Lady Mary Wroth

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Engraving of Lady Mary Wroth

Lady Mary Wroth (1587–1651/3) was an English poet of the Renaissance. A member of a distinguished literary English family, Wroth was among the first female British writers to have achieved an enduring reputation. She is perhaps best known for having written The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, the first extant prose romance by an English woman, and for Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, the first known sonnet sequence by an English woman.


Contents

Life

Mary Wroth was born on October 18, 1587 to Barbara Gamage (1563-1626) and Robert Sidney (1559-1621). Wroth's mother Barbara was a wealthy Welsh heiress and first cousin to Sir Walter Ralegh. Her father Robert was first earl of Leicester and Viscount Lisle of Penshurst, a poet and governor of Flushing, Netherlands. Mary Wroth was niece to Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke and one of the most distinguished women writers and patrons of the 16th century; and Sir Philip Sidney a famous Elizabethan poet-courtier.

Because her father, Robert Sidney, was governor of Flushing, Wroth spent much of her childhood at the home of Mary Sidney, and Penshurst, Baynard’s Castle in London. Penshurt was one of the great country houses in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. It was a center of literary and cultural activity and it's gracious hospitality is praised in Ben Jonson's famous poem To Penshurst. During a time when most women were illiterate, Wroth had the privilege of a formal education, which was obtained from household tutors under the guidance of her mother [1]. As a young woman, Lady Mary belonged to Queen Anne’s intimate circle of friends and actively participated in masques and entertainments[2]. With her family connections, a career at court was all but inevitable. Wroth danced before Queen Elizabeth on a visit to Penshurst and again in court in 1602. At this time a likeness of her as girl in a group portrait of Lady Sidney and her children was captured in painting by Marcus Gheeraerts the younger in 1596, and is now on display at Penshurst [3].

On September 27 of 1604, King James I married Mary to Sir Robert Wroth of Loughton Hall. The marriage was not happy; there were issues between the two beginning with difficulties over her father’s payment of her dowry. In a letter written to his wife, Sir Robert Sidney, describes different meetings with Robert Wroth who was often distressed by the behavior of Mary shortly after their marriage [4]. Robert Wroth appeared to have been a gambler, philanderer and a drunkard. More evidence of the unhappy union comes from poet and friend, Ben Johnson who even noted that ‘my Lady Wroth is unworthily married on a Jealous husband’ [5] Various letter from Lady Mary to Queen Anne also refer the financial losses her husband had procured during their time together [6].

During her marriage, Mary became known for her literary activities and more pertinently for her performances in several masques. In 1605 she danced at the Whitehall Banqueting House in the The Masque of Blackness, which was designed by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. Mary Wroth joined the Queen and her friends in the production; all of whom painted their skin to portray black, Ethiopian nymph who dawned themselves the 'twelve daughters of Niger'. The masque was very successful and was the first in a long series of similar court entertainments. The ‘twelve daughters of Niger’ also appeared in The Masque of Beauty in 1608; which was also designed by Jonson and Jones. However, despite the success there were some less than favorable reviews, some referring to the women's portrayal of the daughters of Niger as ugly and unconvincing [7].

In February of 1614, Mary gave birth to a son James. However, a month after the birth of his first child, Robert Wroth died of gangrene and left Mary deeply in debt. Two years later, Wroth's son died causing Mary lose the Wroth estate to John Wroth, the nearest male relative of her late husband. There is no evidence to suggest that Wroth was unfaithful to her husband, but after his death, she entered a relationship with her cousin, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke. Mary and William shared many of the same interests in the arts and literature and had been childhood friends. The relationship produced at least two illegitimate children, a daughter, Catherine, and a son, William. In “Herbertorum Prosapia” a seventeenth-century manuscript compilation of the history of the Herbert family, held at the Cardiff Library, a cousin of the earl of Pembroke, Sir Thomas Herbert records William Herbert’s paternity of Wroth’s two children [8].

Mary Wroth’s alleged relationship with William Herbert and her children born from that union are referenced in her work, The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania. It is also claimed that William Herbert was a favorite of Queen Anne and that she is the reason he gained the position of the King's Lord Chamberlain in 1615. In Urania, Wroth repeatedly returns to references to a powerful and jealous Queen who exiles her weaker rival from the court in order to obtain her lover, causing many critics to believe this referenced tension between Queen Anne and Wroth over the love of Herbert. [9]

Urania was the first known piece of original fiction by an English woman and reflected Wroth’s experience as an eyewitness to the Jacobean court. [10] The publication of the book in 1621 was a success de scandale, as it was widely (and with some justification) viewed as a roman à clef. The diffuse plot is organized around relations between Pamphilia and her wandering lover, Amphilanthus, and most critics consider it to contain significant autobiographical elements. Although Wroth claimed that she never had any intention of publishing the book, she was heavily criticized by powerful noblemen for depicting their private lives under the guise of fiction. However, her period of notoriety was brief after the scandal aroused by these allusions in her romance; Urania was withdrawn from sale by December of 1621 [11].Two of the few authors to acknowledge this work were Ben Jonson and Edward Denny, Baron of Waltham. Jonson, a friend and colleague of Mary Wroth praised both Wroth and her works in “Sonnet to the noble Lady, the Lady Mary Wroth.” Jonson claims that copying Wroth’s works he not only became a better poet, but a better lover. Denny on the other hand provides a very negative critique of Wroth's work; he accused her of slander in a satiric poem, calling her a "hermaphrodite" and a "monster" [12]. While Wroth returned fire in a poem of her own, the notoriety of the episode may have contributed to her low profile in the last decades of her life. There was also a second half of Urania, which was only printed for the first time in 2000 and now resides in the Newberry Library in Chicago. According to Shelia T. Cavanaugh, the second portion of the work was never prepared by Wroth for actual publication and the narrative contains many inconsistencies and is somewhat difficult to read [13].

After the publication issues surrounding Urania, Wroth left King James's court and was later abandoned by William Herbert. There is little known about Wroth's later years but it is known that she continued to face major financial difficulties for the remainder of her life. Wroth died in either 1651 or 1653 [14].

Sonnet 8 from Pamphilia to Amphilanthus (1621)

The eighth sonnet in Pamphilia to Amphilanthus supports Wroth’s overarching themes of a woman’s struggle in the 17th Century English society. The sonnet introduces female struggle between coercion and consent to a male lover. Bernadette Andrea’s “Pamphilia’s Cabinet: Gendered Authorship and Empire in Lady Mary Wroth’s Urania” addresses the reasons why a female character would confront the reality of choosing between coercion and consent. One of the main aspects that Andrea approaches is the limits that the historical context put on the author’s freedom of speech. Andrea states, “She may write, but only from the limits of her own room; she may preserve her writing, but only within the confines of her own mind.” [15] Sonnet 8 is Pamphilia’s expression of her own thoughts, emotions, and views.

The power of the patriarchal society on her views is evident. The influence is exemplified in line 6, “I am thy subject, conquered, bound to stand.” Voicing her situation, Pamphilia feels subjected to male dominance. However, her desires are unclear on this matter because she says, “behold I yield,” (5) as if a declaration of her choice to the relations with Amphilanthus. The idea of free choice for women would be classified as a protofeminist thought because they were grossly oppressed and not allowed to think for themselves. Stephen Mullaney provides insight into the reason that Mary Wroth’s work survived by stating, “What comes to reside in a wonder-cabinet are, in the most reified sense of the phrase, strange things: tokens of alien cultures, reduced to the status of sheer objects, stripped of cultural and human contexts in a way that makes them eminently capable of surviving the period that thus produced them.” [16] This essay was first published in 1983 and was subsequently included as chap. 3 in Mullaney's extended study of The Place of the Stage: License, Play, and Power in Renaissance England. [17]. The social analysis of the survival of the oppressed writings comes from “Strange Things, Gross Terms, Curious Customs.” The treatment of women caused Pamphilia to question whether she even has a choice in who she loves (consent) or if that is determined by society (coercion). Her inability to differentiate in the poem is probably due to the subjugation of inferior treatment that she has experienced. Mullaney refers to this as being “reduced to the status of sheer objects” [18]. She is forced to analyze if she is merely an object at the disposal of men. As a result, her ability to analyze, invoke higher level thinking, and even her personhood is examined.

Wroth’s representation of female emotions conjured with the interaction with of a male suitor puts expected women’s values into action. The sonnet explores the “obedience” attribute of what Bernadette Andrea refers to as the “triple injunction” of English culture in the 1600s. [19] The “triple injunction” concept was communicated through many different forms including: educational tracts, religious sermons, and legal codes. Its purpose was to define the perfect woman as upholding social norms through the values of chastity, obedience, and silence [20]. Pamphilia ends the sonnet resolving to “obey” (14) Amphilanthus’ “charms,” (14) regardless of her own wants. Her conclusion to persevere despite her personal feelings speaks to the cultural understanding of women heroism which is equated with endurance [21]. Pamphilia does not concede all hope of having a choice in the relationship, but does wish to avoid physical hurt. [22]


The sonnet does make a very intriguing reference to a sonnet sequence by Phillip Sidney. Published in 1580, Astrophel and Stella is a romance about Astrophel, meaning star lover, and Stella, meaning star [23]. In line 13 of the Petrarchan sonnet, Wroth writes, “…Sir God, your boyship I despise.” The phrase “Sir God” is linked to the late 1500’s poem, Astrophel and Stella [24]. Sidney’s Astrophel is referred to as “Sir Foole” [25]. According to Catherine Bates, Astrophel contracts similar difficulty as he, “is not only overmastered, the willing victim of a superior power, he is also emasculated” [26]. Perpetuating the gender roles of the time, Bates argues that Sidney paints Astrophel, a boy, as feminine [27]. Wroth includes traces of Astrophel and Stella to provide ties to previous gender inequality. Astrophel only experiences the struggle between coercion, “overmastered,” and consent, “willing,” because he is cast as feminine [28]. Bates’s understanding of downward mobility in social status by moving from male to female through Sydney’s Astrophel and Stella is strongly supported by Bernadette Andrea’s analysis of social norms. Wroth’s echo of Sydney’s work is to address the gender issues from a new voice: the female perspective.

Sonnet 25 from Pamphilia to Amphilanthus (1621)

"Like to the Indians, scorched with the sun"


It is suggested that the line "Like to the Indians, scorched with the sun" recalls Wroth's role in Ben Johnson's Masque of Blackness (1605). This masque was designed by Inigo Jones and written for Queen Anne of Denmark [29]. Gary Waller, in his book The Sidney Family Romance, explains that this masque was controversial because Wroth and the other female actors appeared in blackface as the twelve daughters of Niger [30].

Anita Hagerman, in her article "'But Worth pretends': Discovering Jonsonian Masque in Lady Mary Wroth's Pamphilia to Amphilanthus", discusses Wroth's role in Jonson's The Masque of Blackness and the specific influence of the theme of darkness on Sonnet 25. She states that Wroth played a character named Baryte, an Ethiopian maiden. Hagerman suggests that Wroth created a courtly persona for herself in these masques and that the themes of this persona are themes in Pamphilia to Amphilanthus. One idea of Wroth's courtly persona was darkness, probably stemming from her reputation of seriousness. The theme of dark versus light is explored in Sonnet 25 and is representative of her uncertainty of whether she wants her desires for Amphilanthus to be fulfilled or not, because either way will prove "torturous" [31].


The idea of theatricality influences the way this poem is interpreted. Because it is understood that Wroth is talking about her experience in a theatrical performance, the theme of the artificial aspect of the masque performance needs to be taken into account. To understand this sonnet, we must understand how Wroth felt about taking part in courtly masques. Hagerman says that in the way that Pamphilia is ambivalent about what to do with her love for Amphilanthus, Wroth herself is ambivalent about the life of courtly masques. The contradiction of allowing women to have "feminine expressive display" of feelings and then strictly "enforced silence" could have represented the good and the bad of courtly life for Wroth. In the masques, Wroth was given a voice, but after she was no longer affiliated with the court life, she recognized the artificiality of the voice she had because the courtly life and the masques require a level of falseness. Gary Waller states that Wroth's female characters describe the pressure they feel in terms of theater and display. For a female to take part in a masque, she is creating the illusion of power because she is entering the space of the court and commanding attention. However, it subjects her to the gaze of men and makes her feel powerless and victimized [32].


Themes within "The Countess of Mountgomeries Urania"

Wroth's famous work 'The Countess of Mountgomeries Urania'was published in 1621 and introduced controversial themes concerning gender. Mary Wroth was a radical in her time merely for writing a work intended for public consumption. For the time, the act of composing a novel by a woman violated the ideals of female virtue. Bernadette Andrea, a literary critic who focuses on gender themes in Urania in her work "Pamphilia's Cabinet: Gendered Authorship and Empire in Lady Mary Wroth's Urania", writes that female virtues at the time were seen to be silence and obedience[33]. A woman of the time was expected to be chaste, silent, and obedient and this theme is reiterated throughout contemporary religious works, legal treaties, and literature. The three themes were considered linked; a woman's silence and obedience were seen as proof of their chastity [34].[35] By writing a novel intended for a mass audience in her society, critics such as Bernadette Andrea claim, Wroth was acting out against the established patriarchy and calling her own moral character into question. Urania is the titular character of the work, but is not the character that represents Wroth in the work. In the work, Urania is a foundling and lives with shepherds. She is actually the biological offspring of the daughter of the King of Naples, and comes to this realization over the course of the work through a series of pastoral songs and sonnets with the shepherds. The female character of Pamphilia reflects Wroth the most and is the character who struggles with the mindset of the contemporary world in which Wroth wrote [36]. Pamphila, which is Greek for all loving, struggles throughout the text with the infidelity of her lover Amphialanthus, which is Greek for “one with two loves.” Pamphilia must conceal her songs so that her moral character is not called into question by others in "Urania." Pamphila carries around her works in a little cabinet and keeps them to herself because society would shun them [37]. She is however, rewarded in the work for her actions. She becomes a queen in Asia Minor despite her lack of the contemporary virtues of silence, chastity, and obedience [38]. Her compositions, although mostly secret, are still a violation of the code of what a woman should be and Wroth does not demonize her transgression, but rather glorifies it.

Wroth did not fair as well as her fictional character did when Urania was published. Wroth also angered people by drawing upon her contemporaries as inspiration. Paul Salzman, in “The Review of English Studies” article, “Contemporary References in Wroth’s Urania” notes that this work was full of references to others [39]. One of her contemporaries claims that the “whole world condemns” her work. Denny recommends that Wroth would be better served to do as her aunt before her had done and confine herself to translating holy works and read the biblical psalms like good women of the time were expected to do [40]. Wroth’s use of contemporaries as inspiration throughout the book has not been exactly noted [41].What is known is that society caught on to them and rejected the book out of hand as shameful gossip by a sinful woman who was sinning by writing a book containing her thoughts. In the article "'Not much to be marked': Narrative of the Woman's Part in Lady Mary Wroth' Urania" by Naomi Miller published in the journal “Studies in English Literature,” the author relates that Wroth’s novel was the first work of fiction written by an English woman to be published in the Renaissance [42] Virgina Woolfe correctly claimed that any woman who composed a work of fiction would be "thought a monster" to compose and publish any significant work of fiction during the period of the Renaissance [43]. The social lash-back against her work caused "Urania" to be pulled from publication 6 months after it was first produced [44]. One critic, Lord Denny, called Wroth a "hermaphrodite in show, indeed a monster" because of the attacks he perceived Wroth to be leveling at English society and the English Court of King James in particular [45]. Denny goes on to command, drawing on the perceived virtue of female obedience, that Wroth "leave idle books alone for wiser and worthier women have written none." [46]. The attacks from the powerful royal courtiers limited production to only 16 copies of the work. She was spurned by society of the time and has only recently moved beyond being viewed as victim and as a capable author who has captured the mind of a female poet in a time where such a profession was viewed as an aberration [47].


References

  1. ^ Butler, John & Jokinen, Anniina. The Life of Lady Mary Wroth. 2006. http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/wroth/wrothbio.htm
  2. ^ Cavanaugh, Shelia T. Cherished Torment:The Emotional Geography of Lady Mary Wroth's Urania. Pittsburg: Duquesne University Press,2001.
  3. ^ Butler, John & Jokinen, Annina. The Life of Lady Mary Wroth. 2006. http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/wroth/wrothbio.htm
  4. ^ Roberts, Josephine A. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983.
  5. ^ Miller, Naomi, J. Changing the Subject, Mary Wroth and Figurations of Gender in Early Modern England. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1960.
  6. ^ Roberts,11
  7. ^ Roberts,10
  8. ^ Mary Ellen Lamb, ‘Wroth , Lady Mary (1587–1651/1653)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008.16 Nov 2008
  9. ^ Nandini Das, Lady Mary Wroth – Biography, English.cam.ac/uk/wroth/biography.
  10. ^ Cavanaugh, 17
  11. ^ Lamb, Mary Ellen. Gender and Authorship in the Sidney Circle. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990
  12. ^ Lamb, 154
  13. ^ Cavanaugh, 30
  14. ^ Lamb, 154
  15. ^ Andrea, Bernadette. Pamphilia’s Cabinet: Gendered Authorship and Empire in Lady Mary Wroth’s Urania. Baltimore, Maryland: The John Hopkins University Press, 2001, pp. 335, http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/elh/v068/68.2andrea.html
  16. ^ Steven Mullaney, "Strange Things, Gross Terms, Curious Customs: The Rehearsal of Cultures in the Late Renaissance," in Representing the English Renaissance, ed. Stephen Greenblatt (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1988, 68.
  17. ^ Mullaney, Steven. The Place of the Stage: License, Play and Power in Renaissance England.Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1988
  18. ^ Mullaney, 68
  19. ^ Andrea,335
  20. ^ Andrea,335
  21. ^ Andrea, 335
  22. ^ “for pain refuse” (12)
  23. ^ Wilson, Mona, Sir Philip Sidney (London: Duckworth, 1931), 168.
  24. ^ Grosart, Alexander. The Complete Poems of Sir Philip Sidney. Oregon: University of Oregon, December 1995. http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/stella.html.
  25. ^ Grosart 1
  26. ^ Bates, Catherine. Astrophil and the Manic Wit of the Abject Male. SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900. Vol. 41, Num. 1, Winter 2001, pp. 1. [1].
  27. ^ Bates, 1
  28. ^ Bates, 1
  29. ^ Lamb, Mary Ellen. “Wroth, Lady Mary.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  30. ^ Waller, Gary. The Sidney Family Romance: Mary Wroth, William Herbert, and the early modern construction of gender. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993. p. 228
  31. ^ Hagerman, Anita. "'But Worth pretends': Discovering Jonsonian Masque in Lady Mary Wroth's Pamphilia to Amphilanthus." Early Modern Literary Studies 6.3 (January, 2001): 4.1-17 <URL: http://purl.oclc.org/emls/06-3/hagewrot.htm>
  32. ^ Waller, 234
  33. ^ Andrea, Bernadette. "Pamphilia's Cabinet: Gendered Authorship and Empire in Lady Mary Wroth's Urania". English Literary History 68.2, 2001. Project Muse. muse.jhu.edu.ezp.slu.edu/journals/elh/v068/68.2andrea.html
  34. ^ Andrea 336
  35. ^ Andrea, Bernadette. "Pamphilia's Cabinet: Gendered Authorship and Empire in Lady Mary Wroth's Urania". English Literary History 68.2, 2001. (Project Muse. muse.jhu.edu.ezp.slu.edu/journals/elh/v068/68.2andrea.html)
  36. ^ Andrea 335
  37. ^ Andrea 337
  38. ^ Andrea 338
  39. ^ Salzman, Paul. “Contemporary References in Wroth’s Urania” ,The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 29, No. 114 (May, 1978), pp. 178-18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/514603
  40. ^ Salzman,179
  41. ^ Salzman 178
  42. ^ Miller, Naomi. "'Not much to be marked': Narrative of the Woman's Part in Lady Mary Wroth' Urania." http://www.jstor.org/stable/450457.
  43. ^ Miller 121
  44. ^ Miller 121
  45. ^ Miller 121
  46. ^ Miller 121
  47. ^ Miller 123

Secondary Sources

Andrea, Bernadette. "Pamphilia's Cabinet: Gender Authorship and Empire in Lady Mary Wroth's Urania." English Literary History 68.2, 2001. [2]

Bates, Catherine. "Astrophil and the Manic Wit of the Abject Male." SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900. Houston: William Marsh Rice University, Vol. 41, Num. 1, Winter 2001, pp. 1-24. [3].

Butler, John & Jokinen, Anniina. The Life of Lady Mary Wroth. 2006. [4]. October 28, 2008.

Cavanaugh, Shelia T. Cherished Torment: The Emotional Geography of Lady Mary Wroth's Urania. Pittsburg: Duquesne University Press, 2001.

Grosart, Alexander, The Complete Poems of Sir Philip Sidney. Oregon: University of Oregon, December 1995. [5].

Hagerman, Anita. "'But Worth pretends': Discovering Jonsonian Masque in Lady Mary Wroth's Pamphilia to Amphilanthus." Early Modern Literary Studies 6.3 (January, 2001): 4.1-17 [6].

Lamb, Mary Ellen, 'Wroth, Lady Mary (1587-1651/1653)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008. [7].

Lamb, Mary Ellen. Gender and Authorship in the Sidney Circle. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.

Miller, Naomi, J. Changing the Subject. Mary Wroth and Figurations of Gender in Early Modern England. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1960.

Miller, Naomi. "'Not much to be marked': Narrative of the Woman's Part in Lady Mary Wroth' Urania." [8].

Mullaney, Steven. "Strange Things, Gross Terms, Curious Customs: The Rehearsal of Cultrues in the Late Renaissance," in Representing the English Renaissance, ed. Stephen Greenblatt (Berkley: Univ. of California Press, 1988).

Mullaney, Steven. The Place of Stage: License, Play and Power in Renaissance England. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Nandini Das, Lady Mary Wroth-Biography. 2005. English.cam.ac/uk/wroth/biography. Oct 30,2008.

Roberts, Josephine A. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983.

Salzman, Paul. “Contemporary References in Wroth’s Urania” The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 29, No. 114 (May, 1978), pp. 178-18. [9].

Verzella, Massimo “Hid as worthless rite”. Scrittura femminile nell’Inghilterra di re Giacomo: Elizabeth Cary e Mary Wroth, Roma, Aracne, 2007.

Verzella, Massimo, “The Renaissance Englishwoman’s Entry into Print: Authorizing Strategies”, The Atlantic Critical Review, III, 3 (July-September 2004), pp. 1-19;

Waller, Gary. The Sidney Family Romance: Mary Wroth, William Herbert, and the early modern construction of gender. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993.

Wilson, Mona, Sir Philip Sidney. London: Duckworth, 1931.

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