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THE LITERARY CAREER AND LEGACY OF ELIZABETH CARY, 1613-1680
Edited by Heather Wolfe
Availability: Now In Stock
From Palgrave Macmillan
Pub date: Dec 2006
272 pages
Size 5-1/2 x 8-1/4
$80.00 - Hardcover (1-4039-7016-5)

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Description
This collection is the first book-length study of the writings and influence of Elizabeth Cary, author of the first original play by a woman to be printed in English, The Tragedy of Mariam (1613). While previous criticism has focused most exclusively on The Tragedie of Mariam and The History of Edward II, the essays in this volume broaden our understanding of Cary as a writer by incorporating critical and historical analyses of her forays into other genres as well. Always mindful of the literary, political, and religious backdrop of early Stuart England, the essays explore the extent of her engagement in both the print and manuscript worlds of early modern England. The essays address crucial questions about authorship, form, and reception and avoid generalizations about gender that would smooth over her consistently ambiguous portrayals of male and female figures and her complicated appropriations of typically “male” genres.

Author Bio
Heather Wolfe is a distinguished scholar and the Curator of Manuscripts, Folger Shakespeare Library.

Praise for Literary Career and Legacy of Elizabeth Cary, 1613-1680
“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
 

Table of contents
Part I: The Tragedy of Mariam * Private Lyrics in Elizabeth Cary’s Tragedy of Mariam--Ilona Bell * Mariam and Early Modern Discourses of Martyrdom--Erin E. Kelly *  Elizabeth Cary’s Historical Conscience: The Tragedy of Mariam and Thomas Lodge’s Josephus--Alison Shell * Part II: Edward II * “Royal Fever” and “The Giddy Commons” in Elizabeth Cary’s History of the Life, Reign, and Death of Edward II--Curtis Perry * “Fortune is a Stepmother”: Gender and Political Discourse in Elizabeth Cary’s History of Edward II--Mihoko Suzuki * A Bibliographical Palimpsest: The Post-Publication History of the Octavo Pamphlet, The History of the Most Unfortunate Prince King Edward II (1680)--Jesse G. Swan * From Manuscript to Printed Text: Telling and Retelling the History of Edward II--Margaret Reeves * Part III: Other Writings * “To informe thee aright”: Translating Du Perron for English Religious Debates --Karen L. Nelson * Elizabeth Cary and the Great Tew Circle--Richard Serjeantson * “Reader, Stand Still and Look, Lo Here I Am”: Elizabeth Cary’s Funeral Elegy On the Duke of Buckingham--Nadine N. W. Akkerman * Part IV: Literary Patronage and Legacies * “A More Worthy Patronesse”: Elizabeth Cary and Ireland--Deana Rankin * “To have her children with her”: Elizabeth Cary and Familial Influence--Marion Wynne-Davies

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