SCRIPTING A FEMALE VOICE: WOMEN'S EPISTOLARY RHETORIC IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY LETTERS OF PETITION

The early modern letter represents the dominant written form by which women exerted power and influence. Nowhere is this more explicit than in the study of letters of petition, requests for favour to monarchs and government officials, of which more than 1000 examples survive for the period 1540 - 1603 in England. This article focuses on women's rhetorical and epistolary skills displayed in petitionary correspondence: the degree to which female letter writers conformed to epistolary conventions and models relating to structure, rhetoric, language and manuscript layout. It also examines the kinds of rhetorical strategies employed by women that are distinct from those employed in men's letters: tropes of female weakness and fragility for strategic effect; emphasis of the plight of widows; the duty of wives, mothers and kinswomen to intervene on behalf of family and friends. Moreover, it posits a distinctly "feminine'' mode of petitioning, a "scripted'' female voice that could be appropriated by both men and women.