By focusing on one literary character, as interpreted in both verbal art and visual art at a point midway in time between the author’s era and our own, this study applies methodology appropriate for overcoming limitations posed by historical periodization and by isolation among academic specialities. Current trends in Chaucer scholarship call for diachronic afterlife studies like this one, sometimes termed “medievalism.” So far, however, nearly all such work by-passes the eighteenth century (here designated 1660-1810). Furthermore, medieval authors’ afterlives during any time period have not been analyzed by way of the multiple fields of specialization integrated into this study. The Wife of Bath is regarded through the disciplinary lenses of eighteenth-century literature, visual art, print marketing, education, folklore, music, equitation, and especially theater both in London and on the Continent.

This is the first ever complete critical edition of the writings of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661–1720), including work printed in her lifetime and material left in manuscript form at her death. Textual analysis, based on print and manuscript copies in repositories across the United Kingdom and the United States, reveals her revision processes and uses of manuscript and print. Extensive commentary clarifies her techniques, sources, contexts, and diction. A detailed essay traces the history of her works' reception and transmission. The result is a complete view of her achievements that will promote more accurate assessments of her contributions to literary and cultural shifts, including perspectives on literary value, women's equality, religion, and affairs of state. This first volume provides established texts of Finch's early manuscript books, including Poems on Several Subjects and Miscellany Poems with Two Plays written under her pen name, Ardelia.