Literature, War and Politics, 1642–1668

Cavalier and she-majesty: the cultural politics of gender in Jane Cavendish’s poetry

“…7 Much of the verse published in the 1640s that has been read as 'Cavalier' was being composed and circulated from the 1630s on. 8 Jane's verse can be seen as entering in the mid-1640s into an ongoing Royalist textual conversation which was primarily shaped by men's coterie activity, but to which she as a woman could contribute. 9 Her engagement with this conversation from a gendered position within a familial context complements and extends McDowell's argument about the formative contribution made to Royalist writing by such coterie activity.…”