Abstract

The Hawstead oratory was thus a visual and verbal memory theater for Lady Drury. It
was inspired by published emblem books that promoted a particular discourse
about feminine morality, as well as the writings of her rector Joseph Hall. It was
created not to hone her rhetorical skills, but rather to regulate her outer feminine
behavior; its visual imagery was designed to develop her inner spiritual deportment
as a Protestant female and to promote her colloquy with herself as she examined her soul, a colloquy that like in the emblems, took place in the
abstract, free of time.