Lady Mary Wroth Summary

Lady Mary Wroth was the first Englishwoman to write a complete sonnet sequence as well as an original work of prose fiction. Although earlier women writers of the sixteenth century had mainly explored... Read more

In the following sonnet, originally published c. 1640, Jonson describes the influence Wroth's verse has had on him and on his writing. Though Jonson's sonnet is highly complementary, its... Read more

In the following essay, Roberts questions the extent to which Wroth's Petrarchan sonnet sequence was based on her personal experiences. Beginning with Petrarch's Canzoniere, the autob... Read more

In the following excerpt, Lamb provides a biographical reading of Urania, arguing that it is a work of implicit female anger in the face of male sexual indiscretions. Especially when contrasted wit... Read more

In the following essay, Waller contends that Wroth seeks in her sonnet sequences to construct a gender-neutral autonomy, and explores the ways in Wroth fit into, defied, and influenced poetic images o... Read more

In the following essay, Farabaugh discusses the classical sources that Wroth used in her works and argues that, as with her subversion of her contemporary sources, Wroth shaped classical elements to f... Read more

In this essay, Waller presents an overview of the traditions, influences, and seventeenth-century gender roles that shaped Wroth's poetry. Despite their apparent obviousness, the words we us... Read more

In this excerpt, Swift discusses Wroth's portrayal of the search for female identity through the characters Pamphilia and Urania, and draws parallels to Wroth's own struggle for acceptan... Read more

In this analysis of the Urania and Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, MacArthur contends that the absence of important Petrarchan conventions in Wroth's poetry functions as an assertion of the persona&... Read more

In the following excerpt, Shaver examines Wroth's female protagonists, observing the ways in which they assert power within the strict behavioral confines of the feminine Renaissance ideal. ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Feinberg explores Wroth's innovative use of a female perspective in Pamphilia to Amphilanthus and her evocation of "a fictional audience of women readers and wr... Read more