This multi-genre anthology brings together a wide selection of women's writing from the early modern period. These include writings by Margaret Cavendish, Anna Trapnel, Aphra Behn, Mary Carleton, Mary Herbert, Jane Anger and Rachel Speght. The volume covers a representative range of public and private genres from drama, poetry, literary prose and polemical prose and care has been taken to balance extracts and complete texts.

This multi-genre anthology brings together a wide selection of women's writing from the early modern period. These include writings by Margaret Cavendish, Anna Trapnel, Aphra Behn, Mary Carleton, Mary Herbert, Jane Anger and Rachel Speght. The volume covers a representative range of public and private genres from drama, poetry, literary prose and polemical prose and care has been taken to balance extracts and complete texts.

The four plays in this volume represent just a small fraction of the total output by early modern women dramatists. Other plays will appear in later volumes in the facsimile series devoted to individual authors. Marcelia (1660), The Perjur'd Husband (1700), She Ventures and He Wins (1695) and The Unnatural Mother (1698) were written at a point in time when women playwrights were becoming a significant force in the theatre. Many of these plays were first performed in key theatrical venues by well-established drama companies. The scant critical attention paid to these works since they were...