Distributed for Iter Press
A Mother’s Spiritual Dialogue, Meditations, and Elegies
Key insights into women’s multi-dimensional roles as wives, widows, and mothers during the seventeenth century.
Lady Mary Carey (c. 1609–c. 1680) was a noblewoman who examined her life and expressed her views in a handwritten manuscript that she intended for self-reflection and for sharing with restricted audiences of family and friends, rather than for print publication. Her poetry and prose, composed and revised between 1650 and 1658, were important enough to her inner circle, however, that her autograph manuscript was carefully copied by another hand in 1681. In addition to providing us with key insights into women’s multidimensional roles as wives, widows, and mothers during the seventeenth century in England, Carey’s work teaches us a great deal about a woman’s deepest emotional and spiritual states while confronting the hardships of life—from the fears of childbearing to the sorrows over child loss to the terrors of war.
Lady Mary Carey (c. 1609–c. 1680) was a noblewoman who examined her life and expressed her views in a handwritten manuscript that she intended for self-reflection and for sharing with restricted audiences of family and friends, rather than for print publication. Her poetry and prose, composed and revised between 1650 and 1658, were important enough to her inner circle, however, that her autograph manuscript was carefully copied by another hand in 1681. In addition to providing us with key insights into women’s multidimensional roles as wives, widows, and mothers during the seventeenth century in England, Carey’s work teaches us a great deal about a woman’s deepest emotional and spiritual states while confronting the hardships of life—from the fears of childbearing to the sorrows over child loss to the terrors of war.
154 pages | 11 halftones | 6 x 9
The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series
History: British and Irish History
Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Illustrations
Abbreviations
INTRODUCTION
A MOTHER’S SPIRITUAL DIALOGUE, MEDITATIONS, AND ELEGIES
To My Most Loving and Dearly Beloved Husband, George Payler, Esquire
A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body
Note on the Deaths of Five Children
Written by My Dear Husband at the Death of Our Fourth (at That Time) Only Child, Robert Payler
Written by Me at the Same Time, on the Death of My Fourth and Only Child, Robert Payler
Written by Me at the Death of my Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine Payler
A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of Christ
A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of the Holy Ghost
Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth the 31 of December 1657
APPENDIX 1: MARY CAREY’S LETTER TO THOMAS PELHAM
APPENDIX 2: POETIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN MARY CAREY AND THOMAS FAIRFAX
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
Abbreviations
INTRODUCTION
A MOTHER’S SPIRITUAL DIALOGUE, MEDITATIONS, AND ELEGIES
To My Most Loving and Dearly Beloved Husband, George Payler, Esquire
A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body
Note on the Deaths of Five Children
Written by My Dear Husband at the Death of Our Fourth (at That Time) Only Child, Robert Payler
Written by Me at the Same Time, on the Death of My Fourth and Only Child, Robert Payler
Written by Me at the Death of my Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine Payler
A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of Christ
A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of the Holy Ghost
Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth the 31 of December 1657
APPENDIX 1: MARY CAREY’S LETTER TO THOMAS PELHAM
APPENDIX 2: POETIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN MARY CAREY AND THOMAS FAIRFAX
Bibliography
Index