ABSTRACT
The Renaissance woman writer was far more likely to experience the anxiety of absence than the anxiety of influence. Whereas the Humanist tradition might give male poets a “joyful” self-confidence, female writers struggled to find authorization for their work in a culture which demanded silence and obedience of them, not eloquent self-assertion. Since Lady Mary Wroth’s Urania is named for a character in the Arcadia, she may have thought of her work as continuing Sir Philip’s unfinished romance, even as her aunt was completing the Psalmes. Pamphilia met her aunt “with ioy and respect, knowing her so worthy, as she was onely fit to bee mother to such a sonne, who alone deserued so matchlesse a mother”. The Countess of Pembroke figures in Loves Victorie, wherein Simena loves Lissius (Sir Mathew Lister, a court physician known for his learning and for his good looks), who scorns love.
