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Reviews 271 Prestfinisheswith an optimistic forecast of a renewed appreciation of British history in Australia and N e w Zealand. H e detects a stronger sense that historically 'British' comprised an amalgam of identities, including Australian, he observes that recent historiography shows that relations between Britain and i t s colonial periphery was more mutual and reciprocal, and less controlled by London, and he expects that the slow m o v e to constitutional separation will oiniinish anti-British sentiments. What I observe of students in the two years since he wrote suggests that his analysis is accurate. Marie Peters writes the last essay on the concept of sovereignty as it developed in Britain and extended to the colonies during the eighteenth century. The absolute sovereignty of 'king-in-parliament' was a practical tool, which secured cohesion in the body politic, especially in times of social and political change. She argues that because this constitutional concept is not necessarily tied to territory or identity, it could be used as a concept of absolute sovereignty over a diverse nation to acknowledge separate legal systems (as with Scotland), and i t could acknowledge the separate claims of indigenous people. A s she observes, 'we must practice a sovereignty appropriate to such a community. A n d there are tools in our European inheritance to help us do so'. Barry Collett University of Melbourne Semler, L. E., ed., Eliza's Babes: or The Virgin's Offering (1652), London, Associated University Presses, 2001; cloth; pp. 202; 2 b/w illustrations; R R P£30.00; ISBN 0-8386-3872^. Eliza's Babes is a collection of poetry and prose meditations published anonymously by 'a lady, w h o onely desires to advance the glory of God, and not her own' (title page, reproduced asfrontispiece)in 1652. Since that date, it has not been republished until this edition by L. E. Semler. The scholarly original-spelling critical edition is a useful one, not only because it puts 'Eliza' - or rather, her writing - back into visibility where she belongs, but also because it is lavishly annotated and includes an interesting introduction. Semler concludes his mtroduction with the statement that '[i]t is the interfusion of the genres ofspiritual expenence, devotional verse and Protestant meditation with one another and with the overarching aesthetic design of the text that makes Eliza's Babes, with no exaggeration, a highly valuable literary work' (p. 43). 272 Reviews The introduction discusses the historical contexts of the collection in the Interregnum, ranging widely across legal, political, and religious writings ofthe period (as does the annotation) in an attempt to place 'Eliza's' theological stance. Once Semler has concluded that Eliza's Babes is 'theologically grounded...in the Presbyterianizing ofAnglican doctrine', however, he goes on to add that 'the very essence of ['Eliza's'] Puritanism lies in the vigorous living out ofthis faith' (p. 21). The text, in Semler's view, 'is the enactment of a pun...a "publication" of salvation, of the truth' (p. 21). Its discourse is peppered with terms of compulsion not necessarily negative, over against its author's fears of'the censure of the world'; clearly those fears of the censure of her writing are bound up with her gender. Semler draws our attention to a variety of references throughout 'Eliza's' work and that of others such as Anna Trapnel and Jane Turner, which reveal the difficulties faced by 'the female saint going public' (p. 24). The anonymity of the printed text becomes one way of negotiating the barrier to women's publishing: 'for Eliza, the transition to publicity is simultaneously a transition to personal invisibility' (p. 23). Semler argues that the plain style of the poetry is linked with this: 'it is the message that is important, not the teller nor his [sic] oratorical skill' (p. 31), although he also argues that her poetry occasionally makes use of the language of Neoplatonic contemplation, and occasionally also emulates the vocabulary, form and tone of Herbert and Herrick. Eliza s Babes revivifies a well-used literary trope, the trope of poetry as literary childbirth, which is discussed by Semler in relation to the paradigm of marriage to Christ. The...

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