TUDOR WOMEN POETS In A Room of One’s
Own (1929), Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) invented a
fi ctional character—Judith Shakespeare—to remedy
what she imagined to be the absence of early modern
women writers. But, as the work of many recent schol-
ars suggests, women did write during the 16th cen-
tury. In fact, women produced works in every major
literary genre used by male authors. The designation of
Tudor women poets therefore refl ects a vast range of
female literary output. Women were far more prolifi c,
both in manuscript and print, during the early modern
period than was once believed.
Some Tudor women poets include ISABELLA WHITNEY
(fl. 1567–73), ANNE VAUGHAN LOCK, MARY SIDNEY HER-
BERT (1561–1621), Jane Seager (fl. ca. 1589), ANNE DOW-
RICHE, Elizabeth Melville (ca. 1582–1640), and Elizabeth
Jane Weston (ca. 1581–1612). Much of the writing pro-
duced by women between the years of 1550 and 1600
was religious; in particular, writers like Elizabeth Tyr-
whit, Mary Sidney Herbert, and Anne Lock produced
poetry that endorsed Protestant values. Religious poetry
often took shape as prayers, psalms, and meditations.
The most striking exemplar for female authorship
during the period was Queen ELIZABETH I. Although
only two of Elizabeth’s poems survive in autograph
copies, she produced a range of poems throughout her
life. Some of her earliest verses were written while she
was imprisoned at Woodstock from 1554 to 1555.
These two poems, “WRITTEN ON A WINDOW FRAME [OR
WALL] AT WOODSTOCK” AND “WRITTEN WITH A DIAMOND,”
give us an indication of the ductility and inventiveness
of women’s writing: even when lacking quills and
paper, women chose materials such as chalk or instru-
ments such as writing rings that allowed them to
scratch their words onto walls, windows, and other
unexpected surfaces. Elizabeth’s education, her status,
and her centrality to 16th-century literary culture is
everywhere evident, both in her own writings and in
such texts as EDMUND SPENSER’s The FAERIE QUEENE
(1596). Moreover, the queen’s impressive accomplish-
ments in effect encouraged many women to write, and
religious movements also catalyzed female writers with
energetic literary zeal.
Mary Sidney Herbert and Jane Seager both com-
posed poems for Elizabeth. Herbert’s SIDNEAN PSALMS, a
continuation of a project that her brother SIR PHILIP
SIDNEY began before his death, disseminate Elizabeth’s
Protestant ideals and include a dedicatory poem to
Elizabeth, “EVEN NOW THAT CARE,” in which Herbert
asserts that “Kings on a Queene enforst their states to
lay” and enforces a comparison between Elizabeth and
the biblical David.
Scribally circulated in manuscript, Herbert’s Psalms
included some words written in gold, refl ecting the
elaborate care that was taken in manuscript texts
intended for royal audiences. Jane Seager’s translation
of the 10 sibyls’ prophecies of the birth of Christ simi-
larly acquires value through its material production.
Ruled in gilt and with gilt capital letters, the 10-leaf
manuscript is carefully held together by a glass binding
probably painted by Seager and trimmed in velvet. The
volume comprises poems written in calligraphy. Fac-
ing each poem is a version of the same poem written in
character, a form of shorthand invented by the physi-
cian and writer Timothy Bright. The manuscript begins
with a dedicatory epistle to Elizabeth in which Seager
asks for “your Majesties most gracious acceptaunce” of
her manuscript, although there is no evidence of
whether Elizabeth received the text.
The most famous calligraphic artist of the early
modern period was Esther Inglis (1571–1624). Inglis
produced a series of 50 poems, her Octonaries.
Although Inglis did not write the eight-line poems and
possibly was not even their translator, her sumptuous
text showcases the interactivities between poems and
their contexts. Women such as Inglis and Seager could
use skills like painting and calligraphy to insert their
own authorial identities into literary culture.
Unlike women who circulated their writings in
beautiful manuscript presentation copies, Isabella
Whitney printed two volumes of poetry in cheap edi-
tions. Whitney’s poetry stands as a unique example of
secular, printed poetry by a 16th-century woman.
Her fi rst volume, The Copy of a letter by a yonge Gentil-
woman to her unconstant Lover (1567), calls on Ovid-
ian source materials and displays Whitney’s insightful
wit. Her later volume, A Sweet Nosegay (1573), is a
series of translated aphorisms framed by original
epistolary verses. Whitney skillfully employs ballad
meter, and she engineers a space for herself within
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