Martha Moulsworth

[7] Evans suggests that Moulsworth was a Laudian;[4] he notes in later work, however, that she was godmother to William Prynne, which may seem to cast doubt on this view.

[1] Jane Stevenson and Peter Davidson argue that '[h]er poem suggests a life of reading and thinking about religious issues, and is in the tradition of spiritual autobiography'.

[11] Dorsett was an Anglican minister and canon of Christ Church,[12][11] who graduated Oxford with an MA in 1567[13] and was a tutor of Robert and Philip Sidney.

[18] Wilcox and Evans have drawn particular attention to a passage of the Memorandum in which Moulsworth explains her notably progressive views on women's education.

[16][19] The passage, with a transcription in modern English, is as follows:[20] ... the muses ffemalls are and therfore of Vs ffemales take some care Two Vniuersities we haue of men o thatt we had but one of women then O then thatt would in witt, and tongs surpasse All art of men thatt is, or euer was ... the Muses females are And therefore of us females take some care Two universities we have of men O that we had one of women then O then that in wit and tongues surpass All art of men that is, or ever was Post distinguishes Moulsworth from contemporaries including Lady Mary Wroth and Emilia Lanier, noting that while Wroth and Lanier wrote with the concerns and pressures of courtly life in mind, Moulsworth had other preoccupations: '[f]or both Anne Bradstreet and Martha Moulsworth', he writes, 'it is not the court or the patronage system that motivates their poetry ... [I]t is the circumstantial relationship with other members of their family that lies at the core of their poetry'.