Women’s literary and intellectual endeavors: A case for the anonymous riposte

This chapter examines how the canon of early modern women’s literature has expanded over the last thirty years to reveal that Tudor and Stuart women were active participants in both private and public intellectual culture, often engaging with male authors in religious or literary debates. Using rediscovered women’s lyrics, characters, letters, and pamphlets as a point of comparison, the author argues for the female authorship of several anonymous ripostes found in Stuart manuscript miscellanies. These anonymous poems, she observes, share perspectives and conventions with known retorts by Queen Elizabeth I, Lady Mary Wroth, Ester Sowernam, and Constantia Munda, among others.