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Blair Worden ventures into political territory by focusing on allegori- cal messaging; Worden’s piece is also the only essay featuring anti-Elizabe- than rhetoric. Based largely on his 1996 monograph The Sound of Virtue: Philip Sidney’s Arcadia and Elizabethan Politics, Worden examines the jux- taposition of political writing and romances, demonstrating how the “wit and imagination” of poets could be deployed as critiques of Elizabethan government (86). The research in this volume serves at once as a collection of highly specialized examinations and as a sweeping history with multiple applica- tions, making it a necessary read for any student of Elizabeth, or, indeed, any student of historical writing. Sarah Kelly University of Cambridge

Mary Sidney, Lady Wroth. Margaret P. Hannay. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010. xxvii, 363 pp. $99.95. ISBN 978–07–54–66053–8. This volume achieves precisely what one has come to expect from the scholarly endeavors undertaken by Margaret Hannay: meticulous, ency- clopedic research intertwined with sparkling readings of relevant literary texts further interspersed with references to seemingly every academic study of Wroth and the Sidney family. For those in the beginning stages of a project concerning, especially, Wroth but also most members of the Sidney family, this book offers an invaluable resource since it catalogues research and sources so effectively. Those farther along in their stud- ies probably have anticipated the emergence of this volume because of Hannay’s comprehensive knowledge of the field. Hannay has already contributed extensively to contemporary under- standing of Wroth, her family, and their writing, with such volumes as Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke (Oxford University Press, 1990); Domestic Politics and Family Absences: The Correspondence (1588–1621) of Robert Sidney, First Earl of Leicester, and Barbara Gamage Sidney, Countess of Leicester, co-edited with Noel J. Kinnamon and Michael G. Brennan (Ashgate, 2005); Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke: Ashgate

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Critical Essays on Women Writers in England, 1550–1700, Vol. 2 (Ashgate, 2009); The Collected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, Vol. 1: Poems, Translations, and Correspondence (Clarendon Press, 1998), and Vol. 2: The Psalme of David (1998). Throughout this biography, Hannay demonstrates her wide-ranging awareness of scholarship and pri- mary sources with references to holograph manuscripts, consistory court records, source documents held in private family collections and parish booklets and gives the sense that she has explored every possible avenue for information. Interlaced as well are the records of Hannay’s own cor- respondence with scholars in the field, which supplement her engagement with more formal scholarly discourse. The bibliography alone is a garland of jewels for those who study Wroth. Hannay provides additional invaluable scholarly aid as well: a detailed chronology which begins in 1577 with the marriage of Mary Sidney to Henry Herbert, second Earl of Pembroke, and ends in 1651 with the death of Mary Sidney Wroth; an overview of Wroth’s “family alliances,” the individuals to whom Wroth was related by blood and by marriage; detailed family trees of both the Sidney and Wroth families; and twenty-eight plates of illustrations of family houses, family members, and family tombs as well as the autograph Folger manuscript of “Pamphilia to Amphilanthus” and manuscripts of the first and second parts of the Urania held in the Newberry Library. These materials help readers navigate the complex interrelationships of Wroth’s society and also assist in providing a comprehensive picture of Wroth. The readings of Wroth’s literary works that Hannay weaves through- out this volume are another strength. One illustrative example is her discussion of Wroth’s autograph manuscript poems in the Folger collec- tion, “Pamphilia to Amphilanthus.” Hannay begins with a discussion of audience, production, and technical details about the book and ink before moving to an analysis of the design and structure of the sonnet sequence. Her reading takes thorough account of recent scholarly conversations. After considering the implications of the poems as part of a sequence dis- embodied from direct links to characters, Hannay explores the shifts that occur as the poems are “recycled” into the narrative framework offered by the Urania (183–88). In the course of the discussion, too, Hannay com-

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pares Wroth’s treatment of constancy and inconstancy with those found in sequences composed by her uncle, Philip Sidney, and her father, Robert Sidney. As is true throughout the biography, the analysis is densely packed with references to source materials and to recent research, especially in the field of early modern women’s studies and literary studies but also to conversations in history and art history. Hannay’s reading of Wroth’s life is equally astute. After an assess- ment of the suggested avatars for Wroth’s husband, Sir Robert Wroth, and a discussion of critical efforts to untangle biographical elements from the labyrinthine narrative of the Urania, Hannay cautions: “Because of Wroth’s repeated portrayals of forced marriages, modern readers tend to accept her situation as desperately unhappy. But we cannot know the full complexities of her marriage, which seems to have provided her some secu- rity, and judging by her husband’s provisions for her in his will, even some affection. And we also need to ask, she was unhappy compared to what?” (163). Hannay’s knowledge of Wroth’s sisters’ and cousins’ lives, and those of her contemporaries enables her to offer useful correctives to scholarly tendencies to evaluate early modern lives based on postmodern criteria. This biography is a rich and important contribution to early modern studies and to the growing body of materials available for the study of Wroth’s life and works, among them Mary Ellen Lamb’s abridged edition of Wroth’s Urania (ACMRS, 2011) and Paul Salzman’s on-line, open access edition of Wroth’s poetry (http:// wroth.latrobe.edu.au/), soon to be joined by a Kindle edition of a Reader’s Companion to Wroth’s Urania, Volume One, compiled by Amy Greenstadt and Mary Ellen Haugh Rubick. Hannay’s biography, with its careful, thorough, extensive evaluation of Wroth’s life, offers a foundation for scholarly discourse for years to come. Karen Nelson University of Maryland

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