The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works & Printed Writings, 1500-1640: Series I
2 primary works
Book 1
Alice Sutcliffe was married in 1624 (her birth and death dates are not known, nor her exact marriage date) to John Sutcliffe who was Esquire to the Body of James I. He later became Groom of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Chamber at the Court of Charles I and it is suggested by some of her writings that Alice also had a role at Court. Meditations of Man's Mortalitie consists of six prose meditations followed by a long poem of eighty-eight six-line stanzas on 'our losse by Adam, and our gayne by Christ'. It was dedicated to some of the most influential members of the Court, suggesting perhaps Alice's desire to promote both herself and her husband.
Book 1
The only reliable clues available about Anne Wheathill's life are those contained in her work, published in 1584. She describes herself as a gentlewoman, unmarried and a Protestant. She also refers to herself as poor and it has been suggested that she was one of a handful of women in Elizabeth I's reign who attempted to earn money by writing. A handfull of holesome (though homelie) hearbs is an example of the English Reformer's efforts to revise the Roman Catholic primers and Books of Hours to satisfy the private devotional needs of a Protestant middle class. Although Anne Wheathill apologises for her inexperience and lack of learned counsel, her text requires no apology for reprinting in this facsimile edition. It is the work of someone who has mastered the cadence of the best English religious prose of her age.