“Under our Cedar’s Shadow”: Royalist Women Poets and the English Restoration
"Under our Cedar's Shadow": Royalist Women Poets and the English Restoration
Yazar: Coussens, Catherine
Dergi: Cankaya University Journal of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 1 No. 8, 2014
Anahtar kelimeler: absolutism,loyalty,paternalism,subjection,forgiveness,humility,conservatism,integrity,faction,Anglicanism,praise

This paper compares the work of three lesser-known royalist women poets (Rachel Jevon, Ann Lee, andthe anonymous female author of The Sacred Historie) to explore the subtle ways in which these writersconnect their personal literary projects to the specific requirements of the Restoration regime. Despite thestrategic emphasis on masculine authority within the numerous panegyrics addressed to the king in theaftermath of the Restoration in 1660, an alternative impulse in female-authored texts configures the returnof the monarchy as an event which women are especially qualified to celebrate. In elevating conventionallyfeminine values, these poets were able to associate themselves with the social and political agenda of theRestoration government, which aimed to reconcile the English people to their past, and ease tensions associatedwith the Restoration Settlement, the General Pardon, and the Act of Oblivion. Since the civil wars had createddistrust and resentment concerning politics and polemic, women poets could exploit their position as literaryand political “outsiders” to justify their rehearsal of the role of “public” poet. However, in promoting their ownspecific interests, as loyalists whose families had suffered for the Crown, women poets also assert their ownhopes for the future path of the monarchy, reminding the king of the significance of his traditional supporters,and emphasising his duty to subordinate himself to God and the English Church.

This paper compares the work of three lesser-known royalist women poets (Rachel Jevon, Ann Lee, andthe anonymous female author of The Sacred Historie) to explore the subtle ways in which these writersconnect their personal literary projects to the specific requirements of the Restoration regime. Despite thestrategic emphasis on masculine authority within the numerous panegyrics addressed to the king in theaftermath of the Restoration in 1660, an alternative impulse in female-authored texts configures the returnof the monarchy as an event which women are especially qualified to celebrate. In elevating conventionallyfeminine values, these poets were able to associate themselves with the social and political agenda of theRestoration government, which aimed to reconcile the English people to their past, and ease tensions associatedwith the Restoration Settlement, the General Pardon, and the Act of Oblivion. Since the civil wars had createddistrust and resentment concerning politics and polemic, women poets could exploit their position as literaryand political “outsiders” to justify their rehearsal of the role of “public” poet. However, in promoting their ownspecific interests, as loyalists whose families had suffered for the Crown, women poets also assert their ownhopes for the future path of the monarchy, reminding the king of the significance of his traditional supporters,and emphasising his duty to subordinate himself to God and the English Church.