Women's Writing in Middle English - Alexandra Barratt

The aim of this anthology is to illustrate the full range of Middle English writing from the period 1300-1530 in whose production we know, or can reasonably assume, that women were involved in one way or another. Some of the texts, therefore, are original compositions in Middle English; some are translations (probably made by men) of texts composed by women in Latin or the European vernaculars; and others are translations of originally male texts made by the 15th century Englishwomen into Middle English. The complex issues raised by the inclusion of the latter group of texts, in particular the vital role that translators, both medieval and modern, play in the production and transmission of texts, are also discussed.;The examples include accounts of religious experiences, meditations, personal letters, love poems and educational writing.;A number of the texts represented here have not been edited at all before - the Trotula translations, one version of the "Revelations of St. Elizabeth", Eleanor Hull's translations, an anonymous nun's "The Faits and Passion of Our Lord ", and Eleanor Percy's hymn to the Virgin - while Lady Margaret Beaufort's translation of "A Golden Mirror" has not been reprinted since the early 16th century.