Lanyer: A Renaissance Woman Poet


Book Description

Aemilia Bassano Lanyer published poetry to and for women in 1611, at the height of the largely misogynistic reign of James I. Her verse complements and extends our view of her contemporaries, such as Spenser, Shakespeare, Jonson, and Donne, whose work in turn provides a context for her unique and engaging voice. This book situates Lanyer within the rich tradition of Jacobean poetry.




Renaissance Women Poets


Book Description

Whitney's two volumes of verse miscellany, 'Sweet Nosegay' (1573) and 'The Copy of a Letter' (1567), were part of a literary trend of combining classical and Biblical references with popular and vernacular sources, and reflect the growing literary appetites of the urban population. As well a selection of her original poetry, this volume includes Sidney's version of the Psalms of David and Petrach's 'Triumph of Death'. Lanyer's poetry is devotional and is the most single-minded and explicit inits advocacy of female spirituality and virtue. Included here are 'Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum' and 'The Description of Cooke-ham'.




Aemilia Lanyer


Book Description

Aemilia Lanyer was a Londoner of Jewish-Italian descent and the mistress of Queen Elizabeth's Lord Chamberlain. But in 1611 she did something extraordinary for a middle-class woman of the seventeenth century: she published a volume of original poems. Using standard genres to address distinctly feminine concerns, Lanyer's work is varied, subtle, provocative, and witty. Her religious poem "Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum" repeatedly projects a female subject for a female reader and casts the Passion in terms of gender conflict. Lanyer also carried this concern with gender into the very structure of the poem; whereas a work of praise usually held up the superiority of its patrons, the good women in Lanyer's poem exemplify worth women in general. The essays in this volume establish the facts of Lanyer's life and use her poetry to interrogate that of her male contemporaries, Donne, Jonson, and Shakespeare. Lanyer's work sheds light on views of gender and class identities in early modern society. By using Lanyer to look at the larger issues of women writers working within a patriarchal system, the authors go beyond the explication of Lanyer's writing to address the dynamics of canonization and the construction of literary history.




The Poems of Aemilia Lanyer


Book Description

Aemilia Lanyer (1569-1645) was the first woman poet in England who sought status as a professional writer. Her book of poems is dedicated entirely to women patrons. It offers a long poem on Christ's passion, told entirely from a woman's point of view, as well as the first country house poem published in England. Almost completely neglected until very recently, her work changes our perspective on Jacobean poetry and contradicts the common assumption that women wrote nothing of serious interest until much later. Mistress and friend of influential Elizabethan courtiers, Lanyer gives us a glimpse of the ideas and aspirations of a talented middle class Renaissance woman.




The Girl in the Glass Tower


Book Description

Lost in history . . . losing her self. Uncover Tudor heroine Arbella Stuart's incredible story, reimagined by Elizabeth Fremantle in this tense, historical thriller. Hardwick Hall, sixteenth-century England. Formerly a beacon of wealth and power. Now a gilded prison. Hidden away, forgotten, one young woman seeks escape. But to do so she must trust those on the outside. Those who have their own motives... Discovery means death. But what choice has any woman trapped in a man's world? Imprisoned by circumstance, Arbella Stuart is an unwilling contender for the throne. In a world where women are silenced, what chance does she have to take control of her destiny? Praise for The Girl in the Glass Tower: 'A top-notch literary thriller' Daily Telegraph 'Thrilling, clever and beautifully written' The Times, 'Books of the Year' 'Filled with dense, dark political and social intrigue' Daily Mail 'Shots are fired, troths are plighted, sea voyages taken, escapes dared and mysteries solved' Daily Telegraph 'Beautifully written, completely engrossing and a book that stays with you after the pages are closed' Historia




Aemilia Lanyer as Shakespeare’s Co-Author


Book Description

This book presents original material which indicates that Aemilia Lanyer – female writer, feminist, and Shakespeare contemporary – is Shakespeare’s hidden and arguably most significant co-author. Once dismissed as the mere paramour of Shakespeare’s patron, Lord Hunsdon, she is demonstrated to be a most articulate forerunner of #MeToo fury. Building on previous research into the authorship of Shakespeare’s works, Bradbeer offers evidence in the form of three case studies which signal Aemilia’s collaboration with Shakespeare. The first case study matches the works of "George Wilkins" – who is currently credited as the co-author of the feminist Shakespeare play Pericles (1608) – with Aemilia Lanyer’s writing style, education, feminism and knowledge of Lord Hunsdon’s secret sexual life. The second case-study recognizes Titus Andronicus (1594), a play containing the characters Aemilius and Bassianus, to be a revision of the suppressed play Titus and Vespasian (1592), as authored by the unmarried pregnant Aemilia Bassano, as she then was. Lastly, it is argued that Shakespeare’s clowns, Bottom, Launce, Malvolio, Dromio, Dogberry, Jaques, and Moth, arise in her deeply personal war with the misogynist Thomas Nashe. Each case study reveals new aspects of Lanyer’s feminist activism and involvement in Shakespeare’s work, and allows for a deeper analysis and appreciation of the plays. This research will prove provocative to students and scholars of Shakespeare studies, English literature, literary history, and gender studies.




Dark Lady


Book Description

2017-2018 Sarton Women's Book Awards Winner in Historical Fiction 2018 International Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Historical Emilia Bassano has four strikes against her: she is poor, beautiful, female, and intelligent in Elizabethan England. To make matters worse, she comes from a family of secret Jews. When she is raped as a teenager, she knows she probably will not be able to make a good marriage, so she becomes the mistress of a much older nobleman. During this time she falls in love with poet/player William Shakespeare, and they have a brief, passionate relationship—but when the plague comes to England, the nobleman abandons her, leaving her pregnant and without financial security. In the years that follow, Emilia is forced to make a number of difficult decisions in her efforts to survive, and not all of them turn out well for her. But ultimately, despite the disadvantaged position she was born to, she succeeds in pursuing her dreams of becoming a writer—and even publishes a book of poetry in 1611 that makes a surprisingly modern argument for women’s equality.




Early Modern Women Poets (1520-1700)


Book Description

This anthology represents a re-examination of its field, based on extensive archival research. Each woman's work is accompanied by a headnote which combines biographic information with some guidance as to the context, intended audience and genre.




Shakespeare's Dark Lady


Book Description

MEET THE REAL AEMILIA BASSANO LANYER: ENGLAND'S FIRST FEMALE POET...AND THE WOMAN WHO IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN THE DARK LADY OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS. The real Aemilia Basano Lanyer was Renaissance woman, centuries ahead of her time. England's first professionally-published female poet, she is also suspected to have inspired the poetry of one our greatest and most beloved writers, William Shakespeare—and she continues to inspire writers to this day. With Dark Aemilia, Sally O'Reilly gives us a richly imagined novel of this mysterious, and nearly forgotten, woman, and now, she invites us to discover Ameilia Lanyer first-hand. A collection of Shakespeare's famed "Dark Lady" sonnets; fascinating and hard-to-find historical details; and Aemilia's own provocative poetry, as well as exclusive excerpts from the novel; Shakespeare's Dark Lady is a must-read for poetry lovers and the ideal companion to Sally O'Reilly's stunning debut—a novel "filled with all the passion, drama, and magic of Elizabethan England" (Paula Brackston, New York Times bestselling author of The Witch's Daughter and The Midnight Witch).




Redeeming Eve


Book Description

An introduction to women writers of the English Renaissance which takes up 44 works, many as thumbnail sketches; shows how women's writing was hampered by the assumption that poets were male, by restriction to pious subject matter, by the doctrine that only silent women are virtuous, by criticism that praised women as patrons or muses and ignored their writing, and above all by crippling educational theories. Originally published in 1987. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.