SOURCE: "Jane Barker (1652-1727)," in Raising Their Voices: British Women Writers, 1650-1750, Wayne State University Press, 1990, pp. 102-6.

In the following excerpt, Williamson examines some of the ironies of Barker's poetry, as well as the patterns found in Barker's novels which give advice for women regarding courting.

Jane Barker was one of the most self-conscious daughters of Orinda, and her career began in a way that would have made the identification logical. Early in her career, Barker enjoyed the encouragement of men: Poetical Recreations: Consisting of Original Poems, Songs, Odes (1688) was jointly created by Barker with "several gentlemen of the universities," who, we learn from the book, were friends of Barker's brother, a physician who shared his learning with her.³⁷ She was also apparently educated by a clergyman in Lincolnshire after her father had lost his court position and the family lived on his pension from the king...