ABSTRACT
One of my favorite episodes in the Urania is when Pamphilia and Urania approach a mysterious edifice, the Theatre of Love. Pamphilia is partly a persona for the romance’s author, Lady Mary Wroth; and her companion Urania is partly a persona for Wroth’s friend Susan Vere Herbert, Countess of Montgomery, dedicatee of the romance. Urania, who has been caught up in a previous enchantment, is cautious: “[W]oe be to us, who may be bewitched to the misery of never seeing our desires fulfil’d.” Pamphilia, who has had earlier success in breaking an enchantment, is eager to venture on: “Let it be what it will said Pamphilia, i will see the end of it … you may said Urania, having had such successe in the last, yet take heed, all adventures were not framed for you to finish. nor for you to be enchanted in, answered shee” (Urania 1621:321).1
