Anne Killigrew Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Carol Barash

Critical Essay by Carol Barash

SOURCE: Barash, Carol. “The Female Monarch and the Woman Poet: Mary of Modena, Anne Killigrew, and Jane Barker.” In English Women's Poetry, 1649-1714: Politics, Community, and Linguistic Authority, pp. 149-208. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

In the following essay, Barash surveys Killigrew's life and works, and analyzes many poems in terms of her experience of court life.

The Imaginary Underworld of Mary of Modena's Court

Anne Killigrew (1660-85) spent her short adult life as an attendant to James II's second wife, Mary of Modena.¹ The wages for women at court were reasonable (two hundred pounds per year, plus room and board). When Maids of Honour left court they also received a pension for life, and if they married the crown paid their dowry.² In addition to the hope of a lucrative marriage (assuming one did not become pregnant at court), living with the royal family often brought women indirect political power, the ability to manipulate rulers through intimate knowledge...
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