APPENDIX 1 Elizabeth’s Letter to Wanli, Emperor of China April–May 1602 This missive from Elizabeth to the Ming emperor of China, as recently demonstrated by Rayne Allinson, was the same letter the navigator George Weymouth (fl. 1587–1611) carried with him on his unsuccessful voy- age in search of a North-West passage to Asia, a journey which had been sponsored by the newly chartered East India Company.1 Weymouth left London on 2 May 1602 with two ships, the Discovery and the Godspeed, but was forced to return early in August due to the extreme frost and storms encountered in the Davis Strait, between southeastern Baffin Island (now Canada) and southwestern Greenland. As Allinson explains, this was not the first attempt at correspondence with the far East: The letter Weymouth carried with him (and eventually brought back unde- livered) was the third Elizabeth had addressed to the Emperor of China: the first was sent out in 1583, the second in 1596 and the last in 1602. Each letter was carried by a different crew of English merchant-adventurers deter- mined to tap into the lucrative trade in silks, spices and porcelain that flowed from the fabled land of Cathay. None of them were successful. Copies and translations of Elizabeth’s first two letters were published by the geographer Richard Hakluyt in his Principal Navigations ... to encourage further public investment in overseas trade and exploration.2 This ‘letter’ is, in fact, a composite object. The exquisitely ornamented English text, penned on vellum, was accompanied by Italian, Latin and Portuguese translations, on paper. At least the first three were written © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 251 Carlo M. Bajetta, Elizabeth I: Italian Letters, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-43553-8 252 APPENDIX 1: ELIZABETH’S LETTER TO WANLI, EMPEROR OF CHINA by the same hand. The fact that the miscellaneous costs associated with Weymouth’s journey included £6. 13s. 4d given ‘to Mr Seger for writing her Maiestie’s lettres to the Emperor of China and Cathay’ proves that this man was the Norroy King of Arms William Segar.3 That this letter was not entirely produced by members of staff of the Elizabethan ‘Foreign Office’ need not stupefy. England’s relations with Russia, the Ottoman Empire and Asia were established primarily to fur- ther the interests of its merchants. The exchange of royal letters was cru- cial to the maintenance of such relations; little wonder that establishments such as, in this case, the East India Company, were asked to contribute to the cost of embellishing these missives. Precedents included the messages sent to Turkey in 1595/6, when Thomas Lake reported to Robert Cecil that Elizabeth had signed the letters to ‘the Turk’ which the Secretary had left with him. Lake suggested to giue warning to the marchants to haue some silke redy for the sealing of them for the Clarkes of the privy Seale are loth to beare the Charge who will to morrow to attend your honour and my Lord for the Seale. These lettres are accustomed to be sealed with the privy Seale.4 Segar, a scrivener, painter of both miniatures and portraits en large, and an artist once patronized by the Earl of Leicester,5 did a marvellous job, and it is a pity that copyright reasons have prevented the reproduc- tion of this item here. While still a lovely example of Cancelleresca, the Italian version was certainly less splendid, at least as far as its contents were concerned. This text, not signed by Elizabeth, is quite evidently a rather hurried and literal translation of the English. It presents a number of errors, mostly related to the failure to recognise the difference between singulars and plurals in ‘e’ / ‘i’ (cf., for example, ‘Inuincibili Emperadore’ and ‘diuerse et particulare relatione’ or ‘delle nostre proprie Subiettj’ in the first lines of the letter) and to a confusion with some English forms (see e.g., ‘Clymato’ for ‘climate’). It seems unlikely that Segar, a profes- sional scribe, would provide such a careless transcript—or that he would not amend at least some of the major inconsistencies of style. Both his and the original composer’s knowledge of Italian must have been, therefore, quite limited. Adding the Latin, Italian, and Portuguese translations to the English text was, however, a crucial element for the success of the voyage itself. If the first was the standard of international diplomacy (together with APPENDIX 1: ELIZABETH’S LETTER TO WANLI, EMPEROR OF CHINA 253 French, which was used less outside Europe), the latter two were the languages of the earlier explorers to China from Marco Polo to Jorge Álvares. More recently, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), earned himself a reputation as one of the few foreigners who had managed not only to learn Chinese, but also to immerse himself in the culture of that country, to the point that the imperial government allowed him to establish a missionary residence in Beijing. Interestingly, however, it was Portuguese which became the lingua franca of the Jesuit missions to the Ming Empire.6 It may be that Elizabeth knew and approved of the idea of attaching documents in languages other than English: she signed the vellum letter ‘Elizabetta R,’ as if to provide an international version of her name, which would, of course, attune to the Romance language texts which accompa- nied the beautifully penned missive. Whatever its ‘authorial’ status, and pace its linguistic shortcomings, the Italian letter to Wanli is further evi- dence of the importance which this language had in Elizabethan interna- tional diplomatic correspondence at the end of Elizabeth’s reign. Texts Lancashire Record Office, DDSH 15/3, items 1–4. The English letter, on vellum (Lc1; addressed on the verso ‘To the Right | High, Mighty, and Invincible | Emperour of Cathaye), is followed by its Latin, Portuguese and Italian (Lc2) versions, all on paper. Allinson provides a good descrip- tion of Lc1: The [English] letter itself measures 433mm x 517mm (c.17 by c.20 inches), and is made of high quality parchment, which may explain why its colors have been so vividly preserved. The borders are luxuriously painted (or ‘limned,’ to use the contemporary term) with red ink and traced with an intricate foliage-pattern of gold. A large initial ‘E’ for ‘Elizabeth’ is skill- fully drawn in a pattern of overlapping and interlacing loops reminiscent of a Celtic-knot, and hangs in the top left corner of the letter, forming an emblematic handle for the banner-like border that hangs from it. ... It is written in a very readable secretary hand, and begins with an enlarged initial line (also drawn in red and gold) that reads: ‘Elizabeth, by the Grace of God Queen.’ The rest of the text is written in brown ink, except for an initial ‘W’ for the royal ‘We’ of the first sentence following the address, and for every ‘M’ introducing the word ‘Majesty,’ which are in gold.7 254 APPENDIX 1: ELIZABETH’S LETTER TO WANLI, EMPEROR OF CHINA In the Italian text printed below only errors which may hinder its understanding (including the widespread confusion between singular and plural endings) have been corrected. In the original, ‘u’ (also when meant ‘v’) appears as ‘ŭ’ throughout; this has been ignored in the tran- scription. No further effort has been made to regularise the spelling of this manuscript. Elizabeth’s Italian Letter To Wanli—Lc2 ELIZABETHA, Per la gracia di Dio, Regina D’Inghilterra, Francia et Irlandia, Defensatrice de la fede etcaetera./ Al molto Potente et Inuincibile Emperadore di Cathaya Noi habbiamo riceuutto diuerse et particulari relationi, cossi bene delli 5 nostri propri Subiettj come d’altri; quali hanno visitato in parte l’Imperio et Signorie di sua Maiesta; per meggio di che s’hanno raportato cossj bene sua invincible grandezza, come suo Amoreuole tractamento a stragneri che frequentano nel vostro Regno, con traffico de mercantie: Il che ha prouocato, et mosso in noj vn desiderio, per trouare vna più propinqua 10 via di passagio per mare verso vostre Contrade, di cio che vsualmente sin a hora e stato frequentato, et stimato; compassando la maggiore parte del Mondo; Perquale più vicino passagio, non solamente opportunita dj commerci, et traficho dj mercantie, puote essere offerto tra li subi- ectj dj Ambiduoj nostri Regni, ma anchora mutuale lega et Amicitia potra 15 incominciare a crescere, et continuare tra sua Maiesta, et nostre con- trade, et signorie, essendo nelle loro distancie /o/ situationi, non cossi longo separate ne allontanate /ò/ discoste, come bene sono strangie, et incognutte a vno l’altre per ragione del longo, et tedioso corso 2 Inuincibile] Inuincibili Lc2 4 particulari relationi] particulare relatione Lc2 4–5 delli nostri propri] delle nostre proprie Lc2 7 suo] sua Lc2 10–11 sin a hora] sina hora Lc2 13 commerci] commercie Lc2 puote] puole Lc2 le] li Lc2 14 lega] legue Lc2 15 nostre] nostri Lc2 16 situationi] cituatione Lc2 17–18 separate... altre] separato ne allontanato /ò/ discosto, come bene sono strangio, et incognutto a vno l’altro Lc2 18 del longo, et tedioso corso] delle longe, et tediose corsso Lc2 17 strangie: rather than witnessing a linguistic interference of the English ‘strange,’ this form is attested in Italian; cf. Vocabolario della Crusca, 4th ed., s.v. ‘strangio’. 18 incognutte: i.e., ‘incognute,’ ‘incognite.’ APPENDIX 1: ELIZABETH’S LETTER TO WANLI, EMPEROR OF CHINA 255 di nauigatione, vsato sin qui di questa parte verso voj, a che fine habiamo per lo passato assai anni fa, et in diuerse tempi dapoi, fatto electione 20 d’alcuni di