The educated women of the late middle ages wrote prodigious numbers of letters, journals and memoirs. But when it came to creative fiction, there were much fewer outlets for publishing of any kind, and so this period tends to be fairly thinly represented in the canon of literature, with the exception of Aphra Behn's work. This anthology will introduce the general reader to other work of this period, such as poems from Isabella Whitney, Katherine Philips and Mary Wroth; Anne Clifford's journals; Dorothy Osborne's letters; and extracts from plays by Aphra Behn and Margaret Cavendish. The letters and journals cast a light on the period that we don't usually see as observed from the female perspective. And some things remain topical from century to century, as can be seen in these lines from Isabella Whitney's poem, `The Admonition by the Author, to all young gentlewomen: And to all other Maids being in love', written about 1567: "Trust not a man at the first sight/ but try him well before/ For trial shall declare his truth/ and show what he doth think:/ Whether he be a lover true,/ or do intend to shrink."
