Aemilia Lanyer's Pathetic Phallacy

Abstract

In her groundbreaking 1992 article, (In)significance of 'Lesbian' Desire on Renaissance Stage, Valerie Traub described two contrasting models of female same-sex desire appear in textual legacy of early modern England. On one hand, in medical and travel literature one encounters figure of tribade, a woman who sexually penetrates other women using her enlarged clitoris or a dildo.1 Typically an object of moral condemnation and fear, tribade was considered transgressive because she usurped sexual prerogatives reserved for men. On other hand, in fictional literature of period we find relationships Traub, in a conscious anachronism, describes as femme-femme-loving, equal friendships between women are often erotically charged. According to Traub, such depictions of female homoerotic bonds seem to have escaped moral opprobrium reserved for tribade because femme friends did not transgress normative gender roles. Traub speculates such fictional depictions of female friendship may point toward a set of early modern sexual practices similarly existed under radar because they did not challenge gender norms. She admits, however, one with her account is her presumption that erotic practices of 'tribades' and 'femmes' were radically discontinuous; only 'tribades,' for instance, used dildoes on their partners (79).In following pages, I will address this conceptual problem by focusing on Aemilia Lanyer's 1611 Description of Cooke-ham, a work describes a loving relationship between women. The does not mention dildos, and any conclusions one might draw from it about early modern women's sexual interactions must remain highly speculative. does, however, portray poet's desire to induce both pleasure and gratitude in her female addressee by means of a specific literary technique-the pathetic fallacy. In demonstrating writer's power to imbue inanimate objects-in this case natural and built environment of a country estate-with human feeling, Lanyer's explores an eroticized power dynamic between women is mediated by artificial devices. In doing so, constructs a vision of female homoerotic desire English Renaissance scholars have thus far overlooked-one cannot be defined in terms of polarized categories of tribadism and femme-femme love.2Lanyer was one of first English women to publish her original literary works. Her single volume of poems, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, appeared in 1611 prefaced with no less than nine dedications in verse and prose to various noblewomen. The book therefore appears to have been a bid for patronage, one directed most pointedly at Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, who seems to have granted Lanyer favor in past.3 Both long title and Description of Cooke-ham are addressed to Clifford. The latter describes an idyllic summer Lanyer once spent with Clifford on estate at Cookham, where Lanyer composed poetry to please her noble friend and countess's daughter, Anne. It appears since time Lanyer had fallen into financial difficulties, and most critics interpret as her attempt to re-establish a patronage relationship with her powerful female acquaintances.4 Near end of poem, Lanyer recounts how Margaret Clifford said her farewells beneath an oak tree where women had spent much of their time. Elaine Beilin describes this as the single dramatic event of poem in which the countess leaves a 'chaste, yet loving' parting kiss on great oak, which poet immediately steals for herself, as if trying to absorb countess's love and spirit (205).While Beilin depicts episode as rather benign, an expression of affection between women at a site had sentimental meaning for them both, actual lines of are more jarring:To this faire tree, taking me by hand,You did repeat pleasures which had past,Seeming to grieve they could no longer last,And with a chaste, yet loving kisse tooke leave,Of which sweet kisse I did it soone bereave:Scorning a sencelesse creature should possesseSo rare a favour, so great happinesse. …