Lady Mary Wroth's Urania

merch for sale, the only actual I know. There's some like weird bootleg merch out on the internet, but the actual merch is at a website called d f t b a dot com. The link is also in the episode description. Makes a great holiday gift and I hate asking for anything, but I wrote a book that's coming out in February. It's a sequel to my novel Anatomy A Love Story. This one is called Immortality a Love Story. There are cameos from several characters that I've talked about

on this podcast. And if you like Noble Blood, I really think you're gonna get and so if you're interested, pre orders would be incredibly helpful. That link also in the episode of description. But the real support is just listening and so thank you so much. Thirty two miles southeast of London, stands one of the best surviving examples of medieval English architecture. Penn's Hurst Palace. Today part of the house and its gardens are open to the public.

Anyone can go visit the fourteen century home that was built for the then Lord Mayor of London, which then later became part of the Crown's estate. Henry the Eighth would use the home as his hunting estate, evidently hunting both game and wives, and Bolin's childhood home, Heaver Castle, was just a few miles away. Even if you don't get the opportunity to visit Penshurst in person, there's a good chance that, if you're a connoisseur of historical costume dramas,

the estate will pop up somewhere on your screen. Films like Anne of a Thousand Days, The Other Bolin Girl, even The Princess Bride, along with BBC dramas like Elizabeth R and Wolf Hall, all feature scenes filmed at Penshurst. But for all of the screen time Hollywood has given Penshurst, they're still yet to adapt a story actually centered on the family that once was based there. The Sydney's In fifteen fifty two, Henry, the eighth son King Edward, would

grant Penshurst to his courtier, Sir William Sidney. William had three grandchildren, Philip Sydney, the famous poet and elizabeth Ian courtier, Robert Sydney, a statesman and patron of the arts, and Mary Sidney, a poet and patron herself. Thanks to them,

Penshurst became something of a literary hot spot. The poem to Penshurst by Ben Johnson goes so far as to compare it to a meeting place of the muses in Greek mythology, so it's no surprise that Robert Sidney's own daughter, also named Mary, would gain literary aspirations growing up in such a place. In fact, Young Mary, who would grow up into a woman named Lady Mary Roth, would come

to be known as England's first female novelist. Her prose romance The Countess of Montgomery's Urania, was praised by fellow writers, but not seen as favorably by the members of Queen Anne's court, who thought Mary's characters suspiciously resembled some of

their own. As will come to see the story of Lady Mary Roth and her literary career is perhaps the best real life representation of the idea put forth by Virginia Wolf in a Room of One Zone that any woman, even a noble one, who put her name on her writing would quote risk being thought a monster. I'm Dani Schwartz, and this is noble blood. On October Mary Roth was born Mary Sydney, the eldest daughter of Sir Robert Sidney

and his wife, the Heiress Lady Barbara Gamage. The late fifteen eighties was a time of radical change within the Sydney family. Just two years before Mary was born, her father was elected to his first political post as a Member of Parliament. That was the same year he and his brother Philip would go to the Netherlands to fight a battle against Spain, but only the former would return alive. Upon his brother's death, Robert Sidney inherited Penshurst, which would

then become Mary's childhood home. To better understand Mary's future work, it makes sense to spend a bit of time thinking about her uncle and his legacy. Remember, her father was one of three literary siblings. There was Philip, Robert and Mary. Philip died at age thirty one, leaving behind a prolific body of work that had yet to be published. Writing was not his primary focus in his lifetime, but his

talent was undeniable. C. S. Lewis once called him quote without equal before Shakespeare, a reputation that has stuck to this day. If you're going to be in second place to anyone, Shakespeare isn't the worst person to be behind. Robert's most famous works include his Sequence of a Hundred Nates, Sonnets, Astrophil and Stella, and the pastoral romance Arcadia. Arcadia would come to be known as the Countess of Pembrooke's Arcadia after his sister, Mary, Countess of Pembroke, our Mary's aunt.

Not only is the work dedicated to her, but it was she, Countess Mary, who was the one to take on the responsibility of editing and publishing Arcadia after Philip's death. The style and substance of Arcadia would go on to influence a number of writers, namely Shakespeare himself and one Lady Mary Roth. But before we get there, let's speak

some more about the young Mary. Only a year after she was born, Robert, her father, would also inherit Philip's post as governor to the town of Flushing in the Netherlands, which meant he spent most of his time abroad while his family remained in England. When Mary wasn't at Penshurst, much of her childhood was spent at the London castle

of her aunt, the Countess Mary. Countess Mary had also turned her home into a literary gathering place, and it can be assumed young Mary had access to an extensive collection of classics, humanist works, and the yet to be published Philip Sidney works. The Countess's literary work went far beyond the editing and publishing of Arcadia. She translated multiple works from French to English and published Psalms, a joint project she began working on with Philip before his death.

The final collection included forty three of his revised psalms and a hundred and seven of her own. Notably, she used her own name on all of these works, a rare occurrence for the age. As you could predict, the Countess would also be a major influence un Mary's future writing. Splitting her time between the Countess's home and Penn'shurst, it was almost a given that Mary would receive a literary education her education was likely the responsibility of tutors and

her mother, championed by her father abroad. Much of our knowledge of Mary's childhood comes from exchanges between her father and her adviser, in which Robert asks for frequent updates about his daughter's education. She was quote very forward in her learning, writing, and other exercises she has put to as dancing and the virginals end quote. The advisor replied, well, it was not uncommon for a girl of noble birth

to receive an informal education. It was still not yet a universal practice, and Robert's particular emphasis on his daughter's reading and writing was a reflection of their family values. As much as the Sydney family was involved old in the literary world, they were equally involved in court life. One of the earliest anecdotes we have from Mary's court life is of her performing a dance for Queen Elizabeth on a royal visit to pence Hurst, and again a

dance in court in sixteen o two. Manuscripts preserved at Penshurst tell us the teenaged Mary was quote much commended by her majesty. In sixteen oh three, following King James's ascension to the throne. Mary's father returned to England, he was named Baron Sydney of Penshurst and appointed chamberlain to the Queen Consort Anne of Denmark, further cementing the Sydney

family's place in court. The following year, King James married the seventeen year old Mary to Sir Robert Roth, the son of a wealthy Essex landowner, Promising as the marriage might have seemed on paper, it was truly a match made in hell. Despite marrying into the Sydney family, Robert Roth had little to no interest in literature, as the Poetry Foundation points out, quote during his entire career, only one book was dedicated to him, a treatise on mad

dogs end quote. He preferred to spend his time hunting, which didn't win him any favors with his wife, but gained him quite a bit of favor with King James, who knighted him in sixteen o three. Ben Johnson, friend of the Sydneys and the famous prominent poet and playwright who was quoted earlier for his love of Pencers, once noted quote, my lady Roth is unworthily married on a jealous husband end quote. Even more harshly. A servant of Mary's once described her husband as quote the foulest churl

in the world end quote. He was most likely guilty of philandering, gambling, and excess drinking. However, her husband's favorable relationship with King James meant that Mary's place in court was further secured. She was welcomed into Queen Anne's inner circle and became a staple in court. Masks, a form of music and dance performance that was highly popular in

sixteenth century Europe. The first mask she performed in in six oh five was written by Ben Johnson himself, and the subject matter is incredibly upsetting but also perhaps unsurprising for English nobility. Titled The Mask of Blackness, Mary performed alongside Queen Anne and ten other friends as they donned black face to play quote black Ethiopian nymphs called the

Twelve Daughters of Niger. The mask was so successful that it inspired numerous other performances, including a sequel, The Mask of Beauty, in which Anne and Mary reprised their roles. While generally received positively at the time, some reviews negatively considered the women's performances as Ethiopian nymphs. Quote unconvincing, You don't say. Though her life was entwined with life at court,

Mary's literary career was simultaneously starting to begin. We know from our earliest reference to her work that her writing must have begun circulating before sixteen thirteen, during the time of her marriage. We have documented praise of her writing from prominent figures in the literary scene such as William Drummond, George Wither, and numerous others, But it wasn't until her husband's death that Mary's career really began to take shape. In sixteen fourteen, Mary gave birth to a son, James.

Only a month later, her husband, Robert died of gang green Because it wasn't enough to be terrible in his lifetime, Robert left behind a pile of debt twenty three thousand pounds that was now Mary's responsibility. On top of that, young baby James tragically died two years later, and the death of the air meant that Mary lost the Wrath estate. It went to whoever the next heir was. It's unclear how Mary dealt with the debt. The Sydneys, despite their status,

were not actually particularly monetarily wealthy. One of the first major disputes in the marriage was over Mary's father's failure to pay the proper dowry. But we do know that Mary eventually was able to turn her folks us toward new work and new love. Going forward, I'd like to tell the story of Mary's life through her most famous, or depending on who you ask, infamous work, The Countess

of Montgomery's Urania, published in sixty one. It's unknown when exactly Mary began writing the prose romance, but it could have been as early as sixteen fifteen. It was also around that time that Mary withdrew from court life. Whether it was of her own accord or a forced exile, we don't know for sure. Maybe it was a consequence of her husband's dad somehow, but either way, Urania's title page is a perfect bridging of Mary's past and Mary's present.

Underneath the word title, we get this mouthful of a byeline, Let Me take a deep breath, written by the right Honorable the Lady Mary Roth, daughter to the right Noble Robert, Earl of Leicester, and niece to the ever famous and renowned Sir Philip Sidney Knight, and to the most excellent Lady Mary, Countess of Pembroke. Late deceased Countess Mary died the same year as Uranias publication. Perhaps notably, there is no mention of her late husband. Roth's name may have changed,

she would always be a Sydney. It's once again worth noting that it was extremely uncommon for a woman to put her own name on her work, which makes the nod to Countess Mary in the byline more touching, as if she carved a path for her niece to be able to do it herself. To add the names of the prominent men and writers in her family may have been a move to legitimize her work, but it wasn't something the Countess ever did in her own published work.

So the nod to Robert who encouraged her education, Countess Mary, who showed her niece what her own future could be, and Philip, whose style was the foundation for Urania, can also be read just as a show of respect to her family above all else in regards to that style. The academic Rice A. Bear, introducing a digital collection of Roth's works, argues that Philip's inspiration on Roth's writing can be seen in its form as quote, a long and

rambling prose romance interspersed with poems. That's the style Philip could be credited with bringing back into fashion, and one that his niece Mary further innovated. The titular Countess herself also had connections to the Sydneys. She was Susan Daver, Countess of Montgomery, Mary's close friend and wife to Countess Mary's youngest son, making her Mary Roth's cousin in law. Countess Mary's oldest son is also going to be important here.

He is William Herbert, the third Earl of Pembrooke, a politician, poet, and once Chancellor of Oxford. If you recognize the name Pembroke College, he's that guy. He will play an important role in Urania, but probably not when you're expecting, and more on that later anyway. As the professor Naomi J. Miller points out in her article, not much to be marked narrative of the woman's part in Lady Mary Roth's Urania.

Mary honoring her friend in the title of her work is an early signifier to readers that Urania will differentiate itself from the prose romance that was being written by men in the ways in which you will honor female friendship and in the level of personhood it gives female characters. So now into the story itself. There are hundreds of characters in the prose piece, but they all loosely revolve

around the tale of two lovers, Pamphilia and Amphilanthus. Pamphilia is a queen of an island kingdom of the same name, while Amphilanthus is the emperor of Romans and notably her first cousin. Can you guess where this is going. The name Pamphilia, like many of the names and characters in this story, is of Greek origin and means all loving. Amphilanthus, on the other hand, means lover of two. The conflict keeping these lovers apart is in their names. Pamphilia is

a constant character, while Amphilanthus is inconsistent. The lovers cannot be together because Amphilanthus is constantly pursuing other women, begging Pamphilia to take him back each time. It is an obstacle that is purely an interpersonal conflict. There are no warring families keeping them apart, no meddling mythological forces, no comedy of air hers. That alone would be a fresh take on the genre, but added to it is Roth's assertion that amphilitis is not morally worthy of Pamphilia. The

morality by which she defines Pamphilia is non traditional. While she takes measures to inform the audience of Pamphilia's femininity, her quote virtues are not the ones regularly associated with women in romances, chastity, purity, et cetera. Instead, Pamphilia is defined by her loyalty to her loved ones, putting forth a virtue that should be prioritized by both genders. The women in Pamphelia's life also play an important role in

her narrative. When she falls into a depression due to her beloved infidelity, she seeks the advice of her friends as to how to deal with this conflict. Again a novel subject to give importance to in fictionate this time. Pamphelia, as you have likely figured out, is a representation of Mary herself. She is a strong queen whose autonomy is supported by her father and uncle and Philanthus. Her lover

represents her cousin William Herbert. In your ania, Pamphelia expresses her love of a Philanthus by writing him love poems. In reality, Mary wrote a play entitled Love's Victory given to William, along with a cipher that, when solved, spelled their fictional counterparts names. She really was the Taylor Swift of her time because he was her cousin. The Countess

Mary's son, Mary Roth knew William well growing up. His brother Philip even lived with her in the Sydneys for some time, with William visiting most days of the week. It's unknown if their affair started before, during, or after. There was spective marriages. William got married only a few months after Mary. It's easy to guess why Mary was drawn to William. Her own husband had no interest in literary pursuits, whereas William was someone she trusted to keep

her intellectually engaged. On top of that, he was known as being particularly handsome. We do know that at some point after the death of her husband, Mary and William had at least two illegitimate children, a daughter Catherine and son William, information confirmed by one of the elder William's cousins. In the continuation of Your Ania that was published after Mary's death, she introduced a new character, a night called fair Design, who does not have a proper name due

to his status as an illegitimate child. Won the text heavily hints belongs to Pamphilia and and Philanthus, So how does the story end? Spoilerlert to anyone who is going straight from this podcast to read Urania. Pamphilia and amphilanthus, much like Rath and Herbert, do not end up together. Despite a prolific career as a nobleman, courtier and founder of an incredibly famous college. The longest section of William's

Wikipedia is entitled quote Arranged marriages and Mistresses. In one of his own poems reads the line quote can you suspect a change in me and value your own constancy? End quote. Catherine and William were not his only illegitimate children. Before his first marriage, he had an affair with a woman named Mary Fitton. Fitton was a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth and is thought to be the mysterious Dark Lady who is the subject of a series of

Shakespeare's sonnets. William admitted he was her child's father there, but refused to marry her, and was thus sent to Fleet Prison for a brief period in sixteen o one, likely by the hand of Elizabeth herself, due to causing scandal with one of her maids of honor. He and Fitton were barred from Elizabethan court, but luckily for William, around this time, the Elizabethan era was coming to an end.

Many contemporaries believed William to be a favorite of Queen Anne and that it was through her influence that he gained the position of Lord Chamberlain to King James, Queen Anne's husband, in sixteen fifteen. Not so coincidentally, this was the time Wroth began to withdraw from court life, or more likely fell out a favor with Queen Anne. Again, not so coincidentally, a similar story plays out in Urania.

There are references throughout to a jealous queen who will go so far as to exile weaker rivals from court in order to keep her lover to herself. This might have been enough to cause outrage, but compared to some other allusions in Urania, the characterization of the queen was too vague to draw a straight line to Anne with

her other characters. Though Mary did not pull her punches in imitating real life court scandals, the one that caused the biggest stir was in reference to the marriage of Honora Denny and James Hay in Urania, Roth describes a scene in which Sarellius or Hay has to step in to save his wife's life from her father's violent rage after she's accused of adultery. Edward Denny, the father in question, was infuriated. Denny expressed his rage through how Else poetry.

He wrote a scathing and offensive poem about Wrath, addressed to Pamphilia from the Father in law of Cerelius. It begins quote hermaphrodite in show indeed a monster, as by thy words and works all men may const thy wraithful spirit, conceived an idle book, brought forth a fool, which, like the damn doth look. As Mary Ellen Lamb points out in her book Gender and Authorship in the Sydney Circle,

Denny's critique is heavily gendered. In calling Rath a hermaphrodite, he attempts to punish her for the ways she's transgressed gender boundaries. The dame he refers to as is a word for a domesticated female animal, saying she's subhuman but she's still female. Roth replied almost immediately with a poem of her own. It's rhymes, matching Denny's word for word.

Her map dite incense in art a monster as by your railing rhymes, the world may conster your spiteful words against a harmless book shows that an ass much like the sire doth look Denny, not being a real poet himself, sort of set himself up for this kind of besting, and it shows a truly astonishing level of hubris. It kind of reminds me of men on Twitter who think they might be able to win a set against Serena Williams. Unfortunately, talent means almost nothing when you're a woman in a

man's world. Denny's response assured that Urania would be a scandal, leaving Mary in a treacherous situation. In a letter between two members of court, the gossip quote in her book of Urania, she doth papply and grossly play upon him and his late daughter, Lady Hayes, besides many others she makes bold with, and they say takes great liberty, or rather license to reduce whom she please, and thinks she dances in a net. Mary's course of action was to

deny her connection to the book's publication. She wrote to a personal friend and a favorite of King James, the Duke of Buckingham, arguing it was only meant to be shared among friends, and she volunteered to stop the sale of it. Based on the detail of the title page and Mary's annotations in her copies, we can assume she was lying. The court fuss did, however, mean that Urania was never reprinted and Mary would forever be considered a pariah.

After that, we know Mary began to work on the second part of Urania and her play Loves Victory, the one she gifted to William. Speaking of William, we do not know exactly when he ended the affair with Mary, but we know her characterization of him as amphil Lanthis the Philanderer was an accurate one. The latter part of Mary's life was sadly devoted to paying off the debt

left behind by her late husband. Though her father could not aid financially, he did refuse requests from the Secretary of State to pressure Mary into paying, assuring him that Mary was capable of handling her affairs. It's likely that Mary died between sixteen fifty one and sixteen fifty three, and sadly no literary work survived from the last thirty years of her life. Still, despite the scandal. No one could take away Mary's status as the country's first female novelist.

It would be over forty years before the next english woman published fiction under her own name. She was Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, and in the preface to her sixteen sixty four work Sociable Letter, she cheekily quoted the final couplet from Denny's poem to Mary, in which he argues that wise and worthy women don't write fiction. Work go the works, leave idle books alone. For wise and worthier women have written none. That's the story of Lady Mary Roth.

But stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about her literary legacy. While Urania drew largely ire from contemporaries, it had one supporter in Ben Johnson. Not only did Johnson believe that Penshurst enhanced his literary mind, but Mary herself. In a sonnet to the Noble Lady the Lady may Erry Roth, Johnson argues that Mary's work made him not only a better poet,

but a better lover. If William could not learn from am Philanthusis flaws, perhaps Johnson did I that have been a lover and could show it, though not in these in rhythms. Not wholly dumb, since I ascribe your sonnets and become a better lover and much better poet. It's a lesson every lover today can learn loyalty and constancy above all, don't be an Amphilanthus. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from

Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danishwartz. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, Miura Hayward, Courtney Sunder, and Laurie Goodman. The show is produced by rema Il Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thaine and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.