Writing for Patronage or Patronage for Writing? Two Case Studies in Seventeenth-Century and Post-Restoration Women’s Poetry in Britain

The seventeenth century provided a fertile ground in Britain for anyone who wished to express themselves in writing. London became the locus of an unprecedented printing revolution that carried on until the eighteenth century, when revolutionary writing subsided, but the printing infrastructure in place allowed for greater specialization and diffusion. Separated by almost one hundred years, the two women featured in this chapter seem to have approached patronage as a lastresort solution to attain financial and artistic independence. While Lanyer tried her hand at the court with an air of nostalgia when her businesses failed, Yerbury refused publication since her ‘dayjob’ provided her with an independent source of income that made writing for money and the general public uncalled for. This chapter delves into the rhetorical strategies of both Lanyer’s and Yerbury’s literary output that were either geared to convince patrons through a religious trope of Christ’s love or avoided the spotlight when financial backup was already secured. Both poets separated their means of living from their writing practice, thus revealing that patronage and the market were unstable instruments for the exposure and practice of quality writing.