Rachel Speght

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Standard Name: Speght, Rachel
Birth Name: Rachel Speght
Married Name: Rachel Procter
RS stands out among authors of polemic answers to Joseph Swetnam's offensive misogynist pamphlet of 1615. Her editor Barbara Kiefer Lewalski observes that she is the first Englishwoman to identify herself solidly by name (granted that there must be some doubt about the genuine identity of Jane Anger ) in contributing to the gender controversy known as the querelle des femmes.
Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer, and Rachel Speght. “Introduction”. The Polemics and Poems of Rachel Speght, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. xi - xxxvi.
xi
Her known writings comprise two poems, allegorical and devotional (the earlier one being her intervention in polemical debate), and two petitions of much later date.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Literary responses Elizabeth Melvill
Comments on Ane Godlie Dreame, though sparse, have been persistent. John Livingstone recorded that she was famous for her dream anent her spirituall condition.
qtd. in
Baxter, Jamie Reid. “Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross: new light from Fife”. The Innes Review, Vol.
68
, No. 1, May 2017, pp. 38-77.
40
John Armstrong in 1770 thought it almost too terrible...
Occupation Elizabeth Tollet
ET 's book ownership qualifies her as a collector in a way that few of her female contemporaries were, though since she left her collection to her scholarly nephew George it is hard to separate...
Textual Production Elizabeth Warren
An alleged second edition (published, according to Thomason, who uses Old Style, on what is today called 29 January 1646) includes a note from George Jenny , who says he was instrumental in persuading the...
Textual Production Bathsua Makin
The title-page, in Latin, names her father as well as herself, mentions her tender age, and bears epigraphs in Greek and French. The British Library copy has a note on its final page in the...

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

Speght, Rachel. A Mouzell for Melastomus. T. Archer, 1617.
Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer, and Rachel Speght. “Introduction”. The Polemics and Poems of Rachel Speght, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. xi - xxxvi.
Speght, Rachel. Mortalities Memorandum. J. Bloome, 1621.
Speght, Rachel. The Polemics and Poems of Rachel Speght. Editor Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer, Oxford University Press, 1996.