Readings in Renaissance Women's Drama is the most complete sourcebook for the study of this growing area of inquiry. It brings together, for the first time, a collection of the key critical commentaries and historical essays - both classic and contemporary - on Renaissance women's drama. Specifically designed to provide a comprehensive overview for students, teachers and scholars, this collection combines: * this century's key critical essays on drama by early modern women by early critics such as Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot * specially-commissioned new essays by some of today's important feminist critics * a preface and introduction explaining this selection and contexts of the materials * a bibliography of secondary sources Playwrights covered include Joanna Lumley, Elizabeth Cary, Mary Sidney, Mary Wroth and the Cavendish sisters.
Preface xi(1) Acknowledgements xii(1) Permissions xiii Introduction 1(6) PART I Early commentaries 7(22) Introduction 9(1) 1 Mary Sidney is Praised to Elizabeth I (1594) 10(1) 2 Samuel Daniel to Mary Sidney (1594) 10(3) 3 John Davies of Hereford Commends Mary Sidney and Elizabeth Cary (1612) 13(1) 4 William Sheares to Elizabeth Cary (1633) 14(1) 5 Jonson and Worth (1640) 15(1) 6 Elizabeth Carys Biography (1643-9) 16(1) 7 Celebrating Several Ladies (1752) 16(1) 8 The Cavaliers Lady and her Plays (1872) 17(1) 9 The First Scholarly Edition of Mary Sidneys Antonie (1897) 18(1) 10 Lumleys Play First Published (1909) 18(1) 11 The First Modern Edition of Mariam (1914) 19(1) 12 Early Critical Recognition of Elizabeth Cary and Margaret Cavendish (1920) 20(1) 13 Woolf on Margaret Cavendish (1925) 21(1) 14 T.S. Eliot on Senecan Drama (1927) 21(2) 15 Virginia Woolf on `Judith Shakespeare (1929) 23(1) 16 The First Edition of The Concealed Fancies (1931) 24(2) 17 Cary and `A Womans Duty (1940) 26(1) 18 Mary Sidney: Philips Sister (1957) 27(2) PART II Contexts and issues 29(80) Introduction 31(1) 1 Women playwrights in England: Renaissance noblewomen 32(15) NANCY COTTON 2 The Arts at the English Court of Anna of Denmark 47(13) LEEDS BARROLL
3. `My seeled chamber and dark parlour room: the English country house and Renaissance women dramatists 60(9) MARION WYNNE-DAVIES 4 Women as patrons of English Renaissance drama 69(12) DAVID M. BERGERON 5 Women as spectators, spectacles, and paying customers 81(6) JEAN E. HOWARD 6 Women as theatrical investors: three shareholders and the second Fortune Playhouse 87(8) S. P. CERASANO 7 `Why may not a lady write a good play?: plays by Early Modern women reassessed as performance texts 95(14) GWENO WILLIAMS PART III Early Modern women dramatists 109(197) Introduction 111(2) ELIZABETH I 113(12) 1 `We princes, I tell you, are set on stages: Elizabeth I and dramatic self-representation 113(12) CAROLE LEVIN JANE/JOANNA LUMLEY 125(17) 2 Joanna Lumley (1537?-1576/77) 125(4) ELAINE V. BEILIN 3 Jane Lumleys Iphigenia at Aulis: multum in parvo, or, less is more 129(13) STEPHANIE HODGSON-WRIGHT MARY SIDNEY 142(125) 4 `Patronesse of the Muses 142(14) MARGARET P. HANNAY 5 Mary Herbert: Englishing a purified Cleopatra 156(11) TINA KRONTIRIS ELIZABETH CARY 167(52) 6 Elizabeth Cary (1585-1639) 167(15) ELAINE V. BEILIN 7 The spectre of resistance: The Tragedy of Mariam (1613) 182(12) MARGARET W. FERGUSON 8 Resisting tyrants: Elizabeth Carys tragedy 194(25) BARBARA KIEFER LEWALSKI MARY WROTH 219(27) 9 An unknown continent: Lady Mary Wroths forgotten pastoral drama, `Loves Victorie 219(15) MARGARET ANNE McLAREN 10 `Like one in a gay masque: the Sidney cousins in the theaters of court and country 234(12) GARY WALLER JANE CAVENDISH AND ELIZABETH BRACKLEY 246(26) 11 `To be your daughter in your pen: the social functions of literature in the writings of Lady Elizabeth Brackley and Lady Jane Cavendish 246(13) MARGARET J. M. EZELL 12 `She gave you the civility of the house: household performance in The Concealed Fancies 259(13) ALISON FINDLAY MARGARET CAVENDISH 272(34) 13 `My brain the stage: Margaret Cavendish and the fantasy of female performance 272(21) SOPHIE TOMLINSON 14 `A women write a play!: Jonsonian strategies and the dramatic writings of Margaret Cavendish; or, did the duchess feel the anxiety of influence? 293(13) JULIE SANDERS Notes on contributors 306(4) Bibliography of secondary sources 310(5) Index 315
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