Elegies

Context and purpose

The manuscript of the Elegies is a fair copy of 24 poems, mostly numbered and carrying title phrases. The hand is not Lucy Hutchinson's. All of the poems are unique to this manuscript and relate to the death of her husband Colonel John Hutchinson (1615-1664), except for one, copied in later by Julius Hutchinson, who states that it was written during the Colonel's imprisonment in the Tower in 1664. (However, that poem is in fact Eve's lament from canto 5 of Hutchinson's biblical epic, Order and Disorder (ed. David Norbrook, Blackwell, 2000).) Norbrook connects the composition of the Elegies with her Life of Colonel Hutchinson which she finished by 1671 (Norbrook, "Elegies", 470). 'On the Spring 1668' has a clear originating date. However, the exact date of this version and the identity of the scribe are not clear. The manuscript contains 26 leaves (180 x 120 mm), stitched, with no cover. It is clear from the text (see items 9 and 18, or 15, 17 and 19) that a few of the pages were copied in the wrong order, or have become disordered. The text of the Elegies has been published by David Norbrook in his article, "Lucy Hutchinson's "Elegies" and the Situation of the Republican Woman Writer, English Literary Renaissance, 27 (1997), 468-521.