ABSTRACT
The textual Elizabeth Cary of the “Life” and the author Elizabeth Cary who wrote The Tragedie of Mariam and The History of the Life of Edward II certainly have much in common. As represented in the “Life,” Elizabeth Cary was a model of feminine self-denial, submitting herself to her husband’s will in all things—even, at times, imperiling her own physical or financial well-being to do so. Elizabeth Cary likewise struggles to affirm, and to conform to, a divinely established order that deprived women of free will. But unlike Anne Cary’s almost-saintly heroine, Elizabeth Cary the author seems early on to have resented patriarchal authority. If Elizabeth as a sovereign queen was to be matched with the greatest of monarchs, it would be a match in comparable political stature, in her single state as monarch, and not in a marriage-match that would almost certainly have deprived her of her autonomy.
