WEBVTT - Lady Mary Wroth's Urania 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:04.440 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:11.160 and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey listener discretion advised, Hey, 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:14.360 this is Danish Swartz, the host of Noble Blood. If 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.200 you want to support the show, we have a Patreon 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.840 in the episode description, where I publish episode scripts, do 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:23.720 a monthly bonus episode, and have access to a ton 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:27.120 of exclusive merch like a monthly sticker club. There is 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:29.960 merch for sale, the only actual I know. There's some 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:32.920 like weird bootleg merch out on the internet, but the 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:35.400 actual merch is at a website called d f t 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.239 b a dot com. The link is also in the 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:42.280 episode description. Makes a great holiday gift and I hate 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.640 asking for anything, but I wrote a book that's coming 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.840 out in February. It's a sequel to my novel Anatomy 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:52.280 A Love Story. This one is called Immortality a Love Story. 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:56.440 There are cameos from several characters that I've talked about 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:58.960 on this podcast. And if you like Noble Blood, I 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:01.600 really think you're gonna get and so if you're interested, 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.480 pre orders would be incredibly helpful. That link also in 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.840 the episode of description. But the real support is just 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:20.840 listening and so thank you so much. Thirty two miles 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:25.400 southeast of London, stands one of the best surviving examples 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:31.200 of medieval English architecture. Penn's Hurst Palace. Today part of 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.959 the house and its gardens are open to the public. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.920 Anyone can go visit the fourteen century home that was 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.280 built for the then Lord Mayor of London, which then 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:45.080 later became part of the Crown's estate. Henry the Eighth 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:49.080 would use the home as his hunting estate, evidently hunting 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:54.800 both game and wives, and Bolin's childhood home, Heaver Castle, 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.320 was just a few miles away. Even if you don't 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:02.120 get the opportunity to visit Penshurst in person, there's a 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:06.480 good chance that, if you're a connoisseur of historical costume dramas, 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.880 the estate will pop up somewhere on your screen. Films 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.040 like Anne of a Thousand Days, The Other Bolin Girl, 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.760 even The Princess Bride, along with BBC dramas like Elizabeth 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:23.559 R and Wolf Hall, all feature scenes filmed at Penshurst. 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.520 But for all of the screen time Hollywood has given Penshurst, 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.640 they're still yet to adapt a story actually centered on 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:36.360 the family that once was based there. The Sydney's In 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:40.800 fifteen fifty two, Henry, the eighth son King Edward, would 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:46.080 grant Penshurst to his courtier, Sir William Sidney. William had 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:51.360 three grandchildren, Philip Sydney, the famous poet and elizabeth Ian courtier, 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:56.119 Robert Sydney, a statesman and patron of the arts, and 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:02.000 Mary Sidney, a poet and patron herself. Thanks to them, 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:06.840 Penshurst became something of a literary hot spot. The poem 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:10.840 to Penshurst by Ben Johnson goes so far as to 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:13.760 compare it to a meeting place of the muses in 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:19.320 Greek mythology, so it's no surprise that Robert Sidney's own daughter, 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:25.240 also named Mary, would gain literary aspirations growing up in 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:29.440 such a place. In fact, Young Mary, who would grow 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.560 up into a woman named Lady Mary Roth, would come 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:38.840 to be known as England's first female novelist. Her prose 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:44.520 romance The Countess of Montgomery's Urania, was praised by fellow writers, 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.400 but not seen as favorably by the members of Queen 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:53.760 Anne's court, who thought Mary's characters suspiciously resembled some of 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:57.760 their own. As will come to see the story of 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:02.120 Lady Mary Roth and her literary career is perhaps the 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:06.400 best real life representation of the idea put forth by 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:10.960 Virginia Wolf in a Room of One Zone that any woman, 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.560 even a noble one, who put her name on her 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:22.520 writing would quote risk being thought a monster. I'm Dani Schwartz, 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:38.039 and this is noble blood. On October Mary Roth was 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:42.320 born Mary Sydney, the eldest daughter of Sir Robert Sidney 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:46.640 and his wife, the Heiress Lady Barbara Gamage. The late 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.080 fifteen eighties was a time of radical change within the 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:54.839 Sydney family. Just two years before Mary was born, her 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.479 father was elected to his first political post as a 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.880 Member of Parliament. That was the same year he and 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.240 his brother Philip would go to the Netherlands to fight 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:09.720 a battle against Spain, but only the former would return alive. 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:15.080 Upon his brother's death, Robert Sidney inherited Penshurst, which would 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:20.440 then become Mary's childhood home. To better understand Mary's future work, 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.200 it makes sense to spend a bit of time thinking 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.560 about her uncle and his legacy. Remember, her father was 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:32.640 one of three literary siblings. There was Philip, Robert and Mary. 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:37.600 Philip died at age thirty one, leaving behind a prolific 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:41.200 body of work that had yet to be published. Writing 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.560 was not his primary focus in his lifetime, but his 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:49.279 talent was undeniable. C. S. Lewis once called him quote 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.760 without equal before Shakespeare, a reputation that has stuck to 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.600 this day. If you're going to be in second place 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.880 to anyone, Shakespeare isn't the worst person to be behind. 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:05.440 Robert's most famous works include his Sequence of a Hundred Nates, Sonnets, 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:11.440 Astrophil and Stella, and the pastoral romance Arcadia. Arcadia would 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.920 come to be known as the Countess of Pembrooke's Arcadia 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:19.679 after his sister, Mary, Countess of Pembroke, our Mary's aunt. 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.080 Not only is the work dedicated to her, but it 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.000 was she, Countess Mary, who was the one to take 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:31.240 on the responsibility of editing and publishing Arcadia after Philip's death. 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.040 The style and substance of Arcadia would go on to 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:40.400 influence a number of writers, namely Shakespeare himself and one 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:45.960 Lady Mary Roth. But before we get there, let's speak 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.400 some more about the young Mary. Only a year after 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.320 she was born, Robert, her father, would also inherit Philip's 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:57.080 post as governor to the town of Flushing in the Netherlands, 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.279 which meant he spent most of his time abroad while 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:04.479 his family remained in England. When Mary wasn't at Penshurst, 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:07.560 much of her childhood was spent at the London castle 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.480 of her aunt, the Countess Mary. Countess Mary had also 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.920 turned her home into a literary gathering place, and it 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.480 can be assumed young Mary had access to an extensive 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:22.520 collection of classics, humanist works, and the yet to be 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:27.680 published Philip Sidney works. The Countess's literary work went far 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:32.440 beyond the editing and publishing of Arcadia. She translated multiple 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:37.040 works from French to English and published Psalms, a joint 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.280 project she began working on with Philip before his death. 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:45.800 The final collection included forty three of his revised psalms 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.600 and a hundred and seven of her own. Notably, she 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.000 used her own name on all of these works, a 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:56.920 rare occurrence for the age. As you could predict, the 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:01.239 Countess would also be a major influence un Mary's future writing. 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.800 Splitting her time between the Countess's home and Penn'shurst, it 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.200 was almost a given that Mary would receive a literary 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:14.240 education her education was likely the responsibility of tutors and 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:18.600 her mother, championed by her father abroad. Much of our 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:22.840 knowledge of Mary's childhood comes from exchanges between her father 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:27.320 and her adviser, in which Robert asks for frequent updates 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:31.800 about his daughter's education. She was quote very forward in 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:35.080 her learning, writing, and other exercises she has put to 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:41.280 as dancing and the virginals end quote. The advisor replied, well, 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.160 it was not uncommon for a girl of noble birth 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:48.040 to receive an informal education. It was still not yet 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:53.160 a universal practice, and Robert's particular emphasis on his daughter's 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.920 reading and writing was a reflection of their family values. 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.400 As much as the Sydney family was involved old in 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:04.360 the literary world, they were equally involved in court life. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.040 One of the earliest anecdotes we have from Mary's court 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.760 life is of her performing a dance for Queen Elizabeth 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.920 on a royal visit to pence Hurst, and again a 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:19.679 dance in court in sixteen o two. Manuscripts preserved at 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:24.319 Penshurst tell us the teenaged Mary was quote much commended 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:28.920 by her majesty. In sixteen oh three, following King James's 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:33.200 ascension to the throne. Mary's father returned to England, he 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:37.800 was named Baron Sydney of Penshurst and appointed chamberlain to 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:42.079 the Queen Consort Anne of Denmark, further cementing the Sydney 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:47.080 family's place in court. The following year, King James married 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:51.160 the seventeen year old Mary to Sir Robert Roth, the 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:55.720 son of a wealthy Essex landowner, Promising as the marriage 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.280 might have seemed on paper, it was truly a match 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:04.760 made in hell. Despite marrying into the Sydney family, Robert 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.480 Roth had little to no interest in literature, as the 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:13.640 Poetry Foundation points out, quote during his entire career, only 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:17.360 one book was dedicated to him, a treatise on mad 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:21.800 dogs end quote. He preferred to spend his time hunting, 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.480 which didn't win him any favors with his wife, but 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:27.959 gained him quite a bit of favor with King James, 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:32.800 who knighted him in sixteen o three. Ben Johnson, friend 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.600 of the Sydneys and the famous prominent poet and playwright 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.600 who was quoted earlier for his love of Pencers, once 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:45.560 noted quote, my lady Roth is unworthily married on a 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:50.880 jealous husband end quote. Even more harshly. A servant of 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:55.960 Mary's once described her husband as quote the foulest churl 0:10:56.120 --> 0:11:00.480 in the world end quote. He was most likely guilty 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:07.239 of philandering, gambling, and excess drinking. However, her husband's favorable 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:11.120 relationship with King James meant that Mary's place in court 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.760 was further secured. She was welcomed into Queen Anne's inner 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:19.640 circle and became a staple in court. Masks, a form 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:23.480 of music and dance performance that was highly popular in 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:28.160 sixteenth century Europe. The first mask she performed in in 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:32.640 six oh five was written by Ben Johnson himself, and 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:38.280 the subject matter is incredibly upsetting but also perhaps unsurprising 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:44.640 for English nobility. Titled The Mask of Blackness, Mary performed 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:49.160 alongside Queen Anne and ten other friends as they donned 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:55.520 black face to play quote black Ethiopian nymphs called the 0:11:55.640 --> 0:12:00.320 Twelve Daughters of Niger. The mask was so successful that 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:05.880 it inspired numerous other performances, including a sequel, The Mask 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:10.680 of Beauty, in which Anne and Mary reprised their roles. 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:16.280 While generally received positively at the time, some reviews negatively 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:23.480 considered the women's performances as Ethiopian nymphs. Quote unconvincing, You 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:28.960 don't say. Though her life was entwined with life at court, 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:34.520 Mary's literary career was simultaneously starting to begin. We know 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:38.720 from our earliest reference to her work that her writing 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:43.800 must have begun circulating before sixteen thirteen, during the time 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:47.200 of her marriage. We have documented praise of her writing 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:51.640 from prominent figures in the literary scene such as William Drummond, 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:56.079 George Wither, and numerous others, But it wasn't until her 0:12:56.160 --> 0:13:01.240 husband's death that Mary's career really began to take shape. 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:07.600 In sixteen fourteen, Mary gave birth to a son, James. 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.640 Only a month later, her husband, Robert died of gang 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:15.719 green Because it wasn't enough to be terrible in his lifetime, 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:20.479 Robert left behind a pile of debt twenty three thousand 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:25.040 pounds that was now Mary's responsibility. On top of that, 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:30.040 young baby James tragically died two years later, and the 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:34.360 death of the air meant that Mary lost the Wrath estate. 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:39.520 It went to whoever the next heir was. It's unclear 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:43.960 how Mary dealt with the debt. The Sydneys, despite their status, 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:49.040 were not actually particularly monetarily wealthy. One of the first 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:53.200 major disputes in the marriage was over Mary's father's failure 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.880 to pay the proper dowry. But we do know that 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.760 Mary eventually was able to turn her folks us toward 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:06.040 new work and new love. Going forward, I'd like to 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.880 tell the story of Mary's life through her most famous, 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:13.920 or depending on who you ask, infamous work, The Countess 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:18.920 of Montgomery's Urania, published in sixty one. It's unknown when 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:23.040 exactly Mary began writing the prose romance, but it could 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.800 have been as early as sixteen fifteen. It was also 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:31.280 around that time that Mary withdrew from court life. Whether 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:34.200 it was of her own accord or a forced exile, 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.080 we don't know for sure. Maybe it was a consequence 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:42.960 of her husband's dad somehow, but either way, Urania's title 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:47.560 page is a perfect bridging of Mary's past and Mary's present. 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:52.680 Underneath the word title, we get this mouthful of a byeline, 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:56.920 Let Me take a deep breath, written by the right 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:01.480 Honorable the Lady Mary Roth, daughter to the right Noble Robert, 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.440 Earl of Leicester, and niece to the ever famous and 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.000 renowned Sir Philip Sidney Knight, and to the most excellent 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:13.120 Lady Mary, Countess of Pembroke. Late deceased Countess Mary died 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:18.240 the same year as Uranias publication. Perhaps notably, there is 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:22.520 no mention of her late husband. Roth's name may have changed, 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:27.680 she would always be a Sydney. It's once again worth 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:31.400 noting that it was extremely uncommon for a woman to 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.600 put her own name on her work, which makes the 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:38.440 nod to Countess Mary in the byline more touching, as 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:40.480 if she carved a path for her niece to be 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:44.080 able to do it herself. To add the names of 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:47.440 the prominent men and writers in her family may have 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.600 been a move to legitimize her work, but it wasn't 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.680 something the Countess ever did in her own published work. 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:58.720 So the nod to Robert who encouraged her education, Countess Mary, 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.400 who showed her niece what her own future could be, 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:06.160 and Philip, whose style was the foundation for Urania, can 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.600 also be read just as a show of respect to 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:12.600 her family above all else in regards to that style. 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:16.560 The academic Rice A. Bear, introducing a digital collection of 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:21.560 Roth's works, argues that Philip's inspiration on Roth's writing can 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.960 be seen in its form as quote, a long and 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:30.440 rambling prose romance interspersed with poems. That's the style Philip 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.840 could be credited with bringing back into fashion, and one 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:39.400 that his niece Mary further innovated. The titular Countess herself 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:43.960 also had connections to the Sydneys. She was Susan Daver, 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:49.480 Countess of Montgomery, Mary's close friend and wife to Countess 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:54.520 Mary's youngest son, making her Mary Roth's cousin in law. 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:59.320 Countess Mary's oldest son is also going to be important here. 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:04.800 He is William Herbert, the third Earl of Pembrooke, a politician, poet, 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.880 and once Chancellor of Oxford. If you recognize the name 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.960 Pembroke College, he's that guy. He will play an important 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.000 role in Urania, but probably not when you're expecting, and 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.000 more on that later anyway. As the professor Naomi J. 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.159 Miller points out in her article, not much to be 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:28.800 marked narrative of the woman's part in Lady Mary Roth's Urania. 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.960 Mary honoring her friend in the title of her work 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:36.919 is an early signifier to readers that Urania will differentiate 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.960 itself from the prose romance that was being written by 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.640 men in the ways in which you will honor female 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:47.320 friendship and in the level of personhood it gives female characters. 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.720 So now into the story itself. There are hundreds of 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.400 characters in the prose piece, but they all loosely revolve 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:02.760 around the tale of two lovers, Pamphilia and Amphilanthus. Pamphilia 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:05.920 is a queen of an island kingdom of the same name, 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:11.440 while Amphilanthus is the emperor of Romans and notably her 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:15.600 first cousin. Can you guess where this is going. The 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.879 name Pamphilia, like many of the names and characters in 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:25.800 this story, is of Greek origin and means all loving. Amphilanthus, 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:30.360 on the other hand, means lover of two. The conflict 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:34.760 keeping these lovers apart is in their names. Pamphilia is 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:40.440 a constant character, while Amphilanthus is inconsistent. The lovers cannot 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:45.320 be together because Amphilanthus is constantly pursuing other women, begging 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.919 Pamphilia to take him back each time. It is an 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:53.800 obstacle that is purely an interpersonal conflict. There are no 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:59.119 warring families keeping them apart, no meddling mythological forces, no 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.720 comedy of air hers. That alone would be a fresh 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.120 take on the genre, but added to it is Roth's 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:12.119 assertion that amphilitis is not morally worthy of Pamphilia. The 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:17.600 morality by which she defines Pamphilia is non traditional. While 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.680 she takes measures to inform the audience of Pamphilia's femininity, 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:27.280 her quote virtues are not the ones regularly associated with 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:34.159 women in romances, chastity, purity, et cetera. Instead, Pamphilia is 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:38.040 defined by her loyalty to her loved ones, putting forth 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:42.639 a virtue that should be prioritized by both genders. The 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:46.239 women in Pamphelia's life also play an important role in 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.520 her narrative. When she falls into a depression due to 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:53.720 her beloved infidelity, she seeks the advice of her friends 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:57.040 as to how to deal with this conflict. Again a 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:02.200 novel subject to give importance to in fictionate this time. Pamphelia, 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.879 as you have likely figured out, is a representation of 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:10.520 Mary herself. She is a strong queen whose autonomy is 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.880 supported by her father and uncle and Philanthus. Her lover 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:20.360 represents her cousin William Herbert. In your ania, Pamphelia expresses 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.840 her love of a Philanthus by writing him love poems. 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:29.200 In reality, Mary wrote a play entitled Love's Victory given 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.680 to William, along with a cipher that, when solved, spelled 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:39.440 their fictional counterparts names. She really was the Taylor Swift 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:43.440 of her time because he was her cousin. The Countess 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:47.800 Mary's son, Mary Roth knew William well growing up. His 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.520 brother Philip even lived with her in the Sydneys for 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.760 some time, with William visiting most days of the week. 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:59.280 It's unknown if their affair started before, during, or after. 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.480 There was spective marriages. William got married only a few 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:07.199 months after Mary. It's easy to guess why Mary was 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:10.800 drawn to William. Her own husband had no interest in 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.880 literary pursuits, whereas William was someone she trusted to keep 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:18.800 her intellectually engaged. On top of that, he was known 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:23.159 as being particularly handsome. We do know that at some 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:26.720 point after the death of her husband, Mary and William 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:31.760 had at least two illegitimate children, a daughter Catherine and 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:37.240 son William, information confirmed by one of the elder William's cousins. 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:40.960 In the continuation of Your Ania that was published after 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:45.760 Mary's death, she introduced a new character, a night called 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.280 fair Design, who does not have a proper name due 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:53.119 to his status as an illegitimate child. Won the text 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:58.600 heavily hints belongs to Pamphilia and and Philanthus, So how 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:02.359 does the story end? Spoilerlert to anyone who is going 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:07.560 straight from this podcast to read Urania. Pamphilia and amphilanthus, 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:11.840 much like Rath and Herbert, do not end up together. 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:16.880 Despite a prolific career as a nobleman, courtier and founder 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:21.080 of an incredibly famous college. The longest section of William's 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:27.159 Wikipedia is entitled quote Arranged marriages and Mistresses. In one 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:30.600 of his own poems reads the line quote can you 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:35.280 suspect a change in me and value your own constancy? 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:41.440 End quote. Catherine and William were not his only illegitimate children. 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:44.639 Before his first marriage, he had an affair with a 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:48.240 woman named Mary Fitton. Fitton was a maid of honor 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.640 to Queen Elizabeth and is thought to be the mysterious 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:55.359 Dark Lady who is the subject of a series of 0:22:55.400 --> 0:23:00.240 Shakespeare's sonnets. William admitted he was her child's father there, 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.000 but refused to marry her, and was thus sent to 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:06.640 Fleet Prison for a brief period in sixteen o one, 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:10.040 likely by the hand of Elizabeth herself, due to causing 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:13.000 scandal with one of her maids of honor. He and 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:17.560 Fitton were barred from Elizabethan court, but luckily for William, 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:21.200 around this time, the Elizabethan era was coming to an end. 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:26.760 Many contemporaries believed William to be a favorite of Queen 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:30.159 Anne and that it was through her influence that he 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:34.400 gained the position of Lord Chamberlain to King James, Queen 0:23:34.440 --> 0:23:39.840 Anne's husband, in sixteen fifteen. Not so coincidentally, this was 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:43.919 the time Wroth began to withdraw from court life, or 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:48.879 more likely fell out a favor with Queen Anne. Again, 0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:53.919 not so coincidentally, a similar story plays out in Urania. 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:57.760 There are references throughout to a jealous queen who will 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:01.040 go so far as to exile weaker rivals from court 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:04.960 in order to keep her lover to herself. This might 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:07.800 have been enough to cause outrage, but compared to some 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:12.439 other allusions in Urania, the characterization of the queen was 0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:15.600 too vague to draw a straight line to Anne with 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:19.520 her other characters. Though Mary did not pull her punches 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:24.240 in imitating real life court scandals, the one that caused 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:27.399 the biggest stir was in reference to the marriage of 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:32.720 Honora Denny and James Hay in Urania, Roth describes a 0:24:32.800 --> 0:24:36.919 scene in which Sarellius or Hay has to step in 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:41.280 to save his wife's life from her father's violent rage 0:24:41.640 --> 0:24:46.600 after she's accused of adultery. Edward Denny, the father in question, 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:54.040 was infuriated. Denny expressed his rage through how Else poetry. 0:24:54.119 --> 0:24:59.400 He wrote a scathing and offensive poem about Wrath, addressed 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:04.439 to Pamphilia from the Father in law of Cerelius. It 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:10.800 begins quote hermaphrodite in show indeed a monster, as by 0:25:10.920 --> 0:25:16.440 thy words and works all men may const thy wraithful spirit, 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:20.800 conceived an idle book, brought forth a fool, which, like 0:25:20.920 --> 0:25:25.560 the damn doth look. As Mary Ellen Lamb points out 0:25:25.600 --> 0:25:29.120 in her book Gender and Authorship in the Sydney Circle, 0:25:29.920 --> 0:25:35.280 Denny's critique is heavily gendered. In calling Rath a hermaphrodite, 0:25:35.520 --> 0:25:38.760 he attempts to punish her for the ways she's transgressed 0:25:38.880 --> 0:25:43.479 gender boundaries. The dame he refers to as is a 0:25:43.520 --> 0:25:48.960 word for a domesticated female animal, saying she's subhuman but 0:25:49.080 --> 0:25:54.320 she's still female. Roth replied almost immediately with a poem 0:25:54.440 --> 0:25:58.480 of her own. It's rhymes, matching Denny's word for word. 0:25:59.440 --> 0:26:03.280 Her map dite incense in art a monster as by 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:07.840 your railing rhymes, the world may conster your spiteful words 0:26:07.880 --> 0:26:12.080 against a harmless book shows that an ass much like 0:26:12.200 --> 0:26:17.320 the sire doth look Denny, not being a real poet himself, 0:26:17.960 --> 0:26:20.640 sort of set himself up for this kind of besting, 0:26:21.280 --> 0:26:25.199 and it shows a truly astonishing level of hubris. It 0:26:25.320 --> 0:26:28.280 kind of reminds me of men on Twitter who think 0:26:28.320 --> 0:26:34.160 they might be able to win a set against Serena Williams. Unfortunately, 0:26:34.359 --> 0:26:37.439 talent means almost nothing when you're a woman in a 0:26:37.440 --> 0:26:42.480 man's world. Denny's response assured that Urania would be a scandal, 0:26:43.000 --> 0:26:47.240 leaving Mary in a treacherous situation. In a letter between 0:26:47.240 --> 0:26:50.600 two members of court, the gossip quote in her book 0:26:50.600 --> 0:26:54.920 of Urania, she doth papply and grossly play upon him 0:26:54.920 --> 0:26:58.359 and his late daughter, Lady Hayes, besides many others she 0:26:58.440 --> 0:27:01.680 makes bold with, and they say takes great liberty, or 0:27:01.800 --> 0:27:05.840 rather license to reduce whom she please, and thinks she 0:27:06.040 --> 0:27:10.359 dances in a net. Mary's course of action was to 0:27:10.480 --> 0:27:13.960 deny her connection to the book's publication. She wrote to 0:27:14.000 --> 0:27:16.639 a personal friend and a favorite of King James, the 0:27:16.680 --> 0:27:19.639 Duke of Buckingham, arguing it was only meant to be 0:27:19.680 --> 0:27:23.440 shared among friends, and she volunteered to stop the sale 0:27:23.480 --> 0:27:27.160 of it. Based on the detail of the title page 0:27:27.200 --> 0:27:31.240 and Mary's annotations in her copies, we can assume she 0:27:31.400 --> 0:27:36.720 was lying. The court fuss did, however, mean that Urania 0:27:36.960 --> 0:27:41.920 was never reprinted and Mary would forever be considered a pariah. 0:27:42.119 --> 0:27:44.480 After that, we know Mary began to work on the 0:27:44.520 --> 0:27:48.840 second part of Urania and her play Loves Victory, the 0:27:48.880 --> 0:27:52.840 one she gifted to William. Speaking of William, we do 0:27:52.960 --> 0:27:56.960 not know exactly when he ended the affair with Mary, 0:27:56.960 --> 0:28:00.840 but we know her characterization of him as amphil Lanthis 0:28:00.960 --> 0:28:06.000 the Philanderer was an accurate one. The latter part of 0:28:06.040 --> 0:28:09.200 Mary's life was sadly devoted to paying off the debt 0:28:09.320 --> 0:28:12.800 left behind by her late husband. Though her father could 0:28:12.800 --> 0:28:17.159 not aid financially, he did refuse requests from the Secretary 0:28:17.200 --> 0:28:21.040 of State to pressure Mary into paying, assuring him that 0:28:21.119 --> 0:28:25.439 Mary was capable of handling her affairs. It's likely that 0:28:25.520 --> 0:28:30.280 Mary died between sixteen fifty one and sixteen fifty three, 0:28:30.680 --> 0:28:35.480 and sadly no literary work survived from the last thirty 0:28:35.560 --> 0:28:39.720 years of her life. Still, despite the scandal. No one 0:28:39.760 --> 0:28:44.640 could take away Mary's status as the country's first female novelist. 0:28:45.200 --> 0:28:48.400 It would be over forty years before the next english 0:28:48.440 --> 0:28:53.400 woman published fiction under her own name. She was Margaret Cavendish, 0:28:53.840 --> 0:28:57.680 Duchess of Newcastle, and in the preface to her sixteen 0:28:57.720 --> 0:29:02.760 sixty four work Sociable Letter, she cheekily quoted the final 0:29:02.880 --> 0:29:07.120 couplet from Denny's poem to Mary, in which he argues 0:29:07.160 --> 0:29:11.720