SOURCE: "Aemelia Lanier: 1570(?)—1640(?)," in The Female Spectator: English Women Writers Before 1800, The Feminist Press, 1977, pp. 73-87.

Below, Mahl and Koon place Lanyer in relation to her husband's occupation as a court musician and the cultural developments that took place in England during her lifetime.

When George Ballard wrote in 1752 that he had been forced to omit certain women "of distinguished parts and learning" from his Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain because he had "been unable to collect very little else relating to them," his list included Elizabeth Grymeston, Bathsua Makin, and Æmelia Lanier. And today little more is known of Makin and Lanier.

Æmelia's maiden name is in doubt. She may have been the daughter of a member of the King's Music, Baptist Bassano, and Margaret Johnson, but we cannot be sure. We do know that she married Alphonso Lanier, a musician who played the recorder...