Headnote
Born in the early 1560s, Anne Dowriche was the child of two prominent Cornish families, the Edgecombes and the Tregians (see Sampson). She most likely grew up at her father’s family estate, Mount Edgecombe, on the Cornish side of the Tamar. In 1580, Anne married Hugh Dowriche, the rector of Honiton in Devon. Anne’s poetry and Hugh’s published sermons make clear that both were of the Puritan wing of the Church of England, militant Protestants and vehemently anti-Catholic. In addition to her most well-known work, The French Historie (1589), Anne contributed prefatory verses to her husband’s book, The Jaylor’s Conversion (1596). She also participated in a network of southwestern women writers, including Anne Lock, united by their religion and their anti-Catholicism (see White).
Several of Anne Dowriche’s siblings were also active in Protestant causes, yet her wider family networks included equally devoted followers of the opposing faith. Hugh Dowriche’s grandfather had been among those arrested for his role in the 1549 Prayer Book rebellion, which sought the restoration of traditional Catholic worship. Several of the Tregians were likewise staunch Catholics and recusants. In 1577, Anne’s cousin Francis Tregian was arrested and imprisoned for sheltering the Catholic priest Cuthbert Mayne, who was himself the first member of the English mission to be martyred.
Concerns with religious conflict, martyrdom, and the fragility of social bonds lie at the heart of Dowriche’s poem. A 2400-line poem in poulter’s measure, The French Historie offers a supplement or sequel to John Foxe’s celebrated Actes and Monuments, or ‘Book of Martyrs’. As Dowriche notes in her preface to the reader, ‘the noble Martyrs of England are known sufficiently almost to all; these excellent French Histories were seen but of few, being in worthiness nothing inferior unto the other’. The poem recounts a series of bloody episodes in the sixteenth-century French wars of religion, culminating in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacres of 1572. Much of the work consists of long speeches by the Protestant martyrs, and also by their persecutors, based on bare hints in the source material by Jean de Serres and Francois Hotman (Martin). There are also many graphic descriptions of violence. Satan himself features as a central character, setting the plots against the godly in motion and bringing his court together for counsel. Unusually, the work was printed in London for sale by William Russell in Exeter, as well as for sale in London. Dowriche apparently understood her poem to have a special significance for the people of her region, despite its focus on France.
The story is told from the perspective of a French Protestant refugee in England. In the opening episode, excerpted here, the (male) narrator discovers the Frenchman alone in a wood, bewailing the woes of his nation. The Englishman welcomes the stranger, brings him home, and asks for his tale. Although the zealous Protestantism of the Elizabethan period is often associated with militant nationalism and xenophobia, Dowriche’s poem demonstrates how such religious sentiments could also be allied to the humane welcoming of ‘strangers’, at least as long as they were co-religionists.
Listen to our podcast interview on Anne Dowriche with Professor Micheline White here.
The French historie, that is, A lamentable discourse of three of the chiefe, and most famous bloodie broiles that haue happened in France for the Gospell of Jesus Christ
AS walking on a daie,
the woods and forrests nie:
In shrilling voyce, and mournfull tunes,
me thought I heard one crie.
Which sodaine feare so dasht
my blood and senses all,
That as one in a traunce I staid
to see what would befall.
A thousand thoughts opprest my fearfull wavering braine,
In musing what amid the woods that fearful voice shuld mean
I feard least theeves had robd and cast some man aside:
Because it was the common waie where men did use to ride.
Among the savage beasts that in these woods remaine,1
I doubted least some travler stood in danger to be slaine.
But casting feare apart, I ranne toward the place,
To see the wight that did lament, and waile his wofull case.
Alone, no perill nigh, within a bushie dale,
A stranger sate: I got aside to heare his dolefull tale.
“O noble France (quod he) that bor’st sometime the bell,2
And for thy pleasure and thy wealth all Nations didst excell!
How art thou now of late with mischiefe so possest,
That al the Realmes of Christendome thy falshoods do detest?
Where is thy vernant3 hiew? Thy fresh and flowring fame?
What fell unluckie spot is this, that so dooth stain thy name?
Where is thy mirth become? Where is thy smiling cheere?
Wher is thy joiful peace, that erst did make thee shine so cleer?
Where are thy youthlie troopes, the Nobles of thy Land?
Where is thy faith; without the which, no realm can ever stand.
Where is the mutuall love that Prince and people had?
Where is the noble union, that makes the Countrie glad?
Where is the due regard that Princes ought to have;
From all the bands of tyrannie their people for to save?
Where is thy pitie gone, where is thy mercie fled;
That Lion-like in everie place such Christian blood is shed?
But these of late to thee O France have bid adieu,
That rigor reignes in mercies seate: alas, it is too true.
For having no remorse to heare thy childrens grone,
Like as a widow comfortlesse thou shalt be left alone.
For they that feare the Lord, and have for him a care,
Have learnd too late the costlie wit thy treasons to beware.
Therefore thy children have their native Coasts resignde,
With better hope in forrein Lands more mercie for to finde.
And that which is the worst, I see thou dost not waie
The Spiders spite, that long hath wove the web of thy decaie.
Therefore if thou wilt know the cause of all thy woe;
Then mark the judgements of the Lord, from which thou canst not goe.
If Juda now (saith he) should aske the causes why4
Their Land was like a wildernesse that no man passed by;
He makes no long delaie, but bids the Prophet show,
This plague doth alwaies follow them that do despise his law.
For they that Idols serve, and from the Lord doo shrinke,
They shal be fed with bitter gall, & wormwood5 water drinke.
And why at sundrie times was Egipt plagued so?
But for because he would not yeeld to let Gods people goe.
Why was the Lord with Saul so wroth and full of ire,6
In sparing Agag and the beasts the people did desire?
For he had now accurst both Agag and his Land,
Commanding Saule without remorse to kil them out of hand:
Because this Amalek would not at all vouchsave
Within his Land Gods chosen flocke a passage for to have:
But falslie did conspire to worke their open shame,
To snare their feete they laie in waite from Egipt as they came.7
And thou Jerusalem, what sinne did file thy fall,
When Titus and Vaspasian did tumble downe thy wall?
Why did the Lord depart from thee that wast so brave,
And to thy foes made thee a pray, a jest, a servile slave?
Because amiddes thy mirth thy God thou didst forget,
And wouldst not have his prophets live, but didst them il intreat.
O France therefore be wise, learne ere it be too late
By these examples, to begin these bloodie sinnes to hate.
For thou with Juda land hast done thy God great wrong,8
To serve and set up other Gods to runne a whoring long.9
Thou hast for wooden Gods, Gods livelie Image spilde:
And with the streams of christian blood the streets & canels fild
Thou hast with Egipt long Gods word in prison pent
And wilfullie refusde the light that he to thee hath sent.
The Moses that begins this light for to unfolde,
Thou seekst to lap him presentlie in chaines and irons colde.
Thou dost with Amalek with all thy wit assaie
To lie in waite that in thy land the truth may have no waie.
And thou a cruell nursse to Gods elect hast been,
To blemish thus the shining light that in thee hath bin seene.
And with Jerusalem Gods Prophets thou hast slaine,
That in thy popish ignorance thou mightest still remaine.
If Juda shall be fed with wormwood mixt with gall;
If wilfull Egipt plagued were that kept Gods Church in thral;
If God no pitie showde, and mercie none would have
Upon the land of Amalek, nor man nor beast to save;
And if the blinded pride that in Jeruslem dwelt,
Could not escape Gods heavie wrath, but man & childe it felt.
What shall become of thee thou blinde and bloodie land?
How dost thou think for to escape Gods just revenging hand?
But sith I doo not doubt God will revenge our case,
And for his chosen when he list provide a dwelling place;
I will no more lament in sad and mourning stile,
But thanke the Lord that set me safe within this pleasant Ile.
O happie England, thou from God above art blest,
Which hast the truth established with peace and perfect rest.
God give thee therewithall a good and thankfull minde,
That to thy loving God no waie thou shew thy selfe unkinde.10
But still thou maist remaine as thou hast been of yore,
A Nurse to Gods afflicted flock, that he maie blesse thee more?
But now will I depart, the Lord direct my waie,
And send me in this pleasant Ile some simple slender staie:
Till God grant me returne, or otherwise provide.
a But is not that an English-man that I have yonder spide?”11
b “Wel met my frend, tel what thou art that mak’st this mone?12
And whie within these desart woods art thou thy selfe alone?”
c “I am a stranger wight, and France my native soyle,13
From which, of late, by luckles chance, & need, am forst to toyle.
Such troubles and such warres of late have there befell,
That such as feare the Lord aright no suretie have to dwell
Within that wofull Land: so God me hether sent
To live with you in happie state, which he this Land hath lent.”
d “Oh happie then am I: my frend I thee desire14
Come goe with me, for of these warres I greatly long to hear.
And if that thou wilt staie, as long as thou wilt crave
My house as thine, and all therein thou shalt be sure to have.
Therefore my frend I praie, thy wit and tongue prepare,
The cause of all these bloodie broiles in verse for to declare.
And first of all describe the matter, and the man,
The place, the time, the manner how this Civill warre began.”
“O Sir, but this request doth pierce my wounded hart,
Which gladly would forget again my woful countries smart.
For who can well displaie the treasons and the guiles,
The bloodie murders mercilesse, the snares and craftie wiles
Which France hath put in ure15 these thirtie yeeres and more,
The like of which in Christendome was never seene before?
But sith it is your will to know the wofull state
Of Christs afflicted Church in France, which Antichrist doth hate
Come rest you here a while, and marke what I shall tell,
Great warres & broiles I must declare, God grant it may be wel.”
Endnotes
- The reference to ‘savage beasts’ populating the forest suggests a landscape of literary romance, rather than a sixteenth-century English forest. Wolves having been eradicated some centuries earlier, the largest English carnivore in this period was the badger. ↩︎
- margin: ‘The pitiful lamentation of a godlie Frenche Exile, which for persecution forsooke his Countrie’ ↩︎
- ‘vernant’: flourishing in the spring ↩︎
- margin: ‘Jeremie 9.12’ (‘Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?‘ Jeremiah 9:12, KJV) ↩︎
- gall and wormwood, notoriously bitter botanical substances, used biblically to signify bitterness and resentment (e.g., Deut. 29:18) ↩︎
- margin: ‘1. Samuel 15.’ In this chapter of the bible, the Lord orders King Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, including their domestic animals. Saul massacres the human population but takes their king Agag captive and preserves the best of the sheep and oxen for sacrifice. His failure to obey the letter of the divine command leads to his rejection by God. ↩︎
- margin: ‘Exodus 17.4.’ (Probably an error for Exodus 17:14: ‘And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.’) ‘Numb. 24.20’ (‘And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever.’) ↩︎
- margin: ‘France compared with Juda, Egipt, Agipt and Jerusalem.’ (The repetition of ‘Agipt’ is probably an error for ‘Amalek’, referred to in this sequence below.) ↩︎
- Numerous passages in the bible refer to the sin of idolatry in terms of ‘whoring after’ foreign gods or idols (e.g., Exodus 34:15, Deut. 31:16, Ezekiel 6:9). ↩︎
- Like the poem’s closing address to Queen Elizabeth, this celebration of England’s peace sounds a note of caution that it may stand on shaky foundations. ↩︎
- margin: ‘aThe French Pilgrime having espied the Authour, commeth to him.’ (This provides the first indication that the narratorial ‘Authour’ is male, though the book’s frontmatter clearly identifies the actual author as female.) ↩︎
- margin: ‘bThe talke betweene them.’ ↩︎
- margin: ‘cThe Pilgrim.’ ↩︎
- margin: ‘dThe Englishman the Authour.’ ↩︎
- ‘in ure’, i.e., in use ↩︎
References
Martin, Randall. “Anne Dowriche’s ‘The French History’, Christopher Marlowe, and Machiavellian Agency.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 39 (1999): 69–87.
Sampson, Julie, ‘Anne Edgcumbe/Dowriche and The French Historie’, DA Transactions 141 (2009): 93-152
White, Micheline. ‘Women Writers and Literary‐Religious Circles in the Elizabethan West Country: Anne Dowriche, Anne Lock Prowse, Anne Lock Moyle, Ursula Fulford, and Elizabeth Rous‘, Modern Philology 103 (2005): 187-214.