ABSTRACT
Despite publishing only one collection of verse, Elizabeth Hands possesses one of the most remarkable and distinctive voices in the eighteenth-century labouring-class tradition. The key dates in Hands's life have recently come to light thanks to the meticulous researches of Cynthia Dereli. Rediscovering Hands after almost two centuries of neglect, have a surer sense of the kind of merit to which her work lays claim. The story concerns the desire of Amnon, a son of King David of Israel, for Tamar, his half-sister, and his subsequent death at the hands of his vengeful half-brother Absalom. Tamar is given rather more opportunity to voice her suffering and anger than in the biblical account, but as Landry notes, Hands's version is principally concerned with the loyalty of Absalom's servants in providing him with information about the rape.
