Secretaries of God: Women Prophets in Late Medieval and Early Modern England (review)

276 Reviews Johnson (1765, with revisions in 1773 and 1778)—which Walsh understandably discusses only from the particular perspective of his concern with 'the grounds and procedures of interpretation and conjectural emendation'—like Theobald's shows a 'regular and determined rejection of aesthetic editorial choices in favour of readings which m a y be believed authorial'. A few carping comments: the theoretical framework, especially in the discussion of contemporary editorial theory, is very 'thin', Shillingsburg's categories being taken up and extended despite their o w n author's revision. Further, though a chapter is devoted to 'Anglican' hermeneutics, there is no comparable discussion of traditions of classical editing, though both scriptural and classical practices are frequently referred to. Since the final conclusion of the study is in terms of post-Renaissance humanism (in a brief 'Conclusion,' Walsh suggests that eighteenth-century editors were 'participants in a humanist enterprise'), this lack of a discussion of the practices of English scholars in relation to classical texts is even more puzzling. Nevertheless, the two long chapters on Milton and, especially, Shakespeare, make valuable contributions to our understanding, for they lead the reader vividly into that eighteenth-century context in which many of our contemporary editorial practices had their laborious origin. Rosemary Huisman Department of English University of Sydney Watt, Diane, Secretaries of God: Women Prophets in Late Medieval a Modern England, Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 1997; cloth; pp. ix, 198; 7 b / w illustrations; R.R.P. £35.00, US$63.00. In this lively discussion of female prophetic traditions from the to the seventeenth century, Diane Watt crosses several boundaries: the disciplinary divide, as the book draws on the methodology and theoretical vocabulary of both literary and historical studies; the canonical divide, as the book examines non-canonical and semicanonical works; and the chronological divide, as it treats texts from Reviews 277 different sides of the medieval/Renaissance barrier. Crossing these divides allows recognition of both continuity and change and permits Watt to offer distinct case studies of individual w o m e n prophets and, from them, to mount an argument for the existence of 'a long-standing, culturally recognizable and often politically powerful tradition of female prophecy'. The case studies are: Margery K e m p e (c.1473sometime after 1439); Elizabeth Barton, T h e Holy Maid of Kent' (15061534 ); Anne Askew (1521-1546); and Lady Eleanor Davies (c.1588-1652). These w o m e n lived under different conditions, had different social and educational backgrounds, different religious beliefs and different personal circumstances. Margery K e m p e was the daughter of a wealthy burgess of King's Lynn in Norfolk. She herself had tried her hand as a business w o m a n , was married and had given birth to fourteen children. She was illiterate. Elizabeth Barton m a y have been semi-literate. She had been a servant before entering the religious life at the convent of St Sepulchre in Canterbury. Like Margery Kempe's, her religious beliefs were orthodox. Anne Askew was a gentlewoman from Lincolnshire who had family connections with the royal court. Her husband's opposition to her Protestant religious beliefs drove her to London to seek a divorce. She wrote an account of her subsequent examination on charges of heresy Lady Eleanor Davies was born into the aristocracy, had a classical education and was married to the politician and poet Sir John Davies. Despite their different backgrounds, all were called to be 'secretaries ofGod' (the term comes from The Book ofMargery Kempe in which Margery is likened to 'owyr Lordys o w y n secretarijs whech he hath indued with lofe'), proclaiming to the world the divine messages revealed to them. In this vocation they shared persecution (Margery Kempe was accused of heresy, both Elizabeth Barton and Anne Askew were executed and Eleanor Davies was incarcerated in prison arid once, in Bedlam), and their extant writings share preoccupations with authorisation, mediation, effacement and validation. Watt devotes one chapter to each of these women. Each chapter is valuable in its o w n right as a contribution to scholarship on its particular subject, but each individual study also forms part...