Diana Primrose (active circa 1630) [1] was the author of a eulogy to the deceased Queen Elizabeth published as A Chaine of Pearle, Or a Memoriall of the peerless Graces, and Heroick Vertues of Queene Elizabeth of Glorious Memory.Composed by the Noble Lady, Diana Primrose (London, 1630). [2] The work is made up of ten "Pearles" or short poems. As some of the poems describe virtues found in Elizabeth but some do not it is considered that they may represent social criticism, as well as a criticism of the then current ruler King James.
It is likely the poet used an allegorical pseudonym. [3] The Primrose family was well established in Scotland at this time, though there is no record of a "Diana." [4] Since no written documentation of the author's true identity exists, there is no consensus that this person was even female. [5]
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1630.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1566.
The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England during the late 15th, 16th and early 17th centuries. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th century. As in most of the rest of Northern Europe, England saw little of these developments until more than a century later within the Northern Renaissance. Renaissance style and ideas were slow to penetrate England, and the Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of the English Renaissance. Many scholars see its beginnings in the early 16th century during the reign of Henry VIII. Others argue the Renaissance was already present in England in the late 15th century.
Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke was among the first Englishwomen to gain notice for her poetry and her literary patronage. By the age of 39, she was listed with her brother Philip Sidney and with Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare among the notable authors of the day in John Bodenham's verse miscellany Belvidere. Her play Antonius is widely seen as reviving interest in soliloquy based on classical models and as a likely source of Samuel Daniel's closet drama Cleopatra (1594) and of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1607). She was also known for translating Petrarch's "Triumph of Death", for the poetry anthology Triumphs, and above all for a lyrical, metrical translation of the Psalms.
Emilia Lanier, néeAemilia Bassano, was an English poet and the first woman in England to assert herself as a professional poet, through her volume Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. Attempts have been made to equate her with Shakespeare's "Dark Lady".
Elizabethan literature refers to bodies of work produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), and is one of the most splendid ages of English literature. In addition to drama and the theatre, it saw a flowering of poetry, with new forms like the sonnet, the Spenserian stanza, and dramatic blank verse, as well as prose, including historical chronicles, pamphlets, and the first English novels. Major writers include William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, Richard Hooker, Ben Jonson, Philip Sidney and Thomas Kyd.
Anne Killigrew (1660–1685) was an English poet and painter, described by contemporaries as "A Grace for beauty, and a Muse for wit." Born in London, she and her family were active in literary and court circles. Killigrew's poems were circulated in manuscript and collected and published posthumously in 1686 after she died from smallpox at age 25. They have been reprinted several times by modern scholars, most recently and thoroughly by Margaret J. M. Ezell.
Bathsua Reginald Makin was a teacher who contributed to the emerging criticism of woman's position in the domestic and public spheres in 17th-century England. Herself a highly educated woman, Makin was referred to as England's most learned lady, skilled in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, German, Spanish, French and Italian. Makin argued primarily for the equal right of women and girls to obtain an education in an environment or culture that viewed woman as the weaker vessel, subordinated to man and uneducable. She is most famously known for her polemical treatise entitled An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen, in Religion, Manners, Arts & Tongues, with an Answer to the Objections against this Way of Education (1673).
Margery Wentworth, also known as Margaret Wentworth, and as both Lady Seymour and Dame Margery Seymour, was the wife of Sir John Seymour and the mother of Queen Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII of England. She was the grandmother of King Edward VI of England.
Anne Locke was an English poet, translator and Calvinist religious figure. She has been called the first English author to publish a sonnet sequence, A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner (1560), although authorship of that work has arguably been attributed to Thomas Norton.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Anne de Vere, Countess of Oxford was the daughter of the statesman William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I of England, and the translator Mildred Cooke. In 1571 she became the first wife of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. She served as a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth before her marriage.
Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby was an English noblewoman from the Spencer family and noted patron of the arts. Poet Edmund Spenser represented her as "Amaryllis" in his eclogue Colin Clouts Come Home Againe (1595) and dedicated his poem The Teares of the Muses (1591) to her.
Abraham Hartwell the elder, was an English poet, who wrote in Latin.
A miscellany is a collection of various pieces of writing by different authors. Meaning a mixture, medley, or assortment, a miscellany can include pieces on many subjects and in a variety of different forms. In contrast to anthologies, whose aim is to give a selective and canonical view of literature, miscellanies were produced for the entertainment of a contemporary audience and so instead emphasise collectiveness and popularity. Laura Mandell and Rita Raley state:
This last distinction is quite often visible in the basic categorical differences between anthologies on the one hand, and all other types of collections on the other, for it is in the one that we read poems of excellence, the "best of English poetry," and it is in the other that we read poems of interest. Out of the differences between a principle of selection and a principle of collection, then, comes a difference in aesthetic value, which is precisely what is at issue in the debates over the "proper" material for inclusion into the canon.
James Maxwell, 1st Earl of Dirletoun was a Scottish courtier and landowner, and Black Rod. He was involved in selling royal jewels.
The jewels of Anne of Denmark (1572–1619), wife of James VI and I and queen consort of Scotland and England, are known from accounts and inventories, and their depiction in portraits by artists including Paul van Somer. A few pieces survive. Some modern historians prefer the name "Anna" to "Anne", following the spelling of numerous examples of her signature.
An inventory of the jewels of Mary I of England, known as Princess Mary or the Lady Mary in the years 1542 to 1546, was kept by her lady in waiting Mary Finch. The manuscript is now held by the British Library. It was published by Frederic Madden in 1831. Some pieces are listed twice. Two surviving drawings feature a ribbon with the inscription, "MI LADI PRINSIS". The British Library also has an inventory of the jewels she inherited on coming to the throne in 1553.
The wedding of Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662), daughter of James VI and I, and Frederick V of the Palatinate (1596–1632) was celebrated in London in February 1613. There were fireworks, masques, tournaments, and a mock-sea battle or naumachia. Preparations involved the construction of a "Marriage room", a hall adjacent to the 1607 Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace. The events were described in various contemporary pamphlets and letters.