The Literary Career and Legacy of Elizabeth Cary, 1613-1680

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Heather Wolfe

      Pages 1-13

3. The Tragedy of Mariam

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

      PDF

   2. Private Lyrics in Elizabeth Cary’s Tragedy of Mariam

      • Ilona Bell

      Pages 17-34

   3. Mariam And Early Modern Discourses Of Martyrdom

      • Erin E. Kelly

      Pages 35-52

   4. Elizabeth Cary’s Historical Conscience: The Tragedy of Mariam and Thomas Lodge’s Josephus

      • Alison Shell

      Pages 53-67

4. Edward II

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 69-69

      PDF

   2. “Royal Fever” and “The Giddy Commons”: Cary’s History of the Life, Reign, and Death of Edward II and the Buckingham Phenomenon

      • Curtis Perry

      Pages 71-88

   3. “Fortune is a Stepmother”: Gender and Political Discourse in Elizabeth Cary’s History of Edward II

      • Mihoko Suzuki

      Pages 89-105

   4. A Bibliographical Palimpsest: The Post-Publication History of the 1680 Octavo, The History of the Most Unfortunate Prince King Edward II

      • Jesse G. Swan

      Pages 107-124

   5. From Manuscript to Printed Text: Telling and Retelling the History of Edward II

      • Margaret Reeves

      Pages 125-144

5. Other Writings

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 145-145

      PDF

   2. “To Informe Thee Aright”: Translating Du Perron for English Religious Debates

      • Karen L. Nelson

      Pages 147-163

   3. Elizabeth Cary and the Great Tew Circle

      • R. W. Serjeantson

      Pages 165-182

   4. “Reader, Stand Still and Look, lo Here I am”: Elizabeth Cary’s Funeral Elegy “On the Duke of Buckingham”

      • Nadine N. W. Akkerman

      Pages 183-200

6. Litreary Patronage and Legacies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 201-201

      PDF

   2. “A More Worthy Patronesse”: Elizabeth Cary and Ireland

      • Deana Rankin

      Pages 203-221

   3. “To Have Her Children With Her”: Elizabeth Cary and Familial Influence

      • Marion Wynne-Davies

      Pages 223-241

7. Back Matter

   Pages 243-258

   PDF

This is the first book to study the work and influence of Elizabeth Cary, author of the first original play by a woman to be printed in English, The Tragedyie of Mariam (1613). Previous criticism focused concentrated on this and The History of Edward II , this volume incorporates critical and historical analyses of other genres too.

• death
• discourse
• English
• gender
• history
• history of literature
• lyric
• play
• tragedy

'This is a splendid collection of essays, treating the entire range of Elizabeth Cary's writing and its literary, political, and religious resonances and affiliations. Several essays offer new critical perspectives on Cary's closet drama, The Tragedy of Mariam, and others explore the relations between and political import of the two printed versions of her The History of Edward II and the two recently discovered manuscripts of that work. Some essays treat her translation of the Roman Catholic controversalist Du Perron and her epitaph (and elegy?) on the assassination of Buckingham, works which involved her directly with fraught contemporary issues. Still others treat her private letters, her patronage of writers and Irish social projects, her association with court and intellectual circles, and her influence on the writings of her children. The collection significantly advances our knowledge of Cary and her age, as well as testifying to the maturity the study of early modern women's writing has now attained.' - Barbara Lewalski, Kenan Professor of English Literature, Harvard University

• Folger Shakespeare Library, USA

  Heather Wolfe

HEATHER WOLFE is a distinguished scholar and the Curator of Manuscripts, Folger Shakespeare Library, USA.

Policies and ethics