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Distributed for Iter Press

Women’s Household Drama

Loves Victorie, A Pastorall, and The concealed Fansyes

This volume presents three plays by women that were written in specific household contexts and survive in distinctive handwritten copies dating from their authors’ lifetimes. Care is taken in the introductions, notes, and apparatus to make the plays accessible to non-specialist readers while also preserving early modern orthography, punctuation, and manuscript practices. Each play is presented in an edited old-spelling text and set within its literary, biographical, and theatrical context. The volume as a whole foregrounds the early modern household as a uniquely productive setting for women’s theatrical and literary activity.

Volume 66 in the Other Voice in Early Modern Europe - The Chicago Series

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Reviews

"This is an excellent volume, providing a scholarly, thoroughly annotated edition of three fascinating manuscript plays by early modern women writers: Mary Wroth’s Loves Victorie (based on the Huntington manuscript), edited by Marta Straznicky, and Jane Cavendish and Elizabeth Brackley’s A Pastorall and The concealed Fansyes, edited by Sara Mueller. All three plays have begun to attract considerable scholarly interest, but readers who are new to them will be struck by how lively and indeed performable they are. Based on sound texts and detailed introductions, this volume will ensure that these plays will receive the ongoing attention they deserve."

Paul Salzman, University of Newcastle (Australia)

Table of Contents

Illustrations xiii
Acknowledgments xv
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Marta Straznicky and Sara Mueller 1
PART I: MARY WROTH (1587?–1651)
Edited by Marta Straznicky 15
Introduction 17
Loves Victorie 47
Textual Notes for Loves Victorie 113
PART II: JANE CAVENDISH (1621–1669) and ELIZABETH BRACKLEY (1626–1663)
Edited by Sara Mueller 139
Introduction 141
A Pastorall 177
Textual Notes for A Pastorall 197
The concealed Fansyes 199
Bibliography 255
Index 269

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