Voicing Lyric

Although not every lyric produced in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England was intended to be sung, unpacking the musical facets of lyric circulation holds tremendous implications for our understanding of the performance-based facets of early modern poetics. In confronting these questions, this chapter takes as its focus the literary–musical nexus of the Sidney circle and, in particular, the writings of Mary Wroth, an accomplished musician whose writings abound with musical lyrics and allusions to song performance. Focusing on the manuscript collection of Wroth’s poems now preserved at the Folger Shakespeare Library and on the songs scattered throughout Urania, this chapter considers how reading Wroth’s songs as songs—as metrical compositions written with a tune in mind, adapted for musical setting and performance, or simply meant to be imagined as sung—sheds new light on the affective impact of the musical moments in her writings.