Lady Mary Wroth

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LMW achieved two firsts with a single publication in 1621: the first full-length fiction (a prose romance) to be written in English by a woman and the first sonnet sequence in English by a woman (discounting the less than certain ascription of a sonnet sequence based on Psalm 51 to Anne Locke ). Outside this landmark publication, she is known to have written other poems, a play, and surviving letters.
  • BirthName: Lady Mary Sidney
    LMW was christened after Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke .
    Hannay, Margaret P. Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. Oxford University Press, 1990, http://U of A HSS.
    143
    She received the courtesy title of Lady not at birth but when her father became Earl of Leicester .

  • Married: Wroth
  • Styled:
Full-length portrait of Lady Mary Wroth attributed to John de Critz the elder, c. 1620. She stands holding a theorbo that reaches to her shoulder, in a picture with striking touches of red. Wroth's stiff, embroidered gown and large, transparent ruff are pale; her petticoat and belt are red, and her arms, shoulders, and bust are picked out with red bows. She rests an arm of a red sofa, with red curtains behind.

Milestones

18 October 1587

Mary Sidney (later LMW ) was born, most probably at Baynards Castle, the London base of her family.
Hannay, Margaret P. Mary Sidney, Lady Wroth. Ashgate, 2010.
20-1
Roberts, Josephine A., and Lady Mary Wroth. “Introduction and Notes”. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth, Louisiana State University Press, 1983, pp. 3 - 75, 219.
3, 6

Around 1610-1620

LMW wrote her major work, Urania, a prose romance with poems and sonnets, some interspersed but most printed in a block at the end.
Wroth, Lady Mary. Pamphilia to Amphilanthus. Editor Waller, Gary F., University of Salzburg, 1977.
1-2

1613

A complimentary remark of Joshua Sylvester about LMW implies that she was circulating her writings in manuscript by this date.
Roberts, Josephine A., and Lady Mary Wroth. “Introduction and Notes”. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth, Louisiana State University Press, 1983, pp. 3 - 75, 219.
18-19

13 July 1621

LMW 's pastoral prose romance, The Countesse of Montgomeries Urania, was licensed for printing; it appeared that year.
Arber, Edward, editor. A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London 1554-1660, A. D. Privately Printed, 1875–1894, 5 vols.

15 December 1621

LMW wrote to assure Buckingham , the king 's favourite, that she meant no offence to the court by her book, yet offering to withdraw it.
Wroth, Lady Mary. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth. Editor Roberts, Josephine A., Louisiana State University Press, 1983, http://BLC.
236

31 May 1640

The Earl of Rutland , reading Urania, wrote to ask LMW for a key to names of the characters, to increase his enjoyment.
Wroth, Lady Mary. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth. Editor Roberts, Josephine A., Louisiana State University Press, 1983, http://BLC.
244-5

1651 or 1653

LMW died in one of these two years.
Roberts, Josephine A., and Lady Mary Wroth. “Introduction and Notes”. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth, Louisiana State University Press, 1983, pp. 3 - 75, 219.
40

1815

Sir Egerton Brydges reprinted extracts from LMW 's Urania.
Roberts, Josephine A., and Lady Mary Wroth. “Introduction and Notes”. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth, Louisiana State University Press, 1983, pp. 3 - 75, 219.
53

Biography

Birth and Family

18 October 1587

Mary Sidney (later LMW ) was born, most probably at Baynards Castle, the London base of her family.
Hannay, Margaret P. Mary Sidney, Lady Wroth. Ashgate, 2010.
20-1
Roberts, Josephine A., and Lady Mary Wroth. “Introduction and Notes”. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth, Louisiana State University Press, 1983, pp. 3 - 75, 219.
3, 6

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