Mary is the undisputed author of a number of letters
that are increasingly studied as fi ne examples of the
epistolary genre. She corresponded with numerous
people, including popes and rulers. Her status as a
poet, however, is a contentious one. The authenticity
of the so-called CASKET LETTERS has long been in dis-
pute. The eight letters, 12 SONNETs, and two marriage
contracts contained in them were used as the main
pieces of evidence against Mary in her trial for com-
plicity in Darnley’s murder. The originals, however,
disappeared in 1584, and only copies (in French, Eng-
lish, and Scots) remain. Nevertheless, the sonnets
themselves are interesting, and even if not authentic,
certainly served their political purpose, and they are
commonly anthologized today.
See also JAMES VI/I.
FURTHER READING
Donaldson, Gordon. Mary Queen of Scots. London: English
University Press, 1974.
Fraser, Antonia. Mary Queen of Scots. London: Weidenfi eld/
Nicolson, 1969.
MacRobert, A. E. Mary, Queen of Scots and the Casket Letters.
London and New York: I. B. Tauris Publishers, 2002.
Melissa A. Harris and Michelle M. Sauer
MEDITATIONS ON SIN ANNE VAUGHAN LOCK
(1560) This SONNET SEQUENCE, consisting of “The
Preface, Expressing the Passioned Minde of the Peni-
tent Sinner” and “A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner,
upon the 51st Psalme,” was published in 1560,
appended to Anne Vaughan Lock’s English translation
of the French Sermons of John Calvin, upon the songe that
Ezechias made after he had been sicke, and affl icted by the
hand of God. The 19 verses of the “51st Psalme” refl ect
on the need for sinners to confess their sins so that
they can receive God’s forgiveness. Lock’s devotional
Meditations elaborate and contemporize each verse of
the “Psalme” to emphasize Calvinist theology, particu-
larly the idea of repentance. The “Preface,” which con-
tains fi ve SONNETs, begins a lament about “The
loathsome fi lth of my distained life” (l. 5). Twenty-one
sonnets—rhyming abab, cdcd, efef, gg—follow this
opening lament in the primary Meditation. The verses
of the psalm are printed as marginalia, and the words
of the verses are incorporated, repeatedly, into the cor-
responding sonnets as part of the paraphrasing to
emphasize the penitential aspects that the devout must
meditate upon.
Lock was a Protestant and a longtime friend and
correspondent of John Knox and other Calvinists. Her
writings and translations, under her various married
surnames, including Dering and Prowse, reinforce her
political and religious support of the Reformation.
Lock’s recent recognition as the translator “A. L.” of the
Calvin sermons and as author of the sonnet sequence,
in spite of a textual note claiming that a friend gave the
Meditations to her, has refocused scholarly attention on
Lock and the sonnets. The sonnet sequence is now
acknowledged to be the fi rst in English. Its female
authorship challenges the canon and the traditional
lines of infl uence on sonneteers such as SIR PHILIP SID-
NEY and WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Additionally, the reli-
gious nature of Lock’s poems is leading scholars to
reconsider women’s devotional writing and its place
within the literary and polemical traditions.
See also TUDOR WOMEN POETS.
FURTHER READING
Lock, Anne Vaughan. The Collected Works of Anne Vaughan
Lock. Edited by Susan M. Felch. Tempe: Arizona Center
for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1999.
Jennifer L. AillesMETERS OF BOETHIUS ALFRED THE GREAT
(ca. ninth century) Two different versions of
BOETHIUS’s CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY exist in OLD
ENGLISH, both dated to the ninth century. One renders
all of the Consolation into Old English prose. The other
treats only the verse sections of the Consolation and is
an adaptation of the corresponding sections of the Old
English prose version into Old English poetry. This
version is known as Meters of Boethius, and both have
been attributed to ALFRED THE GREAT.
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of both Old
English versions of the Consolation is the way Alfred
has recast Boethius’s original work, framed as a con-
versation between Boethius and Lady Philosophy, into
more explicitly Christian terms. For example, the nar-
rator (referred to simply as Mind for most of the work)METERS OF BOETHIUS 267