The Tragedy of Mariam

A literary prodigy, Elizabeth Tanfield learned to read early and mastered a half-dozen languages as a young child; her parents warned servants not to give her candles after bedtime, as she would stay awake all night reading. The only child of wealthy, noble parents, at 15 she married Sir Henry Cary, the Viscount Falkland. Her mother-in-law forbade the teenager to read, at which she took up writing poetry.

Cary considered poetry the highest literary form. Her brilliance as a poet was widely recognized, though few of her works have survived apart from the Tragedy of Mariam and her political fable, The History of the Life, Reign, and Death of Edward II. The publication of The Tragedy of Mariam paved the way for other English women to have their work published as well. While this play was published in 1613, Cary likely wrote it a decade earlier. This would mean Cary completed it when she was at most 18 years old.

Ironically, much of the same misogynistic heartache that afflicts the play’s female characters also marred Cary’s personal life. Her father disinherited her over a disagreement about how she could use her inheritance, and her husband attempted to divorce her when she converted from the Anglican to the Catholic Church.