Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falklands

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Elizabeth Cary (ca.1620)

Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falkland , b. Tanfield (* 1585 or 1586 in Burford Priory , Oxfordshire , † 1639 in London ) was an English playwright , poet , translator and historian . She was the first woman known to have written and published a play in English .

biography

Working as a writer

Most of the details about the life of Elizabeth Cary are known from a biography written by one of her daughters and colored accordingly subjectively. After that, Elizabeth Cary developed unusual curiosity and learning as a child. Her parents supported the daughter's preferences, who taught herself several languages ​​- Latin , French , Spanish and Hebrew - some of whom were self-taught. According to an anecdote, the mother forbade the servants to bring the daughter expensive candles so that she could read at night after Elizabeth accumulated higher debts with them. Elizabeth was encouraged to express her opinion openly about what she was supposed to have done in the course of a witch trial that her father presided over, with which she saved the life of the convicted woman.

When Cary moved into her husband's house (around 1600), her mother-in-law forbade her to read. Then Elizabeth Cary should have started to write poetry. According to the information provided by the daughter in the biography, poetry was the highest literary form for the mother . Her first (or second) piece, The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry, from 1613, was in iambic pentameters , using two-line and ironic elements. Cary depicts the consequences of colonialism and patriarchal rule, probably a result of her stay in Ireland, where she had developed sympathy for the country and Catholicism. The depicted conflict between Mariam and King Herod is believed to be inspired by her own experiences in marriage to Henry Cary.

In 1612 the piece was registered in the Stationer's Register and printed the following year. It was the first English play written and published by a woman. It is not known if it was ever performed publicly. It is conceivable that the piece was played in private households of the upper class.

Elizabeth Cary later wrote The History of the Life, Reign, and Death of Edward II (1626/1627). The text used the story of King Edward II and his powerful favorites Gaveston and Hugh le Despenser as an analogy to King Charles I's conflict with Parliament after his favorite, the Duke of Buckingham, had become the dominant force in English politics. In this work she dealt with the phenomenon of favoritism and its negative consequences. The book was not published until 1680, over 40 years after her death. Her translation Reply of the most Illustrious Cardinal of Perron , made in 1630, was publicly burned.

The English poets Michael Drayton and John Davies paid tribute to Cary's achievements as scholars and dedicated works to her. Most of Elizabeth Cary's works have been lost, including her poetry. Fifteen original letters from her, a copy of which her husband had made, have been preserved.

marriage and family

Elizabeth Tanfield was the only child of Elizabeth Symondes and her husband Sir Lawrence Tanfield . The father was a lawyer and eventually became a judge as well as Lord Chief Justice of the Exchequer . At the age of 15, Elizabeth Tanfield, arranged by her father, married Henry Cary , later Viscount Falkland , who married her because of her inheritance. After seven years of marriage, their first child, Catherine (1609–1625), was born, followed by ten more: James (1609–1625), Lucius (1610–1643), Lorenzo (1613–1642), Anne (approx. 1614 –1671), Edward (1616–1616), Elizabeth (1617–1683), Lucy (1619–1650), Victoria (1620–1692), Mary (1621–1693), Henry (1622–?) And Patrick (1623– 1657).

In 1622 Henry Cary was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland and moved to Dublin with his wife . His task there was to consolidate English rule over the country and to keep the rebellious Catholic nobles there in check. Three years later, Elizabeth Cary was disinherited by her father for using income from her inheritance to pay off her husband's tax debts. The inheritance now went to her deeply indebted son Lucius.

In Dublin, Elizabeth Cary was among prominent Catholics and was socially active by founding a school for children from the lower classes. She repeatedly suffered from depression with suicidal thoughts . In 1625 she returned to England and, after separating from her husband, lived in Ragman's Castle , a cottage in Twickenham .

In 1626, Cary made her conversion to Catholicism public. The reason is said to have been that her eldest daughter Catherine, a Protestant at the time, reported on her deathbed in 1625 about an apparition of Mary . In the same year, their youngest child was stillborn. Because of her conversion, her husband tried to divorce her, but to no avail. He refused her contact with their youngest children. Despite several orders from the Privy Council to pay her alimony, he persisted in his refusal, apparently in order to get his wife to reverse her conversion.

Henry Cary, Viscount Falkland, died in 1633, and his widow endeavored to regain guardianship of her children. She succeeded in doing this with her daughters, but had to answer to the Star Chamber for the kidnapping of her two youngest sons . However, nothing is known of a sanction. In 1634 four of her daughters also converted to Catholicism. Edward Barrett, Lord Barrett reported to King Charles I , whereupon the girls were separated from their mother and taken to the stately home in the village of Great Tew , which belonged to Elizabeth's son Lucius, now Viscount Falkland.

Later one of Cary's sons became a Catholic priest, and her four daughters became Benedictine nuns in Cambrai, France . Elizabeth Cary died in London in 1639. She was buried in the chapel of Henrietta Maria of France , Charles I's Catholic wife.

Works

  • The mirror of the world. 1598. (Translation of Le miroir du monde by Abraham Ortelius ; manuscript in the Bodleian Library ).
  • The Tragedy of Mariam, the Faire Queene of Jewry. Printed by Thomas Creede, for Richard Hawkins, London 1613, ( digitized ).
  • The Reply of the most Illustrious Cardinall of Perron, to the ansveare of the most excellent King of Great Britaine. Martin Bogart, Douay 1630.
  • The History of the Life, Reign and Death of Edward II, King of England and Lord of Ireland. With The Rise and Fall of his great Favorites, Gaveston and the Spencers. Printed by JC for Charles Harper et al., London 1680.

Literature (selection)

  • Constance Jordan: Renaissance Feminism. Literary Texts and Political Models . Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY et al. 1990, ISBN 0-8014-2163-2 .
  • Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland: The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry. Edited by Barry Weller and Margaret W. Ferguson. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1994, ISBN 0-520-07967-1 .
  • Barbara Kiefer Lewalski: Writing Women in Jacobean England . Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA et al. 1993, ISBN 0-674-96242-7 .
  • Heather Wolfe (Ed.): The Literary Career and Legacy of Elizabeth Cary, 1613-1680 . Palgrave Macmillan, New York NY et al. 2007, ISBN 978-1-4039-7016-9 .
  • Peter Freeman: The Unhidden Faith of Lady Falkland . In: Crisis Magazine. A Voice for the Faithful Catholic Laity . June 23, 2011.

Web links

Commons : Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falkland  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Meredith Skura: The Reproduction of Mothering in Mariam, Queen of Jewry: A Defense of 'Biographical' Critisim. In: Karen Raber (ed.): Elizabeth Cary (= Mary Ellen Lamb (ed.): Ashgate Critical Essays on Women Writers in England, 1550-1700. 6). Ashgate, Farnham et al. 2009, ISBN 978-0-7546-6100-9 , pp. 57–86, ( limited preview in Google book search).
  2. ↑ a b c d Marguérite Christina Maria Corporaal: "Each word she said ... shall be the food whereon my heard is fed": Elizabeth Cary's The Tragedie of Mariam (1613). In: Marguérite Christina Maria Corporaal: Wicked Words, Virtuous Voices. The Reconstruction of Tragic Subjectivity by Renaissance and Early Restoration Women Dramatists. Groningen 2003, pp. 131–160 , (Groningen, University, phil. Dissertation, 2003).
  3. ↑ Katja Pilhuj: Women and Geography on the Early Modern English Stage (= Gendering the Late Medieval and Early Modern World. 9). Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2019, ISBN 978-94-6372-201-8 , p. 109, ( limited preview in Google book search).
  4. ^ A b c Stephanie Hodgson-Wright: Cary (née Tanfield), Elizabeth, Viscountess Falkland. (1585-1639) . In: HCG Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford.
  5. ↑ Helen Smith: 'Grossly Material Things'. Women and Book Production in Early Modern England. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-965158-0 , p. 33, ( limited preview in Google book search).
  6. ↑ Michael Drayton: England's Heroicall Epistles . Printed by IR for N. Ling, London 1597.
  7. ↑ John Davies: The Muses Sacrifice . Printed by TS for George Norton, London 1612, p. 3 f .
  8. ↑ Heather Wolfe: Indtroduction. In: Heather Wolfe (ed.): The Literary Career and Legacy of Elizabeth Cary, 1613–1680. Palgrave Macmillan, New York NY et al. 2007, pp. 1–13, here p. 10, ( limited preview in Google book search).
  9. ^ A b Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falkland, Writer, Translator & Catholic Recusant. Twickenham Museum, accessed March 7, 2020 .
  10. ↑ a b Elizabeth Cary (c 1584-1639). In: digital.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved March 7, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Cary, Elizabeth, Viscountess Falklands
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tanfield, Elizabeth (maiden name); Falklands, Elizabeth Cary Viscountess
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English poet, translator and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH 1585 or 1586
PLACE OF BIRTH Burford Priory , Oxfordshire
DATE OF DEATH 1639
Place of death London