Substituting for Laura: Objects of Desire for Renaissance Women Poets

For the many women who wrote poetry in the sixteenth century, as for their contemporary male poets, Petrarch provided the openly acclaimed model. His Rime show up both through their topics and through the direct citation of their phrases. But for women, the central theme of devotion to Laura presented particular problems.

Petrarch's Laura has at least three major aspects. First, she is a woman and the object of sexual desire. As such she is evoked as a physical being even in her absence and after her death. Petrarch scatters throughout his poems references to her hair, eyes, cheeks, neck, shoulders, arms, breast, hands, feet, and general "membra." Whether he imagines her as a human with petals falling on her lap, or a laurel tree whose arms have become branches, or an "idolo scolpito" [sculpted idol], her hair and eyes replaced by gold and topaz, she is a physical object of contemplation. The chief emphasis is not only on her starry eyes, but also on her hair; for she is not only a heavenly guide, but equally an earthly snare and entanglement. Second, after her death, Laura is a heavenly spirit who might, if the poet would only heed, guide him from a worldly love towards the love of God. Third, Laura becomes a symbol, through her name, for glory--the ancient glory of Rome, or the modern glory of the poet--and for poetry, to which the poet records his unflagging devotion. In this manner, she becomes a projection of his goals for himself. The second and third aspects were naturally much easier for women to adopt than the first.

Women were already under moral scrutiny for writing at all, and certainly for writing about love; for a woman to versify her passionate love for a man to whom she is not married would require her to set aside all concern for honor. A courtesan might do this, but a respectable woman would find it very difficult. The problem, however, was not only one of expressing female desire; it was also one of finding an appropriate substitute for the figure of Laura. What for a female poet could serve as a permissible object of devotion? Secondly, how should the descriptions of Laura, with her curly golden hair, starry eyes, and lovely feet, be adapted for a male object? That is, how was a lovable male to be described? Thirdly, if Laura by her chastity makes herself unavailable to Petrarch, what praiseworthy virtue could one attribute to a male that would make him similarly unattainable? A man who for reasons of chastity refused a woman's offers might well appear more ridiculous than noble; for example the chaste hero of Marguerite's Heptameron tale 18 is suspected by the tale's audience of being either impotent or a fool. During the course of the sixteenth century, women found a variety of solutions to these problems of writing about men in the Petrarchan mode.

A few women avoid these problems by writing, at least occasionally, as if they were men. Thus, for example, Laura Terracina writes: "Che gloria avrai, Madonna, o che vaghezza,/ quando vedrai quest'anima partita?/. . . poi che morto sarò per tua bellezza" [What glory will you have, my lady, or what joy/when you will see this soul of mine departed? . . . For I will be dead because of your beauty]; or Ermellina Aringhieri de' Cerretani compares herself to the traditional moth drawn to the flame "allor che di mia Dea poco lontano/scorto il volto" [when I catch sight not far away of my Goddess' face]. Laodamia Forteguerri addresses the traditional language of adoration to Marguerite of Austria, wife of Alessandro de' Medici. As Piéjus comments, ". . . exprimer son admiration, son affection pour une femme, met à l'abri des critiques moralisatrices et, surtout, permet à la poétesse de s'approprier le discours masculin, en particulier lorsqu'elle reprend à satieté les termes...