Elizabeth Grymeston
Elizabeth Grymeston, born Elizabeth Bernye around 1563 in Gunton, Norfolk, England, was a notable figure in early modern literature, primarily recognized for her maternal advice book, *Miscelanea: Meditations, Memoratives* (1604). She was married to Christopher Grymeston, a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, during a period when college regulations prohibited such unions. The couple faced numerous personal challenges, including the loss of eight of their nine children in infancy and familial tensions, particularly stemming from her father's will, which favored her husband and incited animosity from her mother.
Motivated by her desire to provide guidance to her only surviving son, especially amid her struggles with health issues, Elizabeth crafted her book to impart wisdom and moral education, reflecting the ideals encouraged by writers like Thomas More. Her work pioneered the maternal advice genre, showcasing a blend of paraphrased poetry and thoughtful commentary, while maintaining a tone of humility consistent with the expectations of women writers during her time. The book contained elements sympathetic to Roman Catholic thought but was carefully crafted to avoid explicit religious ties, a strategic move given the sociopolitical climate of the era. Although eventually overshadowed by newer works, *Miscelanea* established itself as an influential text in its field for a period.
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Elizabeth Grymeston
Author
- Born: c. 1563
- Birthplace: Gunton, Norfolk, England
- Died: c. 1604
Biography
Elizabeth Grymeston was born Elizabeth Bernye in or before 1563 in Gunton, Norfolk, England. She was the daughter of a Norfolk landowner, Martin Bernye; her mother had been born Margaret Flynte. By 1584, she apparently had married Christopher Grymeston, a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, even though fellows were forbidden by college regulations to marry. Christopher Grymeston continued his association with the college until 1592, when he left abruptly, perhaps because his marriage had been discovered. By that time, Elizabeth had borne several of the nine children to whom she was ultimately to give birth, eight of whom died in infancy.
In 1593, Christopher Grymeston entered Gray’s Inn to embark on a new career. Little more is recorded concerning the family; given the locality from which they originated, a significant geographical enclave of Roman Catholicism, it is possible that they were on the wrong end of Elizabethan and early Jacobean religious prejudice. They certainly seem to have been embroiled in a fierce dispute of a more personal kind. Martin Bernye changed his will to make the Grymestons his heirs, apparently enraging his widow, who seems to have conceived a violent enmity for her daughter, according to the preface of Elizabeth Grymeston’s book, Miscelanea: Meditations, Memoratives (1604).
Various sixteenth century writers, including Thomas More, had urged mothers to give close attention to the moral education of their children, and Elizabeth Grymeston appears to have taken this admonition to heart. Fearing she would not live to supervise the upbringing of her only remaining son because she was suffering from “languishing consumption” brought on, she believed, by the stress of her own mother’s hostility, she undertook to write down all the wise counsel she desired to pass on to him. By so doing, she pioneered a new literary subgenre: the maternal advice book.
The first edition of the Miscelanea had fourteen chapters, while the later ones had twenty, which suggests that Christopher Grymeston was responsible for its printing, as only he was likely to have access to additional manuscript pages. Much of the wisdom preserved in the book takes the form of paraphrased poetry, none of it original but all neatly reordered. The tone is carefully pious and framed with the conspicuous humility required of all women who aspired to write in the period, but the book shows clear signs of learning and careful thought. A few Catholic poets are included among the authors paraphrased, and the general drift of the supportive commentary seems broadly sympathetic to Roman Catholic ideas. However, nothing explicitly ties the advice to the Roman Catholic faith, a wise precaution, if that is what it was, given the date of its first printing, only a year before the exposure of the Gunpowder Plot and the consequent anti-Catholic backlash. The book’s utility, protected by its diplomacy, established it for a while as a kind of standard text, although it was soon superseded by other works of the same kind.