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An edition of Lady Hester Pulter's Book of 'Emblemes'
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Eardley, Alice (2008) An edition of Lady Hester Pulter's Book of 'Emblemes'. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3821993
Abstract
Lady Hester Pulter's literary manuscript, comprising over one hundred poems and a prose romance, was uncovered in Leeds University Brotherton Library in 1996. Since then, there has been increasing scholarly interest in Pulter's compositions but as yet no edition of her text has been produced. In response to this, the main focus of this thesis is an annotated edition of Pulter's book of 'Emblemes' (c. 1650-60), a series of fifty-three un-illustrated emblem poems occupying a separately designated portion of the manuscript volume. The edition of Pulter's 'Emblemes' is accompanied by a critical introduction to the text, comprising a biography of Pulter, a discussion of the manuscript, and two chapters of literary criticism. The biography (Chapter One) provides new evidence regarding Pulter's date of birth and also her extended social circle, which included Archbishop James Ussher and a group of MPs involved in the peace negotiations with Charles I in 1648. The discussion of her text (Chapter Two) draws on this evidence to consider both the material and intellectual contexts within which Pulter was writing. The first of the two critical chapters (Chapter Three) responds to current studies of royalist writing and considers Pulter's distinctively gendered, Stoic response to the English Civil Wars and Interregnum. The second critical chapter (Chapter Four) compares Pulter's manuscript collection with George Wither's printed edition of Emblemes (163 5). It considers the way both writers support the political message of their text through the manipulation of the emblem's formal elements and cultural associations. The central argument of this thesis is that Pulter's manuscript volume, circulated within the confines of her home in rural Hertfordshire, was not simply a rhetorical intervention in political events but a mode of promoting and enacting a direct and practical engagement with the social and political circumstances of Interregnum England.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism P Language and Literature > PR English literature |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Pulter, Hester, Lady, approximately 1605-1678, Pulter, Hester, Lady, approximately 1605-1678. Works, | ||||
| Official Date: | July 2008 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
| Theses Department: | Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies | ||||
| Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
| Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
| Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Clarke, Elizabeth, 1954- | ||||
| Sponsors: | Arts & Humanities Research Council (Great Britain) | ||||
| Format of File: | |||||
| Extent: | 2 volumes (243, 195 leaves) : illustrations | ||||
| Language: | eng |
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