The Life of Rachel Speght

In 1617, Rachel Speght caused a sensation when, at the age of nineteen, she published a polemic in defence of women under her own name. Daring to identify herself as a ‘forward’ woman, she repudiated the prevailing misogyny of her day. However, the power of her words died with her, and, for over 350 years, she was lost from view. Since the rediscovery of her works in the 1980s, Speght has become a familiar name in Renaissance literature. Nevertheless, almost fifty years after her re-emergence, t