Shakespeare's Sisters by Ramie Targoff

Author:Ramie Targoff [Targoff, Ramie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2024-03-12T04:00:00+00:00

“Buskin” refers specifically to the boot worn by actors in ancient Greece, and more broadly to the spirit of tragic drama; Melpomene is the muse of tragedy. The play Elizabeth set in Syracuse has sadly been lost, but the “scene” of Palestine clearly refers to The Tragedy of Mariam, which Davies must have read in manuscript. After praising her in a typically backhanded compliment regarding female talent—“Such nervy limbs of art and strains of wit / Times past never knew the weaker sex to have”—he ends his dedication by warning against the oblivion that might follow were she not to publish her work: “And times to come, will hardly credit it / if thus thou give thy works both birth and grave.”

The irony was that, despite its publication, The Tragedy of Mariam did meet “both birth and grave” for several hundred years. As a closet drama meant to be read privately, it was never performed in the London theaters, and it wasn’t reissued after its 1613 printing. Whether Elizabeth even authorized its publication in the first place remains unclear. The Lady Falkland refers to a work “stolen out of that sister in-law’s (her friend’s) chamber, and printed,” adding that it subsequently “by her own procurement was called in.” It’s possible that this “stolen” work was only the dedicatory sonnet Elizabeth wrote to her sister-in-law, who was also named Elizabeth Cary; the sonnet in question appears in only two of the twenty or so surviving copies of the play. But given that The Tragedy of Mariam delved deeply into female disobedience, divorce, and spousal murder—topics that would hardly have been popular among her husband’s circle at court—it seems more likely the work in question was the play itself.

Unlike Salve Deus, which openly credited “Mistris Aemilia Lanyer, Wife to Captaine Alfonso Lanyer” as its author, the title page for The Tragedy of Mariam stated that the play was written by “that learned, virtuous, and truly noble lady, E.C.” For those who knew Elizabeth personally, the initials would have identified her, but it suggests she wanted to remain unknown to the public at large. It’s also striking that the sister-in-law to whom Elizabeth wrote the only dedicatory poem in the book was also named Elizabeth Cary—and in this case, her full name was included. By removing the sonnet from the printed copies, Elizabeth thus eliminated another obvious indication of her own identity. Maybe Henry forced her to do this: it’s unlikely he would have supported either her publishing the work or her using his sister’s name for all to see. Given that The Tragedy of Mariam is never mentioned in The Lady Falkland, it may have disappeared from the family records altogether. But even if the play was buried, its expression of wifely outrage continued to simmer in Elizabeth until it would ultimately reach a boiling point.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.