By Camilo Quinteros-Parrilla (Fall 2022)
Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, written by Mary Wroth is a collection of sonnets in which the author explores the themes of love and gender through the fictional relationship between Pamphilia and Amphilanthus. The text is from Pamphilia’s perspective and shows how her love changes her and results in breaking the assumed gender roles present at the time. Throughout the text, we see how Pamphilia deals with this relationship and how it affects her thoughts and eventually her ideologies and actions.
Mary Wroth was born into a well-off, literary family (1586). Many of her relatives were established and respected writers, and growing up with such prominent writers gave her many opportunities in the literary world. Her aunt, Mary Sidney, served as a role model for Wroth (Poetry Foundation). Mary Sidney was a writer during a time when it was very uncommon to see women writers. It was also uncommon for women to be educated or literate at all, however, her family’s wealth and success meant she was able to be schooled and have many tutors. Wroth was unhappily married for 12 years before her husband and son passed away due to illnesses. In her works, she refers to her unhappiness and discontent with her partner, during the 12 years of marriage she endured her works began to become more popular. Not long after the death of her husband, Wroth became romantically involved with her cousin, William, this relationship would serve as a basis for many of her most popular works (Poetry Foundation). A few years after the death of her husband she published Pamphilia to Amphilanthus which is now her most popular work. Although today it is regarded as a very interesting and compelling collection of sonnets, Wroth’s work was not as accepted in her time as it is today. As mentioned before, women were not commonly educated so it was rare to see a woman writer, never mind a successful one. Regardless of this, Wroth’s works were relatively popular for the time, although she was heavily criticized. During this time, it was not socially acceptable for women to talk about their romantic affairs, especially not in the detail that Wroth wrote. Wroth also mentions miscarriage in Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, this in particular was seen as extremely taboo, and she received a lot of backlash because of this. Regardless of these criticisms, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus shows her relationship with the emotion of love, and how it changes based on the situations she finds herself in within a relationship.
Pamphilia to Amphilanthus is a compelling collection of sonnets that was published in 1621 as part of The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania. Wroth focuses on the theme of love and its effects on women in the 16th century. Using her own experiences to establish a narrative that is very personal and considered taboo for the era. The entire Pamphilia to Amphilanthus has a total of 83 sonnets within the work, as well as 20 songs. For this paper, I will be focusing on nine of these sonnets (1, 16, 25, 28, 39, 40, 64, and 68).
Although all these sonnets revolve around the theme of love, they all present a different perspective on different aspects of love. In the first sonnet the speaker (who is presumed to be the author), explains how she is able to feel love more fully while she is asleep. This results in her heart being so full of love that the goddess of love Venus becomes jealous. Venus then sends Cupid to take the speaker’s heart, because Venus is supposed to be the one with the heart most full of love.
The 16th sonnet starts with a few rhetorical questions, all culminating in the speaker expressing how she doesn’t want to be a slave to her own emotions. She lists a few scenarios which must occur for her to surrender her love, but finally, she admits she knows she cannot give up her love, even though she wishes she could.
Sonnet 25 begins with the speaker comparing people’s relationship with God to her relationship with love. She wishes she could live with the capacity of cupid and have a connection with love the same way those who prey have a connection with God. She then states that she cannot benefit from worshiping love, and it would only distance her from it rather than bring her closer. She expresses her discontent with this but ultimately accepts this.
The 28th sonnet begins with the speaker explaining that her love is leaving her. Pleading for him to stay to no avail. She wants him to accept her love and not break her heart. Once he is gone, she feels no pain, she knows her love will always be with him, even if they are apart. She hopes he does not break her heart, and she wonders if their love will be the same with the distance.
In sonnet 39 the speaker is presenting her experience/perspective on love as a woman. She explains how the eyes can show so many emotions, and that some emotions should not be shown. She highlights how important a woman’s feelings and desires are when searching for love. She is the one who shall choose who to love and will express her love through her mind and her ideas.
Sonnet 40 starts to unpack the speakers’ ideas in relation to hope. She explains that hope is very tricky, and that hope is what fuels our pride. Although the hope is good, it can also lead to pain and suffering. She compares love to a tyrant, who rules over our lives, and on the surface, it seems nice but causes misery and distress. Then comparing love to a miscarriage, so much hope for the best things, just to result in immense pain.
The 64th sonnet begins with love being compared to a juggler. Expect love is juggling our hearts instead of balls. Moving on to say how love is a trickster, deceiving and scamming those who fall for its charade. Then stating that is it impossible to hide affection, one way or another, it will come out. Nothing can deceive what the heart wants.
The last sonnet read for this paper was the 68th. This one in particular is much more depressing than the ones prior. The speaker begins by expressing how she is in pain, how she seeks some sort of way to ease herself but finds that she cannot find a way to do so. She compares herself to a ship that is stuck on the sand. There is no way for her to move on, she is at the mercy of her thoughts. As much as she tries to keep moving, she cannot go anywhere, time is the only one that can release her.
The emotion of love is clearly the focus of Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, Wroth uses these fake characters, Pamphilia and Amphilanthus, to indirectly show her ideas on love without having to put herself in a vulnerable place. Although the ideas presented throughout the story are her own, the use of fictional characters allows her to distance herself from the work and write from a less personal perspective. This is important because if she were to use her own name, all of the written experiences would be assumed to have been real and genuinely happened to her, not saying that she didn’t use her own experience to write this work, but that she uses charters in order to make the reader believe that these thoughts are not as personal to her as they are.
Throughout the story love is discussed in many ways, depending on the current situation within the poem love can be seen as a euphoric feeling, or as a devastating emotion that brings immense suffering. In the first sonnets found in the collection, Wroth expressed love as an emotion that must be controlled, an emotion that women cannot fully express. In the first sonnet, Pamphilia feels that she can feel more love in her heart when she is asleep than when she is awake:
“did my senses hire
From knowledge of myself, then thoughts did move
Swifter than those most swiftness need require:” (Wroth, Sonnet 1, lines 2-4)
This shows how her own thoughts do not allow her to express and experience the love found within her own heart, only when she is asleep is her head clear enough for her to be able to fully feel the love within herself. These thoughts which block her from her own emotions are assumed to be thoughts of social acceptance and her role as a woman. These sexist ideas have been so ingrained within her brain that she cannot express herself fully without feeling guilty.
This guilt results in Pamphilia not actively perusing her love interest Amphilanthus, instead she acts more passively and expects that Amphilanthus must show her love before she can do the same. As the sonnets progress, Pamphilia begins to gain more confidence in her emotions and she starts to express herself more freely toward Amphilanthus. This confidence is not something that would have been common at the time this poem was created. During the 17th century, it was not socially acceptable for women to pursue men. It was expected that men would be the ones choosing who they love, an inertly sexist ideology, which strips women of their right to also choose who to love. This explains why at the beginning of the collection she is more passive and less expressive.
Between Pamphilia’s change from passive behavior to more expressive behavior, Pamphilia begins to question her feelings of love:
“Am I thus conquered? Have I lost the powers
That to withstand, which joys to ruin me?
Must I bee still while it my strength devours.
And captive, leads me prisoner, bound, unfree?” (Wroth, Sonnet 16, lines 1-4)
These lines show how distraught Pamphilia is, questioning whether it is even worth loving someone if it will control your life. She then states she wishes she could give up her love in order to not be hurt by it, but by the end of the sonnet she admits she knows she cannot surrender her love, and she must live with it. The ideas present in this sonnet are darker and seem to come from her experiences during her first marriage. This point within the text is crucial because it is the moment that Pamphilia starts to accept the love within her heart. This change in ideology results in Pamphilia being more thoughtful when speaking about her emotions as if she has come to terms with the fact that she must express her love. In the 25th sonnet, Pamphilia compares love to a god, a powerful force that controls one’s life, worthy of worship. The following lines show how Pamphilia is accepting love, expressing that she will no longer suppress her emotions, and she will love at every opportunity:
“Then let me wear the mark of Cupid’s might
In heart as they in skin do Phoebus’ light,
Not ceasing offerings to love while I live.” (Wroth, Sonnet 25, lines 12-14)
This, however, does not mean that Pamphilia is completely satisfied with love, although she accepts love and part of her, she still thinks critically about the implications of letting oneself love freely. Sonnet 28 describes her emotions as her lover leaves, she pleads for him to stay, to not break her heart, and to accept her love. When he leaves, she feels no pain, she knows her love will stay with him, and as long as he is faithful her love will remain with him. This sonnet shows how there are conditions to love, if he stays faithful, then she will continue to love him, but if he does not stay faithful, all her love will turn into pain. This relationship between trust and love results in hope, in this case, Pamphilia hopes her lover will be faithful. This hope, however, is very fragile and if broken can lead to much pain.
In sonnet 40 Pamphilia discusses hope in relation to love. She compares love to a tyrant, governing over her life, seeming like a good and pure emotion when in reality it causes immense misery:
“So tyrants do who falsely ruling earth
Outwardly grace them, and with profit’s fill
Advance those who appointed are to death
To make the greater* fall to please their will.” (Wroth, Sonnet 40, lines 5-8)
This comparison contrasts with the one discussed before. Prior she compared love to a god, and she vowed to love at every opportunity now, she views love as a controlling force. She expresses that both a God and a tyrant have full control over their subjects, but the way in which this control is expressed is very different. In the comparison to God, the control is much less harsh, more of leading in the right direction. While with the tyrant it is strict and direct control, which results in pain, not happiness. These two different ideologies on how love controls her stem from how love is affecting her at the moment. Sometimes she feels loved and wants to express her love to those around her, other times she feels like love has tricked her into false hope, and she suffers due to her expression of love. This balance between feelings is something she seems to understand, she knows that in order to feel true love she must accept both realities.
Pamphilia to Amphilanthus is an amazing analysis of how to accept love. Wroth incorporates her own life experiences into this collection of sonnets which perfectly encapsulates the thought process necessary in order to fully accept true love. Although written in the 17th century, the themes present within this work are still extremely relevant in the modern era. One could even say they are more relevant in certain accepts than they were back then.
In today’s modern world, many types of media are extremely available to most people. These different media create prevised norms within our own heads of how the world works. Young children who watch Disney growing up for example, are conditioned to believe love is a pure emotion with no mistakes and no hardships. Disney movies do not always show the reality of love, and how difficult it is to truly love someone. These preconceived notions of perfect love end up resulting in many people learning the hard way that love is not as easy as it seems. Pamphilia to Amphilanthus does such a good job of explaining how the experience of love is a two-sided card, and with all the beauty of love comes a darker more painful side as well. Although Pamphilia to Amphilanthus is not meant for kids, the way love is explored is so important in the healthy development of understanding what love is. This text is so deep and written with such emotion that one feels as if the explained thoughts and ideas are their own.
Works Cited
Allegra Villarreal, Editor. “Mary Wroth: Selections.” An Open Companion to Early British Literature, 22 Jan. 2019, https://pressbooks.pub/earlybritishlit/chapter/selections-by-mary-wroth/.
“Lady Mary Wroth.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-wroth.
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