Introduction
Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross, is known for her long religious poem Ane Godlie Dreame, which was first published in 1603 and whose subsequent popularity is witnessed by the numerous reprints throughout the century, two of which were even copied by hand in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries (MeE 1-2). Another notable poem by her, which was copied later, relates to the minister John Welsh who was imprisoned and condemned to death in 1605 before being banished (MeE 3). Otherwise Melville is represented in manuscripts by eleven recorded autograph letters (*MeE 4).
Peter Beal