Lady Mary Wroth, born (probably) on October 18, 1587 was the “first Englishwomen to complete a sonnet sequence as well as an original work of prose fiction”. Unlike many female poets of her time Wroth pushed the envelope of secular love poetry and romance. In 1621 she published The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania which would go on to become one of her most famous literary works.
Wroth grew up in a prominent English family. Her father, ( Sir Robert Sidney) and her uncle (Sir Philip Sidney) were both well know poets of their time. Mary’s aunt (who was also her godmother) had a major affect on her life as well. Her aunt lived in a country estate where she would invite many patronages of the arts to come and visit which inspired Mary to become a poet herself.
Wroth had a very informal education but it was said that ” “she [was] very forward in her learning, writing, and other exercises she is put to” “. We also assume that in the time of her education she learned French.
Mary eventually married Sir Robert Wroth on September 27, 1604 and the two never really got along. He was not at all interested in the arts and so the two never had any common ground. However he was knighted by James I in 1603 and became in the kings favor, and even though her marriage was unhappy it served as the backdrop to many of her works, and because her husband was in good standing with the king she got to experience life at court often, which also influenced her writing. After ten years of marriage the two finally had a son in February of 1614 named James and soon after his birth Robert Wroth died leaving with her with a large amount of money and an even larger amount of debt, and to make matters worse in the summer of 1616 James, her son died. Her problems only seemed to worsen for she had started an affair with her first cousin the Earl of Pembroke who also happened to be a poet.
Wroth continued to write into her later years which we don’t know much about. We do know that she died between 1651 to 1653 and continued to pay off debt until she died.
Bibliography
“Lady Mary Wroth.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-wroth.
“Lady Mary Wroth.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Oct. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Mary_Wroth.
Das, Nandini. “Lady Mary Wroth: Biography.” English Faculty, www.english.cam.ac.uk/wroth/biography.htm.