Readerly Inscriptions in Early Printed Texts as Sites of Refusal and Possibility
The first part of Mary Wroth’s unfinished romance, The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania (1621), infamously concludes with a conjunction; Wroth writes, “all things are prepared for the journey, all now merry, contented, nothing amisse; greife forsaken, sadnes cast off, Pamphilia is the Queene of all content, Amphilanthus ioying worthily in her; And[.]” Mary Wroth’s unresolved “And” opens to infinite possible endings for Pamphilia, including negative ones, especially given the other ambiguities of Wroth’s romance, and the anxieties frequently expressed by Pamphilia herself.