Pamphilia To Amphilanthus - Sonnet 25

Sonnet 25

It is suggested that the line "Like to the Indians, scorched with the sun" recalls Wroth's role in Ben Jonson's Masque of Blackness (1605). This masque was designed by Inigo Jones and written for Queen Anne of Denmark. Gary Waller, in his book The Sidney Family Romance, explains that this masque was controversial because Wroth and the other female actors appeared in blackface as the twelve daughters of Niger.

Anita Hagerman, in her article "'But Worth pretends': Discovering Jonsonian Masque in Lady Mary Wroth's Pamphilia to Amphilanthus", discusses Wroth's role in Jonson's The Masque of Blackness and the specific influence of the theme of darkness on Sonnet 25. She states that Wroth played a character named Baryte, an Ethiopian maiden. Hagerman suggests that Wroth created a courtly persona for herself in these masques and that the themes of this persona are themes in Pamphilia to Amphilanthus. One idea of Wroth's courtly persona was darkness, probably stemming from her reputation of seriousness. The theme of dark versus light is explored in Sonnet 25 and is representative of her uncertainty of whether she wants her desires for Amphilanthus to be fulfilled or not, because either way will prove "torturous".

The idea of theatricality influences the way this poem is interpreted. Because it is understood that Wroth is talking about her experience in a theatrical performance, the theme of the artificial aspect of the masque performance needs to be taken into account. To understand this sonnet, we must understand how Wroth felt about taking part in courtly masques. Hagerman says that in the way that Pamphilia is ambivalent about what to do with her love for Amphilanthus, Wroth herself is ambivalent about the life of courtly masques. The contradiction of allowing women to have "feminine expressive display" of feelings and then strictly "enforced silence" could have represented the good and the bad of courtly life for Wroth. In the masques, Wroth was given a voice, but after she was no longer affiliated with the court life, she recognized the artificiality of the voice she had because the courtly life and the masques require a level of falseness. Gary Waller states that Wroth's female characters describe the pressure they feel in terms of theater and display. For a female to take part in a masque, she is creating the illusion of power because she is entering the space of the court and commanding attention. However, it subjects her to the gaze of men and makes her feel powerless and victimized.