Jesse Sharpe PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

Incarnation as Social Protest 113
worthy of praise. This is Lanyer’s first movement to direct the reader away from an
acceptance of the society as it exists, with power being conferred through birth or wealth
or physical beauty, to a place where greatness is understood in terms of an individual’s
nearness to God, which, in Lanyer’s opinion, may mostly be those of the lower stations in
life. For, while not explicitly stated in the section, no matter how powerful Lady Margaret
(or any of the other prominent women with poems dedicated to them) is, she is nothing
when compared to God. All of her possessions, whether physical or material, are
insignificant when viewed alongside the divine. As these unusual lines for a potential
patron continue, the reader finds that Lanyer apologises to Lady Margaret for her
digression from compliments, ‘Pardon (good Madame) though I have digrest | From what I
doe intend to write of thee’ (145-6); however, then Lanyer continues to direct the
Countess’s attention away from herself and to God’s greatness, which she has been
describing as that which ‘no mortall eie can see’. (148) This movement from physical
majesty to immaterial majesty is one that the Countess is then allowed to follow and
participate in, and considering the problems with her estate, find comfort in. 40
For Lanyer
says ‘That outward Beautie which the world commends | Is not the subject I will write
upon’, (185-6) she will instead focus on the immaterial wealth the Countess does posses,
her virtue, that which cannot be seen by the eye. And as Lanyer sings of the Countess’s
virtue, she also moves on to a discussion of how ‘outward Beautie’ has caused the
downfall of many great women of the past, from Helen of Troy to Matilda. 41
As Lanyer
shows, physical and material graces may seem worth desiring, but they can also be
dangerous. Instead, it is the soul’s pursuit of God and virtue that is to be most desired, and
it is virtuous traits that truly mark a person out as majestic is seen as Lanyer ends her
introduction to the Countess and begins her Passion retelling. She writes,
40 ‘Re-writing Patriarchy and Patronage’, p. 87.
41 The discussion is found in lines 209-240.