• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.757-786
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• 2011

Seneca, the most influential classical Stoic and Justus Lipsius, the founder of Renaissance Stoicism suggest constancy, an unmovable strength of the steadfast mind based on reason and sound judgment, as a practical way or attitude in life full of both public and private evils. As a member of the Sidney family, Wroth is very much likely to have been influenced in molding her concept of constancy by Senecan and Lipsian Stoicism, which was introduced into England through Sir Philip Sidney's friendship with Lipsius. This paper explores Wroth's concept of constancy in Urania as a Stoic ideal in the context of the major Stoic writings of Seneca and Lipsius. While the titular character of the romance Urania shows some inherent attributes of Stoic constancy from the beginning of the romance, Pamphilia as the pattern of constancy gradually perfects the virtue through the ordeals of her love of Amphilanthus and her queenship. Her frequent retirements into private and secluded places are the essential occasions for her disciplining in Stoic constancy through self-examinations of her psychological and emotional disorders and poetry writing. Amphilanthus, a constantly inconstant lover, fully understands the importance of constancy in love as well in life only after his marriage to another woman and Pamphilia's marriage to another man. At the end of the romance they come to accept the vicissitudes of life in Stoic constancy. In Urania, Wroth transforms the strongly masculine Stoic constancy into a female heroic ideal. Thereby she presents those female characters as important political, ethical and cultural subjects and their constancy as a thread through the labyrinths of love and life.