English Literature Anthology

ENGLIʃH LITERATURE III
Anthology
OF
FEMALE
FRIENDʃHIP
AND OTHER
FEMALE ʃAME- ʃEX

WORKS
IN WHICH
the Fame of Grandioʃe Women Writing to their Loved
Virtuous Women is contained:
With Texts by Katherine Phillips, Aphra Behn, and Anne

Killigrew, among Others.
M E X I C O,
Written for Dr. Anaclara Caʃtro Santana and is to be
delivered at Claʃʃroom in December 13th, 2018
Female Friendship and Other Female
Same-Sex Works
Compiled by:
Calderón Flores María Fernanda

Carrillo Cruz Laura Adriana
Chamorro Pérez Valeria
English Literature III:

The Seventeenth Century
Castro Santana Anaclara

2019-1
Female Friendship and Other Female Same-Sex Works
Index:
Introduction 5
Aemilia Lanyer 11
To the Queenes most Excellent Majestie 13
To All Vertuous Ladies in Generall 22
The Authors Dreame to the Ladie Marie,

the Countesse Dowage of Pembrooke 27
Lady Mary Wroth 40

The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania.
The First Booke. 42
Katherine Phillips 44
To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship 47
Parting with Lucasia: A Song 48
Orinda to Lucasia 50
Friendship’s Mysteries: To My Dearest

Lucasia 51
Injuria Amici 53
Aphra Behn 56
To the Fair Clorinda, Who Made Love to Me,

Imagin’d More than Woman 58
Verses Design’d by Mrs. A Behn to be Sent

to a Fair Lady, that Desir’d She Would
Absent Herself to Cure her Love 59
Anne Killigrew 61
On a Picture Painted by Herself, Representing
Two Nymphs of Diana’s, One in a Posture to
Hunt, the Other Bathing 63
On the Soft and Gentle Motions of Eudora 64
Elizabeth Singer Rowe 66

Love and Friendship: A Pastoral 67
Anonymous 72
Venus’s Reply 74
Bibliography 76
Introduction
In this Anthology we have selected several Female Authors
from the seventeenth-century who, through their writing, express
Female Friendship and other forms of female same-sex relations.
We intend to shed light into women’s writing and relationships in
a patriarchal period where it was thought women were not
educated and did not write. We follow two notions that may seem
contrary, but we believe are complementary: Same-sex relations
in the seventeenth-century were conceived differently; however,
they still are abreast to the notions we have today. Nevertheless,
we do not try to define the past with our actual concepts, we
adhere to Mary Libertin to state that: “the goal of this analysis
[…]is to provide links missing in the obscure depths of the history
of female writing and concurrently provide etiology of their
obscurity” (1).
After the canon selection in the nineteenth century, the
seventeenth century was depicted as a kind of obscurantism for
female literature. This, although not completely wrong, is not
completely true either. Women were still under the direction and
control of their husbands, which included their education. During
that time women were only introduced to a certain degree of
5
education if their husbands or fathers allowed it. This event

caused a shift in what women expressed and how they related
with others through writing. Some women were educated on
religious matters, and their work focused mainly on the religious
aspects of life and their relationship with God. Some others
started writing mostly autobiographical works, which depicted
how they understood the world around them and how they
associate with other people, especially to other women. Is in this
last topic that we find the flexibility of same-sex relations in the
seventeenth century.
The current understanding that we have of same-sex
relations does not apply to that time. We have many labels to
differentiate the kind of relations that exist, but it is dangerous to
try and apply them to a time where our liberties and rights did not
exist, even if our work is focused on that period’s understanding
of it. As Jonathan Ned Katz wrote:
As the major terms defining our object of study, ‘homosexual’
and ‘heterosexual,’ applied to a past society, may obscure the
very different ways in which same-sex and different-sex
pleasures were organized and constructed under very different
social conditions. Our modern concepts applied uncritically to
the past, simply project our present social organization of
6
eroticism, procreation, and gender onto the past, distorting our

ability to see it as it was to those who lived it. (xvii)
For this same reason, we have decided to use the concept
‘Female Friendship’ and ‘same-sex’ interchangeably as an
umbrella term to define the range in which women’s platonic and
non-platonic relations with other women fall. When we talk about
‘Female Friendship’ or ‘same-sex’ we are talking about a wide
range of expressions and representations of affection: from what
we now could call ‘homosexual’, to an erotic view of people from
the same sex, to what was known in Ancient Greece as agapé – a
love that has no erotic implication, but entails a higher degree of
admiration than mere friendship – and what we mostly describe
here as platonic.
Although the modern concepts of ‘homosexuality’ and
‘heterosexuality’ cannot be used to explain or describe the past,
we cannot leave aside that this does not make it foreign to us as
readers. The concepts may not be the same, but the notions are
familiar. For the selection of the works adjoined here we share
the view of David M. Robinson about same-sex relations.
[We] don’t mean to imply that early modern […] conceptions
of same-sex acts and desires, or same-sex oriented individuals,
are identical to early twenty-first-century ones, much less to
7
imply a transhistorical or transcultural lesbian, gay, or

homosexual identity. But the recognition of historical and
cultural difference in the meanings attached to love, sex and
sexual desire between women and between men is not an
insurmountable barrier to transhistorical or transcultural use of
modern Western terms. (xvii)
Some theorists have stated that same-sex writing did not
have predominance until the nineteenth or twentieth century, and
we agree to a certain degree with that affirmation. Still, we are
certain that it existed even in the seventeenth century. Female to
female writing, after all, dates as back as Ancient Greece with
Sappho’s erotic poems to female figures —writers such as Anne
de Rohan understood that when they started translating her
work— therefore, this concept is not new.
This, however, has been considered by some critics as
reading too much into texts and “a wilful and perverse reading”
(Robinson, 3) given that “Passionate language of same-sex
attraction was extremely common during whatever period is
under discussion – and therefore must have been completely
meaningless” (Sedgwick, 3; quoted by Robinson). This notion
comes from a rejection towards any non-explicit same-sex work,
which derives from a reduction of same-sex relations to their
8
sexual performance —something that leaves aside other aspects

of human relations such as emotional connection or non-erotic
forms of love. Some critics have also argued against fitting
modern terms in homoerotic forms of writing, because these
concepts did not come into use until the twentieth century. As
previously explained, terms as we now understand them cannot
be used to describe the past, but they can still be used as a close
perception of them.
In summary, we intend to prove that modern concepts about
same-sex relations are not new but have a familiar concept in the
past, and these concepts seeped into women’s literature. We are
not trying to uncover something unknown, but to shed light onto
something that has always been there, but for several reasons has
been outcasted from the public view. We want to expose that,
even in a very patriarchal age, women learned, wrote and even
directed those writings to other women with various intents.
Why focus then on the little pieces of work we have of this
topic? The question we ask is why not. The topic has gone largely
unnoticed, due to the enormous difference there is between male
and female writing, let alone the same-sex male and same-sex
female writing. But if there is no account of this texts then it will
prevail unnoticed; even though they are topics that have gained a
9
public interest in the last few years. If we do not acknowledge

them, then works such as these are prone to be ignored.
10
Aemilia Lanyer (1569-1645)

Aemilia Lanyer was born on 27 January 1569 under the
name of Aemilia Bassano. Daughter of the court musician Baptist
Bassano, Aemilia had access to the Elizabethan court circles, and
spent some years in the household of Susan Bertie, Countess of
Kent. She lost her father at age seven and her mother at age
eighteen, but she was already mistress to Queen Elizabeth’s lord
chamberlain, Henry Carey. However, when she became pregnant
by him, she was married to a court musician named Alphonso
Lanyer.
She was the first author to have a large work done to seek
patronage, something common to the “lower-class” poets. She
dedicated the poems to in her book Salve Deus Rex Judæorum to
different female patrons: "To the Queenes most Excellent
Majestie" to James's consort, Anne of Denmark; "The Authors
Dreame to the Ladie Marie, the Countesse Dowager of
Pembrooke" to Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, sister of Sir
Philip Sidney, and a recognized author herself; "To the Ladie
Margaret Countesse Dowager of Cumberland" to Lanyer's
principal dedicatee, among others.
11
Layner’s poems are largely religious, given that that was

one of the few fields in which women could express themselves
somewhat freely. Her work was one of the first ones that depicted
a community of good women that had another woman as a
spokesperson. Her dedicatory poems gave authority to Lanyer’s
work, and the topic of Christ’s Passion redirected towards women
granted a greater authenticity to women’s voice as that of men.
She had a marked preference towards dedicating her work

to other women. She claimed that her full conversion to Christ
resulted from the influence of her main dedicatee, the countess
dowager of Cumberland, and other women who had a godly
influence on her, including the countess dowager of Kent – in
whose household she had resided as an unrepentant young woman
– as well as Queen Anne, through her godly example, and the
countess of Pembroke, because of her Psalms.
Is in this intersection of praising her patronage and wanting

to set some authority in women’s voices that she imprints notions
of love among women or homoerotic figures in her routings of
desire. “Like John Donne, Lanyer paints the loneliness brought
about by the disappearance of affective bonds between women;
like Andrew Marvell, she questions the exclusive virtue of cross-
12
gender couplings and depicts the destruction of women’s

collective happiness at the hands of men” (Morgan, 556-7).
Lanyer’s poems are full of images of women reaching a spiritual
fulfilment and the verses in her poems depict a homoerotic
pleasure that derives from an admiration of the women she is
writing to.
To the Queenes most Excellent Majestie
Renowed Empresse, and great Britaines Queene,

Most gratious Mother of succeeding Kings;
Vouchsafe to view that wich is seldome seene,
A womans writing of divinest things:
Reade it faire Queene, though it defective be,
Your Excellence can grace both It and Mee.
For you have rifled Nature of her store,

And all the Goddesses have dispossest
Of those rich gifts which they enjoy’d before
But now great Queene, in you they all doe rest.
If now they strived for the golden Ball,
Paris would give it you before them all.
13
From Juno you have State and Dignities,

From warlike Pallas, Wisdome, Fortitude;
And from faire Venus all her Excellencies,
With their best parts your Highnesse is indu’d:
How much are we to honor those that springs
From such rare beauty, in the blood of Kings?
The Muses doe attend upon your Throne,

With all the Artists at your becke and call;
They Syluane Gods, and Satyres every one,
Before your faire triumphant Chariot fall:
And shining Cynthia with her nymphs attend
To honour you, whose Honour hath no end.
From your bright shpeare of greatnes were you fit,

Reflecting light to all those glorius stars
That wait upon your Throane; To virtue yet
Vouchsafe that splendour wich my meanesse bars:
Be like faire Phoebe, who doth love to grace
The darkest night with her most beauteous face.
14
Apollo’s beames doe comfort every creature,

And shines upon the meanest things that be;
Since in Estate and Virtue none is greater,
I humbly wish that yours may light on me:
That so these rude unpollisht lines of mine,
Graced by you, may seeme the more divine
Look in this Mirrour of a worthy Mind,

Where some of your faire Virtues will appeare;
Though all it is impossible to find,
Unlesse my Glasse were chrystall, or more cleare:
Which is bym steele, yet full of spotlesse thuth,
And for one looke from your faire eyes it su’th.
Here may your sacred Majestie behold

That mightie Monarch both of heav’n and earth,
He that all Nations of the world controld,
Yet tooke our flesh in base and meanest borth:
Whose daies were spent in poverty and sorrow,
And yet all Kings their wealth of him do borrow.
For he is Crowne and Crowner of all Kings,
15
The hopefull haven of the meaner sort,

Its he that all our joyfull tidings brings
Of happie raigne within his royall Court:
Its he that in extremity can give
Comfort to them that have no time to like.
And since my wealth within his Region stands,

And that his Crosse my chiefest comfort is,
Yea in his kingdome onely rests my lands,
Of honour there I hope I shall not misse:
Though I on earth doe live unfortunate,
Yet there I may attaine a better state.
In the meane time, accept most gratious Queene

This holy worke, Virtue presents to you,
In poore apparel, shaming to be seene,
Or once t’appeare in your judiciall view:
But that faire Virtue, though in meane attire
All Princes of the world doe most desire.
And sith all royall virtues are in you,

The Natural, the Morall, and Divine,
16
I hope how plaine soever, being true,

You will accept even of the meanest line
Faire Virtue yeelds; by whose rare gifts you are
So highly grac’d, t’excseed the fairest faire.
Behold, great Queene, faire Eues Apologie,

Which I have writ in honour of your sexe,
And doe referre unto your Majestie,
To judge if it agree not with the Text:
And if it doe, why are poore Women blam’d
Or by more faultie Men so much defam’d?
And this great Lady I have here attired,

In all her rechest ornaments of Honour,
That you faire Queene, of all the world admired,
May take the more delight to looke upon her:
For she must entertaine you to this Feast,
To which your Highnesse is the welcom’st guest.
For here I have prepar’d my Paschal Lambe,

The figure of that living Sacrifice;
Who dying, all th’Infernall powers orecame,
17
That we with him t’Eternitie might rise:

This pretious Passeover feed upon, O Queene,
Let your faire Virtues in my Glasse be seene.
And she that is the patterne of all Beautie,

The very modell of your Majestie,
Whose rarest parts enforceth Love and Duty,
The perfect patterne of all Pietie:
O let my Booke by her faire eyes be blest,
In whose pure thoughts all Innocency rests.
Then shall I thinke my Glasse a glorious Skie,

When two such glittering Suns at once appeare;
The one repleat with Sov’raigne Majestie,
Both shining brighter than the clearest cleare:
And both reflecting comfort to my spirits,
To find their grace so much above my merits
Whose untun’d voice the dolefull note doth sing

Of sad Affliction in an humble straine;
Much like unto a Bird that wants a wing,
And cannot flie, but marbles forth her paine:
18
Or he that barred from the Suns bright light,

Wanting daies comfort, dath commend the night.
So I that live clos’d up in Sorrowes Cell,

Since great Elizaes favour blest my youth;
And in the confines of all cares doe dwell,
Whose grieved eyes no pleasure ever view’th:
But in Christs suffrings, such sweet taste they
[have,
As makes me praise pale Sorrow and the Game.
And this great Ladie whom I love and honour,

And from my very tender yeeres have knowne,
This holy habite still to take upon her,
Still to remaine the fame, and still her owne:
And what our fortunes doe enforce us to,
She of Denotion and mere Zeale doth do.
Which makes me thinke our beauty burden light,

When such a one as she will help to beare it:
Treading the paths that make our way go right,
What garment is so faire but she may weare it;
19
Especially for her that entertaines

A Glorious Queene, in whom all worth remains.
Whose power may raise my sad dejected Muse,

From this lowe Mansion of a troubled mind;
Whose princely favour may such grace infuse,
That I may spread Her Virtues in like kind:
But in this trial of my slender skill,
I wanted knowledge to performe my will.
For ever as they that doe behold the Starres,

Nor with the eye of Learning, but of Sight,
To find their motions, want of knowledge barres
Although they see them in their brightest light:
So, though I see the glory of her State,
Its she that must instruct and elevate.
My weake distempred braine and feeble spirits,

Which all unlearned have adventur’d, this
To write of Christ, and of his sacred merits,
Desiring that this Booke Her hands may kisse:
And though I be unworthy of that grace,
20
Yet let her blessed thoughts this book imbrace
And pardon me (faire Queene) though I presume,

To doe that which so many better can;
Not that I Learning to my selfe assume,
Or that I would compare with any man:
But as they are Scholers, and by Art write,
So Nature yeelds my Soule a sad delight.
And since all Arts at first from Nature came,

That goodly Creature, Mother of Perfection,
Whom Joves almighty hand at first did frame,
Taking both her and hers in his protection:
Why should not She now grace my barren Muse,
And in Woman all defects excuse.
So peerelesse Prencesse humbly I desire,

That your great wisedome would vouchsafe t’ome
All faults; and pardon if my spirits retire,
Leaving to ayme at what they cannot hit:
To write your worth, which no pen can expresse,
Were but t’eeclipse your Fame, and make it lesse.
21
To all veruous Ladies in generall
Each blessed Lady that in Virtue spends

Your pretious time to beautifie your soules;
Come wait on hir whom winged Fame attends
And in hir hand the Booke where she inroules
Thosehigh deserts that Majestie commends:
Let this faire Queene not unattended bee,
When in my Glasse she daines her selfe to see.
Put on your wedding garments every one,

The Bridegoome stayes to entertaine you all;
Let Virtue be your guide, for she alone
Can leade you right that you can never fall;
And make no stay for feare he should be gone:
But fill your Lamps with oyle of burning zeale,
That to your Faith he may his Truth reveale.
Let all your roabes be purple scarlet white;

Those perfit colours purest Virtue wore,
Come deckt with Lillies that did so delight
22
To be preferr’d in Beauty, farre before

Wife Salomon in all his glory dight:
Whose soyall roabes did no such pleasure yield,
As did the beauteous Lilly of the field.
Adorne your temples with faire Daphnes crowne,

The never changing Laurel, always greene;
Let constant hope all worldly pleasures drowne,
In wise Minervaes paths be always seene;
Or with bright Cynthia, thogh faire Venus frown:
With Esop crosse the poses of every doore,
Where Sinne would riot, making Virtue poore.
And let the Muses your companions be,

Those sacred sisters that on Pallas wait;
Whose Virtues with the purest minds agree,
Whose godly labours doe anoyd the baite
Of worldly pleasures, living always free
From sword, from violence, and from ill reports,
To these nine Worthies all faire minds resort.
Annoynt your haire with Aarons pretious oyle,
23
And gring your palmes of vict’ry in your hands,

To overcome all thoughts that would defile
The earthly circuit of your soules faire lands;
Let no dimme shadowes your cleare eyes beguile:
Sweet odours, mirrhe, gum, aloes, frankincense,
Present their King who di’d for your offence.
Behold, bright Titans shining chariot staies,

All deckt with flowers of the freshest hew,
Attended on by Age, Houres, Nights and Daies,
Which alters not you beauty, but gives you
Much more, and crownes you with eternall praise:
This golden chariot wherein you must ride,
Let simple Doves, and subtill serpents guide.
Come swifter than the motion of the Sunne,

To be transfigur’d with our loving Lord,
Left Glory end what Grace in you begun,
Of heav’nly riches make your gratest hoord,
In Christ all honour wealth, and beautie’s wonne:
By whose perfections you appeare more faire
Than Phœbus, if he sean’n time brighter were.
24
Gods holy Angels will direct your Doves,

And bring your Serpents to the fields of rest,
Where he doth stay that purchast all your loves
In bloody torments, when he di’d opprest,
There shall you find him in those pleasant groves
Of sweet Elizium, by the Well of Life,
Whose cristal springs springs do purge from
worldly strife
Thus may you flie from dull and sensuall earth,

Whereof at first your bodies formedwere,
That new regen’rate in a second berth
Your blessed soules may line without all feare,
Beeing immortall, subject to no death:
But in the eye of heaven so highly placed,
That other by your virtues may be graced.
Where worthy Ladies I will leave you all,

Desiring you to grace this little Booke;
Yet some of you me thinks I heare to call
Me by my name, and bid me better looke,
25
Left unawares I in an error fall:

In generall tearmes, to place you with the rest,
Whom Fame commends to be the very best.
Tis true, I must confesse (O noble Fame)

There are a number honoures by thee,
Of which, some few thou didst recite by name,
And willd my Muse they should remembered bee;
Wishing some would their glorious Trophies frame:
Which if I should presume to undertake,
My tires Hand for very feare would quake.
Onely by name I will bid some of those,

That in true Honors feate have long bin placed,
Yea even such as thou hast chiefly chose,
By whom my Muse may be the better graced;
Therefore, unwilling longer time to lose,
I will inuite some Ladies that I know,
But chiefly those as thou hast graced so.
26
The Authors Dreame to the Ladie Marie, the

Countesse Dowage of Pembrooke
Me thought I pass’d through th’Edalyan Groues,

And askt the Graces, if they could direct,
Me to a Lady whom Minerva chose,
To live with her in height of all respect.
Yet looking backe into my thoughts againe,

The eye of Reason did behold her there
Fast ti’d unto them in a golden Chaine,
They stood, but she was set in Honors chaire.
And nine faire Virgins fate upon the ground,

With Harps and Vialls in their lilly hand;
Whose harmony had all my fences drown’d,
But that before mine eyes an object stands,
Whose Beauty shin’d like Titons cleerest raies,

She blew a brasen Trumpet, which did found
Through al the world that worthy Ladies praise,
And by Eternall Fame I saw her crown’d.
27
Yet studying, if I were awake, or no,

God Morphy came and tooke me by the hand,
And wil’d me not from Slumbers bowre to go,
Till I the fume of all did understand.
When prefently the Welkin that before

Look’d bright and cleere, me thought, was overcast,
And duskie clouds, with boystrous winds great store,
Foretold of violent stormes which could not last.
And gazing up into the troubled skie,

Me thought a Chariot did from thence defend,
Where one did sit repleat with Majestie,
Drawne by foure fierie Dragons, which did bend
Their course where this most noble Lady fate,

Whom all these virgins with due reverence
Did entertaine, according to that state
Which did belong unto her Excellence.
When bright Bellona, so they did her call,

Whom these faire Nymphs so humbly did receive,
28
A manly mayd which was both faire and tall,

Her borrowed Charret by a spring did leave.
With speare, and shield, and currat on her breast,

And on her head a helmet wondrous bright,
With myrtle, bayes, and olive branches drest,
Wherein me thought I looke no small delight.
To see how all the Graces sought grace here,

And in what meeke, yet princely short shee came;
How this most noble Lady did imbrace her,
And all humors unto hers did frame.
Now faire Dictina by the breake of Day,

With all her Damsels round about her came,
Ranging the woods to hunt, yet made a stay,
When harkning to the pleasing found of Flame;
Her Ivory bowe and silver shaftes shee gave

Unto the fairest nymphe of all her traine;
And wondering who it was that in so grave,
Yet gallant fashion did her beauty staine:
29
Shee deckt her selfe with all the borrowed light

That Phœbus would afford from his faire face,
And made her Virgins to appeare so bright,
That all the hils and vales received grace.
Then pressing where this beauteous troupe did stand,

They all received her most willingly,
And unto her the Lady gave her hand,
That shee should keepe with them continually.
Aurora rising from her rosie bedde,

First blusht, then wept, to see faire Phœbus grac’d,
And unto Lady Maie these words she sed,
Come, let us goe, we will not be out fac’d.
I will unto Apolloes Waggoner,

A bidde him bring his Master presently,
That his bright beames may all her Beauty marre,
Gracing us with the luster of his eye.
Come, come, sweet Maie, and fill their laps with floures.
30
And I will give a greater light than she:

So all these Ladied favours shall be ours,
None shall be more esteem’d than we shall be.
Thes did Aurora dimme faire Phœbus light,

And was receiv’d in bright Cynthiaes place,
While Flora all with fragrant floures dight,
Pressed to shew the beauty of her face.
Though these, me thought, were varie pleasing fights,

Yet now these Wothies did agree to go,
Unto a place full of all rare delights,
A place that yet Minerva did not know.
That sacred Spring where Art and Nature striv’d

Which should remaine as Sov’raigne of the place;
Whose antient quarrel being new reviv’d,
Added fresh Beauty, gave farre greater Grace.
To which as umpiers now these Ladies go,

Judging with pleasure their delightfull café;
Whose ravish fences made them quickly know,
31
T’would be offensive either to displace.
And therefore will’d they should for ever dwell,

In perfit unity by this matchlesse Spring:
Since ‘twas impossible either should excel,
Or her faire fellow in subjection bring.
But here in equall sov’raigntie to live,

Equall in state, equall in dignitie,
That unto others they might comfort give,
Rejoycing all with their sweet unitie.
And now me thought I long to heare her name,

Whom wife Minerva honoured so much,
Shee shom I saw was crownd by noble Fame,
Whom Envy fought to sting, yet could not touch.
Me thought the meagre elfe did seeke bie waies

To come unto her, but it would not be;
Her uenime purifi’d by virtues raies,
Shee pin’d and starv’d like an Anotomie:
32
While beauteous Pallas with this Lady faire,

Attend by these Nymphs of noble fame,
Beheld those woods, those groves, those bowers rare,
By which Pergusa, for so hight the name
Of that faire spring, his dwelling place & ground;

And through those fields with sundry flowers clad,
Of sev’rall colours, to adorne the ground,
And please the fences ev’n of the most sad:
He trayld along the woods in wanton wise,

With sweet delight to entertaine them all;
Inuiting them to fit and to devise
On holy hymnes; at last to mind they call
Those rare sweet songs which Israels King did frame

Unto the Father of Eternitie;
Before his holy wisedom tooke the name
Of great Messias, Lod of unitie.
Those holy Sonnets they did all agree,

With this most lovely Lady here to sing;
33
That by her noble breasts sweet harmony,

Their musicke might in eares of Angels ring.
While fains like Sawns about this silver brook

Should Hallalu-iah sing continually,
Writing her praises in th’eternall brooke
Of endlesse honour, true fames memorie.
Thus I in sleep the heavenli’st musicke hard,

That ever earthly eares did entertaine;
And durst not wake, for feare to be debard
Of what my fences fought still to retaine.
Yet sleeping, praid dull Slumber to unfold

Her noble name, who was of all admired;
When presently in drowsie tearmes he told
Not onely that, but more than I desired.
This nymph, quoth he, great Penbrooke heoght by name,

Sister to valiant Sidney, whose cleere light
Gives light to all that tread true paths of Fame,
Who in the globe of heav’n doth shime so bright;
34
That being dead, his fame doth him survive,

Still living in the hearts of worthy men;
Pale Death is dead, but he remains alive,
Whose dying wounds restor’d him life agen.
And this faire earthly goddesse which you see,

Bellona and her virgins doe attend;
In virtuous studies of Divinitie,
Her pretious time continually doth spend.
So that a Sister well shee may be deemed,

To him that liv’d and di’d so nobly;
And farre before him is to be esteemd
For virtue, wisedome, learning, dinginty.
Whose beauteous soule hath gain’d a doble life,

Both here on earth, and in the heav’ns above,
Till dissolution end all worldly strife:
Her blessed spirit remains, of holy love,
Directing all by her immortal light,
35
In this huge sea of sorrowes, griefes, and feares;

With contemplation of Gods powerful might,
Shee fils the eyes, the hearts, the tongues, the eares
Of after-coming ages, which shall reade

Her love, her zeale, her faith, and pietie;
The faire impression of whose worthy deed,
Seales her pure soule unto the Deitie.
That both in Heav’n and Earth it may remaine,

Crownd with her Makers glory and his love;
And this did Father Slumber tell with paine,
Whose dulnesse scarce could suffer him to move.
When I awaking left him and his bowre,

Much grieved that I could no longer stay;
Sencelesse was sleepe, not to admit me power,
As I had spent the night to spend the day:
Then had God Morphie shew’d the end of all,

And what my heart desir’d, mine eyes had seene;
For as I wak’d me thought I heard one call
36
For that bright Charet lent by Joves faire Queene.
But thou, base cunning thiefe, that robs our spirits

Of halfe that span of life which years doth give;
And yet no praise unto thy selfe it merits,
To make a seeming death in those that live.
Yea wickedly thou doest consent to death,

Within thy restfull bed to rob our soules;
In Slumbers bowre thou steal’st away our breath,
Yet none there is that thy base stealths controules.
If poore and fickly creatures would imbrace thee,

Or they to whom thou giv’st a taste of pleasure,
Thou fli’st as if Acteons hounds did chase thee,
Or that to stay with them thou hadst no leasure.
But though thou hast depriv’d me of delight,

By stealing from me ere I was aware;
I know I shall enjoy the selfe fame fight,
Thou hast no power my waking spirites to barre.
37
For to this Lady now I will repaire,

Presenting her the fruits of idle hours;
Thogh many Books she writes that are more rare.
Yet there is hony in the menest flowres:
Which is both wholesome, and delights the taste:

Though sugar be more finer, higher priz’d,
Yet is the painefull Bee no whit disgrac’d,
Nor her faire wax, or hony more despiz’d.
And though that learned damsel and the rest,

Have in a higher style her Trophie fram’d;
Yet these unlearned lines being my best,
Of her great wisedom can no whit be blam’d.
And therefore, first I here present my Dreame,

And next, inuite her Honour to my feast;
For my cleare reason sees her by the streame,
Where her rare virtues daily are increast.
So craving pardon for this bold attempt,

I here present my mirror to her view,
38
Whose noble virtues cannot be exempt,

My Glasse being steele, declares them to be true.
And Madame, if you will vouchsafe that grace,

To grace those flowers that springs from virtues ground;
Though your faire mind on worthier works is plac’d
On works that are more deepe, and more profound;
Yet is it no disparagement to you,

To see your Saviour in Shepheards weed,
Unworthily presented in your viewe,
Whose worthinesse will grace each line you reade.
Receive him here by my unworthy hand,

And reade his paths of faire humility;
Who though our sinnes in number passe the sand,
They all are purg’d by his Divinity.
39
Lady Mary Wroth (1587–1653)

Born on 18 October 1587, Lady Mary Wroth was a member
of noble family. In her biological background we can find Sir
Philip Sidney, a famous Elizabeth poet-courtier. She grew up in
a very literary and cultural environment thanks to her stays at her
uncle home and the Baynard’s Castle, in London. Besides that,
she was able to have a semi-formal education with the help of her
mother. Due also to her family’s connections, she achieved a
space in the court and became an intimate friend of Queen Anne.
They exchanged letters regarding her later problems with her
husband. After his death she began an alleged relationship with
his cousin William Herbert. Mentions of this relationship, as well
as their illegitimate children, and a rivalry between her and Queen
Anne over William are mentioned in her work Urania.
She wrote secular love poetry and romances. In 1621 she

published her major work of prose fiction: The Countesse of
Mountgomeries Urania. From that work she wrote a second part
five-act pastoral drama called: Love’s Victory, and her sonnet
sequence: “Pamphilia to Amphilanthus.” In most of them she
adopts the pastoral style to set an innocent love that contrasts with
a corrupt passion of the court, by taking her uncle’s heritage and
40
replacing the heroes with heroines. This is said to help women

poets criticize sexual politics and masculine power, according to
Ann Rosalind Jones. Through recovering the Petrarchan lyric
sequence, she helped create a subjective space for women writers
to express their frustrations and fantasies; therefore, she
celebrates her own passion and power.
Urania celebrates the heroic female persona that replaced

Spenserian heroes. Women in this work represent strength and
integrity through love, while being portrayed as storytellers and
poetess, criticising the social constraints of its time. As her
contemporary women writers, Wroth commemorates her female
friends. She had a very close relationship with Susan Vere, the
first wife of Sir Herbert, Earl of Montgomery since 1605, who
was known for being her literary patronage. Wroth not only
dedicated to the Countess her prose romance, but also, created the
fictional character of Urania in her honour. Pamphilia and Urania
are a representation of Wroth’s friendship with the Countess;
however, this work can also be interpreted as a platonic way for
Wroth expose her feelings towards her friend, but also, praise her.
The elegy towards the Countess at the beginning of the prose
41
fiction celebrates the beauty, strength and power she has over
grief and misery.
The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania. The First

Booke.
When the Spring began to appeare like the welcome messenger

of Summer, one sweet (and in that more sweet) morning, after
Aurora had called all carefull eyes to attend the day, forth came
the faire Shepherdesse Urania, (faire indeed; yet that farre too
meane a title for her, who for beautie deferu’d the highest stile
could be given by best knowing Judgements). Into the Meade she
came, where usuallyshee drave her flocks to feede, whoseleaping
and wantonneste shewed they were proud of such a Guide: But
she, whose sad thoughts led her to another manner of spending
her time, made her soone leave them, and follow her late begun
custome; which was (while they delighted themselves) to fit
under some shade, bewailing her misfortune; while they fed, to
feed upon her owne sorrow and teares, which at this time she
began againe to summon, sitting downe under the shade of a well-
spread Beech; the ground (then bleft) and the tree with full, and
fine leaved branches, growing proud to bare, and shadow such
42
perfections. But she regarding nothing, in comparison of her woe,

thus proceeded in her griede: ‘Alas Urania, said she, (the true
servant of misfortune); of any milerie that can befall woman, is
not this the most and greatest wich thou art falne into. Can there
be any neare the unhappinesse of being ignorant, and that in the
highest kind, not being certaine of mine owne estate or birth. Why
was I not stil continued in the beleefe I was, as I appeare, a
Shpeherdes, and Daughter to a Sheoherd. My ambition then went
no higher then this estate, now flies it to a knowledge; then was I
contentes, now perplexed. O ignorance, can thy dulnesse yet
procure so sharpe a paine, and that such a thought as makes me
now aspire unto knowledge. How did I ioy in this poore life being
quiet, bleft in the love of those I took for parents, but now by them
I know the contrary, and by that knowledge, not to know my selfe.
Miseable Urania, worse art thou now then these thy Lambs; for
they know their dams, while thou dost live unknowne of any. By
this were others come into that Meade with their flocks: but shee
esteeming her foirowing thoughts her best, and choicest
companie, left that place, taking a little path which brought her to
the further side of the plaine, to the foote of the rocks, speaking
as she went these lines, her eies fixt upon the ground, her very
foule turn’d into mourning.
43
Katherine Phillips (1640-1689)

Katherine Philips (Fowler) was born in London on 1
January 1631. Her father was a prosperous merchant while her
mother was the daughter of a president of the Plysician’s College.
A cousin of her used to read her the Bible in her childhood, so,
for her time, she had the training of a boy who could attend
school. She had a remarkable memory and could repeat whole
passages from Scripture. It is said she wrote verses in her early
age but there is no certain record of that. She was sent to a
fashionable Presbyterian school to learn dancing, painting, music
and French. She became an adherent to the royalty in the Civil
War. At seventeen she married James Philips. Her husband is not
mentioned in letters nor in poems, but she does write about her
husband’s affairs.
Katherine Philips is an important name to poetry since she

is one of the very first women to publish her own work. This is
important to mention due to the social stigma attached to women
publishing their work: publishing was an act of personal
exposure, and any woman daring to do was considered immodest
and indecent. The stigma was further compounded by the
commercial nature of printing: women who published their works
44
were regarded as exposing themselves to the anonymous public

and seeking financial gain. Her major work consisted on a volume
of 125 poems.
Her poetry is based on specific events of her relatives,

friends, or members of the royal family. She has a wide variety of
literary forms like: poems of parting, elegies, epitaphs, verse
letters to friends, pastoral dialogues, and even a Pindaric ode.
Among her elegies and epitaphs there are at least four were carved
on church monuments —the one on John Lloyd's monument in
Cilgerron Church is the only one that survived. Her poems,
written because of the deaths of friends and relatives, include
verses in their memory She even wrote two poems addressed to
widows and members of the royal family.
She was mistress of a household where she could maximize

her ability of conducting clubs, reading circles, and evening card
parties. Consequently, she formed a group of friends, both men
and women, in which poetry, religion, and “human heart” were
the subjects of discussion. She founded the Society of Friendship
in which its members were known by pastoral names —Calanthe,
Lucasia, Regina, Poliarchus. These names were commonly used
45
by female writers of the group to address each other in their

poetry without being recognized.
Due to her several acquaintances, one of the major topics in

her poetry is Female Friendship. Contrary to often use of pastoral
poetry to depict court life as a place of polite civility, Philip used
her works to create a female paradise separated from the ordinary
world. In addition to that, her poems gather the language and
literary genres used by seventeenth-century love poets to express
her relationships with female friends such as Lucasia (Anne
Owen, later Lady Dungannon), Rosania (Mary Aubrey), and
Philoclea (Malet Stedman). Through her Society of Friends, she
criticizes the established rules for poetry and finds a new way to
express her platonic feelings towards other women. For her, love
should focus on intellectual aspects between people, rather than
on a sexual one.
She had many addressees for her poems on friendship;

however, there is a wider collection regarding her dearest
Lucasia. “Friendship is mingling of souls, the intimacy of hearts
joined in secret and holding each other's secrets, sublimely
elevating the friends to such ecstasies that they pity the mundane
pleasures and powers of worldly rules” (Andreadis 529). In them
46
she appropriates the already written rituals male poetic

conventions that expressed their feelings in an intimate way, a
passionate way, and makes it her own by giving those same ideals
of union of souls and people to her platonic relationships
portrayed in her poems.
To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship
I did not live until this time

Crown’d my felicity,
When I could say without a crime
I am not thine, but Thee.
This Carcass breath’d, and walkt, and slept,

So that the World believ’d
There was a Soul the Motions kept;
But they were all deceiv’d.
For as a Watch by art is wound

To motion, such as mine:
But never had Orinda found
47
A Soul till she found thine;
Which now inspires, cures and supplies,

And guides my darkened Breast:
For thou art all that I can prize,
My Joy, my Life, my Rest.
No Bridegroom’s nor Crown-conqueror’s mirth

To mine compar’d can be:
They have but pieces of this Earth,
I’ve all the World in thee.
Then let our Flames still light and shine,

And no false control,
As innocent as our Design,
Immortal as our Soul.
Parting with Lucasia: A Song
Well, we will do that rigid thing

Which makes Spectators think we part;
Though absence hath for none a sting
48
But those who keep each other’s heart.
And when our Sense is dispossest,

Our labouring Souls will heave and pant,
And gasp for one another’s breast
Since their Conveyances they want.
Nay, we have felt the tedious smart

Of absent Friendship, and do know
Thar when we die we can but part;
And who knows what we shall do now?
Yet I must go: we will submit,

And so our own disposers be;
For while nobly suffer it,
We triumph o’er Necessity.
By this we shall be truly great,

If having other things o’ercome,
To make our victory compleat
We can be Conquerors at home.
49
Nay then to meet we may conclude,

And all Obstructions overthrow,
Since we our Passion have subdu’d,
Which is the strongest thing I know.
Orinda to Lucasia
Observe the weary birds e’re night be done,

How they would fain call up the tardy Suan,
With Feathers hung with dew,
And trembling voices too,
They court their glorious Planet to appear,
That they may find recruits of spirits there.
The drooping flowers hang their heads,
And languish down into their beds:
While Brooks more bold and fierce that they,
Wanting those beams, from whence
All things drink influence,
Openly murmur and demand the day.
Thou my Lucasia art far more to me,
Than he to all the under- world can be;
From thee I’ve heat and light,
50
Thy absence makes my night.

But ah! My Friend, it now grows very long,
The sadness weighty, and the darkness strong:
My tears (its dew) dwell on my cheeks,
And still my heart thy dawning seeks,
And to thee mournfully it cries,
That if too long I wait,
Ev’n thou may’st come too lat,
And not restore my life, but close my eyes.
Friendship’s Mysteries: To My Dearest Lucasia
Come, my Lucasia, since we see

That Miracles Men’s faith do move,
By wonder and by prodigy
To the dull angry world let’s prove
There’s a Religion in our Love.
For though we were design’d t’ agree,

That Fate no liberty destroyes,
But our Election is as free
As Angels, who with greedy choice
51
Are yet determin’d to their joyes.
Our hearts are doubled by the loss,

Here Mixture is Addition grown;
We both diffuse, and both ingross:
And we whose minds are so much one,
Never, yet ever are alone.
We court our own Captivity

Than Thrones more great and innocent:
’Twere banishment to be set free,
Since we wear fetters whose intent
Not Bondage is, but Ornament.
Divided joyes are tedious found,

And griefs united easier grow:
We are our selves but by rebound,
And all our Titles shuffled so,
Both Princes, and both Subjects too.
Our Hearts are mutual Victims laid,

While they (such power in Friendship lies)
52
Are Altars, Priests, and off’rings made:

And each Heart which thus kindly dies,
Grows deathless by the Sacrifice.
Injuria amici
Lovely apostate! what was my offence?

Or am I punished for obedience?
Must thy strange rigours find as strange a time?
The act and season are an equal crime.
Of what thy most ingenious scorns could do,
Must I be subject and spectator too?
Or were the sufferings and sins too few
To be sustained by me, performed by you?
Unless (with Nero) your uncurbed desire
Be to survey the Rome you set on fire.
While wounded for and by your power, I
At once your martyr and your prospect die.
This is my doom, and such a riddling fate
As all impossibles doth complicate:
For obligation here is injury,
Constancy crime, friendship a heresy;
53
And you appear so much on ruin bent,

Your own destruction gives you now content:
For our twins-spirits did so long agree,
You must undo your self to ruin me.
And like some frantic goddess, you’re inclined
To raze the temple where you were enshrined;
And (what’s the miracle of cruelty!)
Kill that which gave you immortality.
While glorious friendship, whence your honour springs,
Lies gasping in the crowd of common things;
And I’m so odious, that for being king
Doubled and studied murders are designed.
Thy sin’s all paradox! For shouldst thou be
Thy self again, ‘twould be severe to me;
For thy repentance, coming now so late,
Would only change, and not relive the fate.
So dangerous is the consequence of ill,
Thy least if crimes is too cruel still;
For thy smiles I should yet more complain,
If I should live to be betrayed again.
Live then (fairy tyrant) in security,
From both my kindness and revenge be free;
54
While I, who to the swains had sung your fame,

And taught each echo to repeat your name,
Will now my private sorrows entertain,
To rocks and rivers (not to you) complain.
And tough before our union cherished me,
‘Tis now my pleasure that we disagree;
For form my passion your last rigours grew,
And you kill me, because I worshipped you.
But my worst vows shall be your happiness,
And ne’er to be disturbed by my distress.
And though it would my sacred flames pollute,
To make my heart a scorned prostitute;
Yet I’ll adore the author of my death,
And kiss the hand that robs me of my breath.
55
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)

There exists a lot of rumours regarding Behn’s birthdate
and name. A lot of different theories have surged from speculators
tracking her heritage down. However, what is certain is her
relation to a certain Bartholomew and Elizabeth Johnson. The
evidence of this resides in her 1663 travel to the West Indies in
their company, and after Mr. Johnson died she and Elizabeth,
along with her supposed brother, moved to Surinam and lived
there for several months. Her experience there most likely
influenced her novel Oroonoko (1688). After her return to
England in 1664 she takes the name of who is supposed to be her
husband –Mr. Behn, a Dutch merchant. After his death she was
dispatched by Charles II as a spy to Antwerp (1666). Despite
being send into espionage by the king she was moneyless and had
to get loans to survive which, eventually, lead her to a debtor’s
prison. After that incident, she returned to London and took to
support herself as a playwright. In 1670 her first play was
produced. She was very versatile in her literary style and
produced over 18 plays, and a great number of poems. She
constantly portrayed her audacious personality whether it be in
her plays, her characters, her themes or her poetry.
56
Her works were patronized by different personalities of the

time: like James II, the actress Nell Gwynn and the poets Dryden
and Rochester. Some of them had the role of a protector or an
admirer. She would not discriminate when it came to amorous or
sexual relationships with some of them, as portrayed in their
shared letters. However, when it came to female friends, what was
represented through her poems was their mutual admiration or
their relationship. She used the elements of the Pastoral Tradition
to exalt the female persona as well as the theme of love, passion
and nature.
Despite being shameless in her works, in her poetry she

followed Katherine Philips in acknowledging the Greek’s poet
tradition and rename herself in her poetry as Astrea. She also
addressed her friends by her initials or family names, or she might
even employ poetic pseudonyms as a disguise, as well as taking
part in her poems as a character as well as the poetic voice, while
continuously exemplifying her spirit. All these elements
contribute to the idea of a platonic love towards her addressees,
as it can be seen in her praises and admirations, as well as the
creation of a fictional pastoral world where they can express and
live freely: in her poetry. “Behn, opens and expands the
57
possibilities of love and its connections with the natural world,

moving it beyond a relationship of opposition to one of
community” (Young 529). Therefore, her works presented in this
Anthology acknowledge her idea of the transformation of love,
friendship, identity and relationship from what it is established to
a platonic or ideal version of it.
To the Fair Clorinda, Who Made Love to Me.

Imagin’d More Than Woman
Fair lovely Maid, or if that Title be

Too weak, too Feminine for Nobler thee,
Permit a Name that more Approaches Truth:
And let me call thee, Lovely Charming Youth.
This last will justifie my soft complainte,
While that may serve to lessen my constraint;
And without Blushes I the Youth persue,
When so much beauteous Woman is in view
Against thy Charms we struggle but in vain
With thy deluding Form thou giv’st us pain,
While the bright Nymph betrays us to the Swain.
In pity to our Sex sure thou wert sent,
That we might Love, and yet be Innocent:
58
For sure no Crime with thee we can commit;

Or if we shou’d – thy Form excuses it.
For who, that gathers fairest Flowers believes
A Snake lies hid beneath the Fragrant Leaves.
Thou beauteous Wonder of a different kind,

Soft Cloris with the dear Alexis join’d;
When e’er the Manly part of thee, wou’d plead
Thou tempts us with the Image of the Maid,
While we the noblest Passions do extend
The Love to Hermes, Aphrodite the Friend.
Verses Design’d by Mrs. A. Behn to be Sent to a Fair

Lady, that Desir’d She Would Absent Herslef to Cure
her Love.
In vain to Woods and Deserts I retire,

To shun the lovely Charmer I admire,
Where the soft Breezes do but fann my Fire!
In vain in Grotto’s dark unseen I lie,
Love pierces where the Sun could never spy.
No place, no Art his Godhead can exclude,
59
The Dear Distemper reigns in Solitude:

Distance, alas, contributes to my Grief;
No more, of what Lovers call, Relief
Than to the wounded Hind does sudden Flight
From the chast Goddesses pursuing Sight:
When in the Heart the fatal Shaft remains,
And darts the Venom through our bleeding Veins.
If I resolve no longer submit
My self a wretched Conquest to you Wit,
More swift than fleeting Shades, ten thousand Charms
From your bright Eyes that Rebel Thought disarms:
The more I strugl’d, to my Grief I found
My self in Cupid’s Chains more surely bound:
Like Birds in Nets, the more I strive, I find
My self the faster in the Snare confn’d.
60
Anne Killigrew (1660-1685)

Anne Killigrew was born in 1660 within the framework of
the Restoration. When Charles I was beheaded in 1649, the
Royalist families, including the Killigrews, were deprived of
lands, wealth, political power, and religious freedom. It was not
better after Charles II returned to England; religion created
hostilities due to the wedding of the king with a Catholic, as well
as the conversion of Prince James after he married a Catholic
princess. Anne Killigrew was one of several children of Dr.
Henry Killigrew and her wife Judith. She was privately christened
due to it not being publicly allowed, however her father was given
a stall as prebendary in Westminster Abbey. The eldest of Anne's
uncles, Sir William Killigrew, served as a gentleman-usher to
Charles I, and commanded a troop of horse during the civil
war. The Killigrew family had strong ties to the theatre as well as
the court. Even though Anne grew up in a well-educated family,
there are no details of her education; however, her works display
knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology and biblical history.
Until her marriage in 1684, she was a Maid of Honour to

Mary of Modena. She lived there with the Queen and Anne Finch,
a close friend of her. She was able to perform in court masques,
61
where she would read, sing, and paint. Since most of them were
schooled both in French and Italians traditions, the Queen
encouraged the precieuses tradition by having a big production of
literary works. They would teach heroic tradition and encourage
the translations of classical texts into English. She became known
for her poetry due to its distributions within the upper-class
circles, her works were not published until after her death.
In her poems she exemplifies, through imagery, the

importance of poetry, the muse, and poetic fire or passion. As her
female contemporaries, her poetry has a strong focus on women,
the Greek tradition of ‘shifting voices,’ as well as classical
themes. However, Killigrew’s poems are essentially meant to
celebrate, love, and respect women by their virtue and wit, and
not only for their beauty or wealth. Therefore, she praises her
muse’s characteristics by emphasizing on her strength, power and
pride; it could be seen as her poems working to express her
platonic love and ideals towards women. Simultaneously, her
poetry is a response to the female community, and an uprising
against the heroic tradition by giving women authority and an
identity of being triumphant against limitations imposed by
gender. Her works and herself are an encouragement of what
62
female friendship and worth represent, as most of her work is

dedicated to make a direct moral critique or a social commentary
through pastoral dialogues and Greek themes.
On a Picture Painted by Herself, Representing Two

Nymphs of Diana’s, One in a Posture to Hunt, the
Other Bathing
We are Diana’s virgin-train,

Descended of no mortal strain;
Our bows and arrows are our good,
Our palaces, the lofty woods,
The hills and dales, at early morn,
Resound and echo with our horn;
We chase the hind and fallow-dear,
The wolf and boar both dread our spear;
In swiftness we outstrip the wind,
An eye and thought we leave behind;
We fawn and shaggy satyrs awe;
To sylvan powers we give the law:
Whatever does provoke the hate,
Our javelins strike, as sure as fate;
We bathe in springs, to cleanse the soil,
63
Contracted by our eager toil;

In which we shine like glittering beams,
Or crustal in the crystal steams;
Though Venus we transcended in form,
No wanton flames our bosoms warm!
If you ask where such wights do dwell,
In what blest clime, that so excel?
The poets only that can tell.
On the Soft and Gentle Motions of Eudora
Divine Thalia strike the harmonious lute,

But with a stroke so gentle as may suit
The silent gliding of the hours,
Or yet the calmer growth of the flowers;
The ascending of the falling dew,
Which none can see, though all find true.
For thus alone,
Can be shown,
How downy, now smooth,
Eudora doth move,
How silken her actions appear,
64
The air of her face,

Of a gentler grace
Than those that do stroke the ear.
Her address so sweet,
So modestly meet,
That ‘tis not the loud though tunable string,
Can show forth so soft, so noiseless a thing!
O this to express form thy hand must fall,
Then music’s self, something more musical.
65
Elizabeth Singer Rowe (1674-1737)

Elizabeth Singer Rowe was born in September 11th, 1674.
She was the eldest daughter of Mr. Walter Singer and Elizabeth
Portnell. Since her father did not agree with the reign of King
Charles II, he was imprisoned. However, her mother thought of
making kind of Christian offices, visiting those that suffered for
the sake of a good conscience. Since she lived in the countryside,
she had a modest and retiring image, so she established her
reputation as a pious exemplar. It is important to consider that her
provincial background shaped her career as writer; especially in
her pastorals there were a huge amount of references to nature,
personifications of it, and natural elements that help to create a
landscape for the scenes. She married in London a poet and
biographer named Thomas Rowe in 1710, who died soon. After
his death, she wrote the "On the death of Mr Thomas Rowe," and
retired to her father's house in Frome.
She was the principal contributor to The Athenian Mercury,

and some poems were reprinted on Several Occasions. She wrote
poetry during the 1690s, followed by letters, essays, fiction (often
epistolary), and a wide range of poetic modes, with a moral or
religious emphasis. Her collection in poetry includes pastorals,
66
hymns, and “defence of women’s right to poetry”. Singer Rowe

too was a pastoralist throughout the entirety of her career. Pastoral
nuances are reflected in her amatory verses, her religious verses,
and her translations.
She had the ability to redirect the pastoral traditions —such

as invocation to the country, rural sporting, a promise of love. She
used its elements to expose the figure of the sexualized female by
exploring their silenced desires. To express the qualities of
platonic love in her poems, she added elegiac and confessional
qualities. She also wanted her female persona to maintain an idea
of innocence and purity to contrast with the personal discovery
and lament. This fictional world she creates, through the pastoral
space, works in parallel with the idea of happiness and
carelessness her poems and characters portray. The importance of
a place where all that matters is each other’s company is related
to the female liberation, as well as her own. In it they can
represent their sexual desire, passions, emotions, and even,
heartbreaks or frustrations.
Love and Friendship: A Pastoral
AMARYLLIS:
67
While from the skies the ruddy sun descends,

And rising night the ev’ning shade extends:
While pearly dews o'erspread the fruitful field;
And closing flowers reviving odours yield;
Let us, beneath these spreading trees, recite
What from our hearts our Muses may indite?
Nor need we, in this close retirement, fear
Lest any swain our am’rous secrets hear.
SYLVIA:
To ev’ry shepherd I would mine proclaim;
Since fair Aminta is my softest theme:
A stranger to the loose delights of love,
My thoughts the nobler warmth of friendship prove;
And, while its pure and sacred fire I sing,
Chaste goddess of the groves, thy succour bring.
AMARYLLIS:
Propitious god of love, my breast inspire
With all thy charms, with all thy pleasing fire:
Propitious god of Love, thy succour bring;
Whilst I thy darling, thy Alexis sing,
68
Alexis, as the op’ning blossoms fair,

Lovely as light, and soft as yielding air.
For him each virgin sighs, and on the plains
The happy youth above each rival reigns;
With such an air, and such a graceful mien,
No shepherd dances on the flow’ry green:
Nor to the echoing groves, and whispering springs,
In sweeter strains the tuneful Conon sings;
When loud applauses fill the crowded groves,
And Phoebus the superior song approves.
SYLVIA:
Beauteous Aminta is as early light,
Breaking the melancholy shades of night.
When she is near all anxious trouble flies:
And our reviving hearts confess her eyes.
Young love, and blooming Joy, and gay desires,
In ev’ry breast the beauteous nymph inspires:
But on the plain when she no more appears,
The plain a dark and gloomy prospect wears.
In vain the streams roll on; the eastern breeze
Dances in vain among the trembling trees.
69
In vain the birds begin their ev’ning song,

And to the silent night their notes prolong:
Nor groves, nor chrystal streams, nor verdant field,
Can wonted pleasure in her absence yield.
AMARYLLIS:
Alexis absent, all the pensive day,
In some obscure retreat I lonely stray:
All day to the repeating caves complain,
In mournful accents and a dying strain.
Dear, lovely youth! I cry to all around;
Dear, lovely youth! the flatt’ring vales resound.
SYLVIA:
On flow’ry banks, by ev’ry murm’ring stream,
Aminta is my muse's softest theme:
'Tis she that does my artful notes refine,
And with her name my noblest verse shall shine.
AMARYLLIS:
I'll twine fresh garlands for Alexis' brows,
And consecrate to him my softest vows:
70
The charming youth shall my Apollo prove;

Adorn my songs, and tune my voice to love.
71
Anonymous (1699)
At the end of the seventeenth century, the city of London
was having trouble with people’s sexual libertarianism and
“sodomy.” This is particularly clear in two poems. One of them,
“The Women’s Complaint to Venus”, was published in 1698. It
was a satirical writing and its main purpose was entertaining the
readers. It was not the most prolific poetry, and for this same
reason it was not very known after that period. It adopts the voice
of the sex workers of London, who complain because men are too
busy having sex with each other to be interested in them.
“Venus’s Reply”, a doggerel anonymous poem, was written

a year later in 1699. Together with “The Women's Complaint,” it
survives in a manuscript compiled in 1701 entitled A Collection
of the Most Choice and Private Poems, Lampoons &c., from the
Withdrawal of the Late King James 1688 to the Year 1701,
Collected by a Person of Quality, in the Berton Collection at
Leeds. The poem, as well as it’s antecessor, is not artistically
outstanding, and so was easily forgotten too. “Venus’s Reply”
responds to the previous poem by suggesting that the reason that
Venus isn’t inspiring men to desire women is because all women
are too busy “playing the game of Flatts,” which was a common
72
slang word for lesbian sex in the eighteenth century. The poem
also uses the word “odd” in connection with lesbianism. Both
aspects were new to the same-sex literature of the time.
Even though we are including this poem here for its

depiction of female same-sex relations, these poems were meant
to be satirical. It was meant to create awareness of people’s
“sodomic” activities and to mark them to be prosecuted – as the
chasing-down of Captain Rigby, a man referenced in “The
Women’s Complain to Venus”, attests. The time may not have
had a word for the concept or phenomenon that was the aversion
towards “sodomites”, but we now have. Part of the reason why it
is important to know of the existence of this kind of writing is
because it shows an antecedent of our modern concept of
“homophobia”, and it is part of the experience some same-sex
relations have had throughout history.
“Homophobic” literature may not be written by a person of

a certain sex to another person of their same sex, but it is still part
of the same-sex literature. It helps us get a glimpse of how the
same-sex relations were perceived, not by the people in the
relation, but by the society that surrounded it.
73
Venus’s Reply
Why Nymphs these pitiful stories,

But you are too to blame,
And have got a new game
Call’d Flatts with a swinging Clitoris.
Besides I have heard of wax tapers

With which you get up
And each other Tup
To cure the Green Sickness and Vapours.
I am told by a delicate Seignior

Some Matrons do ease
Their Lust, and so please
They’ve not been laid with these ten years.
Your Frogmore frolicks discover

Some Reasons of Art
So play the man’s part
You are for no Masculine Lover.
74
At all which I am so offended

My Son at Men’s hearts
Will throw no more darts
Till your Lust and your lives are amended.
Forsake but these odd ways of sinning,

And I’ll undertake
The arrantest Rake
Shall swinge you as at the beginning.
75
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ENGLIʃH LITERATURE III

FEMALE ʃAME- ʃEX

With Texts by Katherine Phillips, Aphra Behn, and Anne

Calderón Flores María Fernanda

English Literature III:

Castro Santana Anaclara

To All Vertuous Ladies in Generall 22

The Authors Dreame to the Ladie Marie,

Lady Mary Wroth 40

Parting with Lucasia: A Song 48

Friendship’s Mysteries: To My Dearest

To the Fair Clorinda, Who Made Love to Me,

Verses Design’d by Mrs. A Behn to be Sent

Elizabeth Singer Rowe 66

education if their husbands or fathers allowed it. This event

eroticism, procreation, and gender onto the past, distorting our

imply a transhistorical or transcultural lesbian, gay, or

sexual performance —something that leaves aside other aspects

public interest in the last few years. If we do not acknowledge

Aemilia Lanyer (1569-1645)

Layner’s poems are largely religious, given that that was

She had a marked preference towards dedicating her work

Is in this intersection of praising her patronage and wanting

gender couplings and depicts the destruction of women’s

To the Queenes most Excellent Majestie

Renowed Empresse, and great Britaines Queene,

For you have rifled Nature of her store,

From Juno you have State and Dignities,

The Muses doe attend upon your Throne,

From your bright shpeare of greatnes were you fit,

Apollo’s beames doe comfort every creature,

Look in this Mirrour of a worthy Mind,

Here may your sacred Majestie behold

For he is Crowne and Crowner of all Kings,

The hopefull haven of the meaner sort,

And since my wealth within his Region stands,

In the meane time, accept most gratious Queene

And sith all royall virtues are in you,

I hope how plaine soever, being true,

Behold, great Queene, faire Eues Apologie,

And this great Lady I have here attired,

For here I have prepar’d my Paschal Lambe,

That we with him t’Eternitie might rise:

And she that is the patterne of all Beautie,

Then shall I thinke my Glasse a glorious Skie,

Whose untun’d voice the dolefull note doth sing

Or he that barred from the Suns bright light,

So I that live clos’d up in Sorrowes Cell,

And this great Ladie whom I love and honour,

Which makes me thinke our beauty burden light,

Especially for her that entertaines

Whose power may raise my sad dejected Muse,

For ever as they that doe behold the Starres,

My weake distempred braine and feeble spirits,

Yet let her blessed thoughts this book imbrace

And pardon me (faire Queene) though I presume,

And since all Arts at first from Nature came,

So peerelesse Prencesse humbly I desire,

To all veruous Ladies in generall

Each blessed Lady that in Virtue spends

Put on your wedding garments every one,

Let all your roabes be purple scarlet white;

To be preferr’d in Beauty, farre before