Newcastle University

Research Interests

I am currently working on the circulation of Stuart lyric poetry in manuscript focussing on the work of Robert Herrick. This forms part of the new edition of his Complete Works, which is forthcoming with Oxford UP in 2010.

My other interest lies in the field of early modern women's writing, particularly life-writing; the letter and diary forms; early modern political discourses and private devotional practices. In investigating this I have focussed particularly on the Boyle family, the Earls of Cork, but especially on the writings of Katherine Boyle Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh (1614-91) and Mary Boyle Rich, Countess of Warwick (1624-1678)

Other Expertise

Editing manuscript poetry; the influence of the the themes of community and friendship on the composition and reception of Stuart poetry.

Sibling and familial relationships in the early modern period; early modern conversion narratives; seventeenth-century autobiography

Current Work

I have just completed an edited collection with Professor Tom Cain entitled Lords of Wine and Oile: Community and Conviviality in the Poetry of Robert Herrick and have recently published  a long article exploring the links between Hesperides and manuscript verse miscellanies.

I am also in the final stages of work on a 2 volume edition of Herrick's poetry. The first volume will contain the complete text of Hesperides (1648) and the second will publish that poetry which circulated in manuscript during the seventeenth century.

Future Research

I am in the early stages of planning a monograph provisionally entitled 'Reading Early Modern Lives' and developing work on the theory and practice of editing poetry from manuscript.

Research Roles

I am one of the co-convenors of the Medieval and Early Modern Research group at Newcastle. We are interdisciplinary, hold monthly seminars and host guest speakers.  Our website is here: http://research.ncl.ac.uk/mems/

Esteem Indicators

Pforzheimer Visiting fellow at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas (September 2008)

Visting Fellow, Folger Shakespeare Library, (October 2008)

• Connolly R. The Complete Works of Robert Herrick. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2012. In Press.
• Cain T, Connolly R, ed. Lords of Wine and Oile: Community and Conviviality in the Poetry of Robert Herrick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Connolly R, Cain T. 'Herrick's Communities of Manuscript and Print'. In: Cain, T., Connolly, R, ed. Lords of Wine and Oile: Community and Conviviality in the Poetry of Robert Herrick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Connolly R. Print, Miscellaneity and the Reader in Robert Herrick's Hesperides. In: Allen, G., Griffin, C., O'Connell, M, ed. Readings on Audience and Textual Materiality. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2011.
• Connolly R. Viscountess Ranelagh and the Authorisation of Women's Knowledge in the Hartlib Circle. In: Harris, J; Scott-Baumann, E, ed. The Intellectual Culture of Puritan Women, 1558-1680. London: Palgrave Macmillian, 2010, pp.150-161.
• Connolly R. New Approaches to the Work of Robert Herrick. Literature Compass 2009, 6(6), 1177-1187.
• Connolly R. A Proselytising Protestant Commonwealth: The Religious and Political Ideals of Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh. The Seventeenth Century 2008,23 2 244-264.
• Connolly R. 'A Wise and Godly Sybilla':Viscountess Ranelagh and the Politics of International Protestantism. In: Brown, S, ed. Women, Gender and Radical Religion in Early Modern Europe. Leiden: Brill, 2007, pp. 285-306.
• Connolly R. A Manuscript Treatise of Viscountess Ranelagh (1614-1691). Notes and Queries 2006, 53(2), 170-172.
• Windram H, Connolly Ruth, Howe Chris. ' "Thinking Bibliogeographically": Phylogenetic Analyses and Systems of Manuscript Circulation'. English Manuscript Studies 2012.
• Connolly R. 'Editing the Scribal Editors: Presenting Herrick's Manuscript Poetry in Print'. Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 2012.
• Connolly R. 'Robert Herrick', 'Mary Rich' and 'Lady Jane Cavendish'. In: Blackwell Renaissance Encyclopedia. Routledge, 2012. In Preparation.
• Connolly R. Introduction: Community and Conviviality in the Works of Robert Herrick. In: Connolly, R; Cain, T, ed. Lords of Wine and Oile : Community and Conviviality in the Poetry of Robert Herrick. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2011.