Manuscript Matters: Reading the Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart

Abstract

Unlike many Renaissance Englishwomen, Lady Arbella Stuart (1575-1615) never disappeared from discussions of early modem England. Among historians and authors of historical fiction, Stuart's story was widely known. She was by birth a claimant to English throne, educated as befitted her rank, and during Queen Elizabeth's reign lived largely in Derbyshire, in custody of her grandmother, Bess of Hardwick. After her cousin James of Scotland succeeded to English throne, Stuart was brought to court and for a time was second lady of England-untilin 1610 she defied James to marry William Seymour, another claimant to crown. Both offenders were imprisoned, and in 1611 they escaped and attempted to reach continent, with Stuart cross-dressed as a man. Recaptured off coast of Calais, Stuart died four years later in Tower of London. Hundreds of records attest to Stuart's presence in early modem England, including numerous papers in which Stuart's contemporaries speculated about her religious affiliation, her supporters, or strength of her claim to throne. Her extraordinary actions were applauded and condemned by historians; her life inspired poetry, drama, and novels.l Arbella Stuart was lost as a writer, however, and among reasons is that she wrote letters.2 In early seventeenth century, when letter was considered a significant literary genre,3 Stuart's rhetorical skill received high praise.4 By end of seventeenth century, personal letter was fading from prominence as a genre. Dr. Nathaniel Johnson, a physician and antiquarian who in 1693 copied some of Stuart's familial letters, saluted Stuart for Naturall Ingenuity and Unborrowed witt, commenting that her way of writing was, among his list of positive adjectives, peculiar, by which he seems to have meant distinguished by individuality of expression. He regretted nothing more, he said, then that no more of these Excellent Letters have come to my view.5 But Johnson transcribed letters only because they were related to his collection of materials illuminating lives of earls of Shrewsbury, including Stuart's uncle Gilbert Talbot. In later centuries, that shift in evaluative emphasis became more pronounced. Although nineteenthand twentieth-century historians or biographers often were moved to commend Stuart's spirit or style or the brilliancy of her humour6 or to print her words at length as though only