Amorous Hope, A Pastoral Play

“Joining recent publications of other drama by Italian women around 1600, Miani’s Amorous Hope is a work of considerable interest by a playwright only recently becoming better known after long neglect. Coller’s introduction, which makes use of excellent and up-to-date scholarship, persuasively presents Miani’s participation within a network of literati and academia members and pursues this topic of interconnections through a detailed account of her poems published in anthologies alongside the verses of others. Its discussion of the play focuses on Miani’s treatment of the main issue: male injustices to women, and the corrections or penalties delivered by the two leading female characters. As Coller points out, the lessons given by female characters are also the lessons to the audience by the playwright herself.” ~Janet L. Smarr, University of California San Diego