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Shakespeare & Beyond

Lady Mary Wroth and 'The Countess of Montgomery's Urania'

Public domain image of Lady Mary Wroth
Public domain image of Lady Mary Wroth

Public domain image of Lady Mary WrothDuring Women’s History Month, we’re looking at female writers who were Shakespeare’s contemporaries, like Lady Mary Wroth (neé Sidney).

Lady Mary Wroth was born in 1587 into a literary family that included her uncle Sir Philip Sidney (author of the prose romance The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia and the sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella), her aunt Mary Sidney (known for her poetic translations of the Psalms), and her father Robert, who circulated his poetry among family and friends.

Wroth is perhaps best known as the author of the prose romance The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania and the sonnet sequence Pamphilia to Amphilanthus. An early version of this sonnet sequence, written in her own hand, survives in a single manuscript and is part of the Folger collection.

Margaret Hannay, professor of English at Siena College and an expert in early modern women’s writing, wrote this commentary about Wroth and Urania for the Folger exhibition, Shakespeare’s Sisters: Voices of English and European Women Writers, 1500-1700 in 2012:

Comments

Ben Jonson dedicates The Alchemist to her.

Leonardo — March 4, 2017

Has her complete works been published recently? Preferably in hardcover.

Gregory Spicer — March 8, 2020

Are Lady Mary Wroth’s writings in the public domain?

Claudia Reynolds — December 30, 2021