SOURCE: Schnell, Lisa. “‘So Great a Difference Is There in Degree’: Aemilia Lanyer and the Aims of Feminist Criticism.” Modern Language Quarterly 57, no. 1 (March 1996): 23-35.

In the following essay, Schnell analyzes feminist criticism of Lanyer's poetry, primarily focusing on “The Description of Cooke-ham.”

One of the most dramatic changes to the Renaissance canon has been the inclusion of women, both as they are represented (or not represented) in work by male writers and, more significantly, as writers themselves. Fifteen years ago, even Renaissance specialists would have had a difficult time naming a single woman writing between 1500 and 1660. Today, one would be hard pressed to find someone in the field who did not know the names of several: Mary Sidney, Mary Wroth, Elizabeth Cary, Aemilia Lanyer, Rachel Speght, and Katherine Philips, among the more widely anthologized writers. While this paper pays tribute to the many literary critics whose work...