Rachel Speght (1597-?) was the first Englishwoman to identify herself as a polemicist and critic of contemporary gender ideology. This study discusses both her tract, "A Mouzell for Melastomus" (1617) and her volume of poetry, "Mortalities Memorandum, with a Dreame Prefixed" (1612).
Rachel Speght (1597?-?) is the first Englishwoman to identify herself, unapologetically and by name, as a polemicist and critic of contemporary gender ideology. Her tract, A Mouzell for Melastomus (1617), is at once a spirited answer to Joseph Swetnam's very popular treatise attacking women (1617) and also a serious effort to stake women's claim to prevailing Protestant discourse of biblical exegesis, forcing it to yield a more expansive and more suitable concept of women's nature and role. Her volume of poetry, Mortalities Memorandum, with a Dreame Prefixed (1612), includes a long memento mori meditation and an allegorical dream vision that recounts her own rapturous encounter with learning. Both vigorously defend women's education and the encouragement of women's talent.
...it has considerable interest for gender historians.
