ABSTRACT
The process of self-expression is not only one of the most intriguing riddles of early modern literature, but it is also a persistent source of fascination in our contemporary world. This chapter explores the self-representation of early modern Englishwomen through what we might call the masks or dress of language. Arbella Stuart and Mary Wroth from the early decades, followed by Moulsworth and Osborne from the mid-century. While Moulsworth's Memorandum represents the author's relative freedom to create a genre in her own image, it equally demonstrates the fundamental need for some sort of generic frame within which to express identity. One of the many women writers to whom these criticisms do not apply is Dorothy Osborne, whose correspondence with her future husband William Temple is one of the treasures of seventeenth-century autobiographical writing. Since this is consciously chosen and put on, the handwriting must to some extent hide, while simultaneously expressing, Stuarts identity.
