Woods Lanyer: Woman Poet C

Daughter of a Venetian-born court musician and an English mother with ties to radical Protestantism, Aemilia Bassano Lanyer grew up around Elizabeth's court and became mistress to the Queen's cousin, Henry Cary, Lord Hunsdon. In 1592, pregnant by Lord Hunsdon, she was married to Alfonso Lanyer, himself a court musician and uncle of the famous Jacobean composer Nicholas Lanier. Ambitious to return to court, Aemilia Lanyer turned to poetry to draw the attention of the great. Her chief patron was Margaret Russell Clifford, the Countess of Cumberland, who also served as patron to Edmund Spenser and Samuel Daniel. This critical biography traces the contiguities between the poet and several of her male contemporaries and considers how her work relates to theirs. The book's premise is that Lanyer is an effective poet whose voice balances and comments on the common topics and approaches of her time.