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Distributed for Iter Press

Witness, Warning, and Prophecy

Quaker Women’s Writing, 1655-1700

The forty texts collected in this volume offer a small but representative sample of Quaker women’s tremendous literary output between 1655 and 1700. They include examples of key Quaker literary genres — proclamations, directives, warnings, sufferings, testimonies, polemic, pleas for toleration — and showcase a range of literary styles and voices, from eloquent poetry to legal analyses of English canon and civil law. In their varied responses to the core Quaker belief in the indwelling Spirit, these women left a rich literary legacy of an early countercultural movement.

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe - The Toronto Series: Volume 60

413 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2018

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

Literature and Literary Criticism: General Criticism and Critical Theory

Religion: Christianity


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Reviews

"Anyone interested in early modern women’s writing, or in Quakers more generally, will find here an extraordinary and fascinating range of materials. I felt positively excited just reading the list of contents, and was delighted to find, too, that the  headnotes to the pieces are well designed, giving the kinds of contextual and other information that a reader might most need, and drawing on the best sources when providing those contexts. The annotation is also most useful, enabling readers to understand exactly how the writers are transforming their sources to produce their new messages. Given the excellent prior work of both the editors, none of this is surprising, but it is cause for celebration."

Elaine Hobby, Loughborough University

Table of Contents

Illustrations xv
Acknowledgments xvii
Abbreviations xix
Chronology of Events in Early Quaker History xxi
INTRODUCTION 1
PART I: PROPHECY 33
Proclaiming the Inner Light 35
Directives to Political and Religious Authorities 93
Warnings 147
Sufferings 225
PART II: LATE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY QUIETISM AND ORGANIZATION 279
Reason and Reflection 281
Women’s Meetings 337
Bibliography 389
Index 403

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