Poetry. Women's Studies. Translated from the Italian by Joan E. Borrelli. Bilingual Edition. Feminist, courtesan, playwright and a renowned virtuosa (soloist vocal performer) called to sing before Roman nobility and the courts of Florence and Paris, Margherita Costa is, moreover, the most Baroque of the Italian women poets of the seventeenth century. A prolific writer, she published six volumes of poetry, two prose works, three plays, two narrative poems, and a pageant in verse for knights on horseback. As a poet, she employs a variety of genres, using humor and irony to criticize prevailing...