ABSTRACT
Among early m odern women writers who have been “rediscov ered” in the last decade or so, Margaret Cavendish has attracted heightened critical attention, especially for the apparent contra dictions in her self-presentations as royalist and feminist, as soli tary genius and happy wife. In a now classic article on Cavendish, Catherine Gallagher has argued that “Toryism and feminism con verge because the ideology of absolute monarchy provides, in particular historical situations, a transition to an ideology of the absolute self.” 1 In examining Cavendish’s authorship practices, James Fitzmaurice has shown how she carefully constructed her authorial persona as one devoted at once to “fancy” and the “fam ily,” in order to secure the protection she needed in “a society that tolerated women writing but was deeply suspicious of women publishing.”2