He Words Me: Male Authors Using Female Voices in Early Modern English Literature

A collection of works by early modern men writing in women’s voices.

This anthology gives students and scholars access to a body of texts that provide a clearer understanding of what life was like for early modern women by presenting hundreds of little-known primary texts that contain details about early modern women’s work, relationships, emotional and intellectual development, friendships, and daily struggles. He Words Me brings together work from a variety of genres in which male authors adopt the voice of a female narrator and use that voice to provide intimate details about the lives of women.

These works introduce modern readers to less familiar genres, complement or contradict portrayals of women in canonical texts, and raise compelling questions about who speaks for women and when women can speak for themselves. Through these women’s voices, readers can encounter characters and experiences that will broaden their understanding of early modern English literature and culture, and of the history of women in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

Catherine Loomis is professor at the University of New Orleans. She is a member of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Advisory Board on Women in Shakespeare’s Life.