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Elizabeth and Literary Patronage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

B. B. Gamzue
B. B. Gamzue*
Affiliation:
New York University
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Extract

It is an old and popular tradition that Elizabeth was a great lover of letters and a patron of the Arts. In 1718 Ambrose Philips sought to animate his country-women

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , December 1934 , pp. 1041 - 1049
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1934

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References

1 The Freethinker, ed. Ambrose Philips, No. 3 (March 31, 1718), 2nd Ed. (1733), i, 11.

2 English Drama (E. P. Dutton, 1914), p. 39.

3 Letter XCIX in Ascham, Works (London, 1865), i, 62. Original at i, 181.

4 John Speed, History of Great Britaine, 3d ed. (1659), p. 907.

5 Fred Chamberlin, Private Character of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1892), p. 19.

6 John Nichols, Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth (L. 1923), i, 150.

7 See Letters of Elizabeth and James VI (Camden Society, 1849).—Also John Harington, Nugae Antiquae (1792), iii, for other original letters and a translation by her of one of “Tullies Familiar Epistles” (p. 93).

8 English Reprints, Arber (1869), p. 77

9 See letter by Thos. Wilson to Sir Wm. Cecil, Nov. 13, 1569, Letters of Eminent Lit. Men. Edited by Sir Henry Ellis, Camden Society, no. 23, 1843, Letter xi. Wilson asks Cecil to present the Queen with some Latin congratulatory verses inclosed in his letter, upon the 12th Anniversary of her accession; or if they are thought unworthy of the Queen, to destroy them.

10 Creizenach, English Drama in the Age of Shakespeare, p. 51.

11 Manchester Univ., 1909.—Chapter i deals with patronage.

12 Quoted by Phoebe Sheavyn from Nashe, Works, ed. Grosart, ii, 12.

13 Thos. Birch in The Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth from the Papers of Anthony Bacon describes the liberality of Essex.

14 Letter xii in Letters of Eminent Lit. Men Camden Society, no. 23 (1843).

15 Given in The Complete Works of Geo. Gascoigne, ed. J. W. Cunliffe, ii, 473; from Brit. Mus. Reg. MS. 18–49, p. 27.

16 Ibid., p. 514.

17 Quoted by F. E. Schelling in Life and Writings of Geo. Gascoigne, pp. 100–101. Schelling also discusses the possibility that the employment Gascoigne speaks of was as the confidential messenger mentioned in The Journal of Sir Francis Walsingham, Camd. Soc. Misceli., vi, 29, but arrives at no satisfactory conclusion.

18 Cal. State Papers, Dom. Add., p. 41, Oct. 1567.—Quoted also by Sheavyn, p. 13, to show the insecurity of Elizabeth's patronage in general.

19 Thos. Birch D.D., Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth from the Papers of Anthony Bacon, i, 131.—Birch says that “these verses are the same in substance with those, which have been hitherto ascribed to Spenser.” The ascription to Spenser is found on fo. 31b of the Diary of John Manningam of the Middle Temple under the date of May 4, 1602, edited for the Camden Society by John Bruce (1868), p. 43. The date of the ascription to Churchyard, 1593, when he was over seventy and a not very successful hanger-on at court, as well as the tone of the verses, makes his authorship of them more likely; but the fact that within a few years after Spenser's death, the ascription to the latter was current, seems to lend support to the tradition that Spenser spent his last months in poverty.

20 History of Great Britaine, 3d. ed. (1659), pas. 353 of Ch. 24, p. 907.

21 Hearne—Collection of Curious Discourses (1771), ii, 324.—Also given by Ewald Flügel in Anglia, xxxii (1909), pp. 261–268. Flügel says “Cotton war es, der, was die Königin zu tun versäumte, schuf und erhielt, und dessen privatsammlungen von Anfang an den zwecke hatten, eine Fundgrube und ein Repositorium darzustellen für alles, was sich auf englisches altertum bezog.”

22 Sir Harris Nicholas, Memoirs of Hatton (1847), p. 211.

23 Ascham, Works, ed. Giles (London, 1865), i, 62.—Let. xcix (April 4, 1550).

24 Euphues, ed. E. Arber (1869), Intro., pp. 9–10.

25 Memoirs of Q. Elizabeth from the Papers of Anthony Bacon, p. 487.—The quotation which follows is found in the Signature B verso of the play.

26 The Whole Works of William Browne, ed. W. Carew Hazlitt, Roxburgh Library (1868), i, 193–194.

27 The Poet. Works of Spenser, p. xxx.

28 Letters of Eminent Literary Men of 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries, ed. by Sir Henry Ellis, Camden Society, no. 23 (1843). Letter xxi.

29 Ibid., Letter xxii (October 13, 1590).

30 Stud. Phil., xxi (1924), 629–648.