Gifting Translation in Early Modern England : Women Writers and the Politics of Authorship

Translation was a critical mode of discourse for early modern writers. Gifting Translation in Early Modern England: Women Writers and the Politics of Authorship examines the intersection of translation and the culture of gift-giving in early modern England, arguing that this intersection allowed women to subvert dominant modes of discourse through acts of linguistic and inter-semiotic translation and conventions of gifting. The book considers four early modern translators: Mary Bassett, Jane Lumley, Jane Seager, and Esther Inglis. These women negotiate the rhetorics of translation and gift-culture in order to articulate political and religious affiliations and beliefs in their carefully crafted manuscript gift-books. This book offers a critical lens through which to read early modern translations in relation to the materiality of early modern gift culture Cover 1 Table of Contents 6 Acknowledgements 10 Introduction 12 ‘Transformance’: Renaissance Women’s Translation and the Performance of Gift Exchange 12 1. ‘Thys my poore labor to present’ 38 Mary Bassett’s Translation of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History 38 2. ‘For the comodite of my countrie’ 70 Nation, Gift, and Family in Lady Jane Lumley’s Tragedie of Iphigeneia 70 3. ‘Graced both with my pen and pencell’ 106 Prophecy and Politics in Jane Seager’s Divine Prophecies of the Ten Sibills 106 4. ‘The fruits of my pen’ 142 Esther Inglis’s Translation of Georgette de Montenay’s Emblemes ou Devises Chrestiennes 142 Conclusion 182 ‘Shall I Apologize Translation?’ 182 General Bibliography 190 Appendix 1 210 Table of Emblems and Dedicatees in Esther Inglis’s Cinquante Emblemes Chrestiens (1624) 210 Index 214 List of Illustrations 8 Figure 3.1. Jane Seager’s Divine Prophecies of the Ten Sibils (1589). English translations appear on the verso side of each folio, with facing page translations into Timothy Bright’s shorthand characterie. British Library MS Add 10037. © The British Libra 111 Figure 3.2. Verre églomisé front and back covers of British Library MS Add 10037. © The British Library Board. 111 Figure 4.1. Esther Inglis, self-portrait and laudatory verses (7r). Cinquante Emblemes Chrestienes. British Library MS Royal 17 D XVI. © The British Library Board. 166 Figure 4.2. Detail, Esther Inglis, Emblem III (Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia) British Library MS Royal 17 D XVI © The British Library Board. 167