The Poems and Prose of Mary, Lady Chudleigh, ed.

The Poems and Prose of Mary, Lady Chudleigh, ed. Margaret J. M. Ezell. New York: Oxford, 1993. Pp. 392. $45; $18.95 (paper).

Mary, Lady Chudleigh (1656-1710), a friend of Mary Astell and of Elizabeth Thomas, as well as a member of Dryden's extensive literary circle, is now regarded as one of the most important women poets of her time. Her best-known composition, "To the Ladies," is a memorable assault on contemporary attitudes towards marriage: "Wife and Servant are the same, / But only differ in the name." Her most sustained work is "The Ladies Defence," which disputes the conventional, male-centered view of marriage presented by Rev. John Sprint in The Bride-Woman s Counsellor (1699). Chudleigh's poem communicates outrage and defiance especially over the supposed inferiority of the female intellect:

'Tis hard we should be by the Men

despis'd,

Yet kept from knowing what wou'd

make us priz'd:

Debarr'd from Knowledge, banished

from the Schools,

And with the utmost Industry bred

Fools. (30)

Not all of Chudleigh's poetry has such a radical tinge; indeed, her religious poetry and her...