Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Illustrations

Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION

A MOTHER’S SPIRITUAL DIALOGUE, MEDITATIONS, AND ELEGIES
To My Most Loving and Dearly Beloved Husband, George Payler, Esquire
A Dialogue Betwixt the Soul and the Body
Note on the Deaths of Five Children
Written by My Dear Husband at the Death of Our Fourth (at That Time) Only Child, Robert Payler
Written by Me at the Same Time, on the Death of My Fourth and Only Child, Robert Payler
Written by Me at the Death of my Fourth Son and Fifth Child, Peregrine Payler
A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of Christ
A Meditation or Commemoration of the Love of the Holy Ghost
Upon the Sight of My Abortive Birth the 31 of December 1657

APPENDIX 1: MARY CAREY’S LETTER TO THOMAS PELHAM

APPENDIX 2: POETIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN MARY CAREY AND THOMAS FAIRFAX

Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Mary Carey (c. 1609–c. 1680) was the daughter of Sir John Jackson. She married Pelham Carey in 1630, and later was remarried, to George Payler, though she continued to be known as Lady Carey. Pamela S. Hammons is professor of English and Cooper Fellow at the University of Miami and coeditor of World-Making Renaissance Women: Rethinking Early Modern Women’s Place in Literature and Culture.