- Elizabeth Melville
Elizabeth Melville (1582 [?] - 1640) (or Elizabeth Melvill), is the earliest known Scottish woman writer to have her work appear in print and is most famous for writing the "Ane Godlie Dreame", a
Calvinist dream-vision poem. Evans, Deanna. "Elizabeth Melville". The Literary Encyclopedia. Ed. Robert Clark, Emory Elliott and Janet Todd.]Melville was the daughter of Sir
James Melville of Halhill (1535-1617), a statesman, serving in the courts of Mary, Queen of Scots, and King James VI ofScotland and author of Memoirs of His Own Life.Swift, Carolyn R. “Elizabeth Melville.” Literary Resource Center. Thompson Gale. 2 February 2007.] There is no record of her birth or death, which was common for Scottish women of her Century. Melville married John Colville, or Colvil, of Wester-Cumbrae, who inherited the title of Commendator of the Abbey at Culross. Colville refused the peerage in 1609, most likely due to financial difficulties, and because of this Melville’s titles of LadyComrie and LadyCulross were purely honorary. She is believed to be the mother of Samuel Colville, author of "Mock Poem", which is sometimes described as the ScottishHudibras and bore at least 5 other children.Melville first published "Ane Godlie Dreame" in 1603 in Scots, and then translated it into English, probably the following year. Written in the traditional dream-vision style, the poem describes the religious experience of a woman active in the
Scottish Reformation . "Ane Godlie Dreame", as well as a collection of letters written by Melville, reveal her strong belief that poetry should be strictly used to serve religion and her Calvinist theological understanding.Meville’s poem is distinctly Scottish in many ways. Her first title page introduces" Ane Godlie Dreame" as having been written in Scottish Meter, with octaves of “interlacing rhyme scheme”Laroche, Rebecca. "Elizabeth Melville and her friends: Seeing "Ane Godlie Dreame" through Political Lenses." InfoTrac OneFile. CLIO 34.3 (Spring 2005): 277(19). Thomson Gale. 2 February 2007.] similar to those appearing in Scottish sonnets. The poem realistically describes the Scottish landscape, with mentions of thorns and briars, sand, mountains, and a castle on a hill, similar to those found in
Edinburgh andStirling .Besides "Ane Godlie Dreame", her other works include 29 other poems recently discovered and written about by Jaime Reid-Baxter.
Works
*"Ane Godlie Dreame". Edinburgh: R. Charteris. 1603; translated into English by the author as "A Godly Dream". Edinburgh: R. Charteris. 1604.
*“A Sonnet Sent to Blackness.” Early Metrical Tales. ed. David Laing. Edinburgh: W. D. Laing/ Londong: J. Duncan. 1826. P. xxxii.
*“Letters from Lady Culross, Etc.” Select Biographies. Ed. W. K. Tweedie. Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1845. I: 349-70.References
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