SOURCE: DiPasquale, Theresa M. “Woman's Desire for Man in Lanyer's Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 99, no. 3 (July 2000): 356-78.

In the following essay, DiPasquale argues that in the poems of Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, Lanyer questioned the notion that female heterosexual desire implies the willing subjugation of women by men.

“Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better then wine,” cries the Bride in the Song of Songs (1: 1).¹ In the Christian tradition, her desire for her spouse symbolizes the soul's longing for Christ; and poets of the English Renaissance often adopt her voice to express spiritual yearning. They rarely, however, describe their more secular aspirations in terms of female desire. Instead, the desiring subject is envisioned as a male, while the objects of his philosophical and literary longing are gendered feminine. The neoplatonic ladder of love and...