Portraits of Elizabeth I

A feast for the eyes!

Do click here and spend some time considering these portraits of Elizabeth, at the bottom of the page you can find links to even more portraits from her early years and from her final years, too. Here's the famous Ditchley Portrait c. 1592 to inspire you!

Here's Hans Eworth's Elizabeth and Three Goddesses (1569), which is a reworking of the popular 'Judgement of Paris' subject (examples from Botticcelli and Rubens given below). The apple has been transformed into the Sovereign's Orb. Elizabeth's posture when facing Juno, Minerva, and Venus is authoritative and commanding as opposed to the crouching Paris.

Hans Eworth, Elizabeth and Three Goddesses (1569)

Peter Paul Rubens, The Judgement of Paris (1638-9)

Hans von Aachen, Le jugement de Paris (1588)

Sandro Botticelli, Juicio de Paris (1485-88)

Representations of the King

The lecture discussed Holbein's Portrait of Henry VIII (1536-7) as a powerful display of masculinity.

Here's a much later engraving of Henry VIII by Peter Isselburg that appeared in 1646. Consider the representation of the king in this as well as in this extract from Henry's biography from ODNB.

'The most important consideration in this final decade was the king's increasing age and ill health. Henry was putting on an enormous amount of weight: his chest measurement reached 57 inches and his waist 54 and eventually he had to be moved around his palaces in a ‘trauewe’, a sort of carrying chair. He also suffered enormous pain from a chronic leg ulcer which produced dangerous attacks of fever. The cause was not syphilis (voluminous medical evidence proves that his doctors never treated him for this well-recognized condition) but either varicose veins or osteomyelitis, and the ulcer was made much worse by Henry's insistence on riding. He could become black in the face with pain.'



Hero and Leander

Marlowe's 'Hero and Leander' (1598) is about physical love, sexual discovery, and desire. How many instances of desire can you identify in the poem? Think of how desire is articulated, think of the subject and object of desire and what the consequences of desire are in each case.

• Look at Rubens' painting below based on Musaeus' account (partly based on Ovid) of the Hero and Leander myth. How is the body depicted? Why? How stable and fixed are the bodies in the painting?   (For more information on the painting you can read this article online here)

Peter Paul Rubens, Hero and Leander I

Read again lines 663-676 from 'Hero and Leander' and think about bodies and fluidity of gender.

The god put Helle's braclet on his arm,
And swore the sea should never do him harm.
He clapped his plump cheeks, with his tresses played,
And, smiling wantonly, his love bewrayed.
He watched his arms, and as they opened wide,
At every stroke betwixt them he would slide
And steal a kiss, and then run out and dance
And, as he turned, cast many a lustful glance
And throw him gaudy toys to please his eye,
And dive into the water and there pry
Upon his breast, his thighs, and every limb,
And up again and close beside him swim,
And talk of love. Leander made reply,
"You are deceived; I am no woman, I."

• The extract below is from Ben Jonson's comedy Bartholomew Fair  (1614). Hero and Leander's story is reenacted in a puppet show. How does the stage's treatment of the story differ to Marlowe's poem? (You can find the whole play here)

Cok. Well, we have seen't, and thou hast felt it, what- soever thou sayest. What's next? what's next?    Lea. This while young Leander, with fair Hero is drink- <! hypen dropped down to underline position >   ing,  and Hero grown drunk, to any mans thinking! Yet was it not three Pints of Sherry could flaw her,  till Cupid distinguish'd like Jonas the Drawer, From under his Apron, where his lechery lurks,  put love in her Sack. Now mark how it works.    Puppet  Hero. O Leander Leander, my dear my dear Leander, I'll for ever be thy Goose, so thou'lt be my Gander.    Cok. Excellently well said, Fiddle, she'll ever be his Goose, so he'll be her Gander: was't not so?    Lan. Yes, Sir, but mark his answer, now.    Puppet Leander. And sweetest of Geese, before I go to Bed, I'll swim o're the Thames, my Goose, thee to tread.    Cok. Brave! he will swim o're the Thames, and tread his Goose to night, he says.    Lan. I, peace, Sir, they'll be angry, if they hear you eaves-dropping, now they are setting their match.    Puppet Leander. But lest the Thames should be dark, my Goose,       my dear Friend,          let thy Window be provided of a Candles end.    Puppet Hero. Fear not, my Gander, I protest, I should handle       my matters very ill, if I had not a whole Candle.    Puppet Leander. Well then, look to't, and kiss me to Boot.

Chetham's Library this Wednesday!

Our next Material Culture Day is this Wednesday (17/10/2012) at Chetham's Library in the city centre, please get there for 1pm, you'll get to see a seventeenth-century printing press in action! Chetham's is 'the oldest public library in the English-speaking world' and it is a real gem: http://www.chethams.org.uk/

Here are some comments from some of the students that attended the first Material Culture Day in the John Rylands Library at Deansgate.

'The dark, gothic, original part of John Rylands Library at Deansgate contrasts magnificently with the ultra-modern white walls and glass of the reception. Although architecturally, these two parts of the library could not be any more different, they allow the centuries old books be read in reading rooms built in 1900 yet still feel contemporary and relevant in cosmopolitan Manchester.  On first being introduced to archivist Fran Baker it was very clear that her enthusiasm for John Rylands’ many collections was infectious. Undoubtedly the tome from the selection of leather bound books which first caught my eye was the Second Folio, a collection of Shakespeare’s works. Its majestic presentation, with gold edged pages, set the volume proudly in its Elizabethan context in a way that an e-book or Norton edition cannot hope to do. The most crucial point I took away from the visit was that the library is for using. It is an extremely accessible place, as long as you make the effort to access it. '

Charlie Rayner

'The library visit to the John Rylands in Deansgate was extremely useful and encouraged much enthusiasm.  The range of beautiful books and archives we were shown displayed the endless amount of resources we have at our finger tips, enabling us to research in an entirely new way.  The trip introduced us to the material culture of early modern culture, and the importance of this.  It gave me many ideas for an essay, as well as inspiring me due to the library’s beautiful interior.'

Kate Pleydell

'The trip to the John Rylands library in Deansgate was important in showing how texts in their earlier forms can change the way we read and interpret them. The librarian, Fran Baker, showed us a selection of archival documents to highlight the importance of seemingly mundane (at the time) artefacts such as shopping lists and diaries that are so precious now in providing context to people’s lives and times that are so distant to and different from our own. The tutors- James Smith, Naya Tsentourou and Bill Hutchins- then also showed us a variety of texts relating to their own expertise and gave us brief insights into the reasons why looking at these texts in their original form rather than modern interpretations creates a deeper understanding of the texts as cultural artefacts. These workshops were overall to show us that, as undergraduates, we are so lucky to have the opportunity to use this resource and look at these beautiful books and that it would be a real shame to waste it. '

Annie Muir

Biblical Women in Women's Writing and Painting

From Aemilia Lanyer's Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum(1611):

To the Virtuous Reader (p.328 in the anthology)

'Especially considering that they have tempted even the patience of God himself, who gave power to wise and virtuous women to bring down their pride and arrogance. As was cruel Cesarius by the discreet counsel of noble Deborah, judge and prophetess of Israel, and resolution of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite; wicked Haman, by the divine prayers and prudent proceedings of beautiful Hester; blasphemous Holofernes, by the invincible courage, rare wisdom, and confident carriage of Judith; and the unjust judges, by the innocence of chaste Susanna; with infinite others, which for brevity's sake I will omit.'

Lanyer references the biblical women above as ideal models of female virtue and as examples of God's high respect for women. Their overpowering of male authority figures, always achieved with divine inspiration and protection, made them exemplars not only of  female chastity and piety, but also of a religious and polemical identity. Why do you think these biblical women serve as appropriate models for Lanyer?

(You can always look up biblical passages here http://www.biblegateway.com/ , a very useful resource)

Artemisia Gentileschi was the most important female painter of the early modern period. She was the only female follower of Caravaggio and she was attracted to the powerful female models available in the Bible. Have a look at some of her paintings and think about the representation of women, both in writing (eg in Lanyer) and in the visual arts.

Susanna and the Elders (1610)

Schloss Weissenstein, Pommersfelden, Germany

Susanna and the Elders (1622)

The Burghley House Collection,
Stamford (Lincolnshire) 

Jael and Sisera (1620)

Szepmuveszeti Museum, Budapest

Judith Slaying Holofernes (1612-13)

Museo di Capolodimonte, Naples

Kate's Speech in The Taming of the Shrew

from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (1590-1):

Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance; commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe,
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience-
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such, a woman oweth to her husband:
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions, and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms,
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's foot.
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease. (V.ii.146-179)

Print and the Women Debate

The anthology only gives us some short passages from Rachel Speght's A Muzzle for Melastomus (1617). If you have a look at the printed records on EEBO (Early English Books Online) you can read the whole tract. You will also notice that between the preface (addressed to Joseph Swetnam) and the main body of the text appear two poems 'In Praise of the Author and her Worke'. What qualities of Rachel Speght do these poems choose to praise? How are these qualities reflected in Speght's text?

Image from EEBO

Image from EEBO

Have a look at the two title-pages below from two different editions of Joseph Swetnam's The Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women, the first from the first edition in 1615 and the second from 1637 (both available on EEBO). What has changed? How do the two editions communicate to their readers their content and the controversy they are part of?

Image from EEBO

Image from EEBO

The Ewaipanoma and the Body

'On that branch which is calles Caura are a nation of people whose heads appear on their shoulders; which though it may be thought a mere fable, yet for mine own part I am resolved it is true, because every child in the provinces of Aromaia and Canuri affirm the same. They are called Ewaipanoma; they are reported to have their eyes in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts, and that a long train of hair groweth backward between their shoulders.....Such a nation was written of Mandeville, whose reports were holden for fables for many years; and yet since the East Indies were discovered, we find his relations true of such things as heretofore were held incredible. Whether it be true or no, the matter is not great, neither can there be any profit in the imagination; for mine own part I saw them not, but I am resolved that so many people did not all combine or forethink to make the report...' (from The Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana, p. 353 in your anthology)

Have a look at Mandeville's book that Raleigh is here referring to on EEBO (http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home)
and think of  the importance of the body in discourses of difference and its role in establishing a national identity. You might also want to look at John Bulwer's Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform'd: Or, The Artificiall Changling (1653).

Image from EEBO

Also, based on Raleigh's passage above, think about the reliability of the authors of travel narratives.

Discovery in The Fairie Queene

The second book of Edmund Spenser's The Fairie Queene (an allegorical epic poem in praise of Elizabeth I, and published in 1590) begins with references to England's recent colonial enterprises. Read the passage and think how the rhetoric of discovery and knowledge serves here Spenser's purposes and how the expansion of the empire was celebrated in the literature of the period. You might also want to read more on Spenser, his friendship to Sir Walter Ralegh, and his colonial endeavours in Ireland.

But let that man with better sence aduize,
   That of the world least part to vs is red:
   And dayly how through hardy enterprize,
   Many great Regions are discouered,
   Which to late age were neuer mentioned.
   Who euer heard of th'Indian Peru?
   Or who in venturous vessell measured
   The Amazon huge riuer now found trew?
Or fruitfullest Virginia who did euer vew?
Yet all these were, when no man did them know;
   Yet haue from wisest ages hidden beene:
   And later times things more vnknowne shall show.
   Why then should witlesse man so much misweene
   That nothing is, but that which he hath seene?

Full preface and Book 2 here: http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/queene2.html