Mixed topics in academic research and practice

English Lit

An Analysis of Elizabethan and Jacobean Literature

Elizabeth I's "Golden Speech" unwittingly defines the age in which she ruled -- and it defines it just as the Pharisees defined the Jewish opposition to Christ: by hypocrisy. Elizabeth's speech delivered in 1601 before the Commons is full of self-love and flattery, of flowery prose -- as was ordinary -- and exaggerated sentiment. Her definition of the age is, of course, hierarchical and patristic: she speaks of the "glory" of the crown and her own "sexly weakness" (700) -- but she also defines the age and her reign in terms of religion: "I have ever used to set the last Judgment-Day before my Eyes, as so to Rule, as I shall be Judged to Answer before a higher Judge…" (700). Yet, of humility, she shows none. Her "Golden Speech" is, rather, an example of the pride with which she ruled over a country as it tore itself apart at the seams and uprooted its Catholic heritage and presided over the execution of martyrs like Edmund Campion. Elizabeth's "Golden Speech" typifies the kind of self-praise that one of Shakespeare's villains might have heaped upon himself: Elizabeth gives numerous examples of how greatly she admires and extols her own virtues: "There will never Queen sit in my Seat, with more Zeal to my country, Care for my Subjects…than My Self" or "Of My Self, I must say this, I was never any greedy scraping Grasper, nor a straight, fast-holding Prince, nor yet a Waster. My Heart was never set on Worldly Goods, but only for my Subjects Good" or "Before these Gentlemen depart into their Countries, you bring them All to Kiss My Hand" (700). If Elizabethan England could be summed up in one word, it was this: self-love masquerading as selflessness.

2. Thus, it should be no surprise to find that British Literature shifts as we move into the Jacobean era. As John Webster shows in The Duchess of Malfi, England was returning to the bloody business of the Roman theatre and the likes of Seneca. Here was a perfect reflection of the oppression and persecution that was happening in Europe and in England -- as T.S. Eliot observed in "Whispers of Immortality": "Webster was much possessed by death / And saw the skull beneath the skin." Webster, in The Duchess, gives evidence of the Jacobean emphasis on the physical world and physical relationships, as they were overwhelming society: the innocent love of the Duchess and Antonio is destroyed by the Duchess' corrupt brothers and the corrupt cardinal -- all of whom are obsessed with inheritance. The physical world, Webster shows, is full of corruption -- and it is a noble duty to point it out, as Antonio himself states, while describing the French court: "In seeking to reduce both state and people / To a fix'd order, their judicious king / Begins at home; quits first his royal palace / Of flattering sycophants, of dissolute / And infamous persons…" (1462). Even physical relationships are prone to dissolution -- as Webster shows: the lovers are murdered one by one. Webster and the other Jacobeans appear to pine for an era of old world spirituality -- for the new modern world, while full of scientific inquiry and triumph (see Bacon), lacks that sensitivity of soul that could effect true and real humility.