ABSTRACT
Margaret Cavendish lived in Paris from 1644–48 and at Rubenshuis from 1648–1660. Eventually, Cavendish would learn about Minerva Victrix of the 1620s, and this particular Vamazone would make such an impression on Cavendish that she would base at least two of her plays on the French woman warrior’s heroics. Cavendish’s William Shakespeare writes so well not because he is able to remove himself from the picture but because he is able to transform himself into the picture; his is not a negative capability but, rather, a multi-positive capability, a compounded capability. Cavendish’s hypothesis that Cleopatra is so convincingly drawn that Shakespeare must have “Metamorphosed from a Man to a Woman” in order to write her part is delivered with characteristic playfulness; nevertheless, it is consistent with the way in which, throughout the letter, she defines the nature of Shakespeare’s poetic genius.
