Karen Britland studied English at Lincoln College Oxford and teaches Literature at Keele Univeristy. Recent publishing work: Assistant Editor on the Cambridge University Press Complete Works of Ben Jonson and is editing James Shirley's The Imposture for the Oxford University Press Complete Works of James Shirley.

Karen Britland is Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

Elizabeth Cary (1585-1639) was an English poet, translator and dramatist. The Tragedy of Mariam (1613) is the first original play in English known to have been written by a woman.