Literary Circles And Gender in Early Modern Europe: A Cross-cultural Approach (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World) (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)

230 Pages·2006·1.22 MB·English

by  Julie Campbell

LITERARY CIRCLES AND GENDER IN
EARLY MODERN EUROPE
Women and Gender in the
Early Modern World
Series Editors: Allyson Poska and Abby Zanger
In the past decade, the study of women and gender has offered some of the most vital
and innovative challenges to scholarship on the early modern period. Ashgate’s new
series of interdisciplinary and comparative studies, ‘Women and Gender in the Early
Modern World’, takes up this challenge, reaching beyond geographical limitations to
explore the experiences of early modern women and the nature of gender in Europe,
the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Submissions of single-author studies and edited
collections will be considered.
Titles in this series include:
Salons, History, and the Creation of Seventeenth-Century France
Mastering Memory
Faith E. Beasley
Boccaccio’s Heroines
Power and Virtue in Renaissance Society
Margaret Franklin
Women’s Letters Across Europe, 1400–1700
Form and Persuasion
Edited by Jane Couchman and Ann Crabb
Publishing Women’s Life Stories in France, 1647–1720
From Voice to Print
Elizabeth C. Goldsmith
The Medici Women
Gender and Power in Renaissance Florence
Natalie R. Tomas
Literary Circles and Gender in
Early Modern Europe
A Cross-Cultural Approach
JULIE CAMPBELL
Eastern Illinois University, USA
© Julie Campbell 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Julie Campbell has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identifi ed as the author of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Campbell, Julie D., 1965-
Literary circles and gender in early modern Europe : a cross-cultural approach. – (Women
and gender in the early modern world)
1.European literature – Renaissance, 1450-1600 – History and criticism 2.European lit-
erature – 17th century – History and criticism 3.European literature – Women authors
– History and criticism 4.Women – Europe – Intellectual life – 16th century 5.Women
– Europe – Intellectual life – 17th century
I.Title
809.8’9287’0903
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Campbell, Julie D., 1965-
Literary circles and gender in early modern Europe : a cross-cultural approach / by Julie
Campbell.
p. cm.—(Women and gender in the early modern world)
Includes bibiographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7546-5467-2 (alk. paper)
1. European literature—16th century—History and criticism. 2. European literature—17th
century—History and criticism. 3. European literature—Women authors—History and criti-
cism. I. Title. II. Series.
PN731.C36 2006
809’.9335220903—dc22 2005026812

ISBN-10: 0 7546 5467 2
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Note on the Texts viii
Introduction 1
1 Tullia d’Aragona, Sperone Speroni, and the Inscription
of Salon Personae 21
2 The Querelle over Silvia: La Mirtilla and Aminta in Dialogue 51
3 Pastoral Defenses and the Nymphs of the Salon Vert 73
4 Louise Labé, l’Imparfaicte Amye 97
5 The Amyes of the English Court 123
6 Querelle Resonance and Literary Circle Ritual in
English Romances 165
Conclusion 197
Bibliography 203
Index 217
Acknowledgements
It is a pleasure to thank those who have provided support and guidance for this
project. A National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend facilitated
work at the Biblioteca Marciana and the Bibliothèque nationale. A National
Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute called “A Literature of Their
Own? Women Writing: Venice, London, Paris 1550–1700” influenced my concept
of this project. The Eastern Illinois University Council on Faculty Research
provided two grants and one Summer Research Award to support research at the
libraries noted above, as well as the Humanities Research Center at the University
of Texas, the Houghton, Schlesinger, and Widener Libraries at Harvard, and the
Harvard Theater Collection. In the earliest stages of the project, a Research Travel
Grant from Texas A&M University enabled me to work at the Folger Shakespeare
Library. Additionally, the excellent interlibrary loan service of Booth Library
greatly aided my progress. Without the financial support of these organizations, the
invaluable assistance and expertise of the staffs of these institutions, and the
stimulating exchanges provided by the “A Literature of Their Own?” cohort of
2001, this book would not have been possible.
I am very grateful to friends and colleagues who answered many questions and
generously shared their knowledge with me during the preparation of this book.
Above all, I thank Anne Larsen for her commentary on the book as a whole, as
well as her clear, insightful advice and attention to detail during the final revisions.
Maria Galli Stampino, Christopher Nissen, Sharon Michalove, Rosemary Buck,
and Ruth Hoberman gave much appreciated feedback on drafts of chapters. Thanks
also go to those who responded to the many queries that I posed as I drew upon
their formidable collective expertise, including Bonnie Irwin, Christine Merllie-
Young, Kathryn Bulver, and Baird Whitlock. The Eastern Illinois University
English Department’s Junior Faculty Writing Group read and responded to parts of
this project over a two-year period; thus, I am indebted to Angela Vietto,
Christopher Hanlon, Francine McGregor, Dagni Bredesen, Daiva Markelis, Marty
Scott, Robin Murray, and Jad Smith. I am also grateful to Linda Coleman who
brought the initial “A Literature of Their Own?” conference to my attention.
Special thanks are due to Donald Beecher for his permission to revise an earlier
version of Chapter Six which appeared in his edited volume, Comparative Critical
Approaches to English Prose Fiction, 1520–1640 (1998). For their early
encouragement of my interest in the areas researched for this study, I am always
Acknowledgements vii
grateful to James Harner, Margaret Ezell, and Craig Kallendorf. Moreover, it is
critical to note that Erika Gaffney’s guidance has been key to the preparation of
this book. From her initial response to the book proposal to the completion of the
publication process, she has been a constant source of encouragement and good
will, for which I cannot thank her enough.
The vicissitudes of my progress on this project were the subject of numerous
conversations held over the course of several years with Mity Myhr, Paula
Sodders, Melissa Benson, and Kelly Lowe. For their sage advice, unfailing
patience, and wholehearted encouragement, I am deeply grateful. Similarly, I thank
Jan Marquardt, Diana Slaviero, and Jenny Chi for their generous willingness to
listen to my ideas, frustrations, and revelations. Circles of friends who meet to
discuss our professional endeavors, as well as everything else, have been
fundamental sources of inspiration during the genesis of this project.
Thomas Over has provided a great deal of in-house technical support for this
project. He has also frequently (and sometimes futilely) offered the practical,
efficiency-conscious advice for which engineers and hydrologists are known. For
those reasons and innumerable others, I dedicate this book to him.
Note on the Texts
Since this is a work that relies in large part upon examination of primary and
secondary sources in Italian and French, I have endeavored to provide clear,
modern English translations of quotes from the texts that I employ. In general, the
translations are mine unless otherwise noted. Regarding major primary texts, when
recent translations are available, I make use of them. For example, in Chapter One,
I use the translation of Tullia d’Aragona’s Dialogue on the Infinity of Love (1997)
by Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry, but the translations from Sperone Speroni’s
Dialogo di amore are mine. Similarly, in Chapter Two, I use the translation of
Torquato Tasso’s Aminta (2000) by Charles Jernigan and Irene Marchegiani Jones
as well as my translation of Isabella Andreini’s La Mirtilla (2002). In Chapter
Four, the translations from Pontus de Tyard’s Solitaire premier are mine, but I use
Edith R. Farrell’s translation of Labé’s Complete Works (1986).
Regarding spelling and use of accent marks in foreign language texts and
document titles, I retain the original styles in most cases. Similarly, I retain archaic
English spellings of texts printed in that manner.
When quoting passages from plays, I use parenthetical documentation when
act, scene, and line numbers are available. When they are not, I use footnotes and
indicate page numbers.
Introduction
Literary Circles and the Inscription of the
Querelle des femmes
It is no insult . . . to say that the souls of women are not as purged of the passions as
those of men or as versed in contemplation as Pietro has said those which are to
taste divine love must be. Thus do we not read that any woman has ever received
this grace, but we do read of many men who have . . . .
Signor Gaspare
But women would not be surpassed by men in the slightest as far as this is
concerned: for Socrates himself confessed that all the mysteries of love that he knew
had been revealed to him by Diotima, and the angel who pierced St. Francis with the
fire of love has also made several women of our own time worthy of the same seal.
Magnifico Giuliano
Baldesar Castiglione, The Courtier1
The roots of the literary quarrel known as the Querelle des femmes have been
traced to Christine de Pizan’s objection to the portrayal of women in the Roman de
la rose (Guillaume de Lorris, ca. 1236; Jean de Meung’s continuation, ca. 1276),
which she voiced in her Epître au dieu d’amours (1399).2 It is a debate that helped
to nurture literary production throughout the early modern period. During the
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the querelle continued unabated, with
fresh skirmishes breaking out in Continental and English literary society. While
numerous treatises, pamphlets, sermons, and poems directly address issues from
the querelle, references to such issues also permeate literature that is not primarily
polemical. In short, the querelle provided topoi for most genres of early modern
writing. Moreover, during the period addressed in this study, approximately 1530–
1650, it was inextricably related to perceptions of women defying traditional mores
that included provocative behaviors by the cortigiane oneste, or honest courtesans,
of Italy, the early Italian actresses, and the ladies of the French and English courts
and literary circles. Such women were admired for their humanist educations and
1 Baldesar Castiglione, The Courtier (1528), trans. George Bull (London: Penguin,
1976), 343–4.
2 With this work and others, including Le Livre de la cité des dames (1405), Pizan
participated in the early skirmish of the Querelle des femmes referred to as the Querelle de
la rose. See Charity Willard, Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works (New York: Persea,
1984), 73–89.