The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania

I turn now to Mary Wroth's most substantial and most spectacularly Baroque work, The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania. My recurring (some might say hyperbolic and to an extent melancholic) obsession with the ‘female Baroque’ is strikingly appropriate for elucidating the Urania and deepening the links between Wroth's writing and broader cultural developments. I do not pretend to provide a definitive reading of the Urania, or indeed of Pamphilia to Amphilanthus; I am concerned primarily with the islands of utterance Wroth's writings share with the Baroque, and therefore with the wider ideological movements of the age.

Clearly some Baroque characteristics fit different women's writings more easily than others. In this case, it would be straining my argument to speculate on connections between the Urania and Catholic piety, although in the Urania we can see hints of the obsession with scenes of martyrdom and torture shared by Catholics and Protestants alike, especially where women are exhibited as victims, as an indicator of Baroque hyperbole. These affinities are most notably seen early in the work in the story of Limena, who suffers a brutal physical attacks and torture by her husband for presumed infidelity.