Writing to Women: Aemilia Lanyer and the Rhetoric of Equality

Abstract

Over the course of the last few decades, much has been written on the subject of Aemilia Lanyer’s relationship to the all-female dedicatees of her major 1611 publication, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. While some critics read Lanyer’s decision to direct her appeals for patronage solely toward members of her own gender as a conscious attempt to establish a female literary community, others contend that Lanyer’s clear awareness of the differences in social status between herself and her dedicatees ought to forestall hasty pronouncements regarding her promotion of “sisterhood.” However, by examining the dedicatory epistles appended to Salve Deus in the context of early modern letter-writing culture and the epistolary theory of Desiderius Erasmus, the following thesis aims to dissolve this artificial dichotomy – arguing that Lanyer’s work neither blithely ignores nor absolutely embraces class antagonism but, rather, encourages dialogue between women from a variety of social backgrounds.