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eBook details

• Title: George Peele and the Judgment of Elizabeth I (Critical Essay)
• Author : Paige Martin Reynolds
• Release Date : January 22, 2010
• Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
• Pages : * pages
• Size : 91 KB

Description

It has become a critical commonplace that the reign of Elizabeth I was marked by her shrewd sense of performance. The queen herself acknowledged that "we princes ... are set on stages in the sight and view of all the world duly observed." (1) Though scholars often cite this passage to demonstrate Elizabeth's awareness of her theatricality, rarely do they place the comment in its original context. The framework in which it was written--a speech concerning the fate of the traitorous Mary Queen of Scots--alters the significance of these famous lines. The speech continues, "The eyes of many behold our actions; a spot is soon spied in our garments; a blemish quickly noted in our doings. It behooveth us therefore to be careful that our proceedings be just and honorable" (p. 194). Elizabeth knew that as she made this decision regarding the Queen of Scots, she was the object of surveillance--that she herself was beingjudged "in the sight and view of all the world duly observed." The judgment of Elizabeth I by her subjects made her judgment of others a hazardous matter--she had to be "careful" to prevent "a spot" from being "spied" or "a blemish" from being "noted" in her actions. The precariousness of Elizabeth's position as a performer is thus related to the issue of judgment, an issue that proved vexing to the queen as she sought to reconcile the inconsistencies of her gender and her rule. Judgment consequently assumed a particular importance in what Louis Montrose calls "the Elizabethan political imaginary," evident in Elizabeth's speeches and prayers and in the drama produced at her Court. (2) George Peele's The Araygnement of Paris is one of several plays, such as Sir Philip Sidney's The Lady of May and John Lyly's Sappho and Phao and Endymion, that appeal to the queen's self-consciousness regarding her theatricality and judgment.

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