Protestant Translators: Anne Lock Prowse and Elizabeth Russell

Printed Writings 1500–1640: Series I, Part Two, Volume 12

As writers strongly committed to the Reformation, Anne Lock Prowse and Elizabeth Russell translated works which they believed were doctrinally useful for their Protestant readers. Lock translated Calvin’s four sermons from French, dedicating the work to Katharine, Duchess of Suffolk. These were published with the appended sonnet sequence A meditation of a penitent sinner. This appears to be the first sonnet sequence written in English. The present edition is a facsimile of the Folger Shakespeare Library copy of 1560. Of the markes of the children of God, and of their comforts in afflictions was published in 1590. Lock’s translation of Jean (or John) Taffin’s French treatise proved very popular as there were seven subsequent editions. The appended poem The necessitie and benefite of Affliction may reasonably be attributed to Prowse; it is written in common meter with alternating rhymes and continues the themes of the prose treatise. The present edition is a facsimile of the Huntington Library copy, which is an excellent copy. Elizabeth Cooke Hoby Russell was the sister of Anne Cooke Bacon. Her translation of Bishop John Ponet’s work from Latin was dedicated to her daughter Anne Herbert and in her dedication she suggests that the work was published in 1605, long after it was written, to prevent alterations to the text after her death. This edition is reproduced here from the one extant copy held at the Folger Library.