Women, Reading, and the Cultural Politics of Early Modern England

"A study of the representation of reading in early modern Englishwomen's writing, this book exists at the intersection of textual criticism and cultural history. It looks at depictions of reading in women's printed devotional works, maternal advice books, poetry, and fiction, as well as manuscripts, for evidence of ways in which women conceived of reading in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. Among the authors and texts considered are Katherine Parr, Lamentation of a Sinner; Anne Askew, The Examinations of Anne Askew; Dorothy Leigh, The Mothers Blessing; Elizabeth Grymeston, Miscelanea Meditations Memoratives; Aemelia Lanyer, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum; and Mary Wroth, The First Part of the Countess of Montgomery's Urania. Attentive to contiguities between representations of reading in print and reading practices found in manuscript culture, this book also examines a commonplace book belonging to Anne Cornwallis (Folger Folger MS V.a.89) and a Passion poem presented by Elizabeth Middleton to Sarah Edmondes (Bod. MS Don. e.17). Edith Snook here makes an original contribution to the ongoing scholarly project of historicizing reading by foregrounding female writers of the early modern period. She explores how women's representations of reading negotiate the dynamic relationship between the public and private spheres and investigates how women might have been affected by changing ideas about literacy, as well as how they sought to effect change in devotional and literary reading practices. Finally, because the activity of reading is a site of cultural conflict - over gender, social and educational status, and the religious or national affiliation of readers - Snook brings to light how these women, when they write about reading, are engaged in structuring the cultural politics of early modern England."--Provided by publisher Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 List of Figures 10 Acknowledgements 11 Introduction 12 The Politics of Literacy 19 Education 21 The Female Reader 23 Women's Books 27 This Book 32 1 Gendering the English Reformation: The Vernacular Reader in Anne Askew's Examinations and Katherine Parr's Lamentacion of a Synner 36 Anne Askew and the Femininity of Protestant Polemic 45 Katherine Parr and the ‘ignoraunce of her blind life’ 55 The Monument of Matrones 63 Conclusion 66 2 Dorothy Leigh, the 'Labourous Bee,' and the Work of Literacy in Seventeenth-Century England 68 Maternal Reading Instruction 70 The Labour of Reading 73 The Gender(ed) Politics of Puritan Reading 79 The Maternal Voice in English Politics 86 Conclusion 91 3 A ‘Wit’s Camelion’: Elizabeth Grymeston and the Catholic Reader 94 Catholic Mothers and Readers 97 Anne Cornwallis's Commonplace Book 102 Grymeston and the Commonplace 109 Grymeston’s Reader: Thomas Chaffyn 113 The Voice at the Priest Hide 117 Conclusion 122 4 Reading the Passion Among Women: Aemelia Lanyer and Elizabeth Middleton 126 Lanyer's Desiring Female Readers 131 The Power of the Passion 140 Elizabeth Middleton’s ‘Free Guifte’ 146 Conclusion 155 5 ‘Onely a Cipher’: Reading and Writing Secrets in Lady Mary Wroth’s The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania 156 Melasinda’s Dainty Cabinet 158 Reading Pamphilia’s Ciphers 163 History in Fiction: Wroth and her Readers 171 Conclusion 176 Selected Bibliography 180 Index 192 Finally, because the activity of reading is a site of cultural conflict - over gender, social and educational status, and the religious or national affiliation of readers - Snook brings to light how these women, when they write about reading, are engaged in structuring the cultural politics of early modern England."--Jacket