Manchester University Press
1 ‘My Booke of Rememberance’
Abstract
Written circa 1639, the ‘Booke of Rememberance’ covered the first thirty years of Elizabeth Isham’s life, and was the product of a number of influences and purposes. An act of spiritual meditation, repentance and memory, Elizabeth’s account was a testament of puritan self-examination. The autobiography also served as a defence of her marital status, allowed her to provide religious instruction to later generations of Isham women, and was a memorial to her mother, Lady Isham. For its style and structure, the reading of devotional literature proved important, with William Watt’s translation of Augustine’s Confessions serving as Elizabeth’s primary literary model when producing an account of her life. Essentially a hybrid form of life-writing, the spiritual autobiography pre-dated the emergence of the genre of the seventeenth-century conversion narrative, and it allows us to underscore the long-standing scholarly debate over the connections between early modern life-writing and the birth of a modern subjective self centred on an intense interiority. Indeed, we find elements of both Elizabeth’s interiority and exteriority expressed in the ‘Booke of Remembrance’, suggesting that to preference one over the other creates a false dichotomy that pays few, if any scholarly dividends.
Abstract
Written circa 1639, the ‘Booke of Rememberance’ covered the first thirty years of Elizabeth Isham’s life, and was the product of a number of influences and purposes. An act of spiritual meditation, repentance and memory, Elizabeth’s account was a testament of puritan self-examination. The autobiography also served as a defence of her marital status, allowed her to provide religious instruction to later generations of Isham women, and was a memorial to her mother, Lady Isham. For its style and structure, the reading of devotional literature proved important, with William Watt’s translation of Augustine’s Confessions serving as Elizabeth’s primary literary model when producing an account of her life. Essentially a hybrid form of life-writing, the spiritual autobiography pre-dated the emergence of the genre of the seventeenth-century conversion narrative, and it allows us to underscore the long-standing scholarly debate over the connections between early modern life-writing and the birth of a modern subjective self centred on an intense interiority. Indeed, we find elements of both Elizabeth’s interiority and exteriority expressed in the ‘Booke of Remembrance’, suggesting that to preference one over the other creates a false dichotomy that pays few, if any scholarly dividends.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Abbreviations x
- Introduction 1
- 1 ‘My Booke of Rememberance’ 20
- 2 ‘As a branch with a roote’ 53
- 3 ‘The sweet private life’ 101
- 4 ‘My own bookes’ 144
- 5 ‘To piety more prone’ 186
- Conclusion 233
- Bibliography 242
- Index 266
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Abbreviations x
- Introduction 1
- 1 ‘My Booke of Rememberance’ 20
- 2 ‘As a branch with a roote’ 53
- 3 ‘The sweet private life’ 101
- 4 ‘My own bookes’ 144
- 5 ‘To piety more prone’ 186
- Conclusion 233
- Bibliography 242
- Index 266
