Open Objects of Affection Final 3

The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School OBJECTS OF AFFECTION: INTIMATE EXCHANGES IN MARLOWE, SHAKESPEARE, SPENSER, AND WROTH A Dissertation in English by Mckenzie M. Eggers © 2020 Mckenzie M. Eggers Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2020 The dissertation of Mckenzie M. Eggers was reviewed and approved by the following: Garrett Sullivan Liberal Arts Professor of English Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Patrick Cheney Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English and Comparative Literature Marcy L. North Associate Professor of English Tracy Rutler Assistant Professor of French and Women’s Studies Mark S. Morrison Professor of English Head of the Department of English ii Abstract “Objects of Affection” explores how the people of early modern England imagined, believed, hoped, and feared the material objects they exchanged with those closest to them would strengthen, sever, or otherwise shape their intimate ties to one another. More specifically, this project considers what fictional representations of object-centered intimacy in Renaissance literature reveal about early modern authors’ and audiences’ attitudes toward and understandings of the objects that performed critical functions in their intimate lives. This dissertation investigates its central topic through the lens of literature because the fiction of a period uniquely illuminates how its authors and audiences perceive the world around them and what their greatest desires and anxieties about that world are. To highlight the significance of objects in early modern fictions of love, friendship, familial relations, and sexual desire, “Objects of Affection” brings together two fields that have rarely been in conversation in early modern literary scholarship: intimacy theory and materialism. By employing literary and historical analysis and intimacy and materialist theory, this dissertation demonstrates that Renaissance intimacy is linked not only to interior thoughts and desires (as it typically has been) but to the material objects that exist in the external world. In reevaluating our understandings of early modern intimacy, my analysis adds to the relatively sparse work on intimacy in the field of Renaissance literary criticism as well. Whereas scholarship on the family, courtship, marriage, sexuality, and friendship abounds, less has been done to theorize early modern intimacy itself. Ultimately, “Objects of Affection” offers a more comprehensive picture of Renaissance England’s intimate landscape than currently exists and suggests another lens—that of materiality—through which to (re)consider interpersonal closeness in early modern England. iii Table of Contents Figures ........................................................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... v Introduction Intimacy and Objects in Early Modern Literature and Culture .......................................... 1 Chapter 1 (Re)making Love in Early Modern England: “Come live with me and be my love,” Poetic Circulation, and Queer Utopias ................. 32 Chapter 2 Trying Love: The Marital Enforcement Suit in The Merchant of Venice ...................................................................................................... 99 Chapter 3 In Britomart’s Arms: Armor, Identity, and Intimacy in Books III-IV of The Faerie Queene ................................................................................. 149 Chapter 4 ‘Keep in thy skin this testament of me’: Tree Carving, Intimacy, and Publication in Lady Mary Wroth’s The First Part of the Countess of Montgomery’s Urania ............. 209 Coda The Letter of Love / Lettering Love: Dorothy Osborne’s Objects of Affection ............... 264 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................ 284 Figures Figure 1. Images of the recto and verso sides of page 121-22 from the 1621 Urania. .............. 245 iv Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to the following people for their support and guidance, without which I could not have completed this project: My advisor, Dr. Garrett Sullivan Jr., who helped me become a stronger writer and thinker, responded to unmet deadlines with inhuman levels of patience, constantly pressed me to read the texts herein more cynically (I mean, critically), and ensured that my analyses and ideas were richer and more complex with every draft. He believed in the merit of my project and ideas even when I did not and never failed to provide the encouragement I needed to keep moving forward. Dr. Patrick Cheney, whose passion as a teacher and scholar always reminded me why I came to love and study Renaissance literature in the first place, who taught me to write and communicate with greater clarity and precision, and who introduced me to the field of intimacy studies and ignited an intellectual obsession that developed into a dissertation. Dr. Marcy North, who exposed me to early modern women writers I would not have otherwise encountered, shared her knowledge of paleography and manuscript studies, and helped me see Renaissance literature from new and unexpected perspectives. Dr. Tracy Rutler, who made herself available to answer my questions about the precarious intersection between queer theory and early modern literary studies, helpfully highlighted big- picture issues with my project that I was too close to see, and offered a warm smile and heartening words at each of our unplanned coffee-shop encounters. The Penn State Humanities Institute, who granted me a semester-long fellowship in Spring 2019 and gave me the opportunity to dedicate more time to my project as it neared completion. My mother, who assured me, time and time again, that she would still love me if I did not complete my doctoral degree; helped me celebrate successes and accept failures; revived me with home-cooked meals, shopping trips, and movie nights during visits home; and always answered the phone when I was in need of advice or comfort. Her constant care and limitless love have been an incredible gift and source of strength throughout graduate school (and, really, my entire life), and she has shown me that being kind to oneself and others is integral, not secondary, to success and growth. My father, who instilled a love of reading and writing in me from a young age, filled my childhood with whimsical stories, taught me how to use my imagination, never underestimated me, and has always valued and supported my intellectual pursuits. My partner, who has been by my side for the last six years, sharing their insights, assuring me that I am capable, and urging me to live life while finishing my degree. Thank you for reminding me that there are road trips to take, dogs to adopt, cities to explore, restaurants to try, trails to hike, board games to play, museums to visit, and meaningful conversations to be had outside of academia. Thank you for reading and thoughtfully responding to every document I’ve ever asked v you to look at, for listening to all of my tiny (and not-so-tiny) complaints and frustrations, and for being a steady constant in my beautifully messy life. My best friend, without whom I would not have survived this process. Thank you for being an unimaginably perfect roommate; for constantly distracting me from my work and invading my personal space; for making sure we cooked balanced meals every once in a while; for a million thoughtful conversations about life, literature, and politics and a million less-thoughtful conversations about everything else; and for participating in all-night writing marathons with me, being my go-to tennis partner, and accompanying me on impromptu frozen yogurt runs every time I asked. You forced me to stop and appreciate even the tiniest moments of beauty, made me laugh when no one and nothing else could, and always shared your fries. You are a miracle. vi Introduction: Intimacy and Objects in Early Modern Literature and Culture When my grave is broke up again Some second guest to entertain (For graves have learned that woman-head, To be to more than one a bed), And he that digs it spies A bracelet of bright hair around the bone Will he not let’us alone, And think that there a loving couple lies, Who thought that this device might be some way To make their souls, at the last busy day, Meet at this grave, and make a little stay? (1-11)1 I begin with the first stanza of John Donne’s “The Relic,” because it inspires many of the same questions that are at the heart of this project. What role did objects like Donne’s “bracelet of bright hair” play in the affective relations of Renaissance England? How do early modern representations of intimacy suggest that readers and writers wanted to employ these “devices” to shape their intimate ties to one another? How and why do objects fail to function the way people want them to in Renaissance fictions of intimacy? How do the same objects function in ways their users do not anticipate? What, ultimately, do the answers to these questions reveal about how intimacy was experienced and understood in early modern England? As Donne’s speaker imagines what will become of the intimacy he and his lover share after their deaths, he focuses on an a bracelet made of her hair and explains its significance in the context of their relationship. This

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