Elizabeth Melville
Elizabeth Melville, born around 1585 in Scotland, was a notable poet and a significant figure in the religious landscape of her time. The daughter of Sir James Melville, a statesman, she received an education that was uncommon for women of her era. Melville married John Colville and faced ongoing financial challenges, balancing family responsibilities with her literary pursuits. She is best known for her work "Ane Godlie Dreame," published in 1603, which is a religious poem reflecting her personal spiritual journey and is considered to have influenced John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress." This poem combines medieval dream vision tradition with a unique perspective on women's religious experiences during the Scottish Reformation.
In addition to her poetry, Melville wrote letters that reveal her dedication to familial ties and spiritual welfare. She was actively involved in religious causes, notably participating in the signing of the National Covenant in 1638, which solidified the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. Although little is known about her later life and there is no record of her death, it is believed she passed away around 1640. Her contributions remain significant in the context of early modern Scottish literature and religious history.
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Elizabeth Melville
- Born: c. 1585
- Birthplace: Scotland
- Died: c. 1640
Biography
Elizabeth Melville was born around 1585, the daughter of the statesman and courtier Sir James Melville of Halhill, Scotland. Melville’s father educated her extensively, which was unusual for a woman of her time. Melville married John Colville of Wester-Cumbrae, who inherited the advantages and responsibilities of the abbey at Culross. The couple suffered from financial difficulties throughout their lives, and her husband was almost imprisoned for indebtedness until Melville permitted some of her family lands to be sold. She gave birth to at least six children, only three of whom survived to adulthood.
Melville excelled in writing and wrote more than four thousand lines of late-Middle Scots verse, in many forms. She wrote skillful religious poetry, and in 1603 she published a long religious poem at Edinburgh, Ane Godlie Dreame, written in Scottish. She later translated the poem into English as A Godly Dream. The poem is a first-person account of a pilgrim who is guided through the afterlife, and is almost certainly the inspiration for John Bunyan’s classic story The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678). The poem is divided into three sections of sixty stanzas, each eight lines long and written in iambic pentameter. The first section mourns the narrator’s spiritual failures, common in early Protestant practice. In the second section, the narrator finds consolation after she falls asleep and dreams of Jesus, but the dream turns to a nightmare which awakens the narrator, who then claims her own spiritual authority. The final section explicates the theological significance of her vision.
Ane Godlie Dreame was written in the tradition of medieval dream visions, but is unique in that it describes the personal religious experience of a woman active in the Scottish Reformation. The poem also reveals Melville’s strong belief that the purpose of poetry is to serve religion. While no complete twentieth century edition exists of Ane Godlie Dreame in English, the importance of this work is evidenced by multiple editions produced during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Very little of her work had been found until September, 2002, when Jamie Reid Baxter of Glasgow University unearthed a large cache of poems in a volume of sermons dated from 1590. Eleven letters survive of Melville’s prose. These letters reflect her efforts to maintain familial ties and her concern for the spiritual well-being of herself and those close to her.
As Melville was fervently religious, she constantly was involved in religious causes in addition to her religious writings. She helped bring about the signing of the National Covenant in 1638, which established the Presbyterian Church. Like most Scottish women of her time, no record exists of Melville’s death, but it is believed she died around 1640.