Cross-Channel Connections: Early Modern English Noblewomen's Familiarity with Continental Women's Literary and Performance Practices

Abstract

In this article, I consider studies that allude to or explore connections between learned, English noblewomen and Continental women during the mid-sixteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries. With the recovery of many women's works from this period, scholars have long recognized that fascinating parallels existed between the cultural milieux of learned English and Continental women. Beyond simply recognizing parallels, scholars are now interested in exploring the points of contact and sources of influence between these milieux. They find that English noblewomen's familiarity with Continental women, both of noble and lower classes, was facilitated in large part by the journeys of learned travelers, Continental players, dance masters, and musicians. In particular, I focus on works that illustrate ways in which tutors, ambassadors, scholars, and courtiers assisted in the spread of knowledge about learned English and Continental women, as well as how elements of dramatic entertainments featuring women, both for the court and the public stage, crossed national borders. Key questions in the study of early modern English women that interest scholars are, how much did English women know about their Continental counterparts, and what were their frames of reference? This article surveys scholarship that addresses these questions.