Margaret Cavendish

01 January 1623 - 15 December 1673

Margaret Cavendish, who was by marriage a great lady, wrote in the seventeenth century primarily to please herself and her husband, who was an enthusiast for her writing; they took pleasure in her publishing as well as her writing. Her works (scientific speculations, poems, plays, speeches, biography and autobiography) were issued in handsome folio volumes, with her name and some honorific description, primarily for presentation more than for sale. Two women printers published works by her.

Bell, Maureen. A Dictionary of Women in the London Book Trade, 1540-1730. Loughborough University of Technology.

Milestones

Probably 1623

Margaret Lucas (later Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle) was born, the youngest (by six years) of a family of eight.

Jones, Kathleen. A Glorious Fame: The Life of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, 1623-1673. Bloomsbury.

Cavendish, Margaret. “Introduction”. Paper Bodies: A Margaret Cavendish Reader, edited by Sylvia Bowerbank and Sara Heller Mendelson, Broadview, pp. 9-37.

March 1653

Margaret Cavendish , Marchioness of Newcastle, in London on her exiled husband 's business, published her first book: Poems, and Fancies.

Grant, Douglas. Margaret the First: A Biography of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, 1623-1673. Rupert Hart-Davis.

126

December 1667

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle , published The Life of . . . William Cavendishe, Duke . . . of Newcastle . . ..

Grant, Douglas. Margaret the First: A Biography of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, 1623-1673. Rupert Hart-Davis.

188

1668

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle , included five new works in Plays Never before Printed.

British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

15 December 1673

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle , died suddenly at Welbeck, probably from the chronic stomach ailments which her purging and avoidance of exercise may have hastened.

Jones, Kathleen. A Glorious Fame: The Life of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, 1623-1673. Bloomsbury.

173-4

Biography

She consistently signed her name (at least in print) Margaret Newcastle. This would seem the most logical, consistent, and respectful way of naming her, and she was called Duchess of Newcastle for many generations (though her title only changed from Marchioness in March 1665). But now that feminist literary history knows her as Margaret Cavendish, this has become the inevitable form of her name.