An Collins

It also seems clear that she had health issues or physical challenges that restricted her ability to move freely and that she lived with chronic pain,[3] as when she writes "I inform you, that by divine Providence, I have been restrained from bodily employments, suting with my disposicion, which enforced me to a retired Course of life" ("To the Reader," ll.

Collins' style has interested scholars and there has been some work done analyzing the metric forms of Divine Songs, such as the usage of Rime royal in The Preface.

[6] Several critics discuss her work in the context of the seventeenth-century tradition of the spiritual autobiography[2][7] There has been considerable writing on the subject of An Collins' political and religious beliefs.

Ostovich and Sauer write that, "An Collins' religious beliefs have been variously defined as anti-Puritanical, Calvinist, Catholic, anti-Calvinist, and Quaker..."[1] All of these aspects have been seen in Divine Songs.

The Discourse presents a standard primer on Protestant teachings, and its focus on sin has led some critics to speculate that the author may have been a Calvinist.

In particular, Collins' "meditacions" appear to follow the "Short Method for Meditation" put forth by the Catholic Bishop of Geneva, Francis de Sales, author of the popular Introduction a la Vie Devote, which had three separate English editions by 1613.