Reading the Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I.

Strong, Roy C.; Pomeroy, Elizabeth W.

doi:10.2307/2870670

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Drawing on her lineal descent from Henry VII as a founding charismatic king and her designation as heir by her father, Henry VIII, Elizabeth was able to claim charismatic authority on multiple levels. Her Tudor lineage authorized her through traditionally charismatic paternalism and her active engagement in the cultivation of rhetoric, image and vision in the face of multiple national crises-most obviously, the English success over the Spanish Armada, allegorized in the circa 1588 Armada Portrait by George Gower-confirmed her individual heroic charisma [24]. Elizabeth, in other words, embodied royal charisma as the fusion of metaphysical Heil and practical monarchical heroism.…”

Section: Elizabethan Royal Charisma and The Succession Crisismentioning

confidence: 90%

Drama & Demigods: Kingship and Charisma in Shakespeare’s England

Bezio

2013

Religions

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Shakespearean charisma, with its medieval roots in both religion and politics, served as a precursor to Max Weber's later understanding of the term. The on-stage portrayal of charismatic kingship in the twilight of the Tudor dynasty was not coincidental; facing the imminent death of a queen, the English nation was concerned about the future of the monarchy. Through the depiction of the production and deterioration of royal charisma, Shakespeare presents the anxiety of a population aware of the latent dangers of charismatic authority; while Elizabeth managed to perpetuate an unprecedented degree of long-term charismatic rule, there could be no certainty that her successor would be similarly capable. Shakespeare's second tetralogy-known as the Henriad-examines this royal charisma as it appears both under crisis and in the process of what Weber would later characterize as routinization. While Henry IV (Bolingbroke) originally makes use of charisma to ensure his succession to Richard II's throne, he loses his charismatic authority in the process. Henry V, by contrast, makes use of deliberate crisis-his claim to the French crown-in order to restore royal charisma. Henry V's success, however, cannot last, and his son's reign is a disastrous reminder that charisma is, as Weber will later argue, inherently unstable.

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Section: Elizabethan Royal Charisma and The Succession Crisismentioning

confidence: 90%

Drama & Demigods: Kingship and Charisma in Shakespeare’s England

Bezio

2013

Religions

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“…51 As Roy Strong argues, the 'primary purpose of a state portrait was, of course, not to portray an individual as such, but to invoke through that person's image the abstract principles of their rule'. 52 Tate accomplishes this feat in his poem, deploying standard panegyric conceits early in the text: Anne appears 'With Amazonian Terror Arm'd, yet Calm/ As Deborah beneath her Grove of Palm.' 53 Following this rather conventional opening, however, Tate allies the martial idiom of war panegyric with the notion of maternal queenship that Anne herself had projected at her coronation.…”

Section: Portrait-royalmentioning

confidence: 96%

Politicising Praise: Panegyric and the Accession of Queen Anne

Hone¹

2014

J Eighteenth Century Stud

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This essay argues for the importance of panegyric verse as a propagandist force in the early eighteenth century. Anne Stuart's accession in 1702 marked a major shift in the political landscape. Poets responded to the occasion by composing high-flown panegyric celebrating the accession of a Stuart queen. Exploring the representational strategies employed by these poets, I argue that their panegyric was more than a straightforward vessel for royal praise. Rather, it was intended to shape the ways in which contemporaries understood the political import of the succession. Poets achieved this by manipulating Anne's image in politically advantageous ways.

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“…The accumulation of white powders and bleaching resulted in the production of "masks of youth", to take up Roy Strong's phrase to describe Queen Elizabeth's white face in her later portraits. 17 To a certain extent, these artificial white masks were visible on stage through the boy actors' make-up. The literary and linguistic games related to the ambiguity of white are constantly mirrored on stage with the supposedly fair ladies impersonated by boy actors wearing cosmetics.…”

Section: The Darkness Of Fairnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(IV.i. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Through her constant challenge of the word "fair", the Princess throws light upon the deceiving nature of fair words, as they can be analogous to specious words and flattery (Oxford English Dictionary, sense 4), another negative aspect of "fair". The Princess's criticism is immediately illustrated by Don Armado's letter to Jaquenetta, which is brought on the stage and read by Boyet.…”

Section: The Darkness Of Fairnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eulogizing Black in Love’s Labour’s Lost

Sabatier¹

2015

shakespeare

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In his study of the parodic treatment of Petrarchan conventions in Love's Labours' Lost, Neal Goldstein claims that the often-quoted line on the beauty of black ("And therefore is she born to make black fair," IV.iii.252) is merely an example of Shakespeare's anti-Petrarchism: Berowne's mockery is aimed, of course, at the Petrarchan notion of the ideal beloved, her golden hair loosed to the breeze. Even a skimming of the love poetry of the period will prove the point-Petrarch's Laura and Astrophil's Stella are golden-haired. And an examination of the many quattrocento renderings of the Virgin can only reinforce the notion. 1 Despite his accurate reading of stereotypical beauties in the Renaissance, Goldstein tends to actually "skim" through the seeming antithesis of black and fair in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. Berowne's eulogy of black in IV.iii represents one discourse on female beauty, a subject rousing varied debates among the characters who often voice opposite opinions on the interpretation of the polysemous word "fair". Beyond its initial connotations implying that a woman's outward appearance is pleasant to men's eyes, the term "fair" can sometimes allude to a person's white complexion or describe blonde hair, two main features of the Renaissance archetypal female beauty. In a play hinging upon constant reversals and challenges to poetical and rhetorical discourses on beauty, or more broadly fairness, one might wonder how to value and interpret the actual scope of Berowne's celebration of the fairness of black. Fair vs. Black: Shakespeare's stereotypical beauties? The binary opposition between black and fair, dark and light structuring Berowne's celebration of Rosaline's dark beauty might have sounded rather familiar to an Elizabethan audience insofar as it calls to mind several eulogies of blackness voiced in Shakespeare's early comedies and tragedies. Many of the plays listed in Francis Meres'

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Reading the Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I.

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Drama & Demigods: Kingship and Charisma in Shakespeare’s England

Drama & Demigods: Kingship and Charisma in Shakespeare’s England

Politicising Praise: Panegyric and the Accession of Queen Anne

Eulogizing Black in Love’s Labour’s Lost

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