ever.
holdings, one an inland farm that produced tar
Wealth and the English gentlemanly ideal
and timber, the other a 3000-acre rice plantation
fostered the growth of an upper class, much as it
on the Waccamaw River.
had in Virginia, but the West Indian element gave
Eliza was happy with the arrangement; she the Carolina gentry a new dimension. There was
had no desire to return to the Indies. Antigua was no trace of a Puritan’s conscience in South Caro-
a low-lying, featureless island, sandy and dry, lina, not even a Virginian’s spotty remorse.
dependent on rainfall for fresh water. Its one asset Whenever they could, Carolina planters turned
was English Harbor, a deep, nearly landlocked their rice fields over to overseers and took their
roadstead large enough to accommodate the families into Charleston for a “season” of enter-
entire royal navy. Otherwise it was an unrelieved tainment. The sprightliest town in America for its
expanse of sugar plantations. South Carolina was size, Charleston possessed both a music hall and a
also low-lying and level, but its landscape was theater; its private clubs offered genteel diversions
broken by broad, smooth-flowing rivers and of every sort. Unlike Virginians, few Carolina
forests of live oak garbed in Spanish moss. “The planters developed any interest in politics and
country abounds with wild fowl,” Eliza wrote her government. They preferred instead the dance hall
brother, “venison and fish, beef, veal, and mutton and the racetrack.
are here in much greater perfection than in the
This then was the environment that Eliza Lu-
Islands, tho’ not equal to that in England—but
cas found so polite and genial. It was a blend of
their pork exceeds any I ever tasted anywhere.”
West Indian romance, English social custom, and
She also found the people “polite” and “gen- New World riches—all resting on the sandy but
teel,” as well she might, for most were of her own momentarily stable foundation of slave labor.
stock. South Carolina, alone among the mainland Nevertheless, she brought into this environment
colonies, was populated principally from the West the personal work ethic of a Puritan. She arose
Indies. The spread of large-scale sugar planting on each day at 5:00 A.M. and pursued a rigorous
children. Whenever she had occasion to visit

Charleston, she resisted its urbane temptations.
She regretted “that giddy gayety and want of
ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ reflection which I contracted when in town.” She
consulted the psychological works of John Locke
over and over to determine “if I was the very same
ABIGAIL ADAMS (1744-1818)
self” in the city as when she was hard at work in
That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so the country.
thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute,
but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give
up the harsh title of Master for the more tender The Business of Slaves, Rice, and Indigo
and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it By 1739, South Carolina had not expanded
out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to
much beyond the original settlements. Life still
use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity.
Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs centered on the two rivers that joined at Charles-
which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex. ton “to form the Atlantic ocean” (as Charlesto-
Regard us then as Beings placed by providence nians would have it)—the Ashley and the Cooper.
under your protection and in immitation of the Su- Both were broad, slow-moving streams, flanked
preem Being make use of that power only for our
by marshy flatlands ideal for rice culture. The
happiness.
Abigail Adams, in an excerpt of a letter to her Wappoo, where Eliza Lucas’ main plantation was
husband dated March 31, 1776. located, was a saltwater creek that connected the
Ashley with the Stono River to the southwest of
Abigail Smith Adams is best known as the Charleston. Rice fields were laid out along the
wife of John Adams, the second president of river and separated from it by a levee. The seed
the United States, and as the mother of John was broadcast over a dry field in the spring. Water
Quincy Adams, the sixth president. The let- was then let into the field through sluicegates.
ters she wrote from the early 1760s until the Tides helped back up the river to the level of the
end of her life reveal her efforts to fashion gates. In the autumn the field was drained for the
herself as a model woman according to the harvest, taking advantage of a low tide. In the up-
standards of the day: a capable and faithful per reaches of the rivers, especially on the Cooper
wife, an effective household manager, a (Goose Creek, Saint James Parish), spring floods
devoted mother and sister, and a discriminat- helped flood the fields.
ing reader and writer. Adams commented on
the salient political issues of her time as well Rice was profitable, but it had some shortcom-
as voicing her concerns about religion, ings, as Eliza Lucas quickly realized. The amount
education, and child rearing. She noted of land on any one plantation that could be
details of everyday life, such as styles of dress devoted to it was sharply limited, and it required
and manners, and wrote of philosophy, sci- attention only in spring and fall. Slaves could be
ence, and poetry. She appealed to her hus- kept busy at other times of the year clearing land
band during the Revolutionary War to “re- and repairing levees, but such tasks yielded no
member the ladies” by providing them short-run profit. Carolina planters needed a
greater legal protection under the new market crop that could be grown on the uplands
government, and her correspondents in- away from the river and one whose growth cycle
cluded many of the great men of her time, varied from that of rice. The need was widely felt;
such as her friend Thomas Jefferson. Abigail a number of planters were experimenting with
Adams’s letters provide an invaluable view of various seeds. George Lucas apparently brought
the concerns of eighteenth-century women some varieties with him from the West Indies, for
and their participation in a literary sphere as early as July, 1739, Eliza was writing her recently
that existed independently of the world of departed father about “the pains I had taken to
print, but was nonetheless culturally signifi- bring the Indigo, Cotton, Lucern [alfalfa], and Cas-
cant. sada [cassava, a starchy root] to perfection, and
had greater hopes from the Indigo—if I could have
the seed earlier the next year from the [West] In-
dies—than any of the rest of the things I had
tried.”
schedule of daily duties that included studying, Unlucky weather, stale seeds, and her own
supervising household servants, and providing inexperience frustrated these early efforts, and
instruction for her sister and some of the slave Eliza turned her attention to making a profit from
the crops she had. The following year she was carefully prepared and constantly tended. The
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES again writing her father to thank him for sending leaves had to be cut at just the right moment—if
“West India cucumber seed,” and by the return too early the color was poor, if too late the leaves
vessel she shipped him two barrels of rice, two of were juiceless. The leaves were placed in vats of
corn, three of peas, some pickled pork, two kegs water where they fermented and yielded their
of oysters, and “one of eggs, by way of experi- juice. The juice was then fermented further, while
ment, put up in salt.” “My scheme,” she added, being stirred vigorously with paddles until it
“is to supply my father’s [sugar] refining house in thickened. Lime was added to precipitate the dye
Antigua with eggs from Carolina.” and the excess water poured off. The precipitate
Most of her rice, however, was consigned to was then dried into cakes and packed for ship-
agents in London, and from them she purchased ment.
the goods she needed, everything from a four- While it was fermenting the indigo juice had
wheel chaise to medicine for her chronic head- to be watched night and day, for the timing of
aches. She kept meticulous accounts of every each stage was critical. In the West Indies there
transaction. One day a week, Thursday, was set were professional “indigo makers” who supervised
aside for balancing ledgers, drafting instructions this process. When Eliza produced her first crop in
to overseers on the inland plantations, com- 1741, Governor Lucas sent out one of these
municating with London, and summarizing her experts from the island of Montserrat. To Eliza’s
activities for her father. In early 1741 she wrote to dismay, however, the dye he produced was so poor
a girlfriend in Charleston with evident enthusias to be unsalable. The overseer blamed the
asm, “I have planted a large fig orchard, with climate, but Eliza, who had watched the process
design to dry them and export them. I have carefully, tried it herself and succeeded. She grilled
reckoned my expense and the prophets [profits] the overseer, and he confessed that he had sabo-
to arise from those figs, but was I to tell you how taged the process by using too much lime. Main-
great an estate I am to make this way, and how land competition, he had come to fear, would ruin
’tis to be laid out, you would think me far gone in his home island. He may also have been uneasy
romance. Your good uncle [Charles Pinckney, Eli- about following the orders of a female.
za’s future husband] I know has long thought I Poor seed from the West Indies wasted the
have a fertile brain at scheming. I only confirm next two seasons, and it was not until 1744 that
him in his opinion, but I own I love the vegitable Eliza produced a marketable crop. A second
[sic] world extreamly [sic].” By then, too, she had overseer, employed by her father, produced seven-
planted a grove of oak trees “for posterity,” and teen pounds, and Eliza sent six of it to England
her Charleston friends, the Pinckneys, were for trial. Her agent gleefully reported: “I have
threatening to come for a visit so they could all sit shown your indigo to one of our most noted
and watch the oaks grow. brokers . . . , who tried it against some of the best
By 1744, indigo culture, for which she had FRENCH, and in his opinion it is AS GOOD.”
always entertained high hopes, was showing true Parliament, he suggested by way of further encour-
promise. Indigo was a broad-leafed weed, which agement, might be persuaded to subsidize Caro-
produced a blue dye. The color blue, especially in lina indigo because the drain on Britain for the
its purple form, was in high demand in Europe purchase of French West Indian indigo amounted
because it was associated with royalty—and that to £200,000 a year.
perhaps because it was so scarce (red and yellow Eliza Lucas needed no such encouragement.
dyes abound in nature). Its preference for well- Providence and patriotism had already induced
drained soils and its growth cycle (early spring to her to save most of the 1744 crop for seed. What
mid-summer) made it, from the planter’s point of she herself could not use she gave away “in small
view, the perfect complement to rice. And the end quantities to a great number of people.” Simulta-
product, a dry cake of blue, had relatively high neously she provoked interest in the crop by
value for its bulk and weight. Shipping charges, publishing the report of her London agent in The
the difference often between profit and loss, were South Carolina Gazette. In the following year Eliza
thus comparatively light, that is, compared to rice, made £225 on her indigo shipment to London,
cotton, or tobacco. and at the end of that harvest a half dozen plant-
It was not an easy plant to grow or refine, ers were offering seed of their own for sale in
however, and that is largely why Eliza Lucas took columns of the Gazette. In 1747, parliament, true
so long to develop it. Like corn, it does not to form, placed a bounty on British indigo, and
compete well with other weeds; the soil must be the crop became a major source of income until
the bounty ended with the American Revolution. assembly. Concluded Eliza: “I hope he will be a

In good harvests South Carolina exported as much warning to all pious minds not to reject reason
as a million pounds of blue cake—all the result of and revelation [i.e., Scripture] and set up in their
Eliza Lucas’s love for the vegetable world and eye stead their own wild notions.” Hers was the voice
for profit. of cool-headed Anglicanism, confident in its faith,
Crops and profits were not her sole interests, secure in its environment.
despite her determination to be a success in busi- It was, withal, a lonely environment, but she
ness. To a Charleston friend who could not seems to have enjoyed being alone, though she
imagine what there was to do in the country she could be garrulous enough in company. She took
described her daily routine: “In general I rise at pains to keep herself intellectually alive. She bor-
five o’clock in the morning, read till seven—then rowed books from the Pinckneys; she employed a
take a walk in the garden or fields, see that the music master to give her lessons every Monday.
servants are at their respective business, then to She must have devoured the weekly South Carolina
breakfast. The first hour after breakfast is spent in Gazette, for she commented freely on politics and
music, the next is constantly employed in recol- war. She had the Carolinian’s contempt for
lecting something I have learned, least for the Oglethorpe (without realizing that South Caroli-
want of practice it should be quite lost, such as na’s lack of support was the root of his difficulties);
French and short hand.” One day a week was set she had in general little use for war and warriors.
aside for business affairs, and she frequently “I wish all men were as great cowards as myself,”
checked on the overseers of her inland planta- she declared; “it would make them more peace-
tions. Her spare time in the afternoons was ably inclined.”
devoted to “little Polly and two black girls, who I
teach to read.” After dinner she practiced her When a comet swept across the southern sky
music again, did needlework until twilight, and in the spring of 1743 she got up early every morn-
spent the evening writing letters. It was a routine ing to watch it. A Charleston friend told her that
not unlike that of the urbane William Byrd— some thought it was a reincarnation of a hero
except for the time devoted to the education of (others thought it heralded the Second Coming)
slaves. and asked her to describe it. Eliza twitted her
friend for being unable to get out of bed in time
That project was more than an idle pastime.
but described the phenomenon in great detail.
Her purpose in tutoring the three girls was to
And she had to admit that the tail did resemble
make them “school mistresses for the rest of the
human dress: “I could not see whether it had pet-
Negro children,” a project so daring that she took
ticoats or not, but I am inclined to think by its
the trouble to secure the permission of her father.
modest appearance so early in the morning it
The sheriff, on the other hand, does not seem to
won’t permit every idle gazer to behold its splen-
have worried her, as well he might have, for the
dor, a favor it will only grant to such as take pains
legislature made it illegal to teach slaves to read
for it—from hence I conclude if I could have
after the Stono River uprising of 1739. Perhaps
discovered any clothing it would have been the
she was given a subtle caution, for there is no
female garb. Besides if it is any mortal transformed
further mention of the education project in her
to this glorious luminary, why not a woman?”
letters.
Such warmth and wit must have early cap-
Her lack of reaction to the Stono uprising is
tured the attention of Colonel Charles Pinckney.
itself mute testimony to her relations with her
The Pinckneys were acquaintances of George Lu-
slaves. While the rest of South Carolina writhed
cas, and after the governor’s departure for Anti-
in fear throughout 1739 and 1740 (unable even to
gua, Elizabeth Pinckney befriended Eliza. When-
send troops to Oglethorpe), Eliza Lucas ignored
ever Eliza visited Charleston she stayed with the
the event. There is not a whisper of it in her cor-
Pinckneys, and their niece, Mary Bartlett, became
respondence even though it took place a short
her closest friend. Eliza’s relationship with Colonel
distance from her plantation. The one mention of
Pinckney was an intellectual one. He lent her
slave insurrection in her letters was in 1741 when
books, and her letters to him were extended, if
a local religious fanatic predicted that slaves would
somewhat simple discourses on Locke, Virgil, and
destroy the low country “by fire and sword.” Even
the novels of Samuel Richardson.
then she was less alarmed at the prospect than
amused by the antics of the enthusiast who tried Elizabeth Pinckney died in January, 1744, and
to part the waters of a creek with a wand and, fail- a few weeks later Colonel Pinckney proposed to
ing, wrote a letter of apology to the speaker of the Eliza. Marriage, except in response to her father’s
efforts, rarely entered into her correspondence. standing, one of her husband’s books that she had
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES She was a self-reliant woman with exacting stan- read “over and over.” Locke rejected the ancient
dards. Men she met at Charleston festivities were notion that people were born with “innate ideas.”
too often, she found, full of “flashy nonsense.” The mind, he said, is a blank tablet (tabula rasa)
But Charles Pinckney was clearly different. The on which life experience writes. His “method” of
two were married in May, 1744. She moved to Bel- education, then, must have been a matter of
mont, the Pinckney plantation on the Cooper “learning by doing,” an interesting anticipation of
River, leaving her own farms in the hands of some twentieth-century pedagogical techniques.
overseers, and began a new life. Eliza was delighted with the results. A year later,
when her son was 22 months old, she reported
that he “prattles very intelligibly,” knew the
From Carolina to England
Charles Pinckney’s father Thomas had come alphabet, and was beginning to spell. What the
to Carolina in 1692. Both he and his wife, Mary son thought of all this was not recorded until his
Cotesworth, were from the north country of Eng- later years when he claimed he had been nearly
land and evidently of prominent family. Thomas ruined in his youth by being pushed too rapidly
Pinckney styled himself “Gentleman” whenever in his studies. In the next few years Eliza had two
he signed his name. He sent his sons to England more children, Harriott and Thomas (a third died
for education. The eldest inherited his English in infancy).
estate; Charles, the second son, inherited the In between motherhood and household man-
Carolina properties. Charles attended the Inns of agement she managed to wedge time for agricul-
Court, practiced law in South Carolina, and added tural experiments. Silkmaking caught her atten-
considerably to his father’s fortune. He had served tion in the late 1740s. There had been a number
as speaker of the house in the assembly and was a of efforts to make silk in the early days of the
member of the Governor’s council. He was forty- colony, but they had been abandoned in the rush
five years old when he married Eliza, just about to rice. The mulberry trees were still there, how-
double her age. ever, and Eliza Pinckney had only to procure some
Belmont was an imposing brick mansion on a well-bred eggs. She also viewed it as a way of
headland that commanded a view down the employing slaves who could do no other work,
Cooper River to Charleston, five miles away. Eliza which eased her balance sheet. Children gathered
briskly took charge of the household and was soon the mulberry leaves and fed the worms; the elderly
planting trees. Oaks were her favorite because they dried the cocoons and “reeled” the silk. No one in
had commercial value, but she also set out some the colony could weave silk, apparently, for she
magnolias for decoration. She corresponded took her raw silk with her when she went to Eng-
frequently with a friend of her husband’s, Dr. Al- land in 1753 and had it made into dresses there.
exander Garden, a Charleston physician with an One of these she presented to the Princess of
interest in botany. Garden sent samples of Ameri- Wales, daughter-in-law of the king.
can plants to the Swedish classifier Carolus Lin- The occasion for her return to the mother
neaus, who honored him by naming one luscious country was the assembly’s appointment of
flower the gardenia. Linneaus, in turn, sent Charles Pinckney to represent the colony in
European specimens for trial in America, and London. A secondary motive was the desire,
Garden often sent them on to Eliza Pinckney. Her shared by both parents, to give their children an
arboretum was the marvel of St. James Parish. English education. There was still something
In February, 1745, she gave birth to a son, inferior in the name “colonial.”
named, with due reverence for his pedigree, Luckily for Eliza, a poor sailor, the passage was
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Childbirth, always a swift one, a mere twenty-five days. The south
dangerous in that age, she sustained with her coast ports of Portsmouth and Southampton were
customary certitude, suffering “no disorder but ravaged by smallpox, so their vessel sailed up the
weakness.” Three months later she proudly in- channel to London. They took a house in Rich-
formed Mary Bartlett that she could see “all his mond, a short distance up the Thames from
Papa’s virtues already dawning in him.” A month London, and put the whole family through inocu-
after that she wrote an English acquaintance to lation. Eliza renewed old acquaintances and
request the purchase of a special toy so her son quickly settled into a routine of social visits and
could “play himself into learning . . . according sightseeing. They traveled extensively through the
to Mr. Locke’s method.” Her reference evidently midlands and north country (where Charles had
was to John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Under- lands) and spent the “season” at Bath. They
thoroughly enjoyed themselves, but never forgot nursery for magnolia and bay trees. Her experi-

that they were “exiles,” as Eliza put it. She disliked ment with the bay tree is especially interesting,
the idleness of the English upper class and espe- for the leaves of this West Indian tree were used as
cially “the perpetual card playing.” Charles, even both a spice and a medicine, and cinnamon was
more restless, had “many yearnings after his na- made from the bark. And she had devised a way
tive land.” In describing to a Carolina friend a of packing two-year-old seedlings for shipment to
visit to the Princess of Wales, in which the princess friends in England.
had dealt quite informally with the Pinckney
children, Eliza added: “This, you’ll imagine must When the day’s work was done, her children
seem pretty extraordinary to an American.” How occupied her thoughts. The two boys, left in vice-
lightly the phrase “an American” tripped from her ridden London without parental guidance, were a
pen, yet it revealed much about her developing particular worry. She bombarded them with let-
sense of national identity. ters full of homiletic advice. Whether it was her
concern, or native good sense, or a combination
The Pinckneys departed for home in May, of the two, Charles and Thomas threaded their
1758, having resided in Britain for five years. They way through Oxford and the Middle Temple
left the two boys in London to finish their school- without recorded difficulty. Daughter Harriott was
ing and took nine-year-old Harriott home with also a source of pride and comfort. At the age of
them. The plantations had suffered much in their nineteen she married Daniel Horry, a rice planter
absence; overseers, as every planter knew, needed with large holdings on the Santee River and a
constant oversight. Charles Pinckney plunged into comfortable house in Charleston. By that date
work, but soon contracted malaria. Swamp fever (1768) Eliza herself had moved into Charleston;
was not usually fatal, but Pinckney was advanced she occupied herself through her last active years
in years and perhaps weakened by the sea journey. rebuilding the Horrys’ garden.
He died within three weeks. Eliza resumed the
solitary existence she had known before. In 1769 her oldest son returned home
(Thomas, five years younger, returned in 1774).
After completing his legal studies and being
Founding Mother admitted to the bar, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Many months later she referred to it as a time
had journeyed to France for study at the Royal
when the “lethargy of stupidity” gripped her mind
Military College at Caen. It was almost as if he
and she functioned barely enough to keep alive.
foresaw that there was a new nation being born
For more than a year after Charles Pinckney’s
in America and that it would need soldiers and
death her letters to friends bled with misery and
statesmen. In any case, he returned a flaming
lament. But time healed and duty pulled her back
patriot, whose fight against the Stamp Act and
to life. She had not only her own lands but the
other parliamentary impositions on the colonies
vast Pinckney holdings to superintend. There were
had earned him the sobriquet “The Little Rebel”
thousand-acre plantations on both the Ashley and
among Americans in London.
Cooper rivers, five hundred acres on the Savan-
nah River, a sea-island near Beaufort, and an Both Charles and Thomas rose to the rank of
elaborate town house in Charleston. Charles general in the American Revolution, and each
Pinckney had willed all this property to his sons; played a prominent role in the politics of indepen-
it was Eliza’s duty to preserve and improve it until dence. Charles Cotesworth participated in the
they came of age. convention that drafted the federal Constitution,
and Thomas, as governor of the state in 1787,
Belmont, after five years of neglect, had “gone
submitted the Constitution to the assembly. Each
back to woods again.” She threw herself into work
served the Federalist administrations of George
and soon found that it had its own therapeutic
Washington and John Adams in a diplomatic
value. With the help of an overseer who was both
capacity during the 1790s, and, at different times,
efficient and honest (because of his rare talents he
each was a Federalist candidate for vice president.
was in such demand that he could choose his own
In 1808 Charles Cotesworth Pinckney ran unsuc-
employer and chose to work only for widows and
cessfully against James Madison for president.
orphans), Belmont was soon restored to produc-
tion. By the spring of 1760 Eliza was writing to Eliza spent her last years in the company of
her London agent that, but for an unforeseen her daughter and husband, rotating with the
drought she would have produced enough to clear seasons between Charleston and the Santee.
all the Pinckney estate’s British debts. And she When President Washington toured the southern
resumed her tree-planting. By 1761 she had a states in 1791, he made a point of stopping at the
Horry plantation to visit Eliza Pinckney. An Bohls, Elizabeth A. “Dorothy Wordsworth and the Cultural
WOMEN’S LITERATURE IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES experimental farmer himself, Washington no Politics of Scenic Tourism.” In Women Travel Writers
and the Language of Aesthetics, 1716-1818, pp. 170-208.
doubt admired her as much for her agronomy as Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press,
for her sons. Shortly thereafter she was stricken 1995.
with cancer, a disease only recently identified and Studies how Wordsworth disrupted mainstream aesthetic
then not in all its forms. In the spring of 1793 she values by placing more emphasis on activity than on pas-
traveled to Philadelphia seeking treatment from a sivity.
noted cancer specialist. She died there in May, Boland, Eavan. “Finding Anne Bradstreet.” In Green
1793. At her funeral, in St. Peters Anglican Church, Thoughts, Green Shades: Essays by Contemporary Poets on
the Early Modern Lyric, edited by Jonathan F. S. Post, pp.
President Washington, at his own request, served
176-90. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
as one of the pallbearers. In her youth she consid-
Contemplates the impossibility of adequately grasping
ered herself a transplanted Englishwoman; in the world in which Anne Bradstreet wrote.
maturity she knew herself to be an American.
Boyer, H. Patsy. Introduction to The Enchantments of Love:
Amorous and Exemplary Novels, by Maria de Zayas;
Suggestions for Further Reading edited by H. Patsy Boyer, pp. i-xl. Berkeley: University
Eliza Lucas Pinckney stands in need of a of California Press, 1990.
biographer. The only study currently available is Overview of Maria de Zayas’s life and works.
by her great granddaughter, Harriet Horry Rave- Crawford, Katherine. “Catherine de Médici and the Perfor-
nal, Eliza Pinckney (1896). Pinckney’s splendid let- mance of Political Motherhood.” The Sixteenth Century
ters, however, have been published by Elise Pinck- Journal 31, no. 3 (fall 2000): 643-73.
ney, ed., The Letterbook of Eliza Lucas Pinckney Follows Catherine’s efforts at being a mother and wield-
(1972). For the world in which she lived the fol- ing political power simultaneously.
lowing studies are recommended: M. Eugene Sir- Debby, Nirit Ben-Aryeh. “Vittoria Colonna and Titian’s Pitti
mans, Colonial South Carolina, A Political History ‘Magdalen’.” Woman’s Art Journal 24, no. 1 (spring/
summer 2003): 29-33.
(1966); Clarence L. Ver Steeg, Origins of a Southern
Mosaic: Studies of Early Carolina and Georgia (1975); Examines the sensuality of a figure in a painting com-
missioned for Vittoria Colonna.
and George C. Rogers, Charleston in the Age of the
Pinckneys (1969). Her agricultural experiments are Fleming, Robert. “Supplemental Self: A Postcolonial
Quest(ion) for (of) National Essence and Indigenous
put in context by Joyce E. Chaplin, An Anxious Form in Catharine Parr Traill’s Canadian Crusoes.” Es-
Pursuit: Agricultural Innovation and Modernity in the says on Canadian Writing, no. 56 (fall 1995): 198-223.
Lower South, 1730-1815 (1993). Discusses how the characters Catharine and Indiana
challenged Victorian notions of proper female conduct.
Harvey, Tamara. “‘Now Sisters . . . impart your usefulnesse,
FURTHER READING and force’: Anne Bradstreet’s Feminist Functionalism
in ‘The Tenth Muse’ (1650).” Early American Literature
Altaba-Artal, Dolors. “Theology to Humanism: Aphra Be- 35, no. 1 (winter 2000): 5-28.
hn’s ‘The Young King; or, The Mistake’.” In Aphra Be-
hn’s English Feminism: Wit and Satire, pp. 26-45. Selins- Contends that Anne Bradstreet was conscious of being a
grove, Pa.: Susquehanna University Press, 1999. part of a debate tradition concerning the place of women
in literature and society.
Examines The Young King; or, The Mistake’s debt to
the work of Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681). Hicks, Philip. “Catharine Macaulay’s Civil War: Gender,
History, and Republicanism in Georgian Britain.” Jour-
Anthony, Katharine. First Lady of the Revolution: The Life of nal of British Studies 41 (April 2002): 170-98.
Mercy Otis Warren. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat
Press, 1972, 258 p. Describes how Macaulay used her historical portraits of
patriotic heroines to cast doubt on classical republican
Biography of Mercy Otis Warren, a prominent patriot, notions of masculinity.
pamphleteer, historian, and woman of letters during the
American revolutionary period. Michaelsen, Scott. “Narrative and Class in a Culture of
Consumption: The Significance of Stories in Sarah
Armstrong, Nancy. “Captivity and Cultural Capital in the Kemble Knight’s ‘Journal’.” College Literature 21, no. 2
English Novel.” Novel 31, no. 3 (summer 1998): 373- (June 1994): 33-46.
98.
Urges study of Kemble Knight’s text to prepare for discus-
Contends that eighteenth century English novelists were sion of the “modern consumption community,” which
heavily influenced by the Colonial captivity narrative. seeks to be entertained rather than edified.
Beckstrand, Lisa. “Olympe de Gouges: Feminine Sensibility Rosenmeier, Rosamond. Anne Bradstreet Revisited. Boston:
and Political Posturing.” Intertexts 6, no. 2 (2002): 185- Twayne Publishers, 1991, 174 p.
202.
Attempts to integrate Anne Bradstreet’s life and works.
Examines how Olympe de Gouges’s use of fictional
autobiography enabled her to challenge gender restric- Smith, William Raymond. “Mercy Otis Warren: New Eng-
tions. land Idealist.” In History as Argument: Three Patriot
Historians of the American Revolution, pp. 73-119. The Wesley, Marilyn C. “Moving Targets: The Travel Text in ‘A

Hague: Mouton & Co., 1966. Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs.
Mary Rowlandson’.” Essays in Literature 23, no. 1
Investigates the interrelation of human nature, human
(spring 1996): 42-57.
history, divine nature, and divine history in Mercy Otis
Warren’s history of the American Revolution. Emphasizes the travel narrative aspects of Mary Row-
landson’s account.
Stanford, Ann. Anne Bradstreet: The Worldly Puritan. New
York: Burt Franklin & Co., 1974, 170 p. Wiesner-Hanks, Merry. “Special Issue: Gender in Early
Modern Europe.” The Sixteenth Century Journal 31, no.
Full-length study of Anne Bradstreet includes a chronol- 1 (spring 2000): 3-146.
ogy, a frequency list of images used in her poetry, and a
list of books with which she was acquainted. Examines gender issues from the approaches of social
history, art history, political history, religious history, and
Tawil, Ezra F. “Domestic Frontier Romance, or, How the literature.
Sentimental Heroine Became White.” Novel 32, no. 1
Wilcox, Helen. “‘First Fruits of a Woman’s Wit’: Authorial
(fall 1998): 99-124.
Self-Construction of English Renaissance Women
Examines women’s frontier romances in a study of rela- Poets.” In Write or Be Written: Early Modern Women Poets
tions between Anglo-Americans and Native Americans. and Cultural Constraints, edited by Barbara Smith and
Ursula Appelt, pp. 199-215. Aldershot, England: Ash-
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. Good Wives: Image and Reality in the gate, 2001.
Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750.
New York: Vintage Books, 1991, 296 p. Discusses how several poets fashioned themselves in their
prefaces.
Offers vignettes of the lives of common women.
Zimmerman, Sarah M. “Dorothy Wordsworth and the Li-
Wahrman, Dror. “‘Percy’s’ Prologue: From Gender Play to abilities of Literary Production.” In Romanticism, Lyri-
Gender Panic in Eighteenth-Century England.” Past & cism, and History, pp. 113-46. Albany: State University
Present, no. 159 (May 1998): 113-60. of New York Press, 1999.
Examines Hannah More’s role in the cultural shift of at- Analyzes Dorothy Wordsworth’s arguments against
titudes concerning gender boundaries. publication of her work.
CHRISTINE DE
PIZAN
(1365 - c. 1431)
(Surname also transliterated as Pisan) French poet, prose education and knowledge with his daughter
writer, allegorist, epistler, and biographer. despite the contemporary belief that learning was
dangerous for women. Christine moved in courtly
intellectual circles and enjoyed access to the royal
library. Her father’s connections, position, and
C hristine wrote poetry, military and political

treatises, history, biography, and allegory first
as a widow supporting her family, then, as her
encouragement placed Christine in the midst of a
growing intellectual movement that would later
be known as classical humanism, characterized by
reputation as a gifted writer and thinker was a revived interest in Latin and Greek authors and
established, as a strong political voice. Christine the writings of Christian authors including St. Au-
wrote with boldness and originality and, as her gustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, and by a new
country sank deeper into turmoil and internal concern for the relationship between the indi-
conflict, she was a consistent voice for peace. Her vidual and the society or state. Her own education
masterwork, Le livre de la cité des dames (1404-05; was abbreviated by her marriage at age fifteen to a
The Book of the City of Ladies), is among the first
court notary, Etienne de Castel, who was ap-
defenses of women written by a woman; it was
pointed a secretary in the Royal Chancellery. The
translated into multiple European languages
marriage was a happy one, resulting in three
within years of her death and was widely read
children (a daughter and two sons), but it lasted
through the next several centuries as Christine’s
only ten years, ending with Etienne’s unexpected
once-radical ideas about women gradually gained
death in 1390, possibly from a plague epidemic.
acceptance.
The death of her husband left Christine and her
children in difficult circumstances. Upon the
death of Charles V in 1380, Pizzano lost his posi-
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION tion at court, and died sometime after 1385.
Christine was born in Venice, where her Responsible for supporting both her children and
father, Tommaso da Pizzano, was a salaried coun- her mother, Christine attempted to secure her
selor. When she was four she moved with her fam- inheritance but was obstructed by lawyers who
ily to Paris, where her father served as an astrologer forced her to pay taxes on her father’s land
to Charles V. Pizzano was connected to the intel- without giving her the titles to the property. She
lectuals of northern Italy, especially at the Univer- fought them for nearly fifteen years before prevail-
sity of Bologna, and he shared his interest in ing, and her struggles influenced her later
thoughts on women’s household roles. She also Christine talks of her life with figures including
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN attempted to support her family by writing, begin- “Libera” (meaning “free woman”), “Opinion,” and
ning with ballades inspired by her experiences, “Philosophie.” Much of her work after 1405 is
which she began circulating around 1395. Her first more explicitly political than her previous writ-
poetry collection appeared around 1399; it in- ings. In that year, she had also written an open
cludes Les cent balades, a collection of ballads letter to Queen Isabelle of France to reconcile a
presenting a series of love affairs, first from a feud between the houses of Burgundy and Or-
woman’s, then from a man’s perspective. Her léans, and in 1406 and 1407 she published Le livre
courtly connections, particularly in the court of du corps de policie (The Body of Policye), calling for
the king’s brother, Louis of Orleans, assured an universal justice and attention to the needs of
audience for her lyric poetry, but her fame in- common people. As a companion to The Body of
creased considerably due to her L’epistre au dieu Policye, Christine wrote Le livre des faits d’armes et
d’amours (1399; The Letter of Cupid), in which she de chevalerie (1410; The Book of Fayttes of Armes
attacked negative literary portrayals of women. In and of Chyvalrye), a history of the art of war. She
particular, she denounced the misogyny of Jean wrote her last in this series of political texts for
de Meun and his Le roman de la rose (c. 1269-78; the Dauphin, Louis de Guyenne, France’s teenage
The Romance of the Rose), launching a major prince who would soon be struggling to achieve
cultural battle in which Christine’s enemies peace and order: Le livre de la paix (1413; The Book
contended that a woman could not understand of Peace) aimed at educating and guiding Louis
the writings of an educated man. The Querelle de through the threat of civil war and foreign inva-
sion. The situation in France worsened, however,
la Rose lasted three years and pushed Christine
beginning with the French loss to the English at
into the center of the French literary world. She
Agincourt in 1415, an event which inspired
then undertook extensive study of classical litera-
Christine’s Epistre de la prison de vie humaine (c.
ture, culminating in L’epistre d’Othéa (c. 1400; The
1413-18; Letter on the Prison of Human Life), a poem
Epistle of Othea to Hector), a poem of moral instruc-
of consolation to the widows of Agincourt. The
tion most likely written for her surviving son, Jean
increasing violence in Paris finally drove her from
du Castel. As a result of Christine’s growing liter-
the city, and she relocated to Poissy Abbey, where
ary reputation, Philip, Duke of Burgundy, com-
her daughter was a nun, in 1418. While there she
missioned her in 1404 to write a history of his
wrote little, except a poem likely in response to
brother, Charles V. Christine had by this point
her son’s death, entitled Les heures de contempla-
transferred her allegiance from Orleans to Bur- tion sur la passion de nostre Seigneur (1425; The
gundy when the latter helped find a place for her Hours of Contemplation on the Passion of Our Lord).
son Jean in his household. Drawing on her per- Her last known work is a celebration of Joan of
sonal memories of life at court, she produced Le Arc’s victories over the English, in La ditié de Jeanne
livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V d’Arc (1429; The Tale of Joan of Arc). Christine died
(1404; The Book of the Wise Deeds and Good Conduct at Poissy Abbey sometime between July 1429 and
of the Wise King Charles V). Philip’s unusual choice 1434, when court writings mention her in the past
of a female writer gave further endorsement to tense.
Christine’s unique status as a major female liter-
ary figure in late medieval France. Christine then
began to address contemporary moral, political,
and educational issues in her writings. Among the MAJOR WORKS
most significant of these is The Book of the City of Christine’s writings fall roughly into three
Ladies, in which she exposes and condemns the thematic and stylistic groupings. Her early works
misogynistic society in which women suffered, are primarily poetry, especially love poetry; those
defends the merits of women, and calls for their from mid-career are mainly allegories in which
greater autonomy and freedom. She next wrote a Christine addresses broader social and philosophi-
practical companion to The City of Ladies, with cal concerns; and her later works could be gener-
advice for achieving true virtue and nobility: Le ally characterized as political. Christine’s writings
livre des trois vertus (1405; The Book of the Three reflect her concern with the reputation and status
Virtues), uniquely addressed to middle class of women, and her vision for a more peaceful
women, became a successful conduct book as well society for both women and men. Her early poetry
as a defense of women. Also in 1405, Christine followed the mode of the court of Orleans, where
published the allegorical L’avision-Christine chivalry and romance were favored themes.
(Christine’s Vision), a dream vision in which Christine distinguished herself from earlier and
contemporary models by writing about married Enlightenment, Christine became known as an
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
love and loss in addition to the typical courtly early feminist. French nationalism in the nine-
amours. She presented a woman’s perspective on teenth century also stirred interest in her political
chivalric conventions, as in the feminine half of writings, and by the end of that century a well-
Les cent balades, as well as the Letter to Cupid, the edited version of her collected works appeared. In
pastoral poem Dit de la pastoure (1403; Tale of the addition to analyzing her political and social
Shepherdess), and Le débat de deux amans (1400; thought, modern scholars have studied her liter-
The Debate of Two Lovers), in which an indepen- ary achievements, particularly as a poet. The ac-
dent young woman rejects the chivalric notions cessibility of English versions of her works in the
of love presented by a knight and a squire. In nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as
Christine’s allegorical works, Le livre du chemin de increased emphasis on women’s studies renewed
long estude (1400-3; The Book of the Long Road of and expanded interest in Christine’s life and
Learning) and Le livre de la mutacion de fortune works. Christine’s defense of women and her
(1402-3; The Book of the Mutation of Fortune) she unique status as the first major woman author in
examines the ideals of world governance and the France have compelled modern scholars to exam-
history of human affairs. The City of Ladies and ine her linguistic and stylistic strategies, her con-
The Book of the Three Virtues depict a city of noble nections to political figures of her era, and her
women who claim their nobility not by birth but influence on later writers, both male and female.
by virtue. These two allegories mark the apex of
Christine’s career as a defender of women, as she
worked to dispel the myth that women were
either inherently evil or divinely good. Christine’s
political prose works, written as the Burgundy-
PRINCIPAL WORKS
Orleans battles increased in severity and the Les cent balades [One Hundred Ballads] (poetry)
English advanced their position within France, do 1399?
not explicitly address women’s issues, but are
*L’Epistre au dieu d’amours [The Letter of Cupid;
remarkable for their subject matter as well as the
translated by Thomas Hoccleve, 1721] (poetry)
fact that they were highly-regarded among men
1399
despite their female authorship. Two of her last
works, The Epistle of the Prison of Human Life and Le débat de deux amants [The Debate of Two Lovers]
The Hours of Contemplation of the Passion, offer a (poetry) c. 1400
unique perspective on war and politics, focusing L’epistre d’Othea [The Epistle of Othea to Hector]
on the consequences of war for the women left (poetry) c. 1400
behind, both widows and mothers.
Le livre de trois jugemens [The Book of Three Judg-
ments] (poetry) 1402
Le livre de la mutacion de Fortune [The Book of the
CRITICAL RECEPTION Mutation of Fortune] (allegory) 1400-1403
Christine wrote with the imprimatur of the Le livre du chemin de long estude [The Book of the
French royalty, an indication of the favorable Long Road of Learning] (allegory) 1402-1403
reception her works received during her lifetime.
Dit de la pastoure [Tale of the Shepherdess] (poetry)
She was, nevertheless, also negatively criticized; as
1403
her part in the Quarrel of the Rose suggests, several
intellectuals of her day scorned her writing. Oth- Le livre du duc des vrais amans [The Book of the Duke
ers, during her life and in subsequent centuries, of True Lovers] (poetry) 1403-05
argued that the quality of her work was beyond Le livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles
the capabilities of a woman and maintained that V [The Book of the Wise Deeds and Good Conduct
the texts signed by Christine de Pizan were actu- of the Wise King Charles V] (biography) 1404
ally written by a man. Her works enjoyed contin-
Le livre de la cité des dames [The Book of the City of
ued printings throughout the sixteenth century,
Ladies; translated by Earl Jeffrey Richards,
and though interest in medieval authors waned
1982] (allegory) 1404-05
during the seventeenth century, eighteenth-
century scholars again included her among the L’avision-Christine [Christine’s Vision; translated by
major writers of medieval France. Commentary Glenda K. McLeod, 1993] (allegory) 1405
on her works increased, and as interest in women’s Epistre a Isabeau de Bavière, Reine de France [An
rights became a part of the late eighteenth-century Epistle to the Queen of France] (letter) 1405
†Le livre des trois vertus [The Book of the Three
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN Virtues] (allegory) 1405
Le livre du corps de policie [The Body of Polycy; also
translated as The Book of the Body Politic;
translated by Kate Langdon Forhan, 1994]
(prose) 1406-07
Le livre des faits d’armes et de chevalerie [The Book of
the Fayttes of Armes and Chyualrye; translated
by William Caxton, 1489] (prose) 1410
Le livre de la paix [The Book of Peace] (prose)
1412-13
Epistre de la prison de vie humaine [The Epistle of the
Prison of Human Life; translated by Josette A.
Wisman, 1984] (poetry) 1415-18
Les heures de contemplation sur la passion de nostre
Seigneur [The Hours of Contemplation on the Pas-
sion of Our Lord] (poetry) 1425
Le ditié de Jehanne d’Arc [The Tale of Joan of Arc]
(poetry) 1429
Oeuvres poétiques de Christine de Pisan [Poetic Works
of Christine de Pizan] (poetry) 1886-96
The Writings of Christine de Pizan [edited by Char-
ity Cannon Willard] (poetry, prose, allegory,
and biography) 1994
The Selected Writings of Christine de Pizan [edited
by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski] (poetry and
prose) 1997
* Hoccleve’s edition is a reorganized expansion, but not

a literal translation, of L’epistre au dieu d’amours.
† Often referred to as Le tresor de la cité des dames (The
Treasure of the City of Ladies).
PRIMARY SOURCES
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN (ESSAY DATE
1405)
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
GENERAL COMMENTARY
CHARITY CANNON WILLARD
(ESSAY DATE 1984)
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
FROM THE AUTHOR
CHRISTINE’S DEDICATORY LETTER TO A
COLLECTION OF DOCUMENTS IN THE
QUARREL OF THE ROSE, ASKING FOR THE
SUPPORT OF THE QUEEN
Although I am very simple and ignorant
among women, your humble chambermaid,
subject to you, eager to serve you (if you
consider me worthy), I am moved to send
you the present letters. In these letters, my
most awesome Lady, if you deign to honor
me by listening to them, you can understand
my diligence, desire, and wish to resist by
true defenses, as far as my small power
extends, some false opinions denigrating the
honor and fair name of women, which many
men—clerks and others—have striven to
diminish by their writings. This is a thing not
to be permitted, suffered, or supported.
Although I am weak to lead the attack against
such subtle masters, nonetheless my small
wit has chosen and now chooses to employ
itself in disputing those who attack and ac-
cuse women, for, being moved by the truth,
I am firmly convinced that the feminine cause
is worthy of defence. This I do here and have
done in my other works. Thus, your worthy
Highness, I petition humbly that you accept
my argument, although I cannot express it in
as fine a language as another might, and
permit me to enlarge upon it, if, in the future,
I am able to. May all this be done under your
wise and benign correction.
Christine de Pizan. Christine’s Dedicatory Letter to

the Queen of France. From La Querelle de la
Rose: Letters and Documents. Edited by Joseph
L. Baird and John R. Kane. Chapel Hill: North
Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages
and Literatures, 1978, pp. 65-66.
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
FROM THE AUTHOR

CHRISTINE’S RESPONSE TO A LETTER FROM
MASTER GONTIER COL, SECRETARY OF THE
KING: COL HAD REQUESTED HER LETTER OF
CUPID AND RETURNED HIS ANALYSIS OF HER
WORK
And so in order to meet your wishes, I sent
the letter requested. Whereupon, after you
had read and thoroughly scrutinized my let-
ter, wherein your error was punctured by
truth, you wrote in a fit of impatience your
second, more offensive letter, reproaching
my feminine sex, which you describe as
impassioned by nature. Thus you accuse me,
a woman, of folly and presumption in daring
to correct and reproach a teacher as exalted,
well-qualified, and worthy as you claim the
author of that book to be. Hence, you ear-
nestly exhort me to recant and repent.
Whereupon, you say, generous mercy will still
be extended to me, but that, if not, I shall be
treated as a publican, etc. Ha! man of inge-
nious understanding! Don’t let your own
wilfulness blunt the acuity of your mind! Look
rightly according to the most sovereign
theological way, and, far from condemning
what I have written, you will ask yourself
whether one ought to praise those particular
passages I have condemned. And, further-
more, note everywhere carefully which things
I condemn and which I do not. And if you
despise my reasons so much because of the
inadequacy of my faculties, which you criti-
cize by your words, “a woman impassioned,”
etc., rest assured that I do not feel any sting
in such criticism, thanks to the comfort I find
in the knowledge that there are, and have
been, vast numbers of excellent, praiseworthy
women, schooled in all the virtues—whom I
would rather resemble than to be enriched
with all the goods of fortune.
Christine de Pizan. Letter to Gontier Col, October

1401. From La Querelle de la Rose: Letters and
Documents. Edited by Joseph L. Baird and John
R. Kane. Chapel Hill: North Carolina Studies
in the Romance Languages and Literatures,
1978, pp. 62-63.
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
TITLE COMMENTARY
Le livre de la cite des dames
MAUREEN QUILLIGAN (ESSAY

DATE 1988)
SOURCE: Quilligan, Maureen. “Allegory and the
Textual Body: Female Authority in Christine de Pizan’s
Livre de la Cite des dames.” Romanic Review 79, no. 1
(1988): 222-42.
In the following essay, Quilligan examines Christine’s
process of revising traditional texts as a strategy for creat-
ing her own authority.
In their massive study of the woman writer

and the nineteenth-century literary imagination,
Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar not only ask such
impish questions as—if a pen is a metaphorical
penis, with what metaphorical organ does a
woman write?—they also revise Harold Bloom’s
influential thesis about the profound anxiety there
is in all literary tradition and argue that for a
woman writer the question is not so much an
anxiety of influence as an “anxiety of authorship.”
For a woman to pick up a pen and write is laden,
in the nineteenth century, with fears of madness
and impropriety.1
To cite work by twentieth-century literary crit-
ics about nineteenth-century literature as a way of
introducing the practice of a medieval woman’s
radical revision of her male precursors, may be al-
lowed its own legitimacy—beyond the hint it
provides that the question of authorial gender
maintains a certain intractable (if metaphorical)
physicality throughout all literary periods. Post-
structuralist French feminist theorists, such as
Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray, who ground
their definition of “l’écriture féminine” in the
female body—as well as the controversy such an
“essentialist” position has caused in Anglo-
American feminist theory—may offer some more
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
theoretically coherent terms in which to address
the problem of the body in Christine’s allegory.2
However, Gilbert and Gubar’s arguments about
female authority in the nineteenth century, when
novels by female authors have always been an ac-
cepted part of the popular and therefore “literary”
canon, also usefully remind us that the legitimacy
of any period in literary history depends upon the
formation of a body of works deemed characteris-
tic for that period. To argue for the insertion of a
previously marginalized text into the canon neces-
sarily destabilizes that canon and calls into ques-
tion the means by which it was previously fixed.
If Christine de Pizan is herself a canonical
15th-century French author, because she remains
taught in our curricula as a lyric poet, her prose is
less well known. Although female, she was not
completely marginalized by her society; rather she
worked at the center of cultural production in her
period, a privileged member of the French court.3
However, as the first pro-woman polemic, the first
female-authored history of women, the Livre de
la Cité des Dames (1405) is not itself a canonical
text, although it has been taken up as a possible
starting point for a whole new canon of female Manuscript page from The Book of Ladies.
writing.4 As a marginal female author Christine
takes a master discourse and makes it speak of her
own concerns, explicitly commenting on her own and the illuminations are usually as explicit as
process of rewriting her tradition. This is, of Jean’s very explicit language.8 Christine’s point
course, no more or less than the practice of was that the vulgar term for such a human body
medieval poetics in general with its assumptions part derogated the sacred function of sexuality—
about the necessity for the citation of auctores. Yet and was furthermore most inappropriate to a
we cannot understand what Christine is doing character such as Lady Reason.
without making some attempt to discover what
Christine’s critique of Jean has drawn much
her culture assumed her auctores were doing. By
criticism over the centuries, but her objection to
grounding our reading of Christine’s revision of
the language of the castration story pinpoints her
her precursors in the materiality of their manu-
greatest move against Jean in the Cité de
script texts—that is, by also looking at some il-
Dames—as well as her remarkable swerve away
luminations—we may be in a better position to
from the authority of her second major auctor in
assess just how idiosyncratic Christine’s rewrite of
the Cité, Boccaccio’s De Mulieribus Claris. Her
a masculine tradition of textuality may be.5
rewrite of her auctores goes straight to the heart of
The text first mentioned in the reading scene a castration anxiety which may be said to be the
generic to medieval allegorical narrative, with originary moment for the misogyny in the texts
which Christine appropriately opens her Cité des of both the Rose and the De Claris.9 Reason’s
Dames, is Mathéolus, a virulently misogynist impolite language in Jean’s text is the cause for
tract. But Christine’s real target, as she makes which the lover dismisses Lady Reason as a figure
absolutely explicit, is Jean de Meun’s far more of authority and rejects her kind of love: the lover
authoritative Roman de la Rose.6 In the “Querelle specifically asks for “quelque cortaise parole,” and
de la Rose,” Christine had objected not only to thus Jean anticipates the kind of response readers
Jean’s misogyny, but to his vulgar language; in like Christine would have and makes it part of his
telling the story of Saturn’s castration by Jupiter, text. The rejection for the word, however, moti-
Jean had made his Lady Reason use the slang term vates the rest of the plot. In rejecting Reason, the
for testicles, “coilles.”7 This moment was a favorite lover turns to all the other dramatis personae of
one for illuminations of manuscripts of the Rose, the poem. A number of other attempts are made
in the Rose to explicate the story of Saturn’s loss But with one wicked sin this woman stained all
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN of his genitals; one may say, without much exag- these accomplishments . . . which are not only
praiseworthy for a woman but would be marvel-
geration, that Jean’s text is slightly obsessed with
ous even for a vigorous man. It is believed that
getting the story and its implications of idolatry this unhappy woman, constantly burning with
understood aright.1 0 carnal desire, gave herself to many men. Among
her lovers, and this is something more beastly
The dismemberment of the male fathergod, than human, was her own son Ninus, a very
through which erotic love is born, is not, of handsome young man. As if he had changed his
course, Jean’s creation. But the myth and its sex with his mother, Ninus rotted away idly in
crucial dismemberment of the male body under- bed, while she sweated in arms against her en-
writes the superficially polite but obscene tropes emies.1 3
in which Jean describes—at epic length and in

A representative illumination of this aspect of
great (and hilarious) detail—a single act of sexual
Semiramis’ story reveals the distinctly uncomfort-
intercourse. Christine also appears to have under-
able position in which his mother’s martial power
stood the connection between the two, for she
places the young son Ninus. Boccaccio’s figurative
objected to the “unnaturalness” of such language
sense of Ninus’ exchange of sex with his mother
with just as much vehemence as she argued
implies an emasculation the illumination also
against Jean’s vulgarity.1 1 And of course, Jean’s
hints at in Ninus’ posture: the truncated hand,
images for this final, culminating act of sexual
stuffed (protectively?) into the young boy’s placket
intercourse are all drawn from the euphemisms
in the general area of the genitals all too clearly
Lady Reason explains she could have used instead
answers the menace of Semiramis’ remarkably
of “coilles” to refer to genitals (especially “rel-
large sword. Doubtless the sword is meant to
iques”—indicating the primary problem of
represent Semiramis’ great martial courage and
idolatry).
achievements; but juxtaposed with the figure of
There is no explicit dismemberment of the Ninus, it represents the young man’s effeminiza-
male body in the opening of Boccaccio’s De tion (his unworn armor hangs on a rack above
Mulieribus Claris. However, the second story he him). That Semiramis’ sword also bisects the head
tells (after the story of Eve) is of Semiramis. A glori- of one of the armed soldiers standing behind her
ous and ancient queen of the Assyrians, Semira- to the left of the miniature may imply that her
mis, on the death of her husband Ninus, cross- martial prowess menaces more than Ninus.
dressed and masquerading as her young son, took
“Oh,” Boccaccio laments, “what a wicked
over the rule of the realm and led the army on to
thing this is! For this pestilence flies about not
great victories. After proving herself, she revealed
only when things are quiet, but even among the
her true identity, causing great wonder, Boccaccio
fatiguing cares of kings and bloody battles, and,
says, that a mere woman could accomplish so most monstrous, while one is in sorrow and exile.
much. In her own person she not only maintained Making no distinction of time, it goes about,
her husband’s empire, but added to it Ethiopia gradually seizes the minds of the unwary and
and India. She restored the city of Babylon and drags them to the edge of the abyss.” In order to
walled it with ramparts, Boccaccio stresses, of cover her crime, Semiramis decreed “that notori-
marvelous height. Boccaccio takes care to tell one ous law” (legem . . . insignem) which allowed her
particular incident when Semiramis, having her subjects to do what they pleased in sexual mat-
hair braided, was interrupted by the news that ters. According to some, Semiramis invented
Babylon had rebelled. Vowing to wear her second chastity belts. According to others, her end was
braid undone until she had subdued the city, she not good. “Either because he could not bear see-
soon vanquished it and brought it to good order. ing his mother with many other lovers, or because
A bronze statue was erected in Babylon of a he thought her dishonor brought him shame, or
woman with her hair braided on one side and perhaps because he feared that children might be
loose on another, a reminder of Semiramis’ brave born to succeed to the throne, Ninus killed the
deed.1 2 The usual illumination of the moment in wicked queen in anger.” Ninus’ distinctly overde-
manuscripts of the French translation of Boccac- termined matricide opens up possible questions
cio’s text, however, emphasizes the infamous side about the connection between the legend of Semi-
of Semiramis’ story. Not only was she a great war- ramis and the first story Boccaccio tells concern-
rior queen and city builder, she also practiced ing Eve, the mother of us all. More importantly,
mother-son incest. Boccaccio makes clear the ter- Boccaccio’s humanist uncertainty about Ninus’
rifying sexual ambiguity such an action causes. motives underscores the problematic nature of
textual transmission. He offers many endings for ladies appear and give her a lesson in allegorical
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
Semiramis’ story because the authorities conflict.1 4 reading.1 7 Reason further undermines the author-
ity of such texts when she wittily announces that
Astonishingly, Christine makes Semiramis the
any argument against women was not authorized
first story Lady Reason tells in the building of her
by her. Such a tradition grows in part simply
city of ladies. “Take the trowel of your pen and
because “in order to show they have read many
ready yourself to lay down bricks and labor
authors, men base their own writings on what
diligently, for you can see here a great and large
they have found in books and repeat what other
stone which I want to be the first placed as the
writers have said and cite different authors.” This
foundation of your City” (p. 38; revised).1 5 Chris-
undermining of textual, written authority, makes
tine’s Semiramis is more of a city builder than Boc-
Christine sound distinctly modern, much like
caccio’s—the first empire was a dual achievement
Francis Bacon inveighing against the mindless
of the elder Ninus and Semiramis together, who quibblings of scholastic philosophy. A miniature
no less than her husband campaigned in arms. from the late fifteenth-century Flemish transla-
Upon the husband’s death, Semiramis does not tion of the Cité illuminates the moment when
cross-dress, but simply continues in her role of the detritus of misogynist opinion is cleared from
ruler and conqueror, adding Ethiopia, India, and the “field of letters” before the foundations for
fortifying Babylon. Christine retells the incident the city are dug. Christine’s removal of such a
of the Babylonian rebellion, the braid left undone, written tradition is of a piece with her revision of
and the statue, this time bronze richly gilt. Where Boccaccio’s legal detail: by means of the speaking
Boccaccio begins his descant on incest, Christine presence in the text of a visionary female figure of
acknowledges: “It is quite true that many people authority, who persistently says she speaks pro-
reproach her—and if she had lived under our law, phetically, and whose textual gender is made more
rightfully so—because she took as husband a son literal by its coherence with the author’s own,
she had had with Ninus her lord” (p. 40). Where Christine appears to establish her specific, female
Boccaccio spends time guessing as to Ninus’ pos- authority on oral and prophetic grounds, different
sible motives in killing his mother, Christine from a mere textual tradition. Christine suppresses
points out the reasons Semiramis may have had Boccaccio’s worry about textual transmission at
for taking her son as husband. First: she wanted the same time she suppresses Semiramis’ ignoble
no other crowned lady in the realm, and this end.
would have happened if her son had married; and
We do not need to invoke any anthropologi-
second, no other man was worthy to have her as
cal argument (or authority) to see the priority
a wife except her son. What troubles Christine
granted oral experience in Christine’s story of
most is that “de ceste erreur, que trop fu grande,
Semiramis—though it is intriguing that, for
ycelle noble dame fait aucunement a excuser” (II,
instance, Derrida’s discussion of the violence of
680); “But this error, which was very great, this
writing focuses on a scene that involves little girls
noble lady did nothing at all to excuse” (p. 40).
divulging to Levi-Strauss the secret names of the
Why? Because “adonc n’estoit encore point de loy
tribe.1 8 Christine’s own authority in the Cité is,
escripte”; “there was as yet no written law.” Indeed
however, at the same time markedly scripted:
then, Christine reasons, people lived according to
Reason is constantly reminding Christine of what
the law of Nature, where all people were allowed
she has written in her own prior texts, so that
to do whatever came into their hearts without sin-
Christine’s own corpus forms part of the authori-
ning. Where Boccaccio’s Semiramis decrees a law,
ties to which Reason, Rectitude, and Justice ap-
Christine’s lives before any such thing exists. That
peal. Yet the ultimate claim of female authority is
this law prior to which she lives is a written law, is,
to a non-scripted, prophetic mode, grounded in a
I think, significant. It subtly recalls all of the previ-
realm of discourse that is made to stand as far
ous conversations between Christine and Reason
outside the textual as anything within a text can
about the written authorities of the misogynist
get.
tradition that Christine finds so daunting in the
generic reading scene of this allegory. The only In a sense, Christine’s emphasis on a prior un-
authority Christine has to oppose to the “grant scripted freedom which would authorize mother-
foyson de autteurs,” which are like a surging son incest as being acceptable and even honor-
fountain and which have all denigrated women, able is of a piece with her criticism of Jean de
is “moy meisme et mes meurs come femme na- Meun’s vulgar terms for body parts and also his
turelle”—my self and my conduct as a natural euphemism in describing the act of sexual inter-
woman (II, 618).1 6 That is, until the three crowned course: the relations between language—written
and oral—become most crucial in its relation to my lament and a great deal more for a very long
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN naming the body. If her two auctores founded their time in sad reflection, and in my folly I considered
myself most unfortunate because God had made
texts in stories that underscore the originary
me inhabit a female body in this world.
problem of castration anxiety, her objections— (Richards, p. 5)2 1
overt against Jean and silent against Boccaccio—
react not only to their terms but to the fundamen- The vision begins with the arrival of the three
tal importance of the problem. One does not need ladies immediately after this lament; but Christine
to invoke Freud to see the peculiar emotional further specifies the exact physical position in
burdens revealed by the manuscript illuminations which she sits in her chair.
of the two moments in Jean’s and Boccaccio’s
So occupied with these painful thoughts, my head
texts. Christine’s City is built with a foundation bowed like someone shameful, my eyes filled with
stone (the story of Semiramis) and written in the tears, holding my hand under my cheek with my
language of an allegory that refuses to recognize elbow on the pommel of my chair, I suddenly saw
this peculiar terror as being first, or finally, very a ray of light fall on my lap, as though it were the
sun.
significant. The body upon which Christine
(Richards, p. 6; revised)2 2
focuses—both early and late—is, not surprisingly,
the female body. And it is a body which also Given the fact that the description of the posi-
relentlessly—almost monotonously—refuses to be tion follows directly upon Christine’s lament
dismembered. about her “corps feminin,” however, the specific
It is important to notice at the outset that the mention of body parts is striking. In an earlier
physical body which first bears mention in the text, the Mutacion de Fortune, Christine had said
text is Christine’s own. The physicality of this that Fortune changed her into a man so she could
body—and its essential femaleness—makes its ap- take the helm of her foundering ship, but in the
pearance very subtly in the first paragraph of the Cité, this gender-change is distinctly disallowed.2 3
text of the Cité. In the midst of the reading scene, The three women arrive to chastise her for being
just as Christine comes across the volume of like the fool in the story who was dressed in
Mathéolus while searching through the shelves women’s clothes while he slept; “because those
for a volume of poetry, Christine’s mother calls who were making fun of him repeatedly told him
her to supper. (Imagine anyone calling any of the he was a woman he believed their false testimony
protagonists of allegorical dream visions to supper more readily than the certainty of his own iden-
just after he has picked up the text which will be tity” (Richards, p. 6). The woman who will later
his authority in the subsequent journey.) That it is be identified as Reason, specifically by the mirror
Christine’s mother who calls her to supper is not she holds—anyone who looks into it will achieve
only pertinent in terms of the continuum of clear self-knowledge—specifically argues that all
female authorities Christine is going to supply in the misogynist argument which has so swayed
her text, it signals the humdrum domesticity of Christine as to feel self-disgust for her femaleness,
the scene. (Christine’s mother did in fact live with is like the fire which tries gold:
her; one of the figures of authority in the Cité Fair daughter, have you lost all sense? Have you
talks about this real, down-to-earth mother who forgotten that when fine gold is tested in the
had not wanted her daughter to get the education furnace, it does not change or vary in strength but
her father had given her.1 9 Unlike Dante (or Chau- becomes purer the more it is hammered and
cer, or the narrator of the Rose, Christine takes handled in different ways. Do you not know that
the best things are the most debated and the most
time out to eat and does not have a “dream”— discussed? . . . Come back to yourself, recover
such as most allegorical dream-visions insist. your senses, and do not trouble yourself anymore
Rather, she has a waking vision, much like Dante’s over such absurdities.
(whose authority in this she does follow—having (Richards, pp. 7-8)
explicitly preferred him to Jean de Meun in the
Querelle de la Rose2 0 ). That next morning and Such an insistence on the senses may simply
most importantly, however, Christine’s response be metonymic reference to the alternative author-
to reading Mathéolus is revulsion against her own ity of “experience” Reason wishes to stress against
female body: the scripted authority of misogynist tradition. The
problematic relationship between the experience
Alas God, why did you not let me be born in the
of the physical body and the bookish tradition
world as a man, so that all my inclinations would
be to serve you better, and so that I would not may be seen in a miniature in the Flemish transla-
stray in anything and would be as perfect as man tion. [The] figure shows a despondent Christine,
is said to be? . . .” I spoke these words to God in hand on cheek, elbow on chair, surrounded by
books. The small detail of the knife on Christine’s rology is also her greatest resistance to her auctor
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
desk beneath her left hand, used for correcting Boccaccio who had insisted that the stories of
scribal errors, itself pointing to the books to pagan and Christian women should be told
Christine’s left, may suggest that the illuminator together. Boccaccio rests his claim to humanist
understood Christine’s point quite well about the originality in the De Claris (and his own differ-
need to correct the written tradition.2 4 (The same ence from Petrarch) on the distinction between
miniaturist painted the scene of digging as a the oft-told tales of saints’ lives and the fact that
representation of Reason’s command to clear away the merits of pagan women “have not been
misogynist opinion from the “field of letters”; the published in any special work up to now and have
two pictures, then, make the same point.) Chau- not been set forth by anyone.”2 7 Christine is
cer’s Wife of Bath had announced her preference: remarkably attentive to Boccaccio’s representation
“Experience though none auctoritee Were in this of his own authority, as her inclusion of the mar-
world is right enough for me.” Chaucer’s portrait tyrology attests. By including it, she aims to revise
of the anti-misogynist Wife also underscores a at the point where he bases his own greatest claim
similar conflict. The Wife’s deafness is caused for originality. She further chooses to name him
when her fifth husband, the clerk Jankyn, hits her as her auctor for the first time when she retells his
on the side of the head after she has ripped out story of the Roman woman Proba, notable for
some pages from his misogynist book. Does the having rewritten the stories of Scripture, from
deafness, one wonders, speak to the problematic Genesis to the Epistles, in the verses of Virgil, “that
orality of a female tradition that is necessarily opis, . . . in one part she would take several entire
posed to the clerkly scripted tradition?
verses unchanged and in another borrow small
Of course, most of what gets said by the three snatches of verse, and, through marvelous crafts-
figures of authority in the Cité des Dames comes manship and conceptual subtlety” she was able to
out of books. The very building of the city is the narrate the Bible in Virgil’s poetry (p. 66). As
writing of the book of the city of ladies. Christine David Anderson has very interestingly suggested,
cannot, nor as an allegorist would, escape textual- Boccaccio’s praise of Proba’s achievements indi-
ity. As Jane Gallop has usefully reminded us, no cates some of his own practice of imitation in
writing can evade textuality, even that which rehearsing Statius’ Thebaid in the Teseide, as well
would strain most resolutely to ground the differ- as, of course, his own use of sources in the De
ence between male and female writing in the Claris.2 8 Proba’s practice proleptically stages the
biological differences between male and female very problem the Renaissance would find so tricky
bodies: to solve. Suffice it to say that at least one fifteenth-
At the very moment when she would proclaim century reader noticed the significance of Boccac-
the shift from metaphor to fact, the feminist critic cio’s story, if not for his practice, then for her own;
cannot help but produce metaphors . . . this mo- Christine names him as her auctor, and quotes him
ment recurs in various texts . . . when, in reach-
ing for some nonrhetorical body, some referential
verbatim with an acknowledgement for the first
body to ground sexual difference outside of writ- time. What Proba did to Vergil, so Christine does
ing, the critic produces a rhetorical use of the body to Boccaccio.2 9
as metaphor for the nonrhetorical.2 5
Christine’s greatest difference from Boccaccio,
It may be easier, however, to specify a dis- however, is her three part structure and its allegori-
tinctly female practice in writing that does not cal frame, through which she analyzes and the-
run into the contemporary modern dilemma of matically organizes the materials she has taken
“essentialism” by focussing on a medieval female from him. Through the allegorical frame she also
author’s practice. Untouched by a biologism stages her own authority, and, in effect, turns
constructed by a modern “scientific” discourse, herself into her own figure of authority.3 0 By posit-
Christine’s approach to the historical actuality of ing herself (“moi mesme”) as a “natural” woman
female bodies, translated into a transcendent tex- at the center of her text, she literalizes the gender
tuality, is empowered by a long-lived ideology of that has been implicit in all female figures of auc-
fleshly sacrifice, which paradoxically insists upon toritas, itself a feminine noun that would require a
the power of the word made flesh.2 6 The very pres- female figure for its personification. The famous
ence of the third section of the Cité, narrated by illuminations of the Cité instructively indicate the
Justice, in which Christine provides an abbrevi- nature of the wordplay on which Christine’s al-
ated female martyrology taken from Vincent of legorical metaphor rests: although the text of the
Beauvais, insists upon the centrality of the female Cité has been very little read, its illuminations are
body to her project. Of course, including a marty- some of the best known in the history of art—
having been done by the hand which Millard the City of Ladies. For the foundation and perfec-
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN Meiss has termed the “Cité des Dames Master.”3 1 tion of which, you will take and draw from us
They are important not merely for their artistic three living water as from clear fountains, and we
merit, however, but because of their close replica- will deliver (te livre-rons) enough material, strong
tion of authorial intention. In a brilliant study of and more durable than any marble with cement
the different political programs for two separate could be. So will your city be very beautiful
manuscripts of Christine’s Epistre Othéa, Sandra without parallel, and of perpetual duration in the
L. Hindman has shown that Christine not only world” (Richards, p. 11, revised).3 4 The “livre” and
herself wrote the manuscript of the text that is the “cité” are written and built simultaneously,
presently collected in the volume known as Har- with the delivery of the same “matiere.”3 5 Thus,
ley 4431 in the British Library, she also indicated every story narrated in the first section is another
in special rubrics in purple ink specific instruc- “pierre” laid in the walls of this edifying edifice.
tions for the illuminator to follow.3 2 The illumina- The opening of the second section of the Cité
tions of the Cité are from the same Harley two- is illuminated by another miniature. Droiture
volume collection of Christine’s work. Although receives into the city the ten sybils, famous
the text of the Cité does not bear the same author- prophetesses whose authority is greater than all
ity as the text of the Othéa, its illuminations are the Old Testament prophets; their stories begin
so close to the copy which probably was overseen the completion of the internal palaces.3 6 In this
by Christine, that they will serve for our pur- section, Droiture tells the story of the Sybil Al-
poses.3 3 mathea; in her oral and prophetic authority, Droi-
The first thing that strikes the eye about the ture has more accurate knowledge than even the
incipit illumination to the Livre de la Cité des tradition of Virgil. Justice takes over for the third
Dames is the femaleness of the enterprise. Chris- and final section of the Cité, shown welcoming
Mary into the city as its queen. A later illumina-
tine’s illuminator represents her as an author
tion rereads the figure of Mary, substituting a baby
already; the text opens in Christine’s book-filled
for the book. Such a book/baby translation is a
study. The three crowned ladies holding their duly
legitimate reading of the corporeal textuality of
explained emblems are Reason, in the back, hold-
the hagiography of the third section and one may
ing her mirror; Droiture, or Rectitude holding her
say that this illuminator grants us a legitimate and
ruler in the middle; and Justice in the foreground,
interesting reading of the text. It is not merely a
holding her measuring vessel. To the right we see
conventional substitution as the earlier, more care-
the actual construction of the city under way, with
ful count of ten sybils in the miniature for the
Reason handing Christine a building block, while
second section attested. Before we consider how
Christine holds her trowel—or her pen. The
sensitively poised this body/book tension is in the
coequal activity of the figure of authority and the
last section, it will be useful to consider how the
author collapses their authority; it replicates the
female body is represented in Boccaccio’s text, at
insistence in the text that the three ladies share
least as that text was read by Christine’s contem-
with Christine the same opposition to the tradi-
poraries. There is a persistent vision of the display
tion against which she reacts. In an echo, I
of violence against the female body throughout
suspect, of Dante’s cry that he was neither Aeneas
the illuminated manuscripts of the Des Cleres
or Paul to undertake such a journey, Christine
Femmes; such violence in Boccaccio’s text may
complains that she is not Thomas the apostle to
have provided another reason for Christine’s
build in heaven a city for the king of India. When
inclusion of a martyrology in the Cité. A fairly
she complains that furthermore she has a weak
representative miniature. [Shows] Nero having his
female body, Reason tells her that she will carry
mother Agrippina cut open so he may see the
materials on her own shoulders (much like father
womb from which he was born.3 7
Virgil carries Dante over some difficult spots).
Together they construct both a book and a city Christine’s text incorporates and rewrites this
that will become a haven for women safe from violence against the female body by authorizing it
further misogynist attack. Christine has the as hagiography. In switching genres in her change
books—Reason provides the bricks. The two sides of auctors, she not only moves against Boccaccio’s
of the illumination are held together by a textual decision not to write about martyred Christian
pun. Each of the three figures continually tell women, she also selects a genre which insists upon
Christine that they will “livrerons” the material a parity between male and female passion.3 8 Both
for her city: “Thus, fair daughter, to you is given male and female saints are tortured and die in
the prerogative among women to make and build similar ways. Furthermore, the representations of
such torture in the illuminations often insist upon daughter to try to stop her from being so obsti-
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
the sexlessness of the saint’s body. Two representa- nate. Vincent’s mother is a study in hysterical
tive miniatures, one of Pope Urben, a male saint, pathos:
and of Marcienne, a female saint, in a late 14th- And then her mother, wife to Urben, hearing that
century manuscript of Vincent of Beauvais Miroir her daughter had suffered so great pain, tore her
Historial illustrate the gender-neutral body of the clothes and put ashes on her head and went to
saint. The lack of genitals and the parallel muscu- the prison and threw herself at her daughter’s feet
and, crying, said, “My only daughter, have pity
lature insist that in this moment of physical suf-
on me who nursed you at my breasts and make it
fering the experience of martyrdom is sexless (in clear why you worship a strange god.”4 0
both senses of the term).
St. Christine harshly answers: “Why do you
Christine, of course, in only telling of female
call me daughter; for you have no one in your
saints’ lives in the Cité, changes the pattern of
lineage who is called a christian (crestiene). Do
parallelism. She further regenders the body and
you not know that I have my name from Christ
changes its social contexts by including a number
my savior? He is the one who tests me in celestial
of different details; her revisions of Vincent of chivalry and has armed me to conquer those who
Beauvais, her auctor for the last section, are thus do not understand.” The mother, hearing this,
similar to her subtle suppressions and corrections returns to her house and denounces all to her
of Boccaccio. She also uses a similar maneuver to husband.
her well-timed naming of Boccaccio when she
cites Vincent as her auctor, just before Justice In the Cité, St. Christine has no mother. Ur-
recounts the story of St. Christine, Christine’s own ben is sole parent, and it is to him, both father
patron saint. and first torturer, that Christine abjures her
parentage.
If you want me to tell you all about the holy
“Tyrant who should not be called my father but
virgins who are in Heaven because of their con-
rather enemy of my happiness, you boldly torture
stancy during martyrdom, it would require a long
the flesh which you engendered, for you can eas-
history, including Saint Cecilia, Saint Agnes, Saint
ily do this, but as for my soul created by my Father
Agatha, and countless others. If you want more
in Heaven, you have not power to touch it with
examples, you need only look at the Speculum his-
the slightest temptation, for it is protected by my
toriale of Vincent de Beauvais, and there you will
Savior, Jesus Christ.”
find a great many. However, I will tell you about
(Richards, pp. 235-36)
Saint Christine, both because she is your patron
and because she is a virgin of great dignity. Let me
Such a suppression is of a piece with Chris-
tell you at greater length about her beautiful and
pious life. tine’s persistent emphasis on patriarchal control
(Richards, p. 234) exercised by earthly fathers (as well as surrogate
tyrant figures) in a number of other lives; it
In naming Vincent just before she tells the equally coheres with an emphasis on the gener-
story of her own patron saint, Christine distin- ous and loving relations between earthly mothers
guishes her own authority from his; she also and daughters.
implies that the story she tells will be necessarily
In both texts, Urben has St. Christine stripped
different. One reads Vincent; we hear Justice
naked, beaten by twelve men, tied on a wheel over
speak.
a fire, and rivers of boiling oil poured over her
The largest difference between Christine’s and body. Angels break the wheel so that the virgin is
Vincent’s versions of St. Christine’s story is the delivered “healthy and whole,” while in the
Cité’s treatment of the saint’s parents. In the meantime more than a thousand treacherous
Miroir, it is both pagan parents who separately at- spectators who had been watching this torture
tempt to dissuade their headstrong daughter from without pity are killed. Urben decides to drown
refusing to sacrifice to their pagan gods. In Vin- her; a great stone is tied around her neck and she
cent’s text, St. Christine’s father has shut her up is thrown into the sea, but angels save her and
in a tower with some ladies in waiting so she may she walks on the water with them. Praying, she
worship his gods.3 9 When the young female asks that the water be for her the holy sacrament
companions tattle on her, and confess that she of baptism which she has greatly desired, “where-
has not been worshiping the idols but rather look- upon Jesus Christ descended in His own person
ing out the window to pray to a single celestial with a large company of angels and baptized her
god, he has her tortured. As soon as her mother and named her Christine from His own name”
finds out about this torture, she comes to visit her (Richards, p. 236); “la baptisma et nomma de son
nom Christine.” However, in the Miroir, the waters que tu ne congnois ma parolle, c’est bien raison
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN are only a “signacle de beptesme,” while a voice que ma langue t’ait aveugle.” (II. 1009).4 1 In the
from heaven merely announces her prayer has Miroir, the saint has a less witty if far more grisly
been heard, as a cloud and a purple star descend denunciation:
on her head, representing the glory of Jesus Christ. Je te condamne mengier en tenebras les members
While the notion of the name in the Miroir is the de mon corpse. Tu les avois destruez & tua
wedge between mother and daughter—and is trenchee ma langue qui beneissoit dieu. Et pource
present, if at all, only in a fairly unstressed use of as tu droicturierment perdue sa veue.
the word “crestiene”—the granting of the baptis- (f. 485)
mal name “Christine” from Christ’s own name in I condemn you to eat in hell the parts of my body.
the Cité is nowhere mentioned in the Miroir; You have destroyed them and have cut off my
neither is the baptism a literal sacrament in the tongue which blessed god. And therefore you have
rightfully lost your sight.
Miroir as it is in the Cité, and Vincent also does
not reiterate Christine’s loyal suffering for Christ’s In the Cité, this body is not accessible to a
“nom.” Christine revises Vincent to make the metaphorical infernal punishment. While in both
baptism a literal event that underscores the nam- texts, it is the physical, literal tongue which puts
ing of the saint by the divine son himself, with out the literal physical eye, only Christine calls at-
his own name. He is, of course, the baby who tention to the metaphorical blindness that has
substituted for the book, the Logos who suffered a been the problem all along.4 2 One senses that the
fleshly sacrifice. The baptism is one of two central saint’s curse in the Miroir has a literal, Dantesque
events—both intricate conflations of verbal and character—a contrapasso punishment of the
physical issues—in the Cité’s version of Christine’s tyrant’s eating the body parts of the saint he has
story; the other also concerns the physical fact of so hideously dismembered. Christine de Pizan
language. sacrifices this wittiness to stress her own sense of
Yet a third judge, named Julian, takes a differ- the relations between the power of the saint’s
ent and very interesting tack in his torture. After fleshly, physical tongue to speak the truth in its
having set some snakes upon her who merely continuing and miraculous confession of Christ’s
nurse at her breasts, he decides to have them cut name and its power to make people see that
off (milk and blood issue forth). Then he com- truth—thousands have been converted by the
mands that her tongue be cut out. In the Cité, saint’s virtue. The dismembered tongue is capable
Julian’s decision is precisely motivated: “because of making a political intervention.
she unceasingly pronounced the name of Jesus In the Miroir the story ends with the remark
Christ,” he decides to have her tongue cut out. that “ung home de son lignage” writes the saint’s
She has already told him that he is blind—“if your legend. In the Cité, an ungendered “parent” takes
eyes would see the virtues of God, you would “le saint corps et escript sa glorieuse legende”
believe in them.” Her tongue is duly “coupee,” (II.1009). The body and its scripted legend are kept
but she goes on speaking more clearly than before more closely connected, not consigned to an
of divine things. God speaks to her again, praising infernal region, but remaining a sainted flesh-
her for upholding the name of Christ. Hearing form, apparently resurrected and still coextensive
this voice, Julian charges the executioners to cut with the saint herself. Breaking into her own text
her tongue so short that she cannot speak to her for the only time, Christine directly addresses a
Christ “whereupon they ripped out her tongue prayer to St. Christine.
and cut it off at the root” (Richards, p. 239). Im-
mediately thereafter: O blessed Christine, worthy virgin favored of God,
most elect and glorious martyr, in the holiness
She spat this cut-off piece of her tongue into the with which God has made you worthy, pray for
tyrant’s face, putting out one of his eyes. She then me, a sinner, named with your name, and be my
said to him, speaking as clearly as ever, “Tyrant, kind and merciful guardian. Behold my joy at be-
what does it profit you to have my tongue cut out ing able to make use of your holy legend and to
so that it cannot bless God, when my soul will include it in my writings, which I have recorded
bless Him forever while yours languishes forever here at such length out of reverence for you. May
in eternal damnation. And because you did not this be ever pleasing to you! Pray for all women,
hear my words, my tongue has blinded you, with for whom your holy life may serve as an example
good reason.” for ending their lives well. Amen.
(Richards, p. 239-40) (Richards, p. 240)
The French makes the witty connection be- If the authorities of Reason, Rectitude, and
tween langue and parole more obvious: “Et pource Justice may be said to be merely allegorical repre-
sentations of Christine’s own female authority, tions her own earlier texts in this poem; she does
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
this prayer stands finally outside the fiction of the not call attention to her former persistent argu-
text, in a “real” appeal to a functioning saint. St. ments about female virtue, her political treatises
Christine is one of the citizens who will dwell in on peace, on the arts of war, or any of her other
the Cité—but of course she already dwells in the writings. She does, however, begin with her
civitas dei, transtemporally accessible to the author formulaic “Je, Christine,” which may function as
in this prayer. One could say that the details of an authoritative sign for the existing corpus of
the legend of Christine are exquisitely suited to texts.4 4 It has always seemed like a peculiarly ap-
representing a female anxiety of authorship. propriate accident of history that Joan should ap-
Christine did not make up the detail of the pear on the scene of the hundred years’ war in
dismembered tongue; she does however save St. time for Christine to write about her and to
Christine’s physical body in her text, against the welcome her as an (at that point) unambiguous
witty authority of her auctor. The literal prayer, sign of God’s special love for the female sex: “Hee!
fully functional as active language, collapses quel honneur au feminin Sexe! Que Dieu l’ayme il
distinctions between saint’s legend, author’s “es- appert” (265-66). As far as I know, no one has
criptures,” and the instrumental effect Christine asked if there might not be a connection between
hopes her text will have on her female readers in the two unique occurrences, the presence of a
the political present of the French court in 1405 prominent female author, the first professional
and in the future. Christine de Pizan remakes woman of letters who made public and constant
herself as her own figure of authority, punningly arguments for the virtue of women at the French
calling attention to the divine authority of her court for over twenty years, and the acceptance
own name by dramatizing the naming of her by that court, a generation later, of a low-born
patron saint. female teenager as the martial savior of her
Stephen G. Nichols has recently argued that country. To suggest a possible causal connection
hagiography is a mediated scripted genre con- may be to do no more than to question whether
trolled by the institution of the church, designed or not the practice of a prominently placed author
to marginalize unauthorized prophetic voices that contributed to the “discursive possibilities” of a
would subvert central institutionalized authority, culture.4 5 Criticism is now more comfortable with
most specifically the voices of women. The only thinking of literature in its potential social instru-
body that speaks in a hagiographical text is a dead mentality, how, in fact, the practice of an indi-
body; it speaks, moreover, by having been turned vidual author may be seen as an “intervention” in
into a text.4 3 Christine’s rewrite of Vincent’s the ideological constructs of a society. This was
details, I have tried to suggest, reinvests the body certainly Christine’s stated intention in the Livre
with a living instrumentality, even as it is being de la Cité des Dames, as well as in a number of
dismembered. The mediated, interpreted events of her more overtly didactic manuals. With the
St. Christine’s legend in Vincent’s rendition are Ditié’s specific address of the king, the soldier,
made literal, present events in Christine’s revision Joan herself, the city of Paris, and the nation at
of her auctor. Mere signs become actual events. large, Christine certainly intended a prophetic and
The prayer to St. Christine also functions to bring immediate intervention for this particular poem,
the possibilities of a present power into the text, as she apparently also assumed, from her first
which, while it remains a mere record, makes critique of the Roman de la Rose, that literature
contact with a transtemporal and prophetic had real moral impact.
present. Christine’s revisions of Vincent begin to
Her radical insertion of her gender-specific
turn hagiography into prophecy and connects the
authority into a misogynist tradition proceeds in
saints’ legends of the last section of the Cité with
the case of her three different, explicitly named,
the persistent emphasis on prophecy in the first
auctores, in an almost text-book like demonstra-
two.
tion of how it should be done. That she in the
At the end of her life Christine de Pizan took process creates an almost monolithically stable
to actual prophecy. After having retreated to a subjectivity in her persona as female author defies
convent before the Burgundian invasion of Paris, our current notions of the historical progress in
and having remained silent for eleven years, the construction of the modern “subject.” Her
Christine wrote the last poem of her life, the Ditié seeming modernity, predicated as I have tried to
de Jehanne D’Arc, finishing it on July 31, 1429. It show, on the most “medieval” practice of autho-
was the only poem to have been written about rial citation and revision, and her explicit and
Joan during her lifetime. Christine nowhere men- inexplicit scrutiny of a misogyny driven by what
can be termed various oedipal anxieties, as well as de l’auteur” (II. 624); “As for the attack . . . made not
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN her focus on the problematic relations between only by Mathéolus but also by others and even by the
Romance of the Rose where greater credibility is averred
oral and written traditions of authority in the because of the authority of its author.” Citations are
representation of the female body would seem to to “The ‘Livre de la Cité des Dames’ of Christine de
place her at the center of a number of late twenti- Pisan: A Critical Edition,” ed. Maureen Curnow (Ph.D.
diss. Vanderbilt, 1975), 2 vols.: English translations are
eth century critical concerns and therefore in a
from The Book of the City of Ladies, trans. Earl Jeffrey
position somewhat anachronistic to her late Richards (New York: Persea Books, 1982).
medieval moment. However, her not entirely
7. Hicks, pp. 13-14, 117-118. For English translations of
coincidental overlap with Joan of Arc negates such the documents see “La Querelle de la Rose”: Letters and
an ahistorical accounting for her career. Christine Documents, ed. J. L. Baird and K. R. Kane (Chapel Hill,
doubtless wrote the text of the Ditié with a simple N.C.: University of North Carolina Dept. of Romance
pen, but she appears to have written it with a Languages, 1978); Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de
Meun, Le Roman de la Rose, ed. Felix Lecoy (Paris: Edi-
sense of the political instrumentality of literature tions Honore Champion, 1965), 3 vols; I, line 5507.
that we are only now beginning to appreciate. If
the laws decreeing the legitimacy of the middle 8. The miniature is from Douce 195, Bodley Library,
Oxford; it was done in the late fifteenth century for
ages do not at the moment account for her politi- Louise of Savoy and the Count of Angouleme, parents
cal practices, need it be said that they should of Francis I. For a peculiarly full illustration of the
perhaps be rewritten? whole story, showing the birth of Venus from the
dismembered genitals as well as the castrated body,
see John V. Fleming, The Roman de la Rose: A Study in
Notes Allegory and Iconography (Princeton: Princeton Univer-
1. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the sity Press, 1969), Fig. 33. The Valencia MS Fleming
Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century prints may have been illuminated by one of the
Literary Imagination (New Haven: Yale University Press, miniaturists Christine used, causing her—so Charity
1979). Canon Willard guesses—greater consternation about
the vulgarity of the text. See Willard, Christine de Pi-
2. A quick overview of the various positions taken by zan: Her Life and Works (New York: Persea Books, 1984),
different French theorists may be found in Susan Sule- pp. 229-30, n. 24.
iman, “(Re)Writing the Body: The Politics of Female
Eroticism,” in The Female Body in Western Culture: 9. When Lady Reason explains that Ovid turned to writ-
Contemporary Perspectives, ed. Susan Suleiman ing attacks on women only after he had been punished
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), for his political and sexual transgressions by being
pp. 7-29. “diffourmez de ses membres” (i.e. castrated), Christine
would appear to point to this origin (Cité, II, 648; Ri-
3. For a recent study which places Christine in the chards, p. 21). The argument about Ovid was, of
context of the French court, see Sandra L. Hindman, course, conventional, but in the context of the Cité’s
Christine de Pizan’s “Epistre Othea”: Painting and Politics rejection of the whole misogynist tradition, Christine
at the Court of Charles VI (Toronto: Pontifical Institute would appear to anticipate a series of modern feminist
of Mediaeval Studies, 1986). critiques of Freudian theories about the oedipal
4. Although a modern edition of the French text by complex and female sexuality. See, in particular,
Monica Lange has been forthcoming since 1974, the Hélène Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa,” Signs 1
Cité has yet to be printed. The more obviously conser- (1976), 875-93, and Luce Irigaray, Speculum of the Other
vative Trésor de la Cité des Dames (Le Livre des Trois Woman, Catherine Porter, trans. (Ithaca: Cornell
Vertus) was published in three early printed editions in University Press, 1986).
1497, 1503, and 1536; the Cité remains the only major
10. For further discussion of the perhaps defensible tactic
text by Christine never to have been printed. See An-
Jean de Meun uses and his revision of his precursors,
gus J. Kennedy, Christine de Pizan: a Bibliographical
see my “Allegory, Allegoresis, and the Deallegorization
Guide (London: Grant and Cutler, Ltd., 1984).
of Language: the Roman de la Rose, the De planctu
5. Although a miniature can provide no sure check on naturae, and the Parlement of Foules,” in Allegory, Myth,
textual interpretation, because visual evidence can be and Symbol, ed. Morton Bloomfield (Cambridge, Mass.:
as easily misinterpreted as texts, the two were assumed Harvard University Press, 1981), pp. 163-86.
to be coherently readable together. Early fifteenth-
century understandings of the similar moral impact of 11. Willard quotes Christine’s basic argument: “If you
both picture and text thus offer some historical wish to excuse him by saying that it pleases him to
legitimacy in taking pictures as evidence of possible make a pretty story of the culmination of love using
interpretations. Jean Gerson, for instance, questions: such images [figures], I reply that by doing so he
neither tells nor explains anything new. Doesn’t
“Mais qui plus art et enflemme ces ames que paroles
everyone know how men and women copulate natu-
dissolues et que luxuryeuses escriptures et paintures?”
rally?” See Hicks, p. 20. Christine makes clear in a
(But what burns and enflames these souls more than
later document in the “Querelle” that her objections
dissolute words and libidinous writings and
to the words are, in essence, political. Having argued
paintings?) Eric Hicks, ed., Le Débat sur Le Roman de la
that “the word does not make the thing shameful, but
Rose (Paris: Editions Honore Champion, 1977), p. 68.
the thing makes the word dishonorable,” Christine
6. “Et la vituperacion que dit, non mie seullement luy explains to Pierre Col that the “thing” in question is
mais d’autres et messement le Rommant de la Rose ou not precisely the physical body part (made by God,
plus grant foy est adjoustee pour cause de l’auctorite although polluted by the Fall), but the speaker’s
“intention” in using the word: in contrast to Chris- strates Christine’s assumption that “it was ‘woman’s
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
tine’s own use of a polite term, for instance, whereby work’ that kept the fabric of society intact” (p. 181).
“la fin pour quoy j’en parleroye ne seroit pas deshon-
neste,” a use of the proper name would be shameful 17. It is possible that Christine knew Alain de Lille’s De
because “la primere entencion de la chose a ja fait le planctu naturae, in which Lady Nature gives a long
non deshonneste” (Hicks, p. 117). Christine’s ultimate explanation of reading “per antiphrasim”; in the Cité
objection to the Rose was to Jean’s authorial misogyny: Lady Reason explains that we are to read by “the gram-
“lui, seul homme, osa entreprendre a diffamer et blas- matical figure of antiphrasis” (p. 7). In the debate over
mer sans excepcion tout un sexe” (Hicks, p. 22). Her the Rose, Gerson had specifically taken Jean de Meun
quarrel with his choice of words would appear to take to task for plagiarizing Alain, pointing out however,
aim at the bawdiness of a discursive practice which that, after having reread Alain, he can state unequivo-
underwrote the overall misogyny. For a discussion of cally that Alain never speaks as Jean does, but consis-
Christine’s essentially political objections to the Rose, tently condemns vices against nature (Hicks, p. 80).
see Pierre-Yves Badel, Le Roman de la Rose au XIVe siècle:
Étude de la Réception de l’Œuvre (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 18. For a discussion of this moment in Levi-Strauss’ text,
1980), pp. 411-47, esp. p. 428. see Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology, trans. Gayatri
Spivak (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
12. The four-part incipit miniature in a manuscript of the 1976), pp. 101-40.
French translation of the De Claris, the De Cleres et
Nobles Femmes, probably done by Laurent de Primier- 19. Motherhood is one of the more immediate stances for
fait in 1401, reveals the importance of Semiramis’ female authority; Christine was herself a mother of
story in the fourteenth-century French reading of the three children, and she uses this authoritative posi-
text. The episode of the messenger’s arrival while tion in the Ensignemens moraux to address her son,
Semiramis is having her hair braided is represented in Jean Castel, Œuvres poétiques de Christine de Pisan, ed.
the lower left quadrant, just beneath the author M. Roy (Paris: Firmin Didot), 3 vols: III, 27-44. The
portrait in the upper left quadrant (British Library, significant importance of her own mother, however,
London, MS Royal 20 C.V,f.1). The only text of the in the opening pages of the Cité, calls up large ques-
Cité to have any of its internal stories illustrated, the tions about the relation of real mothering to any
late fifth-century Flemish translation De Lof der Wrou- female’s identity as author or otherwise. Recent
wen (MS Add 20698 in the British Library) also il- feminist discussions of female authors writing in later
luminates this moment, for it is a signal event in periods make interesting use of the object relations
Christine’s version of the story as in Boccaccio’s (f. theory of mothering outlined by Nancy Chodorow in
41). The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the
Sociology of Gender (Berkeley: University of California
13. Giovanni Boccaccio, Concerning Famous Women, trans. Press, 1978). At base, it is more difficult for a female to
Guido A. Guarino (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers detach from the first love object, the mother, and to
University Press, 1963), p. 6. Ceterum hec omnia, ne- create a separate identity because of their shared
dum in femina, sed in quocunque viro strenuous, gender (as well as their shared sociological role). The
mirabilia atque laudabilia et perpetua memoria cel- fact that Christine’s mother is still feeding her (calling
ebranda, una obscene mulier fedavit illecebra. Nam her to supper) also broaches notions of orality held
cum, inter ceteras, quasi assidua libidinis prurigine, over from infant attachments, and would need to be
ureretur infelix, plurium miscuisse se concubitui credi- taken into account in a fuller discussion of the
tum est; et inter mechose, bestiale quid potius quam problematic relations of an oral, prophetic and specifi-
humanum, filius Ninias numeatur, unus prestantis- cally female tradition by which Christine in the Cité
sime forme iuvenis, qui, uti mutasset com matre “corrects” a written male tradition.
sexum, in thalamis marcebat ocio, ubi hec adversus
hostes sudabat in armis. De Mulieribus Claris, ed. Vit- 20. Hicks, pp. 141-42; Dante’s poem is a “hundred times
torio Zaccaria, Tutte Le Opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, ed. better written”; there is “no comparison.”
Vittore Branca (Mondadori, 1967), 12 vols., XI, 36.
21. “Helas Dieux, pourquoy ne me faiz tu naistre au
14. For a discussion of Christine’s and Boccaccio’s differ- monde en masculin sexe, a celle fin que mes inclina-
ent relations to textual tradition, see Liliane Dulac, cions fussent toutes a te mieulx servir et que je ne er-
“Semiramis ou la Veuve heroique,” Mélanges de Phi- rasse en riens et fusse de si grant parfeccion come
lologie Romane offerts à Charles Camproux (Montpellier: homme masle ce dit estre? . . .” Telz parolles et plus
C.E.O. Montpellier, 1978), 315-43. assez tres longuement en triste pensee disoye a Dieu
en ma lamantacion, si comme celle qui par ma fou-
15. “Sy prens la truelle de ta plume et t’aprestes de fort lour me tenoye tres malcontent de ce qu’en corp fe-
maçonner et ouvrer par grant diligence. Car voycy menin m’ot fait Dieus estre au monde. (II, 621)
une grande et large pierre que je veuil qui soit la
premiere assise ou fondement de ta cite” (I, 676). 22. “En celle dollente penssee ainsi que j’estoye, la teste
baissiee comme personne honteuse, les yeulx plains de
16. Susan Groag Bell, in “Christine de Pizan (1364-1430): larmes, tenant ma main soubz ma joe acoudee sur le
Humanism and the Problem of a Studious Woman,” pommel de ma chayere, soubdainement sus mon gi-
Feminist Studies 3 (1976), 1 173-84, points out that ron vy descendre un ray de liumiere” (II, 621-22;
whereas Boccaccio denigrates women’s traditional emphasis added). Richards translates “joe” as “armrest”
pursuits, Christine ignores his deprecations in her which is, of course, possible; however, I think the
rewrites of his stories. Bell also notices that in the main burden of Christine’s list of body parts in this
sequel to the Cité, the Trésor de la Cité des Dames or Le description would tend to make the “joe” a human
Livre des Trois Vertus, Christine does not counsel cheek rather than the side-part of an armchair. For
women to study letters but rather gives practical “joe” as “joue,” specifically as “cheek,” see A. J. Grei-
advice on how to gain power in the current social mas, Dictionnaire de l’Ancien Francais (Paris: Librairie
conditions; Bell concludes that such a practice demon- Larousse, 1968). See also fig. 4.
23. Suzanne Solente, ed., Le Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune 36. A later 15th century illumination counts their unca-
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN (Paris: Éditions A. & J. Picard, 1959), 2 vols; I, 9-12; nonical number more carefully—Christine says there
lines 51-156. See Willard, p. 108, for a discussion of are ten rather than nine; Paris, B.N. f. fr. 1177, f. 45.
the transformation in the Mutacion.
37. In a miniature illustrating even so chaste a story as
24. I am indebted to Prof. Eugene Vance for this interest- that of Penelope, the violence of the suitors seems
ing reading of the detail of the knife. implicitly directed at the exemplary wife rather than
at each other (Royal 20 CV, British Library, f. 6 1vo)).
25. Jane Gallop, “Writing and Sexual Difference: the Dif-
ference Within,” in Writing and Sexual Difference, ed. 38. The incipit illumination of Jean de Vignay’s transla-
Elizabeth Abel (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, tion of Vincent of Beauvais’ Miroir Historial (Paris, BN,
1980), p. 287. f. fr. 313, f. 1) is split down the middle; on the left is a
group of male saints standing before a monk seated in
26. Hélène Cixous, in The Newly Born Woman, co-authored a high chair writing; on the right is a group of female
with Catherine Clément, trans. Betsy Wing saints standing before a monk seated in a slightly
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986), lower chair, also writing. While the difference in the
assumes a relationship between the female body and size of the chairs, the placement of the figures (the
“writing” as she conceives it: “woman is body more floor of the males’ side is higher than the floor for the
than man is. Because he is invited to social success, to females), and the use of a nimbus around one male
sublimation. More body hence more writing” (p. 95). saint’s head but no corresponding haloes for the
Punning on the French word “voler,” Cixous provides females, all suggest that the hierarchical nature of the
a double metaphor for a specifically female writing: gender division is observed, the miniatures are the
“To fly/steal is woman’s gesture, to steal into language same size and use the same format. The overall effect
to make it fly” (p. 96). Christine not only shares the is of perfect parallelism.
wordplay with such a theorist, who assumes a continu-
ity between writing and the body, she also would ap- 39. The sexuality implicit in this miniature of the clothed
pear to have anticipated the anti-oedipal stance of St. Christine, opposed to the naked pagan idols, one
such a theorist as Luce Irigaray, who bases her descrip- white, one darker in color, strikes a contrast with the
tion of “écriture féminine” in a critique of Freud’s too sexless nature of other martyrs’ suffering, painted by
oedipally based sense of female sexuality. See in the same hand. The idols are not nude, but naked,
particular, “Psychoanalytic Theory: Another Look” in their shields covering genitals that must be present as
This Sex Which is Not One, trans. Catherine Porter with a menace to the virgin saint. The color code of the
Carolyn Burke (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University pagan idols suggests that the threat of idolatry is both
Press, 1985) as well as the title essay. without and within, signed as a cultural other in the
darker figure, but as the same in the lighter. Both of
27. “nullo in hoc editor volumine speciali . . . et a ne- course, as male, represent idolatry as a sexual threat to
mine demonstrata, describere, quasi aliquale redditur the female saint, who bends away from them with
premium” (Zaccario, ed. p. 28). hand gestures that cover her own genital areas (though
this is, in fact, a typical placement for female hands
28. David Anderson, unpublished manuscript. even when there are no contextually present sexual
implications).
29. See Richards’ note for further corroboration, p. 262.
40. Et donc sa mere femme Urben ouyante q’ sa fille avoit
30. Sandra L. Hindman, Christine de Pizan’s “Epistre Othéa” suffert si grant peine derompit ses vestemens & mist
(Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, cendres sus son chief & ala chartre et cheust aux pieds
1986), p. 57, argues for a similar conflation of the dicelle a pleur disant. Ma seule fille ayez pitie de moi
authorities of Christine and the figure of Othea qui alaictas mes mammelles qui ta len fait pour quoi
through the epistolary form. The Cité makes the con- tu aoures ung estrange dieu. (Paris, 1495, f. 483.)
flation a part of the dramatic dialogue as the three
figures dictate the stories to Christine as named 41. Greimas notes that “langue” as meaning “langage
author. parlé ou écrit” is “rare” in ancien français; however, if
it ever slips into this meaning, it does so here.
31. Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de
Berry: the late XIVth Century and the Patronage of the 42. The question of sightedness and blindness curiously
Duke (London: Phaidon, 1967), 2 vols. recurs in a number of different father-daughter rela-
tions in other saints’ lives. The stories of two cross-
32. Hindman, pp. 75-89. Hindman also discusses Chris- dressed saints, Euphrosine and Marine, both of whom
tine’s naming of a female border-painter, pp. 69-70. become monks, are told in immediate sequence by
both Christine and Vincent. However, Christine
33. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, f. fr. 607; the MS was a transfers the miraculous ability of St. Euphrosine’s
presentation copy for the Duc de Berry. dead body to St. Marine’s, whose dead body, when
34. “Ainsi, belle fille, t’est donne la prerogative entre les kissed by a monk who has lost the use of one eye,
femmes de faire et bastir la Cite des Dames, pour restores his sight. The signal difference between the
laquelle fonder et parfaire, tu prendras et puiseras en two saints is that Euphrosine fled to the monastery to
nous trois eaue vive comme en fontaines cleres, et te escape her father’s attempt to marry her to an un-
livrerons assez matiere plus forte et plus durable que wanted suitor, while Marine goes to the monastery,
marbre. . . . Si sera ta cite tres belle sans pareille et de called there by her father who misses her too much
perpetuelle duree au monde” (II, 630). after he has turned monk. Why Christine should sup-
press the power to restore eyesight in rebellious Euph-
35. Such wordplay is typical of allegory. See my The rosine’s case and to grant it to the dutiful daughter
Language of Allegory: Defining the Genre (Ithaca: Cornell Marine is, to say the least, suspicious; what seems to
University Press, 1979), esp. pp. 58-79, for the func- be shifting about in this floating eyeball is a weird
tion of puns in William Langland’s Piers Plowman. marker of Oedipal relations. Vincent’s text allows the
initially hostile father of Euphrosine to “see” his of such words as dames (“ladies”) and created a language
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
daughter again before her death; she is—like the for imagining women as philosophers and poets in the
monk’s eyesight—“restored” to him. Christine’s text same class as men.
insists upon this father’s further suffering, and his
death. In Christine’s text Euphrosine’s dead body As a fervent opponent of the misogyny which
tenaciously holds the script that identifies it as female she saw as all-pervasive in the culture of her day,
until the father can read it; this script-holding body
does not restore sight. Christine de Pizan was well aware of the power of
language not just to reflect but also actively to
43. Paper presented at the University of Pennsylvania,
Spring 1987. construct social reality.1 Yet although much criti-
cal attention has been devoted to her texts in
44. Christine de Pisan, Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc, ed. Angus J.
Kennedy and Kenneth Varty (Oxford: Society for the
defence of women, particularly the Cité des
Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature, 1977), dames,2 very few scholars have analysed how
p. 28. The specification of the eleven years’ of lamenta- Christine’s own linguistic practice was informed
tion spent in an “abbaye close,” since the time that by her stand against misogyny.3 Until recently,
Charles was forced to flee Paris, not only coordinates
the present moment of the poem with contemporary
only Lucy Gay, Jan Gerard Bruins and Suzanne
history, but also establishes Christine’s signature Solente have discussed her language in depth
biography which marks the peculiarly specific author- (Solente noting Christine’s fondness for feminine
ity of her texts. The poem is a part of history, but it is diminutive forms), but none of them sought to
also a part of the writings of a speaker who persistently
names herself. link their analysis of her style to her pro-woman
stance.4 However, two major articles by Nadia
45. There is doubtless some social coherence in the
mistaken assumption that Jean Gerson, Christine’s
Margolis have now begun to remedy this lack. In
companion in arms during the Querelle de la Rose, the first, Margolis develops Solente’s comments
was the author of a Latin tract defending Joan’s trans- and argues that Christine radically alters the
vestism, dated 14 May 1429, titled De Mirabili Victoria significance of diminutive forms such as seulette,
Cujusdam Puellae, as well as the Breviarum Historiale
which describes the meeting at Chinon and compares pucelette and femmelette (which were traditionally
Joan to Deborah, Esther and Penthesilea. The dauphin used to belittle women) in order to represent
Charles who gave Joan further men of arms after their herself and other female figures such as Joan of
famous but rather mysterious meeting at Chinon, was Arc in a more favourable light.5 In the second,
the youngest son of Isabeau of Bavaria (if not of the
mad king), for whom Christine had made the presen- Margolis shows how Christine, through her in-
tation edition of her works, the present Harley 4431. novative use of suffixes (such as -esse in clergesse)
Marina Warner makes a very interesting argument and of sex-neutral or epicene words (such as
about Joan of Arc’s name having less to do im-
artiste) by which to refer to female creativity,
mediately with the family name than with the subter-
ranean Amazonian message it carries, the “arc” being undertakes “[une] féminisation de la langue [qui]
the bow the famous warrior women carried; see Joan pourrait encourager les femmes de s’arroger, au
of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism (New York: Knopf, moyen des signifiants de la sagesse et l’étude re-
1981), pp. 198-200. Christine was not the only writer
suffixés à leur genre, le droit d’être intelligentes,
to do so, but she was one who had discussed the
Amazon kingdom at length. Christine devotes two savantes, plus conscientes du monde réel et donc
huitains of her poem to a discussion of the process at meilleures participantes au bien-être de leurs
Poitiers, at which clerks and learned men investigated familles et de leur pays—au niveau correspondant
Joan’s “fait” before the battle of Orleans; but Christine
also “proves” Joan’s legitimacy by prophecy, including
à celui des hommes.”6
in the usual list of Bede and Merlin a “Sebile.” This leaves certain questions open. Just how
Although Christine herself does not call La Pucelle an
amazonian warrior, her presentation of Joan as autho-
far did Christine’s “feminisation” of the language
rized by sybilline prophecy connects her to the sybils actually go? What other linguistic strategies were
prominent in the Epistre Othéa and the Cité des Dames. available to her in her critique of misogyny?7
Building on Margolis’s findings, I thus propose
here to compare Christine’s linguistic usage in the
ROSALIND BROWN-GRANT (ESSAY
Cité des dames with that of the anonymous (and
DATE 2000)
almost certainly male) author of her main source,
SOURCE: Brown-Grant, Rosalind. “Christine de Pizan:
Feminist Linguist Avant la Lettre?” In Christine de Pizan Des cleres et nobles femmes (1401),8 the French
2000: Studies on Christine de Pizan in Honour of Angus J. translation of Boccaccio’s De claris mulieribus. A
Kennedy, edited by John Campbell and Nadia Margolis, comparison between these two texts, which are of
pp. 65-76. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000. similar length, is particularly illuminating because,
In the following essay, Brown-Grant links Christine’s although they both belong to the “lives of famous
language to her arguments, noting how she employed
women” genre, Christine makes her catalogue of
unique and innovative word choices to underscore her
defense of women from earlier misogynist texts. Brown- heroines into a comprehensive defence of the
Grant suggests that Christine changed the connotations female sex both past and present.9 Unlike the
author of the Cleres femmes, she was confronted though it is not clear why he singles out these
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN not simply with the task of rewriting the history particular women in this way as they are not of
of women but also of finding a language which higher status than any others in his catalogue
was adequate to express her defence of her sisters. (1:134-46, 1:150-53, 1:154-55, 1:158-61, 1:161-64,
Since Christine relied heavily on this French ver- 2:109-12, respectively). In all, though, there are
sion of Boccaccio’s text when writing the Cité des fewer than 40 examples of dame(s) in the Cleres
dames,1 0 any stylistic divergence from her source femmes compared with 516 in the Cité des dames.
is thus likely to have been the result of conscious Instead, to indicate a lady of high social standing,
choice rather than mere accident. he prefers a different term altogether: matrone(s),
meaning a respectable married woman, of which
This study, which is intended to be the first of
there are 25 examples.1 4 Yet his use of this noun is
two on Christine’s use of language in her defence
highly selective as he employs it only to refer to
of women,1 1 focuses exclusively on nouns, a key
Roman patrician women such as Veturia (2:7) or
area since it raises important morphological and
Virginia (2:36).
semantic issues related to gender. By examining
feminine and generic nouns in turn, I shall Moreover, following Boccaccio, the author of
demonstrate that Christine’s usage differs mark- the Cleres femmes at times employs femmes as a
edly from that of the author of the Cleres femmes. derogatory term in order to insult men by refer-
However, perhaps less expectedly, her difference ring to them as women. This is because, in the
from her source arises as much from her desire to original text, Boccaccio deployed much of his
genericise the language by using sex-neutral forms invective to accuse his male contemporaries of ef-
so as to mark the common essence of male and feminacy for having allowed themselves to be
female as from any wish to feminise language in upstaged by mere pagan women who had shown
order to represent women’s experience fully much greater courage, strength or intelligence.
within it.1 2 For example, of Penthesilea and her followers the
author of the Cleres femmes remarks: “ceste femme
One of the most significant ways in which the
vierge et semblables a elle sont moult plus faites
author of the Cleres femmes and Christine diverge
hommes en armes que ne soient ceulx que nature
from each other is in their use of two of the com-
a fait masles et oiseveté et volupté ou delit charnel
monest nouns which referred to women in Middle
les tourne en femmes et lievres” (1:103). His use
French: femme(s) and dame(s). In standard usage of
of femme as both a neutral and a pejorative term
the period, femme(s) designated the female sex as
in preference to the noble dame and his parsimo-
a whole, individual women, wives, and nonnoble
nious use of matrone only for certain types of
women, whereas dame(s) was employed as a term
women would thus seem to reflect much of Boc-
of address, as an indicator of a woman’s noble
caccio’s ambivalence towards the female examples
rank, to distinguish between a married, mature
in his catalogue, many of whom are chosen more
woman and a young, unmarried girl, and as the
for their personal notoriety than for the virtue of
female equivalent of a seigneur.1 3 The divergence
their deeds.1 5
in usage between the Cité des dames and the
Cleres femmes is signalled by their very titles. In the Cité des dames, by contrast, Christine
Whilst the male author’s text is concerned with follows standard Middle French usage for both
the neutral femmes—women rather than ladies— dames and femmes. Given that most of the women
whose distinction is indicated by the adjectives in her catalogue of heroines are of noble status,
“cleres” and “nobles,” Christine’s work discusses they are termed dames, whereas others of non-
dames, whose noble or high status is implicit in noble origin, like the low-born widow who begged
the noun itself. This difference in emphasis is mir- Jesus to save her child (88), are referred to as
rored not just in the titles but also in the body of femmes. Yet Christine deviates from standard
their two works since the author of the Cleres practice in the Cité des dames in one very impor-
femmes uses the less prestigious femmes even on tant way when she extends the normal connota-
those occasions where standard usage indicates tion of dame from being one of noble birth to that
that a high-ranking lady would normally have of moral worth irrespective of social origin. This is
been referred to as a dame, as in the cases of the clearly seen at the end of her text when she ad-
goddesses Ceres and Minerva (1:28-31 and 1:31- dresses all the ladies in her catalogue as dames who
34), or the queens Semiramis or Penthesilea have earned themselves a place in her city of the
(1:19-24 and 1:101-13). It is only in the stories of virtuous elect: “Mes tres redoubtees Dames, Dieux
Dido, Rhea Ilia, Gaia Cyrilla, Lucretia, Thamiris soit louez! Or est du tout achevee et parfaicte notre
and Mariamme that he employs dame throughout, Cité des dames, en laquelle a grant honneur vous
toutes, celles qui amez gloire, vertu et loz, povez Indeed, the author of the Cleres femmes would ap-
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
estre hebergees, tant les passees dames, comme les pear to have been particularly innovative in this
presentes et celles a avenir, car pour toute dame respect since neither Godefroy nor Tobler-
honorable est faicte et fondee” (496). Likewise, Lommatsch list any prior instances of 5 of the 21
Christine signals this shift in connotation when terms used: “batailleresses” (1:44), “divineresse”
she describes high-ranking women of dubious (1:45), “painteresse” (2:13), “quereresse” (2:44),
morality, such as the evil queens Jezebel and Ath- and “rachateresse” (2:186) would all seem to be
aliah, as femmes and not dames, since she regards his coinages.
them as unworthy examples who should be
Given Christine’s aim in the Cité des dames
shunned (344). Thus the way in which both the
of celebrating the achievements of women in areas
author of the Cleres femmes and Christine use
dames as opposed to femmes is clearly dictated by traditionally reserved for men, it might at first
each work’s polemical agenda: whilst the former sight appear odd that there are fewer examples of
undermines the status of the vast majority of his these suffixed terms in her text than in the Cleres
examples by terming them simply femmes, Chris- femmes and that she is less innovative than her
tine blurs the moral and social connotations of source in coining new terms. Thus, whilst she
dames in order to upgrade all of her examples to employs “maistresse” (162), “clergece” (166) and
the ranks of a meritorious élite. “vainqueresse” (140) as concrete terms and “am-
ministraresse” (58) and “defenderresse” (432) for
In addition to exploiting or reinterpreting the women in more metaphorical roles, the only
meaning of well-established terms for women terms she herself appears to have created is “pro-
such as dames and femmes, both Christine and the tectarresse” (432) (which is used to describe the
author of the Cleres femmes were also concerned Virgin Mary’s chief role as Queen of the City of
with feminising masculine noun forms for roles
Ladies). However, Christine’s decision not to bor-
in which women had distinguished themselves.
row more of the large number of the -esse/-eresse
The main method at their disposal was to add suf-
suffixes from the author of the Cleres femmes
fixes such as -esse to the masculine noun (with
becomes less surprising if we compare both the
-eresse as a variant corresponding to words ending
textual and grammatical circumstances in which
in -eur). As Jean Batany observes, this suffix, which
such terms are used in each text. Firstly, Christine’s
was brought into productive use in the twelfth
choice of vocabulary was often dependent on the
century in the term abbesse (from the masculine
specific rhetorical point she was arguing. For
form abbé) gained currency in the later Middle
example, in the case of the Amazon virgins Hip-
Ages as the most popular means of feminising
polyta and Menalippe, who brought down the
masculine nouns, and was also used for feminine
Greek heroes Hercules and Theseus in combat, she
adjectival endings.1 6 However, though our two
makes great capital out of the fact that these two
authors both adopt this same method of morpho-
were mere “pucelles” and “damoiselles” fighting
logical marking, their individual usage differs
against two of the bravest and most fearsome
significantly, with important consequences for the
“chevaliers” the world had ever seen (116-22).
status of the nouns themselves.
Elevating these two women into batailleresses or
Discounting more familiar terms such as prin- combateresses in this instance would actually have
cesse and baronesse, which denote a woman’s undermined the contrast Christine was drawing
specific rank in society, both Christine and the between their supposed physical inferiority and
male author employ the -esse/-eresse feminine suf- the knights’ superior military prowess and experi-
fix for a wide variety of roles. Surprisingly, perhaps, ence. Secondly, there is a subtle but important
there are more of these suffixed terms in the Cleres grammatical difference between the way in which
femmes than in the Cité des dames: 21 different she and the author of the Cleres femmes use terms
ones as opposed to 12. Many of those found in with the -esse/-eresse suffix within a sentence. In
the male author’s text are extremely evocative his text, their function is often to qualify a
terms: “batailleresses” (1:44) and “combateresses” feminine noun: for example, “les filles combater-
(1:45)) in the military domain; “divineresse” esse” [sic] (1:45), “ceste femme enchanterresse et
(1:45), “prestresce” (1:53) and “enchanteresse” empoisonneresse Circés” (1:120), “ceste femme
(1:120) in the spiritual realm; and “poeteresse” cruelle et procureresce de mort” (2:64), and “pu-
(1:150) and “painteresse” (2:13) in the artistic celles prestresses” (2:155). Used adjectivally, the
sphere. Others, which are more metaphorical than force of such terms is lessened: they are reduced
concrete terms, include “testamenteresse” (2:41), to indicating a quality of a person, rather than
“trouverresse” (2:44) and “accroisseresse” (2:88). specifically designating that person themselves.1 7
retain their full nominal value, particularly in
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN those spheres of activity where she wants to
highlight women’s illustrious deeds.
FROM THE AUTHOR However, where Christine and the author of
the Cleres femmes differ most radically from each
CHRISTINE’S LAMENT TO GOD THAT OPENS other is not in their suffixation of masculine
HER BOOK OF THE CITY OF LADIES nouns but in their use of epicene terms in order
“Oh, God, how can this be? For unless I stray to refer to women. Being nouns which can take
from my faith, I must never doubt that Your either a male or a female article, these terms
infinite wisdom and most perfect goodness designate roles that both men and women can
ever created anything which was not good. potentially play without the need for any specific
Did You yourself not create woman in a very feminine morphological marking, particularly
special way and since that time did You not since such words already tend to end in silent -e,1 8
give her all those inclinations which it pleased as in the example of “disciple” which both Chris-
You for her to have? And how could it be tine and her source employ (Cité des dames, 190,
that You could go wrong in anything? Yet and Cleres femmes, 2:27). Apart from this noun,
look at all these accusations which have been there is only one other epicene in the male
judged, decided, and concluded against author’s text (“hoir”, 1:69), whereas Christine also
women. I do not know how to understand uses “prophete” (228), “chef” (98, 432), “philos-
this repugnance. If it is so, fair Lord God, that ophe” (94, 158, 160), and “poete” (154, 156, 158).
in fact so many abominations abound in the
Though they may be few in number, these ex-
female sex, for You Yourself say that the
amples are extremely important for what they
testimony of two or three witnesses lends
reveal about Christine’s neologising practice. On
credence, why shall I not doubt that this is
the one hand, she seems to have revived the use
true? Alas, God, why did You not let me be
of epicene prophete, which had been sex-neutral in
born in the world as a man, so that all my
Old French, whereas in Middle French the femi-
inclinations would be to serve You better, and
nised forms prophetesse or propheteresse were
so that I would not stray in anything and
employed instead to refer to a woman.1 9 On the
would be as perfect as a man is said to be?
other hand, she was clearly innovative in her use
But since Your kindness has not been ex-
of the terms chef, philosophe and poete as epicenes,
tended to me, then forgive my negligence in
Your service, most fair Lord God, and may it given that they were traditionally deemed to be
not displease You, for the servant who re- solely masculine roles, with poeteresse as the only
ceives fewer gifts from his lord is less obliged feminised form of the three available at that
in his service.” I spoke these words to God in time.2 0 Christine therefore employs these epicene
my lament and a great deal more for a very terms for the kind of high-status roles to which
long time in sad reflection, and in my folly I she herself aspired in her works, and which she
considered myself most unfortunate because deemed to be particularly important in her femi-
God had made me inhabit a female body in nist agenda to put women firmly on the map of
this world. human creativity and achievement.2 1 That she
treats prophete, philosophe and poete as epicene is
Christine de Pizan. Excerpt from The Book of the all the more significant given that she herself oc-
City of Ladies. Translated by Earl Jeffrey Rich- casionally precedes prophete by the word femme
ards. New York: Persea Books, 1982, p. 5.
(Cité des dames, 288), but never seems to femin-
ise it or any of these other terms with the suffix
-esse/-eresse. The higher the status of the role
concerned—and the greater the credit accruing to
women for their achievement within it—the more
For Christine, in comparison, these terms are
likely Christine therefore was to genericise the role
almost always used as self-standing nouns, such as
name to include the feminine rather than simply
when she describes the inhabitants of the City as
find a feminine equivalent of a masculine term, as
its “possessarresses” (250). Only in the one case of
the author of the Cleres femmes preferred to do.
“femmelette pecharesse” (90) is the term in -eresse
made adjectival. Thus, although there are fewer Christine’s use of epicene noun forms is,
examples of such forms in Christine’s text than in however, by no means an isolated example of her
her source, where she does employ them they genericising practice. Her critique of sex-bias in
language also extends to questioning the mascu- Latin alphabet, it is by no means as obvious
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
line term hommes which, when used as a generic whether hommes is being used specifically or
noun, “absorbs” and thereby masks the femi- generically. For example, in referring to Ceres’s
nine.2 2 As Marina Yaguello puts it, through use of discoveries which rescued humankind from a
this term “l’homme a en quelque sorte ‘confisqué’ primitive existence, Reason notes how “les engins
symboliquement la qualité d’être humain à son des hommes vagues et pareceux, estans es cav-
profit.”2 3 In the medieval context, the significance ernes d’ignorance, mua, attray et ramena a la
of hommes as an implicitly exclusive rather than haultece de contemplacion et excercitacions con-
inclusive generic term can be seen in the fact that venables, et ordena aucuns hommes es champs
many misogynist writers implied that women pour faire les labours par lesquieulx tant de villes
were somehow less human than men, being et de citez furent remplies et ceulx soustenus qui
endowed with an inferior rationality, a voracious font les autres oeuvres neccessaires a vivre” (182).
sexuality and a bestial nature.2 4 Jean de Meun, for Likewise, Reason explains that, thanks to Carmen-
example, famously characterises woman as a “ven- tis’s achievement, “[en] infinis livres et volumes
imeuse beste” which seeks to destroy man.2 5 (. . .) sont mis et gardez en perpetuelle memoire
Christine, in the Cité des dames, clearly rebuts les fais des hommes,” and that “par elle, sont
this definition of women as a non-human race hommes, quoyque ilz ne le recongnoiscent, tirez
when she states, “les femmes sont aussi bien ou hors de ignorence” (178-80). Unless one were
nombre du peuple de Dieu et de creature humaine translating these passages and needed to choose
que sont les hommes, et non mie une autre es- between reading hommes as meaning men in
pece” (376-78). particular as opposed to humankind in general,2 6
it is in fact possible, if not positively desirable, to
Christine’s art of refutation, here as elsewhere,
read them as both being present simultaneously.
must accomplish two seemingly conflicting goals:
This is because such semantic indeterminacy al-
she must defeat a key point of misogynist doctrine
lows Christine to stress just how much the hu-
by using the very language that underpins mi-
man race as a whole—but men especially—have
sogyny itself. In this instance, her challenge was
benefitted from women’s inventions, and to
to make the potentially exclusive noun hommes
condemn the ingratitude of misogynist clerks and
serve the feminist cause. The author of the Cleres
knights in calling women’s intelligence into ques-
femmes gives no indication that, for him, the noun
tion when they themselves are the chief beneficia-
hommes is in any way problematic. In his text, the
ries of women’s gifts. Paradoxically then, whilst
term serves both to designate men, as for example,
modern feminists have criticised the use of the
when he explains how the women of Lemnos
term hommes as a generic precisely because it tends
freed themselves from male control, “la domina-
to mask the feminine in favour of the masculine,
cion et servitute des hommes” (1:57), and to refer
Christine turns this semantic ambiguity to her
to people in general when he recounts how the
own rhetorical advantage, in order to criticise
pagans mistakenly regarded Opis, wife of Saturn,
men, just as men had turned it to women’s
as a goddess: “ceste femme (. . .), selon l’erreur
disadvantage in the past.
des hommes mortelz, est eue et reputee deesse et
mere des dieulx” (1:24). Christine too, in the Cité Yet though Christine often plays on the
des dames, uses hommes in a specific sense when indeterminacy of hommes for her own ends, she is
she wants to distinguish between the male and well aware of the need for a less ambiguous term
the female sex, as in those passages in which when wanting to refer explicitly to both sexes at
Reason explains why some men slander women: once. In the Cité des dames, the three unequivo-
“Ceulx a qui il est venu de leurs propres vices sont cally generic nouns which she employs as alterna-
hommes qui ont usé leur jeunece en vie dissolue tives to hommes are gens, creature and personne,
et abondé en plusieurs amours de diverses each of which, as we shall see, occurs with signifi-
femmes” (70). However, though in a very few cantly greater frequency than in the Cleres femmes.
instances Christine clearly employs hommes in a Although all three words can take a male or a
generic sense, as when she states that female referent, the last two are feminine nouns,
“l’entencion—dist on—juge l’omme” (66), in whilst the first can be of either gender depending
many other cases, particularly those where Reason on its position and function in a sentence.2 7 Thus,
outlines all the benefits that women such as Ceres unlike the generic hommes with its grammatical
and Carmentis have brought into the world with and semantic masking of the feminine, none of
their respective inventions of agriculture and the these sex-neutral terms is more inclusive of one
sex than the other. By using each term in a against 18 times in the Cité des dames. Unlike
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN significant array of contexts, Christine appropri- the word homme, whose meaning is largely deter-
ates them as important elements of her linguistic mined in opposition to femme, enfant or bête, crea-
revisionism. ture lays the emphasis on humans as part of God’s
creation; “(l’être humain) face à son créateur.”2 8 It
By far the most extensively used generic
can thus apply equally to a man or a woman.2 9
alternative to hommes in the Cité des dames is the
Compared to the Cleres femmes, which uses creature
term gens (with gent as a variant). Excluding other
meanings of this word, such as an estate in society solely in the neutral sense of “living creature”
(e.g. “les gens de cheval et de pié,” Cité des dames, (1:17), Christine in the Cité des dames systemati-
140), an army or followers (e.g. “Jason avec ses cally exploits both its sex-neutrality and its stress
gens,” Cleres femmes, 1:58), a race or nation (e.g. on the human as part of the natural order of
“les gens d’Egipte,” Cité des dames, 176), gens in things. Applying it to women when Rectitude
the sense of people in general occurs only 17 times chides Christine for complaining about being a
in the Cleres femmes as against 34 in the Cité des member of the female sex (“du sexe de tieulx
dames. This compares with 27 instances of generic creatures,” 226), the text also uses the term to refer
hommes in her source, as opposed to 22 in Chris- to men, describing Eve’s creation from the rib of
tine’s text (though we have already noted how Adam as being from “la tres plus noble creature
difficult it is to identify many of these instances qui oncques eust esté creé” (78). Where the term
here as unquestionably generic). In both texts, really comes into its own in the Cité des dames is
gens can refer specifically to men or women, or in Christine’s bid to prove that God cherishes
can be used generically where the sex of the refer- women as part of His creation, and has thus
ent is left indefinite. In the Cleres femmes, for endowed them with the same capacity for rational
instance, “les corps de gens mors,” which refers to thought and virtuous conduct as men possess.
the dead soldiers amongst whom Polynices’ Reason uses creature in a particularly inclusive
widow Argia searches for his corpse, are obviously sense when discussing how both men and women
male (1:92), as in the Cité des dames are the alike can profit from gazing into her mirror and
misogynists whom Reason condemns as “mau- seeing their faults: “il n’est quelconques personne
vaises gens dyaboliques” for claiming that women qui s’i mire, quelque la creature soit, qui clere-
are childish (84). Conversely, Rectitude uses gens ment ne se congnoisce” (52). This emphasis on
anaphorically to indicate women when she says rationality is underscored when Christine couples
that the City she and Christine are busy building creature with the adjective raisonnable on four
must be “habitee toute de dames de grant excel- separate occasions. For instance, Reason demon-
lence, car autres gens n’y voulons” (250). Finally, strates women’s aptitude for learning, given the
as an example where gens is used generically to opportunity to do so, exclaiming: “il n’est rien qui
mean people, male or female, Rectitude explains tant appreigne creature raisonnable que fait
how Nero’s destruction of Rome meant that “par l’excercice et experience de plusieurs choses et di-
ceste pestillence moururent moult de gens” (Cité verses” (152). Christine even uses this term in a
des dames, 340). However, where the term is superlative sense when countering the misogy-
clearly meant to refer to both men and women, nists’ claim that women, in being more fickle in
Christine’s usage in the Cité des dames diverges their emotions, are less virtuous than men. For
from that of the Cleres femmes in preferring gens example, in describing Artemisia’s boundless grief
to hommes and in employing it in a more inclusive at her husband’s death as that of “si grant douleur
way to indicate the equally human essence of que creature peut porter” (262), Christine does
both male and female. For instance, in order to not just compare her suffering to that of other
counter the misogynist view that women are women but rather implies that Artemisia’s heart-
inherently less worthy than men, Reason replies felt emotion is greater than anyone, woman or
that “la haulteur ou abbaissement des gens ne gist man, has ever had to bear.
mie es corps selon le sexe mais en la perfection
If the noun creature allows Christine to stress
des meurs et des vertus” (80). In other words,
the equality of the sexes in terms of their God-
virtue is not the prerogative of one sex to the
given rational essence, the generic personne enables
exclusion of the other, a key point in Christine’s
her to highlight their common humanity. As
defence of women.
Yaguello explains: “Le mot homme se trouve dans
Just as for gens, so the relative importance for une relation d’opposition ‘participative’ avec le
Christine of the term creature is seen by the fact mot femme: le féminin est inclus dans le masculin.
that it occurs only twice in the Cleres femmes as Le mot personne, lui, ne s’oppose à rien d’autre
qu’à la non-personne (les animaux, les choses): il ground in her use of both feminine and generic
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
‘contient’ à égalité le féminin et le masculin.”3 0 nouns. Far from simply feminising masculine
Setting aside examples where personne is used to forms in order to mark women’s achievements, as
mean “no-one” or “in person”, which are not the author of the Cleres femmes chose to do,
relevant to this discussion, there is once again a Christine’s innovations were more wide-ranging:
greater occurrence of this term in the Cité des employing dames as a marker of moral worth;
dames than in the Cleres femmes (21 examples as making chef, philosophe and poete epicene indica-
against 16). More significantly, there is a notice- tors of women’s prowess as intellectuals and lead-
able difference in the way in which it is employed ers; and substituting sex-neutral terms such as gens,
by the two writers. The male author largely uses creature and personne for the more ambiguous hom-
personne to refer to unspecified individuals as in, mes. To Christine’s mind, therefore, it was only by
for example, his account of how Agamemnon was universalising the human to encompass both
killed “sans ce qu’il veist la personne qui ainsi faul- sexes that her vision of the moral equality of men
cement et trayteusement le tua” (1:110), or in set and women could properly be expressed in lan-
phrases such as “par personne moyenne,” which guage.
recurs three times (1:88, 2:116, and 2:143). Chris-
tine, on the other hand, capitalises fully on the Notes
implications of the term to include the two sexes, 1. Solterer 1995, 355-78.
particularly when discussing women’s intellectual 2. For a detailed bibliography of studies of the Cité des
and moral faculties. Thus Reason explains the dames, see items 392-400 in Kennedy 1984, and items
805-30 in Kennedy 1994.
conditions necessary for someone to act with good
judgement as being “constance, noblece et vertu, 3. One important exception is Curnow 1992, 157-72,
who analyses her use of legalistic language in this text.
sans lesquelles graces avoir ne peut estre en per-
sonne droite prudence” (202). Conversely, Chris- 4. Gay 1908-9, 69-96; Bruins 1925; and Solente 1974/
1969, 335-422.
tine exploits the non-exclusiveness of personne in
order to deflect criticism away from women, 5. Margolis 1992, 111-23.
thereby countering the misogynist habit of speci- 6. Margolis 1996-97, 381-404, 396.
fying certain sins and vices as exclusively femi-
7. For a modern feminist linguist’s view of feminisation,
nine. For instance, on the question of inconstancy, see Moreau 1999.
Rectitude is careful to explain to Christine that
8. Boccaccio 1993-95; Cité des dames, ed. Richards.
this fault can be found in both sexes alike: “quant
l’omme ou femme laisse vaincre a sensualité le re- 9. McLeod 1992, 37-47.
gart de raison, c’est fragilité et inconstance. Et de 10. Cité des dames, ed. Curnow, 1: 138-66; Dulac 1978,
tant que la personne chet en plus grant deffaulte 315-43; Philippy 1986, 167-93; Bumgardner 1991, 37-
52; Quilligan 1991; and Brown-Grant 1999, 128-74.
ou pechié, de tant est en lui la fragilité plus
grande, car elle est plus loing du regart de raison” 11. Christine’s pronouns and adjectives relating to gender
(344). Rectitude similarly defends women against in the Cité des dames are treated in a paper given at
the Fourth International Congress on Christine de Pi-
anti-feminist accusations of avariciousness by zan, Glasgow, July 2000.
declaring that carefulness with money is indis-
12. This usage is consistent with her practice in the Epistre
pensable when a person, implicitly either male or Othea: see Brown-Grant 1999, 78-87.
female, has little to play with: “qu’en peut povre
13. Grisay 1969, 55-155; Andrieux-Reix 1987, 227-32.
personne se elle est escharce?” (416). This judi-
cious use of generics such as personne is thus an 14. Grisay 1969, 32-35, notes that this term was imported
into the French language from Latin in the thirteenth
integral part of Christine’s project to show that
century.
neither vice nor virtue is the exclusive province of
one particular sex. 15. Jordan 1987, 25-47; McLeod 1991, 59-80.
16. Batany 1992, 191-19. See also Harrison 1989, 436-44.
Christine de Pizan is rightly famous for being
the first female writer to plead the case for women 17. See Batany 1992, 194: “l’adjectif réfère à une réalité
inanimée, la qualité, tandis que le nom réfère plutôt à
against the misogynist culture of her day. How- une personne (ou à une chose personnifiable).”
ever, for Christine, the challenge confronting her
18. Yaguello 1987, 132; Gervais 1993, 130.
lay not just in changing what was said about
women but how it was actually said. To this extent, 19. The epicene use of prophete in early texts such as Dolo-
pathos is noted in Godefroy X, 433. The feminine form
then, she can truly be dubbed a feminist linguist
propheteresse is cited from the early fifteenth-century
avant la lettre. In the Cité des dames, her most French translation of Boccaccio’s De casibus virorum il-
forthright refutation of misogyny, she broke new lustrium in Godefroy, 6: 436.
20. The use of philosophesse in the 1518 edition of Le Re- Secondary Sources
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN bours Matheolus is noted in Godefroy 6: 138.
21. See Margolis 1996-97, 397, for Christine’s similar use A) BIBLIOGRAPHIES:
of artiste in this respect.
Kennedy, Angus J. Christine de Pizan: A Bibliographical Guide.
22. Spender 1980, 138-62; Cameron 1990. Research Bibliographies & Checklists, no. 42. London:
23. Yaguello 1989, 88. Grant & Cutler, 1984.
24. Lhoest 1991, 343-62; Blamires 1992 and 1997. ———. Christine de Pizan: A Bibliographical Guide: Supple-
ment I. Research Bibliographies & Checklists, no. 42.1.
25. Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, ed. Lecoy, 2: London: Grant & Cutler, 1994.
254.16577.
26. See my translator’s note in City of Ladies, trans. Brown- B) CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL STUDIES:
Grant, xxxviii-xxxix.
Andrieux-Reix, Nelly. Ancien Français: fiches de vocabulaire.
27. Jokinen 1988, 114-40. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1987.
28. Yaguello 1989, 58. Batany, Jean. “Les ‘Estats’ au féminin: un problème de vo-
cabulaire social du XIIe au XVe siècle.” In Approches
29. Grisay 1969, 190-1. langagières de la société médiévale, 191-219. Caen: Para-
30. Yaguello 1989, 89. digme, 1992.
Blamires, Alcuin. The Case for Women in Medieval Culture.

Abbreviations Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.
———, ed. Woman Defamed and Woman Defended: An

Critical studies: frequently-cited Anthology of Medieval Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1992.
volumes of essays devoted exclusively to
Christine de Pizan are made in the Boccaccio, Giovanni. [De claris mulieribus] Boccace “Des cleres
following manner: editor(s) and date of et nobles femmes” Ms. B. N. 12420 (Chap. I-LII). Edited
by Jeanne Baroin and Josiane Haffen. 2 vols. Annales
publication. Below is a list of these Littéraires de l’Université de Besançon 498, 556. Paris:
abbreviated forms, followed by their full Les Belles Lettres, 1993-95.
citations:
Brown-Grant, Rosalind. Christine de Pizan and the Moral
McLeod 1991 McLeod, Glenda, ed. The Reception of Christine
Defence of Women: Reading beyond Gender. Cambridge:
de Pizan from the Fifteenth through the Nineteenth
Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Centuries: Visitors to the City. Lewiston, NY: Edwin
Mellen Press, 1991. Bruins, Jan Gerard. Observations sur la langue d’Eustache Des-
Richards, et al. 1992 Richards, Earl Jeffrey, with Joan Will- champs et de Christine de Pisan. Dordrecht: Dor-
iamson, Nadia Margolis, and Christine Reno, eds. Rein- drechtsche Drukkerrij, 1925.
terpreting Christine de Pizan. Athens, Ga.: University of Bumgardner, George H. “Christine de Pizan and the Atelier
Georgia Press, 1992. of the Master of the Coronation.” In Seconda Miscel-
lanea di studi e ricerche sul Quattrocento francese, edited
by Jonathan Beck and Gianni Mombello, 37-52. Cham-
General Bibliography béry: Centre d’études franco-italiennes, 1981.
Cameron, Deborah. The Feminist Critique of Language: A

Primary Sources: Standard Editions and Reader. London: Routledge, 1990.
Translations of Christine’s Works.
Curnow, Maureen Cheney. “‘La pioche d’inquisicion’: Legal-
judicial Content and Style in Christine de Pizan’s Livre
CITÉ DES DAMES:
de la cité des dames.” In Richards, et al. 1992, 157-72.
Cité des dames, ed. Richards = La Città delle Dame. Introduc-
tion, original text, and translation by Patrizia Caraffi. ———. “Un mythe didactique chez Christine de Pizan:
Middle-French text edited by Earl Jeffrey Richards. Mi- Sémiramis ou la veuve héroïque (du De Claris Mulieri-
lan, Luni Editrice, 1997. Revised edition 1998. bus à la Cité des Dames).” In Mélanges de philologie ro-
mane offerts à Charles Camproux, 315-43. Montpellier:
“Le Livre de la Cité des dames of Christine de Pisan: A Criti-
Centre d’Etudes Occitanes de l’Université Paul Valéry,
cal Edition.” Maureen Cheney Curnow. 2 vols. Ph.D.
1978.
diss. Vanderbilt University, 1975.
Gay, Lucy M. “On the Language of Christine de Pizan.”
Christine de Pizan. The Book of the City of Ladies. Translated
Modern Philology 6 (1908-09): 69-96.
by Rosalind Brown-Grant. Harmondsworth: Penguin,
1999. Gervais, Marie-Marthe. “Gender and Language in French.”
In French Today: Language in its Social Context, edited by
MEUN, JEAN DE: Carol Sanders, 121-38. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1993.
Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. Le Roman de la rose.
Edited by Félix Lecoy. 3 vols. Classiques Français du Godefroy, Frédéric. Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française
Moyen Age, 92, 95, 98. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1966- . . . du XIe au XVe siècle . . . 10 vols. Paris: F. Vieweg,
76. Reprinted 1982. 1881-92.
Grisay, A., G. Lavis, and M. Dubois-Stasse. Les Dénomina- Willard, Charity Cannon. “Christine de Pizan.” In French
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
tions de la femme dans les anciens textes littéraires français. Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Source Book, edited
Gembloux: Duculot, 1969. by Eva Martin Sartori and Dorothy Wynne Zimmer-
man, pp. 56-65. New York: Greenwood, 1991.
Harrison, Ann Tukey. “Fifteenth-Century French Women’s
Role Names.” French Review 62 (1989): 436-44. Surveys major themes and lists important editions and
studies; includes many studies available only in French.
Jokinen, Ulla. “Le genre de gens en moyen français.” Studia
Philologica Jyväskyläensia 22 (1988): 114-40. Yenal, Edith. Christine de Pizan: A Bibliography, 2nd ed.
Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1989, 185 p.
Jordan, Constance. “Boccaccio’s In-famous Women: Gender
and Civic Virtue in the De Claris Mulieribus.” In Ambigu- Updates Angus J. Kennedy’s 1984 bibliography.
ous Realities: Women in the Middle Ages and the Renais-
sance, edited by Carole Levin and Jeanie Watson, 25-
47. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987. Biography
Willard, Charity Cannon. Christine de Pizan: Her Life and
Lhoest, Benoît. “Les dénominations de la femme en moyen Works. New York: Persea Books, 1984, 266 p.
français: approche lexicale et anthropologique.”
Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie 107 (1991): 343-62. Addresses Christine’s beliefs and ideals as reflected in her
works and characterizes her as a dedicated scholar.
Margolis, Nadia. “Elegant Closures: The Use of the Diminu-
tive in Christine de Pizan and Jean de Meun.” In Rich-
ards, et al. 1992, 111-23. Criticism
Altman, Barbara K., and Deborah L. McGrady, eds. Christine
———. “Les Terminaisons dangereuses: lyrisme, féminisme de Pizan: A Casebook. New York: Routledge, 2003, 296 p.
et humanisme néologiques chez Christine de Pizan.”
In Autour de Jacques Monfrin. Néologie et création verbale. Contains up-to-date original essays by important Chris-
Actes du Colloque international, Université McGill, Mon- tine scholars, including Earl Jeffrey Richards, Nadia Mar-
tréal, 7-8-9 octobre 1996, edited by Giuseppe Di Stefano golis, Marilyn Desmond, and Liliane Dulac.
and Rose M. Bidler, 381-404. Le Moyen Français 39-
Bell, Susan Groag. “Christine de Pizan (1364-1430): Human-
40-41 (1996-97).
ism and the Problem of a Studious Woman.” Feminist
McLeod, Glenda K. “Poetics and Antimisogynist Polemics Studies 3 (spring-summer 1976): 173-84.
in Christine de Pizan’s Le Livre de la cité des dames.” In Relates Christine’s personal life to her writings and ad-
Richards, et al. 1992, 37-47. dresses her awareness of the sacrifices she made to be a
Moreau, Thérèse. Le Nouveau Dictionnaire féminin-masculin female scholar.
des professions, des titres et des fonctions. Geneva:
Davis, Natalie Zemon. “Gender and Genre: Women as
Metropolis, 1999.
Historical Writers, 1400-1820.” In Beyond Their Sex:
Phillippy, Patricia A. “Establishing Authority: Boccaccio’s Women of the European Past, edited by Patricia H. La-
De Claris Mulieribus and Christine de Pizan’s Cité des balme, pp. 153-82. New York: New York University
Dames.” Romanic Review 77 (1986): 167-93. Press, 1980.
Quilligan, Maureen. The Allegory of Female Authority: Briefly discusses Christine’s roles as historical writer and
Christine de Pizan’s “Cité des Dames.” Ithaca: Cornell defender of women’s inherent abilities.
Delaney, Sheila. “Rewriting Woman Good: Gender and the
Solente, Suzanne. “Christine de Pisan.” Histoire littéraire de Anxiety of Influence in Two Late-Medieval Texts.” In
la France 40 (1974): 335-422. Originally, as separate Chaucer in the Eighties, edited by Julian N. Wasserman
pre-print (Paris: Klincksieck, 1969). and Robert J. Blanch, pp. 75-92. Syracuse: Syracuse
Solterer, Helen. “Flaming Words: Verbal Violence and
Gender in Premodern Paris.” Romanic Review 86 (1995): Compares Chaucer’s and Christine’s literary attempts to
355-78. portray women favorably.
———. The Master and Minerva: Disputing Women in French Desmond, Marilyn, ed. Christine de Pizan and the Categories
Medieval Culture. Berkeley: University of California of Difference. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1995. Press, 1998, 287 p.
Includes essays on Christine’s involvement in the produc-
Spender, Dale. Man Made Language. London: Routledge &
tion of her writings, the intertextuality of her works, and
Kegan Paul, 1980.
the context in which she wrote.
Yaguello, Marina. Les Mots et les femmes. Paris: Payot, 1987.
Enders, Jody. “The Feminist Mnemonics of Christine de Pi-
zan.” Modern Language Quarterly 55, no. 3 (September
1994): 231-49.
FURTHER READING Interprets The Book of the City of Ladies with a focus
on both prose technique and gender issues.
Bibliographies Forhan, Kate Langdon. The Political Theory of Christine de Pi-
Kennedy, Angus J. Christine de Pizan: A Bibliographical Guide. zan. Aldershot, Eng.: Ashgate, 2002, 187 p.
London: Grant and Cutler, 1984, 131 p.
Focuses on Christine’s political writings addressed to the
Categorizes studies by individual works and major French court and considers her defense of women in the
themes, with cross-referencing. context of her larger social vision.
Gabriel, Astrik L. “The Educational Ideas of Christine de Pi- Price, Paola Malpezzi. “Masculine and Feminine Personae
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN zan.” Journal of the History of Ideas 16, no. 1 (January in the Love Poetry of Christine de Pisan.” In Gender
1955): 3-21. and Literary Voice, edited by Janet Todd, pp. 37-53. New
York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1980.
Discusses Christine’s educational philosophy for women,
describing her as one of the great moralists in Christian Compares Christine’s love poetry to that of male writers,
literature. including those she used as models, and discusses her use
of personae to introduce a feminine perspective.
Kelly, F. Douglas. “Reflections on the Role of Christine de Richards, Earl Jeffrey. “Rejecting Essentialism and Gendered
Pisan as a Feminist Writer.” SubStance, no. 3 (winter Writing: The Case of Christine de Pizan.” In Gender
1972): 63-71. and Text in the Later Middle Ages, edited by Jane Chance,
Considers how Christine came to be labeled a feminist, pp. 96-131. Gainesville: University Press of Florida,
1996.
concluding that she was not a true feminist but instead a
woman who improved the image of her sex by opposing Studies Christine’s work in the context of gender and the
antifeminist literature. question of a masculine or feminine mode of writing.
Margolis, Nadia. “Christine de Pizan: The Poetess as

Historian.” Journal of the History of Ideas 47, no. 3 (July- OTHER SOURCES FROM GALE:
September 1986): 361-75. Additional coverage of Christine de Pizan’s life and career is
contained in the following sources published by the Gale
Discusses Christine’s feminist perspective in her works, Group: Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 208; Literature
comparing her writings with those of several male Criticism 1400-1800, Vol. 9; Literature Resource Center; and
historians and philosophers. Reference Guide to World Literature, Eds. 2, 3.
SOR JUANA INÉS
DE LA CRUZ
(1651 - 1695)
(Born Juana Ramírez de Asbaje) Mexican poet, tance. She was tutored in Latin, the basics of
playwright, and prose writer. which she quickly mastered. She acquired exten-
sive knowledge in various fields during her teen-
age years by reading on her own, and began to
write verse. She eventually attracted the attention
S or Juana is widely considered one of the finest

writers and greatest intellectuals of seven-
teenth-century Hispanic culture. She pursued
of the viceroy, who brought her to court in Mexico
City as a lady-in-waiting to the vicereine. Sor
Juana was highly regarded at court for her beauty
knowledge with great fervor and evidenced such and talent, and was frequently asked to compose
genius that, in spite of scant formal education, poems or dramatic pieces for various occasions;
she had achieved renkown as a gifted writer and indeed, most of her total poetic canon consists of
thinker by adolescence. Best known for her love occasional pieces. Wishing to test her knowledge,
lyrics and the long poem “El sueno,” she was the viceroy arranged to have forty of the city’s
hailed as “the Tenth Muse of Mexico.” Though scholars question Sor Juana, each in his own
she lived in a period when writing and scholarly
specialty. Proficient in moral and dogmatic theol-
pursuits were considered unseemly occupations
ogy, medicine, canon law, astronomy, advanced
for women, she was able to produce works that
mathematics, and music, Sor Juana astonished
clearly established her as one of the best female
them all; according to the viceroy, she defended
poets, and possibly the best Hispanic poet, of the
herself “like a royal galleon assailed by small
seventeenth century.
launches,” greatly increasing her already lofty
reputation. Not long afterward, in 1669, Sor Juana
entered the convent of San Jerdnimo. The exact
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION reason that Sor Juana took the veil is unknown
Born out of wedlock to a Spanish father and and a matter of much speculation. What is clear is
Creole mother, Sor Juana was raised in the village that she hoped the convent would prove a place
of her birth, San Miguel de Nepantla, near Mexico where she could most completely give herself over
Cty. Exceptionally precocious, she began to learn to her studies. Still enjoying considerable renown,
to read at age three. She exhibited a passion for she continued to receive visitors and to write for
learning, asking her mother to dress her as a boy both secular and church events. In time, though,
so she could attend the university in Mexico City. Sor Juana became the focus of ecclesiastical disap-
However, women at the time were barred admit- proval. She was publicly chided for not paying
enough attention to the study of Christ’s teach- casa (1683), is considered a fine example of
SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ ings, and for preferring to study and write on baroque rhetoric in which Sor Juana successfully
secular subjects. After renouncing her studies, she followed the formula of Spanish Golden Age
begged forgiveness of the church and entered into comedy.
public silence. Eventually she sold all the books in
The facts surrounding the publication of Sor
her large private library as well as her numerous
Juana’s most-studied prose work, as well as the
musical and scientific instruments, giving the
events that followed, are difficult to ascertain. In
money she received for them to the poor. Sor
1690 she was asked, perhaps by her friend the
Juana spent the last three years of her life engaged
in her duties at the convent and in acts of charity bishop of Puebla, to refute the points of a 1650
for the poor of Mexico City. She died while sermon by the Portuguese Jesuit Antonio de
ministering to the ill during an epidemic in 1695. Vieyra. She did so, and her “respuesta,” or “reply,”
was published, without her approval, along with a
pseudonymous letter from the bishop (who signed
himself “Sor Filotea de la Cruz”) reproaching her
MAJOR WORKS for her habit of secular study. Sor Juana’s largely
Although Sor Juana’s poetry was influenced autobiographical reply to this letter, entitled “Re-
by both Luis de Góngora and Pedro Calderón de spuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz” (1692) defends
la Barca, it is generally considered to have tran- her desire for knowledge and her course in life,
scended the ornamentation of her time. Critical arguing for the right of women to an education
interest has centered on very few poems, most and the right of the individual to pursue a broad
particularly her longest poem, “El sueño” (“The spectrum of knowledge. Though there are few
Dream”), often called “Primero sueño” (“First extant prose pieces by Sor Juana, the “Respuesta”
Dream”). Her most celebrated work, “El sueño” is widely viewed as exceptionally persuasive and
describes through the form of a dream the soul’s well-written, and one of the finest essays produced
rising toward knowledge, employing extensively in New Spain.
Sor Juana’s knowledge of the sciences. The poem
is very much in the baroque style, yet seems to
foreshadow the Enlightenment in its scientifically
oriented worldview. Interpretations of “El CRITICAL RECEPTION
sueño”are diverse. It has been variously described Sor Juana attracted the adulation of her con-
as metaphysical, as a defense of the private temporaries in Mexico and Spain for both her
viewpoint, and as a work that in outlook foreshad- writings and her intellect. Virtually ignored
ows modern Mexican nihilism. Regardless of afterward, her work has elicited increasing interest
interpretation, it is perhaps her most important and acclaim since the end of the nineteenth
piece, particularly because of her claim that it was century. Critics have shown intense interest in Sor
the only work she composed on her own impulse Juana’s philosophical outlook and in her decisions
rather than at the request of another. concerning the course of her life. Her readers have
Although she is usually remembered as a poet, wondered about her personal motivations for
Sor Juana wrote as much drama as she did poetry; entering the convent when her fame was at its
her strength, in fact, is sometimes considered to height and for her later renunciation of study. Sor
lie in dramatic composition. She composed in Juana has often been viewed as a mystic since
numerous dramatic genres peculiar to Hispanic studies of her work were revived a century ago,
literature, writing mostly short pieces to function while some critics consider her thought Cartesian
as introductions or interludes. But she also com- in its emphasis on discursive reasoning. Gerard
pleted several longer dramas, modeling her work Flynn has dismissed both ideas, however, claim-
after the plays of Calderón. El divino Narciso ing that the autobiographical statements of the
(1690), partly based on the legend of Echo and “Respuesta” dispel any notions of mysticism. He
Narcissus, is a sacramental play which, according has noted that her method of thought is clearly in
to John Malone, “by a simple yet wonderful al- the tradition of Scholasticism, citing her distrust
legory [Sor Juana] weaves the fable of the pagan of intuition and her confidence in the senses as a
lover into a marvelous broidery of the life and means to knowledge. Interpretations of Sor Juana
passion of the Christ.” Some critics consider El di- are quite varied, but her work is now universally
vino Narciso the height of Sor Juana’s literary praised and her poetry is held to be among the
achievement. Another play, Los empeños de una best of her era.
PRINCIPAL WORKS Deborah issuing laws, military as well as political,
SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ

and governing the people among whom there
Los empeños de una casa (drama) 1683 were so many learned men. I see the exceedingly
knowledgeable Queen of Sheba, so learned she
Amor es más laberinto [with Juan de Guevara]
dares to test the wisdom of the wisest of all wise
(drama) 1689
men with riddles, without being rebuked for it;
Inundacion castalida de la unica poetisa, musa decima indeed, on this very account she is to become
(poetry and dramas) 1689 judge of the unbelievers. I see so many and such
“Carta atenagórica” (letter) 1690 significant women: some adorned with the gift of
El divino Narciso (drama) 1690 prophecy, like an Abigail; others, of persuasion,
like Esther; others, of piety, like Rahab; others, of
“Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz” (letter) 1692 perseverance, like Anna [Hannah] the mother of
Segundo volumen de las obras (poetry, dramas, and Samuel; and others, infinitely more, with other
prose) 1692 kinds of qualities and virtues.
Fama y obras pósthumas del fenix de Mexico, dezima If I consider the Gentiles, the first I meet are
musa, poetisa americana (poetry, dramas, and the Sibyls, chosen by God to prophesy the es-
prose) 1700 sential mysteries of our Faith in such learned and
Obras completas. 4 vols. (poetry, dramas, and prose) elegant verses that they stupefy the imagination. I
1951-57 see a woman such as Minerva, daughter of great
Jupiter and mistress of all the wisdom of Athens,
The Pathless Grove (poetry) 1960
adored as goddess of the sciences. I see one Polla
Argentaria, who helped Lucan, her husband, to
write the Battle of Pharsalia. I see the daughter of
the divine Tiresias, more learned still than her
PRIMARY SOURCES father. I see, too, such a woman as Zenobia, queen
of the Palmyrians, as wise as she was courageous.
JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ (ESSAY Again, I see an Arete, daughter of Aristippus, most
DATE 1692) learned. A Nicostrata, inventor of Latin letters and
SOURCE: Cruz, Juana Inés de la. The Answer=La re- most erudite in the Greek. An Aspasia Miletia,
spuesta, edited by Electa Arenal and Amanda Powell, who taught philosophy and rhetoric and was the
pp. 77-87. New York: The Feminist Press, 1994.
teacher of the philosopher Pericles. An Hypatia,
In the following excerpt from her “Respuesta a Sor Filotea who taught astrology and lectured for many years
de la Cruz,” written in 1692, Sor Juana argues for the in Alexandria. A Leontium, who won over the
importance of education for women. She cites several
precedents for scholarly and wise women, then addresses philosopher Theophrastus and proved him wrong.
the common claim that in his letters St. Paul forbade A Julia, a Corinna, a Cornelia; and, in sum, the
women to teach. vast throng of women who merited titles and
earned renown: now as Greeks, again as Muses,
If studies, my Lady, be merits (for indeed I see
and yet again as Pythonesses. For what were they
them extolled as such in men), in me they are no
all but learned women, who were considered,
such thing: I study because I must. If they be a
celebrated, and indeed venerated as such in
failing, I believe for the same reason that the fault
Antiquity? Without mentioning still others, of
is none of mine. Yet withal, I live always so wary
whom the books are full; for I see the Egyptian
of myself that neither in this nor in anything else
Catherine, lecturing and refuting all the learning
do I trust my own judgment. And so I entrust the
of the most learned men of Egypt. I see a Gertrude
decision to your supreme skill and straightway
read, write, and teach. And seeking no more
submit to whatever sentence you may pass, pos-
examples far from home, I see my own most holy
ing no objection or reluctance, for this has been
mother Paula, learned in the Hebrew, Greek, and
no more than a simple account of my inclination
Latin tongues and most expert in the interpreta-
to letters.
tion of the Scriptures. What wonder then can it
I confess also that, while in truth this inclina- be that, though her chronicler was no less than
tion has been such that, as I said before, I had no the unequaled Jerome, the Saint found himself
need of exemplars, nevertheless the many books scarcely worthy of the task, for with that lively
that I have read have not failed to help me, both gravity and energetic effectiveness with which
in sacred as well as secular letters. For there I see a only he can express himself, he says: “If all the
parts of my body were tongues, they would not rant, especially those of arrogant, restless, and
SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ suffice to proclaim the learning and virtues of prideful spirits, fond of innovations in the Law
Paula.” Blessilla, a widow, earned the same praises, (the very thing that rejects all innovation). And so
as did the luminous virgin Eustochium, both of they are not content until, for the sake of saying
them daughters of the Saint herself [Paula]; and what no one before them has said, they speak
indeed Eustochium was such that for her knowl- heresy. Of such men as these the Holy Spirit says:
edge she was hailed as a World Prodigy. Fabiola, “For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul.” For
also a Roman, was another most learned in Holy them, more harm is worked by knowledge than
Scripture. Proba Falconia, a Roman woman, wrote by ignorance. A wit once observed that he who
an elegant book of centos, joining together verses knows no Latin is not an utter fool, but he who
from Virgil, on the mysteries of our holy Faith. does know it has met the prerequisites. And I
Our Queen Isabella, wife of Alfonso X, is known might add that he is made a perfect fool (if foolish-
to have written on astrology—without mention- ness can attain perfection) by having studied his
ing others, whom I omit so as not merely to copy bit of philosophy and theology and by knowing
what others have said (which is a vice I have something of languages. For with that he can be
always detested). Well then, in our own day there foolish in several sciences and tongues; a great
thrive the great Christina Alexandra, Queen of fool cannot be contained in his mother tongue
Sweden, as learned as she is brave and generous; alone.
and too those most excellent ladies, the Duchess To such men, I repeat, study does harm,
of Aveyro and the Countess of Villaumbrosa. because it is like putting a sword in the hands of a
madman: though the sword be the noblest of
The venerable Dr. Arce (worthy professor of
instruments for defense, in his hands it becomes
Scripture, known for his virtue and learning), in
his own death and that of many others. This is
his For the Scholar of the Bible, raises this question:
what the Divine Letters became in the hands of
“Is it permissible for women to apply themselves to the
that wicked Pelagius and of the perverse Arius, of
study, and indeed the interpretation, of the Holy
that wicked Luther, and all the other heretics, like
Bible?” And in opposition he presents the verdicts
our own Dr. Cazalla (who was never either our
passed by many saints, particularly the words of
own nor a doctor). Learning harmed them all,
[Paul] the Apostle: “Let women keep silence in the
though it can be the best nourishment and life for
churches: for it is not permitted them to speak,” etc.
the soul. For just as an infirm stomach, suffering
Arce then presents differing verdicts, including
from diminished heat, produces more bitter,
this passage addressed to Titus, again spoken by
putrid, and perverse humors the better the food
the Apostle: “The aged women, in like manner, in
that it is given, so too these evil persons give rise
holy attire [. . .] teaching well”; and he gives other
to worse opinions the more they study. Their
interpretations from the Fathers of the Church.
understanding is obstructed by the very thing that
Arce at last resolves, in his prudent way, that
should nourish it, and the fact is they study a great
women are not allowed to lecture publicly in the
deal and digest very little, failing to measure their
universities or to preach from the pulpits, but that
efforts to the narrow vessel of their understand-
studying, writing, and teaching privately is not
ing. In this regard the Apostle has said: “For I say,
only permitted but most beneficial and useful to
by the grace that is given me, to all that are among
them. Clearly, of course, he does not mean by this
you, not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise,
that all women should do so, but only those
but to be wise unto sobriety, and according as God
whom God may have seen fit to endow with
hath divided to every one the measure of faith.” And
special virtue and prudence, and who are very
in truth the Apostle said this not to women but to
mature and erudite and possess the necessary
men, and the “Let [them] keep silence” was meant
talents and requirements for such a sacred occupa-
not only for women, but for all those who are not
tion. And so just is this distinction that not only
very competent. If I wish to know as much as or
women, who are held to be so incompetent, but
more than Aristotle or St. Augustine, but I lack
also men, who simply because they are men think
the ability of a St. Augustine or an Aristotle, then I
themselves wise, are to be prohibited from the
may study more than both of them together, but I
interpretation of the Sacred Word, save when they
shall not only fail to reach my goal: I shall weaken
are most learned, virtuous, of amenable intellect
and stupefy the workings of my feeble understand-
and inclined to the good. For when the reverse is
ing with such a disproportionate aim.
true, I believe, numerous sectarians are produced,
and this has given rise to numerous heresies. For Oh, that all men—and I, who am but an
there are many who study only to become igno- ignorant woman, first of all—might take the
measure of our abilities before setting out to study wish to give their daughters more extensive

and, what is worse, to write, in our jealous aspira- Christian instruction than is usual, necessity and
tion to equal and even surpass others. How little the lack of learned older women oblige them to
boldness would we summon, how many errors employ men as instructors to teach reading and
might we avoid, and how many distorted interpre- writing, numbers and music, and other skills. This
tations now noised abroad should be noised no leads to considerable harm, which occurs every
further! And I place my own before all others, for day in doleful instances of these unsuitable as-
if I knew all that I ought, I would not so much as sociations. For the immediacy of such contact and
write these words. Yet I protest that I do so only the passage of time all too frequently allow what
to obey you; and with such misgiving that you seemed impossible to be accomplished quite eas-
owe me more for taking up my pen with all this ily. For this reason, many parents prefer to let their
fear than you would owe me were I to present you daughters remain uncivilized and untutored,
with the most perfect works. But withal, it is well rather than risk exposing them to such notorious
that this goes to meet with your correction: erase peril as this familiarity with men. Yet all this could
it, tear it up, and chastise me, for I shall value that be avoided if there were old women of sound
more than all the vain applause others could give education, as St. Paul desires, so that instruction
me. “The just man shall correct me in mercy, and could be passed from the old to the young just as
shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten is done with sewing and all the customary skills.
my head.”
For what impropriety can there be if an older
And returning to our own Arce, I observe that woman, learned in letters and holy conversation
in support of his views he presents these words of and customs, should have in her charge the educa-
my father St. Jerome (in the letter To Leta, on the tion of young maids? Better so than to let these
Education of Her Daughter), where he says: “[Her]
young girls go to perdition, either for lack of any
childish tongue must be imbued with the sweet music
Christian teaching or because one tries to impart
of the Psalms. [. . .] The very words from which she
it through such dangerous means as male teach-
will get into the way of forming sentences should not
ers. For if there were no greater risk than the
be taken at haphazard but be definitely chosen and
simple indecency of seating a completely un-
arranged on purpose. For example, let her have the
known man at the side of a bashful woman (who
names of the prophets and the apostles, and the whole
blushes if her own father should look her straight
list of patriarchs from Adam downwards, as Matthew
in the face), allowing him to address her with
and Luke give it. She will then be doing two things at
household familiarity and to speak to her with
the same time, and will remember them afterwards.
intimate authority, even so the modesty de-
[. . .] Let her every day repeat to you a portion of the
manded in interchange with men and in conver-
Scriptures as her fixed task.” Very well, if the Saint
sation with them gives sufficient cause to forbid
wished a little girl, scarcely beginning to speak, to
this. Indeed, I do not see how the custom of men
be instructed thus, what must he desire for his
as teachers of women can be without its dangers,
nuns and spiritual daughters? We see this most
save only in the strict tribunal of the confessional,
clearly in the women already mentioned—Eus-
or the distant teachings of the pulpit, or the
tochium and Fabiola—and also in Marcella, the
remote wisdom of books; but never in the repeated
latter’s sister; in Pacatula, and in other women
handling that occurs in such immediate and
whom the Saint honors in his epistles, urging
tarnishing contact. And everyone knows this to
them on in this holy exercise. This appears in the
be true. Nevertheless, it is permitted for no better
letter already cited, where I noted the words “let
reason than the lack of learned older women;
her repeat to you . . .” which serve to reclaim and
therefore, it does great harm not to have them.
confirm St. Paul’s description, “teaching well.” For
This point should be taken into account by those
the “let her repeat the task to you” of my great Father
who, tied to the “Let women keep silence in the
makes clear that the little girl’s teacher must be
churches,” curse the idea that women should
Leta herself, the girl’s mother.
acquire knowledge and teach, as if it were not the
Oh, how many abuses would be avoided in Apostle himself who described them “teaching
our land if the older women were as well in- well.” Furthermore, that prohibition applied to
structed as Leta and knew how to teach as is com- the case related by Eusebius: to wit, that in the
manded by St. Paul and my father St. Jerome! early Church, women were set to teaching each
Instead, for lack of such learning and through the other Christian doctrine in the temples. The
extreme feebleness in which they are determined murmur of their voices caused confusion when
to maintain our poor women, if any parents then the apostles were preaching, and that is why they
were told to be silent. Just so, we see today that Some of her biographers believe that she must
SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ when the preacher is preaching, no one prays have taken this step because of an unfortunate
aloud. love affair. Amado Nervo says:
Dicen . . . que cierto caballero . . . se le adentró
en el corazón, logrando inspirarle un gran afecto;
añaden unos, que este gentilhombre estaba muy
alto para que Juana, hidalga, pero pobre, pudiese
GENERAL COMMENTARY ascender hasta él; otros, que se murió en flor
cuando iba ya a posarse sobre sus manos unidas la
DOROTHY SCHONES (ESSAY DATE bendición que ata para siempre. Juana de Asbaje,
NOVEMBER 1926) inconsolable, buscó alivio en el estudio y en el re-
tiro.1
SOURCE: Schones, Dorothy. “Some Obscure Points in
the Life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.” Modern Philology
24, no. 2 (November 1926): 141-62. This romantic legend has long been connected
with Juana’s name. The story is based on nothing
In the following essay, Schones addresses some of the
central questions about Sor Juana’s life, including her more substantial than the fact that her works
motivation to join a religious order, her name and its contain a large number of love lyrics. This is insuf-
bearing on her colonial loyalties, and her decision to stop ficient evidence on which to build a case.
writing after her “Respuesta.”
A few have accepted Juana’s own explanation
of the decisive change in her life and have declared
I that she entered a convent to find a place where
The biography of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is
she could devote herself to her intellectual inter-
yet to be written. Though much has appeared on
ests. It must be remembered that she was one of
the subject, many things still remain unexplained.
the most unusual personalities developed in the
Material of the period in which she lived is very
New World, and is hardly to be judged by ordinary
limited. The fact that she was a nun made her
standards. José Vigil, one of the first to appreciate
figure less in the works of her contemporaries than
her remarkable personality, says:
would otherwise have been the case, and the
period of literary stagnation following her death Muchos se han ocupado en conjeturar que la res-
contributed still further to the oblivion in which olución de Sor Juana para haber adoptado la vida
monástica, puede haber procedido de un amor
she rested. When interest in Sor Juana finally
desgraciado. . . . Yo creo, sin embargo, que tal
revived in Mexico, it was already too late to opinión se apoya en un conocimiento imperfecto
preserve the documents that existed in the con- del carácter de la escritora mexicana.
vent of St. Jerome and elsewhere. The laws of
Yo veo en Sor Juana uno de esos espíritus superi-
reform and the final closing of convents and ores, . . . que son incapaces de sucumbir a debil-
monasteries scattered books of inestimable value. idades vulgares.2
It is possible, however, even at this remote date to
glean a few facts from the meager material that According to her own confession, she had
has come down to us. The present article is an at- been, from the age of three, a most enthusiastic
tempt to answer in the light of contemporary devotee of learning. She had devoured any and
books and manuscripts a few questions asked over every book that came within her reach. At the age
and over again by her many biographers. of fifteen she had already established a reputation
as the most learned woman in Mexico. That she
One question often raised is: Why did Sor
sought refuge in her books because of a broken
Juana go into a convent? Why did she not remain
heart is impossible. It was because of her learning
in the world where she was admired for her beauty
that she gained a position at the viceregal court.
and her mental attainments? It will be remem-
Her books were her first love, and they were prob-
bered that Juana became lady-in-waiting to the
ably one of the reasons that impelled her to seek
Marchioness of Mancera, whose husband was the
the seclusion of a cloister.
Viceroy of Mexico from 1664 to 1673. Endowed
with a pleasing personality and gifted with un- One looks in vain for a religious motive
usual talents, she quickly attracted powerful underlying this important step in her life.3 She
friends at court, and met the outstanding people even hesitated because she was afraid that convent
of her time. One would naturally expect that her life would interfere with her intellectual labors.
life would here reach its climax in a blaze of glory. She herself says that she did not wish any
But in 1667, when not quite sixteen, she suddenly . . . ocupacion obligatoria, que embaraçasse la lib-
retired from the court and entered a convent. ertad de mi estudio, ni rumor de Comunidad, que
Why? impidiesse el sossegado silencio de mis Libros. Esto
me hizo vacilar algo en la determinacion, hasta dio, . . . parece muy dificultoso que después lo

que alumbrandome personas Doctas, de que era pueda tenar . . . si el Santo Oficio no lo remedia,
tentacion, la vencì con el favor Divino. . . .4 la justicia seglar no parece que ha de ser sufi-
ciente.7
The biographer of her confessor testifies that
she hesitated before taking the step. The civil government, however, refused to
interfere. The church was therefore forced to
Se sintió llamada de Dios al retiro . . . mas retarda-
bale el parecerle cõdicion indispensable á las obli-
devise ways and means of combating this evil. If
gaciones de esse estado, aver de abandonar los li- they could not fight it through the men, they
bros, y estudios, en que desde sus primeros años could fight it through the women. By building
tenia colocados todos sus caríños. Consultó su vo- convents and houses of refuge and putting women
cació, y temores con el Venerable Padre Antonio in them they hoped to improve matters some-
Nuñes. . . . Ya tenia el Padre noticia de las pren-
das, y dones singulares, que avia el cielo deposi-
what, and protect women at the same time.
tado en aquella niña . . . y . . . aprobò . . . la vo- In all of this the attitude of the church toward
cacion . . . animandola á sacrificar á Dios aquellas
women was medieval. They were looked upon as
primeras flores de sus estudios, si conociesse, que
le avian de ser estorvo à la perfeccion. . . .5 an ever present source of temptation to man.
Ecclesiastics who did not wish to be tempted
Juana knew that the religious state might avoided them. The biographer of Francisco de
interfere with her labors. In spite of this fact, Aguiar y Seixas, Archbishop of Mexico from 1682
however, she finally decided to become a nun. to 1698, says:
There must have been, then, another and a more . . . ponderaba [su Illma] quã necessario era para
powerful reason that caused her to take the veil. conservar la castidad el recato de la vista; encar-
What was it? gaba que no se visitassen mugeres sin grave causa,
y aun entonces, quando era necessaria la visita, no
Most of Juana’s biographers have examined se les avia de mirar à la cara . . . le oymos decir al-
this point in her life with the eyes of the present gunas vezes, que si supiera avian entrado algunas
instead of with the eyes of the past. To understand mugeres en su casa, avia de mandar arrancar los
Juana’s motives one must go back to the period in ladrillos que ellas avian pisado. . . .
which she lived, and study the social conditions Y este genero de orror, y aversion a las mugeres
of her time. She lived in a most licentious age. A fue cosa de toda su vida, predicando siempre con-
careful study of contemporary writers shows that tra sus visitas, y sus galas. . . . Tenia por beneficio
grande de Dios el aver sido corto de vista.8
moral conditions in Mexico were very bad. The
presence of many races, of adventurers, of loose Juana’s confessor, Antonio Núñez, was just as
women and worse men brought about conditions discreet. His biographer says that his motto was
that were possibly unequaled elsewhere in the “Con las Señoras gran cautela en los ojos, no dex-
world. How bad they were the following entry in arme tocar, ni besar la mano, ni mirarlas al rostro,
a contemporary chronicle shows: o trage, ni visitar a ninguna. . . .” And that he
En 12 murió el Br. Antonio Calderón de Benavides, might not be tempted, he says: “Por las calles iba
natural de Méjico, uno de los más singulares cléri- sipre con los ojos en el suelo, de la misma manera
gos que ha tenido este arzobispado: sobre ser muy
estaba en las visitas. . . . Por evitar qualquiera
galán, de muy linda cara y muy rico, fué constante
opinión que se conservó virgen.6 ocasion de que . . . le tocassen, ò besassen las
manos . . . las llevaba siempre cubiertas con el
Had this not been an astonishing fact, the manteo.”9 Many similar instances could be cited.
chronicler would not have taken the pains to It was in such a world that Juana grew up. On
record it. The male element of the population was the one hand, extreme license; on the other,
under no restraint (even the priesthood was no extreme prudery. Out of such a state of society the
exception) and roamed at will, preying on society. famous Redondillas were born. Is it not this very
Not only immorality, but depravity and bestiality attitude and these very conditions that she chal-
reigned. Things came to such a pass that the lenged so boldly in “Hombres necios, que acusáis
Inquisition brought the attention of the civil a la mujer sin razón”? Is it not the terrible dis-
government to this state of affairs. In a letter writ- soluteness of the men of her time that she epito-
ten by the inquisitors in 1664 we read: mizes with the words “Juntáis diablo, carne y
. . . veemos de tres ó cuatro años á esta parte en mundo”?
las causas que han ocurrido, principalmente de re-
ligiosos, que se halla comprehendido en este cri- To remedy this state of affairs, the church
men mucho número de personas eclesiásticas y began to build recogimientos. Some of these were
seculares . . . si á este cáncer no se pone reme- for mujeres malas; others for widows, orphans, and
It is of service to the Church

FROM THE AUTHOR that women argue, tutor, learn,
for He Who granted women reason
would not have them uninformed.
SOR JUANA CELEBRATES THE TRIUMPH OF
Victor! Victor!
ENLIGHTENED WOMEN, WOMEN’S RIGHT TO
STUDY, AND WOMEN’S RIGHT TO TEACH How haughtily they must have come,
• REFRAIN • the men that Maximin convened,
though at their advent arrogant,
Victor! Victor! Catherine, they left with wonder and esteem.
who with enlightenment divine Victor! Victor!
persuaded all the learned men,
she who with triumph overcame Persuaded, all of them, with her,
—with knowledge truly sovereign— gave up their lives unto the knife:
the pride and arrogance profane how much good might have been lost,
of those who challenged her, in vain were Catherine less erudite!
Victor! Victor! Victor! Victor! Victor!
• VERSES • No man, whatever his renown,

accomplished such a victory,
There in Egypt, all the sages and we know that God, through her,
by a woman were convinced honored femininity.
that gender is not of the essence Victor! Victor!
in matters of intelligence.
Victor! Victor! Too brief, the flowering of her years,
but ten and eight, the sun’s rotations,
A victory, a miracle; but when measuring her knowledge,
though more prodigious than the feat who could sum the countless ages?
of conquering, was surely that Victor! Victor!
the men themselves declared defeat.
Victor! Victor! Now all her learned arguments
are lost to us (how great the grief).
How wise they were, these Prudent Men, But with her blood, if not with ink,
acknowledging they were outdone, she wrote the lesson of her life.
for one conquers when one yields Victor! Victor!
to wisdom greater than one’s own.
Victor! Victor! Tutelar and holy Patron,
Catherine, the Shrine of Arts;
Illumination shed by truth long may she illumine Wise Men,
will never by mere shouts be drowned; she who Wise to Saints converts.
persistently, its echo rings, Victor! Victor!
above all obstacles resounds.
Victor! Victor! Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Villancico VI, from
“Santa Catarina,” 1691. In Poems, Protest, and
None of these Wise Men was ashamed a Dream: Selected Writings. Edited by Margaret
when he found himself convinced, Sayers Peden. New York: Penguin, 1997, p.
because, in being Wise, he knew 189. English translation reprinted from Sor
his knowledge was not infinite. Juana Inés de la Cruz: Poems. Bilingual Press/
Victor! Victor! Editorial bilingue, 1985.
single women. The Bishop of Puebla, Manuel Of the Bishop’s efforts on their behalf the
Fernández de Santa Cruz, built a number of such same writer says:
recogimientos in his diocese, but they would not Compuesta ya en la forma dicha la Casa de las
accommodate all the women clamoring for admis- recogidas, determinò el Señor Don Manuel aplicar
el remedio que le pedia la pureza de pobres nobles,
sion. His biographer writes:
y hermosas Doncellas para su resguardo; y aunque
Franqueadas las puertas de su Palacio empezaron à yà en la Ciudad avia un Collegio de Virgines, en
entrar por ellas en busca de su Pastor . . . muchas que pudo assegurar algunas de las que reconocio
mugeres que deseaban guardar intacta la Flor de la en mayor peligro, assi por la corta capacidad de
pureza, que hasta entonces habian conser- dicho Collegio, como por el numero de las preten-
vado, . . . pero recelaban timidas perderla ò por dientes, tan crecido, que le viniera estrecho el mas
ser muy pobres, ò por ser por hermosas, muy per- espacioso Claustro, discurriò con su animo gener-
seguidas.1 0 oso, comprar la possession de cierto sitio, para ere-
gir a las Flores de la Virginidad un Collegio; pero Llegò despues la costumbre,

como cada dia escuchaban sus atentos oydos mas Favorecida de tantos,
y mas clamores de pobres Doncellas, se hallò obli- A hazer como obligatorio,
gado à formarles dos Collegios, ô cerrados Huer- El festejo cortesano,
tos, donde negadas à el examen de la ossadia, con- . . . . .
servassen intactos los candòres de su virginal Sin temor en los concursos
pureza. Defendia mi recato
De los dos dichos Collegios, como de floridos Con peligro del peligro,
Huertos, salieron muchas Doncellas a florecer Y con el daño del daño.
transplantadas en Monasterios religiosos, en que . . . . .
manteniendo el credito de la virtud, subieron cõ Mis padres en mi mesura,
presurosos pasos à la cumbre de la perfecciõ; otras Vanamente assegurados,
sugetandose à las coyundas de el Matrimonio Se descuidaron comigo:
desempeñaron bien la buena educacion. . . .1 1 Que dictamen tan errado.1 5
This was the state of affairs in the diocese of She was a curiosity, a veritable monstruo de la
Puebla. In Guadalaxara and other places condi- naturaleza, and must have been the object of
tions were the same. How about Mexico City? The persistent and in many cases unwelcome atten-
biographer of Domingo Pérez de Barcía says: tions. If ordinary women were in danger, the
No puede negarse la heroicad, y grandeza de la beautiful Juana Inés certainly was. To be sure, she
obra de enclaustrar mugeres, que voluntariamente had the protection of the Viceroy. But how long
se retiren, huyendo del Mundo, y sus peligros, would the Marquis of Mancera retain that office?
para no caer en sus lazos, ni dàr en sus precipios, In a change of administration what would be her
viendose expuestas, yá por la libertad en que
fate? Her family was poor, and besides, in her day
viven, yà por la necessidad en que se hallan à
vender su hermosura, à costa de su honestidad, the chimney-corner for the spinster member of
valiendose de sus cuerpos para perdicion de sus al- the family had not yet been heard of. Moreover,
mas. De la grandeza de esta obra se via privada she was a criolla living at a Spanish court. She was
esta Ciudad de Mexico, y tan necessitada de ella, therefore at its mercy. That her position was not
quanto se atendia de mugeres mas abastecida, que
safe, we may gather from the biography of her
no pudiendo todas entrar en Monasterios, se llora-
ban en el siglo en manifiestos peligros. . . .1 2 confessor:
He goes on to say that various attempts were . . . el Padre Antonio . . . aviendo conocido . . .
lo singular de su erudicion junto con no pequeña
made to establish recogimientos, but lack of funds hermosura, atractivos todos á la curiosidad de mu-
always prevented the realization of the project. A chos, que desearian conocerla, y tendrian por feli-
Jesuit, Luis de San Vitores, even wrote a book on cidad el cortejarla, solia decir, q no podia Dios em-
the need of a refugio, and1 3 finally, with the help biar asote mayor a aqueste Reyno, que si
of Father Xavier Vidal, a house big enough to ac- permitiesse, que Juana Ines se quedara en la publi-
cidad del siglo.1 6
commodate six hundred women was built. But
money was lacking for the maintenance of the He goes on to tell why she left the convent of
place, and so Payo Henríquez de Ribera, Arch- St. Joseph and adds: “. . . le fue forçoso salir, y
bishop of Mexico from 1668 to 1680, was obliged buscar otro puerto en donde atendiendo cõ menos
to give the house to the Bethlemites for a hospi- peligros de enfermedad . . . se viesse libre de las
tal.1 4 muchas olas que la amenazaban.”1 7 Her biogra-
During this time Juana was living at the pher, Father Calleja, expresses the same idea. She
viceregal court in la publicidad del siglo. She was realized, he says, that “. . . la buena cara de una
the talk of the town because of her brilliant at- muger pobre es una pared blanca donde no hay
tainments. What her situation was she describes necio, que no quiera echar su borron: que aun la
clearly in Los empeños de una casa: mesura de la honestidad sirve de riesgo, porque ay
Era de mi patria toda ojos, que en el yelo deslizan mas: . . .”1 8 And she
El Objecto venerado herself says of this step: “. . . con todo, para la
De aquellas adoraciones, total negacion que tenia al Matrimonio, era lo
Que forma el comun aplauso, menos desproporcionado y lo mas decente, que
. . . . .
podia elegir en materia de la seguridad . . . de mi
Llegò la supersticion
Popular à empeño tanto salvacion.”1 9
Que ya adoraban Deydad It was, undoubtedly, necessary for her to retire
El Idolo que formaron.
. . . . . from public life at court. There was no recogimiento
Que aviendo sido al principio where she might live until she could decide
Aquel culto voluntario, definitely on her future occupation. She was,
therefore, practically forced to choose convent life, tion is the following: “. . . haviendo vivido 44
SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ or be at the mercy of the world. Juana Inés was, años, 5 meses, 5 dias, y 5 horas.” It should read:
perhaps, even lucky to get into a convent, for “43 años, 5 meses, etc.” It seems possible, there-
there was not room for all who applied. With the fore, that the writer was also mistaken in regard to
powerful influence, however, of the Viceroy and her signature. But Fernández del Castillo goes on
of Father Núñez, a haven was found for her. The to say:
influence of the latter in this decisive step is not
Se podría objetar que el retrato de la religiosa que
to be overlooked. He it was who finally persuaded se conserva en Toledo es muy posterior a la muerte
her and hastened the ceremony lest the devil de la poetisa, pero habiendo sido sacado según da-
should tempt, meanwhile, his beloved Juana Inés. tos tomados del Convento de San Jerónimo en
donde vivió, es claro que las religiosas sabrían cual
We may safely conclude that the deep, under- era el verdadero nombre de Sor Juana.2 3
lying reason for Juana’s retirement from the world
is to be found in the social conditions of her time. It is, in fact, more than likely that in the
She was persuaded to take the step, too, in the convent of St. Jerome she was always thought of
hope of being somewhat favorably situated for a as Juana Ramírez, rather than as Juana de Asbaje.
continuation of her intellectual labors. And when It is a well-known fact that her mother was a cri-
she came under the influence of that powerful olla and her father a Spaniard (Basque). As Juana
norte de la Inquisición, the pious Father Núñez, she Ramírez she was a criolla. As Juana de Asbaje she
accepted his advice and took the veil. That she was Spanish. It is also a well-known fact that in
tried convent life a second time shows what seri- Mexico at that time the only avenues of prefer-
ous and what pressing reasons she had for taking ment open to the criollos were the university and
the step. the church. In fact, so strong were the criollos
becoming in the church during the seventeenth
century that by the time of the Marquis of
II Mancera the Augustinians were demanding that
Another question recently brought to the fore all candidates for admission to the order be native
is whether Juana should properly be called Juana born.2 4 This caused constant bickering between
de Asbaje or Juana Ramírez. Amado Nervo, writ- the two factions. The convent of St. Jerome
ing in 1910, called her Juana de Asbaje. Fernández belonged to the Augustinian order. To enter it,
del Castillo, writing in 1920,2 0 calls her Juana therefore, one had to be a native of New Spain.
Ramírez, and insists that this is correct, since she That such was the case the following passage
herself signed her name that way. He tries to prove shows:
that she was related to the Hernán Cortés family
on her mother’s side, her mother’s name being Estaba yá para tomar el Avito cierta doncella, en el
Convento de S. Geronimo, y no teniendo la dote
Isabel Ramírez de Santillana. Speaking of her
para ello, entraba con nombramiento de algunos,
name, he says: que en dicho convento ay dotados; pero al fin, se
advirtiò faltarle a esta doncella una de las condi-
Sor Juana, según el uso actual, debería de llevar el
ciones, que la fundacion pedia; conviene, a saber,
apellido Asvaje, que era el de su padre, . . . pero
el que sean nacionales de Mexico, y esta no lo era;
en aquella época cada hijo llevaba, diferente apel-
por lo qual huvosele de impedir su entrada. . . .2 5
lido, lo que origina no pocos trastornos en las in-
vestigaciones genealógicas; de suerte que, aun
cuando le correspondía el apellido Asvaje, como
When one considers that this was a founda-
ella firmaba Juana Ramírez, ese es el suyo verdad- tion for criollos, that the hatred between the na-
ero, con el que se le debe mencionar, y así consta tives and the governing class was increasing, and
en su retrato que se conserva en el Museo Provin- that toward the end of the seventeenth century
cial de Toledo. . . .2 1
and the beginning of the eighteenth this hatred
was becoming more and more open, one can well
The inscription on the picture mentioned
understand why the nuns of St. Jerome might
reads: “En el siglo fue conocida por D.a Juana
have given out that Sor Juana was Juana Ramírez.
Ramirez (por ˜q assi firmaba).”2 2 A careful study
To date, however, no such signature has been
of this document shows that it is incorrect on two
found.
points. The author of the inscription goes on to
say: “Tomo el Havito de Religiosa en el Convto dl There is evidence, on the other hand, that
Eximio D.r de la Iglesia S.a Geronimo de esta Ciud. while she was at the viceregal court she went by
de Mex.co 24 de Feb.o de 1668 a.s a los 17. de su the name of Asbaje. In 1668 Diego de Ribera
edad. . . .” This is inaccurate as to her age, for published a poem by Doña Iuana Ynés de
she was only sixteen. Another error in the inscrip- Asuage.2 6 In November of the preceding year
Juana had left the convent of St. Joseph. If she of intimacy with the most prominent people of

was known as Juana de Asbaje in 1668 she must the city. In Spain she had been the object of
have been so called before she entered the convent dozens of laudatory poems and articles. But for
in August, 1667. In other words, this was certainly the second time in her life she suddenly retired
her name at court. It was, undoubtedly, to her from the world, and this time it was to lead the
advantage to go by her Spanish name as lady-in- life of an ascetic, the life of a martyr. Why?
waiting to the Vicereine. Whether she had been The blame for this strange renunciation has
known as Juana Ramírez before she went to court been generally laid at the door of the Bishop of
nobody knows. It is possible that the criollos knew Puebla, Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz. A few
her by that name. However, in the absence of attributed it to the Inquisition or to Father Núñez.
more definite proof favoring the name Ramírez it Others have frankly declared it inexplicable. To
seems preferable to continue to call her Asbaje understand the situation, let us go back and
since we know that she actually went by that review briefly the preceding period in the life of
name in 1668. Sor Juana.
An easier question to answer is: Which name In the year 1680 a new viceroy, the Count of
did she herself prefer? In the Libro de Prophessiones Paredes, came to Mexico. The cabildo of the
of the convent of St. Jerome she wrote: “Yo soror cathedral asked Juana to write a poem for one of
Jua ynes de la chruz hija legima de don po de as- the arcos erected in his honor. Placed thus in the
vaje y bargas machuca Y de isabel rramires, etc.”2 7 limelight, it is not surprising that a friendship
It will be noticed that she signs her father’s name developed between Juana and the Count and
in full. This seems to indicate that at that time she Countess of Paredes. This was the beginning of a
preferred that name. Vargas Machuca is an hon- brilliant and happy period for the gifted nun. Her
ored name in the annals of Spanish arms, and the new patrons encouraged her in her literary ambi-
name Asbaje aligned her with the Basques, who tions. It was for them that she wrote some of her
must be credited with notable achievements in best works. During their residence in New Spain,
the New World. Was she a criolla or a Spaniard at Sor Juana devoted much more time than the
heart? Her works show both tendencies. With church approved of to worldly things. The Viceroy
their publication, however, she seems to have put and his wife were frequent visitors at the convent.
herself definitely on the Spanish side. Her second The nun became very popular in court circles, and
volume, which appeared in Seville in 1692, was was the object of many attentions, of gifts, of let-
dedicated to Don Juan de Orue y Arbieto, a ters, of poems. She was in constant contact with
Basque. In that dedication she says: “. . . siendo, the world. She was in such demand socially that
como soy Rama de Vizcaya, y Vm. de sus nobilis- she could hardly find time for her literary work.
simas familias de las Casas de Orue y Arbieto, vuel- In the spring of 1688, however, her patrons
van los frutos à su tronco, y los arroyuelos de mis returned to Spain. With their departure Juana lost
discursos tributen sus corrientes al Mar à qui re- her most powerful protectors in New Spain.
conocen su Orig.” In some of her works she even Though on friendly terms with the Conde de
used the Basque dialect. She was proud of her Galve, viceroy from 1688 to 1696, there was not
Basque ancestry. This, too, argues in favor of the the strong personal bond that bound her to his
name Asbaje. predecessor. It is to the Countess of Paredes that
we owe the first volume of Juana’s works.
III The period just sketched had disastrous conse-
Another question that has been discussed is: quences for Sor Juana. Her worldly life brought
Why did Juana, when she was at the height of her down upon her the criticism of the more sinister,
fame, renounce fame? It seems impossible at first the more fanatical element in the church. Father
glance that Sor Juana, having made herself fa- Núñez broke off all relations with her. Oviedo says
mous, having earned the title of la décima musa, in this connection:
and having published in Spain two volumes of Bien quisiera el Padre Antonio que tan singulares
poetry, should suddenly renounce her intellectual prendas se dedicassen solo á Dios, y que enten-
labors, her mathematical and musical instru- dimiento tan sublime tuviesse solo por pasto las
ments, her library of four thousand volumes, and divinas perfecciones del Esposo que avia tomado.
Y aunque se han engañado muchos, persuadidos,
everything that for her made life worth living to
á que el Padre Antonio le prohibia â la Madre
devote herself to a life of cilices and scourges, fasts Iuana el exercicio decente de la Poesia sanctificado
and vigils. She had lived in the convent of St. Jer- con los exemplos de grandes siervos, y siervas de
ome a quarter of a century. She had lived on terms Dios, estorvabale si quãto podia la publicidad, y
continuadas correspondencias de palabra, y por That Aguiar was a bitter enemy of the worldly
SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ escrito con los de fuera; y temiendo que el affecto life of the times is shown by the following extract
a los estudios por demasiado no declinasse al ex-
from a contemporary:
tremo de vicioso, y le robasse el tiempo que el es-
tado santo de la Religion pide de derecho . . . le Il Lunedi 27. dovea andare la Signora V. Regnia,
aconsejaba con las mejores razones que podia, á con suo marito, in S. Agostino de las Cuevas, invi-
que agradecida al cielo por los dones conque la tati dal Tesoriere della Casa della moneta; ma poi
avia enriquecido olvidada del todo de la tierra pu- se n’astennero, per far cosa grata a Monsignor Ar-
siera sus pesamientos . . . en el mismo cielo. civescovo, il quale biasimava quel passatempo,
como scandaloso.3 1
Viendo pues el Padre Antonio, que no podia con-
seguir lo que desseaba, se retirò totalmente de la Life in Mexico changed under his administra-
assistencia à la Madre Juana. . . .2 8 tion. It took on a gloomier aspect. Many festival
days were abolished,3 2 and an effort was made to
Father Núñez was one of the most powerful
reform the habits and customs of the people.
ecclesiastics in New Spain. Because of his learning
he was popularly known as the “encyclopedia of Under such an archbishop Juana passed the
the Jesuits.” There is plenty of evidence to show last days of her life. That Juana wrote comedias
that all important cases of the Inquisition passed and even published them must have been a crime
through his hands. The break,2 9 therefore, be- in his eyes. In Mexico during his administration
tween him and Sor Juana was a most serious mat- no comedias and almost no secular verse were find-
ter. The fact that Father Núñez disapproved of her ing their way into print.3 3 Conditions in Mexico
conduct must have ranged against her some of were quite different from what they were in Spain,
the other intolerant churchmen of the time, such though even in Spain a movement which opposed
men as José Vidal and the Archbishop himself. the theater was gaining ground. Conditions in
Spain, nevertheless, were liberal as compared with
The latter was something of a fanatic. His those that obtained in New Spain. What the dif-
character was very different from that of his preference was becomes plain when we consider that
cedessor, the much esteemed Fray Payo in whose the books of Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda which
honor Juana wrote several poems. Her relations were taken off the Index abroad (even the cel-
with Aguiar y Seixas must have been quite differ- ebrated Mística Ciudad de Dios being cleared by
ent, for she never mentions him. If the biographer the Pope)3 4 were prohibited in Mexico by an edict
of the Archbishop is to be trusted, there was prob- of the Inquisition in 1690.3 5 Moreover, the fact
ably a good reason why he and Juana were not on that Sor Juana’s works appeared in Spain is signifi-
intimate terms. He says: cant. This was due to the strict censorship3 6 on
books that existed in New Spain, rather than to
Para remediar los pecados importa mucho el
quitar las rayzes de ellos: en esto ponia el Señor
other difficulties of publication such as expense
Arçobispo mucho cuydado. Una causa muy princi- and scarcity of paper. The fact that of all her works
pal de muchos pecados, suelen ser las comedias, y the most popular one in Mexico was a religious
fiestas de toros; por lo qual aborrecia mucho su Il- work, the many times reprinted Ofrecimientos
l.ma estas, y otras semejantes fiestas, à que concur- para un Rosario de quince Misterios, is also
ren muchos de todo genero de personas, hombres
highly significant. One is forced to the conclusion
y mugeres. Predicaba con gran acrimonia contra
estos toros, y comedias, y los estorvò siempre que
that the publication of her collected works would
pudo: quando andabamos en las visitas mandaba have been impossible in Mexico. The fact that she
que en las solemnidades de los Santos, aunque published them in Spain must have widened the
fuessen titulares, no huviesse semejantes fies- breach that was gradually establishing itself
tas; . . . between her and the church. The first volume of
Otro medio de que usaba el Señor Arçobispo para her works appeared in Madrid in 1689. It contains
desterrar los vicios, y plãtar las virtudes, era el a large number of secular poems: lyrics of love
procurar acabar con los libros profanos de come- and friendship, satirical verse, and burlesque
dias, y otros; y repartir libros devotos. Quando poems in the Italian manner. Whether the book
venimos de España, truxo unos mil y quinientos
came back to Mexico I do not know. But enough
libros, que se intitulan Consuelo de pobres, que tra-
tan con especialidad de la limosna, para repartir-
information about it must have traveled back to
los entre los ricos, y trocarlos por otros libros ma- make things slightly uncomfortable for Juana.
los; y assi lo hazia. Persuadia à los libreros, que no
At about this same time Sor Juana committed
tomassen libros de comedias; y trocò con algunos
de ellos todos quantos tenian por los dichos arriba another crime in the eyes of the church. She wrote
de consuelo de pobres: y luego quemaba los de las a refutation of a sermon preached in Lisbon by
comedias. . . .3 0 the brilliant Jesuit, Antonio de Vieyra. The latter
had set up his own opinion in opposition to that sible, then, that this letter was the cause of the

of the Church Fathers, Aquinas, Augustine, and step she took. It was another sign of the times,
Chrysostom. Juana defended the Church Fathers however, and a thorn in the flesh of the brilliant
with logic and erudition. Her refutation found its nun.
way into the hands of Manuel Fernández de Santa
In March, 1691, Juana wrote an answer to the
Cruz. He had it published late in 1690,3 7 together
famous letter. Her letter is astonishingly frank.
with a letter, the famous letter signed Sor Philotea
One wonders how she dared so reveal her in-
de la Cruz. In it he said in part:
nermost soul. Her answer could certainly have
Para que V. md. se vea en este Papel de mejor letra, done nothing to mend matters.
le he impresso, y para que reconozca los tesoros,
que Dios depositò en su alma, y le sea, como mas Meanwhile, the Crisis was receiving wide
entendida, mas agradecida . . . pocas criaturas de- publicity. In 1692 it was published in Mallorca. In
ben a su Magestad mayores talentos en lo natural, the same year it was reprinted in the second
con que executa al agradecimiento, para que si
volume of her works, and in the following year it
hasta aqui los ha empleado bien . . . en adelante
sea mejor. appeared again in the second edition of that vol-
ume.4 1 It was received with great enthusiasm in
No es mi juizio tan austèro Censor, que estè mal
con los versos, en que V. md. se ha visto tan cel-
Spain. Why did it arouse a storm of criticism in
ebrada. . . . Mexico? Was it heretical? It was so considered
there. In her answer to the Bishop Juana wrote:
No pretendo, segun este dictamen, que V. md.
mude el genio, renunciando los Libros; si no que Si el crimen està en la Carta Athenagorica, fue
le mejore, leyendo alguna vez el de Jesu- aquella mas que referir sencillamente mi sentir
Christo. . . . Mucho tiempo ha gastado V. md. en . . . ? . . . Llevar una opinion contraria de Vieyra,
el estudio de Filosofos, y Poetas; yà serà razon que fue en mi atrevimiento, y no lo fue en su Pater-
se mejoren los Libros.3 8 nidad, llevarla contra los tres Santos Padres de la
Iglesia? . . . ni faltè al decoro, que à tanto varon
This is the letter that has long been held se debe. . . . Ni toquè à la Sagrada Compañia en
responsible for Sor Juana’s renunciation. It is quite el pelo de la ropa; . . . Que si creyera se avia de
clear from the letter that the Bishop did not really publicar, no fuera con tanto desaliño como fue. Si
approve of her secular writings, but it is also clear es (como dize el Censor) Heretica, porquè no la
delata?4 2
that he did not ask her to give up her literary
labors. All that he asked her to do was to devote We gather from this that it was declared
herself to religious works. He was himself a lover heretical. In Spain, however, Navarro Vélez, Califi-
of learning, and had during his youth written cador del Santo Oficio, declared that it contained
three books of commentary on the Scriptures. He nothing contrary to the faith.4 3 That it was so
is said to have bought many books for the Cole- strongly condemned in Mexico is due to the fact
gio de San Pablo in Pueblo. What gave the letter that conditions there were different. The Jesuits
such force was the fact that it was printed along were all powerful. They were practically in control
with the Crisis, and that in it he asked her to pay of the Inquisition. Father Vieyra was a Jesuit, and
less attention to las rateras noticias del dia. It it was felt that the Crisis was an attack on that
amounted to a public censure.3 9 order. How Father Núñez felt about it one can eas-
Of the cause and effect of this letter, the ily guess. Juana had brought herself face to face
biographer of the Bishop writes as follows: with the Inquisition. At the time she wrote her
Era muy celebrada en esta Nueva España la Madre reply she had not been brought to trial. No record
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, . . . assi por la grande has been found to show that she ever was. It is
capazidad, y soverano entendimiento de que Dios not likely that the Inquisition would have waited
la havia dorado, como por la gracia de saber hazer more than two years to do so. It does not seem
y componer . . . versos: con esta ocasion era visi-
possible, then, that it was directly responsible for
tada de muchas personas, y de las de primera clase:
corria la fama por todas partes . . . ; llegò la noti- her renunciation.
cia à nuestro amantissimo Obispo . . . , y . . . Did Juana, upon receiving the Bishop’s letter,
condolido . . . de ´q un sujeto de tan relevantes
prendas estubiera tan distraido, y combertido à las
immediately stop writing about secular things?
criaturas, . . . resolvio escrivirla la carta sigu- Not at all. Early in 1691 she wrote a silva celebrat-
iente. . . . ing a victory won by the armada de Barlovento
Tubo esta carta el deseado efecto. . . .4 0 against the French off the coast of Santo Dom-
ingo. This was published the same year by Carlos
More than two years were to elapse, however, de Sigüenza y Góngora in his Trofeo de la justicia
before Juana’s renunciation. It does not seem pos- española. In 1692 she was still sending manuscripts
What it was and how insidiously it undermined
SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ what a lifetime had built up, the following pas-
sage will make clear:
Pues aun falta por referir lo mas arduo de las difi-
cultades;—faltan los positivos [estorvos], que di-
rectamente han traido à estorvar, y prohibir el ex-
ercicio. Quien no creerà, viendo tan generales
aplausos, que he navigado viento en popa, y mar
en leche, sobre las palmas de las aclamaciones co-
munes? Pues Dios sabe, que no ha sido assi:
porque entre las flores de essas mismas aclama-
ciones, se han levantado, y despertado tales aspi-
des de emulaciones, y persecuciones, quantas no
podrè contrar; y los que mas nocivos, y sensibles
para mi han sido, no son aquellos, que con
declarado odio, y malevolencia me han per-
seguido, sino los que amandome, y deseando mi
bien . . . me han mortificado, y atormentado mas,
que los otros, con aquel: No conviene a la santa ig-
norancia, que deben este estudio; se ha de perder, se ha
de desranecer en tanta altura con su mesma perspica-
cia, y agudeza. Què me avrà costado resistir esto?
Rara especie de martyrio, donde yo era el martyr,
y me era el verdugo! . . . todo ha sido acercarme
mas al fuego de la persecucion, al crisol del tor-
mento: y ha sido con tal extremo, que han llegado
a solicitar, que se me prohiba el estudio.
. . . fuè tan vehemente, y podorosa la inclinacion
à las Letras, que ni agenas reprehensiones (que he
tenido muchas) ni propias reflexas (que he hecho
no pocas) han bastado à que dexe de seguir este
natural impulso, que Dios puso en mi: su Mages-
tad sabe . . . que le he pedido, que apague la luz
de mi entendimiento, dexando solo lo que baste
Manuscript page from Vieyra Impugnado (1731), written para guardar su Ley, pues lo demàs sobra (segun
by Sor Margarita Ignacia. This defense of Father Vieyra’s algunos) en una muger; y aun hay quien diga, que
daña.4 6
sermon is said to have ended the “Crisis” for Sor Juana
Inés De la Cruz. We gather from this that she was the object of
constant persecution, and to such a degree that
she began to ask herself if, after all, she was wrong.
abroad for the second edition4 4 of the second Should she give up her literary labors and devote
volume of her works. It seems likely that early in herself to the camino de perfección? This was the
1692 she was still writing some poetry and col- struggle that was going on in her soul and that
lecting it for that volume. Sometime in 1692 or reached a climax in 1693. It had probably been
1693 she also wrote a poem thanking her newly going on a long time before it came out into the
found friends in Spain for the laudatory poems open with the publication of her works. She must
and articles which appeared in her second volume. have had many enemies. What she suffered we
This poem was never finished, and is probably her can but guess. Slowly but surely the criticisms of
last work. friends and enemies destroyed her peace of mind.
Sor Juana’s renunciation took place in 1693.4 5 Even so, it is doubtful if Sor Juana would ever have
In March, 1691, when she wrote her answer to given up her books and studies had not events in
the Bishop, she was not yet ready for her great Mexico so shaped themselves that she felt upon
sacrifice. She still defended herself vigorously, her an inward compulsion.
claiming for herself the right to study. The letter It now becomes necessary to take a look at
is, in fact, a defense of the rights of women, a what was happening in Mexico between 1691 and
memorable document in the history of feminism. 1693. In the summer of 1691 rains and floods
In the light of it, her renunciation is even more were beginning to cause terrible suffering. A
startling than it would be had the letter never contemporary writes:
been written. Yet in it she reveals, too, a struggle Lo q.e se experimento de trabajos en Mexico en
in which she was as a house divided against itself. estos trece dias no es ponderable. Nadie entrava
en la Ciudad por no estar andables los caminos, y He says, furthermore: “. . . yo no dudo q.e mis

las calsadas. Faltò el carbon, la leña, la fruta, las pecados y los de todos le motivaron [a Dios] à q.e
hortalisas, las aves. . . . El pan no se sasonaba por
la mucha agua . . . y nada se hallava de quanto
amenazandonos como Padre con azote de agua
hè dicho, sino à exsecivo precio. . . . prosiguiese despues el castigo con hambre p.a
nuestra poca enmienda. . . .”5 0 Another contem-
El crecimiento con qe se hallava la Laguna de Tes-
cuco à veinte y dos de Julio, dio motivo a los pusi- porary writes: “. . . hallándonos con un príncipe
lamines para que dixesen à vozes que se anega tan benigno por virey, . . . son tantos nuestros
Mexico.4 7 pecados, que no ha bastado su santidad y celo para
que la justicia de Dios no nos castigue, como lo
The crops were ruined and by the end of the estamos esperimentando.”5 1
year the city was in the grip of a famine. By the
beginning of 1692 conditions were so bad that The tragic events just narrated gave point to
the Viceroy asked that secret prayers be said in the remonstrances addressed to Juana on the score
convents and monasteries for the relief of the city. of her failure to walk in the camino de perfección.
Many a day there was no bread. Moreover, the Where she had before stopped to reflect occasion-
supply of grain in the alhóndiga was getting low. ally on her duty in the matter, now, with suffering
The populace began to threaten violence, blaming and death on every hand, her own heart, her own
the Viceroy and his government for their suffer- conscience, must have taken a hand. It is not
ings. Finally, on the night of June 8, 1692, the unlikely that she blamed herself somewhat for the
Indians marched upon the viceregal palace and sad state of affairs in Mexico. Death was every-
stormed it, setting fire to it and the surrounding where. It took two of her lifelong friends, Juan de
buildings. The Viceroy and his wife took refuge in Guevara5 2 and Diego de Ribera.5 2 It laid a heavy
the monastery of St. Francis. Everybody sought hand on the convent of St. Jerome, where ten
monasteries and other places of security. The nuns died5 3 between April 24, 1691, and August
soldiers were helpless. Hordes of Indians pillaged 5, 1692. And in September, 1692, news came from
the plaza and the surrounding neighborhood. Spain of the death of her beloved patron, the
Nothing could be done to stop the terrible riot. Count of Paredes. Life was becoming stern. But it
Bells rang all night. In the nunneries and monas- was not too late. She could yet make amends. It is
teries prayers were said. Jesuits and Franciscans something of this spirit that shines through the
went in procession to the plaza in an effort to fanaticism of the last two years of her life. Stern
quiet the rioters, but they were hissed and their religious counselors had turned her eyes inward
images were treated with disrespect. After days upon herself. Could outward compulsion alone
and nights of terror, during which the churches have worked such a change? Does it not bespeak
ceased to function, the civil government suc- inward conviction? Sor Juana had very much a
ceeded in restoring order. Weeks and months of mind of her own. The Inquisition could have
azotados and ahorcados kept alive the memory of made her give up her books, her instruments, her
the tumult. Famine continued to take its toll, for literary labors, but it could not make her volar a la
there was no bread. Disease followed. Toward the perfección. Inner conviction was needed for that.
end of the year the peste was general throughout
the land. Those were dark days for Mexico. Why Does not Juana herself express this in the Peti-
had this affliction visited the country? The consen- cion que en forma causidica presenta al Tribunal
sus of opinion was that it was a punishment for Divino la Madre Juana Ines de la Cruz, por im-
the sin, the license and irreligiosity that had petrar perdon de sus culpas? In it she says:
reigned in Mexico. Robles says:
. . . en el pleyto que se sigue en el Tribunal de
Las causas de este estrago se discurren ser nuestras nuestra Justicia contra mis graves, enormes, y sin
culpas que quiso Dios castigar, tomando por in- igual pecados, de los quales me hallo convicta por
strumento el mas debil y flaco, como es el de unos todos los testigos del Cielo, y de la Tierra, y por lo
miserables indios, desprevenidos, como en otros alegado por parte del Fiscal del crim de mi propia
tiempos lo ha hecho su Divina Magestad, como consciencia, en que halla que debo ser condenada
parece por historias divinas y humanas. . . . Dios à muerte eterna, y que aun esto serà usando con-
nos mire con ojos de misericordia! Amen.4 8 migo de clemencia, por no bastar infinitos Infier-
nos para mis inumerables crimenes y pecados: . . .
Sigüenza y Góngora says, speaking of the reconozco no merezco perdon . . . con todo,
conociendo vuestro infinito amor, è misericordia,
floods: “Oyese por este tiempo una voz entre las
y que mientras vivo, estoy en tiempo, y que no
. . . del bulgo q.e atribuia à castigo de las pasadas me han cerrado los terminos del poder apelar de
fiestas la tempestad en el monte, el destroso en los la sentencia . . . con todo, por quanto sabeis vos
Campos, y la inundacion de los arribales. . . .”4 9 que ha tantos años que yo vivo en Religion, no
solo sin Religion, sino peor que pudiera un Pa- 4. “Respuesta de la poetisa a la muy ilustre Sor Philotea
SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ gano: . . . es mi voluntad bolver à tomar el Abito, de la Cruz,” Fama y obras posthumas (Barcelona, 1701),
y passar por el año de aprobacion. . . .5 4 p. 18. References hereafter will be to this edition.
Undoubtedly force of circumstances joining 5. Juan de Oviedo, Vida y virtudes del Venerable Padre
Antonio Nuñes de Miranda (Mexico, 1702), p. 133.
hands with many parallel influences had brought
about a crisis in Juana’s life; not one cause, but 6. Antonio de Robles, “Diario de sucesos notables,” Docu-
mentos para la historia de Méjico, primera serie, Vol. III
many, working toward a common end, gradually (Mexico, 1853), under date of July 12, 1668.
broke the strong spirit and made her accept the
martyr’s rôle. 7. José Toribio Medina, Historia del tribunal del Santo Ofi-
cio de la Inquisición de México (Santiago de Chile, 1905),
How did Juana carry out her penitence, for pp. 321-22. Part of this document is unprintable.
such it was? Oviedo says, speaking of this and of 8. José Lezamis, Breve relacion de la vida, y muerte del Doc-
Father Núñez’ part in it: tor D. Francisco de Aguiar y Seyxas, Mexico, 1699. Not
Quedose la Madre Iuana sola con su Esposo, y . . . paged. See chapter entitled: “De su castidad, mortifica-
cion, y penitencia.”
el amor le daba alientos á su imitacion, procu-
rando con empeño crucificar sus pasiones, y apeti- 9. Op. cit., pp. 153-54.
tos con tan ferveroso rigor en la penitencia, que
necessitaba del prudente cuidado, y atencion del 10. Miguel de Torres, Dechado de principes eclesiasticos
Padre Antonio para irle á la mano, porque no (Puebla, 1716), p. 123.
acabasse à manos de su fervor la vida. Y solia decir 11. Op. cit., pp. 124-25, 150. Also see José Gómez de la
el Padre alabando à Dios, que Iuana Ines no corria Parra, Panegyrico funeral de Manuel Fernandez de Santa
sino que volaba á la perfeccion.5 5 Cruz (Puebla, 1699), p. 64.
Everything she had she sold for the relief of 12. Julián Gutiérrez Dávila, Vida y virtudes de Domingo
the poor. The same writer says: Perez de Barcia (Madrid, 1720), pp. 27-28.
. . . se deshizo de la copiosa libreria que tenia, sin 13. Op. cit., p. 30.
reservar para su uso sino unos pocos libritos es-
14. Ibid., p. 31.
pirituales que le ayudassen en sus santos intentos.
Echô tambien de la celda todos los instrumentos 15. Segundo tomo de las obras de Soror Juana Inez de la Cruz
musicos, y mathematicos singulares, y exquisitos (Sevilla, 1692), Act I.
que tenia, y quantas alhajas de valor, y estima la
avia tributado la admiracion, y aplauso de los que 16. Juan de Oviedo, op. cit., p. 133.
celebraban sus prendas como prodigios; y redu- 17. Ibid., pp. 134-35.
cido todo à reales, fuerõ bastantes á ser alivio, y
socorro de muchissimos Pobres.5 6 18. “Aprobación,” Fama y obras posthumas.
This, too, confirms the theory that the suffer- 19. Fama y obras posthumas, p. 18. As for matrimony, it is
possible that the Viceroy had already selected a
ing in Mexico had much to do with her renuncia- husband for her. This seems to have been the regular
tion. She was joined in her charitable enterprise procedure, at any rate, and Juana had no reason to
by Aguiar y Seixas, who also sold his library for suppose that he would not select one in her case.
the relief of the poor. Doña Oliva Merleti, a lady-in-waiting at the court,
entered the Capuchin order in preference to marrying
Two years later her penitence reached the a man selected for her by the Marquis of Mancera. See
heights of the heroic when, during the plague that Ignacio de Peña, Trono mexicano en el convento de Capu-
chinas (Madrid, 1726), p. 213.
invaded the convent of St. Jerome, Juana labored
night and day nursing the sick, comforting the 20. Francisco Fernández del Castillo, Doña Catalina Xuárez
dying, and laying out the dead. Her fragile spirit, Marcayda (Mexico, 1920).
broken by the storms that had beaten about her, 21. Op. cit., p. 83.
gave up the unequal struggle, and she who once
22. For a copy of this document see Amado Nervo, op. cit.,
had been the object of hatred and jealousy died in opp. p. 96.
the odor of sanctity, revered and loved by all.
23. Loc. cit.
Notes 24. Vicente Riva Palacio, México a través de los siglos

1. Juana de Asbaje (Madrid, 1910), p. 78. (Mexico: Ballescá y Cía), II, 669.
2. Discurso pronunciado en la velada literaria que consagró el 25. Julián Gutiérrez Dávila, op. cit., pp. 351-52.
Liceo Hidalgo a la memoria de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
26. This appeared in Poetica descripcion de la pompa
(Mexico, 1874), pp. 48-49.
plausible que admiró esta Ciudad de Mexico en la Dedica-
3. For a discussion of this side of the question see Nem- cion de su Templo (Mexico, 1668). This is cited by Me-
esio García Naranjo, “Biografía de Sor Juana Inés de la dina, La Imprenta en México (8 vols.; Santiago de Chile,
Cruz,” Anales del Museo Nacional de México, segunda 1907-12), No. 1004. A copy of this work exists in the
época, Vol. III, No. 1 (Mexico, 1906), pp. 567-68. Biblioteca Palafoxiana in Puebla, Mexico.
27. This manuscript is now in my possession. González Sor Margarita Ignacia, a Portuguese nun, was translated

Obregón was the first to reproduce any part of it. See into Spanish by Iñigo Rosende in a volume entitled
EL RENACIMINETO, SEGUNDA ÉPOCA (Mexico, 1894), pp. 237- Vieyra impugnado, published in Madrid.
38.
42. Fama y obras posthumas, pp. 50-51.
28. Op. cit., pp. 134, 136.
43. Juan Navarro Vélez, “Censura,” Segundo tomo de las
29. It is impossible to fix the exact date of this rupture. It obras de Soror Juana Ines de la Cruz, Sevilla, 1692.
must have taken place at some time during Juana’s
greatest worldly activity, i.e., between 1680 and 1690. 44. This edition, published in Barcelona in 1693, has on
the title-page: “añadido en esta segunda impression
30. Op. cit., chapter entitled: “De la oracion, contempla- por su autora.” It also contains some villancicos dated
cion, amor de Dios y del proximo del Señor Arço- 1691.
bispo.”
45. Both Oviedo and Calleja testify to this. The date can
31. Gio. Francesco Gemelli Careri, Giro del mondo, sesta be established by the fact that in February and March,
parte (Naples, 1700), p. 169. He visited Mexico in 1697. 1694, she signed her Profesión de la fe and the Reno-
vación de los votos religiosos. To do this she must have
32. Francisco Aguiar y Seixas, Edicto pastoral sobre los días served her year as novice. Her Petición, undated, says:
festivos, Mexico, 1688. “. . . es mi voluntad bolver a tomar el Abito, y passar
33. Less than 25 per cent of the books printed in Mexico por el año de aprobacion.” This must have been writ-
City were secular in character. These figures are based ten early in 1693.
on tables developed from Medina, La imprenta en 46. Fama y obras posthumas, pp. 15, 26-27, 34-35.
México, for the period between 1682 and 1698. From
1666 to 1682 about 32 per cent of the books were 47. Copia de una Carta de don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora
secular. These figures are only approximate since Me- a don Andrés de Pez acerca de un tumulto acaecido en
dina is not complete, and besides, some of the mate- México (MS), August 30, 1692.
rial of the period has, undoubtedly, been lost. Of these
secular works some were official documents, some 48. Op. cit., p. 97.
were gacetas, and a few were scholarly works. There 49. Letter cited.
was very little of a purely literary character.
50. Ibid.
34. Emilia Pardo Bazán, “Prólogo,” Vida de la Virgen María
según Sor María de Jesús de Agreda (Barcelona, 1899), p. 51. “Copia de una carta escrita por un religioso grave,”
7. Documentos para la historia de México, segunda serie, III
(Mexico, 1855), 311.
35. Antonio de Robles, op. cit., under date of September
24, 1690. 52. Sucesos, 1676-96 (MS), under date of April 11 and
September 7, 1692.
36. The censorship in Mexico during the seventeenth
century has not yet been studied. For methods used 53. Libro de Prophessiones.
during the sixteenth see Francisco Fernández del
Castillo, “Libros y libreros del siglo XVI,” Publicaciones 54. Fama y obras posthumas, pp. 129-31.
del archivo general de la nación, Vol. VI (Mexico, 1914).
55. Op. cit., p. 137.
37. Her refutation was reprinted under the title of “Crisis
56. Loc. cit.
de un Sermón” in the second volume of her works.
38. Fama y obras posthumas, pp. 2-4.
39. The signature, Philotea de la Cruz, is pregnant with ELECTA ARENAL (ESSAY DATE
meaning. The name itself means “lover of God.” The 1983)
Bishop pretended that the letter was written by a nun
of that name in the convent of the Holy Trinity. There
may have been a nun of that name. But why did the
Bishop choose that name? One of his predecessors in
the bishopric of Puebla, the famous Juan de Palafox y
Mendoza, published in Madrid in 1659 a book called
Peregrinacion de Philotea al santo templo y monte de la
Cruz. He says it was written in imitation of a “Philotea
Francesa” because it had seemed to him “no inutil
emulacion, sino espiritual y santa: que . . . otra
Philotea Española instruyesse a las demas, con manife-
starse humilde seguidora de la Cruz. . . .” The books
of Palafox were very popular. It is probable that
Fernández de Santa Cruz had this book in mind when
he wrote Sor Juana. If so, the significance of the
signature could not have been lost upon her.
40. Op. cit., pp. 416, 421. The 1722 edition says that it was
her estudio de libros profanos that called forth the letter.
41. The subject of the Crisis was kept alive until 1731,
when a defense of Father Vieyra’s sermon, written by
FROM THE AUTHOR
POEM 146
In my pursuit, World, why such diligence?
What my offense, when I am thus inclined,
insuring elegance affect my mind,
not that my mind affect an elegance?
I have no love of riches or finánce,
and thus do I most happily, I find,
expend finances to enrich my mind
and not mind expend upon finánce.
I worship beauty not, but vilify

that spoil of time that mocks eternity,
nor less, deceitful treasures glorify,
but hold foremost, with greatest constancy,
consuming all the vanity in life,
and not consuming life in vanity.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Poem 146. In Poems,

Protest, and a Dream: Selected Writings. Edited
TITLE COMMENTARY by Margaret Sayers Peden, p. 171. New York:
Penguin, 1997. English translation reprinted
“Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la from Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Poems. Bilingual
Press/Editorial bilingue, 1985.
Cruz”
OCTAVIO PAZ (ESSAY DATE 1982)
Criticism

Arteaga, Alfred. “Tricks of Gender Xing.” Stanford Humani-
ties Review 3, no. 1 (winter 1993): 112-29.
Traces subversive elements in Sor Juana’s writing style.
Feder, Elena. “Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz; or, The Snares of

(Con) (tra) di (c) tion.” In Amerindian Images and the
Legacy of Columbus, edited by Rene Jara and Nicholas
Spadaccini, pp. 473-529. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1992.
Offers a gender-historical focus on Sor Juana’s major
works.
Flynn, Gerard. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Boston: Twayne

Publishers, 1971, 123 p.
Surveys Sor Juana’s major works, with a brief biography
and a discussion of her philosophy; the first book-length
treatment of Sor Juana in English.
Friedman, Edward H. “Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Los em-

peños de una casa: Sign as Woman.” Romance Notes 31,
no. 3 (spring 1991): 197–203.
Studies Sor Juana’s secular play The Determinations of
a Noble House as a revision of Spanish playwright Cale-
deron’s Los empeños de una casa.
Graves, Robert. “Juana de Asbaje.” In The Crowning Privilege:

The Clark Lectures 1954-1955, pp. 166-75. London: Cas-
sell & Company, 1955.
Presents Sor Juana in the tradition of a “desperate sister-
hood” fated by their intelligence and beauty to a life of
loneliness.
Henriquez-Urena, Pedro. “The Flowering of the Colonial

World: 1600-1800.” In Literary Currents in Hispanic
America, pp. 58-93. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1946.
Presents portions of Sor Juana’s poems as examples of her
personal expression through verse.
Johnson, Julie Greer. “A Comical Lesson in Creativity from

Sor Juana.” Hispania 71, no. 2 (May 1988): 442-44.
Traces the ways Sor Juana adapts and employs conven-
tional images of women and womanhood in her satirical
poetry.
Kirk, Pamela. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: Religion, Art, and

Feminism. New York: Continuum, 1998, 180 p.
Studies the intersection of religious belief and feminist
beliefs in Sor Juana’s work.
FURTHER READING
Luciani, Frederick. “Octavio Paz on Sor Juana Ines de la
Bibliography Cruz: The Metaphor Incarnate.” Latin American Literary
Crossen, John F. “Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.” In Catholic Review 15, no. 30 (July-December 1987): 6-25.
Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook, edited Critiques Paz’s biography of Sor Juana, faulting his
by Mary R. Reichardt, pp. 181-86. New York: Green- tendency to mythologize.
wood Press, 2001.
Merriam, Stephanie, ed. Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana
Focuses on works emphasizing Sor Juana’s theology.
Ines de la Cruz. Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
1991.
Biography Collects essays focusing on women’s issues and feminist
Paz, Octavio. Sor Juana or, The Traps of Faith, translated by criticism as related to Sor Juana’s life and writing.
Margaret Sayers Peden. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap
Press, 1988, 547 p. Pallister, Janis L. “A Note on Sor Juana de la Cruz.” Women
Examines Sor Juana’s life and works in their cultural and Literature 7, no. 2 (spring 1979): 42-46.
context. Promotes a critical rediscovery of Sor Juana’s work.
Rabin, Lisa. “The Blasón of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: Politics Ward, Marilynn I. “The Feminist Crisis of Sor Juana Ines de
SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ and Petrarchism in Colonial Mexico.” Bulletin of la Cruz.” International Journal of Women’s Studies 1, no.
Hispanic Studies 72, no. 1 (January 1995): 28-39. 5 (September-October 1978): 478-81.
Discusses the literary and political implications of Sor
Discusses Sor Juana’s life as a tragic instance of sexist
Juana’s use of the blazon in her poetry.
repression.
Scott, Nina M. “Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: ‘Let Your Women
Keep Silence in the Churches’.” Women’s Studies
International Forum 8, no. 5 (1985): 511-19.
Reviews Response to Sor Filotea de la Cruz as a
feminist treatise that reveals Sor Juana’s passion for OTHER SOURCES FROM GALE:
education and women’s equality. Additional coverage of Sor Juana’s life and career is
Thurman, Judith. “Sister Juana: The Price of Genius.” Ms. 1, contained in the following sources published by the Gale
no. 10 (April 1973): 14-16, 20-21. Group: Feminist Writers; Hispanic Literature Criticism Supple-
Emphasizes the sacrifices made by Sor Juana in order to ment, Ed. 1; Literature Criticism from 1400-1800, Vol. 5; Poetry
pursue an intellectual life in the male-centered culture of Criticism, Vol. 24; Reference Guide to World Literature, Eds. 2,
seventeenth-century New Spain. 3; and World Literature and Its Times, Vol. 1.
MARGERY KEMPE
(1373 - 1440)
English autobiographer. and observances that were viewed unfavorably by

her contemporaries. One such practice was the
uncontrollable weeping that possessed her when-
ever she approached the sacraments or contem-
C redited with composing the first extant

autobiography in English, Kempe was a self-
proclaimed mystic who dictated an account of her
plated the Passion of Christ. When she was ap-
proximately forty years old, Kempe convinced her
husband (by promising to pay his debts for him)
spiritual experiences to two scribes in The Book of to join her in a vow of chastity, and she began a
Margery Kempe (c. 1436). This work has been criti- series of pilgrimages to the Holy Land and sacred
cally evaluated as an autobiography and as an palaces in Europe. Due to her behavior—includ-
example of medieval mystic literature. ing the fits of weeping, her habit of wearing white,
and her insistence on the veracity of her visions
and mystical conversations—Kempe was publicly
ridiculed and tried on several occasions for heresy.
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION She was always acquitted and found to be within
The Book of Margery Kempe offers the only
the bounds of orthodoxy in her theology. The
information available about Kempe’s life. The
Archbishop of Canterbury proposed to Kempe
work reveals that Kempe was born in King’s Lynn
that she write down her experiences and revela-
(now known as Lynn), an important economic
tions, a suggestion that, Kempe claims, was mysti-
center in Norfolk, and that her father, John Brun-
cally ratified by Christ. Since she was illiterate, in
ham, served as mayor of the town. At age twenty,
1436 Kempe dictated her story to a scribe, but fol-
Margery wed John Kempe, a burgess of Lynn. Fol-
lowing his death, Kempe found that no one could
lowing the birth of the first of their fourteen
decipher his handwriting. In 1438, a second scribe
children, Kempe fell ill and for eight months
completed a new transcription based on the first
claimed to suffer from terrifying visions. Her cure,
compilation, which the second scribe was eventu-
she asserted, came in the form of a vision of
ally able to comprehend.
Christ. Increasingly drawn toward a religious life,
Kempe avowed that she heard heavenly music
and frequently conversed with Christ, the Virgin
Mary, and various saints and angels, by whom she MAJOR WORKS
was instructed on a range of matters. Kempe’s For many years Kempe’s only known writings
spirituality was often displayed through actions were brief excerpts from The Book of Margery Kempe
printed in the early sixteenth century, and it was valuable social history, particularly as it docu-
KEMPE assumed that only these fragments survived. In ments the daily life of women in medieval Eng-
1934, however, a complete manuscript dating land. Kempe’s recent biographer Anthony Good-
from the mid-fifteenth century was discovered man (see Further Reading) has suggested that
and identified. Although some critics have ques- while the Book offers only highly selective evi-
tioned the scribe’s role in the Book’s composition dence about the life of medieval women (and
and have doubted the authorial integrity of the women of a particular social class at that), it gives
work, many assert that the manuscript accurately some insight into what was considered acceptable
records Kempe’s own words. The narrative is told and what was beyond the norm for women at that
in the third person, an uncommon method of time, particularly within marriage relationships.
recording firsthand experiences in Kempe’s time. Goodman assesses the Book as “one of our most
The Book also differs from most medieval mystical valuable documents for English social history.”
writings in its broad scope. While such works typi- The Book of Margery Kempe also reveals a slice of a
cally focus exclusively on revelatory incidents, particular moment in English religious history,
Kempe records reminiscences of her travels and and many critics have maintained that Kempe’s
daily life as well as her spiritual revelations. These writing is at its most powerful in this regard. Crit-
spiritual revelations are, however, presented in the ics including Staley and Kathy Lavezzo have seen
same manner of other religious mystics, such as in Kempe’s mysticism the potential for subverting
Saint Bridget of Sweden and Julian of Norwich. patriarchal order, within the male-dominated
ecclesiastical hierarchy, within private relation-
ships between men and women, and in the public
sphere in general. These scholars have reevaluated
CRITICAL RECEPTION Kempe’s apparent failings—irregular structures,
As the first known autobiography in English, confusing language, and intense emotional-
The Book of Margery Kempe met with responses that ism—as part of an effective strategy for expressing
might be predictable for a work that did not fit the disenfranchisement of women and the poten-
into any categories then known to readers. The tial for a feminine subjectivity.
earliest editions of the book demonstrate the criti-
cal confusion: in one case, all chapters relating to
Kempe’s revelations were displaced and made into
a separate appendix, and in another, the more PRINCIPAL WORKS
mystical chapters were set in a smaller typeface in
order to preserve the primacy of the narrative por- *The Book of Margery Kempe (autobiography)
tion of the Book. Scholarly commentary has fol- c. 1436
lowed suit, with some critics interpreting the Book
as a work of mysticism in the vein of other * Although this work was originally written c. 1436, it
was not published until 1936, when it appeared in a
medieval mystical writings, and others as an
modern English version by W. Butler-Bowden. The first
autobiography. Kempe’s earliest modern critics Middle English version was published in 1940.
found her mysticism overwhelming, categorizing
her as neurotic, self-deluded, even psychopathic.
Others doubted the validity of her claim to
authorship, suggesting that the scribe was truly PRIMARY SOURCES
the author of the book; in fact, the mix of oral
and textual discourse in the Book has remained a MARGERY KEMPE (ESSAY DATE C.
central part of critical debate. Kempe’s reliability 1436)
as a narrator has also consistently been ques- SOURCE: Kempe, Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe,
tioned: passionate in the extreme yet not pos- translated by B. A. Windeatt, pp. 161-67. London:
Penguin, 1985.
sessed of the ability to pen her own story, Kempe
has appeared to some critics as less an author than In the following excerpt from The Book of Margery
Kempe, written c. 1436, Kempe relates her examination
a character. Among these, Lynn Staley has gone so by the archbishop. Kempe addresses the charge that she
far as to approach the Book as a work of fiction, should refrain from sharing her revelations with others
referring to “Margery” as the protagonist and because she is a woman; she also upbraids the clerics
“Kempe” as the author. Yet if scholars have who attack her for speaking out, causing many of them
to change their minds about her.
doubted the veracity of her spiritual experiences
as well as her self-presentation, many have none- There was a monk who was going to preach
theless embraced The Book of Margery Kempe as a in York, and who had heard much slander and
much evil talk about the said creature. And when He ordered his household to fetch a pair of
KEMPE
he was going to preach, there was a great crowd fetters and said she should be fettered, for she was
of people to hear him, and she present with them. a false heretic, and then she said, ‘I am no heretic,
And so when he was launched into his sermon, nor shall you prove me one.’
he repeated many matters so openly that people
The Archbishop went away and left her stand-
saw perfectly well it was on account of her, at
ing alone. Then for a long while she said her
which her friends who loved her were very sorry
prayers to our Lord God Almighty to help her and
and upset because of it, and she was much the
merrier, because she had something to try her succour her against all her enemies both spiritual
patience and her charity, through which she and bodily, and her flesh trembled and quaked
trusted to please our Lord Christ Jesus. amazingly, so that she was glad to put her hands
under her clothes so that it should not be noticed.
When the sermon was over, a doctor of divin-
ity who had great love for her, together with many Afterwards the Archbishop came back into the
other people as well, came to her and said, ‘Marg- chapel with many worthy clerics, amongst whom
ery, how have you got on today?’ was the same doctor who had examined her
before, and the monk who had preached against
‘Sir,’ she said, ‘very well indeed, God be
her a little while before in York. Some of the
blessed. I have reason to be very happy and glad
people asked whether she were a Christian woman
in my soul that I may suffer anything for his love,
or a Jew; some said she was a good woman, and
for he suffered much more for me.’
some said not.
Shortly afterwards, a man who was also de-
Then the Archbishop took his seat, and his
voted to her came with his wife and other people,
clerics too, each according to his degree, many
and escorted her seven miles from there to the
people being present. And during the time that
Archbishop of York, and brought her into a fair
people were gathering together and the Arch-
chamber, where there came a good cleric, saying
bishop was taking his seat, the said creature stood
to the good man who had brought her there, ‘Sir,
at the back, saying her prayers for help and suc-
why have you and your wife brought this woman
cour against her enemies with high devotion, and
here? She will steal away from you, and then she
for so long that she melted all into tears. And at
will have brought shame upon you.’
last she cried out loudly, so that the Archbishop,
The good man said, ‘I dare well say she will and his clerics, and many people, were all aston-
remain and answer for herself very willingly.’ ished at her, for they had not heard such crying
On the next day she was brought into the before.
Archbishop’s chapel, and many of the Archbish- When her crying was passed, she came before
op’s household came there scorning her, calling the Archbishop and fell down on her knees, the
her ‘Lollard’ and ‘heretic’, and swore many a hor- Archbishop saying very roughly to her, ‘Why do
rible oath that she should be burned. And she, you weep so, woman?’
through the strength of Jesus, replied to them,
‘Sirs, I fear you will be burned in hell without end, She answering said, ‘Sir, you shall wish some
unless you correct yourselves of your swearing of day that you had wept as sorely as I.’
oaths, for you do not keep the commandments of And then, after the Archbishop had put to her
God. I would not swear as you do for all the the Articles of our Faith—to which God gave her
money in this world.’ grace to answer well, truly and readily, without
Then they went away, as if they were ashamed. much having to stop and think, so that he could
She then, saying her prayers in her mind, asked not criticize her—he said to the clerics, ‘She knows
for grace to behave that day as was most pleasure her faith well enough. What shall I do with her?’
to God, and profit to her own soul, and good The clerics said, ‘We know very well that she
example to her fellow Christians. Our Lord, knows the Articles of the Faith, but we will not al-
answering her, said that everything would go well. low her to dwell among us, because the people
At last the said Archbishop came into the have great faith in her talk, and perhaps she might
chapel with his clerics, and he said to her abruptly, lead some of them astray.’ Then the Archbishop
‘Why do you go about in white clothes? Are you a said to her: ‘I am told very bad things about you. I
virgin?’ hear it said that you are a very wicked woman.’
She, kneeling before him, said, ‘No, sir, I am And she replied, ‘Sir, I also hear it said that
no virgin; I am a married woman.’ you are a wicked man. And if you are as wicked as
people say, you will never get to heaven, unless The Archbishop commanded her to tell that
KEMPE you amend while you are here.’ tale.
Then he said very roughly, ‘Why you! . . . ‘Sir, by your reverence, I only spoke of one
What do people say about me?’ priest, by way of example, who, as I have learned
She answered, ‘Other people, sir, can tell you it, went astray in a wood—through the sufferance
well enough.’ of God, for the profit of his soul—until night came
Then a great cleric with a furred hood said, upon him. Lacking any shelter, he found a fair ar-
‘Quiet! You speak about yourself, and let him be.’ bour in which he rested that night, which had a
Afterwards the Archbishop said to her, ‘Lay beautiful pear-tree in the middle, all covered in
your hand on the book here before me, and swear blossom, which he delighted to look at. To that
that you will go out of my diocese as soon as you place came a great rough bear, ugly to behold, that
can.’ shook the pear-tree and caused the blossoms to
‘No, sir,’ she said, ‘I pray you, give me permis- fall. Greedily this horrible beast ate and devoured
sion to go back into York to take leave of my those fair flowers. And when he had eaten them,
friends.’ turning his tail towards the priest, he discharged
them out again at his rear end.
Then he gave her permission for one or two
days. She thought it was too short a time, and so ‘The priest, greatly revolted at that disgusting
she replied, ‘Sir, I may not go out of this diocese sight and becoming very depressed for fear of
so hastily, for I must stay and speak with good what it might mean, wandered off on his way all
men before I go; and I must, sir, with your leave, gloomy and pensive. He happened to meet a
go to Bridlington and speak with my confessor, a good-looking, aged man like a pilgrim, who asked
good man, who was the good Prior’s confessor, the priest the reason for his sadness. The priest,
who is now canonized.’ repeating the matter written before, said he felt
Then the Archbishop said to her, ‘You shall great fear and heaviness of heart when he beheld
swear that you will not teach people or call them that revolting beast soil and devour such lovely
to account in my diocese.’ flowers and blossoms, and afterwards discharge
‘No, sir, I will not swear,’ she said, ‘for I shall them so horribly at his rear end in the priest’s
speak of God and rebuke those who swear great presence—he did not understand what this might
oaths wherever I go, until such time that the Pope mean.
and Holy Church have ordained that nobody shall ‘Then the pilgrim, showing himself to be the
be so bold as to speak of God, for God Almighty messenger of God, thus addressed him, “Priest,
does not forbid, sir, that we should speak of him. you are yourself the pear-tree, somewhat flourish-
And also the Gospel mentions that, when the
ing and flowering through your saying of services
woman had heard our Lord preach, she came
and administering of sacraments, although you
before him and said in a loud voice, “Blessed be
act without devotion, for you take very little heed
the womb that bore you, and the teats that gave
how you say your matins and your service, so long
you suck.” Then our Lord replied to her, “In truth,
as it is babbled to an end. Then you go to your
so are they blessed who hear the word of God and
mass without devotion, and you have very little
keep it.” And therefore, sir, I think that the Gospel
contrition for your sin. You receive there the fruit
gives me leave to speak of God.’
of everlasting life, the sacrament of the altar, in a
‘Ah, sir,’ said the clerics, ‘here we know that very feeble frame of mind. All day long afterwards,
she has a devil in her, for she speaks of the you spend your time amiss: you give yourself over
Gospel.’ to buying and selling, bartering and exchanging,
A great cleric quickly produced a book and just like a man of the world. You sit over your
quoted St Paul for his part against her, that no beer, giving yourself up to gluttony and excess, to
woman should preach. She, answering to this, the lust of your body, through lechery and impu-
said, ‘I do not preach, sir; I do not go into any rity. You break the commandments of God
pulpit. I use only conversation and good words, through swearing, lying, detraction and backbit-
and that I will do while I live.’ ing gossip, and the practice of other such sins.
Then a doctor who had examined her before Thus, through your misconduct, just like the
said, ‘Sir, she told me the worst tale about priests loathsome bear, you devour and destroy the flow-
that I ever heard.’ ers and blossoms of virtuous living, to your own
endless damnation and to the hindrance of many
KEMPE
other people, unless you have grace for repentance
and amending.”’
Then the Archbishop liked the tale a lot and ON THE SUBJECT OFѧ
commended it, saying it was a good tale. And the
cleric who had examined her before in the absence
JULIAN OF NORWICH
of the Archbishop, said, ‘Sir, this tale cuts me to
Margery Kempe is often compared to fellow
the heart.’
female mystic Julian of Norwich, with whom
The said creature said to the cleric, ‘Ah, she was acquainted. Both women were
worthy doctor, sir, in the place where I mostly live criticized for speaking about religion, a
is a worthy cleric, a good preacher, who boldly subject on which men claimed scripturally
speaks out against the misconduct of people and based authority. An excerpt from Julian’s “Sh-
will flatter no one. He says many times in the ewings” of 1373 appears below.
pulpit: “If anyone is displeased by my preaching,
JULIAN OF NORWICH ON WOMEN SPEAKING
note him well, for he is guilty.” And just so, sir,’
OF GOD
she said to the clerk, ‘do you behave with me, God
forgive you for it.’ For God is all that is good, and God has made all
that is made, and God loves everything that He
The cleric did not know what he could say to has made; and if any man or woman keeps his love
her, and afterwards the same cleric came to her from any of his fellow Christians, he does not love
and begged her for forgiveness that he had been rightly, for he does not love all. And so, for that
time, he is not safe, for he is not in peace; and he
so against her. He also asked her specially to pray that loves his fellow Christians in general, he loves
for him. all that is. For in mankind that is to be saved is
comprehended all, that is, all that is made and the
And then afterwards the Archbishop said, maker of all; for God is in man, and so in man is
‘Where shall I get a man who could escort this all. And he that thus generally loves all his fellow
woman from me?’ Christians, he loves all; and he that so loves, he is
saved. And thus I will love, and thus I do love, and
Many young men quickly jumped up, and thus I am safe. For I consider myself as in the
everyone of them said, ‘My lord, I will go with person of my fellow Christians. And the more I love
her.’ of this loving while I am here, the more I am akin
to the bliss that I shall have in heaven without
The Archbishop answered, ‘You are too young: end—that is God, who of His endless love willed to
I will not have you.’ become our brother and suffer for us. And I am
sure that he that sees it thus, he shall be truly
Then a good, sober man of the Archbishop’s taught and mightily comforted, if he needs com-
household asked his lord what he would give him fort.
if he would escort her. The Archbishop offered But God forbid that you should say or take it that I
him five shillings, and the man asked for a noble. am a teacher, for I do not mean that, no I never
The Archbishop answering said, ‘I will not spend meant so. For I am a woman, ignorant, feeble, and
so much on her body.’ frail. But know well, this that I saye; I have it of the
showing of Him who is the sovereign teacher. But
‘Yes, good sir,’ said this creature, ‘Our Lord truly charity stirs me to tell you of it. For I would
shall reward you very well for it.’ that God were known and my fellow Christians
sped, as I would be myself, to hate sin more and
Then the Archbishop said to the man, ‘See, love God more. Because I am a woman, should I
here is five shillings, and now escort her fast out therefore believe that I should not tell you the
goodness of God, since I saw in that same time
of this area.’
that it is His will that it be known? And that you
She, kneeling down on her knees, asked his shall see well in what follows, if it is well and truly
understood. Then you shall soon forget me, a
blessing. He, asking her to pray for him, blessed
wretch; and do this so that I do not hamper you—
her and let her go. and behold Jesus, who is the teacher of all.
Then she, going back again to York, was Julian of Norwich. Excerpt from The Shewings of
received by many people, and by very worthy cler- Julian of Norwich, pp. 207-08. Edited by Georgia
ics, who rejoiced in our Lord, who had given her— Ronan Crampton. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval
uneducated as she was—the wit and wisdom to Institute Publications for TEAMS, 1994.
answer so many learned men without shame or
blame, thanks be to God.
MARGERY KEMPE (ESSAY DATE C. you are. I pray that God grant you perseverance.
KEMPE 1436) Put all your trust in God and do not fear the
SOURCE: Kempe, Margery. “Margery Kempe’s visit to language of the world, for the more spite, shame,
Julian of Norwich.” In The Shewings of Julian of Nor- and reproof that you have in the world, the more
wich, edited by Georgia Ronan Crampton, pp. 211. is your merit in the sight of God. Patience is neces-
Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Publishing Institute, 1994.
sary to you, for in that you shall keep your soul.
In the following excerpt from her Book Kempe describes Much was the holy talk that the anchoress and
her visit to fellow female mystic Julian of Norwich.
this creature had in the mutuality of their love of
And then she was bade by our Lord to go in our Lord Jesus Christ the many days that they
the same city to an anchoress who is called Lady were together.
Julian. And so she did, and showed her the grace
of compunction, contrition, sweetness and devo-
tion, compassion with holy meditation and high
contemplation that God had instilled in her soul,
and many holy speeches and conversations that TITLE COMMENTARY
our Lord spoke to her soul; and she showed the
anchoress many wonderful revelations in order to The Book of Margery Kempe
know if there were any deceit in them, for the an-
choress was expert in such things and could give KATHARINE CHOLMELEY (ESSAY
good counsel. The anchoress, hearing this marvel- DATE 1947)
ous goodness of our Lord, thanked God highly
with all her heart for his visitation, counseling
this creature to be obedient to the will of our Lord
God and with all her might fulfill whatever he
put in her soul, if it were not against the worship
of God and welfare of her fellow Christians; for, if
it were, then it would not be the moving of a good
spirit but rather of an evil spirit. The Holy Ghost
never moves anything against charity, and if he
did, he would be contrary to his very being, for he
is all charity. Also, he moves the soul to perfect
chastity, for those living chastely are called the
temple of the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost
makes a soul stable and steadfast in true faith and
right belief. And a man double in soul is always
unstable and unsteadfast in all his ways; he that is
continually doubting is like the flood of the sea,
which is moved and borne about by the wind,
and that man is not likely to receive the gifts of
God. That creature that has these tokens must
steadfastly believe that the Holy Ghost dwells in
his soul. And much more, when God visits a
creature with tears of contrition, devotion, or
compassion, he may and ought to believe that the
Holy Ghost is in his soul. Saint Paul says that the
Holy Ghost asks for us with mourning and weep-
ings unspeakable, that is to say, he makes us to
ask and pray with mournings and weepings so
plenteously that the tears cannot be numbered.
No evil spirit may give these tokens, for Jerome
says that tears torment the devil more than do
the pains of hell. God and the devil are forever
contraries, and they shall never dwell together in
one place. And the devil has no power in a man’s
soul. Holy Writ says that the soul of a righteous
man is the seat of God. And so, I trust, sister, that
KEMPE
KEMPE
KEMPE
KEMPE
LYNN STALEY (ESSAY DATE 1994)

SOURCE: Staley, Lynn. “The Image of Ecclesia.” In
Margery Kempe’s Dissenting Fictions, pp. 83-126. Univer-
sity Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994.
In the following excerpt, Staley focuses on Kempe’s
representations of women, authority, and church hierar-
chy, examining instances of Kempe superceding or
transcending church authority and observing her empha-
sis on the inherent importance of women in Christian
communities.
Kempe’s account of Margery’s experience in

Rome suggests her appraisal of a Church that can-
not recognize an embodiment of its own ideals.
Margery is cast out of the congregation of the
Hospital of Saint Thomas of Canterbury in Rome
by the slander of an English priest “þat was hol-
dyn an holy man in þe Hospital & also in oþer
placys of Rome” (80). As Kempe implies, what
passes for holy in Rome has less to do with
spiritual insight than with worldly pomp. Though
his malice deprives her of both a confessor and
the eucharist, Kempe provides for Margery a new
and compensatory series of relationships that are
based upon spiritual understanding. Her account
of the first of these relationships is especially curi-
ous. Upon being informed of her plight, the priest
of a nearby congregation invites Margery to
confess to him though he says he does not under-
stand English. Kempe does not say whether or not
Margery accepts the invitation; instead, she
describes another sort of confession:
Than owyr Lord sent Seynt Iohn þe Evangelyst to
heryn hir confessyon, & sche seyd ‘Benedicite.’ &
he seyd ‘Dominus’ verily in hir sowle þat sche saw
hym & herd hym in hire gostly vndirstondyng as
sche xuld a do an-oþer preste be hir bodily wittys.
Than sche teld hym alle hir synnes & al hir
heuynes wyth many swemful teerys, & he herd
hir ful mekely & benyngly. & sythyn he enioyned
hir penawns þat sche xuld do for hir trespas &
asoyled hir of hir synnes wyth swet wordys &
meke wordys, hyly strengthyng hir to trostyn in
þe mercy of owyr Lord Ihesu Crist, & bad hir þat
sche xulde receyuen þe Sacrament of þe Awter in
þe name of Ihesu. & sithyn he passyd awey fro
hir.
(81)
Though the preceding description of the non-

English-speaking priest implies that Margery is
confessing to another human being, what Kempe,
in fact, describes here is “priuy shrifte.” Margery
confesses to herself, or to her private vision of that her private apprehension of him is more
KEMPE
Saint John, is absolved by that same vision, and important than rituals signifying her conformity
directed to the sacrament. Kempe’s wording insists to accepted spiritual norms, such as fasting, wear-
on the reality of what is a new, spiritual relation- ing a hairshirt, saying many paternosters, or tell-
ship. Margery sees and hears Saint John in her ing beads. By assuring her that “thynkyng,
spiritual understanding as she would actually see wepyng, & hy contemplacyon is þe best lyfe in er-
and hear another priest. Kempe’s nomination of the” (89) and by promising her that she will have
Saint John as Margery’s confessor may owe a debt more “merit” in heaven from “o Зer of thynkyng
to the Revelations of St. Elizabeth of Hungary where in þi mende þan for an hundryd Зer of preyng
the Virgin presents the Evangelist to Elizabeth as a wyth þi mowth” (90), God (or Kempe) gives Mar-
witness to the private charter between them. gery the freedom of her feelings. God, both here
Signifying his obedience to the Virgin’s spiritual and elsewhere, sounds suspiciously Wycliffite;
authority as well as his own episcopal and literary compare the sentiments of the author of the
authority, Saint John then writes the charter. The important sermon “Of Mynstris in þe Chirche,”
scene, however, is devoid of any social com- which proclaims:
mentary or even of any social context. Kempe’s For Crist nedude not hise apostlis to risen euer-
use of Saint John links Margery to Elizabeth of more at mydnyЗt, ne to faste as men don now, ne
Hungary, but it also suggests her ability to exploit to be cloþud as þes newe ordris; but al þis is broЗt
incidents she found in the literature of the holy in by þe feend and fredom of Cristus ordre is left.
that served her complicated and intentionally For Crist wolde þat suche cerymonyes weron
takon of hym by mennys fre wille aftur þat þei
ambiguous purposes.1 weron disposude to t[a]ke hem oþur more or lasse.
That Kempe is interested in the nature of the But kepyng of Godus lawe, Crist wolde þat were
grownd in his ordre. And Crist wolde teche as
confessional relationship is clear from another nede were chaunghyng of oure cerymonyes; for as
incident that occurs during Margery’s stay in God tolde Adam and Ioseph by luytul and luytul
Rome. Seeing a priest celebrate at the church of what þei schulden do, so Crist wolde telle men of
Saint John Lateran, she believes him to be a good his ordre how þei schulden worche and seruon
and devout man. She wishes to speak with him, hym.2
but he is German, and they cannot understand
Just as the author of this sermon presents
one another. However, they pray for thirteen days,
Christ as founding an order owing allegiance to
and they are granted a sort of Pentecostal gift: they
no earthly figure, Kempe substitutes God for more
can understand one another though neither can
conventional figures of spiritual authority. When
actually speak the other’s language. Bound by
one anchor bids Margery “be gouernyd” by him,
their love of Christ, they contract a new society.
she evades him, saying “sche xulde wete first Зyf
He forsakes his office to support her, taking her
it wer þe wil of God er not” (103). Later, she sends
for his mother and his sister, and enduring a good
the anchor word that God does not wish her to be
deal of ill-will for Margery’s sake. In exchange,
so “governed.” When Margery is despised by all
Margery grants him her obedience, at his behest
for her weeping, God himself places the unsympa-
changing back into black clothing and serving an
thetic priest under heavenly interdict, “Dowtyr,
old woman for six weeks (see 82-86, 97). Where
Зyf he be a preyste þat despisith the, knowyng wel
Margery directly challenges another English priest,
wher-for þu wepist & cryist, he is a-cursyd” (155).
who turns against her because she will not obey
When one such priest is won over to her, Kempe
him, she meekly obeys the German priest because
notes, “þus God sent hir good maystyrschep of þis
he is good (see 84-85). The relationship between
worthy doctowr” (166). By using a term—mayster-
penitent and confessor that Kempe describes is
schep—that connotes sexual hierarchy (a term also
not described in the patriarchal language that
beloved of the Wife of Bath), to describe the
defines a hierarchal unit. Instead, Margery is
priest’s change of heart, Kempe makes it clear that
mother and sister to her priest; she is daughter
what is at issue here is the very nature of, or
only to Christ.
foundation of, spiritual authority. She therefore
The subtle way in which Kempe substitutes describes God as complicit in Margery’s efforts to
God for male figures of spiritual authority reveals compensate for ecclesiastical strictures against her.
her awareness that, in describing Margery’s life as He tells her “þer is no clerk in al þis world þat can,
a type of sexual revolution, she also provides a dowtyr, leryn þe bettyr þan I can do” (158). When
sharp look at the fundamental weaknesses of the the church limits her access to knowledge by
ecclesiastical hierarchy. When Margery first feels forbidding Master Aleyn (“by vertu of obedience”)
the “fire of love” burning in her, God informs her to instruct her or to speak with her, God tells her
that he is more worthy to her soul than the daughter-in-law home to Germany, Christ an-
KEMPE anchor and, since she now lacks spiritual conver- swers, “Dowtyr, I wote wel, yf I bode þe gon, þu
sation, he will speak more often with her (168- woldist gon al redy. Þerfor I wyl þat þu speke no
69). By offering her spiritual love and companion- word to hym of þis mater” (225-26). Though Mar-
ship, God provides Margery with a way around gery takes this to mean she will not have to
the strictly hierarchical relationship offered by the contemplate another sea voyage at her age, she
Church. does ask for and receive permission from her
What Margery moves toward is a reliance on confessor to take her daughter to Ipswich. When
Christ that finally obviates the need for obedience they are in route to Ipswich, Margery feels com-
to any representative of the earthly priesthood. manded to take her daughter all the way home to
This is nowhere more apparent than in the second Germany. What Kempe then goes on to describe
part of the Book. Structurally, the second part is the conflict Margery feels between Christ’s com-
seems designed to mirror the first: both parts open mand and her confessor’s paternal care, “Lord, þu
with scribal testimonials, recount conflicts rooted wost wel I haue no leue of my gostly fadyr, & I
in gender roles and conventions, and finally am bowndyn to obediens. Þerfor I may not do
outline the process by which Margery achieves a thus wyth-owtyn hys wil & hys consentyng”
spiritual enfranchisement that liberates her from (227). Christ answers these objections by asserting
the constrictions society imposes on women. the primacy of Margery’s private feelings, “I by-
Thus, the first part of the Book ends with a picture dde þe gon in my name, Ihesu, for I am a-bouyn
of Margery as a fully empowered visionary and thy gostly fadyr & I xal excusyn þe & ledyn þe &
writer, a person whose power comes solely from bryngyn þe a-geyn in safte” (227). That Kempe
her relationship to Christ. The image offers a sharp was aware of the force of these words is clear from
contrast to the initial portrait of Margery as a
the next incident, in which Margery recounts her
weak, maddened wife, dependent upon an inad-
feelings to a Franciscan she meets in Norwich.
equate priest as mediator between herself and
This “doctowr of diuinyte” has heard of her holy
God. Kempe begins the second part by pulling us
living and is well disposed to her; he counsels her
back into the realm of the family and the com-
to obey the voice of God, saying that he believes
munity, describing Margery’s concern for her son’s
lax living. Through her prayers, he is converted to it is the Holy Spirit working in her. By having this
a more regular life, marries a German woman, and man verify Margery’s feelings as the stirrings of
settles down on the Continent. Later, when visit- the Holy Spirit, Kempe maintains the fiction that
ing England in the company of his wife, the son Margery is an obedient daughter of Holy Church.
dies and a month later Margery’s husband dies. A But the incident nonetheless points up the dif-
year and a half later, the son’s wife wishes to ficulties of obeying someone if you do not believe
return to her native Germany, and Margery begins he is right, and Kempe presents Margery as docile
to sense that she should accompany her. What only when a priest’s reading of a situation agrees
might take another writer many pages to narrate, with her own. With Christ and a doctor of divin-
Kempe accomplishes in one and a half brief ity supporting the trip and only her confessor op-
chapters. The point of these events is obviously posing it, Margery takes ship.
not their effect on Margery, since Kempe never If Margery’s final pilgrimage begins with hints
mentions grief and never describes any process of of her disengagement from ecclesiastical author-
mourning. Kempe, for example, spends far more ity, her return is even more potentially explosive.
time describing Margery’s fears for her son’s Kempe first describes Margery as enjoying a
spiritual condition than she does describing his triumph in London. Not only does Margery face
death. Instead, the deaths of both son and hus-
down her detractors; she also speaks out boldly
band provide the occasion for another type of
against the worldly lifestyles of Londoners. Since
story, whereby Margery as a sort of holy pícaro
her devotions make her an unwelcome com-
achieves a final and breathtaking dissociation
municant in the churches of London, she becomes
from her community that places her beyond the
a peripatetic worshiper and a figure of special holi-
reach of male authority.
ness to the common people:
Kempe begins her account of this last pilgrim-
. . . sche suffyrd ful mech slawndyr & repref, spe-
age in Margery’s church, specifically with a con-
cyaly of þe curatys & preistys of þe chirchis in
flict between Christ and Margery’s confessor. London. Þei wold not suffyr hir to abydyn in her
When Margery wonders whether she should take chirchys, & þerfor sche went fro on chirch to
leave of her confessor and accompany her anoþer þat sche xulde not ben tediows on-to hem.
Mech of þe comown pepil magnifijd God in hir, What Kempe describes is a female victory.
KEMPE
hauyng good trost þat it was þe goodnes of God Though she twice refers to obedience, even calling
whech wrowt þat hy grace in hir sowle.
Margery her confessor’s obediencer, denoting
(245)
someone who has vowed obedience to a rule, such
Kempe follows up her account of Margery as a as a novice, the nature of that obedience is am-
biguous.4 Now that Margery has returned from
quasi-populist preacher, a potentially radical
her journey, every step of which she determined
identity, by describing her as proceeding next to
herself, and from a life as a sort of holy vagabond,
the Carthusian abbey of Shene, which had been
preacher, and mystic, she obeys her confessor.
founded by Henry V in 1415.3 Not only was Shene
Furthermore, as the passage suggests, her confes-
a royal foundation; along with its sisterhouse, the
sor is most annoyed because she went without his
Bridgettine abbey of Syon, Shene was a center for permission; in other words, because Margery
mystical piety during the later Middle Ages and contravened the terms of a relationship based
was responsible for the dissemination of devo- upon hierarchy. Margery, like many an Eve before
tional texts like those Kempe evokes throughout her, endures his wrath and soothes his ruffled
her own Book. By locating Margery at Shene dur- pride. As Chaucer’s Merchant gives May Perse-
ing Lammastide (see 245-46), Kempe appears to phone’s help when old Januarie confronts her
realign her with the Church and consequently with marital infidelity, so Kempe gives Margery,
with the spirit of obedience. First, as Kempe twice who has broken her vows, the Lord’s help, “so þat
repeats, Margery goes to Shene to purchase her sche had as good loue of hym & oþer frendys as
pardon on the day that was the “principal day of sche had be-forn.” The “amen,” repeated in red at
pardon.” On Lammas Day, August 1, which was the end of the chapter, helps to muffle the resonat-
also one of the quarter days for rent-paying, loaves ing irony of a scene that only appears to validate
made from the new wheat were consecrated in the authority vested in priests by women who feel
English churches as signs of the congregation’s compelled to go well beyond the boundaries those
thankfulness for harvest. On that day, which com- men have established for them.
memorated the settling of secular and spiritual
The intercessory prayers with which the Book
debts, Margery goes as a devout daughter of the ends likewise image Margery as an obedient
Church to purchase her own pardon. Kempe, daughter of Holy Church, but they also suggest
however, neglects to detail this particular act of that her special relationship with Christ somehow
exchange, instead describing two events that focus allows her to transcend gender categories. Thus,
our attention upon Margery’s own assumption of along with sentences attesting to her charity and
authority: Margery’s spiritual direction of a young piety, there are those that hint at a new under-
man who observes her devotions in the church at standing of the nature of spiritual authority.
Shene, and her successful negotiation of the final Requests like “Lord, make my gostly fadirs for to
obstacle standing in her way back to Lynn. While dredyn þe in me” (249) or “for alle þo þat feithyn
she is in church to “purchase” this pardon, she & trustyn er xul feithyn & trustyn in my prayerys
sees the hermit who had led her and her daughter- in-to þe worldys ende, sweche grace as þei de-
in-law out of Lynn to Ipswich. She approaches siryn” (253-54) hint that Margery’s power extends
him about leading her home and learns that her well beyond that of the churchmen who presume
confessor has “forsaken” her because she went to to direct her. What Kempe achieves through the
Germany without telling him of her plans. Marg- conventional language of intercessory prayer is
ery, the renegade penitent, nonetheless manages that same delicately poised ambiguity that charac-
not only to persuade the hermit to accompany terizes her entire text. For Margery is at once a
her back to Lynn but also to make peace again textbook exemplar of late medieval female piety
with her confessor. The end of the Book is worthy and a reminder of the essential unruliness of the
of Chaucer: subjective, the feminine, and its fundamental urge
to master those authorities who seek to contain
Whan sche was come hom to Lynne, sche obeyd
what is, finally, uncontainable.
hir to hir confessowr. He Зaf hir ful scharp wordys,
for sche was hys obediencer & had tekyn vp-on The comic irony inherent in the reversal of
hir swech a jurne wyth-owtyn hys wetyng. Þerfor
gender roles is, of course, designed to point up the
he was meuyd þe mor a-geyn hir, but owr Lord
halpe hir so þat sche had as good loue of hym &
folly of seeking to control the “feminine” with
of oþer frendys aftyr as sche had be-forn, wor- instruments inadequate to the task. If Jankyn will
schepyd be God. Amen. not, then his “book of wicked wives” cannot make
(247) order out of hierarchy, particularly when that
hierarchy rests on foundations as shaky as the However, though Kempe appears at times
KEMPE marriage of Jankyn and Alisoun. Through Marg- simply to imitate the affective emphasis of works
ery and her comic insurrection, Kempe provides like the Mirror, she, like Julian of Norwich before
an image of the Church that underscores its her, subtly alters a reader’s response to these
inadequacies. Her point, however, is hardly satiric: scenes by locating authority in the female be-
through Margery she projects a community where holder.8 The reader of the Mirror is directed by an
harmony is a manifestation of true spiritual authoritative male voice to imagine or “behold”
authority. Such authority rests on a literal and these scenes, and is implicitly urged to use the
personal interpretation of the Gospel story, which Virgin as her point of reference. In empathizing
Kempe presents to us through Margery whose vi- and identifying with Mary, she participates in the
sions and conversations with God mediate the Passion. In contrast to such a prescriptive narra-
central doctrines and events of Christianity. tive technique, Julian of Norwich presents herself
as the visionary, telling the reader what she saw—
What can be described as Kempe’s “Passion
how, for example, Christ’s body appeared dried
sequence” (187-99) owes, as Gibson has pointed
out after much time on the Cross in the “dry
out, a genuine debt to Love’s Mirror of the Blessed
sharp wynd, wonder colde,” of the day of the
Life of Jesus Christ.5 Both sequences heighten the
Crucifixion.9 Julian thereby focuses our attention
pathos of the Gospel accounts of the Passion by
on the sight itself, on the pictures she passes on to
dramatizing scenes of primarily human interest.
us, that then demand the sort of highly intel-
Thus, the intricate courtroom scenes on which
lectual analysis she provides for each of her vi-
the medieval dramatists expended so much care
sions. Thus, the picture she evokes of Christ’s
are not included. Instead of depicting the ironies
dried-up flesh is used as a means of understanding
of law and empire that undergird such public
his words from the Cross, “I thirst,” which as she
scenes in the mystery plays, both Kempe and the
comes to understand signify both a physical and a
Mirror describe extratextual scenes like Jesus’ part-
spiritual thirst. Julian offers the reader not only
ing from his mother, Mary’s terrible grief, the
the images and scenes she has been privileged to
exhaustion and bewilderment of Holy Saturday,
behold, but also the picture of a mind thinking
and Jesus’ appearance to his mother very early on
and guiding our understanding of those visions
Easter morning. By concluding Margery’s experi-
upon which she has spent so many years’ efforts.
ence of the Passion with her apprehension of the
In her presentation of the same scene of sacrifice,
Purification, Kempe suggests her awareness that,
Kempe betrays her awareness that she who directs
in privileging the affective piety of Mary and the
the reader’s line of sight governs the reader’s
early followers of Christ in her treatment of the
response to the act of viewing. The “scribe”
Passion, she foregrounds the feminine. The feast
describes for us what Margery “sees,” using Marg-
of the Purification, or Candlemas, is, of course, a
ery herself as a key participant in the drama of the
woman’s feast, for it celebrates Mary’s offering in
Passion. Instead of Mary, Margery becomes our fo-
the Temple as her thanksgiving for the safe
cal point. Mary is Margery’s point of reference;
delivery of a male child (see Luke 2:22-35).6 Rather
she empathizes with the Virgin’s grief and love in
than the pair of doves required by the law and
the way the Mirror directs its female reader to
that Luke recounts Mary and Joseph as offering,
respond to the pictures the narrator composes for
Kempe describes Mary as offering only her son,
her. But for the reader, the viewer, Margery is the
thereby suggesting Mary’s awareness that the baby
active participant, our spiritual directress. Kempe
in her arms needs no symbolic pair of doves; he
uses the voice of the scribe in a particularly
himself will satisfy the law of sacrifice. Kempe
sophisticated way in such scenes: it appears to
then describes Margery as responding to a mo-
function as the narrator of the Mirror functions. In
ment of female ritual: “Sche thowt in hir sowle
fact, however, that voice focuses the reader on
þat sche saw owr Lady ben purifijd & had hy con-
Margery herself, whose authority is verified by the
templacyon in þe beheldyng of þe women wheche
reality of vision.
comyn to offeryn wyth þe women þat weryn puri-
fijd” (198; emphasis added). Margery weeps be- Kempe also suggests the nature of Margery’s
cause the Passion sequence she has just seen is the authority by dramatizing her literal application of
denouement of that joyful presentation. Like the Gospel to her own life. She seeks to imitate
Mary, she understands the significance of the one Christ’s poverty, meekness, self-sacrifice, and char-
act in the light of the other.7 ity. Moreover, when the Archbishop of York tries
to order her not to “teach” or “challenge” archbishop of York, whose zeal against the Lol-
KEMPE
(reprove) people in his diocese, she firmly replies, lards was well known; she therefore notes his lik-
ing of the tale as well as his judicious support for
And also þe Gospel makyth mencyon þat, whan
þe woman had herd owr Lord prechyd, sche cam such a Bible-quoting woman. Kempe’s strategy
be-forn hym wyth a lowde voys & seyd, “Blyssed here follows a familiar pattern; she at once sug-
be þe wombe þat þe bar & þe tetys þat Зaf þe gests Margery’s own assumption of authority and
sowkyn.” Þan owr Lord seyd a-Зen to hir, “For- her assimilation into the patriarchal hierarchy of
soþe so ar þei blissed þat heryn þe word of God
the contemporary Church. Archbishop Bowet
and kepyn it.” “And þerfor, sir, me thynkyth þat
þe Gospel Зeuyth me leue to spekyn of God.” serves Kempe as an official stamp of approval for
(126) a protagonist whose words and actions actually
indicate her break with all earthly fathers.
Though Margery goes on to defend herself
It is clear moreover that Margery’s “Gospel” is
against the charge that she preaches, her use of
not the Church’s, that what Margery is, the
the Gospel as precedent for her actions underlines
Church is not. Margery, with her private visions
her increasing reliance on her own, in opposition
of the life of Christ (which serve as a type of
to ecclesiastical, authority. In fact, her “transla-
unauthorized translation), with her certainty that
tion” of the passage (Luke 11:27-28) suggests her
the Gospel provides a precedent for her own
presumption of authority, for she does not trans-
provocative life, and with her growing espousal of
late word for word, but “sense for sense.” First,
a literalist interpretation of that Gospel, presents a
she heightens the effect of verse 27 (“sum wom-
challenge to a Church whose authority rested on
man of the cumpany reysinge hir vois”) by saying
privilege, hierarchy, and the tradition of biblical
the woman who had heard Jesus preach spoke
exegesis and allegory that had defined patristic
with a loud voice. Second, she recounts Jesus as
culture for a thousand years. Kempe characterizes
agreeing with, rather than differing from, the
the nature of that challenge by dramatizing the
woman’s words. Where Luke reads, “Rathere
negative effect Margery’s strictly regulated behav-
blessid ben thei, that heeren Goddis word, and
ior has on contemporary churchmen. In particu-
kepen it,” Margery uses forsoþe so, which implies
lar, Margery’s espousal of a doctrine of apostolic
agreement and not distinction.1 0 Since Margery,
poverty would have been seen as a direct threat to
like the Wife of Bath, seems to have no qualms
a Church that, since the days of Richard II, had
about validating her own actions by quoting and
sought to defend its secular wealth and privilege
(mis)translating Scripture, it seems fitting that one
from those who wished to see the Church divest
good wife should reply to one of Margery’s prog-
itself of temporal goods that compromised its abil-
nostications by saying, “Now Gospel mote it ben
ity to function as a spiritual power.1 2 The subject
in Зowr mowth” (202).1 1 Kempe’s characterization
of poverty was also linked to the ongoing contro-
of Margery as basing her actions upon a literalist
versy about (and within) the mendicant orders,
reading of the Gospel would also have had Wyc-
which had long since abandoned a literalist
liffite associations for any astute fifteenth-century
interpretation of Christ’s injunction to genuine
reader. She thus follows up Margery’s audacious
poverty.1 3 It is therefore appropriate that Christ’s
use of Scripture with the tale of the bear and the
command to become poor for his sake comes to
pear tree, a fable that it is unlikely any Lollard
Margery in Rome, the center of Christian power.
preacher would have used. Rather than tell tales,
Margery, now poor, must, like the original follow-
the Lollards, who described themselves as “Bible
ers of Francis, depend upon the charity of others
men,” focused on Scripture; mendicants and other
for her food, clothing, and shelter. As she discov-
popular preachers were more likely to weave
ers, not every churchman meets her poverty with
stories into their sermons. By inserting the fable
goodwill. In losing the safety net her money gives
into the scene with the Archbishop of York,
her, Margery loses the nominal respect she is
Kempe contains the effect that Margery’s words
granted by virtue of her social status.
might well produce by focusing our attention on
her faintly scatological tale about the bear whose In exchange, however, Margery gains a new
defilement of a fair pear tree is intended to sug- community, organized according to a system of
gest the need for clerical purity. That the fable, as relations defined in familial language. Kempe not
I have suggested, may have more than a surface only suggests the ineffectuality and the harshness
relevance adds one more layer of irony to an of a male priesthood and, in Margery’s visions,
already dense episode. Kempe could wish for no the male violence visited upon the body of Christ;
finer advocate for Margery than Henry Bowet, she also presents Margery as a figure who nurtures
supporters are priests and supposedly have care
KEMPE for her soul. An English priest she meets in Rome
who offers to relieve her physical want displays
FROM THE AUTHOR filial piety toward Margery, “mekely he cleped hir
modyr, preying hir for charite to receyuen hym as
hir sone” (96). When Margery suddenly decides to
KEMPE DESCRIBES A REVELATION FROM GOD
ADDRESSING FEMALE DISCIPLESHIP accompany her daughter-in-law to Germany and
At the time that this creature had revelations, is therefore without provisions, the master of her
our Lord said to her, ‘Daughter, you are with ship provides for her needs and “was as tendyr to
child.’ hir as sche had ben hys modyr” (231). The young
man she encounters in the church at Shene asks
She replied, ‘Ah, Lord, what shall I do her to counsel him in the Christ-like life, saying,
about looking after my child?’ “Schewith modirly & goodly Зowr conceit vn-to
Our Lord said, ‘Daughter, don’t be afraid, me” (246).1 4
I shall arrange for it to be looked after.’ Kempe also offers a rather startling picture of
‘Lord, I am not worthy to hear you speak, the way in which that new community is consti-
and still to make love with my husband, even tuted in a series of phrases intended to preface
though it is great pain and great distress to another incident. Kempe writes, “On þe Fryday
me.’ aftyr, as þis creatur went to sportyn hir in þe felde
& men of hir owyn nacyon wyth hir, þe whech
‘Therefore it is no sin for you, daughter, sche informyd in þe lawys of God as wel as sche
because it is reward and merit instead for cowde—& scharply sche spak a-gayns hem for þei
you, and you will not have any the less grace, sworyn gret othys & brokyn þe comawndment of
for I wish you to bring me forth more fruit.’ owr Lord God” (101). Kempe here images Margery
Then the creature said, ‘Lord Jesus, this as a Lollard preacher, poor for Christ’s sake, speak-
manner of life belongs to your holy maidens.’ ing in the open air against swearing and the tak-
ing of oaths, as well as against breaking the laws
‘Yes, daughter, but rest assured that I love of God. Thus one Wycliffite sermon notes that it
wives also, and specially those wives who is better to hear God’s word and pray than to be
would live chaste if they might have their encumbered by a wealthy and corrupt Church,
will, and do all they can to please me as you going on “and þis is comunly beture doon in þe
do. For though the state of maidenhood be eyr vndur heuene; but often tyme, in reyny weder,
more perfect and more holy than the state of chirchis don good on holy day.”1 5 As it turns out,
widowhood, and the state of widowhood rainy weather chases Margery and her group home
more perfect than the state of wedlock, yet I to shelter, but Kempe nonetheless provides a
love you, daughter, as much as any maiden glimpse of a fellowship that has formed around
in the world. No man may prevent me from Margery, a community that is not circumscribed
loving whom I wish and as much as I wish, by parochial boundaries. The authority Margery
for love, daughter, quenches all sin. And claims for herself and is granted by her listeners
therefore ask of me the gifts of love. There is derives from her private relationship with God.
no gift so holy as is the gift of love, nor But the very terms of that private relationship
anything so much to be desired as love, for inevitably point up the inadequacies of a Church
love may gain what it desires. And therefore, whose buildings, ecclesiastical households,
daughter, you may please God no better than worldly power and wealth, and frequently self-
to think continually on his love.’ interested interpretation of Christ’s literal com-
mands suggest the need for a new understanding
Kempe, Margery. Excerpt from The Book of Margery of the nature of spiritual authority.
Kempe, translated by B. A. Windeatt, pp. 84-
85. London: Penguin, 1985. By using Margery as such a radical figure for
charity and devotion, Kempe suggests the ways in
which the Church might function as a transcen-
dent (or transnational) community. Despite the
fact that she speaks only English, Margery is able
her converts in ways the male-dominated church to communicate very well with a wide variety of
does not. She therefore describes Margery’s male people. Whereas her fellow English scorn her for
converts as her sons, even when many of these her tears, the Saracens Margery encounters in the
Holy Land make much of Margery and lead her sorwyst for þow art so long fro þe blysse of Heuyn,
KEMPE
where she wants to go (75). In Rome, a Dame þan art þu a very spowse & a wyfe, for it longyth
to þe wyfe to be wyth hir husbond & no very joy
Margaret Florentyn communicates with Margery
to han tyl sche come to hys presens.
by “syngnys er tokenys & in fewe comown (31)
wordys” (93). She is invited into a poor woman’s
house where the sight of a little boy reminds Mar- Kempe here glosses Christ’s words about
gery of the love Mary had for her son. Although spiritual kinship (mother, brother, and sister)
Kempe records no actual conversation on this solely in terms of female roles—daughter, sister,
visit, Margery nonetheless leaves with Jesus’ words mother, and wife—each of which she describes as
in her ear, “Thys place is holy” (94). This gift of directed by a special type of love. She goes even
tongues is likewise verified in her relations with farther than some Lollard preachers, who made a
those foreign priests and confessors she meets in point of underlining the centrality of women to
Rome, whose virtue, meekness, and holiness the Gospel community. As one sermon notes in
render them capable of communicating with Mar- reference to this same scriptural passage, “And þus
gery. Finally, Margery herself serves as a figure for tellep Crist a sutylte þat is of gostly breþren in
translation; she translates into contemporary God: for be it man, or be it womman, þat seruep
terms the Christ-like life, just as her private vi- God trewly, he is on þes þre maners knyt to Crist
sions translate “her gospel” for the reader. Further- in sybrede,” going on to explain that we are
more, in her handling of the Passion, where the Christ’s brothers by soul, sisters by flesh, and
women of Jerusalem step forward to offer Mary mothers by both. The explanation ends with,
their sympathy and to acknowledge that “owr “And þis is betture cosynage and more sotyl þan
pepil han don hym so meche despite” (195), is of kynde.”1 6
Kempe implicitly draws a distinction between the By describing Margery as substituting a net-
“cruel Iewys” (192) who crucify Christ and the work of spiritual kinship for a natural or funda-
women who align themselves with those who fol- mentally literal network, Kempe emphasizes the
low him, mourn him, and take care of him. genuine freedom to be found in a fellowship of
Similarly, it is frequently women who come to “gostly breþren.” Where the kinship of “kynde”
Margery’s aid, offering her food (79), wine in a restricts Margery to roles and activities sanctioned
stone cup (94), compassion for her spiritual sor- by social hierarchies and expectations, her new
row (99), aid in prison (130), or safety when she is and divinely ordained spiritual identity releases
on the road. By linking gender to such works of her into a new realm of meaning where those roles
mercy, Kempe adumbrates the character of a new used to define the limits of womankind become
Church that ministers to those in need. Just as signifiers of a different order. Thus the “mulier
Margery is drawn to devotion of the Christ child fortis” of Proverbs 31, whom the Wycliffite
when she sees the women of Rome carrying male translator(s) renders as “strong woman,” was
children, so many of the women in the Book conventionally identified with the Church.1 7 Her
remind us of the ways in which the Church might activities are those writ large of womankind: she
minister to a world increasingly ruled by economic is a figure of fruitfulness and nurture, upholding
relationships. her husband’s honor, providing food, clothing,
As the bride of Christ, Margery emerges as a and livelihood for her family, and charity for the
figure for a new ecclesia, where love, vision, and poor, blessed, in turn, by her many children. As
purity of life are the criteria for authority. The Theresa Coletti has suggested, the mulier fortis may
multiplicity of roles that Kempe describes Christ well underlie Chaucer’s portrait of the Wife of
as assigning to the private relations between Bath, whose real and metaphoric barrenness,
himself and Margery early in her spiritual career, rampant sexuality, and selfish mercantilism set
she elaborates on throughout the Book: her in opposition to the common good.1 8 When
translated, however, out of the realm of the actual,
Þerfor I preue þat þow art a very dowtyr to me & a
those very activities that delimit woman’s sphere
modyr also, a syster, a wyfe, and a spowse, wyt-
nessyng þe Gospel wher owyr Lord seyth to hys of activities in earthly relationships can be used to
dyscyples, “He þat doth þe wyl of my Fadyr in define the mission and thus the authority of the
Heuyn he is bothyn modyr, broþyr, & syster vn-to Church by reference to the feminine. The Wyclif-
me.” Whan þow stodyst to plese me, þan art þu a fite glosses upon the passage in Proverbs are
very dowtyr; whan þu wepyst & mornyst for my
especially illuminating:
peyn & for my Passyon, þan art þow a very modyr
to haue compassyon of hyr chyld; whan þow Cristen doctours expownen comynly this lettre,
wepyst for oþer mennys synnes and for aduer- til to the ende, of hooly chirche, which bi figuratif
sytes, þan art þow a very syster; and, whan thow speche is seid a strong womman; hir hosebonde is
Crist, hir sones and douЗtris ben Cristen men and neiЗboris.”2 2 Through the transforming power of
KEMPE wymmen; and this is the literal vndurstonding, as the Resurrection, female garrulity, or gossip, has
thei seyen; and this exposicioun is resonable and
become “busy telling,” or the Gospel itself. Like
set opinly in the comyn glos. But Rabi Salomon
seith, that bi a strong womman is vndurstondun
other contemporary gospellers, Kempe develops a
hooli Scripture; the hosebonde of this womman, revolutionary rhetoric, imaging through Margery
is a studiouse techere in hooly Scripture, bothe what she could, perhaps, only image through a
men and wymmen; for in Jeroms tyme summe woman. The challenge to existing hierarchies she
wymmen weren ful studiouse in hooly Scripture.1 9 dramatizes in Margery’s life is based on cultural
assumptions about gender categories, but gender
The first part of this gloss echoes the conven-
is, finally, the means of expressing what are radi-
tional explanation for the passage that can be
cal ideas about spiritual dominion.
found in the Glossa Ordinaria.2 0 The second part,
which compares the woman to the sacred text,
whose “housband” is its student and exegete Notes
subtly points up the Wycliffite challenge to 1. Bokenham, like Kempe an East Anglian, includes Saint
Elizabeth in his Legendys of Hooly Wummen; see lines
conventional authority by stressing that this 9607-24 for her devotion to Saint John.
student may be either a man or a woman. For
2. English Wycliffite Sermons, ed. Hudson and Gradon,
readers of Chaucer and Kempe, the passage reso-
3:362.
nates with additional ironies. Chaucer’s Wife—the
antitype of the mulier fortis—who defines herself 3. For a detailed account of the history of this abbey, see
F. R. Johnson, “Syon Abbey,” in Cockburn et al., A
as the physical text well and carnally “glossed” by History of the County of Middlesex, 182-91; Meech, The
Jankyn the clerk, or student, who is her fifth Book of Margery Kempe, 348-49.
husband, situates herself in opposition to authori-
4. According to the Middle English Dictionary, Obediencer
ties like Saint Jerome, whom she sees as merely is a late medieval word.
constricting the feminine. Kempe, perhaps echo-
5. Gibson, Theater of Devotion, 49.
ing Chaucer and/or the gloss on Proverbs, likewise
defines Margery as the text displayed for confes- 6. In a paper delivered at the 1992 meeting of the
Medieval Academy of America, Gail McMurray Gib-
sors and fellow townspeople, ultimately for the
son elaborated upon the communal ritual of Candle-
reader of her Book.2 1 Kempe presents Margery as mas. For a “fictional” account of Mary’s Purification
her own best exegete, even slyly using Saint Jer- that became canonical, see The Golden Legend.
ome, whose reputation for antifeminism was 7. The N-Town Purification pageant depicts Mary as first
notorious in the Middle Ages, to authorize Marg- laying her son on the altar as a sign of her recognition
ery’s assumption of spiritual authority (see 99). of his role in human salvation history. It is a more
literal-minded figure, the Chaplain, who reminds her
Throughout the Book, Kempe further extends that she still must make an offering, the pair of doves
the meaning and the range of female roles and required by the Law. For a cogent discussion of the
ways in which depictions of the experience of the
thereby defines Ecclesia’s role in contemporary
Virgin are designed to link maternal joy with sorrow,
life. Whereas Margery is constricted by her physi- see Gibson, Theater of Devotion, 155-66.
cal role as wife and mother, Kempe’s emphasis
8. For work on the “gender-implications” of the gaze, see
upon her espousal to Christ and “mothering” of Stanbury, “Feminist Film Theory: Seeing Chrétien’s
others is meant to underline Margery’s translation Enide”; idem, “The Virgin’s Gaze.”
into the freedom of the metaphoric. Her freedom
9. See Colledge and Walsh, eds., The Showings, the Long
of movement, her powers of communication and Text, chapter 8, 357-59. The quoted passage is on 358.
intercession, and her refusal to accept the limits of
10. I quote from the Wycliffite Bible, ed. Forshall and Mad-
a hierarchical and conformist society proclaim the den. Carruthers (The Book of Memory, 61) has suggested
message of a radical gospel, a message the women that such “mistranslations” reflect the medieval way
who followed and ministered to Christ indeed of memorizing sense for sense and that what appear
bore to their skeptical and temporarily immobile to us as lapses may, instead, suggest the techniques of
“memoria ad res.” If this is the case in the above pas-
brothers, who took the witness of women as mad- sage, it highlights Kempe’s internalization of the text
ness (see Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20). As one Wy- as well as the close connection between translation
cliffite exegete noted of John’s account of the and interpretation. For a discussion of this issue, see
Resurrection, “While men gon awey, stronger loue pages 133-35; Copeland, Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and
Translation in the Middle Ages, 91-95.
haþ set þe womman in þe same place.” He goes
on to use a female figure, Mary Magdalene, as an 11. The prologue to the Wycliffite glossed gospel known
as “Short Mark” (London B.L. Additional MS. 41175)
example of the true preacher, “so must they that
defines “gospel” as “good telling.” For a discussion of
han office of preching, that if any sign of heuene these manuscripts, see Hargreaves, “Popularizing Bibli-
is schewed to þem, bisily þey telle it to her cal Scholarship.”
12. For a study of apostolic poverty as it relates to English Matthews, F. D., ed. The English Works of Wyclif hitherto un-
KEMPE
ecclesiastical and political trends, see Aston, “Caim’s printed. EETS 74. London: Oxford University Press,
Castles”; Hudson, The Premature Reformation, 114-15, 1880.
338-40. See also “The Clergy May Not Hold Property”
in Matthews, ed., The English Works of Wyclif; “Of My- Meech, Sanford Brown, ed. The Book of Margery Kempe. EETS
nystris in þe Chirche,” in English Wycliffite Sermons, 212. London: Oxford University Press, 1940; repr.,
ed. Hudson and Gradon, 2:329-65. 1961.
13. See Leff, Heresy in the Later Middle Ages, chapter 7;

Little, Religious Poverty, 177-78. Secondary Studies
14. We can find a similar emphasis upon a differently Aston, Margaret. “‘Caim’s Castles’: Poverty, Politics, and
configured “kinship” group in Wycliffite treatises, Disendowment.” In The Church, Politics, and Patronage
such as the sermon on Matthew 12 (“here is my in the Fifteenth Century, ed. Barrie Dobson. New York:
mother and my brother”) collected in English Wyclif- St. Martin’s, 1984. 45-81.
fite Sermons, ed. Hudson and Gradon, 2:280-81.
Atkinson, Clarissa. Mystic and Pilgrim: The Book and the
15. Ibid., 2:101. Oath-taking was, of course, inimical to World of Margery Kempe. Ithaca: Cornell University
the Lollards; see pages 147-50. Press, 1983.
16. Ibid., 2:280-81. Atkinson (Mystic and Pilgrim, 133-34) Cockburn, J. S., H. P. F. King, and K. G. T. McDonnell. A
also remarks on Kempe’s wording, noting Saint History of the County of Middlesex. 3 vols. Oxford:
Anselm’s use of bisexual and multifunctional lan- Oxford University Press, 1969.
guage.
Coletti, Theresa. “Biblical Wisdom: Chaucer’s Shipman’s
17. The mulier fortis deserves a special note, for she has Tale and the Mulier Fortis.” In Chaucer and Scriptural
been translated in ways that adumbrate a history of Tradition, ed. David Lyle Jeffrey. Ottawa: University of
the feminine. Thus, while the heirs to Wyclif, with a Ottawa Press, 1984. 171-82.
certain stake in privileging the feminine, offer her as a
Copeland, Rita. Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the
“strong” woman, the Renaissance translators who
Middle Ages: Academic Traditions and Vernacular Texts.
prepared the Geneva Bible present her as a “virtuous”
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
woman, focusing our attention upon her womanly
activities and underlining her obedience rather than Gibson, Gail McMurray. The Theater of Devotion: East An-
her strength or her force as an allegorical figure. The glian Drama and Society in the Late Middle Ages. Chicago:
translators of the Douai Old Testament equivocate University of Chicago Press, 1989.
and use “valiant.”
Hargreaves, Henry. “Popularizing Biblical Scholarship: The
18. Coletti, “Biblical Wisdom: Chaucer’s Shipman’s Tale Role of the Wycliffite Glossed Gospels.” In The Bible and
and the Mulier Fortis,” 180-81. Medieval Culture, ed. W. Lourdaux and D. Verhelst. Lou-
vain: Louvain University Press, 1979. 171-89.
19. Forshall and Madden, The Wycliffite Bible, v. Proverbs
31, p. 51. Hudson, Anne. The Premature Reformation: Wycliffite Texts
and Lollard History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.
20. See PL 113:1114-16.
Leff, Gordon. Heresy in the Later Middle Ages. 2 vols. New
21. For the fullest exposition of textual metaphors in rela- York: Barnes and Noble, 1967.
tion to the Book, see Lochrie, Margery Kempe and
Translations of the Flesh, especially chapter 3. Little, Lester K. Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in
Medieval Europe. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978.
22. This passage is taken from the Wycliffite glossed
gospel, known as “Short John,” MS. Bodley 243. Lochrie, Karma. Margery Kempe and Translations of the Flesh.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.
Works Cited Stanbury, Sarah. “Feminist Film Theory: Seeing Chrétien’s

Enide.” Literature and Psychology 36 (1990): 47-66.
———. “The Virgin’s Gaze: Spectacle and Transgression in
Primary Texts Middle English Lyrics of the Passion.” PMLA 106
Bokenham, Osbern. Legendys of Hooly Wummen. Ed. Mary S. (1991): 1083-93.
Serjeantson. EETS 206. London: Oxford University
Press, 1938.
Colledge, Edmund, and James Walsh, eds. A Book of Show- KATHY LAVEZZO (ESSAY DATE
ings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich. 2 vols. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1978.
1996)
Forshall, Josiah, and Sir Frederic Madden, eds. The Holy
Bible containing the Old and New Testaments, with the
Apocryphal Books in the Earliest English Versions made
from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his Followers.
4 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1850; repr.,
AMS Press, 1982.
Hudson, Anne, and Pamela Gradon, eds. English Wycliffite

Sermons. 3 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988-90.
KEMPE
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FURTHER READING
Biographies
Collis, Louise. Memoirs of a Medieval Woman: The Life and
Times of Margery Kempe. New York: Crowell, 1964,
270 p.
Offers a novelistic and sometimes inaccurate biography
of Kempe, though highly accessible.
Goodman, Anthony. “Margery and Urban Gender Roles.”
In Margery Kempe and Her World. New York: Longman,
2002, 274 p.
Provides a biography emphasizing the details Kempe
provides about her life as a medieval Englishwoman.
Criticism
Allen, Hope Emily. Preface to The Book of Margery Kempe,
Vol. 1, edited by Sanford Brown Meech, pp. i-v. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1940.
Discusses various influences on Kempe’s Book, particu-
larly the work of other medieval mystic writers.
Atkinson, Clarissa W. Mystic and Pilgrim: The Book and the
World of Margery Kempe. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1983, 241 p.
Examines Kempe’s book as an autobiography with an
emphasis on her role in the tradition of women in
Christian history.
Beckwith, Sarah. “A Very Material Mysticism: The Medieval
Mysticism of Margery Kempe.” In Gender and Text in
the Later Middle Ages, edited by Jane Chance, pp. 195-
212. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996.
Studies the issue of Kempe’s female mysticism from the
perspective of developing a feminine subjectivity.
Delaney, Sheila. “Sexual Economics, Chaucer’s Wife of Bath,
and The Book of Margery Kempe.” Minnesota Review, n.s.,
no. 1 (fall 1975): 104-15.
Characterizes Kempe’s life as an attempt to escape from
the social and sexual oppressions of her day.
Dickman, Susan. “Margery Kempe and the Continental
Tradition of the Pious Woman.” In The Medieval Mysti-
cal Tradition in England: Papers Read at Dartington Hall,
July 1984, edited by Marion Glascoe, pp. 150-68.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1984.
Views Kempe’s life as “an identifiably medieval, bour- Connects the physical body to the authority of the female
KEMPE geois, English adaptation” of the role of a pious woman. narrator in Kempe’s Book.
Harding, Wendy. “Body Into Text: The Book of Margery Medcalf, Stephen. “Inner and Outer.” In The Later Middle
Kempe.” In Feminist Approaches to the Body in Medieval Ages, edited by Stephen Medcalf, pp. 108-71. New York:
Literature, edited by Linda Lomperis and Sarah Stan- Holmes & Meier, 1981.
bury, pp. 168-85. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylva-
nia Press, 1993. Discusses Kempe’s religion in comparing the Roman
Catholic emphasis on outer signs and realities with the
Contends that The Book of Margery Kempe is a Protestant emphasis on inner attitudes and faith.
dialogue between Kempe’s scribe as a representative of
the literate, celibate, male clerical segment of society, and Mueller, Janel M. “Autobiography of a New ‘Createur’:
Kempe, as a representative of illiterate, married women Female Spirituality, Selfhood, and Authorship in The
who were not attached to a religious order; maintains Book of Margery Kempe.” In Women in the Middle Ages
that the Book disrupts these hierarchical oppositions. and the Renaissance: Literary and Historical Perspectives,
Holbrook, Sue Ellen. “‘About Her’: Margery Kempe’s Book edited by Mary Beth Rose, pp. 155-68. Syracuse:
of Feeling and Working.” In The Idea of Medieval Syracuse University Press, 1986.
Literature: New Essays on Chaucer and Medieval Culture in Analyzes Kempe’s Book as an autobiography exploring
Honor of Donald R. Howard, edited by James M. Dean the issues of female spirituality and selfhood, focusing on
and Christian K. Zacher, pp. 265-84. Newark: Univer- narrative and thematic design.
sity of Delaware Press, 1992.
Analyzes Kempe as a female writer, rather than as simply Shklar, Ruth. “Cobham’s Daughter: The Book of Margery
a storyteller or hysteric; emphasizes the significance to Kempe and the Power of Heterodox Thinking.” Modern
Kempe of creating a book of spiritual revelations, instead Language Quarterly 56, no. 3 (September 1995): 277-
of receiving the revelations and sharing them with a select 304.
group. Suggests that the Lollards—a sect of religious reformers
Howes, Laura L. “On the Birth of Margery Kempe’s Last under the leadership of John Wycliffe—offered a frame-
Child.” Modern Philology 90, no. 2 (November 1992): work of discourse from which Kempe developed her own
220-25. methods of dissent and sense of vernacular spirituality.
Discusses Kempe’s pregnancy during a portion of her Stevenson, Barbara. “Autobiographical Firsts: The Book of
pilgrimage; suggests that the congruence of these events Margery Kempe and The Sarashina Diary.” Medieval Per-
emphasizes the commingling of Kempe’s physical and spectives 15, no. 2 (fall 2000): 81-93.
spiritual lives.
Compares early women’s autobiographies across cultures,
Knowles, David. “Margery Kempe.” In The English Mystical from England to Japan.
Tradition, pp. 138-50. New York: Harper & Brothers,
1961. Thornton, Martin. Margery Kempe: An Example in the English
Pastoral Tradition. London: S.P.C.K., 1960, 120 p.
Concludes that Kempe was not a mystic on the level of
Richard Rolle or Julian of Norwich while acknowledging Examines Kempe’s work from a theological perspective,
that her Book is a valuable document for religious his- emphasizing her English outlook and considers her role in
tory. the history of English spirituality.
Lochrie, Karma. “The Book of Margery Kempe: The Marginal Weissman, Hope Phyllis. “Margery Kempe in Jerusalem:
Woman’s Quest for Literary Authority.” Journal of Hysterica Compassio in the Late Middle Ages.” In Acts of
Medieval and Renaissance Studies 16 (spring 1986): 33- Interpretation: The Text in its Contexts, 700-1600, edited
55. by Mary J. Carruthers and Elizabeth D. Kirk, pp. 201-
Observes strategies that Kempe used as a medieval 17. Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1982.
woman author to legitimize her text. Presents Kempe’s Book as an expression of the motivat-
———. “From Utterance to Text: Authorizing the Mystical ing forces in her “life journey”; interprets Kempe as
Word.” In Margery Kempe and Translations of the Flesh, trapped within the patriarchal and ecclesiastical system,
pp. 97-134. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania yet triumphant in flouting that authority.
Press, 1991.
Asserts that medieval mystical texts strive to “authorize
the oral text within their written text”; examines Kempe’s OTHER SOURCES FROM GALE:
efforts to do so and the challenge presented by her il-
Additional coverage of Kempe’s life and career is contained
literacy.
in the following sources published by the Gale Group:
McAvoy, Liz Herbert. “‘Aftyr Hyr Owyn Tunge’: Body, Voice Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 146; Literature Criticism
and Authority in The Book of Margery Kempe.” Women’s from 1400-1800, Vols. 6, 56; Literature Resource Center; Refer-
Writing 9, no. 2 (2002): 159-76. ence Guide to English Literature, Ed. 2.
MARY WORTLEY
MONTAGU
(1689 - 1762)
(Born Mary Pierrepont) English epistler, poet, essayist, 1712. Montagu spent the first few years of her
translator, and playwright. marriage alone in the country while Wortley at-
tended to business in London. Her letters from
this period reflect her dissatisfaction with the ar-
rangement and her husband’s seeming indiffer-
M ontagu is celebrated as a consummate writer

of intelligent, witty, and frequently scandal-
ous letters. Spanning the years 1708 to 1762, Mon-
ence to her.
In 1715 Montagu joined Wortley in the capi-
tagu’s correspondence is addressed to a wide tal, where his political career was flourishing. She
variety of recipients and is considered remarkable moved with ease in prominent social and literary
for its versatility and range. By turns philosophi- circles, counting among her many friends and
cal, descriptive, eccentric, affectionate, worldly, admirers Alexander Pope. Wortley was appointed
thoughtful, and sarcastic, the letters share one ambassador to Turkey the following year, and the
common attribute: the forceful imprint of their couple, along with their young son, moved to
author’s personality. Constantinople. There, displaying her customary
curiosity and enthusiasm, Montagu studied Turk-
ish life and language and wrote a number of let-
ters detailing her observations and experiences to
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Mary Pierrepont was born in London to an friends and acquaintances back in England. These
aristocratic family. She was known as Lady Mary missives later formed the basis of her famous Turk-
after her father became the earl of Kingston in ish Embassy Letters (originally published in 1763
1690. As a child devised for herself a rigorous under the title Letters of the Right Honorable Lady
academic program, that included writing poetry M—y W—y M—e: Written, during her Travels in
and teaching herself Latin. While she was still in Europe, Asia and Africa, To Persons of Distinction,
her teens Lady Mary captured the attention of Men of Letters, & c. in Different Parts of Europe. Her
Edward Wortley Montagu (usually referred to visit to Turkey is important from a medical as well
simply as Wortley), a politician eleven years her as a literary standpoint: noting the success of the
senior. Wortley asked Lady Mary’s father for Turkish practice of smallpox inoculation, Mon-
permission to marry her, but the men could not tagu had the procedure performed on her son and,
agree on the financial conditions of the proposed later, her daughter. Through this example and her
marriage, and Wortley and Lady Mary eloped in anonymously published essay “A Plain Account of
the Inoculating of the Small Pox by a Turkey CRITICAL RECEPTION
MONTAGU Merchant” (1722), she promoted the practical Montagu’s letters have maintained scholarly
merits of the procedure. interest both because they offer intimate bio-
graphical details and because of Montagu’s ability
Montagu returned to London in 1718 and for
to write witty, engaging, and informative prose.
the next two decades presided over high society,
Montagu told her sister in 1726, “The last pleasure
which celebrated her wit and flamboyant behav-
that fell in my way was Madam Sevigny’s Letters;
ior. Beginning sometime around 1728 she and
very pretty they are, but I assert without the least
Pope engaged in a bitter public quarrel. Pope
vanity that mine will be full as entertaining 40
lampooned Montagu in The Dunciad and else- years hence.” Montagu’s work was described by
where, and she retaliated with Verses Address’d to nineteenth-century critics as masculine due to the
the Imitator of the First Satire of the Second Book of confidence, intelligence, and honesty apparent in
Horace (1733). Between December 16, 1737 and her writing. Critics described some passages as too
February 21, 1738, Montagu anonymously wrote coarse for a woman writer, and warned that young
and published nine issues of the periodical The ladies should avoid reading them. Because the let-
Nonsense of Common-Sense, offering articles of vari- ters are often so personal, Montagu herself has
ous sorts, including economic analysis, social been the object of criticism, even into the twenti-
commentary, and fiction. Having met and fallen eth century. Especially in the earlier part of the
in love with Francesco Algarotti, a young Italian century, critics found Montagu’s witty social gos-
count in 1736, Montagu left her husband, her sip malicious, and interpreted their formal charac-
children, and her country in 1738 to live with Al- ter as cold and lacking in genuine emotion.
garotti in Italy; the count, however, apparently Feminist critics have generally embraced Mon-
had a change of heart and failed to meet her in tagu’s concern for women’s issues, as evidenced
Venice. Nevertheless, for over twenty years Mon- especially in her Turkish Embassy Letters.
tagu remained abroad, mainly in Italy. She re-
turned to England shortly before her death in
1762.
PRINCIPAL WORKS
Court Poems [with Alexander Pope and John Gay]
MAJOR WORKS (poetry) 1716
As a female aristocrat, Montagu abhorred the The Genuine Copy of a Letter Written from Constanti-
notion of writing for print, and circulated her nople by an English Lady . . . to a Venetian
works primarily in manuscript. A few were pub- Nobleman (verse letter) 1719
lished in her lifetime, however, usually without
“A Plain Account of the Inoculating of the Small
her consent. In collaboration with Pope and poet
Pox by a Turkey Merchant” (essay) 1722
John Gay she wrote Six Town Eclogues, satires of
well-known society personalities. Montagu had Verses Address’d to the Imitator of the First Satire of
no intention of publishing the work, but in 1716 the Second Book of Horace [possibly with John,
three of the eclogues were pirated, with coy hints Lord Hervey] (poetry) 1733
of their authorship, as Court Poems. The original The Dean’s Provocation for Writing the Lady’s Dress-
grouping was later issued in Six Town Eclogues. ing Room (poetry) 1734
With Some Other Poems (1747). Aside from the The Nonsense of Common-Sense. 9 issues (periodical
anonymously published pieces in The Nonsense of essays) 1737-38
Common-Sense (1737-38) the only work Montagu
*Six Town Eclogues. With Some Other Poems [with
intended for publication was Turkish Embassy Let-
Alexander Pope and John Gay] (poetry) 1747
ters. The fifty-two letters in the collection are
thought to be based in part on Montagu’s real cor- †Letters of the Right Honorable Lady M—y W—y
respondence and in part on a journal she kept M—e: Written, during her Travels in Europe, Asia
during her journey to and residence in Turkey. and Africa, To Persons of Distinction, Men of Let-
Due to popular demand, successive editions of ters, & c. in Different Parts of Europe. 3 vols.
Turkish Embassy Letters were augmented with (letters) 1763
Montagu’s other, private, correspondence as it The Poetical Works of the Right Honorable Lady M—y
became available. W—y M—e (poetry) 1768
The Works of the Right Honorable Lady Mary Wortley The first piece of my dresse is a pair of draw-
MONTAGU
Montagu. Including Her Correspondence, Poems, ers, very full, that reach to my shoes and conceal
and Essays. 5 vols. (letters, poetry, essays) 1803 the legs more modestly than your Petticoats. They
The Nonsense of Common-Sense, 1737-1738 [edited are of a thin rose colour damask brocaded with
by Robert Halsband] (periodical essays) 1947 silver flowers, my shoes of white kid Leather
embrodier’d with Gold. Over this hangs my
The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
Smock of a fine white silk Gause edg’d with Em-
3 vols. [edited by Robert Halsband] (letters)
brodiery. This smock has wide sleeves hanging
1965-67
halfe way down the Arm and is clos’d at the Neck
Court Eclogs Written in the Year, 1716: Alexander with a diamond button, but the shape and colour
Pope’s Autograph Manuscript of Poems by Lady of the bosom very well to be distinguish’d through
Mary Wortley Montagu [edited by Halsband] it. The Antery is a wastcoat made close to the
(poetry) 1977 shape, of white and Gold Damask, with very long
Essays and Poems, with Simplicity, A Comedy [edited sleeves falling back and fring’d with deep Gold
by Halsband and Isobel Grundy] (essays, fringe, and should have Diamond or pearl But-
poetry, and drama) 1977 tons. My Caftan of the same stuff with my Draw-
Turkish Embassy Letters [edited by Malcolm Jack] ers is a robe exactly fited to my shape and reach-
(letters) 1993 ing to my feet, with very long strait falling sleeves.
Over this is the Girdle of about 4 fingers broad,
* This work contains the earlier Court Poems. which all that can afford have entirely of Dia-
† This work is commonly referred to as Turkish Embassy monds or other precious stones. Those that will
Letters. not be at that expence have it of exquisite Embro-
diery on Satin, but it must be fasten’d before with
a clasp of Di’monds. The Curdée is a loose Robe
they throw off or put on according to the Weather,
PRIMARY SOURCES being of a rich Brocade (mine is green and Gold)
either lin’d with Ermine or Sables; the sleeves
MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU reach very little below the Shoulders. The Head-
(LETTER DATE 1 APRIL 1717) ress is compos’d of a Cap call’d Talpock, which is
SOURCE: Montagu, Mary Wortley. “Letter to Lady Mar in winter of fine velvet embrodier’d with pearls or
(1 April 1717).” In The Complete Letters of Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu, Vol. 1, edited by Robert Halsband, pp.
Di’monds and in summer of a light shineing silver
325-30. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967. stuff. This is fix’d on one side of the Head, hang-
In the following letter, Montagu writes to Lady Mar about ing a little way down with a Gold Tassel and
her experiences in Turkey, telling her about the Turkish bound on either with a circle of Di’monds (as I
dress she adopts. have seen several) or a rich embrodier’d Hand-
kercheif. On the other side of the Head the Hair is
I wish to God (dear Sister) that you was as
laid flat, and here the Ladys are at Liberty to shew
regular in letting me have the pleasure of know-
their fancys, some putting Flowers, others a plume
ing what passes on your side of the Globe as I am
of Heron’s feathers, and, in short, what they
carefull in endeavouring to amuse you by the Ac-
please, but the most general fashion is a large
count of all I see that I think you care to hear of.
Bouquet of Jewels made like natural flowers, that
You content your selfe with telling me over and
is, the buds of Pearl, the roses of different colour’d
over that the Town is very dull. It may possibly be
Rubys, the Jess’mines of Di’monds, Jonquils of
dull to you when every day does not present you
Topazes, etc., so well set and enammell’d tis hard
with something new, but for me that am in arrear
to imagine any thing of that kind so beautifull.
at least 2 months news, all that seems very stale
The Hair hangs at its full length behind, divided
with you would be fresh and sweet here; pray let
into tresses braided with pearl or riband, which is
me into more particulars. I will try to awaken your
allways in great Quantity.
Gratitude by giving you a full and true Relation of
the Noveltys of this Place, none of which would I never saw in my Life so many fine heads of
surprize you more than a sight of my person as I hair. I have counted 110 of these tresses of one
am now in my Turkish Habit, thô I believe you Lady’s, all natural; but it must be own’d that every
would be of my Opinion that ’tis admirably Beauty is more common here than with us. ’Tis
becoming. I intend to send you my Picture; in the surprizing to see a young Woman that is not very
mean time accept of it here. handsome. They have naturally the most beauti-
full complexions in the World and generally large that have the courage to expose them selves to
MONTAGU black Eyes. I can assure you with great Truth that that in this World and all the threaten’d Punish-
the Court of England (thô I beleive it the fairest in ment of the next, which is never preach’d to the
Christendom) cannot shew so many Beautys as Turkish Damsels. Neither have they much to ap-
are under our Protection here. They generally prehend from the resentment of their Husbands,
shape their Eyebrows, and the Greeks and Turks those Ladys that are rich having all their money
have a custom of putting round their Eyes on the in their own hands, which they take with ’em
inside a black Tincture that, at a distance or by upon a divorce with an addition which he is
Candle-light, adds very much to the Blackness of oblig’d to give ’em. Upon the Whole, I look upon
them. I fancy many of our Ladys would be the Turkish Women as the only free people in the
overjoy’d to know this Secret, but tis too visible Empire. The very Divan pays a respect to ’em, and
by day. They dye their Nails rose colour; I own I the Grand Signor himselfe, when a Bassa is ex-
cannot enough accustom my selfe to this fashion ecuted, never violates the priveleges of the Haram
to find any Beauty in it. (or Women’s apartment) which remains
As to their Morality or good Conduct, I can unsearch’d entire to the Widow. They are Queens
say like Arlequin, ’tis just as ’tis with you, and the of their slaves, which the Husband has no permis-
Turkish Ladys don’t commit one Sin the less for sion so much as to look upon, except it be an old
not being Christians. Now I am a little acquainted Woman or 2 that his Lady chuses. ’Tis true their
with their ways, I cannot forbear admiring either Law permits them 4 Wives, but there is no In-
the exemplary discretion or extreme Stupidity of stance of a Man of Quality that makes use of this
all the writers that have given accounts of ’em. Tis Liberty, or of a Woman of Rank that would suffer
very easy to see they have more Liberty than we it. When a Husband happens to be inconstant (as
have, no Woman of what rank so ever being those things will happen) he keeps his mistrisse in
permitted to go in the streets without 2 muslins, a House apart and visits her as privately as he can,
one that covers her face all but her Eyes and just as tis with you. Amongst all the great men
another that hides the whole dress of her head
here I only know the Tefterdar (i.e. Treasurer) that
and hangs halfe way down her back; and their
keeps a number of she slaves for his own use (that
Shapes are wholly conceal’d by a thing they call a
is, on his own side of the House, for a slave once
Ferigée, which no Woman of any sort appears
given to serve a Lady is entirely at her disposal)
without. This has strait sleeves that reaches to
and he is spoke of as a Libertine, or what we
their fingers ends and it laps all round ’em, not
should call a Rake, and his Wife won’t see him,
unlike a rideing hood. In Winter ’tis of Cloth, and
thô she continues to live in his house.
in Summer, plain stuff or silk. You may guess how
effectually this disguises them, that there is no Thus you see, dear Sister, the manners of
distinguishing the great Lady from her Slave, and Mankind doe not differ so widely as our voyage
’tis impossible for the most jealous Husband to Writers would make us beleive. Perhaps it would
know his Wife when he meets her, and no Man be more entertaining to add a few surprizing
dare either touch or follow a Woman in the Street. customs of my own Invention, but nothing seems
This perpetual Masquerade gives them entire to me so agreable as truth, and I beleive nothing
Liberty of following their Inclinations without so acceptable to you. I conclude with repeating
danger of Discovery. The most usual method of the great Truth of my being, Dear Sister, etc.
Intrigue is to send an Appointment to the Lover
to meet the Lady at a Jew’s shop, which are as
notoriously convenient as our Indian Houses, and MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU
yet even those that don’t make that use of ’em do (POEM DATE 1724)
not scrupule to go to buy Pennorths and tumble SOURCE: Montagu, Mary Wortley. “Epistle from Mrs.
over rich Goods, which are cheiffly to be found Y[onge] to her Husband.” In Essays and Poems, with
amongst that sort of people. The Great Ladys Simplicity, A Comedy, edited by Robert Halsband and
seldom let their Gallants know who they are, and Isobel Grundy, pp. 230-32. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1977.
’tis so difficult to find it out that they can very
seldom guess at her name they have corresponded In the following poem, written in 1724, Montagu adopts
with above halfe a year together. You may easily the voice of Mary Yonge, an heiress whose acrimonious
divorce and financial settlement caused a stir in London
imagine the number of faithfull Wives very small society. Mr. Yonge was a well-known adulterer, and Mrs.
in a country where they have nothing to fear from Yonge separated from him prior to their divorce. During
their Lovers’ Indiscretion, since we see so many the separation, she also had an affair. Mr. Yonge sued for
and won damages from her lover, totaling 1,500 pounds, Has yet this Joy to sweeten shamefull Life,
MONTAGU
and in the divorce he was awarded most of Mrs. Yonge’s By your mean Conduct, infamously loose,
inheritance. Montagu’s poem addresses the injustice of You are at once m’Accuser, and Excuse.
Mrs. Yonge’s penalties. Let me be damn’d by the Censorious Prude
(Stupidly Dull, or Spiritually Lewd),
Think not this Paper comes with vain pretence
My hapless Case will surely Pity find
To move your Pity, or to mourn th’offence.
From every Just and reasonable Mind,
Too well I know that hard Obdurate Heart;
When to the final Sentence I submit,
No soft’ning mercy there will take my part,
Nor can a Woman’s Arguments prevail, The Lips condemn me, but their Souls acquit.
When even your Patron’s wise Example fails, No more my Husband, to your Pleasures go,
But this last privelege I still retain, The Sweets of your recover’d Freedom know,
Th’Oppress’d and Injur’d allways may complain. Go; Court the brittle Freindship of the Great,
Too, too severely Laws of Honour bind Smile at his Board, or at his Levée wait
The Weak Submissive Sex of Woman-kind. And when dismiss’d to Madam’s Toilet fly,
If sighs have gain’d or force compell’d our Hand, More than her Chambermaids, or Glasses, Lye,
Deceiv’d by Art, or urg’d by stern Command, Tell her how Young she looks, how heavenly fair,
What ever Motive binds the fatal Tye, Admire the Lillys, and the Roses, there,
The Judging World expects our Constancy. Your high Ambition may be gratify’d,
Just Heaven! (for sure in Heaven does Justice Some Cousin of her own be made your Bride,
reign And you the Father of a Glorious Race
Thô Tricks below that sacred Name prophane) Endow’d with Ch———l’s strength and Low——
To you appealing I submit my Cause r’s face.
Nor fear a Judgment from Impartial Laws.
All Bargains but conditional are made,
The Purchase void, the Creditor unpaid,
Defrauded Servants are from Service free, MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU
A wounded Slave regains his Liberty. (ESSAY DATE 24 JANUARY 1738)
For Wives ill us’d no remedy remains,
SOURCE: Montagu, Mary Wortley. “Number VI
To daily Racks condemn’d, and to eternal (Tuesday, January 24, 1738).” The Nonsense of Common-
Chains. Sense, 1737-1738, edited by Robert Halsband, pp. 24-
From whence is this unjust Distinction 28. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University, 1947.
grown?
Are we not form’d with Passions like your own? In the following essay, taken from Montagu’s anonymous
Nature with equal Fire our Souls endu’d, periodical The Nonsense of Common-Sense, Montagu
Our Minds as Haughty, and as warm our blood, makes a characteristically witty attack on men who
O’re the wide World your pleasures you persue, lampoon women as weak, irrational, and faithless.
The Change is justify’d by something new;
But we must sigh in Silence—and be true. I have always, as I have already declared,
Our Sexes Weakness you expose and blame professed myself a Friend, tho’ I do not aspire to
(Of every Prattling Fop the common Theme), the Character of an Admirer of the Fair Sex; and
Yet from this Weakness you suppose is due as such, I am warmed with Indignation at the
Sublimer Virtu than your Cato knew.
barbarous Treatment they have received from the
Had Heaven design’d us Tryals so severe,
It would have form’d our Tempers then to bear. Common-Sense of January 14, and the false Advice
And I have born (o what have I not born!) that he gives them.—He either knows them very
The pang of Jealousie, th’Insults of Scorn. little, or like an interested Quack, prescribes such
Weary’d at length, I from your sight remove, Medicines as are likely to hurt their Constitu-
And place my Future Hopes, in Secret Love.
tions.—It is very plain to me, from the extreme
In the gay Bloom of glowing Youth retir’d,
I quit the Woman’s Joy to be admir’d, Partiality with which he speaks of Operas, and the
With that small Pension your hard Heart allows, Rage with which he attacks both Tragedy and Com-
Renounce your Fortune, and release your Vows. edy, that the Author is a Performer in the Opera:
To Custom (thô unjust) so much is due, And whoever reads his Paper with Attention, will
I hide my Frailty, from the Public view. be of my Opinion: Else no Thing alive would as-
My Conscience clear, yet sensible of Shame,
sert at the same Time the Innocence of an Enter-
My Life I hazard, to preserve my Fame.
And I prefer this low inglorious State, tainment contrived wholly to soften the Mind,
To vile dependance on the Thing I hate— and sooth the Sense, without any Pretence to a
—But you persue me to this last retreat. Moral, and so vehemently declaim against Plays,
Dragg’d into Light, my tender Crime is shown whose End is, to shew the fatal Consequence of
And every Circumstance of Fondness known. Vice, to warn the Innocent against the Snares of a
Beneath the Shelter of the Law you stand,
well-bred designing Dorimant. You see there to
And urge my Ruin with a cruel Hand.
While to my Fault thus rigidly severe, what Insults a Woman of Wit, Beauty, and Qual-
Tamely Submissive to the Man you fear. ity, is exposed, that has been seduced by the
This wretched Out-cast, this abandonn’d Wife, artificial Tenderness of a vain, agreeable Gallant;
and, I believe, that very Comedy has given more in Rhime or Prose: I say Rhime, for I have seen no
MONTAGU Checks to Ladies in Pursuit of present Pleasures, Verses wrote of many Years. Such a Paper, either to
so closely attended with Shame and Sorrow, than ridicule or declaim against the Ladies, is very
all the Sermons they have ever heard in their welcome to the Coffee-houses, where there is
Lives.—But this Author does not seem to think it hardly one Man in ten but fancies he hath some
possible to stop their Propensity to Gallantry, by Reason or other to curse some of the Sex most
Reason or Reflection: He only desires them to fill heartily.—Perhaps his Sister’s Fortunes are to run
up their Time with all Sorts of Trifles: In short, he away with the Money that would be better be-
recommends to them Gossiping, Scandal, Lying, stowed at the Groom-Porter’s; or an old Mother,
and a whole Troop of Follies, instead of it, as the good for nothing, keeps a Jointure from a hopeful
only Preservatives for their Virtue. Son, that wants to make a Settlement on his
I am for treating them with more Dignity, and Mistress; or a handsome young Fellow is plagued
as I profess myself a Protector of all the Oppressed, with a Wife, that will remain alive, to hinder his
I shall look upon them as my peculiar Care. I running away with a great Fortune, having two or
expect to be told, this is downright Quixotism, and three of them in love with him.—These are seri-
that I am venturing to engage the strongest Part ous Misfortunes, that are sufficient to exasperate
of Mankind with a Paper Helmet upon my Head. the mildest Tempers to a Contempt of the Sex;
I confess it is an Undertaking where I cannot not to speak of lesser Inconveniences, which are
foresee any considerable Success, and according to very provoking at the Time they are felt.
an Author I have read somewhere, How many pretty Gentlemen have been un-
The World will still be rul’d by Knaves, mercifully jilted by pert Hussies, after having cur-
And Fools contending to be Slaves. tisied to them at half a Dozen Operas; nay permit-
But however, I keep up to the Character of a ted themselves to be led out twice: Yet after these
Moralist, and shall use my Endeavours to relieve Encouragements, which amount very near to an
the Distressed, and defeat vulgar Prejudices, Engagement, have refused to read their Billets-
whatever the Event may be. Amongst the most Doux, and perhaps married other Men under their
universal Errors, I reckon that of treating the Noses.—How welcome is a Couplet or two in
weaker Sex with a Contempt which has a very bad scorn of Womankind, to such a disappointed
Influence on their Conduct. How many of them Lover; and with what Comfort he reads in many
think it Excuse enough to say, they are Women, profound Authors, that they are never to be
to indulge any Folly that comes into their Heads? pleased but by Coxcombs? and consequently, he
This renders them useless Members of the owes his ill Success to the Brightness of his
Common-wealth, and only burdensome to their Understanding, which is beyond Female Compre-
own Families, where the wise Husband thinks he hension.—The Country ’Squire is confirmed, on
lessens the Opinion of his own Understanding, if the elegant Choice he has made, in preferring the
he at any Time condescends to consult his Wife’s. Conversation of his Hounds to that of his Wife;
Thus what Reason Nature has given them is and the kind Keepers, a numerous Sect, find
thrown away, and a blind Obedience expected themselves justified in throwing away their Time
from them by all their ill-natured Masters; and on and Estates on a Parcel of Jilts, when they read,
the other Side, as blind a Complaisance shewn by that neither Birth nor Education can make any of
those that are Indulgent, who say often, that the Sex rational Creatures; and they can have no
Women’s Weakness must be complied with, and Value but what is to be seen in their Faces.
it is a vain troublesome Attempt to make them Hence springs the Applause, with which such
hear Reason. Libels are read; but I would ask the Applauders, if
I attribute a great Part of this Way of thinking, these Notions, in their own Nature, are likely to
which is hardly ever controverted, either to the produce any good Effect, towards reforming the
Ignorance of Authors, who are many of them Vicious, instructing the Weak, or guiding the
heavy Collegians, that have never been admitted Young?—I would not every Day tell my Footmen,
to politer Conversations than those of their Bed- if I kept any, that their whole Fraternity were a
makers, or to the Design of selling their Works, Pack of Scoundrels; that Lying and Stealing were
which is generally the only View of writing, such inseparable Qualities to their Cloth, that I
without any regard to Truth, or the ill Conse- should think myself very happy in them, if they
quences that attend the Propagation of wrong No- confined themselves to innocent Lies, and would
tions. A Paper smartly wrote, tho’ perhaps only only steal Candles Ends. On the contrary, I would
some old Conceits dressed in new Words, either say in their Presence, that Birth and Money were
Accidents of Fortune, that no Man was to be seri- or the Pureness of their Complexions; but give
MONTAGU
ously despised for wanting; that an honest faith- them such Praises as befits a rational sensible Be-
ful Servant was a Character of more Value than an ing: Virtues of Choice, and not Beauties of Ac-
insolent corrupt Lord; That the real Distinction cident. I beg they would not so far mistake me, as
between Man and Man lay in his Integrity, which to think I am undervaluing their Charms: A
in one Shape or other generally met with its beautiful Mind in a beautiful Body, is one of the
Reward in the World, and could not fail of giving finest Objects shewn us by Nature. I would not
the highest Pleasure, by a Consciousness of Virtue, have them place so much Value on a Quality that
which every Man feels that is so happy to possess can be only useful to One, as to neglect that which
it. may be of Benefit to Thousands by Precept or by
With this Gentleness would I treat my Inferi- Example.—There will be no Occasion of amusing
ors, with much greater Esteem would I speak to them with Trifles, when they consider themselves
that beautiful half of Mankind, who are distin- capable of not only making the most amiable but
guished by Petticoats.—If I was a Divine, I would the most estimable Figures in Life.—Begin then
remember, that in their first Creation they were Ladies, by paying those Authors with Scorn and
designed a Help for the other Sex, and nothing Contempt, who, with a Sneer of affected Admira-
was ever made incapable of the End of its Creation. tion, would throw you below the Dignity of the
’Tis true, the first Lady had so little Experience human Species.
that she hearkened to the Persuasions of an
impertinent Dangler; and if you mind, he suc-
ceeded by persuading her that she was not so wise
as she should be. GENERAL COMMENTARY
Men that have not Sense enough to shew any
Superiority in their Arguments, hope to be yielded ISOBEL GRUNDY (ESSAY DATE
to by a Faith, that, as they are Men, all the Reason SPRING 1982)
that has been allotted to human Kind, has fallen SOURCE: Grundy, Isobel. “The Politics of Female
Authorship: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Reaction to
to their Share.—I am seriously of another Opin- the Printing of Her Poems.” The Book Collector 31, no.
ion.—As much Greatness of Mind may be shewn 1 (spring 1982): 19-37.
in Submission as in Command; and some Women In the following essay, Grundy reviews Montagu’s
have suffered a Life of Hardships with as much personal annotations of Dodsley’s Collection of Poems,
Philosophy as Cato traversed the Desarts of Africa, which included poems printed without her permission. In
and without that Support the View of Glory of- the marginalia, Montagu claims some poems and
vehemently denies writing others, revealing her thoughts
fered him, which is enough for the human Mind on the controversies of her publication. Grundy suggests
that is touched with it, to go through any Toil or that the annotations add to the portrait of Montagu as a
Danger. But this is not the Situation of a Woman, reluctant writer, with mixed emotions about being
whose Virtue must only shine to her own Recol- published.
lection, and loses that Name when it is ostenta- In the stormy career of Lady Mary Wortley
tiously exposed to the World.—A Lady who has Montagu the ambition of authorship played a
performed her Duty as a Daughter, a Wife, and a large but mostly secret part. One of the earliest
Mother, raises in me as much Veneration as So- controversies to involve her was Edmund Curll’s
crates or Xenophon; and much more than I would illicit publication of three more or less scandalous
pay either to Julius Cæsar or Cardinal Mazarine, poems which she had been quietly circulating in
tho’ the first was the most famous Enslaver of his manuscript among her friends; one of the latest
Country, and the last the most successful Plun- was the feud that developed between her and the
derer of his Master. British Resident and British Consul in Venice,1
A Woman really virtuous, in the utmost about which new information has recently come
Extent of this Expression, has Virtue of a purer to light. Each episode brings out the period’s feel-
Kind than any Philosopher has ever shewn; since ing that it was not fitting for a well-born woman
she knows, if she has Sense, and without it there to publish verses except in circumstances of the
can be no Virtue, that Mankind is too much most careful decorum and discretion. When Curll
prejudiced against her Sex, to give her any Degree scooped the three eclogues which appeared as
of that Fame which is so sharp a Spur to their Court Poems, 1716, various aristocratic women
greatest Actions.—I have some Thoughts of exhib- had already published their poems; Lady Win-
iting a Set of Pictures of such meritorious Ladies, chilsea had put her name on title-pages, though
where I shall say nothing of the Fire of their Eyes, Lady Chudleigh had not. But in Curll’s pamphlet
the first poem satirized the Princess of Wales—and 40, and disliked him more strongly since he had
MONTAGU must have appeared, to those readers who failed married in 1757 at past the age of eighty, the sister
to appreciate Lady Mary’s irony, to satirize her a of John Murray the Resident.7 She wrote satiri-
good deal more heavily than it in fact did—and cally about the marriage in May 1758; she said
the resulting furore was such that Pope felt justi- nothing in her letters, then or later, about the Col-
fied in taking the emetic vengeance he described lection. Her motives for annotating volumes
in A Full and True Account of a Horrid and Barbarous owned by Smith therefore remains matter for
Revenge by Poison, on the Body of Mr Edmund Curll, speculation. Whether he gave her the set while
Bookseller, and in A Further Account of the Deplor- they were still on speaking terms, whether she
able Condition of Mr Curll.2 By the time Lady Mary, borrowed it and never returned it as a consequence
now settled in Italy, encountered John Murray in of their growing hostility, or whether some other
the late 1750’s, something of a revolution was oc- person was responsible for Smith’s loss of it, we
curring in England, with a flood of books, mostly cannot now know. Very many of Lady Mary’s own
novels, issuing from the pens of women. Lady books were scattered before her surviving library
Mary had already remarked that the Italians, un- was offered for sale at Sotheby’s on 1 August 1928,
like her own countrymen, respected literary or so the non-appearance of the set in the catalogue
learned women; she had also received evidence of of that sale tells us nothing.
the revolution at home, in the boxes of books sent Dodsley’s Collection of Poems had begun in
her by her daughter; but she probably felt as much three volumes published on 15 January 1748.8 The
differentiated by her class from the new ranks of third volume included twelve poems by ‘L. M. W.
writing Englishwomen as she felt by nationality M.’, all except three of them from Six Town
from the female professor of mathematics at Bolo- Eclogues. With some other Poems. By the Rt.
gna.3 Among the English at Venice, to be known Hon. L. M. W. M., which Horace Walpole had
as an authoress was still a liability. So when she printed without her permission the previous year.
discovered, apparently for the first time, that an Walpole wrote in his set of the Collection that Dod-
appreciable number of her poems had been for sley had printed Lady Mary’s poems (which he
ten years in print in the century’s most popular found ‘too womanish’) ‘from my Copy’, and
anthology, she does not seem to have been another owner wrote in his that ‘Dodsley affirms
pleased. Her enmity with Murray and his satel- the Collection was pict out by Mr. Spence’.9
lites, though political in foundation, was exacer- Evidence of both these statements, insofar as the
bated by the natural antipathy between a rake second refers to Lady Mary, is provided by a
praised by Casanova as ‘prodigieusement amateur transcript, apparently made in Rome in 1741 from
de beau sexe’ and as having always ‘les plus jolies Lady Mary’s own holograph album, in a scribal
filles de Venise’, and an old woman, one of the hand with corrections in that of Joseph Spence,
‘most despicable creatures alive’, as she wrote bit- who met Lady Mary at the same time as Walpole,
terly during an early phase of the quarrel, whose and who recorded information about her both in
penchant for writing provided the readiest handle his Anecdotes and in his letters, where his dazzle-
for attack and derision.4 ment with her comes through most engagingly.1 0
The transcript of her poems which he had made
New information on these affairs, albeit rather
is endorsed in a late 18th-century hand ‘The Book
sparse and dubious is contained in a set of Robert
of Ly M’s Verses at Dodsley’s?’1 1 Lady Mary liked
Dodsley’s A Collection of Poems . . . By Several
both Walpole and Spence, with a liking which she
Hands, annotated by Lady Mary in Venice in 1758.
might well have modified if she had seen them as
Each of the six volumes, handsomely bound in
not only admirers but also potential publishers of
contemporary vellum, bears the engraved book-
her poems.
plate of ‘Joseph Smith British Consul at Venice’.5
This is odd for two reasons. Firstly, Smith’s then The success of Dodsley’s Collection was such
existing collection of books was bought en bloc by that he issued a ‘Second Edition’ in December of
George III in 1765 and now ‘form[s] an important the same year, 1748.1 2 Lady Mary’s poems seem
part of the king’s library in the British Museum’, to have been associated with his success, since he
so that his set of Dodsley’s Collection must some- transferred them in the second edition from
how have separated itself from the rest, if only to volume III to volume I. Joseph Smith acquired his
join those books which Smith continued to amass first three volumes of the Collection in their fourth
after the King’s purchase, and which were sold edition, 1755, presumably together with the
after his death.6 Secondly Lady Mary had disliked fourth volume, which came out that year. Volumes
Smith even during her first stay in Venice 1739- V and VI were published in March 1758,
13
the year
that Lady Mary made her notes. Smith’s copies of
MONTAGU
these last volumes contain no notes by her, and
since letters seem to have taken anything from a
month to four and a half months to make the
journey from England to Venice, though ‘all the
FROM THE AUTHOR
Shops are full of English Merchandize’,1 4 it seems
probable that the set which she annotated con- MONTAGU DESCRIBES HER MEETINGS WITH
TURKISH WOMEN
sisted of four volumes only.
The Sultana Hafife is what one would natu-
When the Collection first appeared, Lady Mary rally expect to find a Turkish Lady, willing to
had already been nine years resident abroad—if oblige, but not knowing how to go about it,
‘resident’ is the word to describe her unsettled and tis easy to see in her Manner that she
sojourns, first in Venice, then (after a year-long has liv’d excluded from the World. But Fa-
tour of Italy and a winter in Geneva and tima has all the politeness and good breed-
Chambéry) in Avignon, then in the remote village ing of a court, with an air that inspires at
of Gottolengo near Brescia in North Italy. This last once Respect and tenderness; and now I
move cut her off, more than the War of the understand her Language, I find her Wit as
Austrian Succession had already done, from engaging as her Beauty. She is very curious
English travellers. She was not cut off, however, after the manners of other countrys and has
from all news from home. She had been exchang- not that partiality for her own, so common
ing increasingly brief and dull letters with her to little minds. A Greek that I carry’d with me
husband since her departure from England, let- who had never seen her before (nor could
ters—equally far from her best—with Lady Oxford
have been admitted now if she had not been
since 1744, and was by 1748 well launched on
in my Train) shew’d that Surprize at her
the much livelier correspondence with her daugh-
Beauty and manner which is unavoidable at
ter, from whom as recently as 1740 she had been
the first sight, and said to me in Italian: This
still estranged.1 5 Lady Bute had moved from
is no Turkish Lady; she is certainly some
Scotland to London, where news was more readily
Christian. Fatima guess’d she spoke of her,
available, in 1746; her husband began his rise to
and ask’d what she said. I would not have
power not long afterwards, meeting the Prince of
told, thinking she would have been no better
Wales in 1747 and becoming Lord of the Bed-
pleas’d with the Complement than one of
chamber to him on 30 September 1750.1 6 It seems,
however, that if Lady Mary’s correspondents in our Court Beautys to be told she had the air
England noticed the appearance of her poems, of a Turk. But the Greek Lady told it her and
first in Walpole’s publication and then in Dods- she smil’d, saying: It is not the first time I
ley’s, they thought it better to keep silent. Lady have heard so. My Mother was a Poloneze
Mary’s first note in Consul Smith’s set claims, taken at the Seige of Caminiec, and my father
implicitly, that she had remained ignorant of her us’d to rally me, saying he beleiv’d his
appearance in print for ten years. Beside the title Christian Wife had found some Christian Gal-
‘An Epistle from a Lady in England, to a Gentle- lant, for I had not the Air of a Turkish Girl. I
man at Avignon’ (I.63) she wrote ‘I renounce and assur’d her that if all the Turkish Ladys were
never saw till this year 1758.’1 7 Apparently some- like her, it was absolutely necessary to confine
one had spoken of this poem as hers. If the second them from public view for the repose of
part of her note is true, it follows that she had not Mankind, and proceeded to tell her what a
seen either the anthology or her own verses until noise such a face as hers would make in
after her move, in 1756, back from Gottolengo to London or Paris. I can’t beleive you (reply’d
Venice and Padua. she agreably); if Beauty was so much valu’d
in your Country as you say, they would never
It is another oddity that she did not know this
have suffer’d you to leave it.
‘Epistle’. It was in fact by Thomas Tickell, and in
Dodsley’s Collection firmly associated—as ‘By the
Montagu, Mary Wortley. Letter to Lady Mar, 10
Same’—with other well-known poems of his, and March 1718. From The Collected Letters of Mary
quite separate from the poems identified by Lady Wortley Montagu, Vol. 1, edited by Robert Hals-
Mary’s initials. It had been published anony- band, pp. 386-87. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
mously in 1717 (during another of Lady Mary’s 1967.
absences from England) and reached five editions
that year.1 8 Whoever accused her of writing it
probably did so as a joke, perhaps a hurtful one; on me these ridiculous Persecutions. ’Tis realy
MONTAGU but they did so not without apparent evidence: incredible they should be carry’d to such a height
without the least provocation.2 4
that of a London and Dublin reprint, also 1717,
of Tickell’s epistle ‘To which is added Court The modern reader, instinctively sharing the
Poems. Part II. The second edition.’1 9 So some- 18th century’s low opinion of old women, is likely
thing which Curll’s piracy had by implication at- to wonder at first how much Lady Mary is exag-
tributed to Lady Mary had once appeared between gerating. One answer is provided by Lord Bute’s
the same covers as Tickell’s poem. kinsman General Graeme: although a friend of
Lady Mary’s need to ‘renounce’ this poem Murray’s, he nevertheless wrote ‘I do think the
shows how vulnerable she was to the campaign of resident ought to show some more respect than
Murray the Resident, now Smith’s brother-in-law, he has done of late to a woman of her birth and
to bring her into mockery and disrepute. Real country.’2 5 Her birth and country, precisely the
political differences existed between them: Wil- things which forbade her to be a published female
liam Pitt had formed a joint Ministry with New- writer, were her only possible hope for enforcing
castle in October 1756 (another Minister in it was respect in the face of sneers about her excessive
Holdernesse, the relation to whom Murray owed reading and writing.2 6
his position), and Lady Mary, though she com- In this atmosphere it would not be difficult to
pared the resulting coalition to ‘Arlequin’s Coat’, make an insinuation that would rankle about
looked on Pitt as the chief hope for peace and Tickell’s poem, in which an imaginary lady la-
national renewal, while Murray was full of ‘zeal ments her banished Jacobite lover with insur-
for the contrary faction’.2 0 But the real issues were rectionist fervour which transforms itself gradu-
overshadowed by exaggeration and fantasy. Lady ally but not very convincingly to acceptance of
Mary’s attitude progressed rapidly from an affecta- the status quo and to the hope that her lover will
tion of amusement that she should be taken for a after all follow her in submitting to prosperity-
politician (in February 1758), through admission bringing ‘Brunswick’. At about the time that she
that Murray’s ‘political Airs’ made her wish she read it, Lady Mary was writing, ‘It is very remark-
had ‘settled in some other part of the World’ (in able that after having suffer’d all the rage of that
April), to writing of his contempt and low malice. Party at Avignon for my attachment to the present
Three years later she self-mockingly resolved to reigning Family, I should be accus’d here of favor-
perish if necessary in maintaining her ground ing Rebellion, when I hop’d all our Odious Divi-
‘with the true spirit of old Whiggism’.2 1 Murray sions were forgotten.’2 7 Though Tickell’s poem
almost immediately expanded his basic charge voices Jacobite sentiments at its beginning, it is
against her—that of] supporting Pitt—into the clear to the least literate reader that the author
larger and vaguer one of being ‘in the Interest of must be a Whig; nevertheless I think it likely that
Popery and Slavery’ because of the friendship Lady Mary’s indignant repudiation of it had
which she struck up, on their arrival in Venice in something to do with the scandal given by her
May 1758, with Sir James and Lady Frances welcome to the Steuarts.
Steuart, exiles on account of Sir James’s Jacobite
politics whom Murray refused to receive. It was Lady Mary then came to her own poems.
an intellectual friendship, with Lady Mary reading Beside the heading of the Six Town Eclogues2 8 she
and discussing Sir James’s works, including part of noted ‘mine wrote at 17’. The first word of her
the important but as yet unpublished Inquiry into note was a response to a long-standing controversy
the Principles of Political Economy.2 2 Her letters about their authorship. Curll, by prefixing to his
throw out many dark jesting hints that she was piracy a quibbling identification of the writer
suspected of witchcraft—traditionally the accusa- either as ‘a LADY of QUALITY’, or as John Gay, or
tion levelled at undocile old women—but this as given as the opinion of a thinly-disguised Addi-
may have been chiefly because Sir James was son—as Pope himself,2 9 had drawn public atten-
interested in the supernatural.2 3 To her daughter tion to a recent and no doubt indiscreet literary
she shows a touching defensiveness: ‘I am afraid friendship of the young Lady Mary. Gay reinforced
you may think some imprudent behaviour of his association with the eclogue series by includ-
mine has occasion’d all this ridiculous ing in his Poems on Several Occasions, 1720, a poem
persecution’, and again called ‘The Toilette. A Town Eclogue’, 106 lines
long, of which 43 lines are precisely the same as
Do not tell your father these foolish squabbles; it
is the only thing I would keep from his knowledge. in Lady Mary’s ‘Friday. The Toilette’ in her 78-
I am apprehensive he should imagine some line holograph copy.3 0 His version makes some-
misplac’d Railery or vivacity of mine has drawn thing light, whimsical and wistful out of Lady
Mary’s more embittered heroine. It is easy to ap- her for ‘stupid Indifference’, that she is not kept
MONTAGU
preciate the quality of Gay’s additions but impos- back from love-affairs by ‘Nature, [by] fear or [by]
sible to tell how much he contributed to the lines Shame’; she can imagine a combination of quali-
common to his and Lady Mary’s copies, or indeed ties that would win her love, but has not yet
which of the two friends conceived the poem’s found it: and ‘till this astonishing Creature I know
original idea. Pope, who continued to believe / As I long have liv’d Chaste I will keep my selfe
‘Friday’ to be ‘almost wholly Gay’s’, also kept so.’ The amorous advances of ‘Lewd Rake’ and
among his own papers a manuscript copy of ‘dress’d Fopling’, she says, push women into a
‘Thursday’ which caused some later editors to metaphorical experience of Ovidian metamorpho-
ascribe this eclogue to him; and in the beautiful sis: ‘We harden like Trees, and like Rivers are cold.’
handwritten transcript of the ‘Eclogs’ which he The whole tone of the poem (confidential com-
made for Lady Mary3 1 he gave the concluding plaint of the inadequacies of modern men as
lines of ‘Wednesday’ in an entirely different form lovers) suggests, what the ‘We’ of the last line
from that of her own manuscript. No wonder, reinforces, that it is written by a woman to a
then, that the 67-year-old Lady Mary should wish woman, about a lover but to a friend. This impres-
to establish her authorship of all six eclogues, for sion is borne out by Lady Mary’s holograph in her
any readers of Consul Smith’s volumes, with album, where the second line of the poem reads
‘mine’. Her ‘wrote at 17’ is harder to justify. The ‘Molly’—the nickname of Maria Skerrett, mistress
earliest eclogue, ‘Monday’, dates from ‘the com- of the Prime Minister and a close friend of hers. In
ing over of the Hanoverian family’ in 1715; the Consul Smith’s copy Lady Mary altered ‘C———’
last, ‘Satturday’ describes Lady Mary’s own recov- in the second line to read ‘M’, and expanded this
ery from smallpox, which was complete by Janu- in the margin to ‘Molly’. The subtitle ‘To Mr.
ary 1716. She was born on 26 May 1689. One can C———’ she replaced with ‘to a Lady, to the
only hope that ‘17’ (which it is not possible to Tune of My Time O ye Muses’—a ballad by John
misread) was a slip of the pen for ‘27’ rather than Byrom which had been printed in Spectator No.
a deliberate untruth. 603.
Beside the first couplet of ‘Epistle from Arthur Next in order Lady Mary found a poem of hers
Grey, the Footman after his Condemnation for which had first appeared in print in a newspaper
attempting a Rape’, printed as ‘By the Same’,3 2 (Aaron Hill’s The Plain Dealer) on 27 April 1724
Lady Mary wrote ‘I confess it’. She was indulging and was titled there ‘The Lady’s Resolve’. Since
in a touch of self-dramatization, for there is little she claimed in her album that it was ‘Written ex
in this romantic, Ovidian poem that calls for tempore in Company in a Glass Window’, it
confession, nothing to embarrass the victim of might have reached Hill by various routes. In any
the assault, her erstwhile friend Mrs Griselda Mur- case the printed version substituted ‘He comes too
ray (no relation)—except an erotic passage, which near, that comes to be deny’d’ for Lady Mary’s
six years later Lady Mary’s old flame Francesco Al- manuscript ‘Too near he has approach’d who is
garotti was to imitate in Italian in a poem of his deny’d.’ All Lady Mary’s subsequent editors fol-
own.3 3 What Mrs Murray had indignantly charged lowed Hill instead of her holograph, even W. Moy
upon Lady Mary thirty-six years before were ‘vile Thomas in 1861, though he noted ‘that this very
ballads’ on the same subject, and these Lady Mary line occurs in Ben Johnson’s conversation with
had, by implication, denied writing, though one Drummond’.3 6 (It is actually in Sir Thomas Over-
of them is almost certainly by her and has now bury’s A Wife, Now A Widowe, 1614). In Smith’s
been printed as such.3 4 At this moment the scorn- copy Lady Mary crossed out the Overburean line
ful gossip about her ‘sudden liking’ for Sir James and wrote in her own, but did nothing about the
Steuart made it particularly unsuitable for her to other considerable textual corruptions of the
be known as an erotic poet. printed version. She added to the printed title,
‘wrote 2 months after my marriage’; her own
Dodsley printed Lady Mary’s ‘The Lover: A
album puts it ‘the first year I was marry’d.’ To an
Ballad’ as ‘To Mr. C———’,3 5 no doubt following
answer printed by Dodsley (and earlier by Hill) as
Horace Walpole, who believed, with Spence, that
‘The Gentleman’s Resolve’ she added the note ‘Sir
this description of the ideal lover was addressed to
W.Y.’—a useful piece of information, since it has
Richard Chandler (1703?-69), with whom Lady
been attributed to Pope as well as to Sir William
Mary was supposed to have had an affair. The
Yonge.3 7
identification says more for Walpole’s nose for
gossip than for his ear for literature. The speaker Lady Mary claimed the next two poems, ‘An
of this poem explains, to a friend who has blamed Epistle to Lord B———t’ and ‘An Epilogue To
Mary, Queen of Scots’, with ‘mine’ in the margin Cooper to————’)4 5 with an odd hotchpotch of
MONTAGU by each title.3 8 In line 67 of the ‘Epistle’ she scribbled words and names: what she wrote over
altered ‘the’ to ‘has’—a change bringing the the last line was apparently ‘Poultney to [?] Lord
printed text into line with her manuscript, which Chesterfield I am not’. Since at least one other
reads ‘O how unlike has Heaven my Soul design’d!’ scribble on these lines seems to refer to a love-
Lady Mary was remarking how differently Heaven affair, Lady Mary was very likely associating
had designed her soul from Bathurst’s—not, as Chesterfield here with the same Miss Poultney,
Dodsley’s reading suggests, that Bathurst was un- rather than with either of the political Pulteneys,
like some ideal of manhood which she had de- Daniel or William. The poem in question dates
signed as her heaven. ‘A Receipt to Cure the from 1723, but the scribblings from some time
Vapours’ was Dodsley’s (and earlier Spence’s) title later than that.
for the next poem, which Lady Mary’s album calls At the beginning of Dodsley’s volume II Lady
simply ‘Song’.3 9 We know from the letters of Lady Mary added the writer’s name, ‘Ld Lyttleton’, on
Mary’s friend Lady Irwin that the song was ad- the divisional title-page of his ‘The Progress of
dressed to her impromptu: nevertheless Lady Love. In Four Eclogues.’ She had in the past
Mary (shunning publicity?) has here heavily disputed with George, later 1st Baron Lyttelton,
obliterated the sub-title ‘Written to Lady J——— on political subjects; he was now politically on
n’, as well as adding, ‘to the Tune of, do not ask the same side as her rising son-in-law. She seems
me charming Philis’. Perhaps it was to this tune not to have thought highly of his ‘fine things
that the verses, a witty argument against eternal wrote . . . for the good of Mankind’, but she kept
constancy, were later (1781) sung at Ranelagh. copies of his ‘Jealousy. The Third Eclogue’ and
Having made some mark of annotation by ‘Advice to a Lady.’4 6 The latter poem, which in
each of her own poems in this volume, Lady Mary Dodsley occupies five pages, she had summarized
went on to comment on four poems which W. P. in a satirical couplet:
Courtney notes as all written by Lord Chesterfield Be plain in Dress and sober in your Diet;
to Lady Fanny Shirley.4 0 Lady Mary annotated In short my Dearee, kiss me, and be quiet.4 7
‘Advice to a Lady in Autumn’ with ‘To Lady F. Sh.
Beside its title she noted ‘to Mrs Pit’—that is,
by Chester’, ‘Verses written in a Lady’s Sherlock
Anne Pitt (1721-81), sister of the Pitt whom Lady
upon Death’ with ‘Chesterfield to Lady
Mary admired. Lyttelton’s instructions to Miss Pitt
Tankerville’, and two ‘Songs’ (beginning respec-
included the prohibition:
tively ‘When Fanny blooming fair’ and ‘When-
ever, Chloe, I begin’) with ‘The same to F. Shirly’ Make not dang’rous Wit a vain pretence,
and ‘The same to Miss Poultney’. Lady Mary had But wisely rest content with modest Sense;
written mockingly about Chesterfield in the 1720s For Wit, like wine, intoxicates the brain,
Too strong for feeble woman to sustain.
but admired his essays.4 1 She kept copies of the
first of these poems by him, and another more ris- Despite her naturally strong desire to protest
qué one to Lady Frances Shirley, in an album of against this, Lady Mary seems to have shared Lyt-
miscellaneous verse.4 2 Lady Frances (1706-78), telton’s opinion of Anne Pitt, whose promotion at
with whom Bonamy Dobrée says Chesterfield had Court in 1751 she deplored without fully stating
‘a romantic attachment which went on for some her reasons ‘She has Wit but———’.4 8 Beside Lyt-
years’, was a former neighbour of hers (and still of telton’s song beginning ‘Say Myra, why is gentle
her husband’s) at Twickenham, and had played Love’ (p. 57), she wrote ‘To Lady Buck’. It is not
an important part (though probably unknown to easy to know who she meant. Possible candidates
Lady Mary) in Lady Bute’s reconciliation with her are the widow of Sir Charles Buck, Bt (Anne, née
parents.4 3 Of the other ladies to whom Lady Mary Sebright, c. 1701-64); the sister-in-law of George
wished to reassign two of Chesterfield’s verse II’s mistress Lady Suffolk, who was from 1746
tributes, one was Camilla (Colville) Bennet (1698- Countess of Buckinghamshire (whose family
1775), Countess of Tankerville and Lady of the house in Norfolk Lyttelton visited);4 9 or even Mary
Bedchamber to Queen Caroline in 1737, whom Boughton, née Greville (d. 1786), who was how-
Robert Walpole apparently described as ‘a very ever Mrs not Lady, and who is generally identified
safe fool’ for the purpose of a possible affair with as Lyttelton’s Delia, now Myra. Lady Mary made
the King.4 4 The other is harder to identify. In one and kept a copy of this poem, labelled as by Lyt-
of her albums of poetry Lady Mary obliterated six telton, in which she writes ‘Delia’ for ‘Myra’, so it
lines (those following line 56 of her epistle ‘Miss is possible she knew the facts.
In volume IV Lady Mary found three more poems, printed in circumstances calculated to
MONTAGU
poems ascribed to ‘Lady M. W. M.’.5 0 In line 24 of cause her extreme annoyance, and unlikely to
her ‘An Answer To a Love-Letter’ she altered have been passed over in silence.5 4 A burlesque
‘love’ to ‘Truth’, eliminating a repetition of the rejection of an older woman by a younger man,
idea already conveyed in ‘fondness’, emphasising which she said she herself had written to put into
that a return of sincerity is what the writer seeks, the mouth of Lord William Hamilton, whom Lady
and of course restoring her original text. ‘In Hertford was indecorously pursuing, appeared
Answer to a Lady Who advised Retirement’ here as the work of the William Yonge mentioned
called from her the unimportant correction of above, and as a riposte on his part to advances
‘court’ for ‘courts’ in line 3. She also deleted ‘my’ from none other than ‘Lady Mary W*****’ herself.
in line 8, which read ‘And wait for my dismission The misattribution was richly ironical. If Lady
without fear’, an insufficient change which left a Mary’s account of the story is true then she, so
halting line without restoring the way it should often a literary champion of her own sex in its
have read: ‘And wait Dismission without painfull dealings with the other, had for once permitted
Fear’. She found nothing to change in ‘Verses herself, in verse, the kind of tough-minded and
written in a Garden.’ Nor, disappointingly, did brutal put-down of feminine foolishness which
she make any comment on what Dodsley printed was not uncommon in her conversation.5 5 She
as ‘Answer to the foregoing Lines. By the late Lord had attacked not only a woman, but a woman
Hervey’,5 1 following ‘Elegy to Miss Dashwood. In who was, like herself, subject to attack for intel-
the Manner of Ovid’ by James Hammond. Al-
lectual interests; pure chance (presumably) not
though Dodsley so confidently ascribed it to
only put her at the receiving end of her own at-
Hervey, it had already appeared in print as ‘By a
tack, but put at the delivering end a man who
Lady, Author of the Verses to the Imitator of
had particular cause to seek poetical revenge upon
Horace’. Since the balance of evidence tends to
her. Yonge (c. 1693-1755), a man universally and
make Lady Mary chief author of the Verses
it seems with good reason disliked by his contem-
Address’d to the Imitator of Horace, published
poraries, had in 1724 divorced his wife for her
the same month as this poem, March 1733,5 2 and
adultery, notwithstanding his own notorious
in view of the ‘Answer’’s pithy style and feminist
extramarital affairs, and had recovered costs and
approach to its subject, it is far more likely to be
damages of £1500 from her lover and the bulk of
by Lady Mary than by Hervey. Her failure to claim
her considerable fortune for himself. Lady Mary
it as her own in Consul Smith’s Dodsley is disap-
had on that occasion voiced her indignation in
pointing, but can perhaps be accounted for by the
an ‘Epistle From Mrs Y[onge] to her husband’.5 6
general atmosphere of defensiveness in which she
All this past history must have made more bitter
made her notes. It would not have helped her
the picture given in Dodsley’s sixth volume of
position to become known as the author of one
Yonge rejecting advances from herself. She wrote
more poem of feminine complaint against men
furiously to her daughter about this ‘new story’ in
and against society.
November 1758; it seems to have touched off
She made only one more comment in the set. further teasing from Murray’s circle and more
On p. 227 of the fourth volume she noted that remarks about witchcraft.5 7 The same incident
‘On Sir Robert Walpole’s Birth-day’ is ‘by Dr probably provoked her to label the verses con-
Young’—although it is printed as ‘By Mr. D——— cerned, and some other questionable ones in her
ton’ and accepted by Courtney (p. 39, following album which contained poems both by herself
the DNB) as by Bubb Dodington. She might have and others, with the possessive initials MWM, and
been misled by memory of Edward Young’s several to add more detail to some titles and ascriptions
other poems extolling Walpole; but she must have elsewhere in the album (Harrowby MS 255).
been familiar with his works, since she had been
Lady Mary was not, at the time she discovered
his patron in the 1720s;5 3 her attribution at least
herself figuring in Dodsley’s earlier volumes, a
needs to be seriously considered.
virgin muse. Her experience included reacting
I have already concluded from the lack of with indignation at Curll’s Court Poems in 1716
notes by Lady Mary in Smith’s fifth and sixth and at Anthony Hammond’s inclusion of her
volumes that these, published in March 1758, ‘Constantinople, To———’ in A New Miscellany,
were probably not available to her at the time 1720, and probably at various newspaper print-
when she saw the others. One reason for thinking ings of single poems.5 8 On her own account,
this is the presence in volume VI of another of her however, she had contributed to the Spectator and
published nine numbers of her own political 4. Letters, iii. 127 n.4, 189.
MONTAGU journal, The Nonsense of Common-Sense, in 5. Each bears also the same note: ‘15s/6d: for six
1737-38. She may at least have connived at the Volumes—C. Hurt jun: Winksworth: May 6-1830—’.
printing of her two outrageous lampoons, Verses 6. DNB. The Bibliotheca Smithiana . . . , Venice, 1755,
to the Imitator of Horace, 1733, and The Dean’s does not mention Dodsley’s Collection, nor does it ap-
Provocation For Writing the Lady’s Dressing- pear in the Catalogue of the Remaining Part of the Curi-
Room, 1734.5 9 She must have known about her ous and Valuable Library of Joseph Smith, issued by James
Robson in 1775. The set’s most recent resting place
friend the Abbé Conti’s inclusion of seven of her was the Pforzheimer Library, New York
poems in Italian versions in his Prose e Poesie,
7. Letters, iii. 18, 146-7.
1756, though she probably did not know that the
London Magazine had been printing poems by her, 8. R. Strauss, Robert Dodsley, 1910, p. 334.
in ones and twos to the number of ten, in 1749, 9. Walpole, Correspondence, ed. W. S. Lewis et al, xiii,
1750 and 1754. Dodsley’s was, however, the most 1948, p. 234; his copy of Dodsley, BL C.117, aa. 16;
considerable body of her verse that she had ever Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, i. 1856, p. 237.
seen in print. It came to her notice at a time when 10. Spence (1699-1768), Observations, Anecdotes, and
her friendship with Sir James Steuart and her Characters of Books and Men, ed. J. M. Osborn, 1966, i.
enmity with Murray made her especially conscious 303-12; Letters from the Grand Tour, ed. S. Klima, 1975,
pp. 356-62.
of her poetic ambitions and acutely aware of the
way in which they made her vulnerable to mock- 11. Cornell University Library, Ithaca, N.Y.: MS E6004.
ery. To the Steuarts she recalled how her poem on 12. Straus, p. 337.
Constantinople had been ‘miserably printed’,
13. Gentleman’s Magazine, p. 134.
though in terms which suggest covert boasting;
she repeatedly alluded to herself as a poet, but in 14. Letters, iii. 115.
a sinister manner: she is haunted ‘by the Daemon 15. Mary (Wortley Montagu) Stuart (1719-94), Countess
of Poesie’, or by those ‘real Devils’, the nine Muses. of Bute. Lady Mary began writing to her in 1740, but
Even to the Steuarts she emphasizes that ‘All my only two letters survive from before 1748, and nine
works are consecrated to the fire for fear of being from that year (Letters, ii. 162-3, 200, xvi.)
put to more ignoble uses, as their betters have 16. Letters, ii. 369 nn., 397 n. 4, 470 and n.1.
been before them’; she never refers to Dodsley but 17. In transcribing Lady Mary’s hand I have expanded ab-
with contempt and disapprobation; and to her breviations and lowered raised letters. Her annota-
daughter she comments revealingly on Horace tions have been printed, in their catalogue A1115,
Walpole’s inclusion of Queen Elizabeth I in his Autumn 1978, p. 9, by Blackwell’s Rare Books, to
whose staff I am indebted for much help and kind-
Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors. If Walpole ness.
has treated the Queen’s character with disrespect,
she writes, ‘all the Women should tear him to 18. W. P. Courtney, Dodsley’s Collection of Poetry, Its
Contents and Contributors, 1910, p. 8; David Foxon,
pieces for abusing the Glory of their Sex.’ But even English Verse 1701-1750, 1975.
without intending disrespect it seems he has done
19. Foxon, English Verse, T280.
the Queen an injury: ‘Neither is it Just to put her
in the list of Authors, having never publish’d any 20. Letters, iii. 113, 116, 137 and n.5, 140.
thing, thô we have Mr. Cambden’s Authority that 21. Letters, iii. 140, 142, 277.
she wrote many valuable Pieces’.6 0 Walpole wished
to serve Queen Elizabeth’s reputation, just as he, 22. Letters, iii. 145-6, 149, 181 and n.4.
Spence, and Dodsley wished to serve that of Lady 23. Letters, iii. 157, 188-9.
Mary; unhappily the battles in which she was
24. Letters, iii. 151, 160.
involved as an old woman made her too insecure
to accept willingly the role of published poet. 25. Letters, iii. 206.
26. Letters, iii. 216-17.

Notes 27. Letters, iii. 146.
1. The Resident was John Murray (c. 1715-75); the
Consul was Joseph Smith (c. 1675-1770), famous as a 28. One for each day of the week except Sunday: Dodsley,
collector of art and of books. i. 84-106; Lady Mary Essays and Poems, ed. R. Hals-
band and I. Grundy, 1977, pp. 182-204.
2. See Robert Halsband, ‘Pope, Lady Mary, and the Court
Poems’, PMLA, 68 (1953), pp. 237-50; and The Life of 29. Court Poems, 1716, pp. i-ii.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1956, pp. 53-4.
30. Harrowby MSS Trust, Sandon Hall, Stafford, 256 ff.
3. Complete Letters, ed. R. Halsband, 1965-7, iii. 39. 35-7.
31. Reproduced in facsimile as Court Eclogs Written in the
TITLE COMMENTARY
MONTAGU
Year, 1716, ed. R. Halsband, 1977.
32. Dodsley, i. 107-11; Essays and Poems, pp. 221-5. Turkish Embassy Letters
33. Opere, Leghorn, 1764-5, viii. 134.
34. Essays and Poems, pp. 216-21. INGE E. BOER (ESSAY DATE
WINTER, 1995-96)
35. i. 111-13; Essays and Poems, pp. 234-6.
36. Lady Mary, Letters and Works, 3rd ed., ii. 431 note.
37. P. 114. For Yonge see further below.
38. Dodsley i. 114-19; Essays and Poems, pp. 242-4, 240-1.
39. Dodsley, i. 120-1; Essays and Poems, pp. 257-8.
40. Dodsley, i. 334-8; Courtney, pp. 15-16.
41. Letters, ii. 37-38, iii. 146.
42. Harrowby MS 255, [ff. 62-4].
43. Chesterfield, Letters, 1932, i. 76; Lady Mary, Letters, ii.

369 and n.2.
44. Lord Hervey, Some Materials Towards Memoirs of the

Reign of King George II, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1931, ii. 490-1.
45. Essays and Poems, p. 229; Harrowby MS 81, f.42.
46. Letters, ii. 481, iii. 232; Harrowby MS 81, ff. 32-3, 210-
13.
47. Dodsley, ii. 43-8; Essays and Poems, p. 264.
48. Letters, ii. 490.
49. Rose Mary Davis, The Good Lord Lyttelton, 1939, p.

179.
50. Dodsley, iv. 196-8; Essays and Poems, pp. 300-1, 244-6,
258-9. The hand which identified ‘An Epistle from S.
J. Esq’ as by Soame Jenyns (iii. 125) was not hers.
51. Dodsley, iv. 79-82; Essays and Poems, pp. 270-2.
52. See I. Grundy, ‘Verses Address’d to the Imitator of Horace:

A Skirmish between Pope and Some Persons of Rank
and Fortune’, SB, xxx, 1977.
53. Letters, ii. 34-6, 61.
54. ‘Sir W***** Y*****’s Answer’, vi. 230-1; Essays and Po-
ems, p. 263.
55. E.g. Robert Halsband, The Life of Lady Mary Wortley

Montagu, 1956, p. 119.
56. Essays and Poems, pp. 230-2. See also I. Grundy, ‘Ovid
and Eighteenth-Century Divorce: An Unpublished
Poem by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu RES, n.s. xxiii,
1972, pp. 417-28.
57. Letters, iii. 186-91.
58. The Plain Dealer, 17 April 1724; The Weekly Journal or

Saturday’s-Post, 26 December 1724; The Gentleman’s
Magazine, June 1735, and others which were merely
reprints.
59. Essays and Poems, pp. 69-74, 105-49, 265-70, 273-6.
60. Letters, iii. 169, 170, 183, 190, 191, 185.
MONTAGU
MONTAGU
In short, let her own Sex at least do her
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Justice; Lay aside diabolical Envy and its
Brother Malice with all their accursed Com-
pany, Sly Whispering, cruel backbiting, spite-
MARY ASTELL’S PREFACE TO MONTAGU’S
ful detraction, and the rest of that hideous
TURKISH EMBASSY LETTERS (1763)
crew, which I hope are very falsely said to at-
tend the Tea Table, being more apt to think
I confess I am malicious enough to desire that
they haunt those Public Places where Virtu-
the World shou’d see to how much better
ous Women never come. Let the Men malign
purpose the LADYS Travel than their LORDS, and
one another, if they think fit, and strive to
that whilst it is surfeited with Male Travels, all pul down Merit when they cannot equal it.
in the same Tone and stuft with the same Let us be better natur’d than to give way to
Trifles, a Lady has the skill to strike out a New any unkind or disrespectful thought of so
Path and to embellish a worn-out Subject bright an Ornament of our Sex, merely
with variety of fresh and elegant Entertain- because she has better Sense. For I doubt not
ment. For besides that Vivacity and Spirit but our hearts will tell us that this is the Real
which enliven every part and that inimitable and unpardonable Offence, whatever may be
Beauty which spreads thro the whole, besides pretended. Let us be better Christians than
that Purity of Style for which it may justly be to look upon her with an evil eye, only
accounted the Standard of the English because the Giver of all good Gifts has
Tongue, the Reader will find a more true and entrusted and adorn’d her with the most
excellent Talents. Rather let us freely own the
accurate Account of the Customs and Man-
Superiority of this Sublime Genius as I do in
ners of the several Nations with whom the
the sincerity of my Soul, pleas’d that a Woman
Lady Convers’d than he can in any other Triumphs, and proud to follow in her Train.
Author. But as her Ladyship’s penetration Let us offer her the Palm which is justly her
discovers the inmost follys of the heart, so due, and if we pretend to any Laurels, lay
the candor of her Temper passes over them them willingly at her Feet.
with an air of pity rather than reproach, treat-
ing with the politeness of a Court and gentle- Astell, Mary. Preface to the Turkish Embassy Letters.
From The Collected Letters of Mary Wortley Mon-
ness of a Lady what the severity of her Judg- tagu, Vol. 1, edited by Robert Halsband, p. 467
ment cannot but Condemn. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.
MONTAGU
MONTAGU
KATHERINE S. H. TURNER (ESSAY
DATE 1999)
SOURCE: Turner, Katherine S. H. “From Classical to
Imperial: Changing Visions of Turkey in the Eighteenth
Century.” In Travel Writing and Empire: Postcolonial
Theory in Transit, edited by Steve Clark, pp. 113-28.
London: Zed, 1999.
In the following essay, Turner compares the correspon-
dence of Montagu to that of Elizabeth Craven, a later
letter-writer who argued that Montagu’s Turkish letters
were not authentic and were probably written by a man.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Turkish Em-

bassy Letters, written between 1716 and 1718 but
published (posthumously) only in 1763, remains
one of the best known of eighteenth-century
travelogues, and Montagu herself was one of the
most celebrated woman writers of her time. Born
in 1689, she was an indefatigable and accom-
plished letter writer, corresponding with leading
literary figures such as Alexander Pope as well as
an extensive network of family and friends. She
also wrote essays and poems (both romantic and
satirical), and a play (collected in Montagu 1977);
her participation in a wide range of genres, includ- It therefore provides a point of entry into a wider
MONTAGU ing travel writing, indicates her ability to tran- discussion of changes in eighteenth-century
scend gender-based literary categories. Fewer than perceptions of travel writing, of women travel
twenty British women published travel narratives writers, and (not least) of Turkey itself. It is worth
during the eighteenth century, and Montagu was noting here that Craven’s critical observations on
a pioneer of this small but highly significant Turkey, which to a large extent are a reactionary
cluster of women, whose works provide a fascinat- engagement with Montagu’s, were taken seriously
ing, often oblique, commentary on the cultural by the influential reviews (the Monthly, the Critical
and political trends of their time. and the Analytical), although they slyly mocked
The attractive vision of Turkey presented in her style and arrogance. Moreover, the Monthly
the Embassy Letters typifies a particular version Review commended her liberal reflections, ‘which
of English Enlightenment culture and aesthetics. do honour to the writer, both as a lover of her
Bernard Lewis sees in Montagu’s account ‘the new own country, and as a citizen of the world’
myth, still in its embryonic form, of the non- (Monthly Review 80 [1789], 209).
European as the embodiment of mystery and There are two main reasons for the generally
romance’ (Lewis 1993: 83). In many ways, how- positive reception of Craven’s text in 1789. First,
ever, Montagu’s Letters are uncharacteristic of the little else in the way of original travel writing on
eighteenth century of which they are so often Turkey had been published since Montagu’s text
claimed to be paradigmatic. In 1789, Lady Eliza- in 1763: James Porter’s Observations on the Religion,
beth Craven, England’s other great eighteenth- Law, Government, and Manners, of the Turks (1768)
century woman traveller to Turkey, takes issue was a compilation of travellers’ accounts, and the
with many of Montagu’s opinions in her own focus of Richard Chandler’s Travels in Asia Minor
travelogue, A Journey through the Crimea to Con- (1775) was largely archaeological. Second, a
stantinople, and pronounces indeed that Montagu woman travel writer was still something of a
‘never wrote a line of them’ (Craven 1789: 105). novelty in her own right, no doubt because the
In her later Memoirs, and in the enlarged edition genre’s roots in masculine erudition and experi-
of the Journey, published in 1814, Craven expands ence—at least until the closing decades of the
on this view, pronouncing that the Embassy Let- century—remained powerfully deterrent (see
ters ‘were most of them male compositions, Turner 1995: 168-246). The Analytical Review,
pretending to female grace in the style, the facts anticipating its readers’ interest in Craven’s
mostly inventions’ (Craven 1814: 289). There had travelogue, notes that ‘The letters of this sprightly
in fact been a spurious ‘fourth’ volume of Mon- female will naturally excite curiosity’ (Analytical
tagu’s Embassy Letters published in 1767, perhaps Review 3 [1789], 176). Craven’s personal notori-
written by John Cleland; but by the 1780s its spu- ety—her private life was nothing if not colour-
riousness, and the authenticity of the 1763 vol- ful—is also hinted at here.
umes were not in doubt.
The Turkish aspect of Craven’s account seems
Montagu’s highly favourable impressions of to have been its main source of marketable inter-
abroad, especially of Turkey, and especially of est. The title of the travelogue places Constanti-
Turkish women, are Craven’s chief targets. Craven nople as the climax of her journey, and the run-
found an unexpected ally in the person of Lady ning head throughout the volume is ‘Lady
Bute, Montagu’s daughter, who, having failed to Craven’s Journey to Constantinople’. In fact, only
suppress the publication of the Embassy Letters about 70 of the 327 pages of Craven’s Journey deal
in 1763, was later delighted to find support for with Turkey, as critics were quick to point out (e.g.
her disowning of her mother’s vulgar publishing Monthly Review 80 [1789], 200-1; Critical Review 67
activities. Ladies Craven and Bute later cor- [1789], 281; Gentleman’s Magazine 59 [1789], 237);
responded about the authorship of the Embassy and the revised title of the 1814 edition duly read
Letters, Lady Bute agreeing heartily that most of Letters from the Right Honorable Lady Craven, to His
the Letters were ‘composed by men’, and suggest- Serene Highness the Margrave of Anspach, during her
ing that Horace Walpole ‘and two other wits’ had Travels through France, Germany, and Russia in 1785
written them (Craven 1826: II 116). and 1786. In 1789, though, Craven was no doubt
No one else seems to have taken these asser- exploiting public interest in Turkey: not only did
tions seriously; yet, questions of personal griev- the harem still exert a powerful pull on the British
ance and arrogance aside, this curious episode sug- reader’s imagination, but recent political develop-
gests how uncongenial Montagu’s account became ments made the Turkish focus of the Journey topi-
to at least some later eighteenth-century readers. cal. The increasingly aggressive behaviour of Rus-
sia and Austria towards the declining Ottoman The journey we have made from Belgrade hither,
MONTAGU
Empire was becoming an alarming threat to Brit- cannot possibly be passed by any out of a public
character. The desert woods of Serbia, are the com-
ish trading interests in the Levant. Craven’s ac- mon refuge of thieves, who rob, fifty in a com-
count was published during the Russian and pany, so that we had need of all our guards to
Austrian war against Turkey, 1787-92 (though her secure us; and the villages are so poor, that only
journey was made earlier, 1785-86). Britain had force could extort from them necessary provisions.
(Montagu 1763: II 2)
formed the Triple Alliance with the United Prov-
inces and Prussia against Austria in 1788; and by Elsewhere, she describes her distress at the
1789 all parties were eager for peace between ‘insolencies’ of their escorts ‘in the poor villages
Turkey and its aggressors, not least because the through which we passed’ (vol. I, p. 152). Craven
Triple Alliance were anxious to direct their ener- travelled with a smaller entourage but rather less
gies against the tide of the French Revolutionary sensitivity. Her Journey (1789) is peppered with
army (Shaw 1976: i 258-60). With the turmoil, name-dropping, and pervaded by a strong sense
indeed even disintegration of European affairs, of her own importance, as in this passage: ‘At
following a decade on from the loss of America, it Soumi I conversed with a brother of Prince
seems likely that Britain was anxious to preserve Kourakin’s and a Mr. Lanskoy, both officers quar-
trading links with a safely weak but intact Otto- tered there; and to whom I was indebted for a
man Empire, which might indeed offer itself as an lodging: they obliged a Jew to give me up a new
arena ripe for colonial domination; by British little house he was upon the point of inhabiting’
rather than Russian or Austrian interests. (p. 154).
What follows is a comparison of Montagu’s The Critical Review concludes its account of
and Craven’s accounts, which will illuminate Craven with the waspish pronouncement that the
crucial changes in representations of gender and ‘rest of the journey affords little subject of remark,
empire, as mediated through the eyes of the except that whatever accommodations rank and
woman travel writer in Turkey. An account of the beauty could demand, and despotic power could
publishing histories of the travelogues will lead— procure, Lady Craven enjoyed’ (Critical Review 67
through the issue of gender and propriety—into [1789], 286).
an analysis of the conflicting visions of Turkish The circumstances under which Montagu’s
women offered by Montagu and Craven. The lat- and Craven’s texts were published testify to the
ter part of the chapter will probe the changing critical significance not only of their rank, but also
concepts of cultural politics and history which the of their gender, and illuminate changing concepts
texts illuminate. In particular, Craven’s repudia- of private and public identity. The Embassy Let-
tion of Montagu is a significant contribution to ters emerged into the literary world like the
an emergent colonial discourse, displacing Mon- elegant ghost of their recently deceased author,
tagu’s classical, tolerant and largely ahistorical appearing in 1763 in three small octavo volumes.
stance. Craven’s text exemplifies what Homi K. The first of these contained a preface written in
Bhabha has defined as ‘the objective of colonial 1724 by Mary Astell, confessing herself
discourse’, which is to construe the colonised as a malicious enough to desire, that the world should
‘population of degenerate types on the basis of see, to how much better purpose the LADIES travel
racial origin, in order to justify conquest and to than their LORDS; and that, whilst it is surfeited
establish systems of administration and with Male-Travels, all in the same tone, and stuff
with the same trifles; a lady has the skill to strike
instruction’ (Bhabha 1986: 154).
out a new path, and to embellish a worn-out
The mere existence of their narratives testifies subject, with variety of fresh and elegant entertain-
ment.
to the privileged status of Montagu and Craven.
(Montagu 1763: I viii)
Their rank made possible nor only their access to
European and Turkish high society—‘The Turks Montagu is the eighteenth-century woman
are very proud, and will not converse with a travel writer of whom it was most often and
stranger they are not assured is considerable in his enthusiastically proclaimed that her gender quali-
own country’ (Montagu 1763: II 131-2)—but their fied her to describe scenes ‘not to be paralleled in
very expeditions. Lady Mary, who travelled the narrative of any male Traveller’ (Monthly Review
through Austria and Hungary to Constantinople, 28 [1763], 392): namely, the Turkish bath, the
with ‘thirty covered waggons for our baggage, and harem, and the lifestyles of aristocratic Turkish
five coaches . . . for my women’ (vol. II, p. 110), women. She was evidently proud of this privilege
points out that: and of the distinction it guaranteed her within
the corpus of travel literature; she concludes the The ‘letters’ which make up the Journey are
MONTAGU letter describing the bath as follows: ‘Adieu, written to the Margrave of Anspach, with whom
Madam, I am sure I have now entertained you, Craven had developed ‘a more than sisterly
with an account of such a sight as you never saw affection’ on her travels in Europe following her
in your life, and what no book of travels could scandalous separation from Lord Craven in 1781
inform you of, as ’tis no less than death for a man (Monthly Review 53 [1789], 201). Unfortunately,
to be found in one of these places’ (Montagu his wife the Margravine was still alive, albeit in a
1763: I 164-5). sickly fashion, and it appears that Craven decided
on a grand tour of exotic locations in order to
For all her contempt of authors who de- remove the embarrassment to the Margrave cre-
scended to the vulgar activity of publication (see ated by her continued residence at Anspach, and
for example Montagu 1965-67: III 37; ‘it [is] not to kill time until both the Margravine and Lord
the busyness of a Man of Quality to turn Author’), Craven had expired; he in fact held out until 1791,
Montagu was clearly anxious that the Embassy at which point she promptly married the Mar-
Letters eventually be published. She kept the grave. She and the Margrave then returned to Eng-
manuscript with her wherever she travelled, and land, but her long absence and widely publicised
on her final journey home entrusted them to an adultery had enabled Lord Craven to turn their
English clergyman at Rotterdam, with instructions children against her: all six refused to acknowledge
to publish them after her death. (See Halsband her (J. Robinson 1990: 87). Moreover, she was no
1956: 278-9, 287-9, for an account of their journey longer received at court, which must have been a
into print.) It was her travel letters, rather than serious blow to a woman of her pretensions. In
her poems or essays (some of which had been 1814, Craven, now the Margravine of Anspach,
circulated in manuscript or even published anony- reissued the Journey with minor alterations and
mously during her lifetime), that Montagu was additions. The new title blazons the name and
concerned to have preserved for posterity. rank of her correspondent, and celebrates their
relationship: Letters from the Right Honorable Lady
Astell’s ‘Preface’ aside, the propriety of publish-
Craven, to His Serene Highness the Margrave of Ans-
ing is not an issue within Montagu’s text, for all
pach . . . Their relationship and Craven’s virtue
its prominence in her thought and activity else-
are indignantly defended in several additional let-
where. Craven, however, engages vigorously with
ters, and in the new preface, where we are in-
the issue. She seems to have had few qualms about
formed that she ‘constantly refused estates and
the propriety of publishing; indeed, she somewhat
titles’ offered by foreign potentates lest she be
showily published in a quarto volume illustrated
called suddenly home by her husband and chil-
with six engravings. Of the women travel writers
dren:
who published in the eighteenth century, only
Craven and Radcliffe (whose literary reputation my husband had all his [sic; for ‘my’] fine property
in his own power, and therefore I could not
was already well established) published in any-
consent to take any duties on me, when I felt, that
thing grander than octavo; and only Craven’s my first duty, that of a mother, must make me
book had plates. The Gentleman’s Magazine is forsake those duties my gratitude and pride might
unimpressed, however, noting that ‘What Lady C. have made me take elsewhere—my duty as a
here offers to the publick in a costly quarto might mother lay in England.
(Craven 1814: v)
certainly have been very well compressed to the
size of Lady Montague’s Letters’ (Gentleman’s The 1814 edition also inserts references to her
Magazine, 59 [1789], 237). The Journey is prefaced marital problems with Lord Craven and her
with a claim that Craven is publishing in order to deepening friendship with the Margrave; he is
satisfy friends’ curiosity, and ‘to show the world presented as a saintly refuge from the callous Lord
Where the real Lady Craven has been’, her hus- Craven, who had prevented their children from
band’s mistress having for some years passed writing to her, and whose appalling behaviour is
herself off as Lady Craven on her travels through clearly intended to exonerate her from any ac-
France, Switzerland and England. The Monthly Re- cusations of unwifely conduct. Craven casts
view observes: ‘the one great object in view, in herself in the role of restless exile, happy neither
publishing this correspondence, appears to be an at home nor abroad, whose journeying is less a
effort to wipe away some unfavourable imputa- violation than a proof of propriety. The changes
tions at home, and to manifest the respect shewn made to the 1814 edition engage with the increas-
to the writer abroad’ (Monthly Review 80 [1789], ingly severe moral climate of the late eighteenth
201). century and early nineteenth, and negotiate the
difficult no-man’s-land between public propriety or by candle-light, adds very much to the black-
MONTAGU
and private affairs which the earlier Journey had, ness of them. I fancy many of our ladies would be
overjoyed to know this secret; but ’tis too visible
perhaps naively, opened up for public inspection.
by day.
Craven capitalises (in both editions) not only (Montagu 1763: II 31-2)
on her personal notoriety but also on the increas-
ingly autobiographical scope of travel writing in Craven is less favourably impressed:
the later eighteenth century. While Montagu’s I have no doubt but that nature intended some of
reasons for travel and her personal affairs are these women to be very handsome, but white and
largely absent from the Embassy Letters, Craven’s red ill applied, their eye-brows hid under one or
private dramas provide, quite publicly, a moral two black lines—teeth black by smocking, and an
universal stoop in the shoulders, made them ap-
justification for her travels, as well as an almost pear rather disgusting than handsome . . . The
novelistic source of semi-scandalous interest. This frequent use of hot-baths destroys the solids, and
expanding narrative scope within travel writing these women at nineteen look older than I am at
could create problems for women travel writers, this moment.
for whom the acts of publication and indeed (Craven 1789: 225-6)
travel might appear morally questionable, and for
‘Nature’ here is implicitly associated with Brit-
whom autobiographical frankness might be prob-
ish standards of beauty; Craven frequently equates
lematic. Craven’s text and apologetic signals her
it with western, and usually British, behaviour.
awareness of these issues, but her aristocratic self-
The Critical Review notes the prevalence of the
importance permits her to rise above bourgeois
adjective ‘ugly’ in her account (Critical Review 67
anxiety. When it comes, however, to describing
[1789], 282). More recently, Montagu has also
Turkish women, Craven’s moral sensibility is
been accused of forcing Turkish women into a
closer, as we shall see, to the middle-class propriety
western frame of reference, most notoriously in
of the 1780s and 1790s than to any aristocratic
this famous description of the Turkish bath:
largesse. Moreover, the emphasis she increasingly
places on her submissive married relationship They walked and moved with the same majestic
(Montagu, by contrast, barely mentions her grace, which Milton describes our General Mother
husband, although she does briefly describe her with. There were many amongst them, as exactly
proportioned as ever any goddess was drawn, by
experiences of childbirth in Turkey) can be related the pencil of a Guido or Titian,—And most of their
to an emergent imperial sensibility, within which skins shiningly white, only adorned by their
visible domestic affection in the Christian institu- beautiful hair, divided into many tresses, hanging
tion of marriage testifies to the moral superiority on their shoulders, braided either with pearl or
of the coloniser. Craven and Montagu present ribbon, perfectly representing the figures of the
graces.
strikingly different accounts of Turkish women. (Montagu 1763: I 161-2)
Montagu’s approach is poetic and aesthetic,
Craven’s moral and economic. Robert Halsband Such aestheticising strategies, Isobel Grundy
has observed that while in the courts of western (1992) and Cynthia Lowenthal (1990) have ar-
Europe Montagu mingled with princes and diplo- gued, allow Montagu simultaneously to appreci-
mats, at the Ottoman court her sex deprived her ate the exotic otherness of Turkish women and to
of this privilege (Halsband 1956: 71). Craven is evade the more problematic issues of freedom and
similarly excluded, but with chagrin; at one point happiness within the harsher realities of Turkish
she resorts to spying on the Sultan through a women’s experience. Elizabeth Bohls (1995),
telescope. This exclusion partly explains the however, has recently presented a more radical
absence of political and diplomatic material in version of Montagu’s aestheticising strategies,
both women’s accounts and their focus instead arguing that she presents herself, daringly, as an
on the status of Turkish women. Both writers com- aesthetic subject (a privilege usually reserved for
mend the respect and apparent liberty granted to males) in order to neutralise orientalist stereotypes
Turkish women, but Montagu’s account of their of women, and to re-present them as aesthetic
grace and beauty is vigorously contradicted by rather than erotic objects: statues and paintings
Craven. Montagu describes the women of the rather than the lascivious harpies of seventeenth-
harem with admiration: and eighteenth-century male-authored travels by
They have naturally the most beautiful complex- the likes of Paul Rycaut and Aaron Hill.
ions in the world, and Generally large black eyes.
They generally shape their eye-brows, and both Craven’s strategy, by contrast, is simulta-
Greeks and Turks have the custom of putting neously to de-aestheticise the oriental female, and
round their eyes a black tincture, that, at distance, to render her morally dubious once more. Where
Montagu celebrates the steamy beauty of the Turk- lise any alien people which comes to replace the
MONTAGU ish bath, Craven (1789) is appalled by the baths at legal right that had characterised the Crusading
Athens, ‘full of naked fat women; a disgusting impulse’ (p. 67).
sight’ (p. 264). Craven’s account of a ‘Turkish’ Craven treats with prurient disapproval what
bath in fact occurs in Athens. This displacement Montagu had appraised with amused tolerance in
testifies not only to Craven’s tendency to lump their respective accounts of Turkish women’s
together Greeks, Turks, Tartars and Cossacks as ‘liberty’. Both mention the freedoms offered by
eastern and primitive, regardless of politics or the anonymous garb of Turkish women, but
national identity—and indeed to use the term Craven dwells repeatedly on its possibilities for
‘Turk’ as a term of abuse for any objectionable intrigue and licentiousness, even imagining sexual
eastern individual—but also to the distance which assignations being conducted during services at
Craven strenuously constructs between herself Santa Sophia, by figures ‘wrapped up like a
and the eastern other, especially in Turkey and its mummy’ (Craven 1789: 218). Montagu herself
dominions, where the pernicious influence of exploits the liberty which Turkish dress affords,
Islam is stressed. The Critical Review observes that wandering the streets of Constantinople ‘every
Craven is interested not only in ‘the stupidity and day, wrapped up in my Feriae and Asmak’
indolence of the Turks’, but also in ‘the effects of (Montagu 1763: III 26). Craven would not counte-
their despotism on the conquered Greeks’ (Critical nance such assimilation:
Review 67 [1789], 285). As to women, as many, if not more than men, are
to be seen in the streets—but they look like walk-
Craven’s horror at the Turkish bath is similar ing mummies—A large loose robe of dark green
to her ‘disgusted’ reaction to a Cossack belly cloth covers them from the neck to the ground,
over that a large piece of muslin, which wraps the
dancer, ‘who never lifted her feet off the ground
shoulders and the arms, another which goes over
but once in four minutes, and then only one foot the head and eyes . . . If I was to walk about the
at a time, and every part of her person danced streets here I would certainly wear the same dress,
except her feet’ (Craven 1789: 173). A description for the Turkish women call others names, when
they meet them with their faces uncovered—
in Montagu’s earlier account of a similar entertain-
When I go out I have the Ambassador’s sedan-
ment had, by contrast, employed the term ‘proper’ chair, which is like mine in London, only gilt and
in an aesthetic sense devoid of moral implication, varnished like a French coach, and six Turks carry
and envisaged a neutralising coalescence of art it; as they fancy it impossible that two or four men
can carry one; two Janissaries walk before with
and eroticism which would cast the insensitive
high fur caps on—The Ambassadors here have all
western prude as the villain of the piece: Janissaries as guards allowed them by the Porte—
Thank Heaven I have but a little way to go in this
This dance was very different from what I had
pomp, and fearing every moment the Turks
seen before. Nothing could be more artful, or
should fling me down they are so awkward.
more proper to raise certain ideas. The tunes so (Craven 1789: 205-6)
soft!—the motions so languishing!—Accompanied
with pauses and dying eyes! half-falling back, and Montagu’s experience of Turkey stands in op-
then recovering themselves in so artful a manner,
position to the restrictive idea of gendered space
that I am very positive, the coldest and most rigid
prude upon earth, could not have looked upon which was becoming a fact of life in eighteenth-
them without thinking of something not to be century England, and London especially (see Lew
spoke of. 1991: 445-6). The trappings of Turkish femininity
(Montagu 1763: II 89-90) offer unlimited access to public spaces (and
Craven also notes that ‘as many, if not more’
In the more proper climate of the 1780s, Mon- women than men occupy the streets). Craven’s
tagu’s aesthetic oriental women are re-becoming text rewrites the concept of separate spheres so
lascivious. Craven’s reintroduction of moral judge- that space and activity are divided along racial
ment signals a germinating imperial ideology, as lines. Her ‘if I was to walk about the streets here’
potent as had been previous moral assaults on is purely rhetorical. The Englishwoman is reso-
Turkish sexuality (see Bohls 1995: 28-31 on the lutely opposed to the anonymity of Turkish
‘sexualised Orient’ constructed by earlier male feminine costume (perhaps here the developing
travel writers), but further bolstered, as we shall discourse of English individuality and strong
see, by a broader sense of Turkish cultural degen- character is an influence). Consequently, her
eracy. This new grounding permits Craven to evident difference opens up perceptible hostility
claim what Norman Daniel (1966) has described between the women of different races, which can
as ‘imperialism’s perceived “moral right” to civi- only be contained, quite literally, within a sedan
chair borne by Turkish males. And yet this too Montagu’s broader cultural tolerance is if
MONTAGU
poses a threat, Craven ‘fearing every moment the anything still more offensive to Craven than her
Turks should fling me down they are so awkward’. views on women. Jill Campbell (1994) has de-
For her journey out of Turkey, Craven is given as scribed how Montagu imagines Turkish culture as
an escort another threatening male, ‘a Tchouadar, ‘outside history, as a place where past and present,
that is to say, a kind of upper servant, or rather the literary and the natural, coexist’ (pp. 74-5).
creature of the Visir’ (Craven 1789: 285). This ‘yel- She relates this to the anthropological phenom-
low looking Turk’ (p. 286) is a constant source of enon observed by Johannes Fabian (in Time and
irritation to Craven, competing with her for the the Other), by which western travellers deny the
servants’ attention and for the lion’s share of the contemporaneity of different cultures, co-existing
party’s provisions. At one point she finds that he in the same historical moment, and instead
has used her kettle to make himself coffee: imagine the alien cultures they encounter as
inhabiting the distant past of their own culture’s
If any travellers were to meet us, they would history or prehistory (p. 75).
certainly take him for some Grand Seigneur, and
that I am of his suite, by the care taken of him, A letter to Pope, written at Adrianople, shows
and the perfect indifference all, but my two Montagu adopting precisely this position:
companions and my servants, show for my ease
and convenience . . . I thought it right to point I read over your Homer here, with an infinite
to two most excellent little English pistols I wear pleasure, and find several little passages explained,
at my girdle, and assure him they would be well that I did not before entirely comprehend the
employed against any offence I met with. And beauty of: Many of the customs, and much of the
when the interpreter had done I could not help dress then in fashion, being yet retained. I don’t
calling him a stupid disagreeable Turk, in English, wonder to find more remains here, of an age so
which he took for a compliment, and bowed his distant, than is to be found in any other country,
head a little. the Turks not taking that pains to introduce their
(Craven 1789: 291) own manners, as has been generally practised by
other nations, that imagine themselves more
Turkish degeneracy and luxury here emerge as polite.
(Montagu 1763: II 44)
sexual savagery, barely containable through the
brandishing of English pistols worn in a highly
This is to Pope, and about poetry, and is
defensive position, ‘at my girdle’ (and through
therefore consciously idealistic. This letter invokes
the futile yet cathartic effect of English insults).
a cultural continuity which dissolves national
The ‘moral right’ of the English over the Turk is
boundaries and represents difference as innocence
again asserted.
from the ravages of civilisation: ‘I never see half a
In 1763, the Monthly Review praises the Em- dozen of old Bashaws (as I do very often) with
bassy Letters in gendered terms: ‘There is no af- their reverend beards, sitting basking in the sun,
fectation of female delicatesse, there are no pretty- but I recollect good King Priam and his
nesses, no Ladyisms in these natural, easy familiar counsellors’ (vol. II, p. 45). The Embassy Letters
Epistles’ (Monthly Review 28 [1763], 385). Paradoxi- as a whole strives to articulate an innocence of
cally, Montagu is celebrated as a writer because history and politics, which are barely mentioned,
she is not typical of her gender, even though it is and also of cultural judgement. Crucial to this
her gender which makes possible her most novel project is the fragmentation of narrative identity
observations (her descriptions of the harem). In which occurs within the Embassy Letters. Mon-
1789, by contrast, the Critical Review notes archly tagu’s text differs markedly from Craven’s in be-
that Craven saw objects ‘in the true female view’ ing addressed (rather unusually, in eighteenth-
(Critical Review 67 [1789], 282). If this is true, then century travel literature) to a wide range of
Craven is doing so partly in response to the correspondents (fifteen in all, twelve of whom are
increasing cultural and ideological separation of women), ranging from her depressed sister, Lady
male and female fields and abilities. Similarly, her Mar, to the Abbe Conti, to Alexander Pope, and
highly restrictive notions of sexual propriety are including assorted female friends. All of Craven’s
very much of her time. If we recall Craven’s asper- letters, by contrast, are addressed to the Margrave
sions on the authorship of Montagu’s text, more- (which may partly account for their celebration of
over, it becomes clear that narrowing concepts of her virtues and of the esteem in which she is held
female activity colour Craven’s reading of Mon- throughout Europe, Russia and Turkey). This
tagu’s text to the extent that the Embassy Letters’ formal difference makes for a greater stylistic
tolerant view of Turkish manners evinces their variety within the Embassy Letters than in Cra-
spuriousness. ven’s Journey. Montagu uses different literary and
conversational registers for different correspon- in the year of the cessation of the Seven Years’
MONTAGU dents, and deploys a range of descriptive topics. War in Europe; the war had in some ways under-
She addresses one letter to the Princess of Wales, mined the viability of Enlightened ideals and seen
writing as ambassadress for Christendom as well them compromised by political contingency and
as Britain: ‘I have now, Madam, finished a journey nationalistic feeling. Montagu’s visions of a
that has not been undertaken by any Christian, distant and not immediately threatening foreign
since the time of the Greek Emperors; and I shall world perhaps reassured the reading public that
not regret all the fatigues I have suffered in it, if it Enlightened tolerance was still, albeit remotely,
gives me an opportunity of amusing your R. H. by alive and possible. Alternatively, the confidence-
an account of places utterly unknown amongst boosting territorial gains made at the Peace of
us’ (vol. I, p. 151). Paris may have fostered a relaxed and culturally
To Lady Mar, Montagu writes anecdotal, tolerant mood among the reading and critical
humorous accounts of social and sexual customs public. Furthermore, remarks like ‘Upon the
and visits to exotic notables like the Grand Vizier’s whole, I look upon the Turkish women, as the
‘lady’ and the Sultana Hafiten. With assorted only free people in the Empire’ (Montagu 1763: II
Ladies, she is chatty and occasionally risqué. All 35) must have offered a pleasurable alternative to
her detailed (and celebrated) accounts of Turkish the bitter resonances of ‘liberty’ in its domestic
women, in harem or public bath or private audi- context in 1763. The Embassy Letters were pub-
ence, are addressed to women. lished and reviewed in May of 1763; the anti-
government North Briton edited by John Wilkes
With the Abbe Conti and with Pope, not had published its incendiary issue 45 in April; and
surprisingly, Montagu is most scholarly and ‘Wilkes and Liberty’ was becoming a rallying cry.
philosophical. To the Abbe she writes ‘of manners
and religion’ (vol. II, p. 1), government and For all the enlightened pluralism of the Em-
welfare, antiquities and architecture, commerce, bassy Letters, one might argue that there are let-
military parades, and Islam. To Pope she addresses ters in which Montagu’s narrative persona is more
witty and sometimes flirtatious letters, writing emphatically English and where, correspondingly,
about poetry and pastoral; she resolutely denies things Turkish are presented in a more ambivalent
Pope the almost erotic satisfaction which her let- light. The first is in a letter (her only) to the
ters to women friends offer, in accounts of her Princess of Wales, in which (as mentioned earlier)
Turkish costume and luxurious lifestyle. One she writes as spokeswoman for Christendom. She
detects a distinctively plaintive note to Pope’s describes her arrival in Turkish territory:
declaration: ‘I long for nothing so much as your The country from hence to Adrianople, is the fin-
Oriental Self. I expect to see your Soul as much est in the world. Vines grow wild on all the hills,
thinner dresed as your Body’ (Pope 1956: I 494). and the perpetual spring they enjoy, makes every
Through this dazzling variety of subjects and thing gay and flourishing. But this climate, happy
as it seems, can never be preferred to England,
styles, Montagu refracts her narrative identity into with all its frosts and snows, while we are blessed
a prismatic multiplicity. The Letters’ observing with an easy government, under a King, who
self becomes, quite literally, an embodiment of makes his own happiness consist in the liberty of
Enlightenment pluralism. Their multifaceted nar- his people, and chooses rather to be looked upon,
rator was no doubt an important factor in the as their father than their master.
(Montagu 1763: I 155)
enthusiastic reception of the Critical Review which
itemises the narrator’s separate attractions, declar- This is a striking passage in Montagu’s text; all
ing that the letters will display, ‘as long as the the more so in that it sounds, almost parodically,
English language endures, the sprightliness of her like a great deal of other eighteenth-century travel
wit, the solidity of her judgement, the extent of writers who draw such comparisons so frequently
her knowledge, the elegance of her taste, and the as to make them at best a trope, at worst a cliché,
excellence of her real character’ (Critical Review 15 of the genre. It is, however, hardly xenophobia;
[1763], 435). the same could not be said for a letter to Pope,
The freedom of the Embassy Letters from describing Austro-Turkish atrocities in the battle
opinion, judgement, or ‘vulgar prejudice’ (to use a for Belgrade, which contains a virulent diatribe
frequent eighteenth-century criticism of travel against the Turks:
writing) seems to have made them peculiarly at-
You see here that I give you a very handsome return
tractive to the critical and reading public of the for your obliging letter. You entertain me with a
1760s. Montagu must have seemed a true citizen most agreeable account of your amiable connex-
of the world. The Embassy Letters were published ions with men of letters and taste, and of the deli-
cious moments you pass in their society under the Elsewhere, Montagu surrenders to the ‘wicked
MONTAGU
rural shade; and I exhibit to you in return, the suggestions of poetry’, and observes ‘the warmth
barbarous spectacle of Turks and Germans cutting
of the climate, naturally inspiring a laziness and
one another’s throats. But what can you expect
from such a country as this, from which the muses aversion to labour’ (Montagu 1763: II 40-2). For
have fled, from which letters seem eternally Craven in the 1780s, however, indolence is any-
banished, and in which you see, in private scenes, thing but ‘naturally’ inspired: her ‘nature’ favours
nothing pursued as happiness but the refinements industry and (where such industry is not
of an indolent voluptuousness, and where those
indigenous) colonisation. And her version of
who act upon the public theatre live in uncer-
tainty, suspicion, and terror. pastoral, as in this description of the valley of Bay-
(Montagu 1767: 27-8) dar in Turkey, is decidedly imperial: ‘a most
enchanting and magnificent spot, intended by
This letter implicitly rejects the classical ideal- nature for some industrious and happy nation to
ising of Turkey which dominates most of the Em- enjoy in peace—A few Tartar villages lessen the
bassy Letters, and declares indeed: ‘I long much wildness of the scene, but, in such a place, the
to tread upon English ground, that I may see you meadow part should be covered with herds, and
and Mr. Congreve, who render that ground clas- the mountainous with sheep’ (Craven 1789: 190-
sick ground’ (Montagu 1767: 32). These passages 1).
are almost worthy of Smollett’s Smelfungus, and
Craven’s response to Turkish languor is one of
disrupt the tolerant pluralism of the other letters.
prosaic disapproval: ‘The quiet stupid Turk will sit
Or, I should say, would disrupt; although a recent
a whole day by the side of the Canal, looking at
editor of Montagu (Clare Brant, Montagu 1992:
flying kites or children’s boats . . . How the busi-
148-50) includes this letter, it did not in fact ap-
ness of the nation goes on at all I cannot guess’
pear in the 1763 edition of Embassy Letters. It
(p. 207). Her visions of commercial imperialism
was first published in the spurious ‘fourth volume’,
are couched in the language of emancipation and
containing five fake letters and some genuine
vision:
material (an essay, a letter, some verse), which ap-
peared in 1767. Robert Halsband, in his definitive Can any rational being, dear Sir, see nature,
without the least assistance from art, in all her
edition of Montagu’s letters, has documented the grace and beauty, stretching out her liberal hand
inauthenticity of most of the 1767 volume to industry, and not wish to do her justice? Yes, I
(Montagu 1965-67: I xviii and I 371). Discredited confess, I wish to see a colony of honest English
by the time Craven was writing, this literary families here; establishing manufactures, such as
imposture had nevertheless ‘deceived even . . . England produces, and returning the produce of
this country to ours—establishing a fair and free
the critics’ in 1767, as the Monthly Review (70 trade from hence, and teaching industry and
[1784], 575) ruefully admits. The 1767 volume is a honesty to the insidious but oppressed Greeks, in
fascinating hoax, and reveals the extent to which their islands—waking the indolent Turk from his
Montagu’s pluralistic tolerance is already nostalgic, gilded slumbers, and carrying fair Liberty in her
indeed outdated, by the later 1760s; or at least is swelling sails . . . This is no visionary or poetical
figure—it is the honest wish of one who considers
co-existing somewhat uneasily with a more xeno- all mankind as one family.
phobic, politically defensive sensibility. Reveal- (Craven 1789: 188-9)
ingly, Lady Bute was convinced that the volume
published in 1767 must be ‘genuine’ (Montagu This passage is especially commended by the
1965-67: I xviii). In the genuine volumes of the Monthly Review for its ‘liberal reflections, which do
Embassy Letters, by contrast, Turkish indolence is honour to the writer, both as a lover of her own
invested with a complex philosophical value, country, and as a citizen of the world’ (Monthly
embodying both classical (specifically, Elysian) Review 80 [1789], 209). This judgement testifies to
tranquillity, and the possibility of a modern the ideological gulf not only between Montagu
epicureanism: and Craven, but between the values of mid-
century and those of later eighteenth-century
I am almost of opinion they [the Turks] have a culture, which looks forward to a new world of
right notion of life. They consume it in musick,
gardens, wine and delicate eating, while we are
imperial expansion. The East is no longer merely
tormenting our brains with some scheme of an exotic playpen, but a land ripe for the type of
politicks, or studying some science to which we colonial appropriation already well under way in
can never attain . . . Considering what short liv’d India.
weak animals men are, is there any study so
beneficial as the study of present pleasure? I dare Although the reviews criticise Craven’s ar-
not pursue this theme. rogant style, her ideological stance is congenial,
(Montagu 1763: III 52-3) and she represents an important strand in travel
literature (and much else) of the 1780s and 1790s. history with a poetic imagining of Turkish culture
MONTAGU P. J. Marshall and Glyndwr Williams (1982: 67) as existing outside history and indeed politics;
have claimed that, despite continuing interest in Craven constructs an alternative history, within
the Near East, the growth of British influence in which Turkish culture is erased, and the Turks are
India was rapidly eclipsing Near Eastern concerns. instead configured as almost pre-historic in their
Craven’s account and its reception would suggest barbaric indolence. Craven’s travelogue looks
otherwise; or, indeed, might suggest that the Turk- forwards, not back, to the assimilation of the East
ish experience was providing a paradigm for Brit- into British imperial history. And the forceful nar-
ish attitudes towards India in the following rative personality projected by Craven’s text
century. As Norman Daniel puts it: foreshadows the emergence of the moral centre
It was in Turkey that the imperial attitude devel- which the colonial woman is to provide for the
oped most rapidly, and not in India, where empire colonial project.
was further advanced. The mood of the conquer-
ors of Bengal was as humble culturally as it was
Bibliography
active, even aggressive, in war and commerce.
Warren Hastings was a great patron of the study
of Persian culture. The serious-minded servants of 1. Primary
the Company contributed learned notes and Craven, Elizabeth, Lady (1789) A Journey through the Crimea
translations and adaptations of Persian verse to to Constantinople. In a Series of Letters from the Right Hon.
specialised periodicals. The forms of the Mogul Elizabeth Lady Craven, to his Serene Highness the Mar-
Empire were carried on, and diplomacy in India grave of Brandebourg, Anspach, and Bareith. Written in the
still used the Persian language. The significant Year MDCCLXXXVI, London: G. G. J. Robinson.
change in the European attitude came in relations
———Margravine of Anspach (1814) Letters from the Right
with the Ottoman Empire, a change that soon af-
Honorable Lady Craven, to His Serene Highness the Mar-
fected India.
grave of Anspach, during her Travels through France,
(Daniel 1966: 71)
Germany, and Russia in 1785 and 1786, London.
The years separating Montagu and Craven ———(1826) Memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach, Written
show quite graphically the disappearance, as far as by Herself, 2 vols, London: Henry Colburn.
Turkey is concerned, of such cultural interest and Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley (1763) Letters of the Right Ho-
humility. Montagu transcribes Turkish poetry, nourable Lady M——y W——y M———e: Written, during
her Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, to Persons of
pronounces herself ‘pretty far gone in Oriental
Distinction, Men of Letters, & c. in different Parts of Europe.
learning’ (Montagu 1763: II 46-56), and is enor- Which contain, among other curious Relations, Accounts of
mously impressed by Turkish cultural traditions. the Policy and Manners of the Turks; drawn from Sources
Craven displays no such interest, and represents that have been inaccessible to other Travellers, 3 vols,
London: T. A. Becket and P. A. de Hondt.
the Turks as barbaric philistines. Admittedly, she
has some justification for this view, given that the ———[spurious] (1767) An Additional Volume to the Letters
Turks are bombarding Athens during her journey; Of the Right Honourable Lady M——y W——y M———e:
Written, during her Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, to
however, her concern is less with the destruction Persons of Distinction, Men of Letters, & c. in different
of the Parthenon per se, and more with the Brit- Parts of Europe, London.
ish failure to get in on the act: ‘ruins, that would
———(1965-67) The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley
adorn a virtuoso’s cabinet, are daily burnt into Montagu, ed. Robert Halsband, 3 vols, Oxford: OUP.
lime by the Turks; and pieces of exquisite work-
———(1977) Essays and Poems, and ‘Simplicity, a Comedy’,
manship stuck into a wall or fountain’ (Craven ed. Robert Halsband and Isobel Grundy, Oxford: Clar-
1789: 221). She is particularly chagrined when the endon Press.
Turks forbid any of her party to remove any frag- ———(1992) Letters, ed. Clare Brant, London: Dent.
ments of sculpture: ‘alas, Sir, I cannot even have a
Pope, Alexander (1956) Correspondence of Alexander Pope, ed.
little finger or a toe’ (p. 256).
George Sherburn, 5 vols, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
The sense of Turkey as a degenerating culture
which is expressed only in the spurious letter from 2. Secondary
Montagu to Pope dominates Craven’s account,
and chimes with contemporary opinion, which Bhabha, Homi K. (1986) ‘The Other Question: Difference,
Discrimination and the Discourse of Colonialism’, in
was coming to view the Turks not only as ‘idle Francis Barker et al. (eds), Literature, Politics and Theory:
and effete under the influence of despotism, but Papers from the Essex Conference 1976-84, London:
as worse than savages’ (Burke, speech on 29 March Methuen, 148-72.
1791; cited Marshall and Williams 1982: 165). Bohls, Elizabeth A. (1995) Women Travel Writers and the
Montagu combines a respect for Turkish cultural Language of Aesthetics 1716-1818, Cambridge: CUP.
Campbell, Jill (1994) ‘Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Studies Montagu’s comedy Simplicity in terms of her
MONTAGU
Historical Machinery of Female Identity’, in Beth revisions to the original French play and the attitudes
Fowkes Tobin (ed.), History, Gender and Eighteenth- towards women reflected in those revisions.
Century Literature, Athens: University of Georgia Press,
64-85. Dobie, Madeleine. “Embodying Oriental Women: Represen-
tation and Voyeurism in Montesquieu, Montagu, and
Daniel, Norman (1966) Islam, Europe and Empire, Edinburgh: Ingres.” Cincinnati Romance Review 13 (1994): 51-60.
Edinburgh University Press.
Compares Montagu’s depiction of Turkish women to
Fabian, Johannes (1983) Time and the Other: How Anthropol- Montesquieu’s Lettres persanes and the paintings of
ogy Makes its Object, New York: Columbia University
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
Press.
Halsband, Robert (1956) The Life of Lady Mary Wortley Mon- Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock. “An Early Ethnographer of
tagu, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Middle Eastern Women: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
(1689-1762).” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 40, no. 4
Lew, Joseph W. (1991) ‘Lady Mary’s Portable Seraglio’, (October 1981): 329-38.
Eighteenth-Century Studies 24: 432-50.
Discusses Montagu’s role as an ethnographer of the status
Lewis, Bernard (1993) Islam and the West, Oxford: OUP. of women in Middle Eastern life in her letters from
Lowenthal, Cynthia (1990) ‘The Veil of Romance: Lady Turkey.
Mary’s Embassy Letters’, Eighteenth-Century Life 14: 66-
Halsband, Robert. “‘Condemned to Petticoats’: Lady Mary
82.
Wortley Montagu as Feminist and Writer.” In The Dress
Marshall, P. J. and Glyndwr Williams (1982) The Great Map of Words: Essays on Restoration and Eighteenth-Century
of Mankind: British Perceptions of the World in the Age of Literature in Honor of Richmond P. Bond, edited by Robert
Enlightenment, London: Dent. B. White, Jr., pp. 35-52. Lawrence: University of Kansas
Robinson, Jane (1990) Wayward Women: a Guide to Women Libraries, 1978.
Travellers, Oxford: OUP. Surveys a variety of Montagu’s works in terms of her
feminism, addressing topics including marriage and
Shaw, Stanford (1976) History of the Ottoman Empire and
divorce, politics, and the propriety of women’s writing.
Modern Turkey, 2 vols, Cambridge: CUP.
Turner, Katherine S. H. (1995) ‘The Politics of Narrative Lew, Joseph W. “Lady Mary’s Portable Seraglio.” Eighteenth-
Singularity in British Travel Writing, 1750-1800’, Century Studies 24, no. 4 (summer 1991): 432-50.
unpublished D Phil dissertation, University of Oxford. Studies the Turkish Embassy Letters as a critique of Ot-
toman and British culture, and as an anticipation of
modern feminism.
FURTHER READING Looser, Devoney. “Scolding Lady Mary Wortley Montagu?
The Problematics of Sisterhood in Feminist Criticism.”
Biographies In Feminist Nightmares: Women at Odds: Feminism and
Grundy, Isobel. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. New York: the Problem of Sisterhood, edited by Susan Ostrov Weis-
Oxford University Press, 1999, 680 p. ser and Jennifer Fleischner, pp. 44-61. New York: New
Considers Montagu’s life as a series of struggles. York University Press, 1994.
Halsband, Robert. The Life of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Questions critical attempts to describe Montagu as a
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956, 313 p. feminist and apply her concerns to modern feminist is-
sues.
Offers a modern scholarly biography of Montagu.
Lowenthal, Cynthia. “The ‘Spectatress’: Satire and the
Criticism Aristocrats.” In Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the
Campbell, Jill. “Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Eighteenth-Century Familiar Letter, pp. 114-52. Athens:
Historical Machinery of Female Identity.” In History, University of Georgia Press, 1994.
Gender and Eighteenth-Century Literature, edited by Beth Suggests that Montagu’s letters explore the intersections
Fowkes Tobin, pp. 64-85. Athens: University of Georgia of class and gender, and public and private, emphasizing
Press, 1994. her satirical writings on the aristocracy.
Focuses on the Turkish Embassy Letters as a demonstra-
tion of Montagu’s use of cultural difference to discuss Sherman, Sandra. “Instructing the ‘Empire of Beauty’: Lady
feminine pleasure and desire. Mary Wortley Montagu and the Politics of Female
Rationality.” South Atlantic Review 60, no. 4 (November
Cooley, Emily. “Proto-Feminism and Ethnography in Lady 1995): 1-26.
Mary Wortley Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters.”
Publications of the Mississippi Philological Association Discusses those works by Montagu that are potentially
(2002): 8-15. antifeminist, including “A Satyr.”
Critiques Montagu as an amateur anthropologist, includ- Snyder, Elizabeth. “Female Heroism and Legal Discourse in
ing her attitude toward the otherness of foreign cultures. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s ‘Epistle from Mrs.
Y[onge] to Her Husband.” ELH 34, no. 4 (June 1997):
Darby, Barbara. “Love, Chance, and the Arranged Marriage:
10-22.
Lady Mary Rewrites Marivaux.” Restoration and
Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research 9, no. 2 (winter Argues that Montagu subverts the legal term submission
1994): 26-44. to create a powerful and authoritative female hero.
Spacks, Patricia Meyer. “Female Rhetorics.” In The Private OTHER SOURCES FROM GALE:
MONTAGU Self: Theory and Practice of Women’s Autobiographical Additional coverage of Montagu’s life and career is con-
Writings, edited by Shari Benstock, pp. 177-91. Chapel tained in the following sources published by the Gale
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
Group: Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols. 95, 101; Litera-
Uses Montagu’s correspondence as a basis for considering ture Criticism from 1400-1800, Vols. 9, 57; Literature Resource
the conflict between the drive for self-expression and the Center; Poetry Criticism, Vol. 16; and Reference Guide to English
social requirement for restraint. Literature, Ed. 2.
SAPPHO
Fl. 6th century B.C.
Greek poet. Greek lexicon compiled around the end of the

tenth century. Based on earlier lexicons, scholarly
commentaries, and excerpts from the works of
historians, grammarians, and biographers, the Sui-
M any critics consider Sappho the greatest

female poet of the classical world and the
most accomplished of an influential group of lyric
das records that Sappho was a native of Lesbos, an
island in the Aegean, and that she was probably
born in either Eresus or Mytilene. Her father’s
poets who were active in Greece between 650 B.C. name is given as Scamandronymus, and her
and 450 B.C.—a period often designated the Lyric mother’s as Cleis. Evidence also suggests that Sap-
Age of Greece. Though most of her work survives pho had three brothers and that her family
only in fragments, the imagery and phrasing of belonged to the upper class. According to tradi-
those fragments have been striking enough to tion, she lived briefly in Sicily around 600 B.C.,
inspire readers from her own time to the present when political strife on Lesbos forced her into
day to deem her one of the greatest poets of all exile. After returning, she probably married a
time. Many of her poems discuss the female
wealthy man named Cercylas, had a daughter
speaker’s feelings for another woman, making Sap-
named Cleis, and apparently spent the rest of her
pho an important figure in homosexual literary
life in the city of Mytilene. Most of her time there
history. (Sappho’s homeland of Lesbos lent its
was occupied with organizing and running a thi-
name to the modern term “lesbian.”) Moreover,
asos, or an academy for unmarried young women.
as one of the first female authors of the West, Sap-
As was the custom of the age, wealthy families
pho has been embraced by many later authors as
from Lesbos and from the neighboring states
an icon of the feminine poetic voice.
would send their daughters to live for a period of
time in these informal institutions in order to be
instructed in the proper social graces, as well as in
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION composition, singing, and the recitation of poetry.
Very few details of Sappho’s biography are Intended as a transition between their parents’
known, and even fewer can be considered trust- homes and the homes of their future husbands,
worthy. Accounts of her life have become thor- Sappho’s thiasos ranked as one of the best and
oughly interwoven with legend, myth, and rumor. most prestigious in that part of Greece, and as its
The only standard—but unreliable—source of dedicated teacher and spiritual leader, she enjoyed
information about Sappho’s life is the Suidas, a great renown for having educated generations of
young women for fulfilling their social and marital tradition of poetry, influenced by the poets Ter-
SAPPHO responsibilities. Some legends of Sappho’s life pander and Alcaeus, both from Mytilene, and
indicate that she lived to old age, but others relate Archilochus, a poet from the nearby island of Pa-
that she fell hopelessly in love with a young boat- ros. Many lyrics, including Sappho’s, were in-
man, Phaon, and, disappointed by their failed love tended to be sung accompanied by the lyre and
affair, leaped to her death from a high cliff—a critics have noted the melody and cadence of her
story made famous by the Roman poet Ovid in poetry. Much of Sappho’s poetry was also oc-
his Heroides, but one which has been largely casional, or written to commemorate a particular
discredited by modern scholars. event, but, too, she composed narrative poetry,
religious hymns, and epithalamia, for which she
was famous. Historians have recorded that Sap-
pho was a frequent and sought-after guest at wed-
MAJOR WORKS dings, where she would sing a marriage song
The textual history of Sappho’s poetry is as composed especially for the couple. Sappho’s lyric
sketchy as her biography. According to the Suidas, verse was personal, emotional, and written in a
her substantial body of work was collected into a simple, translucent style which contrasted with
standard nine-volume edition in the third century the epic poetry of Homer—the dominant mode of
B.C.; the arrangement of these volumes was based composition at the time she was writing. Sappho’s
on the type of meter she used—Sapphic, choriam- poems use a vernacular language which is closer
bic, Alcaic, and others—with a whole volume to natural speech and they address feelings of
devoted to epithalamia, or marriage songs. Noth- friendship, desire, jealousy, playfulness, and anger.
ing is known about the way Sappho’s poetry was
transmitted or recorded from her lifetime until
the printing of the uniform edition in the third
century B.C. Until the nineteenth century, the CRITICAL RECEPTION
only known texts of her poetry were miscel- Sappho’s works have met with critical and
laneous fragments quoted in the works of several popular praise since she first wrote them, and
Alexandrian grammarians to illustrate the Lesbian- other poets in particular have praised her gift for
Aeolic dialect), and two poems: the ode to Aphro- imagery and portraying emotion. Plato called her
dite, reprinted by Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the tenth muse and Catullus and Horace imitated
his treatise on style, and the poem which begins her openly, as did the English Romantics includ-
“Peer of the gods he seems to me,” presented by ing Alfred Lord Tennyson, Algernon Charles Swin-
Longinus in On the Sublime as an example of burne, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who translated
polished style. Though composed in approxi- some of her fragments. She became an important
mately the first century B.C., the two treatises, poet during the rise of German nationalism and
and the two poems by Sappho, were not discov- was a key influence on American and English
ered until the Renaissance, when they came to Imagists, including Ezra Pound and Hilda Doolittle
the attention of Italian scholars. The chief impor- (known as H. D.). The literary relationship be-
tance of the two poems lay in the fact that they tween H. D. and Sappho in particular has been a
were believed to be preserved in their entirety and frequent subject of scholarly interest. Neverthe-
therefore constituted the most substantial remains less, Sappho’s personal reputation has often suf-
of Sappho’s to date. In 1898, scholars discovered fered in public discourse. Two or three centuries
third-century B.C. papyri containing additional after her death, rumors began to circulate about
verse fragments. Then, in 1914, archaeologists her supposed immorality and licentiousness: she
excavating cemeteries in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, was said to be the lover of Alcaeus, an instructor
unearthed coffins made from papier-mâché com- of homosexual practices at her thiasos, and a
posed of scraps of paper containing fragments of seductress. Speculation about these and other
literary writings, including some by Sappho. These rumors was for centuries the focus of writing on
discoveries sparked new interest in Sappho and Sappho. Not until the early nineteenth century,
her poetry, inspiring new critical studies of the when the German classicist Friedrich Gottlieb
text. Though the first English translations of Sap- Welcker published the seminal essay “Sappho von
pho had appeared in the seventeenth century, it einem herrschenden Vorurtheil befreit” (“Sappho
was not until the nineteenth century that transla- freed from a common prejudice”), did critical
tions and commentary on her work began to focus begin to shift again to her poetry, although
proliferate, with the first English scholarly edition the issue of her sexual orientation continues to
appearing in 1885. Sappho wrote within the lyric inform modern scholarship. Because Sappho’s
poems were intended for performance, the iden- Sappho: Lyrics in the Original Greek with Translations
SAPPHO
tity of the speaker and its relationship to the [translated by Willis Barnstone] (poetry) 1965
meaning of the poems has been a crucial ques- Sappho: Poems and Fragments [translated by Guy
tion: several critics have pointed out that the “Sap- Davenport] (poetry) 1965
pho” in the poems does not necessarily speak for
Sappho the woman. Judith Hallett contends that Sappho: Love Songs [translated by Paul Roche]
the poems do not reflect homosexual desire, but (poetry) 1966
instead encourage the listeners—whom Hallett The Poems of Sappho [translated by Suzy Q. Groden]
imagines as the young women of Sappho’s (poetry) 1967
school—toward heterosexual love. Although Hal- “Sappho” in Archilochos, Sappho, Alkman: Three
lett’s interpretation has not been universally ac- Lyric Poets of the Late Greek Bronze Age [trans-
cepted, her notion of a non-autobiographical lated by Guy Davenport] (poetry) 1980
persona speaking in the poems continues to
inform scholarship. Many critics have proposed Greek Lyric Poetry: Including the Complete Poetry of
that the speaker of the poems, whether or not she Sappho [translated by Willis Barnstone]
is Sappho, makes possible a feminine subjectivity, (poetry) 1987
or a place from which a woman could speak in a Sappho’s Lyre: Archaic Lyric and Women Poets of
culture and literary tradition dominated by men Ancient Greece [translated by Diane J. Raynor]
and a masculine perspective. One of the central (poetry) 1991
twentieth-century scholars who advanced this
If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho [translated by
view is Eva Stehle Stigers; in several essays on Sap-
Anne Carson] (poetry) 2002
pho, Stigers demonstrates how Sappho’s use of a
speaking persona expands the possibilities of
female identity. Another school of Sappho scholar-
ship has focused on Sappho as a symbol for later
women writers. This criticism acknowledges how PRIMARY SOURCES
the idea of Sappho, even more than her writings,
was influential and inspirational for other women SAPPHO (POEM DATE C. 600 B.C.)
writing in male-centered cultures. As Susan Gubar SOURCE: Sappho. “Hymn to Aphrodite.” In The Sap-
asserts, even centuries after her death, Sappho as pho Companion, edited by Margaret Reynolds, p. 29.
London: Chatto and Windus, 2000.
symbol has legitimized the efforts of women
authors and has given them a place from which In the following poem, one of her best known and most
complete, Sappho displays her characteristic yearning.
they can speak. The translation is by John Addington Symonds (1883).
Star-throned incorruptible Aphrodite,
Child of Zeus, wile-weaving, I supplicate thee,
Tame not me with pangs of the heart, dread
PRINCIPAL ENGLISH mistress,
TRANSLATIONS Nay, nor with anguish.
But come thou, if erst in the days departed

“Sapphic Fragments” in Poems [translated by
Thou didst lend thine ear to my lamentation,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti] (poetry) 1870 And from far, the house of thy sire deserting,
Sappho: Selected Renderings and a Literal Translation Camest with golden
[translated by Henry Thornton Wharton]
Car yoked: thee thy beautiful sparrows hurried
(poetry) 1885 Swift with multitudinous pinions fluttering
The Poems of Sappho [translated by Edwin Marion Round black earth, adown from the height of
Cox] (poetry) 1924 heaven
Through middle ether:
The Songs of Sappho [translated by Marion Mills
Miller and David M. Robinson] (poetry) 1925 Quickly journeyed they; and, O thou, blest Lady,
Smiling with those brows of undying lustre,
Sappho: The Poems and Fragments [translated by C.
Asked me what new grief at my heart lay,
R. Haines] (poetry) 1926 wherefore
Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta [translated by Edgar Now I had called thee,
Lobel and Denys Page] (poetry) 1955
What I fain would have to assuage the torment
Sappho: A New Translation [translated by Mary Bar- Of my frenzied soul; and whom now, to please
nard] (poetry) 1958 thee,
Must persuasion lure to thy love, and who now, Yet neither the one nor the other knew the
SAPPHO Sappho, hath wronged thee? lyric mode.
While, for me, the Muses, daughters of Pegasus,
Yea, for though she flies, she shall quickly chase dictate delightful verses,
thee; So that my name is praised throughout the
Yea, though gifts she spurns, she shall soon world.
bestow them; Not even Alcaeus, who shares my country and
Yea, though now she loves not, she soon shall career,
love thee, Has more praise, though he does sing more
Yea, though she will not! grandly.
If, to me, nature was unkind and denied me
Come, come now too! Come, and from heavy beauty
heart-ache I am recompensed with genius.
Free my soul, and all that my longing yearns to If I am short, an illustrious name, known
Have done, do thou; be thou for me thyself too throughout the world
Help in the battle. Is mine; take the measure of me from my
fame.
OVID (POEM DATE C. 43 B.C.-18

A.D.)
SOURCE: Ovid. “Sappho to Phaon.” In The Sappho
Companion, edited by Margaret Reynolds, pp. 77-78.
GENERAL COMMENTARY
London: Chatto and Windus, 2000.
DAVID M. ROBINSON (ESSAY DATE
In the following poem, the Roman poet Ovid speaks in
the voice of Sappho, thereby commenting on Sappho’s
1924)
passion, her lyric mode of writing, her appearance, and SOURCE: Robinson, David M. “The Writings of Sap-
her lasting reputation. pho.” In Sappho and Her Influence, pp. 47-100. Boston:
Marshall Jones, 1924.
So, when you inspected this elegant letter
composed by my right hand In the following excerpt, Robinson traces the theme of
Did your eye know at once that this was love throughout Sappho’s poetry, emphasizing the beauty
mine? of her language and imagery.
Or, if you hadn’t read my signature, Sappho,
Would you not have known whence this brief The passion of love is the supreme subject of
word came? Sappho’s songs, as shown by these first two and
Perhaps you will ask why I resort to couplets many a short fragment, as for example (E. 81)
When I am better suited to the lyric mode? where Love is called for the first time in literature
Well, I must weep for my love—and elegy is the “sweet-bitter.” Some scholars have credited it to
weeping style . . .
I cannot make my lyre adjust to my tears.
the much later Posidippus, but he and Meleager
I burn,—as fierce flames fanned by winds, took the word from Sappho, though it may not
Scorch the fertile plains with their ardour. have been original even with her. Sappho’s order
The fields where Phaon lives are far away by Ty- of the compound word is generally reversed in
phoean Aetna translation, but Sir Edwin Arnold says “sweetly
But my heat is like Aetna’s and no less a fire
bitter, sadly dear,” and Swinburne in Tristram of
consumes me.
Nor am I capable of arranging a well-ordered Lyonesse speaks of “Sweet Love, that are so bitter.”
poem; Tennyson also has the same order in Lancelot and
an empty head is the thing for poetry! Elaine (pp. 205-206). To Sappho love is a second
Neither the girls of Pyrrha or Methymna death, and in the second ode death itself seems
Nor the Lesbian maids, nor all the rest arouse not very far away. The Greek words for swooning
me.
Vile is Anactoria, vile to me now is blonde Cy-
are mostly metaphors from death, and so we are
dro, not surprised when we read that like death love
Atthis delights not my eyes as she once did, relaxes every limb and sweeps one away in its
Nor any of the other hundred that I loved giddy swirling, a sweet-bitter resistless wild beast.
without crime. Here is Sir Sidney Colvin’s translation (John Keats,
Unworthy One! what the many once had, is
1917, p. 332): “Love the limb-loosener, the bitter-
now yours alone.
Beauty is in you, your youth is apt for delight sweet torment, the wild beast there is no with-
and makes standing, never harried a more helpless victim.”
A beauty which fascinates my eyes! Another fragment (E. 54) also shows the power of
Take up the lyre and shine—then you are Apollo; love:
Grow horns on your head—behold, you are
Bacchus! Love tossed my heart as the wind
And Phoebus Apollo loved Daphne, and Bac- That descends on the mountain oaks.
chus, Ariadne of Knossis, (EDMONDS)
Sappho’s range of subjects is much greater
SAPPHO
than the personal emotions of love, though very
personal and individual feelings predominate. She
touches almost every field of human experience,
so that there is much in her scant fragments to
FROM THE AUTHOR
bring her near to us. The wail against ingratitude
comes home to those high-strung natures who do TWO TRANSLATIONS OF SAPPHO’S
“FRAGMENT 130,” FROM JOHN ADDINGTON
good to others but are sensitive to every wrong SYMONDS (1883) AND GUY DAVENPORT
when they have the unfortunate experience of (1965)
learning that one’s friends are sometimes one’s Lo, Love once more, the limb-dissolving King,
own worst enemies. “Those harm me most by The bitter-sweet impracticable thing,
whom I have done well” (Mackail). But she is not Wild-beast-like rends me with fierce quivering.
one of those who bear a grudge long, her heart is John Addington Symonds, 1883
for peace. One of the few ethical fragments, as Percussion, salt and honey,
Mackail says, “is a speech of delicate self- A quivering in the thighs;
abasement, spoken with the effect of a catch in He shakes me all over again,
Eros who cannot be thrown,
the voice and tears behind the eyes;” “No rancour
Who stalks on all fours
in this breast runs wild, I have the heart of a Like a beast.
child.” Sappho’s love of sermonizing is seen in
Eros makes me shiver again
her commandment: “when anger swells in the
Strengthless in the knees,
heart, restrain the idly barking tongue.” From Ar- Eros gall and honey,
istotle’s Rhetoric Edmonds (91) reconstructs an- Snake-sly, invincible.
other fragment: Guy Davenport, 1965
Death is an ill; the Gods at least think so,

Sappho. “Fragment 130.” In The Sappho Companion,
Or else themselves had perished long ago.
edited by Margaret Reynolds, p. 61. London:
In another fragment of a different nature (E. Chatto & Windus, 2000.
120) we read: “Stand up, look me in the face as
friend to friend and unveil the charm that is in
thy eyes.” In other fragments we enter a Lesbian
lady’s home and see woman’s love of dress,—no
short skirt for her, for they “wrapped her all or blouse. She is the first to use the word Chlamys,
around with soft cambric” (E. 105). “A motley where she speaks of Love as “coming from Heaven
gown of fair Lydian work reached down to her and throwing off his purple mantle” (E. 69).
feet” (E. 20), or, if we believe Pollux (VII. 93), it is Blondes were much admired among the fair-
the Greek love of fine shoes. No Lesbian butchery haired Lesbians, though Sappho herself was a
for her tender feet, but she must wear soft luxuri- brunette, and so she herself mentions (E. 189) a
ous Lydian slippers: “A broidered strap of fair Ly- kind of box-wood or scytharium-wood with which
dian work covered her feet.” Punning on the women dye their hair a golden color. She is fond
name of Timas (precious), another fragment, of cassia and frankincense (E. 66), and she dotes
which perhaps refers to a statue of Aphrodite in on myrrh and royal perfumes (E. 83). She rebukes
Sappho’s home, seems to dote on fancy handker- the foolish girl who prides herself on her ring.2
chiefs; “and hanging on either side thy face the With “a keen swift flicker of woman’s jealousy,”
purple handkerchief which Timas sent for thee and well acquainted with the philosophy of
from Phocaea, a precious gift from a precious clothes and with the new Ionic dresses introduced
giver” (E. 87).1 The fragment (E. 21), “shot with a into Lesbus during her own lifetime at the begin-
thousand hues,” refers to dress rather than to the ning of the sixth century B.C. from Asia Minor, she
rainbow. The sight of beautiful gowns thrilled her: jests about her rival Andromeda, the country girl
“Come you back, my rosebud Gongyla, in your who knows not how to manage the train of her
milk-white gown.” Again she says: “Many are the new gown3 (E. 98):
golden bracelets and the purple robes, aye and the What rustic hoyden ever charmed the soul,
fine smooth broideries, indeed a richly varied That round her ankles could not kilt her coats!
bride-gift; and without number also are the silver (THOMAS DAVIDSON in Warner’s Library of the World’s
Best Literature)
goblets and the ornaments of ivory” (E. 66). She
coined new words for women; she calls the chest There is an intimate love of the loveliness of
in which women keep their perfumes and like nature in Sappho, as we should expect of one
things a gruté or hutch (E. 180). Again she uses (E. resident on an island under Ionian skies where, as
179) the word Beudos for a short diaphanous frock Herodotus (I. 142) says, “the climate and seasons
are the most beautiful of any cities in the world.” the two verses into ten, the last “Dazzling my
SAPPHO “The many garlanded earth puts on her broidery” brain with gazing on the Sun.” Sappho knows the
(E. 133). “Thus of old did the dainty feet of Cretan golden-sandalled and queenly dawn (E. 19, 177).
maidens dance pat to the music beside some She wrote an ode to Hesperus, the Evening Star, of
lovely altar, pressing the soft smooth bloom of which we have only the tantalizing beginning,
the grass (E. 114).” As Thomas Davidson has so “fairest of all the stars that shine” (E. 32). Another
well said: “every hour of the day comes to Sappho graceful fragment quoted in antiquity to show the
with a fresh surprise.” We lie down for a noonday charm of repetition (E. 149)5 on the Evening Star,
siesta in “a murmurous, blossomy June,” as Steb- which comes in Catullus too, has influenced not
bing puts it, in the orchard of the nymphs where only Byron in Don Juan but Andrew Lang in Helen
(E. 4), of Troy (II. 4) and especially Tennyson (see p. 206).
“That Greek blockhead,” as Sir Walter Scott was
around
Through boughs of the apple called, though he knew more Greek than most
Cool waters sound. undergraduate students of Greek to-day, even if
From the rustling leaves he didn’t know the Sappho fragment, expresses
Drips sleep to the ground. the same idea in the Doom of Dever Girl, “All meet
(Unpublished, RHYS CARPENTER)4 whom day and care divide.”
In the Greek, as Edwin Cox says, “the sound Sappho is fond of birds, the dove, the lovely
of the words, the repetition of long vowels particu- or heavenly swallow (E. 122), the nightingale. The
larly omega, the poetic imagery of the whole and doves drive Aphrodite’s car in the first ode and in
the drowsy cadence of the last two words give this E. 16 “their heart grows light and they slacken the
fragment a combination of qualities probably not labor of their pinions.” Ben Jonson took from Sap-
surpassed in any language.” The beautiful verses pho (E. 138) his line in The Sad Shepherd, “the dear
about the pippin on the topmost branch we shall good angel of the spring, The nightingale,” and
quote below. In another fragment (E. 3) Sappho Swinburne, “The tawny sweet-winged thing
sees the stars in a way which Tennyson echoes Whose cry was but of spring.” A fragment pub-
when he writes: “As when in heaven the stars lished even since Edmonds’ book speaks of the
about the moon Look beautiful.” Or again Sap- “clear-voiced nightingales.” She knows exactly
pho’s love of nature appears in the line (E. 112): what crickets do at noon of a summer’s day. Listen
“the moon rose full and the maidens took their to their song (E. 94), rescued from Alcaeus, to
stand about the altar.” In the new Ode to Atthis whom Bergk had wrongly ascribed it:
the moon is not silver (as in E. 3) but rosy-
And clear song from beneath her wings doth raise
fingered: “after sunset the rosy-fingered moon
When she shouts-down the perpendicular blaze
beside the stars that are about her, when she Of the outspread sunshine of noon.
spreads her light o’er briny sea and eke o’er (EDMONDS)6
flowery field, while the dew lies so fair on the We see the woman also in her love of flowers
ground and the roses revive and the dainty an- as well as of birds. Flowers are her favorites and
thrysc and the melilot with all its blooms” (E. 86). she worships them with almost the modern rever-
Recently (1922) A. C. Benson in The Reed of Pan ence of the Japanese, whom I have sometimes
has combined fragment (E. 3) with the beautiful seen saying their morning prayers to a beautiful
half stanza quoted above, under the title Moonrise: bouquet. Take, for example, this simple but pretty
The moon high-hung in the hollow night flower-picture of Sappho’s (E. 107):
Resistless pours her silver tide;
I saw one day a-gathering flowers
Swift, swift the stars withdraw their light,
The daintiest little maid.
And their diminished glories hide.
(EDMONDS)
And where cool streams through reed-beds slip, She sympathizes with the hyacinth (E. 151),
The breeze through the orchard alley stirs, which the shepherd tramples under foot on the
And slumber well-nigh seems to drip mountain, and uses it in one of the most attrac-
From the dark arms of dusky firs.
tive flower-similes in all literature. Listen to this
In another fragment, which we quote below, aubade which has been recently found and very
Sappho pictures a spring midnight with almost tentatively restored (E. 82). It gives a delightful
astronomical exactness. She loves the sun: “I have glimpse also of Sappho’s ménage:
loved daintiness [from childhood] and for me love ‘Sappho, I swear if you come not forth I will love
possesses the brightness and beauty of the sun.” you no more. O rise and shine upon us and set
William Stebbing in his Minstrel of Love expands free your beloved strength from the bed, and then
like a pure lily beside the spring hold aloof your IF ZEUS chose us a King of the Flowers in his mirth,
SAPPHO
Chian robe and wash you in the water. And Cleïs He would call to the Rose and would royally
shall bring down from your presses saffron smock crown it,
and purple robe; and let a mantle be put over you For the Rose, ho, the Rose, is the grace of the earth,
and be crowned with a wreath of flowers tied Is the light of the plants that are growing upon it.
about your head; and so come, sweet with all the
beauty with which you make me mad. And do For the Rose, ho, the Rose, is the eye of the flowers,
you, Praxinoa, roast us nuts, so that I may make Is the blush of the meadows that feel themselves
the maidens a sweeter breakfast; for one of the fair—
Gods, child, has vouchsafed us a boon. This very Is the lightning of beauty that strikes through the
day has Sappho the fairest of all women vowed bowers
that she will surely return unto Mytilene the dear- On pale lovers who sit in the glow unaware.
est of all towns—return with us, the mother with
her children.’ Ho, the Rose breathes of love! Ho, the Rose lifts the
cup
Dearest Atthis, can you then forget all this that To the red lips of Cypris invoked for a guest!
happened in the old days? . . . Ho, the Rose, having curled its sweet leaves for the
(EDMONDS) world,
Takes delight in the motion its petals keep up,
Or take this other example of Sappho’s love of As they laugh to the wind as it laughs from the west!
flowers which Symonds has expanded into a son- Sappho, however, does mention the roses of
net too long to quote here. I give Tucker’s new Pieria in the famous lines spoken with characteris-
version: tic teacher’s tone, almost in the manner of Mrs.
Poyser. According to Plutarch, in one passage, the
Take springs of anise fair
verses are addressed to a wealthy woman, in
With soft hands twined,
And round thy bonny hair
another passage,7 to a woman of no refinement or
A chaplet bind; learning; according to Stobaeus,8 to a woman of
The Muse with smiles will bless no education; probably it was some rich but
Thy blossoms gay, uncultured Lesbian girl, who would not go to the
While from the garlandless Lesbian Smith or Vassar or Bryn Mawr:
She turns away.
Thou shalt die and be laid low in the grave, hidden
Sappho speaks of the golden pulses (E. 139): from mortal ken
Unremembered, and no song of the Muse wakens thy
[It was summer when I found you name again;
In the meadow long ago,] No Pierian rose brightens thy brow, lost in the name-
And the golden vetch was growing less throng,
By the shore. Thy dark spirit shall flit forth like a dream, bodiless
(BLISS CARMAN) ghosts among.
(SHOREY)
Sappho knows the little and common flowers,
the dainty anthrysc and melilot, the violets and For another expanded version by Swinburne
the lilies (E. 86, 83, 82), but, like Pindar, she in his Anactoria I must refer to Wharton. Sappho
especially loves the rose. Meleager’s garland of had known and loved the wee wee maiden Atthis
song assigned the rose to Sappho. She says in one when she was an awkward school girl, but now in
of the new fragments (E. 83): “with many a the bloom of beauty after a sad parting the fickle
garland of violets and sweet roses mingled, you Atthis has flitted away to another woman’s col-
have decked my flowing locks as I stood by your lege and clean forgotten Sappho for a rival teacher,
side, and with many a woven necklet made of a Andromeda; “I loved you, Atthis, long ago, when
hundred blossoms you have adorned my dainty my own girlhood was still all flowers, and you—
throat.” Philostratus in his Letters (51) says: “Sap- you seemed to me a small ungainly child” (E. 48).9
pho loves the rose and always crowns it with a “So you hate to think of me, Atthis; ’Tis all
meed of praise, likening beautiful maidens to it; Andromeda now” (Edmonds).
and she compares it to the bared fore-arms of the Lesbus was a land of flowers, of the rose and
Graces.” Fragment E. 68 says: “Hither pure rose- the violet, “a land rich in corn and oil and wine,
armed Graces, daughters of Zeus.” Sappho’s love in figs and olives, in building-wood and tinted
of the rose has led earlier collectors of Sappho’s marble,” as Tucker says. But this triangular island
fragments to include among her verses the famous (about thirty-five by twenty-five miles) had moun-
song in praise of the rose quoted by Achilles Ta- tains rising from two to three thousand feet at its
tius in his love romance on Clitophon and Leucippe, corners and two deep fiords on its southern coast.
which Elizabeth Barrett Browning has translated: From the northern coast Sappho must often have
looked across the short seven miles of laughing The dainty anthryscs quit their beds,
SAPPHO sea upon Troyland and thought of the Homeric The clover, honey-rich, unfolds.
poems in which Lesbus played such an important
Through all this beauty, hard unrest
rôle.1 0 The air like that of Athens as described by And longing crushing like a stone
Pindar, with a glamor wreathing such cities as Her tender heart, ofttimes alone
Smyrna, was so translucent that in the northeast She wanders with a weighted breast.
across the dividing sea many-fountained Ida could
easily be seen. It is perhaps an accident that there She cannot calm her quivering lip
And through the balmy, scented dark
is so little mention of mountain or sea in Sappho.
She cries aloud we must embark
But she was no “landlubber,” as Professor Allinson And thither come on some swift ship.
would have us believe.1 1 Pindar and the other lyric
poets were acquainted with the sea and so must Full clear her words to thee and me,
Sappho have known it, as she daily saw the ships For night with all her many ears
fly in and out of their haven on white wings (cf. Their ardent sound full gladly hears
first stanza of poem on p. 82). In one of the new And sends us o’er the severing sea.
(D. M. R.)
fragments (E. 86) we have a marvellous picture of
the sea in the last stanza of a poem which other- This ode alone marks Sappho as a great poet-
wise, with its love of flowers, with the beautiful ess. The reasons are: (1) the loving notice of little
simile of the rosy-fingered moon, is one of the and common flowers, (2) the comparison of Anac-
most perfect things in literature. The telepathic toria when surrounded by other women to the
and telegraphic sympathy of Sappho startles us moon in the midst of her surrounding stars, the
and the wireless message sent by night across the bold personification of the moon secured by the
severing sea, whose sigh you can hear in the use of the single figure “rosy-fingered,” (3) sudden
original Greek, anticipates the modern radio.1 2 As and masterful survey of land and sea, (4) the suc-
this is a memory poem, and Anactoria, like Hal- cessful centering of attention upon Anactoria’s
lam, is “lost,” for the time being at least, I have homesickness even in the midst of such far-
followed as a model Tennyson’s In Memoriam in reaching beauty of land and sea, (5) the remark-
metre, stanza, and rhyming. The first line seems ably forceful portrayal of what in our day we call
to be “remembered” in rhyme as it were after the thought-transference as seen, for example, in Ten-
interval during which the second and third lines nyson’s Aylmer’s Field or Enoch Arden, (6) and not
have been made and rhymed. least important, the simplicity and sharpness of
outline displayed in the imagery. “Night” is a
SAPPHO’S GIRL FRIEND ACROSS THE SEA
vague, widely diffused, mystic thing, but Sappho
ATTHIS, in Sardis far away makes us see her a thing of many ears and one of
Anactoria dear to thee them close to Anactoria’s face. Night does not
And dear indeed alike to me
send a mystic intimation such as Tennyson’s
Now dwells, but hither often stray
vibration of light might indicate. But she speaks
Her thoughts sent usward by the power right out in a clear voice that carries far enough to
That lives anew the life she loved reach across the sea to Sappho. A seventh reason
When thou her glorious goddess proved,— is the strange, hot emotion of love and sorrow
Thy songs her joy at every hour.
and longing that throbs like a pulse in every line
You were her sun, now set too soon; and makes the whole letter a living creature. Mil-
Among the Lydian dames she shines ton said and lovers of poetry have always agreed
As, after sunset, glow the lines that poetry must be simple, sensuous, and pas-
Of light the rosy-fingered moon sionate. By sensuous he of course meant expressed
in images involving the use of the bodily senses.
Throws on her retinue of stars
Is there anything in poetry, ancient or modern,
Spreading a far-flung lane of beams
That gleams the salt sea o’er and streams that more exactly meets Milton’s requirements
Across the rocky shore that bars than these few lines of Sappho’s letter to her girl
friend? Now if this is evident to the reader of an
In vain the light that floods its gloom, English translation, it is vastly more so to one who
And leaping landward bathes the fields knowing the meaning of the words has read them
Where many a flower its beauty yields
in the Greek and then read them again because
With fragrant variegated bloom.
they were so sweet, and read them a third time
Full fair the dew springs forth and holds and many times until the music haunts him like
The light, the roses lift their heads, the face of a lover.
Notes BASCOUL, J. M. F., La chaste Sappho de Lesbos et Stésichore. Les
SAPPHO
1. For such head-cloths cf. the Latin word struppus and prétendues amies de Sappho. Paris, 1913.
the festival at Falerii, called struppearia, Dion. Hal., XI. BERGK, TH., Poetae Lyrici Graeci. Vol. III, Leipzig, 1914.
39 and Poulsen, Etruscan Tomb Paintings, p. 23. Ed-
monds’ new reading is very uncertain; for his previous BETHE, E., Griechische Lyrik. Berlin, 1920.
reading and poetical version cf. Sappho in the Added
Light of the New Fragments, p. 28. BRANDT, LIDA R., Social Aspects of Greek Life in the Sixth Century
B.C. Philadelphia, 1921.
2. I keep Bergk’s reading, “Foolish woman, pride not
thyself on a ring.” Edmonds changes the text and BRANDT, P., Sappho, ein Lebensbild aus den Frühlingstagen alt-
translates, “But come, be not so proud of a ring.” griechischer Dichtung. Leipzig, 1905.
3. Cf. Poulsen, in Jahrbuch, XXI. 209 ff. (1906); Die BUNNER, ANNE, see Wharton.
Bronzen von Olympia, IV., pl. VII. 74. CARMAN, BLISS, Sappho, One Hundred Lyrics. Boston, 1904.
4. There are many other poetical versions by Merivale,
CARROLL, M., Greek Women. Philadelphia, 1907.
Symonds, F. Tennyson, Tucker, Cox, Edmonds, etc.
For an absurd interpretation Sappho in the Rain, cf. CHRIST, W.VON-SCHMID, W., Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur.
Wiener Studien, XXXVIII. 176 ff. (1916). Munich, 1912.
5. Poetical translations by Merivale, Arnold, Appleton, F. COX, E. M., Sappho and the Sapphic Metre in English. London,
Tennyson, Symonds, Edmonds, Miller, Percy Mackaye, 1916. Poems of Sappho. London, New York, 1924.
etc.
CIPOLLINI, A., Saffo. Milan, 1890.
6. Sappho in the Added Light of the New Fragments, p. 25,
but in Lyra Graeca, I, p. 253, he changes his previous CROISET, A., Histoire de la Litterature Grecque (vol. II, pp. 226-
emendation and reads a text which I consider very 244). Paris, 1898.
uncertain, “and pours down a sweet shrill song from
DE COURTEN, MARIA L. G., Saffo (Supplementi ad “Aegyptus”).
beneath his wings, when the Sun-god illumines the
Milan, 1921.
earth with his downshed flame outspread.”
7. Praec. Con., 48; Qu. Conv., III. 1. 2. DIEHL, E., Supplementum lyricum3 (Kleine Texte, 33-34). Bonn,
1917.
8. Flor., IV. 12.
EDMONDS, J. M., The New Fragments of Alcaeus, Sappho and
9. For Swinburne’s expansion cf. p. 210; cf. also Percy Corinna. Cambridge, 1909.
Mackaye in Sappho and Phaon. Bliss Carman has
evolved the following from Sappho’s one line: EDMONDS, J. M., Sappho in the Added Light of the New Frag-
ments. Cambridge, 1912. (Has some poetical
I loved thee, Atthis, in the long ago translations.)
When the great oleanders were in flower
EDMONDS, J. M., Lyra Graeca, I, in The Loeb Classical Library.
In the broad herded meadows full of sun.
New York, 1922. [Abbreviated as E.]
And we would often at the fall of dusk
Wander together by the silver stream, EDMONDS, J. M., Various articles in Classical Review, Classical
When the soft grass-heads were all wet with dew Quarterly and Cambridge Philological Society’s Proceed-
And purple misted in the fading light, ings, from 1909 to 1922.
And joy I knew and sorrow at thy voice,
And the superb magnificence of love— FARNELL, G. S., Greek Lyric Poetry. London, 1891.
The loneliness that saddens solitude, G LASER, R., Sappho, die zehnte Muse (Südwest-deutsche
And the sweet speech that makes it durable, Monatsblätter). 1916.
The bitter longing and the keen desire,
The sweet companionship through quiet days GRENFELL, B. P., and HUNT, A. S.,The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Vols.
In the slow ample beauty of the world I-XV, especially I, X, and XV. London, 1898. 1922.
And the unutterable glad release
HIGGINSON, T. W., Atlantic Essays. Boston, 1871.
Within the temple of the holy night;
O Atthis, how I loved thee long ago LATINI, GIOV., Saffo, Mimnermo e Catullo Viterbo, 1914.
In that fair perished summer by the sea.
LAVAGNINI, B., I Lirici Greci. Turin, 1923.
10. Cf. Miss Shields, “Lesbos in the Trojan War,” in The
Classical Jour., XIII. 670 ff. (1918); The Cults of Lesbos LOBEL, E., Sappho. Oxford, 1925.
(Johns Hopkins University Diss.) 1917. MACKAIL, J. W., Lectures on Greek Poetry (pp. 83-112). London
11. Cf. Transactions and Proceedings of the American and New York, 1911.
Philological Association, LIII. xvi (1922). MEABE, T., Saffo (Spanish translation). Paris, 1913.
12. For Mnesidice, Edmonds would now read Anactoria.
MERINO, A. FERNANDEZ, Estudios de Literatura Griega. Safo ante la
There is a good metrical translation by G. M. Whicher
crítica moderna.3 Madrid, 1884.
in Manatt, Aegean Days, London, 1913, p. 286.
MEUNIER, M., Sappho, Traduction nouvelle de tous les fragments.
Selected Bibliography of Recent Books on (Has not recent fragments.) Paris, 1911.
Sappho MILBURN, LUCY MCD., Lost Letters from Lesbos. Chicago, 1902.
ALY, see Pauly-Wissowa.
MILLER, MARION MILLS, and ROBINSON, D. M. The Songs of Sappho
BASCOUL, J. M. F., La chaste Sappho de Lesbos et le mouvement (Greek text of all Sappho, of all the epigrams about
féministe à Athènes au IVe siècle av. J. C. Paris. 1911. her, of Erinna, of the new papyrus biography of Sap-
pho, etc., prepared and annotated and literally trans-
SAPPHO lated by D. M. Robinson. Introduction on The Recovery
and Restoration of the Egyptian Relics of Sappho and a
critical Memoir of the Real Sappho by D. M. Robinson.
Introduction by M. M. Miller on the Sapphic Metre,
and Poetical Adaptations of Sappho. New York, 1924.
MUSTARD, W. P., Classical Echoes in Tennyson. New York, 1904.
O’HARA, J. M., The Poems of Sappho. Portland, 1910.
OSBORN, PERCY, Poems of Sappho. London, 1909.
PASELLA, PIETRO, I Frammenti di Alceo e di Saffo tradotti. Rome,
1922.
PATRICK, MARY MILLS, Sappho and the Island of Lesbos. Boston,
1914. Reprinted, 1924.
PAULY-WISSOWA-KROLL-WITTE, Real-Encyclopädie. Exhaustive
article on Sappho by Aly. Stuttgart, 1920.
PETERSEN, W., The Lyric Songs of the Greeks. Translated into
English Verse. Boston, 1918.
REINACH, TH., Pour mieux connaître Sappho (Académie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres). Paris, 1911.
ROBINSON, D. M., See Miller-Robinson.
SCOLLARD, C. L.,-JONES, T. S., Sapphics. Clinton, N. Y., 1910.
SITZLER, J., Bibliography on Sappho in Bursian (Kroll) Jahresber-
icht über die Fortschritte der klassischen Altertumswissen-
schaft. CXXXIII, 1907, pp. 104 ff., pp. 176 ff., CLXX-
VIII, 1919, pp. 46 ff.
SMITH, J. S. EASBY-, Songs of Sappho. Washington, D. C., 1891.
SMYTH, H. W., Greek Melic Poets. London, 1900.
STACPOOLE, H. D. V., Sappho, a new rendering. London 1920.
STANLEY, ALBERT A., Greek Themes in Modern Musical Settings.
(Includes, pp. 1-68, Music to Percy Mackaye’s Sappho
and Phaon). University of Michigan Humanistic Studies,
XV, 1923.
STEBBING, W., Greek and Latin Anthology thought into English
Verse. Part III, Greek Epigrams and Sappho. Adaptations
and Expansions of Sappho. None of the new fragments
included. London, 1923.
STEINER, B., Sappho. Jena, 1907.
STORER, EDWARD, Sappho (Poets Translation Series). London,
1916.
TUCKER, T. G., Sappho. Melbourne, Australia, 1914.
TUTIN, J. R., Sappho, The Queen of Song. London and Boston,
1914.
VIVIEN, RENÉE [pseudonym of an American lady, Pauline Tarn,
1877-1909, who lived in Paris], Sappho, traduction nou-
velle avec le texte grec. Paris, 1903. Reprinted in the
anonymous Sappho et huit poetesses grecques. Texte et
reduction. Paris, 1909.
WAGNER, R., Übersetzung der grösseren Bruchstücke Sapphos im
Versmass des Originals nebst erläuternden Bemerkungen.
1916.
SUSAN GUBAR (ESSAY DATE 1996)
SAPPHO
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
HILDA DOOLITTLE, BETTER KNOWN AS THE
MODERNIST POET H. D., ON SAPPHO’S
ARTISTIC LEGACY
Little—not little—but all, all roses! So at the
last, we are forced to accept the often quoted
tribute of Meleager, late Alexandrian, half
Jew, half Grecian poet. Little but all roses!
True, Sappho has become for us a name, an
abstraction as well as a pseudonym for
poignant human feeling, she is indeed rocks
set in a blue sea, she is the sea itself, break-
ing and tortured and torturing, but never
broken. She is the island of artistic perfection
where the lover of ancient beauty
(shipwrecked in the modern world) may yet
find foothold and take breath and gain cour-
age for new adventures and dream of yet
unexplored continents and realms of future
artistic achievement. She is the wise Sappho.
H. D. Excerpt from “The Wise Sappho.” In Notes on

Thought and Vision, edited by Anne Janowitz,
p. 67. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1982.
SAPPHO
SAPPHO
SAPPHO
SAPPHO
SAPPHO
SAPPHO
SAPPHO
Bronze bust of Sappho.
SAPPHO
SAPPHO
SAPPHO
SAPPHO
EVA STEHLE (ESSAY DATE 1997)

SOURCE: Stehle, Eva. “Sappho’s Circle.” In Performance
and Gender in Ancient Greece: Nondramatic Poetry in Its
Setting, pp. 262-318. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1997.
In the following excerpt, Stehle reads Sappho’s poetry
through the lens of performance, distinguishing the nar-
rator and poet from the performer to examine how Sap-
pho creates various possibilities for feminine identity and
subjectivity.
Love among women was an area of women’s

interest, so one would expect that Sappho’s love
poetry was performed to her circle.1 But Sappho’s
love poetry does not support the analogy with the
symposium poets; the major poems and fragments
are antithetical to the creation of collective
bonhomie. It is not just that they intimately ad-
dress one person but that they implicitly reject
the circle. Given their disinterest in striving for
the psychological efficacy of renewing the group,
I think that these poems had another function. To the singer of 31 V does not allow room for the
SAPPHO
demonstrate my reason for thinking that the circle listeners’ presence in her fiction or insinuate that
was not their primary setting, I begin by examin- the group has any function in relation to her.6
ing 31 V, then I propose a setting for it that makes I have characterized this poem as “overheard,”
more sense of its communicative strategy. but the image is not adequate to describe the com-
Here is the poem, one over which there has municative situation that the poem establishes.
been much dispute:2 The singer’s visible and audible control as she
sings, the beauty of the highly organized words,
ф␣␫´u⑀␶␣␫´ µ␱␫ ␹η̃␷␱␴ o␴␱␴ ␪d␱␫␴␫␷
hµµ⑀␷’ ␷␩␳, ő␶␶␫␴ d␷␣´ ␶␫Ώ␴ ␶␱␫ mean that the listeners must suppose a radical
r␴␦␣´ ␷⑀␫ ␹␣r ␲␭␣´ ␴␫␱␷ ␣␦␷ ф␻␷⑀r␴␣␴ ύ␲␣␹␱ύ⑀␫ disjunction between outer poise and inner tur-
. . . . . moil. More than that, the singer describes herself
5 ␹␣␫ ␥⑀␭␣␫´␴␣␴ rµd␳␱⑀␷, ␶“ µ’ ‘␣´ ␷ immediately as unable to speak.7 What then are
␹␣␳␦␫´␣␷ d␷ ␱␶½␪⑀␴␫␷ d␲␫␱␣␫␴⑀␷
we hearing as we hear the poem performed? In
¨␴ ␥␣´ ␳ h␴ ␴’ o␦␻ ␤␳␱␹d’ ␴ µ⑀ ф¨␷␩␴’ ␱¤␦h␷ h␶’
⑀o␹⑀␫,3 the fourth stanza the singer adds that she is look-
. . . . . ing distressed—sweating, trembling, and pale. The
N␭␭N †␹␣µ† µd␷ ␥␭ω̃␴␴␣ †h␣␥⑀†, ␭d␲␶␱␷ singer in the here and now is not the same as the
10 ␦’ ␣␶␫␹␣ ␹␳ ␲␷␳ u␲␣␦⑀␦␳ω̃µ␣␹⑀␷, speaker constituted by the text of the poem.8 A
ω̃␲␲␣ ˜ ␶⑀␴␴␫ ␱u␦d␷ Ή␳␩µ, d␲␫␤␳¨µ⑀␫␴␫ ␦’ S␹␱␷␣␫,
split between the physically present performer
. . . . .
†d␹␣␦⑀† µ’o␦␳␻␴ ␹␣␹␹d⑀␶␣␫, ␶␳ω̃µ␱␴ ␦d (the singer) and the poem’s first-person self-
␲␣␫␴␣␷ S␥␳⑀␫, ␹␭␻␳␱␶d␣ ␦d ␲␱␫´␣␴ representation (the speaker) has opened up.9
15 hµµ␫, ␶⑀␪␷␣´ ␹␩␷ ␦’“␭r␥␻ ‘␲␫␦⑀␩␴ ф␣j␷␱µ’ ‘µ’
The separation of singer and speaker com-
␣␶[␣␫.
. . . . . bined with the fictional situation described and
␣
˜ ␭␭a ␲N␷ ␶␱␭µ␣␶␱␷, d␲⑀j †␹␣␫ ␲d␷␩␶␣†␧ the soliloquizing creates a fictional character
within the poem whose inner emotional state is
He appears to me to be equal to the gods, that
man who sits facing you and listens to you sweetly laid open to secret observers—a remarkable con-
speaking right near him and laughing enchant- figuration for archaic lyric. To see the difference
ingly—a thing that truly makes the heart in my from symposium poetry, we can recall several of
breast cower. For as I look at you fleetingly I can the poems discussed in Chapter 5. Symposium
no longer utter a thing, but my tongue is shat-
poets address absent figures: Archilochos, for
tered (?), instantly light fire runs through my flesh,
I see nothing with my eyes but my ears resound, instance, accosting Lykambes in 172 W. But his
sweat flows down me and a shiver seizes me speech is meant to be public, as public as possible,
whole, I am a fresher green than grass, and I seem for Archilochos is engaged in shaming Lykambes.
to myself to lack little of death. But all is bearable, The address therefore renders Lykambes imagina-
since even a poor man (?) . . .
tively present so that the symposium group can
The song puts the speaker into a fictional situ- share in denigration of him. Anakreon addresses a
ation: she is looking at a man and woman convers- boy who, he says, cannot hear him (360 PMG).
ing. She also addresses the woman in this scene However, he does not establish a fictional situa-
(“you” in lines 2 and 7), who by the logic of the tion for himself, so the remark is not overheard;
setting cannot hear her. The singer must be speak- rather, the boy’s failure to “hear” marks the boy as
ing to herself.4 The audience must overhear her absent or uncomprehending. Anakreon’s poem
since her imaginary situation means that she is therefore functions both as an admission of love
not speaking to it. The singer shifts her attention and as a comment to the audience about the
to her own state in the second stanza, and thereaf- paradox of desirable innocence. Ibykos, by con-
ter she is speaking about herself to herself. After trast, exploits the disjunct between singer’s control
describing the symptoms of emotional distress and inner chaos to express his very being as love-
that afflict her each time she looks at the woman, torn, but his poems have no addressee or fictional
Sappho reasserts emotional control at line 17, at setting. They are presented as confessions to the
the moment of near fainting. Her recovery is actual audience.
reflected in the few remaining words of that line: The symposium poets also create fictions in
“all is bearable.”5 The tight inward focus of “I their poetry. Alkaios’ poem from exile (130B V)—
seem to myself” in line 16, followed by her recall the closest parallel—posits a fictional situation for
of some mitigating idea, further denies the audi- the speaker but does not inhibit identification of
ence its obvious role as sympathetic substitute for speaker and singer. He therefore threatens his
the woman who affects Sappho. Far from striving audience by portraying his assumed isolation,
to affirm her membership in a circle of friends, while Sappho’s poem takes it as a given. Alkaios’
poem has an addressee, Agesilaidas, whose identity difference between the speaker’s position and the
SAPPHO is unknown. He is a sympathetic figure, for the man’s; but it ends by redefining the difference in
singer complains to him. He is probably a member mundane terms (poor versus rich) that might eas-
of the group or someone who could be imagined ily change—a hopeful idea that revives the
as a participant, in which case the address to him speaker.1 2 Love, says the poem, is both immortal-
represents communication to the group. Conceiv- izing and ephemeral. Overall Burnett finds Sap-
ably Agesilaidas’ identity was such that speaking pho’s lesson in the need to transmute desire into
to him precluded speaking to the hetaireia. Barring appreciation of beauty.1 3 In sum, Sappho’s strategy
the latter possibility, utterance is still communica- is to demonstrate her ultimate detachment from
tion from actual singer to actual audience, even any erotic involvement and to bring detachment
though it must be thought of as traversing a within the circle as an ideal, promoting an aes-
distance. Hipponax too offers a partial parallel thetic sensuality in response to the ineluctable
with Sappho, though with utterly different effect, problem of women’s being separated by their
but despite the lively fictional accounts of lowlife families’ command.
doings, usually told in the past tense, his short But would 31 V be heard that way? If Sappho
and broken fragments do not appear to split singer in person sang the poem to a group of parthenoi
and speaker. The poems that are narratives are who knew her, they would inevitably take it as an
directed to their actual audience and the prayers expression of her attitude toward them. If they
are a humorous form of self-staging as rogue.1 0 thought that she had a specific person in mind,
The various aspects, therefore, of Sappho’s the rest would feel emotionally left out, for the
technique are found in symposium poetry. But no contrast between Sappho’s intense reaction to one
extant symposium poem uses all of Sappho’s and her disregard for all the others present would
devices together: the fictional situation, the be evident. If they thought that she had no one
unreachable addressee, the inward focus, the in mind, her description of her symptoms would
coherent exposition of psychosomatic devasta- seem mocking. It seems to me that as a didactic
tion; nor does any symposium poem push them piece the poem would fail because an impersonal
so far. In its creation of fantasy scene and inner attitude projected within a small group will be
monologue, Sappho’s poem actually denies the read as rejection of friendship with other members
situation of performance by detaching the speaker of the group.
from the actual setting, singer, and collected audi- Let us make the other choice and think further
ence. This is certainly not a poem for a group like about a performance context for the poem. The
a symposium group, one that used performance only way 31 can be heard without appearing to
to reinforce a sense of collectivity. How then can ignore or spoof the emotions of its audience is for
we understand the poem as performance? each auditor to take it as meant for herself alone.
To one who would study it as performed com- As a result, the poem gains immediacy as each
munication, the poem presents two choices. One listener loses consciousness of any rival auditor.1 4
can pursue the idea that the poem was performed But members of a group with established relation-
to a group of a different sort, a group within ships, affections, and jealousies could not banish
which it was appropriate for the singer to make a each other from mind. The poem would achieve
point of her distance and detachment from the its greatest emotional impact, therefore, if a
audience in her self-presentation. Or else one can woman sang it to herself. Instead of hoping that
look for an altogether different performance Sappho envisioned her, she would envision Sap-
context for it. The first is Anne Burnett’s approach. pho. The separation of speaker and singer effected
Burnett notes Sappho’s detachment (which she by the poem means that a woman who sang the
finds in the content and tone of the poetry, not in poem could simultaneously hear it as another’s
performance dynamics). She also accepts an voice. The fictional setting invites her to imagine
informal version of the initiation theory and sees herself in that situation, feeling “Sappho’s” eyes
the audience as a circle of parthenoi preparing for on her and hearing “Sappho’s” thoughts. She
marriage.1 1 She therefore takes Sappho’s aloofness could easily picture “Sappho,” since the latter
as a didactic stance. Thus in this poem Sappho gives such full description of herself. To be its
uses herself as a model to demonstrate a method focus makes the poem thrilling to any auditor.
of recovering self-possession: the poem begins From the singer/addressee’s point of view, the
with a statement that “smilingly” compliments poem has two powerful effects. First, the poem
the addressee (to sit near you is the highest creates an illusion of communication with “Sap-
happiness) and articulates an extreme sense of the pho.” Within the framework of the fictional set-
ting, “Sappho’s” speech is telepathic, for the ad- We can see that when we explore its effects
SAPPHO
dressee becomes cognizant of it as she speaks to from the position of a unique recipient the poem
the man. Nor does “Sappho” withdraw: since the comes most to life as communication and appears
poem does not begin as a soliloquy for the ad- to have the greatest psychological efficacy; that is,
dressee (as it does for other listeners), she would it has the power to influence the auditor positively
take lines 8 and following as the continuation of in ways that one can imagine Sappho wanted. It
“Sappho’s” address to her.1 5 The result is two-way creates more impression of interchange, paradoxi-
interchange: since “Sappho” describes herself, the cally, than if Sappho were to sing it to a group as
addressee knows what “Sappho” feels and sees an illustration of her feelings. The earlier analysis
“Sappho” along with “Sappho” seeing her and see- of the disjunct between speaker and singer has
ing herself. From the recipient’s point of view, already shown that the poem is not a libretto for
each woman is seeing herself and the other; she self-presentation: the fictional speaker cannot be
also hears “Sappho”—and can imagine “Sappho” realized by the singer but must rely on the audi-
hearing her thoughts. The poem actually invites tor’s imagination. Let us take these two aspects of
her participation in a secret conversation. the poem together: they suggest that the poem
Dependent on the first effect is the second: was created as text, as Sappho’s projection of
the addressee would have to imagine herself as herself into a form that would be independent of
desirable to others, for she would find both “Sap- her presence. I propose, therefore, that Sappho
pho” and the man beside her in thrall to her, and composed this poem as a gift for a woman from
the reactions of both would guide the representa- whom she expected to be cut off for some reason.
tion of herself that she projects into the picture.1 6 Poems 16, 94, and 96 V show that separation was
And how unconventionally Sappho goes about a painful reality for women. The poem then has
signaling her attractiveness! To feel the full impact as its function to keep a sense of contact alive over
of the scene of the addressee’s speaking to the time and distance. In blurring subject-object
man, we must compare it to one of Greek culture’s distinctions as she does, Sappho tries not only to
most prevalent narratives of female beauty, the foster the fantasy of continued intimacy but to
rape. The loveliness of a young woman in myth is reproduce the sense of mutual affirmation that
routinely represented by her ability to attract a women must have gotten from Sappho or in her
god or hero, who seizes the opportunity for an act circle. We can add that the telepathic communica-
of intercourse and then is off. Examples are tion implied within 31 mirrors its actual mode of
mentioned in Chapter 2. In Sappho’s poem, by communication, writing, which is silent and able
contrast, the man seems “like a god” but sits im- to traverse distance. The repeatability of the scene
mobilized. Instead of acting, he listens to “you” (the man sits in the continuative present and Sap-
talking and laughing. Since she is thus the one pho collapses every time she looks) reflects the re-
who defines the situation rather than the object iterability of the written statement. If I am right,
of his wilful desire, she finds herself represented as then Sappho was one of the first major poets to
a speaking subject in the mirror of the poem. Even exploit the textual possibilities of writing, with its
if the addressee does not construe the man as ability to project an implied speaker independent
important, his behavior reflects on the image of of the physical mode of transmission. I return to
herself that she is invited to create. this issue at the end of the chapter.
With respect to “Sappho,” the revisionist im- How, then, should we think about gendered
age granted the addressee is even stronger: “Sap- speech in this poem? Since it is not a poem
pho” both listens and sees her but does not designed for a singer’s self-presentation to a circle
objectify her, since “Sappho’s” perception leads to of friends, we should look at the en-gendering of
an overwhelming sense of her very being. The ad- the singer/addressee who creates an image of
dressee accordingly perceives herself not as a body herself for herself as she performs it. I have already
caught in “Sappho’s” gaze, but as a presence for pointed out that she can perceive the force of her
others.1 7 Her subjectivity and desirability are presence by its effect on the other figures in the
inseparable in the phrases “sweetly speaking” and poem. Yet more subtly, the poem forces the recipi-
“laughing enchantingly.” Thus the poem provides ent to define her own desire by construing the
its addressee with an ideal image of herself in scene. The extant lines never name “Sappho’s”
terms that resist the culture’s objectification of emotion, only its symptoms, so the singer/
women, just as Sappho reversed the dominant addressee can decide what “Sappho” feels, depend-
construction of the female in her own self- ing on what she wants from “Sappho.” The man
presentation. might or might not be important, depending on
her inflection of the scene. He might function for normal channels.1 9 Desire in Sappho’s poetry,
SAPPHO an addressee simply to indicate a setting in which then, is a form of and metaphor for contact
“Sappho” cannot approach, or she might find the despite separation.
idea of proximity to a man or the implication of In 1 V Sappho achieves similar effects by
marriage exciting. Nor must the man be a future another route. Sappho begins by calling on Aph-
husband; a listener could think of him as an rodite not to tame her with pains but to come as
alternative to her present husband, for imagina- she has come before in her sparrow-drawn chariot.
tion is free. The poem provides a field in which I quote the latter part of the poem (13-28):
the recipient can arrange a variety of relationships
centered on herself, while she must act as subject ␣t␺␣ ␦’ d␰␫´Ꭽ␱␯␶␱· ␴sgr;˜ ␦’, Ή µ␣´ Ꭽ␣␫>␣,
µ⑀␫␦␫␣␫´␴sgr;␣␫␴’ P␪␣␯␣´ ␶␻␫ ␲>␱␴␻ ´ ␲␻␫
in positioning the other figures emotionally.
15 }>⑀’ –␶␶␫ ␦␩¤␶⑀ ␲d␲␱␯␪␣ Ꭽ¬␶␶␫
In singing the poem, the addressee speaks of ␦␩¤␶⑀ Ꭽ␣´ ␭␩µµ␫
herself through the mouth of another whom she . . . . .
Ꭽ¬␶␶␫ µ␱␫ µ␣´ ␭␫␴␶␣ ␪e␭␻ ␥e␯⑀␴␪␣␫
creates in imagination. Within the poem she sees
µ␣␫␯␱´ ␭␣␫ ␪␷´µ␻␫· ␶␫´␯␣ ␦␩¤␶⑀ ␲⑀␫´␪␻
and hears herself through the others’ eyes and ]␴␣´ ␥␩␯ d␵ ␴N␯ ␾␫␭␱´ ␶␣␶␣;2 0 ␶␫´␵ ␴’, Ή
ears. She therefore conceives herself as a split 20 ␺␣␲␾’, P␦␫´Ꭽ␩␴␫;
subject, finding herself in another’s consciousness . . . . .
of her; but because she creates the other whose Ꭽ␣r ␥N> ␣k ␾⑀␷´␥⑀␫, ␶␣␹e␻␵ ␦␫␻ ´ ␰⑀␫,
voice she uses to represent herself, hers is a self- ␣k ␦c ␦ω̃>␣ µx ␦eᎭ⑀␶’, P␭␭N ␦␻ ´ ␴⑀␫,
conscious split subjectivity. Her performance ␣k ␦c µx ␾␫´␭⑀␫, ␶␣␹e␻␵ ␾␫␭␩´ ␴⑀␫
Ꭽ␻uᎭ d␪e␭␱␫␴␣.
therefore counteracts women’s gendered public
. . . . .
self-presentation as unaware objects for others. 25 h␭␪⑀ µ␱␫ Ꭽ␣r ␯υ̃␯, ␹␣␭e␲␣␯ ␦c ␭υ̃␴␱␯
The significance of Sappho’s poem must be seen dᎭ µ⑀>␫´µ␯␣␯, –␴␴␣ ␦e µ␱␫ ␶e␭⑀␴␴␣␫
in light of the stance assigned to women speakers ␪υ̃µ␱␵ kµe>>⑀␫, ␶e␭⑀␴␱␯, ␴˜ ␦’ ␣␶␣
as we uncovered it in Chapter 2: in public perfor- ␴␷´µµ␣␹␱␵ h␴␴␱.
mance women dramatized their dissociation from . . . swiftly they arrived; and you, blessed one,
their bodies and voices. None of the poems with a smile on your immortal face, asked what
examined there comes from Lesbos, but, as the again I suffer and why again I call and what I most
wedding poetry shows, the same assumptions wish in my mad heart to have happen; whom
again should I persuade to [ ] into your affection
about male and female seem to have been preva-
(or lead you back into her affection)? Who does
lent on Lesbos. When juxtaposed with Alkman’s you injustice, Sappho? For even if she flees, soon
partheneia, 31 V seems subversive: it elicits the she will chase, and if she does not accept presents,
singer/recipient’s awareness of herself as desiring she will nevertheless give them, and if she does
and desirable in addition to fabricating a female not love, soon she will love, even if unwilling.
Come to me now also, free me from harsh cares,
speaker who speaks of her own desire.1 8
bring to fulfillment all that my heart yearns to ac-
If 31 V had no specific performance context complish, and you yourself be my ally.
because it was written for a woman to sing to
In the poem the address to Aphrodite becomes
herself, we have no hope of identifying the age of
a recalled conversation, which switches from
the recipient or her actual relationship to Sappho.
indirect into direct discourse, blurring the time
Sappho may have given 31 to a parthenos whom
difference. The past appears to be now, the divin-
she had trained for performance but would not
ity there in “Sappho’s” presence. A collective audi-
expect to see again. She may have composed it for
ence would be reduced to the status of ignored
a companion from her circle. The separation
observers as the narration of a past event turns
would not necessarily result from one woman’s
into a dramatic projection in the present. This
departure from Lesbos, for the shifts of political
poem, like 31 V, does not present its singer to the
alignment alone probably barred women from
audience as one among them or constitute its
seeing one another at times. Sappho may in fact
auditors as a group.
have been a lover of the one she begifted, but her
poems do not reveal actual relationships. They The dramatic situation is further displaced
use the expression or intimation of desire to from the actual context of performance by the
bridge the distance and keep contact with her treatment of the first person. The whole poem is
emotionally alive. It is a striking fact that Sap- an address to Aphrodite, but within that address
pho’s declarations and descriptions of love and the singer narrates to Aphrodite a previous
desire are always mediated by distance, the inac- epiphany of the goddess’s. This narration begins
cessibility of one even to the other’s speech by in mediated form: “you” remains Aphrodite from
the opening address through the first part of the committing “injustice” by staying away. If the
SAPPHO
narration, while “I” is the singer. Then in mid- singer/recipient is torn between the impulse to
stanza (line 18) the construction switches to direct come and advice from others not to come, this
discourse and “I” becomes Aphrodite.2 1 Two suc- poem will give her both precedent and justifica-
cessive first-person verbs (␪e␭␻ and ␲⑀␫´␪␻) have tion for yielding to impulse. Sappho’s unparal-
different referents. Just after the moment when leled use of legal and military language, as well as
the singer’s voice becomes Aphrodite’s, “Aphro- her unique request that Aphrodite take practical
dite” addresses “Sappho” by name. The effect of steps to bring a woman (back), indicate that Sap-
this transfer is to detach the character “Sappho” pho seeks a different effect from that of 31 V. Like
from the singer and make her a figure in the the poems discussed in the last section, this may
imagination of the listener. be a political poem veiled in the language of
personal need. The term ␾␫␭␱´ ␶␣␵ can mean either
The poem withholds even knowledge from a
“love” or “friendship,” so would be well-suited to
collective audience: the woman who causes “Sap-
link Sappho’s fictional self-presentation as desir-
pho’s” pain is not named, and the listeners would
ing to her actual meaning of seeking political
be left in the dark. Nor do I think that her identity
intimacy within a circle.2 3
would be known to the audience from real life,
given that the poem would seem gloating if the The textuality that we discovered, put to use
woman had (re)turned to Sappho and risky if she in 31 V to counteract the effects of separation, is
had not: if the woman did not soon reconcile with deployed here to undo separation. If Sappho sent
Sappho, Sappho’s influence with Aphrodite would the poem to the woman she meant, the woman
appear to have faded. And the poem makes a could always renew and justify her attachment to
rather remarkable claim: Aphrodite once told Sap- Sappho through the imagery of erotic compul-
pho that she would coerce whomever Sappho sion. She might notice the veiled threat as well,
wanted (back?) (18-24). How many current inti- contained simply in the lack of a specifying
mates, ex-lovers, or rivals for others’ affection pronoun in lines 23-24: Aphrodite does not say
would want to hear that? whether the other woman will pursue “you” (i.e.,
“Sappho”) or will pursue some other (and learn
Like 31, the poem is textual; it presents a what it is to be disdained).2 4 Sappho clearly seeks
fictional “Sappho” to be created in imagination reciprocity of attachment, so if the woman was
by a singer/recipient who identifies herself as the inclined to return to Sappho she could supply
“she” of whom “Sappho” speaks. She would “you” without making anything of its absence.2 5
overhear “Sappho’s” determination to gain (or But if she resisted the idea of joining Sappho, she
recover) intimacy (␾␫␭␱´ ␶␣␵) with her.2 2 She would might hear Aphrodite’s promise as a threat to
hear herself described by Aphrodite as bound to make her pursue others.
become an active pursuer, an agent of her own
desire. The second of the two effects treated above, Some will object that I have demoted 1 V from
portrayal of the other woman as at once desiring a love poem to a political poem. I do not think
and desirable, seems to operate in this poem too. that any of the love poems are a candid cry of
On the other hand, this poem sounds very differ- emotion or even a taming of ardor by controlled
ent in tone and attitude from 31. Aphrodite’s expression. They are rather the vehicle for expen-
speech has an aggressive edge, which “Sappho” diture of emotion: Sappho lent her body and
seconds with her military metaphor in the last desire to others in order to sustain them with the
line. Aphrodite’s repeated “again” makes it clear energy of her response to them. We, who cannot
that she has been summoned before. These fea- pretend to know her personally and are not
tures are reminiscent of 130 and 71 V, discussed engaged by her political life, must approach her
above as poems about women who appear to be power by creating a biography of loves, but the
transferring their loyalty to new friendships. The desire we feel to know her desire attests to her
beauty of the other woman is not mentioned, and power to draw women to her, even absent an
the problem is not unbridgeable distance but the expectation of becoming lovers. Poem 1 V may be
other woman’s refusal to close the distance. I both a love poem and a political protreptic, but at
would therefore hazard a guess that 1 V offers a the least its vocabulary gives it an additional field
singer who identifies with “she” the motivation of reference missing in the other love poems.
to come (or return) to Sappho’s circle. She hears For her project in 1 V, Sappho uses a bold
that Aphrodite is likely to compel her despite her technique: she portrays herself in conversation
own resistance, just as Aphrodite has brought oth- with a god. Interchange with divinity is another
ers (back). Aphrodite moreover thinks that she is method by which Sappho creates a fictional
textual character separate from the singer, for such ␱¤ ␶␧ ␹a␩␱␴ ␪␧␳␣
˜ ␭␻␷ ⌭␳␱␴
SAPPHO privilege belongs to mythical and heroic figures.2 6 You and my attendant Eros
Like a hero the speaker calls on her favoring deity;
the full stanza it takes Aphrodite to arrive is a The goddess addresses Sappho, as she does in
measure of the distance the speaker’s voice can 1 V, with the added distinction that Sappho is
reach. Like a hero she can endure the undisguised paired with the daimonic Eros; we can see how
presence of a god. The listener who creates a this poem might have detached the speaker from
fictional Sappho can either take the epiphany as the singer and created a mythicized figure of “Sap-
“real” and imagine Sappho in quasi-mythical pho.” Another quotation (134 V) seems to say, “I
terms or can take it as imagined by the fictional narrated a dream to (?) Aphrodite,” and yet
Sappho, who becomes a figure of intense inward another, garbled passage is reported as spoken to
emotions.2 7 Aphrodite (101 V). Sappho must have used the
technique frequently.
This method has a further dimension that the
portrayal of psychosomatic chaos in 31 V lacks: it Poem 96 V is somewhat different from 31 and
lends authority to the speaker. She is like a bard as 1. Though the opening is lost, it appears to have
well as a hero, for she can also “see” Aphrodite been addressed to Atthis, to judge from the name
leave Olympus and can make her visible to the in the genitive in line 16. The extant part, begin-
audience. On the other hand, Sappho uses bardic ning with scraps of what may well be the first
authorizing techniques in counterpoint to bards’ stanza, evokes a woman who is now in Lydia; she
practice: Aphrodite validates her speaking, not may have been named as well:
Zeus; she chooses as her “ally” in this poem the ] ␴␣>␦[
god whom Athena mocked in the Iliad as a useless ␲␱´ ␭]␭␣Ꭽ␫ ␶␷␫´␦␧ [ ]␻␯ h␹␱␫␴␣
adjuvant in war (21.423-33).2 8 Sappho’s authority . . . . .
¨␴␲[ ]␻´ ␱µ⑀␯, [
is antipatriarchal, and she gains thereby an alter-
␴⑀ †␪⑀␣␴␫Ꭽ⑀␭␣␯ P>␫-
native source of “truth.” 5 ␥␯␻␶␣†, ␴␣ ˜ ␫ ␦c µ␣´ ␭␫␴␶’ h␹␣␫>⑀ µ␱´ ␭␲␣␫e·
. . . . .
In other fragments as well, the speaker por-
␯υ̃␯ ␦c ⌳␷´␦␣␫␴␫␯ dµ␲>e␲⑀␶␣␫ ␥␷␯␣␫´-
trays herself in conversation with a god. In frag- Ꭽ⑀␴␴␫␯ ¬␵ ␲␱␶’ P⑀␭␫´␻
ment 95 V Sappho appears to report a conversa- ␦␷´␯␶␱␵ P ␤>␱␦␱␦␣´ Ꭽ␶␷␭␱␵ ‹␴⑀␭␣´ ␯␯␣›
tion with a god; her interlocutor this time may be . . . . .
Hermes.2 9 She repeats a speech she made to him ␲␣´ ␯␶␣ ␲⑀>‹>›e␹␱␫␴’ T␴␶>␣· ␾␣´ ␱␵ ␦’ d␲␫´-
in which she expressed longing to die and see “the 10 ␴␹⑀␫ ␪␣´ ␭␣␴␴␣␯ d␲’ P␭µ␷´>␣␯
n␴␻␵ Ꭽ␣r ␲␱␭␷␣␯␪eµ␱␫␵ P>␱␷´>␣␫␵·
lotusy, dewy banks of Acheron” (8-13). Images of
. . . . .
loss of consciousness and renewal interact in the P ␦’ ‹d›e>␴␣ Ꭽ␣´ ␭␣ Ꭽe␹␷␶␣␫, ␶⑀␪␣´ -
description.3 0 Of the addressee or the dramatic ␭␣␫␴␫ ␦c ␤>␱´ ␦␣ ᎭT␲␣␭’ T␯-
context for the reported speech, almost nothing is ␪>␷␴Ꭽ␣ Ꭽ␣r µ⑀␭␫´␭␻␶␱␵ P␯␪⑀µ␻ ´ ␦␩␵·
preserved: the name Gongyla and the word sign . . . . .
are almost the only other words of significance 15 ␲␱´ ␭␭␣ ␦c ␨␣␾␱␫´␶␣␫␴’ P␥␣´ ␯␣␵ d␲␫-
that can be read. We cannot tell, then, how Sap- µ␯␣´ ␴␪⑀␫␴’ ’'〈␶␪␫␦␱␵ kµe>␻␫
pho used the figure she created as speaker in this ␭e␲␶␣␯ ␲␱␫ ␾>e␯␣ Ꭽ[]>[ ] ␤␱´ >␩␶␣␫·
. . . . .
poem, but perhaps she again revealed intense
Ꭽη̃␪␫ ␦’ h␭␪␩␯ Pµµ[ ]␫␴␣ ␶ό␦’ ␱u
longing for another woman. ␯␻␯␶␣[ ]␷␴␶oខ ␯␷␧m ខ[ ] ␲␱´ ␭␷␵
Other small fragments hint at Sappho’s habit 20 ␥␣>␷´⑀iខ [ ]␣␭␱uខ [ ]␶oខ µe␴␴␱␯·
of fictionalizing herself by revealing her interac- . . . Sardis (?) [ ] often turning her [mind] in this
tion with divinities. In 96.21-23, which may open direction [ ], [she honored?] you like a manifest
a new poem, the speaker says, “It is not easy for goddess (?),3 1 and she delighted most in your song
and dance, but now she stands out among the Ly-
us (?) to equal the goddesses in lovely shape . . .”
dian women as sometimes, when the sun has set,
In the following two stanzas, something is said the rosy-rayed moon outshines all the stars; its
about Aphrodite, who “poured nectar from golden light reaches equally over the briny sea and the
[pitchers?]” (26-28). The speaker’s idea about flower-filled fields; and the beautiful dew settles
whether mortal women resemble the gods gains and the roses and tender chervil and fragrant
clover are in bloom. Often pacing up and down,
weight from her personal vision of Aphrodite. A
remembering gentle Atthis with longing, she is
line is quoted by Maximus of Tyre with the consumed [ ] in her delicate heart (?).3 2 But for us
explanation that Aphrodite is speaking to Sappho to go there [ ] this (is) not [possible?] much [ ]
(159 V): sounds [ ] middle.
The poem does not detach its speaker from ing for Atthis, or for the woman in Lydia, or both,
SAPPHO
the singer. Instead its speaker pronounces with an gives her recreation of their intimacy its force, as
air of oracular authority about the thoughts and though they both draw from her their energy of
feelings of the woman in Lydia, offering no desire for one another. The poem thus creates a
explicit self-presentation at all. It too concentrates play of intersubjectivity in which each woman
on one addressee and allows the audience no way who sings and puts herself into the song is desirer
to participate, so I take this poem also as one and desired. For each woman it offers, in the
intended for the addressee to perform for herself. course of creating a fiction of continued com-
The addressee is not described as distant from the munication, the possibility of mutual interchange
speaker, but through the poem she can recall a in escape from the subject-object division encoded
woman who is gone. We could say that “Sappho” in hegemonic culture.
portrays the woman in Lydia as playing the same Fragment 22 V shows us another dimension
role toward Atthis that “Sappho” herself fills for of Sappho’s project. I quote the best-preserved sec-
the addressee in 31 and 1, with the same two ef- tion (9-17) from Campbell:3 5
fects. On one hand, the woman in Lydia attests to
[ Ꭽ]e␭␱µ␣␫ ␴’ ␣[⑀␫´␦␩␯
Atthis’ desirability and subjectivity in that she
10 ⌫␱]␥␥␷´␭␣␣ [’'〈␤]␣␯␪␫ ␭␣´ ␤␱␫␴␣␯ P[
used to compare Atthis to a goddess and loved ␲␣˜ ]Ꭽ␶␫␯, ␣␴ ␴⑀ ␦␩␷␶⑀ ␲␱´ ␪␱␵ ␶[
her singing. On the other, her longing allows At- Pµ␾␫␲␱´ ␶␣␶␣␫
this to think of the intimacy as continuing across . . . . .
the distance that separates them. “Sappho” speaks ␶N␯ Ꭽ␣´ ␭␣␯· P ␥]N> Ꭽ␣␶␣´ ␥␻␥␫␵ ␣␶␣[␵ ␴’
d␲␶␱´ ␣␫␴’ n␦␱␫␴␣␯, h␥␻ ␦c ␹␣␫´>␻·
for the absent woman; in her name she offers
15 Ꭽ␣r ␥N> ␣␶␣ ␦␩´ ␲oខ [␶’] dµdµ␾[⑀␶’ T␥␯␣
magnificent praise of Atthis, for the phrase “mani- ⌲]␷␲>␱␥d␯[␩␣,
fest goddess” (4-5) recalls a passage from the Odys- . . . . .
sey in which Nausicaa is compared to Artemis ␻␵ T>␣µ␣[␫
(6.107-9).3 3 “Sappho” also reveals her to Atthis, ␶␱υ̃␶␱ ␶␻␲␱␵
pacing and yearning. Poem 96 therefore confirms ␤]␱´ ␭␭␱µ␣[␫
the intent of 31 by showing us the same mystic [ ] I order you [to sing of Gongyla, Abanthis?] tak-
communication, arranged by the speaker now but ing [ ] lyre [ ] while desire yet again [ ] flies around
affecting two others. In what was perhaps the last you, the lovely one. For her (?) garment over-
stanza (18-20), as in 31 V, the speaker acknowl- whelmed [you?] when you (?) saw it, and I rejoice,
for even the [holy?] Cyprian herself (= Aphrodite),
edges separation—unless line 21 is not the open- no less, once rebuked (me) on the grounds that I
ing of a new poem, in which case the speaker goes pray [ ] this word (?) [ ] I want [
on to suggest that Atthis looks like a goddess,
compensation proffered for the other woman’s The papyrus does not show whether line 9 is
absence. the opening of a new poem, but it looks as though
it could be, and I will assume that it is. As in 96,
Since it involves three figures, 96 V has even
there may have been specific names, although the
more of a polymorphous quality than does 31 V.
restorations in line 10, Gongyla and Abanthis, are
Atthis could sing the poem to herself and feel
uncertain. Edgar Lobel does not think that
“Sappho’s” urgency, as well as the longing of the
“Gongyla” fits the trace of a letter at the edge of
woman in Lydia. The woman’s beauty like the
the papyrus.3 6 The name Abanthis is borrowed
moon, an image that seems to overflow the simile
from an unattributed fragment of Aeolic lyric.3 7
and drench the poem in its light, would call forth
Other completions of the visible letters are pos-
Atthis’ own desire for the absent woman—and
sible, and the whole restoration is tentative; it is
perhaps for Sappho too as the producer of such
not implausible, however, so with that caveat I
sensuous imagery. “Sappho’s” sentiment for At-
will adopt it.3 8
this is unspecific, if heartfelt: is she comforting or
seductive?3 4 Perhaps she wishes to draw Atthis to “Sappho” speaks to one woman about an-
herself. Atthis could construct the scene as she other, recreating a past moment of attraction. The
wished. The woman in Lydia could also sing it to fragment does not reveal whether Gongyla is now
herself and hear herself described in terms of absent, but the parallel with 96 V suggests that
beauty and sexual subjectivity together, the latter she is. If so, Sappho is again the link between the
as the one who praises Atthis. The poem implies two women by her observation and memory of
by its existence that Atthis longs for her. She could what once transpired. Sappho also fictionalizes
also imagine that “Sappho,” who extols her herself through conversation with Aphrodite as in
beauty, desires her. The power of “Sappho’s” feel- 1 V and more overtly than in 96. Since the poem
shows the same features as these two poems, I “Sappho” shifts attention to herself in line 14,
SAPPHO analyze it too from the recipient’s perspective. describing her own reaction to the moment just
mentioned: she “rejoices” at the sight of one
From this angle one can see that Sappho
woman overwhelming the other. Her delight must
devises a new mode of fostering another woman’s
mean that she sees in Abanthis assailed by desire
subjectivity. The speaker asserts Abanthis’ desire
another like herself, and therein lies her reason
and desirability, as we have seen in other poems, for commanding Abanthis to sing. Abanthis, who
but does not create the illusion of continued com- is like “Sappho” in the intensity of her emotions,
munication between Abanthis and Gongyla. She should become like her also in articulating her
does not evoke Gongyla in the present for acute responsiveness to another and presenting
Abanthis or convey her thoughts like a seer. herself as the subject of her sexuality.
Instead she orders Abanthis to compose and sing
On the other hand Aphrodite reproves “Sap-
for herself. We should therefore examine the ef-
pho” for wanting [ ]. “Sappho,” for her part, seems
fect on the recipient more closely.
to refuse to give up the fervor of her own desire
The speaker opens by telling one woman, despite the criticism. One who not only converses
Abanthis, to sing about another for whom she with a god but insists on her own perspective
feels longing. At the same time she (the speaker) makes herself a subject in the face of powerful
attests to Abanthis’ beauty, for ␶N␯ Ꭽ␣´ ␭␣␯ (the authority. Because Abanthis should imitate her,
lovely one) should refer to the nearer accusative “Sappho” provides a paradigm for the addressee
(␴⑀ in 11). But the adjective does not simply stay to follow by expressing her self-knowledge in spite
put: because it stands at the beginning of the line of others’ disfavor. Abanthis therefore should
and has the same metrical shape as ⌫␱␥␥␷´␭␣␯ two compose and sing songs herself, whatever those
lines above, it could be heard as applying to around her make of her passion. Like 1 V, this is a
Gongyla also and epitomizing what Abanthis poem of resistance: it establishes a counterweight
should sing about her. What the speaker says to other pressures in the recipient’s immediate
life. It is more vital to understanding Sappho’s
about Abanthis, Abanthis should say about
overall endeavor than 1 V, however, because it
Gongyla. Then too the phrase “desire . . . flies
does not seek to produce a specific action but to
around you” must refer to the longing that
make the recipient more autonomous in express-
Abanthis feels, but in its vivid unspecificity it sug-
ing her own emotional states.
gests the longing that Abanthis causes as well. Like
Erotes fluttering about a bride or beautiful woman Yet two problems must be addressed if I am to
in later Greek vase-painting, longing flying around include this poem with those a recipient sings to
Abanthis hints at a double movement of desire herself. First, because the speaker’s communica-
between her and another who also finds her desir- tion with Abanthis in the fragment appears to be
able. direct and unhindered, the poem seems to be one
that Sappho could sing to Abanthis among other
The next sentence specified that one woman’s women in the circle of friends. Second, the verb “I
dress made the other lose her breath, but because order” in line 9 (which I take to be the first line of
of the ambiguity, or rather two-way nature, of the the poem) seems odd in a poem urging another
relationship between the two women, we cannot to speak autonomously about her desire. In fact,
decide between two possible restorations, ␣␶␣␵ ␴’ the two problems cancel each other out. If Sap-
or ␣␶␣␯, at the end of line 13.3 9 The first yields pho were to sing this poem to Abanthis, she
the statement “her dress overwhelmed you when would impose herself, with her “I order you” and
you saw it,” and the second the reverse, “your her interchange with Aphrodite, as superior in
dress overwhelmed her when she saw it.” The power (even if playfully). The poem would then
second creates mutual attraction, for Gongyla be contradictory in its effect, for Abanthis’ singing
responds to Abanthis as well. Even if the original would not be an expression of her own desire to
line was the first (as given above), the double speak and therefore not a sign of her desire. The
movement of desire from and to Abanthis would impossibility of the verb “I order” in this poem if
not be canceled, for Abanthis is the “lovely one” Sappho meant to sing it to Abanthis shows that
and the focus of the poem. The dress itself is an the poem must be treated otherwise. If Abanthis,
object onto which desire is deflected to generalize however, were to sing the poem, she would issue
it.4 0 Abanthis would surely hear confirmation of the command to herself, and by projecting it onto
her desire and desirability in the poem. a mythicized figure whom she creates in imagina-
tion she would gain the authority (in her own Ꭽ␣r ␲[ ] µ␷´>␻␫
SAPPHO
eyes) to speak about herself as a sexual subject. ␤>⑀␯␪⑀␫´␻␫ [ ]d␷[ ]␯
20 d␰␣␭‹⑀›␫´␺␣␱ Ꭽ␳[r ␤␣␴]␷␭␩␫´␻␫
Claiming divine or mythic validation was of
. . . . .
course a normal form of authorizing one’s speech Ꭽ␣r ␴␶>␻ ´ µ␯[␣␯ d]␲r µ␱␭␪␣´ Ꭽ␣␯
or actions in Greek culture. Thus, the split subjec- P␲␣´ ␭␣␯ ␲␣d[ ]oខ ␶␻␯
tivity Abanthis creates by uttering another’s com- d␰␫´␩␵ ␲␱´ ␪oខ [␯ ]␯␫´␦␻␯
mand to her is the springboard to her own free- . . . . .
Ꭽ␻␶⑀ ␶␫␵ [ ␱]␫␧ ␶␫
dom to speak. 25 o>␱␯ ␱u␦’ u[
Fragment 95 V, discussed earlier, could be h␲␭⑀␶’ –␲[␲␱␪⑀␯ Tµ]µ⑀␵ P␲d␴Ꭽ␱µ⑀␯,
. . . . .
classed with 22 V as offering a model for speak-
␱Ꭽ T␭␴␱␵ [
ing. As in 22 V “Sappho” uses her account of
I truly want to die. She left me weeping much and
interaction with divinity to emphasize her human
said this [to me]: “oh! how terribly we are suffer-
difference, for she asks not for immortality or ing; Sappho, in truth I leave you unwillingly.” I
gratification but for death. She appears to speak as answered her thus: “Go in joy and remember me,
soon as Hermes arrives: j ⑀␷␲␱␯ (I said) is posi- for you know how we sought you out. Or if you
tioned at the beginning of the stanza (8), high- don’t, then I want to remind you [ ] and we
lighting her act of speech. Poem 1 V likewise ‘suffered’ lovely things. For many wreaths of
violets and roses and [crocuses?] together and [ ]
shows Sappho speaking, compelling Aphrodite’s you put around yourself, beside me, and many
response despite the latter’s smile. As remarked plaited garlands made of flowers [you put?] around
earlier, “that man” in 31 can stand in for the your tender neck and [ ] with much (?) fragrant
whole social system in separating “Sappho” and myrrh [ ] you anointed yourself and with royal
the addressee. Persistence in subjectivity in spite (perfume), and on a soft bed, tender [ ] you satis-
fied longing for [ ], and no [ ] and no shrine [ ]
of lack of power in fact describes all of Sappho’s was there from which we stayed away, no grove [
love poetry, composed in the face of the dominant
culture, but 22 manifestly propels another to take One must decide to whom to attribute the first
up Sappho’s resistance to the cultural definition extant line, the speaker of the poem or the woman
of women. who is departing. Anne Burnett argues for the
view that it was spoken by the leave-taker. Her
One more poem, 94 V, combines all these
“Sappho” expresses no sentiment, which allows
functions and shows Sappho urging the role of
her to take the poem as a straightforwardly
speaker on another. It is made difficult by the loss
didactic one.4 1 Burnett assumes that the girl ad-
of at least one line from the beginning. The text
dressed is one whom Sappho loved. Sappho’s les-
follows:
son for her, repeated for the others, is that she
. . . . .
must accept the fact that the circle will continue
␶⑀␪␯␣´ Ꭽ␩␯ ␦’ P␦␱´ ␭␻␵ ␪d␭␻· without her and that Sappho will have other
T µ⑀ ␺␫␴␦␱µd␯␣ Ꭽ␣␶⑀␭␫´µ␲␣␯⑀␯ loves; in the dreamlike sensuousness of perfume
. . . . .
and flowers she is to give up the specificity of her
␲␱´ ␭␭␣ Ꭽ␣r ␶␱´ ␦’ h⑀␫␲␫ [µ␱␫·
experience.4 2 On the other hand, no parallel of-
¬␫µ’ ¨␵ ␦⑀θ̃␯␣ ␲⑀␲[␱´ ␯␪]␣µ⑀␯,
5 ␺␣´ ␲␾’, ‘µ␣´ ␯ ␴’ PdᎭ␱␫␴’ P␲␷␭␫µ␲␣´ ␯␻.
fers itself among the fragments for a quoted
. . . . . speech begun, interrupted, and taken up again, as
␶N␯ ␦’ h␥␻ ␶␣´ ␦’ Pµ⑀␫␤␱´ µ␣␯· we must assume if the other woman speaks the
␹␣␫´>␱␫␴’ h>␹⑀␱ ᎭTµ⑀␪⑀␯ line.4 3
µoµ␯␣␫␴’, ␱␳␴␪␣ ␥N> ¬␵ ‹␴›⑀ ␲⑀␦␩´ ␲␱µ⑀␯·
Emmet Robbins makes a persuasive case for
. . . . .
␣k ␦c µ␩´ , P␭␭␣´ ␴’ h␥␻ ␪d␭␻ giving the line to “Sappho.”4 4 In that case, as often
10 –µ␯␣␫␴␣␫ [ ]d␣␫ noticed, “Sappho” confesses that she cannot take
␱␱[ ] Ꭽ␣r Ꭽ␣´ ␭’ d␲␣´ ␴␹␱µ⑀␯· her own advice to remember the past without
. . . . . pain.4 5 This is a more ironic but conceptually
␲␱[␭␭␱␫␵ ␥N> ␴␶⑀␾␣´ ␯]␱␫␵ n␻␯ almost as simple a poem: pain leads to rehearsal
Ꭽ␣r ␤>[␱´ ␦␻␯ ]Ꭽ␫´␻␯ ␶’ µ␱␫ of now-lost pleasures, which must lead to fresh
Ꭽ␣[ ] ␲N> hµ␱␫ ␲‹⑀›>⑀␪␩´ Ꭽ␣‹␱›
access of pain (or to some consoling thought).4 6
. . . . .
15 Ꭽ␣r ␲d␭␭␣␫␵ u␲␣␪␷´µ␫␦␣␵
The didactic version of the poem actually gives
␲␭dᎭ␶␣␫␵ Pµ␾’ P␲␣´ ␭␣␫ ␦d>␣␫ the later stanzas more point, but the confessional
P␯␪d␻␯ d[ ] ␲⑀␲␱␩µd␯␣␫␵. one more typically superimposes present and past
. . . . . and is rhetorically the more likely.
In either version the audience is irrelevant to ships within the imaginatively restored com-
SAPPHO the speaker. Either “Sappho” could calmly lose all munication with “Sappho.”
of her auditors or else no one can distract her from Still, “Sappho” appears to undermine her own
the loss of one. Or if Sappho were to sing “I truly advice by her confession, “I simply wish to die.”
want to die” one day and appear cheerful the Is this inconsistency more than ironic? Logically,
next, her protestations of emotion would seem “Sappho” contrasts her despair now with the
overblown. Unless it is grandstanding, the state- advice she gave then to enjoy the memory. But as
ment is too extreme to serve as a singer’s self- the poem moves, the memory replaces despair.
presentation among a group of those with whom Or, as Ellen Greene puts it, narrative gives way to
she has close ties. reciprocal apostrophes, which give way to “a de-
Let us instead read the poem as I have been temporalized mode of discourse.”5 2 Thus the
doing, as a text that another woman could sing to recipient can indulge both in the pleasure of
herself, taking the first extant line as “Sappho’s.”4 7 believing that Sappho misses her and in positive
The singer/recipient would hear “Sappho’s” con- recollection of her participation in a group. In
fession that she misses the leave-taker and discover portraying herself as devastated, Sappho lends her
that “Sappho” now reviews the (perhaps fictional) erotic energy to the catalogue of mutual pleasures
final conversation with emotions different from that follows, vivifying it and enabling the ad-
those she conveyed then. She could interpret dressee to revive her memories without the tor-
“Sappho’s” intense but unspecific expression of ment of feeling forgotten by those she leaves
emotion as she wished—as erotic desire or more behind.
diffuse sense of emotional loss. There follows, Furthermore, “Sappho’s” confession is con-
embedded in the first-level narrative, a reported tained in a poem that must be performed with
conversation that takes over as the envisioned discipline and harmony, so the move that she
scene, just as in 1 V. The recipient speaks first in recommends, to forge self-defining speech from
the interchange, so in singing the song she repeats painful experience, she herself has already made.
her (alleged) words, addressing “Sappho” by From this perspective “Sappho’s” admission of
name. Thus the direct discourse returns the recipi- current pain is essential to her point. As the recipi-
ent in fantasy to communication with “Sappho.” ent sang the song, she too would replace weeping
“Sappho’s” response, sung by the recipient, allows with poetry that is at the same time remember-
her to hear Sappho again and carries the scene ing—she would remember Sappho, other times,
presented to her mind still farther back, to the and the poem itself. Sappho’s song sets itself in
time when she was a member of a group around implicit contrast with weeping and shows the
Sappho. Thus she can soothe her sense of loss and recipient the difference. The poem also seduces
fulfil “Sappho’s” admonition to remember. the recipient into extending the poem’s mode of
At the same time, in “Sappho’s” embedded speaking about the past. “Sappho’s” list of plea-
speech she would find mirrored her own enjoy- sures is not individualized to specific events, yet it
ment of herself, her ways of enhancing her sensu- would induce memories of particular days. The
ousness. Two of the verbs are middle voice (“you addressee’s remembering would leap beyond these
put around yourself” in 14 and “you anointed generic activities and impel her to continue the
yourself” in 20), focusing attention back on the recitation, to extend her speech about the past
addressee’s own body.4 8 Sappho’s desire for her is and thus become the speaker that “Sappho” urges
a possible subtext within the embedded recollec- her to be. In light of 22 V we can interpret this
tion, for “beside me” in line 14 gives license to it. poem as an inspiration to the recipient to tran-
And even as she sees herself through “Sappho’s” scend the split subjectivity created by singing Sap-
eyes, the woman also finds reminders of her pho’s songs and compose her own.
interaction with a whole group. This second If this is a poem for an addressee to sing to
theme appears with the verb ␲⑀␦␩´ ␲␱µ⑀␯ (8, “we herself, it sets up the same interplay between two
sought out”), which does not mean “we cher- figures who are separated but still in communica-
ished,” as it is often translated.4 9 Some take it as tion as we found in the other poems. We can now
Sappho’s reminder of her own love for the ad- return to the problem of the opening. Most
dressee, but they must overtranslate and deny any scholars think (or hope) that there is only one
weight to the plural.5 0 In line 23 also, the noun missing line. But Sappho does not usually begin
expressing the persons or things for whom the ad- so abruptly as this poem appears to, so perhaps a
dressee satisfied desire is plural.5 1 The poem recalls full stanza plus a line is gone.5 3 The first stanza
for the singer a broader set of affirmative relation- could have framed the poem as a report to a god;
SAPPHO
Illustration of Sappho performing before an audience.
then it would be imagined by its singer/recipient stances and relationships they imply, but they
as a confession she overhears, like 1 and perhaps have a common theme in soliciting women’s
95 V. “Sappho’s” self-presentation as despairing (a sense of subjectivity. Desirable, according to “Sap-
fictionalizing technique like that of 31) would be pho,” the recipient is also portrayed as desiring
contained within another framework that dis- and invited to articulate her desire, even when
placed the song from the context of performance, making a song of it may be her only possible form
making the fictionality of the speaker even clearer. of expression.
The poem, like the others, represents resis- Sappho’s poetry for others to perform relies
tance to emotional passivity. It also confirms my on the kind of self-representation possible in writ-
reading of the other poems in that it shows “Sap- ing. The heightened, mythicized speaker, whose
pho” creating a discourse for the addressee to emotion is at an absolute pitch and who consorts
adopt that will maintain (or create) both a living with the gods, is a figure created in a text. No
sense of intimacy with Sappho and an erotic singer performing as herself could claim to be the
subjectivity. That is to say, it shows us the genesis person who speaks from these poems of Sappho’s.
of poems like 1, 31, 96 V in which the recipient is It is through this fictional character that Sappho
invited to imagine her own emotional state in can dramatize her unyielding energy of desire and
response to the speaker’s longing. Like 22 V it also convey it to other women as what they should
commands the addressee to shape her own speech recollect about her and take as a model for them-
in song. Poem 94, therefore, is the most revealing selves. Yet Sappho wrote for those who knew her,
of the extant poems about the role Sappho envi- and she must have wanted them to dress the
sioned for her poetry. It provides the addressee textual speaker in their mental picture of her
with a model speaker as well as a friend or lover physical self. “Sappho” is not only a fiction but
for whom she continues to be a presence and who the woman raised to full power. That she speaks
bears witness to her desire/desirability. with such immediacy, surviving the fragmenta-
Poems for performance in a women’s group, tion of Sappho’s poetry, is an effect of oral style
poems that commented on political life and fleshed out (to speak in paradox) by the represen-
celebrated common activities but that used the tation of the speaker included in the text to stand
language of eros to characterize Sappho, are in for Sappho when others perform her poems.
distinguishable from poems that detach them-
selves from performer and context. The latter ap- Notes
pear within the category of love poetry that Di- 1. See Saake 1972: 13-36 for a history of scholarship to
circa 1963 and 1971 for bibliography on problems
oskourides identified and can be characterized as connected with the major fragments. Gerber 1976:
poems that require a speaker constructed in the 105-15 and 1987: 132-44 gives annotated bibliogra-
imagination and gain psychological efficacy when phies.
sung by one who identifies herself as the subject 2. For bibliography on the question whether this was a
or addressee. These poems vary in the circum- wedding poem and how to take the man in the first
line, see Saake 1971: 19-22; Burnett 1983: 232-34 13. Burnett 1983: 277-312, esp. 309-12. Burnett’s ap-
SAPPHO notes. For a history of scholarship on the poem, see proach reveals that the very effort to locate the poems
Bonelli 1977: 463-85. in a group context exposes their lack of engagement
with the audience.
3. For a recent discussion of the text of these two lines,
see Lidov 1993. I do not accept his emendation 14. West 1970a: 310, commenting on the lack of names
because I do not think that Sappho describes a single in several of Sappho’s poems, suggests that like Theog-
occasion but something that will always happen. Cf. nis’ songs, Sappho’s could be resung. On 315 he
Latacz 1985: 85-86 on the indicative. As to ␤>␱´ ␹⑀’, describes her songs as freed from their context.
which Lidov says does not mean “briefly” at this time, 15. Contrast O’Higgins 1990: 164, who reads the effect
it is already metaphorical in Iliad 10.226, which he psychologically: the act of making a poem replaces
cites (514), so it could easily be applied to time. passion.
4. Cf. Johnson 1982: 1-23 on meditative verse compared 16. Hallett 1979 argues that Sappho’s poetry has the func-
with address to an audience; I do not think that this is tion of awakening young women’s sexuality.
meditative verse (see below). Latacz 1985: 80-81 points
out the fictionality of the address but denies that it is 17. See Stehle 1990: 107-8; Greene 1994: 42-43. Sara Lind-
inner monologue; he pictures Sappho performing in heim reminds me of the importance of stressing this.
the presence of the young woman and projecting a 18. In this 31 V is like 16 V. In Stehle 1990: 109-12 I
scene that will soon take place (86-87). McEvilley 1978 analyze 16, a description of Helen acting on her desire
thinks that Sappho is recreating for her circle of par- in going to Troy, as a validation of women’s subjectiv-
thenoi the feelings she had while offering praise to a ity in a cultural world defined by men. Poem 16 has a
bride. Rösler 1990b: 282-83 points out that the verb different rhetorical structure; it has no addressee but
appear in 1 and 16 marks the intervening section as makes a general proposition, so performance in the
fantasy, and Burnett 1983: 230 takes it as inner circle would suit it.
monologue. For the latter three scholars the poem is
essentially meditative. For the views of Rösler and Bur- 19. Carson 1986: 17 and passim refers to this effect as
nett on the conditions of performance, see below. “triangulation.”
5. The following words, “even a poor man,” may be cor- 20. A papyrus fragment appears to give ␺ as the second
rupt. letter in this line. One could therefore restore T␺ ␴’
T␥␩␯ d␵ ␴N␯ ␾␫␭␱´ ␶␣␶␣ (to lead you back into her
6. Rösler 1990b: 277-78 thinks the poem could not have friendship), which Campbell 1982 prints. There are
been performed in the presence of the girl about details that do not seem to accord with this reading,
whom it speaks because Sappho’s self-consolation at so it remains tentative. See Page 1955 ad loc.; Voigt ad
the end has nothing to do with her. Burnett 1983: loc.
241-43 (who believes that the poem is about ap-
21. See Führer 1967: 3-4 for other examples of the switch
proaching a new love, not about departure) thinks
from indirect to direct discourse in lyric; none is a
that the consolation consists of gaining the confidence
switch between first and second person. Cf. also his p.
to seek out the woman the speaker desires. Neither
60.
scholar allows a role for the audience.
22. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff 1913: 48 has a biographical
7. O’Higgins 1990: 158-59 describes the threat that non-
version of this point: the poem might have made the
speaking poses to oral poetry; it means the end of
girl aware that she was the one meant and inspired
poetic creation. Cf. 164: silence assails Sappho repeat-
love in her in turn.
edly, and the act of creating poetry resists it.
23. Page 1955 ad loc. discusses the meanings of the word
8. Rösler 1990b: 282 also notes this: “Sappho” becomes in Sappho.
part of the imaginary picture within the poem; the
“Sappho” who glances is a different person from the 24. Page 1955: 14-15 remarks that ␦␫␻ ´ Ꭽ␻ means “pursue
one who sings. someone who flees.” This is not always true, but Sap-
pho’s use of the verb may carry overtones. For Gia-
9. It is standard new-critical procedure to distinguish the comelli [Carson] 1980 the justice of Aphrodite consists
biographical subject (the poet) from first-person of making the one who spurns someone’s love fall
speaker in a poem. Kirkwood 1974: 112, for instance, hopelessly in love with another.
distinguishes Sappho the woman from Sappho the
speaker in the poems. Note that I am distinguishing 25. As Greene 1994: 50-55 argues.
the speaker in the poem from the performer. 26. See Marry 1979 for Sappho’s implicit equation of
10. E.g., 79 and 92 W (narratives), 34 W (prayer). See the herself with a Homeric warrior in 1 V.
translations in West 1993: 116-23 for the flavor. 27. Earlier commentators (e.g., Page 1955: 18) considered
whether Sappho had actually experienced the
11. Burnett 1983: 209n.2: “It is the assumption of the
epiphany of Aphrodite. If the poem is taken as a
present study that the group met in daily intimacy
straightforward self-presentation, then the question is
and informality, and that most of Sappho’s songs were
a legitimate one.
first performed before this assembly of pupils who
were also friends and temporary wards.” 28. See Skinner 1991a on Sappho’s calling on Aphrodite
(rather than the Muses) for poetic inspiration. Greene
12. Burnett 1983: 241-42, accepting the final two words
1994: 53 discusses Sappho’s reconfiguration of military
as part of the poem. West 1970a: 312-13 proposes by
language in this poem.
analogy with Theognis 657-64 that Sappho said, “All
is bearable, since god suddenly makes even the poor 29. ’'⌭>]¦µ␣␵ is a possible restoration of the end of line 6
man rich.” (Voigt ad loc.)
30. Boedeker 1979 makes this point; she also reviews 48. McEvilley 1971: 9-11 reads the poem in psychological
SAPPHO
earlier literature on the fragment, in which a bio- terms as the creation of an imaginary world, a world
graphical approach predominates. empty of anyone but the speaker and the beloved.
Howie 1979: 310-29 analyzes it as consolation. Though
31. Accepting in the translation -␴⑀ ␪d␣‹␫› ␦’ kᎭd␭␣␯ his approach is very different, his conclusions comple-
´ ␶␣‹␫› (where -␴⑀ is the end of the verb), which
P>␫␥␯␻ ment mine.
Page 1955 prints. See his note ad loc.
49. The verb does not normally refer to an emotional
32. This line has not been reconstructed in a satisfactory state. LSJ s.v. creates a special category just for this
way. See Burnett 1983: 309-10n.92 for attempts; Bon- instance, but it gets special treatment only because
anno 1990: 119-21. the poem is taken to be a love poem.
33. Marzullo 1952: 90-92. The text is uncertain; some 50. Burnett 1983: 296 notes the plural: “The lover who
think that P>␫␥␯␻ ´ ␶␣ is the name of the woman in Ly- begins by saying ‘Remember me’ in an instant offers
dia. Marzullo gives arguments contra. Voigt’s prefer- to revive the girl’s knowledge of how the whole group
ence (ad loc.) is to take the word as a name in the voca- had gathered adoringly about her.”
tive; then four women would be implicated: the
speaker, the Lydian woman, Arignota, and Atthis. 51. The supplement ␯⑀]␣␯␫´␦␻␯ (young women) in line 23
has been suggested but cannot be taken as probable.
34. For Hague 1984 Sappho is comforting; for Schade- Page 1955 ad loc. says that, whatever the first visible
waldt 1950: 123 Sappho expresses her own desire for letter was, it was not ␣. Burnett 1983: 298n.56 takes
Atthis while disguising it as that of the woman in Ly- the genitive that stood there as subjective, “the desire
dia; Saake 1972: 81 sees Sappho’s attitude as seductive. that girls feel” (accepting the supplement), thus avoid-
ing the idea that the recipient was involved with
35. 22 Campbell 1982. The restored text, although
someone other than Sappho.
speculative, gives a better idea of possibilities than
Voigt’s. See also Di Benedetto 1986: 21-25 on the text. 52. Greene 1994: 48.
36. See LP ad loc.; Voigt ad loc. and ad 95.4. 53. In 31 and 95 V she describes the scene before speak-
ing of her own state. Poem 31 begins with her speech,
37. Incert. auct. 35 V; cf. n. 87 above. Di Benedetto 1986:
and so in this poem also she could open with an ad-
22 thinks that it is not long enough to fill the lacuna
dress to the divinity.
but that a name did stand there. Alternatively, the
word could be an imperative.
38. Cf. ␭␣´ ␤␱␫␴␣ and T⑀␫␴␱␯ in 21.11-12 V.
Bibliography
39. The accusative is restored in Page 1955: 135 although
not in his edition of the same year; see also Voigt ad Editions
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319. Di Benedetto 1986: 23-24 disputes West, prefer- caeus. Cambridge, MA.
ring ␣␶␣[␯. Page, D. L. 1955. Sappho and Alcaeus. Oxford.
40. Cf. the eroticized landscape in 96 V; Snyder 1994. West, M. L. 1993. Greek Lyric Poetry: The Poems and Frag-
41. Burnett 1983: 293-95. Her reason is that the rhetorical ments of the Greek Iambic, Elegiac, and Melic Poets
intensifier truly is indicative of an attempt to persuade, (Excluding Pindar and Bacchylides) Down to 450 BC, Trans-
appropriate to the other speaker. Greene 1994: 47 lated with Introduction and Notes. Oxford.
concurs. Howie 1979: 302-5 discusses various proposed
interpretations of the first line.
Studies, Commentaries, Dictionaries
42. Burnett 1983: 296-300.
Boedeker, D. D. 1979. “Sappho and Acheron.” In Bower-
43. McEvilley 1971: 4-5n. 7 prefers to assign it to “Sap- sock et al. 1979: 40-52.
pho” on the grounds that Sappho’s poems typically
Bonelli, G. 1977. “Saffo, 2 Diehl = 31 Lobel-Page.”
begin in the present and move to the past. As Burnett
L’Antiquité Classique 46: 453-94.
1983: 293 points out, however, we do not know that
this is the first stanza of the poem. Burnett, A. P. 1983. Three Archaic Poets: Archilochus, Alcaeus,
Sappho. Cambridge, MA.
44. Robbins 1990: 114-18, who bases his argument on a
subtle rhetorical analysis. Caduff, G. 1972. “Zu Sappho Fragment 94 LP. (= 96 D.).”
Serta Philologica Aenipontana II. Ed. R. Muth. Innsbruck.
45. The disparity between the first line, if it is attributed 9-12.
to “Sappho,” and the tone of the reported speech is
noted, e.g., by Schadewaldt 1950: 116-18; Saake 1971: Carson, A. 1986. Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay. Princeton.
189-204.
Di Benedetto, V. 1986. “Integrazioni al P. Oxy. 1231 di Saffo
46. Some see in the poem the implication that the ad- (frr. 27 e 22 V.).” QUCC n.s. 24: 19-25.
dressee has now forgotten Sappho. Caduff 1972
Gerber, D. E. 1976. “Studies in Greek Lyric Poetry: 1967-
defends this reading, earlier proposed by Wilamowitz-
1975.” CW 70.2: Special Survey Issue.
Moellendorff, but rejected by most commentators
since. Giacomelli [Carson], A. 1980. “The Justice of Aphrodite in
Sappho Fr. 1.” TAPA 110: 135-42.
47. Burnett 1983: 292 points out that the poem could be
sung later by any of the girls in order to reinforce their Greene, E. 1994. “Apostrophe and Women’s Erotics in the
memories of delight after they in turn had left. Poetry of Sappho.” TAPA 124: 41-56.
Hague, R. 1984. “Sappho’s Consolation for Atthis, fr. 96 democracy in Athens, Jarratt finds that the language of
SAPPHO LP.” AJP 105: 29-36. absence and forgetting in Sappho’s poetry reflects
women’s exclusion from the public sphere—the site of
Hallett, J. P. 1979. “Sappho and Her Social Context: Sense political activity in a democratic society.
and Sensuality.” Signs 4: 447-64.
Emotions are the matrix of memory impressions,
Howie, J. G. 1979. “Sappho Fr. 94 (LP): Farewell, Consola- and so—of course—desire moves intellect, as all
tion and Help in a New Life.” Papers of the Liverpool
learning is based in remembering.
Latin Seminar 2: 299-342.
Mary Carruthers, The Book of Memory
Johnson, W. R. 1982. The Idea of Lyric: Lyric Modes in Ancient
and Modern Poetry. Berkeley. To lack memory is to be a slave of time, confined
to space; to have memory is to use space as an
Kirkwood, G. M. 1974. Early Greek Monody: The History of a instrument in the control of time and language.
Poetic Type. Ithaca. Dominick LaCapra, History and Memory after
Latacz, J. 1985. “Realität und Imagination. Eine neue Lyrik- Auschwitz
Theorie und Sapphos ␾␣␫´␯⑀␶␣␫´ µ␱␫ Ꭽη̃␯␱␵-Lied.” Museum
Helveticum 42: 67-94. Feminist historiography in rhetoric has flour-
ished over the last decade and a half. Women
Lidov, J. 1993. “The Second Stanza of Sappho 31: Another
Look.” AJP 114: 503-35. rhetors are now counted more regularly and
numerously among canonical figures (Bizzell and
Marry, J. D. 1979. “Sappho and the Heroic Ideal: h>␻␶␱␵
P>⑀␶␩´ .” Arethusa 12: 71-92. Herzberg), and the works of both male and female
rhetors are being held under a lens of gender
Marzullo, B. 1952. “Arignota l’Amica di Saffo.” Maia 5: 85-
92.
analysis (e.g., Brody). These two approaches—
recovery of female rhetors and gendered analysis
McEvilley, T. 1971. “Sappho, Fragment Ninety-Four.” Phoe- of both traditional and newly rediscovered
nix 25: 1-11.
sources—are by no means exhausted and will no
———. 1978. “Sappho, Fragment Thirty One: The Face doubt continue to attract scholarly energies. As a
Behind the Mask.” Phoenix 32: 1-18.
gradual outcome of these processes, historians of
O’Higgins, D. 1990. “Sappho’s Splintered Tongue: Silence in every stripe are led to reconceive traditional
Sappho 31 and Catullus 51.” AJP 111: 156-67.
rhetorical categories, and along with them, the
Robbins, E. 1990. “Who’s Dying in Sappho Fr. 94?” Phoenix relationships between past and present. The three
44: 111-21. proofs, the five canons, topoi, tropes and figures,
Rösler, W. 1990b. “Realitätsbezug und Imagination in Sap- situation, audience—any and all of these rhetori-
phos Gedicht ⌽AINЕTAI MOI КHNO␴.” In Kullmann cal materials are subject to transformation via the
and Reichel 1990: 271-87.
work of feminist historians (see Ede, Glenn, and
Saake, H. 1971. Zur Kunst Sapphos: Motiv-Analytische und Lunsford). In this process, feminism in historical
Kompositions-technische Interpretationen. Munich. rhetoric opens doors to a wide range of method-
———. 1972. Sapphostudien: Forschungsgeschichtliche, biogra- ologies (including those employed by political
phische und literarästhetische Untersuchungen. Munich. theorists, anthropologists, and psychoanalytic crit-
Schadewaldt, W. 1942. Legende von Homer dem Fahrenden ics, to mention a few) which may, in turn, be
Sänger: Ein altgriechisches Volksbuch. Leipzig. enriched through cross-fertilization with the
———. 1950. Sappho. Welt und Dichtung: Dasein in der Liebe. rhetorical tradition.
Potsdam.
I offer the following reading of memory in
Snyder, J. 1994. “The Configuration of Desire in Sappho Fr. the works of Sappho as an example of the way
22 L-P.” Helios 21: 3-8.
our understanding and appreciation of a tradi-
Stehle, E. 1990. “Sappho’s Gaze: Fantasies of a Goddess and tional canon of ancient rhetoric may change
Young Man.” In Konstan and Nussbaum 1990: 88-125. dramatically as a result of feminist historiographi-
West, M. L. 1970a. “Burning Sappho.” Maia 22: 307-30. cal research. 1 Sappho stands as the first and
preeminent woman writer in the ancient Mediter-
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U. von. 1913. Sappho und Simo-
nides. Berlin. ranean, and as such, a powerful lure for a student
of classical rhetoric interested in gender differ-
ence. Among the dozen well-known lyric poets of
SUSAN C. JARRATT (ESSAY DATE the Archaic era, Sappho was the one woman who
WINTER 2002) created a body of text read, respected, and (to
SOURCE: Jarratt, Susan C. “Sappho’s Memory.” Rhetoric
some extent) preserved by those who produced
Society Quarterly 32, no. 1 (winter 2002): 11-43. classical rhetoric and by many others, primarily
for its beauties of style and poetic meter.2 An
In the following excerpt, Jarratt examines Sappho’s writ-
ings on memory in the context of gender differences. Plac- almost unbelievably happy accident of history
ing Greek lyric poetry in the context of the rise of preserves the writings of a male poet of almost
equal stature, Alcaeus, living in the same time and
SAPPHO
at the same place: an ideal situation for exploring
gender difference. For some traditional historians
of rhetoric, such an inquiry would pose the FROM THE AUTHOR
problem of rhetoric’s official origins and naming:
Sappho and Alcaeus lived during the sixth century
SAPPHO’S “FRAGMENT 10,” COMPARING
B.C.E. in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, one FEMININITY AND LOVE POETRY TO THE
hundred and fifty years before—and several hun- MASCULINE EPIC POETRY POPULAR IN HER
dred miles across the Aegean from—the official TIME
founding of rhetoric in fourth-century Athens Some think the fairest thing in all creation
(Schiappa). But the case can be made for a broader To be of horse or foot an armèd host;
For battle-ships some have most admiration,
definition of “rhetoric” and what counts as “rhe-
But I my heart’s beloved do cherish most.
torical practice.” Indeed, Jeffrey Walker has made
this case convincingly in Rhetoric and Poetics in And ’tis not hard to follow me for any;
For queenly Helen, fairest of the fair,
Antiquity. Lyric, he claims, is “the nearest relation
Although surveying mortal beauties many,
to, and indeed the precursor for . . . the later Did most of all for her famed lover care.
‘rhetorical’ tradition”; it functioned as “culturally
Forgetting her dear parents and her daughter,
and politically significant civic discourse” (140). She followed him who glorious Troy destroyed.
Numerous feminist historians of rhetoric have Far from her friends and native land he brought
argued for the necessity of identifying rhetorical her,
practices outside the boundaries of the named By vanity and passionate love decoyed.
tradition. In her study of Sappho, Page duBois For easily is woman tempted ever
identifies ancient rhetoric as a contested field with When lightly she considers what is near.
no stable point of origin (167-76). She terms the E’en so, my Anactoria, you never
Remember her who still today is here.
self-referential texts of the rhetorical tradition
“metarhetoric,” freeing up “rhetoric” for wider But I her lovely foot-fall hear more gladly,
use (167). Krista Ratcliffe redefines the writings of Prefer the brightness of her gleaming eye
To all the din of chariots rushing madly,
Anglo-American feminists as implicit rhetorical To Lydian armoured foot-men’s battle-cry.
theory. Molly Wertheimer collects essays on the
“rhetorical activities” of women; Cheryl Glenn I know to men the best cannot be granted:
’Tis better far to ask a share of that
discusses the “protorhetoric” of Sappho; and, Joy Which once was shared, to be with this contented,
Ritchie and Kate Ronald characterize women’s Than, vainly reaching higher, to forget.
rhetorical theories and practices in terms of “avail-
able means.” Not only feminist rhetoricians hold Sappho. “Fragment 10.” In The Lyric Songs of the
this view. According to Oswyn Murray, in cities of Greeks: The Extant Fragment of Sappho, Alcaeus,
Anacreon, and the Minor Greek Monodists, trans-
the Archaic era, “the poet’s role was still central; lated by Walter Peterson, pp. 22–23. Boston:
and so satisfactory for public expression were the Gorham Press, 1918.
varied poetic forms that they may well have
delayed the appearance of a prose literature” (25).
Because Sappho and Alcaeus were public poets in
an era when lyric served as an instrument of
persuasion (Podlecki xii; Walker), their texts conceived and of contemporary theories of
become valuable sources of reflection on the memory. Studies by scholars such as Frances A.
rhetorical tradition. Yates and Mary Carruthers treat memory in
A careful reading of all Sappho’s fragments Western European intellectual history as a phe-
brought to my attention repeated references to nomenon of deep cultural significance. Further,
memory. Could these references be related in any recent studies in sexual abuse, racism, and the
way to the techniques of memorizing speeches Holocaust have argued for memory as a powerful
which become a mainstay of classical rhetoric? force in the interplay between psychic experiences
And what role might gender difference play in and social structures of exclusion, discrimination,
this process? Isolating memory and considering it and violence (e.g., LaCapra, Cheng).
in the context of the life of an elite woman in an These studies concern people reconstructing
Archaic era Greek colony suggested a broader their own memories of events they experienced.
context for this mental act, particularly in the In such circumstances, one can query one’s own
light of historical research on memory broadly memory processes. One can also reflect on the
memory practices of a group. Houston A. Baker, Only in the light of the public sphere did that
SAPPHO Jr., for example, exhorts African Americans to which existed become revealed, did everything
practice “critical memory” as opposed to nostalgia become visible to all. In the discussion among
citizens issues were made topical and took on
in reconstructions of Martin Luther King, Jr. The
shape. In the competition among equals the best
case of a historian reconstructing a distant past excelled and gained their essence—the immortal-
does not involve the historian’s own memory but ity of fame. Just as the wants of life and the
rather entails an examination of the processes of procurement of its necessities were shamefully
memory, insofar as they are revealed in textual hidden inside the oikos, so the polis provided an
records. Histories are lived and created by people open field for honorable distinction. . . .
with memories, thus public processes of represent- (4)
ing the past are intimately connected with the
This heroic and binary image may accurately
workings of memory. Dominick LaCapra formu-
lates this link powerfully: “critically tested represent certain features of fifth-century polis-life,
memory may appear as the necessary starting but a danger lies in transposing that classical map
point for all symbolic activity” (182). Ancient onto the Archaic world of a hundred and more
rhetoric—both narrowly and broadly defined— years earlier. Scholarship suggests that it would be
offers a detailed record of such operations. a mistake to jump to the conclusion that the
spaces occupied by women in Archaic Greek-
Were there differently gendered needs for speaking cities were as confining as those of elite
memory in the sixth century? Both men and (a Athenian women during the democracy. Despite
few) women composed (probably in writing) and the similarity of domestic architecture across the
then orally delivered memorized text in the pre- centuries, women in the earlier era had more
classical period. The attention paid to rhetorical freedom: “they could move freely without escorts,
techniques for memorizing speeches beginning in
discuss on equal terms with their husbands, and
the classical era provides us with a rich resource
might even be present at the banquets in the great
for exploring the more profound psychic function
hall” (Murray 44). To the extent that we can
of memory in recording experiences of exclusion
speculate about the life of a woman who is repre-
and loss—experiences inscribed within the rhetori-
sented in the fragments of poetry marked with
cal record in various ways. This exploration
Sappho’s name (duBois 3), we get a picture of
requires conceptualizing a link between memory
someone who occupied many, varied spaces: she
and space. Classical rhetoric takes place in a public
moved and performed in mixed groups, trav-
space inhabited jointly by speaker and listeners,
eled—by choice and in political exile, but may
but this space—as has been well documented—
was occupied by only a small fragment of all the also have been married and a mother, was inter-
people who existed in the world of the ancient ested in beautiful clothing and grooming, and
Mediterranean. Working back and away from the spent much time and energy in all-woman groups
all-male, democratic setting of fifth-century in composing, singing, and practicing cult reli-
Athens, we may imagine people who must articu- gions. Before the status of male citizenship was
late communal goals in the absence of others and fixed in the classical, Athenian democracy, who
in spaces less central and generally accessible than were the subjects of communal life in the ancient
the Athenian assembly and courts. It is under such Greek city, what spaces did they inhabit, and how
circumstances that memory becomes crucial. To did they use language to reflect on and mediate
construct the significance of memory on these their relations? Determining the nature of the
terms, then, is to explore space.3 actual spaces within which Sappho wrote in rela-
tion to her representations of them generates a
complexly layered blueprint of public and private.
Difference and Space In the interest of dispelling phantasms of both
The dominant mental image of the classical agora and oikos, we begin with the latter—its
(i.e. fifth-century Athenian) rhetoric is a space of ideological legacies and archaeological remnants—
agonistic rhetorical practice: polis as public sphere, references to which are almost completely absent
rhetoric as public spear. Jürgen Habermas’s early in Sappho’s fragments.
work contributes to this image, sketching classical
public in a dramatic chiaroscuro: the agora was a
space of pure visibility and freedom, defined The House
against the darkness of the oikos, the household,
Life begins well, it begins enclosed, protected, all
where women and slaves invisibly dealt with the warm in the bosom of the house . . . In this
necessities of material existence (Structural Trans- remote region, memory and imagination remain
formation 1-5): associated, each one working for their mutual
deepening . . . Through dreams the various elegantly appointed as the symposium spaces typi-
SAPPHO
dwelling-places in our lives co-penetrate and cally represented on vases and in literature. Nor
retain the treasures of former days. . . .
was it kept at a distance from “women’s quarters.”
Gaston Bachelard, Poetics of Space
The point of his analysis is that, given the minimal
Bachelard’s idealized image sketches a thor- physical evidence for clear division of gendered
oughly masculinized view of the house as safe and spaces in the Greek house, the work of gender
womb-like nest. Memories are treasures, stored separation is much more heavily a conceptual or
and retrieved through dreams. Though appearing ideological task (see also Vernant). Domestic
in this brief passage as a timeless form, Bachelard’s archaeology reveals a “concept of the economic
house distills historically specific elements of the and social independence and privacy of the oikos”
private, domestic space of eighteenth-century as “the household formed around a nuclear fam-
European bourgeois culture (Habermas 43-56). ily” (195), but the “private” house of the nuclear
Like the middle-class wife and mother, the house family was not the private of a purely feminized
itself becomes a maternal bosom, site of love and domestic space. Nor is the house itself clearly
intimacy, and repository of memory. Contempo- divided into male- and female-inhabited spaces.
rary feminist historians must guard against un- Note the difference in this conception from the
critically reproducing this appealing scene of equation Habermas offers: public = agora = male;
femininity in readings of women writers from private = oikos = female. Reading the fragments of
earlier cultures. We must look closely at specific Sappho in relation to this altered conception of
features of place and gender, and seek to uncover the “private” rather than exclusively in terms of
the ideologies determining their meanings. Where gender segregation across a public/private axis
we find familiar elements—separate or intimate gives a slightly different angle of vision. Although
spaces, cultivation of the person, emotional the textual space of a journal article prohibits me
intensity, interest in natural beauty—we should from treating this question with the thoroughness
ask a number of questions: are they exclusive to a it deserves, we can sketch some outlines of the
feminine world in a particular time and place, or representation of space in Sappho’s lyrics.4
do they also appear in texts authored by men or
The setting for her discourses is not domestic.
in articulations of masculine culture and value?
In all but a few cases, the lyrics are set outdoors.
what material conditions support them? what
Capturing the sense of these external spaces
social and political functions do they perform?
requires care. The natural settings of Sappho’s frag-
Asking such questions of archaic Greek culture
ments are neither highly cultivated nor are they
reveals complex answers.
completely wild. They evoke ritual practices and
In some accounts of domestic space and the sites marked out for such, but none of the frag-
economy of archaic Greece, women occupy a ments is generically “religious,” nor are rituals
place similar to that of other possessions: “The described with specificity; they are only alluded to
physical shape of the noble’s house provides the obliquely. Setting her lyrics outside the polis draws
key to the relationship between production of attention to the fact that women were not in-
wealth and its use to establish the social status of cluded in civic deliberations. Furthermore, a
the basileus [warrior king]. . . . [I]t consists es- substantial number of the poems thematize pres-
sentially of a courtyard, stables, perhaps a porch ence and absence—women’s coming and going—
where guests might sleep, private chambers for within spaces of women’s habitual congregating,
storing wealth and weapons and for women’s thus calling forth a gendered operation of
quarters, and a great hall . . . (Murray 47-48, memory.
emphasis added). This is the house of Odysseus or
Agamemnon—the heroes of the epics. As in many
later descriptions, women are seen as cloistered in Outdoors5
gender-segregated, “private” parts of the Greek The lush beauty of natural spaces in Sappho’s
house. But in a recent study of domestic space fragments tempts the contemporary reader into a
across several eras of ancient Greek life, archaeolo- divided frame of reference: her feminine world of
gist Michael Jameson offers a different perspec- natural beauty and peace—the private garden, in
tive. There is no way to determine, he claims, John Winkler’s phrase6 —vs. Alcaeus’s busy mascu-
which parts of the house were specifically desig- line world of war, politics, and strife. Again we
nated for women (172). Most women’s work— must be on guard against reading more current
food preparation, child care, and weaving—went ideologies, in particular the bourgeois formulas so
on in the central courtyard, he contends. The one familiar to us, onto a much earlier and different
room specially marked as “masculine,” the andrôn, era. The case of the garden is much like that of
was probably not as exclusive nor as large and the house. We have inherited conceptions of the
garden both from eighteenth-century English at- the Greek world’s most famous sanctuaries fall
SAPPHO titudes toward ownership and cultivation of land into the nonurban category” (23) and that the
and from a Romantic reaction to those attitudes.7 formation of such extraurban sanctuaries was a
Several significant words for places appearing significant accompaniment to the development of
in the fragments of Sappho are drawn from nature the polis. The organization of sacred spaces over
and from ancient Greek religious practices con- the period of the eighth century involved the ad-
ducted outdoors, but the “nature” in these poems dition of features such as an altar, a temple
is neither wilderness nor precisely the domestic (housing statues and offerings), and walls marking
“garden.” Michael Jameson suggests that in older out the sacred area (16-17). These changes oc-
Greek towns—with haphazard organization along curred unevenly across various sites (17-21), but
routes leading to fields, shore, heights, and sanctu- “the appearance of sanctuaries implies a definite
aries—as well as in the newer orthogonal settle- change in people’s perception of space” (20). Po-
ments (i.e., those laid out in a rectilinear grid), the lignac’s work helps us to imagine that Sappho
houses were so tightly packed that there would might have been physically present in extraurban
have been little space between them for gardens sanctuaries. He notes the presence of one such
(177). Agricultural land (chôra) constituted, with sanctuary on Lesbos, situated at the center of the
the house, part of the “private” realm, but we island, equidistant from its four cities (38; see also
know from Sappho’s scornful reference (Fr. 57) to Walker 223-24, 227-28).
the couturial ignorance of a “country girl” This data gives us a historical frame of refer-
(agroiôtis) in her “country garb” (agroiôtin stolan) ence for the ways Sappho describes outdoor space,
that she has no love for farm or field. What then and Fr. 2 offers the fullest and most suggestive
are we to make of the relation between the spaces picture of an extraurban sanctuary:
created in these writings so as to imagine Sappho
] summit of the
neither as a figure in an eighteenth-century mountain descending,
landscape painting, proprietress of a cultivated come to me from Crete to the sacred recess
garden, nor yet entirely confined within a house of this temple: here you will find a grove of
in the city? Recent archaeological work offers apple trees to charm you, and on the altars
4 frankincense fuming.
insight into this problem, shifting attention from
Bronze Age palaces and classical-era monuments Here ice water babbles among the apple
to the temporal and geographical spaces in be- branches and musk roses have overshadowed
tween (Murray and Price). François de Polignac all the ground; here down from the leaves’
gives us a picture of newly emerging cities during bright flickering
8 entrancement settles.
the Archaic period:
In the Greco-Aegean world of the eighth century, There are meadows, too, where the horses
‘towns’ often consisted of loose groups of villages graze knee
or clusters of houses that the first elements of deep in flowers, yes, and the breezes blow
urbanization were, at the end of the century, just here
beginning to pull together in an organic fashion honey sweet and softer [
(above all by creating spaces reserved for public 12 [ ]
use), just as they were expanding as a result of
demographic growth. Here now you, my goddess [ ]
(21) Cypris
in these golden wineglasses gracefully mix
One of the developments of the seventh and nectar with the gladness of our festivities
sixth centuries—crucial for the formation of the 16 and greet this libation.
polis—was the establishment of cults and the (trans. Jim Powell)8
building of temples. Polignac catalogues sites for I chose this translation in part because it
religious practices in three different relations to preserves the incomplete line before the first full
the city: first the acropolis, a high central temple stanza, giving the picture of this grove not at an
around which the city organizes itself; the second, indeterminate distance out in the wilds but
what Polignac calls “suburban or periurban,” between mountain and city. This dreamlike poem
located on the margins of the town or just a little contains many of the significant place terms Po-
way off. The most interesting of Polignac’s find- lignac associates with the extraurban sanctuary.
ings involves a third category: the “extraurban” The poet appeals to the goddess Aphrodite
sanctuary, situated at a distance from the city so (associated with Crete) to come to a “recess”
as to be out of the daily routine but close enough (naûon, l. 1). Translated by some as “temple,” the
to be fairly accessible. He observes that “many of term is less suggestive of a built monument than
of a place outdoors which naturally lends itself to that departure, the reminder which is actually a
SAPPHO
worship. Likewise, “grove” (alsos, l. 2) seems to be changed impression of what was “undergone.”
a natural site, but it has been furnished with altars The words for remembering—the imperative mem-
(bômoi, l. 3). There are signs of cultivation—apple nais’ (kamethen memnais’ - “remember me”) and
trees and roses—but also of wild vegetation. The omnaisai (an infinitive in the phrase egô thelô om-
place word chôros (translated as “all in the ground” naisai - “I want to remind you”) are derived from
in l. 7)9 carries associations of land or country, but Mnemosune, the name of the mother of Muses.1 1
can also refer more generically to place or space; The rhetoric of the verse delicately reconstructs of
Liddell and Scott’s first definition is “space to hold a memory of pleasurable erotic and sensual experi-
a thing,” and its related word chôra suggests ence to be carried into the new life (Burnett 290-
belonging—to be in one’s place or take one’s place 300). The Sapphic speaker corrects the departing
(793-94). woman’s memory in order to sustain her in a
Given those associations, this fragment’s most future in which she would perhaps be cut off from
striking aspect, noted by several commentators, is the richness of experience with the speaker and
the eerie absence of people. Thomas McEvilley, for others who have shared those experiences, those
example, describes the grove as a “general image who have “taken care of” the leaving woman.
of a relationship of desire and withholding, of Similar uses of memory occur in other poems. Fr.
emptiness and fullness” (332). We have gone out 16, for example, uses the story of Helen in a
of the city with the poet—perhaps along a proces- speculation on a philosophical question: what is
sional path marked out from city to sanctuary, most beautiful? At the end of the existing frag-
along which the whole community would have ment, the speaker says the mythic Helen has
walked on another occasion: ending in a place reminded her (o]nemnai-s’) of “Anactoria who is
where women would have enjoyed the rituals of not here” and goes on to mention “her lovely
the cult of Aphrodite—“private” in their separa- walk and the bright sparkle of her face” (Campbell
tion from the rest of the group, but public in the 67).1 2 Fr. 24, of which no complete line remains
sense of engaging in religious practices sanctioned intact, recreates the tone of Fr. 94: “remember
by and in service of the polis. But instead of being (emnasesth’) . . . for we too did these things in
accompanied by others, in Sappho’s poem the our . . . youth: many lovely . . . we . . . the city
listener is placed in this imagined space alone. . . . us . . . sharp” (Campbell 75). The speaker
More powerfully than the publicly sanctioned remembers (epimnastheis’) “Gentle Atthis” in Fr.
space of worship, the fragment represents the 96, another verse filled with natural beauties:
absence of women. moon and stars, salt seas and flowery fields, dew,
In another fragment (94), women are present roses, chervil (Campbell 121).
together, facing imminent separation. The speaker
here expresses a wish to die because she must
leave a group of other women against her will.
Converting Desire to Memory: A
She describes this experience, what she has “un-
Rhetorical Process
dergone” (pep[onth]amen), as “fearful” (deina). The In these references to memory in Sappho’s
respondent, “Sappho,” then consoles her, redefin- works lies an impulse related to rhetoric’s desire
ing the experience as a good one (kal’ epaschomen), to shape the ideas, feelings, and practices of those
and corrects her memory: “and remember me, for it reaches.1 3 The motifs of memory in Sappho’s
you know how we have stood by you. Perhaps poems do not offer an organized technê for memo-
you don’t—so I will remind you . . . and we have rizing speeches (cf. Burnett 277-313). But they
undergone beautiful things” (trans. John arouse yearning (pothos), and it is because one can
Winkler).1 0 She goes on to remind the girl of wear- feel desire, can yearn for a different future, a just
ing wreaths of flowers, being anointed with response to a past act, a fair valuation of a leader,
perfumed oil, lying on a soft bed and satisfying that one can persuade and be persuaded.1 4 Al-
her longing. The verbs in both cases are forms of though Freud argues that civilization takes shape
paschô, to undergo. This is an active voice verb through the suppression of individual desire
but has something of a passive sense to it: to (Civilization), one might use Sappho’s verse,
undergo something demands less agency than to particularly through references to the goddess Pei-
do something. The poem combines the idea of a tho, to make the opposite case: that the articula-
forced departure from the pleasure of a group of tion of the most compelling of human desires—
women in the ritual space of Aphrodite’s sanctu- desire for another person—is related in some way
ary with the shaping of memory in the face of to the capacity to articulate communal desires.1 5
Consciousness of others, present or absent, is (Campbell 115). In Fr. 96 mentioned above, the
SAPPHO necessary at that juncture. words “Aphrodite” and “Peitho” appear in the
final stanzas.
Sappho’s references to Peitho, the goddess of
Persuasion, and the role of this figure in Archaic But Peitho’s realm is not purely that of persua-
culture support such an interpretation. In the Pa- sion as personal, erotic seduction; she also has as-
latine Anthology, a cumulative collection over ten sociations with the public life of communities.
centuries of thousands of Greek epigrams, the Her power is necessary for the establishment of
second-century B.C.E. poet Antipater of Sidon civilization and democracy. One of the reports of
links persuasion and lyric in his praise of Sappho: the founding of her cult illustrates this dual as-
sociation. Pausanias, the travel guide of the
Aeolian earth, you cover Sappho, who among the ancient Mediterranean, tells of a temple in Athens
immortal Muses is celebrated as the mortal Muse, to Aphrodite Pandemos (“of all the people”) and
whom Cypris and Eros together reared, with
Peitho. Later, archaeologists find coins with Ath-
whom Persuasion wove the undying wreath of
song, a joy to Hellas and a glory to you. You Fates ena on one side and Aphrodite Pandemos and Pei-
twirling the triple thread on your spindle, why tho on the other. According to Walter Burkert,
did you not spin an everlasting life for the singer venerable authority on Greek religion, Aphrodite
who devised the deathless gifts of the Muses of Pandemos was responsible for vulgar sexuality and
Helicon?1 6 prostitution, but the sources he cites here are later
(Campbell 27-29)
Athenian figures: Solon, Plato, and Xenophon
(409n34). The older meaning of “Pandemos” he
Peitho is here connected with Aphrodite and
gives is “literally the one who embraces the whole
her son Eros, figures for desire and yearning. In
people as the common bond and fellow-feeling
Sappho’s Fr. 1 (the only complete poem among
necessary for the existence of any state” (155).
the remains of Sappho’s verse), we see this associa-
Another story told by Pausanias speaks of the
tion enacted when the speaker (called “Sappho”)
political power of Peitho. A local myth of Sicyon,
calls on Aphrodite to persuade a lover to submit
an ancient city on the Peloponnesian peninsula,
to the speaker’s desire for her. Although Peitho is
tells of the coming of Apollo and Artemis. The
not named as a goddess, her name would sound
twin deities were ejected from a place called Pho-
and thus her force be felt in the verb “to persuade”
bos (Fear), an act that precipitated a plague in
(l. 18, Campbell 54). Her assistance to Aphrodite
ancient Sicyon. Young suppliants from the city
often involves tricks or deception, later strongly
went to a river and persuaded the gods to return
associated with rhetorical persuasion. According
to Peitho’s sanctuary in their town, thereby dispel-
to Burnett’s analysis of the poem, “[Aphrodite’s]
ling the plague. Polignac interprets this story as
magic, after all, is a heightened form of persua-
the banishing of Fear by Persuasion, giving “per-
sion (as Sappho slyly reminds us) and it will be
fect expression to the ideal of relations within the
used in the interest of a special erotic justice which
city, where philia guarantees the cohesion of the
Aphrodite, like a little sister to Athena, here
community” (71).
defends” (255-56).
Within this mix of sources, we find threads of
In a more general observation, Anne Carson persuasion cultivating desire or feeling in service
marks the power of the association between desire at times of personal passion but at other times of
and persuasion in a primarily oral culture: forging group bonds. The rhetorical impulse in
The breath of desire is Eros. . . . Wings and breath Sappho’s fragments might be described as the
transport Eros as wings and breath convey words: cultivation of such feelings among women, par-
an ancient analogy between language and love is ticularly in service of a kind of memory useful to
here apparent. The same irresistible sensual charm, a woman separated from pleasurable contact with
called peitho in Greek, is the mechanism of seduc-
tion in love and of persuasion in words; the same
other women.1 7
goddess (Peitho) attends upon seducer and poet. Anne Pippin Burnett describes Sapphic
It is an analogy that makes perfect sense in the memory training as a “discipline” with some rigor:
context of oral poetics, where Eros and the Muses
clearly share an apparatus of sensual assault. . . . there is nothing sentimental or backward-
(49-50) looking about the Sapphic doctrine of memory,
and its practitioners are not to be thought of as
Peitho became one of Aphrodite’s cult names listlessly fingering old souvenirs. What Sappho
taught was a disciplined mental process which, by
(Burnett 256n.73), probably during Sappho’s time. reconstructing past actions in a certain way, kept
In a second-century C.E. papyrus commentary, one fit for the best that the present might propose.
Sappho refers to Peitho as a daughter of Aphrodite (290)
Burnett goes on to propose that the memory memory” (46). There are two references to such
SAPPHO
Sappho cultivates is an “organising and classifying forgetting in Sappho’s fragments. In 44A—a poem
one, and it must be accompanied by a comple- concerning Artemis’s birth, her pledge to remain
mentary process of forgetting, as particular mo- a virgin, and her inaccessibility to Eros—appears
ments are dissociated from their particular con- an admonition “not to forget the anger” (orgos mê
texts and rearranged with others of their kind” ‘pilathe, Campbell 91-93). The temptation to sup-
(300). Perhaps “doctrine” (295) is too strong a ply a context for this enigmatic phrase is strong.
term, for Sappho lived in a world prior to discur- Could it have to do with a woman’s anger in a
sive systematization—to the differentiation of male-dominated culture? Perhaps it could be
types of discourse into philosophical, rhetorical, linked to Sappho’s banishment under the tyrant
scientific, and aesthetic which began in earnest Pittacus. There simply isn’t enough information
with Aristotle in the fourth century but would be to support an interpretation. A more famous and
fully enacted only with modernity. But the technê fruitful reference to “forgetting,” one that will
of Sappho’s rhetorical lyric is no less artful, self- bring us to a consideration of the distinctive func-
conscious, and serviceable for the needs of the tions of memory in Sappho’s verse, occurs in the
culture. The question of whether or not this brief fragment about apple-picking, 105(a):
memory work forms a system is less compelling As the sweet-apple reddens on the bough-top, on
than that of its nature and ends. the top of the topmost bough; the apple-gatherers
have forgotten it—no they have not forgotten it
The most prevalent references to memory
entirely, but they could not reach it.
throughout ancient Greek tradition concern a (Campbell 131)
person’s kleos, or fame. For warrior, politician, or
poet, the ideal is to be remembered for great acts Winkler interprets this verse as a commentary
which garnered kleos.1 8 Sappho’s fragments in- on female sexuality. The (male) apple-gatherers
clude two examples of this kind of memory, have “forgotten” the sweet apple reddening: i.e.,
notable because they present positive and nega- they have ignored or neglected women’s clitoral
tive poles. Fr. 147, preserved in the Discourses of sexuality. But in the next line we find that, no,
Dio Chrysostom, promises “Someone, I say, will they haven’t exactly “forgotten” it; they couldn’t
remember (mnasesthai) us in the future” reach it. Forgetting becomes reinterpreted as a
(Campbell 159). The emphatic structure, along form of incapacity, or a combination of inatten-
with the reference to the future, seems to suggest tion and ineptitude. This subtle dramatizing of
an assertion of kleos for the speaker and her “forgetting” takes place in a different associational
companions. On the other hand, Fr. 55 puts a realm than the casting or withholding of light
curse on someone who has failed to live up to Nagy describes. Here, the obverse of forgetting
speaker’s artistic standards, or refused to partici- requires a kind of physical attentiveness, a sensing
pate in the world of poetry and pleasure: “But of the physical presence of another, along with
when you die you will lie there, and afterwards the capacity to “reach” the other—to respond in a
there will never be any recollection (mnamosuna) way that suits the features, the state, the ripeness
of you or any longing for you since you have no of the other. This kind of remembering is not
share in the roses of Pieria; unseen in the house of available to everyone; it is out of reach of some.
Hades also, flown from our midst, you will go to There is a “hidden-in-plain-sight” quality to it that
and fro among the shadowy corpses” (Campbell couldn’t be achieved by the switch-like action of
99). Even in the imagined hell of the banished turning on or off a light. In a true obverse of such
poet, woman is still in motion, going to and fro. forgetting, the scenarios of remembering created
within Sappho’s fragments often have more to do
Treatments of memory specific to the Archaic
with the subtle interplay of relations—the disposi-
period are outlined by Gregory Nagy, who notes
tions—among those present than with the shin-
the significance of memory in relationship to
ing of a bright light of attention onto a heroic
forgetting (lêthê) (46-47).1 9 Characterizing lyric
performer.
poetic practice in terms of a visual figure, Nagy
observes that things are remembered because of The memory cultivated in Sappho’s verse
the light cast on them by poetry and also through employs rhetorical powers of lyric in service of
the active task of forgetting, or obscuring, other the needs of a group. In the creation of an inter-
things: “Such a concept of mnemosune can only be subjective space, Sappho disposes her listeners
achieved through an ever-present awareness of its toward habits of mind and action that would help
opposite, lêthê. Without the obliteration of what them to thrive within the constraints of their
need not be remembered, there cannot be world.2 0 In Sappho’s lyrics, the others present
(listeners) do not become the object of a gaze album, constructed by the powerfully normative
SAPPHO (Stehle), nor are they represented as fixed in space. frame of “the happy family” (Coward). Critical
In fact, people in the poems are often not repre- public memory takes its place between sculpted
sented at all but rather addressed or remembered. monuments, so familiar that they have become
Particularly in the creation of the monody—the part of a neutral landscape, and a private collec-
single person singing to a group—we have an tion whose names and faces are meaningful only
adumbration of the “primal scene” of classical to a handful of intimates. Such a memory will
rhetoric.2 1 Monody is like but unlike the bardic counter the tendency Fredric Jameson sees in our
performance in that the text is new, unknown, postmodern era: a “weakening of historicity, both
“personal” to the singer, but it is presented by a in our relationship to public History and in the
single person to a group. But rather than slotting new forms of our private temporality” (6).
this genre into the category of “private,” we need Memory here refers to a practice: “a public, inter-
to remember that the archaic monodist had an subjective practice, a collective recollection of a
important civic function. In the description of social past” (Mitchell 193). These rhetorical reflec-
space as something to be in rather than look at tions help us to ask, How is it possible to keep
(Shauf), Sappho’s verse disposes her listeners in an reworking the past to make the present compre-
attentive relationship toward each other—attuned hensible?2 2
to their movements in and out of a shared space,
History and memory have an intricate rela-
their desires, and the ways of remembering that
tion to one another, particularly when we speak
will contribute to their well being. . . .
of those left along the side of the grand road of
historical progress. Before (after and around) the
Conclusion technical memory systems formulated within the
The linkage between loss, grief, memory, and rhetorical tradition, Sappho inscribed a different
the visual occurs repeatedly throughout public practice of memory, one we might attempt to
moments in history, and has been taken up recognize and revitalize even today: “history . . .
recently by critical theorists interested in histori- can provide us the experience of difference, a
cal trauma and the personal damage wrought by productive memory of latent fragments of human
racism, sexism, and homophobia. The experience being” (duBois ix). Classical rhetoric has been
of being excluded from spaces where others remembered—memorialized—by some as a site of
exercise power to determine collective actions that lost glory and unquestioned accomplishment: a
shape one’s life must always entail some kind of monumental history, in Nietzsche’s term. Placing
pain: whether it takes the form of the incremental Sappho in the narrative gives us the rhetorical
“strain trauma” of a daily life of subordination means to mourn—a way of remembering that
and silencing, as experienced by women and by returns us again and again to the loss of countless
queers of many races and classes across history, or others who have come and gone, and urges us to
more dramatic events of displacement (of Ameri- seek persistently their traces.
can Indians from their ancestral lands), enslave-
ment (of Africans), or genocide (of Jews under Hit- Notes
ler’s regime). The project of reimagining public 1. I wish to thank the faculty of Miami University’s
spaces in ways to include and empower such English department, Peter W. Rose, and especially
groups must involve the mobilization of memory; Laura Mandell for their comments on an early draft of
this article.
vital, multiple publics will engage in “forms of
social action requiring the ability to remember in 2. References to Sappho appear in the works of numer-
a desirable way” (LaCapra 6). Memory demands ous Greek and Roman authors including Plato, Aristo-
tle, Hermogenes, Demetrius, Menander, Himerius, Ci-
(and allows) a kind of agency essential for partici- cero, Catullus, Seneca, Strabo, Dionysus of
pation in the public: “Memory is a technology for Halicarnassus, Plutarch, Philostratus, Athenaeus, and
gaining freedom of movement in and mastery others. Her poems were collected into nine volumes
over the subjective temporality of consciousness by a scholar of the Alexandrian era. The most impor-
tant contemporary translators of and commentators
and the objective temporality of discursive perfor- on Sappho are Denys Page and David A. Campbell. I
mance” (LaCapra 194). In the passage offered as rely here on Campbell’s collection, numbering, and
an epigraph for this essay, LaCapra relates this translations (unless otherwise indicated) of ancient
technique of memory to space. writings by and about Sappho and Alcaeus. See Snyder
on other women writers in Greek and Roman antiq-
Memory suggests a history made accountable uity.
to the lives of persons. But this is not to suggest 3. The bibliography on gender and space is vast. For a
the kind of memory contained in a family photo thoughtful overview focusing on feminist scholarship
in U.S. history and literature, see Kerber. For a perspec- “the persuasive power in the woman’s act of speak-
SAPPHO
tive from feminist geography, see Pratt and Hanson. ing” (see especially 208-10, 236-37).
4. This article is based on a chapter of a book-in-progress, 14. Kenneth Burke posits a similar connection between
Dispositions: Rhetoric, Difference, and Public Space. pathos and knowledge in his discussion of the “dialec-
tic of tragedy” (38-41).
5. Jeffrey Walker titles his richly nuanced chapter on the
poetry of Sappho and Alcaeus “Argument Indoors,” 15. Laura Mandell remarks that “It’s as if, for Sappho’s
referring to the “symposiumlike gatherings” which culture and gender, the homosexual/homosocial
may have been the settings for the performance of continuum were visible as a continuum, making the
works of both figures. Walker is less concerned with sexual and social ‘bedfellows’ rather than opposites (as
physical space than with the conditions of argument: in the more homophobic/male suppression of the
the question he grapples with is the extent to which continuum: civilization as discontent, as suppression
these poets spoke to a homogeneous audience before of desire)” (personal communication).
whom they would need “little more than a rhetoric of 16. Greek epigrams, unlike the pithy sayings we associ-
recapitulation” in order to solidify shared attitudes ated with someone like Oscar Wilde, are occasional
and identity (249). His answer is admirably qualified: poems, inclusive of many subjects and eclectic in their
the image of this closed system does not quite hold in scope. Antipater wrote a series of epigrams in praise of
either case. earlier poets: in addition to Sappho, he praised Homer,
6. In Winkler’s elegant interpretation of Sappho’s erotic Orpheus, Anacreon, and Erinna (another of the few
verse, “garden” becomes less a natural space than a female poets in Greek antiquity) (Peter 16ff.)
metaphor for female sexuality. 17. Walker speculates that women’s groups during this
7. Tom Stoppard’s drama Arcadia offers a delightful period would have an unstable quality, commenting
enactment of the landscape debates. See also Williams. that “Sappho’s circle was not so much held together
as continually reconstituted” (230-31). He imagines
8. Brackets indicate missing words. Williamson offers an that women of the period, in addition to seeking
interesting account of the kinds of materials on which consolation for this condition, might be expressing in
Sappho’s texts have been preserved and stories of their its representation a desire for the agency that allows
discovery. men to wander of their own volition (242).
9. The Greek word chôros appears in l. 6 of the Greek 18. See Jesper Svenbro’s study of reading in ancient Greece
text (Campbell 56). for discussion of the concept of kleos as derived from
the sound of poetry read aloud and of Sappho’s frag-
10. Several interpreters of this fragment are interested in ments in terms of speech, writing, and personae.
the problem of attributing the first line: is it spoken
by the woman who is leaving, quoted clearly in the 19. Many will recognize in this root the name of the river
following lines, or is it the voice of “Sappho”? On this over which the dead pass on their way to the under-
decision rests the degree of desperation one of the world. When the prefix “a” is added (a “privative” or
speakers feels at the prospect of separation. There is negating morpheme), the resulting words create
something of a power struggle involved in the deci- another way to talk about remembering: i.e., as not
sion: if it is Sappho who wishes to die, she has less forgetting. Truth, aletheia, refers to that which is not
power in the relationship than the woman who leaves. forgotten. The root also contributes to the English
Or, vice versa. The “Sappho” speaker seems, in the word “lethargy,” suggesting the link between a neu-
balance of the fragment, to have more control over rotic forgetting of painful memories associated with
the situation—to have an interest in evoking emo- depression and the lassitude often accompanying this
tional memories that will sustain the departing mental state. Its cure produces not necessarily happi-
woman in the absence of the speaker. Thus, the ness but vitality.
contextually logical interpretation argues for the 20. On intersubjectivity, see Benjamin; Mohanty.
departing woman speaking first, expressing her wish
to die. 21. I borrow this term from Mitchell (who, of course, bor-
rows it from Freud). Mitchell writes of the primal scene
11. The Greek lexicon explains the etymology of memory of a conversation, meaning two people talking face to
in the Muses: “. . . before the invention of writing face. My reference is to the single speaker delivering
memory was the Poet’s chief gift” (Liddell and Scott an oration before a group.
449).
22. I wish to thank Laura Mandell for the form of this
12. This fragment takes the form of a priamel: a list of question and for excellent advice on the whole of this
parallel items, evaluated on some common criterion, chapter, especially on the subjects of mourning and
ending in a pointed closing—i.e., what is the best, the melancholy.
sweetest, the first, the strongest X? DuBois interprets
this poem as an early form of philosophical logic
(chapter five). Burnett discusses the uses of the pri-
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Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. Berkeley: University and David E. Wellbery. Stanford: Stanford University
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Burnett, Anne Pippin. Three Archaic Poets: Archilochus, Al- Page, Denys. Sappho and Alcaeus: An Introduction to the Study
caeus, Sappho. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, of Ancient Lesbian Poetry. London: Oxford University
1983. Press, 1955.
Peter, Jay, ed. The Greek Anthology and Other Ancient Greek
Campbell, David A., trans. Sappho and Alcaeus. Loeb Classi-
Epigrams. London: Allen Lane, 1973.
cal Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Podlecki, Anthony J. The Early Greek Poets and Their Times.
Carruthers, Mary. The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in
Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984.
Medieval Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1990. Powell, Jim. Sappho. A Garland. The Poems and Fragments of
Sappho. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1993.
Carson, Anne. Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1986. Pratt, Geraldine, and Susan Hanson. “Geography and the
Construction of Difference.” Gender, Place and Culture
De Polignac, François. Cults, Territory, and the Origins of the 1.1 (1994): 5-29.
Greek City-State. Trans. Janet Lloyd. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1995. Ratcliffe, Krista. Anglo-American Feminist Challenges to the
Rhetorical Traditions: Virginia Woolf, Mary Daly, Adrienne
duBois, Page. Sappho is Burning. Chicago: University of Rich. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,
Chicago Press, 1995. 1996.
Ede, Lisa, Cheryl Glenn, and Andrea Lunsford. “Border Ritchie, Joy, and Kate Ronald, eds. Available Means: Women
Crossings: Intersections of Rhetoric and Feminism.” in the Rhetorical Tradition. Pittsburgh: University of
Rhetorica 13 (Autumn 1995): 401-41. Pittsburgh Press, 2001.
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. Trans. James Sappho and Alcaeus. Trans. David A. Campbell. Loeb Classi-
Strachey. New York: Norton, 1961. cal Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Glenn, Cheryl. Rhetoric Retold: Regendering the Tradition from Schiappa, Edward. “Rhetorikê: What’s in a Name? Toward a
Antiquity Through the Renaissance. Carbondale: Southern Revised History of Early Greek Rhetorical Theory.”
Illinois University Press, 1997. Quarterly Journal of Speech 78 (1992): 1-15.
Shauf, Michèle S. Memory Media. CD-ROM Dissertation.
Habermas, Jürgen. The Structural Transformation of the Public
University of Delaware, 1997.
Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society.
Trans. Thomas Burger. Cambridge: Massachussetts Snyder, Jane McIntosh. The Woman and the Lyre: Women
Institute of Technology Press, 1991. Writers in Classical Greece and Rome. Carbondale:
Southern Illinois University Press, 1989.
Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late
Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991. Stehle, Eva. Performance and Gender in Ancient Greece: Non-
dramatic Poetry in Its Setting. Princeton: Princeton
Jameson, Michael. “Private Space and the Greek City.” Mur- University Press, 1997.
ray and Price 175-90.
Stoppard, Tom. Arcadia. London: Faber and Faber, 1993.
Kerber, Linda K. “Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Wom-
an’s Place: The Rhetoric of Women’s History.” The Svenbro, Jesper. Phrasikleia: An Anthropology of Reading in
Journal of American History 75.1 (1988): 9-39. Ancient Greece. Trans. Janet Lloyd. Ithaca: Cornell
LaCapra, Dominick. History and Memory after Auschwitz. Ith-
Vernant, Jean Pierre. Myth and Thought among the Greeks.
aca: Cornell University Press, 1998.
Trans. of Mythe et pensée chez les Grecs (1965). London:
Liddell and Scott. A Lexicon. Abridged from Liddell and Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983.
Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Walker, Jeffrey. Rhetoric and Poetics in Antiquity. New York:
Press, 1871. Oxford University Press, 2000.
McEvilley, Thomas. “Sappho, Fragment 2.” Phoenix 26 Wertheimer, Molly Meijer, ed. Listening to Their Voices: The
(1972): 323-33. Rhetorical Activities of Historical Women. Columbia:
Mitchell, W. J. T. Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual University of South Carolina Press, 1997.
Representation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Winkler, John. “Gardens of Nymphs: Public and Private in
1994. Sappho’s Lyrics.” Reflections of Women in Antiquity. Ed.
Helene P. Foley. New York: Gordon and Breach Science
Mohanty, Satya P. “Us and Them: On the Philosophical
Publishers, 1981. 63-89.
Bases of Political Criticism.” Critical Conditions: Regard-
ing the Historical Moment. Ed. Michael Hays. Min- Yates, Frances A. The Art of Memory. Chicago: University of
neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992. 115-45. Chicago, 1966.
FURTHER READING A fictional autobiography of Sappho, using Sappho’s
SAPPHO
poetic fragments as a guide.
Criticism Grahn, Judy. The Highest Apple: Sappho and the Lesbian Poetic
Arnold, Edwin. “Sappho.” In The Poets of Greece, pp. 105-18. Tradition. San Francisco: Spinsters, Ink., 1985, 159 p.
London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1869.
Discusses the theme of female relationships in Sappho’s
Praises Sappho as an artist and counters her critics by as-
work and Sappho’s influence in later writing; Grahn is a
serting that she remained “true to her womanhood.”
leading critic in the field of gay-lesbian studies.
Bergmann, Emilie L. “Fictions of Sor Juana/Fictions of Sap-
pho.” Confluencia: Revista Hispanica de Cultura y Liter- Greene, Ellen, ed. Reading Sappho: Contemporary Approaches.
atura 9, no. 2 (spring 1994): 9-15. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, 303 p.
Compares Sappho’s poetry to the work of the seventeenth- Collects essays on the themes of language and literary
century Mexican nun Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, focusing context, Homer and oral tradition, ritual and social
on sexuality and authorial personae. context, and women’s erotics; the first anthology of Sap-
pho scholarship.
Bonnard, Andre. “Sappho of Lesbos: Tenth of the Muses.”
In Greek Civilization: From the Iliad to the Parthenon, Hallett, Judith P. “Sappho and Her Social Context: Sense
translated by A. Lytton Sells, pp. 86-100. New York: and Sensuality.” Signs 4, no. 3 (spring 1979): 447-64.
Macmillan, 1957.
Suggests that the emphasis on the homoerotics of Sap-
Observes Sappho’s movement in poetry between the outer
pho’s poetry has been overstated; proposes instead that
natural world and the inner world of feeling; argues that
the intent of the persona created by the poet was to point
in doing so she anticipates modern poetry.
young women toward sexuality within a heterosexual
Bowra, C. M. “Sappho.” In Greek Lyric Poetry: From Alcman marriage.
to Simonides, pp. 186-247. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1936. Lefkowitz, Mary R. “Critical Stereotypes and the Poetry of
Sappho.” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 14, no. 2
Analyzes the social and religious themes and the imagery (summer 1973): 113-23.
of Sappho’s work, calling her “the most gifted woman
who has ever written poetry.” Argues that Sappho’s poetry has been misinterpreted
throughout history by critics who have judged her by
Brandt, Lida Roberts. “The Status of Women.” In Social special criteria reserved for female writers.
Aspects of Greek Life in the Sixth Century B.C., pp. 44-72.
Philadelphia: T. C. Davis & Sons, 1921. Patrick, Mary Mills. Sappho and the Island of Lesbos. New
Discusses the position of women in ancient Greece in the York: Methuen, 1912, 180 p.
context of sixth-century B.C. society, religion, and Surveys Sappho’s poetry, emphasizing the philosophical
domestic life; points out that the liberal spirit that in addition to the erotic; praises the poet’s intelligence,
characterized Lesbos facilitated Sappho’s artistic develop- learning, and delicacy.
ment.
Rexroth, Kenneth. “Sappho, Poems.” In Classics Revisited,
Burnett, Anne Pippin. “Sappho.” In Three Archaic Poets: pp. 28-32. San Francisco: New Directions, 1986.
Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho, pp. 207-313. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1983. Briefly summarizes Sappho’s literary accomplishments,
adding that she provides a window into the hidden world
Examines Sappho’s major poems as representatives of the
of ancient Greek women.
lyric genre.
DeJean, Joan. “Fictions of Sappho.” Critical Inquiry 13, no. 4 Robinson, David Moore. “The Real Sappho: A Critical
(summer 1987): 787-805. Memoir.” In The Songs of Sappho, Including the Recent
Egyptian Discoveries, edited and translated by Marion
Explores the way male literary critics throughout history Mills Miller and David Moore Robinson, pp. 49-85.
have interpreted Sappho’s life and her poetry. New York: Frank-Maurice, 1925.
Douka-Kabitoglou, E. “Sappho of Lesbos and Diotima of Compares Sappho to Socrates and Shakespeare on the
Mantinea: The Maternal Subtext of Culture.” In basis of their expansive minds and their passion for fel-
Women, Creators of Culture, edited by Ekaterini Geor- low men and women.
goudaki and Domna Pastourmatzi, pp. 217-44. Thessa-
loniki, Greece: Hellenic Association of American Stud- Snyder, Jane McIntosh. “Sappho of Lesbos.” In The Woman
ies, 1997. and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece and Rome,
Interprets the works of Sappho and Diotima through the pp. 1-37. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University
feminist literary theory of Luce Irigary; focusing on Press, 1989.
themes of motherhood. Gives an overview of Sappho’s life and work; in the
duBois, Page. Sappho Is Burning. Chicago: University of context of early women’s writing, briefly discusses Sap-
Chicago, 1996, 206 p. pho’s image and artistic representations of her in later
literature.
Argues that a rereading of Sappho offers a counterpoint
to received histories of poetry, philosophy, and sexuality; ———. Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho. New York:
uses Sappho to counter the work of Foucault and to re- Columbia University Press, 1997, 261 p.
examine Western conceptions of Asia.
Interprets lesbian themes in Sappho’s poetry through close
Freedman, Nancy. Sappho: The Tenth Muse. New York: St. readings of the fragments; a significant modern updating
Martin’s Press, 1998, 336 p. of the topic of lesbian desire in the works of Sappho.
Stehle, Eva. “Romantic Sensuality, Poetic Sense: A Response Winkler, Jack. “Gardens of Nymphs.” In Reflections of
SAPPHO to Hallett on Sappho.” Signs 4, no. 3 (spring 1979): Women in Antiquity, edited by Helene P. Foley, pp. 63-
465-71. 90. New York: Gordon and Breach Science Publications,
1981.
Asserts that Sappho’s depictions of lesbian relationships
create a world where feminine experience and desire can Analyzes Sappho’s reaction to Homer as emblematic of
be explored apart from the dominant male views on love male Greek culture and her sexual relations in a female
and sexuality. world.
Stigers, Eva S. “Sappho’s Private World.” In Reflections of OTHER SOURCES FROM GALE:
Women in Antiquity, edited by Helene P. Foley, pp. 45- Additional coverage of Sappho’s life and career is contained
61. New York: Gordon and Breach Science Publications, in the following sources published by the Gale Group: Clas-
sical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Vols. 3, 67; Concise
1981.
Dictionary of World Literary Biography, Vol. 1; Dictionary of
Discusses Sappho’s place in the tradition of Greek love Literary Biography, Vol. 176; DISCovering Authors Modules:
poetry; asserts that homosexual desire in Sappho’s poetry Poets; DISCovering Authors 3.0; Poetry Criticism, Vol. 5; Refer-
was a way of presenting a female erotic subject. ence Guide to World Literature, Eds. 2, 3; World Poets.
PHILLIS
WHEATLEY
(1753 - 1784)
(Also known as Phillis Peters) American poet. her mistress, she was renamed by her owner and
given the family’s surname. She displayed a curios-
ity and aptitude for learning that led the Wheat-
leys to educate her, primarily through Bible study.
W heatley is the first black woman known to

have published a book in the United States.
Her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
Wheatley was taught to read and write English
and studied classical and contemporary poetry as
well as French, Latin, and Greek literature. She
(1773) was used as an example of the power of began writing poetry around the age of thirteen.
education by proponents of egalitarian and aboli- She was given the unusual privilege of a private
tionist aims, who emphasized Wheatley’s com- room with a lamp and writing materials in order
mand of Western literature and classical mythol- to encourage her writing, but she was forbidden
ogy as well as the religious expression strongly to associate with other slaves. Wheatley’s first
evident in her poetry. Wheatley’s talent came to published poem, an elegy commemorating the
the attention of political and cultural leaders on death of the well-known abolitionist minister
both sides of the Atlantic, and she once cor- George Whitefield, was printed locally in 1770;
responded with George Washington. Although
however, she soon gained national and interna-
her reputation as a poet has sometimes been
tional attention when this poem was reprinted in
disparaged and her literary skills challenged, most
newspapers throughout the colonies and in Eng-
modern assessments recognize Wheatley’s ac-
land. As a palliative for her asthma, she traveled
complishments as typical of the best poetry of her
to England in 1773 with the Wheatleys’ son and
age.
was treated as a celebrity, especially among English
abolitionists. Among them was the antislavery
activist Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntington,
who secured publication in London of Wheatley’s
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION collection Poems on Various Subjects. The work was
Believed to have been born in West Africa first published with the signed testimonies of John
circa 1753 (possibly in present-day Senegal or Hancock and Reverend Samuel Mather affirming
Gambia), Wheatley was purchased when she was its authenticity as the work of a slave girl. Wheat-
about seven years old at a slave auction in 1761 ley was granted an audience with King George III
by the wife of a wealthy Boston merchant, Susan- but missed the meeting in order to return to
nah Wheatley. Bought to be a personal maid for Boston to attend Mrs. Wheatley on her deathbed.
Wheatley was freed in 1774, about four months dismissed as merely average or simply imitative,
WHEATLEY before Mrs. Wheatley’s death. Wheatley married though a few of Wheatley’s defenders maintained
John Peters in 1778, a free black man who worked that her poetry could hold its own with that of
as a lawyer and a grocer, and they had three contemporary white poets. Twentieth-century
children, all of whom died in infancy. Her at- African American critics scrutinized Wheatley’s
tempts to publish another volume of poetry were verse for evidence of racial pride or defiance of
unsuccessful; she could not find enough subscrib- bondage, and some faulted her for what they
ers to make publication financially possible, perceived as a lack of either sentiment. More
despite the praise of men including Voltaire, recent critics of the late twentieth century have
George Washington, and John Paul Jones. The argued that in using neoclassical and traditionally
family eventually fell into financial difficulties, white modes of discourse, Wheatley subverted the
and Peters was jailed in a debtor’s prison. Wheat- language of her oppressors and used it for her own
ley spent her last years in poverty, working as a purposes. Some critics have contended that
maid in boardinghouses until her death on De- Wheatley’s subjects must be judged within the
cember 5, 1784. context of the poetic models and social influences
in her restricted surroundings, noting the irony of
her position as a pampered favorite of Boston’s
privileged class and of her enforced isolation from
MAJOR WORKS other slaves. Despite much supposition concern-
Wheatley was primarily an occasional poet, ing her poetic gifts and potential under different
writing elegies and honorific works to com- circumstances, Wheatley’s poetry is considered a
memorate the lives of friends and famous contem- point of departure for the study of African Ameri-
poraries and poems to celebrate important events, can literature. Many commentators assess her
such as Washington’s appointment as com- poetry superior to that typical of her era, and cite
mander-in-chief of the revolutionary forces (“To instances of individuality that acquit her of the
His Excellency George Washington”). Her poems common charge of being a mere imitator. James
follow the then-widely imitated diction, meter, Weldon Johnson has explained that when Wheat-
and rhyme patterns established by Alexander Pope ley’s work is judged by the standards of her time,
and his school of neoclassical poetry, but Wheat- rather than those of a “later day,” Wheatley
ley’s technical skill sets her work apart from that “stands out as one of the important characters in
of many of her contemporaries. Poems on Various the making of American literature, without any
Subjects contains thirty-nine poems which form allowances for her sex or her antecedents.”
the majority of her extant work and range in
subject matter from very personal and philosophi-
cal musings, such as “An Hymn to Morning” and
“An Hymn to Evening,” to more conventional
neoclassical subjects, as in “On Recollection.”
PRINCIPAL WORKS
Many of the poems combine Christian imagery or An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of that Celebrated
scriptural interpretation with classical influences, Divine, and Eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the
particularly Homeric allusions. Her poems reflect Reverend and Learned George Whitefield (poetry)
an attention to the major political events of her 1770
day as well as more mundane occurrences among
her acquaintances. Of the extant poems not Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. By
contained in Poems on Various Subjects, many are Phillis Wheatley, Negro Servant to Mr. John
variants of earlier poems, but these also include Wheatley of Boston (poetry) 1773
the poems in praise of George Washington and An Elegy, Sacred to the Memory of that Great Divine,
General Lee. The Reverend and Learned Dr. Samuel Cooper
(poetry) 1784
Liberty and Peace, A Poem (poetry) 1784
CRITICAL RECEPTION Memoirs and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native

Early reviews of the Poems on Various Subjects African and a Slave (memoir and poetry) 1838
focus on the novelty of an educated, literate Letters of Phillis Wheatley, the Negro-Slave Poet of
female slave more than the work itself, which was Boston (letters) 1864
Phillis Wheatley (Phillis Peters), Poems and Letters wonder / ous Deity itself. This, which Kings &
WHEATLEY
(poetry and letters) 1915 Prophets have desir’d to see, & have not seen[.] /
Life and Works of Phillis Wheatley. Containing Her This, which Angels are continually exploring, yet
Complete Poetical Works, Numerous Letters and a are not equal to the search,— / Millions of Ages
Complete Biography of This Famous Poet of a shall roll away, and they may try in vain to find
Century and a Half Ago (poetry and letters) out to / perfection, the sublime mysteries of
1916 Christ’s Incarnation. Nor will this desire / to look
into the deep things of God, cease, in the Breasts
The Poems of Phillis Wheatley (poetry) 1966 of glorified saints & Ang- / els. It’s duration will be
The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley (poetry, coeval with Eternity. This Eternity how dreadful, /
letters) 1988 how delightful! Delightful to those who have an
interest in the Crucified / Saviour, who has digni-
fied our Nature, by seating it at the Right Hand of
/ the divine Majesty.—They alone who are thus
interested, have cause to rejoice / even on the
PRIMARY SOURCES brink of that Bottomless Profound: and I doubt
PHILLIS WHEATLEY (LETTER DATE not (without the / least Adulation) that you are
1773) one of that happy number. O pray that I may / be
SOURCE: Wheatley, Phillis. “Letter to John Thornton.” one also, who shall join with you in songs of
In Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings, edited by William praise at the Throne of him, who / is no respecter
H. Robinson, pp. 327-28. New York: Garland Publish- of Persons, being equally the great Maker of all:—
ing, 1984.
Therefore disdain / not to be called the Father of
In the following letter written in 1773, Wheatley informs Humble Africans and Indians; though despis’d /
John Thornton, a merchant she met with in London, that
on earth on account of our colour, we have this
she has returned safely to her mistress in America.
Consolation, if he enables us to / deserve it. “That
Hon’d sir God dwells in the humble & contrite heart.” O
that I were / more & more possess’d of this
It is with great satisfaction, I acquaint you
inestimable blessing; to be directed by the imme /
with my experience of the / goodness of God in
diate influence of the divine spirit in my daily
safely conducting my passage over the mighty
walk & Conversation.
waters, and returning / me in safety to my Ameri-
can Friends. I presume you will join with them Do you, my hon’d sir, who have abundant
and me / in praise to God for so distinguishing a Reason to be thankful for / the great share you
favour, it was amazing Mercy, altogether / unmer- possess of it, be always mindful in your Closet, of
ited by me: and if possible it is augmented by the those / who want it, of me in particular.
consideration of the bitter re- / verse, which is the When I first arriv’d at home my mistress was
deserved wages of my evil doings. The Apostle so bad as not to be expec- / ted to live above two
Paul, tells us / that the wages of sin is death. I or three days, but through the goodness of God,
don’t imagine he excepted any sin whatsoever, / she is / still alive but remains in a very weak &
being equally hateful in its nature in the sight of languishing Condition. She begs / a continued
God, who is essential Purity. interest in your most earnest prayers, that she may
Should we not sink hon’d sir, under this be daily / prepar’d for that great Change which
sentence of Death, pronounced / on every sin, she is likely soon to undergo; She in- / treats you,
from the comparatively least to the greatest, were as her son is still in England, that you would take
not this blessed Con- / trast annexed to it, “But all opportuni - / ties to advise & counsel him. [She
the Gift of God is eternal Life, through Jesus Christ says she is going to leave him & desires you’d be a
/ our Lord?[”] It is his Gift. O let us be thankful spiritual Father to him.] She will take it very kind.
for it! What a load is taken from / the sinner’s She thanks you / heartily for the kind notice you took
shoulder, when he thinks, that Jesus has done that of me while in England. please / to give my best
work for him / which he could never have done, Respects to Mrខsខ & miss Thornton, and masters
and suffer’d, that punishment of his imputed / Henry / and Robert who held with me a long
Rebellions, for which a long Eternity of Torments conversation on many subjects / which Mrខsខ Drink-
could not have made suffici- / ent expiation. O water knows very well. I hope she is in better
that I could meditate continually on this work of Health / than when I left her. Please to remember
WHEATLEY
me to your whole family & I thank / them for GENERAL COMMENTARY
their kindness to me, begging still an interest in
your best hours / I am Hon’d sir / most respect- M. A. RICHMOND (ESSAY DATE
fully your Humble servtខ 1974)
SOURCE: Richmond, M. A. “The Critics.” In Bid the
Phillis Wheatley Vassal Soar: Interpretive Essays on the Life and Poetry of
Phillis Wheatley (ca. 1753-1784) and George Moses Hor-
ton (ca. 1797-1883), pp. 53-66. Washington, D.C.:
Howard University Press, 1974.
PHILLIS WHEATLEY (LETTER DATE
In the following essay, Richmond surveys the critical
1774) response to Wheatley’s work, including questions about
SOURCE: Wheatley, Phillis. “Letter to Samson Oc- her authenticity as a black author.
com.” In Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings, edited by
William H. Robinson, p. 332. New York: Garland Most illustrious of Phillis Wheatley’s contem-
Publishing, 1984. porary critics was Thomas Jefferson, part revolu-
In the following letter written in 1774, Wheatley directly tionary and part Virginia patrician, offering his
addresses the injustice of slavery in a way that she does judgment of the poet in his latter guise.
not in her poetry. This letter was written shortly after the
death of her mistress, when she had been freed for four “Religion indeed has produced a Phyllis What-
months. Her recipient, Samson Occom, was a Native ely [sic]; but it could not produce a poet,” Jeffer-
American preacher who, like Wheatley, was introduced
son wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-
in England as a Christian prodigy.
82). “The compositions published under her name
Reverend and honoured Sir, are below the dignity of criticism.” (Note the
gratuitous skepticism even about the authenticity
I have this Day received your obliging kind of her authorship in the phrase “published under
Epistle, and am greatly satisfied with your Reasons her name.”)
respecting the negroes, and think highly reason-
able what you offer in Vindication of their natural One reply to Jefferson came from Samuel Stan-
Rights: Those that invade them cannot be insen- hope Smith, president of the College of New Jersey
sible that the divine Light is insensibly chasing and a member of the American Philosophical
away the thick Darkness which broods over the Society. In “An Essay on the Causes of the Variety
Land of Africa; and the Chaos which has reigned of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species”
(1810), Dr. Smith wrote: “The poems of Phillis
so long is converting into beautiful Order, and
Whately, a poor African slave, taught to read by
reveals more and more clearly the glorious Dispen-
the indulgent piety of her master are spoken of
sation of civil and religious Liberty, which are so
with infinite contempt. But I will demand of Mr.
inseparably united, that there is little or no Enjoy-
Jefferson, or of any other man who is acquainted
ment of one without the other: Otherwise, per-
with American planters, how many of those
haps the Israelites had been less solicitous for their
masters could have written poems equal to those
Freedom from Egyptian slavery; I do not say they
of Phillis Whately?”
would have been contented without it, by no
means, for in every human Breast, God has In one sense, Dr. Smith’s challenge begs the
implanted a Principle, which we call Love of question. To say that Phillis Wheatley wrote better
Freedom; it is impatient of oppression, and pants verse than American planters is not yet to say she
for Deliverance—and by the Leave of our modern was a poet. It is on the anthropological or socio-
Egyptians I will assert that the same principle lives logical plane, rather than the literary, that Dr.
in us. God grant Deliverance in his own Way and Smith scores a point in contesting Jefferson’s belief
Time, and get him honour upon all those whose in the inherent inferiority of blacks.
Avaraice impels them to countenance and help A similar thrust came from a distinguished
forward the Calamities of their fellow Creatures. French contemporary, Henri Grégoire, prominent
This I desire not for their Hurt, but to convince abbé in the French Revolutionary era and later a
them of the strange Absurdity of their Conduct bishop. Among Grégoire’s labors was a pioneer
whose Words and Actions are so diametrically op- treatise, De la Littérature des Nègres (1808), in which
posite. How well the Cry for Liberty, and the he reproaches the American President. “Jefferson,”
reverse Disposition for the exercise of oppressive he wrote, “appears unwilling to acknowledge the
power over others agree I humbly think it does talents of Negroes, even those of Phillis Wheat-
not require the penetration of a Philosopher to ley. . . .” To refute this prejudice, Grégoire cites
determine. the public response to the Wheatley volume of
1773 and offers selections from that volume.
WHEATLEY
Among the first French responses to the volume
of 1773 was one from Voltaire, who on occasion
expressed no high regard for blacks. But in 1774 FROM THE AUTHOR
he wrote to Baron Constant de Rebecq: “Fon-
tenelle was wrong in saying that there were never WHEATLEY’S POEM “ON BEING BROUGHT
any poets among the Negroes; there is in fact one FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA”
Negress who writes very good English verse.” ’Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
As in the United States and France, so in the That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
Germanic states there was a dissent from Jeffer- Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
son’s judgment among his scholarly contemporar-
“Their colour is a diabolic die.”
ies. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach often referred Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
to as the father of anthropology and an original May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.
investigator of ethnic categories, described the
Wheatley volume as “a collection which scarcely Wheatley, Phillis. “On being brought from Africa
to America.” In Poems on Various Subjects,
anyone who has any taste for poetry could read Religious and Moral, p. 18. London: A. Bell,
without pleasure” (Anthropological Treatises, 1865). 1773.
In Britain, where her volume was comprehen-

sively reviewed in major periodicals upon its
publication in 1773 and where she was, at the
time, the best known Colonial poet, the tide of
opinion was stronger and more widespread. Not and language other narrowing constrictions
that there was an excessive praise for the poems defined the thoughts and emotions that inhabited
(they “display no astonishing powers of genius,” her poetic world.
said one review, and another found them “merely Conforming to neoclassical ritual, she con-
imitative”), but sufficient merit was discerned in stantly addressed the Muses, singly or collectively,
them to arouse concern “that this ingenious in such terms as these: Celestial Muse, heavenly
young woman is yet a slave.” Muse, Muse divine, sacred Nine, indulgent Muse,
gentle Muse, tuneful Nine, tuneful goddess, sacred
Later, in 1788, Thomas Clarkson, a tireless choir, blooming graces.
antislavery agitator and leader in the successful
campaign to halt British participation in the slave Among representative invocations to the
trade, protested, “if the authoress was designed for Muses were these: inspire my song; aid my high
slavery . . . the greater part of the inhabitants of design . . . assist my strains . . . my arduous flight
sustain—raise my mind to a seraphic strain . . .
Britain must lose their claim to freedom.”
assist my labors—my strains refine . . . inspire—
This again is Abolitionist argument rather fill my bosom with celestial fire . . . lend thine
than literary criticism, but only a mindless literary aid, nor let me sue in vain.
purist would exclude it from an ultimate assess-
In the effulgent imagery of neoclassicism the
ment of Phillis Wheatley. It was no small achieve-
sky became ethereal space, ethereal train, starry
ment for the African child to have become a mod- train, heavenly plains, Phoebe’s realms, orient
est standard in the conflict that dominated the realms, azure plain, empyreal skies. The earth ap-
first nine decades of this country’s history and in peared as this vast machine, rolling globe, dusty
a different form continues to this day. She did not plain, dark, terrestrial ball.
aspire to become an Abolitionist symbol, but the
role was thrust upon her just the same because The verse is peopled with figures from the
she absorbed the New England culture so swiftly Greek and Roman classics, literary and mythologi-
cal; Homer and Virgil and Terence are here, as are
and so well as to be the peer of any white contem-
gods and goddesses in profusion, and such place
porary in its poetic expression.
names as Helicon, Olympus, and Parnassus. Niobe
The poetic world of Phillis Wheatley was appears much more often than any other figure
circumscribed by rigid boundaries: by the decasyl- from the Greco-Roman classics. Indeed, the trag-
labic line in the heroic couplet, by the ornate dic- edy of Niobe, as taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
tion of neoclassicism and the ritualistic obeisances inspired her longest poem, running to 224 lines.
it prescribed. Within these boundaries of meter Only one other is so ambitious, containing 2 lines
less, and it, too, is derivative, transmuting into with Pope, is perceived as an appropriate reflec-
WHEATLEY heroic couplets the biblical narrative of David and tion of a harmonious confluence between science
Goliath. These choices, Ovid and Samuel, attest to and religion in the early eighteenth century. New-
the primacy of the classics and the Bible in form- ton’s discovery of natural laws, the argument goes,
ing her poetical mind. The coincident and related was greeted by contemporaries as illumination of
influence of Puritanism probably accounts for a God’s inflnite wisdom in designing the universe;
suggestive omission in her recital of David’s thus, scientific discernment of order in the appar-
conquest. She discreetly ignores the two biblical ent chaos of nature reinforced the faith in divine
references to Goliath as an “uncircumcised Philis- order. In turn, the mathematical precision of
tine.” Pope’s couplets was attuned to the discipline of
science and the vision of a larger divine order to
Something of her style may be gleaned by
which it bore witness.1
juxtaposing a biblical passage and her rendition of
it. Whatever the merit of such interpretive specu-
lation in relationship to Pope, its applicability to
And David spake to the men that stood by him,
saying, What shall be done to the man that kil- Phillis Wheatley is somewhat vitiated because she
leth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach was imitative. Certainly her own work does not
from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philis- reflect a comparable familiarity with the science
tine that he should defy the armies of the living of the age. Yet imitation also involves an element
God?
of choice. That she chose Pope as her model is
—I Samuel, 17:26
readily explicable by his fashionable pre-eminence
Then Jesse’s youngest hope:—“My brethern, say, at the time and the Colonial cultural dependence
“What shall be done for him who takes away on England, but the New England ambience must
“Reproach from Jacob, who destroys the chief,
also enter into the explanation. There was a
“And puts a period to his country’s grief?
“He vaunts the honours of his arms abroad,
manifest affinity between the Puritan culture, with
“And scorns the armies of the living God.” its admixture of practicality and faith, and the
—Phillis Wheatley conception of a universal order, created by God
and corroborated by science.
The biblical prose gains nothing in felicity or
Wheatley’s vision of the universe was etched
clarity by this rearrangement into neat columns,
most explicitly in “Thoughts on the Works of
each line dressed, as it were, to the rhyming word
Providence”:
on the right, and each marching to the beat of
ten syllables. Only on rare occasions, as in the ARISE, my soul; on wings enraptured, rise,
poems to her mistress, did she depart from this To praise the Monarch of the earth and skies,
rigid form. In discussing Pope, the master of the Whose goodness and beneficence appear,
As round its centre moves the rolling year . . .
form, George Saintsbury remarked that “artificial-
ity . . . is the curse of the couplet,” but in the Adored forever be the God unseen,
same sentence he reiterated an admission that the Which round the sun revolves this vast
curse “can be vanquished.” Such conquest of machine . . .
artificiality depends not only upon prosodic skills
in fashioning the mold, but even more upon the Almighty, in these wondrous works of
poetic sensibility that is poured into it. The more thine,
What Power, what Wisdom, and what
limited the sensibility, the more protrudent the
Goodness shine!
artificiality. Phillis Wheatley’s sensibility was
And are thy wonders, Lord, by men explored,
indeed limited (although, as has often been And yet creating glory unadored?
repeated, hers was at least as fine as that of any
Colonial poet). She was totally incapable, for In Wheatley’s verse there is, indeed, a har-
example, of the playful sophistication in Pope’s mony between the symmetrical pattern and the
celebrated couplet: apprehension of a well-ordered universe. There is
a third part in this harmony: the human condi-
Nature and Nature’s Laws, lay hid in Night: tion. In her view, despite the oh-so-slight reproach
GOD said, Let Newton be! and all was Light.
in the final lines cited above, there is no serious
More is contained here, however, than playful discord between man and the divinely enacted
sophistication; there is not only an awareness of laws of nature. Nor is there much concern with
Newton but also a conception of his junior part- the contradictions in man. She definitely does not
nership with God. In some critical analysis, the imitate Pope’s notorious flights into misogyny,
decasyllabic couplet, which attained its apogee and for her man was not, as he was for Pope, “The
glory, jest, and riddle of the world . . . Born but her verse more closely resembled the latter, even
WHEATLEY
to die, and reas’ning but to err . . . Created half when she attempted to respond to the times, as in
to rise, and half to fall.” With her benign disposi- the ode to Washington, is also an explicable fault.
tion she does not divide man into such equal Art, and most especially the forms in which it is
parts; her emphasis is on human redemption, not rendered, often lags behind history, and there is
on wickedness and folly. no reason why Wheatley should have been less
Even in her rare venture into polemic, the laggard than others.
adolescent “Address to the Atheist,” sin and its So her poetry did not rise to the greatness that
wages are couched in the gentlest terms: truly expresses the spirit of an age, but such poetry
Muse! where shall I begin the spacious field
is rare, and there was none of it in Colonial times.
To tell what curses unbelief doth yield? Summarizing the initial debate about her
more than a century later (1915), Arthur Schom-
If there’s no heav’n, ah! whither wilt thou go
Make thy Ilysium in the shades below?
burg, who was devoted to the appreciation and
preservation of black culture, offered his own
There are scattered references in her work to judgment. “There was no great American poetry
divine wrath, and in her rendition of verses from in the 18th century,” Schomburg wrote, “and Phil-
Isaiah these lines appear: lis Wheatley’s poetry was as good as the best
Great God, what lightning flashes from American poetry of her age.”
thine eyes!
What power withstands if thou indignant rise?
There is a depressing element in the literary
argument to the degree that it hinges on whether
But those are rare exceptions. She heralded she was a nonpoet or a mediocre one. To be sure,
God’s wisdom and benevolence, not his ven- it is relevant to determine what was par for the
geance. She was more prone to commend the hu- course in a given time and place, but if this
man capacity for virtue than to scorn human establishes her as the peer of her contemporaries,
susceptibility to vice. In the most personal testa- it also defines a less flattering place in the longer
ment to this credo, “On Being Brought from span of literary history. In purely literary terms,
Africa to America,” she wrote: viewing her as a poet in the abstract, criticism can-
’TWAS mercy brought me from my pagan not break out of such narrow confines. But she
land, was a black poet, and it is not enough to say that
Taught my benighted soul to understand the quality of her verse was as good as that of her
That there’s a God—that there’s a Saviour too:
best white contemporaries. She also has to be as-
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye—
sessed in terms of her own identity.
‘Their color is a diabolic dye.’ Not until recently has black scholarship at-
Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain
tempted to assess her in explicitly black terms.
May be refined, and join the angelic train.
The more traditional view among black scholars
In this striking illustration of the suffusive was presented by James Weldon Johnson, who
religiosity in her work, slavery is incidental to wrote:
salvation, and there is only the mild admonition
Phillis Wheatley has never been given her rightful
to Christians that blackness is no bar to the
place in American literature. By some sort of
angelic train. In a sense, this is her own adapta- conspiracy she is kept out of most of the books,
tion of Pope’s ultimate truth: “Whatever is, is especially the text-books on literature used in
right.” Given her time and place and her condi- schools. Of course, she is not a great American
tioning, there is not much good in reproaching poet—and in her day there were no great Ameri-
can poets—but she is an important American
her for an insufficiency of mind and spirit to
poet. Her importance, if for no other reason, rests
transcend Pope’s dictum. on the fact that, save one, she is the first in order
Nor is there much point in belaboring the of time of all the women poets of America. And
she is among the first of all American poets to is-
contradiction between the depiction of a well- sue a volume.
ordered universe in well-ordered verse and the
overturn of the established order by revolutionary Johnson concluded:
upheaval. True, the American Revolution was
. . . her work must not be judged by the work
much less convulsive than the French one that
and standards of a later day, but by the work and
followed, but even for the American an approxi- standards of her own day and her own contempo-
mation of the carmagnole would have been more raries. By this method of criticism she stands out
appropriate than the minuet. That the cadence of as one of the important characters in the making
of American literature, without any allowances for gentry and a reluctant attendant at the czar’s
WHEATLEY her sex or her antecedents. court, was three generations removed from the
black slave who was his maternal grandfather. Du-
This does not differ in substance from what
mas, the son of a French general, traced his lineage
has been said in sympathetic white criticism. It is
to a black grandmother and a wealthy French
not a matter of making allowances for her anteced-
colonist in Haiti. Such genealogical traces of black-
ents (that is, for her blackness and her slavery),
ness in the Russian and the Frenchman had no
but of taking them properly into account. This is
real bearing on their lives or social status, although
attempted explicitly by the black critic J. Saunders
Pushkin expressed his awareness of it with a nar-
Redding and in a curiously inverse way by the
rative about his great-grandfather. For Wheatley
black novelist Richard Wright.
blackness was an ever-present reality that made its
In his lecture on “The Literature of the Negro heavy imprint on her life.
in the United States,” Wright read passages from
Wright could say about Pushkin that “he went
the works of Alexander Pushkin and Alexandre
to the schools of his choice; he served in an army
Dumas and made the obvious point that nothing
that was not Jim Crow; he worked where he
in those passages suggested they were written by
wanted to; he lived where he wanted to. . . .”
Negroes. “The writings I’ve just read to you,” he
One may quibble that this last is not altogether
went on, “were the work of men who were emo-
true; Pushkin certainly did not live or work where
tionally integrated with their country’s culture;
he wanted to during his forced exile because he
no matter what the color of their skins, they were
had displeased the czar but it is sufficiently true to
not really Negroes. One was a Russian, the other a
underscore the contrast with Wheatley. (For that
Frenchman.”
matter, Pushkin was punished, not for his great-
Then he posed the question: has any American grandfather’s blackness, but for political and liter-
Negro ever written like the Russian poet and the ary unorthodoxies that, in a sense, reinforced his
French novelist? And he replied that one, only oneness with the emergent Russian literature of
one, had done so—Phillis Wheatley. “Before the the early nineteenth century.) Wheatley did not
webs of slavery had so tightened as to snare nearly serve in any army, but she did serve a church
all Negroes in our land,” he elaborated, “one was where she was consigned, according to all the
freed by accident to give in clear, bell-like, limpid circumstantial evidence, to a “Nigger Pew” or
cadence the hope of freedom in the New World.” “Nigger Heaven.” She did not live or work where
Wright sketched an idyllic picture of her she wanted to, not even when she was free. The
condition—she “was accepted into the Wheatley black lodging house was not her choice, and its
home as one of the family, enjoying all the rights designation as black indicates it was not simply a
of the other Wheatley children. . . . she got the matter of means. Black ghettoes—situated near
kind of education that the white girls of her time the docks or riverfronts or in alleys—had already
received.” As a consequence of her integration, he sprouted in the New England of Wheatley’s time.
argued, she was able to articulate a “universal A distinction may be drawn between Wright’s
note” that was in total harmony with the Colonial general thesis and its specific application to
culture. Only later on, he said, did a distinct Wheatley. The works of Dumas and Pushkin are
“Negro literature” take form as “a reservoir of bit- impressive evidence to support his general argu-
terness and despair and infrequent hope . . . a ment that Negro literature is not rooted in some
welter of crude patterns of surging hate and rebel- anthropological or biological mystique but is a
lion.” This literature was the product of slavery, of socially and historically conditioned response to
its oppressions, lacerations, and humiliations, but slavery and its legacies. This thesis is stated suc-
since Wheatley did not experience these, and cinctly in a reference to George Moses Horton’s
indeed antedated them, she “was at one with her poetry: it “does not stem from racial feeling, but
colonial New England culture,” just as Pushkin from a social situation.” Applying this analysis to
and Dumas were with theirs. Wheatley, the issue is, did Wright accurately
But was she? Is the comparison with Pushkin comprehend the social situation that enveloped
and Dumas valid? She was born an African; the her, and the degree to which her poetic reflection
two men were born Russian and French. She of that situation was artificial or authentic?
entered her incarnation as Phillis Wheatley a Wright’s sketch of Wheatley’s condition is
naked child, a slave, forcibly abducted and cruelly much too idyllic, and in spots careless. (For
transported. They were born into social status and example, referring to her trip to England, he adds,
moderate means. Pushkin, the son of landed “This was, of course, after the Revolutionary
War.”) To be sure, she was favored by kind and enthusiasm because of the second, and because of
WHEATLEY
considerate masters, but the question still remains the third it lacks an unselfish purpose that drives
to some ultimate goal of expression.
whether benign slavery, with its subtle discrimina-
tions, is the same as the freedom that Dumas and Harsh as it is, Redding’s judgment points to
Pushkin enjoyed. It isn’t, and the distinction obvious truths, which are insufficient for their
makes dubious the identity that Wright discerned. very obviousness. It is easy enough to characterize
It may be said that in Pushkin and Dumas, the the quality of personality mirrored in the poetry—
oneness with the respective national culture was a negative, bloodless, unracial, chilly. The difficult
natural extension of their social being. They wrote question is what made her so. Redding replies that
as a Russian or a Frenchman because this is, in “she was the fragile product of . . . the age, the
fact, what they were. With respect to Wheatley, Wheatley household, and New England America.”
there is a nagging sense of contradiction between This is not enough, for if you change the name of
her cultural assimilation and her social situation, the household, you can say the same about any
which was, despite its unique, individual features, white product of middle-class or upper-middle-
also related to the general black condition. class New England. But Phillis Wheatley was black
It is to this contradiction that critic Redding and this is the difference and also the contradic-
addresses himself, arriving at a judgment that is tion: the contradiction between her blackness,
the opposite of Wright’s. What Wright hails as which she recognized and never was permitted to
Wheatley’s triumph, Redding deplores as her forget by a thousand humiliations, and white,
failure. mercantile New England, whose world was never
truly hers but whose values she seemed to accept.
“There is no question but that Miss Wheatley
The same contradiction is suggested in Redding’s
considered herself a Negro poet: the question is to
remark that “she stands far outside the institution
what degree she felt the full significance of such a
[of slavery] that was responsible for her. . . .” It
designation,” Redding wrote. “Certainly she was
would be more apt to say she was in the slave
not a slave poet in any sense in which the term
world but not truly of it. This is the contradictory
can be applied to many who followed her. She
reality that shaped the subjective raw material
stands far outside the institution that was respon-
which was processed by the three forces Redding
sible for her. . . . Not once . . . did she express in
lists—the age, the Wheatley household, New Eng-
either word or action a thought on the enslave-
land America. The vital element missing from his
ment of her race; not once did she utter a straight-
critical assessment is just what was fed into the
forward word for the freedom of the Negro.”
triple-gear machine he specifies.
Redding quotes the lines from the poem to
For this we must revert once more to the frail,
the Earl of Dartmouth:
near-naked girl of seven displayed for sale on a
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate Boston dock. At that age the native African culture
Was snatched from Afric’s fancied happy seat. and values are not firmly imbedded, certainly not
and comments: with the depth and strength needed to withstand
the powerful assimilative impact of the new
“Seeming cruel” and “fancied happy” give her
away as not believing either in the cruelty of the culture into which she is thrust. She has no
fate that had dragged thousands of her race into defenses against Puritan certitude and self-
bondage in America nor in the happiness of their righteousness, no resources for critical assimila-
former freedom in Africa. How different the spirit tion. To begin with she does not have a chance,
of her work, and how unracial (not to say
and then two specific factors reinforce the process
unnatural) are the stimuli that release her wan
creative energies. How different are these from the that is better described as inundation than as-
work of George Horton who twenty-five years [sic] similation.
later could cry out with bitterness, without cavil
One is her precocity, and the Wheatley’s ap-
or fear:
preciation and cultivation of it. She is encouraged
“Alas! and am I born for this, with patronizing kindness. Privileges and material
To wear this slavish chain?”
rewards are compensation for piety and for poetry
It is this negative, bloodless, unracial quality in that respects the prevailing conventions in theme
Phillis Wheatley that makes her seem superficial, and style. It does no good to reproach an adoles-
especially to members of her own race. . . . She is
cent child for yielding to these attractive influ-
chilly. . . . First and last, she was the fragile
product of three related forces—the age, the ences, especially when within herself there is no
Wheatley household, and New England America. strong residue of any other influence or tradition.
Her work lacks spontaneity because of the first, These are her formative years, and the subsequent
years are so disordered and, as it turns out, so brief a poet—and as a human being. For one reading
WHEATLEY that they do not modify the initial mold. her verse almost two centuries later, the almost
reflex reaction is to scorn it and its creator. This
This first factor is complemented by the
response is misconceived and misaddressed. Anger
second, her isolation from the society of slaves
would be more appropriate, and it ought to be ad-
and its subculture. In this respect, Redding astutely
dressed against the institution of slavery.
notes the difference between her and George
Moses Horton, who came a generation later. Un- Perhaps the first significance of Phillis Wheat-
like Wheatley, Horton was born a slave on a ley is as a laboratory, test-tube exemplar of what
Southern plantation and there never was any was done to black identity, to black pride and self-
ambiguity about his status or identity. Knowing awareness, by the institution of slavery with all its
clearly what he was, it was easier for him to accessories of custom, culture, and ideological
determine what he ought to be. rationales. She was, after all, a first-generation
African brought to these shores, and because she
From suckling infancy he absorbed the slave was articulate and had the opportunity to cultivate
world subculture and its two interwoven strains: this gift, she left a singular record of this initial
the African origins and the realities of slavery, of encounter between slave and master, between
the master-slave relationship. Most of the original black and white, and its consequence in a setting
African slaves were, of course, older than Phillis of unusual circumstances.
Wheatley was at the time of her abduction, old
enough to retain much of African culture and She experienced this encounter under suppos-
customs, and this retention, although diffused by edly ideal conditions—a kind and understanding
time and diluted by the flow of strong stimuli mistress, physical comforts, an opportunity to
from the immediate environment, remained a develop her talents—and this gives the experience
pervasive influence, handed down through the its test-tube quality. It is not the typical experi-
generations that shaped the Afro-American com- ence of the mass of first-generation slaves, destined
munity. The more proximate influence was the for hard, menial labor, for physical deprivation
master-slave relationship with its constant ten- and a more oppressive regime. Such lacerations
sions, often bursting into open conflict, along she was spared as long as she remained in her
with the contradictory accommodations of expe- privileged sanctuary, placing in bolder relief the
diency. To survive as a human being in the more refined inflictions she was not spared. What
context of slavery is no simple art, one not emerges most starkly from her poetry and her
mastered without some training and without the private correspondence is the near surgical,
folk wisdom born of community experience. Hor- lobotomy-like excision of a human personality
ton had such sustenance; Wheatley did not. with warmth and blood and the self-assertiveness
that is grounded in an awareness of one’s self and
Further, as the first significant black writer in relationship of this self to contemporary society.
North America she faced a problem that her suc- The religious moralisms that lard her letters to
cessors were to face. She wrote for a white audi- Obour Tanner are a poor form of sublimation, a
ence, this being the audience created by the substitute for the expression of emotional response
economics of publication and the realities of a to personal experience. The poems are vicarious
market shaped by the affluence to buy and the in theme and imitative in style. In the circum-
literacy to consume. For the most part, her succes- stances it hardly could have been different. She
sors—even to this day—write for a white audience, was permitted to cultivate her intelligence, to
but with the consciousness that on the sidelines develop her feeling for language and her facility
and behind them black contemporaries are read- in its use, but one thing she was not permitted to
ers and critics. Removed as she was from black develop: the sense of her own distinct identity as
society, and possibly also because black reader- a black poet. And without this there could be no
critics were so few then, no such critical restraints personal distinction in style or the choice of
seemed to affect her. themes that make for greater poetry. The barter of
“There is no question,” Redding says, “but her soul, as it were, was no conscious contract.
that Miss Wheatley considered herself a Negro Enclosed by a cloying embrace of slavery at a
poet: the question is to what degree she felt the tender age, alternatives did not at first intrude,
full significance of such a designation.” The and later, when she might have chosen one, she
answer is that all circumstances conspired to was drained of the will and perception to do so.
diminish, in her own perception, the significance Involved here is not a condemnation of Puri-
of what she was. Therefore, she was diminished as tanism as such, or of its general influence upon
American thought and behavior. Such a judgment, black generations, who are involved in the asser-
WHEATLEY
sorting and weighing all the sins and virtues, tion and definition of black identity, in the
belongs elsewhere. The concern here is more rekindling of black pride, she can represent, with
particular: it is the imposition of Puritanism upon rare purity, the initial deprivation of that which
a young African whose color and bondage placed they seek to regain.
her outside of those premises and compensations
To the contemporary black militant, the
to which Puritanism appealed for its validity.
poetry will indeed seem “superficial” and “chilly,”
Property and its acquisition, the temporal rewards
assuming he reads it at all, and there is little
of thrift and abstinence, were not for slaves (and
reason to believe he will. The tragedy should be
this was true despite the rare and paradoxical
more germane. If this is so, then it is conceivable
exceptions in New England’s relatively lenient
that in striking some militant blow for freedom,
slave regime). Even the restricted personal range
in a spirit of retribution and poetic justice, he
of moral and social choice open to white Puritans
might say, “This one is for you, baby.”
was foreclosed to blacks. The full measure of self-
reliance was a paradox in the essential dependency
of slavery. What blacks were offered was the theol- Note
ogy, disembodied from its temporal matrix. It is 1. Of the many lines by Pope that celebrate the synthesis
of nature and God the following may be cited:
this that makes Phillis Wheatley’s piety seem so
empty and repellent, so classical an instance of All are but parts of one stupendous
glorifying celestial promise to tolerate terrestrial whole,
misery. For her Puritanism entailed a substitution Whose body Nature is, and God the soul;
of simulation for reality as in the most ironic of
master-servant cliches, “We treated her like a All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;
member of the family. . . .” In sum, whatever All Chance, Direction which thou canst
Puritanism might have done for its white believ- not see;
All Discord, Harmony not understood;
ers, it was grotesque imposition, amputating and
All partial Evil, universal Good.
mutilating, upon the black poet.
All of this is encompassed in a climactic line:
It may be idle to speculate about her true One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS,
potential, but surely, given the evidence of her IS RIGHT.
intelligence and talent, it is a permissible assump-
tion that it was far greater than the one realized
The Critics
with the oppressive restrictions imposed upon the James Weldon Johnson quotes Jefferson as saying “her
flowering of her own personality as a black poet. poems are beneath contempt” (American Negro Poetry,
One school of American literary criticism dwells [New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1922] p. xxiii).
Though not so gentlemanly in expression, Johnson’s
on the aptitude of American society to frustrate its
phrase is no doubt much closer to what Jefferson actu-
writers and truncate their growth. If this is a great ally felt than what he wrote.
American tradition, then few, if any, writers were
The remarks of Jefferson, Samuel Stanhope Smith, Henri
so warped by it as was Phillis Wheatley. Grégoire, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, and Thomas
In her case, the primary warping influence was Clarkson are referred to by Arthur A. Schomburg
(introduction, “Appreciation,” [Charles Frederick]
slavery. It mutilated her. Having inflicted spiritual
Heartman, Wheatley, Poems and Letters [New York, n.d.],
mutilation, its aftermath went on to achieve her pp. 14-15). Edward D. Seeber quotes Voltaire’s remark
physical destruction. Sketchy as it is, the preserved (“Phillis Wheatley,” Journal of Negro History, Vol. 24,
record of her final years—the cold neglect, the no. 3, July, 1939, pp. 259-262); see also [Julian] Mason
([The Poems of Phillis Wheatley (Chapel Hill: University
poverty, the drudgery, the infant deaths, and of North Carolina Press, 1966)] pp. xlvi-xlvii).
finally the circumstances of her own death at age
thirty-one—is a searing indictment of slavery, of Mason is the source for the reviews of her poems in English
periodicals (ibid., pp. xxxvi-xxxvii).
the cruel nexus of the white-black relationship in
the evolution of American society. Thomas Clarkson’s remark is in An Essay on the Slavery and
Commerce of the Human Species (Philadelphia: Cruiks-
Phillis Wheatley is not a great figure in Ameri- hank, 1786), p. 122; see also Mason (Poems, p. xlvi).
can literary history, but she is a tragic one. It is
George Saintsbury’s discussion of Pope and the heroic
the tragedy rather than the poetry of Phillis couplet is to be found in English Prosody, 2:454.
Wheatley that has the more enduring relevance
There is an interesting presentation of the relation between
for American life. Elements of the tragedy have far
science and poetry in Science and English Poetry, A
more contemporary urgency than is evoked by Historical Sketch, 1590-1950, by Douglas Bush (New
the echoes of her poetry. To those in the present York: Oxford University Press, 1950).
The two lines on Newton are quoted from Pope’s “Epitaph
WHEATLEY Intended for Sir Isaac Newton.” The quotations from
Pope contained in the footnote on page 56 [see note 1
below] are from his Essay on Man, Epistle I, lines 267-
268, 289-294. The subsequent quotations from Pope
are in his Essay on Man, Epistle II, lines (variously) 10-
17.
James Weldon Johnson’s assessment of her poetry is
contained in his American Negro Poetry (pp. xxii-xxiv).
His estimation of the time span between Anne Brad-
street and Phillis Wheatley (“Anne Bradstreet preceded
Phillis Wheatley by a little over twenty years. She
published her volume of poems, ‘The Tenth Muse,’ in
1750” [ibid., p. xxiii] is off by about a century. Brad-
street’s collected works were first published in England
in 1650; the second edition was published in 1678,
and the third in 1758, the latter two in Boston (see
Elizabeth Wade White, Anne Bradstreet [The Tenth Muse
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1971)]). The criti-
cal comparison of Bradstreet and Wheatley made by
Johnson appears on page xxiii. The quote from Arthur
Schomburg is in his introduction to Poems and Letters
by Phillis Wheatley (Phillis Peters) (New York: C. F.
Heartman’s Historical Series #8).
Richard Wright’s discussion of Phillis Wheatley is in White
Man, Listen (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1964), pp.
74-79.
For Redding’s quotation see To Make a Poet Black, pp. 8-11.
(He is the victim of either a mathematical or typo-
graphical error when he says that twenty-five years
after Phillis Wheatley’s poem to the Earl of Dartmouth
[1772], Horton wrote the lines he quotes. The year of
Horton’s birth is usually estimated as 1797.) Loggins
also advances the theme Redding develops, that “. . .
she neglected almost entirely her own state of slavery
and the miserable oppression of thousands of her
race.” He finds that “In all of her writings she only
once referred in strong terms to the wrongs of the
Negro in America.” That once is her poem addressed
to Lord Dartmouth [Vernon Loggins, The Negro Author:
His Development in America to 1900 (New York: Colum-
bia University Press, 1931, 1959)], pp. 24-25).
BETSY ERKKILA (ESSAY DATE FALL

1987)
WHEATLEY
WHEATLEY
WHEATLEY
WHEATLEY
WHEATLEY
Title page of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773).
WHEATLEY
WHEATLEY
WHEATLEY
WHEATLEY
WHEATLEY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LETTER FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON TO
WHEATLEY IN RESPONSE TO A POEM
WRITTEN FOR AND SENT TO WASHINGTON
TO MISS PHILLIS WHEATLEY.
Cambridge, 28 February, 1776.
MISS PHILLIS,
Your favor of the 26th of October did not reach

my hands till the middle of December. Time
enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere
this. Granted. But a variety of important occur-
rences, continually interposing to distract the mind
and withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize
for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming
but not real neglect. I thank you most sincerely for
your polite notice of me, in the elegant lines you
enclosed; and however undeserving I may be of
such encomium and panegyric, the style and man-
ner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents;
in honor of which, and as a tribute justly due to
you, I would have published the poem, had I not
been apprehensive, that, while I only meant to give
the world this new instance of your genius, I might
have incurred the imputation of vanity. This, and
nothing else, determined me not to give it place in
the public prints.
If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near

head-quarters, I shall be happy to see a person so
favored by the Muses, and to whom nature has
been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations.
I am, with great respect, your obedient humble
servant.
Washington, George. The Writings of George Wash-

ington; Being his Correspondence, Addresses, Mes-
sages, and Other Papers, Official and Private,
Selected and published from the Original Manu-
scripts; with a life of the Author, Notes and Il-
lustrations, edited by Jared Sparks, pp. 38-9.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1855.
two poles of public identity represented by “To
WHEATLEY
the PUBLICK” and the Gazette notice—“unculti-
vated Barbarian” and “Poetical Genius”—suggest
the possibilities open to Wheatley in eighteenth-
century Anglo-American culture. However, the
two identities also make it apparent that between
arriving in America the first time from Africa on
board the slaver Phillis and re-arriving from
London on board the London Packet, shortly
before the appearance of her book in the colonies,
Wheatley’s public presence had undergone a
significant transformation. Construed as an “un-
cultivated Barbarian,” Wheatley was just another
slave among thousands, and therefore hardly
worth notice. Yet recognized as a “Poetical Ge-
nius,” Wheatley’s comings and goings became
worthy of public report. In a very real sense, upon
her re-arrival in America, Wheatley had begun to
exist. We might simply dismiss Wheatley’s autho-
rial metamorphosis as the “natural” result of the
interconnected racial and intellectual presump-
tions of Anglo-American culture. However, seen
from a more critical perspective, Wheatley’s
symbolic transformation in the eyes of contempo-
rary white Anglo-American culture from “Barbar-
ian” to “Genius” suggests her successful crafting
of a public persona, her subsequent participation
WALT NOTT (ESSAY DATE FALL in the public discourse of her time, and, most
1993) important, her acquisition of a power such public
SOURCE: Nott, Walt. “From ‘uncultivated Barbarian’ participation entailed.
to ‘Poetical Genius’: The Public Presence of Phillis
Wheatley.” MELUS 18, no. 3 (fall 1993): 21-32. In part due to the aesthetics of the eighteenth-
century public discourse in which her poetry
In the following essay, Nott surveys the public response to
Wheatley’s poetry. participated, Wheatley’s place in American litera-
ture has been problematic. In “Phillis Wheatley
The first edition of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems and the New England Clergy,” James A. Levernier
on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) notes the peculiar literary destiny of the young
included an attestation that the volume was the slave woman who authored Poems on Various
work of its purported author. “To the PUBLICK” Subjects, Religious and Moral: “in contrast to
was signed by Massachusetts’s royal governor most major American writers, scholarship on Phil-
Thomas Hutchinson, lieutenant governor Andrew lis Wheatley has tended to emphasize less what
Oliver, and sixteen other Bay Colony notables, she accomplished than what she might have ac-
including John Hancock and John Wheatley, “her complished” (21). For example, Merle A. Rich-
Master.” The signatories assured the volume’s mond’s assessment of the effect of slavery upon
readers that Poems on Various Subjects was Wheatley’s literary sensibility would seem to grow
indeed “written by Phillis, a young Negro Girl, out of this “might have” tradition: “What emerges
who was but a few years since, brought an uncul- most starkly from her poetry is the near surgical,
tivated Barbarian from Africa, and has ever since lobotomy-like excision of a human personality
been, and now is, under the Disadvantage of serv- with warmth and blood and the self-assertiveness
ing as a Slave in a Family in this Town” (Wheatley that is grounded in an awareness of one’s self and
48). When Wheatley landed in Boston upon her the relationship of this self to contemporary
return from England in September 1773, the Bos- society” (65). However, as Levernier notes, a
ton Gazette, the newspaper of revolutionary Mas- number of scholars have since come to understand
sachusetts, hailed the young slave woman as “the the impressive achievement Wheatley’s poetry
extraordinary Poetical Genius” (“Boston” 2). The actually represents, and in the work of “William
H. Robinson, Jr., John C. Shields, Mukhtar Ali public sphere. Seen within this context, Wheat-
WHEATLEY Isani, and Sondra O’Neale, among others” (21), ley’s book becomes the manifestation of her
we can trace a greater appreciation of the intrica- power to call into question the conceptual as-
cies and implications of Wheatley’s poetic prac- sumptions that both formed the foundation of
tice. the public sphere and justified the American/
European enslavement of Africans.
As study of Wheatley’s work has continued,
critics have come to recognize the significance of The London publication of Poems on Various
Wheatley’s discursive strategies, particularly as Subjects, Religious and Moral in September 1773
deployed within her cultural context, as key to was a significant literary event for several reasons.
understanding her literary contribution. Russell J. First, as Julian Mason has pointed out, the book
Reising sees Wheatley employing an intricate was “probably the first book—and certainly the
rhetorical negotiation that rendered her verse first book of poetry—published by a black Ameri-
“virtually unreadable for a public with certain can” (13). This accomplishment in itself would
racial, political, theological, and cultural assump- seem to make Wheatley’s book noteworthy.
tions” and at the same time “eminently readable However, simply being first barely begins to point
. . . within the discursive practices of her culture” to the true import of Poems on Various Subjects.
(259). For Reising this seemingly contradictory For example, the conditions of the book’s
discursive strategy is central to Wheatley’s work: composition and subsequent publication are as
“What is crucial is that we cease processing her significant as the historical timing of the publica-
rhetoric as transparent and selfevident and that tion itself. As Sondra O’Neale argues in “A Slave’s
we begin to read her rhetoric as rhetoric—strategic, Subtle War,” any understanding of Wheatley’s
subtle, and veiled” (258). Similarly, Betsy Erkkila poetry must begin with the condition of her
argues for Wheatley’s powerful “challenge” to the slavery: “Wheatley was one of only three Ameri-
“constituted authority” of her time, and she cans who were able to publish poetry and prose
points to the transformative and frankly political while still in bondage. (The other two were Jupiter
impact of Wheatley’s poetry: “. . . Wheatley Hammon [1711-1797] and George Moses Horton
transformed the revolutionary discourse on liberty, [1797-1883].)” (144). For a slave, the very act of
natural rights, and human nature into a subtle publishing was, in O’Neale’s words, “a monumen-
critique of the color code and the oppressive racial tal task” (144). The fact that only two others ac-
structures of republican America” (201). As both complished the task in itself suggests the achieve-
Reising and Erkkila show, Wheatley’s poetry sug- ment that Wheatley’s poetry, and especially Poems
gests anything but a lack, surgical or otherwise; on Various Subjects, represents. As O’Neale ad-
instead, Wheatley’s poetry manifests itself as a ditionally notes, to “speak out against one’s own-
powerful public presence. ers or the society which either condoned or
However, no study has yet discussed the ignored the owners’ action” necessitated great risk
mechanism by which the public authorial persona and required guile and courage. Yet in spite of the
we know as Phillis Wheatley came into existence, significance of Wheatley’s enslavement, very few
or the literary, historical, and political means critics have made Wheatley’s publication out of
through which Wheatley’s poetry called the racial slavery central to their readings of her work and
assumptions of the dominant culture into ques- the work’s literary place (O’Neale 144).
tion. The purpose of this essay is to provide a The most important aspect of the publication
theoretical and historical construct within which of Wheatley’s book involves the public presence
Wheatley’s poetry, especially Poems on Various the work creates. Nowhere is this presence more
Subjects, Religious and Moral, can be seen for evident than in the portrait of Wheatley printed
the radical and incisive act it was. Wheatley’s book opposite the title page of the first edition of Po-
represents her conspicuous participation in the ems.1 Rendered by Scipio Moorhead, a black artist
“public sphere”—the eighteenth-century network and slave (Robinson, Phillis Wheatley 31), the
of rational discourse whose formation and opera- engraving shows Wheatley seated at a table, left
tion aimed at the acquisition of political power hand on her chin, looking into the distance, obvi-
through the control of an emerging public opin- ously lost in poetic contemplation. In her right
ion. The transformation symbolized in the move- hand she holds a quill pen poised above a page of
ment from “uncivilized Barbarian” to “Poetical paper on which she has already written two lines.
Genius” represents Wheatley’s creation of a public A book rests just to the right of the paper. An
presence and her participation within the inscription is printed around the oval border of
eighteenth-century discursive network of the the portrait: “Phillis Wheatley Negro Servant to
Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston.” Two lines detail- one of rational judgement and enlightened cri-
WHEATLEY
ing publishing information are printed below the tique . . . poised between the state and civil
portrait; below them is Wheatley’s signature. society.” Comprised of clubs, coffee houses, and
The significance of the book’s frontpiece has literary publications, the public sphere, according
been noted by several critics. Betsy Erkkila refers to Eagleton, presented an opportunity for indi-
to this portrait as the emblem of “Wheatley’s viduals to engage in a “free, equal interchange of
complex position as a black woman slave in reasonable discourse.” Formed in a complex
revolutionary America”: historical process that produced an emergent
middle class and a declining monarchy and
Within the discourse of racial inequality in the
aristocracy, the effect of this discourse network
eighteenth century, the fact of a black woman
reading, writing, and publishing was in itself was to create a “polite, informal public opin-
enough to splinter the categories of white and ion”—a consensus which “pit[ted] itself against
black, and explode a social order grounded in no- the arbitrary diktats of autocracy . . . and weld[ed
tions of racial difference. itself] into a relatively cohesive body whose
(202)
deliberations . . . assume[d] the form of a power-
Erkkila emphasizes the “potential danger” this ful political force” (9). The result of “this ceaseless
emblematic portrait embodies: the portrait is “en- circulation of polite discourse among rational
chain[ed]” by an inscription of slavery (202). subjects” was, as Eagleton argues, “the cementing
David Grimsted has called the portrait “an icon of of a new power bloc at the level of the sign” (14).
the dignified, respectable, literary, and especially Wheatley’s book appeared within this political
thoughtful black” (396). The poet’s printed visage, and cultural discursive context.
according to Grimsted, “is a quiet refutation, like A number of aspects of the public sphere are
most of the poems, of the tacit prejudice that a important to our discussion of Wheatley’s work.
few men . . . were soon to make explicit in the First, this discursive network was public—open,
justification of slavery: that blacks were incapable available—and intensely political. Through her
of being fully intelligent and respectable human book, Wheatley gained access to this public
beings” (396-97). network and the political power it made available.
Therefore, in Wheatley’s portrait the inherent As has been noted, few slaves, if any, had access to
power of her public poetic enterprise becomes this power.
evident. For here on the printed page in public Second, the public sphere was, as Eagleton
view, the reader is confronted with a palpable pres- argues, consensual in nature.
ence—a face, a signature, an act. The picture
Within the translucent space of the public sphere
portrays a black woman, a slave, engaged in liter- it is supposedly no longer social power, privilege
ary work rather than menial labor—within a and tradition which confer upon the individual
public context. And this portrait constitutes the the title to speak and judge, but the degree to
graphic representation of Wheatley’s public pres- which they are constituted as discoursing subjects
ence and the power it produces. In short, the by sharing in a consensus of universal reason.
(9-10)
portrait is the emblem of the book as a whole and
is the public manifestation of her participation in The ability to engage in reasonable discourse,
the discursive sphere itself. as judged by the “normative regulations” applied
To discern the importance of Wheatley’s by critics (Eagleton 15), became the primary
public presence and the cultural opposition her criterion for admittance to the public sphere.
book represented, we need to look more closely at Through the publication of her book and her abil-
what Erkkila calls “the discourse of racial inequality to negotiate the requirements of “reasonable”
ity in the eighteenth century” (202). And we discourse in her poetry, Wheatley participated in
further need to recognize that the debate concern- this politically and culturally powerful arena. Seen
ing race took place within a larger discursive within this context, Wheatley’s apparently con-
structure. In particular, Terry Eagleton’s discussion ventional verse appears less an aesthetic and
of Habermas’s formulation of the eighteenth- ethnic “treason” than as a deliberate strategy to
century phenomenon known as the “public power.
sphere” offers a useful theoretical and historical The third and final characteristic of the public
construct to describe the public context in which sphere concerns the socio-economic underpin-
Wheatley’s public presence made itself felt. ning of its reasonable and consensual character.
In The Function of Criticism, Eagleton defines What is assumed or inherent in the dynamic of
the public sphere as “a distinct discursive space, the public sphere is the propertied basis for this
reasonable discourse. According to Eagleton, the accomplishments are such as not only do honor
WHEATLEY public sphere assumed that only those with to her sex, but to human nature. Several of her
poems have been printed, and read with pleasure
property—in other words, those with an “inter-
by the public.
est” in the social and economic constitution— (qtd. in Gates 68; Robinson, Critical Essays 24;
were capable of engaging in the public discourse. Erkkila 202)
Property, therefore, created the “interest”—the
part, the stake, the share in the public constitu- Wheatley’s impact on the human rights de-
tion that in turn bred the “reason” and “common bate is obvious here: her public presence stands as
sense” and “disinterest” that made discursive a powerfully concrete example of the slave’s inher-
participation possible (Eagleton 15-16). Owning ent “humanity.” One need only reasonably refer
property and having an “interested disinterest” to the public text—Wheatley’s public presence—
made possible the sitting, reading, writing, and for refutation of any number of pro-slavery argu-
thinking that comprised the discursive produc- ments based on African cultural and intellectual
tion and consumption of the public sphere. inferiority.
Within this complex network of reason, property, The power of Wheatley’s presence becomes
class, and power, Wheatley’s public presence made even more evident in an attack penned by Thomas
its inherent critical demand felt. Jefferson in Notes on the State of Virginia (London,
The British publication of a major artistic work 1787), years after her death:
such as Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects
Misery is often the parent of the most affecting
threatened the assumptions of the public sphere touches in poetry. Among blacks is misery enough,
at a number of points. In “Phillis Wheatley and God knows, but no poetry. . . . Religion, indeed,
the ‘Nature of the Negro,’” Henry Louis Gates has produced Phillis Whately [sic]; but it could
indicates one area in which Wheatley’s public not produce a poet. The compositions published
under her name are below the dignity of criticism.
presence affected the dominant culture’s aesthetic
The heroes of the Dunciad are to her, as Hercules
and racial assumptions. According to Gates, the to the author of that poem. . . .
presence of Wheatley’s poetry served to compli- (qtd. in Robinson, Critical Essays 42-3; Gates 5-6)
cate the Enlightenment debate of human nature
and human rights.2 In particular, her poetry Jefferson’s need to debase Wheatley’s presence
influenced discussion of the “humanity” of slaves is evident throughout this excerpt. Since his
and the role of their writing within logocentric library contained a copy of Poems on Various
EuroAmerican culture. Within the debate, Wheat- Subjects (Robinson, Critical Essays 43n), we might
ley was often presented as “a living refutation of be tempted to assume that he deliberately mis-
the charge of innate Negro inferiority” (68), and spelled her name in a childish attempt at denigra-
her poetry thereby called into question “com- tion, but there is no proof for this interpretation.
monly repeated assumptions about the nature of However, the charge that Wheatley was a product
the Negro” (72). For a cultural context in which of “Religion” was particularly condemning com-
the deployment of language, “reasonable” dis- ing from Jefferson the rationalist, since it implied
course, was paramount, Wheatley’s book pre- a lack of reason and suggested the influence of
sented itself as a significant challenge to the as- superstition. Further, Jefferson specifically called
sumption of African inferiority based on a into question Wheatley’s authorship of the book
supposed lack of artistic and rhetorical ability and “published under her name” and thereby antici-
the pro-slavery position such assumptions upheld. pated a charge often to be leveled against
nineteenth-century slave narratives by pro-slavery
The impact Wheatley’s poetry had upon the commentators. However, the fact that Wheatley
human rights debate is evident from the com- elicited such a vehement attack from Jefferson
ments of two American participants in the debate. almost fifteen years after her last major publica-
First, Benjamin Rush, physician and anti-slavery tion and three years after her death testifies to the
activist, cites Wheatley as evidence of African strong public presence she exerted within the
“humanity” in a footnote to An Address to the discourse of the time.3 Specifically, Jefferson’s at-
Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America Upon tack suggests how strong an argument against
Slave Keeping (Philadelphia, 1773): African enslavement her presence represented,
There is now in the town of Boston a Free Negro since as Erkkila notes, “he singles out her work for
Girl, about 18 years of age, who has been but 9 criticism” (210). However, in the years following
years in the country, whose singular genius and her death, as Jefferson was writing his critique,
Wheatley had no “presence” except that as consti- character of the utterer, but from its conformity as
WHEATLEY
tuted by the public sphere and her discursive a statement within a certain paradigm of rea-
son. . . . One’s title as speaker is derived from the
participation.
formal character of one’s discourse rather than
To these interconnected issues of reason, the authority of that discourse derived from one’s
language, and slavery are related the propertied title. Discursive identities are not pre-given, but
constructed by the very act of participation in
assumptions of the public sphere’s discourse. For
polite conversation . . . for what counts as ratio-
not only did Wheatley’s public presence call into nality is precisely the capacity to articulate within
question the public sphere’s assumptions about its constraints; the rational are those capable of a
reason and a “common sense,” it also stood as a certain mode of discourse. . . .
discursive challenge to the assumptions of “inter- (15)
est” inherent in the discourse itself. When Thomas
The critic, therefore, administered this judge-
Hutchinson, John Hancock, John Wheatley, and
ment of capacity, and the positive response of the
their colleagues attested to Wheatley’s authorship
British critics to Wheatley’s book indicated her
of Poems on Various Subjects, they were doing
successful negotiation of the forms of discourse
more than testifying to her genius. Inadvertently,
and her participation in the power such discourse
they themselves were calling into question the
conferred.
propertied assumptions of a “reasonable” dis-
course. For if the ownership of property was prior The second feature of Wheatley’s critical
to the interest necessary to participate in the reception addresses the nature of the power her
public sphere, Wheatley’s participation as property public presence created. Consider the following
directly contradicted this assumption. If a person portion of a review printed in both Gentleman’s
who owned not even an “interest” in herself could Magazine and Scots Magazine (both September
produce a competent literary creation and have it 1773):
favorably received by the public, then the proper- A testimony in favor of the poems as genuine
tied basis for reasonable discourse was itself productions of this young person, is signed by the
questionable, if not invalid. As we shall see, when Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, seven clergy-
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral men, and others eminent for station and literature,
and also by her master: and in this it is said,
appeared, the British critics approved.
disgraceful as it may be to all that have signed it,
In “The British Reception of Wheatley’s Poems that “this poor girl was brought an uncultivated
on Various Subjects,” Mukhtar Ali Isani details the barbarian from Africa, and has ever since been,
and now is—A SLAVE!”
reviews Wheatley’s book received. In the four
(qtd. in Isani 146 and 148; emphasis in original
months following the publication of Poems on review)
Various Subjects, notes Isani, “nine British peri-
odicals reviewed the work, usually contributing The power available to Wheatley to bring into
space in generous amounts. . . . All [the] reviews discussion both the reality of her own bondage,
were favorable” (145). Most of the reviews in- and by implication the reality of all in bondage, is
cluded a representative poem, and in a few cases clearly evident here. The testimony of authentic-
more than one. In particular, two features of this ity, made necessary by the very nature of her
critical reception are important to our discussion enslaved condition, served to bring to the fore the
of Wheatley’s presence and participation in the actuality of her slavery and the moral issues her
public sphere. enslaved condition assumed. The foregrounding
The first feature of Wheatley’s critical recep- of this condition additionally brought into play
tion is the right of participation a favorable judge- questions concerning interest and the nature of
ment entailed. Eagleton observes that the role of property and its connection with reason and
the critic in the public sphere was that of cultural humanity. Here in this one review we can see the
arbiter. In the view of the public sphere, “the truly public presence of Phillis Wheatley in operation:
free market is that of cultural discourse itself, the critic, artist, “master,” slave, property, and
within of course, certain normative regulations; literary form were joined in a complex and desta-
the role of the critic is to administer those norms, bilizing network of discourse. All assumed rela-
in a double refusal of absolutism and anarchy” tions and assumptions were brought into ques-
(15). This administration of the public sphere’s tion. Until this time, no black American, slave or
norms is important because of the character of free, had been able to exert this kind of pressure.
discourse within the sphere: Phillis Wheatley returned to Boston on 16
What is said derives its legitimacy neither from September 1773, her trip to England cut short by
itself as message nor from the social [or racial] the illness of Susanna Wheatley, so the poet was
not in London when her book, her public pres- 2:229). However, the Gazette’s role in the struggle
WHEATLEY ence, emerged from the press of Archibald Bell. for American independence went beyond cooking
But her return was not without its moment of up the odd article or paragraph. Mott notes that
recognition. Four days after she disembarked in according to tradition the members of the Boston
Boston, the 20 September 1773 number of the Tea Party dressed for the occasion in the newspa-
Boston Gazette noted her return: “In Capt. Calef per’s offices (76). Writing and politics were joined
came Passengers, Capt. Hillhouse and Lady, Mr. in the Gazette offices.
Alleing; also Phillis Wheatley, the extraordinary The Boston Gazette provides a concrete ex-
Poetical Genius, Negro Servant to Mr. John Wheat- ample of the public sphere in operation. As Ad-
ley” (“Boston” 2). There was some irony in this ams notes, the paper’s purpose was frankly politi-
reception. After all, the citizens of Boston had the cal and directed toward controlling public
year before declined subscription to the very opinion. Within this context, rhetoric and writing
volume of poetry that was eliciting favorable Brit- went beyond simple personal expression. And the
ish reviews at the time its author was setting foot seemingly casual mention of Wheatley suggests
on the Boston dock. just how close she was to this intense political
Beyond a brief moment of recognition, activity. Boston was a small town. Wheatley knew
Wheatley’s seemingly inconsequential mention in many of the prominent political and religious
the Gazette serves to remind us of the intense figures, and they knew her. Not only had patriot,
political activity of the times in general and the preacher, educator, and Caucus Club member
public sphere in particular, especially as this activ- Samuel Cooper attested to Wheatley’s poetic abili-
ity was embodied in this particular newspaper. ties, he had baptized the poet in 1771 (Mason 10).
Frank Luther Mott characterizes the Boston Gazette The Gazette notice of Wheatley’s return suggests
as “one of the most Patriotic newspapers of the that her public presence was very much a political
Revolution” (15). Royal Governor Bernard gave presence.
the paper a similar review—though from a differ- However, the most significant consequence of
ent angle when in 1770 he called the Gazette “an Wheatley’s public sphere participation—her
infamous weekly paper which has swarmed with public presence—is to be found on the front page
Libells of the most atrocious kind.” Unfortunately of the same number of the Boston Gazette that an-
for British interests, as the governor further nounced her return from England:
complained, “seven eighths of the people read
none but this infamous paper,” (qtd. in Mott 75). TO BE SOLD
The writers for the Gazette were drawn primarily
A very likely Molatto Boy, about 7 or 8 Years of
from the membership of the Caucus Club: “a Age, is very active, and can be well recommended
small and purposely obscure organization de- for his many Qualities; he speaks good French,
signed to control political action” (Mott 76). Ad- etc.
ditionally, the club claimed some of the most Inquire of Edes and Gill.
important political figures of the Massachusetts (“To Be Sold” 1)
struggle against Great Britain: John and Samuel
Adams, Samuel Cooper, Thomas Cushing, John History does not tell us the name of the
Hancock, James Otis, Josiah Quincy, and Joseph linguistically talented young man offered for sale
Warren (Mott 76). At least two members of the through the good offices of the Gazette’s publish-
club—Cooper and Hancock—signed the authenti- ers. His presence is confined to this brief mention.
cating preface to Wheatley’s book. Yet the Gazette’s pages are filled with similar offer-
ings: the concrete records of the colonial trade in
Edited by Boston printers Benjamin Edes and
human beings. Interwoven with these notices and
John Gill, the Boston Gazette was an important
the articles calling for American liberty and
focus for political action against the crown. Edes
freedom is the public presence of a young black
later wrote that the leaders of the Boston resistance
woman who thought and wrote, and whose very
“constantly assembled within the confines of the
presence called the trade into question.
Gazette office” (qtd. in Mott 76). John Adams
described the political activity centering around
the newspaper in his diary entry for Sunday, 3 Notes
September 1769: “The evening spent in preparing 1. A facsimile reprint of the 1773 edition of Poems on
Various Subjects, Religious and Moral appears in William
for the next day’s newspaper,—a curious employ-
Robinson, Phillis Wheatley and Her Writing, 141-275,
ment, cooking up paragraphs, articles, occur- with the portrait reprinted on page 142. Robinson
rences, etc., working the political engine!” (Adams briefly discusses the transformations Wheatley’s picto-
rial representation has undergone on pages 78-81. Erk-
TITLE COMMENTARY
WHEATLEY
kila also reproduces the portrait on page 203 of her es-
say.
2. Gates is not alone in recognizing Wheatley’s effect
Poems on Various Subjects,
upon the human rights discussion. Erkkila discusses Religious and Moral
the debate (201-10), and David Grimsted offers a
detailed analysis of it (394-436).
3. In fact, as Grimsted notes, Wheatley’s presence served KATHERINE CLAY BASSARD
as such a potent refutation that subsequent pro-slavery (ESSAY DATE 1999)
advocates who adopted Jefferson’s inferiority argu-
ment nevertheless ignored Wheatley as an example: SOURCE: Bassard, Katherine Clay. “Diaspora Subjectiv-
“It was hard to read her poetry and conclude the ity and Transatlantic Crossings: Phillis Wheatley’s Poet-
mental incompetence or notable inferiority of blacks. ics of Recovery.” In Spiritual Interrogations: Culture,
It was impossible even to look at the frontpiece and Gender, and Community in Early African American
complacently to tie human ‘dignity and beauty’ to Women’s Writing, pp. 28-57. Princeton: Princeton
racist denigration. She was obviously thinking, not University Press, 1999.
asleep” (434). In the following excerpt, Bassard focuses on Wheatley’s
“On Being Brought From Africa to America” as an
Works Cited instance of Wheatley’s African American poetics.
Adams, John. The Works of John Adams. Ed. Charles Francis
Adams. 1850-56. 10 vols. Freeport, NY: Books for
Libraries P, 1969. Diaspora Subjectivity
“Boston.” Boston Gazette and Country Journal. 20 September
In Between Slavery and Freedom, Bill E. Lawson
1773: 2. writes of the “functional lexical gap” evidenced
Eagleton, Terry. The Function of Criticism: From The Spectator
by the lack of an appropriate collective nomencla-
to Post-Structuralism. London: Verso, 1984. ture for descendants of Africans enslaved in the
Erkkila, Betsy. “Revolutionary Women.” Tulsa Studies in
Americas. Noting that “the language we use to
Women’s Literature 6 (1987): 189-223. frame a group’s political and social status can have
Gates, Henry Louis. “Phillis Wheatley and the ‘Nature of an impact on the public policy regarding that
the Negro.’” Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the group,” Lawson concludes that “our moral/
“Racial” Self. New York: Oxford U P, 1989. 215-33. political vocabulary is morally unsatisfactory and
Grimsted, David. “Anglo-American Racism and Phillis inadequate for characterizing the plight of present-
Wheatley’s ‘Sable Veil,’ ‘Length’ned Chain,’ and ‘Knit- day black Americans” (McGary and Lawson 72).
ted Heart.’” Women in the Age of the American Revolu- Lawson’s important observation about collective
tion. Ed. Ronald Hoffman and Peter J. Albert. Charlot-
tesville, VA: U P of Virginia, 1989. 338-444. designation has its beginnings in the ritual mis-
namings of African peoples that characterized the
Isani, Mukhtar Ali. “The British Reception of Wheatley’s
Poems on Various Subjects.” Journal of Negro History 66 transatlantic slave trade. Further, this “conceptual”
(1981): 144-49. and “lexical” gap (77) has had a direct impact on
Levernier, James A. “Phillis Wheatley and the New England the perception and reception of Phillis Wheatley
Clergy.” Early American Literature 26 (1991): 21-38. as an enslaved African woman and a poet. As June
Mason, Julian D., Jr. Introduction. Wheatley 1-22. Jordan posed it in “The Difficult Miracle,” “How
Mott, Frank Luther. American Journalism: A History, 1690-
could there be black poets in America? It was not
1960. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1962. natural and she was the first” (23).
O’Neale, Sondra. “A Slave’s Subtle War: Phillis Wheatley’s While Jordan’s appeal to “nature” might be
Use of Biblical Myth and Symbol.” Early American Lit- off-putting to those concerned with de-
erature 21 (1986): 144-65.
essentializing “race,” her question expresses the
Reising, Russell J. “Trafficking in White: Phillis Wheatley’s problematic of African American authorship as it
Semiotics of Racial Representation.” Genre 22 (1989):
231-61. is based on a subjectivity of displacement. Part of
the difficulty arises from the discourse of American
Richmond, Merle A. Bid the Vassal Soar. Washington, DC:
Howard U P, 1974. Africanism, which Morrison links to the begin-
nings of an “American” national identity: “the
Robinson, William H., ed. Critical Essays on Phillis Wheatley.
Boston: G.K. Hall, 1982. formation of the nation necessitated coded lan-
guage and purposeful restriction to deal with the
———. Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings. New York: Garland,
1984. racial disingenuousness and moral frailty at its
heart” (6). It is thus that terms like “black,” “poet,”
“To Be Sold.” Boston Gazette and Country Journal. 20 Septem-
ber 1773: 1. and “America” become coded and conceptually
shackled as part of a discourse which seeks to jet-
Wheatley, Phillis. The Poems of Phillis Wheatley. Ed. Julian
D. Mason, Jr. Rev. and enl. ed. Chapel Hill: U of North tison “black” from the equation. Henry Louis
Carolina P, 1989. Gates, Jr., has demonstrated how Wheatley’s
poetry became embroiled in prevailing discourses writer in America within discourses of black and
WHEATLEY of black intellectual inferiority. He and others have female intellectual inferiority.3 The Memoir in-
discussed the presence of the “authenticating scribes, ultimately, one writer’s memory of another
documents” at the beginning of Poems on Vari- writer’s memories, as a significant portion of the
ous Subjects Religious and Moral, including the text is devoted to a quasi-scientific explanation of
frontispiece portrait of Wheatley by Scipio Moor- what Odell supposes to be a defect of Wheatley’s
head, as evidence of the discourse of racial inferi- mind:
ority. What remains to be examined is the matrix [Phillis] does not seem to have preserved any
of gender and culture in which this discourse of remembrance of the place of her nativity, or of
race and racialization occurs. her parents, excepting the simple circumstance
that her mother poured out water before the sun at
Questions of social, cultural, and racial posi- his rising—in reference, no doubt, to an ancient
tionality and origins have plagued the discourse African custom. The memories of most children
surrounding Phillis Wheatley almost from the reach back to a much earlier period than their
initial publication of Poems on Various Subjects seventh year; but there are some circumstances
. . . which would induce us to suppose, that in
Religious and Moral in 1773, an event that as- the case of Phillis, this faculty did not equal the
sured Wheatley, as the first African and only the other powers of her mind.
second woman in America to publish a book of (12-13)
poems, a lasting place in American and African
American literary history. Wheatley’s “originary” I will return to the issue of Odell’s misreading
position, however, has often attracted more criti- of what are probably ritual libations for the ances-
cal commentary than her poetry. M. A. Rich- tors as some form of “ancient” sun worship. My
mond’s conclusion, “it is the tragedy rather than concern here is with the assumption that Wheat-
the poetry of Phillis Wheatley that has the more ley’s ability to learn English and Latin, to master
enduring relevance for American life” (66), is literature, the Bible, geography, and astronomy
exemplary of the type of dismissal Wheatley’s well enough in nine short years to publish a book-
work has suffered. While more recent critics have length volume of poetry displaced a “normal”
taken a variety of historical, anthropological, and capacity for early childhood memories.4 Odell’s
discursive approaches to Wheatley’s work, the memory of Wheatley’s lack of (certain) memories
emphasis remains on her “tragic” life rather than constructs the notion of a “life” that the title
the poems themselves. June Jordan and Alice (Memoir) promises, even as the subtitle, A Native
Walker, offering a black feminist corrective to the African and a Slave portrays Wheatley as a “Native
customary elision of Wheatley’s gender, have revi- African” with virtually no remembrance of Africa,
sioned Wheatley’s life not as “tragedy” but as a “Slave” whose very poems are used to underscore
“miracle,” yet the focus of their analyses is on her the fact of this erasure.
originary or “foremother” status rather than her While many of the “facts” of Odell’s Memoir
poetry.1 have subsequently been proven false, the portrait
The confusion over the cultural, racial, and of Wheatley’s near-amnesia about her African past
social trajectories of identity and discourse be- has since become cliché, used by scholars to prove
comes complicated even further by the problem everything from the wretchedness of enslavement
of psychical processes and poetic production, to the much-held view of the total “white-
memory and poetic utterance. Such a knot of washing” of Wheatley resulting, the theory goes,
discourses appears in the very first biography of in a body of poetry with no racial consciousness.
Phillis Wheatley, published in 1834, a half-century The image remains of a Phillis Wheatley com-
after the poet’s death, by Margaretta Matilda pletely passive and powerless, if not oblivious, to
Odell, a self-styled “collateral descendant” of the the forces around her, rather than a young black
Wheatleys.2 The text appeared anonymously woman with a “standpoint”5 on her own oppres-
under the title Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheat- sion.
ley. A Native African and a Slave, a title that creates Morrison’s analysis in Playing in the Dark helps
the expectation of a relationship between life and put to rest the notion of a “raceless” Phillis Wheat-
work, identity and language, that the anecdotal, ley when she notes that “for both black and white
gap-ridden biographical narrative continually writers, in a wholly racialized society, there is no
frustrates. Odell’s central “thesis” is that Wheat- escape from racially inflected language, and the
ley’s “literary efforts were altogether the natural work writers do to unhobble the imagination from
workings of her own mind” (18), a gesture of the demands of that language is complicated,
“authentication” that situates the African woman interesting, and definitive” (12-13). Here the
debate becomes not whether Wheatley was vability. In the Iberian colonies, early attempts to
WHEATLEY
African/black enough in her poems but what kind enslave indigenous peoples had failed owing to
of Africanity (what theories of blackness) her work harsh labor demands and lack of immunity to
enacts and enables. And for me the answer is European diseases. The transfer of their labor func-
similar to Morrison’s own description of her Afri- tions to imported and enslaved Africans led to
canist Americanist work: “The kind of work I have European beliefs that “the work output of one
always wanted to do requires me to learn how to African was equal to four to eight Indians”
maneuver ways to free up the language from its (Reynolds 60).
sometimes sinister, frequently lazy, almost always The belief that Africans were physically and
predictable employment of racially informed and thus genetically fit for slavery recast their physical
determined chains” (xi). survival of the harsh conditions of the Middle Pas-
THE LANGUAGE OF SURVIVORSHIP sage as a sign of mental, moral, and cultural weak-
The slippage in the Wheatley discourse blur- ness and docility. Indeed, their physical survival
ring the binaries memory/psyche, slave/social was mandated by the captors, as the captives were
position, African/cultural evidences a crisis around regularly forced to eat, exercise, and so forth. The
the word “race” that deconstruction and de- only sign of “honor” recognized by the Europeans,
essentialization have failed adequately to address. suicide, meant self-annihilation. An English
If, in the eighteenth century, the concept of race traveler in 1746 wrote of an African-born slave: “If
resulted from what Ali Mazrui calls “the dis- he must be broke, either from Obstinacy, or,
Africanisation of the diaspora,”6 then the racial- which I am more apt to suppose, from Greatness
ization of African peoples involved not only a dis- of Soul, will require . . . hard Discipline . . . you
Africanizing but an un-Americanizing as well,7 all would really be surprized at their Persever-
of which bears directly on Wheatley’s situation in ance; . . . they oft die before they can be
Boston on the eve of the American Revolution. conquer’d” (qtd. in Blassingame 12). Companies
That Wheatley consistently refers to herself as that insured slavers against accident and mishap
“Afric[an]” or “Ethiop[ian]” in her poetry rather counted as “natural death” disease and “also when
than “slave,” “black,” or, indeed “American” the captive destroys himself through despair,
represents an act of self-naming that transgresses which often happens” (qtd. in Reynolds 50).
the racialized boundaries which sought to con- A language of African survivorship calls to
strict African American subjectivity.8 Thus Wheat- mind the survival of Africanity and African struc-
ley’s self-designations keep ever in view “the tures within New World spaces.1 0 As Ngugi Wa
crucial marker of difference in a US Real—the vital Thiong’o writes, “you can destroy a people’s
sign of ‘Africanity’” (Spillers, “Who Cuts the culture completely only by destroying a people
Border?” 11). themselves” (45). Survivorship also signals genera-
Second, while Sondra O’Neale urges in “A tional survival, as one is survived by one’s descen-
Slave’s Subtle Civil War” that “any evaluation of dants. The issue of ancestors and remembrance
Phillis Wheatley must consider her status as a will become crucial to an understanding of Wheat-
slave” (14), I propose to go beyond the nomina- ley’s embracing of the elegiac genre. Finally, it
tive “slave,” which denotes a racialized status or points to the survival of black texts despite
condition based on the notion of inherent (and centuries of neglect and hostility. This is especially
inheritable) African inferiority, to refigure Wheat- important in Wheatley studies, as drafts and vari-
ley as a Middle Passage survivor.9 The weeks-to- ants of her poetry are still being recovered.1 1 Con-
months-long voyage across the Atlantic from the notations of survivorship—black bodies, African
West African coast, often to the West Indies, and cultures, and black texts—converge in the figure
finally to North America, inscribes the condition and poetics of Phillis Wheatley.
of diaspora subjectivity as geocultural displace- Wheatley appears on the auction block in
ment. In the European-American scheme of Boston in 1761 at a kind of crisis point of the
things, Africans were positioned in a no-win situa- transatlantic slave trade. Not only does her
tion (individually and collectively) between lifespan (1752?-84) encompass the peak years of
enslavement and death. Thus the survival of the trade, but her presence in New England serves
African peoples who crossed on the Middle Pas- as a reminder that in the eighteenth century, the
sage, a survival mandated by the enslavers, became New England colonies were “the greatest slave-
not an “event” to be celebrated but, in the dialectic trading section of America” (Greene 24). As Philip
imposed by this discourse, yet another mark of D. Curtin’s seminal study The Atlantic Slave Trade:
African inferiority and thus “proof” of their ensla- A Census shows, an estimated 9,566,100 Africans
landed in the Americas between 1502 and the “(spiritual) metaphors” (Holloway 1). Moreover,
WHEATLEY mid-nineteenth century, 399,000 of them in Brit- insofar as this is a religious memory, Wheatley’s
ish mainland North America. Moreover, the trade own religiosity—enacted in her conversion to
peaked in the eighteenth century (1741-1810) Christianity—repeats, however unconsciously, her
with 80 percent landed in the century and a half mother’s spiritual ritual, inadvertently, perhaps,
between 1701 and 1850. As sensational as these laying claim to a legacy at once African and
numbers appear, “the cost of the slave trade in female. True to the displacements signaled by di-
human life was many times the number of slaves aspora subjectivity, Wheatley’s poetics of recovery
landed in America” (Curtin 275).1 2 will lead us simultaneously backward, to the
African community from which she was prema-
In “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe” Hortense
turely severed, and forward, to the community of
Spillers meditates on the instability of African
black women writers prefigured by her correspon-
categories of identity in “the socio-political order
dence with Obour Tanner, a fellow female slave,
of the New World”: “That order, with its human
one of the few black women of her era as Christian
sequence written in blood, represents for its African
and as literate as she.1 4 It is through this poetics
and indigenous peoples a scene of actual mutila-
of recovery that Wheatley challenges and revises
tion, dismemberment, and exile. First of all, their
the American Africanist notions inhering in the
New World, diasporic plight marked a theft of the
colonial discourse which surrounds her. Far from
body—a willful and violent (and unimaginable
“assimilating” this discourse,1 5 Wheatley both
from this distance) severing of the captive body
perceives its ideological form and configuration
from its motive will, its active desire” (67). The
within the domain of sociopolitical relations of
horror of this description of bodily theft is only
power and challenges its premises by displaying
magnified when we consider the African Sacred
its constructedness as ideology. In Morrison’s
Cosmos, whose worldview theorizes subjectivity
phrasing, she sees the “fishbowl” within which
in terms of not individual and nuclear family
the oceanic discourse of African enslavement is
units but extended family, community, and land/
contained, and through her bold poetics, she
environment. 1 3 Theologian Dwight Hopkins
invents a discursive strategy for breaking the glass.
describes this “theological anthropology” as fol-
lows: “To be human meant to stand in connec- Significantly, Holloway writes that “spiritual
tion with the larger community of the invisible and psychic fracture” is represented textually by
ancestors and God and, of course, the visible com- the black woman writer’s manipulation of “alter-
munity and family” (18). Thus with her transpor- native spaces” (117), a moving “between worlds”
tation to America, Wheatley’s very (black female) (114) that stages the displacement of the diaspora
body marks her as a truncated part of a whole subject. No reading of the poetry of Phillis Wheat-
community and kin network. While the specifics ley would be complete that did not account for
of that community are unrecoverable, what we do her most famous and oft-anthologized poem, “On
recover is her own critical and interpretive dis- Being Brought From Africa to America.” In this
placements in which Wheatley writes/rewrites the poem, Wheatley establishes the parameters for
Middle Passage in her poems. her own self-naming and self-positioning as poet,
African American woman, diaspora subject. I
quote the poem in its entirety:
Writing the Middle Passage
’Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
THE LANGUAGE OF DISPLACEMENT Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
The Middle Passage as the scene of psychic Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
and communal fracture reinscribes black women’s Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
subjectivity at the metalevel of the utterance, as “Their colour is a diabolic die.”
diaspora subjectivity authorizes a “claiming Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin’d and join th’angelic train.
residence” in language (Holloway 63), a “making
[one’s] self at home” within the space of the text A terse, eight-line poem in a single stanza, “On
(June Jordan 26). Dispossessed as black women Being Brought” appears to be a seamless whole
writers are of memory, culture, and history, their even as its surface-level meaning is presented as a
“possession of the word” is, fundamentally, “a rational and unified argument (“’Twas mercy
cultural and gendered legacy” (Holloway 27). Thus brought me from my Pagan land”). However, line
we can reread Wheatley’s memory of her mother’s 4—“Once I redemption neither sought nor
morning libations as a “(cultural) mooring” that knew”—creates a rupture that structurally breaks
initiates a series of African American female the poem in two.
From this structural fracture, a poem emerges This multiple communal structure effaces both
WHEATLEY
that is about spiritual and cultural fracturing. As present time—as the poem moves from the origi-
June Jordan observes, the single word “once” sug- nary “once” to the eschatalogical “angelic train”—
gests that “[o]nce I existed beyond and without and present space: “America,” the designated point
these terms under consideration. Once I existed on of arrival in the poem’s title, which is refigured as
other than your terms” (26). If the “once” brings to a mere way station along the poet’s real journey
consciousness some primal memory, some origi- from Africa to Heaven. Heaven as “alternative
nary moment and place, then its positioning at space” (Holloway) marks the very dispersal of the
the end of the “conversion narrative” part of the diaspora subject, as it is specifically not Africa and,
poem represents a critical realignment of the more important in Wheatley’s context, not
terms of narrativity.1 6 The narrative frame “on be- America.
ing brought from Africa to America” is temporally
displaced as the first half of the poem ends, as it ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE
were, at the beginning. In order fully to appreciate the achievement
of this poem’s African Americanist theorizing, we
The “once” signifies not only another time must compare it to four lines from “To the
but another place, representing a realignment of University of Cambridge in New-England.” Fol-
space as well. In the context of this utterance, the lowing a conventional two-line invocation to the
realignment of the place of originary memory Muses, Wheatley writes:
forms a hinge; it provides a transition to the
’Twas not long since I left my native shore
second quatrain, which brings the poem from the
The Land of errors and Egyptian gloom:
individual and psychical to the social and cultural. Father of mercy, ’twas thy gracious hand
In the second half of the poem, the autobiographi- Brought me in safety from those dark abodes.
cal “I” becomes renegotiated in what Julia Kristeva (Lines 3-6)
calls “the metamorphoses of the ‘we’” (220). That This passage establishes the context of “On
is, it “reproduces itself” (Henriques et al. 227) Being Brought,” which revises—in the sense of
within a social/cultural matrix that multiplies the “repetition and difference” (Gates, Signifying Mon-
very terms of its subjectivity. The “I” of the first key 64)—this passage from “Cambridge” in terms
half of the poem joins communally with its of their relative placements in the narrative line
socially copositioned others to become “our sable of Poems. The narrativity of the volume is espe-
race” (line 5). Even more dizzying is Wheatley’s cially important to the reading of the elegies. Of
appropriation of the “gaze” of the Other(s)1 7 and importance now is the fact that “On Being
the voicing of the Other’s racializing discourse Brought” appears to be a revision of an earlier
(“‘Their colour is a diabolic die,’” line 6). What poem identified in Wheatley’s book proposal of
emerges from this new position (as “other” of an February 29, 1772, as “Thoughts on being brought
utterance represented within the frame of her own from Africa to America” and scheduled to appear
poem) is what Mae Henderson refers to as the tenth in the originally proposed volume.1 8 The
distinguishing feature of black women’s writing: version of “Cambridge” printed in the 1773 Po-
“the privileging (rather than repressing) of ‘the ems also underwent substantial revision from an
other in ourselves’” (19). earlier draft subtitled “Wrote in 1767” (when
These critical shifts renegotiate space as (past, Wheatley was just fourteen) whose variant is
present, and future) community. Yet owing to the extant. Scheduled to be placed fourth in the
dictates of diaspora subjectivity, space/community original proposal, the poem that was finally
is multiple rather than singular, as the “I” is printed must have been composed between April
inscribed within three interlocking communal 1772 and August 6, 1773,1 9 when Poems was
structures. First, following from the “once” in line printed in London. Owing to the recovery of
4, the “I” is embedded within the ancestral space manuscript drafts and other variants of Wheat-
of “My Pagan land,” complete with the possessive ley’s poetry, we now have a sense of her revision
pronoun. This “cultural mooring” will become practices.2 0 Thus it is reasonable to assume that
significant in the later discussion of this poem’s the poem listed in the proposal as “Thoughts on
critique of American Africanist ideology. Second, being brought from Africa to America” underwent
it is repositioned within “our sable race,” con- revisions by the time it appeared in Poems as “On
structed as a community of “others” via the white Being Brought.”
gaze that perceives black skin as “a diabolic die.” What all this establishes is that Wheatley was
Finally, the “I” is located once again with the a meticulous reviser of her own work. Not only
bi(non)racial “angelic train” that ends the poem. do “Cambridge” and “On Being Brought” repre-
’Twas but e’en now I left my native shore
WHEATLEY The sable Land of error’s darkest night
There, sacred Nine! for you no place was found.
Parent of mercy, ’twas thy Powerful hand
Brought me in safety from the dark abode.
(Lines 3-7; Shields 196)
It is important to keep in mind that Wheatley

was about fourteen when this poem was com-
posed.2 1 Shields claims that “Wheatley made few
major alterations” between this version and the
1773 final version. I disagree. What appear to be
“minor” revisions in the later version of “Cam-
bridge” reveal a sharpening and development of
Wheatley’s thought on her experience of the
Middle Passage.2 2 The change from “’Twas but
e’en now” to “’Twas not long since,” for example,
represents the advance of six years. The most obvi-
ous change is the omission of the line about the
Muses, which appears as line 5 of the 1767 ver-
sion. Indeed, it is an omission of a line about
Africa’s lack (“There, sacred Nine! for you no place
was found”). It is chiefly through this line that
Africa is cast in a negative light as lacking the
inspiration for poetry. When the line is contrasted
with the poem’s first two lines, “While an intrinsic
ardor bids me write / the muse doth promise to
assist my pen,”2 3 an important contradiction
emerges that favors the poet’s present location (in
literate America) as the location for poetic expres-
sion and sensibility. Its omission in the 1773 poem
suggests a change in Wheatley’s visioning of Africa
and her poetic heritage.
The next line of the 1767 “Cambridge”
describes the poet’s “native shore” as “the sable
Land of error’s darkest night.” This line and the
reference to the poet’s gratefulness at being
Autographed manuscript of the poem “To the University rescued from “the dark abode” have been taken to
of Cambridge.” mean that Wheatley sees Africa as the stereotypi-
cal “dark continent” of American Africanism and
thus to evince self-hatred and self-denial. Yet
Wheatley here capitalizes “Land” and in describ-
sent, in their final published forms, the developing it as “sable” is not necessarily invoking a
ment of Wheatley’s thinking about her captivity discourse of inferiority. Wheatley’s use of “sable”
and enslavement, the order in which they appear as an adjective for land and people (“our sable
in Poems makes “On Being Brought” a “revision” race”) can be understood apart from American Af-
of “Cambridge” within the context of the vol- ricanist racialized proscriptions. It is only through
ume. To chart the development of Wheatley’s the gaze of the White Other who racializes black
thought on her own displacement to America, I peoples under the sign of inferiority (“‘Their co-
will compare the 1767 variant of “Cambridge” to lour is a diabolic die’”) that “sable race” is trans-
the 1773 version in Poems and demonstrate how formed into a socially constructed negativity.
the four lines about her transport from Africa were Recall Morrison: “Neither blackness nor ‘people of
revised. Then I will return to the important color’ stimulates in me notions of excessive, limit-
relationship between them as they appear in Po- less love, anarchy, or routine dread” (x).
ems to construct a complete narrative of captivity,
I am not arguing for the absence of a discourse
Middle Passage, and enslavement.
of African inferiority in the 1767 “Cambridge.”
In the 1767 version, the relevant lines are: Indeed, such a discourse exists; it is not to be
found, however, in the fact of “blackness,” but in and April of 1774. The fact that it was intended as
WHEATLEY
what Wheatley calls “error.” In line 4 of the 1767 a public utterance helps explain the carefully
version, “error’s” is a possessive. In the 1773 ver- worked out rhetorical structure that informs the
sion, the entire line is rewritten as “the land of er- letter. This passage follows the classic Wheatley
rors, and Egyptian gloom” (line 4). Addressed to pattern of beginning with statements straight out
Harvard divinity students, “Cambridge” is, after of the discourse of American Africanism only to
all, about sin and redemption. Wheatley exhorts convert that discourse to antislavery argument. By
the divinity students to “let sin . . . / By you be linking the story of African capture and enslave-
shunn’d” (lines 23-24). But what, exactly, is the ment to the Old Testament Israelites, she forces a
sin she refers to and for which Africa, her “native link (one that transgresses “racial” and geographi-
shore,” serves as a particular kind of “stage”? cal boundaries) between white Anglo-Americans
and the enslaving Egyptians.2 5 Thus in using the
I want to make an argument here that the
phrase “Egyptian gloom” in “Cambridge,” Wheat-
“sin” is slavery, conceived of by Wheatley (because
ley is signifying the slaveholding tendency of
she probably experienced it as such) as a global
Egypt, not its “blackness” or “Africanness.” When
system of captivity and forced labor.2 4 I base this
I talk of georacial transgressions, I mean that
argument first on the rewriting of “The sable Land
Wheatley understands slavery as a global system,
of error’s darkest night” to “The land of errors,
encompassing Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and
and Egyptian gloom.” The vagueness of the first
North America. It is also quite possible that her
version’s notion of “error’s” is specified in the final
original captors were black.2 6 What we get, then,
version by the phrase “Egyptian gloom.” That is,
is a discourse that cuts across the racial divide
in the final version, Wheatley means to signal the
imposed by American Africanism. “Modern Egyp-
reader as to exactly what she means by “the land
tians” can be of any race or nationality, according
of errors.” Whatever the impetus behind the
to Wheatley. Similarly, “Love of Freedom” be-
choice of the adjective “sable,” Wheatley’s substi-
comes the great equalizer in a world structured on
tution of “Egyptian” is probably a response to her
“Enlightenment” hierarchies of the “Great Chain
growing awareness of the racialization of the
of Being.” Her overall project is to unwrite, if you
society around her, a factor that would definitely
will, the discourse of blackness/Africanity as a
affect her (white) readers’ response.
discourse of difference. As she states in her poem
This point can be glossed by a famous passage “America,” “Sometimes by Simile, a victory’s
in Wheatley’s letter to the Native American won.”
Reverend Samson Occom dated February 11, 1774:
Following a mild exhortation about sin to “Let
Reverend and Honoured Sir, hateful vice so baneful to the Soul, / Be still
I have this Day received your obliging kind Epistle, avoided” (lines 26-27), the conclusion of the 1767
and am greatly satisfied with your Reasons respect- “Cambridge” reads:
ing the Negroes, and think highly reasonable what
you offer in Vindication of their natural Rights: Suppress the sable monster in its growth,
those that invade them cannot be insensible that Ye blooming plants of human race, divine
the divine light is chasing away the thick Dark- An Ethiop tells you, tis your greatest foe
ness which broods over the Land of Africa; and Its transient sweetness turns to endless pain,
the Chaos which has reigned so long, is convert- And brings eternal ruin on the Soul.
ing into beautiful Order, and reveals more and (Lines 28-32)
more clearly, that glorious Dispensation of civil
and religious Liberty, which are so inseparably
In the 1773 revision, following a stronger
united, that there is little or no enjoyment of one imperative to “shun” sin and evil, we find these
without the other: Otherwise, perhaps, the Israel- lines:
ites had been less solicitous for their Freedom from
Egyptian slavery; I do not say they would have Suppress the deadly serpent in its egg.
been contented without it by no Means, for in Ye blooming plants of human race divine,
every human breast, God has implanted a Prin- An Ethiop tells you ’tis your greatest foe;
ciple, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impa- Its transient sweetness turns to endless pain,
tient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance; And in immense perdition sinks the soul.
and by Leave of our Modern Egyptians I will as- (Lines 26-30)
sert, that the same Principle lives in us.
(Shields 176-77) By changing “sable monster” to “deadly ser-
pent,” Wheatley raises the “error” of slavery to
In keeping with colonial New England’s relish the theological status of Original Sin. The refer-
for the epistolary genre, this letter was published ence to the Fall in line 17 is thus emphasized, as
in ten New England newspapers between March the serpent recalls the Garden of Eden. In this way,
Africa, the poet’s “native shore,” becomes the an incredible amount of suffering and death, but
WHEATLEY scene of man’s Fall into “error” via slavery. “in most cases, the seamen were allowed to have
sexual intercourse with the females. Officers were
It could be argued that “sable monster” is a
always permitted access to the women” (Reynolds
more precise designation for the slave trade than
50-51). The age of the victim would have been
“deadly serpent,” which connotes a more abstract
little protection against possible assault. By the
notion of sin and temptation. Wheatley’s use of
time Phillis Wheatley stood on the auction block
the more abstract term in the final version sup-
in Boston, she was wearing only a tattered piece
ports my view that she would have felt “Egyptian
of carpet over her frail body. In supplying these
gloom” to be specific enough to carry the antisla-
details, I am trying to include what had to be
very message home, especially to a Bible-reading
excluded from Wheatley’s poems. By carefully
New England public. There is, however, another
placing a few key signifiers (“dark abodes,” “tran-
reference that would have signified the transatlan-
sient sweetness,” etc.), Wheatley is able to write
tic slave trade to that audience: the mention of
her experience of the Middle Passage in the only
sin as “transient sweetness” that “turns to endless
way she could.
pain.” In the eighteenth century the intended
readers would have understood this as a reference RACE, POWER/KNOWLEDGE
to the “sweet” industries of sugar, rum, and molas- All of this serves as the context for the first
ses, which specifically connected New England to line of “On Being Brought From Africa to
the slave trade. The New England distilleries, in America”—“’Twas mercy brought me from my
fact, were among the most dependent on the traf- Pagan land.” My argument has been based on the
fic in African bodies: “Most of the so-called observation that what appear to be “minor” revi-
‘middle passages’ terminated in the Caribbean, sions in the later version of “Cambridge” reveal a
where the slaves were exchanged for specie, bills, sharpening and development in Wheatley’s think-
and return cargoes of sugar or molasses.”2 7 Wheat- ing about the meaning of her experience of
ley had experienced firsthand the brutalities of a slavery and Middle Passage over the six interven-
system that literally traded human beings for the ing years. In this sense, “On Being Brought”
sugar and molasses so vital to the rum industry. represents her highest poetic achievement, espe-
Finally, the matter of the “dark abodes,” a cially if we appreciate it as a continuation of the
phrase that appears to be a mere repetition of narrative developed in the initial four lines of
American Africanist discourse. First, it is singular “Cambridge.” For the “Cambridge” lines end
(“dark abode”) in the 1767 version and plural in precisely where “On Being Brought” begins.
the final draft. Second, in the final version “land” “Father of mercy, ’twas they gracious hand /
is singular while “abodes” is plural; thus the “dark Brought me in safety from those dark abodes”
abodes” cannot signify Africa (as it does in the becomes “’Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan
first version). The entire couplet reads: “Father of land.” If, as I have argued, the appeal to “safety”
mercy, ’twas thy gracious hand / Brought me in and “dark abodes” calls up the weeks-to-months-
safety from those dark abodes” (lines 5-6). The long horror of the Middle Passage, “On Being
key words here are “in safety.” Wheatley is offer- Brought” picks up where the Middle Passage ends,
ing a prayer of thanksgiving (a direct address to that is, at the point of arrival. It is the task of its
God the “Father” as opposed to the third-person eight lines, then, to chronicle the remaining part
reference “’Twas mercy brought me . . .” of “On of Wheatley’s “journey”: specifically, the twin
Being Brought”) for her survival of the hazardous processes of racialization and acculturation.
journey of the Middle Passage. She is not, as some Crucially, if ironically, during the six years
have assumed, thankful for slavery, but for her between the first draft of “Cambridge” and the
safety. Here, the “dark abodes” could signify noth- publication of Poems, which contains both the
ing but the hateful and unsanitary ship’s holds final draft of that poem and “On Being Brought
where the majority of enslaved Africans spent the From Africa to America,” Wheatley was baptized
bulk of their time during their crossing, chained in the Old South Meeting House of Boston (1771).
together, deprived of light, air, decent food, and This accounts for the changes in “Cambridge”
water. Scholars whose interest in the slave trade is from “Parent of mercy, ’twas thy powerful hand”
medical and historical report that “at least one in (line 6, 1767 version) to “Father of mercy, ’twas
three Africans died between the time they were thy gracious hand” (line 5, 1773 version). The
removed from their homeland and the time they more personal (and patriarchal) epithet “Father”
were unloaded in the West Indies of the Ameri- is associated with “grace” rather than “power,” a
cas.”2 8 Not only would Wheatley have witnessed clear indication of a Judeo-Christian orientation
toward divinity. Her baptism would also explain from Africa, that most threatens the balance of
WHEATLEY
why Wheatley’s critique of slavery as sin gains power created and maintained by European hege-
theological coherence in the final version. Yet— mony. However much white slave owners insist
and here is the great irony—her reading of Africa on seeing black skin as “a diabolic die,” the
is less pejorative in the second “Cambridge” than transportation of slaves from Africa assures that
in the first. In other words, it is after Wheatley “Negros, black as Cain / May be refin’d and join
becomes converted to Christianity, a religion often th’angelic train” (lines 7-8).3 0
associated with the theological justification for What “On Being Brought” ultimately en-
enslavement of African peoples as well as a major codes is the system of racialization in progress.
component of American Africanism, that her With the displacement of African bodies from
views about Africa and her own Africanness their homelands and the meanings and defini-
become more empathic. She moves, then, through tions associated with their land came the transfor-
the discourse of Christianity, from a repetition of mation of Africans into “Negros.” Wheatley
American Africanism to its critique. encodes this process of racialization in the tension
“On Being Brought” presents Wheatley with created from the first four lines to the last four
a new set of issues beyond the apparent presence/ lines of this poem. If the trajectory of subjectivity,
absence of the Muses in Africa and thankfulness the “I” emerging as “Our”/“‘their,’” creates a sense
for having been spared on the Middle Passage. By of continuity between the two sections, the issue
abandoning the personalized “Father of mercy of Africans’ becoming “Negros” is more compli-
’twas thy gracious hand” in favor of the more cated.
abstract “’Twas mercy brought me,” Wheatley
opens the way to subject the “doctrine of merciful Notes
enslavement” to a more intense interrogation. To 1. See Gates, Figures in Black, and Baker, The Journey Back.
See also June Jordan and Alice Walker.
thank God for one’s physical safety is one thing;
to appear grateful for one’s captivity and enslave- 2. Margarita Matilda Odell, Memoir and Poems of Phillis
Wheatley. A Native of Africa and a Slave. Dedicated to the
ment is quite another. God and Mercy, which are
Friends of the African (Boston: George W. Light, 1834).
equated in “Cambridge,” must be read as two Wheatley died in abject poverty and near-obscurity in
separate and distinct entities or forces in “On Be- 1784 at the approximate age of thirty-one.
ing Brought.” If a Judeo-Christian conceptualiza- 3. For a comprehensive treatment of the use of Phillis
tion of God as “Saviour” retains the personal con- Wheatley’s image and poems in debates over black
nections witnessed (and witnessed to) in the inferiority, see Gates, Figures in Black.
thanksgiving prayer of “Cambridge,” “Mercy” in 4. A related “deficiency,” according to Odell, was Wheat-
Wheatley’s poetics cannot be conceived of apart ley’s habit of “forgetting” her own poems, a problem
said “to have affected her own thoughts only, and not
from what Foucault calls the “power/knowledge the impressions made upon her mind by the thoughts
axis.”2 9 That “mercy” teaches—“Taught my be- of others, communicated by books or conversation”
nighted soul to understand”; “Once I redemption (Memoir 19).
neither sought nor knew”—foregrounds issues of 5. Patricia Hill Collins argues that “Black women have a
epistemology within a terrain of global relations self-defined standpoint on their own oppression” (32).
of power. 6. Mazrui writes, “So much of the history of the slave
experience in the Western hemisphere amounted to
Structural shifts, multiple positionings, and the following command addressed to the captives,
temporal/spatial displacements discussed above ‘Forget you are African, remember you are Black!’”
serve to underscore the passive construction of (110).
the poem’s title: “on being brought.” The signifier 7. Toni Morrison refers to displaced Africans as “the not-
“mercy” as the real subject (the agent of the pas- Americans” (48).
sive voice) emerges as a site of interrogation and 8. Wheatley’s references to herself as “Afric” and
contestation. “Mercy” as it signifies in a Western “Ethiop” can be found in the following poems: “To
Maecenas” (line 40), “To the University of Cambridge”
discourse that sanctions the commercial exploita-
(line 28), “On Recollection” (line 62), “An Hymn to
tion of black bodies as a means of saving souls Humanity” (line 31), and “To His Honour the
can only be a positive agent within the ideologi- Lieutenant-Governor on the Death of His Lady” (line
cal construction of Enlightenment rationale. The 28). Houston Baker discusses these references as “sign-
vehicles” (after Eco) and reads “the complex map-
conflation of conversion and enslavement is thus
pings” of the terms as moving “in the direction of an
posited as an ideological discourse whose signify- extended African consciousness” (The Journey Back 12).
ing power is problematized by the very terms of
9. In using the term “survivor” I mean to connect
its othering. Ironically, it is the very apparatus of Wheatley and other first-generation Africans in the
the slave trade, the transporting of black bodies Americas to such celebrated communities as Jewish
survivors of the Nazi Holocaust as well as to the vari- was on hand to oversee the publication and printing
WHEATLEY ous discourses of survivorship of individual “holo- of the volume. “Cambridge” and “On Being Brought”
causts” like rape and incest that have historically were repositioned to third and fifth, respectively, in
characterized black women’s lives. the final volume.
10. On African “survivals,” the classic debate has been 19. The subtitle “Wrote in 1767” appeared in the 1772
between anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits (The proposal.
Myth of the Negro Past [1924]) and sociologist E. Frank-
lin Frazier (The Negro Church in America [1964]). See 20. John Shields points out that most of the “editorial
also Karla F. C. Holloway, ed., Africanisms in American tampering” with Wheatley’s verse was done in poems
Culture (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990); published after her death in 1784. The evidence
Sobel; Mintz and Price; and Thompson. Americanist confirms that during her lifetime, Wheatley displayed
literary scholars are also beginning to apply the an astonishing amount of editorial control over her
concept of “cultural syncretism” with respect to poetry.
American and African American literature and culture. 21. Wheatley published her first poem, “On Messrs. Hus-
See Shelly Fisher Fishkin, Was Huck Black?: Mark Twain sey and Coffin,” on December 21, 1767, in the Newport
and African American Voices (New York: Oxford Univer- Mercury also at the age of fourteen.
sity Press, 1993); and Eric Sundquist, To Wake the Na-
tions: Race in the Making of American Literature 22. Here I also disagree with Russell Reising, who views
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993). Wheatley’s poetics within a dialectic of “accommoda-
tion” and “resistance.” If Wheatley’s popularity
11. Mukhtar Ali Isani, “‘An Elegy on Leaving———’: A depended on the “opacity” of her antislavery message
New Poem by Phillis Wheatley,” American Literature to New England readers, then revisions should show
58, no. 4 (December 1986): 609-13. See also Shields. an increase in the veiling of her language from earlier
12. In addition to Curtin, see Edward Reynolds, Stand the drafts to those published in Poems. Instead, Wheatley
Storm: A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade (Chicago: actually revised poems in order to make the antislavery
Ivan R. Dee, 1985), which provides an analysis in message more clear. This is, to me, evidence that with
terms of African, European, and American life and the passing years, Wheatley became not more “domes-
culture. See also the essays in Inikori and Engerman. ticated” but more overtly abolitionist. See Reising,
“Trafficking in White” [Genre 22 (Fall 1989): 231-61].
13. In African Religions and Philosophy, John S. Mbiti writes
of the interconnectedness of African ontology as 23. The final version of these lines reads: “While an
comprising God, Spirits, Man, Animals, and Plants, intrinsic ardor prompts to write, / The muses promise
and “[p]henomena and objects without biological life” to assist my pen.”
(15-16). Moreover, he writes that Africans are particu- 24. The conceptualization of slavery as “sin” would have
larly tied to the land, as they conceive of subjectivity been available to Wheatley’s eighteenth-century audi-
within the matrix of space: “The land provides them ence. Diaries of slave traders making this connection
with the roots of existence, as well as binding them abound. See also Samuel Sewall’s The Selling of Joseph:
mystically to their departed. . . . To remove Africans A Memorial (1703), ed. Sidney Kaplan (Amherst:
by force from their land is an act of such great injustice University of Massachusetts Press, 1969), perhaps the
that no foreigner can fathom it” (26). On African earliest text specifically equating European slavery
Sacred Cosmos, see also Sobel and Hopkins. with biblical wrongdoing.
14. I discuss the correspondence between Obour Tanner
25. On African Americans’ use of the biblical account in
and Wheatley more fully in chapter 1.
Exodus, see Theophus Smith’s recent cultural history,
15. Phillip Richards argues that Wheatley “assimilates” Conjuring Culture 55-80. See also Hopkins 23-24.
Anglo-American discourse in her poetry, in “Phillis
26. See Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of
Wheatley and Literary Americanization,” [American
Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African, in
Quarterly 44 (1992): 163-91].
Gates, Classic Slave Narratives. See Reynolds, Stand the
16. The first four lines of “On Being Brought” form a versi- Storm.
fied “conversion narrative,” prefiguring black women’s
27. Ronald Bailey, “The Slave(ry) Trade and the Develop-
appropriation of a genre that will come to be domi-
ment of Captialism in the United States: The Textile
nated by Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, Rebecca Cox Jackson,
Industry in New England,” in Inikori and Engerman
Julia A. J. Foote, Amanda Berry Smith, and others, in
205-6.
the nineteenth century. The conversion narratives of
Lee, Elaw, and Foote are collected in Andrews, Sisters 28. Thomas W. Wilson and Clarence E. Grim, “The Pos-
of the Spirit. Jackson’s writings appear in Humez, Gifts sible Relationship between the Transatlantic Slave
of Power. Amanda Berry Smith’s Autobiography appears Trade and Hypertension in Blacks Today,” in Inikori
in its entirety as part of the Schomburg Library of and Engerman 339-60. Several medical historical stud-
Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers (New York: ies have been conducted in recent years to explore the
Oxford University Press, 1988). See also Houchins. possibility that black Americans’ propensity to hyper-
17. Mae Henderson, “Response to Baker,” in Baker and tension may be linked not only to diet and heredity
Redmond 160. but also possibly to the harsh physical conditions of
the Middle Passage. While I find this interesting, I do
18. The advertised proposal ran in the Boston Censor on not believe the Middle Passage constituted an “evolu-
February 29, March 14, and April 18, 1772. There were tionary gateway” that would have altered African
no local (American) publishers willing to publish a physiology to as great a degree as some researchers
book of poems by an African slave, which necessitated think. See also Kenneth F. Kiple and Brian T. Higgins,
their being published in England (August 6, 1773). “Mortality Caused by Dehydration during the Middle
Wheatley, who had sailed to London in May of 1773, Passage,” in Inikori and Engerman 321-38.
29. Foucault, Power/Knowledge. See also Henriques et al. Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy. Oxford: Hei-
WHEATLEY
nemann, 1990.
30. Russell Reising offers an extensive reading of the word
“refin’d” (line 8) in its biological, theological, and Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Liter-
cultural senses. See “Trafficking in White” 243-45. ary Imagination. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1992.
Selected Bibliography Shields, John, ed. The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley.
Andrews, William L., ed. Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black
Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. Women Writers. New York: Oxford University Press,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986. 1988.
Baker, Houston A. The Journey Back: Issues in Black Literature Smith, Cynthia. “‘To Maecenas’: Phillis Wheatley’s Invoca-
and Criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, tion of an Idealized Reader.” Black American Literature
1980. Forum 23, no. 3 (Fall 1989): 579-92.
Baker, Houston A., and Patricia Redmond, eds. Afro- Smith, Theophus H. Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations of
American Literary Study in the 1990’s. Chicago: Univer- Black America. New York: Oxford University Press,
sity of Chicago Press, 1989. 1994.
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Sobel, Mechal. Trabelin’ On: The Slave Journey to an Afro-
Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New Baptist Faith. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979.
York: Routledge, 1991. Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. San Diego:
Curtin, Philip D. The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census. Madison: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1983.
University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.
Foucault, Michel. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and
Other Writings, 1972-1977. Translated by Colin Gor- MARY MCALEER BALKUN (ESSAY
don, Leo Marshall, John Mepham, and Kate Soper. New DATE 2002)
York: Pantheon Books, 1980.
SOURCE: Balkun, Mary McAleer. “Phillis Wheatley’s
Frazier, E. Franklin. The Negro Church in America. New York: Construction of Otherness and the Rhetoric of Per-
Schocken Books, 1974. formed Ideology.” African American Review 36, no. 1
(2002): 121-35.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the
“Racial” Self. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. In the following essay, Balkun asserts that Wheatley
wrote Poems on Various Subjects, particularly the
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., ed. The Classic Slave Narratives. New poems “To the University of Cambridge” and “On Being
York: New American Library, 1987. Brought from Africa to America,” with a specific,
moralistic audience in mind.
Henriques, Julian, Wendy Hollway, Cathy Urwin, Couze
Venn, and Valerie Walkerdine. Changing the Subject: Sometime in 1772, a young African girl walked
Psychology, Social Regulation, and Subjectivity. London: demurely into a room in Boston to undergo an
Methuen, 1984. oral examination, the results of which would
determine the direction of her life and work.
Herskovits, Melville J. The Myth of the Negro Past. Boston:
Perhaps she was shocked upon entering the ap-
Beacon Press, 1990.
pointed room.
Hopkins, Dwight N. Shoes That Fit Our Feet: Sources for a
Constructive Black Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, For there, perhaps gathered in a semicircle, sat
1993. eighteen of Boston’s most notable citizens. Among
them were John Erving, a prominent Boston
Houchins, Susan, ed. Spiritual Narratives. The Schomburg merchant; the Reverend Charles Chauncy, pastor
Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers. of he Tenth Congregational Church; and John
New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Hancock, who would later gain fame for his
signature on the Declaration of Independence. At
Humez, Jean McMahon, ed. Gifts of Power: The Writings of
Rebecca Cox Jackson, Black Visionary, Shaker Eldress. Am- the center of this group was His Excellency,
herst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981. Thomas Hutchinson, governor of Massachusetts,
with Andrew Oliver, his lieutenant governor, close
Inikori, Joseph E., and Stanley L. Engerman, eds. The by his side.
Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies, Societies, and
Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. Durham: Why had this august group been assembled? Why
Duke University Press, 1992. had it seen fit to summon this young African girl,
scarcely eighteen years old, before it? This group
Jordan, June. “The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in of “the most respectable Characters in Boston,” as
America; or, Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis it would later define itself, had assembled to ques-
Wheatley.” In Wildwomen in the Whirlwind: Afra- tion closely the African adolescent on the slender
American Culture and the Contemporary Literary Renais- sheaf of poems that she claimed to have “written
sance, edited by Joanne M. Braxton and Andree Nicola
by herself.” We can only speculate on the nature
McLaughlin, 22-34. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
of the questions posed to this fledgling poet. . . .
We do know, however, that the African poet’s
Mazrui, Ali. The Africans: A Triple Heritage. Boston: Little responses were more than sufficient to prompt
Brown, 1986. the eighteen august gentlemen to compose, sign,
WHEATLEY
VIII
ABOUT THE AUTHOR That we poor sinners may obtain,
The pardon of our sin;
AN EXCERPT FROM JUPITER HAMMON’S Dear blessed Jesus now constrain,
POEM AN ADDRESS TO MISS PHILLIS And bring us flocking in.
WHEATLEY
IX
I Come you, Phillis, now aspire,
And seek the living God,
O come you pious youth! adore
So step by step thou mayst go higher,
The wisdom of thy God,
Till perfect in the word.
In bringing thee from distant shore,
To learn His holy word. X
II While thousands mov’d to distant shore,
And others left behind,
Thou mightst been left behind
The blessed Jesus still adore,
Amidst a dark abode;
Implant this in thy mind.
God’s tender mercy still combin’d,
Thou hast the holy word. XI
III Thou hast left the heathen shore;
Thro’ mercy of the Lord,
Fair wisdom’s ways are paths of peace,
Among the heathen live no more,
And they that walk therein,
Come magnify thy God.
Shall reap the joys that never cease,
And Christ shall be their king. XII
IV I pray the living God may be,
The shepherd of thy soul;
God’s tender mercy brought thee here;
His tender mercies still are free,
Tost o’er the raging main;
His mysteries to unfold.
In Christian faith thou hast a share,
Worth all the gold of Spain. XIII
V Thou, Phillis, when thou hunger hast,
Or pantest for thy God;
While thousands tossed by the sea,
Jesus Christ is thy relief,
And others settled down,
Thou hast the holy word.
God’s tender mercy set thee free,
From dangers that come down. XIV
VI The bounteous mercies of the Lord,
Are hid beyond the sky,
That thou a pattern still might be,
And holy souls that love His word,
To youth of Boston town,
Shall taste them when they die.
The blessed Jesus set thee free,
From every sinful wound.
VII
Jupiter Hammon. Excerpt from “An Address to Miss
The blessed Jesus, who came down, Phillis Wheatley.” In The Complete Works of
Unvail’d his sacred face, Jupiter Hammon of Long Island, edited by Stan-
To cleanse the soul of every wound, ley Austin Ransom Jr., pp. 49-51. Port Washing-
And give repenting grace. ton, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1970.
and publish a two-paragraph “Attestation,” an preceded the validation of Wheatley’s authorship

open letter “To the Publick” that prefaces Phillis
by eighteen prominent Bostonians, during which
Wheatley’s book. . . .
(Gates vii-viii) the poet was questioned in order to ascertain her
ability to have written the works ascribed to her.
In his forward to The Collected Works of Phil- While there may be no historical evidence to sup-
lis Wheatley, “In Her Own Write,” Henry Louis port his recreation, as Kirstin Wilcox asserts (10),
Gates, Jr., describes the scene he imagines having Gates does manage to capture some of the impor-
tant elements in Wheatley’s life as a poet in his two poems, both included in Wheatley’s only
WHEATLEY
imaginative recreation.1 In particular, the scenario book of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects,
Gates recounts indicates an awareness of Wheat- Religious and Moral, turn out to be not so much
ley’s dominant audience as well as the unique about Wheatley herself or her created persona, as
historical moment in which she wrote. has been argued, as they are about her perceived
audience.4 It was an audience familiar with par-
While Wheatley’s was clearly a bifurcated
ticular language and rhetorical devices—the
audience, there can be little doubt that the eigh-
jeremiad, the plea to the rising generation, the
teen men who signed for her represented a major
rhetoric of Revolution, to name a few—and one
constituency for her poetry, among those who
being increasingly exposed to the idea of black
read the broadsides and newspapers in which she
equality and liberation. It was also an audience
published and who had the public ear.2 She knew
used to active participation in rhetorical acts,
these men because they had visited the Wheatley
especially in their forms of worship, and this
home, because she had heard them preach, or
awareness was crucial to whatever influence
because they had established public reputations in
Wheatley might have hoped to exert. Irony,
Boston. These were also men for whom she had
doubling, internal stress patterns, and puns, all of
actually written poems, either to celebrate per-
which have been identified as elements of the
sonal accomplishment or to mourn the passing of
poet’s technique, now emerge as among the
a loved one. In addition, they were men whose
devices she enlisted. Her strategy takes the audi-
experience would not have included a Phillis
ence from a position of initial confidence and
Wheatley, and who might well have wondered
agreement, to confusion and uncertainty, to a new
whether the young author was a “serious” poet or
ideological position at the conclusion of each
a front for abolitionists. For, as previous critics
poem.
have pointed out, Wheatley’s poetry is not devoid
of racial awareness, as had long been suggested. This method of structuring a text with an eye
Antonio T. Bly asserts that Wheatley used her toward the audience as participants in the ideo-
poems not simply to “denounce the hypocrisy logical drama being enacted, what Steven Mail-
practiced by white Christians, but also [to] express loux has referred to as “the rhetoric of performed
a strong sense of black pride to her fellow slaves, ideology” (107), is fundamental for an understand-
who were often read her poetry by slave masters ing of these poems.5 Wheatley casts the audience
who thought that her writings were harmless” as critical of the prevailing ideology, expecting its
(205-06). A number of the poems can be seen as members “to perform increasingly more challeng-
direct appeals to her black counterparts to accept ing [rhetorical] tasks” (Mailloux 115). They must
the Christian God as a means of salvation, if not eventually accept a new form of authority, that of
in this world then certainly in the next. However, the black, female author, but in order to do so,
critics have yet to consider fully the possibility they must be actively engaged in the “ideological
that Wheatley might have crafted her poems to performance” the poem enacts. It is a strategy that
work specifically upon the white audience that not only suggests the kind of response Wheatley
would have constituted her main readership, aside may have been struggling to provoke in her reader
from overt pleas to accept the possibility of black but also implies a greater awareness of audience
Christians. than she has been credited with to date. Her ap-
proach is calculated to make several complemen-
A close examination of two poems in particu-
tary points: Christians who support, practice, or
lar, “To the University of Cambridge, in New-
even tolerate slavery are guilty of the basest
England” and “On Being Brought from Africa
hypocrisy; it is possible for Africans to be redeemed
to America,” suggests that they were designed to
and become Christians; and, most importantly,
manipulate this audience in very specific ways.3
the inability to accept these arguments reflects an
In effect, Wheatley’s strategy casts the audience
inherent moral failing in the reader.
into the unfolding drama of the poem: She sets
the stage, introduces the hypocritical stance that Before proceeding to an analysis of the poems,
allows so-called Christians to accept and even it is necessary to establish the parameters of the
promote slavery, and then lays the groundwork audience for whom Wheatley conceivably wrote.
for a spiritual dilemma—either join with Wheat- This is not to suggest that there was a single, uni-
ley, the black, female Christian in her critique of fied audience for these texts, but rather that we
the existing power structure or accept the very can identify at least one specific group they were
position of “other” that she and all black Ameri- intended to influence, a group that included the
cans were expected to occupy. Read this way, these eighteen men who corroborated Wheatley’s au-
thorship.6 In addition to those already named, changed by the actions of her readers” (14-15).8
WHEATLEY the signers included Samuel Cooper, Joseph Wheatley gradually learns to exploit this connec-
Green, and Mather Byles, amateur poets and, in tion to a community of readers, although not
the case of Cooper and Byles, mentors for Wheat- necessarily, as Wilcox asserts, to affect her own
ley in her literary pursuits (Shields, Collected 275). condition. Instead, her objective seems to have
John Wheatley, her master, was a signer of the at- been to alter the perceptions of her audience as a
testation as well. Additional supporters not listed preparation for future change.
but among Wheatley’s readers and professed
Wheatley, who started publishing in her teens
admirers were men like Dr. Benjamin Rush of
with the encouragement of her mistress, Susan-
Philadelphia, signer of the Declaration of Indepen-
nah Wheatley, knew from the start exactly for
dence and a member of the Continental Congress,
whom she was writing and why.9 Working from
and the Marquis de Barbe-Marbois, who served as
the two premises established thus far—that the
Secretary to the French Legation during the
signers of the attestation represent a significant
American Revolution (Robinson 24). Many of
segment of her audience, one she knew very well
these men, William H. Robinson reminds us,
as a result of personal association, correspondence,
either owned slaves or were engaged in the slave
or having heard them preach; and that her poetry
trade (24), putting them in a strategic position for
in general implies a larger audience of Boston’s
Wheatley’s rhetorical project. They were also men
elite that included these men—we can begin to
with power within the community and with
draw some conclusions about the way the rhetori-
specific connections to Wheatley herself.
cal strategies underlying certain of Wheatley’s
A number of these individuals can be identi- poems may have been intended to manipulate
fied as specific objects of Wheatley’s poetic gifts. this audience toward very specific conclusions.
She wrote elegies for Samuel Cooper and John And while it is true, as some might argue, that
Moorhead, poems upon the deaths of Andrew Ol- Poems was itself first published in England, the
iver’s wife and Thomas Hubbard’s daughter, and a primary audience was clearly a colonial one; the
poetic response to a rebus by James Bowdoin.7 All first proposal was for a Boston publication, and
five of these men signed the attestation. Wheatley many of the poems were originally published
wrote poems about other prominent citizens as there, including “To the University of Cam-
well, such as Rev. Joseph Sewall, Rev. George bridge” and “On Being Brought From Africa to
Whitefield, and Dr. Samuel Marshall, and surely it America.”1 0
would have been reasonable for her to assume that
While the specified audience for “To the
they, as well as their friends and families, would
University of Cambridge,” written in 1767, is a
constitute her readership. Robinson points out
group of Harvard students, they are merely repre-
that Wheatley “composed verses only for people
sentatives of a larger group and Wheatley’s actual
who meant much to her in a practical way”
audience: the fathers of these selfsame students,
(Robinson 29), but that might also mean those
those who held positions of power and social
who could help her bring about change.
influence.1 1 Situating the speaker of the poem as a
Although Wheatley has long been criticized concerned member of the general citizenry, she
for her inattention to public matters, especially attempts to forge a link between that speaker and
slavery and racial issues, recent scholarship has the audience through the Puritan tradition of the
demonstrated that she was indeed a socially aware experienced adult “preaching to the ‘rising
poet, writing for an audience she knew and generation’” (Richards 169). Wheatley was also
understood. Comparing Poems on Various Sub- working from within another Puritan tradition,
jects as it was eventually published in London to one that privileged the linguistic aspect of the
the original proposal for Boston publication, redemption experience, “the power of words”
Kirstin Wilcox observes that the Boston proposal (Kibbey 7). Ann Kibbey observes that, for the
clearly presents Wheatley as a local and public Puritans, “not only did speech generate conver-
poet, one involved in the life of her community. sion. The hearer’s religious experience was itself a
As Wilcox puts it, the list of poems for that linguistic event.” The Puritans expected the words
volume “reads less like a table of contents than a of the preacher “to change the hearer’s system of
log of recent significant events in Boston, particu- reference and thereby alter the hearer’s percep-
larly in the city’s mercantile and Methodist tion” (7). This appears to have been Wheatley’s
circles. . . . Wheatley not only knows the same strategy as well. Working at the level of the word,
people and has been present at the same events carefully setting up allusions and images with the
but she also has a real existence that can be ring of familiarity, the poem is structured in such
a way as to alter her audience’s system of refer- compassion of Christ toward sinners: “He hears
WHEATLEY
ence and, as a result, its perceptions. Striving to revilers, nor resents their scorn: / What matchless
gain sympathy and put the audience at ease, mercy in the Son of God!” (15-16). The implica-
Wheatley begins with a justification of her activ- tion is that, while she bears no grudge toward her
ity as a writer: “While an intrinsic ardor prompts revilers, surely Christ will not look kindly upon
to write / The muses promise to assist my pen” (1- those who fail to emulate Him in this way. Such a
2). These lines are immediately followed by an statement also begs the question: Should one then
ambiguous reference to her enslaved condition: prefer to be the reviler or the reviled, especially if
’Twas not long since I left my native shore one must eventually answer to the Son of God for
The land of errors, and Egyptian gloom: one’s choice? The refusal to publicly criticize her
Father of mercy, ’twas thy gracious hand masters or those involved in the slave trade
Brought me in safety from those dark abodes. reinforces Wheatley’s authority as a spokesperson
(3-6)
for Christianity. It is the reader, who might be
The ambiguity lies in Wheatley’s use of left, as tempted to reject the speaker on any of three
opposed to a more pointed word, to describe her grounds—as black, as woman, as slave—who is in
removal from her homeland. This semantic deci- danger of being situated in the position of “re-
sion signals Wheatley’s determination not to ap- viler.” Should this not be enough to encourage
portion guilt, at least not in an overt way, since to the development of a more Christian attitude
do so would have put the audience on the defen- toward others, however, Wheatley continues with
sive at the outset. But her choice of words also has a statement that can leave no doubt about the
the effect of undermining any assumed power true relation between black and white Christians.
others may believe they have over her and all She observes that “the whole human race by sin
slaves, a reading borne out by the next two lines: has fall’n,” and Jesus died “that they might rise
“Father of mercy, ’twas thy gracious hand / again” (17, 18), meaning, of course, all human-
Brought me in safety from those dark abodes” (5- kind, not just whites. The shift in her use of
6). According to her interpretation of these events, pronouns, from “How Jesus’ blood for your re-
Wheatley’s removal from Africa was an act of God, demption flows” to “He deigned to die that they
as was her subsequent salvation. Simultaneously, might rise again” (12, 18; my emphasis on the
she suggests that to deny this salvation is to ques- pronouns), broadens the application of her argu-
tion His will. Ultimately, since God himself was ment, as does the fact that it is “the whole human
responsible for her redemption, she must be of race” which “by sin has fall’n” (17; my emphasis).
the “elect,” and, conversely, those who do not Wheatley’s unwillingness to cast herself overtly as
concede this point can only be nonelect and one of the saved—her use of they rather than we—
therefore damned or “other.” As Paula Bennett underscores the subtlety of the mind at work in
astutely concludes, “Wheatley redeems her op- these lines and its awareness of the audience to
pression by making it the source of her religious which it is appealing. It also underscores her
response to God and by making God . . . the personal lesson of Christian humility and generos-
power that liberates her speech” (66). The result is ity.1 2
language that has been vouchsafed by God, as has
the authority of its speaker. The treatment of Africa deserves careful atten-
tion in any discussion of Wheatley’s rhetorical
Yet Wheatley’s recollection of this early event
strategies. In this case, her homeland is designated
is not devoid of criticism: The final line of the first
as “the land of errors,” thereby emphasizing a lack
stanza can also be read as a reference to the
of knowledge on the part of the inhabitants rather
dangers of the Middle Passage and the fact that
than innate sinfulness. She could well have
she did not perish along the way. The overall
expected her intended audience to make certain
rhetorical effect for which she strives is one of gra-
inferences and connections based on the descrip-
cious acceptance of God’s will, at least as concerns
tion of Africa as the land of “Egyptian gloom,”
her immediate condition. In the spirit of “errare
among them the association of black slaves with
humanum est,” Wheatley aligns herself with the
God’s chosen people, who were delivered from
Divine by forgiving those who enslaved her, with
slavery in Egypt and led into Canaan. This is an
the ironic consequence of then aligning them
association that also recalls the Puritan settlers,
against the Divine for their own involvement,
who cast themselves as the “New Israelites” and
whether active or passive, in the slave trade.
their destination as the “New Canaan.” Thus,
This is a theme she develops more explicitly while Wheatley’s image resonates with one of the
in the second stanza when she cites the great classic archetypes of American ideology, the
Puritans as God’s Chosen People, it also establishes goal is the conversion of her audience to an aware-
WHEATLEY a clear connection to this group, whose members ness of the evils being done on earth, slavery in
saw themselves as maligned and persecuted, virtu- particular, and her own authority as a Christian to
ally enslaved, for their religious convictions. It speak to these matters.
was also a group that had already become central
In this role as preacher of temporal duty,
to the very notion of what it meant to be Ameri-
Wheatley enjoins the students to turn their atten-
can.
tion back to earth, where it belongs, a goal that is
In the second stanza, Wheatley adopts the mirrored in the imagery she uses. She describes
narrative stance that informs the rest of the poem, the students first as those who “scan the heights”
that of the preacher exhorting her flock. It was and “traverse the ethereal space” (7-8), then as
during the eighteenth century that the jeremiad “sons of science” (10), and finally as “blooming
became a popular form in America, one that plants,” the last suggesting flowers turned to the
Larzer Ziff describes as striving “for a strong sun but with their roots yet in the earth. However,
psychological reaction at the very time of the it should be noted that they are “blooming plants
sermon’s being preached,” certainly a reaction of human race divine” (27; my emphasis), raising
Wheatley might have hoped for in the reader of the question of whether the race is divine or
her poems (35). In fact, this is strikingly similar to whether she is flattering this particular group of
the effect the poems’ rhetorical performance was representatives. This strategy reverses the usual
calibrated to produce. While several critics have conversion experience, where the unregenerate
already noted the parallels between Wheatley’s obey the call to turn away from worldly concerns
poem and the jeremiad, none has previously and toward heaven and God. Wheatley under-
considered the ways this might have helped the stands the desire of these “sons of science” to
poem work upon its audience. Instead, Wheat- study the heavens and “mark the systems of
ley’s use of this genre is usually discussed in terms revolving worlds” (10, 9), but it is vital that, as
of her attempt to authorize herself as writer. This future leaders of the colonies, they be concerned
is certainly one effect, but it is also clear that with the things of this earth if anything is to
Wheatley used the jeremiad to exploit the associa- change. It is her mission to make sure they
tions it would have produced in readers such as understand this duty. To this end, she threatens
those described above. them with the possible loss of what they now pos-
sess, warning them to “Improve your privileges
As Sacvan Bercovitch has pointed out, the
while they stay” (21). Her implication is that they
jeremiad as practiced in America “was a ritual
will not be among the privileged forever, whether
designed to join social criticism to spiritual
on earth or in heaven. Wheatley plays on her
renewal, public to private identity, the shifting
audience’s fears of eternal damnation and suffer-
‘signs of the times’ to certain traditional meta-
ing, as well as their awareness of the transience of
phors, themes and symbols” (xi). It was also a
all earthly things. Her vague use of the word sin,
much more optimistic form as practiced in colo-
which includes the sin of the reviler in the previ-
nial America, one that stressed conversion as op-
ous stanza, allows the audience to participate in
posed to simple obedience and relied upon the
the poem by filling in that gap with specific sins.
same sense of errand and divine destiny that the
That she follows this with another reference to
early Puritans had espoused. To use a specific
her position as an African, “An Ethiop tells you ’tis
example, in “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry
your greatest foe” (28), cannot help but suggest
God,” one of the best-known Puritan jeremiads,
the exact form of sin to which she is alluding.1 3
Jonathan Edwards uses a strategy very similar to
Wheatley’s. He addresses a group of auditors who Slavery frames the poem in a way that is
see themselves as “elect” and therefore “saved” unavoidable. But while the speaker begins the
and gradually leads them into an awareness of poem as a slave, grateful to have survived her
themselves as “requiring salvation.” Edwards’ ordeal and/or to have been saved at all, by the
audience is advised that death can come at any final lines she has metamorphosed into an
moment, that the person each is sitting next to “Ethiop,” one with experience and knowledge
may be doomed to hell (and, of course, everyone beyond that of her audience. Wheatley’s manipu-
is sitting next to someone), and that they must lation of tone, imagery, and literary form has
actively pursue redemption. Both Edwards’ ser- resulted in her speaker’s gradual “rise.” No longer
mon and Wheatley’s poem are marked by a a victim of Egyptian gloom, she now has the
measured and solemn tone, and both have conver- confidence and authority to give advice to the
sion as their ultimate goal. However, Wheatley’s sons of the elect because she has already been
redeemed. This reference also conveys a vision of rors” from which she originated. On the other
WHEATLEY
the “self” that extends beyond the label of “slave.” hand, she is a disciple, concerned not with races
It is a reference that elevates her in stature and an- but with the “human race” and the salvation of
nounces that, if she is to be “other,” it will be an all God’s children. To take one’s place in the ranks
“other” of her own choosing. of the saved, members of the audience must ac-
cept Wheatley in these dual roles, and this can
The general audience for this poem would
only happen by an understanding of and active
certainly have had concerns similar to Wheatley’s
engagement in the rhetoric of the poem.
about the future of the colonies and the need for
young men to be reminded of their duty in this A number of cultural and social developments
regard. While these readers might initially have made the later eighteenth century an opportune
rejected any opinion offered by a black slave call- time for the brand of literary activism Wheatley
ing herself a Christian, the rhetorical strategy of exhibits in “To the University of Cambridge.”
the poem leaves them but one alternative: to dis- The most important was the gradual rise of a
agree with the speaker’s contention that the climate in New England in which anti-slavery
students have a responsibility to use their time at sentiments were becoming more acceptable. In
school wisely and well and be ever vigilant against White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the
sin. To reject Wheatley’s position is to reject not Negro, 1550-1812, Winthrop Jordan describes a
only common sense but Christian doctrine as number of trends that help explain this change.
well, since she builds her case upon doctrinal He paints a picture of a society and culture in flux,
evidence: the sinful nature of man, the generous one in which a variety of forces were combining
and loving nature of Christ, and the transience of to produce a moment in which a woman of
this world. Christ is invoked throughout the poem Wheatley’s talent and race could emerge and be
as the measure of truly Christian behavior, a heard. For instance, it was in the 1760s and 1770s
measure the reader must acknowledge as well as that the idea of prejudice as a reason for the treat-
the student. The same fate awaits all who are ment of blacks was popularized, especially the fact
“saved” just as a certain fate awaits those who are of skin color as a reason for such prejudice. There
not; black or white, they will not know “Life with was a growing awareness that color/appearance
death, and glory without end” (20). The alterna- played a major role in the subjugation of blacks,
tive is only too well-known to her audience, and that in effect it was “the rock upon which slavery
Wheatley capitalizes on this fear of eternal damna- was founded” (Jordan 278-79). The very term
tion. prejudice as a way to describe the feeling of whites
with regard to blacks and Native Americans
By the final line the audience has become an
emerged in these years (Jordan 276). In addition,
active participant in the ideological drama of the
the most outspoken group in the anti-slavery
poem through a variety of rhetorical ploys, not
movement in the eighteenth century were minis-
least of which are the rather general references to
ters, so it should come as no surprise that condem-
“students” (7) and “pupils” (22) that Wheatley
nations of the institution contained an additional
plays upon. While appropriate to the audience
element: the appeal to religious sentiment, par-
within the poem, such terms also suggest the posi-
ticularly claims that slavery was a sin for which all
tion of congregation to preacher or Christian to
would eventually pay. Yet, as Jordan observes,
God. In this capacity as student/pupil in relation
“More important than this atavistic, generalized
to wiser leader, the audience has been reminded,
sense of slavery as a communal sin and of impend-
however gently, of the responsibilities that come
ing punishment was the way in which the clergy
with unearned good fortune, of the tenuous
wove the sin of slaveholding into the fabric of the
nature of existence, and of the mercy of Christ
Revolutionary crisis” (298).1 4
through whom all are redeemed. Wheatley in-
vokes two of the three “parts” of God to make her A number of studies have considered Wheat-
case: the Father of the Old Testament, who pun- ley’s relationship to the clergy. James A. Levernier
ishes and scorns, and the Son of the New Testa- points out that Wheatley “maintained an exten-
ment, who redeemed all through his own suffer- sive network of connections with several promi-
ing and death. These are related to the dual nent members of the New England clerical estab-
positions of the speaker. On the one hand, she lishment” (23), men such as George Whitefield,
conjures up images of “endless pain” and “im- Joseph Sewall (son of Samuel Sewall), John Lath-
mense perdition” (29, 30) in the traditional rop (son-in-law of the Wheatleys), Timothy Pitkin
jeremiad style, positing a group of willing sinners (a guest in the Wheatley home), Eleazer Wheelock
far different from those living in the “land of er- and Nathaniel Whitaker (founders of Dartmouth),
and Samuel Hopkins (the abolitionist), in addi- even greater level of complexity and authorial
WHEATLEY tion to the previously mentioned Samuel Cooper. control, with Wheatley manipulating her audi-
In addition to Hopkins, many of these men were ence by even more covert means. Rather than a
either “sympathetic with or outright involved in direct appeal to a specific group, one with which
the Whig crusade for the abolition of slavery in the audience is asked to identify, this short poem
New England” (Levernier 24). Levernier makes a is a meditation on being black and Christian in
strong case for an environment in which “Wheat- colonial America. As did “To the University of
ley would have been surrounded by discussions of Cambridge,” this poem begins with the senti-
personal freedom and human rights, and, predict- ment that the speaker’s removal from Africa was
ably, these subjects constituted much of the an act of “mercy,” but in this context it becomes
period’s pulpit oratory” (25). She would have seen Wheatley’s version of the “fortunate fall”; the
these ideas given respectful attention by audiences speaker’s removal to the colonies, despite the
who were used to getting their lessons in sermon circumstances, is perceived as a blessing. She does
form. With such examples before her, it would not, however, stipulate exactly whose act of mercy
have been an easy task for Wheatley—who learned it was that saved her, God’s or man’s. One result
to read and write English in sixteen months—to is that, from the outset, Wheatley allows the audi-
absorb what she needed in order to influence an ence to be positioned in the role of benefactor as
audience of her own. Besides sermonic techniques, opposed to oppressor, creating an avenue for the
she would have learned what was and was not ac- ideological reversal the poem enacts. Hers is a
ceptable as material for her prospective audience seemingly conservative statement that becomes
and how her strategies might be used to greatest highly ambiguous upon analysis, transgressive
effect. In essence, Wheatley co-opted elements of rather than compliant.1 7
several rhetorical trends—the language of equality
and revolution in particular—combined them While the use of italics for “Pagan” and “Sav-
with the rhetoric of the pulpit, and gradually ior” may have been a printer’s decision rather than
developed her rhetorical project. Wheatley’s, the words are also connected through
their position in their respective lines and through
Wheatley’s central concern in this project may
metric emphasis. (Thus, anyone hearing the poem
have been to expose and counteract the hypocriti-
read aloud would also have been aware of the
cal ideological position held by many members of
implied connection.) In lieu of an open declara-
her perceived audience; however, as others have
tion connecting the Savior of all men and the
pointed out, her situation within that culture
African American population, one which might
precluded her from an open attack on slavery.1 5
cause an adverse reaction in the yet-to-be-
Betsy Erkkila observes in “Phillis Wheatley and
persuaded, Wheatley relies on indirection and the
the Black American Revolution” that, when
principle of association. This strategy is also
Wheatley’s book was published, “there was wide-
evident in her use of the word benighted to describe
spread fear of slave revolt; Abigail Adams’s Septem-
the state of her soul (2). While it suggests the dark-
ber 1774 letter to John on the conspiracy of
ness of her African skin, it also resonates with the
Boston Negroes is only one of a number of signs
state of all those living in sin, including her audi-
that fear of slave insurrection was spreading from
ence. To be “benighted” is to be in moral or
the South to New England” (231).1 6 To engage in
spiritual darkness as a result of ignorance or lack
a critique of slavery, Wheatley needed to find a
of enlightenment, certainly a description with
strategy that made allies of her readers rather than
which many of Wheatley’s audience would have
critics. To this end, she used the genres and forms
agreed. But, in addition, the word sets up the
familiar to them—the sermon, the verse epistle,
ideological enlightenment that Wheatley hopes
and the Bible—to establish a common ground
will occur in the second stanza, when the speaker
from which to launch her attack. This is not to
turns the tables on the audience. The idea that
suggest that Wheatley expected the members of
the speaker was brought to America by some force
her intended audience suddenly to change their
beyond her power to fight it (a sentiment reiter-
positions on slavery. But it does suggest that she
ated from “To the University of Cambridge”)
was a keen observer of her culture, an evaluation
once more puts her in an authoritative position.
that has been a long time coming.
She is both in America and actively seeking
Wheatley’s cultural awareness is even more redemption because God himself has willed it.
evident in the poem “On Being Brought From Chosen by Him, the speaker is again thrust into
Africa to America,” written the year after the Har- the role of preacher, one with a mission to save
vard poem in 1768. The later poem exhibits an others. Like them (the line seems to suggest),
“Once I redemption neither sought nor knew” (4; once again she resists antagonizing her white read-
WHEATLEY
my emphasis). However, in the speaker’s case, the ers. Her refusal to assign blame, while it has often
reason for this failure was a simple lack of aware- led critics to describe her as uncritical of slavery, is
ness. In the case of her readers, such failure is an important element in Wheatley’s rhetorical
more likely the result of the erroneous belief that strategy and certainly one of the reasons her
they have been saved already. On this note, the poetry was published in the first place. Hers is an
speaker segues into the second stanza, having laid inclusionary rhetoric, reinforcing the similarities
out her (“Christian”) position and established the between the audience and the speaker of the
source of her rhetorical authority. poem, indeed all “Christians,” in an effort to
She now offers readers an opportunity to expand the parameters of that word in the minds
participate in their own salvation: of her readers. Rather than creating distinctions,
the speaker actually collapses those which the
Some view our sable race with scornful eye, “some” have worked so hard to create and main-
“Their colour is a diabolic die.”
tain, the source of their dwindling authority (at
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train. least within the precincts of the poem).
(5-8) Wheatley’s shift from first to third person in
The speaker, carefully aligning herself with the first and second stanzas is part of this ap-
those readers who will understand the subtlety of proach. Although her intended audience is not
her allusions and references, creates a space black, she still refers to “our sable race.” Her choice
wherein she and they are joined against a com- of pronoun might be a subtle allusion to owner-
mon antagonist: the “some” who “view our sable ship of black slaves by whites, but it also implies
race with scornful eye” (5). The members of this “ownership” in a more communal and spiritual
group are not only guilty of the sin of reviling sense. This phrase can be read as Wheatley’s effort
others (which Wheatley addressed in the Harvard to have her privileged white audience understand
poem) but also guilty for failing to acknowledge for just a moment what it is like to be singled out
God’s work in saving “Negroes.” The result is that as “diabolic.” When the un-Christian speak of
those who would cast black Christians as other “‘their color,’” they might just as easily be point-
have now been placed in a like position. The audi- ing to the white members of the audience who
ence must therefore make a decision: Be part of have accepted the invitation into Wheatley’s
the group that acknowledges the Christianity of circle. Her rhetoric has the effect of merging the
blacks, including the speaker of the poem, or be female with the male, the white with the black,
part of the anonymous “some” who refuse to the Christian with the Pagan. The very distinc-
acknowledge a portion of God’s creation. The tions that the “some” have created now work
word Some also introduces a more critical tone on against them. They have become, within the
the part of the speaker, as does the word Remember, parameters of the poem at least, what they once
which becomes an admonition to those who call abhorred—benighted, ignorant, lost in moral
themselves “Christians” but do not act as such. darkness, unenlightened—because they are un-
Adding insult to injury, Wheatley co-opts the able to accept the redemption of Africans. It is the
rhetoric of this group—those who say of blacks racist posing as a Christian who has become
that “‘Their colour is a diabolic die’” (6)—using diabolical.
their own words against them. Betsy Erkkila
The reversal of inside and outside, black and
describes this strategy as “a form of mimesis that
white has further significance because the unre-
mimics and mocks in the act of repeating”
deemed have also become the enslaved, although
(“Revolutionary” 206). The effect is to place the
they are slaves to sin rather than to an earthly
“some” in a degraded position, one they have cre-
master. Wheatley continues her stratagem by
ated for themselves through their un-Christian
reminding the audience of more universal truths
hypocrisy.
than those uttered by the “some.” For example,
Suddenly, the audience is given an opportu- while the word die is clearly meant to refer to skin
nity to view racism from a new perspective, and pigmentation, it also suggests the ultimate fate
to either accept or reject this new ideological posi- that awaits all people, regardless of color or race.1 8
tion. Further, because the membership of the It is no accident that what follows in the final
“some” is not specified (aside from their common lines is a warning about the rewards for the
attitude), the audience is not automatically classi- redeemed after death when they “join th’ angelic
fied as belonging with them. Nor does Wheatley train” (8). In addition, Wheatley’s language
construct this group as specifically white, so that consistently emphasizes the worth of black Chris-
tians. For instance, the use of the word sable to nor Negroes, should take salvation for granted. To
WHEATLEY describe the skin color of her race imparts a sug- the extent that the audience responds affirma-
gestion of rarity and richness that also makes af- tively to the statements and situations Wheatley
filiation with the group of which she is a part has set forth in the poem, that is the extent to
something to be desired and even sought after. which they are authorized to use the classification
The multiple meanings of the line “Remember, “Christian.” Ironically, this authorization occurs
Christians, Negroes black as Cain” (7), with its through the agency of a black female slave.
ambiguous punctuation and double entendres,
Starting deliberately from the position of the
have become a critical commonplace in analyses
“other,” Wheatley manages to alter the very terms
of the poem. It has been variously read as a direct
of otherness, creating a new space for herself as
address to Christians, Wheatley’s declaration that
both poet and African American Christian. The
both the supposed Christians in her audience and
final and highly ironic demonstration of other-
the Negroes are as “black as Cain,” and her way of
ness, of course, would be one’s failure to under-
indicating that the terms Christians and Negroes
stand the very poem that enacts this strategy.
are synonymous. In fact, all three readings oper-
Through her rhetoric of performed ideology,
ate simultaneously to support Wheatley’s argu-
Wheatley revises the implied meaning of the word
ment. Following her previous rhetorical clues, the
Christian to include African Americans. Her strat-
only ones who can accept the title of “Christian”
egy relies on images, references, and a narrative
are those who have made the decision not to be
position that would have been strikingly familiar
part of the “some” and to admit that “Negroes . . .
to her audience. The “authentic” Christian is the
/ May be refin’d and join th’ angelic train” (7-8).
one who “gets” the puns and double entendres
They must also accede to the equality of black
and ironies, the one who is able to participate fully
Christians and their own sinful nature.
in Wheatley’s rhetorical performance. In effect,
Once again, Wheatley co-opts the rhetoric of both poems serve as litmus tests for true Christian-
the other. In this instance, however, she uses the ity while purporting to affirm her redemption. For
very argument that has been used to justify the the unenlightened reader, the poems may well
existence of black slavery to argue against it: the seem to be hackneyed and pedestrian pleas for ac-
connection between Africans and Cain, the mur- ceptance; for the true Christian, they become a
derer of Abel. The line in which the reference ap- validation of one’s status as a member of the elect,
pears also conflates Christians and Negroes, mak- regardless of race.
ing the mark of Cain a reference to any who are
It is no secret that Wheatley’s poems drew a
unredeemed.1 9 Thus, in order to participate fully
variety of readers, whether the Countess of Hunt-
in the meaning of the poem, the audience must
ingdon, the plantation masters who ostensibly
reject the false authority of the “some,” an author-
read the poems aloud to their slaves for the
ity now associated with racism and hypocrisy, and
purposes of evangelization (O’Neale 145), or
accept instead the authority that the speaker
former slaves with access to her work, and that
represents, an authority based on the tenets of
hers was a bifurcated audience. However, there
Christianity. The speaker’s declared salvation and
was one specific group whose members had influ-
the righteous anger that seems barely contained
ence and power and were thus in a position to ef-
in her “reprimand” in the penultimate line are
fect social change as well as personal change for
reminiscent of the rhetoric of revivalist preachers.
Wheatley herself. It was for this audience that
In the event that what is at stake has not been poems such as “To the University of Cambridge,
made evident enough, Wheatley becomes most in New-England” and “On Being Brought from
explicit in the concluding lines. While ostensibly Africa to America” were designed. In both poems,
about the fate of those black Christians who see Wheatley manipulates language and genre in
the light and are saved, the final line in “On Be- order to appeal to this particular audience in a
ing Brought From Africa to America” is also a way it would have found familiar, while simulta-
reminder to the members of her audience about neously preserving her tenuous position as a
their own fate should they choose unwisely. It is public voice; she was writing in order to influ-
not only “Negroes” who “may” get to join “th’ ence, enlighten, and perhaps even spur to action.
angelic train” (7-8), but also those who truly It was an audience from whom she could antici-
deserve the label Christian as demonstrated by pate certain reactions, and one she had good
their behavior toward all of God’s creatures. “May reason to believe would be responsive to the
be refined” can be read either as synonymous for complex rhetorical performance these poems
‘can’ or as a warning: No one, neither Christians enact. A number of trends in the later-eighteenth
century, including revivalism and the growing with prominent North American figures” (10). All
WHEATLEY
awareness of racism, had resulted in an audience references in this essay are to the edition first cited
and are noted parenthetically in the text.
more accustomed to a popularized and democra-
tized relationship between speaker and audience 2. The attestation appeared in advertisements for the
1773 London edition of Poems on Various Subjects,
than previously (Heimert 119), one on which
Religious and Moral, Wheatley’s only published volume
Wheatley capitalized. of poetry, and as part of the front matter in all edi-
tions after the first.
While two poems cannot be considered repre-
sentative of an entire body of work, they suggest a 3. In “‘The Tongues of the Learned are Insufficient’: Phil-
complexity of thought and racial awareness that lis Wheatley, Publishing Objectives, and Personal
Liberty,” Christopher D. Felker notes that Wheatley’s
Wheatley exhibited more frequently and overtly book was originally marketed “as literature for
over time, especially after she was given her ‘extensive’ reading and sold principally in the urban
freedom. In some ways these poems are more typi- port cities (most notably Boston)” and “intended for a
fashion-minded clientele prepared to buy the book on
cal than otherwise. Poems such as “To the Univer-
impulse” (159). Wheatley was clearly writing for a
sity of Cambridge, in New-England” and “On complex audience—her poetry was also known to fel-
Being Brought from Africa to America” provide low African Americans, such as the poet Jupiter Ham-
early evidence of a woman not only aware of her mon and her lifelong friend Obour Tanner—but in
this paper I am primarily interested in how the poems
race but also increasingly adept at manipulating may have been intended to sway a segment of that
the system that enslaved her because of it. As the audience with the power to end slavery.
years passed, Wheatley became even more outspo-
4. Wheatley’s poetic accomplishment has become more
ken about the evils of slavery (Gilmore 605). For clearly understood and better appreciated in the last
example, she added her most open condemnation fifteen years due in large part to criticism that has
of slavery, “To the Right Honourable William, focused on the structure and imagery of the poems as
Earl of Dartmouth,” to the London edition of opposed to their biographical elements. The most
promising analyses have focused either on her rhetori-
Poems. In addition, her frequently quoted letter cal strategies or the cultural work her poetry may have
to the Rev. Samson Occom, written and published performed in Revolutionary America. See O’Neale, Re-
in 1774 after her manumission, contains a strong, ising, Richards, and Grimsted. Each treats the poems
as complex rhetorical constructions that engage in
albeit diplomatic, denunciation of slavery.2 0
what O’Neale refers to as Wheatley’s “subtle war”
Although this discussion focuses on just two against slavery.
poems in Wheatley’s œuvre, a number of other 5. While Mailloux’s discussion focuses on Adventures of
poems would bear analysis that focuses on this Huckleberry Finn, a text separated from Wheatley’s
poet’s rhetorical techniques and awareness of poems by time, gender, and geography, among other
things, the basic tenets of his theory are, I believe, still
audience. The Dartmouth poem, “On Atheism,” applicable.
and “An Address to the Deist” are three that sug-
6. As Brian Richardson has observed, there are always a
gest themselves as apt texts for such a reading. As number of audiences represented by any given text:
Hilene Flanzbaum and others have argued, despite those being addressed, those being excluded or
the advances made to date, much still needs to be ignored, and those under attack (46). My argument
said about the language of Wheatley’s poetic focuses specifically on the audience being addressed
by Wheatley.
compositions. This type of analysis, which ac-
knowledges her craftsmanship and complex racial 7. According to John C. Shields, “Both Mason and Rob-
consciousness, seems like the next logical step in inson suggest that ‘I. B.’ is James Bowdoin, founder of
Bowdoin College, governor of Massachusetts, founder
Wheatley scholarship. The results can only be a of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a
deeper and more critical appreciation of this signer of the attestation authenticating Wheatley’s
founding mother of African American literature. authorship of her 1773 Poems” (Collected 296).
8. Wilcox cites the statement near the end of the Boston

call for subscribers (for which she credits Susannah
Notes Wheatley) which suggests that the publication of the
1. Wilcox points out that there is no factual basis for the poems might lead to Wheatley’s freedom: “‘It is hoped
scene Gates imagines: “No one knows exactly how Encouragement will be given to this Publication, as a
these signees came by their knowledge of Wheatley reward to a very uncommon Genius, at present a slave’”
and her poetry. There is no evidence for the (15; my emphasis).
courtroom-like scene of judgement that Henry Louis
Gates Jr. and Karla Holloway imagine. William H. Rob- 9. A number of recent studies, in addition to those
inson envisions a more likely scenario: a series of already mentioned, have examined Wheatley’s “sense
drawing room performances before Susannah Wheat- of an intensely public poetic vocation” (Richards 171).
ley’s ever widening circle of influential friends, Phillip M. Richards refers to the work of Muhktar Ali
perhaps extending back before the attestation was Isani and Cynthia Smith as integral in this regard, but
deemed necessary. In either event, Wheatley’s print his own analysis also focuses on Wheatley’s attempts
persona was predicated on face-to-face encounters to legitimate herself in the eyes of her readers as a
“public poet,” in particular an “evangelical or political was Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and to a lesser
WHEATLEY poet” (174). Yet there remain those who question the degree Quakers who spoke in this fashion, and the
intentionality of the effects she produced, Wheatley’s more explicit denunciations came from men whose
artistry as opposed to her mere imitativeness. No intellectual backgrounds were not explicitly Calvinist,
previous study has considered whether Wheatley, like men like Samuel Hopkins and Benjamin Colman”
many writers, had a specific audience in mind as she (300). It should be noted that, of the eighteen signers
wrote and how that might have influenced the of Wheatley’s attestation, seven were ministers.
construction of the poems. There has also been little
examination of how the poems manifest this aware- 15. David Grimsted maintains that “Wheatley knew
ness of audience. herself and society with such clarity that she almost
automatically asserted self while causing minimal ir-
10. The very notion of a specific “reader” of a text, ritation in others” (352). See also Levernier, “Phillis,”
especially the “ideal reader” posited in the 1980s, has and Burke. Levernier describes the poet as “encoding
come under attack on a number of fronts, and for hidden messages” in her poems, a result of realizing
good reason. In an effort to distinguish between these “early in her poetic career . . . that a seemingly
terms, Stephen Railton has suggested that “we use the subservient voice was likely to be published while a
term ‘reader’ for anyone who at any time opens a book more strident political voice was likely to be sup-
and begins processing a text. ‘Audience,’ on the other pressed, if not punished” (25), while Burke argues that
hand, could be reserved to designate the specific the poet had to find ways to work for justice from
group, the contemporary reading public, to whom an within the culture which confined her.
author originally addresses the text. . . . Thus, the
16. Erkkila also argues that this fear resulted in the failure
readers of The Scarlet Letter have all come into exist-
of Wheatley’s book to receive enough subscriptions to
ence after the novel was written. The novel’s audi-
be published in Boston (“Phillis” 231).
ence, though, was there before Hawthorne sat down
to write it” (138). Railton contends that “only the 17. Levernier’s observation is useful here: “Wheatley, it
‘audience’ . . . can play a role in the creation of the should be remembered, was ‘Brought from Africa to
work itself. The reader responds to the text, but first, America’ through the triangular trade, and as she was
in the very act of literary conception, there is the fully aware, economic gain rather than concern for
response of the text to its audience; the way the text is the welfare of her soul was the real reason why Yankee
shaped by the author’s ambitions and anxieties about slave traders had abducted her, against her will, from
performing for a particular group” (138-39). The word her native Africa” (“Wheatley’s ‘On Being’” 26).
performing is also significant in terms of my argument.
18. Referring to her puns on dye and sugar cane, Lever-
11. This poem was published by Wheatley prior to its nier notes that “true Christians boycotted these
inclusion in Poems in a slightly different version. products. At the very time when Wheatley was writ-
However, as John C. Shields observes, she “made few ing, for example, the Quaker evangelist John Wool-
major alterations” in the revision (Collected 281). man refused to use dye or sugar products on the
grounds that they were obtained through ‘the labours
12. I am indebted to Angela Weisl for her observation of poor oppressed Negroes’” (“Wheatley’s ‘On Being’”
about Wheatley’s pronoun use in this instance. I am 26).
also deeply grateful for her careful readings of this
manuscript in its several incarnations. 19. Watson observes that, “according to European Chris-
tian tradition, Cain was sinful, but was not black. If
13. Sondra O’Neale discusses two possible effects of ‘Negroes’ are as ‘black as Cain,’ then they are not
Wheatley’s reference to herself as an “Ethiopian”: It ‘black’ at all, or to be more precise, they’re Semitic. To
“might compel eighteenth-century Christians to be as ‘black as Cain’ is to be part of the same family as
consider that they had enslaved the heirs of biblical Abel, descendants of Eve and Adam” (124).
patriarchs,” and it provided her “contemporary
African-American readers [with] a sense of ethnicity 20. Wheatley’s 1774 letter to the Mohegan minister Sam-
related to Israel and antiquity that Europeans could son Occom amply demonstrates her awareness of this
not have” (153-54). Also addressing this reference, paradox. She writes, as she puts it, “not for their Hurt,
Robert Daly suggests that it is intended to evoke a line but to convince them of the strange Absurdity of their
from Psalms 68:31: “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out Conduct whose Words and Actions are so diametri-
her hands unto God” (18), especially in association cally opposite. How well the Cry for Liberty, and the
with the line of the poem in which the persona “urges reverse Disposition for the Exercise of oppressive
the students of Harvard to see Christ ‘with hands out- Power over others agree,—I humbly think it does not
stretcht upon the cross’” (5). require the Penetration of a Philosopher to determine”
(176-77). Not only does the letter provide evidence of
14. Jordan elaborates upon these connections: “By the Wheatley’s race consciousness, but it contains many
time of the Revolution the concept of natural rights of the same allusions and images evident in the poems
was still suffused with religious feeling and, in its most to be discussed: the redemption of Africans as God’s
common form, with explicitly religious ideas. The work, the inherent relationship between words and
right to liberty was normally spoken of as God’s actions, and the connection between African slavery
gratuitous gift to mankind, as an endowment of the and Jewish slavery under the Egyptians.
Creator. More important, all men partook of ‘natural’
rights because, as Thomas Paine wrote in the preamble Works Cited
to Pennsylvania’s abolition law of 1780, ‘all are the
Bennett, Paula. “Phillis Wheatley’s Vocation and the
work of the Almighty Hand’” (294). Jordan also
Paradox of the ‘Afric Muse.’” PMLA 113.1 (1998): 64-
remarks on the similarity between anti-slavery writing
76.
at this time and the earlier jeremiads. The purveyors
of this reasoning tended to be “men rooted in or deriv- Bercovitch, Sacvan. The American Jeremiad. Madison: U of
ing from a specifically Puritan tradition. . . . Thus it Wisconsin P, 1978.
Bly, Antonio T. “Wheatley’s ‘To the University of Cambridge ———. “Phillis Wheatley’s Subversive Pastoral.” Eighteenth
WHEATLEY
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Burke, Helen M. “The Rhetoric and Politics of Marginality: Watson, Marsha. “A Classic Case: Phillis Wheatley and Her
The Subject of Phillis Wheatley.” Tulsa Studies in Poetry.” Early American Literature 31.2 (1996): 103-32.
Women’s Literature 10.1 (1991): 31-45.
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Erkkila, Betsy. “Phillis Wheatley and the Black American
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Ed. Frank Shuffleton. New York: Oxford UP, 1993. 225- Literature to 1900. Ed. Marcus Cunliffe. London: Sphere,
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———. “Revolutionary Women.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s

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Flanzbaum, Hilene. “Unprecedented Liberties: Re-reading
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33. importance to American literary history.
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Richards, Phillip M. “Phillis Wheatley and Literary Ameri- Examines Wheatley’s poetry as an expression of self-
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dominant culture in a slave-holding society.
Richardson, Brian. “The Other Reader’s Response: On
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Beginnings. Detroit: Broadside P, 1975.
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Shields, John C., ed. The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley. republican and religious figurations of enslavement and
New York: Oxford UP, 1988. redemption.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. “Phillis Wheatley and the Nature of Johnson, James Weldon. “Preface to Original Edition.” In
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suggests that criticism of Wheatley set the pattern for poetry.
centuries of literary criticism on African American Matson, R. Lynn. “Phillis Wheatley—Soul Sister?” PHYLON
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———. “Phillis Wheatley On Trial.” New Yorker (20 January Defends Wheatley from charges of abandoning her race
2003): 82-7. and assimilating into white society; notes the importance
of Wheatley’s discovery of Christianity to understanding
Connects the public trial Wheatley faced to prove she her writings.
was the author of her poems to the criticisms her poetry
O’Neale, Sondra. “A Slave’s Subtle War: Phillis Wheatley’s
endured from twentieth-century black literary critics.
Use of Biblical Myth and Symbol.” Early American Lit-
———. The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America’s First Black erature 21, no. 2 (fall 1986): 144-65.
Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers. New Contends that Wheatley used the tropes of Anglo-
York: Basic Civitas Books, 2003, 166 p. American culture in a new and subversive way to define
an abolitionist moral stance.
Explores Wheatley’s role in the development of the black
literary tradition. Robinson, William H. Phillis Wheatley in the Black American
Beginnings. Detroit: Broadside Press, 1975, 95 p.
Grimstead, David. “Anglo-American Racism and Phillis
Attempts a modern reassessment of Wheatley’s life and
Wheatley’s ‘Sable Veil,’ ‘Length’ned Chain,’ and ‘Knit- works; examines the themes of race, politics, and religion
ted Heart.’” In Women in the Age of the American Revolu- in her poetry.
tion, edited by Ronald Hoffman and Peter J. Albert, pp.
338-445. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia,
1989. OTHER SOURCES FROM GALE:
Disputes characterizations of Wheatley as lacking in self- Additional coverage of Wheatley’s life and career is con-
and race-consciousness. tained in the following sources published by the Gale
Group: African-American Writers, Eds. 1, 2; Black Literature
Hull, Gloria T. “Afro-American Women Poets: A Bio-Critical Criticism, Ed. 3; Concise Dictionary of American Literary
Survey.” In Shakespeare’s Sisters: Feminist Essays on Biography, 1640-1865; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols.
Women Poets, edited by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan 31, 50; DISCovering Authors; DISCovering Authors: Canadian
Gubar, pp. 165-82. Bloomington: Indiana University Edition; DISCovering Authors Modules: Most-studied Authors,
Press, 1979. Multicultural Authors, and Poets; DISCovering Authors 3.0;
Exploring Poetry; Literature Criticism from 1400-1800, Vols. 3,
Suggests that sexism may have influenced critical assess- 50; Literature Resource Center; Poetry Criticism, Vol. 3; Poetry
ments of Wheatley’s poetry and argues that Wheatley for Students, Vol. 13; Reference Guide to American Literature,
was more self-aware than other critics have allowed. Ed. 4; and World Literature Criticism.
MARY
WOLLSTONECRAFT
(1759 - 1797)
English essayist and novelist. ing in order to pursue farming. The Wollstonecraft
family relocated frequently during Mary’s child-
hood, living at various times in London, York-
shire, and Wales, but nowhere did Edward John
W ollstonecraft has been labelled by several

scholars as one of the founders of modern
feminism. Resembling other progressive figures of
Wollstonecraft succeed in his chosen career. The
domestic life of the Wollstonecrafts progressively
worsened as Mary’s father succumbed to alcohol-
the eighteenth-century Enlightenment era, Woll- ism. Wollstonecraft was frequently a witness to
stonecraft supported both political and social her father’s physical abuse of her mother, who
freedom in her polemic prose, calling for greater meekly suffered her husband’s violence. Woll-
social justice and individual autonomy. She ad- stonecraft also failed to receive emotional support
ditionally emphasized the natural rights and from her mother, who openly preferred and
reason of men and women as the foundation of indulged Mary’s brother, Edward. Resolved to
personal liberty. An accomplished essayist and become independent, Wollstonecraft left home
novelist, Wollstonecraft was influenced by such against her parents’ wishes in 1778 to accept the
Enlightenment figures as Thomas Paine and Jean-
position of paid companion to a widow in Bath.
Jacques Rousseau, but unlike most thinkers of the
She was obliged to return to her family in London
period, she extended the radical doctrine of the
two years later to care for her dying mother, but
rights of man to include the rights of women. In
upon the latter’s death, she immediately left
support of Wollstonecraft’s own claim that she
again, this time living with the family of her close
was “the first of a new genus” of female advocates,
friend Frances (“Fanny”) Blood. Wollstonecraft
many academics now consider her controversial
remained with Fanny Blood and her parents for
manifesto A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
several years, contributing with her needlework to
(1792) the first modern feminist tract.
the family’s meager income. In 1783 Woll-
stonecraft’s sister Eliza suffered a mental break-
down following the birth of a daughter. Believing
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION that her brother-in-law was the cause of his wife’s
Born in London on April 27, 1759, Woll- distress, Wollstonecraft arranged to remove Eliza
stonecraft was the daughter of a would-be gentle- from his house and later obtained a legal separa-
man farmer and his wife—her father having tion. Having undertaken responsibility for her
abandoned the prosperous family trade of weav- sister, and faced with the necessity of earning a
living, Wollstonecraft opened a school at Newing- They became lovers and, the following year, Woll-
WOLLSTONECRAFT ton Green, near London, with Fanny Blood, Eliza, stonecraft’s daughter Fanny was born. Imlay soon
and her other sister, Everina. The enterprise was a lost interest in Wollstonecraft, but as he was un-
success, but the partnership dissolved in 1785 able or unwilling to admit this, the dissolution of
when Blood married a longtime suitor and trav- their affair was both painful and protracted. Fol-
eled with him to Portugal. Some months later, lowing a brief reunion in London in 1795, Woll-
Wollstonecraft also journeyed to Portugal in order stonecraft became so despondent upon learning
to visit her pregnant and ailing friend but arrived of Imlay’s involvement with another woman that
only to witness Fanny’s death in childbirth. Upon she attempted suicide. Little is known of the
her return to England, Wollstonecraft was forced circumstances of the attempt—it is thought that
to close the school due to financial difficulties. she took laudanum—but Imlay prevented its suc-
Soon afterward she wrote her first essay, Thoughts cess and persuaded Wollstonecraft to undertake
on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on business of his in Scandinavia. Wollstonecraft ac-
Female Conduct, in the More Important Duties of Life cordingly embarked with Fanny and her nurse for
(1787), and made the acquaintance of the liberal- an extended tour of Scandinavia, which resulted
minded publisher Joseph Johnson, who agreed to in her Letters Written during a Short Residence in
issue it. However, conscious of a pressing need for Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796). When she
money, Wollstonecraft left England for Ireland, returned to England, Wollstonecraft again de-
where she took a post as a governess to Lord spaired of a reunion with Imlay and attempted
Kingsborough’s children. During her employment suicide a second time: she jumped off a bridge
into the River Thames but was rescued by passing
in Ireland, she wrote her first novel Mary, A Fiction
boatmen. Wollstonecraft recovered and eventu-
(1788). In 1787 Wollstonecraft was dismissed from
ally resumed writing, contributing material to the
her duties by Lady Kingsborough and subse-
Analytical Review. She also renewed her acquain-
quently settled in London, determined to support
tance with William Godwin, now famous as the
herself by writing. Johnson became her mentor in
author of An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of
this new venture, introducing her to London’s
Political Justice, and Its Influence on General Virtue
literary and political worlds and charging her to
and Happiness (1793), an essay much acclaimed in
undertake translations and reviews for the Analyti-
radical circles. Godwin and Wollstonecraft eventu-
cal Review, a politically liberal periodical that he
ally became lovers and, after Wollstonecraft
and Thomas Carlisle had recently founded.
became pregnant, they married. The couple did,
With the publication of her A Vindication of however, maintain separate residences as a means
the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable of retaining independence and keeping their
Edmund Burke in 1790 and A Vindication of the relationship fresh. Within days of giving birth to a
Rights of Woman in 1792, Wollstonecraft fully daughter, Mary (the future Mary Shelley), Woll-
established herself as an equal in a circle of radical stonecraft died of postpartum complications on
thinkers that included Thomas Paine, William September 10, 1797.
Blake, William Godwin, and the painter Henry
Fuseli. Wollstonecraft fell in love with Fuseli, but
the feeling was not reciprocated. When her pro-
posal to join the Fuseli household was firmly MAJOR WORKS
rejected by the artist’s wife, Wollstonecraft jour- The tenor of Wollstonecraft’s prose is inti-
neyed alone to Paris to recover from her disap- mately related to the time in which she lived, dur-
pointment. Paris in 1792 was in the midst of the ing which reason, empiricism, and individualism
chaotic violence of the French Revolution, and were beginning to supersede the long-established
while Wollstonecraft, like other liberal English reliance on faith, prescription, and authority. Such
intellectuals, wholeheartedly supported the revo- Enlightenment ideals are integral to Woll-
lution, she was nonetheless appalled and to some stonecraft’s work and form the basis of her argu-
degree endangered by the excess of the Reign of ment in her most famous and controversial essay,
Terror. Her thoughts and the conclusions she drew A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. A Vindication
during this time are recorded in her An Historical is considered an important milestone in the
and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the development of modern thought and of modern
French Revolution; and the Effect It Has Produced in feminism. In the essay, Wollstonecraft contends
Europe (1794). In Paris Wollstonecraft met Gilbert that the great majority of women are intellectu-
Imlay, an American author and businessman. ally and ethically inferior to men not because of a
lack of native ability or potential but rather due to CRITICAL RECEPTION
WOLLSTONECRAFT
inferior education and insidious social condition- Initial response to Wollstonecraft’s work
ing. Wollstonecraft argues that women are as focused on her political and social ideas and was
rational and independent as men and as such are predictably polarized. Her immediate circle of
entitled to the same rights and responsibilities. A peers was one of like-minded progressive intel-
Vindication combines Wollstonecraft’s pragmatic lectuals who admired her candor and boldness as
suggestions for ameliorating the status of women a champion of human rights. Conservative critics
with elements of theoretical social philosophy. were especially disapproving of her feminism and
Many of the practical aspects of A Vindication of her audacity as a publishing woman author:
the Rights of Woman are an expansion of the ideas Horace Walpole famously called her a “hyena in
expressed in Wollstonecraft’s earlier Thoughts on petticoats.” Like several other women who dared
the Education of Daughters. Thoughts promotes to publish in a male-dominated world, criticism
educational theories similar to the system proof Wollstonecraft’s work was colored by charges of
posed in Rousseau’s Émile, but Wollstonecraft’s promiscuity and depravity—charges that were fu-
text envisions an academic utopia that is also eled by Wollstonecraft’s notorious difficult person-
coeducational. The philosophical perspective of A ality and her unusual romantic arrangements. By
Vindication of the Rights of Woman is prefigured in the end of the nineteenth century, however, Woll-
A Vindication of the Rights of Men, which was Woll- stonecraft was inarguably on the winning side of
stonecraft’s response to Edmund Burke’s Reflec- the Enlightenment war of ideas, and her position
tions on the Revolution in France, on the Proceedings on natural rights eventually reflected political real-
of Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. ity, though her popularity waxed and waned
Burke denounced the tactics of the French Revolu- along with the fluctuations of feminism in society.
tion and warned England against similar demo- Studies of Wollstonecraft from the early twentieth
cratic schemes, a position Wollstonecraft consid- century, such as G. R. Stirling Taylor’s Mary Woll-
ered unacceptable to human liberty and stonecraft: A Study in Economics and Romance,
demeaning to the human spirit. A Vindication of celebrated her ideas and vision as the movement
the Rights of Men highlights how Wollstonecraft’s for women’s suffrage gained power. A few decades
opposition to the oppression of women is further later, critics were more likely to emphasize Woll-
demonstrated in her attacks against class and stonecraft’s character failings and minimize her
economic barriers. A Vindication of the Rights of contribution to political thought; in fact, Woll-
Men additionally shows how the author’s femi- stonecraft’s personal life has never ceased to be a
nism coexists with her broader advocacy for the central issue in Wollstonecraft scholarship, even
worth of the individual and the natural right of in the twenty-first century. Accordingly, she has
humanity to govern itself. Wollstonecraft’s other inspired an unusual number of biographies, many
work on the French Revolution, the Historical and of which have been openly critical of her volatile
Moral View, mixes the author’s personal observa- nature and complicated personal relationships.
tions of the Revolution’s events with a philosophi- Among these are two works written as the modern
cal and political treatise on natural rights and the feminist movement peaked—Eleanor Flexner’s
consequences of violating those rights. Though Mary Wollstonecraft: A Biography and Claire Toma-
Wollstonecraft’s major feminist writings are lin’s The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft.
contained in her essays, her fiction presents an Some scholars, however, have sought to reexamine
equally passionate and notably more personal Wollstonecraft’s extremes of temperament to
argument for the rights and education of women. provide a better understanding of her work. A
Mary, A Fiction and Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman feminist interpretation of “sensibility”—an
(1799) both focus on a young heroine trapped by eighteenth-century term that could be expressed
both an unhappy marriage with an unfeeling in modern times as a strong sensitivity, both
husband and restrictive social mores. The novels physical and emotional—contends that Woll-
are largely autobiographical, particularly Mary, stonecraft’s language of feeling is a feminine mode
which details the misery of the young heroine’s of expression that is often devalued by men but
childhood and the fervor of her attachment to a remains empowering and inspirational to women.
friend who dies young. The melodramatic tone of Cora Kaplan, Mitzi Meyers, Claudia L. Johnson,
her fiction is in keeping with her reportedly and Julie Ellison are among those critics who have
tempestuous personality as well as the notoriously attempted to revise traditional readings of senti-
dark style of English Romanticism. ment in Wollstonecraft’s work, transforming what
was once seen as feminine weakness into a An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and
WOLLSTONECRAFT staunch battle against oppression. Even Woll- Progress of the French Revolution; and the Effect It
stonecraft’s novels, which were long dismissed as Has Produced in Europe (essays) 1794
excessively sentimental and mediocre in style, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden,
have begun to appear in this light as extensions of Norway, and Denmark (letters) 1796
her theoretical essays. Although Wollstonecraft’s
*Posthumous Works of the Author of the Vindication
general premises of the rights of women no longer
of the Rights of Woman. 4 vols. (essays, letters,
generate controversy, many feminists suggest that
and prose) 1798
her writings continue to be influential. Recent
models for literary analysis have generated new Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman: A Posthumous
appreciation for the lessons Wollstonecraft has to Fragment (unfinished novel) 1799
teach men and women of the twenty-first century. Godwin and Mary: Letters of William Godwin and
In particular, Wollstonecraft’s treatment of moth- Mary Wollstonecraft (letters) 1966
erhood as an aspect of women’s identity has at-
A Wollstonecraft Anthology (essays, letters, and
tracted the attention of writers seeking to expand prose) 1977
the possibilities of feminine and feminist identity,
including Shawn Lisa Maurer, Miriam Brody, The Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft (letters)
Angela Keane, and Cora Kaplan. Keane and Ka- 1979
plan have each suggested that Wollstonecraft’s The Collected Works of Mary Wollstonecraft. 7 vols.
inclusion of women’s physical nature—and not (essays, letters, and prose) 1989
just mental capacity—as part of their subjectivity
maintains transformative potential for modern * Includes Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman: a Posthumous
feminist political thought. Virginia Woolf once Fragment.
claimed of Wollstonecraft’s Vindications that they
“are so true that they now seem to contain noth-
ing new in them—their originality has become
our commonplace.” A number of academics mir- PRIMARY SOURCES
ror Woolf’s remarks, and assert that Woll-
stonecraft’s radical critique of the position of MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (ESSAY
women in society continues to offer challenges DATE 1787)
and inspiration to modern feminist theorists. SOURCE: Wollstonecraft, Mary. “Unfortunate Situa-
tion of Females, Fashionably Educated, and Left
Without a Fortune.” In Works of Mary Wollstonecraft.
Vol. 4, edited by Janet Todd and Marilyn Butler, pp.
25-7. New York: New York University Press, 1989.
PRINCIPAL WORKS In the following essay, from her 1787 publication
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, Woll-
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflec- stonecraft discusses the plight of single women without
tions on Female Conduct, in the More Important an independent fortune. Too many young women, Woll-
stonecraft argues, receive only a token education and are
Duties of Life (essay) 1787 therefore left unable to provide for themselves.
Mary, A Fiction (novel) 1788
I have hitherto only spoken of those females,
Original Stories from Real Life; with Conversations,
who will have a provision made for them by their
Calculated to Regulate the Affections, and Form
parents. But many who have been well, or at least
the Mind to Truth and Goodness (juvenilia) 1788
fashionably educated, are left without a fortune,
The Female Reader; or, Miscellaneous-Pieces, in Prose and if they are not entirely devoid of delicacy,
and Verse, Selected from the Best Writers, and they must frequently remain single.
Few are the modes of earning a subsistence,
ment of Young Women [editor] (poetry and
and those very humiliating. Perhaps to be an
essays) 1789
humble companion to some rich old cousin, or
A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the what is still/worse, to live with strangers, who are
Right Honourable Edmund Burke; Occasioned by so intolerably tyrannical, that none of their own
His Reflections on the Revolution in France (essay) relations can bear to live with them, though they
1790 should even expect a fortune in reversion. It is
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures impossible to enumerate the many hours of
on Political and Moral Subjects (essay) 1792 anguish such a person must spend. Above the
servants, yet considered by them as a spy, and ever the misfortunes; on the contrary, they are thank-
WOLLSTONECRAFT
reminded of her inferiority when in conversation fully ranked amongst the choicest blessings of life,
with the superiors. If she cannot condescend to when we are not under their immediate pressure.
mean flattery, she has not a chance of being a
How earnestly does a mind full of sensibility
favorite; and should any of the visitors take notice
look for disinterested friendship, / and long to
of her, and she for a moment forget her subordi-
meet with good unalloyed. When fortune smiles
nate state, she is sure to be reminded of it./
they hug the dear delusion; but dream not that it
Painfully sensible of unkindness, she is alive is one. The painted cloud disappears suddenly, the
to every thing, and many sarcasms reach her, scene is changed, and what an aching void is left
which were perhaps directed another way. She is in the heart! a void which only religion can fill
alone, shut out from equality and confidence, and up—and how few seek this internal comfort!
the concealed anxiety impairs her constitution;
for she must wear a cheerful face, or be dismissed. A woman, who has beauty without sentiment,
The being dependant on the caprice of a fellow- is in great danger of being seduced; and if she has
creature, though certainly very necessary in this any, cannot guard herself from painful mortifica-
state of discipline, is yet a very bitter corrective, tions. It is very disagreeable to keep up a continual
which we would fain shrink from. reserve with men she has been formerly familiar
with; yet / if she places confidence, it is ten to one
A teacher at a school is only a kind of upper but she is deceived. Few men seriously think of
servant, who has more work than the menial marrying an inferior; and if they have honor
ones./ enough not to take advantage of the artless
A governess to young ladies is equally disagree- tenderness of a woman who loves, and thinks not
able. It is ten to one if they meet with a reason- of the difference of rank, they do not undeceive
able mother; and if she is not so, she will be her until she has anticipated happiness, which,
continually finding fault to prove she is not contrasted with her dependant situation, appears
ignorant, and be displeased if her pupils do not delightful. The disappointment is severe; and the
improve, but angry if the proper methods are heart receives a wound which does not easily
taken to make them do so. The children treat admit of a compleat cure, as the good that is
them with disrespect, and often with insolence. missed is not valued according to its real worth:
In the mean time life glides away, and the spirits for fancy drew the picture, and grief delights to
with it; ‘and when youth and genial years are create food to feed on./
flown,’ they have nothing to subsist on; or, If what I have written should be read by
perhaps, on some extraordinary occasion, some parents, who are now going on in thoughtless
small allowance may be made for them, which is extravagance, and anxious only that their daugh-
thought a great charity./ ters may be genteelly educated, let them consider to
The few trades which are left, are now gradu- what sorrows they expose them; for I have not
ally falling into the hands of the men, and cer- over-coloured the picture.
tainly they are not very respectable.
Though I warn parents to guard against leav-
It is hard for a person who has a relish for ing their daughters to encounter so much misery;
polished society, to herd with the vulgar, or to yet if a young woman falls into it, she ought not
condescend to mix with her former equals when to be discontented. Good must ultimately arise
she is considered in a different light. What unwel- from every thing, to those who look beyond this
come heart-breaking knowledge is then poured in infancy of their being; and here the comfort of a
on her! I mean a view of the selfishness and good conscience is our only stable support. The
depravity of the world; for every other acquire- main business of our lives is to / learn to be virtu-
ment is a source of pleasure, though they may oc- ous; and He who is training us up for immortal
casion temporary inconveniences. How cutting is bliss, knows best what trials will contribute to
the contempt / she meets with!—A young mind make us so; and our resignation and improvement
looks round for love and friendship; but love and will render us respectable to ourselves, and to that
friendship fly from poverty: expect them not if Being, whose approbation is of more value than
you are poor! The mind must then sink into life itself. It is true, tribulation produces anguish,
meanness, and accommodate itself to its new and we would fain avoid the bitter cup, though
state, or dare to be unhappy. Yet I think no reflect- convinced its effects would be the most salutary.
ing person would give up the experience and The Almighty is then the kind parent, who chas-
improvement they have gained, to have avoided tens and educates, and indulges us not when it
would tend to our hurt. He is compassion itself, false refinement; that the books of instruction,
WOLLSTONECRAFT and never wounds but to heal, when the ends of written by men of genius, have had the same
correction are answered. tendency as more frivolous productions; and that,
in the true style of Mahometanism, they are
treated as a kind of subordinate beings, and not as
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (ESSAY a part of the human species, when improveable
DATE 1792) reason is allowed to be the dignified distinction
SOURCE: Wollstonecraft, Mary. Introduction to A which raises men above the brute creation, and
Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 1792. Reprint, pp. puts a natural sceptre in a feeble hand.
6-10. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1996.
Yet, because I am a woman, I would not lead
In the following introduction to the 1792 edition, Woll-
my readers to suppose that I mean violently to
stonecraft delineates the purpose of her Vindication of
the Rights of Woman. agitate the contested question respecting the
equality or inferiority of the sex; but as the subject
After Considering the historic page, and view- lies in my way, and I cannot pass it over without
ing the living world with anxious solicitude, the subjecting the main tendency of my reasoning to
most melancholy emotions of sorrowful indigna- misconstruction, I shall stop a moment to deliver,
tion have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed in a few words, my opinion.—In the government
when obliged to confess, that either nature has of the physical world it is observable that the
made a great difference between man and man, or female in point of strength is, in general, inferior
that the civilization which has hitherto taken to the male. This is the law of nature; and it does
place in the world has been very partial. I have not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favour
turned over various books written on the subject of woman. A degree of physical superiority can-
of education, and patiently observed the conduct not, therefore, be denied—and it is a noble pre-
of parents and the management of schools; but rogative! But not content with this natural pre-
what has been the result?—a profound conviction eminence, men endeavour to sink us still lower,
that the neglected education of my fellow- merely to render us alluring objects for a moment;
creatures is the grand source of the misery I and women, intoxicated by the adoration which
deplore; and that women, in particular, are ren- men, under the influence of their senses, pay
dered weak and wretched by a variety of concur- them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in
ring causes, originating from one hasty conclu- their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow
sion. The conduct and manners of women, in fact, creatures who find amusement in their society.
evidently prove that their minds are not in a
I am aware of an obvious inference:—from
healthy state; for, like the flowers which are
every quarter have I heard exclamations against
planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness
masculine women; but where are they to be
are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves,
found? If by this appellation men mean to inveigh
after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disre-
against their ardour in hunting, shooting, and
garded on the stalk, long before the season when
gaming, I shall most cordially join in the cry; but
they ought to have arrived at maturity.—One
if it be against the imitation of manly virtues, or,
cause of this barren blooming I attribute to a false
more properly speaking, the attainment of those
system of education, gathered from the books
talents and virtues, the exercise of which ennobles
written on this subject by men who, considering
the human character, and which raise females in
females rather as women than human creatures,
the scale of animal being, when they are compre-
have been more anxious to make them alluring
hensively termed mankind;—all those who view
mistresses than affectionate wives and rational
them with a philosophic eye must, I should think,
mothers; and the understanding of the sex has
wish with me, that they may every day grow more
been so bubbled by this specious homage, that
and more masculine.
the civilized women of the present century, with a
few exceptions, are only anxious to inspire love, This discussion naturally divides the subject. I
when they ought to cherish a nobler ambition, shall first consider women in the grand light of
and by their abilities and virtues exact respect. human creatures, who, in common with men, are
placed on this earth to unfold their faculties; and
In a treatise, therefore, on female rights and
afterwards I shall more particularly point out their
manners, the works which have been particularly
peculiar designation.
written for their improvement must not be over-
looked; especially when it is asserted, in direct I wish also to steer clear of an error which
terms, that the minds of women are enfeebled by many respectable writers have fallen into; for the
instruction which has hitherto been addressed to This is a rough sketch of my plan; and should
WOLLSTONECRAFT
women, has rather been applicable to ladies, if the I express my conviction with the energetic emo-
little indirect advice, that is scattered through tions that I feel whenever I think of the subject,
Sandford and Merton, be excepted; but, address- the dictates of experience and reflection will be
ing my sex in a firmer tone, I pay particular atten- felt by some of my readers. Animated by this
tion to those in the middle class, because they ap- important object, I shall disdain to cull my phrases
pear to be in the most natural state. Perhaps the or polish my style;—I aim at being useful, and
seeds of false refinement, immorality, and vanity, sincerity will render me unaffected; for, wishing
have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial rather to persuade by the force of my arguments,
beings, raised above the common wants and af- than dazzle by the elegance of my language, I shall
fections of their race, in a premature unnatural not waste my time in rounding periods, or in
manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, fabricating the turgid bombast of artificial feel-
and spread corruption through the whole mass of ings, which, coming from the head, never reach
society! As a class of mankind they have the the heart.—I shall be employed about things, not
strongest claim to pity; the education of the rich words!—and, anxious to render my sex more
tends to render them vain and helpless, and the respectable members of society, I shall try to avoid
unfolding mind is not strengthened by the prac- that flowery diction which has slided from essays
tice of those duties which dignify the human into novels, and from novels into familiar letters
character.—They only live to amuse themselves, and conversation.
and by the same law which in nature invariably These pretty superlatives, dropping glibly from
produces certain effects, they soon only afford bar- the tongue, vitiate the taste, and create a kind of
ren amusement. sickly delicacy that turns away from simple
But as I purpose taking a separate view of the unadorned truth; and a deluge of false sentiments
different ranks of society, and of the moral charac- and overstretched feelings, stifling the natural
ter of women, in each, this hint is, for the present, emotions of the heart, render the domestic plea-
sufficient; and I have only alluded to the subject, sures inspid, that ought to sweeten the exercise of
because it appears to me to be the very essence of those severe duties, which educate a rational and
an introduction to give a cursory account of the immortal being for a nobler field of action.
contents of the work it introduces. The education of women has, of late, been
My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat more attended to than formerly; yet they are still
them like rational creatures, instead of flattering reckoned a frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied
their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if by the writers who endeavour by satire or instruc-
they were in a state of perpetual childhood, un- tion to improve them. It is acknowledged that
able to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out they spend many of the first years of their lives in
in what true dignity and human happiness con- acquiring a smattering of accomplishments;
sists—I wish to persuade women to endeavour to meanwhile strength of body and mind are sacri-
acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to ficed to libertine notions of beauty, to the desire
convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of establishing themselves,—the only way women
of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of can rise in the world,—by marriage. And this
taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of desire making mere animals of them, when they
weakness, and that those beings who are only the marry they act as such children may be expected
objects of pity and that kind of love, which has to act:—they dress; they paint, and nickname
been termed its sister, will soon become objects of God’s creatures.—Surely these weak beings are
contempt. only fit for a seraglio!—Can they be expected to
Dismissing then those pretty feminine govern a family with judgment, or take care of
phrases, which the men condescendingly use to the poor babes whom they bring into the world?
soften our slavish dependence, and despising that If then it can be fairly deduced from the
weak elegancy of mind, exquisite sensibility, and present conduct of the sex, from the prevalent
sweet docility of manners, supposed to be the fondness for pleasure which takes place of ambi-
sexual characteristics of the weaker vessel, I wish tion and those nobler passions that open and
to shew that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the enlarge the soul; that the instruction which
first object of laudable ambition is to obtain a women have hitherto received has only tended,
character as a human being, regardless of the with the constitution of civil society, to render
distinction of sex; and that secondary views them insignificant objects of desire—mere propa-
should be brought to this simple touchstone. gators of fools!—if it can be proved that in aiming
Women are, in fact, so much degraded by
WOLLSTONECRAFT mistaken notions of female excellence, that I do
not mean to add a paradox when I assert, that
FROM THE AUTHOR this artificial weakness produces a propensity to
tyrannize, and gives birth to cunning, the natural
opponent of strength, which leads them to play
EXCERPT FROM WOLLSTONECRAFT’S
DEDICATION TO M. TALLEYRAND-PÉRIGORD, off those contemptible infantine airs that under-
A FRENCH DIPLOMAT WHOSE REPORT ON mine esteem even whilst they excite desire. Let
PUBLIC EDUCATION EXCLUDED men become more chaste and modest, and if
INFORMATION ON THE EDUCATION OF women do not grow wiser in the same ratio, it
WOMEN
will be clear that they have weaker understand-
Contending for the rights of woman, my
ings. It seems scarcely necessary to say, that I now
main argument is built on this simple prin-
speak of the sex in general. Many individuals have
ciple, that if she be not prepared by educa-
more sense than their male relatives; and, as noth-
tion to become the companion of man, she
ing preponderates where there is a constant
will stop the progress of knowledge and
struggle for an equilibrium, without it has natu-
virtue; for truth must be common to all, or it
rally more gravity, some women govern their
will be inefficacious with respect to its influ-
husbands without degrading themselves, because
ence on general practice. And how can
intellect will always govern.
woman be expected to co-operate unless she
know why she ought to be virtuous? unless
freedom strengthen her reason till she com- Note
1. A lively writer, I cannot recollect his name, asks what
prehend her duty, and see in what manner it
business women turned of forty have to do in the
is connected with her real good? If children world?
are to be educated to understand the true
principle of patriotism, their mother must be
a patriot; and the love of mankind, from MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (LETTER
which an orderly train of virtues spring, can DATE 4 SEPTEMBER 1796)
only be produced by considering the moral
SOURCE: Wollstonecraft, Mary. “Letter from Mary to
and civil interest of mankind; but the educa- Godwin, September 4, 1796.” In Godwin and Mary: Let-
tion and situation of woman, at present, ters of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, edited
shuts her out from such investigations. by Ralph M. Wardle, pp. 27-9. Lawrence: University of
Kansas Press, 1966.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. Excerpt from “To M. In the following letter, Wollstonecraft responds to God-
Talleyrand-Périgord.” In A Vindication of the win’s critique of her writing by describing the passion she
Rights of Woman. London: J. Johnson, 1792. feels for her writing and the importance of her work.
Labouring all the morning, in vain, to over-

come an oppression of spirits, which some things
you uttered yesterday, produced; I will try if I can
shake it off by describing to you the nature of the
to accomplish them, without cultivating their feelings you excited.
understandings, they are taken out of their sphere I allude to what you remarked, relative to my
of duties, and made ridiculous and useless when manner of writing—that there was a radical defect
the short-lived bloom of beauty is over,1 I presume in it—a worm in the bud—& c What is to be done,
that rational men will excuse me for endeavouring I must either disregard your opinion, think it
to persuade them to become more masculine and unjust, or throw down my pen in despair; and
respectable. that would be tantamount to resigning existence;
Indeed the word masculine is only a bugbear: for at fifteen I resolved never to marry for inter-
there is little reason to fear that women will ested motives, or to endure a life of dependence.
acquire too much courage or fortitude; for their You know not how painfully my sensibility, call it
apparent inferiority with respect to bodily false if you will, has been wounded by some of
strength, must render them, in some degree, the steps I have been obliged to take for others. I
dependent on men in the various relations of life; have even now plans at heart, which depend on
but why should it be increased by prejudices that my exertions; and my entire confidence in Mr.
give a sex to virtue, and confound simple truths Imlay plunged me into some difficulties, since we
with sensual reveries? parted, that I could scarcely away with. I know
that many of my cares have been the natural articulations in Sade’s novel, the pupils are female,
WOLLSTONECRAFT
consequence of what, nine out of ten would the instructors male, and the novel could be
[have] termed folly—yet I cannot coincide in the claimed to reproduce a gender hierarchy inherent
opinion, without feeling a contempt for mankind. in the courtly ancien régime. This was just what
In short, I must reckon on doing some good, and Mary Wollstonecraft claimed about an earlier
getting the money I want, by my writings, or go proposal for ostensibly revolutionary pedagogy. In
to sleep for ever. I shall not be content merely to her polemical tract, A Vindication of the Rights of
keep body and soul together—By what I have Woman, she attacked Talleyrand’s scheme for
already written Johnson, I am sure, has been a national education in France because it assigned a
gainer. And, for I would wish you to see my heart subordinate place to women and thus ran the risk
and mind just as it appears to myself, without of reproducing the ancien régime’s subordination
drawing any veil of affected humility over it, of women, thereby wrecking the revolutionary
though this whole letter is a proof of painful dif- project itself. As Sade and Wollstonecraft both rec-
fidence, I am compelled to think that there is ognised, however, female sexuality, its construc-
some thing in my writings more valuable, than in tion and emancipation, was central in both
the productions of some people on whom you courtly and revolutionary regimes. In this essay I
bestow warm elogiums—I mean more mind— will describe Wollstonecraft’s articulation of that
denominate it as you will—more of the observa- issue, partly in her writings, but also in her
tions of my own senses, more of the combining personal life, and the key terms I use are those in
of my own imagination—the effusions of my own my essay’s title.
feelings and passions than the cold workings of By Mary Wollstonecraft I mean an archive and
the brain on the materials procured by the senses an agent. The archive is a set of texts ranging from
and imagination of other writers— manuscript letters and documents, through pub-
I am more out of patience with myself than lished works and the testimony of others about
you can form any idea of, when I tell you that I Mary Wollstonecraft, to the initials M. W. marked
have scarcely written a line to please myself (and on the stays worn by an unidentified female, later
very little with respect to quantity) since you saw recognised as Wollstonecraft’s daughter Frances,
my M.S. I have been endeavouring all this morn- at the time the latter committed suicide (Wardle,
ing; and with such dissatisfied sensations I am p. 335). These texts have material form, however,
almost afraid to go into company—But these are as works wrought by an agent addressing others
idle complaints to which I ought not to give ut- in a socially and historically specific discursive
terance, even to you—I must then have done— situation, and, though that situation cannot be
fully or finally known to us, it is not ours.
Mary
By female here I mean not just the usual
modern sense of those persons so classified ac-
cording to the discourse of biology. Wollstonecraft
and her contemporaries such as Mary Hays would
GENERAL COMMENTARY use the term to include what we would now
consider the feminine, that is, subjective, cultural,
GARY KELLY (ESSAY DATE 1997) and social practices learned as part of a histori-
SOURCE: Kelly, Gary. “(Female) Philosophy in the cally and socially particular “language” of gender,
Bedroom: Mary Wollstonecraft and Female Sexuality.” as distinct from sex. The sense of “female” used
Women’s Writing 4, no. 2 (1997): 143-54.
here is, then, based on what is often referred to as
In the following essay, Kelly examines Wollstonecraft’s “social constructionism” (Berger & Luckmann).
personal life as well as her writings and argues that Woll-
stonecraft was a forerunner in reimagining women’s By philosophy I mean the term as used in Woll-
sexuality outside of traditional marriage structures. In stonecraft’s day, that is, a certain politicised intel-
doing so, Kelly also defends Wollstonecraft from criticism
lectual critique of unreason, principally the court
of her relationships with men and her seemingly extreme
behavior. system of the ancien régime, with the “prejudice”
and “custom” that sustained it and the “igno-
At a certain point in Sade’s La Philosophie dans rance” and “superstition” that enabled it to per-
le boudoir (1795), the relentless pedagogical exer- dure. Philosophy as such was gendered masculine
cises in the Sadean grammar of sexuality are in Wollstonecraft’s day and, in the opinion of
suspended by, or perhaps culminate in, the read- many people, females, like children and the com-
ing of a revolutionary polemical tract. Despite the mon people, were excluded by nature or educa-
apparently revolutionary sexual and textual tion from mastery of analytical and theoretical
discourses. Accordingly, these social groups were By sexuality I mean subjective and somatic
WOLLSTONECRAFT widely considered to be naturally or all too easily practices that are designated erotic and amorous
the dupes of “prejudices” and “custom”, “igno- by a particular society and culture. Such practices
rance” and “superstition”. Thus these groups were have long been represented as “natural” to or
seen as both characteristic of unmodernised inherent in individuals in ways that are extra-
society and culture and reproducers of it. Not social and extra-cultural, arising from deep,
surprisingly, then, many in Wollstonecraft’s day perhaps prelinguistic or extra-linguistic structures
would have considered the phrase “female phi- in subjectivity, or from “human nature”. In this
losopher” to be an oxymoron. sense, sexuality seems authentic. A contrastingly
different representation of sexuality is as perfor-
These conventional attitudes were precisely
mance (Butler), and therefore as no more authen-
what Wollstonecraft and other feminists of her
tic than any other kind of practice. In general,
time challenged, pointing out that if women, like post-modernism questions any attribute as “natu-
children and plebeians, were excluded from rally” or essentially human, and this questioning
philosophy as analytical discourse and from would include sexuality. Another strong approach
philosophy’s revolutionary programme, they to sexuality has been through psychoanalytic
would hinder or even prevent the realisation of theory. Here my interest, however, is in sexuality
that programme. For Wollstonecraft, female as socially constructed, historically and socially
philosophy meant not just access to philosophy specific, and yet a form of personal agency. Thus
for women or a distinct and desirable supplement sexuality pertains to gender rather than to biologi-
to philosophy as conventionally and historically cal sex. The question of the conjunction of the
practised by men. To them, female philosophy sexuality of deep psychological structures and that
was an urgently necessary reformation of male which is socially constructed and historically
philosophy by “feminine” elements, in order to particular remains unresolved here.
effect philosophy’s potential for revolutionary
In addition, by defining sexuality as I do, I am
transformation. Inevitably, revolutionised philoso-
not presenting sexuality as a form of discipline or
phy would have to enter the bedroom because
policing, a compulsory regime scripted by society
the sexualisation of women to the exclusion of
and merely enacted or performed by individuals
other attributes was, in the view of a broad range
(Foucault). I am more interested here in sexuality
of late eighteenth-century writers, the cause of the
as being like a language, or rather sociolect and
courtisation and thus the degradation of women—
idiolect, one that individuals learn and employ
their exclusion from the broad middle-class
for particular personal and social aims or reasons.
revolutionary project.
Here I am using Roy Harris’s model of language as
More particularly, feminists such as Woll- a social practice. Thus I am not considering sexual-
stonecraft understood philosophy in practical ity as a psychic, biological, or physiological
terms to be the analytical method and discursive imperative but rather as a psychic, biological, and
practice required by men in order to be successful physiological potential realised in culture and
in the professions (Wollstonecraft, 1792, ch. 2). To society, or a historically particular culture and
call for women, especially of the middle classes society. Inasmuch as society and culture are politi-
(Wollstonecraft’s declared subject and audience), cal, or inevitably differentiated by relations of
to become female philosophers was to call for the power, sexuality is also always political. As Cora
professionalisation of women of those classes. Kaplan has pointed out, this relationship is central
Wollstonecraft argues that, if women of the for feminist criticism, and Wollstonecraft and her
middle classes are not professionalised, or given writings form an exemplary case of it (Kaplan, pp.
appropriate knowledge, intellectual training 32-54, 121-125, 155-160).
(which she calls “reason”), and moral self- Similarly, by the bedroom I mean not a particu-
discipline (“virtue”), they will remain the subjects lar chamber but the politically, socially, and
of undisciplined desire (“custom”, “prejudice”, culturally designated and sanctioned scene for
“superstition”, etc.) and thus liable to courtisa- such practice of sexuality, though of course any
tion, as they had been for centuries. Such women place, indoors or out, could and can serve as a
could only impede and would probably wreck the temporary site for it. More particularly, I mean the
middle-class revolution that was in train in Woll- bedroom as boudoir, a private if not secret domestic
stonecraft’s day, not only in France but, in various space historically assigned to women as a site for
ways and to varying degrees, throughout the conducting their private, including sexual, rela-
Western world. tionships. It is, of course, interesting in itself that
this particular sense of “bedroom” is covered in came to seem intrinsic to the Revolution and, in
WOLLSTONECRAFT
English by a word appropriated from French, the the eyes of many in Britain, to reveal the Revolu-
language of Sade, and the sense used by Sade, sug- tion’s “true” character as at once a broad pro-
gesting that what transpires in the “boudoir” may gramme of license and transgression, including
not have been considered to be fully or properly sexual, and a return of decadent courtliness. It
“English” or “British”. It is additionally interesting was during the Directory period of the mid-1790s
that a “boudoir” was originally a private room that the Revolution became associated, for many
into which a woman could retire in order to sulk British observers, with excess of all kinds, includ-
(bouder), presumably as a result of some rebuff or ing sexual excess. Wollstonecraft’s public reputa-
neglect in the public social sphere. Later the term tion was to be ruined by this association.
came to mean a room in which a woman could
receive her intimate acquaintances, and this is the For those, like Wollstonecraft, who had deter-
sense that was appropriated into English, though mined to apply philosophy even to sexuality,
“boudoir” retains the sense of a scene of sexual however, philosophy had to be applied in the
practice. bedroom or the Revolutionary project would fail,
would lapse back into the vitiated and vitiating
This leaves the words in and and—though gender relations of the ancien régime. Furthermore,
small, they are important for articulating an argu- the principles of revolutionary philosophy re-
ment. By female philosophy in the bedroom I quired enactment of this critique in the philoso-
mean a complex relationship. Philosophy and the pher’s own sexual practice in the bedroom and its
bedroom could be distinct if not opposing discur- surrounding domestic space and culture. That the
sive sites and practices. Philosophy and the personal is political and vice versa was a common
bedroom could also be seen in hierarchical rela- understanding in the age of Mary Wollstonecraft,
tionship, with philosophy able to account for the
as an examination of the “paper war” over the
bedroom, but not the other way around. Here
Revolution amply illustrates. Though this com-
philosophy masters the bedroom, or even fore-
monplace was pursued with particular energy in
stalls it. Yet the bedroom could be seen as the site
the Revolution debate, it did not originate in
of a practice more “authentic”, more practical,
revolutionary culture. It was partly a residue of
more “real” than philosophy. In this view the
court culture under the ancien régime and partly a
bedroom is not just a place where philosophers
recreation of the culture of Sensibility that was
(too) can be off duty, can be themselves, but the
designed to oppose and supersede court culture.
bedroom triumphs over philosophy by exposing
its impractical, abstract, dehumanising character. Court government had long been represented
All of these possible relationships were current in by its (largely middle-class and puritan) critics and
Wollstonecraft’s day, seen in Wollstonecraft’s texts opponents as a system of intertwined political and
and those of her fellow English Jacobins and their sexual intrigue, of favourites and mistresses
French contemporaries such as Laclos and Sade. manipulating the top of a patronage system that
For example, the bedroom could be the recre- in turn controlled the social, economic, cultural,
ation and refuge of the man—less often the and political life of the country and largely
woman—weary of the practice of philosophy as determined social and domestic relations and
contestation and critique, as in Sade. Philosophy personal characters of individuals. This was the
could also extend its critique to the bedroom, system that Wollstonecraft attacked in A Vindica-
analysing sexual practices as necessary products or tion of the Rights of Woman and elsewhere as the
symptoms of one kind of political regime or cause of the courtisation of women, or their intel-
another, as in Sade and Wollstonecraft. Here lectual and moral trivialisation for erotic subordi-
philosophy could also imagine the bedroom and nation. It was the system that Wollstonecraft
sexuality otherwise, as a site among others for thought the first wave of Revolutionaries had
avant-garde or revolutionary political practice. The unthinkingly subsumed in their state constitution
bedroom could also be the site of philosophy’s by excluding women from the full process of state
failure, its lapse into courtly sexuality, thus expos- education. This exclusion, Wollstonecraft argued,
ing avant-garde, revolutionary philosophy’s im- denied women the civil consciousness and roles
practicality or hypocrisy, as in the Anti-Jacobin they must have if they were not to continue to be
counter-revolutionary critique of Wollstonecraft. courtly coquettes undermining the Revolution at
It was particularly in the aftermath of the Jacobin home, and subverting the public and political
Terror, during the early Directory period of the sphere for private and personal ends, as the court
Revolution, that sexuality of a particular kind system forced them to do.
Before the Revolution, writers of Sensibility Windsor as a lady’s companion Wollstonecraft was
WOLLSTONECRAFT reformulated the relation of the personal and amused and irritated at the flutter caused by the
political as a comprehensive oppositional culture notoriously gallant Prince of Wales, a figure to
constructed in the interests and image of the self- whom she would return in The Wrongs of
idealised professional middle class (see Brissenden, Woman. In Ireland, as governess in the family of
Barker-Benfield). According to the politics of the titled and wealthy Kingsboroughs, she rejected
Sensibility, the illegitimate personality politics of courtisation in the education of her young female
court government were to be supplanted by a charges and observed with amusement and con-
politics of merit, or the disciplined moral and tempt the coquetting manipulativeness of Lady
intellectual subject that was the idealised image of Kingsborough.
the professional man of the time. The court
It was at this point that the literature of
system was routinely figured as a regime of the
Sensibility, with its basis in Enlightenment phi-
father, or interconnected systems of patronage,
losophy, spoke so forcibly to Wollstonecraft in her
paternalism, and patriarchy. Thus Sensibility, as
social no man’s land as professional and intel-
an oppositional culture, tended to figure its idea-
lectual woman, as it did to many other men and
lised self as female and feminine after a bourgeois
women in similar situations in Western societies
rather than courtly model of woman. Sensibility
of the time. The relevance of Sensibility for her
was feminised in a historically and socially specific
was focused in Jean-Jacques Rousseau as self-
way, though in fact it was available to both men
feminised male and her model for self-
and women of the subaltern middle classes, ad-
reconstruction as female philosopher. Rousseau’s
dressing men in the first instance, and addressing
writings made clear the conflict between the
men and women differently. It was this culture
political and the personal, including sexuality and
that enabled Wollstonecraft to theorise her own
private life. By the late 1780s Wollstonecraft was
experience of sexuality as a mediation of gender
increasingly critical of the subjection of women
and class difference within the revolutionary
by the gentry property system, expressed in the
politics of the professional middle class in her
English tradition of female conduct literature with
time.
its pessimistic and repressive view of female
In order to explicate the and in “Woll- sexuality. Yet she also knew how easily women
stonecraft and female sexuality”, I turn now to a could be seduced by courtly ideology. At this
narrative of Wollstonecraft’s encounter with and point, then, both conventional marriage and
attempt to revolutionise, as a female philosopher, unconventional sexual conduct would, it seemed
female sexuality for the larger revolutionary to her, vitiate her project of self-construction as a
project of philosophy. “female philosopher”, or avant-garde exemplar of
female emancipation within the horizon of pos-
Her early letters, written while a girl living
sibilities offered by late eighteenth-century society.
with her family in Yorkshire, show her grappling
uncertainly and ambivalently with the courtisa- In the face of this impasse Wollstonecraft
tion of women of her class (Wollstonecraft, 1979). struggled to find an acceptable practice of sexual-
Within her family and early circle of friends she ity. One way was through intense female friend-
experienced and observed the degrading and bru- ship of the kind she had with Frances Blood. Such
talising effect of the courtly code of gender rela- relationships could of course have an erotic
tions filtered down into the margins of the gentry dimension, as implied by conduct-books’ anxiety
and middle classes in which she grew up. Her about them. Blood’s death put an end to this
mother was beaten and possibly raped by a experiment in female sexuality, but the intensity
drunken, over-ambitious father. Wollstonecraft of Wollstonecraft’s feeling about it may be taken
and her siblings were deprived of proper educa- to indicate a lesbian or potentially lesbian relation-
tion and reasonable expectations in order to fund ship. Such homosocial intensity was and is not
the social advancement of her oldest brother. Her uncommon, was licensed to a degree by social
sister Eliza married and was probably rushed into convention at that time, and was indeed encour-
motherhood and thus driven into mental and aged in the culture of Sensibility. Adopting lesbian
marital breakdown. Her friend Frances Blood was sexuality and way of life was a possible though
kept dangling by the self-interested family of her highly risky political gesture, and if Wollstonecraft
fiancé and, once married, unwisely became preg- did so she didn’t make the relationship into such
nant and removed to Portugal, where she died a gesture. Later, in A Vindication of the Rights of
after childbirth. Blood’s sister Caroline became a Woman, she regards girls’ boarding schools as
prostitute and workhouse inmate. While living in morally dangerous in part because by their nature
they encourage masturbation and lesbianism emergence as a public character, first with A
WOLLSTONECRAFT
(Wollstonecraft, 1792, p. 164). In short, whatever Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), and then
personal satisfactions lesbianism may have of- with A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
fered, its political usefulness in Wollstonecraft’s (1792). In the latter, Wollstonecraft consistently
day, if openly avowed, was not what it may be casts the expression of female sexuality in a nega-
today. tive light. For example, in chapter 4, significantly
A different field for personal and political entitled, “Observations on the State of Degrada-
construction of female sexuality was offered by tion to which Woman is Reduced by Various
religious Dissent. As a marginalised urban and Causes”, she states:
commercial middle-class community, Dissent Love, considered as an animal appetite, cannot long
defined itself largely by rejecting hegemonic feed on itself without expiring. And this extinction in
culture, including courtly sexuality. At that time, its own flame, may be termed the violent death of
love. But the wife who has been thus rendered licen-
such rejection was not necessarily repressively
tious, will probably endeavour to fill the void left by
puritanical but could liberate men and women her husband’s attentions . . .
from the codes and roles of courtly sexuality.
Personal attachment is a very happy foundation for
Partly for this reason intellectual women such as
friendship; yet, when even two virtuous people marry,
Wollstonecraft found Dissent a congenial environ- it would, perhaps, be happy if some circumstances
ment in many ways. Furthermore, as an op- checked their passion . . . In that case they would
positional culture Dissent also embraced feminisa- look beyond the present moment, and try to render the
tion and facilitated useful and safe relationships whole of life respectable, by forming a plan to regulate
a friendship which only death ought to dissolve.
of male-female intellectual equality or mentor-
(Wollstonecraft, 1792, p. 73)
ship, such as that enjoyed by Wollstonecraft with
several clergymen, including Richard Price (whom Here Wollstonecraft seems to repeat the com-
she would later defend in her Vindication of the monplace warning of female conduct-books
Rights of Men). A more dangerous relationship of against expression of female sexual desire. The
a similar kind involved George Ogle, one of Lady dim view of conjugal sexuality is also found in
Kingsborough’s circle, who turned out, in Woll- her letters of the late 1780s and early 1790s, and
stonecraft’s view, to conceal courtly amorousness there is her own observation of the disorienting
beneath Rousseauist feminisation. effect of sexual desire in her younger sister, Fanny
Wollstonecraft’s most important relationship Blood, and other women. Wollstonecraft’s concern
with a feminised man, however, would be with here, however, is that women be able to resist
her publisher. Joseph Johnson was a Dissenter, a courtisation in marriage, given the prevalence of
bachelor, the leading publisher of the English Dis- such pressures in society and culture at large. It is
senting Enlightenment, and had close friendships not so much female sexuality that she denies as
with creative, feminised men such as William its distortion by the dominant ideology and
Roscoe and Henry Fuseli, who also became Woll- culture—a distortion that works to subordinate
stonecraft’s friends. She not only earned a living and oppress women.
thanks to Johnson, but, as a member Johnson’s Between the two Vindications Wollstonecraft
circle of progressive writers, intellectuals, and art- also reflected on a new model, the “bluestocking”
ists, she could ignore courtly femininity and and notorious female philosopher of an earlier
sexuality to create an identity as a female philoso- generation, Catharine Macaulay Graham.
pher, discussing subjects conventionally closed to Macaulay Graham was a second generation blue-
women or barred from mixed company, such as stocking writer and intellectual who had trans-
science, politics, and sexuality itself. Like many gressed the gendered boundary of discourse by
men and women in her situation she welcomed writing full-scale and frankly political historiogra-
the French Revolution, and even identified with it phy—otherwise a masculine discourse. Macaulay
by becoming a “philosophical sloven”, or adopt- Graham also breached conventional femininity
ing the style of dress, comportment, and domestic by openly advocating classical republicanism.
life affected by Parisian women who had thrown More seriously damaging was her decision, once
off courtly femininity and sexuality for an openly widowed, to marry a man younger and from a
revolutionary counter-culture. lower social class, thereby advertising, in the eyes
By this point she was reinventing her female of many, that she was marrying for sexual plea-
sexuality in a relationship with the expatriate sure. She was satirised accordingly. Significantly,
Swiss artist and critic Henry Fuseli. His presence in Wollstonecraft decided to memorialise Macaulay
her intellectual and personal life facilitated her Graham in A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman. While writing the book, she also aban- long absences from Wollstonecraft and their
WOLLSTONECRAFT doned her avant-garde Parisian and Revolutionary- daughter, who was born in the spring of 1794.
style coarse attire and appearance and adopted a Wollstonecraft was also irritated by the Jacobin
more “bluestocking” style of dress, conduct, and regime’s negative attitude to female philosophers
life. and politicians and their exhortations to women
This transformation has been interpreted as to stay at home to raise good citizens with literal
an attempt to please Fuseli and to formalise her and metaphorical “lait républicain”.
relationship with him. Yet it is clear from her let- Nevertheless, her letters, especially to Imlay,
ters and actions that she had no intention of giv- show a determined endeavour to practise her new-
ing up her ideal of avant-garde revolutionary intel- found revolutionary conjugality as both female
lectual companionship or betraying the anti- and philosopher. In this endeavour, she strove
courtly sexual politics she had advocated in A over some period to keep her sexual needs and
Vindication of the Rights of Woman. She did, desires in balance and relationship with what she
finally, propose joining the Fuseli household as believed to be a reflective, “philosophical” self-
his intellectual partner, while Fuseli’s wife Sophia, awareness, and with an economy of mutuality and
a former model who may have been illiterate, was equality in desire as in all aspects of their relation-
to remain his sexual partner and housekeeper. ship. Eventually, his loss of sexual feeling for her
Such an arrangement would obviously have been proved overwhelmingly disappointing in terms of
problematic, however, since it could too easily her politics of sexuality and conjugality. Imlay
have been seen to subsume the interrelated class became involved with another woman and the
and gender differences of court culture; in any relationship with Wollstonecraft broke down,
case the proposal was rejected. though whether Imlay’s involvement with the
By this time, Wollstonecraft must already have other woman was the symptom or cause cannot
heard of the avant-garde conjugality being prac- be known. In fact, we have on record only one
tised in Girondin Revolutionary coteries and side of their relationship and the available evi-
expatriate British circles at Paris, including the dence is open to conflicting interpretations. The
salon of Marie Roland and the society around letters show that Wollstonecraft tried to keep the
Johnson’s partner, Thomas Christie. Here amorous relationship going and was prepared to overlook
and conjugal relationships were formed without Imlay’s infidelities up to a point. When this failed
marriage, which was rejected as an institution of she threatened or attempted suicide, but then
gentry property and court government. Among agreed to be his agent in recovering money he
women Wollstonecraft knew who were involved was using to purchase embargoed goods for the
in such relationships were Helen Maria Williams, French government. On her return she found Im-
Marie Roland, and Thomas Christie’s wife Rebecca. lay with a new partner and again attempted
Wollstonecraft went to Paris to pursue both her suicide. After some months she accepted that the
writing career and the kind of relationship she relationship was over, though she remained fear-
had failed to achieve with Fuseli. She soon found ful of being betrayed again.
with Gilbert Imlay a way to practise female The prevailing view has been that Woll-
philosophy in the bedroom. stonecraft made a fool of herself over Imlay, that
What we know of this relationship, especially he was probably not worthy of her, and that as a
from Wollstonecraft’s letters, suggests that it was feminist she ought to have been stronger and
intensely intimate yet open, allowed much inde- more decisive in dealing with him. My reading is
pendence to both partners, and was obstructed that she saw in Imlay and her relationship with
and thus probably intensified by the actual politi- him the sexual, domestic, and conjugal realisation
cal and economic situation of France at the time. of her female philosophy and the personal basis
Under the Jacobin Terror, and with a state of war for sustaining her public and political dissemina-
existing between Britain and France, Woll- tion of that philosophy. That she may have been
stonecraft as a British subject was in a dangerous mistaken in the circumstances cannot be known
position. She had herself registered as Imlay’s wife and should not be to her discredit. Besides, during
with the American embassy, though they did not and from this personal and public-political crisis
marry, and had to live outside Paris for some time; she produced, in An Historical and Moral View
Imlay, as an American with commercial experi- of the French Revolution (1794), a feminisation of
ence, could engage in business, especially blockade historiography and the Revolution in the style of
running, for the French government. To Woll- Catharine Macaulay Graham, and, in Letters from
stonecraft’s irritation, this work seemed to require Sweden (1796) and The Wrongs of Woman (1798),
a textualisation of female philosophy both in the cal programme to advance their ambitions and
WOLLSTONECRAFT
bedroom and at large in society of pre- gratify their appetites, including sexual appetite.
Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary Europe. In These journalists made common practice of
this text, as I have argued elsewhere (Kelly), she discrediting reformist and revolutionary pro-
created, in the figure of the author-in-the-text, an grammes by showing how their proponents be-
exemplary avant-garde consciousness for a new trayed their own principles, theories, and argu-
revolutionary cadre at a moment when revolution- ments. Feminism was but one reform cause of
ary hope seemed about to be extinguished. It is many successfully smeared and marginalised or
not coincidental that this avant-garde conscious- suppressed in this way. In the intense ideological
ness is represented repeatedly as a female philoso- and armed struggle of the later 1790s and early
pher in the bedroom, as a subjective yet embodied 1800s there were many who believed the smear
site of lost and remembered revolutionary sexual- and many others who thought such means were
ity and of post-Revolutionary reflection and self- justified for the end of national survival against
reconstruction. resurgent Revolutionary France under Napoleon.
The social, political, and economic crises of the
If Imlay turned out to be not enough of a
post-war years, up to the reform movements of
philosopher to sustain a relationship with her,
the 1830s, again deferred any useful opportunity
Wollstonecraft’s next partner, William Godwin,
to reinsert Wollstonecraft and her work into the
was the most famous and infamous philosopher
public political sphere, though there were op-
in Britain. Their relationship is well documented
portunities to do so, and it was attempted in early
through their letters and notes and Godwin’s
socialist circles (as Barbara Taylor has shown) and
journal. They intended from the outset to practise
attempted obliquely or covertly in the work of
an avant-garde sexuality and conjugality called
Mary Shelley, Lady Caroline Lamb, and other
for and validated by their philosophy. As with Im-
women writers of the 1820s and 1830s.
lay, Wollstonecraft’s relationship with Godwin
was to be part of a revolutionary subculture A politicised female sexuality such as Woll-
implicitly criticising and proleptically replacing stonecraft enacted and represented in her work
hegemonic relations between the sexes. Signifi- was diverted into and continued to be part of
cantly, in their bedroom they alternated avant- avant-garde and “bohemian” practice. Counter-
garde philosophy and sexuality, giving up the lat- revolutionary propaganda successfully disabled it,
ter for the former whenever Wollstonecraft might however, as an important element in transgressive
have become pregnant. Again, however, this and reformative practice in the public political
relationship was hindered by repressive political sphere, except within socialist, feminist and other
and social values and also by financial pressures. reform movements. In the meantime, Woll-
Opposition to such personal-political subcultures stonecraft’s views about and practice of sexuality
was less obviously dangerous and more diffused remained a problem. Answers to this problem,
than in Jacobin France, but Wollstonecraft and unfortunately, comprise a history of the sexual
Godwin had to protect their livelihoods and their double standard and middle-class moralising. The
political usefulness in an atmosphere of increas- counter-revolutionary condemnation formed after
ing political repression, social surveillance, and the appearance of Godwin’s memorialising texts
moral policing, especially after Wollstonecraft continued to have a strong influence, even with
became pregnant, against her wishes. Therefore feminists. The commonest and longest-lived view
they legalised their relationship, though this was has been that Wollstonecraft preached female
in effect a public admission that Wollstonecraft independence but practised dependence, that she
had not been married to Imlay. betrayed her feminist principles or at best could
not live up to them, that her sexuality let her
Her unexpected death from complications of
feminism down, that the female philosopher was
childbirth was not, of course, the end of the story.
defeated in the bedroom. Since the 1970s, when
Godwin chose to publish work she left unfinished
female sexuality became a central issue in feminist
at her death, with a candid memoir of her and
discourse, some commentators have also criticised
what are evidently selections from her letters to
Wollstonecraft’s apparent denial of female sexual-
Imlay and Johnson (he would have included let-
ity in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
ters to Fuseli but the latter refused access to them).
These texts enabled counter-revolutionary journal- In re-presenting Mary Wollstonecraft as the
ists to pillory Wollstonecraft as an example of the (female) philosopher in the bedroom, I have
commonplace Anti-Jacobin argument that reform- aimed to re-place Wollstonecraft in her time in
ers and revolutionaries were merely using a politi- order to represent her as a philosopher with much
to tell us about the discourse of sexuality and Wardle, R. M., Mary Wollstonecraft: A Critical Biography
WOLLSTONECRAFT whatever comes into it, in any time and place. In (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1951).
doing so I have approached sexuality as socially Wollstonecraft, M. (1792) A Vindication of the Rights of
and historically particular, and, like other social Woman, edited by Carol Poston, second edition (New
York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1988).
and cultural discourse, one way that human
agents express and negotiate social difference and Wollstonecraft, M. (1976) Letters Written During a Short
Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, edited by
relations of power in particular circumstances.
Carole H. Poston (Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Like language as theorised by Roy Harris, sexuality Press).
may be treated as a field of creative communica-
Wollstonecraft, M. (1979) The Collected Letters of Mary Woll-
tion within a particular horizon of possibility. In stonecraft, edited by Ralph M. Wardle (Ithaca: Cornell
order to understand Wollstonecraft’s exercise of University Press).
such agency, and thus illuminate our own, it is
necessary to understand her horizon of possibility,
which was not ours. Such an approach may not WENDY GUNTHER-CANADA
produce Wollstonecraft as the female philosopher (ESSAY DATE 2001)
in the bedroom who is what Angela Carter calls
the “Sadeian woman”, and there are, of course,
other ways of treating sexuality than that used
here; each has its limits, as does this one. Certainly,
readings of Wollstonecraft based on gender-only
or transhistorical assumptions about sexuality
often seem to produce her as victim, hypocrite,
bourgeois liberal, or all of these. Historicising her
and the discourse(s) of sexuality in her time
perhaps produces a more interesting Woll-
stonecraft, for some of us; and, at the risk of
indulging in celebratory criticism, such a reading
also produces a Wollstonecraft who is admirable,
exemplary, and instructive, even now.
References
Brissenden, R. F., Virtue in Distress: Studies in the Novel of
Sensibility from Richardson to Sade (London, 1974).
Barker-Benfield, G. J., The Culture of Sensibility: Sex and
Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1992).
Berger, P. L. & Luckman, T., The Social Construction of Reality:
A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (1966)
(Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1971).
Butler, J., Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”
(New York: Routledge, 1993).
Butler, M. (Ed.) Burke, Paine, Godwin, and the Revolution
Controversy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1984).
Cobban, A. (Ed.) The Debate on the French Revolution, 1789-
1800, second edition (London: Adam & Charles Black,
1960.
Foucault, M., The History of Sexuality, 3 volumes (London:
Lane, 1979).
Harris, R., The Language Myth (London: Duckworth, 1981).
Kaplan, C., Sea Changes: Essays on Culture and Feminism
(London: Verso, 1986).
Kelly, G., Revolutionary Feminism: The Mind and Career of
Mary Wollstonecraft (London: Macmillan; New York: St
Martin’s, 1992).
Taylor, B., Eve and the New Jerusalem: Socialism and Feminism
in the Nineteenth Century (London: Virago, 1983).
WOLLSTONECRAFT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
AN ANONYMOUS DEFENSE OF MARY
WOLLSTONECRAFT, DISCUSSING HER DEATH
DURING CHILDBIRTH
It is not very improbable that, if we possessed
the means of knowledge equal to a full
investigation, the cause of the fatal issue,
which closed the light of this world upon one
of its most brilliant ornaments; that robbed
rational liberty of one of its most able and
determined advocates, and that deprived
your sex in particular of their firmest cham-
pion, might be traced to the violent agita-
tions and anxieties that she had formerly
sustained. Though her mind, in consequence
of its native elasticity, had relaxed but little, if
any thing, of its former vigour; yet the mere
animal frame, it is not improbable, had
received so rude a shock, as materially to af-
fect the delicacy of its internal organiza-
tion.—If so; we can be at no loss to determine
to whose account Humanity will ascribe the
being deprived of one of her most intelligent
and determined friends.
In good truth, my dear Madam, my
decided and unequivocal opinion of Mary
Wollstonecraft Godwin is, that the world was
not worthy of her;—for its absurdities, its
prejudices, its vices, and its vanities, she was
much too intelligent, too independent, too
good, and too great.
Anonymous. Excerpt from A Defense of the Character

and Conduct of the Late Mary Wollstonecraft God-
win, pp. 147-48. London, 1803.
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TITLE COMMENTARY
A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman
CORA KAPLAN (ESSAY DATE 1985)
WOLLSTONECRAFT
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SUSAN GUBAR (ESSAY DATE 1995)
WOLLSTONECRAFT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

WOLLSTONECRAFT’S HUSBAND WILLIAM
GODWIN ON HER VINDICATION OF THE
RIGHTS OF WOMAN, FROM 1798
Never did any author enter into a cause, with
a more ardent desire to be found, not a
flourishing and empty declaimer, but an ef-
fectual champion. She considered herself as
standing forth in defence of one half of the
human species, labouring under a yoke
which, through all the records of time, had
degraded them from the station of rational
beings, and almost sunk them to the level of
the brutes. She saw indeed, that they were
often attempted to be held in silken fetters,
and bribed into the love of slavery; but the
disguise and the treachery served only the
more fully to confirm her opposition. She
regarded her sex, in the language of Calista,
as
“In every state of life the slaves of man:”
the rich as alternately under the despo-

tism of a father, a brother, and a husband;
and the middling and the poorer classes shut
out from the acquisition of bread with inde-
pendence, when they are not shut out from
the very means of an industrious subsistence.
Such were the views she entertained of the
subject; and such were the feelings with
which she warmed her mind.
Godwin, William. Excerpt from Memoirs of Mary

Wollstonecraft, 1927. Reprint, edited by W.
Clark Durant, pp. 53-4. New York: Haskell
House, 1969.
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FURTHER READING Criticism
Badowska, Ewa. “The Anorexic Body of Liberal Feminism:
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of
Bibliographies Woman.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 17, no. 2
Todd, Janet M. Mary Wollstonecraft: An Annotated Bibliogra- (fall 1998): 283-303.
phy. New York: Garland Publishers, 1976, 124 p.
Focuses on the intersection of the female body and politi-
Surveys criticism on Wollstonecraft from her contemporar- cal discourse as sites for constructing feminine identity in
ies through the mid-1970s. Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman.
Windle, John. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, 1759-1797: A
Bibliography of the First and Early Editions, with Briefer Barlowe, Jamie. “Daring to Dialogue: Mary Wollstonecraft’s
Notes on Later Editions and Translations. New Castle, Rhetoric of Feminist Dialogics.” In Reclaiming Rhetorica:
Del.: Oak Knoll Press, 2000, 71 p. Women in the Rhetorical Tradition, edited by Andrea A.
Lunsford, pp. 117-36. Pittsburgh: University of Pitts-
Contains entries covering the publishing history of Woll- burgh Press, 1995.
stonecraft’s major and minor works.
Examines Wollstonecraft’s use of different genres as an
effort to engage in dialogue with the male-dominated
Biographies intellectual tradition in the larger service of achieving the
practical social ends of feminism.
Flexner, Eleanor. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Biography. New York:
Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc., 1972, 307 p. Blakemore, Steven. “Rebellious Reading: The Doubleness of
Emphasizes the role of Wollstonecraft’s early life in the Wollstonecraft’s Subversion of Paradise Lost.” Texas
development of her ideas, but is somewhat critical of Studies in Language and Literature 34, no. 4 (winter
Wollstonecraft’s behavior; updates and corrects Ralph 1992): 451-80.
Wardle’s 1951 biography. Claims that Wollstonecraft subverted the ideology of
Paradise Lost by creating a picture of Eve that both
Jacobs, Diane. Her Own Woman: The Life of Mary Woll- sustains and undermines Wollstonecraft’s feminist myth.
stonecraft. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001, 333 p.
Brody, Miriam. “Mary Wollstonecraft: Sexuality and Wom-
Uses new letters and sources to update Wollstonecraft’s en’s Rights.” In Feminist Theorists: Three Centuries of Key
biography; also discusses the lives and work of her Women Thinkers, edited by Dale Spender, pp. 40-59.
daughters and the scope of her influence in women’s his- New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.
tory.
Considers Wollstonecraft’s view of sexuality and its
Jump, Harriet Devine. Mary Wollstonecraft, Writer. New York: implications for her feminist argument in A Vindication
Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994, 172 p. of the Rights of Woman.
Stresses the development of Wollstonecraft’s feminist ———. “The Vindication of the Writes of Women: Mary
thought in the context of the political atmosphere of her Wollstonecraft and Enlightenment Rhetoric.” In Femi-
times, especially the growth of radicalism; also offers a nist Interpretations of Mary Wollstonecraft, edited by
complete overview of Wollstonecraft’s life as an author. Maria J. Falco, pp. 105-23. University Park: Pennsylva-
nia State University Press, 1996.
Rauschenbusch-Clough, Emma. A Study of Mary Woll-
stonecraft and the Rights of Woman. New York: Long- Contends that A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
mans, Green, 1898, 234 p. asserts women’s right to write polemically.
Links Wollstonecraft to the emerging thought of her time Cole, Lucinda. “(Anti)Feminist Sympathies: The Politics of
as well as the socialist writers who followed her; the first Relationship in Smith, Wollstonecraft, and More.” ELH
full-length study of Wollstonecraft. 58, no. 1 (spring 1991): 107-40.
Discusses the language of sympathy in Wollstonecraft’s
Todd, Janet. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life.
works as compared with Adam Smith’s The Theory of
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000, 516 p.
Moral Sentiments and the works of Hannah More.
A scholarly but engaging biography from an important
scholar of eighteenth-century women’s writing; details Conger, Syndy M. Mary Wollstonecraft and the Language of
Wollstonecraft’s difficult family relationships, drawing Sensibility. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson Univer-
sity Press, 1994, 214 p.
primarily from Wollstonecraft’s letters.
Addresses the apparent paradox of Wollstonecraft’s strong
Tomalin, Claire. The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft. faith in reason and her intense emotionalism, applying
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974, 316 p. modern critical insight from diverse fields including
Narrative biography recounting Wollstonecraft’s many linguistics, psychology, and feminist theory.
personal quirks and failings as well as her drive and intel- D’Arcy, Chantal Cornut-Gentille. “Mary Wollstonecraft’s A
lectual achievements; Tomalin is the author of several Vindication of the Rights of Woman as Generator of Dif-
popular biographies of major writers including Jane Aus- fering Feminist Traditions.” Links and Letters 2 (1995):
ten, Katherine Mansfield, and Samuel Pepys. 47-61.
Wardle, Ralph. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Critical Biography. Relates Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1951, 366 p. Woman to the development of modern feminist literary
theory in its various aspects.
Relies heavily on letters to tell the story of Woll-
stonecraft’s life, noting the course of her intellectual Ellison, Julie. “Redoubled Feeling: Politics, Sentiment, and
development; considered a milestone in twentieth-century the Sublime in Williams and Wollstonecraft.” Studies in
scholarship on Wollstonecraft. Eighteenth-Century Culture 20 (1990): 197-215.
Compares Helen Maria Williams’s Letters from France Views Wollstonecraft’s feminism as a critique of capital-
WOLLSTONECRAFT
to Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of ism as it enforced a mind-body split in women; focuses
Woman, noting the relationship between politics and the on images of motherhood in Wollstonecraft’s writing.
language of feeling.
Mackenzie, Catriona. “Reason and Sensibility: The Ideal of
Gunther-Canada, Wendy. “Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘Wild Women’s Self-Governance in the Writings of Mary
wish’: Confounding Sex in the Discourse on Political Wollstonecraft.” Hypatia 8, no. 4 (fall 1993): 35-55.
Rights.” In Feminist Interpretations of Mary Wollstonecraft,
edited by Maria J. Falco, pp. 61-84. University Park: Examines the language of feeling and sentiment in Woll-
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996. stonecraft’s writings as applied to women and the capac-
ity for individual authority.
Demonstrates how Wollstonecraft disputed the gender
distinctions that excluded women from the discourse of Maurer, Shawn Lisa. “The Female (As) Reader: Sex Sensibil-
political rights; examines both A Vindication of the ity, and the Maternal in Wollstonecraft’s Fictions.” Es-
Rights of Woman and her Vindication of the Rights says in Literature 19, no. 1 (spring 1992): 36-54.
of Men.
Contends that Wollstonecraft attempted to develop an
Guralnick, Elissa S. “Radical Politics in Mary Wollstonecraft’s active subjectivity for women constituted in relation to a
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.” Studies in Burke woman’s role as mother.
and His Times 18, no. 3 (autumn 1977): 155-66.
Myers, Mitzi. “Pedagogy as Self-Expression in Mary Woll-
Argues that A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
stonecraft: Exorcising the Past, Finding a Voice.” In
carries implications beyond feminism in that it is a “radi-
cal political tract” on the order of, though surpassing, A The Private Self: Theory and Practice of Women’s Autobio-
Vindication of the Rights of Men. graphical Writings, edited by Shari Benstock, pp. 192-
210. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
Harasym, S. D. “Ideology and Self: A Theoretical Discussion 1988.
of the ‘Self’ in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Fiction.” English
Applies a feminist approach and theory of autobiography
Studies in Canada 12, no. 2 (June 1986): 163-77.
to reading Wollstonecraft’s autobiographical writings as
Examines the novel Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman, well as her fiction; addresses the female struggle to craft
contending that Wollstonecraft’s identification of herself an identity in writing.
with her protagonist complicated her portrayal of a
utopian feminist ideology. ———. “Sensibility and the ‘Walk of Reason’: Mary Woll-
stonecraft’s Literary Reviews as Cultural Critique.” In
Homans, Margaret. “Feminist Fictions and Feminist Theo- Sensibility in Transformation: Creative Resistance to Senti-
ries of Narrative.” Narrative 2, no. 1 (January 1994): ment from the Augustans to the Romantics; Essays in Honor
3-16. of Jean H. Hagstrum, edited by Syndy McMillen Conger,
Compares the ways in which Wollstonecraft’s Maria; or, pp. 120-44. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson
The Wrongs of Woman and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their University Press, 1990.
Eyes Were Watching God comment on the narrative Examines Wollstonecraft’s writings for the Analytical
structures available to women. Review as attempts to develop her unique voice as a
Johnson, Claudia L. “Mary Wollstonecraft.” In Equivocal Be- theorist of gender, particularly as she attempts to combine
ings: Politics, Gender, and Sentimentality in the 1790s: sensibility and reason into a broader humanism.
Wollstonecraft, Radcliffe, Burney, Austen, p. 239. Chicago: Paulson, Ronald. “Burke, Paine, and Wollstonecraft: The
University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Sublime and the Beautiful.” In Representations of Revolu-
Considers the language of sentiment, particularly “exces- tion (1789-1820), pp. 57-87. New Haven: Yale Univer-
sive” feminine feeling, as a site of feminist struggle in sity Press, 1983.
Wollstonecraft’s writing.
Examines Wollstonecraft’s Rights of Men as an answer
———, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft. to Burke, focusing on Wollstonecraft’s critique of feminine
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, 284 p. beauty as a tyrannical concept.
Collects several essays addressing Wollstonecraft’s views Poovey, Mary. “Mary Wollstonecraft: The Gender of Genres
on women, education, and religion; contributors include in Eighteenth-Century England.” Novel 15, no. 2
Wollstonecraft scholars Janet Todd, Mitzi Myers, Vivien (winter 1982): 111-26.
Jones, Anne K. Mellor, Cora Kaplan, and others.
Delineates Wollstonecraft’s central ambivalence in Maria;
Jones, Vivien. “Femininity, Nationalism, and Romanticism: or, The Wrongs of Woman.
The Politics of Gender in the Revolution Controversy.”
History of European Ideas 16, nos. 1-3 (1993): 299-305. ———. “Man’s Discourse, Woman’s Heart: Mary Woll-
stonecraft’s Two Vindications.” In The Proper Lady and
Compares Helen Maria William’s Letters From France the Woman Writer: Ideology and Style in the Works of Mary
and Wollstonecraft’s Historical and Moral View of the Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen, pp. 48-81.
Origin and Progress of the French Revolution in terms Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1984.
of the construction of national, sexual, and literary identi-
ties. Posits that Wollstonecraft’s life and work indicate an
unresolved conflict between the author’s belief in female
Keane, Angela. “Mary Wollstonecraft’s Imperious Sympa- autonomy and her continuing adherence to traditional
thies: Population, Maternity, and Romantic Individual- bourgeois cultural roles.
ism.” In Body Matters: Feminism, Textuality, Corporeality,
edited by Avril Horner and Angela Keane, pp. 29-42. Robinson, Daniel. “Theodicy versus Feminist Strategy in
Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, Mary Wollstonecraft’s Fiction.” Eighteenth-Century Fic-
2000. tion 9, no. 2 (January 1997): 183-202.
Contrasts the ways in which Wollstonecraft attempts to Compares Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights
WOLLSTONECRAFT reconcile her feminism and her religious faith in Mary, A of Woman to Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man,
Fiction and Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman. emphasizing the treatment of radicalism.
Sapiro, Virginia. A Vindication of Political Virtue: The Political Woolf, Virginia. “Four Figures.” In Collected Essays. Vol. III,
Theory of Mary Wollstonecraft. Chicago: University of pp. 181-206. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
Chicago Press, 1992, 366 p. 1967.
Describes Wollstonecraft’s views on women as part of a Characterizes Wollstonecraft’s life, work, and influence,
fully developed political philosophy; links Wollstonecraft’s focusing on the writer’s passion and originality.
thought to modern debates on liberal democracy.
Yeo, Eileen James, ed. Mary Wollstonecraft and 200 Years of
Shanley, Mary Lyndon. “Mary Wollstonecraft on Sensibil- Feminisms. London: Rivers Oram Press, 1997, 276 p.
ity, Women’s Rights, and Patriarchal Power.” In Women Contains essays addressing Wollstonecraft’s influence on
Writers and the Early Modern British Political Tradition, modern feminism and surveying the history of Woll-
edited by Hilda L. Smith, pp. 148-67. Cambridge: stonecraft’s reputation and critical interpretations of her
Cambridge University Press, 1998. work.
Explores Wollstonecraft’s discussion of the relationship
between domestic and political patriarchy; focuses on A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman and the novel
Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman.
OTHER SOURCES FROM GALE:
Taylor, G. R. Stirling. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Study in Econom- Additional coverage of Wollstonecraft’s life and career is
ics and Romance. John Lane, 1911, 210 p. contained in the following sources published by the Gale
Group: British Writers Supplement, Vol. 3; Concise Dictionary
A very admiring early study of Wollstonecraft’s work and
thought, with attention to the condition of women in of British Literary Biography, 1789-1832; Dictionary of Literary
Wollstonecraft’s time and the ongoing need for improve- Biography, Vols. 39, 104, 158, 252; Feminist Writers; Literature
ment in women’s rights. and Its Times, Vol. 1; Literature Criticism from 1400-1800,
Vols. 5, 50, 90; Literature Resource Center; Reference Guide to
Wilson, Anna. “Mary Wollstonecraft and the Search for the English Literature, Ed. 2; Twayne’s English Authors; and World
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What is the book about?

What is the book about?

Who are the editors of the book?

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Volume 1: Antiquity–18th Century, Topics & Authors

James K. Bracken Heather Martin

Volume 1: Antiquity–18th Century, Topics & Authors

Foreword by Amy Hudock, Ph. D

Jessica Bomarito, Jeffrey W. Hunter, Project Editors

Feminism in Literature, Vol. 1

Project Editor Permissions Composition and Electronic Capture

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Printed in the United States of America

Women in the 16th, 17th, and 18th

Women’s Literature in the 16th, 17th, Margery Kempe 1373-1440

Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601-662 United States Suffrage Movement in

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861

Charlotte Brontë 1816-1855 Fanny Burney 1752-1840

VOLUME 3 George Eliot 1819-1880

Catharine Maria Sedgwick 1789-1867

Sarah Orne Jewett 1849-1909

Christina Rossetti 1830-1894

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497-501

Marguerite Duras 1914-1996

Alice Walker 1944-

Gertrude Stein 1874-1946 Edith Wharton 1862-1937

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581-585

Indexes Feminism in Literature Advisory Board

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

C. 620 B.C. C. 30 B.C.

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

C. 1600 ● Margaret Lucas Cavendish, later Duchess of

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

● Suffrage in New Jersey is limited to “white

● Sojourner Truth is born Isabella Bomefree in

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

1858 ● Elizabeth Cady Stanton runs for Congress as

1870 ■ Louisa May Alcott’s Work: A Story of Experience

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

● Lucretia Coffin Mott dies on 11 November in

● Harriet Beecher Stowe dies on 1 July in Hart-

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

● Anne Sexton is born on 9 November in New-

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

■ The Women’s Rights Law Reporter is founded in

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

CHRONOLOGY OF KEY EVENTS

C ontemporary feminist theory has allowed

Hildegard von Bingen

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Homer

Aeschylus Hrotsvit of Gandersheim

Catherine of Siena Margery Kempe

Christine de Pizan Ovid

YU XUANJI (LYRIC DATE C. 9TH

hating to hear the story my mother would get upset