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Lady Mary Wroth (1587-1653). Portrait attributed to John de Critz the elder (1552-1642), circa 1620. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Lady Mary Wroth (1587-1653) was an English poet and prose writer.
Life[]
Overview[]
A member of a distinguished literary family, Wroth was among the earliest female British writers to have achieved an enduring reputation. She is perhaps best known for having written The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, the oldest extant prose romance by an English woman, and for Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, the earliest known sonnet sequence by an Englishwoman.
Youth and education[]
Wroth was born about 1586, the eldest daughter of Robert Sidney, 1st earl of Leicester, by his 1st wife, Barbara, daughter of John Gamage. Sir Philip Sidney was her father's brother.[1]
Marriage and career[]
On 27 September 1604 she married, at Penshurst, Sir Robert Wroth, eldest son of Sir Robert Wroth. The bridegroom was about 10 years his wife's senior. He had been knighted by King James a year before the marriage. On 27 January 1605-6, on his father's death, he succeeded to large property in Essex, including Loughton House and the estate of Durrants in the parish of Enfield. He was a keen sportsman, and the king occasionally visited him at Durrants for hunting. In 1613 Sir Robert was chosen sheriff of Essex. In February 1613-14 Lady Mary bore him an only child, a son (James); but on 14 March following Sir Robert died at Loughton House. He was buried 2 days later in the church at Enfield. His will was proved on 3 June 1614.[1]
Lady Mary was often at court after her marriage. On Twelfth-night 1604-5 she acted at Whitehall in Ben Jonson's Masque of Blackness. She came to know Jonson and the chief poets of the day, and was soon numbered among the most sympathetic patronesses of contemporary literature. Jonson dedicated to her, as "the lady most deserving her name and blood," his play of the Alchemist, 1610. He also addressed to her a sonnet in his Underwoods (No. 46) and 2 epigrams (103 and 105).[1]
George Wither in 1613 addressed an epigram to her, apostrophizing her as "Arts Sweet Louer" (Abuses Stript, epigram 10). In the same year (1613) William Gamage, in Linsi-Woolsie; or, Two centuries of epigrammes, inscribed an epigram "To the most famous and heroike Lady Mary Wroth" (Brydges, Censura Literaria, v. 349). A sonnet addressed to her by George Chapman prefaced his translation of Homer's Iliad (1614).[1]
On her husband's death in 1614 Lady Wroth, according to court gossip, was left with an estate worth £1,200 a year, an infant son, and £23,000 in debt (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1611–18, pp. 224, 227–8). She lived chiefly at Loughton, and there her only child, James, died on 5 July 1616.[1]
In April 1619 she stayed with her father at Baynard's Castle in London. In May she figured in the procession at Queen Anne's funeral, and the rumour spread that she was about to marry the young earl of Oxford (Nichols, Progresses of James I, iii. 547). Margaret, widow of Sir John Hawkins the admiral, left to Lady Mary by will, dated 23 April 1619, "a gilt bowl, price twenty pounds" (Notes and Queries, 8th ser. iv. 252). On 21 July 1621 the king made her a gift of deer.[1]
Sir Robert had named 3 trustees to administer his property, each named John Wroth (his uncle, his brother, and a third, of London, his cousin); but Lady Mary appears to have managed her own affairs after Sir Robert's death, with disastrous result. She was involved in an endless series of financial embarrassments. In 1623 she obtained from the king an order protecting her from creditors for a year. This was constantly renewed. She wrote to secretary Conway on 3 January 1623-4 that she had paid half her debts and hoped to pay all in a year; but she was still in need of "protection" in 1628 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. passim).[2]
On 13 July 1621 there was licensed for publication a folio volume from her pen (Arber, Stationers' Company Register, iv. 57), with the title: The Countesse of Mountgomerie's Urania: Written by the right Honourable the Lady Mary Wroath, daughter to the right Noble Robert Earl of Leicester, And Neece to the ever famous and renowned Sir Phillips Sidney, Knight, And to ye most exelēt Lady Mary Countesse of Pembroke late deceased. London, printed for John Marriott and John Grismand).’ An elaborate frontispiece was engraved by Simon Pass, and bore the date 1621. The book was called The Countess of Montgomery's Urania in compliment to the author's friend and neighbour at Enfield, Susanna, wife of Philip Herbert, earl of Montgomery.[2]
The book seems to have had a satiric intention, and to have reflected on the amorous adventures of some of James I's courtiers. On 15 December 1621 Lady Mary wrote to Buckingham, assuring him that she never intended her book to offend any one, and that she had stopped the sale of it (Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 60). On 9 March 1623 Chamberlain wrote to his friend Carleton, enclosing "certain bitter verses of the Lord Denny upon the Lady Mary Wroth, for that in her book of Urania she doth palpably and grossly play upon him and his late daughter, the Lady Mary Hay, besides many others she makes bold with; and, they say, takes great liberty, or rather licence, to traduce whom she pleases, and thinks she dances in a net." Chamberlain adds that he had seen an answer by Lady Mary to these rhymes, but "thought it not worth the writing out" (Court and Times of James I, ii. 298; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1619–23, p. 356; cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. p. 179, Hatfield MSS.).[2]
Lady Mary survived these incidents for more than 20 years. On 4 December 1640 Sir John Leeke wrote to Sir Edmund Verney: "I received a most courteous and kind letter from my old mistress, the Lady Mary Wroth.... She wrote me word that by my Lord of Pembroke's great mediation the king hath given her son a brave living in Ireland" (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. p. 435). As she had no surviving son by Sir Robert Wroth, reference was made either to a son by a 2nd husband, or more probably – for there is no evidence that she married again – to a godson, who has not been identified.[2]
Writing[]
Wroth's Urania is a close imitation, in 4 books, of the Arcadia of her uncle, Philip Sidney. It is a fantastic story of princes and princesses disguised as shepherds and shepherdesses. The scene is laid in Greece. The tedious narrative is in prose, which is extraordinarily long-winded and awkward, but there are occasional verse eclogues and songs.[2]
At the close of the volume is a separate collection of poems, including some 100 sonnets and 20 songs. The appended collection bears the general title "Pamphilia to Amphilanthus." A section is headed "A Crowne of Sonnets dedicated to Love." In these poems Lady Mary figures to greater advantage, and displays some lyric faculty and fluency.[2]
There was a 2nd half of Urania, the MS of which resides in the Newberry Library in Chicago, and which was not published until 2000. According to Shelia T. Cavanaugh, the 2nd portion of the work was never prepared by Wroth for actual publication; the narrative contains many inconsistencies and is somewhat difficult to read.[3]
Recognition[]
2 of her poems were reprinted in Bullen's Lyrics and Romances, 1890.[2]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Pamphilia to Amphilanthus; in The Countess of Montgomerie's Urania, 1621; Oxford: Benediction Classics, 2007.
- (edited by Gary Frederic Waller). Salzburg, Austria: Universität Salzburg, Institut für englische Sprache und Literatur, 1977.
- Poems (edited by Joeephine A. Roberts). Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1983.
- Poems: A modernized edition (edited by R.E. Pritchard). Keele, Staffordshire, UK: Keele University Press, 1996.
Novel[]
- The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania: Written by the right honorable the Lady Mary Wroath, daughter to the right noble Robert Earle of Leicester, and neece to the ever famous, and renowned Sr. Phillips Sidney knight, And to ye most exele[n]t Lady Mary Countesse of Pembroke late deceased. London: [Augustine Mathewes?], for Iohn Marriott & Iohn Grismand, 1621.
- The First Part of "The Countess of Montgomery's Urania" (edited by Dichterin England & Josephine A. Roberts). Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval & Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York, 1995.
- The Second Part of "The Countess of Montgomery's Urania" (edited by Josephine A. Roberts, Suzanne Gossett & Janel M Mueller). Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance studies, 1999.
- The Countess of Montgomery's Urania (abridged) (edited by Mary Ellen Lamb). Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, 2011.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[4]
See also[]
References[]
- Andrea, Bernadette. "Pamphilia's Cabinet: Gender Authorship and Empire in Lady Mary Wroth's Urania." English Literary History 68.2, 2001. [1]
- 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. [2].
- Butler, John & Jokinen, Anniina. The Life of Lady Mary Wroth. 2006. [3]. October 28, 2008.
- Cañadas, Ivan. "Questioning Men's Love in Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella and Lady Mary Wroth's Pamphilia to Amphilanthus". Medieval and Early Modern English Studies [MEMESAK journal]. Vol 13, Num. 1, 2005. pp. 99–121.
- Cavanaugh, Shelia T. Cherished Torment: The Emotional Geography of Lady Mary Wroth's Urania. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2001.
- 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 [4].
- Lamb, Mary Ellen. Gender and Authorship in the Sidney Circle. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
Lee, Sidney (1900) "Wroth, Mary" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 63 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 161-162. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 14, 2017.- Miller, Naomi, J. Changing the Subject. Mary Wroth and Figurations of Gender in Early Modern England. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1960.
- Miller, Naomi. "'Not much to be marked': Narrative of the Woman's Part in Lady Mary Wroth' Urania." [5].
- Mullaney, Steven. "Strange Things, Gross Terms, Curious Customs: The Rehearsal of Cultures 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. [6].
- Taylor, Sue "Lady Mary Wroth" London: LDHS. 2005 ISBN 0954 2314 81
- 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.
Notes[]
External links[]
- Poems
- Song: Come merry Spring delight us"
- Song: "Love, a child, is ever crying"
- Mary Wroth 1587-1653 at the Poetry Foundation
- Selected Poems of Lady Mary Wroth at the University of Saskatchewan (28 poems)
- Mary Wroth at PoemHunter (102 poems)
- Mary Wroth at AllPoetry (104 poems)
- Mary Wroth's Poetry: An electronic edition, manuscript copies at LaTrobe University
- Books
- Lady Mary Wroth at Amazon.com
- Works by or about Mary Wroth in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- About
- Lady Mary Wroth Biography at the University of Cambridge
- Lady Mary Wroth (1587?-1651?) at Luminarium
- "The Disturbing Lady Mary Wroth" by Jason M. Swarts
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Wroth, Mary
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