One resource that I found while
researching for our first paper (and that has been really helpful while I've been revising) was an article from the EEBO
called “An Oration Made to the Queenes Maiestie, at Sandwiche, the First of
September, the Yere of Our Lorde, 1573.” (You can find it by searching the
“Elizabeth I—Orations” tab on EEBO.) Hannah Cobb and I were actually
studying/writing our papers at the same time, and I was reading the article out
loud because that’s just a lot easier with EEBO resources. Anyway, Hannah
overheard some of the content and asked if she could use the essay, too. It’s
really interesting…it’s a speech that some people (I’m not sure what their
station is, exactly) made to Elizabeth to ask her to increase the influence of their town. Spicer of course
praises Elizabeth a lot—because he’s
trying to get her to do something for him—but the speech shows how Elizabeth
wanted to be perceived and how her people were told to perceive her. It’s
especially religious and contains a lot about her virtue and her position as
“defender of the faith.”
One thing that I’m thinking about
doing for my next paper is comparing Elizabeth’s construction of identity with
James I’s and kind of analyzing why Elizabeth’s was so much more effective. I
think that this article is especially good at showing how one must speak to get
any respect in government. Even though the oration was given by a subject, he had
to speak with elevated language, making religious allusions and praising a
higher power (in this case, Elizabeth), in order to get what he wants. Similarly,
Elizabeth also speaks with elevated language and praises a higher power (in her
case, God). This practiced humility compounded with obvious oratorical ability
gives a lot of credence to the Renaissance figure. I really get the impression
that James isn’t good at this, though. Doug mentioned in our conference that
James used to walk around the castle in his underwear, which would definitely
undermine any pretensions to sophistication that he might have. James also,
judging by the letters this week, wasn’t very good at humbling himself. In his
letters to Elizabeth he isn’t particularly praising ("I rue my sight that views the evident spectacle of a seduced queen" (375)) and when he does invoke God, he seems
to do it as a total afterthought (the only time he mentions God is the penultimate sentence, "I commit you ... to the holy protection of the Almighty" (377)). After someone like Elizabeth, who so
perfectly emulated courtly rhetoric, James wouldn’t be impressive at all.
I suppose I got a little
off-topic there, but in this EEBO article, Spicer is definitely emulating a lot
of things that could be useful in a lot of different papers, whether someone is
talking about Elizabeth’s fantastic virtue, Elizabeth’s proficiency at
projecting her image to her audience, or the courtly rhetoric that everyone was
expected to use during the Renaissance. I highly recommend everyone to check
this source out.
Spicer,
Richard. “An Oration Made to the Queenes Maiestie, at Sandwiche, the First of
September, the Yere of Our Lorde, 1573.” 1573. EEBO. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
This is interesting, because I also just kind of started looking at the effect James' weaker rhetoric had on the people's reactions to the plague. He was not nearly as good at presenting himself as an in-control figure. Elizabeth made the people feel safer because she did things like disseminating medical research on the plague and giving people approved prayers to pray and that kind of thing. The only legislation James enacted were stricter (more militant) quarantine rules. Great way to gain the people's affection and trust.
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