The Politics of Women's Letter

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The Politics of Women's Letter ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: “IN WRITING IT MAY BE SPOKE”: THE POLITICS OF WOMEN’S LETTER- WRITING, 1377-1603 Erin A. Sadlack, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Theresa Coletti, Department of English Professor Jane Donawerth, Department of English Examining significant moments of women’s letter-writing from throughout the late medieval and early modern periods, I argue that the epistolary genre enabled fifteenth- and sixteenth-century women to craft representations of themselves on paper that preserved their modesty yet allowed them to intervene in the public sphere. I also contend that women’s letters drew legitimacy from the literary traditions that first established the epistolary genre as appropriate for women’s use. My dissertation is one of the few works of medieval and early modern literary scholarship to examine the developing intertextual dialogue between fictive and historical letters. The introduction provides a brief survey of literary depictions of letters, noting that works by Ovid, Chaucer, and Gower suggest that letters are the often the best means for women to communicate. In the first chapter I assert that Christine de Pizan specifically chose the epistolary genre for her political and social commentary because of the authority of its classical, literary, and humanist traditions and because of the flexibility of its conventions. Christine is unique among medieval female letter writers in that she not only writes letters, but also writes about them, signaling her command over the epistolary genre itself. The second chapter studies Mary Tudor Brandon’s letters to her brother Henry VIII; they reveal affinities with literary letters from works by Chaucer, Ovid, and Malory. Given her careful attention to audience and the extent to which her letters reflect fictional concerns, Mary’s letters are an excellent case study of women’s political and literary activity during the period. In chapter three, I study the rhetorical strategies of women’s petitionary letters to Elizabeth I and her Privy Council, in which they ask for monetary relief, patronage, or legal assistance, and I contend that the letter was the foundation of one of women’s earliest political rights, the right of petition. Ultimately, I argue that women used letters to establish a connection with men and women in power, and thus, to let their voices travel to places they could not, to garner influence on political, social, and economic affairs. “IN WRITING IT MAY BE SPOKE”: THE POLITICS OF WOMEN’S LETTER-WRITING, 1377-1603 By Erin A. Sadlack Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2005 Advisory Committee: Professor Theresa Coletti, Co-Chair Professor Jane Donawerth, Co-Chair Professor William Sherman Professor Kent Cartwright Professor Marvin Breslow © Copyright by Erin A. Sadlack 2005 Acknowledgments Although it may be commonplace to say so, it is nevertheless true that this dissertation would not exist today without the support of many people. First of all, I owe deepest thanks to Theresa Coletti and Jane Donawerth, the co-directors of this dissertation. From my first classes at Maryland through the completion of this project, they have been exemplars of the best kind of mentors; they have guided, challenged, and encouraged me at every step in the process with utmost patience, enthusiasm, and generosity. I also owe particular thanks to Bill Sherman, Kent Cartwright, and Marvin Breslow for serving on my advisory committee and for their insightful suggestions. Other professors at the University of Maryland have similarly offered their gracious support and advice: Linda Coleman, Donna Hamilton, Sharon Achinstein, David Norbrook, and Jeanne Fahnestock have all helped me at various stages of my graduate work. Outside Maryland, Carole Levin, Sara Jayne Steen, and Lynne Magnusson all offered generous advice. I am also deeply grateful to Jo Eldridge Carney and Frank Erath at The College of New Jersey for instilling in me a love of Renaissance literature and for encouraging me to pursue graduate study. At the Folger Shakespeare Library, I was able to take Laetitia Yeandle’s invaluable seminar on Renaissance paleography, for which I am extremely grateful. My thanks go to the librarians at the Folger, the British Library, and the National Archives in London for their assistance. Also, the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. provided generous and timely financial support for a research trip to the National Archives so that I could obtain the material for the final chapter on petitions. I am similarly indebted to the ii English department at Maryland who awarded me a grant for research travel for the second chapter and a fellowship for my final year of graduate study. During my time at Maryland, I have benefited greatly from a close-knit community where many friends have offered their companionship over the years; I particularly thank Katie Field, Ryan and Ann Claycomb, Donna Packer-Kinlaw and Scott Kinlaw, Helen Hull, Erin Kelly, Matt Hill, Amy Hobbs, Nora Bellows, and Ray Bossert. Above all, I owe deep thanks to Meg Pearson and Brandi Adams, who have not only been wonderful friends, but also courageous editors who read many drafts of my earliest prose and talked through every argument in this project. Last, but hardly least, I wish to thank my family, especially my father, Robert Sadlack, my brother-in-law, Rob McAllister, and all the aunts, uncles, and cousins who have helped me in countless ways. But most of all, I acknowledge with love the support of my aunt, Peg Marshall, the constant encouragement of my sister, Meghan McAllister, and above all, the boundless enthusiasm, advice, and affection of my mother, Kathleen Davern. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments……………………………….......................................................ii Table of Contents …………………………………………………………….......... iv Introduction……………………………….................................................................1 Chapter One: Reading and Writing the Epistolary Genre: The Letters of Christine de Pizan……………………………….......................................................19 Chapter Two: “By the hand of your lovyng suster Mary”: Letters, Literature, and Politics in Early Tudor England………………………………...........................87 Chapter Three: Petitioning Power……………………………….............................149 Bibliography………………………………...............................................................267 iv INTRODUCTION “In writinge it mai be spoke.” In John Gower’s story of “Apollonius of Tyre,” King Artestrathes asks his daughter Thaise which of three noble suitors she wants to marry.i Instead of answering her father directly, Thaise writes a letter explaining that she is ashamed to speak aloud her preference for a different man: Apollonius. Professing that “the schame which is in a Maide / With speche dar noght ben unloke,” Thaise insists that she may only communicate her desire in a letter: for only “in writinge it mai be spoke.”ii In Gower’s tale, letter-writing thus becomes a substitute for direct speech and satisfies the demands of feminine modesty. This dissertation argues that literary traditions of female epistolary activity enable women writers to circumvent restrictions on their ability to speak with authority and to influence political situations from which they might otherwise have been barred. Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century women’s extant letters testify to their authors’ extensive involvement in political affairs even as their content speaks to the care with which their writers crafted their letters to represent themselves. The letter is a versatile genre, one that allows its writers opportunity for verbal play with its physical nature, its form, and the principles of its art. Through the letter, women can make connections with their readers and script versions of events to influence their readers’ perceptions. The liminal public and private nature of the epistolary genre allows women writers to have a voice yet still remain screened, forestalling accusations of immorality. Jennifer Summit notes that “[u]nlike oratory, writing could take shapes that actually upheld the demands of female modesty, privacy, and chastity.”iii Though here Summit 1 refers to Elizabeth I’s careful crafting of her image as a poet, her words are even more aptly applied to the letter. The letter acts as the sender’s voice, giving the sender a degree of influence; but because the sender is not immediately present and speaking, per se, she is protected from any negative association of speech with sexuality. Since the classical era, epistolary theorists have considered absence and presence as fundamental elements of the letter’s raison d’être. In Ad Familiares, Cicero claims that “the purpose in fact for which letter-writing was invented, is to inform the absent of what it is desirable for them to know, whether in our interest or their own.”iv For Cicero, a letter requires the separation of its sender and recipient. Other theorists push this definition further. Erasmus’s famous description of the letter as “a mutual exchange of speech between absent friends” follows Jerome, who wrote that “Turpilius the comedian said, ‘It [letter-writing] is the unique way of making absent persons present.’”v The letter eliminates the distance between sender and recipient as each participant in the epistolary exchange imagines the presence of his counterpart. At the same
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