Elizabeth Melville

Elizabeth Melville (1582 - 1640) (or Elizabeth Melvill), is the earliest known Scottish woman writer to have her work appear in print and is most famous for writing the Ane Godlie Dreame, a Calvinist dream-vision poem.

Melville was the daughter of Sir James Melville of Halhill (1535–1617), a statesman, serving in the courts of Mary, Queen of Scots, and King James VI of Scotland and author of Memoirs of His Own Life. There is no record of her birth or death, which was common for Scottish women of her Century. Melville married John Colville, or Colvil, of Wester-Cumbrae, who inherited the title of Commendator of the Abbey at Culross. Colville refused the peerage in 1609, most likely due to financial difficulties, and because of this Melville’s titles of Lady Comrie and Lady Culross were purely honorary. She is believed to be the mother of Samuel Colville, author of Mock Poem, which is sometimes described as the Scottish Hudibras and bore at least 5 other children.

Melville first published Ane Godlie Dreame in 1603 in Scots, and then translated it into English, probably the following year. Written in the traditional dream-vision style, the poem describes the religious experience of a woman active in the Scottish Reformation. Ane Godlie Dreame, as well as a collection of letters written by Melville, reveal her strong belief that poetry should be strictly used to serve religion and her Calvinist theological understanding.

Meville’s poem is distinctly Scottish in many ways. Her first title page introduces Ane Godlie Dreame as having been written in Scottish Meter, with octaves of “interlacing rhyme scheme” similar to those appearing in Scottish sonnets. The poem realistically describes the Scottish landscape, with mentions of thorns and briars, sand, mountains, and a castle on a hill, similar to those found in Edinburgh and Stirling.

Besides Ane Godlie Dreame, her other works include 29 other poems recently discovered and written about by Jaime Reid-Baxter.