Abstract/Summary

This thesis is an exploration of two Restoration manuscript, non-fiction prose texts: ‘A Discourse on Friendship’ (1666) by Mary Beale (1633-1699)and ‘The Women’s Right’ (c. 1670) by Mary More (1633-1716). Both texts are treatises that discuss marriage, and which advocate for types of equality between women and men. They do this through application of the argument about the offices of friendship and through the use of biblical exegesis that interrogates falsely claimed scriptural authority. This thesis draws together strands of early modern scholarship regarding the political role of the family, the use of religious discourses in political statements, the role of ideas of friendship in early modern understandings of familial, social and civic relationships, and the ubiquity of manuscript circulation as a means of publication and intellectual discourse. In doing so, this thesis argues that early modern women were active participants in political discourses and were fully cognisant of the political implications of their work. Mary Beale and Mary More were two “middling-sort” women, and this thesis adds to the evidence that intellectual exchange and cultural production was not restricted to elite women. By connecting ‘A Discourse on Friendship’ and ‘The Woman’s Right’ with other non-fiction prose texts which argue for women’s equality with men, this thesis advocates for a discontinuous feminist heritage. While use of the word ‘feminist’ is not unproblematic, this thesis argues that feminism is a continually evolving movement and thus it is appropriate to describe these texts as feminist, to encapsulate their political functions.