The Myth of Elizabeth

by Doran, Susan; Freeman, Thomas S.

• ISBN13: 9780333930847
• ISBN10: 0333930843
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-07-14
• Publisher: Red Globe Pr

Summary

Elizabeth I is one of England's most admired and celebrated rulers. She is also one of its most iconic. This wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection of essays examines the origins and development of the image and myths that came to surround the Virgin Queen. The essays question the prevailing assumptions about the mythic Elizabeth and challenge the view that she was unanimously celebrated in the literature and portraiture of the early modern era. They explain how the most familiar myths surrounding the queen developed from the concerns of her contemporaries and continue to reverberate today. Published to mark the 400th anniversary of the queen's death, this volume will appeal to all those with an interest in the historiography of Elizabeth's reign and Elizabethan, and Jacobean, poets and dramatists.

Author Biography

Susan Doran is Stipendiary Lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford. Thomas S. Freeman is the Research Officer for the British Academy John Foxe Project and is affiliated with the University of Sheffield.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vii
Acknowledgements	viii
Introduction	1	(26)
Thomas S. Freeman and Susan Doran
PART 1 TROJAN HORSES: CONTEMPORARY CRITICISMS OF ELIZABETH
1 Providence and Prescription: The Account of Elizabeth in Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs'	27	(29)
Thomas S. Freeman
2 Duessa's Trial and Elizabeth's Error: Judging Elizabeth in Spenser's Faire Queene	56	(23)
Andrew Hadfield
PART 2 JACOBEAN PERSPECTIVES: POLITIC PRINCESS OR PROTESTANT HEROINE?
3 William Camden and the Anti-Myth of Elizabeth: Setting the Mould?	79	(20)
Patrick Collinson
4 Elizabeth in Arcadia: Fulke Greville and John Hayward's Construction of Elizabeth, 1610-12	99	(21)
Lisa Richardson
5 Drama Queen: Staging Elizabeth in If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody	120	(23)
Teresa Grant
6 'A Very Deborah?'The Myth of Elizabeth I as a Providential Monarch	143	(28)
Alexandra Walsham
PART 3 ELIZABETH ENGENDERED: PRESENTATION AND PRACTICE
7 Virginity, Divinity and Power: The Portraits of Elizabeth I	171	(29)
Susan Doran
8 Queen Elizabeth and Mrs Bishop	200	(21)
Brett Usher
9 Harington 's Gossip	221	(21)
Jason Scott-Warren
10 A Queen for All Seasons: Elizabeth I on Film	242	(18)
Thomas Betteridge
List of Abbreviations	260	(1)
Notes on the Contributors	261	(2)
Index	263