Women and the Pamphlet Culture of Revolutionary England, 1640-1660

Marcus Nevitt

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351872171
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism for Comparative Literature
• Index: Literature

Offering an analysis of the ways in which groups of non-aristocratic women circumvented a number of interdictions against female participation in the pamphlet culture of revolutionary England, this book is primarily a study of female agency. Despite the fact that pamphlets, or cheap unbound books, have recently been located among the most inclusive or democratic aspects of the social life of early modern England, this study provides a more gender-sensitive picture. Marcus Nevitt argues instead that throughout the revolutionary decades pamphlet culture was actually constructed around the public silence and exclusion of women. In support of his thesis, he discusses more familiar seventeenth-century authors such as John Milton, John Selden and Thomas Edwards in relation to the less canonical but equally forceful writings of Katherine Chidley, Elizabeth Poole, Mary Pope, 'Parliament Joan' and a large number of Quaker women. This is the first sustained study of the relationship between female agency and cheap print throughout the revolutionary decades 1640 to 1660. It adds to the study of gender in the field of the English Revolution by engaging with recent work in the history of the book, stressing the materiality of texts and the means and physical processes by which women's writing emerged through the printing press and networks of publication and dissemination. It will stimulate welcome debate about the nature and limits of discursive freedom in the early modern period, and for women in particular.

Bibliography

Manuscript Sources

British Library
Sir James Harrington's Diary	Add. MS. 10114
Correspondance of Archbishop William Sancroft	Harl. MS. 3784 Harl. MS. 4931 f. 9
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds
Poems Breathed Forth by the Noble Hadassas	MS Lt q. 32
Guildhall Library
Minutes of the Court of Governors of Bridewell and Bethlem Hospitals	MS. 3301119
Public Record Office
State Papers	SP 18/66/74 SP 19/4/72 SP 19/4/77 SP 19/5/284 SP 19/98/80 SP 23/8/151 SP 23/621228 SP 23/62/232 SP 23/621233 SP 23/621235 SP 25/24/68 SP 25/24171 SP 25/63/16 SP 25/65/238 SP 25/72/174 SP 25/751258 SP 25/75/545 SP 25176/73 SP 25/87/61
Friends House Library	The Great Book of Sufferings

Printed Sources

Anonymous Primary Works

1. A Brief Narrative of the Mysteries of State Carried on by the Spanish Factions in England (London, 1651).
2. A Declaration of the Parliament of England Expressing the Grounds for their Late Proceedings and Setting of the Present Government in the Way of a Free State (London, 1649).
3. An Hue-And-Cry After Vox Populi. Or An Answer to Vox Diaboli, or a Libellous Pamphlet falsly styled Vox Populi (London, 1646).
4. A Letter to A Letter to Mr Tho Edwards. The Dedication of the Letter To our much suspected friend. Mr T. Edwards. Scavenger Generall, throughout Great Britaine, New England, and the united Provinces (London, 1646).
5. A Parliament of Ladies: With their Lawes Newly Enacted (London, 1647).
6. A Perfect Narrative of the Whole High Court of Justice (London, 1649).
7. A Remonstrance of the Shee-Citizens of London And of many thousands of other the freeborne Women of England (London, 1647).
8. A Shrill Cry in the Eares of Cavaliers, Apostates and Presbyters for the Resolve (London, 1649).
9. A Treatise of Tithes Written By a Wei-Wisher to Religion and Proprietie, As they have been established by the Law of the Land, and as they have been continued, and confirmed throughout divers Ages by Several Acts of Parliament (London, 1653).
10. A True Narrative of the Title, Government and Causes of the Death of the Late Charles Stuart (London, 1649).
11. A New Bull-Bayting (London, 1649).
12. Eikon Alethine: The Portraiture of Truths Most Sacred Majesty (London, 1649).
13. Eye Salve (London, 1649).
14. Faces About. Or A Recrimination charged Upon Mr John Goodwin, In the Point of Fighting against God. and opposing the way of Christ. And A Justification of the Presbyterian way in the Particulars by him unjustly charged upon it. With other short Animadversions upon his late Book called Oeomaxia or, The Grand Impudence of Men running the hazard of fighting against God,&c (London, 1644).
15. Goliah’s Head Cut Off With His Own Sword (London, 1655).
16. King Charls His Speech Made Upon the Scaffold at Whitehall-Gate (London, 1649).
17. King Charls His Tryall: Or a Perfect Narrative of the Whole Proceedings of the High Court of Justice (London, 1649).
18. Manus Testium Movens: Or a Presbyteriall Glosse Upon many of those obscure prophetick texts (London, 1651).
19. More Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (London, 1649).
20. Newes from the New Exchange, or the Commonwealth of Ladies (London, 1650).
21. Rump: Or An Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs Relating to the Late Times (London, 1662).
22. The Account Audited (London, 1649).
23. The Banner of Truth Displayed: Or a Testimony for Christ and Against Anti-Christ (London, 1656).
24. The Character of a Rebellion (Oxford, 1681).
25. The City-Dames Petition, In the behalfe of the long afflicted but well affected Cavaliers (London, 1647).
26. The Copie of A Paper Presented to the Parliament and read the 27th of the fourth Moneth 1659. Subscribed by more than fifieen thousand hands. Thus Directed To the Parliament of England, from many thousand of the free born people of this Commonwealth (London, 1659).
27. The Execution of the Late King Justified and the Parliament and the Army therein Vindicated (London, 1649).
28. The Great Assises Holden in Parnassus (London, 1644).
29. The Humble Petition of Many Thousands of Wives and Matrons of the City of London, and other parts of this Kingdome (London, 1643).
30. The Ladies, A Second Time Assembled in Parliament (London, 1647).
31. The Ladies Parliament (London, 1647).
32. The Life and Death of King Charles the Martyr (London, 1649).
33. The Maid’s Petition, To the Honourable Members of both Houses. Or The Humble Petition of many Thousands of the well-affected within and without the lines of Communication, Virgins, Maids and other young Women not married, &c. And in the behalf of the whole Kingdome, for their lawfull dayes of Recreation. With their Declaration to hold out stifly and to comply with the Apprentices or others for their tollerable Tolleration. Presented on Tuesday the 9 of August the 2d Recreation day for Apprentices, 1647 (London, 1647).
34. The Manner of the Deposition of Charles Stuart (London, 1649).
35. The Mid-wives Just Complaint (London, 1646).
36. The Mid-wives Just Petition: Or. A Complaint of divers good Gentlewomen of that Faculty (London, 1643).
37. The Parliament of Women With the Merrie Lawes by them Newly Enacted (London, 1656).
38. The Quakers Fiery Beacon, or the Shaking Ranters Ghost (London, 1655).
39. The Ranters Recantation: And their Sermon Delivered at a Meeting on Tuesday last, in WhiteChappel (London, 1650).
40. The Resolver Continued, Or Satisfaction to Some Scruples About the Putting of the Late King to Death (London, 1649).
41. The Sense of the Covenant (London, 1649).
42. The Widowes Lamentation for the Absence of their deare Children and Suitors. And for Divers of their Deaths in thesefatall Civil! Wars (London, 1643).
43. The Women’s Petition, to the Right Honourable, his Excellency, the most Noble and Victorious Lord General Cromwell (London, 1651).
44. To the High Court of Parliament. A Dilemmafrom a Parallel Humbly Presented (London, 1646).
45. To the Honourable Knights, Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament (London, 1641).
46. To the Honourable the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses; in the Commons House of Parliament Now Assembled. The Humble Petition of 15000 poore labouring men, known by the name of Porters, and the lowest Members of the Citie of London (London, 1641).
47. To The Honourable the House of Commons Assembled in Parliament. The Humble Petition of many thousand poore p...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Women and Gender in the Early Modern World
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• 10.4324/9781315233819-21 ‘Justification Cannot Be Self-Justification’: Katherine Chidley and the Discourses of Religious Toleration1
• 10.4324/9781315233819-32 Agency in Crisis: Women Write the Regicide
• 10.4324/9781315233819-43 A Woman in the Business of Revolutionary News: Elizabeth Alkin, ‘Parliament Joan’, and the Commonwealth Newsbook
• 10.4324/9781315233819-54 Clothing the Naked Woman: Writing Women's Agency in Revolutionary England
• 10.4324/9781315233819-65 Gender Identities and Women's Agency in Early Modern Tithe Dispute
• Bibliography
• Index