The Blazing New World

Virtually alone of all the women writers whose poetry, drama, and prose achieved some currency in the 17th century in England, Margaret Cavendish put her name on her work. Cavendish was not a professional writer as the term is commonly understood; she was self-published, or more exactly enjoyed the patronage of her husband William, Duke of Newcastle. The closet dramas, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction that were published under Cavendish's byline appear to have been lavishly printed and distributed (or sold) to a select aristocratic readership. In any case, the literacy rate of 17th-century England would have been limited.

But in part because Cavendish's reading audience was small when measured against the standards of 21st-century mass-market publishing, it can be more closely connected to and identified with the social milieu in which it functioned. And what must be understood about the social environment of Margaret Cavendish is that, despite being a titled English lady she was also an oppressed one--not so much because she was a woman in a man's world as because her entire world was dislocated by the politics of the English Civil War. As a Royalist who was so lo

. . .
n, ant-men, "each follow[ing] such profession as was most proper for the nature of their species." They are also content to accept encouragement from the new empress with regard to producing innovative arts and sciences, hence more innovative, says the omniscient author, than "we are in our world." The bear-men were to be her experimental philosophers, the bird-men her astronomers, the fly, worm and fish-men her natural philosophers, the ape-men her chemists, the satyrs her Galenic physicians, the fox-men her politicians, the spider and lice-men her mathematicians, the jackdaw, magpie and parrot-men her orators and logicians, the giants her architects etc. The outlines of social organization having been accomplished, the new empress sets about the task of being "informed both of the manner of their religion and government." It is at this point that Blazing New World enters into its principal concern, which has far less to do with the attributes of the utopian world in which the empress finds herself than with the political issues that were au courant in Restoration England in 1666. These issues included the residue of concern for what had happened to England during the Civil War and Interregnum, but they came down to the posi
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Blazing World, North Pole, Royalist Cavendish's, Duchess Newcastle, Milton Marvell, Duke Newcastle, Pepys Cavendish's, Margaret Cavendish, Restoration England, Marvell Milton, blazing world, margaret cavendish, duchess newcastle, world written, world cavendish, feminine utopia, blazing world written, north pole, cornell university press, cavendish's feminine, poems fancies, deluxe edition cd-rom, university press, 2001 deluxe edition, cavendish's feminine utopia,
Approximate Word count = 3120
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

More Essays on The Blazing New World