Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Queen Elizabeth I
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Standard Name: Elizabeth I, Queen
Birth Name: Elizabeth Tudor
Royal Name: Elizabeth I
QEI
was a scholar by training and inclination (who wrote translations both as learning exercises and for recreation), as well as a writer in many genres and several languages. As monarch she wrote speeches, and all her life she wrote letters, poems, and prayers. (Some of these categories occasionally overlap.) Once her writing moved beyond the dutifulness of her youth, she had a pungent and forceful style both in prose and poetry.
NL
published her first historical fiction: Here Was a Man: A Romantic History of Sir Walter
, His Voyages, His Discoveries, and His Queen.
Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series. Gale Research.
80
Textual Production
Josephine Tey
The play grew out of an argument with Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies
(Daviot's friend since they met on the set of Richard of Bordeaux) about Mary Stuart
's character. (At that time Daviot sided with Elizabeth of England
Textual Production
Marie-Catherine d' Aulnoy
MCA
made what seems to be her first appearance in English, with The Novels of Elizabeth Queen of England
, Containing the history of Queen Ann of Bullen (which represented a part of her Nouvelles...
Textual Production
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
For a young woman who had never attended university (as she of course could not at this time) to offer a translation from a classical language was both courageous and confident.
It was a long...
Textual Production
Ford Madox Ford
In this piece FMF
examines patterns in monarchical history to argue that it is profitable that a woman should occupy the highest place of the State.
Ford, Ford Madox, and Graham Greene. The Ford Madox Ford Reader. Editor Stang, Sondra J., Carcanet.
317
(The implication is that if a woman can...
Textual Production
Jan Morris
More than a decade later, in 1978, JM
followed her own portrait of Oxford by editing The Oxford Book of Oxford, a quirky anthology of often very short anecdotes and other excerpts, aimed less...
Textual Features
Lucy Hutchinson
LH
's opening address To my Children (probably written after the body of the work) describes John Hutchinson
's appearance and virtues—which, she writes, need no panegyric but will appear most glorious in a plain...
Textual Features
Norah Lofts
The title flags the controversies surrounding its subject: Anne's marriage gave her her place in history, but according to this novel the king did not have marriage in his mind when he began his pursuit...
Textual Features
Antonia Fraser
AF
says in her Author's Note that it occurred to her while she was working on Oliver Cromwell
that women during the English Civil War would make a more interesting subject. She divides her book...
Textual Features
Claire Luckham
This episodic play traces the course of Anne Boleyn's relations with King Henry VIII
from 1526 to her execution on 19 May 1536, ending with news of this event. It focuses on the early years...
Textual Features
Leonora Carrington
The narrative is told in the first person to you, LC
's interlocutor Jeanne Megnen
, and divided into five journal or diary entries dated 23-27 August 1943. Across those entries LC
recounts her...
Textual Features
Jean Plaidy
This novel describes the years of Mary's imprisonment by Elizabeth
. Its plots, counterplots and torture, the desperate appeals written by its protagonist to potential supporters from her various dank prisons, are all over-shadowed by...
Textual Features
Carola Oman
Her introduction disappointingly says nothing personal, nothing about Oman's association with Hertfordshire. It is in effect a biography, thorough and sometimes humorous, of Chauncy, taking in his forebears, descendants, and legal career. His topographical work...
Will Shakespeare is written in blank verse, but does not imitate Elizabethan language. Subtitled an invention, the play dramatises Shakespeare
's early career as a writer, focusing on his move from Stratford to London...
