Friendship In Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy Of Mariam,The Fair Queen Of Jewry And The History Of The Life,Reign And Death Of Edward Ⅱ

This thesis examines friendship in the works of Elizabeth Cary,Lady Falkland(1585/6-1639),an early modern woman writer,who has been attracting more and more critical attention.Focusing on Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam,the Fair Queen of Jewry(1613),the first original play written by women in English and The History of the Life,Reign,and Death of Edward Ⅱ(1680),the first English historical fiction authored by women,this thesis explores how Cary challenges the early modern discourse of friendship to argue for women’s participation in the friendship based on virtue.First,this thesis briefly reviews the discourse of friendship in sixteenth-and early seventeenth-century England,which is,in essence,a discourse of ideal male friendship.Most humanist writers at that time established three basic principles of friendship:the Ciceronian-Stoic self,the friend as another self and the Plutarchan counselor.All three principles are based on the definition of friendship as a relationship that can only exist between two virtuous men.Women are either ignored by or excluded from humanist representations of friendshipSecond,based on the analysis of the early modern discourse of friendship,this thesis demonstrates that Cary challenges the gendered-biased discourse of friendship through criticizing its limits.For example,the victimized female friendship under men’s oppression in both Mariam and Edward Ⅱ,the misogyny depended by the ideal male friendship in Mariam and the fallacy of achieving the radical friendship likeness in Edward II.Cary’s criticism on the limits of ideal male friendship lays a solid foundation for her bid for women’s inclusion in friendship.Last,this thesis argues that Cary further challenges the exclusionary discourse of friendship to strive for women’s engagement in friendship through providing a cross-gender friendship based on the shared virtue of the participants.The virtue Cary envisions as the basis of friendship often takes the form of resistance to political tyranny,a virtue both men and women can fulfill.Cary attempts to rewrite the exclusionary discourse of ideal male friendship with a new vision of friendship:friendship can flourish between any virtuous people,regardless of their gender.Given the social and political significance of the ideal male friendship in early modern society,women’s bid for inclusion in this tradition is,therefore,a bid for a form of social and political enfranchisement.This thesis is part of the new wave of criticism that seeks to read Cary’s works in a new light.Reading both Cary’s Mariam and Edward Ⅱ from the perspective of friendship is highly original,which,as far as I am aware,has not been previously attempted in any exhaustive way both at home and abroad.Analyzing Cary’s works from the perspective of friendship,this thesis hopes to cast new light on the study of English women’s writing.In addition,given that at abroad the study of early modern English women’s writing has been attracting more and more critical attention while at home it is still at its staring point,this thesis hopes to be helpful in its development through examining Cary’s works.