Petrarch Influenced Elizabeth Is Court

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Petrarch Influenced Elizabeth Is Court

• Queen Elizabeth I 1553-1603
• She was the unmistakable child of the age so far
  as Englishmen shared in its characteristics, for
  with her English aims she combined some Italian
  methods and ideas. "An Englishman Italianate,"
  ran the current jingle, "is a devil incarnate,"
  and Elizabeth was well versed in Italian
  scholarship and statecraft.

http//www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizabio.htm
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Petrarch Influenced Elizabeth Is Court

• Queen Elizabeth I Is portrayed as the ideal lady
  of Petrarchan convention.
  
• 1558 Elizabeth inherited a shaky throne with
  people divided on topics like religion and her
  throne was anything but secure.

Petrarch
Elizabeth I
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Petrarch Influenced Elizabeth Is Court

• Queen Elizabeth I is portrayed as the ideal lady
  of Petrarchan convention.
  
• 1558 Elizabeth inherited a shaky throne with
  people divided on topics (like religion) and her
  throne was anything but secure.
  
• She faced a ruling class of violent and ruthless
  men and needed something for them to attach their
  loyalty to her, not just the crown she wore.

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Petrarch Influenced Elizabeth Is Court

• In addition, Queen Elizabeth needed to overcome
  the fact she was a woman and made that weakness
  into a strength.
  
• How did she do it? Elizabeth was fluent in
  Italian (spoken and written) and had been known
  to read Petrarch. She took the Petrarchistic lady
  ideal and made it her own.

Laura the Petrarch lady ideal
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Petrarch Influenced Elizabeth Is Court

• Although she proclaimed herself married to
  England she also had to maintain its splendor and
  the high spirits in order to attract men to her
  court.
• Elizabeth was the flame and the courtiers the
  moth. She used wealth and power and became the
  ideal mistress that no one could stand up to.
  Keeping the men in her court in check.

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Petrarch Influenced Elizabeth Is Court

• Although she proclaimed herself married to
  England as the Virgin Queen, she also had to
  maintain courtly splendor and the high spirits in
  order to attract men to her court and keep them
  under control.
• Elizabeth was the flame and the courtiers the
  moth. She used wealth and power and became the
  ideal mistress that no one could stand up to.

Sir Walter Raleigh
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Petrarch Influenced Elizabeth Is Court

• Elizabeth had favorites in her court and among
  those Sir Walter Raleigh was the only poet to
  match her. They exchanged verses
  
• Those eyes which set my fancy on fire,
• Those crisped hairs which hold my heart in
  chains

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Petrarch Influenced Elizabeth Is Court
ON MONSIEUR'S DEPARTUREby Elizabeth I, Queen of
EnglandI grieve and dare not show my
discontent, I love and yet am forced to seem to
hate, I do, yet dare not say I ever meant, I
seem stark mute but inwardly do prate.I am and
not, I freeze and yet am burned, Since from
myself another self I turned. My care is like my
shadow in the sun, Follows me flying, flies when
I pursue it, Stands and lies by me, doth what I
have done. His too familiar care doth make me
rue it. No means I find to rid him from my
breast, Till by the end of things it be
supprest. Some gentler passion slide into my
mind, For I am soft and made of melting snow
Or be more cruel, love, and so be kind. Let me
or float or sink, be high or low. Or let me live
with some more sweet content, Or die and so
forget what love ere meant.
RIME SPARSE SONNET 134 by Petrarca I find n
o peace, and all my war is done I fear and
hope I burn and freeze like ice
I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise And
nought I have, and all the world I seize on
That looseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison
And holdeth me not, yet can I 'scape nowise Nor
letteth me live nor die at my device, And yet of
death it giveth none occasion.
Withouten eyen, I see and without tongue I
paineI desire to perish, and yet I ask health
I love another, and thus I hate myself
I feed me in sorrow, and laugh in all my pain
Likewise displeaseth me both death and life
And my delight is causer of this strife.
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) Translation
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Petrarch Influenced Elizabeth Is Court

• The stereotype of the Petrarchan sonnet served
  Elizabeth time and time again in the political
  game of love.
  
• Elizabeth became an icon and that was all that
  was needed. The poet need not make reference to
  the real person at all.

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Petrarch Influenced Elizabeth Is Court