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Buried away in a commonplace book held by the Beinecke Library at Yale University, the manuscript of this work was serendipitously discovered last year and is here brought into print for the first time. Entitled "The Memorandum of Martha Moulsworth / Widdowe," its features include these:
The poem is one of the first autobiographical works (per se) by anyone in English, and it is certainly one of the first autobiographical poems. The fact that it is by a woman, of course, adds to its importance.
The poem makes one of the most sweeping and radical claims for the right to equal education ever issued in the Renaissance. That this claim is made by a woman, and that it is made so early, serves to heighten the significance of the statement.
This work stands on its own merits as a poem. Unlike a good deal of other "women's verse" from this period, Martha Moulsworth's "Memorandum" needs no apologies as a complex work of art.
In covering the years 1577 to 1632, the poem encompasses some of the most important decades of English history and expresses opinions that would seem to make Moulsworth one of the earliest English advocates of truly equal education. At the same time, however, her poem also suggests a highly complex attitude toward her status in a rigidly patriarchal society, including her relations with her God, her father, and her three successive husbands. The poem offers a complicated mixture of self-assertion and deference, of shrewdness and wisdom, of self-respect and selfless love.
Essays placing the "Memorandum" in its historical, literary, and theoretical contexts follow the text of the poem itself.
The poem is one of the first autobiographical works (per se) by anyone in English, and it is certainly one of the first autobiographical poems. The fact that it is by a woman, of course, adds to its importance.
The poem makes one of the most sweeping and radical claims for the right to equal education ever issued in the Renaissance. That this claim is made by a woman, and that it is made so early, serves to heighten the significance of the statement.
This work stands on its own merits as a poem. Unlike a good deal of other "women's verse" from this period, Martha Moulsworth's "Memorandum" needs no apologies as a complex work of art.
In covering the years 1577 to 1632, the poem encompasses some of the most important decades of English history and expresses opinions that would seem to make Moulsworth one of the earliest English advocates of truly equal education. At the same time, however, her poem also suggests a highly complex attitude toward her status in a rigidly patriarchal society, including her relations with her God, her father, and her three successive husbands. The poem offers a complicated mixture of self-assertion and deference, of shrewdness and wisdom, of self-respect and selfless love.
Essays placing the "Memorandum" in its historical, literary, and theoretical contexts follow the text of the poem itself.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Robert C. Evans is Associate Professor of English at Auburn University at Montgomery.
Review:
Choice Review
This collection of short essays offers valuable explorations of Martha Moulsworth's recently discovered poem "Memorandum" (appearing for the first time in Moulsworth's "My Name Was Martha": A Renaissance Woman's Autobiographical Poem, CH, Mar'94), including newly uncovered details about the author's life that sometimes provocatively contradict the persona she created. The authors--Germaine Greer, Anthony Low, John Shawcross, and Frances Teague, among others--take diverse approaches to the poem, investigating, for example, its biblical resonance, its viability as an early poetic expression of mutual love in marriage, its punning marginalia, and its place in the genre of 17th-century autobiographical works by women. The appendix includes an edited text of the poem, photographic reproductions of the handwritten text discovered in the Beinecke, transcripts of the wills of Moulsworth and her three husbands, the funeral sermon for Moulsworth, and a helpful chronology of women writers of the English Renaissance. This engaging, meticulously reconstructed biography results from historical detective work and careful attention to, analysis of, and contextualization of a hitherto unexplored poem by a newly discovered author. Highly recommended for all collections. J. P. Baumgaertner; Wheaton College (IL)+++++With "The Muses Female Are," Robert C. Evans and Anne C. Little follow up on the earlier "My Name Was Martha": A Renaissance Woman's Autobiographical Poem. I should disclose that I am a contributor. That said, I shall go out on a limb and propose what no one has quite dared say: that "The Memorandum of Martha Moulsworth, Widdowe" may be the best short poem in English by a woman between 1500 and 1660. I hope it will be widely anthologized. Since it was only recently discovered, the two books co-edited by Evans contain nearly everything we have on it. . . . "The Birthday of My Self," a well-edited collection of student essays and comments edited by Ann Depas-Orange and Evans, confirms how strongly students and common readers respond to her moving poem. - Anthony Low, Studies in English Literature
This collection of short essays offers valuable explorations of Martha Moulsworth's recently discovered poem "Memorandum" (appearing for the first time in Moulsworth's "My Name Was Martha": A Renaissance Woman's Autobiographical Poem, CH, Mar'94), including newly uncovered details about the author's life that sometimes provocatively contradict the persona she created. The authors--Germaine Greer, Anthony Low, John Shawcross, and Frances Teague, among others--take diverse approaches to the poem, investigating, for example, its biblical resonance, its viability as an early poetic expression of mutual love in marriage, its punning marginalia, and its place in the genre of 17th-century autobiographical works by women. The appendix includes an edited text of the poem, photographic reproductions of the handwritten text discovered in the Beinecke, transcripts of the wills of Moulsworth and her three husbands, the funeral sermon for Moulsworth, and a helpful chronology of women writers of the English Renaissance. This engaging, meticulously reconstructed biography results from historical detective work and careful attention to, analysis of, and contextualization of a hitherto unexplored poem by a newly discovered author. Highly recommended for all collections. J. P. Baumgaertner; Wheaton College (IL)+++++With "The Muses Female Are," Robert C. Evans and Anne C. Little follow up on the earlier "My Name Was Martha": A Renaissance Woman's Autobiographical Poem. I should disclose that I am a contributor. That said, I shall go out on a limb and propose what no one has quite dared say: that "The Memorandum of Martha Moulsworth, Widdowe" may be the best short poem in English by a woman between 1500 and 1660. I hope it will be widely anthologized. Since it was only recently discovered, the two books co-edited by Evans contain nearly everything we have on it. . . . "The Birthday of My Self," a well-edited collection of student essays and comments edited by Ann Depas-Orange and Evans, confirms how strongly students and common readers respond to her moving poem. - Anthony Low, Studies in English Literature
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- PublisherLocust Hill Pr
- Publication date1993
- ISBN 10 0933951531
- ISBN 13 9780933951532
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages117
- Rating
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My Name Was Martha": A Renaissance Woman's Autobiographical Poem
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ISBN 10: 0933951531
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine in Very Good dust jacket. Sound binding and hinges. Clean, bright pages. Cloth over boards is lightly edge rubbed. DJ has light edge rubbing, light overall shelf wear. ; Autobiographical poem by Martha Moulsworth, who lived in the late 16th to early 17th century in England. ; 8.75" tall; 117 pages. Seller Inventory # 4430006
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My Name Was Martha" A Renaissance Woman's Autobiographical Poem
Published by
Locust Hill Pr, West Cornwall, Connecticut, U.S.A.
(1993)
ISBN 10: 0933951531
ISBN 13: 9780933951532
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Hardcover
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Book Description Red Cloth. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Ediion. 117 pages, clean copy. Seller Inventory # 000010094
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