DOCSLIB.ORG

Information to Users

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Information to Users INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the t»ct directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter 6ce, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely afreet reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Infonnation Company 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 NEGOTIATING WITH SHAKESPEARE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Taekyeong Kang, M.A. The Ohio State University 1997 Dissertation Committee Approved by Professor Thomas Postlewait, Adviser Professor Alan Woods Adviser Professor Esther Beth Sullivan Department o f Theater UMI Number; 9801718 UMI Microform 9801718 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ABSTEIACT Èi the early 1980s, Shakespearean studies took a distinct turn away from new criticism and psychological analysis toward a decidedly political and historical analysis. This “new historicism” has been predominantly concerned with the ideological and political functions of the stage and the drama of the early modem London theatres. Accordingly, competing critical models have been advanced to explain the social and cultural processes in which these theatres participated. The subsequent development o f this new critical trend has in turn revealed that a fundamental binarism underlies its theoretical and methodological paradigms. Known better as “subversion-containment” debate, the contention over the ideological effectivity o f Shakespearean drama is only one o f the many instances in which the practitioners of New ffistoricism. Cultural Materialism, and Feminism take side with one or the other proposition. My study describes and analyzes the definitive critical methods and assumptions of these new historical criticisms in order to ground a more flexible reading position from which an access to the historical period and its drama is to be made. Distinct sets of binary terms deployed in recent criticism are investigated: the ruling class vs. the ruled, patriarchal oppression vs. women’s liberation, and powerful theatre vs. powerless theatre. Since these binaries derive from limited and fundamentally dichotomous historical perspectives as well as theoretical inadequacies, an attempt is in tum made to locate the critical construct of ‘negotiated reading position’ in the historical subjects, who were the playgoers in the early modem London. Among the ‘middling sort of people,’ who were the staple constituency of the theatre audience, distinct components are identified: citizens, women, and apprentices. Queen Elizabeth’s coronation entry and Shakespeare’s English chronicle plays are analyzed from the London citizens’ viewpoint, which might have entertained the interstices between the ruling power and the subordinate position of its subjects. The binary of patriarchy and female autonomy is explored in the light of both social differences and solidarity among Shakespeare’s heroines and among their counterparts in the audience. Julius Caesar is read from the perspectives possibly taken up by the London apprentices, whose precarious situation within the urban culture best encapsulates the social complexity and the ideological differences within the formation of the middling sort of people in early modem London. In this cultural exchange and negotiation between the central institution of apprenticeship and the marginal institution of the professional theatres, the binary of powerfril theatre vs. powerless theatre is finally seen to dissolve. The conclusion toward which these readings urge is not a specific cultural theory or a definitive critical position whereby an ideological critique of the competing versions of historical criticism is maintained. Since one of the major problems with the new historicist enterprise lies in its insufficient contact with the professional historical scholarship, a consistent effort is made throughout the study to envision a different mode of historicization based upon a critical engagement with the historical scholarship. Thus, the study as a whole explores a preliminary methodology of “negotiation” for a better understanding of the relationship between past and present, between history and criticism, or between us and Shakespeare. As such, it further points toward the necessity of developing a more rigorous discipline of interdisciplinary work among literary, theatre, and historical scholarship. Ill Dedicated to My Parents And Lord Jesus IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS All the Athenians and the foreigner who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: To the Unknown God. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing. Him I proclaim to you. Acts 17:21-23 In Jesus of Nazareth I have found the unknown god that I was searching for in ancient Athens, in Shakespeare’s England, and in late twentieth-century world. Him I praise with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength. With Shakespeare I learned to negotiate and live with the limits of humanity. In Lord Jesus I have learned to die toward such limits. During the journey from early modem England back to ancient Palestine, I met three great teachers, to whom I wish to acknowledge my deepest gratitude on this page. I wish to thank my adviser. Dr. Thomas Postlewait, whose sage advice and warm encouragement sustained me throughout my research and writing process. I am especially indebted to his balanced approach as a scholar, which I have tried to adapt in my dissertation. I am also grateful to Dr. Oak Song, my former adviser at Korea University, who not only introduced me to Shakespearean scholarship, but who also took pains to enlighten me with the discipline for both a scholar and a human being. Finally, I humbly give thanks to Pastor Keun-Sang Lee, minister of Korean Church of Columbus, who has been a ghostly father — to use a Shakespearean term — to me. He nourished me with the Words of God and showed me where the footprints of Jesus are to be found. VITA January 8,1962 Bom in Busan, Korea 1989.............................. M.A. English, Korea University 1993-95 ....................... Graduate Research Associate Jerome E. Lawrence & Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute The Ohio State University 1995-96 ..................... Graduate Teaching Associate Department of Theater The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Theatre VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................ ü Dedication ........................................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... Vita ...................................................................................................................................vi Chapters; 1. Introduction: Historicized Renaissance and Critical Models................................... I 2. Resurrecting the London Playgoers 1567-1642........................................................ 38 1. Reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Audience............................................................ 38 H. Social History in Audience Studies......................................................................... 49 m. Revisions and the “Middling Sort o f People”........................................................ 60 3. Retrieving the Civic Voice: Citizen in History and in Shakespeare'sHistories ......... 78 Introduction. Citizen Spectators.................................................................................... 78 I. Who Speaks ?: Royal Entries and Civic Dramaturgy............................................... 83 n. Enter Above': The Place of Citizens in Shakespeare'sHistories ..........................105 4. Shakespeare’s Women, Women’s Shakespeare
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Front Matter
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00489-4 - The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Updated Edition Edited by Kurt Schlueter Frontmatter More information THE NEW CAMBRIDGE SHAKESPEARE general editor Brian Gibbons associate general editor A. R. Braunmuller, University of California, Los Angeles From the publication of the first volumes in 1984 the General Editor of the New Cambridge Shakespeare was Philip Brockbank and the Associate General Editors were Brian Gibbons and Robin Hood. From 1990 to 1994 the General Editor was Brian Gibbons and the Associate General Editors were A. R. Braunmuller and Robin Hood. THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA Professor Schlueter approaches this early comedy as a parody of two types of Renaissance educational fiction: the love-quest story and the test-of-friendship story, which by their combination show high-flown human ideals as incompatible with each other, and with human nature. A thoroughly researched, illustrated stage history reveals changing conceptions of the play, which nevertheless often fail to come to terms with its subversive impetus. Since the first known production at David Garrick’s Drury Lane Theatre, it has tempted major directors and actors, including John Philip Kemble, William Charles Macready and Charles Kean, who established a tradition of understanding which cast its shadow even on such modern productions as Denis Carey’s famous staging for the Bristol Old Vic and Robin Phillips’s for the Royal Shakespeare Company. This updated edition includes a new introductory section by Lucy Munro on recent stage
    [Show full text]
  • Michael West
    Theater of Enigma in Shakespeare’s England Michael West Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2018 © 2017 Michael West All rights reserved ABSTRACT Theater of Enigma in Shakespeare’s England Michael West Theater of Enigma in Shakespeare’s England demonstrates the cognitive, affective, and social import of enigmatic theatrical moments. While the presence of other playgoers obviously shapes the experience of attending a play, I argue that deliberately induced moments of audience ignorance are occasions for audience members to be especially aware of their relations to others who may or may not share their bafflement. I explore the character of states of knowing and not-knowing among audience members and the relations that obtain among playgoers who inhabit these states. Further, I trace the range of performance techniques whereby playgoers are positioned in a cognitive no-man's land, lying somewhere between full understanding and utter ignorance—techniques that I collectively term “enigmatic theater.” I argue that moments of enigmatic theater were a dynamic agent in the formation of collectives in early modern playhouses. I use here the term “collective” to denote the temporary, occasional, and fleeting quality of these groupings, which occur during performance but are dissipated afterwards. Sometimes, this collective resembles what Victor Turner terms communitas, in which the normal societal divisions are suspended and the playgoers become a unified collectivity. At other times, however, plays solicit the formation of multiple collectives defined by their differing degrees of knowledge about a seeming enigma.
    [Show full text]
  • The Moral Basis of Family Relationships in the Plays of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries: a Study in Renaissance Ideas
    The Moral Basis of Family Relationships in the plays of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries: a Study in Renaissance Ideas. A submission for the degree of doctor of philosophy by Stephen David Collins. The Department of History of The University of York. June, 2016. ABSTRACT. Families transact their relationships in a number of ways. Alongside and in tension with the emotional and practical dealings of family life are factors of an essentially moral nature such as loyalty, gratitude, obedience, and altruism. Morality depends on ideas about how one should behave, so that, for example, deciding whether or not to save a brother's life by going to bed with his judge involves an ethical accountancy drawing on ideas of right and wrong. It is such ideas that are the focus of this study. It seeks to recover some of ethical assumptions which were in circulation in early modern England and which inform the plays of the period. A number of plays which dramatise family relationships are analysed from the imagined perspectives of original audiences whose intellectual and moral worlds are explored through specific dramatic situations. Plays are discussed as far as possible in terms of their language and plots, rather than of character, and the study is eclectic in its use of sources, though drawing largely on the extensive didactic and polemical writing on the family surviving from the period. Three aspects of family relationships are discussed: first, the shifting one between parents and children, second, that between siblings, and, third, one version of marriage, that of the remarriage of the bereaved.
    [Show full text]
  • Mastering Masques of Blackness, Andrea Stevens
    andrea stevens Mastering Masques of Blackness: Jonson’s Masque of Blackness, The Windsor text of The Gypsies Metamorphosed, and Brome’s The English Moor Black all over my body, Max Factor 2880, then a lighter brown, then Negro No. 2, a stronger brown. Brown on black to give a rich mahogany. Then the great trick: that glorious half-yard of chiffon with which I polished myself all over until I shone . The lips blueberry, the tight curled wig, the white of the eyes, whiter than ever, and the black, black sheen that covered my flesh and bones, glistening in the dressing-room lights.enlr_1052 396..426 Iam...IamI...IamOthello...butOlivier is in charge.1 —Laurence Olivier, On Acting (1986) Ben Jonson’s “Masque of Blackness” was composed, as the author himself declares, at the express commandment of the Queen (Anne of Denmark), who had a desire to appear along with the fairest ladies of her court, as a negress. I doubt whether the most enthusiastic amies des noirs among our modern beauties, would willingly undergo such a transfor- mation.What would the Age say, if our gracious Queen should play such a frolic?...Itmustnotbe supposed that these high-born masquers sooted their delicate complexions like the Wowskies of our barefaced stages. The masque of black velvet was as common as the black patches in the time of the Spectator.2 —Hartley Coleridge, The Dramatic Works of Massinger and Ford (1859) I am grateful to Bruce Holsinger, Robert Markley, and especially Paul Menzer for their detailed critiques of drafts of this paper.Thanks are due also to the essay’s earliest readers: Christine Luckyj, Katharine Maus, Elizabeth Fowler, Sarah Hagelin, Ellen Malenas Ledoux, and Samara Landers.
    [Show full text]
  • The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
    EDUCATION PACK The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare 1 Contents Page Synopsis 3 William Shakespeare 4 Assistant Directing 6 Cue Script Exercise 8 Cue Scripts 9-14 Source of the Story 15 Interview with Simon Scardifield 16 Doubling decisions 17 Propeller 18 2 Synopsis Leontes, the King of Sicilia, asks his dearest friend from childhood, Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, to extend his visit. Polixenes has not been home to his wife and young son for more than nine months but Leontes’ wife, Hermione, who is heavily pregnant, finally convinces her husband's friend to stay a bit longer. As they talk apart, Leontes thinks that he observes Hermione’s behaviour becoming too intimate with his friend, for as soon as they leave his sight he is imagining them "leaning cheek to cheek, meeting noses, kissing with inside lip." He orders one of his courtiers, Camillo, to stand as cupbearer to Polixenes and poison him as soon as he can. Camillo cannot believe that Hermione is unfaithful and informs Polixenes of the plot. He escapes with Polixenes to Bohemia. Leontes, discovering that they have fled, now believes that Camillo knew of the imagined affair and was plotting against him with Polixenes. He accuses Hermione of adultery, takes Mamillius, their son, from her and throws her in jail. He sends Cleomines and Dion to Apollo’s Oracle at Delphi, for an answer to his charges. While Hermione is in jail her daughter is born, and Paulina, her friend, takes the baby girl to Leontes in the hope that the sight of his infant daughter will soften his heart.
    [Show full text]
  • The First Quarto of King Henry V Edited by Andrew Gurr Frontmatter More Information
    Cambridge University Press 0521623367 - The First Quarto of King Henry V Edited by Andrew Gurr Frontmatter More information THE NEW CAMBRIDGE SHAKESPEARE general editor: Brian Gibbons associate editor: A. R. Braunmuller From the publication of the first volumes in 1984 the General Editor of the New Cambridge Shakespeare was Philip Brockbank and the Associate General Editors were Brian Gibbons and Robin Hood. From 1990 to 1994 the General Editor was Brian Gibbons and the Associate Editors were A. R. Braunmuller and Robin Hood. THE FIRST QUARTO OF KING HENRY V The quarto text of Henry V is of unique importance. It has the authority of being transcribed by actors in Shakespeare’s own company as a record of their original staging of the play at the Globe in 1599. In this new edition Andrew Gurr argues that the Henry V quarto is probably the best surviving example of a Shakespeare playscript as it was actually performed. The speed with which it came to press only a year after its first staging marks its status as an official version of the play first seen by Elizabethan audiences. As a practical staging text it therefore does much to shed new light on what happened to scripts that the Shakespeare company bought from their resident playwright. The Henry V quarto is radically different from the 1623 First Folio version used in all other editions of the play. It is only half as long, eliminating entire scenes, transposing others, shortening long speeches and streamlining the text into something that could easily be put on as a two-hour performance.
    [Show full text]
  • Who Heard the Rhymes, and How: Shakespeare’S Dramaturgical Signals
    Oral Tradition, 11/2 (1996): 190-221 Who Heard the Rhymes, and How: Shakespeare’s Dramaturgical Signals Burton Raffel The Audience “The many-headed multitude” was how, in 1601, a contemporary referred to the Shakespearian audience (Salgado 1975:22). “Amazed I stood,” wondered an anonymous versifier in 1609, “to see a crowd/ Of civil throats stretched out so lowd;/ (As at a new play) all the rooms/ Did swarm with gentles mix’d with grooms.”1 This wide-ranging appeal considerably antedated Shakespeare’s plays: though he very significantly shaped its later course, he profited from rather than created the solidly popular status of the Elizabethan and, above all, the London stage, for “London was where the players could perform in their own custom-built playhouses, week after week and year after year. In London there were regular venues, regular audiences, regular incomes.”2 The first playhouses had been built in 1576; at least two professional “playhouses were flourishing in 1577.”3 (Shakespeare was then a country lad of thirteen.) The urgency of clerical denunciations, then as now, provides particularly revealing evidence of the theater’s already well- established place in many Londoners’ hearts.4 1 Idem:29. Festivity was of course a far more important aspect of Elizabethan life. “The popular culture of Elizabethan England . is characterized first and foremost by its general commitment to a world of merriment” (Laroque 1991:33). 2 Gurr 1992:6. And, just as today, those who wielded political power took most seriously the ancillary economic benefits produced by London’s professional theaters. See Harrison 1956:112-14, for the authorities’ immensely positive reaction, when appealed to by the watermen who ferried playgoers back and forth across the Thames, and whose profitable employment was being interfered with.
    [Show full text]
  • November2020
    November 2020 Sponsored by Kraken Yachts From We are pleased to see that the message The Pulpit about the dangers of gas on board- November 2020 oceansailormagazine.com/eliminating- gas-on-board - is starting to get through, see ‘Ditching the Gas’ from the November This issue issue of Yachting World. It’s good to hear that the message we put out some time ago, British Sailing about the risks and inconvenience propane gas causes for world cruising, is beginning to be appreciated. Ocean Sailor Awards & more Readers Questions & Knot of the month By Dick Beaumont - Chairman of Kraken Yachts Page two We are thrilled to announce that the Kraken We are introducing a new section in Ocean 50 has been nominated, yet again, for the Sailor which will be a review of sailing clubs and institutions around the world ’. Feature British Sailing Awards ‘Blue Water Cruiser of the Year' the ‘Oscars’ for sailing yacht Each month Dick Durham will interview A weather eye: Part two designers and builders. To be nominated an elected spokesperson from a nominated Page Three three years in a row is unique in itself, but yacht club or organisation. If you would like to sail away with the golden statuette we to nominate your yacht club please contact need your vote, we need your crew’s vote, [email protected] Technical & Equipment your club member’s vote and anyone who Grab the gribs understands about blue water cruising’s Finally, following many readers’ requests, vote. Come on, let’s win this! we have introduced a new Ocean Sailor ‘tell Page eight a friend’ button as below.
    [Show full text]
  • Palaestra-FINAL-PUBLICATION.Pdf
    Forum of Sport, Physical Education, and Recreation for Those With Disabilities PALAESTRA Wheelchair Rugby: “Really Believe in Yourself and You Can Reach Your Goals” page 20 www.Palaestra.com Vol. 27, No. 3 | Fall 2013 Therapy on the Water Universal Access Sailing at Boston’s Community Boating Gary C. du Moulin Genzyme Marcin Kunicki Charles Zechel Community Boating Inc. Introduction Sailing and Disability: A Philosophy for Therapy While the sport is less well known as a therapeutic activity, Since 1946, the mission of Community Boating, Inc. (CBI), sailing engenders all the physical and psychological components the nation’s oldest community sailing organization, has been the important to the rehabilitative process (McCurdy,1991; Burke, advancement of the sport of sailing by minimizing economic and 2010). The benefits of this therapeutic and recreational reha- physical obstacles. In addition, CBI enhances the community by bilitative activity can offer the experience of adventure, mobil- offering access to sailing as a vehicle to empower its members ity, and freedom. Improvement in motor skills and coordination, to develop independence and self-confidence, improve communi- self-confidence, and pride through accomplishment are but a few cation and, foster teamwork. Members also acquire a deeper un- of the goals that can be achieved (Hough & Paisley, 2008; Groff, derstanding of community spirit and the power of volunteerism. Lundberg, & Zabriskie, 2009; Burke, 2010). Instead of acting Founded in 2006, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Depart- as the passive beneficiaries of sailing activities, people with dis- ment of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), the Executive Office abilities can be direct participants where social interaction and of Public and Private Partnerships, and the corporate sponsorship teamwork are promoted in the environment of a sailboat’s cock- of Genzyme, a biotechnology company the Universal Access Pro- pit.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tragedies: V. 2 Pdf, Epub, Ebook
    THE TRAGEDIES: V. 2 PDF, EPUB, EBOOK William Shakespeare,Tony Tanner | 770 pages | 07 Oct 1993 | Everyman | 9781857151640 | English | London, United Kingdom The Tragedies: v. 2 PDF Book Many people try to keep them apart, and several lose their lives. Often there are passages or characters that have the job of lightening the mood comic relief , but the overall tone of the piece is quite serious. The scant evidence makes explaining these differences largely conjectural. The play was next published in the First Folio in Distributed Presses. Officer involved with Breonna Taylor shooting says it was 'not a race thing'. Share Flipboard Email. Theater Expert. In tragedy, the focus is on the mind and inner struggle of the protagonist. Ab Urbe Condita c. The 10 Shakespeare plays generally classified as tragedy are as follows:. University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 6 January President Kennedy's sister, Rosemary Kennedy , had part of her brain removed in in a relatively new procedure known as a prefrontal lobotomy. The inclusion of comic scenes is another difference between Aristotle and Shakespearean tragedies. That is exactly what happens in Antony and Cleopatra, so we have something very different from a Greek tragedy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, , An Aristotelian Tragedy In his Poetics Aristotle outlines tragedy as follows: The protagonist is someone of high estate; a prince or a king. From the minute Bolingbroke comes into power, he destroys the faithful supporters of Richard such as Bushy, Green and the Earl of Wiltshire. Shakespearean Tragedy: Shakespearean tragedy has replaced the chorus with a comic scene. The Roman tragedies— Julius Caesar , Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus —are also based on historical figures , but because their source stories were foreign and ancient they are almost always classified as tragedies rather than histories.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing the Shakespeare Mask: the Novelist's Choices
    Writing The Shakespeare Mask: The Novelist’s Choices Newton Frohlich *Corresponding Author: [email protected] Copyright©2016 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract The authorship of the works of Shakespeare by de Vere is depicted from when he was five to the time of his the glover from Stratford -on-Avon has been considered a tragic death, including his "favored," sexual relationship myth almost from its inception. No less than Charles Dickins, with the queen and his intimate relationship with Emilia Mark Twain, Henry and William James, Ralph Waldo Bassano, who is widely accepted as the "Dark Lady" of Emerson, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Royal Shake-speare's Sonnets. (There is no evidence of any Shakespeare Company actors John Gielgud, Derek Jacobi, relationship between the Stratford man and Emilia Bassano.) Jeremy Irons, and Michael York, British Prime Minister In short, while the documentary evidence of de Vere's -- or Benjamin Disraeli, five United States Supreme Court the Stratford man's -- authorship of the works of Shakespeare Justices, and thousands who signed a Declaration of Doubt is missing, the circumstantial evidence of de Vere's About Will circulating the World-Wide Web have attested to authorship is overwhelming. And as United States Supreme their doubts. In response to the request by his publisher, Court Justice John Paul Stevens puts it, "circumstantial author Newton Frohlich, commencing research connected evidence can be as persuasive as documentary evidence with a sequel to his novel about Columbus, came across especially where, as here, there's so much of it.
    [Show full text]
  • Galloping Onto the Throne: Queen Elizabeth I and the Symbolism of the Horse
    Heidegger 1 Galloping onto the Throne: Queen Elizabeth I and the Symbolism of the Horse University of California, San Diego, Department of History, Undergraduate Honors Thesis By: Hannah von Heidegger Advisor: Ulrike Strasser, Ph.D. April 2019 Heidegger 2 Introduction As she prepared for the impending attack of the Spanish Armada, Queen Elizabeth I of England purportedly proclaimed proudly while on horseback to her troops, “I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.”1 This line superbly captures the two identities that Elizabeth had to balance as a queen in the early modern period: the limitations imposed by her sex and her position as the leader of England. Viewed through the lens of stereotypical gender expectations in the early modern period, these two roles appear incompatible. Yet, Elizabeth I successfully managed the unique path of a female monarch with no male counterpart. Elizabeth was Queen of England from the 17th of November 1558, when her half-sister Queen Mary passed away, until her own death from sickness on March 24th, 1603, making her one of England’s longest reigning monarchs. She deliberately avoided several marriages, including high-profile unions with Philip II of Spain, King Eric of Sweden, and the Archduke Charles of Austria. Elizabeth’s position in her early years as ruler was uncertain due to several factors: a strong backlash to the rise of female rulers at the time; her cousin Mary Queen of Scots’ Catholic hereditary claim; and her being labeled a bastard by her father, Henry VIII.
    [Show full text]