Grief and Women Writers in the English Renaissance PDF
Preview Grief and Women Writers in the English Renaissance
GRIEF AND WOMEN WRITERS IN THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE Grief and Women Writers in the English Renaissance anatomizes the era’s powerful but troubling links between the forgettable dead and the living mourners who are implicated in the same oblivion. Four majorwomenwritersfrom1570to1670constructthesedifficultbonds between the spectral dead and the liminal mourner. Mary Sidney Herbert,CountessofPembroke,reinventsthecontroversialsubstitu- tionsofaristocraticfunerals.NewProtestantideologiesofthesainted deadconnectdevotionalmourningandpatronageinAemeliaLanyer’s writing. Mary Wroth’s verse enacts a uniquely exalted, imaginative melancholyinwhichJacobean subjectsdissolveintotheirmourning artifacts.Amongtheprecariouspoliticalmournersofthelaterhalfof theperiod,KatherinePhilips’lyricverseplaystheshellgameofprivate grief. Forgetting, being forgotten, and being dead are risks that the deadandthelivingironicallyshareinthesecentraltextsbytheEnglish Renaissance’smostillustriouswomenwriters. elizabeth hodgson is Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia.She istheauthor ofGender and the Sacred Selfin John Donne, and her articles have been published in Milton Studies, Studies in English Literature, Early Modern Literary Studies, Prose Studies, Women’s Writing, and Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England. GRIEF AND WOMEN WRITERS IN THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE ELIZABETH HODGSON UniversityofBritishColumbia 32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYork,ny10013-2473,usa CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107079984 ©ElizabethHodgson2015 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2015 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Hodgson,Elizabeth,1962– GriefandwomenwritersintheEnglishrenaissance/ElizabethHodgson,UniversityofBritish Columbia. pages cm Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. isbn978-1-107-07998-4(hardback) 1. Englishliterature–Earlymodern,1500–1700–Historyandcriticism. 2. English literature–Womenauthors–Historyandcriticism. 3. Griefin literature. 4. Renaissance–England. I. Title. pr113.h59 2014 820.90928709031–dc23 2014037192 isbn978-1-107-07998-4Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof urlsforexternalorthird-partyInternetWebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchWebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. “ ’ ’ ” First raisd by thy blest hand, and what is mine / inspird by thee : To my parents, Gordon and Donna Stewart Contents Listofillustrations page viii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 Inheritingloss:MarySidneyHerbert,CountessofPembroke 22 2 Thegoldenchain:AemeliaLanyer 50 3 “Thistestamentofme”:MaryWroth’smelancholicsonnets 72 4 “Ineverybreasthermonument”:KatherinePhilips 100 Postlude:againstendings 128 Notes 143 Bibliography 180 Index 195 vii List of illustrations 1. FuneralaccountofSirAnthonyThorold1594:CollArm MsVincent188f.1v.UsedbypermissionoftheCollege ofArms,London,UK. page 25 2. HearseofStanley,EarlofDerby:CollArmMsVincent 151p.366.UsedbypermissionoftheCollegeofArms, London,UK. 26 3. DanseMacabre(GuyMarchant:Paris,1495),Bibliotheque NationaledeFrance. 138 viii
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