Poems, Emblems, and The Unfortunate Florinda (Volume 32) (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series)

Scholars who study early modern women’s writing have been eager for a full-text edition of the works of Hester Pulter since her manuscript was discovered in the mid-1990s. Now that Alice Eardley has brought together all of Pulter’s writing—poetry, emblems, and a prose romance—in a modern-spelling edition, students and academics will be able to access a remarkable body of work. The introduction does a brilliant job of situating Pulter in various milieux (the Civil War, religion, science) and in assessing the genres in which she worked. Eardley’s edition is clear and comprehensive enough to be useful to a wide audience of non-specialists, but its learned glosses are also illuminating for more experienced readers of early modern texts. Written during the 1640s, 50s, and 60s, Lady Hester Pulter's "Poems," "Emblems," and "The Unfortunate Florinda" address some of the most pressing issues confronting early modern England, including the political turmoil of the English Civil Wars, new developments in scientific enquiry, and the social status of women. The intensely emotional and confessional style of her occasional and devotional poetry is particularly unusual for its time, addressing issues such as childbirth, isolation, and mental and physical illness. Her emblem poems are the first known series of original emblems by an Englishwoman, and "The Unfortunate Florinda," which features a cast of characters from North Africa, is one of the first English versions of the fashionable French romances of the period. Previously unknown to a wider readership, these recently discovered works shed new light both on the inner lives of early modern women and on seventeenth-century literary culture in general. This annotated edition modernizes spelling and punctuation, making a lively and engaging body of work Cover Title Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Illustrations Introduction Abbreviations Used in Footnotes to the Text Poems Breathed Forth by the Noble Hadassah Poems Written by the Right Honorable H. P. Emblems. The Sighs of a Sad Soul Emblematically Breathed Forth by the Noble Hadassah The Unfortunate Florinda Written by the Noble Hadassah The First Part The Second Part Glossary Bibliography Index of Poem Titles and First Lines Index