The Polemics of Rachel Speght

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.