Martha Moulsworth

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Standard Name: Moulsworth, Martha
Birth Name: Martha Dorset
Married Name: Martha Prynne
Married Name: Martha Thoroughgood
Married Name: Martha Moulsworth
It is hard to believe that MM —a seventeenth-century woman who left a single, thoughtful, accomplished poem—was not a writer in a larger sense. One or two other poems might plausibly be hers, and she left a will with vigorous and sinewy prose—which is, however, no more remarkable than plenty of others.
The poem tentatively attributed to her by Matthew Steggle in Early Modern Literary Studies in January 2001 was actually written nearly sixty years after her death by a different writer, Mary (Molesworth) Monck .
Steggle, Matthew. “The Text and Attribution of ’Thou who dost all my thoughts employ’: A New Moulsworth Poem?”. Early Modern Literary Studies, Vol.
6
, No. 3, Jan. 2001.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Textual Features Lady Hester Pulter
Eardley argues that LHP is unusual among writers of poetry in her day because she seems not to have written for circulation even in manuscript, and because of the confessional element in her poems.
Pulter, Lady Hester. “Introduction”. Poems, Emblems, and The Unfortunate Florinda, edited by Alice Eardley, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014, pp. 1-40.
2-3

Timeline

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Texts

Moulsworth, Martha. "My Name Was Martha". Editors Evans, Robert C. and Barbara Wiedemann, Locust Hill, 1993.
Moulsworth, Martha. “Preface and Commentary”. "My Name Was Martha", edited by Robert C. Evans and Barbara Wiedemann, Locust Hill, 1993, p. Various pages.